The Story: Part 2 (Rated R)
Aug 2, 2009 2:37:45 GMT -8
Post by sparkler on Aug 2, 2009 2:37:45 GMT -8
(Reposted from the other board, that is if no one minds.)
Author's Note: Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive...
Does anyone see an ample opportunity to come clean here? I sure do! Oh well. Let's just say that the groundwork for some major hurt later on is being laid here. Also, all ponies in my version of ponyland have the ability to telepath--it's like a more magical version of whispering. ^_^;; And uh... I had something else to say but I forgot... 
Any questions? ASK ME! I love questions. ^_^
~*~*~*~
“Where am I?” thought Blade as he awoke the next morning.
Upon sitting up, recollection hit him like a ton of bricks. He had double-crossed Spectre, and was now in the territory of “the enemy” as Spectre had often branded her, but it was okay. Because Spectre now thought he was dead. Yes, it would be okay. Now all he had to do was stop hyperventilating.
“Calm down...” he told himself. “Just calm down...”
“Talkin’ to yourself?” said a voice. He hadn’t noticed Sparkler wink into his room.
“GAH!”
“Nightmare?” she giggled.
“Y-Yeah...”
“Awww, what about?”
“Bushwoolies.” was the explanation that he finally settled on.
“What is it with you and bushwoolies?” she asked.
“Trust me, it’s deep and it’s real.” he replied, shuddering.
“I’ll take your word for it.” she chuckled. “Have you seen my hairdryer?”
“No, what’s it look like?”
“Big, blue... has a diffuser on the end of it?”
Blade shook his head.
“Well that’s funny, I could’ve sworn I left it in here... oh well!” she shrugged and left the room as quickly as she’d came.
Blade flopped back onto his bed... “Unicorns!” he thought, slightly exasperated. He had been the victim of a lot of sneak-attacks back in Starlight Hollow, but this was ridiculous! Okay, when he got up there was going to be some ground-rules set.
Who was he kidding? This was her place, she could come and go as she pleased!
Okay, maybe he could just request that she knock before winking in. Yes, that was reasonable. Nobody could argue with that.
“Guess I might as well get this day started.” he muttered.
~*~*~*~
Sparkler winked back into her room. So far, he had passed the inspection. She had caught him unawares and he didn’t seem to be a weirdo who was plotting her demise, after all, a weirdo would’ve anticipated her early-morning unexpected drop-in as a paranoia. Blade seemed to be perfectly oblivious.
She wasn’t going to lay all guard down yet, though. After all, there was some PiB basic training that never left you: “Trust no one, until you know they’re not going to kill you.” was the rule of thumb that Flare had reiterated into everyone’s head the first day of training. Of course he had also said, “The ducks are a conspiracy.” but no one had quite managed to figure out what he meant by that.
As she brushed her mane in the mirror, she calculated her next move. Of course the next step was interrogation, but how to make it seem like it wasn’t... that was the thing. Of course she could always just cut to the chase, bring out the heat lamp, and get it over with. But that wasn’t half as fun as having someone confess to you, then telling them that you’d known it all along.
She liked her surprise technique.
Everyone else had branded it dangerous, but it was only dangerous when you didn’t use it right. If you didn’t give too much away, and gave the ponies in question no reason to come after you, then it was just fine. Of course that wasn’t what Headquarters was saying, but, whatever. It worked for her, it had always worked, except for once and that was hardly her fault. She couldn’t help that Windwhistler had ratted her out.
“Mouthy pregnant dog.” she growled. “Cause me to almost lose my job because her sense of justice was f**king compromised. What the hell? She’s a reporter! Her sense of anything shouldn’t matter!”
But it had, in the long run. She had made the mistake of telling Windwhistler–in confidence, mind you–a few of her tricks of the trade and had been admonished and put on leave by the PiB. That was a mistake she would never be guilty of making again.
As she put the final touches on her morning face, the thought occurred to her. Truly had given her quite a handy bit of information the night before. "Sweetheart, it's plain to see he has a thing for ya. Even if you have just met him."
“If that be the case,” she thought, giving a victorious little smirk to the mirror. “Then I won’t have to work as hard at this interrogation business as I thought, will I?” with that she got up and made her way to the kitchen.
~*~*~*~
Blade gazed at himself in the bathroom mirror and realized he looked like sheer hell. His mane was sticking up in at least seven different directions, and there were bags under his eyes despite of a full night’s rest. Oh well, there wasn’t much he could do about the bags, but he could at least attempt to tame the mane.
He looked around and realized that this was definitely a girl’s bathroom, the reason being? He couldn’t name half of the stuff in it. Except for the toothbrushes in the cup on the sink.
“She’s gotta keep combs or brushes around here someplace.” he muttered, searching around the sink. He would’ve asked, but he figured he had traumatized her enough for one day. Besides, he wanted to impress this girl.
Finally he opened the medicine cabinet as a last ditch effort. Why she would keep a comb in the medicine cabinet, he had no idea, but maybe that’s where they were. Sure enough, there was a green, fine-tooth comb in the medicine cabinet. He reached in to get it, but knocked a few medicine bottles into the sink by accident.
“Damn.” he swore, fishing them out. “Stupid... clumsy... hooves!” he cried, trying to position the bottles in the same way he had found them, he didn’t want his new roommate to think he was a snoop. Though it wasn’t like he could help it, he noticed the label on the bottles. He couldn’t pronounce the first part of the word, but the pills were for some kind of anemia.
He snorted in disgust, he was pretty sure this wasn’t the first time Spectre had targeted a sick pony. But... Sparkler wasn’t sick. This couldn’t be her medicine, right? He stopped himself from looking, even if it was, what business was it of his? He closed the medicine cabinet and picked up the comb, time to tame the jungle.
~*~*~*~
Sparkler looked up at the fridge, trying to figure out which cereal she wanted.
“Rice Krispies? Nah, too plain. Corn pops? Not today. Oatmeal? BLEH! Oooh, Cocoa Pebbles!”
She started to reach upward, the way she had trained herself so many months ago, to get the cereal off the top of the fridge, but decided against it. Today she felt good, great in fact, so why not resort to her old, magical ways? She concentrated on the box of cereal, at first nothing happened, but then it slowly began to move.
“Almost... there...”
She felt the blood begin to rush inside her head, and could hear the distinct sound of her heart pounding inside her chest.
“Oh, just a minute.” she scolded her body for betraying her. It had been so long since she had been able to make objects come to her magically, if she could just do this one thing, then maybe, just maybe, the healers would be wrong and her powers could start coming back.
The world blurred for a minute.
“No, NO, you’re going to do this!” she yelled internally, mentally coaxing the cereal box to teeter on the edge.
“You want me to get that for you?”
She was jolted out of her telekinetic reverie by her new roommate’s voice.
“Dear God Peg, don’t sneak up on a girl like that!” she gasped, way more out of breath than she should have been.
“Are you alright? You were shaking.”
“Oh... yeah, I’m fine. Just got a little dizzy spell, that’s all.” she waved his concern away, smiling at him. “Nice going.” she chided herself. What next? Was she going to faint dead away?
“Dizzy spell?” thought Blade, but how could that be? She had been standing stark still. Even so, he decided not to press the issue, obviously, some things weren’t meant to be known.
“Thank you. Care to hand me the milk?” she asked sheepishly.
“Sure.” he opened the fridge and handed her the gallon.
Sparkler maneuvered so that he wouldn’t catch her struggling under the weight of the carton. She hated that simply trying to use her power wore her out so much.
“Oh well, I’ll be fine as soon as I get some breakfast into me.” she thought to herself, pouring the milk slowly.
“Um... why’s it lumpy?” asked her new roommate.
“Why’s wha–OH EW!” she cried, leaping away from her ruined cereal with newfound energy.
“How’d that happen?” he asked.
“I have no idea, unless...” she groaned. “Oh scrap, there was a power outage a couple of days ago. I haven’t checked the milk since.”
“Well now what’ll we do?”
“What civilized ponies do when the milk goes bad.” she shrugged. “We go out for breakfast.”
~*~*~*~
Ten minutes later, Blade was pretty sure his body was stuck to the interior of Sparkler’s tiny little convertible.
“You okay?” she giggled.
“Yeah... you took those last three curves rather hard, though.” he faltered.
“Sorry.” she laughed as she parked the car.
“She’s actually not half as bad as I am.” he was only a touch comforted by that thought, though.
Sparkler waited for her reluctant passenger to get out of the car, then skipped inside the little restaurant.
He grinned, she seemed so happy. What did Spectre have against her? Why did he want her dead? He waited for her to turn, and shook his head. Something wasn’t quite adding up. “Oh well, it’s not like you can ask.” he thought, sidling up to her at the counter.
Suddenly, Sparkler spotted a blue pony in a corner both, a blue pegasus with pink hair and pink eyes. It was Windwhistler!
“Oh dear God...” quickly, she pulled one of Blade’s wings around her shoulders, so that it was hiding her face.
Blade did a double take.
“Something wrong?”
“No.” she replied though her teeth, giving him a reassuring smile right before ordering her breakfast in the most god-awfully nasal southern accent he had ever heard.
“Tew payuncakes, pleeeeez.”
“What was that?” he telepathed.
“You did want pancakes, right?” she telepathed back, obliviously.
“Yeah, I mean the accent.”
“I’ll explain later just keep your wing where it is.” she reached in her back pocket and put her sunglasses on. Yes, maybe that would keep Windwhistler from noticing her.
Blade decided not to argue with her.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pony behind the counter brought their plates to them. Without making direct eye contact, Sparkler smiled and drawled, “Thank y’hon.”
As Sparkler slid into the booth Blade asked her. “I just have to ask, is your head gonna start spinning around in a minute?”
Sparkler bit her lip and shook her head, giggling softly. “No. I was just trying to avoid that pony over there.” she replied, nodding in Windwhistler’s direction.
Blade blinked. “Is that... Windwhistler? The reporter?”
Sparkler nodded.
“Why are you avoiding her?”
“She’s out to ruin me!” Sparkler whispered conspiratorially.
“Little miss Truth and Justice for all?”
“Honey, it’s only truth and justice until you piss her off, and then it’s ‘I’ll smear your sorry butt any way I want’.”
Blade was surprised, and a little frightened.
“Don’t worry, she’s leaving.” whispered Sparkler, hiding her face behind a menu as the blue pegasus walked out the door.
“So, why’s she out to ruin you?” he asked, leaning over the table.
Wait, why was she telling him all this? She had just met him yesterday! She couldn’t tell him all of that! What was she thinking? “God, I do need to eat.”
“Um...” she declined. “Long story.”
“You’re either the International Pony of Mystery, or a very big tease.”
She grinned a feral grin. “Depends on who you ask.”
They sat a moment, enjoying their pancakes in companionable silence. Of course curiosity was killing him, but if she didn’t want to tell him anything, she didn’t have to. Besides, he couldn’t exactly grill a pony who was letting him stay with them.
Internally, Sparkler breathed a sigh of relief. She had dodged that bullet, confessing all her past mistakes to a complete stranger. Now maybe that she was getting some food in her, she could combat that line of thinking. But... then again... it had been a long time since she had actually had somebody around with whom she could talk about this stuff with, and he did seem willing to listen...
“No.” she commanded herself, focusing on her pancakes, or at least trying to focus on her pancakes. The low-lighting in the diner, combined with the sunglasses she was wearing made it very hard, in the end she ended up stabbing her own hoof with a fork.
“OW!”
“You can take those off, you know.” said Blade gently.
“Heh, guess you’re right.” she chuckled.
Just as luck would have it, the second she slipped off the glasses, a whole herd of black-clad ponies clattered into the resteraunt. Blade noticed that they weren’t totally black-clad (well, one was, but he just assumed that the Tuxedo was required, or something.) but each had at least one black article of clothing, and they all had sunglasses similar to Sparkler’s.
“Who are th–GAH!” he felt something brush up against his leg.
“Sorry darlin’, lawst a contact.” said Sparkler in that confounded southern accent again.
He leaned over the side of the table.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
“Not really.” she replied.
“Wanna go someplace more quiet?”
“Can we?”
“Sure.”
She fumbled around, looking for her purse, but he stopped her.
“I got it.”
“Thank you.” she whispered from underneath the table as the black clad ponies milled around the all-you-can-eat bar nearby.
Blade slipped a few bills into an envelope on the table, then asked. “Now how do we get outta here?”
Sparkler grinned. “I’ll take care of that.” She touched his leg, and he heard a muffled bang, the next thing he knew they were in the car, with their breakfast.
“Aren’t they gonna be mad? These are real plates.”
“I’ll bring back the plates later.” assured Sparkler. “Besides, it wouldn’t be the first plates they’ve lost.”
“Can I ask why you were hiding from those ponies back there?”
“Oh, they’re just some ponies I used to work with.” she sighed.
“Get fired?”
“Not exactly.” she said, remaining vague. “Doesn’t matter though, they hate me all the same.”
“Why?”
She shook her head. “Let’s just say, I kind of broke the rules. All of them.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, well, I had a good reason.” she sighed. “Okay, let’s get out of here.”
She drove them to what looked to be a picnic ground with little concrete tables and benches.
“I’ve never had pancakes outside before.” he observed.
“Neither have I. So, where you from?”
Now she could implement her plan to interrogate the newcomer.
He shrugged. “Starlight Hollow.”
Sparkler’s jaw dropped.
“What?” he asked, upon seeing the look of shock on her face.
“You don’t... you’re not...” she couldn’t phrase what she was thinking right without it sounding totally offensive. “He doesn’t look like he’s been in prison.”
Blade seemed to know what she was thinking. “Yeah, I know, I’m too much of a pansy to be from Starlight Hollow, right?”
Sparkler chewed on her lower lip, “Well, I didn’t want to say it, but...”
“It’s okay, they told me that every day.”
“Oh, you poor thing.” she giggled. “I bet those wings came in handy for escaping.”
He shook his head. “Nah, not really. I can’t fly.”
She blinked. “You can’t fly..?”
“Nope.”
“How?!” she blurted out, before thinking of herself.
“Got in an accident with my Dad when I was little, I survived with shattered wings, he didn’t.”
Sparkler gasped. “Oh.. Oh I’m so sorry.”
“Nah, don’t be. I don’t remember it.”
He seemed so... content not to be able to fly. Most of the pegs she knew would’ve been tearing their hair out going crazy, but he seemed... oddly calm about it. It was almost sad.
“I guess that’s a blessing.” said Sparkler, slightly envious. At least he didn’t remember how his only power had been taken away from him. She on the other hand, remembered every detail of the fight with Spectre that had robbed her of hers.
Speak of the devil.
Sparkler watched in horror as a raven came and lighted on their table. It thingyed its evil head and hopped toward her.
She didn’t even check the eye color of the bird before she took off running.
“Hey, wait you didn’t finish your–“
Blade glared at the black bird who was now finishing off Sparkler’s pancakes. It had red eyes, not the ill-fated yellow.
“Not funny.” he grumbled, getting up to go after the fleeing blue unicorn.
He noticed that she had dropped her purse and all its contents in the process of running away.
“Aw man...” he muttered, walking over to gather them up. As soon as he knelt down he noticed a PiB I.D. card, badge, and a newspaper clipping.
“Crimeboss almost felled by Agents...”
Sparkler didn’t have to tell him why Spectre wanted her dead now. He knew.
“Holy scrap...”
~*~*~*~
Sparkler sat underneath a large pine, sighing heavily. Being undercover was getting harder and harder, she wished they would just catch the old goat already, so she could finally stop hiding. Finally stop being afraid that he was going to come after her.
“Why can’t he just do the world a favor and die already? He’s almost two centuries old!” she thought bitterly.
“Fear of birds?” asked a voice behind her, causing her to stiffen momentarily before she realized it was just Blade.
“You could say that.” she replied evasively.
He knelt beside her, handing over her purse. “You dropped this.”
“Oh... thank you.” she breathed.
“This too.”
Then he handed her her badge, and newspaper clippings as well.
“Oh... God...”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“N-No... I-I’m just paranoid... that’s all.”
“You thought that raven was somebody, didn’t you?” he asked.
Sparkler slumped over, hiding her face in her hooves. How on earth could she tell him this when she had worked so hard to keep it quiet? Very few ponies knew about what exactly had happened. But she was so lonely, and it’s not like she had a partner anymore to talk these things over with, after all, Spectre had seen fit to take that one tiny privilege away from her.
Upon seeing the terrified look in her eyes, he instantly regretted it saying anything. Maybe he should’ve just kept his mouth shut.
“I-I’m sorry...”
“No... you didn’t know...” she shook her head, sighing. It had been so long since she had had anyone to talk to about anything that had happened. Her sister, Powder, was too scared (one of the reasons she had moved away, in fact), and it was too big of a risk for her to go back to Headquarters. Besides, she doubted anyone wanted to see her anyway, after all, one of the best agents there had died protecting her.
“You’re the girl who wounded Spectre, aren’t you?”
“Took you that long to recognize me, did it?” she asked, her voice shaking. She didn’t mean for it to shake but the memories were so painful.
“Nah, the newspaper clippings were a big help. Probably would’ve never known it was you otherwise.”
“As it should be.” she breathed a shuddery breath, trying to get herself under control.
He put his hoof on her shoulder. “I’m really sorry.”
She shook her head. “No, you don’t have to be. You didn’t know... not many ponies do. I mean, yeah there was that one newspaper article about when he went into hiding... but... the only guy that really got mentioned was my partner.”
“I remember that.” he said quietly. “He was brave.”
Glacier, her former partner, had been the only ice elemental ever to take on Spectre and live... even if it was for only six minutes afterwards.
Those six minutes had been sheer hell for both of them.
“I asked him to let me hit him, but no, he wanted to do it alone and I tried to tell him that there was no way his power was enough. If we had double-teamed the guy, he would’ve still been here. But no, he wanted to ‘protect’ me.” she closed her eyes and raged. “I swear to GOD the next guy who says that to me dies at my hoof!”
Blade swallowed hard.
“Sorry.” she muttered. “But... you see that... and then you’re ‘every man for himself’.”
“I believe you.” he faltered. “You really wouldn’t want to know what I’m keeping from you, then.”
“And of course, HQ, was all ‘he died in the line of duty’ and wouldn’t listen to me about finishing off the old buzzard, so against everyone’s better judgement, I hunted him down.”
Quietly, Blade began to wonder what lesser offenses would warrant.
“That’s not all. I wanted to be ready when I fought him, I really wanted to make him suffer. So I wore reflective clothing and brought a mirror with me.”
“Talk about an eye for an eye.” said Blade uncomfortably.
“Yeah, well... he made me witness my partner’s death, so I thought I’d be the last face he ever saw.” she growled.
On the other hand, there weren’t very many punishments that were too good for Spectre.
“I should’ve thought it through more, I guess. He was expecting me, wanting me to come after him, it was like he was glad to see me almost. I don’t think I’ve ever been more creeped out in my life.”
Blade winced, that was Spectre alright. If there was suffering to be had, chances are he was happy about it.
“He was so strong... and there was so much I really don’t know. I just thought it’d be like the other fight, you know? Quick, painful, bloody... but no, he saved the best for me, he told me.”
“Sadistic bastard.”
“I would’ve called him that had it not hurt to talk at the time.” she muttered. “Anyway... I couldn’t take anymore so I finally just whipped out the mirror and let him have a taste of his own medicine.”
“The reflective clothing didn’t do a thing for you?”
“Not that much. Apparently the mirror needs to be backed with real silver or something.” she shrugged. “After I dug out the mirror, that’s when things started looking up because he was getting his own power thrown back at him and it weakened him.”
“I would’ve paid to see that.” thought Blade, smiling a little.
“Anyway, he took a swing at me and knocked the mirror out of my hoof, I knew I was as good as dead when that happened. So... I took one last shot at him. Only I did it while he was taking a breather.”
“So you used the senior citizen advantage?” chuckled Blade. “And Spectre thought he could take this out with a gun?”
She laughed a strange, tearful laugh. “I guess you could say that. Three days later I woke up in the hospital and they said he’d managed to get away.”
“I bet you were pissed.”
“Oh I was when the pain killers wore off! If I’d been strong enough I would’ve finished him off right from my hospital bed.”
“That would’ve been so cool.” said Blade, before he thought of himself.
“I take it you’ve experienced Spectre’s ‘Midas Touch’ too, in some form?”
Blade decided to take the quick and easy route, instead of blurting the incredibly awkward truth out.
“Back in Starlight Hollow... he was our landlord.”
Sparkler’s eyes widened. “OH GOD.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh my God you poor, poor thing. Having to deal with that pony every day?”
Blade nodded.
Sparkler sat for a minute, she seemed to be pondering something. “You know a lot about him, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I mean he was over there practically every day.”
“You wanna help me make his life miserable?”
“Boy do I ever.” grinned Blade.
“Good peg.” she smiled, tousling his hair. “Let the games begin.” she thought evilly.
Author's Note: Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive...
Does anyone see an ample opportunity to come clean here? I sure do! Oh well. Let's just say that the groundwork for some major hurt later on is being laid here. Also, all ponies in my version of ponyland have the ability to telepath--it's like a more magical version of whispering. ^_^;; And uh... I had something else to say but I forgot... 
Any questions? ASK ME! I love questions. ^_^ ~*~*~*~
“Where am I?” thought Blade as he awoke the next morning.
Upon sitting up, recollection hit him like a ton of bricks. He had double-crossed Spectre, and was now in the territory of “the enemy” as Spectre had often branded her, but it was okay. Because Spectre now thought he was dead. Yes, it would be okay. Now all he had to do was stop hyperventilating.
“Calm down...” he told himself. “Just calm down...”
“Talkin’ to yourself?” said a voice. He hadn’t noticed Sparkler wink into his room.
“GAH!”
“Nightmare?” she giggled.
“Y-Yeah...”
“Awww, what about?”
“Bushwoolies.” was the explanation that he finally settled on.
“What is it with you and bushwoolies?” she asked.
“Trust me, it’s deep and it’s real.” he replied, shuddering.
“I’ll take your word for it.” she chuckled. “Have you seen my hairdryer?”
“No, what’s it look like?”
“Big, blue... has a diffuser on the end of it?”
Blade shook his head.
“Well that’s funny, I could’ve sworn I left it in here... oh well!” she shrugged and left the room as quickly as she’d came.
Blade flopped back onto his bed... “Unicorns!” he thought, slightly exasperated. He had been the victim of a lot of sneak-attacks back in Starlight Hollow, but this was ridiculous! Okay, when he got up there was going to be some ground-rules set.
Who was he kidding? This was her place, she could come and go as she pleased!
Okay, maybe he could just request that she knock before winking in. Yes, that was reasonable. Nobody could argue with that.
“Guess I might as well get this day started.” he muttered.
~*~*~*~
Sparkler winked back into her room. So far, he had passed the inspection. She had caught him unawares and he didn’t seem to be a weirdo who was plotting her demise, after all, a weirdo would’ve anticipated her early-morning unexpected drop-in as a paranoia. Blade seemed to be perfectly oblivious.
She wasn’t going to lay all guard down yet, though. After all, there was some PiB basic training that never left you: “Trust no one, until you know they’re not going to kill you.” was the rule of thumb that Flare had reiterated into everyone’s head the first day of training. Of course he had also said, “The ducks are a conspiracy.” but no one had quite managed to figure out what he meant by that.
As she brushed her mane in the mirror, she calculated her next move. Of course the next step was interrogation, but how to make it seem like it wasn’t... that was the thing. Of course she could always just cut to the chase, bring out the heat lamp, and get it over with. But that wasn’t half as fun as having someone confess to you, then telling them that you’d known it all along.
She liked her surprise technique.
Everyone else had branded it dangerous, but it was only dangerous when you didn’t use it right. If you didn’t give too much away, and gave the ponies in question no reason to come after you, then it was just fine. Of course that wasn’t what Headquarters was saying, but, whatever. It worked for her, it had always worked, except for once and that was hardly her fault. She couldn’t help that Windwhistler had ratted her out.
“Mouthy pregnant dog.” she growled. “Cause me to almost lose my job because her sense of justice was f**king compromised. What the hell? She’s a reporter! Her sense of anything shouldn’t matter!”
But it had, in the long run. She had made the mistake of telling Windwhistler–in confidence, mind you–a few of her tricks of the trade and had been admonished and put on leave by the PiB. That was a mistake she would never be guilty of making again.
As she put the final touches on her morning face, the thought occurred to her. Truly had given her quite a handy bit of information the night before. "Sweetheart, it's plain to see he has a thing for ya. Even if you have just met him."
“If that be the case,” she thought, giving a victorious little smirk to the mirror. “Then I won’t have to work as hard at this interrogation business as I thought, will I?” with that she got up and made her way to the kitchen.
~*~*~*~
Blade gazed at himself in the bathroom mirror and realized he looked like sheer hell. His mane was sticking up in at least seven different directions, and there were bags under his eyes despite of a full night’s rest. Oh well, there wasn’t much he could do about the bags, but he could at least attempt to tame the mane.
He looked around and realized that this was definitely a girl’s bathroom, the reason being? He couldn’t name half of the stuff in it. Except for the toothbrushes in the cup on the sink.
“She’s gotta keep combs or brushes around here someplace.” he muttered, searching around the sink. He would’ve asked, but he figured he had traumatized her enough for one day. Besides, he wanted to impress this girl.
Finally he opened the medicine cabinet as a last ditch effort. Why she would keep a comb in the medicine cabinet, he had no idea, but maybe that’s where they were. Sure enough, there was a green, fine-tooth comb in the medicine cabinet. He reached in to get it, but knocked a few medicine bottles into the sink by accident.
“Damn.” he swore, fishing them out. “Stupid... clumsy... hooves!” he cried, trying to position the bottles in the same way he had found them, he didn’t want his new roommate to think he was a snoop. Though it wasn’t like he could help it, he noticed the label on the bottles. He couldn’t pronounce the first part of the word, but the pills were for some kind of anemia.
He snorted in disgust, he was pretty sure this wasn’t the first time Spectre had targeted a sick pony. But... Sparkler wasn’t sick. This couldn’t be her medicine, right? He stopped himself from looking, even if it was, what business was it of his? He closed the medicine cabinet and picked up the comb, time to tame the jungle.
~*~*~*~
Sparkler looked up at the fridge, trying to figure out which cereal she wanted.
“Rice Krispies? Nah, too plain. Corn pops? Not today. Oatmeal? BLEH! Oooh, Cocoa Pebbles!”
She started to reach upward, the way she had trained herself so many months ago, to get the cereal off the top of the fridge, but decided against it. Today she felt good, great in fact, so why not resort to her old, magical ways? She concentrated on the box of cereal, at first nothing happened, but then it slowly began to move.
“Almost... there...”
She felt the blood begin to rush inside her head, and could hear the distinct sound of her heart pounding inside her chest.
“Oh, just a minute.” she scolded her body for betraying her. It had been so long since she had been able to make objects come to her magically, if she could just do this one thing, then maybe, just maybe, the healers would be wrong and her powers could start coming back.
The world blurred for a minute.
“No, NO, you’re going to do this!” she yelled internally, mentally coaxing the cereal box to teeter on the edge.
“You want me to get that for you?”
She was jolted out of her telekinetic reverie by her new roommate’s voice.
“Dear God Peg, don’t sneak up on a girl like that!” she gasped, way more out of breath than she should have been.
“Are you alright? You were shaking.”
“Oh... yeah, I’m fine. Just got a little dizzy spell, that’s all.” she waved his concern away, smiling at him. “Nice going.” she chided herself. What next? Was she going to faint dead away?
“Dizzy spell?” thought Blade, but how could that be? She had been standing stark still. Even so, he decided not to press the issue, obviously, some things weren’t meant to be known.
“Thank you. Care to hand me the milk?” she asked sheepishly.
“Sure.” he opened the fridge and handed her the gallon.
Sparkler maneuvered so that he wouldn’t catch her struggling under the weight of the carton. She hated that simply trying to use her power wore her out so much.
“Oh well, I’ll be fine as soon as I get some breakfast into me.” she thought to herself, pouring the milk slowly.
“Um... why’s it lumpy?” asked her new roommate.
“Why’s wha–OH EW!” she cried, leaping away from her ruined cereal with newfound energy.
“How’d that happen?” he asked.
“I have no idea, unless...” she groaned. “Oh scrap, there was a power outage a couple of days ago. I haven’t checked the milk since.”
“Well now what’ll we do?”
“What civilized ponies do when the milk goes bad.” she shrugged. “We go out for breakfast.”
~*~*~*~
Ten minutes later, Blade was pretty sure his body was stuck to the interior of Sparkler’s tiny little convertible.
“You okay?” she giggled.
“Yeah... you took those last three curves rather hard, though.” he faltered.
“Sorry.” she laughed as she parked the car.
“She’s actually not half as bad as I am.” he was only a touch comforted by that thought, though.
Sparkler waited for her reluctant passenger to get out of the car, then skipped inside the little restaurant.
He grinned, she seemed so happy. What did Spectre have against her? Why did he want her dead? He waited for her to turn, and shook his head. Something wasn’t quite adding up. “Oh well, it’s not like you can ask.” he thought, sidling up to her at the counter.
Suddenly, Sparkler spotted a blue pony in a corner both, a blue pegasus with pink hair and pink eyes. It was Windwhistler!
“Oh dear God...” quickly, she pulled one of Blade’s wings around her shoulders, so that it was hiding her face.
Blade did a double take.
“Something wrong?”
“No.” she replied though her teeth, giving him a reassuring smile right before ordering her breakfast in the most god-awfully nasal southern accent he had ever heard.
“Tew payuncakes, pleeeeez.”
“What was that?” he telepathed.
“You did want pancakes, right?” she telepathed back, obliviously.
“Yeah, I mean the accent.”
“I’ll explain later just keep your wing where it is.” she reached in her back pocket and put her sunglasses on. Yes, maybe that would keep Windwhistler from noticing her.
Blade decided not to argue with her.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pony behind the counter brought their plates to them. Without making direct eye contact, Sparkler smiled and drawled, “Thank y’hon.”
As Sparkler slid into the booth Blade asked her. “I just have to ask, is your head gonna start spinning around in a minute?”
Sparkler bit her lip and shook her head, giggling softly. “No. I was just trying to avoid that pony over there.” she replied, nodding in Windwhistler’s direction.
Blade blinked. “Is that... Windwhistler? The reporter?”
Sparkler nodded.
“Why are you avoiding her?”
“She’s out to ruin me!” Sparkler whispered conspiratorially.
“Little miss Truth and Justice for all?”
“Honey, it’s only truth and justice until you piss her off, and then it’s ‘I’ll smear your sorry butt any way I want’.”
Blade was surprised, and a little frightened.
“Don’t worry, she’s leaving.” whispered Sparkler, hiding her face behind a menu as the blue pegasus walked out the door.
“So, why’s she out to ruin you?” he asked, leaning over the table.
Wait, why was she telling him all this? She had just met him yesterday! She couldn’t tell him all of that! What was she thinking? “God, I do need to eat.”
“Um...” she declined. “Long story.”
“You’re either the International Pony of Mystery, or a very big tease.”
She grinned a feral grin. “Depends on who you ask.”
They sat a moment, enjoying their pancakes in companionable silence. Of course curiosity was killing him, but if she didn’t want to tell him anything, she didn’t have to. Besides, he couldn’t exactly grill a pony who was letting him stay with them.
Internally, Sparkler breathed a sigh of relief. She had dodged that bullet, confessing all her past mistakes to a complete stranger. Now maybe that she was getting some food in her, she could combat that line of thinking. But... then again... it had been a long time since she had actually had somebody around with whom she could talk about this stuff with, and he did seem willing to listen...
“No.” she commanded herself, focusing on her pancakes, or at least trying to focus on her pancakes. The low-lighting in the diner, combined with the sunglasses she was wearing made it very hard, in the end she ended up stabbing her own hoof with a fork.
“OW!”
“You can take those off, you know.” said Blade gently.
“Heh, guess you’re right.” she chuckled.
Just as luck would have it, the second she slipped off the glasses, a whole herd of black-clad ponies clattered into the resteraunt. Blade noticed that they weren’t totally black-clad (well, one was, but he just assumed that the Tuxedo was required, or something.) but each had at least one black article of clothing, and they all had sunglasses similar to Sparkler’s.
“Who are th–GAH!” he felt something brush up against his leg.
“Sorry darlin’, lawst a contact.” said Sparkler in that confounded southern accent again.
He leaned over the side of the table.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
“Not really.” she replied.
“Wanna go someplace more quiet?”
“Can we?”
“Sure.”
She fumbled around, looking for her purse, but he stopped her.
“I got it.”
“Thank you.” she whispered from underneath the table as the black clad ponies milled around the all-you-can-eat bar nearby.
Blade slipped a few bills into an envelope on the table, then asked. “Now how do we get outta here?”
Sparkler grinned. “I’ll take care of that.” She touched his leg, and he heard a muffled bang, the next thing he knew they were in the car, with their breakfast.
“Aren’t they gonna be mad? These are real plates.”
“I’ll bring back the plates later.” assured Sparkler. “Besides, it wouldn’t be the first plates they’ve lost.”
“Can I ask why you were hiding from those ponies back there?”
“Oh, they’re just some ponies I used to work with.” she sighed.
“Get fired?”
“Not exactly.” she said, remaining vague. “Doesn’t matter though, they hate me all the same.”
“Why?”
She shook her head. “Let’s just say, I kind of broke the rules. All of them.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, well, I had a good reason.” she sighed. “Okay, let’s get out of here.”
She drove them to what looked to be a picnic ground with little concrete tables and benches.
“I’ve never had pancakes outside before.” he observed.
“Neither have I. So, where you from?”
Now she could implement her plan to interrogate the newcomer.
He shrugged. “Starlight Hollow.”
Sparkler’s jaw dropped.
“What?” he asked, upon seeing the look of shock on her face.
“You don’t... you’re not...” she couldn’t phrase what she was thinking right without it sounding totally offensive. “He doesn’t look like he’s been in prison.”
Blade seemed to know what she was thinking. “Yeah, I know, I’m too much of a pansy to be from Starlight Hollow, right?”
Sparkler chewed on her lower lip, “Well, I didn’t want to say it, but...”
“It’s okay, they told me that every day.”
“Oh, you poor thing.” she giggled. “I bet those wings came in handy for escaping.”
He shook his head. “Nah, not really. I can’t fly.”
She blinked. “You can’t fly..?”
“Nope.”
“How?!” she blurted out, before thinking of herself.
“Got in an accident with my Dad when I was little, I survived with shattered wings, he didn’t.”
Sparkler gasped. “Oh.. Oh I’m so sorry.”
“Nah, don’t be. I don’t remember it.”
He seemed so... content not to be able to fly. Most of the pegs she knew would’ve been tearing their hair out going crazy, but he seemed... oddly calm about it. It was almost sad.
“I guess that’s a blessing.” said Sparkler, slightly envious. At least he didn’t remember how his only power had been taken away from him. She on the other hand, remembered every detail of the fight with Spectre that had robbed her of hers.
Speak of the devil.
Sparkler watched in horror as a raven came and lighted on their table. It thingyed its evil head and hopped toward her.
She didn’t even check the eye color of the bird before she took off running.
“Hey, wait you didn’t finish your–“
Blade glared at the black bird who was now finishing off Sparkler’s pancakes. It had red eyes, not the ill-fated yellow.
“Not funny.” he grumbled, getting up to go after the fleeing blue unicorn.
He noticed that she had dropped her purse and all its contents in the process of running away.
“Aw man...” he muttered, walking over to gather them up. As soon as he knelt down he noticed a PiB I.D. card, badge, and a newspaper clipping.
“Crimeboss almost felled by Agents...”
Sparkler didn’t have to tell him why Spectre wanted her dead now. He knew.
“Holy scrap...”
~*~*~*~
Sparkler sat underneath a large pine, sighing heavily. Being undercover was getting harder and harder, she wished they would just catch the old goat already, so she could finally stop hiding. Finally stop being afraid that he was going to come after her.
“Why can’t he just do the world a favor and die already? He’s almost two centuries old!” she thought bitterly.
“Fear of birds?” asked a voice behind her, causing her to stiffen momentarily before she realized it was just Blade.
“You could say that.” she replied evasively.
He knelt beside her, handing over her purse. “You dropped this.”
“Oh... thank you.” she breathed.
“This too.”
Then he handed her her badge, and newspaper clippings as well.
“Oh... God...”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“N-No... I-I’m just paranoid... that’s all.”
“You thought that raven was somebody, didn’t you?” he asked.
Sparkler slumped over, hiding her face in her hooves. How on earth could she tell him this when she had worked so hard to keep it quiet? Very few ponies knew about what exactly had happened. But she was so lonely, and it’s not like she had a partner anymore to talk these things over with, after all, Spectre had seen fit to take that one tiny privilege away from her.
Upon seeing the terrified look in her eyes, he instantly regretted it saying anything. Maybe he should’ve just kept his mouth shut.
“I-I’m sorry...”
“No... you didn’t know...” she shook her head, sighing. It had been so long since she had had anyone to talk to about anything that had happened. Her sister, Powder, was too scared (one of the reasons she had moved away, in fact), and it was too big of a risk for her to go back to Headquarters. Besides, she doubted anyone wanted to see her anyway, after all, one of the best agents there had died protecting her.
“You’re the girl who wounded Spectre, aren’t you?”
“Took you that long to recognize me, did it?” she asked, her voice shaking. She didn’t mean for it to shake but the memories were so painful.
“Nah, the newspaper clippings were a big help. Probably would’ve never known it was you otherwise.”
“As it should be.” she breathed a shuddery breath, trying to get herself under control.
He put his hoof on her shoulder. “I’m really sorry.”
She shook her head. “No, you don’t have to be. You didn’t know... not many ponies do. I mean, yeah there was that one newspaper article about when he went into hiding... but... the only guy that really got mentioned was my partner.”
“I remember that.” he said quietly. “He was brave.”
Glacier, her former partner, had been the only ice elemental ever to take on Spectre and live... even if it was for only six minutes afterwards.
Those six minutes had been sheer hell for both of them.
“I asked him to let me hit him, but no, he wanted to do it alone and I tried to tell him that there was no way his power was enough. If we had double-teamed the guy, he would’ve still been here. But no, he wanted to ‘protect’ me.” she closed her eyes and raged. “I swear to GOD the next guy who says that to me dies at my hoof!”
Blade swallowed hard.
“Sorry.” she muttered. “But... you see that... and then you’re ‘every man for himself’.”
“I believe you.” he faltered. “You really wouldn’t want to know what I’m keeping from you, then.”
“And of course, HQ, was all ‘he died in the line of duty’ and wouldn’t listen to me about finishing off the old buzzard, so against everyone’s better judgement, I hunted him down.”
Quietly, Blade began to wonder what lesser offenses would warrant.
“That’s not all. I wanted to be ready when I fought him, I really wanted to make him suffer. So I wore reflective clothing and brought a mirror with me.”
“Talk about an eye for an eye.” said Blade uncomfortably.
“Yeah, well... he made me witness my partner’s death, so I thought I’d be the last face he ever saw.” she growled.
On the other hand, there weren’t very many punishments that were too good for Spectre.
“I should’ve thought it through more, I guess. He was expecting me, wanting me to come after him, it was like he was glad to see me almost. I don’t think I’ve ever been more creeped out in my life.”
Blade winced, that was Spectre alright. If there was suffering to be had, chances are he was happy about it.
“He was so strong... and there was so much I really don’t know. I just thought it’d be like the other fight, you know? Quick, painful, bloody... but no, he saved the best for me, he told me.”
“Sadistic bastard.”
“I would’ve called him that had it not hurt to talk at the time.” she muttered. “Anyway... I couldn’t take anymore so I finally just whipped out the mirror and let him have a taste of his own medicine.”
“The reflective clothing didn’t do a thing for you?”
“Not that much. Apparently the mirror needs to be backed with real silver or something.” she shrugged. “After I dug out the mirror, that’s when things started looking up because he was getting his own power thrown back at him and it weakened him.”
“I would’ve paid to see that.” thought Blade, smiling a little.
“Anyway, he took a swing at me and knocked the mirror out of my hoof, I knew I was as good as dead when that happened. So... I took one last shot at him. Only I did it while he was taking a breather.”
“So you used the senior citizen advantage?” chuckled Blade. “And Spectre thought he could take this out with a gun?”
She laughed a strange, tearful laugh. “I guess you could say that. Three days later I woke up in the hospital and they said he’d managed to get away.”
“I bet you were pissed.”
“Oh I was when the pain killers wore off! If I’d been strong enough I would’ve finished him off right from my hospital bed.”
“That would’ve been so cool.” said Blade, before he thought of himself.
“I take it you’ve experienced Spectre’s ‘Midas Touch’ too, in some form?”
Blade decided to take the quick and easy route, instead of blurting the incredibly awkward truth out.
“Back in Starlight Hollow... he was our landlord.”
Sparkler’s eyes widened. “OH GOD.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh my God you poor, poor thing. Having to deal with that pony every day?”
Blade nodded.
Sparkler sat for a minute, she seemed to be pondering something. “You know a lot about him, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I mean he was over there practically every day.”
“You wanna help me make his life miserable?”
“Boy do I ever.” grinned Blade.
“Good peg.” she smiled, tousling his hair. “Let the games begin.” she thought evilly.
