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// Chapter 3 "Flight" 
// Story: Equestria Noir Case 14 "A Glimmer of Hope" 
// by Jacoboby1 
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Chapter 3

“Flight”


Perspective: Private Eye

Fluttershy broke her embrace with the work horse and flew over to me and Twilight. “What’s going on, Private? I haven't seen anything so scary since that dragon.” 

Twilight put a hoof around her shoulder. “Fluttershy, we came here because a group from Cherilee’s class was kidnapped.” 

“Oh dear!” Fluttershy said, in shock. “That’s horrible! Who would kidnap a bunch of poor dears?” 

Honestly, I had my suspicions. There were a lot of child predators out there. This, however, didn’t match the M.O. of anypony I’ve ever heard of.  What kind of a giant monster pony would take a bunch of kids anyway? For that matter, what was that thing?

I turned towards Fluttershy and spoke firmly, “You should head back, Fluttershy. Cherilee’s already called the police, so they should be here soon.” 

The butter yellow Pegasus slowly shook her head. “I’m not letting those poor things get hurt.” 

Big Mac smiled warmly. “That’s Shy fer ya, she ain’t gonna let us go alone.” 

I sighed, relenting; gosh these ponies don’t know when to listen. I looked at Fluttershy. “All right, but you leave the fighting to me and Big Mac. Between my marksmanship and his strength, we can take on anything.” 

Twilight smiled. “Don’t forget about me, my magic can be useful.” 

Fluttershy nodded her head, “I’ll do my best to help too.” 

I nodded and I looked down at the tracks; for some reason they looked… smaller.	
___________________________________________________________
Perspective: Tailspin

We were walking down a very long corridor. Well, I should say everypony was walking except me. I was slung over Scootaloo’s back, like some dead weight. Our group was moving quickly but quietly, we didn’t want anypony hearing us. 

Snips looked at one of the many old paintings on the walls. “Whoever lives here sure has a thing for creepy pictures.” 

“And old pictures,” Sweetie Belle added, looking up at the paintings. “I’ve seen some of these in those boring art museums Rarity used to drag me to. Some of these are older than Granny Smith.” 

“That’s sayin' somethin,” Applebloom said, with a nod. “Ah just hope somepony finds us before whatever tried to get us comes back.” 

Rumble rolled his violet eyes. “That thing will probably catch us, with Tailspin slowing us down." 

“Shut up, Rumble!” Scootaloo hissed. 

Rumble shot me a vicious glare and just kept walking. 

Scootaloo glanced back at me. “Are you all right, Tailspin?” 

“I should ask you that,” I said, looking back at her. “You’re the one carrying the cripple on your back.” 

“Don’t say that,” Scootaloo said, softly. “I’m strong enough to carry you, and I will keep carrying you for as long as you need.” 

“Scootaloo,” I said, my cheeks flushing brightly.

“You two quit lolly gagging and get over here” Diamond Tiara ordered as she stood by a door. “I think I found our bags!” 

All of us walked to the door, and peeked into the room beyond. We were looking into a large dilapidated study. There were some old couches and overturned chairs scattered about the room. There, piled in a corner, were all of our saddlebags. I recognized my own blue one with a cloud buckle on it. However, I also saw somepony standing over it. 

It was the same red creature I remember seeing before I fell unconscious. The only difference was he was…smaller. He was now about the size of an average adult pony. Maybe a few inches shorter than Private. He paced in front of our bags, clearly standing guard. 

We all huddled in a circle in the corridor far out of earshot. Pip spoke up, “We can’t get to our bags with that thing guarding it.” 

“Has anypony noticed how small he looks?” Applebloom pointed out. “Ah don’t remember him bein' that small the last time ah saw him.” 

“Does it really matter?” Snips asked. “What matters is that he has our bags, and we can’t do much without them.” 

Snails nodded. “Yeah, all my snacks are in there!” 

“Even if we got our bags, where would we take them?” Rumble asked. “We don’t have any place we can run. We need a plan…” 

“Guys!” I heard Dinky whisper loudly, looking out the window. “I think I found a place to hide!”

We all ran to the window and saw the overgrown back garden. There among the weeds and old trees, was a garden shed. It still looked relatively sturdy. Dinky smiled. “If we can get down there then we can hide in that shed!” 

“One problem, Dinky,” Applebloom said, looking at the unicorn. “We’re on the second floor, and only two of us can fly.” 

Sure enough, we were on the second floor. None of us could jump down, it was too far. Rumble shook his head. “I don’t think Scootaloo or I could carry everypony down.” 

Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “If we could somehow soften the fall, then we could all just jump down.” 

“Maybe Scootaloo and Rumble can carry somepony down together,” I thought, aloud, “but they would need to use a net or something to catch anypony jumping down.” 

Applebloom’s eyes grew wide and she pointed back at the study. “Mah blanket, Ah have it in mah bag!” 

Diamond smirked. “You keep your blanky around in your bag?” 

Applebloom blushed as Diamond and Silver Spoon giggled. Applebloom looked ready to tackle the pair, but one look from Pip reminded her of the truce. 

“We need some way to distract that monster, if we can get the blanket then Scootaloo and Rumble can fly down with it. Then they can act as a net and catch anypony jumping down,” I said, quickly. I pointed at Diamond. “You try and get that monster’s attention.” 

“Why do I have to be the bait?” Diamond whispered incredulously. 

“You have the most experience being an obnoxious brat” I replied, flatly.

Diamond glared at me. "I am not an obnoxious brat and I will not be your bait!"	she declared, snorting and tossing her head.

“Fine, once 'somepony'," I said, looked meaningfully at Diamond, "has that thing distracted, everypony grab your bags and run for the window.” I looked at Scootaloo and Rumble. “You two take the blanket and carry one of us down in it.” 

Rumble nodded slowly. “You've done okay by us so far, Tailspin. I guess we can take a chance on this plan.” 

“All right, let’s move!” I said, firmly.

We all walked back to the study, and Diamond walked inside; or should I say she was shoved inside by us? Ah details, all that matters is that the crimson beast started growling upon seeing her. Frankly I can’t blame him, this was going perfectly!

Diamond frowned at the monster, “Listen here, you stinky dolt!” 

The monster was taken aback at this sudden outburst from Diamond. 

“I’ve had an incredibly long and ridiculous day! I had to camp out in some dumb tent!  I was caged! My classmates are trying to get me killed!” Diamond ground her teeth, and stamped her hoof at that last bit. “Now you can say I’m royally ticked off!” 

The monster shrank away from Diamond’s constant whining. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle grabbed their bags first. They ran back out as Diamond kept ranting and complaining about everything. Rarity would have been impressed. When they got back out, Applebloom reached in her bag and pulled out a large blanket. 

Scootaloo set me down on the wall and looked at me. “I’ll come back for you, okay?” 

“Get the others out first” I said, looking beyond her at Diamond. “I don’t know how long Diamond can keep it up.” 

Scootaloo nodded and picked up the blanket with Rumble. Applebloom looked around. “Who’s first?” 

“Get the girls down first,” I said, with a firm look at Rumble. 

He nodded and gestured for Applebloom to get in. The yellow filly hopped onto the blanket and the pair of pegasi gently lowered her down. I looked at the group. “Okay, everypony jump out, Scootaloo and Rumble will catch you” 

Twist was the first up and looked down. She looked a little hesitant at first, but when Truffle gave her an encouraging look, the ginger maned pony leaped out. I heard a quiet cry come from below. “Tailspin! Applebloom’s working at getting us in the shed! Send down everypony else!” 

Pip, Snips, and Snails came out with the last of the bags and chucked them out after Silver Spoon went. Soon Sweetie Belle followed, but that’s when I heard it. 

“We got a problem!” Diamond shouted, from the study. 

“What kind of problem?” I called back, hoping the pony was gnawing one of her hooves.

“The big and really ticked off kind!” Diamond shouted, as she burst out of the study, with the monster right on her tail. Truffle was the next one to jump out, and he didn’t need much incentive. 

The monster looked over at Dinky and began growling low. It started to advance on the unicorn, as Snips and Snails jumped out of the window. 

Pip suddenly came out of nowhere and leaped onto the beast. He wrapped his tiny hooves around its neck and held on tight. The beast leaped around like a bucking bull. Pip looked at Dinky, “Run!” 

“I’m not leaving you!” Dinky shouted, as Pip struggled with the beast. 

“I’ll be fine!” Pip shouted, punching the beast in the muzzle. “Go!” 

Reluctantly Dinky was the next one to go. She gave one last look back at Pip, before leaping out the window. I looked at Diamond.  “You go next!” 

“Gladly!” Diamond replied, as she leapt out of the window.

Suddenly, Pip was thrown off the monster and slammed into the wall. The monster was growling low, baring its large teeth at my friend. He wasn’t getting my friend on my watch!

I shouted at the monster, “Hey big and ugly!” 

The beast turned his yellow eyes towards me. 

I glared at it. “Why don’t you pick on the pony that can’t run?” 

The beast started charging right at me. I kept my blue gaze on him, despite the fact I was trembling inside. Private always told me to be brave. Well, I’m doing it right now!

Suddenly the monster was sideswiped by a grey blur. Rumble was wrestling with the monster, slamming his hooves on its head. He looked at me. “Go! I’ll hold him off!” 

“Rumble…” I was surprised he of all ponies would save me. 

Pip ran to me and lifted me onto his back; then he ran to the window sill and pushed me off. I fell like a dead weight onto the blanket. I saw that Sweetie, Snips, Snails, and Dinky were holding it. I rolled off the blanket and looked up as Rumble flew out of the window. Pip followed seconds after and landed on the blanket. 

Rumble landed beside me, and looked at me. “You all right?” 

“I’m fine,” I said, slowly. “Why’d you save me?” 

Rumble looked down. “Look, I’m sorry about beating you up, okay? I just got so jealous that Scootaloo liked you more than me. When I remembered you were trapped in there, I knew she would hate me forever if I just left you.” 

“Rumble,” I said, putting a hoof on the colt’s shoulder. “Thanks for saving my flank back there.” 

“You aren’t so bad, for a cripple,” Rumble said, with lopsided grin.

I returned the smile and looked up as Applebloom cleared her throat. She stood in the open door of the shed. “Everypony! Let’s stay 'ere fer the night.” 

I looked up, somehow in our struggles I failed to notice the sun was lowering. I guess we had to stay here for the night. 

Everypony went with their bags into the shed. Scootaloo picked me up again. She looked back at me as we headed to the shed. “Tailspin, I think you were very brave for staying behind, and making sure everypony else was safe.” 

“Don’t thank me,” I pointed out. “Thank Pip.” I pointed at Pip who was walking beside Dinky. 

Dinky looked at Pip with shining yellow eyes. “That’s right! You jumped on that monster, and saved me! That was so cool!” 

Pip blushed and tried not to look embarrassed. “Well, I would’ve done the same for any of my mates.” 

Dinky then planted a kiss on Pip’s already red cheek. She smiled at him, and blushed a little herself. “I thought it was amazing.” 

“Thanks, Dinky,” Pip said, his cheeks turning even more red.

Everypony in the shed was giggling, and the girls started singing in chorus, “Pip and Dinky sitting in a tree-“ 

“Shut up!” Dinky and Pip shouted, at the same time.

We all laughed as we entered the shed and closed the door. 
_________________________________________________________________
Perspective: Private Eye

Luna’s moon shone in the sky as we walked in the woods. I swear this place was as confusing as Everfree at night. Luckily, we had Twilight’s tracking spell to help us. 

The tracks were easier to follow now, thanks to being so recently made.  I noticed that the tracks kept getting smaller and smaller in size, though. It was like the creature was shrinking as it ran along. 

My thoughts were interrupted as my eyes beheld the building in front of me. 

It was a three story mansion, right out here in the middle of nowhere. The building was bigger than my dad’s back in Manehattan, and that was saying something. Windows were broken and the place looked abandoned. The large rusted gates looked recently opened. Somepony was here…

Fluttershy cowered behind Big Mac and whispered, “What a scary place.” 

Twilight tapped her hoof on her chin, “I don’t remember anypony building all the way out here.” 

“It was probably before our time,” I guessed. “This place looks like nopony has lived here in years.” 

“It looks like somepony decided tah come knockin'.” Big Mac pointed out the hoof prints leading into the mansion.  “Whatever that thing was, it sure wanted tah get 'ere ina hurry” 

I nodded and walked past the open gate and up to the door. The door was slightly ajar; I pulled out Blackbird and gently pushed the door open…