Death City

SORRY! SORRY FOR LONG UPDATE! No clue where my old Beta-Reader went, so I had to get a new one temporarily. And, this has been a really strong week of typing. My fingers hurt like hell, and my mind is having cramps (If that’s possible). Still writing, so that’s good. New chapter is here. Read, review, favorite, thumbs up. Do that unless you want more coal for Christmas. (Like you already don’t get coal)

Chapter 38 – From Underground to Over Ground

“Hey, where were you two?!” Strife snapped at Ace and Weepy, who finally caught up with the rest of the group. The two looked at the rest of the group with confused eyes.

“Well?” Strife began tapping his hoof impatiently on the ground, waiting for some sort of answer.

“Oh, well, we had, um, some sort of, um, problem kinda thingy trying to fit though the cell bars, and um, you know.” Ace began rubbing the back hoof his head, trying to come up with an acceptable excuse. Turns out he had been even worse than Applejack when it came to lying.

“I know alright.” Strife said while wearing a disappointed face.

“Now, now. Calm down.” Twilight explained. “We have bigger priorities than just sitting around here arguing. We have to deal with that messed-up empire pony as well as that no-good Queen Chrysailis.”

“Who said anything about us arguing?” Strife talked back to Twilight. “I mean, really!”

Rarity had approached Strife and gave him a slap on his head. “Be civilized.” She commanded.

“Guys, focus!” Twilight ordered. “We have to work as a team if we want to get anywhere.”

“I agree.” Thunder agreed. “I’m in no mood for anymore fighting.”

“Then where do we go from here?” Rainbow asked. “We don’t know our way out of this abandoned prison and Chrysalis’s army is growing as we speak!”

“Well, our only way out is to find that empire pony and force him to tell us the way out.”

Twilight answered. “He has to know this place from top to bottom.”

“Oh, I’d love to pay that asshole a visit!” Strife announced, cracking his hooves and neck loudly.

The entire time the group had been controverting on what they had planned to do. Weepy just stood back and hid her face behind her mane. She acted the exact same way as Fluttershy was when she met new ponies as well.

Ace suddenly noticed this and tried to comfort her in the best way possible.

“Hey, are you alright?” Ace asked in his most soothing and comfortable voice, leaning down till he was able to communicate with Weepy.

“N-no!” Weepy said while she was crying. She had been loud enough for Ace to hear, yet quiet enough for everypony else to keep arguing on a plan to get out.

“But, but why?” Ace thought. “What’s wrong? What’s bugging you?” He asked.

“Everything!” She shot out. “I just don’t want all this pressure. I’m not used to it. I, I just want to go back to my corner!” She said.

“Don’t think that way!” Ace demanded, becoming a little more serious. “I swore to keep you protected and that’s what I’m gonna do. There’s nothing in the world that will stop me from doing so.”

“But what if you get hurt?” Weepy asked beginning to cry more. “What if you get killed? It’ll be my entire fault. I’ll be the one to be blamed for. I’ll never be able to live with myself if that happens. I already have too many fears and nightmares.” She said.

“Why are you thinking that way?” Ace asked, resuming in his soothing voice. “What makes you think I’m going to get hurt?”

All Weepy did as a response was look back at Ace’s left wing that had been attached to his body. Ace was curious at what she had been looking at and turned around to find that she had been starring at his wing. Blushing slightly, Ace continues and says, “Oh, that. But still, even if I do get hurt, it’ll be my fault and my fault only, not yours. What makes you even think me getting hurt will be because of you?”

“Because you swore you’d protect me.” Weepy recalled. “The only reason I left that cell to come follow you guys was because you told me I’d be protected by you. But now that I think about it, no matter what, something bad will end up for me. I should’ve just stayed back in my corner before you showed up.” She said.

“Oh, what’s the point.” Ace said in his head. “Whatever I tell this chick, she always turns it around in a bad way. Now I understand why her cutie mark is a teardrop!”

“Just trust me...” Ace grabbed Weepy’s hooves. He then says, “Trust us. We’ll make it though as a team. If we watch each other’s necks, nothing can possible go wrong.”

“Well, I guess it may work out.” Weepy said, looking in the other direction, avoiding eye contact from Ace. “But I don’t think you should expect much from me.

“Expect much from you?” Ace began. “Why wouldn’t I after that amazing performance you put on back there.”

“What performance?” Weepy asked, looking at Ace, yet still avoiding eye contact.

“That one where you healed me perfectly and attached my wing on again. You know.” Ace explained. “And because of your powerful healing powers, you’d make an outstanding pony to the team.”

“Still, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do a spell like that again.” Weepy mentioned, pulling her hooves away from Ace. “It takes a lot of magic to perform. You wouldn’t understand with you being a pegasus and all. No offense.”

“None taken.” Ace replied. “While you unicorns have your fancy horns to use for magic, us pegasi can soar through the sky with our wings.” Ace said, looking back and flapping his wings once more.

Weepy giggles a little and says, “I guess.”

Ace had been taken back by now. He had never seen the mare smile even once, yet here he was, with the mare just laughing a little at his comment. It had been a simple laugh. Not a fake one and not too overdone. Just right.

Turning his head back, Ace, along with Weepy, joined back into the conversation that the rest of the group had been trapped in for finding a way out. But it hadn’t been the best time to join in.

“Why don’t we rip his head out of his silly little spine, soak it in lava and burn it in the fire, put it in an extreme freezer and hang it, then take it down two thousand years later, unfreeze it, kick it into a ball, roll it down a cliff, set it on fire again, throw it down a waterfall, then take a giant shit in its skull!” Strife yelled to the group.

“And I thought Pinkie Pie was random.” Rainbow Dash put a hoof in front of her mouth and whispered to Twilight.

“Um, I see we’ve came up with some productive ideas, I assume.” Ace said slightly, not sure if they had been getting anywhere or not.

“With Strife in this group, getting something done is more than just something.” Rarity pointed a hoof at Strife while looking away.

“Hey!” Strife snapped. “Who had been the one who broke everypony out of the cell? Oh, yeah right. It was me!”

“Hey, hey. Chill, you guys.” Thunder tried his best to calm the group down. “We won’t get anything done at this rate if we keep arguing.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everypony for the past few days now!” A furious Ace shot out. “Okay, you know what. Screw it. Screw it all. Burn the world to the ground. Die in the flames of living hell, I don’t care. Just find that little bastard that runs this hellhole and get out of here before anything. Okay? Okay let’s move.” Ace announced, not giving anypony time to answer his question. With that, he trotted out in front of the group down the hallways of the dead prison, in hopes of finding any sort of hint to where the empire pony could be.

The rest of the group followed behind with confused faces. Never had anypony seen Ace like this. He always had been calm, understandable, and a great leader. But here he had been, flipping out at the group.

As Ace lead the group down the hallways once again, Rainbow flew up to Ace as she stayed next to him, suspended in air a few inches above the ground.

“So, Ace.” Rainbow Dash began as she flew through the air the same speed as Ace trotted. “What were you and little miss Weepy talking ‘bout back there? Anything you wanna share with me?”

“Umm, I think not.” Ace replied, looking around the cells for any clues to where the mysterious pony could’ve been. “No, noting important. Just a casual conversation.”

“Really? Cause it seems you two were talking about something deep.” Rainbow confirmed. “I even saw the mare, Weepy, cried a little.”

“Were you stalking?!” Ace asked, looking at Rainbow by now, a little furious that she had invaded his privacy.

“No, I mean yes, I mean no, I mean maybe.” Rainbow didn’t know what to say by now. She wanted to be honest with him and tell him yes, but she also wanted to think of her as more civilized and say no. There had been so many possibilities, yet only one answer.

“Well, what is it?” Ace began to grow impatient. “Yes or no?” He asked.

“Is maybe an option?” Rainbow asked, putting on an innocent face.

“Yes or no?!” Ace repeated himself, looking directly into Rainbow’s eyes. His voice had been deep and his tone dark. Rainbow knew he had been serious and wanted the truth, so she gave it to him.

“Yes.” Rainbow Dash answered, hanging her head low. “But only because I had nothing better to do with the rest of the group arguing on how to seek revenge on that pony that sliced off your wing and stuff.” Rainbow picked her head up while saying that.

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Ace said before speeding up ahead a little, leaving the confused mare behind him.

“Wait, so are you mad at me or not?” Rainbow yelled to the stallion while flying forward to catch up with him. “I told you the truth. That’s good, right?”

“Since when is telling the truth always a good thing?!” Ace avoided making eye contact with the mare like before, just looking at the stone ground below his hooves. “It depends on the action, and stalking isn’t a good one!”

“Oh, come on.” Rainbow grew tired of this. “I told you the truth. I was honest with you. Now can you spare some respect and trust for me?” Rainbow asked with pleading eyes.

“I’m sorry, but you committed the crime,” Ace mentioned. “And now you’re going to have to pay the time.”

“Wait, what?” Rainbow Dash had been more than just confused by now. “What do you mean by crime?”

“You know what? It’s best if you just sit out for now.” Ace looked back to see if everypony else had been following. “I’ve had enough of you for one day.”

Just from hearing that, Rainbow sank to the ground, her wings falling flat. “What did I do?” She thought to herself. “I’m not the cause of the crime. That crybaby is! Well, let’s see how Ace reacts when the dirt is on her and not me.” Rainbow chuckled a little from the thought of this as she rubbed her hooves together evilly. Apparently, Twilight had been close by and saw the whole thing.

“Umm, Rainbow Dash.” She began, addressing her by her full name. “Is everything alright over there? You look kind of……different”

“Oh, what?!” Rainbow suddenly snapped out of it and sprang back into the air, flapping her wings in the progress. “What do you mean? I wasn’t doing anything.” She said as sweat began rolling down her face as she looked from left to right, trying to get Twilight to go away. The scene had been awkward to the both of them.

“If you say so, I guess.” Twilight said as she resumed to walk back with the rest of the group, feeling a little out-of-place after seeing Rainbow Dash in such a weird state.

“Phew, that was close.” Rainbow wiped some sweat off her forehead. “I gotta be more careful if I’m gonna pull this off.” That said, Rainbow dashed off towards the group in the distance, thinking carefully on what she would do to seek revenge on the innocent, light pink mare.

The gang had been traveling for a while in what seemed to be a never ending prison. No matter what they did, turns they made, they always ended up in the same place over and over. It had been as if everything had been an allusion of the mind. Something that didn’t make sense. Maybe the place had been cursed.

“Ugg, how long have we been traveling for?” A very tired Strife asked. “Somepony shoot me already.”

“I’d be more than glad to.” Rarity responded.

“Can it, will you?” Thunder ended it. Too many fights and arguments had been going about the group as most of them came from Rarity and Strife. Both had a strong envy for each other, yet Ace knew they’d work well together if the situation had been right.

“I wonder how the other group is doing right now.” Twilight thought. “They must be far in by now. If anything, they’re probably waiting for us at home, already having defeated that bucket of screws and bolts.”

“S-screws and bolts?” Weepy asked, hiding half her face behind her mane as usual and keeping her head low. “W-what do y-you mean by that?”

“Oh, well, how do I explain this?” Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof, thinking of a way to explain to Weepy who Spectrum had been.

“It’s this robot pony who we thought was good and helped us out, but went rouge and nearly killed Ace.” Strife interrupted. “He also doesn’t talk.”

“Well THANKS for interrupting!” Twilight snapped at the young, devilish colt.

“Anytime.” Strife simply responded.

“Sometime I wonder if the pony has any manners of his own.” Rarity whispered to Twilight.

“Um, hello!” Strife popped his head out. “I heard that!”

“You’re doing it again!” Thunder announced. “Seriously! This is getting out of hoof!”

“Oh, I-I’m sorry for asking in the first place.” Weepy turned her head to the side, taking the blame as usual.

“Oh, I can’t stand to see you like this.” Rarity looked at Weepy, who faced the opposite direction. “Isn’t she just the most innocent thing?”

“Yeah, if you were comparing her to you.” Strife mumbled to himself. Sometimes, he wished Seamus had been around to keep him company. He missed the alicorn. He brought joy into his life like nopony else did. HE felt comfortable around him for some unknown reason.

Suddenly, Strife stopped in place. He began thinking. Was this feeling, gay? He had never had this feeling for another colt or even a filly, yet here he was, turned on by another colt who he only knew for a few days now. It had been a part of his mind that he couldn’t understand for now.

“Wait, hold on!” Ace announced, sticking a hoof out in front of everypony else. “I think I saw something.”

“What did you see?” A curious Twilight asked, looking out into the distance to look for what Ace told them he noticed.

“I think it was a shadow of something.” Ace explained. “By the looks of it, it moved quickly as its shadow was gone in a flash as well.”

“Was it a ghost?” Rarity feared, afraid of the creature lurking behind the corner.

“Really?” Strife joked. “Everypony knows ghosts don’t have shadows.” He said.

“Sweet Celestia, will you two shut up for just a minute?!” Ace turned around and yelled at the two. They had really been getting on his nerves for the past few days, but now they had been pushing it.

“Fine, but I’m timing it.” Strife fooled around.

“Calm down, Ace.” Twilight began rubbing Ace’s shoulder, relieving the stress in it. “We have an enemy to find.” With that, Twilight began nearing the corner that the creature with the shadow had been behind. Thunder kept whispering to stop there and turn around, but her curiosity got the best of her as she kept moving forward.

“No, Twilight. Come back. Come back, please. Damn it!” Thunder cursed under his breath.

By now, Twilight had been right against the corner that the creator had been behind. She began breathing heavier and heavier as her heart began beating faster. Everypony pressured her to go forth. Everypony, but Thunder Ice, who had been begging her by now to come back. But Twilight didn’t listen. She wanted to show them all that she had been more than brains. That she also had guts as well.

Slowly peaking the tip of her head around the corner, she moved until her left eye passed the edge of the corner. What she saw on the other end had been the same pony who did the introduction of the musical. The one who had been slightly obese and hairless. Even though this pony didn’t have the best appearance, Twilight knew just by the looks of it that he could help them with their escape.

Popping out fully out of the corner, Twilight slowly approached the pony. She went from a few feet to a few inches till she was right in front of the pony. His back rose with every breath he took as it sank after exhaling. Twilight could see he had been looking out a window into the sunset with his back turned towards Twilight. In other words he hadn’t even noted Twilight’s presence yet.

Everypony else stuck their heads out of the corner as they watched Twilight make her move to get the attention of the pony. She slowly lifted her hoof and had planned to tap the pony on the shoulder to get his attention. Turns out the plan didn’t work out very well as Twilight did so, she got the scarring of a lifetime.

The pony quickly turned around and screamed into Twilight’s face as she tapped him on the shoulder. Twilight began screaming aloud as the pony screamed into her face. Thunder knew what had been happening, and rushed it to protect Twilight. But Ace wouldn’t allow it.

“Hold on.” Ace whispered, grabbing Thunder’s arm as he dove towards Twilight. “I’d like to see the result of this.”

“Are you crazy?!” Thunder yelled at Ace. “Twilight’s out there getting the hell scared out of her and you just want to stand back and watch and see what happens.”

“Trust me, I might know what will happen.” Ace explained to Thunder. “But it’ll only work if it’s just the two of them.”

“What do you mean by just the tow of them?” Thunder asked. “What will happen? Tell me!” He demanded, losing his patience.

Pointing a hoof outwards towards Twilight and the other pony, Ace continued. “Look for yourself.”

Turning his head, Thunder did as Ace commanded and turned his head towards Twilight and the other pony. But to his surprise, they hadn’t been yelling at each other anymore, rather they both looked out the window while talking to each other. What had been a sudden outburst had turned to a calm conversation so fast. It didn’t even make sense.

“W-what’s going on?” Thunder asked dumbfounded. “They were screaming in each other’s faces just a moment ago?”

“It’s called magic.” Ace replied, beginning to trot over to Twilight and the other pony along with the rest of the group, excluding Thunder Ice. “You were too caught up in trying to save her that you didn’t even observe what had been happening to the two.”

“Wait, what?” Thunder asked, deeply confused. Seeing that everypony had already approached Twilight and the other pony, he called out. “Hey, wait up!” He yelled as he galloped over to the rest of the group.

Once approaching them, he headed up to the front of the group where Twilight and the other pony had been awaiting them. He didn’t want to intrude, so he listened in on their conversation closely, taking note of every word they spoke.

“Why are you even here anyway? Couldn’t you just leave this place if you wanted to?” Twilight asked the pony.

“Sorry, can’t. My boss has a document which I signed obligating for me to work here for the next three years.” The pony responded, looking back into the sunset.

“Then where is your boss? We can talk some sense into him, I promise.” Twilight mentioned, looking at the pony.

“He’s away on a business trip.” The pony chuckled a little. “Hard to believe somepony from the dead still works. Am I right?” He asked, now looking at Twilight.

“I guess you are.” She answered in a cheery voice. “Well, I still have to ask you.”

“Ask away.” The pony told her.

“Why aren’t you dark and evil like the manager and others?” Twilight questioned. “How come you’re not as strict as them?”

“The rest aren’t evil or dark.” The pony answered. “They’re just forced to be that way with him around. A shame such good lives have to go to waste.”

“I know what you mean, I think.” Twilight thought. Suddenly, she felt a little poking feeling on her shoulder as she turned around to see it had been Thunder Ice.

“Um, can you excuse me for a quick moment?” Twilight asked sheepishly to the pony.

“Be my guest.” The pony responded, looking back out the window into the sunset.

“Thanks.” Twilight thanked him. Trotting backwards, she and Thunder made their way to the back of the group where the discussion furthered.

“What were the two of you talking about?” Thunder asked the lavender mare.

“Why did you pull me out of there?” Twilight asked the greedy stallion.

Thunder sighed before continuing. “I just wanted to ask a few things. Now, what were the two of you talking about?” He asked again.

“Oh, you know the usual.” Twilight replied. “Just a slight introduction.”

“Oh, no need to rush, but can you hurry up and ask how to get out of here. We’re wasting time by staying down here with Chrysalis up there!” He snapped, pointing a hoof upwards.

“Okay, fine.” Twilight told him. “Whatever happened to taking your time?” She asked herself as she approached the pony near the window once more.

“Hey.” She did a little chuckle. “Say, do you know the route we can take from here to get us to Canterlot Castle?”

“Are you kidding me?!” He asked, looking back at Twilight. “It’s right up there!” He pointed his head upwards till he had been looking at a trapdoor right above him. Twilight did the same along with the rest of the group that had been listening into the conversation until they saw the trapdoor as well.

“Celestia damn it!” Strife cursed under his breath. “Always the last place we look.”

“Take this route upwards and you’ll be in the hallway full of valuables that have been sealed off by the most desperate treasure hunters. The craziest would try to make their way in here just to steal a vase or two that ranged from a thousand bits each, but it had been impossible. Nopony was allowed access into the place. Nopony but the humble Celestia and Luna, who rarely visited the place.

“Looks like Rarity’s gonna have a hell of a time having fun with this place.” Strife whispered to Ace. All Ace did was trot away somewhere else that hadn’t been near to Strife. Strife felt alone by now, missing Seamus. His emotions had been kicking in, just like before.

“But how in Equestria do we reach that trapdoor so high up?” Twilight asked, looking all the way up at the thing.

“Easy.” Rainbow said, flapping her wings.

“Simple for you to say. You have wings!” Thunder yelled at her.

“No, what I meant was Ace and I can lift each of you up one by one.” Rainbow Dash explained. “It’ll be easy breezy.”

“W-wait, but I’m n-not a b-big fan of – Woah!” Rarity screamed. Rainbow had picked her up first and was already heading up to the trapdoor.

“Couldn’t I just have teleported my way up there?” Rarity asked, frighteded that she had been so high off the ground.

“Oh, thank you, Rarity.” Twilight said, overhearing what the marshmallow mare asked. With that, in a quick flash, she leteported up to the floor above her.

“You’re welcome, Twilight!” Rarity yelled sarcastically.

Thunder decided to do the same with the teleporting as he was gone in an instant as well.

“Ok, Strife, you’re next.” Ace announced, diving towards the colt and picking him up.

“Watch where you grab!” He snapped.

“Sorry.” Ace apologized.

After placing Strife up above the trapdoor leading into Canterlot Castle, Ace took a head count. There had been Rainbow, Twilight, Rarity, Thunder, and Strife. Seamus had been missing log ago and Weepy…

“Weepy!” Ace yelled, diving back down through the trapdoor. He had forgotten the gentle, pink mare.

Once diving back into the underground cavers, Ace looked around for any signs of Weepy. To his shock, she hadn’t been there. Neither had the other pony looking out the window that helped them escape.

Launching back upwards, Ace began telling the group what the thought happened. “Guys, that obese, hairless pony took Weepy!” He screamed. “We have to go find her!”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Twilight asked confused all of a sudden. “Weepy’s gone?”

“Yeah.” Ace confirmed. “She’s not down there anymore and neither is the other pony.”

“Then, wait.” Thunder stopped him. “What do we do?”

“What we do,” Ace began. “What we do is go after her.” Ace had been planning to go back down into the underground cavern and search for her, but right before doing so, Twilight grabbed him by the hoof.

“Wait! We can’t go right now.” Twilight yelled at him.

“Why not?” Ace tried to struggle from her grip, but she had been serious about this.

“Because, now it’s our time to strike. We’ve gone this far, and we can’t go back. We’ve wasted enough time already. If anything, Chrysalis’s army is the weakest it can get by now. This is our one and only chance, and if we waste any more time, there won’t be any more chances. It’ll all be over.” Twilight explained.

All Ace did was look down at the ground as his wigs fell flat like Rainbow’s did a while back.

“I’m sorry, Ace.” Twilight said in a soft voice. “But what happened just happened. There’s no time to fix it.”

“I, I understand” Ace said, getting back up. “C-come on. Let’s go.” His voice sounded rotten. It had been so sad and desperate, like the lonely cries of a widower.

The rest of the group followed him as they trotted through the hallways of Canterlot Castle. Ace had been in no mood for saving the day anymore. Not without Weepy. He knew she had been somewhere out there, and finding her hadn’t been an option, it had been a mission.

Damn it, been listening to the same song over and over while writing the entire chapter. Now I know all the lyrics. :D Now, onto further business. Now I know how this story is going to go for now. Right now, I’ m going to focus on the group heading towards Queen Chrysalis, and sometime in between, I’ll put a chapter on where Weepy is somewhere as well. Then comes the section of the story with the group after Spectrum. Then comes a section with Seams and where he struggled off to. And finally, we wrap up with Shadow and Dusk on the mutant ship thingy. Once all that’s done, WE’LL BE FINISHED WITH THE STORY!!!! (1/5th of it, that is) You really thought I was going to end my fic right there? It’s only getting good right now.  After that, everypony reunites as a group and I have to find a new enemy to put in the fic that tries to rule over Equestria.

Song requests valid as always but OCs are still invalid for now. Not much besides that, so review!