The Search for Con Mane

"What do you mean you told two royal guards?!" asked a stallion, covered in darkness while on a video call with Con Mane.

"Sir, they were asking so many questions. I had to tell them." Con Mane replied.

"You could have just jeopardized the whole operation. You know that, right?" The stallion said.

"I know. But sir, with all do respect, they HELPED me two nights ago. I had no weapons, I could have easily been taken down." Con Mane said back.

"Ugh." The stallion said, facehoofing. "You better pray that these two guards don't spill the beans, or you're done for." The stallion said in a threatening voice.

"Don't worry about it, director. I'll watch them closely. If they say one thing that is related to me or the mission, i'll kill them." Con Mane said, pressing a button, causing the call to end and his screen to return to normal. "Ugh." he groaned as he sat down in a chair.

Meanwhile, Thunderblast sat down with Spear, eating their lunch during their break.

"So, anyways, have you and Night Shadow calmed down about the whole 'Donut Joe' thing?" Spear asked.

"Uh. About that..." Thunderblast said back, awkwardly smiling.

Spear then raised an eyebrow. "What did you do?" he asked.

"We kinda...spied on him." Thunder replied in a nervous tone.

"Are you kidding me? I told you two to leave him alone!" Spear yelled, standing up.

"We couldn't help ourselves, Spear. But i'll tell you what, we got him to confess." Thunder said.

"Confess what?" Spear said, raising an eyebrow again.

"He IS Con Mane." Thunder said. "He-."

Spear then reached over the table and put his hoof over Thunder's mouth to stop him from talking. "Shh! Talk quieter so nopony can hear us." He whispered.

Thunder nodded and Spear took his hoof off of his mouth.

"He told me and Night everything. He even brought us to his lair or whatever it's called." Thunder whispered to Spear.

"Are you sure you didn't just dream this all up?" Spear whispered back.

"I'm pretty sure." Thunder said back.

"Look, I don't want you to tell me right now, because we're in public." Spear said, looking at his surroundings. "Meet me at the castle gardens in a little while. We'll talk there."

"Okay. Good idea, no one ever goes through there." Thunder whispered.

An hour and a half later, Thunderblast and Spear met in the castle gardens, out of anypony's sight.

"So. What did 'Con Mane' say?" Spear asked.

"Well, first, he strapped us down to chairs for safety reasons, then he told me and Night that those ponies that kidnapped us a little while ago, apparently they're in a plan to assassinate the princesses and take over Equestria." Thunder explained.

Spear looked at Thunder for a moment and chuckled. "You're kidding...right?" He said. "They can't get to the princesses even if they wanted to."

"That's the thing, they're capturing and killing royal guards so they can get to them, which is why they kidnapped us." Thunder said back.

"Hmm. That does kind of explain the royal guards that have been going missing over the months." Spear said, putting his hoof to his chin. "But still, why do they want to assassinate the princesses?" he asked.

"I don't know. He didn't say, but he did say that they want the Alicorn Amulet, you know, the thing that Trixie used to take over Ponyville that one time." Thunder said.

"The Alicorn Amulet, eh?" Spear said. "It got stolen from the museum a month ago."

"That's because Con Mane has it. He showed us it while we were with him." Thunder replied. "The night he told us who he was, he was attacked by three ponies, they all wanted it. I'm guessing Goldbar's stallions. We helped him fight them off, then he told us who he was."

"So. He told you that he really is Con Mane, and what those guys are planning. Anything else?" Spear asked.

"Well, we asked if we could help him foil their plan, but he said he works alone." Thunder said back. "I really want to help him though, he can't fight off all of them at once."

"Thunder, you should just leave him alone. If he works alone, he works alone." Spear said.

"I know... It's just, don't you think we SHOULD help him? I mean, our job is to protect the princesses and Canterlot, and we aren't doing that if we don't help him." Thunder replied.

"Yeah, but we could end up messing something up. It IS our job to protect the princesses and Canterlot, and it always will be as long as we're guards, but we shouldn't interfere with his mission." Spear said back.

"Ugh.. Fine." Thunder said.

Meanwhile, Con Mane was sneaking his way through a warehouse, trying to get some more intel on Goldbar's plan. He quietly made his way through air conditioning vents, and into a large room which was full of large crates and containers.

"Damn it. Where is it?" Con Mane said, looking down at a small tracking device, which was malfunctioning for some strange reason. "Ugh. Machines." he said, putting it into his pocket, then quietly walking on a steel bar just under the ceiling, looking down onto the floor.

He then heard familiar voices echo through the rafters, and he looked down to see Scarwings, slightly bandaged up, aswell as the ponies that kidnapped Thunderblast, Spear, and Night Shadow, aswell as the emerald green pegasus and grey unicorn.

"So, here it is." Scarwings said, pulling a white sheet off of a large machine. "The Amulator." he said, laughing evilly.

The other ponies stopped and stared at him for a moment.

"That's what it's called?" The unicorn laughed. "The Amulator? That's the stupidest name i've ever heard of." He said, still laughing.

"The amulator?" Con Mane whispered to himself, grabbing his camera and taking some pictures of it. "Fudge. I need better pictures." he said, before tying a rope to one of his hooves, and the other end to the bar, before dropping down close enough to get better pictures, but high enough where he can't be seen.

"So. What does it do?" The green pegasus asked.

"Right now, I don't completely know. I designed it to use the alicorn amulet's magic to fire concentrated beams onto objects and/or ponies, and blast them apart in just one single beam. I'm sure this will be enough to get the princesses attention." Scarwings replied.

Con Mane listened closely, eyes shrinking at what Scarwings said. "Blow things apart?" he whispered to himself, oblivious to his hoof, which is slowly slipping out of the rope.

"So.. Where's the amulet?" The grey unicorn asked.

"That's the problem. We don't have it yet." Scarwings answered.

"Are you kidding me? You don't have it yet?" The unicorn said.

"No. We do know who DOES have it though." Scarwings replied.

"Who?" An earth pony asked.

"Con Mane." Scarwings said back.

Then, all of a sudden, Con Mane looked up and saw his hoof had slipped free. "Uh oh." he said, eyes shrinking to the size of pins, before falling on the ground in front of them all.

"Well well well, look who's here." Scarwings said, smirking.

Con Mane stood up, dusting himself off, then looking up. "Oh crud."