The Duchess of Manehattan had something of a reputation, especially within the Equestrian underground.
There were, of course, the rumours that she had arranged for the previous duchess' demise in a fireworks "accident." There was no evidence, or at least none that anyone had brought forward to Twilight, since those who crossed Duchess Muffins also had a habit of falling prey to some nasty accidents.
For the most part, though, ponies didn't seem to really mind having their strings pulled by the elusive pegasus. She wasn't known for making unreasonable demands, and Twilight had to begrudgingly respect the work and efforts she put into the various charity projects around the city. Sure, it was probably just a front to let her stay in power, but it was better than nothing, and all things considered, Twilight had always found it much too difficult to sort things out when the Duchess was mostly doing good things with her influence.
Which was why Twilight was extremely worried about meeting the Duchess. Her reputation preceded her, but there was scant information about what she was actually like, and Twilight hated working with incomplete information.
She barely managed to avoid standing up and pacing around the room as she awaited her fate. Hopefully, she'd be able to survive an encounter with the Duchess without her own little accident, even if it was harder to dispose of a princess.
There was a loud crashing sound from the entrance, and Twilight recognized the sound of a vase shattering when it hit tiled floor. "Oops," a woman's voice said, sounding guilty. "My bad. Can someone please clean this up? I'd help, but, umm..."
There was some further chatter, but Twilight couldn't hear the rest of it, and a moment later, the door opened to reveal a blond-haired woman wearing a surprisingly simple beige dress.
One of her golden eyes fixed its gaze on Twilight while the other seemed to scan the room. "You're Twilight Sparkle, right?" the woman asked, waiting for Twilight to nod in minor confusion before continuing. "Oh, thank the stars you're here, Your Majesty! You can fix this, right?"
Twilight blinked. "You're Duchess Muffins, right?"
"Yup, that's me." The Duchess walked right up to Twilight with panic in her eyes as she said, "please, you gotta help me. There's guards outside and they're really scary looking and I think one of my men accidentally shot someone and now we're all stuck inside here."
This was not how she had expected this conversation to go. "Duchess, you were the one who kidnapped me in the first place," Twilight explained, feeling rather silly at having to say those words right now.
"I just wanted to talk to you!" the Duchess replied, tears welling in her eyes. "I needed to ask for your help for another thing, and then this happened!"
"I—" Twilight took a deep breath. "Okay, fine. What did you need my help with in the first place, and why did that involve having Macintosh here grab me and put a magic limiter around my neck after shooting Rarity?"
"I don't know a Rarity," Duchess Muffins replied. "I just needed help dealing with a—"
And then things got quite loud.
The wall beside them suddenly exploded, sending dust and debris flying everywhere. Twilight tried to conjure up a shield on instinct, wincing as the inhibitor blocked her magic and sent a splinter of pain right into her brain.
Duchess Muffins and Macintosh had the slightly more useful reaction of shielding their faces with their hands, which meant that they weren't the ones coughing up dust when Captain Strawberry Sunrise and Agent Starlight Glimmer walked in, dressed appropriately in comparison to Rainbow Dash, who looked incredibly fabulous while jamming out on a glowing guitar.
"Stop right there, criminals!" Rainbow announced. "I've got a guitar and I'm not afraid to use it!"
The actual professionals sighed as they pointed their weapons at the Duchess and Macintosh. "Step away from the princess and nobody had to get hurt," Strawberry said.
"Yeah, what Captain Sunrise said," Starlight added. "We don't want to hurt anyone, but the Princess' safety is our primary concern."
"Now, now, I'm sure we can settle this without any more violence."
Twilight froze as a familiar voice announced the presence of yet another rescuer.
Rarity stepped in, looking as beautiful as when they'd first met in that alleyway, her dress pristine and free of any bloodstains, to Twilight's immense relief. She also vaguely noticed Sunset Shimmer coming in behind her, but her focus was on Rarity and the fact that she was very much alive.
"You're okay!" Twilight exclaimed, forgetting that she was supposed to be keeping her cool. "I thought you were dead!"
"Oh, darling," Rarity replied. "You know I'm far too fabulous to let something like a gunshot wound keep down." She nodded politely to Macintosh. "Fancy seeing you again, good sir."
Macintosh tipped his hat at her. "Apologies, ma'am. Nothin' personal."
"Okay, I think there may have been some misunderstandings here," Twilight said, not wanting this to turn into a bloodbath, and also desperately trying to ignore the way her heart was racing when she looked at Rarity. They could unpack those feelings later, when their lives weren't in danger for once.
"Princess, you've literally got a magic limiter around your neck," Captain Sunrise said. "Pretty sure we're rescuing you from being kidnapped."
"Well, yes," Twilight admitted. "But it seems like the circumstances that led to my kidnapping might be a bit... muddled? I think this would be a good time for a mediated discussion." She tugged at the collar on her neck. "Preferably without this."
The Duchess shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me."
"Agent Glimmer, please remove the limiter from the Princess," Captain Sunrise commanded.
Starlight did as told, walking over to Twilight and casting a spell to disable the device. The princess sighed in relief as she felt her magic return to her.
"Okay, so, first of all, why did you need my help, and why couldn't you just ask for an audience in Canterlot like a normal noble?" Twilight asked.
Countess Muffins' eyes widened. "Wait, you can do that?"
Twilight stared at her. "Y—Yes? There's a form to fill and you'll get a response within fourteen business days usually. We usually try to keep it to seven but sometimes things don't go according to plan and allowanced—" She shook her head. "Anyways, the answer is yes, you can just do that."
"Oh." The Countess looked so forlorn that Twilight wanted to give her a hug. "Oops. Nobody told me, and I still don't really get how this Duchess thing works."
"That's... fine," Twilight said slowly, trying to regain her bearings. "Okay, so, what did you need my help with?"
"Oh, it's just terrible!" The Countess said, nearly wailing. "I'm in way over my head ever since this Duchess thing started and I'm trying to do my best but I think I accidentally become a criminal kingpin and now there's ponies who want to—"
And that's when the other wall exploded.