Manehatten is an island, a bustling, sprawling network of communication, situated in the northeast corner of the great landmass of Equestria. It houses no less than twenty-five million ponies, all involved in their large, interconnected jobs every day. Construction workers, bankers, sales ponies, entertainment and media tycoons, tourist guides, park managers, restaurant owners, and city administrators- all are connected, brought together by close proximity and interdependence. Manehatten is consequently one of the richest cities in Equestria, behind only Las Pegasus and Canterlot.
Some of its most notable landmarks are the Chrystaller Building, the tallest building in the city, topped by an enormous statue of a horses head, and the Mare Statue, a tall green statue of an Earth Pony mare wearing robes and a crown and holding a stone tablet in her left hoof and holding a torch in her right, located on an island near the city. The city's central square, Bridleway, is the place of many musicals, including Hinny Of The Hills and My Fair Filly.
Usually the city is alive with activity and happiness in the streets, the buildings, and the transportation systems. Usually not a care exists except from the normal activities of the normal life. But now, though...
Now...
Now there are whispers of fear in the streets, furtive glances into the darker parts of the city, a nervous look behind the back. A faceless, nameless terror, as insubstantial as the air but more real than anything anypony could imagine, was in Manehatten. It was always there, hunting and searching, seeking for its targets with an unseen eye. Nopony thought they were safe completely. Everypony from Bronclyn to Bridleway, from Equis Island to Manehatten Park, was whispering. Only whispering, not talking, because what if the unseen evil saw them talking and attacked them next?
The Maneway is the underground railway system that transports ponies all across the city every day. It is also the primary way into and out of the city. It was out of the main station that six ponies and a baby dragon emerged, blinking in the sudden sun as they descended down the white building's front steps. A crowd preceded them, fanning out as they entered the city.
Rarity sighed. "Ah, Manehatten! Where dreams come true and life is fulfilled!"
"Or life gets taken away," Rainbow said darkly. "Remember, Rares. We ain't here to sightsee and gawk at buildings. We're here to kick some flank!"
"And find out what happened to all of those weapons taken from Bright Mind," Twilight added. She looked down, lost in thought. "I don't understand," she admitted. That was always a hard thing to say for a pony like Twilight. "Why would the terrorist attack griffons? Does he have a vendetta against griffons?"
"It's too early to say anything at this point," Applejack observed, glancing her eyes around the large city nervously. "If we're gonna find things out, we need ta git ta where he attacked in the first place and find some evidence." She placed a hoof atop her brown hat and pushed it down as she saw all the ponies in the city going about, in their normal hustle and bustle. Applejack shuddered. "Ah can't believe it. The one place in Equestria where Ah didn't want ta go, and now it's where Ah have ta be. Ah jus' hope we find the terrorist quick and we git ta go home."
"Why, Applejack," Rarity said, looking hurt, "Whatever prompted such a negative attitude? Granted, you're more of a country girl, but there's nothing wrong with the city!"
Pinkie interjected. "Except for the confusing streets and the crowds and the expensive retail and the loud noises and the disgusting food and the criminals and the-"
Rarity shoved a hoof in her mouth, stifling the flow of words. "Okay, we get it," she said, rolling her eyes.
Through the crowds a voice was heard. "Princess Twilight? Princess Twilight?"
Twilight stopped. "Hold on," she told the others, putting a hoof to the side to stop them. "Somepony's calling us."
The crowd parted to reveal a pony rushing towards them. He was a white, balding unicorn with a dark brown mane and short brown tail. He wore a white coat and green tie, and had bright green eyes hidden behind his thin-rimmed glasses. He looked to be about forty. He pushed aside the ponies in his way, eliciting protests from the crowd he pushed through, until he was directly in front of Twilight and her friends.
"Princess Twilight," he gasped. He had a scholarly, intellectual voice. "Thank goodness you're here! I was sent to meet and greet you as you got off your train."
Twilight tilted her head to the side. "What are you talking about?" she asked, confused.
The white balding pony drew out a furled piece of paper that was tied with a red ribbon. "Princess Celestia sent word ahead telling us you'd be arriving," he explained. "And it's a good thing you are here. Manehatten is in a worse state than ever. The ponies are afraid. The police are confused. The mayor is concerned. I have a feeling you ponies are exactly what the city needs right now." The six ponies looked at each other.
Spike rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. The dragon doesn't get anything."
The balding white pony blinked his green eyes. "I'm sorry, mister, uh..."
"Spike," Spike grumbled.
"Spike. Well. Sorry, Spike." He shook his head politely, then turned his attention to Twilight. "The situation is more serious than you think," he said in a far graver voice. "It's terrible, Princess. It's just terrible." He took his glasses off his head using his magic and started to clean them. He put them back on his head when he was done. "My name is Dr. Brainstem," he introduced himself. "And you are the famous wielders of the Elements of Harmony. There really is no need to introduce yourself. Everypony in Equestria knows who you are.
"Hold on," Rarity said, narrowing her eyes in realization. "You're that doctor that performed an analysis of the victims. We heard about you in the newspaper, didn't we, girls?" At Rarity's words, a spastic round of head-bobbing went off among the girls there.
"Yes, Miss Rarity. I am the pony assigned to the case that is trying, at the moment, to find out how the victims perished. It's...not a pleasant job. I have tried valiantly to not be sick on many occasions." He smiled kindly, waiting for some reaction. When none came, he cleared his throat. "I was sent to, uh, escort you to the scene of the crime," he continued. "There's something there that we could use your help for."
It looked like a war zone.
The entire corner warehouse was dirty and pockmarked with residual damage. Part of the ceiling had collapsed in on one side. Blackened damaged debris vomited out of the side of the building and into the streets, which were blocked off. Yellow police tape surrounded the entire scene, with police ponies on corners directing the flow of traffic around the blast zone. There were a bit of onlookers that tried to peek into the action going on inside, but were being held back by the police with stern faces and a hoof on the batons on their hips. The bystanders were complacent, though they grumbled a lot.
The police melted out of the way, however, for Dr. Brainstem, who was leading the way to the scene. The six girls and Spike followed fearfully, glancing around furtively at the wreckage.
"It's...It's..." Twilight searched for words. The pungent aroma of smoke still lingered in the air.
"Scary," Fluttershy whimpered, stepping over a cracked stone brick.
What other word was needed?
Dr. Brainstem led them through the debris, looking up at the astounding wreckage of what was left of the warehouse. "It's remarkable," he said absently. "How could a single pony cause so much damage and get away with barely a trace? It's awful. Just...awful." He took a deep breath. "The worst part is, this wasn't even the first attack."
"It wasn't?" Rainbow asked in surprise.
Dr. Brainstem shook his head. "Just three days before, a train heading into the city carrying an unmarked cargo was hijacked. The train tumbled off the rails, and everypony inside was killed. Lucky thing the only ponies there were the ponies who had guarded the cargo, whatever it was. And two days before that, we received a call from a mare in Bronclyn. She reported that a street gang that had caused trouble for many ponies for two years was found eviscerated in a side alley. They all..." he gulped. "The sight of the...carnage gave me nightmares for two days, ending right when I had to investigate the train wreck."
They had reached the mouth of the hole in the side of the building. Peering inside, the girls gasped.
It was even worse than the outside. The entire inside looked blown apart by a massive explosion. Piles of stacked wooden crates were knocked over or blasted with black marks, the marks of an inferno. Debris littered the ground like it had been intentionally spilled. The entire ground looked scorched in some places, and in others it looked like somepony had peppered the ground with heavy dents. It was all dimly lit, the scant light provided by the lanterns barely marking out the whole inside. Forensics ponies were everywhere examining the whole scene, jotting down notes, searching for evidence, and sealing objects in tight-locked bags.
But what made the girls gasp were the bodies. Scattered on the ground were the bodies of five dead griffons, surrounded by dried maroon puddles of their own blood. They were outlined on the ground with white chalk. One of them was lying on his back with several long metal objects sticking out of his back that were tainted with dried brown blood. Another body looked like it had been shot dozens and dozens of times in the front, on his torso, and on his face that looked ripped to shreds by the impacts of invisible projectiles. Yet another body looked so burned beyond recognition it looked like a pie that came too late out of the oven. Another body, only a little bit away, had four round holes in his body- one in his thigh, one in his back, one in his shoulder, and one in the back of his head. The last griffon, next to him, had only one hole in him, but it looked like he had bled his life out on the ground, where the brown blood was now hard and flaky.
Fluttershy had trouble breathing right when she saw the corpses. She turned away and covered her face as she began to weep. Everyone else was just shocked at the horror.
"Oh...oh holy Celestia..." Rainbow whispered, feeling like she was going to throw up.
"Who could have done this?" Rarity asked somberly, avoiding a splinter of wood in her path.
Twilight kicked aside a bit of rubble.
"That's what we're trying to find out," Dr. Brainstem replied, grabbing a sheaf of papers from a nearby crate acting as an impromptu table. He started to shuffle between the papers using his magic, his white horn glowing. "And that's what we want your help for. The problem is, we know of next to nothing about the pony in question. He leaves little to no trace of who he is."
"Have you tried taking DNA tests on samples you collect?" Twilight suggested.
Dr. Brainstem smiled sadly. "And that right there is the problem, Princess Twilight. We've tried looking for DNA traces on the bodies and on the remnants of the damage he causes, but we can find nothing. Not a hair, not a hoofprint, not a flake of skin, not a thread of clothing, not a drop of blood that belongs to him. We tried looking for it with the gang he killed. We tried looking for it in the train crash he caused. And now we tried looking for it here. There's nothing, Twilight. Nothing."
"That's strange," Twilight mused, trying not to look at the grisly scene before her eyes. "No matter how hard you try, there's always evidence left behind. There's always little bits of skin or hairs that fall out."
Rarity shivered. "I cannot imagine my mane falling out! It would be simply awful if something like that ever happened to a pony like me."
Pinkie lifted her head up, suddenly sporting a detective's hat, magnifying glass, and bubble pipe. "Don't worry, Dr. Brainstem! Pinkie Pie is on the case!" She saluted, then started to sniff around on the ground like a dog, her tail pointing high in the air. After about ten seconds of sniffing, she came to the side of a pony wearing a dark grey suit over his light grey coat. He had a thick mane of bedraggled black hair, a five-o'-clock shadow stubble, and ruby red eyes that peered into a magnifying glass over the body of the griffon burnt beyond all recognition. Pinkie Pie circled around him a few times, then pointed a hoof at him. "I found him!" she announced.
Dr. Brainstem laughed. "That's Case File, Pinkie, not the terrorist. He's the head of the forensics experts team. He's not the Night Terror."
Case File paid no attention to Pinkie. Instead he finished looking, set down the magnifying glass, and turned to face the visitors. His face broke into a wide smile. "Welcome!" he said in a warm tone. The voice was marred and rough from the years he must have been on the job, though. "Princess Twilight, welcome to Manehatten. I wish you could have come under more pleasant circumstances, though. This is no place for the faint of heart."
"We've fought a whole slew o' villains," Applejack defended, "And fought off more monsters than there are apples in a bushel basket. We can handle ourselves pretty well."
Case File grew a thin grimace. "I believe you, miss Applejack. Out of everypony here, I would expect the Element of Honesty to tell the truth. However, the problem is more than just a monster. He attacks only at night, where it's hard to see and hard to discern who is following you. He's already attacked three times so far. Every time, he never leaves us a clue as to who he is. We ponies in the lab call him The Night Terror."
"Let's change that, then," Twilight announced. "We need to find a name for him- one that isn't an alias. Let's try to find out what exactly happened here. Maybe then we can identify who could be the terrorist."
Case File nodded, then led the way to the griffon riddled with long metal objects. As they came closer, they could identify what they were.
Rainbow flew close to the body and extended a hoof. "Are those...feathers?" she asked in disbelief.
Indeed, there were no less than half a dozen long, metallic-coated feathers deeply embedded in the corpse, sticking straight up out of him.
Case File reached up, grabbed Rainbow's colorful tail, and yanked her down to the ground. "Don't get too near to the bodies," he ordered her. "You might disrupt something vital." He then came over to the opposite side of the body, near the razor-edged feathers. "Based on research we conducted early on, we have determined that this is the first griffon down here to perish. His position has not moved since he first lost his life, making it easier for us to do our job. Judging from the direction he's facing, and from the direction the feathers stick, we can conclude that whoever it was fired these feathers in a projectile manner from this direction," Case File pointed in the direction behind him, into a darkened side alley between box stacks. "Ballistics teams are currently working on how it could have been fired at such a velocity to penetrate the skin."
"So that at least limits our options," Rainbow said. "For who could have been the terrorist."
Case File tilted his head. "Explain."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "It had to be a pegasus! They're the only kind of pony that has feathers, you know! So we now only have to look at potential pegasi that could be killing off these victims!"
"An excellent insight," Dr. Brainstem complimented her. "Unfortunately, this does not progress us much further. If the pegasus in question were to use these feathers, it would naturally give away the fact that he's a pegasus. Why would he use such an obvious weapon if he was trying to remain secret? No, Rainbow Dash. Our enemy is far more elusive than that. We have to keep the option open that he used these feathers as a way to distract us, to make us think that it was a pegasus when it could be somepony else, like a unicorn using his or her magic to drive these feathers into his back. We have to match him in elusiveness and never assume the obvious."
Rainbow grumbled a little bit. But Twilight remembered what Princess Celestia did with the chocolate chips and the cake, and kept the option of a unicorn open in her mind.
Case File moved to another body. This body looked torn to shreds, ripped apart by some mysterious force. Holes were absolutely everywhere on him. Most were on his torso, but some others chewed into his face, distorting it beyond any kind of measure Twilight had ever seen. She could see straight into his head. She felt something bitter in the back of her throat and tried to hold down the bile that was coming up. At the sight of the body, Fluttershy immediately turned the other way and tried to hold back a sob.
Case File's expression softened when he saw this. "Are you Fluttershy?" he asked her. His voice was softer, and kinder.
Fluttershy mutely nodded.
Case File indicated the makeshift laboratory set up near the front of the blasted-open building. "Would you like to be over there and away from the site? I know you're not really comfortable here. Do you want to be with the scientists in the lab?"
Fluttershy's expression brightened.
Case File indicated two ponies working on a research paper. "Mass Method, Reagent Rule!"
The two ponies working picked their heads up.
"Escort Fluttershy here to the sheet lab," he told them. "Make sure she's well taken care of and make her comfortable."
They nodded, and sat up on their hooves. They came to either side of Fluttershy and walked her to the laboratory, covered in white sheets. Fluttershy looked back gratefully.
Case File turned his attention to the other mares, who had seen what had just happened with approval in their minds of Case File. "Now this here is another interesting case. Observe the wounds made by the Night Terror."
Applejack wrinkled her nose. "Ah'd rather not," she muttered, but did so anyway.
"Notice how the wounds here are not like the ones found on the last victim. Before the wounds were punctures by sharpened feathers. In this body, however, they were caused by many smaller objects finding their way into the body, over and over again, at a speed only attainable by magic or by using a device capable of expelling a projectile at the speed of sound. The question is, which did he use?"
Twilight cleared her throat to get Case File's attention. "What I'm more interested in is, why did he switch methods of attacking? Why did he use feathers one time and guns the next?"
She realized that was something she should not have said.
Case File looked at her with confusion, his red eyes giving her a questioning look. Dr. Brainstem looked at her with shock.
"What's a gun?" Case File asked.
"How did you find out about guns?" Dr. Brainstem inquired quietly.
Case File's pupils contracted until they became as small as pinpricks. He turned his head to look slowly at Dr. Brainstem. Dr. Brainstem put a hoof to his mouth like he had said a bad word.
Case File quietly asked, "Is there something you're not telling me, Dr. Brainstem?" His voice had just a bit of anger in it, but his voice was so soft... "Why do you know something I do not? Why are you concealing such a vital bit of information from the case at hoof?"
Dr. Brainstem gulped. "S-sir, you...you've put me in an awkward spot here."
"You will tell me what you know about the subject of guns, Dr. Brainstem." His voice was so quiet, so calm, so patiently slow. "And why I, as the forensics expert, did not know about such a critical part of the investigation."
"S-sir," Dr. Brainstem shook. "T-that's top secret information! I-I can't just-"
"You will tell me." Case File's voice was so silky, so calming. "Now."
There was silence as Case File bore his ruby red eyes into Dr. Brainstem's emerald green ones.
Finally Dr. Brainstem broke the gaze and looked down. "I hope Celestia can forgive me for this," he muttered under his breath, but he straightened. "A gun is a tool that can kill with ruthlessness, beyond anything you've ever seen before. It's an explosive-based system that uses the force of a miniature explosion to propel an object at an unnatural speed- a speed high enough to penetrate skin and tear through bone."
Case File's gaze never faltered. "And tell me, Dr. Brainstem, why you know of such a weapon and I do not." His voice was still in that quiet, calming tone.
Dr. Brainstem gulped. "B-because I was one of the ponies that worked on the development of it!"
Twilight and Rarity exchanged glances, remembering what they had discovered on the train.
"I was part of the damage team- inspecting the weapon's effects on the body. But after a deadly lab accident where it killed the pony that had engineered them, the weapons were never authorized to be widely sold, and Celestia ordered all the prototypes destroyed. But before we could get to them, somepony had infiltrated the lab, stole every last weapon, and fled, where he has never been found. Celestia wanted the information to never reach the ears of those who never worked on the project," he continued in indignation. "It was supposed to be secret! And it's remarkable how these six," he indicated the five mares and baby dragon behind him, "knew of it before I had to reveal the work of hundreds of researchers to a pony that doesn't even know how it works!"
Case File made a small movement, a twitch of the muscles in his arms. It passed quickly without anypony noticing. He continued to say, in his agonizingly calm angry tone, "Then you will tell me how it works, Dr. Brainstem. We can allow no secrets to be kept from each other now. The cat is out of the bag now. There is no need to keep the development secret. You will tell us how it works."
There was a moment of reluctance.
Then Dr. Brainstem turned tail and went to the laboratory of white sheets near the erupted wall. Case File and the girls and Spike waited for two minutes.
Dr. Brainstem returned, carrying an object in a sealed bag in his white magic aura. The object resembled a black metal capital letter L, with a trigger at the intersection of the two sides. Twilight felt a chill just looking at the object, remembering Celestia's demonstration at the breakfast table and the weapon she had revealed there.
"This is a gun," Dr. Brainstem told them. "It was found next to the body of one of the dead griffons, probably the murder weapon. The way this weapon works is that you first load the weapon." He took the gun out of the bag and from his coat pocket he drew out an oblong pointed brass cylinder. It looked like a paperweight of some kind. Holding the weapon in the air with his magic, the scientist ejected a long clip from the bottom of the handle. "Like so." He then laid the brass pointed cylinder in the clip. He loaded the long metal clip back in the bottom of the handle, locking in place with a click.
"To fire the weapon, you must then turn off the safety mode preventing a preemptive firing." Dr. Brainstem flicked a small switch near the trigger on the side. "You point the weapon in the desired direction." He pointed the weapon at a spot of ground directly in front of him. "And you pull the trigger to fire it."
He did not pull the trigger.
"And that's it?" Case File asked. "Nothing else needed to operate the weapon?" He sounded interested, his voice back at its normal marred and rough tone. Twilight realized she had been holding in a breath, and she exhaled as Case File returned to his normal voice.
"Yes," Dr. Brainstem said. "That's all you need to know for now." He ejected the clip and drew out the bullet.
Twilight, however, had a question. "Dr. Brainstem?" she asked. "May I see that, please?"
Dr. Brainstem obliged by levitating the gun over to her, who took it in her own magic aura. Twilight examined the gun with a keen eye. "Dr. Brainstem, I believe you in your description of how it works, but I see one design flaw."
"What may that be?" Dr. Brainstem asked.
Twilight pointed at the trigger. "The trigger to fire the weapon is too small for ponies to pull. It requires somepony with digits on their appendages, like Spike over there." She indicated her assistant. "So if the terrorist used these weapons, there's no way he could have been a pony. He would have to be a creature who actually has digits and hands to hold it and fire it."
"Unless he modified the weapons to fit him?" Rarity suggested. "I know that for my clients, I often have to make certain adjustments to their dresses or suits in order to properly fit them. It can be the same here, in that the Night Terror modified these...guns...to fit the hooves of a pony."
"Rarity brings up a good point," Applejack conceded. Twilight admitted she was right, too, except there was something else...something she had left out.
Case File looked at the weapon suspiciously. "But if he modified the weapons to suit him, why is this particular gun designed for creatures with digits, and not for a pony's?"
That was exactly what Twilight was thinking of. "Maybe it was being sent to someone that did," she said.
"But..." Dr. Brainstem said. "But why was it being sent-" He looked at the griffon's hole-ridden corpse.
And the answer hit them all at once.
Nopony dared say anything for a long time.
"They were ordering them," Case File numbly said, completely astounded."The griffons have been ordering guns."
Pinkie turned to Twilight. "Are they ordering them for a super-secret surprise party?" she asked her. "Because if they are, they totally failed. I think they were the ones being surprised."
"Alright now, hold up." Applejack held up a hoof. "So lemme git this straight. The griffons are ordering top-secret weapons. But they were killed by an enemy terrorist using these same top-secret weapons, as well. So that means..." Her eyes widened. "That means somepony's givin' both o' them these weapons in secret! We ain't after this "Night Terror" at all! He's just a piece o' the game the pony supplyin' them is playin'! He's the real menace! He's the one we need ta go after! He's the one that's usin' both the griffons an' the Night Terror like gardenin' tools in order ta achieve his goals! He's the one modifyin' the weapons fer both griffons and ponies ta use alike!"
"But who?" Dr. Brainstem asked in amazement. "Who could be giving them these weapons when the only pony that has an access to sell them-"
And yet another answer was silently given. Another shock. A much more solemn, evil mood descended upon them.
"...was the pony who stole the weapons in the first place!" Rainbow realized in horror.