The last thing he ever wanted that morning was to chase after old faces. Relics from the past that should have stayed where they belonged. Now, with one of his friends chasing after a dangerous criminal, Capper had little recourse in the matter.
The pegasus ran through the crowded morning commute, pushing and shoving her way past everypony with little room to flap her wings and get liftoff.
Trixie chased after her and flared up her magic to push a parked cart in her way.
The pegasus simply ran up the cart’s sloped bed and jumped into the air, flapping her wings and getting liftoff.
Though she was pulling ahead, Trixie and Capper kept their eyes on her. It was only when the pegasus veered into a nearby alleyway that they had lost her.
Trixie kept up the chase and ran into the alleyway, breaking from Capper’s line of vision.
Now, she was in danger. As long as Trixie was alone with her, Capper knew she didn’t stand a chance, no matter how great and powerful she thought she was. Picking up his pace, Capper skidded as he sharply changed direction and charged into the alleyway.
There was only one way to go from there. Through the winding, narrow passages between the buildings, Capper saw Trixie ahead of him before she disappeared through some other bend in the alleyways.
A sharp turn. A near miss from hitting a wall. Eventually, he could only follow Trixie by the sounds of her bumping into boxes and following trails of overturned trash cans. Finally, she was in clear view.
Trixie stood in the middle of a loading area looking rapidly around. As he ran up to her, Capper heard the sound of flapping wings.
“Trixie! Move!” he shouted.
There was no time for Trixie to do anything as the pegasus they were pursuing divebombed her and rolled across the ground like a large, technicolor tumbleweed.
They stopped with the pegasus lying on top of Trixie gripping her horn in her hoof. In her teeth, she held a knife to Trixie’s neck.
“You should’ve kept walking, cat! Now I have to drive the point home!” the pegasus said, poking her blade into Trixie’s neck.
“No need for that,” Capper said calmly, though his paw rising quickly betrayed him. “We both got it already. Stay out of Verko’s whiskers.”
“Verko? Psh. That fat cat doesn’t even know you’re here. I’m talking about Needy’s message.”
“Capper…” Trixie said, her eyes on the blade.
The moment he heard that name, Capper’s eyes narrowed. Of the two of them, Needy was the one he wished to be skinned, gutted, and made into violin strings.
“What the hell does Needy want?” he asked.
The pegasus chortled heartily as if she had just remembered the best joke that she had ever heard.
“Oh, man. The shit Needy says about you. All the trouble you caused just to pay a tab. One you haven’t even cleared yet,” she said.
Capper stepped to his right, and the pegasus forced Trixie to her hooves and circled around with Capper’s steps.
“It’s been years since then. You’ve probably made five times what Verko’s wanted. Why don’t you just pack up your friends and trot back to wherever you’ve put up base,” Capper said.
“You know that business ain’t done that way. With all the interest you’ve built up, we got you for the rest of your sorry little life. Lover boy,” the pegasus said.
Capper stopped pacing when he heard that. How long had she known about Luna? Could she somehow be a part of some horrible scheme that Verko was planning?
There was a ramp behind the pegasus. At the top of it, was a trolley loaded with boxes. A small, loose brick rested next to Capper’s paw on the ground. Without the pegasus’ notice, he stood it on end.
Trixie gasped as the blade pushed against her neck.
“Needy’s message is simple: get with the fucking program,” the pegasus said.
The blade slowly dragged across Trixie’s throat.
Capper’s paw lashed out and the brick flew through the air.
The pegasus only barely dodged the brick, held back by Trixie. At the same time, she dropped her knife.
“Bastard!!” she shouted.
The sounds of squeaking wheels made her ears twitch. The brick had done its job. The trolley full of boxes went rolling down the ramp and crashed into the back of the pegasus.
Trixie hit the ground and rolled out of the grip of her opponent. The moment she was free, she magically retrieved the knife and held it up before herself.
Totally unfazed, the pegasus batted the weapon out of the way with her wing and charged Trixie.
Trixie was shoved into a shutter and was bucked in the face.
Capper grabbed the pegasus from behind and tried to pull her away.
The pegasus flapped her wings pushing herself back into Capper who stumbled backward. She flapped her wings again and rocketed toward Trixie, smashing her against the shutter. Another flap and she shot back to Capper, who took the full brunt of the attack.
Trixie saw the pegasus coming back to her, ducked, and magically opened the shutter behind her, letting the pegasus fly right in.
There was a loud crash when she landed on a pile of wooden palettes. Shaking the splintered wood from her feathers, the pegasus picked up a broken piece of lumber and swung at Trixie’s head.
Trixie backed away, then slammed the shutter down on the pegasus, who dodged and swung again. Trixie circled around the blow to the opposite side of the shutter and pulled it down as Capper leapt at it, allowing him to bounce off and kick the pegasus in the face.
The pegasus swung again, missing Capper and dodging an attack from Trixie. She swung low and swept Trixie’s legs out from beneath her.
Once Trixie was on the ground, the pegasus pulled the shutter down on top of her, pinning her there as she battled with Capper.
Capper attacked the pegasus, pushing off of Trixie’s back, though she still kept the shutter closed with one hoof as she attacked. Trixie flared her magic and slid a palette out of the storage space.
The pegasus jumped as a palette nearly crashed into her ankles.
Capper’s claws unsheathed as he swiped at her, missing twice before he too had to jump over an errant palette. He sidestepped out of the way of a downward swing. He gripped the shutter with his claws and kicked the pegasus in her face.
Capper yelped as Trixie magically lifted the shutter. Now that she was free, she lifted the two palettes that she had sent flying and orbited them around herself as she spun them like a pair of buzzsaws.
The pegasus jumped on top of one of the spinning palettes, then jumped from there to take a swing at Trixie
Trixie clapped her opponent between the two palettes then slammed her to the ground.
Capper pounced on top of the pegasus, and was clubbed out of the way by her. She spun between the blows Capper and Trixie rained down on her, striking with her hooves, wings and lumber.
It was becoming clear why Rainbow Dash had been having such trouble with her. Capper backpedaled as the pegasus swung over and over at him. Then, she took to the air and started flying circles around him, beating him with each pass from all sides.
Trixie conjured a whirlwind into the pegasus’ flight pattern, sending her spiraling upward. She then lifted several of the palettes at varying heights, allowing Capper to hop up to each one. He tackled the pegasus to the nearest rooftop and pummeled her face.
The pegasus kicked him off and clubbed him again with her plank.
Trixie magically threw a palette up to Capper, who grabbed it with both paws to shield his opponent’s blows.
Over and over the pegasus struck, cracking Capper’s shield with each hit. Finally, Capper thrusted it forth, breaking it over the pegasus’ head.
The pegasus got herself aloft and swooped at Capper, who jumped over her attack. He grabbed a broken piece of wood and started parrying her blows.
The pegasus rushed in for one last attack.
Capper swung his weapon and struck home.
Both weapons broke as they impacted one another.
The pegasus swooped past Capper and landed on a vent, panting and huffing.
Capper stared her down, his claws and fangs bared to attack.
“Whatever. You know what it means,” the pegasus said, before flying off abruptly.
“Bitch…” Capper muttered, before spitting out some blood that had collected inside of his mouth.
A nearby drainpipe allowed him to climb back down to the ground, where he regrouped with Trixie.
“Perhaps you would like to inform me, the Great and Powerful Trixie, why strangers seem to want you and your friends dead?!” Trixie said as she fixed her hat and mantle.
Capper’s only answer was a low sigh as he fixed his coat. He then motioned for Trixie to follow him.
“You know her, don’t you?” Trixie knowingly said.
“Nope. I’ve never seen her before the Gala,” Capper curtly answered.
“I see. Yet she seems to know you. And you seem to know this Verko. And Needy?” Trixie replied. “Is that who was with her at the Gala?”
“Just Needy. Verko almost never leaves Kludgetown. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.”
They continued walking through the alleyways back to town. Trixie tried to walk beside Capper, but the narrow paths prevented her from doing so.
“Are you going to tell Princess Luna?” she asked.
Capper slowed to a stop, blocking the way onward. A small, yet violent war was raging in his mind over his next move. So far, Trixie hadn’t done him any wrong. What harm was there in trusting her any further?
“You already know about my time in Kludgetown, don’t you?” he asked.
“Yes,” Trixie replied, having known about his time as a con artist and thief for some time.
“Verko was my boss. I got in with his crowd because I owed him money.”
“How much?” Trixie wondered suspiciously.
“Let’s just say it was more than a lunch meeting,” Capper said. “Anyway, I put my trust in the wrong creatures. And–well–I got stuck with the bill.”
The pieces of everything slowly started drifting together in Trixie’s mind. In moments, she thought that she was able to create a picture of what had been hidden from her.
“And after helping Twilight and the others escape from Tempest Shadow, you decided to cut your losses and come to a kingdom where nopony knew your name. To start over and make a new life for yourself,” Trixie said.
“Oldest story there is. After the one about star-crossed lovers,” Capper said, before he continued walking.
“For what it’s worth, certain someponies are glad that you wrote your story this way.”
Capper smirked as his paws slid into his pockets.
“It really was worthwhile, wasn’t it?” he said.
“Everything in life is worthwhile, Capper.”
Capper stopped as the path widened, allowing Trixie to step next to him.
“Did you just quote a villain from a horror story?” he asked.
“What of the source? It’s true. And to make it matter, we must do something about your predicament,” Trixie said, before walking ahead.
“What do you mean ‘we?’” Capper asked.
“After everything that’s happened, do you think I, your Great and Powerful Friend, Trixie, can sit idly by? Or did you forget that I just now had a knife in my neck? Which means that the first thing we do is let the highest authority we know about what has just happened,” Trixie said.
“Don’t even think about bringing Luna into this,” Capper said.
“Wh–! Have you gone crazy? There are dangerous criminals out here! Very dangerous!”
“Who don’t want us, or anypony we know getting into their business. Or did that feather duster not make her message clear enough?”
“Capper, I’m disappointed in you. The goddess of luck was made into our personal pigeon, and you’re going to be scared off by some mare with an attitude problem?” Trixie said.
“It’s bigger than that,” Capper said. “Eris was what you call an abstract. All you had to know was how she operated. She was so sure that she could win anything that she had no idea that she was dancing to our tune the whole time. But these guys? They change. They adapt. Needy, Verko, and even that pegasus bitch? They’ll be different every time we see them. Next time we see old Mary 2 x 4, she’ll be packing a cannon, or something worse. That’s why we have to lay low.”
Trixie nodded slowly. She knew Capper was right. A goddess had nothing to learn. She couldn’t have learned everything, having been an embodiment of her abstraction. These criminals were something to be feared even more in that respect.
“Does Twilight know any of this?” she asked.
“No. Not that it would matter. It’s bad enough having you involved,” Capper replied.
“Just what is that supposed to me–” Trixie began, before a sudden thought occurred to her. “Luna…”
“What about her,” Capper said, his voice gradually growing in alarm.
“Spike said that Celestia wanted her to investigate those assaults from before!”
“What!? When!?”
Not that it actually mattered when it was learned. With or without his knowledge or consent, Luna was going to know what was going on. It was only a matter of time. Did anypony else know? Had Spike clued Twilight in to what was going on? Did Needy perceive something from their brief interaction?
“We can’t let anypony else know,” Capper concluded.
“But, Luna–”
“Not even her,” Capper interjected.
“Capper,” Trixie frimly continued, “you may lie to everypony else to keep them safe. But Luna isn’t just anypony. Not to you.”
The exit from the alleys laid before them. The light of Ponyville waited beyond, welcoming them back into the embrace of a world of civility and reason. Only mere steps away, Capper grumbled to himself.
“Okay,” was all he said.
“Okay,” Trixie repeated. “Now what do we do?”
“Do what we always do. Fly by the seat of our god damn pants.”
And that was the truth.