Ch.8-Juan Rico Attacks
Later on, the gang were walking to the upper part of Manehattan, looking for the home of Juan Rico, the last witness to have seen Otterus before his disappearance.
“Well, it’s a good thing Mr. Big Daddy forgave you for what happened, Starlight.” Spike said.
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash. “Once you get to know him, he’s not that really bad.”
“Yeah! And his mustache is pretty cool too!” Pinkie added.
Fluttershy nodded. “He and Fifi are both really nice.”
“And did you see Fifi’s wedding dress? It was absolutely gorgeous! For someone who’s the daughter of a crime lord, she has an absolute sense of fashion.” Rarity said with glee.
“So, what do ya suppose this Juan Rico fella looks like?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Well, Mr. Big Daddy did mention that he is a draconequus.” Twilight said, reminding what Mr. Big Daddy told them earlier.
“I just hope he can tell us what happened to Nelson Otterus.” Fluttershy said with concern. “I’m starting to worry about where he could be right about now.”
Discord turned to his friend and smiled. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. We’ll find Otterus once this Juan Rico fella tells us everything he knows. Besides, if anyone suspicious tries to do any harm, I’ll take care of them!”
As they turned the corner, they heard a familiar voice. “ Gotcha!”
“Yipes!!!” Spike yelped in surprise.
In front of them were two familiar ponies: Inspector Fantastic and Number Two! Inspector Fantastic was holding a magnifying glass while looking at a rat that, holding what seemed to be part of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Number Two was holding a notepad with notes while carrying other items as evidence.
Inspector Fantastic looked at the rat with an angry stare. “Alright, where were yer on the day before yesterday, lad?”
The rat just squeaked and continued nibbling at its piece of peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“Don’t yer play games wif me, yer bugger! Lives is at stake, they is!”
“Um... Inspector Fantastic, what are you doing?” Starlight Glimmer asked.
The pony cop looked up and smiled at Twilight and her friends. “Oh, ‘ello, girls. We was just continuing the search for the missing draconequuses!”
“Have you found anything yet?” asked Fluttershy
“Yes!” Inspector Fantastic said with a smile.
Then Number Two spoke up. “Um...we haven’t actually sir.”
“Oh. Right.”
Then he pulled something out of his duffle coat and pulled out a popsicle stick. “But we is doing our best. This popsicle stick looks pretty suspicious ter me.” He put the popsicle stick back in his pocket and pulled out an acorn. “And so does this acorn!”
After putting the acorn back in his pocket, he said, “And after I’s done talking wif this rat, I ‘as a few questions with this cockroach.”
He pulled out a jar with holes on the lid. Inside was a cockroach who looked upset and chattered something unintelligible. Fluttershy had a feeling it wasn’t something very polite.
After putting the jar away, he turned to the others. “I ‘ope you girls ‘ave ‘ad more success then we ‘as.”
Twilight spoke up. “We have. We’re now on our way to see a draconequus named Juan Rico. He was the last one to have seen Nelson Otterus.”
“Look, sir! Over there!” Number Two pointed at a firefly that was fluttering nearby.
“Cor!” said the inspector. “Oi, yer there! Yer’s a witness of a crime scene!”
The firefly simply started to buzz away.
“Don’t make me come over there! Lumme, they never sits still!”
Turning to Twilight, he gave her a radio. “In case there’s trouble, use this ter call us!”
Inspector Fantastic then turned back to the firefly. “After ‘im, Number Two! The chase is on!”
Inspector Fantastic chased after the firefly, waving his umbrella while Number Two followed behind while carrying a jar.
It was silent for a moment before Discord spoke up. “Um...who might those two be, exactly?”
“That’s Inspector Fantastic and his sidekick, Number Two.” Sweetie Belle said.
“Those two work for the Manehattan police.” Scootaloo said.
“Indeed,” Discord said as he watched Inspector Fantastic and Number Two continued their chase. Inspector Fantastic stumbled over for a moment before getting back up. Discord wondered how this pony had become to be known as Inspector Fantastic.
Rainbow Dash shook her head in annoyance as they watch the chase continue. “It’s amazing how he even joined the force.” The firefly now began to chase Number Two and Inspector Fantastic.
“Rainbow!” Fluttershy said with a frown.
“Never mind them,” Twilight said. “We have a case to solve.”
As Twilight produced a map, Fluttershy, Spike, and the CMC watched as Inspector Fantastic began to duel with the firefly, using his umbrella as a dueling sword while Number Two followed behind.
When she was done looking, the alicorn smiled. “It should be right about this way!”
Her friends followed her while Inspector Fantastic and Number Two began to gallop away in terror from a gigantic swarm of fireflies, taking the shape of a shark with its mouth open. One firefly trailed behind.
Sometime later, they arrived at a house. It was the home of Juan Rico. Twilight rang the doorbell and it rang.
When it was done ringing, she said, “Mr. Juan Rico? This is Princess Twilight Sparkle. We’re here to ask you some questions.”
Spike and the CMC then noticed something on the ground before Spike picked it up. They saw that it was a mouse toy.
“A mouse toy?” Spike said.
Taking a good look at it, Sweetie Belle said, “This guy must be part cat.”
“He’s part cat, you say?” Discord said, getting an idea. He turned his attention to the door. “Buddy, I got a can of tuna out here. Open the door and we’ll talk it out.”
Rarity huffed and said, “Not every cat likes tuna. Even Opal has standards.”
“Oh, right,” Discord replied before turning back to the door. “Buddy, I got a ball of yarn out here-. OW!”
Applejack stomped her hoof on Discord’s tail. He picked up his tail and rubbed it with a frown. “What?” he said innocently.
Twilight rolled her eyes before speaking up again. “Just ignore our friend. You’re not in trouble, sir. We just want to know what happened to Nelson Otterus.”
It was silent for awhile. Finally, the door opened, but stopped halfway. They could see that the door had a chain on it.
“You should be asking...what happened to me,” they heard a voice say.
Peering through the crack of the door was the face of a black jaguar with yellow eyes. They also saw that he had the body of a crocodile and the tail of a tasmanian devil. His right arm was a leopard while the left arm was a crocodile. For his right leg and left leg, they were a komodo dragon lizard and an ocelot while his right wing and left wing both belonged to a hawk and a crow. That could only mean one thing. This was Juan Rico and he was a jaguar draconequus.
He peered out of the crack even further and revealed his entire face to them. They saw that he had a black eye on his right eye and scars were on top of it.
They all gasped when they saw the horrible display.
“Ouch.” Spike said, not liking what he just saw.
“Whoa...a teensy otter draconequus did that?” Discord asked in surprise.
Fluttershy looked in complete shock. “ Oh, you poor, poor thing.” She said, taking pity on the poor draconequus.
“What happened?” Starlight asked in horror.
“He was an animal...” Juan Rico said, explaining what had happened.
It was nighttime as Juan Rico was driving the limo to Mr. Big Daddy’s mansion. He then heard some noises from the back. He turned the rear view mirror and saw Otterus tearing up parts of the backseat while snarling.
“Down on all fours…” Juan Rico’s voice said in the background.
Curious what was going on back there, the jaguar draconequus turned his head to take a look. But for some strange reason, Otterus wasn’t there. Then, as he looked closer…
“He was a savage!”
Suddenly, Otterus lunged at him, his mouth wide open and teeth bared, snarling like crazy.
Outside the limo, Juan Rico was heard screaming as he barely dodged another car before forcing the car to stop off the side of the road. He quickly jumped out of the car and landed on the ground, placing a hand on his right eye that was badly bruised while he looked absolutely terrified as he listened to the otter draconequus continue to snarl. Then Otterus climbed to the top of the car and looked at Juan Rico with a snarl before he scurried off into the night.
Juan Rico’s face was stricken with terror, as if he was reliving the whole thing all over again.
“There was no warning.” He said as they listened. “He just kept yelling about ‘the night howlers’. Over and over! The night howlers!!”
The ponies just stood there silently. Pinkie Pie gave a nervous gulp that broke the silence.
“Super, super scary.” She whispered to Applejack.
“Night howlers?” Apple Bloom asked.
“This case is getting stranger by the minute.” Scootaloo whispered to her friends.
“So, uh...you know about the night howlers, do you?” Discord said before he continued. “Good. Good. The night howlers are what we came here to talk about.”
Spike and the ponies looked at him with confusion. But then they got the idea.
“Yeah.” Rainbow Dash said, playing along. “Been talking about it the whole time.”
Pinkie Pie, however, didn’t catch onto the plan. “Huh? What are you guys talking abo-?”
Rainbow Dash nudged her friend and gestured her to play along.
Realizing what her friends were doing, she gasped. “Oh yeah! Yeah! That’s what we came here to talk about. Yesyesyesyesyes! We can’t even stop talking about it. Night howlers this, night howlers that. Night howlers, night howlers, night howl-!”
Rainbow Dash finally covered Pinkie Pie’s mouth.
Twilight turned back to the jaguar draconequus and said, “So, you just open the door and tell us what you know and we’ll tell you what we know. Okay?”
Juan Rico looked unsure, both eyes trembling.
Fluttershy walked up to the door. “Please?” she said. “If you help us, perhaps we can help you.” She looked at him with an honest smile.
Juan Rico’s face still remained the same, only he seemed to have slightly calmed down. It was probably due to how Fluttershy spoke to him in her kind and soft voice.
“All right. Okay.” he sighed before closing the door. They listened as he began to unlock the door.
“Nice choice of words.” Discord said to Fluttershy, the pegasus blushing to what the draconequus told her.
Just when the door was unlocked, a crashing noise from inside was heard, followed by a scream from Juan Rico.
“That can’t be a good sound.” Spike said nervously.
Curious, Twilight approached the door and used her magic to open it. “Mr. Juan Rico?” she said, slowly poking her head inside.
On the floor, Juan Rico was thrashing about as if something was wrong with him. Twilight’s friends all looked inside and watched in concern.
“Buddy? Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked as she nervously raised an eyebrow in concern.
Suddenly, Juan Rico stopped panting and turned his head towards them. His eyes looked huge and yellow with anger, like a wild animal. He began growling as he started to prowl towards them.
Twilight realized that something was really wrong. She quickly turned to her friends. “Run. Run!”
Immediately, they began running from the house. Juan Rico ran out through the door as he began snarling while chasing them.
As the jaguar draconequus continued to chase them, Applejack turned her head to Twilight as they continued running. “What in the hay is wrong with him?!”
“I don’t know!”
Rainbow Dash flew next to Discord after dodging a vicious swipe from Juan Rico. “Discord! You’re a draconequus! Couldn’t you ask him why he’s trying to kill us?!”
“What do I look like? A multi-therapist?” Discord snapped with an annoyed look. He then turned his head while running as he looked at the savage jaguar draconequus, who was still chasing them. “Hey buddy, uh...why are you trying to kill us?” Juan Rico just snarled at him. Discord turned his back to the others with a scared look. “I don’t think he’s in the mood for talking!”
“N-now, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Fluttershy said nervously as she flew fast. “We don’t even know that he’s trying to kill us.”
Juan Rico snarled as he snapped at her tail. Fluttershy squeaked in fear. “He’s trying to kill us!”
“Ooh! Maybe I can distract him!” Pinkie Pie suggested. “Do you think he likes card tricks?”
Juan Rico snarled at them again, the pink earth pony looking absolutely scared.
“I don’t think he’s up for entertainment, Pinkie.” Rarity said with a worried look on her face, stating that Juan Rico didn’t seemed interested right about now.
Sweetie Belle looked back as the jaguar draconequus was gaining on them. “Why isn’t he using his magic to capture us, Twilight?”
“I think he’s gone savage!” Twilight said.
“What?” Rainbow Dash said. “What the hay are you talking about?”
“Remember what I said back in Ponyville? Draconequuses didn’t know how to use magic back then. They only relied on their hunting instincts long ago to-!”
Spike interrupted her as he had a worried look on his face. “Hey, can we discuss this some other time?!”
Nearby, the Thief was walking through the streets, looking for more things to steal.
“Ay-ay-ay.” He thought to himself. “I haven’t had any luck so far today. I don’t see how things could get any worse.”
Just then, he heard several voices screaming. He watched as several ponies, a baby dragon, and a draconequus came running past. They looked scared beyond belief.
“Run away! RUN AWAY!!” The pink pony squealed in terror.
The Thief watched as they ran for their lives. “Hey, what’s all the commotion?”
Just then, he heard a snarling noise and turned around to see a ferocious jaguar draconequus heading straight for him.
“WHOA!”
The Thief immediately remembered his hooves and began galloping after the others.
Soon, the Thief was running right behind the others with Juan Rico in hot pursuit. None of them seemed to notice that the Thief running behind them. As he ran, his tongue lolled out like a dog as he gasped for air. “This is not what I had in mind when I wanted to have an exercise!”
Juan Rico snapped angrily at the Thief, who dodged swipe after swipe. “Nice kitty! Nice kitty! Heel, sit, stay, roll over, play dead-! No wait, that’s for dogs.”
Suddenly, the Thief slipped on a banana peel and went sliding down a narrow street. “Oops!”
He landed in some young colt’s toy wagon and sped down the street even faster. Finally, he landed in a dumpster with a large metallic thud.
THUD!!!
“Ow.”
Back with the others, the chase continued until they reached the park. They dived into a hollow log, that had been put there for young fillies and colts to play in, while Juan Rico jumped on top of it.
Inside, everyone struggled as Juan Rico shook the log back and forth, trying to grab them.
“Heads down!” Applejack said after dodging a swipe from Juan Rico.
Twilight quickly pulled out the police radio Inspector Fantastic gave her earlier.
“Inspector Fantastic!” she called into it. “Where are you?!”
Elsewhere, Inspector Fantastic and Number Two had stopped running. They both stood there as they gasped for air.
“It’s not use,” Number Two said sadly. “He got away.”
“Blast it!” Inspector Fantastic said. “I told ‘em that fireflies is tricky little blighters.”
“What do we do now, sir?”
“Well, let’s ‘ave a breather and then continue the search.”
They then sat down on the edge of the sidewalk. Inspector Fantastic then switched his detective hat with a black bowler hat. Whenever he wasn’t doing police or detective work, he like to switch hats.
As they both looked at their phones, Inspector Fantastic chuckled.
Number Two heard him chuckle. “What’s so funny, sir?”
“Oh.” Turning to his sidekick, Inspector Fantastic said, “Are yer familiar wif Singing Diva, Number Two?”
“You mean one of Equestria’s greatest singers? Angel with voice that sounds like it was blessed by greater angels? Yes, of course. I’m a huge fan.”
“I is too.” Inspector Fantastic said before showing him his phone, not noticing a red light blinking from his radio. The screen showed Singing Diva dancing with one of her dancers. “ ‘Ere, take a good look at ‘oo’s dancing wif ‘er.”
The dancer, who was dancing with Singing Diva, had Inspector Fantastic’s face on it that was smiling. “Wow. You are one hot dancer,” Singing Diva’s voice started, finishing with a robotic-like voice, “Inspector Fantastic.”
Inspector Fantastic laughed his head off and still didn’t notice that his radio was going off. “It’s me! Ha, ha, ha!”
Number Two didn’t exactly know what to think.
“Did you fink it wos real? It looks real ter me. Well, it ain’t. It’s just a new app I got. Yer should try it.” Then, he looked in his duffle coat and saw that his radio was going off. “ ‘Old this fer me, Number Two.”
He handed his phone to Number Two, who looked at the app with a bit of interest. Inspector Fantastic picked up the radio and spoke into it. “This is Inspector Fantastic speaking.”
“INSPECTOR!!”
Twilight’s voice from the radio startled Inspector Fantastic and he almost dropped the radio in the process. Number Two almost dropped the phones as well, but they managed to catch them all.
Back inside the log, they were still moving inside while dodging Juan Rico as his paws broke into the log.
“Inspector, listen to me!” Twilight said as she dodged another swipe from Juan Rico. “We have a major situation!”
“I’m too young and beautiful to die!” Rarity wailed.
“Where’s the grassland?! I wanna visit the grasslands!” Pinkie Pie screamed as one of Juan Rico’s hands came close to her.
The two officers looked in concern as they heard the racket from the other end of the radio.
“There’s a jaguar draconequus that’s gone savage!” Twilight said through the radio.
“In the upper part of Manehattan!” Twilight finished as they reached the end of the log. Juan Rico took another swipe at Twilight, causing her to drop the radio.
While they continued running from Juan Rico, Twilight’s radio fell to the ground with Inspector's Fantastic’s voice coming from it. “Okay, we’ll get ‘elp! Just stay right where yer are, princess! Princess? Princess?!”
After they ran past a construction site, Twilight spotted a staircase that led up to a train station. “There!” she said. “Head for the train station!”
They ran up the stairs until they reached the top, hoping to get aboard a train so they could escape Juan Rico. Juan Rico lunged at Spike and the CMC, who managed to get out of the way. But they slipped to the side of the bridge. Luckily, Spike grabbed onto the edge and held on for dear life. Apple Bloom quickly grabbed Spike’s tail while Sweetie Belle grabbed her friend’s tail and Scootaloo did the same with Sweetie Belle’s tail.
The Mane Six and Starlight saw that the baby dragon and fillies were in trouble and immediately rushed over to the side of the bridge.
Discord didn’t know what was going on when he got to the train station. “Quick! Come on!” He said, quickly turning his head.
He saw that they weren’t beside him and looked up with a worried look. “Guys?” he said. He saw them by the edge of the bridge, trying to pull Spike and the CMC up. “Guys!”
Starlight Glimmer lifted her head up while trying to pull the baby dragon and fillies to safety. “Go! Run!”
Juan Rico slowly moved towards Discord while growling, like a predator stalking his prey. Discord yelped in surprise. Even though he could use his magic to fight back, Discord was absolutely terrified. He had never seen a fellow draconequus act like this before. Giving a nervous chuckle, he looked at the jaguar draconequus and said, “Hey, buddy, one draconequus to another. If you’re upset about the tuna and ball of yarn, I can assure you that I meant no disrepec-.”
Juan Rico wasn’t listening. With a snarl, he ran towards Discord. Fluttershy looked up and gasped. She then gave an angry glare. “How dare you!”
She immediately flew in between the two draconequuses and gave Juan Rico the Stare while Starlight Glimmer watched the whole scene.
“How dare you!” Fluttershy shouted. Juan Rico immediately stopped when he saw the yellow pegasus glaring at him. His face was still savage and angry, but it looked like Fluttershy had managed to stop him.
“What is wrong with you?!” Fluttershy said angrily. “Attacking your own kind?!”
Discord watched the whole thing in surprise. He would never say this to anyone, but Fluttershy looked pretty cute when she was angry.
“We came all this way to ask you for help in an important case! We might have been able to help you as well! And what do you do? You go savage and chase us all over the place!”
Juan Rico’s lips started to curl, revealing all of his teeth. This yellow pegasus was starting to irritate him.
“Now,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t know where this attitude of yours is coming from, but I do know that it is not okay for you to take it out on the rest of us! So, what do you have to say for yourself?”
Juan Rico roared loudly at her. Fluttershy stared at him even harder. “Don’t you take that tone with me, mister! I-!”
Juan Rico finally out an even greater roar of pure anger. Fluttershy’s angry stare disappeared and she went back to her meek self.
Finally, the jaguar draconequus began prowling at her, snarling more than he was earlier.
“W-wait! I’m sorry!” Fluttershy stammered nervously. “I-I-I didn’t mean to make you upset! I w-was just trying to-!”
Juan Rico leapt at her and Discord. They both shielded themselves in terror.
Before he could attack them, Juan Rico stopped in mid-air and landed on the ground. Fluttershy and Discord both opened their eyes and saw why. Starlight Glimmer had found a nearby chain and used it to tie it around Juan Rico’s back ankle and chained it to a nearby lamp post.
As Juan Rico laid on the ground panting angrily, Discord carefully picked up Fluttershy and began to slowly walk away.
“Okay, now, we can tell that you’re a little tense.” Discord said nervously while Fluttershy nodded in agreement. She decided that maybe some creatures needed to cool down on their own. “So, we’re just gonna give you some…”
When Discord was saying that, Juan Rico got back up and tried to swipe at them. “...PERSONAL SPACE!”
“Eep!!” Fluttershy squeaked.
They narrowly dodged his attack. They then bumped into the others, who had just managed to get Spike and the CMC to safety.
They all fell from the bridge before Twilight grabbed hold of a rope from the construction site. The others held on as well. As they swung, Juan Rico snarled angrily, trying to grab them. It was have been comical, if it wasn’t dangerous.
“Oh, geez! This day just keeps getting better and better!” Spike muttered nervously.
“Everypony, whatever you do, don't look down!” Fluttershy nervously warned her friends.
Pinkie Pie looked down and saw that they were a long way down from the ground. “Guys, I'm looking down! AHHHHH!!!”
“She said not to look down!” Rainbow Dash said in frustration.
Twilight looked around while Discord said nervously, “Twilight, whatever you do, do not let go!”
The alicorn spotted a nearby tree branch that was long enough for them to hold on to.
“Guys! I'm gonna let go!” She declared.
“What?!” Discord said in disbelief.
Rarity gasped. “She wouldn't!”
“One…,” Twilight counted.
“She would,” Applejack said nervously.
“Two…”
“No! No! Don't!” Her friends all shouted.
“Three!” Twilight let go of the rope and they all went swinging through the air until they all landed on the branch.
Safely on the branch, they looked up and saw Juan Rico, the jaguar draconequus still thrashing about while still chained to the lamp post.
“Never do that again!” Rarity said, with her hoof over her heart in surprise.
Discord looked at Fluttershy in astonishment. “Fluttershy,” he said. “You tried to save my life back there.”
Fluttershy smiled. “Of course. That's what friends d-.”
All of a sudden, they heard a cracking noise. They all saw the branch beginning to break underneath their weight.
“Oh, boy.” Spike said nervously.
Finally, the branch snapped and they all went tumbling down, screaming in terror.
Rainbow Dash could have taken this opportunity to fly and grab her friends. This isn't easy to do, however when your friend, Pinkie Pie, is grabbing on to you for dear life, which was exactly what she was doing.
Just as they were a few inches from the ground, something caught them. They opened their eyes. Pinkie Pie and Spike, however, were still screaming. Pinkie Pie noticed it and stopped while Spike continued screaming. After a while, Spike opened his eyes and his screaming slowly faded away.
They all saw what had saved them. A magical force field was around them.
Approaching them were the three princesses and Shining Armor. Princess Celestia had used her magic to save them.
They all smiled as Princess Celestia gently lowered them to the ground.
“Is everyone okay?” Shining Armor asked in concern.
“We're okay, thanks to Princess Celestia.” Twilight said.
“I'm just glad that you are all safe and sound.” Princess Cadance said, relieved that her sister-in-law and friends were safe and didn't have a scratch on them.
Then Princess Celestia spoke up. “Inspector Fantastic told us that you were in trouble and we came here quickly as we could.”
Right next to them were several police officers and royal guards. Among them were Inspector Fantastic, Number Two, and Officer Gruff. Gruff’s face was stern and grim as usual.
“Well, this should be good.” He grunted.