The Lulamoon Files

The Lulamoon Files

Chapter Seventeen: Boat Ride

Written by TheCrimsonDM

I rolled away and back up to my hooves before facing Twilight. “What the Tartarus are you doing?”

Twilight glared at me, yet kept a careful eye on Applejack as well. “I tried to give you an honorable dual, but you cheated. You cheated like you always cheat. Whether it’s in school or it’s in combat you just can't stop cheating, you dirty cheater!”

I blinked. “Seriously? That’s what this is about? Because I cheated off your tests and got you in trouble? That’s all?”

“I was in trouble because of you! My perfect school record was ruined. I knew you were nothing but a dirty cheating warlock when I first met you, and now I know for sure. Look at this. You're literally standing here, in front of the cages of stolen monsters and transporting them illegally.”

“It’s Blueblood who’s doing the illegal stuff, I’m the one trying to stop him,” I countered.

“Blueblood? The self proclaimed unicorn prince?”

I nodded. “Yeah the, wait, self proclaimed. What does that mean?”

“He’s been discredited, there was an investigation into his bloodline a few years back and he doesn’t have an ounce of royal blood. No connection to Queen Platinum at all.”

“Okay,” I nodded absently. This was probably useful, though at the moment I wasn’t sure how. I was a little more preoccupied with the sword being pointed at me. “Listen, Twilight, I don’t want to fight you. If we came to magical blows… you’d win.”

“Then give yourself in and I will assure your death is quick and painless.”

“I am not a warlock! There is one on that ship right now, and about to sail away.”

Twilight growled. “Stop lying. Even if there was, he is just your accomplish I’m sure. Blueblood might be a chauvinistic pig with the ego the size of Mount Gloom but that doesn’t mean he would ever use enthrallment or kill ponies.”

“He’s up there, and if you just look you’ll see it for yourself.”

“What I’ll see, if anything, is an illusion. I’m sure.”

Applejack finally had enough of being on the sidelines. “Twilight, was it?”

Twilight shot her a dirty look. “What?”

“Ah’m an officer of the law, and right now yer interrupting a police investigation by standing in our way. Ah’d suggest you get out of here before Ah arrest you.” Applejack said this all too coolly.

Of course Twilight snickered. “An earth pony cop? Telling me that I’m going to be arrested. It would be the shame of my family if I got arrested by the likes of you. No, I think you misunderstand the situation here. I am the good guy, I am the one trying to bring an evil doer to justice and you are getting in my way. Although I would be remiss, I am not afraid to hurt you.”

Applejack walked up to her with one smooth motion. “That’s funny you should say that.”

“Why?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Because,” Applejack moved like a rattlesnake. Her body lashed out, picked up Twilight’s and threw the unicorn over her back and onto the ground. Applejack whipped out her gun and aimed it at the downed unicorn. “Ah’m not afraid to hurt you either.”

Twilight stared up at her dazed. Her sword lay on the ground where she had previously stood. “I, but, what?”

I smiled. “Twilight, you just don’t get it.” I lifted my stave up above her head. “You're not the center of the universe.” I brought my stave down.

Twilight rolled out of the way. “I never said that!” Twilight’s sword was covered in a red aura, but Applejack put her hoof down on it and kept it from moving. I was hoping that Twilight would be willing to at least give us a shot, especially after being knocked down by an earth pony, but of course she was too stubborn.

Her horn took on a sinister red glow and I had just enough time to raise my shield as a beam of crimson energy lanced forward and slammed hard into my shield. Now I’d done it. Wardens detested using magic to kill, mostly because it was a violation of the laws, even if wardens were never blamed for it. Pushing Twilight this far meant that I was in serious trouble.

My head was aching already, and every second that I stood there trying to block out the energy attack, was another second my energy was being drained. My bracelet was already glowing and I watched cracks appear throughout my shield. I wasn’t sure what to do. Really I couldn’t do much. I hated to admit it, but Twilight was stronger than me in terms of raw power, she was vastly superior. I didn’t stand a chance.

Applejack on the other hoof thought otherwise. She walked right up to Twilight who was too focused on her warlock to notice and with a mighty left hook across Twilight’s face she sent the unicorn slamming into the earth. Twilight was out cold.

I dropped my shield, panting. “That, was, holy crap.”

Applejack looked back at the ship. It was moving already. “You gonna throw me or not?”

I nodded. Grabbed Applejack in my telekinetic aura and lifted her off the ground. With a running start I made my way to the edge of the dock. I was able to throw her up without any difficulties, even if my horn was complaining. Applejack landed on the ship and after waving for me to come up next I got as far back as I could from the dock. I only had one shot at this, and of course I had never done it before, but my telekinesis was strong, and I had my stave. Just a little manipulation of kinetic force and momentum and I should be able to pull this off.

I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. I really hoped this worked.

With all my focus pumped into my stave, as well as a good deal of energy I galloped forward. The edge of the dock came up rapidly. At the last possible second I wrapped myself up into a telekinetic cocoon and jumped. For a brief moment I was scared. This had never even occurred to me in the past to try out. Anything could have gone wrong. Yet for once in my life. Things worked out.

My weight was almost completely gone and I was gently lifted up into the air. I kept rising to meet the side of the ship. Applejack was keeping pace right alongside me. Of course even if the spell was working correctly there was one thing I hadn’t accounted for correctly. My trajectory was off. I hit the height of my jump before reaching the ship and began sinking slowly.

I was going to hit the side of the ship. I kept my concentration on my weight. The metal wall drew nearer and I braced myself for impact. A pair of orange hooves wrapped around my foreleg and as my body hit the ship and all of my weight reappeared I dropped a few inches. Applejack looked down at me with gritted teeth.

“What have you been eating?” She chided me as she dragged me up.

I scrambled over the railing and hit the floor. “Shut it. I’m petite.”

Applejack laughed. “Sure, an’ Ah’m a supermodel.”

I growled. I knew what my weight was, and I was underweight thank you very much. Still I was up here alongside Applejack and our mission was looking like a possible one now. My stave, wand, and healing potion were all still with me. I even still had the key. Applejack was here with her gun. Come what may we were ready for it.

The ship was strangely quiet. As we walked across it and made our way toward the large open deck the silence was already gnawing at me. Surely Blueblood wasn’t piloting the ship all by himself. There were dozens of large metal shipping containers here. That wasn’t even accounting for what must have been inside. From our position overlooking the deck I saw a pony, his gray coat blended into the shadows. Around his neck he had a collar, and his eyes were glazed over. Just like Spot’s.

Next to him however I saw one of the wooden wolf constructs walk out of the shadows. It was sniffing at the floor. Great, so enslaved ponies and guard dogs. Finding Blueblood was going to be more problematic than I accounted for.

“AJ, you seeing what I’m seeing?”

Applejack already had her gun out in her mouth yet spoke clear as day, “Ayep, dazed ponies and more dogs.”

The skill with which she spoke with stuff in her mouth astounded me. Still it was good that she was on the up and up, I was going to require her gun skills sooner or later with those dogs around. I just hoped that I could get to Blueblood before hoof.

Carefully we made our way down the stairs and to the containers. My bag was vibrating. I opened it up and looked inside only to find the key was shivering. There was no reason it should be moving on its own. I didn’t understand. The sound of claws tapping against the metal floor made my heart skip a beat. Me and AJ pressed our sides against the metal container and listened. The key shook more the louder the claws became. There was a loud thud from somewhere over back the way the sound was coming from. Claws scraped along the deck as the dog gave chase. The key’s vibrations calmed down until it was barely even noticeable.

“The key is connected to the dogs,” I whispered. “It was shaking when the dog was coming close to us.”

“What does that mean?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know yet.”

“Okay, so what good does that do us?”

I smiled. “It's our very own genuine monster detector, no static radios here.”

We continued on our way. I hadn’t the foggiest clue as to where Blueblood might be hiding but I still had to find him. Find him and stop him. A sneak attack would be our best bet, getting him before he can create a wall of ice. That would be a challenge but I was sure we could pull it off.

The further along the side of the boat we went, the more shaken my nerves grew. The containers were useful for cover, and with the key in hoof we were able to avoid the dogs. When we had finally made our way across the deck to the door I began working on opening it. The key began vibrating again. The wheel on the door turned slowly. The vibration got stronger.

“Trixie,” Applejack said.

The wheel was still turning. “Not now.”

“This is important.”

“I said not now. I’m almost-“ the wheel stopped and the door popped open. I looked back excited. My smile fell as I saw the six wooden dogs circling us. Behind them stood the warlock. He had finally removed his hood to reveal his handsome face, though his scowl was anything but attractive. “-done.”

“You,” Blueblood said in a cold tone, all the warmth from our first meeting was gone. “How did you get here?”

“I jumped thiiiiiiiiis high,” I said as I threw my legs up into the air.

“Oh so you think your cute?”

“Blueblood, please, I’m adorable,” I said with a wink.

Applejack had a wide stance, and was trying to keep her eyes on all the timberwolves at once. “What do we do?”

Blueblood smiled. “Yes, warlock, what will you do now? You have been cornered and I know that you are not a combat focused wizard. Your skills are for deception not fighting. So what will you do?”

I stared up at him. I still had questions, and I needed answers. “I have a few questions if you don’t mind, Prince Blueblood.”

“Oh my, using my title already? I love it when mares submit.” I was wrong, he wasn’t attractive, he was just a prettied up jerk.

“Why did you kill Scythe? Wasn’t he your friend?”

“He let the key slip from his hooves when that brat stole it. So when he told me that some blue thief was trying to blackmail him I realized that his existence was harmful to the goddess’s plans.”

“When you went to kill Flitterbell, how did you get her inside her house? Only an intelligent and powerful wizard could pull that off.”

“I just knocked on the door.” He shrugged. “She recognized me, so when I told her that I was concerned for me dear friend Scythe she let me in to talk about how he was involved with monsters and even tried to send me your way for help. She was busy packing. I guessed she was trying to run away with my key, but when I killed her and my parasprites didn’t find the key in her house I knew that I had wasted some of my precious time.”

“And Cloud Bounce?”

“He sold the Timberwolves to me. These wonderful hounds you see before you. Unfortunately what he didn’t know was that I realized he was working undercover for the unicorn empire. They have their spies everywhere. So before he could report to his superiors or summon the wardens I got to him. Too late perhaps considering that one warden has already taken my dragon from me. I was close to having a dragon, but you and that warden got there first. She delivered the dragon to Jade House representatives before I could react.”

At least that explained where the dragon was. Though to hear that the unicorns were using pegasi as spies now bothered me. It wasn’t uncommon for them to have spies in the mortal world, but the fact that they were watching even Wind Rider was a concern. Had I been in contact with a spy and didn’t even know it? I really hoped not.

“So, this key. Seems important. What’s it do?”

Blueblood smiled and the air chilled. “I think that the Q and A session is over now. My Timberwolves are still hungry.” A particularly large Timberwolf, one with blue glowing eyes stepped up next to Blueblood. “Meet Chopper.”

“You take the three on the right. I got the three on the left.” That left out the big bad seventh but I was working on that.

Blueblood’s lips were almost trembling from excitement. “Sic ‘em boys.”