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// Chapter 9: Try and keep up! 
// Story: An Epitaph 
// by TimeSolidMetal 
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Chapter 9

Mr. Lense took a step forward, peering through the window to the rainy city outside. The feeling just couldn't be shaken. And it turns out his suspicion came with cause; on the roof of the apartment across the street stood a pony in a grey trench coat and hood, wearing the metal mask resembling the skull of a pony, and a telescopic lens in the right eye. Mr. Lense noticed right away and burst through the window, standing on the sill with perfect balance in the rain. 
"You! Stop right there!" He shouted across the street. The pony on the roof looked down at Mr. Lense, then turned and galloped off along the roof tops. "Well, I should of known better than that."  Mr. Lense dashed back indoors and with great haste burst through the door to the apartment, the door slammed shut behind him and he dashed for the stairs up, galloping madly to the roof. He burst through the metal door and appeared on the concrete floored roof, the buildings in this part of the city where nestled close together, and the roof of the next buildings were not far. The mysterious masked pony could still be seen galloping away across the street, jumping from roof top to roof top. Mr. Lense hustled off, his hooves clopping against the hard surface below him. With one great leap he jumped over the edge of the roof, risking a fall 6 stories below, and landed with a slight skid on the other roof. "Stop right there!" 
He ran to the other side of the roof and without hesitation jumped to a taller brick buildings fire escape, he slammed with a loud metallic clank against the side rail, his fore hooves folded in over the railing. With a few loud grunts he pulled himself over and rushed up to the top of the fire escape and continued the chase after the winged mask pony. 
The Masked pony dashed along the roof tops, jumping from building to building with expert precision. He approached the edge of a building a few stories taller than the one he currently stood on, and with a powerful flap of his wings, he jettisoned upwards! He shot into the air like a bullet and landed with a powerful thunk on the top of the next building. 
"Dammit, get back here!" Mr. Lense shouted. At this point the two racing ponies were neck and neck with each other, but on opposite sides of the street. But to Mr. Lenses luck, up ahead was a skyway to the building across the street, the perfect bridge between the gap.
Mr. Lense jumped from building to building, never cutting down on his speed, and then took a hard right and jumped through the rain, onto the triangular shaped shingled sky way. He galloped along the wet tiled surface and quickly climbed up to the building, his poncho hood was blown off of his head and left to flap in the wind, his brown mane was soaking wet against his head. 
The masked pony skid to a stop at the edge of the last building before the street below and he spread his wings, preparing to take flight. But before he could even shoot off the ground, Mr. Lense tackled him to the ground, the small puddles splashed water upward as the two ponies wrestled on the concrete floor.
"You're under arrest for fleeing the scene of a crime!" Mr. Lense hollered to him, pinning the masked pony down. But the masked pony wasn't giving up, he kicked Mr. Lense in the stomach with his hind legs, sending him skidding along the wet surface. Then he stood up, revealing something Mr. Lense has never seen before. An odd archaic symbol was glowing a wide spectrum of colors on the masked pony's hoof, it was tantalizing, it was an all out whimsical sight. The masked pony then dashed for the edge of the building and, with a large flash of white misty light, he appeared on the street below. It was as if Mr .Lense blinked and he was gone. 
Mr. Lense stood up, his eyes wide in disbelief. That's not possible, what the hell was that!? He thought to himself, he took a deep, irritated breath. 
"That was no unicorn." Mr. Lense pulled his hood back up and walked off through the rain, returning to the crime scene and to log his encounter with the masked suspect.