“Fillies, and gentlecolts, we are due to arrive at Detrot Station in just a few short moments. All arrivals for Detrot are asked to begin moving towards their luggage, and prepare to depart. Thank you for traveling with us!”
Only a few short minutes after they had finished their breakfast did Fire Fight and Shadow Shroud receive their cue. Fire Fight stuffed their trash into the paper bags their breakfasts came in, and into his saddlebag. They then quickly, but carefully exited the back door. It was a bit difficult to close against the wind.
The two could begin to faintly make out Detrot off in the distance. They decided to wait until they were closer to the station before they jumped. “We have to jump off the left side so ponies won’t notice us from station since it’s on the right.” Shadow Shroud explained.
“Figured you’d say that” Fire Fight affirmed.
Shadow Shroud devilishly giggled as she flipped back into her ninja cloak, but with her mask on. “Already getting the hang of this, huh?” she asked.
“I’ve always been a fast learner.” Fire Fight boasted.
They were only a couple minutes away from a desirable jumping distance. They crept under the door to the left side of the caboose balcony, positioned themselves, and braced for the jump. “Remember to roll into your landing. Less impact that way.” Fire Fight said.
“I’m not quite as new to this as you are.” Shadow Shroud retorted.
“I know, but it bears repeating.” He replied.
She rolled her eyes as they prepared to jump. Shadow Shroud began the countdown. “Ready?”
“3…..2……1!!”
They jumped straight forward into the grassy plain beneath them, and rolled into the air so they’d roll into the landing, which worked almost splendidly, save for the fact that they got tangled in some loose grass. Fire Fight burned his way out while Shadow Shroud cut herself free. As she sheathed her kunai, she noticed a huge spider on her muzzle.
“AIIEE” she screamed. She drew her kunai again, and slashed it off her face. It’s gooey corpse lay limp in two pieces off to the side now. She took a deep breath as she sheathed her kunai once more, and then noticed Fire Fight staring at her blankly. “What!?” she demanded.
“Nothing!.... nothing at all….. Shall we get going?” he hastily answered.
She softened her expression. “Hmph. I suppose we ought to.” She began walking towards the rails to cross. Fire Fight immediately followed.
They looked both ways to ensure that another train wasn’t coming, and there was nopony to see them as they crossed the rails quickly, and traversed the rest of the grassland to Detrot. Through the thick brush, they reached a warehouse district. They stepped onto the gravel terrain, and began their search. “Well, we’re finally here.” Fire Fight proclaimed. “I doubt we’d find foals in an active working area like this.”
“Agreed… at least for the time being. A treacherous city as this is, it stands to reason that shady activity could occur here at night.” Shadow Shroud said.
“Which… may or may not involve foals, but… yeah. We’ll find a place to lay low, go out and search the city, and come back here once it’s dark.” Fire Fight suggested. She agreed, and they embarked.
Detrot was as slummy as it was infamous. Everywhere the two went, there was at least one shady character, fist fight, condemned house, and what have you around every corner. Fire Fight’s instincts were liable to go into overdrive here, but he had Shadow Shroud to keep him down. Every time he’d see trouble where there wasn’t a foal, her kunai wasn’t far from his neck. Though a little terrified, Fire Fight knew that she was only preventing him for doing something he’d regret. He wished he had her restraint. Despite their surroundings however, nothing too big was going on. No fighting foals anywhere to be seen. Shadow Shroud used her honed sixth ninja sense to more or less ‘feel’ where their potential target might be, while Fire Fight had fighting instincts perpetually on standby mode to carefully scan the immediate vicinity.
It was starting to get dark, so they decided to take a quick lunch break, and found an empty park bench. They pulled out some of the food they packed, and dug in. “Pretty surprising that a place like this exists in Equestria, huh?” Shadow Shroud commented.
Fire Fight sighed. “I don’t think anypony here wants things to be the way they are, but with the stuff that goes on here, it kinda can’t be helped. It’s pretty shameful.” He said sorrowfully. “But I wonder how that’ll affect our search?” he wondered.
All the foals they saw along the way seemed as content as they could be in a place like this. They had special talents that were pretty typical, nothing too groundbreaking. Fire Fight, and Shadow Shroud could see some colts some yards away playing basketball on an open court as if nothing was wrong.
It was then that they saw an earth pony colt about their age, but a little bigger than Fire Fight trot up to them looking like he was about to give a speech. His coat was brunette, and his mane and tail were brown with eyes to match; his Cutie Mark was a red ‘V’ with a red circle around it that looked as if it had been spray-painted onto his flank.
“Yo, homies!” he said. The other colts stopped playing to turn their attention to him.
They seemed rather annoyed to see him. “Dude, what’s poppin’ now?” one of them asked.
“Fo’ real! Dis better not be one o’ d’em ‘I’m a’ makes things right, d’ho’ missions, or nuttin’!” another one added.
‘Makes things right missions’? What were they talking about?
“Man, I don’t get why y’all don’t wanna do somethin’ ‘bout the hood. Y’all know it’s whack as hell out here!” the brown colt said. “Anyway, check dis out! Some b****es chillin’ at the dump sayin’ they gonna rob dat new pizza joint. It’s true; I hear ‘em say it! We gotta go stop ‘em, y’all! Come on!”
Hearing him speak reminded Fire Fight much of himself. This colt was about to throw himself into danger all for the sake of the well-being of a restaurant, and by the sound of it, this was a common occurrence. The only difference between the two of them was that he tried to get everypony he could to act to; Fire Fight just bore the burden alone on a whim. That… and he was a little off put by his foul language.
“Man! Y’all trippin’, Turf War!”
“You always was, too!”
“We ain’t ‘bout to go bring war to some thugs ‘bout to rob no joint! S***! We ain’t ‘bout to get in trouble wit Officer Curfew neither!” They all unanimously turned him down.
‘Turf War’, as his name apparently was, seemed frustrated at the mention of said officer. “Man, F*** that h**! He can keep stuffin’ his face fulla doughnuts while all dis s*** goin’ down ‘round here for I all care! I’m actually gon’ do somethin’. Detrot only gonna be dirtier if we don’t start cleanin’ house, y’all! Ya feel me?” he said passionately, and then ran off.
Shadow Shroud got up from the bench after putting away her food. “Should we go help him?” She asked.
Fire Fight nodded, and put his food away. “Yeah, if he’s really anything like me, he’ll be running headlong into trouble. He might even be our first rescue too!” he said. “Plus… I’ve kinda been itching for a fight since we got here. How about you?”
Shadow Shroud grinned devilishly, which answered his question quite clearly. They ran to catch up with the brown colt. When they got close enough, they called for his attention.
“Hey!” Fire Fight called. Turf war turned around to see the two. “We’ll help you!”
Turf War looked at them like they were crazy. “Da f***? Who the hell are y’all?”
“My name’s Fire Fight, and this is Shadow Shroud.”
“Greetings.”
“And I think those other colts said you’re name was… ‘Turf War’?”
Turf War raised his eyebrow. “Yeah? Wha’ ‘bout it? I ain’t never seen y’all ‘round he’e before!
“Yeah, well… we kinda just got here and-” Fire Fight started.
“Man, I ain’t got time to give y’all no damn tour right now! I got b****es to bash!” Turf War shouted. He ran off once more.
Fire Fight tried to go after him, but was stopped by Shadow Shroud. “Wait!” she said. He turned to look at her. “I think it’s best we observe him instead. We’ll learn more about him without getting caught up in his troubles, and… agitating him. So let’s follow closely.” She didn’t give him time to argue as she ran in Turf War’s direction. He followed.
“Wait! But what if he really needs help? We don’t know how tough he is, or anything!” he said as he ran alongside her.
“So we see for ourselves.” She retorted. He decided not to question her right now since they were in a rush… and he didn’t potentially want a kunai at his throat.
They continued to follow Turf War throughout the city, and into the residential area. Houses were mostly run down, the roads were littered, it was basically a textbook ghetto. It was not much better than the city itself.
At the edge of the neighborhood where Turf War came to a stop was the aforementioned dump. It was a fenced in city block with a somewhat large entrance at its corner. Turf War dug into a pile of trash at the entrance, and picked up a thrown away Stop sign in his left hoof, and a trashcan lid in his right, wielding it like a shield. He charged into the dump.
Fire Fight and Shadow Shroud followed just close enough behind that Turf War wouldn’t notice them. They reached a central area of the dump where there were a group of thuggish looking Earth Ponies and Pegasi surrounding a small bonfire. They were putting on black coats and ski masks as if they were indeed about to rob someplace. Turf War hid behind a mountain of junk just behind them; Fire Fight and Shadow Shroud did the same, but a little further back. They listened in on the thugs' conversation.