Chapter 47

Fluttershy was driving home through the woods in her small SUV, playing a song that had come on the radio. It was a song that she particularly liked, so she had the volume turned up very loud so the invigorating music filled her ears, merging with the joy that filled her mood that day. She had spent the previous night making love to her two companions over and over again, then spent the day shopping with one of them while the other one went off to his shop to do his cute ‘guy stuff’.

There hadn’t been anyone from the news out at her house on the weekend that she knew of, but the awareness was still in the back of her mind that she had to approach slowly to avoid being caught off guard by them and end up with her face on TV.

She slowed down to turn into her driveway, rounding the bend, watching to see her house come into view from behind the trees. She thought she could see my truck through the trees parked by the house, thinking that maybe I had finished whatever I was doing and was home already. Once she was out from behind the trees and had a clear view of the vehicle, her heart seized up in her chest when she recognised it as the black SUV that had been parked there back in the spring…the one that was driven by Agent Cody of the CIA.

She pulled up slowly, stopping about twenty feet from the black vehicle. She suddenly realized the music was still blaring, its happy tune now becoming irritating to her with its sudden irony in this new situation, so she reached down to turn off the radio. Then she returned both her hands to the steering wheel as she glared at the other vehicle, which had been backed up to her house and was facing her, ready to give chase quickly if the situation required. She could faintly see a man in the driver’s seat through the windshield, someone she didn’t recognise. He had black shades on and what looked like a black suit.

Fluttershy waited for what felt like an eternity to see something happen, wondering what she should do, watching the vehicle sit there like a predator waiting to pounce. She started to wonder if maybe she was just letting her imagination get the better of her…maybe it was just a family that came out to thank her for saving their child, or maybe a news vehicle…large black SUVs weren’t reserved only for government officials after all…

As if the universe was listening to her thoughts and realized she was trying to make herself feel better, the driver’s side rear door of the truck suddenly opened and another man in a black suit stepped out. He looked in her direction as he patiently reached his hands in front of him to button up his suit jacket, then he walked over to her vehicle. She immediately recognised the aviator glasses with the gold and blue frames that adorned his face as he approached.

It was indeed Agent Cody.

“Oh…not good.” she thought to herself in a panic. “Why is he here??”

She turned her head slowly, following him with her gaze as he approached her door, then put his hand up, waving his finger in a circular pattern, signalling her to roll the window down.

She complied, bringing the window down most of the way, then putting her hands back on the steering wheel.

“Afternoon, Miss Fluttershy.” Cody greeted, somewhat smugly.

“Um, he-hello Mr. Cody.” she replied quietly.

He gave her a small smile.

She felt like she should try to look casual and put on the innocent act like before. She should speak. “Um, w-what brings you out here today?”

Cody took a deep breath, looking over her vehicle into the woods for a moment, then he locked his eyes on hers. “I heard about your heroics at the local high school…”

Her face went blank, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

“Pretty impressive.” he said. “There’s a cell phone video online that an associate of mine brought to my attention…it clearly shows you disarming and putting down three full grown men with very little difficulty.”

Fluttershy let out a breath and closed her eyes. She hadn’t been aware of any videos taken of her that day, but now she was face-to-face with her worst nightmare again because of it. She remained silent as he continued to speak.

“Very admirable, saving those kids like that.” he said. “I guess that makes you a hero.” Cody stepped closer and rested his arm on the roof of her vehicle, putting his other hand on his hip as he continued. “I’m curious though…” he said, dipping his head to look into the window at her. “Who taught you to fight like that?”

She sat motionless for a moment, then shrugged. “I, um-”

“Cuz you know…” he cut her off as he looked over at her house again. “There’s only one guy I’ve ever seen who uses a technique like that…I would recognise it anywhere. The simplicity of it…the precision…it’s the most efficient fighting style I’ve ever seen…” Cody looked down at his foot as he scuffed it in the gravel a couple of times, then he looked at her again. “And now you’re using it…where did you learn it?”

Fluttershy’s eyes got wider at the mention of me. Cody had made the connection, and there was no way to talk him out of it now…she knew he was going to cling to this lead until the bitter end. The shy girl took one hand off the wheel and slowly reached down to grasp the shifter, ready to attempt an escape. She glanced in the rearview mirror to gauge her vehicle’s position and ready herself, but her heart sank at the sight of a second black SUV pulling the driveway behind her, blocking her in.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Cody said flatly.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath…then, feeling defeated, pushed the shifter ahead into park.

“Step out of the vehicle please.” Cody ordered as he took a step back to let her open the door.

She shut the car off and removed the keys, then opened the door to step out. She closed the door again and stood next to her vehicle, glancing over at the second SUV to see two men in black suits emerge from the back doors. One was a skinny blonde man who was of average height, the other had dark hair and a goatee and was quite tall and large…he was somewhat overweight, but it was obvious that he had a lot of muscle underneath.

Fluttershy’s chest tightened up at the sight of him. “Oh my…I’d better try not to go toe-to-toe with him…”

She looked back at Cody as he spoke again, now standing right in front of her. “I’m going to ask that you go with those gentlemen over there.” he said.

Fluttershy frowned as she looked at the two men a second time, the back at Cody. “Why?” she asked. “W-what have I done wrong?”

Cody took his sunglasses off and glared at her. “You’ve been aiding and harbouring a fugitive. You did a very good job of hiding it last time, but now you’ve shown your true colours in that video.”

“I don’t know any fugitives. Or anyone dangerous…” Fluttershy replied, summoning her courage to stand her ground. “Um, y-you have no right to take me from my property. This i-isn’t even your country.”

“That man is a threat to my country!” Cody fired back with an authoritative voice.

She stared back at him in surprise at his outburst, her jaw trembling as the other two men approached.

“Look, Miss Fluttershy…” he said, bringing his tone back down.”There’s no reason for you to worry. Just help us and you’re free to go…and everything will go back to normal for you.” Cody said as she glanced over at the two men again.

She noticed the big guy had his suit jacket unbuttoned, revealing the straps of his holster which carried his handgun under his right arm. She made the assumption that the skinny guy was armed similarly, as well as Cody himself…not that it was any threat to her, but perhaps she could use their own weapons against them…if she could get her hands on one, that is. These men were trained professionals after all, and they would not be as easy to handle as the men at the school.

“I’m not gonna ask you again…” Cody ordered after a few moments. “We have full co-operation of the local police. They’ve agreed to let us view their records over the past several years. You’re going to come with us and answer some questions, and you will help us find him. The sooner you co-operate with us, the sooner you’ll be back here, and life will go on. It’s that simple.”

Fluttershy didn’t know what to do. She took a deep breath as she looked at the second SUV. She knew she couldn’t give me up, but these guys weren’t going to leave her alone either…and engaging with them right there in the driveway would likely end in her revealing her own power to them, which would only make things worse for herself. Much worse.

She nodded, looking down at the gravel in defeat. “OK. I-I’ll co-operate.” she reluctantly agreed, not knowing what else to do. Perhaps the police records would reveal little or nothing about her boyfriend, and she could just continue to feign ignorance until Cody gave up again.

She walked between the two suited men to the side door of the SUV. The big man got in first, sitting in the back seat, then the skinny guy helped the shy girl get in, placing his hand on top of her head so she wouldn’t hit it on the top of the door opening as she sat in the middle row, then the thin man got in and sat next to her and closed the door.

There was an additional two men in the vehicle, a driver and another man with a shaved head in the passenger front seat, both of them wearing the same dark suits. All of them had a small white coiled wire coming from one of their ears, lust like in the movies.

Fluttershy was terrified. She was seated in the middle of the second row, with the skinny man sitting to her left, directly behind the driver. The big guy was in the back seat on the passenger side, sitting behind and to the right of the shy girl.

As Cody watched them get into the SUV and close the doors, he opened the front door of Fluttershy’s little SUV and took out her bag. He rummaged through it, finding her wallet and ID…then her cell phone. He paused to look at it briefly, then smiled as he threw the phone back into the bag and carried it back to his own vehicle with him.

The second SUV slowly backed its way out of the driveway and onto the road, then accelerated to speed towards Canterlot, where fluttershy had just came from. Cody’s SUV drove away from the house, steering around the shy girl’s SUV, then exited the driveway onto the road to follow the other black truck with the shy girl held captive inside.

They had been heading down the winding road for about ten minutes, and Fluttershy’s nerves were starting to tingle as she wondered to herself what was going to happen next. Something didn’t seem right…why would they need her to identify me if Cody had a photo of me already, and saw me in person himself ten years ago? What records would the police have had that would indicate me? All I did for the past several years was live in the woods and work in a shop on the outskirts of town. There should be nothing on file about me, other than the bar incident in the springtime, which Cody had already known about and had proven it to be a fruitless lead, thanks to Sunset Shimmer.

It was very quiet in the vehicle, other than a few voices coming out from the radio up front, mostly speaking in codes and acronyms, making it impossible for her to understand any of what they were saying. The vehicle had been fitted with a custom radio and computer system to allow efficient communication and information gathering, similar to what you see in the front of a police car, but this system looked far more streamlined and advanced. There were many additional cabinets in the vehicle, housing different items and gadgets that they must have used regularly, although the shy girl didn’t know what many of them actually were.

Fluttershy was still thinking about why they needed so badly for her to come with them to the police station, then telling her that she would be free to go just like that…it didn't make sense, and she was starting to think it was just a trick to get her into the vehicle without a skirmish, which would have left evidence in her driveway if she had been taken against her will. The way things were left, with her vehicle parked there, it would appear that she literally vanished into thin air. No one would have known where she had gone.

She squeezed her eyes shut at the realization of this, instantly regretting her mistake. Where could they really be taking her? She thought about where she was right at that moment, then realized that if she could get away from them, she could escape into the woods and use the animals to ambush the men and distract them while she made her escape.

She slowly let her hand slide down to her seatbelt buckle, used her thumb to slowly and silently press the button to release the belt, then held it in place with her hand. She was now unrestrained and free to attempt her escape.

Fluttershy was holding her breath, looking at the right side door, rehearsing in her mind how she would reach over, quickly unlock it, open it and make a jump for freedom…but just then, she heard a distinctive sound from the back seat behind her…the faint click of handcuffs being readied by the big man in the back seat.

Her eyes went wide as she realized what they were planning to do, as well as realizing that her theory about them getting her into the vehicles peacefully was correct. “Cody, you lying mother fucker…” she thought angrily to herself. “Where are you taking me??”

Her heart rate ramped up very quickly as her eyes darted to the left towards the skinny blonde agent sitting right beside her. He was sitting with his body partially turned towards her, and was turning his head to face the man in the back. She kept an eye on him as he looked at the big man for a short moment, then nodded.

She took this as the signal for the big man to make his move to restrain her. She decided right then and there she wasn’t going to go down without a fight, and just when she heard the seat behind her creak as the big guy leaned forward to grab her, she flung the seatbelt off of her lap and put her elbows on top of the seat back, quickly lifting herself up off the seat, arching her back as she kicked both her feet against the front seats, launching herself into the back seat next to the big guy.

He put his arm out to try to catch her, but she had raised her arm and quickly slammed her elbow into his nose, causing a loud crunch to echo through his head. His eyes were instantly flooded with tears as he covered his face with both hands, unable to act now that his vision was clouded by the moisture, brought on by the stinging in his sinuses.

Fluttershy looked ahead of her at the skinny man who she had just been sitting beside a few seconds ago. He had already pulled his pistol out and was bringing it around to aim at her. She kicked upwards with her foot, knocking his arm up and pinning his hand with the gun against the roof of the vehicle. She locked her knee to keep him trapped like this as she turned and reached inside the suit jacket of the big man, pulling his gun out from the holster under his right arm and quickly aiming it at the skinny guy’s head.

She pulled the trigger, sending a round through the skinny agent’s temple, painting the side window of the SUV with a large red splatter. His dead arm went limp under the restraint of her leg, so she let her foot down, releasing his hand from the roof. As the pistol fell from his grip, she reached out and caught it in her other hand.

Now armed with two guns, she brought her attention to the men in the front. The bald man in the passenger seat had turned around by now and was just bringing up his weapon to aim at her as she raised both of her guns, firing them both simultaneously at their heads.

One bullet tore through the driver’s head rest, entering the his brain, causing him to slouch forward over the steering wheel…as well as letting his heavy foot press its lifeless weight on the gas pedal, making the vehicle suddenly accelerate out of control.

The other bullet penetrated the bald man’s forehead, leaving a small red hole just above his left eye, snapping his head back against the dash board and he came to rest, slouched sideways in his seat. The entire windshield was instantly painted red, blocking the view from inside the vehicle of where it was going.

Fluttershy quickly turned her head to the right to look at the big man beside her, noticing he was wiping his eyes and slowly getting his vision back. She swung the pistol in her right hand up over her shoulder, connecting the top of the barrel to his brow, splitting it wide open, sending a stream of red blood down his cheek. He grunted as he clutched his forehead with his left hand, wincing in pain. The shy girl looked down at his lap, noticing how he had dropped the hand cuffs on his leg after she hit him with her elbow when she leapt into the seat beside him. She then noticed that there was a grab handle just ahead of the rear side window that he was seated at, so she set one pistol down on the seat, then grabbed the cuffs, locking one end on his wrist, then yanked his arm up, closing the other end of the cuff around the handle, tying him to the now out-of-control vehicle.

“Enjoy the ride…” she said to him in a sarcastic tone as she picked the pistol up again. She leapt over the middle seat back, looking out the passenger side window, noticing how it appeared that the vehicle had veered over to the oncoming lane, making Fluttershy wonder what was coming up ahead of them. She didn’t want any innocent drivers on the road to get hurt, so she reached up past the driver, noticing that they were now travelling well over 100km/h as she used her forearm to wipe a clean streak across the windshield to see what was coming their way.

Her heart stopped when she saw that the SUV was entering a right-hand curve in the road, and was barreling directly for the end of the steel guard rail, which started just before the curve.

“Oh dear…” she squeaked as she crossed the guns in front of her face to cover it and squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the impact.

The sound was deafening. Fluttershy was violently thrown forward into the windshield, her head slamming against the glass, soaking her hair and tank top in the agents’ blood as she remained pressed against the cracked windshield. If felt like she was now laying there…then she realized that the rear of the vehicle had come up into the air after the impact and the entire truck was flipping end-over-end into the wooded gully below.

The SUV flipped, then came down on its roof, sliding down the hill for a bit before it flipped again, bouncing off a tree as it went, knocking it into a sideways roll as it flipped a third time. It sounded like a war zone inside, banging and crashing like thunder as the shy girl was thrown around the interior of the truck. She had lost all sense of direction…feeling her head, back, legs and arms bounce off of seat cushions, windows, door handles, the dash board, dead bodies…she had dropped the guns in the process, trying her best to grab onto something to hold herself steady as she waited for the violent crashing to come to an end.

*****

The driver of Cody’s SUV rounded the bend, expecting to see the other vehicle ahead of them come back into view during the next straightaway, but was instead greeted with an empty road. He frowned, knowing that they hadn’t been travelling fast enough to be around the next bend yet…where had they gone?

Cody was in the middle row, sitting next to one other agent, going through Fluttershy’s phone after using a device to unlock it without the password, looking for my contact, which he was unable to find. I had instructed her to keep my contact deleted, and if she needed to call or text me to just enter my phone number every time. If I sent her a text or called her, it would just show up as my number, with ‘unknown caller’ above it. Cody, however, could easily look up all the numbers in her recent calls list, or even call them himself…if there were any there. Fluttershy religiously cleared all the histories in her phone everyday in case of a situation like this.

Agent Cody suddenly felt the vehicle braking, then heard the voice of the driver speaking back to him. “Sir, we have a situation…”

Cody looked up through the windshield, furrowing his brow as he wondered what the driver was referring to. “What is it?” he asked.

“The other vehicle is gone. Look there…” the driver pointed as their vehicle came to a complete stop about fifty feet from the guard rail at the next bend.

Cody looked in the direction of the driver’s finger, seeing the bent end of the guard rail, then a broken tree branch just off the side of the road, beyond the edge of the hill. There was some dust floating in the air as well, emanating from the brush down the hill in the trees to the left.

“It looks like they crashed, and went over the edge to the left…right there.” the driver pointed to the trail of damage as he analyzed the scene.

Cody put Fluttershy’s phone back in her bag and set it on the floor behind the front seats. “Looks like our tough little lady-friend decided to put up a fight.” he said as he pulled his gun out from inside his suit jacket. “Secure the area. Check the other vehicle…see how many survivors there are. Hopefully she’s one of them.” he ordered the driver, who opened the door and got out, then closed the door again before walking over to the area where the other SUV had left the road.

Cody listened to his earpiece as the agent who was driving described the wreckage. “Vehicle is overturned, it’s quite a ways down the hill. It will take me a minute to get down there.”

“Understood.” Cody returned, looking at the agent in the seat next to him as he waited to hear more. “Hopefully she’s not dead…” he mumbled as the other agent nodded his head.

“OK…” the driver continued. “Vehicle is heavily damaged…” there was a pause as he looked inside the overturned SUV. “Uh, all four men are dead, three by gunshot…Sims looks like he died in the crash…”

Cody frowned as he put his fingertips up to his earpiece. “Where’s the girl?”

After a pause, the driver replied: “Target is gone.”

“Dammit.” Agent Cody cursed as he turned to the man beside him. “Sweep the area. She can’t be far…she’s probably injured from the crash.”

The agent nodded as he opened the rear passenger door and stepped out, pulling out his gun as he shut the door and started walking to the back of the SUV. He was headed the opposite way from the crash to start a wide sweep, hopefully getting ahead of the girl before she got too far.

He was holding the weapon up to his right side as he passed the back corner of the SUV when the pink-haired girl, with red splotches of blood soaked into her hair and white tank top, suddenly lunged out at him. She had been crouched down behind the vehicle so she wouldn’t be seen through the back window by the men inside, waiting to make her move.

Fluttershy had decided to alter her escape plan, deciding that simply running away wasn't going to solve her problems in the long run. She would be unable to go home since they would just go back and look for her there, so she made the decision to get rid of them right here, right now. If more agents were sent to investigate their deaths, she knew the local police would have her back after she had just saved an entire school the week before and became a local hero.

She drove her open palm into the agent's face, crushing his nose, causing his head to snap back, then she grabbed his right wrist with both hands, yanked his arm downward to point his gun at the ground and squeezed the trigger, firing a round into his own foot. He cried out as he let go of the weapon and staggered back while Fluttershy spun on her heel, facing herself away from the side of the SUV, bringing her leg up to deliver a straight kick, connecting her foot to the side of the agent’s head, driving it into the side of the truck. His body crumpled lifelessly to the ground as she looked into the side window of the truck…seeing Cody’s silhouette behind the dark tinted glass.

She raised the pistol and fired several shots at Cody’s head through the window.

He saw her just in time, and dove down in the seat, instinctually covering his head as the bullets ricocheted off the bulletproof glass. “Jensen, get back here now!” he yelled in a panic over his comms band. ”She’s here, on the right side of the vehicle! She is armed…use any force necessary to subdue, but keep her alive!”

Fluttershy emptied the entire clip only to see a spread of chip marks on the glass. “Damn...” she cursed softly to herself. Then she suddenly perked up, listening to a shrill chirping coming from the trees near the crash site of the other vehicle. She dropped the empty gun to the ground and took off running, heading to the guard rail where the first vehicle had crashed.

Agent Jensen, the driver of Cody’s vehicle, was climbing back up the hill from the other vehicle as ordered. The hill was steep, and he had to bend forward to use his hands to help make his way up to the top. As he reached level ground at the shoulder of the road, he quickly pulled out his gun and stood up, looking ahead just in time to see the pink-haired girl sprinting at him. She jumped up, leaning her shoulders back and bringing her legs up, driving both her green boots into his chest.

Jensen was knocked off his feet and sent soaring over the edge of the hill. He flew almost forty feet before landing on a downed tree branch with the small of his back, causing him to flip backwards and land on his head, breaking his neck instantly, followed by his limp body rolling down the hill another ten feet.

Cody had decided to slowly sit up in the vehicle, looking to the right again to see the shy girl not there anymore. He looked forward through the windshield just in time to see Fluttershy running from the right side of the road to the left, then he saw Jensen stand up at the edge of the road only to have the girl leap up and kangaroo-kick him back down into the ravine.

“Fuck!” he cursed as he watched her land with her back on the ground after delivering the attack. “This ends now…”

He reached over to roll down the window beside him, then opened the door to use the window sill as a tripod to steady his gun. He aimed at her as she quickly stood up again, still facing over the edge of the hill…giving him a clear shot at her shoulder. He intended to wound her so he could get the girl back into the vehicle without having her fighting back anymore.

He took aim at the fleshy upper half of her arm, just below the top of her shoulder, then fired.

Fluttershy was just about to turn her attention back to Cody, the last agent left standing when she heard the shot ring out…followed by the sudden hard jolt against her shoulder, causing her to stagger to the side one step, then slowly look back at Cody’s SUV.

The Agent’s eyes went wide was he saw the girl’s shoulder jerk under the impact of the bullet, but fail to bleed, or knock her down. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck as she slowly turned her head in his direction, scowling at him with a sharp look in her eyes.

Cody’s eyes widened as the realization of what he was dealing with came over him. “Holy shit…he’s not the only one…she’s one of them too…” he thought as a feeling of amazement combined with terror came over him.

They stood for a moment staring at each other, not knowing what to do.

Cody finally broke the silence. “Well, Miss Fluttershy…you just became a lot more interesting…” he said smugly.

Fluttershy turned so she was facing him. Her eyes were wide, her heart racing as she realized that her tormentor now knew what she really was. ”Oh boy, this is bad…he knows…” she thought to herself, wondering if she would be able to handle going toe-to-toe with the agent. She’d managed to get the jump on the others, taking them out with relative ease, but being face-to-face with Cody might be a different story. “Only one way to find out…” she thought as she took a couple steps towards him, which progressed into a jog, then a full-out run.

Cody quickly steadied himself as he watched the slender girl charge at him. He knew there was only one way to make it out of this alive…

He raised his gun and emptied the rest of his rounds at the shy girl…watching in amazement as she jerked back after each impact, but still kept coming. She had bullet holes in her white tank top now, which was also stained red with the blood of his comrades, like her hair.

Realizing his pistol was useless to him, he dropped it and charged towards her, hoping he would be able to successfully execute his plan.

They rushed at each other at full speed, and when they were about five feet away from impact, she leaned down and speared him in the midsection with her shoulder, knocking the wind out of him, as well as the sunglasses off his face. They were stopped dead in their tracks on impact as the shy girl, who was still leaned forward with her head tucked at his side under his left arm after her attack, started swinging her fist around his back, hammering his kidneys relentlessly as he grunted…but her punches weren’t strong enough, and he was able to gather his strength enough to hook his arms around her stomach, picking her up so her legs swung upward into the air.

She was upside down now, with her back against his face, and she was then thrown down to the pavement head first, slamming down on the back of her neck and shoulders with a jarring crack as her skull hit the road.

Not feeling any pain from it, she immediately responded by thrusting her feet up and connecting both of her boots to his chest, knocking him back towards the front of the SUV. Cody stumbled and fell, hitting his back against the front bumper of the truck, which sent sharp waves of pain up his spine.

He sat for a second, gritting his teeth as he waited for the hurting in his back to die down. It was short lived however, when he looked up and saw the girl coming at him, ready to swing her foot at his face. He countered by thrusting his foot out as she took the next step, kicking her foot out from under her, causing her to fall forward towards him. He swung his left fist across in front of him, connecting a left hook to Fluttershy’s cheek just before she landed on him, which knocked her off to his right side.

Cody rolled to his left to get away from her, giving himself the time to stand up, using his left hand on the truck bumper to pull himself up quicker. He turned to face her, surprised to see that she was already back to her feet and coming at him again. He swung his foot up to kick her, hoping to stop her next attack, but she quickly dropped under it, spinning on her heel as she swept her right leg around in a circle on the ground, knocking his other leg out from under him.

Cody landed on his back on the pavement, feeing the air get knocked from his lungs yet again. He knew at that moment that he was fighting a losing battle…even though she wasn’t very strong, or even as experienced a fighter as him, she just couldn’t be hurt. He could hit her with the most devastating attack he could and she would be back to her feet again in an instant. He was already in a lot of pain, which was slowing him down quickly…and it wouldn’t be too long before she would be able to finish him off with little effort. His only hope was to continue on with his plan...to restrain her.

Fluttershy had stepped to the side of him, and lifted her foot up to stomp on his face. He quickly swung his arm at the back of the knee that she was still standing on, causing it to bend unexpectedly, collapsing under her weight as she fell backwards to the ground.

Cody forced himself through the pain to get to his feet as fast as he could, then made his way to the side of the truck, reaching into the open door to grab two pairs of hand cuffs. He turned around to see where she was, and recoiled when he found her right in his face again. He quickly grabbed her by the throat before she could attack, then picked her up off the ground…running across the left lane of the road and slamming her down to the ground next to the gravel shoulder.

He approached the shy girl to grab her arm as she got back up to her hands and knees, but she kicked one foot out to the side, burying her heel in his stomach. Cody hunched over, squeezing his eyes shut as the pain in his stomach rendered him helpless for a moment. She had gotten back to her feet and was approaching him yet again, just as he looked up at her to see her swing her right fist at his head.

He quickly brought his arm up, holding the open cuffs, letting the one end catch her wrist and snap shut. He straightened himself up, fighting against his pain and spun himself around her, stepping behind and twisting her arm around her back by the cuff. She responded by swinging her left elbow back at him to try and hit him hard enough to let her go, but he was able to swiftly catch her arm with his hand, then twist it down behind her back so he could snap the other end of the cuff onto her other wrist.

He didn’t give her time to think once her hands were cuffed behind her back. He hooked his right leg around her feet and swept her legs out from under her, making her go down, landing face-first in the dirt at the side of the road. The wind was knocked from her lungs, puffing up a cloud of dust around her head and she hit the dirt with her face. She lifted her head to look behind her, a layer of fine dust and small stones stuck to her mouth and cheeks…then she felt the weight of his knees coming down on the backs of her thighs, pinning her down as he yanked her boots off and slapped the second set of cuffs around her ankles.

“No…no no no…” Fluttershy panicked in her head as she realized she’d been beaten. She couldn’t move freely anymore, and was now at the agent’s mercy.

Cody stood up and grabbed the chain of the cuffs that were on her hands, violently hoisting her up to her feet. Then he hooked one hand under her arm and dragged her back to the open side door of the SUV.

“Where are you taking me??” she squealed frantically. “You can’t do this…I never did anything to you! LET ME GO!!”

“You just killed six of my men…you’re a threat.” he replied flatly, throwing her into the truck across the middle seat. He leaned in, but was taken aback when she suddenly sat up, glaring intensely with her eyes out of the truck…but not at him. She was staring past him, into the woods.

The agent furrowed his brows, wondering what she was looking at, looking over his shoulder into the woods for a moment. After seeing nothing of interest in the trees, he put his hand on her face and shoved her back down into a laying position, then reached down to the storage bin under the seat to pull out another pair of cuffs. He locked one end around the chain of the cuffs tying her wrists together, then pulled her legs up behind her back and locked the other end to the chain that was holding her feet together, essentially leaving her in a hog-tied position on the seat. Then he closed the door.

Cody went to the driver’s door of the truck, opened it and activated the rear interior locks so she couldn’t have a chance of opening the doors to escape. He sat in the driver’s seat, gripping the steering wheel as he reflected on what he had just accomplished…he didn’t catch his original target, the ancient immortal man who had become nothing more than a mere legend amongst his peers, but instead, he caught a different immortal…a girl. One that no one knew about. This was big. Cody knew he would become a legend for bringing one of these beings into headquarters. What were they? Where did they come from? Why didn’t anyone know about this girl?

He reached out to the comms screen in the dash, sending a notice to his peers on the other end. “This is Cody…” he breathed, wincing through the pain that the girl in the back seat had caused him. “I have six men down, and one vehicle damaged. Send a clean-up crew to these co-ordinates…on-the-double. Over.”

He turned one more time to look at the restrained girl in the back seat, who was now weeping in defeat. Tears were running down her face, mixing with the dirt on her cheeks, creating a muddy mess as her pink, blood-soaked hair stuck to her face.

He took a deep breath, then faced forward again to put the SUV in gear and continue to drive to his destination, the location of which was a mystery to the shy girl.

She began to cry harder as she laid in the back seat with her arms cuffed behind her back, her feet tied together, feeling the motion of the vehicle as it took her away from her happy life. “I couldn’t beat him…” she thought to herself as she sobbed softly. “Now he’s taking me away…and I don’t know where. How is anyone going to find me?”

Just then, she heard her phone vibrating inside her bag on the floor next to the seat. She held her breath, looking at Cody to see if he heard it, which he didn’t. He just kept his eyes on the road.

Fluttershy rolled over a bit, looking down at her bag. It was open slightly at the top, and she could see the light from the phone screen inside, showing part of the number that was calling her. She could only see the last four numbers, but it was enough for her to recognise it as her boyfriend’s number. She frantically yanked her hands against the hand cuffs, trying to get free…but she couldn’t do it. She rolled off the seat onto her back so she could get her fingers close to the phone so she could at least try to answer it, even if she couldn’t talk. Unfortunately however, the way she landed on the bag folded it shut, separating her from the phone…and she laid there, feeling it vibrate through the bag against her back a few more times before it finally stopped.

She squeezed her eyes shut, sending streams of tears down her face at the realization that her only chance at getting help had now passed her by. She was on her own now. The life she knew was gone.

She was now regretting her mistakes as she thought more about how she'd handled the situation. She should have gone home, or to my shop. I might have been there to help her...or she could have used nearby animals to help her fight Cody on the road, rather than being so overconfident in her abilities. But now it was too late, and she was his prisoner.

No one will know where she went…it will be like she just vanished into thin air. She thought about her friends, picturing their faces as they worried about her, wondering where she had disappeared to. She thought about me…and she thought about Rarity, both of whom she loved with all her heart and couldn’t bear the thought of losing. Would they figure out what had happened? Or would they think she chose to leave them behind to start a new life for reasons they wouldn’t understand?

The pain of her sadness finally erupted in her chest as she sobbed loudly on the floor of the SUV that was now taking her somewhere unknown.

Her only hope now was that someone might receive her message…