Midnight gazed upon the Equestrian Museum of Supernatural History! A fine example of architecture that would have been even more impressive if it were still open and the lights were on. It was well past the midnight hour and the museum was closed.
From the alley in which they stood, Big Pokey regarded his three goons (unaware one of them wasn’t truly on his side) and stated, “Listen up you mugs! Inside that museum is a gem of priceless worth, eh?! And as you all very well know, I pride myself a connoisseur of the priceless. Capisce?!”
“We got it, boss!” the short pony among them nodded vigorously. His name was Blown Fuse. He was a unicorn pony and rather short for a stallion, with a mocha-colored coat, orange mane, and a cutie-mark portraying a bright lightbulb, and he absolutely hated being called Short Fuse.
“Bruiser opens the backdoor, we sneak in, grab the garnet, get out, and Rough here keeps watch out here!”
“But, uh, sir?” “Rough” spoke up, “How exactly do I let you know of anything, if I’m keeping watch outside?”
“With this,” Big Pokey held out a pair of marble-sized gems. “An… associate o’ mine, he charmed these gems to alert those who hold them if either one is destroyed. If youse see somepony, like a cop or sumthin’ you smash yours under your hoof! We get the alert an’ am-scray. If I smash mine, that’ll tell youse the heist is over, successful or not, and youse should be ready to meet us.”
“Yessir,” Midnight nodded as he accepted the gem. “Anything else, sir?”
“We’re on a schedule,” Pokey added. “We’ll get into the museum but wait to lift the garnet once the security guards change shifts. That will be our window of opportunity to make a clean heist, see?”
The three nodded and Pokey sneered, “Then let’s bag us a big one, boys! Rough, find a vantage point and keep watch. Bruiser, Fuse, let’s go.”
Midnight watched as the three mobsters went down the alley and turned around the corner in the direction towards the museum. Flapping his host’s wings, he followed after them, watching them sneak to the back of the museum, up to a locked door. He was too far away to hear them talk but he saw Blown Fuse’s horn light up and the door opened, which Midnight could only guess had been a spell to unlock the door.
Hmph! If the museum doesn’t take the precaution of warding their doors against unlocking spells, they deserve to get robbed.
He flew onto the museum roof, making sure there were no guards before going over to the skylight window. Inside, he saw dim and darkened hallways and rooms filled with exhibits of artifacts, works of art, fossils, treasures from foreign lands, displays of historical events, and more. Such a trove of history and culture would have been glorious to behold were the museum bright with curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. And for the actual lights to be on.
However, that was not the case. The exhibits, shadowed by lights turned off or dimmed, made for an ominous place, with statues of Greco-Roman warriors looking like fierce oppressors in the darkness, traditional masks from Zebrabwe like nightmarish faces.
With his host’s pegasus eyes, Midnight could see Pokey, Fuse, and Bruiser sneaking about towards a hallway Midnight couldn’t see through. He looked around and saw more skylight windows. Flapping over to a different one he sighed to see the mobsters exit the hall and in the middle of the room, upon a grand pedestal of marble, contained in a clear glass display, was a red gemstone easily bigger than Big Macintosh’s hoof!
It could only be the Garnet of Grani the Gallant!
Midnight pressed his ear against the window and listened.
“A’ight, you mugs go an’ get me that garnet,” Pokey ordered. “I’ll go back an’ make sure our escape route’s clear…”
“You got it, boss, c’mon Bruiser,” Blown Fuse led the diamond dog towards the garnet while Pokey slipped into the shadowy hall.
Blown Fuse and Bruiser tiptoed up to the Garnet, the both of them smirking in anticipation as blown Fuse ordered, “Take off that glass case!”
Bruiser did as he was told, setting the glass case carefully aside, and Blown Fuse snickered, “The boss is gonna love this!”
His horn flared yellow as his aura enveloped the garnet and it levitated a few inches off the pedestal… only for a ringing alarm to sound, making them both gasp! They panicked for a few moments before Blown fuse put the Garnet back, Bruiser asking, “How did that happen?!”
“I don’t know, I-” Blown Fuse sensed it and looked at the pedestal. “The pedestal’s been charmed with a pressure sensor spell… Without the weight of the Garnet, the alarm goes off!”
“Oh…!” Bruiser said in dawning comprehension.
“I’ve got an idea, put your paw on the pedestal,” Blown Fuse instructed, Bruiser doing so, firmly placing his paw next to the Garnet, and blown Fuse carefully made it levitate again.
Silence.
“Excellent!” Blown Fuse snickered as he began to walk away, much to Bruiser’s shock.
“Hey, hey, wait! You can’t do that!”
“Why not?” Blown Fuse asked in an oddly bewildered tone.
“Well, uh, it’s a really bad thing to leave your pal behind!” Bruiser whined.
“No, no, it’s a really good thing to leave your pal behind… if you’re a bad guy,” Blown Fuse amended.
“Well, if it’s a good thing that means you can’t be a really bad guy, can ya?” Bruiser debated slyly.
“That’s not exactly true,” Blown Fuse said smarmily as he came back, reared up and casually leaned onto the pedestal.
“`Cuz, see, I can be very-very good at being very-very bad.”
“Nuh-uh, `cuz, see, if you were a really-really bad guy, then you’d have- Ha!” Bruiser hopped away from the pedestal, to Blown Fuse’s surprise.
“Ah-ha, now I can leave you behind, ha-ha!”
“Yes, uh, but, aren’t you forgetting something?” Blown Fuse brought up, Bruiser stopping in his tracks.
“What?”
“Forget the garnet,” Blown Fuse reminded the dog, as the gem still floated in the short unicorn’s aura.
“Well, yeah…” Bruiser shrugged a tad sheepishly as he leaned onto the pedestal.
“That wasn’t very good, now was it?”
“Well, `cuz I’m not very bad-”
“Yeah, `cuz if you were a rela baddie, you’d have- HA!”
“HA!”
Both Blown Fuse and Bruiser hopped away from the pedestal.
Silence.
They looked confusedly at the pedestal, Blown Fuse muttering, “It didn’t go off!”
“Well, wouldn’t ya know it?”
“That’s pathetic, that is!”
The two continued to insult the poor security and rubbed and tapped the pedestal before Blown Fuse made the mistake of kicking it, and to their horror the alarm went off again!
“RUN FOR IT!!!” Blown Fuse yelled, running towards the hall, Bruiser following like a whimpering puppy.
Shortly after they ran out of the room, a security guard stallion with a snow-white coat and ice-blue mane, a rather fox-ish tail, his cutie-mark a circle of ice with clawmarks, wearing a security guard outfit, came running in.
“What is it?! What’s happening?”
He noticed the pedestal and angrily came up to it, hitting it with his clipboard, snapping, “Quiet with you!”
Oddly, that knocked the alarm out and the guard muttered, “Ponies are trying to sleep around here…”
He chuckled to himself as he walked away, saying, “Now for a moment I thought that could’a been the burglar alarm, but if it had been that wouldn’t meant thaaaauuauaAAAAUUGHHG!!!”
He spun around and gawked to see the pedestal lacking something on top of it!
“I don’t believe it! Oh no, it’s gone! The Garnet of Grani the Gallant! It’s gone…! Break-in! Burglary! Felony! Larceny!”
From above Midnight shook his head as he took in the freak-out of the guard below.
“Seriously?” Midnight muttered when the gemstone Pokey gave him shivered and blinked! He flinched as he realized…!
I gotta get down there!
Spreading his host’s wings, he took flight,
By the time he got to the rendezvous point however, Midnight saw no signs of Big Pokey, Blown Fuse, or Bruiser.
“Where the heck are they?” Midnight muttered when he felt an uncomfortable twinge and a memory flashed in his mind, of maybe a young Rough playing in the park, a pretty mare watching from afar.
I… I think I’m starting to lose control!
Thinking about it, Midnight had been inside Rough’s body for almost twenty-four hours, and a full day of control did seem a stretch. Whatever he was gonna do, Midnight had to finish things up quickly.
“Freeze!”
Midnight flinched as a light was cast upon him and he held up his host’s wing to try and see who it was.
“Well, well, well, Rough, laddie…”
That voice! Midnight scrunched his eyes to get a better look but the source of the light and voice made itself known as it stepped forward.
“After all me hospitality, ye go an’ escape an’ get ya’self involved in quite th’ picklebarrel.”
“Officer Keys!” Midnight exclaimed in Rough’s voice.
“Now, Rough, let’s do this th’ easy way, shall we lad?” Keys said with a smirk. “Just come `long quietly, answer me questions honestly, an’ maybe I can throw ye a bone or two.”
Midnight felt another twinge, another memory flashed, of Rough getting beaten up by older colts when they were scared off by a loud bark.
What have we here?
In the memory, Rough looked up and that was when he first met Big Pokey.
Returning to the now, Midnight felt his heart begin to race as Rough was starting to fight him back for control.
Not here, not now!
With no choice, Midnight took flight, Keys shouting, “Stop in the name of the law!”
Midnight ignored Keys, flapping his host’s wings in a mad attempt to escape and try to figure things out. He panted and landed on a nearby rooftop with an oof!
“Damn it, Rough, you need to go on a diet!”
Suddenly! Midnight groaned as he rubbed his host’s belly, doubling over, trying to keep control when…!
All of a sudden, Midnight felt himself being thrown into the air and landed with a painful thud on the roof, hearing an exhausted panting and he looked to see Rough, having slunk to his belly as he shook his head.
Their eyes met and Midnight saw the verge of a panic-attack. Thinking quickly, he willed the shadows around him to rise up in tendrils to ensnare Rough, making him yipe in fear when he felt a hoof on his mouth. He gazed back fearfully at Midnight, stonefaced as he said, “Listen very carefully, Rough… I’m gonna give you a choice – You turn yourself in to the cops and rat out Big Pokey. Tell them where to find Pokey and name him the culprit in the theft of the Garnet of Grani the Gallant, and you can live safely in a witness protection program.”
Rough shook his head fearfully, only for the shadowy tendrils to tighten a little, Midnight threatening with eyes burning of dark magic, “Or I will show you just how creative I can be when it comes to making a pony hurt… After which, if you’re still alive, I dump your sorry ass in front of the police station.”
Rough whimpered, Midnight saying, “And don’t even think of lying, `cuz if you do, I’ll know.”
The pegasus whined, afraid to rat out Big Pokey but the scary look in this psycho’s eyes promised he would make good on his threat. He sulked in submission and Midnight released him.
“And don’t even try to back out,” Midnight’s horn flared and Rough felt an unpleasant chill spread over his body.
“I’ve just enchanted you with a Compulsion – You will turn yourself in to Officer Keys and do as you’ve promised. Tell him you surrender and will tell the cops all the dirty laundry you have on Big Pokey in exchange for witness protection. This Compulsion will drive you to do it like a constant itch that won’t go away no matter what unless you go through with it.”
“I got it…” Rough sulked.
“Now go,” Midnight pointed in the direction of the cops and Rough sighed as he flapped off.
Midnight Flashed to a nearby location and took in the scene of Rough landing in front of the cops and surrendering. He watched as Keys cast a spell, conjuring a binding energy ring around Rough, pinning his wings to his barrel, and leading him into custody.
He was confident his enchantment would keep Rough on track and so took out his Time Stone. Concentrating its power, he was gone in a Wink of Light!
Midnight reappeared in front of the same diner Keys had directed him to and he noticed a nearby newspaper kiosk. Going over, he saw he had skipped ten years. Deciding a bite would help him think, he went into the diner and ordered a slice of apple pie.
As he waited for it, he took out the two-way journal.
‘Dear Prince Sombra,
It was a little edgy, but I think I got things back on track. Did I succeed?’
Sombra didn’t keep him waiting for long and Midnight watched as his master’s reply spelled out.
‘Well done, my loyal apprentice.
I am pleased to say history has not been altered or shown any signs of change, which I can only take to mean, you were successful. Or perhaps you never changed history at all!
According to the history books, Rough `Em Up turned himself in the same night Big Pokey successfully stole the Garnet of Grani the Gallant from the Equestrian Museum of Supernatural History. Rough made a deal with the police to reveal many of Big Pokey’s crimes in exchange ofr witness protection.
Big Pokey was arrested, charged with numerous crimes, and spent the rest of his life in prison. Rough was relocated to Baltimare and went straight as a professional boxer. He retired a champion and had a family. It seems he credited his going-straight to a mysterious pony whom the police never found evidence of even existing.
Remember, Midnight, your very journey is a temporal paradox.
Everything you do, have done, or will do, is apparently part of the history of Equestria. And take heart – You are almost home!’
Midnight smiled at those words as he thought about it, I’m almost home…!
“Order up! Enjoy, hon.”
The waitress set the pie and soda in front of him and Midnight happily helped himself. As he ate, he thought, This is good pie, but… I’m looking forward to a slice of Applejack’s homemade pie!