BridgeWorld

[994AB Day 288]
The Manes and Alfalfa all immediately rushed to give what aid they could. Jay and Erith were both dead as their necks were both obviously broken on impact. Mag, however, was just barely alive on with several broken bones evident.

"Please hold on, Mag!" Buck said to her as the adults were doing their best to render assistance to her. All he could do was hold her claw and give encouraging words to her. "We're doing everything we can to help!"

"Zucco! What are you—!? AAAHHHH!" Buck heard somepony suddenly scream. Instinctively looking, he witnessed a pegasus with a sword accosting Mag's younger griffon brother. With his father and Alfalfa busy working to save Mag's life, Buck was torn between staying to help keep her focused and fighting to live and leaving her to save her brother. But he had no choice, and so he let go of her claw and turned to run as fast as he could.

"The dancing digits! They made me kill them! They told me to do it! Have to obey—!" Buck heard the pegasus ranting as he came up on them. Robin was holding a bloodied arm with his other talon as the griffon was busily dodging the pegasus wildly tried to slice the young griffon, so neither saw Buck's approach. "I have to keep trying to slice y—!"

The blow delivered to the pegasus' jaw holding the sword should've been the end of it. After all, pegasi bones are the lightest, least resilient of the three pony tribes, which helps with their ability to fly, and earth ponies have the greatest physical strength, given their natural connection to the earth. Even though Buck wasn't fully grown yet, his natural strength pushing his hard mass of keratin right into the pegasus' lower mandible with enough force to shatter quartz.

But to the horror of both Buck and Robin, the pegasus merely paused and slowly turned to glare at Buck. It was as if the pegasus simply never felt the slam of an earth pony's forehoof to his jaw. It was becoming even more unnerving that the pony's jaw was obviously and visibly caved in, with the sword dangling severely in his bite. And their feelings of dread got worse as they watched the pegasus stallion to nonchalantly flick his head, sending the sword twirling end-over-end in the air over his pol, only for the pegasus to catch the sword handle with the unbroken side of his jaw. Then the stallion began to advance on Buck. And he smiled.

"Whutthahay!?" Buck whispered in stunned shock. He saw that Robin was just as horrified at what they just witnessed. "ROBIN! Get to your family, NOW! I'll do what I can to keep him busy!"

"You—" the pegasus spoke with a manic gleam shined in his eyes. "The dancing digits—they dance on the tiles for you. They dance on the tiles for us both! Now, our dance begins—! And then we'll make room for your father and Alfalfa to join us before my dance is finished!" And then Buck was in the fight for his life, dodging and deflecting the deadly blade being swung at him.

Mag was shocked at how Buck had tried to comfort her and then suddenly left her. But then she saw what was happening with Zucco and her brother and how Buck rushed to help Robin. Robin soon arrived to take over speaking words she could no longer hear. She felt cold as her body was slowly shutting down, but her heart was warmed at how the earth pony now fought the pegasus who had killed her and her parents and had tried to kill her brother. A tear slid across her beak to blind her other eye.

"He—he—w—would—have made—a—g—good—griff—" were her last words.

"MAG!?" Robin screamed at his sister.

"I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do for her, Tom," Mareta told him as she felt how the griffoness' pulse ended. "Go help Buck!" she growled.

"Alfalfa! On me!" Thomas ordered as he raced toward the combatants.

"Is everypony we're going up against Guard trained!?" he demanded once they got some distance from the griffons.

"Those aren't Guard moves of any kind, Mister Thomas!" Alfalfa exclaimed flying alongside. "He's too wild! Too random! He's got to be crazed and insane to be fighting like that! And it's not possible, but he's still flying, despite Buck having managed to break one of his wings during the fight!"

What!? Thomas barely had time to think before he and Alfalfa were upon the pegasus. She had gone high and dived down upon the crazed pony slashing at his son, while Thomas aimed to launch himself toward the stallion's ribs.

Just before contact, however, the pegasus spun on his own axis and twisted up out of Thomas' way—only to bring himself into Alfalfa's reach all the quicker. The only problem was, Alfalfa had been aiming for his undamaged right wing, and the maneuver turned the stallion upside down, causing her to instead strike his already broken left wing. The impact managed to get a grunt of pain from him, but not to be outdone, Zucco slashed at her with the sword, catching her on the right wing.

Thomas wasn't to be denied, however. He, too, quickly adapted to the stallion's unorthodox move and kicked out with his rear hooves as he passed beneath. While not have the full advantage that his momentum could have given him, his hooves did manage to clip Zucco's right wing at the metacarpus joint, dislocating it.

Alfalfa was forced to roll when she hit the ground and was back on her feet just as Zucco came crashing to the ground on his back. Buck, taking that opportunity, leapt forward and slammed a hoof down upon Zucco's exposed jaw, breaking that side of his mouth as well, and forcing the sword to be dropped.

Except Zucco was not yet out of the fight. He instantly rolled over to his hooves and picked the sword up by his forehooves and reared up on his hind legs, brandishing the deadly weapon on all three ponies surrounding him.

"What's it going to take to bring him down!?" Buck demanded with a scream.

"Buck! He's on the mushroom joke mix!" Thomas exclaimed. "Remember what we read about it!"

"Roadapples!" Buck hissed. "It can do all this!?"

"Far worse, Buck!" Thomas countered. "It can do far worse!"

For her part, Alfalfa wasn't seriously hurt, but the cut to her wing had effectively crippled her in the fight against a pony who was fighting at an equal-to-superior level than earth ponies could on their own turf. She was at a major disadvantage right now and it was only that Zucco's attention was more focused on the Manes which kept her alive for the moment. She quickly looked around for anything to help and spied the debris on the ground.

"MISTRESS MARETA! THE TRAPEEZE!" Alfalfa screamed, and the earth pony mare immediately left Robin's side to try grabbing the rope and bar lying on the ground, which got Zucco's attention. Doing so meant she couldn't take her eyes off him to see where Mareta was going to throw it. But it did give Thomas an opening to rush in and deliver a double-hoof back kick to Zucco's right rear leg, giving him two brand new joints in long bones that normally didn't have such.

Zucco only seemed mildly annoyed at the new modifications to his anatomy, as he calmly twisted about to drive the sword down toward Thomas. Fortunately, Thomas was able to roll out of the way in time and the sword tip was buried a hand depth into the dirt.

Taking that opportunity, Buck rushed toward Alfalfa. "Alfalfa! Toss it to me!" he yelled, and Alfalfa glanced back to see the bar and rope had landed right behind her. Instantly, she grabbed and tossed it toward Buck.

Just as quickly, Zucco yanked the blade out and had it at his ready again. But he was too late for once, as Buck had snagged one end of the rope and whipped it about, aiming to snare the pegasus stallion. Zucco swiped the blade to cut the rope, but enough had already started wrapping about him, and the portion he cut was the length that connected Buck to him—the remainder was already whipping around and entangling his body and limbs, and he finally fell to earth. However, Zucco wasn't going to be defeated so easily as the pegasus struggled to wield the sword to cut his bindings. Alfalfa and the Manes all moved to intercept that action.

Fortunately, at that moment, a unicorn's aura grabbed the sword and yanked it out of Zucco's hooves. They all stopped and looked around and spotted an Equestrian Guard team descending upon them, one of which was a unicorn corporal.

"Make way!" the sergeant earth pony commanded. "Just what the hay is going on here!?"

"Sergeant Fently!" Alfalfa spoke up. "Thank Celestia you're here! There's been a terrible accident—only it might not have been accidental—"

"The Dark Lord sleeps!" Zucco suddenly screamed. "The digits of the clawless paw—! I—I see them—! I see them!! Th-they m-made me cut their rope! Their dance on the tiles will awaken the Dark Lord! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh C— "

Just then, the stallion's head suddenly exploded with a loud, messy, wet pop.

"Wh-what the hay just happened!?" Sergeant Fently demanded with a horrified expression. The other guards also were just as shocked.

"I'm afraid an autopsy will probably show that he was under the influence of mushroom joke," Thomas Mane told him, looking at the remains of the pegasus' skull. "Jack Black is perhaps only more insane than this pony was to even think of mixing magic mushrooms and poison joke. This—" he said, gesturing with his hoof, "is typical of what happens to anypony who gets exposed to it."

"Mushroom joke!?" Fently exclaimed. "I—I've only heard rumors of that."

"Weren't you there at Jack Black's hearing. The one where the judge dismissed the attempted murder and robbery charges against him!? Prince Celestia mentioned it when she took him into custody! And I and my family testified as to the evidence our field testers recorded!" Thomas demanded.

"Sorry, but we were under strict orders from our superiors to come in only when called upon, testify, and leave immediately once we were done so as to not contaminate the legal process of us hearing another pony's testimony," Fently explained.

"I see," Thomas sadly said, sighing.

"Well, I looked up the information on that stuff," Thomas told him. "Aside from what it did to drive this poor pony crazy and blew his head apart, Jack Black is involved in creating huge quantities of mushroom joke. Enough to drive every pony in Manehattan as crazy as this guy, assuming it doesn't explode first and demolish a quarter to half the entire city! What's worse is, he escaped Princess Celestia's custody and he's still has that large vat of it stashed away somewhere! This guy is only the first of the victims we'll be seeing."

"What's going to happen to poor Robin?" Mareta asked Sergeant Fently.

"He'll probably have to be set up in the orphanage," the Guard told her. "We can try asking around to see if there are any griffons who would be willing to take him in."

"I know plenty of griffons," Thomas spoke up. "They're generally an honorable and honest species, but their way of life doesn't leave much room for charity. Adoptions are rare, almost to the point of being non-existent."

"Then nothing doing!" Mareta protested. "We'll take him in!"

"There will have to be a formal process—" Fently started to say, but Mareta interrupted him.

"For us to adopt him, yes, I know all that!" she spat. "But he can stay with us until that's settled. No sense in shoving him into the orphanage only to uproot him all over again if there's somepony already willing and on hoof to take him in! Am I not correct!?"

"—Of—of course, ma'am," Fently sighed….

[994AB Day 289]
"Is there a problem, officer?" Thomas Mane inquired as he and Lucius exited their carriage in the warehouse district, where his work crew was being confronted by an earth pony warehouse manager and several Equestria Guards.

"Thomas Mane!" the lead Guard pony called out, seeing who it was.

"Yes?" Thomas responded. "Do I know you? You seem fam—Sergeant—Fently, is it not?"

"Yes, sir, I am," Fently replied. "Are you in charge of these ponies?"

"Yes, I am, sir," Thomas answered. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Sir, your ponies are wanting to come into my warehouse, and they don't have authorization—" the warehouse manager began, his voice a little bit whiny despite his heavy build.

"Is this true?" Thomas angrily demanded of his team.

"No, sir! Not at all!" Red Sovine instantly responded. "We explained to the manager that the antennas we are installing would be going on their roofs and we wouldn't be needing to have anything to do with what's going on inside. We explained we wouldn't even be tapping into their site's power system, at all. We'd be drawing power straight from the Manehattan grid itself."

"Well, sir?" Thomas inquired to the manager.

"Yes, that's what they told me, but to get to the roof, they'll have to go through the warehouse—"

"But—sir—they're—pegasi!" Thomas interrupted. "They don't need to step inside at all. They can fly straight up there."

"Uh—" the manager began, uncertain as to how to respond.

"Sir!" Lucius cut in as he quickly flipped through several sheets of rolled paper to show him. "This project isn't just simply a booster signal network for the entertainment channels. As you can see from this map, your building is at the center of a twenty-furlong diameter zone needed—" But before the manager could get a good look, Lucius was flipping through a few more sheets until he presented the one he wished. "—for a very special and potentially lifesaving project that's been personally approved by the Princess, herself! Here's her signature granting the petition—" And Lucius was flipping more pages to yet another sheet. "—for this urgent and vital project which is ninety percent complete, and as we are standing here, is waiting for the final ten percent to get finished! Your building, along with six other sites here in the warehouse district, is all that's keeping this urgent and vital service from coming fully online! Just think of all the lives that could be saved—" the kitsune pointed at Sergeant Fently "—because these fine officers here will be able to radio for help and get a response right away! But if this project isn't completed, because you're standing in the way of ponies who can fly, and don't even need to go through your warehouse—well, sir—think of all the lives who will be lost when poor Officer Fently here won't be able to reach anypony at the Guard!"

"Uh—" the manager said, looking about, and stopping when he saw the steady glare from the lead Guard pony. "Uh—s-s-sure," he finally said, nodding. "Fine! Fine! If they don't need to come in, I-I guess it's okay—"

"Thank you, sir!" Lucius exclaimed, instantly grabbing the pony's hoof and giving it a good shake. "Thank you! Thank you! You won't regret it!"

"It's all good, then?" Thomas asked Sergeant Fently.

"If there are no further objections from the manager then, I don't see a problem with it," he said.

"Uh—c-can I—can I at least have one of my security staff go up with them to make sure nothing funny happens up there?" the manager asked.

"I have no problems with that," Thomas said smiling. "By all means, please do so."

The manager stepped in and soon returned with a big white pegasus stallion fifty percent larger and more solid-looking than Red Sovine.

"What's this job entail?" the newcomer asked, his voice a deep rumble that set Thomas' nerves on edge.

"We're just mounting an antenna assembly to the chimney structure on the roof," Red Sovine told him. "It's a communications relay that's part of a citywide network that we're testing out."

"If it works out as we're hoping, we're looking to eventually expand it nationwide," Thomas added.

The guard looked at them for several moments, clearly evaluating all of them.

"All right," he finally said. "No funny business," he warned.

"Wouldn't ever think of it," Red Sovine responded as he, Highflyer, and Fred Hummer lifted off, followed by the warehouse guard.

"Damn, Lucius!" Thomas whispered once they were back inside the carriage. "I'm glad you're on our side. I almost bought in on that!"

Lucius said nothing, but just grinned.

"What is all that crap going on out there?" the unicorn stallion demanded of the warehouse manager.

"That was your old friend, Thomas Mane, of Mane Industries," the earth pony replied, shedding his meek and timid act. "They are wanting to put one of those new communication relays on our building. I've got Decker keeping an eye on the pegasi he's got working for him."

"Thomas Mane, again? Hmmf! Oh, yeah. I read about those 'relays' in the papers," Jack Black spat. "How they're supposed to improve reception of the entertainment channels. Another rich toy for some rich boy to play around with. What a waste of bits. Too bad I couldn't take him down when I had the chance. Well, soon, we'll all be just as rich as him, and probably just as clean as him with how he got to be so rich," he said grinning. "And believe you me, I won't be wasting my bits on charity work!"

"That fox of his makes a good salespony," the earth pony muttered as they watched the carriage and the Equestria Guard ponies move out of sight. "He almost got me sold on the idea. But so long as they don't interfere with what we're doing, it's not our concern."

A little while after the last antenna was mounted in the warehouse district area and the team reported back to the Mane Mansion, they had their after operations briefing.

"That was a surreal experience," Red Sovine muttered. "I'm not used to looking up at ponies."

"I don't know about you, but I didn't like how that guy was staring at me while we were doing that install," Fred Hummer told Thomas. "Either my scar was catching his eye, or maybe he remembers me from our time in the Guard, but he did seem awfully familiar."

"Same here," Red complained. "You'd think someone as large as him would be more memorable. Odd that I can't recall where I've seen him, either."

"Couldn't be helped," Thomas said. "But we know they're somewhere in that general area. As you said, you've got a bad feeling about them? So, let's make that warehouse the first one we take a good long hard look at. We've all had some long hard days of late, and we're rather late making any hoofball scores in this game. This installation was wholly paid for in the blood of Robin's family," he grimly stated. "Get some sleep, everypony. Tomorrow night, we're back on shiftwork!"

[994AB Day 290]
"Okay, colts and fillies, we're all on live TV! So, behave yourselves," Red Sovine said into his microphone. "Graywing, how do you read?"

"Loud and clear, Cardinal," Thomas Mane replied from his vantage alongside Highflyer.

"Cardinal to all units, report!"

"Graymare online," Mareta responded.

"Grayson online," Buck radioed in.

"Blackbird good to go," Highflyer reported.

"Hummingbird lives again," Fred Hummer said, grinning.

"Kitt is rolling along," Matchbox said as he used a scooter to speed his movements on the roads.

"Okay, that accounts for all the little birds and the cat," Red Sovine announced. "What about you folks back at the Lair?"

"Mother Hen's got eyes and ears on everypony," Alfalfa said. "Toothy's so happy he's grinning up a storm, so watch out for lightning."

"Graywing, going IR," Thomas reported. "I have numerous targets on several levels. Um—twelve that I can count. There's a sizable warm object in there, too."

"Blackbird concurs," Highflyer cut in, nodding to Thomas. "At least three guests are wingers. By the way, no outside wanderers in view, so no unexpected party crashers are anticipated at this time."

"Lair concurs," Alfalfa reported. "We suspect that what Graywing and Blackbird are seeing is the punchbowl. And it looks like it's finally starting to cook. I'm afraid we're out of time, sir. There's no time to call in the professionals."

"Then it's up to us. Graymare, Grayson, on me!" Thomas grimly said as he dove down, aiming to go in through the upper windows of the warehouse.

"Kitt, Cardinal, Hummingbird, move in to assist!" Alfalfa ordered.

"Roger that!" the three ponies simultaneously acknowledged. Red Sovine and Fred Hummer filed in behind Mareta and Buck who were following Tom, while Matchbox had kicked his scooter into high speed and rolled down the road toward the warehouse front doors. From Highflyer's viewpoint, it looked like it might be a close race between Matchbox and Thomas as to which would get there first.

"RAMMING SPEED!" a dark-clothed earth pony yelled as he burst through the doors, startling everypony inside the warehouse, but before they could react, the windows above suddenly shattered as a dark figure blasted in, aiming for the largest pegasus hovering over the area: Decker. Decker's Equestrian Guard training instantly kicked in and he nimbly dodged the immediate threat coming from above. However, the newcomer somehow anticipated the move and brought itself to a halt to engage the burly pegasus in hoof-to-hoof combat.

Decker grinned, despite the unpleasant surprise. Hoof-to-hoof combat was a specialty of his, and his physique made him the equal to most earth ponies.

More figures burst in from the windows, one of the flyers pausing in midair and was somehow began shooting out the lights, but Decker's attention had to be focused on this immediate opponent as he aimed a hoof at the figure's armored head. Some sort of Guard outfit, from what he could tell. Sadly, such armor rarely helped his sparing partners back in—wait—is that a unicorn horn!? he suddenly wondered as his hoof landed on the helm. And then his grin quickly disappeared when his punch apparently did nothing to the pegas—wait—are those bat wings!?

Then the horn lit up with a gray nimbus, and Decker suddenly had over two dozen Royal Guard-spec stun bolts painfully impacting several locations on his body: one to each eye, one to his forehead as the unicorn's aim shifted from his left eye to his right, once to the back of his throat through his open-mouthed shocked expression, then the outside of his throat twice, his chest a few times, his left wing for at least six shots, his gut more than a few times, and finally his balls. Ten for there!

THAT—was—BRUTAL—! Decker admirably thought as he tumbled out of the air, bouncing off first one then a second catwalk on his way to the floor. Whoever that fucker is, he really knows his shit! The floor was the last major impact he felt, but shortly after that, it got real comfortable. He felt like taking a nap.

"Jack, I'm getting concerned about the mix," his pegasus friend was saying to him. "I've noticed it's starting to get a little hot—"

The sudden sound of the warehouse doors being blasted apart and a pony hollering, "RAMMING SPEED!" interrupted what she was going to say. In addition, that event was instantly followed by several dark figures bursting in from the roof-level windows to dive toward them.

"No! No! NO! NO!! NO!!!" Jack Black screamed, immediately shooting off a beam toward the intruders coming down at them, but there were so many, and they were each already on evasive flight patterns that hitting any of them was nearly impossible. Not to mention, the lighting system was being systematically taken out, quickly plunging the entire warehouse into an increasingly progressive darkness.

Everything of his plans were just suddenly falling apart! With all the chaos, there just wasn't any time to think…. And aside from all his followers who were all quickly finding themselves getting their plots stomped, there was one of those dark-suited flyers coming right straight for him!

Instinctively, he fired off his most powerful blast at the approaching pegasus and was happy to see the idiot didn't even bother to dodge—his beam struck the intruder full on the snout! Jack smiled.

Then his smile faltered when the ceiling behind the flyer exploded outward, leaving a satisfyingly large hole in the structure—and yet the incoming flyer wasn't affected at all—the figure he knew he had shot was still coming straight at him as if he had completely missed!

Wha—!? he barely had time to wonder before a powerful impact slammed into his side, knocking him off his hooves from where he had been standing on the edge of the vat and into the lurid glowing and bubbling mix he had been overseeing.

"JACK!!!" his pegasus friend screamed, and she instantly dove in after him.

Red Sovine flew as wingpony for Mareta to keep her safe, while Fred stayed with Buck. Unfortunately, there wasn't a spare pegasus to stay with Thomas Mane with Highflyer needing to remain outside to be their eyes and CAP pony and Matchbox was a non-flyer stuck on the ground.

As soon as they were inside through the windows, several pegasi who were walking the catwalks took to the air to engage them, while Mareta was taking a moment to use her horn to systematically blast all the lights in the warehouse to give their team the dark-field advantage. Thomas was immediately having to contend with the big burly pegasus, who had been yesterday's escort for when they were installing the relay on the roof. Red had suspected he was Guard-trained, only for the stallion's moves as he fought Thomas confirmed it. Red would have moved to lend a hoof to Thomas, but for Sovine recognizing another pegasus, who was now flying up to meet him and Mareta, had also been in the Guard. In addition, as this new threat came at them, the rogue former guard had a mare flying alongside him, giving Red no choice but to stay with Mareta to keep her from being both outnumbered as well as outclassed.

"Dammit! Mother Hen! Graywing's got his hooves full with our big white friend, but I've got another rogue rooster along with a chick coming at Graymare and me!" Red reported just as part of the roof suddenly got blasted out.

"Stay with Graymare, Cardinal!" Thomas cut it. "The big white hope is dope, now."

"Roger that!" Red happily sighed, readying to meet his counterpart.

"BUCK! What did you DO!?" Mareta suddenly screamed out. Red winced at the breach in communications protocol. But they each had little time to worry about it as their adversaries were at hoof.

"What he had to, Graymare!" Red barked at her as he evasively flew and tried to use his wing blades against those of their opponents. "This is a killing situation! You know it as well as Grayson does!"

"Sorry, Graymare," Buck contritely called back after a few moments. "It was either give him a hard landing or a soft one. I am surprised that mare dove in after him, though."

Once he had burst through the warehouse cargo door, Matchbox instantly came under fire from a unicorn mare. That she kept her cool and immediately engaged him made him suspect that she was Guard-trained as well. But they all knew that Jack Black favored pegasi, unicorns, and only then earth ponies, in that order, and so he came prepared. He first launched a pair of brightly painted null-force bolos at the mare, only to see her immediately dodge to the side.

Yeah, definitely Guard-trained! he thought, smirking, as he ducked under her shot back him. An inexperienced unicorn would have tried to use her teek to grab them and be tangled up by them anyhow. Or at least tried teleporting and have to contend with the requisite disorientation time needed to reacquire her target.

While he was busily dodging her horn blasts among the crates occupying the warehouse floor, Matchbox used his hoof to pull out another set of null-force bolos, this set painted a much darker color, and transferred the lanyard connecting the balls to his mouth to momentarily hold them before reaching for another pouch for the special weapon contained in there.

Buck saw that Matchbox was already contending with one unicorn mare shooting bolts at him, but there were two more unicorn stallions galloping from the other end of the warehouse to join her. He immediately dove down with Fred shadowing him.

Thomas had little time to relax after subduing the huge powerfully built white pegasus, as he saw two more pegasi stallions coming at him. Fortunately, they didn't seem to be nearly as formidable as their fear was quite clear on their faces, evidently shocked at how easily their larger cohort was taken down.

He didn't give them any time to try cinching up their courage before he launched a dozen stun bolts at one of them. The results were spectacular as the stallion looked like he had just face-planted right into a wall and immediately fell from the air and landed fifty feet below. The other stallion instantly decided he wasn't getting paid enough and hightailed it for an opening in the ceiling that had not been there just moments before.

Thomas hesitated, almost deciding to let the stallion go, but just as Jack Black's departing minion reached what he thought was safety, Thomas launched several stun shots that nailed him solidly in the plot.

"AhAIYEEEeeee!" he screamed as he bolted out the opening.

Once that stallion was gone, he turned his attention to Fred and Mareta's situation, just in time to see Mareta finally cause the mare she had been fighting to fall. But Fred was evenly matched with the skill of the rogue agent he was fighting.

Still plenty of charges available in this thing, he grimly thought as he powered up his horn.

Matchbox patiently waited for her to track him down. He had been quietly listening to his own teammates calling back and forth to each other. But he had also been listening to his opponent try to call for her own allies as she hunted for him. From what he heard from both sides, his was quickly racking up the points. And this mare had just lost the two reinforcements she was counting upon to help corral him, thanks to Buck.

"Roach! Walter!" he heard her suddenly hiss into her microphone soon after Buck reported he had taken down two unicorns. "Where are you guys!?"

Matchbox quietly stepped out from around the crate he had been hiding behind and fired off the blunderbuss he had been holding without bothering to aim it. At just ten feet away, he didn't need to. The exploding burst of powdered null-stone surrounded the mare with a cloud of magic damping dust, which was immediately followed by a pair of bolos made of the same substance that quickly entangled now choking unicorn's neck, and the impact of the hard balls into her head finished the job of incapacitating her.

Buck was very satisfied at how he had managed to trick the two unicorns working for Jack Black into shooting each other by planting an illusion of himself landing right between them, although only one was fully taken down by his partner, and Buck had to step up and finish the job on the remaining, only partially stunned unicorn stallion.

He looked about, searching for more combatants. His parents and the three former guards were still busy with active fighters, but they were all considerable distance from where he stood at the base of the large vat. He was about to launch to go help Matchbox, but then he spotted a large valve and pipe built-in to the bottom of the vat, marked "DRAIN".

"Mother Hen, you said that the mixture shouldn't react to seawater, right?" he called.

"Not anymore than it's liable to explode on its own, no," Alfalfa replied.

"Then the important thing is to get rid of this stuff, right?" Buck confirmed.

"I see what you're thinking about, Grayson," Alfalfa said. "I say, go for it!" And immediately, Buck began cranking the valve wheel open.

"I just hope it doesn't mess up the fish in the harbor," he muttered as he worked.

"That is a valid concern, Grayson," Alfalfa acknowledged. "But it's one better left to worry about later. In the meantime, you've got an earthpony coming at you, Grayson!"

"I'm on hi—ooof!" Fred exclaimed, only to bounce off the pony he had impacted into and landed on the floor. "Woah! Tough hombre," he muttered, shaking his head clear. Then he looked up to see it was the warehouse manager they had dealt with when they were installing the communications relay.

"You've got that right," the stallion growled, glaring at him. While Fred's impact hadn't knocked the stallion down, it had halted his charge at Buck.

"Relax, Hummingbird," Buck said, stepping forward. "I've got this."

"'Hummingbird', huh?" the earthpony inquired, turning to face Buck. "Good name for him. He has to be like the lightest pegasus ever to hit me. And who are you supposed to be? Because you sure as Tartarus not a Thestral alicorn! But I have to say, it's a good costume for Nightmare Night."

"I'm Grayson," Buck told him. "And as for you, the nightmare has only just begun."

"Real cute comeback, foal," the warehouse manager said, smirking. "Points for that. Too bad it's not going to save you from me stomping all the roadapples out of you," he said, raising up and aiming his right forehoof at the youngster. Only to be stunned when the darksuited figure easily blocked the blow by angling his left wing to take the impact with the sound like a hammer hitting an anvil.

"Wha—?"

Then Buck's horn glowed with a gray aura and the warehouse manager found himself suddenly flying over the younger stallion and landing with a painful impact where the drainpipe connected to the bottom of the large vat and fed into the floor.

"Uhh—arrgh!" he grunted, slowly pulling himself out of the confining space. He shook his head clear and saw Grayson slowly approaching him with an easy walk.

"Hmmf! Impressive, foal. Good trick," he said before spitting out some blood from his mouth. "But you fucked up. I don't know how you pulled off that wing trick, but you've revealed you're just a unicorn, and I know how to beat unicorns!" he said, charging forward.

Only to run through where Grayson was walking.

"Huh!?"

WHAM!!

The double-hoof blow to the back of his head was even more shocking. He turned his head to look and barely had time to realize he was about to be hit again when Grayson's back hoof slammed just as hard into his snout.

WHAM!!

The kick knocked him skidding several yards across the warehouse floor. Then, as he was struggling to recover from that, Grayson's horn lit up again and fired off several Guard-spec stun bolts into him.

"Th-th-at's—impossi—" he got out before finally succumbing to the spells.

Buck stepped over and helped Fred to his hooves and looked around.

Suddenly, a bright light burst out of the darkness and began to grow and spread, starting from the blackness where the edge of the warehouse district met the city's expansive bay. Eerily, it stretched out, jagged and jerking, it advanced, vectoring up through the streets. So surreal in its appearance, it looked like all the world to be a lightning bolt burning its way through the ground, melting and vaporizing everything in its path…coming closer…still silent…exactly like the instant just before the crack of thunder finally hits…

Thomas looked about the warehouse. The fight was over. All of the ponies working for Jack Black were down and/or tied up. He looked at his family and team and grinned.

"We did it—!" he said, but there was a sudden call from Highflyer that interrupted him.

"GET OUT OF THEEERRRRE! GET OOUUUTTTT—!" just before the last of the remaining mushroom joke still flowing out the drainpipe detonated…

Washed up on the shore across the bay by the tremendous explosion, two exhausted figures struggled to move to pull themselves up out of the water. A pegasus mare and a unicorn stallion.

"Jack!? Jack!?" the mare cried out, reaching out to him. "Are you alright!?"

"I'm sorry, but Jack is dead," Jack Black responded, his face locked in a rictus grin. "The Dark Lord sleeps. I—I see who I am now. I know how we're all connected! Who it is that I'm supposed to be! I see them! Digits of the clawless paw dancing on the tiles. Their dance dictating who and what we all are! Their dance will awaken the Dark Lord. But—but—we have much to do before everypony's dance is complete! The poison joke—it's been trying to tell us the truth all along! The flower—the wonderful flower—it's finally found a way to speak! I AM the poison joke!! The universe—the whole universe—is nothing but—One—BIG—JOKE—!!!

"And I—I—I AM—THE PUNCHLINE!!! HAHAHAHAH!!!!"