Chapter 9: Shooting Star

Since Twilight and Silver arrived in Manehattan they got along pretty well. He told her about his time in the big city with their possible new ally. Even if Silver was not really trustworthy he could at least tell exciting stories full of fighting and celebrating and what not.

The whole city was just enormous, Canterlot was nothing in comparison. The streets were crowded with all sorts of hectic business ponies and tourists. Following Silver Night’s advice they stayed off the main roads and market districts. If they’d done it her way, she would have travelled with the shadows through the town, but he said that certain barrier-wards could spot her and alarm the guards of Manehattan. Not only that, but that would also alarm one of the three generals, more specifically Dawn Comet because he was stationed in Manehattan. That was the only sure thing though, Silver’s sources were reliable, but nopony in their right minds would spy on a general.

It had been quiet for a while now, so Twilight decided to change that, “So, any idea where to search next?””

“I’m not so sure, back then he had a small outpost at the docks. Maybe he’s there, it’s been a while.”

“Alright, it’s worth a shot,” the lavender mare got temporarily blinded by his shiny, shimmering wing blades. “Agh… Aren’t your wing blades a bit suspicious for a normal tourist?”

“I won’t take them off if that’s what you’re aiming for,” he stopped briefly to look if they were still there. “We are almost there anyway.”

She knew that he hid something, but they were not even friends so that was none of her business.

After another half hour of sneaking through the city, they eventually arrived at the docks. Manehattan was the city with the biggest maritime trade income and therefore had the biggest harbor district in all of Equestria. It was quite difficult to find a specific pony in this extremely wide area, especially if everypony looks away nervously when you even mention the name of said pony.

Twilight and Silver wandered around at one of the last docks, it had been quite a long walk as both of them could feel somepony following them.

Silver Night asked without turning around or stopping, “Twilight.”

“Yes, I’m on it,” she vanished into the shadows, before reappearing with drawn weapon behind their shocked pursuer.

It was quite obvious that he was a street rat, torn, dirty clothes, unkempt mane and a crude little dagger in his pocket, “Well, what do we have here? I suggest you talk if you don’t want to end up in the water with a sliced throat."

She went silent for a few, precious moments, to let the grave nature of this event fully sink into her terrified prisoner, "Let’s start with the obvious questions, who sent you?”

Silver was slightly baffled by the sudden display of cruelty. He didn’t know that this weak mare from Ponyville could have such a fire in her eyes. Her absurdly long and sharp sword helped to reinforce his opinion. Maybe it was good to travel around with her, things could turn out fun.

Their nameless prisoner whimpered before speaking up in panic, “Okay, Okay! Please don't hurt me, I’ll talk. Capone noticed that two unknown ponies were searching and asking for him all around the docks. So he paid me fifty bits to get rid of you.”

“Where can we find him?” Twilight asked, her irritation start to show.

The pony looked around in panic, “I’m a dead pony if I tell you.”

She moved the sharp edge of her blade slightly closer to his throat, “Either if he finds out later or now if you don’t talk. The odds aren’t exactly in your favor. Where. Can. We. Find. Him.”

“H-he…. is a-t.... Dock 7 in the m-main shipyard,” he said while closing his eyes in fear.

Twilight smiled and dissolved her weapon, causing him to fall to the ground, “Good, now get out of my sight.” He got up to his hooves quickly and ran away as fast as possible. It was so much easier to get what she wanted when she used the intimidation methods Luna taught her. Sure, she would not go as far as her, killing him if he had remained quiet, but it was effective either way.

“You heard him, let’s go,” the lavender mare said, satisfied.

“You are full of surprises, Twilight Sparkle. Even I would not want you as an enemy,” Silver stated.

It was much easier to find Capone’s base with a vague description. At the door to the shipyard stood a tall, muscular, pony in a classical suit. He looked quite good despite his stature, likely the security of Capone.

Silver looked at him for a few second before asking, “Should we just knock him out?”

“No, I have a more subtle way. Touch my shoulder.”

After he did, the two vanished into their own shadows. Luckily for Silver it wasn’t far. Traveling per magic could be really disturbing for ponies not used to it. They reappeared in the middle of the shipyard.

“Ugh… Warn me next time.”

“So you two are the ponies causing all this trouble, only to speak to little ol’ me. ” a voice said from behind them.

She turned around to look at, presumably Capone. His grey coat was almost entirely covered with a black pinstripe suit and his black, short hair was slicked back, hidden under his also grey fedora. In between his perfectly white teeth smoldered an expensive and surely illegal cigar. The look was completed by his cutie mark which showed a black fedora alongside a pile of bits. He certainly looked like a boss of a criminal gang.

Silver Night smiled and greeted him, “Is that a way to greet an old friend?”

Capone eyed the stranger up for a moment before starting to smile too, “Silver? Hehehe, it’s been a while, kiddo. Out for some trouble in the big city? And who is you lovely company?”

“This is Twilight Sparkle an ally… of some sorts and no we are here because we wanted to ask something from you. You could say a favor for an old friend.”

“I don’t like where this is going, but sure, who am I to deny my friend a request,” the gray gangster boss said while smoking his cigar.

The dark brown pegasus looked at Twilight, who nodded approvingly, he faced his old friend again before saying, “Your business is infamous in Equestria, you have an army of elite mercenaries under your command and we need your help. We work together with my Queen and the remaining bat ponies to end Celestia’s reign, in order for that to work we have to have an own army.”

“Overthrow Celestia? Bahahahahaha! You always had big ambitions, but that’s the most foolish one. She has nearly ten thousand soldiers in her military and I’m not even counting her leadership circle. How in Equestria do you plan on doing that? Not that I would mind Celestia being gone, that would certainly help my business.”

“Simple, my Queen and Twilight Sparkle over here, these two are master tacticians. I have absolute faith that they have a plan for that. Besides I think you wouldn’t talk like that if you have seen her fight.”

Twilight interrupted before he could talk, “Of course I have a plan. We worked on it for quite a while now, but we need an adequate army if we want to pull this off. If you don’t want to do this for Silver, do it for the money. If we win you will get fifteen percent of the royal treasury.”

“Now that is a pony who knows how to make a deal! Fifteen percent of the whole treasury? If you hold your side of the deal I will be swimming in bits when this is over. Alright, I’m in, we will do our part when you call us.”

Twilight shook his hoof and smiled, “That’s what I want to hear. I’ll let you know when we need your help.” She opened another magical door and they both vanished.

He blew out a small cloud of smoke and stated, “She is dangerous, better watch out Celestia. Either way this will be the beginning of a new era.”

Twilight and Silver were thrown out of the magical rift as it shattered by the impact of a huge explosion. They were back in the streets of Manehattan, but were now surrounded with startled residents.

“Twilight, what happened?!”

“I don’t know. I had no idea the rift could even be damaged let alone shattered.”

“Hehe. The wards are reliably as ever. You two are arrested for crimes against Equestria.” a strong male voice said. It was Dawn Comet with his bright yellow suit, he wore the typical attire of a general, a long, white with gold trimmed with the words ‘Justice’ at the back. He stood about ten meters away from them, but they could already feel the powerful aura that he was emanating.

“Tw-Tw-Twilight! It is Dawn C-Comet! He is one of the generals! We have no chance against them! Run!”

Before she could even react a bright yellow ray of light closed the distance between them and Dawn stood behind Silver.

“Ever got a kick with the speed of light?” his hind legs glowed and vibrated before he kicked Silver Night, he did not put much force in it, but the dark brown stallion sailed several dozen meters through the air. Now he stood besides the paralyzed mare and his right forehoof glowed in a similar manner.

A last attempt to stop him was a bolt of pure chaos energy, it sailed through his skull, leaving a gaping hole. He did not even notice it, the wound glowed shortly before it closed itself. Her entire knowledge vanished, just like that. All of the hours training for this exact moment, and she laid on the ground, paralyzed with fear.

“You can’t stop justice. I won’t kill you, but don’t expect to see the sunlight ever again.”

Twilight closed her eyes, that was it, what should she do now? It was hopeless. She waited for the pain, but it never came. Instead she heard a flaming sound and the slicing of flesh.

As she opened her eyes once again, she saw Morning Blaze cutting off Dawn Comet’s forehoof to stop him temporarily, blood spurted from the wound. Equestrian healing magic was good enough to regrow it completely, so he didn’t really feel the need to get an adequate payback. Twilight sat there mouth wide open not sure what to do, she felt so useless.

“Huh? Morning Blaze, you know that you are on our side? It is our duty to arrest those criminals,” he said, but not very enthusiastically. He could kill them right now, he just did not feel like it.

Blaze turned around and said quietly, “This is my last gift for you, Twilight. You won’t get any mercy next time.” She teleported Twilight next to Silver, she hoped they would disappear and to her relief they did. The yellow mare saw her former student frantically open a strange gateway and vanishing with it.

“I’m afraid this will have consequences, Blaze.”

“I know.”

Meanwhile Rarity and Pinkie had finally decided where they should go. It was not easy to debate with somepony like Pinkie Pie, she suggested things like the volcano islands where the dragons lived or the arctic north.

Luckily Rarity could convince her energetic friend to pick a more… realistic location. They settled on the beautiful town of Baltimare. None of them were there before so it would be exciting to explore the new city, also for a more practical purpose, nopony would know them there.

After Rarity opened another gateway, they both entered the rustic harbor town. Luna suggested to take some bat ponies with them, but Pinkie insisted on staying a small group because that would be ‘more ninja-like’. However, they got a warning from the princess, she said to not travel on the main streets. Baltimare was unfortunately the city in which Mistral, another general was stationed in. They should immediately flee if she appeared.

Pinkie bounced happily besides Rarity as they trotted through the town. The city had a certain ‘medieval’ look, none of the houses was above two stories tall and the most common building material was cobblestone, unlike in for example Canterlot where they only used marble from the nearby mountains. In nearly every corner they could see a pub or a fish market and there were many, many fish markets. They had all kinds of fish one could possibly imagine and more.

“Hey Rarity, wanna get something to eat?” Pinkie asked in her usual cheerful demeanour.

“Hmm? Oh yes, I have to admit that I am a bit starved.”

“Okie dokie. Let’s go into the restaurant we saw earlier at the shore.”

“The decor looked absolutely lovely,” Rarity exclaimed enthusiastically.

Another ten minutes later they sat in the famous restaurant ‘The Salty Sea Mare’. A rather old, but surprisingly charming business. They overheard the conversation of two dock workers as they waited for their meal to arrive.

“Did you know that one of Celestia’s generals visits this place from time to time?”

“Are you kidding? Why would any high class pony in their right mind visit this run-down restaurant?”

“Don’t ask me. I just heard it from a friend of mine over at the main market.”

“And who of the three should that be?” the second worker asked.

“I guess Mistral because she is stationed in this town. Even though she doesn’t wander around town without a reason. I heard she is always either training or drinking. Strange kind of general if you ask me.”

“Eh, she got that position for a reason, the princess has absolute trust in her soldiers.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s change the topic, wanna go to the market before we go back to work?”

“Sure.” The two left, wandering over to the market.

Rarity listened carefully the whole time to not misunderstand the situation, “Did you hear that?”

“Sure, the general does not have a good taste for free time activities.”

“Not that, Pinkie. She visits this place, do you know how dangerous that could be?”

“Well yeah, silly, but how high are the chances that will happen right now?”

As on queue the door opened and a light blue mare with long white hair and a blue suit entered the restaurant. Draped over her suit was the long general coat with the word ‘Justice’ on it.

Pinkie laid her head on the table and murmured something about ‘stupid Pinkie sense’. Rarity was mortified, they were not even two hours in the city and they already stumbled upon Celestia’s highest ranking soldier. Should they just stand up and leave quietly? What if she had already seen them and recognized them from the wanted posters?”

The seamstress nodded towards to door and Pinkie got the hint. They walked past Mistral who was already sitting at the bar, as the door came into reach a female voice behind them stated mockingly.

“Playing hide and seek with me, huh? Hahaha, I’m in a good mood, you two get two minutes head start before I bring you to Celestia,” Mistral said while she waved a rum bottle in her magic.

“RUN!” Rarity and Pinkie shouted simultaneously.

Not two seconds later, right at the front door, Mistral materialized herself out of thin air. It looked like the air itself froze to ice and formed the stature of a pony.

Pinkie stammered weakly, “W-what about the head start?”

The light blue unicorn tilted her head slightly and smiled, “I lied.”

The pink party pony pushed Rarity further away as Mistral slowly approached her. “Rarity, run!”

The designer could only nod in panic and ran trying to open a door to their hideout. Luna and Twilight have to know what happened, she thought to herself.

Mistral towered over the panicked pink earth pony, “Hehe, a noble sacrifice, but I’ll get to your friend sooner or later.” Now she touched Pinkie’s shoulder and closed her eyes briefly.

Before the usually happy mare could react everything including her in a twenty meter radius froze completely. Mistral not only froze her intended victim, but also the ‘Salty Sea Mare’ and all the visitors. “Oh well, I overdid it a bit, they thaw sooner or later anyway. Celestia will be pleased, it’s not as good as Twilight Sparkle, but I’m sure she can work with it.”

Rarity cried silently as she felt the temperature rapidly sinking behind her, but she could not get herself to stop now. Finally the magical gateway opened and she jumped in, leaving her pink friend behind.

Almost at the exact same time two terrified mares and an unconscious male bat pony landed before Luna’s hooves.

Twilight and Rarity exclaimed, “We have a problem!”

The Princess of the Night looked at them with a neutral facial expression and said, “Calm down you two. Take a moment and then report.”

The first one to calm down was the lavender mare, “Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we could convince ‘Capone’ to join us, in exchange for a part of the royal treasury. The bad news is that Dawn Comet caught us, Silver Night is injured pretty bad I think. He got us unprepared, we did not even see him coming.”

Luna lifted her left forehoof to her chin and asked, “How did you escape then? I don’t take that you won against him.”

She couldn’t tell that she had been rescued by a follower of Celestia, especially not when her own followers were present. “I managed to distract him long enough with a chaos spell plus he did not seem to be very determined to catch us.”

The blue alicorn turned around and shouted an order to a dark-green coated thestral stallion, “You, bring Night Light to the sickroom and make sure that he gets medical attention.”

“Rarity, could you tell us what happened with you and Pinkie Pie now?”

“Of course, well we were just exploring Baltimare for a bit before we decided to get something to eat. It turned out that the restaurant we picked was commonly visited by another general. Mistral was her name. We had no chance, Pinkie sacrificed herself to save me. Mistral has terrible powers, she can freeze everything she touches and she was not even trying to fight.”

Twilight stared at her friend disbelievingly, “WHAT?! Pinkie has been captured?!”

The seamstress dropped her gaze at the ground and sobbed slightly, “I’m sorry. I could not do anything.”

“Rarity… It’s okay, but this won’t be easy. Dawn Comet can somehow manipulate light itself and use it as a weapon, Mistral is able to freeze everything. I wonder what powers the last of them has. Also, conventional magic does not work against them, well for Dawn Comet at least, my attacks sailed right through him and his wounds sealed themselves.”

“I’ve heard of this before,” Luna stated. “It is very difficult to learn, but a pony who is an expert Elementalist can transform his or her body into a natural element. This way it becomes immune to almost any kind of harm. The only other thing I know about it is that it could be countered with darkness magic.”

The worried lavender mare paced around the room and mumbles, “I have to research this as soon as possible. That might be the key how to get her.”

Rarity asked concerned, “Twilight? Are you alright, darling?”

“Huh? No, no I am not alright. We already lost one of our most important members! Most likely Celestia will brainwash her or something and she will tell her everything she knows. And if she is imprisoned in the dungeons of Canterlot a rescue attempt becomes near impossible.”

The blue alicorn replied, “At the moment we can only wait until Celestia makes her move. I am sure that she won’t pass up such an opportunity. We’ll wait two days and after that we have to continue our mission, we need followers if we want to overthrow her.”

Pinkie, darling, I’m so sorry. I hope you are alright, Rarity prayed silently in her thoughts.

Dawn Comet, Morning Blaze and Mistral with her still half frozen prisoner gathered in the Solarium for an urgent meeting with Princess Celestia. According to the princess it should be night time, but due to her sister the sky was still painted in an eternal twilight.

They reported what happened in the two cities, especially the parts about Morning Blaze and Pinkie Pie were interesting.

The pink mare desperately tried to free herself and shouted, “Please let me go! I have to throw Rarity a ‘It’s okay you left me. I’m fine.’ party. I need to be there for her, otherwise she will be super sad,”

Mistral pushed the frozen mare over and stated, “Well, too bad, we would not have a problem if you weren’t a criminal, but here we are.”

The only captain in the room had to be held back by Dawn, otherwise she would have killed Mistral right now, “Stop it, Mistral! We represent justice! Not torture!”

Celestia intervened before the situation got out of hoof, “Enough! Blaze we’ll come to your punishment soon enough and Mistral, she is right. Unfreeze her.”

“Hmpf, fine.” Mistral replied and instantly unfroze the sobbing pink mare.

Normally Pinkie would have been cheerful to be free again, but she just sat on her haunches and cried silently. Celestia regarded her directly this time, “Pinkamena Diane Pie, it does not have to be like this. Tell us where your headquarter is and how to access it and before you realise it you can be together with your friends again. You can talk to three of them right now if you want. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy are here in the castle.”

“I don’t want to see them! And after everything Twilight and Luna told me about you I would never tell you where we hide, you deceiving McDeceivyPants,” PInkie exclaimed with confidence in her voice.

“A talk with your friends would show you the errors of your way, but so be it. Since you have been thoroughly corrupted by Nightmare Moon I see no other way than executing you in public. This will set an example for what will happen to all the other rebels.”

Everypony present in the room looked shocked at their demi-goddess ruler. A public execution? That hadn’t happened since the dark ages of Equestria.

Two guards wearing the usual gold-plated armor came in and grabbed Pinkie Pie. Celestia gave a last order before they left, “Escort her to the dungeon, she will be executed at the scaffold in the inner courtyard of Canterlot castle in three days time.”

They saluted without any trace of hesitation and dragged the panicked pink mare with them.

Morning Blaze couldn’t restrain herself any longer, “Princess, what are you doing?! We are not in the dark ages, we can’t execute her!”

Celestia gave a short laugh and said, “Of course we are not executing her Blaze, but when the rebels hear the news they won’t just sit around and let it happen. They’ll be forced to make a move. I’m aware of the fact that this is maybe a bit… extreme, but an effective way to stop and capture Nightmare Moon and Twilight, as well as the other rebels.”

Dawn Comet nodded in appreciation, “Clever... a bit cruel, but clever. And I have a suggestion to make, if Morning Blaze takes part like all the other captains and generals will, her punishment could be nullified.”

Now the princess nodded to, “Agreed.”

Blaze just left without a word after hearing that, she couldn’t believe it. Was Celestia so desperate to capture them? The next three days would be a mental torture for Pinkie Pie as well as Twilight. If only she had captured Twilight when she had the chance, now they would start an open war against each other with actual losses on both sides. Was that really the best solution?

After a restless night of sleep Twilight, Luna and Rarity woke up from a loud voice shouting for them in the main hall.

It was one of the younger bat pony unicorns, he paced around frantically and overall looked quite exhausted. “...Princess… Luna, Twi… light Sparkle, there is… something you… should hear,” he said while trying to steady his breath.

Twilight got up first and said, “Calm down, soldier. What is wrong?”

He had to wait a few more moments to talk normally again, the stallion then replied, “They made an announcement in Ponyville and as I heard, in all of Equestria. I was able to sneak up on them while I was on scout patrol.”

Luckily all other leadership members were present in the main hall by now, so he continued, “For severe crimes against the Equestrian Crown, Pinkamena D. Pie is to be executed in three days time at three p.m. It will take place on the scaffold in the inner courtyard of Canterlot Castle and will be broadcasted over a magic transmitter in every major city of the land.”

That even caused Princess Luna to blink in disbelief. She stated in a pensive tone, “That is uncommonly extreme for my nemesis. I would not have expected her to ever use an execution as deterrence because that is clearly what it is.”

Her co-leader interrupted the train of thought, “It could be a trap? I mean she wants to catch us desperately, but… what if it isn’t? I’m certainly not willing to let Pinkie die. I’d rather kill half of her army than losing even one member of our team.”

“I would join in as well. I could never look at myself in the mirror if I let her die,” Rarity stated seriously.

Luna spoke up again, “But we don’t have many viable options. Our rebellion is not strong enough right now and I want to avoid non-essential losses as long as possible. If all mercenaries and Capone hold their end of the bargain we would have around a thousand soldiers at best and Celestia will summon all her elite soldiers and the leadership of her military, at worst they could have an advantage of four thousand ponies.”

The lavender mare replied, “You and me alone could blow up whole castle, especially with some of the more advanced spells you taught me. What if only you, Rarity, me and probably Silver Night go there through the rift and try to rescue her? We would avoid losses and we four are the strongest in the rebellion anyway.”

Rarity said, “I talked with the doctor yesterday and he said Silver is most likely gonna be okay in one or two days, but I’m not so sure about the rescue attempt, darling. I’m still not much of a fighter and haven’t ‘discovered’ my special ‘style’ of magic. Also, what about those ruffians like Mistral or Dawn Comet?”

“Heh, I have a pretty good theory on how to get them, I’ll explain it later and we do not have to fight against the whole army. We just have to get up to the scaffold, grab Pinkie, get the tartarus out of the castle and teleport to our headquarter. We do not even have to kill them, only if they get in our way, well… I’ll make sure you don’t have to at least.”

The princess stated absent-minded, “If it only would be as easy as you make it out to be, but unfortunately that is the best we have. We can not afford to hesitate right now, if we, indeed succeed in rescuing your friend, we will no longer be able to keep our rebellion a secret. That could also have two possible outcomes, either this will get us more followers because they dislike her methods or the population will aid Celestia in hunting us down.”

Full of determination Twilight answered, “A risk I’m willing to take. So do we all agree on the plan?”

“I trust you, darling. I agree.”

“You had trust in me when we started our rebellion, now it is my turn. I also agree.”

“Good, then we four will rescue Pinkie and show Celestia that we mean it seriously.”