The next time Twilight woke up the sun had barely left the top of the sky, indicating that she had slept through the entire first half of the 1st of November. When she processed this, she jumped out of her bed in such a hurry that it would have impressed even the Flash.
Without even bothering with breakfast or stopping at the bathroom, she opened the secret door beneath her bed and hurried down to the Batcave to continue her investigation. She would give Spike a piece of her mind for not waking her up earlier.
But when she got down, she saw that her draconic assistant was already hard at work at the computers, continuing from where they left off the night before. Next to him was a table full of food, no doubt for her. Her anger subsiding, she was about to join him, but the rumbling of her stomach drove her towards the dining table instead.
"Good afternoon, Twilight." Spike said, taking notice of her growling stomach. Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"What happened to good morning?" She asked as she sat down.
"You sleeping through the whole morning happened." Spike retorted. "Not that I didn't expect that and prepared lunch for you instead of breakfast. I also took the liberty of continuing the work to give you time to rest." Twilight smiled fondly. Spike really knew her better than anypony and he always put her in front of him.
"So, did you find anything?" She asked, taking a bite of her food.
"Several ponies could access or create this kind of cyanide, but I think you will find this the most intriguing." Spike pressed a few buttons on the keyboard and the screen highlighted two images. The first one was a mugshot of a mare with creamy white skin and a coal black mane. The second was the same mare but wearing a wooden black mask, resembling a pony skull. "I believe no introduction is necessary.
Twilight's eyes narrowed in contempt when she saw her. The despicable waste of an equine life was Romance Cyan. AKA, The Black Mask. She was one of the few remaining mob bosses of the city who adapted to the costumed villain craze that took hold of the city since Batmare's first appearance. She was the head of a cosmetics company she inherited from her parents who died in a very suspicious fire in their mansion, but she proved to be a terrible CEO and her decisions soon ran the company into the ground. The last nail in the coffin proved to be a cosmetic cream that made ponies fur fall out and the company went on sale.
But that wasn't the end. Unable to cope with her failure, the mare gathered a few thugs for herself and began hunting down the bidders of her company, killing them with the same hazardous cosmetics she once manufactured. With an extra touch.
"Let me guess, the cyanide that killed Scarecrow is the same one she used in those killings." Twilight said.
"Bingo." Spike replied. "But why go after Scarecrow? What connection was there between them?" Twilight put on a thinking face. That was actually a good question.
"Scarecrow robbed a lot of powerful ponies during his rampage, not just Falcon. Maybe she was among them?" Twilight theorised.
"Even if that was the case, the MO still doesn't match." Spike countered. "Scarecrow was poisoned by a candy bar. Black Mask killed her victims with poisoned masks."
"Still, the fact that they used the same poison is one hay of a coincidence. She may not be the killer, but could have hired somepony to do it. This is definitely a lead that's worth investigating." Twilight argued. "Do we know about Cyan's whereabouts right now?" Spike turned back to the computer.
"Well, she was released after they couldn't find enough evidence against her. That mask hides her identity well. Ever since then, she went underground and has been controlling her operations from behind the scenes. Her whereabouts are unknown." Twilight groaned upon hearing that. This was the only lead she had right now. She had to find this mare.
"Spike, I want you to access every security camera in the city that is based around any building that has any connection to her. When you spot any suspicious movement, alert me immediately!" Spike sighed half-heartedly. He really hated this part of the job.
"Well, it's a good thing we're closed on the day after Nightmare Night."
In the meantime, Twilight began a little research on her own. She began to dig up anything she could on Black Mask. She didn't have as much knowledge on the mare as she would have preferred. Their encounters were few and far between. The police could actually bring Cyan in without her so she didn't pay much attention to her case. But then they failed to connect her to her alter ego, making Twilight regret not digging up anything incriminating on her before.
Given the case she was investigating, she first try to find a connection between her and Sweet Dreams, but it yielded no result. She didnt't want to admit it, but she also has doubts that she was connected to his death and they were becoming stronger as her research went on.
The one interesting thing she could find was that Cyan had an ongoing feud with the MCPD over some of her personal belongings that were still confiscated at their headquarters after she was arrested. Mainly a pearl necklace that was a family heirloom but the police still suspected it might be stolen so they refused to return it to her. That sounded like it might be worth looking into in the future.
After a few hours of research, Twilight was snapped out of her work by her assistant calling out to her.
"Hey, Twilight! I've got something!" Spike yelled to her from the computer.
"What is it?" She asked, running over to him. Spike pointed at one of the screens.
"A group of masked ponies are gathering around an old warehouse still belonging to Cyan's old company. They look like they're up to something. They're loading stuff onto several carriages." Twilight looked at the screen and saw three carriages lined up, being filled with weapons and other suspicious items such as signal jammers and explosives.
"Those are Black Mask's goons alright." Twilight commented. "But what are they..." A horrible thought occurred to her. Black Mask hasn't made any moves around the city. Her only current affair was her bureaucratic battle to get her possessions back from the police. Perhaps she got tired of the paperwork.
That theory was further validated when she saw the masked ponies begin to weld armor and ramming devices onto the carriages, perfectly capable of penetrating the walls of the police station. Twilight gasped. She needed to alert them immediately.
The one downside to being given a day off on Nightmare Night was that you had to come in the next day. Almost nopony had to come in on November 1st as everypony was recovering from the craze of the previous night, but at least that gave Captain Garden a chance to work in peace and access to information he normally wouldn't have been able to get without days of damnable paperwork.
The unicorn police officer was sitting in his office, doing a little investigative work on his own regarding the murder of Sweet Dreams. Not that he doubted the detective skills of the Batmare, but this case just refused to leave his mind at peace. Maybe it was the conversation he had with the vigilante last night, but he also started believing there was more in the background than met the eye.
So he decided to help his friend's investigation by trying to find something useful. He checked the list of ponies who knew about the murdered stallion's release, ponies who had investments in the stores he robbed as the Scarecrow and the stores that sold the type of candy that they poisoned him with. He hoped that Batmare had more success than him though, as he failed to find anything useful so far, even after hours of reading. He was just about to fall asleep at his desk when he heard an incoming call on his walkie talkie.
"Captain Garden here." He said into the device, glad to finally have something to distract him from the tedious paperwork. But his relief quickly faded when he heard who was on the other side of the line.
"Garden! Shut the station down immediately and gather as many cops down there as you can!" The unmistakable voice of the Batmare warned. "The station is about to be attacked!" The captain's eyes widened in shock.
"How did you..." He was about to ask how she got onto his frequency, but then he remembered who he was talking to. "Never mind. Attacked by who?"
"There's no time to explain! Just do as I say..." Before she could continue, Garden felt the entire building shake, nearly making him fall out of his chair.
"I think I know what you mean." He responded. Batmare growled.
"Damn! They're already there! Head to the underground garage with everypony you can find! I'll be there as soon as I can!"
Batmare ended the call and shifted her focus back on gliding across the city's rooftops. She will really have to come up with a more effective way of transport at some point, but for now, she'll have to focus on the job at hoof.
She finally reached the Manehattan Police Station and from the roof, she could see a group of armed ponies wearing several different masks around a carriage with a battering ram on it as they pulled it back and smashed it against the garage door of the building.
She counted about twelve attackers, but she was certain that even somepony as bold as Black Mask wouldn't attack the main police station in town with this few ponies. She had to have some more hiding around somewhere but she couldn't afford to wait until they showed up.
She jumped off the roof and glided towards the attackers. They noticed her instantly and aimed their weapons at her, but she threw a barrage of batarangs and managed to disarm all of them. She landed on top of one goon with a bear mask and smashed him into the ground, knocking him out before turning to the rest.
She rushed at the closest one wearing the mask of one of those mexicoltan wrestlers and punched him so hard his head was smashed into the carriage behind him. She turned right and saw two more running at her. She jumped over the first one in a snake mask, grabbed him by the neck and pulled him along with her, throwing him at the grey alien masked one behind him.
She then turned around and found herself facing a unicorn wearing a dark cloak as a poor imitation of the grim reaper. This image was further played out when he used his magic to levitate several scythes around him and began to rotate them before pushing them forward. Batmare jumped forward and dodged the sharp tools flying at her with graceful ease before slamming herself into the unicorn with enough force to knock him back.
She was about to move on to her next target, but then she found herself in the hold of the front legs of a huge stallion wearing a lion mask. She struggled with all her might but she couldn't break free, the stallion began to squeeze her so tight that every inch of their bodies were touching. Batmare took advantage of this and reached for her utility belt, pressing a button on it that sent a huge shockwave through the stallion's body and incapacitated him.
She turned to see a goon with a mask that resembled a huge eyeball open the door of a carriage and pull out a rocket launcher. Batmare reached for a batarang but found that she used all of them up on their weapons. Fortunately, she managed to come up with something else by the time the rocket was launched.
She jumped out of the way and took out her grappling gun, firing it at the rocket. The hook wrapped around it and she hurled it right back at the carriage. The goon's eyes widened as he jumped out of the carriage just in time before the missile struck, blowing it to smithereens. As an additional bonus, it was the carriage with the battering ram, so the goons have lost their way to get inside the station. This angered the remaining criminals so much that they were about to throw themselves at the vigilante, but they were interrupted by a sudden loud voice.
"THIS IS THE MCPD! CEASE AND DESIST AT ONCE!" The goons stopped and looked around to see a bunch of police ponies charging out of the building and aiming their weapons at them. They knew the game was up and they surrendered without any further resistance. As the goons were cuffed and carried away, Batmare saw Captain Garden in the crowd.
"The False Facers." He growled as he looked over the masked ponies. "That can only mean one thing. Where's Black Mask?" The cops and the vigilante quickly checked the remaining two carriages, only to find them empty.
"Not here." Batmare remarked frustratedly.
"What was she playing at here?" The captain asked. "The only reason she would attack the station can only be to retrieve the Cyan jewels. But those are locked up in the..." The eyes of two ponies widened at the same time as they both reached the same conclusion. "...the evidence room!"
They immediately rushed back inside the station and didn't stop until they reached the evidence room. The captain's heart nearly stopped when he saw it's door wide open with several incapacitated officers in front of it.
"Damn you!" He growled before running to check on his comrades while Batmare went inside the room. He leaned down next to a petite earth pony mare and tapped her cheek to wake her up. "Come on, sarge. I know you're tougher than this." The mare groaned as she slowly opened her eyes and regained her consciousness.
"Captain... Is that you..." Before Garden could answer, Batmare came out of the evidence room.
"It's gone." She told him angrily. "Not just the jewels but all other evidence related to Black Mask." Garden cursed under his breath as he helped the mare to her hooves while Batmare did the same to the other two officers.
"I'm sorry, captain." The mare apologised in agony. "I have failed you. I was supposed to keep ponies out of there but they overpowered me. They took the keycard from me and..." Garden softly put a hoof over her lips.
"Shh..." He said calmingly as he embraced her. "It's not your fault. I'm sure you've done everything you could."
Batmare watched the scene with equal parts sadness, anger and worry. Sadness over the mare and her colleagues for what they went through and for obviously having to be questioned later. Anger for how easily Black Mask managed to fool both her and the police with this little diversion and worry about what is going to happen next.
Romance Cyan sat inside her own personal carriage on her way home. She took off her equine skull shaped mask and raised her hoof in front of herself, holding her precious pearl necklace in it. A satisfied and arrogant smirk grew on her face as she thought about how easily everything went tonight.
She knew that the first night after Nightmare Night would be the perfect opportunity to hit the station and reclaim what was rightfully hers from those pesky cops. Not to mention getting rid of every bit of dirt they have collected about her. It may not have been anything too incriminating, but it was better safe than sorry.
But getting her prized jewel was her biggest victory tonight. It may have more sentimental than monetary value, but it was still more important to her than almost any of her other possessions. She chuckled to herself and put it around her neck.
Suddenly, she started feeling very lightheaded and nauseous, but at first, she wrote it off as a side effect of the bumpy roads. But when breathing also became a difficulty to her, she began to feel a little worried.
She started taking heavy breaths but even that didn't work and only resulted in her getting a heavy coughing fit. In a desperate attempt to ease the sudden pressure on her neck, she removed her necklace and leaned towards the window to get some fresh air, but she never reached it.
By the time the carriage made it back to the Cyan mansion and the two ponies pulling it went to open the door for their boss, all they found was a dead body oozing with a bitter almond smell.
It was a bittersweet morning to Captain Jam Garden. He learned that one of the current most wanted mob bosses of the city, Romance Cyan had been killed. As awful as it sounded, that would have been a huge relief for him under normal circumstances, but the current circumstances were far from normal.
"Cyanide poisoning." The coroner said as he entered his office and put his report on his desk. Garden took a gulp of his coffee before picking it up.
"That's the second one in two days. You think there's a connection?" He asked the slim, yellow unicorn. The coroner's sigh and downcast eyes were the only answers he needed.
"At first I thought that would be a way too conspirative assumption, until I checked the murder weapon." He said, placing Cyan's pearl necklace on the table in an evidence bag. Garden raised an eyebrow.
"Her necklace was the murder weapon?" He's seen a few peculiar ways of killing in his time, but this was outlandish even for him.
"That necklace wasn't all pearls." Garden looked at him in confusion before turning his attention to the report he was given. "One of them..." The coroner began, unsure of how his boss would take the news. "...one of them was a piece of gumdrop. Laced with cyanide and tiny needles that syrenged it into her body."