//------------------------------//
// Chapter Seventeen: Complications 
// Story: CRISIS: Equestria - Divergence 
// by GanonFLCL 
//------------------------------//

"Okay, um… a little more to the left… a little more… there! Perfect!" Fluttershy—now dressed in her new casual outfit she'd gotten yesterday—clapped her hooves together enthusiastically. "That's just perfect, Gray, thank you very much."

"Yeah, no prob," Gray said, giving a little shrug.

It was late afternoon, and apart from Fluttershy and Gray, the apartment was totally empty. Lockwood had given Fluttershy the day off, despite her insistence otherwise, in order for her to head out to a few stores to buy some things for the apartment: new, brighter lamps to light up the rooms, additional bed frames and mattresses so nopony using the bedrooms had to share, and new sheets and pillows for everypony's new beds.

Most importantly, they'd bought a pull-out sofa for Rainbow and Pinkie to sleep on so they didn't have to share the cramped—and broken as of two days ago—couch. Fluttershy knew that they'd likely be sharing the pull-out anyway, but she kept that thought to herself. She didn't know who else knew.

Gray had graciously helped her with the shopping, and had actually done a great deal more than what Fluttershy had expected. Though it still took multiple trips just so that everything would fit, Gray had helped move every single piece of furniture into the apartment without a single helping hoof. The lamps had been easiest, of course; the mattresses and sheets and such had been manageable; the bed frames looked like they'd be pretty heavy but Gray had even handled them just fine, and putting them together was a cinch.

The sofa, though, had been the real surprise. The shop owner had offered a pair of employees to help move the sofa into the apartment—there would be a fee, of course—but Gray had insisted they didn't need any help. The shop owner had laughed at first, until Gray had lifted the sofa entirely on her own and made it look like absolutely nothing; then, nopony was laughing, and in fact Fluttershy was sure that everypony who'd seen it was more than a little scared.

She wasn't, of course. Gray was her friend, and the fact that she had such a close friend that was so incredibly strong just reinforced the fact that Fluttershy felt utterly safe around her. She also didn't mind watching the muscular pegasus work, either, if she was being completely honest with herself, and had caught herself staring more than once today already. She knew exactly what Rarity would do if she were here, so she was glad Rarity was so busy; she didn't need anypony trying to push her too fast.

No matter how much she wanted it.

With the pull-out in place, the last of the furniture had been moved in and the day was done, and just in time, since the others would likely be heading home soon and Fluttershy knew she'd need to get dinner started. Tonight, she'd planned on making carrot soup—mostly boiled Orange with a little baked Yellow—and steamed, buttered broccoli—Green with some boiled Yellow.

"Would you like something to drink?" Fluttershy asked, giving Gray a sweet smile. "You must be thirsty after all that work. We've got water, coffee, and, um… I don't think Applejack would mind sharing a little of her whiskey."

Gray gave a light nod. "Sure. Just water will be fine."

Fluttershy headed into the kitchen and fetched Gray a bottle of water, which the large pegasus drank lazily, as if she wasn't tired or thirsty at all. "So, um… now that we've got everything set up, how does it all look?" she asked, gesturing out at the living room. "I think it looks wonderful."

Fluttershy had been nervous all day about the choices she'd made, since her friends had given her carte blanche for the decorations. Would they like her decisions? What if they didn't? What if they hated them?

"Looks nice," Gray said, short and sweet.

"Do you think maybe we should have gotten the blue lamps, though? I think Twilight would've liked the star designs on the lampshades." 

"Nah. Green's fine."

"But what about the mattresses? What if I picked the wrong ones? Are they too hard? Too soft?"

"Nah, I tested 'em for you, remember? They're great."

"But what about—"

"Shy," Gray said, putting a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "Everything's fine." Again, short and sweet.

That put Fluttershy at ease. Gray was right: her friends would love the choices. They only needed to last a couple more weeks, hopefully, so even if things weren't perfect, they'd be better than they had been so far and certainly good enough to get them through.

Then there came a knock at the door. Fluttershy looked out the peephole to find a pegasus stallion, a repairpony from the looks of his uniform, standing there. She opened it up to greet him. "Um, hello? Can I help you?"

"Hello there," he said with a smile and a brief glance at his clipboard. 

He then looked up at her, and for a moment seemed caught staring straight into Fluttershy's eyes, which made her feel just a tad uncomfortable. Was there something wrong? Did she have something on her face?

Gray cleared her throat, though, and that seemed to draw him out of his stupor. "I'm here for a routine inspection of the apartment's electrical wiring," he continued. "May I come in?"

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow and tilted her head just slightly. She didn't remember Lockwood mentioning anything about any inspections today. She did, however, recall some information about a few of the other apartments having electrical issues over the last day or so, so that must be what this was about; it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to inspections, he'd said on more than one occasion.

She also knew from her experience with the other tenants thus far that letting the inspectors come in to do their work saved everypony lots of headaches in the long run.

"Sure, come on in," she said, gesturing inside with a grin.

"Thank you, ma'am," the repairpony said as he sauntered inside with his toolkit, plus some tools on his belt. 

He noticed Gray standing there in the living room and gave her a nod of greeting as well, but at least he didn't seem as distracted. This was actually a little surprising; Fluttershy knew well enough that Gray's impressive wingspan was quite attractive to fellow pegasi, and had seen quite a few pegasi looking in her direction while out shopping today. Not this pegasus, it seemed.

"Hello, ma'am," he said. "Good afternoon to you. Just here to do some inspections of the electrical wiring."

Gray nodded back after a moment, but didn't say anything.

He turned to Fluttershy. "I'll go ahead and start in the bedrooms, if you'll direct me to them?"

Fluttershy nodded and showed the stallion towards where the bedrooms were.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said with a nod as he headed inside Twilight and Applejack's room first, closing the door behind him so it was only open a crack, though Fluttershy could still see inside.

And with that, he set to work, opening up a portion of the wall near the outlet and looking over the wires with a few tools from his kit. Fluttershy had no idea how any of that stuff worked and had never really cared to learn, so she just left the stallion to do his work without interruption. Twilight might have wanted to watch and ask questions, if she were here.

She wasn't even really surprised when the power in the apartment went out, shutting off the lights and the Teevee, and most definitely everything else that used electrical power, which of course meant the stove, so no making dinner just yet.

With a shrug, she took a seat on the new sofa next to Gray; the cushions were nice and soft, so she sunk into them and slid a little towards the larger pegasus, who made them sink much lower with all her muscle.

"I guess we're going to miss the rest of Rainbow's game," Fluttershy noted, disappointed. They'd been watching it on the Teevee up until now, though mostly just listening while they worked.

Gray shrugged. "Can't be helped. She'll tell you all about it when she gets home."

"You looked like you were enjoying it," Fluttershy said with a little smile. "I thought you didn't care about skyball that much?"

"I don't. But one of the blockers on the Rockets is my sister," Gray said as casually as could be.

Fluttershy's eyes widened. "Really? You mean… you have another sister? And she's on the same team as Rainbow? Who was she?"

"Havoc, the short red one."

Fluttershy had caught glimpses of the game here and there, and remembered seeing a short, red mare flying fast and hard into stallions twice her size without a care in the world, and making the impact stick, too.

She nodded in understanding. "Wow, what a small world. Rainbow said she made a new friend on her team named Havoc, but we didn't know she was your sister. Why isn't she living with you here?"

"She's got her own place," Gray said with a shrug. "That's all I know. We don't talk much."

Fluttershy frowned. "Oh. I'm… sorry if I brought up—"

"Nothing like that. We just don't talk much, that's all."

"Well… maybe you'll talk more soon? I mean, if Rainbow made friends with her, she might—"

Another knock came at the door, drawing Fluttershy off the sofa. When she gazed through the peephole, she found that it was Lockwood this time, so she opened the door with a smile.

"Well, hello… huh?" he said as he glanced into the apartment. "Oh dear, did your power go out as well? I was certain your apartment wasn't on that particular grid. Drat." He shook his head. "Well, it'll be taken care of soon enough. I'm terribly sorry if you all have to go without for a while. Are you alright?"

"We're just fine, Lockwood," Fluttershy said, letting him and gesturing at Gray. 

"Gray, lovely to see you," Lockwood said, squinting his eyes. "I think. I can't see you at all, actually. You kind of blend in with the dark."

"I don't think this power loss is the same as the other outages, actually," Fluttershy explained. "An inspector came by to do a checkup on the lines. It must have gone out while he was servicing it. I mean, when you repair a pipe, you have to shut off the water, right?"

Lockwood stopped, and turned to Fluttershy, eyebrow up. "Bolt Cutter's here already? But… he wasn't supposed to arrive until tomorrow. And why is he here? Huh, the WPD is working fast today, it seems. Whatever, where is he now?"

On cue, the repairpony left Twilight and Applejack's room and made his way into Fluttershy and Rarity's. "All done in here, moving— oh, hello sir. Good afternoon. Just doing some routine maintenance. Power'll be back up before I leave."

After a brief pause, Lockwood gave the repairpony a tight-lipped smile. "Ah, very good. I was just saying to the ladies here that you WPD folks sure are working fast today. Good show. I wasn't expecting anypony so soon."

"Thank you, sir. Oh, before I forget, is everypony here a tenant in this particular apartment?" the repairpony asked, looking between the three of them. "Policy is that we speak with the tenants themselves following the inspection."

"That'd be me," Fluttershy offered with a nod. "These other two are my guests."

"Well then, ma'am, once I've finished up with the inspection, I'll need your guests to step outside so I can speak with you alone about any issues I may or may not have found in the process of my inspection. Just a part of our privacy policies."

"All perfectly normal," Lockwood assured her with that same tight-lipped smile.

He looked so odd like that, actually. But it wasn't the smile—he'd given those to tenants so that he could bite his tongue and keep his cool—but it was his eyes. Why did he look so… hostile? 

"Say, I suppose since you're here, ol' Sparky must have called in sick or something?" Lockwood asked.

The repairpony raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"You know, Sparky! Oh, sorry, maybe you guys call him by his full name down there at HQ. Uh, let's see, it was… Shinespark? Everypony around here calls him Sparky."

The repairpony chuckled and nodded. "Oh, Shinespark. Yeah, he called in sick this morning so they've got me walking around doing his shifts. I wasn't even supposed to be here today, y'know? Let me tell ya, these hours are the pits."

Lockwood shook his head, pursing his lips in a tight-lipped frown that Fluttershy was almost certain wasn't sincere. "Ah, I'm terribly sorry about that. Well, I'll be sure to give ol' Sparky a piece of mind on your behalf, next time I see him."

Fluttershy was a little lost. Lockwood had said Bolt Cutter was the WDP inspector for this part of the city. Who was this "Shinespark"?

"Well, it's best if I don't waste time," the repairpony said. "I've still got the other bedroom to do, plus the bathroom, kitchen, and living room. If you don't mind?"

"Don't let us keep you."

The repairpony nodded again, then headed into said other bedroom and closed the door behind him so that it was open just a crack.

As soon as he did, Lockwood gently closed it almost the rest of the way so that they couldn't hear what the repairpony was doing—and vice versa—then turned to Gray. "Gray, could you do me a favor and take Fluttershy down to your apartment for a little while? Now, if you would, please?"

Gray nodded as if she'd been asked a perfectly normal question. "Yeah, sure, no prob."

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, lost more than ever. "What? What's the matter, Lockwood?"

"Something's not right here, Fluttershy, and I would very much like to have you not be here right now," he replied, barely above a whisper.

"What are you talking about? Why?" Her eyes nervously darted about the room. "You're scaring me."

"This repairpony is absolutely not who he says he is. There isn't any Shinespark, so all that stuff he said was a load of baloney."

"Yeah, I picked up on that," Gray said, leaning back into the sofa a little. "Kinda obvious, really."

"I still don't get what you're saying, Lockwood," Fluttershy said, growing more anxious by the minute.

"I think that this fellow that definitely isn't with the WPD might try to do something to you if he gets you alone; it's not unheard of for ponies to pose as authority figures to lure their targets into a false sense of trust."

Gray nodded in agreement. "Makes sense. Standard predator behavior."

"What? What makes sense? What predator behavior?" Fluttershy aked, her heart racing. "You agreed with what he was saying—"

"Because what he was saying was a lie, and I wanted him to think I bought it like some kind of fool, which I am certainly not. WPD policy requires that their workers check in with the owner or landlord of the residence first, which would be me. Nopony met with me today, least of all this guy."

"You… you think this stallion is after me? For what?"

Lockwood frowned. "Oh, Fluttershy… I would really rather not say, but to put it simply, it would be bad. So, if you and Gray would step out for a few moments while I get to the bottom of this?"

"What, alone?" Gray asked, eyebrow up. "If you think this guy's a skeeze, I'll handle him."

He shook his head. "No, out of the question, I'm not putting either of you two in any danger."

"Dude. Have you seen me?" Gray flexed her foreleg a little.

"Maybe so, but it's my responsibility as landlord of this establishment to deal with issues such as this. Just head down to your apartment, Gray, and take Fluttershy with you. While you're there, call Flathoof, and tell him what's happening."

"So what are you going to do? This guy's gonna get suspicious if we leave."

"I'll say that you two stepped out for some air for a little while, as well as anything else I need to say to stall this 'repairpony' until Flathoof arrives to take care of him."

"Y-you want to keep us out of… out of d-danger, but you're willing to… to place yourself into it?" Fluttershy asked, hoof over her heart, anxiety levels rising.

Lockwood just gave her a little smile. "Come now, Fluttershy, do I look like the sort of pony that would put himself in danger just to get evidence of somepony's wrongdoing?" He patted her shoulder. "I'll be perfectly safe, don't you worry."

"But—"

"Let him be, Shy," Gray grunted as she rose from the sofa, giving a hard look at him as she passed by. "He's just got a bad case of white knight syndrome. Come on."

Fluttershy looked desperately at Gray. "But—"

"Shy. Come on." Gray said, taking Fluttershy's hoof.

"But—" Fluttershy tried to say again as Gray led her out of the apartment. She stared back at Lockwood, who just gave her a friendly wave as he closed the door behind them.


*****


Gray opened the door to her apartment and let Fluttershy inside, then closed and locked it behind them. "So—" she started to say.

"Gray, we have to do something!" Fluttershy peeped, nervously biting her hoof. "Wh-what if that… that other pony really is bad? What if he t-tries to hurt Lockwood?"

"That's why we're going to call Flathoof," Gray said as she stepped over to her apartment's telephone. "He won't take long to get here."

"But—"

"Let me just call him before you say anything else, okay?" Gray said, putting a hoof to Fluttershy's lips.

Fluttershy blushed. "Okay…"

Gray took a short breath, then called the direct line to the NPPD's Central Station, which she knew by heart; she'd seen it on the wall near the phone in Fluttershy's apartment once, and had an impeccable memory. Fluttershy and her friends had originally been given it so that they could contact him as their parole officer, but they could apparently still use it if they needed him for anything.

Like now.

The line rang once, twice. "Hello, NPPD Central Station, how may I direct your call?" came a feminine voice on the other end.

"Connect me to Captain Flathoof, please," Gray said with her usual casual tone.

"Alrighty. Hold please."

The line went on hold, playing a pleasant little jingle that Gray recognized from somewhere but that just didn't sound right as muzak.

"Shouldn't you let them know this is an emergency?" Fluttershy asked, barely able to stay still.

Gray shook her head. "Nah. They'd transfer me to the emergency line, and we'd have to deal with regular cops. They'd take too long."

The other line clicked. "This is Captain Flathoof," came Flathoof's baritone voice.

"Hey, this is Gray Skies, Fluttershy's friend. I don't think we've met before, but she's talked about you."

"No, I don't think we have," he said; he sounded confused, which was understandable. "What can I do for you, Miss Skies?"

She fought the urge to correct him; that wasn't important now. "So, uh, there's this repairpony in Fluttershy's apartment that's kind of acting suspicious. I've got her with me at my place, but Lockwood stuck around to confront the guy and stall him 'til you showed up."

There was a slight pause on the other end. "Lockwood's staying alone in a room with somepony he thinks is suspicious?" he asked, obviously displeased.

"Yup."

He sighed. "Of course he is. I'll be right there. Stay out of trouble." Then the phone clicked off, leaving the standard dial tone.

"Well? Is he coming?" Fluttershy asked, looking more and more like a frightened rabbit than ever.

"Said he'd be right here," Gray replied as she hung up the phone. "If he's anything like you say he is, he'll be here in ten minutes or so."

"Oh dear… no no no…" Fluttershy began pacing. "That's… that's too long. What if something happens? What if he doesn't get here in time? What if—"

"Hey, relax. Lockwood said he'd be okay, right?"

"B-but… I… oh, I don't know. Are you sure?"

Gray considered that for a moment. 

She'd always generally been brutally honest about things, especially with her sisters, and a part of her wanted to just tell Fluttershy exactly what she thought was going to happen: that the obviously-fake "repairpony" was likely going to attack Lockwood, maybe knock him out, then run off hoping that he hadn't been identified. Best case scenario he'd just run off; Lockwood didn't seem capable of outrunning or outflying anypony.

Another part of her wanted to lie and tell Fluttershy it would all be fine, if only so that they could just chill here in the apartment. Maybe she'd get to take a nap after being relegated to a mover pony for most of the day. Not that she was exhausted, but she'd skipped her normal late morning and mid-afternoon naps.

In the end, though, she knew that her mission was to ingratiate herself with Fluttershy, which she felt she'd legitimately done, and she didn't want to lose that progress, or the friendship, actually; she actually was starting to like the little pegasus, truth be told. It wouldn't make Fluttershy feel any better, but at least she'd be honest.

"If that 'repairpony' really is a bad guy, I doubt Lockwood could handle him if he got violent," she said with a light sigh.

Fluttershy peeped, hooves over her mouth. "Oh no… oh no, oh no, we… we have to help him! Wh-what if something happens?"

"What's all this 'we' stuff?" Gray asked, giving Fluttershy a hard look. "No offense, Shy, but you're a creampuff. And if this guy was trying to get you, you'd just complicate things being there."

"But—"

Gray knew she'd regret this. "Look, you're going to stay right here in my apartment, like Lockwood wanted, okay? Safe and sound. But, if it'll make you feel better…" She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'll go check in on him and make sure everything's alright."

"You… you'd do that?"

"Sure."

"But what if you—"

"Shy, remember, I'm me," Gray said, flexing her forelimb for emphasis.

Fluttershy stared at the bulging muscle a moment, then nodded. "O-okay. But… but be careful. You two are my friends, and… and I don't want anything to happen… to either of you…"

Gray moved to the door and walked out into the hall, leaving her key with Fluttershy. "Keep this door closed and locked. Don't open it for anypony you don't know. Got it?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Okay…"

With that, Gray closed the door, waited until she heard it lock from the other side, then made her way up the stairs back towards Fluttershy's apartment. 

The only thing Gray could really think about the whole climb up was how stupid this all was and how annoying it had become so quickly. If Lockwood didn't have some bizarre white knight syndrome, he'd have let her just smack this imposter around if he tried anything, and she'd be able to get back to lounging about in no time.

Now she was stuck doing more work, walking up and down these stupid, stupid stairs just because this doofus had some warped sense of chivalry or something. It might be his job to do what he was doing but he was stupid for doing it on his own, and Gray hated when ponies made her waste her time with boneheaded decisions.

The apartment door was still closed when she got there, and probably locked as well if she knew Lockwood—which she sort of did after going on a couple of lunches with him and Fluttershy. She tested it with a very careful twist of the knob; locked indeed.

She pressed her ear to the door to see if she could hear anything. It seemed oddly quiet in there; no voices, no sounds of a violent struggle, nothing. Then, she heard the very subtle sounds of hooves hitting the floor—not hoofsteps, but hooves hitting the floor, like tapping—as well as very weak grunting. Any other apartment and that would be a good sign that something fun was going on and that she should just walk away.

Given the circumstances, though…

Without too much effort, Gray bucked the door down, sending it sailing across the apartment, where it crashed into and broke the television set. Inside, even through the lack of lightning—only the light of the hall illuminated anything—she saw Lockwood struggling on the floor, the "repairpony" assailant choking him from behind with a large wrench, using his body weight to apply pressure.

Even in the poor lightning conditions, she could see that Lockwood's face was turning blue.

The assailant didn't even have time to react to Gray before she reached him in all of two steps and clocked him in the side of the head, knocking him off of Lockwood—who gasped for air and clutched at his throat—and to the floor.

The assailant barely recovered enough to try and take a swing at Gray; she just lifted her hoof and blocked it, the entire impact negated by her metal boot.

She clocked him again, this time on the jaw, and followed up by grabbing him by the shirt and slamming him into the floor hard enough to crack it. It helped that she could adjust his weight slightly by flaring her wings.

"Fun time's over," she said, pressing her hoof against the thug's throat and keeping her tone flat and even; this pony's unprofessional technique was just aggravating. "Really? Trying to kill him? A bit conspicuous, don't you think?"

"Not saying shit, bitch," he spat, at least as best as he could while her hoof was on his throat.

"Uh huh. You're not here just to take advantage of some mare, are you?"

"Huh?"

"You had hundreds of mares' apartments to choose from. You could've just asked my sister instead of all this fake story shit. Yet you picked this one. Why?"

The stallion didn't say anything, just pawed at her foreleg to try and get her hoof off him. Obviously, that wasn't going to work anytime soon; she'd increased her weight enough that he'd have to be three times his size to budge her even from a neutral position.

"Come on. Play along. Tell me what's really going on here." She placed her hindleg onto his groin, where she immediately began applying pressure, pinning his balls quite literally to the floor.

That got a reaction. "Fffff— n-not telling you… anything!"

"Try again." More pressure; more pain.

"Ahhh! Okay! Okay! I was after somepony specific!"

"Who?"

"A… a mare named Fluttershy."

"Why?"

"I… I don't know!"

"Wrong answer." Again, more pressure, more pain.

The stallion's eye twitched. "Nnng! I… I swear! We're just supposed to rough them up a bit and take them to the spot!"

Gray arched an eyebrow. "'We'?" she asked, loosening the pressure a bit.

"Yeah, this Fluttershy chick's not the only one. I don't know the others."

Gray reapplied the pressure, more this time; at this rate, the stallion would probably have trouble walking when he got up. "Yes you do."

"Augh! Ffffuck!" he bawled, his voice a little higher pitched. "I… okay! I remember, uh… it was some weird name. Like, uh… Jackalope or… Pineapple…?"

"Applejack?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"What are your pals doing with Applejack?"

"I don't know. Same thing, I guess?"

Gray applied the most amount of pressure she could before she broke his balls and ensured he'd never sire a foal, again, quite literally.

"I swear!" His voice was cracking; he sounded like he'd swallowed a squeaky toy. "That's all I know!"

"You said 'others'. Applejack is just one."

"I don't know! I swear to you, I don't know!"

"Fine. This 'spot'? Where is it?"

"Corner of 123 West and 789 South, out in Mid-West. It was just the meeting point, I swear, I don't know what else we were supposed to do."

Gray stared at the stallion a moment, then released the pressure off of his balls, though she still kept him pinned by the throat. "You'd better be telling the truth," she said, pressing down hard enough that he'd feel like a bus was on top of him, "or I'm going to finish what I started."

He could really only whimper, his hooves cradling his assuredly tenderized privates.

Lockwood, who'd been watching the whole thing while rubbing his neck, also had a hoof to his groin in what was likely a shared male pain reflex. "Well… I guess all I can say is thank you, Gray. I was definitely not expecting him to react that way when I said that I was the landlord and all the procedures he was supposed to be following."

Gray snorted and fixed him with a glare. "You're gonna get yourself killed, doing shit like that."

"Wouldn't be the first time somepony told me that." He staggered to his hooves. "As much as I appreciate the rescue, you shouldn't have come back. Where's Fluttershy?"

"Locked in my apartment. She'll open it for you if you head down there."

"Good. Good." Lockwood headed to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water, choking it down. "Ah… that's better." He also grabbed a Dolor packet out of the freezer—she couldn't tell the color in the dark—and set it to his face. "Much better."

Gray noticed that he had a bruise around his eye because it caught the light. "I'd ask why he tried to kill you, but my guess is these guys don't want witnesses."

"Probably not, no. Please tell me Flathoof is on the way."

As if on cue—

"Lockwood!" Flathoof exclaimed as he stomped into the room. "Are you alright?"

Lockwood smiled and waved the police captain over. "Hey, there he is. Wow, Flathoof, you made good time. This has gotta be a department record."

"Cut the wise-ass attitude, you idiot. What the hell were you thinking, putting yourself alone with a suspicious individual? Huh? You could've been—" A pause as he looked at Lockwood's swollen eye. "Sonuva— really? Again?"

"No worries, ol' buddy. Gray here was quick on the uptake and got up here to take care of things in time," Lockwood said with a gesture towards Gray. "I don't think you've met, right?"

Flathoof looked briefly toward Gray and gave her a once-over that took all of a second. "Hi." He turned back to Lockwood. "Still—"

"That's not important right now," Lockwood interrupted, setting his hoof on Flathoof's shoulder. "Gray was able to get some information out of this guy. There are more of them, and apparently they're after Applejack."

Flathoof paled. "Wh-what?"

"It's what he said," Gray confirmed. "They're gonna 'rough her up and take her to the spot'. Paraphrased."

"Shit. She's getting off work about now, and she's gonna be with… my dad. Shit." He turned to the door, where another, much younger police officer with an emerald green coat was waiting patiently outside. "Cadet! Read this punk his rights, cuff him, and get him to the station. And take a statement from these two and Fluttershy."

The other officer saluted. "Yes sir!"

Flathoof didn't wait around to hear the response, though, as he was already bounding down the stairs.

Gray casually let off the pressure on the thug's neck as the police cadet came over and cuffed his hooves behind his back. 

Said cadet then looked up at Gray carefully, his eyes slightly narrowed. "Uh, I don't know when this other attack is supposed to happen, but if it's any time soon, the Captain couldn't possibly make it in time, even if he could run twice as fast as he can."

"Yeah," Gray said. "And?"

"Are you a good flyer?"

Gray tilted her head. "I guess?"

"Well, uh, I don't want to impose or anything, but seeing as how you're already involved… maybe you should go help? You'd probably make it there first, actually. I mean, the gravity of the situation seems pretty dire."

Gray was about to respond, when she saw that the cadet's hard look up at her was very familiar. She didn't even hesitate. "Yeah, alright," she said with a nod. She glanced at Lockwood briefly. "You gonna be okay?"

Lockwood waved that off. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Keep an eye on Fluttershy for me, okay?"

"Absolutely, I wouldn't dream anything otherwise."

With that, Gray walked out the door of the apartment, then glanced briefly at the frame, then back into the apartment at the cracked floor and broken television. "Uh… sorry about the mess."


*****


Since the power was out in Fluttershy's apartment, Lockwood headed down to Gray's apartment as soon as Cadet Gumshoe left with the fake repairpony; the cadet said he'd come back later to take statements after putting the crook through processing.

Lockwood gave the door a brief knock, waited only a moment, then smiled when Fluttershy opened the door. "Hey!" he said. "See, told you everything would be o—"

He stopped when she threw her hooves around him in a hug.

"—kay." He could hear her crying just a little bit, so he slowly put his hooves on her back and gave her a gentle pat. "Oh, hey, hey, it's alright. I'm fine. Just a little shiner, nothing an ice pack won't fix."

Fluttershy looked at the swelling around his eye and gasped. "Oh no! I just knew you'd get hurt. This is all my—"

"Ah! Ah ah! Don't you dare," he scolded, shaking his hoof gently. "If anypony is to blame for any of this, it's that guy, not you, not anypony else. Don't even think about blaming yourself for this, okay? You're not even remotely responsible for what happened."

"But—"

"No buts! We don't have time to play any blame games right now, okay? We've got much more important things to talk about and take care of. And not the power in your apartment; that'll get taken care of tomorrow."

He moved past her into the apartment, shutting the door behind him and immediately moving towards the phone.

"What are you talking about? What's wrong besides that?" she asked.

"Gray got that fake repairpony talking," he said, leaving out the more violent details, some of which still made his hoof subconsciously want to be sure his own family jewels were intact. "And apparently, he didn't pick your apartment at random. He was specifically after you. Used your name and everything."

Fluttershy's eyes widened. "What? Why? I never did anything to anypony, why would somepony be after me?"

"I don't know, but Gray also got out of him that he wasn't just after you. Flathoof and Gray are on their way north right now to try to find Applejack, because the guy mentioned that he wasn't working alone, and that she's another target."

"What?! Oh no, we have to warn her—"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do," Lockwood said as he dialed the number for the Foundry's service line. 

It rang once, twice. Then, an automated message: "You have reached the Foundry service department. If you know the extension—"

Lockwood knew it by heart, and dialed it in.

The phone rang again. Once. Twice. "Supervisor Clay Brick speaking."

"Hello, I was just wondering if a Miss Applejack was there, and if I could speak to her please?"

"You just missed her, son, she clocked out about ten minutes ago. Need me to take a message or anything?"

"No, but do you happen to know if she left with anypony?"

Clay chuckled. "Look, I'm not gonna go giving some random little shit on the phone a bunch of—"

"I'm not a random anything, actually. I'm a friend of Flathoof's, Forepony Stouthoof's son. This is an urgent matter, and if you could be of any help I would greatly appreciate it, and so would he."

There was a brief pause on the other end. "Okay, yeah, she left with Stouthoof to walk home together, same as she always does after work. Left about ten minutes ago, like I said."

"Damn."

"What's this all about?"

"Family business, sorry. It's complicated. Thank you for the information, though."

"Uh, sure. Hope things work out for you." The other line clicked, leaving Lockwood at the dial tone.

"Oh no, is everything okay?" Fluttershy asked, biting her hoof.

"She left with Flathoof's dad about ten minutes ago, so they're already making their way home," Lockwood sighed. "Gray's going to have to fly pretty dang fast to catch them before anything happens, but luckily she seems the sort that could do it. Big wingspan, eh?"

Fluttershy gulped, then nodded; there was a hint of a blush in her cheeks. "I hope everypony's going to be okay…"

"I'm going to call the rest of our friends, alright?" Lockwood said as he reached for the phone again. He pulled a little black book out of his pocket, which he always kept on him and which listed all of his contacts. "Better safe than sorry, right?"

He first called the CDH building to try and get in touch with Twilight, and was surprised when Chief Librarian Archimedes—he recognized the voice from past interactions—answered right away, almost on the first ring. "CDH, Chief Librarian Archimedes speaking. How can I help you?"

"I was wondering if I could speak with Twilight Sparkle? It's urgent."

"Miss Sparkle left about an hour ago," said Archimedes. 

"Oh. Was she with anypony?"

"She was in the company of a friend of hers that does research here daily, I believe a Miss Glow?"

Lockwood was surprised he was being so forward and helpful. But he wasn't going to question it. "Well, thanks anyway, sir, much appreciated." He hung up and turned to Fluttershy. "Twilight's on her way home, too. Winter's with her. Hopefully they're coming straight here."

Fluttershy nodded, a little more assured at that. "Twilight's really good with magic, and she says Winter knows her stuff, too. I… I think they'll be fine, right?"

"Absolutely," he replied with a grin, more confident about it than she was at least. Twilight and Winter did seem the sorts to be able to handle themselves.

Next, Lockwood called over at the Mid-East Rockets' headquarters, and was able to get transferred to Rainslick relatively quickly. "Hey buddy, what can I do for ya?" the talent scout asked, a jovial lilt to his voice. "I mean, I owe you big time for putting me in touch with Rainbow Dash. This game is going great."

Lockwood paused a moment. "So the game's still on, is it? Must be in like the fourth period by now."

"Yeah, and that clock is ticking down, and I have never been so eager to see it happen. Between Rainbow's scoring and our new blocker putting up a practical firewall, the Rockets are— nope, not gonna jinx it. Nope nope nope. Almost did it, almost screwed it up."

"And Rainbow's on the field, then?"

"Yeah, of course she is. What kind of question is that? Even if I had a reserve player to sub in for her, I'd never take her off the field! That mare's scored more points in this one game than the Rockets scored all last season!"

Lockwood nodded. "Can you tell her to come straight home after the game? I know you guys probably want to celebrate afterwards, but it's crucial that she comes home immediately after she's done.

"Oh, uh, sure. Everything okay?"

"It's a bit complicated and I can't go over it with you, but if you could do that for me, I'd appreciate it."

"Well… I did say I owe you. I'll just have to drag her into a cele— nope, almost jinxed it again. I'd better get going before I put my hoof in my mouth."

"Great, thanks, Rainslick. Good luck!"

"So?" Fluttershy asked.

"Rainbow's on the court right now, so I doubt anypony's going to try anything in a public area with a lot of witnesses," Lockwood replied. "And if she heads home immediately afterwards, knowing how fast she is, she'll be here in a few minutes. Unless there's a traffic jam or something, which is really the safest place she could be."

Next, Lockwood called up Lovers' Lane's reception desk. "Lovers' Lane, how can I help stylize your day?"

"Is there any way you can put me in touch with Rarity, of the new… Rising Star line? I know they're doing a show tonight, but it's urgent."

"I'll direct you to the showroom's backstage, just a moment."

The line ringed, and ringed, and ringed. A airy-voiced stallion answered: "Lovers' Lane Showroom, this is Lens Flare, we're in the middle of a showcase—"

"Can you put me in touch with Rarity of Rising Star for a moment? It's urgent."

"Okay… let me see if I can— oh, there she is. Just a moment, sweetie." The line went quiet for a moment, the stallion clearly blocking the receiver with his hoof.

Then: "Um, hello? This is Rarity speaking—"

"Rarity, great! This is Lockwood."

"Oh, Lockwood! Hello, darling. Calling to wish me and Insipid a bit of luck tonight?"

"Uh, not exactly. Listen, are you safe right now? Like are you in a safe area?"

Rarity paused. "I'm afraid I don't understand, dear. What seems to be the trouble?"

"Okay, look, I'll be quick: somepony tried to foalnap Fluttershy earlier, and—"

"What?!" she yelled so loud that Lockwood had to hold his phone away from his ear. "Is she okay?!"

Lockwood held the phone's mouthpiece over to Fluttershy. "Oh, hello, Rarity," Fluttershy peeped into the receiver. "Wow, it sounds noisy on your end. Are you in the middle of the showcase already?"

Lockwood held the earpiece between himself and Fluttershy so they could both hear: "Yes, darling, I am, they're just doing the pre-show announcements. Are you okay? Did anypony hurt you?"

"I'm fine, Rarity, thank you," Fluttershy said with a grin. "Um, Gray and Lockwood kept me safe."

"Oh, thank goodness. I'll have to thank the two of them when I get back."

Lockwood moved the mouthpiece back to himself. "Rarity, back to my earlier question: are you safe right now?"

"I am, I suppose? I'm backstage here at the runway stage right now waiting for the curtain call. Insipid is going up third; she's so excited!"

Lockwood let out a breath. "Okay, so, Gray was able to get some information out of the guy that tried to grab Fluttershy, and found out that he has friends that might be going after some of you. You might need to leave and get someplace safer—"

"Absolutely not! This is our big night! If we don't perform well, we'll be kicked off the brand! My career— no, Insipid's career will be over. I don't care about myself, but this poor dear is putting her entire heart and soul into this."

"Can't she just go out there without you? She's the model—"

"Lockwood, darling, let me be clear: Insipid looks to me for courage and inspiration. If I'm not here for her tonight, she might not have the confidence to go out there and do this; she's told me as much, in fact. I couldn't live with myself if I broke her heart like that."

"But—"

"I will not leave her to drown in these shark-filled waters, Lockwood. I'm certain Fluttershy can hear me right now, and she'd tell you that I need to be here."

Lockwood glanced over, and Fluttershy nodded at that. He sighed. "Okay, okay, fine. At least tell me there's security at the event?"

"Of course there is. Chantilly and Lapel are running a proper showcase here, not some amateur hour presentation. There's security and a fairly large crowd. I can handle myself just fine if any ruffians try to ruin our big evening, I assure you."

"I don't doubt that you can. I'm just worried, that's all. I won't force you to leave if you're sure about this?"

"I am, darling, and I trust you to watch over Fluttershy for me until I can get back. And to make sure the others are alright as well."

"I will."

"Then we're— oh! I have to go, the show's starting. Wish us luck!"

The line clicked, leaving just the dial tone.

Lockwood rolled his eyes. "That's not how I was expecting that to go."

It was Fluttershy who set her hoof on his shoulder. "Don't worry about her, Lockwood. Rarity can be… very ferocious when she has to be, especially when she wants to make sure her friends are getting what they want. If she says she'll be okay, she will be."

"I suppose so. There should be enough ponies there to keep an eye on her, too." Lockwood shook his head. "Well, it can't be helped. Moving on then."

He dialed up the number of The Sweet Spot, but: "You have reached The Sweet Spot," came an automated message in Cinnamon Swirls' voice. "The shop is closed right now. If you need to place an order, please leave your name and number—"

"I figured as much," Lockwood said, hanging up. He glanced at the time and shook his head. "Where is Pinkie, anyway? She's usually home by now, right?"

Fluttershy frowned and shook her head. "Ever since I started making dinner for everypony, she's taken to hanging out with Velvet before coming home, since she doesn't need to make it herself. I think she mentioned last night that they wanted to go shopping together." She blushed and hid behind her mane. "For, uh… c-clothes."

Lockwood wasn't sure why Fluttershy was acting nervous talking about clothes shopping, but he supposed she was just getting anxious about the situation. "Well, it's not a good idea for us to go looking for her, and I can't contact anypony else. Damn."

Fluttershy definitely looked anxious now. "I hope she's okay…"


*****


Gray flew north from Southeast Point as soon as she was able to get airborne. Between her large wingspan for power and a shift in gravity so that her weight was being pulled horizontally north instead of downwards, she felt she'd make pretty good time getting to the streets around the Foundry. From there she'd just need to find Applejack, which wouldn't be too hard: just look for a stetson, she was the only pony that had one.

Before she could do that, however: "Dawn, this is Gray reporting in. We've got an issue," she said via the magical telepathic connection that her youngest sister had set up.

Dawn's voice came loud and clear immediately. "Report."

"There was somepony posing as a repairpony just a few minutes ago that tried to assault Fluttershy in her apartment. I put a stop to it and interrogated him afterwards. He's working with others, and some are going after Applejack; I'm on my way towards her right now."

"…and Fluttershy is not with you?"

"I left her with Lockwood, they're locked in my apartment right now. You should get in touch with the others; Applejack might not be the only other target. Do you have eyes on Twilight?"

"At this present moment, no. I departed from the library hours ago to leave her and the Chronomancer to their own intellectual investigations. It would assuredly prove suspicious if I were to return to their company, but Twilight should be more than capable of self-defense. However, I shall delegate orders to the others to safeguard their charges."

"That's alright, actually, you can still help. The guy I interrogated said they would be taking their targets to some 'spot' in the corner of 123 West and 789 South, out in Mid-West."

"Typically I would delegate such a task to Curaçao, whilst I interrogate this would-be assailant—"

"It's alright, I actually left the guy with Curaçao already. She might get more out of him than I did."

There was a pause. "You met Curaçao out in the field? Are you certain?"

"Pretty certain, yeah."

"Hmm. Then that is an acceptable situation, assuming you are correct in your assertion. I will locate this 'spot' and investigate, while Curaçao delegates orders to the others in my stead. You will continue on your current trajectory. Is that understood?"

"Roger that, sis."

With that, the connection closed, and Gray flew on.


*****


Gray arrived at the main quarter of the Mid-North District where the Foundry was located in no time at all; it helped that she completely—and very much illegally—bypassed all of the carefully-marked skylines that pegasi were supposed to follow, but at the speed she'd been going, no normal pegasus would have bothered to try and catch her anyway.

Once at her destination, she set about her search for an orange earth pony mare wearing a stetson hat. Her eyes darted to and fro among the streets below her, keeping to the rooftops so that she wouldn't be noticed or stalled by any wannabe cops, since she was moving at a regular pace now. It still wasn't exactly legal to be on the rooftops either, but there wasn't a law against it yet, so she'd carry on.

It took several minutes, but eventually she managed to spot who she was looking for: Applejack, apparently safe and sound and currently walking along the sidewalk with an older earth pony stallion who was quite obviously Flathoof's father, if Gray were to make a guess.

She considered just watching from afar until the two made it to the latter's home, but that was still a fair distance away and she didn't know what to expect from any would-be attackers. Plus, with the crowd the way it was, anypony could potentially be up to no good and might attack the pair from up close without warning. No, she needed to warn them directly; it's what Flathoof would be doing if he were here, and she didn't see a reason to do any different.

So, she swooped down from the current rooftop perch she was on, and made sure to call out "Hey, Applejack" before landing.

Applejack turned her head and noticed Gray coming down, her face a perfect picture of confusion. "Yeah? Uh, do I know you?"

Gray nodded; the two of them hadn't formally met, either, since Applejack usually had dinner at Flathoof's home these days so that her friends weren't waiting two extra hours for her before they could eat. At least that's what Fluttershy said, and it made perfect sense.

It wasn't the first time she'd ever seen Applejack, of course, but those had just been pictures, and were obviously outdated by now. This other earth pony had clearly put on a lot of muscle tone since those pictures had been taken; she was absolutely jacked, as Havoc would no doubt put it. It was probably from all that work in the factory, not to mention taking eighty-four floors worth of stairs twice every day for a week.

"We've never met, but I'm friends with Fluttershy," Gray said. "Name's Gray."

Applejack nodded in understanding. "Oh yeah, Velvet's sister. Fluttershy's mentioned ya before. You're as big as she said you'd be."

"Yup."

"Neat. Weird that I ain't ever seen ya 'round, though."

"We've just got different schedules." Gray cleared her throat. "Hey, so, I'm gonna be brief about this: somepony tried to foalnap Fluttershy earlier—"

Applejack's eyes widened. "What?! Is she—"

"She's fine, I kept her safe, and she's with Lockwood right now. I beat some answers out of the guy afterwards, and he said that he had friends coming after you."

"After me?" Applejack asked, incredulous. "What in the hay did I do that somepony's tryin' to come after me? Or Fluttershy, for that matter?"

"Don't know, don't care. All that matters is that I flew over here to make sure you're alright." She glanced around to see if she could spot a specific familiar face, and could not. "Looks like I made it before Flathoof did."

"Flathoof's on his way?" asked Stouthoof, giving Gray a hard look.

"Yeah. He came over right after he heard what happened, then we told him about you two, so he's on his way here as we speak."

"That's my boy," Stouthoof said, nudging Applejack gently. "The NPPD's finest, through and through."

"That don't explain why you're here, though," Applejack noted, tilting her head. "Shouldn't y'all be lettin' the police take care of this?"

"That cadet that was with him said I could make it here faster and, I dunno, authorized me to come, I guess?"

"That's Gumshoe, ain't it?" Applejack asked Stouthoof.

Stouthoof nodded. "Yeah. Good kid, real eager."

"Alright, guess it all checks out," Applejack said with a nod. "Uh, nice to meet ya, by the way."

"Yeah, same," Gray said.

She then paused for a moment, glancing over in the direction where Applejack and Stouthoof were heading before she'd showed up. She was absolutely certain that she saw somepony over there, a unicorn stallion, acting suspicious; he was seated at an outdoor restaurant, and while it looked like he was just watching the crowd go by, his gaze lingered far too long in Applejack's direction. He also wasn't eating anything and didn't touch his drink.

It wasn't just him, either; there were two others nearby as well, likely to account for Stouthoof being here as well in case he tried to help; strength in numbers.

One, an earth pony stallion, was casually leaning against a wall in an alleyway next to the restaurant, smoking a cigarette and looking perfectly nondescript, except that he, too, was looking right towards Applejack far too often. He and the unicorn even met each other's gaze one time too many to be a coincidence. Amateurs.

The other was a pegasus, who was up above the restaurant cleaning a window of the office building that the restaurant was built next to. He wasn't even remotely as discreet as the other two, his eyes going from the window towards Applejack in particular more than once, as if waiting for her to get closer.

Gray wasn't sure when or how they'd try to spring their attack, but she was sure that it wasn't going to happen now that she was here. A simple flick of her wing caused the pegasus pony's water bucket to increase exponentially in weight, dragging him with it down to the ground and crashing right on the unicorn's table like a load of bricks.

With those two effectively distracted and tangled up both together, and with the sudden crowd of onlookers gawking over the amusing sideshow, the alleyway stallion glanced towards Applejack again, and this time caught Gray staring right back at him. She lifted her hoof to her eyes, pointed towards him, and that was all that was needed.

He just turned around and headed into the alley, tossing his cigarette aside.

"They hay's goin' on over there?" Applejack asked, lifting her head up to try and see over the crowd at the commotion. 

Gray realized it really had been a good thing she was here; this other mare clearly hadn't noticed anything suspicious.

"Eh, accidents happen," Gray said with a shrug. "Come on, let's get you two home, huh?"


*****


Flathoof raced along the bus route leading through Mid-North at a brisk pace, not quite a full gallop—he'd run out of energy before he even got through Mid-West if he did—but quickly enough that he was outpacing the vehicles. He traveled along a designated lane for emergency vehicles and responders, a small siren attached to his police cap so that ponies would keep clear and busses would be alerted to his presence.

He arrived at his home feeling like his legs were on fire; he'd made the entire trip from Southeast Point all the way here on hoof in just over ninety minutes, which was probably a department record for sure if he cared to check. This, by the way, was why Central Station's response time was so bad to districts other than Mid-South; nopony wanted to run this far, this fast, for this long.

He went straight up to the door and opened it up. He heard noises coming from the dining room, what sounded like yelling, actually. "Applejack?! Dad?! Everypony o—"

The sight he beheld as he entered the living room shocked him.

"—kay…"

Applejack sat on one side of the dining table—dinner hadn't been served yet—with her right elbow firmly in place in the center. Opposite her, her own right elbow on the table, was Gray. The two of them had their hooves locked together and looked to be having a hoof-wrestling contest. Considering that Flathoof knew how incredibly strong Applejack was—a week of hauling shipping containers did that to you—he was surprised that Gray was keeping even.

His dad and both of his brothers were watching the display, cheering Applejack on since they knew her best, but all of that amounted to very little since the two mares seemed so evenly matched. Neither of them looked like they were particularly struggling, and the match was teetering in the middle perfectly, with the balance only shifting fractions of an inch either way.

"What in the hell is going on here?" he asked in total disbelief.

Stouthoof lifted his head up to glance at his son, unimpressed with his arrival. "Hey, look who finally decided to show up. NPPD's finest, my ass."

Flathoof gestured between his father and Applejack. "Are you two okay?"

"Shit, son, did you run so hard that your eyes stopped working? Of course we're okay. Look at us." Stouthoof pointed his hoof at Flathoof sternly. "And take all that crap off. Your mother's getting dinner ready and she'll blow a gasket if you come anywhere near this table still in full uniform."

Flathoof just stared at his dad, then shook his head and sighed. "I take it nopony tried to attack you?"

"No, son. Nopony tried to attack us. Although Gray here said she scared a few off before she met up with us."

Flathoof looked in Gray's direction. "Speaking of which, just what in the hell are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay put with Fluttershy and Lockwood."

Gray grunted, but didn't take her focus off the contest of strength in which she was engaged. "I made it here first. If I didn't leave, something bad might have happened." She glanced in his direction briefly. "You're welcome."

"And thank you for that, I suppose, but still… I don't feel right letting a civvy get involved with all of this."

"Aww, relax, Flathoof," Applejack said, also not taking her focus off of the contest. "Any friend of Fluttershy's is a friend of mine, I figure, and Gray seems like a mighty nice gal, I tell ya what. Y'all should be glad she came to help, actually."

Flathoof kept his attention on Gray. "You're sure that you scared off anypony that might have been after them?"

"Positive," she replied.

"What if somepony followed them home?"

"They didn't."

"You'll forgive me if I want to make sure of that. No offense."

"Suit yourself."

Flathoof turned to his dad. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna check out the block and make sure there's nopony watching the place."

"You're too paranoid, son—" Stouthoof started.

"Some scumbag attacked Lockwood!" Flathoof snapped. "His friends could've done the same to you! To Applejack! If I'm being paranoid, then so be it. Better safe than sorry."

"Somepony attacked Lockwood?" Stouthoof asked with genuine concern. "Is he hurt?"

"He was fine, last I saw him, just a nasty black eye."

Stouthoof let out a breath of relief. "Phew. At least it's not like the last time somepony mugged him. You're sure he's okay?"

"Yes, I'm sure. And my point still stands: he was lucky. Miss Skies here," Flathoof said, gesturing to Gray, "apparently got to him before anything worse happened."

Stouthoof glanced at Gray. "You didn't tell us Lockwood got hurt."

Gray shrugged. "Wasn't important. Getting you out of danger was."

"Fair enough. Still, thank you." Stouthoof turned back to Flathoof. "Your mother's serving dinner soon, and we're not gonna wait for you to do a full patdown of the whole neighborhood before we get started. Some of us got just off work at a real job."

"That's fine. I won't take long." Flathoof adjusted his cap and turned for the door.

"Hey, hold on a sec," Gray said, shifting her wings a little bit. "I'm coming with."

Without warning, she brought Applejack's hoof to the table, hard enough that Applejack couldn't seem to fight it, but somehow gently enough that she didn't slam into the table too hard, just enough to shake the couple of glasses. Applejack just looked stunned as she stared at her hoof; Thickhoof and Shorthoof seemed to freeze in shock.

Flathoof raised an eyebrow. "Look, Miss Skies—"

"It's Gray. Nopony calls me Miss Skies."

"Okay, fine. This isn't exactly your business anymore, Gray, if you don't mind. Thank you for what you've done, really, but—"

"Holy shit, son, get that stick out of your ass and let the mare help if she wants to help," Stouthoof grunted. "It's bad enough that Lockwood always tries to do everything himself and gets himself into trouble for it; we don't need you doing it too. You don't have the excuse that he does."

Flathoof paused a moment, then rolled his eyes and gestured for Gray to follow him outside. "Fine, come on then. Just stick close to me so we don't get separated."

She nodded, stood, and followed into the living room then out onto the sidewalk.

As they started their way down to the corner to scope out the block—which was mostly empty at this time of the evening, as usual—Flathoof sighed. "Sorry about all that. I didn't mean to be rude back there, I'm just—"

"Nah, it's cool, I get it," she said, glancing across the street, her eyes darting about in search of trouble. "I kind of stole your thunder a bit, didn't I?"

He scoffed. "That's not it. It's my job to protect ponies, whether they be the softer sort like Fluttershy or the tough-as-nails sort like you seem to be. That's just what I do. It's not you're stealing my thunder or anything like that, it's just that I don't feel right when somepony else is doing my job for me."

"That's… what 'stealing your thunder' means," she said, looking at him like he'd just spouted off a bunch of gibberish, which he realized he kind of did.

"That's not what… ah, forget it. Look, just… thanks. Okay? Thank you for making sure my dad and Applejack got home safe. I don't know what I would've done if anything happened to them because I wasn't fast enough. Bad enough that I've got one friend missing…"

His thoughts drifted for a moment to Snapshot, and how nothing had come up yet that led him anywhere closer to finding her.

Gray paused a moment then nodded. "So, you like her or something?"

He tilted his head. "Who? Applejack? I mean, sure, but… oh. You mean— No, not like that," he said with a weak smile. "We're just friends."

He could admit to himself that he'd found Applejack rather attractive at one point, and still kind of did, actually—there was just something about a mare that could probably kick his ass that really checked his boxes—but that had passed days ago. She just reminded him too much of his sister, what with the similar looks and all, though it would be a stronger resemblance if Pattycake could stand to go to the gym more often than… well, never.

If circumstances were different then maybe, sure, but after a week of sharing family dinners with her and seeing her bond with his parents like she was another daughter, there was no way he'd ruin any of that by thinking with his dick instead of his head. 

That, and he was completely certain at this point that the feeling was entirely mutual; if she'd ever found him attractive, he didn't know it, but she'd definitely said more than once how she felt like part of the family, almost like being home for her.

"How'd you guys all meet, anyway?" Gray asked, though her attention was still mostly focused on scoping out the street. "Fluttershy says you and Lockwood helped them out when they first got here."

"Yeah, we did. They came in from out of town and there was a paperwork mix-up somewhere that led to them getting arrested; you know how the city is. I got assigned as their parole officer, and I guess I just… sort of took pity on them and decided to help them out of a bind. Lockwood was the first pony I thought of to get them in touch with."

"Yeah, he seems resourceful. Fluttershy's been telling me how much he's given them for pretty much nothing." She grunted and shook her head. "It's kind of weird."

He raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Well, not a lot of ponies do things like that and ask for nothing in return."

"You seemed to do it just fine, Miss Fly-Across-The-City," he replied with a grin.

She paused. "That's different. Fluttershy's my friend. I did this for a friend, not a stranger."

"Lockwood always says a stranger's just a friend you haven't met yet."

"Yeah, or a dude that's gonna clock you in the eye with a wrench."

He laughed at that; this mare had a quick wit to her that he kind of liked. It was a rocky first start, but he felt he was repairing that first impression. "Fair enough. Still, you did a really good thing for your friend, in that case. And, uh… thank you again, for taking care of Lockwood. I appreciate that more than you know."

She paused a moment. "Okay, now I have to ask: are you and him… y'know…"

Flathoof arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"A couple?"

Flathoof stopped walking so that he didn't trip over himself in shock. "Wh-what? What gave you that idea?"

Gray just looked at him, eyes half-lidded. "Dude. Really? The way you've been talking about him, and the way he talks about you? You two are close. Super close."

"Well, we're not close like that!" he blurted, finding himself flummoxed like he was still just a colt. "He's been my best friend since high school. More than that he's… he's like a brother to me. I mean, legally speaking, he is, but—"

"Wait, what?"

Flathoof sighed. "I mean, we don't exactly keep it a secret, but we also don't exactly talk about it much. My family sort of… adopted him, a while back. Well, technically he adopted us, I guess you could say."

Gray's expression was blank. "I have no idea what that means."

"Well, he knew all sorts of tax loopholes and stuff that could help my family out financially. We're not exactly wealthy, as you can tell from our home. But, he needed to be part of the family to make it work. My parents loved him like a son already, so… y'know, might as well make it official."

"How'd you two get to be good enough friends where he'd do something like that?"

He smirked. "You ever get a good look at Lockwood? He's not exactly an imposing stallion, right?"

"Kind of scrawny, yeah," Gray said with a nod. "Let me guess: bullies?"

"Mhmm. I sort of stepped in to put a stop to it, because I'm not the sort of guy that tolerates a bully, no matter who or where they are. That's when I figured out I wanted to be a cop, actually."

"You're not helping your case any. That's pretty cliché 'fall in love' stuff."

He groaned, shaking his head. "No, no, no. That's not what happened, I promise you. We're just friends, and legally we're brothers, but that's all there is to it."

"You're awfully defensive about it."

"Because it's not true!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

She paused, looking him over briefly, then nodded. "Okay. I believe you." She tilted her head, catching onto another thought it seemed. "So, you're probably why he developed his white knight syndrome."

"Oh, that? No… I'm not the cause of that. I mean, maybe it's a factor, but I'm hardly the sole reason if that's the case."

"He's got a real bad case of it, y'know? He does some really stupid shit to try and protect ponies he cares about."

"Like locking himself in a room with somepony that he suspects might potentially be a rapist, foalnapper, or murderer?" Flathoof grumbled. "Yeah, he does do some pretty stupid shit. This isn't the first time he's gotten himself in trouble like this."

"You seem to know why. So, spill. Because I'm really not getting it."

"Well, it's not really my story to tell," Flathoof said with a sad smile. "It's very personal to him because it has to do with something that happened when he was very young. Ask him about it if you really want to know more than that."

"Fair enough," she said with a nod. "You're pretty protective of him, even though he's not really your brother."

"Yeah, well… you know the old saying, 'the blood of the covenant' and all that," he said, looking down the nearby alleyway, a rush of nostalgia going through him. "He might have been a bit underhoofed about the adoption, but… he did it with all the good intentions in the world.

"It doesn't matter that we don't share any real blood together, he's as much a part of my family as anypony. He helped me get into the Police Academy; he helped with our finances so that my dad could spend time with the family instead of working two shifts; he helped my mom when she went into early labor with Shorthoof; he helped us pay for Thickhoof's treatment when he got crippled.

"And, he did all of that, all of it… just because I stood up and told a group of young punks 'no, not today'. I… I don't know where my family would be without him, or where he would be without us, but it's not a world I'd ever want to live in."

Gray, who'd stood there and let him go off on his little tangent, just gave him a small nod. "Well, then I guess it's a good thing you guys met in the long run. Sounds like you're both much better off for it."

Flathoof smiled. "Eyyup… we are."

They finished the rest of the patrol in silence.


*****


Dawn arrived at the coordinates that she'd been given with relative ease; since she knew the specifics of the location she was going to and could pinpoint its latitude and longitude using city resources, it was a simple matter of teleportation at that point. She knew with certainty that no unicorn besides herself was so precise and talented with teleportation; nopony else could position themselves with the sheer accuracy that she could.

So, with a flash and a pop, she instantly appeared directly on the corner of 123 West and 789 South; given the late hour, the streets weren't crowded, so there had been minimal risk of there being anypony in the exact spot she was to materialize, which might have been… messy. Nopony even seemed to notice that she'd appeared, as if it was a perfectly common sight, or perhaps they were too distracted to care.

The small crowd was still plenty noisy, however, with assorted ponies sharing trivial conversations with one another as they passed by. A hulking bus blared its horn as it reached a stop so that more ponies could crowd the streets as well. Altogether, though, it was all terribly beneath Dawn's consideration.

What was worth considering was the large building that occupied the corner at her destination, simply because it stood out. The other buildings on the remaining three corners at this crossroad were small businesses that were still open to the public: a horseshoe shop with several spiffy window displays, a mane salon that catered exclusively to mares and fillies, and a toy store with a set of plush, colorful bears in the window with little cutie mark-like emblems on their stomachs.

But this big building, well, it was… curious.

For one thing, there was every indication that it was a fully-furnished office building, just based upon its size and shape. Windows along the outer walls were clearly there so that workers could look out onto the city while they toiled away at their assuredly meaningless jobs. The architecture had an almost Inner District-level aesthetic to it, with smoother lines than the typical sharp corners of the Mid Districts. A little stairway led up to a single door that would certainly lead into the main lobby.

And yet, there were no signs of life coming from the building despite it seeming like it was new and open for business. No lights shone through the windows, and in fact the windows seemed like they were either heavily tinted or boarded up. There were no sounds coming from inside whatsoever, not even the hum of air conditioners, fans, or incandescent light fixtures. No footsteps of ponies walking about inside from hall to hall and room to room. No phones ringing or keyboards clacking.

Dawn watched the building for a good minute or so to try and figure it out, but when nothing seemed to change, she decided that it would be best to investigate the interior. She headed up the stairs and opened up the door, then found herself in the building's lobby, which was inexplicably empty. No receptionist at the desk—in fact, no desk at all—and just a couple of plain-looking doors leading further in. The room was dark, and there weren't even any lights to remedy the issue, so Dawn had to light up her horn to see.

She opened one of the doors leading further into the building, then stepped back and briefly headed outside to make sure that she was indeed still on a busy Mid District street corner with hundreds of ponies walking about, not in the Outer District slums. Assured that she was where she thought she was, she returned to the door and looked back inside, not sure what to make of what she saw.

The inside of the building was, quite simply, dilapidated. The floor tiles were pulled up, missing, cracked, or otherwise just filthy; the walls lacked any semblance of wallpaper, their bearings and struts exposed like freakish skeletons; there wasn't a proper ceiling separating the stories whatsoever, so Dawn could see all the way up the next ten floors to the bottom of the roof; the remains of office furniture littered the floor, all of it burnt, moldy, or broken.

Dawn took a few careful steps inside, then decided that perhaps it was a bad idea to broadcast her position with a horn light that could be seen in the darkness from a mile away, let alone a hundred feet or so. Another spell replaced it, causing her eyes to briefly flicker like emeralds in the darkness as she gave herself a sort of night vision, making everything in the room stand out in shades of green.

She took a few more steps, glancing over a ruined desk and chair sitting against the shattered remains of a wall. The desk was busted open so that the paperwork inside was exposed, but all of that had been burnt up. The remains of a vending machine stood against a nearby doorway—the door was missing—and a look inside told Dawn that all of the snacks had been cleared out, save for a single candy bar that remained stuck against the glass on the top row.

Minute after minute, Dawn searched through every single room with as much meticulous observation as she could muster. In the darkness she knew that she could miss something if she wasn't careful and patient, but there was still nothing to find no matter how many rooms she looked through. All of the furniture was ruined, no documents had survived whatever had happened here, and if there had been any computers with databases to search, they'd been removed.

Yes, Dawn had noticed that much: there was evidence of computers at some of these stations, but the storage drives had all been taken out. That was disconcerting, because they would've survived whatever happened here and might have provided information, but there was simply nothing to find. Nothing at—

The clunk of the candy bar falling in the vending machine nearly frightened Dawn right out of her skin. She looked to and fro and couldn't see a single thing in the darkness that had changed; nothing had moved, and nothing was moving. The empty building still echoed with the sounds of the dropped candy bar all the up to the ceiling.

Then, just as she was about to relax, she heard hoofsteps to her left. She quickly looked in that direction only to see—

Nothing.

She stepped over towards the source of the noise. One step. Two. Three.

Then, more hoosteps behind her. She wheeled around to catch the intruder, but again, nothing. Her magical darkvision should have given her the ability to see something moving quite easily; it would stand out against the motionless wreckage of the offices like a sore hoof. And yet, nothing.

Maybe it hadn't been hoofsteps at all? Was it her imagination? The candy bar dropping had spooked her, that was it. She wasn't spooked, though, goodness no; she was just cautious, alert for a possible assailant, nothing else. There wasn't anything here that could harm her, anyway, not a unicorn as powerful as—

A nearby, burnt out filing cabinet toppled over and crashed right next to her.

In her sudden panic, she fired a flash of light into the air that soared up, struck the ceiling, and illuminated the entire building with the same pure, hellish orange light that suffused the skies. She almost blinded herself by forgetting to turn off her darkvision, and had to shield her eyes and blink rapidly to regain her focus.

When she did, the room looked exactly as it did in the darkness, just better lit. Everything was still burnt, moldy, or broken; with the newfound illumination, it was easier to see that the stains that covered parts of the walls and floor weren't water or coffee, but more likely dried blood; otherwise, the entire room was devoid of movement or life aside from Dawn herself, who was breathing quickly as she glanced about.

So, of course, there was nothing of interest, nothing to be seen, especially not those huge, dried patches of blood that she'd thought was water; no clues, no secrets, and certainly no leads. Dawn wasn't sure exactly why her heartbeat had quickened or why she was breathing so strangely.

But she pushed it down, and clenched her teeth. This had been a colossal waste of time. 

"Curaçao," she said over her telepathic connection, "I am presently at the location that Gray provided and have concluded my preliminary investigation. There is nothing of significance to report, apart from the edifice being seemingly abandoned, with evidence that suggests some manner of conflagration in the past."

"Quoi? Nothing, you say?" came Curaçao's reply.

"Affirmative, nothing. The evidence suggests that this site could have possibly served as a rendezvous for the culprits before proceeding to another location. I have located no further evidence on where that might be, but that is my current theory."

"Hmm… je suis d'accord. If they wanted to simply hurt or kill their targets, they would not need to do so at a secondary location. Moving them to that site suggests that they wished to demand a ransom, oui? But there is nopony connected to Fluttershy that would warrant that. It is contradictory, non?"

"Yes, quite contradictory. Has the apprehended individual provided you with any additional information?"

"Non. I believe that Gray got the most we are going to get out of him for now, but I will see if we can have him… transferred to another facility, oui? Perhaps somepony else could get something more from him."

"Agreed, see to it. Do any of our sisters have news to report?"

"Ah, oui. Gray has made contact with Applejack, Insipid is keeping an eye on Rarity as best as she can, Havoc is with Rainbow heading back to Rainbow's apartment, and Velvet is… ah, still en route to Pinkie."

Dawn paused, her mouth curling in a sneer. "What do you mean 'still en route'?"