Tides of vibrant gowns and polished tailcoats swirled along the edges of their vision, orchestrated by the gentle strumming of heavenly strings, but in the churning sea of color and joy sat an island of tension. Four ponies, locked in a death stare. Only one smiled.
“A pleasure to see you again, Silver. Enjoying yourself?”
“Not anymore,” he said coolly.
“Pity, after all the work I put in to bring you here.” Shield glared across the crowd, following a dapper unicorn with a monocle. “Did you enjoy my invitation?”
“You planted him.”
“No, fool, I used him. It took very little to deduce he might contact the Ghost once my darling Abundant invaded his private meeting, all I needed was to wait.” Shield gently stroked Abby’s cheek with his hoof as she froze and looked away.
“Breadcrumbs,” Silver stated. “The robbery in Coltistrano, the extortion of Ponyville’s mayor, the break-in at Luna’s reliquary, and now this party, all to lure us into a trap. I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“I suppose I have become somewhat predictable, have I not?”
“As predictable as the ending to this new scheme.”
Shield began to chuckle, a deep rumble slowly crescendoing with the music into a boisterous cackle. “Not as predictable as I feared, then. Scheme, Silver? As fun as you make that sound, I must fortunately disappoint you, for what else could I possibly gain from this little stunt?”
“A quick and villainous monologue would be useful,” Silver snarked. “You’ve always been good at boring speeches.”
“A more naive me, perhaps, one who still held some hope for a better world, but as you can see I hold no such illusions.”
The group took notice of the crowd around them. Eyes of guests slowly fell upon them, pulling their attention from the dancing to stare down between Silver and Shield. Whispers and murmurs floated between them. Shield, however, scoffed.
“Do you think they recognize me, or you? Perhaps they are beginning to wonder just who would be seen standing so bravely against a criminal like myself.”
“They sure do,” Silver said as familiar faces emerged from the crowd. Kindle and Gilda stepped out and began orbiting the group, eyes fixed on the imposing unicorn.
“Yes, the lackeys,” Shield snorted. “A pity you failed to perish in the Empire. I cherish the thought of the bird’s hide as a rug.”
“Tell it to a concrete cell, Tightwad, that’s the only way you’re making it out of here.” Gilda leaned in with her glinting claw twitching at her side.
“The ever irreverent Gilda,” Shield spat. “I always hated you. Were circumstances different I would kill you first, but my goals here are bigger than you.”
All eyes were on Shield’s hoof as it rose. Gracefully at first, as if to compliment the haught expression on his face, but the limb extended to the side, pointing past the crowd towards the wide double doors leading outside. Silver could barely see the small protrusion from within the golden cuff of his coat, not until it was too late.
Shield’s face twisted into a wicked grin as emerald light exploded from the concealed weapon within his coat, slicing through the air and out into the world. Guests screamed at the sudden burst. Silver pushed Rarity to the ground, guarding her from the sheer heat of the blast, and once color returned to the roof he found where the beam landed, far beyond them towards the airport. Shattered windows framed the growing blaze across the familiar hulk of wood and steel, licking at the hulls of other vessels in a brilliant curtain of flame swallowing the airport.
Panic took the room as emerald flames spilled across the airport, followed by a dozen of the same brigands storming the grounds towards the one obelisk they all knew, resting in the open air as a hulk of steel and wood. Panic washed over Gilda, following the thieves climbing over the rigging and into the Tornado. Back and forth, she snapped her sight between her enemy and her vessel, finding Silver’s eyes along the same path, but as the screams of ponies drowned them they both knew their next move, silently passing commands to each other.
He leapt from the floor and grabbed Shield’s foreleg as she knocked out his legs with her tail. Shield tumbled onto his back, but thrust the horn into the air to spew dark, sickly flame around him, but Gilda wove through the gaps in the blaze to bring her claw down onto the sparkling barrier overtop his heart. Their struggle signaled the others to attack, but before they got close the sickly green glow returned, and from the hidden horn spewed cursed fire in a circle before them.
“Kindle, get everyone out of the party. The-” Power wreathed around his throat, forcefully pulling him onto his back as the others watched.
“We are far from done, Silver!”
“Kindle, do it, and find the ship when you’re done!” Gilda hollered from within the ring, and Kindle wasted no time in collecting Rarity.
“No, Kindle, we have to help them!” Rarity pleaded, fighting his hold on her, but the last thing she saw were Silver’s eyes and the haunting fire as she was pulled into the panicked crowd.
“Shame you lack your cloak, otherwise it might be a fair fight!” Shield’s words earned a firm hoof to the jaw, and as Silver rolled back and rose to his hooves a burst of thick smoke filled the ring of fire. Thin streams of emerald power flew through the fog from Shield, chasing the growing shadow before the curtain of darkness flared across his vision. The Ghost, in full garb, sent a powerful kick into his foe, sending him dangerously close to the flame.
“I’m taking his legs, you get the horn,” Gilda growled, squaring up beside the Ghost.
“The barrier’s weakest along the abdomen, hit him there.”
Shield rose to his hooves, wiping fresh blood from his lip with a sinister smile, both sources of magic flashing with renewed power as Gilda and the Ghost charged. She dove for his hind legs to throw a firm strike against her target. Crinkling magic signaled a direct hit, distracting Shield just long enough for a bolt of shadow to ensnare his hoof. Shield howled, forcing his resolve into burst after burst of cursed power that fell uselessly against the horn’s prison, and soon he felt two powerful claws squeeze tightly around his torso.
He moved on instinct. Gilda’s neck was snagged by twisting hindlegs forcing her to the floor in a choke, but pain visited Shield’s mind when the Ghost gave a good, hard yank of the cloak with his hoof still inside. A familiar pop in his shoulder brought a sharp cry from within. Gilda’s flailing claws chipped away at the barrier, even as she lost strength and air, and with each agonizing second Shield steeled himself, throwing a kick against the gryphon’s face as he lunged from the floor to charge the Ghost, tackling him.
The slack on the cloak freed his more dangerous hoof and the limp foreleg attached to it. He swung it across the Ghost’s face, the poisonous magic giving him enough time to force his arm back into place with a hiss before allowing rage to fuel the next strike. Though the Ghost took the blow, both ends of the cloak reached up to pull Shield from atop him and onto his back. A golden aura pushed Shield up, so when he met the Ghost he forced the jagged horn directly against his chest, its searing tip gnawing at the armor beneath.
“You wanted a scheme? Some spiteful plot? All I care for is your death!” Shield pushed harder, forcing the Ghost onto his knees. “But the worst is yet to come, Silver. The Ghost dies tonight!”
The Ghost glared at his foe. A firm kick to the gut rolled Shield overtop him, freeing him from the searing power of the horn as he clutched the fresh hole in his suit, but as he recovered a new flash of power greeted him. Thin, flickering lines sliced the air, pulled apart by the horn’s master to reveal a swirling void within. Bolts of the cloak flew to Shield, caught by his empty hoof with a grin. Then, Shield simply fell back.
The void took him, and the force of the portal began to pull the Ghost in, too. His final sights of the ballroom were of Gilda as she rushed to catch his outstretched hoof, but even with all her speed the void wanted him more, and he was plunged into a cold, ear-piercing shade grating against all his senses. Daggers against his skin, the reek of venom, then the harsh welcome of a solid floor against his face. Aching muscles screamed as he tried to rise.
Familiar streets framed familiar buildings. Far away, the glimmering city of Canterlot twinkled against the night sky like its own star, far beyond the city nestled against the cliff, where his home stood. Coltistrano was silent. Flickering lamp light was all illuminating the slumbering city, giving just enough visibility for the Ghost to scan for his target. He found nothing, but something found him.
Screeching through the air, the beam flew just past his face, crashing against the mansion behind him with a roar that shook his body, erupting in a plume of flame and dark smoke, littering the streets with its charred debris. His world went silent. The Ghost rushed towards the wreckage with a single person on his mind, but a second shadow intercepted his desperate charge and cast him against the stone. Wing beats echoed again. The Ghost stood with forelegs wrapped in the cloak to catch the nimble terror hunting him, but the emerald power returned to collide against his back, signaling the silent assailant to strike as the Ghost stumbled, but the cloak still found its mark.
Both upon the ground, the Ghost looked up to his new opponent. “Glint?”
Glint recovered first, stomping forward with a flurry of blows against the ebon curtain. The Ghost struggled to stand beneath the onslaught, but a quick whip of the cloak caught Glint’s ankle and yanked him down. With the cloak busy, though, he was left exposed. A final verdant blast landed hard with a metallic crack as he hit the ground with a thud. Vision failed him, but something emerged from the darkness beyond, joined by the very same wrongdoers who tormented the Ghost before.
“Everything’s ready,” one said, a pegasus with a bruised and bandaged face, passing a sending stone to his employer before glaring at the Ghost.
Strength failed the Ghost. The near dozen grunts before him encircled their master, his piercing golden eyes holding his foe in their grasp with the stone resting in his hoof. There was a pause. All stood with tension coursing through their limbs, no one daring to so much as flinch while Shield and the Ghost remained still, as if daring the other to act, but with each second passed the Ghost’s pained grimace slowly melted away into a vacant gasp. The city, the stone, he finally knew why he was there. The unicorn pressed the stone.
One by one, across all the Ghost could see, bursts of flame emerged from buildings and homes, followed by ear-shattering cracks of terror. The sudden shockwave decimated the skyline as a chorus of deafening destruction. Screams arose to finally pierce the veil of silence as flaming debris rained down from a blackened sky of stars and thick smoke, and the Ghost was forced to watch as ponies clambered away from the fresh rubble, like a tapestry of horror painted around the one pony who made no movements. Who held his gaze completely on him.
Legs fought to act, his heart rebelled against his chest, his eyes cursed to drink in the growing inferno. Again and again the frightful booms scarred the city and his mind. He could see the silhouettes of ponies in the distance, clamoring away from fresh wreckage, clinging desperately to each other. Some fought the flames. Citizens smothered what they could and dug into the debris, following muted screams from within, until being swallowed themselves. The Ghost trembled, but the unicorn stood unphased. Flanked by his lackeys, his golden eyes shone with the light of the carnage around him, his glimmering horn providing protection from flames that came too close, and the only betrayal of his composure was a grin, growing slowly, that soon spread across his face like a gash.
“Silver.”
It was a word dipped in venom. Those who stood guard around him twitched in place, lurching forward like dogs on leashes, sending obscenities towards the pony in black.
“Silver Spade.”
With a clap of his hooves they were unleashed, charging the Ghost with all the fervor and spite the city now burned with. One after another met him, facing the wrath of gloved strikes and oppressive swipes of the cloak, casting each aside like the distractions they were, all the while the unicorn stepped closer with measured pace.
One thug produced a dagger. The metal glided through the air, soon knocked from his hoof by the Ghost’s practiced form, but not before the Ghost tasted a metal-clad hoof against his mouth. Wing beats reached his ears as a familiar face swooped down upon him. Glint, flanked by two others, pulled the cloak upwards as if to hang the Ghost by it, lifting his hindlegs from the earth as the thugs took turns beating him. The Ghost unclasped his belt, hurling the collection of potions and bombs onto the ground in a display of lights, gas, and sounds that dazzled them, but Glint remained firm. He yanked on the cloak so hard it was wrested from Silver’s shoulders, collapsing onto the ground.
They closed in around Silver. He howled, grunted, and yelled with each strike he landed, each one drawing a crack from within his attackers, slowly thinning the crowd, and those who didn’t limp away found themselves whimpering on the ground. Glint landed beside his commander and passed him the cloak. The unicorn eyed it, but elected to march towards Silver as he tore through the last villain, collecting the knife as he walked. Silver panted and huffed, eyes frenzied by the pain and flame, and lunged at the sight of the pony behind the blade but was met with a terrible sting in his belly, right between the broken armor. It twisted within him.
“Silver. Spade.”
Silver let out a cry that caught in his throat, and the only sound he heard was the deep, sinister laughter of the pony before him, watching him slump to the ground with the knife still inside until he felt his mane yanked, dragging him across the dirt and ash below. Across the still burning wood of the house, flames licking his flesh as he screamed, flames that bounced harmlessly off the other pony’s forcefield.
The garden of the manor was gone. Ruined. Nothing but charred stone and shards of glass remained as Silver was tossed out towards the cliff, rolling just before the ledge. At the pony’s command two thugs forced Silver to his knees.
“Bring her.”
Weary tears welled in his eyes as he watched Honey Hearts, fur stained by ash and soot, dragged much like he was and cast to the stone of her cherished garden, but at the sight of her son, bloodied and beaten, she broke.
“Do not look away, somepony needs to witness this… do not look away!” The unicorn wrenched Honey’s head from the ground, pulling her entire person to her knees with a careless yank of her mane, directing her red and dirty face to Silver as he stepped forward.
“You wanted to hear his name, all those years ago. The name of the one who returned from the ocean. The one who burned everything I worked for!” The unicorn sent a ferocious hoof scraping along Silver’s jaw. “His name is Silver Spade!”
The beating went on. Every time Silver reached to defend himself, a quick hoof came down to strike the knife embedded in his gut, a cycle that would continue until Silver collapsed, but Shield Wall pulled him up again, locking eyes with the pony that sputtered on his failing, desperate breaths.
“And you will die, Silver, knowing your precious legacy dies with you.”
“Stop it!” Honey fell to Shield’s hooves. “P-Please… stop.”
Without even looking Shield whipped his hindleg across Honey’s face, causing Silver, now fierce and wild, to shoot up from the ground and grab Shield while failing strikes landed against him, but the unicorn merely drove the knife in deeper to break the furious hold, wrenching the blade from Silver’s belly. Silver landed on his knees and could feel cool wind kiss his hooves at the edge of the cliff, the distant sound of water below the rocks.
“Get up.” Shield’s command was met with a defiant glare until the stained steel was pressed to Honey’s neck. “Stand, or she dies.”
With trembling hooves Silver managed to stand, before a powerful right hoof collided with his jaw. “Get up! I will bleed her dry if you do not stand!”
This cycle continued. The unicorn shouted his demand each time Silver fell, but each time his foe recovered, blood dripping at his hooves as the soldiers around them laughed and cheered, all except Glint. A sick glee filled Glint to see the Ghost kneeling, but each vicious strike and each of Honey’s cries slowly soured the display until all he felt was tightness in his gut and a fog in his mind. Brutality was all he saw now. Gross, indulgent brutality.
“Get up, Ghost,” Shield mocked in a sing-song tone, the pony before him soaked in his own blood with his head hung low. “Fine, since you seem so incapable of doing so-”
Shield froze when the pony before him twitched. Legs trembled as he touched the ashen earth, a staggered breathing filled his chest, and soon Shield was faced with the haunting gaze of two amber eyes rising to meet him, framed by dark blood. They burned with the fires of Coltistrano around them, a glare whose will overpowered even Shield’s most spiteful desires. Glint’s mouth slowly hung open in awe. Those thugs left to witness stumbled back, some even falling to the ground as the obelisk of blood and silent fury stood to its full height, shrouded in the darkness of night behind him. Their master, however, finally grit his teeth and summoned each ounce of hatred he once laid against Silver into a final thundering kick to his chest.
A wail escaped from within Honey as Shield’s final strike sent Silver over the edge. The final vestiges of consciousness left him as he felt himself tumble over backwards, the coolness of the night air kissing his burns and wounds as he picked up speed. The last thing he saw was the fading light of the city above before he was embraced by the river below, drowning his vision in the darkness.
From above, Shield followed the shrinking image of Silver’s body as it disappeared into the blackness below. Honey wailed behind him as Glint approached, cloak in hoof, and Shield held out his own to accept the ash-covered garment.
“Sir,” Glint choked out, eyes downward. “The mission’s complete.”
Shield froze. The cloak felt heavy in his hoof, clinging to where it draped along the ground, as if resisting its new owner, but Shield’s spite overpowered its magic as he retreated back through the flame and dragged the cloak behind him, drawing a tremor from within Glint’s chest.
On the other side of the flame, a crowd of desperate ash-covered ponies slowly formed to witness his emergence. Then, they saw the cloak, crumpled and filthy. Gold eyes glared at them as their hopeful smiles sank, fixated on the jagged horn leveled against them, faces illuminated by sickening emerald.
Only screams and flames filled the darkness.