I do not own MLP or Star Wars!
Day 29 in Equestria, several days before the discovery of the cave...
After Deimos's recovery, Maul and Ahsoka had started their jobs as "vigilantes" of Ponyville, although they were already well known.
While Deimos regularly trained the girls, the two made sure that nopony would get hurt. Although Maul didn't like the idea, he stuck with it anyway, hoping that he would eventually kill some criminal pony.
Maul watched from the roof of the Mayor's place, surveying the entire town, his broken lightsaber cautiously in his hand, although the village seemed all innocent and sunshines, there is something bad waiting to happen. Always.
He heard light footsteps behind him, he quickly slashed at his target, only to stop as soon as he saw that it was Ahsoka.
Ahsoka Tano, a former Jedi padawan: she was an aggressive fighter on some occasions after an "unexpected" sparring match, yes , that was something that he was content with, but she was reckless and overconfident, even a former Sith such as himself knew his own limits.
She had an almost frighteningly similar personality to Savage.
"Tano."
"Horn-head," she smirked, Maul growled and sheathed his lightsaber, "What do you want?"
"I'm just here to help," she replied casually, this bothered Maul.
"I don't need your help," he quietly snapped at her.
"Hey, we both agreed on this, we work together," she fumed.
Maul chuckled darkly, "On the contrary, padawan."
"Maybe you should remember that you were an apprentice as well," she remarked, her features were clearly distinguishable, the carbonite that both of them had been trapped in kept their bodies fresh, only Maul was kept longer, making them the same age in appearance; he was tortured by Sidious for a year before being frozen in Carbonite for the next 19 years, making him, in appearance, 36; while Ahsoka hid well until she was eventually caught at the age of 34, tortured and frozen for two years before being rescued by Deimos and his fellow Terror Troopers.
The zabrak warrior rolled his eyes and turned to look back down at the town.
Only to get hit by a speeding grey and yellow pegasus. Maul fell off of the railing, plummeting to the second platform and finally hitting the green grass that didn't feel so soft after hitting it from a 30 foot drop.
The pegasus clumsily rushed to his aid, "Are you okay?" she asked him.
Maul looked up to see Ahsoka doing her best not to laugh, he quickly stood up and brushed the dirt off of his shorts, "I'm fine," he snarled at her, but this mare didn't seem to get the hint.
"Well I gotta letter for a.... Mall? and Uh-so-ku Tonno?" she tried to pronounce their names with no success; luckily Tano dropped to the ground and took the letter before the Zabrak Sith could do any real damage.
"Thank you..." the Jedi trailed off.
"Derpy, Derpy Hooves," she said before fake saluting and flying off.
Ahsoka hastily opened the letter and read it.
"What does it say?" Maul said, walking over to her.
"It's a letter from a place called Manehatten, apparently there has been an incident and they need our help, just us specifically," she said, confusion in her voice.
"How did they know about us this quickly, it's not like some..." Maul trailed off, coming to a sudden realization.
"What is it?" Ahsoka asked him.
"That pony, the human fanatic, Lyra or whatever had to go on a trip to Manehatten. I think that she had spread the word of our appearance, and they sent a letter to us about this 'incident' because they're probably skeptical about our presence," Maul concluded, Ahsoka only shrugged.
"Regardless of that, we have a train to catch," the Togrutan Jedi grinned.
Maul had never felt claustrophobic in his life, but today was first; the train was small by his standards, the worst part was that this was around a five to seven hour ride to the city; just great.
He looked to see that Ahsoka was already sound asleep on one of the seats, Maul decided to do the same, he sat down, actually trying to relax, he closed his eyes with one thought on his mind.
Far above, far above. We don't know where we'll fall...
Maul and Ahsoka stepped off the train and into the metropolitan city of Manehattan, the sprawling buildings challenging to be taller than the other.
But neither Ahsoka nor Maul found these buildings as impressive as the cities of Coruscant.
"Where to now?" Maul asked, Ahsoka took out the letter and read it, "It's suppose to be at the Manehattan mayor's office, we're actually pretty close, just a few blocks away."
Maul and Ahsoka continued walking to the office, which they managed to get through after a few flights of stairs, but receiving frightened stares from passing ponies, usually because Maul ended up glaring at most of them.
"Quit it," Ahsoka said, Maul was on the verge of reaching for his lightsaber and darksaber before they found the place; Maul opened the door and closed it when Ahsoka had walked inside as well, he looked to either side to see two guards blocking his path with spears, pointed directly at him.
"You will let us i-" Maul waved his hand in front of both of the guards's faces.
"Let them in!" a voice resonated through the room, the guards lowered their spears; the Sith and the Jedi walked into the room to see an aged unicorn sitting on a chair
facing a desk, using magic to fill out papers with a quill.
"So, Lyra was right after all, you actually exist," he replied casually.
"With all due respect sir, were you the one that sent the letter?" Ahsoka asked.
"Actually no, it was a Royal Guard who took Lyra's advice and sent you the letters, she spoke highly of you two specifically," he said, looking back down at the paper before sliding it away to face the unlikely duo.
""Just explain why you have sent us," Maul replied, obviously annoyed.
"The thing is, there's been several murders," that caught Maul's attention.
"I'm listening," he said, intrigued by where this was going.
"It's been a long time since a murder actually occurred in Equestria, can't say the same about our neighboring countries, gryphons, dragons, changelings..." the Mayor reached into a filing cabinet and pulled out three photos, each one depicting a different style of death.
Maul picked up the photos and looked at each one of them; a unicorn stallion, his neck torn open, blood everywhere; a pegasus mare, her head caved in on a sidewalk, strangely with little blood; and lastly an Earth pony stallion with three long cuts along both of his sides and along his spine, clean cut with no blood.
Maul paused, glancing at each of them, "Do you have a morgue nearby?"
The mayor nodded, "Yeah, it's pretty far, just a quarter of a mile away, it's not really used since Equestria has a low death rate, but the bodies are there, just talk to the mortician."
"Thank you," Ahsoka said, Maul was silent.
Maul took the photos and stuffed them into one of his pockets and walked away; Ahsoka following.
They reached the main floor and left the building, "So why do you want to go to the morgue?" Ahsoka asked him.
"I need to examine the bodies," he said.
"Wow, I didn't know you were such a detective," Ahsoka attempted to tease him, but he seemed to take it literally.
"My master did not just teach me the ways of the force. He taught me about using forensics to hunt down targets, which I refined that skill at the Orsis Academy when I was younger," he explained without missing a beat.
"I heard about that place before, what happened to it?"
"I burned it to ashes," Maul said, grinning at the memory.
...
...
"Um, okay," Tano said, her voice made up of mixed feelings.
They spotted the morgue, Maul and Ahsoka walked over and opened the doors.
The two watched as the mortician walked over to them, "Oh, hello, you must be Maul and Ahsoka. My name is Lifeblood the mortician, you could say that I have been fascinated by the dead all my life, ironic isn't it? But enough of my backstory. So what can I do for you?" he chuckled weakly, but it disappeared as he stared at the sheets that covered the obvious.
"We have to examine the bodies," Maul said, pushing past him.
"Wait! Who gave you the authori-" Lifeblood protested until he felt something around his throat and saw Maul with his hand as if it was grabbing at something, then he felt himself pushed into the wall.
"I did, I am here to examine them whether you like it or not," Maul snapped, he walked over to the sheet and removed it, looking at the pony with the torn neck, Ahsoka had to cover her nose from the smell.
"Too... sloppy," Maul covered the body again in disgust. He walked over to the second one with the bashed in head.
"Too primitive," he once again covered the body and moved onto the last one.
"This is an interesting case," Maul remarked as he ran his fingers along each hollow cut, there was no blood, just dried bone and muscle.
"What're you trying to get out of this?" Ahsoka asked, Maul turned to face her with rare amusement plastered on his face.
"The bodies tell a story. If I am correct, then each body, if in chronological order, display the constant refinement and need for perfection of his or her murders. The unicorn's death was to prove that the killer can take on a tough challenge; then the pegasus, who's head was caved in, was just a need for practice; and finally the last one, surgically killed, the cuts look pre-mortem, but the draining of the blood was post-mortem, so the killer was enjoying the constant agony of his or her victim, the blood was just withdrawn carefully to remove evidence," Maul deduced.
Ahsoka's jaw almost dropped, Lifeblood was impressed at Maul's skills, "Is that all?" he said.
"Of course not; I can tell you that the killer is male and a unicorn; I will need access to the victims's personal belongings," Maul explained.
Lifeblood nodded and took out a small set of keys and tossed them to the Iridonian, "Knock yourself out."
Maul nodded and headed to a door and opened it, the room was an evidence locker that stored all of a ponies belongings.
"What were their names?" Ahsoka asked the mortician.
"The unicorn was Friar, a merchant from Saddle Arabia; the pegasus was Midnight Blues, a singer and weather pony; the last was Torque, a construction worker and blacksmith. They were good ponies, they didn't deserve it," Lifeblood sighed and turned away.
Maul's cybernetic legs caused the room to resonate sound within each step; he walked over to three bags containing the names of each victim, he Lifted all three of them over to a table and opened each one of them.
"How would these three be connected? Couldn't it just've been random?" the Togruta Jedi wondered.
Maul worked with precision, carefully inspecting each belonging with a thorough eye until he stopped, taking something from each bag.
"The only connection was where they were going before they were killed," he said, holding three cards; two were passes ad the last was probably a business identification card.
"Mares of the Night Club? That sounds like a kind of.... oh..." Ahsoka trailed off.
"And to think that this place was innocent of societal corruption," Maul snarled, he looked at pony, "Where is this place?"
"Here is the address, you can't miss it," he explained, quickly scribbling the address down and handed it to Maul.
Both the Sith and the Jedi were disgusted at the sight of the place. Mares dancing on stage, stallions watching with the look of a pervert in their eyes, bouncers at the entrance.
How can a world like this house such perversion? Maul thought.
"What do we do?" Ahsoka asked him.
Maul paused, "Search for anyone who may know them. In a place like this, it will be easy."
The former Sith walked over to a door and opened it, immediately knowing it was the back room.
He walked over to one of the dancers who was looking at herself in the mirror, who wasn't paying any attention to him.
"Answer my question and answer it good. Are you familiar with the names Friar, Midnight Blues, and Torque?" he demanded.
"Honey, I'll do anything for paying customers onl-" she was about to say until she faced him, looking up at the scowl on his tattooed face.
"Last chance, do you know Friar, Midnight Blu-"
"Hey! You're not allowed in here!" he heard one of the employees say, but Maul quickly turned and held out his hand and balled it up into a fist.
The bouncer suddenly fell to the floor gasping for air, the mare looked in fear as she saw Maul's face was filled with anger and satisfaction.
"Please stop! I-I'll tell you!" she whimpered, Maul glanced at her and let go of him.
"Damn, and it was about to get good," he whispered to himself as he let the stallion go, who collapsed, gasping for air, "Tell me everything."
"Friar was here on a business trip and vacation, he wanted to get away from the hardships for a while, turning to my services. His accent didn't match his appearance, he had a Manehattan accent, as if he was raised here; Midnight Blues was a singer at a club right by here, but it closed down when she died, she usually came here when she needed a drink; Torque was a construction worker who was cheatin on his wife with one of my girls here," she explained quickly.
"Thank you for your assistance," he growled as he left the room, leaving the frightened mares and a single stallion trying to stand up on all four hooves.
Ahsoka turned to Maul, "Did you get anything?"
"Only that Friar was raised here, Midnight Blues came here for drinks, and Torque was unfaithful to his family. What did you find?" he asked.
"Where each of them died," she said.
Maul gave her the smallest of grins.
The location was behind a dark alleyway, each particular spot was outlined in tape to show the positions of the victims, the three outlines were each around twenty feet away from each other.
"The three victims knew each other somehow, some sort of secret meeting I guess," Ahsoka hypothesized.
"The probably were dealing some sort of drugs, but no such drugs exist in Equestria. The killer must have set the meeting for them and killed them when they were in one area, but the kills were not quick or slow telling from the distance each pony was," Maul said.
"So it was personal?" Ahsoka wondered.
"Precisely. It had to be someone they knew closely but they hate them as well," Maul closed his eyes and concentrated.
"What're you doing?" Ahsoka asked him, but Maul ignored her.
He then quickly opened his eyes and began running.
"Wait for me!" she yelled.
Maul quickly opened the door with Ahsoka managing to squeeze through the small crack that the door had made before it had closed.
"Oh hi! I see that you two are back, how was the investigation?" he asked them.
"We're fine mortician, but what about you? Who were those ponies that you killed?" Maul growled, but Ahsoka stepped in front of him.
"Are you kidding me?!? He can't be the murderer!" she yelled at him, but he pushed her aside.
"Yes he is," Maul stepped forward, "The clues were obvious, each pony did not have a tag anywhere where their ears were, so how can you assume that you knew their names?"
"They were pretty popular," Lifeblood stated.
Maul scoffed, "One was a construction worker, the other was a singer, and the last was a merchant, how could they be famous?" he smirked before continuing, "And you wouldn't know their secrets, with Torque cheating on his wife being one of them in the club. How would you know that?"
"I-ummm- die!" he yelled and fired a magic blast at Maul, who quickly activated his lightsaber and blocked the blast.
Maul then Pulled the stallion towards him, "Are you ponies that stupid? I accused you with insufficient evidence and you immediately reveal yourself?"
"Why did you kill them anyways?" Ahsoka asked.
"Friar was one of the students in the the Manehatten University who always teased me with my small physique, Midnight was my marefriend until she cheated on me several times unbeknownst to me for six months, Torque was my brother who always seemed he was more important than everypony else; so I taught them a lesson," he glared at the two.
Maul rolled his eyes, "I have been betrayed by an emperor and a Sith Lord, my own brother killed in front of me, and tortured for years. Do you think that your petty matters rival the pain of the entire galaxy?" he yelled, the stallion shrunk more and more as he heard every word.
"W-what're you going to do to me?" he asked.
"I would execute you," Maul grinned, unsheathing his light and darksaber, holding them both intersecting across the pony's neck, but Ahsoka raised an eyebrow at him.
Maul unsheathed the sabers, "But that is not how I work anymore, you will be handed over to law enforement," he said, grabbing the stallion by the neck and dragging him away.
Later...
Maul and Ahsoka waited for the train to take them to Ponyville.
"You really showed restraint on the murderer back there," Ahsoka replied sarcastically, but the Zabrak knew she was faking the sarcasm and dry humor.
"I will not become what Sidious wanted me to be, that was my first mistake; making the same mistake twice with my brother was my second, but will not be who I was before," he responded stoically.
"A Nightbrother with a nasty attitude?"
"I am not a Nightbrother. I will be a man with a fierce sense of justice, nevermore vengeance and pointless bloodshed, I am not Sidious's puppet," he snarled.
"Ah, because you can make your own decisions now?" Ahsoka teased as if he was a child, but Maul snarled at her, his fingers anxious to reach his lightsabers.
"The train is here!" she replied quickly before Maul could do any harm, Sheesh, sensitive much?
The steam locomotive stopped and the door opened, each pony entering their designated areas, with Ahsoka and Maul taking the second-to-last train car.
Ahsoka ran to the car, "Hurry up slowp-whaa!" she said, thinking that Maul was far behind her before turning around to see his tattooed face, surprising Maul, but he did not flinch.
She momentarily lost her footing, pulling Maul's shirt, and Maul along with it. The two fell on top of one another.
With Ahsoka Tano's lips meeting his.
... ... ...
The two stood in shock for the longest time before Maul stood up and pulled her up with him.
Ahsoka cautiously sat onto her seat.
"This did not happen."
"Deal."
Maul knew that Jedi were no allowed to form attachments with other people because it could seduce them to the Dark side, and Sith romance was a taboo because love made them weak.
Maul watched as Ahsoka drifted to sleep, he decided to do the same.
He closed his eyes and began to succumb to sleep with only one thing on his mind.
Far above, far above. What once was great is rendered small.