The Tourney

by Emo Rainbow

Chapter 8 - The illusionists

Seashore opened up the door to the apartment and slowly trudged her way inside, the long walk from the school taking much more out of her than she expected. She figured that next time, it’d be better to just learn how the school carriage system works. She kicked the door shut behind her and looked off to the left, where the late day sun shone through the kitchen area window and out onto the small living area beyond. She gave a loud sigh of exasperation and dropped her saddlebags onto the ground as she walked over to the couch and hopped onto it face first.

She was content to just lay there and pass out, but she knew that at any second a certain someone was going to burst in and ruin it. She waited for a few minutes with her head raised and ears swiveling all around, but suddenly she felt a very strange sensation in her chest. Could it be? Was she feeling the elusive emotion hope once again? With a smile, Seashore slowly lowered her head against the soft cushions beneath, as the warm embrace of sleep finally surrou-

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

“Ahhhhhhhhh.” She let out a long and drawn-out groan of frustration as she slowly rolled herself off of the sofa and landed back first on the ground. With a loud sigh of exasperation, she picked herself up and made her way to the door to see who had so rudely interrupted her. As she walked, the once small brown filly began to glow a bright yellow hue as the silent and very powerful magic aided her. With every step, she grew taller, with every inch of height her mane and tail extended to their intended lengths, and once she returned to the fully grown teenage filly that she was, the bright yellow gem on her hoof returned to view.

She approached the door and peeked through the eyehole unenthusiastically, that is, until she saw a human standing outside with something large, and covered in a blue blanket, draped over his shoulder. He had dark skin, a green striped scarf, short brown hair, green eyes, and was looking all around before knocking on the door once again. The teenage filly squinted for a minute, unsure of how to proceed, before deciding to alter her voice. She focused her spells' energy on her throat, and felt the magic within changing her physiology once again.

“Please go away,” She said like a nervous little filly. “My mommy says not to let strangers inside.” She said as she gazed at the man suspiciously.

“Well pardon the intrusion little filly!” The man said with a very familiar inflection in his voice, even if the voice was much deeper than it normally was. “I wasn’t aware somepony of your height could see through the eyehole without moving a chair first! I’d assume that you can fly but I think we both know that’s false.” Rolling her eyes, the girl quickly undid the lock and opened the door for the man, letting out a grunt of disgust as he thanked her for her hospitality.

“Will, just say that you’re here next time instead of acting like a pretentious douchebag.” She said angrily as he laid his cargo on the mid-sized sofa, humming the entire time.

“Well, perhaps I would if you’d at least try a little harder to act in the way a little filly would!” He said as he pointed to himself with four fingers in a flamboyant fashion. “You, Hat Trick, bring shame to the actors and actresses of all the multiverse!” He said as he lifted a close fist towards the ceiling and spoke in as hearty a voice as he could muster. Hat Trick just rolled her eyes and walked towards the couch, but not before fake punching him along the way, causing him to yelp in fear as she stopped her hoof just in front of his crotch.

“How easy it is for Faust's gift to the stage to crumble under the slightest pressure.” She said with a smug grin.

“Uh… haha… you fool, I was merely pretending. Truly my acting skill is unmatched if such a simple performance fooled even your keen eye.” He said while once again posing triumphantly. Hat Trick groaned in annoyance and just ignored his incessant babbling to instead inspect the new piece of decor he’d brought back with him.

“So Will, what’s this?” She said, as she leaned over the obvious body covered in the blanket and reached for the edge to peel it back.

“That, my sweet, is our latest bag,” He responded with a confident smile as she slowly removed the cover. “I finally pulled the ole’ Chloroform bit, and oh it is just as satisfying as I thought it’d be.” He said as he looked up to the ceiling and sighed. Suddenly, he felt a hoof on his lower stomach as Seashore backed up, trembling as she stared at the sofa and the little pink filly resting atop it.

“What the fuck is this?” She said in a low whisper as her face dropped into a cold expression of terror.

“Hey, it was either this, or trying to finish off the guy I got this form from.” He said as he gestured to himself.

“Then what the fuck is this!?” She repeated with even more anger and desperation in her voice as she pointed to the filly with one hoof while looking up at him accusingly. “These two don’t even have the same colored gems! There’s no way they’re in the same team.”

“I thought the same thing, but trust me this is the right one. That karat, Clarke I think, was very descriptive,” His explanation fell on deaf ears as Hat Trick started to chew on her hooves nervously as she stared at the filly. “You know, you’re being very rude right now.” He said with crossed arms.

“Up yours!” She snapped back. “Why didn’t you just kill the bastard? Even if you, somehow, thought that this girl is his partner, why on Faust’s green earth would you kidnap a filly!?” She said with her hooves thrust into the air in anger and frustration.

“Believe me, I tried my absolute darndest to quell the flames of this behemoth of a man! I assure you however that there is a very valid reason for me kidnapping this child.” He said before spinning his yarn to the hyperventilating girl.

---

The day began like any other, on a crisp summer afternoon shortly after spotting this gentleman near the entrance of the school, as we did earlier this morning. After you were left to your own devices I quickly made my way to where I saw him last, that being the marketplace. I took the form of the burly brown cowpony from the hamlet of whence we came and approached him.

“Excuse me, strange sir,” I said in a manner befitting that of a rural cowpoke lost in the big city. “But do you happen to know where the salted goods are located within this market?” He looked around curiously and told me that he hadn’t the foggiest clue, but that’s when my perfectly concocted plan began.

I offered to help him find certain items he’d be interested in, in exchange for a shopping pal to accompany me. Thus I began building a rapport with the man, gaining his trust so that at the perfect moment I could finally-

---

“Shut up, shut up. Shut. Up,” Hat Trick said angrily, interrupting his long-winded story before dragging her hooves across her face and groaning in frustration. “Oh my Faust I don’t care. Just tell me why you kidnapped this girl, and stop acting like you’re writing a shitty novel.”

“Well I never,” He said while pointing to himself with four fingers once again. “Hmph! Very well, if you’re so eager to get on with it. In short, I attempted to use the chloroform, but he proved extremely resilient and proceeded to beat me down, roll me up, and toss me aside in about a minute. I nearly lost my life, not that you’d care if I had.” He said as he turned his back to her, the newly acquired scarf around his neck flipping around dramatically as he did. Hat Trick glared at him as he did this and growled as her anger levels continued to rise.

“Faron!” She shouted, causing both of their gems to light up and quickly dim back down as she forcibly ended the spell's effects. Will scowled as he was surrounded in a bright yellow light that quickly dissipated, revealing his true form beneath. He was a white-skinned, bald-headed man with brown eyes and a mustache goatee combo one would commonly see on a carnival showrunner or a common street salesman. His shirt was a light grey color, as well as tight-fitting, and his skinny jeans were a simple blue.

“Remember when I said you were being rude?” He asked before turning ever so slightly and pointing towards the ground angrily. “I take it back, THIS is being rude.”

“Will, I am this close to finishing what that one guy started, so do us both a favor and shut up while I think of something.” She said with both hooves raised to either side of her face as she took several deep and calming breaths. She looked down at Fighter Swan with a sense of dread, the bright green glow of her gem staring her in the face. She didn’t know the first thing that this girl was capable of, but she already knew that no matter what it was they would not be able to win.

“Okay, alright, okay. We can fix this… we can still fix this,” She said, mostly trying to convince herself than anything else. “Will, did her partner see you? I mean the real you?” She asked while looking back at the man, watching as he poured himself a cup of water in the small kitchen area nearby.

“Is that a rhetorical question or…” Hat Trick just gave him a deadpan stare, making him roll his eyes as he took a swig of water and joined her in the living room. “No, he didn’t.”

“Do you know any of their powers? Do you know if they can track each other?” She asked anxiously. Will simply shook his head no as he continued to rehydrate, giving Hat Trick some much-needed silence for her to think. She scrambled to get a set of working thoughts together as her anxiety constantly forced her brain to work overtime, and that’s when it hit her.

“By that look on your face, I’d say you’ve just hit a lightbulb,” Will said as he watched her gasp and nod to herself.

“Alright, here’s the plan. I turn back into Seashore, and you turn into my mom. We tell her that we just found her asleep on the road and took her with us. Problem solved, open and shut.” She explained with hope permeating her words. Will took another loud sip of water as he reached the end of the mug and smacked his lips before asking.

“Yes, and how do we convince her that she wasn’t forcibly knocked out by her partner in front of the school?” He asked with an eyebrow raised very condescendingly.

“She’s a kid, it won’t take much for us to just convince her that it was a weird dream, as long as we stick to our story.” She replied as she looked back at Fighter to make sure she was still knocked out on the sofa, nodding thankfully when she saw that she was.

“Well fine, if I absolutely must play the role of your mother can I make a few alterations to her character? I feel that humble country bumpkin act, what with her knack for embroidery, is far too played out by now. I suggest a struggling artist perusing the big city of Canterlot for her next muse!” He said as he closed his fist and stared at the wall in a permanent smolder expression for emphasis.

“My mom isn’t some… acting template that you can workshop. Mom is mom, and you’re playing her,” She said while poking him in the chest as a sign of finality, eliciting a groan of exasperation from her partner. “Now let’s get this show on the road, there’s no telling how long we have until she…” Hat Trick looked back at the couch and froze when she saw the filly no longer laying down peacefully on top of it. “Wakes up…”

“What’s captured your gaze?” Will asked as he walked closer to her, completely oblivious to the small sounds of pattering hooves behind him. “Wait… did you move her?” He asked as he looked at the empty blanket and couch. Before he could receive an answer though, he felt a crushing pain across his back as one of the wooden stools from the kitchen area was picked up and smashed into a million pieces directly on top of him. Will fell in pain while gripping his back, eventually rolling onto his side and flailing about.

Hat Trick spun around and saw Fighter standing beside her incapacitated partner with a piece of broken wood in her mouth. As their eyes met, the small pink filly bit down on the last piece, splintering it into wood chips with ease.

“Okay, now Fighter,” She didn’t get to finish the rest of her sentence before Fighter Swan hopped closer to her, spun around on her front hooves, and bucked Hat Trick directly in the chest. The teenage filly’s body lurched forward as she was hit with the force of a power hammer times infinity, sending her flying straight into the wall and onto the ground a wheezing mess.

“I am only going to ask this question once!” Fighter said in a commanding tone as she stood between both Will and Hat Trick. “Where am I? Who are you? And what are you doing?” There was a brief moment of silence, not including the gasps for air or writhing cries of pain, before they responded, but Fighter understood that she’d have to give it a moment.

“Technically,” Will wheezed out after his initial pain, gaining both Fighters and Hat Tricks attention, but for very different reasons. Fighter thought she was about to get an answer, but Hat Trick was just wishing she had enough air to groan at his poorly timed quirk. She knew that whenever he started a sentence with the word technically that everypony in a three mile radius would be overcome with an incessant need to punch him in the face. “That was three questions.” He finished, much to the dismay of Fighter Swan who merely glared at him fiercely after his little sarcastic quip.

“Funny.” She said with a deadpan expression as she walked closer to his prone body.

“Okay, in my defense…. You really set yourself up for that. ACKH!” He tried crawling away as the filly approached him, but it was no use as she was immediately on top of him and planting her hoof right on his neck, forcing him onto the ground even harder. “Okay! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I was outta line!” He said while finally dropping his Haughty tone of voice and raising his hands in the universal sign for surrender.

“Fighter…” Hat Trick finally said, albeit a little weakly as her lungs and ribs ached. The filly looked over to her while keeping her hoof on Will's neck, making sure not to put too much pressure on him. “Just calm down a sec. Don’t hurt the idiot, and let me use my spell to show you something.”

“You think I’m stupid? I see that gem glow, and this guy gets it.” She said as confidently as she could, secretly hoping that the teenage pony wouldn’t call her bluff.

“I know you’re not, that's why I know that you won't do that.” She said warily as she took in a deep breath. Fighter cringed internally as she was quickly seen through by this girl, but fittingly enough, the only one who was unsure of that fact was Will.

"Why? Why don't you believe she'll do that? Don't you fucking do it!" Will pleaded desperately while still being pinned to the ground.

“Faron!” She said with a harsh tone, ignoring Wills protests and prompting her gem to flash yellow, sending a wave of magical light to surround her. She didn’t get very far though as Fighter immediately sprang into action, flinging Will across the room and getting her to dodge and interrupt the spell.

“Waaah!” Will screamed as he spun around in the air and eventually drilled into the drywall like a human corkscrew.

“Kachin!” Fighter shouted, covering herself from head to hoof in the overpowering chromatic metal she had begun to grow accustomed to. She stood still for a moment to gauge their reaction to her, but strangely enough, their first instinct was to instead face each other.

“Hey Hat Trick, next time someone crushing my windpipe tells you not to do something... Listen to them!” Will shouted with pure anger as he picked himself up and leaned against the wall for support.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear over the fact that you brought the one pony I didn't want to fight into our apartment!" She screamed back with just as much vitriol as him. "Not only that, but you left her completely unbound. I mean the least you could've done was tie her mouth shut you idiot!"

"Ahem!" Fighter said, interrupting their little spat due to how uncomfortable the situation was becoming. "I feel like we may have gone off topic."

"Yeah, maybe now's not the best time for this." Will said fearfully as he looked at the full metal filly.

"Agreed." Hat Trick said with a nervous crack in her voice, an action that caused Fighter Swan to smirk involuntarily.

Wasting no time Fighter charged at the two, ramming headfirst into Will’s gut and pinning him against the wall. He let out a loud groan of pain as he slowly slid down the wall onto his butt, the fight already seeming to be completely drained from him. She then turned her attention to Hat Trick and sucker punched her into the ground just as she tried to back up. What followed was a continuous onslaught of attacks as Fighter repeatedly knocked them around like they were ragdolls, punching them into the wall whenever they managed to stand, and kicking them while they were dazed on the ground.

The next few minutes consisted of kicks, uppercuts, tripping, and a whole lot of one-sided fighting as Fighter Swan made short work of the two. She made sure not to put her all into the attacks, since very quickly she realized they weren’t as resilient as she thought they were, but something about the act of pummeling them was calming to her, she couldn’t describe it as anything other than… well fun. Eventually, though, she reached a point where she felt that they’d had enough, so she casted Garasei, replaced her metal skin for an icy mask and boots, and released a torrent of freezing ice from her mouth. The ray of frost traveled towards them in an unwavering path, sticking them both to the wall with Will standing straight up, his feet barely off of the ground, and Hat Trick pinned and facing towards her upside down.

“Alright, had enough yet?” Fighter asked calmly as the two of them slowly groaned.

“We never asked for any… in the first place,” Will said in between grunts as his eyes squinted in pain.

“Then maybe you should have thought of that before you...” She stopped when she realized a very crucial point, that being the fact that she had no idea what was even going on. All she knew so far was that she’d woken up, heard them talking, and started kicking some flank. “Wait… what were you guys trying to do again?”

“It doesn’t even matter anymore, ow,” Hat Trick said with a pained expression before sighing and resting her head against the wall. “Just… let me show you something,” Fighter watched her curiously as she wiggled beneath the ice. “Faron!” She called out as loudly as she could.

Once she did, both her and Will were covered in a bright yellow light that started changing them before her eyes. Once the light had completely dissipated, Will now resembled Clarke once more, all the way down to the signature clothing and skin color, Whereas the filly…

“Seashore?!” Fighter cried in shock as she watched her newly made friend reappear in an instant, her short golden locks, her freckled face, only this time with a new cutie mark depicting a beach and the yellow gem that Fighter knew she saw the first moment they’d met.

“Surprise.” She said in a now higher pitched voice as she trembled and shut her eyes in pain. Fighter looked at Seashore, then to Will, and finally put all the pieces together.

“Oh my goodness,” Fighter said as she sat down and placed a hoof against her head. “So everything was a lie? Just some kind of… trick to kidnap me? Kill me!?” Fighter asked angrily as she held back the overwhelming urge to start blasting them with the coldest ice she could make.

“Wrong! Whole heaps of wrong!” Seashore called out nervously as she saw the newly created fumes of frost leaking out of Fighters nostrils.

“Well you’re half right,” Will said as he looked at her with a smug, yet still visibly harmed, smile; and immediately a massive spike of ice sank into the wall right next to his face, missing his skin by mere inches. After that, his smug look dropped into a pained frown as he squeezed his eyes shut and started sobbing while shaking his head from side to side. “Please don’t kill me!”

“Don’t hurt him, he says stupid things because he’s a complete retard!” Seashore shrieked as Fighter scowled at them.

“Yes! Yes! Total retard! Grade A, top shelf, call me Forrest Gump cause I’m a retard!” He shouted so hard that his voice began to give due to the lack of air, and to their total surprise, Fighter let out a small giggle. They looked at each other in confusion and slowly chuckled, albeit more nervously, along with her.

“Sorry, it’s just… funny to hear Clarke say that,” Fighter admitted sheepishly as she looked at Will. “Uh… where were we?” She asked, somehow feeling significantly calmer for some reason. There was a moment of silence, when suddenly Seashore reverted to her normal form and gulped down the fear in her throat.

“Alright, Where we were was explaining how all of this… was just a big misunderstanding?” Hat Trick said with a nervous laugh, feeling slightly more on edge due to Fighters sudden change in emotion and tone. Regardless she tried her best to keep her composure, as the ice spike she fired would probably be even worse if it hit its mark next time. “I just want to say that this wasn’t the plan. We never wanted to hurt you, heck we didn’t even know that… what’s-his-face was even your partner!”

“Then how did you know about him in the first place? You mean to tell me that this was all a big coincidence?” Fighter asked skeptically.

“Yes!” She said, with Will nodding furiously as well. “I didn’t even know he existed until Will came over and told me about it! I only knew about you! There was no way I could’ve planned this at all! Especially since, and this is a big one, we’ve only met today.”

“You could’ve stalked us before!” Fighter responded, still unconvinced and quickly losing her patience.

“I swear to Celestia it’s true. I meant what I said when I said we just moved out here. Honest!” Fighter continued glaring at them, obviously not believing a word they had to say, so Hat Trick decided to finally take one last sigh and speak with all the sincerity she could muster. She knew that it’d be the only way. “Listen… we’ve been in this Tourney for about a month, and in that time we’ve almost died more times than I can count. We came out here to get away from the onslaught of Karats we’d face because we have about the same offensive power as a pool noodle. I didn’t want you to find out like this, I wanted us to try and work together since we really can’t defend ourselves, as you can clearly see.” She said as she nodded towards the ice that was still keeping them there.

“We got off on the wrong hoof because my partner here went a little rogue, and in the process, we ended up pissing off the wrong pony. Believe what you want kid, but just know that even if we wanted to, we probably couldn’t kill you. If you’re willing to give us a chance though, I think we could make a good team?” She said hopefully. Fighter looked at them both for a moment and contemplated her words, as well as the events that had transpired earlier in the day. She saw first hand how they fought, or rather how they didn’t fight and was pretty confident that there was no way they’d get the drop on her again.

She also knew that what happened at school today wasn’t something somepony could just fake without being a total psycho. Either she was the best actor in existence, or maybe there was some truth to what she was saying. Of course, there was plenty of evidence pointing to them being full of nothing but lies, but she still couldn’t flip it either which way. There were just too many factors to consider, so maybe… she just needed to trust them?

“Alright, you may have a point,” Fighter said as she stood up and cracked her neck. “Just one more question though…” She started as she looked up at them. “How old are you? Cause you asked if we could have a sleepover and that’s… a little creepy.”

“Hehe, you what?” Will said with a chuckle as he looked down at Hat Trick who was either blushing so hard from the embarrassment or going red from the amount of blood rushing to her upside-down head.

“I-it was in the heat of the moment! I was a little kid, and that’s what a little kid would say. I’m not a creep!” She cried out desperately, only blushing harder when Fighter and Will both started laughing at her.

“Well, you’re right about one thing,” Fighter said as she walked over to them, the ice that was covering her now quickly melting away. “You two definitely aren’t much in the fighting department.” As the spell ended, the ice quickly began to melt off of the walls allowing them both to escape. Hat Trick fell flat on her face and rolled along the ground, as Will slowly touched down and fell due to the numbness in his legs.

“That’s gonna hurt in the morning.” He wheezed as he rolled onto his side and clutched his aching ribs.

“Geez Fighter, must’ve felt good venting your repressed rage onto us.” Hat Trick said as she too started clutching her, presumably broken, hoof.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” The filly said with remorse as she walked over to the sofa and quickly pushed it closer to them, giving them a place to sit and recover from the fight. “By the way, how did you know to turn into Clarke anyway? When you found me at the school?” She asked Will as he leaned back into the sofa.

“Well young one, that is quite the tale,” He said as a newfound smile graced his lips, as well as returning his grandiose articulation in a manner that seemingly washed away all the pain from before. “You see, the day began like any other, on a crisp summer afternoon shortly after-grrk!” His story was ended prematurely with a grunt of pain as Hat Trick reached over and smacked him across the face lightly, though the contact was still enough to make them both wince.

“Please, the last thing we need after all of this is for you to drone on for another three hours.” They both let out a long sigh and leaned into the soft cushions as they tried their best to ignore the pain.

“Boy, I… kind of went a little overboard huh?” She said, feeling a tad guilty for how much she really did put them through on assumption alone. Hat Trick just scoffed and made a ‘so-so’ gesture with her hoof while Will nodded in a very exaggerated manner.

“We’ll be fine. You think this is bad? You should’ve seen us after we stopped in hollow shades for a bit on our way here.” Hat Trick said confidently, trying her best to hide the pain.

“Well, I guess I better find Clarke then, and tell him what happened.” Fighter said as she stood back up. When she did though, she heard an audible snicker as Will bit back a laugh.

“I think you’re gonna have a little trouble with that, on account of how he’s probably arrested right now.” He said with a smile, and if there were a record playing nearby, it most definitely would have scratched at that very moment.

“Wh…. what?” Fighter asked with very understandable confusion, while Hat Trick was stunned into silence. Will remained silent and just looked up at the ceiling as he chuckled like a child holding some kind of secret.

“Will… what the hell happened?” Hat Trick finally said with audible frustration, but again there was more silence. “Will, what happened when you fought… that guy?”

“Clarke.” Fighter corrected quickly.

“Yeah, him.” Hat Trick finished as she turned towards Will.

“Oh, so now you’re interested in my story? If I recall correctly, you said that you didn’t care.” He said condescendingly as he raised an eyebrow. Hat Trick raised a trembling hoof, ready to punch him straight in the face, until Fighter slowly grabbed onto it and lowered it for her. Hat Trick took in a deep breath and sighed before glaring at Will and sitting back down.

“What happened… when you fought the guy?” Hat Trick asked through clenched teeth and with so much reluctance that she thought she was going to have an aneurism. Will simply smiled and leaned against the sofa as comfortably as he could, kicking out his legs and looking at the ceiling in the process.

“The day began like any other, on a crisp summer afternoon…”

---

“Please! You’ve gotta believe me!” Clarke pleaded as he grabbed onto the bars of the holding cell.

“Listen here, mister man, you expect us to believe that some weird monkey creature that looks a lot like you, transformed into a kid after trying to murder you. That’s why we walked into an alley where you were beating a little colt within an inch of his life?” The brown dragon said from his desk while pointing to Clarke for emphasis.

“Yes! That’s exactly it! Just contact the princess or something, and I swear she’ll tell you everything! She’ll vouch for me.” Clarke cried while jiggling the bars around ever so slightly. The dragon spun around in his chair and looked at the pony police officer who had exited an office beside their desks with a cup of coffee in his magical aura. They shared a look before nodding.

“Suuuuure buddy. We’ll just contact the princess… get this all sorted out.” The stallion said as he took a sip from his mug and walked towards the other side of the small and relatively empty police station.

Groaning in defeat, Clarke banged his head against the bar for a moment before turning around and sitting on the long bench within the empty cell. The thought had crossed his mind to mention Sunny Day in an attempt to get out of here faster, but he, unfortunately, took too long. The moment he did he started transforming into pure metal and being covered in an icy mask. Needless to say, they weren’t willing to listen to a word he said after that.

Now the only thing he could think about was Fighter Swan and whatever it was she must’ve been going through. She could’ve been hurt somewhere, desperate for help with none to be found. The only thing that kept him from assuming the worst was the fact that… well, he was still here. Now, ever since the spells wore off, he kept feeling these strange vibrations in his gem, each one staggered and making him feel very strange for some reason. He had no idea what it meant, but he had a feeling that it couldn’t have been something good.

Deciding to look up once again, he watched the dragon officer with mild interest. He still couldn’t get over the looks of his scales, the strange filament covering that his eyes seemed to have, and the majestic looking fins and horns he had sprouting out of him. If there was one thing that he could say was good about this day, it was that he finally got to see a dragon up close. He only wished he could take a picture of it.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Clarke watched as the police pony from before walked back into their section of the station, only this time he seemed… different. His eyes were shifty, looking around at anything and everything like he didn’t even recognize it, and his walking speed seemed much more frantic all of a sudden. Finally, for some reason, his once full cup of joe was now entirely missing.

Suddenly, their eyes met, and all of a sudden the police pony froze. Clarke looked behind himself curiously, before realizing that, yes, he was staring at him. With a nervous cough and a shake of his head, the police pony walked over to the desks near the cell and stopped at the dragon's desk.

“Hey there……” He held that last syllable for quite some time as he leaned around the desk and very obviously glanced at the nameplate. “Thresher!” He said abruptly, catching the dragon off guard.

“Thresher? Been a while since you used my full name. You feeling alright Leggy?” The reptilian asked as he gave a playful punch to the pony’s leg. Suddenly, the cop let out a loud wince and recoiled from the touch, causing the dragon to don a look of concern. “Whoa, hey there.” He said as he stood up and put out his hands cautiously.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just a little… sore from the exercises I did earlier.” He said as he rotated his upper left leg and chuckled.

“You? Working out?” The dragon said with a bit less worry and more suspicion in his voice, and suddenly Clarke was beginning to feel the same way. Just what happened to this guy?

“Hey, you want to see something really strange? I saw it just over here. It’s been making me feel… weird.” The guard said as he tried to lead his partner away from the cell for some reason.

“Uh, yeah sure, but later alright. We need to keep an eye on this cell.” The dragon said as he stepped out of the Pony’s grasp and walked back over to his desk. The stallion followed him with an even fiercer look of nervousness.

“Oh, pssshh! Come on, look at this guy. What did he even really do? Hit a kid?” He asked skeptically, and it was at this point that Clarke knew something was up as he heard faint whispers coming from nearby. The dragon tilted his head to the side before grabbing the dossier off of his desk and opening it up. Clarke had to visibly hide his face as he heard the charges a second time.

“Assault on a minor, multiple accounts of vandalization, attempted murder, property damage, unsolicited use of lethal magic, possession of dangerous artifacts, and many more,” He said as he closed the folder with a loud clack. “Do you need me to jog your memory every time? Cause frankly I’m getting tired of it.”

“Oh,” The stallion said as he stepped around the dragon.”Well regardless, he’s secured in there. Here’s his files, here's the… key?” He said questioningly as he lifted a yellow key from off of the desk, to which the dragon confirmed with a nod. “Yeah, the key. I just need you to see this for one second, I promise bro it’ll be super fast.” The dragon let out a harsh sigh through his nose, eliciting some soft flames to come out in the process, and eventually stood back up.

“This better fricken wow me, or else you’re buying the drinks tomorrow.” He said as he finally stood up and followed the stallion to the office room nearby.

“Trust me, this is super cool!” The stallion practically shouted, his voice carrying out of the office. Suddenly Clarke watched as the key and Dossier lifted off of the desk on their own and quickly floated over to him.

“What the hell?” He asked as he saw the key place itself in the door and twist, unlocking the cell for him.

“Rapid-fire answers to your questions. I am invisible, I am a friend, I’m here to break you out, and we have less than a minute before they’re out here and on us.” The young female voice said as the cell door opened and the dossier flew into his hands. The sounds of hoofsteps running away signaled to him that he should probably get a move on as well.

“Yeah, totally weird right?!” the cop shouted again.

“Dude, shut up already. I hope you have a spell that makes you crap money, cause that's what you'll be needing tomorrow night.” The dragon said as he started making his way out of the office, but thankfully Clarke managed to sprint out of the area and towards the exit before he could see. The scarce few eyes in the station were luckily too preoccupied to notice him running, or just plain didn’t care by the time he’d stepped out into the night sky.

“Hey!” He heard the girl calling for him to the right, and as he looked he saw a fairly tall brown pony waving him over. He followed her away from the station as fast as he could, running through several streets until they entered a small indented alley near a darkened office building. There the two caught their breath as the adrenaline of their escape quickly calmed down.

“Thanks… but why did you save me?” He asked as he bent forward and rested his hands on his knees.

“Well, let’s just say it was a show of good faith,” She said as she turned towards the rest of the small alleyway. “For a new friend.” Then, from out of the darkness came a very familiar pink filly.

“Fighter?” Clarke said in both shock and relief. She was about to make a mad dash for him, but before she could even move the young man was right on top of her and scooping her up into a big hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” He said while rocking her from side to side in his hug, his voice filled with relief and his eyes on the brink of tears. "How did you even find me?"

“I’m fine! I’m fine! Honest!” She said with a giggle as she feigned annoyance with the hug and ‘tried’ to pry herself away from him. "My new friend taught me a little trick, a kind of tracker in our gems to help find each other." She quickly explained as Clarke slowly released her from the hug. After their small reunion, Clarke set her back down on the ground and walked towards the filly that had busted him out, extending a hand gratefully. Hat Trick backed up for a second nervously before slowly extending her hoof and allowing him to shake it.

“I definitely owe you one. My name’s Clarke.” He said with a confident smile.

“Oh… uh, Hat Trick.” She said with a nod before the two broke their hand/hoof shake.

“So you can turn invisible, that seems like a pretty nifty power there. You mind telling me how you guys met?” Clarke asked innocuously as he looked between them. They shared a strange look between each other before Hat Trick responded.

“It’s a long story, but for now I have to go and make sure my partner got out alive. We’ll definitely keep in touch though.” She said with a smirk before completely vanishing in a flash of yellow light. Clarke looked down at Fighter in confusion, but the filly merely sighed in relief.

“Is it just me, or did that not answer anything?” He asked with an aggravated hand resting on his hip.

“I’ll fill you in, now pick me up and let's go. We still have to head home so mom can bite our heads off.” She said with an uncharacteristic sense of serenity in her voice.

“Oh… right… that.” Clarke said in realization as he crouched down and hoisted Fighter onto his shoulder, placing a hand on her back for stabilization like she was a boombox.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you take all the blame this time,” Fighter said, garnering a pleasantly surprised look from Clarke. “We can split it, hows 60/40 sound?” She said with a totally serious smile on her face.

“Great, what is it they say? Baby steps?” Clarke said as he finally started heading down the street, the filly in one hand, and his criminal records in the other. He was going to need one heck of an explanation when they got back home.

Comments

[No Name Dame]

I like the story so far, but I can see one or two flaws in your writing style. For instance, I notice that you always try to write dialogue at the start of paragraphs, even intentionally word or structure things so that the dialogue can work at the beginning of the paragraph. In fact, if you didn't already know of course and this isn't just me being a little presumptuous, you can have dialogue almost anywhere in the sentence like the middle or the end. Narration can better accent it sometimes if you place the dialogue in more places than just the beginning. Other than that, solid stuff. I'm curious as to where all of this is heading.