//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Power Ponies: The Ebony Chronicles // by Azure_Shadow //------------------------------// It was now the middle of night in Maretropolis. The Power Ponies and Humdrum were now all on top of a building looking over the Maretropolis Museum of Natural History. "Jeez, will something happen already!? We've been standing here for like, five hours, staring at a building!" said Zap in a great deal of annoyance. "Calm down sugarcube, I know how ya feel." said Mistress Mare-velous. "I had to miss the finale of Equestrian Idol today! DJ Pon-3 was gonna announce who won this season." "I think Lyra Heartstrings is gonna win." said Saddle Ranger "I'm sorry to disappoint you darling, but Lyra doesn't hold a candle to Cloudchaser, her melodies are simply magnificent."said Radiance. "Will you all shut up about your stupid singing show! We're supposed to be having a stakeout here, and we're supposed to be quiet!" harshly uttered the Masked Matter-Horn as she turned to Humdrum who was currently looking out a pair of binoculars. "See anything Humdrum?" "Everything's been the same for the past five hours Matter-Horn, Nothing has come in or out of the museum since we've been here." replied Humdrum. "This is stupid!" said a greatly annoyed Fili-Second, who was wearing her costume, but her tail and the one bang of hair coming out of her costume were both strait as before. "We've been here for five hours! This is Celestia's Sun we're talking about, one of the most valuable and treasured natural gems in the whole world! It's gotta be under the most high-tech surveilllance and security money can buy! What thief would be brave enough, or rather stupid enough to try and steal it!" "Fili-Second has a point." Zap agreed . "It's like she said, it's the most important artifact in all of Equestria! Nopony would be dumb enough to try and steal it." "Wait, what's that over there?" asked Saddle Ranger as she pointed to a vent on the side of the museum. Humdrum used his binoculars to focus on the vent. It was slightly shacking, as the grate to it opened up slightly, enough for a black mass to slip out, and land on the ground below. "Holy Hotcakes Power Ponies! It's the thief!" shouted Humdrum. The thief heard that, as he looked up at the building that the ponies and Humdrum were standing on. He then started a mad dash away from the museum. "He's getting away!" shouted Humdrum. "Not If we can help it!" shouted Matter-Horn. "Alright girls, after that thief!" In that moment, all of Power Ponies jumped down to the sidewalk (except for Zap, Saddle Ranger and Matter-Horn who all flew down) and started chasing the thief. "I guess it's time to power pony up." said Fili-Second as she took out a small pouch that was tied to her waist. From the pouch, she took out a small piece of candy wrapped in a bright pink wrapper. "Fili-Second! This is no time for sweets! the bad guy is getting away!" yelled Zap. "I know what I'm doing!" replied Fili-Second as she unwrapped the small piece of candy and quickly popped it into her mouth. After chewing it for a bit, her eyes shot wide open, as she started moving her hooves very rapidly. "Omygoshomygoshomygoshohmygoshohmygosh! SUGAR RUSH!!!!!" she yelled as she she ran in rapid circles. When she was done, she looked like the Fili-Second they all were familiar with, extremely peppy, always moving her hooves, and here tail and mane being wild and fluffy. "Let's catch some bad guys!" she yelled cheerfully as she instantly ran forward of the rest of the team towards the thief. "So that's how it works." said Humdrum in amazement. Fili-Second ran up to the thief in a short while, catching up to him and trying to run at his pace, a pace which would make even an Equestria Games athlete jealous. She was able to catch a good look of the thief while she was running. He was wearing what looked like a dusty black hoodie that was being constrained with two belts making an X shape on his chest, each with strange objects attached to the front. She couldn't see his face, as he was wearing a bandanna on his muzzle, purple goggles over his eyes, and the hood of his hoodie over his mane. "Hey , stop running! And give back whatever you took from that museum you big meanie!" shouted Fili-Second. "Bite me!" shouted the the thief as he took a hard left turn down an alleyway. "Oki Doki Loki!" shouted Fili-Second as she used a burst of her super speed to run up to the thief and bite his hood. She immediatly stopped running, and used her momentum to pull the thief down to the ground.The other Power Ponies were able to catch up at this moment. "Good job Flili-Second!" said Zap, giving her friend an approving punch to her leg. "Aw, It was nothing." The Power Ponies immediately turned thier attention to the pony who was on the ground "Who are you, and why did you steal from the museum?" asked the Masked Matter Horn as she stepped towards the thief. "I have no idea what you're talking about." said the thief who was doing his best to not grin. "Alright pardner, you better tell us where the gems you've stolen are, 'cause you're in a whole heap of trouble." said Mare-velous as she grabbed the thief by his hoodie and pushed him up against a wall. "Woah, easy, easy, no need to be uncivilized." said the thief. "It's in my bag, just take it." said the thief as he motioned to a black satchel by where he was dropped. Saddle Ranger took the bag, and began searching the contents of it, to pull out a gleaming, golden crystal out of it. "Here it is!, and it really is beautiful." said Saddle Ranger as she looked at her reflection in the gem. "Now tell us where the other gems you've stolen are!" said Matter Horn. "Alright, fair enough." said the thief, "Let me just get my phone, and show you." he said as a phone protruded from his hoodie's pocket. he quickly hit a button on his phone, as immediately a frequent beeping could suddenly be heard in the alley. "What's that noise?" asked Zap as she looked around the alley. "Um, I think it's coming from the gem." said Saddle Ranger, as she turned the gem around to see a small black oval object taped to the back of it.The small object suddenly exploded in a huge cloud of black smoke, causing everypony to cover their mouths and begin coughing. This allowed for the thief to take a swing at Mistress Mare-velous, and run to an alley on the opposite side of the area they were in. Once Zap and the Matter-Horn blew the smoke away with their wings. "Is everypony ok?" asked Zap. "Aside from that coward sucker punching me, i'm fine." said Mare-velous as she was rubbing her cheek. "For a thug, he packed a punch. "Where did the thief go?" asked Zap. "And where did the gem go?" asked Saddle Ranger as she looked at her empty hooves. "He went that way!" shouted Humdrum as he pointed down a long alleyway connected to the area they were in. The Power Ponies were immediately in hot pursuit, with Fili-Second running ahead of the rest of the group. The thief turned his head to see Fili-Second quickly close in on him. He quickly reached for a small capsule on his belt, and threw it in front of Fili-Second. The small capsule immediately blew up, to release a large amount of pink goop. Once Fili-Second stepped in this goop, she was stuck to the floor, and as she struggled to get free, she only seemed to get even more stuck. "What the hay!? I'm stuck!" said Fili-Second as the other members of her team quickly caught up with her. "Fili! are you ok darling?" asked Radiance. "We'll get you out of this...sticky.....situation." chuckled Zap as she started to reach for Fili-Second's head. "No! I'm too stuck!" said Fili-Second, unable to move. "The thief if getting away! go after him I'll be fine!" The other ponies and Humdrum all nodded as they resumed their chase for the thief. They managed to catch up with him once again. The thief took notice to this, as he saw that he was running by two young earth ponies who were sitting on a bench under a large billboard. He quickly threw another capsule at the billboard, which produced a violent explosion, which caused the billboard to start falling. Noticing that the two ponies were about to be crushed, Mistress Mare-velous and Radiance both took immediate action. Radiance used her bracelet to create a large table to catch the billboard while Mistress Mare-velous used her lasso to grab the two ponies and pull them out from under the billboard just before Radiance's table gave out, and the billboard fell on top of the bench the two were sitting at. Now it was only Humdrum, Zap, Saddle Ranger, and the Masked Matter Horn who were chasing the thief. "I've had enough of this! I'm gonna summon a tornado to catch this guy!" said Zap as she reached for her necklace. "Zap no! There are too many other ponies here! you might suck them into the tornado too!" shouted Matter-Horn. "Gah, fine." muttered Zap as she let go of her necklace. They immediately run down another alley, only for it to be a dead end, as the thief came to it's end. He turned around to see the three ponies and Humdrum at the entrance to the ally. "End of the line you crook!" said Zap "That's what you think, Powerless Ponies." said the thief in a mocking tone. This only served to make Zap angry. "I'm so gonna pound your face in when I get my hooves on you." said Zap as she gritted her teeth. "Well, you're more than welcome to try." replied the thief , who turned his rear to face the team, and made a "come here" motion with his tail. This was more than enough for Zap, as she flew at full speed towards the thief. She attempted to give him a hard right-hook , but this pony was able to side step it. She then attempted to perform a sweeping kick, but the thief quickly jumped over her leg. The fight continued like this for a while, until Zap used her powers to summon a lightning bolt to hit the thief. This had no effect, as the thief was never in the same place for more than two seconds, as he kept dodging bolt after bolt. "Stop moving and let me hit you!" shouted Zap in a fit of rage. "Now where's the fun in that?" asked the thief as he kept dodging lightning bolts. Eventually, the Masked Matter Horn decided it was time to step in. She flew in and added her own stream of lasers and ice beams to mix with Zap's constant stream of lightning bolts. This made it significantly harder for the thief to dodge the growing barrage of attacks, until he slipped on some ice that was on the ground from one of the Matter Horn's ice beams, and hit his head on the ground. Zap quickly picked him up, and held him close to her face. "Any last words before I pound the living daylights out of you?" asked Zap, with no effort to hide her smugness. The thief gave a small smirk, as he answered "Yeah, look out below." "What's that supposed to mean?" asked a confused Zap, as she looked under her, to see a small black cylinder under her. This cylinder produced a translucent purple gas that immediately filled the alleyway they were in. "What....did.....you.." was all Zap could get out before she shut her eyes and landed on the ground. This gas also reached Humdrum and Saddle Ranger, who were on the sidelines of the fight. "Knockout gas.. everypony.....cover..your" is what Humdrum said right before he passed out, Saddle Ranger followed closely behind, giving only a brief gasp before she too, went to sleep. The Masked Matter Horn was hit by the gas's effect last as she slowly descended from the air, trying desperately to stay awake. She stayed awake long enough to watch the thief get up, and walk out of the alleyway they were in, but once he reached the end of the alleyway, he turned around. "Nice try Power Ponies." said the thief. "Thanks for being such good sports by the way, I'll admit, not everypony can keep up with me. Just take comfort in knowing that you ALMOST captured Ebony Shiv, the greatest thief in all of Equestria!" This was the last thing the Matter Horn heard, before she too passed out. ---End of Chapter 3