Friendship is Deception

by Your Antagonist

Chapters

1: Set the Stage
3: Not Far Enough from the Tree
4: Peeking In a Shattered Looking Glass
5/1.5 How many Masks are you wearing?
6 Part 1: When the veil comes off...
7:Effective Target Range 2000 yards, Height or Distance?
8: Stand as One
9: The Magnificient Six
Act II Finale:Right Outta Left Field
11: What if I offered you the World?
12 Part 1: Now that we're Together Again
12 Part 2: It's Business as Usual
13: The power of Vice
Missing Reel: Chapter 12 (3/3)
14: And Then There Were Two
15: Agents vs Elements
2: Even Hercules Couldn't Beat the Fashion Industry
6 Part 2: ....Misconceptions Ensue
Emergency Transmission

1: Set the Stage

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited by: TheWattsMan

Act I: Re-introductions

Chapter 1 - Set the Stage

Nothing is ever quite as it seems. You think you know someone, but have you ever really? It’s like the reflection in a mirror: When you see it you’re almost certain you know exactly what it is, but where does it go and what does it do when you’re not there? A better way to describe it is looking at the forest and not seeing it for the trees. What is it that is hiding in plain sight?

She was staring at a word. It was rather hard to make out what it was, or even if there was just one. She'd had this dream a thousand times, and yet she still couldn’t make out this word. It didn’t help that the world was flooded in red lighting that continually strobed and pulsated, or that she was trying to read with her face covered in something wet, she’d have to assume it was water. The red of the room made it nigh impossible to make out anything, and the more she wiped and wiped the harder it became to see and the wetter her face became. She turned and her foot bumped into something. She looked down to see what it was, but now she was faced with a newer problem: the world became unbearably bright all of a sudden, and her eyes began to burn. She chanced a glance at the wall but could only make out a few of the symbols: Y..U D..M… T..AI..OR. It was getting too bright to recognize anything else, her eyes burned harder as the light intensified, and the red broke away in flash.

The crimson world broke away as Celestia’s sun rose for its routine trek across the Equestrian sky, its golden rays signifying the arrival of a new day, and a new page in the life of Twilight Sparkle. The writing on the wall would have to elude her for another day.

She came to slowly, and took in the sight of her sleeping friends, who were sprawled across her room from the slumber party the night before. She grinned as an unconscious Pinkie Pie rolled into a bookcase and mumbled something about eating cactus pie. Pinkie Pie is so random, Twilight thought to herself whilst rolling her eyes.

She averted her gaze and surveyed the mess that was her room; at least this time no giant trees crashed through my bedroom, she mumbled to herself with a sigh. This mess was going to take forever to clean, but at least the night beforehand was a blast.

She rose out of her bed and nudged a small lump wrapped in blankets that slept at the foot of bed, “Come on Spike, get up. I need your help”, she cooed to the lump, and was rewarded with rustling followed by the annoyed grunting and moaning of her purple dragon assistant. He blinked a couple of times before focusing on Twilight. “Come on, Spike we need to start breakfast and get this mess cleaned up so we can start our work for the day.”

Spike looked quizzically at Twilight and was ready to remark that since it was Sunday the library was closed, but then recalled the red scroll he’d burped up from last night and shut his mouth as quickly as he’d opened it. Twilight gave him explicit instructions never to talk about or open them, and he certainly didn’t want to be chastised this early in the morning for asking questions with obvious answers, so he crept around the snoozing ponies that littered the floor and made his way down to the kitchen.

Twilight now turned her attention to the mess at hand, trying to work a quietly as possible to clean up without waking them, using her telekinesis to move and sort the various pillows, apple cores, pastries, books, and unsent letters to the princess that had gotten splayed across the room during the course of the night. As she worked, her friends came to slowly.

Rainbow Dash awoke to find that she had unconsciously snuggled up with Fluttershy and proceeded to push her away frantically her face turning scarlet even though her azure coat. She searched around frantically hoping that no pony saw, but only caught smug grins from Twilight and a newly awoken Rarity who proceeded to chuckle softly while rising to her hooves and contributing to the clean-up effort. Applejack had risen to the sound of Fluttershy frantically apologizing to Rainbow for some reason she’d clearly missed and didn’t care to understand quite frankly. “Mornin' y'all, an' goodbye…” she mumbled as she stumbled groggily towards the stairs.

“Applejack, aren’t you going to stay for breakfast?” Twilight called after the cowpony.

“Golly Twi’, Ah’d love to stay, but Ah’ve got to get back to the farm. We’re expectin’ some visitors around noon.” Applejack replied while adjusting her Stetson hat.

“More relatives from out of town?” The Lavender mare inquired.

“Nah, nothin' like that, just some fancy business ponies from outta town. Cain’t trust Big Mac to take care of 'em on his own so Ah got to get down there quick 'n early like.” She stopped for a moment and looked around at the mess “Sorry about the mess sugarcube” she said sheepishly.

“Don’t worry about it, if anything I’ve got the others to help me out so you go on.”

“Thanks Twi', Ah’ll make it up to you later” Applejack said as she sauntered off to the lower section of the library.

Dash looked at the mess around and gave Twilight a pleading look. Twilight merely rolled her eyes and sighed out “Fine Rainbow, we’ve got it from here.” To this Rainbow shouted “YES!” and in a flash of color had made a Beeline through an open window.

“Darling I’m afraid I’ll have to decline as well. As fun as last night was, I’ve got an appointment with a very important client in a few hours. After I’m done here, I’ll simply need to be on my way.” Rarity explained while sorting some of the junk on the ground.

“Umm… Twilight…I don’t want to seem rude; I don’t think I can stay either… If that’s okay…” Fluttershy proclaimed softly. “I... uhhh… Have some things that… need to be taken care of, if you don’t mind…”

“No, it’s fine girls, I’m sure Pinkie will be more than glad to help me finish off breakfast when she wakes up--”

As if on cue Pinkie jerked awake, glanced at the sun and gasped out “Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, I’m late, I’m late!!!” And in a pink flash she was down the stairs and out of the library.

Twilight sighed “Well, never mind you two should be on your way, I can handle it from here.”

“Are you quite sure darling?” Rarity asked

“I could… you know... finish up here… if you want” Fluttershy replied meekly

“No, no, it’s fine. Spike and I have some things to get done ourselves. I’ll finish up here, and there’s not that much anyway.”

The Ivory unicorn shrugged “Well if you insist. Thanks again, I had a wonderful time last night.” Rarity turned and walked down the stairs and was followed by Fluttershy who waved goodbye in her demure manner.

Twilight finished cleaning her room, and after a bath, went downstairs to see Spike, who had whipped up and was chowing down on a comically large quantity of raspberry pancakes. It was shame that these pancakes would go mostly uneaten, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

“Spike,” The baby dragon turned and locked eyes with Twilight, the usually warm expression of the unicorn was replaced with one of freezing apathy. “it’s time. You know where to bring it.” As though to punctuate her sentence she disappeared in a puff of purple smoke

Spike wordlessly jumped up from the table and produced a rather thick encyclopedia about pony anatomy from the shelves. He opened the massive tome to reveal that it had been hollowed out (most ponies in town would argue that Twilight took impeccable care of her books, but this one was clearly exempt from that rule,) produced the Crimson scroll from the night before and proceeded to run it down to the basement.

Spike had never liked this basement. It always creeped him out, since it looked like a mad scientist lair with a hint of Zecora’s hut, and he avoided going down unless he was specifically instructed to, which thankfully wasn’t often.

He approached Twilight, who was facing a table and fiddling with something he couldn’t and most likely didn’t want to see, being that it was red scroll day and all. “Just leave it there Spike, and here, take the day off.” Twilight tossed him a small pouch that contained 15 bits and a Ruby. 15 bits was more than he needed to assist rarity a carousel boutique, a task that often involved his body being used as a pincushion while he stared adoringly at her.

Twilight waited until she heard the sound of the basement door close behind her, and checked around one last time before hesitantly rolling the scroll open to reveal the various glyphs and incantations that formed a small circle on the page. She then simply touched her horn to the paper and willed some small amount of energy that gave off a small burst of green smoke as a reaction.

When the smoke cleared there was a tiny cloaked figure that seemed to being staring off into nothing at all and it began to speak. Twilight listened intently to the ghostly green figure on the paper. “Agent Sparkle, your services are required by the crown. Your assignment is to observe, interrogate, and eliminate seven high priority targets. We only have aliases as the agency possesses little information at the moment, but we will keep you informed as we get new information. Proceed with caution, your targets aliases are: Seed, Chronos, Viperfang, Blink, Cross-eyed eagle, Manic, and Arachne. These individuals are highly experienced in assassination and counter espionage, and we suspect there may be some links to the criminal underworld. Your first two targets have been identified and a Dossier will be provided on this document after the code has wiped itself. The Agency will sustain contact using your ‘Violet Page’ alias. Good luck Agent Sparkle.”

The ghostly figure dissipated into a cloud of dust, and the paper began to burn blue taking all of the red coloring and incantations with it, leaving 2 smaller documents in where it once lay.
Twilight walked over and began to study the documents: The first had a picture of a brown earth pony colt, the Cutie mark was that of an hourglass; She had seen this colt around Ponyville multiple times, but never figured he’d be wrapped up in such a grim business. His alias read ‘Chronos: Time Killer’, after scanning for more information it seems that this colt was suspected in at least 23 equestricides, but could never be convicted because the time of the victims death and location never matched with his whereabouts. He always had an airtight alibi and several witnesses.

The second sheet had no picture, but the rest of the information painted a picture of a killer who would be difficult but not impossible to track down: A grey Pegasus mare, typically operates from long ranges, most likely uses a rifle of some sort, no accompanying conviction record. Why would they call her cross eyed eagle though? Twilight pondered. It seemed that between her description and this alias, it would be an uphill battle to find her.

The lavender unicorn sighed and placed her head in her hooves. How long have I been doing this? How much blood will I have on my hooves before I can just walk away from all of this?

Twilight shook her head and proceeded further into the basement to in search of a certain trunk. Just looking at it brought up so many memories, the grand majority of which she’d care to forget, but now wasn’t the time to get wrapped up in nostalgia and regret, there was work to be done. She produced from the trunk: a long black cloak, a shoulder holster, a small book, and a jagged dagger.

Any other time she would have chuckled at her literal approach to a cloak and dagger operation, perhaps as a coping mechanism for the acts she was about to commit in the princesses’ name, or maybe once upon a time she legitimately enjoyed her work as much as she loved books, but as of recent she had grown tired of this business. She donned her attire, grabbed the dossiers off the desk, and proceeded to leave the library.

Once outside she stopped to lock up the library, then looked up at the sky. It was a ritual for her, she always saw the sky as innocent and uncaring, which was something she envied about it. With one last sigh she looked forward, donned her hood, and proceeded to sink into a crowd in search of her targets.
Chapter 1 end

3: Not Far Enough from the Tree

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited by: TheWattsMan

Act I: Re-Introductions

Chapter 3: Not Far Enough from the Tree

If it runs in the family was there ever a chance to escape their fate? Are genetics the only things children inherit from their parents?

Applejack arrived at Sweet Apple Acres expecting the sound of family dysfunction that morning entailed, but as she made her way up the steps to the Apple family estate, the sounds of Big Macintosh and Applebloom bickering over some trivial matter or the other were as of yet to be heard. Any other day the silence might have surprised her, but it was to be expected seeing as how important today was.

As she trotted into the foyer of her homestead she noted that there was nopony around. Ah guess Big Mac got Applebloom out of the house nice an’ early. It’s fer the best Ah suppose. Applejack didn’t want expose her little sister to this aspect of the family business just yet; she hadn’t even learned the basics of apple bucking yet, much less basic salesponyship.

She proceeded to make her way to the kitchen, but something didn’t feel right. She felt shivers pulsate through her body that left an ominous feeling in her gut, but continued to proceed with caution.

It can be said that Earth Ponies have no direct means to actively manifest magic like unicorns, or in a passive fashion akin to how pegasi walk on cloud; but there is evidence to suggest that earth ponies possess some latent potential in regards to involuntary premonition, though very few studies exist to document such occurrences. There are rare cases such as Pinkamena Diane Pie, in which the subjects in question exhibit unnatural sensitivity to this occurrence.

Needless to say Applejack's overly cautious behavior in response to that random shiver attack was not without merit; she heard a tile creak from behind and whipped around with enough speed and force to rival even Rainbow Dash, and knocked something over in the process. With adrenaline flowing in her veins, the earth pony’s instincts took over and she rear up on her hind legs to show dominance to whatever she had just knocked to the floor.

Expecting somewhat of a challenge, she was taken aback when she heard a whimpering squeak and recognized her ‘opponent’ as being a yellow and pink cowering lump with wings that kept yammering rapid fire apologies while covering her head with her hooves.

Applejack settled back to all fours and breathed out a sigh of relief before continuing “Land’s sake sugarcube, why’re y’all sneaking around in here?”

The yellow Pegasus nervously rose to her hooves and turned nervously averted her gaze her eyes darting to some random corner of the room to avoid making eye contact. “Umm… your Grand-Dam wanted some assistance bak---“

“Beg yer pardon Shy?” Applejack leaned in closer

“your Grand-Dam wanted some assitanc---“

Applejack groaned a bit, successfully cutting off the yellow mare as she moved closer. “Now look here, yer goin’ to have to speak a bit louder, otherwise Ah can’t hear a lick o’ what yer sayin’“

Fluttershy looked absolutely flustered as she squinted her eyes and squeaked out in her loudest possible voice: “Your Grand-Dam* asked me to help out with your guests today!”

“Granny Smith requested you? Well come on then, we got preparations to make,” and she nudged Fluttershy towards the kitchen.

A historical interjection (This is skippable)-- When Fluttershy first arrived in Ponyville, it was right after she had dropped (quite literally) out of flight school. She wasn’t a strong enough flier to make the trip back to Cloudsdale, and she had no known relatives on the ground. So the lost Pegasus filly wandered around Ponyville until she wound up in the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, where she managed to live off of the vast amounts of apples for a while, until she was caught and Big Macintosh and Applejack brought her to Granny Smith. Granny took the nervous young filly into her home for a time, and allowed her to stay as though she was family. After seeing she had a way with the farm animals, Granny Smith decided to teach Fluttershy about the family business, even though she was hopeless at applebucking. When Fluttershy decided she wanted to leave to study natural medicine near the Everfree Forest, it was Granny Smith who had purchased her the Cottage that to this day has been the yellow pegasus’ home. Since then Fluttershy has always thought of Granny Smith, Applejack, Big Mac, and Applebloom as somewhat of a surrogate family. --End History interjection

As the two entered, they noticed Granny Smith was alone baking a plethora of her famous apple based pastries.

“Granny, where’s Big Mac; shouldn’t he be helpin’ you? If that lazy stallion is out in the fields nappin’ while yer in here bustin’ yer rump…“

Before Applejack could finish, Granny Smith had turned to face her grandfilly and nuzzled her neck which the orange mare was quick to return in full

“Yer brother’s in the field preparing to welcome our guests, so I need you two to help me in here.”

“Alright Granny, c’mon ‘Shy.” Applejack gestured for the yellow pegasus to join her on the other side of the kitchen.

“Okay, coming,” she announced as she hovered the short distance, and proceeded to assist Applejack with the servings of Apple Brown Betties and Apple Tarts.

All three mares worked diligently, and over the course of two hours; taking the time to share stories and gossip; had nearly finished baking a feast of pastries and other primarily apple inspired dishes, when Big Macintosh trotted into the kitchen.

He nodded to Fluttershy who shied away quickly, hiding behind her mane somewhat and blushing a bit, avoiding eye contact at all costs. This caused him to grin a bit; as most Ponies were intimidated by him because of his size, but that belied his true more gentle nature; in the case of Fluttershy it was always an overreaction, but he knew she meant well.

Big Mac turned his attention towards Applejack and Granny Smith, who proceeded with the question “Are our guests here hon?”

A simple “Eeyup” was all the confirmation Big Mac felt was needed.

Granny Smith turned towards Applejack, “Go greet them deary, we can manage from here.”

“Alright Granny, c’mon Big Mac.” As AJ and Mac exited through the back door of the kitchen into the orchard, Granny Smith had waved Fluttershy into the dining room to set the table.

Applejack and Big Mac wandered deeper in the orchard until they finally intercepted their guests: A group of 8 Stallions; the majority of whom were wearing black sunglasses, fedoras and matching ties; trotting in a circular formation around a portly older looking stallion who wore a similar ensemble, but with a white scarf draped over his neck that set him apart from the rest.

It was silent for a moment, as AJ and Big Mac stared expectantly at the other faction waiting for some form of greeting or salutation, but the black clad ponies stood adamant and unmoving.

‘It’s kinda like one of them Mexicoltian standoffs from one of them western shows’ Applejack remarked.

Finally, somepony with a Fillydelphia accent broke the silence “We ‘ave come here today to discuss a …uh… business arrangement between the Apple Family and the Crossheart family. Why don’t youse two escort us there so we can get started?”

“Well, we can discuss it over dinner if y’all like, but fer the time bein’, why don’t we give y’all a guided tour of the orchard?” Applejack offered in an attempt to be neighborly.

This time a blue Unicorn in the front spoke up “Look you little Hayseed, we don’t have all day to buck around with you, so why don’t you quit stallin’ and start walkin’, you backwards hillfilly.”

Applejack would’ve beaten the manners into that colt if it weren’t for Big Mac’s quick response in biting his sister’s tail as she lunged.

“Lemme go Mac!”

“Nope,” Big Mac began to drag his sister back towards the manor, with the clients following suit, “Can’t do that sis, Granny wouldn’t like it none if you got into a fight with the clients.”

Applejack grit her teeth, but Big Mac had a point. So when he released her tail she made no attempt to get revenge, she just kept trotting along even as they tossed more insults at the siblings. Throughout the whole trek Big Mac just kept the same dazed, uncaring look on his face; it was his belief that there was no point in getting mad, because everypony gets their just desserts at some point.

They made their way to the manor and into the dining room, where the guests were asked politely to wait. They obliged after tossing out some more insults. Applejack walked into the kitchen to find Fluttershy finishing the preparations herself.

“Where’s Granny at, ‘Shy?”

“Oh, ummm... she went to take a nap.., I think…, So I’ve been finishing up in here, but I haven’t finished setting the table…,

I’m sorry..”

“It’s fine sugarcube; Big Mac, help us finish settin’ up,” she gestured to the undelivered pans of food that littered the counter. ‘The sooner we finish this, the sooner they’ll be out of our manes’ she thought before setting foot into the den of prejudice that was now her dining room.

Much to her surprise the colts were as silent as a boneyard, sitting around the long table that was frequently used for Apple family reunions. While AJ, Fluttershy and Mac set the table, Fluttershy noticed that one of the colts was staring at her; she could feel those eyes even through the shades he wore. The shy Pegasus tried to hide behind her mane to the best of her ability while she hovered over the table and set down plates, but she could still feel that lewd gaze.

She quickly finished and hurriedly flew over to a seat behind Applejack and sat quietly, still trying to evade that gaze.

Deciding that this crowd wasn’t worth the traditional ‘SOUPS ON EVERYPONY!’ that she often belted out before a meal, Applejack instead settled on a more formal “Let’s eat.”

As the covers from the pans were removed a heavenly aroma of apples swept the room. Applejack glanced at the city ponies expecting a response much akin to the one her cart received at the Grand Galloping gala, seeing as how uptight and snobbish Ponies from the North were. (Living in Manehattan for a while had given her a first-hand look at Northern Pony demeanor.) She almost received it from the blue unicorn from earlier, until the Earth Pony with the white scarf sitting at the opposite head of the table shook his head in a disapproving fashion, and proceeded to indulge himself slowly, which resulted in the rest following suit.

Applejack took this time to enjoy her Grand-Dam’s cooking to her heart’s content, until the white scarf clad stallion stood up to speak. She noted his scarf had the symbols of a Heart with thorns branching out in an “X” formation and his cutie mark had been branded over with the same symbol; whatever it was originally it was indiscernible now.

“Allow me to introduce myself, I am the 2nd Sotto Capo* of the Crossheart Syndicate:

Giovanni Brassclove, and my family would like to propose a (The portly stallion stopped to take a deep breath), merger, if you will.”

“Come again? What d’you mean merger?” Applejack looked uncertainly at Big Mac who simply shrugged and continued eating.

“The Crosshearts want to arrange a business partnership with the Apple Family (he stopped to take another deep breath), if you catch my drift.”

“Well, if y’all’re lookin’ fer an apple supplier, then ya found the right folks, all we hav---“

“It seems you don’t get it, or you think I’m very stupid Ms. Apple. (Yet another deep breath), we know that the Apple Family is one of the oldest and most successful produce monopolies in Equestria, and we also know how far out your transport routes go. The Crossheart Syndicate would like to… (Deep breath) take the reins of this establishment, and utilize these assets to further our goal. Your family of course may keep a small portion of the profits for your cooperation.”

This however only warranted a glare from Applejack, and Big Macintosh gave as close to a disapproving look as he could manage with his apathetic features.

“You either get down or you lay down in this business kids.” He trotted over to Applejack and extended his hoof triumphantly in ‘partnership’. Needless to say it was promptly slapped away, and Giovanni was not pleased. He raised his hand to return this gesture a little in the snout area of the cowpony when he noticed somepony was counting.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5---“

He turned his attention towards the Pink maned Pegasus who had been silent this whole time. She was fiddling with something, a couple of somethings. They were clear tubes filled with liquid.

“2,1; Alright, it's time: Applejack, here’s your shot; you take one too Big Macintosh.” She took both tubes and inserted them into the forelegs of Big Macintosh and Applejack and pushed down, and proceeded to turn towards Giovanni and his Stallions, who looked confused and nervous at this point. She floated up and nodded towards the group, “I’m sorry, umm… I ran out of… anti-venom…”

“What did you say?” Giovanni looked even more confused than he did a moment ago, and it wasn’t helping that this filly wasn’t even speaking audibly.

“I ran out of anti-venom….” She squeaked in repetition.

Giovanni was ready to hit somepony and it didn’t help that he was too frustrated trying to make sense of a mumbling Pegasus.

A voice from behind cleared the confusion “ I think you said it best, you either get down or you lay down, but in this case I guess you get to lay down forever.” Granny Smith had trotted in the room, her kindly face betrayed the cruelty in that last line.

“What did you say to me?! Do you know who I am!?” Giovanni was whinnying in fury at this point, but Granny Smith casually ignored him and turned to her grand-colt. “Mac, would you be a dear and dig out some holes near the Red Delicious trees? Their soil is about to get a little more 'fertile'.”

Big Mac replied with a simple “Eeyup,” as he left the table to do what his Grand-Dam had asked him.

Granny now turned to Fluttershy “How much longer deary?”

“Oh umm…” she thought for a second “Any minute now, is that too late? I’m sorry…”

Granny Smith nuzzled Fluttershy’s neck “Oh don’t worry, that’s good enough deary.”

Giovanni was ready to raise his voice once more, but was interrupted by a loud thud from behind, followed by the sound of a plate breaking on the floor. When he whipped around, one of his colts had muzzle planted into what was formerly his supper, and another grasped at his chest and slumped uneasily to the floor.

The rest followed suit, one vomiting on his way to the afterlife, with the exclusion of the blue unicorn who was attempting to use magic to sustain his life force. Applejack noticed this, cantered over to his place at the table, and bucked him in the leg; causing the colt to double over in pain. She was going to enjoy making his last moments as miserable as possible for insulting her and Big Macintosh.

Giovanni finally felt it in his chest; a searing pain that was beyond anything he could ever have imagined. He hit the floor and glared at Granny Smith “You… realize this means…. (deep breath), when this news (cough) reaches the G-God Sire*… (deep breath), it’ll be war…” as darkness began to cloud his sight he only heard Granny Smith say “Counting on it.”

Granny Smith gestured for Applejack and Fluttershy to come closer, and she embraced them both with her forehooves. “I’m so proud of both of you,” and she had every right to be. Between Applejack’s acting and dedication even after being poisoned, and Fluttershy’s knowledge of and access to various animal venoms they were able to spike the dinner and save Applejack and Big Mac from the same fate as Giovanni.

However, the act of killing a Mafia underboss is usually an outright declaration of war, (and sometimes frowned upon in society) which is exactly what Granny Smith planned on.

As she turned to Applejack her sweet demeanor had returned: “I’ve already contacted the family in Appleoosa, and the Oranges in Manehattan, they should be arriving in three days time. You’ll need to find Applebloom somewhere safe to stay for a while. She won’t be able to come with us; she’s too young and inexperienced.”

Applejack nodded in confirmation.

The elder mare now turned to Fluttershy “Please watch my grand-filly and keep her safe. If anything should happen can we count on you to take care of little Applebloom?”

“Yes granny”

Granny Smith smiled and made her way upstairs, this business had caused her to do some horrible things in her life, and the worst yet was advocating this horrible lifestyle that was passed down to her from her sire and dam, from theirs and so on, from when the Apple name was founded. It all started with a seed, a seed that requires blood and sacrifice to grow. A seed that took her little colt and his mare, her Grandchildren’s sire and dam, away from them all, and planted itself into the lives of those children. Regardless of how far they’d want to go in life, they were Apples that simply didn’t far fall enough from the tree of fate.

End Chapter 3

Meanwhile in the Orchards of Sweet Apple Acres…

Big Mac was steadily burying the bodies in a secluded part of the orchard. He was pushing the last one into a hole when he heard it cough, and saw it twitch. The face of the blue unicorn looked up at the giant red work-horse, and managed to spit out the words: “buck..you… you…damned…hill..filly…bumpkin…” He stared with a cold and exhausted hatred at Big Mac, who only stared straight back apathetically and said simply: “Eeyup,” as he bucked the blue unicorn down the hole, and began to fill it with dirt. Like Big Mac always said, there’s no need to get mad; they’ll always get their just desserts in the end.

Footnotes:

* A dam is a mother horse for those of you who didn’t know; I didn’t.

** Sotto Capo is the under-boss or second in command of a Mafia

***A sire is a father horse

4: Peeking In a Shattered Looking Glass

Warning: the following chapter contains possibly irrational concepts.

Friendship Is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited By: TheWattsMan

Act I: Re-Introductions

Chapter 4: A Glimpse Into the Shattered Looking Glass

Opinions, views, perspectives, norms, expectations; these things give birth to societal structure, and are also integral in shaping the personalities of sentient beings based on the opinions of other sentient beings. This concept is called the Looking-Glass Self: looking at oneself through the perspective of another. What can be seen through a shattered looking glass one has to wonder...

It was an especially busy day in Sugarcube Corner, as Mr. And Mrs. cake had an exceptionally large order to fill. The couple relished the rare peace and silence on this particular morning as they baked contentedly without any distractions, namely a pink pastry graveyard that lived in the upper level of the bakery and went by the name of Pinkie Pie. The cakes certainly didn't hate Pinkie, much to the contrary; they loved her as though she were their own daughter, but at times her presence could be more than a bit irking. Needless to say this tranquility was golden to the cakes as long as--- They looked out the window and saw a cloud of dust and commotion that seemed to be barreling its way down to the shop, and also over several other bystanders.

“Well it was nice while it lasted,” both muttered simultaneously.

“Oh my gosh I'm so late!” Pinkie Pie burst into Sugarcube corner like a bolt of lightning, ducking and sliding underneath a massive cake the cakes had supported between two counters, (she decided she was going to have to “sample it for quality” later), and greeted the couple while she zoomed through “HELLOGOTTAGOSEEYOULATERKAYBYE”, she had other things to take care of now. She rolled in recovery and was back galloping at full force. She spotted the stairs to the 2nd floor, when she noticed a customer browsing for pastries trotted up to a shelf right in front of her; there wasn't enough room for her to stop, and she was moving too fast to change direction.

The cakes began to shout “PINKIAMENA DIANE P---” But ceased themselves abruptly when they saw Pinkie leap over the customer. From her airborne state she managed to angle herself to a position that allowed her to plant a hoof on the banister, kick off the wall and continue to rush up the stairs. The cakes were dumbfounded, impressed, and relieved that nopony was hurt, and resumed baking the massive cake in peace pondering what could have Pinkie Pie all riled up.

Pinkie made it to her room and took a deep breath, she wondered what she should call what she had just done, maybe Le' Pinkour or Free-galloping... “No! Stop distracting me brain!” she shouted. She heard her brain retaliate: ‘NEVER!’ Deciding to drop this argument, she began collecting her thoughts about what needed to be done: feed gummy, play with gummy, love gummy....

‘No, not those priorities, I mean yes those priorities, I mean... Uggghhh....’ Pinkie Pie sat on her haunches, pressed her hooves to her forehead, took a deep breath before letting them slide off her muzzle, and proceeding to organize her thoughts. She walked over to a green lump on her pink bed and poked it with a fore-hoof; almost instantly the lump whirled around, took to the air and chomped down on the pink pony’s mane.

“Oh Gummy,” Pinkie giggled as she reached up to stroke the alligator that was currently biting her mane; she found it cute that even with no teeth he would still bite in a vicious manner. With gummy still hanging off her mane, she reached underneath her bed and pulled out an orange bag full of gator food to which Gummy's attention was drawn immediately; he instinctively released Pinkie's mane, landed on the floor, crawled over to his bowl in the corner of the room, and wagged his tail back and forth while staring intently at the wall.

Pinkie filled the bowl and began to stroke Gummy's scales while the alligator chowed down heartily.

“Hey Gummy, I've got to go so I'll see you later,” she said while leaning down to plant a soft kiss on the gator. Now she turned her attention to her closet and ran through a mental checklist of things she'd need, however this thought process was cut short by a crackling sound that came from her mane. She reached into the poofy mess and pulled out a small ear piece that she carefully pressed into her ear and a familiar voice blared through:

“Manic 1, this is Shaded Lady do you copy, over?”

Pinkie pressed a button on the head set “March-day! April-day! Shady Lady, this is agent Pinkie Pie, Ten-four over”

A disgruntled sigh could be heard over the radio “Agent Manic, please remember that May-day is an emergency code, my name is Shaded Lady, all you need to say is over, never use your name over the comms-net and stop saying Ten-four, just 'over' will suffice, over.”

“But what if over is last thing I say? How will you know when the conversation is over?

“Then you would say over twice, over.”

“But why don't I just say under instead of over? Under.”

“Because...wait, wh-- I--I DON'T KNOW, JUST SAY OVER, OVER!” Shaded Lady bellowed.

“Chester, over.”

A sigh could be heard through the earpiece before Shaded Lady continued: “Manic, grab your gear and meet the rest of the team at the rendezvous point, we'll discuss our plan of action there; and it's Roger, not Chester, over.”

“Okie Doki Loki, heading over, under!” Pinkie replied while fishing through her dresser for a black saddle bag. She promptly opened it only to find it filled with smashed pastries and frosting

“Oops, wrong bag,” she stated, and promptly fished around for her other saddle bag which was pink in color. She opened this one to find it filled with various tools, holsters, and other gadgets.

This one she promptly wrapped around her flank, and made her way to the window in her room -she couldn't let the Cakes see her leave with all of this, they might get suspicious- and she jumped, hit the ground, bent her knees and proceeded to gallop as fast as she could towards cafe' La Rosada.

She arrived at the Cafe' fifteen minutes later, adjusted her gallop to a canter, and then to her usual bounce. She spotted her ponies at the table, about three of them, all wearing sunglasses and hadn't ordered anything. Shaded Lady was not there, but she hadn't expected to see her at the table; she was most likely in an unmarked carriage somewhere about a few blocks away.

She bounced over and got re-acquainted with her team; she never knew them by name, only alias: there was an older graying Earth-Stallion with a cutie mark of a hammer who went by 'Strong', a simple fitting title as the only Pony pinkie could compare him to was a more stern looking Big Macintosh with a shaven Mane. The red unicorn Mare at the table went by the name of 'Shroud'; Pinkie had only seen her in action a couple of times, she specialized at stealth with a cloaking magic that Twilight would probably kill to learn, and her cutie mark was of a cloak. The final pony was a green Pegasus mare sporting an unkempt pink mane, with a cutie mark of a cloud with an eye in the center; she went by the title 'Overwatch'.

They all glanced at Pinkie, who began to order an immense amount of food from a passing waiter on account that she had skipped breakfast. When she offered to buy for them they claimed to have already eaten.

As soon as the waiter left, Strong began to detail the mission explaining everypony's part: Overwatch was to keep reconnaissance from storm cloud cover, and warn the rest of the team of any incoming hostiles; Shroud was to advance forth into the mansion and detail the pathway to the objective for Pinkie; and Pinkie's job was to infiltrate, find the target, take him out, and initiate clean-up protocols: plain and simple.

Shroud and Overwatch nodded and left to prepare for their assignments, leaving Strong to look on, bemused, as he watched Pinkie wolf down an immense amount of Daffodil sandwiches. When she finished, she left some bits on the table, and hopped to the pre-planned mission site. Strong stood up slowly and muttered “I'm getting too old for this,” under his breath as he followed suit.

The site in question was a massive street-side mansion protected by a giant gate that was adorned with the symbol of a Heart with thorns branching from the center in an 'X' pattern.

Shortly before arriving Pinkie had changed into the dress she wore at the gala, and fished out a tray of fresh pastries she had whipped up from a local bakery this side of Ponyville. Their ingredients weren't top-quality like Sugarcube corner, but they were decent enough to work with. She approached the gate where a group of Stallions were standing guard, all of them wearing sunglasses.

Only 4 at the gate and no others in the immediate vicinity? Amateurs... She thought as she approached them.

“Hi! I'm from Honeylump Bakery and we received an order request for this address,” she said quite cheerfully.

The stallions looked at one another and talked amongst themselves for a moment. They hadn't heard anything about a delivery, but would be more than glad to take the pastries out of this young filly's hands.

One of the four spoke up with a northern slang accent “Yea', we did get some news aboud' a deliv'ry, so how about youse be a good liddle filly, and drop dat box so nobody gets hurt?” He walked up to Pinkie, pushed her down with both his fore-hooves, and picked up the box after she dropped it. He then proceeded to tear it open, and he and his fellow goons proceeded to chow down.

Pinkie merely grinned at the simplistic nature of these foalish guards; they were a dime a baker's dozen. How many times had she used this ploy and it worked flawlessly every time? After they finished devouring the box, they looked up and noticed this Mare wasn't running or scared, she actually looked quite pleased.

“You know, you certainly aren't very good guards if you fall asleep on the job,” she stated with a wink, while dusting off her dress.

One of the four began to fire an rhetorical inquiry at her, but darkness took his sight and his balance all at once, and soon his fellow guards joined him on the ground napping quite blissfully.

Wasting no time, Pinkie signaled to strong and they began throwing the bodies into some thick bushes one at a time, and as they finished Pinkie removed her dress to reveal she was sporting a tactical vest with several gadgets secured tightly to it.

The Pink Pony nodded to Strong and hopped over the wall only to hear the Stallion complain about something regarding his back and his age.

The headset crackled back to life in Pinkie's ear as she landed in some bushes and scanned the area.

“Manic, this is Overwatch, do you read me? Over.”

“Overwatch, how am I supposed to read you? Do you have words on you or something? Because if so you should probably wash them off before they stain your coat, Over”

“Wh—wha--- HUH? What are yo talking abo-- oh forget it, the courtyard is clear, make your way to the mansion, over.”

“Okie doki!, Over”

It was early afternoon as she made her way through the courtyard, and the brightly illuminated atmosphere wouldn't help to conceal her conspicuously colored coat, so she opted to stay low sticking to the walls and the shadows, marveling at the fountains and plants as she moved. She finished the trek to the actual mansion itself, hid on the side behind a corner, and radioed Shroud:

“Shroud, this is Pinkie Pie, come in, over.”

“Manic, please stop using your real name over the net, over.”

‘That wasn't Shroud, that was Shaded Lady’ Pinkie noticed

“Shadow Lady, where's shroud?” Pinkie inquired

“She's deep inside, and maintaining radio silence; we're using a sight share spell, so I can see what she sees, so I should be able to guide you in, over.”

“Robert, I'm on my wa---” She felt a twitch, no this was a combo. Her ears flopped, her eyes fluttered, and lastly her knees twitched, she hadn't noticed it before, but she was 10 feet away from a door, and now that she noticed this she saw the knob begin to turn and panicked her eyes darting around her environment, if her she was seen now this mission was screwed.

Finally she noticed a ventilation shaft which she promptly bucked in and dashed inside,apparently just fast enough; she heard steps from behind that just wandered past and heard somepony mutter: “buckin’ cats...”

She reached into her vest and decided this was a good place to set some of those packages that were needed for the clean up protocols. She pressed the switches on the packages, and she decided to press on through the ventilation system; it was a tight fit, but luckily she didn't keep sugar fat like Mrs. Cake even though she ate twice as many sweets, so she managed slip through with only minor problems.

Eventually the vents went up at an angle and branched off into three paths: one heading forward, one heading left, and the other right. After consulting Shadow Lady, she opted to choose the left path as it would take her closer towards the center of the mansion. She eventually found herself looking down through a grate. The area was clear, so she carefully pulled it inside the ventilation shaft and lowered herself down, hitting the floor and rolling to her hooves she crouched and ducked into the first nook she could find, ensuring she was out of sight in the hallway. She immediately contacted Shaded Lady.

“Shaded Lady this is Manic, I need directions”

“Roger, Manic, what features stick out about your location? I'll try and match them with Shroud’s earlier intel. Over.”

“Ummm... well there's a lot of Statues and paintings on the wall, and they're really pret--”

“I get the picture Manic, let me just check these notes I made... Ahhh... you're not too far away actually, you're just under his office, it seems like your little detour has allowed you to bypass most of the security. Go ahead and plant your charges at your current location, over.”

Pinkie reached into her tactical vest and removed a few small packages from a pouch, pushed a small button on each of them and laid them on the ground. And proceeded to make her way towards the stair case at the end of the hall.

She forgot what was in those little packages, white... poppers? Phone wires? She pondered this while she made her way up the spiral stairs, approaching slowly and cautiously, until she saw a hoof coming down the stairs, her reflexes took over: she quickly sank down with her back arched around the closest bend of the stairs and waited until she saw a hoof, which she swept with her own right fore-leg which resulted in causing the other party to trip. She swung her left fore-leg around the neck of her prey the moment it was presented to her, and she dragged the poor thing down the stairs after wrapping both fore-legs around it's neck with enough pressure to quickly cut off the blood flow.

She was ready to take this one out of the game permanently until she noticed she was choking a red unicorn; her red unicorn. Quickly releasing Shroud and apologizing she had some questions to ask.

“How many are up there?” Pinkie Whispered.

“Not too many, just 8 guards in the hall, maybe 4 in the room, the rest are downstairs.... How did you get in?”

Pinkie said simply, “Air ducts.”

“Well, I'm getting out of here before this place gets 'cleaned', rendezvous in the courtyard, got it?”

“Okie Doki Loki.” Pinkie said nonchalantly.

Shroud had gone invisible yet again, and Pinkie made her way to the top of the stairs which ended at a curve down a long hallway. She put her back to the wall closest to the hallway, pulled a mirror out of her vest, admired herself for a minute, and then turned it so she could see down the hall without being noticed. Shroud was right; there were 8 guards, 1 of whom was alert, while the other 7 were wrapped up in conversation.

She put the mirror back in her vest, reached into another pocket, and pulled out a knife and a small ball. She reared up on her haunches and bounced the ball off of the wall at an angle she couldn't be directly tracked from, put the knife in her mouth and covered her ears. 3 seconds later, there was a flash of light and a loud bang, followed by screams: this was her cue.

She galloped around the corner and through the dazed and confused ponies, and saw the door at the end of the hallway, which had began to pry itself open. In response, she hopped to the right, stepped off the wall, crashed into the unfortunate blue unicorn opening the door, reared up on both her hind legs, and smashed her fore-hooves into his neck. She missed the vertebrae, however: death would not come swift for him.

She was close enough to the second pony trying to get through to cut him with the knife in her mouth, and thinking quickly she saw a third guard attempt to brandish some weapon of his own. Pinkie whipped her neck and let the knife fly, catching him square in the chest.

She now turned her attention towards the remaining two in the room: there was a guard and her target sitting behind a desk it would seem. upon seeing her target, her poofy mane deflated and became straight and long. She turned to the guard and glared; he simply cowered into a little gibbering ball and covered his head with his hooves, not wanting to end up like his acquaintances.

The Stallion behind the desk looked on in fear as Pinkie retrieved her knife, reached into the tactical vest, pulled out an apple and proceeded to peel it.

“Wh-wh-what d-do you want? Is it money? Yes, yes that must be it” The Stallion whipped out a case full of bits and pushed it across the desk towards Pinkie. She walked forward and swatted it to the floor shaking her head in a disapproving fashion as she did so.

“Uhhh-uhh.... Power! I could make you one of my Lieutenants! Yes?”

Pinkie merely stared at him and resumed cutting the apple wordlessly.

The colt began to panic even harder, tears welling up. “W-what do y-you want? Please don't k-kill me... I'll be good, I won't hurt nobody no more.” He choked and pleaded through the tears.

Pinkie merely sighed and beaned him with the apple, which only resulted in more tears from him.

“You know what I want?” she asked coldly.

“W-w-what?” He sniveled.

“I want my family back... I want you horrible people to leave innocent Ponies alone.... but most of all, I want to shut you down, and destroy this horrible organization. I want all of you scum to pay.” She pulled out a small switch from her vest and pressed it.

Somewhere outside the room they were in an explosion could be heard, and a fire started in the mansion.

“Oh that's right.... It's called white phosphorus,” Pinkie said finally having recalled what was in those packages she placed earlier. She walked over to the stallion behind the desk and stabbed him in the knee all the way through to the chair he was sitting in, causing him to whinny in pain.

“Please stay seated; you don't want to miss the fireworks,” she sneered as she whipped out a length of wire from her vest. She secured a good length of the wire around the stallions torso. She walked over to the window, climbed on top while clasping the wire in her hooves, and began to rappel down the side of the mansion. She hit the ground galloping to get away from the flames that were beginning to pick up intensity, reuniting with her team in the process. She began to celebrate, her mane poofing back to its normal volume in no time.

A voice chirped through her headset “Well done Manic, another Crossheart headquarters has been destroyed.”

“Awwww, it was no biggie Shadow Lady.”

“Agent Manic, remember to take your medication, the agency wouldn't take too kindly to having one of their top agents getting sick from neglecting their good health.”

Awww.... Do I have to?” She glanced at her teammates who merely smiled back at her.

“Fine...” She popped open another pocket on her vest, took out two small pills, and knocked them both back. She closed her eyes, felt that head rush she always got when those pills hit her system and opened her eyes.

She was facing the mansion and watched it slowly burn, she figured now would be just as good a time as any to crack a fire-related joke or burst into song to Shaded Lady.

“Shaded Lady, this is Pinkie Pi-- I mean Manic 1, come in, over..”

No response.

“Shadow Lady?”

Still no response

She decided to see if her teammates were having the same comms. problem, and she turned around and saw only 3 dolls laying on the ground, one was a gray earth pony, one was a red unicorn, and the other was a green pegasus.

She sighed and removed the headset. It was a toy she'd gotten from her parents one day in town after watching an old spy movie. That headset was what had saved her life when the Crosshearts came and attacked the rock farm, and it was the only thing she had to remember her parents by; everything else went up in flames.

The doctors who had found her diagnosed her with multiple mental disorders, and noticed she often gave sentient value to several inanimate objects, and with several case studies and tests found she could ascertain information from them regarding events she should have no reasonable way of knowing.

Some theorized that it had to do with her strong susceptibility to Earth pony premonition.

Over time they found she made remarkable recovery getting back to an almost healthy mental state. Before she was released to live with the Cakes who had volunteered to take care of and shelter her so she could live a normal life, the doctors prescribed her a special medication to prevent those disorders from creeping back, and if she didn't take those pills, well....

5/1.5 How many Masks are you wearing?

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited By: TheWattsMan

Act I: Re-Introductions

Chapter 5/1.5: How many Masks are you wearing?/ Time Dies when you're out of Puns

When the curtain rises, and the spotlight shines down, who is standing before the crowd? Is it the actor, come to bear their soul, struggle, passion and commitment to the stage? Or is it the hero/heroine, mindlessly existing for those finite and fleeting moments in a closed world to entertain a majority they'll never meet? Who indeed...

Rainbow Dash flew quite leisurely through the skies of Southern Ponyville, hoping not to attract to much attention to herself. This was absolutely contrary to the cyan Pegasus' nature, as she absolutely loved to dazzle a crowd, but more so in the central region of Ponyville where most of her friends were in close proximity; currently she found herself in a district that was akin to the inner city slums of Cloudsdale that she had spent the early years of her life in. She tried her best not to look at any of the underdeveloped housing structures, the homeless, or the tranquilizer junkies lining the street; lest she be reminded of her own upbringing before her parents saved up enough bits to move to a nicer venue, and sent her to flight school.

Rainbow Dash remembered that Mayor Mare had promised to renovate this area if she were elected, but lo and behold things actually got worse: what was just a little down trodden area of the town slowly turned into a miniature underworld. If Rainbow looked down right now, she was certain she would see some tranquilizer junkies mugging somepony in one of the downtrodden alleyways. Tranquilizer... She hated that substance, some really bad memories associated with it. She had only ever done it once when she was a filly, with some colt she liked. Never again.

Nostalgia flowed through her mind like the wind blowing through her mane at this moment, and she began to recall: An empty needle on the floor of a dilapidated earth pony carriage, the view was absolutely breath taking aside from that. She was on a mountain with that colt, (she had forgotten his name years ago) gazing contentedly into Cloudsdale during sunset, the reddening light of the sun giving the illusion that it was setting the giant cloud city ablaze. The tranquilizer kicked in and she felt it slowly relaxing her muscles and making her lightheaded, like she was on a cloud--- no, as though she were a cloud. Every sensation in her body became more and more intense, and she brushed up against the colt, desiring his warmth and comfort. The colt returned this by embracing her, and began to nuzzle her snout and neck; she rather enjoyed the sensations she was feeling from this amorous gesture, so she returned the nuzzle. Then he started licking her cheek, and she returned this as well. The colt was clearly enjoying this so he decided to take it to the next level, and his licking became kissing and it only intensified from there. Even in her impaired state she had enough sense to push him away and tell him she wasn't ready, but he didn't care; he kept trying until he became insatiable and aggressive, to the point that he pushed her to floor of the carriage and forcibly--- “NO!” Rainbow clenched her eyes till they hurt, trying to fight the memory.

By the time she finished clearing the memory from her mind and opened her eyes, she found she had drifted slightly off course and decided it was best if she didn't fly in this state. She descended to the streets, and proceeded among the filthy and dark atmosphere. ‘Just like home,’ She mused to herself. After 10 minutes of wandering the streets, she arrived at her destination: a dark alleyway that presented only a few dumpsters and a door as scenery.

Rainbow trotted over to the door and pounded on it with her hooves, and a few second later a latch on the door slid open to reveal only the yellowing eyes of an irritated looking stallion.

"What do you want?" Inquired a disgruntled voice

"I'm here to make a delivery, so let's make this quick. I got ponies to do, things to see yada yada."

"Hmmm...." The eyes in the slit began to size up the source of the sassy remark "Oh, if it ain't good ole Blink! Just a moment..." The slit slammed shut, there was some unintelligible yelling from the inside, and the door swung open to reveal a rather slim, greasy looking tan Earth Pony, with a mark of a syringe on his flank and a thinning wiry black mane.

"Blink, how've you been love? Come, give ole' Serum a peck..." At this point the Stallion attempted to wrap his fore-legs around Rainbow in a clumsy bear hug motion, to which she responded by ducking out and forcing her Crossheart insignia saddle bags into the embrace.

"Yeahhh... no. Like that'll ever happen; keep dreaming lover-colt. Now if you don't mind, I'll be taking my bits for this delivery and be on my merry way, the Sotto Capo isn't exactly a patient horse," she stuck her hoof out, expectant of the pouch of bits for this delivery, but instead only received a wadded up piece of paper.

"Hey, what gives?" She asked irritatedly.

"Well..." Serum had opened up the bag and was rifling through and inspecting the contents, all of which were vials of clear liquid from which Dash quickly averted her eyes, feeling ashamed for looking at them, much less having delivered them, but she had her reasons. "If you'd be so kind as to open that paper, you'll find that you aren't quite done yet love, Chronos has need of you, but if you want you could stick around and we could...."

Dash never got to hear what they could and could not do, as she had decided to send the "no way in hell, you mule" message with a good ole' fashion fore-hoof to the snout which resulted in knocking the sleazy stallion on his back, while he applied heavy pressure trying to keep it from bleeding. After chuckling a bit to herself, Rainbow promptly flapped her wings and began to hover away while inspecting the contents of the paper. There was only the name 'Honeylump Bakery', and, having no choice but to comply, Rainbow flew the few blocks to reach the place.

She landed in front of the bakery which, compared to the rest of the run down district, was in surprisingly good condition give or take some peeling paint and scuffs around the wooden door. Otherwise, it was nowhere close to Sugarcube Corner, not by a long-shot. The building was a purple cube, with a brick chimney that was likely connected to a brick oven on the inside. Not a particularly fancy or eye catching joint, with the exclusion the color, which Rarity would probably have described as 'Garish' or 'Daft'. Nonetheless, Rainbow approached the door, noting the sign in the window stated the establishment was 'Closed', pressed the door open and proceeded to enter.

The aroma that hit her was unique, definitely scent of pastry though it seemed a little stringent and smoky, burnt perhaps? Regardless, she proceeded into the bakery; it was rather hectic: a couple of chairs and tables were flipped over, the sales-counter itself was littered with flour and other spices which had spilled to the floor, and behind it, another counter with random ingredients and sheets strewn about, covering some sort of pastry she expected, and lastly an old style baker’s oven made out of brick, just like the chimney which seemed untouched. Rainbow proceeded to float through the bakery looking for Chronos. She knew what he looked like, as she had met him a few times in equine, but she had no idea what he did for the Crosshearts.

As she flew behind the sales counter to investigate the kitchen her attention was immediately drawn to the sheets that covered up most of the counter, more specifically the odd lumps that lay underneath them. Not really one for caution, Rainbow whipped off the cover and there were no pastries as she anticipated; instead there were three dead unicorns lying on their backs as though they had been moved after their deaths: A blue unicorn stallion, a caramel colored unicorn mare, and a vanilla unicorn filly. ‘Didn't even earn her cutie mark yet...’ Dash said under her breath while noting the filly was indeed a blank-flank. The corpses looked fresh as though they had only died moments ago, but the burning pastry smell in the kitchen might have suggested otherwise. The cause of death for the stallion and the mare appeared to be multiple stab wounds, but the Filly looked physically unharmed aside from some heavy bruising on her side. Another thing Rainbow noted was that the blood from the stallion and the mare seemed....fresh. Had this occurred before she came in?

After offering her condolences, she turned to scan the rest of the kitchen, and she didn't have to look particularly far to find what er... who she was looking for. A brown Earth Pony stallion with an hourglass mark on his flank lay facing a corner next to the oven. After a quick once-over she had identified the brown Stallion as Chronos, and arrived at the conclusion that he was clearly dead, most likely due to the knife protruding from the front of his skull. Between the three on the table, and Chronos being stabbed in the head, it was a chore in itself to distinguish who had killed who.

Chapter 1.5: Time Dies when you're out of Puns

Let's Rewind the clock and change players for a moment...

"Sup' Doc'?" A passing colt said casually

"Excuse me?" The 'Doctor' responded to the question with a question, but it fell on deaf ears apparently. ‘Must be some younger stallion slang greeting, I'll never understand how the youth works... Why does everypony call me the doctor anyway?’ He supposed it could've been his doctorate in Natural Sciences, more specifically in Pony Physiology and Natural medicine, but that was information only he and the Crosshearts were aware of.

Shirking the thought, he proceeded down the street and stopped in front of a mirror in a store window. Looking first at his reflection: Brown coat, tired hazel eyes, unruly brown mane, hourglass mark on his flank, lumpy saddlebags, yup that was him alright. But that wasn't why he checked the mirror, he had this feeling he was being watched since he departed from Central Ponyville that morning; as though to put his suspicions at rest, he scanned the mirror hoping to pick up something from the opposing side of the street, and.... he saw nothing.

‘Maybe all the time I've spent doing this is starting to get to me,’ he sighed and proceeded to Honeylump Bakery.

Once he arrived at the doorstep, he noticed the sign on the door read 'Open' and as he opened the door, a very peculiar pink earth pony pranced out from behind the door with a box in tow and proceeded to hop down the street humming to herself. ‘Weird,’ he thought to himself before he slid a hoof behind the sign, flipped it so it read 'Closed,' and then stepped inside the bakery.

He looked around the empty bakery and was greeted by a familiar jovial blue unicorn. "Heya doc, how’s it goin’?"

"Quite good I assure you, Mr. Flake. Now I love small talk as much as the next Stallion, but circumstances would have me cut right to the chase. I take it you know why I'm here?"

It only took a moment for all of the blood to drain from Flake's face, resulting in an amusingly lighter shade of blue.

"I.... uh...we... L-l-look, w-we'll get the Don his money, it's just gonna take some more time alright? Times are tough over here, Doc, you know how it is, right?" Flake looked nervous but hopeful that he could somehow convince the Doc to allow him at least another week. That hope fell on cold eyes, and those pleas on deaf ears.

"Flake, Flake, Flake.... Don't you remember? The Family already gave you an extension.... 1 month ago. Personally, I think that should have been enough time for you to come up with the cash."

"C'mon Doc... I got a Mare and a filly to take care of..." Flake continued to plead, maybe the family angle would do it.

The brown stallion sighed and proceeded to walk behind the sales counter while speaking: "Three things Flake: You should pay your debts on time, don't worry about your family; they'll be joining you shortly, and my name isn't Doc, it's Chronos as far as you know." With that the Brown Stallion drew a dagger from his bag, and with a flourish, stabbed Flake in the chest. He stared into the deadbeat baker's eyes, placed both hooves on the handle, and twisted the blade before withdrawing it. Before he let the blue unicorn collapse, he reached back into the bag and pulled out a vial full of green liquid, which he poured directly into the wound and covered with a towel, resting the Stallion on his back.

The vial contained a fungi based coagulant that he had discovered during his time studying natural medicines. It was unique in the respect that, when synthesized properly, it could be absorbed immediately into the bloodstream through open wounds, and created temporary clots that would drastically slow, but not stop the flow of blood until the clot dissolved in the bloodstream, after which point the blood flow would return to normal after a... gushing period... There were probably better uses for this coagulant as it prevented bleeding out for at least 4 hours, but seeing as how the Crossheart Family was paying his tuition at the time, he decided it was best to use it for their benefit.

"Don't die too quickly now, I'll need a proper alibi, and it wouldn't help me at all if you bled out before I return to Ponyville central. Now wait here while I fetch your family," Chronos instructed while cantering off to the back room of the bakery.

About 10 minutes later, Chronos was staring at his three victims with a look of shock, regret, and fear slowly overtaking his features. Most professional killers would either be proud of this moment, or indifferent having seen it many times before. But not Chronos, somehow the concept of '3 bodies, 2 kills' didn't ring right with him. After he had dealt with Flake, he ran into the backroom to deal with the mare and the filly. The mare had put up quite a futile struggle, throwing things flipping furniture, levitating random spices and throwing them, but Chronos eventually caught her in the neck with his dagger, but it didn't end there.

"How in Celestia's name could I have screwed up this badly?" His attention was squarely upon the filly; The one body that completely rendered his Modus Operandi pointless.* She had wandered into the bakery, and upon seeing Chronos stab her Dam, she began to run to the backroom, but crashed into a bookshelf in the kitchen causing it to topple over and crush the filly underneath it.

How was he supposed to deal with this? Bleeding and crime scenes he could manipulate, but this... The time of death had already been set in stone, there wasn't a lot he could do with an already gone corpse as the natural stages of decay had no doubt began. He then turned his attention towards the oven. It looks big enoug--

A cold sharp sensation suddenly pricked at the back of his neck, and it was accompanied by a mare's voice "Drop any weapons you may be holding and turn around slowly. If you fail to comply I will use force as necessary."

Chronos was used to getting the jump on his prey, but it was amusing to see what it was like on the other side of the blade. He closed his eyes and judged how close the blade was to his neck It's actually touching my neck....what amateur could have gotten the jump on me and made such grave mistake? No matter...

He calculated his retaliation and began to turn slowly, while adjusting the pivot points of all his hooves; bringing them closer together, and proceeded to snap around, drop his own knife, and pounce; with his right hoof ready to parry the knife and his left to strike the attacker directly. He was certain he would be in range of whatever novice had dared to put him at knife-point. He had calculated this attack for an earth pony or a pegasus, but was less than pleased to find that his assailant was a free-floating dagger and for his troubles he received a deep slash to his left fore-leg, and a buck to the face from a pair of violet hind-legs which knocked him to the ground. He then felt something slither up and bind all four of his legs together.

He gazed upon the source of the buck and saw an equine figure concealed in a cloak that covered up most of her face and body. "I warned you, no sudden moves, but I guess you won't be making any more then?" the figure replied in a matter-of-fact tone. She pulled out a piece of paper and began looking at it, then at Chronos; "Let's see here, brown coat, brown mane, cutie mark of an hourglass... you must be Chronos, I presume?"

"How did you kno--"

"I'll be asking the questions if you don't mind," the cloaked mare interrupted while wiping her dagger.

"Who are you?"

The figure sighed, "My name, as far you know, is Violet Page of the Royal Canterlot Interceptor Agency, and that's all you're cleared to know."

Damn the R.C.I.A. was on to me? How much could they know?

"Well, it seems you've got quite the rap-sheet here. Let's see, you've been arrested for over 23 equistricides, an---"

"Yeah, I think I know my own arrest record, let's cut to the chase." Chronos knew where this was going, the R.C.I.A. didn't screw around, they barely made any arrests, and if you wound up on their list....

"Okay fine; who are you working for and why?" She inquired

"I can't say"

"Why not?"

"You don't know what my employers would do if they found out."

"You don't know what I'll do to you if I don't find out."

Chronos now looked at this cloaked figure, tried to find the eyes and stated: "Ma'am, it would be like a small mercy in comparison."

"Well, I'd personally beg to differ. You see if you cooperate you can spend the rest of your life safe in a cell underground with thousands of others just as twisted, if not more so, than yourself. If you don't.... well let's just say I enjoy practicing new spells and I happen to have a new one that's quite an.... out of body experience."

"Well ma'am I'd like to plead the fifth," Chronos declared dryly.

"I was hoping that you'd sat that," She proceeded to pull out a blank green parchment from underneath her robe, "You see field interrogation is too easy, and can get a bit messy, and I don't really like messy or easy. I like an organizable challenge. Another thing about field reports, there's also a lot of writing and, as much as I love reading, I hate writing; just ask my assistant. So when you decided not to cooperate," she re-brandished her knife, touched it to her horn, which gave it a purple charge, and then pointed the glowing blade at the restrained stallion, "you just made my work-load a lot faster, and a lot easier."

She thrust the glowing blade deep into Chronos' forehead, and he only gave a whinny of pain before he felt the magic surging through his brain; it felt as though there was a whirlpool in his mind and all of his knowledge and memories were slowly being flushed out of his brain and being fed to the blade. All he could see was a vivid white light that was accompanied by the most awful ringing he'd ever heard in his life, and just like that, it was over; everything was going dark, he decided to rest now.

We need to change players once more...

Twilight certainly didn't enjoy having to stab the stallion in the head, but she was ecstatic that her new memory drain spell worked; all that was left was to touch the green parchment to the blade, and a small spark caused symbols to fill the parchment, in a circular manner akin to the red scrolls she always received from the agency.

"Eureka! It worked, it worked!" Twilight began to prance around, as she often did when she became overly excited about things; like recalling how she earned her cutie mark; but stopped herself when she remembered her surroundings. She left the brown colt in the corner, cleared off the counter in kitchen, levitated the three bodies that the colt had just left on the floor, and placed them carefully upon the counter as it was certainly large enough. She put the Sire and the Dam closer to the sides, gently lowered the filly in the center, proceeded to cover them with the cleanest sheet she could find, and said a prayer to Celestia. She collected all of the brown colt’s things and placed them in his saddle bags, which she promptly took with her; she'd need this evidence more than the local authorities would for upcoming events.

Twilight decided to leave a letter for the unlucky pony who stumbled across this scene detailing exactly what happened, excluding herself of course, making it seem as though she were just in the wrong place, at the right time, and proceeded to assign her Violet Page identity to the letter since she was still on duty.

She exited the bakery in search of Spike, in case he had coughed up anymore scrolls throughout the day.

Chapter 5 continued

Turn the clock forward and let's pick up where we left off...

Rainbow looked around the bakery one last time after reading the letter, deciding it was best if she just left now since it was getting dark, and since the letter hadn't detailed what happened to Chronos, she didn't want to be accused of murdering a murderer. She made it to the door deciding to inform her boss of what had transpired, when she heard some coughing from behind her. She whipped around to see that something was moving in the sheets. She raced back over and pulled them off again to reveal that the filly was still alive. She looked very weak, but she was still alive.

The filly looked up at Rainbow with big green eyes and asked "Who are you, Miss?"

Rainbow picked her up gently, hoping that in the darkening atmosphere she wouldn't notice her parents on the table. She hoped that for today the Bureau would allow her to break her undercover persona off without any repercussions. "Hey kiddo, I'm Officer Rainbow Dash of the Equestrian Investigation Bureau."

"Where are my parents, and what happened to that bad Stallion who was in our house earlier?" The little filly asked.

Rainbow put a hoof on the filly's poofy orange mane, began to pet it, and with false bravado exclaimed: "Don't worry about the bad stallion, a friend of mine took care of him in 10 seconds flat."

"Wow, really?" The filly's eyes were wide with excitement now.

Dash took this opportunity to place the filly on her back and promised to tell the story if she held on tight, and Dash took to the skies, embezzling that story to the best of her abilities.

She had two objectives now: To get this filly into the Bureau's protection, and once she had done that she needed to rendezvous with "Violet Page." It was time Rainbow came clean about everything she had been doing for the past few years, and the purpose for her undercover work in the Crosshearts’ employ. All the things she had witnessed, all the emotional abuse and danger she had put herself and her loved ones in, all the drugs she had transported and ripped off. As if the irony that she was contributing to the drug problem as opposed to ridding the streets of the stuff hadn't done it yet, she had hit her breaking point tonight after reading that note and seeing that now orphaned filly, orders be damned she was doing this with or without higher ups’ approval.

Chapter 5 end.

Act I: Re-introductions Complete

Footnote: *Modus Operandi-- Mode of operations

6 Part 1: When the veil comes off...

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited By: TheWattsMan

Act 2: Wait, There's a Plot?

Chapter 6 - Part 1: When the Veil Comes Off...

Once you get one it's very hard to keep. If you put it in your mouth it'll burrow out when your tongue slips. It's very hard to take care of one that belongs to someone else. Sometimes you can come to terms with one and reveal it to those you trust, but nothing is more mortifying than having one exposed to the world. What is it?

Having dealt with her first target; Twilight proceeded back to Central Ponyville accompanied by a dismal sense of accomplishment, and a freshly filled memory scroll that she was presently levitating and scanning for any new leads on the other 6 targets as she traveled. The text on the green document was constantly cycling and readjusting itself, and it occasionally showed a couple of images at random intervals. Thanks to the erratic nature of the document, Twilight now had a fuzzy understanding about the organization the stallion had been working for, an intimate knowledge of the his most embarrassing secrets and childhood memories, and the unsettling knowledge that he was strangely aroused in the moments leading up to his demise (something she wished she could unread). Still, with the randomizing nature of the document, she hadn't obtained any information that would prove conducive to her search for leads.

‘Maybe I should just give it up for now and deal with this when I return to the library; I can find a spell to fix thi--- Wait, what's this?’ At that moment, some rather eye catching information had manifested on the document; Twilight found herself looking at a building remarkably akin to Carousel Boutique, and just under that image, a single word: 'Arachne'. Shortly after the image of Carousel Boutique had disappeared into a void of shifting letters, a blue blur resembling a pegasus with a faint rainbow trail replacing it, accompanied with a new caption overhead that read 'Blink'. Twilight ceased moving at this point, trying to make sense of the new information she had just digested, her mouth hanging quite open.

‘No, no, no, this has to be some misunderstanding; I mean that blur, there are lots of blue pegasi... with.... rainbow trails... But that building... There have to be lots with that.... Carousel motif... My friends couldn't... They wouldn't....’ She sighed and glanced at the document which presently displayed a movie theater and an ebony mare, and proceeded to roll it back up and stuff it in her saddlebags. She pulled the hood of the cloak back over her head as she entered Central Ponyville. As much as she wanted to deny what she had just seen, she needed closure.

Celestia's sun was setting by the time Twilight had reached the Boutique. ‘Fitting Atmosphere,’ She thought to herself sarcastically as she raised a hoof to knock on the door.

Thump thump thump

As Twilight waited on the doorstep, a feeling of dread began to take root in her gut and she shifted her legs uncomfortably; hoping that Rarity had nothing to do with this case. Every second that door remained unopened, Twilight's blood temperature dropped. She had been staring holes in that door for 2 minutes, and her fur began to stand on end as she heard the sound of.... nothing. ‘Maybe she's not home at the moment,’ Twilight sighed and resigned herself from waiting at the door step, opting to come back later.

As she proceeded to make her way down to the road, she heard the sound of a door closing from the direction of Carousel Boutique; this warranted her immediate attention, and she whipped around just in time to see a cloaked figure emerge from the side entrance of the Boutique. The figure glanced in Twilight's direction as it moved towards the backstreets, but alas she couldn't discern any recognizable features due to the shadow caused by the figure's hood. Twilight proceeded to follow, maintaining a decent distance from her target provided the cloaked figure decided to break into a full-on gallop; she couldn't chance losing a potential lead.

She trailed the figure through the bustling streets and opted to blend into a crowd to track her target without drawing attention to herself, in the event that the figure chanced a glance over its shoulder. Her precautions were in vain, however as the cloaked figure turned down a nearby alleyway to which Twilight followed suit.

‘A dead end... Whoever this is knew I was following them,’ Twilight remarked to herself as her horn glowed, preparing to make the telekinetic connection to her dagger just in case the figure tried anything. She used her left forehoof to pull down her hood further and proceeded to approach the the figure, who was staring adamantly at the wall before them. A slight gust of wind blew through the alley, and it was enough to blow a small section of the cloak revealing a white hind leg. Twilight noticed this and bit her lip; her suspicions were all but confirmed at this point, but there was no doubt in her mind that the figure in front of her was Rarity. As much as she lamented the task at hand, she had a job to do, and hopefully Rarity would make it easy for herself and just surrender.

"Don't move! I'm Violet Page of the Royal Canterlot Interceptor Agency, and I need to ask you some questions involving your potential involvement in some illegal activity. Please put your fore-hooves on the wall, and lower your head until you can see your hind legs," Twilight announced as she advanced towards the suspect cautiously.

The figure showed no sign of compliance or acknowledgement. ‘Rarity, please don't make this harder for me than it already is,’ Twilight pleaded internally as she unsheathed her dagger.

"I said forehooves on the wall, now. You only get one warning, and if you fail to abide I will use lethal force," she stated sternly. The figure stood fast, still unmoving, and now there was little distance between Twilight and the cloaked mare.

Twilight extended a hoof to pull down the hood, and was immediately taken aback by a combination of shock, confusion, and some light embarrassment brought on by the identity of the cloaked figure, that could only be summed up in one phrase: "What the hay!?" Before Twilight stood a wooden mannequin. She would have questioned the physical impossibility of something inanimate moving on its own, but at that very moment something had wrapped around her throat whilst something else swept her off her hooves, forcing her to the floor. The thing around her neck became tighter and sharper, cutting off the flow of oxygen and blood, making her breathing shallow and her vision go slowly dark. She attempted find purchase on the thing around her neck, but it was to thin to grab, and she couldn't focus her magic as she was having a hard enough time trying to alleviate her current predicament.

‘Need...to...focus...’ Her horn began to glow, faintly at first, but then she released a beam of intense light, resulting in an irritated "Gahh!" from behind her, but the thing around her neck still held taut. She focused all of her remaining energy on her dagger and whipped it behind her in a sweeping arc. Her blade found purchase on something, resulting in a scream from her assailant and the pressure around her neck vanished. Twilight rose to her hooves and immediately followed up with a rear leg buck that found its mark as well, and sent the attacker skidding.

Shaking the dizziness from her head and coughing slightly, a recovering Twilight turned to face her attacker and hesitated to believe her own eyes: A bleeding Rarity lay on her right side, attempting to dress the knife wound on her left flank with a white cloth. Twilight began to approach, and Rarity took a slightly more defensive stance.

Rarity

"I w-warn you n-now, you ruffian, if you take another step forward I'll....I'll..." Rarity searched the ground frantically, and finally she found something to brandish menacingly at the cloaked figure: the piano-wire garrote* she was previously choking the cloaked mare with. She used garrotes primarily because she hated getting blood anywhere on her white coat, as she believed it would stain, and she had no fighting ability otherwise. Needless to say she found it immediately worthless as a self defense weapon, and dropped it helplessly to the ground as she watched what she had deemed her impending death stalk closer. The figure stopped a few feet from the shaking mare; out of fear or instinct Rarity assumed a fetal position covering her eyes with her hooves.

She could feel the malicious intent radiating from the other mare with every second that passed, and eventually the time she'd spent cowering on the ground broke her: she felt hot tears escape her eyes and stream down the side of her face. The tears hadn't manifested out of fear for her life, but rather from regrets about what she would leave behind and the decisions that had led her to this very instant. Out of all the regrets that plagued her mind, there were two in particular that would burden her even in the afterlife: her sister's fate would remain forever in the mercy of the organization, and she had never exacted her revenge on that conniving, manipulative mule of a mare that blackmailed her and forced blood on her hooves.

Rarity's grieving period was cut short as she heard the clopping of the other mare's hoof beats on the ground, closing the exceedingly finite distance between them. She prepared for the worst and braced herself for the embrace of death, but found only an embrace. The other mare had draped her cloak around Rarity and wrapped her forelegs tightly around the sobbing mare.

"It's okay Rarity, it's okay." Through eyes clouded with tears, Rarity could only make out the lavender color of the mare's coat and a pink streak in her mane.

"Twil- Twi--" Rarity attempted to choke the name out through the sobs.

"Shh.... just let it all out Rarity, we'll talk after," Twilight cooed to her sobbing friend as she stroked the back of Rarity's mane in an attempt to comfort her.

Rarity cried her heart out into Twilight's coat for ten minutes before she finally broke the embrace, sat on her haunches, and looked into the concerned eyes of one of her closest friends. She had just tried to choke this mare to death, and here she was staring into the face of understanding and forgiveness. She might have started bawling again if Twilight hadn't spoke up at that moment:

"Rarity, I'm willing to forget what happened just now, but I need your complete and total cooperation; if you fail to comply, I have orders from the Royal Canterlot Interception Agency to terminate you, do you understand me?" Twilight's voice had adopted an all business tone for the moment.

Rarity wordlessly nodded her head in compliance.

Twilight levitated a blank scroll and a pencil out of the the shoulder holster she wore, and she began her interrogation: "Alright, I have some questions I've been needing to ask you about your involvement with the Crossheart crime syndicate, is there anything you'd care to divulge before we begin?"

Rarity hesitated to answer, unsure of the consequences that befell anyone who betrayed the organization, but she didn't have much choice at the moment. "Yes, but you misunderstand: I do not work for the Crosshearts. The Crosshearts are a puppet organization working under a Shadow group. I've only associated with a few of the Crossheart assassins on rare occasions."

Twilight proceeded to scribble in her note pad, and the looked back up to continue pressing Rarity for info "Would you care to tell me anything about this shadow group?"

Rarity took a deep breath and thought for a moment, and decided maybe she could use this to her advantage "I'll tell you Twilight, but only under the condition that you put Sweetie Belle in the protective custody of the RCIA."

"Your sister? But why?"

"I'm sorry Twilight, I can't tell you anything unless you give me your word"

"Alright, I'll requisition a unit to take Sweetie Belle into protective custody, but I need to know why. They won't simply take her in because I ask them to."

Rarity gave a sigh of half-relief and began to let out everything she knew: Mayor Mare's involvement with The Shadow Group "Black Anarchy", how Black Anarchy forced Rarity to commit murders by threatening Sweetie Belle, a list of all of her targets throughout the years, and so on.

Twilight finished writing in her notepad, and glanced at Rarity who was sporting an expression of relief and nervousness. "Rarity, thank you for admitting all of this; I know it couldn't have been easy for you to re-live any of this, but you're still guilty of multiple counts of first degree equestricide as an accessory of Shadow Anarchy, and capital punishment is still in order..." With that some of the spark in Rarity's eyes died, and the white unicorn opened her mouth to protest.

Twilight took note of this and held her right fore-hoof up to silence Rarity before continuing "However, you performed these acts against your will, and have chosen to atone for them by aiding the RCIA in their investigation of the Crossheart organization, but this does not excuse you from your punishment. Let it be known that by the authority granted to myself 'RCIA Agent Twilight Sparkle' by the Crown, you are hereby sentenced to..." Twilight grinned "Assist my investigation as a traitor to Black Anarchy, and ally of the RCIA, sound good?" Twilight winked at Rarity whose mouth just hung open in shock.

"But Darling, are you sure?"

"Well Rarity, would you rather be executed?" Twilight inquired with a smug grin.

"Err... No, I suppose not..."

"Well that settles that now, doesn't it?" Twilight asked as her horn lit up; she aimed it at Rarity's wounded flank and initiated a healing spell. She'd need her newest asset to be fully functional.

"Quite; so what now?" Rarity asked, rising to a stand.

"I suggest we find Spike so I can send off the request for your sister to be placed in RCIA protection and my findings on the case up ‘til now. Then we should head down to Sweet Apple Acres; I've got a feeling Rainbow will be there, and I have some questions for her as well." With that, Twilight took her cloak from Rarity and donned it yet again, as Rarity levitated her own cloak off the mannequin that now lay on its side and proceeded to sport it with the hood up. The two began to trot out of the alleyway and towards the library.

Chapter 6 Part 1 end

*A garrote is a simple stealth assassination weapon composed of 2 sticks connected to the ends of some form of thread, wire, or rope. The method of engagement with said weapon is from behind, where the assailant wraps the thread around the victims neck and attempts to either choke the victim, break the victims neck, or decapitate them provided the garrote has been constructed with piano wire.

7:Effective Target Range 2000 yards, Height or Distance?

Friendship Is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited By: TheWattsMan

Act II: ...Wait, There’s a Plot?

Chapter Seven: Effective Range 2000 Yards, Height or Distance?

I see you, but you can't see me. Where am I? Who am I? Why you? It doesn't matter to me. I am the ghilly in the mist; I kill what I'm told. I am the bane of the Battlefield. I lay in wait while my blood runs cold. If you cross my sights, I might surmise, that the distance coupled with your inexperience will be your demise. I am the Sniper, the Ghilly in the Mist; if you cross my path my trigger finger won't resist. I stand adamant with my claim: need I wait one day or three, I swear to you, through my sights I shall watch your blood run free.

Ditzy Doo left the Mayor's office, on a bit of a bad note with the older mare; she had destroyed Mayor Mare's window upon reporting for duty after seeing the organization's flag. Fortunately, today the Mayor was being unusually patient with Ditzy as she hadn't started bellowing out insults upon the Pegasus' arrival. After Ditzy was given her mission she looked at the accompanying photo with her target and it revealed that nice white unicorn who made her dress for the Grand-Galloping Gala. ‘Awww.... I really liked that one...’ As much as she didn't want to eliminate the white unicorn, orders were orders; and after having her request for a muffin denied, she proceeded to leave the office, only to become entangled in the curtain that hung loosely from the window.

Once outside, Ditzy made her way to her room in the Ponyville post office; she was the proprietor of the building, and handled the entire mail load for all of Central Ponyville by herself. Most ponies had the preconception that, because of her clumsy nature, she was by default very stupid, and must've had help organizing all of the mail for delivery and taking care of the finances. These, however, were merely preconceptions, and they were horribly inaccurate at that.

Ditzy placed her mailbag on a dresser in the small room, electing to take care of mail delivery tomorrow, proceeded over to her bed, reached underneath to withdraw a large black Pegasafe* attache case, and proceeded to exit the building and lock up after herself. The streets were relatively empty at the moment, so the gray pegasus took to the skies and searched for a particularly large and thick cloud. After spotting one she promptly dove right into the center of it.

Ditzy proceeded to go to work inside the cloud: she hollowed it out, forcing the extra fluff she had no use for to the outside of the cloud, further increasing the amount of concealment, ensuring she had a decent, if a bit tight, workspace. She set the attache case on the 'floor' of the cloud and proceeded to open it, revealing several black metallic and plastic components all bearing the Pegasafe logo, which she proceeded to remove and place on the flooring of the cloud cover she had fashioned. She also removed a blueberry muffin from the case and placed it next to the black components, but it sailed helplessly through the cloud and met its final resting place on the head of a cart owning earth pony who would forever be convinced that the Pegasus race could rig up a pastry rain given the right motivation.

Ditzy stared sadly at the spot where her muffin once stood, sighed and proceeded to assemble the black pieces on the ground. Eventually she held up thecompleted product, and rubbed the barrel of it as though it were a child. Firearms weren't new to equestria, but it was definitely an extremely rare case for anypony but a royal guardsmen and select firms to even own one. However, the equestrian underworld had a plethora of resources to tap into for such ludicrous items.

Ditzy ran a functions check on the freshly assembled weapon to insure there were no errors, and after it passed her scrutinization, she locked a magazine into the weapon, set it on safe, and proceeded to punch a hole in the cloud to scan for her target. In her boredom she began to muse about the weapon Why do they call it a magazine? There's nothing to read on it, and there's no pictures... I wonder if it has a year long subscription... whoa... a magazine subscription! I wonder if I'd get a gift...

Her rather erratic train of thought derailed itself upon noticing two cloaked figures enter an alleyway nearby, and shortly after she observed the two vanish from sight she noticed a third figure creep in behind the two. Another misconception most ponies have about Ditzy is her eyesight, as one eye is horribly off center and the other one seems to stare in a semi accurate direction about forty two percent of the time. The vision in the eye that always seemed to be gazing upwards was normal 20/20 some might say, however the other eye that stayed centered was perhaps the reason for her abnormal clumsiness: the vision she possessed was three times as powerful as a normal eye. The uniqueness with her vision didn't stop there however; she could move the off center eye independently of the other.

This being said, she recognized the third pony to enter the alleyway as her target, and set up shop. She covered the hole she was peeking through, and popped a new, albeit smaller, hole in the general direction of the alley. She pushed the rifle barrel through and began to wait for her target, she had been at this sniper business for a while; she knew that patience often yielded the greatest rewards. About 15 minutes of watching that alley entrance passed, and finally she saw the two figures exit again, her target was nowhere to be seen, so moved her cloud cover just enough so she could peer into he alleyway, and investigated via the rifle scope. Not a soul inhabited the alleyway, Ditzy came to the conclusion that she had been played, and her target might have been on to her.

She now turned her attention to the two cloaked figures, and decided to trail them until some sign of her target came up again. She trailed the pair for what seemed to be an hour, watching them as they met with that purple dragon from the library, and observed them as they went to that boutique shaped like a merry-go-round. ‘Merry go round? Looks like fun! Can the store be ridden?’ The pair stayed in the store for ages, and nothing of interest occurred until several other cloaked figures went inside the boutique and left with a smaller figure in tow. The two from earlier left the library again and proceeded to make their way out of the boutique through town and along the road to Sweet Apple Acres.

They eventually stopped amongst a group of mares who seemed to be having some kind of quarrel, and engaged them in conversation. Shortly after speaking with the mares, the two removed their hoods. Ditzy immediately recognized one of them as the white unicorn from the picture, and positioned her rifle back into her hooves and into her shoulder, focusing the sight on the ivory unicorn. She lined up a shot; it was going to be bucking beautiful. Ditzy moved a hoof to the the trigger, focused her breathing, and waited for the natural pause on the exhale; the shot was perfect, all that was left was to--- click, BANG: the round left the barrel. She watched patiently, but noticed a blue unicorn had wandered haplessly in front of the white unicorn, and took the full brunt of the rounds momentum; he ceased to exist at that point.

‘Oh... now the mayor is gonna be mad at me and say mean things...’ A moment of failure was all it took to upset the Pegasus, and she began frantically pulling the trigger without proper aim, hoping to perhaps hit one of the 6 on the ground. This only resulted in causing the group to run for the trees. ‘Awww... Now I have to wait... I wish I had my muffin... hehe, magazine subscription...’

"We've been marked by a Sniper," Twilight announced to her friends.

"A what now?" Applejack inquired

"A killer who specializes in long-distance assassinations. I've only dealt with one before, but I had help that time..." Twilight explained

"Dealt with one a them before? Just who are you anyways Twi'?" Applejack pressed her friend for info casting an accusatory look.

Twilight opened her mouth to explain but Rainbow Dash stepped up at that moment: "Applejack, I think we have more pressing matters than singing kumbaya and telling campfire stories, don't you agree?"

"Girls! My tail is Twitching again! Get down!" cried Pinkie who was shaking behind a tree with Fluttershy and Rarity.

Another shot ripped through the tree line and planted itself in a tree five feet away from Twilight's head; needless to say she took immediate action and rolled behind a tree where she was joined by Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "We need a plan!" Rainbow shouted as another round kicked up dust by her leg.

"Oh, really? I didn't notice!" Twilight quipped sarcastically

"Rainbow, give Twi' some quiet now, she needs ta focus," Applejack instructed. Rainbow complied with a hufff followed by crossing her forelegs as she slumped along the tree.

Another round slammed against the tree that was providing cover for Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy, causing the apples that hung from it to fall to the ground. Rarity cringed and began to hyperventilate. She had never been in a combat scenario before, and she felt absolutely helpless at the moment. She was ready to just run out in the open and accept the inevitable, until she felt a soft hoof on her shoulder. She followed the source of the hoof to Fluttershy who shot the nervous unicorn a reassuring grin before saying: "It's okay Rarity, just have faith in Twilight; she'll get us through this."

Rarity gave a nervous nod and returned a weak grin to the optimistic Pegasus, then turned her gaze to Twilight who seemed to be deep in thought.

Twilight assessed her surroundings hoping to deduce the sniper's position before formulating an attack plan. After checking the tree she was hunkered down on for moss and comparing the moss growth of the other trees relative to the direction of the shots, she had come to the conclusion that the sniper was North from their position. Direction was a good start--- Another round took a few chunks out of the trunk--- But sadly direction alone would only get her killed facing the right direction. Twilight looked up at the darkening clear blue sky and cast an envious look upon it, and noticed there were no clouds over Sweet Apple Acres, as Applejack had most likely requisitioned a day for nothing but sun to sustain her apple trees, the sun was setting, causing the atmosphere to become eerily beautiful for this situation. Returning her attention to the task at hand, she pulled out a mirror, and levitated it around the corner and proceeded to scan for anything that might give her a tactical edge here. Trees, trees, trees, oh and surprise, more trees, wait what's...

She noticed something about the scene didn't exactly fit. Rotating the mirror upwards, there was something odd about the sky: while the rest of the sky was clear, there was a solitary cloud. In any other situation she might have assumed that it had merely floated over from Ponyville proper, but with her predicament being what it was she couldn't be too careful---

"Twitch-a-twitch twitch-a-twitch!!" Pinkie shouted from the other tree, and seconds later Twilight's mirror exploded. Between Pinkie's twitching and the random cloud, Twilight arrived at the conclusion that the sniper must be in the cloud. Knowing the exact position would only get her killed looking right at the sniper, she needed a plan. She turned to her friends, who returned hopeful glances, and realized they were the key to surviving this nightmare scenario.

"I've evaluated the situation, and I believe I've located the sniper's position--"

"Alright, that's our egghead!!" Shouted Rainbow Dash excitedly; Applejack shot her a "Shut the buck up" glare promptly after the outburst.

"--and I have a plan to capture our assailant, but I'm going to need everypony's help to do it."

"Ah don't think you'll be hard pressed to get our compliance sugarcube." As though to punctuate Applejack's sentence, a wild shot kicked up dirt between the two trees.

"All right, AJ how well do you know your way through this orchard?" Twilight asked

Applejack merely grinned and shot a sarcastic "really?" glance at Twilight.

Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash now and levitated her dagger from the sheath and moved it towards the pegasus, handle first. Rainbow grasped the handle with her mouth. "You're the fastest, so when you hear the signal I need you to fly as fast as you can to the only cloud in the sky right now."

Now her attention was directed at Pinkie Pie: "Pinkie, I need you to use your Pinkie sense to let us know when a round is going to land, think you can do that?"

"You dare to question the legion of- I mean Okie Dokie Twilight!"

‘Weird,’ Twilight thought, turning towards Fluttershy who was comforting a shivering Rarity. As far as Twilight knew, Fluttershy was only here by proxy of Applejack, and Rarity would be somewhat useless throughout this... or not. As she contemplated a small grin spread across her features; she was going to enjoy seeing this plan come together.

Ditzy Doo waited patiently for the next glimpse of her targets, it was a little hard to see them among the trees, but their various color coats gave them away each time they stuck something out a little too far. Scanning her terrain for any sign of her prey she noticed some rustling from the trees, and all six of her marks came storming out of the bush as though they were charging her. Ditzy looked up from the rifle, blinked twice and rubbed her eyes, and even rotated her off center eye forward just to ensure she wasn't seeing things, but plain as day she saw the six charging at her: A purple one, a pink one, an orange one, a blue one, a yellow one, and the white one. ‘Hey they look like bittles....mmm...bittles,’

Ditzy found herself being distracted by the similarity between her favorite fruit flavored candy and her targets, which were obstinately charging down the road exposed, clearly not giving a buck about the fact they were going to be fired upon. ‘Oh well,’ Ditzy thought returning to her rifle sight, she wasn't about to complain about an easier workload. She lined up the shot a few paces ahead of her targets, opting for an ambush approach*. 3...2...1... click Bang click Bang click Bang.

Ditzy watched in anticipation for the rounds to impact, it took a couple of seconds, but she was rewarded with a cloud of smoke and the absence of her targets. ‘Easy job, now I can replace my muffi-- What the hay?’ Sure enough, through the smoke all six of her targets continued to charge. As she prepared to line up another volley of shots, she noticed the apple trees had started to shake in the orchard to her left, and she rotated her off-center eye to investigate while she pumped out another salvo of rounds. She saw the orange pony kicking trees, resulting in the release of several apples falling to the ground. As opposed to wondering why she was bucking apples at a time like this, all Ditzy could think was ‘Poor apples...I will avenge you!’ Deeming the charging ponies a decoy, cast by a unicorn in their group most likely, Ditzy changed targets to deal with what she had estimated to be the actual assault.

Her thoughts were confirmed as she saw the purple, white, and yellow ponies following close behind, and she lined up up a shot and squeezed the trigger. She missed only because they changed direction and ran deeper into the trees, and she continued to trail them. Looking up from her rifle for a moment to allow some fresh air into her eye, she noticed that the decoys hadn't stopped and were remarkably close... actually they were getting faster, a lot faster, specifically the blue one and the pink one. She recalled the group in the trees and noted, she hadn't seen those two in that particular group... ‘For Luna's sake,’ Realizing what just happened, she turned the rifle towards them and attempted to get a clear shot, but the blue one suddenly vanished in a rainbow trail, the pink one managed to keep up at a similarly quickening pace, and Ditzy couldn't realign fast enough. Suddenly the Rainbow one was gone, clear out of Ditzy's line of sight. ‘Oh buck this isn't good.’ She had been feinted. She didn't have enough time to berate herself for letting this happen however, as at that moment, a blue blur erupted from the bottom of the cloud. All Ditzy could register was a cold sharp sensation that flowed through her neck before she felt immense pain. She realized she had been cut by the blue pony who stood in front of her.

"That was---" Ditzy coughed up blood, "That was awesome"

"Yeah, I know. Sleep now, you did good... I guess" The blue pegasus' response held no hint of modesty.

"My last regret... was not having... a...muffin...for breakfast..." The world went dark for Ditzy, and she closed her eyes welcoming whatever came after this. At least wherever she was going she wouldn't have the Mayor belittling her, and she embraced the sweet bliss of nothingness. The ironic thing about Pegasi is that though they can support themselves on clouds, their blood just drips through, but this isn't a widely known fact as it is incredibly difficult to cut oneself on a cloud.

However today, the strangest bit of weather in Equestria came not from a mysterious case of raining pastries as one earth pony continued to rant, but instead from a lone cloud in a clear sky hovering over sweet apple acres raining blood.

Rainbow Dash descended from the cloud and met back up with her friends who were cheering and celebrating life and their victory. As much as she wanted to join them in celebration and hated destroying a party mood, she decided upon a business before pleasure policy which was completely against her nature, but was necessary.

After trotting up and being tackled by Pinkie Pie who locked her in a ursa like embrace, she faced the others and stated solemnly: "We need to talk."

Chapter 7 end.

*Pegasafe-A company that specializes in making objects that can support themselves on clouds without falling

*Ambush approach- When a sniper lines up a shot for a moving target by placing the sights ahead of the target as opposed to on the target, so the target essentially 'walks' into the shot.

8: Stand as One

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited By: TheWattsMan

Act II: Wait, There’s a Plot?

Chapter 8: Stand as one

“Obedience breeds discipline. Discipline breeds Unity. Unity breeds power. Power is life”

-Dr. James Marcus

It’s awfully hot today, Twilight observed as she stared down the tracks on the platform at the Ponyville train station. She wasn’t actually concerned with the weather, as she was trying to come to terms with the events from three days ago that had led her to this moment. Now wasn’t the time to be concerned about what had happened however, lest she daydream and miss the train to Canterlot. But how could she not think of--- The whistle of a train interrupted her thoughts as it pulled into the station, and as it rolled to a stop she levitated her suitcase and prepared to board. She wished she wasn’t travelling alone, but the others agreed that it was safer to travel separately in case they were being trailed by any Crossheart agents.

The train stopped, and she stepped inside, it was one of those trains that had several booths with two padded benches for seats in each, nothing like the train she took in Appleoosa which had separate beds for every passenger. Once she found her seat on the train, she stared out the window until the train began to move. She brought some books to occupy her through the trip, but at the moment she was content to simply stare out the window. As the train began to move she resumed staring out the window and soaked in the passing scenery. It took a bit of time before she finally relaxed, closed her eyes, and let the memories flood her mind....

Twilight had lived in Ponyville for all of a year, and it had just occurred to her that she’d never actually stepped foot inside Applejack’s house. The Apple Family Manor was huge to say the least; the foyer she stood in was easily bigger than her room in the library she called home. She didn’t have quite enough time to take in everything, as at the moment she was gently nudged into the separating hallway by Fluttershy, who wore an impatient expression that was rare for the typically anxious Pegasus. Of course with the events that had just transpired, and the information that was going to be disclosed in the next few moments, it was no wonder everypony in the room was on edge.

Applejack led the way down the hall, nudged open a door on the left hand side, and held it open so that the others could make their way in. The room was illuminated by a fireplace that cast an orange glow upon various paintings of Apple family members from generations past. Twilight walked in and spotted two rather large comfortable sofas adorned with an apple pattern facing each other, with a coffee table separating the two. Everypony else had already chosen their spots on the couches, while Applejack herself elected to drag a recliner style love-seat to the head of the table, and Fluttershy promptly joined her side opting to stand.

Twilight and Rarity sat across from an uncharacteristically solemn faced Rainbow Dash, and a ravenous looking Pinkie Pie, who noticed some candy on the table and proceeded to stare at it with bedroom eyes. “You’re such a naughty Applechew. Shhh... there’s no need to be coy, I know what you want, but first what say we get you back to my place and out of that wrapper, and we can get to know each other bet--” It was at this point the Pink Pony noticed 5 pairs of eyes were upon her. The majority looked disturbed, but she could have sworn the look Rarity was giving her urged the continuation of confectionery foreplay. Pinkie quickly snatched up the candy and pointed threateningly at her friends, challenging any of them to take her candy.

“Ooookayyy...”Rainbow Dash started “Aside from...that... There’s something important I need to discuss with everypony. This isn’t easy for me to say, and it might...change things between all of us, but I want you guys to know that I hope you’ll be my friends regardless of what happens after.”

“Oh my gosh Rainbow Dash, are you... a filly fooler?!” Pinkie blurted out, warranting only more strange looks from her friends, however Rarity and Fluttershy both shot Rainbow an “I always knew it” glance.

“Hey look I don’t roll that--”

“Land’s sake sugarcube, Ah’ve been waitin’ since the our little scuffle in the orchard to hear what you’ve been hidin’ from us, so why don’t you just spill the beans already?”

Rainbow sighed before resuming “Alright, fine as I already said, I’ve been undercover in the Crossheart Syndicate for the Equestrian Investigation Bureau.” Twilight and Rarity both gave puzzled looks as neither were present for that divulging of information “That being said, during my time undercover I learned of both of your secrets. I know what you do and who you work for” She nodded to Applejack and Twilight.

The news hit Twilight like a ton of bricks “Wha... but I... you... how...security clearance!!” Twilight seemed on the edge of a mental breakdown but was comforted by Rarity patting her on the shoulder with a hoof. Clearly she wasn’t prepared.

“How long have ya known about me Rainbow,” Applejack inquired taking it better than Twilight

“Twilight, I figured out that you worked for the RCIA after the Nightmare Moon incident, and AJ... well let’s just say your family's involvement in the equestrian underworld has been a subject of interest for the EIB for a long time. That isn’t what I wanted to talk to you both about though.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, and Twilight regained her composure.

Rainbow continued “Twilight, my department chief has permitted me to assist your investigation and provide you with any and all intel regarding the inner workings of the Crosshearts.” Rainbow now turned to Applejack who returned the stare with a bemused look “AJ I know that it might seem a bit crazy to even ask you this, but even though we stand on opposite sides of the law, we share a common enemy. I’d like to request the Apple Family’s cooperation in this matter. I ask you not as an EIB agent, but as your friend.”

At that moment, all eyes turned to Applejack who’s expression transitioned from bemused to stern. She adjusted her posture to reflect this, leaning back in her love seat, she placed both of her forehooves together and rested her hind legs on the coffee table narrowing her eyes at Rainbow, who merely stared through. Applejack cleared her throat a few times preparing to utilize her Manehattan accent “You claim to need a friend like me? You’ve been keeping secrets and watching my family for the longest time. There’s no need to pussyfoot around the matter Rainbow, you don’t offer friendship, you merely come into my house on the day my little sister is to turn seven, and you ask me to do murder for bits. You disgust me.”

Rainbow was taken aback for a moment, before she noticed Fluttershy attempting to stifle laughter. A similar grin found its way upon Applejack’s lips as well, and try as the Orange earth pony might, she couldn’t force the grin away. She eventually broke into a fit of laughter with Fluttershy following suit shortly after. “Bwahahaha!! Y’all should’a seen yer face! Ahaha!!!” Rainbow cast a glance at Rarity and Twilight who wore equally confused looks on their faces.

“Rainbow, of course Ah’ll help ya, yer my friend.” Applejack choked out between giggles wiping tears from her eyes.

“Wow, that was... easy....” the blue Pegasus remarked bewildered.

Fluttershy noticed betwixt chuckles that some of the gazes that were affixed to Applejack were slowly making drifting towards her general direction, and almost immediately she ceased laughing. She had been in on the joke and they wanted to know why. It took maybe all of 3 seconds for the Pegasus to crack under the pressure of the gazes spurning her to retreat behind Applejack’s sofa. She poked her head out coyly to see if the gazes were still upon her, and ducked her head back in as she made eye contact with Rarity and Twilight. Applejack spoke up for her nervous friend “Fluttershy works fer mah Grand-Dam as a ...caretaker...of sorts.”

Twilight looked over at Pinkie Pie who was currently genociding the remains of the Applechew candies and it occurred to her she had no idea why the Pink pony was even there. “Pinkie, why exactly are you here?”

Pinkie Pie decided to consult her brain for guidance Brain, should I tell them?

My precious disciple, Oyster Jed approves of this. But first indulge us with another Applechew.

So you’re Oyster Jed now?

Jed is everything and Jed is some. The sadist is another matter. Now spread the message, and they shall bend to our will and give us what we want: Galoshes.

Okie doki loki!

After completing her convoluted decision making process, Pinkie gazed up at Twilight. “You want the story dame? Let me spin it for you quick,” and she began to recount her story from when the Crosshearts burned down the rock farm, her period at the clinic through the time when the Cakes adopted her, and concluded with her ongoing vendetta against the Crosshearts recounting the events from earlier today. “...and that’s why chapter 4 was the best chapter in the whole story.”

“Wait darling, what was that last thing you said?” Rarity inquired

You foalish filly, you say too much! Jed did not approve of such desecration of the fourth wall.

“Anyway, now that we’ve gotten the pleasantries out of the way, I suggest we come up with a plan of attack.” proclaimed Twilight

“That won’t be necessary deary,” called new voice from behind, every eye in the room was affixed to the source of the outburst and most were surprised to find the grinning face of Granny Smith. Applejack and Fluttershy both made their way over to the elderly mare, and proceeded to nuzzle her neck affectionately, and helped her over to the love seat Applejack was using for the majority of the meeting. After settling into the chair Granny Smith turned her attention towards the other four mares.

“What do you mean a plan won’t be necessary?” Twilight pried

“Let me tell you a story deary, the Crosshearts have been tryin’ to intimi-imi--intim--”

“Intimidate, Granny”

“Dagnabbit Ah know! They’ve been tryin’ to intimidate us fer years, and through all that time they only got bolder ‘n bolder with ev’ry attempt. Ah knew that conflict would be inevitable at some point, so Ah began preparin’ fer a particular day, three days from now, when all the slimy mules git together in Canterlot. We’ve been ready to go to war with em for a good couple’a months now, Ah reckon tonight was the night we decided to send em a formal declaration,” She finished while winking at her Granfilly and Fluttershy.

“Well I suppose it’s my turn contribute to this conversation,” The attention was on Rarity now. “It would be a major faux pas if you were to assume that the Crosshearts are the major players in this matter.”

“What do you mean by that?” Rainbow inquired.

“What I mean Rainbow, is that the Crosshearts are a puppet organization under the control of another more powerful entity.”

“Wait, how do you know that?”

Rarity looked at Twilight who shot her an encouraging grin, and feeling a little more confident in revealing herself to the group, she responded: “Because I was forced to commit murders against my will by that organization.” She began to recount everything she had confessed to Twilight earlier that day, and she found it didn’t hurt as much the second time around, but tears still found their way out of her eyes and onto the material of the sofa. She turned to Twilight and began to cry softly in the purple mares coat, and Twilight comforted her by stroking her mane. The room remained quiet save for the sound of light sobbing and the crackling that emitted from the fireplace.

“We’ll make them pay...” declared a soft voice from behind the couch. Fluttershy was standing now and she carried herself with an emboldened posture and a determined look in her eyes. She trotted over to Rarity and nodded reassuringly to the unicorn while stroking her side with a wing. Even Rainbow had to admit Fluttershy looked a little bit cool at that moment.

And there it is Rainbow thought, as the yellow pegasus turned to resume her position next to Granny Smith’s seat, she slipped on some of the Applechew wrappers that were scattered around on the floor due to Pinkie’s negligence.

“Dangit young’n did you eat all of my Applechews?” Granny Smith, turned to Applejack with a grim look in her eyes, and stated plainly: “Hold her down.”

Pinkie looked around nervously as Applejack and Granny Smith approached her. “Uhh.. umm...”.

Quickly child, you know what must be done, you’ve not much time!

“Right, thanks brain!” She jumped on the arm of the couch and pointed an aggressive hoof in the direction of the approaching mares and shouted “You’ll never take me alive, because this memory sequence is over! Mwhahaha!!”

“What in tarnation is she talki--”

Twilight stirred lightly from her nap as she heard the door to her booth open and a stallion with a pastry cart stood in the entranceway. “Would you care for anything from the trolley Miss?”

Twilight rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned before responding“ No, but thank you for offering.”

“Sorry to bother you Miss.” The stallion left and Twilight was still in the mood for a nap, so she laid back down on the bench using her suitcase as a makeshift pillow, and made the transition into the world of dreams.

She was back here again, in that dream. The world was dark, and the only illumination came from a pulsing red light. The ground was covered in some red liquid, she couldn’t quite tell what it was. She had lived this recurring dream so many times before, but this time felt different, as though she had more control.

She poked around on the ground for the thing that she always bumped into but couldn’t make out, and after sloshing around in the liquid, she found it. This time the light didn’t interrupt her. She knelt down in the liquid and traced a hoof along the surface of the object, and recoiled in horror to find it was a body. Had it been any run of the mill corpse, she might not have reacted as such, but through the strobing lights she could make out the facial features, and through another pulse of red light, she could faintly make out the cutie mark of a quill on the cadaver’s flank. There was no mistaking it, this was the site of her zero mission, which meant that the corpse in front of her was... Violet.

Twilight backpedaled for a moment stopping only because she noticed that Violet’s hoof was placed along the wall, with a trail of liquid that seemingly flowed upwards from its placement. She attempted to ignite her horn, and for the first time in this dream it actually obeyed her command. Upon shining the light from her horn along the wall she could finally read the words that were scrawled hastily in a liquid she could now identify as blood: You Damned Traitor, You’ve Doomed us all... and from there it trailed off.

Turning away from Violet she noticed another body splayed out in the liquid, and upon further investigation, she began to regret her investigative nature. The body in the corner was not quite as... intact.... as Violet. Twilight found she was staring at the lower half of a blue unicorn, and she had only managed to find out what race the pony was because there was a horn floating next to it in the water. Redirecting her attention to the source of the pulsing light, she saw a strange device that looked like an 8 foot glass cage with wires and complex machinery attached to it, and upon further observation her eyes were drawn to what she assumed was the other half of the blue unicorn, hanging by a forehoof from a lever of some sort.

What happened in here? Does the message on the wall have anything to do with that unicorn? And what was in the--- Something slithered past her legs very quickly, and she whipped around in time to see a shadowy figure cast a very peculiar smile in her direction, but it wasn’t looking at her. She traced the thing's gaze to what she recognized as a younger version of herself picking itself off the ground. She heard herself speak “You... You’ll pay for what you’ve done!” And she saw the horn of her younger self begin to glow, and eventually the area was flooded with a constantly brightening light, that flooded the area, and forced her from the realm of dreams

Twilight awoke to the sound of a loudspeaker filling her booth “Attention Passengers, This is your conductor Russell Waddell Majors, we have arrived in Canterlot. Please dismount the locomotive in an organised fashion, and enjoy your stay. Thank you for riding with Pony Express”

Twilight rubbed her eyes, levitated her suitcase, and exited the train. As she made her way through the station to the busy Canterlot streets, the dream weighed heavily on her mind. She had read the case files for that mission several times before, and she had actually been there in pony, but she hadn’t been able to determine what happened since. All she could remember about the incident aside from what she could salvage from dreams, was a flash of light. This time though she had more context to what happened, but she still couldn’t discern what the figure in the darkness had been. It was an enigma that haunted her until she noticed a familiar face staring loathingly at a poster on a wall.”

“Hello Rarity.” Twilight had successfully broken the white unicorn’s death glare upon the poster that she recognized as an election poster for Mayor Mare.

“Oh, hello Twilight, have you seen the others?”

“I was just about to ask you the same thing to be honest,” Twilight explained

“Oh well, it’s a small matter, we’ll see them at the campaign rally won’t we?”

“I suppose you’re right, we’d best get going.”

The pair proceeded down the crowded Canterlot streets and made their way to Princess Celestia’s castle, where the council elections would be held. As they approached the castle gates they could see that, due to this being a public access event, finding their friends amidst the sea of Ponies who would be participating in the election was going to be a chore in itself.... Well almost. At that moment, a Pink pony with a poofy mane trotted past the pair.

“Hey Pinkie, hold up you blind mare!” Twilight called ecstatic that she had found one out of 4 so quickly.

The Pink Pony turned around, and much to Twilight’s dismay a gruff masculine voice replied “You insensitive foal, not all Pink horses are mares. You never seen a Pink stallion before!?” She was staring face to face with a pink stallion.

“Oh, I’m sorry I just didn’t think th--”

“That’s right, you didn’t think! Nopony ever thinks about the possibility of a pink stallion....” Tears began to well up in his eyes, and the pink stallion turned and ran out of the castle gates.

“Chester come back!” Called two stallions from behind Twilight. As they passed her, they both shot dirty looks in her direction, and one muttered something unpleasant under his breath at her .

Twilight looked at Rarity who seemed just as confused, if not more so, than her lavender counterpart; finding the others in this crowd was going to be difficult to say the least. Proceeding through the crowded courtyard it wasn’t long until they found a bumbling yellow Pegasus trying her best to avoid getting caught by the flow of the crowd. They confirmed it was Fluttershy after they drew closer upon hearing rapid fire apologies for seemingly nothing. “Hey Fluttershy, where are the others?”

“Oh, hi Twilight, ummm... I don’t know I haven’t seen any of them here...I’m sorry...”

My disciple, Jed has seen the weakness of the yellow one. When we siege her palace on the ‘morrow, we must bring crowds. She will fall and we shall claim the yogurt covered pretzels for the clan... Take her, she will be no match for you...

“Brain, stop plotting against Fluttershy!” Twilight and Rarity looked behind Fluttershy and spotted their other quarry; this one was definitely female.

“Oh, it’s alright Shy, I don’t think we’ll have too trouble finding the others. Pinkie Pie!”

The jovial Pink Pony bounced over merrily humming tunelessly to herself/ “Hey guys, just you three so far?”

“Yeah, have you seen any of the others?”

“Only Applejack, and you guys!”

“Where’s AJ?” Twilight inquired

“This way,” she announced as she proceeded to bounce deeper into the crowd with the other three in tow.

They came across an Applecart with several Pastries on display, and a small line had formed in front of it.

Pinkie guided the others behind the cart and there stood none other than Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith in a lounge chair.

“Howdy y’all, you hankerin’ fer anythin’ to eat?” Almost reflexively at that invitation Pinkie dove into the surplus fritters which only warranted a scowl from Granny Smith.

“Actually AJ, where’s Rainbow?” Rarity asked

“Said somethin’ about makin’ some kinda grand entrance and hooey.”

Pinkie spoke up with a mouthful of fritters “Sounds like lazy writing to me.”

Fluttershy cast an unsure glance at the Pink Pony “umm... Pinkie what did you say?”

“Nothing--- Oh my Celestia... It’s the cake!” Sure enough, Pinkie spotted the cake the Cake’s were baking 3 days prior to this event, and it was huge, probably large enough to hide a couple of manticores.

“Yes dear that’s nice, but--” Rarity’s voice trailed off as the sound of fanfare erupted through the courtyard and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna trotted elegantly upon a giant stage followed by the fifteen well dressed ponies, 5 five of which were Pegasi, five of which were unicorns, and five of which were Earth Ponies; one of whom in particular caught the white unicorn’s eye: Mayor Mare. However she managed to get to this point in the election was beyond any pony except for Rarity who knew first hand how dirty the Mayor was willing to play in order to win. She tensed up at the sight of the mare who had single-handedly ruined her life, but Granny Smith’s hoof on her shoulder convinced her to maintain her composure.

The Princess proceeded to make her speech regarding the event, and the purpose of the election, and almost everypony in the area was intently focused, everypony except one.

My child, Jed regrets to inform you of this, but I must relinquish command to the shadowed sadist. Do not cry for Jed, for I shall always be part of youuu...

Pinkie suddenly heard a crackling sound from her mane, “Hey guys I’ll be right back,” she announced to her friends before she trotted off on her own. She reached into her mane and pulled out the toy headset, and inserted it into her ear “Agent Manic, this is Shaded lady, we have intel that there is a bomb in the courtyard. It will be up to you to disarm it over.”

“Michael, Shadow Lady, you can count on me, around.”

“Say ‘over’ over the comms net when you finish speaking, over!”

“Sheesh, lighten up, under,” Pinkie remarked. At least Jed wasn’t as mean as shaded lady, I miss him...

Jed knew you would be back, on forehooves and knees no less....get down so Jed’s analogy can be accurate.

Oh no, now I have two voices telling me what to do, let’s hope the fonts don’t get mixed up.

“Manic, intel suggest that the bomb is under the dais, and there are also several Crossheart agents in the crowd, proceed with caution, and don’t pull any cowcolt stunts, or I’ll have your flank for it.”

Hehe...Flank....

Ignoring Jed, Pinkie proceeded to make her way to the stage, which was lacking surprisingly in security. Upon waltzing to the side of the stage unobstructed, Pinkie peeked around the corner and saw that the backside, at least, had tight security provided not by the Princesses guards, but instead by several Crossheart agents standing in front of a door; the Princesses’ usual White Pegasi were nowhere to be found, though a few white feathers on the ground behind the Crosshearts indicated that they might have been ‘relieved’.

Wasting no time, Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out a ball similar to the one she used at the mansion (she always kept one just in case), threw it around the corner, and covered her ears. Princess Luna had taken to the stage at this point, and proceeded speaking in the Royal Canterlot Voice, which drowned out the sound of the cries of the guards as their eyes and ears were assaulted by the most awful flash of light and ringing they’d ever heard.

Pinkie hit the corner galloping and stomped on a few of the closer guards as she ran. Upon reaching the door, she spun and bucked it open, using this opportunity to see if any of the blinded guards had recovered yet: They had not, and to confirm this, one headbutted the ground attempting to stand up.

Once inside the lower level of the stage she noticed the bomb right away, as it wasn’t well hidden or or particularly discreet. Cantering up to it, she decided to contact Shaded Lady

“Shaded Lady, come in, I’ve spotted the bomb, and it’s huuuuggeee, over.”

“Roger that manic, I’m bringing up a bomb disarming manual right now, over”

This is nonsense, Jed demands you hit it with a wrench, it shall appease Jed.

“All right manic, remove the access panel, and tell me how many wires you see, over.”

Pinkie complied, and reported “There are three wires, a number pad, and a digital timer.”

“How much time remains on the timer?”

“22 minutes 00 seconds...err... h2...ummm...E2?”

“MANIC, It’s upside down! You only have fifty seconds, You have to work fast!”

Pinkie Gulped and focused on the instructions she was being given, she had less than a minute to do this.

“Cut the blue wire.”

Pinkie obliged, “Done.”

“Now follow through with the yellow and red” Pinkie gulped and obeyed. A little hesitant, she over thought the instructions and began to second guess herself. 30 seconds remained. “Manic cut the wires”

“I...I can’t, what if I’m wrong?”

“Then you die without trying”

“Alright, here goes...” She cut the yellow wire and then the red after some deliberation. “Okay, it’s done” The clock stopped with 19 seconds to spare.

“Good job Manic, you’ve saved the princ---”

“It’s still going!”

“What? But we don’t have any more steps... the code...Damnit...”

12 seconds remained, and Pinkie didn’t dare push any of the numbers, she almost turned tail and retreated until a familiar voice rang out.

Trust Jed my disciple and use the force... the force of the WRENCH!

Seeing no viable alternative, Pinkie seized a monkey wrench propped against the machine with her mouth, and proceeded to swing with all her might against the soft components of the bomb. The clock read 5 seconds, she swung again, 3 seconds, she swung a final time, and the timer died.

Pinkie back away cautiously, not sure if she had successfully disarmed the bomb.A couple of seconds passed, and she heard nothing.

“I did it! Wow, that was easy--” Pinkie’s moment of relief was interrupted by the sound of rapid beeping emitting from the bomb, followed by a spark.

“Oh Motherbuck...”

Chapter 8 End

9: The Magnificient Six

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited By: TheWattsMan

Act II: Wait, there’s a plot?

Chapter 9: The Magnificent 6

The playwright watches the reaction of the audience intently, the climax has arrived. The pinnacle of action stands unyielding before the conclusion, the production relies upon this moment, the Playwright can only do so much; it’s in the hands of the actor now.

Mayor Mare stood alongside the other candidates for Princess Celestia’s council, and while the majority of the crowd as well as the other candidates attempted not to cringe during the speech of Princess Luna, who apparently didn’t realise that using the Royal Canterlot Voice coupled with a modern PA system would cause major feedback through the courtyard’s intricate speaker system. The sound didn’t affect the Mayor; she drowned it out as white noise while focusing intently on a clock tower in the courtyard. She didn’t want to be standing where she was when the clock hit eight, and it currently read 7:56. ‘In four minutes, years of planning will finally come to fruition; I wonder if the master is watching?’ She currently scanned the crowd for any sign of his presence, and then realised that among a crowd with this multitude of ponies it would prove to be quite a chore to discern him from the rest.

“Now, for our first speaker of the night: Mayor Mare,” Announced Princess Celestia, much to the relief of the crowd. An audible sigh could be heard as Luna’s audio assault concluded. ‘7:58, this is good; at least I’ll be on the reinforced part of the stage.’ She made her way over to the front of the stage where the microphone stood. There was a visible patch of discolored wood where the circular stand was originally placed before the force of Luna’s voice pushed it away. As she began to address the audience absent-mindedly, her focus lay on the clock-tower; each second ticking away as she droned on with an improvised speech.

After a minute that seemed to drag out for an eternity, the clock finally struck 7:59 and 40 seconds. “...and that is why I’m so pleased to serve on the council...” The Mayor cracked a smug grin and turned to face the Princesses and continued by augmenting the speech she had made thus far “...of the organization that will ring in the creation of Equestria’s new world order: Black Anarchy!” The confused looks on the faces of the Alicorn sisters was something she would have to regale her memory with when she looked back at this moment; the moment Black Anarchy completely and utterly succeeded in reforming the equestrian governmental system.

“WHAT DOST THOU MEAN BY THINE DECLARATION? ART THOU A TRAITOR TO THE CROWN?” Bellowed Luna

“Betray the crown? How can I betray something I never pledged loyalty to? But before you can answer that question, you must answer this: How could I kill the beloved Monarchs of an entire country? Rhetorical question; like this!” Mayor Mare merely backed up a few steps to edge of the stage, not out of fear but more so to secure a position behind the reinforced area of the stage so she wouldn’t take the brunt of the concussive force akin to everypony standing on the plywood section of the stage. She merely waved at the princesses while counting under her breath “three, two, one. Goodbye old Monarchy, and hello new Anarchy,” and she faced the crowd and stood on her hind legs while raising her hooves to the sky as though to be silhouetted by the fireworks show behind her.... If the bomb had gone off.

It’s not going off? Maybe the timer was off by a couple of seconds... She waited, and nothing happened. There was an awkward silence between the Mayor and the crowd. No cheering, no words were spoken, just raw silence. The Mayor turned nervously to Princess Celestia and saw only a bemused look in the matriarch's face. I guess this means that it’s time for plan B.

The Mayor whistled in a meticulous fashion and much to her relief she heard the clop of hoof beats from the rear of the stage, this seemed to be the optimal time for some more gloating “Well Princess Celestia it looks like the ball is still in Black Anarchy’s cour--” The Mayor ceased her gloating as she the source of the hoof clops came into view: A single Pink filly bounced hurriedly into the venue. But where were those incompetent guards? Surely a single mare couldn’t have taken all of them.

“Princess, you gotta get outta here, there’s a lot of bad ponies behind the stage, and I mean a lot, there was even a bomb under the stage, and I don’t mean bomb as in this party is the bomb, but bomb as in explosive bomb, but a bomb party could be fun I suppose, but anyway you’ve gotta move now, I couldn’t stop them all!” The Pink Pony rambled

At that moment Mayor Mare heard what she had been counting on for the whole of that awkward silence, and the sound of hoof beats flooded the stage. Several Crossheart agents quickly incapacitated the other 14 candidates of the Princesses’ council, and began to surround the matriarchs themselves. The only barrier between the two was provided by a single Pink Pony, and she surely wouldn’t provide too much resistance on her own.

At that moment the massive cake next to the stage erupted in a shower of frosting and rainbows, and a figure being trailed by those rainbows descended to take her place next to the Pink Pony adopting a defensive stance and proceeded to speak up “I’m Rainbow Dash of the Equestrian investigation Bureau, and you’re all under arrest for conspiracy against the crown. You can either stand down or we can do this the hard way, and I live for the hard way. So, make my day, punks.”

The Pink figure next to her spoke up excitedly “Oh oh oh, I’m Pinkie Pie of... ummm... S.A.D.”

Rainbow Dash turned towards Pinkie and asked “S.A.D.?”

“Sugarholics Against Dentists! Duh!”

One of the Crossheart goons from the swarm spoke up “You think you two have a chance in the afterlife against all of us?”

Rainbow turned her attention from Pinkie, and stated “Us? No.” She now turned towards the cake she burst forth from and a rope shot out, caught one of the Crosshearts around the neck, and proceeded to drag him inside; while several Apple family members poured out of the opening. Some ponies from the crowd jumped on stage as well. “But them? Let’s just say my money isn’t on you guys.”

Mayor Mare noticed at this point the crowd began to turn angrily on her, and even with as many Crosshearts as there were in the area (perhaps about 2 out of 5 ponies in the crowd plus the 60 on stage), she wasn’t exactly well protected at the moment standing on the edge of the stage. As the crowd advanced, a plume of blue smoke separated the Mayor from everypony’s field of vision and she was being led away by...Trixie.

As the two galloped towards the rear exit behind the stage Mayor Mare inquired about the catastrophe that left her exposed and embarrassed while she was on stage: “What the buck happened there Trixie?”

“Trixie does not know, but the master has another plan.”

“Well I hope your plan involves losing them,” The mayor used her head to gesture behind herself at the small posse they had accrued. The cyan Pegasus and pink spaz from the stage were among them, but there were at least 8 more behind them; one of whom she recognized immediately as a pony who shouldn’t exist at the moment. Rarity... I should have dealt with her myself...

“They will be dealt with, but for now this way; We have a safehouse where the others await.”

After cutting through the busy Canterlot streets attempting to shake their pursuers, to no avail, they finally arrived at the Canterlot Crossheart estate. They’d allow the security to deal with them.

Twilight and the others watched as the two mares ran through the gates. We’ll have to go in there and they’ll have the advantage...It’s now or never though.

Turning to her friends she prepared to address them but as she opened her mouth, Applejack raised a hoof to her friend to silence her “Ah know what yer gonna say Twi’, and y’all ought to know that we came here together, and we’ll be leavin’ here together as well, ain’t no need fer the heartfelt goodbye speech or the who wants to be here gibberin’. Now let’s get in there and shut these buckin’ mules down.”

Twilight looked into the faces of all of her friends: Pinkie had changed into a black Tactical vest at some point and merely hopped excitedly in response to some inner monologue; Rarity looked absolutely furious, as she was anxiously awaiting the moment when she would finally make Mayor Mare pay; Rainbow Dash impatiently scuffed the ground with a hoof; Fluttershy took in deep breaths, mentally pumping herself up for this; and, notably, at some point during the speech she had changed into a nurses uniform similar to nurse Redhearts, complete with a first aid bag, and when pressed for a reason for the outfit she avoided the question completely.

Well at least her friends were ready, and she turned her attention to the other 4 in their group: Braeburn had joined their group at some point, a grin of enthusiasm playing across his features; Big Mac kept an apathetic look upon his face showing no sign of physical exertion, even though he had been carrying Granny Smith the entire run down; and Granny herself merely held her walking stick quite taut while balancing on Mac’s back. The remaining member was Applejack’s Uncle Orange, who stared forth with a placid look while he held a suitcase in his mouth.

Twilight nodded, and turning her attention towards the gate her horn began to glow. ‘If we’re going to do this, may as well do it big.’ The glowing from her horn intensified and the end result was a massive blast of energy that impacted upon the gate, taking it clean off its hinges. Twilight pulled her shoulder holster out of the suitcase she had been carrying with her. After she donned the holster, all ten marched through the fallen gate solemn faced. Granny Smith nudged Big Mac and he set her down. Trotting over to Fluttershy, she whispered something in the yellow Pegasus’ ear.

“But Granny, that could have negative effects later, it’s too dangerous!”

“Ah don’t care. When we git in there, I won’t have my grandcolt die tryin’ to carry me on his back; now just do it.”

Fluttershy gave a worried look and nodded. Reaching into her first aid kit, she pulled out two syringes and injected them into Granny Smith’s hip. Granny gave a small shudder as the contents of the vials hit her system, and perked up immediately. She then ran ahead of the group to the door of the Crossheart estate and bucked it open.

“Fluttershy, what did you give mah Granny?” Big Mac inquired

Fluttershy looked down nervously, redirected her gaze to Big Mac, and smiled sheepishly: “Umm...morphine for her hip, and adrenaline because she demanded it... I’m sorry..”

Big Mac sighed and stepped up to the doorway with his Granny, and shortly after they were joined by the rest of the group. Upon looking inside there were Crosshearts all over the place guarding a grand central staircase, and just as Twilight prepared to make the telekinetic connection with her dagger, Braeburn, Big Mac, and Uncle Orange stepped up to face the sea of Crosshearts. “I reckon you ladies best mosey on up them stairs, Ms. Twi, we’ll hold em’ off here,” Braeburn suggested while pulling a bowie knife out of his vest, holding it with his mouth.

“We’ll clear y’all a way, so just be ready to move when we tell ya,” instructed Big Mac.

“I guess I misjudged farm ponies completely,” announced Uncle Orange, setting down the briefcase and kicking it open to reveal a pair of short swords with ring style hilts. “I’d always assumed you were callous and uncivilized, but after seeing that you boys know how to treat a lady, I might have to revoke those reservations after this is all over; maybe even spend a little time in the country.” He continued as he fit the ring hilts around his hooves until they were snug against his forelegs.

“Aww shucks Uncle, yer makin’ me blush, but now ain’t the time to be gettin’ all sentimental on us. You ready Big Mac?”

“Eeyup.”

All three simultaneously rushed into the center of the sea of goons and almost immediately split the cluster down the middle; Twilight’s group took this opportunity to rush through the center and up the staircase. The staircase lead to a massive corridor that looked like a giant cube, complete with stained glass windows in the design of the crossheart insignia, and several Itstallion style pillars on each side of the room lining the path down the center, with a singular door at the end of the hall. One thing stuck out about this particular hall: there was no security anywhere.

As the seven made their way down the path to the door, a plume of blue smoke cut them off and caused them to cease moving. As the smoke cleared, a familiar figure materialized out of the mist: ”Hello simple Ponyvillians, it is I the Great And Powerful Tri---”

A new voice had interjected “Will you shut up with that? You don’t need to address yourself every time you walk into a room.”

Rainbow’s ears perked up “Wait a minute I know that voice...”

“What’s going on Dash? Long time no see,”Hissed the new voice.

“It can’t be...”

Gilda walked out from behind one of the Pillars on the left and took her place next to Trixie. Another figure wordlessly walked out from behind a pillar on the right and took his place next to Trixie as well. This one was an older looking black workhorse stallion wearing sunglasses, a fedora, a tie with a Crossheart insignia, and from his shoulders hung a golden scarf. In his mouth he held what looked like a long stick from what Twilight could see. The unknown newcomer’s existence had caused Granny Smith and Pinkie to become tense; their features twisting to express absolute fury. Pinkie perhaps took it a step further, and her mane became long and straight; Twilight guessed that this guy was bad news to get a reaction like that.

“The Don of the Crosshearts...” Granny Smith hissed through gritted teeth.

“Well Ah reckon they ain’t gonna let us through without a fight,” Applejack surmised.

“It looks like Trixie was wrong about you little hayseed, Trixie always assumed you were an ignorant hillfilly, but Trixie supposes that even a common roach can have its intelligent moments as well,” The blue unicorn chided at Applejack.

“Oh, her flank is mine” Applejack declared, casting a glare at Trixie.

“Gilda, how could you... How could you work with... them?” Dash asked her former best friend.

“When I went to visit you in Ponyville, I was trying to get my life together Dash... I was no one after flight school... So I went to visit you see if I could change my ways, but after you chased me out of Ponyville, I was approached by Mayor Mare, who offered me something better than dead end jobs and friends that would betray me. She offered me a chance to become part of the new equestrian order.”

“No one chased you out Gilda, you could have--”

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear any more excuses, "just fight!” On that note Gilda flapped her wings and rushed the group, slamming into them which resulted in everypony being knocked to the floor. She now targeted Fluttershy, who began to cower as Gilda approached, and raised a talon, bringing it down hard on the yellow pegasus. The blow sent Fluttershy sliding across the marble flooring.

But, no cry of pain was heard from the yellow pegasus. Instead, as she recovered, a chuckle escaped her mouth. Gilda cast her an estranged look, and noticed a slight prick in the talon she had struck Fluttershy with. Upon investigation, she found a now empty syringe had punctured her flesh, and she began to feel slightly woozy. She pulled out the needle and threw it to the ground. She didn’t need to know what she had been stuck with, only that it was a pretty crappy attempt at--’whoa, I feel dizzy’.

“So I guess you’re feeling it then?” Gilda turned towards the recovering pegasus. “Those dosages were intended for ponies, so I don’t know how long it’ll take to effect you, being a Griffon and all, but you'll go down the same.” Gilda shook the feeling of drowsiness from her eyes and proceeded to stomp over towards Fluttershy, but something from behind sent her sprawling to the floor.

“I won’t let you touch her, Gilda. I’m the one you’re fighting,” Rainbow declared, having recovered from the Griffon’s earlier assault. Gilda’s only recourse was to roar furiously and unleash a flurry of talon swipes while airborne. Rainbow dodged, bobbed and weaved through the assault, and waited for an opening that came in the form of an uppercut. Rainbow stood on her hind legs and blocked it with her left foreleg, returning Gilda’s assault with one of her own. She took to the air, kneeing Gilda in the beak, then joined both of her forehooves together and brought them straight down on Gilda’s forehead; progressing off of this she locked Gilda’s head with both of her forelegs, used her wings to help adjust her body so she was upside down clasping Gilda’s throat, and completed the rotation using her momentum, and upon landing her hindlegs on the floor she slammed Gilda down as hard she could, causing the marble to crack. “Nighty night Gilda; when you wake up you’ll have nothing but time to reform yourself. Maybe if prison changes you a little, we can be friends again.”

Dash didn’t drop her stance in the event that Gilda might recover, and at that moment, a bolt of fluorescent light grazed her snout. Turning her attention to the direction the bolt originated from, she saw that applejack had began to square off with Trixie.

“Stop squirmin’ so I kin hit ya!” Applejack lunged at Trixie, who jumped backwards and proceeded to fire a salvo of bolts at Applejack, who found herself completely exposed in her current position on the ground. Taking a couple shots to the face, Applejack found that her sight was screwed as a flash of white over took her vision, but laying down blind was not ideal in a fight. She felt Trixie stomp her in the side a couple of times, and decided that she had enough right about... now-ish.

After the most recent stomp delivered by Trixie, AJ rolled onto her flank and seized the hoof before Trixie could draw it away. Rolling to the side, AJ brought Trixie down to the ground with her. After some tussling AJ had isolated Trixie’s left foreleg, gripped it to her chin, laid her hindlegs across Trixie’s chest under her chin and pulled until she heard a satisfying pop followed by a yelp of pain: she had successfully broken Trixie’s foreleg. Immediately afterward she rotated her body, and went for the throat of the weakened unicorn. Locking her elbow underneath Trixies’ chin, she proceeded to apply pressure to the blue unicorns neck. All Trixie could do to resist was kick around helplessly and shoot pyrotechnic spells everywhere, and, while one connected with Applejack’s eyes, the cowfilly ignored her temporary blindness and focused on choking the blue unicorn in her grasp. Finally she felt Trixie’s resistance cease, and the mare had gone quietly into Luna’s sweet night.

Applejack stood up to finish what she started when she heard something metal slide and clatter across the floor and bounce slightly off her hindleg. Looking down she saw a set of hoofcuffs, and looking in the direction the cuffs slid in from she saw a pleading look emanating from Twilight. Muttering to herself she begrudgingly obliged: “Ya know Ah reckon with all th’ other blue unicorns that were offed in th’ other chapters, y’all wouldn’t care near hardly what happens to this one. Especially what happens to this one, but it’s yer call Twi’.”

The stallion who stood unspeaking this whole time finally made some kind of sentient gesture, and whipped his neck causing the stick-like object he held in his mouth to split into two, at least that’s what Twilight could see from this distance, squinting her eyes she realised that he held a saber with a ring-style hilt. Whinnying to a stand he fit the sword around his foreleg and stared down the purple mare. Most ponies can only stand on their hindlegs for a few moments, however it seemed as though he had trained himself to stand there for seemingly indefinite amounts of time.

He rushed at Rarity and Twilight, who made the connection to her dagger with her horn and whipped it out defensively, whilst pushing Rarity out of the way. She parried his swings twice before he hit the dagger far enough to reveal an opening in her defenses, and went in for a thrust. Twilight clenched her eyes and prepared for the sensation of cold steel to run her through, until she heard the sound of steel clashing with some unknown substance before her. She saw Granny Smith had placed her walking stick in front of blade and was currently holding the other stallion at bay. A Pink flash had impacted with the stallion sending him reeling backwards, and Pinkie Pie stood with Granny Smith both looking absolutely infuriated.

“You think you kin take someone of his caliber young’in? You might want ta reconsider, ‘cause I don’t think you have enough years under yer saddle to go hoof to hoof with him”

“I could ask you the same, but I’d say you have too many years under yours, plus you’re fighting with a handicap in more ways than one,” Pinkie quipped without missing a beat, drawing a combat knife from the vest with her mouth immediately after. This only warranted a grin from the old mare who whipped the walking stick with her neck to reveal that her only handicap was age if anything, as a sleek silver blade revealed itself. This weapon didn’t have a ring guard, so Granny Smith held the blade in her mouth, and remained defensive on all fours.

The Stallion showed the first and most minute hint of emotion he had all evening as his lips resisted the urge to curl into a grin. He met first with Granny Smith’s blade and then adjusted quickly to counter Pinkie’s lunge, parrying the knife in her mouth, and kicked her back a few feet, he returned his attention to Granny Smith who, instead of preparing for another bout, was shielding her eyes. He prepared to advance with a new attack when a flash of light and a horrible ringing assaulted his ears. Fortunately for him, his sunglasses significantly lessened the effects of the actual flash, but the damage to his ears robbed him of sense of balance.

Granny charged right in with a stab and Pinkie assaulted him with a barrage of attempted bucks and sweeping kicks while Granny Smith occupied the blade. After much parrying of the older Mare’s attacks, the Don finally took the offensive and swung his blade in a wide arc successfully driving Granny Smith away and focused on Pinkie who, after delivering a strong drop kick to his mid section, found herself on her back staring up at him. As he prepared to drop the sword upon her, she tossed the blade in her mouth straight up catching the side of his face leaving a straight wound and cutting his glasses. He stalled for a second and proceeded to drop the blade, and much to his dismay he found a familiar looking sword had stopped his blade allowing the Pink Pony to roll out from under his blade. The Don attempted to adjust his attack, but Granny Smith was already preparing her retaliation and cut his flank and, backing up, thrust the blade through his abdomen.

As he doubled over back to all fours in pain he coughed out “Very...impressive.”

“Oh it’s not over yet deary,” Granny Smith’s eyes were on Pinkie Pie who galloped up and jumped on the Don using him like a spring board, leaped into the air and caught her still airborne knife in her mouth.

The Don rolled over and and watched as the Pink Pony plummeted towards him head first, and just before the knife made contact with his throat, he grinned and choked out one final word: “Magnificent.”

Pinkie recovered, electing to leave the knife in the Don’s throat. She took a moment to appreciate the feat she and Granny Smith had accomplished. Granny Smith remarked, “That Don was quite th’ stallion, not a lot of ponies can accept death with such grace in this day and age.”

Turning back towards her friends who gathered together, and in a small group they proceeded back towards the door at the end of the hall in silence. Twilight broke the silence with a question “Hey do you guys hear something?” Sure enough there was a sound akin to sniffling that could be heard behind another of the pillars. As the group approached the source of the sound, they found none other than Mayor Mare, catatonic and crying in the fetal position.

“P-p-please don’t kill me! I was just a p-puppet b-being used against my w-wi-hi-hill!”

Rarity stepped up now and glared at the snivelling mare before her. “What makes you think you deserve life you spineless mule?”

“Ra-Rarity, I can’t believe that you’ve forgotten about everything the organization has done for you. We gave you that loan for your shop, brought you fame beyond your wildest dreams--”

Rarity now straightened up and began to talk down to the Mare who had wrecked her life, while advancing forward. “You threatened my Little Sister, forced me to commit equestricides against my will, sent a sniper after me, and killed my parents...” Rarity slapped the Mayor hard across the face with ferocious technique, sending the Mayor back to the floor.

“W-w-what about S-Sweetie B-Belle, don’t you care what happens to her?”

Rarity’s nostrils flared, but then she began to chuckle. “Mayor Mare my dear mule, you don’t have any more bargaining chips, Sweetie Belle is in the RCIA’s protection now. Face it, I hold your fate in my hooves now, not the other way around.” As though to reinforce this point, she struck the Mayor again.

Twilight stepped forth to stop Rarity from losing control, until Rainbow extended a wing, Applejack put up a hoof and both shook their heads simultaneously; this was Rarity’s vendetta now.

Rarity turned away from the Mayor and walked up to Twilight, she reached her right hoof up and it rested on the dagger handle in the shoulder holster. “Rarity don’t do this...”

“It’s too late for that Twilight,” Rarity said as she turned around to face the Mayor and raised the metallic object in her hoof up in the air, and brought it down with killing intent. The Mayor flinched and turned away and heard several light clicks. She turned her attention back to Rarity and noticed something was holding all of her legs together.

“I hate you, make no doubt about that, but I would rather not have your blood on my hooves, it might stain my coat.” Turning towards her friends, Rarity called: “Come along ladies, we’ll be back to collect this trash later,” Rarity exclaimed, resuming her path towards the door.

“Rarity are you sure about this, you’ll never get this chance again once she gets locked up,” Rainbow explained.

“Yeah, we won’t say nothin’ if you wanna get even,” Applejack reassured her

The white unicorn turned towards them and said simply, “Please girls, Rarity is above such nonsense, there’s no need to dirty my hooves further,” and she walked through the door.

“That was incredibly mature of you Rarity, I’m proud of you for making the right choice,” Twilight praised

“Right choice Twilight? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s the choice I will live with. Now I believe you should be focused on what lies ahead.”

Twilight nodded in compliance and focused on the door at the top of the stairs.

As the seven mares pushed it open and step inside, a voice greeted them “Oh my little ponies, I’m so glad you could make it here, but it’s the end of the road as they say”

Twilight rubbed her eyes and in a state of disbelief stammered out “y-y-you?”

The only response she received for her inquiry was something she’d seen in her dreams and memories: the figure merely grinned. A grin that was painfully familiar.

End Chapter 9

Act II Finale:Right Outta Left Field

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited By: TheWattsMan

Act II: Wait There’s a Plot?

"Finale": Straight Outta Left Field

I got nothin’. If you were expecting something, your expectations were wasted because there’s nothing here. You should expect nothing but prepare for anything. Especially nothing.

“Y-y-you!” Twilight stammered pointing a hoof at the figure that stood before them.

“But how? That doesn’t even make sense!” Pinkie declared ironically.

“No, this isn’t possible!” Rainbow Dash stated.

“This ain’t right; we put you away fer good! How’d ya break out?” Applejack inquired.

“This. Is. The. Worst. Possible. Thing.” Rarity declared before collapsing onto Applejack.

“um....how?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

“Jest who are we talkin’ to? Is that one a them giraffes?” Granny Smith asked, having slipped back into her senile state.

“What? I thought you all would be happy to see me since we haven’t seen each other in such a long time,” The figure stepped out of the shadows, and everypony hesitated to believe their eyes.

“The last time we saw each other I believe you turned me to stone, always an unpleasant experience. Now as much as I’d love to chat, I am rather busy; so if you all would be so kind as to vamoose, it would be greatly appreciated.” The figure revealed itself to be none other than Discord, but something was different about him.

Twilight took note that he stood behind a semi-transparent barrier as opposed to his usual teleportation shenanigans and open harassment of her friends. Whatever had happened to him, she suspected that his powers were affected as well. “How are you standing before us right now? We turned you to stone and the Princesses locked you away, therefore you shouldn’t exist right now.”

“Twilight Sparkle, I’m disappointed in you. I figured you better than anypony save for the Princesses would have figured that out by now. I suppose if I must tell, I must tell,” Discord shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “If you must know my existence is separate from that hunk of stone you have buried Celestia knows where. You might call me a physical manifestation of the memories that I separated from myself as I was being turned to stone. The first time I mean, not when you did it.”

“Your memories... but not your powers.” Twilight came to a realization.

“Correct Twilight, oh you catch on so well,” Discord was exceptionally giddy at this point. Why anyone would be excited to reveal their weakness was beyond her. “Would you care to guess at the purpose behind this little organization I...had I guess, at this point? Or would you rather I just give you hints while you fill in the blanks? Rhetorical question! Your door is B.”

“AGH! Bee?! Where?! Get it off me!” Shouted Pinkie Pie as she began running around in circles and rolling along the ground, earning strange looks from everypony in the room.

Discord recovered fastest from her odd antics and turned towards a machine behind the barrier with him and began fiddling with it “Oookay... Anywho, as the spirit of Disharmony...”

“You feed off of negativity, chaos and unrest...”

“Tonight I attempted to murder....” Discord continued

“Princess Luna and Princess Celestia...”

“Which would...”

“Throw all of eques--” Twilight cut herself off with a gasp of realization

“I see you put the pieces together quickly Ms. Sparkle.”

Fluttershy turned towards Twilight “What does he mean Twilight?"

“If I’m right, the purpose behind Black Anarchy was to destroy equestria’s current government structure, and throw the country into anarchy. With the embodiment of Discord’s powers being locked away, the resulting political backlash would be more than enough to restore his powers.” Turning towards discord she now shot him a smug grin “But you failed. You may as well give it up now Discord, and maybe the courts will go easy on you.”

Her grin quickly faded as she heard an insane cackling from behind the barrier. “You really didn’t think I had just one bomb planted in the stage did you? That would be too easy to foil. No, no, no my dear little Ponies, I rigged the whole castle to go up like New Years.”In fact give it about five minutes...four minutes fifty eight seconds, oh you know what I mean.”

Rainbow was the first to take action, immediately rushing the barrier hoping she could crash through, but to no avail, it was as though she hit a brick wall. As she fell, Applejack galloped up and caught the Rainbow maned pegasus. “How’re we supposed to beat im’ if we caint even touch im’?”

“It’s quite simple Applejack: You don’t.” Discord chided from behind the barrier. He watched in amusement as the other four approached the barrier. Twilight tapped a hoof against it and the others mere stared puzzledly. Applejack and Rainbow Dash attempted to tackle it from a physical perspective by bucking it like crazy to no avail. Rarity and Fluttershy looked for weak points in the structural integrity and these attempts were also in vain the construction of the barrier was impeccable. Not even the elements of Harmony would be able to break this.

“You like it? With the limited amount of power I possess, this is the limit of my magic...for now. In about four minutes even I’ll be unstoppable, and unrivaled. You know you can all stop this foalishness and play for the winning team, or I can just kill you all first and make examples of you, your choice really.”

Twilight knew they were running out of time and looked at Pinkie who, at the moment, was deep in argument with herself about... Pinkie stuff.

“No Jed, plastic explosives will not crack that barrier like the eggs of a peregrine falcon--”

“Pinkie, I need you for a second, I have a theory I need to test,” Twilight instructed while writing something on a sheet of paper.

“Twilight, if you need to test something you should send it to school first silly, and I think now is hardly the time to be filling out registration forms.” Twilight merely blinked in response to that statement not sure how to respond, and also not caring.

“C’mon Pinkie”

“Okie Doki Loki Twilight!”

Twilight approached the barrier and scowled at Discord who merely grinned in response “Well my dear, have you and your friends finally come to your senses, and wish to join Black Anarachy?” Discord pried while casting a salute at the mention of his own organization and staring off into nothingness.

"Discord, Princess Celestia is my friend, and even though death may be a consequence of standing with her, betraying her would cause her to lose full trust in me as a student and as a friend. So in acknowledgement of your victory, here.” Twilight pressed the piece of paper to barrier and noticed the countdown timer read 2:01 remain. Discord reached through the barrier and grabbed at the paper exposing his talons, and Pinkie immediately jumped at the barrier and proceeded to bite down hard which resulted in a loud yelp from the Draconius. Pulling his inflamed digit back inside, he looked at the paper and proceeded to read what was on the page aloud: “Losing a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend? Now just what does tha--” He looked at the grins on the faces of all the ponies who had up until recently been struggling to break down the barrier, and they all sat expectantly on their haunches... All but one he noticed. A voice from behind startled and told him exactly what they were waiting for: “Forever!”

Discord whirled around to see Pinkie Pie airborne flying towards him ready to deliver a flying kick followed by an inevitable beatdown, and reacting quickly, Discord summoned his magic and turned it into the form of a shield successfully stopping her attack, and the he proceeded to swing the shield at Pinkie knocking her back. Nice try, Ms. Pie. I don’t know how you got in bu--”

“Ahem.” Applejack had coughed to get the attention of the Draconius, and proceeded to walk through the area where Discord’s barrier once stood followed by her friends. Discord smiled sheepishly attempted to reform his barrier but Rainbow Dash yelled “Too slow!” and flew behind him bucking his legs out from underneath him causing him to fall on his face.

Applejack had leaped into the air and came down hard on Discord’s elongated neck with all four of her hooves and pinned him down while Fluttershy trotted over and stuck three syringes into his neck and emptied their contents into his bloodstream. “Oh dear... ummm... I meant to use anesthesia, and... I used king cobra venom by accident.. I’m sorry...”

Discord convulsed and tried to fight, but Applejack adjusted all four of her legs so that she could exert the maximum amount of crushing force on his carotid artery.

Twilight casually trotted past her three friends who were busy euthanizing their arch-nemesis, and made her way to the device with the timer upon it, that now read one minute, and attempted to figure out what she was looking at. After a lot of deliberation, she realized there was no way she could stop this, maybe if they had gotten through the barrier with an extra minute they coul--Clonk!

Pinkie had hit the device with a monkey wrench and was winding up for another hit.

“Wait Pinkie, what are you doing?You might set the bomb off!”

“Sheesh Twilight, you weren’t complaining when I stopped the other bomb under the stage.” Pinkie rolled her eyes and delivered another blow to the machine.

“Wait you hit the other bomb with a wrench?”

“Uhh...duhhh..” The timer on the device read twenty seconds now and it fizzled out as Pinkie wailed on the machine like it owed her bits and candy, and eventually a small spark and a puff of smoke emanated from the defeated machine, and Pinkie merely grinned having twice in the same day proved her dominance over complex machinery with a monkey wrench.

Twilight blinked in disbelief for a moment, and watched Celestia’s palace out the window, waiting for something. But there was nary a boom or a spark. Twilight stood staring at the Castle for 3 minutes and nothing happened. The only thing to break her focus was Rarity nudging her slightly, urging her to move on downstairs.

The 7 mares made their way back into the massive corridor where cloaked RCIA operatives had apparently flooded the area and began performing investigations during their absence. The arrival of the seven mares had prompted all of the agents to assume more defensive poses. Twilight stepped forth and levitated her badge out of her shoulder holster presenting it to the agents, and almost immediately they relaxed as they recognized one of their own. Upon further investigation, Trixie, Gilda, and Mayor Mare had all been corralled into a single corner, while the Don still lay where Pinkie and Granny Smith had ended him, knife in throat.

Twilight’s group walked down the stairs and they were greeted by a plea for assistance from Braeburn, Uncle Orange and Big Mac who were all being interrogated by EIB agents. It was Rainbow’s turn to flash some I.D. Upon glancing around the room, there was a shocking amount of blood and dead, dying, incapacitated Crosshearts. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder if this was even possible mathematically, while Applejack on the other hand beamed quite proudly at her family’s fighting prowess. Braeburn and Big Mac had been patched up significantly by medical staff that were present, but amazingly Uncle Orange had barely a scratch on him.

Once the 10 were debriefed and allowed to exit the mansion they proceeded to return to the castle, where Princess Celestia awaited them along with Spike, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle in the courtyard. Almost immediately, they all ran to their respective care takers.

Celestia trotted over towards Twilight and began to address her: “Twilight Sparkle, for your bravery in the line of duty, I would like to recognize the courage you and your friends exhibited for equestria, let it be known that from today on... Is something wrong my student?”

“Well princess if it’s all the same to you I’d prefer to keep this between us and our respective organizations,” Twilight explained

“Well Twilight if you feel that strongly about keeping this under wraps then it shall be done.”

“Psshh yeah right, I’m going to brag about this to everypony I know,” Rainbow said proudly until she felt 5 pairs of eyes scrutinizing her, and she broke under the pressure and amended her statement “I mean..I guess I could keep it to myself,” she said while rubbing the back of her head nervously with a hoof.

Big Mac simply stated “Eeyup.” And everypony broke out into laughter; This mission was over.

After the laughter had ceased, a light R&B track could be heard playing in the background. The scene then began to pan upwards and focused on a shot of the sunset over the castle as credits began to scroll up from the bottom of the screen. The sunset gradually faded into black, and the white of the credits on the black background detailing the actors involved in the production of the movie became more visible.

“Dude, that ending sucked; I mean how can the writers put forth all this effort into the actual meat of the movie, and then just end it on such a crappy note?” Complained a Zebra wearing goggles around his neck.

“Ahh, you always complain about the end of movies,” Proclaimed a rather robust workhorse stallion with a mark of a wrestling ring on his flank.

“You guys wanna watch another one?” Piped up another earth pony with Drumsticks on his flank.

The zebra responded “Yeah, but Celestia help you, if you pick Cupcakes again... Sgt. Sprinkles was a master of ‘gorror’ films, but the sheer amount of straight to DVD rip-offs is just revolting; I’d rather watch Cherilee’s Garden. We could watch a romance?”

“Yeah...no. How about Scott Pipsqueak vs the Equis?” The drumstick marked pony suggested

“I’m down for that.” Said the workhorse.

“Play it, it shall be glorious!”

*Finale end*

11: What if I offered you the World?

Friendship is Deception

Written By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Editing By: TheWattsMan

Act III: Agents of Disharmony

Chapter 11: What if I Offered You the World?

Corruption is most effective during one’s greatest moment of weakness. Regardless of the circumstances that led up to that moment, the ego is easily swayed during these vulnerable periods, and principles amount to nothing. What mere mortal could resist the temptations of the apple with nothing anchoring them to their moral code?

Somewhere in Iron Bastille Maximum Security Corrections Facility, a television held captive the attention of several bored prison mares, “...and in related news, the lead violinist and cellist of the Royal Canterlot Quartet was recently discharged from her position and replaced by---”

As the screen cut to black after displaying a distorted image of the news anchor, a gruff voice belonging to a red Pegasus stallion cut through the sound of moaning emanating from the inmates: “Alright ladies, back to your cells; it’s lights out in 5 minutes. You’ve got a long day of nothing ahead of you tomorrow, so rest up.”

A blue unicorn mare clad in a grey jumpsuit, irked by the interruption, took it upon herself to verbalize her dismay at the situation. “Hey! Trixie was watching that! I demand you turn it back on at once!”

The guard turned his attention towards the mare who had vocalized the outburst and cast a lewd gaze upon her while sizing her up from head to hoof. “Well, well, well. Looks like somepony needs to learn some manners before lights out tonight,” He began to advance, “It’s a good thing I’m in the mood to to give some free lessons before then--”

He ceased his speaking almost immediately as an eagle’s claw carrying lethal intent ceased inches away from his eyes “No, I think it’s you who needs to learn some manners. Lesson one: don’t ever attempt lay your hooves on a griffin’s property, and lesson two: get lost.”

The guard shot Gilda a challenging sneer, but shrank back and turned around nervously as she slashed a tuft of his mane clean off. He was issued a stun-baton in case the inmates got any funny ideas, but something told him he wouldn’t be able to pull the baton out and activate it fast enough in this situation. Needless to say he had enough common sense to pick his battles properly, and left the situation: compensating for the loss by exercising his authority on a group of unicorn inmates down the way.

“Trixie did not require your assistance, bird.”

“Will you shut up and be grateful for once? If it weren’t for me you wouldn’t have survived 5 minutes in here. You’d probably be some fat filly-fooler’s plaything, especially since you have thaton your head,” Gilda flicked the middle digit of her talons on Trixie’s horn, which was covered by a metallic cone with a small green light that would blink into existence every fifteen seconds.

Every unicorn in the prison wore one, as they were supposed to nullify magical power. Ironically enough the devices were fueled by the unicorn’s magic as well. If the unicorn in question attempted to cast a spell or use telekinesis, an electric current would be released as discouragement. Oddly enough though there was one unicorn in the prison who kept casting spells regardless. Perhaps she was a masochist?

The unicorns weren’t the only ones restrained though, pegasi and other winged creatures such as Gilda had their wings clipped every month: by default the earth-ponies were the dominant group with their natural strength, but Gilda had quite a nasty reputation in here herself.

“Fine, Trixie is... grateful...” Trixie spat as she rolled her eyes towards the ground and grimaced slightly as the last word escaped her muzzle.

‘She’s kind of cute when she’s being stuck up-- Whoa, whoa, did I just think of her as cute? I think I’ve been in this hole too long...’ Gilda remarked to herself.

Gilda sighed, “You are such a dweeb. C’mon, let’s get back to our cell: I’m in the mood for some shut-eye,” As the two exited the common room and proceeded down the corridor, they noticed a brown earth pony mare almost as large as a workhorse stallion stood in front of their cell and seemed to be addressing somepony inside.

“C’mon, why don’t you spend the night with me? I don’t discriminate on age, doll. Forget about Gilda and come with me, I promise you won’t regret it.”

“G-g-go away, I j-just want to s-sleep,” whimpered a rather pathetic voice from inside.

The brown mare cast a look of irritation upon the source of the voice, “Look here now: I like ya, and I want ya, now we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, the choice is yo---”

“Ahem,” Gilda coughed

The mare turned around aggressively preparing to deal with whoever dared to interrupt her amorous advances “Can’t you see I’m buckin’ bus--oh Gilda, uhhh... yeah... I was just--”

“Messin’ with my property?”

“No I--” the mare stopped and began to sweat as Gilda began nonchalantly checking her talons before blowing on them and rubbing them on her jumpsuit, while an unimpressed look played across her features.

“Just get out of here, and don’t let me see you messing with my stuff again.” Gilda used her claws to gesture towards the stuttering voice, “Maybe if you ask nice I could set you two crazy kids up on a play-date... but for now get out of here, I’m exhausted just looking at you,” The concept of getting to fool around with one of Gilda’s private mares put a grin on the brown mare’s face, before Gilda continued shooing the lustful mare off.

Once inside the cell, Gilda slumped down on the top bunk of one of the two beds in the room and immediately turned her attention towards the shaking figure in the corner of the cell. “Well Ms. Mayor you certainly are a hit among everyone I hate in this hole. I’m impressed, how do you do it?”

Squirming from behind the bunks, the former mayor of Ponyville rose to her hooves and made an attempt to look dignified before muttering, “You make it sound like I enjoy this... I don’t belong in here...” She jumped slightly as the cell shut itself behind Gilda and Trixie.

“Sheesh, its been seven months and you’re still not over being in here? How are you going to survive the next nineteen years? You need to get over it and accept your punishment.” Before rolling over on her side to face the wall, Gilda gave the Mayor a once-over, ‘I guess she’s not too bad looking for an older mare... ughh... I think I’ve really been in here too long.’

“Trixie agrees with the politician: we deserve better than this. If it weren’t for those confounded elements of harmony we’d---”

“Be dead. There’s no point in dwelling on ‘what if’ questions. The fact is: Discord failed, and if it weren’t for Twilight and Dash begging the Princesses for lenience, we’d have been executed for high treason. Now shut up and go to sleep.” Gilda’s outburst caused Trixie to bite her lip: half out of irritation from being interrupted, and half out of acknowledgement towards the validity of Gilda’s statement.

With an irritated “Hmph,” Trixie flopped down on the lower bunk and curled up, letting her mind drift off into Luna’s night, and it wasn’t long before the snoring of this cell’s occupants joined the chorus of snores emanating from the hallway as the lights went out across the prison.

Gilda couldn’t join her fellow inmates in blissful slumber, as her mind was far too occupied with her future (provided she made it out of prison alive). The sound of light hoofbeats could be heard from the hallway, ‘Probably just the night guard; he better not come in here.’

Suddenly, the hoofbeats ceased in the corridor and there was a sound much akin to rustling accompanied by some muffled shouting. Gilda chuckled to herself ‘Sounds like someone just found themselves on the losing end of a game of hide the foreign objec--” The hoofbeats continued down the hall, only this time they were more slow and deliberate, as though whoever was moving through was scanning the cells carefully, looking for something. It didn’t surprise Gilda at all when the hoofbeats ceased outside her cell: something in her gut told her they would.

She looked up to see a shrouded figure in the dark fiddling with something outside the bars of the cell, and that something began to emit an eerie neon-green smoke as it was dropped to the ground. The figure galloped away quickly which puzzled Gilda until she saw the bars which were enveloped in the strange green smoke slowly begin to dissolve, leaving only a puddle of glowing green metal. The figure, still shrouded by the darkness, cantered back into the cell; only to be met by a claw swipe that missed its mark by mere inches. “I don’t know who you are, but you’d better have a good reason for bothering me this late at night: now start talking.”

“I come as friend, bearing no harm; now please, your talon, kindly disarm.”

“Nothing doing, now who are you?” Gilda demanded preparing to strike again

Trixie and Mayor Mare stirred awake as the dialogue between Gilda and the mystery figure continued, “....mmm...Trixie demands to know why she has been awakened so early,” The end of her inquiry was punctuated with a yawn.

The Mayor sat up and stretched her hooves before turning her attention to the scene in front of her.

The voice addressed the newly awakened inmates: “Good, you are all awake; now this news to you I can break. This you must understand: my master requires you for their grand plan. It is freedom from this place you seek, I can tell; come with me and I shall free you from this cell.”

Trixie and the Mayor both looked at each other from their respective bunks, exchanged glances and scrambled out of their beds to properly greet their potential savior. “It looks as though we shall be leaving with no delay, I am glad your hearts were not too difficult to sway.”

A feeling of uncertainty over took the Mayor’s features, “I’m grateful that you want to get us out of here, I truly am, but just how do you intend to do that?”

“Breaking in was not a simple task, but as for breaking out I’m glad you asked,” The figure pulled out a small spherical object and, after fiddling with it, placed it near the wall adjacent to the bars of the cell. “To move away is the course of action I would advise, while you are at it you may wish to cover your eyes.”

As the four inhabitants of the cell moved into the corridor, a loud explosion soon ensued, and needless to say so did the hoofbeats of several prison guards.

“Come you three, we must make haste; for I fear we have no time to waste!” The figure dashed back into the cell and stood in a new hole that led into the yard.

Trixie and the Mayor galloped behind the figure, only pausing to ensure that Gilda was following as well; she was not. Gilda casually strolled back into the cell and resumed her place on her top bunk.

“Aren’t you coming, bird?” Trixie huffed while preparing herself to run again.

“Yes, please come with us Gilda, don’t you want to be free?”

“Nah... sounds like too much hassle, you guys have fun though.”

The figure addressed Gilda again “My master promises the world for the taking, if you want to partake then it is haste you must be making.”

“World for the taking, huh? Thanks but no thanks, I was promised the world once a while ago... look where it got me. Besides, I’m kinda obligated to stay here: I owe someone. You all have fun though, I’m sure I’ll be seeing you all again soon enough.” Gilda waved the enigma off with a talon.

The figure chuckled “Your virtues I do admire, but to greater heights we must aspire. Do take care, my feathered friend; when my master’s goal is complete, we shall meet again.” The zebra gestured for the two mares to follow, and soon there was nothing left in the cell but a giant hole, some melted bars, 3 empty bunks, and one sleeping griffin.

Somewhere in empty raining streets of late night Canterlot, a frustrated drunken cellist was stomping her way out of a pub with a small case in tow. “This.... this...*hic* This is proposterous! How could they replace me? They are nothing but a group of shoddy talentless hacks without me! I started this group to begin with and they go and---ARGH!” A passing carriage in the night sent the contents of a puddle splashing upon Octavia, plastering her mane to her face.

She prepared to fire off insults at the driver; but found she was too tired, drunk, and downtrodden to register any further anger at this point; and just allowed the filthy puddle water in conjunction with the rain to hide her tears, her rage subsiding into a light despair. Upon resuming her path home, she noticed a cloaked figure in front of her had crossed the street and began to trot in her general direction. Octavia paid it no mind until the figure ceased moving right in front of her and engaged her in dialogue, “WHAT TROUBLES YO--” The figure raised a hoof to its mouth before starting again with a softer submissive female tone, “I-I mean what troubles you on this night?”

Octavia cast the figure a strange look and contemplated the consequences of conversing with a stranger: in her presently distraught and inebriated state, she couldn’t formulate a decent reason to just trot away. Something in a very abstract area of her brain convinced her that something good might come out of this encounter.

With a sigh, she retired to a nearby bench, set her small case down, and gestured for the figure to do the same. She began to recount the events from earlier that evening. She confided in the stranger her personal history of how she started the Royal Canterlot Quartet coming from an impoverished background, how the Quartet suffered the wrath of merciless critics who wrote the group off as a collection of talentless yokels, to their rise to fame. She finished her story by detailing the events of the betrayal she’d suffered at the hooves of her band-mates this evening when they replaced her with some talentless stuck-up mule.

“‘It’s what’s best for the band’ they said,” her face contorted when she stressed the first half of that sentence for added effect. “‘You’ve done so much and we could never thank you enough...’ Liars... I want them to pay... I want them to suffer... They took everything I’ve ever worked for and gave it to that little...” Octavia grit her teeth to prevent herself from going off on tangent in front of this stranger, but she couldn’t prevent the tears from streaming out of her eyes.

The cloaked figure was silent as it observed Octavia in her rage and anguish, and a small grin began to play across its features. Rising from the bench, the mare faced Octavia; a street light behind her creating a darker shadow than her hood already provided. ‘’My child, what if I were to offer you something even greater than what was stolen from you on this night? What if I could offer you that vengeance you seek and so much more?”

Octavia looked upon the figure in front of her with tear laden eyes, as though the cloaked mare in front of her were a saint in a stained glass window, before a look of doubt overtook the hope in her eyes. “What could you possibly offer me that could replace my life’s work? What coul--”

The figure cut her off promptly with a simple response: “The world my dear. I can offer you the world as long I have your anguish, your lust for vengeance, and your loyalty to fuel my ambitions. All I require of you is a song,” the figure gestured to Octavia’s case.

Octavia looked nervously at the figure, unsure of whether she could believe any of the promises this mare had made to her at this moment. She almost turned and left until she heard the sounds of hoofbeats on the street approaching rapidly, drawing to a halt as they neared.

Octavia observed the newly approached figures and noticed one of them wore a cloak much akin to the Mare who had just made her a ludicrous offer, and the other two she had seen on the news seven months ago and recalled they were supposed to be locked up. The newly arrived figure spoke up first after bowing, “My master, on my word you can depend; I have brought with me two new friends.”

“Excellent work Betrayal, were there not three?” the master inquired.

“Though I made it clear our collective voice, to stay behind was the Griffin’s choice.” Betrayal replied.

“Pity, she would have made a great malice... no matter,” turning her attention towards the two new mares, she raised a hoof towards the unicorn of the two. “It is I who have secured your freedom this evening. Upon making the choice to travel with my servant, you have entered into contract with me and will serve under the alias: “Curse,” do you understand? If you have any objections I will revoke the mercy you have been shown this evening and kill you right now.”

The unicorn babbled nervously while bowing down “Y-yes: Trixie understands, master.”

Turning towards the other figure the master began to speak “You I have no use for as one of my agents, but I believe there is another task I could delegate you towards. I recognize your talents and I will not squander them, on this you can depend. Will you serve me or die?

The other figure bowed down as well.

The master turned her attention back to Octavia, “I offer you this chance at glory of your own free will. Your life does not belong to me, but I wish to possess your loyalty: will you serenade me on this night?”

Octavia found herself wordlessly contemplating this opportunity, as her doubts of the figure’s credibility were dispelled. Mulling it over for a few more seconds, she wordlessly reached for her case and opened it to reveal a small violin. Propping it to her chin and readying the bow, she began to fill the night air with the sounds of music carrying dark intent.

The master grinned beneath her hood: it seemed as though all the pieces were falling into place.

Chapter 11 End.

12 Part 1: Now that we're Together Again

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited by: TheWattsMan & Starwind Pen

Act III: Agents of Disharmony

Chapter 12: Now that we’re all together again (Part 1)

Time forces change, this fact is universal to all living beings. Change can come in the form of the adoption of a new lifestyle, or it can instill new efficiency in old habits that won’t die. The only thing time can’t change is the bonds that bind one soul to the next, but it can test those limits.

During her countless missions for the EIB, Rainbow Dash often found herself in tight situations, but this was ridiculous even by her standards. This was supposed to be a simple mission: get in, get the bad guys, and get out; butnooo, nothing is ever that simple for me is i--

Her internal griping was cut short by the report of a bullet grazing her mane, exciting her nerves and causing her teeth to chatter from the influx of adrenaline that ensued. The rush was starting to get to her, tempting her to run out kicking names and taking flanks; but she needed to survive this, and survival meant keeping a cool head.

Taking a long deep breath and exhaling, she re-assessed her situation: She currently found herself seeking cover behind some rather fragile marble statues in a warehouse overrun with the remnants of the Crossheart Syndicate spread thick across the place, keeping her pinned down with sniper fire.

She then took a glimpse at the long black bracelet presently around her hoof: the research and development staff called it a hoof-pistol, and claimed it would easily replace the ring-trigger rifles used in field missions. The same rifles that were keeping her pinned down while she glanced miserably at the useless thing on her foreleg. In retrospect, she should have brought a rifle instead: they were easier to aim and had better range, but this thing had its advantages too;such as mobility, faster reload, and a better fire rate.

Rainbow Dash took this time to observe her other resources: Pinkie Pie wearing her trademark Nightmare Moon-may-cry optimism that didn’t break, even as another round flew overhead clipping part of the statue 6 inches above her, and Rarity who still shook like a foal that came face to face with a spider for the first time. They both enlisted in the EIB shortly after the Black Anarchy incident, and were assigned to work as Rainbow’s personal assistants. Rarity’s reason for joining was so she could protect her family and protect other ponies from becoming a victim of blackmail like herself a few months ago.

Pinkie Pie’s reason for joining was questionable as best. Had anypony with a lesser reputation than one of the elements of harmony and a national hero given it they would not only have failed the interview and mental health screening process, they would have been recommended for an extended stay in a padded room. Her reason on her application stated, “The masters who live in her head told her there would be fun and pudding cups if she worked as a loose cannon in law-enforcement.” Somehow, seven months later, here she was as Rainbow Dash’s back-up.

“What’s the plan, boss?” Pinkie Pie shouted as the report of another round sailed harmlessly overhead.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash, the dust from all of these statues is going to ruin my mane if we don’t move quickly,” Rarity complained.

How anypony could find the time to be worry about their appearance in a firefight was beyond Rainbow Dash. Pushing it to the back of her mind, Rainbow Dash responded, “Alright, alright, give me a moment... Pinkie Pie, how many flashes do you have left?”

“Hmm...two! But I still have lots of--”

“For the last time, we are not using plastic explosives!” A salvo of gunshots ripped through statues, causing the three to duck even lower as their cover was ripped apart.

“Rainbow Dash, I understand you want as few casualties as possible, but I do not believe we have any alternatives if we want to escape with our lives,” Rarity pointed out as she shook marble chips out of her mane

Mulling it over for a few moments, Rainbow Dash reluctantly nodded to Pinkie Pie who wore an extra hopeful grin. “Fine, but only two packages. Any more and when we’re done here you’ll be in a cell with them,” and in seconds Pinkie Pie was already digging through her vest pulling out various wires, receivers, two packages, and two small spheres which Rainbow Dash seized immediately placing one in her vest.

Rainbow turned towards Rarity and Pinkie Pie, who was assembling the mass of parts on the floor. “I’m going to buy some time with these, if I’m not back here in two mikes*, send that out anyway.”

“Understood, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity nodded in compliance

“We won’t let you down, boss!”

Rainbow Dash struck the flash grenade to the ground and hurled it behind her in the general direction of her assailants. Upon hearing a satisfying and resounding cry of pain from behind, Rainbow jolted into action. Diving from behind the statues, she recovered into a gallop and scanned the area for the sniper, but almost froze when she noticed a singular rifle-wielding stallion who didn’t succumb to the initial flash. She stared down the barrel of his weapon as he pulled the ring-trigger back and-- the dry click of an empty magazine caused Rainbow to grin as she took flight, steadily increasing her forward momentum.

Upon reaching him, the stallion flipped the rifle around and swung the butt like a club. Rainbow responded by ducking the attack, jumping up, and swinging the hoof pistol at his head which connected with a nasty Clonk sound; there was no need to waste ammo at this range.

The sounds of groaning from behind prompted Rainbow Dash to buck blindly behind herself; her hooves finding purchase on what she surmised to be the snout of another Crossheart. She searched around for the sniper a second time and finally noticed the glint of a scope from the rafters of the warehouse. I’ve got you now.

The sounds of recovering Crosshearts piqued her attention and prompted her into action: Rainbow Dash reached into her vest procuring her last flashbang, and dashed the remaining grenade to the ground while covering her eyes. She was rewarded with more screams and an awful ringing in her ears that she ignored as she ascended towards the the rafters while unloading her pistol at the glint she spotted earlier. Upon arriving on on the rafters, she was baffled to find that only the rifle remained with a cracked scope and a trail of blood that led off to nothingness, but no sniper.

She didn’t have enough time to mull over where her quarry could have gone, due to the sounds of rifles below training on her position. This doesn't look good. Individually, the Crosshearts were lousy shots but with all of their weapons focused en masse at her they might not miss with the volley that was sure to ensue.

Rainbow Dash noticed something blue and glowing move to the center of their formation and saw Pinkie Pie jump on top of a crate standing on her hind legs holding something with her forehooves. Something she recognized as a detonator

“I KNOW YOU WEREN’T INVITED, BUT THIS PARTY IS GONNA BE A BLAST!” And she slammed the detonator switch with a maniacal laughter.

One second passed and the conglomerate of Crosshearts were sent flying across the warehouse, the most unfortunate of those being a blue unicorn who stood at the epicenter of the explosion, as though Rarity had been intentionally guiding the bomb towards the poor stallion.

As Rainbow Dash descended to the ground, Rarity and Pinkie Pie cantered up and rendered a salute, which Rainbow returned, “Good work ladies, I knew I could count on you, but, Officer Pie: what kind of Cow-Colt crap was that?”

A few hours later, the EIB crime scene investigation unit arrived on the scene and Rainbow Dash’s team was being debriefed by the Chief, who was now head of the department thanks to his “excellent decision making skills” during the Black Anarchy incident.

“Well, it looks like you fillies did a good job here as usual. Say Rainbow, you’ve become quite popular with our mail-room staff lately.” The Chief produced a stack of letters that he passed off to Rainbow, who began sifting through them immediately. Out of the stack, which was comprised of mostly fake letters of gratitude from kiss-flank higher ups who were trying to relocate her to their branches because of how decorated she was as an officer, only two actually caught her eye: A letter from Iron Bastille Prison, and a letter of summons from Princess Celestia.

“Well, fillies, that’s all I’ve got for you, good work, yadda yadda yadda. I need to get home before Vanilla gets into something she shouldn’t.”

“Vanilla, Chief?” Rarity inquired

“Mmmm.. vanilla.... hey does anypony have any pudding?” asked Pinkie

“Yeah, my newly adopted daughter thanks to my most reckless agent over here. Her parents were killed in--”

“Chapter 1.5!” Pinkie blurted out attracting strange looks to herself.

Rainbow Dash recovered the quickest from the stupor Pinkie had just dropped the group into. “Wh... I don’t even... nevermind. How is she, chief?”

“She just earned her cutie mark last week, and she’s doing so well in school; she’s the top of her class you know. She wants to grow up and become a law enforcement officer like her hero: the great Rainbow Dash. You should come give her a visit some time.”

“I will chief, but I have some business to take care of in Canterlot.”

“Hmmm... I guess you’ve earned a vacation; take those two with you, especially the pink menace right there: she keeps eating the staff lunches whenever she finds herself in the office.”

“Roger that, chief!” Rainbow Dash saluted, Pinkie Pie and Rarity following suit.

The chief returned the gesture and trotted off to finish investigating, while Rainbow Dash opened up the two letters of interest. The first, from Princess Celestia, was as she expected: a Summons to the Castle for something important, but the letter from Iron Bastille prison caught her interest a little moreso. It wasn’t Gilda’s usual bi-monthly “hey, how are you” letter, it was from the warden of Iron Bastille himself informing Rainbow Dash that there was a jailbreak and she was needed immediately. “Rarity, Pinkie, come on: we’ve got some business in Canterlot.”

“But what about my sister?”

“Isn’t she with your parents? The ones who weren’t killed like in the events of that movie about us?” Pinkie Pie chipped in.

“Yeah, so let’s go already, I’m sick of this warehouse.”

Upon arriving in Canterlot, Rainbow Dash decided to investigate what happened at Iron Bastille first; Princess Celestia could wait.

She and her team were currently being escorted into the interrogation room of the prison, where they would meet with the convict who had apparently chosen not to escape from that cell. Looking at a list of its occupants, all three began placing bets on who chose not to run. Upon entering the cell, the trio found it to be far too bright, and far too white. There was a simple rectangular gray table in the middle with two chairs on either side. Rainbow took a seat, while Pinkie Pie and Rarity chose to stand on either side of her.

“Agents, the witness is here,” announced a guard from the doorway. “Alright, get in there you.”

“Watch how you touch me, officer, I don’t know who you think you-- Dash?”

“Gilda?”

“Five bits? That wasn’t a question. Rarity, Rainbow, pony up the bits, I just won the bet!” Pinkie Pie held out her hoof and, begrudgingly, the two losers of the bet paid the currently beaming Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing around the room singing: “I haven’t even started gloating yet, but I, but I, but I just won the bet,” much to Rarity’s chagrin

“You seem surprised, Dash.” Gilda casually moved to the chair at the opposite side of the table.

“Well I just figured that--”

“I’d up and jump at freedom the first chance I got?”

“Yeah...” A guilty look played across Rainbow Dash’s features

Gilda took note of this and began drinking in the image She looks kind of cute when she...Ughh.. Please stop it, brain... “So anyways, what’s a cut-- “ Gilda caught herself quickly and crossed her talons defensively. “ I-I mean, what do you want, Dash?” Please say me-- Stop it!!

“Well, it’s actually about why you didn’t escape.”

“I just didn’t feel like it, do I need a reason? Besides I kinda owe all of you for lessening the severity of my sentence.”

Rarity spoke up this time: “Well, I suppose not, but surely you must know something about the breakout, hmm?”

That Rarity is kind of hot too, those eyes and that-- Why won’t you leave me alone, thoughts? “Yeah, there was this one weirdo with freaky green magic, and they kept talking in rhymes.”

“Rhymes? Green magic? Sounds like a Zebra to me. What do you think, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked.

“I think this wall isn’t vanilla flavored--”

“So stop licking it and focus!”

“Anyway, do you recall anything else, Gilda?”

“Something about some master... world for the taking... then I stopped caring and went back to sleep,” Gilda’s attention was solely on Pinkie Pie, who bounced back over to Rainbow Dash. You know she’s a pretty weird one but I wouldn’t mind throwing her in for a nigh-- ”SHUT THE BUCK UP AND GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

Pinkie Pie gasped. “Oh my gosh,you hear him too? I thought I was the only one!”

Rainbow Dash looked a little taken aback, but decided to ask about Gilda's well-being anyway. “Gilda, are you alright?”

“Yeah, it’s just being in here for so long, does things to an inmate... don’t worry about it, I’m fine.” Gilda looked down at the floor, too ashamed to say anything or make eye contact.

Rarity took note of this and, casting a glance at a nearby wall clock, said, “Rainbow Dash, I think it be best if we left, right now.” With this she began moving towards the door

“But I rarely get to-- oh... okay, ummm, see you later, Gilda.” Whenever Rarity’s intuition was at work, Rainbow Dash took it into heavy consideration, so she slowly got up and followed Rarity’s suit.

“Wait for me!” Pinkie Pie shouted, bolting after her companions, leaving Gilda to stare at the ground and stew in her shame for the outburst and lewd thoughts.

Chapter 12 Side A End

Footnotes: Mike*-- Tactical lingo for a minute

12 Part 2: It's Business as Usual

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited by: TheWattsMan & Starwind Pen

Act III: Agents of Disharmony

Chapter 12 Part 2: Back to Business as Usual

The more things change, the more they stay the same. But conflict is constant and consistent, and, like death and taxes, it is one of the few things in life that are entitled to sentient beings, and likewise it is one of the few driving forces that pushes beings to excel and push harder against the fates.

In the foyer of princess Celestia’s castle, Twilight Sparkle paced back and forth back and forth nervously. They’re late. Why are they late? Unless... I’m just early... No! They should still be here by now... Sigh...I think I’m too high-strung about this.

“Uhhh... y’all alright there, sugarcube? You look like you’ve been worryin’ yerself into a rut.”

“I’m...ugh!”-- Twilight face-hooved and took a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts. “Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity should have been here already. I’m certain they’d have received that summons from the princess by now. Do you know what she’ll do if they’re late?

“Pro’bly nothin’,” --Applejack waved Twilight’s concerns off nonchalantly-- "‘sides don’t you always get worked up for no reason’ when it comes to the Princess, Twi’?”

Fluttershy trotted over to join the conversation. “Yes, Twilight, don’t you remember the Philomena incident? You were so convinced princess Celesia was going to um... what was it again... banish me and throw me in a dungeon in the place she banished me to?”

Twilight blushed slightly and rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. Okay, so maybe I get a little carried away when it come to associating the princess with punishments, but still-

A gruff masculine voice from behind cut into Twilight’s chastising inner dialogue. “Ahem! Excuse me, I hate to be so abrupt, but I fear your conversation we must interrupt. Ponies of Equestria, where may we find your princess Celestia?”

Twilight, Applejack and Fluttershy all whirled around to the source of the interruption and their eyes fell on a zebra with a shaved mane sporting a pair of oatley’s sunglasses, and he wore a badge in the shape of a golden spiral around his neck as well as a large kukri knife strapped to his left foreleg. The zebra didn’t stand alone however: to his right stood the only thing that could make Rarity’s tardiness a small blessing: Prince Blueblood. Applejack shot a glare at the prince, and Twilight quickly picked up that there was clearly some leftover hostility from the gala incident.

“Yes, where is my dear aunt, I must know why she has subjected one such as myself to the company of such”- Blueblood gave Applejack and Fluttershy a once over before continuing with a grimace- “passe commoners.”

“What did ya call me, ya no good piece of hydra s--” Twilight stuffed her hoof in Applejack’s mouth before she offended any royalty with her less than silver tongue.

The zebra chuckled at Applejack’s outburst, and spoke up again, this time addressing Blueblood. “You would do best to stay your tongue, for you would not last five minutes from where I am from. I am not sure who you think you are, but in life that attitude will not get you very far.”

Irked by this, Blueblood turned to face the zebra. “And just who are you anyway? I thought it odd when one of your kind began ascending the castle stairs unhindered by my Aunt’s guards.” As minor as the discrimination was, it caused Twilight to shoot an equally powerful glare that could rival Applejack’s own, and a glance at Fluttershy revealed a sternly disapproving look that soon faded into an apologetic one and shifted back as though the Pegasus couldn’t decide whether to be angry or passive.

The zebra cleared his throat, cooly shrugging off the Prince’s pointed and callous remark. “You may call me detective Zaca, I am an investigator from the land of Zebrifica. I have come to discuss with your Princess a case, concerning an exiled member of our race.”

A new voice from behind chimed in. “An exiled zebra huh? I think we may have just found another lead in the case, ladies.”

Everypony in the foyer turned to meet the intrigued gaze of Rainbow Dash, the absent-minded gaze of Pinkie Pie, and the enraged eyes of Rarity focused on Prince Blueblood with malicious intent.

Twilight was the first to break the silence, “Lead in what case?”

“There’s been a jailbreak at Iron Bastille maximum, and two of our least favorite trouble-makers were lifted from the place: Trixie and Mayor Mare.” Rarity bit her lip at the mention of the second pony. “Gilda was in the same cell as them, but evidently she grew a conscience during the time since the Black Anarchy incident, and decided to hang back.”

Applejack shot a look of disbelief at Rainbow Dash, who took note quickly. “I know, I didn’t believe it either, but we just saw her plain as day. Anyway, she told us that the one who broke Trixie and Mayor Mare out spoke in rhyme. Sound like anypony?”

Twilight answered softly “ A zebra...”

Rainbow Dash nodded “Exactly, and I think we have our prime suspect, it’s got to be--”

Pinkie Pie leapt out from behind Rainbow dash and pointed an accusing hoof a Detective Zaca. “AHA! IT WAS HIM! Admit it, you pony-napped... er... pony-liberated? Trixie and the Mayor! what have you done with them!?”

Fluttershy trotted over and stroked Pinkie’s mane. “Come on, let’s go over there and catch up so everypony can discuss this in a more rational sense.”

“But... but... Zebra! Right there!” Pinkie Pie pointed more aggressively this time as though to reinforce her point, while Fluttershy steered her away towards the throne room.

“Yes, I know, and he’s a nice zebra,” Fluttershy’s voice faded out as the two disappeared behind the door.

Rarity spoke next, “I apologize for Pinkie Pie’s behavior, detective Zaca, she’s just--”

The zebra held up a hoof to cease Rarity's sentence. “There’s no need to apologize, since the suspect is a zebra, myself I might also surmise.”

“But, we only know one other zebra and she’s in Ponyville. You don’t think Zecora could really have--”

Prince Blueblood voiced his dismay with an upturned snout, “I’ve had enough of this boorish gibber jabber, if you’ll excuse me.” Blue blood trotted off to the door that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie went through earlier.

“As much as it pains me to agree with that jerk, I do believe it’s time to work.”

“Ah reckon it’s about high time we got this meetin’ started anyhow,” Applejack concurred while moving towards the door.

Rainbow Dash sighed and followed everypony else out. "I guess we can discuss this case after our talk with the princesses.”

The throne room of Celestia’s castle was its usual impeccable white, with several well-worn pillars providing support to the structure. The room was bathed in the refracted light provided by the multitude of stained glass windows displaying the heroes of Equestria since the beginning of harmony. Twilight looked upon the walls with awe, and blushed slightly when she noticed the windows that held the likeness of herself and her friends.

Turning her attention back towards the center of the room, Twilight's eyes were drawn to Princess Luna conversing with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, while Blueblood stood obstinately to the side, yawning out of sheer boredom and clear disinterest of the company presented before him. Princess Luna noticed the small crowd approaching and flew forth to greet them with a cheery demeanor she’d clearly been working on since they’d last met on Nightmare Night. “Twilight Sparkle-- I mean... ahem, Twilight Sparkle, how art thou?”

“Y’all might want to work on makin’ that a bit more casual, Princess.”

“Am I not as they say... down, fair Applejack?”

Rainbow Dash tried her hardest to stifle a giggle at the princesses’ social awkwardness, but a strong hoof to the hind leg from Rarity ramified the situation before Luna took notice. “Were those colloquialisms not accurate, Rainbow Dash?”

“Collo-whats?” Rainbow Dash asked in a bewildered tone.

“She means is her slang up to date,” Twilight explained.

“Oh... nahh,” Rainbow Dash and Applejack replied simultaneously while shaking their heads.

“Ahem,” coughed Detective Zaca.

“Oh, I almost forgot: Princess, this is detective Zaca from Zebrifica.”

Zaca bowed to Luna, and the princess returned the gesture before addressing him, “Thou art the representative from the Zebra kingdom my sister hath waited for, I take it?”

“You are very astute as I have heard, but I fear for more pressing matters this must be deterred.” He gestured towards Princess Celestia who appeared from a doorway behind the pillars and currently sat in her throne, casting an expectant gaze upon her sister and the elements of harmony, who shuffled to make a line and bow in respect at the foot of her throne. Taking note of this, Luna flew to her sister’s side and dropped her cheery demeanor almost immediately as Celestia began to speak, “Elements, I trust you’re all wondering why I’ve summoned you on such short notice, and I’ll be blunt and to the point: according to data from the RCIA’s intelligence division, there’s been an unusual decline in underworld activity.”

Everypony in the room save for Celestia and Luna all exchanged unsure glances but only Fluttershy spoke up in an attempt to be more assertive, “Princess Celestia, umm, isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yes, I hardly see how a lack of crime is a problem, Princess Celestia,” Rarity concurred.

The princess closed her eyes and shook her head before resuming, “No, my little ponies, a rapid decline among the crime factions like this has occurred only once before. Twilight, I’m certain you already know which incident I’m referring to.”

Twilight nodded proudly. “The Black Anarchy case, Princess Celestia.”

“What does she mean, Twi’?” Applejack asked

“Well, a few months before the trouble with Black Anarchy and the Crossheart Syndicate, the crime rate and the number of gangs or criminal organizations in the lower sectors across Equestria began to lower at an alarming rate, or rather they were being consolidated by--”

Rainbow Dash cut in to finish the sentence, “One really big crime congl- conglo-con--”

“Conglomerate, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity finished while rolling her eyes. Rainbow Dash was certainly a good field agent, but when it came to deductions and piecing together leads and theories, it was safe to say there was a reason Rarity was assigned to Rainbow’s team.

“Yeah, that one!”

Luna nodded to acknowledge the validity of the deduction. “That is correct, and we fear that it may be happening again.”

“That reminds me, Princess Celestia, there have been a number of missing pony reports in the past few days, as well as the jail-break at Iron Bastille. Do you think these might be related?” Rarity inquired.

Celestia stroked her chin with a hoof before responding, “Perhaps... Blueblood.”

“Yes, Aunt Celestia?”

“Have your team look into this matter when this meeting is adjourned.”

Blueblood bowed his head in acknowledgement. “As you wish.”

Detective Zaca turned to address Rainbow Dash, “I realize our conversation earlier was rushed, but was there not something you wished to discuss?”

“Oh, that’s right! Gilda said that the one who broke Trixie and Mayor Mare from the prison yesterday was a Zebra, and I remember you said you were looking for an exile?”

“You memory I must respect, for the words you speak are quite correct.”

Applejack took the moment to think about it and threw in her two bits, “Rainbow, it sounds to me like y’all are lookin’ for the same, varmint.”

“You know what, AJ? I think you’re on to something--”

At that moment, a resounding BOOM shook the castle and moments later several of the royal guards came pouring into the throne room, out of breath and shouting.

“What the hay was that?!” Twilight shouted at the nearest guard.

The pegasus caught his breath and saluted before speaking, “Ms. Sparkle, these two intruders just strolled into the castle grounds and began hurling these green bombs everywhere, shouting something about claiming ‘avarice’, and they proceeded upstairs to the guest lodgings.”

“Claimin’ avarice? What in tarnation is that supposed to mean?”

Twilight responded “I don’t know, but I left Spike upstairs, and I need to make sure he’s alright, c’mon girls. Let’s--”

Rainbow Dash stopped Twilight with a wing before cutting the unicorn off. “Look here, egghead, you need to stay down here with the Princesses, Fluttershy, and Rarity and continue investigating, I’ll take AJ and Pinkie to find Spike, got it?”

Twilight bit her lip for a moment before nodding reluctantly; Rainbow Dash was right after all. Twilight could only hope that Spike was okay.

Blueblood levitated a saber off the wall to himself. “I think it might be best if I accompany you, even a ‘top rate’ law enforcement pony such as yourself could always do with some stellar support.”

Rainbow Dash grit her teeth at Blueblood’s sarcasm but shrugged it off, there were more pressing matters at hand.

Detective Zaca wordlessly nodded to Rainbow while he unsheathed his Kukri knife with his mouth.

“Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, don’t forget to bring these with you!” Rarity removed her saddlebags and kicked them over to her boss. Stopping the bags with a hoof, Rainbow Dash opened them to reveal a hoof pistol that she quickly adorned and a black rubber handle with a piece of metal sticking out the top along with several small flash bang grenades.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! Those must be mine, boss!” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down excitedly at the sight of her gear. She dragged out the black handle with her mouth and adorned the saddle bags.

“Pinkie Pie, what is that?” Rainbow gestured towards the handle in Pinkie’s mouth.

“Thith? Thith is ma thun buthont!”

“Your what?”

Pinkie Pie groaned and whipped her head to the side causing the metal in the handle to extend a foot and a half, and with a vicious chomp on the rubber, a small spark of electricity surged though the rod.

Rainbow Dash sighed, knowing that an electric based weapon being held in the mouth was a bad idea, but as far as she was concerned, Pinkie Pie using non-lethal weapons was a step away from the constant overuse of explosive devices. “Whatever, let’s go rescue a a dragon!” With that, the five ran into the foyer.

Chapter 12 Side B end.

13: The power of Vice

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited by: TheWattsMan & Starwind Pen

Act III: Agents of Disharmony

Chapter 13: The Power of Vice

Let temptation take you like the throes of the ocean, playin’ on your emotions, strumming on your heart strings

With the rhythmic chaos of eloquence in distortion, Just break free and do what you like-- Excerpt from a song you’ll never listen to.

In one of the guest bedrooms of Celestia’s castle, a certain dragon paced back and forth out of boredom. “Sheesh, why did Twilight have to drag me to the castle for some dumb ole meeting? I could’ve just stayed in Ponyville, and—” BOOM! An explosion from the hallway shook both the ground and the thoughts from his head. Thinking quickly, Spike jumped under the bed in the room, quivering out of fear. Moments later, he heard hoofbeats and voices emanating from the hallway, and he shrunk back further under the bed, listening intently.

“What are we looking for, Betrayal?”

“The master has expressed her desire, for a little purple dragon that breathes green fire.”

“A dragon? Trix— I mean, Curse has only seen one up close; he belonged to that infernal Twilight Sparkle.”

“Perhaps he and our target are one and the same, so keep open your eyes; he may hiding in sight that is plain.”

Spike heard the pair enter the room he was hiding in and clasped his claws over his mouth, lest he make a sound alerting them to his position. He took note that it was rather dusty under the bed.

“How do you rhyme so consistently like that, Betrayal?”

“Surely, you may not know it, but the one who constructed our spoken language was a poet.”

“Curse finds this fascinating, and she would like to—”

"ACHOO!"Spike sneezed, and if that wasn’t enough to blow his his cover, he’d released some flames while he was at it, leaving a nice little trail of scorch marks on the floor.

“What was that?” Curse inquired.

“I believe it is undeniably clear, that our quarry is very near,” Betrayal gestured towards the scorch mark on the floor.

Spike began inching his way further back. This is not good, I need get out of here before—

The pony, who he gathered was this “Curse” he’d been listening to, was now lying down and searching under the bed. It wasn’t long before he recognized her as the “Great and Powerful” Trixie, and it took a moment longer before she noticed him and smirked before standing up.

Okay, so they know where I am, but that doesn’t mean I can’t escape still... what’s that? Almost immediately after Trixie stood up, a purple smoking ball rolled under the bed, spreading fumes that caused Spike to gag and grow slowly dizzy. He felt a tugging sensation on his tail, and before he knew it, he was being dragged out from under the bed and lifted into the air to meet the grinning faces of Trixie, and one other he recognized as Zecora.

“Sleep now, my little dragon friend; after five hours we shall see each other again,” spoke Zecora, who held a small burlap sack underneath Spike. As he was lowered gently into it, the smoke began taking effect, causing him to nod in and out of consciousness before finally allowing sleep to claim him.

“I think now it would be wise, if we went back to our hideout to escape prying eyes,” Zecora suggested while tying the sack around her neck.

“Trix— er, Curse agrees.” The two trotted into the hallway only to be met by three of the elements of Harmony, and two interlopers.

“Hold it right there!” Rainbow Dash shouted while readying her hoof-pistol.

“Yagh, holw it reigh dere!” Pinkie shouted, the stun baton in her mouth causing her to slur her words.

“This situation looks rather grim, although your chances of capturing us are very slim,” Zecora claimed while backing up towards the other end of the hallway, looking behind her shoulder to gauge how fast she would have to gallop to outrun the law enforcement ponies before her.

Detective Zaca spoke up next. “Zecora, our king has placed you under arrest, to surrender now is the course of action that is best. You will pay for your crimes of treason from long ago; besides, there is nowhere left for you to go.” Zaca gestured around the hallway which only had two exits: the one behind the law enforcement ponies, and the one Zecora would never reach in time even if she had a head start.

Zecora had to stall for time. “I’m glad to see your memory serves you well, but it will not help you in the bowels of hell. You may wish to give up this pursuit, or else you may find yourself as audience to the piper’s flute*.”

“Ah reckon it’s y’all who’d best give up Zecora: you’re surrounded and outnumbered!” Applejack shouted.

“While there is truth in the things you say, I promise things will not stay this way. There is one in this room to whom I must give thanks: our own seed of deceit stands among your ranks.”

Rainbow Dash took a moment to process what she just heard. “One of your own? But who—”

“Gahhh!” A cry from behind prompted the attention of the three elements, and as they turned around they found their traitor: Prince Blueblood had stabbed Detective Zaca with the saber he procured from the throne room. After he withdrew the blade, he began charging his horn with magic that enveloped is whole body. Shortly after a loud crack and a flash of light, he stood beside Zecora and Trixie.

“Allow me to reintroduce myself, I am the Agent of Deceit: Prince Blueblood,” the traitor said with a bow.

“You... Ah shoulda bucked in your smug oily face the minute I saw ya!” Applejack spat through gritted teeth. Blueblood only grinned proudly in response.

Trixie choked out a laugh at Applejack’s statement. “And yet you didn’t, little hayseed. Truly pitiable how restraint makes somepony weak isn’t it? It was that same lack of resolve that kept Trixie alive at the mansion seven moths ago. Trixie should thank you for your weakness, little Hayseed.”

“Lack of resolve?” Rainbow Dash laughed at that statement. “It wasn’t a lack of resolve that kept AJ from ending your life at the mansion. I watched that whole fight, and I can honestly say it was Twilight and her belief that reform is better than execution that kept AJ from stomping in your throat. In my opinion, all of the flank kissing we had to do to keep your sorry rump from getting executed was in vain. Don’t worry, though,” Rainbow Dash aimed her hoof-pistol at Trixie’s head, “this time we’ll just skip all of the paperwork, and I'll send you to the ferry-stallion* without coins or delay.”

Zecora stepped in front of Trixie whose horn began to glow as Zecora spoke. “It would be wise if that shot you were to delay, it wouldn’t help either faction if a bullet should go astray.” Zecora turned to display the sack on her back. “Unless it is the dragon’s life you wish to end, I advise you put away the weapon,friend.”

Rainbow Dash hesitated for moment, hoping that spike wasn’t within that bag, but a glance at the empty room to her left told her there might have been some credibility to Zecora’s claim. With a scowl, she lowered the firearm, and in that moment Trixie’s horn erupted with a cloud of blue smoke that was followed by the sound of hoof beats rapidly heading towards the other end of the hallway.

“Rainbow, are ya just gonna let em’ get away? We’ve gotta get after em!” Applejack shouted.

“Reagh! com on bohth!” Res ged em!” Pinkie shouted, the baton still obscuring her speech.

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes while taking a deep breath, and time began slowing down for her. This was a trick she used to steel her nerves and focus before flight exhibitions. Using this sense of calm, she analyzed the situation at hoof. I’ve got one wounded, three high priority targets on the run, and they’ve got a hostage. She turned look at Applejack and Pinkie Pie. AJ would probably be the best choice for getting aid for Detective Zaca, and Pinkie would easily be able to keep up with those other three.

Rainbow Dash turned to her friends and began barking out orders. “Applejack, get Detective Zaca to the castle’s infirmary and report what just happened to Twilight and the Princesses.” Applejack nodded and moved over to Zaca, struggling to place the zebra on her back as she struggled to the door. “Pinkie Pie, you’re with me, and remember what I said about that cow-colt crap?”

Pinkie Pie nodded in affirmation.

“Buck it, all I want right now is that baby dragon safe and sound and those three in a cell, so do whatever you have to help me bring them down without hurting Spike.” Rainbow Dash crouched low before flying down the hallway in pursuit of the dragon-nappers, Pinkie Pie hot on her hooves.

They reached the door at end of the hallway in seconds and took note that it led to a red-carpeted spiral staircase. The faint sound of voices a few levels lower could be heard from where Rainbow Dash and Pinkie stood, meaning their quarry hadn’t gotten particularly far. Rainbow Dash didn’t hesitate to jet down the spiral-staircase as fast as her wings would carry her, galloping on the outer walls to assist her rapid descent, and Pinkie Pie lacking wings to move any faster settled for hauling flank down the staircase. The voices disappeared as they reached the lower level, but in their places another resounding explosion broke the silence.

Galloping into the foyer, the pair took note that a green dust cloud lingered among the room and various guard pegasi were sprawled across the ground, coughing and bleeding among the rubble. “Hey, the ones who did this to you, which way did they go?” Rainbow Dash inquired from the nearest guard to her.

The guard weakly pointed a hoof towards the main entrance, to which Rainbow Dash nodded and took off in towards the door. Upon opening it, she saw Zecora, Trixie and Blueblood galloping away through the castle garden. “Pinkie, you follow them, and I’ll go around to cut them off, got it?”

Pinkie Pie saluted in compliance and galloped after her targets while Rainbow Dash flew straight up and began tracking them from overhead. She spotted them heading for a gate leading towards the streets of Canterlot, and Pinkie Pie was closing the distance rapidly. Rainbow Dash altered her flight stance, descending rapidly towards the opposite side of the gate, a mach-cone forming around her.

Come on wings, just a little more... The adrenaline was pumping in her veins, the mach cone became sharper and thinner, but the ground was coming up at a uncomfortably fast rate. I’ve only got one shot at this, better make it count.

The mach cone was officially at its structural threshold and electricity began to surge through the slowly tearing air. Having executed this trick in practice multiple times before, she knew that these were the precursors to a Sonic Rainboom, but this would be her first time ever performing one during a field operation, according to higher ups it wouldn’t be “professional or efficient” to utilize such an unorthodox tactic during pursuit, but right now it was do or die.

She picked up another burst of speed by angling her head lower, but in the process of doing so she realized she was horribly off target. Bucking tears, I overshot it! She couldn’t control it or stop at this rate, and she was headed towards the streets and away from the gate. With the rainboom imminent and nigh unavoidable, a singular thought broke through in her adrenaline filled mind: It’s time to improvise.

The pegasus flapped her wings one last time for good measure before clasping them tautly to her sides, allowing gravity to take control. Spreading all four of her legs in an “X” shape to slow herself, the absurd falling momentum slowly decreased as she continued to fall, tears welling in her eyes from the wind whipping her face at such an incredible rate.

Come on, come on, do it... The mach cone ceased its stretching and stopped Rainbow Dash midair. This is perfect! Rainbow Dash took advantage of the split second where she was trapped unmoving in the mach-cone and fixed her eyes on the gate as her targets came galloping through. As the mach cone began pushing her back out, she spread her wings wide to change her trajectory, and allowed physics take control of the situation.

She shot out of the cone, traveling twice as fast towards her targets, flapping her wings even harder to maintain and exceed her momentum than when she descended as another mach-cone began to form around her and began to spark and stretch. Just as she could see the whites of her prey’s eyes, the air around her erupted in a flash of color, sound, and pressure that doubled her flying speed and enveloped her in a blanket of color.

Prince Blueblood galloped behind Trixie and Zecora, constantly glancing over his shoulder to make sure there was a decent amount of distance between his group and that persistent pink pony. I could have sworn she had a partner or two though, perhaps they took care of that zebra from earlier. He cast another glance backwardsand contemplated disposing of the pink pony himself, but a ripping sound from in front of him commandeered his attention, and he turned just in time as a sudden ear-splitting CRACK tore through the air, followed by a pressure wave outlined in a rainbow that knocked him clean off his hooves, and assaulted his ears with a horrible ringing.

As he flew backwards, he saw Zecora and Trixie fly over his head, as well as a rainbow-colored streak that zipped past his head and landed deeper in the garden with a horrendous crashing sound. This was all Blueblood could register as he hit the ground with a dull thud, and his vision faded to black.

Ughhh... my head... Did that work? Rainbow Dash recovered from the crash quicker than she expected, shaking her head, and while she couldn't recall exactly when she lost control of the maneuver, she knew it worked. A little too well. Rainbow Dash turned her head and began surveying the area behind her. She glanced around, taking a bit of sheepish pride in the aftermath of her stunt: a trail of rainbow colored fire scorched the ground that led back to her, several plants became uprooted including a tree, there were three fallen statues, and a small crater littered with colorful silhouettes remained from the spot where the actual Rainboom took place.

With a flap of her wings she hovered over to the silhouettes, and while her lips curled into a smug grin at the sight of Trixie and her companions sprawled out and unmoving on the ground, her stomach turned as her eyes fell on the sack Zecora was holding. She'd gotten so caught up in the moment that she forgot Spike was in there, and she'd released the Rainboom at point-blank range anyways. Rainbow Dash landed amongst the rubble, and upon spotting the light blue fur of the currently incapacitated and helpless Trixie next to Zecora, she galloped towards the pair searching for he sack the dragon was stashed in.

Oh no, please be okay, Spike, please be okay. I don’t know if I could face Twilight again if you were hurt because of me... there it is! “Spike! Spike! Are you all right?” she called out as she neared the bag. She breathed out a sigh of relief as her fears were put at ease as she noticed a small lump that stirred slightly, and silhouetted the shape of the sarcastic baby dragon she’d come to love like a cousin. Thank goodness you’re all right Spike, now where’s Pinkie P— Her thought was cut short by the sensation of cold sharp steel on the base of her neck. She grit her teeth as the snide voice of Prince Blueblood broke the silence from behind her.

“That was impressive, pegasus. I’m certain you’ve permanently damaged my hearing, but I’m afraid this is as they say the end of the lin— WAUUUGHHH!!! BUCKKHNGG SH—!!!” Rainbow dash turned around to see Prince Blueblood spasming violently on the ground as though he was suddenly struck by a conveniently timed seizure.

Turning her gaze upwards, she saw a huffing and out of breath Pinkie Pie covered in dirt and bruises standing behind the Prince, her stun baton still crackling with electricity. Pinkie Pie spat the baton on the ground and addressed the gibbering, flailing prince before her. “Well, that was quite a shocker, wasn’t it?”

Rainbow Dash face-hoofed at this awful line, and Pinkie Pie took notice immediately. “Sorry, Dashie, I’ll try again: It’s just been revoked...”

“Pinkie Pie, just... just stop...”

“Pfft... fine. Anyway, guess what this means?” Pinkie asked with a playful smile curling across her lips.

“Ugh... what does it mean, Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, already aware of what was to come after having had her flank saved by the pink pony on so many missions before.

Pinkie Pie began hopping up and down and singing “Da-shie owes me! Da-shie owes me, and if I’m really lucky, than she might blow—” A sky blue hoof shot inside of Pinkie’s open mouth successfully halting the rest of that verse.

Staring directly into Pinkie’s eyes, Rainbow Dash began to explain to her subordinate exactly what was wrong with that song. “Pinkie, we’ve talked about that song, right?” Pinkie Pie nodded slowly. "We’ve talked about why it’s not appropriate to sing about that kind of— ” Rainbow Dash noticed Pinkie Pie’s eyes were fixed on something behind the pegasus’ head. Rainbow Dash turned her head to see for herself what had captivated Pinkie’s attention, and her eyes were immediately drawn towards a figure who stood with the sun directly to their back, casting a shadow and making it impossible to discern any distinguishing features save for a unicorn horn and wide spread wings. The figure trotted up to the pair, and Rainbow Dash immediately snapped a salute, while Pinkie Pie hesitated for a moment before doing likewise.

“Very good my little ponies—” The figure coughed and cleared her throat before continuing. “Oh dear, my voice has been cracking lately, but I digress. Good work both of you, but I’m afraid it’s time for you to join the others and sleep now, don’t worry though, we’ll see each other again in a few hours. For now, I must take charge of Avarice and the rest of the agents”

“Princess, what do you mean by... that...” The figure’s horn began to glow a vibrant golden color. Rainbow Dash’s eyelids became too heavy to support themselves and she fell forward, crossing from a waking reality towards the world of dreams with a soft thud.

Chapter 13 End

Foot notes: Piper’s flute-- Reference to the Pied Piper of Hammelin, who is viewed as symbol of death in some interpretations.

Ferry Stallion-- reference to Charon of Greek mythology, he is the ferryman who transports souls between the world of the living and the realm of Hades. Typically when one died, they would have coins placed on their eyes to pay Charon for the trip.

Missing Reel: Chapter 12 (3/3)

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited by: TheWattsMan & Starwind Pen

Act III: Agents of Dishar

Chapter 12 (3/3) Missing Perspective

When the film rolls, it tells a story. When the film burns in the projector, part of that story is gone. A vital piece of information prudent to the film, gone forever. When the film resumes, the audience must wonder, “What could have been happened during that missing scene?”

A resounding BOOM shook the castle, and moments later several of the royal guards came pouring into the throne room, out of breath and shouting, “We’re under attack!”.

“What the hay was that?!” Twilight shouted at the nearest guard.

It’s about time. Zecora always did enjoy taking her time with these operations.

“Claimin’ avarice? What in tarnation is that supposed to mean?”

Celestia’s eyes fell coldly on Applejack as she conversed with the guard. Don’t worry, Applejack the Honest, you’ll find out soon enough.

Twilight responded, “I don’t know, but I left Spike upstairs, and I need to make sure he’s alright, c’mon girls. Let’s—”

Rainbow Dash stopped Twilight with a wing before cutting the unicorn off. “Look here egghead, you need to stay down here with the Princesses; Fluttershy and Rarity, continue investigating; I’ll take AJ and Pinkie to find Spike, got it?” A grin began to play across Princess Celestia’s features, but she stifled the action just as quickly as it came to fruition: she couldn’t give herself away just yet, not when all of the Elements of Harmony were in the same room as herself. The way they were about to separate their mare-power at the moment worked out even better, in Celestia’s favor anyway.

Prince Blueblood’s gaze wandered over to Celestia’s, and—amidst the bedlam and frequent shouting that overtook the castle—a single nod from the monarch to her nephew spoke volumes about Celestia’s plans and Blueblood’s part in them. To convey his compliance and understanding, the Prince pounded his chest with his right hoof, and wordlessly cantered over to the faction of the elements that were en route to retrieve Spike.

After observing the rescue party for Spike engage in some pointless dialogue before galloping off to intercept her agents, Celestia’s eyes fell to Luna, who was assisting the wounded guard pegasi with Fluttershy while Rarity and Twilight sifted through the case files. The next part of her plan required some tact that would have to be employed discreetly, lest she arouse the suspicions of her sister and her pupil too quickly. Celestia analyzed the situation, pondering and calculating various scenarios that would offer the greatest chance of success for capturing her sister and the remaining elements with minimal struggle.

Zecora had alleviated Celestia’s burdens greatly by attracting three of the more physically troublesome element-bearers, but Twilight was no pushover herself, and from Twilght’s various friendship reports, Celestia knew better than to underestimate the craftiness of Rarity and Fluttershy.

Celestia stepped off of her throne, trotting elegantly over to her sister’s side as her horn began to glow faintly with a transparent aura of magic targeting the guard. UV rays, they may work slowly, but they should brandish the desired result right about... now.

“SISTER, come quickly! The flesh of this guard hath begun to blister and burn!” Luna shouted in a panicked state, unsure of what to do or how to handle this new development.

Celestia had to fight back another grin as a piece of her plan fell perfectly into place.“Luna, lower your voice; he may be suffering from burns, but that doesn’t mean we have to add to his pain by deafening him.”

“I’m sorry sister...”

“There’s no time for that Luna, now let’s see...” Celestia observed the guard with feigned concern and confusion. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this before... Twilight, Fluttershy come over here please.”

“Oh, yes princess.” Fluttershy rose uncertainly from the guard she was treating, and one of the castle medics shooed her off to Celestia’s side, convincing the pegasus that she could handle this guard’s treatment.

“At once Princess Celestia.” Twilight rose from her place behind the stack of scrolls, galloping towards the princesses with a eyes wide open in concern, though Celestia knew her student well enough to tell she was absolutely ecstatic that her mentor required her assistance.

“Twilight, what do you think is the cause of this burning? Perhaps it is chemical in nature?”

Celestia watched as Twilight’s horn began to glow as she began to observe the slowly spreading burn pattern of the unconscious guard. “His skin turns red before manifesting in a burn, and I can’t find any traces of chemicals on his fur,”

Fluttershy took a thermometer out of her saddle bags, placing it in the guards open mouth, simultaneously laying one of her fore-hooves on the guard’s forehead “His internal body temperature seems to be normal but his external body temperature... it’s like he’s receiving a direct exposure to sunlight, but that’s impossible we’re inside... oh dear.” Fluttershy pulled out an ice pack from her saddle bags, resting it on the guard’s head.

“Direct sunlight? Indoors?” Luna looked as though she’d seen a ghost as she began backing away hesitantly from Celestia. “Sister, did you—” Faster than anypony else in the room could register, Celestia extended her left forehoof, and drove it into her sister’s face with the type of force only a sun goddess could conjure. Luna was sent flying into one of the walls, leaving an indentation in it.

As the remaining and able-bodied guards rushed over to see what the commotion was all about, Celestia charged her horn for another spell releasing a blazing wave of heat, light and flame. When the fire cleared, all that remained was armor and ashes.

Celestia’s horn maintained its glow as she turned her attention to Twilight, who was bewildered by what she had just seen and rendered incapable of moving; she could only stare at her mentor while gibbering senselessly out of fear. “P-Princess Celestia!? What are you... what are...” Twilight’s words were lost as she slowly slipped in and out of consciousness, stumbling unsteadily in a circle. In a vain attempt to stay awake, Twilight stomped her hooves to the ground and shook her head rapidly while charging herself with a purple aura of magic, but Celestia’s magic was far too strong, and soon the lavender mare fainted, the world slipping into shadow before her eyes.

“Good night, my faithful student,” Celestia chuckled to herself before meeting Fluttershy’s terrified gaze, advancing slowly to assert her dominance over the timid yellow mare. “You know you don’t have a chance Fluttershy, so why don’t you give in quietly— Agh! what is this?” A barrier of yellow gems coated in a light blue aura had arisen around Celestia.

“Fluttershy, hurry: that wall of gems won’t keep her restrained for long!” Rarity cried as she galloped past the presently trapped Celestia to join her friend.

“For long? My little pony, these baubles won’t hold me at all!” Celestia began thrashing about inside the wall of gems, forcing greater strain on Rarity’s magic.

“B-but Rarity, what about Twilight, and Princess Luna?”

“There’s no time, Fluttershy, we have to hurry! Now come on!” Rarity galloped out of the throne room with Fluttershy in tow, the wall of gems dispelled itself after its caster was out of range.

Celestia stomped on one of the now worthless yellow gems, crushing it into shards beneath her weight as she snorted in frustration. It’s a shame they escaped, but it’s not as though a couple of weak rats like them could muss up my plans on their own, I’ve taken their leader. I didn’t expect Luna to fall so easily, but I suppose a thousand years on the moon would make anypony sloppy. Now, I wonder how well my agents are doing. She casted her gaze towards the gardens and noted that her agents were making their escape through the eastern gate and they were being trailed by a straggler. Wait, only one? Where are the other two elements, and that zebra? The sound of hoof-beats approaching rapidly commanded Celestia’s attention at the moment, and she turned to face a very exhausted Applejack carrying Detective Zaca.

“Princess Celestia, what in tarnation happened in here? Why’s there so much—”

Celestia sighed, turning her back on Applejack and drowning out the earth pony’s inquiries as though they were merely white-noise. Without thinking or aiming, the sun goddess lifted her left hindleg and bucked blindly behind herself, and found purchase on Applejack’s chin, sending the earth pony and the wounded Zebra she was carrying skidding across the floor. Well, that makes four out of eight now I suppose... wait a minute, what’s that?

Celestia returned her gaze to the chase in the garden below as a multicolored explosion emanated from its depths, and shattered the windows before Celestia. It looks like I might have to deal with the outside situation myself. “Anguish, Puppetmaster, come here.”

“Yes, master?” Called a meek voice from behind one of the pillars.

“My lord, what is it you require of your humble servant?”

Celestia turned to face both of her subjects, her eyebrows furrowed to show she meant absolute business. “Puppetmaster, I want you to ensure that the castle is sterilized of any trace of attack save for Luna and the two element bearers. Have them brought to the oceanside estate dungeons, and properly restrained. I will not tolerate any escapes like the zebra, do you understand me? In fact, have one of your stallions eliminate that one while you’re at it.” Celestia gestured to the injured and unconscious Detective Zaca.

“Understood, my lord.” Mayor Mare turned from Celestia, whistling in a very particular fashion. Soon after the room was filled with various black suited ponies, some of whom bore the mark of the now-dead Crossheart syndicate, and others who bore one of the sun.

“Anguish.”

“Yes, master?”

“What is the status of Malice?”

Octavia saluted before answering. “I’ve just fed her dinner, and sent her to bed, my lord.”

“Excellent, a growing filly needs her rest after all. Besides, I want her prepared for the ritual tonight. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go and retrieve our honored guests from the garden. I certainly don’t want them to miss the revival of some old friends.” Celestia spread her wings wide, and flew through her now-destroyed windows towards the explosion site.

Chapter 12 concluded, the story is now back on track.

14: And Then There Were Two

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited by: TheWattsMan & Starwind Dood

Act III: Agents of Disharmony

Chapter 14: And then There Were Two

The lions have fallen; thus, through the streets and sewers we must scurry; considered vermin by those who dwell above and in the open. We’re no threat to them as far as they know. A nuisance? Yes. Irksome? Yes. But certainly not a threat, or so those who live on the surface believe. In the darkness, we regroup, standing united and stronger than before, and together we’ll show them how even the lowly rat can fight.

Somewhere in the busy streets of Canterlot, two frightened mares galloped recklessly through the busy streets, attracting the dismay of crowds

“Fluttershy, keep running! If we slow down she’ll surely catch us as well!”

“But, where are we going, Rarity?”

“I know some very important ponies that owe me big, Fluttershy, and it’s time that I pull in some favors,” Rarity huffed as she picked up her pace, completely oblivious to the difficulties her friend was having maintaining a full gallop pace for such an extended period of duress.

“All right, *huff* but can we slow down?!” Fluttershy felt as though her heart would burst as she gasped for desperately-needed air. Her vision began to blur, and each breath felt like fire in her lungs; a sign that she had overworked her naturally frail frame. “We’ve been *huf* galloping for the *huf* past ten minutes and I— Waugh!” Fluttershy tripped over her hooves and tumbled to the hard ground below, and yet Rarity took note that the pegasus still looked somewhat graceful throughout the ordeal. “I think I need a break.”

With a sigh, Rarity ceased her galloping mid-stride and trotted back to her fallen friend, offering a helping hoof. Fluttershy took it with a sheepish smile, recovering unsteadily to a stand. Rarity grinned weakly at her friend and pondered her situation very carefully. Her next move was vital, and—if not properly calculated—could prove to be her last. What she needed right now was equine resources, more so than what her current companion could contribute. I need somepony who can provide more aid than ...well... Rarity watched with disappointment as Fluttershy was swept away crying and apologizing in a passing crowd of ponies. However the pegasus ended up working for the Apple Family was beyond the fashionista’s comprehension.

Rarity shook her head disapprovingly, while her lips fell into a slight frown. Her expression changed almost instantly when a poster plastered on a nearby wall caught her eye. As she drew closer, the words and the images on the poster became clearer and clearer.

Of course, why didn’t it occur me before?! Vinyl owes me for all of those tacky...ugh... rave outfits she’s freeloaded off me for the past year. I’ll just pay her a visit and pull in a “down payment.” Besides, if there’s anypony who can help right now, it would be her. “Fluttershy, we’re— Fluttershy?” Rarity noted that Fluttershy had mysteriously disappeared and whipped her head around, searching for her fellow element-bearer.

“Rarity, help!”

Of course... Rarity rolled her eyes as she observedFluttershy, who was presently being swept away by an even thicker crowd of ponies than the last, but fortunately they were headed in the direction Rarity needed to go as well.

Seven years. Seven long, hard years of workin’ my way to the top, makin’ my reputation as the best earthpony hit-stallion in the Crossheart Syndicate. Markus the Meat Grinder, that name used to put fear into the hearts of all those chumps who dared to cross the Godsire. I was the don’s left-hoof colt for cryin’ out loud, and then when the organization collapses, I joins this “Mistress Solaris” dame, and I’ve been reduced to... to... this!

“Okay, you with the stupid face, like, what is this?” The source of these belittlings emanated from a pink filly sporting a diamond tiara that sat atop her white-striped purple mane. The filly presently gestured to a simple bowl of oatmeal resting on a tray next to her on the four-poster style bed she presently lay on.

Okay Markus, calm down, she’s just a kid... I can handle kids. If I can kill five stallions without breakin’ a sweat or battin’ an eye, I can handle a kid. “Look kid—”

“‘Kid’? My name isn’t ‘kid’. I am a big pony and demand to be treated as such.” The filly crossed her forelegs, turning her snout upwards before resuming her reprimand “Now, say it right.”

Markus grit his teeth so hard that a small crunch from his tooth chipping could be heard.You wanna be treated like a big pony, I’ll gut you like a big pony you snotty little—

“I’m waaaaaitiiiinng...”

Do not kill this kid... do not kill this kid... “Ms. Diamond Tiara, I—”

“Is that how you address your superior, Marco? If you don’t get it right, I’ll tell Octy on you...”

Just suck it up... she’s just a brat... c’mon Markus, you can do this. “Ms. Agent of Cruelty Diamond Tiara,” he managed to spit out through grit teeth.

The filly turned her glare back to Markus and snorted her acknowledgement with a simple but irritated: “What?”

“It’s oatmeal, and your dinner, and I worked really hard on it so, you know, eat it so you can grow up big and, uh, stuff...” Markus, convinced that he’d gotten his point across, breathed a sigh of relief that would find itself facing a premature demise.

Diamond Tiara looked at the dish, then at Markus, and wordlessly slapped the bowl of oatmeal off the table. The stallion watched as five years of refined culinary technique filled with sleepless nights, and twenty-five minutes over a hot stove were sent spilling across the floor splattering across the stallion’s legs in a matter of seconds. “I’m not eating that mud, Marco. Now go out and get me some zap apple jam with sweet bread.”

I spent so long on that oatmeal... I’ve gotten praise from top chefs on that dish...kill... little... brat... no. No, just give the little monster what it wants, kill it later.

“Uh, Marco, did I stutter?”

“No, Lady Cruelty I—”

“I don’t think I stuttered, and if I didn’t stutter, why are you still here?”

“Becau—”

“I’m sorry, Marco, but I can’t hear ponies who don’t have zap apple jam. Try again when you have some.” Diamond Tiara waved Markus off with hoof before she rolled over in her bed.

Sinister thoughts rebounded in Markus’ mind before he finally decided to leave after a bout of staring daggers into the small, sleeping lump concealed by a blanket before him. He’d prefer to drive those daggers in by hoof, but that could wait for another day. Right now, he had to find a store in Canterot that still had zap apple jam in stock; the stuff was out of season by three months, after all. Maybe a little time away from this brat will do me some good as well,He mused to himself as he trotted out the door

After having fished Fluttershy from the sea of busy Canterlotians and wandering aimlessly around Canterlot for the better half of an hour, Rarity stood in front of a door bearing the music note insignia of a certain D.J.'s Cutie Mark, a pair of headphones were etched in around the music note, giving off a wreath effect.

Rarity knew what would happen the moment she knocked on this door; the effect would be akin to focusing a pandora’s box on her every pet-peeve. In her mind’s eye, she could already see the mountain of old pizza boxes, old magazines strewn about chaotically, a few roaches and parasprites on the floor to accompany some pulsing mold in a corner, and, to top it off, extraordinary amounts of dust. The very thought sent shivers down her spine, and began eroding her resolve, which, like a phoenix, rose from the ashes when her mind drifted back to the peril her friends were in. No! I will not be dissuaded by some small amount of dirt. The lives of my friends depend on this, and if I must trudge through Vinyl’s pigsty of a house, then so be it.

Rarity faced the door with a look of iron-willed determination in her eyes. Tensing her hoof, she brought it down with the force of a queen, three times in succession, and stood her ground. She was adamant, unshakable, unmoving like a mountain as she heard hoof-falls drawing nearer with each passing second. As the door handle turned, the fashionista swallowed a lump in her throat and clenched her eyes, expecting the absolute worst sins of the world to come pouring through that door and destroy her sense of smell. The door crept slowly open, inch by inch, and the tension was beginning to kill Rarity. Can’t...handle...it... Rarity fainted and collapsed on the doorstep as the scent of the dwelling slithered towards her nostrils like the hypnotic movements of an asp, slowly enveloping her in a scent only fit for hell itself. As it turns out, hell smells like lemon and vanilla leaf extract.

“Who the buck knocked? How many cacti must I throw before you get it through your thick skulls that I ain’t payin’ for your crappy filly-scout cookies— Oh, what’s up, Rarity?” called a tomboyish voice from the doorway. Rarity recovered to the voice and likeness of the one and only Vinyl Scratch levitating a cereal bowl before herself. Vinyl levitated a spoonful of cereal towards her mouth as she watched as Rarity recover from her earlier prat-fall.

“Oh, Vinyl, how good to see you. You see, something has come up, and I need to pull in a favor since, you know: you owe me so many bits I practically own you.”

Vinyl chewed the mouthful of cereal in an amused fashion as she watched a particularly hot pink maned, yellow pegasus stumble out from behind Rarity, drawing closer while mumbling something only a dog could make out. “.................................... I hope we can be friends...” muttered the unfamiliar pony before Vinyl.

“ Okay... Rarity, who’s this cutie, and what’s she saying?”

“Vinyl, this is Fluttershy, and I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for introductions at the moment, something terrible, no, catastrophically awful, neigh, abysmally abhorable, n—”

“Rarity, I get it. You and your mare-friend here are having a little trouble in the boudoirs, and you decided that the only way to solve this issue is to get a little Vinagé à trois* action right? Fortunately for you and especially you, mon cheri,” Vinyl took the opportunity to cast a crimson-eyed wink at Fluttershy, “you’ve come to the right place. Please, come in.” Vinyl motioned behind herself with a forehoof, inviting the pair into her apartment.

Rarity rolled her eyes and nudged Fluttershy to start moving into the house following suit shortly after. Much to her own surprise, the entirety of the single-story apartment looked as though it had been attacked by a detergent-filled hurricane of some sort. Vinyl lead the pair into her living room, which was filled to the brim with all sorts of television sets, linked up to several desktop computers that were much smaller and more compact than the ancient apparatuses Twilight kept in the library’s basement back in Ponyville. The only furniture in the room came in the form of a black leather couch and a coffee table with what appeared to be a computer even smaller than the ones strewn about the room. Hmm, that must be one of those “videogame” consoles Sweetie-Belle is always bothering me about. Rarity trotted up to the machine and started gazing about at the various cases and discs that adorned the table. Haylo, Tales of Harmony, Assassin’s Steed... why would anypony bother with such things?

“So, what can good ole’ DJ Pon-3 help you out with, on the slight chance that it might considerably lower my debt?”

“Well Vinyl, I can’t say that it will move you out of the red, but I need your skills as a what was it you called it again... you know the thing you do with computers... what was the name for that again... snacker... jacker.. yes that was it I think.”

Fluttershy spoke up softly to correct her friend “Uh, Rarity, I think what you mean to say is ‘hacker’ which implies that Miss Scratch over here is proficient at finding the weaknesses and backdoors of an otherwise well-guarded computer system... what?” Rarity stared at Fluttershy, somewhat impressed that she knew such information off the top of her head, having lived on the edge of the Everfree Forest without any electricity for the better part of her life.

“Uhhh... right , whatever any of that means... do you think you can help, Vinyl?”

"What do you think I am, a script-filly? Pfftt... Vinyl Scratch makes her own code from Scratch, thank you very much. So, who’s the unlucky chump I’m about to crack like a walnut?" Vinyl asked while taking another bite of her cereal.

“Princess Celestia, and the Royal Guard Corp.”

Almost immediately Vinyl found out that the bite of cereal she had just trapped in her gluttonous maw would be liberated at a high velocity and on the face of Rarity no less. “Wait, you mean the Princess Celestia, or some other Princess Celestia? because, well, there’s hacking, and then there’s ordering your own execution from the comfort and safety of your own home, which is an option I don’t normally consider to be very good for my life-span. I’m allergic to death you know.”

“And I’m allergic to having unpaid debts, Vinyl. In fact, Fluttershy is the one who diagnosed me with said allergy: what are my symptoms, dear?”

“I think you said... when your allergies act up, the interest rates on the money you’re owed goes up greatly, and eventually dirt starts piling up so high that the poor mule will never be able to dig themself out of the hole that they made... or something like that.”

Vinyl glared daggers at Rarity. “You are just the worst kind of pony, you know that?” the musician hissed.

Rarity smirked and returned fire. “You are just the best kind of debt-monkey, you know that?”

“Rrrrrggg... okay, fine, fine. Can I at least know why I’m about to sign in and sign my life away before-hoof?”

Rarity sighed and recounted the events that transpired at the Castle, from the case she was working on, to the point when Celestia went berzerk and attacked Luna and Twilight, and even giving in to the supposition that the others may have been captured as well. The fashionista finished recounting her tale, and cast her gaze at Vinyl, who responded by charging her horn, triggering every one of the computers and television screens in the room.

“Sounds like a heavy load, Rar’, but don’t you worry: code junky Vinyl Scratch has got your back.”

“Thanks Vinyl, but I have another favor I must ask of you.”

“Will it get me out of the red?”

“Hmmm... let’s just say you won’t be in quite as deep a shade if you can help me out.”

Vinyl shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head slightly as she answered. ‘What choice to I have? What do you need, anyhow?”

“Well, you were in the EIB a few years back, correct?”

“Well, somepony certainly enjoys poking around in the files back at their office, don’t they?”

“Rarity ignored the rhetorical question and continued voicing her request, “How much of your gear do you still have on you?”

“Ha! Please Rarity, do you know how many ponies I’ve got on the inside keeping me up to date? Yeah, I’ve got all kinds of gear, some of it new and some of it old. It’s in the back room; help yourself.”

“Thank you Vinyl, this brings you down to some regular shade of red, but that’s only because I’ve decided to be so generous,” Rarity said as she began trotting towards the backroom of the house.

“Generous my flank...” Vinyl grumbled. “So how much less do I owe now?”

Rarity shouted from behind the wall to respond “Five thousand bits off your debt Vinyl.” The DJ pumped a victorious hoof in the air at this news. “Now, if you’ll excuse me dear, I’m going to need to find some quality gear in this heap.”

Vinyl was so ecstatic at this new she began singing under her breath in joy

“I owe-less mo-ney! To that stuck-up Ra-Rity! Uhn! I owe less—”

“Soo.. Ms. Scratch?” Fluttershy called from the far side of the couch.

“Yes little cutie, what can I do for you?” Vinyl was now in the process of swinging her arms in conjunction, performing the dance known as “the cabbage patch.”

“How much money do you owe Rarity?”

Vinyl stopped her hooves mid-rotation and sank glumly back into the couch. “Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred bits... *sigh* with a monthly seven percent interest...” Dismally Vinyl levitated the spoon from her cereal bowl towards her mouth and grimaced; the contents of the bowl had turned soggy, just like her short-lived victory.

In the darkened streets of late evening Canterlot, Markus wandered aimlessly, trying to track down a store that still had zap apple jam in stock, as he silently cursed his luck via inner monologue.

Where the buck am I supposed to find this zap apple jam? I’ve been out here for hours lookin’ for this crud. Aggghhh! Why couldn’t that dumb kid just be satisfied with that oatmeal? Buck it.... BUCK IT! No point in gripin’ Markus, just find the jam and be done with her until the ritual... oh buck... I forgot the ritual! That Mistress Solaris broad ain’t gonna be too pleased if I come in late. Better hurry this up then— The sound of shattering glass from a nearby alleyway broke his train of thought.

What the buck? Markus fixed his eyes on the alleyway, scanning for anything out of place. The noise had put him on edge, and he didn’t want to be taken off-guard by something he couldn’t see. Wait, what’s that? A wad of old newspapers behind a dumpster began shifting and rustling, prompting Markus to spring into action. He galloped into the alleyway shouting and on the offensive “Who’s there huh? Show yaself!” The newspaper rustled one last time, and Markus pounced on it and swatted it to the side, revealing a family of frightened looking rats huddled around each other as they looked up into his face.

“Just some buckin’ rats...” Markus muttered to himself, while raising a hoof and driving it straight down on one of the surlier rodents. “Gettin’ worked up over nothin... better get back to findin’ that brat’s stupid jam before Mistress Solaris kills me... for bein’ so late to the sacrifice ceremony.” Without another word he trotted back to the streets in search of the ever-elusive zap apple jam.

The rats, however, gathered around their fallen brother in a melancholy fashion, locked in some silent, mutually unspoken prayer. The air among the rodents was tense, and full of anger; as much as they wanted to avenge the fallen rat, they knew innately that they didn’t have the means or the numbers to do anything about it. After a moment, one rat stood above the rest, casting a gaze around at the remainder of his family, and shortly after he began sniffing the air. There was a tinge of something unfamiliar in the air, it was a scent not of the city. The aroma was of flowers and spring water, but to the rat it smelled like understanding and patience. Without another moment of hesitation, the rat raced through the city to find the source. His family gave chase as well, curious as to what could have set one of their kin off like such.

“—and that is kit number six. All done! I better see if Vinyl has made any headway with her search.” Rarity said to nopony in particular as she completed her raid of Vinyl’s equipment cache. She took great care in preparing each of the tactical kits for herself, Fluttershy and the others, taking into account their unique modi operandi*. Fortunately, Vinyl was up-to-date and overstocked with most of her gear, which allowed Rarity to construct each kit in a timely fashion.

Twilight worked simply and relied on her magic to handle operations, so Rarity prepared a medium-weight tactical vest with dragon-scale plating, with two daggers as offensive weaponry.

Rainbow Dash seemed to have a knack for utilizing firearms, even if she claimed to hate them, so in favor of this long-range fighting style, Rarity loaded up a repeating-style ring-trigger rifle, one hoof-pistol, and a couple of particularly odd devices that Rainbow Dash was certain to find a use for: storm clouds preserved in transparent rubber containers. They were beautiful to look at, though they sparked and crackled with electricity every so often. In terms of armor, she picked a kevlar-based pegasus armor with holes for the wings.

For Applejack, Rarity packed with the mindset of a brute and came up with an equipment set that would assist the cow-filly’s melee combat approach: a lightweight tactical vest intended to stop melee weaponry made from that most barbaric of materials: leather, a pair of cleated horseshoes, a lasso, and a new Stetson hat that Vinyl had lying about for some strange reason.

In the interest of Pinkie Pie, Rarity dumped the contents of the wall carrying a plethora of grenades (both tactical and lethal), plastic explosives, mortar rounds and various other explosive devices indiscriminately into a bag, rummaged through some old boxes to find a top-of-the-line stun baton, and lastly a similar vest to the one she found for Applejack.

For Fluttershy, Rarity prepared several empty syringes, a scalpel, various rubbing alcohols, antiseptics, and some vials of morphine and adrenaline. Even if Fluttershy was lacking in combat ability, she had uncanny medical knowledge, and that would certainly find its use during the operation.

As for herself, Rarity liberated the majority of Vinyl’s private gem collection (since by technicality she essentially owned Vinyl and therefore owned these gems by association) to compliment her gem manipulation spells, and outfitted herself with a standard E.I.B. black tactical vest, after stitching her cutie-mark onto the back of it for the sake of standing out amongst the others..

After double checking everything, Rarity concentrated her magic through her horn and focused the surge outwards enveloping four of the bags of equipment, and with another push she cast them into a pocket dimension spell of her own design that she pioneered for her various shopping trips in Manehatten. A spell she dubbed “Hammer Space.” Ahhh.... convenience, I just—

“AUGH! What the- why the- how the- g-g-get them outta here, why are there so many! Shoo, get away, get out of here now!” Vinyl’s screaming had interrupted Rarity’s thoughts, prompting the fashionista into action as she seized the other two kits via telekinesis, and galloped into the room where she’d left Vinyl and Fluttershy.

Aside from Vinyl clinging desperately to a ceiling fan, the room was in the same order as when she left, the soft humming of computers, no over-turned furniture, no broken windows, Fluttershy talking to eight rats in a corner of the room. Rats? Rarity trotted closer to her friend picking up on bits and pieces of the conversation between Fluttershy and the rodents.

“Oh, that’s just awful Mr. Rat, I’m sorry for your loss, but I just don’t know how I can help.”

“Squeak squeak squeak squeak,” replied the rat.

“Well, that’s an awful good description of who did it, Mr.Rat, and I’d love to help you, but our friends are in danger and we need to find them before anything bad happens to them. I hope you understand.”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak,squeak, squeak.”

“Ohhh... all right, but I can’t promise we’ll be able to do anything about it right now.”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.”

“Fluttershy dear, what could possibly possess you to carry a conversation with a,” Rarity grimaced to show her visual disgust before uttering the last word of her inquiry, “rat?”

“Well, umm... he says that one of his brothers was killed earlier tonight by a pony with a sun-brand over his cutie mark, and that the murderer was talking about some sacrifice ceremony being held by a Mistress Solaris. I don’t know what that has to do with us though.”

“Wait a minute, did you just say Mistress Solaris?” Vinyl called, still gripping the ceiling fan for dear life.

“Yes, why?”

“Because— Waugh!” The ceiling fan gave way under Vinyl’s weight and sent the two crashing to the floor below with a nasty “Thud!” sound.

“My goodness, Miss Vinyl, are you okay?”

“I- I’m okay... anyhow, I was reading through some e-mails on Celestia’s private server, and that name came up a few times, but I didn’t read anything about a sacrifice ritual.”

Rarity looked at Vinyl, and then at Fluttershy, her mind swimming with possibilities and logical connections as she processed the information she just received and she arrived at a proper plan of action. “Fluttershy, suit up,” she instructed, levitating Fluttershy’s kit over to its owner. “After you’re done, I need you to discern the location of that stallion from those rats.”

“Understood Rarity.”

Vinyl, I’ll need to keep in constant contact with you, do you remember how to cast and establish a mental link spell?”

“Pffft! That’s foal stuff Rarity,” Vinyl chided as she ignited her horn, an eerie red aura overtaking the medium. Rarity did likewise, and the two touched their horns to each other’s, resulting in a slight rain of purple sparks.

Vinyl, can you hear me?

Loud and clear ,over. Wait, this sounds so cool; I want to try something! DJ PON-3 droppin’ the beat! Unt-tiss, unt-tiss, unt-tiss—

Idiot... Rarity rolled her eyes and she began suiting up in her own kit as well.

*Growl*... It’s not everyday I get to watch two beautiful mares get dressed in my room, I may as well enjoy it... Rarity, are you sure you wouldn’t rather sport a saddle for me instead?

Vinyl dear, with the financial deficit you’re in right now, you couldn’t afford it. Rarity sold that thought with wink and her attention back to Fluttershy who was carrying on a conversation with the family of rats. “Fluttershy, can they help us find our stallion?”

The head rat began tugging Fluttershy’s leg in an urgent fashion while pointing outside frantically. “Yes Rarity, in fact I think they want us to go follow them right now.”

“Are you two sure you don’t want to call any backup from E.I.B. headquarters?”

“What would we tell them? That we’re going to confront the Princess Celestia, who established the organization in the first place, not mention is also the sole and unquestioned monarch presiding over equestria?”

“Touché...” There was a shared silence between the two for a moment, before Rarity broke it.

“Vinyl.”

“Yes, Rarity?”

Keep us informed if you find anything, and keep yourself armed just in case they trace anything back to you, all right?”

“You sounded legitimately concerned for my well-being for a moment there Rarity. Methinks you could possibly have some feelings for the irresistible Vinyl Scratch?” Vinyl prodded with a cocked eyebrow.

Rarity on the other hoof chuckled at Vinyl’s sentiments before responding, “Haha! Oh Vinyl dear, please don’t flatter yourself; I’m simply trying to ensure the well-being of one of my investments. I would hate to be out such a large sum of bits because of some minor inconvenience like your death,” Rarity relied flirtatiously with a wink.

Vinyl stood slack-jawed in disbelief at what she just heard, but was even more dumbfounded by what Rarity did next. The fashionista trotted up to Vinyl and planted a kiss on the DJs cheek before giggling and turning to Fluttershy. “But... I... I... uh... wha-huh?” Vinyl stammered.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy gawked as her face turned a shade of crimson even under her yellow coat.

“Oh, by the way, Vinyl?” Rarity called over her shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“You’re one hundred bits deeper in the red for that kiss. Come on Fluttershy, let’s track down that stallion, shall we?” Rarity adorned herself in a cloak from her kit and pulled the hood up over her head.

Futtershy did likewise before replying. “Right.” The timid pegasus turned to the family of rats. “Mr. Rat, can you lead us to the stallion you mentioned?”

The rat nodded ecstatically and led the two mares out of the house and into the darkened streets of Canterlot, leaving behind a very disoriented, confused, and in-debt-for-the-next-five-years computer-savvy DJ behind them.

That little troll of a filly better be happy with this, that zap apple crap was expensive as buck, in addition to being impossible to find. Glancing up a nearby clock tower, he was relieved to find that the time was only 8:20. The ritual started at 10:30 sharp and Mistress Solaris expected all of her subjects to be present; she was even going so far as to have a massive headcount to ensure that all two thousand members of the children of the sun were present.

Thinking of nothing more than the fastest route back to the Colosseum, Markus picked his pace up from a trot to a canter, completely oblivious to the entourage of two cloaked ponies and several rats he had unknowingly acquired in his haste.

I just gotta get that brat fed, and then I can— Markus whipped around quickly, adopting a defensive stance and scanning the streets behind him for the eyes he felt burning into the back of his head. The street was empty save for a few ponies going about their business, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. After scrutinizing the street for another moment, the most he saw was a few rats that stared at him for a few moments before scurrying into a nearby alleyway.

Agh! Here I am still gettin’ worked up over a couple of rats. I think I’ve been in this business too long. I might need to start lookin’ for another line of work after this ‘Children of the sun’ nonsense is behind me.

Had Markus paid attention to the streets behind himself for a moment longer, he would have noticed a slight silver shimmer under the streets lights. But instead he resumed his canter back to the Colosseum on the outskirts of town.

Rarity and Fluttershy followed the stallion that the rats had led them to, concealed by an illusion-spell conjured by Rarity, and eventually they arrived at the Canterlot Colosseum, which was supposed to be closed for at least another three months until the next Equestria-Wide Iron Pony competition was to be held. Needless to say, something was fishy about this whole ordeal. The pair watched as the stallion they’d been tailing from earlier trotted into the ruins, further confirming that something suspicious was going down.

Vinyl, this is Rarity. I need you to look something up for me.

And what, pray tell, might that be?

I need you to look up the layout of the Canterlot Colosseum to find the most likely place where our friends are being kept.

Got it boss lady, give me a minute... okay, here we go. Huh, hey get this: The building itself is over a thousand years old, and there’s been countless renovations made to it over the years, but everything essentially stayed the same.

And to me that means...?

What it means is that back in old equestria, ponies , gryphons, zebras and the like who were prisoners of war or slaves were destined to fight in the Colosseum, and the place where they kept the prisoners was in some underground dungeon. But they never removed the dungeon in the interest of preserving a historical site. My guess is that your friends are in that dungeon.

That would make sense, thank you Vinyl. How do we get down there though?

Hmmm... can’t find any existing routes on this map... I’ll let you know if I find anything though.

I don’t think that will be necessary Vinyl.

What makes you say that?

Oh, I’ve got this feeling that we’ll be able to find them fairly quick, dear.Rarity cast her gaze over to Fluttershy who was busy conversing with some of the local field mice. “Fluttershy dear, I need you to ask your new friends something, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Oh, sure Rarity, what do you need?”

“Ask them if they know anything about any underground chambers, would you?”

“Right away Rarity,” Fluttershy said as she turned to face the field mice again. “Ummm, Mr. Mouse, do you know your way around that place over there?” Fluttershy inquired while gesturing to the Colosseum.

“Squeak squeak squeak.”

“Rarity, he says yes and that he also saw a bunch of ponies carrying four ponies that fit our friend’s descriptions. He also says he’ll lead us down there.”

“You really got all of that information from three squeaks?”

"Ummm..." The two mares shared a moment of awkward silence before Fluttershy broke it and urged the mouse to lead them into the ruins. The mouse took the pair through the lower levels of the structure eventually guiding them into the vast and dark catacombs below. In this cavern, stalagmites hung from the ceiling, while streams of filth and brackish water trailed by unhindered. Rarity focused on her horn and eventually lit up the area around herself and Fluttershy while the mouse continued to press forth in the darkness.

Eventually, the pitch dark of the cave was broken up due to a line of strategically placed lanterns leading to singular well-illuminated door with four stallions standing outside. Almost reflexively, Rarity put up her cloaking spell, encompassing Fluttershy as well, but a voice from the other side of the hall told the unicorn that she had begun casting the spell a little too late. “Well, well, well; it looks as though we have some vermin scurrying about in our labyrinth. Please, there’s no need to hide yourself; we already know you’re here.”

“Tsk...” Begrudgingly, Rarity revoked her illusions and focused her attention on the other side of the hall, as a mare carrying a case in her mouth trotted casually from around the corner, stopping in front of the guards.

The mare dropped the case to the ground and kicked it open before continuing. “Ahhh, if it isn’t the two from the castle earlier today, my master was not at all pleased to when you two escaped from the castle earlier, but fret not, you won’t be giving a repeat performance; not while I’m around.”

“And you are?”

“The Agent of Anguish: Octavia. Please allow me to serenade you on your way to the afterlife.”

Rarity didn’t notice it before, but a filly stood alongside Octavia, a filly she recognized as one of Sweetie Belle’s friends. “What’s this? Has your organization stooped to the level of mere foal-nappers?”

A shrill cackling laughter erupted from the hostile faction but it didn’t come from Octavia or the guards that stood behind her. “Foal-napped? Are you kidding me? Getting foal-napped is for losers like your blank-flank sister! I want to be here!”

“Diamond Tiara, surely you can’t mean that; now come over here to Fluttershy and myself and we’ll make sure you get home safely.”

“Oh, I’m sorry cobbler*, were you addressing moi*? Then you best call me by the title granted to me by Mistress Solaris herself: Agent of Cruelty Diamond Tiara.” Diamond Tiara beamed proudly as informed the lesser knaves who stood slack-jawed at the other side of the cavern. “And there’s no way in hay you two can take Octy; she’s the best!”

Octavia smirked at her partner’s outburst, and reached into her case to pull out her violin. As she rose the violin to her chin and prepared to slide the bow across the strings, an ear piercing shriek echoed throughout the cave causing the musician to drop her instruments and cup her hoofs to her ears. The scream’s point of origin being the pegasus who had said nothing up to this point. “Mr...Mr. Mouse... you... killed... him...”

Fluttershy’s eyes were fixed on small red puddle oozing out from beneath the hooves of one of the guards, and sure enough there was a small pink tail that distinguished itself from the remainder of the puddle. the sight of her murdered friend was enough to trigger some emotions she thought she had put behind her years ago, as an uncontrollable rage over took her, causing the pegasus to shake violently while tears hot tears streamed down her face, staining her fur.

“Honestly, you interrupted my playing over some silly rat? That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?” spat Octavia.

Fluttershy was trembling all over, the whole time never taking her eyes off of the small red puddle on the floor. Rarity placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder to offer some kind of support, but Fluttershy gently pushed it off with her own. “Rarity, get back.”

This took the unicorn off guard,. “Fluttershy, what are you talking abou—”

“I said get back, I don’t want you to get caught up in this...” Fluttershy punctuated her statement by pulling out two of the empty syringes from her tactical vest pockets and began muttering something to herself, “...an air embolism is the result of an air bubble that has traveled through the blood stream via the cardiovascular system, if it reaches the heart or the brain, it can potentially result in heart attack, stroke or death depending on the amount that reaches the targeted area.”

“Fluttershy what are you talking about? We need to figure out how to deal with them!”

“Let’s see what happens when we inject air directly to the brain and the heart,” Fluttershy mumbled while crouching in a predatory stance and stretching her wings.

Rarity blinked in disbelief at what she was hearing and who she was hearing it from, Fluttershy’s voice carried a hint of malice and even murderous intent; two synonyms that, on average, were never used in conjunction with Fluttershy’s name. “Flutte—huh?” In the time it took for Rarity to blink three times Fluttershy had cleared half the distance between herself and the stallion who murdered her mouse friend, the sounds of metal clashing on stone trailing the pegasus with every meter she cleared. Fluttershy paid the sounds behind her no mind as she zipped through the corridor, but Rarity on the other hoof took note of a spear of solid metal that rapidly extended itself upward, glinting in the faint latern-light before retracting itself into the shadows.. This area is full of traps! Small wonder they chose to defend here...

Octavia watched in awe as Fluttershy barreled towards the stallions guarding the door. The musician hadn’t taken into account the fact that, moving quickly enough, somepony could probably outmaneuver the traps, and was further awed as Fluttershy crashed into the door-stallion who wore her mouse friend’s blood on his hoof, and drove both of her syringes downwards through his ears, following up the attack by pounding her hooves on the plungers. The stallion kicked and fought throughout the encounter, but eventually the kicking and screaming turned into a freak spasming seizure as the air bubbles took effect.

Fluttershy removed herself from the dying stallion and glared at the five remaining onlookers as she began to stomp her way forward. One of the guard stallions regained his composure quicker than the rest. “You got lucky, mare! I’ll make you pay for that!” He shouted as he charged recklessly at Fluttershy, rearing up and swinging his his hooves clumsily, trying to hit the mare. Fluttershy swam through his attacks, bobbing and weaving, watching for an opening that came in the form of a clumsily thrown haymaker. Fluttershy enterprised on her opponent’s wide opening by ducking low, reaching into her vest and pulling out another empty syringe which she jammed into his chest cavity around where she estimated his heart to be. The stallion fell to the ground moments later suffering the same fate as his predecessor.

Fluttershy faced the remaining two door stallions and the two agents, rage fueling every fiber of her being as she affixed a cold gaze to the group. She felt powerful in this instance, their frightened gazes fueling the euphoria coursing through her veins. She channeled all of the energy felt at this moment into her eyes and released what her friends had dubbed “The Stare.” The two stallions before her sank to their knees, and puked under the pressure of the stare, but Fluttershy only kept up the pressure, and eventually she broke their will to remain conscious, consequently causing them to pass out in the puddles of their own excrement.

Diamond Tiara was helpless in the face of “The Stare,” but fortunately Octavia managed to regain her focus just long enough to break eye contact with Fluttershy. “Diamond Tiara, we’re retreating; there is no sense in fighting a battle we can’t win, let’s go!” Octavia seized the bewitched filly by the tail with her teeth, and sank into the shadows, her galloping hoofsteps echoing through the dark corridors.

A bewildered Rarity trotted up moments later, surrounded by a field of colorless gems coursing with an electrical blue energy that fell to the ground and shattered as soon as she released the spell. She looked down at the gray gems and frowned, she had used up all of the magic those gems possessed traversing the spike trapped hallway. Thinking nothing more of the gems, she looked at the four incapacitated guards then at Fluttershy, her mouth agape in disbelief. “I’m... surprised and impressed Fluttershy, I didn’t think you had any killing intent about you.”

Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane nervously as if she were embarassed by the bodies before her. “I’m so sorry Rarity.”

“Whatever for?”

“I know you and the others try to handle things like this without resorting to murder, but I...I...”

“Fluttershy, it’s okay, I’ve been where you are before, and if I had to judge from your technique this wasn’t your first time either.”

“But, I could have just subdued them, and besides that I let the other two escape.”

“Don’t worry about the two that got away, I’ve got this feeling that we’ll run into them again later. As for the stallions that died here, don’t think to hard about it, you can always repent for the blood on your hooves when we’re done with this mission. But for now, we have to do what we must in order to succeed.”

Fluttershy sighed, a singular tear escaped from her eyes and deposited itself on the dungeon floor. “ Do you really think so, Rarity?”

Rarity smiled in an attempt to raise her friend’s spirits. “I know so, that’s what I’m doing with my life now. You can never wash the blood off your hooves, but you can always make amends for it . Now come on, I think our friends have waited long enough, don’t you?”

Fluttershy nodded and picked up a ring of three keys that resided on the ground next to one of the deceased stallions. She floated over to the door, pushing the keys in with a dull click! Before pushing the door inwards to reveal a torchlit chamber filled with ancient looking jail cells, rusting metal bars, wet granite floor, and all.

Rarity stepped into the dank room and grimaced immediately when she breathed in the stale dusty air. “If they were doing renovations in this whole Colosseum, why couldn’t have at least put forth the effort to hang up an air freshener...”

As Rarity and Fluttershy trotted through the rows of cages they squinted through the faint light provided by the torches into each cage that was proving to be emptier than the next save for the bones of prisoners long since deceased. “Twilight? Are you in here? Is anypony down here?”

“Hey, who’s that?” Called a familiar voice from a few cells down the hall.

Rarity wasn’t about to take any chances however so she issued the verbal challenge of the day “Lovely weather we’re having isn’t it?”

“....what the buck are you talking about weather?”

“Ooh! Ooh! Rainbow Dash, I know this one: It’s pickle. Did I get it right Rarity? Did I? Did I? Huh?”

“…Pinkie Pie, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well, Ah reckon it doesn’t gotta make a lot of sense to be one of them challenge passwords things y’all use does it?”

Rarity grinned as she and Fluttershy trotted to the cage, these were her friends all right, she didn’t need the challenge answer to know that. “So what are you girls in for?”

“Ha ha Rarity, will you just get us out of here?” Rainbow Dash spat.

“Hmm.... I don’t know... you didn’t say the magic word...”

“Now, or you’ll be reprimanded when we’re done with this mission.”

“That doesn’t sound like please...”

Through grit teeth Rainbow Dash managed to utter the word “hnnng... uhhh.. ugh...please...”

“That’s more like it!” the unicorn sang as she levitated the key into its hole and gave it a twist.

Rainbow Dash was the first to rush out of the cramped cell as she began stretching and flexing her wings in celebration of her new-found freedom.

Twilight and the others trotted out shortly after embracing Fluttershy and Rarity in a tight hug. Twilight spoke first after “How did you find us, and where are we?”

“This area is just below the Colosseum, and as for how we found you, let’s just say I’m now officially fond of having ponies indebted to me and rats.”

“Twilight, how come you didn’t just use magic to get out of the cell?” Fluttershy inquired.

“Oh right, I forgot; they put this on me,” Twilight touched a hoof to her horn and tapped on the magic-insulator that was attached to it. With a sheepish grin she turned to Rarity “A little help please?”

Rarity channeled magic through her horn and touched the medium to the device on Twilight’s horn, causing it to short circuit and fall off. “Thanks Rarity.”

“It’s no problem at all Twilight. Now if it pleases you all, I’ve brought presents as well!” the blue light around Rarity’s horn intensified as she reached out to her hammer space dimension and pulled out the remaining four supply kits, each of them color coded just for her teammates.

“Awww shucks Rar’, you shouldn’t have, but Ah’m glad ya did.” Applejack said while adorning herself with the new Stetson hat.

Pinkie ran and dove at her kit shouting “Pinkie Pie, Transform and Roll out!” as she tackled it into the darkness. A moment passed before any of the mares heard from Pinkie again. “A duffle bag... filled with... so... many... grenades... heh... haha... MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Rainbow Dash trotted up to Rarity fully decked out in her gear with the rifle slung across her back. “You did give her tactical grenades, right?”

Rarity coughed uncomfortably and tried to look away from Rainbow Dash's prying eyes. When she realized she wouldn’t escape the scrutinizing gaze of her superior she tried to spit out the best lie possible. “I was more concerned about your safety than inspecting what I packed for whom, Rainbow Dash, you know how it is, right?”

Rainbow Dash face-hoofed. “You know what? I’ll let it slide this once, but next time make sure you look at what you’re doing, all right?”

Rarity nodded wordlessly.

“Now, how do we get out of here?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

“I’ll find a route out of here.” Twilight chirped up as she began charging her horn with purple energy that exploded forth from her horn in a sphere-like shape as it sank through the walls. A few moments later the magic returned to her horn, instilling her mind with mental blueprints detailing the structure of the catacombs. “Pinkie Pie.”

“Yes,Twilight?”

“Do you think you can use a bomb on that this wall behind me?”

“Are you kidding me? A chance to blow something up and not get chastised for it by sour-pants Dashie? Consider it done! Oh, and Jed suggests you get into cover, unless you think getting caught in an explosion that could defile a dragon would only minorly inconvenience your health.” The others wasted no time piling into a cell at the other end of the hall, as Pinkie went dug through the duffle bag, emerging with two packages and a small remote that she carried in her mouth. She placed the packages along the wall , seized her duffle bag and ran towards the far end of the hallway hiding in an empty cell.

“And here at Wall-Mart we pride ourselves on giving you the biggest bang for your bits, especially during tonight’s big blowout sale!” She cackled as she slammed a hoof down on the detonator. A moment passed and then the silence was filled by the ear-splitting explosion that rocked the catacombs, throwing several rocks around and revealing a passageway behind it.

Twilight was the first one to leave the cell that her friends had taken cover in, scrutinizing the damage through the dust. Just as her spell had told her, there was a passageway behind the now-demolished wall. “Come on girls, if we follow this up we should reach the top of the Colosseum.” One by one, the mares made their way through the passage, the smell of the dank dungeon air slowly filtering out into the scent of the night still in its youth. After pushing away a hatch at the zenith of the passage, the six mares crawled out into a spectators box in the Colosseum where they had a perfect view that overlooked thousands of ponies dressed in robes and cloaks, filling up the stands. The crowd’s attention was fixed on a dais in the shape of a six-pointed star down in the center. On the dais itself stood ten figures: six of which stood at the points of the star, their heads bowed to the figures in the center, one of which was tied to a piece of metal in the shape of a star. In the center stood Princess Celestia herself, surrounded by Princess Luna, who was tied to a piece of metal in the shape of the sun; the statue of discord; and Mayor Mare, who found herself in the same dire straits as Princess Luna.

Princess Celestia began to address the crowd, her horn glowing with magic that amplified her voice tenfold. “Welcome, My Little Ponies, to the beginning of a new era!”

The crowd erupted with a mighty response that rivaled Celestia’s greeting.

“With completion of tonight’s ritual, you and I shall ring in the beginning of a new Equestria!”

The crowd cheered again just as loudly as the last.

“I’m certain you all are just as eager to get this journey to a new world underway, so without further adieu, let the harvest of two thousand souls begin!”

Chapter 14 end

Footnotes- Four-Poster bed- The beds with curtains suspended by four wooden posts.

Vinage à trois- Play on the french word “Ménage à trois “which is french for what basically equates to a threesome .

Modus operandi- latin for Mode of operations

Cobbler- Someone who repairs shoes

Moi- french for “Me”

15: Agents vs Elements

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Dialogue and Scene Revisions By: Starwind Dood

Edited by: TheWattsMan

Act III: Agents of Disharmony

Chapter 15: Elements Vs. Agents

Conflict resolution ultimately boils down to two decisions: talk out the issue and see if peaceful resolution can be achieved by way of logic and peace... or just shut up and fight.

In the spectator seats of the Colosseum, an ecstatic blue unicorn and an irritated earth-pony snacking on zap apple jam sat patiently waiting for the keynote address that would kick off the proceedings of this ceremony.

“Oh my goodness Markus, can you believe it? Right now, you and I are going down as accomplices of one of the greatest acts in equestrian history.”

“Ehhh... I don’t care too much; I’ve had enough excitement in my lifetime. All I care about is if I get away from that little ungrateful brat after this,” Markus explained as he quizzically looked over the jar of rainbow-colored jam and the loaf of sweet bread that never found its way to the intended recipient. It was at that moment that the cloaked pony in the center that the onlookers recognized as their beloved Mistress Solaris began her speech.

“Welcome, My Little Ponies, to the beginning of a new era!”

“YEAH! YOU ROCK MISTRESS!” Skip screamed at the top of his lungs alongside the other two thousand members of the brotherhood who inhabited the stadium, all except one, he noted. “Come on Markus, aren’t you excited for this?”

“Skip, let me tell you something: once you get to be about my age and have done the things that I’ve done, nothing surprises or excites you anymore; this is just a paycheck for me.”

“Ahhh, you’re no fun you stick in the mud.”

“Fairy...” Markus muttered under his breath as he returned his attention to the jar and bread before him.

“With the completion of tonight’s ritual, together, you and I shall ring in the beginning of a new Equestria!”

Once again the inhabitants of the Colosseum sounded off their approval with a chorus of one-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-nine cheers. The two-thousandth was preoccupied with pouring a decent amount of zap apple jam on sweet bread.

“I’m certain you all are just as eager to get this journey to a new world underway, so without further adieu, let the harvest of two thousand souls begin!”

“YEAH! LET’S DO IT! MISTRESS SOLARIS! NEW WORLD ORD— wait, did she say ‘harvest’?”

“Ehh... saw it comin’.” Markus took a bite out of the zap apple jam-covered bread and savored the rich yet simple flavors and textures playing out across his tongue. “Okay, I take back everything I said about that filly: this is way better than my oatmeal... if we weren’t about to die, I’d love to try out a new recipe.”

“Markus did she just say what I think she did?”

“Yeah, she said we’re gonna be harvested, now would you kindly pass me some more of that jam and sweet bread? If I gotta die, I want this jam to tantalize and guide me on my way to the afterlife.”

On the center of the dais, Mistress Solaris began charging golden magic through her horn, and in a matter of seconds the power enveloped her whole body in a radiant aura that could have easily rivaled the light intensity of the sun. A moment later, she raised a hoof and drove it into the dais, sending a shockwave of magic coursing throughout the crowd of spectators. All of the ponies that came into contact with the surge of golden magic became engulfed in a ghostly blue aura. The pegasi sitting in the upper levels, took to the skies to avoid meeting the fates of their ground-based counterparts, but quickly found they were denied the promise of liberation the open sky presented due to a magical barrier. One by one, the pegasi crashed into the barrier and were sent spiraling back to the unforgiving enchanted ground below, taking their airborne brothers and sisters with them as they fell.

Five of the elements of harmony watched in horror as the population of the stadium were, one by one, encased in the blue glow that spread like wild fire. The sixth element of harmony decided to try her hoof at situational humor. “Oooohhhh! They look like giant blue birthday candles! I wonder how many wishes you’d get if you blew them out... what do you girls think?” Pinkie Pie mused aloud, eliciting a facehoof response from Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

“Ah think we need to do somethin’ about this, we cain’t just let em’ be harvested... whatever the hay that means,” Applejack replied.

“We can’t just rush down there either, Applesnack! Or else we’d end up just like them!” Rainbow Dash replied off-hoofedly while rolling her eyes.

Applejack stomped her hoof to the ground in frustration “Rrrgg... Ah know, Ah just... feel so powerless in all this. Dangit!” The farmer shouted throwing her hat to the ground in frustration.

Twilight trotted over to Applejack and placed a hoof on her friends shoulder while levitating the hat off the ground and back onto its owner’s head in a vain attempt to comfort her friend. “Applejack, I understand your frustration, but Rainbow Dash is right, we can’t just rush out there.”

“We have to do something though, Twilight!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“I know, Fluttershy, but you have to understand we don’t even know what we’re dealing with here, and— wait, something’s happening, look!” Twilight pointed a hoof at the dais, where a good number of the blue-aura covered ponies were being drawn towards the caster of the spell, as the golden shockwave retracted back to its caster.

The aura-covered ponies watched in horror as the one they had come to know as Mistress Solaris removed her hood to reveal the smirking face of none other than Princess Celestia, the very pony they believed they would be overthrowing. “Are you not proud, my loyal subjects? Through your sacrifices, together we shall resurrect and join with the most malevolent spirits in equestrian history, and then, with a power unparalleled, we shall lay claim to the Zebra Kingdom, the Gryphon Republic, the Diamond Dog Dynasty, and so on until we have conquered the entire Equis! Rejoice, my little ponies, for through the cost of two thousand souls, we revive the spirits of Nightmare Moon and Discord! It is a small price to pay for absolute order in Equestria, would you not agree?”

Luna couldn’t believe what she was hearing or who she was hearing it from. Her sister, the benevolent monarch and keeper of the sun, was planning to inflict the plague of two of the most dreaded spirits in equestria upon her own subjects. “Sister, please cease this madness, there is no need to do this, you're--”

“About to bring a coup one thousand years in the making to fruition, dearest Luna.”

“But Tia, I--”

“Enough chatter! My plan will not be delayed!” With another push of magical energy, the mass of blue ponies began swirling in a narrowing arc that slowly began to resemble a ghastly azure whirlpool as it descended towards Celestia. Mayor Mare could only watch in horror from her restraints as the former inhabitants of the Colosseum began branching off into twin streams that began pouring themselves into Luna and the statue of Discord, triggering an immediate transformation from the Princess of the night, while the statue, on the other hoof, began cracking and shattering, revealing a strange amalgamation of colors underneath. Celestia turned away from the scene before turning to one of the cloaked figures on the dais. “Betrayal, I see that five of the six agents are ready for the next stage of the ritual, but Avarice seems reluctant to accept his role. Rectify this, now.”

Zecora bowed in compliance to Celestia, before seizing a burlap sack that sat beside her as she trotted up to Spike who fought and pulled against his restraints with the little might he possessed. “No, you can't do this! I won't let you!”

“Since it is your pure greed that my master requires, I shall have to stimulate your draconian desires. It would be in absolutely terrible taste if these gifts of gemstones I were forced to waste.” Zecora reached into the sack and produced a particularly radiant and beautifully cut diamond, brandishing it before Spike, immediately captivating the dragon's attention. “I wonder what this is we have here, such a beautiful stone, so radiant and so clear? Perhaps there is more of them in this bag, the pilfered possessions of some thief's swag?” Zecora playfully waved the diamond in front of Spike's eyes, and caressed his cheeks with the stone, sending shivers of excitement through his tiny body.

“M-more g-gemstones?” The dragon's eyes darted between Zecora and the bag that lay on the ground, his forked tongue easing its way out of his mouth as it began caressing his lips in a starved fashion. "N-no!" he shouted. "I know what you're trying to do and it won't work! I'm not going to be your monster!"

"Spike," Celestia spoke sweetly to him as she stepped down from the dais. "Don't you remember all the fun we used to have."

"Ce-Celesita!?" Spike stuttered as he gazed into her motherly face. "W-why are you doing this! Please! Make her stop! I-I don't want to be a big dragon!"

"But you will be one day." Her voice was low, quiet enough to slip into the back of his young mind unknowingly. "You'll grow big, and vicious. Terrible, but strong. It's in you Spike, so why fight it?"

Spike couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Y-you're not the Princess! Celestia would never say those things! G-go away!"

"And when you do grow big your friends will leave you." She continued to speak with her beautiful voice and poisonous words. Even Zecora was mesmerized by the Celestia's millennium-long practice of words. "You'll be alone, Spike. Terribly alone with not a single treasure to keep your dragon fire warm. You'll grow cold, and die."

"No!" Spike shouted. "I'm not listening to this! I can't hear you! La la la la la!"

"Wouldn't it be better to hold on to those precious gems of friendship with all of your might? To grab and never let go of the things that are most precious to you? Spike, don't you want that?"

"W-want!?" A malicious voice was growing louder in the back of Spike's mind, telling him to do things. It was his voice. That's right. I want my friends. But one day, I'll have to let go of them, and then I’ll have nothing left. "No! Be quiet!"

"Reach out, Spike! Grab what you want. Indulge in your heart's desire. It's your right as a dragon. To deny one's self will only lead to pain, and I don't want to see you in pain, Spike."

"I'm a dragon!?" Spike felt like his mind was unraveling, devouring itself from the inside out as his natural urges of greed attempted to rip itself out of the fridges of his sanity. "I don't want to be a dragon!" he cried.

"But you are, and we can't help how we're born." She flew up and hugged Spike, getting closer to whisper directly into his ear. "Take, Spike. Grab on to those most precious gems in the world to you, and never let go. Feed your dragon's fire so you may never grow cold and die alone, bereft of everything." With a satisfied smirk, Celestia unlatched herself from Spike, who's mind had become nearly undone.

“Master, do you really think, that will be all it takes for his morals to sink?”

“Watch him, Zecora.”

“I...I...” Spike stared hungrily at the gemstones. Spike was gone, and all that was left was an incarnation of greed. "Want."

“Go ahead and speak those words very clear, tell my master what it is she waits to hear.”

“I want them...”

Zecora breathed out an exaggerated sigh before resuming her teasing. “Are you making demands in a voice so meek, or perhaps maybe I am confusing the buzzing in my ears with a rodent's squeak.”

“I said give them to me now...” The normally relaxed green ridges on the young dragon's face began tensing up in anger.

“I swear what ever that peculiar noise was, it was barely more audible than an insect’s buzz.”

“Give them to me, NOW!”

Zecora leaned in closer affixing her gaze on Spike's. “One more time and speak your true intent, allow the insatiable hunger within you to vent.”

A cruel smirk crawled across the Agent of Betrayal’s lips as she watched Spike's pupils dilate, his normally friendly and exuberant eyes narrowing into a savage serpent-like gaze. “SPIKE WANT GEMS!” he roared, signifying that his mental and moral defenses had finally fallen to Zecora's mind games. He clenched his claws into fists and pulled even more violently against his restraints. Spike felt his muscles begin to strain as he pulled, his only focus: the sack of gems. It drove his fury: he had to possess the gems, and logic was no longer a factor behind his actions as he ignored his body’s natural warning signals. The shooting pains and fresh cuts on his arms couldn't contain his resolve, and he ended up breaking through the restraints in a freak growth spurt. “SPIKE WANT!”

“SPIKE WANT!” Those words echoed through the stadium and converged on the ears of the six mares watching in horror as Twilight’s beloved assistant underwent a grotesque transformation from his cute and adorable state, to a hulking brute of a dragon before their eyes. Every pony was nervous and slightly on edge, having seen the destructive potential of Spike’s fully grown state beforehand, but Fluttershy gave a little shudder; the mare was doubly nervous given her inherent phobia of dragons.

“Oh no... Spike!” Twilight attempted to gallop out of the spectator's box, but was stopped by the joint efforts of Applejack and Rainbow Dash working in tandem to halt Twilight’s advances. “Rainbow Dash, Applejack, let me go! I have to stop him before he gets out of control again!”

“Twilight, calm down! We can't just go down there without a plan!”

“Yea Twi', don't worry, we’ll get the little fella back to his normal self, but first we need to think out our course of action.” Applejack scanned Twilight’s features and tried to return Twilight’s concern from earlier with a hoof to the shoulder. “We changed him back once, we can do it again.”

“But Spike, without me, he'll—”

This time Rainbow Dash cut Twilight off mid-sentence to inject some advice that under normal circumstances would have been ironic given the source. “Twilight, calm down and think about this.”

Twilight attempted to muscle her way through the barrier her friends posed, but quickly found that she posed very little challenge to the athletic mares who simply shoved her back. “Ugh, Why won’t you help me!?”

“Twilight we really need to—“

“There’s no time for that! Buck it, I’ll save him myself! I’m coming, Spike!” Twilight cried as her horn began to release an aura of purple magic that surrounded her body, and an instant later she vanished with a dull POMF followed by crack of blinding white light leaving behind only a trail of purple smoke, and a very confused chromatic-maned pegasus in her wake.

“Ya know, that’s the kinda thing I’d expect from you, Dash,” Applejack chuckled as she drank in the confused expression on the pegasus’ face.

“Rrgg... I can’t just let that egghead one-up me! Pinkie Pie!”

“Yes Dashie?”

“Come on,” Rainbow Dash seized Pinkie around the waist with a foreleg “We’ve got an entrance to make!” With a flap of her wings and a giggle from Pinkie Pie, the pair exited the spectator’s box, ascending to the top of the arena.

"Well, Rarity, Shy, I guess it’s time that we make our debut as well, don’t y’all agree?”

With a sharp crack! resounding from a cloud of purple smoke, Twilight reappeared twenty-five meters away from the dais on the ground level of the Colosseum, but her sudden appearance attracted the attention of the inhabitants of the stage, namely a sour blue unicorn with a silver mane who leapt off the stage and began stomping towards Twilight. “Well, well, well, what do we have here? Trixie did not expect to see you until the sacrifice and conversion of the elements later, Twilight Sparkle. But since you’re here and have saved Trixie’s fellow agents the hassle of having to fetch you from the dungeons, Trixie supposes we can start the sacrifices early. Surely my master won’t mind,” The mare spat as her horn began glowing blue.

“Trixie...” Twilight sighed as she established the telekinetic connection to her daggers. Had it been anypony else in any other circumstances, she would have tried to utilize reason as opposed to force, but given the track record between herself and the egomaniac before her, Trixie’s humiliation and defamation during the Ursa incident, plus her arrest when she was working for Black Anarchy, Twilight knew this fight would be unavoidable.

Zecora turned away from Spike on the dais—who was presently caressing the sack of gems and digging up various rocks, placing them in a pile behind himself—to address Twilight. “From your body language, it is quite clear; that with my master’s plan, you intend to interfere. That is one thing I cannot allow, so it is your life I shall be ending now. I tire of this all of this suspense; so with no further hesitation, let the battle commence!” She bit a corner of her cloak and ripped it off her body in one swift motion, revealing a harness filled with multiple colored vials of strange bubbling liquids, and a kukiri knife similar to Detective Zaca’s own strapped to her left foreleg, hilt facing up so it could be withdrawn quickly.

Octavia reached into the violin case by her feet, and pulled out the bow as opposed to the actual instrument. Twilight noted that the bow itself had a pointed tip and the hair of the bow* had been replaced by a sharpened steel edge. “Please allow me to be the one to play your swan song, dear interloper."

“You’re all getting into arms over a lowly commoner? How boorish, I needn’t waste the edge of my blade on such garbage.” Blueblood sneered at Twilight before turning his nose to the sky. “Huh? What the—” Blueblood saw something circling the airspace at the top of the Colosseum at a ludicrous pace, but he couldn’t properly identify what it was. It had the build wing-span of a pegasus, but the body was all wrong, all equines only have four legs, but this one seemed to have eight, and it stood a whole three feet taller than a normal pony as well. Perhaps it’s a gryphon? No, no, no, that’s ludicrous, what would a gryphon be doing here... wait a minute. Blueblood squinted at the figure as it dropped a few feet in altitude, and he could make out the pink and blue coloring of the strange beast as it hovered in mid air fumbling with something. It was at this moment Blueblood’s eyes widened in horror as he realised that he was looking at a pink earth pony fiddling with a bag, riding a cyan pegasus wielding a rifle aimed at the stage. Hmmm... that’s going to be a bit of a problem, but it should be manageable, wait, what’s the other one doing?Blueblood’s attention drifted to the earth pony riding on the back of the rifle-wielding pegasus. “What the... Oh Celestia... buck me...”

Rainbow Dash found her ideal sight picture on the weapon’s iron sight, her right hoof was through the bracelet style trigger, and she wrapped her other hoof around the magazine well, holding the weapon steady as she exhaled a deep breath and prepared to draw the bracelet trigger back to herself, to provide Twilight with some cover fire from the three advancing mares who adopted the tactic of encircling their prey. Breathe in... breathe out... as rainbow Dash exhaled her held breath, she waited until there was no more air left in her lungs before she pulled the bracelet trigger towards herself slowly, aiming at the ground before Zecora, who stood behind Twilight presently.

Click. BOOM! The recoil from the rifle shook Rainbow Dash’s body, causing her to jolt slightly in the air, but nonetheless she held the weapon firm, and prepared to adjust her next shot as necessary as she observed the small cloud of dust that kicked in front of Zecora’s legs, causing the zebra to jump back slightly in surprise as Twilight whipped her daggers at Trixie and Octavia, successfully driving her attackers back, though she was still terribly outnumbered.

Rainbow Dash attempted to line up another shot, but a sudden shift of weight on the pegasus’ back completely threw off her aim causing the shot to go wild, kicking up dirt by Trixie. “Pinkie— ungh— Pie, what are you doing back there? You’re throwing off my balance and I can’t get a good shot!”

“Hehe! Oh you’ll see in a moment Dashie!” Pinkie giggled as she pulled out a long slender green tube from the bag Rarity had given her. “Oh you’ll see...” Pinkie said while pulling out a much smaller gray tube from the bag.

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash recieved her response in the form of a series of loud noises and more turbulent shaking as Pinkie Pie fiddled with something behind her.

Whirr, whirr. Is she unscrewing something? What would she need to unscrew up here? Slooomp! Thump! Thump! It sounds like she just put something in a can Whirrrr, whirr. Click! Click! “Prepped, primed, and ready for action!” Oh no...

“Oh, yeah!” Pinkie shouted as she admired her freshly loaded rocket launcher before aiming at the stage below.

“Where did you even get that?! That bag couldn’t possibly hold anything that large!”

Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow Dash a vacant look for a moment as she contemplated how to answer that question. “Ummm...”

My child, you must tell her nothing... no wait... convince her we have the power of alchemy.

“Uhhh, Is that really important right now, Dashie?”

Do it now. She will have no choice but to bow before the might of equivalent exchange.

Rainbow Dash shook her head “I-I... You can’t shoot that! Think about Twilight’s safety!”

Nonsense, safety is for boys! Are you a colt? Or are you a mare?

“To hay with it, I’m a bucking mare!” Pinkie cried as she began releasing the safety devices on the launcher.

Make it rain! Make it rain!

“Wait, what, I don’t even...” Rainbow Dash sputtered as she tried to make sense of the serious nature of the present situation, as well as the rationality Pinkie’s comment, trying to find a logical connection between them. There was none.

Jed wants to see a boom! Make boom now!

“Pinkie Pie, stop!”

Those words fell on deaf ears as Pinkie Pie pulled the bracelet trigger on her launcher and set the ignition process into motion. Tssss...Thwoosh! Therocket left the tube in a plume of sparks, smoke and flame, rapidly descending towards the four mares engaged in combat below.

Trixie heard the rocket before she saw it, and the sight of fire and smoke spiraling downwards caused her to freeze in place. A thousand thoughts ran through her head all at once, but none of them were along the lines of “gallop to safety”, “teleport away”, “blast the rocket out of the air” or “duck that incoming double leg buck approaching your face at great speeds.” The former showmare simply stood slack-jawed observing the instrument of her untimely passing as a pair of violet hindlegs connected with her lower jaw, sending Trixie sailing through the air before impacting hard on the ground well out of the rocket’s explosive radius.

When Trixie’s vision caught back up with her, she was treated to the sight of Zecora and Octavia falling to either side of her, a purple aura of magic surrounding them both, and watched as Twilight Sparkle, the very mare Trixie had sworn vengeance upon, was caught in the epicenter of the explosion when the rocket detonated, enveloping herself in a cloud of dust and smoke. No magic shield, no teleportation spell, no cover to hide behind, nothing. Twilight took the full brunt of that explosion. Trixie had fantasized about this moment a thousand times before, but something about this whole event soured her victory. Perhaps it was the fact that she didn’t get to end Twilight with her own hooves, or that she had fallen prey to the early stages of antagonist in mourning syndrome*, or that Twilight had risked her own life to spare her enemies. Trixie didn’t know or care, watching the death of her rival left her hollow on the inside.

Rainbow Dash descended slowly to the spectator seats below with her mouth agape, still trying to process what had just transpired, “You... you just... killed Twilight...”

“Huh?” Pinkie asked quizzically, as she dismounted Rainbow Dash.

“You just shot Twilight... our friend... our sister in arms... with one of your stupid rockets... and she didn’t even try to run...” Rainbow Dash sank to her haunches, staring vacantly at the cloud of dust where her friend one stood.

“Ummm... Dashie, I—”

No, no, no my disciple, don’t say anything yet, Jed wishes to laugh at the mutant bird-horse.

“I’ve told you a thousand times not use your stupid bombs! Now look what you’ve done, you idiot!” The enraged pegasus seized Pinkie Pie by the vest, and raised a hoof in anger threatening to bring it down and across the face of her fellow agent. Pinkie Pie on the other hoof had trouble suppressing a massive grin from dominating her face, but unsurprisingly she failed to keep it in check and inevitably broke into a fit of laughter, causing more confusion and rage to flow through Rainbow Dash. “How can you just laugh at the death of our friend? Are... are you a traitor? This whole time... you’ve been a spy haven’t you?!”

“Hehehe! No, Dashie, look again silly!” Pinkie Pie pointed a hoof at the place where the rocket had taken out Twilight, and Rainbow Dash’s eyes shot open as she glanced over to what should have been a smoking crater with a single charred corpse sitting within its bowels. Instead, she saw a lone silhouette standing in the lingering remains of the smoke cloud. “

“B-b-bu-but, y-y-you sh-shot a r-r-rocket—”

“A smoke and confetti rocket.”

“Wha... I...huh?”

“What, did you think I was going to shoot a live round at my best friend? Jeez, gimme some credit, silly Dashie.”

“A confetti and smoke rocket?”

“Yup!”

“What was the point of that?”

“Rarity said something about wanting to make some dramatic, fancy-schamancy entrance when she steps on the battlefield. Something about going into combat with style.”

Rainbow Dash, for the second time in ten minutes, facehoofed. What I put it up with between these two...

Twilight was planning out her next course of action against the three advancing mares when she saw the missile launch. She had a good seven to eight seconds to react or escape from it, but given the source of the rocket was Pinkie Pie, she figured there must have been something more to it, and instead decided to put distance herself from her attacker starting with Trixie. Twilight galloped up to her rival, who was absent-mindedly staring off into space, and spun her body in a circle, drawing her hindlegs in and released them with explosive force that caught Trixie in the jaw and sent the Agent of Curse sprawling to the ground several meters away.

Twilight allowed magic to surge through her horn as she recovered from her bucking stance, redirecting the energy into a concussive blast that slammed into the pair like a brick wall sending them flying in the same direction as Trixie.

Satisfied that she had generated some distance between herself and her attackers, Twilight hit ground, covered the back of her head with her forelegs and clenched her eyes, preparing for the sting of fire and shrapnel accompanied by the deafening as the rocket crashed a meter in front of her and exploded in a rain of confetti, streamers, and white smoke.

“I apologize for the theatrics but the heroine must always make her entrance in style,” called a new voice from inside the fading smoke. Twilight picked herself off the ground and turned her attention to the newcomer to find the voice’s owner was none other than Rarity accompanied by nopony. “I hope you don’t mind if I lend a helping hoof, do you? I still have a bit of grudge match to resolve with that one.” The fashionista explained, gesturing to Octavia.

“Where are Fluttershy and Applejack?”

“Oh we sent Fluttershy to—”

“GYAAAHHHH! A DRAGON, MAKE IT GO AWAY!” Fluttershy’s screams could be heard from the other side of the stadium as Twilight observed the frightened pegasus galloping circles around the embodiment of greed that was Spike.

“SPIKE WANT!”

“Well, that makes sense I guess, but why doesn’t she just fly?”

Rarity shrugged to convey her cluelessness on the matter.

“Well, where’s Applejack?”

“Behind us.”

A sharp crack! sound from behind conveyed a different story, however as Prince Blueblood winked in behind Twilight and Rarity, his sword floating by his side ready to be swung at any time. “Terribly sorry to disappoint you both, ladies, but I’m afraid that it’s just me.”

“Blueblood...” Rarity sighed as she felt the presence of a blade behind her neck. “As much as I hate you, I think I’ll let Applejack handle you for now. After the way you treated me at the gala, if I were to handle you myself, we would have to jack up the age rating of this story.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about but it won’t matter in a few— Gaccck!” A rope had caught Blueblood around his throat, tightened up, and began dragging him away from Twilight and Rarity.

“Whoa there, Blueblood, I don’t think Twi’ an Rarity are the type of mares that take it from behind on the first date, but if you’re lookin’ for somepony to get physical with, I think I can oblige you.”

“I’ll make you pay for that, peasant,” Blueblood spat as he commanded the sword to cut through the rope around his neck. Rubbing the spot where the rope had left a mark, Blueblood readjusted the sword so that the tip was facing Applejack. “En Garde!”

“Bring it on!” Applejack cried as she galloped towards Blue Blood. The unicorn prince readied his saber for a mighty slash that missed its target by a wide margin as Applejack spun and ducked beneath the attack, releasing her hind legs in powerful buck towards the prince’s forelegs and she connected, the cleated horseshoes she wore leaving a nasty spike pattern on his left leg. Blueblood barely registered the hit. “Augh! You’ve mussed up my freshly groomed coat with filth from your unwashed hooves. How dare you!?”

Applejack couldn’t comprehend the prince’s reaction to her attack. She’d poured years upon years of practice and perfection into that buck, knocked out numerous bullies, mobsters, and all-around jerks with it, and yet the one Pony she’d assumed to be the biggest pushover in all of Canterlot, hay, all of Equestria simply took it the full brunt of it and chastised her on the premise that it might have stained his fur. It didn’t make sense, and neither did what he did next.

Blueblood’s horn charged with an aura the color of which was reminiscent of his hazel eyes, and with his freshly readied magic, he began picking the dirt off of his foreleg. “I say, don’t you commoners know how to duel properly? Royalty should never dirty their own hooves even when it come to minor disputes such as this.”

“Yeah? Well I ain’t no royalty! I’m a work horse, and I intend to show ya how the Apple Family has handled scum like you for years!”

“Heh, I look forward to impaling you and celebrating with a glass of port, or perhaps a glass of starboard.” Blueblooded joked snidely as he whipped the blade in a methodical fashion at Applejack, who hesitated to rush into the flurry even though it was her best shot of overwhelming him. He wouldn’t expect the rush, but on the off-chance that he recovered quickly enough... Applejack didn’t want to think about it. Instead, she chose to stomp her left foreleg into the dirt, and kicked it up releasing a cloud of dirt, dust and various other small rocks into Blueblood’s face. "Gaahh! You filthy pig-wrangler!” the prince backpedaled blindly, swinging his sword wildly, and Applejack took advantage if his current state to dash straight through the wide openings his sword left. With this approach, she dashed and jumped Blueblood from the side angle, bringing all four of her hooves together in a magnificent flying drop kick that connected with the prince’s chest dropping him to the ground, and breaking the connection to his sword

Prince Blueblood pulled himself up, searching around for his sword. "That's the last shot you're getting in, commoner." He reestablished the connection with his sword and sent it flying at Applejack. He smirked as he watched the mare frantically trying to dodge the flying blade, but every time she ducked a blow he would send it right back at her. "You'd make a magnificent fool in the royal court. In fact, I'll make that your place in life once the world is mine."

"Don't you mean Celestia's?" Applejack grumbled.

"Oh come now, I'm the Agent of Deceit for a reason," Blue Blood laughed. "Don't expect anything less from me."

"I don't expect anything more!" Applejack yelled as she jumped and grabbed the blade with her teeth. She landed on the ground and, with Blue Blood still dazed from the spectacle, pulled it out of his magical grasp and flung it as far as she could away. "Let's see how you do with your hooves, big boy!" Applejack galloped up to Blueblood, turning just a few feet before him to give him the strongest buck she could muster. It felt like bucking concrete. "Dangit!"

"So, this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object," he laughed as he surrounded Applejack in his magical aura. "Do enjoy the view." He threw her up, laughing madly as he watched Applejack soar into the air.

Applejack struggled against her momentum. "Just hold on, A.J. You've been in worse!" She grabbed her hat as she felt her body reaching the apex of her path. "You want to see an unstoppable force, sugarcube! Then here I come!" Applejack abandoned logic and aimed for Blue Blood, aiming her hooves downward and preparing for the biggest buck no one in Equestria will ever see. "Hey, Blueblood!"

"What!" Blueblood looked up, and could not believe what he saw, or felt. Applejack landed right on top of of him, her back hooves driving themselves into his back, and he felt himself wince. His knees were forced to bend under so much force. "You insolent little-"

"Not hearing it, darlin'!" Applejack howled as she jumped on Blueblood and delivered a swift roundhouse directly to his still stunned face. "This date is over!" She delivered another kick to his face before sliding behind him and grabbing his tail. She gave it a hard tug. Yep, just like Big Mac! She tugged harder, gritting her teeth as she began to lift Blueblood off his hooves and spin him around in the air. "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" She threw him into the air, and jumped up after him. She grabbed him again, and rode him back to the ground. "Giddiup, Blueblood!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Blueblood screamed before hitting the ground, face first.

“Alright Pinkie Pie, let’s get down there and lend Twilight a hoof or two, shall we—”

“GYAAAAAAHHHH A DRAGON MAKE IT GO AWAY!” Fluttershy cried as she zipped past the pair, giant Spike in tow.

“We’re going to have to help Fluttershy with that aren’t we?” Rainbow grumbled rhetorically.

“SPIKE WANT YELLOW BIRD! GRAAGGH!”

Pinkie grinned and nodded enthusiastically to Rainbow Dash, who sighed disappointingly before perking up again. “Well, I guess this means that I get to put 'nother notch in my belt of accomplishments. Rainbow Dash: Fastest Flier in Equestria, Most Decorated EIB agent, and now Dragon Slayer. Yeah, that sounds awesome, let’s do this! Pinkie Pie, do you think you can provide support for me?”

“You got it, boss!” Pinkie Pie grinned as she reached into her bag of bombs, fishing out a small metallic green plate, and a long tube with what looked like a pair of legs sticking out of one side of it. As she sat on her haunches and began assembling the pieces, Rainbow Dash slid the hoof pistol out of its pouch on her vest, and slipped over her right hoof before she took flight to engage and distract the giant Spike that was currently harassing Fluttershy.

“Hey, scaly!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she closed the distance between herself and Spike.

The giant Spike turned his head towards the source of the shout.

“Suck on this, dragon boy!” Rainbow Dash began a strafing flight pattern as she peppered Spike with every bullet in the pistol’s capacity.

The rounds impacted on Spike’s hardened scale with little effect, the rounds sparking and shattering as they connected and fell harmlessly to the ground below. Spike reacted by scratching the spot where he'd been shot, and scooping up the tiny bullets placing them in his sack and grinning, before he resumed trying to recapture Fluttershy. Note to self, get HQ to make anti-dragon bullets. Rainbow Dash thought as she removed the pistol and inserted a fresh ring clip into the back before re-equipping it. Well, that failed, I wonder else I can do—

“PARTY CANNON 2.0 IS READY TO FIRE!” Pinkie shouted as she held a mortar round over the tube ”THIS NEXT ROUND IS DANGER CLOSE! ALL FRIENDLIES PLEASE EVACUATE THE GIANT DRAGON... errr... THE AREA AROUND THE GIANT DRAGON! EVACUATING THE DRAGON WOULD BE GROSS AND WEIRD, WOULDN’T IT? I MEAN WOULDN’T HE HAVE TO EAT YOU TO EVACUATE YOU? AND THEN WHICH END ARE YOU BEING EVA—”

“Pinkie Pie, shut up and shoot it!” Rainbow Dash ordered.

“OKIE DOKI LOKI, BOSS! ” Pinkie Pie held the first mortar round above the launcher and dropped it in. The round ejected from the tube a moment later with a loud THOOONK, and began hurtling up through the stadium’s skylight, unhindered now that the barrier had disappeared. Pinkie followed up this singular round, by stuffing munition after munition into the tube, each one launching out with a loud THOOONK!

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs expectantly as she watched Spike anticipating the sound of successive round drop, but after a few moments passed, nothing happened, and Spike continued chasing after Fluttershy to his heart’s content “…Was that it?” Rainbw Dash inquired bemusedly as she waited for the round to drop.

“Give it a minute, Dashie!”

More silence ensued and nothing happened. Not even the fizzle of a dud landing could be heard, the rounds were just straight up gone.

“Well, what happened to the rounds Agent Pie?”

“Hmmm...maybe I calibrated the gun wrong... I wonder where all those rounds went”

In Canterlot Market

A blue unicorn who ran a simple fruit stand business was in the middle of what was potentially the biggest sale of his entire life: some pony actually wanted to purchase all of his wares for the next two weeks, plus his stand, for an absurd amount of money that he would be able to retire on. The unicorn couldn’t believe his luck, this was the greatest day of his entire life, and nothing could strip away the happiness he felt at this moment. Not divorce lawyers, not the dentist, not even those pesky tax collectors. He’d be able to move far away to some exotic place like Hawai’i Neigh*, and all he had to do was finish filling out this form.

At that moment however, a rather loud whistling sound broke through the silence of the market place, approaching at a pace that was steadily increasing in volume. The unicorn thought nothing of it as he continued signing the contract, but nothing could have been more disheartening than the sound of an explosion ripping through his fruit, setting all of his wares ablaze and splintering the wood in every direction, covering passers-by with bits of watermelon and wood chunks.

The business ponies before him looked at each other, and back to the unicorn before seizing the contract and trotting away, leaving behind a broken and now-unemployed husk of a stallion.

“Well, that was a waste of time,” Pinkie Pie sighed as she dug through her bag for another rocket launcher, that she shouldered and aimed at Spike who was still in pursuit of Fluttershy and was now stomping towards Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Pinkie released all of the safety devices on the launcher, and slammed back the ring trigger, releasing the rocket in a plume of smoke, and a shower of sparks.

The projectile flew straight into Spike’s chin, impacting with the force of an a uppercut, whipping the dragon’s head backwards. No massive damage had been done, but the blast certainly slowed him down enough to allow Fluttershy to escape, landing exhaustedly next to Pinkie Pie.

My Disciple, a most excellent prospect has crossed the mind of Jed: The yellow one...Giddiyup!

When Spike recovered, he picked up the shell that had once been a rocket and placed it into his sack as well.

Rainbow Dash took this opportunity to direct Spike’s attention to herself by unloading another salvo of bullets into his skin as she circled around his his head. Spike reacted by picking up the fallen shell casings and scratching the places where he’d been shot. “Ugh! This is getting me nowhere! There has to be some way to take you down!” Rainbow grunted in frustration as she flew around Spike in circle, careful to avoid his claws with each pass she made. She was so busy trying to find a chink in Spike’s scaling that she didn’t hear Pinkie Pie shouting frantically to avoid an incoming rocket. The projectile itself missed Rainbow Dash completely, but the ensuing concussive force against Spike’s scales blasted the pegasus out of the sky, a result of her flying too close to the rocket’s blast radius.

She hit the ground hard, landing on her back. I’ve taken worse falls in flight practice, this is nothing. As Rainbow Dash sat up unsteadily she felt something slip out of one of the vest pockets, and heard glass clatter along the ground next to her flank. “What’s that?” Rainbow’s eyes fell on the small orb by her hindlegs, taking note on what was inside of it. Is that a storm cloud? She picked up the ball that was about the size of one of Pinkie’s usual flash-bang grenades, and it occurred to her that there might just be a way to beat this dragon after all. Rainbow fished through her vest pockets and pulled out the remaining storm cloud jars, and she found them no sooner than spike had caught sight of her handling the glowing orbs.

“SPIKE WANT GEMS! SPIKE WANT BLUE BIRD!”

Oh, this is perfect,Rainbow thought to herself as she checked the amount of bullets in her hoof pistol’s magazine. Much to her chagrin, she found only one round glistening in the chamber, but if she was diligent enough, one bullet would be all she’d need. Rainbow tossed the glass cases in a scattered pattern in front of Spike before becoming airborne again, and much like she anticipated, he eased his advance and began picking them up, collecting them in his palm, five in all.

I knew he’d fall for it. She thought as she aimed her pistol at his palm. Steady Dash, you’ve only got one shot at this. Rainbow Dash tensed her hoof, exhaled her breath, and fired her weapon like a true marksmare, but the round went wild and ricocheted off of the glass casing without leaving so much as a crack.

Motherbuck, motherbuck, motherbuck, motherbuck, moth— wait, is that Pinkie and Fluttershy?

Pinkie had once again found herself a flying steed. Fluttershy didn’t exactly make for the smoothest ride, but she’d get the job done in a pinch.

“Alrighty Fluttershy, are you ready to be a hero?” Pinkie Pie inquired as she dug through her bag, fishing out several green-shelled fragmentation grenades.

“Well, actually I—”

“That’s the spirit girlfriend! Let’s do this!” Pinkie shouted as she grabbed Fluttershy’s mane with her free hoof, causing the pegasus to lose her sense of direction, altering her flight path straight towards spike. “Wheeeeeee!” Pinkie squealed with joy as she and Fluttershy hurtled towards Spike at alarmingly fast speeds.

“P-P-Pinkie? Can we pull up now?! Please!?” Fluttershy pleaded.

“Wheeeeee!”

“Pinkie?!”

“Ugghhh... fine.” Pinkie rolled her eyes as she pulled Fluttershy’s mane back further and the pegasus leveled out into a flight path eighty meters from the ground. “This is my stop, anyhow.”

“Your stop? What do you—Pinkie, no!” Fluttershy’s words were a day late and a bit short as Pinkie leapt from Fluttershy’s back, cradling the fragmentation grenades in her forelegs and biting out the pins as she fell.

“Today’s forecast is cloudy with a chance of steel rain, baby!” Pinkie cackled as she threw all of the fragementation grenades straight down at Spike, all of the rounds detonating as they made contact with his skin, releasing five simultaneous explosions that scattered shards of metal everywhere. The shrapnel bounced harmlessly off of Spike’s body, but a few choice fragments pierced the jars containing the storm clouds, allowing the swarm of cumulonimbus clouds to join together in one massive cloud resonating with sparks of lightning that nipped at Spike’s skin.

In his primal state Spike, couldn’t understand what was going on, and reacted to the sudden appearance of the massive cloud by swatting at it, his claws passing harmlessly through the black, ionically-charged substance.

Well, that worked out in my favor; I’ve got to act fast though, or else Pinkie’s going to get real friendly with the ground. Rainbow Dash was already moving like a bullet towards the storm cloud with her forehooves extended in front of her, and she slammed into the cloud, her forward momentum generating a massive amount of energy that traveled around the cloud, erupting in a massive bolt of lightning that broke through the iron defense of Spie’s scales, and coursed through his body, first stunning him before invoking a fit of muscle spasms, and finally toppling him over flat on his belly. Satisfied with her progress, Rainbow changed direction and sped to catch Pinie Pie moments before the hyperactive mare became one with the ground below.

“Wow, thanks Dashie, that was really cool! I mean I was flying, there were the grenades, you were kicking lightning, and Spike is getting back up, hay there was even a cola missile!”

“Wait, what was that last part?”

“You mean the soda missile I didn’t get to shoot yet?”

“No, I meant—”

“GRAAAAHHHH!”

“That’s just what I was afraid of...”

“So how are we going to deal with him, Dash?”

Well, first you’re going to get off.” Rainbow Dash ceased her momentum by skimming the ground with her legs outstretched and skidded to a halt, the sudden change in velocity causing Pinkie Pie to fly off the pegasus’ back, head over hooves.

“Owww! What did you do that for Rainbow Dash?”

“I’ve got a plan and not a lot of time to put it into action, so forgive me for being rough, alright?”

Pinkie crossed her forelegs and blew a tuft of hair out of her face before finally spitting out the word, “Fine,” as Fluttershy glided down to the party pony’s aid and began dressing the fresh cuts that resulted from Rainbow’s gruff ejection.

Spike had been able to stand against bullets and several explosives assaults, but that singular lightning bolt inflicted so much damage upon his being that it rendered him unable to move momentarily. Still, he was recovering at an alarmingly fast rate, and Rainbow Dash needed to at quickly, so she took off towards the opening in the Colosseum’s roof at maximum speed, pulling out a pair of goggles from her vest as well as her hoof-pistol, adorning them as she ascended. She could feel the mach cone taking shape around her as she pushed her wings to their limits, ascending higher and higher. There was a strong difference between performing a sonic rainbow with gravity assistance, and doing it by sheer skill, and seeing as she hadn’t mastered the latter just yet, she was going to settle for another ricochet-assisted Rainboom at this moment. The mach cone was straining and stretching throughout her struggling, and she felt the moment where it held taut and would yield no further, threatening to hurl her back towards the ground from whence she came, and she was counting on it.

The mach cone finally ceased and began retracting quickly, it’s occupant changing her direction and tucking her wings to get the maximum boost of speed as she could possibly manage out of the ordeal. As she was sling-shotted back towards the stadium, Rainbow Dash opened her wings and began flapping furiously, the second mach-cone materializing twice as quickly as its predeessor. Come on push, push, push! She was still a good distance from the stadium, but she wanted to initiate the Rainboom as quickly as possible before stage two of her plan. The mach-cone stretched and resisted her downward velocity, eventually crackling with electricity and finally exploding with an explosion of color that rocked the the very airspace above the Colosseum, and doubled the speed of Rainbow Dash’s descent, leaving a multi-chromatic trail in her wake.

Well, that was easy, time for phase two! The pegasus retracted her wings and curled her hindlegs to her chest securing them in place with her forelegs, and she began to rotate during her descent performing many front tuck style somersaults as she breached the Colosseum’s skylight, targeting Spike’s head. Just one more step Rainbow thought as she breached the lighting cloud at improbable speeds, her impact generating a burst of lightning that followed the metal composition of her pistol, although at her current speed she was winning. Heh, I’m racing with lightning, how about that?

Rainbow Dash finally spotted Spike again through her dizzying rush to her target, and when she felt that she was ten meters away, she released her forelegs, straightened her body and slammed both of her forelegs into Spike’s head, breaking the hoof-pistol attached to her right hoof as she did so. The sacrifice of her pistol was not in vain however as the high-speed assault slammed Spike’s head back into the spectator seating below, as the bolt of lightning that was chasing her embedded itself into Spike’s body having lost the trail of its original conductor. Spike shook, jerked, and flailed about as he absorbed every watt of the attack, eventually passing out due to the amount of voltage his body was taking, but it wouldn’t kill him, due to his massive size.

Rainbow Dash, exhausted from the expenditure of so much energy, dragged her hooves lazily while weakly calling out to the only pony who could fix her situation. “Flutter.... Fluttershy...”

The yellow pegasus wasted no time as she galloped over to her exhausted friend.“Yes Rainbow Dash? What do you need?”

“You still got any sedatives?”

“All of them, why?”

“Put dragon boy there to sleep, we can’t change him back without Rarity, but we can’t have him stomping around everywhere while we’re trying to stop that over there,” Rainbow Dash explained as she gestured to the dais where a good chunk of the blue souls had been absorbed into Luna and Discord’s statue.

Fluttershy nodded and began sifting through her vest, pulling out many vials of clear liquid, and began pouring them into a comically large syringe that was about the size of her whole leg. She trotted up to the sleeping giant spike, and stuck the syringe into his neck, the stress on the dragon’s face easing away as he drifted into a deeper level of sleep, oblivious to the events around him any longer.

“Any ideas, Rarity?” Twilight inquired as her eyes darted between the three mares before them. They were outnumbered, but there still had to have been some silver lining.

“GYYYYAHHHHH” Luna’s cry from the dais reminded Twilight that she was working on a frantic timeline, as she took note that as least a third of the blue ponies from before had been absorbed into Princess Luna and Discord’s statue.

“Just one, Twilight.” Rarity’s horn glowed blue as she reached into her pocket dimension and withdrew ten of the gems she liberated from Vinyl’s vault earlier. She levitated the gems together in pairs, and with another push of her magic she began adhering them to each other, each gem releasing a brilliant white light as they were broken down and reconstructed into meter-long blades that floated around Rarity like satellites.

“Have at you, ruffians!” Rarity cried, as she began galloping towards the three mares, swinging the blades around recklessly as she went, her aim was not to injure them but more so to split them up so Twilight could fight one-on-one with whoever straggled the furthest. Her plan was going swimmingly until Zecora dashed a red vial to the ground, creating an explosion that blew Rarity off her feet, sending her skidding across the ground, her blades still in tow. When Rarity finally stopped, she picked herself off the ground only to find that Trixie and Zecora began assaulting Twilight in tandem. “Oh no.” She galloped over to join the fray, but stopped her movements as a new blade cut the air in front of her face. She traced the length of the weapon back to its owner, only to find Octavia standing before her in a two legged fencing stance, the bladed violin bow strapped to the musician’s right foreleg. Most ponies would be intimidated at the sight of a pony who could hold their balance and a weapon so well in this position. Rarity, unlike other ponies, chuckled. “Oh, it’s you again? Are you going run away this time as well?”

Octavia frowned. “I’m afraid not, we still have some unfinished business from our little concerto earlier,” Octavia explained as she thrust her weaponized bow at Rarity, who deflected each blow with her free-floating gem blades.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Rarity chuckled as she batted away a wild slash from Octavia’s bow, the unicorn retaliated by swinging two of the blades inwards like giant pair of scissors. Octavia reacted by charging straight through the attack “Your attacks have no style, no flair, they’re just all over the place and an absolute eyesore.” Rarity chortled as she parried another blow and slashed diagonally at Octavia’s head, to which the musician reacted by ducking.

“Do you ever shut up?” Octavia spat as she recovered with an upwards moving cut that Rarity wasn’t prepared to parry with any of her blades, and the swing grazed fashionista’s cheek leaving a cut in its wake.

Rarity jumped back and rubbed a hoof where the blade connected, and held it out before herself so she could observe it. “I want you to know, I’ll never forgive you if this stains my fur.”

“There’s no need to be flashy as long as you can be effective, wouldn’t you agree?” Octavia sneered, relishing the sight of her opponent’s blood on her blade.

“Oh, I think fashion and practicality serve equally important purposes, but to display both in the same gambit is the sign of a master seamstress. Allow me to demonstrate.” Rarity’s horn glowed an even brighter shade of blue as several blue figures materialized from the medium, taking on Rarity’s form as the glow dissipated. Each figure, five in all, bore Rarity’s likeness complete with vests, gem swords, and freshly induced scar, and stood on line with the original preparing to charge Octavia.

Rarity cantered towards Octavia, her copies following suit before they split up and ran in a zig zag pattern. Octavia took notice and delivered a devastating thrust that pierced the closest Rarity. “Well, I suppose that’s one way to a mare’s heart,” the copy chuckled and much to Octavia’s chagrin and confusion, the Rarity illusion slipped through her blade and through Octavia’s body causing to the musician to shiver slightly.

Two more of the Raritys jumped into the fray and began swinging their blades at Octavia, who attempted to parry the phantom blades but found she was only connecting with air, until a Clang! sound reverberated off of her own blade, alerting the musician to the presence of the real Rarity. Octavia searched around and noticed one of the copies stood behind the rest, and that this copy only had two swords floating behind them. The musician arrived at the conclusion that this one had to be the original, and reacted by placing her bow in her mouth and charging through the clones on all fours, her focus squarely on the Rarity all the way in the back. As Octavia neared her target, she whipped her head to the side and swung it back in Rarity’s direction, the blade making contact, taking off the head of another illusion. “What? But I was so certain this one was the real one!”

“Oh now why did you have to go and assume that?”

Octavia whipped her head around searching for the source of the voice, and it was at this instance that she noticed illusions behind her had vanished.

“You know that when you assume things you only make an ‘ass’ out of ‘you’ and ‘me’ darling,” the voice chided again.

“Show yourself, coward!”

“Well, since you insist... here I am!” Rarity called as she materialzed in a flash of blue light.

Octavia dashed and leapt at the freshly materialized Rarity, bringing down her bow with all of her might using both hooves. As the bow made contact, the wood holding it together splintered, cracked, and broke, dispelling the illusion as it did so leaving behind a massive statue of gems in the shape of a pony, but no sign of Rarity. Octavia, now unarmed, confused and frantic, backpedaled away from the statue, unaware of her target’s whereabouts until she backed into something. Octavia didn’t have anytime to react as something jumped on her back and wrapped a tight cord around her neck, restricting her airway and making it progressively more difficult to breathe or think straight. Octavia fumbled at the thread around her neck as it closed in tighter and tighter, but ponies, unlike griffins or dragons, lack any form of digit that would prove practical for gripping such surfaces and as a result her hooves slid harmlessly over the tiny thread as her breathing became shallower and shallower.

“Shhh... shhhh... just let it happen,” Rarity cooed as she tightened her garrote around Octavia’s neck, her chameleon-skin illusion spell dissolving into the air around her, making the ivory unicorn visible once again. Octavia made a series of gurgling noises before the lack of oxygen to her brain forced her world to fade to black. Rarity had the good sense to release the garrote from around the unconscious mare’s throat before life’s greatest minor inconvenience: death could set in. steady position,“This duet is over.”

“I can’t just leave her on the ground like this though...” Rarity looked around what was formerly her stage of battle and her eyes fell on the gem statue that still retained its faint blue and yellow coloring, indicating the gems still had some magical properties left. “I-de-a!” she chirped as she extended her aura of magic towards the lump of precious sediments, levitating it over Octavia. With another push of magic, the lump changed form again, this time resembling a finely crafted azure cage adorned by ruby roses attached to emerald vines that wrapped themselves around the bars in an intricate fashion. Releasing her magic from around the cage, she allowed the open end to fall over Octavia, so that even had the musician woken up, she wouldn’t be able to interfere any further. Rarity was admiring her work on the statue when a bolt of lightning zipped past her head, burrowing itself into the spectator seating of the Colosseum, leaving a crater and plume of dust in its wake. Rarity whipped her head to the side to address the source of the explosion to see Twilight going hoof to hoof to hoof and holding her own against Trixie and Zecora.

Twilight bobbed and wove her way through the salvo of fireworks shots Trixie released from her horn, making it difficult for the lavender unicorn to get in close where she knew she would have the edge. Twilight ducked under a particularly large ball of light and began galloping at the opening Trixie left in her defenses, earning a snide remark from the show-mare. “Trixie is impressed you managed to avoid that, Twilight Sparkle, but perhaps it is time to prove who is the stronger between us!” Trixie’s horn produced an even greater light intensity, and lightning began to resonate from the medium in an arcing burst. Twilight skidded to a halt, and summoned a purple barrier of energy that deflected the incoming blast upwards.

From within the safety of her force field, Twilight focused on a spot behind Trixie, and with a pomf of smoke, she winked behind her rival who was preparing to fire another volley of light projectiles. Levitating a dagger to the back of Trixie’s neck, Twilight sought to disarm the situation without any further fighting. “Hold it right there,Trixie. You’re under arrest by the Order of the RCIA, and if you can’t tell by the position you’re in: resistance is futile. Now, you can give up peacefully or— oof!” Two pairs of striped legs crashed into Twilight’s side, knocking the unicorn away from the Agent of Curse.

“Why don’t you give up while you are ahead? If you continue to struggle you will only end up dead!” Zecora shouted, tossing two blue liquid-filled vials at the still-fallen Twilight, who summoned a block of purple energy before herself to halt the advance of the vials that impacted with a burst of blue flames, scorching the transparent purple surface. Twilight galloped up to the still burning block and shoved it with the tip of her horn, sending the projectile hurtling towards the cackling zebra, who side-stepped the attack, drew a kukiri knife with her teeth and charged straight in towards Twilight, whipping her head to the side and unleashing a devastating swing, that Twilight parried clumsily with one of her free-floating daggers, as she slashed in wide arcs with the other hoping to drive Zecora away, but to no avail.

“Ha, I can tell that there is much combat experience you lack, for only an amateur would attempt an assault with such poorly executed attacks!” Zecora jumped back a meter as Twilight released another wide swing of her daggers, and just as the zebra did so, a bolt of lightning cut through the space between herself and Twilight.

“Ungh!” Twilight shielded her eyes from the bright flash as it exploded before her eyes, thus failing to notice the two red bottles that flew towards her feet and exploded, embedding glass shrapnel into Twilight’s skin, while simultaneously blowing her back a good distance.

“Perhaps you thought that lightning flash was simply random, but this is the power of my partner and I working in tandem.” Zecora spat as she began to charge her fallen target again.

Twilight picked herself off the ground, wincing in pain as the glass in her leg reacted to the sudden change in weight, the glass digging itself even deeper into her leg, but there was no time to pay that any attention at this moment: the fate of Equestria was riding on Twilight’s withers. “I guess there’s no way around it then,” Twilight mumbled, ducking underneath Zecora’s most recent charge, and winking in front of Trixie, who was preparing to release another bolt of lightning support.

“Gah!” Trixie was taken off guard by Twilight’s sudden reappearance and fired off the lightning burst in a panic, Twilight reacting by leaping to the side while thrusting one of the daggers into the meat of Trixie’s hind-leg, eliciting a shriek of pain.

Twilight heard the sound of rapidly approaching hoofsteps, and prepared to meet Zecora’s most recent assault with a new approach to this whole double-team combat issue.

Zecora leapt into the air a good distance, readying her next strike, but Twilight winked again, her preplanned destination the airspace directly above Zecora. When Twilight reappeared, she drove her hooves down towards Zecora with all of her might, giving her a stable foothold on her rival’s back, while she jammed her remaining dagger into the zebra’s flank. Twilight essentially rode Zecora back to the ground, the unicorn’s extra weight causing a dull crack as the pair hit the hard ground below next to Trixie, but Twilight wasn’t done quite yet, she needed to ensure they were down. With the last of her available magic energy, she overcharged her horn, her eyes glowing and radiating with a blinding white light, and in an instant she surrounded her body and the surrounding area with an eruption of fiery light-purple energy. She ensured that the spell wouldn’t kill her former attackers, but it would certainly keep them from coming after her for while. In the distance, Twilight could have sworn she heard Pinkie Pie yell “ASTRAL FINISH! HYPER COMBO KO! A NEW ANGEL IS ADVENT!” but decided not to pursue the issue any further as she slapped two pairs of hoof cuffs on her incapacitated targets.

Twilight turned her attention to the stage, where only two or three of the blue souls lingered before they were absorbed into Luna and Discord. “I’m impressed that you and your friends were able to dispose of my agents so thoroughly Twilight, but you’ve only saved me the trouble of ending their lives myself.” Celestia’s horn began to glow again, this time surrounding each of the agents and she winked them back to herself on the dais. “It’s time to harvest the souls of Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the gems of disharmony so that—”

“TWILIGHT, MY TAILS TWITCHING TAKE COVER!” cried Pinkie Pie from the other side of the arena.

Chapter 15 End .

Footnotes-Violin Hair-- If you’ve ever seen a violin played, then you know there is a stick that is required to play said instrument. That stick is called a bow and the on the bow there is “hair” that is required to glide across the strings and make the sounds for the violin. Rando fact those hairs are or were made frm horsetails. So when you see the Octavia scare crow in nightmare night, just now that she’s using an ironic instrument.

Hawai’i Neigh- A play on the term Hawai’i nei which means beloved hawaii. And Hawaii interestingly enough isn’t pronounced Huh-Why-Ee, but s instead properly pronounced Huh-Vy-Ee-Nay. THE MORE YOU KNOW!

Antagonist in Mourning

2: Even Hercules Couldn't Beat the Fashion Industry

Friendship is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited by: TheWattsMan

Act I: Re-introductions

Chapter 2: Even Hercules Couldn’t Beat the Fashion Industry

Those ties that bind, they may have been there for a lifetime, or a few minutes; we would do anything and go to any length to protect them, some just have the resolve to do a little more and go a little further. How far would you?

Today was an especially important day for Rarity, or more specifically the ivory fashionista’s reputation. Her client today was an up and coming political candidate: Governess Clara Rosemary, who would soon be running a campaign for one of the 5 earth pony representative chairs on Princess Celestia’s private council. Headstrong and compassionate, Clara was always a ‘Mare of the Ponies’, making her voice heard at every political gathering and speaking out against unnecessary tax increases that would only go to line pockets of the upper-class. This had only garnered the disdain of her colleagues, who had decidedly less selfless motives than Governess Clara.

At the moment the governess found herself being bombarded with various threads, measuring tapes, pins, and spools of thread, while the white unicorn to her left worked frantically to ensure that her work was immaculate.

“Honestly darling you can’t possibly wear green it’s such a garish color; you look like an overripe pear. Here, try this shade of teal.” the unicorn slung another roll of fabric at her client, adjusted the glasses she always wore while designing, and looked on with the shocked disgust that only comes with being a seasoned fashion expert. Clara opened her mouth to rebut and contribute some feedback, but the ivory unicorn was already assaulting her with more levitating fabrics “Oh no no no! What was I thinking your mane clearly compliments a goldenrod! Ugghh Rarity are you blind?” The unicorn berated herself quite frequently in front of her clients but not as much as today, her reputation was on the line.

“So miss Rarity, how is little Sweetie Belle? I haven’t seen the dear filly in months, has she finally gotten her cutie mark yet?” The governess inquired, hoping that conversation would make the situation a little less stressful for her tailor.

“Oh she’s out ‘crusading’ with her friends at the moment,” Rarity stopped for a second, took one last measurement, and proceeded to telekinetically thread a couple of needles around the fabric she found to be the most desirable color “and to answer your question no, the poor filly has been stressing day and night about finding her cutie mark. It’s adorable really.” Rarity stated in a detracted voice, and proceeded to start stitching the fabrics together.

“Has she any idea what her special talent could be?”

“To be honest with you darling, it’s right under her snout, I could tell her what it is but that would kill the fun of discovering it on her own.” Rarity was finishing up the initial sewing and the dress began to come together. She rather liked the one sleeve motif she had going on.

“Oh so true, what can the little dear do though?”

“She has a lovely singing voice but I fear she’ll never figure it out, she’s always bounding in and out of one misadventure and into another,” Rarity began to embroider the gems. “Oh Governess please feel free to help yourself to some tea, this might take a few minutes” Rarity suggested.

“Thank you dear don’t mind if I do.” The governess trotted over a table in the middle of the dressing room and began pouring a cup; the steam carried a delightful aroma of honeydew and apples with it. There was something else to the scent though, she couldn’t place what it was but it was very familiar… The governess shirked the thought and indulged herself while Rarity worked. Her worries and concerns melted away with every sip of the brew, it cleared her mind and steeled her nerves, and yet something didn’t feel right. She gasped as she came to a realization about the tea and glanced over to see a grin spreading slowly across the fashionista’s face.

“Miss Rarity did you…. No you didn’t, you wouldn’t….”

Rarity’s grin only grew larger, and she began to chuckle softly to herself raising a hoof to her mouth while still embroidering the gem stones to the dress.

The governess’ eyes narrowed as she turned her attention to the tea, she now recognized that scent. Her hooves began to sweat, her pupils dilated, and her breathing shallowed.

“You… little devil Ms. Rarity…. you added brandy to this didn’t you?”

“What, is a girl not allowed to indulge herself? I find it helps to calm the nerves a little more effectively than tea alone, wouldn’t you agree darling? ” She had finished the dress by this point and gestured for the Governess to try it on so she could make some final adjustments.

The governess chuckled and obliged her trotting leisurely over. It took a moment to get dressed as it was a little tighter than anticipated, but nonetheless, the results were fantastic. Her every curve was accentuated by the goldenrod palette, the topaz gems strewn about generously on the front of the dress complimented her auburn mane, and the single sleeve gave off a toga feel.

“Soooo… what do you think?” Rarity asked in hopeful tone

The governess observed herself in a mirror once more before responding “I simply love it! It’s so graceful yet powerful! Oh and the material, what material is this?”
“Oh you like it? It’s a fabric from overseas; I believe it’s called Nessus fur*.”

“It’s wonderful, how much is this work of art going to cost for you to part with it?”

“Oh no darling, please take it free of charge.”

“Wha… are you sure Miss Rarity?”

“Oh yes absolutely, I insist.”

“That’s so generous of you… surely there must be som--”

“No, I insist. I’m just so glad that you like it; besides I think it looks very nice for the last dress you’re ever going to wear.”

The Governess raised her eyebrows opened her mouth to question Ms. Rarity’s choice of words, but in that instant the dress suddenly tightened and constricted her chest, and a burning pain shot through her body, She was on fire! The Governess struggled, screamed, and bucked in attempts to get out of the dress, but it kept growing tighter and tighter, the flames only increasing in intensity, and smoke began to fill her lungs and clouded her sight. With one final scream, the flames had completely engulfed her. In all of 2 minutes, the light and life of Governess Clara Rosemary had been extinguished ironically enough by fire.

Rarity was glad she had stone floors and walls in this particular work room of Carousel Boutique; it would cause several issues if she left burning bodies just laying around in a wooden room, also that helped with the problem of noise reduction as screaming typically accompanied death by fire.

“Bravo, encore! Ms. Arachne that was a splendid performance; I always did like a good bonfire.” Proclaimed the disembodied voice of a Mare from the hallway.

Rarity turned and glared at the owner of the voice as she walked in: an older looking Mare with a graying Mane and reading glasses, sporting a rather smug grin. “Mayor Mare…” Rarity hissed through gritted teeth.

“My little pony, don’t be so glum, you’ve done such wonderful work!” The elder Mare giddily trotted over to the smoldering corpse of the late governess and gave it a little kick. “Come on you should be happy! With this you’ve brought the organization’s goal one step closer to fruition!”

“I don’t care about your organization, your plan or any of it.” Rarity’s glare had only intensified.

Mayor Mare sighed “Your parents were the same way… so foalish they just couldn’t see the bigger picture; it’s a shame what happened to them really.” She now turned to face the ivory unicorn who was staring daggers into her soul, just wishing she could do something about it, but leverage is a powerful thing and fortunately for the elder mare she knew how to flaunt it. “Do you know where little Sweetie Belle is right now?”

That one question slowly drained the fight from the unicorn's face. “I certainly do, and so does the organization. In fact no matter what she does, where she goes, the organization will always know. I suggest you remember that. You know what we’re capable of.”

With that the unicorn lost all hope, and bowed her head in submission. “Yes, I understand.”

“Very good My little pet, now as for this mess,” Mayor Mare gestured to the carcass on the ground and gave it another little kick. “there’s a clean-up crew currently en route, it shouldn’t be more than a few minutes. We’ll be in contact when we need you again.” Mayor Mare had proceeded to leave the shop, and 2 minutes later 7 colts dressed in overalls with black caps trotted in and began to sanitize the area, all the while avoiding the melancholy mare that lay sobbing on the floor cursing her weakness. They left as quickly as they had come with several bags and containers in tow, and the work room was spotless; almost as though Governess Rosemary had never been there.

Minutes later, Sweetie Belle hopped excitedly into Carousel Boutique to tell her sister of her exploits for the day. She found Rarity in her room laying still on her bed. “Hey Rarity,” The white unicorn turned to face her sister. “guess what I did today! I bet you’ll never guess—”

Rarity didn’t hear the end of that sentence, and Sweetie Belle didn’t finish it. Rarity drew the younger filly into a deep embrace, and simply said “I love you so much; I’ll never let anything happen to you,” as she sobbed and sobbed into her younger sisters coat.

End Chapter 2

*The Nessus shirt-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirt_of_Nessus

6 Part 2: ....Misconceptions Ensue

Friendship Is Deception

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Edited By: TheWattsMan

Act II: Wait, There’s a Plot?

Chapter 6 Part 2: ...Misconceptions Ensue

The veil is off, the secret is in the open, and all the attention is focused on the proverbial elephant in the room. Look up, and notice the other party slowly coming to terms with what has presented itself; their reaction to this tender instant will forever immortalize this moment in infamy, or acceptance. What they do next may surprise you... or not....

Mayor Mare stood out the door of her office in Ponyville City hall after having a little 'pep talk' with her favorite designer to help her remember her place. She noticed as of late that there had been a certain hostility growing ever more evident in Rarity's eyes every time she went to visit; when the blackmailing first started, the look in the ivory unicorn's eyes only held fear and obedience: the essence of a hopelessly dominated pawn, which was exactly what Black Anarchy needed to further their goals.That younger Rarity, who would have done anything she was ordered to without question as long as her precious sister was safe, was slowly starting to show signs of potential mutinous intent, and it needed to be nipped in the bud lest she become a problem.

With a sigh, the Mayor dropped the issue from her mind and craned her neck down to draw the key to the door from under the mat in front of the door. She ceased the act when she noticed the door stood slightly ajar, ‘I swear to Luna I locked this door before I left,’ She nudged it open with her head and proceeded into the room cautiously; a good sized window adjacent from the door provided illumination, and she began scanning the walls lined with shelves containing various nick-knacks and books, to her plants in the far corners of the room. Her gaze finally dropped to the floor and she noticed a long, brilliant red carpet overlapped her modest hardwood floors and made a pathway to her desk. She noticed that the chair to her desk was turned around facing the window, and though she couldn't see who was sitting there, the pointy tip of a very peculiar dark blue hat gave away the intruder's identity. ‘Oh Luna not her...’

A shrill voice broke the silence, single-handedly crushing any hope the Mayor might have had about it being some random messenger wearing an identical hat. "Greetings, simple politician; today your paltry little office has been graced by the presence of the one and only Great and Powerful Trixie!"

‘Sigh...Why her? I'd rather have dealt with the ill-tempered bi--’ The Mayor's train of thought derailed as the chair turned around to reveal the source of the voice, as a blue unicorn mare who had sent a bolt of light whizzing past Mayor Mare's head. She blinked it off and then affixed a glare to the self-proclaimed great and Powerful Trixie: "Okay, why are you here? I'm awfully busy preparing for the Royal Council Representative election, and I only have 3 more days to prepare, so please make this quick, as every second counts."

Trixie scoffed at the blunt remark but continued: "Well, if you must know, Trixie was hoof-picked by the master himself to deliver a message."

"I think you mean you were hoof-picked to come here and irk me because the master couldn't tolerate your obnoxious and relentless boasting in third equestrian," chided Mayor Mare with a smug grin.

Trixie flushed a slight shade of crimson for a moment before regaining her composure and clearing her throat. "Trixie will forgive your ignorance, and will give you the message anyway: you are to contact Cross-Eyed Eagle and have any and all loose ends cleared up. After doing so, you will have the honor of accompanying Trixie to Canterlot to meet with the master."

"Fine, fine, just get the hay out of my office; the air is beginning to grow stagnant from your abhorrent smugness. Before you go, I imagine that you've nowhere else to stay, so please allow me to extend Ponyville's famous hospitality and relocate you to a more fitting locale, such as a common gutter, or the cave of that ursa you brought upon my town last time you were here," Mayor Mare grinned as she caught a sneer from Trixie, who was rising from the chair and making her way past the Mayor when she opted to bump shoulders and directed into the older mares eyes an immediate death glare.

"If you weren't such a vital asset to Black Anarchy, Trixie would---Argh!" Trixie bit her lip and proceeded to Trot out of the office down the hall to one of the empty spare bedrooms that were often reserved for newcomers to Ponyville without any place to stay.

‘At least she'll stay out of my mane for a while.’ Mayor Mare walked over to her desk, opened a drawer, and withdrew a large folded up black cloth with red patterns. She moved over to her window and hung the cloth like a curtain from the rod above the window. Fully unfolded, it displayed red pointed star with several evident fissures flowing through it. This was the symbol of the Shadow Organization Black Anarchy, though to the rest of Ponyville it would look like an ordinary flag from the Mayor's hometown as she had convinced them. Only a select few individuals would know what it really stood for, and not too long after she placed it up, the seemingly least competent of those individuals had crashed through the window, warranting a sigh from the Mayor.

"Get up you, I have a mission for you that needs to be executed immediately. Your target is her," Mayor Mare threw a picture at the bumbling gray Pegasus that stood before her. She was less than pleased that she would have to utilize an assassin of her nature to eliminate a her favorite plaything, but they were only means to an end after all.

The Pegasus stared at the Mayor and somehow at the painting on the wall of fruit, and requested skittishly: "Okay, but... can I.... have a muffin first?"

Mayor Mare face-hoofed, "Just get out of my office."

The Pegasus snapped a salute and proceeded to fly out of the window she had just destroyed, but not before entangling herself in the flag that still limply hung from the rod that remained intact through the initial destruction.

‘It's going to be a long 3 days,’ Mayor Mare thought to herself.

Rainbow Dash was currently en route to Sweet Apple Acres, having just returned from the EIB Ponyville office. It had been so long since she checked in last they almost arrested her for wearing the Crossheart Syndicate saddle bags when she walked in. Fortunately the Chief recognized her as an undercover agent and cleared up the massive miscommunication between herself and the agents she was threatening with physical violence and job related reprimands. After giving 3 month's worth of oral reports (as if she would write them herself), she made the request to break cover and aid a one Violet Page of the RCIA. Rainbow learned about Twilight's secret life a little after the Nightmare Moon incident, in fact she almost forced both her and Twilight's cover to be blown when she accused her of being a spy that first time in the library. It was a little ironic she had knowledge of Twilight's secret occupation while Twilight knew nothing of Rainbow's because of the difference in security clearances between the EIB and the RCIA.

Reluctantly the Chief allowed her to reveal herself only because had he said no, she probably would've gone over his head and played hero anyway; at least this way he could credit any meritorious achievements she accomplished to his quick decision making which would definitely look good on his file for another promotion. She didn't stop here with the request for reveals however, she also informed the chief of rising tensions between the Crosshearts and the Apple Family. She reasoned that if she could make peace with the Apple Family they could prove to be an invaluable resource in this little shadow war against the Crosshearts. The Chief was hesitant to go along with this at first but he knew that if he didn't say yes she would have done it anyway.

After having both requests for information reveals cleared, she left the filly she rescued in the Chief's care (against his protests about being horrible with kids) and set off to Sweet Apple Acres as her first destination.

As she progressed flying overhead the road to the acres, she noticed a Pink blur further along the road hopping along in the same direction she was flying. She recognized the blur immediately as Pinkie, and decided to cut her off and possibly convince the party pony to return to Ponyville Central. Rainbow was going to need privacy for this divulging of classified information.

"Hey Pinkie, hold up!" Rainbow called from overhead as she began to make her descent to the road.

"Oh hey Dashie, what's up?" Pinkie shouted enthusiastically as her friend a couple yards in front of her.

"You may not want to see Applejack today, she's.... uh... pretty... sick... Yeah she's awfully sick today." Rainbow lied through her teeth, but it was for a good reason.

"Golly Rainbow, yer a worse liar than ma'self, and that's sayin' somethin," called a familiar voice from behind Rainbow.

Applejack clopped down the road with Fluttershy trailing lazily in the air behind her. Rainbow turned to face her friends. ‘Buck, this isn't good, I can't tell Applejack with Pinkie and Fluttershy hanging around’ "Oh hey Applejack, how are yo--Gahh!!"

Rainbow didn't finish that greeting because at that moment pain erupted in her face, and all she saw was a flash of Pink and stars in her left eye

Pinkie thought something was wrong when Rainbow Dash claimed that Applejack was sick, and Applejack plain as day walked up right at that moment. She had been hoping to see Applejack to pick up a fresh Apple Pie to celebrate the destruction of a Crossheart headquarters, and it looked like she might still get that pie.

"Mmmm... pie.... Wait, focus brain, something isn't right"

"Focus is for the weak my child, I am Jed of the Gatorfolk"

Stop it brain and focus!

You dare to command Jed? Such insolence will not be tolerated!

Ignoring Jed's... errr.... her brain's ludicrosity she focused on Rainbow Dash as the pegasus turned to greet Applejack, and noticed rainbow's saddle bags, and the emblem that was embroidered on them. She felt a sudden burst of rage and betrayal brought upon by the emblem.

Ahh, Jed sees the dilemma here....Combat Mode Initiated. Make her pay my child.

Pinkie's hair fell straight and she made a snap decision to assault Rainbow Dash with a flying kick to side of the head, which resulted in sending Rainbow tumbling to the ground.

Rainbow picked herself off the ground and rubbed the side of her face with her left hoof before inquiring what the hay had just happened. "Pinkie, what the hay was that for?! I thought we were friends!"

Rainbow noticed the Pink pony was trembling with excitement, but her face wore an expression of rage and her Mane had become straight as opposed to it's normal bouncy consistency. "You.... you... work for the Crosshearts!? You're no friend of mine," Hissed the enraged Pink Pony. Rainbow hadn't anticipated Pinkie was even remotely aware of the Syndicate's existence.

"Wait an apple-buckin' minute now," Applejack interjected trotting up next to Pinkie "Rainbow y’all associate with them Crosshearts?"

"Well..." Rainbow began to spit out.

"No need for y’all to explain, yer silence says it all," Applejack adopted a defensive stance next to Pinkie, and the two Earth Pony mares simply stared Rainbow Dash down their eyes full of malice. "You don't understand!" Rainbow cried out, but it was too late as the two Mares had already began to Rush her.

Rainbow fortunately had earned a black belt in Karate from a kindly older stallion in her youth, and probably could have easily taken Pinkie by herself, but adding Applejack to the equation doubled her problems. Pinkie opened the assault with a cartwheel carrying brutal momentum but horrible aim; Rainbow side-stepped her and was preparing to punish her for the failed attack, but as she reached a forehoof out to grab Pinkie's exposed neck for a slam, Applejack had taken the forward momentum from her gallop and intentionally let her legs collapse from underneath her resulting in a slide kick that knocked Rainbow off her feet, and on her flank. Pinkie recovered from her missed attack, and cantered over to the fallen Rainbow Dash, reared up on her hind legs and began to rain stomps from her forehooves directed at Rainbows head.

"umm... please stop fighting," pleaded a soft voice.

Rainbow dodged and rolled along the ground until she saw her opening, and flapped her wings along the dirt road resulting in a cloud of dust that assaulted Pinkie's eyes. Taking advantage of the temporarily blinded pony, Dash planted her forehooves on the ground, spun her body in a circular motion and swept Pinkie to the ground with her rear legs. She began to recover, but just as she made it to a stand she was tackled backwards by Applejack, who had opted to ram Rainbow with her head.

"Could you please stop fighting now?" called the soft voice from before, a little louder.

Rainbow finally recovered and prepared to go 1v1 with Applejack. She prepared herself for any kind of rush AJ might pull, and as if on cue Applejack began galloping full speed, Rainbow preparing to use that momentum against her. However, Applejack skidded to a stop inches away from Rainbow, side-stepped quickly left while pivoting 180 degrees, wrapped her right forehoof around Rainbow's throat, her left around Rainbow's waist, and proceeded to pick up the pegasus,supporting both their weights on her hind legs, and leaned backwards; resulting in Rainbow hitting the ground hard on her neck.

"Stop fighting now..." The soft voice was now raising to an audible level, and a hint of irritation was evident in the tone.

Rainbow recovered from the heavy blow quicker than Applejack, and decided she would mount her retaliation here; she began to flap her wings to gain height, proceeded to turn that upwards motion into forward momentum, and, as Applejack turn to face her opponent, she saw a blue blur and felt her body take an impact akin to one of Big Mac's kicks, followed up with several slightly lighter blows to her face that built up over time, resulting in wide-spread pain. The flurry was finished by a solid hoof to the nose which sent her back to the dirt. It was going to take more than that to drop Applejack, who was presently being joined once again by Pinkie Pie.

"Yer not bad fer a thug Rainbow," Applejack complimented while spitting out blood, "it's a shame I gotta take ya out though."

Rainbow regained her breath and attempted to use this standstill to clarify the situation "Applejack listen to me, I don't want to fight you, and you don't understa---"

Pinkie Pie had cut Rainbow off again "SHUT UP! I trusted you, I even called you my friend, and I find out you work for that sick organization I've dedicated my life to destroying?"

"You don't understand!" Rainbow cried out again as Pinkie charged.

“I SAID BUCKING QUIT WITH THE FIGHTING NOW!” An angered Fluttershy bellowed, loud enough to be heard in Appaloosa. She was exhibiting 'The Stare', as the group called it, and aimed it at Pinkie Pie and Applejack, who merely slumped out of their fighting stances into a shaking fearful state where they stood. Fluttershy maintained the stare for another few seconds before dropping it and she turned to a bewildered Rainbow Dash, and flashed a patient grin at her. "Now what were you trying to say Rainbow?"

"uh...I uh... yeah..." Rainbow attempted to regain her composure from the fact she had just been saved by Fluttershy, and even more surprising that Fluttershy had been able to control both Pinkie and AJ so easily. "I was trying to tell you guys you've got everything all wrong, I don't work for the Crosshearts. Well I do but I don't....ugh... Look, I'm with the Equestrian Investigation Bureau alright? I was undercover for a few years, and I've been doing a lot of background work to shut them down for good."

"Well why didn't you just say so Dashie?" Pinkie asked innocently, her hair regaining its natural fluff.

Dash shot an unamused look at Pinkie "I don't know Pinkie, maybe because you kept attacking me?"

"Oh right.... I'm sorry Dashie!!"

"Sorry for what, and what happened to you guys?" a new voice called out. The voice belonged to one of two cloaked figures that were walking up to the four mares.

A new challenger approaches. Come my child, Jed will aid you in combat. Go for the legs...

"STOP IT BRAIN!!" Pinkie shouted attracting the attention of the other five mares who shot her confused glances.

"Right... Anywho, y’all are...?" Applejack inquired

"Oh Sorry," the figures removed their hoods to reveal a puzzled looking Twilight and Rarity. "What happened to everypony?"

"Why're y’all dressed funny?" Applejack pressed the pair for info.

"Twilight, I need to tell you... well I guess everypony now... something important," stated Rainbow

"Rainbow darling, we've been looking everywhere for you as well," said Rarity

"Everyone..." Fluttershy attempted to interject but she was drowned out by the sea of voices asking questions and progressively getting louder. "Please, let's all take turns..."it went unheard under the cascade of voices. She sighed dejectedly in defeat and sat down on her haunches and listened as the conversations went slowly nowhere.

"Hey-hey-hey! Guys, my tail is twitching!" Shouted Pinkie who had taken to hopping around like a mad mare. The others paid no heed to this warning as they were too busy trying to speak over each other. "I really mean it, something's gonna fall!"

At that moment a blue unicorn stallion who was making his way down to Sweet Apple acres to place an order on a shipment of apples happened to notice 6 mares arguing with one another, and attempted to help diffuse the situation before things got out of control.

"Excuse me ladies, is there something I can---" In a way the blue unicorn had achieved his goal of ending the civil quarrel of the six mares, but perhaps not in the way he'd intended or would have even predicted. Whatever light and life the unicorn had was immediately stripped from him in an instant. All he could hear was a loud crack in the distance followed by whistling that drew eerily closer every millisecond before his very being was disintegrated and replaced by a cloud of dust combined with a burning scent that flowed from a small impact crater.

The 6 mares immediately jumped after seeing the explosion of dirt and rocks replace the stallion who had wandered over, for a purpose that would be forever shrouded in mystery. However the miniature explosions only continued one after the other, some further from the group, and some a few feet away, which prompted the mares to run for the trees in the orchard. The explosions stopped for a while, which Twilight took as an opportunity to investigate the explosion site which was littered with craters at this point. Upon walking up to the edge of the treeline, Twilight stopped and noticed something shining dully out of the impact crater. Not wanting to go back into the road, lest the explosions start again, she reached out with her telekinesis and moved the shiny object closer to herself, and proceeded to study it as she returned to her friends who were rambling mindlessly about what just transpired. Upon investigating the object she reached a conclusion:

Using her most authoritative speaking voice she announced to the other 5 mares "Girls, I know what caused those explosions, and I know what we're dealing with."

The other five now focused their attention on Twilight giving her the silence necessary to convey her findings.

Levitating the shiny object in front of her she announced: "We've been marked by a Sniper."

Chapter 6 End.

Emergency Transmission

-Begin transmisssion-

A jittery zebra with goggles on his forehead appears on the display and looks around nervously; the sounds of hoof beats and shouting can be heard in the background "Hello? Is this piece of junk working right? Wait what's this?" Looking scrutinizingly at a piece of paper he begins to read its contents "The Last Author's note... What's this ugly looking creature here? Ehhh this is rubbish..." He crumples up the paper and turns back to the screen.

Reaching a hoof towards the display he begins to tap the camera irritatedly "Bucking tears, please just work this one bucking time, I need to get this out... Oh there's some mud on the display.... Oh come on, less than a minute of battery life? That's just wonderful..."

Looking back into the display he begins to speak again "Okay, look I'm very short on time with this so whoever the unlucky bastard is viewing this listen up, I need to get the truth out before they find me: Discord was just the beginning. The contents of that damnably awful film were based primarily on some case files I managed to steal, and gave to an aspiring director by the name of--" The Zebra turns his head to address some noise in the hallway.

"Hey, I think I heard something this way! Up the stairs," called a voice down the hall.

"Buck, this isn't good, almost out of time... Okay, listen to me, the rabbit hole goes deep, deeper than you know. Black Anarchy wasn't the only threat to the equestrian government, there's another traitor to the crown someone who was even higher up than discord: Princ--"

A voice cut the zebra off "Hey you! Don't move, you're under arrest by the order of---"

Battery Life-- Zero percent
Ending Transmission