The Ambush (Snowflake Mystery)

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.

Blue yelled out when the knife cut his leg, dropping his wrench. A pony with a knife... He'd be lucky to get out of this fight without another cut ear. He narrowingly missed the knife wielding goon fly over his head when he bent down to pick his wrench back up. He launched another charge at the maniac to keep her from slashing Renaultar. The next thing he knew he was hit by a piece of metal and flown back towards Earl.

Peach Stayed close to Renny, Up to the point when she saw the filly go Flying. She shot up an emergency flare, not that it would do much good in this district.

Going threw her catalog of medical Magic Peach went to the little filly, Horn glowing with a spell to numb the pain. "It will be all right dear, I- I'm sure Renny didn't mean to hurt you..." As she leaned down to cast the spell an explosion went off behind her, the shock wave throwing her to the ground and she felt a slicing pain across her back.

Renaultar was smirking to himself as he engaged with this thug. Unicorn or no, he had been in enough fights that he felt he could definently win here. He was thankful that Blue helped deflect a slice at him, but was ready to move so that his armor would take the shot instead.

He placed himself between the thug and the box, standing tall and ready to fight. He opened his mouth to speak, but what sound came instead was a loud deafening roar. A hot shock wave blasted Renaultar from behind, launching him forward with anything but grace. The armored pony was helpless and confused as suddenly all of his senses were overwhelmed and disoriented. The only thing he did know was working was pain.

Loyal slowly opened her eyes, blinking away the ash that had settled on her face. When the final box blew, she had instinctively leaped out of the way of the huge flying mass that was the...guard? Loyal jumped to her feet, extraordinarily swiftly, staring in shock at her fallen opponent. The shocked stare turned into a cold one when she recognized the guard. Her gaze slowly panned out the scene. The elderly pony had been struck by shrapnel, his companion in a state of shock. Then her gaze reached where Woods fell, and the head maid was struck by a dire sense of urgency. She ran over to the fallen shelves, shouting in an ordering tone, "Nameless! Assistance in getting Woods!"

Nameless who was covered by the strange mare from the final explosion, responded to the call, going into 'service mode'. "Right!" she called back, immediately getting herself up...and falling again. "Loyal!" she despaired, "I...can't!" She saw the head maid look up at her, the cold gaze warming with its own sadness. "Stay there," came the tired reply, "I'll do this."

Loyal began desperately trying to lift the debris off her colleague. "White, you'll be out of there soon! Just hang on!"

Blue groaned loudly as he got up. Never before in all of his years walking the city had he ever been blown up. Maybe a few minor explosions when dabbling in chemistry, sure. But never an actual bomb. He dusted himself off and promptly fell to his knees, severely weak. He looked down to see the jagged piece of metal sticking out of his bloodstained chest and calmly said.

"Earl... get me out of here."

Earl Slowly Came to. "Blue...?" He then noticed the Piece of metal Sticking out. "Sweet Celestia! Blue! Oh dear, oh dear..." He then looked around. "Everypony..." He shook his head. "Climb on. We gotta run."

Everything sounded like it was coming from far away, and it made her head spin. Picking herself up she hardly felt the gash along her backbone.

Looking around her Peach Dream's brain could hardly register what was going on. Settling on what was around her she saw a pony digging in the wreckage. "aarhg, Um, Ah Dear, is somepony bur ber Buried?" She didn't know why it was so hard to pick the right words..

"Leh' Me" Her teal magical shroud cloaked the upper layer of wreckage and levitated it up slowly, so not to injure anyone under it.

Conciousness. Renaultar looked about him, trying to register where he was.

Where am I? What was i doing last?

Pain searing through most of his body told him whatever it was, it was not a bad back from waking up in the morning. He felt warm wet spots in several places on his body, but the fire and bodies around him got his attention first. Despite the pain, Renaultar forced himself onto his legs. Adrenaline was doing wonders for him.

Fire...bodies...thugs...Snowflakes! Boxes!

He looked around, seeing nothing but fire where the box once was. He also noted that something else was burning. With several swats, Renaultar put out the fire on his tail before tiredly looking to the other ponies still on their feet.

Ponies...Peach. Injured. He limped over to Peach, not concerned with the battle that was being fought a moment ago. Despite that, he kept in mind what he could do to defend himself i that fight were to continue. He took note to identify his attack, a bit upset she was not so injured. Then he recognized her.

...Loyal? The source of light from the flare made it easier to see their faces. ...Nameless?!

At this point, there was no room for emotions. It was facts and actions.

Facts. Peach was hurt, as was Nameless and some pony he could net yet see under the debris. They needed medical attention and someone to carry them.

Action. Renaultar limped over to the ponies, not saying a word. With the strength he had, he started pulling away chunks of debris like it hardly more than pebbles.

Once the pony was free, he stepped back and looked to Peach and Nameless.

"...Who can i carry?"

Renaultar had not bothered giving himself a lookover yet, but his armor was mostly smashed up, seeing to do its job in stopping anything from hitting his vitals. Most of his exposed areas had some scortching and gouges from debris, all bleeding . Most notable was the metal wedge that managed to go through his armor on the side of his rump and imbed itself rather deeply. Despite all this, he was hardly that affected by it, at least for now.

Woods had been horribly mangled by her experience but was still breathing as confirmed by Loyal. Her eyes shot up at Renny's question. "You. Carry her. Now," she said in a tone that allowed no compromise, pointing at White.

Then she strode over to Nameless, who struggled onto her back. "Is Woods alright?" the filly weakly asked.

"She's alive," Loyal replied, with actual reassurance in her voice. Despite this, Nameless looked troubled, looking over to her object of concern. Loyal, for her part, looked around at the survivors. Her soft face for Nameless grew cold and hard again. "This? This was the sorry crew you assembled for this duty! I've seen hardier crews when-" she cut herself off, glaring at nopony in particular.

Blue coughed and looked in Loyal's direction. His ears were lowered and looked more pathetic than an old pony should warrant due to his blood loss.

"I don't know about you, but we need to get the $^#@ out of here before we all get arrested."

Earl trotted over. "C'mon, Old Coot, We gotta get you to the Hospital."

Once the pony was removed Peach placed the stuff back down removing her magic from it.

She was still a little dazed. And didn't know why her back felt so wet. Or her face for that matter.

When she saw Renny again she was relived. "Renny, I don' know what's Goin' on- " She cut herself off staring at Renny a moment. "Renny, ya' 'ave a bit o metal in ya' flank." her voice was week and she had fallen back into her Trottingham cant because of the shock.

Renaultar carefully slid under Woods to get her onto his back. If they had the time, he would have waited for a stretcher, but he had enough of his senses come back to know that if they didn't move soon they would be in trouble.

After hearing Loyal, Renaultar reflexively replied. "...Shut up. Pick somepony up and start walking." His response was not angry or irritated, but rather blunt and factual.

He sluggishly looked to Peach, seeing she was not looking very good. "Peach, think you can walk? If not, i can carry two."

With a scan of his surroundings, he finally located Blue and Earl. He was releived Earl was helping Blue, but he did not like the sight of him injured so heavily. They needed to get out of here.

"We need to move. A hospital might not be an option if we don't want to get caught...." He felt a little worry at that. His emotional block was beginning to fail him gradually as his mind began to absorb the seriousness of the situation.

"I want to go home..."

It was quiet in volume, but somehow everything else became just background noise to the filly's plea. Loyal was about to retort to Renny, saying that she was carrying Nameless, but that was stopped the desperate request not of a maid, but of a foal.

Loyal sighed. "The household," she said, tiredly, "The household is the best bet."

She closed her eyes to think about it. When she opened them again they were filled with steel determination. "We're going home, Something Nameless. If any of you ponies-" she looked around at the others. "Want to follow, then I won't stop you. Luna, you can probably rest up at the household until you're healed. But I'm taking Nameless home." She shot an especially cold glare at Renny. "Whatever you do, Make. Sure. White Woods. Lives."

Then she strode off.

Blue didn't know who the maids were and he didn't care. He struggled to get back up to his hooves. With a mighty push he managed to get up, and with another he threw his front legs over Earl's back, dripping blood onto his back. Though his front legs were too weak, he thought he could make do with just his back ones.

"Come on you over caffeinated *cough* hoof kisser... I know a doctor in this area... Quick, between those two *wheeze* streetlights.... Hurry..."