//------------------------------// // Research // Story: MLPU: Spider-Mare: Cat's Claws // by TheInvincibleIronBrony //------------------------------// Scootaloo arrived at the warehouse she had first explored her powers in, her costume in the bag on her back. She and Dinky had been coming here twice a week and using the open space within to test the limits of Scootaloo’s powers. They’d set up a small obstacle course, and had tried to test the maximum weight Scootaloo could lift, but there wasn’t anything in the warehouse that was heavy enough. Scootaloo’s webs were the only thing they’d found a limit to. The entire warehouse had become a maze of webs by the end of the experiment, but by the next day all that was left was mostly dry webs and dust on the floor. Dinky had explained that the webs probably dried overnight. “Hey Scootaloo,” Dinky greeted as Scootaloo entered the building. The unicorn was reading a newspaper at a table they’d set up in the center of the warehouse for taking breaks. “Hey,” Scootaloo replied as she joined her friend. “Anything new in there or just the same ‘Menace of Manehattan’ headlines?” she asked looking at the frontpage, sure enough seeing a blurred photo of herself from last night. Dinky shook her head. “I didn’t even bother reading the front page,” she answered, flipping another page. “I did find an interesting article on some birds in Canistan though,” she commented as she set the paper down. Scootaloo stared at Dinky blankly. “I don’t think that’s much of a concern for me right now,” she said standing up and looking at the ceiling, searching for a way to broach the topic she wanted to discuss. Dinky seemed to take notice of Scootaloo’s distraction. “What’s up?” she asked, concerned. Scootaloo turned back to the table and looked at Dinky. “Last night I followed some cops to the shipping district and found these thugs about to kill a mare in a costume,” she informed, watching Dinky’s eyes widen in shock. “Did you stop them?” she asked, hoping the mare was okay. “Yeah she’s fine,” Scootaloo assured. “But she told me that some mob was threatening her dad,” she continued, earning Dinky’s full attention. “She told me she had to protect him herself cause heroes like me were too busy catching muggers,” Scootaloo finished her eyes on the ground. Dinky thought for a moment. “What are you thinking?” she asked curiously, suspecting where this was going. Scootaloo huffed. “I’ve been at this for nearly a month now and I’ve stopped muggers, murderers, crooks and carjackers. Plus the Lizard, but what does all that accomplish if there’s still someone pulling everyone’s strings?” Scootaloo asked returning her gaze to Dinky. Dinky looked her friend in the eye and smiled. She saw determination in Scootaloo. Determination to make a major change in the world around her. To use her powers for a noble crusade. “So what? Are you gonna try to take down the mob?” she asked, leaning forward. Scootaloo looked at the table for inspiration. “Might be a good place to start,” she replied. Dinky couldn’t hide her grin anymore. “What?” Scootaloo asked, quirking her eyebrow at Dinky’s smile. Dinky laughed. “Sorry, it’s just great to see you taking the initiative with this. You weren’t so happy with being a superhero at first,” Dinky explained. “Well that was before I really got the hang of swinging from roof tops. It almost feels like flying,” she said with a sad smile. Dinky looked down. “Speaking of which,” she started catching Scootaloo’s attention,” I was wondering if you’d let me have a go at it?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye at the thought. Scootaloo smiled as she rolled her eyes. “Maybe in a bit. Right now we need to figure out where to start fighting organized crime." Dinky beamed as she got up. “Sure. We can do some research at my place. Come on,” the unicorn said as she headed for the door, Scootaloo not far behind. ///////////////////////////////////////// Diamond Tiara sat at the desk in her room, her laptop open and displaying several articles on organized crime in Manehattan. She grumbled to herself in annoyance, unhappy that she hadn’t thought of this in the first place. “Could have saved myself some bruises,” she told herself, grumpily as she searched through the articles. After several minutes of searching she groaned loudly and leaned back in her chair. She stared at the ceiling and thought to herself. Just the other day all I cared about was keeping my winter clothes in fashion. Now money seems so meaningless, she thought as a thought struck her. “Money,” she spoke out loud, something the stallion who had met with her father came to mind. “Mr. Fiscal,” she said to herself, returning to her computer. She quickly looked up the name and several articles came up. Each article revolved around various business deals and companies all owned under the same name. A buffalo by the name of Fiscal Year. Diamond Tiara wondered how a buffalo had become a crime boss in Manehattan. She saw an article mentioning an arrest and clicked on the link. ‘Fiscal Year, a local business tycoon was arrested on murder charges, following the investigation on the death of a police informant. The police have made no statement at this time, Mr. Fiscal gave the following statement. “This isn’t the first time the police have tried to pin something like this on me and I don’t think it will be the last. I can assure you though that these unfortunate events are not my fault,” the tycoon told one of our reporters on his way into his building downtown.’ Diamond stopped reading and searched Fiscal’s building. She smiled when an address was displayed under the link. “Gotcha,” she said saving the page for later. She was startled as her door opened. She quickly closed her computer and turned to see her father enter the room. She tried to look as innocent as possible. “Hey Diamond. Silver Spoon is here,” he said, taking notice of his daughters look. “What are you up to?” he asked, suspicious. Diamond shrugged. “Oh nothing, I was just doing some homework,” she said as she stood up from her chair. “Uh-huh. Well if you ever need to talk about anything you can trust me,” Filthy said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I know,” Diamond replied. “I gotta go. Me and Silver are going shopping,” she explained as she grabbed her bag and headed for the door, leaving her father in her room. Filthy was about to follow her, but looked back at her computer. He approached it opening the top and looking at the article on screen. He sighed as he closed it again. “Diamond what are you up to?” he asked himself as he exited the room, unsure of what to make of his daughter’s research. ////////////////////////////////////// “So this is the guy?” Scootaloo asked, looking at a picture of a Fiscal Year on Dinky’s computer. “Looks like it. The cops have been trying to get him for years, but they either lose the evidence they need or their key witness disappears,” Dinky explained. She turned to the pegasus a worried look on her face. “Are you sure about this? Fiscal is pretty well connected.” Scootaloo thought for a moment, letting the magnitude of what she was about to do sink in. “These powers are pretty useless if I just keep putting away street criminals,” she answered, turning to Dinky. “I’m sure,” she finished. Dinky nodded and smiled as a knock come from the door. “Come in,” Dinky called, the door opening to reveal her mother, Derpy. “Dinner is almost ready,” she announced. “Do wanna eat with us?” she asked Scootaloo. “There’s plenty to go around.” Scootaloo looked at Dinky who shrugged. “Sure,” Scootaloo replied. “Just let me call my aunt. Let her know where I am,” she said reaching into her bag for her phone. “Sure thing. I’ll let you guys know when everything is ready,” she said smiling as she left. Dinky looked at Scootaloo. “So when are you going after this guy?” she asked looking back at the computer. Scootaloo considered her options for a moment. “Tonight,” she answered. Dinky was about to argue. “I know it seems too soon, but I have to try something,” Scootaloo said. Dinky looked at her friend, worried. “Okay,” she replied, earning a smile from Scootaloo. “Just be careful,” she said, praying for Scootaloo’s safety. ////////////////////////////////////////// “Oh this looks great,” Silver Spoon said excitedly holding up a coat for her friend to see. “What?” Diamond asked, looking up from the ground. She had spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to get to Fiscal and hadn’t been paying attention to Silver Spoon at all. Silver Spoon frowned. “Okay you’ve been acting like a zombie all day. Whats your deal?” she asked annoyed. Diamond rolled her eyes. “Nothing I’ve just got a lot on my mind right now,” she replied, turning to look at a rack of scarfs. Silver glared at her friend. “You’re doing it again,” she said starting to get angry. “Doing what?” Diamond asked, turning to Silver with a quizzical look. “Dodging questions like you were yesterday at school,” Silver pointed out. “I don’t know what you’re going through right now, but whatever it is you can trust me,” Silver said, her expression softening. Diamond sighed. “I know, but.. it’s personal and I don’t want you to get hurt,” she explained, looking away. “Hurt?” Silver asked, shocked. “Why would I get hurt? You aren’t doing anything illegal are you?” she asked, starting to panic. Diamond wasn’t sure how to answer that without saying too much. Silver became annoyed again when her friend didn’t answer. “Fine don’t tell me. Obviously you don’t trust me as much as I thought you did,” she said angrily as she started walking away. “Hey where are you going?” Diamond asked, surprised at her friend’s sudden departure. “Home,” Silver said, huffily. “The ponies there trust me,” she finished as she walked away. Diamond didn’t try to follow her. Her father wouldn’t be expecting her until much later. She could use the time she had to scope out Fiscal’s building and see what kind of security he had. I’ll make it up to her later, Diamond told herself as she started for the front doors of the shopping center.