Taking Back Canterlot

by Coyote de La Mancha

Episode 10. Equestria Police Department: Good Cop, Bad Cop.

It was the following night when Twilight finally roused herself again. Well, she’d half-wakened multiple times in the interim, just long enough to devour more of the water and protein bars that her friends had left for her. But this time she actually felt awake.

More awake than she had felt in a while, actually.

Frowning both from nervousness and determination, Twilight Sparkle sat up, pivoted in bed... and then, after a moment to gather her strength, carefully stood.

She waited, poised, for the inevitable wave of dizziness, or just for the collapse of her limbs beneath her own weight.

Nothing.

Carefully, gingerly, she took a step. Then another.

On the third step, she stumbled and fell. She had enough training to roll as she fell, so she remained unhurt. But she’d made noise just the same.

Her features contorted into a sour look as her door burst open in a sky-colored blur. She was already saying, “I’m alright,” before finding herself gathered up and gingerly placed back in bed.

“You know, you could have just helped me up,” she grumped, arms crossed where she lay. “I don’t need to be tucked in.”

“Uh-huh,” Rainbow Dash said, unconcerned. “How’re you feeling otherwise?”

Twilight thought for a moment.

“Better than I have been,” she decided. “Lots better. The treatments and the regimen are definitely working.”

Rainbow nodded. “Good. ‘Cuz you’re taking the day off.”

Twilight stared. “What? Rainbow, I have to—”

“She ain’t wrong,” Apple Bloom said from the doorway. The hallway light behind her reduced her to a silhouette, and for a moment Twilight stared, her heart aching.

If she were wearing a hat instead of a bow...

“Rainbow Dash tol’ me a little ‘bout your treatments,” the shadow said. “Now, I ain’t never studied biology like you gals, nor athletics like her. But what I do know is if you don’t give the body a rest cycle now an’ then, somethin’s gotta give.”

“I’ve been doing almost nothing but resting!” Twilight protested. “I sleep almost all day!”

“An’ what you’re doin’ right now, there ain’t no model for,” Apple Bloom went on, unperturbed. “Dash here figgers you need to cycle off that nasty stuff fer a day or so, an’ I figger she knows more about it than you.”

Twilight raised her hand to her forehead. “Guys...”

“Well, now? Which a’y’all has more experience in this kinda thing, you or her?”

“Well, she does, but—”

“Then listen to me when I talk to you! Okay?” Rainbow pleaded. “Please?”

“Yer outnumbered, Twi,” came the Apple drawl again, the grin in her voice unmistakable.

“Uuuurgh, fine!” Twilight exclaimed, her head flopping back onto her pillow. “I’ll take a day off. I don’t think it’s necessary, or advisable, but... fine.”

“Awesome,” Dash grinned. “Oh, and by the way, we made pizza.”

Twilight stared, propping up on one elbow. “Pizza? Oh my god, that sounds amazing right now!”

“Cool,” Rainbow Dash handed over her cane. “Bloomer’s gonna spot’cha while you navigate the stairs, and we’ll see you down there.”

---

Much to her surprise, Twilight was able to stay up a good twelve hours before retiring. She ate, bathed, played video games with her friends, read... by the time all was said and done, she felt almost normal.

Insanely tired, and definitely still weak, but almost normal.

Her balance was still off, her legs still buckled under her. Once, the arm she was using for the cane gave out, and Rainbow Dash had to catch her when she fell. And climbing the stairs required a good twenty minutes’ rest afterwards, up or down.

But she was better. She was getting her strength back.

She didn’t dare try her magic yet, not while she was undergoing her regimen. If the chemicals she was taking could temporarily increase her chance for stroke - and she had to admit, it was a possibility - then putting any strain on her brain was obviously a bad idea. By her calculations, she’d need to wait at least a week after her physical recovery before using her telekinetic powers; she planned on two, just to be sure.

And based on today’s results, physical recovery was coming quickly.

Well, not total recovery, she corrected herself. But enough that I’ll be able to stop the chemical enhancements. The girls were right. I needed a day off. But tomorrow, I have to get back on course. Another three, maybe four days, and I should be able to switch to light exercise and combat training.

Assuming, of course, that we don’t get caught first.

It was an uncomfortably slow-paced race against time. Every day – hell, every hour – that they stayed still, it was a chance that some neighbor might notice something and call it in. That some miscalculation in her friends’ breakout would be found, and lead Shining and the rest right to them.

But it remained: rushing forward was suicide. And not just with her treatments. With everything.

She paused.

And that might, she realized, be exactly what Shining was hoping for. He knew that she was desperate. She had to admit, she’d made that much perfectly clear.

And desperate people make mistakes.

She’d been considering going online, accessing the police files on her and the other Rainbooms. Checking up on what they knew and what they didn’t. But thinking about the matter, that could wait. For that matter, it had to wait. Her brother had never been good with technology, but he had access to others who were. And even if she was better than all of them combined – which, she acknowledged, she almost certainly was – it only took one mistake. Any mistake.

And then she and her friends would be...

Twilight frowned.

Caught? She liked to think so. At least, she liked to think that was what her brother would want.

But this was different than before. Shining wasn’t on her side this time. He was working for someone else. Someone who wanted her dead. And big brother knew her far better than she knew him.

And while it hurt even to think it, she had to recognize that he might not be trying just to catch them anymore. She had to remind herself of that, again and again. At least, until he came back to his senses.

Of course, even when he did, the rest of the force would still just want her dead.

Twilight stared at the ceiling, calculating.

If the old cover ID’s she had made before the end still held up, then there was a far better place for the three of them to hole up than a borrowed pre-fab house. Rainbow Dash was being incredibly patient, but certainly she would be anxious to see her wife again.

Just for a little while. Just long enough to find and set up a proper base of operations.

Assuming, of course, that Rarity wasn’t being watched. Granted, that seemed unlikely, since Rainbow Dash had called her shortly after moving in. And apparently the call hadn’t been traced.

Twilight frowned. Another mistake. If she’d been awake, she could have arranged for counter-measures, just in case. But she hadn’t been, and they’d all just been so exhausted, physically and emotionally. She couldn’t even blame Rainbow for the lapse.

So to all appearances, Rarity was still secure. But Twilight understood that in any information field, three years was a long time. So if she was going to be honest with herself, that had been luck. And luck was something they didn’t dare count on.

Thinking back to the task of moving their temporary base, cleaning the borrowed house would also take time... time which had to be accounted for. Torching the place would only draw attention, inviting experts in deduction to look for anything the Rainbooms and the fire had missed.

No. It had to be scrubbed clean the old fashioned way, leaving no trace whatsoever of their passing.

And while Zephyr had said they should have a month, Twilight knew that unexpected things happened all the time. The safe house had obviously been arranged through a friend, someone who might or might not know enough to understand how important having that full month might be.

And if they did, then they might or might not lose their nerve, and make a call to the police.

Twilight sighed, already starting to doze off again. She would call Zephyr when she woke up, get a full read on the situation. And then, she would start making preparations. Careful, unhurried preparations.

Exhausted, Twilight finally succumbed to a deep, dreamless sleep.

---

It had taken days to get White Hat loaned from the feds and approved for what Armor had in mind. But there had never been a doubt that she was who he needed. She’d been a juvenile offender before her recruitment into the FIB, and apparently, her old alias was still talked about in hacker circles. It had taken every string he’d had, plus calling in a few favors besides, just to get the deal on the table.

But getting White Hat herself had ultimately required Armor calling the one contact he loathed most of all. He didn’t know how Glimmer had managed it, but where official channels had failed, unofficial ones had succeeded.

Meanwhile, the media had been having an absolute field day at the department’s expense. At first, he’d been able to spin the major in-city networks into covering it as a trio of deadly hoodlums massacring the innocent, but that kind of thing just didn’t last the way it used to.

And that fucking Anon-A-Miss certainly hadn’t helped. That latest video of hers was like a fucking Internet hydra. For every copy that was taken down, two more took its place.

But none of that mattered now. All that mattered now was that White Hat was a leading expert in the field of cyber security, maybe the leading expert. One who hadn’t been out of the technological loop for three years.

And, most of all, now she was answering directly and exclusively to Armor. The first and possibly most vital member of a new task force, designed for only one purpose.

To take down the Rainbooms, starting first and foremost with Twilight Sparkle.

The monitor room was small and undecorated, with painted concrete brick walls and an unfinished, cracked grey floor. There were a variety of monitors and several chairs, with White Hat sitting in one while Armor stood behind her, showing her video after video, giving background information as he did.

“This is… amazing,” the hacker marveled as she watched the traffic footage. “The cars were never supposed to be able to do this.”

“I’m glad you’re impressed,” Commissioner Armor said dryly.

“No, you don’t understand,” the young woman insisted, half-turning to face him. “This is like when Bad Canine created the first Willy the Wombat game! If anything, this is even more extraordinary! The degree of innovation, to make the hardware do this—”

“Well, she does hold the patent.”

White Hat stared.

“Yes,” her superior said to the ceiling. “She’s that Twilight Sparkle. The one who generated over fifty patents while she was still in high school. Including half the technology in our smart cars, the police drones that never saw her or her accomplices, and the security technology used in most of our secure buildings and airports. Also including, incidentally, the facial recognition software that’s still used in most of the world today. She based a camera drone off that software when she was a high school senior, sophisticated enough to detect selfie opportunities. Needless to say, that software also has yet to locate her or her accomplices.

“So, yes. She’s a technological genius. In your circles, I imagine she may even be a legend.”

Then, his face hardening, he went on, “She’s also the same Twilight Sparkle who is partially responsible for a gang war that almost tore this city apart before her hospitalization, and for the escape of three dangerous lunatics afterwards. Not to mention every cop and prison guard who died in between.”

The Commissioner leaned over the hacker’s shoulder and tapped a few keys, bringing a series of classified case files up onto the screen.

“This was only possible because she and at least two of her current accomplices also each possessed a different power that the world has rarely seen, if ever. Telekinesis, explosive powers, telekinetic shields, super speed, super strength... in their heyday, the Rainbooms had access to abilities that were absolutely deadly, and so little understood as to be indistinguishable from magic. Plus intel-gathering powers that you wouldn’t believe if I told you.”

While White Hat stared at the screen’s images, green eyes widening behind her black rimmed glasses, Commissioner Armor went on:

“The body count that can be laid at her feet, directly and indirectly, numbers easily in the hundreds. And some of them wore the uniform I and your fellow members of this task force are wearing now. She’s not like you, White Hat. She is an indiscriminate mass murderer, and she uses her skills to destroy lives.

“So, what do you want, young lady? Her autograph, or her arrest?”

White Hat looked down, long red hair falling partly over her face. “Her arrest, sir.”

“Good,” Armor nodded, patting her on the shoulder. “Because, aside from its urgency, at the end of the day this is just another investigation. And she is just another criminal. A deadly, ruthless criminal. One who is armed and dangerous regardless of circumstance.

“So, get to it, and keep at it,” the commissioner said. “From this moment forward, capturing Twilight Sparkle is the only thing that matters in your life. Whatever you need to write or create or delete to catch her, you do it.

“I’m having a special operations room set up, just for you,” he went on. “Whatever you need, you tell me and I’ll get it for you. You need sleep? There’s a futon for you to sleep on. Hungry? I’ll have food brought in. Computer parts? I’ll have them shipped in the next day. Anything, literally anything you need.

“In the long run, we’ll need a complete overhaul of every computer defense in the city. But right now, just focus on securing our own house. Because she’ll want to infiltrate this department’s database. Even if she already has, she’ll need to again. And if we’re lucky, we’ll catch her as soon as she makes her next move.

“Because regardless of her brains and her resources, sooner or later she is going to make a mistake. And when that happens, we are going to nail her to the god-damned wall.”

---

The task force briefing had been that evening, and had taken over two hours. There had been depressingly few questions afterwards, with most of the attending officers looking bored, or even mildly amused.

Armor had done his best to impress upon them the danger of their assignment. Over and over again. With footage, slides, and even personal anecdotes. But by the time the conference was over, the police assembled were in agreement on only one thing: Twilight Sparkle, Public Enemy Number One, was as good as taken down.

Watching them file out of the conference room, for the first time Shining Armor felt unsure about the situation. On the plus side, Twilight being his sister had never been mentioned. And while he’d had an answer for that, he was still glad it hadn’t come up.

But the overall vibe from the officers as they’d filed out had reminded him uncomfortably of the space marines in the second Xenomorph movie.

Look, man. I only need to know one thing: where they are.

He shook his head as he gathered the last of his things, putting his laptop into his briefcase. He had done his best to impress upon them the seriousness of the situation. But in the end, their overconfidence would probably last until after their first encounter with the enemy. Hopefully, most of them would survive.

He took a breath. Held it. Let it go.

I’m worrying needlessly, he told himself, at least on that score.

Over the last four days, the strike force had been meticulously selected. Each member had undergone background checks worthy of a federal position before finally being sworn to secrecy and ultimately let in on the classified nature of their prey. They were all competent, all experienced, and all highly trained marksman who had seen fire fights before. They were all skilled and reliable.

And most of all, they were the good guys.

And they would see that justice was done.

His face grim, Armor turned out the lights, and left the room in darkness.

---

Meanwhile, the selected officers were fanning out into various hallways and stairwells throughout the department building. Being on-call 24 hours a day might suck, but having no duties outside that 24-hour call - plus full pay for the duration - more than made up the difference. Plus, they’d be taking down one of the worst criminals in USE history.

“So, this is it,” one officer grinned. “The big time.”

His friend grinned back. “I know, right? We take out one over-hyped gangsta bitch and watch the rest of her set crumble...”

“Mensa over-hyped gangsta bitch,” the first officer reminded him, finger upraised. Then, imitating Commissioner Armor, he added, “Remember, officer Ilium Steed, you must understand your enemy.”

“And that the stakes are much higher with this particular offender than you may realize, Officer Blue Steel,” the second one rejoined, also imitating.

They both laughed.

“One Mensa bitch later, and we’re super cops.” Blue Steel grinned. “I think we’re finally arrived.”

“I know, right?” Ilium Steed rejoined. “I mean, picture this on your resume, you know?”

Blue stopped, and Ilium did as well, looking at his friend quizzically.

“What?” he asked.

“I dunno, maybe it was just me, but... did it seem to you that the commish was kinda... soft on this gal?”

“Fuck, Blue, I dunno... maybe? I mean, Armor’s always been kind of a softie, that’s why we love him.”

“Yeah,” Blue agreed. “I mean, he may be a milksop, but he’s our milksop.”

“Right,” Ilium nodded. “So I figure, what the hell, we can make up the difference.”

The two of them started walking again.

“You know, maybe that’s why he’s not taking her on himself,” Ilium suggested.

“’Cuz he knows it takes a killer to stop a killer?”

“Exactly. Hell, that’s probably why he gave us a file on...”

Ilium paused, hefting the several inches thick brown envelope.

“...everything in her life’s history, I guess?” he finished. “I mean, the fuck? He can’t really expect us to read this.”

“Well, this is the commish we’re talking about,” Blue Steel reminded him with an eyeroll. “He’s probably got regulations for zipping his fly. But me, I already know how to do my job, thanks. All I needed to hear was ‘cop killer.’ And push comes to shove, magic tricks and a 4.0 GPA don’t do shit against high-velocity rounds.”

“Amen, brother,” Ilium agreed, and they bumped fists as they opened the side doors together, entering the parking lot outside.

“So, you want to swing by for dinner?” Blue asked. “Shigoto’s making chicken.”

Ilium made a show of being tempted, then sighed. “Nah, I think I’ll just crash.”

Blue gave him a grin. “Uh-huh. And does this seductive beauty have a name?”

“No, it’s not... you know what, never mind,” Ilium said, blushing slightly.

“Sure thing, pal. Just so you know, though... we’re rooting for ya.”

Ilium looked skyward. Whether he was praying for strength in times of such adversity, or just hoping a comet would fall and crush them both, Blue Steel couldn’t be sure.

Blue Steel laughed again and started for his car, fishing out his keys as he did.

“Talk to you tomorrow!” he called.

Ilium waved and entered his own vehicle, tossing the file into the seat beside him. A few minutes later, he was on the highway. Then, and only then, did he dig out his phone, hitting six on autodial.

The phone rang an uncomfortably long time. Finally, it picked up.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said. “What the fuck, man, you on a break?”

Another pause.

“No, listen. No, seriously, just shut up and listen. I just found out everything. No, not that... that chick who’s been on the news. The escapee. Yeah, her. I got who she is, what she can do, friends, relatives... everything.”

Another pause, and Ilium laughed.

“What, and have you cut me out? Huh-uh, I don’t need to tell you shit. Get the Boss on the phone. Patch me through.

“Yeah, I’m serious, put ‘em on.”

There was a pause while the officer glanced at the fat envelope on the seat beside him.

“Yeah, actually, you really fucking should. In fact, this might call for a face to face. ‘Cuz what I’ve got, the Boss is definitely going to want.”

Author's Note:

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Ending Credits: Good Cop Bad Cop, by Ice Cube. (Audio = NSFW) (TW = visuals of police violence)

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

“So, what do you want, young lady? Her autograph, or her arrest?”

”I can want both.”

In any case, yeah, the other sides won’t wait for Twilight to recover. And this is definitely more than just a two-sided battle. No background check is perfect, sadly. Shining will likely have much to regret when the dust settles

(Also, it is amusing for me to see another character named White Hat. I’m used to seeing the name attached to Wallflower’s best friend in my own works. )

Looking forward to more.