//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Night Wonder // by DanishDash //------------------------------// Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, the city of the sun and the moon. City of the nobles, the dreamers and in the night, the wicked. One might think that no place is safer than Canterlot, but you would be wrong. A foul mist of corruption and evil has slowly been spreading throughout the kingdom, spreading its seeds of fear and greed into the hearts of those ponies who are not able to resist. Tonight, as Luna's full moon bathed the lands in her graceful light, the villains in the shadows who prey on the innocent step out to hunt. Tonight, while most ponies slept, a gang of criminals were waiting for their boss to return. The building they had chosen to hide in was old, an abandoned cafe nopony owned or used anymore. Nopony would likely come around anytime soon, so for now this was the perfect hideout. The ponies sat around on old crates or old furniture, playing cards, drinking and otherwise simply passing the time. "So.." A grey unicorn said as he placed his cards on one of the old tables. "Any idea when the boss will be back?" A yellow earth pony shook her head and kept looking at her cards. "Well he is getting the bits with Hoof Finder and Jackbox, if the old stallion is smart he'll pay up." "What if he has alerted the guards?" Another earth pony asked and was the last of the three card players. "He would not dare, the boss told him if he breathed a word of this to the Blue Guard he would never see his daughter again." The unicorn replied and then grunted when the male earth pony beat his hoof with his cards. "Speaking off.." He continued and looked over at two pegasi who was eating their hay fries. "How's our guest doing?" The two pegasi looked to the corner of the room, over at the last pony in the building, their captive. A white unicorn mare with a blue mane and blue eyes. Though her eyes were red and tired from having cried so much, she was clearly scared and had for now lost her will to struggle. Her forelegs had been tied with rope down her sides and her hind legs had been bound together. Over her muzzle they had tied a white cloth to keep her screams, protests and crying muffled. "How are you doing sweetheart?" One of the pegasi asked with a grin. The mare known as Lucy Light looked up at her captors, moving her body a little. "Mmfh..." The brown pegasus smirked and turned towards the others. "She's fine, but she's a little tied up at the moment, ha! Eh..What?" He stopped his laugh the second he saw the others just staring at him disappointingly. Before the silence became too awkward however the door went up and their boss stepped in with the two last members. The rest stood up expectantly, dropping cards as well as food to see what their boss had with him. He gave them all a smirk and said. "It's payday boys." All the ponies laughed and cheered, today they had earned themselves a large amount of bits. Hoof Finder and Jackbox took out the bags of bits from their saddlebags and placed them on the floor. The bags were heavy from the bits that laid within and made a satisfying clunk as it hit the floor. They started to count when one of the ponies looked over at the bound and gagged mare. "What about her?" The boss looked over at her and shrugged. "We don't need her anymore, take her out back and kill her." "Mmpfh!?" Lucy Light's eyes went wide with horror as she shook her head. "Hmf-mmfph!" Tears built up in her eyes as two ponies approached her with a sinister smile. She struggled with all her might, afraid for her life and that she was never going to see her family ever again. Never see her mother's smile or her father's warm chuckle. Never again see that sweet stallion at the bakery, her life was gonna end here this night, her family was never gonna see her again, ever... She squeezed her eyes tightly, not bearing to see the faces of the ponies that were gonna kill her. "What the hay?!" Somepony yelled out in question which caused Lucy Light to open her eyes again, expecting to see the old cafe and her captors she instead saw darkness. She could hear the sound of hoofs moving around, the sound of switching being tried, but the cafe remained in darkness. "Relax.." She could hear the oldest of the lot say. "It's probably just a blown fuse, Jackbox, go out and check it out." Lucy heard the unicorn give a quick grunt in confirmation before his hoof steps moved out of the room. There was silence for what seemed like forever, it felt like each minute was stretched out to become two minutes, like time was slowing down. Lucy was so afraid, she knew what was coming when the lights came back on, which could be any second now. Only.. They didn't come on... Finally the oldest pony groaned. "What the buck is taking him so long, Wind Chaser, go out and see what that idiot is doing." The Pegasus let out a sigh and did what he was told, leaving the room expecting to find his companion trying to figure out what went in where. He walked the dark empty hallway, down to the back where the fuse box was, Jackbox was pretty stupid for one who could perform magic. As he got nearer he felt a breeze gently hitting his fur, was the backdoor open or something? He did not have to wait long for the answer, when he finally reached the end he did indeed find the backdoor open, but that was not the only thing he found. His eyes went wide as he saw Jackbox knocked out on the floor, slumped against the wall like a rag doll. Feeling his heart beat faster Wind Chaser knew he had to alert the others, only as he turned around he let out a scream! "What was that?!" They all turned towards where Jackbox and Wind Chaser had left. Lucy's eyes went wide and even though she had started to get used to the darkness, she could only see the dark silhouettes of the rest of her captors. Lucy looked around, thinking this might be her only and last chance to escape! She laid down on the floor and started to crawl the best she could, she knew her chances were slim, but perhaps if she got into the kitchens she might be able to get a knife and- "Ha! Where do you think you are going?" She felt someone grab and turn her around, it was the yellow earth pony. "Do you think you can just run away?" She raised a hoof to smack her when suddenly a loud crack got everypony's attention. The room went silent and all the eyes turned to the top of the stairs. Lucy's eyes grew wide again, this time not from horror, but in awe. There on the stairs stood a masked dark stallion, only thanks to the little moonlight that hit the stairs could she notice his features. He wore a black hat, a mask and a cape in the same dark colors, his fur was dark grey and his eyes were red. She noticed what looked like a belt strapped around his hips, something was attached to it, something that was particularly long. The ponies looked shocked and then angry. "Who the hayseed are you?!" One of them yelled. "Who cares! Kill him!" Their boss commanded. Three of the five ponies ran towards him, but before they could even reach the staircase, the stallion jumped into the room. His hoofs caught the chandelier and he swung himself towards two of the three ponies coming from him. Using the momentum of the swing he moved towards them and kicked them both under their muzzles, sending them flying backwards and landing with a nasty crash. The last of the three stopped and turned around to attack, though, as if he knew what the last stallion was going to do, the masked colt jumped off the chandelier and landed right on the edge of the table. Of course the table flew down on the end he had landed on, sending the other end straight up and with another loud CRACK! The raised end of the table had smacked the stallion up on the jawline, sending him flying back and landing onto another table with all the cards and drinks. The mare who held Lucy down glared at the masked stallion, with a grunt she jumped off and charged towards him in the hopes of tackling him. Lucy watched with horror as one of the ponies he had kicked got up with a blade in his mouth! Once again his timing was amazing, he made a complete turn, swinging his body so he could kick one of the broken table legs on the floor towards the charging mare. Though that was not what sent chills up her spine, not even as his kick aimed true and the mare was hit in the head with the table leg and crashed into the overturned tables. No, it was because using the momentum to kick the leg was only half the trick. As he came to a stop to face the other attacker, he used the sudden stop and a single wiggle with his hips to make something appear. It only took about a second after he came to a stop, from his belt flew up a long rapier. It shot out of it's black scabbard, the hilt moving fast up and the blade quickly revealed. The masked stallion managed to catch the hilt with his mouth and bring the blade into the path of the knife! The two blades met with a singing- CLIIIING~ The attacker was clearly shocked by the sudden appearance of the sword, but also that he had managed to block his knife so fast. He looked up into the red eyes of the masked stallion, expecting to see him glaring; he instead found himself caught off guard as the stallion winked at him with a small grin. Before the pony knew what was going on, the masked stallion made a quick circle movement with his head. His rapier spun the knife out of the pony's mouth leaving him with no weapon. Before he even had a chance to try something else, the masked pony had turned and used his hind legs to kick him across the floor. "Drop the sword.." He heard someone scowl and the dark grey pony turned to find the last pony standing. He was a well built older earth pony, no doubt the leader of this gang, but more importantly he held Lucy Light in his forelegs with a knife close to her throat. "I said drop the sword!" He now bellowed as the masked attacker walked a few steps closer. "Or the mare dies.." The stallion smirked as their attacker came to a stop and dropped the sword. "Good colt, now place the bits in the saddle bags over there and.." He kept talking, but neither the masked stallion or Lucy Light listened, their eyes were locked and in the moment Lucy felt like she was going to be saved. He had come to save her, it was almost a conversation as his daring eyes spoke to her, she needed to trust him and she needed to do something to give him an opening. In that moment she suppressed her fear, glared up at her captor. The idiot had moved the knife down a little, dropping his guard around her, thinking she was just a stupid helpless mare, well, she was gonna make him regret thinking that! With a slow movement she moved to bend her hind legs a little, her captor hardly noticed as his attention was at the masked figure staring him down. Lucy then straightened her legs with such force she jumped into him and made him stumble back, dropping the knife almost instantly. "You little bitch!" He yelled and raised a hoof to punch her, but to his dismay he forgot about the other pony in the room. Before he even had a chance to as much as touch her, another hoof grabbed him and then another pressed on his chest, pushing him against the wall with such force all air escaped him. He did not scream however, he did not struggle or yell, he did not dare as the blade of the rapier was merely inches from his throat. The stallion was now face to face with the masked intruder, his red eyes glaring at him with such fire all of the bravado and the will to fight left him. "P-please have mercy.." The stallion begged while being careful how he let out the words, he feared the blade so close to cut his beloved throat. The moment seemed to last maybe two minutes, probably shorter than that, but the silence was interrupted as the masked stallion punched the gang leader in the face. The punch to the jaw sent his head back into the wall behind him, knocking him out instantly. He slumped to the floor while Lucy's masked rescuer moved his sword back into its scabbard, she watched as he turned to her with a small charming smile. "It's gonna be okay." He said, his voice was strong, commanding, yet with a hint of bravado and playfulness. It was hard for her to describe it, it was not deep, but it was not high either, he did not have an accent either. Moving over to her, Lucy was grateful to him as he untied the gag from her mouth. "Mmfh-ah-t-thank you..." She sighed and took a deep breath, finally being able to breathe fully again. She looked up behind her as he untied her restraints. "Who are you?" The stallion chuckled a little. "A friend." He simply said as the last of the ropes were untied. "Now, go and find the guards, tell them what happened here, I'll make sure they stay put." She nodded a bit, blushing as the masked vigilante was a bit taller than her and his beautiful eyes so captivating. His cape made it impossible for her to see his cutie mark or if he had wings or not. She could see he was clearly not a unicorn like herself, but whether he was an earth pony or a Pegasus was masked from her. "Y-yes, I will do this." She hurried to the front door, but before she left she glanced at him one final time. "But what is your name? Please sir, I must know." The stallion looked over his shoulder and sent her a small grin. "You may call me, Night Wonder."