When The Wall Breaks Down, chapter 3: The Victim

Fluttershy, of Equestria, had been different after The Collapse. When the barrier shattered, a vast amount of Equestria’s magic flooded to earth, and with it, any creatures that happened to be made of magic. That included her best friend, the ever troublesome and lovable Discord. Discord’s body was not truly solid, as many had thought, but Fluttershy had known better. She also knew he was still alive. And for three years, she had been out to prove it. For three years, she had been traveling Earth, searching for him. How could such a delicate mare handle such intense work, you ask? It’s simple. She was no longer the fragile mare that had moved to Ponyville so long ago. She had changed throughout her travels, getting stronger, faster, and of course, braver.

Currently, she was following a promising lead, deep in the Amazon Rainforest. The news website she frequented had featured an article about a bizarre creature in the Amazon, with all kinds of different body parts. The picture had been extremely blurry, but she would recognize it anywhere. Mismatched horns, a golden forelimb, green and grey hind legs, red tail; what else could it have been?

“Hey, Fluttershy?” The pegasus looked up at her human traveling companion, Arianna, in her khaki shorts and white tank top, wearing her heavy machete on her hip. She normally wore her purple and teal hair in twin tails, but had recently cut it and taken to putting it in a single, much shorter tail. “What makes you so sure he’s even going to be here?”

“Call it mare’s intuition.” She replied callously, and lifted a cigarette to her mouth. Arianna’s hand shot down with a mini butane torch, and lit the thing. Fluttershy’s looks had changed drastically, alongside her habits, since her search began. Instead of her old, flowing hairstyle, she now kept it tied back in a tail, and a good bit shorter. She wore a pair of grey jeans(something many Equestrian immigrants had taken to, as clothes were the norm on Earth), a black t-shirt, and a karambit knife on her right shoulder. She’d gotten good with that knife. Not many knew, but under her shirt was a huge black tattoo, in the shape of a tribal Draconequus silhouette. “Ari, he has to be here. He’s not anywhere else, and we actually have a clue now. A PICTURE, of all things.”

“I see.” Arianna didn’t sound convinced. She pulled out her machete and started hacking away the vines in front of her, as her pegasus companion flew over them. “I just, ugh, don’t want you getting, argh, hurt again.”

“What, that broken leg? That was ages ago.”

“You know what I mean, Fluttershy. I know he was your boyfriend, but-” Arianna stopped as Fluttershy flew back and stopped a few inches from the pale violet girl’s face, wearing a look of utter irritation.

“Discord was not my boyfriend. Got it?” She turned back away without waiting for an answer, drifting off in the direction some locals had pointed them in, and soon out of sight. The locals had said something about ruins, but neither of them had found anything, yet. That changed in a moment. “Ari! Get your butt up here!”

The girl started hacking away even faster at the vines, fearing that something had happened to the little pony. Her only friend, after the… incident at Canterlot High School. She finally had them cleared out, and started sprinting in the direction of the voice. “Fluttershy!” she hollered, and stopped running, as a hoof flew in her face. “What’s-” Then she saw it.

A massive temple, stood in the middle of a huge valley. It was like something out of Hollywood. There were massive, broken, stone statues, and fallen pillars that had long since forsaken their purposes, all of them weathered by time.

A shrill cry drew their attention upwards, and they finally saw the massive griffin that had been circling above them. It was a griffin that Fluttershy recognized instantly. “Gilda!” she hollered, as the griffin continued to circle lower, until it finally landed. “What are you doing here, Gilda? You’re supposed to be in Japan, with Arpeggio.”

“She ditched me. Crazy red haired bitch.” Arianna’s eye twitched. “Look, I’m… I’m working for some people that are out for Discord. They want him as their trophy.” she said in a hushed tone.

“And you’re working for them?!” the pegasus bellowed, and tackled the griffin. She drew her knife, and put it to Gilda’s throat. “Giffe me one good reason I shoon’t…”

“I knew you’d get here soon. Look, Dash asked me to help you, and I am! Honest!” The blade was removed, and Gilda sat up cautiously. “I’ve got no reason to betray you. Here’s the thing, I’m not worried. Discord is more than capable of handling himself in a fight. To be honest, I’m more worried about the hunters.”

“Then let’s go get them.” Arianna said, and reached into her bag, producing a Beretta M9. “We can handle anything these chumps throw at us.”

“Easy, Ari. Let’s not be too hasty. Things may not come to that. It’s not like it was in Egypt, they aren’t mercenaries, they’re hunters. Not to mention, Arpeggio, Elegy, and Bulk were still with us at that time. But we do need to hurry.” she concluded, and started flying down the hill towards the Temple’s entrance.

~~~~~~~

“What do you think, Arianna?” Gilda asked lazily as she hovered about twenty feet in the air, with the aforementioned girl riding on her back. She wasn’t very heavy, so the griffin was pretty okay with it.

“Hmm… It’s Aztec, I can tell by the architecture, but like, these are hieroglyphics.” Arianna replied, and scribbled down some notes. Despite the violet girl’s attitude and manner of speaking, she was a well versed archaeologist, and could easily identify things of the nature. “Well, most of them are… take me over there.”

“Hey, even I recognize these. It’s Arabic! I know that’s not supposed to be there.”

“No kidding. I think I can translate most of it.” she said, still scribbling. “Okay, over there, I think that’s Chinese.”

~~~~~~~

“I’m not letting you kill him.” Fluttershy said firmly, and sipped from her canteen.

“And we said we don’t care. He’s an animal, and we want him stuffed and mounted. Therefore, we kill him. If you try to stop us, we’ll have a pegasus as a trophy as well.” one of the hunters, Charleston, said, as he stroked his mustache.

“You do understand that I am a member of Princess Twilight’s Court, don’t you?”

“Crikey, you’re important! Like she’ll ever know.!” One of the others said. He was Arnold. Australian.

“She will. I get in touch with her Representative every two weeks. I’m due tomorrow.”

“Well, ain’t that convenient. Tell ya what, when we see it, we’ll believe it.” Raphael, the last one, said, and pointed his gun at Fluttershy. “Or I could deal with you outright.”

A bang sounded throughout the valley, and Raphael stumbled back, shouting several obscenities. There was a bullet hole in the ground in front of him. Arianna called from above them. “Hey! I wouldn’t do that again! I’m a hell of a shot!” She was still hovering with Gilda, holding her M9 with one hand. “Next one hits your head!” she said, and promptly returned to the carvings.

“See, gentlemen, you have no choice. I may be the Regent of Kindness, but I can be tough too. And see my friend up their, Gilda? She’s friends with Equestria’s Rainbow Dash, the Regent of Loyalty, and Rainbow has never beaten her in a fight. And Arianna’s sister, Arpeggio, is the greatest swordswoman I’ve ever seen. We aren’t the type you want to mess with.” Fluttershy said, and took another cigarette in her mouth. She never dropped her cool, even though her heart had skipped a beat when Arnold had aimed at her. Oddly, he now held out a lit match for her.

“Alright, fine. But we at least get a picture with it.” Charleston grumbled, and crossed his arms like a child.

“Him. And I’m sure that can be arranged.” she said with a smile.

“Fluttershy!” Arianna shouted from above, and pointed to the tree line. A group of men in black stood there, watching them. One had a large sniping rifle pointed at Fluttershy.

“Take cover!” she hollered too late, as the sniper changed his barrel’s angle and shot Arnold in the head. “Shit! Everyone, in the temple!”

They all complied, with Gilda landing and galloping into the entrance, while Arianna hung on desperately. Charleston and Raphael sprinted for the door, both firing shots over their shoulders with pistols. Fluttershy zoomed in behind them all, and entered just in time for an RPG to slam into the top of the entrance, and completely destroy it. They had effectively been trapped inside.

“Well, Fluttershy, What now?” Gilda asked as Arianna climbed off her back.

“We call Arpeggio and Elegy, then we head deeper.” the Pegasus replied sternly. “I have feeling that those were Vatican assassins. If that’s the case, we aren’t safe until they’re dead.”

“Just like Egypt, huh?” Arianna said smugly, pulling a leg holster out of her bag, and fastening it to her thigh.

“Yeah, Ari, Just like Egypt…”

~~~~~~

Egypt:
One year after The Collapse.

“I’m sorry for dragging you guys all the way out here.” Fluttershy said, as she solemnly trotted out of the final chamber in the ancient pyramid. “It was just another false lead.”

“Fluttershy, You know we’ll go wherever we need to, until we find him.” said Bulk Biceps, the only other pony on Sunset’s specially assembled search team, which consisted of Arpeggio, her two sisters, Arianna and Elegy, Bulk Biceps, Gild the griffin, and Fluttershy, of course.

“Yes, it’s not like we expected it to be easy.” Arpeggio said, tracing her finger in a circle at the base of her throat, as she so often did.

“Well, I suppose that’s good!” said a voice not belonging to any of the team. They all turned to see men in cloaks, pointing guns at them. “The equine demon taints yet another of the world’s sacred treasures. Kill them.”

Before they could fire, Arianna, Elegy, and Arpeggio had pulled out their handguns, and shot them all in the head. All twelve of them. They’d been doing this for a long time, it was obvious, but they were no older than Sunset. That terrified the two Pegasi on the team.

“Boss, these guys, I think they’re from the Vatican.” Arpeggio stated, and walked up to one of them. “Yes, I would know this cross anywhere. Arianna has one from when she was an agent.”

“It was a longtime ago, boss, don’t worry.” the violet girl replied, holding up her hands.

“Why would the Vatican be after us?” the leader asked, rubbing a hoof against her chin.

“Well, since the portal opened, they’ve been trying to shut it down, cuz they think it’s sinful. It makes sense to me, that they would be after ponies as well.” Gilda added, taking one of the men’s rifles. “This could come in handy.”

“I’ll send a report to the Rep.”

“Thanks, Bulk. But first, we need to get out of here. Elegy, dispose of the bodies, but take their crosses. We’ll need evidence. Arianna, with me.” Fluttershy ordered, walking away to scout the entrance with her partner.

~~~~~~

“Representative Shimmer? Sunset! Can you hear me?!” Fluttershy shouted at the small device in front of her.

“Obviously not, she hasn’t answered since you started.” Arianna said to her partner, as she assembled a second firearm, an M16, which she had purchased in Baghdad.

“You know, you could contact Arpeggio, instead of playing with your guns.” Gilda said, even as she accepted a pistol from Charleston. It had been Arnold’s.

“Yeah, I guess so. But what’s the point? She’s in Japan.” They had to admit, she had a point. And with Elegy and Bulk in Italy, they had no chance of aid coming.

At least, they thought so, until the pile of rubble behind them shifted, and a familiar white muzzle poked through the new gap at the top. “Everyone okay?”

“BULK?! What are you doing here?!” Fluttershy all but demanded, and started clearing away rubble. “I told you to search Italy!”

“We saw the article online, and we knew you’d be here.” he said, punching through a thick pile of rubble. “Figured you might want some help.” He lifted his head up to look her in the eye with his own deep blue orbs.

Fluttershy cut her eyes slightly. “Yes, thank goodness for Ponybit.com.” she said nonchalantly.

“Totally! Best website ever!” Bulk said enthusiastically.

Fluttershy Smiled sweetly at him. “The President will be happy when I contact her and tell her this.”

“Uh… yeah…” he replied, looking a bit scared.

“Your eyes are red. Not blue.” the little Pegasus deadpanned, shattering the groups smiles.

“What?”

“The article was only on one site, SuperBeastHunterNews.com.” she continued, her face darkening.

“I uh…”

“I’ve never met the President… who also happens to be a man.”

“Oh SHI-” he started, but was cut off by a blade slashing across his throat, which caused green fluids to spill onto the floor. Green flames enveloped the body, and it shifted back to it’s original, black, insect like form.

“What the fuck is a changeling doing on earth?!” Arianna screamed, pointing her screwdriver wildly at the corpse.

“Look at ish chest. Ish got a cross carved into it.” Fluttershy said, and sheathed her knife. “I think it’s safe to say we ARE dealing with the Vatican here. Poor thing must have been dragged here from her hive.”

“Poor? It’s a changeling, Fluttershy.” Gilda scolded. “It doesn’t deserve sympathy.”

“GILDA! SHE was a living creature! Don’t ever say something like that again! The only ones we do not sympathize with are the Vatican. Is that UNDERSTOOD?”

“Yes, boss.” The griffin seemed to shrink away from the Pegasus in fear. It seemed like it hadn’t been too long ago that their positions had been reversed, when Gilda came to Ponyville once, and had scared the life out of Fluttershy.

“Hunters, I need you two to help Gilda close that hole back up. Their humans won’t be far behind. Ari, get a picture of that changeling. Especially it’s brand, that’s important. After that, I want you to contact your sisters.” the yellow mare commanded, pointing her hoof in the appropriate directions. “I’m going to go a bit deeper, and find a good place to make camp.”

As they all set about their assigned tasks, Fluttershy soon found herself trotting steadily down a long corridor, with only a magnesium flare to light her way. One she was sure that she was far enough away from her team that they would not make out her actions, she sat the flare down and laid down beside it. There, she wept quietly, stifling herself so the others couldn’t hear. Se hated killing. She hated all this constant fighting. She hated this world. Equestria had it’s problems, but this place was so much worse. War, there was always war. In the past five countries they’d visited, there had always been violence, hate, starvation, and war. The starvation and war were what bothered her the most, in conjuncture. All of their effort went into the fighting, effort they could put towards feeding the hungry. It sickened her.

“Fluttershy?” The mare flinched and dried her tears quickly before Arianna came close enough to see them. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thi-” She was cut off by an ear-piercing scream, coming from further down in the temple. And it sounded very familiar. Hauntingly similar to a former statue she knew and loved.

“That…”

“Go get the others, we’re going as deep as we can. We’re getting my best friend back.” she said with a massive grin. As the purple girl left to obey, she whispered to herself, “Hang on Dissy, we’ll be there soon.”

Author's Note

I may have turned Fluttershy into some sort of pony version of Lara Croft... which is so many kinds of badass it's ridiculous.