“We know you have the Princess in there, open up!”
The voice was slightly muffled by the door, but its gruff and demanding tone left little to the imagination.
There was a beat of silence from the girls inside as the probably-armed-and-badge-bearing solicitor banged on the door again.
Rainbow Dash coughed into one hand. “Well, that’s probably a cop or a guard. Don’t think House Manehatten knocks.”
“And here we are with their freshly missing member of the royal family,” Sunset said. “Doesn’t paint us in a great light.”
Everyone paused for a moment to stare at Twilight. There was more aggressive knocking. Rarity sighed and gestured helplessly at Sunset, who groaned and stepped closer to the door. Affecting a slightly airy and scared tone, she addressed the stranger. “Wha-who? The missing Princess? What’s that got to do with me? I’m just here with my roommate! Who’s knocking?”
The entire time, she was staring at the other three girls with a flat expression.
“This is the Royal Guard, we heard police reports of a disturbance across the street and witnesses mentioned someone who looked like the Princess being dragged away from the scene,” the alleged guardsman said.
In the ensuing lull, they could all faintly hear other doors along the hallway being similarly accosted.
“So… you’re accusing everyone here of hiding the Princess?” Sunset didn’t even have to fake the confusion in her voice.
“Better safe than sorry, miss,” came the reply.
“Doesn’t inspire much confidence, really,” Rainbow Dash chimed in. “Oh, I’m the roommate, by the way.”
“Our job is to protect the Royal Family, not to reassure the public,” the guard said. “Please open your door, in the name of the Crown, so I may ascertain that you have not kidnapped Her Highness.”
Rainbow and Sunset shared a look, then turned to Twilight. Rainbow helpfully raised her length of metal pipe in a silent question.
Twilight stared at the door. Then at the pipe. Then at Rainbow’s eager expression. She shook her head furiously.
Sunset thought for a second, leaning against the door frame. “Even if we had the Princess here, would it really be smart to have her outside right now? We heard the commotion at that cafe from in here! Is that handled?”
There was a faint scrape across the door. The guard was likely no longer posed to force it open. They hoped. “You’re right about that, miss, but we still need eyes on Her Highness. Can’t protect her if we don’t know where she is. Or if she’s hurt.”
Everyone inside the cramped apartment eyed each other as they considered the point. At this point they couldn’t refuse the guard entry and maintain the facade of concerned citizens, but Twilight continued to shake her head and–was she eyeing the windows?
Rarity grimaced and got up from the tiny couch. “It’s fine,” she whispered. “Twilight and I will hide just outside the window and you two let the man in.”
“Fine, we’ll let you in in just a minute,” Sunset shouted through the door. “Just, uhh, let me put on some proper clothes first?”
“Why would you not be wearing clothes?” The guard sounded genuinely confused.
Rainbow gently bonked her own head against her pipe. “Dude, it’s like, eleven at night. Why are you wearing armour?”
A faint rustle. “Armou–oh! Right! Yes, I’m definitely wearing armour because I’m a guard and I’m working right now,” the “guard” said, singlehandedly appending several quotation marks around his title in the minds of all four girls.
Rarity was startled from her mounting dread by a hiss from Twilight. She realised that the Princess was already halfway out the window and onto the ledge. “Let’s go, Rarity!”
She wasted no time scrambling after her new girlfriend, and looked back at Sunset, who had her hand on the door handle. “He might have one of those magic instrument weapons,” she cautioned. “If he isn’t who he says he is.”
Rainbow nodded and stepped back against a wall to put her hands behind her back. “Exploding harmonicas or not, no-one expects a metal rod to the head,” she assured.
Rarity shook her head and took Twilight’s hand to finish climbing out the window, pulling it shut after her. The two edged along thin strip of grass behind the bushes denoting the property line and relaxed as much as one can when trying to peek into a window that may or may not be under the scrutiny of a magically-armed thug and also having an annoying amount of twigs prodding at your back and legs.
“So, what do you think,” Rarity muttered dryly, “Working for the Manehattens, Mr. Cheese himself, or just an abnormally scatterbrained actual guard?”
Twilight appeared to consider this for a second as she watched Sunset open the apartment door and welcome in a man in a slightly ill-fitting breastplate and helmet. “I don’t see an accordion or trumpet or anything, so maybe it’s just the Manehattens,” she said. They remained silent as Sunset went about offering the man an energy drink and making the standard gestures of “feel free to look around.”
They continued to idly spectate as the unofficial-crime-fighting duo allowed the man to inspect the apartment thoroughly. A few minutes later, he stood by the door and bowed his head gratefully. One hand went up to what was presumably an earpiece, and he stepped out. Rainbow Dash closed the door behind him and wiped her brow with one hand. Sunset pressed one ear to the door for a second before rushing over and opening the window.
She stuck her head out and addressed the pair outside. “I think he bought that you were never here, but I heard the rest of the goons heading outside. I don’t think it’s safe for you here. Mr. Cheese didn’t come up in conversation, but I think I caught a flash of patchwork bowtie under that breastplate he was wearing.”
Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose. “What now? There aren’t many places we can go, and three different groups looking for me know I’m in this area!”
“Yeah, but at least only one of them wants to kill you,” Rainbow chimed in. “Well, so far, at least.”
Twilight let out a high pitched whine.
“What, was it something I said?”
Rarity opened her mouth to lay into Rainbow Dash for being so insensitive, but a large, bassy, tooth-rattling hum interrupted her.
A voice rang out around the neighbourhood.
“Princess Sparkle, we know you’re nearby, and most likely in this building. Mr. Cheese just wants to… talk, and we’re prepared to make that happen any way we have to. If the police or the Guard get involved we’ll simply use the instruments at our disposal to deal with them.
“You have ten minutes to come to the entrance, where we’ll take you to the boss. Your lady friend can even come too. Hm?”
There was some whispering that washed over everyone, just far enough from the amplification spell that it wasn’t discernible.
“My associate says, however, that the crazy one with the pipe–his words, mind–is not welcome. Anyway, come with us, or we start giving the lovely locals a show they won’t be around to remember. Ten minutes.”
Twilight stood up. “Guess I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” she mumbled.
“Of course you do!” Rarity growled. “We’re not letting them take you to get… Cheesed? Without a fight!”
“As much as I don’t want innocents hurt, she’s right,” Sunset added. “You’re symbolically important, at the least. And you know something they want kept quiet. If they knew that you told us, we’d be on the chopping block as well.”
“Even so,” Twilight said, looking more like a princess than she had most of the evening, “I can’t let this go on. At least I’ll buy time for the Guard to mount a resistance.”
Rarity groaned and stood up. “Alright then. Rainbow, pipe me.”
The other girl handed her the metal rod with zero hesitation. “I got more, keep this one.”
She turned to face her Princess-and-girlfriend. “Let’s get this party started, shall we?”