//------------------------------// // Case Eleven, Chapter One: The Attempt // Story: Ponyville Noire: Kriegspiel—Black, White, and Scarlet // by PonyJosiah13 //------------------------------// Not even the gentle rhythms of Phillip’s saxophone and Rara’s voice and piano combining their talents to form You Know I'm Guilty could settle Daring’s racing mind. She sat at the bar in the Apple Pie In Your Eye, staring at the mostly-empty glass of apple cider before her next to the half-eaten slice of peach pie on a plate.  She glanced to her left and studied the edition of the Foal Free Press in front of her with a frown. Splashed across the front page was a bold headline: “Carnage at Drug Houses!” Beneath the headline was a black and white photograph depicting a few exhausted-looking officers carrying a set of stretchers loaded with body bags out of a doorway, the splintered door hanging off the frame by a single hinge. A familiar pith helmet and gray trilby could be seen amidst the crowd outside.  “Rough day?” AJ asked, refilling the glass.  “You have no idea,” Daring replied, taking the glass and knocking back half of it in one go. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many dead bodies in one day in my life.”  “From what I heard, the lot of them were Nightmare Moon Disciples and goons like them,” AJ replied.  “At least a third of them were kids,” Daring grunted. “Dumb kids who made a stupid decision that cost ‘em their lives.” She took another sip of the cider: the warm sweetness fizzled and buzzed down her throat, but she found that she could not truly appreciate the taste. The image of a pair of eighteen-year-old colts, their torsos riddled with bullet holes like swiss cheese, the blood still warm and wet.  Next to the body were .30-06 cartridges. From a BAR.  Sparks, Daring thought, lowering the glass to the bar. Did you do this? Did you shoot kids? “Sick of this war,” she muttered.  AJ placed a hoof on Daring’s shoulder. “You’ll see the end of it soon, partner,” she smiled. “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”  Daring just grunted and knocked back the rest of her drink. “I’ll see the end of that bottle soon,” she said.  AJ sighed and left the bottle on the table.  A familiar voice made Daring turn around. She spotted the source of the voice behind her: Twilight was sitting at a table a few feet away, face alive and bright with laughter. Sitting next to her was Spike, who was currently munching on what looked like a hay steak with a side of gems, and Flash, who was grinning brightly with her.  Sitting across from them was a pair of middle-aged unicorns. The stallion was shades of blue in color, with the cutie mark of a pair of crescent moons, his wrinkled yellow eyes affixed on Twilight with glowing affection. The mare had a gray coat and a pink and white striped mane and three purple stars for a cutie mark; she was currently laughing loudly along with her daughter, apparently having just told a joke.  Twilight noticed Daring sitting at the bar and waved her over. “Daring! Come meet my parents!” Daring studied the other ponies at the table, pondered for a few seconds, then shrugged and trotted over, taking her glass and bottle with her. “Hey, Daring,” Spike greeted her through a mouthful of gems. “Spike, were you raised in a barn?” Twilight scolded him as Daring sat down. Spike swallowed. “Sorry.” “So this is Daring Do?” the white mare asked, leaning forward with an intrigued sparkle in her eyes. “Hi! Twilight Velvet, author, publisher, and mother to two of the most amazing unicorns in the world! Pleased to meet you!” She thrust a hoof at Daring. “Eh...nice to meet you, too,” Daring said, shaking the offered appendage. Velvet proceeded to shake her entire limb so hard that Daring felt like her bones might rattle right out of her skin. “Sorry about her,” the blue stallion said, placing a hoof on his wife’s shoulder. “She gets a little excited.” He chuckled and planted a kiss on Velvet’s cheek, causing her face to glow happily. “She was talking about meeting you and Detective Finder all the way here. I’m Night Light, by the way. Good to meet you,” he nodded. “I could get so many ideas from you two!” Velvet cried. “Is that him on the stage?” She waved at Phillip, who blinked at her in puzzlement. “Mom, don’t distract him,” Twilight chided, her face flushed with embarrassment. Velvet giggled. “Sorry, Sparky.”  “Sparky?” Flash asked.  “It’s what we called her when she was young,” Velvet explained. “Or Sparky Frog.”  “Mom!” Twilight cried, her voice going up a half octave.  “Why Sparky Frog?” Daring asked, brow furrowed in puzzlement.  “Because when she tried to do magic, she’d puff her cheeks out so she’d look like a frog!” Spike giggled, puffing out his cheeks to do an impression.  “Say, that reminds me,” Velvet said with a sly grin. “Dear, did you—?”  “Of course I did,” Night Light said, pulling a photo album out of the saddlebag hanging over his chair. A photo album labeled “Twilight” in marker.  Twilight’s eyes widened to the size of saucers as her entire face turned red. “Mom, Dad! No!” she squeaked in horror.  “Would you like to see?” Velvet asked Flash.  “Oh, would I!” Flash said as he and Daring both shot Twilight wide smirks. Twilight hid her reddening face in her hooves, whimpering quietly.  By the time Phillip finished his set and descended from the stage, the group had advanced into Twilight’s first-grade year at the Royal Academy of Magic. As soon as he approached the table, Velvet pounced on him with introductions and energetic hoofshakes.  “A writer?” Phillip commented after recovering from the ambush. “Daring’s writing a novel herself.”  “Oh, really?” Velvet asked, turning on Daring with bright eyes. “What’s it about?”  Daring shot Phillip a brief glare. “Just something I’m doing in my free time. It’s an adventure story. I guess it’s kind of inspired by Hayana Pones.”  Night Light and Velvet traded looks. “You don’t say,” Night Light smiled. “What’s this?” Phillip asked, his focus turning towards the photo album.  “Nothing!” the still blushing Twilight cried, snatching the book and slamming it shut. “Uh, mom, dad, this has been really lovely, but I’ve got to get home and get to bed. Big day tomorrow!”  “Twi, it’s just barely nine o’clock,” Spike protested.  “The night’s still young!” Velvet cried. “No, no, sorry, I’ve really got to be going,” Twilight said, gathering up her things and slapping some bits on the table. “You’re in town for a week, we can catch up later.”  “Well, if you’re sure,” Night Light said, placing the album back in his bag and following his daughter out. Velvet, Spike, Flash, Phil, and Daring left as well. The group exited the tavern and into the warm evening air outside. The city was quiet this late at night, and the pink and blue lights from the lanterns next to the door revealed that the street outside was practically empty, with only a few cars passing languidly by. The skies overhead were half-overcast, large patches of dark clouds mixing with the twinkling stars and the waning crescent moon that heralded the coming end of the Moon of Sun.  “Twi, you go on, I need to talk to Phil and Daring for a moment,” Flash said to Twilight, drawing his coat closer to himself. Twilight nodded and continued on with her parents, Spike still riding atop her shoulders. They started heading towards a currently bare taxicab stand, passing a green unicorn in a brown jacket who was leaning on a streetlamp and smoking a cigarette, staring up at the moon.  Flash turned back to the detectives, his smile fading in a moment. “You guys got anything on those drug house shootings?” he asked quietly, glancing back to make sure that Twilight and her family were far enough away not to hear him.  “Not much,” Phillip admitted, leading them back a bit, outside of the light of the nearest street lamp. “Clearly an enemy hit, but…”  Flash looked down, raising his wing up to his mouth. He gnawed at the appendage for a moment, then swallowed. “I responded to the one on Flotsam,” he said. “I remember...the bodies…” He looked up again, his eyes wide and full of fear, like a child who has been awakened by a nightmare.  “They had their eyes pulled out,” he continued, in a softer tone. “Just like in—”  “We know,” Phillip cut him off, trying to stop the images, but they spilled across his mind all the same.  Eyeless corpses, mouths open in eternal silent screams, vitreous humor and black ooze across their faces. A mass of slime slithering up the air vent with a terrible shlicking noise. Cold skin beneath his hoof, no sign of a pulse. Reviewing the surveillance crystal.  That thing. Faust above, that thing. He shook his head to clear it. “If Zugzwang was there, he’ll pay for it anyway,” he stated. Glancing up, he spotted Twilight and Spike climbing into a waiting taxi, while her parents were climbing into another one.  Flash nodded, swallowing. Phillip strode forward and placed a hoof on Flash’s shoulder. “Chin up, jackaroo,” he reassured him. “You’re a little battler, like us. This—”  The taxi that Twilight and Spike had gotten into turned and started driving up the street towards them. All three ponies stopped, looking up. “That’s not the way to Twilight’s house,” Flash muttered.  The taxi pulled up towards them, driving just above the speed limit. The interior was dark, but in the light of a street lamp, they could see some details of the front of the car.  There was a green unicorn sitting in the front passenger seat of the taxi, turned around to face the rear seat; one hoof was held close to his brown jacket and his horn was alight with a green glow. The taxi driver was a donkey. In the faint light of the unicorn’s magic, the trio of ponies could see the spiky, sandy mane and the calm green eyes.  “Bentley!” Flash gasped, one hoof going for the holster beneath his jacket.  Bentley glanced to the side towards them and his eyes widened in shock as his lips moved to bark an order. The unicorn looked up towards them and his horn brightened.  A moment later, a green sun crested over the horizon in front of them, emerald light burning into their eyes. The ponies shouted in pain and fury, staggering in blind confusion. The sound of the tires peeling across asphalt sounded in their ears as the vehicle passed them.  Blinking rapidly to clear his eyes, Phillip turned and ran blindly after the car. Sight returned in washed-out colors, blurring together into solid shapes. A dark yellow square turned left at the four-way intersection up ahead, then quickly disappeared around another corner. Phillip skidded to a halt at the intersection as the lights changed and the flow of traffic blocked him off.  Flash and Daring ran up after him, furiously wiping their eyes. “Which way?” Daring snapped.  “That way, up Evergreen!” Phillip barked, pointing. Daring took off into the air and shot after them.  “I got the taxi number,” Flash reported, grabbing Phil beneath his forelegs. "Forty-seven." “That’ll help,” Phillip grunted as he was pulled up into the air and carried over Evergreen, past rows of small mom and pop shops that still stood proud in the face of incoming larger businesses. They paused at a four-way intersection, looking about for any sign of their prey. “There!” Flash cried, nodding towards a golden blur that was shooting down Alyssum. As they watched, a green firework streaked up into the air and detonated mere feet away from Daring’s face, forcing her to momentarily retreat. Flash started to chase after her.  “Wait!” Phillip said and closed his eyes. After briefly panning through his mental library, he called up a map of Ponyville’s streets. Following Evergreen south, he began to study the surrounding streets.  T-intersection, pedestrian crossing, traffic light, bridge construction on Buttercup, traffic light… “Southwest, pass over the construction site, then head towards Larkspur and Delphinium!” he ordered.  “But—” Flash protested, staring after Daring as she turned east at the end of the road.  “You won’t catch up to them carrying me! Trust me!” Phillip said.  Flash hesitated for a moment longer, then nodded and turned, flying straight southwest, away from Daring. They flew over houses, over stores, over barely populated cratered streets.  Soon, they reached the old, rot-eaten wooden bridge on Buttercup Road that spanned a wider tributary of the Maresippi that ran north through the eastern outskirts on its way into the Everfree Forest. Teams of construction ponies were currently working at the bridge, removing older boards and planting down newer planks, replacing the old wooden supports with metal buttresses.  Phillip spotted what he needed and directed Flash’s attention towards a small group of workers standing around a pair of tables with toolboxes. Flash swooped down and Phillip snatched up the required items as shocked workers dove out of the way. “Sorry!” Flash called as they continued on. “Police business! Just borrowing them!”  Within a couple of minutes, they arrived at Larkspur and Delphinium, landing in front of the darkened windows of The Flower Trio’s Flower Shop. Phillip and Flash both set to work with their borrowed materials, hooves frantically constructing the tools.  “Here they come!” Phillip shouted, pointing. A taxi was indeed speeding up the road, pursued by Daring. The unicorn leaned out of the passenger window, a Crystal-made Neighretta Modello 1935 strapped to the side of his hoof. A green beam of energy streaked out of the weapon and exploded in another firework, forcing Daring to swerve out of the way. The unicorn broke open the action on his pistol to reveal the hotly glowing charging crystal, steam jetting from the action with a hiss as he removed the crystal and replaced it with a fresh one.  The two stallions pressed their backs to the wall, keeping hidden from the driver’s view, clutching their makeshift equipment. As the taxi approached, Phillip barked, “Now!” and they threw their items.  Two crude spike strips made of tar paper with several nails pierced through them flew through the air and landed in the street right in front of the taxi, points facing up. Bentley saw them too late: with a pair of loud bangs, the tires burst. Sparks began to shoot from the rims as the vehicle slowed dramatically, the street suddenly filled with the sound of metal grinding against stone.  Swooping down like a hawk, Daring snapped her kusarifundo down. Bones snapped, a voice yelped in pain, and the Neighretta clattered to the street as the unicorn clutched his now-broken wrist. Daring seized the unicorn by the nape of his neck and, with a grunt and a flap of her wings, pulled him from the vehicle and threw him onto the asphalt.  Placing a hoof through the mounting strap and drawing his .38 revolver from beneath his coat, Flash flew up to the taxi, catching up in moments. Landing on the driver’s side running board, he aimed his weapon at Bentley. “Stop!” he ordered, pressing down on the lever trigger slightly.  Bentley glanced at him with an almost contemptuous look, one hoof on the steering wheel, the other carrying a walkie-talkie. A moment later, he braked and pulled over.  A brief glance assured Phillip that Daring had the unicorn pinned down as he sprinted up to the taxi. Flash was backing up with his weapon still trained on Bentley, ordering him out of the car. The donkey obeyed, moving slowly and keeping his hooves in plain sight at all times.  "I got him," Phillip stated, running up and covering Bentley with his pistol. "Go get them out." Flash ran over to the rear doors and yanked it open. Twilight and Spike sat inside: both of them had police-issue hoofcuffs securing their forelimbs behind their backs and duct tape over their mouths and hind legs, having been applied by the unicorn henchpony’s magic. Twilight was shaking and whimpering behind her gag; Spike was furiously trying to work out of his bonds.  “Hold still,” Flash reassured them, pulling out his pocket knife and flicking the blade open. He cut the tape around Twilight’s legs and helped her walk out of the taxi, gently helping her sit on the ground, then undid the tape around Spike’s legs and helped him out.  Daring extracted a hoofcuff key from her hat lining and tossed it to Flash. He quickly uncuffed the two captives.  “Are you okay?” Flash asked, pulling the tape off Twilight’s mouth.  “Uh-huh,” Twilight whimpered. Flash hugged her and Spike tightly, stroking Twilight’s back as she buried her face into his neck.   “It’s over now,” Flash reassured her. “We got ‘em—”  “Daring Do!” a voice screeched. Daring looked up and dove aside almost too late: two machete blades cleaved through the air where she’d been standing a moment ago.  The black griffon paused for a heartbeat, yellow eyes gleaming with hatred as he studied his enemies. Moonlight reflected off the metal left foreleg, claws tight around the handle of his machete; the prosthetic right wing flexed and bent in perfect mirror of his organic left wing, the artificial joints whirring as they moved. The tail flexed and curled like a serpent, the twin black suns on the cursed blade like holes in the gleaming metal.  Three hooves immediately raised their sidearms as Flash shoved Twilight and Spike out of the way. Snarling, Roaring lunged at Phillip, blades flashing. The Sword of Asocrac struck and Phillip’s .38 revolver clattered to the ground, broken pieces falling amidst droplets of blood that oozed from Phillip’s foreleg.  A backward hoofspring brought Phillip out of range of a double machete slice, the tips of the blades kissing the back of his vest; as he settled back on his hooves, he glanced up to see that Daring was now wrestling with the unicorn henchpony, rolling over and over on the ground as her .38 clattered away, the Neighretta flying towards them in a green glow. Bentley was already running off into the darkness. A moment later, he paid for his momentary lapse in concentration as a hind paw crashed into his jaw like a baseball bat. He tumbled to the ground, head spinning.   Three blades raised to finish Phillip, but a gun barked and a bullet whistled past Roaring, interrupting the strike. Again, Roaring lunged, this time at Flash. Again the blade flashed, and again a pistol was shattered into pieces as flesh was sliced open in a shower of crimson. Bellowing in pain and rage, Flash tackled Roaring to the ground, sending the machetes clattering away across the sidewalk. The two figures rolled together in a mess of limbs, the scuffle ending with Flash on top, blood-covered foreleg pressed against Roaring’s throat as his other hoof jackhammered into his face.  The cursed blade arced towards Flash’s vulnerable back. Twilight screamed a warning, too late.  A boomerang whistled through the air and struck the tail, nearly knocking the blade from the limb. Flash dove off Roaring with a gasp, scuttling out of range of the cutlass.  Roaring spread his wings to lift off the ground, the prosthetic whirring, and his narrow gaze locked onto Twilight. Screeching in hate, he lunged at her, organic and metal claws extended to grab her.  That screech turned into a cry of shock as a jet of green flame surged into his path, forcing him to veer away suddenly to avoid it and fly back up into the air out of range of the angry dragon that now stood between him and Twilight.   “Don’t come any closer!” Spike snarled, spreading his arms wide.  Roaring paused, looking around. Flash was flying up to face him; beneath him, Daring was aiming both her .38 revolver and the Neighretta at him, a few green sparkles that floated to the ground behind her all that remained of Bentley’s henchpony. Phillip had his boomerang in his uninjured hoof, glaring up at him. Even Twilight had her horn lit and ready to attack, her body still shaking in fright but her eyes narrowed and blazing with defiance.  And worst of all, with a wail of sirens, a pair of cruisers were already pulling up, the officers inside tumbling out of their cars and aiming their pistols and shotguns up at him.  His eyes darting around, Roaring spotted his escape: a set of power lines behind him. With a sneer, he lashed out with his tail. The Sword of Asocrac sliced through the cables and they fell to the ground, sparks flying with a chorus of hisses.  “Get back!” Daring shouted, snatching Phillip up and carrying him away. The arriving officers jumped away as Twilight, Spike and Flash vanished in a flash of purple light, reappearing several feet away.  The cables landed on the ground, twitching and convulsing like snakes as more sparks shot from the ends. By the time the collected ponies looked up, Roaring was already vanishing behind a cloud.  “Damn!” Daring snarled.  “Forget it,” Phillip grunted, looking at the two machetes lying discarded on the ground. “Important thing is Twilight’s okay.”  Flash wrapped his wing around Twilight and nuzzled her head. “You want me to take you home?” he asked.  “After I give my statement,” Twilight said bravely, nodding to the responding officers.