//------------------------------// // Chasing Tales // Story: The Hero Club // by Mind Jack //------------------------------// Gusty wasn't able to sleep that night. Almost as soon as Snake had left, her stomach started tying itself in nervous knots. Boomer looked exhausted, so she left her cousin to get some rest. She could have gone off and found a book to read to help her calm down, or even read from the Book of Heroes. But she wasn’t in the mood for reading. She almost wished she could go for an evening flight to expend all of her nervous energy. But her back legs were searing with pain from bucking that closet door. The pain flared up every time she moved them, and she'd need to straighten them out to fly properly. Since that wasn’t a possibility, she sat down at her bedroom desk. She found the materials she needed for writing letters in one of the desk drawers. Dear Dad, I hope you’re doing okay when you read this. I know you’re probably worried. I showed up alright. Aunt Daffodil is really nice so far. I’m doing my best to stay out of trouble, like I promised you I would. I even made a couple of new friends on my first day at school! One of them is helping me with math. I met my cousin Boomer. She’s the one who showed me around town. The last couple of days have been a little rough. I cried a lot on the first day, but I’m starting to feel a little better. I know you’re disappointed in me. I understand. I love you, and I’ll do better, just like I promised I would. I miss you. I hope you can come out to visit soon. Love, Gusty. Gusty’s heart hurt that she couldn’t tell her father the truth. He didn’t know about the book, so she had to leave out anything related to it, and he would absolutely not be happy to hear about her helping Snake. She took out another piece of paper for a second letter, but hesitated. Her father had always sent letters for her in the past, so she really didn’t know where to send it to. Her rescuer didn’t bother knocking, she just kind of barged in. “Hey. Mom says dinner will be ready soon. And I wanted to make sure you weren’t crying and going into a dramatic monologue about the unfairness of the universe.” “Ha ha. Very funny,” Gusty deadpanned as she hopped down from her chair. She winced as more pain shot through her back legs. Boomer saw her wince, and looked at her back legs. “Ouch. Those are some nasty bruises. How’d you get hurt so bad bucking such a flimsy door? I blow those up all the time.” Gusty shrugged. “I’ve always gotten hurt easy.” “Hang on. I’ll go snag you a healing potion from Mom’s stock.” Boomer dashed off, and returned a moment later carrying a red glass bottle with an image of a foal on it. “Here. Drink this. Should get you fixed up by morning. Just try to stay off those legs.” “Thanks.” Gusty swigged the bitter potion, cringing as it went down. “Ugh. I’ll never get used to the taste of those.” Nevertheless, the purplish spots beneath her green coat started to get a bit lighter. “Better than having to get used to broken legs,” Boomer shot back. “True. Anyway, could you help me with something?” Gusty asked, nodding towards the letter on the desk. “I want to get a letter out to my sister, but I don’t know her address.” Boomer blinked. “You have a sister? Who is she?” “Her name’s Winter,” Gusty replied. “She lives with my mom, and I don’t know where they live.” “Whoa, wait, Winter is your sister? So Aunt Thermal is your mom?” “I guess you could say that. Do you know where I could mail a letter to?” Boomer shook her head. “Nope. They stop by now and again, though. You’d have to ask Mom where they live.” Gusty’s wings sagged. I guess the letter to Winter will have to wait. “Girls! Dinner’s ready!” Daffodil called from downstairs. “C’mon. Let’s go eat before you start crying your eyes out again,” Boomer teased. That got a snorting laugh out of Gusty, and she followed Boomer downstairs. The next day after school, Gusty and Boomer made their excuses to Daffodil, and met up with Snake. The day had clearly not been kind to any of them. Snake had visible bags under her eyes, Gusty’s legs had mostly healed, but she still had a trace of a limp, and Boomer gave everypony that they passed furtive, paranoid looks. Gusty was somewhat skeptical when Snake promised she had a place where they could talk safely, but Boomer assured her that it was the truth. Of course, when Snake started magically fiddling with the padlock on a rear window of the same abandoned house Boomer had shown her the day before yesterday, she took issue. “Are you serious?” she hissed. Snake looked at her with confusion. “What? It’s not really haunted. At least, I don’t think so.” “I’m not gonna break in!” Gusty argued. “Relax. I know the guy who owns it. He doesn’t mind. I promise when this is all over I’ll prove it to you, but right now we don’t have time.” The lock opened with a click, and Snake pushed open the window, holding it up so Boomer could climb in before holding her hoof out to Gusty. “Come on. You promised you’d help me out.” No matter how uncomfortable she was, Gusty couldn’t refuse. She could see the desperation and worry in Snake’s eyes. With a sigh, she climbed through the window after Boomer. The inside of the house was mostly unfurnished. Surprisingly little dust filled the air, as if somepony had kept the place clean, even after it was abandoned. The floorboards even looked like they’d been polished recently. “C’mon,” said Snake. “I’ve got a setup in the den, where there aren’t any windows.” The floorboards creaked eerily every time they stepped on one. Out of curiosity, Gusty tried a few of the doors. They were all locked up tight. Cold air leaked out from beneath one or two of them, sending a chill up Gusty’s spine. Snake’s “setup” was a small firefly lantern in the middle of an otherwise pitch-black room. The letters and the photos from the other night came out of Snake’s bag, and she tossed them on the ground next to the lantern. “Welp. We’ve got a spot where we can make our evil plans in peace, at least.” Boomer quipped. “So now we just gotta find out who Nopony is, and I’ll fill their septic tank with firecrackers.” “I don’t think that’ll work.” Snake argued. “If we get the wrong pony, we’ll be in even bigger trouble than we are already.” “Imagine how satisfying it’ll be if we get the right pony though,” Boomer said back. She turned to Gusty. “I don’t suppose your little hero book has any useful advice on catching bad guys?” Gusty, completely ignoring said sarcasm, pulled the book out of her saddlebag. She’d painstakingly kept it hidden all day, and was more than happy to break it out to share its wisdom. She set it on the ground and flipped to the correct page. “You gotta be kidding me!” Boomer said as she straightened her glasses to look at the page. “I was being sarcastic! It actually does?” “On Evidence, Sleuthing, and Uncovering the Unknown Villain, written by CST Pure Luck,” Gusty read. “Pure Luck?” Snake repeated. “That does not sound like a good detective’s name.” Gusty shushed her, and continued reading as the three of them sat around the lamp. “At times, the identity of a villain will not be so clear-cut. In these times that a problem cannot be solved simply by hammering it with your hooves, a hero must exercise those muscles so seldom-used by his comrades— logic, imagination, and charisma.” “Somepony was a nerd in school,” Boomer observed. “In any case, the first step must be to find all possible evidence,” Gusty continued. She looked over to Snake. “Was there any evidence at your house?” Snake shook her head sadly. “Nothing that I could find. The only place I found that Nopony could’ve got in was my bedroom window, through the fire escape. There wasn’t anything out there. I guess all we have are the pictures and the letter.” Gusty nodded dutifully, and continued reading. “When all evidence has been found, the next task is to examine it. Even if there are many major suspects, your goal must be to find some little aspect of the evidence available that narrows your field of view. Some little clue that defines a characteristic of the villain, and eliminates the possibility of guilt for at least some of your suspects.” “Wait!” Boomer exclaimed. “Gimme that letter!” Confused, Snake passed the letter to Boomer. After a few seconds, she suddenly yelled, “Cookie Cream!” Snake rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Cuddles. I thought I asked you not to call me that.” “No! Your real name!” Boomer held the letter out so that they could see. “Nopony calls you by your real name through the whole letter. I know you. You never tell anypony your real name unless you have to!” Snake’s eyes widened. “Hey! You’re right!” “So who does know your real name besides us?” Gusty asked. Snake paused for a moment, putting a hoof to her chin in thought. “I can name a few ponies…” “Why are we in a bank?” Gusty asked curiously. “We’re waiting for Dr. Maelstrom and Professor Mesmer,” Snake replied. The Coltsburg City Bank was pretty small. The single palm plant next to the door was by far the most interesting thing in the room, more lively than any of the tellers who all constantly checked their watches every two minutes as the line crawled slowly forward. “Does Daffodil know where we are?” Gusty asked Boomer. “I told her we’d be spending the night at Snake’s house.” Boomer answered. “She’ll never know we didn’t go straight there, as long as we get there by nightfall.” Gusty looked down. “I don’t like the idea of lying to-” BOOM! “EVERYPONY ON THE GROUND! NOW!” Without warning, the bank door exploded inwards. A pair of ponies strolled nonchalantly in. At least, Gusty thought they were ponies. Both of them were covered head to hoof, without an inch of coat showing. The larger one was dressed in a yellow hazmat suit, covered in black armor, along with a gas mask. On his back was a glass sphere with some sort of ball of lightning inside, bouncing in all directions. The sphere was attached by a silver hose to what looked kind of like a yellow and black ray gun on his side. The smaller was dressed slightly more normally. He wore a long, indigo cape, a purple tuxedo with an indigo bow tie, and a black ski mask that left only his eyes exposed. Gusty screamed and threw herself to the ground, eyes wide and wings folding in an instinctual response to danger. She was scared out of her wits. The Book of Heroes had talked quite a bit about fighting brigands and thieves, but only after decades of training! So why did everypony else look so bored? There were a few sighs, lots of eye-rolling, and then the crowd all around her casually got on the floor, as if they were lounging on a warm summer's day. This included Snake and Boomer, who both looked at Gusty like she was the crazy one. "You gonna be okay there, Hero?" Snake asked, chuckling playfully. What the hay is going on here? "Hey, guys! What's up?" Boomer raised a hoof, which the two robbers each hoofbumped on the way past. As Gusty stared, slack-jawed, the yellow hazmat pony walked up to the teller's desk, raised his weapon, and placed a check onto the counter. "MY LATEST PAYCHECK! DEPOSIT IT, BANK SLAVE!" She smiled pleasantly. "Yes, sir, Dr. Maelstrom. And is that a new death ray you’re threatening me with?" "YES! THAT’S FROM MY LAST BONUS!" "Mine too, please," the other "robber" said as he approached one of the other tellers. The mare smiled and blushed as she took his check and passed him a bag of bits. "You can make a deposit with me any day, Professor." Professor Mesmer chuckled. "Sorry, Hugs. You know I'm happily married." Gusty looked between the supervillains and the tellers. "...Am I dreaming? Is this some sort of weird nightmare?" "I DON'T THINK I'VE SEEN THIS SMALL, WEAK FILLY BEFORE!" Maelstrom said to Mesmer. "SHE MUST BE NEW IN TOWN!" Gusty growled and almost stood back up, but Boomer placed a hoof on her shoulder and kept her down. "Easy there, Gusty. This is normal." "How is this normal?!" "Dr. Maelstrom and Professor Mesmer do this twice a month so they don't have to wait in line to deposit their checks. I can't blame 'em. Bank lines can be brutal." That did remarkably little to explain the situation. "Wait, so everypony just... knows these guys?" "Oh yeah," Snake said. "Maelstrom works up in lightning production and Mesmer is a professional hypnotist. I think Boomer saw him just a couple months ago." She nodded. "Didn't work though. I feel no less desire to blow things up indiscriminately." "AH, SNAKE EYES!" Maelstrom greeted. "IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN! WILL YOUR MOTHER BE CONTRIBUTING TO THE COMMUNITY BAKE SALE THIS MONTH?" "Hey Doc," Snake said with a friendly wave. "We're not sure yet. She's been pretty sick lately. Do you guys got a second to spare? We were waiting here to talk to you." The two crooks looked between each other, then back at Snake, suddenly looking a lot less evil. "Of course. Let's step outside. Our business is done here," Mesmer replied. Gusty stood up, now feeling like a doofus for actually staying on the floor during a bank robbery. "Yeah, sure, let's just have a friendly chat with a pair of criminals. I don't see how that could possibly be a bad idea." Boomer smirked. "You're not exactly one to talk, you know." Choosing to ignore that, Gusty followed her friends and not-quite-foes outside. The two supervillains looked genuinely appalled when they heard what happened to Snake. "I AM VERY SORRY YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS, SNAKE!" Maelstrom's goggles almost seemed to have a sad expression on them. "I WILL REMAIN VIGILANT FOR THIS... NOPONY! HE WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF NATURE!" Snake patted his leg. "Thanks, Doc. That means a lot. But that's not actually why we wanted to talk to you two." "You guys were some of the only ones who knew Snake's real name, like Nopony did!" Gusty accused, stepping forward with her wings flared aggressively. "Now calm down, miss," Mesmer said, far too calm for her liking. "It's true that not all of our actions are entirely 'legal' or 'ethical' or 'morally sound'..." He actually did air quotes for each one. "But we would never do anything to hurt Snake Eyes, or most other ponies for that matter." "A likely story!" She took a step closer until she was right in his face. "How do I know you're not just trying to cover your flanks?!" Mesmer quickly whipped out a pocket watch and waved it in front of her. "Because you are feeling very sleepy." "I don’t see the connection he—" Gusty trailed off as she abruptly passed out. Gusty awoke from her involuntary nap with a peaceful yawn. She actually felt calm and relaxed. BOOOOM! Not again! A clap of thunder nearly deafened her as a massive lightning bolt arced into the air. "BE STILL, SNOWMARE! I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Maelstrom bellowed as he fired his lightning cannon wildly. Up above, zipping around on a road of ice continuously forming in front of her from some kind of freeze ray, was the parka-wearing superhero from the market. "Chill out, Doc! You're gonna go into shock," Snowmare warned in a voice muffled by her gas mask. "She showed up when you passed out," Professor Mesmer explained. Gusty looked around. The two of them were sitting on a bench in a small park next to the bank, while Maelstrom and Snowmare fought in the street. "What happened?" she asked in confusion. "The last thing I remember was following you two out of the bank." "You accused Maelstrom and I of possibly being responsible for Snake's situation, rather aggressively I might add. So I had to put you out for… oh, around ten minutes or so. Snowmare came by, got the wrong idea, and… here we are." He gestured back up into the sky, watching the blasts of ice and lightning collide as if they were fireworks. He even brought popcorn, which he gladly shared with other curious onlookers. Gusty narrowed her eyes. "Knocking me out because I accused you doesn't exactly speak to your innocence." "Then how about this? During the time of the incident Miss Eyes described to me, I was at home with my family, while Maelstrom was in jail. I bailed him out myself this morning. Both alibis are easily verifiable." There was a loud, impassioned "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and Dr. Maelstrom was thrown into the ground, literally frozen in shock. Mesmer shook his head and tut-tutted. "And now it appears he will need to be bailed out again." "He explained the whole thing to us while you were out," Snake added, tossing a red ball back and forth with Boomer nearby, which promptly exploded as it touched Boomer's hooves. Boomer looked at her hooves irritably. "I knew I should have washed up after chemistry class..." she muttered. Snowmare dropped from the sky, using a blast of freezing air to slow her descent. "Hey there, little dudes!" she greeted. "Sorry if these two were giving you trouble. Any of you get hurt?" "I'm fine," Gusty said. "But I'm still not convinced that Professor Mesmer here is-HEY!" She found the bench next to her suddenly empty and spotted Mesmer booking it in the distance. "Relax, Hero, I really don't think either of them did it," Snake assured her. "It isn't really their MO anyway." "No idea what you’re talking about, but probably true," Snowmare agreed. "And if it isn't, I will be sure to get the truth out of the good doctor in prison!" She looked pointedly over at the still-frozen and much quieter Dr. Maelstrom. Gusty actually felt a little sorry for him now. "Anyway, what are you little tykes doing hanging around with supervillains?" Snowmare asked curiously. "Don't ya know that's dangerous?" "I don't think hanging out with you is much safer," Boomer muttered under her breath. Thinking back to Daffodil's words yesterday morning, Gusty very much agreed. It was Snake, however, who spoke up. "Oh, we weren't doing much. We were just at the bank and happened to run into them. All we were doing is talking about the bake sale. Say, you wouldn't happen to know where a colt named Nutshell is? We've been looking for him." Gusty wondered for just a second why she wasn't bringing up the blackmail issue to an actual (alleged) superhero, but the next second she decided it probably wasn't a good idea either. After all, Snowmare didn’t have an alibi, and none of them knew who she was. Also, she seemed a little...unhinged. "Ah, you mean that young stallion I valiantly rescued from the marketplace yesterday morning?" Gusty's eyes widened. That was Nutshell? "He's been taken to the hospital to recover, but I'm afraid visiting hours are over, little dudes. You're gonna have to wait." Boomer said a very creative curse word that Gusty desperately hoped she'd never repeat around her mother. "That means we won't be able to see him until tonight!" "That's alright," Snake soothed. "We've still got one other pony on the list before him." “So who’s next?” Gusty asked on the way to their next suspect. “Amber Glow,” Snake explained as the three of them stood outside what looked like a very expensive suburban neighborhood. “The first pony I ever tried to steal from. Long story short, I failed utterly. I was ten years old at the time, so when she caught me she let me go out of pity. I… sorta cried a lot.” They were forced to stand outside because the entire thing was surrounded by a tall brick wall, with only a single wrought-iron gate allowing anypony in. A sign just outside the gate dubbed the place Goose Nest Estates. Undeterred, Gusty flew over the wall and pressed the unattended button to open the gate. “Nice job, Hero,” said Snake with a grin. “It’s not much of an accomplishment when they barely guard the place,” she said, shrugging as she let them through. The three of them followed Snake through the neighborhood. They stood out like a sore hoof for one particular reason; Boomer utterly and completely refused to take off the shiny silver hat she’d produced as soon as they’d started in this direction. “She’s got a special talent for making ponies talk!” Boomer insisted. “I am not gonna let her in my head. You two are gonna regret not taking the tinfoil hats I offered you.” Snake rolled her eyes. “She just has a talent for getting ponies to open up to her,” she explained to Gusty. “It’s not mind control, like Boomer claims.” “She just wants you to think it’s not mind control!” She lead them down the street to a particular house towards the end of the street, and rang the doorbell. “We don't want to get Amber in trouble,” Snake whispered. “So our cover story is that we're introducing Gusty to some folks around town to help her make friends.” “Couldn’t we just ask to talk to-” Gusty began. “Just a second!” came a mare’s voice from inside. The door opened, revealing a pegasus mare with a pink coat and an elegant, wavy mane of alternating purple and pink stripes. Hiding behind her legs was a very young colt with a purple dappled coat and green mane. “Oh! Hello. How can I help you three?” She gave Boomer a quizzical look at her choice of headwear, but didn’t comment. “Hello, ma'am!” Snake greeted. “I'm a friend of Amber's. Gusty here–” Gusty gave a nervous smile and a wave. “–is new in town. So we're trying to help her out with making friends.” Gusty kept up her smile, hoping it didn’t look fake. We are so busted. Boomer looks crazy and Snake is lying through her teeth. She’s gonna call Aunt Daffodil and we are all gonna be in huge trouble. “Oh! That’s wonderful!” The mare turned and called over her shoulder. “Amber, dear! Some of your friends are here!” “Coming, Mom!” Amber appeared at the top of the stairs. She was a pegasus like her mother, with the same long, wavy mane, though hers was light brown. She looked to be a year or two older than the three of them. Her coat was a dark brown, speckled with lighter brown spots. “Oh hey, Cookie! What are you doing here?” Suddenly much of Snake’s bravado was gone. Gusty found herself pushed forward to the front of the group. She started to sweat in terror as she fumbled for words. "Uh... Hi. I'm Gusty. I'm new in town. Sn-uh, Cookie said she knew you, so she said it might be a good idea to make friends with you." Amber must have noticed Gusty’s very obvious nerves, and threw her a lifeline. “Oh cool. Come on up. We can talk in my room.” Gusty breathed a sigh of relief as she followed. Snake cast a glance into the kitchen as she passed, to make sure Amber’s mother and brother weren’t going to try and eavesdrop. Boomer attempted to stand her ground outside, but was surrounded by Snake’s dark blue magic, and telekinetically carried up the stairs. Amber took the three of them upstairs to her room. Boomer, still in her tinfoil hat, hid behind Gusty. Snake trailed behind them both, looking depressed. Amber's room was fairly standard for a teenager. Covered in posters and pictures of various places. "So what's this about, Cookie?" Amber asked once she'd shut the door behind them. "You look like you've been through Tartarus." "Something like that..." Snake answered, being intentionally vague. "You could say I'm having financial troubles at the moment. But that's nopony's business. I don't suppose you could help us out with that?" Boomer facehoofed. Sly, Snake could be. Subtle, not so much. "I think what she means to say is–" "She's being blackmailed!" Gusty suddenly yelled, almost tearfully. "Snake's one of the only friends I had since I came here and now she's being threatened by somepony who knows that she steals things, but only because she's trying to support her ailing mother, and now she can't pay up, and now they're both in trouble, so we're trying to save her!" Gusty panted, staring around the room at the shocked faces surrounding her. "I...have no idea why I did that." "I told you to keep the hat," Boomer said, shaking her head. "No worries. That tends to happen around me," Amber replied. "But why'd you three come here? I don't exactly have a lot of bits on me." "We managed to figure out that whoever left the letter knew Snake's real name," Gusty explained. "And you're one of those." "Soooo first you try to rob my house, then you want to accuse me of blackmail?" Amber asked Snake in an offended tone. "Nonono!" Gusty stepped between them, waving her hooves frantically. "We're going to everypony it could've possibly been! We're not accusing you of anything!" Snake and Boomer looked at Gusty like she'd just grown a second head. "Hate to tell you, Gusty, but I didn't do it." Amber sat on her bed, actually looking troubled. "I've been crazy busy with schoolwork for the last two weeks, so I've headed straight home after school every day, and my mom can tell you that I haven't left." "Another rock-solid alibi," Boomer said, and Gusty wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not. "Well, I didn't suspect you from the beginning anyway." Both Gusty and Boomer raised an eyebrow. "Unfortunately, we're quickly running out of leads," Gusty said. "After you, we’ve got Nutshell, and he's looking a bit iffy too since he's apparently in the hospital right now. Just...any help you could provide at all would be appreciated." And if they ever caught Nopony, at least they had somepony who could get them to confess easily enough. Amber shrugged. “I'm sorry. I wish I could help you, but I can't.” Gusty sighed, walking over to look out the back window. It was quite a lovely night. Not a cloud in the sky. "We've still got the school staff on the list," Snake pointed out. "Amber dear!" Amber's mom called from downstairs. "Could you come down and help me please?" "Coming, Mom!" Amber shouted back. "Hang on, I'll be right back," she told the three of them as she left. Literally seconds later, Gusty saw the window suddenly start to slide open. She looked over at Boomer, and then at Snake, all three sharing the same stunned expression: Yeah, I see it too. The window opened, and the three of them came face-to-face, or face-to-mask, at least, with Nopony. It was difficult to tell whether Nopony was a mare or a stallion beneath their thick brown trench coat, low-brim hat, and black balaclava. Even their eyes were covered by sunglasses. There was an awkward silence as the three fillies stared at the intruder, and the intruder stared back, none of them really sure what to do next. Then Gusty took a step forward, unfurled her wings, and kicked off the ground, rushing straight for them before her friends could stop her. Nopony ducked and Gusty emerged out of the window into the early evening air. She looked down to see that Nopony had already rushed across the back yard, and was climbing over the fence into the next yard. She narrowed her eyes and her focus, shooting herself after them. Nopony had just cleared the fence when Gusty came literally charging right through it in pursuit. Unfortunately, her aim was a little off and she only just stopped herself from plowing into the wall of the neighbor's house. She smiled nervously as an old mare glared at her from the window, then turned back to see Nopony slipping through the front gate and into the street. Charging after them again, Gusty slammed the partially open gate out of the way, causing it to slam loudly against the fence behind it. Nopony was incredibly quick. They were already far down the road. They threw a trash can into her path and turned a corner down the street, Gusty hot on their hooves. As she leapt the can and turned the corner as well, a bright flash momentarily blinded Gusty. When her vision returned to normal, Nopony had lifted a ponyhole cover and ducked into the sewer. She gave a frustrated growl. "Get back here!" she snapped as she chased them down. Even she wasn't foalish enough to try to charge through a plate of metal, so Gusty had to actually take the cover off like a normal pony and toss it aside before jumping down into the sewer. Her hooves landed in a river of sewage, making her shudder with disgust, but it wasn't enough to distract her. She looked around, having to squint to see in the dim lighting provided by the opening above. If it was dark for her, then Nopony and their shades should be practically blind. Nevertheless, she soon heard rapid splashes trailing off in one direction and flew after them. Flying in a sewer was not easy, and chasing somepony through one was even harder, with all the twists, turns, and intersections. Gusty was becoming increasingly worried about losing Nopony, when she spotted them clambering up a ladder. Her next charge was so close to catching Nopony, when another bright flash stunned her. Down in the dark it was even worse. She was almost completely blind as she felt her way up the ladder. When you got used to flying everywhere, it was almost embarrassing having to use something as mundane as a ladder, but Gusty did what she had to do. As her eyes slowly adjusted, she finally made it to the top and shoved open the ponyhole cover, only to yelp and quickly duck back in as a carriage barreled over the street on top of her. Gusty climbed out and searched frantically for any sign of Nopony, only to realize that they were riding atop that very carriage. “This is just getting silly now.” Gusty spread her wings and took off into the sky, flying above the traffic. As she zeroed in on Nopony, she shot down at them in a dive bomb maneuver, but they thought fast and leapt to another carriage before she hit them. Gusty pulled up just in time, only scraping the tips of her hooves on the rooftop before she reoriented herself. As Nopony rode away in the opposite direction, Gusty attempted another dive, which they also dodged, jumping to a different carriage. This went back and forth for some time along the same stretch of road, Nopony changing direction with each jump. But sooner or later, they ran out of rooftops, looking back and forth nervously. “Now I’ve got you!” Gusty charged in, only to reel back from a flash to the eyes. She squinted to see Nopony quickly widening the gap again. Gusty felt a very familiar boiling in her gut. Before, she'd always restrained it. But now, she welcomed it. Her breathing got quicker, and her wings unfurled. She charged straight for them again, now at a much faster speed. Nopony was completely caught off guard as Gusty slammed into them, knocking them off the roof of the carriage and sending the two of them tumbling to the street. Nopony was barely able to shove Gusty off before the snarling filly was after them again.Nopony managed to dodge to the side as the mare charged them, but to their shock, Gusty immediately whirled around and rebounded back into them, again sending Nopony skidding across the street. Gusty dragged her hoof across the road and snorted before rushing in for what she thought would be the finishing blow. A loud neigh and a screech came from her right as she found herself unwittingly in the path of another carriage. The driver did his best to swerve to the right and avoid her, but this only resulted in her being sidelined by the blunt edge of the carriage as it swung around from the momentum. Gusty was thrown back and hit the ground before her wings could help her. The impact shot pain through her whole body and nearly incapacitated the pegasus as the sudden rush of energy began to fade away. As it did, Gusty slowly staggered back onto her hooves and again caught sight of Nopony. They too needed a moment to recover and were only now rushing for the brick wall that surrounded the community. Gusty bared her teeth, her nostrils flaring. Nopony would. Not. Escape. Nopony tried to go over the wall. Gusty wasn't sure exactly what happened next. One minute she was rushing towards the wall, the next she was on the other side of it, white light once again blinding her. Her momentum carried her forward, and she slammed into something very, very hard. Even before Gusty finished peeling herself off of the tree, she knew something was wrong. She couldn't quite feel the pain yet, but judging by the unnatural way her two front legs were bent, she knew it was coming. Even so, she wasn't quite proficient in knowing when to quit and tried to get up anyway just using her wings. Even that hurt fiercely, but Gusty kept herself hovering slowly and awkwardly in the direction Nopony had retreated, determined beyond all doubt to catch them. Out here, they should at least be easy to spot. She cleared a group of trees and that last hope was mercilessly shattered. She had forgotten that on the other side of this wall was a park. A public park. Full of public park ponies. And laying on the ground in front of her was Nopony's coat, hat, shades, and balaclava. Nopony could be anypony. Gusty sighed in defeat and finally let herself collapse, slipping away into blackness.