New Trottland Yard Case 01 - Silver Cross and the horror of Haunchington

Silver Cross

and the horror of Haunchington

Chapter 4

Whistle Blower, the station guard of Haunchington, sat down at his desk with a cup of tea as he waited for the last train to pass through tonight. If it was on time, he would only have to keep going for about ten minutes, then he could call it a night.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The stallion jumped up in surprise. Who would be coming by at this time of night? Confused and a little irritated, the Earthpony stood up an went over to the door.

“This isn't a homeless shelter!”, he shouted angrily as he opened the door a crack. Just outside stood his daughter, Gear Turn, and she was covered in blood. The mare held her head low, hiding her eyes behind her blond mane.

“Oh sweet Luna! What has happened to you dear? Who did this?”, he asked in horror, pulling his daughter inside, so he could see her injuries better. He saw that her left wing was hanging limp from her side, while both her forelegs seemed to be bent in unnatural angles. Yet the blood on his daughters coat was... dry. How could that be? He saw her injuries but there was not a drop of fresh blood on her...

“Quick my dear, I'll call an ambulance. You'll be right as rain in no time.”, Whistle said, turning around to rush to the phone. He didn't get two steps away from his daughter, when she tackled him to the ground. At first he thought that it was simply a late panic reaction from her, and that she wanted to be close to him. That was... until she began to press her hooves against his throat.  The stallion tried desperately to shake his daughter off, but her strength was too much for somepony his age. A few minutes later he stopped struggling, and the creature, satisfied with a job well done, moved on to find it's next victim.

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A minute after the creature had left the station, the last train of the day raced through. It's conductor, a young Earthpony mare, had just enough time to wonder why the signal was red instead of green, when her train was already on the wrong track. She was still wondering what had just happened, when the engine crashed into a long line of parked cargo cars. Metal screeched as the engine was demolished. The passenger cars behind it derailed, Ponies screamed and many of them died. Suddenly Haunchington had a crisis on it's hooves that was much too big for their little town...

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“Wake up my little Pony, you are in grave danger!”, an ethereal voice called out to me from the darkness. It was like a command that I could not refuse. I slowly came too, but kept my eyes closed. I lay on something soft and was reasonable comfortable, safe for the fact that my head was ringing as if an Ursa Major had used me as a punching ball. I heard the voice of an old stallion, who was talking to somepony else. Since the voice sounded pretty weak, I suspected that it had been the other one that had knocked me out.

“Do with her what you want Pain Train, but please wait until I'm out of here. You know how much I hate to see how you... relief yourself. Kill her when you're done and don't fuck her body up too much. I would really like to add her to our little army. At this stage, every soldier counts. I'll go to the graveyard and wake up our “friends”.”, the old voice said, and I heard hoofsteps that got quieter with each step until there was the sound of a door closing.  Whatever that “Pain Train” was about to do to me was about to happen, and with a name like that I really didn't want to find out what it was.

My eyes snapped open, and what I saw almost made my heart stop. Pain Train was a fitting name for this stallion. He was big. REALLY big. He looked almost like that guy, Saddle Rager, from the old Power Ponies comics, only that his coat was red. Looking down on him, I saw exactly what he had planned for me. Something that was almost as long as my entire body hang there, and I had no intention of letting him put THAT thing in me.

It all happened in the fraction of a second. I rolled back to my hooves, kicking the surprised stallion in the chin with my rear legs as I did so. Other then arousing him even more, there didn't seem to be any effect however. There was no chance whatsoever that I could beat him in close combat. I needed my gun! A quick glance at my holsters revealed to me however, that both of them were empty.

“Horse-apples!”, I cursed jumping to my right as the enormous stallion charged me. He was faster than he had any right to be, and so he clipped me with his shoulder instead of crushing me outright. The blow sent me flying, and I landed in the glass front of a display case. Several Zebra and Changeling artifacts rained down on me as the shelfs inside broke. The glass itself had left a nasty gash along my left side, causing me to wince in pain as I struggled to get to my hooves.

He didn't give me a second to catch my breath. A massive hoof picked me up and threw me to the other side of the room. I almost fainted when I hit another display case. My body felt numb with pain, and it hurt to even take a deep breath. The only thing that kept me going, was my Earthpony stubbornness at that point. When I stood up this time, something fell to the ground in front of me. It was a silver cross, that was attached to a leather string. There was no time to think as he charged me once again. I grabbed the leather string in my mouth and swung the cross as hard as I could against the stallions head. To my surprise, it knocked him into the far wall of the room.

Several display cases shattered under his massive bulk, and he seemed to be dazed when he stood up. There was pure murder in his eyes as he charged at me again. I was still so amazed at what I had just done, that I didn't react in time. Pain Train hit me like a freight train, almost crushing me against the wall. When he let go, I slid down the wall like a drop of water. I could taste blood in my mouth as I began to cough. The cross lay uselessly in my lap.

The stallions lustful grin widened, as he saw the look of defeat on my face. I had never been a religious Pony. It had been years since I had even attended a service, but right then and there, I picked up the cross in my hooves.

“Please... Celestia help me...”, I whimpered, my whole body aching as if every bone in it was broken to pieces.

Suddenly a blinding flash of sunlight erupted from the tip of the cross, burning it's way through the stallion before me and into the far wall. The wooden wall caught fire instantly, and I felt myself engulfed in a globe of golden light.

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When I could see again, I felt... better. There was still blood dripping out of my muzzle, but I didn't feel any pain. Only an intense heat that radiated throughout my body. I was also a few dozen feet away from Dark Horn Manor. The whole place was on fire, destroying whatever research this insane stallion had done in purifying flames. One of the only down points to this was, that all my gear was still in there... Only the silver cross was now dangling from my neck.

Ignoring this fact, I broke into a gallop towards the graveyard which I could see clearly from my vantage point. I hoped that I was in time this time...

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The Professor, better known to his former co-workers as Blade Spin, stood in the middle of Haunchingtons graveyard. Hundreds upon hundreds of potential soldiers for his army. They would conquer this world for his dark mistress, and he would be rewarded for it with everything he had ever wanted. Forgotten were the ambitions to use this kind of magic for medical purposes. It had so much more potential then that!

His horn began to glow in a sinister green light, enveloping each and every grave. Seconds later the spell completed it's work. All around him the dead started to break through the muddy earth. Nopony would be able to stop him now...

“Not so fast Flankface!”, a young mare called out him. Blade turned around to her, not believing what he saw. It was the Earthpony he and Pain Train had captured in his manor. But... something was different about her as she charged at him. There was a golden light emanating from her body, dyeing her white coat in the color of the sun itself. He avoided being hit by her glowing hooves, as she reached him feeling the heat coming from her even from a few hooves away. If she had actually managed to touch him, she would burn him to a crisp! This wasn't good. Not good at all!

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I had made it! I had been too late to safe Gear Turn, but I was at the graveyard before any of the Undead had risen out of their graves completely. The red Unicorn was obviously surprised to see me, and I couldn't blame him for it. If our roles had been reversed, I wouldn't have bet on my survival against Pain Train either.

The old bastard had managed to avoid my first strike, but I wouldn't give him another chance. But, first things first. I was still a Trottland Yard Inspector after all.

“I'm Trottland Yard Inspector Silver Cross, and you are under arrest Professor! You are charged with performing illegal magic, desecrating the dead, murder in at least one case, assisting in murder in three cases and assault on a Yard Inspector. You have the right to...”, I started to say, but a  telekinetic blow hit me right in the face. It didn't hurt at all. In fact, it didn't even knock me back. All it did was force my muzzle shut.

“You won't stop me! The dark moon shall rise again, and I will be rewarded! I will get the acknowledgment that I deserve!”, the Professor cackled at me, his horn producing a layer of overglow. I was no Unicorn, but even I knew that this was bad news. I had to subdue him as fast as I could, if I didn't want to be turned to paste!

I rushed forwards once again, the cross beating against my chest with each strike of my hooves. Then, just as I was about to rear up and knock him out, something grabbed my left hind leg. What was supposed to be a kick to his face, ended up being a tackle as I barreled into him with the full force of my charge. We tumbled over the ground in a tangle of limps, while the stallion did his best to get away from me. He was screaming in pain, and something smelled rather good I had to admit. The stink of burnt flesh hit my nose as we came to a stop, and I freed myself from him. He wasn't moving anymore. In fact, I would have been surprised if he had moved. I could see his ribs through the charred remains of what had once been his hide, and his eyes seemed to have melted in their sockets... It was... a gruesome sight. When I looked around I saw that the corpses had stopped moving as well. Seems that the death of the caster actually interrupted the spell.

Just as I wanted to take a step towards the charred corpse of the Professor, I felt my right foreleg give out from under me. I face-planted into the mud, suddenly feeling every scratch and bruise on my body. The most painful one, was the gash along my left side. What the buck was happening here? I had been feeling fine just seconds ago and now... Now I was... weak again.

The last thing I saw before I fainted once again, was a familiar green Pegasus mare with an orange mane that smiled down on me...

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I woke up in Baltimare general hospital, looking more like a mummy then like a Pony. Everything except my right flank had been covered in bandages. The boss was sitting next to my bed, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

“So you're finally awake, are ya? Congratulations on yer first case, Silver Cross. Eighty-two dead Ponies, a destroyed passenger train, several demolished freight cars, a burnt down mansion and a burnt culprit. Maybe I should have sent somepony with ya to watch yer back.... or to minimize the damage ya caused.”, he said in a hollow tone. I knew he was trying to be sarcastic, but I also knew that he had hoped to get rid of me on this mission, and that he was regretting that decision now. I think he wouldn't have forgiven himself, if he had actually gotten me killed, because he sent me out without backup.

“Thanks boss.”, I mumbled through the bandages over my muzzle. He grinned a humorless grin at that and pointed at my right flank before he left.

“Oh, and congratulations on that too, filly. Yer finally a mare.”, he chuckled and I tried to stretch my neck as far as I could to see what he meant. There, on the only part of me that was not covered in bandages, was a picture of the same silver cross that was now laying on my night table...