Power Ponies: The Storm Unleashed
Chapter 3: Dead Ends
By Darksonickiller and Izangi
It didn’t take long for the Power Ponies before leads and potential information began to flood into their headquarters’ mission room by mail, email, and phone on the same day.
Bounding nimbly from rooftop to close rooftop across the crown of Maretropolis’ old and densely built-up theatre district, the Masked Matter-Horn and Mistress Mare-velous were currently hot on the trail of one of their most recent and most promising leads of the day as the Sun traced a lazy orange-violet trail across the sky in its gradual descent.
“What a dump. A rooftop shack for a stolen goods warehouse, seriously? This district’s seen better days. Do ya think he’s still holed up there?” Mare-velous inquired, looking up at the approaching form of a gargantuan and somewhat dilapidated theatre sign, interlaced with an elaborate system of scaffolding, as well as layers upon layers of carefully placed rain tarps, scrap wood, and corrugated metal.
“Of course he is. That guy has amassed such a hoard of gems in just a few short days worth of robberies, he might as well be part dragon, for all we know.” Matter-Horn replied back, closing the gap across another narrow alleyway below.
“Must be planning to sell them all off to shady parties all in one fell swoop.” Mare-velous snorted as she used her lasso to swing herself onto the next rooftop ahead. “I’d love to nab them all in one fell swoop!”
According to a mare by the name of Tira Mi-Su, the proprietor of a well-known pizzeria and bakery just down the street from the Maretropolis Museum of Natural History, a pegasus cloaked in black that she identified as the infamous Prench jewel thief and minor villain La Silhouette had been spotted darting past the front windows of her establishment around the same time as the break in at the museum.
Miss Mi-Su’s testimony was backed up by her upstanding reputation in the city, as well as those of several of her customers, who all gave similar descriptions of the same black-clad winged stallion.
Tira Mi-Su’s lead was just too compelling for them to not investigate. If La Silhouette was indeed an accomplice for Mane-iac, or at least saw anything that was more suspicious than himself that night, it could mean the Power Ponies will be just a bit closer to finally finding Zapp.
With a firm thud on the rough surface of the old theater’s weather-beaten roof, both Power Ponies flexed their muscles and limbs a bit before approaching the tired-looking door that lead into La Silhouette’s makeshift storehouse and hideout.
“What type of jewel thief makes their hideout in a place like this?” Mare-velous muttered in a low voice, unimpressed by the villain’s lair.
“I wouldn’t bet on it and run the risk of underestimating him, but judging by all these potential electrical hazards, Silhouette might not be terribly bright in some aspects,” the Masked Matter-Horn whispered back, narrowing her eyes at the mess of old wood, tangles of wires that provided stolen cable and power to the shack, and overhead tarps that formed awnings in places.
“Ready to spook this goon?” Mare-velous whispered, taking silent position on one side of the door.
“Yeah. On my mark, if he tries to make a break for it, I’ll stun him with my horn, and you lasso him into a knot.”
“Textbook.”
“Yeah. Okay, three, two, one, go!” At the Masked Matter-Horn’s signal, Mistress Mare-velous bucked the door open with ease, and Matter-Horn charged inside in a manner identical to a MPD tactical team. “There you are! Stop right there, keep those hooves where I can see em!”
“Sacrebleu!” a heavily accented voice shouted from somewhere inside.
Mistress Mare-velous saw a flash of light before she too was inside the hideout with her lasso, ready to secure and restrain Silhouette. Matter-Horn was standing in front of a stallion in a matte-black body suit, the hood of which was pulled off to reveal the dazed face of the thief.
Still reeling from the effects of the magical stun attack, Silhouette was an easy target for Mare-velous’ rope.
“No more wine, baguettes, or diamonds for you, Silhouette!” Mistress Mare-velous taunted. “You’re at the end of your rope.”
Silhouette, a rather slender pegasus with a closely cropped white mane and violet eyes under the ordinarily shadowed veil of his costume, sneered back at her as he strained against the golden rope. His grey coat was ruffled a bit as he wriggled about “For your information, Power Pig, I find the taste of wine quite disagreeable with my stomach. And before you continue to stew in your own ignorance, the very thought of snail can make many a common Prench pony gag.”
“Well capital for you, you’re a near perfect anti-cliche. You wanna cookie?”
The villain’s sneer only widened as his eyes glared daggers at the masked earth pony. “Anti-stereotype! Curse you, Madame Mare-velous!”
“That’s Mistress Mare-velous to you, sneak-thief!”
“Alright, that’s enough. Silhouette, we have some questions for you.” the Masked Matter-Horn said, flashing the pegasus a scowl that made his sneer gradually give way to a look of great unease. He’d rather not be on the business end of that horn again, if he could help it. “If you agree to cooperate, Mistress Mare-velous here will untie you so we can speak on more civil terms.”
“Bah! You really expect me to cooperate with the likes of you?” Silhouette managed a sarcastic chuckle. “I’d rather be struck dead by a random lightning bolt! Mark me, being zapped by your horn a second time would be more pleasant than helping you.”
“Well that’s such a shame, you know?” Mistress Mare-velous replied, staring at him down the bridge of her nose and not the least bit impressed by his over-exaggeration, of which he was quite well-known for. “We were even willing to give you a thirty second head start before we attempt to apprehend you, leaving all your stolen goods behind for confiscation by the MPD, of course.”
There was another bout of sardonic laughter. “You would give me, a pegasus, a thirty second head start? That’s practically the same as letting me walk free, ha-ha!”
Matter-Horn inspected her hoof briefly with an impassive expression, brushing off bits of debris from her uniform. “Times change, and so often does the ways of doing things.”
Silhouette gave her a bizarre look as surprise washed over him. “Wait, you are serious, aren’t you? Mes dieux, this is so surreal, like the Cirque de la Lune! Fine, untie me and I’ll answer your questions. Some of them, that is.”
“All of them,” Mare-velous corrected him, as Matter-Horn charged her horn for show.
“All of them,” Silhouette squeaked like a mouse, nodding rapidly.
Nodding in the satisfaction, both superheroes looked about the ramshackle warehouse of stolen gems before beginning their questioning, increasing Silhouette’s sense of personal tension as they silently and stoically scanned the shelves. Their surfaces were occupied by small boxes containing diamond rings, uniform black bags nearly overflowing with rough and finely cut gems of all types, assorted gem-inlaid jewelry, and miscellaneous junk.
Besides the dozens of shelves that took up the majority of the space, a facsimile of a kitchen consisting of an old wooden table with a microwave and mini fridge sat in one dingy corner, and a typical pegasus cloud bed and old TV sat in another. One other table sat right in the center of the storehouse, cluttered with the thief’s various equipment.
Having completed her evaluation of the motley structure’s interior, Mistress Mare-velous finally untied Silhouette as the Matter-Horn conveniently positioned herself between them and the door, just close enough to speak reliably with a normal conversational tone, which Matter-Horn used to begin their inquiry.
“Now, where were you on the evening of the Pharaoh’s Comb incident at the Maretropolis Museum downtown?”
Silhouette took his time with his answer, groaning and flexing his legs about, all the while the two mares watched him with the intensity of a bird of prey. He moved over to the nearest bit of exposed scaffolding and leaned casually against it, mentally cursing himself for having stupidly built the safehouse with only one entrance and exit. Only a tiny window high up on the wall farthest away provided an alternate option for egress, were he the size of an owl.
“I was...out and about town, of course, doing I-think-you-know-what, mademoiselle.” The jewel thief stared off into space for a moment as the mental gears in his head spinned. “Oh, oh! I think I know what this is about, Power Ponies! It explains your rather unorthodox behavior tonight, quite thoroughly.”
Mare-velous’ ears suddenly flickered atop her head. She thought she’d just heard a distant thunderclap. If a summer storm was coming in, she would prefer to be back at HQ before it hit the city, not in this unruly rattrap. “Well, then talk!” she demanded with a frown.
“Rest assured, mademoiselle, I played no role whatsoever in your comrade Zapp’s suspicious vanishing act. I was simply doing what I do best, and that does not happen to entail colluding with the likes of that madmare Mane-iac.”
“Vanishing act?” Mare-velous scoffed with derision. “Are you implying that Zap-”
Matter-Horn interrupted Mistress Mare-velous with a loud clearing of her throat. Both the earth pony and the pegasus thief stared at her. “He’s just trying to throw you off topic or get you angry, Mare-velous. Seen it a thousand times,” she stated with a deadpan voice.
Silhouette grinned at her. “Clever mare. I would not be lying, per se, were I to tell that I did actually see somepony else, besides the Mane-iac, that night. While I was doing my very best to avoid crossing paths with that dingue, this other pony seemed to be doing the opposite. They were shadowing her as she and her henchponies made their rapid escape.”
For a moment, the Masked Matter-Horn’s poker face faltered as her ears perked up, showing anxiousness. “Other pony? So she did have an accomplice, then! Who was it, how much of them did you see?” The speed of her voice was noticeably increasing.
“Are they the one that took Zapp? What condition was she in?”
Still leaning against the scaffolding, Silhouette brushed a hoof absentmindedly against the cold iron, smirking at both Power Ponies. “Mademoiselles, it was a very busy evening for me, if these shelves laden with shiny gems is any obvious indication. But if I had to rely on my memory, I could start by telling yo-”
Silhouette’s sentence was cut off abruptly as he suddenly emitted a scream that almost no pony could ever voluntarily make. Both of the Power Ponies’ jaws fell as the jewel thief’s entire body suddenly lit up with pure electricity as he convulsed violently, briefing revealing his skeleton like an X-ray. Stray arcs of white-hot lightning spread out from the shelf and the pegasus still gripping it, cascading across the entire structure.
The Masked Matter-Horn and Mistress Mare-velous kept themselves as far from any metal surface as possible as the electricity gradually made its way out of the shack and safely down into the frame of the building below.
When the area was finally clear of hazards, Matter-Horn looked around. Nothing had caught fire, save for Silhouette’s mane. His entire coat was now fried to a crisp and covered in ash, and he stared at everything but nothing in particular with widened eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, and feebly raised a hoof as if presenting a point of debate.
“Uh...n-nevermind.” With that, he promptly made a fainting motion before he fell in between the scaffolding and against the wall behind it. The scrap wood gave way to his body weight quite easily, and the pegasus fell through and out of the Power Ponies’ sight.
Both Matter-Horn and and Mare-velous were still gawking at where Silhouette had just been standing a few seconds before, standing still like statues. Eventually, their faces animated once again, and the duo rushed over to inspect the now gaping pony-sized hole in the side of the shack.
“My gosh, that came completely out of nowhere!” the Masked Matter-Horn exclaimed, peering through the hole and down the side of the building to street level. She looked back to Mistress Mare-velous. “We should call an ambulance…”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s only six stories, the police will take care of it. You were saying something earlier about electrical hazards?” Mare-velous stated, raising a brow.
“Right...well, let’s just light the signal flare for stolen items for the police to confiscate, then be on our way back to HQ. Hopefully Fili-Second and Radiance will have much better luck in their lead then we just did.”
While nature apparently saw fit to interrupt the investigation of one major lead, the two other currently active Power Ponies were currently busy looking into theirs, which just so happened to lead them to a seemingly abandoned mansion on the edge of Maretropolis. As they were quick to confirm, it must certainly was not.
“Alright, Long-Face, where the heck is Mane-iac? What did she do with Zapp?” Filli-Second demanded, holding a peeved-looking fellow painted like a mime by the cuff of his black and white striped shirt as she stood in the middle of a dusty old parlor room. The place was littered with paint cans, as well as portraits and canvases of frowning mimes and sad clowns.
“I do not know what you are talking about, Power Pony. It has been a very long time since the Mane-iac and myself have crossed paths.”
“Is that so?” Radiance retorted. “Well, we have sources that say otherwise, ones that confirm you were overheard discussing the security vulnerabilities of the Museum of Natural History with one of her lieutenants, three days before Mane-iac’s break in there and the theft of the Pharaoh’s Comb.”
Impossibly, Long-Face’s frown widened. “Relying on outside parties to do your investigative dirty work now are we, Power Ponies? How sad. I know nothing about your precious missing team member. You’re all, tragically, wasting your time. Perhaps Zapp was so gloriously saddened and humiliated by your defeat and hers at the hairs of Mane-iac, that she simply left off her own volition, and changed her identity to avoid sharing in your despair and embarrassment.” It was the last thing he said before a white and purple clad hoof socked him across the face, knocking him out cold.
“Funny guy.” Fili-Second said sarcastically, hefting the unconscious villain onto her back as if he weighed hardly more than a feather.
“Well, if he won’t tell us anything, Balkham Asylum will definitely get him talking if he knows something,” Radiance replied. A flash of lightning shined through the tall windows as the rain battered them, briefly illuminating the dreary and poorly lit parlor. She summoned ropes made of magical energy to secure Long-Face to Fili-Second’s back. “C’mon, let’s hurry out and get this one to the authorities before the storm can get any worse. I’m overdue for a nice hot shower!”
“Beats staying here,” Fili-Second affirmed as they both marched through the dark foyer and out the heavy oak front doors. “Race you to the nearest police station! Oh wait, scratch that. Beat you to the nearest police station!”
Radiance smirked at her, before conjuring up some hard-light weights on the earth pony’s back not currently occupied by Long-Face’s snoring form. “Good luck with that!” She then levitated Long Face up and secured him onto her back, then conjured up a motorcycle of pure energy in the mansion’s driveway, promptly dashing off down the street.
Filli-Second sneered half-heartedly at her quickly departing squadmate, stepping back under the shelter of the porch roof above and shaking her costume to get rainwater off it. “How’d I not see that coming. All well, suppose she deserves a head start if she has to carry the perp!”
With a chuckle, Fili-Second readied herself before zooming after Radiance, leaving the property behind.
Unfortunately, a few days in Balkham Asylum confirmed that Long-Face had, despite expectation, been telling the truth the entire time. He knew nothing that could get them any closer to Zapp. To compound the Power Ponies’ misfortunes, La Silhouette had died at Maretropolis General, apparently from complications arising due to the injuries the lighting accident and subsequent fall had inflicted on him, taking whatever information he may have had with him to the beyond.
As the next couple of weeks passed, the Power Ponies pursued lead after lead, as well as questioning villains left and right regarding the whereabouts of Zapp or the Mane-iac. The latter course of action produced similar results that Long-Face had, to the frustration of all.
High Heel had virtually no known connection to Zapp’s disappearance, and was quite adamant about that fact upon her arrest, stepping on the tails of many police officers with her stylish shoes on her way to Balkham. Shadow Mane had not only produced no new intel, but had also evaded capture as well, and was still at large.
The previous and most recent villain to be questioned, Pharaoh Phetlock, had simply no comment whatsoever during his apprehension, beyond his expressed wish to have gotten to the Pharaoh’s Comb before Mane-iac for his own unrelated shenanigans.
By now, the Federal Government had finally given up its own search for the missing superhero, much to Commissioner Golden Badge’s chagrin, who promised that his own jurisdiction's search for Zapp would end only when the Power Ponies’ themselves finally gave up all hope.
And as the six Power Ponies carefully navigated their way into the lair of yet another villain in search of answers, hope was a value almost dangerously in short supply. To make matter worse, the air of the lair’s approach ﹘ Maretropolis’ old storm drains ﹘ was understandably quite foul, to say the least.
Donning face masks that obscured their muzzles and other facial features, the Power Ponies were in search of one particularly unusual villain, a entity of red and black ectoplasm-like material in the vague shape of a stallion that called himself Smudge. Whether he had always been that way, or was once a regular pony, only Smudge himself knew for certain.
“Eughhhh...of all the places for a hideout!” Radiance moaned through her mask, her galoshes splattering across the dank concrete of the city’s storm drains and underworks.
Saddle Rager turned to her with an equally uncomfortable expression. “How are we supposed to even fight in these conditions? Galoshes? Face masks? I barely have enough breathing room to u-unfurl my wings!” The confined space was starting to wear at her, and not just because she was a pegasus.
“Don’t worry, Saddle Rager.” The Masked Matter-Horn reassured her. “Smudge is more of the scheming type, then a rough-hooves brawler.”
“Brains over brawn,” Mistress-Mare-velous added.
“Indeed. We’ll have to be mentally and verbally on our guard, lest he make an offer even we can’t turn down, in an effort to weasel his way out of questioning.”
Nevertheless, Saddle Rager still gulped nervously, and stole one final glance behind her at the ray of sunlight cast by the open ponyhole above. Nothing but piping, curving brick, and concrete lay to her left and right as she followed after her fellow heroines.
After a few minutes’ trek around stagnant pools of rainwater and garbage, the Power Ponies finally reached the lair of Smudge, a repurposed cistern originally meant for catching and diverting excess stormwater. When Mayor Blossom had commissioned the Public Works Department to install a newer network around it, the older storm drains now remained dry all year, leaving them open to harbor all sorts of nefarious operations.
Smudge was no exception to this rule, and had outfitted his cavernous cistern-turned living space with all manner of equipment needed for facilitating diverse activities such as insurance fraud, counterfeiting, hacking, electronic theft, and most prolifically: illegal plasma weapons research.
Radiance scanned the menagerie of equipment with borderline envy as the Power Ponies unceremoniously barged themselves into the somewhat humid room.
“SMUDGE!” Saddle Rager shouted in her berserker mode, standing near the entryway and holding the reinforced metal entry door in the crook of her bulging foreleg like a surfboard.
“Smudge! We know you’re here, come on out!” Matter-Horn shouted, charging her horn to emit a spell allowing her to see through solid surfaces.
“Urggghh?” A low gurgly voice grumbled from somewhere behind one of the equipment stands.
“You know who we are, and why we’re here. It’s last week’s news. Literally,” Mistress Mare-velous said with a deadpan.
“Mluuurgh.”
“Found him!” Hum Drum announced with a light smile of triumph as he looked down and pointed from a large console he had clambered on top of.
The Power Ponies followed his point of view and finally spotted the supervillain. Smudge was working on something at a large and surprisingly pristine metal table. He looked up at them from his ministrations with a somewhat hostile but largely inquisitive glare through the fierce red openings that made up his eyes.
“Don’t you know this type of weapons research is banned by international treaties enforced by the Heroic Order of Righteous Nations?” Radiance asked rhetorically.
Smudge waved an aetherial hoof at her dismissively. “Blarghuugh! Uruurgh.”
Radiance scoffed. “Yes, well, H.O.R.N. does use plasma weapons as well, but the ban is of course to prevent terrorist access t… wait, we’re not here to discuss illegal research!”
“That’s right, Radiance. We’re here to ask you what you know regarding the potential whereabouts of Zapp.” Matter-Horn moved and stood next to her, while the others positioned themselves at all of the potential exits from the room, glaring at the supervillain expectantly.
Smudge appraised each one of them with his glaring red eyes. His features, what few that were actually discernable, were entirely unreadable. “Rurrrgggh. Blurggh, ghhhurgh urghh lurrgh. Mnurrgghahahahurlg!” The being began laughing aloud at what he said, a sound somewhat similar to a loudly flowing brook.
Fili-Second shook her head dubiously. “You...you would have ransomed information to the police if you knew anything?”
Saddle Rager and Hum Drum both wore a worried expression as the former had returned to her normal state, and Mistress Mare-velous had her face scrunched with a mixture of confusion and suspicion.
“W-what does he mean that it’s all pointless?” Hum Drum asked.
The Masked Matter-Horn’s own face fell as realization took hold at the same time as Radiance, whose body language directly mirrored hers. “Girls, Hum Drum….he’s right,” the Power Ponies’ leader whispered. “If he knew anything, he could have made a small fortune off it by selling it to the police, ages ago! I can’t believe that hadn’t ever crossed my mind. We...wasted even more time coming here. Ahhh!”
Furious, Matter-Horn ignited her horn and fired it at a nearby console in an unoccupied corner, obliterating it and whatever work it had been in the middle of.
“Urrugggh!” Smudge rumbled in displeasure, rushing over to inspect the damages.
“Save it, you lowly mass of protoplasm!” Mistress Mare-velous snapped, unfurling her golden lasso and readying it. “You can do all the illicit weapons research and money laundering you want soon...in your head, in a cozy little cell back at Balkham Asylum!”
Smudge made next to no effort to resist as Radiance conjured energy restraints around the supervillain’s forelegs, who chuckled impishly at the Power Ponies’ dour expressions. “Malurrgh.”
“Save it for the judge,” Radiance growled, glaring as she watched Mare-velous physically manipulated her rope to hog-tie Smudge, adding onto his existing bonds. “Next, is Mane-iac! One way or another, we will get answers about Zapp, and that nutter will brought to justice!”
By now, the Masked Matter-Horn had gotten a grip on her anger, and her eyes had grown impassive beneath her goggles, her tone flat. “Girls, I think it’s about time that we call off the search for Zapp.”
Saddle Rager and Hum Drum both gulped hard, and Fili-Second suppressed a sniffle as the full implications eventually sunk in. Smudge’s chuckling returned with new intensity, causing Mare-velous to forcefully put the weight of her hoof down on his mostly solid back to quiet him.
“And-and do what?” Radiance sputtered. “Zapp is…”
“Gone. We could continue searching, or focus on other priorities. We could find her in a year, or never find her at all. Every way I look at it now, a thousand roads could lead us to finding her, and each one could take a little bit longer than the last to travel to its end. Our time is not infinite!”
“But...what if this is just a ploy of Smudge?” Fili-Second ventured, not yet willing to cut to a similar conclusion. “What if he actually does have information, on one of these computers, maybe? It’s not a sure-fire guarantee he would have ransomed it out, just very likely!”
Smudge craned his neck to peer up at the uttering of his name. “Huuhrgh? Murrgh!” he rumbled to Fili-Second.
“N...not your favored way of under-hoofed tactics, you say? ‘Lying is a tactic for lesser minds? You...’” Fili-Second’s determination in her assertion began to falter. If a villain who was already a master of under-hoofed and illegitimate dealings claimed that something as simple as lying was a tactic that was beneath him due to its crude simplicity, then where did that leave the present matter?
“Fine,” Fili-Second relented. “Regardless of what this weirdo said, I’m telling the police to search these computers. But...I second the notion to,” she swallowed. “call off the search for Zapp. We need to shift our focus to Mane-iac.”
Fili-Second’s words seemed to open up a floodgate amongst the rest of the team. “D’oh very well,” Radiance agreed, visibly distressed. “I agree.”
“Agreed.” Hum Drum and Saddle Rager murmured in unison, their heads held low. Mistress Mare-velous seemed to be the only one that now shared the Masked Matter-Horn’s inexpressive look.
“Fine. Call if off. Let’s get this scumbag downtown, and we’ll go from there.”
Matter-Horn nodded, and waved towards the nearest exit point. “Move out, Power Ponies.” Something about her voice sounded vaguely hollow as she gave the order. One by one, with Mare-velous and Smudge in tow in the middle, the Power Ponies filed out of the cistern, heading back up to street level.
Shortly after Smudge was booked and taken off their hooves, the Power Ponies then went to see Mayor Blossom, to begin preparations for an official announcement, and the subsequent service that would follow for the city’s presumed lost defender. While the normal time for a missing persons’ case could last for years with ordinary ponies before being presumed deceased, years in superhero terms were like centuries, given the specific dangers, characteristics, and rigors of the average metapony’s world.
The following week, Mayor Blossom and Commissioner Golden Badge joined the Power Ponies at one of the city’s newest parks, which was subsequently renamed in honor of her as Zapp Memorial Gardens, to hold a ceremonial service to her memory and legacy as a paragon of justice.
The Memorial Gardens were packed nearly to the brim with mourners as first the Mayor, then the Masked Matter-Horn, gave their speeches. Matter-Horn was accompanied by the rest of the Power Ponies, who were all centered around the dias of a large statue of the pegasus herself,
“...for our fallen hero, her comrade and team leader, has this to say,” Mayor Blossom said, making the transition for the Masked Matter-Horn to speak.
“Citizens of Maretropolis, I thank you for your sympathies, condolences, and your respects. Zapp was a true hero, and a true friend to us all. To honor her memory, we will remain steadfast in our sworn duty to this city, and all her citizens. Justice, cannot be held back by the grip of death. It is immortal; timeless.” As Matter-Horn finished her speech, she looked to the statue behind her.
On the statue, Zapp’s wings were flared out and proudly perched atop a cloud of the whitest marble, ready to strike all who would do wrong with justice as swift as the very lightning she wielded.
Even with the superhero seemingly vanished without a trace from the world, Zapp’s statue would now stand as a reminder to all, that there exists ponies - some willing to make the ultimate sacrifice - who will stop at nothing to uphold the rule of law, and protect the innocent from injustice.
As for the remaining six Power Ponies, their own jobs were far from over. Mane-iac was still out there, and apprehending her was now priority tier-one for the Masked Matter-Horn.
While she sat in their mission room atop Maretropolis Tower and pondering their next move as a team, she heard a red phone begin to ring off its hook nearby. The unicorn darted to it and levitated the speaker to her muzzle with a speed that could nearly rival Fili-Second’s.
“Masked Matter-Horn, speaking.”
“Masked Matter-Horn? Ah yes, brilliant,” a suave-sounding voice replied on the other end, before clearing their throat. “Listen closely, please. I have information for you regarding Mane-iac, that you may find beyond invaluable.” Matter-Horn’s violet eyes widened with wild anticipation, and she plopped herself back down in her chair, running a hoof through her vibrant mauve mane, which was currently down and loose. She licked her lips before replying.
“I’m listening.”