CHAPTER 17
Hey everypony. It's been a busy weekend. I had to work on a movie set, so I didn't get to write any. But I'm finally back with the latest chapter. I won't keep you with a long soliloquy as usual. Here's the chapter, and I hope you enjoy it. Please review.
"Like...how was it? Dashie asked meekly as I walked into Twilight's house. I just stood there in silence a moment. Twilight was standing nearby as well, watching me for an answer. Budder walked in behind me and closed the door.
"Hey Budder." Scootaloo greeted in a melancholy tone from the stairs. My sister gave her a weak smile.
"Hey Scoots..." She replied in a careworn but friendly way. "I'm home." My sister walked up the stairs, and hugged her girlfriend warmly. Then, the two of them disappeared upstairs. My marefriend and the librarian princess were still staring quietly at me, wanting an answer. I dallied, walking into the study and falling onto the comfortable wingback chair.
"Drake?" Dashie questioned as she and Twilight walked into the room behind me. I spotted the bottle of gin on the end table, and grabbed it. In one motion, I uncorked it, took a drink and swallowed.
"Yeah, it was her..." I finally stated. They both looked at me questioningly. "She...she was in the coffin." I nodded solemnly.
"Pinkie Pie?" Dash whispered. She and Twilight shared a sad look with one another, probably at the mere mention of the name.
"Yeah."
"Then who was...who died on the roof last night?" Rainbow Dash whispered. I took another drink of gin.
"Pinkie Pie." I replied somberly.
"What?!" Twilight exclaimed. I nodded. "How?!"
"Hell if I know. First time I ever seen the same pony killed twice." I said. "But...it was her..." Rainbow Dash had a look of terror in her eyes. I knew what she was thinking, what she had to be feeling. Mostly because I was feeling it myself.
"This is totally messed up, Drake!" Dashie squeaked. It was fairly easy to tell when my marefriend was upset. Her voice would crack, almost like a teenager. "What the hay's going on here?!"
"Yeah Drake...I'm really worried now." Twilight added. "Is the town in danger?" I sighed and took another drink of gin.
"Yeah." I said. "Everypony in town is in danger." That didn't sit well with the princess at all.
"How...bad?" She squeaked. Dashie put a foreleg around her friend to try and calm her down.
"Looks like a cult, ma'am..." I replied in a low voice. "There may be a bunch of the killers, and they have something major in mind..."
"Ohmygosh...ohmygosh...ohmygosh..." She panted, pacing back and forth. "What do we do?! We have to evacuate the town!"
"You would probably be evacuating the killers with the rest." I advised.
"He's right, Twi..." Dash agreed. "We don't know who's doing this yet. If we move everypony somewhere else, the killers are gonna follow..."
"What do we do then?!" Twilight asked desperately.
"We're going to have to ferret out this gang and kill them." I stated. Dashie and Twilight stared blankly at me for a few moments. I knew what I had said. I wasn't going to just find them. I wasn't going to arrest them. This was a group of serial killers no doubt organized by the psychopath that had haunted the dreams of so many ponies for so long. I couldn't just apprehend them. This was a war, and I knew they all had to die before this would be over.
"Kill them?" Twilight asked fearfully. Dash nodded in understanding. "But...kill? Can't we just..."
"Back then...when this thing started..." I began, trying to word this is a way that was hopefully a little less than brutal. "I went in thinking I was going to arrest the killer. We saw what came of that. Now, we're looking at an army of killers, all with the same level of insanity, and their killings are getting bolder." Twilight nodded solemnly. "I know you are the princess of friendship, Miss Twilight...and you believe that all life has value." I cast my gaze downward. "All...innocent life...has value." I nodded. "Yes...everypony in this kingdom has value and deserves life, liberty and happiness...except for the ones who want to take that from others. If the good ponies here are going to have a chance at peace...or even living in some cases, other...bad ponies have to go away. It's cruel...it's mean, and it's savage. But Miss Twilight...all the innocent ponies in Equestria go to sleep every night, safe in their beds, knowing that they don't have to see violence...that they don't have to be afraid."
"Everypony is happy..." Twilight mused.
"Yep. And it's only because there are others who go out and kill...so they don't have to. There are ponies that fight the wars, kill the bad guys and save the day. That is why they can can feel safe and sound, and they never even have to think about that."
"Ponies like you." The princess whispered. Dashie was smiling sadly at me. A proud smile.
"Ponies like me. Like Captain Steele and his commandos...like sergeant Masada...fight in the dark, so everypony else can live in the warmth of the sun."
"You forgot somepony." A voice said from the doorway of the room, causing us all to turn quickly to the newcomer. "But I liked the speech. I guess I taught you a few things, huh?" The light gray mare with the black and red mane grinned a fanged smile.
"Shadow..." I said, shocked by her sudden appearance. I stood from the chair. "What are you doing here?"
"Unuhhh." She shrugged. "Heard what was up, and thought you could use some help?" Twilight backed away from the assassin, who stepped into the room. She wasn't wearing the normal tight-fitting catsuit she donned on missions, but instead had on her red, spiked collar and wristbands, telling me that she wasn't here on official business.
"It's alright, Twilight." Rainbow Dash said. "She's a friend of ours."
"Yep." I added. "This is one of those ponies I was talking about...you know, that kills evildoers to protect the innocent?" I grinned. "Only problem is, Shadow here enjoys her job a little too much sometimes."
"Oh fuck you." The teenager shot back. She stretched her bat wings indignantly. "Ugh...for fuck's sake, I was wadded up in that train for hours, man. Think I got a fuckin' crick in my neck."
"Still have a poets tongue, huh?" I joked. "Lemme guess...you didn't want to buy a ticket, so you stowed away again."
"Yeah, under one of the cars." She grumbled. "So, what's up? Other than you makin' one of your cowpony speeches again..."
"We have a pretty big gang of killers here, and they're probably going to be doing something big soon if my gut is right."
"Fuck man...your gut again? Seriously?"
"Gut?" Twilight queried, confused.
"Yeah, every time Drake gets a gut feeling, it means the world's about to end or some shit." Shadow explained. Twilight cringed. "Oh, I'm Shadow."
"Um...Twilight Sparkle."
"Ah yeah...ain't you the princess of friendship or something?" Shadow asked.
"Yes. Yes I am." Twilight replied with a smile.
"See, I read the papers." Shadow commented toward me. "Now, how many assholes do I have to kill?"
"Dunno yet." I answered with a shrug. "But I do feel better having you here, that's for sure." I smiled. "Thanks for coming." She gave a little smile and bashfully rolled her eye (her bad one still covered by a lock of red mane).
"Eh, what's family for, right?" She sighed. "So, what are we doin', Duhhhrake?"
"Well, we're working with BlackOps..." I explained. "There's a team of Colt Commandos here, oh and the Bitsraeli army too, apparently..."
"What the fuck did you get yourself into this time?" Shadow groaned.
"Dunno, but apparently a pony I killed years ago showed up at a crime scene last night." I stated. The undead assassin stared at me a moment, and blinked.
"The fuck?" She responded. "You said a dead pony came back to life, man? Like me or something?"
"No..." I answered. "There can be only one you, Shadow..." I rolled my eyes. "She's still dead, we dug her up to make sure. There was another her, though." Shadow looked at Dashie, who nodded silently.
"Fuck, Drake..." She commented. "Sounds like some paranormal stuff going on. Budder have any ideas about that?" The half-demon teenager glanced around the room. "Where's your sister anyway?" She asked curiously. "I figured she'd be glued to you like always."
"Oh, Budder's upstairs with her girlfriend." I stated dismissively.
"Oh." Shadow nodded. Then she narrowed her eyes. "Did you say..."
"Heeeyuuup." I grunted. Shadow grinned and scoffed dramatically.
"This little town's being wiped out by an army of killers, your sister's gay, Luna sent in BlackOps, and you have fuckin'...doppelgangers of dead ponies running around..."
"Pretty much..." I sighed.
"You ever end up in a situation where part of you REALLY wants somepony to sit you down and explain what the fuck is goin' on, but the other part don't really want to know?" Shadow asked cynically.
"All...the...time." I said seriously.
"Alright...I'm in." My undead friend shrugged. "What do you need me to do?"
"I have a little team," I explained. "The three usual suspects, plus Captain Steel, this BlackOps stallion from COLT. There's this mare named Masada, a hoof-to-hoof combat instructor from Bitsrael. We're sort of the lead element in this operation. You can join up with us. We could really use your...talents..."
A few hours later, we all found ourselves in the empty storefront across from Sugarcube Corner. After what had happened last time, Steele had almost his entire team located inside the local police department, except for two-pony "fast reaction team" positioned in an apartment right beside the old bakery. I'd seen their setup as they prepared for the night. The commandos had repeating crossbows outfitted with telescopic sights, night vision goggles, flashbangs, and even a rope by the window that enabled them to fast-rope down the side of the building to make entry into Sugarcube Corner in a matter of seconds. They had barred the only door in and out of the room, making sure we would not have another terrible incident like the night before.
"You think they're actually going to be coming back tonight?" Captain Steele asked, peering out into the darkness through the night vision monocular attached to his small black helmet.
"I don't think they care..." I muttered.
"What's that, LT?" The captain inquired.
"They attacked a team of SpecOps soldiers." I explained. "They had to know that they were soldiers at least, and still attacked them. Not to mention that they staged a damned party made out of corpses, knowing that they would be found." Steele turned his head toward me, the green circle of his monocular sticking out of the darkness more than his face, blackened by grease paint. "They don't care if we're here. That's what scares me. These killers are getting really bold. They get any bolder, and it'll be open war in this town. And that's what I'm afraid of." Steel turned back to the street.
"All the missions we've run at night..." He finally returned, "And believe me when I say, sir...that we own the night...but the idea of being outclassed by a bunch of murderers..." He sighed. "Civilian pukes to boot...no offense to you civvies. It's kind of strange, LT. I feel like we're up against something big here, you know? Like whoever this is out there, killing all these ponies, that they aren't your normal, run-of-the-mill baddies."
"I have the same feeling, Captain." I said. "And you know you always have to trust your gut when it comes to this kind of thing." He nodded. "We'll get 'em. I always do. I've gotten awful good at solving this kind of thing, as screwed up as that sounds. Heh...and if they make the mistake of showing themselves, you and your soldiers can do what you do best."
"Kill 'em all." Steele stated grimly. "And we will, LT. You do your job, and we'll do ours. Don't worry about that."
"I don't." I said with a nod.
"Ugghhh..." Shadow groused, standing. "I'm getting sick of just sitting around. Can I go do some...recon or whatever?"
"Well...that's probably not a bad idea..." I thought out loud. "You can sneak around in the dark better than any of the rest of us, and your ability to sense evil might be what we need right now."
"Alight." Shadow said. "I'm gonna go into the bakery and see if anything's going on inside." She turned to Captain Steele. "Tell your snipers up there in that window not to shoot me." She stated dryly. "I can still get killed, you know?"
"Yeah, I'm on it..." Steele growled, not used to being given orders by private citizens. He pulled his mic closer. "Bravo one, Bravo two, over."
"Go ahead, Bravo one." A voice answered in our headsets.
"I have a friendly preparing to go into the bakery. Repeat, one friendly hoof in the pie. Advise to observe and hold fire, over."
"Roger that, Bravo one." The team leader in the apartment responded. "Red Rover, red Rover, send friendlies on over."
"You need...backup?" Masada asked as Shadow started for the back door. Shadow sized Masada up a moment.
"Naw, I'm better off on my own."
"Be careful, Shadow." I ordered. "We still don't know who or what we're up against."
"Heh. Chill Drake." Shadow answered with a grin. "It's me, remember? I'll be back in a little bit." With that, the assassin disappeared out the door.
"Advise, friendly in en route to the bakery." Steele said into his mic. "Do you have visual?"
"Uhhhhh...that's a negative, Bravo one." was the answer.
"Forget it, Capain." I advised. "If she don't want to be seen, you're not gonna see her."
"Who is this...Shadow?" Masada queried. "She is rather...strange."
"Classified." Steele said back. I snorted a little laugh. Of course the blackOps community knew who she was. Why wouldn't they?
"Are we not beyond this?" The Bitsreli soldier asked. "She is on our team. I prefer knowing who ponies are on my team." Steel grunted.
"She's an assassin." Steele answered. "Works directly under orders of Princess Luna, same as me. Her Highness keeps her around for her...abilities..."
"Abilities?" Masada pressed.
"She can sense evil in ponies." I stated. "And she can lurk around in the dark better than Steel's commandos. She will only kill bad ponies, and bad ponies only..." I paused a moment, more for effect than anything else. "And she really, really loves killing bad ponies." I chuckled. "Other than that, she's one of my closest friends, even though I'm still trying to housebreak her when it comes to that mouth of hers." Everypony laughed a little. Masada was quiet.
"What is it?" I asked.
"She saw...much violence as a foal." The sergeant said softly.
"Yeah...she did." I answered solemnly. "Much violence."
"I see it in her. It is un...mistakable. I can tell such things."
"You saw violence when you were young too, didn't you?" Budder asked sympathetically.
"My parents were killed by terrorists when I was...a little younger than you." Masada said, not betraying any emotion. My sister put a foreleg around her, and Masada suddenly looked comically uncomfortable from the gesture.
"Don't feel bad." Steel added. "My old man died in a war when I was little. I was raised by the government." There was a long silence as we all reflected on each others' pasts, as well as our own. Something came to me, and I felt compelled to speak what was on my mind, if only to taste the words on my own lips.
"We're all here for the same reason." I whispered.
"What's that, LT?" Steele asked.
"Nothing, Captain."
"Bravo one, Bravo one..." The observation team called in over the headsets. "We have a positive ID on your friendly. She is in route to your 20."
"Roger that." steel stated. "Continue observation.
"Roger. Bravo two out."
"Hey Drake..." Shadow's voice called. We all turned to see the young mare step from the darkness. She had blood spattered on her chest and face, and she was dragging a bedsheet. In the moonlight, we could see the dark stains on the fabric. "I got something for you."
"The hell did you do?" I demanded. She huffed.
"I was in that bakery place, and some jackhole jumped me." Shadow shrugged indifferently. "They really thought they could knife my ass, so I killed 'em. You want to ID the body or whatever?"
"Yeah. Good job as always." I said. Shadow dragged the bundle into the middle of us and sighed. "You alright?"
"Yeah, just pissed off." Shadow answered. "Me being a dumbass and not paying attention, I almost got it in there." I stared at Shadow as I untied the sheet.
"I told you to be careful." I said, chastising her.
"Yeah...don't make me lose one of my best friends, Shadow..." Budder added sadly. Shadow, the foul-mouthed killer of evil ponies blushed a little and started kicking at the ground with a forehoof. With the sheet untied, I threw back the blood-soaked fabric, and jumped back. I felt myself twitch, and suddenly wished I'd brought the gin.
"Is there...problem, Lieutenant Drake?" Masada asked. She stepped forward and glanced down at the body. Suddenly, the calm and collected soldier looked almost on the verge of panic. "How...how can this be?"
"For the love of Luna..." Steele stated coldly. "If that isn't the damndest thing I've ever seen..."
"I don't know...how much more of this...I can take..." Dashie spoke, then walked away from the scene.
"What the fuck is wrong with y'all?" Shadow queried. "You look like you just saw a ghost or some shit."
"Something like that..." I returned. "Thanks for the corpse, Shadow...but we already have one just like it at the city morgue...and one up in Ponyville Cemetery." Shadow's shoulders drooped.
"You gotta be shitting me..." She half-exclaimed.
"No...Shadow...this is the pony I was telling you about...and I guess that means that..." I sighed and shook my head. This was getting ridiculous. "There was at least three of them..."
One of the longest chapters yet, and a major turning point in the story...kind of. I hope you found this installment enjoyable. Shadow has made a comeback, and so has Pinkie Pie in a way. Everybody seemed to like Shadow, so I decided to bring her back in this volume, just for the fans. The case has become convoluted now, and I'm sure Drake is more confused than ever. With the third dead Pinkamena, even more questions are raised for the team, and for you the reader. Any of you have any idea what may be going on? Feel free to guess in a review or PM. I will try to have the next chapter up tonight or tomorrow, and I know you can't wait to see what's going to happen next. Until then, thanks for reading, everypony. -Drake