Quoth the Raven

Chapters

Practice Run
Seeing Red
Kill or Be Killed
Rebirth
Up In Flames
A Tricky Business

Practice Run

Two days after she woke up, the doctors released Swirling from the hospital, instructing her not to do anything too strenuous, and advising against flying for a while so that her wing could properly recover. She was just glad to finally be out of that place, a certain peace of mind coming over her as she trotted down the street to her home. When she arrived, she immediately headed to her bedroom and plopped onto her bed.

‘This has been the most hectic week of my life,’ she thought with a sigh.

Her stomach grumbled, as if in agreement, demanding nourishment. Reluctantly, she climbed out of bed and headed to her tiny kitchen, opening the small pantry near the fridge to find something quick and easy to make. Settling on ramen noodles, she filled a bowl with water, put the dried noodles in the bowl with it, and set the microwave for two minutes.

She decided to take the time to check her mane in the bathroom mirror. She was sure it was probably a mess right now. Entering the bathroom, she sighed when she was proven right. It’d probably take a while to get her hair back how she liked it, with all those knots and what looked like a few split ends. The fire also seemed to have singed her mane and tail in places.

‘Oh, well. I can fix this simple enough.’

She opened the cabinet beneath the sink, taking out a brush and starting to run it through her mane even before looking in the mirror again. When saw her reflection again, she froze. There, perched on the towel rack on the wall behind her, was a yellow-eyed raven, watching her quietly. She turned sharply, ready to shoo the bird away but stopped when she no longer saw the feathered creature.

She looked around the room, trying to find it again, but there wasn’t even a feather left of it. Was she just seeing things? Probably. She did remember having a weird dream that featured a raven. She hadn’t brought it up to anypony, mostly because she just didn’t often talk about her dreams. They were often weird and abstract; it was hard to make sense of them.

She shrugged and faced the mirror again, only to jump with a yelp when she spotted the black bird sitting upon the sink’s faucet. She pointed her brush at it like a weapon, eyes wide in shock.

Then she realized something; the bird wasn’t just standing on the faucet.

It was standing on the faucet’s reflection.

“What in the world?” Swirling stood, staring at the raven with a mix of shock, awe, and curiosity. She approached the mirror, reaching toward it.

“Don’t touch me,” the raven said suddenly, making the mare jump back again.

“What the…? What are you?”

The raven rolled its eyes, shaking its head at the same time. “It always amazes me how forgetful you ponies can be.”

Swirling was to ask what the bird meant, but stopped herself. She thought back, remembering the dream she had with the strange raven. She stared at the bird in the mirror for a moment before it suddenly clicked with her: a talking raven, the derisive, cynical tone, the sense of slight superiority.

“You’re that bird from my dream!” she said in realization. “Never… something…”

“Nevermore,” the raven answered. “And yes. You’re half right. It was no dream. You really were dead.”

“B-but… but I…” She stumbled across her words for a moment before a coherent sentence formed in her mind. “But… how? If I really was dead… what was that place? What are you?”

Nevermore groaned and rolled his eyes once more. He grumbled something under his breath. “Okay, fine. Let’s go over this again. I’m a shadow spirit, and you came back to life when I bonded my soul to yours. We were in Asphodel, the realm between life and death, where the souls of the unjudged dead wander until their turn to be judged comes. You’re lucky I found you when I did. It’s not easy to find something in Asphodel.”

“Okay…” Swirling replied slowly. “Why did you want to us to… bond souls, or… whatever? And why are you in my bathroom mirror?”

The raven tilted his head slightly, as if in thought, before answering. “Well, first off, I’m not actually in your mirror. You and others will only be able to see me through reflective surfaces. However, you can hear me anywhere. As for the soul bonding… well…” He trailed for a few moments. “Look, a shadow spirit can’t survive long in the mortal realm. We need hosts, and you’re mine.”

“Why can’t you survive in our world, though?”

“The mortal realm is a world of Light,” Nevermore explained. “Mortal souls, however, tend to be… darker.”

“Darker?”

“Well… maybe that’s not quite the right word. Too many implications. ‘Shadowy’ would work better, I suppose.” The ebony bird shook his head. “Anyway, the Light takes its toll on any shadow spirits who enter its domain.”

Swirling cocked her head in confusion. “Then why didn’t you just go home? There must some place you can go.” To the mare’s surprise, Nevermore laughed. Not for long, though, and it was more mocking than happy.

“I can’t go home,” he said bluntly. “I was banished.”

“What? Why?”

He waved a wing as if brushing away the question. “A long series of events that I’d rather not recite.” Swirling gave him a nervous look. “Relax. I’m no lawbreaker, if that’s what you’re worried about. I just don’t have the best reputation among my people.”

Swirling nodded. She still didn’t fully trust Nevermore, but he seemed more or less harmless. Cynical and blunt in his opinions, maybe, but otherwise apparently non-threatening.

A sudden beeping from the kitchen made her jump. Nevermore sighed and muttered something about a mistake under his breath, but said nothing otherwise. Swirling looked to the bird in her mirror, but he was out of sight now. She didn’t know whether she would be happier if he was real, or if she just had a conversation with her reflection. Either possibility was disturbing.

She headed back to her kitchen and got her bowl of ramen out of the microwave, setting the food on the table. As she was getting a fork to eat with-

‘Ponies eat the weirdest things.’

The sudden voice from nowhere made the pegasus jump for the umpteenth time that day, throwing a number of spoons and forks out onto the floor as a result. She groaned as she began picking up the dropped silverware.

“Either this is real,” she mumbled to herself, “or I took way more head trauma than the doctors said I did.”

‘Or both,’ came what was clearly Nevermore’s voice. ‘Look, neither of us are dead, so that’s a win for the both of us. And by the way, you don’t need to talk out loud to talk to me. All of your thoughts are closed off to me unless they’re specifically related to me.’

Swirling sighed and sat down in front of her bowl of noodles, a clean fork ready, and she started eating.

‘So… no more questions?’

“Hungry,” Swirling answered between bites. “Questions can wait until I’m finished.”

‘Fair enough. Besides, it’s probably best to wait until nightfall anyway.’

“What?”

‘You’ll see.’

Swirling rolled her eyes and continued eating. Nevermore’s attitude and cryptic words were starting to get on her nerves, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. She’d just have to wait.

-o-

Mafioso liked to think himself a patient stallion. He was willing to give second chances. He was willing to listen to his underlings’ excuses whenever they bucked up a job. He was even willing to do favors for anyone who asked, for a price, of course. He liked to think of himself as a decent boss in regards to his organization. He was always ready to listen.

In this case, however, his patience had been worn so thin, one could’ve used it to make stitches.

“How could you screw up such a simple job!?” he screamed at the goon in front of him, the stallion trembling as he was held down in a chair by Mafioso’s two top enforcers/bodyguards. “All you had to do was make sure that the landlord of that apartment complex didn’t make it out of that fire! Instead, I find out in the papers that you not only let that schuck get away - even let him hitch a train ride! - but now some mare’s being hailed as a hero! This is the complete opposite of what I told you to do!”

“B-b-boss, please, I’m sorry!” the panicking stallion begged as one of Mafioso’s enforcers held a knife to his throat in a bright, green-hued aura. “I just thought that-”

“There’s your first problem!” the outraged earth pony shouted into the stallion’s face. The gang leader’s dark blue eyes glowered angrily at the buck-up before him, trying to decide exactly what to do with him. “You thought you could just start the fire and walk away. You thought he wouldn’t get out. You thought.” The slate gray stallion sighed, rubbing a hoof down his face in an attempt to calm himself.

“Boss?” said one of his enforcers, a large, brown pegasus stallion with a sloppy yellow mane and a cutie mark of a what minotaurs called brass knuckles.

“What is it, Brawn?”

“Just a suggestion, but maybe me and Knives can… make an example of him for ya.” The dark red, orange-maned unicorn standing next to the held-down stallion grinned, sadistic thoughts running through his bright green eyes. Mafioso always thought that Knives lived up to his name and cutie mark a little too well; he loved cutting things just a bit too much.

Mafioso thought on Brawn’s suggestion for several, tense moments, the seated stallion shivering in fear. Soon, much to the trapped stallion’s horror, the earth pony nodded and turned toward his desk. He hated having to dirty his private study, but sacrifices had to be made sometimes.

“Just try not to leave too much of a mess,” he instructed as he took his seat behind his desk.

Knives grinned malevolently, lightly brushing his favorite weapon across the seated stallion’s neck, drawing a light trickle of blood, but not enough to kill. “You hear that?” he said tauntingly in a cold tone that was somehow a mix of glee and derision. “We’re gonna have some fun!”

“N-n-n-no! No!” the stallion cried desperately as Knives and Brawn began dragging him away, kicking and screaming. “Boss, please! Gimme another chance! Please!”

“I don’t do third chances,” Mafioso said simply as he turned in his seat, looking out the window that overlooked the Manehattan skyline, while his top henchmen took the buck-up goon out of his study. When he could no longer hear those screams, he picked up the newspaper that was lying on his desk, rereading the headline that had set him off in the first place:

APARTMENT FIRE TRAGEDY AVERTED, PEGASUS MARE SWIRLING LINE LAUDED AS HERO

The story below, written by some guy called Page something-or-other, detailed how this Swirling Line broad saved a foal from the fire, nearly dying herself in the process. Privately he admired such heroics. He preferred that children not get involved in this business in any way whatsoever. No reason to ruin such sincere innocence so quickly, he believed. Still, he couldn’t allow a so-called “hero” in his town. Ponies like that tended to get in the way of business. However, it’d look suspicious right now no matter how she died. He’d have to wait for her fame to blow over. Her fifteen minutes were already ticking down.

And Mafioso was nothing if not patient.

-o-

Swirling sat in front of her easel, brush in her mouth, her hoof tapping against the floor, her eyes set on the blank canvas in front of her. She leaned forward slightly, thinking an idea had come to her, but that idea vanished as quickly as it had come. She sighed through her nose and leaned back again, tilting her brush around in thought.

‘Just paint a tree and be done with it already,’ she heard Nevermore say in her head. ‘We’ve got things to do, you know.’

Rolling her eyes, Swirling set her brush down and huffed. “Look, I’m an artist, okay? I need to make something unique. Something new.”

‘Fascinating. Don’t care.’ Nevermore’s attitude was really starting to irk her. ‘Listen, you wanted me to explain what I’m doing here, and I’m going to show you.’

Swirling quirked an eyebrow at that. “Show me?”

‘Yes. Now, find a mirror, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.’

With an irritated sigh, the mare complied and went back into her bathroom (it was the only mirror that she had in her apartment) and waited for Nevermore’s supposed demonstration. For a little while, nothing happened. She just watched in the mirror, waiting. She noticed her mane was still a little scruffy, but other than that, there was nothing really…

“What the…?” she muttered to herself, running a hoof through her mane. Where there was once one of her many white stripes, there was a stripe of black. Then, before her eyes, her whole mane started turning black, along with her tail, her coat, and even her wings. She started hyperventilating at the sight, panic suddenly overtaking her as she stumbled around in her bathroom, trying in vain to wipe the blackness off of her, but it kept spreading and spreading until it consumed even her vision.

All she could hear was her own panicked breaths. It was slightly cold, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable, only noticeable.

‘Open your eyes,’ she heard Nevermore say. ‘I assure you, you’re fine. Open your eyes.’

Reluctantly, and mumbling incoherently under her breath, Swirling opened her eyes. First, she saw what must’ve been her hooves, swathed in black, just like the rest of her body, she assumed. Slowly, she stood back up, climbing back to her hooves. She turned to the mirror. The being looking back through the mirror was completely black, its mane and tail almost ethereal. Their ends broke off and floated until they faded into nothing, like black fire that flickered and burned unnaturally slow. She unfolded her wings, which seemed to bear the same effect, looking as though they were only half-there. The most unnerving feature, however, was the eyes. Her eyes were a solid golden hue. No whites, no pupils, just a complete yellow shade.

She looked closer into the mirror, noticing that she couldn’t see her mouth, or nose, or any other of her own physical traits. She looked around the mirror until she found Nevermore perched the sink faucet again.

“Wh-what did you do to me!?” she demanded. She slapped a hoof over her mouth. Even her voice sounded different. It sounded like a mash-up of her own voice with Nevermore’s, though it was difficult for her to tell.

“Nothing that’ll hurt you,” the raven replied simply. “It’s not permanent, if that’s what you’re worried about. This form will only last about five hours at a time, and you can go back to normal anytime you want with a thought.” Swirling’s eagerness to return to her usual appearance must’ve been obvious, because Nevermore raised a wing before she spoke. “Before you do, though, take us up to the roof. When we get there, I’ll tell you about the abilities that this form grants you.”

“But what if somepony sees me? I’m not the only pony who lives in this building, you know!”

Nevermore nodded. “Yeah. You ponies are like cockroaches. You’re everywhere a non-pony looks.” Swirling glared at the bird, who merely waved a wing dismissively. “Up to the roof you go, pegasus.”

With a huff, Swirling turned to leave her apartment. ‘Jerk,’ she thought to herself in irritation.

‘I heard that,’ came Nevermore’s response.

She ignored him (she felt like she was probably going to be doing a lot of that in the future) and made her way out of her home and into the hall. She took a quick, surveying look to make sure nopony else was out and about right now. Thankfully, there wasn’t. The last thing she needed was somepony freaking out at the sight of what was essentially a living shadow. She tentatively trotted out of her apartment and down the hall, toward the stairs that would lead her to the roof.

As she climbed the stairs, the thought crossed her mind that she could’ve probably just flown out the window to get to the roof, she quickly dismissed that. Manehattan ponies were always walking around, and would definitely notice her if at least one of them bothered to look up. Plus, with the way her wings are now - like they were only half-existent - she was afraid she might not be able to fly properly with them. She’d need to experiment with them first, at the very least.

Finally, she arrived at the rooftop, and was met with the gorgeous, starry night sky. A lot of it was fairly difficult to make out, unfortunately, thanks to the ever-present city lights and whatnot. She smiled up at the sky (or it felt like she was, considering her mouth was invisible at the moment), remembering with fondness the days of her foalhood, when she would stay up late against her parents’ wishes to stargaze.

Her nostalgia was interrupted, however, when Nevermore said, ‘First thing’s first. This form, again, only works efficiently for about five hours. After that, it’ll start to eat away at your very being.’ Swirling’s eyes went wide as she stared at the inky blackness that covered her. She made a mental note to never stay like this for long periods of time.

‘When you shut it off,’ Nevermore continued, ‘it’ll need time to recharge. Max charge time is around ten hours.’

“Ten hours?” Swirling parroted. “Why so long?”

‘Because it can’t recharge any faster than that. Believe me, I’ve tried to find ways to improve it. Anyway, moving on.

‘While you’re in this form, you have a vulnerability to light. Artificial light, like a lightbulb, or a unicorn’s illumination spell, is mostly harmless, just uncomfortable. Natural light, like fire or sunlight - especially sunlight - can cause you physical harm, and could even kill you if you’re exposed long enough, which is why I said it was best we wait until nightfall to do this.’

“Don’t change around any natural light,” the pegasus concluded. “Okay. Makes sense, I guess. You’re a… shadow… thing… so I guess you naturally don’t like light.”

‘Shadow spirit,’ the spirit replied with indignation. He sighed. Or… he made a sound like sighing. ‘Moving on. While in this form, my power makes you much faster, and much stronger. Around ten times each, if I had to put a number to it. You’re also more resistant to physical damage. The shadows around your body protect you from all but the heaviest of blows. Keep in mind, you’re not invincible.’

Swirling was a bit taken aback by that reveal. Ten times faster and stronger? She was never the fastest pony, nor the strongest. And now, suddenly, she was probably one of the fastest and strongest ponies in Equestria. That is, if Nevermore was being honest.

She looked over to the edge of the roof, tilting her head curiously. She then looked to her partially ethereal wings, watching as the ‘feathers’ broke apart and drifted into oblivion. She was going to experiment with this form’s version of her wings later. Perhaps ‘later’ could be ‘now?’

Carefully, she stretched out her wings, noticing that her wingspan was broader than before, each wing easily a foot longer. She flapped them as a test. They seemed to function normally, not taking much longer to flap than usual. Then, she leaped up off the roof, and began hovering, using the same, inborn pegasus magic she always did. There didn’t seem to be much of a difference to her flying ability.

“Are you sure I’m faster?” she asked the spirit living inside her head. “I don’t really feel any different.”

‘You shouldn’t. My power protects your body from any strain caused by the drastic increase in physical ability, provided we haven’t gone past the time limit. Otherwise, you’d be in immense, crippling pain that would leave you bedridden for months.’

The mare physically cringed at that thought. Being in that hospital for the last two days was bad enough. Having to spend months in bed would be murder on her. She flapped her near-ethereal wings harder, lifting herself higher off of the roof.

She took in a calming breath. “All right... time to see what I can do.” She thought to start with an easy pace. Perhaps a gentle glide to get a feel for her new body.

With a single beat of her wings, she took off like a shot.

“WHOAH!” she screamed as she tried frantically to stop herself. Her desperate movements only sped her flight in haphazard way. If any had seen her flying right now, they would have thought her drunk.

As she flew she noticed she was heading straight for the side of a tall skyscraper. “No, no, nonononono!” She held her forelegs up over her face.

On instinct her wings adjusted and she shot straight up the tall building. She was close enough that she could feel the surface of the glass brushing against her shadowy fur. As she cleared the building, she tried desperately to land. However, she realized that she was still coming in too fast and she flailed her legs to try to stop herself. She hit the top of the roof and went tumbling across its rough surface before finally coming to a stop.

She groaned as she got back to her hooves. “That could have gone better,” she muttered, then slapped her hoof over her muzzle as she spoke aloud, still shocked at hearing her voice distorted with Nevermore’s.

‘And you were born a pegasus?’ she heard Nevermore’s sarcastic question in her head.

“Hey! This is a lot harder than I’d thought it would be.”

‘Did you think adjusting to a tenfold increase in your speed would be easy? Take it slow, until you get at least some understanding of what you’re capable of.’

She stamped a hoof to the ground irritably. “I did take it slow!”

‘Then take it slower. Also, watch what you’re doing, stomping around and all that. Look below you.’

She looked down where she had stomped her hoof on the roof, and her jaw dropped as she realized that there was now a sizable depression in the surface, with cracks had spider-webbed out from it.

Slumping to her haunches, she looked at her front hooves in near horror. “D-did I do that?”.

‘Ten fold strength increase, remember?’ Nevermore said dryly. ‘Remember, when in this form, you're no ordinary pony. What was a gentle pat would now be a heavy punch. What was once a casual flight, is now the speed of a racing pony. You have to learn to adjust.’

She settled her hooves to the roof again and slumped. “It… it’s a lot to take in…”

‘It is, I admit, but it’s the deal we made. It’s beneficial to both of us.’

She looked up to the nighttime sky, her pure-yellow eyes searching the dark canvas above. “Am I really all that powerful?”

‘To a degree. Those that have spent their lives towards working their strength and speed likely still outmatch you, even with my help. And your nation's princesses are a class of their own. You’d be no match for them…’

She lowered her head, trying to focus on Nevermore’s presence. “Did you just hesitate?”

‘It’s nothing. You still have hours yet in this form, and the more practice you get in, the better. Let’s get above these buildings so we don’t have to worry about any more structural damage.’

She looked towards the depression again and stood. “Yeah, you’re right.” She spread her wings out again to take off.

‘Softly!’ he said intently.

Mumbling in irritation at the nagging voice, she gave her wings the softest of beats she could muster.

She barely got more than a few inches off the ceiling.

He sighed in exasperation. ‘A bit more than that.’

She muttered a curse at him and flapped her wings a bit harder. She found that given minimal effort, she had gotten a few feet off the ground.

This time, when she flapped her wings, she found that it only took minor shifts in balance to keep herself steady. She was happy to still feel the wind shift through her fur and mane as she flew, it was a feeling that she and all pegasi loved. It reminded her of the days she and her—

‘Quit daydreaming and pay attention!’

She gasped and tilted her wings, narrowly avoiding a building at the last moment. “Can’t I at least think for myself?” she snapped at the spirit.

‘Not while in this form. All it takes is one incident, and something, or someone, could get hurt. This isn’t a simple glide around the park.’

She snorted indignantly. “It could be.”

‘Ponies…’

Before she could retort, a scream caught her attention. She looked below and saw a mare fleeing from a group of larger ponies down an alleyway. As gloomy as it was, her eyes were able to see quickly that the thugs had red bandannas on their brows or around their legs.

“The Reds,” she hissed.

‘The who?’

“The Reds. They’re a gang of street thugs who hurt others for fun. They’re everywhere in Manehattan.”

‘And this concerns us… how?’

She was taken aback by the callousness in his tone. “We can’t leave her to those thugs! They’ll hurt her, or worse!”

‘Not our problem. I’ve still got a number of things to teach you about these powers.’

She banked sharply, swooping down towards the ponies below her. “I’m not leaving her!”

‘You’ll get yourself killed,’ Nevermore said flatly.

“It wouldn’t be the first time!” She tucked her wings in and dove down at the thugs.

The mare was screaming for help, knocking aside trash cans in her desperate attempt to escape, and just as one of the thugs was about to bring a knife to bear, a sudden crash from behind, followed by the banging of trash cans rolling around, caused him to whirl to face it. Where a collection of garbage cans had been standing, a weird, black thing was sitting, rubbing its head and groaning.

“Okay… bad idea…” Swirling mumbled to herself.

‘I warned you,’ said Nevermore.

“What the buck are you supposed to be?” the thug demanded, brandishing his knife at her.

Swirling looked to the thugs, who were all glaring at her, blades and improvised weapons at the ready. “Uh…” She looked down at herself for a moment, then back at the thugs. “Good question…”

The thugs jumped back at the sound of her otherworldly voice. “It’s a freak! Kill it!”

One thug rushed forward, bringing a lead pipe above his head, and brought it down at her. She gasped and rolled away, the pipe sending bits of trash everywhere.

“Okay, first off, rude!” she shouted at the Reds as she got back to her hooves. “Second, I’m a pony! I just… look… weird right now.”

‘Why are you trying to reason with them?’

“Because—”

Another of the thugs jumped her from behind, wrapping his forelegs around her and lifting her up. “I got it! Kill it now!”

The Red with the knife brought his blade to bear and stabbed her in the chest. She screamed in fear as the blade plunged down. She was just as shocked as the Red was when the blade was turned aside; she felt only the smallest of pricks to her skin. The shadows swirled around the blade, taking it and tossing it away, much to the shock of Swirling Line and the Reds.

“What the?!” they said in unison.

‘I am not about to let you die that easily.’

“Thank you, Nevermore…” Swirling said under her breath.

‘Now quit playing and do something.’

Not having to be told twice, she kicked her hind leg upward, catching the blade wielder in the stomach. The blow sent the stocky pony flying down the alleyway, he landed hard and groaned in pain as he held his barrel, gasping for breath.

Before the Red holding her could react, she smacked the back of her head into his muzzle. While she felt only a slight tap, his nose was crushed under the blow, eliciting a shriek of pain from him.

The third Red, who had been keeping his distance after Swirling’s dramatic arrival, braced himself as she made her way to him. Swirling had to admit, she felt good doing this. Releasing a lot of pent-up aggression on thugs like this was one heck of a stress reliever! Without thinking twice about it, she charged at the third Red.

Suddenly, the world turned upside down as she saw a rotten old banana peel fly up into her vision, and she fell flat on her back, looking up at the cloudy night sky above.

She heard what sounded like snickering. ‘Did you just get outsmarted by a banana peel?’

“Shut up, Nevermore,” she muttered.

The third Red wasted no time in pouncing on her and landing a blow to her face with his hoof. While Nevermore’s power did protect her from feeling too much pain, it still stung considerably. And he kept wailing on her, looking to make sure this freak didn’t get back up.

‘All right, this is just getting embarrassing,’ the shadow spirit complained. ‘Hang on.’ Without warning, Swirling’s body suddenly sank into the ground, completely vanishing from sight. The Red gasped in surprise as the thing he was beating on just disappeared.

“What? Where did it go?”

As if to answer, the black, pony-shaped creature flew out of a wall, pouncing on him and bashing his head against the opposite wall, knocking him out cold.

The final Red looked to his downed companions and back at the shadowy freak with fear. With a scream, he turned and tore back down the alleyway and into the streets.

‘That was probably the smartest one of the bunch.’

Swirling ignored the dry comment and turned towards the cowering mare. The pony was looking at her with wide, terrified eyes, shaking uncontrollably

Swirling offered her a hoof up. “Are you all right? You’re not hurt ar—”

“Stay away from me!” The mare scrambled backwards, knocking aside trash cans and other refuse.

Swirling’s eyes went wide in shock. “Wait! I-I’m not going to hurt you!”

“Help! Guards! Someone!” The mare scrambled back to her hooves and ran away as fast as her legs could carry her.

‘That went well, all things considered.’

“Do you ever shut up!?” she shouted angrily at the birdlike spirit. She was about to go after the mare, but stopped when she heard one of the thugs groan. She turned to him, seeing that it was the one whose nose she had broken.

“Wha… what are you?” he asked, his voice broken and nasally.

She stared at the Red for a few moments, honestly not sure how to answer that. She looked away for a moment, thinking to herself for a while. Just then, an idea came to mind. One she hadn’t had since she was just a little filly playing pretend in the schoolyard. She looked back at the Red, narrowing her featureless yellow eyes in what she hoped would be an intimidating manner.

“If the police or the guards don’t get you, then let all your friends know about what happened here tonight.” She hoped her voice was intimidating enough to make the Red more frightened than he already was. “This city doesn’t belong to you anymore. From now on, Manehattan has a new protector. Tell all your friends my name. I am… uh…” She trailed off. What should she call herself? She looked over her appearance again, then back at the thug, who was now more confused than afraid.

‘Just tell him your name and get it over with.’

“I can’t do that! He’d get more Reds and try to beat me senseless in my own home!”

The thug stared at her with a raised eyebrow. “Are… you… talking to yourself?”

“No!” She snapped at the Red, who stepped back in surprise. Swirling ran a hoof over her face, cursing the stupid raven spirit thing now living in her skull. At that thought, she perked up, an idea finally coming to mind. “I’ve got it!” She quickly returned to the stoic pose she had before getting sidetracked. “I am the Raven. Let all your criminal pals know that I’m watching these streets from here on out.”

With that, she rapidly took off into the sky, shooting through the air like a bullet, leaving a very confused Red with his unconscious companions.

“What the buck just happened?” he asked himself, as he clutched at his broken nose. He growled angrily. “Freak is gonna pay for this.”

-o-

‘You’re an idiot.’

Swirling was taken aback by Nevermore’s sudden comment as she returned home through her window. She hadn’t expected such an instant insult.

“What? I beat those jerks, and that mare got away safely, albeit she was terrified. I think that went well.”

‘You were outsmarted by a banana peel,’ he said bluntly, making the mare physically flinch. ‘Keep up crap like that, and you’re going to die again. And this time, I won’t be able to bring you back.’

“So I’ll be more careful next time,” she replied as she made her way to her bathroom, looking into the mirror to see her shadowy, yellow-eyed form once again. She closed her eyes, and, as Nevermore had instructed earlier, willed away the shadow form. When opened her eyes again, she was back to her bright, two-toned self again, much to her great relief.

“By the way,” she said, finding the image of Nevermore in her mirror again, perched atop the faucet like before. “How did you do that… thing earlier? Making me disappear like that?”

“Shadow travel,” the black bird answered. “All shadow spirits are capable of traveling through shadows at blinding speeds. We can give the same ability to our hosts. Be warned, if you use it yourself, you’ll only able to travel through shadows that are connected to each other. If two shadows aren’t connected, you’ll need to hop out of one to get to the other.”

“Okay, rapid travel through shadows and junk. Got it. Add that to the ever-growing list of powers that you’ve given me.”

The spirit nodded. “There’s still more where that came from, but we’ve done enough for tonight. Go to bed, get some sleep, and be ready for long nights in the near future.”

Her shoulders slumped at his words. Long nights meant for less sleep and less time with her art, but when she reflected back on the mare she saved, she realized that it had felt good to have rescued her. Even with how the mare had reacted, she still felt pleased with herself. As she readied herself for bed, she felt bone tired from the exertion. When she settled into her bed, a slow smile crossed her face as she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Seeing Red

Mafioso was not a happy stallion at the moment. No, he was not happy at all. He was most assuredly the opposite of happy. He ground his teeth in frustration, trying to keep his cool as he read this morning’s newspaper. Apparently, a group of those lowlifes, the Reds, were apprehended by police. That wasn’t what irritated him, though. He actually applauded that. The Reds were a problem, and they needed to be dealt with. No, what irritated him was this particular paper’s current front page story:

MYSTERY PONY CREATURE FENDS OFF REDS: FRIEND OR FOE?

One of the Reds who had been caught claimed that the creature looked like an ordinary pony, until they started fighting it. It moved like a living shadow and handed them their flanks. Even their knives did nothing to it. Another Red actually had a name for the creature: the Raven. Apparently, this “Raven” claimed that it was the defender of Manehattan now, and that all criminals should beware.

‘Yet another hero type,’ he thought, grumbling under his breath. He looked up from the paper at the sound of hoofsteps, seeing Brawn enter.

“I’m guessin’ ya saw today’s paper,” said the large pegasus. Mafioso scoffed and tossed the paper across his desk so that Brawn could see it as well. “What do ya wanna do about this one, boss? We’ve already got a lotta other stuff to do.”

Leaning back in his seat, the earth pony mob leader thought on his options. This “Raven” character could prove to be an issue in the future. The Reds were roaches; their numbers were matched only by their toughness. No matter what one did, those jokers would always bounce back one way or another. Anypony who could take down a group of them and walk away should not be taken lightly. Still, Brawn had a point: presently, they had other business to attend to.

“Let this one go for now,” said Mafioso. “We still have to deal with that Swimming Vine, or whatever her name was.” Brawn nodded in understanding and left his boss with his thoughts.

Mafioso once again read over the article on “the Raven.” Very little was given in description, except that the creature was dark in color and had horrifically yellow eyes. He cocked his head as he read through the article further again. The Raven’s abilities (the ones that were known so far, as listed by the captured Reds) were… unique, to say the least. Gradually, an odd little idea began forming in his head.

Maybe, just maybe, there was a way he could turn this situation into something working in his favor. Certainly, the Raven had incredible skills. This creature could be a force to be reckoned with. A force he would greatly prefer to have on his side. On his payroll, if necessary.

-o-

Exhausted.

Swirling Line was completely, utterly, thoroughly exhausted. The last four days were filled with nothing but work, and her nights were now her getting yelled at by Drill Sergeant Cranky-Feathers for four-and-a-half hours, with the last half hour being a mad dash to get back to her apartment. Bare hooffuls of hours of sleep did little to ease her tiredness, which, unfortunately, often led to-

“WAKE UP!” Lou hollered into ear, making her yelp in panic as she jumped from her seat, hooves flailing until she roughly fell to the floor. “Get your lazy flank in gear, Line! We’ve got customers!”

With a long yawn, Swirling said, “Right, sorry…” She trotted out of the kitchen, doing her best to ignore Lou’s hollering from then on. She grabbed a notepad from the counter and went to the nearest table occupied table. After taking the order of the relatively respectful couple, she handed it off to Lou, then stood behind the counter with Summer Streams, who gave her worn-out friend a worried look.

“You okay, Swirl?” asked the unicorn.

Swirling shook her head slightly, trying to get rid of the urge to just drop her head on the counter and sleep. “I’m fine. Long night.”

“Your art keeping you up?”

The two-toned pegasus hesitated. “Er… yeah. Still trying to… yeah.” She looked at her friend, hoping she bought. Slowly, however, Summer’s concerned expression became a sly grin.

“It’s not your art keeping you up at all, is it?” she asked, nudging the pegasus slightly. “Come on, you can tell me! What’s his name?”

Swirling Line only blinked at first, not quite getting where her friend was going. Then it clicked. “Wh-what!? N-no! There is no ‘he’!” She felt a blush creep up on her cheeks, despite her attempts to stop it.

‘I beg to differ,’ a painfully familiar voice said within the pegasus mare’s head.

‘Shut it, Nevermore!’ Swirling spat back to the bird through her thoughts.

Summer gave Swirling a quizzical look for a moment. “Oh. Well… huh… I never expected you to be interested in mares.”

Swirling’s face blanched at the unicorns astoundingly blunt statement. Nevermore’s uproarious laughter in her mind didn’t help her any. “There’s no ‘she’ either!”

“Oh. Well, then, what’s wrong?”

“Just… long nights.” Swirling Line hated having to lie to her best friend like this. She and Summer were close, and had been since Swirling’s early days in Manehattan. But Swirling knew Summer a little too well. The unicorn couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. That, and the fact that her current boyfriend was a journalist, albeit a freelance one, made it pretty clear that it was bad idea to share the secrets of her new powers.

Summer hummed for a second, obviously mulling over an idea. “Well, how about we do some exercise when we get off work? A brisk jog around the park should make you tired enough to get some actual sleep.” She then winked playfully at Swirling. “Besides, if you trim up some, you might even find yourself a nice stallion.”

Swirling blushed furiously, her embarrassment added with Nevermore’s increasing laughter made her want to strangle somepony. “I get enough exercise every night now,” she mumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just thinking out loud. Look, it’s nice of you to offer, but I’m too exhausted for anything more strenuous than Lou yelling at me.” That was about half true if Swirling was to be completely honest. She was afraid getting much more of Lou’s crap would drive her off the edge. And, as if on cue…

“Line! Streams! Get your flanks back to work! I ain’t paying you to talk!”

Summer visibly flinched at Lou’s hollering, then heaved out a sigh. “Duty calls,” she quipped with a joking smile. Swirling gave a light chuckle as her friend walked off with her own notepad. The two-toned pegasus lay her head on the counter again, sighing through her nose and watching as the hoofful of customers talked and ate.

She let her mind wander, mildly fantasizing about leaving this grease pit of a restaurant and living out her dream as career artist. Meeting Mr. Perfect… having a family of her own… the thought was nice, that was for certain.

‘You’re aiming too high, you know,’ said Nevermore in his usual dry tone.

‘Oh, what do you know?’ she retorted. ‘Sure, it might never happen, but it’s nice to dream about it, right?’

She heard what sounded like a sigh from the spirit and rolled her eyes. Who cares what he thinks? She’s the only one who can hear him anyway. Why was he so adamant that she know all of his opinions?

“Line!” she heard Lou scream.

“Back to work, right! S-sorry!”

-o-

After a day full of the everlasting joy that’s known as work, Swirling decided it was time to do a little something for herself. The chime of the entry bell rang as she walked into the candy store known as Daytime Delights. She was still amazed at the colorful little store that had the best assortments of different candies. Gummies, chocolates, hard candies, even mint-flavored candies were set out in cute, little displays. As she looked over the candies and baked goods, she wondered why she never visited this store before the night of the fire.

‘Maybe it was because you don’t have any money to afford it?’ she heard Nevermore quip.

Her ears leveled in annoyance. “Life was hectic enough without the commentary,” she muttered quietly.

‘Don’t you think you’re milking Bright Day’s generosity a bit? This is only the fourth time this week you’ve raided her store.’

She muttered, not able to completely argue with him. “She said it was always on the house.”

He didn’t say anything, but she felt him shake his head at her.

“Hello?” She turned to see Bright Day exit from a door. The bright-red earth pony smiled warmly as she saw Swirling looking over the stock. “Swirling Line, it’s good to see you again!”

Swirling smiled to the mare. “Hello, Ms. Day, how’re you?”

The shopkeeper gave a tired sigh as she stepped behind the counter. “I’ve been all right, it’s just the slow season. Holidays are where my shop does it’s best, but with the Summer Sun Celebration still a month away, it’s been slow.”

Swirling frowned softly, her guilt growing some. “I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll pay for anything and everything I get today.”

The other mare shook her head firmly, smiling. “No, Swirling. What you did for me, saving my daughter when I thought I’d lost her, is worth all the candy in my store. You’re always welcome to anything I have.”

The pegasus nodded slowly. “Still, I do feel a bit guilty.”

Bright gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t. What would you like today? More of those chocolate mints?”

Swirling couldn’t keep the wide, triumphant grin from her face. “Yes, please.”

‘I’ll never understand ponies…’

Swirling’s smile only grew wider at Nevermore’s exasperated tone.

After Swirling put the stuffed bag of candy into her saddlebag, she looked at the door as the chime went off again.

“Mom! I’m back from school!”she heard Sunny Day call. “My teacher gave me an ‘A’ on my—” the little yellow-coated filly gasped in surprise as she spotted Swirling at the counter. “Swirling Line!” The filly rushed forward and wrapped her forelegs around Swirling’s fiercely.

Swirling smiled warmly and hugged the little filly back. Ever since the fire incident, and the filly’s initial shyness, the two had grown rather fond of each other. Swirling almost considered Sunny to be the little sister she never had.

Sunny stopped suddenly as she sniffed the air, her face scrunching up in disgust. “Mom, what is that smell? It stinks.”

The older mare took a sniff of the air and frowned faintly. “It smells like… grease?”

Swirling lowered her head in shame. “Yeah, that’s me. I just got off work at Lou’s Diner, and I probably smell like the place.”

Sunny looked at her while still covering her nose. “You need a bath, Swirling. You stink.”

“Sunny! That’s not nice,” Bright Day admonished her.

‘Out of the mouths of foals,’ Nevermore remarked.

‘Will you shut up!?’

“Sunny, how are you?” Swirling asked as the little filly hopped back.

“Good! My teacher gave me an ‘A’ on my spelling test!” She dug into her saddlebags and proudly showed it off to both Swirling and her mother. “See, Mom?”

The shopkeeper smiled warmly to her daughter. “I see. Very good job, Sunny! See what taking the time to study does for you?”

Her daughter deflated a bit but nodded. “Yeah… it’s still boring, though.”

Swirling couldn’t help but chuckle at her. “Oh, studying is boring, but it’ll all be worth it in the long run, though.”

The pink-maned filly looked at her carefully. “Really?”

The pegasus nodded knowingly. “It will. You’re a smart filly, you’ll do fine.”

“Yay!” Sunny started bouncing in place happily.

As Swirling watched the little filly excitedly ramble to them about her day, she only wished she had such enthusiasm about school when she was little.

‘Why must you lie to the little filly like that?’ Nevermore asked.

‘I didn’t lie to her. She is smart!’ Swirling shouted at him in her mind.

‘I was talking about school being worth it. You know full well how far school gets you.’

Swirling grumbled at both Nevermore and the greasy odor her coat gave off. “I should go home and take a shower.”

Bright smiled at her. “Probably a good idea. Maybe we’ll see you again soon?”

“You gotta come back, Swirling. I got a new doll I want to show you,” Sunny added but kept a respectful distance from her. The pegasus smiled down at the filly, rubbing a hoof in her mane.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get a shower at home and come right back. Then you can show me your new doll, okay?” Sunny nodded hopefully as Swirling made her way to the door with a smile on her face.

Just as Swirling Line made it to the door, it swung open, nearly striking her in the head and making her leap back with a surprised yelp. In walked two burly stallions, one a pegasus wearing a bright red bandana like a headband on his forehead, the other an earth pony wearing an equally red hoofball jersey. Neither looked like they were here for sweets.

The earth pony marched up to Bright Day, who stepped back nervously. Sunny hid behind her mother’s legs fearfully. “It’s that time of the month, lady,” he said with a scowl. “Where’s our money?”

Bright gulped. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t have it. The fire-”

“Don’t give us that crap!” the pegasus stallion growled. “We don’t want no excuses!”

At that, Swirling Line stepped in between the two stallions - both clearly Reds if their attire was any indication - and Bright. “What in the hay is going on here?” She was answered by a rough shove from the other pegasus, knocking her to her haunches.

“Ain’t none of your business,” said the earth stallion in a gruff, spiteful tone. He face Bright again. “We’ll be back tomorrow, lady. And if you don’t have our money by then…” He nodded to his partner, who immediately bucked a leg in one of the display cases, shattering the glass, which fell across the floor on other side on the display. Sunny shrieked at the sudden sound, shying further behind her mother.

Bright nodded reluctantly. “Okay, I get the idea. I’ll try to have the money by then.”

“You damn well better, or you’ll lose more than a stupid candy store.” With another nod, the earth pony and his pegasus accomplice left the shop, but not without knocking over one of the gumball machines on the way out, spilling the candies all across the floor in a mixture with the glass.

Standing back on her hooves, Swirling glared angrily at the door before turning to Bright and Sunny with a concerned look. “What were the Reds doing here?”

Sighing bitterly as she got to cleaning up the mess, Bright Day explained, “It’s an extortion racket. They have this whole street under their hooves. They’ve been demanding protection money around her for the past year, and nopony can stop them.”

“The Raven can.”

Both mares turned to Sunny, who sat looking surprisingly sure of herself. Swirling blinked somewhat nervously, Bright only shook her head.

“Sunny, sweetie, you know that’s just some urban legend,” the earth mare said.

“No, it’s not. The Reds are afraid of it, so it has to be real!”

“Er…” Swirling hesitated to reply, even though she really wanted to.

‘You could just show them,’ Nevermore pointed out. Swirling lightly shook her head.

“You know I can’t!” she whispered.

“What was that?” Bright Day asked, startling the pegasus.

“Oh-oh, nothing! Just thinking out loud, that’s all!” She grinned rather awkwardly. “Uh… I’ll just… go home and get a shower. I’ll be back later!” She then darted out the door, leaving both mare and filly to their mild confusion.

-o-

Swirling Line stood as the water poured over her, washing her violet and white-striped mane and coat, thinking back to the Reds at Daytime Delights. Bright had said that the racket had been going on for a year now. A whole year of ponies being oppressed by a group of no-good, cutthroat bullies. She growled to herself and punched the wall.

‘What did the poor wall ever do to you?’

“Shut up, Nevermore.”

‘Why is this even bothering you so much to begin with? It’s not our problem.’

“But Bright and Sunny are my friends. You could at least respect my concern for them.”

‘Believe it or not, I do respect that. It’s still not our problem.’

Swirling didn’t even bother to dignify that with a retort. Her main worry was with her two recent friends. She couldn’t bear to see anypony get hurt, and from the way those two Reds acted, it sounded like they were planning to do more than just break a few display windows. Bright had said that nopony could stop them.

“The Raven can.”

Sunny’s words rang out in Swirling’s head, and grew a determined look in her eyes.

‘You’re right, Sunny,’ she thought. ‘The Raven can stop them. And she will.’

-o-

The door to the bar flew open, and an earth pony stallion wearing a red bandana wrapped around his left foreleg walked out, a drunken flush on his face as he trotted out into the cool night air. He heard the bartender yelling at him, but he ignored him. He was just having fun. So what if he “forgot” to pay for his drinks? That bar had pretty good business. Come to think of it, why weren’t the Reds bull-rushing this place for protection money? Soon as he met with the boss, he’d see to fixing that mistake.

Staggering after admittedly a few too many ciders and salt licks, he somehow managed to keep himself on the sidewalk, though he had to often lean against a wall or a lamppost for a few moments to steady himself. As he walked he hummed some tune he heard on the radio far off key. What was the name of that song again? Ah, whatever.

A sudden sound like the clang of metal caught his attention. It had come from an alley to his left, but the only thing he saw at first a brief flash of something yellow. It was too fast to make out, however.

“Who’s there?” he called out. For a few moments, no answer came. He shook his head. “Must be hearing things…”

As if fate desired to prove him wrong, something tackled him into the alley and roughly shoved him against the wall of a building, dazing him.

“Here’s how this is going to go down,” said bizarre, unnatural voice that sounded like two ponies talking at the same time. “I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to answer me with complete honesty.”

After a few moments, the stallion’s focus returned, and he saw what had pounced on him. Before him was a creature whose body was jet black, with glowing yellow eyes and a mane that broke apart and vanished as it flowed like an ethereal mass. Its large, spread wings shared that same trait, making the creature look like a living shadow.

“Wh-what in the-!?” A hoof suddenly slammed over his mouth, muffling a cry of pain. It felt like a few teeth had just been broken.

“I’m asking the questions here, tough guy,” the creature said in its unnatural voice. It didn’t have any mouth that he could see, further adding to his slowly rising panic. “Now, I’m going to ask you one very simple question, and you’re going to answer honestly. Then I might let you go. Understand? Nod if you do.” The stallion nodded as frantically as he could with the thing’s hoof pressing on his face. “Good. Now, tell me, what do you know about the extortion racket down on 10th Street?”

-o-

An hour after her interrogation of the Red - whom she’d discreetly delivered to the nearest police station - Swirling Line made her way to where he had said that the Reds in charge of the racket on Bright and Sunny’s street were based; an old, abandoned building that had been set for demolition for years. Apparently, the city never got around to taking it down. This could prove to be to her advantage, now that she thought about it. All those shadows everywhere, especially with it being nighttime, would hide her with no trouble at all.

When the building was in sight, she landed quietly atop a roof across the street. Sure enough, two Reds were standing guard in front of the derelict building. Although, “standing guard” was being generous. In reality, they were just standing out front smoking and chatting.

‘This may be easier than I though,’ she thought, already spotting a number of places where she could get in quietly to find their boss.

‘Never underestimate your enemy,’ warned Nevermore. ‘These guys are clearly thugs, but thugs are usually tough, and you’re not invincible.’

“I know that,” Swirling said indignantly. “I’m going to be careful about this. I do learn from my mistakes. I’ll keep an eye out for any banana peels this time.” She ignored the light snicker from the spirit and returned her focus to the building. “Let’s do this.”

She sank into the shadows (which still gave her the chills for a number of reasons), and darted through them toward the Reds out front. She paid their conversation no mind, instead emerging behind them.

“Lovely night, isn’t it?” she said, startling the two thugs. She quickly turned around and bucked them both in the face, sending them flying back a ways and knocking them out cold. She then headed into the building, where four more Reds sat around a table playing cards.

“You hear about those morons who got caught by the cops?” one asked his companions.

“The whole city heard about that,” a second answered as he drew a card. “Kept goin’ on about a livin’ shadow or some crap. Talk about a lousy day.”

“Damn straight,” the first said. “This whole ‘Raven’ thing is just some dumbass’s way of trying to the heat off himself. It’s gotta be some crazy pony in a suit.”

“What, like Batmare?” a third Red joked, earning a laugh from his fellow goons.

“No, actually,” Swirling Line chimed in, making all four stallions jumps out of their seats. The fourth of them pulled a knife from Celestia-knows-where. She had melded back into the shadows, leaving the Reds clueless.

“Who’s there!?” the knife-wielder demanded, brandishing his weapon.

The mare couldn’t help herself. Deepening her voice, she said, “Who do you think? I’m Batmare.”

One of the stallions actually suppressed a laugh, though he was silenced by a glare from his companions. The knife stallion scowled, glancing around for the elusive voice. “Get out here so we can beat you to a pulp!”

‘Not the best at giving invitations, are they?’ quipped Nevermore.

Swirling smiled to herself. “You asked for it.”

She shot out of the shadows, tackling one stallion to the ground slamming a hoof into his face, knocking him out. The Red with the knife went to slash at her, but her shadow form deflected the blade, giving her the chance to deliver a powerful buck to his barrel, blasting him away with force he likely didn’t expect. Another Red charged her, clearly with his plan only being to attack wildly. She ducked under a right hook from his hoof before headbutting him in the chin, a sickening crunch meeting her ears as the blow broke his jaw, earning a cry of pain from the stallion.

With two of his cohorts unconscious and one moaning in pain and holding his lower jaw, the fourth Red looked at Swirling with wide, fearful eyes.

Once again, she couldn’t help herself.

“Boo.”

With a shrill shriek of panic, the Red galloped out of the room and out of the building, leaving Swirling Line to snicker to herself.

“Ha, just a big chick—” she started until another thug jumped out from behind a stack of crates at her. He wrapped his forelegs around her neck and threw her through the crates before she could react. The wooden boxes splintered, their contents, mostly bottles of what smelled like hard cider and other alcoholic drinks, strewn around her.

She groaned as she pushed herself up to see the Red approaching her. He was much bigger and much tougher-looking than the others, with a dark gray coat and sloppy white mane. His dark eyes glowered down at her as he slipped a metal covering over one of his front hooves and glared down at her. She noticed his cutie mark was a fairly cartoonish lightning bolt, which she found odd on an earth pony.

“You got a lot of nerve breaking in my hideout and thrashing my boys, freak!” He brought his hoof down, barely giving her time to move as she jumped away from his strike. The metal covering sparked and left cracks in the concrete floor. “You think you’re some kinda hero? Well, you're about to find out what we do to heroes around here!”

She dodged his next attack and lashed out with a kick, but he threw up his hoof and blocked her. He then swiped out with a wide swing. She ducked under the attack and couldn’t help but smile at the opening the Red left her. She tried to spring forward at him, but before she went skidding across the pavement, she saw the knee of his back leg a split second before she saw the flashing lights, and felt stinging pain on her muzzle.

She quickly got back to her hooves despite the pain in her snout as the thug ran after her.

‘That was a feint. Careful; this one actually knows how to fight.’

“You don’t say?” she snarked as she jumped away from his broad attack.

He growled as she continued to keep out of his range. “Hold still, you coward, and fight me like a stallion!”

She smiled beside herself. “Yeah, there’s just one problem with—” She started when she felt herself bump into something. She instinctively looked back at the stack of crates when she heard the thug yell and turned to see him bring back his hoof in a deadly haymaker.

“Got you!”

She hoped her fearful stumble over the crates looked more like she had intended to roll over them rather than the desperate skitter it felt like. The thug brought his hoof down through the crate, but swore when it remained stuck in the wreckage.

“I’m not a stallion!” She yelled and leaped across and kicked him solidly across the muzzle. A few teeth flew free of his jaw as he bounced across the floor, his glove-like weapon remaining lodged in the crates.

He tried to push himself off of the ground, but when he felt himself lifted up and slammed into a wall of the warehouse, he knew she had him. One look at those unearthly eyes had him gripped far more solidly than the hoof that had him pinned, and that hoof had him pinned pretty tight.

“You’re in charge here, I take it?” she inquired, using a menacing tone. Or, as menacing as she could make her voice. The Red nodded. “Good. What’s your name?”

“J-Jolt,” he stammered out. Like with his cutie mark, Swirling noted that his name was odd for an earth pony. That was a mystery for another day, however.

“All right, Jolt.” Her tone went from her best menacing voice to her friendliest, hoping to frighten the stallion just a little bit more. “Let’s chat for a bit, shall we?”

-o-

Bright was nervous.

No, that was an understatement. She was terrified. Without a doubt, today would be the day the Reds finally tear her store apart, taking away one of the few things she had left after the fire had destroyed her and Sunny’s home. They had already been staying at a family friend’s place, and they’d proven to be very gracious, but they couldn’t live like that forever! Losing Daytime Delights to a bunch of delinquents would destroy Bright’s spirit. She didn’t even want to think of the effect it could have on Sunny.

There was nothing she could do, though. Resisting the Reds was pointless. They’d just send somepony in who was tougher than the last guy. All anypony on this block could do was hope that they felt merciful. That, however, would be a miracle in itself.

Any minute now, a gang of Reds would barge their way into her store, causes hundreds of bits worth of property damage, demand their money, likely beat her when she didn’t have it, then set fire to the building and walk away laughing. She steeled herself, trying to make herself look tougher than she felt, praying to Celestia, Luna, and Faust that those thugs would be gentle.

She was in the stockroom in back when she heard the bell over the door jingle, nearly making her drop a glass jar of jawbreakers. She took a deep breath to calm herself. She reminded herself that, even though the Reds were cruel, they were still ponies, and, hopefully, could be reasoned with. She made for the shop, wanting nothing more than to get this over with.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Day!” chirped a familiar, two-toned pegasus mare. Bright heaved out a sigh of relief as Swirling Line began browsing the many sweets and baked goods available.

“Oh, it’s just you, Swirling,” the earth mare said as she relaxed a little. She headed over to the counter, where she stood by the register. “For a minute there, I thought you were the Reds again.”

Swirling chuckled, almost as if she had a secret. “You know, I’ve got a feeling that they won’t be much of problem for you anymore.”

“What makes you say that?”

The pegasus shrugged. “Call it a hunch, I guess.” After that, she picked out several cupcakes and mint chocolates. Against Bright’s protests, she left a few bits on the counter and headed out. A few minutes later, Sunny bounced in, happily chatting about her day in school, while Bright found herself thinking about what Swirling had said.

‘A hunch…?’

Wherever that "hunch" had come from, Swirling was right. The Reds never came in. She learned from neighboring storeowners that the Reds failed to collect from them, as well. It wasn't until she read the front page of the newspaper the next morning that she learned why:

THE RAVEN STRIKES AGAIN

-o-

Brawn wanted to punch something. He wanted to shatter the table he was sitting at, he was so frustrated. Knives, who sat across from him, still wore that ever-present smirk of his, which only served to irritate him further. Almost a week of searching, and that what’s-her-name was nowhere to be found. She must’ve been out of town if they couldn’t find her. Talk about a pain in the flank.

“You’ll end up killing yourself if you keep going like this,” Knives suddenly said as he flipped through his menu. He frowned. “Is there nothing here that isn’t drowned in grease?”

“How you be so cool about this?” Knives raised a questioning eyebrow at the burly pegasus. “If we don’t find that mare, the boss is gonna go nuts. And you know how he is when that happens. Remember what happened last time?”

“Six corpses and a lot of burning to do,” the unicorn replied with a nonchalant wave of his hoof. “Relax. She’ll turn up. I’ve got a feeling that we’re closer now than ever.”

“Excuse me,” said a mare’s voice. “Are you ready to make your orders?”

Both stallions faced the waitress, and Brawn nearly did a double take. The mare was a pegasus, with a violet coat that bore white stripes on her legs and barrel. Her mane was dark shade of purple, with lines of lighter purple breaking in. Her cutie mark was an intricate snowflake. The look on her face gave the impression that she was having a rough day.

Knives spoke first. “Of course. I’ll have a double hayburger with everything, with a side of fries.”

“Er, an HBLT for me,” Brawn said. The waitress wrote down their orders and nodded, heading off to inform the cook. Brawn turned to his partner and said, “That was-!”

“I know who it was, Brawn. You don’t need to shout it to the heavens.” He looked over in the direction of the kitchen, his smirk returned, larger than before. “Heh. What’re the odds? She’s been working in this greasy hellhole this whole time. We should check these places more often.”

“We gotta tell the boss,” Brawn pointed out. Knives nodded in agreement. No doubt, Mafioso would love to hear news like this.

Kill or Be Killed

Celestia's sun shone throughout the cloudy skies of Manehattan as Swirling Line flew through the city with a cheeky smirk on her face. Her "discussion" with Jolt had proved to be pretty informative, and was still fresh her mind even a week later. The stallion had spilled everything he knew in seconds… then he cried soon after that, swearing that the racket on 10th Street would end. She laughed for hours after that!

After that night, she had been using the info he’d given her to put a serious dent in the Reds’ operations all around Manehattan; disrupting drug trafficking, foiling robberies before they happened, rescuing kidnapped ponies being held for ransom, etc. She was thoroughly enjoying being a metaphorical thorn in the Reds’ side.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she reached her destination, though with some trepidation; Lou’s Diner. With the grace of a dove she landed in front of the grease pit. However, right before she opened the door, she heard two voices conversing behind it.

"So, what do you think about this new mystery mare?" a voice belonging to Summer Streams asked. "From what I heard, she took down another gang of those awful Reds last night!"

'Looks like my reputation precedes me! I'm getting more famous with each passing day!' Swirling thought to herself with pride.

'Careful,’ Nevermore snarked. ‘There isn't enough space in here for both me and your ego.'

'Shut up, Nevermore.'

"Yeah, some mare calling herself ‘Raven.’" Another voice said, this one belonging to a male. "I must admit, it's impressive for only one mare to accomplish such a…” The stallion stopped in midsentence, as if pondering something. "Maybe… it's not just one mare…”

"Oh? What do you mean?" Summer asked. Swirling arched a brow in equal curiosity.

"Maybe the Mayor's got a bunch of ponies working under the same alias, like a secret service!" the stallion exclaimed. "They just want us to think that it's one mare!"

In less than a second, Swirling went from curiously listening to desperately trying not to crack up as she shoved her hoof into her mouth to hold in her snickers. She could've sworn she heard Nevermore let out a little chuckle as well. Perhaps now would be a good time to step in.

Opening the door, she greeted her friend and the stallion with a smile. “Good morning, Summer.”

The verdant-green mare smiled a bubbly grin when she saw Swirling. “Swirl!” She embraced the pegasus warmly, which was gladly returned. “How’re you this morning?”

“I’m doing fine.” She let her friend out of the hug. “What were you two talking about?”

Summer’s face took on an eager gleam. “Didn’t you hear? It’s about the Raven. The news said she beat another gang of Reds to a pulp the other night.”

“Did she?” Swirling wanted to smile in pride at that moment, but she would allow her celebrations later on in private.

“She did!” She nuzzled the stallion next to her. “And Page Topper wrote the article about it!”

The earth stallion nodded with a grin. “She broke into an old warehouse that the Reds were using to store illegal narcotics. At least, that’s what the arrested Reds said.” His proud smile became one that bore a mix of admiration and curiosity. “Whoever the Raven is, it seems like she wants to help.”

Summer smirked at her boyfriend while Swirling just tilted her head curiously at Page’s expression. “I know that look.”

Swirling looked between them. “What? What look?”

“I’m going to find out who she is,” Page explained. “I’m going to uncover the Raven’s true identity. One mare or many ponies, there’s got to be somepony behind that mask she’s said to wear.”

‘I never did like journalists,’ Nevermore said in a blunt, serious tone.

Ignoring the shadow spirit’s comment, Swirling said, “What if she wears that mask for a reason? I mean, haven’t you ever read a comic book? She may be wearing a mask to protect the ponies she cares about, right?”

Summer reluctantly nodded in agreement. “She has been messing with the Reds. Those guys don’t like it when ponies mess with them.”

Scoffing, Page said, “Well, it’s not like I’m going to publicize her identity. Not without her consent, at least. I just want to know who the Raven is.”

‘I get the feeling that this guy’s going to be a problem.’

‘You worry too much, Nevermore,’ Swirling assured her tenant. ‘I honestly don’t know Page that well, but he seems like a good enough guy.’

‘That’s completely irrelevant. A problem’s a problem, no matter how nice it may seem at first glance.’

The pegasus mentally sighed before focusing on her friend and the stallion. “I don’t know. From what I’ve heard, the Raven doesn’t seem all too easy to find. If she was, the Reds probably would’ve gotten her back by now, right?”

For some reason, Page’s grin only got wider. “Now that’s just motivating me even more. I’m going to find the Raven, and I’m going to uncover the truth about her.”

Nevermore scoffed. ‘Way to go. You just had to make yourself sound all mysterious.’

Swirling groaned, earning a slightly worried look from Summer.

“You okay, Swirl?”

“Yeah. I think I’m just getting a migraine.”

-o-

A migraine that only got worse the longer she worked. Between Lou’s constant bellowing and the impatient patrons, she was ready to go Raven on all of them. It was a pleasant thought, but not one she’d ever follow through with—except maybe in Lou’s case. She chuckled to herself as she set the plates of food in front of a group of hungry customers.

“Do you need anything else?” she asked as she set extra napkins on the table.

“Just keep these cheesy celery sticks coming! We just won big at the races and we’re celebrating!” The patron and his group of rowdy friends all cheered and dug into the basket like a pack of savage timberwolves over a scrap of meat.

“Delightful…” Swirling muttered as she turned away, rubbing at temple to alleviate her throbbing head. She set the tray on the counter as Lou scrambled to keep up with the busier than usual night. “How’s it going, Lou?”

“Better if yer not yammering in my ear,” the gruff cook groused as he worked in a frenzy. “Get them drinks to table ten and clean up table seven. We’ve got customers waiting!”

With as much dignity as a waitress in the greasiest hole of a restaurant in Manehattan could have, Swirling Line continued her shift, ignoring Nevermore’s snide comments whenever she slipped, tuning out Lou’s ranting whenever she could, and tolerating to the best of her ability the occasional leer from the male patrons. All the while, she just kept reminding herself that her shift would soon end. Any minute…

“Now,” she muttered to herself as she finally headed outside the diner. As always, she embraced the slightly chilled air of Manehattan over the stuffy heat of Lou’s Diner.

She looked up at the sky, seeing the orange tint of dusk above. She heaved out a sigh as she quickly realized that Nevermore was going to put her through one of his drills again. Yippee. Another virtually sleepless night, justified only by the fact that she’d be able to do some heroing as she practiced with her powers.

She trotted along the street, letting her hooves take her home for her. She would fly, normally. She couldn’t honestly say why, but she just felt like walking instead of flying. Maybe her subconscious was trying to get her relax or something. Maybe she was overthinking it with that theory. Either way, walking just seemed like a good idea for some indiscernible reason.

Her hooves carried her as she milled her way through the always-crowded streets of Manehattan, her mind wandering occasionally, artsy images sometimes popping into mind, but disappearing before she could get a solid grasp on them, as per the norm.

Soon, however… something was sticking. A vague idea at first, like when one sees a pony one knew a long time ago, but can’t quite place who that pony is or why one knew them. Something… it was gradually becoming clearer and clearer.

‘Okay, how can I see that?’ she heard Nevermore say in confusion. All that did was fuel her hopes for this. It was there! Something was finally there!

She pranced in place as fast as her legs would let her. “I gotta get home! I gotta get home! I have to get started, or I’ll—”

The thought was destroyed when she was suddenly and unceremoniously yanked off the sidewalk and into an alley, then tossed roughly onto the ground, landing atop a bag of trash that had been torn open by some animal. She could feel what she hoped was only melted ice cream, but most likely wasn’t, clinging to the fur on her back and sticking to the feathers at the bases of her wings.

Standing over her was the biggest, burliest, baldest earth pony stallion she had ever seen in her life. And she’d seen some of Summer’s ex-boyfriends.

“You’re Swirling Line, right?” the stallion asked with an accent that sounded like he was from somewhere in the Broncs.

“W-Who are you? What are you doing?”

“Answer the question, you little nag!” He slammed a hoof into the wall next to her head. Cracks formed under the pressure.

Reluctantly, and with her eyes darting toward the sky and ground, Swirling nodded. She was in sunlight right now. She wouldn’t be able to transform unless she could get into the shadows in the alley, but she doubted she’d be able to get out of this guy’s reach fast enough to get to them.

The stallion smirked. “Good. Just wanted to make sure I got the right mare. Boss’d kill me if I got the wrong one.”

“Boss?”

His answer was to grab a broken bottle off the ground and make a jab at her with it. With a yelp, the two-toned mare rolled out of the way, scrambling up to her hooves in an attempt to make a break for the shadows.

Her head snapped back viciously as she felt her mane pulled from behind. “Where do you think you’re going, nag?” Jerked off her hooves, the thug flung her at the wall of the building where she crashed into another trash can. Refuse and other things rolled around her as she tried to shake the darting lights from her vision.

‘Fight back!’ she heard Nevermore yell.

“I’m try—” She felt the air blasted out of her as she was kicked in the midsection. She slumped over, gasping and coughing for air.

The thug wiped at his face with a dirty hoof. “Tch, the hero of a little burning apartment building?” He grabbed and slammed her against the side of the building, easily holding her up with one hoof. “How’s the glory of being hero going for you now, huh?”

Before she could utter a word, he slugged her across the muzzle, sending her sliding across the pavement. She looked past the tears of pain to see that she was within reach of the shadows of the building. She dragged herself forward, only to be dragged back again by her tail.

‘No, no, no!’ she screamed in her mind, reaching desperately for the shadows that lay beyond her grasp. She could hear Nevermore practically howling at her to get up and fight.

A hoof slammed into her ribcage, bringing an sickening crack that made her gasp in agony as the reality of at least two broken ribs struck her like a freight train.

She couldn’t think. There was too much pain. An orange glow turned black. Then, before she knew anything else, she heard a splatter, right after the sound of something hard shattering. Why did her foreleg feel so… warm and wet?

The rush of agony died away. Her breaths were heavy and ragged, but she was breathing. That was good. Breathing is good. But why was her foreleg…?

Lucid thought soon returned, though a very large part of her wished that it hadn’t. She knew she was in her Raven form. Her coat was jet black. Her left foreleg was stained red.

Her left foreleg was shoved right into the barrel of the stallion who had been trying to kill her, his body pinned to the wall by her supernatural strength. Her eyes went wide in horror as her mind struggled to process what she was seeing. The stallion, gasping and weak, reached with a hoof towards her foreleg, only for it to fall limp to his side. He looked directly into her eyes, and she saw the fear and hatred in them before he spoke. “F-Freak…” He slumped over, the light in his eyes fading away.

She was frozen. Realization rapidly dawned on her as she stood there, staring at the body that was once a living, breathing pony.

A scream tore her eyes away from the corpse. A mare at the entrance to the alley stood with a look of pure terror. Several ponies quickly joined her, staring in horror at the sight in front of them.

Swirling pulled her hoof out of the dead thug’s barrel, his lifeless form falling to the ground. “I-I…” she stammered, with no idea of what she could possibly say.

“Murderer!” a pony cried out. That did it. Everypony immediately began hollering out that word and its synonyms. “Monster! Somepony, call the authorities!”

Almost instinctively, the Raven sank away, vanishing into the shadows and fleeing the scene long before the police ever arrived.

-o-

Without warning, she retched onto the floor of her apartment, heaving out everything she had eaten that
day. The acidic taste burned Swirling’s throat as it piled on the carpeting. It wouldn’t stop until she felt emptier than she had ever felt before.

What had happened? Today had started like any other. It seemed like it would be a fairly ordinary day. Then…

She leaned into the wall beside her, panting raggedly as the taste of bile drowned her tongue. That sickening flavor, however, was nothing compared to the stains she saw on her hooves. She weakly limped her way into her bathroom, running water over her hooves to the crimson liquid off of her person. She practically buried her hooves in soap to get rid of the stains.

The red just wouldn’t go away. It wouldn’t leave. It refused to be washed away.

She hung her head low, choking back sobs as she struggled to process what was happening to her now. This wasn’t what she thought she’d do with the power that Nevermore gave her. She didn’t want to… she couldn’t…

“Oh, Celestia…” she muttered gravely as reality set in. “I… killed a pony… I… Oh, sweet Celestia…”

‘It was in self-defense,’ said Nevermore. ‘He would’ve killed you if you hadn’t killed him. You’ve done nothing wrong.’

She glanced up at the mirror in front of her. Nevermore’s image was plainly visible in the reflection, but the sight of him only built up a rage in her chest.

“‘Nothing wrong’?” she quoted the spirit. “Nothing wrong!? I killed somepony! It doesn’t matter if it was self-defense or not! I… I’m a murderer.”

The bird was silent. After several moments, Swirling bent down, pulled out several cleaning supplies from the cabinet beneath the sink, and left the room, returning to the spot where she had involuntarily emptied her stomach.

After cleaning up the mess she had created for herself, she deposited the washcloths in the sink to wash. As she ran the water over the cloths, she looked at herself in the mirror. She saw the same pony she had always seen in the mirror, her mane still bearing the purple and white it always had. Her coat was still the same—albeit still ruffled from the “fight” earlier—but it was her eyes that gave her pause. The yellow irises were still the same as they always had been, but now, there was something different there. Like a light had gone out, a light that she had lost.

She closed her eyes, but the sight still haunted her. The sight of her own hoof, stuck deep within the barrel of a another pony, his lifeblood spilling out across her shadow-covered foreleg, the sound of his final curse at her name, and the light going out in his eyes and his body growing still. No matter how she tried to justify it, tried to rationalize with herself that what she did was right, she always saw the blood. The blood of a pony she had killed.

The water ran from the sink, but all she did was watch as it swirled around and continued down the drain. She looked at her hoof. She could swear she could still see the blood. It was there, staining her fur. She grabbed her soap and roughly scrubbed at her fetlocks. She scrubbed viciously, but the blood was not going anywhere. Why couldn’t she get rid of the blood?

She scrubbed harder, sobs escaping her. The tears fell from her face, joining the soapy water as it swirled down the drain. Why wasn’t the blood going away!?

‘Swirling, stop.’

The bar of soap broke in her grip but she grabbed a half and scrubbed harder. The blood was not going away!

‘Swirling!’

“Leave me alone!” She scrubbed harder, bits of fur tearing off.

‘Enough!’ Nevermore’s voice tripped through her mind. ‘You are hurting yourself!”

Her tears fell in streams from her face. “Why won’t the blood go away?”

‘Swirling, it was not your fault. You know that.’

She slumped, her face inches from the falling water of the faucet. “Why?” her voice cracked.

‘You couldn’t have done anything different. Don’t do this.’

She fell to her haunches, burying her head under her forelegs. Her shoulders shook with sobs. “I just… I just…”

His voice was quiet for a time. ‘You wish you could take it all back?’

She closed her eyes and continued to cry. “Why did this have to happen to me?”

‘Because… as much as we prefer making our own decisions… we’re not always given a choice.’

She sat there for a long time, the running water completely forgotten.

‘Get some sleep. It’ll be clearer in the morning.’

She dashed at her eyes and quietly turned off the running faucet. She looked back at the mirror and at her haggard appearance. She closed her eyes and turned away for her bed, hoping, but not expecting, sleep to come to her tonight. Or any night… for a long time.

-o-

THE RAVEN: VIGILANTE OR CRIMINAL?

Swirling wanted to tear up the newspaper, throw the shredded remains right in Lou’s face, and storm out of the diner the instant she saw that headline. She wanted to just go back home and go back to bed. She wanted to lie under her covers and wait to die, Nevermore’s protests be damned. She didn’t want to be at work, she didn’t want to see anyone, but she had to work.

“What are you staring at, Line?” the stallion said. “Set up those tables before we open, already!”

She looked away. “Whatever, Lou.”

Her boss’s face got as red as the tomatoes he was cutting. “Watch yer mouth, girl! I don’t need yer sassin’! Keep that up, and you’ll be out on yer flank in nothin’ flat!”

She snorted and went to set up the tables before her boss could yell at her more. She went about her daily routine in a state of obliviousness. No matter what she tried to do, she always saw the moment the thug’s life had drained away at the end of her hoof.

It wasn’t long before Summer Streams arrived, the green mare wearing a long, yellow scarf around her neck. She was holding a newspaper with the same front page headline as Lou’s in her magic, almost making Swirling want to scream. Summer set down the paper on the counter by the cash register, removing her scarf before sharing a greeting with Swirling Line.

“Good morning, Swirl,” the unicorn said with cheerful grin, which faded when she saw her friend’s dour scowl. “You don’t look so good. Did you sleep okay last night?”

“Like a baby,” the pegasus lied halfheartedly.

Summer narrowed her eyes at the other mare. Swirling knew what that look meant: her friend was both curious and determined to know what was going on. The two mares stood quietly for some time, Swirling slowly setting up the table in front of her while Summer continued giving her that suspicious glare.

“You sure you’re okay?” Summer asked.

Swirling sighed and turned to her friend with a painfully fake smile. “Yeah. I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

The unicorn frowned and put a hoof on the pegasus’s shoulder. “Swirl, you’re not okay.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Then look me in the eye and tell me you’re all right.”

She did as she was told, looking the other mare square in the eye… and she hesitated. She hated lying to her best friend. She wanted Summer to be in the loop. She deserved to know. But as she played the scenario in her mind, she could just see what would happen.

“I’m the Raven! You know, that creepy, ghost pony thing that killed that guy? Yeah, that one!”

Her faith in that working out was shaky at its best. So, instead, she looked into Summer’s eyes with the most serious, falsely honest face she could must.

“I’m fine,” she bluffed.

-o-

Bright watched with concern as Swirling Line sat on a chair in the corner of the sweets shop, her head low while she sullenly chewed on some taffy. The pegasus seemed more than a little out of sorts today. While Bright admittedly hadn’t known Swirling for all that long, she believed she knew the younger mare well enough to know that this wasn’t normal for her. She looked as though she were ready to punch somepony.

Finally, she decided that she should at least try to get her to talk. She sat across from the mare and waited for her to notice she was there. After a while, Swirling’s eyes drifted upward and widened.

“Oh, Bright. Sorry.” She rubbed at her face. “I didn’t see you sit down.”

Bright waved her away. “Don’t worry about it, Swirling. I only just sat down.” She tilted her head. “Are you okay?”

Swirling looked away. “Why is everypony asking me that today?”

“Because we’re worried about you. This whole gloomy-gud thing isn’t like you.” The store owner passed her a chocolate mint, knowing it was the pegasus’s favorite. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

Swirling looked at the piece of chocolate for a second before looking at the earth pony. “Is this a bribe?”

Bright smiled some. “Only if you consider it to be one.”

The pegasus smiled sadly, but she did scoop up the candy.

“I’ve never seen a sadder smile than that,” Bright remarked, trying to get the pegasus to come out of her unusual shell.

Swirling looked back at her for a long moment before glancing back down. “Bright… have you ever done something you really wish you could make go away?”

Bright’s head snapped back in surprise at the question, her eyes widening at the implications. What is it that was hurting Swirling so much to ask a question like that?

When she looked back at the pegasus, her words caught in her throat. The sadness in her eyes, the hurt that she saw, told Bright that Swirling was hanging off the next things she said.

Bright took in a breath and let it out slowly. “We all have, Swirling. We all have. All you can do is to learn to accept it and continue on.”

Swirling sighed and lowered her eyes to the table again, the tears threatening to fall again. “How… How do you do it?”

They both turned as they heard the store’s bell ring and in ran Sunny Day. The filly squealed joyfully and ran and hugged her mother.

Bright ruffled her daughter’s mane and gave Swirling a warm smile. “You just enjoy the better parts that much more.” She excused herself from Sunny’s grip, and the young filly made her way out of the room, leaving the adults. “Whenever I feel like I’ve done something terrible, I just remember my daughter’s smiling face.” She turned to Swirling once again. “Even when you feel like you’re at rock bottom, you should always find something to live for. Something you’d always fight to protect.”

The younger mare glanced down at the floor, eyeing her hooves. She could still see the blood, the eyes of her assailant dimming and losing all trace of life. She could still hear the frightened screams and exclamations of the crowd that had gathered that night. They had called her a monster, a murderer. That thug had called her a freak.

“Something to live for…” she whispered to herself. She thought back to that fateful night just a few weeks ago, the day she had leaped into an inferno to save an innocent foal from the blaze. The night she met Nevermore, who would save her life. Then the days after that, the nights she’d spend learning how to use her newfound abilities.

She thought back to the night of her first heroic act. She had proclaimed herself to be the Raven, protector of Manehattan. She had been so thrilled to assume that role, and was only just beginning to love it.

‘I’ll be honest,’ came the voice of Nevermore. ‘I don’t understand why you would stick your neck out to help ponies out of situations that aren’t your problem. But you’re going to a dark place right now, and that’s not good for either of us.’

‘I thought you loved dark places?’ Swirling asked.

‘Shadows and darkness are two very different things. Don’t let yourself fall into that darkness. It’s impossible to come back once you do. I’d rather burn in the light than have my host suffer that kind of fate.’

Swirling had to fight the urge to tilt her head in confusion, not wanting to have to explain her reaction to Bright. Nevermore was being weirdly considerate right now. Well… as considerate as Nevermore could be anyway. She made a mental note to inquire about that later. She faced Bright again, a small, more real smile on her face this time.

“Thanks, Bright. I… thank you. I guess I just needed some advice.”

Bright nodded with the kind of smile that would be worn by an older sister who had just had a special moment with her younger sibling. “Anytime, Swirling. Why don’t you go and spend some time with Sunny? I’m sure that’ll cheer you up.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that.” She stood up and gave the other mare a thankful hug. “Thanks again. I’m lucky to have you as a friend.” She released her friend and headed to where Sunny had scampered off, while Bright nodded and returned behind the counter.

The earth pony mare felt good about herself right now. With luck, Swirling Line would get out of her abnormal funk sooner rather than later. Doubtless, Sunny would pull the pegasus back to her old self.

-o-

Swirling’s smile still remained when she pushed open the door from the stairwell of her apartment complex. After spending the evening with Sunny Day, playing with dolls and even coloring, Swirling felt uplifted. For a while, she had forgotten her troubles, lost in the simple joys of a filly’s smile and her childish games. It was just the sort of thing she needed to lift her spirits.

As she walked down the hallway towards her apartment, her mind did drift back to her reality—though it didn’t find a deep purchase as it had before. The Days had helped her see something that she hadn’t seen before, and she would hold on to that feeling.

‘It’s a step, at least,’ she heard Nevermore say. ‘It’s like I told you before. What you did was acceptable.’

“I still killed somepony, Nevermore. I can’t change that,” she whispered aloud.

‘No, but you can accept what you’ve done and continue to move on.’

“I won’t kill again…”

Nevermore snorted. ‘If you want to make that choice, it’s yours to make. Not much I could do to stop you. But you may find it a hard promise to keep than you might think.’

“Then I’ll work extra hard.” Her mind drifted back to her evening with the Days, and she felt her smile grow again.

‘Hold on to that feeling. When you feel your mind take a dark turn, remember what you feel. It could save you.’

She smiled inwardly and reached for her keys as she reached her door. The key turned the lock and she pushed her door open.

“Home, sweet home,” she uttered and closed her door. She tossed her saddlebags over a chair and went to dig in her ice chest for something cold to drink.

Her ears flickered as she heard a noise. It sounded like a floor board creaking.

She scowled. “Hmm. Must have be rats again.”

‘Again?’

“When you make as much as I do, you take what you can get.” She huffed and closed her ice chest, sitting at her table. She took a drink of her juice when her ears flicked again at a sound.

“I’m gonna have to leave a nasty note for my landlord. I shouldn’t be sharing a room with rodents.”

‘Mm…’ She then felt something different from Nevermore. Something that put her at ill ease.

He felt… almost worried.

“What is it?” She asked, looking around the dim apartment.

‘Something is… Get out! Get out now!’

She started when she felt something heavy hit her in the back of the head. She crashed through her table, spilling the mug of juice all over her.

Her blurry vision saw her ruined table and a set of hooves approach her. “The boss wants to have a word with you… hero,” she heard a deep voice say to her.

She only vaguely heard Nevermore crying out for her as she blacked out.

-o-

“Wakey, wakey, hero girl,” she heard right before a bucket of the coldest water she ever felt splash over her.

She gasped in shock and fear, as much as the rag stuffed in her muzzle would allow, as her consciousness returned in full force.

“Seems our little hero has decided to join us again.” The burly pegasus leered at her. “Enjoy your little snooze, doll?”

She struggled to get away from him, but found that her forelegs were tied behind her chair and her hind legs tied to the legs of the chair. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t loosen the ties to her bonds. She looked up to the stallion who had spoken. He was large for a pegasus, with a brown coat and a sloppy, blond mane. He had the look of a troublemaker all over him. His cutie mark looked like a bunch of rings all melted together.

“And where do you think you’ll run to, doll? Ain’t no one around who’s gonna save ya.” He laughed and stood tall. “Hey, Knives, check this one out! Thinking that she can run, what do you say to that?”

A lanky, dark red unicorn looked up from sharpening one of many knives that he had laid out on a table. “I’d say she doesn’t stand a chance in Tartarus.” He chuckled eagerly to himself, pushing his orange mane out of his eyes. From where she sat, Swirling clearly saw the unicorn’s knife cutie mark, making it blatantly clear to her what he was preparing to do.

She panted through the dirty rag as her her eyes widened in panic when she looked to those wicked-looking blades. She tried speaking through the cloth, but all that came out were muffled pleas.

The pegasus turned an ear her way. “What’s that? Hey, Knives, what do you think she just said to us.”

Knives held up one of the blades in his magic and eyed the edge keenly. “Sounded disrespectful to me, Brawn.”

“That’s what I thought.” He smacked her sharply across the face, his hoof leaving a bright red mark on her face. “I’d learn respect if I were you, hero.”

Tears of pain welled up around her eyes as the pain flared in her cheek. Why did they keep calling her ‘hero?’ A part of her instantly theorized that they must’ve somehow found about her being the Raven. Were these guys Reds? If so, they weren’t wearing any red accessories or clothing. What were they after?

‘They must be friends of that thug you killed,’ Nevermore suggested. ‘If I remember correctly, every member of the Reds wears something red. That thug in the alley didn’t, and neither are these guys. They must work for someone else.’

Okay, that made sense, she supposed, but who could these two be working for? What could they want from-?

The door to the room opened suddenly. A gray, dark-maned earth pony stallion walked in, almost strutting as if to say “I own everything and everyone in this room.” He looked between Brawn and Knives and Swirling Line, his cobalt eyes giving the mare a piercing glare. He faced the other two stallions.

“It’s about damn time you finally got her,” he spoke in a gruff, commanding voice.

“Sorry, boss,” said Brawn. “After that hitman we sent let himself get killed, we didn’t want to take any chances.”

The boss scoffed derisively, shaking his head without a word. He faced Swirling again, his eyes narrow like spears. It didn’t take Swirling long to figure that this guy was dangerous.

“Why is she gagged?” the boss asked. Brawn was about to answer. “Forget it, I don’t care why. We may be criminals, but I’d prefer to remain as gentlecoltly as possible. Get that rag out of her mouth.”

With only a brief second’s hesitation, Brawn obliged, undoing the rag’s knot and pulling it away from Swirling’s head. The mare glanced up at the boss, both confused and feeling rather intimidated. “Who… who are you? What do you want with me?”

The boss grinned. “I was hoping you’d ask. My name is Mafioso, and I run this organization. You’ve already met Brawn and Knives.” He motioned to the other two stallions, the latter of whom was too busy sharpening his blades to concern himself with the others. “As for what I want, well… to put it simply, I don’t like heroes.”

“Wh-wh-what makes you think I’m a hero?” Swirling stammered. “I-I-I’m just an ordinary pegasus.”

‘Smooth,’ said Nevermore. ‘Like sandpaper.’

‘Now is not the time!’

“Don’t play dumb with me,” she heard Mafioso almost growl. “Think back a few weeks. You jumped into a burning building to save some snot-nosed brat you didn’t even know. Admirable, truly, but that fire was supposed to kill a few ponies who owed me money. I’ll admit, the whole thing didn’t go quite as planned.” He mumbled something about good help. “Anyway, I’m not about let some hero walk around town. It’s nothing personal. More about business than anything else. One pony becomes a hero, then some others think ‘Oh, I can do that, too!’ and try being heroes themselves. It’s bad for business, capische?”

Swirling had to admit, while there were holes in Mafioso’s logic, it more or less made sense. Still, though, this was just little over the line. “Y-you can’t do this! Why would you want to hurt ponies who’ve never done anything to you?”

Mafioso simply shrugged. “Like I said, it’s nothing personal. Business is business.” He looked her up and down for a moment. “Shame, though. You’re not too bad-looking. Probably would’ve liked a night or two with you, honestly.” He shot a glance towards Knives. “Do try to keep the screaming to a minimum. We have ponies pulling all-nighters around here for Celestia’s sake.”

Knives gave a shrug of his own. “No promises.”

The boss seemed to accept that answer as he turned to Brawn. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’ve got a date to see Hinny of the Hills, and I’m not missing this one.” He left the room with Brawn following, closing the door behind them.

Just before they left, however, Swirling could almost swear she saw Brawn giving her a half-sympathetic look, a glance that said, “Sorry, but I’m not that sorry.”

Knives grinned ominously as he carefully examined each blade laid out in front of him. He began humming a low tune, a song that sent chills up and down Swirling’s spine. He levitated each knife into the air in front of him, making quick jabs and slow, slicing motions with each of them. He put away a scalpel, a butcher knife, a steak knife, and several other blades before finally settling on a dagger that had a jagged, curving blade. One that looked well-used.

The unicorn turned to her, slowly shifting his chosen blade through the air experimentally. “I’ve always been partial to snake knives. They’re a classic for guys like me. They cut nice, deep, and wide. Only problem is that they tend to get a little… messy.” He gently place the edge of the blade on Swirling’s chest, licking his lips in anticipation. “Let’s see… jugular… carotid… ulnar… So many nice, warm choices.”

Swirling couldn’t even bring herself to gasp as she felt a sudden tug in her mane, feeling the cold steel of Knives’ blade slowly running just under her jaw line. The dagger slowly made its way up her face before its tip settled just under her left eye. Knives’ smile was broad, looking as if he was getting off on this.

“Or maybe I’ll cut out those pretty, little eyes of yours?” he mused aloud, giving out a sinister chuckle. “Who knows? You might look cuter without them. Of course, there’s only one way to know for certain, isn’t there?” The blade lifted away, its point never drifting too far off-target. “I hope you’re a screamer. It’s always best when they scream.” The dagger moved back just a few inches more. “Now… scream for me.”

The world slowed. Swirling could see nothing but the jagged blade making its way towards her eye. The slowness was maddening. The fear was unbearable. This stallion was insane.

She needed to act.

‘Swirling, do exactly as I tell you. When I take out the lights, I want you to scream, then change form. You can handle this guy. Don’t let your fear control you.’

She saw the blade inch that much closer to her face. ‘He-he’s… he’s going to kill me!’

‘No he won’t! Focus!’

A black tendril escaped from the Swirling Line’s shadow, and the sound of shattered glass preceded the bursting of the light bulb above. The room fell to complete darkness and Swirling felt the pressure rise off her neck.

“What in Tartarus?” He growled. “Stupid, cheap lights. Eh, whatever. I don’t need light to—”

Swirling’s scream cut off his words and she felt herself change into the form of the Raven, that bizarre sensation of something climbing across her body briefly filled her senses.

‘Now!’

She snapped the bonds holding her legs and she wasted no time in punching the unicorn away. He skidded back and lit his horn to see the Raven dropping the last of the rope to the floor.

“What the…? What have you done with my plaything?” he snarled at her.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she said, taking some pleasure in the fact that the unicorn flinched at her drastically altered voice.

Knives scoffed. “No matter. After I’m done gutting you, I’ll find that little nag and make her sing.” He grinned maliciously. “To think, I get to gut me a walking freakshow tonight. The joys never cease!” His horn flared brighter, and he brought his curved blade to bare and rushed at her, his speed impressive for a unicorn.

She choose to meet that charge, raising a hoof to punch at him again. When she swung, he feinted to the side, her hoof missing his face by mere inches. Before she could recover, she felt his blade slash against her barrel. Despite the protection of the shadowy hide around her, she felt the cut reach to her skin and draw blood.

She quickly rolled away before he could follow it up with another stab. Her hoof reached down to the cut, and her yellow eyes widened at the sight of her own blood.

‘This one is no average thug, and he’s quick. Be extremely cautious.’

‘You don’t say!’

Knives looked at her, his evil grin still present in the low light of his horn. He lifted his blade to his muzzle and took a satisfying lick of the blood that coated the blade.

“Mm… you are tasty.” His grinned widened. “Now I want more than a taste!” he shouted, and again charged at her. This time, she kept moving, dodging and sidestepping his attacks. Despite her enhanced speed, the unicorn kept pace with her. The number of minor cuts kept growing despite her many attempts to keep him at bay.

“Why are you running? Stand still so I can cut you!” He redoubled his efforts, and she found herself in full retreat. She leaped over the table to get some distance from the deranged unicorn.

“You’re sick!” she screamed at him.

The insane look in his eyes never faded. “You have no idea!” Quick as the wind, he threw his snake bladed knife at her, and she ducked at the last second—the knife ripping through her ethereal mane.

‘Swirling, I have an idea, but you’re not going to like it.’

‘Anything to get rid of this creep!’

‘Next time he gets close… let him stab your front hoof.’

If she could, she would have strangled Nevermore. ‘Are you insane?! I’m not about to let him stab me!’

‘Just do it! It’ll provide the opening you need to put him down.’

She darted to the side as Knives levitated more of his blades and hurled them at her. She ran as fast as her hooves could carry her, the blades sinking into the stone walls behind her.

‘It’ll hurt!’ she protested.

‘Not as much as it will if he gets his hooves on you! Just do it!’

She swore and whirled on Knives just as he lunged at her, his snake blade leading the stab. “Now you’re mine!”

She threw her left foreleg up in a block and gritted her teeth for the upcoming pain. The blade sunk into her foreleg, and she hissed as it pierced her flesh. The moment it did, the shadows swirled around the blade and held it fast. Knives’ eyes widened in surprised and he tried to yank back the favored blade.

‘What are you waiting for? Now!’

She brought her right foreleg back and, before Knives could register what was happening, she hit him with a fierce haymaker that sent the unicorn flying across the room with a pained grunt. He slammed into the far wall and slumped to the ground, blasting the wind out of him. The magic surrounding the knife faded and the shadows wasted no time in tossing it aside.

“That actually worked?” she said aloud, wincing at the stinging pain her her front leg.

‘See what listening to me gets you?’

She snorted at that and approached the prone unicorn. He grunted as she lifted him up and slammed him against the wall, bringing her hoof back again. Before he could get off some verbal shot, she slugged him. Her eyes blazed in rage as she held this sicko, this murderer against the wall. How many times had he killed other innocent victims with those blades of his? How many ponies screamed for mercy or their loved ones, only to find there was no help coming? These thoughts rushed through her head as she slugged him again and again. Each punch left welts and bruises, but she didn’t care. One eye was forced shut, but that didn’t lessen her ire.

‘What are you doing?’

She slugged him again.

‘Swirling Line! Get ahold of yourself!’

“No! Not until I make sure he doesn’t hurt anypony else!” She brought back her hoof again, meaning for it to be the last punch she was going to throw and the last he’ll ever take.

‘What about your promise?’

Her eyes widened and she held the punch by her cheek, the hoof starting to waiver.

“But…”

‘Have you so quickly forgotten your resolve? Think about Sunny Day, or her mother. Think of Summer Streams, or even that Page Turner guy. What would they think right now if they saw you?’

She didn’t move but her hoof started to shake and she felt the beginnings of tears forming around her eyes.

‘Remember how you felt. Don’t let the darkness in.’

Knives grunted painfully and glared at her with his one good eye. “What are you waiting for, freakshow. Finish me.”

Her eyes blazed but she held her hoof.

He spat in disgust. “Pathetic. Don’t have the guts for that sort of thing? Funny. I thought you enjoyed killing our man?”

Her eyes narrowed and she screamed in rage, bringing her hoof back to strike.

‘Swirling! No!’

Knives grimaced and felt the hoof smash down—right next to his face. The stone behind him cracked and chipped away from the blow. He looked at the hoof then back at her, and for the first time, he felt the start of fear.

She panted heavily, tears streaming down her face, hidden by the shadows covering her body. With a growl, she pulled him close, almost pressing her muzzle into his. “You listen and you listen good. Tell your boss that he’s finished! I will see him, you, and all of his little gang put behind bars, so help me Celestia! Your days of running the streets of Manehatten are over!”

Despite his pain and fear, he chuckled. “Freak, you have no idea who you’re—”

With a scream she hurled him back across the room, he crashed through the table and lay there, groaning in pain.

Letting her rage out through deep breaths, the shadows swirled around the Raven and she disappeared from the room.

“Don’t ever call me a freak.” Her voice echoed in the room as Knives drifted to unconsciousness.

-o-

‘You need to learn better self-control.’ The spirit’s chiding voice came to her like a disappointed parent. Swirling hung her head low as she entered her apartment again, this time being extra wary for any other surprises. She didn’t need another unplanned trip.

‘You’re much more powerful now than you think,’ continued Nevermore. ‘If you want to keep your promise not to kill anyone again, you need to be able to calm down quickly once the fire dies down.’

The pegasus sighed with a nod as she approached her bed. “Yeah… I don’t know what came over me tonight.”

‘You were in the heat of the moment. Anyone would’ve lost sight in your position. Take pride in knowing that you were able to come back before it was too late. Not everyone could have.’

Swirling nodded again with a small smile. She gave a light chuckle. “You know, you’re much nicer than you let on.”

‘Go to hell,’ Nevermore rebuked, earning a laugh from the mare.

“There’s the Nevermore I’ve come to know,” she said. With a wide stretch and a long yawn, she plopped onto her bed. “This week has been beyond stressful. I… need…” She trailed off as she drifted to sleep.

Nevermore, inside Swirling’s mind, shook his non-corporeal head as the mare’s thoughts dimmed. She had a lot to learn about the world. In fairness, so did he, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. For now, she had earned a night’s rest. An exhausted host was almost as bad as dark one.

-o-

“What do you mean ‘she got away!?’” Mafioso bellowed in rage. Knives flinched at his boss’s volume. This was definitely not one of the unicorn’s best moments. His face felt like a freight train had rammed into it repeatedly, then the conductor kicked him for good measure. The worst part of all: he didn’t even get to cut anypony open tonight. That, and Mafioso didn’t often tolerate failure.

Knives tried to verbalize an apology, but his face ached too much. Even if he had been able to apologize, he doubted Mafioso would want to hear it.

“You had one job! One! How can I expect my men to handle big heists and hit jobs when one of my top guys can’t even finish off a tied-up mare!?” He slid a hoof across his face, his punishing glare never leaving Knives’ position.

With some struggle, and no small amount of pain, Knives managed to say, “It wasn’t my fault, boss. That freak from the papers showed up and took her away before I could even start.”

“Freak from the papers?” said Brawn, who stood next to Mafioso. “You mean that Raven thing?”

Knives shrugged. “Guess so. She’s the reason I look like this.”

Mafioso snarled and turned away in his chair, looking out past the blinds of office. How he hated heroes. Always disrupting business and making things unduly harder on him and his men. How is an honest dealing stallion to make a living in a city where pesky ‘heroes’ interfere with business because of some pointless moral high ground? Disgusting.

He watched from his window as the citizens of Manhattan went about their daily lives, never knowing that they all belonged to him. Their precious livelihoods hanging on his decisions. Decisions that needed to be made right now.

Of course, if the papers were to be believed, the Raven was a force to be reckoned with. And everypony has a price, even freaks.

He swirled back in his chair, and both of his henchmen flinched at the sudden movement. They were even more unsettled when their boss’s apparent rage had suddenly disappeared.

“Find this Raven, and bring her to me. Force her to come along if you need to.” He gave a small, sly smile. “I’m not about to let a potential resource be used against us. I’d like to see if we can make a deal. If not… well…” He looked to Knives. “Let’s just say you’ll get a second chance.”

Knives blinked at first, then grinned with an eager nod. Mafioso turned in his seat again, looking out over the Manehattan cityscape. One way or another, he’d make sure that the Raven would no longer be a problem.

Rebirth

Mafioso scowled at Knives and Brawn as they finished explaining what had happened. He narrowed his eyes at them in contempt, struggling to decide exactly what to do about this mess they had caused. His top enforcers failed to bring him the Raven - twice, even - his most invaluable informant was compromised, and now the Raven was, without any doubt whatsoever, planning to strike him in his home the instant she found him.

‘Angry’ was too light a word to describe how he was feeling at the moment. So were ‘furious’ and ‘outraged.’ The word ‘livid’ seemed fairly tame at the moment.

He sighed as he leaned back in his seat, turning away from the two stallions and thinking about how to approach this less-than-advantageous situation. He would have to pull quite a few strings to get out of this one. Some of his goons would need to be stationed as strategically as possible, but the Raven, despite only being around for about two and half weeks, had already formed a bit of reputation. Whenever he was around his underlings, he would occasionally hear whisperings about living shadows and ponies getting swooped away without any warning or trace.

Business was crashing, and Mafioso didn’t care for his business failing.

“Explain to me,” he finally said, “why, exactly, I should let you two have another chance at the Raven when she very clearly can beat you both into the dirt like the school punching bags?”

Neither stallion said anything for several tense moments. Then, Knives stepped forward.

“Tricky said that she flinched when he turned on a light,” the red unicorn offered.

Mafioso raised an eyebrow at him, making Knives move back a step. “And what does that mean to me?”

Brawn cleared his throat. “Well… the Raven’s only ever popped at night, and in dark areas, right? Maybe she don’t like light too much. I-I mean, it’s more info on her than what we had before, right?”

The mob boss glared at the two, who backed away carefully and slowly, giving them scrutinizing looks before turning away from them again. The Raven didn’t like light? Brawn was right; that was more than what he had on her a few minutes ago. Still, it wasn’t like she would just shoot the breeze with him and wait for the sun to come up so he could fry her with that (or whatever happens when she gets hit with light). He’d need a plan.

“Pen!” he called out. A few seconds later, a bright blue, teal-maned unicorn mare tripped her way into his office, a number of pencils, pens, papers, and a clipboard held in her green magic. “I want you to send the word out to all our guys. The Raven’s coming after me, and I want to be ready for her.”

“Y-yes, Mr. Mafioso!” The mare bumbled with her belongings for a few moments before writing something down and hurrying out of the office. Quickly, she poked her head back into the office. “Wh-what about the art exhibit that’s being held downstairs, sir? There’s going to be a lot of ponies there.”

“Call it extra security,” the boss growled. Pen squeaked meekly and disappeared beyond the door again.

He walked back for his office chair, which creaked as he settled his weight upon it. He turned away to stare intently out the window of his office, glaring at a non existent Raven.

Knives and Brawn dared not to move, waiting to be dismissed. As time moved on painfully, they shared a quick look before Brawn spoke.

“What do ya want us to do, Boss?”

Mafioso scowled. “I thought I made it clear for everyone to get ready.” He whirled in his chair to face them. “That means you, too, Brawn.”

“Are we to—” Knives began.

“If she gets to me, it better be because she was dragged here by you. Otherwise, you’ll wish she had dealt with you first.”

Both thugs paled at the mention and nodded firmly. “Yes, Boss.”

-o-

Manehatten Central Park was one of the few places in the city that Swirling Line loved to visit. A scenic park of grass, trees, and ponds in the middle of a bustling city of concrete and steel. Many ponies came to the park to find a peaceful place to get away from the noise and just enjoy the scents of plant life.

Swirling rested on the grass near one of the larger fountains in the park while Summer Streams went on about the local gossip. Her eyes scanned the skyline, looking across the buildings to find the Golden Brace, where she planned to have her final confrontation with Mafioso. With any luck, she’d spot it and be able to think up a plan of action from there. With what she had in mind, she wouldn’t be able to afford mistakes.

A soft frown crossed her face; what if something went wrong? Her luck hasn’t always been the best whenever she was the Raven. There were a few times where she had slipped up and a thug had gotten the drop on her, or even got away from her entirely. Whenever she had made such a mistake, Nevermore let her know exactly how and why she had messed up. What if she messed up royally this time? Was her plan (though, it was more of an idea at the moment) really going to work?

A sigh escaped her as a steady wind blew her mane back.

She felt a nudge on her shoulder with a hoof. “You all right, Swirl? You look like something’s up.”

She looked back at her friend, who wore a concerned expression. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just… thinking.”

Summer twisted a bit at a lock of her verdant green mane. “Are you thinking about your next art project?”

“Er… yeah, something like that.” She privately hated lying to her best friend, but she knew she couldn’t tell her the truth. Summer couldn’t keep a secret to save her life.

The unicorn gave her a warm smile. “Why don’t you tell me about it? Maybe it’ll help you get a better picture in your mind?” She frowned suddenly. “That sounded silly, didn’t it?”

Swirling chuckled. “No, it made sense. It’s just hard to talk art.”

The unicorn tossed her mane back, but it quickly settled into its usual place. “Why don’t you try anyway? I always like it when you would talk about your paintings and things.” She scooted closer to Swirling. “Come on, tell me.”

‘Persistent, isn’t she?’ Nevermore chimed in.

‘You should see her when she dates.’

‘Speaking from experience?’ the spirit joked, making Swirling’s face turn beat red with embarrassment and frustration.

Summer’s eyes had grown huge and a wide smile crossed her face. “What is it? It’s not your art, is it? It’s a stallion, right? Who is he? ” Her grin grew somewhat lewd. “Is he going to let you draw him?”

Swirling blinked in confusion before she figured out that Summer had likely misread her embarrassment, and her face went from red to impossibly red. How to get out of this one?

‘Tell her you're going to see a stallion tonight.’

‘SHUT UP, NEVERMORE!’

“It’s not a stallion,” Swirling answered, trying to hide her anger with her spiritual tenant. “I just… have some doubts.”

The unicorn sighed a bit in disappointment, but put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Tell me what’s eating you.”

Reluctantly, the two-toned pegasus said, “I… sometimes, I just wonder… is it really worth the trouble? I don’t want to give up, but… I just don’t know if it’ll pay off. I mean, look at me! I’m working a dead-end job, living in a rat’s nest of an apartment complex, I sit in front of that stupid easel for hours every day with nothing to show for it, and I…” She sighed and lowered her head to the ground. “I just don’t know anymore. Maybe I should just go back to Cloudsdale. The weather factory should have an open spot in snowflake making.”

“Now you stop that right now!”

Swirling looked up to see Summer glaring down at her. “Swirling, don’t you dare talk like that! I know for a fact that you have more than enough talent to make it big, and you putting yourself down isn’t going to get you anywhere.” Summer settled beside her. “Why would you say something like that? This isn’t the Swirling Line I know.”

“Do you know what it’s like, Summer? To have dreams that you’ve had your whole life, sitting just out of reach? No matter how hard I try, I just…” She looked back up at her friend, the briefest of moisture collecting around her eyes. “I just wish, just for once, to catch a break. That’s all.” She lowered her head back to the grass, inhaling their sweet scent.

She felt a foreleg wrap around her back, and she looked back to find Summer drawing her into a hug.

“I know what it’s like, Swirling, I really do.” She hugged her friend tightly. “Did I ever tell you why I moved to Manehatten?”

Swirling shook her head as Summer let her go. That particular story never really came up.

Summer smiled. “Ever since I was a little filly, I’ve always wanted to be an actress. I’ve always had a bit of talent for it, even if this-” she motioned to her cutie mark, an image of a sun with a series of rays radiating off of it “-doesn’t obviously represent that.

“I came to Manehattan hoping to make it big on Bridleway. Whenever I catch wind of a new play being produced in town, I always make sure to attend the auditions. I haven’t had any luck so far, but I’m holding out hope.” She giggled a little. “I actually met Page Topper at one of those auditions.”

Swirling wiped at her eye. “Really?”

“Yep. He was there writing up an article about the production. We hit it off really well, and… well, the rest is history. I took it as a sign that I’d get my big break soon.” Summer faced Swirling again. “Look, the point is, if I’m not giving up on my dream, then there’s no reason you should give up on yours.” She gave a cocky smirk. “We can make a game of it. Whoever reaches their dream first wins. Loser owes the winner a hay burger.”

That made Swirling chuckle, and she shook Summer’s hoof on it. “You’ve got a deal. Thanks, Summer.” The unicorn nodded with a smile of her own. Swirling looked up at the bright blue sky overhead, her eyes squinting in the sunlight. Confidence restored by Summer’s speech, she stood up. Now seemed as a good a time as any.

“I’ve gotta go,” the pegasus said as she hovered up a bit into the air. “I have something I need to take care of.”

Summer smiled up to her friend. “I’ll see you again tomorrow, Swirling.”

Swirling waved to her, but stopped as Summer called after her.

“Swirling…” the unicorn said with a tone that she rarely ever used. “If either of us ever reaches it big, let’s promise that we’ll still be friends. You and me, we’ll show Equestria how it’s done.”

Swirling smiled warmly. “You and me, Summer. The best of friends!” The two bumped hooves, and the pegasus took off, waving back as the unicorn disappeared behind her.

-o-

‘This can only end in disaster,’ Nevermore pointed out flatly as Swirling approached the Golden Brace, where Mafioso supposedly lived. ‘We’re out in broad daylight, with no idea how many guys Mafioso has in there, and knowing full-well that our source may not be reliable.’

‘Tricky made it fairly clear,’ Swirling replied, ‘that there would be no love lost for Mafioso when we take him down. We’ll discreetly take him to the police, and they’ll take care of it from there.’

‘And if the police we bring him to happen to be in his employ? Tricky did mention that Mafioso has puppets in play.’

‘Do you want to take him all the way to Princess Celestia, then?’

There was a long silence before he grudgingly spoke. ‘Point taken. I suppose we’ll have to take our chances.’

With that out of the way, she continued down the street, thinking up a number of possible means of entry as a crowd came into view.

“Wait, what in the…?” She stared in surprise at the numerous, very well-dressed ponies gathered at the entrance to the building. Curiously, she approached a mare who had her mane done up like a beehive. “Excuse me, ma’am? What’s going on here?”

The wealthy mare glanced at Swirling, looked her up and down, and rolled her eyes in disgust. “You must be truly unlearned if you don’t know about this exhibition.”

“Exhibition?”

“Of course. Artists from all across Equestria and lands beyond are here today to display their finest works.”

Something in Swirling Line’s mind suddenly clicked, and a huge, beaming grin broke out on her face. An art exhibit? Here? Today? Right now? This was the opportunity of a lifetime! She could see countless works by professional artists from all over the world! Maybe she’d even get to see rare minotaur or griffin art, along with works by ponies and zebras! This could open up a whole new world for her! She could-

‘Line, focus!’ she heard Nevermore shout at her. She shook her head, and saw that the beehive mare was giving her an uncomfortable look of confusion. Swirling cleared her throat and made a brief apology before trotting away from the crowd.

“Okay,” she said, thinking out loud, “I think we have a way in.”

‘Sure. Just try not to drool all over the paintings and whatnot.’

“Look, we’ll go in, see a few works, then find Mafioso. We kick his butt, turn him in, happy ending.”

‘Nice to know we have a plan.’ The spirit’s facetiousness was not lost on the mare, who rolled her eyes in response. She eyed the crowd as it thinned out some, most ponies going in, while others were apparently booted away. Perhaps she could sneak into a large group and get in that way? It’d be easier than finding an entry point as the Raven.

Quick as she could manage without being spotted, she slipped into the crowd and waited. She walked whenever the crowd moved forward, and she (hopefully) blended into a group led by a tall, white unicorn stallion with an expertly trimmed, dark blue mane and matching facial hair. For the briefest of moments, she thought he spotted her, and when she realized he was looking right at her, he winked with a knowing smirk. Well, it didn’t seem he’d rat her out, so she shouldn’t have any trouble from him.

When the group she’d assimilated herself to got to the guards at the door, the white stallion said, “Fancy Pants, party of eight.”

One of the guards looked over a clipboard. “We have your group listed as seven.”

“There was a last minute addition,” Fancy Pants returned with a confident grin. “I hope that won’t be too much trouble.” The guards looked at each other, then gave reluctant nods, ushering them in. Fancy Pants thanked them and led his group in, while Swirling was careful to keep her face out of the guards’ view.

‘That worked out remarkably well,’ Nevermore commented.

‘Let’s just get this over with before they figure what’s about… to…’ Her jaw dropped as her thoughts trailed off, her eyes beholding the greatest collection of art she had ever seen in her life.

Beautifully sculpted statues lined the center of the hall in front of her, with scores of carefully brushed paintings hanging from the walls. Modern art works hung from the ceiling, stained glass held on bases and contained in tough cases to protect from curious hooves. Her body practically shook as she took in the sights. She was in paradise.

“Do enjoy the exhibit, my dear,” she heard somepony say. She turned to face the stallion who had identified himself as Fancy Pants. “Art should be witnessed and appreciated by all who are willing to do so.” She nodded weakly as the stallion and his group headed off, leaving the mare to drool over the collection of art in front of her.

‘Focus!’

She shook her head and blinked when her ally screamed at her. Right, she had a job to do. There would be time to admire these incredible works of art later. These wonderful, amazing, perfect works of art.

Once more, she shook her head. Well… maybe she could look at a few paintings before she had to start kicking flank. That wouldn’t get in the way of her plans, would it?

Ignoring a disgruntled groan from Nevermore, she immediately headed for painting of Princess Luna that was apparently older than the legend of Nightmare Moon. A plaque beneath the painting named it Mona Luna, a portrait originally made to capture the Princess of the Night’s mysterious elegance.

She cocked her head a little as she analyzed the work. The Luna in the painting looked way different than she did in photos. Was her horn really that short way back when? Granted, she had not personal experience seeing the Lunar Princess, but still, she thought it a fair question.

As she studied the painting, marvelling at the detail of the piece, she felt a hoof tapping her shoulder. A bright blue unicorn mare with a teal mane was eyeing her with a scrutinizing glare, then scanned a clipboard before speaking. “I don’t recognize you from the pictures we have on the list. Who are you, and who brought you?”

Swirling hesitated. “Er… I’m… I’m with Fancy Pants.” She didn’t want to pull the stallion who had gotten her in here in her mess, but she didn’t have much choice at the moment.

The mare raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Really? He didn’t inform us that he’d be bringing someone other than his listed party.”

“He’s… sort of a recent acquaintance.”

A nervous chuckle escaped her as the mare scrutinized her closely. “Who are you again?” the mare asked her in a pointed tone.

“I-I’m…” she sighed. “I’m Swirling Line, and am with Fancy Pants’ party. I’m sure if you’d ask him, he’d tell you the same.”

The mare narrowed her eyes a moment, then shrugged idly. “All right then, Swirling Line. Please enjoy the exhibit. Also, please stay in the exhibit area. Security is tight for the duration of the event.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s nothing to be concerned about. Have a nice day.” The unicorn then left Swirling to her own devices.

‘They’re ready for us,’ theorized Nevermore.

‘Maybe.’ This might complicate things just a smidge. She saw a few burly stallions in suits standing at the various entrances and exits around the hotel. Each one was watching the collection of art enthusiasts carefully, probably trying to figure out whether or not one of them was the Raven. Perhaps a bathroom break was in order?

After a few more exhibits, she told herself.

-o-

The bright blue mare, Pen, eyed the violet and white pegasus with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. There was something… different about her, though Pen couldn’t quite put her hoof on what that difference was.

‘Swirling Line, huh?’ she thought to herself. ‘There’s something about you… very interesting.’

-o-

She pushed the door to the bathroom stall with a grumble. There were at least six more exhibits she wanted to view. The sculpture of the princesses was something that she wanted to see up close, but the constant badgering of a certain impatient, feather-brained spirit bird convinced her she’d seen enough.

“Still… I think I have enough time to—”

‘No! Swirling Line, you wanted to do this while there was still sunlight, and if you don’t do it now, you won’t have anymore left.’

‘But…’ Her lip quivered as she stared back at the exit of the bathroom.

‘Line!’

“Fine,” she groused under her breath, and stepped into the stall, locking the door behind her. She took a deep breath as her form became enveloped in shadows, the tingle of the magic washing over until her transformation was complete. She quickly peeked under the stall walls to make sure no one else present to see her.

Assured no one else had entered the room, she exited the stall, and looked around the room. She spied a grate over a ventilation shaft on the wall. “Would that work, Nevermore?”

‘Shadow travel should let you squeeze through there, but you’ll have to be careful and quick about it. Don’t tarry in there.’

“Can’t I just look room to room from the vents?”

‘Not for very long. It’s like squeezing into an outfit that’s just a size too small. Theoretically, you could hide in there indefinitely, but it’d be incredibly uncomfortable, and would eventually tax the shadow magic. If you want the form to last long enough to take down Mafioso and his goons, you’ll have to save as much of it as you can.’

Swirling nodded, taking the information to heart. She flew up to the grate and, with her enhanced strength, tore it off the wall, exposing the vent. Touching her hoof to the vent’s ceiling, she melded with the shadows there, dropping the grate with a clink and darting through the vents at mind-numbing speeds that would’ve broken an ordinary pony’s body in two. She had to remember to see just how fast she could go like this some other evening.

As she zipped through the vents, she spied numerous guards patrolling the hallways. She also peeked into rooms as she moved about. While most were empty, a few had some ponies enjoying their relaxing stay at the luxurious hotel. Some enjoyed their stay a little too much.

‘That is something I can never unsee,’ she thought as quickly turned her attention away from a pair of what she could only assume were honeymooners, while Nevermore laughed at her expense.

After some fruitless searching, it finally dawned on her. “Wait… where is the penthouse to begin with?”

‘Last I knew, a penthouse is typically near the top of a building.’ Swirling blanked when Nevermore said that. ‘Amazing how the shadow spirit knows more about modern architecture than the pony born in the modern era.’

“Shut up.” She turned towards a vertical vent and started climbing. She wasn’t sure how much further she had gotten when she felt a tightness beginning to stretch across her torso. It was like she was stuck in a taffy mixer. Or, like Nevermore said, wearing an outfit that wasn’t quite her size. She’d have to get out soon, regardless of whether or not she was on the right floor.

Stopping at a vent overlooking the floor of a hallway, her hoof materialized out of the shadows and kicked the grate out of the way, letting her sink out of the shaft and drop in the hall, startling a pair of mafia goons.

She panted a bit before she looked up at the stunned goons.

“What in the world!?” one said.

“Hello, boys,” said the Raven. “How about you run away so that I don’t have to kick your butts?”

They scowled and lunged at her.

“Butt kicking it is!” she leaped above the two goons, who at first crashed into each other, though they recovered quickly enough. Looking up, the only thing they saw before blacking out was a pair of hooves slamming into their faces.

She turned as she heard an alarmed shout from down the hallway. “She’s here! The Raven’s here!” Another goon was waving down the hallway, pointing at her.

‘So much for the quiet approach.’

“I thought she only came out at night!” another thug shouted as group of them charged at her.

‘At least you still caught them off guard,’ Nevermore pointed out.

She shoved her nervousness into the back of her mind and braced herself to meet them. “Let’s do this!”

-o-

Mafioso was busy with a crossword when one of his grunts barged into his office, panting and wheezing with a look of panic on his face. “Boss, the Raven’s here! She’s already gotten halfway up the building, and she’s beating her way up here!”

The mob leader scowled and tossed his crossword to the floor. “Then get your asses in gear and stop her! If she gets here in any way except dragged here by her hind legs or in a body bag, I’ll have all your hides!” The grunt nodded fearfully and galloped off while Mafioso sat back in his chair, spinning to look out at the Manehattan skyline.

Broad daylight. Of course she’d come in broad daylight. His guards would never have seen her coming. Of course, the theory that Tricky had shared with Knives would have to be tested with this latest development. He closed the curtains over the window. All he would have to do is wait for the Raven to get here.

“Um… sir?”

He turned to see Pen standing nervously at the doorway to his office. “What is it?”

“I heard what that stallion said. M-maybe you should consider getting out of here while you can?”

The slate grey earth pony glared at her so venomously that she took a reflexive step back. “And lose the opportunity gain a valuable resource or get rid of an irritating obstacle? Hell no. I’m sitting right here and waiting for her. You get the hell out of here. Now.”

Reluctantly, Pen nodded and left her employer to himself. Now, all he needed was patience.

-o-

Swirling ran up the stairwell as fast as her hooves could carry her. She took down the first group of thugs without much difficulty. She even had felt a weird sense of pride when the last goon turned and fled down the hallway, but when he returned with his friends, she knew it was a better idea to run for it. Twenty or more on one was not good odds at all, with or without superpowers, she told herself. The angered shouts from the pursuing stallions behind her told her that they had found more friends along the way.

‘You’re going to have to deal with them one way or the other. Better to fight here in the stairwell than in an open hallway.’

‘I don’t want to hurt them that badly, Nevermore,’ she said as she rounded another flight of stairs. ‘I’ll just lose them.’

‘And how are you going to do that?’

She burst through the door to the floor she found herself in, and looked around for a place to hide. Her eyes settled on one of the rooms nearby.

‘Shadow walk me in there.’

She felt herself slip underneath a door to the room and she quickly hid within the (thankfully) empty room. Not long after, she heard the angry shouts of the goons in the hallway. One of them barked orders to search the rooms. She pressed herself into the darkness more as the door to the room flew open, and a pair of stallions rushed in.

“We know you’re in here! Come out and fight us, freak!” one of them yelled, his eyes searching the room.

“Turn the light on, you moron! She’ll get us if we fight her in the dark like this!”

Swirling gritted her teeth as the goon flicked on the lights. Thankfully, she was hidden in the shadow of the couch, and she wasted no time in slipping fully into it’s shadow.

The goons swore as they tore the room apart. Chairs were tossed and tables flipped as they searched the room for her. She slipped into the darkness of the curtains as they overturned the couch.

“You find her yet!?” another shouted from the doorway.

“Nah, she ain’t in here,” one of them replied after leaving the bedroom.

“Then search another room. The boss’ll have our heads if we don’t stop that freak. Let’s go!”

A relieved sigh escaped her as the goons left the room. One was so kind as to turn the lights back off as he left.

Deciding now would be her chance, she zipped from shadow to shadow until she was back in the hall, which was filled with thugs shouting at each other and searching frantically for her. With a flap of her wings, she flew through the halls as fast as she could, heading for another stairwell and flying up, the goons only just realizing she had gotten past them and scrambling to catch up.

When she reached the top of the stairwell, she slammed the door shut behind her. She looked for something to jam the door, and found a janitor looking at her with a look of surprise. Next to him was a cart of cleaning supplies, which she grabbed and pushed against the door. She faced the confused janitor and said, “Please don’t move this.” before darting off.

As she ran through the hall, she could hear Nevermore mumbling to himself. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Those two you fought at Tricky’s flat,’ he replied. ‘We should’ve at least seen them by now.’

That… was a really good point. Those two stallions, Brawn and Knives, struck her as Mafioso’s top grunts. Where were they? Shouldn’t they be somewhere around…?

The sound of a pained moan caught her ear, and she turned her attention to a hall closet. Opening the door, she saw both Brawn and Knives, out cold and tied together with tape.

Her jaw dropped, golden eyes wide. “What in the world…? Okay, I’m not complaining, but who could’ve done this?”

‘I say we count our blessings and forge ahead. We can worry about those two later.’

With a quick nod, Swirling shut the door and continued down the hall until she found a large set of double doors, with plaque beside it that read “Penthouse Suite.” That was all she needed to burst the doors down and out of the way.

She stopped and couldn’t help but admit that Mafioso, for all his insane shortcomings, had really good taste in decor. She particularly liked the fireplace along the far wall, the fire burning cozily. The penthouse was decorated excellently, with not a single item out of place. He had a collection of portraits of ponies who were no doubt either “friends” of his or family members. The biggest one was of himself, acting as a testament to his blatant egotism.

“Someone’s certainly in love with himself,” Swirling commented. She looked around the room, which she assumed was a living room, judging by the arrangement of the furniture. That made things somewhat simple from there.

Another pair of doors caught her eye. Something in her told her that that was where Mafioso was huddled up. She narrowed her eyes and braced herself. This would be where his criminal empire ended. She charged and burst through the doors, entering an office where a desk sat across from the doors, a large chair turned away from her. There were curtains closed over the window, which unsettled her for some reason.

“I’m guessing my boys failed to hold you back,” came Mafioso’s voice from the chair. He spun and faced the Raven, his hooves pressed together under his chin. “So… what now?”

“What do you think?” she challenged.

“I think I’m going to make you an offer,” he answered. “One you can’t afford to refuse.” She glared at him. “I have quite a bit of money at my disposal. It’s pretty simple: you work for me, I pay you. Handsomely.”

If looks could kill, Mafioso would’ve dropped dead right there. “There’s no way in Equestria or Tartarus I would ever work for you! How many ponies have you killed all in the name of ‘business’? How many families have you broken up just so you can fill your pockets!?”

He snorted, narrowing his eyes at her. “You want the truth? I’ve lost count.” He calmly stood, pushing back his chair and walk around in front of it. “But this is where your little charade ends. I’ll give you one final chance to join me, and be part of something greater than you can ever hope to be.”

She felt the hackles rise along her neck. “I said, no!”

“Idiot mare,” he spat disgustedly. “Then I’ll have your corpse hung from the Mare of Liberty as a symbol to the fate of would-be ‘heroes’.”

She roared in anger and charged after him. He didn’t blink as he side stepped her lunge, and brought down an elbow sharply between her wings. She didn’t have time to groan in pain as he kicked her solidly upward from her bounce. As she sailed upward, he caught her with a right hook to her cheek. She bounced and crashed into another chair and squirmed in pain.

‘That was… unexpected. Watch this one. He likely knows more tricks than Brawn or Knives knew.’

She dry heaved as she pulled herself to her hooves. ‘Thanks for the info.’

Mafioso smirked at her. “Four years of muay thai. Have to know how to defend yourself in this business.” He approached the shadowy mare with that same, borderline arrogant grin on his face. “Did you really think I was some sort of pushover? You really had no idea what you were getting into!”

He grabbed her by the mane and hoisted her up. She hissed as she felt her mane threatening to rip out of her skull. She grabbed at his foreleg with her own and tried to use her hind leg to kick at him.

She saw his vicious smirk a split second too late as he caught her leg. Before she could scream, he spun and threw her into the nearby wall. The entire thing shook from the impact, the drywall cracking and portraits falling from their perches with an awful racket.

She quickly scurried away into the shadows as he tried to stomp at her, hiding in the shadows of some office furniture.

‘Thanks, Nevermore.’

‘Don’t say I never do anything for you,’ came his sarcastic response.

Mafioso scowled as he scanned the darkened room for her.

“What’s wrong? I thought you were a hero? Heroes don’t run from the bad guys.”

She huffed, bristling in anger. “It’s not you I’m running from, it’s your stench!”

He growled and shoved aside the furniture. “I won’t dignify that with a response. As soon as I find you, I’ll have your head on a plate.”

His tone was different. There was a slight edge of anger in it, rather than that boisterous arrogance he had before she insulted him.

‘Ego,’ Nevermore said simply.

‘But I… oh...’ The realization quickly dawned on her. Mafioso had the same weakness as any other criminal: his egocentric personality. Ideas flooded through her head all of a sudden.

“You want my head on a plate?” she said from her hiding place. “Why? Hungry? With a stomach like that, I’m shocked that you ever are!”

Mafioso snarled as he kicked a coffee table out of his way.

“You know, you sure have a lot of paintings of yourself around here. You must hate having to walk through here every day. If I had to see the same bad angles and poor posture, I’d be cranky 24/7.”

“You’re treading a very thin ice now, nag,” he seethed. “How long are you going to keep hiding from me? Not ver—”

That was as far as he got before she leaped from the shadows and uppercutted him on the chin. The force of the blow sent him into a wall, where he fell, groaning in pain.

She tried to follow it up with a stomp, but he rolled out of the way and lashed out with a kick that caught her in the side. Grunting, she rolled away and got back to her hooves.

If looks could kill, Swirling would have fallen over right then. He rubbed at his chin for a moment, before popping his neck. “You’ve got a strong punch, I’ll give you that, but it’ll take more than that to stop me.”

“They all say that,” she said with a sneer as she quickly melted back into the shadows of the room.

Mafioso glared around the room, briefly searching for the mare before apparently giving up and heading for a window that had the curtains over it. “My boys tell me you don’t seem to like light too much. I’m curious as to why.”

‘Wait...’ She eyed him from the shadows as he took hold of the curtains. ‘What is he…?’

‘No, Swirling, move!’

Before Swirling could react, Mafioso yanked the curtains open, and sunlight poured into the room. He might as well have doused her in oil and lit a match. The light was fire, burning away the shadows in the room, revealing her and oppressing her under a wave of pain unlike any other she had felt before.

She screamed in pure agony, a scream shared by her tenant, the sun’s light searing her flesh like an ant under a cruel foal’s magnifying glass. Heat rolled off of her body like steam. Nevermore had warned her about the sun being a death sentence for the Raven, but nothing could have ever prepared her for this.

Mafioso laughed, a gleeful sound that sharply contrasted the Raven’s shrieks of pain. “Now it makes sense why you’re never seen during the day! Vampire rules, am I right?” Swirling’s only response was a weak groan of pain, meekly looking back up at the mob boss, who grinned down at her victoriously. He kicked her in her side, knocking her off her hooves and onto the floor. “This is almost too easy, now. I almost feel sorry for you.”

She couldn’t even muster the strength to respond. It hurt so much. Her skin was on fire. Her eyes were burning. Her wings were weak and virtually useless. She was utterly helpless right now. She failed.

“I’ll relish making an example out of you,” Mafioso mused as he grabbed her left wing and bent it a way it shouldn’t have, eliciting a sickening snap and a scream of renewed pain as the bone beneath the skin and feathers shattered. He raised a hoof to strike at her. “Say hi to everyone else I’ve killed, will you?” His hoof fell toward her face.

A lamp crashed into his face, staggering him while a green aura closed all the curtains in the room. The burning stopped, and the Raven slowly got back on all fours, her body still aching.

“You!” she heard Mafioso shout in absolute shock, but that didn’t matter. All she knew was the pain she felt, the rage. She brought her hoof back and caught the surprised stallion in a brutal left hook. He stumbled back further, falling next to the fireplace, and she turned to see who had helped her.

The blue mare from the art exhibit stood in the doorway with confidence, her expression a smirk of triumph. “Finish it,” she said flatly.

‘I like her style,’ Nevermore said between raspy… breaths? How was he…?

Swirling shook her head, putting that question away for another day. She faced Mafioso again, the stallion climbing back to his hooves and returning her vehement glare with one of his own. She charged at him as he grabbed at a poker next to the fireplace, aiming its spear-like head at her. She sidestepped the desperate attack and kicked the poker out of his hooves, knocking it head first into the fire.

Mafioso responded by sending a kick to her barrel. She lurched back, clutching at her chest when he tackled her to the ground. She landed on her back and used the momentum to launch him off of her. He crashed into the wall, and the two combatants were quickly back on their hooves.

“Once I’m done with you,” Mafioso said, “I’m going to gut that traitorous nag over there and wrap your corpse with her entrails!”

“That’s an image I did not need,” she muttered to herself as the stallion charged at her again, a savage growl erupting from his throat. The two locked hooves and pushed against each other before Mafioso reared his head back and slammed his forehead against hers. The shadow magic that covered her dulled the blow, but dazed the mob leader. Instinctively, she spun around and bucked at him, both her hind legs striking him in the jaw and sending him flying.

She heard him scream when he landed, and turned with a look of confidence that became an expression of horror. She had kicked him head first into the fireplace. He scrambled out of the flames, but his mane and fur had caught. He screamed in agony and stumbled around the room, desperately batting at the flames to put them out and failing miserably as other objects around home caught fire whenever he crashed into them.

In what must have been a moment of desperation, with a mind fueled by irrationality, he ran for a window and leaped for it, breaking through the glass.

“Oh, no!” Swirling galloped for the window, but reared back as a hoof touched a ray of sunlight, searing the limb before she scrambled back and away. The blue unicorn at the door made her way to the window, looked outside, then faced the Raven.

“He’s gone,” she said. Swirling’s eyes widened, and she hung her head in shame. “Hey, no worries. There won’t be any love lost for the guy.”

“...I didn’t want to kill him.”

A sudden shattering of glass and a whoosh of heat washed over the two of them as the spreading flames found an oil lamp, spreading flames across the room. Swirling screamed, and scrambled away from the flames, her eyes wide in panic.

The unicorn raised her hooves over her face from the oppressive heat. “We’ve got to get out of here! Can you fly us out?”

“M-my wing is broken!” the pegasus replied as her limb ached, reminding her of Mafioso’s cruelty. The unicorn cursed under her breath and motioned for Swirling to follow, galloping out of the room. Swirling followed the best she could on her legs that still ached from the searing pain from the sunlight, but fear and adrenaline helped her get past the near crippling pain. As they ran, Swirling stopped at the closet where she had found Knives and Brawn, and dragged their still unconscious bodies out.

“Leave them!” the other mare said. “They’ll only slow us down!”

“I’m not letting anyone else die today,” said the Raven with conviction. “I won’t let myself fall to their level.”

The unicorn shook her head and pulled the two stallions apart with her magic, levitating Brawn while Swirling carried the groaning Knives on her back, careful not to let his body put pressure on her wing.

He groaned and opened one eye at her. “Still… don’t have the guts, huh?”

“I could still leave you here to burn,” she answered as she as the other mare made for the stairwell. “It’s better than you deserve.” Knives only grunted in response, resting his head on her back.

As they ran, the other mare said, “Name’s Pen, by the way.”

Swirling looked at her with a confused stare. “Is now really the best time for introductions?”

Pen shrugged. “With my career, this is a slow day.”

“Your career?”

The unicorn nodded with a smirk. “Who do you think knocked out these idiots?” She shook Brawn in her magic.

‘I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I like her style.’

Swirling rolled her eyes at Nevermore’s comment, pushing the janitor cart she had placed in front of the stairwell out of the way. The janitor was still there, still bewildered.

She dropped Knives in front of the janitor, who blinked in confusion. “Don’t let this guy near any sharp objects. Take him to the police.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Pen asked.

“Have to slip away. No doubt the police and fire department are gonna come running, and I don’t exactly have the best reputation with Manehattan law enforcement.” Before anyone could argue, she leaped for a vent on the ceiling, tore off the grate, and sank into the shadows within.

Pen stared at the vent where the Raven had fled, a smile forming on her face.

-o-

Slipping from the vent she had entered in the first time, the Raven reformed in the (thankfully) empty bathroom. The moment she did, she felt the ache from the searing the sunlight had given her earlier. It felt as bad as the burns she had received when she rescued Sunny Day from the burning building. How was she going to get out of here with burns like these?

Just moving sent waves of pain across her body. ‘This hurts. Nevermore, is there anything you can do?’

She heard him grunt. ‘I can give the last of the magic of the Raven for today to heal the burns, mostly, but I cannot heal the wing at the same time.’

Just the reminder was enough for her to grimace in pain. ‘I’ll have to make an excuse for it. But please, those burns hurt.’

‘I told you it would. Now, try to hold still.’

She gritted her teeth as she felt the shadows swirl around her body, the enigmatic magics healing up the majority of her burns, even regrowing her fur that had burned away.

A tired sigh escaped from the spirit. ‘That was… tiring.’

Stretching her forelegs, she was happy to no longer feel the burning. “Thank you, Nevermore.”

‘Just get out of here and get to sleep,’ he groused.

Swirling peeked out the door to the bathroom she had changed in earlier, scanning the room to find several panicking ponies, likely alerted to the fire upstairs by the goons who had come down as well. With any luck, she’d be able to slip out of the building without being noticed by anypony of significance. Gingerly, she tip-hoofed out of the restroom, pushing past other ponies and soon exiting the hotel with a relieved sigh.

At that moment, the police and the fire department had arrived on the scene, pegasi hurrying up the building to rescue anypony that may have still been up there. Swirling would have gladly joined them, but the dulled ache in her wing warned against it. According to Nevermore, he had used some of his shadow magic to heal her broken wing, but the damage was too great to fix all at once.

‘I’ll repair the damage gradually,’ he said. ‘I recommend not flying until I finish.’

She winced as she instinctively tried to tuck her wing to her side. “Maybe I should go see a doctor, I can’t let it stay like this.”

‘Probably wise.’

Swirling nodded, and slipped away from the crowd of ponies unnoticed.

One pair of eyes, however, caught sight of her. From the shadows of an alley, the unicorn mare named Pen watched the two-tone pegasus sneak out of sight from other ponies. The unicorn wore curious, intrigued smirk as green flames briefly enveloped her, her blue coat becoming a black, chitinous hide.

“Swirling Line, hmm?” she whispered. “I guess I may have found a reason to stay in Manehattan after all. Things just might get interesting around here.”

Green flames swallowed her again, her form becoming that of a pegasus mare, and she took off unseen.

-o-

The first thing Swirling Line wanted to do, she told herself as she entered her apartment, was to just fall in bed and sleep the rest of the day away, and hope that Nevermore would let her sleep through the night as well. Considering what she had gone through today, she felt like she’d earned a good, long rest.

She scratched with a hoof at where the doctor had placed a cast on her wing. She’d managed to make up a story about being mugged in an alley, and told the doctor that the other probably had it worse right now (which, honestly, wasn’t too far from the truth).

The door to her bedroom opened with a groan of wood, which was soon followed by a groan from the pegasus as she flopped onto her bed. For some reason, the usually lumpy mattress was just so comfortable.

‘I think, for tonight, I’ll let you sleep in,’ she heard Nevermore say with a touch of dryness.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Thank you so much. I didn’t ever think I’d get to sleep with you around anymore.”

‘Don’t be a smartass. For once, you actually earned a night’s rest.’

Her ears flattened in annoyance. “Hey!”

‘Have you yet thought of what you’ve accomplished today? You took down a mafia boss that likely had his hooves wrapped around countless necks in this city. His gang is broken and leaderless now, and you put those two flunkies in jail. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?’

She sighed tiredly. It did mean something to her. She was actually prouder of herself now more than she had ever been before. Taking down Mafioso was the best victory of her life, even if it hadn’t ended the way she’d planned - his screams still sounded in her head, making her shudder in her own regret. At least she could say he had it coming, and he probably deserved far worse than what he got. It was still scary to think about, though.

Swirling idly glanced around her room, her gaze drifting across the plain walls and ceiling until her eyes fell on her art easel. She perked her head up slightly. With everything that had been going on lately, she had completely forgotten about it. It was just as blank as the day this had all started. The day her life changed forever…

Something bloomed in her head. Slowly, a smile began to form on her visage, a sudden burst of energy forcing her up off her bed. She quickly gathered up her paints and brush, sat in front of the easel, and started coloring the bottom half of the canvas with varying shades of red, orange, and yellow.

‘What are you doing?’ Nevermore asked, but she ignored his question in favor of continuing her work, her hooves moving about with surprising speed as she worked to get her sudden inspiration onto the paper.

She switched to shades of black, brown, and gray, with a few shades just shy of being white, soon forming an image of a forest with the earth it sat upon lit ablaze, with a light breaking through the forest canopy, splitting the fire down the middle. The light fell upon a small, black bird that looked to be making its way out of the fire and beyond the treetops.

The pegasus grinned as she added the final touches to her piece, setting aside her painting supplies and looking over her work. It was a rough draft, really, but it was something for her to work on. She finally had a new painting that she could truly call her own.

‘I have to admit,’ Nevermore said. ‘That’s actually not bad.’

“It still needs some touching up,” Swirling replied, “but I have a good feeling about this one.” She tilted her head, rubbing her chin in thought. She smiled again. “I think I’ll call the final product ‘Rebirth.’”

‘Apt.’

With a proud and exhausted sigh, the mare turned to her bed again and climbed back into it, burying herself under the covers and being careful not to rest on her injured wing. She yawned as she rested her head on the rough lumps she identified as pillows and shut her eyes.

Today was a good day.

-o-

The Light was glorious. It banished the fears of darkness, exposed the evil of lies, the Light was eternal. It was beautiful.

The mare who stood in front of the altar in the vaulted room lowered her head in devotion as she softly uttered the sacred hymn of her faith. Her followers - her brothers- and sisters-in-faith - echoed the devotions with complete reverence. They were all joined together to bask in the glory that was the Light.

Her eyes slowly opened as the hymn came to an end, red irises half lidded. “My Brothers and Sisters, fellow children of the Light, we are the chosen ones. Chosen by the Light, raised within the Light, it protects us as it nurtures our families. All things thrive within the Light.”

“The Light is eternal,” they said as one.

“But where there is Light, there is Darkness. The vile essence that plagues our world.” Her gaze turned stern as it swept the collection of white-robed and -hooded ponies. “And we, as the Light’s beloved children, Its chosen Disciples, must stand ready to face the Darkness wherever it raises its head.”

“The Light is all!”

Her voice reached a fevered pitch. “As the Light’s Disciples, we will root out the Darkness so that it has nowhere to fester! The Light shall triumph!”

“We are the Light!” their voices easily matching hers.

She threw her forelegs out wide. “Now go, my Brothers and Sisters! Make the Darkness and those who cower within it tremble at our coming!”

As the Disciples filtered out of the room, the pony known as White Star smiled at their eagerness. Truly, the Light was with them all.

“Moving words, Mistress Star. The Light truly does favor you,” she heard one of her Disciples say to her as they approached.

White Star pushed back her hood and her pure white mane flowed freely, neatly blending with the white of her fur. “The Light favors us all, Sister. Always remember that.”

The Disciple lowered her head submissively. “Yes, Mistress.”

White Star gave the mare in front of her a brief once-over. “You are stationed in Manehattan, are you not?”

Her Sister gave a nod. “I wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t important, milady. There’s been a… development. I’m honestly not quite sure what to make of it.” At White Star’s interrogative look, she said, “Some sort of creature stalks the night in Manehattan. Those who’ve seen it claim it to be a living ghost that lurks in the shadows. It could just be rumor, but…” She pulled out a newspaper from her cloak. It bore headline speaking of being called ‘the Raven.’

White Star took the paper in her crimson magic and read through the article. Her eyes narrowed, he expression growing intense. She balled up the paper and tossed it away, turning to the altar once again.

“A denizen of the Dark haunts Manehattan,” she said quietly. “We must see to it that this abomination is exorcised before it can bring ruin.” She turned to her follower, her visage deadly serious. “Let all Disciples know of this decree. The Raven will be made to face the Light.”

The Disciple lowered her head. “Yes, Mistress, at once.”

White Star turned to gaze upon the emblem of the Disciples and a slow frown crossed her face. “It will face the Light, or it will die.”

Author's Note

One chapter ends, and a new story unfolds. What new evils will the Raven be forced to combat?

F**k if I'm gonna tell ya. You'll just have to wait until the sequel. Stay radical, my friends.

Up In Flames

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said,art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' - excerpt, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven

-o-

A pair of golden eyes narrowed at the Manehattan skyline from the observer’s perch atop the tallest building in the vast city. “The City That Never Sleeps” was a fitting nickname for the bustling metropolis, proven by ponies busily scampering about, despite how late at night it was. All of them were completely unaware of the being watching from so far above their heads, searching for one pony in particular.

Wings spread, the golden-eyed being took off in search of its quarry. She was here.

-o-

Her alarm clock blared incessantly while the sun’s light beat down on her from her nearby window. She struck the clock with a hoof, a part of her wishing she could just crush the thing into a million pieces. Slowly, she sat up, stretching out her wings and forelegs and blinking the sleep out of her eyes. She climbed out of her lumpy bed (she needed to get a new one at some point) and immediately headed for her apartment’s tiny kitchen, where she sat at the table and fixed herself a bowl of cereal.

With breakfast out of the way, she went to the bathroom to brush her two-toned, bright violet and slate-colored mane and tail out of their sloppy, bed-induced states before brushing her teeth and making her way to the corner of her apartment that she had reserved specifically for the object of her passions.

She sat in front of the blank canvas atop her easel, shifting her brush in her mouth as she stared at the white sheet before her, tapping her hoof against the floor. She cocked her head to the side, as if that would give her an idea for new, unique piece of art. She asked herself her usual series of questions: which color should she start with? That decided, how long or short should her strokes be for this painting? What was she going to paint to begin with?

Occasionally, she would perk up, thinking an idea had come to her, only for it to vanish just as quickly as it had appeared. Sometimes, she had an idea, but shot them down because of a lack of originality.

With an eventual sigh and check of the clock on the wall to her right, she set her brush down and made to head out to work. With any luck, she might come up with something while working.

-o-

The mare’s name is Swirling Line, an aspiring artist living in the city of Manehattan and working as a waitress in a diner until her career finally takes off. Every morning, she goes through the same routine, living her life day by day. She is normal and, for the most part, content with how things are. Her only problem is her lack of inspiration, which blocks her from sharing her talent with the world.

However, today is another day. Today is different. Today… the mare will die.

-o-

“'Ey! Line! Get yer head outta the clouds! We got orders waitin’!” shouted a burly voice from the kitchen of the restaurant.

Her head snapped back in surprise as she was pulled from her daydream. With a tired sigh, she rubbed at her eyes and called back to her boss. “Coming, Lou.” She pushed away the rough sketch that she had scribbled on a napkin and walked for the serving counter. She made sure her two-toned mane was tied back in its tail tightly, before stepping into the kitchen.

“Are you daft, girl? Hurry up!” her boss bellowed again as he stacked plates of food on her tray.

Muttering to herself, she collected the tray of greasy, fried food and skillfully made her way through the packed restaurant while balancing the tray on her wings. She walked up to a table were three stallions dressed in business garb chatted amongst themselves.

“I have one hay burger with onion rings, a Fillidelphia cheese sandwich and fries, and another hay burger, extra onions with cheese fries.” She set the food in front of each stallion as they claimed their meals. “Will there be anything else, sirs?”

One of them gave her a leer. “Not right now, darling. Maybe later.”

She kept a straight face, but inwardly wanted to smack that leer off his muzzle. “I’ll just refill your drinks then.”

As she turned away, she felt a sharp slap on her flank, right where her snowflake cutie mark was visible. She took in a deep breath to calm herself and moved away. She put the tray back on the counter for her boss to fill up again, conveniently forgetting about the stallions’ drinks.

“Rough day so far, huh?” her friend asked, a dark tan-pelted, verdant green-maned unicorn.

“The customers are a touchy sort,” Swirling Line muttered, pulling the skirt of her uniform lower to better cover her flank.

The unicorn scowled. “Hopefully they won’t stay long.” She adjusted her server’s cap to better settle around her horn.

Swirling watched as the cook set more plates of food on the tray. “So, what are you doing after work, Summer Streams?”

The unicorn smirked wanly. “I’ve got to get some groceries, or I’ll be forced to eat my uniform.”

“Ya eat it, ya buy it!” Lou called to her, not even slowing in his frenzy of work.

Swirling chuckled. “How does he do that?”

He roughly shoved the last of the plates on her tray. “Quit yer yammerin’ and get this to table nine, now!”

She did her best to keep her annoyance from her expression, though that didn’t stop the irritated swish of her tail. “Yes, Lou.”

“Don’t give me lip, girl! Just do it!”

Summer gave her a quick look of sympathy before Swirling made her way to the destined tabled. She privately hated this, being a waitress in some grease hole in Manehatten. She wanted so much more out of her life. This mundane lifestyle was not where she had pictured herself after she had finished her schooling. Her art was her passion, it was her destiny. Though her cutie mark was a snowflake—signifying her skill at crafting the winter precipitation—she didn’t want to spend her life in a weather factory.

As her evening progressed, her mind frequently wandered to her dreams. She imagined that one day, her art would be recognized by a famous art critic, and her name would circulate through the ranks of other famous artists. Though the money it would bring would help her live comfortably, that was not what drove her to be an artist. Knowing that her art would inspire other artists after her, and solidifying her name in art history, was her drive. To be remembered as one of Equestria’s greatest artists… that was her dream. Her dream also included finding the right stallion to share her passion with, and to be there to support her when she needed it. Perhaps one day, she would teach her future foals to love art as much as she did.

Mercifully, her shift ended, and she and Summer Streams burst out of the door to the restaurant.

“Finally! I’m out of here!” She quickly shook her body so her light-violent pelt didn’t feel so matted. She wrinkled her nose as the pungent smell of grease reached her nose. “I need a bath,” she lamented.

Summer chuckled. “With lots of soap.”

Swirling lifted her nose. “You’re no better than me, Summer. You smell just as bad.”

“I do not!” Summer protested as they walked away from the store.

Before they could get far, they heard the door slam open behind them and Lou stormed out. “Swirling! Your till was two bits short! That happens again, it comes outta yer check!”

She tried so hard to ignore the bellows of her boss.

“’Ey! Ya’d damn well better listen when I’m talkin’ to ya! Ya hear me?!”

She gritted her teeth and turned back to him. “I heard you, Lou! I’ll be more careful next time.”

“Damn right you will!” The oaf slammed the door shut, it echoed through the grimy alley.

Swirling felt Summer rest a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t let him get to you. It isn’t worth it.”

She took a steadying breath and nodded a thanks to her. The two left the alley as night began to settle over the busy streets of the pony metropolis. They walked along the still-crowded streets as ponies and carriages came and went on their own tasks. Very few so much as looked at the two mares as they made their way home. It wasn’t that it was new to them, it was just the indifference that had Swirling Line thinking inwardly. She hardly paid any mind to Summer Streams as she talked about various things.

“—and then, he kissed my hoof before saying goodnight!” She squeed a bit. “We have another date this weekend. I’m really hoping we have a nice dinner and maybe go out to see a play.” She sighed deeply and looked to the oblivious Swirling Line. “Hey! Are you even listening to me?”

Swirling looked at her for a moment before looking away. “Yeah. It sounds... nice.”

The green unicorn frowned softly. “Swirling, please don’t let what Lou said get to you. You know he’s all bark and no bite.”

“It’s not that…”

“What is it, then? You’re no fun being all mopey.”

The light-violet pegasus took in a breath and looked to the sky as it was adorned with the lights of the city. “I’m just tired of waiting.”

Summer gave her a soft look. “You mean your art?”

She nodded slowly.

“I, ah…” The unicorn fumbled a bit as she tried to find the right words to say. “I’m not much of an art critic - I can barely draw a straight line, myself - but your art is some of the most beautiful I know. You just have to wait for your big break, then you can leave this dump and travel around Equestria with your art. I know it’ll happen soon.”

Swirling looked to her friend. “But how much longer do I have to wait?”

The unicorn shook her head. “I don’t know, but it will come. Just have faith.”

The beginnings of a smile crossed the pegasus’s face. “Y-yeah, you’re right. I just need to be patient.” She smiled gratefully to her friend. “Thanks, Summer. I don’t care what anypony else says, you’re smarter than you look.”

The unicorn nodded before her brow furrowed. “Hey! That was mean!”

Swirling laughed and it was quickly joined by her friend. “You’re the best, Summer.”

“So are you.” The two shared a hug as they came to the road that lead to the grocery store.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the park?” Summer asked.

“I’ll be there.” Swirling smiled teasingly. “Just don’t be late this time.”

The other scoffed. “Ha! See you tomorrow, Swirling Line.”

“You too, Summer Streams. Good night.”

The two parted ways and Swirling started down the path that would take her home. As she trotted down the street, she thought back on what Summer had said. She had know the unicorn for around four years now. Swirling had first come to Manehattan thinking that she would find her big break here. Like they say, “if you can make it in Manehattan, you can make it anywhere.” Summer had been the only pony in the city so far who seemed to give a flying feather about Swirling’s passion for art.

While Summer was far from being the smartest pony in the world, she just as far from being the dumbest. She could be pretty witty at times, and was a pretty good listener whenever Swirling needed to vent out her frustrations. Not to mention that it was nice to hear about somepony else’s life every once in a while.

After walking for several minutes, lost in her ruminations, she heard what sounded like screaming. Looking up, she saw smoke in the sky, and a bright orange light just down the street. Her eyes went wide, instantly realizing what was happening. She took off at rushed gallop that turned into a frantic glide.

An apartment complex was on fire, with ponies panicking and yelling, running and screaming. Most of them were earth ponies, Swirling noticed, while a bare hoofful were unicorns. Nopony looked hurt, however, so that was a relief. The burning building, however, was still an immense problem. If somepony didn’t do something, it would surely spread.

“She’s still in there!” she heard a mare shout over the voices of the other ponies. Swirling’s ears swiveled at the voice, and she saw an earth pony mare being restrained by two stallions. “My daughter is still in there! She’s trapped!”

“We’ve already sent for the fire department!” said one of the stallions. “They’ll be here soon!”

“They won’t get here in time!” the mare screamed in protest.

While the stallions struggled to hold the mare back, Swirling looked up at the inferno, her throat suddenly dry at the thought of a child being stuck in that hellish building. She looked around at the terrified ponies running about. They wouldn’t be able to do much of anything in this.

‘But I could,’ she realized as she looked at her wings, then back to the fire. She gritted her teeth and took off flying into the blazing home, with ponies yelling at her to stop.

She blasted in through a window with more impact than she had intended, instantly feeling a stark rise in the temperature. She tumbled violently across the floor, landing on her side and spraining her right wing. She winced in pain, but bit down a yelp of pain as she stood back up on her hooves, shaking the feeling of dizziness out of her head.

“Hello?” she called out as she trudged through the smoldering building. A burst of flame forced her back, the intensity of the heat searing her coat. She called out again as she searched for way out of the room she was in. A wall nearby crumbled, falling apart as the flames ate away at it. She took advantage of it and fled the room, coughing violently as she inhaled a small cloud of smoke.

Her ears perked at the sound of somepony gagging on air and crying. She followed the sound to a door that had miraculously avoided being devoured by the fire around it, but it was only a matter of time before that changed.

She hit the door with a hoof. “Hello? Is somepony in there?” The only response was more crying. She gritted her teeth again and turned around. Putting as much strength as she could into it, she bucked the door as hard as possible. The door was knocked off of its hinges, falling to the floor and allowing Swirling to enter.

She rushed inside, frantically searching until she found a small earth pony filly huddled in the corner across from her. The pegasus hurried over to the child. “Are you okay?” The filly looked up at her with wide, tear-filled eyes that held an immeasurable amount of fear in them. Swirling bit her lip, unsure of what to do. “Look, I-I’m here to get you out of this place. We have to go, now.”

The filly huddled further back against the wall.

Swirling resisted the urge to just grab the foal and fly out. She didn’t want to scare the child anymore than she already was. “I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I’m here to help.” The filly looked at her with large, green eyes. clearly unsure. Swirling crouched down. “Get on my back, and I’ll get you out of here. Please.” A ceiling rafter nearby fell, shattering against the floor, making the filly yelp in fear. “Hurry!”

The filly climbed onto Swirling’s back, locking her front hooves around the mare’s neck. Making sure the child was secure, Swirling made her way back to where she had come in from. A hole in the floor in the hallway forced her to take a detour to another room, where it looked to be faring far worse than the rest of Swirling had seen of the building. It was an enormous risk, especially with a sprained wing, but she had to chance it. She galloped across to the nearest window. She could see that the fire department had finally arrived, along with several doctors. She leaned out the window and waved with a hoof.

A pegasus stallion in a firefighter’s uniform flew up to the window she was in. “Come on!” he shouted. “Fly out of there!”

“My wing is hurt!” Swirling said as she carefully took the filly off of her back and into her hooves. “Take her!” The firefighter took the filly without question. Just in the nick of time, too.

The floor beneath Swirling gave out in that instant.

The world slowed. For an instant, she saw the horrified looks on both the firefighter and the filly’s faces as she fell. When they were no longer in sight, something hard struck her neck. She heard an audible snap before the world went black.

-o-

Darkness…

Empty… cold… darkness…

It was all she saw. All she could feel. There was nothing but nothing as far as she could tell. She was alone. It was only her and the emptiness.

“Wake up.”

The sound of a voice roused her, and Swirling Line sat up immediately, finding herself in some kind of… forest? It was still dark, but just light enough to see. The bark of the trees was black, though it was impossible to tell if the color was natural or if they had been burned to look like that. Above was a white sky that was barely visible from beneath the forest canopy. The ground was also black, though not a dark as the trees.

“Up here,” came that same voice. When she looked up, she mostly expected to see a pegasus stallion hovering above her. To her surprise, as she saw was single, black raven, perched upon a scorched tree branch, observing her with shockingly golden eyes.

“Good,” the raven said. “You can follow simple instructions. Always a bonus.”

“Did…” Swirling stammered, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. “Did you just talk?”

“No,” the raven answered, “it was the branch that I’m standing on. Of course I talked.” The ebony bird rolled its eyes and muttered, “Ponies are such idiots.”
“Excuse me?”

“Nothing. Look, I’m here to tell you something very important.” The raven hopped off its perch and landed on the ground in front of her. “You’re dead.”

With those two words, Swirling Line’s mind began doing laps around her brain, rushing to comprehend what she had just heard. “I- what?”

“Yeah, sorry to be so candid about it, but it’s the truth. You died saving that little filly from a burning building. Quite a noble death, actually.”

“B-b-b-but I can’t be dead! I-I-I have my whole life planned out! I’m going to make it big as an artist, meet a nice stallion, have a family! I can’t be dead!”

The raven sighed. “Denial is always the first stage. Look, before you descend into stage two of grief, I want you to-”

“And who in the hay are you, anyway!?” Swirling yelled at the black-feathered bird, who hopped back in surprise at her sudden indignation.

“Just… listen. My name is Nevermore. I’m a shadow spirit. I’ve been looking for someone like you.”

“Like… me?” she asked as her sudden fit of anger slowly died down a little. The raven nodded.

“You’re unique,” he explained. “You were willing to give your life to save someone else, and you did. I like that. And so, I’m going to make you a deal you’d have to be stupid to deny.” Nevermore then stood as straight as he could, looking Swirling in the eyes with a look of dead seriousness.

“I’m going to revive you.”

Swirling felt that she needed to do a double take, and stared at the bird with a dumbfounded expression. “What?”

“I’m going to bring you back to life. All of your fatal injuries will be healed. Lesser injuries will be left, though. It’d bring too many questions.”

“But… how? Why?”

“If you say yes, I’ll bond my soul to yours. You’ll be revitalized. As for ‘why…’ well…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “Well, it’s not really much of a concern for you at the moment. Let’s just say that I need a host, and you fit the bill. So, do we have a deal?”

Swirling fell backwards onto her haunches, mouth slightly agape. She could only stare at the raven in front of her in shock. She had just learned the most devastating news she probably ever going to hear in her… life? Afterlife? That thought made her head hurt like Tartarus. Now, this bizarre, out-of-nowhere bird thing was offering to bring her back to life, and even heal some of her more severe injuries. She wasn’t completely certain what to think about all of this. So many questions flooded her mind.

“You…” she finally said. “You said you’re a shadow spirit. Wh-what does that mean, exactly?”

Nevermore shrugged. “I’m what ignorant mortals might call a demon. But I assure you, I’m anything but. Demons are pure evil and seek nothing less than the total annihilation of the mortal realm. Shadow spirits, on the other… what’s your term again? Hoof?” Swirling nodded. “Right. We’re like demons, in the sense that we’re creatures of darkness. However, we’re far more benign. Most of my kin are indifferent to your world. Some just like to observe what goes on in the day-to-day lives of mortals. Few ever really intervene in anything, though.”

The mare nodded, though she still didn’t quite understand. Shadow spirits? Demons? Creatures of darkness? This was stuff out of some cheap fantasy book! Still…

“Aside from… reviving me… what else will happen to me if I agree? I kind of get the feeling there’s going to be more to this deal than you’re letting on.”

“Smart, for a pony,” Nevermore replied, though it was difficult to tell whether that was a compliment or an insult. “There’ll be a few perks for the both of us. Maybe a few drawbacks, honestly, but there shouldn’t be too many down sides to it.”

“What kind of perks? What drawbacks?”

“It’d be pointless to explain it if you don’t take the deal,” retorted the raven.

She leaned back a little and thought on it. This bird was offering her a chance to live again, possibly even more fully than before, though he clearly wouldn’t say how until she agreed. It seemed almost too good to be true. She hung her head low, mulling over her only two options: take Nevermore’s deal and live again, or die and let who-know-what happen. It didn’t really take long for her to make her decision.

“Okay.” She nodded her head to affirm her own statement. “All right. Let’s do it.”

The raven smirked. “Good choice.” He spread his wings then. All around them, the shadows bent and turned towards Nevermore, actually coming off the ground and wrapping around him, assuming his shape and rapidly enlarging until he was immense, black bird that would’ve dwarfed Princess Celestia. Swirling’s eyes went wide, and she stumbled back.

“Hold still,” came Nevermore’s voice from the giant bird that had replaced him. He wrapped his wings around her with startling speed.

Once again, all went black.

-o-

She could hear… voices. Muffled voices. They were slowly getting clearer, but she couldn’t quite make it out. She thought she heard somepony say “miracle,” but she wasn’t sure. She slowly opened her eyes to a blinding white light. She clenched her eyes, but didn’t fully close them, trying to let them adjust to the sudden light above her.

Was it above her? Yes, it definitely was. She felt she was lying down, on a bed, perhaps.

Her eyes had adjusted enough for her to just make the forms of three or four ponies standing around her.

“-aking up!” Her ears twitched in irritation at the loudness of the voice, but Swirling Line felt herself relax at the familiarity of it. Soon, her eyes fully adjusted to the light, and she could see Summer Streams standing over her, an earth pony stallion she didn’t recognize standing at the unicorn’s side. There was vaguely familiar, bright red earth pony mare with a pinkish mane as well, along with a unicorn stallion wearing a doctor’s uniform.

“Swirling!” Summer said with a huge, relieved grin on her face. “Are you okay? How do you feel?”

The pegasus mare groaned. “Like I was standing between you and cute stallion.”

Summer gave a laugh at that. “Yeah, you’re fine.”

Swirling tried to sit up, but hissed in pain when she felt something in her chest get pushed the wrong way. She looked over at the stallion in uniform. “So… what’s the damage?”

“A couple cracked ribs, a severely pulled muscle in your right wing, and a few cuts, bruises, and minor burns.” The doctor spoke plainly and simply. “You’re lucky, considering the fall you took.”

“The doctors all say it’s a miracle that you’re even alive,” said Summer. “They keep saying that your injuries should’ve been far worse than they were.”

“‘Were’?” Swirling parroted. “How long was I out?”

“Two days,” the earth pony mare answered. Swirling gave her somewhat baffled look. “Oh, sorry. We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Bright Day. You saved my daughter from the apartment fire.” As if on cue, a little earth pony filly hopped into Swirling’s line of sight, beaming at the injured pegasus. She had bright yellow coat with a mane that matched the color of the older mare’s coat. Her eyes were a bright green.

“Hi!” the filly said excitedly. “I’m Sunny!”

“Oh. Hello.” Now Swirling knew why the mare seemed familiar. She was the panicking mother who had to be restrained.

“I thought we should come visit,” said Bright Day. “I wanted to thank you personally for saving Sunny.”

Sunny gave an energetic nod. “You got me out of the apartment just in time.”

“You hear that, Swirl?” Summer said with no lack of enthusiasm. “You’re a hero!”

Swirling gave a weak chuckle. “Yeah. I guess.”

The doctor stepped forward. “Sorry to interrupt, but I should get going. I have other patients who need attention. If you need anything, Miss Line, just holler. A nurse will come help you.” Swirling nodded, and the doctor took his leave from the room.

Swirling’s gaze soon fell on the stallion standing beside Summer. He had a tan coat with dark brown mane, and eyes to match his hair. “Sorry, but do I know you?”

Summer gasped suddenly. “Oh! Sorry! I forgot you two haven’t actually met yet. Swirl, this the stallion I told you about on the day of the fire.”

“Name’s Page Topper,” the stallion said. “Freelance journalist. I’ll be straight with you and say that I was hoping I might get an interview with you. Like Summer and Mrs. Day said, you’re a hero.”

“Uh… sure, I guess. But do you think it can wait?”

Page shrugged. “Sure. Take whatever time you need.” He kissed Summer on the cheek. “I’m going out to talk to some of the other ponies who were there. I want to get some varied opinions.”

“Hold on,” said Summer. She looked to her friend. “Will you be all right on your own for now?”

Swirling nodded. “I’m fine. Go hang out with you boyfriend, Summer.” The unicorn nodded and left with Page, leaving Swirling alone with Bright Day and her daughter, the latter of whom was still beaming at the pegasus. When Swirling looked at Sunny, the filly shied away slightly, but stayed within easy sight.

“I’m sorry,” Bright said as she nuzzled her daughter. “Sunny can be shy sometimes, and bouncy at other times.”

“It’s all right,” Swirling assured the older mare. “I don’t mind. I was actually the same way as a foal.”

Bright laughed and nodded. “Well, I’d say your parents raised you well. Oh!” She turned away suddenly, going to pick something up. She set a small box up on the table next to Swirling’s bed. “I almost forgot. I own a sweets shop down the street from… where we used to live. I can never repay for what you’ve done, but please, take these candies as thanks.” She opened the box, and Swirling Line’s mouth instantly watered at the sight and smell. The box contained a number of assorted chocolates, gumdrops, jawbreakers, gummies, and other types of sweets. She could smell something minty in there, too, and found a couple candy canes next to some peanut brittle.

Swirling bowed her head to Bright Day as if she was meeting Princess Celestia herself. “I eagerly and humbly accept.” She grabbed the box and popped a peanut butter cup into her mouth, savoring the sweet taste of peanut and chocolate.

Sunny giggled at Swirling’s actions, and Bright smiled. “My shop is called Daytime Delights. Whenever you get a craving for something sweet, just pop right in. For you, everything is on the house.”

Swirling’s mouth hung open at that. She almost wanted to cry when Bright said that. “Thank you,” she said with the utmost reverence. Once more, Sunny giggled, and Bright smiled. Swirling was having a pretty good day, all things considered.

A Tricky Business

The rain fell down in buckets. Puddles rippled and swelled in the continued downpour. The City That Never Sleeps received its first full rain in over a week, thankfully washing away the collected grime from the city’s streets.

The puddle splashed over the earth pony stallion’s belly and legs as he ran through the rain-slicked streets of Manehatten. The screams of his comrades echoed behind him and he lowered his head to run faster. He heard one of them call out his name before the voice grunted in pain and fell silent.

He turned down sharply into another street, running past the windows and doors of shops that were closed for the night. If only one of them was open, he could get away from his pursuer! He had to get away, that was all he knew. Some place without shadows, if only he could get there!

He rested against a shop’s door, his lungs screaming for air. He panted and gulped in the needed oxygen as he looked over his shoulder. Nothing but the rain moved; it was only him on the street.

‘Nothing, nothing is good,’ he told himself. Maybe he was lucky, maybe he threw off the—

Something moved along the walls, and he screamed in terror. He didn’t wait to see what it was before he tore down the sidewalk. A brief flash illuminated the streets as the lightning tore the sky above him. He risked another glance over his shoulder and tripped over a trashcan that jutted into the street. He landed unceremoniously into a puddle, the refuse of the can spilling across the street.

He groaned as he pushed himself up, wiping his face of the muddy rainwater. A chilling laugh had his eyes widen in fear and he gave an unstallionlike squeal of fear and fled for his life. Tears mixed with the rain as he finally turned down an alley and dove behind a dumpster.

He sat there for a time, not daring to breathe in fear of being found. The rain pounded on the dumpster and the road, filling the alley with its dull roar. After what seemed like an eternity, and nothing jumping out to get him, he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Lost ‘em.”

“Running from little old me?” a distorted voice said sweetly.

He didn’t have time to scream before he found himself hurled further into the alley. He landed with a pained grunt, and he looked up to see a pair of glowing, yellow eyes approach him. He scrambled away from the apparition, stuttering in fear.

“P-P-Please! D-Don’t hurt me!”

The apparition stopped as the lightning flashed again—illuminating the shadow pony—and the eyes narrowed at him. “Tell me what I want to know and I won’t.”

He scrambled away from her. “I-I can’t! If they found out I—” He screamed again as the shadow was suddenly in his face, the eyes blazing in fury.

“Tell me where I can find them!” the shadow demanded in that otherworldly voice.

He cringed away from those eyes. “N-No! I-I can’t!”

His scream of fear jumped a few octaves as he found himself dragged into the air. The apparition beat the air with shadowy wings as it lifted him with little difficulty. Reaching the top of the building, the shadow held him upside down over the edge.

“Last chance, bucko.”

He whimpered as he flailed around, the street below looking so far away. “P-Please…”

Without so much as a word, she let him drop.

His scream echoed and the street approached so fast. “I’ll tell! I’ll tell!”

He covered his face with his forelegs, but before he could hit, he was hauled back up into the air, and was promptly dropped on the roof of the building again. He climbed to his knees and emptied his stomach of its contents.

“Eww…” he heard the voice say. “All right, spill your guts… again. Where is Mafioso?”

He wiped his mouth of the acidic residue and turned to look at the shadow pony as she stood above him. “I-I don’t know where the boss lives. I’m just a grunt in this business, I swear!”

“But…?”

“I-I know where you can find a guy who can tell you where the boss hangs his hat! His name’s Tricky, and he’s got info on just about everypony in the mob!”

“And where can I find Tricky?” The shadow stepped toward the stallion, who backed up toward the edge of the building with a nervous gulp.

“H-he lives downtown! In a complex called the Hole! J-j-just ask around, the locals there can point you to it!”

The living silhouette backed up a step with a nod. “Thanks for the information. Goodnight.”

“Wha-?” He was interrupted by a hoof connecting to his jaw, knocking him right into dreamland. When he eventually woke up, he found himself tied up to his partners with rope. Several police officers were surrounding them, talking about to deal with this situation that had become relatively common in recent weeks. Slowly, a realization dawned on him. “The boss is gonna kill me.”

-o-

‘So… you’re not going after this Tricky guy yet?’

Swirling gave out a disgruntled sigh as she entered her apartment, changing out of her Raven form as she touched down on the floor through her window. “Nope. Downtown is on the other side of the city. Better to wait until tomorrow night so that that five hour time limit of yours isn’t as big of a deal.” She ran a hoof through her mane, shaking it back out to its normal place.

‘I don’t have a time limit. You do. If you keep using it beyond that limit-’

She rolled her eyes at him. “It’ll tear me apart from the inside-out, I know.” She flopped onto her bed, turning to lay on her back to stare at the ceiling while she talked to Nevermore. “You don’t have to keep reiterating it like you do every night.” The spirit mumbled something inaudible, probably something derogatory about ponies. She’d gotten used to that by now, as much she hated to admit that.

For now, she needed to think up a plan of action for when she found Tricky’s place (what kind of dump would it have to be to earn the name “the Hole?”). If he was one of Mafioso’s guys, he’d no doubt have at least a few flunkies hanging around to keep an eye out for trouble. And if he was important as that thug from earlier had implied, then his bodyguards would probably be pretty tough. Perhaps even a decent challenge for the Raven…

‘Ego,’ Nevermore warned her.

“Sorry.”

-o-

The Raven was starting to be a real pain in Mafioso’s flank. Fourteen members of his syndicate behind bars in the four days since that nag Swirling Line’s bizarre escape and that freak’s interference in something that just wasn’t her business. This was starting to irritate him.

“Why hasn’t she been brought to me yet?” he inquired in a tone that was polite, yet menacing. Brawn and Knives blinked at each other as their boss fumed. The slate-colored earth pony was grumbling at a newspaper in his hooves, particularly at an article talking about how the Raven was taking down known criminals, while simultaneously saying that she might not be completely trustworthy to the general public.

“Well, she ain’t exactly easy to pin down, boss,” Brawn offered with a tinge of nervousness in his tone. Mafioso scowled at him. “Look, we’ve got the whole gang on the lookout for the Raven. We’ll find her sooner or later.”

The mob boss sneered as spite became more and more evident in his eyes. “I want her found now!” he bellowed, throwing the newspaper at his two lackeys. “No more excuses! I want you two to go see Tricky about this. I’m sure, by now, he’d have something on the Raven that’ll make my life a lot easier.” He whirled in his chair, turning away from the two in spite.

“Yeah, boss, we can get it done,” Brawn said, inclined his head.

Before Brawn could turn away, Knives spoke up. “Boss.”

“What is it, Knives?” Mafioso asked, not bothering to turn.

“What do you want done with that Swirling Line nag?” Most of the injuries he sustained from the fighting had healed up, though the area around his eye was still blackened. “You want us to finish the job?”

Mafioso snorted. “That nag’s the least of our problems now. Find the Raven and bring her to me.” He turned back enough to glare at the unicorn. “Don’t come back without her. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal clear,” Knives answered as he rubbed his black eye. “You wouldn’t mind if I-”

“I would mind, actually.” The earth pony boss glared at the unicorn, already knowing exactly what he was planning to do. “I’d prefer it if you brought me a whole bird instead of a few ribbons.”

Knives backed away and lowered his head submissively. “Right.”

Brawn put a hoof on Knives’ shoulder. “Come on, pal. We got a rat to visit.”

-o-

“Wow, this place is a dump,” Swirling commented as she flew over the street during the early hours of the night. She felt sorry for the earth ponies and pegasi who had to walk on the trash-covered streets and sidewalks. It was far from being the cheeriest neighborhood she’d ever seen. More than a few ponies looked like they were up to no good. “This place could do with a good clean-up.”

‘I’ve seen worse,’ said Nevermore. ‘Trust me, this is a paradise compared to some places I’ve been to.’

She landed in an alley not far away and quickly darted to the shadows, her eyes searching for anypony walking nearby. “Sounds like you have some good stories to tell.”

‘Stories, maybe. Good? Not so much.’

His tone told her that he’d rather not continue down this line of conversation, so she merely nodded and morphed into her alter ego, her coat becoming an ethereal black as her wingspan doubled and her mane and tail became black fire.

With her transformation complete, she sank into the shadows, darting lightning fast through the night until she came across an old apartment complex that looked like it should’ve been condemned a long time ago. Above the door hung a sign that should’ve read “hotel,” but the “t” was missing. Apparently, somepony thought it would be funny to take the “l” and put it where the “t” belonged. Appropriate, she supposed.

“Everypony I’ve asked so far has said that this is the place we’re looking for,” Swirling pointed out. Just then, a brick came flying into one of the windows. Some colts ran off laughing as an older stallion bellowed at them in an elderly fury. “Sheesh. Why would anypony want to live in this part of town?”

‘Some ponies just aren’t as well-off as others,’ Nevermore answered. ‘A fact of life.’

“Don’t I know it…” she muttered under her breath.

‘You’re better off than these poor souls. So that should make you somewhat thankful for what you have.’

“Sure.” Swirling dove into the shadows again, slipping into the building known as the Hole with no eyes following. Sticking to the shadows, she took a look through room after room, trying to find out which apartment Tricky called home. Through her search, she found mostly ponies who looked just a little bit worse than down on their luck. Alcoholics, an oversized family, ponies who were very clearly members of the Reds, and a number of other less-than-glittering examples of how to live.

She passed one apartment where she saw a mother trying to care for a sickly foal. The child’s cries as the sickness wracked its body and the mother’s sobs tore at her very core.

‘Oh, sweet Celestia...’ She brought a hoof to her muzzle to keep a choked gasp from escaping her. ‘That’s so horrible.’

‘It could still be far worse,’ came Nevermore’s voice.

‘How?’

‘That child could be alone, with no mother at all to care for him. That would be truly horrible.’

Swirling let out a small sigh as she left the mother and child’s apartment. ‘Yeah… I guess so. But… still.’

‘Concentrate on the task at hoof. Stopping Mafioso and his goons will be a much bigger step than one family.’

The pegasus nodded, understanding, but reluctant. Mafioso had to be taken down. As long he was a free stallion, nopony else would be. With that thought in mind, she went back to her search.

Upon reaching the top floor, she believed she finally found what she was looking for. Though nopony was home, this particular apartment had assortments of files on counters, table, and in various cabinets. Opening one file revealed some information on none other than that wacko Knives. Weirdly enough, that guy was apparently from Canterlot. Go figure.

“This has to be the place,” she said to herself. “We might not even need to talk to Tricky. We’ll just have to keep looking around until we find something on Mafioso.”

‘Sure, but you might want to hurry. There’s no telling when that Tricky guy will come home.’

Not needing to be told twice, Swirling Line began digging, looking through every file she saw. She found information about Knives’ pegasus partner Brawn, some intel on the Reds, and something about some mare called Rough Diamond, but nothing on Mafioso except for a few mentions of some auxiliary hideouts. There was nothing concrete about the mob boss. Maybe Tricky had something hidden away somewhere…?

The familiar click of a lock being opened made her ears flick toward the door, and she saw it beginning to open. Thinking fast, Swirling sank into the shadow of the couch at the end of the room, just as an earth pony stallion walked in. His coat was a dark shade of yellow, with an equally dark blue, unkempt mane and tail. His cutie mark looked like a pair of dice rolling around a quill, which was more than a little odd. His sea-green eyes seemed to scan the room briefly before he set his saddlebags on the floor near the table covered in files that Swirling had been sifting through.

He stopped as his gaze fell on the files. Without a doubt, he knew that they were out of place. He glared around the room, as if he knew somepony was there with him. After looking around the room for a long moment, he sighed and picked up the out of place folders. The metallic shelf clicked as he closed the drawer, and he took a seat at his desk with a weary sigh. He reached into his desk and produced a flask and took a hearty swig. “Ahh, another day, another ten bits earned.” He then scowled to himself. “Well, one bit after rent.”

Swirling peered around the edge of the couch to stare at the pony. His back was to her, and he had his back hooves resting on his desk as he took another drink from the flask.

She wrinkled her nose as the smell of strong booze reached her. ‘Ugh… How can he drink that stuff?’

‘For the same reason you work at that grease hole; because he can,’ she heard Nevermore snark at her. ‘He’s not paying attention. Now might be your best chance to get some useful information out of him.’

She nodded silently and crept from her hiding place, taking it slow so as to not draw attention or make any sound. She paused halfway as he leaned forward on his desk to start writing on a piece of parchment. Convinced that her cover wasn’t blown, she crept forward again. Just as she was to grab him from behind, her ears flickered at a clicking sound. A nearby shelf shot open, and a wire net launched out and snagged her in its grasp. The force of the net pinned her against the opposing wall, and she felt the wires of the net press painfully into her skin.

The stallion turned to regard her smugly, removing his hoof from a concealed button on his desk. “Pressurized net launcher. Useful for ponies who like to sneak up on me,” he said as he stood. “So who’s the pony who thinks they were going to get the drop on old Tricky, I wonder?” He turned on a nearby lamp to regard her.

Swirling struggled under the iron press of the net, but found that it held her so tightly that she could barely move her head.

‘All right, even I didn’t see that one coming,’ Nevermore quipped, his tone showing a faintly grudging respect.

‘Get me out of this net!’ she screamed at him in her mind.

‘Not yet, let’s see how this plays out. Go along with the captive routine for now.’

The stallion, Tricky she guessed, looked at his captive with some surprise. “Well, if it isn’t the Raven the papers have been going on about lately. Didn’t think I’d be getting a visit from you in a while yet.” He walked over and placed a hoof on her face, giving it a firm tug.

At her hiss of pain from pulling her fur, he stepped back with a pensive look. “Huh, so it’s not a mask and suit. Interesting.”

“So you’re Tricky then?” she asked, still grunting from being held.

His eyes lighted in wonder. “A mishmash of two or more voices? Amazing. How’s that done? Some sort of spell? I wonder whose voices they belong to?”

Swirling looked at him as if he was mad. “Did you not hear me?”

“Oh, I heard you. I’m just ignoring you. Mostly” The way he looked her over reminded her of when she would visit an art exhibit and she found one amazing piece among less impressive works. “The way the shadows seem to swirl over your body, the way your wings and mane seem to drift off at their ends. Truly a work of art. I’ll have to make notes about this in your file.”

‘He knows perfect work when he sees it.’

‘NEVERMORE!’

He remained unmoving to her demand. ‘Not yet, ask him about Mafioso, and do try to be sly about it.’

There wasn’t anything sly about her thoughts about the spirit at the moment, but she turned her gaze to the the stallion.

“Word on the street is that you’re the pony who seems to know a little bit about everypony.”

A sly smirk crossed his face. “Maybe not everypony, but I do tend to gather little tidbits here and there.” He looked towards his desk for a second. “Did you know that Princess Twilight has obsessive compulsive disorder? Apparently it drives her insane when her things aren’t in the order she wants them. I even heard it’s caused a ruckus in many places.”

“Uh-huh,” Swirling deadpanned. “Tell me about Mafioso.”

The sly grin faded to a serious expression at her demand. “Who now?”

Her eyes narrowed at him. “Don’t play dumb with me, buddy. I know you work for him, and I want to know where he is.”

His own eyes narrowed. “Little lady—if that’s what you are—you’re not exactly in a position to demand anything out of me. Besides, even if I did know anything about this Mafioso guy, such information doesn’t come cheap. If you want anything out of me, you’re going to have to pay for it.”

‘Now?’ she asked Nevermore.

‘Close, but not yet,’

She growled. “What’ll it take?”

Tricky’s eyes widened and his greedy grin grew just as wide. “Oh, there are a few things I could use. Mostly information on you, but there is something that I could use even more!” He turned to dig into the files on his desk.

‘Now!’

“Finally!” She retreated into the shadows, and before he could whirl on her shout, she had him pinned against the wall. He struggled under her grasp and kicked at her, but her shadow form absorbed any of his ill powered blows.

“Damn it all! How did you do that?” He demanded as he realized she had him. “That net was made to hold even a minotaur.”

“You don’t know anything about me.” She held him higher. “Now tell me about Mafioso.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, little lady. There’s no reason to get violent here. We can talk this out like reasonable ponies. Or whatever you are. Let me down, and I’ll get you his file.”

‘Don’t trust him.’

‘You don’t say!’

She slammed him against the wall. “Not happening.”

He smiled slyly, his eyes showing some respect. “Clever mare. Fine, I’ll tell you what I know, and in return—”

She bounced him again. “You’re in no position to ask anything.”

“Actually, I am,” he shot right back. “I’ve got ears and eyes all over the city. There’s very little that happens here that I don’t end up knowing about. Why do you think I take precautions to counter anypony who would want to hurt me? It’s because of what I know.” He held his forelegs out wide. “The smarter ones know that I’m too valuable to hurt, but there are always the stupid ones, and if there’s anypony that I hate, it’s a stupid pony.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “So what does this have to do with me?”

“You’re a hero, right? Not a murderer like the papers say you are.”

She couldn’t help but wince at his remark.

“But I can be of the same service to you as I am for the Reds, the mafia, and every other major crime lord - and a few newspapers - in this city. I supply information to you, and you keep the idiots off my back and out of my business.” His eyes seemed to gleam in the light of the room. “That’s the best offer you’ll get out of me.”

She narrowed her eyes at of him. “How do I know I can trust you?”

With a shrug, Tricky answered, “What could I possibly have to lose from a deal like this? You get all the tips you want, and I get a bodyguard. Win-win.”

Before she could seriously dwell on his offer, they both turned to see the door open, and who else should enter but Brawn and Knives? “Tricky! The boss—”

All four stopped in shock, staring at each other.

“Well, this is awkward,” Tricky said before kicking at the Raven’s gut, winding her into letting him go. Quietly enough so that only she could hear him, he said, “Stay down until I say so.”

Just as Swirling was about respond, Brawn bellowed, “What in the hell is going on here!? What’s that freak doing here!?”

Tricky offered a shrug. “She snuck up on me. Caught me off guard and overpowered me. I’m lucky you boys came along when you did. I think she was just about to kill me.” Knives glowered at the earth pony, who was one of the few ponies who wouldn’t immediately shrink under the unicorn’s appraising stare.

Brawn looked between Tricky and the Raven, the latter of whom was still lying on the floor, holding her stomach like she was about to hurl. He glared at the shadowy mare before facing Tricky again. “Yeah. Lucky. Especially for us.”

The earth pony raised an eyebrow as Brawn made his way over to the prone mare. “Why’s that?”

“The boss wants to have a chat with her. He’s got a proposition that she can’t refuse.” He turned, facing Knives. “Come on and pick her up. Today’s a good day for us.”

Tricky nodded in agreement. “Could be.” He looked over at the Raven. “You can get up now.”

Before either Brawn or Knives could react, the Raven, vanished into the shadows. This was only for a split-second, however, as she came flying out at Brawn, landing a hoof right into his jaw and knocking him back several feet. Knives, in a moment of instinct, threw the file-covered table at the shadowy pegasus, hitting her hard enough to daze her and summon one of his blades with a quick spell.

“It’s payback time, freak,” he hissed. “I don’t care what the boss says! I cutting you to bits!” He lunged forward, his blade leading.

“Yeah, you’re still crazy,” she said, dodging to the side and ducking as he continued with a slash. “Though that black eye actually makes you somewhat bearable to look at.”

He snarled and slashed out. “Joke while you can. I’ll cut that voice box right out of you.”

She hopped back and felt her rump hit the wall behind her. She looked away for a split second; that was all the opening he needed to stab at her.

“Got you!” He leaped forward, his knife ready to plunge into her skull.

Thinking fast, she grabbed a thick book from the ground and held it above her head. The knife tore through the volume, pricking the end of her nose, but thankfully going no further. She wasted no time in tossing the book in Knives’ face. He swore and accepted the hit off this neck, but when he turned back, he saw her bring back her foreleg.

His eyes barely had time to widen before she slugged him across the room. He crashed into another file cabinet and fell with a grunt. He picked himself up and noticed the heavy cabinet falling towards him.

“No, no, NO!” It landed with a heavy thud and the unicorn groaned in pain under mess of papers, shelves and other things.

Tricky sighed at the mess. “This is going to take forever to clean…”

Swirling smirked when she saw Knives buried under the cabinet, but turned as she heard an enraged road approach. Brawn brought his foreleg in a punch and, before she could begin to stop it, he slammed her. The sheer force of his punch sent her flying through the nearby window.

The glass shards of the window fell beside her as she plummeted towards the street. She bounced off the wall of the building right next door before landing with a painful thud.

She grabbed at her face, the stinging pain bringing tears to her eyes.

‘Sweet Celestia, he hits hard!’

‘Guess that’s why he’s called Brawn,’ Nevermore quipped.

‘I thought the Raven form was supposed to protect me?’ She got back to her hooves and looked back up at the broken window.

‘It did… mostly. Remember what I said. It has its limits, so—Watch out!’

She snapped her gaze up and flapped her wings to dodge Brawn as he stomped into the pavement she had vacated just barely a split second earlier. The concrete cracked and split from the force of his stomp. He glowered at her with a vicious snarl. Clearly, he was just a little miffed.

“I’ll break your spine, you little nag!”

The Raven face-hoofed. “Okay, seriously, what is with you guys and calling me a nag?” she asked. “Do you have any idea how rude that is? Did your mothers just never teach you to respect mares?”

Brawn hollered in rage and charged at her, tackling her into the street where a number of pedestrians panicked and ran off, a few standing back to watch the brawl as the two pegasi rolled across the road. Swirling managed to kick Brawn off of her, launching him into the large window of a china shop. The resulting crash of ceramic plates and other things was drowned out only by Brawn’s swearing.

‘Well, there goes a couple hundred bits’ worth of fancy plates,’ Nevermore said as Brawn climbed back out of the store, where the owner was struggling to save what was left of his merchandise. The muscle-bound pegasus snarled spitefully and again charged at the Raven, his eyes burning with fury.

Having learned her lesson, Swirling ducked under Brawn’s charge, sinking into the shadows as he pulled himself to a dead stop. He looked around with a savage glare, trying to find any clue as to where she might’ve-

“Sleep tight!” Before he could react, she reappeared next to him, ramming her hoof into the side of his face and knocking out and away into a dumpster, denting the metal of the large receptacle. He groaned in pain once before finally blacking out and slumping into unconsciousness.

Shaking her hoof, Swirling eyed the burly stallion for a moment. “I think I cracked my hoof on his jaw.”

‘Quit complaining. We still need to talk to Tricky.’

She nodded and flapped her wings, heading back to Tricky’s apartment, where the stallion was grumbling to himself as he cleaned up the mess of papers and files in his small living room. Swirling climbed back through the window, landing quietly and deciding to let the guy vent his frustration.

“Sure, guys, have a brawl in my house,” he muttered to himself. “Oh, don’t worry about all these incredibly important files and whatnot. I’ll clean them up no problem. Not like I’ve got anything better to do. ‘Gee, thanks, Tricky!’ Idiots.”

“You done?” Swirling deadpanned.

Tricky glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, his expression somewhere between annoyed and accepting. He sighed through his nose as he gathered up a few files, which he placed on the table that Knives had thrown at her. From the look of things, it’d be a while before Tricky got everything back in order.

“Well, this could be worse,” the yellow stallion said with surprising calm. “Doesn’t look like I’ve lost anything important. Sorry about the sucker punch, by the way. Had to be convincing.”

“Sure. Just give a girl some warning next time.” Swirling Line looked around at the files scattered across the floor. “You know, with all this info, you could probably get every major criminal in the city locked up for a long time. Why haven’t you?” To her surprise, Tricky laughed, shaking his head in amusement like she’d just cracked a half-decent quip. “What’s so funny?”

“You really are naive, aren’t you?” he asked with a smirk.

‘He’s right, you know.’

‘Shut up.’

Tricky tapped his hoof on the table. “Do you have any idea what kind of people - pony, griffin, minotaur, what have you - I work with? If I just threw out information about their business to the cops, they’d have me whacked. Or worse. I make a living on keeping secrets—and selling the right ones to the right ponies—not throwing them around like an idiot.” He returned to organizing his files. “Besides, talking to the cops would be counterproductive.”

Swirling’s ears perked up at that. “What do you mean?”

“Mafioso’s got half the police force in his pocket,” Tricky explained. “And the cops aren’t the only ones. He’s got some firefighters, a ton lawyers, and even a few doctors on his payroll.” Seeing the Raven’s question before she asked it, he answered, “Maybe a firefighter misses some poor schmuck in a burning building, and that schmuck just happened to have crossed a certain head of a criminal empire. Or maybe one of that criminal mastermind’s enemies is sick and needs a special surgery. Everyone’s got a price, even the folks we think are supposed to help and protect us.”

She lowered her gaze for a second before she snapped her eyes back up at the earth pony. “I don’t believe that.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “It doesn’t matter what you believe. It’s the truth of it. Not everyone’s capable of playing the hero, hero. Better remember that.”

‘Once again, he’s right.’

She tuned out Nevermore as she spoke again. “Where can I find Mafioso?”

Tricky frowned again. “What are you gonna do? Turn him over to the police?” He shook his head. “That wouldn’t accomplish anything. He’d be back out on the streets in nothing flat. So what are you gonna do? Kill him?”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head to where her ethereal mane flickered like a fire. “No. I’m gonna make sure he doesn’t hurt anypony else—without killing him.”

A sly smile crossed Tricky’s face. “Well, that’d be interesting to see.” He gave a grand shrug. “It’s beside the point, however. Mafioso doesn’t share his location with me. And I’m willing to bet some fair coin that he has more than one hideout.” He rubbed at his chin suddenly. “Buuuut…”

“But what?” she pressed, taking an involuntary step forward.

“One of my runners knows where to deliver messages to him. He usually stays a few blocks away, so ask him. His name’s Rat. He’ll point you in the right direction. Make sure you use the phrase ‘it’s a tricky sort of business’ when you talk to him. Otherwise he’ll think you’re a mole and… well…” He looked her over a moment. “I really don’t want to have to hire another runner.”

She settled back and nodded after a moment. “Thank you. You won’t have to worry about Mafioso when I’m done.” She ran to the window but paused, glancing back at him. “You might want to get someone to take out the trash, before it starts to stink.” She nodded towards the unconscious form of Knives before leaping out the window.

Tricky walked to the window, but quickly lost sight of the shadowy mare, privately admitting her camouflage worked flawlessly at night.

With a smirk, he walked towards Knives and lifted the file cabinet off of the prone unicorn. “Wake up already. You’ve snoozed long enough.” He prodded Knives with a hoof.

Knives groaned, but didn’t wake.

“Oh, for the love of…” Tricky retrieved a glass of water and splashed it over the unicorn.

Knives awoke with a sputter, wiping at his face. “What in Tartarus!? Where did that freak get to!?”

Tricky smirked. “She beat you and Brawn to a pulp when you weren’t paying attention, and left.”

Knives growled and picked himself up, using his magic to return his knife to its sheath. “Where’s she going?”

“After your boss.”

Knives whirled on him in rage. “You told her where to find him? You idiot! He’ll carve your—”

Tricky held up a hoof in annoyance at the unicorn. “Please, I didn’t tell her where to find him. I’m not an idiot. I sent her after one of my spies. He’ll lead her on a roundabout goose chase before she finds her way there.”

“So you did tell her!” he accused.

Tricky remained unperturbed at the irate unicorn. “She was going to find him anyway. I just gave you and your boss time to prepare for her arrival. Gives you both a chance to settle the score in a fight of your own choosing.” He smirked. “If anything, you should be thanking me.”

Knives pushed him away, heading for the door. “I’ll thank you by cutting your throat out.”

Tricky snorted at the empty threat. “One piece of advice, though.”

The unicorn glanced back at him.

“I noticed when I turned a light on, she flinched. I’m going to say our little shadow mare isn’t too comfortable around bright light. I’m sure that free little tidbit might be useful.”

Knives grinned wickedly. “I’ll make sure the boss knows. He might let you live for it.”

Tricky snorted again as the door slammed shut.

“Idiot.”

-o-

If the Hole was a pit, then place that this “Rat” guy called home was a virtual warzone. From the shadows, the Raven saw the seediest, shadiest, burliest, meanest, most volatile ponies she’d ever seen in her life. Nearly all of the stallions looked like they’d done more than their fair share of hard time, and most of the mares looked used, abused, or both. Was the entire downtown area just Tartarus on Equus?

Deciding that she’d be safer as the Raven rather than Swirling Line, she watched from the cover of the shade, her eyes scanning the ground ahead for anything suspicious. Not the easiest thing in the world, considering just about everything here looked suspicious.

‘So… where do you plan on searching first?’

She should’ve seen the question coming, because, in all honesty, she had no idea where she was going to start. Her hope had been that this place would be relatively welcoming compared to Tricky’s residence, which would’ve made this a little easier. She’d be able to walk up to somepony and ask for… directions.

Peering around, she soon saw a stallion scanning every mare who passed him by, a lascivious smirk on his face as he leaned nonchalantly against the wall of a building.

“I’ve got an idea.”

-o-

“What the hell is wrong with you!?” the stallion cried out in terror as he dangled helplessly from a clothesline, struggling to keep himself from falling after having been thrown up to it by some kind of living shadow.

“I just want to ask you a question,” the shadowy mare said in his unnatural double-voice as she hovered next to him. “I didn’t want to take the chance that you’d run away, hit on me, or try to kill me.”

“You’re bucking nuts!”

Solid yellow eyes narrowed at him slightly. “You should be careful how you speak to me. I don’t see any wings on your back, and being so hurtful might convince me not to help you if you fall.” The stallion stared at her with wide eyes. “Now, I’m looking for somepony. His name’s Rat. He works for a guy named Tricky. Do you know anypony like that?”

“R-Rat? Y-yeah, I know him!”

She hovered closer to him. “Where can I find him?”

-o-

Swirling Line was no fan of bars. The smells, the leers, the mess, the ponies who frequented them. It just wasn’t an environment she was too fond of. Besides that, she got more than a few less-than-savory looks daily at her job at Lou’s. She was getting pretty sick of being seen as an object.

‘You’ll learn to get over it,’ Nevermore said with his usual ambivalence.

‘Maybe if I decide to dance instead of paint,’ the pegasus replied in kind. Receiving only a grunt of acknowledgement from the shadow spirit, she peered into the bar through a window, careful to remain unseen, scouting the building to try and decide who might be Rat. There weren’t that many ponies present, so there at least wasn’t much of a crowd as there could’ve been. It didn’t help much, though.

‘Should’ve asked for a description,’ she thought with a sigh as she made her way to the entrance. The best way to find Rat right now would be to ask. With any luck, she wouldn’t cause a scene or anything. It didn’t look like this place was particularly popular for mares.

‘Really wish I could do this as the Raven,’ she thought as she reached for the door.

‘Yes, because the patrons will be so willing to talk to you as the Raven than as Swirling Line. Quit worrying already. I told you, I’ll keep an eye out for you.’

“Why does that not reassure me?” she muttered aloud as she pushed the door open. She had to choke back a gag as the smell of heavy alcohol and tobacco assaulted her nostrils worse than anything out of Lou’s Diner. She coughed once but held her head up as she entered the smoky bar.

Almost as one, the patrons looked to see who had dared to enter their sanctum, and almost as one they dismissed her, going back to their drinks or hushed conversations. The barkeep idly wiped at a few stained glasses as Swirling took a seat at the bar.

“What’s your poison, doll?” he asked.

Aside from bristling at the pet name, she could have sworn the barkeep sounded like he hadn’t breathed any air other than that of the bar for years, as raspy as his voice was.

She knew she had to sound tough, or else things could go south on her real quick. “I’ll take the strongest you got.”

The barkeep leveled his eyes at her. “Doll, you don’t even look old enough to be in here, let alone able to handle a light brew.”

“Hey, I’m twenty-two, thank you very much.” The bartender gave her a skeptical look, and she heaved a sigh of defeat. “I’ll take an apple cider.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “A cider? Right.” He turned away and began filling her a mug from a nearby keg.

‘This is starting out swimmingly,’ Nevermore quipped.

‘Can you not be sarcastic for once?’

‘When you stop making it so easy.’

She groused a thanks to the barkeep as he slid the mug to her and went to fill a mug for another patron. She took a sip of the brew as she looked across the bar. The old jukebox played some old timey tune her dad would to listen too all the time when she was younger, and a low smog of smoke hung around the entire bar, nearly choking her. She looked over the few patrons before her eyes settled on one patron - and earth pony stallion - who sat alone in the corner of the bar. He appeared scrawny to the point of malnourishment. His eyes seemed to be constantly darting around, and he didn’t appear to be able to hold still as much as he was twitching in his seat.

‘Think that’s him?’ she asked.

‘Why ask me? All ponies look the same to me.’

Ignoring the implausibility of Nevermore’s statement, she turned to the barkeep as he walked past her again. “Can I ask you something?”

He turned his flat gaze to her and shrugged.

“Does somepony named Rat come here often?”

“Rat?” the bartender said as he rubbed his chin, looking around for a moment. “Yeah, he comes here every other day.” He pointed to the scrawny stallion Swirling had noticed. “That’s him right over there.”

With a nod, Swirling thanked the barkeep, paid for her drink, and made her way over to Rat’s table. As she drew closer, his attention fell on her, suspicion evident all over his face as she approached, but he didn’t stop her from taking a seat across from him.

This close, she now noticed how matted his chocolate brown fur was, and how tangled and unkempt his black, rat’s nest of a mane looked.

‘Huh. Rat’s nest. Fitting.’ She could hear Nevermore groaning at her observation, but ignored it.

“Are you Rat?” she asked. The skinny stallion flinched slightly.

“Er… yeah. What’s it to you?” It was painfully obvious that he was trying to act tough.

Leaning forward with her forelegs crossed on the table, Swirling whispered, “I need some information on Mafioso.”

Rat stared at her with wide eyes. He briefly looked around to make sure nopony had heard the mare, and leaned forward. “Why would you want to know anything about him?”

“Let’s just say I owe him and leave it at that.”

The scrawny stallion scoffed. “You and half of Manehattan. Look, I can’t just around passing out info about guys like Mafioso. He’d have me gutted if I said anything to anyone.”

“Well…” Swirling took a breath. “It’s a tricky sort of business, isn’t it?”

He blinked at her in shock before shaking his head in disbelief. Once more, he looked around, making sure no one had overheard. He groaned quietly, mumbling a curse to himself. “All right, fine. What do you wanna know?”

“I just need to know where he lives. Tricky said you’d be able to lead me in the right direction.”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure.” The longer this carried on, the more nervous Rat seemed to get. “Mafioso’s got a penthouse suite in some pricey hotel in uptown. Real fancy. The kinda place you could afford if you’ve got money to burn.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “There are a lot of fancy hotels uptown. Which one is it?”

He began rubbing his hooves together nervously, his eyes darting around. “Look, I ain’t a squealer. Working for Tricky won’t keep my head on my shoulders if I talk too much. You wanna know, you go look yourself.”

She whispered lower. “No one has to know. Just tell me, and I’ll leave.”

He glared back at her and shook his head vigorously. “No.”

“Oh, come on.” She leaned in closer and dropped her voice to a husky tone. “You can tell me.”

If Rat was nervous before, the way he twitched around at her tone could almost be called a seizure. “F-Fine. Check out the Golden Brace. He owns the biggest penthouse there.”

She gave him a sly smile. “Thank you. That wasn’t too bad, now was it?”

His body shook with a violent shiver. “J-Just get out of here. I don’t wanna see you anymore, you got it?”

She pushed away from the table and quickly left. She let out her breath in an explosive burst before she shook with resolution.

“I don’t want to ever do that again…” she muttered under her breath and started down the road.

‘I will admit, that was clever of you.’ Nevermore said. She could practically feel the spirit’s amusement.

‘What’s so funny, Nevermore?’

‘Using your feminine wiles on that poor sod. The way he was shaking, I thought for sure that you broke him. I didn’t think you had it in you.’

A blush erupted across her face. ‘I would never do that.’

‘Do what? Break him, or seduce him?’

‘I hate you so much right now.’ She made out the sound of the spirit chuckling at her expense. She grumbled to herself as she trotted into an inconspicuous alley and changed back into the Raven, sinking into the shadows for rapid travel back to her apartment. ‘We’ll head up to Mafioso’s penthouse tomorrow night. Don’t want to risk pushing the time limit you’re so fanatical about.’

‘Normally, I’d say we should go and finish this now,’ the shadow spirit said, ‘but for once, I agree with you. We shouldn’t push our luck.’

‘But…?’ She already knew for a fact that Nevermore would say something pessimistic.

‘This is going to give them time to get ready for us. We’ll need to be more careful.’

She returned to her apartment, climbing in through the window (she was still getting used to that), and reverting back into Swirling Line. “More careful, huh?” She looked out the window again as the sky began to lighten to the east. She watched as the city streets already began to fill with ponies as the day began.

A light bulb clicked in her head.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about them,” she said confidently. “I’ve got an idea they’ll never see coming.”

If Nevermore had a physical head, he would’ve been shaking it in his skepticism now. She then explained her plan to him, and he went from skeptical to disbelieving. ‘You are completely insane,’ he said as she finished.

“Like a fox,” Swirling quipped. She took Nevermore’s groan of irritation as proof of her point. She’d have to be even more careful for her plan to work, but if it did, she’d be able to take Mafioso down. She’d just have to get some really good sunscreen first.