Spike heaved a sigh, followed by a groan as he stretched the kinks out of his back. Straightening back up, he surveyed the last few boxes and suitcases he still had to unpack before stepping across the plushly carpeted floors to the penthouse’s kitchenette. Pouring himself a glass of milk and selecting a finely tapered emerald, he walked out onto the balcony. Gazing out across the cityscape he had a front row seat to Celestia’s glorious sunset.
Nibbling his snack, he panned his gaze away from the breathtaking view before him to look out over the rest of the city. In the gathering dusk, the city was just beginning to light up with millions of the new electric lights that had been introduced some five years earlier.
Spike crunched the last of his emerald as his eyes now moved to the Manehattan police department headquarters, just a scant few blocks away from where Celestia had arranged for Twilight and her friends (and number one assistant) to stay for the duration of their search for little Velvet. Claws that could rip through steel as though it were tissue paper suddenly gripped the balcony railing with an alarming sound of crunching stone, small pebbles flaking away from the still small dragon’s punishing grip to rain down to the streets below.
The deaths of Twilight Velvet and Night Light and the disappearance of Velvet Spark had hit Spike just as hard as Twilight Sparkle, especially since the drake had been adopted into that family as one of their own. Spike bowed his head as a few hot tears squeezed their way past his tightly clenched eyelids. Dashing his claw across his face impatiently, he drained his milk glass with one convulsive gulp before returning to the suite to finish his duties. There was no more time for grief. Twilight was counting on him, now more than ever.
A commotion in the hallway outside the door alerted Spike to his adopted sister/employer’s return, and he quickly finished putting away the last of the formal gowns Rarity had insisted on Twilight bringing with her. Stepping to unbar the door, he was just in time to catch Twilight’s final words to the accompanying police commissioner.
“I can’t thank you enough for your assistance sir. Just knowing that the Manehattan Police Department has all it’s ponypower devoted to finding my sister is a tremendous load off of my mind.”
The commissioner, a balding unicorn stallion smiled and inclined his head in the barest approximation of a bow. “Don’t fret yerself your highness. I’ll have the scum that murdered your parents by the hooves before ye can say ‘knife’. You and your friends just rest easy, enjoy the luxury our fair city has to offer, and let us at the MPD take care of everything.”
Doffing his officer’s cap once more, he strolled off down the hallway. Quickly shuffling into her apartment, Twilight visibly deflated as she dragged her way across the floor to the nearest couch, which she proceeded to faceplant into. Spike followed with a daisy sandwich in hand.
“Rough day?”
With a groan, Twilight levered herself upright, before reaching out with her magic to relieve Spike of the sandwich. “Rough doesn’t even begin to cover it. I realize that it’s been a couple of years since I had a reason to visit Manehattan, but the city seems to have changed so drastically since we were here last.”
Her assistant plopped himself down into a chair across from where Twilight had chosen to collapse. “I guess you’re not talking about the new construction that’s gone up, huh?”
Twilight shook her head. “It’s the ponies that have changed Spike. Manehattanites have always been a bit of a rough bunch, but there was always a sense of community and pride that could be found everywhere from the poorest dockworker to the most glamorous socialite that’s gone now.”
“What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
Fidgeting with her hooves, Twilight turned her gaze to the penthouse’s darkened windows. “I’m not sure how to explain it. I got the feeling Commissioner Graft was working very hard to distract me, kept dragging us from one tourist spot to the next, one city politician after another for me to shake hooves with and be ‘assured that all that could be done is being done’. But every now and then, I’d see something… shifty pass between the commissioner and the ponies he introduced me to. And every time I tried to speak with one of the common ponies passing by on the street, the commissioner or one of his aids would steer me away.”
Scratching his head spines, Spike slowly got up to carry the now empty sandwich plate into the kitchen. “Okay, so you couldn’t get away from the politicians.But you are a princess... Couldn’t it just be more of the same dock-kissing that goes on in Canterlot with the nobles? And you still haven’t explained why you think city pride is dead.”
Twilight gave a frustrated huff. “I suppose it’s possible, but this felt different. And those times I tried to speak to any pony that wasn’t an attorney, judge, or city counselor? I got the distinct impression that the ponies of this city are scared, or even terrified. Every time they saw one of the ponies escorting me so much as look at them, they would immediately turn tail and try to get back to whatever business they were engaged in before I tried to speak to them.”
Finishing putting away the dishes, Spike moved back into the sitting area with a pair of sodas for himself and his increasingly fretful employer. Taking her bottle from the young drake with a tired smile, Twilight heaved a heavy sigh. “I just hope the rest of the girls had better luck with their investigations than I did.”
As though summoned, a brisk knock sounded against the door. Taking a hasty gulp of his drink, Spike moved to let the rest of their friends inside. The band of mares that entered all seemed equally as exhausted as Twilight. Even Pinkie’s normally exuberant bounceswere reduced to half-hearted skips. Dragging their way into the apartment, each one did not so much as sit, as slump into the various chairs and couches set up within the living area.
Twilight looked from one to the other, desperately hoping for better news. “Well girls? Please tell me one of you heard something?”
There was a moment of strained silence, before Applejack finally decided to take the initiative.
“I’m sorry sugarcube, but I came up emptier than an Appleloosa well in summertime. Nopony seemed willin’ to even talk to me, never mind bein’ able to say whether they’d heard anything ‘bout a missing filly.”
Twilight’s ears sank a little, before she turned her increasingly hopeless gaze on the rest of her friends. “Didn’t anypony find anything? Surely somepony saw or heard something?”
Fluttershy dropped her gaze, withdrawing behind her usual veil of mane. “I’m so sorry Twilight. I tried to get in contact with some of the animals, since I thought that maybe there was a pigeon or mouse who saw something. But when I asked to see some animals, the ponies with me took me to the zoo! Um, not that there’s anything wrong with visiting the zoo, but none of those animals would have been able to see what happened. And every time I tried to get away, somepony would ask me to see another animal, and they were Really Important Ponies, and I didn’t want to disappoint them, but at the same time I didn’t want to disappoint you, but they wouldn’t let me go! It made me so frustrated that I could just scream!” Pushing a throw pillow into her face, she proceeded to do just that, at a volume that might have been mistaken for another pony’s sigh.
Rarity wrapped a comforting hoof around her gentle friend’s shoulders. “There there darling, nopony here blames you. I must confess to a certain feeling of extrême inquiétude of my own. I think I have made the acquaintance of every pony of so-called great social standing in this city, and I must hold myself shocked. Shocked, and disgusted! Every time I tried to bring up the subject of this horrible tragedy, I was met with the most outrageous display of apathy. Say what you will of the Canterlot nobility, it is at least possible with effort and social grace to sway them to at least invest their money if little else in a noble endeavour. With these ponies, I had the distinct impression that were I to suddenly and inexplicably combust, not a soul would lift so much as a hoof to aid me.”
Rainbow snorted, raising her head from where she reclined, catlike, along the back of Rarity and Fluttershy’s couch. “Think you guys got it bad, try talking to the police. I had to double-check hooves just to make sure I was talking to a cop instead of his cuffed prisoner. A shiftier bunch of clowns I don’t think I’ve ever seen.”
Pinkie Pie cocked her head quizzically, her mass of half limp curls falling to one side with a pitiful flump. “Clowns aren’t shifty Dashie, they’re funny! At least they’re supposed to be? I don’t know anymore, I met some today from a circus that came to town about a month ago, an’ they were all sad, ‘cause they said this pony from the city council came and told them they couldn’t leave without paying this really BIG amount of money, he said it was a new tax that Manehattan had implemented right before they arrived, an’ they didn’t have the bits, so they were all sad ‘n stuff instead of funny.” Checking over both shoulders, she leaned in closer to the group as she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial stage-whisper. “I think that city-council-pony made that tax up!”
Getting up from her seat and pacing over to the window, Twilight pressed her aching head to the cool glass, gazing out at the twinkling lights of the city. “A mayor who is working hoof-in-hoof with suspected mobsters, a corrupt police force working as glorified criminal muscle, a populace too terrified to speak out, vice, extortion, kidnapping and murder. How could this city go so wrong?! How am I going to find my baby sister?! Is my parents murderer going to go unpunished?!” Finally turning from the window, she looked from one mare to the next. “Does anypony have any good news?”
There was a long moment of silence, before Rainbow hesitantly raised a hoof. “There were a couple of cops who seemed like they actually cared about catching bad-guys instead of joining them. A detective, his partner, and a rookie patrol officer. They were the only ones I talked to who seemed to actually be working on your case Twilight.”
Rarity stroked her chin thoughtfully. “I suppose I was a little harsh with my initial judgments. There was one mare who seemed to honestly care about my questions, Luscious Fox. She’s the CEO of a fairly large engineering firm, and she’s very outspoken about the corruption and crime that has taken hold of Manehattan in recent years.”
Twilight allowed herself a small, hopeful smile. “Well, it’s not much, but it’s a start. How about the rest of you, any good news? Anything at all?” As Fluttershy and Pinkie reluctantly shook their heads she turned towards Applejack, who was staring intently at something just behind where Twilight was standing. Quirking an eyebrow, Twilight glanced over her shoulder to try and see what Applejack was looking at. Failing to discern anything beyond a floral pattern in the wallpaper that reminded her of Celestia’s cutiemark, she turned back towards her friend in time to see her scrubbing a hoof into her eyes. Hard.
“Applejack! What’s wrong, are you alright?”
Seemingly ignoring her friend, the farmer walked over to the far wall and began running her hooves over the wall. Sharing a bemused glance with the rest of the group, Rainbow flapped her way over to Applejack’s side. “Hey AJ, ya feeling okay?”
Applejack ignored her, continuing to squint at the wall and run her hoof over the wallpaper. Shaking her head impatiently, Rainbow finally reached out and poked her friend in her well-muscled shoulder. “Applejack, snap out of it! What’s so interesting about the wallpaper anyhow?”
Applejack’s reaction to the poke was to grip an exposed corner of wallpaper and RIP it away from the wall in a shower of old paste and drywall dust. Jumping back to avoid getting any of the flying particles in her eyes, Rainbow darted back in and began trying to tug Applejack away from the wall. “Holy jeeze AJ, what’s gotten into you?! You gone nuts or something?!”
All her attempts to move her friend were ignored by the solidly built earth pony, who simply reached into a small alcove that had been revealed by her actions and pulled a small microphone and recording crystal out of the hollow. Disconnecting the plug that connected the two devices with a sharp yank, Applejack tossed both down on the coffee table in front of her friends.
“Sorry ta worry ya’ll, but I figured Twi’ wouldn’t appreciate bein’ listened in on.”
Picking up the deactivated devices in her magic, Twilight began examining them with an increasingly worried frown. “This is some fairly advanced equipment. I know the Guard sometimes uses devices of this nature to bug suspected criminals or foreign enemy nations, but what’s one doing in the Princess’s suite?”
Rarity pulled a jeweler’s loup from her purse as she levitated the recording crystal closer to her. “Would a city police force have access to such devices, perchance?”
Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. “Perhaps. Depends on the size of the city I suppose, but the police would be as likely to use them as the guard, though I hadn’t heard of such technology being shared with the general public yet.”
Rarity nodded, slipping the eyeglass back whence it came and placing the crystal back on the table. “That, I suppose, would explain the Manehattan Police Department seal inscribed into the base of the crystal.”
Twilight gritted her teeth, her horn sparking slightly as she confirmed what Rarity had discovered. “The brass nerve. Spying on the Princesses in the supposed safety and privacy of their own rooms! This explains so much.”
“Like what?”
Twilight turned to Spike. “How the rot that’s gone on in this city has been able to continue, despite repeated attempts to stamp it out. I’d wager there’s a device just like this in every room that a visiting guard or official has been given to stay in.”
Eyes widening in comprehension, Spike snapped his claws as he put the pieces together. “So anytime somepony tried to make a plan, or gather evidence, the bad guys would be warned ahead of time and be able to am-scray ahead of the princesses!”
“Right Spike! Oooh, I knew there was something wrong with this city, and this just proves it.”
Pinkie gingerly poked the device, setting the crystal wobbling across the table. “ Soooo… how come the princesses never knew these little doohickies were here? Wouldn’t their magic have gone all zip! zap!, and found them lickety-split?”
Rescuing the the crystal before it could roll off the table, Twilight began to march across the room to where a small locked case sat inconspicuously leaning against the wall. “It’s due to the design of the spell matrices built into the crystal Pinkie. Unless a unicorn knows the exact frequency the crystal is attuned to, they’re next to impossible to detect.”
Fluttershy raised a hoof. “Wait! Um, what if there are more of those listening devices?”
Twilight answered from over her shoulder. “I decoded the spell matrices the device used as I was examining the crystal. Just to be safe, I gave the room a quick deep scan now that I knew what to look for, and didn’t detect anything else.”
Levitating the case from its resting place against the wall, she turned to face her friends once more. “I think it’s clear what must be done now. This city is run by criminals, mobsters and the corrupt. Are we agreed?”
A slow, reluctant round of nods. Nodding her head firmly, Twilight lit her horn and slid the curtains closed on all the windows. Laying the case down on the table, she popped the seals and withdrew a familiar costume. It was a full body suit made from a material that resembled spandex, with an attached mask that would render the wearer’s face nearly featureless, with goggles with tinted lenses being the only thing to disrupt the smooth contours. Sweeping back away from the oversized collar was a large, flowing cape clasped at the front with a sigil bearing a stylized ‘M’. The forelegs each featured a row of small pouches down the front, while a compact set of saddlebags hugged the suits hips, nearly blending into the surrounding material. The whole ensemble was topped off with a broad-brimmed hat, made so it would shadow the wearer’s face and provide a further level of anonymity.
Twilight ran a proud hoof over the contours of the outfit. “Girls, Spike and I would like to present the Mysterious Mare Do Well version 2.0. I reworked the suit, forming it from a fabric composed of unstable molecules. This allows the outfit to fit my body tightly, leaving no folds or pleats that could be caught on an exposed corner or seized by an assailant. It also allows for complete freedom of movement, and feels as though I’m wearing a second skin while still allowing for maximum breathability. I alchemically added some of Spike’s donated cast off scales, which when ground up and mixed with the fabric actually help to stabilize the molecular structure. As an added benefit, any pony wearing this suit could be shot with anything from a magic bolt to an arrow and suffer nothing more than a nasty bruise.”
There was a sudden clatter, as Pinkie began rummaging through the various pouches and saddlebags. “Spy camera, blowgun, magnifying glass, mini crossbow, smoke pellets, gas pellets, mini chemistry set, grappling hook, inflatable raft … Wowie-zowie Twilight, you got everything! But wait…!” Reaching into one of the saddlebags, Pinkie began to insert much more of herself into the small bag than seemed possible. Finally withdrawing after she had dived head and shoulders into the bag, she directed a look of wide-eyed surprise around the circle. “It’s bigger on the inside! That’s so cool! Twilight, you gotta get me some of these bags, I could carry so many party supplies in one of these, or better yet two of these, ‘cause my mane is great but I can only carry so much at a time, and WAIT A MINUTE!!!” She leaned in until she and Twilight were nose to nose. “You didn’t use MY cast-off mane and tail hairs to make your bags, did you? Not that I’d mind, but that’s kinda creepy, cause you’d have to sneak into my bathroom to raid my shower drain, or my bedsheets, or my brushies, or my MMFFF…”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Twilight directed an unamused look at Pinkie, who was currently muffled by a purple hoof. “Pinkie, no, I didn’t sneak into your room. I admit your mane and tail did inspire me in the design of the bags, but I used a variation on the Dimensional Pocket spell to make sure I could carry whatever I might need and still be able to move without all that equipment slowing me down. And stop licking my hoof!”
Spitting out the aforementioned appendage, Pinkie grinned unapologetically. “Okay!”
Rainbow threw herself back onto the couch, hooves crossed belligerently. “This is all real impressive Egghead, but I still don’t see how you’re gonna pull this off. Last time there had to be four of you in the suit to make it work, using Applejack’s strength, your magic, Fluttershy’s flight, and Pinkie’s… whatever. Plus, unless you’ve forgot, you’re a freakin’ Alicorn! You go out busting heads in that get up, ponies would have to be blind to not put it together that you and the masked pony with wings and a horn are one and the same.”
Twilight lifted the suits hat and cape. “Illusion spells woven into the fabric. The hat covers my horn, while allowing me to cast unimpeded, while the cape covers my wings. Even if I flew, ponies would see an earth pony using the cape as a glider. My wings and horn would be completely concealed!”
Gnawing at her lower lip, Rainbow refused to give an inch. “It’s still a big risk Twilight! Look, lemme dig a little deeper down at Police HQ, there’s surely a few more honest cops left that could help us.”
Twilight remained adamant, stamping a hoof down impatiently. “We don’t have time for that! What’s more, Velvet doesn’t have time for that. It’s been a month since she went missing, and so far the ‘official’ channels haven’t turned up anything that could lead to either her recovery or the identity of my parent’s… anyway, every day that passes the more likely it is that we never find her!”
Whirling away from her friends, Twilight scooped the various bits of costume from the table and swiftly disappeared behind a privacy screen. Refusing to let the matter drop, Rainbow made one last attempt to dissuade her.
“Ok, so MPD is a bunch of scumbags, and we’re the only ones who’re able to solve this case. Why don’t you let me or Applejack, or any one of the rest of us wear the suit and investigate?”
There was a moment of silence from behind the screen. Finally, in a voice that seemed almost too small for the alicorn it came from, Twilight replied. “Then what would you have me do Rainbow? Sit up here in this apartment ordering room service while the rest of you look for my sister, and try to solve the murder of my parents? Smile and nod politely as the criminals that run this city schmooze and prevaricate, telling me they are doing all they can while they allow the murderer who killed my parents, who stole my sister to run loose? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I promise I’ll need all of your help, but please. Please let me do this.”
For several long moments, the only sound in the apartment was the rustle and slap of fabric as Twilight struggled with getting into the suit. Five ponies and one dragon looked from the privacy screen, to themselves, and back again as each struggled to come to terms with what was about to happen. Finally, Pinkie broke the oppressive silence that held sway over the assemblage.
“Sooo… you said you’re going to need help? What with? Are ya gonna need a sidekick, ooh, or is that Spike’s job as your ward? Can I be your sidekick?! I could call myself Fillisecond! Oh, wait, no, I don’t have super speed. Oooh! Oooh! How about the Perplexing Pink Party Pony! No, wait, that just describes what I already am. OOOOH, how about El Kabong?! I could wear a little black mask, and a cape, and a big hat, and carry a sword and a guitar and a whip and a MMMFFG...”
Rarity demurely whisked some non-existent dust from her chest, as her magic gently clamped down on Pinkie’s mouth. “Pinkie Pie, darling, do please practice just a smidge of restraint.”
Pinkie mumbled something that might have been “Sorry Rarity”, but came out as “Hmmry Murrity”. Satisfied that Pinkie would behave, Rarity doused her horn and turned to face Twilight’s silhouetted form. “While I for one disagree with Pinkie about your need for a ‘sidekick’, she does raise a valid question. Just how are we to help as you go galavanting about through the streets of a night?”
There was a frustrated grunt from behind the screen, followed by the clatter of an overturned stool before Twilight deigned to answer. “Darn leggings, fasten! Ahem, all of you will play a vital role in the days to come. As an alicorn princess, anything I do in public will be heavily scrutinized. I’ll need you girls to run interference for me with the various media and city officials that will come calling. Rarity, as a pony accustomed to high society, I will need you to attend any fancy parties that I am invited to in my place. I would like either Pinkie or Fluttershy to accompany you, as Pinkie’s unique talents will make her perfect for distracting the ponyrazzi, while Fluttershy’s past as a fashion model would raise no suspicion if she were seen with you, a widely known fashionista. Rainbow, I want you and Applejack to liaison with the police department. Your status as a Wonderbolt will allow you to get a hoof in the door, and I know I can depend on Applejack to suss out the truth behind anything or anypony you encounter.”
“And what about Spike?” Pinkie inquired. “I guess he can’t be your youthful sidekick after all, since I’d think he’d be kinda hard to disguise no matter what kinda mask you put on him.”
Spike patted her leg as he passed on his way back to the kitchen. “I’ll be doing the same thing I always do for Twilight… being the best Number One Assistant that she could ever need or want. I’m gonna be in charge of coordinating the rest of you from here, collecting and arranging evidence, repairing equipment, making sure you’re all fed… ya know, stuff like that.”
“What, like, some kind of butler?”
Spike shot Rainbow a glare. “No, not a ‘butler’. Number One Assistant.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Same difference.”
This time Rarity took it upon herself to answer for Spike. “Most certainly not! Our dear Spikey-Wikey is not a servant, but rather a valued and integral part of our team. He is the glue that binds us, the lynchpin that will allow us to efficiently go about our assigned tasks! Why without his skills in organization” Here she wrapped a hoof around a furiously blushing Spike “We would be quite unable to carry out this scheme of Twilight’s. Speaking of… Darling? Are you quite ready to make your debut yet?”
There was a moment of silence from the corner where Twilight had sequestered herself. Then, from behind the privacy screen, The Mysterious Mare Do Well stepped. The group of friends couldn’t suppress a gasp of shock. Gone was the slightly nerdy, earnest bookworm of a princess that they all knew and loved. In her place now stood a dark figure of the night, something torn straight from the pages of a comic book. The suit contoured to her figure, highlighting muscles that she hadn’t seemed to posses before. The cape billowed about her shoulders and down her withers, seeming to move in a non-existent breeze, while the broad-brimmed hat tipped low over a eerily featureless mask. That same mask seemed to glare out from under the hat with silver tinted blank lenses that gave away nothing of what the wearer might have been thinking.
Moving to the center of the room, Twilight took in the awestruck looks she was receiving from her friends. Her mask crinkled in what might have been a smile, before she suddenly reared onto her hind legs and vanished in an explosion of purple smoke! For the next few moments, conversation was impossible as Spike and the others rushed about the apartment, coughing and sneezing as they tried to get the windows open and smoke flushed out.
Waving a hoofkerchief daintily about her face, Rarity finally was able to catch her breath enough to speak. “My word! What was that?!”
Slumping tiredly into an armchair, Spike let loose a frustrated huff. “She calls it her ‘Presto-Disappearo’ spell, something she picked up from watching Trixie do her schtick. It’s basically just her usual teleportation spell, mixed with a smoke bomb. I guess she forgot that she would be teleporting out, leaving us behind to try and breath her potassium nitrate.”
“So, where did she go?”
Spike shrugged eloquently. “My guess? She just wants to give the suit a trial run, maybe get to know the neighborhood without a bunch of politicos telling her where she can and can’t go.” He yawned cavernously, stretching his arms above his head. “Welp, don’t know about you guys, but this dragon is gonna get some shuteye. I suggest you all do the same, things are gonna get hectic around here starting tomorrow.”
Saying their various “goodnights” and “don’t let the parasprites bite”s, each mare slowly began making her way to her chosen room. All that is, except for Pinkie Pie and Applejack. They both remained sitting across from each other; one twirling her hat around her hooves in a distracted manner, the other rubbing her chin and scrutinizing her preoccupied friend. Finally, Applejack shook her head and pushed herself up from her seat.
“Welp, guess I’d better get myself down for the night. Ya comin’ Pinkie?”
Her friend remained where she was, still directing a suspicious glance her way. Applejack shifted uneasily.
“Ya alright there, sugarcube? I don’t have somethin’ on my face, do I?”
Curls bouncing, Pinkie shook her head.
Applejack shifted her eyes about, slowly beginning to back out of the room towards her quarters. “Oookay, well, I’m gonna jus’ go an’ get myself around fer bed. Gotta brush the ol’ chompers an’ such…”
Pinkie didn’t move.
Applejack finally sank to her rump with a tired sigh. “Alright Pinkie, spill the beans. Jus’ what is so all-fired interesting about my face that’s got you staring like one of Fluttershy’s mice eyein’ a sleepin’ cat?”
“How did you know that listening device was there?”
Applejack started. “Whut?! I mean, er, that is, I could hear the thing running. Couldn’t you?”
A shake of the head, and Pinkie’s eyes narrowed as her friend refused to meet her gaze.
“Uh, yeah, surprised none of you gals heard it, what with all the racket it was making. Yup, that’s right, noisy little doodad that’n, don’t see for the life of me how it could be useful for spying on folks, what with all the noise it makes, and…”
“Applejack.”
The farmer sputtered to a halt, wincing guiltily. “Yeah Pinkie?”
Pinkie finally stood up. Trotting across the floor to where her usually honest friend sat rubbing her shoulder with one hoof, she pulled Applejack into a firm hug. Then, sitting back, Pinkie took one of Applejacks hooves in hers and began stroking it soothingly. “Applejack, I need you to tell me the honest, 100%, true-blue truth. Can you do that?”
Applejack dropped her head, nodding saddly. “Yeah Pinkie, I reckon I can.”
“Are you growing a Pinkie Sense?”
Applejack’s head snapped up, and for a moment all she could do was stare slack jawed at her friend as she continued to chatter on. “Cause that’s nothing to be ashamed of, ‘cause having a Pinkie Sense is so useful, and I can’t tell you how many times it’s saved my pink patootie from all sorts of things. I honestly kinda sorta maybe thought that something like this might happen, seeing as how we’re related and all, and my Granny Pie had it, and she said it got passed down to me from her side of the family, and who knows? Her side of the family might be the side that has your side of the family, and you’re only just now starting to show, and OOOOH! This is sooo exciting, I can finally have an apprentice in the ways of The Sense just like I was an apprentice to Granny Pie, and I’ll teach you what your twitches mean, and your shivers, and your itchies, and your pinchies, and your…”
Pinkie droned on in this vein for around ten more minutes before she finally had to stop and take a breath. The whole while, Applejack could only sit and stare in disbelief as her inconceivable friend switched from one thought to the next, often with next to no relation between topics and all without stopping to so much as breath. Finally, when it seemed Pinkie had exhausted every possible line of thought related (no matter how tenuously) to Applejack developing an “Apple Sense”; only then did Applejack take a deep, cleansing breath and begin attempting to explain her actions.
“Look Pinkie, much as I’m flattered that you’d be willin’ to take me under your wing, I ain’t growin’ no kind of ‘Sense’, ‘less you’re talking my usual common sense. Y’see, for about a week now I’ve started noticing… things happening to me.”
“What sort of Things? Are they Good Things? Bad Things? Kinda-Sorta-In-Between-Things?”
“Heck if I can tell.” Applejack shook her head, irked at her inability to explain to her friend. “Look, what’s been happening, it’s sorta like… Ah horsefeathers, I wish this weren’t so gosh-darn hard fer me to explain.”
Rubbing a frustrated hoof through her mane, Applejack finally set her jaw and decided to come right out with it. “I didn’t hear that listening doohicky, I saw it. Right through the wall, like it were sitting plain as day on a shelf. That ain’t the only weird thing I’ve been noticin’, neither. I can hear better all of a sudden, an’ I feel stronger, an’ faster, an’ jus’ plain better than I’ve ever been in my life!”
Applejack drew a shuddering breath, before looking at Pinkie with tears brimming in suddenly scared eyes. “What’s happening tah me, Pinkie? This ain’t normal, I ain’t never heard tell of no ponies who jus’ up an’ grew x-ray eyeballs one day. I’m turning into some kinda freak!”
However Applejack expected for Pinkie to react to her bizarre revelation, what she did do should not have been surprising. Instead of reacting with fear, or awe, or even over the top exuberant excitement, Pinkie simply once more pulled her into a gentle hug.
“There there, silly-billy, you aren’t any more of a freak than I am. So you have superpowers now, that doesn’t change the fact that you’re still the apple-lovingest, countryest, friendliest, bestest friend I could ask for. And I think I speak for all of our friends when I say that no matter what, we’ll never stop being your bestest gal-pals, ‘k?”
Applejack sniffed hard, wrapping Pinkie into a hug of her own. “Thanks Pinks, I needed to hear that. Look, I think I need to head back to Sweet Apple Acres for a couple of days, mebbe see if Granny Smith can clue me into just what in tarnation’s happenin’ to me. Can I trust ya to keep this whole thing to yerself, jus’ for a little while?”
Pinkie drew back, stiffening to attention and saluting crisply. She then proceeded to engage in a strange ritual that involved her drawing a hoof across her lips, miming digging a hole, dropping something into the hole, covering the metaphorical hole back up, and then traced a trapezoidal shape in the air above the hole.
“Um, Pinkie?”
“Yeah Applejack?”
“Jus’ what in the hay was that?!”
“Oh! I zipped my lips, then locked them, dug a hole, buried the key in the hole, than build a house over the hole and moved into the house!”
“Thanks, sugarcube.”
“No problem! Anything to help out the audience.”
“...The what?”
The building across from the Manehattan Arms was a towering structure built in a style that first came into vogue over one-hundred years ago. As such, it was an imposing edifice that put one in mind of a medieval cathedral or defensive fortification, rather than the humble art museum it now contained. It took the form of one large main hall, buttressed at its East and West sides by two massive towers that extended several stories above the central building. One tower seemed dedicated to Celestia, with a great statue of that alicorn surrounded by pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies frolicking gaily about where she stood watch, facing the East. The second, by contrast, was devoted to Luna and her creatures of the night; owls and bats were carved in various poses around her while the thestrals of her Lunar Guard kept a stern watch over their Lunar Diarch as she gazed out to the West.
As Twilight emerged from her teleport on the hotel roof and began running towards the edge, intent on trying the disguising enchantments on her costume, she failed to notice as one of the shadowy figures on the western tower shifted so as to keep her in sight as she moved.
From his perch, The Batman watched the masked pony gallop off the edge of her building, and seemingly glide across the intervening distance to the office complex across the street, coming to rest with a slight stumble before resuming her run. Readying a grapnel in preparation to pursue, he took a moment to key his comms-unit built into one of the mask’s ears.
“Alfred, status report. How are you coming along with those dossiers our magical friend left us?”
“Well enough for the moment, sir. I should have the last of them uploaded into the main computer and available for your perusal in the next ten minutes. Although, I must confess to a slight difficulty of a personal nature.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, you see, I’m afraid that I have not as yet quite mastered this whole… Hooves business as of yet.”
As if in punctuation, the sound of a stack of papers hitting the cave floor followed by a few muttered curses signaled Alfred’s latest failure to keep a grip on his currently held items.
Swinging to a new vantage point, Batman retrieved a pair of binoculars from his belt and continue his surveillance of the purple suited figure now leaping from building to building.
“Still no luck using the ‘magic’ Discord told us of?”
“Not as of yet sir. I’ve had a deuce of a time getting the bloody thing to do much more than spark a little, to say nothing of actually using the damn thing to fetch and carry the way HE described.”
There was a moment of silence, then a soft chime in Batman’s ear signaled the receival of the newly uploaded files on his target and her friends and family. Making sure that his quarry was stationary for the moment, Batman swapped his binoculars for a palm-sized tablet computer. Quickly thumbing through the information, The Dark Knight committed the contents to memory before once more slipping through the shadows after the pony before him.
She moved from building to building with no discernable destination in mind, pausing often to peer down at a small map that she kept pulling out from under her cape. Then, satisfied that she knew where she was, she would move on again, sometimes running, other times gliding when the gaps between roofs were too wide to leap. And always just behind her, far enough back so as to avoid detection, The Batman leapt, swung, and glided his way through the alien city around him.
After just over half an hour of nearly constant movement, Batman noticed that his target had slowed, before beginning to make her way down to street level. Tucking himself into a dense patch of shadow cast by a billboard, he watched through narrowed eyes as the pony he had been following began moving down a fire-escape to a filthy alleyway.
“Sir?”
“Go ahead Alfred.”
“I assume you have had a chance to scan the data on the young lady you are following?”
“Yes, thank you Alfred. It’s fortunate that Discord moved the private satellite along with everything else. This world has yet to develop technologically enough for me to rely on pirating local internet connections. It’s as though these ponies are only just approaching the level that Earth did in the 1940’s.”
“Indeed sir. Quite primitive, however I was hoping to learn what you thought of this Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
“She’d be better off staying on her throne.”
“Well that’s quite pessimistic of you sir. So she’s a hopeless case then?”
“I didn’t say that. If what I read in her file is true, she’s brilliant, a genius level intellect and an accomplished researcher in multiple fields. Graduated with full honors and multiple degrees before age 20, raised to Princess status after accomplishing an apparently impossible feat of magic.”
“I am sensing a ‘But’ approaching.”
“She has no martial training, and is overly reliant on her natural gifts with the magic of this world. She may be a physical match for any normal human, but compared to other ponies she is badly out of shape. I doubt she would last a second in a real fight.”
“Well, this should be simple enough. We need only convince her that she is completely out of her depth, locate her missing sister, apprehend the Joker, and return to our world insane clown in tow. Should be home for tea, I dare say.”
Batman’s eyes narrowed. Down in the alley, the pony clad in purple spandex had sunk to her haunches. There, leaning up against a wall, was a small collection of flowers and cards. Reaching into one of the pouches on her leg, Twilight pulled out a small framed photo. Pressing it to her masked muzzle in an approximation of a kiss, she gently placed it in the center of the small memorial. A moment of complete stillness, then she stood abruptly and disappeared from the alley in a flash of violet energy and small cloud of purple smoke. Rematerializing on the rooftop once again, she bounded off, back in the direction of the hotel she was now staying at with her friends.
Heaving a sigh, Batman finally replied to his faithful manservant. “I’m afraid it’s not going to be that simple old friend. For now, I will maintain surveillance until she inevitably gets in over her head. In the meantime, my first priority needs to be finding the Joker, and making sure he can’t hurt anyone here anymore than he’s sure to have already done.”
“I see. Well, can I expect you back at the cave before sunrise, or do you wish to continue stalking the night in hopes of simply tripping over the Joker?”
“No, I’m on my way back. Nothing else I can do for now, at least until the drones have finished mapping the city into the computer. I’ll stop by a library on my way, see if I can find some research material that may help with your magical… impotence.”
“Please Master Bruce, do leave the humour to Master Dick. You are not good at it.”
The grim figure of the night allowed himself the smallest smirk, before leaping from his vantage point and stiffening his cape to allow him to glide to the next building.
“One more thing Alfred.”
“Sir?”
“Start the satellite scanning for traces of Kryptonite.”
“Kryptonite sir? Why would you have me scanning for something of that nature here?”
“Just following a hunch Alfred. For now.”