A pony on hard times

Cadence lay in the large bath in her room, for what she knew would be the last time. Tonight was the night that months of undercover work were going to pay off, hopefully. There was no lying that she was a little nervous but no more than she expected she would be on her wedding day, whenever that would be. She used the thought of the day she had dreamed since she was small to help calm her down...

She replayed everything through her mind to make sure nothing had been missed. The local police department and the Royal Guard were ready, having been tipped off by Cadence on the perfect night to pounce. Three syndicates were meeting up today and one of them were bringing a new type of drug with them. It was twice as addictive as anything currently on the streets and had to be stopped before it was too late for the vulnerable ponies of Equestria.

She smiled as she remembered how she managed to get the messages to the authorities - when she went out in Manehattan the Princess knew that she was often followed, and she could not be sure who you could really trust in this town. But as she had completely earnt Stainless's trust, she asked for a brief vacation to go back to her spiritual home of cloudsdale. With the earth stallion enthralled with the mare in more way than one, he allowed it.

She knew that Cloudsdale had no crime problems as the pegasi home city was one of the most loyal and law abiding in the land. Having made it there without being followed, she was able to arrange the meetings she required. She replayed the various memories of the meetings into a projecting crystal and the gathered ponies of the various courts and police departments all agreed that they had enough evidence to convict.

Getting out of the bath, and looking back at the old friend fondly for the last time, she did her hair, makeup and put her servants outfit, not forgetting to put on the fake suppression ring.

Downstairs, the other mobsters had arrived and Crystal Heart’s job was just to act as a carrying tray – the other servants placed the drinks and the alicorn just slowly delivered them. The room was full of criminals that the Equestrian authorities would be grateful to put away and capturing them all together would be the final evidence they would need.

She noticed that all the ponies she had expected were there, but not the Griffon himself. That was a shame, but probably made the whole thing easier. But also one pony wasn't there for a change, the head of the servants Ms Platter.

The night before Cadence had taken Silver to one side after dinner and found an empty room.

“Silver, I want you you call in sick tomorrow and not come into work” Cadence started

“But it’s a big event, Mr Spur will need me”

“Do you trust me?” The alicorn lowered her head to meet that of the smaller mare, and looked at her right in the eyes with genuine concern.

“Who’s speaking here, Crystal Heart or Princess Cadence?”

The alicorn smiled “Your Princess. Please Silver, just call in sick tomorrow. Don’t say anything to anypony…I am trusting you here”

“Okay Cadence, for you!”

Cadence slowly plodded around the room, the broken mare pretending to be a serving tray, and she was left alone with her thoughts. Sizing up all the ponies in the room, and their bodyguards, she was glad that her friend wasn't around in case things turned ugly...when things turned ugly.

Suddenly, a huge commotion was heard from outside, and some more bodyguards came running in

“Boss” one of them called out “The fuzz are here!”.

Almost instantly bright floodlights lit up the building and looking out of the windows the gathered ponies saw hundreds of police ponies and Royal Guards surrounding the mansion.

“We have you surrounded” the Captain of the guard called out "Come out unarmed and surrender!"

Suddenly, the lights flooding the room changed from a natural white to a light blue. Looking outside, they could see a blue shield had been placed around the whole compound. This caught the mobsters out in surprise, as all of the ponies in Equestria knew that shields can only be cast from inside, not from outside.

As if by one thought, every head in the room turned to face Cadence. Looking at her, the tray shed from her back and her majestic horn glowing, it was obvious that she was casting the spell. It took but a moment to realise this had been a trap sprung from within, and like every animal in a trap they all did one of two things – fight or flee.

Some of the ponies panicked and started fleeing out of the room, looking for a place to escape too. Of course Cadence had known about the tunnels under the compound and the ponies heading that way would soon find not only a gaggle of guards blocking them, but that her shield passed under the mansion to create a complete unbreakable bubble. The ponies running away were therefore of no concern to Cadence, and would soon be caught.

However the trained bodyguards that were approaching her, ready to fight, were of greater concern. They were a little wary of what was going to happen to them, going up against a powerful magical creature, but their loyalty to their respective mob bosses was unfaltering. As she was slowly being surrounded by the smaller but more muscular ponies, Cadence did the most logical thing

She ran.

This took them all by surprise as they expected to be fought by her magic first and that give her the breathing space she needed. She sped off down a corridor before quickly being chased by a pack of Earth pony bodyguards. She wouldn't be able to outpace them for long and could hear their stomps and shouts from behind her, but there was no need for her to worry.

Diving for a stained glass window at the top of the main stairs she smashed through it and extending her wings flew off into the sky, leaving the large ground based ponies behind. She couldn't go through her shield and maintain it from the outside, so she was as currently trapped with the ponies she was trying to contain. Whilst taking to the air gave her a bit of a breather it only took a few moments for the pegasi guards to take flight after her.

Having quickly organised themselves unicorns on the ground started firing various spells at Cadence as she ducked and dived avoiding the chasing flyers. Luckily the spells were weak and she was moving too fast to aim properly. Others unicorns were trying to weaken her shield but given defensive magic was her speciality, there was no way they were going to be successful.

But the princess found herself in a bit of a quandary – whilst the shield kept the evil ponies trapped inside, it didn't allow any of the police or guard in to arrest them. It was therefore a bit of a standoff as she was currently too busy avoiding some decent Pegasi flyers to focus enough to create small doorways in the shield to allow the guards in. Ducking below one of the better aimed blasts, and diving beneath two pegasi approaching her, she tried to calculate the best way of using her magic.

The obviously solution was to try to incapacitate her pursuers, so that her flight would keep her safe from the two ground based races. But to do that, she would have to use her magic which was focused on keeping the shield up. Speeding away from a chasing pack of pegasi, she had to try to guess how quickly between dropping the shield spell and casting an offensive strike she could then re-activate the shield spell. Of course if any of them did try to escape the guard were waiting outside, but she wanted to try to end this without any bloodshed, and getting them to surrender was the best way to do this.

Cadence rose to the top of the shield and stopped casting her shield spell, the shield remaining in place for a moment. Instantly she cast a lightning spell but no doubt distracted by the adrenaline coursing through her veins and given her initial pegasi birth, the weather based spell was much stronger then she expected. The whole shield lit up with bolts of energy, striking all the other flyers and shocking them out of the sky. It also stunned every creature outside the safety of the building, such as the unicorns trying to blast her.

Once the spell faded, and having started casting the shield spell again, Cadence found herself in a moment of calm. Looking at the creatures that had fallen out of the sky, her natural caring instinct meant that she hoped she hadn't permanently hurt any of them. However, the logical part of her did realise that given what she was sure they would be willing to do to her if they had caught her, it was her only option.

With all the pegasi grounded and most of the unicorns too overwhelmed to use magic, the earth ponies including the main mob bosses looked up at the Princess hovering above them, realising that her power was out of their league. Also finding themselves surrounded by a small and rather well equipped army of police and guards, they all knew the gig was up – Celestia’s government had finally caught them red hooved.

Stainless Spur knew not to fight as he might at least be able to feign ignorance, although he had a sneaking suspicion that with Cadence on the inside, there was going to be enough evidence to prosecute them all. However, despite being a crook, he had his own personal honour and didn't want to be taken away fighting or injured - if he was going to be in the media, he wanted to have some style!

He went back into his study, calmly put on his best coat, straighten his tie and looking at his office for one final time,walked out into the hallway. Passing a number of ponies who were trying to recover from the lightning shock, he helped them up to their hooves. He then came across a number of his gang, as well as a few other ponies from the other organisations, arming themselves with weapons.

“My friends…It’s over” the boss called out from the end of the corridor. The ponies just looked at him, and weren't sure what to do.

“We have to try something” his second in command shouted exasperatedly.

“We are surrounded, out-numbered, out-powered and out-manoeuvred …what do you suggest”

“We fight, and perhaps take a few of them down with us!” he responded a little resigned to his fate "We can't let that...that...mare...beat us!"

“It is better to live to fight another day, than die in a pointless act no pony will remember.” Stainless responded with his usual air of authority. He walked out of the mansions front doors into the lights being cast by the Royal Guards spells. He lay down on the lawn with his hooves spread and his gang started doing the same. Some of the ponies that were already outside, either preparing to fight or trying to flee saw this, and looking at the guard waiting for them on the outside, did the same.

With nopony left to run away from, Cadence landed on the ground, a little way from the other ponies. She carefully opened a small portal on the shield and the police and guards started streaming in to arrest the ponies, and gather evidence. The battle was over before it had begun, and except for a few singed feathers and headaches, not a single drop of blood was spilt.

Cadence kept an eye on what was going on around her, but as the police ponies started outnumbering the criminals, she could finally let her guard down a little. She almost began shaking as the adrenaline started to wear off, as well as the fact it was a cold night and the clothing she wore did nothing to warm her. She teleported the skimpy outfit off of her before anypony else noticed, but then heard her name.

“Well played, Crystal Heart” Stainless called out as he was being led past her and away by a pair of guards.

“How dare you speak to the Princess” one of the guards shouted, and smacked him with a hoof. Cadence shot the guard a look, and then approached the stallion.

“You showed me kindness, and it breaks my heart to have betrayed you. But you have betrayed all the ponies of Equestria with your actions” Cadences voice was soft and full of sorrow, despite all the action happening around her.

The mob boss sighed “I don’t blame you, it had been but a game for many years, and finally I have been beaten by a better player, Princess Cadence”

Stainless tried to bow but the two guards prevented him from moving. Cadence frowned a little, but didn't want to overrule the guards doing exactly what they were trained to do.

“I only hope you can be reformed. You are very clever and would make a worthy addition to pony-kind if you could only work for good, rather than this evil you have been focused on”

Stainless looked up at the Alicorn and with her innate perception of ponies feelings she could sense just a hint of genuine regret “I am sorry to disappoint you Princess but I think my gang and I are too far gone for that. However, I have no doubt you will do something amazing that will save ponykind, and I hope you find your prince in shining armour”

The Princess bowed her head and touched her horn to the earth pony’s forehead, an ancient sign of respect. The guard then proceeded to take him away, his crime syndicate smashed and Manehattan a safer place.