Arc 1- 3 (Master or Sir)

“And that is why you should buy this blender,” says Pinkie Pie happily while pushing a large futuristic blender towards Nurse Redheart

Redheart smiles nervously at blender, she’s not really sure what think of the blender, and truthfully, it was the last thing she was expecting. Redheart had let Pinkie Pie in after she spent a good minute frantically knocking on the door, thinking it was something important, like Rainbow Dash breaking her wing (again), or Rainbow Dash spraining all her legs (again), or anything to do with Rainbow Dash hurting herself in some way, but she was mistaken. Apparently Pinkie Pie is trying to start a company and she’s using blenders as her base selling product. The blender that Pinkie Pie is trying to sell to her has forty two settings, forty two speeds, and has a radio with forty two channels. And, according to Pinkie Pie, it can walk. That part slightly disturbs Redheart.

“Ms. Pie, this blender looks... um... nice.”

Pinkie Pie’s puffy mane and tail deflate. “You don’t like it, do you?”

Redheart cringes and tries to reiterate what she had said, “I-I didn’t say that! It’s a nice blender, and I’m sure it has a lot of uses, but I didn’t get a price. How can I buy something that has no price?”

“You’re just saying that so my mane and tail can inflate.”

“No! I mean, yes! No, um uh, but-uh I mean, I want you to be happy, but um-”

There is a hard rapping on the door and Redheart excuses herself and goes to check to see who’s at the door while silently thanking Celestia for the distraction. She peers through the peephole and takes back the thanks when she sees the last unicorn she wanted to see.

Terra.

Terra knocks on the door again and Redheart tells Pinkie Pie that they’ll have to cut their session short.

“Ooh, do you have company?” asks Pinkie Pie, her mane and tail explode to their original puffiness as a huge grin stretches across her face. “Maybe they’ll want a blender!”

“Yes, Ms. Pie, I have company, and no, I don’t think they’ll want a blender.”

Redheart opens the door and Terra walks inside without wiping her hooves on the welcome mat first, not that they were muddy or anything, but Redheart still finds the gesture rude. The nurse coughs obnoxiously and points at the welcome mat on the front door. Terra rolls her eyes and wipes her hooves on the mat and then steps inside again.

“We need you back at the Citadel.” Says Terra bluntly.

“HithereI’veneverseenyoubeforeareyounewhereI’mPinkiePiedoyouwanttobefriendsordoyouwanttobuyablender?” says Pinkie Pie as she jumps uncomfortably close to Terra.

Terra stares at Pinkie Pie, trying to comprehend what the obnoxious pink pony had just said. The only thing she really caught was something about buying a blender... and she does need a new blender. She looks at the most amazing blender she had ever seen and gets the feeling that the beautiful machine is calling out to her.

“How much for the blender?” asks Terra without thinking.

Pinkie Pie grins. “Three hundred bits.”

“Deal.”

Terra pulls out a bag of bits and tosses it Pinkie Pie, and in return, Pinkie Pie hands her the blender. Redheart’s jaw drops and she stammers gibberish as she tries to comprehend what just happened.

Pinkie Pie giggles and she wraps her hoof around the nurse’s neck. “What you just saw was a satisfied customer.”

“But she didn’t-you didn’t-Nothing happened! She just bought it!” stammers Redheart.

“I know a good blender when I see one,” says Terra says defensively. “Now, if you’ll excuse us whatever your name is.”

“The name is Pie. Pinkie Pie. But you can call me Pinkie, or Ms. Pie, or Pinkie Pie. But never Pinkamena”

“Uh huh, well Pinkie Pie, me and Redheart need to have a private conversation. So scoot.”

“Scooting!”

Pinkie Pie literally scoots out of the house and when she’s out, Terra closes the door with her magic and peeks out the window to make sure Pinkie Pie is out of sight. When Pinkie Pie rounds the corner she closes the blinds and turns to Redheart.

“Who’s the unlucky one this time?” asks Redheart dryly.

“A mare you should be familiar with. Trixie Lulamoon,” replies Terra casually.

“Oh... her.”

“I have my orders to come over here and retrieve you so you can fix her up.”

“Well I can’t go.”

Terra’s eyes narrow. “Why not?”

“Ponyville is my responsibility. And on top of protecting it, I have to help run a hospital to keep my cover, and even if I find the time to leave, the trip will take two weeks, both ways, not including the days I need to treat the patient.”

“Redheart, you seem to forget that my father is a genius. He’s already expanded and improved his fleet, and you have to come, once you’re in, there’s no getting out.”

“I’m not denying my duties to the League, what I’m saying is that I can’t go because of the situation I’m in.”

Terra lies down on the couch and casually inspecting her new blender. “Yeah, you sure handled Eclipse very well all those years ago.” Despite Terra’s tone being cold and resentful, Redheart still can’t control the glare she’s giving the unicorn. “But now that he’s taken care of Ponyville is an easy place to guard, Redheart, and even then there is Mare-Do-Well to help keep the vandals in check.”

Redheart scoffs. “I hate to burst your bubble, but Mare-Do-Well hasn’t been seen ever since that fiasco ended ten years ago.”

“Uh huh, well you’re still coming. Whether you like it or not.”

“What am I supposed to tell the hospital? ‘Sorry, I have to go. Trixie had her flank kicked in a hidden mansion so I have to fix her up’?”

“We already took care of that. They are very sympathetic when you have a funeral to attend.”

Redheart’s jaw drops. “You told them somepony in my family died!”

Terra smirks. “No. We said you had a funeral to attend with no specifics. However, they will be wondering about the funeral so I suggest that you get your story straightened out before you return. And the trip will take about a half a day of flight, so you’ll be back quickly.”

Terra hops off of the couch and magically opens the door and flashes a cocky smile at Redheart.

“After you, madam.” Terra says in phony Canterlot accent.

Redheart sighs, gathers her gear in her saddlebags, and leaves with Terra. They walk for about half an hour before they meet up with a group of ponies guarding a steampunkish ship that strangely looks like a dragonfly.

“What’s with the blender?” asks one of the ponies.

“None of your business!” snaps Terra.

The pony mumbles an apology and when all the ponies are on the ship, it shoots out sparks that make it levitate off of the ground, and speeds off into the sky, soon disappearing into the clouds.

And hiding in the forest, with a pair of binoculars, watching the ship speed away, is Pinkie Pie wearing a safari outfit. She lowers her binoculars and rubs her chin quizzically while mumbling,  “Interesting...”

She then pulls out a pen and notebook from her pocket and scribbles some notes down before purposefully falling out of the tree and landing with perfect accuracy in a fluffy bush.

~~~~~~~~~~

A little over an hour later, Pinkie Pie finds herself back in Ponyville and orders herself a strawberry milkshake from the Sugar Cube Corner. She’s still wearing her safari outfit and has yet to shake the leaves off, but no one is questioning why Pinkie Pie looks like a messy safari pony. To them, she’s just being Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie sits at a covered table outside Sugar Cube Corner, and watches the ponies chat amongst themselves as they enjoy the spring weather. She sips her milkshake and goes to studying the picture she drew of the dragonfly ship she saw Redheart get into.

“EXTRA! EXTRA! TERRORIST ATTACK AT CANTERLOT ROYAL GUARD HQ!” shouts a mare while tossing out a stack of newspapers to a newspaper kiosk out of the back of a vehicle that looks like a small steampunk train with a flatbed on the back.

The casual conversations turn into confused, energetic chatter and the ponies crowd around the stack of newspapers. Pinkie Pie gallops to the stack, buys one of the few remaining copies of the newspaper and brings it back to her table. According to the paper, a Royal Guard lieutenant that was accused of a list of corruption charges had been killed by a bomb delivered to him in the form of a gift box. The blast blew him to pieces, gutted the office, and injured the two guards outside his door, and now the pony that delivered the package is being hunted by the Royal Guards.

Pinkie Pie’s mane and tail deflate and she rubs her head in disbelief. That was the twelfth terrorist attack against Equestria in a year, and while it may not be the worst of the attacks, the attacks are getting more ambitious.

Then a light bulb turns on in her head. She finishes her milkshake within a matter of seconds and curses under her breath as her brain freezes while knocking the cup in a garbage can with pinpoint accuracy. She then shakes the brain freeze away -which does nothing, but helps her feel better- and she runs into her room in the Sugar Cube Corner with her copy of the newspaper in her mouth. Once in the safety of her room, she spits the newspaper on her plush bed and rummages under her bed, tossing aside everything from party supplies to rubber chickens, and cookbooks to a book called Business Building for the Mentally Inferior, until she comes across what she wanted. A plastic tub with thumb tacks, glue, scissors, and pens and highlighters, a book with snippets of newspaper articles, and a board that has the map of Equestria with pictures and notes tacked to it.

She pushes the map against her wall and goes on to dissecting and storing the useful parts of the article. She then goes on to adding her findings to her maps and connecting the dots. All the dots being dated and marking the locations of attacks over the years against crime lords and corrupt government officials. At first the attacks were just against one target, all criminals, and the deaths were far and few in between, but that all changed after a crime lord named Eclipse was thrown out of a window from his loft in Canterlot. Then the attacks escalated to total war on the criminal underworld. Thankfully Ponyville hasn’t been touched by these attacks and remains relatively peaceful, save for the random wackiness every few days that throws the town in chaos for a day or two.

Pinkie Pie stares at the map intently, looking for more correlations between the recent attack and past attacks. All of them have something to do with criminals and corrupt government officials, most have been killed in the public or have their bodies left in public areas, and those that are hard to reach are usually blown to pieces by a crafty explosive. The final similarity between all of them is that strange flying vehicles have been sighted near the sights of the attacks. Like, for example, the most recent attacks in Barnville and Canterlot had a flying boat and ponies did report a “flying delivery truck” shortly before the attack in Canterlot.

And now one of those strange ships has shown up near Ponyville.

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

Trixie struggles to open her eyes. It seems that everytime she opens them they slam shut on her. Each time she tries, her eyelids get a little farther up and her vision clears just a bit more. Finally, after an exhaustive, literal eye opening experience, she is able to see clearly. The very first thing she sees is Gray Muffin, sitting on a stool with his eyes closed and his head bowed. To Trixie, it looks like the old stallion is sleeping, and just to make sure she extends her hoof to poke him.

“Don’t touch me,” grumbles Gray Muffin.

Trixie retracts her hoof, and immediately regrets it because of the sharp pain that shoots up her hoof and forces her to bite back tears. She swears under her breath and notices Gray Muffin lifting his head to look at her.

“Did you enjoy your nap?” asks Gray Muffin.

“It was... pleasant?” says Trixie hesitantly.

“That sounded more like a question. than an answer.”

“Well Trix-” Gray Muffin’s eyes narrow. “I  would have enjoyed the nap better if I wasn’t nearly beaten to death.”

“Roar Shock is like that. He believes the best way to train somepony is to test them when they least expect it.”

“Do you think that is the best method?”

“It has proven to be effective.”

“Are-Am I going to be experiencing a lot of those... um...”

“Blitz Training Sessions? Yes, you are. But not now. Now you need to rest and heal.”

“How badly am I-yeeeoow!!!”

Trixie had shifted in her spot and the pain returned, except this time it surged all over her ribs and now her head is throbbing and feeling like it’s ready to explode. She whimpers and slumps back in her bed while Gray Muffin towers over her.

“This sucks,” moans Trixie.

“I warned you,” remarks Gray Muffin instantly.

“It hurts to breathe.”

“Then stop breathing.”

Trixie glares at Gray Muffin as he walks towards the exit.

“There will be a specialist coming to help you heal, shortly,” he says casually, his voice echoing plainly off of the walls. “In the meantime, your orders are to stay in bed until you are excused by the nurse”

“Got it,” grumbles Trixie.

“And when you are out of bed you are to refer to me either as ‘Master’, or ‘Sir’.”

“Can I call you Master Muffin?”

Trixie chuckles at her lame joke, but quickly winces and clutches her side while mumbling colorful words as the pain returns as a nasty reminder of her condition. Gray Muffin looks over his shoulder and holds back a smirk before leaving the room.

Trixie huffs painfully and decides that while she’s bedridden she might as well look around the room. She lifts her head to get a better view of the room, but the throbbing in her head shoots down her neck and she winces again and slumps in the bed. However, she does catch that she is in an infirmary and that most of the beds are empty, except for a couple of ponies lying in the back in full body casts. The room also appears to be carved directly into the mountain, and electrical lightning and strategically placed heaters give the room figurative and literal warmth.

Trixie tries to relax in her bed, but with the growing pain over taking her body it’s next to impossible. She groans and tries to think of anything to keep her mind off of the pain, but when she does, her physical pain is replaced with emotional pain as she remembers the Hell she narrowly escaped from. Just when Trixie is ready to scream out of sheer aggravation, the door to the infirmary swings open and Trixie hears Terra walk in with someone else.

“Redheart, it’s not our place to question father, alright?” says Terra irritably.

“I’m just worried is all. This organization has changed a lot over the past ten years,” says Redheart sadly.

“Sorry to spoil your fantasy, but nothing ever stays the same.”

Terra, and a white earth pony mare with a pink mane and tail, whom Trixie is guessing is Redheart, steps in front of Trixie’s bed and in a sweet voice says, “Hello, Trixie, my name is Nurse Redheart and I’m going to be treating you of your injuries.”

Redheart walks next to Trixie and gently runs her hoof over her body to get an idea of the extent of the injuries, but Trixie’s mind is thinking that Redheart is doing something else entirely.

“Just what do you think you are doing!” snarls Trixie as she bats Redheart’s hoof away.

Redheart arches an eyebrow. “My job.”

“Feeling up Trixie is your job!?”

“Wha-what! Oh dear Celestia, no! I’m checking the extent of your injuries!”

“Use an X-Ray machine. Don’t touch me.”

Redheart face-hoof’s and Terra walks up to Trixie with a murderous look in her eyes, which is nothing new for Trixie when it comes to her.

“Listen here, you little tramp, get over yourself and let Redheart do her job or I will use these rocks to hold you down!” yells Terra.

Trixie is about to chew out Terra for calling her a “tramp”, but when she notices that Terra some mushrooms poking out of the pocket of her saddlebag. Trixie levitates one out and holds it up to her eyes, and Terra makes no objections to Trixie’s actions.

“What is this!” demands Trixie.

“It’s a healing mushroom found in the fields around Barnville,” replies Terra coolly.

Trixie pales and throws the accursed fungus away from her as far as possible. Then she scrunches up on the back of her bed, which sends an ungodly amount of pain throughout her body, while pointing at Terra threateningly. “You are not giving Trixie any of those abominations!”

“The mushrooms will help you heal quicker,” says Terra sternly.

Terra and Trixie spiral down into a heated argument that eventually draws Redheart in. All three ponies bicker amongst themselves with Trixie wanting healing magic to fix her, Terra wanting Redheart to fix Trixie with the Healing Mushroom, as ordered, and Redheart wanting to do things her way, which does not include the Healing Mushroom. They only stop their bickering when the infirmary door flies open and Gray Muffin stomps in with and odd device around his forehoof. The odd device latched around his forehoof has little tesla coils around the bottom and crystals running up the edge of the device, stopping short of his elbow.

“What’s going on!” growls Gray Muffin.

Terra points at Trixie accusingly. “Trixie is being difficult.”

Trixie scoffs and gives Terra a dirty glare, but it only gets worse when Redheart backs up Terra’s statement. Gray Muffin looks at Terra and Redheart, and then at Trixie.

“Is this true?” asks Gray Muffin in a sinister tone.

“Well... um I-I-I wouldn’t um-” stammers Trixie nervously while pushing her forehooves together.

But Trixie doesn’t get the chance to finish her sentence because Gray Muffin shoves the hoof with the weird gauntlet into her chest and she gets the shock of her life. It’s enough to make all her fur and hair stand up and have her collapses on her bed, completely unconscious, and slightly smoking. Gray Muffin then orders Redheart to fix Trixie as ordered and leaves without saying another word.

Terra watches him leave while Redheart stares at Trixie with her jaw dropped and eyes bulged.

After a minute of awkward silence, Terra finally says: “Damn.”