Chapter 21

Hay Bales?

Now, back to the present moment…

"You think he's okay, Rainbow?" Apple Jack whispered as the six girls gathered around the cash register, at Sugar Cube Corner.

Rainbow Dash glanced over at the isolated "assassin," Blitzkrieg, and squinted. Her friends thought she knew Blitz better than the rest of them, but she had no clue what was bothering the lonely stallion; he teased his cupcake with one finger, softly sniffling, and even Flutters had never seen him cry before. "I-I don't know."

Rarity spoke, poignantly, "We must do something. I can't bear to see him cry, again."

Fluttershy nodded in agreement, also taking a glance at Haiex.

"Well, Sugarcube, AJ gots all the others busy gettin' supplies, given us time so we can fix him," Apple Jack whispered.

Apple Jack's hushed statement appeared to make Blitz's ears flick; the six mares and Blitz were the only ones in Sugar Cube Corner, everybody else was still back in the town hall for Shining Armour was heading a resistance force.

"I can't believe I did that," Blitz mumbled and then turned to look across the room at the six mares, from under his hood. His silence had held for the good part of the hour, but now it seemed Apple Jack's remark had cracked it. "I'm sorry. Life is precious. I rationalized it all...as me being 'Time Lord Victorious' and able to change anything I wanted without a feeling of guilt." Blitz's voice reached the mares, but faintly and panged with remorse.

The mares turned to the stallion, confused by the sentence. Twilight motioned to Dash to go to him, but ended up dragging her to Blitz (with the others' help).

Dash gulped and kneeled down, taking Blitz's hands and shuttering with the idea of the blood on them. She took a breath in, then breathed out, looking Blitz straight in the eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words escaped her parted lips.

To everyone's surprise, Fluttershy spoke up, "In hindsight, Blitz, it was either us or them. Right?" Fluttershy stuttered with the question, but when the words hit the air all the mares were shocked by the statement.

Blitz slid his hood off and smiled as he took Dash's hands again, kiss the backs of her palms, and then stood up to put his hands on Fluttershy's shoulders. There were still tears in the stallion's eyes, but none broke over his cheeks, "It may seem like that, doesn't it." He sniffled again, "Thank you; that means a lot coming from the Element of Kindness. You know it isn't my nature to kill..."

The friends saw the small smile trying to form on Blitz's lips and their jaws dropped, both by Fluttershy's statement and that Blitz seemed to be sucking his tears in and getting back to telling them orders.

As the clatter of the train droned on, THE TWELVE ADVENTURES the mane twelve sat in the lonely train car and discussed their plans.

"Alright everypony, this task from the Princesses and Princes didn't foresee any danger along our way, but thanks to Blitz's procured tools, we stand a chance." Twilight waited for Dusk to roll out a map, amongst them, to give a lay of their first location.

"Since we presume Canterlot and the Crystal Kingdom have fallen, our next stop has to be Appaloosa." Dusk saw the accepting nods and was about to continue when Rarity interrupted.

"Wait, dust on our 'new' uniforms?" Rarity gasped and started to shiver in Elusive's arms.

The friends surveyed themselves in acknowledgement of the question, only to find that they too wanted to shiver; strategically, Blitz had made a few adjustments to Rarity's "stealth mission" uniforms: all of them were based on the basic template of Blitz's own robes, but tailored to each's individual skill sets (meaning the pouches, holsters, slings, straps...etc). However, though they were tailored with each individual in mind (visual appearance as well), they were all white with a red belt.

"Blitz, why are we all wearing red and white, and these?" Dash inspected the symbol on her belt and her vambraces.

Blitz, without taking his gaze from the nearby window, answered in a calm tone. "Because, it was foretold. Plus, if any were to find us they wouldn't be able to tell that we're the Element Bearers." His voice fell soft, "And, the vambraces and insignias are what the assassins wore; the ones who taught me. By the way, don't take the safeties off, yet." Blitz fell silent and relaxed against the back of the bench he was on, as he surveyed his friends and the table in front of them.

"What makes you think we'll be spotted?" Twilight asked. "I mean, Appaloosa is home to friends." She exchanged a confused look with the rest of the friends, then turned to Blitz as he turned to the window, again.

"I know, but just as I suspected...they too, aren't alone." Blitz, keeping his gaze out the window, pointed to the dark storm clouds that seemed to be looming over Appaloosa.

The friends exchanged quick glances of fear and soon turned to comfort Apple Jack, who was worrying for Braeburn and her kin.

AJ turned to Blitz, as he held Apple Jack, and his hopeful stare and tone crumbled as he spoke. "What we gonna do anyway? We barely escaped Canterlot."

Everyone fell into the same, despaired, silence AJ had cloaked them with as they awaited Blitz's answer.

"It's almost sixteen hundred hours, which means the Princes and Princesses are going to be changing the sky, soon." Blitz's tone was solid and monotone, almost as Maud Pie's (since I now know who she is), and even he could feel the evanescent fear that was starting to envelope the group.

"Which means?" Spike finally broke the silence with his chipper tone, as he looked from Spines to the rest of the group. The two "sidekicks" had been silent the entire ride over, both admiring their handiwork (really Rarity's and Elusive's) and nibbling on gems that Rarity had brought along for them.

The rest of the group turned to eye the two kids, sitting on either side of Dusk and Twilight, and awaited the eerie silence they thought would follow. Then, Blitz spoke again, after reacting to the question as if an idea had struck him.

"What did you ask, Spike?" Blitz grinned a mischievous grin, sparks of electricity rolling over his hands.

Spike gulped, but Spines remarked, "He asked why you brought up the changing of the sky."

Blitz grinned even wider now, "Because, Spines...assassins always move with the element of surprise."

Bubbles leaned over to whisper to Pinkie, "I think we lost him."

Pinkie giggled, "Oh, come on, being spies is our thing." Pinkie kept giggling, but what really caught the group's attention is when she popped out a folded cardboard box from her hair.

An hour passed, letting our TWELVE ADVENTURERS (and two sidekicks) take a snooze on the train, stationed at the platform, as they waited for the moon to rise. However, Spike and Spines never really fell asleep, either it was Pinkie's or Bubble's snoring or just their anxiety, and they decided to keep an eye out for trouble.

Spines, the more courageous one of the two, had traded in her skirt and pigtails for what Blitz called "the Professor's uniform," (What? Her 11th regeneration had fashion) and a Stetson. She polished what look like a metal yo-yo and a dagger, by the light of the moon, but was interrupted by the shadow of her partner. "Do you mind, Spike?" She whispered her annoyance and looked up, taken aback to see Spike wasn't wearing his usual spikes and chains.

Spike must've changed when Spine's wasn't paying attention, but what a difference. A complete contrast to the green hair and purple shirt, Spike had dawned a whole suit of armour, a sword as his waist, a helmet with a green plume, and a red cape that went to his calves. Spike blushed a little as he saw Spines look him up and down, naturally taking a heroic stance as he rested his left hand on his sword's grip. "Too much?" The young boy gave a sheepish, fanged, grin as he asked his female counterpart.

"Whoa," Spines' jaw dropped as she looked up at the knight. "No, not really, but where did you get that?" Spines rose to see eye to eye with Spike, blushing a little herself.

Spike took a step back, flustered under Spines' gaze. "Blitz gave me a choice of this or another 'assassin' costume, just before we came. I asked how he knew my dream and he just said, 'Sometimes Luna and Artemis are not the only ones,' and he handed me the sword. But weird insignias, don't you think?" Spike pointed to the pointed, red, cross on his chest plate, and drew his solar-metal (Pony gold) plated sword while pointing to the crosses on the blade.

Spines, slowly regaining her wits, reminded herself of the detective she was and whipped out her eyeglass and took a very good look at the sword. "Very different from what everypony else is wearing." She looked up, into the emerald eyes of her partner, and sort of fell into a trance.

Spike and Spines both fell into that same trance as they looked at one another, but were soon shaken to their senses as they heard snarls and footsteps coming along the train platform.

Spines instinctively looked over to see the conductor sound asleep, in the control room, and then reached for her yo-yo. However, though tensed and ready to fight, Spines' guard was lowered by what Spike did next.

Maybe it was the armour, or the flutter of his heart that made Spike step in front of Spines. It didn't matter, though, as tunnel vision set in and images of Rarity, Twilight, and Spines popped into the dragon's mind; he trained his vision on the open door just in front of him. The sway of Spike's cape settled in tune with the drawing of his sword and the kid was ready for what came next.

The footsteps got closer and soon a steel sword tip peaked around the side of the door. There was a slither of a tongue as one of the changeling stepped in front of the doorway, readying his sword against the moonlight.

"Get the others," Spike whispered to Spines, then rushed the foe, giving a battle cry as swords were heard clashing. "This is just like my dream," he thought as he pushed the changeling backwards and quickly spun to his left to see the other changeling rush him, a lance in its hand. The lance was parried by Spike's greatsword, pushing the knight back as he himself tried to shove the lance away. "Two against one," Spike thought. "Why didn't I just run like before?" The question crossed Spike's mind as he parried another slash from the first changeling, then he turned to see Spines and Rarity at the window of the train, looking at him in awe and he realised why he was fighting. "I was given this sword for a reason," he both thought and whispered, under his breath, and the words gave him strength.

The first changeling recovered from the last parry and came for another attack, his lanced friend waiting to get a clear shot as he hoisted his lance into a throwing position.

Spike waited for his opponent's blade to come down on his, puffing out some embers of green fire. The blades made contact and Spike shoved the changeling's blade aside as he called upon the short lesson Blitz had gave him on greatsword fighting. Spike let his blade fall and used it's momentum to spin him around and felt the blade sink into his enemy.

Rarity and Spines were blinded by the moonlight as it danced off Spike's armour, and only were able to open their eyes to see Spike's blade strike and splinter the platform beneath him.

"He just vanished?" Spike gasped, paralyzed as he pondered where the changeling had gone.

A crackle arouse from the lanced changeling's throat, loud enough for only Spike to hear, "Nigh-ty nigh-t." The changeling hurled the lance at Spike, as if a spear, and the changeling's grin caught the light of the moon.

Spike looked up and saw the lance spiraling through the air and his eyes widened, and like any knight before him he raised his sword to protect himself, and awaited the cold steel. The thought of the pain made Spike clench his eyes and teeth, but the pain never came. The former dragon opened his eyes to see Spines at the door of the train, holding the string to her yo-yo which led to the lance. "She must've lassoed it out of the air, like Apple Jack," Spike thought.

Spines gave her partner a grin, but her expression soon changed as she saw the changeling charging Spike. "Watch out!"

"I got this," a very familiar, pompous, voice called from atop the train. Seemed Rainbow Dash and the others had been awoken by the commotion, and in her usual flair she let her arrow fly.

Spike held his ground this time and turned to the changeling, pulling his blade back, but only to see his enemy fall just in front of his boots, with an arrow through the chest.

"Yeah! Alright! I got him." Dash then started to feel a bit queasy as she started to think she had just killed somepony. She looked back at where the changeling had fell, bracing herself to hurl, but she just stood puzzled as she saw her arrow just lying there. "What the?"

"Nice job back there, Spike." Blitz dawned his hood as he and the friends entered the town.

"For?" Spike asked, following just behind the stallion.

"Courage and getting that blade whet," Blitz gave Spike a fanged grin and then turned to survey the town again.

The rest of the friends dawned their hoods, giving Spike toothy smiles in turn, and quickly followed Blitz's hand motions to scatter and find cover with the shadows. The black figure, himself, darted down the lane and up the clock tower to get a better vantage point.

"Why is he perching himself up there? They'll see him," Dash whispered.

"Yeah, and he ain't no monkey nor bird," Apple Jack criticized.

Then, the unthinkable happened. As Blitz scanned the town, a pair of changelings, carrying weapons and only distinguishably by their uniforms, which bore the same crosses as Spike's armour, came around the bend. Blitz didn't seem to see them, but the friends did.

"Uh, they're going to see him," Pinkie squeaked, then quickly disappeared in one of her pink smoke bombs.

The guards looked up at where the pink smoke was emanating, along with coughing, and quickly crouch to stalk over.

Blitz looked to his 3 o'clock and sighed, "Great..." Then, as if clockwork, as soon as the two changeling were directly in front of the hay cart, which was directly below Blitz, a party cannon went off somewhere north of him. The guards turned their backs to the clock tower and Blitz saw his chance, "I hope this works." Blitz quickly rushed down the side of the tower till his feet were firm on the roof of the building beneath; with a breath in and faith in landing safely in the hay cart, Blitz leapt from the roof and landed with a rustle and a creek. "Good thing we pack this stuff tightly," Blitz thought as he poked at the fluffy hay he was now laying in.

One guard asked the other, "What do you think that was?" At the sound of the hay, behind them, the guards turned around and started poking at the hay cart with their swords.

Blitz popped out, just barely missing being impaled, and stabbed the two guards in the throats with his wrist-blades. As Blitz saw the two vanish, not blinking just to witness such, the words escaped his lips, "Requiescant en pace."

"Did Blitz just jump into hay and take them out?" Dash inquired.

"Did Pinkie fire her party cannon all the way down there, so fast? Where was she even hiding that thing?" Apple Jack responded, waving smoke from her eyes.

The group of friends exchanged shrugs and quickly joined Blitz and Pinkie at the far end of the lane.

"Got something there," Elusive whispered as he daintily extracted a straw of hay from Blitz's cloak.

Blitz brushed at the spot soon after, while Twilight started her speech. "How did you even make those calculations so quickly? I mean, trajectory and velocity and," Twilight was making to ramble on, but was cut off by Blitz's raised hand.

"I didn't make calculations. Just call it, a 'leap of faith.'" Blitz gave a soft chuckle as the phrase escaped his lips. He didn't actually know why the words had tickled his humour, but he didn't let that stop his movement into the heart of the town.

Apple Jack put her arm around Twilight, as she passed the dumbstruck girl, and led her as she herself followed Blitz. She then saw a light in one of the upstairs windows, "Braeburn," she whispered. A relieved sigh escaping her lips and, as if by instinct, her golden hair fell over her eyes as she tilted her head forward. The rush of anxiety that escaped her could surely be felt by Twilight.

"Apple Jack?" Twilight looked from her friend to the light in the window, and then back to where her friend should've been. "What?" The unicorn panicked a little, but calmed as she saw the freed, golden, ponytail enter into the lit house. She got Blitz's attention next, "Let's follow. Get our bearings."

Blitz and the others agreed and swiftly followed into the house. The lights went out and a net was thrown in the dark. There were muffled grunts and staggered calls of assurance from the friends as the door closed and the lights came back on. The friends found themselves on the floor, restrained by the cowboys and cowgirls that stood around them.

"Well, well. I guess you changeling do come up with new ideas. But not very bright ones." There were clinks of spurs and shuffling of feet. A figure with a yellow plaid shirt, brown vest, cowboy hat, and boots with spurs came out from the back of the house, holding close a gaged and bound Apple Jack. The figure looked at Apple Jack and then at the friends before speaking, "I know my cousin when I see her. Besides, y'all got it wrong because you forgot her hat." The figure tugged on Apple Jack's folded hood, "And what in Equestria is this? She and her friends never wore this."

Blitz gave Dusk a nod and the former unicorn discreetly used his magic to unravel the gag on Apple Jack, his fingers glowing ever so slightly.

The figure let go of Apple Jack and stepped back with the others as Apple Jack freed herself and spun around.

"You got some nerve tyin' me, your cousin, up like that. And you better tell your posse to git off my friends." Apple Jack intimidatingly poked at Braeburn's "sheriff" badge and stood her ground.

Under his breath AJ murmured, "That's my girl."

Blitz took the sudden moment of confusion to push the boot off him and get to his knees. "Look, Braeburn. It's your kin and her friends-" the wind was knocked out of him before he could continue.

It was a spurred boot to the side that knocked Blitz over, then pressed his torso to the ground. "I don't think we should trust them, Braeburn." The girl, who owned the boot crossed both arms over her knee and leaned on her prisoner as she tipped her hat up.

"I bet your right, Jazz," Braeburn said, getting ready to tackle Apple Jack. "Prove yourself, 'Apple Jack.'"

Apple Jack reached for the rope that should've been at her side, but just grasped at air. "Git me my rope," Apple Jack squinted her eyes at Braeburn.

"Fine," Braeburn motioned for one of his posse to give him the confiscated lasso. He then slowly handed it to Apple Jack, "I know you Changelings can't mimic pony's abilities so well, so if you try anything," Braeburn hinted at the two muscled men behind him.

Apple Jack yanked the lasso away. "Only thing I'll be tryin' is to lasso her," Apple Jack started twirling her lasso as she pointed at Jazz. "Now git off my friend," Apple Jack let the lasso fly, it encircled Jazz and she tightened the knot about the bewildered girl, then yanked her over and Jazz fell at her capture's feet.

The next thing Jazz knew her arms and legs were bound above her, "How the?"

Apple Jack looked at her hands, then touched her lips and realised she hadn't used her mouth at all. In a bewildered tone, "I guess it's like hogtying a pony?"

Everyone lay or stood where they were, astonished at Apple Jack's quickness.

A whistle escaped Braeburn's lips and he went right up and hugged Apple Jack, "There's only one pony with a time like that." The exclamation queued the posse to help the rest of the friends up and in turn Apple Jack helped Jazz up.

"Jeez, if it ain't AJ, I guess it's his doppleganger," Jazz tipped her hat to Apple Jack as she got to her feet. "Name's Jazz."

"Apple Jack. And that's AJ." Apple Jack pointed over to her doppleganger as she shook Jazz's hand.

"Well, I suspected by the muscles," Jazz let out a soft giggle at her own remark and Apple Jack joined her.

"Yup, you can say that again."

"And, who's the one in the armour?" Jazz pointed to Spike.

"That there's Spike, and the girl in the suit is Spines," Apple Jack acknowledged.

"Spines? As in Dusk's baby dragon? Then Spike must be her doppleganger, 'cause they look alike." Jazz made sense of the resemblance and a small blush rose in her cheeks as she admired the "armoured knight."

The rest of the friends, as it so happened, soon forgot the whole ordeal as they chatted up with Braeburn's posse and got their bearings on who's who.

"So, what's with the getups, cous'?" Braeburn tugged at Apple Jack's hood again, "Where's your signature hat?"

"Well," Apple Jack started as she turned to face Braeburn, "Blitz said that we wouldn't be recognized as the Element Bearers with these here costumes. Fooled you, didn't it?" Apple Jack tugged at her robe and belt.

"Sure did, A.J., but who's Rainbow Blitz? And how'd y'all know we were in trouble?" Braeburn screwed up his face a little.

Apple Jack pointed to the only black robes in the room, "That there is Rainbow Blitz."

"Geez, not being conspicuous much? Looks like something Discord would wear to mock y'all." Braeburn elbowed his cousin with a joking air about him.

Rainbow Blitz flicked an ear and grin at the remark, his eyes twinkling a green hue, then snapped his fingers and vanished in a Discordian fashion.

Everyone was stunned at the magical spectacle, but Braeburn just gulped. "Did h-he have fangs? He is Discord!" Braeburn's eyes grew wide and he started to turn tail, but was stopped mid-panic by Blitz himself who had appeared behind him.

In Blitz's deep accent, but trying to mimic Discord in pattern, "Well, yes. I do have fangs." He hissed out each "s" to give more affect, gaining a grin as he saw Braeburn go flush.

"Blitz! Knock it off, you're scarin' him." Apple Jack tapped her foot.

Blitz's eyes went wide as he realised his joke went a little too far, surveying Braeburn and the rest of the timid friends. "Right…you're right. Sorry," He took Braeburn's hand and shook the limp arm in greeting. "Sorry about that, don't know what came over me, but I assure you that I'm a regular pony and not Discord."

"But-but, t-the f-fangs," Braeburn stuttered, gulping once again. "Ponies, don't got fangs."

At that remark, though it should've just been Pinkie and Bubbles, but everyone in the room stuck a finger in their mouth and examined their flat teeth. However, Blitz, Spike, and Spines shrugged almost at the same time and echoed each other, "We got fangs, don't all of you?" The three fanged humans looked at one another in surprise of the similar question, but their eyes shied to the floor as everyone else in the room shot Blitz confused looks.

Though everyone was frozen in place by their discovery, Fluttershy wasn't, and she quickly stomped over to Blitz and examined his fangs, "Yeah, he still has them."

"Still?" Everyone looked at her in surprise.

Dash spoke up next, feeling a little embarrased, "What do you mean, still? I've never noticed them."

"You never looked, did you?" Fluttershy looked at her then a Blitz.

"Yeah, I totally did." Rainbow Dash soon felt her cheeks run hot and she herself quickly gave Blitz's mouth an inspection and then a kiss. She turned back to Fluttershy, "Yup, he still has them." At this point Dash's face was almost as pink as Pinkie's hair, then she stated, stuttering, "How would you know, anyway?"

Fluttershy gave a small smile and then reach behind Blitz's ear and gave him a scratch. Blitz slowly smiled and leaned against her hand as he enjoyed the sensation, almost letting his tongue hang out. Fluttershy spoke to her and to the rest of the room, "Well, when you take care of an alicorn colt with fangs, unchecked magic, a love for animals, and who acts like Winona, himself, you tend not to forget things."

The group held back a snicker as Blitz snapped out of his satisfaction and stood up right, again, scratching his ear.

"Wait a hoof stompin' minute. Are you tellin' us that black colt you were babysittin' a couple of months back, was Blitz? The one Apple Bloom had a crush on?" Apple Jack questioned, astonished.

The remark, unknown to Blitz it seemed, affected a blush on the stallion's cheeks.

"Haiex," Fluttershy corrected, with an air of pride, as she turned to smile at Apple Jack.

"Wait, you mean Blitz was the colt that was going to school with Sweetie Belle and the others?" Rarity asked, dumbstruck.

Blitz nodded, "Yes, and by the way, thanks for the lessons on sowing and design." The stallion smiled to her and Rarity blushed, almost immediately.

Through Rarity's fluster, she managed to gasp, "No wonder you were so good at the boutique."

Dusk intervened as he saw all the Ponyville friends step back a few steps from Blitz, save for him and Fluttershy. "Let's all just calm down and get to matter at hoof." Dusk pointed outside the nearby window, "'Cause I think they heard us."

Everyone's curiosity with Blitz was snuffed out with the lights. There was a shuffle of hoods and feet and then a light flooded through the window, washing over the floor. The changeling outside moved its flashlight this way and that, but found no one. It quickly moved to the next house as the unseen group let out sighs of relief from their hiding spots, in the dark.

Twilight put a hand on Dusk's shoulder, gave him a peck on the cheek, and congratulated him. "Thanks for the save, Dusk," though Twilight and him had made a promise to show neither one more than sibling affection, they were both glad there was no light to show their blushed cheeks.

Jazz whispered, "Alright, let's get a move on." In the dark she felt her way to the back door and the rest of the group soon followed suit.

"It's almost sunrise," Butterscotch murmured as they rushed out into the side lane.

Blitz nodded and whispered to the group, "Us 'assassins' have to find a place to hold up till we find how to fix this place."

"Fix? How? We only came to deliver a message," Dusk whined.

Blitz shot him a look, but before he could speak, Trouble Shoes tipped his hat up and spoke.

"I may have a place. The front door's sealed shut, along with the windows, but there's a hole in the roof." Trouble gave a timid grin as he looked at Braeburn.

Braeburn nodded, "Yup. It's been under construction for a while, but I think that would be a great spot to hold up."

Blitz gave a nod and his friends soon followed him as he followed Braeburn to the "safe house."