Chapter 21 A Doomed Friendship

Orange Juice

"Prissy?" I looked at her with wide questioning eyes. Why would the pink mare who'd always been so nice to me suddenly be working with ponies who were so evil?

She looked down on me like I was nothing to her. "I am not the Prissy you once knew. I am Priscilla Pen-Rose, Institute Magistrate. You have infringed upon the laws of friendship, it is time for you all to pay the price."

She didn't even sound like Prissy! Prissy was a nice mare, the only pony in all of Stable 28 who'd cared enough about me to give me a better life. It was the whole reason she'd been banished from the Stable to begin with. This Priscilla was completely different. "What happened to you?" I sniffled.

"Everything happened to me," snarled Priscilla, taking a fighting stance, hooves spread and head down low, her face angry and teeth bared.

"Hey! Stop it!" Pumpkin Spice jumped in front of me, "You're making my best friend cry!"

One by one, my Elemental friends stepped in front of me, to protect me. I saw Blitz follow Pumpkin Spice first, an angry look on his face. Capper followed second, and I really liked that kitty-cat guy and the purple kitty that was with him. My EFS picked up on the profile of the purple one at least. Then the Guardian, who took a protective stance. I wiped away my tears as I saw my friends lining up to defend me. I looked over my shoulder to Ashe, Cherry, Wonder, Heart and Joy. Lastly Combat, who caught my eye.

"Oh fine! I hate the ashlings as much as the next pony." he stepped forward, "I don't know what's wrong with you Prissy, but I'm gonna put you down!" he lugged his gun.

"No don't!" I yelled, but it was too late, my team opened fire. Ashlings and darklings scattered and the light level stayed at a neutral amount. Priscilla was laughing the whole time and as the bullets flew toward her a shield appeared around her. The bullets appeared to bounce right off and she flung the shield away, giving us an evil smile.

"You thought simple weaponry such as that would be enough to stop me? I'm a Courser Magistrate! I'll end you!"

A wave of pink energy came toward us and the Guardian yelled, "Scatter!"

Everypony dived out of the way and as I glanced between all my friends, trying to get the attention of at least one, the energy slammed into me, throwing me backward. I fell like a bowling pin into Ashe Erza, who caught me and looked down at me. "Be careful, my Prince." She said as she stared into my upside down eyes. She hoisted me to my hooves.

"I don't want them to hurt Priscilla!" I cried.

"Then I imagine you'll want to tell them, before one of them does something rash," Ashe pointed toward Capper and Pumpkin Spice, who were about to slam some heavy magic mojo on Priscilla. My eyes widened and my wings snapped open as I jumped forward to defend her. Shoving with all my might using my wings, I sprang forward and got in the way of their attack. The pair barely avoided smashing cherry bombs and kitty claws into me.

"What in tartarus are you doing!" somepony yelled, the Guardian I think.

"OJ, watch out!" Wonder shouted.

I was facing my friends, wings snapped open to protect Priscilla. I had a turquoise colored shield around me and her, extending from my horn. "OJ, lower the shield!" Pumpkin poked at it.

"Yeah, what are you thinking?" Capper was slowly backing away, trying to get a better look.

"I'm thinking that without Priscilla, I'd never have made it out of that Stable with any scrap of sanity. She was the best thing that ever happened to me, so I think we can all afford to do the same." I looked among all my friends. Then I saw him, an ashling carrying a white rock. The rock's essence slowly lifted and circled toward me. He was hiding in an alley and none of my friends could see him or the magic. "We need to protect Prissy!" I yelled, trying to use my magic to stop the oncoming ashling magic. It didn't work.

"That's where you're wrong," Priscilla was looming over me and my shields faltered as I turned to face her. "I don't need the protection of anypony else!" a white glow took over her eyes and she slammed a hoof down on me.

"Priss…." my voice trailed away as everything went dark.

Ravager Blitzfire

"Orange!" I shouted as I saw Priscilla slam a magically enhanced hoof down on our alicorn friend. He passed out from the strength of her attack.

"Now it's time to destroy the rest of you." she snarled, taking a step around the fallen OJ.

"Not if I can help it!" I snapped, and reaching into my pack I pulled out a blue flare. I snapped it and activated the blue flame within, then tossed it toward Priscilla.

"A flare? Really? That can't be all you can do." She stared down at it and started laughing.

"It isn't," I said and a distant thundering sound could be heard. "Welcome to Sanctuary." I smiled as megaspell after megaspell rained down on Priscilla, the energy focused on her from the cannons back at the Castle.

A voice came over the radio station nearby, "We see ya, Sanctuary, we won't let you down." it was Colonel Shaw.

Colonel Ashe Erza ran to the radio booth, "We need the artillery as concentrated as possible on the Courser Magistrate. Keep it up, it's working!"

Priscilla backed away from us, her pink shield magic blinking in and out of existence. She looked worn out. She slowly began to back away, and I saw the ashlings with her doing the same. I narrowed my eyes as I noticed one ashling had a white stone with him. It looked very familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

"This isn't the last you've seen of us," spat one ashling.

"We shall retreat for now, but be warned, more actions against the pillars of friendship will result in your downfall," said Priscilla. Then magic formed around her and the ashlings and they were gone in a flash of light. Left in their place were a couple darklings. Light began to drain from the area again, but they were swiftly taken care of by Pumpkin Spice and Capper.

Just then, OJ was just beginning to come to. "Ugh, what happened?" he asked, blinking up at us.

I reached a hoof out to help him up, "I'm glad you're alright," I told him, beaming.

"I'm glad we're all alright. Where's Prissy?" he asked, looking around.

"She's gone," the Guardian told him.

"Gone?! Where?" he jumped up and started hyperventilating.

"Calm down, OJ! She's not gone, gone!" Pumpkin laughed.

"Oh, that's good!" OJ calmed down.

I stepped forward to where she had been when she disappeared. The previously white stone the ashling was holding was on the ground, resting amongst other pieces of gravel that now looked almost similar in color. The stone was now a dark shade of gray, and it didn't make sense. I picked it up but dropped it immediately, it was hot to the touch. "Do these rocks look familiar to anypony?" I asked.

"Yeah, they kinda do…" Pumpkin said. We were all looking at it now.

"More pieces of nethicite, these ones refined magicite." said Ashe Erza.

"What are they?" the Guardian asked.

Ashe sighed, "They are moonstones. Very dark magic indeed."

"Moonstone?" OJ perked up. "I've heard that before! It um…it's like um…it's like the sunstone that Greenie had!"

"No OJ, they are complete opposites." Erza explained. "Moonstones are pure evil, sunstones can be used either way."

"But…but…" OJ looked down at his hooves.

"It kinda looked like those ashlings may have been controlling Priscilla." I said.

"No, Ravager Blitzfire, it is rather quite the contrary." Erza shook her head. "The stones are manipulated by their users. The fact that three lie dead and dormant here before us is proof that Priscilla Pen-Rose chose this path of her own free will."

"But Prissy would never!" OJ protested. He was pouting and trembling. "She was a good pony! She wouldn't…"

"I'm sorry, OJ, but it looks like she did…" Wonder said, his voice trailing off as it appeared to be upsetting OJ even more.

"Then we have to find her! Try to find out why she's evil now and bring her back to the path of good!" OJ shouted, looking angry at us. I had never seen him this way. He was usually such a happy pony, but now he was just a little ball of anger. He was on the defensive, and if Priscilla was this important to him, I thought maybe it was worth looking into.

Luckily, so did Ashe Erza, "I agree with at least the first part of your statement. We do need to find her, and luckily for us, I can easily track her from these moonstones left behind."

"What about the Minute Hooves?" Press asked, tipping his hat, "Conquine is still in need of assistance. The Magistrate may no longer be there but her ashlings are."

"What doesn't make sense to me is why an Institute Magistrate would be working with ashlings from Bittsberg," Capper was stroking his chin.

Ashe had a stone in one hoof, "Perhaps when you find her, you can ask her yourself." her eyes glowed a brilliant red to match her scarlet mane and she smiled. "Aha! She is somewhere within the Manehattan ruins. I shall take a team with me to Conquine, Guardian, I trust you can handle Manehattan?"

"No problem!" he nodded.

"I recommend we check out the Museum of Witchery." said Capper.

"Why's that?" asked the Guardian.

"Yeah, detective, why is that?" I nudged him and smiled.

"It's the first place I'd look if I were traveling to Manehattan." Capper shrugged.

The Guardian nodded his understanding, "Then looks like you're coming to Manehattan."

"And I shall bring Cherry, Heart and Joy to Conquine." said Ashe. "Wonder, I will have you accompany me as well."

"But!" Wonder began to protest.

"I know you'd like to be with your coltfriend, but this is a journey he and his 5 friends must take alone." Ashe nodded to each of us. Capper stood proudly, I just felt weighed down. Pumpkin was jumping up and down in place, the Guardian was nodding his approval to the Colonel and Combat looked just as bogged down as I did.

OJ's lip was trembling, "I appreciate it Lady Ashe."

Ashe bowed her head, "Not a problem, milord." she smiled and winked at Orange Juice. With that, it was time to head in our own separate directions. Our group went to the Sanctuary train station and Ashe's ducked through the portal to Conquine.

Orange Juice

You have discovered

MANEHATTAN WEST GATE BRIDGE

Said a message in the upper left of my EFS. We had just gotten off the train at West Gate Station and were now crossing the bridge into Manehattan. Cars and carriages were parked along the road everywhere, a lot of them having crashed as driver's must've lost control, but most of them just abandoned where they'd sat. Manehattan had definitely received the worst of the brunt of megaspells all those years ago. It looked exactly like Bittsberg, a bombed out husk of its former self.

"Elephant graveyard," I murmured beneath my breath as I remembered a book Bookworm had read to me once. It had been about a kitten in a big bad wasteland like world who had to fight a bigger cat to win back the home he'd grown up in. Maybe we were going to have to fight a bigger cat. I looked over at Capper, thinking about it.

"We aren't gonna have to fight any cats!" Pumpkin was bouncing along beside me.

"How do you know what I was thinking about?" I asked her.

"You were muttering things about Bookworm and storybooks under your breath." she told me. "And you don't have to worry, things like that are all fiction. This is the real world! Where we have to fight raiders and ashlings instead!" she smiled gleefully, probably thinking she was helping.

"That's not very reassuring ya know." Capper pointed out.

"It isn't?" Pumpkin creased her brows and tilted her head.

"By any standard, no." he lifted his index.

"We'll be okay!" I told the group. "We have to be!"

"That isn't reassuring either, Orange Juice," Buck started laughing.

"What would be?" Blitzfire shook his head. "I don't look around this city and see any sort of reassurance, so maybe we should just stop looking."

"I won't stop looking for Priscilla! Not until I find her. Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to give up on a friend," I stuck my tongue out at him and he stopped in his tracks. He quickly caught up with the group again.

Ravager Blitzfire

Maybe Orange Juice was right. Right about one thing at least. But I didn't like to think about that. I just couldn't help it though, my mind always got the better of me and I had to let myself think about it or I'd never be able to relax…OJ had reminded me of Nexus and how I'd abandoned my mission to find my friend a long time ago. There was nothing I could do now. Or so I thought…

You have discovered

MUSEUM OF WITCHERY

New quest

THE BINX-SABERHAGEN GUIDED TOUR

What that meant, I had no idea. Then I saw a catlord come waltzing out of the museum. We all stopped where we stood, looking at the black cat curiously. "What in the…" Capper was at a loss for words.