Blue, part two: A shattered country

Two days earlier

Mare-Do-Well was down to the last suspect. Typical. She could have chosen any order in which to investigate the possible culprits, and she took the wrong one. Hopefully, she'd arrive before it's too late.

Two weeks ago, in a clearing by the road

Flitter was struck with worry. Here they are, in the specified meeting spot, yet nopony is in sight. She glanced around the brown and crimson leaves; each of them crisp as a cracker. Winter was definitely coming, and if they hope to escape Equestria, they need to leave before most of the passes are covered in snow. Even though Bon Bon said she had a book about finding food in the wilderness, she had her doubts. Doubts that her sister and Cloud Kicker didn't seem to share.

Cloudchaser was absentmindedly drawing in the dirt. A house, a bird... then she would swipe it, and start over. Flitter sighed. She loved her sister, but sometimes she wondered if she got dropped on her head at childbirth. Every now and then, she would whimsically do whatever she pleased, often angering or shocking ponies. Last time, she flirted around with every stallion at a party they were invited to. Oh, how long ago it seems now...

"Hey, sis, how many heads does a chimaera have?" Cloudchaser asked.

"Concentrate, CC!" Flitter snapped. "We're escaping, not that you would notice it."

"Hey, I did notice it," her sister said defensively. "Doesn't mean I should get all uppity about it. Bon Bon said she will come, so she will come."

"Yeah, she's a trusty fella'," Cloud Kicker added. "Kinda' shame, that she lost her sister."

Flitter shivered.

"I don't even want to think about such a horrible thing."

"Relax, I'm here, you're here, we're all fine!" Cloudchaser interjected. "Not like we're gonna suddenly get assaulted or something."

"Please don't curse it." Flitter hissed. Maybe they should—

Hoofsteps. Careful, silent, but definite hoofsteps. She looked around, trying to identify the source of the noise. The setting sun presented an especially eerie feel to the few trees that were in her view. When she finally thought that her ears were playing with her, a pony stepped out from the bushes, startling the three of them. He had a grey coat, and a pillow as a cutie mark. Cloudchaser grinned, and started to make a depiction of the newcomer in the dirt.

"Good evening, ladies." the newly arrived stallion greeted them. "What might you do around here?"

Flitter was angry. Of all the ponies that could have found them, the annoying little twat that always made half-assed moves on her sister was the one. Indeed, as many times as they've met, Silent Song always tried to woo Cloudchaser, but was thwarted mostly by his own awkwardness at handling social situations. Flitter suspected that her sister was amused by such persistence, but she knew for a fact that she'd never consider him as a coltfriend.

"Uh, hey, we're kinda in the middle of something, so could you please kindly leave?" Cloud Kicker was starting to sweat, nervous of the possibly revealing presence. The stallion smiled.

"Why, are you going away? I can do better, really!" He glanced at Cloudchaser. "Hey, uh, CC, if you want, you can come and live with me, I swear I am really good at hiding stuff. C'mon, just you and me!"

Cloudchaser stopped drawing, and sprang on her hooves. She closed in on the stallion menacingly.

"Listen here, you... you brat! I turned down Spitfire's offer of protection, because she couldn't guarantee my sister's safety! What makes you think I'd follow a screwup of a unicorn like you, and to top it off, alone?!"

Silent Song's eyes twitched.

"Take that back."

"I'm sorry, take what back?" asked Cloudchaser, pretending to be oblivious of the answer. Her tone turned malicious. "Oh, that's right! Failure! Failure, failure, failure!"

Flitter was about to interrupt, but the stallion let out an inarticulate scream, and at the same time, he shot a burst of magic at them. Distracted by dodging it, they didn't notice him pulling a small bottle, which he smashed against Cloudchaser's head. She screamed, but in moments, she groggily fell to her haunches, staring in utter confusion. Cloud Kicker started to retreat backwards, but it proved to be her undoing, for she didn't notice another bottle coming in, until it was too late. Flitter ran to her sister's slide, who slowly collapsed into a heap on the ground.

"Y-you monster! What did you do to them?!"

The stallion gave him a smile, a smile she'd never forget as long as she lived. His eyes diluted ito prinpricks, and he cackled maniacally as he slowly closed the distance between them.

"What did I do to them? Oh, just some effective drugs I got my hooves on. Don't worry, they're alive, just knocked out until I can bring them home."

"Home?! You're insane!"

"Insane? No, I'm fed up. Fed up of you bucking whores acting like every stallion is unworthy of you!" His demeanor completely changed, and he started shouting. "Oh, how many times I dreamed of this! Rejection after rejection, but now... now she is MINE!"

He lunged at Flitter, trying to hit her with a third bottle. She nimbly dodged, and bucked backwards. She felt it connect, and the unicorn crashed into a tree. She immediately stood on top of him, raising a hoof. She had no choice. It was kill, or be killed.

"Any last words?" she spat. The stallion smiled evilly.

"Behind you."

Flitter felt a prick in her back; soon, she felt completely overwhelmed; the stallion easily bounced her off, and got back on his hooves. He levitated an empty syringe in front of her eyes.

"Had a backup plan, broad."

He suddenly kicked her in the stomach with full force, causing her to wince in pain.

"THAT'S FOR PAYBACK, BITCH!" he yelled. He quickly regained his composure, disappearing from her sight. She tried to command every muscle, every fiber of her being one by one; yet, she couldn't move. Somehow, she was not unconscious, unlike her two companions. After a minute of meaningless struggle, the stallion came back with a cart strapped to him. He carefully steered it into the clearing, then stepped over to Cloud Kicker. A vicious grin appeared over his face, and he lowered himself to the unconscious pegasus. He raised her head a bit, then, without any indication, he gave her a deep kiss.

Flitter wanted to throw up, but her whole body was rebelling against her. Meanwhile, the stallion hauled Cloud Kicker on the cart, and moved on to Cloudchaser. He grinned to himself, and pulled Flitter next to her sister with his telekinetic grip.

"I know I should wait for these things until I get home... but I simply can't resist it! Now, you're going to watch closely."

He got Cloudchaser into a sitting position, making flitter face her front. Then, with a devious grin, he pulled open her legs, revealing her genitals to her own sister.

"STOP THIS BUCKING INSTANT!"

The stallion's lack of reaction was simply because Flitter could not scream. She could only watch helplessly as the raving stallion felt up every nook and cranny of her sister's sex. Cloudchaser didn't even seem to notice it in her dreamlike, drug-induced knockout.

What seemed like years after, the stallion finally stopped harassing her sister, and put her on the cart, too. He leaned closer with an arrogant smile.

"So, how was that? Because I'm going to do that to her until the rest of her life. I will keep her safe, I will be gentle with her, and I'm going to have children with her. As for you..." He shot her a pitying look. "I don't really need you. But if you want, you can join in on the fun." he winked.

Something snapped in Flitter. The sudden rush of adrenaline gave her enough control to spit the stallion in the face. He recoiled, but then he bucked her in the head furiously,and pinned her down, face up. He frantically looked around, until he found what he was looking for: a sharp, long piece of broken glass, which he levitated in front of the terrified Flitter's right eye.

"So. You do realise that you wronged me, right?"

It took all of Flitter's energy to produce a simple nod. The stallion grinned.

"It's nice that we cleared that up."

With a sudden move, he jammed the glass right in Flitter's eye. The pegasus screamed silently as the whole world turned into a sea of blood-red pain.

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Two days ago

Mare-Do-Well closed in on the house. She only found out recently that Silent Song had a basement, which only had an entrance inside his house. Pretty suspicious. Also, her last chance at finding her friends—if the pillow wasn't a clue to the ponynapper's identity, she's thoroughly bucked—and so are her friends.

She shook her head. Concentrate! To her own surprise, she was better at this sneaking thing than she had anticipated. Not a single soul found out that she checked out two ponies’ cellar, completely breaking a lock while breaking in. Or perhaps they were too ignorant to notice. Either way, it worked in her favour.

She carefully opened the house's back door. It was late in the night, yet she knew Silent Song wasn't home. Carefully tiptoeing her way through the house, she noticed the lack of personal feel to the house. No books. No trophies, medals, or anything of accomplishment. Sure, there was sufficient furniture, but it was dull, as if the house's only purpose was to keep the rain out and collect dust.

She carefully made her way towards a steel door, which she supposed led into the basement. She took out a small piece of metal, picking the lock with it. As the door opened, she quickly stuffed it in the mechanism, preventing the door to be locked. She peered at the darkness down.

Suddenly, the air became heavy with a strange stench. Steeling herself, she carefully crawled down the stairs, which had a thick steel grating to them, preventing falling down. As she reached halfway, the smell intensified, and she could finally identify the mix of scents. She wished she couldn't. The one she recognised first was the smell of feces and urine. The second was the smell of sex and semen. The third... a sickening, slightly sweet scent, which she only encountered once in her life. Decay.

She reached to her belt, and raised a small lantern in her hooves. Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, she found the missing escapees. What was left of them.

All three of them were chained to the wall. Cloud Kicker stared lifelessly at her, a large puddle of blood under her, that slowly dripped from her slashed neck. Flitter looked like the victim of a catastrophe; both of her eyes were stabbed out, and she had knife wounds all over her body. Cloudchaser hung by her hooves, her body full of bruises. To top it all, all three were covered in body fluids. Namely, a stallion's body fluids.

Mare-Do-Well nearly threw up. She managed to repress it, only a startled grunt escaping her masked lips. To her great surprise, there was a reaction.

Cloudchaser raised her head. Her eyes were slightly out of focus, because of the lantern.

"Mare... Do-Well?" she asked in a deep, raspy voice. Hope crawled back into Mare-Do-Well's mind.

"It's all right, CC, I'm here. I'll get you out in a—"

The pegasus bucked her in the chest, causing her to fall backwards.

"LOOK OUT!" she screamed. In a moment later, Mare-Do-Well shivered as a devilish contraption hit the place she was standing at. She sprang to her hooves, and faced the stallion. He was holding something straight from a nightmare in his magical grip: some sort of elliptic metal with a handle; and all through the ellipsis' curve, blades were sticking out of it, rotating rapidly. She never saw anything like that, but one glance at it confirmed that it would be able to tear through flesh and bone. He gave them a chilling smile.

"Hello, Miss Intruder. You know, I've spotted you along time ago; I figured you won't come in until I'm home... so I hid in an alleyway, and hey, what gives, you break into my house! Perfect timing, as I need a new toy to play with." He tapped the side of the strange machine. "You probably noticed that this doesn't make a single sound. That's right. I made it that way. In fact, the whole house is soundproof. Amazing what a few spells can do."

Mare-Do-Well lunged at him, interrupting his long boasting. He quickly stepped to the side, swinging his contraption. The tip of her cape got cut clean off. She hastily retreated to the steps, trying to bring the fight where it would attract attention. When she reached the door, though, it slammed before her muzzle.

"Oh, no, you don't!" the stallion shouted, running up the stairs. She rolled out of the way in the last moment, giving silent thanks that the stairs were designed to be two ponies wide. This helped her duck several swings, but ultimately, she was pushed to the grating, with the stallion readying the final blow. She closed her eyes as he raised his weapon—then shifted her position just so that the machine hit the grating behind her. The force with which he struck was so strong that the contraption recoiled from the hard steel—right into the stallions face. A silent crunch could be heard, then the unicorn dropped his weapon. Looking up in disbelief, she noticed a red line across Silent Song's head—which quickly began trickling blood. A moment later, half of his head fell down, and his lifeless body collapsed and tumbled all the way down the stairs, leaving bloodstains and chunks of brain in it's trail.

Mare-Do-Well reached her limit. She only had time to pull up the mask from her muzzle before she fiercely vomited an the ground. Gaining temporal relief, she stumbled down the stairs. Cloudchaser was breathing lightly, but she lost consciousness again. Mare-Do-Well searched around, deliberately avoiding looking at the three corpses, until she came across a plier. She quickly snapped the chains holding the pegasus—who promptly collapsed to the ground. She gingerly helped Cloudchaser on her back.

In a minute, they were standing out in the open, with Mare-Do-Well breathing in precious air after the stench of that hell-hole. She gulped. With the injured pegasus, it's unlikely that she can get away. The only one who can help her now is...

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A storm raged across the Everfree. The town's resident zebra was not startled by it the least, however, for storms were fairly common in the forest.

As thunder crackled, she quietly sipped her tea, and contemplated on colorism. Ponies were prone to xenophobia, yet this... this was something she never anticipated. For ponies to be persecuted because of their colour... She shivered. Zebras were naturally black, grey and white, so if those colours came up instead of blue... let's just say she would be forced to choose between her people and this country. And it wouldn't end well for anypony... or zebra.

Her brooding thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang on the door. She sighed, and left the cup of scalding goodness behind.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, please cease your senseless knocking."

She opened the door, startled by the sight. A pony clad in purple with a stylish hat; an all-too-familiar sight, one she thought never to see again. Last time she showed up, there was a harsh lesson to be learned for a certain somepony.

"By the devils in the frozen ninth hell, what are you doing here, mighty Mare-Do-Well?!"

Mare-Do-Well burst into the room, and gently placed the pegasus on her back to Zecora's bed. She then threw off her hat, and ripped her mask down. She looked at the zebra pleadingly.

"Help her, please," Bon Bon asked, with tears in her eyes.