//------------------------------// // Case Twenty-Two, Chapter Eight: Uncovering the Truth // Story: Ponyville Noire: Rising Nightmares // by PonyJosiah13 //------------------------------// “Must we really go through this again?” Steno Pad protested, rubbing her forehead.  “I just want to make sure we got everything right,” Flash replied gently, sitting across from her with his notepad ready.  Steno Pad sighed and looked about the sitting room of her modest apartment. Modest, of course, was a relative measure: the living room alone was almost two-thirds the size of Flash’s entire apartment, and he was pretty sure that the price of the sofa that he and Red were sitting on could’ve fed him and his mother for two weeks. Expensive art decorated the room, and a large bookshelf took up most of one wall, every tome set upon it neatly organized. Flash briefly frowned at the sight of The Mistletoe Masquerade and its two sequels, all with the same author’s name upon it: Scarlet Letter.  “Very well,” Steno Pad said, smoothing out her vest. “At three PM, Iron Forge arrived for his meeting with Mister Bar. I let him into his office and they locked the door behind them. I had other work to do during the meeting, but I could hear them talking. At 6:30 PM, Iron Forge exited the office and left. I did not see Mister Bar or hear him after that.”  “Was he still alive when Iron Forge left?” Red asked.  Steno Pad paused for a beat. “I…I’m not sure,” she admitted. “Looking back, I hadn’t heard either of them talking for a long time before Iron Forge left.”  Red nodded and gestured for the secretary to continue. She sighed and brushed her vest off again before continuing.  “Around 7:20, it was getting close to dinnertime, and I realized that Mister Bar had not come out of his office. I knocked on the door but received no answer. So I unlocked the door and…”  She paused and took a slow breath, closing her eyes and folding her front hooves in front of her to hide their faint trembling. “And he was there,” she said in a tight voice. “Lying on the table in a pool of his own blood. I called the police right away.” She took another breath and swallowed, looking up at her guests for the first time. “I’m sure your officers have the story from there.”  “Were Steel Bar and Iron Forge alone in the office?” Red asked.  “Yes,” Steno confirmed. “The other members of the staff were watching the windows or doing other tasks.”  “Did you serve Steel and Forge coffee or something?” Flash asked.  Steno Pad paused to think for a moment. “Yes,” she nodded after a brief pause. “I brought them both coffee.”  “How did they take it?” Flash asked.  Steno Pad blinked at him, clearly wondering what the hell that had to do with anything. “Mister Forge took his with two sugars,” she said. “Mister Bar liked his with a double shot of cream.”  Flash nodded, moving his eyes down to his notepad but watching the mare across from him. Steno Pad shifted on her sofa and looked down, chewing on her lower lip. Her eyes darted briefly towards the kitchen. Flash didn’t look up, but a cold weight settled on the back of his neck when he remembered the steel block of expensive-looking knives that he had seen prominently displayed on the counter.  “So, just to get this right,” Flash said. “After you served Iron and Steel, you didn’t go back into the office?”  “No,” Steno replied, impatience biting into her tone.  “And when you found Steel Bar dead, you didn’t touch anything, right?” Flash pressed.  “No,” Steno answered, the impatience in her voice growing like a weed. “I specifically had one of the bodyguards block the door and ensure that no one entered.”  “So where did the coffee cups go?” Flash asked.  Steno Pad froze as though her widening eyes had fallen upon the gaze of a cockatrice. “I checked the crime scene photographs several times and it’s funny,” Flash said, pulling out a close-up photograph. “I see the rings where there were clearly cups on the table…but no cups.”  “And here’s what’s even funnier,” Red cut in. “We double-checked the house and we did actually find two coffee cups in the kitchen sink. Our lab studied the contents of them both and found that one had a lot of cream in it. And a lot of barbiturates.” He leaned forward, giving Steno Pad his trademark withering scowl. “Even if you hadn’t realized that you needed to try to get rid of the spiked coffee, that was nothing short of stupid.”  Steno Pad swallowed, her eyes darting between the two stallions, the door, and the kitchen. “N-no, wait, I…I took the coffee cups out after Iron Forge left…”  “With Steel Bar facedown on his desk?” Red asked, rising. “I think you need to come down to the station and answer some questions.”  “I…” Steno Pad’s mouth moved but no sound came out. She only stared as Flash rose and pulled out a set of hoofcuffs.  “You have the right to remain silent,” Flash recited, stepping forward. “Anything you say can and--”  His sentence was cut off when the coffee table shot across the floor and slammed into his legs, sending him crashing to the ground with a bellow of “Ow, fuck!”  Steno Pad leaped off the couch and dashed for the kitchen, firing off a salvo of bright orange stinging spells from her horn at the pursuing Red Herring. Most of them missed and the few that struck his vest only prompted an irritated grunt as they dissipated harmlessly across the wards.  “C’mere!” Red snarled, snatching her foreleg.  “Get off!” Steno Pad shrieked, fury and desperation on her face as she lit up her horn. A dozen knives flew from the knife block and darted at Red like a swarm of hornets.  “Flash, duck!” Red shouted, hitting the floor almost too late, wincing as he felt a couple of those knives passing just inches over him.  Flash saw the knives coming and yelped, seizing the coffee table and flipping it over. The knives slammed into the polished oak surface with a series of heavy thunks.  Steno Pad seized a large knife and stabbed down at Red with a shriek. Red rolled aside and swept his wings across her legs, knocking her to the floor; she smacked her head against a cabinet, yelping as blood began to flow from her forehead.  “You--!” she snarled, turning to glare up at Red, the blood from her head wound highlighting her hate-filled eyes as her horn glowed a dark orange. She never got a chance to cast her spell or finish her curse. Red seized a pan that was soaking in the sink and swung for the bleachers, striking her across the jaw. She spun to the floor with a groan, her horn pathetically fizzling out.  Red dropped the pan as Flash hustled up to them. “You okay, Sentry?” he panted.  “I’m fine,” Flash replied, taking out his cuffs and securing her forelegs.  “On the upside,” Red commented, examining his coat with a scowl. “I’m pretty sure she wasn’t brainwashed.”  Steno Pad groaned and stirred, glancing down at her cuffed hooves before giving her captors a look of loathing.  “So now that we’ve gotten formalities out of the way,” Red commented. “Why did you kill Steel Bar?”  “He was going to betray us,” Steno snarled. “He would’ve backed out of the deal with the master.”  “What deal?” Red pressed. “Did it have to do with the Sealight Delight?” “I will say no more,” Steno spat and fell silent, glaring at the floor.  “Well, you did tell her that she had that right, Sentry,” Red commented as he and Flash hauled the murderer’s dead weight from the floor and dragged her to the door.  “Okay, Autumn?” Strider said, tugging at the kirin’s stiffened limbs. “Autumn, now would be a good time to start moving again.”  Autumn growled, then grunted as one hind leg kicked out, then the other. “Okay…okay, I think…it’s wearing off,” she grimaced, starting to move of her own accord again. She slowly rolled over and pushed herself up to her hooves with a groan. “Ow, ow, ow…”  “Agent Strider!” Caballeron’s voice called again, cutting through the still, dead air. “Show yourself or we will kill your friends!”  “Okay, what’s the plan?” Autumn said, stretching out her limbs.  Strider sucked in a breath through his teeth and checked the chamber of his revolver. “We’re not gonna stand a chance against them with those…smoke things.”  “Snatchers,” Autumn said.  “What?” Strider asked, raising an eyebrow.  “That’s what I’m calling them, Snatchers,” Autumn explained. “You know, ‘cause they just snatched up Phil and Daring.”  “...right,” Strider said slowly. “And there’s no way we can get away easily or get help, so…” He swallowed. “Guess our only option is to play along for now.”  “Uh…you know they might just kill us all anyway,” Autumn pointed out nervously.  “If they were going to, they would have,” Strider replied, trying to convince himself just as much as he was trying to convince his companion. “They tried to take us alive before. Maybe that’s what they want. And besides…if we don’t, they’ll definitely kill us.”  Autumn hissed in a breath. “So,” she said with a forced smile. “The less shitty of two shitty options. Got it.”  “At least if we’re still alive, we can think of something,” Strider replied.  He slowly stepped out into the open, raising his hooves. “Okay, we’re coming out!” he called.  He turned to see Autumn frowning at the ground, drawing a circle in the snow with her hoof. “Autumn?”  “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming. We’re coming! Don’t shoot them!” she called, following Strider out.  The two slowly proceeded across the snow, the only sound the crunching beneath their hooves. The corpses scattered across the village seemed to reach out towards them as they passed as if trying to grab them…or stop them. Autumn glanced at the eyeless face of a mare gaping up at her, yellowed skin stretched tight across her skull, and shuddered.  Lights from up ahead led them over a hill and they saw Caballeron and his companions in a cluster, their faces cast in shadows by their flashlights. Daring and Phillip sat in the center of the group, bound and gagged with tape, glaring at their captors.  Strider had just enough time to register the sight of the smoke monsters circling his friends before the duo pounced upon them. Smokey limbs struck down on Strider and Autumn and they collapsed to the ground, muscles tightening painfully.  “Let’s take that gun of yours, pig,” Withers said, stomping up to Strider. He pulled the revolver out of Strider’s holster and examined it. “Model Navy .44, modified to fire cartridges,” he mused, pocketing the gun and taking out a roll of duct tape. “You have good taste, Agent.”  With a force of effort, Strider managed to move his eyes just enough to glare at Withers as the bespectacled pony wrapped tape snugly around his limbs, wings, and muzzle.  “Not one flicker of that horn of yours,” Biff warned Autumn as he bound her. He paused, running a hoof through her mane. “Hmm…pretty little thing,” he purred. “On second thought, I’m glad that the Doc wants you alive.”  Autumn managed to let out a muffled growl, but not all of her shivering was due to the cold.  “Bien,” Caballeron nodded. He bent down in front of Daring and tugged her gag off. “I assume you found something in there, ¿sí?”  Daring spat in his face, an act of defiance which quickly earned her a knee to the gut from Rogue. She doubled over, coughing and spluttering, but continued to glare up at them.  Caballeron sighed, wiped off his face, and held up the dowsing rod. “We’re going to find it eventually,” he deadpanned. “You talk, we find it easier, and I consider not hurting your friends.”  Daring growled, then sucked in a breath. “Founder’s Rock,” she growled. “It’s buried beneath Founder’s Rock, with the champion’s body.”  “Ah, that makes sense,” Caballeron nodded, replacing the tape over Daring’s mouth and grabbing the silver candlesticks, the flames atop them guttering and flickering in the cold as he carefully replaced them in his saddlebags. “Vamonos. I do not wish to stay out here any longer than I have to.”  “Agreed,” Withers shivered. “But how are we gonna carry--?”  The Snatchers picked up the bound prisoners, one beneath each bladed arm. The prisoners winced: the touch of the smokey flesh was cold and itched violently, like dozens of needles scraping against their flesh, but there was no paralytic effect this time.  “Oh, well, that works,” Withers shrugged, looking at the ground to avoid gazing upon the smokey faces. The group began to march south, following the swinging of Caballeron’s dowsing rods. The Snatchers leered down at their prisoners, their swirling faces stretching into what might have been grins whenever they winced and looked away.  Daring squirmed in her captor’s grasp, testing her muscles. The pain of the paralysis spell was starting to slowly diminish, leaving a dull ache in her sluggish muscles. Phillip was also starting to struggle but winced and slackened when his handler seemed to tighten its grip on him.  “Quit struggling or I’ll start on your whore,” Rogue snarled at them as he passed. Phillip scowled at him but remained still.  After a few minutes of silent travel, they reached Founder's Rock, their flashlights illuminating the carved monoliths.  “Drop them here,” Caballeron nodded to a smaller stone, placing the candlesticks atop a flat stone and following his dowsing rod to the center of the construct. The Snatchers obediently dropped their prisoners on the ground, eliciting pained grunts as they crashed onto the snow.  “Rogue, watch them,” Biff ordered, following the doctor. “I’ll keep this one close,” Rogue growled, drawing his knife. He bent down over Autumn Blaze and placed her blade at her neck, drawing a quiet gasp as the cold blade stroked her coat. “You try that fire thing, moose, and I’ll gut you like a fish,” he hissed into her ear.  The Snatchers began to stalk around the other prisoners like wolves snapping at lamed deer. Daring shuddered as one of them thrust its face into hers, turning away and drawing in a hiss of pain.  Caballeron scanned the ground around a large flat stone in the center of the circle of monoliths, pawing at the snow and watching the dowsing rod, which was swinging back and forth wildly. “Aha!” he declared after a few moments, his face stretching into rapturous delight. The dowsing rod was pointing straight at the ground and trembling, as though being held taut by an invisible cord. “Right here, the soil has been turned. Venga, venga, the shovels!”  Withers and Biff hurried forward, taking shovels from the collection of tools that they carried on their backs and passing Caballeron another shovel. The trio began to dig into the hardened earth, tossing aside snow and soil.  Despite herself, Daring found herself straining to watch them, trying to peek into the ever-widening hole. Her eyes went to the Alicorn Amulet around Caballeron’s neck, the dark metal glittering in the glow of their flashlights. Was it her imagination, or was the eye glowing faintly…? Daring shook herself out of her reverie. Now what? She glanced over at Autumn, who was shivering from a mixture of cold and fear, Rogue’s knife held close to her neck. But as Daring watched, she started to move again, slowly shifting and stretching her limbs.  “Keep still,” Rogue snarled, tightening his hold on her. Autumn grunted and went still, but Daring saw the anger flashing through her golden eyes.  Daring turned to the others. Phillip was laying still and relaxed, eyes calmly panning over everything. Strider was glaring at his bound hooves and wings, starting to tug at the tape as the paralysis wore off. One of the Snatchers leered down at him and he grimaced, ceasing his struggles.  Her gaze went over to the silver candlesticks, which she recognized from her tour of Caballeron’s “museum” of stolen artifacts. So that’s where the beasts come from. She studied the flickering lights atop the candles, then glanced at one of the monsters as it passed by. It turned…no, it didn’t turn. The things that she was pretty sure passed as eyes were suddenly aimed at her and she looked away again as stabbing pain erupted behind her own eyes. The smokey legs moved on and Daring took in deep breaths of the cold air, mastering the pain and trying to come up with a plan.  “Here! Here it is!” Caballeron declared with a cry of delight.  The three of them stared down into the hole that they’d made. Revealed within were two corpses, skin dried to a brown leathery texture from years of laying beneath the surface of the bog. On top was an earth pony stallion with a few strands of his wheat-gold mane still clinging to his skull, and the cutie mark of a diamond and a hammer. His mouth gaped open as though trying to gasp for air through the muck that filled his throat. A shovel was clutched in his withered hooves.  “Faust’s Eyes. He buried himself alive,” Withers breathed in horror.  “Move him,” Caballeron ordered.  A grim-faced Biff and a disgusted Withers both bent down to pull the mummy from the hole to reveal the body beneath him. The mare beneath had been a pegasus, though only a few bluish feathers were clinging to the bones of her wings. All of her mane and tail were gone, her cutie mark faded to virtual obscurity, and her eyes were closed, but her mouth was frozen in a strange, twisted smile. Her mummified flesh was marred by slices and her neck was sliced open. Placed upon her chest, clutched within her folded forelegs, was a carved red gem, marred by some scratches on one corner.  “At last,” Caballeron breathed. With great reverence, he slowly reached down and gently pried the stiff hooves aside, taking the gem in his hooves. Rogue paused in his patrol, watching in awe.  Daring and Phil both glanced at each other and nodded, knowing that they weren’t going to get another chance.  Both of them held their forelegs straight out in front of them and then jerked them back towards their chests, pulling their front knees past their chests. The tape around their forelegs sheared down the middle and they ripped them apart.  Time seemed to slow as the thieves turned towards her. Daring’s hoof went to the pocket of her vest where she kept her boomerangs, smirking behind the tape over her mouth and silently thanking the idiots for being dumb enough to let her keep her gear.  Two boomerangs whistled through the air. Rogue grunted as Phil’s stick struck him on the wrist, knocking his blade from his grasp.  Daring’s weapon spun through the air past the Snatchers, who had frozen in seeming shock. Every eye tracked the spinning weapon as it streaked towards its target: the candles sitting on the flat slab of rock.  Suddenly, the boomerang was trapped in a blood-red aura and froze in midair before falling to the ground.  A grin spread across Caballeron’s face as he studied his hoof; the limb was surrounded by an aura of the same reddish color as the gem in the Amulet, which was now shining in the darkness like a flame.  “Oh, hell yes,” he purred.  Dark reddish-purple flames erupted from the darkness and Rogue flinched away with a gasp as the nirik rose to her hooves, the tape binding her melting away. “Shite!” he gasped, rolling away to avoid a kick from her.  The Snatchers both lunged forward, bladed arms extended, but Autumn raced around her friends in a circle. Dark reddish-purple flames erupted from the ground at her hooves, surrounding the stone. The Snatchers flinched away, raising their forelegs as though to shield themselves. Autumn paused, panting and glaring defiantly at her captors, who were all briefly frozen in surprise. Phil and Daring pulled pocketknives from their pockets and cut their hind legs and Daring’s wings free, then Phil hurried over to Strider and cut him loose as well. Strider groaned in pain as he stood up, stretching out his limbs with a growl.  A red sphere streaked through the air and spattered against the magic circle, which briefly appeared as a purple wall in midair; the Snatchers started slashing and hacking at the circle with fury on their twisted faces, causing the flames to flicker. Autumn gasped in pain and dropped to a knee, the flames encircling her own body guttering in response.  With a roar, Rogue charged in and tackled Autumn like a rugby player, ramming her against the monolith and driving the breath from her lungs as she sagged to the ground. “Bitch!” he snarled, ramming his knee into her face; Autumn grunted as her head bounced against the carved granite, her nirik flames dissipating like the burner had been turned off, and the flames of her circle disappeared as well.  “Get off her!” Daring snarled, lunging in and sending Rogue sprawling like a tenpin.  One of the Snatchers silently rushed in, one foreleg raised. Daring rolled away, grimacing as her stiff muscles struggled to obey her commands.  What might have been teeth and might have been eyes flashed at her and Daring took to the sky to avoid the things’ swipes.  “Get them!” Caballeron snarled, charging up more red spheres in his hooves and throwing them at Daring, forcing her to twist and dive to avoid them; the red glow of the amulet was now matched by his eyes, which had widened to the size of dinner plates. Withers pulled Strider’s revolver from his pocket while Biff went for his own sidearm, a large semiautomatic pistol.  Another whistling noise pierced the air and Withers yelped in pain as something smacked into his wrist, sending the pistol tumbling into the snow. Biff ducked beneath the boomerang with a snarl, turning towards the charging Phillip.  Gunshots cracked through the air, each flash like a bolt of lightning in the darkness. Phillip rolled, twisted, and jumped, gritting his teeth against the soreness that had seeped into his muscles. He dove behind a stone, grunting as bullets sparked against it.  Strider dove down like a comet, ramming into Biff and sending him sprawling with an “Oof!” Strider spun into Withers, who just barely threw his forelegs up in time to block.  “Get off, pig!” Withers snarled, driving his knee into Strider’s gut.  Strider doubled over for a moment, then gasped as a red aura surrounded his body and lifted him off the ground. Caballeron snarled and gestured, sending Strider flying through the air to smash into a stone.  Rage pushed through Phillip’s body and he lunged out of cover, slamming into Withers’ hind legs like a bulldozer and pushing the half-blind pony into the snow. His knee slammed into the side of Withers’ head with the weight of a sledgehammer; the thug spasmed and went still with a groan. “Watch out!” Strider warned.  Phillip dove aside, tumbling through the cold snow as a smokey arm chopped down at him like an ax. He felt the blow like an icicle being drawn across his back, sending renewed waves of fatigue through his body. He looked up and immediately paid for it when a red-hot knife stabbed him between the eyes.  More smokey arms slashed at him and Phillip vaulted over a standing stone.  Too late, he saw the red cannonball streaking towards him.  Caballeron’s spell sent Phillip skidding back through the snow, wheezing in pain as he felt the heat of the spell dissipating off his ward.  Caballeron grunted in effort, drawing back his hooves and thrusting them forward. A scarlet beam of energy as thick as a telephone pole surged from his hooves with a roar that seemed to make the sky shake, steam erupting from the snow beneath it.  Phillip threw himself to the ground, covering the back of his neck as the heat of the spell singed his coat; sparks flew from the beam and struck Phillip’s back, leeching energy from his protective ward.  The spell shut off like a faucet being closed and Caballeron sagged to the ground, huffing and sweating.  Phillip leaped to his hooves, snapped out his boomerang, and raced in, nearly catching up to the spinning weapon as it caromed off of the feeble shield that Caballeron managed to throw up in front of him. Phillip closed in, raising his waddy to strike down at the shield…then suddenly pivoted and charged at the two candles that still stood on the flat stone, flames guttering.  “No!” Caballeron cried, reaching out with a hoof. The candles were pulled away from Phillip, his waddy kissing the air mere centimeters from where they stood.  An impossible face lunged at him and Phillip winced as the red-hot knife twisted inside his head again. He tumbled like a log through the snow to dodge the blades, sucking in the cold air as the slush spread across his face, his trilby falling off his head. Hoofsteps crashed behind him, accompanied by a snarl of “Hold still!”  Phillip grabbed the trilby and turned, flinging it into Biff’s face. Momentarily blinded, Biff swung the shovel in his hooves and completely missed, giving Phillip time to climb back to his hooves, his kick hammering into Biff’s thigh and dropping him like a tree.  Phil took the momentary reprieve to glance over at Daring, who was currently fighting Rogue hoof-to-hoof, while also dodging the swings of the other Snatcher. Autumn was trying to get up, clutching her bloodied nose and shaking her head, eyes unfocused.  A rush of wind warned Phillip just in time to duck beneath Biff’s shovel. His counterstrike with his waddy was blocked by Biff’s shovel. “Pig!” Biff snarled, shoving Phillip back as he lifted himself up. Phillip tucked himself into a back hoofspring, but his forelegs quivered in protest at taking his weight and he had to tuck himself into a sloppy roll to avoid a chop of the metal blade, nearly running into the Snatcher behind him.  Strider pounced upon Caballeron’s prone form, pinning him down. “This doesn’t go with your eyes,” he smirked, grabbing the Alicorn Amulet and tugging.  But the Amulet clung to Caballeron’s neck with an adamantium grip. Strider grunted in confusion and tugged again, then screamed and reared back as a sensation like molten fire ran down his hoof.  “Fool!” Caballeron sneered, ramming his head into Strider’s chest. A gesture tossed the RBI Agent off him with a gesture, once more sending him skidding across the ground to plow a line through the snow. “Only I can remove the Amulet!”  “And I’ll make you!” Daring snarled as she slammed her knee into Rogue’s jaw, knocking the Scotspony down and leaving him groaning on the ground. She charged at Caballeron like a golden torpedo.  Caballeron crossed his arms and threw up a shield in front of him, only for Daring to easily bank over it, the wake of her wind tugging at his coat. Her hooves sledgehammered into Caballeron’s back and once more, he crashed into the snow.  “iPuta!” Caballeron snarled, whirling and slashing his hoof through the air. A wave of pure darkness, like a tangible shadow, flew from his limb and struck Daring in the face, blinding her. She staggered with a curse, shaking her head to try to get the tarry shadows out of her eyes.  “Daring!” Phillip cried.  He paid for his distraction when Biff feinted low and then smashed him in the face with the shovel. The eruption of pain blinded him and he fell with a roar, his blood staining the snow. Biff pinned him down, the shovel blade held to his neck.  His cry proved pointless, for both of the Snatchers pounced upon their blinded prey. One slice brought Daring to her knees with a gasp. Two more left her paralyzed on the ground, fear and rage shining in her eyes.  Caballeron and Withers slowly pulled themselves to their hooves, panting and groaning. Caballeron’s eyes glowed the same furious scarlet as the gem as he glared at his captives.  “If you’d cooperated, you could have lived,” he snarled. “But now you pay the price for interfering. Say goodbye--”  And then a roar made the sky shake. Caballeron froze in disbelief as a flaming monster sprinted towards him, steam rising in her wake as she charged, wobbling unevenly but never slowing or falling.  The Snatchers raced to meet Autumn Blaze, blades raised to strike. Autumn did not slow, did not waver. Instead, she charged in, as unstoppable as a train, and leaped at them like a lion pouncing upon a gazelle.  The alien faces lit up in glee…then twisted in disbelief…then pain as the nirik dove right through them, burrowing holes through their trunks. Dark red and purple flames licked at the edges of the holes, then raced across the vaporous bodies, consuming them like paper, leaving nothing behind. The flames on the carved candlesticks went out like a puff of wind hit them.  Caballeron’s eyes widened and he drew back a hoof, sucking in a breath. Scarlet energy began to sluggishly gather in his hoof as his companions closed in to intercept the attacker.  Autumn ignored Biff and Withers, focusing only on Caballeron. She pushed past his thugs and leaped once more. Caballeron threw up a foreleg in a useless bid to protect himself, crying out in pain as flaming fangs locked onto the Alicorn Amulet.  With a snap and a cry, Autumn tugged the Amulet from Caballeron’s neck and flung it aside, where it landed in the snow.  “No!” Caballeron and Rogue both screamed in dismay.  “Get off him!” Biff snarled, swinging his shovel at Autumn and striking her on the back. She tumbled off Caballeron with a grunt, her nirik flames dissipating in an instant. She could only look up wearily as he raised the shovel for a final blow.  A crack of lightning pierced the air and Biff screamed as blood erupted from his hoof, dropping his weapon.  “No,” Daring snarled as she drew her whip back. “You won’t hurt her. Or anyone else.”  Next to her, Phillip gripped his waddy with an iron grip, ready to bring it down on any offender’s bones; the eye that was not curtained by blood shone with barely restrained rage. Strider had retrieved his revolver from the ground and was calmly sweeping it across the dazed thugs.  A cracking noise undercut by a low rumbling sound drew everyone’s attention back to the steaming hole in the snow where the Alicorn Amulet lay. As they watched, the amulet spasmed, twitching as though in agony as more cracks spread across its metal form.  And then the construct snapped into pieces. Smoke colored shades of black that had no name billowed from the metal fragments, slamming into the ponies like a truck and knocking them down.  Sound hammered down upon them like a physical blow, a bellowing like a dozen trains roaring past them all at once, so loud and so terrible that Daring was certain that the villagers in Saddleshire had been awoken by it.  It was only in retrospect that Daring recognized the sound for what it was: four voices all screaming in utter, impotent rage.  After several hours, or perhaps only a few seconds, the sound faded away into distant echoes, leaving Daring, Phil, Autumn, and Strider lying on the ground, clutching their ringing ears. Daring slowly forced herself up to her hooves, her head pounding like a drum.  A look around revealed that Caballeron and his crew had vanished along with the candlesticks, leaving the fractured remnants of the Alicorn Amulet on the ground.  “Oww…what happened?” Autumn groaned through her bloodied nose, sitting up. “Our friends ran off,” Daring replied thickly, helping Autumn to her hooves. She grinned and patted the kirin on the shoulder. “That’s twice you’ve saved our asses out here, Autumn. Nice work.”  Autumn managed to grin back, despite the dazed expression on her face. “What a story this will make!”  Strider groaned and flopped down onto the snow. “My supervisors will never believe me. When I get home, I’m gonna be put on psych eval for a month,” he grumbled.  “Well, at least we’re all alive to complain about it,” Daring grinned, sitting down next to Phillip and putting her wing about him, drawing a dazed but happy smile. “And more importantly, Caballeron and Sombra didn’t get the Alicorn Amulet.”  They sat in comfortable quiet for a few moments before Strider spoke up again.  “We’re gonna have to walk all the way back to the village, aren’t we?”