The Man of The Shadows 2

The sky scrapers of Manehattan stood high and proud. Made of glass, steel and concrete, they looked down at the ground like a Queen to a puny little subject. Up there you could see everything in the city! Like the corporations owned by the rich and powerful. Or the small shops where the ordinary ponies buy groceries, or other things. Maybe even The Shavlinkins Bank. A bank created by the Shavlinkin crime family, the family that have several territories around Equestria.

A window of the lower part of the Chrysler building shattered. Two thugs with masks were armed with a harpoon gun as they aimed at the dusty topaz of the previously mentioned Shavlinkin bank. Firing at a tremendous speed, it fired into the concrete easily. They ziplined to the roof, their hooves skidding on the floor as they landed.

Another thug on the ground watched those events unfold. A truck with other thugs came by as he stood their. He got in the back and they drove to the bank. “Gotta love the boss’s planning. Still, if he really thinks he can sit out and take a slice of the prize, I say we fill ‘em with lead!” The passenger said as he loaded his gun.

“We got a job to do. Do it and we’re getting outa there!”

“The hell is the boss’s name anyway?” The thug on the roof asked as he tampered with the junction box.

“Calls him self Orion Blacklite. Some call ‘em the elite. You know, ‘cause of his elaborate plans.”

The car stopped as they got out. They kicked the bank doors open and shot at the ground. “EVERYONE DOWN ON THE GROUND!” The other 2 of the thugs ran down stairs to the vault. A pony in an office searched his cabinets frantically.

“Set the bombs.”

“Move your ass. The other guys are blowing down the whole vault doors.”

“Right. Here comes the silent alarm. Goodbye!”

“Hey, someone else is going silent too.”

“Wait. Oh God-“

The other thug shot the hacker. He ran down the stairs to the vault. The others were waiting until they blew up the door. “Three, two, one. Blow it to hell!” The thug at the front detonated the bomb. It sent him flying into the wall, snapping his neck in the process. “Get in! Carry as much as you can.” They charged inside and grabbed all of the bits they could carry. One of them went to the desks and found a data drive. He put it in his pocket.

They ran back up stairs. “We got the cash. Let’s get ou-“ He fell face down as a shotgun fired at him. The rest of the thugs ran as the one with the drive hid behind a desk. One of them met with him at the desk and ducked.
The pony with the shot gun was Carmine Shavlinkin. The heir to the Shavlinkin crime family.

“He outa bullets?”

The other one nodded.

He stood up and attempted to shoot him but he was shot in the hind leg. The other lied. He had one bullet left. The last one standing shot Carmine twice as he fell to the ground.

“Where’d you learn to count?!” The one who was shot stood up, trembling. “Oh. I get it.” He pointed his gun at him. “The boss told ya to kill me too!? Well it ain’t happening.”

“Nope. But I did kill the Ice Cream man.”

“What Ice Cream..?” He stopped as he heard the familiar song of an Ice Cream Truck. It rammed through the wall and headed straight to him. “Oh shi-“ He was crushed by the truck. Another thug walked out and put the bags into the truck. Once he was done, the one with the drive shot him in the head. He walked into the truck.

“Do you have any idea who your stealing from? Shavlinkins you son of a bitch!” Carmine said lying on the floor. The one with the drive walked back over to him. “The crime families have rules. What do you have? Huh?”

“All your crap about rules. You throw it away as soon as it’s inconvenient.” He took off his mask. “Hi. I’m Orion Blacklite.”

“You’ve got a gang war coming.”

“Not if you’re gang is already destroyed. Want some Vanilla?” He pushed a tub of Ice Cream at Carmine.

“You think you can steal from me, and get away with it?”

“Yeah.” Orion walked to the van and drank something from a vial. It turned him, into a human. Like in Trottingham. “Oh. I thought Vanilla would be too bland, so I decided to ‘spice’ things up. You could say it’s now ‘bomb’. Heheehe! Bye!” He drove off.

Carmine looked in the Ice Cream. It had a bomb inside.“You sonuva-“ The room was now veiled in flames, and Carmine was long gone.

The carriage bumped on the rocky ground, making it hard for Cyrus to think at all. He had so many questions. Such as..

What did The Pony of Shadows do to cause rage from these people? I mean ponies.
Was that Twilight Sparkle and her other friends? If so, are there counterparts of others from his world coexisting in this one? Do I have a pony version of myself?
What can I do to get free and go home? Cry? Beg? Fight? Or maybe give some of the chocolate in my pocket.
And why, the f*ck is Principal Celestia the princess of the entire world?

So many questions. But for those to be put to rest for, God knows how long because he has been sent to a ominously named ‘Tartarus’.

“We could of easily destroyed them.” The Pony of Shadows said.

“Yeah. That would definitely help our already tattered image. What the hell did you do to gain such a clean record over here?”

“I almost killed everyone in the entire world.”

“Wow. Very nice.”

Cyrus reached into his deep pocket and reached for the chocolate he stashed in there. It said it was, ‘Best before 19th October, 2018’. Hey, it says Best before the date on the wrapper so he can still eat it. Their words not mine. He wripped it open and took a bite of it. He hadn’t eaten in a while so he was glad to have some energy. He glanced at the guard separated by a single wall and a small window so the guard could keep an eye on him. To pass the time, he decided to engage in, friendly conversation.

“Hi! I’m Cyrus. I’m a high school student and apparently a war tyrant. What about you?”

“Quiet.” He said without hesitation.

He was about to say: ‘Wow. Thanks for the hospitality.’ but he bit his tongue to stop him. He already was coming off as a dick head (you know, with the whole ‘DESTROY EQUESTRIA!’ thing), so he decided not to over do it.

A scraping came from the wheels. At first he thought nothing of it until...
The carriage seemed to come to a staggering halt with no explanation, sending Cyrus forward and dropping the chocolate in the process.

“Goddamnit I was enjoying that!” He thought.

The guards moving the carriage to Tartarus detached the ropes on their backs to see what was going on. A hooded pony trotted over to them. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to take your prisoner with me, please.”

“Ha! And who the hell are you?” The guards asked.

The pony took their hood of to reveal a lavender and azure mane, with her fur being a coral pink. She had blue eyes and was a unicorn. “He hasn’t committed any crimes against Equestria, and I pretty sure if he wanted us dead this carriage would be impaled on wooden stakes. Now, please.”

They threw Cyrus out of the carriage and walked him over to the other carriage and closed the door behind him. The mare sat in front of him. The carriage sped up and went back to Ponyville.

“Who are you?” Cyrus asked.

“Starlight. Starlight Glimmer. Pleased to meet you.” She replied.

“So. Why did you go through the effort to get me out of this?”

“Well, I guess I was almost sick of our stupid justice system. Everypony just gets just banished. And, judging from how nice the only other pony was when he wasn’t bonded to The Shadows, I think you might be a good guy.”

“Starlight... Glimmer.” The Pony of Shadows huffed.

“Hey! This.. mare.. thankfully got us out of prison, so leave her alone.”

“She’s the reason why I ended up in Limbo.”

“Isn’t that a kinda good thing?”

“In a way.” The Pony of Shadows

“Sorry Ms Glimmer.”

“Starlight is fine.” She grinned at him.

“Hey, this a weird question. Do you have technology here? Like, computers, TVs, stuff like that. Just wondering.”

“Uh. Yeah! We have been going through a little, ‘Digital Revolution’ here in the past few years. Magic is still important, just less so.”

“Right.” Cyrus replied.

“How did you get to Equestria?”

“Oh. Um, so I was on a trip to Stonehenge..”

“Don’t you mean Ponehenge?”

“Pony puns. Okay. So I was on a trip to Ponehenge.”

“That’s more like it.”

“And there was this Tower of stones, I decided to take a look. Somehow I blacked out and now I’m here.”

“Well, while your here maybe you could look around Ponyville?”

“At night. I don’t wanna cause another one of today’s fiascos.”

Cyrus walked through the streets underneath the glare of the moonlight, Starlight trotting not far behind, giving him a generally good idea as to what Ponyville looks like.

“Thanks for doing this.” Cyrus told her.

“No problem.” She replied happily, a smile beaming on her face. “It’s my pleasure.”

Ping.

“What the hell is that?” Cyrus whispered to her.

“I don’t know. Everypony should be asleep by now.”

Ping.

“It’s coming from there.” He pointed over to a billboard on top of a topaz stoned building. “We’re gonna go check it out.”

“Great, let’s go.”

“No no no. You misunderstood me. I meant me and the Shadows are gonna go, and you’re gonna stay here.”

“What?! Why?”

“Cos’ I don’t need blood on my hands. In your case, hooves. Adios.”

He sprinted over a bridge, propelling himself up the building’s balconies and sprung across them. For short intervals, he ran across the wall and finally, arrived at the top.

On the floor of the roof, bullet casings were scattered across. “That explains the goddamn pinging. A snipers been here.”

“Stand down.” A voice from behind demanded. A click of his gun was all Cyrus needed to find out he was screwed.

“You don’t wanna do this.” Cyrus replied.

“Duck!” The Pony of Shadows yelled!

Ping.