Falling With the Rain
Many ponies found the rain to be relaxing, soothing, therapeutic even. Most ponies just found it normal and mostly ignored it. Wisp, however, found it nothing but grindingly irritating. Nothing but an assault of noise and water, cold, usually; he didn't understand why anyone would find it enjoyable. But it was not his place to complain; he had a job to do.
He donned his heavy coat and his cap, placed his pipe into his mouth, and left the darkness of the alleyways into the rainy streets, his teeth grinding on the pipe's stem.
It was a few minutes before he was able to spot his "victim," a very obvious mare, looking lost and afraid. Wisp looked around him, then promptly drew his blade and hurried up to the lightly-colored mare.
She squeaked and dashed, intentionally, into a dead-end alleyway, where she began to make a rather loud and badly-acted fuss.
You'd think that the Princesses of Equestrian would be able to hire better actors, he thought, but he continued on with his own role.
"You know the drill. Drop the purse and walk away. Don't go callin' no guards either unless you want to feel pain."
The mare nodded and dropped her bag, full of pebbles, onto the ground, splashing into a small puddle. Wisp suppressed a cruse.
And all was silent.
Wisp was tense, ready to move, ready to dart, and the other actor looked slightly confused. But apparently it was enough.
Wisp saw a shift in the shadows, almost invisible, and dashed away, just in time. A crowbar, the infamous crowbar, came down hard enough to crack the pavement and send a small spark or two twirling into the air.
He sensed another movement and ducked as his cap was taken just off of his head and into the wall by another swipe.
Wisp was keeping up, but barely.
Come on, come on!
Finally, after the fourth dodge, there was a burst of purple magic. Wisp stopped, breathing heavily. He turned around and then gave a cry of surprise.
There, stuck inside a field of miasma-like purple magic was the Beast.
It was tall, even taller than Princess Celestia. It walked on two legs and was completely covered in cloth. It wore a mask with a tube leading to somewhere inside of its long, dark coat and it sported, surprisingly, a trilby.
Wisp regarded the alien with awe. He had never seen it before; most never had. But there it was, finally caught, unable to move.
Wisp was tossed aside by several armored guards who all lowered their spears and pointed them at the frozen beast.
Princess Twilight Sparkle emerged from the shadows, her horn lit with the very same aura in which the creature was ensnared.
"Good work Wisp, Pearl," she said, addressing the two actors, never taking her eyes off of her target.
"I've got it from here."