A familiar light-brown coat, and brown mane and tail appeared in the dimly lit area of the warehouse. His flank came into view, and lo and behold, it was a police badge. The boss, and their guest stallion smiled deviously at each other as they shook hooves. “Good evening, officer.” The thug boss sneered.
*****
“Curfew!? What’s he doing here!?” Fire Fight silently exclaimed. He looked over at Shadow Shroud who was just as shocked as he was, and could only shake her head in response. He then looked over at Turf War, whose blank stare was building an eruption of rage and fury. “Turf War, take it easy…” he whispered.
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Curfew wiped his uniform of some dust. “Hope I didn’t keep y’all waitin’ long. I had to get a li’l sneaky again.” He said.
“Nah, dat’s cool, bruh. I wasn’t feelin’ too excited ‘bout seein’ you he’e anyway.” The boss said.
Curfew chuckled. “’Cause I’m a cop?” he asked.
The boss rolled his eyes. “Well that, and you ain’t doin’ what we payin’ you to do!” he exclaimed.
Curfew was taken aback. His expression turned serious. “Whaddya mean?” he sternly asked.
“’Whaddya mean’, he says. Man, you know just the hell I’m talkin’ ‘bout! Y’all see what dat damn junk warrior did to us dis time? Bruiser’s been laying on da couch with a cast on the whole rest o’ the day ‘cause o’ that li’l s***! And you ‘member last week when he f***** up Jay and Yeezy when they was tryna rob dat shoe stand? O’ how about last month when he cornered us after we broke out dat bank, we dropped all our money, and even got arrested; Yo’ ass had to bail us out! Now we gotta go to court he’e in a couple days ‘cause you ain’t doin’ what I pay you to do!” the thug boss ranted.
Fire Fight looked over at Turf War, impressed at his apparent track record, but also saw that his fury was doing anything but calming down.
Curfew snarled. “I told y’all! I can’t just go ‘round sayin’ ‘Hey, d’ese b****es payin’ me to not arrest ‘em an’ s***, so don’t mind me!’ Hell no. I gotta do my actual job too! But I gave dat brat a legit warnin’ that if he do y’all like this again, it’s da last straw, and dat’s real. So y’all can look forward to the next time he f*** y’all up, ‘cause it’ll be the last time. My buddies at da station don’t like him either, so they’ll back me up!” he sneered.
The thug boss seemed a bit more pleased as he softened his expression some. He handed Curfew a bag of bits. “A’ight I’m a hold you to dat. If you snitch, or go back on yo’ word, it ain't gonna be pretty, believe dat.” He said.
“Same to you.” Curfew retorted.
One of the pegasus thugs floated down from her makeshift perch. “And how ‘bout his new friends too? They gave us one helluva hard time along wit Turf War.” She said.
Curfew cocked his head. “Friends?”
The thug boss looked him confused. “Uhh, yeah, his friends. The fire-spittin’ unicorn, and dat li’l ninja? You roasted them too, right?” he asked.
“I didn’t even see nopony like dat wit him…. They musta hid behind some o’ dat scrap, or somethin’, ‘cause I was only talkin’ wit da brat.” Curfew explained.
The boss narrowed his eyes. “Well he got homies who are just as much trouble as he is, an’ they introduced themselves today pretty spectacularly.” He said with angry sarcasm.
“And not for us.” The pegasus commented.
Curfew wiped his nose. “A fire unicorn, and a ninja ya say? A’ight, I’ll look out fo’ d’em too. I might be able to get them arrested ‘long wit Turf War if I associate-” he was cut off.
“YOU M***********!” was all Curfew heard before he turned his head to see a shielded brown colt flying at him, and swing his Stop sign pole-side across his face, recoiled back with its broad side into his muzzle, and flew into a backfist strike with his trash lid shield hitting his temple.
Curfew fell to the floor in a daze, but could barely make out the image of Turf War foaming at the mouth, and brandishing his sign in a rage.
“YO’ A** WAS LYING TO ME DIS WHOLE TIME!? YOU ACTUALLY A B**** TO THESE B****ES!? HELL NO!! I SHOULDA FIGURED SOMETHIN’ SMELLED ‘BOUT YOU, AND AIN’T TALKIN’ YO’ BREAFF, SON! MAN, JUST WAIT ‘TIL I TELL THE COPS ‘BOUT THIS!” Turf War ranted.
The thugs were prepping themselves for a beatdown as Shadow Shroud was holding Fire Fight back from jumping out “What’re you doing!? We have to help him!” he said.
She shushed him. “This idiot got that cop’s attention. If he sees you, he’ll report that you were here, and likely state that you helped Turf War beat him up. In other words… you’ll be a criminal!” she explained.
Fire Fight took that realization with a little shock, and hung head low until Shadow Shroud lifted his chin. “I’ll knock him out first, then you jump in.” she said in her own reassuring tone.
“Huh!? B-But he’s and officer and-”
“Do I really have a choice here?”
Fire Fight sighed. He nodded. “Okay…” he said. With that, Shadow Shroud donned her mask, and leapt into the shadows.
Curfew stumbled to his hooves as he glared at Turf War. “Son, you just earned yourself a one way ticket to-” he was cut off once more as a shadowy filly swooped down onto his neck with a considerable impact and knocked him out cold. He collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll. Shadow Shroud jumped into his limp body, and signaled Fire Fight to come out, and he did, rushing out with his horn ignited.
“You brats again!? Oh for the love of- … Ya know what? I’m happy, ‘cause we get to beat you down ourselves. Screw this pig!” the boss exclaimed.
Fire Fight glared at him. “I’d be a lot more concerned about myself if I were you, you scumbag!” he warned.
The boss chuckled devilishly. “Well hell, if you insist! Ok, guys. Ya know what to do.” He sneered as he drew a metal pipe. All the other thugs came in from all directions with weapons drawn. The two colts stood side by side facing opposite directions rearing themselves for battle, while Shadow Shroud vanished once more, preparing for a stealth strike. Fire Fight and Turf War glanced at each other briefly, and nodded, showing that they were ready.
Turf War held his Stop sign out like a frying pan. “It’s on, son!” he cheered.
Fire Fight jumped onto the sign, and Turf War launched him straight into the air. Fire Fight launched three consecutive fire discs in a triangular pattern around Turf War. The approaching thugs stumbled trying to avoid the blazes, save for the boss, who swung his pipe downward at Turf War. Turf War parried it with a horizontal swing pole-side, then followed with an edgewise swing to the mouth, busting the thug boss’ lip, and striking his gums, but that barely seemed to bother him as he recovered fairly quickly. Another thug was just about to land a sneak attack from behind Turf War when Fire Fight fell back down, and plummeted right into the thug’s back, driving him to the floor. Fire Fight then manipulated a short flare into the thug boss’ face, causing him to recoil, and allowing Turf War to shield charge him upwards, sending upward onto his hind legs. Fire Fight then flipped in the air, creating a ring of fire around himself, causing two thugs coming up on either side of him to briefly stop, giving Fire Fight an opening; he spun around upon landing, and used the momentum to flame sidekick into the thug on his left, striking him in the chest, sending him flying into a wall. Fire Fight back flipped off of him, and hurled a fire disc at the other one, whom managed to get out of the way of the flame by jumping backwards, and was then joined by some other thugs.
Before either thug could attack, multiple copies of Shadow Shroud jumped down from the ceiling, and ambushed them with flurries of kunai, and shuriken. All of the thugs were either badly cut and retreated, beaten up in the confusion of trying to follow a constantly reappearing and disappearing foe, or just out knocked out…save for one. This one thug, a rather diminutive Earth Pony wielded a legitimate military knife, and confronted Shadow Shroud openly. He charged her quickly, nearly slashing her had she not parried his slice perfectly, but even that wouldn’t stop him. The two began a slash and dodge fest with some parries here and there. Shadow Shroud tried her cloning technique, but the thug seemed to have very keen senses as he was able to dispatch them quickly, and keep his eyes on the real one. The two resumed their mirror-like duel. When there was enough space between them, Shadow Shroud noticed that there was a heavy crate hanging by a rope pulley directly behind her opponent. Just as he was about to charge, she threw several shuriken his way, meaning for only one to hit, of course, and the other just distracted him as he ducked under all of them. The shuriken hit their mark, and the crate fell to the ground with a resounding thud, crushing the military thug while Shadow Shroud leapt out of the way just at the last instant. She quickly retrieved her thrown weapons, and went to help the colts.
Just as the thug boss was at the peak of his recoil, Turf War went in to jab him in the abdomen, but was forcefully shoved to the side by another lackey. He tumbled to the ground, but quickly got up. “Oh, hell no!” he shouted.
The thug that struck him smirked. “Hell yes!” he taunted. He just happened to look to his side to see Fire Fight driving himself into his knee. The thug staggered to the ground as Fire Fight knocked him upside the head with a back flip front kick, allowing him to quickly land, and shoot a fireball at the thug boss, who took it square to the chest as he tried to jump up to dodge it. He shrieked in pain as he fell on his back from the burst of flames. He was about to get up when a flurry of shuriken suddenly encircled his body, startling him into laying still. The last thing he saw was Turf War shield charging him square in the temple, knocking him out…
With all their foes temporarily impotent, Shadow Shroud ordered the two colts to follow her. “Quickly! Follow me!” she said. The two nodded, and followed. She led them out into the same sea of grass that she and Fire Fight had previously entered the city from, and they finally stopped to catch their breath. The radiant moonlight served as their shining shroud in the night.