//------------------------------// // Clues and Claws // Story: The Price of Harmony // by Maverickthepony //------------------------------// Chapter 7: Clues and Claws Rainbow Dash awoke in her tent, she began looking around she didn't see anything. "I could have sworn I heard something." she muttered to herself. "Then your hearing must be as good as mine." said a voice behind her. Rainbow Dash turned around to see Talon. "I hope you remember me." he said to her blatantly. Rainbow Dash screamed. She wanted to be heard. A light from a unicorn horn lit up the tent beside her. "What's wrong Rainbow?" asked Twilight. Her question was answered with another scream. "Rainbow!" yelled Twilight as she ran out of her tent to see the others watching as a pony with a gryphon claw dragged away their friend. Talon. "If any of you follow, I will shoot." be said moving the gun around to point at each pony. Rainbow Dash tried to fight the much stronger pony. She knew that she couldn't get free, but she had to try anyway. Her body twisted and turned trying to get free, but to no avail. She did hear a few metallic clinks. "Dammit." muttered Talon who proceeded to holster his gun and grabbing a syringe. "No more struggling for you!" he said jamming the syringe into Rainbow's neck. Rainbow immediately felt her eyes growing heavy. She couldn't fight it as she drifted off into sleep. At this point Talon had put away the syringe and had pulled his gun out again. He proceeded to put Rainbow Dash on his back, then he began to back away from the camp. Keeping the gun in his hand he dropped down a smoke grenade. The smoke started to pour out of the small container before forming a thick fog. He immediately turned and ran. He ran away from the town, he needed to be alone for the interrogation. Twilight and the others sprinted towards the smoke. They had to get their friend back. They broke through the other end to see nothing but an empty desert in front of them. They had lost her again. "Twilight darling!" called out a voice behind the smoke. "I think you may want to come look at this!" Twilight started to walk back to where Rarity was calling her. What she found confused her. "What do you think it is?" asked Rarity. "I don't know." responded Twilight as she lifted the largest of the three objects and turned it around experimentally. It looked like a small metallic box. Twilight put it in her bags and then turned her attention to the other objects. Two other identical objects had fallen next to the box. These looked much different and were a different color. She picked one of them up with her magic and turned it around. On one end it came to a point, but the other end was flat and had a small circular extension surrounding what seemed to be a small protrusion in the metal. Twilight placed the two metal items in her bag. They needed to ask somepony what they were and then maybe they could get an idea of how to beat Talon. His response to losing them sounded as though they were important to him. Twilight decided that they needed to hurry to the next town, once there they could ask somepony if they knew what these things were. Twilight and the others had already packed up camp and were making their way towards the town. Twilight would occasionally pull the metal objects out and look at them. She had decided that the larger object's use was located inside the box. She had also decided that the smaller objects were made up of two parts that separated. She couldn't figure out how to separate the objects however, and she was certain that she wouldn't know until they asked someone. They made it to the town at dawn. They immediately found a building where they had received information before. They were two for two in such buildings and figuring that it was a good place to start they entered. The building was empty save for a lone pony at a table who appeared to be leaving anyway and a mare behind another one of those long tables. The group immediately headed over to the mare behind the table. "Well hello there, what can I get for five new faces?" asked the mare as she pulled five glasses out from underneath the table. "Information", said Twilight simply, "Can you tell us what these are?" said Twilight dumping the contents of her bags onto the table. The mare dropped one of the glasses. "Where did you get these?" she said as soon as he recovered from his shock. Lying, Twilight responded, "We just found them in the desert." "I know that's a lie, these belong to Talon! This one," she touched the large box, "is his lighter. He custom made it himself. These," she said indicating the two smaller items, "are bullets. They're what he uses to kill people with his gun. These are really dangerous and powerful but he won't come looking for you to get these back. He's got stashes all over the country. No, he will want this." she said indicating what he had called a lighter. Twilight now remembered what that stallion had said about bullets and the way they were designed made sense. "What does it do?" asked Applejack "Well it, um, well he uses it to light his cigars. It's a hobby of his." he noticed that the look of confusion had remained on the five faces he was addressing. "I guess ya'll don't know what smoking is. It's where he lights a small roll of a certain kind of leaf on fire, I believe its called tobacco, and he inhales the smoke." "Oh my!" said Fluttershy from the back. "Well I agree that it is a nasty habit, and there have been some cases where it has resulted in death, but to be perfectly honest I would rather smoke than find myself on the other end of one of his cigars." the mare chuckled. "I'm Brandy; by the way, I'm this town's barkeeper." "Twilight Sparkle" "Applejack" "Rarity" "Hi I'm Pinkie Pie!" "Flutter..." "I'm sorry, what was that?" asked Brandy "my name is Flutter..." said Fluttershy dying off once more. "uhhhh" Brandy had a confused look on her face. "Her name's Fluttershy." said Twilight. "Oh, well than nice to meet you all." responded Brandy This was met by four likewises from the four ponies and one whimper from Fluttershy. "I guess that since I've never seen you around that means that you're new in town and probably don't have any place to stay." "Yes, but we don't have any money so I guess we'll have to go camp out in the streets." said Twilight "Now I can't have that. These streets are no place for five mares such as yourselves. Tell ya what, since Talon should come looking for you any day now, I'll let you stay in my rooms free of charge. This is also the town's inn considering it's the only place that serves food." said Brandy "Well we would love to, it's just that we don't want to get into the way." said Rarity "Nonsense!" exclaimed Brandy, "I've never met Talon and considering if you five stay here he's bound to come looking, I would consider the chance to meet someone as legendary as him worth the price of keeping you five here. Provided that you don't eat too much." "Well, I guess we'll stay." said Twilight. "Excellent!" exclaimed Brandy "Let me show you to your rooms." The rooms she had been talking about were very simple. Each one had a bed, a nightstand, a closet, and a desk. There were windows in a few of them. Twilight's room was at the end of the hallway. Even though Pinkie's room was on the other side of the hall, Twilight could hear the several bangs that she making to make her room look more, well, Pinkie Pie. At one point she even heard Brandy come up to complain, but she didn't care about that, all she cared about was getting Rainbow Dash back. They were in the town for several days, during this time they found out that the building they were staying in was called a bar and that it served drinks called alcohol. When Twilight heard what the alcohol did to the body she was sickened. When she asked Brandy why some ponies did that to themselves she simply said that some are doing it to relieve stress while others just like the feel of it. Much like Talon and his cigars. Twilight and the others found ways to bide their time. Twilight would read on the military history of Forshan, Rarity practiced sewing, Pinkie Pie helped Brandy cook, Applejack would practice bucking on bricks, and Fluttershy would talk to animals around the city. Twilight had found a library where the librarian was an old soldier. He had filled his library with books about military strategies and weapon advancements. She would go there every day to see if she could find out anything to help them when they had to attack the base. She would return to the bar every day and ask Brandy if there were any messages. This particular day she had accomplished nothing at the library and was in a bad mood. She returned to the bar to see Brandy wiping the counter. "How was your day?" she asked. Twilight just kept walking past her ignoring the question. "By the way, a message came by today. It's from Talon." Twilight and the others were standing on a street in the middle of town. The message said that he would give Rainbow Dash back in return for his lighter. The clock in the middle of town struck noon. He should have been there by now. A wave of sand blew in the middle of the street making it impossible to see. As it began to die down Twilight saw two silhouettes on the other end. One of them had something sticking out of its mouth. Twilight assumed that this one was Talon and that meant that the other one was Rainbow Dash. "Do you have the lighter?" called out one of them that must have been Talon. Twilight levitated the lighter and it began floating over towards Talon. When it got close to him he grabbed it and immediately lit the cigar in his mouth. He also inspected it a little. After he was satisfied he took out a knife and cut what looked like ropes off Rainbow Dash they saw as her wings fell to the ground. He must have done something to them. She began walking towards them and acted extremely cautious. She got to them and looked back to where Talon had been. There was no trace of him left. "Rainbow!" shouted every single one of the ponies as they went to embrace their friend. "Hey girls." she said in response. Something was obviously wrong with her. Twilight went up to inspect the damage her friend had sustained. There was a long cut along her side, her wings were drooping and useless, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong with her. Twilight took this as a sign that they needed to move and fast. "What's wrong with your wings Rainbow?" asked Applejack. "It's nothing. They'll heal." she said still looking at the ground. "Rainbow, something's wrong, please tell us." Twilight said. "I'm fine! We need to get to work!" Rainbow snapped back. Twilight was not satisfied but decided to not press the matter any further. They went off to the inn to pack their things. It was time to move on.