Chapter Two: A Day at the Races
Rarity, wearing a wide-brimmed pink hat with an absurdly long plume, trotted quickly into downtown Canterlot, bound for the stadium where the Wonderbolt's Derby was being held. The bounce in her step spoke volumes of her excitement.
As she rounded a corner, she nearly bumped into a clutch of ponies being ushered around a large roadblock. Apparently one of the tall buildings on the side of the road had experienced some structural integrity issues, shedding a large pile of white marble and masonry into the middle of the street. Rarity pursed her lips – the Derby was going to start within the next ten minutes, and if this crowd held her up – what would Fancy Pants think? She glanced around looking for another route, and within a few moments she found one – a dark alley between two of the buildings on the left side of the street. The rubble didn't extend any further than the next intersection. With a little luck and hustle she would make it to the stadium in good time. She didn't notice the black shadow that detached itself from the wall to slink behind her as she made use of her newfound shortcut.
Unfortunately, the alley didn't open immediately onto the next street, and Rarity was forced to turn left and travel down a silent avenue, perhaps three ponies wide, between the stores that opened onto both streets. It was surprisingly dark her, and almost stifling. The fur on the back of her neck began to stand on end as she imagined something dark and terrible slithering through the gloom behind her, but when she turned, lighting her horn, there was nothing. She shivered, turning around and hurrying on at just short of a gallop. The shadow kept pace, lurking just outside her bubble of light.
As Rarity reached the end of the long alley, she caught a glimpse of sunshine from around the corner and breathed a sigh of relief. As she extinguished her horn, the shadow loomed behind her, rising on its back legs to strike.
A blue hoof hammered into the base of the shadow's neck, then wrapped beneath its front right leg, locking across its chest. The shadow was hefted foricbly over its attacker's flank and hurled into the alley wall. It hit the stone surface and latched there, rather than falling straight to the ground.
Fancy Pants gave the shadow no time to recover. Both his back hooves found the creature's chest, compressing it into the wall behind it. Surprisingly, rather than crumple in an unconcious heap, the shadow reached out to wrap a limb around Fancy Pants' sturdy neck. It twitched, forcing the unicorn facefirst into the wall beside it. The tendril constricted, slowly cutting off Fancy Pants' lungs from the outside world. Violet rings began floating across his vision. The stallion pummeled the shadow's arm-tentacle repeatedly with his front right hoof to no avail, the creature barely flinched at each stroke. The dirt-caked wall ground against Fancy Pants' cheek, a bit of the grime rolling into his eye and illiciting a stinging tear down his muzzle. A strangled gasp escaped his lips.
Rarity, who had moved scarcely a step since the encounter began, turned sharply, her azure eyes peering into the gloom. Both combatants ceased struggling, holding still as stone as her gaze passed over them. The mare shivered, feeling as though the dark was looking back at her, watching, and turned to dash out onto the street.
Another tentacle wrapped around Fancy Pants' head, pushing it back and forcing his mouth open. He could feel trickles of the shadow running up his neck towards his widespread jaws, and decided he had no desire to find out what the horrifying monstrosity had planned for him. His horn glowed golden, levitating the monocle he carried in his front jacket pocket into the space between them. The crystal disc rotated so the narrow end was pointed at the beast, and he thrust it forward, deep into the shadow's right eye.
The unearthly shriek that issued from the shadow's jaws pierced Fancy Pants' eardrums, but loosened its grip on his throat. Shaking himself, he wedged his horn under the monster's chin and kicked hard against the cobblestones with all his strength. The shadow lost its footing and toppled backwards, slamming into a dumpster set against the alley wall. The ivory horn punched through the beast's unarmored throat, and it flailed, gurgling, for a few moments, before sinking to the ground.
Fancypants staggered back, wiping sweat from his brow. He pulled a hoofcherchief from his pocket and dabbed at his eye, quickly extracting the invasive particles, then tugged the monocle out of the monster's face. It detached with a squelch, and Fancy Pants shuddered inwardly as he cast a cleansing spell on the eyepiece.
Lighting his horn, he regarded the creature he had just killed. It was not equine in shape, more like a gangly spider with too few legs. Its body was bulbous and segmented, with a thin, long neck upon which rested a sharp, fanged head. It did not have two eyes, as Fancy Pants had first assumed, but four, two set further back where the ears should have been on a pony. Its four spindley legs were tangled in a heap around its body. It wasn't bleeding, and had in fact left no ichor behind on the stallion's horn. He examined his monocle, hoping he hadn't damaged it with his unneeded spell.
Stepping back, Fancy Pants angled his horn toward the sky and sent up a beam of energy, invisible to anypony not specifically designated during the casting. Luna's experts would see to the creature. Right now, he had a derby to attend.
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Fancy Pants arrived moments before Rarity, sneaking in the back and greeting a few of his guests as he passed them. The mare had been detained by the guard, but Fancy Pants' arrival defused the situation.
“Rarity, jolly good to see you! So glad you could make it.” The guard let her pass. As he climbed the stairs, Rarity beside him, he examined the violet-maned unicorn out of the corner of his eye. She looked a little flustered – perhaps the dark alley had a deeper effect on her than Fancy Pants anticipated. He leaned in close to her as they approached the box.
“Don't be nervous, dear. Smile.” She glanced up at him, surprised by his intuitiveness, and the stallion offered her an encouraging look. Any energy she would have devoted to investigating further was suddenly swept up in a small gaggle of Canterlot elite that surrounded Fancy Pants, all talking at once. “Everypony, this is Rarity.” Fancy Pants spoke above the chatter, not allowing himself to be sidetracked by their conversations. “She's staying at Canterlot Castle.”
At this, the assembled ponies froze, turning their attention towards the newcomer. As they began to quietly discuss the poor mare, an announcement boomed across the stadium.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome to the Wonderbolts' Derby! The competitors are taking their places at the starting line, and the race will begin momentarily.”
Fancy Pants needed his guests to focus on Rarity again. According to the dossier Princess Luna had given him, one of Rarity's close friends was a Wonderbolts hopeful. “I'll be rooting for Rapid Fire, of course. He's sure to take home the grand prize.” He focused on Rarity even though his head was turned towards his other guests, who were hurrying to support his opinion, silently hoping she would take the bait.
She did. “I don't think he stands a chance against Fleetfoot.” Rarity instantly began to blush as all the guests gasped, turning towards her. The moment was short-lived, though, as the Wonderbolts took off, rocketing across the track. Rarity hurried to the edge of the box, watching with rapt amazement as the pegasus fliers traversed the course twice in a matter of seconds.
The announcer boomed as the team passed the finish line, “And it's Fleetfoot by a nose!” Fancy Pants' guests began murmuring amongst themselves again, regarding Rarity with curiosity. It was very seldom that someone contradicted Fancy Pants' opinion, and even rarer that they were correct.
The white stallion approached her, feeling victory within his grasp. “Bravo, Rarity. I say, how did you know Fleetfoot would be victorious?”
Emboldened by her success, Rarity spoke more freely, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “My friend Rainbow Dash talks about her all the time. She says what Fleetfoot lacks in size, she makes up for in speed.”
One of the upper class mares, Pish Posh, spoke up from beneath her wide-brimmed yellow sunhat. Her voice was nasally and would easily have grated on a less even-tempered pony's nerves. “And who is this 'Rainbow Dash'?”
Rarity glanced back and forth, stammering. “She's the Wonderbolt's trainer, of course.”
Fancy Pants allowed the other ponies to absorb the clever lie, then corroborated it. “Staying at Canterlot Castle and she knows the pegasus that trained the Wonderbolts! I told you all this was an important pony!” Rarity dabbed at her face with a hoofcherchief. Fancy Pants took her hoof in his and raised it between them. “Three cheers for Rarity, my new favorite party guest!” The surrounding ponies cheered enthusiastically, and Rarity beamed. Fancy Pants joined her – he'd completed the second objective of his mission.
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With Rarity fully integrated into high society, Fancy Pants needed to watch her less often. The eyes of the masses would unknowingly take on some of the load, dramatically reducing an assassin's opportunities to make another attempt. All he needed to do was drop a hint here and there, “Why, there would hardly be any point opening your gallery tonight if Rarity can't make it,” or, “Your dinner party just wouldn't be the same without Rarity.” When she was actually in her room she was well protected – Celestia had seen to that – so the only time Fancy Pants needed to be truly vigilant was during her transitions between social events.
With Rarity safely tucked away at Vance van Vendington's charity auction the next morning, Fancy Pants walked to Canterlot castle. He was accepted without fanfare through a side entrance. He went straight to the gardens, where he stopped next to a tall old tree near the base of the castle wall. Running his hoof along the trunk, he found a rough, dark knot, and twisted it. A faint musical chime rang out, and he whispered, “Amiciti.”
A section of the castle wall slid down and in on itself, and Fancy Pants stepped through the gateway. The stone crept back into place, and the stallion ignited his horn, bathing the narrow passage in golden light. At the end of the hall stood a wrought steel door, from the other side of which voices drifted faintly. A small smile tugged at Fancy Pants' lips as he recognized a particular set of resonant tones.
Princess Luna stood on a raised raised platform that overlooked most of the room. Addressing her were a couple of earth ponies, carrying charts and clad in long white labcoats. Two more ponies, an earth pony and a pegasus, were positioned on either side of a solid stone table, over which hung lights, magnifying lenses, and medical toolkits. Splayed out on the surface lay the creature Fancy Pants had slain the previous morning, some of its limbs supported by steel cables.
The yellow earth pony on Luna's right, wearing a pair of thick, dark-rimmed glasses, his cutie mark a bubbling beaker of liquid, was explaining the chart he held before the Princess. “The creature is clearly of magical origin, based on the samples we took from -”
“Fancy Pants!” Luna's eyes flicked away from the charts, meeting her agent's. Fancy Pants felt his breath catch in his throat, and swallowed hard, cursing himself for being so obvious. The Princess gently pushed the chart aside, drifting across the cold stone floor to meet him. She carried herself with such poise, gracefully swaying with each step. Fancy Pants carefully inhaled and let the breath out slowly through his nostrils, trying to make the action as covert as possible. “We have just been discussing your latest acquisition.” She leaned close, breathing her next words into his ear and sending a shiver down his spine. “Thank you for saving me from the long-winded doctor. I don't know how much more biological analysis I could have borne.”
“I live to serve, my Princess.” Fancy Pants prayed his honorific hadn't sounded too honeyed, but Luna merely smiled, her shoulder brushing his as she turned to stand beside him.
“Please, good doctor, the abridged version shall have to do. Our agent's time is precious.”
The doctor looked rather put off, but continued, his eyes roving towards the corpse splayed on the table. “Initially I would have said we've never seen anything like it before, but in reality, this is a projection that has been in use for hundreds of years.”
“A projection?” Fancy Pants echoed. “It isn't real?”
“Indeed not, Agent Fancy Pants. Homonculi are actually quite common among the more talented unicorns even to this day, though they usually manifest as short, winged ponies or magical creatures. Most magically inclined ponies use them to assist with day-to-day experiments and chores. It has been a long time since I've seen a homunculus this big, though – and this is certainly the first time I've seen one in the form of... whatever it is emulating.”
“So this gives us no clue as to Rarity's attacker?” Fancy Pants kept his voice even, despite the surge of disappointment that welled up in his chest.
The sunflower-hued stallion huffed softly, clearing his throat. “Well – not exactly. While we can't identify the culprit based soley on the use of this particular conjuration, every unicorn generates a specific magical resonance – much like a unique hoofprint – whenever they cast a spell.” The doctor's smile grew as Luna and Fancy Pants exchanged a hopeful glance. “If we perform a retrocast scan on the homunculus, we will be able to get an impression of that 'hoofprint', which we can then compare to the records in the Equestrian Unicorn Registry Office.”
“Doctor, that is absolutely brilliant.” Fancy Pants moved to the guardrail to look down at the homunculus. The pegasus was leaned in close, extracting a sample from one of the limbs with a small syringe. The earth pony, a gray stallion with an orange mane, had stepped back, slightly behind his coworker, one hoof inside the front of his jacket -
“Look out!” Fancy Pants shouted, but his warning came too late. The gray earth pony had already thrown his weapon, a bright, reflective orange globe, directly at the back of the other pony's head. The sphere shattered, splashing silvery liquid across the table and pegasus, which ignited as it hit the air. The pegasus screamed as his mane caught fire, launching himself onto his back and rolling frantically on the floor. The intruder turned to flee, heading towards a doorway on the far side of the room.
Fancy Pants and Luna moved at the same time, the unicorn leaping over the railing, the alicorn beating her wings and covering twice the distance in half the time. As the princess passed him, Fancy Pants caught a glimpse of the hostile pony turning down one of the side passages that led back up to the castle.
The passage ended in a breakaway wall behind a statue in the great hall. The intruder burst through it, startling several guards. Luna thundered through the opening just behind him, bellowing, “SEIZE THAT PONY!” Two guards moved to stop the hostile, but he slid between them like water through cracks in a stone. The gray stallion galloped up a set of stairs, heading for the higher palace chambers. As he passed, he caught a hanging tapestry in his teeth and yanked it down behind him. Its folds dropped down on the pursuing princess, who was just above him, throwing off her balance. The guards charging up the stairs were hit by it in the same moment, and their weight working against Luna's momentum sent the night monarch hurtling into the marble banister at the top of the steps. The railing shattered, and Luna collapsed in a pile of broken stone against the far wall.
While this was happening, Fancy Pants galloped into the hall. A matching stairway ran up the opposite wall, which the unicorn followed, arriving at the landing as Luna crashed in front of him.
“Your majesty!” He ran to her side, but she weakly waved him away.
“Worry not for us!” Her eyes, dilated to different widths, flashed angrily. “Apprehend the miscreant!” She slumped against the wall. Fancy Pants tarried a moment beside her before racing down the corridor after the saboteur.
The villain led Fancy Pants and the few guards that trailed behind them up to a balcony that overlooked the city several stories below. The nearest building was a pegasine leap away, which seemed to matter little to the intruder – he planted his back hooves on the stone guardrail and jumped, without hesitation, into the thin air, clearing the palace walls and landing several seconds later on the roof of one of the houses below. He slid to the edge of the roof and jumped a second time, landing in the cloth awning of a fruitstand on the street below.
The guards stared in shock, but Fancy Pants quickly took in his surroundings, spotting one of Celestia's standards, a massive, billowing banner, hanging to the left of the balcony. He took a running leap, firing a precise pair of piercing spells as he did, and caught the bit of fabric he'd separated in his teeth. The flag tore down the middle, slowing Fancy Pant's descent enough for him to kick off the wall.
Across the street, set in the side of the building the intruder had ended his leap on top of, was an open deck with a pair of intricately etched glass doors that led into the dining room beyond. Fancy Pants crashed through these, sending razorlike shards skittering across the floor and illiciting a scream from the unicorn matron who was reclining on a long couch next to the entrance. Fancy Pants ignored her, scrambling to his feet and charging down a spiral staircase into the main entryway. His horn glowed and the double doors were thrust aside with such force that they banged against the walls, hinges splintering.
The intruder had landed on the street moments before, and was sprinting down the avenue towards the industrial district, a little over a mile from the palace. Fancy Pants kept pace with him from the far side of the road, dodging ponies as they went about their daily business. Presently, the gray stallion came up alongside a ponyshoes warehouse, slowing down to a trot. Fancy Pants modulated his gait, coming to a stop and leaning against the stone wall of the tailor's that stood opposite the warehouse. He glanced down at his jacket, stained with masonry dust and torn by the glass shards. A hoof touched his shoulder, and he turned to see a disheveled young mare, her dirt-streaked fur dark pink, looking at him with hopeful eyes.
“Spare a bit, mister?” She asked.
Fancy Pants looked back at the warehouse, where the stallion was climbing the steps to the front door. He quickly undid the buttons of his shirt and slid the entire ensemble off his back. He laid it across the astounded beggar's foreleg. “Have a lovely day, ma'am.” Without a backwards glance, he trotted across the street and slipped through the front door.
The inside of the warehouse was loud, pony workers shouting at each other as boxes of shoes were tossed onto conveyor belts, their operators cantering along until the next shift pony arrived. Large glass windows set high in the walls let the sunlight pour in. The air was thick with the scent of stallion sweat. Fancy Pants immediately moved to the left, keeping close to the wall, his eyes trained on his quarry, who walked down the middle of the assembly room floor. He came to a clothes rack, on which hung several sets of worker's overalls. Fancy Pants slipped into one he deemed his size, then started after his target.
Weaving through banks of machinery, the unicorn quickly caught up with the earth pony, who had shed his lab coat. The gray stallion climbed up a set of steel mesh stairs on the far end of the chamber, and Fancy Pants had to tuck his head and fall into line with some of the workponies as the saboteur carefully surveyed the floor. Satisfied, the target shouldered aside a door to the warehouse office and disappeared inside. As the door swung closed, Fancy Pants examined rectangular chamber that hung from the ceiling.
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“What do they know?” A gravelly voice inquired from the shadows.
“Nothing yet.” Ironsides sat back on his haunches, stretching his legs. “They were going to trace the magic, but I put a stop to that.” A savage grin split his dull gray muzzle. “They're clueless.”
“Excellent work.” The voice intoned. “I will tell Freckles to resume his efforts immediately. Withdraw to the safehouse and await further instructions.”
“Understood, master.” There was a crackling noise, and the room warmed noticeably. The light bars on the ceiling flickered, and then glowed brightly. The speaker was nowhere to be seen.
“I say,” Ironsides spun around, recognition sending icy chills down his spine, even as the hoof connecting with his cheek sent rivulets of fire along his jaw, “clueless seems a bit harsh.”
Author's Notes: There may be some formatting errors herein, please point them out to me, I wanted to get this out before work. This chapter took much longer than expected and I'm not entirely sure I'm pleased with how it turned out. As always, I welcome any and all feedback.