500 Kilometres

by Wheller

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

His name was Pierre, Pierre La Roche, he was different from the others around him. He was a member of La Police Internationale, He was Inspecteur divisionnaire Pierre La Roche, and he stood on a street corner in Bruxelles, the capital of the cheval speaking region of the Nederlands, looking up at the sky. He took a long drag off his cigarette before putting it out and continuing on his way.

Bruxelles had the reputation of being quiet the beautiful city, to many it was a grand city. La Roche didn’t see it, however. Those who did not know him would have considered him biased to his own home. He was a native born cheval, after all, and while Bruxelles had, in recent years, become predominately cheval speaking, it’s population were nederlanders, who despite speaking the same language as he did, lacked wings.

However it was not the case. Those that knew Pierre La Roche knew that he was nothing more than a cynical, cold hearted bastard; he knew that he was as well, but it didn’t bother him in the slightest. It was what he needed to be. Inspecteur divisionnaire Pierre La Roche was a member of La Police Internationale, one of the best inspectors La Police Internationale had ever seen, and it was because Pierre La Roche was a cold hearted bastard.

There was use in an inspector like him, his superiors acknowledged that, and at the same time, kept him on a tight leash. Pierre La Roche was unsympathetic, and determined to bring his mark in, in the sense that La Police Internationale did, of course.

La Police Internationale was different from most law enforcement organisations that it did arrest criminals. Instead, it did much of the legwork required in tracking criminal movements across international borders, and then allowed local police to make the arrest, where the criminal would then be taken back to the country that they were wanted in for trial and eventual imprisonment. La Roche was thorough, every mark he went after was one that had been put away on the first time, and guaranteed to stay away for a long, long time.

Pierre La Roche was only tasked the worst criminals as one could imagine. The kinds of criminals who could be afforded no sympathy because he would give none, could give none.

Pierre La Roche opened up his greatcoat, pulling out another cigarette and a pocket lighter, an ingenious little device that popped out of a coat pocket, flipped open, and produced a small flame, enough to light a cigarette and then pop back into the pocket.

Smoking was Pierre La Roche’s only earthly pleasure. The only thing he allowed himself to enjoy. He discovered much to his disappointment that it had been his last one. Pierre burned through fags like they were going out of style. He made a mental note to get more before leaving Bruxelles. Pierre La Roche stopped when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye it was a poster, printed in cheval:

Recherché pour crimes de vol, coups et blessures, et l'extorsion.
Twilight Sparkle
Cinq mille francs à la personne qui fournit des renseignements menant à une arrestation.

And then again in wallish:

Wanted for crimes of theft, assault, and extortion.
Twilight Sparkle
Five thousand francs to the person who provides information leading to an arrest.

Pierre sighed; this was the criminal he had been tasked to bring to justice, a pony who had evaded capture after nearly a month on the run. Pierre had reliable information that she was in Trotterdam, which was exactly where he would soon be headed, or at least, as soon has he’d popped into a tabac for another pack of fags.

He looked up at a street clock, the time was 1137, and any other inspector in La Police Internationale would have needed to be on a train for Trotterdam by now. Pierre La Roche had no need for trains. Not when he had wings.

…

'Are you sure this is a good idea?'

'Of course it is, just you watch! My “Vinyl Scratch is about to do something brilliant” sense is going off'.

Surprise could only watch as Vinyl Scratch put the finishing touches on her hoof made trebuchet. Using her magic to hoist the devices counterweight into position. Surprise was rather impressed with the device, the design was an old one, cheval in origin, but pre-dating even the Cheval First Republic. The device was a simple one, in the past it would have been used to lob giant stones great distances, when the device was released, the counterweight would drop and it would fling the stone off into the distance.

Since the advent of gunpowder in Europa, however, devices such as these were considered to be obsolete, and the only ones to be found were hoof made by enthusiasts. Vinyl Scratch grinned madly as she inspected her handiwork. This was going to be fun, she could tell.

'Are you sure this is a good idea?' Surprise asked.

'Of course I'm sure!' Vinyl replied with a grin. 'The “Vinyl Scratch is about to do something brilliant” sense has never failed me! Now, get ready to release the counterweight!'

'But... Vinyl!' Surprise began but was quickly shushed by Vinyl as she climbed into the sling and curled herself up into a ball.

'I'll be fine, we're doing this over water and I have magic to slow me down before I hit, trust me I thought this through!' Vinyl said with a smile.

'You spent ten minutes thinking this over during breakfast', Surprise said.

'And?' Vinyl asked.

'Most ponies would hardly consider that thinking it over', Surprise said.

'I thought you were adventurous?' Vinyl replied back.

'Oh no! Don't get me wrong! I am, and I think it's brilliant, but Whirlwind made me promise that I would try to talk you out of it', Surprise said with a shrug.

'And?' Vinyl asked back with a grin.

'I tried!' Surprise beamed back at her, she spread her wings and hopped into the air, getting into position.

Vinyl Scratch grinned madly. 'Hold on to your hooves! I am just about to be brilliant!'

…

Octavia Auditore slowly moved her bow across her cello, she and her ensemble were just about to finish up practise for the day, when she felt a sharp feeling in her chest, and dropped her bow, nearly stumbling over in the process.

The entrie ensemble stopped playing and they all looked over to the cellist.

'Octavia? Are you alright?' Beauty Brass, sousaphone, asked.

Octavia regained her composure and got to her hooves, running one of them through her mane to push it back into place. 'Yes I'm fine... I do apologise, my “Vinyl Scratch is about to do something stupid” sense went off'.

…

The counterweight dropped flinging the unicorn pony at a 35 degree arc into the air.

'AWWWWWWWWWWW YEAAAHHHHHHHHHH!' Vinyl Scratch cried out as she soared through the air, sticking her forelimbs out in front of her, acting like she was a pegasus, she looked down towards the water of the Bharatma Ocean. She looked back towards the coast line of Swan City and grinned. This was what it was like to fly.

She enveloped herself in her magic and began to slow herself down, readying to soften the impact of her hitting the water. She straightened her body as best she could, and dove like a torpedo into the water.

Her magic had not been enough to slow her down, and the impact hurt like hell.

Still totally awesome. Still totally worth it.

She opened her eyes, looking around from behind her goggles. Water was starting to leak in, but that was okay, it was just water. She looked around to see a number of tropical fish, and smiled. South Island was a wonderful country, and it was too bad that her trip was almost over. She began to push herself up towards the surface. She breached the water and took in a deep breath. She looked over to the beach and discovered that she'd gone at least a hundred metres. Surprise was waving at her from the shore. Vinyl watched as Surprise reset the counterweight and climbed into the device. She climbed into the sling and hit the lever, sending her flying into the air.

'SURRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!' Surprise called out as she flew through the air, keeping her wings tucked in and diving into the water next to Vinyl. A few seconds later, Surprise burst up through the water. Growling loudly and crying out. 'Rawr! I'm a whale!'

The two of them couldn't help but giggle as they swam back to the shore. Pulling themselves up onto the beach grabbing a towel and drying themselves off.

'So much fun!' Vinyl Scratch cried out.

They looked up to discover a grey coated pegasus walking towards them with a scroll of paper in his mouth. Vinyl gave him a smile and waved to him. 'Hey Whirlwind!'

Whirlwind nodded to her and dropped the scroll in front of her. 'Vinyl... we have a problem'.

Vinyl Scratch took the scroll in her magic and opened it up. It was a wanted poster from the Police Internationale, Vinyl looked over it for a few seconds, not sure what to believe.'If this is true...' Vinyl said. 'Then we've got lots of problems'.

Comments

[Fallen Knight]

Manure just got real huh.

Well adding a (or several) bounty hunters might be fun too?

[KaijinZero]

155831

yeah...until they want a larger cut. you dont know how many times ive had to explain to people how partners of mine ended up in positions they shouldnt be ably to bend in.

[Wheller]

155831
Pierre La Roche isn't the kind of pony to be relying on others for anything. He does everything himself.

And as a result. Nobody likes him in the slightest.

[DreadedCandiru2]

155965
This is probably why Octavia's "Vinyl Scratch is about to do something exceedingly stupid" sense is probably going off right about now. She doesn't know it but she's going to run afoul of a world-class hardpegasus.

[Fallen Knight]

155944 "work together until its time to get the pay "

155965

There's just so much one pony can do,and Twilight has by now probably connections in the underground at least through her dogfriend(no idea how to call it with a male dog heh )
And Pierre "La Coq" (thats who ill call him ) cant just flash his badge to get answers (or whatever he has) ,but since hes a hard ass i dont think he plays by the rules all the time hmm?

[oblivion2k]

Oh man, the trebuchet scene was exactly the comedy relief this story needed