(Manehattan)
(3 days later)

Blue Dart and Gleaning Coin were walking through the streets at night, almost aimlessly. “I’m still in total denial that she was your mom.”

“Can you not keep talking about it?” The teenager pleaded but Dart only remembered to earlier that evening.

(Flashback)

“This should be his house... I guess that poor here isn’t really that bad.” Dart gazed at the decent looking dwelling that had a well done paint job and an overall clean appearance, even noticing a cellar door despite the lack of a second floor. He knocked on the door three times and heard hoofsteps from inside.

“Hello?” The door parted and revealed a mare who looked as if she were in her early twenties. “Are you Coin’s marefriend?” Dart’s head dropped and he smiled sadly

“I’m his friend... and I’m a stallion.” She walked out of the doorway and gazed at Dart, she revealed that she was wearing a white blouse and black pants. She was taller than him by a few inches, which surprised Blue Dart since unicorns aren’t as big as earth ponies.

She gained a predatory look in her eyes and leaned against the door frame. “You really are a stallion, well can I interest you in a warm drink? I’d enjoy the company since I’ve been so lonely since my husband disappeared all those months ago...” She gave a sultry smile and beckoned Dart who managed to keep a solid expression but it was cracking quickly.

“MOM!” At a nearly blinding speed, Gleaning Coin pulled his mother back into the house and shut the door leaving him outside with Blue Dart. “Don’t say anything! She’s been like this for a while now... Ever since my dad-“

(Current time)

“Hello?!” Coin exclaimed and shook Blue Dart’s arm and brought him back into current time.

“Huh? What happened? Why are you touching my arm?”

Coin carefully pointed behind himself so their followers wouldn’t notice and when Dart looked back he saw six different stallions following them, with the same two he’d beaten down a few days prior. “Perfect timing, down this way.” They turned and started walking down an empty street.

Coin looked nervous as the figures followed them down the street, the one in the back being the most noticeable since he was taller than the others and had a horn. “S-So what’s the plan here? You just told me we were going to lure them out but how are we supposed to win?”

“Hey pansy!” Coin looked back and saw the two stallions he knew pointing at Dart, who was standing there with a look of disbelief. “I’m not a liar and I’m about to show you that.” He referred to his threat from before and his group pulled out pipes and knives. Coin managed to get through his newfound fear and made Yellow Haze emerge.

“Hello master, do you have any orders?”

“Just protect us!” The projection crossed his arms as the grunts headed for them while the unicorn stood back.

“Hah!” The first one swung for Dart but missed and embedded his pipe into the brick wall of a building, before he could remove it Dart appeared by his side. “Oh-“ His head was smashed against the wall and he was rendered unconscious.

“Gotcha!” A grunt got Blue Dart from behind and put his pipe to his neck, cutting off his air supply. “One o’ you come here and kill him!” Dart hit his attacker in the head and tried to pry the arm away but didn’t have enough leverage. “Nice try but- Wait why is he so cold?” Before another grunt could help him the pipe disappeared. “What?!”

“Yellow Haze: Recovery! I’ll be needing this!” The magical projection used the blunt object and swung it at a knife wielder’s hand and broke his fingers.

“MY HAND!” Yellow Haze spun and smacked the pipe into the wounded assailant’s head, sending him to the ground unconscious.

“These ones don’t seem all that strong master-“ Yellow Haze stopped to appear behind Coin and block an oncoming strike. “We should worry about the one in back.” Coin looked back and saw the unicorn throw his coat away and reveal a black shirt with long sleeves that matched his dark pants.

At this point Dart had just thrown the one who had him a grapple into another and put them both out of the way. “Looks like you just took down most of my crew.” He spoke in a voice that didn’t fit his size since he sounded young, only a few years older than Gleaning Coin. “So I guess we’re gonna have to do this the hard way kid.” His horn began to glow a purple color and a silhouette as large as him began to form. Yellow Haze threw the pipe at the remaining stallion and hit him square on the nose, making him retreat behind the unicorn.

“Fine then you can stay behind me.” The silhouette became more and more detailed

Blue Dart stood at Yellow Haze’s side and looked between the small being and the large figure. “Hey Yellow Haze-“ The Yellow child-like being looked to his side. “You wouldn’t be able to gauge his power would you?”

“Hmm...” He contemplated as the shadowy figure formed and stood beside its creator. “The enemy has an immense amount of power so I’m not sure that we can win this, we’re out of l-u-c-k...”

The magical projection revealed itself to have brownish fur much like its creator and had no defining clothing aside from silver plated armor on its chest, knees, and along its arms. It also wore a crimson scarf. “This is Infest, he’s way better than your little Specter.”

“So they’re called Specters?” Blue Dart asked right before Infest charged him and threw a punch that connected with his forearms. “Woah! It feels like he hit me with a brick!” Dart pushed the Specter’s arms aside and landed a kick to Infest’s side, stunning him.

“Chaa!” Infest recovered and started an unyielding barrage of strikes to Dart, luckily the stallion managed to put his guard up and block the oncoming strikes.

“If you keep blocking then your arms’ll end up broken. Infest hits as hard as a speeding cart!” The dark being pulled its right arm back and slammed it into Dart’s, a cracking sound followed after.

“Blue Dart!” Coin exclaimed while Yellow Haze put his hands together.

“Primary ability activated, Yellow Haze: Rift!” The small Specter separates his hands and a rift appeared behind Blue Dart, he was pulled away from an oncoming strike for his head and landed next to Gleaning Coin.

“Wait what? Yellow Haze what was that?”

“Well master when I teleport an object it transfers through my pocket space, your desire to save your friend let me activate it so I made a portal and pulled your friend to us... It seems we’re in l-u-c-k.”

“You guys are pretty good, might as well introduce myself before I break you both. I’m Deep Shadow so remember that before you’re in comas. Infest!” The Specter turned its head. “Use Last Resort!”

“Infest: Last Resort.” He spoke with an echo and raised his hands, his nails grew and sharpened. “You will lose...” He stabbed his sides to the surprise of Blue Dart and Gleaning Coin. When he removed his hands they were coated in blood but the attack came from the Specter chopping the air and sending two blade like streaks out.

“MOVE!” Dart jumped out of the way while Yellow Haze moved Coin while the blades of blood impacted with the wall behind them and carved straight through the brick, leaving a clean slice.

“Last Resort is what Infest does to end a fight, he can use his nails to turn any liquid into a weapon like those blades. I can even have him use his blood but the cost is-“ He paused and his horn sparked while Infest shook. “It’s harder to keep him active.”

“Dart? What do we do now? We can’t stay far away but he broke your arm up close!”

Blue Dart only smirked and cracked his neck. “He broke my arm because I focused on defending until I knew what he could do... Now I can fight Infest no problem.” The stallion and the Specter charged and began their clash while Coin, Yellow Haze and Deep Shadow watched on. “Let’s go!”

“Agreed...” Infest replied as Blue Dart began his assault.

*Clang* A solid right hook

*Clang* An elbow drive

*Clang*

And a backwards roundhouse kick all connected with the guards on Infest’s arms. “He’s keeping his guard up now...” Infest started its own attack and prepared its sharpened nails. “Uh oh!”

*Clang*

Dart hit the plating on Infest’s forearm and bounced the oncoming strike. He aimed a hit for the Specter’s side but it jumped and lashed with its nails.

*Clang*

Deflected again, the two faced each other...

*Clang*

They clashed fist to fist and struggled to push the other back, neither gave way and both started to form grooves in the concrete sidewalk, somehow nopony was around to witness the clash but that didn’t make a difference to Blue Dart or Infest since they were both smiling. Infest broke the struggle and used a low sweep kick to knock Dart into the air. “Woah!”

“Dart!” Coin and Yellow Haze prepared to jump in but didn’t get a chance.

*Thud*

Blue Dart was petite by all means and against the Specter didn’t appear as if he’d have a chance physically but forgetting that he was still an earth stallion was Deep Shadow’s mistake, because while he was in the air he spun and bucked Infest in the jaw with everything he’d had. “Nice try... But I’m too good for that.” Infest was sent crashing into Shadow but once the Specter made contact he was pulled into his horn.

“Agh! You actually beat Infest?!” Shadow clutched the sides of his head. “My head! This hurts so bad...” He fell backwards and hit the ground motionless.

“It seems that we were able to win today, we truly have luck master.” Yellow Haze vanished while Gleaning Coin walked up to Shadow and checked his pockets and found an ID card.

“Wait, he’s only fifteen? I thought he was a grown stallion!”

“That changes things...” Blue Dart thought, but he snapped out of it and looked around. “Where’d the other stallion go?!”

===================================
(Two days later)

A steady beeping sound filled the room while a calming breeze came in from the opened window and a semi conscious figure stirred in bed. “My... head... Somepony stop that ringing...” Deep Shadow murmured as he tried to move but only had migraines come to him.

“Considering Infest returned to you so forcefully I can see why the resonance would leave you like this.” Shadow’s eyes opened wide once he heard a voice and he saw none other than Gleaning Coin, Blue Dart and a stallion he quickly identified as

“Crescent Hunter?!” Shadow took a moment to think about why these three were here before he came to his conclusion and quickly called Infest.

“I wouldn’t do that... there’s three of us now and my arm isn’t broken this time.” Shadow looked at Dart’s arm and saw that it was in fact fully recovered despite having nearly felt the bones being crushed by his Specter. “Look we just want any information you might have and-“

“Not happening.” Shadow interrupted. “I’m not telling you guys a thing, I’ve got way too much to think about keeping safe than to-“

“What then?” Hunter asked calmly. “What do you have to keep safe?”

The question almost seemed to give Deep Shadow a mental lapse but he refocused and looked back towards them. “I have to protect my family pride...”

Surprisingly it was Gleaning Coin who got up and walked over to the tall teenager and looked at him accusingly.

*Smack*

Before a red handprint made its way onto his face. “REALLY?! Family pride is why you’re up to this?!” He yelled as Dart pulled him away, kicking and ranting.

“You don’t understand...” Shadow looked downwards. “About six years ago my sister went missing in this city and ponies just wanted to call it an accident... I knew something happened to her and since then I’ve been doing my best to figure out what. The boss promised me he’d do his best to help me if I help him.”

“You got injected with that stuff so you could avenge your sister? I’ll admit that’s pretty bold but do you really think that you’re the only one who has problems?” Blue Dart asked.

“What do you mean? Nopony else has to deal with my issues.”

Coin was standing up again. “The guys I worked for, you get help from, keep me and my mom in an endless chain of debt and they do it to plenty of others too. They’re greedy and don’t care about us, I’m almost willing to bet that he’s got no idea of what happened to your sister and he’s waiting to stab you in the back.”

To say that Shadow looked angry would be an understatement but to say it was hiding growing sadness would be a good observation. The more the young stallion thought about it he realized that Coin was right, the group never gave him any form of assistance when it came to finding out what happened to his sister and when he fully realized this he let a tear fall down his cheek. “So now what can I do?” He looked up to see the three of them with fists outstretched

“You can give us a fist bump and not be a lump. Then tag along with us to take the boss down, help Coin’s mom, and find out what happened to your sister.” Dart said with a smile.

Shadow made a full one eighty and went from dejected to ecstatic and quickly fist bumped the others simultaneously. “Alright! If it’ll give my sister peace and restore my honor for being tricked so long...” He got up slowly while rubbing his head but seemed to be ok. “Then I’m all for helping you guys.” He threw off his hospital robe and put the clothes he had beside the bed back on. “So what do we do first?”

“We work our way up to the boss, while looking for clues about your sister’s disappearance... At least that’s what a detective would say.” Dart said while Hunter rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Well I suppose this is going to go well... but not for me.”

=======

Author's Notes:

I know what I did here... who else can point it out?

See you next time