In the big city of Manehatten, in the esteemed Artemis Academy, the headmaster, Professor Stone rushed to the conference room where he was met by three Royal Guards, along with Captain Shining Armor.
“Captain, thank you for coming,” Stone welcomed him as they all took seats around the conference table.
“If only the reason was a little more… positive, Professor,” Shining Armor replied. “As I understand it, there was a breakout from Atticolt, correct?”
“Indeed,” Stone confirmed. “Maximum-security prison, Atticolt, the most secure prison in all of Manehatten… Its most dangerous inmate somehow broke out last night and is now on the run.”
“You can’t mean…?!” Shining Armor was aghast as the professor nodded.
“Storm Shadow… The Leader of the Black Horn,” Stone stated. “Sentenced to multiple life-sentences for seven political assassinations committed by him or by proxy, as well as an unconfirmed number of acts of terrorism against Equestria, he’s been in prison for twenty years.”
“How did he get out?” asked one of Shining Armor’s accompanying guards.
“The details are still sketchy, but there’s evidence of an inside-job,” Stone explained. “A few guards are missing, and with no evidence of foul play, we have reason to believe they helped Storm Shadow escape.”
Shining Armor sighed, it was a sad day when officers of the law, even prison guards, went rogue.
“But what’s his goal? Surely we know something about him that can point us towards a lead, if not in his direction then perhaps towards his endgame!”
“We interrogated him, on and off, for the duration of his confinement, Captain,” Stone answered. “He never once said a word…. But you could feel his bloodlust just from being near him.”
But before Shining Armor could express more frustration, there was a knock at the door.
“Enter,” invited Stone, and in walked an officer.
“Please excuse the interruption, Headmaster, Captain, but we caught a break.”
The officer placed a small folder onto the table and opened it to reveal photographs of pony with the back of his neck heavily bleeding from a strange wound.
“We found this pony dead in Foal Mountain. We were able to find him because of his uniform.”
He placed what looked to be an ID card onto the table and they realized who this pony was.
“It’s one of the prison guards,” Stone confirmed. “So they did help him escape…”
“Were there any other bodies?” Shining Armor asked.
“No Captain,” the officer stated. “We were only able to find this prison guard because of his ID. In Atticolt, every prison guard’s ID card is enchanted with a locater spell. Once the guards went missing, the warden gave us the means to track them down, or at least their cards. We were led to Foal Mountain where we found this guard’s uniform buried by a boulder. His body was six miles nearby.”
“But why would he kill one of his liberators?” Shining Armor wondered aloud.
“Because he’s a psychopath,” Stone stated without hesitation. “Storm Shadow is an enigma, but our criminal psychologists studied him for all the years he was imprisoned. Despite him saying next to nil, they were able to deduce from his behavior that he is an irredeemable killer but his every action has a purpose.”
“But for a master criminal, this seems sloppy,” the officer brought up. “Why didn’t he burn the uniform and ID card? That would’ve almost insured we wouldn’t have found the guard’s body at all, at least not before the predators got to it.”
“If I had to guess,” Stone deduced, “Storm shadow killed the guard himself but ordered the others to dispose of the body. Either one of them was sloppy accidentally or they left the ID card intact on purpose.”
“That sounds like this guard wants Storm Shadow to be found,” Shining Armor surmised, “It’s possible these guards are finding themselves to be in over their heads and are getting cold hooves.”
“They are in over their heads,” Stone confirmed. “Whatever Storm Shadow promised them, it’s very likely none of them will live to enjoy their reward…”
“Well the good news is the other guards’ apparently still have their cards with them,” the officer brought up.
“Being a Pegasus pony, Storm Shadow might not know about the locater spell on their cards but they’re unlikely to still have their uniforms.”
“Can we deduce their location or where they might be going?” Shining Armor inquired.
“It appears they’re headed for Dodge Junction, sir,” the officer replied.
Unknown to the collection of ponies of authority in the conference room, above them, hidden in the crawl-space above the ceiling, were two unicorns, one dark gray with a black mane and tail, his cutie-mark a knight chess-piece. The other was dark red, also with a black mane and tail, her cutie-mark was a scythe entwined with a rose.
They both wore academic uniforms that marked them students of Artemis Academy.
“Dodge Junction, Dusk!” the young unicorn mare whispered. “This is perfect…!”
“What’re you talking about, Rose?”
“Come on, big brother! This is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for, a score this big would surely earn us a place in the Hunters unit of the Royal Guard!”
“Are you crazy?!” Dusk hissed. “Storm Shadow is a master assassin, how are we, a couple rookies, supposed to apprehend him and bring him in?”
“He’s a Pegasus, we’re unicorns,” Rose reminded him. “We have the advantage of magic, and we’ve been trained in combat magic!”
“Oh yeah, six months’ worth of training against a criminal with years of experience and honing his skills,” Dusk scoffed.
“What could go wrong?”
On the outskirts of Ponyville, Big Mac, Midnight Blaze, and Thunderlane were walking together as the red farmer pony pulled a wagon covered with a tarp, containing heaps of apple pies.
“We seriously got this big order from Dodge Junction?” Midnight asked.
“Eeyup, an’ now we gotta deliever on th’ baked goods,” Mac confirmed.
“Well, this isn’t so bad,” sighed Thunderlane in a relaxed way, “I think a little guys’ trip will do us some good, get away from all the girls.”
“No kidding, brony,” Midnight chuckled as he and his two best friends chuckled and a hoof-bumped.
“The girls are great an’ all, and I love `em, but… a stallion can only take so much!”
“Amen t’ that,” nodded Big Macintosh sagely.
“That, and they always gripe at us when we do stuff like this,” Midnight brought up as he lifted his tail and ripped a loud one, making the other laugh.
“And they don’t like this,” Thunderlane added as he put one hoof to the opposite armpit and made a similar sound, making them laugh again.
“Don’ forget this,” Mac said as he suddenly stopped and held his composure, much to the guys’ confusion. Then they heard a faint gurgling sound coming from Mac, and it rose up from his throat and escaped his mouth in a roar-like belch, making Midnight and Thunderlane keel over in gut-bursting laughter.