Romance and the Fate of Equestria

One thing we can learn from Imelda's accent (a fusion of New Jersey and Valley Girl) is that characters with their accents phonetically written out are… kind of annoying. As you can surmise from the two accents I chose to fuse together, that was fully the intention of this particular character: that her voice grates on you a bit. When it comes to a character like Vinyl Scratch, I try to lessen the impact: for instance, Cockneys tend not to pronounce the letter T, but I don't replace every letter T with an apostrophe, that would just be an eyesore. I balance my desire to authentically replicate a Cockney accent with the need to keep her dialogue legible. So, if anyone out there happens to be writing dialogue for, say, Applejack, and replaces every instance of the word "I" with "ah"… don't do that anymore. That's just bad.

On the subject of things not to do: I've had people all through my fanfiction career tell me that characters yelling in all-caps is annoying and unprofessional, and maybe they're right, but those people have all also told me that using boldface is better. They're wrong. Never, ever, ever use boldface in your prose. Just don't. That is the most annoying and least professional thing ever. Don't believe me, pick up a novel. They just don't do it. The use of boldface for emphasis is a one-way ticket to Unpublishableville. Trust me.

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-One

As evening fell, the city lights of Vanhoover began to illuminate a large white mansion which seemed more of a compound; it had a massive and well-kept green lawn in the front and back, with a thriving garden and hedge, but its overly-tall chain-link fence was topped with barbed wire, betraying the illusion of a pleasant manor.

"Yeah," said Gilda, standing in the yard of a neighboring house with the six ponies huddled up behind her. "Yeah, Imelda's come back home, there's a light on in her room."

"All right," said Twilight. "I'll just teleport us up there…"

"No!" Gilda said sharply. "The whole property is warded against teleportation, you can't get in that way."

"Warded against teleportation?" Twilight demanded. "That's absurd!"

"Why is that?" Gilda said casually.

"Well, as far as the general public knows, there are only three ponies in the world who can teleport—the princesses, and me."

"Well, you know, if you're running a criminal enterprise and you can only keep three ponies out of your hair, those would be the three ponies to pick," Gilda said brightly.

"I suppose," said Twilight, shrugging.

"And you can't fly over the fence either," Gilda added. She picked up a stone and hurled it over the fence; it was zapped and promptly disintegrated. "Big invisible ward. You go flying straight into that thing, you'll end up roast beef. Well, not beef, that's from a cow. What do you call meat from a pony? I guess you just call it pony. Was it mutton? No, that's sheep…"

Twilight gaped at Gilda, her eyes wide and her jaw slack.

"What's the matter?" Gilda said nervously.

"There are words for different types of meat?" Twilight said with revulsion.

"Uhhh… yeah."

"That's the most barbaric thing I've ever heard!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Well, whaddya gonna do?" Gilda said flippantly. "It's there. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why, but yeah, you got your beef, mutton, steak, ham, pork, bacon—those last three are all pig, go figure. There's veal, venison, and then you've got your poultries: pâté, foie gras… um, patois… no, wait, that's not a meat word. Okay, I ran out of meat words a while back, but the increasingly horrified look on your face was awesome."

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"So, how are we gonna get into this place?" said Rainbow.

"Meh, I think it's as simple as Miss Magic here drilling a hole in the barrier," said Gilda, patting Twilight on the back.

"Yeah, I can do that," Twilight muttered, staring up at the seemingly empty air over above the fence.

"Yeesh," Rainbow muttered, eyeing the mansion. "You know, this place is giving me hive flashbacks."

"Hive?" Gilda said absently. "Ohhh, right, the changeling hive. Oof, that was quite a story. Makes me glad I didn't make it into the army. Must be quite the monkey on your backs… how do you live through it?"

"The memories kinda fade after a while," Twilight said solemnly, still scanning the invisible barrier. "But every once in a while, I vividly recall some of the changelings I saw in there, doing their thing, doing their jobs, living their lives, and I realize, that changeling is dead now…"

"Aw, come on, you guys," Gilda said with an uneasy laugh. "You don't have to kill anybody in here."

Several of them glared at her.

"Ehhh," she said awkwardly, "look, don't worry, about the hive thing, this isn't anything like that, and, ah, you know, lots of people would say that your whole thing at the hive was really heroic."

"Well, those people should try it for themselves sometime," Fluttershy said bitterly.

Twilight conjured up a large pink ribbon of pure magic, rolling it into a tube and using it to pierce the invisible shield above the fence. With a twirl of her horn, the tube expanded to be wide enough for a pony to fly through.

"Well done!" Gilda commended. "That's rare for this medium."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her.

"Meat jokes," she said brightly. "Any chance you can make the tube invisible too? There's guards."

"Right, right." Twilight made the tube fade, but not entirely into invisibility. "We still need to be able to see it in this light. Make this super-quick. Rainbow Dash, how's the guard situation?"

Flying overhead, Rainbow reported, "They're turned away. We've gotta move now, now, now!"

Twilight floated them all through the tube, one by one. Upon reaching the ground on the inside of the fence, they dove into the bushes alongside the house. After Twilight brought herself through, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Gilda flew through on their own.

As the seven of them huddled together, concealed, Gilda observed the intricately-sewn black suit Rarity was wearing. "So, you just had to whip up a mission outfit, didn't you?" she said dryly.

"Er… why, yes, it's a bit of a compulsion, I'm afraid," said Rarity, giggling.

"Cute. Where'd you get it, at the mall?"

"The mall?" Rarity exclaimed, appalled. "Excuse me, this isn't some manufactured cheap piece of garbage. This was hoof-sewn by yours truly."

"Hoof-sewn?" Gilda challenged.

"Yeah."

"You can't sew with hooves!" said Gilda. "Hooves have no dexterity."

"It's a figure of speech," Rarity said contemptuously. "Obviously I used magic."

"Well, it's a misleading figure of speech," Gilda said in amusement. "Can you live up to that outfit?"

"Oh, yes," Rarity said proudly. "I know karate."

"You—karate?" Gilda snorted. "Little kids know karate! Pfft, karate, as if that's a real martial art. Now, if you knew kung fu, I'd take you seriously, 'cause there aren't kung fu academies on every seedy street corner. Kung fu teaches real fighting skills."

"So you know kung fu?" Rarity said sweetly. "That's fantastic."

Gilda blinked. "Uh… shut up."

"Will you guys keep your voices down?" Twilight hissed. "Rainbow, check on Imelda's room."

Rainbow flew up to the third floor window that had its lights on, peered in, fiddled with the window for a moment, and dropped back down to the ground. "Window's locked, I'd have to break it. And she ain't in there."

"Let's not break anypony's windows," said Twilight. "Gilda, how plausible is sneaking in the back door?"

"Well, let's see, the back door leads to the kitchens," Gilda pondered. "Might be some chefs and servants in there. But after that, it's a straight shot up the spiral staircase to her room. Yeah, we can do that."

"What if she screams?" Fluttershy whispered.

"Then we kidnap her!" Gilda said cheerfully. "How big can you make another one of those tubes so we can carry her through it?"

"The force field prevents you from leaving, too?" Twilight said in surprise. "That's sort of overkill, isn't it?"

"He's a dude with a daughter, Bangs," Gilda said solemnly.

"Mm, too true."

They inched along the side of the house, toward the back door.

"It's nice to see you being part of this group again," Rainbow said to Gilda. "And taking charge, to boot. You were kinda drifting apart from us for a while there."

Gilda shrugged. "Growing up a bit, I guess. Life's taking me in another direction."

"Yep, yep, I can understand that," said Rainbow, nodding vigorously. "We're doing pretty good, aren't we, you and me? For a couple of kids who got kicked out of flight camp for swapping spit, it's almost like we're contributing members of society now."

Twilight stared at Rainbow with derision. "Really? You and Gilda? Your past is a tangled web of sex and deceit."

"It is, isn't it?"

"You're always saying you never dated a girl before Derpy. What gives?"

"Never slept with a girl," Rainbow corrected. "Never dated anypony… making out, however, that I did a whole lot of."

"Yeahhhhh, she sure did," Gilda said admiringly. "Made out with a good twenty different ponies just in the time I knew her."

"Huh," Fluttershy huffed. "And all this time I thought I was special."

"Oh, babe, you're very special to me," said Rainbow, leaning toward Fluttershy and making eyes at her.

Fluttershy blinked nervously. "…See, this is why I'm not normally snarky, 'cause then somepony snarks back, and I have no follow-up."

"Aw, you're fine," said Rainbow, rubbing Fluttershy's shoulder. "But yeah—I've made out with ponies from all walks of life, ever since I was a teeny-tiny filly. You'd never have thought I'd end up as anything but a deadbeat, but look at me now, I've got a cushy weather supervisor job and I'm practically engaged. And Gilda here, look at you! Same deal. What's it like being a member of the lunar royal guard?"

"That's highly classified, top-secret, confidential information, bub," said Gilda. "Anyway, how's your sex life?"

"Vigorous and daily," Rainbow said promptly. "Yours?"

"Same."

"Really?"

"No, not really," Gilda admitted. "Never been much for dating, y'know? Been out with a pony or two over the years—it's true what they say, man, ponies are the best lovers—but, meh, never met a guy who got me believing in hippogriffs or anything." She shrugged. "I'm sure I'll develop an interest in dating sooner or later. Probably when I'm old and it's too late."

"Hey, do what you gotta do," Rainbow said wisely. "Ain't no right or wrong way. Hey, Twilight, where do you stand on hippogriffs?"

"Ah, fictional," said Twilight, peering around the corner. "Yeah. Ponies and griffons, there's no genetic compatibility whatsoever. It's a myth, if that. A joke myth, about something that was just too silly to ever happen." She beckoned them forward, and they all began creeping along the back wall toward the door.

"Although," Twilight went on, "you know, genetic engineering is a branch of magic that's really been booming over the past couple years. A pony/griffon couple couldn't conceive naturally, but maybe they could go to a lab and arrange for a child to be designed from their genetic material. Of course, it would probably take quite a bit of trial and error for such a baby to be healthy, much less resemble the hippogriffs of legend, and that would fall under the heading of unethical experimentation, I should think. So, probably not gonna happen."

"Well, how about that," said Rainbow.

Gilda opened the back door just a crack and peered inside.

"Cooks?" Twilight asked.

"No cooks," said Gilda. She walked in the front door, and instantly found herself face-to-face with a massive pony, both tall and enormously rotund, with tan fur, a wild and wooly brown mane and full beard, and intense, piercing red eyes.

"Guh!" Gilda cried out. "Uh… hey, Largo."

"Gilda," the pony replied in a rumbling voice. "You have a new chicken."

The chicken, silently perched atop Gilda's head as it had been all along, tilted its head in confusion.

After a few seconds of silence, Largo burst into laughter. "Come in, come in! Busting in the back door to surprise me, are you? You scoundrel! Get yourself shot that way, ha ha ha ha! That goes for the rest of you, come on then."

Nervously, the ponies filed into the house, leaving the kitchen for the massive sitting room. Largo, despite his scraggly appearance and the late hour, was wearing a very crisp grey suit, black undershirt, and red tie, all flawlessly cleaned and pressed. "Ah… hello, Mr. Largo, sir," Twilight peeped.

"Ah… yeah. Uh-huh," Gilda said shakily. "Ah, Largo, we're here to see Imelda. She's around, right?"

"Yes, she just went back up to her room, I think," Largo replied.

"Okay, good. We wanted to meet back up with her after… after, uh… by any chance did she tell you where she's been?"

"Cloudsdale or thereabouts, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, that's it," Gilda said, glancing around.

"Well, I'll have somepony go get her," said Largo. He whispered to a maid, who nodded and pranced up the stairs.

"Don't you know your daughter's—" Fluttershy began. Gilda elbowed her hard in the ribs, causing her to yelp and look genuinely wounded. Gilda winced apologetically.

Twilight picked up the thread of the moment before it was noticed. "Mr. Largo, what does the emblem on that banner mean?"

Hanging above the sitting room was a giant red banner; the emblem on it was a silver shield, with red trim dividing it into thirds. Each third of the shield had an emblem of its own: a pair of skis and ski poles, a paw, and four red candies. It was the very shield that had once been used to contain Cocoon.

"What, that emblem means… me," Largo said proudly. He displayed his cutie mark, which was the same symbol.

"I see," said Twilight. "How fascinating. That's an awfully complex cutie mark."

"Well, I'm an awfully complex pony," Largo laughed. "It's all in my name."

"Largo?" Twilight said, puzzled.

"That's my family name," he said. "My given name is Ski Southpaw Redmint Silvershield Largo. I'm just Largo these days, but the cutie mark represents the name my dear old mother gave me. You know how some say that name science isn't real magic, and it's just a flighty little coincidence, or the expectations of society, that ponies' natures tend to match their names? Those guys crack me up."

"Gilda?"

At that ear-piercing exclamation, all eyes turned to the top of the stairs, where Imelda stood in her natural state. Her fur was a darker tan than her father's, her hair black and maroon, wavy and with a pronounced poof on top. Her eyes were slanted like Luna's but gray, and her cutie mark was a long-stemmed red rose.

"And awl you goys," Imelda said in confusion, descending the staircase. "What's goin' on? Whaddya you doin' heah?"

"We're here to protect you, Miss Imelda," Rarity declared. "Whatever it takes to get you safely on set again."

"On set?" Largo inquired.

Gilda, who had been waving her talon rapidly back and forth across her throat as Rarity spoke, slouched in disappointment. "Nice girl, great costume designer, not great at the picking up on subtle hand gestures," she said dryly, demonstrating the gesture again.

Imelda sighed and spoke in a monotone: "Daddy… I don't wanna live my loife… trayapped… in this cawmpouwnd…"

"I know, but…" Largo began.

"I know! I know it's sayfe, but if I go out theh, ponies don't really know who I ayam. I could have a loife out theh! I wanna be in the movies, Daddy. When I was in Cantalawt… well, you know how much I love Princess Lunah?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Well, she's directin' a movie… she was lookin' fa somepony ta play her, in the movie! And I read fa the paht, and I gawt it, Daddy, I gawt it!"

Largo reeled back, stunned. "Wow…"

"But then…" she muttered, "just as we was about to staht filmin' a scene the utha day, somepony troied to take me out with a lightnin' bolt! But-but, I… I see what they's doin', these goils, comin' ovah heah to get me. Look at these beautiful Elements of Hawmony… they's heah to protect me. They want me to come back, and they're gonna protect me. Can I go back, Daddy? Can I?"

Largo pondered the question, his expression dark. "Gilda? From the way you're dressed, it's clear you're working for Princess Luna these days. Anything to add?"

"No sir," said Gilda. "She covered it."

He stared tightly at Imelda. "You want to be in the movies? And you've already gone so far? You can return to the set when this assassin has been completely taken care of." He turned to Gilda and the others. "If you're going to make the claim that my daughter is absolutely safe on that set, you'll be saying that because whoever shot lightning at her, and whoever they're working for, will have been neutralized and no threat to anypony."

"But sir, that would delay—" Twilight said desperately.

Gilda shushed her, and Imelda leapt forward to embrace her father. "Oh, thank you, Daddy! Thank you!"

Twilight turned questioningly to Gilda.

"That's way more reasonable than we could have expected him to be," Gilda explained. To Largo, she said, "We've got the Cloudsdale PD checking out the scene; if the shooter's still there, they'll find 'em. If he, she, or they came back here… then we'll figure it out."

Imelda's eyes widened. "They could be heah?"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

A day later, Twilight was explaining her security measures to Largo. "I've got a sensor on the weather vane on your rooftop scanning for all forms of life. Magic eyes are scouting every obvious entry point onto the property; there's a sensor in each window, plus a detector which will alert us to any creature that can see inside the windows. Rarity and Fluttershy are interrogating everypony on your staff—Fluttershy has a special ability which will make keeping secrets very difficult in her presence—to see if it's one of them taking advantage."

"I'm sure it's nopony in my household," Largo said confidently.

"I agree," said Gilda. "Whoever it is, they're gonna be easy to find."

"How do you figure?" said Twilight.

"Well, you know," said Gilda, "the great thing about living among ponies is that you guys tend to have your occupation printed across your ass. We just gotta find the one who's got the assassin cutie mark."

Twilight chuckled. "It's not as easy as all that, Gilda."

Gilda stared at her.

"Okay, sometimes it's as easy as all that," Twilight admitted. "But I don't think it's gonna be that easy this time."

Rainbow scowled at Gilda and pointed to her cutie mark. "Printed across our ass? Does this look like the ass to you? This is our flank."

"Uh-huh, and what is a 'flank'?" Gilda said innocently.

"It's… you know, it's the hip… area," Rainbow said lamely.

"Ah."

Twilight's ears perked up. "Detecting signs of life. Mr. Largo, are you expecting three ponies in the secret crawlspace beneath the art gallery?"

His face went dark. "No. That's for quick escapes in the event of an attack; 'going to the mattresses', as we say in this business. Nopony has any good reason to enter the compound from that direction."

Twilight pulled open the door to the small room where the staff were being interrogated. "Rarity, Fluttershy, we've got targets," she said. "Come on."

Gilda and the six ponies galloped down the hall.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

In the Largo manor's expansive art gallery, Twilight brushed aside the carpet covering the secret trapdoor, pulled the trapdoor open, and yanked out one of the ponies in the tunnel below, bringing herself face-to-face with Vorpal Blade.

"Smiley?" he said blankly.

"Vorpal Blade?" she exclaimed. She was so surprised that she dropped him to the ground; Skippmud and Crazyface jumped out of the trapdoor to flank him. All three bore their Crusaders Mecha and were decked out in an impressive variety of jewelry.

"You're actually surprised to see me," Vorpal Blade observed as he got to his hooves. "What a remarkable coincidence."

"What… what are you… what are you three doing here?" Twilight demanded.

"As your lawyer, don't answer that," Skippmud said smoothly. "As your girlfriend… rub our evilness in their faces, honey."

Twilight stared. "Girlfriend?"

"Oh, lovely," Rarity said sarcastically. "You're so perfect for each other. I now pronounce you bitch and bastard!" She exchanged a high-hoof with Pinkie.

Twilight's eyes drifted to Crazyface, who was scowling, far less lively than she had ever seen him. Vorpal Blade was still struggling to stand up all the way, heavy bags under his white eyes, his neck slack, every breath he took ragged and rattling.

Skippmud had apparently been doing a similar scan of the opposing side, because the moment she noticed that Gilda was present, she took a flying leap toward the griffon in a blind rage.

Gilda caught Skippmud's front hooves in her talons and flung the pony over her head, sending Skippmud tumbling through the air, hitting a wall and sliding down to the floor.

Rainbow leapt into action, and Crazyface raised an arm, aiming his bracelet, which was silver with a ram's head carved into it. A ghostly ram fired out of the bracelet like a cannonball, pushing Rainbow into the same wall as Skippmud.

Applejack furiously galloped forward, throwing a flurry of punches at Crazyface. He fought back dispassionately, gems on his wrists augmenting his swipes with red cutting energy blades, one errant strike slicing straight through a small bronze statue.

"Can we not damage the art, please?" Vorpal Blade said calmly. "Shall we?"

"Sorry," Crazyface retorted snidely.

As Crazyface used his teeth to tap out a rhythmic pattern on a pearly black tongue stud, causing his hooves to morph into black, long-clawed hands which he quickly turned against Applejack, Vorpal Blade intercepted a beam of magic from Twilight with a beam of his own.

"What is this, Vorpal Blade?" Twilight snarled. "What's your gain in assassinating Imelda Largo?"

"Who now?" said Vorpal Blade. "Ohhh, Princess Luna's little mid-life-crisis self-insert, right? So she's a Largo as in this place Largo? Ha! Small world."

"As if you didn't know," said Twilight, using a wisp of magic to sever the connection between the two of them.

"Hey, I know about the movie from the papers, all right?" said Vorpal Blade. "I haven't heard anything about somepony trying to assassinate your little actress."

"Suuuure you haven't." Her hoof encased in a small force field, she gave Vorpal Blade an uppercut punch in the jaw, sending him flipping end over end.

"Look," he said, landing on his hooves though not pain and loss of balance, "I'm just here to steal some valuable art objects from the Largo estate, all right? Use that big brain of yours, Twilight, how does assassinating some girl fit in with my raison d'être? But what a funky act of fate that you've got a caper of your own here! Fun how that happens sometimes."

"Yeah. Fun." She blasted him into a wall, jostling a painting. He caught it in his hooves before it hit the ground.

Skippmud and Rainbow, both dazed and crumpled against the same wall, took notice of each other and tensed up. Both realizing that the other was too battered to get up, they relaxed.

"So… you and Vorpal Blade, huh?" said Rainbow. "How long's that been going on?"

"Oh, since about Hearth's Warming Eve or so."

"Oh, wow! Nice."

"Yeah, it's a dream come true. Hey, you see that?"

She pointed to the battle. Though Gilda, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity were doing their best to be involved in the fight, it was dominated by head-to-head clashes between Applejack and Crazyface, Twilight and Vorpal Blade.

"Look at that, look at how passionate they are when they're fighting," Skippmud said admiringly. "Makes me wish I had an arch-nemesis."

Rainbow smiled. "I'll be your arch-nemesis, Skipp."

She put a hoof to her heart, flattered. "Really? You think there's enough between us for that?"

"Hey, you tried to kill me, I made an ass out of you, I think it's time we acknowledged our feelings already," Rainbow said flippantly.

"All right," Skippmud said brightly. "Nemeses it is. Never got a chance to compliment you, by the way, on that incident in your house. You fought hard and you fought smart. I can respect that."

"Thanks," said Rainbow. "You made a couple of mistakes, but ultimately, your performance there was pretty good too."

"Thanks," Skippmud replied. "There, see? You can tell we're nemeses because of the grudging mutual admiration."

"Damn straight."

"Grudging, yet sincere. Now that I think about it, it makes me regret all those times I called you a dyke. I'm sorry about that."

Rainbow tilted her head. "I don't think you ever called me…"

"No, I have. Never to your face, but I still feel bad about it."

"Oh," Rainbow said. "Well, I appreciate that. And you weren't wrong. I've got a girlfriend now, actually."

"…Oh," Skippmud said blankly. "Hmm." She stared off in no direction in particular, at a loss for words. "Weird…" she said under her breath.

"Weird?" Rainbow demanded. "No, no, not weird, go back to the mutual admiration thing, where's that?"

"Fine, fine," Skippmud said dismissively. "So, listen, as long as we've attained a relationship of respect, I think we can agree that we don't want anypony to die here."

"Oh, of course not," Rainbow agreed.

"So, what do you say we try to catch our breath, and then intervene before anything serious happens?" Skippmud said pleasantly.

"Yeah, sounds good," said Rainbow. "You feel up to it?"

"I'm gettin' there."

"All right."

Rainbow Dash sat back and watched the fight commence. Skippmud weakly lifted a hoof, aiming a topaz earring at Rainbow's head. Rainbow spotted this action out of the corner of her eye, and was quickly adrenalized, rolling out of the way of a wavy beam of destructive sunlight, like something Celestia would create, shooting out of the gem.

"Ooh! Sneaky…" Rainbow said with a smirk.

"Yeah, but that's what you like about me," said Skippmud, winking and clicking her tongue. "Don't worry, I stand by my word: nopony dies today."

"Oh, I completely agree," said Rainbow. She slammed her hoof under Skippmud's chin, lifting her off the ground and throwing her at Vorpal Blade.

Vorpal Blade saw her coming and erected a shield around his head to keep her hitting his many horns; he scooped her up and pulled Crazyface close to him with magic, encasing all three of them in a midnight-blue force field.

"Oh, come on!" Crazyface cried out in frustration.

Vorpal Blade attempted to teleport, resulting in he and his two companions being electrified, their fur charred.

"Huh," he remarked. "Can't teleport out of the Largo compound either, eh?"

"Nope," said Twilight, smirking.

"All right, then." He cradled the other two in his wings and dropped back into the crawlspace. Twilight pursued them into the tunnel, shooting at them with sizzling beams.

Once the trio had galloped far enough down the tunnel, Vorpal Blade successfully teleported away. Twilight gradually came to a stop. "Man…" she growled.

Utterly frustrated, she returned to the gallery, to find that Rainbow had gone, the rest of the group simply lounging around uneasily. The pegasus returned moments later, reporting, "Imelda's still safe. But if he really wants her dead, he'll come back."

"But he doesn't," Pinkie protested. "He said he wasn't the assassin."

"He said he wasn't?" Rainbow shot back. "You're taking Vorpal Blade at his word?"

"Oh. Right," Pinkie said sheepishly.

"No, no, I think he was telling the truth," Twilight said exhaustedly. "Not that he makes a habit of telling the truth, but I just don't see what motive he'd have. He had a point; killing Imelda just doesn't align with his goals in any way that I can see. I really believe that all he wanted here was more treasure. That's a lot more consistent with what he does than trying to off an actress or mob princess or whatever else she might be. I don't see what he'd gain from that." She breathed in and out, looking deeply disturbed.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked.

"Just thinking," Twilight mumbled. "Vorpal Blade might be the most dangerous adversary Equestria has ever faced."

"How do you figure?" said Applejack.

"He loves his friends," Twilight said simply. "How many evil souls can say as much, and be wise enough to know it's a strength and not a weakness? Not many. And we all know how much power that brings… and if it's true that he and Skippmud have gotten romantic… it's alarming, to say the least. I'm actually more afraid of them than I am of Sørmur dï Mitgaeard. They'd be a big enough threat to the world's way of life even without her."

She picked up the painting that Vorpal Blade had saved, setting it back on the wall where it had been hanging, gazing out over the many, many treasures contained in Largo's gallery.