The unlikely group traveled through the dark cave, seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
“Hold on, we haven’t been crawling for that long now, have we?” Nick asked. “What does it say on your phone, carrots?” Judy looked at her phone.
“10:03 P.M.”
“Then either we’re already on the other side of the world, or-” Finnick yipped as he got out of Fluttershy's grasp.
“No! Finnick! Come here, boy!” Fluttershy flapped her wings, starting to chase the fox, but stopped and looked down as she saw that they were over an underground city. Neon and black lights were everywhere, each having some sort of advertisement on a product. Nick and Judy looked down with her.
“Ah. Should've known we were in the Nocturnal district.”
“Ooh! Is this where many of the Nocturnal mammals live!?”
“... Yeah… it's in the title…”
“Oh, sorry, it just looks like a mix between Manehattan and Tocolt!”
“...Right…”
“Give her a break.” Judy said. “She hasn’t been here yet.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want her to-”
“Ooh! Naked mole rats!” Fluttershy shouted, flying over to some naked mole rats in construction worker outfits below.
“That.” They both rushed downstairs as Fluttershy cuddled with one.
“Ach! Guys! Help!” The naked mole rat yelled.
“We’ll get you out there, Rufus!” One of the other mole rats, getting a pipe ready. “Alright boys, let’s get her!”
“Wait!” Nick yelled rushing over as Judy pulled the mole rat out of Fluttershy’s grip. “Let’s just settle down and think things through.” He turned to Fluttershy. “No! Bad, Hayseed! We don’t hug strangers! Especially those working!”
“But I-” Fluttershy spoke.
“Ah! No! Now say you’re sorry.”
“... Sorry…”
“Good. Now, we will be on our way. Thank you for building our fair buildings and maintaining them!” He quickly rushed all of them away from the mole rat workers, who gave them a dirty look before going back to their job.
“Why must you insist in hugging animals?” Judy asked “Especially naked mole rats?”
“I see all animals being cute in their own way.” Fluttershy answered. “And they looked so sad. Hugging animals will surely make them happy.”
“Or get you beat up.” Nick commented with a roll of his eyes.
“I just want to make animals everywhere happy, that’s all”
“Yeah, well, not everyone want to be hugged, not unless you’re good friends with them.” Nick walked fast. Fluttershy and Judy followed.
“Where are you going?” Judy asked. “You know this place?”
“Yep. And you’ll see where we’re heading.” With some cuts through some alleys, progressively getting darker and away from the city. It was almost pitch black for the two, making Judy pull out her cellphone and turning on it’s flashlight. A bright light emerged from the darkness, momentarily blinding both ladies. When their vision came, they saw that they were in front of a pretty small house, with Nick standing in the doorway.
“Nick? What is this?”
“What do you think, carrots? My home.” He walked inside. Fluttershy and Judy looked to each other, then back to the house. They walked inside, seeing a fairly clean house that has seen better and worse days. Decorated around was some photos of a young Nick with his mom, who looked a bit like him, albeit, with more feminine features, something Fluttershy just found adorable.
“D’aww! You were adorable as a puppy!” Fluttershy cooed.
“Yeah, I get that a lot.”
“You live in this place?” Judy asked.
“Yep. I know, it’s not exactly up there, but it’s comfortable.”
“No, it’s… really nice. Much better than my apartment… didn’t think you’d live here.”
“Oh? Where did you think I live in?”
“Uh… in the meadows, actually.”
“...Well, you’re being honest.” He pulled a floorboard out, then pulled out a box.
“Wait… is that-?”
“You can yell at me later, carrots.” He opened the box, which had several wads of rolled up cash inside. Nick scooped the money out, placing it in his pockets. A crash came from the nearby room.
“Oh dear.” Fluttershy spoke, hiding behind one of the furniture. Nick grabbed a baseball bat next to him.
“Get behind me.” Judy backed away as Nick opened the door, the room being his bedroom.
“YOU PICKED THE WRONG HOUSE, FOOL!!!” He began swinging around, but was followed loud yips and growls. Nick stopped as Finnick was in his room, eating some trash he found laying around, next to a broken lamp. Fluttershy peeked inside.
“Finny!” She shouted, walking in and picking up the small fox. “Ohhh you bad boy! You do not break lamps and eat trash!”
“Uh… how did he get here before us?” Judy asked. Finnick yipped, jumping out of Fluttershy's grasp and ran to the bathroom, going through the open cabinet, with some echoing pants. The trio ran and saw that a hole was made, leading to somewhere.
“... We’re gonna go through this, aren’t we?” Nick asked.
“Yep.”
“Find whoever made this hole in my house and detain them, hopefully clear our names?”
“Yep.”
“And risk the chance of being arrested again, possibly for life?”
“Most likely.”
“... Bring it on.” Nick and Judy crawled into the hole, followed by Fluttershy.
“Here we go again.” She muttered to herself.
With about ten minutes of crawling through the tunnel, they appeared right in one of the alleyways that was nearby the central areas of the nocturnal district. About every mammal imaginable was in this area, with vehicles driving everywhere in the center, and being both the loudest and brightest area. Right to their left was a bonfire trash can, with a pair of dogs and cat, who noticed them all exit the hole.
“... Hm, guess that wolf wasn’t alone.” The golden retriever spoke.
“Wait, a wolf?” Nick asked.
“Yep.” The mutt replied, pointing to the city. “Guy just left out there a few minutes ago.”
“Will you two shut it!” The cat hissed. “We’re on our own until we can get to our home.”
“Oh dear, we’re so sorry.” Fluttershy spoke. “We’ll be on our way.”
“Just don’t go in there.” Nick pointed out.
“Why?” The mutt asked.
“It’s a crime scene.” Judy simply answered before the trio left the other three alone with their fire.
“That wolf went into MY house!?” Nick yelled as they made their way out of the alleyway and surrounded by the crowd, each with their own conversations.
“Yeah. What was he looking for?”
“Probably my family’s archery history.”
“... You took archery?” Fluttershy asked, holding Finnick in her hooves.
“No. It’s just a figure of speech.”
“This whole thing just got deeper.” Judy spoke, thinking to herself. “Ms. Swine’s obviously behind all of this, with the wolf being her muscles, getting supplies from this Louis, taking down undercover officers, and is trying to make all predators wear those shock collars you have on, Nick.”
“... I almost forgot I had this on.” Nick replied, looking at his collar.
“How are we going to connect all these pieces together? We need the evidence.” She stopped and tapped her foot, thinking hard on the matter. Nick and Fluttershy stopped, but the pegasus turned as they were in front of a store simple called “Mushu-Pan”, with a cartoon dragon spewing fire as its mascot. Fluttershy looked in the window, seeing that there was some comics around, but her eyes were glued on what appeared to be Mangas, and a sketch show of some manga characters.
“Um, excuse me, I’ll be inside for a bit.” She spoke, nearly flapping her wings in hidden excitement.
“Yeah, sure.” Judy said, too in her train of thought. Fluttershy smiled, dropping Finnick and entering the store. Inside, the music overhead was some strange, probably more comedic action song about fighting love, though everything was silent. At the back, there was a projector on, showing the artist above drawing a very detailed yet stylized dog in a sitting position, seemingly looking, even if it’s right eye was covered by it’s hair. The artist, a dog himself, stood up and gave a bow, with the small audience applauding. He began to speak, not in English, but in what Fluttershy could tell was Neighponese. A translator, a rather large wolf, spoke for him.
“Thank you much for arriving to a sneak peek into my new series… uh… School Haze.”
“No! It’s Woof Woof School Hours!” Fluttershy shouted, making the crowd look at her. She flapped her wings to the wolf. “He clearly said 授業時間, NOT 学校の曇り.”
“...And who are you?”
“Somepony who’s spent all their freetime learning how to speak Neighponese… uh… that’s what my family called it.”
“*Japanese*” The artist spoke.
“Excuse me?”
“*You seem to know Japanese much well, small pony. But can you actually speak it?*”
“*Oh! I haven’t had the chance to speak to anyone with this language yet. I must say, your artwork is incredible! You have the fur all down, and I really love the simplicity of the design. Tells us a lot of without resulting any dialogue.*” The crowd looked a bit confused. “... Sorry, I just like his art.”
“*Care to draw for me?*”
“Oh? You want me to draw? Uh… sure. Let’s see.” Fluttershy took a seat in front of the dog and, with a piece of paper and pencil in hoof, she began to draw one of her chibi characters. Nick and Judy entered the store, realizing that she was gone, but were relieved to see Fluttershy sitting and drawing… even if the probjectors showed what she was drawing. It was a group shot of all her favorite manga characters, such as Sailor Hoof, Bulmare, Nanmare, Rei, and Hooftena. Each one was chibi looking, but looked a bit more distinct from each other, having their own feel, despite being cute.
“... Did you know she could draw like that?” Nick asked.
“No idea.” Judy answered.
“... She’s just full of secrets, isn’t she?”
“Well… she seems to be more open about them… for better and for worse.”
There was a fair amount of applause when Fluttershy finished. She only blushed, her first time sharing her art to complete strangers. The dog looked at it.
“*Hmm… this is very good, miss…:”
“Fluttershy, sir.”
“*Fluttershy? Ah. Stage name, I understand. Tell you what, I’m on a trip with some friends of mine, who are complete music heads. We’re on our way to Outback island for a show tomorrow morning. Care to join us?*” Fluttershy looked back and saw Nick and Judy behind the small crowd with a slightly irritated look, though Nick held a panting Finnick.
“Uh… *One second, sir*.” She got up and walked to the duo, waving meekly to the other animals that wanted to get to know her better.
“... So… drawing anime?” Nick asked.
“Manga, Mr. Wilde.”
“Right… look, I’m not in the mood for yelling, it’s getting late, and we need to get to the docks soon and go to the coordinates that Louis is at.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Where’s the dock at?”
“It’s on Outback island.” Judy answered. “We need to find a place to sleep before-”
“Oh? That’s it. Well, I think I found us a ride.”
“... A ride?”
“Yep! Let me ask if you two can join.” She walked back to the dog and spoke, then came back. “He says yes. And I will be your translator.”
“...Huh… seems we got it better than we thought.” Nick said.
“A friend to Fluttershy is a friend to me, Tite Kubone.” The dog artist spoke.
Tite’s bus was very lavish, to say the least. With some of the most modern technology inside, it felt like they were in the future, or, at least, next year to Nick and Judy. Fluttershy was too intrigued by all the small details around, though she stopped to see Tite’s friends were actually a pair of twins, both red pandas, though the sister had her fur dyed pink and the brother’s was dyed blue. They didn’t really took note of them, instead, heading to their indoor sound studio, playing one of their songs that had to involve something about monsters. Nick sat down on the inbus couch, taking the remote control and turning on the TV. Judy gave him a glare.
“Really? Now?” She asked.
“It’s been a long day, and I think we need to relax a bit.” Nick replied. “Besides, I haven’t watched TV in a long time.” He flipped to a channel, which showed a horse wearing a bird mask playing the guitar, with a beagle dancing with a chandelier as a hula hoop.
“Honey, I’m home!” A gruff voice spoke, which the camera turned to a German Shepard in an officer’s outfit. “Hey! That’s my wife!” The camera turned to the horse, who took the mask off.
“Oh, I’m sorry officer!” He apologized, right before playing the guitar again.
“Hey, I said quit it!”
“Eh.” Nick commented, flipping the channel, showing a different dog in uniform lighting a cigarette, but looked to the camera.
“Hey! You trying to blow my cover!?” He asked the cameraman, in which the cameraman replied in an all too familiar voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry officer!”
“Nope.” Nick said, flipping to another channel, which had a close up to another dog in uniform, holding a knife to a cat in a bathtub.
“So, you think it’s funny to lie to the police?” He asked in a serious voice, to which the cat replied in the same voice as the last two.
“Oh, I’m sorry officer!”
“All these shows seem to be around corrupt police dogs.” Fluttershy said, having watched the show with them.
“Well… what other animal is capable of getting away with it?” Nick asked. “A dirty housecat? Not likely.”
“... I’m going to bed.” Judy replied, getting up and going to one of their momentary rooms. Fluttershy picked up Finnick.
"Let's get some sleepy, Finny." She cooed the small fox, who just yawned.
"... Any dating tip channels here?" Nick asked as soon as everyone was away.