The Mark of Duty

I reached home quickly, not even bothering with changing out of my gear before I headed to the entertainment system and grabbed the dog-tags hanging from a shelf. "Alice, you there?"

It took a moment, but I felt the universe just... shift. As if the whole world tilted slightly before a solid thump came from behind me. I couldn't restrain myself from smiling at the yelling behind me. "DAMNIT MARX! I SWEAR I"M TYING YOU DOWN UNTIL WE MAKE YOU A DAMN TOKEN SO I CAN JUST SHOW UP ON MY FUCKING FEET!"

I smiled and spread my arms wide. "Well then, it shall have to be a quick hogtie then. That's what I was calling you for." I paused, looking to Sunset's door. "That and, well, Sunset's little plan happened tonight."

Alice instantly stood, and moved to Sunset's room, nearly bowling over poor Clint in her haste. She let out a held breath when she saw Sunset bandaged on her bed. "She's hurt..."

I nodded. "Indeed, but she will recover. And my Celestia has had a taste of her pain." I smirked at Alice while holding up Celestia's crown. "I may have made the first step of my anger management towards her, and sent a very firm message at the same time."

Alice nodded, her face passive. "Good, next time someone hurts her like that I want a crack at 'em."

I nodded. "Fair enough, but I believe we should deal with what we can right now. Namely making that token."

She looked to me, before sighing. "You can be stone-cold, you know that right?"

I spread my arms wide. "What do you expect from me here? I went and fought Celestia for my sister, that seems like an appropriate response."

Alice looked at me again before shaking her head. "Fair enough. Well making a token is actually super easy for a displaced. Just take something of yours, and imagine it floating into the aether. Say a little phrase with it that will play when another displaced picks it up and boom. You're token flys through the multi-verse."

I nodded. While I was innately suspicious of things such as this since it was suspiciously close to warpcraft, it was a vital part of my hopefully genius plan. I moved my backpack in front of me and reached in it. My bolt-pistol was gone, but I still had a few rounds left. I pulled one of the stubby little buggers out and gripped it in my hand, following the instructions. "I am Crucius Marx, last of the Terran Elms. If your cause just and battles hard, call upon me. I will see whatever duty you need finished, or fall in the effort. For only in death does duty end."

I let go of the soda can-sized round and watched as it disintegrated in front of me. Read and black lightning circling across the surface With each miniature lightning strike, it seemed reality itself was erasing my round from existence. I watched in morbid fascination. Alice was the first to speak after my round was sent out into the multiverse. "Well, that was more dramatic than I was expecting."

I nodded. "I will admit, I didn't expect it to look like warpcraft, but I guess it was personalized." I sighed and pulled out my phone. "And there was a second reason I called."

Alice smiled. "You finally moving up in the world big guy?"

I nodded and sent a simple email to one Mr. Whatever. It was simple, just two words. 'do it' "Yep, I'm buying the old bar. Since Bottle's going into retirement I'm buying her business. I need a good head to help me set up."

Alice let out a huge smile. "Hell yeah, I could use some time building stuff up instead of knocking it down." She paused, moving her hand to her chin. "Though, I'm not sure how much I remember from my old business degree. It's been a long while since I got to run the books." She paused a minute before nodding. "Yeah, I'll crash here for a while then, ain't got nothing waiting on me back home anyways."

I smiled wide. "Then if Whatever does his lawyer thing we'll have a bar by the end of tomorrow. And while you run numbers I'll start putting out feelers for advertisement." I glanced out the window and paused. On the hill was a white horse. Not a pony, but a horse of pure white, looking in Sunset's window. I stared at it before it let out a huff of air, before turning around and leaving. "Curious."

Alice snapped her fingers. "Hey, you good Marxie?"

I nodded, deciding to grab my old journal to read up on old Equestrian creatures. I wasn't sure, but something about that white horse was niggling at my nearly flawless memory. A blind spot. And I had taken one to many shots in my back to let any blind spot stay uncovered for long. "Of course, but today has been trying. Your room is as you left it." I smiled at her before turning away. "If you'll excuse me I have some research to do, I'll talk to you about it tomorrow."

I grabbed my journal off of the table where Twilight had left it and retired to my room. Now that I didn't have a time crunch I took the time to look it over. It was still Spartan, with the bare necessities of furniture adorning the wall. The only thing slightly different was the computer desk in the corner, with a large chair in front of it. I spun the chair around and sat, flicking open the journal to the little bestiary section I had cordoned off after my first encounter with a hydra.

I flipped past all my actual encounters, where Flash Band had helpfully sketched all the creatures by my description, into the unconfirmed area. Things there that I wasn't sure of. I had Skinwalker's and other creatures that I thought would fit in there, as well as things I'd heard of. In the middle I found it. The Pale Pony. Flash Bang had made an artistic rendition of it. Solid white, with a sunken, hungry appearance. "Ah, here we are." I began reading aloud.

"The pale pony, while rare to the point of legend, is a confirmed creature of Equis. They bond with a pony who is referred to as the rider. They are nearly immortal, bonding to an unknown amount of ponies as previous riders die. They are ferociously loyal to their riders and will fight and kill to protect them. This is dangerous as they can siphon the life force of any creature by a simple touch. Though their rarity makes official investigation difficult, they seem to use it to increase their own life-span. When they must consume life-force, they prefer highly magical prey. The current theory is that magic allows them to metabolize life-force in a much more efficient manner. Though this is at best a guess."

I put down the journal and glared at it. I was right, and the fact it wasn't important neatly explained my lack of memory on the subject. I never took the minuscule amount of time to memorize it. I had done it with as much of my old life as I could and during the war I only focused on Demonology when I wasn't enjoying my family. I took a moment to read the short description a few more times before nodding, and bringing out another piece of paper.

I grabbed a pen from a solo cup who had been demoted to pen holder and started dictating as I wrote. "Okay, fact one. There is a possibility of a Pale Pony here on earth. This is not totally strange since StarSwirl used the mirror as a prison. Two, the pony has a rider who directs it's hunting. Three, it's stalking Sunset, which means I have to hunt down whoever is doing it as quickly as possible and eliminate them with extreme prejudice." I wrote all that down and sighed. I had spent my lives as a thief and soldier, investigating wasn't my strong suit. I leaned back in my chair, feeling Amberly dig into my back. I grumbled and hoisted her off my back. I got up, planning on cleaning her and knocking out for a couple hours. I could bring all this up with Alice tomorrow.

***

Two figures stood upon a hill. One, a man in a black suit that highlighted his deep red skin, pulled out a phone and spoke. "RHD - 1, this is Demon 1, the pale horse confirmed our theory. We have at least one Euclid - class entity in the Canterlot hub."

There was a pause as the horse climbed up the hill and paused beside the other figure. A woman, with skin as black as coal and wearing a suit that toed the line between businesswoman and theme stripper. "Oh, good girl, you found her real quick. I bet I can get you a nice little class - D snack for this." She lovingly patted it's nose while smiling her own crooked smile. "Yes I do, yes I do."

The man sighed as he spoke into the phone again. "Yes, if she returns to school in the next week or two we'll have the plants keep an eye on her, but there was an unexpected complication." The woman slowed down her baby-talk and listened. The man spoke up a bit, making his words clear to her as well. "I think the possible Euclid threat that shares a home with Subject 1 made us. He made eye contact with the pale horse and grabbed his journal as soon as he dismissed the anomaly known as Alice. Demon 1 requests any info we have on possible subject 2 before we continue the operation."

The woman turned to the horse. "Oh, you are a good girl. If he knows what you are this is a much bigger deal then we thought."

The man nodded before ending his call without another word. "That's what I'm worried about." He looked to the covered windows to Subject 2's room. "I have a bad feeling about that man. I feel like we're poking a bear that we should have let lie."