Shards of shrapnel and glass littered the sky, shining in the bright afternoon light as they reached the climax of their lift before zipping back to the ground. The window by which we were sitting thumped twice before a crack the length of my hoof appeared milimetres from my face, contrasted by the bright yellows and oranges ripping through the front of the Jewelry shop.

“Get down!” I heard Black Ruby scream while a tendril of her power wrapped itself around my neck and tossed me off of my seat. She joined me on the floor, hindlegs bucking up to push our table up and above us just as our window exploded inwards.

My ears rang for a full minute and my eyes were screwed shut until Black Ruby set a hoof on my shoulder and pressed it. “Wake up!” she shouted over the constant drone that had filled with my mind.

I peaked out with half-lidded eyes and watched as bits of glass rolled and slid across the floor, sparkling like a carpet of jewels. Above me, standing tall, proud and alert was Black Ruby, her peering eyes glaring across the street. “Something’s wrong,” she said.

Well, no shit, Sherclop.

“Uh-huh,” I said as I climbed back to all fours and peered into the billowing cloud of dust. Ponies on the street—few as they were at this time of day—were crying or galloping away. At least one of them that I could see through the cloud was nursing a bad scrape. “We should go,” I said, evidently implying that we should get the heck outta there.

“You’re right, follow me and stay low.” Black trotted around me and towards the exit, slowing down as she neared the blown-out doorway. “Hurry!” she pleaded.

“No.”

She blinked, her eyes growing wide and filling with tears as she turned and looked at me, a blush adorning those pointy cheeks of hers. “Oh, well, all right then. I can’t force you.”

I had a few choices. I could cower back there, go out and maybe help some ponies like a good samaritan, or follow Black Ruby, the crazy time-manipulating mare that had just become my ‘friend’ into what could be a very dangerous scene. I covered the fact that I’m an idiot already, right? “All right, fine, I’m coming,” I grumbled.

She lit up like a kerosene-powered balloon with a drunk operator that had run into a cliff-face. I wanted to look away, but couldn’t. “Thanks! Now come on, I suspect that the instigator of this is that masked pony.”

Masked pony, eh? She meant that Protagonist fellow. Shrouded in mystery and controlling a rabid army of devotees. I’d honestly heard very little about him since the incident at the gathering, as if he had either decided to lay low, or the school’s police force or Judgement had caught him. It could be his doing, this fireworks display.

Might also be somepony that just didn’t like jewellery.

We stepped onto the wide sidewalk, me falling into a coughing fit while Black Ruby trotted on as if the smoke wouldn’t dare to soil her. And it didn’t. All around her was a transparent shield, visible only where the clouds of settling dust failed to touch it, creating an outline of her curvy form. “I can sense some strong magic here,” she said.

“Got it,” I wheezed through the tickling in my throat. “Where should we go?”

She pointed towards the shop where the giant, proud sign had fallen. The word “Rarity” in all its white-purple and glittery splendor was upside down and cracked on the pavement. Behind that was the shop itself, every last one of its windows smashed open. “They’re in there,” she said, taking a few tentative steps forwards.

I swallowed, throat dry, fanned some of the dust away and followed, head low and horn pointed ahead. (As if it would do any good.)

“All ponies, evacuate this region immediately. You are surrounded on all sides by military and medical emergency service ponies. Please find the nearest shelter and please cooperate. Force will be used if deemed necessary!”

The loud droning voice echoed through the road and through the worst of the oppressive screen I could see the dull glow of red and blue lights on either side. “Maybe we should pull back?”

“No,” Black Ruby said, grinding her teeth. “I want to see this through. They ruined our lunch!”

Take note, kiddies: ruining the lunch of a hot, powerful, time-manipulating mare is cause of a beat down.

“Come on, Judgement is coming, they’ll take care of it, be reasonable!” I almost pleaded. Almost.

Within the store we could see shadows moving and, as the dust settled or was carried away by a passing wind, we saw ponies in leather scurrying about the shop, some of them carrying what seemed to be bags on their backs. “I see them,” Black Ruby said, frowning as she tried to focus. “We need to move this fog. Help me!”

“Um, how?”

“Level three wind spell, it’s basic!” she said, stomping a hoof on the ground as her horn glowed a bright indigo. A tenth of a second later and a gale rushed in.

Waste my tiny bit of energy on that? Nope. Use it all in a vain attempt to create a shield? Yup!

My horn glowed, fizzled, then lit up. I smiled in elation then realized that I had failed to do anything at all. Oops?

The leatherbacks were staring back at us, only their dark eyes visible in the shadows. Cowering behind them under display tables or behind counters filled with expensive jewelry were ponies, both customers and those that worked in the elegant shop.

“Damn, they have hostages,” I said, trying to think while the world moved at a hundred kilometres an hour.

The air nearby popped and fizzled and, out of the blue, two ponies appeared. Their blouses and skirts wafted in the air as they both landed in a crouch, attention already directed to the jewelry shop. One of them, the mare who had presumably teleported them, turned and faced us. “Back up, we’ll take care of this,” she said, a mischievous glint in her eye as she reached down and grabbed at a green band wrapped around her arm to display the shield-shaped logo on it. “We’re with Judgement.”

“We can aid you as well,” Black Ruby said, taking a step towards the shop.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” the mare began to say, but stopped mid-sentence. In the largest of the shop’s windows stood one of the leatherback ponies, holding a stubby metallic tube with a handle in his mouth. “Get down!” Teleporter-mare screamed.

I blinked like an idiot while three very distinct things happened all at once.

First, it turns out the metal tube was an automatic gun and that leather-pony had two friends that shopped in the same black market. A hail of heavy, blunt-ended bullets was fired our way, followed a millionth of a second later by the sound of continuous thunder.

Second, that other Judgement pony—one oddly devoid of the armband—took a quick step forwards and smiled. Her mane and tail began to float into the air along with her blouse and skirt (She was wearing shorts underneath. Who does that? Not that I was looking or anything....) while little blue sparks of electricity pulsed around her. As the bullets approached the electricity zipped by and through them, playing connect-the-dots in mid-air.

And third, Black Ruby’s horn glowed and she placed herself between the assailants and me. The bullets charging towards her slowed down until finally they stopped in mid-air, spinning around gently as they just floated there.

When the firing stopped she let go of her magic and the bullets tumbled to the ground, tinkling as they bounced about uselessly.

Lightning-pony, as I’m calling her, smiled and looked at the leatherbacks. “That’s all you’ve got?” she taunted.

Destroying bullets in mid-air on reflex and then taunting the ponies that just shot at her and asking them to try harder. Yup, this mare’s cray-cray too. What’s with the ponies in this city?

She had just begun to trot towards the building when Protagonist showed up.

He stood there, his emotionless mask obscured by shadow and smoke while his eyes glared right at the Judgement mares before wandering over to us. He huffed. “Ah, I see that the city’s little goons have arrived. How quaint. We’re almost done here, but if you wish to play, something could be worked out.”

“Play? I won’t have you hurting the ponies of my city and call it play!” Lightning said, grinding her teeth as more sparks snapped around her body.

“Oh, but it is a game, to some,” he said before turning to those behind him. “Are you done?” When they nodded he laughed a deep, bassy laugh as his horn began to glow. “Well, this is goodbye then.” The glow of his horn began to spread out to the leatherbacks around him and in a blink they popped out of existence.

The Protagonist remained. He reappeared on the floor above with a flash, and teleported the few leatherbacks that were there away. “Perhaps another time we will test each other’s mettle?” he screamed from above. Somehow, I knew he was smirking beneath that mask.

Then, Lightning-mare did something weird. She threw a coin into the air.

We all watched as it pirouetted ever downwards while she spun around and reared onto her forelegs.

Electricity crackled along the length of her body, growing stronger by the millisecond as it raced towards her rear hooves.

She bucked.

With an explosive blast of thunder the mare hit the bit in mid-air. A cone of shattered air appeared where the impact had been and, faster than any eye could see, a line of red-hot energy stretched out between her and the building, sizzling and cutting through everything in its path until it roared into the cloudy skies.

“Did I get him?” she asked, peering into the wreck that the building's top floor had become. Wires were frayed and the lights were flickering wildly while light poured in through a metre-wide hole in the ceiling. The Protagonist was nowhere to be seen.

“Ah! Sis!” the teleporter screamed, a hoof clutching at her head in panic. “You said that you wouldn’t do anything crazy! You did something crazy!”

“Yeah, but he got away,” Lightning mare said, huffing and tapping the ground with a hoof.

“Sister!” the other said, her tone chastising and severe. I could understand her, what with her friend just blowing the roof off one of Rarity's boutiques and all, literally. “I can’t forgive you for this! I’m going to have to report you.”

“Huh? B-but I was just trying to get him! You saw him, he had hostages and everything!” Lightning took a few steps back, honestly looking stricken.

The teleporter shook her head. “I have to, it’s my duty.... Unless, you bribe me, you know, with a little fooly cooly....”

She got zapped.

I stopped paying attention when lightning bolts began to fly.

Instead, I took a second to notice that Black Ruby was nowhere in sight.

A few ponies were timidly moving out of the shop, using the front door between the two holes where the windows used to be. Some ponies from Judgement and the school’s police force were rushing over, giving priority to the ambulances and medical ponies.

The restaurant was a wreck, every window busted and quite a few meals ruined within. Ponies were walking carefully, trying not to step on sharp pieces of glass.

Protagonist and his bunch had really messed things up. And for what? A few jewels? He wasn’t going to be able to resell them for a bit. If he was trying to make a good image for himself then he was going about it the wrong way.

“Hey, Black, what’d you think about that?” I asked before noticing once more that she wasn’t by my side. Spinning around, I searched the now-busy street, looking for the blonde mane and blue eyes she proudly wore. Finally, I spotted a flash of her tail entering an alley, her hooves carefully stepping over a pile of detritus.

I followed, galloping by paramedics and those two mad Judgement mares before diving into the alley after her.

She stood there, looking over her shoulder and at me with an arched eyebrow while, just milimetres from the tip of her muzzle, a garbage can floated, transfixed in time. “Oh, hello, Wedgie. I found one of that masked pony’s minions.”

She pointed to the end of the tight corridor where a light blue pony was sitting, his uniform covered by a leather jacket. He had his hooves set out around him and his head low, full trash cans levitating on either side of him, wreathed in his magic. “You’re not coming near me, you pig!”

He fired the pails, both of them arcing through the air as Black Ruby began walking. She ducked beneath the one she had already frozen and happily trotted on, the other two garbage cans rushing towards her head.

At the very last moment she twisted her body to the side and narrowly avoided the first garbage can. The second she reached up and touched with the tip of her hoof, a wave passing through the aluminium and making it fluctuate in the air like a big blob of gelatin. It stopped moving.

“That was rather easy,” she said, circumventing the can and trotting towards the stallion. “Now, I have a few questions for you.”

“N-never!” he barked, ripping a knife from out of inside his coat and levitating it in front of himself.

Shit just got serious.

I began to gallop towards them. “Black!” I screamed, trying to warn her of the impending danger while struggling with the sinking impression that I was too late.

She was going to die here, in this stupidly clean alley between two low-end shops, killed by some worthless thug while I watched, useless.

The knife flew at her throat.

Then her horn glowed.

The offending weapon slowed, its shiny surface losing its gloss as spots of rust began to consume its length. It continued to slow as more and more reddish oxidant coated its surface, until holes appeared along its blade and melted it into dust.

“Were you trying to stab me?” she asked, tapping the rubber handle away after it had bounced off the ground. “It’s rather rude to stab a lady.”

The stallion swallowed hard, and I could sympathise.

“Um, sorry?” he tried. It wasn’t enough.

Black Ruby stabbed a hoof on the ground right in front of him and leaned forward. “I have questions, young ruffian, and I want answers. Do you comprehend?”

He nodded.

“Good. Now, who is the Protagonist?” she seethed. This mare was all sorts of scary when pissed. So, I stood my ground a few steps back, trying to stare down the punk to add a bit to the scene’s drama. Poor kid didn’t know what to do.

“I-I don’t know, he’s the boss is all. He’s the one that we all follow!”

“Why?”

“B-because he is! He told us that he’d make it all better. He said that ponies like us were better than ponies like you!” Ohh, screaming at the scary time-manipulating mare? Not a thing to add to the list of good ideas.

“Fair enough. You obviously don’t know who he really is and that tells me much about the sort of pony he is. He doesn’t even trust his own subordinates. That filth. Where’re you operating from?”

“U-uh, it-it changes every day. Protagonist don’t want us to stay in one place for too long. It-it was supposed to change today too, and he didn’t tell any of us that were coming with him.”

That was rather smart. If a doofus messed up and was caught, all he could give away was the location of the last base. And since Protagonist is the one doing the teleporting of his troops in and out of the shop.... But why here? “Hey, you,” I asked. “Why’d you guys attack a jewelry store?”

“It’s because they won’t allow low-level ponies to go in!”

“Plenty of places are like that.” And by Celestia did I ever know that to be the truth. “Why a jewelry store? If he’s so smart then he ought to know that the jewels are probably traceable.”

The pony pulled back, almost as if he was becoming timid. Wasn’t he throwing trash cans at us a second ago? “I-I don’t know. The gems are important for something.”

I hummed in thought, touching a hoof to my chin as I bowed my head. Okay, what are gems good for—other than looking pretty? Magic, some of which can be aided with certain stones. The better the stone, the better the spell’s end result. “Teleportation spells!” I cried aloud.

Black Ruby blinked at me, then her face lit up just a moment later. “Right. He’s using gems as a catalyst for his magic. I didn’t feel as if he was that terribly powerful. But still, even taking that into consideration, he must be a level five or six. Maybe even higher. And he obviously has some non-magical skills, charisma being one of them.” Black Ruby bit her lip in thought. “Wedgie, could you go out there and look around, maybe unearth some clues? I’ll take care of this ruffian.”

“Uh, sure?” I said, trying to ignore the look of pure, unadulterated fear in the stallion’s eyes. Poor sod. Should I be a good pony and try to help him? Should I attempt to abate her anger for the stallion’s sake?

Pfft, hell no!

Author's Notes:

Edited by:
]The Misfits

The goal? To make Black Ruby something more than a background character. I mean, it should be evident by now that she has some role to play in the next few chapters of the story, but I want that roll to be played with a fair degree of conviction. And for that, I need you (the reader) to know her. Not like her, or love her, just know her. Anything else is cherries.

Also, lightning pony is best pony.

Betch'a can't figure out what Protagonist is up to! with a name like that, you'd wonder if hes really that baddy?

Biri-biri,
Ravens D. Dagger