Wrath of My Righteous Little Ponies

“Shouldn’t you go after him?” Ivory Scroll asked tentatively as the muffled sounds of the donkey and mongrel pony retreating down the path were silenced by the shutting heavy front door.

Gold shook her head, “No, I’ve been following that cranky donkey for hours. I can’t imagine he’ll be able to get into too much trouble out there and if he does, serves him right.” Gold couldn’t help but give a little grin at the thought of Cranky being the one receiving glares and muttered comments and the grin quickly spread to the mayor. Gold was right of course; the old donkey didn’t seem the type to get into any violent exchanges and if he did her ponies would just escort him back to the house.

After a moment Ivory Scroll’s smile faded and she cleared her throat. “I wanted to ask you where you came across that brooch you’re wearing. It’s clearly one of our pieces and I’m sure you didn’t get it from my guards.”

“Oh,” Gold's eyes shot a little wide, surprised at such a mundane question from the mayor. She looked down at the brooch depicting a bat perched on a mushroom and smiling she reached up and gave it a gentle touch of her hoof. “My good luck charm.”

The mayor returned the smile, her eyes gentle but with a hint of sadness, and nodded. “Well, it kinda found me. I was exploring, trying to find a way out when we’d first woken up and I found a pile of garbage down one of the tunnels. Come to think of it, it might have been a campsite. I didn’t know about any of you living down here so I didn’t take it for a campsite. Anyway, I was trotting through and I kicked it by accident, that was the only reason I noticed it.”

“I see,” The mayor nodded slowly a somewhat disappointed and yet relieved look on her face. A long moment of silence passed between them and just as Gold was about to say something the mayor explained. “It belonged to Swift Justice, my daughter. She and I had an argument about…” Ivory Scroll paused as if unable to remember the nature of the argument and eventually just shook her head. “It doesn’t matter now, but it caused her to leave. I was hoping you might have a bit of news for me about her, but it seems you did not cross paths as I had hoped.”

“I-I ahh,” Gold stammered her mind scrabbling for something reassuring to tell the poor mother. “The tunnel we woke up in had collapsed but that doesn’t mean the other side wasn’t clear or that she was in any of the nearby tunnels, she might still be all right.”

“It’s all right my dear,” The mayor assured Gold with a gentle pat on her hoof. “Swift… took her life into her own hooves and I’ll always be proud of her for that.”

“You should have the brooch back,” Gold said her horn flaring to life and grasping the brooch in her magic, pulling it from her undershirt.

“Oh no I can’t,” The mayor weakly refused, “It’s your good luck charm, I couldn’t take it from you and then send you into danger.”

Gold shook her head, smiled and floated the brooch into Ivory Scroll’s hoof, “I can make my own luck.”

Further protests died on the mayor’s tongue, her good eye filled with tears that streamed down her cheek as she sniffed and clutched the brooch’s face to her chest. Recovering she wiped away her tears and stood up from the table, “You still deserve something for returning it.” She moved from the table over to what appeared to be a large cabinet. Opening it she revealed a finely crafted suit of plate barding, under it was a weapon’s rack, the top slot was empty but below it was a short sword and below that a crossbow. Ivory Scroll picked up the short sword and turned back to Gold. “You’ll make better luck with this, to my ancestor it was merely a secondary weapon, but it is still a demon-slaying blade.”

Ivory Scroll slid the sword from its scabbard, allowing the barely noticeable radiance of its naked enchanted edge to shine off the dark cold iron blade. Gold stared in awe at the blade for several seconds, but with a bite of her lip, she began to shake her head. Seeing that Gold was about to protest the mayor quickly closed the distance between them and added. “It’s a gift, one you cannot refuse without insulting all of Ponyville. All I ask is that you send at least one traitorous mongrel pony to their vile new masters with it.”

Gold chewed her lip in uncertainty, but with the mayor giving her little choice she nodded and took the blade in her magic. “But what about you, I can’t leave you without a weapon.”

Ivory Scroll smiled gently and her good eye traveled down to Gold’s side. Reaching down she took the grip of Gold’s sword in her mouth with a gentle tug withdrew it from her side. Holding it in her hooves Ivory Scroll looked over the mundane and not very well crafted sword as if it were a treasure. “This will do fine as a replacement.”

Again, Gold went to protest and before she could the mayor silenced her, “Now that I have both the brooch and a new sword in exchange for that old thing I think I’ve taken advantage of you enough. Come on let’s get you to bed, tomorrow will not be an easy day for any of us.”

Gold held her ground a moment and looked up at the mayor, her brown eyes shining with determination, “I promise you, Mayor, we’ll get to the surface and I’ll make those traitors pay for turning their backs on the crusades.” It was all she could offer to balance the exchange.

“Thank you,” The mayor accepted and with a gentle nudge of her head prompted Gold to follow her this time. She led Gold upstairs at a somewhat slow pace not wishing to tax Gold’s broken leg any further. The mayor admitted that there was little they could do to fully repair the damage to the leg, but she would make sure the best healer in Ponyville would set it with a proper brace before she left.

“Here this one will be your room, it’s right across from the one Twilight is resting in,” Ivory Scroll explained as they reaching the top of the stairs and stopped in front of a door standing adjacent to an identical twin. Ivory Scroll opened it up and gave a start of surprise to find Twilight laying on the bed by herself. Twilight’s ears shot up when the door opened and her blank bandaged wrapped face turned towards it. The mayor gave a start of surprise, “Oh I’m sorry dear! It’s just Gold and I. I’d thought Snakebite had put you in the other room, my mistake.”

“Th-that’s fine, actually I was having trouble sleeping anyway, the room feels a little too… empty. You can stay a while if you want Gold.” Twilight went to rub the back of her head but when she touched the bandages that covered the burnt-out socks of her eyes she stopped, lowered her hoof and dipping her head down a little, her ears falling.

Gold and Ivory Scroll exchanged a look, thankful the unicorn mage couldn’t see the sadness and pity on their faces. Gold looked back at Twilight and needlessly forced a smile onto her face as she limped across the room to her. “Sure Twilight it’d be nice to talk now that… well, we’re someplace safe and Cranky’s not going to start grumbling about something.”

Twilight’s ears shot up with delight and she lifted her head smiling thankfully not quite directly up at Gold. Ivory Scroll gave a soft delighted whinny and told them in a motherly tone. “Don’t you fillies stay up too late you have got,” the delight in her tone waned, “To be ready for tomorrow.”

“Yes ma’am,” The pair said in unison as Gold climbed up on the bed next to Twilight. Ivory Scroll gave them a last parting smile and closed the door. Once it was shut the mayor allowed her face to fall and line with deep regret. She reminded herself that there was no good alternative, this was their best chance to survive and rejoin the ponies above them. Once more she told herself she had to have faith in the three, after all, she reached a hoof up and touched the bat brooch, they had already performed one miracle.

Twilight and Gold stayed awake for some time chatting. Inevitably Gold’s thoughts turned to Greenery, the thought of her on the surface, alone, made Gold uneasy and anxious. Try as she might Gold would keep relating the subject back to Greenery and talking about her still made Twilight a little uncomfortable. The pain of her lost love and the, admittedly inadvertent, part Greenery played in the break-up caused Twilight to stew bitterly. Instead of trying to dissuade her feelings Gold allowed Twilight to do the lion’s share of the talking, which seemed to please her immensely.

Twilight spoke excitedly about magical and conspiracy theories without pause as if she was just happy to have somebody listening. Most of the magical theories went beyond Gold’s understanding and the conspiracy theories were all things she had heard during her time in Manehattan, but they were also all things she had disregarded as old mare’s tales upon first hearing them. Even though Twilight had proven herself correct with several them Gold still regard the rest to be little more than silly rumors.

Slowly even Twilight’s excited speech began to grow tired. She never retreated to her own room, though, never giving the slightest indication that she wished to retreat alone to the secluded chamber and Gold never suggesting that she had to. The bed had space enough for both so Twilight just shed her colorfully patchy robes and Gold her heavy leather barding before crawling into bed together their backs pressed reassuringly against each other.

The sensation of not being able to close her eyes, the eyelids having been burned away with the rest, Twilight lay awake long after Gold’s breathing had fallen into the steady slow rhythm of sleep and found herself pondering the most mundane of things. Such as what Gold’s cutie mark was. Barding and robes usually covered a pony’s cutie mark but it must have been visible now that Gold had set her barding aside. Twilight never thought she would miss something like seeing the trio of arrows that formed a shield-like pattern on either side of Gold’s flanks. Images of all sorts passed lazily across her mind’s eye until all her thoughts slipped away and sleep finally took her.

It was well over a half dozen hours later that the mayor’s door was forced open and Cranky’s frowning face pushed its way past it, yet the mayor sat still and patient as if awaiting the donkey’s return the whole time. He sneered unhappily at her and pushed the rest of the way into her home. The mayor returned the sneer with surprise that caused her nose and whiskers to twitch with alarm. The donkey was naked, his damaged, but still fine, clothes were gone along with the jewelry that accompanied such clothing. The only thing he carried now was one of the fine chain shirts he’d stolen from the dead cultists, which was bundled up around something and balanced on his back. The hoof blades were still secured to his leg.

The mayor shook off her surprise, “I hope you have enjoyed the hospitality I’ve always known my ponies to give to strangers.”

Cranky just snorted and started past her not even glancing in her direction as he moved toward the stairs. The mayor looked down dejectedly then took a deep breath, “I’m sorry Cranky I didn’t want to do it this way either.”

Cranky stopped at that his face tightening as several responses played across his mind. At last, he turned to the mayor, “Will that comfort you when you find us dead.”

“I…” The mayor nibbled on her bottom lip for a moment before looking up and meeting the donkey’s eyes. “I have to believe you can do it. I’ve prayed for the salvation of my ponies for so long, just like my ancestors before me, I have to believe you were sent here and now, by the gods.”

Cranky scoffed, “The drunken faithful,” and started up the stairs.

“They need you Cranky,” Ivory Scroll said after him causing the old donkey to pause on the stairs. “And not just because of their injuries, they need you to protect them.”

Cranky said nothing for several seconds, then, at last, he looked back and fixed the mayor with a tired stare and she realized for the first time that he had heavy bags under his eyes. “No one needs an old donkey like me.”

Cranky started up the stair again, this time before the mayor could say anything there was a knock at her door. With a last apologetic look at Cranky as the tuft of his tail disappeared up the stairs Ivory Scroll rose out of her seat, approached and opened the door. A stony pony stood stiffly on the other side of the door. The mayor gave the pony a relieved look, “Granite thank you for coming. I’m afraid your patients have yet to awaken. Please, come in and have some tea.” Granite simply nodded and moved past the mayor to sit at the table.

Ivory Scroll paused a moment at the door and looked out across her community and wondered for the first time if they succeeded would Ponyville be abandoned. The first mongrel ponies had called it Ponyville to remind themselves that it was a home for ponies, not the demonic creatures some had taken them to be. Ivory Scroll had known no other home in all her years, she had never ventured beyond the walls and tunnels of her subterranean home.

In her youth, she had dreamed of the surface, of seeing the sun and moon and the sky that held them. A sky that changed unrecognizably every half dozen hours, it was beyond imagining. No ceiling to hold the world in.

No, she realized, Ponyville would not be abandoned. Even if all the youth rushed from its embrace and scattered to the tunnels, no paths wide and far, those of at least her generation and older would not leave. As much as she wanted and prayed to be a part of the surface world, it would never be her home. Ivory Scroll looked up at the thick illuminated moss that hung above and basked in its light.

Turning she closed the door of her home, vowing, despite her revelation, that she would not allow the surface and its ponies to be overrun by the demon hoard.