A Scream From The Past. 27

   I check on the manticore tail in the bathtub in the center of the main room to my home and I pour another picture of rabbit blood into the bathtub and onto the tail: a process that used to make me cringe, but I'm used to it by now. It's been about a week since the camping trip. It was cut short on the second day when Applebloom found the black flag in a hummingbird nest and my side gave up at that point. I never got to meet Braeburn but according to Mac he not very interesting.

   Berry left the day after to do a job up in Canterlot and left me with a list of instructions for how to properly ready the tail for smoking. The first point of this being that I have to soak it in a mix of rabbit's blood, parsley, oregano and cinnamon for three days. I'm not sure why you do this, but it is not my place to question it.

   It took me a day or two to find a place that I could buy rabbit blood from, but eventually I just went to by the restaurant Dash and I went to and was able to get some from them since they supply themselves with their own meats. In the mean time I went by a junkyard and got this bathtub so I wouldn't soil my own. Today is supposed to be the day when Berry returns so I've already aired the place out and sprayed an ungodly amount of air freshener.

   I haven't heard anything from anypony for the last week besides talking with Juice about the blood and the pony at the junkyard about this tub. Thank god there was a tub without any rust or holes for me to buy.

"This has been a really boring week for me." I say aloud for the sake of hearing a voice amidst the silence.

   I've neglected trying to cast Deviant and Chaos Point due to my general lack of ambition to get in touch with those two inside of me anytime soon. I figure that whatever those spells actually do is either going to be something awesome or something lackluster. I figure I might ask Berry about them when she gets back which should be relatively soon since she said about 6:45p.m. today.

"Anypony home? Sonata, if you aren't here, I'm going to give you a piece of my mind for leaving this place with the door open and unattended." I hear Berry's voice come from just outside the ladder.

"Yeah; I'm here." I call back to her as I clean out the bloody picture in the sink.

"Good; I've got some interesting news for you." She responds and a moment or two later I see her drop through the hole where the ladder is wearing a pink t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

"What would that be?" I ask her as I wipe off my hands with a dish towel and she kneels down by the tub.

"You've done nicely with the tail I see." She comments as she swirls a finger slowly through the blood.

"I've done well enough I guess."

"How long has it been soaking?"

"For the last three days; so it should be ready by now." I say as she gives the tail an experimental poke.

"Yeah; it's ready now. I'll get Spacial over here later and she can take care of the tub for us and we can move on to the next step then."

"Ok, but what was the important news you had for me?" I ask her and she stands back up from her kneeling position.

"I got word of an interesting death row prisoner in Canterlot. From what I hear, he's been portrayed as some sort of army nut who lost his mind, killed his whole unit if you believe that. He got moved to death row just this week." She says and I simply raise an eyebrow.

"So why does that matter to me?" I respond simply.

"Well the interesting thing is that nopony has really heard of him until now. The story goes on that he got caught over in the Griffin Nation and was brought back here a week ago. So why do you think this is important?"

"I don't know. You'll have to forgive me, but I don't really get it." I answer her in a respectful yet dumbfounded manner.

"Perhaps I'll just make this easier on you. Would you happen to know of a green coated, aqua manned, aqua tailed pegasus?"

"I've seen a couple of pegasi like that around town, but none of them could've been the one you're talking about considering that he was apprehended last week." I answer back with still hardly a clue of how this matters to me. Although, now that I think about the time frame, I guess it could have something to do with my arrival.

"Perhaps you need a little more help..." She begins with an obvious level of annoyance, "What I told you his name is Cloudbreaker." My mentor finishes, causing my ears to perk up with renewed interest.

"Uefi..." I whisper to myself in relative awe.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. I just know him." I answer as I take a seat on the couch nearest the kitchen. He's still here in Equestria. I had figured he was actually sent back. Even worse, he's going to be executed.

"I figured you did."

"But wasn't your memory of him erased like everypony else's?"

"There are two functions to the memory poison we used on the princess. If you use it in its purest form it can be used to remove sections of memory from up to five days ago relating to a pony of your choice. However, if you inverse the ratio of two of the ingredients then it can be used to fix any memories of yours that were altered within the last five days. Considering the nature of your situation, before we went to take care of you we all took a drop of the 'antidote' and I remembered you talking of a friend of yours." She explains and I absorb as much of the information as I can.

"And you noticed the similarities between my execution profile and his. But does Luna remember him at all?" I ask her.

"I doubt it. If she did she would hold an immediate execution under a different guise."

"Then why didn't she execute us at the same time?"

"Any dual execution has to be checked by both princesses, three stewards and a thirty day waiting period is required in case of any new information being brought forth."

"Oh, but why not have an immediate execution?" I ask Berry which causes her to groan a little.

"The case she created doesn't allow for it. An immediate execution can only be done if the criminal still has the ability to cause immense harm. Most likely she planned to change the story quietly to something along the lines of that he could still cause harm to ponies or to Equestria after you died."

"But since she doesn't remember me, she also doesn't remember why she really wanted to kill him anyways. So she's just going off the story she made up."

"Exactly." Berry remarks in a more upbeat tone.

"So what are we going to do about this?" I ask with a tone that betrays my hopefulness. If they got me out of this then it should easy enough to get Uefi out of this.

"What do you mean 'we'? I don't remember there being any reason for me to risk myself or our group over him." Berry answers me in a cold manner and I am truthfully taken aback.

"What do you mean there's no reason? He's like family to me!" I respond quickly.

"Exactly; he's like family to you. Why should I spend my time and resources to save him?"

"B-but..."

"Look; I'd love to help your friend out, but when you consider your own situation. For us, you're a long term investment at the very least we want to break even with you on your debt. If we were to save him, we'd be acquiring another unneeded investment and, because of what I know about his inherent talents, there's a lower chance of a payoff. You'd have to convince me that it's a worthwhile effort, or I won't lift a finger to help you." She continues in her cold manner. Wha--- Fine; I guess I play her game now.

"He's done work like this before though." I protest.

"Oh really, but was he any good at it?"

"Well...  My point is that, given a little time, he would be of good use to you." I mutter in my own defense. I can already tell I'm losing this argument.

"That's what I mean; given enough time. This is a business. I can't risk the entire 'company's' welfare two times in the same month for only two investments that may not ever payoff and if they do it will at least take a few years for them to." She restates and I realize the full reality of my predicament. So is that all they think of me; a long term investment.

"So that's all I am to you."

"No. You're my lovable and relatively incompetent student who I treat like I would the son I never wish to have. However, yes, you are an investment that I need to keep track of. So, sad to say, that does come before your status as my student. After all, this is a business." She shrugs.

"So the only difference between me and him is that you have a minor history with me?"

"Exactly."

"Then it shouldn't be a problem for you to help me get him out. At most it should only be a matter of effort. I have very little doubt you don't have any of that mind poison left."

"Yes, but think of what it implies as far as preparations go. I'll have to take off for almost a month to get you anywhere near ready for it so I'll have already lost money from that lost work. I'll need all of us to work on it so the chances of any of us getting found are even higher than usual."

"Trust me; I won't hold you back. Besides; what if I worked as a team with him afterwards. I know there must be a few jobs you're losing because they can't be completed by a single pony. Think of the possibilities it will open up and it would even help me after training. With a partner there's less of a chance I'll miss something on a job and get caught, or worse, fail the job. It will allow for me to not fail my first few jobs as I probably would without him; which of course implies more bits in your pocket." I argue with her in an attempt to appeal to her business centered way of thinking.

"Look; I'm going to level with you. As far as money goes, this probably won't pay off even if you started taking on big jobs together, and because of that it isn't worth it to me. How-" I cut her off.

"But-" I begin but she soon cuts me off as I did her.

"HOWEVER, I will consider putting forth an effort to go get him based on how much you improve in the next month. If you can prove to me that you're at least worth my time, I may be able to convince myself that our resources would be well used." She finishes with a sly smirk on her face and I can feel my own face loosen up from the tension.

"What..."

"You heard me. I'll consider your request as long as you improve enough in the next month. This means you will have to learn how to really sneak, how to actually take down an enemy, whether your preference be lethal or non-lethal, and you must learn to work past any unfortunate situation that may arise. If you can at least learn to do those three things to even a relatively small degree, I will consider going to get your friend. Do we have an agreement?" She reiterates with mild exhaustion in her voice.

"Y-yes. Thank you. Look; I'm sorry if I got you wrong." I repent solemnly. I guess I shouldn't have been so quick to judge her.

"Don't take this as me letting my emotions run my life. I think of money first. Although at times I am known to trust my gut on something's. If I were you, I would just chock it up to being lucky and leave it at that."

"Yes, thank you." guess I shouldn't expect too much from her, but a chance for this means a lot to me. I just hope Uefi is in better spirits than he was before. I think with remembrance of my last time seeing him.

"Alright then, let's get started then. I'm going to give you all of today to prepare in anyway you like, whether that be to not prepare at all or to rig an ungodly array of traps for you to use. Basically though, tomorrow you and I will go out to a field a little ways outside of ponyville and I want you to display every tool and/or spell you have at your disposal at that time. From there I will form up a plan as to how I will continue to train you. Think of it as you choosing what tool you'll be using during you time with us." She explains as she rises from her chair with a yawn. "Now if you'll excuse me, I haven't slept in the last 72 hours and I need a nap. Don't you dare wake me."

"Yes'm." I respond as I stand up and she walks down the hallway grumbling something about me being more trouble than I'm worth.

   I check the clock behind me, which now reads 7:03, and I grab my own watch off of the kitchen counter before climbing up the ladder and closing the door behind me. I better get to library before it closes.

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   I arrive at the library and check my watch, which now reads 7:34. The place is a little bit simpler yet a little more extravagant that I had expected, with a simple square masonry for the foundation and walls, but a steep angled roof that I think might be evidence of a loft space. I hope this place is still open. I think as I walk inside.

   As I move through the door the stench of stale ash and an almost tangible feeling of knowledge I've always associated with these places, floods past me and I cough a little in response. I reopen my eyes and I see an array of five double sided bookshelves parallel to the walls to my left and right. Ahead of me I can see the stone shaft of a fireplace and down from it I see a small wooden podium with the silhouette of a unicorn hunched over behind it.

   Coughing once more from the ash, I make my way across the candlelit small room to the stand.

"Hello?" I call out to the dimly illuminated pony upon reaching the midway point of my journey.

"Yes?" I hear a familiar voice answer and I sigh in light relief.

"Oh, it's you Twilight. It's Sonata." I greet her as I finish making my way to the stand.

"I was wondering who would be coming by at this hour. What're you here for?" She responds as her eyes peer over her glasses to me.

"I need to see if I can get some books. I've got a list of the types I'm looking for here; so if you could look it over and recommend some to me that would be great." I answer as I pull out a notepad I had written some notes on as I was on my way to town.

   She takes the small object from my hand and I can see her eyes in the dim light moving across and down the page and her lips move quickly and without any actual speech as she reads off the page to herself.

"What's with this list?" A guide to mixing and creating sedatives, simple spring wire trap designs and a book on poisonous plants in the local area'? What exactly are you planning on doing with these?" She says with no less than an extreme of apprehension and a bit more than an iota of anger.

"Berry and I ran into some trouble with local pests around our home. Rather than buying what she would need to get rid of them, she wants me to make up a few non-lethal traps with some poison to calm them down so she can collect them and either sell or release them. It's more trouble than it's worth to me, but all she cares about is the profit." I explain my cover story to her as I take back my notepad. "So can you help me out?"

"I guess. Come on; I think we have some books on the basics of trapping and another for novice apothecaries. Those should be enough for what you're planning to do." She answers and takes a step away from her pedestal and I follow her along through the far left aisle and she grabs three books off of the various levels of shelves and hands them to me. "There you go."

"Thanks. What's the takeout policy?" I ask as we walk back to her stand.

"You get a week before you need to return them. After that we'll start to charge you a late-fee."

"Fair enough."  I say for the sake of the conversation as she writes down a few things in a logbook. "Do you know any place in town that might sell some parts or traps I could use?"

"There're a few stores along the main north road that might. They'll be open until about nine so if you get moving you might be able to get to them in time." She says and she turns the log book to face me. "Sign here." She commands while pointing a pen at a line next to the book names. I begin to sign my name in cursive and as soon as I finish my first name I realize that I subconsciously wrote my true name instead and I quickly cross it out. "Quentin? What was that about?"

"Nothing, nothing; just something from a while ago." I cover up for myself as I just sign a quick S.S. and give her back her pen. "See ya later." I say as I exit to avoid any follow up questions. I really should've watched myself there.

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   I climb down the ladder back into my home with a bag filled with a variety of traps and wires I purchased and with a few various plants and tools that were specified in my book for making a few poisons, I bought from a florist on my way back and I just hope I can figure this out in time for tomorrow.

   I walk into the center of the living room and I conjure up a table out of magical boxes in front of the couch and I set my tools down on it with the books I rented. For the rest of the night I sit on the couch and experiment with the various flowers to make up poisons to use tomorrow and, if things go as planned, in the future as well. I hope these things work.