Manehattan. Manehattan never changes. Sure, when it comes to people, or stores, they come and go but the heart and soul of the city never changes. Not that that was a bad thing, but living in this city ponies had to figure out the routine quickly or else they’d get overwhelmed. Or in one particular case, almost get hit by a taxi.
“Hey, I’m walking here!” Trixie snapped at the carriage while the driver was shouting obscenities at her. Fortunately, Starlight was able to pull her away before things got violent.
“Trixie, I know it doesn’t need to be said, but let’s not cause a scene while we’re here,” Starlight said calmly as the two of them made it across the street.
“Cause a scene? That damn pony nearly ran me over!” Trixie almost yelled.
“Technically, you didn’t look both ways before crossing, and the driver wasn't anticipating you to cross,” Mudbriar said.
Trixie glared at him while Starlight quickly cut in. “So Sunburst, we close to that museum yet?”
“Just another two blocks,” Sunburst said. “Looks like everything is normal at the moment.”
“That’s good at least,” Starlight replied. “Gallus, Silverstream? Care to do a little recon for us?”
“Sure thing,” Gallus said. “I’ve got the south.”
“I’ll take the north,” Silverstream said as they both flew upward.
“Most museums, including this one, are based entirely around concrete,” Maud said.
“And?” Trixie asked.
“…It won’t last long if a battle suddenly takes place.”
“But even if parts of the building collapse, those slabs of concrete could be pretty useful as a weapon,” Mudbriar added.
“I love your way of thinking…” Maud said with a small smile.
“We’ll make sure nothing gets blown up…or at least we’ll try,” Starlight said with a less than confident look. “Sunburst and I can take care of that.”
“And me?” Trixie asked with her trademark smug look. “While the Great and Powerful Trixie excels at deceiving her foes, her magical ability has made great strides!”
“Actually…I was kind of rely on the former with you,” Starlight said. Upon seeing Trixie’s disappointment, she quickly added, “Because you excel at it!”
Trixie sighed dramatically. “Oh very well, I’ll have to save my other talents for another time…”
Gallus made his rounds, keeping an eye on the ground below him as well as the many buildings in the city. One of the advantages griffins had were their keen eyesight and even from this distance up in the air, he could make out every pony below. If anyone suspicious showed up, he would notice…unless they showed up in a building. Now that he thought about it, what were the chances they had already made their move and no one had noticed. Now’s not the time to get pessimistic…
He saw Silverstream was heading in his direction and met her halfway. “All normal on your end?” he asked.
“So far,” Silverstream replied. “If something was happening, surely it would cause a commotion right?”
“Yeah, it seems weird that we would get here first, unless they really don’t know that amulet is even here in the first place.” Somehow he was getting a bad feeling…
“Well, I’ll keep looking just in case,” Silverstream replied. “Do we have a signal if anything happens?”
“Yeah I’ll just…whistle to you I guess.”
“Sounds good. I’ll do the same in case-” She suddenly stopped as she stared at something behind him. “Um…Gallus? Would a big portal that’s right behind you be considered out of the ordinary?”
“Seriously, a port-” Gallus stopped as he looked behind and indeed saw the yellow-colored portal being described. “…We’re about to get jumped aren’t we?”
The Manehattan Museum of Art and History was regarded as the best museum in Equestria and a very popular attraction in the city itself and the number of ponies inside currently was proof of that. Starlight however was feeling rather uneasy. “There’s too many ponies here,” she said quietly. “If anything happens they’re all going to get caught up in the crossfire.”
“You really think they’d be willing to do that for a single artifact?” Sunburst asked.
“I have no doubts,” Starlight replied. “Just be on the lookout. For all we know, they could already be in the building.”
The small group went over to the reception desk, where a young unicorn wearing thick glasses was sitting. “Hello!” she said almost too happily. “Is this your first time visiting? We offer an array of tours as well as behind the-”
“Actually, we need to speak to whoever’s in charge of here,” Starlight said quickly as she summoned a scroll of parchment. “On behalf of the Princess.”
“I-I see…” the receptionist suddenly looked timid as she glanced at the parchment, noticing the royal seal. She then got out of her seat. “Follow me please.”
They were led through a door marked “Employees Only”, which led to a surprisingly unkempt office area. Most of the objects seen were hidden under white covers, which Starlight assumed were pieces they were being either cleaned or preserved. They then went through another door into a smaller office.
The female earth pony inside was older than Starlight expected, and was apparently busy studying what looked like an ancient scroll of text with a large magnifying glass. “Er, Miss Quarriere, I hate to bother you but these ponies are here to see you…” the receptionist pony said.
“Hm?” The mare looked up and suddenly jumped. “Oh goodness! I didn’t even hear you all come in. My apologies, I was reading this old scroll. We recently found it in some old ruins located south of Griffinstone. Surprisingly, it’s in old Ponish, which is rather odd considering it’s location.”
“Did you say old Ponish?” Sunburst suddenly asked.
“Focus Sunburst…” Starlight said, jabbing his side. “I’m Starlight Glimmer, and we’re all here on behalf of Princess Twilight to uh… ‘borrow’ a certain artifact for safekeeping. The Alicorn Amulet to be exact.”
“The Amulet?” Quarriere asked, her eyes widening. “Oh dear…you must know how dangerous this amulet is.”
“Oh we’re aware…” Trixie muttered.
“Perhaps I’ll let the princess explain,” Starlight said as she showed the curator the scroll.
The mare read the contents as her frown deepened. “This is most disturbing news… When Princess Celestia entrusted me with the amulet years ago, I was both excited and nervous to be holding onto such a powerful relic, but knowing somepony out there wants to steal it and use its power… I hate to give it up but I know it’ll be safer in the Princess’ hooves.”
“So you’ll let us hold onto it?” Sunburst asked.
“Of course. Right this way.” The curator got up and went into another room, similar in size but inside there was a giant vault. “This vault is endowed with a powerful shield, meaning nothing can penetrate it, not even magic and it can only be opened with a specific combination.” She then turned the knob to the left, to the right, and to the left again before a click could be heard. The door then opened and inside was the Alicorn Amulet.
“Here it is,” she said, taking it out. Starlight couldn’t help but notice Trixie was trying very hard not to look at it. The curator then gave it to Starlight. “I hate to ask but…when this issue of yours is over, will you be able to return this?”
“I’m sure Twilight would be fine with that,” Starlight said. It was then she noticed something felt off. As she was looking at the old mare, she noticed her expression had suddenly froze up. “Are you alright?” The mare didn’t respond and as Starlight put a hoof in front of her face, she noticed no reaction.
“What’s going-?” She looked at her friends and noticed that they had frozen up as well. Almost as if they had been petrified. No, that wasn’t it at all. It was as if time had-
“Well done Starlight…” She looked behind and saw the receptionist was smiling at her, her horn glowing while clapping her hooves slightly. “You really made this so much easier for us.”
At that moment, Starlight figured it out. “You’re not really a receptionist are you?”
“Afraid not,” the mare said as she took off her glasses. “The real one is stuck in some closet I presume, unharmed of course. “Me? I’m just a mare who was waiting for your arrival. Now then, I’d be more than happy to take that amulet off your hooves.”
“Sorry, I can’t do that,” Starlight replied, holding the amulet closer. “Besides, I couldn’t possibly trust somepony with something as important as this without knowing their name or reason.”
“Ugh, you’re going to be such a drag, aren’t you?” the mare asked. “Fine, my name is Söté
and my reason is to restore my clan’s honor, yada yada yada.”
“And you think the Pony of Shadows will help with that?” Starlight asked. “It doesn’t care about you, you are all a means to an end and when it doesn’t need you anymore, it’ll get rid of all of you.”
“Wow…such thoughtful words,” Söté said with obvious sarcasm. “Do you really think we’d be around this long if we were so naive? Adaj has her own plans in store for our tribe, the Pony of Shadows is just a means to an end…now enough talk, give me the amulet.”
“I’ll still have to decline, unfortunately,” Starlight said firmly.
“What, you want to start a fight here? Your friends are rather vulnerable at the moment, you know. But perhaps I need to give you a bit more incentive…” Her horn glowed more as two others teleported into the room. “Now, I don’t want to have to start removing appendages,” she said, motioning to Gallus and Silverstream, who were being held in place by magic. “So you either give it to me now or else things are about to get gruesome.”
“Alright, alright!” Starlight said quickly. “Fine, you win…” She stepped forward slowly. “There’s just one thing you need to know though…”
“And what’s that?”
Starlight suddenly smirked. “Those two aren’t who you think they are…”
“What?” Söté looked behind her and instead of a griffin and a hippogriff she was now staring at an Ursa Minor and a Bug Bear. The minor surprise had caught her off guard and she didn’t have time to react as a large paw swiped at her, knocking her into the wall.
The spell appeared to break as everyone else in the room suddenly came to. “What happened?” Trixie asked.
“They were already waiting for us,” Starlight briskly explained. “Nice work Ocellus.”
The Ursa Minor winked as it transformed back into a changeling. “Thanks, I hope Gallus and Silver didn’t see that…they’ll never let me live it down getting caught so easily…”
“Don’t worry, it worked out just the way I wanted it to,” Starlight said as she checked on the fallen unicorn. She was unconscious, but she wasn’t sure for how long. “We need to move now. There has to be others around and if they see she failed they won’t hesitate to attack.” She then gave the amulet to Trixie. “Trixie, I need you to hold onto this for now. We can cover you while you get to the station.”
“Wait, I’m in this as much as you are and I’m certainly not leaving you all behind,” Trixie protested. “In fact…I might have a better idea.”
She was looking at the amulet and Starlight knew exactly what she was thinking. “Trixie, you can’t be serious. You yourself told me-”
“I know, but I’m aware of how this amulet works and I can control myself better this time.” She then winked. “Besides, once you put it on-”
“-you’re the only one who can take it off,” Starlight finished. “I don’t know…”
“Starlight, you trust me right?”
“…Yes, Trixie, I do.”
“I promise when this is all done, I’ll take it off,” Trixie assured her. “But just in case, you’ll remind me of course, right?”
“Of course,” Starlight nodded. She then looked to the others. “Everypony get ready, it’s about to get real heated in this building. Maud and Mudbriar, I need you to help escort everypony quickly and calmly. Sunburst, Trixie, and I will take care of any threats. Ocellus, I’m gonna need you two to multi-task between helping ponies evacuate and keeping the others safe. Everypony got that?”
“Um, what about me?” Quarriere asked. “I may not be a spring chicken anymore but these legs of mine can still do some damage. After all, this museum is my responsibility.”
“Well, if you say so.” Starlight then looked back to Trixie. “Ready?”
Trixie nodded and without hesitation she put on the amulet. For a moment, magic seemed to envelope around her and she shuddered for a moment. She then opened her eyes as a slight smirk crept onto her face. “Oh, it’s been way too long…”