Hours Loom 2: Electric Boogaloo

The mask fell to the deck. “I was afraid this would happen,” Night Light said. “I told you it could happen. It happened to Rarity, it could happen to us. Now it has.”

Twilight Sparkle stared at her mother who stared back. She couldn’t believe her own parents would be ill enough to murder other ponies. What reason could they have to do something so heinous? “You two won’t get away with this! Now that I know you aren’t Rarity, I also know you aren’t as powerful!” Her horn lit and she fired a magical blast directly at her mother. There was no way Velvet could dodge a blast that close and so she didn’t try. She forced her own blast, sending both of them flying in different directions.

“Velvet! Forget about her. We’ll kill the others first!” Night Light yelled, but before he could move to try and kill the earth pony he was struck in the back of the head. He fell to the ground only to rise a second later to slash at the pony who had hit him. “I was wondering where you went you little feather brain! You did a good disappearing act.” He swiped at the maid and missed, inches away from her throat.

Maud was on him in an instant. She sucker punched Night Light, sending him toppling over the side of the boat. “Go,” she told Gale. “I’ll grab Twilight.”

The alicorn was pushed to her hooves and led off with the two mares. Velvet eventually snapped up, rubbing her head and looking for her husband. He was climbing back over the railing slower than a snail. “Come on you idiot, they’re getting away!” she called out before chasing after her daughter.

“They won’t get far now that we’re both out and about,” he replied as he hurried behind her. “It’ll be fun to no longer hide.” As they chased them down through the second-floor guestrooms, he said, “We won’t be able to remove her memory. We have to kill her.”

“I know. Once we deal with them I’ll stop the ship and we can plant all the evidence of Rarity’s return. I was hoping we could avoid this.” They had lost the trio of mares on the third floor, however Night Light had a trick up his sleeve. He lit his horn and their hoofprints were barely visible. “They think they’re so clever,” he said as they entered the fourth-floor corridors.

A set of two hoofprints lead one way. “I’ll take these,” Velvet said, leaving the other for Night Light.

They parted ways and Velvet followed the magical glow. She lit her horn with a dim light, allowing her to see exactly where she was going. They were heading back into the ship’s engine room. The hoofprints started to disappear but Velvet could tell where they had headed. “Really, Twilight? You’re hiding somewhere near here? Didn’t you try this earlier? The net was a cute trap.”

As she searched for her daughter, the sound of clopping came closer and closer. She was then slammed into by Maud who continued on past her. Her husband followed behind shortly. “Hello dear, fancy meeting you here,” he said as he passed.

“Go get her, tiger!” she yelled in response. The lights of the ship suddenly came on, blinding her. “Oh, so that’s where you are.”

Night Light wouldn’t let Maud escape a second time. She had been getting on his nerves with every attempt he had made to strike her down. Doors were thrown in his way as he barreled after her. She managed to make her way up into the third floor, passing by the spa and foal’s playroom. Night Light followed her up but she had been too quick. Before he could get her, she locked herself in the gym by placing a dumbbell bar on the door, preventing it from opening.

“You dumb little hick. You really think this can prevent me from getting in?” he said, growling with a vicious grin on his face. “I don’t have to hide being a unicorn anymore. Let me show you why your race is so outmatched!”

Dumbbells began flying off the racks, smashing the glass windows of the gym. He tried to send a few into Maud but she dodged each weight he sent her way. With the glass smashed, Maud jumped out through a window, getting her hooves cut with glass. She ran down the hall and up the stairs to the second floor, but Night Light stayed on her tail. He lost her when they came across a hall with many of the doors already open, possibly from Limestone and Zephyr’s search.

“You’re just delaying the inevitable,” he called out as he examined each room. “I’ve gotten to kill most of you Pies. Is Marble still alive?” he asked as he searched, finding no trace of her. “She’s the only one I didn’t get to kill. Limestone on the other hoof. I enjoyed watching her bounce up and down on Zephyr as I waited to strike.” His horn lit up, casting a spell to see where her hoofprints had been, but the overhead light made it too bright to trace them. “Her getting it on with that little loser of a pegasus really made me want to show her a good time. Maybe I’ll give you a taste as I drain the blood from your body. It’d be nice to see you express something for once.”

At that instant, Maud shoved a door into his muzzle, sending him to the ground with blood spewing from his nostrils. She threw herself onto him, slamming hoof after hoof into his face before he sent his knife up her torso. The knife had only cut the fabric of her shirt, ripping it in half. Another swift punch and she rolled onto all fours, throwing the shirt off in the process.

“Maybe I won’t give you a taste now!” he yelled as he wiped his nose off, smearing the blood on his shirt’s foreleg. “I’m still going to remove all the blood from your body!” He was forced to chase after her again, up to the deck. When he reached the top he found that he had lost the earth pony. However, the waves weren’t loud enough to hide the sound of the glass doors closing, and he knew exactly where she had went – the dining hall. He pushed open the glass doors and waited, anticipating another sound to come from the mare.

He carefully looked around the room, preventing another surprise and sucker punch. After lifting the table cloths with his magic he turned his focus to the kitchen. The open window between the two rooms showed nothing. As he leaned his head over the counter, the mare head-butted him, slamming him backwards to the ground. Before she could get on top of him, he used his magic to lift her into the air and slam her down on an empty table, breaking it in half. He did it again on a table covered in plates, silverware, and glass. Before a third slam, Maud tossed a fork at him and it struck in a foreleg. It barely broke the skin and he removed it immediately, tossing it to the floor. Blood spluttered out onto the rug. “Now I’m really forking mad.” Night Light pulled his knife out from underneath his overalls, pointing it at the earth pony.

The stallion charged at her but she managed to grab the foreleg that held the knife, swinging him around into the broken table. He bounced off the table and threw the knife, sending it sailing and cutting her scalp. She held her hoof against the gash but it wasn’t too deep. As she felt the wound, Night Light charged once more, slamming into the mare. He fell on top of her and pushed his weight so she couldn’t move. Pressing his forelegs down on her throat, he attempted to choke the life out of her.

She sent her back legs sailing into his stomach with a swift kick. The kick sent him flying across the room and into the glass doors. Glass shattered around and on top of him, nicking and cutting his costume and face. Maud trotted across the broken glass and grabbed him by the mane, dragging him to the pool. He struggled to be free but she was too strong, stronger than any normal earth pony should’ve been. A second later and he was submerged in water. He writhed and thrashed, trying to swim but it was hard to move whilst in the costume. When he finally got to the surface he gasped for air and found the earth pony was gone.

“Over here,” she called from one of the speakers. As he attempted to get out of the water she kicked the speaker in, sending a wave of electricity into the pool and electrocuting the stallion. He screamed in pain for a few moments as the water danced with electricity, frying him. When it finally stopped, he no longer moved. Air poured from his lungs as he sunk to the bottom. “I know my face doesn’t show it, but, I found this to be quite… shocking,” she described, a small curve to her lips revealed a sense of satisfaction in his death.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Turning on the power won’t do you any good when you’re dead,” Velvet called out as she searched for her daughter. “Why don’t you come out and join us instead? A trio family of murderers. Maybe we’ll all hunt down Rarity afterwards. A nice little family bonding experience.” She pushed open a door knife first, searching every inch for her daughter.

As she entered the engine room, she could hear a piece of metal falling to the ground. She could barely hear it over the roar of the ship’s engine, but it was there. The purple alicorn was hiding between four barrels, cowering and hoping not to be seen. It was too late. “There you are,” Velvet said as she raised the knife. “Don’t worry dear, I’ll make this quick. You’ve been through enough already.”

Before Velvet could do the deed, another pony came alongside her. “Dear, Maud’s been taken care of,” the smooth, strangely mechanical voice said. Velvet turned to see the masked pony standing next to her. She hadn’t expected her husband to be so quick.

“Oh, my. Already? I’m just glad you aren’t this quick in bed,” she replied, tapping her mate. “Would you like to-”

“Would you like me to take care of you?” the masked pony interrupted before she could say anything more.

Velvet was bewildered by the question, but then it hit her. Quite literally, actually, as the masked pony slammed a hoof into her face. She fell to the ground and the knife slid across the floor and in between the barrels. “You’re not Night Light!” Velvet yelled as she jumped up, striking the fake killer and grabbing the mask. She ripped it from Gale’s head and then slammed another hoof into the pegasus’s face. “I’ll kill you first you winged rat!”

“Stop right there!” Twilight Sparkle yelled, pointing the knife with her magic at her mother. “This has gone on long enough!”

The maid was bloody and bruised, and going slowly unconscious before Twilight could intervene. Velvet dropped Gale to the ground and turned to her daughter, staring down the sharp end of the knife. “Honey, it’s me, your mother. Put the knife down and we can talk about this,” she said, pleading with her child with blood still on her hooves. “We can still be a family. You know me, Twilight.”

Just as it looked like Twilight was going to give in, she shot the knife at her mother, slicing her shoulder. The elder mare clamped down on the wound and shouted, “You worthless little foal! You can’t even kill me right!” The knife then came back around and stabbed her in the other shoulder. Velvet fell forward but caught herself. Her face raged with anger as she looked up at Twilight. She then grabbed the knife with her own magic and ran off with the bloody blade.

Twilight ran out to chase her but stopped at Gale’s side. “Gale, are you alright?” She slumped down and grabbed the maid, pulling her up and leaning her against the side of one of the barrels. The maid mumbled something that Twilight couldn’t understand. “Listen, you stay here. I’m going to go finish this!” Twilight rose to her hooves and galloped off, out of the engine room.

Her mother was quick but bleeding. The blood trail led down the steps and past the storage room. Twilight followed it as best she could, eventually making her way to the large medical bay. When she entered the room she flipped the switch on. Dozens of gurneys held body bags that were closed up. The blood trail had stopped at the door. She got an uneasy feeling in the quietness of the room. As she trotted in-between body bags, she noticed one was moving. She stood a safe distance at the edge of the gurney and unzipped the bag.

Two large mice came crawling out of the bag that had been filled with now spoiling food. She then unzipped another body bag, revealing the boiled captain. Then another, and another, and another. When she came to the last body bag she noticed where it sat. The light above it had burnt out, leaving the bag in darkness. Before opening the final body bag, Twilight grabbed a syringe from one of the open drawers. She stepped closer and closer before levitating the zipper down its teeth. Inside was Limestone’s corpse. She hadn’t expected to see the young mare and so she dropped the syringe and threw her hooves to her mouth.

As soon as the syringe fell, Velvet rushed out from the doctor’s office, sprinting at her daughter with knife in hoof. Twilight levitated the gurneys in front of her mother and she slammed into them, falling to the ground. With her mother on the floor, Twilight ran out of the medical bay, flipping the light off on her way out. Velvet chased after her, pushing the gurneys out of the way as she attempted to follow.

The alicorn ran up the steps to the third floor and made her way over broken glass that had been scattered on the ground. Her hooves got cut up as fragments were stepped on, but she had little choice except to run through. After making her way through the painful glass, she rushed to the end of the hall and through a set of double doors. “You never were the bright one, that was always Shining. Who runs through broken glass?” Velvet yelled as she walked over the glass, unfazed.

Twilight moved to the end of the theater and stood near the screen, waiting for her mother to appear. She planned to run down the other aisle and out into the hall, except her mother came through the door she was going to exit through. Twilight screamed as the knife sailed over her head, striking the theater screen. “Why are you doing this!?” the alicorn yelled her question as she moved back to the other aisle.

“Me!?” Velvet yelled in reply as she trotted down the steps. “I was planning on letting you live, Twilight. I wanted us to be a family. You’re the one that stupidly complicated this!”

“But why do this at all? Why kill all these ponies? You’re no better than Rarity! There’s no reason to be doing these sort of things!”

“Oh, I have my reasons. So does your father,” Velvet replied as she pulled the knife from the screen, a devious smirk spread across her face.

“What reasons could you have!?”

Velvet turned the blade towards Twilight and said, “Because my Shining Armor was taken away! These other families think they lost their child, but I was forced to lose my pride and joy and his pride and joy! A grandchild! It would have been so nice to see his child been born into the world. Yet here I am, having to share a cruise with ponies who think they lost somepony of importance. They lost nothing! They are nothing!”

“What about me!? I can still have children, yet here you are, trying to kill me!” Twilight reasoned.

“It wouldn’t be the same, it wouldn’t be part of our family! You’d just have some stupid stallion’s foal who wasn’t even worth our time! Tartarus be, you’ve proven you’re not even worth impregnating with how stupid you’ve been tonight. Really? Rarity’s returned? Anyone with half a brain could see it wasn’t her.” Velvet ran the knife down one of the theater seats before stabbing it repeatedly. “Y’know, I thought to have your father put his seed in you, that way you’d have something good happen to you. But then I worried what the public would say once they found out. You’d be labeled the sluttiest princess, ruining the family name.”

Twilight couldn’t take it anymore. “Me? Ruin the family name? What do you think they’ll say when they find out about you and dad? There’s enough evidence here to convict you both even if you kill me.”

With a shake of her head, Velvet smiled. “We’ve been practicing how to hide evidence on the nobodies that like to hang around on the outside of Canterlot. Random little passersby that nobody will miss. We’ve gotten very good.” Her smile turned into a smirk, a very evil looking smirk.

“Y-You… and dad are the ones that…”

“Oh, and we even have a backup plan for killing you. Once we’re back in Canterlot we’ll wait a while and announce a new baby. We may as well make another to replace you. We’ll be in the Canterlot spotlight for quite a while, and once the foal is born Celestia will have no choice but to accept him or her into her counsel. If it’s a stallion, even better. He can then impregnate Cadance if she isn’t too old by then. Even Cadance is more worthy than you.”

Twilight had heard just about all she needed. Maud had slinked into the room out of sight of Velvet, waiting for the perfect moment to attack. Twilight wanted to hear every bit of information she could, just as she had with Rarity. Rarity’s reasons were insane but this was just off the deep end. Before signaling to attack, she lit her horn and flashed a light, blinding her mother for a moment.

“You really think that will work, Twilight?” her mother asked as she raised a foreleg, hiding her eyes from the light. As the shine faded, she lowered her leg and then felt the slam of a metal rod across the back of her head. She fell to the ground like a bag of potatoes.

“Was that the type of spotlight you were expecting?” Maud asked as she slammed the mare with the metal rod again. She had grabbed one of the barbells from the gym and removed the weights. It was light weight but still hurt worse than a punch to the head.

Before she could swing it down a third time, Velvet caught it with her magic. She used it to smack Maud across the face before standing to her hooves. Now she had both the knife and the rod. With Maud laying on the ground, Velvet sent the rod piercing into her side, sending it all the way through her torso. She tried to pull it out but it was caught in-between something on her insides. Maud coughed up blood and looked up at the unicorn. “Never anger an alicorn.”

Velvet didn’t understand it at first, but when she turned she saw Twilight with a massive amount of energy built up. Her daughter released it but Velvet was too fast. Her shield spell went up and she avoided the magical blast. She could not keep the levitation and the shield spell up at the same time. The knife went sailing somewhere into the upper chair section. When the dust cleared, Twilight had already began running up the steps. Velvet chased after her, angrier than ever. “You think I’m going to be another Rarity, just going to lie down and take it?” she yelled. “I brought you into this world, and now I’m going to murder the ever-loving Celestia out of you!”

Twilight ran up and up, all the way to the deck. The sun had begun to rise and the light shined against the ship. Her mother had been on her tail the entire way, and as she reached the pool Velvet had caught her. The two Twilight’s slammed their heads together, wrestling and hitting into the poolside furniture. Twilight slammed Velvet in the face with one of the chairs and she landed at the edge of the water. The mother then noticed a drowned body at the bottom of the pool.

Her head rings as she gets a clear look at who it is. Blue overalls and white shirt with a dark blue mane. “N-Night Light?” she called out, realizing the only pony who it could be. “Night Light!” she called out again as she stood to her hooves. She turned back to Twilight and began to cry. “Your emotionless little friend did this! I’ll gut her after I’m done gutting you!” Using her magic, Velvet levitated the tables and chairs of the pool, pushing them altogether. She launches them at Twilight to try and squish her, but Twilight grabbed the ball with her own magic. The two begin to fight over it, trying to maintain control and squash the other.

“Here’s an emotion for you. Pain,” Maud said as she swung the rod into the back of Velvet’s head. It was the same rod that Velvet had pierced her side. The ball became loose and Twilight tossed it out into the sea. Maud gets another swing on Velvet, hitting square in the cranium. On the third swing, Velvet grabbed the rod with her magic. The unicorn then sent the rod back into Maud’s face as the earth pony still held it.

Before she could take the rod from Maud, Twilight grabbed onto Velvet’s neck with both hooves and pushed her to the ground. Velvet returned the favor by grabbing and trying to apply enough pressure to choke her daughter out. “Just die, Twilight! Tell Shining to wait for me!”

Maud rose to her hooves and slammed the rod over Velvet’s head, loosening her hooves on the alicorn. “Tell him yourself.” She slammed the rod into Velvet’s face over and over, fighting off the magical strength of the unicorn who tried to levitate it away. Maud was stronger than Velvet, even with the gaping wound in her side. She beat the unicorn’s face until an eye began to bulge. When Velvet didn’t move anymore, Maud dropped the rod and fell to her rump, collapsing to the deck. “That was for Boulder and Marble, and everypony else.”

Twilight grabbed the rod off the ground. “Is she dead?” she choked to say.

“Yes. There’s nopony that could survive such a beating,” replied Maud. Twilight stared at Maud for a moment with a blank look on her face before turning back to Velvet. Just as she did, Velvet sprung to life. One of her eyes had popped from its socket and she let out a blood-curdling scream, only to be silenced as Twilight sent the rod through her open eye and out the back of her throat. Velvet collapsed once more with the rod still in her. Maud could barely believe her eyes. “Though I suppose you would know more about ponies supposedly dying.”

Twilight huffed and puffed as she dropped to the ground. “That’s… That’s not funny, Maud.”

“It wasn’t a joke.”

“Right…”

As they spoke, they heard stumbling coming up from the stairs. Gale had managed to rise up from the engine room, clutching a knife in her hoof. “I-Is it s-safe?” she asked as she trotted closer to them.

Twilight smiled at the maid. “Yeah, it’s over,” she said in between breaths. She stared down at the knife that shook in the maid’s hoof. “Here, let me take that from you.” The maid carefully gave the knife to Twilight, hilt first. “Just in case she comes back a second time.”

“S-Sorry, I wasn’t ver-very much help, Twilight.” Gale stared down at Velvet’s bloody corpse. “I’m glad this is ov-over though.”

“Me too-” Just as Twilight was about to agree with the maid, Night Light burst from the water, gasping for air. The sudden noise and sight startled all three of the mares. As he climbed up from the poolside, Twilight threw the knife directly into her father’s throat, sending him back to the chlorine depths. His body sunk and blood filled the pool. “For the love of Equestria, what does it take to kill a pony!?” she yelled with a disgusted groan.

The three sat in silence after Twilight’s question, until Maud began to laugh. A smile was on the earth ponies face as she did, causing Twilight and Gale to laugh as well. They sat there giggling like fillies for a while.

Twilight leaned back and laid her head on the deck, laughing still. She then looked past the ship’s railing, noticing that shore could be seen. Several groups of pegasus could be seen overhead in the distance. “Calvary’s here,” the alicorn said.

Maud let out an exhausted sigh. “Better late than never, right?”

Twilight smiled. “Now that’s a funny joke.”