• Published 11th Apr 2013
  • 1,277 Views, 42 Comments

Ragged Wings Detective Agency - Flutterguy89



What are you going to do when the Fillydelphia PD can't make any progress on your case? Put in a call to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, private investigators, of course! Look 'em up, they're in the book.

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Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Fluttershy shook like a leaf in the wind. Standing before her and Rainbow Dash were a half dozen, black-clad, hooded and masked authentic Nieghponese ninja. Her eyes darted to each of the combatants in turn. The entire group were stallions, though any coat or mane coloration, or any useful descriptors beyond that was made impossible by their garb. Four earth ponies who carried long slender swords stood flanked by a pair of pegasi who, though appearing unarmed, she was sure carried some tricks up their sleeves.

“D-Dashie…” Her voice quivered as the ninja began to advance on the pair.

Rainbow spared Fluttershy a quick glance and a curt nod. “Stay behind me, Flutters,” She growled, “I got this.”

The first of the earth ponies charged at Dash, a long katana held in his teeth. Dash ducked out of the way of the sharp blade, delivering a powerful buck to the warrior’s ribs. The pony convulsed in reflex to the force of the hooves being driven into his chest. The blade fell from the pony’s teeth, clattering against the hard concrete surface of the sidewalk. Dash deftly delivered another strike to the fallen pony, this time to the base of the fighter’s skull. The ninja’s eyes slide out of focus and Dash let out a grunt of satisfaction as she observed the pony’s unconsciousness.

“Next,” Dash taunted, a confidant smirk growing on her lips.

Unfortunately the ninja, gauging the strength of their opponent, had switched tactics. The pegasi moved forward to engage Rainbow, while the remaining trio of earth ponies advanced on the frightened Fluttershy.

“No!” Dash shouted, picking up the fallen warriors sword in her teeth. She shot forward at the ponies who had dared to attack the innocent mare, the steel of the blade flashing in the midday sun. The pegasi had anticipated Dash’s move, and the cyan mare felt something whiz past her ear. Looking ahead of her she saw a throwing star embedded in the brick wall. She ground her teeth and pushed the thought of the flying blades from her mind, she needed to save Fluttershy, the rest was unimportant.

Fluttershy had her back pressed firmly to the cold brick of the warehouse. She could only think of one thing to do, but the thought tore at her heart as surly as the blades of her opponents would tear at her should she hesitate much longer. She let out a low cooing sound and shut her eyes tight; not wanting to see what came next. Try as she might though she couldn’t block out the frantic cries of two of the earth ponies as the pigeons she had recruited earlier tore at their eyes. Fluttershy let out a gasping sob and reopened her eyes. The pair of now sightless earth ponies lay before her, clutching their faces with their hooves. “I’m so sorry…”

Rainbow engaged the final earth pony, making sure to get in close in hopes of deterring the ranged attacks of the pegasi. Her opponent danced around her with the practiced fluidity of a trained swordspony and Dash’s tenacity and defiance were all the kept her in the fight. She winced in pain as a well-placed swing of the ninja’s blade left a laceration in her shoulder, and she absent-mindedly noticed a few strands of purple and green hair flutter to the ground. The ninja was on the verge of pressing his advantage when a brick sailed through the air and caught him on the temple. The black-clad stallion went down, blood trickling from his forehead. Dash retraced the brick’s trajectory to find the Fluttershy, staring at her, the yellow mare’s eyes pleading with her cyan counterpart.

“Dash we need to fly, now!” Her voice cracked and squeaked but her tone was urgent.

As if the universe needed to further punctuate the point, Dash felt a sharp flash of pain alight in her flank. Dash didn’t need anything else to tell her to get moving; the athletic mare flapped her powerful wings and was soon joined by Fluttershy as the two fled as quickly as possible.

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After they had cleared several city blocks, Dash looked back to gauge their pursuer’s progress but was startled to see that the two ninja pegasi were nowhere to be found.

“Where did they go?!” She shouted to Fluttershy, who was panting to keep up with the stronger flier.

“Th- the….The birds…I asked them to…” She cringed at the words she was about to speak, “…clip their primaries… they were so focused on trying to hurt you… I don’t think they even noticed…”
Dash’s stomach lurched and she felt herself wincing. The thought of robbing a pegasus of its gift of flight, no matter how necessary, not matter how temporary, was frankly horrifying to one who valued that gift as greatly as Dash did.

The two made the rest of the journey back to their building in an uncomfortable silence. Dash still reeling from the battle, and the lengths they had had to go to in order to get away clean. Fluttershy was still fighting back the occasional sob, the battle had forced her to do such violent things… the very memories caused her hooves to start shaking. Upon arrival at their office the pair elected to enter through a window rather than bother with the front door.

Upon touching down in the office Dash let out a cry of pain, it felt as though someone had pressed a white hot knife into her flank. As the adrenaline of their flight began to ebb, she became aware of a feeling of a trickling wetness making its way down the exterior of one of her thighs and another wellspring of liquid oozed down from her shoulder. These sensations were quickly followed by a mounting pain, growing slowly from an ache to an inferno.

Fluttershy turned to her friend and gasped, “Oh, oh no Rainbow, I need you to stand very still okay, just relax, I need the first aid kit.”

“You know…that tone of yours… makes it so easy to relax.” Dash muttered sarcastically as the yellow mare came rushing back over to her. She quickly pressed gauze to Dash’s shoulder to staunch the bleeding. The cyan mare’s fur from her shoulder to her hoof was already becoming matted with sticky red blood, but the Fluttershy’s practiced hooves were able to stop the bleeding without much effort.

“I’ll need to stitch that up shortly… but …um…Dash… this is going to be the hard part…” Fluttershy’s aquamarine eyes darted to Rainbow’s flank. Rainbow followed the other mare’s line of vision and what she saw made her own eyes widen in shock. In her flank, one of its tines half buried in her, flesh was one of the ninja pegasi’s throwing stars.

“Shy…” Rainbow tried to breathe evenly but the sight terrified her. “Get it out….get it out… get it out...”

“Shhh… Shhh…” Fluttershy hushed her partner in an attempt to calm her; the wound would be tricky enough without having Rainbow go into shock. She moved her way back to the injured limb and ran a soothing hoof along Rainbow’s mane. “It’s going to be okay, it’ll be nothing really. I have the some nice coagulating herbs here; it’s going to be okay.”
Dash gritted her teeth, half-terrified, half-disgusted with the fact that she was so very scared, and all-grateful that Flutters was there to help. Fluttershy began to hum pacifyingly to the rainbow-maned mare, the tune gave Rainbow a fleeting impression of déjà vu.

The buttery pegasus quickly prepared an herbal salve and applied it thickly to a bandage, then she delicately gripped the bladed weapon in her teeth. She took a cleansing breath, and exhaled slowly. She then slowly slid the weapon from her friend’s flank, careful not to cause any further damage. As the bloodied point of the weapon surfaced Fluttershy quickly spat the thing on the floor and applied the bandage with as much haste as she could manage, praying to Celestia that had been quick enough to stop any further blood loss. To her great pleasure, the herbs did their job and Fluttershy fastened the bandage in place with some medical tape.

“I’m sorry Dashie… That was the hard part, but this the part that is going to hurt…” Fluttershy said in her soft apologetic manner. She produced a needle and thread, and bitterly wished she had had the foresight to purchase some topical anesthetic.

“Just do it,” Rainbow managed through gritted teeth.
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Rainbow lay comfortably on her cot the better part of an hour later. Rainbow inspected her bandaged shoulder and flank. ‘All and all, it could have been much worse,’ she thought to herself. ‘Fluttershy made it out okay and she patched me up good…but Luna-damned ninjas… really? Really!?’

Fluttershy entered the room with a tray laden with a bowl of warm soup. “Used some of our carrots, it’s my mom’s recipe.” The yellow pegasus spoke in her most gentle of voices, with a warm little smile twitching up the corners of her mouth. “She always told me it would help little fillies grow big and strong, so I’m hoping it helps big mares get even stronger.” Fluttershy let out a musical little giggle and placed the tray in front of Dash.

“Thanks ‘Shy,” Rainbow mumbled as she looked down at the soup, she had never been much of a fan of being pampered and cared for, not that her folks ever had much time for that when she was a filly. Coffee and breakfast were one thing, but this felt like she was being treated like a foal. It made her feel weak and dependent, and even if she was actually was both of those at the moment, she still didn’t enjoy the feeling. However, the heavenly scent wafting off the carrot soup cut straight through her pride. ‘Okay…maybe it isn’t all bad…’

“So, Flutters, haven’t had the chance to ask you yet, but what did your birdies find out?” Dash queried through hot mouthfuls of soup.

Fluttershy lowered her head, hiding behind her pink mane.

Dash gave her a worried look, “What is it Flutters? They didn’t… kill her?”

Fluttershy shook her head, “No… it’s… I’m so sorry Dashie… but she wasn’t there…” Fluttershy felt tears well up in the corners of her eyes, “…you got hurt for nothing…”

Dash hung her hear as well, she had at least been hoping for some information. Catching sight of her partner’s pitiful state though, she knew she’d have to be the strong one, even if she didn’t quite feel it herself.

“Hey, not for nothing.” Rainbow said softly. “I mean, I made sure you didn’t get hurt. We beat up some ninjas. I mean how often does that happen, right?” Suddenly an idea stuck the chromatic -maned mare, “Hey did that thing that stuck in my flank have any marking or anything on it?”

Fluttershy looked up and into Dash’s sparkling rose-colored eyes. “I… I think so.”

“Well there you go! That’s a clue!” Rainbow’s brow furrowed for a moment, her excitement evaporating as she let out a sigh. “Which means we’ll need to go see… her.”

“Oh, yeah I suppose so…” Fluttershy’s face flushed light pink, almost matching her mane. “She’s not that bad you know. I mean she’s nice, and she pays us well for all the stuff we bring in…”

“I don’t like how she looks at you.” Rainbow snapped in agitation.

Fluttershy grew very quiet and looked anywhere but towards Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow shook her head and returned to her soup. After slurping up the last drops of the delightful liquid, she looked over at Fluttershy who still seemed determined to avoid Rainbow’s gaze. Another sigh escaped Rainbow’s lips and she idly ran a hoof through her mane. “Sorry I snapped at ya, but I still don’t like her much… and thanks for the soup, it was really good. I mean it”

Fluttershy brightened up a bit and gave a little smile to her friend, “Well if you want to go to the shop tonight, we might be able to make it before she closes up as long as we don’t leave to late. You’re all stitched and bandaged, so as long as you don’t do anything too strenuous-”

“Like fight off more ninjas,” Rainbow cut in.

“Like fight off more ninjas,” Fluttershy agreed with a smile. “You should be fine.”

Author's Note:

What strange twists will the case take? Who is this mysterious expert? Will there be more ninja?

All will be revealed!*

*Eventually.... when I get to it...