Twiastasia

It was large and brown, with metal supports accenting the cart’s wood exterior. Obviously, it was single pony-drawn in make, with a large flat board atop the carriage frame, no doubt to serve as a seat to point the puller in the right direction. Or to whip them into movement. The most striking feature, Fizzy said, was the three scorched lines dug into both sides of the frame, telling bluntly who it’s owners were.

“So…” Gile whispered, burning the wagon into his mind. “What’s the plan? Hide in the thing until they return and get the jump on them, or destroy it now and keep them stuck here for longer?”

“Can’t hide in it. Employees bring the thing out of storage here and out to the front when the owner wants it back. They’re gonna do another inspection of it before they pull it out. Make sure the thing isn’t gonna fall apart while one of their asses is pulling it and get blamed for the damage. They’d find us, and then we’d have more issues than just The Black Stripe to deal with.”

Fizzy had briefed the two on just who The Black Stripe were as they decided on a course of action for the night. Zara was a monster. Leader of The Black Stripe, she had Tamar in her hoof and had dreams of one day having all of Echidna there as well. A strong zebra mare, often sporting a tight black tricorn hat, her mane daintily spilling out from the back, with a few dreads hanging down her eye on one side. Her dark trench coat hung loose from her body, covering her stripes. Often, she’d break her traditional rhyming cadence when angry, which she usually was. A sharpshooter with her small crossbow, able to reload and ready the next bolt as her target was still in shock from the first. Not to imply she was a weakling in the hoof-to-hoof combat, because of course she wasn’t. She was a callous killer, and she cared little for things like morality and good in the pursuit of power.

Arguably her superior in physical brawls, Pale Parma was Zara’s second in command. Known to Tamar as the “Pale Unicorn,” she served her leader with the loyalty a knight would to her king. Her whitish coat was pocked with discolored scars and lacerations, some dating back to when she must’ve been a filly. Whatever battles she faced then had made her into the mare she was now. Parma wore her wounds like medals, and had no desire to cover them with clothes. Though slim and small, the unicorn hit like a train and could take a beating, never tiring from the fight. Her beautiful face betrayed her so battered-seeming body, and that too was a deceitful trick. She had white mane, a slightly darker shade from her coat, was kept unstyled. She saw no need for such frivolities. Her most striking feature were her shining emerald eyes, truly, the most colorful thing about her. The faded blue ribbon behind a grey shield of her cutie mark spoke of her dedication to both servitude and command. Parma was a mare of little humor. She’d fought countless battles, and surely, would fight countless more, for her zebra friend.

Lastly was Silvertongue. She embodied everything Parma did not. Though they were all beautiful, as equines tended to be, Silvertongue was weak to the carnal extragences of life and flesh. While her spending habits were oftentimes an annoyance to her superiors, neither could doubt her skill in fraud, extortion, espionage, and blackmail. She was a smoothtalker, but no fighter at all. Fizzy had theorized that Zara had only brought her along in the off chance they felt they could steal Twilight from under the thieves noses in a public area, wishing to avoid bloodshed if there were witnesses. She would’ve fronted as a servant of Equestria, having finally completed their long march from home upon sight of their most beloved hero Twilight. Her coat was a pretty light blue, her mane a luxurious chocolate brown. She kept herself perfumed and in good shape, her lithe features rather unbecoming of a pony from the earth tribe. Jewels and other pretty things adorned her neck, and lovely golden bracelets her forelegs. She was a mare of style and speeches, though not much else.

There wasn’t much to be said about the griffon.

Together, they had been the four-headed hydra of The Black Stripe, and Anon and Gile vowed to ensure the remaining three mares would fall alongside their griffon friend Gwen, her body they’d not even bothered to bury.

Anon brooded, leaning against the cart. They had been lucky, finding The Black Stripe’s carriage so quickly, but that was more thanks to an educated guess. They had to have been weary from the fight, so they stored their cart in the biggest and most trusted storehouse in Drachen and assumedly were staying at an inn nearby. No one would leave their belongings on one end of a city and sleep on the other, especially when these ponies thought they weren’t being hunted. Plus, they had Twilight with them. Obviously they wouldn’t kill her, but she wouldn’t go with them without resistance. Plus, if they had just knocked her out, carrying an unconscious pony through the streets would raise questions if they had been seen. Regardless of how they moved her, they did, and they had to be nearby because of it.

Among the rows and rows of carts in the dark warehouse, dimly lit by the large magic lamps hanging far above, Anon came to a decision. “... Well, I like the idea of trashing this damn thing. I’m not sure how many bits they brought with them, but even if they had enough, buying a new cart would definitely cut into their purses… We gotta be quiet about this though. We don’t know the routes any guards may take here, if there’s any guards here at all-”

That was all the agreement Gile needed. With a snarl, he took to the cart wheels, viciously yanking and clawing them. Before Anon could pop a blood vessel in shock and rage at his friend’s careless actions, the back end of the cart had already smashed to the ground, it’s hind wheels now bits of splinters and cracked wood. Gile was already onto the front ones now, switching between the wheels and harness, cursing madly. “DAMN FUCKING WHORES! HOW DARE YOU TRY AND KILL MY FRIEND! TAKE AWAY OUR ONE FUCKING CHANCE AT A BETTER LIFE! TRY TO MAKE ME GET AN ACTUAL JOB!? WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT YOU STUPID STRIPED-”

“Gile! Are you fucking… GrrrAUGH!! FUCKING DUMB CUNTS! FUCK YOU AND FUCK YOUR DAMN CART!”

Anon too, could not resist giving some payback. The two continued their destruction until they heard the confused voices of strangers on the far side of the dark warehouse. Stallions, workers no doubt. Though they wished to have been able to reduce the cart to dust, their damage would more than suffice. The wheels were totally destroyed beyond repair, the axels misaligned and supporting nothing. The harness for the puller would take time to fix. What once carried the criminal rulers of Tamar across Echidna was now no more than a large basket. It would not leave the city of Drachen, and nor would The Black Stripe. With a mutual ‘fuck yeah,’ the thieves escaped from Carriage Co. without a trace.

…

Twilight did not resist her captors. How could she? Even if she had her magic, all she could do was levitate objects. She knew nothing. No combat skills, no manipulation tactics, no nothing. Knowledge of her past life had been wiped clean by some unknown force for some unknown reason, and now? Now her new life had been wiped away. Her only two friends in this dark world were killed right in front of her. Maybe… Maybe this is what had happened before? She failed to act, got her old friends killed, and the trauma shook her so she fled across the world and awoke in a dissociative fugue? It mattered not. ‘I’m no friend' she thought.

‘I’m no hero.’

The Black Stripe, as they called themselves, had taken her someplace in what she assumed was Drachen. Her mouth had been gagged and her eyes covered. Maybe they wished for her to just sleep and not be a hassle on the way back to Equestria. She thought of Gile, and how easily he had snuffed out that fellow griffon’s life. She thought of the zebra, and how she killed him and Anon without a thought.

‘Anon…’

She let out another muffled sob, her tear ducts long since dried up and her throat raw. Wherever she was now, she wouldn’t fight back. After a while, and much jostling around, she was laid against some hard surface. Eventually, a voice spoke up.

“I know you’re awake, judging by your breathing, so I hope you’ll listen.”

That was Silvertongue.

“I know that must’ve been really hard for you to witness. Those creatures you were traveling with taken down like that… We weren’t planning on anypony dying tonight, but… You can never be too cautious when dealing with monsters like that.”

Twilight shook her head. ‘She’s lying, she has to be.’

“But they were, Twilight. They’ve done so much worse than just steal. You saw what the griffon did. Gwen was-” Silvertongue could feel her voice rising, the loss of her friend still settling in. “... She was a good creature. A very good one. Would give you the feathers off her wings if anypony ever needed them. That’s not the point though. If you knew what they did in Tamar, our home… You would’ve ran the second you saw them.” Silver give Twilight some time to think on her words before continuing. Let the thoughts plant in her mind, and she’d believe them as fact in time.

“Our captain, the zebra, got reports of a strange creature and a griffon entering town a while back. We’re guards, you see. Tamar is… A dangerous place, so we always had to be on the lookout for potential threats as they appear, lest they take root and grow too big to control. Tch, we figured they were just wanderers at first, lotta creatures like that in this land… But we had no idea.”

The earth pony absentmindedly admired a particular gemstone in one of her necklaces as she spoke, knowing Twilight couldn’t see. Though usually her nature was lackadaisical, she could keep a very convincing tone of voice when she needed to, and she needed something pretty to take her mind off of Gwen.

“Soon enough, we had reports flooding in. A break in on Saddle Street, a mugging by Clover’s and Hemline’s boutique, the constant pickpocketings, Tartarus, they even stole an heirloom from our captain… But then there were the crimes that went bad. The murders.” Silvertongue caught Parma rolling her eyes at the stories. She sneered at the pale unicorn. “There were so many, we thought there was a serial killer on the loose, but then we made the connection.”

Silver paused for dramatic effect.

“Almost all the reports shared a similar account: A griffon and a young minotaur seen fleeing the scene.”

Twilight wished she could cover her ears, but the bindings would not allow it.

“Eventually, we were able to track them down, and we thought we had them cornered- But… B-but…”

“Swing Low….” Zara said quietly, but loud enough to ensure Twilight heard. She covered her mouth to hide her smile. Silvertongue scowled, wanting to throw her hooves up in the air.

“But not before that damned minotaur thing killed our youngest recruit Swing Low… We never should’ve let him come with us, but he wouldn’t hear of it any other way. We had to retreat, try and save him, but it was too late. The creature’s dagger had cut too deep. By the time we realized he was gone, the two bastards had fled into the night…”

‘Time for a little water works.’

“W-we quit our jobs that night, pooled our bits together, bought a carriage, and set out to avenge Swing Low. That’s how The Black Stripe was formed. We’re vigilantes now. We’ve dedicated our lives to stopping crime wherever we see it, but our main goal… Was for Swing Low. We never thought we’d come across you of all ponies, and heavens know what they told you to come along with them, but they must’ve been keeping secrets. I-I honestly thought all that old news about the Twilight Bounty everypony had been talking about was just some get-rich-quick myth, but… Getting you back to your home safely could be our greatest achievement yet! Swing Low and G-gwen would be so proud. I-it may be rough traveling for you, since we’ll need to take precautions to ensure nopony else tries to steal you just to get your reward, but I promise, on behalf of The Black Stripe, we’ll try to make things as easy as possible for you.”

Silver breathed an all too real sigh, rubbing her eyes. Lies or not, it had been a rough night for everypony involved. She stood up and headed to the door, motioning her friends to follow.

“I know you probably don’t believe me now, and I have no idea what lies those monsters must’ve fed you while they held you captive, but please… Please know you’re safe now. Try and rest, Twilight.”

Silver stepped out into the empty hallway. She heard Zara and Parma say some quick sappy drivel to Twilight before meeting with the earth pony, making sure to close the door.

Zara smiled smugly. “My my~ your tragic tale almost brought a tear to the eye.”

“You did well, Silvertongue. Just keep feeding her shit like that and she’ll be the perfect damsel when we get to Canterlot.”

Silvertongue huffed. “It would’ve been better if you hadn’t said anything Zara. Swing Low? Really? I barely even remember that idiot, and now I gotta drill his name into my head for the sake of keeping the story airtight.”

Zara shrugged. “Such things keep you on your hooves. You reacted well, so your skill improves.”

“My skills don’t need improving thank you very much, I-” the mare turned up her snout “-am an actress. Hmph, perhaps one day we’ll have enough of beautiful Cabaluus under our control that I’ll relocate my side of the work there, and act in my spare time.”

The zebra nodded, ambitious fire in her eyes. “After the bounty is mine, we will be. Tamar is too small for me, and Cabaluus’ current syndicate too lazy. That fruit is too ripe, to be passed up by The Black Stripe.”

Parma blew a stray hair out of her eye. “It’s too bad. Tamar is a cozy little hovel. We’ll have to take vacations there once the Cabalaan peacocks have been dealt with.”

“All in due time, Parmie~”

“Don’t call me that. Alright, let’s try and get some sleep. We’re leaving in the morning, right Zara?” The zebra in question nodded. With that, The Black Stripe wordlessly retired for the night.

...

“Hello! Welcome to the Cozy Delights, the finest Inn in Drachen! Can I-”

Anon slammed his hands down on the reception desk. He’d heard some repeat of that same cheery line five times already from separate inns. “Did a zebra, an earth pony, and a unicorn buy a room here? Maybe two unicorns?”

The pretty mare behind the desk batted her eyelashes. “Sounds like the set up to a bad joke, don’t you think?”

“A very bad one. Tell me and I’ll buy out all your free rooms.”

That got her attention.

“R-really? B-but we’re almost empt- Why yes! Scary looking group, b-but-”

Anon leaned over the counter, making the little mare cower slightly. “Which. room.”

“N-now now, I-I’ll tell you, i-if you stay true to your word upfront, a-and! And!” She stressed that last ‘and.’ “Do not under any circumstances stain the sheets!”

Gile hopped his whole body up onto the counter, taking good care not to flap his wings. “Mare, I’m this close to going upstairs and kicking down every door until we find our friend. For the sake of the other patron’s here, you better tell us what want to know right the fuck now.”

Shivering and with a big fake smile, she pointed a hoof upwards and shakily sing-songed out her words. “R-r-room 112 gonna be on your left can’t miss ittt~!”

Anon and Gile shared a determined look.

“Ready Gile? This is it.”

After only a few seconds of moving, they were in front of the door to room 112.

“Fuck yeah.”