(Moving Train)
(5 days later)

Hunter was sitting at a table on the train, trying to read a newspaper but his surroundings didn’t give him the best opportunity.

“Sign my card?!” A green and blue unicorn pleaded

“Sign my shirt!”A blue Pegasus said

“Sign my cutie mark?!” The tallest of the trio, an earth pony, requested.

Three young mares were swarming him and asking him for autographs. “I guess that’s A-Rank for you...” The few surroundings passengers took note of the activity and marveled at the guild member but didn’t go as far as the mares, a majority of the passengers were located in boxcars further back So Hunter was lucky in that aspect but still didn’t appreciate the attention.

The rear door opened and revealed an earth pony that was around five and a half feet tall with azure fur, dark eyes, a slender build and long white hair that ran down their shoulders to their upper back. They were wearing a kimono like Zeko’s but it was a dull silver and of course they were barehoof. The figure walked over to Hunter’s table and jumped over the excited mares and landed on the vinyl seat. “Excuse you! That’s Crescent Hunter you just sat across from! We’ve been waiting for our autographs so beat it girl!” The Pegasus said threateningly, while looming over the offender.

Before the earth pony could open their mouth Hunter decided to speak up. “Blue Dart is my friend and he’s a B-rank member of the Golden Blade.”

“That’s a boy? But he’s wearing the same robes that human boy designed for mares.” Blue Dart’s head was against the table and his face was showing dejection.

“He’s small for an earth pony and his mane is too long for a stallion, are you sure that’s not a mare?” The unicorn felt Dart’s hair and noted that it was particularly silky and well kept. “Unless his herd mothers take good care of him I can’t see why it’d be like this.”

“They just ignored my ranking and that we’re friends...” The azure stallion managed with a defeated tone.

“Well we’ve never heard of somepony like you, how do we know you aren’t just-“

“I think you girls should leave.” Hunter got their attention away from Dart. “He might be a lower rank than me but he can beat me in a fight.” Eyes widened and the mares walked away leaving the pair alone.

“Thanks, so why are we staying in-“

“Manehattan.”

“Right, why are we going into that city?” Hunter pulled out a piece of paper.

“Three days ago some weird activity started in the suburbs; some robberies without trace of who did it, and supposedly some bad luck hexes. There’s also been reports of ponies going missing but that’s been happening for months now.” Hunter shook his head at the statement while Blue Dart looked out the window

“Luck isn’t really a thing but that still sounds weird and how can anypony not mind missing ponies? Seems crazy to me. So why couldn’t you take that Zeko guy?” Dart laid back in his seat and looked curious at why he was brought along.

“Apparently something big happened in Ponyville and then part of the Everfree Forest got burned down so he stayed to fix it. He said he’d just train on his own while I was here since it’d be safer.”

“So tell me more about the rank system, I got put straight into B-rank but it goes down to D and up to S.”

“Well the ranks were made to place everypony accordingly. I’m an A-rank because I’m strong and smart, plus I worked hard and show up when there’s trouble. To rise through the ranks you need to complete missions and gain public attention but-“

“Since I’ve only been around for a couple of months and haven’t done too many missions...” Blue Dart leaned forward

“You’re in the lower half of B-rank. There’s about fifty in S-rank, almost one hundred in A-rank, more than five hundred in B-rank, and ranks C and D are tied at eight hundred.”

Blue Dart was flabbergasted at the numbers but shook his head and got up. “I’m going to take a nap.” He started back to the door he came in through, passing the pointing and whispering mares.

“He can’t be a B-rank, he’s too small for an earth pony. What could he do?” The unicorn said as Dart walked by.

The Pegasus eyed him as he left. “I don’t know but why would an A-rank be friends with him if he wasn’t?”

Blue Dart walked to the sleeper car and laid down on his bunk which was conveniently above Hunter’s. He closed his eyes and rested while thinking about where they were going. “I don’t like big cities though, glad that we’ll be in the suburbs.” The train went on and traversed through stretches of plains and small forests before reaching the outskirts of Manehattan after a few hours. The large buildings and crowds were overwhelming to the pair as they stepped off of the train with their luggage in hand.

“Busy isn’t it?” Hunter joked as they left the crowded station. Walking down a busy street they bumped into others constantly to Dart’s irritation. “You don’t have to deal with it for much longer as a matter of fact...” He took a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Dart. “Here’s the address, just hang around for a while and come by sunset.” Hunter walked through the crowd and got attention once a few pointed recognized his face and drew attention towards him, allowing Dart to slip into an alley.

“That worked...” He walked out and ended up next to a market and decided to go inside. “I wonder if...” He walked towards the produce section and found, “Tomatoes!” He grabbed two and went to buy them, taking out his pouch of bits in the process and not noticing the looks he’d gotten from a teenage unicorn colt by the door. He walked out while eating one of the tomatoes and marveled at the massive buildings surrounding him, wondering how look they took to create.

“Oh sorry!” The colt from before bumped into Dart’s side and continued walking. Dart continued down the quiet sidewalk before taking a bite of his tomato and turning around.

“I’m not just gonna let him get away with that am I?”

==============================
(15 minutes later)

The colt was in an alley with two other figures. “I got your payment...” He said to a pair of tall Pegasus stallions.

The slimmer one shook the pouch some and opened it. “This it? Might be good for a week but I don’t know...”

“Wha- You said if I got you two hundred bits my mom would be safe!” The colt moved forward but ended up with a fist in his stomach. He fell to the ground wheezing and the more solid stallion put his hoof on the colt’s head.

“Look kid, you should’ve known it’d be hard to pay back your debt and that little stunt you just tried to pull might make me-“ A cough broke him off and the malicious pair looked and saw a feminine figure with long white hair. “Well well, hey there cutie. You wanna come here with us?” The figure walked closer and revealed their face.

“A pretty mare too... Don’t worry we’ll take good care of you.” The stallions walked towards the kimono clad figure, not being aware of the danger they were in. The larger stallion reached out and grabbed air. “Wait wha- Agh!” Blue Dart’s hoof connected to the stallions back

“Should I mention that I’m a stallion?” He chopped the muscular stallion’s neck and sent him to the ground unconscious. “Kid you ok?”

“Y-Yeah I’m fine, I’m sorry for what I did but they would’ve hurt my mom if I didn’t keep paying them.”

Blue Dart walked over to the conscious stallion and took his pouch back. “We’ll find out who you are and I’ll break your legs for this.” Dart pulled out his other tomato and started eating and suddenly kicked the downed stallion’s head, knocking him out.

“That’s if you can catch me, hey kid you wanna come eat at my place? Your mom probably told you not to accept stuff from strangers but it’s an offer.” Dart walked out of the alleyway and picked his suitcase up. As he walked through the streets he saw that the colt was following him and decided to slow down so he could catch up.

“I’m Gleaning Coin, and how’d you move so fast back there?” The colt inquired. “It couldn’t have been a spell since only us unicorns can do that.”

Dart finished the last of his tomato before answering. “I’m Blue Dart and I move like that by using magic. Yeah unicorns can use spells and stuff but us earth ponies are physically in tune with magic so if you learn how, you can be the Azure Flash like me.”

“Wait...” Coin inquired. “The B-rank member of the Gold Blade?! I’m so sorry I tried to-“

“Speaking of...” Dart looked back. “How’d you get my pouch away? My pockets are under the kimono so how did you get it?”

“That’s... a long story... Something changed my magic a few days ago and now...” His horn glowed and created a shirtless child sized version of himself, with yellow fur and baggy brown pants. “He’s been calling himself Yellow Haze and he can just take things from others.”

“Do you have any orders for me?” Yellow Haze asked and when he didn’t get a response he vanished.

“Hmm, Hunter would have to hear about this.” The two walked for a few minutes and came upon a suburban neighborhood, looking at the address Dart saw that the dwelling he’d stay at was moderately sized and had a small garden in front. “Hunter I’m back and I brought a guest!”

“Good thing I was just setting the table. I’m lucky I had time to get to a market, this is your guest?”

“He might know something about what’s been going on here.” Dart elaborated as he put his luggage on a couch and looked at the second floor. Dart told Hunter about Yellow Haze and its ability to procure objects.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about any robberies around here would you?”

Gleaning Coin looked as nervous as a spider in a frog convention before looking at Hunter. “Well the thing is...”

“We’re all ears kid, dinner’s being served now so we’ve got time.” Dart pointed to Hunter holding a large pot of soup with three bowls and a ladle.

“A month ago these strange ponies came to my house and told my mom that she was running out of time to pay back my dad’s debt, but they were different than the ones he had dealt with before.” Coin took a break to try the soup and found it to be better than what he was used to. “This is good!”

“It’s just my recipe, it isn’t that special. When’s the last time you ate good food?” Hunter inquired but Coin’s smile faded at the question.

“That’s apart of it... The ponies told my mom that I’d have to help her pay them back, I used to help with labor at the docks but a few days ago one of them stabbed me with a needle with some green stuff in it. Later that day I made Yellow Haze for the first time and showed him to my mom, she freaked out but once she realized he was just my magic she calmed down. Here’s where it gets bad...” Dart and Hunter listened attentively while they ate. “Not long after that those two you beat up came and took me to the docks and had me test what Yellow Haze could do-“

“Do you have an order?” The one in particular made himself present and floated beside his creator.

“His ability was to teleport any object that was up to my size, he just had to touch it at least once and could get it back.” Yellow Haze produced Dart’s bit pouch as an example but it was taken back.

“And this is where they made you steal bit purses and pouches?” Dart asked as he got another helping of soup.

“We managed to get some good hauls by going to jewelry stores but I didn’t get to keep any of the profit. It was almost like my dad’s debt was just growing and growing... I figured them giving me Yellow Haze was a part of it.”

Hunter leaned over and handed him a slip of paper. “Now if there were any others with abilities like yours write down their names and if you can, their actual abilities would be helpful.”

He looked around for a moment before looking at the pair of high ranked mercenaries. “Can you promise that my mom will be safe?”

“Kid if I couldn’t make sure one pony was safe why would I be in the Golden Blade anyway?” Hunter looked at him disapprovingly

“Yes we can promise you that your mother will be safe.”

“I don’t know any names aside from those two Dart beat up and they were normal but I know that their boss has something called ‘The Devourer’ it can eat anything in its way but supposedly can only eat so much at a time.”

Dart got up and took his bowl to the kitchen. “Well it’s better than not knowing anything.” He said as he came back.

“There’s also rumor about where the green stuff came from but it didn’t make sense so we just stopped talking about it. Something about the Black Talon and things called... changelings? But we stopped talking about it fast when the boss told us to drop it.”

“That’s something... Either way we’ll do our best to solve this.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask... why are you wearing the same outfit my mom ordered like two weeks ago?”

“The kimono comes to my thighs! And you’re supposed to wear pants underneath! That’s what that Zeko guy told everypony but why am I the only one who can listen?!” Dart has his head against the table in anguish while Coin looked somewhat scared

“He does this when he feels like he made a bad choice but we can most definitely help you with your problem, if you want you can tell your mom she has our support.”

“Really?! That’s so cool! I’ll do my best to help!”

“Is that a command? Must we retrieve an object?”

“No Yellow Haze, but we have help now.”

The small being of magic stood with his arms crossed before shrugging. “It won’t matter, the boss has an incredibly powerful magical projection. We’re out of our league.”

They all looked at the surprisingly pessimistic being before Dart decided to speak up. “That’s not very helpful.”

=======

Author's Notes:

I think the name fits for this arc. We’re taking a short break from just Zeko and seeing how what transpires affects ponykind.
Like if you enjoy and if you don’t try to tell why otherwise you’re not helping anyone.

And I’d like to thank all of you for:
Over 100k words
Almost 25k views
You’ve all been great supporters of this and I never thanked you before

See you next time