The Ambush (Snowflake Mystery)

It was a dark night, but the moon gave off enough light to see. One ally over from where the shipment was going to be, Renaultar waited with the others. His barding blackened to keep it from betraying him to the light so easily.

"Ten minutes. Things should be happening in ten minutes. Are all of you ready? This could be a sneak in and pick up or a full fight."

Stolen oil paintings, depicting forbidden affairs, (it's all here)
Priceless old statues that seemed to have vanished in air, (it's all here)
We've got the landscapes, portraits and more,
Stuff you can't get from a legal store,
So come in and place your bid - if you daaare.

The 'random singing phenomenon' had hit the market as Loyal, White, and Nameless kept close to each other. Nameless looked even more like a colt, whilst the others were disguised. Loyal had been dissatisfied with Nameless' report, and had decided to take things into her own hooves. Blades were concealed upon all her legs, arranged to stab anypony she strikes. White was unarmed, humming along with the tune, which was a sort of bluesy number. Nameless just looked around for the ponies from the meeting.

Blue wandered up, walking slowly to both keep his hoof steps from echoing and from being tired. Once he got to the ambush point he'd allow himself a pick-me-up. He black cloak kept him mostly concealed except for some glinting from a square object on his right foreleg.

Earl Was Standing in the Alleyway, Legs shaking under the "weight" of the bags he was carrying, made to look like they were heaping full of Coffee beans. "Where are they... They were going to make their way here, I'm sure of it."

Renaultar waited, and soon enough a carriage being pulled by two earth ponies made its way down the street. A third pony, a unicorn, was at the head seat. They went into the nearby alley and stopped at a loading bay door. After a few moments the door opened and a hoof full of other ponies inside began to move things into the cart. Most of them were rather relaxed, some even playing some card games and not helping at all. No one had a good look on how many there were total yet, but it was at least 8 with the carriage included.

Genuine Ponnet, De Manger, Hasbro and Shear, (it's all here)
Even the nutcase who cut off his own freaking ear, (it's all here)
Go to the cops as a big 'fuck you',
You'll just get laughed at, and we'll gut you,
Just shut up and purchase the art - that is here.

As the spontaneous song drew to a close, a decently large metal container with the words FRAGILE printed on the side was taken out. Water vapour could be seen steaming off it. Another container of similar nature soon followed. Loyal told her companions to now pay attention. White stopped humming. Nameless stopped looking. All three blended into the background, as maids were meant to do.

Blue stood beside Renaultar.

"If you're not who I think you are, you're going to get brained."

A stocky orange adolescent colt bumps into Woods.

"What where you're going, ya dumb bitch!"

Earl Called down the Street. "Hello? I think I took a wrong turn... Darn Bags. Could you help me out, one of you fellows?" He squinted a bit, looking at the faces. "... Flash Freeze, is that you? Hey!"

Renaultar face hoofed. Great, someone recognizes him. Now we have to make sure to beat the sense out of them.

Renaultar waved Blue over closer. Once this group was led around the corner they could maybe get the jump on them or see if they could work something else out. For now, he waited silently in the shadows.

White opened her mouth to respond, but Loyal silenced her with a glare. They didn't need a confrontation. Instead, they briefly acknowledged the colt, and moved on.

Nameless nudged her superior, and motioned toward the pony who was calling down the street, and nodded. Loyal resisted the urge to facehoof. At least it would provide some sort of distraction. Even better, no sign of the other 'justice' ponies yet. That meant they were well hidden.

There were now three of the strange containers.

Peach Dream was so terribly lost. She had no idea that Quill lived this far into the Industrial district. and area that Peach has decided was designed by some drunk pony who couldn't design a properly gridded city to save a life.

It made her miss Trottingham.

Peach had lost site of Quill a few blocks back. She would just try again tomorrow.

"Oi lady I'll make ye pay for that! Yer going to owe me more den just a good time now!" Peach Dreams ears perked as she caught site of the stallion rounding the corner a few blocks down. "Darn I thought he would stay up that light pole another ten minutes or so..." Peach started to Gallop, she darted into the nearest alleyway, witch happened to be occupied. "Oh dear..." She said, starting to back out.

Blue steeled himself, getting ready to attack as soon as the transport came into view.

One of the Ponies, Flash freeze, blinked as he Recognized Earl. "'Ey, It's da' Coffee Stallion! Any Chance you got any o' Da' good stuff?" He said, Promptly getting hit by one of the other stallions.

"Ya Bozo, This is S'possed tah' be Private mattars. O'Stiffy Nose Won't like it..."

To this, Flash Replied. "'Ey now, I doubt Any of yous know what kind'o coffee 'e makes. Jus' Shaddup, StarScream."

The Stallion that hit Flash Freeze turned back to him. "That's Star SEARCH And ya know it! C'MERE!" The simple Argument turned into a small brawl, Having the other six visible stop unloading and start egging on the fight.

"... That worked better than I anticipated."

Renaultar peeked around the corner and was about beaming. This was perfect! Everypony was focused on the fight and the boxes that probably had the snowflakes were right there for the taking. He quickly waved Blue over and went around the corner.

Just as he was about to say something to Earl, he saw a pony past him. When he made eye contact with her, he felt his heart leap. Suddenly, he wasn't trying to be so sneaky anymore. His face was in full blush and he waved at her bashfully. "Oh...Hi Peach."

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS!" Loyal fumed, trying to keep her voice down, "The snowflakes were actually sold off already?"

The three ponies were making their way to the loading dock from the inside, they had missed the bidding, so they couldn't go after the purchaser him/herself. The least they could do was follow the snowflake containers.

"But 'Faith'," Nameless said, "They just said 'the snowflakes'. They could be any..."

It had been depressingly easy. Everypony had been rushing around, doing there business, and most ponies for security had been focusing their attentions outward instead of inward. Acting as though they should be there also greased the rails.

"They were the only snowflakes on sale, 'Random'," White wheezed, "Even if they aren't the snowflakes we're looking for, there was no point is hanging around. 'Faith', I'm not sure if bringing, uh, 'Random' was a great idea." She despaired as Loyal glared at her.

"'Blanche'," Loyal said sternly, "I think that 'his' shouting down of the only pony to give us trouble was invaluable."

Earlier...

"And I will not stand for this sort of disrespect, do you hear? Even if you escape the strong suggestions of my 'assistants' here, my father will make life very, very, difficult for you. Got that?"

Now...

Woods rolled her eyes. "Acting ability aside, I think-"

"Um, L- 'Faith'?"

"Hmm?"

"If these were the only snowflakes sold tonight, why are..." Nameless pointed ahead to the left, "Three frost boxes there," ahead to the right, "One on that pile" out a fair distance ahead, "Two in that carriage with the ponies fighting next to it?"

There was a fight occurring that had drawn many who would have spotted the three by now. How fortunate.

"Right," Loyal began, "Here's what we're going to-"

And that's when the world exploded.

Blue was already gone. He ran right passed Renny with a monkey wrench in mouth. He turned around to face away from the thugs and delivered a powerful buck to Star Search... sending him flying right into a snowflake container. The pony hit it just right to send pressure to one specific spot, igniting the explosives in the container, causing a quick chain reaction onboard that ignited the other containers. This of course had only one logical outcome: Part of the cart blew into pieces, catching those immediately around it in a shotgun blast of wooden splinters both small and stake sized. The rest of it blew sky high into the air taking the two ponies hitched to it with it.

Blue slowly turned around to look up at the sky, now lit up like a flare. His wrench clattered on the cobblestone as flaming bits and pieces rained down around him. NOW he had seen everything.

Peach Dream was so happy she saw a friendly face she found it hard to resist embracing Renny. She did run up and huddle next to him. "Am I glad to see you! This is such a terrible area of town, A pony has been following me for the last blo..."

The sight of the explosion caused Peach Dream to shreik and cling to Renny. "What in Celestia's name is goin' on ear!?" It took one hell of a doozey to get Peach Dream to slip into Lower Trottingham cant without knowing it. She didn't even Flinch as bits of cart and... pony rained down around them.

Earl just stood Gob-stopped. "... Boom." He said weakly, flopping over.

Renaultar didn't even notice Blue run past and buck the pony. He was completely oblivious to all else. That is until the explosion happen.

He gave up on asking further about the pony following her and looked on to the mess, horrified as bits rained down everywhere. His eyes searched about quickly, looking for every pony around him.

Earl? Okay, Earl is here. Peach is good. Blue? Where is Blue?....Blue!

He found Blue in the place he thought he least expected him. Right where the fight had been. For some reason, he was not as surprised as he thought he would be.

"Blue? Blue!....BLUE!? Please don't tell me you just did that!" His attention was soon moved a little off track again at Peach's accent. It tickled his happy nerve a little and he resisted the temptation to smirk.

"Where are the snowflakes? Grab the snowflakes and run!" He searched about for the boxes, or what was left of them. There had to be something right? Never mind the many other thugs that might still be there.

White Woods and Loyal Prudence instinctively stood in front of Nameless, shielding her from the explosion. All three felt a rush of heat from the explosion which soon passed, leaving the cool night seem even colder. Behind them, the auction house fell into a state of chaos as all the bidders desperately tried to flee from the sudden commotion. Such a scene would certainly attract attention, the kind that ponies at black market would not like.

The three maids stared at the destructive landscape before them. It was Woods who first spoke. "Um...What exactly was that?"

Loyal frowned. "Something that may have potentially ruined everything. Nameless! Can you see any of the frost containers?" she commanded, dropping the codenames.

Nameless looked around. There was only one. "Right next to that bleeding pony over there!"

Loyal grimaced. "I'll take care of that one. Woods, Nameless, grab the the frostbox and run until you can find a friendly face, or you when you get home, whichever comes first, okay? Don't you dare wait for me, whatever you do."

The head maid ran ahead with her subordinates following. She skidded and slammed into the pony sideways, knocking him from the box, whilst the other two grabbed it.

Blue took a few steps back, looking at the inferno and the dead and dying ponies on the ground in shock. Only one case was left with a bleeding pony on it... That was shoved out of the way and taken by either scavengers or more hired protection. He scooped his wrench back into his mouth and charged at the lead one, turning his head to deliver a powerful swing.

Peach Dream Followed closely behind Renny, not wanting to stray to far in this chaos. "Are you a Criminal Pony? Renny whats going on?!" Peach Levitated several badly burned ponies out of the fire and set them down away from it.

"Someone should call for the medics..." She franticly scoured her brain for the right Flare spell.

Earl curled up on the ground, and started Rocking. "He died... just... Boom! And he died. Dieddeaddeaddeaddead."

... He won't be much help for right now.

Renaultar hardly had the time to think much on what Peach said. "No! I'm a cop! Just stay close!" If he did have time to think, he might have figured that being too close was probably a bad idea when there was fighting going on.

He charged ahead, plowing through the ponies that were trying to recover from the explosion. He spotted the one box that Blue was going after, but was not happy to see other ponies trying to take it away.

Approaching from a different angle where it was darker, he put his guardpony training to use and charged full force at the larger of the two carrying the box, hitting center mass to throw the pony back a fair distance. Using his momentum, he threw his weigh around and bucked at the other older pony that was there. He paid the little pony not much attention, not making them much a priority at the moment.

"That box is MINE!" He roared. Adrenaline going, Renaultar was feeling like he could take on everypony.

Loyal...

...just managed to dodge the wrench, taken by surprise at the elderly pony charging. Swiftly side stepping, she slashed at his hind leg with her concealed blade, hoping to disable him for the fight, then leaped away from her opponent, keeping her distance. She was considering either outright finishing time's work or running when she heard...

...Nameless...

...cried out when she was sent sprawling into the ground. she was taken completely by surprise and she heard several crunches when she landed on the ground. She bit her lip trying not to sob openly, as she was sure that she broke something. Instead, she looked up and saw something that she couldn't remain silent for. She had to scream...

"Woods!"

...flew through the air, thrown by Renny's superior mass. Time seemed to go slower for her as she fell, her world rotating around her. She was always a pony that enjoyed a little risk, gambling with the servant from the other households from time to time. However, luck was not on her side. She crashed into a shelf, the impact causing a number of heavy things to fall...

Loyal...

...saw this and was subsequently too shocked to react to Renny running over and bucking her over. Her rage fueled her with the stamina to get up and haphazardly slash at Renny, far from the elegance she usually fought with. She fought with a desperate need, not to save herself, but rather...

...Nameless...

...crawled over to where White fell, oblivious to all around her. The physical pain she felt was nothing compared to the fear that White Woods, the pony who was like a big sister to her, could be dead. As she crawled, she was sobbing...

"White Woods..."




"...White Woods..."

Then the final box exploded.