New Trottland Yard Case 04 - Silver Cross behind bars

Silver Cross

behind bars

Chapter 3

A bolt of disintegration magic clipped me in the shoulder as the mare pinning me to the ground was knocked off of me by a blur of green and orange. The pain was excruciating, and I screamed. Two mares tumbled over the ground, one of them being a very familiar Pegasus mare. When they came to a stop, Dancing disentangled herself from my attacker and positioned herself between the two of us.

“Dancing Cross....”, the other mare hissed, suddenly charging at Dancing. Her speed made me forget my pain, since she was too fast for my eyes to follow her. The Pegasus flapped her wings in an attempt to dodge the attack, but she wasn't fast enough. That crazy Pony would get her!

Suddenly the shadows around us came to life, creating a barrier between the two. Not a moment too soon either. The cloaked mare collided with it with a force, that made the whole building shake but the barrier held true. A black hoof helped me up, and I looked into the amber eyes of Shadow Cross...

“How... you... WHAT?”, I stuttered, my mouth hanging half open.

“I don't know what you mean sister, but whatever it is, always remember that time is relative to us. Now, are you ready to kick our dear brothers flank?”, she asked, her grin never leaving her face.

“I am sure you two have a lot to catch up on....”, Dancing called out to us as she dodged another hoofstrike from the cloaked mare. “....but I could use a little help here!”

I did not understand this one bit. This mare was supposed to be my “brother in destiny”? But... Why was she attacking me then? I decided to get the answers to those questions later. There was a fight to be fought here after all. Clenching my teeth, I charged at the mare, Shadow close behind me.

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Gruff Tone was barely crushed when something flew past him as he wanted to enter the execution area. It was nothing but a blur of black, red and gold. It impacted in a filing cabinet on the other side of the room, quickly followed by a green Pegasus, a white and a black Earthpony. A cold chill ran down his spine as he saw the Pegasus mare. He knew her from his history lessons at school. But how could that be? Dancing Cross, the heroine of the third Changeling invasion, was supposed to be dead for about two hundred years!

He watched as the three mares attacked the EIS agent that was already on her hooves again. All four of them moved with such a speed, that he found it hard to believe that he was watching a fight between mere mortal Ponies. Gruff also knew that he would only be in the way, if he decided to help, so he made his way into the execution are where he deemed it safe for now.

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It was strange to fight alongside Shadow and Dancing. It was as if we had done this hundreds of times. When I reared up and spun to hit the mare in front of me with my forelegs, Dancing swooped in and mirrored my motions perfectly, while standing back to back with me. That way we hit our opponent twice, instead of only once. Her freaky speed was no problem anymore either.

Shadow was constantly using her cross to create walls of pure darkness around the mare, giving her not enough room to move around freely. She certainly could take a beating, seeing as Dancing and I had hit her directly in the face several times already. Then, something changed.

She began to glow in a bright light, and I got knocked back onto my back. Dancing fell back to all four hooves, spreading her wings and taking up position between me and the cloaked mare. I could hear the mare scream in an immense pain as she shielded me from the light.

“DANCING!”, Shadow screamed, coming towards us at a full gallop, shadow speard hovering by her side. She shot several of them at the now glowing mare, making sure she herself stayed out of the light she was emitting. I could smell the stench of burned fur as an immense heat rushed through me once more. I knew that feeling. Standing up, I bit into Dancings tail and puller her out of the circle of light that surrounded our opponent.

Her complete forefront was burnt, devoid of any fur. Some of the feathers on her wings were singed and she was breathing hard as I pulled her behind a desk. I hated to just leave her there, but Shadow needed my help. She wouldn't be able to defeat that mare on her own.

With that intention, I jumped forward gaping at the spears that peppered the mare unrelentingly. Shadow was crying as she jumped around to avoid the lightning bolts that shot towards her. One of them barely missed her, and I charged at the still cloaked mare.

“DON'T!”, Shadow screamed as she was what I was doing, but it was already too late. Several of the lightning bolts hit me straight in the chest. It hurt like hell, but I went on. Only on the edges of my mind did I realize that this was the first time I had been hurt while I was feeling that heat. I barreled into her, head first, at full speed. There was a pained outcry from her as I rammed her against the wall. The last thing that I saw, before she blurred out of existence, was a silver cross hanging from her neck. It had a six pointed star that was surrounded by five other stars at it's base...

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“Ok... what the buck is going on here?”, I asked, as Shadow and I carried Dancing towards the medical station.

“I kinda figured you didn't know. You look like your pretty early in your journey, so I'll tell you. The one we fought there, is the only one that can match your cross. Her name is Broken Cross and she is actually a Changeling.”, Shadow explained. I hadn't seen my boss since we had charged out of the execution area, but I didn't care at the moment either. All that mattered was that we got Dancing to the infirmary as fast as we could.

“But... why? If she is one of us, then why did she try to kill me?”

Shadow just shook her head.

“The Nightmare found her first. You must know that we can only travel to those of our sisters, that have already obtained their cross. Broken was corrupted by the Nightmare before she found it, so there was nothing we could do. As far as I know, she tried to resist the corruption, but she paid the price for it. She's totally insane and the strongest of us after yourself. A dangerous mix. As for why she tried to kill you... well... You never told me how you got my cross.”, she said, pointing at the crescent moon on mine.

“But... it's OK... I can guess that I gave it to you before I died. These are the conditions you know. We can only take the cross of another if that Pony is dying, or giving it to us willingly. Broken has tried to get our crosses several times, but in my era she is totally outmatched against me. Too many shadows for me to use to attack her or to disappear into. In Dancings era, she can't get at her without having several very powerful Unicorns as opponents... She is a soldier you know... If Broken was to attack her in her own era, she would be subdued, even if it would cost the Equestrian army major casualties.”, she added.

“So... how am I supposed to get her cross then? Do I have to kill her?”, I asked, horrified.

“Most likely. Dancing knows more, but seeing as she is out cold....”, the mare that was splayed over both our backs suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a key that clattered to the ground.

“Horseapples... You think she will be OK?”, I wanted to know, turning towards Shadow again, but she wasn't there anymore either.

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After a while I finally found my boss in the execution area. It turned out that he had found a fake cross in the holding cell the Changeling had been murdered in. Cleaning up the mess Broken Cross had left behind took quite some time to clean up. During that operation my co-workers found the body of a dead mare in a janitor closet. We later identified her as EIS agent Simple Heart. Broken had murdered her and falsified the documents the mare had carried with her.

She had actually been sent here to investigate my involvement in the murder of the prisoner, and not to execute me. The evidence my boss found, in addition with the witness accounts, cleared my name and I got my rank as an Inspector back.

I didn't help with the clean up operation, however. As soon as the heat in my body had subsided, I had collapsed once more. The injuries Broken had inflicted on me, were pretty serious, and the doctors told me I wouldn't be able to leave the hospital for at least six months. My only entertainment during that time was the folder my boss had brought me from the archives. It was the folder of a murder case. A case that had never been solved. Several Inspectors had tried their hooves at it, but all of them had failed at it, which was frustrating since the victim was a hero....

It was the murder case, of Dancing Cross...