Coagulation

“These magazines are just dull…” Lazuli muttered to herself, flipping through a crinkled old news magazine that she assumed had been on the train for at least a few months. So far, she had been sitting for about an hour – the train ride overall took almost half a day to get from the Crystal Empire to Ponyville, so she still had plenty of time.

She reclined back in her seat and kicked her braced hooves up on the chair in front of her. There really wasn’t much space between them, so she was glad that she was alone. In fact, she only counted three ponies in her train car. She figured most ponies don’t take the train in the morning, plus most don’t commute cross-Equestria every day.

She shut the magazine and stretched out, putting her hooves behind her head. Glancing out the window, she watched the Equestrian countryside slowly chugging past.

“Hm.” She sighed deeply, shutting her eyes to try and rest a bit.

The train rolled on. For another twenty minutes she laid there undisturbed, until an attendant rolled past with a cart. “Miss?” He said slowly.

“Huh?” Lazuli cracked an eye open, her hooves gently sliding off the seat in front of her. “Yeah?”

“Would you like any food or drink?”

“I don’t have any bits to spare, sorry.” She frowned and shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh, it’s complimentary.” The attendant smiled softly, his light green hoof gesturing to the cart, his slim physique wobbling a bit with the train’s movement.

Lazuli eyed the cart. “…really? I don’t remember any mention of that.” She leaned in to look at the contents. Some sandwiches wrapped in plastic, cups of water, bags of assorted chips and other snack foods… “But…I’m not really hungry anyway, thank you.”

“Are you sure?”

“…eh, I’ll take some water.” She sighed and picked up a cup, lifting it to her lips and taking a sip. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” The stallion slowly wheeled his cart away, and Lazuli glanced out into the aisle as he walked down it. When he passed the couple sitting at the back of the car, he didn’t offer them any.

Lazuli’s eyes narrowed a bit. “Weird…” She settled back down in her chair, and tried to relax again.

She heard a male voice murmur from the back of the car. “Is that really her?”

Her ear twitched.

“Hush, don’t stare.” A voice responded, this one female. “A lot of them look alike, of course it isn’t her.”

“I could swear…”

“They got rid of her months ago, you were there, idiot.”

Lazuli’s chest started thumping a few ticks faster. Especially as she heard the shuffling of hooves on the carpeted floor, coming towards her. She cracked an eye open again, watching as the couple from the other side of the train walked over.

One of them was a stallion, the other a mare. The stallion had a dark gray coat with a brownish mane and a grey horn jutting out of his head. The mare sported a bright yellow coat with an orange and yellow mane, and a pair of wings at her sides. “Can I help you?” She asked as the two of them stopped beside her seat.

The mare rolled her eyes. “I apologize.” She sighed. “My husband here is nosy. He swears you’re…er…”

“Dusk Rider?” The stallion finished her sentence, smirking down at Lazuli.

“Nope.” Lazuli picked up the glass of water that she had been-…was she drinking this before? She didn’t really care. It was in her cupholder, so she drank from it.

“You sure? You look just like her.”

“Did she have these?” Lazuli wiggled her hind legs, making them clank and whirr slightly. “Please leave me alone.”

“It’s just…”

The unicorn lowered his head a bit, and his wife looked at him with a confused expression. “My boss told me that Dusk might be on this train…then again, he said she’d have a guard with him.”

Lazuli’s eyes narrowed just a bit and she jerked her head suddenly to look him in the eye. “Yeah? Well good luck with that.”

“Funny thing is, he said you’d be in that seat. Same row and everything.”

“Honey…” The mare put a hoof on his shoulder.

“I’m just asking, do you at least know her?” He ignored his wife.

Lazuli cleared her throat and sat up. “Listen, buddy. I dunno what your boss told you, but I’d suggest you walk away.”

“I dunno…” He shook his head. “You just have such a resemblance.”

“You’ve got a pretty strong resemblance to a pile of Manticore shit but you don’t see me walking up and telling you, huh?”

The stallion snorted and lifted his head again. “Hrmph. Fine.” He started to step back, his horn glowing.

“Jade…” The mare growled. “Don’t.”

“You know it’s her, what the fuck are you waiting for?”

“Don’t.”

“Drop the act, Solar. It’s her. Let’s kill her and tell the boss.”

Lazuli straightened up and stood, clearing her throat. “You’ll find that a lot harder to do than you think…”

The stallion, Jade, ignored her and fired a bolt of bright green magic right at her. The Pegasus mare seemed to have dropped all pretense now, and hopped into the air for a follow-up.

Lazuli’s instinct was to dodge, and that’s what she did. She leapt into the air, but as she put her weight fully on her hind legs to jump, she felt the braces creak. She managed to clear the magical bolt, which blew a hole in the side of the train.

Using her forward momentum Lazuli threw herself at Jade, knocking him to the ground. She pinned him down, narrowly avoiding another blast of magic that shot over her shoulder and struck Solar in the chest. The mare yelped, feathers fluttering into the air as she was thrown into one of the seats, clutching at her chest.

“Son of a-“ Jade growled, only to eat his own words and the front of Lazuli’s hoof. While she was out of practice, she still knew how to make a pony hurt – and a hoof to the jaw never failed. She heard a faint crack as his jaw fractured, but he kept fighting her. He worked his hind legs under her chest and threw her back, her front hoof barely managing to catch one of the seats to keep her from flying out of the hole in the wall.

“Just keep trying, I’ve fought breezies tougher than you!” That was a lie of course, she had never even had the privilege to see a Breezie before. Even so, she felt it was a decent hit.

Jade fired another bolt, but Lazuli blocked it with her wing. She hissed as it scorched the thin flesh – her wings were probably her weakest part, especially right now. They hadn’t healed properly after her fall, and some of the bones didn’t look quite right.

Her head started swimming. The corners of her vision were starting to blur. “Fuck…” She grunted, and lunged forward. Jade sidestepped to dodge her, and she slammed her head into one of the seats across the aisle. She saw stars flashing in front of her, stumbling to her hooves. A hard hit came down on top of her head.

Solar stood over top of her, panting and gritting her teeth. “You owe me…” She growled at Jade.

“Yeah yeah. Let’s just get her down, kay?” Jade fired a bolt right into Lazuli’s stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She started coughing and gasping, struggling to get back to her hooves. Solar grabbed hold of her and threw the Dracony back towards her seat, which she sprawled across halfway.

“You’re…going…to regret this…” Lazuli muttered. She hooked her tail into the hole that had been made in the wall.

Jade snorted, his horn crackling and sparking as he charged up energy within it. “Yeah, whatever. Now be a good little Dracony and sit still…”

Lazuli didn’t see many options for her. The water she had drank was clearly spiked – she wouldn’t feel this woozy otherwise. Already she could feel herself blacking out. “Ggrrrh…you’re…gonna need to find me…first…”

“Powder’s making her weaker than I thought.” Solar giggled into her hoof. “Do it.”

Jade’s horn flashed and a solid beam of energy shot out of it. Lazuli barely managed to raise her wing in time, the beam cascading in all directions as the thin membrane painfully cracked and bent under the force. Using the last amount of strength she could muster, the Dracony locked her tail into the side of the ripped metal and pulled.

“HEY!” Solar yelled, but Lazuli was already gone. The mare disappeared as the train raced on.

“You fucking idiot!” The Pegasus smacked her partner upside the head, making him snarl.

“It’s not my fault! You should’ve held her down!”

“You were the one who blew a fucking hole in the wall!”

“What’re we gonna tell the boss?”

“…shit.” Solar tapped her hooves together nervously. “Uh…damnit…I guess we have to tell him she got away…?”

“Or…we could say she wasn’t here at all.”

“…yeah, I like that one better.”

Meanwhile, Lazuli landed in the dirt on the side of the train tracks, sliding along for a few feet before coming to rest, covered in dust and scratches. Her breaths were heavy, and her eyes already began to close – even as the harsh Equestrian sun beat down on her. She had no idea where she had jumped off, but she just hoped somepony had seen her…

Fizzlepop wasn’t sure what to think.

Only a week or so ago, she had entered Lazuli’s dream with the help of Princess Luna to assist her. Now, she was supposed to be coming home. Her train would be arriving any minute, she knew, but her own curiosity had overpowered her desire to head out immediately.

She pushed open the door to the closet, nudging a few scarves and bits of clothing that had dropped on top of the two boxes stashed away at the back. She grabbed the one in front with her hooves, dragging it out of the closet and popping the lid open.

Sitting there in a neat, folded pile was a pure black combat suit. On top of it was Lazuli’s gleaming, sharpened tail blade, both objects oozing an atmosphere of pain…and a bit of body odour, but that was more from the suit.

Fizzle gently picked up the tail blade. It was in the shape of the spade on the back of Lazuli’s tail, but made to be a bit bigger so the actual blades would stick out on all sides. It was extremely sharp too – she knew enough about Bellephron diamonds to understand that they almost never dulled.

What confused her the most was the piece of paper sitting on top of the suit, below the weapon. Fizzle put the blade down on the floor and picked it up, unfolding its tattered surface and letting her eyes skim through it.

Dear Princess Luna,

Did I ever get the chance to tell you about the Duchess of Bellephron?

She was a lovely mare. Every Dracony loved her. She loved her subjects in turn. Everypony was happy with her rule. It was inconceivable that anypony could hate her, much less raise a hoof against her.

But Tempest – he didn’t care. Trade deals with Bellephron weren’t enough, because he didn’t care about gems. He only cared about power.

Did you know that Bellephron was only taken over officially about 30 years ago? Up until then, it was an autonomous region. Technically part of Equestria, but answering to its own ruler.

You might be wondering why I’m writing you about this. I don’t even really know, myself. Usually in a movie this would be leading into some kind of threat, or some lesson I’m trying to teach you. But it’s not. I just thought you’d like to catch up on some of the history you missed while you were on the moon.

Don’t worry Princess. I won’t bother you again. Your disdain for me is clear, and I don’t really care about it. Your life is unending, mine only lasts about a hundred and fifty years if I push it.

I’m writing you to offer you something. Well…saying that I’m writing you is a bit of a lie. I’m getting Starlight to write it for me.

I know you don’t want to talk to me. And I know that you’re a very busy mare, controlling the moon and patrolling dreams. Unlike your sister, you don’t have the time to read letters. But I wanted to say something.

Whenever you get this letter, I might not be able to respond. Maybe I’ll be dead, or maybe I’ll just be gone. But you know how to find me if it’s the latter.

I have no idea when Fizzlepop will find this. Now that I think about it, this is a stupid way to make a point. She might never find it. But if she does, and if she decides to send it to you, I just wanted to say thank you.

Despite the fact that you’ve made it obvious you don’t give a damn about me, and it seems like you only gave slightly more of a damn about the Draconies to begin with, I still have to thank you.

Without your help I’d either be running around on the streets and killing ponies until I got too old and let myself get caught, or rotting in a jail cell and waiting to die. You’ve given me a new chance at life, however fleeting it might be.

Just so you know, some of my letter might make no sense. Half of it is just me rambling about history and the other half is me making a ‘thank you’ way longer than it should be. But still.

Thanks.

Yours Truly,

Lazuli Cutter.

Fizzlepop frowned and folded the letter again. The way it was worded was as if it were written in the last few months, but clearly it had been there since Lazuli first put her suit in the box. Did the Dracony always think Luna disliked her, or…?

“Fizzlepop!” Spike suddenly burst through the door, panting heavily from running up multiple flights of stairs. “You have to come, quick! Lazuli’s train just arrived, but…she isn’t on it!”

“What?” The purple unicorn turned her head, still holding the letter. “Where is she?”

“She…we don’t know! There’s a hole in the side of one of the cars. Twilight thinks she might have been attacked!”

Fizzle slowly stood up, taking a few deep breaths to keep herself calm – but even so, her horn began to crackle angrily. “I need you to send a letter to the princesses.”

“…I…what?”

“Send this letter.” Fizzle held the paper out to Spike. “And I’ll be down to the station in a few minutes.” She replaced the lid on Lazuli’s box, shoving it back into the closet.

But not before she removed her own container, pulling it open and starting to take out her armour. While it was the same suit she had worn when she invaded Equestria, she had scratched the Storm King’s emblem off.

Spike nervously blew on the letter, turning it into a puff of green smoke that flew out the window. He watched the unicorn starting to put on her gear, and hurried out of the room.

“Why can’t they just leave a mare alone…” Fizzle muttered to herself, putting on each of her four shoes and sighing. It felt weird to wear this armour again after so long, but she had a feeling Lazuli would need Tempest more than she needed Fizzlepop.