Wrath of My Righteous Little Ponies

Chapter Nineteen

“Cranky!” Gold’s sword clanged to the stone floor before Velvet’s slumped with a wet smack across it. Gold rushed past the dead mare ignoring her handy work and sound of cries the barely pierced the door and rushed to the old donkey who sat slumped against the floor a hoof holding his wounded shoulder. A still disguised chitin covered hoof hovered over the wound, “Are you all right?”

“Of course, I’m not all right!” Cranky snapped back clenching his oversized teeth and squeezing his eyes tightly shut. His regret at shouting didn’t stop him however, “Give me a potion you, daft mare.”

Gold sighed her heart slowing as she floated a potion from her bag and pulled Cranky’s hoof away from the wound as the vail uncorked itself. Cranky hissed in pain as the liquid touched the wound, but it soon gave way to a relaxed sigh.

At the door. Twilight heard the sounds on the other side cease and grasping the handle blindly pushed the door open. Her ears twitched as they swiveled back and forth in search of a sound. The stomp of several hooves turning a body around and a snort of anger comes to them. “Ah more of ya, well you’ll be sorry ya messed with dear sweet Twilight.”

“No!” Twilight cried at the sound of beating hooves charging towards her, “Daisy Jo it’s me I’m Twilight!”

“Twilight!” Gold’s head whipped from Cranky to where Twilight still sat disguised with the thick hide and skull plate illusion in the now open doorway. The rapid clopping of hooves on stone growing by the moment.

“Gold dispel the illusions!” Twilight called throwing her hooves over her head and curling into a ball.

Gold’s magic fumbled for the purple scale tucked just under her armor. As soon as she grasped it her magic flowed into, the conduit of her will, and the illusionary disguises disappeared. The sound of hooves on stone turned to scraping and a cow slid into the doorframe stopping just short of Twilight. She was white with large brown patches all over her body, and her near perfect circle of horns had a golden tint to them.

“Oh Twilight, I nearly crush ya, are you all right dear?” Daisy Jo asked sounding more like a worried aunt than the fiercely charging beast she had been a moment before.

“Yes, I’m fine Daisy, thank you for answering my call.” Twilight breathed in relief and sat back but her blind face not quite looking at Daisy directly.

Daisy gasped, “What? No, you’re not Twilight! What happened to your eyes?” Daisy leaned down and touched her nose to the bandage wrapped face and felt the deep groove that lay beneath. Her eyes shot accusingly to Gold who couldn’t meet the cow's gaze.

“Just a little trouble with a centaur,” Twilight said lightly, but her smile was sad and faltered quickly. She went to muzzle Daisy back but passed right through her increasingly wispy form.

“Sorry Twilight, they’re already callin’ me back home, but you call me back if you need me again.” Daisy looked back her eyes focusing on something only she could see.

“I will, but I can only recall the spell once more, after that…” Twilight touched her bandages, “It might be a while before I can figure out a way to do it again.”

Daisy tried to speak but no sounds came from her mouth, she was so wispy now that Gold could clearly see through her and then she was gone. Leaving behind the crushed and gored corpses of four mongrel ponies.

“She gone Twilight,” Gold pull Twilight back onto her hooves. “Come on let’s go, the rest of them will have heard all that and will be here soon.”

Twilight shook her head, “Maybe not, the walls of this place are roughly hewn from the stone, right?” She groped for the nearby wall feeling the rough surface, there wasn’t an inch of smoothness anywhere to be found most of it swelled and sank without a pattern. “Sound wouldn’t travel well in this place, I doubt anyone outside of the adjoining rooms will have heard anything at all.”

“Let’s hope you’re right,” Gold turned back to look at the gory mess she’d created. Pools of blood seeped from the bodies, the largest poured out from Velvet’s new second mouth, Thin Sheets was the smallest, but the splatter of coughed up blood from his mouth suggested most of his blood had pooled in his pierced lungs. They stared emptily into the distance, horror forever etched onto Velvet’s face.

Gold picked up her sword and wiped the still wet blade clean of blood on Velvet’s gray fur, smearing it further. Sheathing the cleaned sword, she plucked the small saddlebags off of Velvet’s back and flipped it open. “Potion, potion,” She muttered to herself tasting each to identify them, one a strong healing draught, the other invisibility. A wand came out next and floated to Twilight who clutched after a few missed grabs and stowed it in her own bags. Next came a pair of flasks Gold instantly recognized and added to her own saddlebag containing her own alchemist fire. Finally came a sack filled to bursting with a thick liquidy substance, she recognized this as well and added it carefully to her bag.

“Damn this box won’t open, Gold you’re a thief, pick the damn thing!” Cranky growled giving the long lockbox he’d dragged from under the desk a shove. Gold floated a vial of antitoxin, a piece of paper and a few coins and jewels from Velvet’s bag into her own before finally finding a small iron key in the bottom of the saddlebag.

“I told you I’m not a thief,” Gold muttered grimly turning to the box as the key fitted itself into the lock and turned with the resounding click of tumblers. “Let’s just hope there’s something in here worth taking.”

Twilight gave a surprised gasp and Cranky and Gold turned to see her quickly stepping back from Thin Sheets body holding a hoof up nervously. Gold was at her friend’s side in a moment and guiding her over to the desk where Cranky was lifting open the lockbox’s lid. “How can you two just… calm take whatever you want from ponies you just killed?”

Gold was silent for a moment and the only sound came from Cranky pulling pouches from the box and tearing them open. Cranky made sure to keep his back to the mares and the bodies as he rummaged through the bags, the gangling of gems and coins floated up from them. Twilight couldn’t see the grim look that came over Gold’s face but stammered, “Sorry. I’m not trying to offend you.”

“It’s fine,” Gold answered quickly stopping Twilight from rambling further. “It’s about survival, all of it. They’ll kill us if we don’t kill them, and anything they have that we can use we take, simple as that. Being good is about how you act day to day, not what you do to survive a hell like this place.”

“Oh,” Twilight numbly answered, “It’s nothing like the history books or the stories they tell at Defender’s Heart.”

“They just clean up the filthy bits,” Cranky stole the words from Gold’s mouth as he snatched up Velvet’s discarded saddlebags and stuffed the wealth into them. He held up a pair of rolled up parchment. “Here, more scrolls for our scroll keeper.”

Gold seized the scrolls in her magic and floated them over to Twilight’s saddlebags stuffing them within. As she did Cranky pulled the last item from the lockbox, a long thin darkwood case, flipping it open he let out a very un-Cranky-like gasp, “By the gods.”

Gold peered over his shoulder and saw a breathtaking longsword of obvious superior craftsmanship, the edge of the golden blade looked razor sharp. Gold lifted the case in her magic and brought it closer examining it, it seemed very familiar. After a moment’s thought, she lowered the case back to the ground and reached her magic back into her own bag pulling out the folded piece of paper she had taken from Velvet and opened it. Her eyes passed over the lines that were written on the paper, “Derpy’s sword…”

“What? What are you talking about?” Cranky snapped at her as Twilight turned curiously towards her as well. Clearing her throat Gold read the note aloud:

Velvet
You will remain, for the time being, in
Manehattan, but know this: The city’s days
are numbered. Seek a safe place, the
underground den of your mongrel lackeys should
suffice to keep you safe from the devastation
to come. I shall assume command of Apploosa
shortly, and once Sombra has finished with
the Wardstone and Manehattan is no longer of
interest to us, you are to return to my side.
Excellent news regarding the salvage of
Derpy’s sword from the museum as well. Bring
it with you, for I believe this weapon could
be quite useful once we corrupt it. Before you
leave for Appleoosa, stop by Cherry Manor,
Topaz Solutions, and the Tower of Estrot.
These are Templar safe houses, make sure no
evidence remains behind. The passphrase
remains ‘I’ve new material for the archives,’
for now.
May Lady Chrysalis and Lord Iron Will watch
over you!
B. M.

“This is Derpy Hooves’ sword,” Gold could barely gasp. Tucking the paper back into her bag she seized the case in her magic, snapped it shut and floated it onto her back, securing it under her quiver. “We have to get this sword back to the crusaders; the demons can’t be allowed to corrupt it.”

“Right,” Twilight nodded moving to Gold’s side.

“Let’s just get out of this damn place!” Cranky snapped trotting to the door. Gold and Twilight followed as they moved into the large cavern-like hall, their ears high and twitching at every sound. They peered into the damp cavern they’d come through, the barricades of stone and wood were abandoned as expected, their sentries mangled bodies lay lifeless in the hall.

“Let’s see what’s over there,” Gold whispered to Cranky pointing her snout at shut door on the other end of the hall. Cranky nodded and started towards it, Gold and Twilight close behind as Gold whispered to Twilight, “There another door on the other side of the cavern, maybe the way out.”

Twilight nodded and they silently made their way to the where the donkey stood ear lifted by a hoof and pressed against the door. Shaking his at the lack of any sound from the other side he waited for Gold to draw and nock an arrow before shoving the door open.

Old blood stained the floor of the small cavern. Barrels filled with scraps of fur and fat sat against one wall, emitting a foul stench. Two long stone slab tables were covered with skinning tools and piles of freshly butchered meat. Two wooden racks held drying animal skins. The smell struck them like a blow and Cranky’s eyes held the sight of the butchered meat of a second before he turned away and emptied his breakfast across the floor. Gold muttering, “By the gods.”

“What is it, what’s that smell?” Twilight's voice resounded with concern as she covered her nose and looked in Cranky’s direction.

“They… eat meat.” Gold said her eyes sweeping across the cavern looking for some other kind of food, there was far too little for the ten ponies they’d seen thus far. Then her eyes fell on the unmistakable hoof of a pony hacked from its leg and stripped of the few bits of remaining meat that had clung to it. “Pony’s meat.”

“What, that’s… that’s unnatural.” Twilight stammered almost thankful for her blindness.

“I’ve heard of worse from the likes of demon worshippers,” Gold commented coldly, Twilight shivered hearing no emotion in her friend’s tone. Gold's horn flared to life and a blade yanked itself from between the ribs of what looked like a dire rat and flew over to her. She turned it over noting that as she had thought from a distance, it was a high-quality weapon, it’s edge un-dulled from its work butchering ponies and ready to take another’s life. Picking up a dirty rag in her magic she wiped the blood from the dagger and slipped it securely into a belt of her armor. “Let’s get out of here.”

Shutting the door, they made their way back through the damp room and paused at the rope ladder that led up through the hole into the common room. Whether the mongrel they’d left drinking had heard anything or not, seeing a regular pony climbing out of the hole would tip her off that something was wrong, and they’d be vulnerable. If they were seen. Grinning Gold floated a potion and one of Spike’s scales out of her saddlebag and whispered to the others. “Stay here, unless you hear fighting.”

Cranky looked like he wanted to argue, but before he could get a word out Gold pulled the stopper from the potion and drank it down instantly vanishing from his sight. Twilight looked back and forth between the now invisible Gold and Cranky, “What are you going to do?”

“Just be ready,” Gold said hushing the other unicorn. Activating the scale, a plume of cloud rose under her lifting her into the air. That would limit how much she could use the scale’s power, but it was still all she needed. Pushed up by the bellowing plum of cloud Gold rose unseen up the hole, the rickety ladder untouched, until she rose almost completely out of the hole. As Twilight had said, the mongrel remained placidly drinking at her table unaware of the carnage below.

Stepping off the cloud Gold proved a credit to her profession hobbling silently behind the drinking mongrel pony. Drawing her sword uncharacteristically in her magic Gold lifted it up over Minuette's back, a single stab to the back of the neck would silently end the mongrel’s life. However, when Gold stabbed down with her sword the tip clanked off Minuette’s chitin hide and slide to one side harmlessly.

“What the-” Minuette cursed and turned as Gold faded back into sight. Gold snatched her sword in her mouth, she had better control and force while holding it. Before she could strike again Minuette swung out at her smashing the clay jug against her face. Gold head swam and she staggered back trying to regain her senses, she heard the scraping of a drawing sword.

“Rover get bad bug pony!” A voice called and Gold watched as a large gray vaguely humanoid dog leaped onto Minuette’s back and with a growl snapped his jaws around the side of her neck. There was a cracking noise as Minuette’s chitin plates cracked and split, but it was easily drowned out by her screams of pain as she dropped her sword and tried to buck the large dog off her. Her screams were cut short as Gold’s blade was thrust deep into her mouth, slicing through her soft pallet and burying itself in her brain.