//------------------------------// // Capturing Ponies, Part 2 // Story: My Little Pony: A Race Against Time // by CJ Esmerio //------------------------------// As she listened to one of her closest friends begin to release some tears, Rainbow decided to try and make her feel better. "Don't worry, Fluttershy, I'm sure once Twilight and Casey learn what's happened to us, they'll find this place faster than you can say-" Suddenly, Rainbow's words of comfort were interrupted by the sudden appearance of- "Discord!"yelled Fluttershy, who was quickly becoming filled with happiness instead of fear. "Golly, you don't know how happy we all are to see ya here right now," said Applejack, after letting out a sigh of relief. "But, uh,howdid you know we'd be here?" The draconequs chuckled, and he replied, "Let's just say that after the incident with Chrysalis and the Changelings, I learned how to be able to-" WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK! Discord turned his head to see that alotof the cloaked pony's darts had been shot into his back, as well as his tail, and he said, "Huh… should've seen that one coming." Then, a few seconds later, he collapsed to the floor, and as he began snoring quietly, Fluttershy started to feel afraid again. BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! After pressing a button on his communicator device, the cloaked pony let out a small laugh. "That takes care of the draconequs… and now, it's time to take care of Pinkie Pie." Luckily, the party-throwing pony was walking by herself, with nopony else around except him, but as he observed Pinkie from behind a bush, the cloaked pony knew that she could be a challenge for him. I'll see if this works, but if not, then things might be complicated… After taking a deep breath, the cloaked pony removed his hood (so he wouldn't seem too suspicious), and started to walk away from his hiding place. "Oy, Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie stopped moving after hearing her name, and she turned around to see an unfamiliar pony walk towards her. "Hi, new pony!I've never seen you around before-" "Yeah, I figured as much," replied the sinister pony, in a deadpan manner. "Now, could you do me a favor, and take a quick look inside this sack for me?" Please let this work… please let this - huh? To his surprise, Pinkie nodded her head, and she said, "Sure! You havin' trouble finding something?" As she began to search through the burlap sack, the young pony thought,I can't believe it actually worked- "Oh, hey, Starlight! Why are you in here?" Oh, snap! WHOOSH! "Um… why is everything getting so… dark?"muttered Pinkie, before eventually becoming unconcious, and after putting his hood back over his head, the cloaked pony stuffed the rest of her body into the burlap sack that now contained two more of Twilight's friends. Eleven down, and seven more to go,he thought while continuing down the path to his secret lair. And now that I've gotten the 'main 5' out of the Mane 6, as well as the princess' pupil, it's time for me to finally focus on catpuring the so-called rulers of Equestria- ow! Feeling a sudden sharp pain in his back, the cloaked pony paused to relax for a little bit, and he growled, "Okay, Ireallyneed to get used to carrying two ponies in here with me." For the first time in his life, Ride Along felt like he was getting punished. It's only been a week since he was transferred to Canterlot from Fillydelphia, thought the unicorn police officer.And I havn't been able to make a siren sound ONCE! Rumors had actually circled around the department that he had been transferred due to his insufferable siren sounds annoying the chief too much. Luckily for him, however, today would be the day that he'd finally be able to make the sound he loved so much once more. "Ride Along!" The chief of the Canterlot PD called from his office. "Yes, sir, Chief, what can I do for you?" asked Ride Along as he stood at attention. "We've just received a report of a break-in that occured last night at the home of Twilight Velvet and Night Light," explained the Chief. "I need you to check it out." "You got it, Boss!" Ride Along acknowledged ecstatically, and just like that, he began his siren sound as he departed from the Chief's office. Woooooooo…. woooooooo…. woooooooo! Once he was gone, the Chief let out a sigh, and muttered, "It still amazes me how in Celestia's name he was able to graduate from the police academy." A few hours later "I just don't get it, Spike. Why would somepony want to capture Rarity, Rainbow, and my Canterlot friends?" After making their arrival in Canterlot, Twilight and Spike had started to search for Moondancer and the others, looking in places such as the local library, their usual eating spot, and even the courtyard where they'd thrown the light yellow-grayish pony a "make-up" party. Unfortunately, they hadn't recieved much luck, and the young alicorn was feeling a little disappointed at not being able to find outanything. "And who in the world of Equestria could it possibly be?' Spike took a moment to think, and then, he replied, "Well, it could be some of the Changelings thatweren'taffected by-" "No, it can't be them," said Twilight. "Otherwise, we would have seen one disguised as Lyra, Minuette, and so on." "Okay, so… maybe it's Rowan again, trying to get revenge?" "Heisa possibility," replied Twilight, even though she looked unsure. "But I also highly doubt it since the world that he got sent to was blown up by some weird, demonic version of Pinkie." Her faithful dragon friend/top assistant thought about who else it could be, and then, he said, "Maybe it's that one gold pony?" Twilight turned her head to look at him, with a confused expression. "Why would you think it'd behim?" Spike shrugged his shoulders, and replied, "I'm just giving you all of the possibilities, Twilight." Before she could respond to his statement, Twilight realized that they were getting close to reaching a familiar place of residence, and she was startled to find that it was surrounded in police tape. "Mom and Dad's house?!" Twilight shouted, quickly forgetting her search in order to see what happened, and as the two of them ducked under the police tape to enter the home, which was currently being sweeper by police ponies, she found a familiar face. "Shining Armor!" "Twily! Spike!Thanks for coming!" Shining said, sounding slightly worried. "What happened here?" Spike asked. "You don't know? I figured that you would have gotten a letter," explained the co-ruler of the Crystal Empire. "I mean,Idid…" "No, we didn't," Twilight said, whose feelings of worry and fear were starting to grow. "Shining, what's going on?" Her B.B.B.F.F. let out a sigh, and replied, "Mom and Dad are missing, Twily." "What?!" exclaimed both Twilight and Spike, but before they could say anything else, an officer pony started to come towards them from the kitchen. "I'm afraid your brother is right, Princess Twilight," said Ride Along, who had just completed his examination. "The only good news… sort of… is that from what we could gather, there was no sign of struggle, so the perpetrator must have had some way to subdue them. "But not to worry, we'll get a search party going right away to sweep the immediate area." After learning that their parents had not been hurt (yet), Twilight and Shining felt a tiny bit better, but the young princess said, "This is starting to become scary." "I know, Twily," Shining replied, trying to speak in a soothing tone. "I know..." "Not just this," the Princess of Friendship clarified, and after noticing her brother's confusion, she started to explain more. "The whole reason I'm in… I mean, me and Spike are in Canterlot is because we were investigating a disappearance of a friend of ours from Ponyville, Lyra Heartstrings, but when we arrived, we learned that Moondancer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine were all missing too, and we've been searching almost everywhere for the past two hours." Spike nodded his head, in agreement, and added, "Plus, what's worse is that somepony captured Rarity! Oh, and Rainbow's gone missing, too!" "What?!" exclaimed a surprised Shining. "Eightponies going missing in the span of a day or two…anda pony-napping?" said Ride Along, before Spike could continue to speak. "This is definitelynota coincidence." Turning his attention over to Twilight, the officer pony said, "We'll expand the search to incorporate your Canterlot friends, Princess Twilight, and I'll inform the Chief about your fashion-smart friend, as well." The young alicorn nodded her head, and said, "Thank you, Officer… um..." "Ride Along, ma'am." "Thank you very much, Officer Ride Along," replied Twilight, who was now starting to worry about the rest of her friends back in Ponyville, and she began heading out of the house, with Spike following after her. "Hold on, Twilight, I'm coming with you," said Shining Armor. "Oh, and good luck, Officer Ride Along." The officer pony nodded his head, and replied, "And the same to the three of you, as well." Once they were outside, Spike took another look at the house, and said, "Huh, I feel like I've met him somewhere before." As for Shining, he placed a comforting hoof on his sister's shoulder, which caused her to look up at him. "Don't worry, Twily, we'll find everypony." A smile appeared on Twilight's face, and she said, "Thank you, B.B.B.F.F…" I just hope that the rest of my friends are safe. Not paying attention to the fact that Twilight's castle was empty, for the moment, Casey headed straight to the library once he was inside. "I really hope you're not busy or anything, man," muttered the young pony, and once he had reached his destination, Casey activated the world-traveling machine. Well, here goes nothing! Luckily, there was no sign of any electricity, so as fast as possible, Casey headed straight through the Crystal Mirror… … and found himself entering a darkened room that he did not recognize. Where the [BEEP] am I?wondered Casey.And why do I feel like saying stuff like [BEEP] or whatever [BEEP] that's usually said by- "Hey, hey, hey…" Before he could think about anything else, the lights went on, and Casey turned around to see what appeared to be Fluttershy, but with a voice that was similar to the one she'd gotten after walking through a patch of poison joke. "What did I tell you 'bout coming into my shed?" She was also carrying some sort of mechanical device that looked completely dangerous, and Casey gulped, yelling, "[BEEP] that! I'm out of this [BEEP]!" WHOOSH! A few seconds later, the young pony tumbled out of the mirror, as well as returning to the library, but while he stood up, the Crystal Mirror machine quickly started to shut down automatically, much to his disappointment, and he let out a groan. Great, I can't even go and warn my friend about this… now what?