//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: This Means War 
// Story: Something Rotten 
// by Boltstrike58 
//------------------------------//

"So, let's just lay all the cards on the table," said Shining Armor. "We know you're an associate of the Storm King. Prosecution is willing to cut you a deal for the attempted extortion if you roll over on him. Come on, deals like this don't come along every day."

In the Canterlot Police Station, Shining Armor was currently in the interrogation room with Verko, who looked as though he no longer cared about anything after his defeat at the hands of the Rainbooms. His normally over the top confidence had evaporated, leaving a down and out man who still happened to look like a naked mole rat. He sat quietly in his chair, looking at the floor, not even moving his feet.

Shining Armor groaned. They were getting nowhere.

"Look Verko," he said, frustration clearly seeping into his voice, "why are you protecting your boss? You know there's no way he'd return the favor, right?"

"You don't understand," Verko finally answered.

Shining Armor relaxed, looking at the man in front of him with fresh eyes. Verko was shaking, rubbing his upper arms. It didn't take a psychologist to figure out that Verko was afraid.  

"We can protect you—" he began.

"No you can't," Verko cut him off. "He always gets us. I don't know how, but he does. If I even told you where he buys his clothes, or how he takes his coffee...you have no idea what he'd do to me."

Shining Armor tried in vain to persuade Verko to talk, but the man wouldn't even respond with denial anymore. Giving in, he got out of his chair, making his way out of the building. After giving a quick report to his superiors, he went to the alley behind the building, where nobody would overhear him. Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed Twilight's number.

"Well, we can definitely nail Verko on extortion charges," he said, once his little sister had picked up the phone. "That 'anonymous tip' you gave me isn't a legal problem. The bad news is he's not willing to talk. Neither are any of the foot soldiers. That, or they're too stupid to realize what we're talking about. Whoever this Storm King guy is, he's apparently really good at installing fear in his subordinates."

"Should've known that would happen," said Sunset. "Capper was just as terrified, and he doesn't even work for the guy. Any luck with that physical description of the Storm King we gave you?"

"I gave it to our sketch artists, but we didn't get any hits in our database," said Shining Armor. "Looks like the Storm King doesn't have any prior convictions, or anything. We can put out an alert for his face, but there's no guarantee it'll work. Even then, we can't prove he's the Storm King, we can only say he's wanted for questioning in regards to the Verko incident."

"Dammit!" Rainbow cursed, and was quickly admonished by Rarity. "We stopped him from robbing the Cakes, but we still haven't made any progress. What are we supposed to do now?"

"There has to be something," Twilight protested, "Didn't you three say there was another person there? Someone with purplish-red skin, spiky hair, one arm, scar on her face?"

"Yeah, but she slipped away before we finished taking out the thugs," answered Applejack. "I'm guessing she realized she was no match for us."

Shining Armor thought for a moment. Something in that description stirred a memory in his head, something he hadn't thought about in a while. An idea jumped into his brain.

"I think I may know who you're talking about," he said. "I'm gonna go back and check the records. If I find anything, I'll send it to Twily." With that, he ended the call.

On the other end, Twilight sighed to herself. The seven girls were currently gathered inside the barn at Sweet Apple Acres, discussing how the day of crime-fighting had gone.  

"Well, let's look on the bright side of things, everyone," Rarity said, trying to cheer up all the others. "We stopped a terrible extortion scheme, we've put away several dangerous criminals. Even if we haven't beaten the Storm King yet, we at least hampered him."

"Yeah, at least the Cakes are safe," said Pinkie, with slightly less of her usual bounciness in her voice. None of the others blamed her for a bit being shaken by the incident, considering she worked at Sugar Cube Corner, was close friends with the Cakes, and how much time they'd all spent at the place. If it had been forced to go under by the Storm King, it would've deeply affected all of them, but Pinkie most of all.

"I just hope we manage to keep everybody from getting hurt," said Fluttershy, hugging her arms close to her body. "We got lucky this time, because there were so few of them, but what if we have to go up against a whole crowd of those thugs?"

"Then we'll find a way to deal with it," said Rainbow, her voice filled with confidence. "We've got Equestrian magic on our side!" She proudly thumped her fist against her chest.

Sunset grimaced slightly. This was something she'd been afraid of ever since the whole discussion at school. Overconfidence would be more than likely to get them in trouble at best, and while Rainbow was the most prone to it, she wouldn't surprised if Applejack, Rarity, or even herself fell victim. They'd need to be more cautious going forward.

"We should get some sleep, anyway," she spoke up. "We did some good work today, and we'll need to continue the momentum tomorrow...after class."

Everybody groaned. Why couldn't this whole crusade have started in the summer?

Just as the girls began to get up and leave, Twilight's phone beeped. "It's an email from Shining Armor," she said, her fingers tapping away. Her brother had sent her a police file of a previous arrest, along with a mugshot. The picture was of a very familiar young woman, with one arm and a still healing scar over her eye.

"Yep, that's her," said Applejack. "'She had her name legally changed to Tempest Shadow?' Yeah, because that ain't gonna connect you to the guy who has storms as his whole motif."

"She was arrested for shoplifting, but got released, and then she kinda dropped off the radar. Probably because she works for the Storm King," said Twilight, scrolling through the file. "They do have an address, though."

"We should check that out tomorrow," Rainbow chimed in.

Twilight continued to scroll. "Wow! She actually graduated from Canterlot High, but dropped out of university about a year in. Her real name is...huh."





Tempest wished she had her other hand at the moment. With both hands, she could've more easily surfed the internet on her phone or something, giving her something to do while her boss was having his little temper tantrum. Grubber stood quietly in the corner, having interrupted once already Storm King by chewing too loudly.

"Two years, Tempest," Storm King growled, holding up two fingers, as the others dug into his palm. "Two years of work, and absolutely no trouble. Nothing from the cops. Two years I spend establishing my business in this city. Now, I finally get the chance to start building a foothold with the Canterlot High kids, and what happens? Goddamn superheroes!"  

He punched his desk so hard the wood cracked. Tempest casually examined her fingernails as he continued to rave. She had nothing to fear, as Storm King was smart enough to realize that she'd made the intelligent call by leaving, instead of trying to fight and getting arrested. It was more tedious to sit through his rant than intimidating.

"What did I do to bring this on?!" Storm King shouted. "All I want is to run my criminal empire without interference! Is that too much to ask?!"

"Well, boss, some people might call that ev—" Grubber started to answer, only for the Storm King to grab his cane and clock the smaller man over the head with it. "OW!"

"Shut up!" ordered his boss, before sitting down in his chair and pressing both palms to his face. "I swear, we need to teach you what a rhetorical question is..."

Fortunately for all those present, that interruption seemed to snap Storm King out of his furious funk, as he stopped punching things. He took a few deep breaths, picked up his cane, and walked over to the window.

"Tempest, full damage report," he ordered.

"Well, we lost Verko, as well as those half-dozen guards he had with him," she replied, methodically. "Trying to start up that protection racket now, anywhere in the city, is a bad idea. The cops will be on their guard now. The good news is, Verko's scared enough of us that he won't dare open his mouth. None of the guards will, either."

"Good," Storm King said, as he visibly relaxed. "At least we've still got our cover. What about these superhero types? Any idea who they are?"

"Not much to go on. Female, probably younger than me. There's at least three of them, but could easily be more."  

"Great. Fan-friggin-tastic," Storm King grumbled. "So no leads whatsoever? We don't even know how they knew our plans?"

"No, sir," Tempest answered, apologetically. "Maybe we have a mole, maybe they just spied on us. We can't rule anything out."

That statement seemed to give the Storm King pause. He slowly turned on his heel, staring Tempest directly in the eye.

"A mole?" he asked, his voice tense. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you, Tempest? You haven't been going behind my back, have you?" He was keeping his voice calm, but there was clear anger beneath his words. Tempest stood her ground, however, not even flinching.

"Don't be ridiculous, sir," she replied. "How stupid would I have to be to set us up, then be the only one who gets away? It would be way too obvious that I was the mole. Besides, the police would've been on to you a long time ago. They still don't know who you are, or they'd have smashed down the door by now."

The Storm King opened his mouth for an angry retort, but froze before any words could come out, as his brain processed exactly what Tempest had said. He sat back down into his chair, his hands resting on the table. His eyes made direct contact with hers, staring deep into her.

"Good point," he finally admitted. "You're not lying, I can tell."

"For the record, I didn't do it either!" Grubber insisted from his place. "I never told the cops anything, or else we'd all be—"

"Shut up!" Storm King snapped, bonking Grubber on the head with his cane again. "We all know you aren't a mole, you're too stupid."

Tempest got to her feet. "Whatever the case, sir," she continued. "The fact remains that these superheroes seem to be gunning for our organization. If they managed to catch wind of our plans once, they could do it again."

"Not to mention they probably saw you at that bakery hell hole," Storm King responded. "If they found out where you lived...and decided to come after you..."  

Storm King's speech came to a sudden halt, as an idea sparked into his mind. He turned to Tempest, a smile slowly creeping across his face.

"Um...sir? You okay?" Tempest asked, nervous for the first time.

"Tempest," Storm King began, "I think it's time we started to step up our game. Now, how would you feel about having your own team of guards? With better weapons, this time."