Chapter 23: Night of The Hunter

“Pray to your God, open your heart. Whatever you do, don't be afraid of the dark. Cover your eyes, the devil's inside”

As I lay in the cold and damp cell, I couldn’t find any more tears to cry. They threw me in here and locked the door. I was alone in the dark again. Worse still, I knew that the others had trusted me to get them out of here. That trust is now as bruised and broken as they were. Just like before though, I still had to hold onto my hope. Just like the solitary ray of light that came in through the window slit in the door, my hope would not abandon me now.

My ravaged body on the other hoof had plans for me. Even as I lay unmoving on the floor, it screamed for relief. Rest was an easy option to pick, but not one that I enjoyed. If I fell asleep, who know’s when I’d wake up. Too bad it wasn’t even within my control to chose to go through with it.

The hallway that stretched before me looked almost to be in pre-war condition. The wallpaper, carpet, even the windows looked new. Though, as the heavy rain beat against them, something felt… off. The whole of the hall exuded the feeling of being cold and alone. Laughter came from the other side of a door at the end. Even though it sounded like ponies having a good time, none of it felt like it mattered here in this hall.

Slowly the necromancer walked down the hallway. The robe he wore obscured his vision to the sides just enough that I couldn’t get a good look at the pictures that hung on the wall. With a raised hoof, he knocked on the door when he reached it. The sound of approaching hoofsteps made me anxious for what might come next. The stallion who opened the door was one I had not expected to see. Stratos, the pony whom I’d saved from Jack Knife and his gang, gave a hearty laugh back into the party behind him. Only after that, did he turned his gaze forward.

“Ah, my old friend. Might I have a word with you?” The necromancer spoke with an oily smooth tone. The second his eyes saw who stood before him, did Stratos almost turn as white as a Tenpony bedsheet.

“S..s…sure.” He stuttered out. With it came a super slow nod that looked like it took fifteen seconds to process in his own mind. Another few moments passed as the party behind him now died down to turn their attentions to the door.

“Alone?” The necromancer spoke. He gazed around the room, looking over each and every pony that had been celebrating. As he did, he stopped on Swivel. I could feel as his muzzle tightened into a disgusting grin.

“R-right…” Stratos stated as he shook the shock off. “Everypony, the party is over.” With his words came a collective groan. He looked down at Swivel and frowned. “Swivel, go to your room and wait for me to come get you, alright?”

“You sure you need us to go, Stratos?” A particular gruff sounding mare spoke up as she took a step forward. Brave girl. Misguided, but brave none the less.

“Y...yeah.” He forced a wide smile. “It’s just business, you know. Gotta make a living!” He raised his forehoof and rubbed at his mane. “Besides, it’s getting late anyway.”

“Sure, whatever you say.” The mare shrugged and looked to the others. They all did roughly the same and started to pile through the door. Even with so many ponies leaving, the necromancer’s gaze never once left Stratos. Once the guests had all left, the necromancer stepped through the doorway and headed for the couch.

“O-once I freed you, you said you’d leave me and my daughter alone…” Stratos fumbled with his words.

He WHAT?

“Hmm. Did I say that?” The necromancer mumbled as if it were almost inconsequential. “I guess it is true what they say about memory and old age.”

“Please…” Stratos pleaded, kneeling before the necromancer. ”I just want a normal life for Swivel Spark…” Yeah? Tell that to the ponies who died in Chasm and Dodge. Tell that to Pallet.

No. Even if it wasn’t my fault that started this all, they were still my responsibility.

“She shall have that life… once I get what I want, that is.” The necromancer’s tone switched from it’s normally oily slick words. “Shortly before I was sealed all those millennia ago, a certain amulet was wrongfully taken from me.” His words dripped with the cold creeping feeling that I felt in the hallway.

“A-and what do you expect of me?” Stratos shivered and flattened to the floor. “I… I don’t even know where to look!”

“I’ve heard quite the rumor that you acquired an old boat. One that sits on the harbor of the northern metropolis currently.” The necromancer’s gaze narrowed as he leaned down toward Stratos’ quivering form. “I need it.”

“Take it!” Stratos practically shouted and pulled his forehooves over his head. “It’s all yours, I don’t care!”

“Ah, but that’s not all I need.” The necromancer shook his head slowly. “You see, I have heard that my amulet has been kept safe inside an unusual place. The center of a perpetual raging tempest as it so happens to be.”

“The great northeastern storm?” Stratos whined. “That’s suicide! No simple fishing boat could make it two minutes in that kind of weather.”

“Ah, why do you doubt me, old friend.” The necromancer’s words slipped back to their oily deceitfulness. Slowly, he placed his hoof on Strato’s head, drawing another whine from him. “I am perfectly capable of protecting us from the storm. But I need you to drive the boat while I hold up our shield.”

“I let you out.” Stratos spoke in a soft, regret filled voice. “Why can’t you just leave us be?”

A cold sensation washed over my forehead as Stratos was lifted up into the air. The necromancer snarled as he shoved Stratos back against the wall. The sound of cracking glass came from the picture frame he’d been pinned against, and he writhed wildly trying to break free. No matter how hard he tried, it was no good.

“How about this. You get me inside the storm and you and your daughter go free. If not, I’m sure she would make a nice puppet in my army.” The necromancer growled out. Stratos’ eyes froze wide in silent horror at the prospect. “Don’t you agree?”

“Alright! I’ll do it!” Stratos whimpered and stop fighting. He hung there limply for a moment. A stream of tears dripped down his cheeks. “Just please, leave her out of all this.”

“Oh how I’m a sucker for politeness...or I would be if I wasn’t in a hurry.” The necromancer said as another cold bolt ran through me. The door to Swivel’s room flew open, and the filly floated out into the air beside him. She lay there limply in his magic, looking like she was asleep. “She comes with us, just to make sure you don’t do anything you might regret. Now go get whatever supplies you’ll need and meet us at the harbor.”

Another bolt of magic ran through me as the necromancer tossed Stratos across the room. He slammed down against the table next to the couch, tumbling for a moment before simply laying there whimpering. For as many ways as he deserved this, I felt sorry for what I’d just watched.

“Oh, and don’t even think of running. There is nowhere you can hide.” The necromancer spat as he turned and opened the front door. He trotted out and into the oppressive hallway again. Now that he faced the other way, I could see a mirror on the door at the other end. With a smile, he approached it and stopped about a foot away from it. He glared into the glass, and as he did, a spike of pain ran through me.

“Ah, I was wondering when this might happen again. How are you enjoying the feeling of having a windigo attached to your soul?” He spoke with a sneer. He knew I was watching? How? “I hope you enjoyed the performance. There will be plenty more to come.” He said before letting out a laugh that rang out into my mind. It was overwhelming and it made me want to whine and flail.

I let out an agonizing scream as my body felt like it was on fire. The cold sweats that plagued me left me shivering whenever I tried to restrain myself from flailing in pain. Eventually, my writhing had pushed me up into a corner of the lonely, dark room. With no idea how long I’d been out, and no way to track how long I’d been in pain, I simply sat and waited. Between the shivers and whines, I could still hear the echoing laugh.

“I should have seen this coming.” Predious spoke up in the darkness. My eyes shot around until I saw him. He stood in the center of the cell, a disgusted look on his muzzle. “I trusted in you. I thought you were better than this.”

“How could ya?” Harmony growled, stepping out from the darkness next to Predious. “Pallet was like a sister ta me, and y’all abandoned her ta die.”

“Just another pile of corpses to add to the mountain.” Ficha spat as he stood on the other side of Pred. “You can’t even save a bunch of prisoners. You’re such a disappointment.”

The squeal of metal broke me from my friends. They flashed away into nothingness as the door to my cell swung open. I squinted as the bright light outside burned my eyes.

“Oh dear.” The doctor spoke up and pushed a wheelchair into my cell. “It seems with all the trouble you’ve caused, we’ve fallen behind schedule.” The mask he wore hid his grin, but I knew it was still behind it. From behind him, he floated out the bat that he’d used before.

I didn’t want to go back. I needed to get out of here, but my body just didn’t want to move anymore. As much as I still had the hope of escape, I knew that I’d been injured far too badly to fight back. I just… didn’t have the drive for it anymore. I think the doctor noticed it as well, because the bat dropped to the floor.

“Ah! I see that you are finally willing to cooperate!” He chimed in an almost sing-songy voice. His magic wrapped around my body and lifted me out of the corner. Unceremoniously, he dropped me into the chair and fixed the straps to my forehooves. “See, I knew we would come to be friends.” He muttered as the final strap wound tightly around my forehoof. “It’s about time somepony respected my work in here.” He leaned forward and hovered near my neck. “I’m glad it was you.”

He let out a giggle as he started to push the chair out of my cell. As I sat there, I wondered about the hallucinations I’d just had about my friends. How close to the truth was it? What would they say when they learned what had happened? Could they even forgive me?

In short order, we’d reached the stairwell. Once again, he floated me down slowly and carefully. The one thing that felt odd now, was the silence that came from him. He hadn’t spoke in the last minute, and it scared me. I touched down on the second floor landing and rolled towards the door. The terror I’d felt before when I was here was nowhere to be found. I wondered in fact, if because I knew what would come next, I was numb to it all.

When his magic opened the door however, I found out how wrong I was.

He started to whistle gleefully as he pushed me into the hallway. Half dissected bodies littered the hallway now, more so than the first time I went through. One particular stallion laying on a bench caught my eye. He had a rectangular section of his chest missing, with parts of his entrails split and tied. The memory of what happened to me was shunted to the front of my mind.

My eyes drifted as his demented whistling echoed down the halls. A mare laying on her side with the same cut on her chest, organs plucked clean out of her. Another whose insides looked as if they’d been char broiled layed next to her. Had… he been doing what he did to me on them? He stopped whistling.

“Admiring my hoofwork?” He giggled giddily. “You are something of a mystery. All these subjects just didn’t seem to posses the same force of will to stay alive as you’d had. That frailty certainly limited the scope of my experiments, but none the less I do have some ideas for how to proceed.”

I tensed at his words. My hooves tightened against the straps, and my heart felt like it was going to hammer it’s way out of my chest. “No… not again. I can’t do this again.” I whispered between my shallow breaths. Even with the adrenaline coursing through my body, the pain in my chest flared.

“Now now.” He spoke as he wheeled me around the corner and into his operating room. “I know these new procedures aren’t perfected yet, but I assure you, the Merry little filly yesterday very nearly survived.” He shrugged and stepped past me, resuming his whistling.

Merry filly? Did he kill Merry Days? She’d been the only filly sized pony I’d seen in here who could be described that way. The warden said they weren’t to be killed…that fucking bastard!

The memory of Tabasco blowing himself up at dodge flashed through my mind. Even if Stratos let him out, if the necromancer wasn’t stopped Swivel Spark could be the next foal to die because of me. I curled my hooves tighter around the straps and whimpered. No more need to suffer because of him, because of all of these assholes!

There was a sharp snap as the metal pins on the straps holding me sheared from their mounts. Even as it felt like fire was boiling me alive, I was free. The doctor didn’t even get a chance to turn around in surprise before I screamed and charged at him. With one forehoof raised, I swung it at him.

To my surprise, his flesh warped and twisted before bursting into blue flames. I couldn’t care in that moment though. As he cried out in pain, I swung again and again. Blue bursts of fire erupted from his body with each hit, slowly consuming him in one big pire. I couldn’t have stopped then if I’d wanted too. I just kept hitting him over and over. Long after his eyes had melted from their sockets and his flesh slogged off his bones like he’d been hit with the pink cloud, I just kept screaming and hitting him.

When his ribcage snapped and my forehoof caught on it, I howled in my rage and flung his corpse. With a crash, it shattered the window to this room, and his blazing body tumbled across the floor of the next. Only then did I stop to let my mind catch up to where I was and what had just happened. In my rage, I’d missed the sound of the stairwell door, and the odd clip-clop-clacks of one of the abomination’s steps drew near.

“Hey doc, you alright up here? You didn’t set one of your patience on fire again, did…” The minotaur headed abomination stopped mid speech as he stepped in line of sight of me. “Oh… shit.”

I spun around and screamed again. My mind slipped back as my instincts took over again. Each galloping step sent blue flames rolling out from under me. The abomination managed to get his shotgun up and ready by the time I got to him. I jumped up and threw my shoulder into him, causing him to scream as blue flames engulfed his coat. He fired the shotgun through his scream and blasted a hole into the ceiling tiles. As I hit the floor, I twisted and lowered myself to line up my rear hooves.

With one great buck, I felt my hooves blast his flesh right from to his skull before they split even that in two. He fell to the floor with a meaty thump and once again I was left to play catch up. For a moment, only the sound of my panting and the crackle of flame met my ears. The blue glow that I’d been giving off drained away in a matter of seconds, and the aching of my body replaced the burning that had been there. Without much warning, I emptied what little I had in my stomach onto the floor. A sharp pain shot through my stomach and a splash of red accompanied the half digested food.

“Pai, are you there?” I whispered and scooped the shotgun up from the floor. I guess that now is as good a time as ever to figure out how to get out of this place. In the moment that my pipbuck turned pink, the sound of shouting downstairs filled the air. The nervous sensation that we were in trouble pricked along my spine. “Did you get the plans for escaping?”

“Yup! I even found you a way out!” She shouted, her voice echoing through the eerily silent room. “The drainage from the basement of the other building should give you the best chance.”

“Thanks, I…” I stopped as the sounds of shouts and steps rapidly came from the stairs. I hoofed the shotgun bit into my mouth and did my best to ignore the foul taste. If there were more than a couple of Abominations coming up here, I’d be screwed. I looked back down to see Pai waving at me. She pointed her hoof up from my vision and gave a nod. I don’t know what she wanted from the medical cupboard against the wall, it…

Without a second thought, I spit the gun into my hooves again and made for my new hidey-hole. It was a tight fit, but I crammed myself inside. Good thing this thing had already been looted, or I might have made a whole lot more noise. As I pulled the door back and closed it, the sound of their steps was right outside the doorway.

“Alright, she’s armed and on the loose.” Slag snarled. Of course he’d be the one to come look for me. “I knew this bitch was trouble, right from day one. Spread out and search!” He snipped as the sound of their steps scattered. Unfortunately, one of them didn’t go too far to look for me. It sounded like it was in the operating room, only feet from me.

If I got lucky, I could push the cupboard open and kill him before he could react. If I did though, the shotgun blast would definitely draw the others back. No, I had to trust that I could hide. The abominations steps skittered closer to me. It sounded as if it were right outside the door. I held my breath in an attempt to be completely silent, but I bet if he listened he could hear my racing heart. A light rap of claws against the cupboard door handle met my ears, and I cringed. This was it…

“Who fucking left the stairwell door open!?” Slag roared out. “Fuck! She could have already slipped past us you dimwitted fucktards!”

“Fuck, Slag’s going to kill me.” The abomination outside the cupboard whispered to himself. The claws slid off the handle with a low whine, and it quickly made it’s way back to the hallway. After a minute, the sounds of their walking had disappeared, and I figured it was safe enough to come out.I let out the longest sigh I’ve ever given and slumped against the cupboard door. It easily swung open and I ended up spilling out onto the floor. Now that I was no longer seeing red, the grotesqueness of everything hit me all at once. The foul stench of melted flesh along with the sight of it made me spin over and heave, once again covering the ground with vomit and blood. I reached out to pull myself up but only ended up knocking an old metal box off one of the cupboard shelves.

It clattered to the ground and spilled open. Several rotten rolls of bandages flopped out, as well as an empty bottle of painkillers. A small glass jar rolled out and stopped at my hoof. It was an intact health potion, and probably the only actual medical supply left in this place. I took the roll of rotten bandages and looped it through and around the ones already around my chest. Carefully, I slipped the potion into my makeshift pocket and grasped the shotgun in my fetlock. With how much I’ve been hurt, I know I’m going to need this once we’re out of here.

As I took one last look around the medical office, my eyes stopped on the smoldering corpse of the doctor. His screams echoed in my mind, but I wanted to hear them. This bastard took so much from so many. He finally got the justice he deserved. A white light flashed along the wall a half second before the alarm system rang out. The near deafening klaxon meant that it was now or never to go.

“Pai!” I shouted and lifted up my pipbuck. “Where’s the armory?”

My pipbuck’s screen changed to the map section. The map had been filled out in it’s entirety, the doing of the schematics if I were to bet on it. A line drew to the stairwell before the layout changed to the third floor. It ran down the long hallway of Solitary confinement cells before stopping at a smaller than expected room. Needing to head upstairs was perfect, considering they all expected me to try to break out.

“I don’t know what I expected.” I said to absolutely no pony as I stood in the armory room. It couldn’t have been more than five feet by five feet in here! Most of the room was taken up by a console full of buttons and video screens. On the assorted screens, I could see Abominations in various sections of the prison rushing about right where I knew I could ambush them.

Which would be fantastic if the armory actually had any guns in it!

“Maybe… one of these buttons?” I sighed and squinted. There were countless, most just having a word like ‘SFC #47-E’ or something. I couldn’t stand here all day, I needed to act. “When all else fails…” I gripped the shotgun in both hooves, and laid it down on the security console. I shoved the gun down and pushed it up the length of the consol. Almost all of the buttons lit up as they toggled on, and the crackle of static came over a small speaker. At the same time, a soft click came from the metal wall behind me.

“...care what it takes, you fucking take her in one piece!” The warden came over the speaker sounding fairly pissed. “Kill her new friends, hell, kill every prisoner else, just don’t kill her. You know what he’ll do if you harm her, don’t you?”

“That’s not my problem.” Slag growled in response.

I found the monitor they were speaking on near the middle of the screens. They were in the cafeteria standing over the dead ponies they’d be feeding the prisoners. From the corner of the room, another abomination ran up to them.

“Sir, it’s the prisoners. Somepony’s released all the door locks.” For an imposing mare with minotaur arms for forelegs, she sounded quite worried. “It’s a riot sir, we’ve already lost three guards.”

“What are you waiting for then?” The Warden lifted his hoof and prodded Slag in the chest. “Get out there and do your fucking job.”

There was a mechanical hiss from behind me, followed by the sound of heavy bolts slamming against metal. When I turned, the back wall started to crank back, slowly opening to show a bit of a larger room. The lights inside flickered on, and the most beautiful sight met my eyes.

The walls were lined with guns. Poorly maintained, but guns none the less. Laying on the floor and pushed off to the sides of the room, were large duffle bags with the words ‘Summer Penitentiary’ emblazoned on the side. As fast as I could, I began stuffing gun after gun into the first one I got my hooves on.

I could only stuff about six shotguns and a few revolvers in, leaving only enough room to get some shell boxes for both stuffed in. Carefully, I slung the bag around my neck. I turned around and noticed a familiar sight. Both my bag and rifle were up against an open locker. Not wanting to leave old friends behind, I strapped my satchel over my shoulder and slung my rifle around my back.

I made sure that the shotgun I’d taken from the abomination was fully loaded before I hoofed it back into my muzzle. Now, all I needed to do was get back to the others.

The words of the Warden reverberated in my mind. He was willing to sacrifice everypony here, just to keep me alive. All because the necromancer’s punishment would be worse than whatever this might cost him. He was just like the doctor. These ponies didn’t deserve to die because of me, and he had no right to give away their lives like that.

As I made my way to the stairwell, I could hear the screams and shouts from both prisoners and abominations. Death for some of the ponies in this fight was unavoidable. I haven’t had any allusion that I could save every single one since I’ve been in here. Maybe though, if we didn’t escape… if we instead fought. We could destroy this place and all it stands for.

The lack of my own abomination problems hadn’t gone unnoticed by me as I made my way to the first floor. None had even checked the top floors, and that was disturbing to me. Once I opened the door leading to the main hallway, I saw why. A massive group of ponies had flooded out from the main cell block and were fighting their way towards the cafeteria. Two abominations franticly swiped, kicked, and fought a losing battle as they were slowly pushed back.

There he stood. Above all the others, he glared at me from his table in the cafeteria. The Warden’s glasses glinted in the fluorescent lights as his muzzle drew into a tight snarl. With my pipbuck, I might be able to hit him from here, but the ponies fighting in the hallway might get hit as well. Could I risk them losing their lives on the chance of maybe killing the Warden?

No.

Instead, I pushed myself into a gallop and turned the corner. I nearly tripped over the corpses of a few broken and bloodied ponies as I did, but I managed to keep my balance. As I pushed through the door, I found the twins and Jack Knife standing outside of my cell, simply looking in. When they did turn their attention to me as I approached, Mora was the only one whose expression didn’t darken.

I dumped the bag of guns at their hooves and went into my cell. Laying weakly wheezing in the back, was Cheap Shot. Several deep lacerations still oozed blood, while the rest of his dark coat was mottled with bruising. There was almost no part of him unbeaten. Even though I’d planned on saving it for after we escaped, I drew out the potion I’d found and carefully fed it to him. As I did, there was the loud clack of a shotgun round being chambered. Shortly after, I felt the barrel of it pressed against the back of my head.

“If you kill her now, Jack Knife, you’ll never outlive your cowardly reputation.” Mora spoke up. I didn’t need her defending me, but if it served to piss off Jack Knife, I was all for it.

“I know.” He replied coldly. “I just wanted to make sure she knew that I could have killed her at any time.” The barrel lifted off me, and although I didn’t show it, I relaxed a bit.

“What… what’s goin on?” Cheap Shot wheezed before he gave out a sputtering cough. He gasped a few times before opening his eyes and pushing himself up. “The hell happened ta this place?”

“Riot’s started.” I simply spoke. “Get up and get going. The prisoner’s hit them harder than even I expected. I’m betting we could leave through the front doors.” I helped to steady him as he got to his hooves. When he did, he gave me the most perplexed look.

“What do ya mean, could?” He took a step towards the open block, stopping when I didn’t follow.

“I’m not going.” I sighed. “Somepony has to keep this from happening again. So one of us is going to have to kill the Warden. It might as well be me.”

“Fucking good luck with that.” Jack Knife laughed. “You lot can go on a suicide run if you’d like, I’m going to clear a path out of here and never look back.”

“Then I’m stayin.” Cheap Shot said as he walked over to the gun back. “I have just as much right as any of yah ta kill dat bastard.” He hoofed out a shotgun and started to load it. “At the very least, he’ll get ta see my smilin face when his gets blown off.”

“Then I’m staying as well.” Mora smiled and finished loading the shotgun she’d had.

“No, you are not.” Rosina mumbled, stepping up beside Mora and hooking her hoof around her neck. “We are leaving.”

“No. You can go if you want, I’m staying.” Mora whined and pushed her sister away. “I’m the older sister, so you defer to me. Besides, we aren’t fillies anymore, and you can’t keep me from doing what I want. I find Hope…mildly interesting, so I’m going to help her.”

“Don’t fucking lie to my face, you’re infatuated with her.” She sneered and turned to me. She spat at me and hoofed out one of the revolvers in the bag. “And it’s disgusting. I should just shoot the two of you right...” She stopped talking when Mora raised her shotgun to her sister’s head.

“Remember the night mom left? No, because you were too high on dash to remember.” Mora spoke in a low, harsh tone. “You were out at Spike Trap’s bar, and you were all over Whispering Sands.” That made Rosina’s eyes go wide. “Yeah, you remember her? MY marefriend at the time?”

“You lie.” Rosina hissed before Mora shoved the gun against her to quiet her.

“Well, when mom and I confronted you about how disgusting it was, you got angry and broke her foreleg. She disowned us and left right then and there.” Mora snapped. “Funny how I was the only one to defend your ‘impulses’ then.” She pulled the shotgun back and rested it against her shoulder. “You can back me up on this, or you can leave like mom did. Either way, you don’t utter another word about ‘my choices’ in ponies.”

“I… I’m sorry.” Rosina muttered.

“Now ain’t really the time for dis.” Cheap Shot spoke up. “We gonna kill dat asshole or what?

I hoofed my shotgun back up into my muzzle and walked from the cell. Cheap Shot and the twins were right behind me as we entered the hallway towards the cafeteria. As I peeked my head around the corner to it, I found the bodies of the group that had assaulted the cafeteria were strewn away from the double doors. The cafeteria lay empty, and the trail of corpses lead straight back down the hallway.

I had a feeling I knew where he’d be hiding, so I gave Cheap Shot a nod and pushed down the hallway back towards the stairwell. Through the door, we climbed up the steps. We proceeded right to the fourth floor, passing body after body on the way up. The prisoners who’d wanted him dead put up one hell of a fight. I could tell when we passed one of the abomination guards at the threshold of the 4th floor office door.

When I kicked opened the door to the warden’s hallway, the other Abomination was staring at us from the Warden’s office door. He was bleeding heavily, but still managed to hold the shotgun in his muzzle steady. He fired once, and one of the twins screamed out. Cheap Shot and I didn’t hesitate, opening fire and shredding the abomination once and for all. His body slumped back and swung the office door open, revealing a very nervous and blood splattered pony. The warden quaked in fear, mumbling and muttering ever as Cheap Shot and I approached. I perked my ears as his hooves tapped nervously on the desk.

“I’ll show you all… ruining my empire like that.” His cracked sunglasses slipped from one side of his muzzle, revealing the pinprick eyes of a madstallion. “It’s funny… it’s all a joke, isn’t it?” He giggled incessantly. “No chance, not if the others find me… or if HE finds me. Better to go down with her than fail him!” He laughed and slid his hooves off the desk. He glared directly at me before he finally stopped shaking.

I knew it was coming. It took me far too long to react, but there was only time for one move. I threw myself against Cheap Shot, shoving him behind the receptionist’s desk. The loud whine of whatever bomb the Warden had behind his desk filled the air, climbing in range before there was a flash of light.

Then nothing.