The Phantom of Manehatten
Wise Beyond Her Years
Preread, Edited, and Reviewed By
Batty Gloom, Illustrious Q, Obselescence, El Oso
Fangwarden, Kohta Izumi, Applejack-fan, Kirk Heller
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Chapter 4
The Phantom of Manehatten
====================
Two days. It had only been two days, but the time had felt like weeks to Twilight. Weeks of just waiting to hear from her friends as she continued to comb her own library for clues. Her web had grown, becoming more intricate as she kept adding pieces of string and shreds of paper. Yarn choked the walls and air. Twilight even had to stretch extra pieces of string to act solely as supports. She had to plan for tunnels through the web so she could navigate with a careful application of her magic or her wings. The only light came from a few strategically placed firefly lanterns, since any real fire was too great of danger to the web.
The exponential expansion of the web was Twilight’s only means of keeping herself rooted. To try and ignore the mystery of the conspiracy was like trying not to breathe. She was fascinated and terrified by the organization at the same time. Why had they originally formed? A few bits of her yarn seemed to hint at a connection to Discord, but she could not tell if it was a pattern or just a coincidence.
So lost was Twilight in her work, she almost didn’t hear the ringing of the clock. Its melodic tones hummed out through the web, lengths of yarn vibrating since she had anchored a few strands to her clock. It was morning. She hadn’t slept again, and even she was beginning to reach her limit. As she listened to the tolling of the bells, she realized how late in the morning it was.
And that the mail pony should have been by the library.
With dexterity born of familiarity, she moved through the web without striking a single piece of string. The library door could not be opened. She had tied a good two dozen pieces of yarn to its knob. Her only escape was through her bedroom window. She pushed it open and poked her head outside. She saw the red flag on her mailbox was up, and, with an adept application of her magic, she brought the mail inside and promptly pulled the window shut, to ensure no errant gust of wind could disturb her work.
Taking the mail, she sat down on her bed and quickly began to flip through the envelopes. The one bill in the stack found its way to Twilight’s desk, joining others that were waiting for the end of the week to be paid. The three letters from stallions trying to woo Equestria’s newest princess found their way to the trash. That left Twilight with two letters: one from Fluttershy and one from Applejack.
She opened Fluttershy’s first, quickly reading over how she and Rarity had been doing in Canterlot. They had each attached notes they had made on some of the zebras they had been assigned to research. Rarity’s notes on Tenabe drew Twilight’s interest the most. This wasn’t the first time Cliff Wound had come up in her research, and Cliff Wound itself was known as one of the few communities that managed to hide from Discord during his rule. Already, her mind was figuring out where the new connections in the web needed to be and what color of yarn she would use.
Twilight, however, didn’t understand why Fluttershy said she had to bake a pie for Discord.
Shelving that mystery as something to be dealt with later, Twilight moved onto Applejack’s letter, which had come with a small package.
Dear Twilight,
First thing I have to say is that you need to be careful with the package. Do you remember that crystal Princess Celestia has, the one she used to show you what the empire looked like? Well, there’s two more of those memory crystals in this box, and one of them is cracked. Cadance says you should know how to turn them on, but you need to be real careful with the cracked one. Cadance says there’s no telling when it might give out, and she wants some historians here in the empire to try and make a copy of it once you're done with it.
The second thing I want to say is that you should be careful, Twilight. The zebra from my list, the one named Grass Snake, she wasn’t just in the empire when Sombra took power. She helped him. Now, I’ll admit, it sure looks like she had a change of heart near the end, but I have to wonder if Sombra would have been able to take over without her. Watch the crystals and take a look at the notes and, hopefully, you’ll be able to make more sense of it than I can.
One last thing, Twilight. This organization we’re chasing probably won’t take too kindly to the idea that we’re trying to expose them. They’re also probably the kind of ponies who would go pretty far to make sure we stay quiet. You’ll know what I mean when you watch the cracked crystal, when you see what Grass Snake did to Princess Amythest.
I had nightmares all night because of that crystal.
So, please, Twilight, be careful and stay safe.
Your Friend,
Applejack
P.S. No offense to Cadance and Shining, but I think I’m going to stay in a hotel. I don’t like the idea of sleeping someplace when that someplace is watching me sleep.
Twilight wrinkled her nose at the second odd P.S before focusing on the package. She used her magic to open it gingerly, and, from the wadded up pieces of newspaper, she removed the pair of memory crystals. She looked at them both, inspecting the cracked one with particular care before getting up from her bed. She set out into her web, intending to head down to the basement where there was enough open space to properly view the crystals.
Yet, for the first time since she had constructed it, the web seemed threatening to her now. Applejack’s warning gave fangs to the secret that lurked amidst the strands, the secret she was trying to tie down through the addition of more and more yarn. She almost didn’t want to view the crystals, didn’t want to see what had given Applejack nightmares.
But even if she had been able to ignore the crystals for a few minutes, Twilight would have eventually been unable to stop herself. Critical clues might exist within the crystals, and she intended to draw them out, no matter the cost.
~~~
“Can’t get them like this in Ponyville.”
Rainbow Dash licked her lips as she looked over the tofu dog that, to her, was near perfection. A warm bun, a thick, juicy tofu dog, and all her favorite condiments piled high like the ridge of a mountain. It was a balancing act to lift the heavily ladened bun to her mouth without spilling anything, but, after taking that first bite, she was in her own little moment of bliss.
Which was a welcome break from the monotony she had been suffering.
She had been in Manehatten for two days doing the research for Twilight, and it had not been as interesting or as fun as she had originally hoped. She had thought chasing a secret organization of zebras would be more than just reading in the library. She had thought Twilight would have her chasing down leads and roughing up some ponies to get some answers. But so far, it had just been reading.
A lot of reading.
A lot of reading of very dry, dull, straight to the fact history books by authors that probably couldn’t tell a story if their lives depended on it.
Taking another bite of her tofu dog, Rainbow leaned against the back of the park bench. Her eyes slid shut, and she stretched under the warm sun. It was a beautiful day out, the kind of day when she could fly for hours without so much as a thought. She’d pull some tricks, take a break to swim in a cloud, and then just glide around and enjoy the feeling of the wind.
Her wings fidgeted against her side, eager to make that day dream a reality, but there was still such a mountain of reading she had to do. Normally she wouldn’t care so much. She wouldn’t deny it; she regularly blew off her assigned reading to go flying with Gilda when she was in school. But Twilight was expecting her, was relying on her, to dig up the dirt on the zebras from her assigned list.
“It should be illegal to keep a pegasus cooped up in a library on this great of a day,” Rainbow complained before finishing up the last of her lunch. She bunched up the garbage into a ball and tossed it at the nearby garbage can. It sailed perfectly through the air, an arc that would make any ball tosser proud, and then it proceeded to hit the rim and bounce off onto a nearby bush.
“Oh come on,” Rainbow Dash complained. She got up from the park bench and hovered over to the shrubbery that lined the path. She found her ball of garbage as well as numerous other bits of paper and gunk that had not made their way into the garbage can. There were some old wrappers, a wad of gum, and a flyer for a museum.
Normally, none of those things would interest Rainbow at all, but her eyes were drawn to the flyer all the same. It was black with white lettering and showed a silhouette of the Manehatten skyline in front of a wanted poster. “Museum of Manehatten’s Phantom, the greatest mystery never solved.”
Rainbow’s lips spread into a smile, and she quickly read the address of the flyer before dunking her garbage in the can and heading skyward. The Phantom was arguably the coolest zebra Twilight had asked her to look into. A museum all about her had to be just as awesome. And, in truth, doing just about anything else would beat going back to the Manehatten library and the mountain of books she had left there.
~~~
Rainbow Dash landed outside the address given on the flyer, only to find the building was far less than she had expected. The “museum” was in an older part of Manehatten, in a store front squished between a dry cleaner and an old jewelry store that had been closed for a few years at least. Perhaps not the worst part of town, but definitely a section that needed some TLC.
The name of the place was painted across the windows, and a lopsided open sign hung on the interior of the mostly glass door. She pushed her way inside, an old bell ringing from the doorframe above her head. Unlike the exterior, the interior gave off a much stronger museum vibe. There were glass displays filled with posters and artifacts. Some were a little tarnished, like they had been fished out of somepony’s attic where they had been left to suffer dust and decay. The collection as a whole, however, was impressive.
“Oh, is that a customer? Just a moment, dear, I’ll be right with you.”
From a door behind a counter at the back, a hooved figure walked into view. It was no pony, but instead an elderly zebra. In a brief moment, Rainbow’s sense of adventure spiked. She had followed a forgotten flyer to a tiny, strange little museum in a run down part of the city with an old, non-pony caretaker.
She finally felt she had gotten to the adventure story she had been craving.
The zebra was light, wiry, and wrinkly. A stark contrast to her big, thick-framed glasses. Rainbow could already imagine this mare and Twilight getting along like they had been friends forever. The zebra came right up to Rainbow Dash, a wide smile stretching the wrinkled folds of her face.
“Welcome to The Museum of the Manehatten Phantom, where we house the largest collection of artifacts and paraphernalia related to the mysterious sneak thief, The Phantom. I’m Kalahari, the curator. Would you like an hour or day pass?”
“I guess a day pass,” Rainbow answered. “How much?”
“One thousand bits.”
Rainbow Dash stared dumbstruck at the old zebra, her jaw hanging open. “One thou... are you off your rocker? I can’t afford that!”
“Grandma, what are you doing?” Another zebra, of a similar light frame but decades younger, came out of the backroom. With a few nimble steps, she was up near the elder, injecting herself in the middle of the conversation. “I am terribly sorry,” she said before pausing a moment to glare at her grandmother. “The day pass is just twenty bits.”
“One thousand bits.”
“Grandma, I told you that no pony can afford to pay that.”
“And you should respect your elders and their wisdom, Kalahari. If we just get a few ponies to pay that much then it’s for the best.”
“Wait, you're both named Kalahari?” Rainbow Dash asked, using a forehoof to point between the pair.
“Yes, I’m terribly sorry,” the younger zebra said, shaking Rainbow’s hoof apologetically. “I’m Kalahari Jr, named after my grandmother, who is going to go back to her tea and her book.”
The elder zebra huffed, turned around, and walked towards the museum’s back. But she did not disappear through the door she had come from. She instead stayed at the cash register, standing there attentively, as if there was a dozen customers waiting for her to aid them.
“Sorry about her,” the young Kalahari apologized. “Do you still want the day pass?”
“As long as it really is just twenty bits,” Rainbow answered. She reached into her mane, fiddling with the bit pouch she and many others carried around in their hair. It was a simple way to always have a few bits and always amazed young kids who thought their parents seemed to pull money out of nowhere. “Where does she get the idea that anypony would pay a thousand bits for this place?”
“The museum has been in the family for a few generations. It was opened by my grandma’s grandmother right after The Phantom became a legend in Manehatten. It’s more of a tourist trap than a real museum, but—”
Kalahari winced and quickly turned her head to see the piece of balled up paper that had struck her in the back of her head. She then looked to her grandmother, who was innocently focusing on wiping off the counter with a handkerchief. “But it’s kind of a family legacy, and Grandma’s got it in her head this collection deserves a lot higher price tag than a twenty bit admission.” Kalahari turned, glaring daggers at her grandmother as she raised her voice. “Yes, she thinks we should be charging that when even twenty bits is more than what the city museum charges.”
“The city museum can stick its fine art up its nose,” Grandma Kalahari snapped back as if it was a simple, undeniable fact. “We’ve got real Manehatten history here.”
Rainbow Dash held out the twenty bits. “Well, that’s what I’m hoping for. The Phantom is somepony I need to know all I can about.”
“Well, you came to the right place,” Kalahari said. She took the bits, walked back to the register, and quickly exchanged them for a small ticket. She brought the ticket back to Rainbow, holding it out and revealing that it read “day pas”.
“They were on sale,” Kalahari said, preemptively apologizing for the typo on the ticket.
“Guess it’s a good thing Twilight didn’t come here herself then; she’d spend all day writing the second ‘S’ on all your tickets,” Rainbow joked as she stuck the ticket stub into her mane’s bit bag. “So, think you can lend me a hoof? What I really want to know about is how The Phantom disappeared.”
“Oh, of course, that’s this display case over here.” Kalahari guided Rainbow towards the front of the store, to a single display case. It was filled with newspapers and photos. Most were in good condition. Some looked like they had been left to wither in a closet for a few years before being rescued. The one in the middle, however, had the biggest, boldest headline.
CLOAK OF THE PHANTOM FOUND!
“All the newspapers were running the story about a month after the last appearance of The Phantom. At first, everypony thought it was a hoax, but then the police made a press statement that the cloak was genuine. They found a one of a kind diamond necklace with the cloak, a necklace that was reportedly stolen by The Phantom just before her last sighting. After that, it became a news frenzy. Every paper was trying to find out the truth before the others.
“Did they ever find anything?”
“They all eventually traced the cloak back to a dumpster it was found in. That’s where the rumors started that The Phantom had gotten herself caught during a theft and the ponies decided to deal with her instead of turning her over to the authorities.”
“Which is a load of manure,” Grandma Kalahari snapped from the back of the room.
“Why?” Rainbow asked.
“Grandma believes The Phantom just retired and left the city,” Kalahari explained before turning and slightly shouting over her shoulder. “Which goes against what everypony else thinks.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m wrong. The Phantom retired and left the city to be with her great love. Why do you think she stole that necklace in the first place, the only non-magical valuable she ever took? She took it just so she could leave it with her cloak. She took it so she could leave a message for the whole city that she was done and then left, leaving everything in her lair behind as well.”
Rainbow Dash perked up her ears. “Lair? She had a lair?”
Grandma Kalahari came out from behind the counter, wearing a toothy grin at her victory in grabbing Rainbow’s attention. “You bet she did. Something no history book will tell you is that none of the treasures she stole ever showed up on the black market. The police were sure if they could find The Phantom’s seller they could find her, but they never found such a thing.”
“That’s just because she was careful, Grandma.”
“Sshhh, I’m telling a story,” the elder Kalahari snapped before gently rapping her granddaughter on the nose. “And no pony can keep secrets that well. Even two hundred years later, none of the things The Phantom stole have ever turned up.”
“Actually,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, “the Alicorn Amulet showed up in Ponyville. Didn’t The Phantom steal that?”
“When did that happen?” Grandma Kalahari asked.
“A little while ago. This show mare named Trixie got a hold of it and used it to terrorize Ponyville for a little while. I don’t think we ever found out where she got it from, but she definitely had it.”
Kalahari smiled smugly and prodded at her grandmother with a hoof. “What do you have to say to that, Grandma?”
“Hush,” the elderly zebra said, once more whapping her granddaughter on the nose. “I don’t know where you get such disrespect. It certainly wasn’t your father. He’d never lipped off to me. Anyway, none of the other things The Phantom stole have ever shown up, meaning they are all waiting in her lair, the greatest treasure trove in the city.”
“How great of treasure trove are we talking?” Rainbow asked.
Grandma Kalahari put a leg around Rainbow’s shoulder and then swept her free foreleg through the air. “One of the greatest collections of rare magical artifacts ever assembled. Centuries ago, about the time The Phantom first appeared, the upper class of our fair city started buying up every magical artifact they could find. There were a thousand explanations floating around as to why. My own grandfather thought the upper class were searching for immortality. My grandmother thought they were looking for a way to see the future, so they could always ensure their wealth.
“Yet, no matter the reason, they were buying everything they could get their hooves on.” Grandma Kalahari stepped away from Rainbow, moving with surprising agility for her age. She went to the back of the room, pulled a large binder off a shelf, and then came back. She set the binder out on one of the display cases, revealing its contents of newspaper clippings.
“See, hardly a week could go by without news getting out that somepony had bought something. The Sun’s Eye gem was bought by the Trottingtons, the Alicorn Amulet by the Hoofervaults, and the Scrolls of Harmony by the Rockfellers. Huge bidding wars began to start at auctions whenever one of these artifacts were sold. The record for the largest bid ever made on a single object in Equestria was broken when the Tambelon Bell sold for about twenty and a half million bits.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes went wide. She stared at the scrapbook of newspaper clippings, her gaze fixed on the picture of the Tambelon Bell. “That much?”
“Yes,” Grandma Kalahari said as she turned the pages in the binder. “The Phantom of Manehatten stole them all without leaving a trace, like a ghost in the night.”
“And the lair was never found?” Rainbow asked.
“No, and that’s why my grandmother started this museum. She wanted to put together all the information on The Phantom she could gather into one place. Her personal mission was to locate the lair. You want to see her research?”
“Oh, Grandma, don’t,” Kalahari tried to interrupt. “She doesn’t want to see—”
“Yeah I do!” Rainbow Dash said. “Where is it?”
With a triumphant smile, Grandma Kalahari kept one foreleg on Rainbow’s shoulder, using her as something of a cane as she guided them across the room. “Just follow me into the back. We’ve got it all tucked away where my snippy granddaughter can’t throw it away.”
“That was an accident, Grandma. I thought all that stuff was old bank statements.”
“You knew what they were!”
~~~
“Sorry about Grandma,” Kalahari said as she and Rainbow Dash stepped out of the front of the store. While there was still a few hours of sunlight left, the business day was over. Other shops on the block were closing up, their owners waving goodnight to one another. Kalahari herself put a key in the museum's front door and turned it shut.
“It's okay. She told some great stories,” Rainbow said as she waited patiently on the sidewalk. “The Phantom was so much cooler than I knew. She stole, she fought, she ran, and then she just disappeared without a trace.”
Kalahari turned away from the door as she slipped the shop key into her saddlebags. “Yes, yes, it was all very...” She fell silent, looking around the sidewalk for Rainbow Dash but finding the pegasus was nowhere to be seen. “Rainbow?”
“Boo!”
Kalahari reacted on instinct. She spun, reaching with her hooves and grabbing hold of the thing behind her. Then, with motions given swiftness through repetition and practice, she twisted her assailant around. In the span of a few seconds she had Rainbow Dash pinned on the ground, holding one of the pegasus’s hooves against her back painfully.
“Ow! Hey! Okay! Uncle! Uncle!” Rainbow shouted.
“Oh... oh, I’m so sorry,” Kalahari said, quickly letting Rainbow up. “I didn’t mean to. It’s just, Manehatten isn’t the safest town. A mare needs to know how to defend herself.”
“From what? Ninjas!?” Rainbow asked as she rotated her shoulder.
“No, just... nevermind. Are you alright?”
Rainbow rolled her shoulder a few more times. “Yeah, I’m alright.”
Kalahari breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. The last thing I want Grandma screaming about is that I assaulted a customer right outside our front door.” Kalahari turned and gave a short wave. “Well, thanks for visiting. Don’t be afraid to come back and bring your friends.”
“Wait, where you going?” Rainbow asked, quickly trotting up beside Kalahari as she walked down the street.
“To my apartment.”
“But your grandma says she lives above the store,” Rainbow pointed out.
“Yeah, she does. She lives in the apartment one floor up, but I don’t live with her. We’d strangle each other in a week if we did, trust me. No, I live a few blocks this way.”
“Hey, my hotel's in that direction. I'll walk with ya,” Rainbow said, a broad smile on her face.
“Wouldn't you rather fly?”
Rainbow Dash waved her hoof. “Nah, flying isn't that great.”
“But weren't you bragging earlier about being the best flyer in Ponyville?” Kalahari asked as she finished locking up the shop and stepped over beside Rainbow Dash.
“Oh... well... I was just,” Rainbow tried to stammer out before running a hoof through her mane. “Okay, honestly, I'm kind of hoping I could talk you a little more about The Phantom.”
Kalahari let her head drop to one side. “I may work with my grandmother, but that doesn't mean I'm into this as much as she is. This is just a part-time job for me. I couldn't care less about The Phantom.”
“What!? But she's so awesome!” Rainbow Dash shouted, ignoring the odd looks she was getting from passing ponies as she walked with Kalahari.
“Yes, you said exactly that about a dozen times today, but I'm just not that into it anymore.”
“But you were into it once?”
Kalahari nodded as the pair reached the end of the block, waiting to cross the street. “When I was little, The Phantom's exploits were my bedtime stories. My dad told me all about her. I even went as The Manehatten Phantom for three Nightmare Nights in a row. But... things change, Rainbow. I outgrew her, and I think it’s high time my family did the same. She’s been part of our legacy for far too long.”
“Okay, but you have to admit she was the best at what she did. Getting in, stealing those artifacts, and never getting caught. She’s like a living, breathing Daring Do! You just have to respect her for her skill.”
The street cleared in front of the pair. Kalahari stepped forward, but stopped on the edge of the curb and looked back at Rainbow. “It would have been better if she used those skills for something else. Now, I’m tired, Rainbow, and I’d like to just go home. If you want to hear more from my grandma, come back tomorrow and I’ll give you a discount on another day pass. Otherwise, you should just go back to your hotel.”
Rainbow opened her mouth to protest, to try and convince Kalahari to talk to her a little longer. But Kalahari wouldn’t listen to another word. She stepped away, quickly crossing the street and leaving Rainbow in the dust. Yes, Rainbow could have chased after her. Following a zebra in a crowd of ponies would have been easy, even in the more culturally diverse Manehatten. Still, after receiving the cold shoulder, Rainbow glowered at Kalahari.
“Fine, I’ll talk to your grandma then. She’s the cool one,” Rainbow Dash spat. She then spread her wings and took off, heading for Manehatten’s skies to expend some of her pent up energy and frustration.
~~~
“Mah mah mah. The Phantom is a criminal. Mah mah mah. She’s not cool. Mah mah mah, blah blah blah, I’m so uncool I think a cool mare like The Phantom isn’t cool.”
Rainbow walked out of her hotel bathroom, towel hanging on her head. Her late afternoon flight had helped clear her head, but she was still miffed about what Kalahari had said. “Would it have killed her to talk about The Phantom for a little longer? I was going to leave her alone when we got to her apartment.” Rainbow pulled the towel off her head, hooked it around her hoof, and then began to dry the inside of her ears. “Okay, maybe I was going to try and talk her into grabbing something to eat so we could talk more over dinner, but she still didn’t have to shut me down like that.”
Rainbow tossed the towel through the bathroom door, shut the curtains to block out the street lamps, and flopped down on the bed. She laid on her back, staring at the ceiling. She stifled a yawn, the urge to take her overdue afternoon nap growing stronger.
"Why wouldn't she want to talk about The Phantom? She's got a family legacy all about talking about The Phantom! You'd think she'd be all over it like her grandmother. And they have so much in common. Kalahari and The Phantom are both zebras and they both have crazy skills.” Rainbow rolled her shoulder, still feeling some aches from when Kalahari threw her. “Yeah, they both have skill.
"But no, Kalahari's all 'She's been part of our legacy for far too long. I don't want to talk about her. She's not cool. Meh meh meh meh meh meh.’” Rainbow punctuated her mockery of Kalahari’s response with a “pfffft” from her tongue before her eyes began to droop. “Yeah, if I was here... you couldn't stop me from tal...” she paused to yawn. “... talking about The Phantom. She's almost as cool as the Wonderbolts.
"I bet… if Kalahari wanted… with her skills… she could be the...”
Rainbow’s eyes slid shut, her body lying still as she breathed calmly. The murmurs of her snoring began, like the prelude to a storm that coming in the distance. All was quiet. All was peaceful. All was—
“Wait a second!”
Rainbow bolted up, eyes wide open. In a flash she was out of the bed, out the window, and in the Manehatten skyline. She turned and banked, racing back to the library that had been the bane of her existence the two days prior. She raced in, ignoring the shouts of the security guard about no flying, and flew to the fiction section. She skimmed the shelves, muttering to herself. “Come on, come on, don’t tell me it’s checked out.”
She then smiled, coming across the Daring Do section. It took her less than a second to find the specific book she was looking for. “Daring Do and The Jaded Legacy.”
Rainbow zipped to the nearest table, once more ignoring shouts about no flying. She dropped the book down, flipped it open, and skimmed the pages until she found the section she was looking for.
The climb up to the ancient prison was long and arduous. Daring Do would have rather flown, but with the Dagger Family patrolling the skies, she’d have only clued them in to the location of the prison. Still, with Jade Whisper’s help, Daring Do soon stood at the entrance of the long-forgotten jail, which had been overtaken and reclaimed by the forest that surrounded it.
No pony had walked the halls in centuries, and some of the cells had become home to the wilder inhabitants of the forest. Despite this, Daring Do and Jade Whisper pressed on, checking each cell for the sigil of the Obsidian Palace. Hours slipped by. The hot, midday sun turned the forest and the prison into a sauna. But still they pushed on until, finally, they came to cell with the sigil carved into the wall.
“This is it!” Daring Do said as she stepped inside. “It has to be in here.”
“But where?” Jade Whisper asked. “Where would it have been hidden?”
“It would have to have been someplace the map maker would have been able to protect without being suspicious. A place only he’d be able to get to when the guards came in.” Daring Do’s eyes wandered the cell, eventually falling upon a skeleton hanging from the wall by a pair of chains. Scratching her chin, Daring Do approached the skeleton, gently nudged it out of the way, and began to carefully inspect the wall’s stonework.
“Hey, one of these is loose,” she said, managing to hook her hooves around some grooves on one stone. She pulled, and with a grating grumble, the stone pulled free of the wall, revealing a small space in which rested a scroll.
“You found it!” Jade Whisper cheered, reaching around Daring Do and snatching up the map.
“Yeah, well, sometimes you just have to know where to—”
Daring Do had been wiping the sweat from her brow when she heard the aged metal door of the cell slam shut behind her. She turned quickly, running to the bars just as Jade Whisper wedged a large, heavy timber against the door. “What are you doing, Jade?” Daring Do shouted as her hooves wrapped around the bars.
“Just ensuring my family gets what they deserve,” Jade answered. She gently opened a flap on her saddlebags and placed the map within. “After all, the Daggers were always meant to sit on the throne of the Obsidian Palace. Thank you very much for your help, Daring Do. Once we’ve conquered the world, I’ll be sure to send somepony to let you out.”
“Jade Whisper, you back stabber!” Daring Do shouted. She pulled and yanked at the bars of the cage. Yet, despite their age, the bars still held strong, leaving Daring Do trapped as her traitorous companion left, taking the map back to the rest of the Dagger family.
And from that one section of Daring Do, Rainbow Dash had what she needed.
“There is no doubt about it,” she said as she closed the Daring Do book with a snap. “Kalahari and her grandmother are descended from The Phantom. They’ve been keeping the lair hidden for generations using the museum as a cover and probably getting rid of anypony who got too close.” Rainbow Dash ran a hoof down the book’s cover, her mind drawing one more connection as a frown creased her lips.
“They’re part of Twilight’s conspiracy, and, if I can find the lair, I bet I can prove it.”
=====================================================================
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Leave it to Rainbow to get inspiration from A Daring Do novel...
~Skeeter The Lurker
On the plot, intrigue thickens. I'm sitting on the edge of my chair here to learn of this "Zebra conspiracy." I can scarcely imagine what will happen if it all turns out to be true. Though I am uncertain that Rainbow Dash might be spot on.
On the zebras... I'm pretty sure that Kalahari is a place in Botswana, not far from the Mkhadikhadi. Hope I got that name right.
Dun dun duuunn!!
Something tells me Rainbow's going to get her tail kicked next chapter.
I...haven't upvoted this? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
(fix'd)
3296149Because she's going to be wrong.
So awesome!
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Sort of. It's a desert in southern Africa encompassing several places including Botswana. And Makgadikgadi seems to be some sort of large salt pan that's in the Kalahari desert(in Botswana).
I have a feeling Rainbow's going to end up in trouble.
3296378 At least I was right-ish about Kalahari.
well well well, it sure looks like Rainbow just bit a whole heck of a lot more than she can chew
, Zecora might be part of the little conspiracy but I'd lay odds are she's the one to save their plots in the end(no pun intended since I'm sure someone will find that funny)
3295029 I doubt that, if only because with this much buildup already, it would be incredibly underwhelming and cheap. Now, having Zecora know about the conspiracy, that I can see happening. But her as the supernaturally gifted zebra affecting the flow of Equestrian history doesn't flow for me. Hasn't she met and interacted with both Princesses?
I suspect this is inviting trouble but I have to say this...
DONT DO ANYTHING STUPID RAINBOW DASH!!
YES! YES!
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and if you want to see what the Makgadikgadi and the Kalahari Desert look like, 3 British Idiots crossed them both in cars, and they Videotaped the whole thing! but as they say in a LOT of good stories; The Plot Thickens!
Wow...Just....Wow.
Each chapter just wraps around you, until you cant get out.
Saw this coming way ahead of Rainbow. A more suspicious mind would notice the fact that the shop owner is a zebra too. That alone is just enough to make you wonder. But making you wonder is enough to catch subtle leaks.
I'm not sure if the Phantom is part of the conspiracy, but it might be possible that Rainbow Dash might have stumbled on the truth. In any case, those artefacts, if they're anywhere near as dangerous as the Amulet, need to be kept out of circulation; finding them and handing them over to Celestia is probably a good idea at this point.
ladened
Please double check me if you want, but I'm pretty sure this should be "laden"
into her mane’s bit bag
)
Not necessarily any kind of error, but she keeps her purse in her hair? (For all I know this is canon so
General comments: It's highly likely there's more to at least one of the Kalaharis than meets the eye, but Dash is still stretching. At least report in!
Well Rainbow is going to be wrong and stuff up in a amazing way.
With Discord, it's probably a coincidental pattern.
Man, that Crystal Castle, such a voyeur.
Wild ass guess, the elder Kalahari was actually the Phantom. Wait, 200 years? Scratch that idea, maybe a descendant?
Hah!
Heh, looks like I'm not the only one with that theory. Great(?) minds think alike!
3296508 o0 damn crazy Brits
Rainbow Dash:
Ace Detective
On the bright side this is going better than could have reasonably been expected from sending her to a library.
Good
I think I enjoyed reading Twilight receive letters and packages from the others more than watching Rainbow Dash prove that the term "boy's own" is even more dated than "gee willikers". Using Twilight to consolidate the research that has so far been gathered worked well to reestablish all the world building you've got going on here. That said, I think the scene could have been a little richer if it had been held off for a later chapter so we could get a larger information dump from more sources. I do hope you have something similar planned for later; it's fun stuff.
So, still no explanation for why Spike opted to run crazy errands rather than look out for Twilight's well-being like he normally does? Or why Rarity skipped him when gathering the rest of their friends for brunch? No? Okay, just checking.
Well, I'm noticing a pattern here. Namely, the fact that these two zebras didn't rhyme, while all the others did (and do, in the case of one we already know.)
>>Something no history book will tell you is that none of the treasures she stole ever showed up on the black market. >>
Very interesting... stealing only powerful magical artifacts which the elite had suddenly began buying. I am far more suspicious as to the elite ponies' motives than the Phantom's. Given that the Alicorn Amulet was among those items, and the power and corrupting influence it possesses, I can only imagine how horrible it would have been if a pony with wicked intent had gotten the other items along with it.
>>>The record for the largest bid ever made on a single object in Equestria was broken when the Tambelon Bell sold for about twenty and a half million bits.”>>>
*spews his tea all over the place* DEAR CELESTIA THEY WOULD HAVE HAD THAT HORRID THING?!!!!!!
The Phantom clearly saved the world.
3296867 Eeeyup.
Apparently Twilight's mailpony follows the grand Homestuckian tradition of flag use.
3296810 >>>Wait, 200 years? Scratch that idea, maybe a descendant? >>>
Noooooooo... think "Highlander".
If I could pull the words from my screen and put them in a syringe I would be so hooked.
CALLED IT!:
Ninjas in Manehatten? Right, they are "The Hoof Clan"
Really Rainbow
, you are probably right about them being descendants, but that doesn't means they are part of the conspiracy, since none of them had done something that would affect history and one of them is in her golden years
I'm eagerly waiting for the next part
Holy crap... I'm getting incredibly anxious now. I check back every day for this story, even though I know you update about once a week. I just can't risk missing an update. I'm THAT hooked.
Hm... if we're betting that Rainbow's just being savvy for the wrong genre - meaning that the Kalaharis are unconnected to the conspiracy - and hand-wave Grass Snake's fall as somehow survivable, we have a group of exclusively female zebras, encountered for centuries, but only one at a time. Hypothetically, it could be only one, ageless zebra, appearing and then disappearing across the march of history, assuming different personas to ward off the boredom of immortality, influencing the progression of history but always evading notice by the only other immortals, the Princesses.
A zebra who might, just in theory, have wound up living in the wilderness outside of a small settlement, possessing extensive wisdom and mystique without ever expressing her personal history...
Just a guess, anyway. Zecora did wind up being the culprit in another Pen Stroke story, didn't she?
Um... yeah, I got nothing to add, really.
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Your guess is good as mine, my friend.
I mean seriously stroke is this the direction you are going towards? The Evil Enchantress shenanigan?
Take it away, Pinkie.
or whoever.
[youtube=2TkOfhCK4Zo]
But let's see how the story unfolds.
Behold, our first Zebra(s) that don't rhyme!
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She actually hasn't (to our knowledge). The closest she came to talking to one of them was during Nightmare Night, and she backed away slowly.
3298324 I'll have to rewatch that one then, because I thought that Luna and Zecora talked, if only briefly.
3296837
And then Dwight happened by . . .
Be careful Dashie. They know you know.
Oooh! The plot thickens even more! <3
Oh dear lord...RD...you're going to do something stupid aren't you?
I love ya to death RD...but my gut is telling me this can't end well...or is that just my stomach telling me I should get breakfast?
Rainbow's idea is so stupid... that she may be right.
That doesn't mean this is gonna end well for her though.
double caps here.
Looking forward to what's next!
Found an error:
Double caps
can somepony tell me why the fliggle im not getting notifications about new chapters
Yes Rainbow. The fictional story that uses a trope that's so worn out it has holes in it is absolutely concrete proof of your hypothesis. You are a master detective/adventure-archaeologist.
Joking aside, this story is all kinds of fun. I can't decide yet if it would be more interesting for there to be a conspiracy, or if it really WAS just Twi's paranoia.
Heh~
I'm kinda curious to see more about Twi dealing with the onset of would-be suitors.... anyone know if someone has done a fic on that yet?
heheheh "day pas." Classic
wait *rereads* did i miss something here how did RD draw that conclusion?!?