Arc 2- 12 (Mare-Do-Well Returns [B])

Gilda looks out the window of her office and watches the EIB zeppelin glide towards the griffin enclave like a deadly, colorful blade. While the other griffins and Monte look uneasy about seeing such a thing -especially Blair-, Gilda merely snickers and walks back to her desk and grabs a box of shotgun shells from her desk. She opens them up and pours them all over her desk, then she grabs her shotgun and pops the chamber open, which has a belt for spare shells.

“Oh boy, I haven’t had this much fun in a long time,” snickers Gilda as she loads her weapon.

Gilda slams the chamber shut with a satisfying click and looks outside to see the EIB convoy converging on her home. She scoffs and looks back at her griffins while adjusting a band around her shotgun and slipping her wrist through it.

“These damn ponies have bossed us around long enough,” sneers Gilda, and when she sees Monte shrinking back slightly as the griffins stare at him, she quickly adds: “Except for Monte.”

“Yeah, I’m a zony, anyway, so I don’t count,” says Monte smugly, being sure to throw in an arrogant grin and puff out his chest.

“Monte.”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up. As for you guys, Brisk Wind betrayed us. She has killed our friends without so much as a blink of an eye despite all we’ve done for her. So what we’re going to do is kill every single one of those fuckers that pokes their nasty faces in here!”

The griffins cheers Gilda tightens the shotgun’s safety band around her wrist, then she looks at the ensemble in front of her with murder in her eyes.

“Assemble your teams. Brisk Wind is mine, everyone else is fair game,” says Gilda viciously.

The griffins cheer again and fly out of the room to charge the zeppelin with their weapons at the ready, except for Blair. She runs in the opposite direction, clear out of the office, but Gilda doesn’t really care. When gunfire rings out, Gilda smiles and turns to Monte.

“Do you know what to do, Monte?” asks Gilda sternly.

Monte puts on a cocky smile. “Of course I do.”

“Good.”

Then she flies out of her loft and charges the zeppelin. Monte waves and looks at Gilda’s safe and frowns when he realizes that its locked good and tight, and he doesn’t know the combination.

“Well crap.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Trixie races down the hallway as sporadic popping of gunfire echoes throughout the whole structure. She doesn’t know what the heck happened or why it happened, all she really knows is that she was able to sneak inside with little to no difficulty, and right as she stopped to catch a breather because her sides were killing her, a war sparked in the parking lot. What had been someone demanding the immediate surrender of Gilda turned into a bloodbath. Now she’s snaking through the hallways, trying to keep her head down, as the EIB agents and griffins slaughter each other.

Trixie skids to a stop when a door is kicked off of its hinges, and when an EIB agent pokes her head out, Trixie turns tail and gallops down the hallway in the opposite direction. Some bullets whiz past her, but the agent doesn’t give chase, and when Trixie rounds another corner she runs into a room with four griffins arming their weapons. Both sides stare at each other at a loss for words for a moment before Trixie chuckles nervously, apologizes and closes the door.

“Get her!”

Trixie eeps and bolts down the hallway as the group of griffins break down the door and chase after her. As she zips around the corners, occasionally slipping on the polished tile, she silently thanks Celestia that the hallways are too skinny for the griffin’s to fly through. However, her thanking comes to an abrupt end when a pair of griffin talons snag her off of the ground as if she were some poor fish in a river being snatched for a snack, and she’s flung into a wall head first. After hitting the wall, and leaving a nice, head sized indent, a picture of a flower lands on her head making her grunt. On top of the throbbing pain in her head and the ringing in her ears, she can’t really see clearly because of the layer of drywall dust all over her face.

Trixie shakes her head and hears a pair of wings flapping. When she looks up she sees a small griffin land in front of her, snarling, with the other three griffins running up and aiming their weapons. Then, Trixie sees a team of EIB agents round the corner and she points at them.

“EIB!” shouts Trixie frantically.

The griffin in the very back turns around, swears and brings his weapon to them. The others follow suit and Trixie runs when both sides pump an impossible amount of lead into each other. While running, she comes across a pair of open double doors that lead to an empty hallway with a room at the very end that has a window showing the inside. Trixie notices that through the window she can see a door that is labeled with an elevator symbol, and its being guarded by three griffins who do not seem to notice Trixie. Trixie also notices that the room is labeled: “505”.

‘Okay, really? What is up with that number?’ wonders Trixie.

Then Trixie realizes that the shooting from down the hall has stopped.

Trixie looks over her shoulder, then at the room, then she groans and closes and locks the double doors. When that’s said and done, she takes a deep breath and paws the ground while aiming her horn towards the window.

“This is a really bad idea.”

Trixie gallops towards the window as she charges her horn, sweating and biting back tears of pain as the little ball of electricity on the tip of her horn gives her a splitting headache. When she’s within jumping range, she shoots the little ball and jumps through the window as it shatters. She sails clean through the opening and tackles one of the griffins into the wall. While the griffin is disoriented, Trixie turns and socks a griffin in the jaw before she can fire, then she bucks the remaining griffin in the chest. Right as Trixie is about to make another round, three unicorns in EIB barding rush in from another door and spray the area with lead without so much as hesitating. Trixie swears and jumps over a table and knocks it over to use as a shield. Then, as the bullets shred everything in their path, she squats down as low as she can go and tries not to think about the griffins being shot to bloody ribbons as their squawking quickly vanishes.

Trixie peeks out from her cover and sees that the she needs to get to is right behind the three EIB agents that are approaching her right now. All three have their weapons aimed towards her and are slow and meticulous in their steps as they walk past the three corpses and step over the carpet of glass and splinters. Trixie goes back in her cover and closes her eyes to think. What would Minty... What would Pinkie do?

As she’s thinking, the night of the attack on their apartment replays in great detail. The blood. The smoke. The pian. Sunshine. The revelations of Pinkie Pie and their betrayal. Then she hears two small creaks and clicks.

Trixie’s eyes snap open and she leaps forward, out of the line of fire of the two EIB agents that had flanked her. Their bullets shred the ground to where all that remains is a hole, and when they turn to face Trixie, she screams in rage as she jumps towards one of the EIB and uses her hoof as a hook around the agent’s neck. The agent lets out a sickly, gagging noise as she’s tugged off of her feet and forced on her back. Both unicorns land on their backs with a grunt and Trixie quickly rolls to her hooves and kicks a chair towards the other agent. The chair hits the agent in the chest and as she stumbles, Trixie jumps and brings her forehoof down on her helmet. The agent hits the ground without a peep and Trixie turns around when she hears a click and a weapon whirring to life. She pales at the sight of the remaining EIB agent aiming a scaled gatling gun at her. Trixie runs as the agent shoots at her, tearing apart the wall, floor and basically anything she looked at with the scream of the weapon to accompany the carnage. Trixie dives into the elevator room and instinctively covers her head as a stream of hot lead breaks apart the hallway walls with merciless intent. When she takes the risk of looking at the elevators, she sees yellow tape over all of them, saying: “Closed For Repairs”.

“Oh come on!” yells Trixie irritably.

There’s another burst of fire and Trixie shrinks down farther into the ground.

“Stop shooting, you maniac!”

The shooting stops immediately. Trixie hesitates before poking her head out and sees the unicorn popping out the spent box of ammo and levitating another on in.

“This is a dumb idea.” Trixie says to herself. Then she shouts: “En guard, you fiend!”

The agent looks up, perplexed, as Trixie charges her, screaming like a mad pony. When the agent’s mind clicks and she realizes that Trixie is going for a kamikaze run, she panics and becomes frantic and sloppy as she tries to load a fresh drum. Right when the fresh drum is in, Trixie is already upon her and with one good swing, the weapon on the battle saddle is knocked loose with a shower of sparks bouncing off of the dueling ponies. Trixie blocks the agent’s attempt to stomp her and counters with a swipe to the head. While the agent is still disoriented, Trixie clambers on top of the pony and kicks the weapon off of her saddle. The agent bucks Trixie off and she lands on her back, and rolls out of the way just in time to avoid getting stomped. Trixie shoots a small bolt of lightning at the EIB agent’s chest, while still on her back, causing the intense pain in her horn to return. Trixie winces and tries to clutch her horn under her hat, but to no avail. As Trixie fruitlessly comforts her injured horn, she realizes that her spark also had no real effect on her opponent. All it really did was leave a burnt spot on her opponent’s barding and tick her off.

‘Well shit,’ thinks Trixie dreadfully as her opponent charges her horn for a counter strike.

Her opponent hits Trixie in the chest with a telekinetic blast that pushes her through another window, leading to a nasty drop, and as she falls she wraps her hooves around a cord that is conveniently near her. Trixie breathes a sigh of relief as she hangs on the cord after looking down to see that she’s a good dozen or so stories up. Then she spots a catwalk not too far from where she is currently hanging. Its a story down and if she can swing herself hard enough she just might land on it. Or she can get kicked in the chest by the EIB agent who is using her mouth to stabilize her grip on another cord, lose her grip and barely land on her back on the catwalk. The latter happens.

Trixie groans and coughs as she wobbly pushes herself to her feet, but her ambition to stand up is shot to dust when a set of hooves land on her back, pushing her into the grated floor of the catwalk. Then Trixie’s turned on her back and gets stomped on her gut. Trixie grunts and curls up while rolling on her side.

“I loved that saddle!” sneers the agent, using her magic to tug Trixie’s head up so she can punch her in the cheek and let her fall hard. “And you broke it!”

Trixie uses the railing for support as she pulls herself to her feet. “Oh boohoo!”

The agent roars and charges her horn, and Trixie bolts forward and jabs the base with her hoof. The agent shrieks in pain and falls to the ground, clutching her horn, and Trixie tackles her to the ground and starts pummeling her. The EIB agent beneath her hooves blocks one of Trixie’s punches and in one swift, fluid motion, Trixie finds herself pinned under the agent and is dealt a series of painful blows to her face. Trixie’s world becomes filled with ringing and flashes of white light as the hooves colliding with her face knock everything into blinding chaos. Each punch makes Trixie feel like her head’s going to get crushes and when a lense on her goggles crack and she feels blood trickle down her face, she uses a burst of adrenaline to push her attacker off using her hind legs. The EIB agent lands on her back, away from Trixie, and Equestria’s costumed vigilante scrambles to her hooves and makes an attempt to flee. However, the EIB agent gets up and tackles Trixie. They both roll over each other, skid to a stop, and then scramble to their feet. Both ponies snort hot air and paw the catwalk as their eyes narrow on each other.

“I’ve had enough of you,” says Trixie through gritted, bloody teeth.

Then Trixie and the EIB agent scream and they charge each other as fast as as they can run.

=**********=

Gilda screams as she rams a pegasus EIB agent into the armored hull of the zeppelin. The impact leaves a small dent and Gilda lets the unconscious pony fall to her death, then she twirls her shotgun and shoots another pegasus in the chest. She, too, falls to her death. A couple of pegasi tackle her and they bounce off of the zeppelin’s hull and tumble down, but Gilda regains her flight and slashes the throat of one of the pegasi that tackled her. After throwing the corpse aside, Gilda grabs the other one before she can fly away and speeds towards the first turbine engine. The pegasus screams in terror and desperately tries to free herself, but the griffin is too strong.

“Say ‘Hello’ to your friends for me!” yells Gilda over the screaming engine.

She throws the pegasus in the engine and she and her screams disappear in a cloud of red that is quickly overtaken by a fireball carrying chunks of propeller and other turbine engine parts. The engine bellows fiery, sickly black smoke and the zeppelin shudders and its other engines groan over the added stress.

oooOOOooo

Inside, the zeppelin shook when the first engine was destroyed, and now red warning lights are swirling in the halls and ponies are scrambling to keep the ship flying. On the bridge Brisk Wind glares at the Captain while she tries to keep the terrified crew calm as they struggle to keep the ship up and to figure out what happened.

“What just happened!” exclaims Brisk Wind, wrapping her hoof around the railing for support when the ship shakes.

“One of the engines was destroyed!” says the Captain frantically as she runs next to one of the ponies trying to get a status report on the engine room.

Brisk Wind runs to the window and cranes her neck to get a better look, and sure enough, there is a trail of smoke protruding from a gutted engine. She growls and turns to the Captain to say something, but when she sees Gilda fly past their window, flipping them off, she grits her teeth and swears she feels steam pouring out of her ears.

oooOOOooo

Gilda lands on top of another turbine engine and shoots at the part that connects it to the rest of the ship. After firing half a dozen rounds, the shotgun finally tears into the protective casing, revealing wires and tubes. She quickly reloads and shoots at the wires and tubes. The buckshot shreds them easily, sending sparks and other material flying up to her face. The ship shudders and groans as the engine sputters and shakes violently. Gilda nearly loses her balance because the platform she’s on is shaking as well, but when she regains her footing, she grins upon seeing that she damaged a piston. The piston is spraying out colored, sparkling fumes and making a horrible screeching noise as the damaged metal grinds against one another.

“I’ll see you in Hell!” cackles Gilda while aiming her weapon directly above the piston.

Gilda suddenly screams in pain and falls backwards with a deep gash on her shoulder where she was shot, barely grabbing the ledge to keep herself from falling to her death. Gilda swears and glares at Brisk Wind as she lands where Gilda previously stood with a pistol in her mouth, being sure to land on the griffin’s talons. Gilda wiggles her fingers out from under and lets herself drop right as Brisk Wind fires. The bullet barely misses Gilda and she swerves under and between the engines as Brisk Wind flies after her while shooting sporadically.

“Is that all you got!” taunts Gilda.

Gilda turns and loads the last two shells into her shotgun and shoots a single shot at Brisk Wind. The barding protects her, but the force of the blast sends her spinning back, knocks the air out of her lungs and makes her drop her weapon. The pistol is quickly sucked up by the turbine engine and diced into an oblivion. Small streams of fire pour out from the engine as the whole thing’s rattling becomes more intense. Gilda lands on top of the piston fires her last shot into it before Brisk Wind can reach her. The piston pops open and the sparkling fumes shoot out, making Gilda cough and wave the smoke from her face. However, despite waving the smoke away, the fumes make her skin feel tingly and everything becomes brightly colored and sparkly. Even a charging, furious Brisk Wind looks like she was bathed in neon glitter paint.

The pain of being tackled is real, though.

Brisk Wind and Gilda roll over each other on the engine platform and come to a stop near the edge. The whole thing is shaking violently to the point where both can barely keep their balance on it, and the engine sounds like a blender trying to dice metal while sputtering out black smoke. Gilda tries to blink the colorful mess away, but it does nothing, and Brisk Wind’s hoof to her face doesn’t help matters much.

Gilda stumbles back and when Brisk Wind tries to stomp her again, she grabs her hoof and digs her talons in. Brisk Wind cries out in pain as the claws dig into her flesh, drawing blood and keeping herself locked to Gilda. Gilda pulls Brisk Wind close so that their beak and muzzle are touching.

“Oh I’m sorry, am I hurting you?” sneers Gilda.

Brisk Wind swings her free hoof against Gilda’s eye, and the griffin squawks and releases Brisk Wind while clutching her injury. Then Brisk Wind tackles Gilda to the ground, both almost falling off in the process, and she stomps on Gilda’s wing. As Gilda thrashes in pain, Brisk Wind stomps on the griffin’s back, sending out another painful cry. Brisk Wind brings her hoof up for another stomp, but Gilda scrambles out from under and the pegasus’s hooves hit hard metal. While Brisk Wind swears from the unpleasant feeling of stomping metal, Gilda swings her shotgun against Brisk Wind’s face. The shotgun cracks against her face and sends her flying back and some of her teeth tumbling over the edge. As Brisk Wind tries to get up Gilda rams the shotgun butt on her back and Brisk Wind collapses with half her body dangling over the edge, unmoving.

“You are the meanest dweeb I’ve ever met,” growls Gilda. Then she spits blood on Brisk Wind’s mane and pushes her off of the ledge. Brisk Wind falls barely out of range of the turbine suction, but Gilda doesn’t pay any heed to it. If the engine won’t kill her then the ground will. Gilda looks at the shaky engine, then at her shotgun. “Sorry, buddy.”

Gilda unclips her safety band, tosses the shotgun in the shaky engine’s suction path and takes flight, grunting when a spike of pain shoots throughout her wing. She was expecting the engine to spew out a fireball and cough out black smoke, but what she wasn’t expecting was the engine to explode. The turbine pops open like someone detonating a stick of dynamite inside a metallic watermelon, and the force pushes Gilda towards her office with chunks of burning metal flying around her.

The explosion destroys the engine below it by knocking it loose and sending its burning partner falling to the ground. The red hot shrapnel also penetrates the zeppelin and ignites the balloon in the blink of an eye. Fire rolls out of the windows, carrying glass, loose materials, and unfortunate ponies out with it, and the vehicle begins its plunge to its death... directly towards the main structure of the griffin enclave.

=**********=

Trixie and the EIB agent stare at each other, battered, panting and wanting nothing more than to end the fight with a swift kick to send their opponent over the edge. Right when Trixie is about to go for another attack against her nemesis, her ears droop and her whole body shrinks down as she watches a burning zeppelin dip towards her, leaving a trail of hellish, fiery smoke in its wake. The EIB unicorn she was fighting mirrors Trixie’s reaction when she sees the burning missile, too. What’s left of the armored balloon acts like a thick blade as it breaks through the wall and gigantic decorated windows with an earsplitting mix of stone and glass shattering and the groaning made from metal bending and snapping. A giant fireball rolls out, barely missing both unicorns, as the remains of the zeppelin’s balloon bursts open, and both swear and bolt down the catwalk.

As they gallop from the burning, monster sized vehicle, chunks of burning brick, bent metal, and shards of glass rain down around them. Trixie continues to swear as she gallops faster, and when the burning zeppelin crashes through the catwalk she is on, the EIB unicorn is crushed and the whole thing shifts with a sudden jolt as the majority is knocked off in a twisted mess. The supporting wires snap and Trixie screams in terror as she scrapes her hooves against the collapsing catwalk. When all but one wire remain, the catwalk goes into freefall and swings wildly while Trixie tumbles down. She manages to wrap her hoof around the railing, but when she sees that the catwalk is swinging towards a large wall with lots of little windows on it she closes her eyes and braces herself for the worst.

The catwalk slams against something, Trixie doesn’t know what, but what she does know is that she is sailing through the air, heading towards a window and is in for a painful landing. Trixie rolls herself up into a ball as tight as she can go and flies through the window like a fleshy cannon ball. She rolls across the floor and comes to a stop when she hits the wall with a loud, painful thump. When everything stops ringing and spinning, Trixie realizes her world is upside down. She also realizes that she’s lying on her head with her hind legs in the air and her back pressed against the wall. Then she falls over with a small grunt and tries to stand up, but crumbles to the ground when she feels the cheap stitches break and her blood ooze out.

“Son of a... Can I please get a break!” yells Trixie irritably.

The universe answers with the last cord snapping and the catwalk falling to the ground with a fireball rolling up to the window upon impacting the destroyed vehicle. Trixie winces as she stands up and limps towards the door. She bucks open the door and the door flies off of its hinges and hits a griffin with a bandaged face reloading a double barreled shotgun. The griffin squawks and falls to the ground as her weapon skids away. When the griffin pushes the door off of her back, Trixie rams her into the wall, leaving a crack in it. The griffin shoves Trixie away and swipes at her with her claws. Trixie holds up the modified hoofball gauntlet and the talons leave gashes in it, but don’t slice her skin. The griffin growls and punches Trixie in the jaw. Granted the apparatus on her lower face takes the brunt of the damage, the blow still knocks her off of her feet, cracks the apparatus and leaves a bruise on her face.

While Trixie regains her footing the bandaged griffin leaps towards her shotgun, turns around, sits on her haunches and aims her weapon at Trixie. Trixie is about to make a break for it, but there are three silenced shots and two bloody holes pop open the griffins chest and another on her eye, sending miniature bloody blobs all over Trixie and three bullets barely missing her. Trixie watches the griffin drop and the unicorn she saw at Bon Bon’s candy store approaches her with a silenced revolver floating next to her. She looks uneasy at what she just did, as her weapon is trembling, even with the magic holding it, and she gulps while looking at Trixie.

“Nice costume,” she says uneasily.

“Um... thanks? Who are-”

Trixie’s eyes focus on the armor, more specifically, the symbol on it. The symbol of Roar Shock. The symbol of the League.

The League of Justice is alive! Trixie would dance and clap her hooves together from how insanely happy she is right now, but her injuries prevent her from doing that.

“I’m Lyra,” says the unicorn with a nervous chuckle as she approaches Trixie, “I’m on your side. I’ve heard about you, Vigilante, and the League appreciates what you’re doing in Canterlot.”

Trixie smiles behind her mask. “Really?”

“Yeah! I know they’ll be glad to have you help us take down the griffins! I mean, it’s been hectic when the EIB attacked. It was supposed to be a simple, get in-poison-get out mission, but nope. These guys show up and bring a war on our heads.”

“You talk a lot.”

“Sorry, you’re just my hero. You fight for justice just like the League.”

Trixie finds herself smiling once again and Lyra notices the blood, fresh and dried, on Trixie’s costume. Her eyes widen, mortified that Trixie is in such a state, and surprised that she’s still standing. Lyra gently ushers Trixie inside the room she just came from while keeping an eye out for trouble, and once they are inside she forces her to sit down.

“What are you doing?” asks Trixie uneasily as she watches Lyra levitate a satchel from her back.

“It’s okay, this is some medicine that was given to us by our boss in case of an injury. I think you need it more than I do.”

Lyra pulls out a syringe and Trixie notices that it looks similar to what Gray Muffin gave her after the stupid tea kettle exercise. Lyra uses her magic to pull up a piece of Trixie’s mask and injects the syringe into her neck. Trixie winces as the needle goes in and as the uncomfortable feeling  of her cuts and bruises mending themselves to give herself the shine she loves so much. She even feels the chipped off piece of her horn grow back! But that part is incredibly painful and brings tears to her eyes. After Trixie stifles the urge to cry and blinks tears out of her eyes, she sighs with relief as all the soreness fades away, but her relieved smile twists into a curious frown when she feels weird bulges all over her. Then she realizes what just happened.

Trixie looks at Lyra, mortified. “I forgot to take out my stitches.”

Lyra cringes. “Ouch... well that sucks for you, then.”

Thankfully Lyra can’t see Trixie’s eye twitch behind her visor. Trixie can’t believe Lyra gave such an answer. She didn’t make any attempts to comfort her, tell her that it’s alright, or that they’ll think of something. All Trixie gets is a “sucks for you” response on top of her skin growing over the colorful blotches of thread all over her body. To her, that is beyond a “sucks for you”! That calls for a hug and some comforting, knowing that she’ll have to cut those darn things out. Just the idea of having to cut into her own skin to pull out thread makes Trixie shudder.

“You aren’t mad at me are you?” asks Lyra while cowering back slightly.

‘No, Lyra, I’m not mad. I’m happy that I have colorful stitches under my skin.’ “No, Lyra, I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at myself for forgetting about my stitches.”

“How did you-”

Trixie holds up her hoof in a blink of an eye. “Silence! We will not mention this to anypony for any reason.” Lyra nods and Trixie lowers her hoof. “Now, where’s the rest of your team. We’ll have to team up if we want to take down Gilda.”

Lyra puts her satchel away. “We’ll most likely be heading towards our fallback point since we’re trying to keep a low profile and weren’t expecting an EIB assault. Especially one like this.”

Trixie shakes her head. “Sorry, if you’re going to be running away I can’t follow. Gilda has information that I need to take down the pony who murdered my friend and I’m not leaving until I get it.”

Lyra looks down. “Yeah, I know what it’s like to lose a friend. I understand what you’re going through... and... well, let’s just say the League helped me avenge her.”

“Oh that’s nice.”

Lyra shakes her head and looks at Trixie. “Truthfully, I want it to feel nice, but it won’t. No matter how hard I try,” Lyra checks her weapon and puts in extra bullets when she realized she forgot to reload, “it doesn’t work. I keep seeing Bon Bon crying. Not because she was murdered, but because I killed her murderer.”

“Don’t feel bad, I see dead ponies all the time,” says Trixie while patting Lyra’s shoulder.

Lyra scowls. “I’m being serious!”

“Me too.”

Trixie can feel Lyra’s confused eyes on her as she walks down the hallway, determined to find the proof that Lock was in Gilda’s pocket and bring him and her down, and with them, Brisk Wind. Her gut is still telling her that Brisk Wind knew about what had happened and had a hoof in it, and if she did, there will bound to be something in Gilda’s files that will link the three to each other.

“Wait!”

Trixie stops and turns around to see Lyra walking towards her, now wearing a headset connected to a radio pack that she just now noticed.

“Lyra, you have to go back to your team, they don’t like it when somepony breaks off,” says Trixie sternly.

“I told Adanz that you were here and trying to avenge your murdered friend. He’s going to meet us at Gilda’s loft with his team,” says Lyra with an excited smile.

Trixie gasps as the great news hits her with a cannonball that spreads joy. “Adanz is alive?”

“...Yeah... you know him?”

Trixie giggles childishly as she bounces up and down in her spot. “I haven’t seen him in-in, gosh! I don’t know how long! I completely lost track of time, but we were cool!”

Lyra raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, you look weird doing that in that costume.”

Trixie stops bouncing and looks down, scuffing the floor, thankful that her embarrassed blush is hidden. “Right, sorry.”

“Follow me. I have a blueprint that will take us to her loft.”

Trixie nods and follows Lyra out. The two run down the shot up hallway, hopping over destroyed furniture and corpses. Trixie tries to ignore the flickering lights and the blood all over the floors and walls, but seeing so much makes it hard to ignore. Trixie hears another set of hooves and looks next to her and sees Sunshine running next to her, coming to brutally murder her good mood like the psychopath he is. Trixie makes a low, irritated, growl and keeps her eyes on Lyra.

“Goin’ t’ follow the pretty whose organization ya betrayed, are ya, Trixie?” mocks Sunshine as he gallops next to her, grinning eagerly.

“I didn’t betray anypony.” growls Trixie.

“Right, ya just murdered hundreds of them-”

“No I didn’t!”

“And burned down their home.”

“No!”

“And now ya think ya’ll just drop by and say ‘Hi’ and they’ll accept ya with open hooves?”

“YES!” Trixie skids to a stop and slams Sunshine against the wall with angry tears swelling in her eyes. “THEY WILL ACCEPT ME!”

Her tormentor merely chuckles and slides into the wall only to walk out of it, next to Trixie, and put his hoof on her back. “Trixie, take it from a professional, all murderers and traitors lie until their lie becomes a reality, but it changes nothin’. Ya can lie t’ yerself all ya want, but it won’t change ya and it won’t change the minds of those wanting t’ kill ya.”

Trixie growls and punches Sunshine, but her hoof goes through him and leaves a large indent in the wall. Sunshine disappears in a puff of fog after that. Trixie pulls her hoof out and shakes the dust off of her gauntlet before she turns around to follow Lyra. She’s half expecting Lyra to be standing there to question her sanity, but the aquamarine unicorn is nowhere to be seen.

“Ya’ll always be a murderer, and the path yer takin’ will add more bodies to yer list,” echoes Sunshine’s voice. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Yer gorgeous when you’re feisty.”

Trixie glares at ceiling and walls, hoping to see the demonic presence so she can give him one last punch. But alas, he’s nowhere to be seen, so she does the only thing she can do. Carefully trot down the ruined hallway.

“Call it what it is, ‘killing’. And I don’t cope, I forget about it.”

“I’m no murderer,” mumbles Trixie angrily. Then doubt seeps in and she stops walking while looking down. “I can’t be.”

oooOOOooo

Gilda winces as she pushes herself to her feet. A sharp pain shoots throughout her wing, making her swear loudly and bangs the ground. When she hears a set of hooves land behind her she turns around and sees Brisk Wind behind her, her mane and tail frizzled and bleeding from the injuries on their high altitude brawl. Brisk Wind approaches Gilda with a dangerous glare as the griffin chuckles painfully.

“Wow, you just don’t want to die, do you?” says Gilda, wincing shortly after.

“I was hoping we could continue our alliance for our march to Perfect Harmony, but I was mistaken,” says Brisk Wind coldly as she limps forward. “Now if you want-”

Gilda laughs, spits blood by Brisk Wind’s hoof and wipes her beak clean. “You think I care about your stupid pipe dream? Ha! I only agreed to this so called alliance to keep my tail out of Singsong! But I should’ve known it was better to take my chances in there rather than be your puppet!”

Brisk Wind glances at the Gilda’s safe. “Tell me the combination and I’ll make your death quick.”

“How about I say ‘Fuck you’ and rip out your throat?”

“Tell me, now!”

Gilda roars and launches towards Brisk Wind like a feathered missile. Brisk Wind reels back to block, but Gilda breaks through the pegasus’s defense and tackles her in the chest. Both of them slide across the floor and bonk their heads on the balcony wall. They both curse about the pain, but Brisk Wind quickly presses her hind legs against Gilda’s stomach and kicks her over the edge. Gilda lets out a surprised scream that disappears in an instant, like someone flipped a switched.

Brisk Wind clambers to her feet and peeks over the edge while panting heavily and trying to ignore the throbbing pain all over her body, specifically in her head. When she’s looking over the edge, though, a talon grabs her by her armor’s collar and drag her over the edge. Brisk Wind screams as she tumbles down with Gilda, both of them clutching each other and rapidly spiralling down to the pavement. Gilda snarls and claws at Brisk Wind as she awkwardly bashes her hooves against Gilda’s face and sides while simultaneously trying to keep the griffin’s beak from stabbing her face. Because of Brisk Wind’s armor, Gilda’s talons don’t slice her body open, but they do leave large gashes in them, and her unprotected limbs do get deep cuts. Gilda, on the other hand, has gashes all over her face from where the hoof hit and her sides feel like they’re being stabbed from the inside.

When they are almost at the bottom, Brisk Wind dares to look away to check the distance, and upon seeing how close they are she turns and pushes Gilda to the ground. Gilda acts as a fleshy cushion as she impacts the ground with a sickening crunch and skids across the ground, leaving a trail of blood, feather, and fur while Brisk Wind rolls like a ball. When Gilda slides to a stop, she becomes still, but Brisk Wind stands up, albeit very wobbly and falls over a couple more times before regaining her footing. When the pegasus regains her footing she limps towards Gilda, wincing painfully with each step.

When Brisk Wind is above the griffin she kicks her over so that she can see her face. What she gets instead of seeing Gilda’s eyes is a swipe to her face, leaving three large scratches from her forehead down to the bottom of her cheek, barely missing her eye. Brisk Wind shrieks and falls to the ground, clutching her face and kicking her legs wildly as Gilda towers above her, bleeding profusely from her shredded skin.

“You used me as a puppet!” screams Gilda furiously.

She stomps on Brisk Wind’s gut, making her retract into a ball instantly and pulling her hooves away from her face to clutch the new injury.

“You killed my griffins!”

She picks up Brisk Wind by her throat and punches her in the jaw as hard as her injured arm could. Brisk Wind falls to the ground with a cracked jaw and busted lips to add to her three pouring gashes. She tries to stand up by crawling on the ground and flapping her wing weakly, bleeding and gasping for air while doing so.

“You bring war to my home!”

Gilda stomps on her back again, and she stops crawling, but trembles as the griffin stands above her, breathing heavily with every intention of gutting her.

“I told you I was coming for you.”

Gilda picks up Brisk Wind by her throat again and lifts her off of the ground, glaring hellish daggers into the terrified pegasus’s eyes. As Brisk Wind struggles to breathe and fruitlessly fights to free herself, Gilda tightens her talons around the wounded pegasus’s neck, drawing more blood. Gilda laughs at Brisk Wind’s desperate gasping and sporadic thrashing.

“And now-”

A sudden gunshot rings out and Gilda drops Brisk Wind and falls to the ground with a smoking, bleeding hole in her side. She coughs out blood and tries to stand, but more gunshots ring out and Gilda’s body spasms as each new bullet tears into her. Brisk Wind can’t see what’s going on because of the blood all over face, but she does hear Gilda drop, Andromeda shouting and multiple sets of hooves running towards her. Brisk Wind wipes blood from her eyes just in time to see a medic wrap her face with gauze. Brisk Wind winces as the fabric touches her tender wounds, and when they are taped around her injury, she flies towards Gilda’s office, ignoring the calls for her to come back.

=**********=

Trixie is able to reunite with Lyra after a small time searching, and when they do reunite, they run straight to Gilda’s office. As expected, the office is trashed; however, what they weren’t expecting was Monte fumbling with a safe, mumbling unintelligibly between his terrified whimpers and heavy breathing. When the safe pops open Monte cheers, opens it and puts a sheet of paper in the safe and his mane itches when he gets the feeling he’s being watched.He turns around and his cheerful, victorious grin is replaced with a horrified look in a half blink of an eye.

“Oh no.”

Trixie growls and uses her magic to throw Monte off of his feet and straight into the wall, specifically at one of the framed posters. The frame shatters and Monte falls to the ground with glass cascading around him and his stage garb acting as a shield to guard his hide from the falling glass and splintered wood. As Monte coughs and tries to regain his stance, Trixie runs up to him and rams him against the wall while quietly cursing about the pain in her horn. Apparently the syringe of healing potions didn’t fix her horn all the way, much to her annoyance.

“Check the safe!” barks Trixie.

Lyra runs to the safe and peeks inside, it is completely empty except for a single piece of paper with a small note on it. Lyra turns to tell Trixie what’s on the note, but loses her train of thought when she sees her on top of Monte, punching him.

“What are you doing here, you snake!” demands Trixie.

“I know this looks bad-” A punch to the jaw makes Monte swear. “Stop hitting me!”

Trixie punches him again. “What the buck are you doing here, Monte!”

“If you want him to talk you should probably stop punching him,” recommends Lyra.

Monte looks at Lyra, nose and mouth bloody. “Thank you!” Then he glares at Trixie. “And you need to relax!”

Trixie punches him again.

“Relax!? Relax!? You want me to relax!?” yells Trixie over Monte’s painful swearing.

“Uh... Vigilante,” says Lyra uneasily.

“Listen here, you little snot! My friend was murdered, I’ve been beaten, shot at, my horn is chipped, I was nearly squashed by burning zeppelin, had skin grow over my stitches, and I owe somepony a lot bleach and a shit load of lime, so don’t you tell me to relax!”

Monte stares at Trixie, eyes wide and no longer caring that his face is bleeding. He’s shocked beyond words about Trixie’s outburst and Lyra is too, so she does the only thing she can do. She clears her throat.

Trixie snaps to Lyra. “What!”

“That was entertaining,” says Adanz with a teasing grin and standing in the doorway to Gilda’s office with three earth ponies flanking him, all wearing the same, black barding with Roar Shock’s symbol painted on and armed with silenced battle saddles. Adanz is the only one who isn’t armed, but his barding is considerably thicker than the others.

Trixie drops Monte. “Adanz?”

Adanz arches an eyebrow. “Do I know you?”

“Adanz, it’s me!” Adanz continues to stare at Trixie like she’s a crazed fangirl, and then Trixie remembers she still has her armored mask on. “Oh right, the mask.”

“Don’t do it,” says Sunshine, his voice singsong-y and echoing in her head over Monte, and judging by the zony’s tone, it’s something quirky.

“Shut up,” hisses Trixie.

“First, you tell me to talk. Then you punch me. Then you tell me to shut up. What’s it going to be, Boss Man.”

Trixie is in the middle of removing her apparatus when she glares at Monte. “I’m not a colt!”

“Oh... this is awkward,” says Lyra shamefully while looking down to hide an embarrassed blush.

Trixie glares at Lyra now, wondering how the unicorn could possible mistake her for a colt. Then she gets concerned that the costume is making her look... boyish.

“A colt with throat cancer,” adds Adanz.

Trixie makes a whiny “What!?” as her attention snaps to Adanz.

“And Poor Attitude Syndrome,” remarks Monte. That remark makes all the League of Justice ponies aim their weapons at him and he holds up hooves defensively, chuckling and sweating nervously. “Okay, the Magnificent Monte Fountain will shut up now.”

“You ripped that off from the ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’ didn’t you?” asks Trixie accusingly.

A smile is all she needed to know that he did, in fact, rip her off, and now she wants to buck his teeth in more than ever. Then Adanz steps forward, smiling at Trixie while the others stand back.

“So, Vigilante, it appears while we are in a talking mood, we should have a little discussion.” Adanz turns around and orders his escorts and Lyra to guard the exit. When the others are gone he looks at Trixie with a deadly serious look and stomps the ground, sprouting gleaming talons from his forehoof pads. “A big discussion, Trixie.”

Monte’s jaw drops when Trixie gulps and takes a step back. Monte also gets to his feet and levitates his bladed cards defensively in front of him while Adanz continues to walk forward, his new talons eerily clicking against the floor.

“You know who I am?” asks Trixie, suddenly feeling terrified by the sight of Adanz and his talons.

“You just gave yourself away,” replies Adanz coldly.

“Okay, it looks like you and Trixie have some history, so I think we need to-” Adanz glares at Monte. “Settle this over some cider and hay bacon. Whaddya say?”

“This is between you and me, Trixie,” says Adanz, his eyes narrowing and muscles tensing for a strike. “You betrayed us, and your betrayal ruined Roar Shock and killed Wazza. And I will take great pleasure in ending your life.”

“Adanz, I-I didn’t want it to happen! But the EIB-”

“It doesn’t matter what you wanted! What matters is what you did!”

Monte steps next to Trixie, his bladed cards spinning quickly in front of him and keeping an eye on Adanz’s movements. “Lookie here Atesanz-”

“Adanz!”

“Me and Trixie gotta go on a uh a nice date at the place, like right now.”

“Monte. Shut up,” orders Trixie, majorly irritated by his stupid choice of words.

Then Adanz jumps towards Monte and Trixie, shouting something in zebra. Trixie jumps to the side while using her telekinesis to push Monte away from the dangerous zebra, and winces when her horn burns with pain. Adanz lands where they were a second ago, leaving nasty gashes in the floor, and Monte hits the same spot Trixie launched him in when she first entered. The others run back in, but Adanz orders them to stay back, which Trixie uses the opportunity to attack. As she charges the zebra, her eyes widen behind her goggles as Adanz spins towards her with deadly grace with his claws slicing the air. She’s only saved by a string of sharp cards that push the claws away in a series of sparks from metal scraping against metal. Trixie lands through the cards and on top of Adanz. The dueling equines roll over each other in brutal hoof-to-hoof combat. Adanz snarls viciously while Trixie fights to keep herself from being turned to bloody ribbons and Monte keeps his cards up as a sharp shield. They stop rolling with Trixie on top and she presses her hooves down on the zebra’s chest.

“Adanz, stop this! I don’t want to hurt you!” begs Trixie.

Adanz pushes Trixie off, screaming: “NO!” He then rolls to his hooves and mule kicks Monte away, sending the zony flying into the same spot he hit the previous two times. Then Adanz slashes at Trixie. She jumps back and Adanz’s talons slice through Gilda’ desk and momentarily get stuck on the floor. Adanz quickly yanks them out though, taking some of the floor with him. “You betrayed us!”

“Dammit, that’s the third time!” swears Monte. He then raises his bladed cards and aims all fifty two of them at Adanz. “Okay, Stripes, you’re going down.”

Adanz looks at Monte, then at Trixie, then he smiles evilly at her as he turns to Monte. Trixie’s heart races as she see’s Adanz’s eye dilate, then she screams for Monte to look away when Adanz’s pupils and sclera shift into a bright gold. Trixie screams and charges Adanz in an attempt to break the spell, but the zebra retracts his claws and coolly sticks out his hoof right as Trixie is about to land on him, striking her in the chest and making her gasp in pain as she land on her back, hard.

Monte’s cards drop as his eyes dilate, then he stares at Trixie and starts walking towards her in a trance. Trixie groans and slowly rolls off of her back, only for Adanz to kick her in the side and send her skidding into the balcony. Trixie coughs blood into her mask and stares at Adanz feeling both angry and saddened. Angry because he won’t listen. Saddened because he thinks she betrayed them.

“I told ya they wouldn’t take too kindly to ya,” echoes Sunshine.

“Adanz, I-I didn’t -Adanz please!” cries Trixie as Adanz guides Monte towards her with his freakish mind spell.

“Betrayal is the ultimate sin,” says Monte distantly.

Monte’s horn glows and Trixie is lifted off of her feet and is carried over the edge. She shrieks and flails her legs as she desperately tries to use her magic for anything to save her. But all her horn does is shoot out weak bolts of lightning that serve only to send an annoying shock to Monte and Adanz. When she tries to levitate something, her horn feels like its going to crack and she screams and swears over her terrified sobs. Adanz only stares, though. The cheerful zebra that always played pranks on her is gone. Just like Wazza.

Trixie tries to look into Monte’s distant eyes. “Monte, listen to me! You’re the Magnificent Monte Fountain! The greatest showpony ever! You’re not a killer! You’re an egotistical snot, but not a killer!”

Monte hops on the railing, saying in a monotonous voice: “Just like you, Trixie. You and Monte are the same. Terra was right, Roar Shock should not have let you join us.”

“Adanz, don’t do this!”

“Justice is absolute.”

Then Monte jumps over the edge and his magic disappears, sending Trixie tumbling after him. Trixie screams as she spirals down, and then she hears Monte shrieking. Trixie looks to Monte and sees that his eyes are no longer dilated, but wide as dinner plates and he’s flailing his hooves madly. Another thing Trixie notices is that she’s slowing down rapidly and her cape is stiffening into... a glider? She looks to her left and to her right and sees that her cape had turn rigid and is now acting like a little glider. That, and the ground is getting dangerously close.

Trixie’s horn glows and she bites back her tears as she pulls Monte towards her in a protective hug. Then she closes her eyes and tilts her body weight so that they go up. They fly over the griffin wall and end up flying straight into an empty hotel room, through the window in a dramatic fashion. Trixie drops Monte as soon as they enter and she hits her head on the ceiling, then she bounces across the floor crashes into the wall, blacking out on impact.

=**********=

Adanz looks at the piece of paper in the safe, chuckles quietly, then puts it back and leaves it open just a crack. The others look confused by what he did, especially Lyra, but she’s more confused as to why he killed her hero. Adanz, noticing Lyra’s uneasiness, approaches her and pats her on the shoulder.

“I did what I had to do. The Vigilante’s real identity betrayed us and was a fool to assume we would embrace her,” says Adanz in an even tone.

Adanz walks down the hall with the others walking after him.

“But she didn’t mean to!” cries Lyra as she stomps the ground. “Didn’t that mean anything to you!”

“Intentions mean nothing, Lyra. What matters is the outcome. She betrayed us and for that, she had to be punished.”

Lyra hesitates. “Are you going to tell Roar Shock?”

Adanz stops and turns to Lyra, smiling. “Of course I will, and he will be pleased to hear that Trixie Lulamoon has joined with her father in Tartarus.”

oooOOOooo

Brisk Wind pokes her head out from around a corner and watches the last of the League ponies disappear from view. Then she silently limps towards Gilda’s office, leaving a trail of blood in her wake, and sees the safe open for her taking. She laughs with relief as she hobbles towards it and when she yanks it open all the way, her relieved laughter turns into one of sheer annoyance as she sees only a sheet of paper with a childish message on it. Then she screams and bangs her hooves on the floor.

“Monteeeee!”

The paper is actually a smudged out receipt for a safety deposit box in the Bank of Bernese with a simple note that has a crude, cartoony picture of Monte laughing with his speech bubble saying: “Hahaha! Too slow there, missy!”

=**********=

“...Now that Major Fuller has offered to lead the Civilian Defense Agency, do you think that Princess Celestia will take him up on his offer?”

“Well, Major Fuller was the runner up for Captain of the Guard and he has proven to be capable of running the Research and Development hub at Haven-”

Click.

“...The Baystone Protest was broken up by the Royal Guards this evening. Reports from our Baystone branch say that the protesters were carrying the emblem of the Lunar Society and chanting-”

Click.

“And that is why we all love snowflakes!”

Click.

“Hey, buddy, why don’tcha leave the radio off since you have such a problem keeping a channel” sneers Rainbow Dash in her cell.

A Royal Guard reading a copy of the New Yoke Times with the front page having a picture of Twilight and a caption saying: “New Director of R&D?” looks at the guard messing with the radio. “You know, she does have a point.”

The other guard glares at him. “Well excuse me for wanting to listen to some good music.”

“You have to switch it FM, genius,” Rainbow Dash says with an annoyed scowl.

“You shut your mouth!”

“Hey! Show some respect, I’m the Element of Loyalty!”

“And this is me giving a shit,” says the guard as he turns away from Rainbow Dash to mess with the radio.

“If you want to give shit I got the paperwork for transfer to fertilizer maintenance waiting for you, Private,” snarls Soarin as he marches into the room with his uniform crisp and his buttons gleaming in the light.

Both guards snap to their feet, knocking their chairs down in the process, and salute Captain Soarin as he marches in. He glares at both of them, particularly the one giving Rainbow Dash crap and orders them to leave. They leave without question and when the door shuts behind them, he shuts off the radio and drags the chair towards the cell, directly in front of Rainbow Dash and sits down with a very aggressive scowl. A look that Soarin pulls of very well, despite how laid back he is most of the time. In fact, with the intense frown and lightning, he actually looks terrifying to Rainbow Dash. She shrinks back slightly while looking away to keep that terrifying look out of her line of sight.

“What... What the hay is wrong with you, Rainbow?” asks Soarin, his voice quivering with anger. Rainbow Dash’s ears droop as she looks away from Soarin, and he snorts and keeps his glare set on her. “What you did was stupid. You jeopardized everything!”

“What did you want me to do!” snaps Rainbow Dash, now no longer intimidated by Soarin.

“I wanted you to be smart and-and not so rash for once in your life!”

Rainbow Dash stomps her hoof. “Oh, like you’ve known me all your life! I was a nopony to you until I asked you out!”

“This is not about me! This is about you and how you busted Major Fuller’s lip!”

Rainbow Dash snorts and sits down, puffing out her chest proudly. “If he can’t take that then he doesn’t deserve to be an officer.”

“You don’t get it!” Soarin bangs his hoof against the bars, making the colorful pegasus jump in her spot. “It’s not about how tough he is or whether or not he was right! He was an officer! He’s leading Project: Chrysaor! I stuck my neck out for you to get you in there! Hell, just by courting you I am putting my career and reputation on the line, and-!”

“So it is about you!”

“Now you're punching officials- okay, fine! Maybe it is! Maybe it is about me! But it’s definitely about you! First, you fly into a hospital screaming like a madmare with a bloody pony in your arms-!”

“She’s my friend!”

“Then they find a warehouse full of dead ponies and griffins-!”

“I wasn’t going to leave her there to be murdered!”

“And then you got in a fight in a bucking hospital!”

“He called Pinkie a vege-”

“STOP TALKING OVER ME!” screams Soarin as he slams his hoof against the bars with a deafening result. Rainbow Dash yelps and jumps back, trembling violently in her safe corner as she watches Soarin breathe heavily with his teeth gritted and eyes narrowed. He sighs a moment later and runs his hoof through his mane to push the sweat back. “I like you, Rainbow, I really do. You are very talented, loyal, and ambitious, but you’re also a loose cannon, and that threatens everything.”

“What are you saying?” asks Rainbow Dash as she hesitantly approaches the bars with tears sliding down her cheeks. “Are we breaking up?”

Soarin looks at Rainbow Dash apologetically. “I... No. I don’t want to. I... Let’s just call this a break until this whole-”

“That means ‘break up’!”

“Thing is taken care of.”

“You’re breaking up with me because I was saving Pinkie!?”

“No, we’re taking a break! What you did was reckless and I have a career to look after.”

"Bullshit!”

Soarin looks away from the angry mare. “Rainbow, if you aren’t court marshalled I’ll see to it that you are put in a good unit, but we can’t... we can’t do this. I can’t do this. What you did jeopardized everything I built my life around. I’m sorry, Rainbow, maybe if that night had turned out differently we wouldn’t have this conversation.”

“You mean if I had just let Pinkie die we wouldn’t be having this conversation?” Rainbow Dash scowls and folds her hooves across her chest as she looks away. “Sorry, Soarin, but my friendship with Pinkie is worth more than a hundred of you.”

Soarin silently nods his head and after putting the chair back, he heads towards the exit. Rainbow Dash looks over her shoulder as Soarin pushes open the door.

“What would you do if one of your friends was dying, Soarin?” asks Rainbow Dash coldly.

Soarin stops walking and looks at Rainbow Dash out of the corner of his eye. He opens his mouth to say something, but ends up releasing a heavy sigh and leaving the room without another word. Rainbow Dash calls Soarin, but when the door closes she whimpers and slides to the ground. She closes her eyes and bangs her head against the wall, not caring about the headache she’s getting. All she cares about is how miserable and empty she feels. All she cares about is that she’s been betrayed by the stallion she loves... No. The stallion she loved.