10 Days, 3 Adventures - Part 2 - "Manehattan Crime Story"

by TP Night

Chapter 18-A - Team Trixie

Trixie and Pepper Spray, lead by Silver Cuffs all made their way toward the
construction site. When they arrived, Trixie looked up at the half-built building in awe.

“This is one of the tallest buildings Trixie has seen in this part of town. It’s almost as
tall as the ones in the ‘tall building’ neighborhoods around the central parts of the city.”

Pepper nodded. “Yeah, somethin’ like that.” he quickly counted the rows of empty holes
that were going to become windows. “About 30 floors, give or take a couple.”

“Luckily for us, only the first 3 floors have floors, so she can’t go any higher than that.
And that’s if she went upwards. If there’s a basement yet, she may have gone down there.
Come on, let’s look around and see if we can find any hoof prints or other signs.”
Silver Cuffs said, again taking the lead. Pepper nodded and followed her,
while moving his head around back and forth, scanning the ground for prints.

Trixie looked around a bit. “Hm.. Silver? How about you two look inside,
while I take a walk around the outside and see if she maybe left prints elsewhere?
There may be other entrances, or she may be in the workers trailer homes
set up nearby.” she said.

“Sounds like a plan. But in case you find her, or anything else, like hoof prints,
do not shout after us. Use this instead.” Silver replied, tossing a small black item
to Trixie. She caught it in her magic, and looked closer at it. It was a small police-issue
radio, often used for situations like this.

“It’s preset to our frequency, so just press the red button on the side to talk,
and release it to listen. Remember to say ‘over’ when you’re done talking,
just like in the movies.” Silver instructed, and Trixie nodded. “Trixie understands.”

They split up, Trixie staying outside the half-constructed building while Pepper and
Silver went inside. Trixie looked around at the ground, doing like she had seen ponies
do in crime movies. She carefully scanned the ground for hoofprints and objects
out-of-place. After making a lap around the building without finding anything,
she looked up at the building itself, noting something. She turned on the radio
and pressed the button, speaking into it. “Silver, Pepper. This is Trixie, Over.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Silver Cuffs and Pepper Spray made their way into the ground floor of
the building. They looked around a bit, and spoke in low voices just in case the zebra
was somewhere in there.

“You think she’s in here somewhere?” Pepper mumbled.

“Not sure yet, but we can always hope, right?” Silver replied.

“Yeah. On an unrelated note, I got some tickets for the game next week.
Thought maybe you and yer coltfriend wanted to join me and my wife-to-be.
Kinda like a double-date y’know?”

“That sounds lovely. I’ll ask him when I get home tonight.” Silver smiled.
“Remind me though, who’s playing? I’m not super into sports you know.
I enjoy it, but don’t really keep track..”

“Manehattan versus Las Pegasus. Gonna be a fast-pace game.”

“Hey, look at this. A partial Hoofstep in the sawdust.”

“Sure it’s a zebra? Could be a worker.”

“The workers all wear boots, this one’s not a boot print. It’s a hoof, and judging by the
size, most likely a mare. Which means, probably the zebra.”

“So the obvious follow-up question, Where is she now? Any more prints?” Pepper said
as he came closer to have a look himself.

Silver shook her head. “No, just this one. She was careful not to leave any,
but must’ve slipped up and left just this one.”

“A slip-up.. or a trap?” Pepper said suspiciously. “We don’t know much about them,
so there’s no way to be sure.”

“There’s a flight of almost-completed stairs over there.” Silver said, pointing across
the room. “What about next floor? Maybe...” She was interrupted by the radio.

“Silver, Pepper, this is Trixie, Over.” Trixies voice said.

“This is Silver. Found something? Over.” Silver replied.

“I see a window on the third floor, with a faint light in it, as if there’s a candle
somewhere further into the room. Over.”

“Get in here right now. We’re going up. Over and out.”

Moments later, Trixie entered the building and came trotting to Silver and Pepper.

“I’m here. Now, do we go up and just catch her? Trixie has no experience with this
except wathcing cop-shows on TV, And I have no idea how realistic those are.”

“Fairly realistic on the catching-part, actually. Basically we’re going to bust in
and inform her that she’s under arrest. If she resists, we’ll counter her resistance
with whatever means necessary until she’s captured.”

“I know a force field spell...” Trixie said. “I could maybe, block off the room
so she can’t escape?”

“That’s the usual tactic in these situations, and I’m trained in that sort of spell
myself actually.” Silver replied. “However, having an extra horn would help.
You can set up a barrier around the room, and I can focus on a binding spell on her legs.
Pepper, you’ll carry her to the station once she’s captured, okay?”

Pepper grunted approvingly and nodded.

“Good, now that we’re all on the same page, it’s time we get going.”

The three ponies slowly and quietly made their way up the stairs,
first to the second floor, and then up to the half-built third floor.

They saw a closed door half-way down a corridor, and Trixie confirmed that that’s
the approximate location where she had seen the light.

They sneaked up to it. Pepper Spray flexed his muscles for a second, and then tackled
the door, splinters flying across the room. As he burst in, he shouted, “FREEZE!”

Silver jumped in behind him, in a battle ready stance. “YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!”
She yelled, continuing Peppers words.

Trixie ignited her horn in a strong glow, raising a shield bubble around the whole room,
with the two police ponies inside. Also trapped inside was one of the zebras,
who calmly stopped her movements and froze, like she had been told.

“You think catching me will do any difference?” The zebra smirked.
“Even if you take me in, you can’t arrest me. At most, you can hold me for a day,
and then I’m free again. You have no evidence against me.”

“Don’t be so sure. Now, are you coming willingly, or do we have to knock you out first?
‘cause I WILL if I need to.” Pepper grunted.

“Pathetic fools. This won’t make any difference.” the zebra said, still smirking.

“Oh really?” Silver said.

“No.”

“And why is that? Don’t you need to be free to act out your plans?”

“What plans?” the zebra asked, pretending to be innocent.

“Ugh.. playing dumb, huh? Very well, we’ll just bring you back to the station
and have a serious interrogation. You’ll talk eventually. Everypony does.”

“Mhm, I’m sure I will talk, but the question is... What will I say?”

Pepper mumbled something to Silver, who smirked a bit.
“Sure.” she said, and her horn started glowing. A small ball of light appeared
on the zebras throat, and suddenly she was unable to speak.

Silver looked at her. “Now you’ll be silent until we reach the interrogation room.”

The zebra gave her a blank stare with a hint or irritation.

“Now, again... Are you going to come willingly, or do we need to knock you out
and drag you?” Silver asked. “please resist, I really want to knock you out...”
She added in a sour tone.

the zebra just stared blankly, and started walking, slowly.