//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Tune of the Piper // by Bookpony579 //------------------------------// Night had fallen upon the city of Hamelin. The only lights now came from street lamps and from the windows of homes and late night businesses, and that meant there were very few people outside. This worked to Twilight's favor as she raced through the city, followed by Daring Do and Flash Sentry. Finally, they had arrived at her destination: the statue were they had met with daring earlier. The lights decorated on the edge of the stone walkways illuminated the path for Twilight and her friends. "What we doing back here?" Daring asked, exasperated. "I told you: to where Aurella hid the flute!" "But...here?" Flash looked around in confusion. "I don't see any-" "That's because you're looking too hard." Twilight walked towards the statue. "Grandma always loved to tell me that when you're looking for something, the last place you'll look for it is right in front of you." She looked up at the statue, specifically, the flute the Piper was playing. Flash and Daring followed her gaze and, though not getting it at first, gasped when they realized what she was talking about. "You...you don't mean-" Daring gasped. "Exactly. You didn't see it earlier because this statue is exactly where you'd expect to see a flute being played by the Pied Piper. But you'd never expect it to be the actuall flute he used!" With her magic, Twilight pulled the flute from the statue's hands and into her own. The trio marveled at what they saw. The Flute was perfectly balanced, and appeared to be made of a light green crystal with a gold mouthpiece and a golden bird carved onto the end of it. "Wow..." Flash breathed. The heard the pounding of footsteps, and turned to find Ahuizotl and Caballeron standing at the edge of the pavilion. "Hand over the flute!" Caballeron demanded. "Not on your life!" Daring retorted. Ahuizotl chuckled, "Maybe not on ours, but how about yours?" He snapped his tail-hand and from the shadows, various growling felines pounced into the light. There was a fierce tiger, a sleek black panther, a wild lynx, a swift cheetah and.....a little fluffy white kitten which stayed by Ahuizotl's side and rubbed against his legs. Twilight, Flash and Daring began to back up against each other as the feline predators made their way towards them. Thinking fast, Twilight put her arm around Daring and Flash before teleporting away just before the felines pounced at them, causing them to crash into each other. The trio reappeared a few feet away. "Run!" Daring shouted. They quickly took off through the park. When they reached a fork in the path, without thinking, Flash and Daring took the path to the left while Twilight accidentally took the path to the right. She clutched the flute to her chest and looked back to see if she was being followed before bumping into something and landing on her behind. She looked up and saw Ahuizotl standing before her menacingly. He grabbed her with his front hand and when she tried to run and used his tail hand to snatch the flute away. "Thank you so much for finding this for me my dear. I'm sure you're Grandmother would be so proud of you!" He gave an evil laugh while Twilight glared daggers at him. "Now tell me my dear; how did you find out about the secret crypt? I had my men comb that graveyard every night for a week but those buffoons couldn't turn up anything." Twilight's pupil's dilated and she looked nervously to the side. "I-I guessed?" Ahuizotl frowned, not buying that answer. "I highly doubt that, but I suppose I'll have the all he answers I want soon enough." He put the flute to his lips to play the first note- *Whack* Ahuizotl let out a grunt as he felt a kick in his jaw, which caused him to loosen his grip on the flute which was promptly snatched out of his hand. He and Twilight looked ahead to see the cause of it. Twilight's jaw practically dropped all the way to the ground. "Ich hear you are looking for zis?" The old man from the diner said, holding up the flute. Ahuizotl let out an enraged roar, dropped Twilight, and charged towards the man. The man grinned, showing off his fangs, before speeding over to Twilight and causing the beast to crash into a tree. "Here you go fräulein." He handed the flute to Twilight. "How did- why-" "I'm afraid we don't have much time to talk right now." He looked over to see Ahuizotl getting ready for another charge. The man and Twilight quickly jumped out of the way just in time. The man, with his natural vampire speed, landed several punches and hits that caught Ahuizotl's attention, casing him to turn his back on his other opponent. Twilight blasted him with her magic, causing a streak of fur on his arm to singe. He growled and swiped the man away with a flick of his paw, knocking him into some bushes, before turning his attention fully on the young mage. Twilight quickly did the only thing she could think of; she put the flute to her knee, pushed on the ends and- *SNAP* -broke it into two pieces. Ahuizotl let out an enraged scream. "NO! What have you done!?" "What needed to be done!" She yelled back. "Nobody should have this kind of power! Especially someone like you!" His face was practically red from fury, even with the blue fur. "Twilight!" Everyone turned to see Daring and Flash running towards them. "What is going on!?" Caballeron shouted as he approached from the opposite direction. Ahuizotl, without hesitating, jumped over Twilight, and picked up Caballeron. "We're leaving! The flute is gone!" He turned to Daring. "Until next time, Daring Do!" And with that, he quickly ran off an all fours through the park. Twilight quickly went over to the man and helped him to his feet. "Are you alright?" He nodded. "Ja. I've had worse." "What happened!?" Daring asked, before noticing the broken flute pieces in Twilight's hands. Twilight gave her a nervous grin. "Let me explain....."