The horrific giggling continued, echoing through the dark trees, its origin impossible to determine. The Guards spread out in a search pattern, desperately sweeping through the shadows with their lights in search of their quarry.

"What the hell is a hyena?" Phillip hissed, pulling his flashlight out and attaching it to his shoulder.

"A predator," Daring explained, standing back to back against him. "The apex predators."

Abruptly, the giggling stopped. The dead silence, the vacuum of sound that followed was terrifying. "We're in trouble, aren't we?" Phillip muttered.

There was a rustling from a bush behind one of the Guards. He turned too late: a dark shape rushed out, dashed past him and disappeared into the leaves before anypony could react. The Guard's body hit the ground a moment later, his head rolling away into the bushes, an expression of shock forever frozen on his face.

"We're in very big trouble," Daring whispered.

"Spread out! Find them!" the corporal ordered, drawing her blade in her magic.

"No, stay together!" Daring shouted back. "If we spread out, it'll just pick us off one at a time!"

As if to prove her point, one of the Guards suddenly cried out in shock, his voice turning into a horrid gurgling as he collapsed to the ground, clutching his throat. "Redcoat!" his companion shouted in anguish, rushing over to his friend. Before he had taken three steps, a blade flew out of nowhere and imbedded itself in his forehead, dropping him like a stone. Another Guard with a repeating crossbow panicked and started firing wildly into the shadows around him. His terrified howls were cut short by another throwing knife striking him in the throat.

The surviving ponies could only stare in horrified disbelief. The terrible giggling started again, as if mocking their disability, mocking their dead. "No! Bastard!" the corporal screamed into the darkness, her voice a mixture of anger and fear. Her reply was a delighted whooping, carried to her ears by the chill wind.

"We need to get back inside!" Daring warned, already turning to leave. Phillip turned and ran after her, immediately followed by the other Guards. The corporal hesitated for a moment, then turned and raced after the others.

A second later, there was a snapping sound and a cable wrapped itself around her hind legs, causing her to stumble. The cable tightened, dragging her into the bushes. "Help!" she shrieked, scrabbling against the dirt for a hold. Two of the Guards grabbed her forelegs and pulled back, engaging in a deadly game of tug-of-war.

Suddenly, two throwing knives flashed out of the bush. The Guards ducked, but the blades struck them both in the shoulder, causing them to lose their grip on the corporal. She screamed in desperate fear as the rope dragged her into the darkness like a fish for gutting.

Diving forward, Daring grabbed her forelegs and pulled as hard as she could, flapping her wings for extra strength. "Cut her loose!" she shouted. One of the Guards rushed forward and cut the cable with his sword, freeing her.

"Go, go! Back to the house!" Phillip called, helping the wounded Guards back to their hooves. The entire team ran back to the mansion, back to the hope of safety promised by the light. Shoving the door open with his shoulder, Phillip waved the others back into the main hall. As soon as Daring crossed the threshold with the corporal, he slammed the door shut, locking away the night and the killer it concealed.

Attracted by the noise, Bronze Leaf stumbled down the stairs, holding his sword in his magical aura, a set of bandages around his stomach. His eyes widened when he saw his panting, trembling, exhausted squad stumbling into the kitchen, two of them clutching the blades in their shoulders. "What happened?" he asked.

"It killed them, sergeant," the corporal whimpered, covering her face with a shaking hoof. "It killed Redcoat, Bluebell, White Pawn and Cirrus; killed them all."

"What did?" the sergeant demanded. "What the hell was that thing?!"

"A hyena," Daring said, already bandaging one of the wounded Guards. "They're a different species, from the far south. They're assassins, trained from childhood to hunt and kill for sport."

"I've never heard of them," Bronze Leaf grunted, tending to the other wounded Guard.

"You're about to," Daring replied, pulling her bandages taut. "Phil, go up to Dr. Exhibit's study and get the H encyclopedia."

Phillip bounded for the stairs, but paused part of the way up. "Where's Dr. Exhibit? Is she all right?" he asked.

"She's fine," Sergeant Leaf replied. "We've moved her to the guest bedroom in the basement, and I have two Guards on her at all times. Lieutenant Coonhound is sending an armored carriage to take her to a safe house in the morning."

"Good." Phillip dashed up the stairs, returning a few moments later with a thick book tucked under his foreleg like a hoofball. He carried it to the table, opened it up, and started flipping through the pages. "Found it: 'hyena,'" he announced after a few seconds of searching. Clearing his throat, he began to read aloud:

"'Hyenas are an intelligent predatory species, native to the far Mysterious South, described as dog-like animals slightly smaller than the average pony, with spotted brown and gray fur and black manes. Little is known about the hyenas or their culture; what is known about them comes from zebras and other natives of the Mysterious South, who are frequent prey of hyenas in their native lands, and from accounts from survivors.

"'The hyena culture is heavily revolved around hunting for both sustenance (the corporal shivered and flattened her ears against her head) and sport, with members of hyena tribes gaining power and prestige by killing dangerous creatures, including ponies, whom they regard as worthy adversaries because of their intelligence, magic and technological advancement. From childhood, hyenas are trained in silent movement, infiltration, combat, weaponry, poisons, and all method of assassination and killing. In a rite of passage, grown hyenas must engage in a solo hunt against a chosen group of prey and bring back trophies, usually the head or skin of their victims, as proof of a kill.'" Out of the corner of his eye, Phillip saw Daring shift slightly in discomfort, clutching her wings to her sides. He paused for a moment, then continued reading:

"'Despite their small size, hyenas are extremely fast and surprisingly strong. The hyena language consists primarily of barks and growls and is very difficult to replicate: however, they are capable of learning and speaking other languages, including Standard Equestrian, and it is rumored that they are also able to mimic the voices of their prey. However, the distinctive sound of the hyena is its "laugh," a rapid, high-pitched giggling sound that is used as a war cry of sorts to rally teammates or frighten prey.'"

Almost the entire room shivered at once, as if in testament to the truth of this statement.

"'It is rumored that rogue hyenas who have left or been kicked out of a tribe hire themselves out as mercenaries and assassins,'" Phillip concluded the entry. "'Some who study hyenas have attributed over a hundred unsolved murders and accidental deaths to the work of hyena assassins.'"

"That's what we're dealing with," Daring told Sergeant Leaf, her voice taut beneath the weight of the lives taken by their foe. "A thrill killer who's been literally trained from birth to kill you, eat you, and turn your skull into a trophy."

"It's a living, breathing thing," Sergeant Leaf growled back. "And that means it can be stopped." He stamped his hoof down onto the floor. Instantly, every Guard in the room snapped to attention. "Listen up, everypony. Four of our own have been murdered in action: they will not go unavenged! This freak made a huge mistake the day it tried to take on the City Guard! If it wants to kill this innocent mare, it's going to have to go through all of us; and while it's hunting her, we'll be hunting it! We will search everywhere, turn over every rock, until it's got nowhere to hide, and then we will put it down like the sick dog it is! Right?!"

"Right!" the company shouted back as one, their vigor renewed by the promise of vengeance. Leaf grinned viciously, the smile of a hunter with the scent of blood on their nostrils. Daring and Phillip watched in silence.

As soon as morning came, a gray armored carriage arrived at the mansion, escorted by five Guards. Dr. Exhibit, pale-faced and shaking, her eyes dark from lack of sleep, slowly shuffled into the dark interior of the carriage. The door slammed shut and was locked behind her and the carriage trundled back down the path and away, carrying its precious cargo somewhere unknown. Sergeant Leaf, Daring, and Phillip watched her disappear in silence.

Another one of the City Guards marched up to the Sergeant and saluted. "Sir, we've searched everywhere, but we can't find any trace of the...hyena. And...there's another thing," he added hesitantly.

"What other thing?" Leaf asked, his tone clearly indicating that he did not wish to know the answer to his question.

"It's...it's Cirrus' head," the Guard admitted, bowing his head in grief. "We can't find it."

Leaf sighed heavily and lowered his head onto his hoof. "How am I gonna tell his wife?" he muttered to himself. After a few seconds, he raised his head once more. "All right. Just...just keep looking. There's got to be something somewhere. I'm going back to headquarters to make my report."

"Sir," the Guard saluted and walked off to return to the search for evidence.

"You two are free to help with the search," Sergeant Leaf told Phillip and Daring without looking up at them. "I want this animal found and put down, understand?"

"Just as much as we do, sarge," Daring answered. Phillip did not reply; he had not spoken a word since last night. With a nod, Sergeant Leaf trotted quickly away.

"So what now?" Daring asked Phillip, who turned to face her, his expression unreadable.

"You've encountered hyenas before, haven't you." It was a statement, not a question. Slightly taken aback, Daring did not answer for a moment. Eventually, she swallowed and began her confession.

"It was one of my first trips, early in my career. I was traveling with a group into the Undiscovered West, along with a friend of mine, Professor Jackal. On the fifth night, we discovered a tomb from an ancient tribe. I got overexcited and started exploring it on my own while the others started setting up camp.

"I didn't find anything notable in the tomb, so after a few hours of searching and mapping, I went back to the surface. But when I got close, I heard the others...they were screaming. I ran outside, but I was too late." She took a shallow breath, remembering how she had burst out into the cold jungle night, feeling the bloodstained sand beneath her hooves, the distinctive, coppery scent at her nostrils, and continued:

"They were dead. All of them. Professor Jackal was hanging upside down from a tree limb, his head gone. And while I was standing there, I heard it...it was laughing."

Daring breathed heavily through her teeth, clenching her hoof as if imagining it wrapped around somepony's throat. Phillip started to reach up a hoof to place on her shoulder, but quickly thought the better of it.

"You saw what those things are like last night," Daring hissed, glaring up at Phillip. "If that hyena snuck in so easily, it could have snuck back out. But it didn't. It killed four ponies, because it wanted to. We have to stop it." She turned and started walking towards a group of Guards milling at the edge of the woods, where their comrades had fallen last night. "Are you going to help, or what?"

Phillip started to say something, but bit it back and followed with a quiet sigh.

The search for evidence went for the rest of the day. Aided by the rest of the Guards, Phillip and Daring carefully examined the assassin's entry and exit points, bent over every track, scoured the forest and grounds, peered at the discarded throwing knives, and looked over the four corpses for any clue, any sign. But all for naught: there was no trace of where the hyena had come from or where he had gone.

"Maybe the crime lab will find something," Phillip mumbled, returning his loupe glasses to their carrying case as he exited the mansion.

Daring stared at him. Phillip never mumbled. "So what do we do now?"

"We get dinner," Phillip answered, turning down the dark street, following the lamplights back to the city.

They found a suitable meal at a corner deli. Several times through their dinner, Daring tried to probe Phillip as to whatever theory he was holding in his mind, but he didn't say a word. He hardly even looked at her.

Afterwards, they decided to walk back to the hotel. Neither spoke until they had reached their room and shut the door behind them.

"You've given up, haven't you?" Daring snarled contemptuously at her partner, watching him doff his hat and vest, tossing them carelessly into the corner.

"What do you want me to do?" Phillip rounded on her. "This city has almost 12,000 citizens. Do you honestly think that we can search for the hyena by ourselves without some kind of clue?"

Daring glared at him. "Fine. So what's our play?"

"We work the other end," Phillip said. "Find the one who hired the hyena. And we start in the morning."

Daring gritted her teeth, unable to explain her anger and frustration but unwilling to let go of it. "Yeah. Fine."

With a nod, Phillip walked over to the bed and flopped down onto the mattress, lying on his side with his back to Daring. She reluctantly removed her own disguise and went over to the other bed, lying with her back to him. It took a long time for either of them to get to sleep.

He had no idea where he was. The dark forest seemed to press in from all directions, the black trees looming over him. The leaves shuddered as an icy wind blew, chilling him to the bone. He stepped back and stepped on something hard; looking down, he saw the Taverneigh Blue lying in the dirt beneath his hoof.

Suddenly, there was a great roar of thunder and flash of lightning. He looked up at the sound and froze in horror. Hanging from the branches of every tree around him were dozens of bodies. The security guard from the museum, foam still about his lips. Dry Bones, his skull drenched in his own blood. Stone Scribe, his burnt corpse barely recognizable. Private Cirrus, a bloody stump all that remained of his head. Redcoat, Bluebell, White Pawn, their armor stained in their own blood. And directly in front of him, Daring Do, impaled on a branch and her throat torn open by the teeth of an animal. He froze up at the sight, his heart leaping to his throat.

And then he heard a noise behind him: a high-pitched giggling. He turned just in time to see a set of yellow teeth bared in a vicious grin and a set of metal claws, so sharp they seemed to cut the air, rushing right at his neck...

With a gasp, Phillip woke up, sitting bolt upright in bed. Instantly, Daring was also awake, reaching for the whip beneath her pillow. "What's going on?!"

Phillip gulped down air, wiping cold sweat from his brow. "It's nothing. Just a bad dream." Getting out of bed, he trotted over to the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face, shutting the door behind him.

Filling the sink up with water, he cleaned his face off, then gripped the sink with his hooves, summoning the strength he needed to banish the tumultuous emotions from his head.

Twenty dead in less than a week. All of them right in front of him, within his reach, but beyond his saving. How many more would fall? And what if he wound up added to that list? What if Daring was next?

Stop it, he ordered himself. Ponies are dying, and more ponies are going to die if you don't get your bloody head on straight and concentrate. And don't worry about Daring; she can handle herself.

Phillip took a long breath, expelling his fears and set himself back down on the floor. He now regretted not bringing some sleeping medication from home: a double dosage of Lunastar would be just what he needed—

He froze. Something niggled at the back of his mind, a vague animalistic warning of danger. He looked back into the bathroom, and then he noticed two things. One was a strand of gray-brown hair next to the sink. The other was that the shower curtain was closed...even though it hadn't been earlier.

He ducked almost too late. Like the introduction of a dramatic setting on a stage, the curtains were tossed violently aside and a dark figure clad in black clothing and hood jumped out. Metal claws slashed through the air just over Phillip's head. Reacting instantly, Phillip grabbed the bony, furry leg, compressed it in a lock, and slammed the hyena's cloaked head into the sink. "Daring, help!" he shouted.

The hyena counterattacked, kicking Phillip in the knee and slashing at his face with its other foreleg, forcing him to let go and roll out of the way. At the same moment, the bathroom door crashed in and Daring burst into the room, her whip clutched in her teeth. With a jerk of her head, she snapped the weapon out, entangling the hyena's hind legs and pulling. The hyena leapt backwards, using its claws to cut through the whip and free itself. It growled at its two prey, its yellow eyes shining through its hood, then jumped back, crashing through the window.

"Let's go!" Daring shouted to Phillip, tossing him his vest and flying out after their attacker, pulling her own vest on as she flew. Phillip leapt out of the window in pursuit, swinging his vest onto his body as he ran.

The hyena already had a head start, and it was running faster than even Daring could fly, agilely leaping over roofs, vaulting obstacles and jumping across alleyways. Daring put on speed, flapping as hard as she could, while Phillip sprinted after them both.

"It's headed for that construction site!" Daring shouted, pointing at a skeletal steel and drywall edifice in the distance, lit up by generator-powered lamps. The hyena leapt off a roof, tumbling through the air and grabbing onto a girder, pulling itself inside the construction site. Daring paused in midair, waiting for Phillip to catch up. Confidently, he sprinted off the rooftop and leapt. She grabbed his forelegs and swung him into the building, flying in to land beside him.

"Where'd it go?" Daring called out, looking around the "hallway" of hanging plastic sheets.

"We'll find it," Phillip said, starting forward. No sooner had he taken his first step then every light on the site suddenly went out, plunging them into darkness. The sound of the humming generators was replaced by another noise: a distant, insane giggling.

"Oh, buck," Daring whispered as both of them pulled flashlights out of their pockets and attached them to their shoulders. "This is an ambush, and we walked right into it."

"We've walked into traps before, and we've walked back out again," Phillip replied. "We'll stick together and—" His sentence was cut off by a startled cry when something crashed through the floor at his hooves and seized his legs. With a sudden jerk, he was pulled down through the floor.

"Phillip!" Daring cried, leaping down after him, only to find herself tangled in a net. She flailed in startled surprise and fury, only to get herself trapped even worse. In the light of her flash, she saw Phillip tumbling away from her. He got back to his hooves hurriedly, drawing his baton with a flick of his hoof, clutching a bleeding wound in his shoulder.

A shadow passed in front of Daring. The hyena, its killing stroke thwarted, stood up between the two of them. The beast's hood had fallen off, revealing its face. It looked like a nightmarish dog, with a long snout equipped with yellow teeth, a matted black mane, and vicious yellow eyes. The hyena glanced at Daring, then glared at Phillip. With a snarl, it spread its forelegs wide, issuing a challenge.

"Daring, concentrate on getting yourself out," Phillip said, his voice measured calm. "I can handle this."

"Be careful," Daring warned, struggling to get to the knife in her pocket.

The hyena growled once, then leapt at Phillip, slashing through the air with both sets of claws. Phillip did a dive roll out of the way, snatching up a discarded length of steel rebar as he rolled. Popping back to his hooves, he parried a blow with his baton and struck back with the rebar. The hyena blocked the blow, but received a headbutt to the face in response. Growling through a now-broken nose, it launched a furious blur of attacks. Phillip blocked each one and kicked the hyena away, regaining a safe distance. Meanwhile, Daring finally managed to get the pocketknife out of her pocket and pulled the blade open, beginning to cut herself free.

The fighters circled each other for a few moments, then the hyena leapt in, cutting down at Phillip's head. He moved to counterstrike with the rebar, but the hyena readjusted the attack, cutting Phillip's leg and forcing him to drop the weapon. With a grunt of pain, Phillip drew his injured leg back out of danger, turning the motion into a baton strike to the head. He struck the hyena again, ducked beneath a spinning kick, and bucked the hyena in the gut, sending it flying back into a steel beam and crashing to the ground. "You got it!" Daring cheered. Phillip moved forward to finish his opponent off.

Suddenly, as he got close, the hyena leapt back up, pulling something out from beneath the black cloak: a flare. It snapped the flare on and thrusted the flaming, sparkling end at Phillip. Phillip froze, his eyes widening at the sight of the flame. Dropping his baton, Phillip backed away from the flare, breathing rapidly through his nostrils. The hyena looked at Phillip, then at the flare, then grinned. It began to stalk forward, thrusting the flare at Phillip, who backpedaled rapidly.

"Look out!" Daring warned, but it was too late: in his panic, Phillip had failed to notice he was backing up towards the edge of the roof. With a scream, he fell off the side of the building, tumbling three stories down onto the hard ground. The hyena looked over the edge at its fallen prey, then turned, noticing a wheelbarrow loaded with bricks nearby. With a grunt, it pushed the wheelbarrow over the edge, where it tumbled down onto Phillip's prone body with a tremendous crash.

"No!" Daring shouted. With a final, furious slash, she cut herself free of the net and tumbled out, flying right at the hyena with the intent of pushing it over the edge. The beast ducked beneath her attack, allowing her to fly back out into the night sky. By the time, she turned around, the assassin was already gone.

Panting, Daring looked down to see a pile of bricks on the ground several feet beneath her. A single brown hoof protruded from the pile. She dived down and started flinging bricks off the pile, eventually exposing Phillip's head. He wasn't moving. Several trails of blood streamed from his head.

"Phillip? Phillip, can you hear me?" Daring shouted, shaking him. No response. She reached down and pressed a hoof against his neck. She felt a pulse, but it was weak and slow. Looking around the site, Daring saw a red box mounted on the wall nearby. Dashing over, she pulled down the lever, turning on the fire alarm. The alarm bell began clanging incessantly, sending its cry out into city, but Daring hardly heard it. All she knew was the feeble pulse beneath her hoof and a faint giggle that echoed in the back of her mind.

Author's Notes:

Wow, this chapter turned out a lot longer than I thought it would, but there's really nowhere in the chapter that offers itself up as a good stopping point.

A lot of things happened in here. The hyena is an adversary that is to be feared, and he may have added one more name to his list of prey. More coming...