Effigy of Anarchy

Cloudchaser waited as best she could, doing her best to think warm thoughts. Snow trickled down and the world alternated between dark and light as the dense clouds would periodically block the moonlight entirely. Cloudchaser had taken her weather-control classes, same as any other pegasus, and the lack of discipline here was stunning. Trottingham Weather Services must have been in a tough spot to resort to such strange snow patterns.

“Somepony’s coming,” Silent whispered. Cloudchaser leaned backwards to see, shifting ever so slightly on her branch and knocking a small tuft of snow off.

The darkened outline of a pony stopped as the snow impacted the ground, peering into the night. Cloudchaser held her breath, if only to keep the freezing mist from giving her and Silent away. Why Silent wanted to remain hidden was anypony’s guess, but she had much more experience at this sort of thing. This wasn’t exactly the right time to go second-guessing her.

After a few moments, the figure resumed trudging through the snow, now waist-deep. He was evidently an earth pony, and certainly not one accustomed to snowdrifts. His gait was uneven and delicate, as he was balancing something on his back as he walked.

As the figure passed under the lamp near the winery’s entrance, Silent could finally see the details. Fairly young colt, whitish-blue coat with a darker blue mane. If Cloudchaser recognised him, she didn’t give any audible reaction. Silent squinted in hopes of seeing what it was he was carrying. At this distance, all she could tell was that it was three white-and-red boxes about half an inch tall, stacked on one another.

The colt trudged his way over to the main entrance door of the winery, turning a corner as he did so. Silent quickly took to the air and darted for the roof above him, signalling quickly to Cloudchaser to make as little noise as possible. The two whirled and landed on the roof of the building across from the main entrance, and again crouched down to observe.

The entrance on this side was on a slightly elevated walkway, with a metal railing which held an eavestroughing. The colt was barely visible, as the only light here was leaking from within the building through frosted-over windows. He looked impatient as he watched his breath freeze and fall in front of him. He knocked on the door, then waited a few moments before knocking again. As he was about to knock a third time, the door clicked and another colt stuck his head outside. They exchanged a look, and both went inside.

“Now what?” Cloudchaser asked.

“Continue observing,” Silent replied, pointing to a skylight on the main building, “and that’s where we’re going to do it.”

The two rose again and landed softly next to the skylight. It was closed, but the ambient heat of the building had melted away most of the frost as it rose to escape. Cloudchaser looked at the base of the glass pane and, seeing a latch, made to open it. Silent stuck her hoof in the way before she could.

“But - “

“Not yet. They’ll notice if we let the cold air in. Wait a few seconds…” Silent said.

With that, she took off and disappeared from sight. A moment later, she reappeared and nodded, allowing Cloudchaser to open the pane. Now, they could hear voices emanating from below. Silent looked, but from this angle she was unable to put each voice to its speaker.

“You took your sweet time.”

“Shut up, I had to walk uphill in the snow.”

“You shoulda gone earlier then, I told you it was gonna snow tonight. You got the stuff?”

The pony from earlier slid the boxes off his back and placed them on a small table in the center of the winery. At this point, all the inhabitants gathered around the boxes, murmuring to themselves. Silent began making mental notes.

Six colts, no weapons. They were unaware of Silent and Cloudchaser’s presence, and Flitter was nowhere to be found. The room itself was high, with rafters cloaked in darkness. The only light sources were two lanterns placed on either end of the room, between rows of wine bottles stored on shelves. There was easily enough room to stand atop a shelf, and enough room to navigate between them.

In the center of the room was a small wooden table, around which the colts were presently occupied. Visible in the glow of the lantern was a door marked, in bold gothic letters, ‘Basement’. The door leading outside could not be seen in the darkness, though Silent could make out its outline from the moonlight beyond it.

“Damn it’s cold in here.”

“It’s winter.”

“No... hey! You left the door open! Now it’s gonna be frozen in here all night, nice work.”

“Hey, I closed it!”

One of the colts trotted off to shut the open door, making a point of slamming it. Cloudchaser looked at Silent’s face, but found her busily scanning the room.

“What the hay? Celery? Who puts celery on a pizza?”

The colts all began backing away, revealing that the contents of the boxes now on the table were three pizzas of varying descriptions.

“I do. I like celery.”

“On a pizza?”

“Yeah. What, you don’t?”

“I don’t like my pizza crunchy, that’s all.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing.”

The six started busying themselves with the pizza, munching on it for a while. Their eating habits were atrocious, and they made no attempt to close their mouths while they ate. At least they weren’t trying to talk, as ghastly as that would have been.

One of the colts finished faster than the others and decided to wash it down with a bit of wine. As he reached for one of the racks, another slapped his hoof.

“Hey!”

“Boss said no drinkin’ on the job. Not tonight. We gotta deal with the girl.”

“Aw c’mon! Just one?”

“No way, Ted.”

Silent allowed herself a momentary smirk. Cloudchaser snapped to attention, suddenly rapt in the conversation happening below.

“The girl!” she whispered.

“Could be Flitter,” Silent replied. “Keep listening.”

“Wasn’t she your marefriend or something, dude?” asked one of the colts from below.

“What? No, nothin’ like that,” replied ‘Ted’.

A low laughter circled the room.

“Blue-balled by the boss, again! That’s two now. You think he’s gonna do the same thing he did to the last one?”

Cloudchaser sucked in her breath.

“I dunno, did he tell you? All I heard was that we’re supposed to watch her. Seriously, I don’t want to have to go down there again.”

“What happened?”

All the colts gathered around the one who had been speaking, a chestnut stallion who had been helping himself to another slice of pizza before speaking out. He looked around nervously into the darkened room before speaking again.

“It’s really messed up. She’s like, a statue. Just stares straight at you, or past you, I dunno. Boss told me to give her something to drink, but she didn’t even do nothin’. Then the boss just started laughin’ and said ‘Why don’t you take a drink?’ and then she just snatched the bottle from me and gulped the whole thing down. Freaky.”

“I took a peek. I don’t think she’s even tied up down there.”

“What if she escapes?”

“Duh, that’s what we’re here for.”

Cloudchaser leaned back slightly, prompting Silent to relax a bit as well.

“Who do you think the ‘Boss’ is? They look really nervous whenever they talk about him.”

“I suspect they don’t even know themselves,” Silent said. Her eyes returned to the room, as a plan began to form. She knew how to solve this room.

“Chase,” she said, with her eyes now locked on the basement door, “Flitter is probably downstairs. Stay here, and when I give you the signal, fly in and get down there. Get Flitter and don’t come back out until you’re sure it’s clear.”

“What are you going to do?”

Silent didn’t answer, she instead focused on one of the colts. He was a brown unicorn, and currently had a very antsy look about him. It wouldn’t be much longer before -

“Hey guys, I gotta take a leak. Be right back.”

“Wait for my signal,” Silent said.

Silent perched herself directly atop the doorway, and after a few moments, the brown colt stepped outside and ambled along the walkway. Without warning, he stepped towards the railing and began relieving himself, humming softly as he did so. Silent saved the grimace for later, and began her ‘solution’.

She leaped off the roof and collided with the colt’s back, slamming his head sideways as hard as she could into the metal railing. A deafening clang echoed into the night, and Silent allowed him to slump down. She pushed him a bit further from the entrance to buy herself a little more time, then flew back up onto the roof and waited.

“Holy crap!” somepony yelled, “are you okay? Dude? Hey!”

Silent watched as four of the stallions from within came out to look at their fallen comrade. Silent frowned when the fifth did not emerge.

“A damn wildcard,” she muttered to herself as she quickly revised her plan.

Seeing that the goons were preoccupied, Silent slipped into the door they had carelessly left open. A shelf blocked immediate view of the rest of the room, and the sixth colt was unaccounted for. She jumped and flapped once, deftly climbing on top of one of the rows of wine bottles. She looked down at her hooves quickly to make sure there was ample shadow covering her, and, satisfied, glanced upwards to check Cloudchaser. She was looking towards the basement, and Silent followed her gaze to spot the sixth pony.

This was ‘Ted’, presumably the same one who had abducted Flitter in the first place. He was grinning to himself and clutching a bottle of wine, freshly opened. Silent padded quietly atop the wine shelves, hopping between them with as little air disturbance as possible. Ted was enjoying a full-throated drink, gulping loudly as he tried to empty the bottle in one pass. Silent approached the final wine shelf and positioned herself directly behind him, cloaked by the darkness.

She struck with incredible alacrity, leaping into the air and jamming both of her hind legs onto the back of the colt’s neck. As he snapped backwards, the wine bottle caught in his mouth, and Silent wrenched her forelegs over his nose to completely block the airflow. She dug her rear legs in harder, pointing all her force down atop one of the nerve clusters at the point where the spine met the shoulders. As his ability to move his limbs receded, Silent wrapped her other leg around his neck and squeezed shut the arteries, completing the sleeper hold.

Teddy fought for several seconds as his senses grew dull and his panic receded. Silent tightened her grip and yanked his head further back, until a gentle crackling noise indicated a mild dislocation. Teddy’s resistance faded along with his consciousness, and Silent dropped off quickly to support his weight as he slumped over. He was a little heavier than her, and she only had a few seconds left.

The door banged as the four colts dragged their friend back in. Silent dragged Teddy off and rose into the air, flapping with all her strength to get his body onto the wine shelf. The clamor made by the colts provided just enough noise to allow her to fly, but it was still less than she would have liked. Teddy’s leg got caught on the shelf as she ascended, and only with a bit of careful balancing was she able to extricate it and drag him onto the flattened top. The four colts were too busy worrying about their fallen comrade to notice.

“Hey, wake up! Wake up!”

“He’s out cold.”

“What happened? Did he slip?”

“Must have. Banged his head I think, he’s bleeding out his ear.”

“What do we do? Bandage it?”

“Don’t look at me, I’m no doctor.”

“I think we ought to call for help, or somethin’. Who wants to do it?”

Silent perched herself towards the edge of the shelf, with Teddy’s body just behind her. She looked up to see Cloudchaser focusing on her, and gave a brief nod. Hopefully, Chase would recognize what she meant when she had told her about the signal. All she needed was to wait for the right moment…

“Someone get me a cloth or something to clean him up.”

“Don’t you have to disinfect it first?”

“Yeah, with alcohol. Ted, open one of those bottles and help me out here, will ya?”

A pause.

“Ted?”

Another pause. Silent placed her hoof on Teddy’s chest and tensed up.

“Where’d he go? What’s goin’ on around here?”

Teddy’s unconscious body tumbled down from the shelf, landing square in the middle of the cluster of thugs. All four failed to notice Silent leaping from shelf to shelf, making her way towards the door. All four were too busy examining Teddy’s body to notice Silent quietly extract the fire extinguisher near the exit and position herself next to the shelf.

“What the hell!? Ted!? Wake up, dude!”

“Wait - Guys, I think there’s somethin’ in here. Did you hear something?”

“Like what? A creature? You think a wild animal got in?”

“I dunno dude, I didn’t see it. What kind of animal could do this?”

The four were now wildly looking up at the tops of the shelves, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever had discarded Ted’s body so casually. Silent waited, watching the shadows from the lanterns to plan out her next move. As one of the colts backed away from the shelf, she put the next piece into place.

Silent stepped out and swung the extinguisher at full strength right at the colt’s head. The powerful thud of metal against bone drew
the attention of the other three, but all they saw was a cloud of white foam blasting towards them as Silent emptied the extinguisher.

The body of her victim slumped to the ground before her as Silent dodged around the edges of the resulting foam cloud. Cries of anguish emanated from within, and Silent felt a presence swoop down from above. The basement door opened and closed quickly, unbeknownst to the three still standing and coughing in the cloud of gas.

Silent saw an opportunity and took it as one of the goons stumbled out of the cloud, trying to wipe foam away from his eyes. Silent darted around him, accidentally scuffing the edge of the table with a light clunk. The colt heard her and swung his foreleg wildly around, aiming in the general direction of the noise. Silent grabbed onto his leg and he let out a shout.

Silent wasted no time, as the cloud was beginning to disperse. She pulled herself towards the foreleg and slid her hind legs down, colliding with the other legs the colt was still balancing on. His body pitched over as Silent held onto his leg, forcing him to twist at an awkward angle. He grunted and wheezed in response, still blinded by foam he was now unable to remove from his eyes.

Silent pulled on his leg, using her full weight to wrench it in its socket. Feeling herself unable to get enough torque, she leaped nimbly over his prone form, without letting go of the leg. Now at a better angle, she drew the limb downwards and twisted. With a satisfying crack, the bone broke and the thug screamed. Silent finished the job by pouncing directly onto his face, bearing her whole weight downwards.

As the foam cloud cleared and the two standing colts cleaned their eyes, they gave a few more coughs before the weight of the situation hit them.

“What - oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. This isn’t happening.”

“Woah, Pete, Pete. Wake up!”

“It got him, dude. It got him, and it’s gonna get us!”

Silent surveyed the two from her perch atop one of the wine shelves, far from the fading light of the lamp. At this point, all she needed to do was wait for the right moment, and hope whatever the thugs had been talking about earlier wasn’t going to give Cloudchaser any problems.

One of the colts slapped the other. “Shut the hell up! Don’t panic, do not panic!”

“Screw you!”

Both of them were now wildly looking around the room, hoping to spot a glimpse of whatever had been doing this to them. As they spun and cowered, one backed into the other and both leaped into the air.

“Screw this! Screw this, it’s everypony for himself! I’m gettin’ the hell out of here!”

“Wait! Don’t split up!”

Silent allowed herself to grin again, as one of the colts peeled off from the other and dashed outside. She took off quietly and made for the open skylight.

The remaining colt ran to one of the windows and desperately scratched at it to remove the frost covering. He saw, barreling through the snow, the silhouette of his friend. It got stuck in a snowbank and tried to pry its leg free. His own hot breath fogged the window up again, and he quickly wiped the frosting away. By the time he had, all that remained was a hole in the snowbank where his friend’s leg had been.

The final stallion backed into the center of the room, tripping over the table and scattering the pizza everywhere. He lay there for a moment before rolling over and peeling a slice of spinach and feta off his face.

He looked wildly around, hoping to find something to defend himself with. Lacking anything else, he grabbed a loosened wine bottle and brandished it at the darkness. Again, he spun around, hoping to catch a glimpse of his attacker. As he backed up, dread welled up inside him when he felt himself bump into something. Something warm.

A pair of forelegs seized his throat and squeezed. He tried to fight back but the monster was strong, far stronger than a pony. He fought a losing fight to stay awake, and the wine bottle he had held clattered and rolled along the floor away from him as the blackness overtook him.

Silent allowed herself a third and final smirk as she surveyed the solved room. Six pieces, six solutions. Despite the wild card and the attempted escapee, none of them had posed a serious problem, and she could signal to Cloudchaser that the coast was clear.

Except, something was wrong. Ted’s body wasn’t where she had left it.

As soon as she noticed, a foreleg grabbed her and she felt a cold, sharp sensation on her throat. She immediately ceased her resistance as she realized it was a broken piece of glass resting delicately on her carotid artery. The leg tensed and she felt the glass begin to press slightly into her skin.

“You stupid bitch,” Teddy spat, “it was just a mare that did that? Just a damn mare?”

Silent gasped as the glass pressed gently into her skin. She felt a single drop of blood escape and clenched her teeth in the hopes that the tensed muscles would stem the bleeding.

“Well, the boss is gonna be real happy when I bring you in. I’ll get a big, fat reward for this. I don’t even care who you are, I’ll be a hero. And, I don’t think I need to tell you that it - “

Silent felt the colt’s grip slacken. The glass piece dropped and rolled away as a cool sensation splashed around her ears.

“I… just...” the colt mumbled as he untensed and fell over, landing in a heap.

Silent turned around to see Cloudchaser’s angry face, still holding the top of a broken wine bottle, fizz and foam covering her nose. She spat the glass and cork onto the ground. Wordlessly, she lunged forward and embraced Silent.

“Don’t ever do that again, you lunatic,” she whispered.