Lonely Among Us

We emerged, in the back alley - not far away from the train station. By the time we arrived, it was near noon. Canterlot was actually in better condition than Ponyville - there were very few signs of fighting, most buildings were intact - some were even opened for business - however, one thing was very conspicuous - slaves.

All ponies - except the guards from Clan of Shadows - were wearing shackles on their hooves, some were apparently allowed to go by their usual business, while others (especially earth ponies, from what I could tell) were forced into manual labor, under the supervision of Shadowforce overseers.

Both Twilight and Rarity were staring at the scene, with horrified faces. “This is just awful!” Rarity said with a concerned voice.

“Yes… but it’s also an opportunity - look,” I used some of my ‘magic’ to create shackles similar to the one other ponies were wearing. “Here put that on your legs.”

Hearing my suggestion - Rarity's eye twitched. Then she gave me the scariest facial expression, I've seen in years. “I BEG YOUR PARDON?!” her eyes were piercing my soul and gnawing me to the bone.

I took me a moment, to regain my composure. “Look... Twilight and I, won’t be able to just blend in. Everybody knows her, and my body also stands out from the crowd. You, on the other hand, may be able to fool those idiots into thinking you are a slave like the rest of the population - that should give you free range of motion inside the city.”

“But those shackles are rusty - they will ruin my fur...” Rarity responded with her soft drama voice.

“Rarity...”

“FINE! Fine… give me those things *smack* Oh, this is so uncomfortable,” she again complained with her soft voice.

“Those are slave shackles… what did you expect?” I responded with some amusement and turned to Twilight. “Is she always like this?"

Twilight smiled. "She is."

"Well, I am sorry that some of us do have standards!" Rarity responded with irritation.

Both I, and Twilight were trying hard to keep from laughing - Rarity was definitely weird at times, but I guess that's why her friends loved to have her around. "OK, OK - no offense intended," I said with a smile. "Back to the matter at hand - you can unlock the shackles by pushing this button. Take one of the hypo pistols - there should be enough doses for 100 injections at least.”

“I understand, I will go to get help from some of the royal guards I know-”

“It would be best if we could find Shining Armor” Twilight interrupted. “His skills would be handy.”

“Perhaps we can - APE how is the scan going?” I asked calmly.

APE responded with his synthesized voice, “ETA 105 seconds.”

We waited, hidden behind some tall bushes, observing the city. We noticed that most guards weren’t paying a lot of attention to the populace - sure, the overseers were shouting at their slaves and zapping them occasionally, but the rest of the guards were more interested in talking to each other, and yawning from boredom…

Finally, we were snapped from our daydream by APE, “Scan complete.”

“OK, let see it.”

A holographic 3D map was projected in front of me, marking the approximate location of enemy forces.

“About 800 enemy ponies have been detected in the whole city - as you can see, most forces are located near the palace. On the other hand, areas here and here are relatively clean of enemies.”

“OK, now try to locate Shining Armor," I ordered APE, and turned to Twilight. "Thanks to our little ‘struggle’ before I was sent away, I have his magic signature in my database - you see,” I explained… although after looking at Twilight’s and Rarity’s faces, something told me they didn’t really know what I was l talking about.

“Target located - match probability 96%” APE finally responded, highlighting one of the buildings on the map, “curious, there are many more friendly pony signatures nearby, but very few enemy guards-”

“Those are royal guard barracks,” Twilight interrupted, "perhaps they locked up the royal guards in there? But that wouldn't make sense...”

"Actually, it would - in their current state, the royal guards don’t pose any threat anyway, and the Clan can have them under constant supervision using minimal resources,” I responded as grin started to form on my mug. “If we could deliver our serum there, we would have one hell of a backup.”

“I am on it, darling! First, I will try to reach my friends - then with their help-”

Rarity was suddenly interrupted by voices coming from the nearby alley - we quickly went to investigate.

***

“I said STOP!” one of the guards shouted to a white earth pony.

“W-what do you want? I didn’t do anything.”

“Then why are you sneaking in the back alleys, he?” the guard responded with an intimidating voice. “What do you have in that bag?! Show me!”

As he levitated the other pony’s saddle bag, some items fell out to the floor, including: rope, lock picks and something that looked like explosives. “Spear and shield as cutie mark... You are a guard, aren't you? I thought we locked up all of you - what were your orders?!” the guard shouted, as he started to thrash the other pony with his magic.

“BUCK YOU! I won’t tell you anything!” the earth pony tried to fight back - but without his normal strength, it was to no avail.

“That’s the spirit! I love when you go down fighting! But when I’m done with you, you will-” suddenly, a swift noise interrupted his speech.

SWISH...

"James Gastovski - knife to meet you,” I said as I stuck my blade through his heart.

As I pulled my blade from the dead guard’s body, I asked the shocked earth pony calmly, “You OK?”

“I… yes, thank you… YOUR HIGHNESS!”

“Nah… you can just call me James.”

“I think he meant Twilight, darling,” Rarity responded with a little giggle.

The earth pony was still shocked. “Your Highness! We thought you were trapped on the moon!”

“I was, but thanks to the captain’s help, I was able to get back - as I understand it, you belong to the royal guards?” Twilight inquired with her soft, calm voice.

“Yes, your Highness. I was sent by captain Shining Armor, to get supplies that would allow us to escape. I guess I was too careless…” the white earth pony responded with a shameful voice.

It was pretty obvious his morale was low - I guess I can’t blame him, this plan was pretty hopeless - even if he got the supplies back to the barracks. “You were brave to venture as far as you did,” Twilight said, trying to cheer the guard up.

“Enough! Look, we don’t have time for this - if you are one of the guards, then it’s time for your medicine,” I responded firmly and injected the pony before he could react.

As we dumped the body into the nearby sewer - we explained the plan to our new friend. He was to accompany Rarity and protect her. “I understand, I was able to get out using the secret passage - we can get in the same way, without anyone knowing.”

“Excellent - here,“ I said as I handed him another vial of nano-probes, “that should allow you to inject 100 more ponies - so about 200 total. Choose wisely.”

The royal guard nodded and then turned to Twilight. “Your Highness… pardon my question but, what are you planning to do?”

“We will try to reach Princess Celestia and Luna - if they manage to regain their magic, then - hopefully, we will be able to fight Shadowdancer and his soldiers.”

“Please be careful your Highness! The Shadowforce - as their soldiers call themselves - are the most ruthless fighters we’ve seen, they won’t hesitate to hurt you-”

"A stab to the brain, makes ruthlessness go away," I interrupted with a grin - making both the Twilight and the royal guard look at me with a weird expression. "OK... Perhaps that was a bit lame... Anyway, don't worry soldier - we know what we are dealing with here."

Soon guard's strength was back - and with it, his spirit. Shortly after, he and Rarity left for the barracks - leaving Twilight and me behind.

***

“I think we should enter here,” I said as I pointed at one of the palace towers, “according to the scan there are only a few guards on the way," Twilight looked at the map and nodded in agreement.

“The alicorns are located here - hmm... The throne room, under the watchful eye of Shadowdancer I bet. One thing I don’t get is why there are four readings,” I said a bit confused.

“The fourth one must be Cadance - she is my brother’s wife, and the ruler of Crystal Empire,” Twilight responded.

“Excellent! More alicorns, more firepower!" I said with a smile - Twilight on the other hand just shook her head in disbelief at what she just heard.

It took a while to get near the tower as we had to sneak to avoid the guards. When we arrived at our destination, it was slowly getting dark - I guess Shadowdancer took control of the sun, upon himself.

I was looking at my scanner, waiting for the right moment. “OK, now - quickly!”

Twilight and I, flew up to the balcony on the last floor. “Good - I think we weren’t spotted,” I said quietly.

We quickly entered the tower, it was some kind of storage room - full of old books, and stuff. We were about to open the door that led to the inside of the palace when suddenly I got a painful headache - the same kind I got last time I was near this place.

“Ugh… my damn head, APE what the hell is going on,” I asked as I grab my head from the pain.

“Unknown. However, I am detecting some unidentified energy source nearby - it may be interfering with-” APE was interrupted, as I heard something I didn’t expect to ever hear again.

“Danger! Energy overload in progress!”

“Impossible! We adapted!" I shouted to myself with horror.

“Danger! Energy overload - emergency release in 5..4..3”

“Twilight, you must get out of here-” before I could finish, it happened just like the last time - energy discharged violently from my body.

I tried to control it, but since I was inside a building this time - it was more difficult. Energy beam was cutting through the tower walls like a hot knife through butter, at this rate, the whole structure could collapse at any moment.

Twilight was trying to do the same thing Celestia did last time. She did manage to create an energy bubble around me, but was struggling to keep it from collapsing - I could see the stress on her face as time went on, she was getting weaker, and weaker.

“APE do something! Emergency shutdown!”

“Sir, I can collapse the beam, but-”

“DO IT NOW!” I shouted with an angry voice, interrupting APE’s speech.

“But-”

“NOW! FOR FUCK SAKE, NOW!” I shouted again, as I saw Twilight was about to pass out from exhaustion.

“...acknowledged, initiating emergency shutdown…”

A few seconds later the energy beam disappeared, and I collapsed from the pain. I felt like my insides were on fire, my body was literally hot - some of my skin carbonized, some falling off. My vision was a blur, and I was breathing heavily, but it was finally over… or so I thought.

“Phew… that was a close call-”

BOOM!

Before I could finish, a massive energy blast emerged from my body, hitting the roof of the tower. The last thing I remember was the sound of the collapsing roof…