//------------------------------// // Another Theft // Story: To Fear A Predator // by Evowizard25 //------------------------------// Cheerilee prided herself on keeping an open and friendly classroom. She believed she had done a good job so far, with many parents giving her their praise in bettering their children. She couldn’t help but feel happy and proud of aiding the developing minds of the future generation. Their smiles were what she lived for. As well, she never had much trouble with children. While she had a number of troublesome students over the years, she always found someway to get them to behave. Even if they continued, it was always just small annoyances that could be dealt with. This however? Cheerilee glanced at the human in her classroom. She had nothing against humans. She hadn’t met many, but the ones she had met were nice. Equestria did house a sizable population of humans so they were of course normal Equestrians like everyone else. What did shake her nerves was that he was the acolyte of an Inquisitor. An Inquisitor that wanted to dispose of Time Turner. That didn’t set well with her. Still, she would teach the human child like she would teach any colt or filly. She took in a kitsune well enough, with minor problems. She doubted ‘Cato’, as the human was called, could disrupt her class as badly as an illusion of Hikaru’s could. That’s when she heard someone jumping out of their chair and screams. Turning around, she gasped. Cato had taken out his pistol and was aiming it at Silver Spoon’s head, “Cato, what is the meaning of this?” “I caught her cheating,” the human boy answered. “And you felt the need to point a weapon at her?” Cheerilee scolded the boy, glaring at him. Cato shrank a bit from the stare, “W-well, my master says it’s always good to emphasis your strength to make a point.” “Cato,” Cheerilee sighed. This was going to be tougher than she thought. “Just because you can use force to threaten someone, doesn’t mean you should. You could have easily just alerted me of the cheating and I would take care of it. No one’s going to get hurt over this and no one is going to threaten anyone. Do you understand me?” Cato nodded and sat down. Cheerilee sighed, ‘Well at least he listens to me.’ With that done with, she went back to writing down another math problem for the children to answer. “If you do anything like that again,” she heard Scootaloo speak up. That filly really had a hard time whispering anything. “I swear, I’ll hurt you.” She heard Cato jump up from his chair, “Threatening a member of an Inquisitorial team is an offense punishable by death.” Cheerilee turned to see Cato pointing his pistol point blank in Scootaloo’s face, “Cato! Put your weapon down.” “But my master-” Cato started. “I don’t care what your mother says,” Cheerilee started. She knew well enough the type of relationship he had with Trixie. Dot had been kind enough to give her the basics of Cato in a little file so she could have an easier time teaching him. “Threatening someone else is wrong, especially in a classroom. Give me your weapon and we will continue.” Cato looked down at his pistol, “But… but it’s my pistol.” “You can have it back when class is over,” she patted the desk. “Now place it on the desk and we can move on.” Cato frowned as he walked up to the front and put down his pistol. He glumly walked back to his seat and sat down. Scootaloo could be heard snickering, alongside Silver Spoon. “Scootaloo, Silver Spoon.” Cheerilee spoke up. “I want to see you both during recess.” They gasped, “Why?” They said in unison. “What you did was wrong and I will send a report to your families ,” a bit overkill, but they were misbehaving, again, and she didn’t want to seem like she was going light on anyone in case Trixie took out her anger on her. She really wished this day would be over quickly. _____________________________________________________________ Later that night, in Ponyville The usual night watch was mostly just a dozen local militia. Ponyville, before recently, had never really had to worry about anything outside of a possible monster attack. Even then, those were rare. The little town never had to worry about invading armies or anything serious, so it didn’t need to worry about keeping a large force up at night. It was mostly for show as ponies were uneasy about the nighttime. Now though, that dozen had become three. The police had bolster their numbers a further dozen. With everything going on, the recent attacks and the current theft, no one was going to stand idle while pony lives were in danger. One such militia was Cherry Fizzy. The earth stallion was in charge of guarding the weapons depot in Ponyville. It wasn’t a big building, due to the small need for arms before recent events, but it still had enough to aid them in a time of need. That and it could pose a problem if someone with ill intent got their hooves on them. On top of his musket and keen senses drilled into him by his drill instructor, he had a locket that housed a gem that could detect shadow magic. Inquisitor Time Turner had given it to him since he suspected that some of Nightmare Moon’s fanatics might be involved with the theft. ___________________________________________________ Earlier that day Cherry Fizzy kept himself close to the Inquisitor as he checked out the crime scene. If anything happened to him, it would be their heads. As well, Time Turner had pretty much been with Ponyville since its founding. He was a local hero and many of the ponies looked up to him. Cherry Fizzy was one of them. The Inquisitor was checking out the interior. His gaze never missed detailing every inch of the place as he moved about. He hummed in thought, checking every crevice and underneath everything he could lift. He muttered to himself in a language Cherry had a hard time following. Probably Gallopfreyan. “Are you sure you should be messing with the crime scene, Inquisitor?” Cherry asked. Inquisitor Time Turner clicked his tongue, “An Inquisitor has the right to do so if he, she, or they wish. Besides, I have an impeccable memory. I dare say, I haven’t forgotten-” His eyes widened when he came across a semi-shredded box. He took out a gem from his pocket and it glowed blue, getting brighter the closer he got to it. “Oh dear, this isn’t good.” He put the gem in his pocket before trotting back and forth in thought. “This doesn’t make any sense,” he muttered to himself. “Why attack a meat store? They wouldn’t risk… Sunset mentioned something about their wolves in their employ, could they… no, but possibly…” He turned to Cherry, “I think I might have a clue as to who did this.” _______________________________________________________________ Present Nightmare remnants, he supposed. Time Turner wasn’t one hundred percent sure this was the case, but it seemed possible. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was true and some of the Nightmare cultists had survived. He couldn’t help but smirk at that. They’d be few in number, weak, and easy to take on. He clutched his musket. They didn’t scare him. He chuckled and spun his musket in his hooves. He threw it up into the air and caught it, “Come on out, thief. I’m waiting for you.” Cherry Fizzy felt very confident. He was a good shot and while it was dark, the town had a number of lamps and light gems to make it easy to see what was going on. So he doubted that he would be taken by surprise. As he practiced aiming down the site of his musket, he noticed a light blue light. Looking down, he saw that his locket was glowing. He grinned, “Okay, you’re finished.” He prepared to fire on the next thing that moved. Unfortunately for him, he received a rather harsh strike to the back of the head. _____________________________________________________ The Next Day Time Turner scowled as he looked at what used to be the town’s weapon depot. Now it was trashed, several weapons were missing, and a bruised guard that was lucky to be alive. Oh he was just ‘loving’ this. ‘If I had the time and resources, this wouldn’t be a problem.’ He silently cursed the fact that so many ponies had left after the events of previous attacks on the town, leaving him understaffed. Not to mention that he was sure Cherry would have done alright. That gem he had given him and some of the other ponies guarding the streets that night, should have given him ample time to be aware of dark magic approaching. ‘So why was he taken by surprise? That just doesn’t make any sense. Maybe… this isn’t a typical Nightmare attack.’ His musings were cut short when a familiar unicorn Inquisitor and her changeling and pony company walked over to him. He couldn’t help but grit his teeth at her annoying smirk. “Well, well, well,” Trixie stopped before him. “I see that another successful robbery has happened right under your nose and look. It’s a weapons depot. How marvelous it is to know that so many weapons are now in the hooves, or whatever they may have, of thieves. You must be feeling so great right now.” She tapped her chin, “And I do recall some of them having gems that you yourself gave them to detect this so called ‘Nightmare’ threat? I see that it’s worked out swimmingly.” “It is unfortunate,” Time Turner cleared his throat, slightly glaring at her. “But nopony was killed, so we can thank that small mercy.” “Someone might be killed soon,” Dot spoke up, looking over the wrecked weapons depot. “You wouldn’t go to the trouble of stealing weapons without ill intent.” “Perhaps you should have done a better job of guarding it,” Trixie snickered. Time Turner scowled, “I don’t have enough ponies to adequately safeguard this town. If I could just call in reinforcements-” Trixie raised a hoof, “An Inquisitor must make do with what they have.” She smirked, “Don’t tell me that you can’t. That wouldn’t be very professional, now would it?” “I can help patrol the area,” Dot offered, shocking Trixie a bit. “My senses are a bit sharper than your average pony. I can see in the dark and heretics are usually very vocal about their emotions.” He stuck out his tongue in disgust, “Annoyingly so.” Trixie worked her jaw for a moment, before sighing. “Very well,” she turned to glare at Time Turner. “One more chance, Time Turner. If something else happens, The Council won’t look fondly on somepony with such a bad streak.” With that said, the trio left. Time Turner sighed, ‘She came all this way just to threaten me. Gods, I hate that mare.’ “Sir,” Officer Pokey Pierce rushed up to him and bowed his head. “Cherry Fizzy just woke up.” “Oh?” Time Turner smiled, thankful that the injury wasn’t so serious. “What did he have to say? Can he identify his attackers?” Pokey simply held up a locket, “It glowed blue. That’s what he said.” Time Turner sighed, “I really hoped that wasn’t the case.” He made a mental note to amp up his security with more measures to stop this Shadow threat. _____________________________________________________________ Not far from there, Apple Cobbler was giddy. She was currently watching the investigation from an alleyway. Not alone, since she had brought her brother Caramel along with her. “Yes, I can make this work~” Caramel was obviously nervous about this whole thing, “Ummm, Apple Cobbler? Are you sure we should be here?” She rolled her eyes, “Leave everything to your big sister. I know what I’m doing.” Hiding in the alleyway, she rubbed her forehooves together as she grinned. “I’ve got a plan.” Caramel gulped, “I already don’t like it.” Apple Cobbler scoffed, “It’s a good plan. Now, this thief has hit the weapons depot and the meat shop. Obviously, they’re going to hit again tonight.” Caramel nodded, “And what does that have to do with us?” “Everything,” she chuckled. “This is the perfect way to impress Princess Sunset Shimmer. Imagine it. You, the hero of Ponyville. The one who single hoofedly stopped this threat and saved the town. She’ll be putty in your hooves.” Her eyes sparkled, “And then we’ll be richer than anypony alive.” “I honestly don’t think this is a good plan, sis.” Caramel nervously rubbed his foreleg. “I’m a bit too… clumsy to make this work.” She rolled her eyes again, “You’re not Ditzy levels of clumsy. Gods forbid, you aren’t anywhere near the level of destruction that Lemon Drops gets herself into. You’re Caramel and you’re going to be fine.” She walked off, “Now little brother, we’ve got a thief to catch.” Caramel sighed, ‘I am so dead.’