Rogue Hunt: Gems and Beauties

Was this Tartarus? Scarlet's geography wasn’t on point. If she were a betting mare, she’d contemplate tossing down some bits. When her and the dragon went on a questioning excursion through the District of Gems, she knew it’d be pretty bad. Posh luxury hiding insubstantial essence, winding polite talk all spiraling into nowhere, nauseating perfumes and a permanent mental residence far, far away from reality. The unicorn was a detective, damn it, she knew her surroundings.

Well, fuck, this was worse than she thought. The mare stood outside the dining chamber of some noble’s summer residence, having excused herself for hygienic purposes. This was her excuse, anyway. In reality, Jade had jabbed her flank with her tail: that signal meant Scarlet should remove herself. Good grief was she happy to get an excuse to do so.

Here in the District of Gems, ties to criminal groups from lower Districts were expected. No one was clean. Compiling a short list of persons of interest wasn’t terribly difficult. Ties to poachers, spouts with the client’s estate, tells of Rogue collusion – Jade even made herself useful and narrowed the list further down through some cursory canvassing. The dragon, of course, immediately overstepped her required usefulness and started spitting void advice on how to tackle the local oligarchy. Scarlet made sure her disregard for the advice was made clear – interrogation was her thing. Jade was there to help her navigate, but not do her job.

Yeah, well, it’s hard to do your job when you’re spinning in circles, chasing shadows, trying to latch on anything remotely resembling a coherent sentence. No one in here spoke Equestrian, damn it. The words were the same, but hardly so the meaning. Even her sharp mind and keen sense of bullshit availed her none. The mare couldn’t track down the hidden meaning of yet another evasive answer when it was buried beneath minute long expositions on the host’s most recent luxurious purchase, multiple layers of polite talk and pleasantries, obligatory inquiries as to Scarlet’s own occupation and vain offers of investigative assistance, all wrapped around numerous pillars of intermittent lies and contradictions about every last little thing.

There was no hidden meaning to track! There was no web of intrigue spun to keep her away from some menacing truth. This was a swamp, filled with odorous gas, sludgy pitfalls and deceitful will-o-wisps mindlessly lounging at the very edge of the mare’s line of sight, teasing her with the mirage that was the idea that these trips would amount to literally fucking anything! The detective didn’t feel like herself in all this muck. She couldn’t believe she missed the seediness of Stars. At least there you could get the right info with blackmail and a couple bruised snouts. She’d bruise her own right now if it made this dissociative feeling fade away…

Scarlet finished the fifth smokestick of this afternoon. This wasn’t a waste of time, she had to tell herself. Here in the District of Gems, they had a real shot of finding a sponsor, a motivator, or, hell, an unwilling, witless pawn of the Petrifier. You didn’t bull-rush a Rogue if you had an inkling as to their HQ and motive. You spread out into their support network, cut them off one by one, and struck at the heart. And if the past few visits they’d made told her anything, it was that unwilling, witless pawns were abundant in this clique. That’s what lost the mare her cool.

No straight questions, no blunt words, no straight-to-business. There was always only ever a few opportunities to catch them off guard, and the swamp was a little too thick for her. Scarlet recoiled from merely being here, from wearing this dumb getup Jade picked out for her. If she were to actually follow the dragon’s advice and pretend she liked being here, she’d probably keel over and die. Nevertheless, this was tough. The mare gritted her teeth, watching the tight charcoal pants and formal red suit she’d been fitted with. She loosened and removed her tie, hanging the string of irritating fabric over the back of her neck. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. Definitely not the victory she sacrificed herself to this chafing, ridiculous clown suit for.

And victory was so clearly in view, too. Her instincts were flaring. She’d kept her cool over the past few meetings well enough, painfully bored, but collected. In this place, though… something was unnerving. Uncanny. Fishy. It helped that most of the interior décor had an obnoxiously persistent aquatic theme, azures, teals and cyans assaulting the mare’s red eyes from every angle. She stood out like a sore thumb, and frankly, she felt like one. Regardless, this rich family – sauna magnates, from what she’d been able to understand in their endless drivel – just had this itchy feeling about them. These were the ones she had to dig at.

But how? If only they’d come first, her mental faculties would be intact. As it was, her head spun and her stomach was doing backflips. Much though she hated to admit it, her hope lay with Jade, who’d stayed behind to keep the pointless conversation going. Maybe here, in this palace of swampy smoke and watery mirrors, she felt in her element. And maybe she would; after all, Scarlet finally divulged on the clue leading to the District of Beauties before they headed out. It was a bone thrown to the dragoness, disguised as a token of competency and trust. Hopefully it invigorated her for dealing with this crap. This wasn’t her job, but she could be useful…

“Ergh, fuck it. Go, talk to ‘em… see if I care.” Scarlet snorted. She squashed the smokestick against the wall and stretched her shoulders. Her gut roiled at the sensation of tight, fancy fabric against her skin. She instinctively reached for her aviators before realizing they were stuck hanging out of her chest pocket. “I got paid. I can put up with this. This is big. Come on, Scarlet, think… Where does all this figure in the Petrifier’s scheme?”

Pacing around and racking her brains, Scarlet was quite glad she had a chance to exit in the first place. Though it was a little shameful. Fact was, there was no world in which the mare expected any of the shrink’s secret messages to actually be used, let alone in a helpful manner. Jade listed a great many rules of conduct, all of which Scarlet absorbed with half a mind at most. She was so sure her bluntness would crack a rotten egg right away. Yeah, not when the egg was so dumb that applying blunt force merely confused it… Sure, Jade ousted her simply to remind her who, from the presumptuous lizard’s point of view, ran the show. But the unicorn was grateful to be out of there.

To think she told the dragoness that secret signals were a myth. That was just flat out a lie. Scarlet’d seen her share of interrogations back on the Force. No good cop-bad cop routine ever truly worked if the two cops had no ways of subtly communicating intent. Frankly, they needed a system like this to really click as partners, especially in situations like this. But the mare shot it down, twisting the facts, if only slightly so. She contemplated coming clean and evening things out if Jade really came through today. No way in Tartarus – or this damn place, for that matter – was she ever leveling with this annoying foreign bitch without her coming through in a big way.

After a surprisingly short while of contemplating this house’s role in the whole scheme and ruminating on her and Jade’s partnership, Scarlet heard the lounging hall doors creak open. Turning back, the first thing she saw was the toothy grin splitting Jade’s snout clean in half – well out of the hostess’ view.

Scarlet felt a guilty excitement swell in her chest. She molded an uneven, fake-ass smile and clambered towards the procession in a mockery of a dignified walk. Vain pleasantries were exchanged, the dragon audibly putting her back into incentivizing the hostess and her procession to disperse – assistance Scarlet greatly appreciated.

“…and once again, kudos on your interior redesign. I’ll pass my praise to your decorator, hee-hee~ Simply magnificent, and so efficiently done,” Jade said, shaking the pony’s hand. Scarlet cleared her throat. “But it really is just about time for us to depart.”

“Yeah. You’ve, uh, proven to be an invaluable asset to our investigation. What with your, uhm, information.” The detective nodded and made herself do a round of hand-shaking as well. The hostess stared back at her, canned smile and glassy eyes furnished with eye shadow and other superfluous beautifications. Scarlet was glad her stomach didn’t groan there and then. “I’ll- we’ll… contact you via speaker if needed, as you know. You do the same for us. Thank you for your hospitality. Let’s go now, Jade.”

The overprivileged dullard nodded along and bid them farewell. Scarlet took off down the low-set corridor that would’ve lead them to the lobby, while Jade lingered to blow the dumb drone and her retinue a kiss. The detective yawned and cleared her throat, spitting out some leftover smoke, relishing the scant few moments of not inhaling whatever bath-like aroma persisted in this place.

The dragoness caught up to her and put a firm hand on the mare’s shoulder. She uttered a quiet ‘pssst’ and not so gently dragged the mare off toward a decorative bench, into the shade of a large structure depicting spirals of water conjoining in the air. Scarlet groaned, foreseeing a lecture on her lack of patience.

“Listen Jade, I get it, I coulda done a better job slicing through this crap, I’m sorry you had to deal with them yourself, just please let’s not do this here I’m seriously starting to feel sick-“

“Shhh. Gosh, you’re so fussy. Relax… You have been a tolerably good partner. And for that, I have… oh-hoh-hoh, I have something for us.” The dragoness’ eyes darted around, moreso to convey her conspiratorial message than to check for guards. She eagerly dangled and twirled a small gemstone pendant in her fingers as she clicked her tongue, gauging the mare’s reaction. The mare's eyes shrunk, and she stuffed her hands in her pockets, trying to hide her relief at not enduring a lecture in manners. “Provided you’ve not picked up on it yourself… We’ve hit something very spicy, partner.”

The detective tilted her head, scratching her chin in confusion. She shuffled uncomfortably. Her eyelid twitched and her ears flicked. For one, she was being made to utilize her mental faculties in this torpor inducing place. For another, the intermittent swishing of Jade’s pendant was getting on her nerves. Scarlet stared off at it – her stare was more focused that way, so it seemed like she had some sort of idea.

“Eeehhhhh. I don’t think I share the enthusiasm... She just spent an hour telling us about all manners of social functions and interior renovations that kept her busy and out of the loop with your master’s estate.” The unicorn shook her head, banging on her temple to clear her mind. “Fuckin’ smells like the paint still isn’t done drying…”

“Oh pshh. These are just interior aromatics, pleasantly hydratic ones. Optimal and precise for the purpose of this particular building. Really helps cancel the sulphite odors that come with unearthings on this territory.” Jade rolled her eyes. She put a hand on the detective’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. The mare just recoiled and tried not to swat the dragon away. “But you see, Starlite… ohhh, hoo hoo, I can’t believe our luck.”

“Spill it, Jade. I’m thirsty for good news. What’d I miss? Tell me, I don’t care any for my dignity anymore – if it gets us outta here.”

Jade chortled. She kept twirling that pendant around her fingers as she did so – perhaps betraying anxiety, perhaps excitement.

“Don’t be so hard on your perception, partner. This is indeed about the… renovations. I had something of an, ahem, mental breakthrough after you had to step out. You were quite frustrated with how this topic simply would not stop coming up, yet they merely danced around any details. Well, as a shrink…” The dragoness flashed a toothy smile at the mare, who groaned and gestured for her to move on. “…I could tell there was something there. I was able to ask some subtle questions… ahhh, those dummies. I do so love pulling strings.”

“Your charm is downright overflowing my cup’o’patience,” Scarlet remarked. “Any more and I’m going to hurl.”

The dragoness used the hand on Scarlet’s shoulder to turn the mare around and point her toward an inconspicuous service door adorned with a strikingly inconspicuous set of shutters.

“They have a ‘service elevator’ over there in the east wing. The old maintenance hallways now connect to it. Apparently, they had quite some trouble installing it until the District Transportation authority came around to the idea – you were around for that part of the conversation, partner dear.”

Scarlet grunted.

“That’s dumb. This place is two stories tall. It’s a freaking bathhouse. You don’t need a service elevator for any of the usual goods…” The mare scowled. “But if they ran a brothel out of this joint, wouldn’t they have a lot more security? And they don’t seem to-“

The dragoness actually stopped twirling her toy so she could clear her throat of a sharp laugh.

“Oh goodness, the things you say. No brothel here, partner. And you’re right.” Jade glanced at her and gave the mare a pat, testing the pony’s patience. “It required excavation, a commission from the Constructors Guild, and documents from District Transportation. A very unusual stretch of effort for an establishment that’s only ever serviced this area.”

“You… think the Petrifier- egh, the Rogue, uses this place as their back door?” Scarlet scratched her head. It was hard to think sharp. The dragon was making a lot of sense… “Think there’s a tube leading down through the Districts back there?”

“I’ve a hunch. Detectives trust those, don’t they?”

This sounded like a thing. Hell, Jade wasn’t even all that smug – she seemed tense, twirling that dumb thing around her fingers, hunching over, her eyes darting, her scaly skin covered in mild, subtle perspiration… Yeah, at least Scarlet still had some sharpness to her sight. Which meant she could trust her mind, too. And her mind wasn’t seeing any huge alarm bells in the shrink’s hypothesis. This WAS her job, after all – helping shovel through all the bullshit spewed by all these rich fucks.

“Huuuh.” Scarlet shook her head and flexed her shoulders. “Sounds… probable?.. I mean, shit. Idiots left us alone in the first place, didn’t escort us or anything… Must’ve been easy to dope. I’m not seeing any marks of the M.O. though-“

“Crystalline statues of various aquatic beasts, alongside Alicorn-sized half-naked equines holding up the roof in the lobby,” Jade pointed out.

“Ain’t… necessarily false… hmmm, shit.” Scarlet cracked her neck. “Well they got nothing on us. East wing, you say…”

A smirk spread across the dragoness’ long snout. She produced a quiet, hissy giggle, parting her hand from the mare’s shoulder. While the unicorn instinctively arched her back, she received a blunt, irritating poke to the snout. A smooth-scaled index finger squished her nose, its sharp nail brushing the mare’s coat. For added impact, the pendant, still attached to that hand’s fingers, smacked her right in the forehead.

“Ugh. Ow.” The detective staggered groggily. “I… uuuooofff. I get you’re excited, partner. Urgh. No need to lord it over me, damn it.”

“Oh. Hee-hee. Ahhhmmm… sorry.” Jade fluttered her eyelashes. She bowed and motioned toward the shutter. “I just thought you’d need more, ahhhh... convincing. Go on then!”

“Yeah. Stick behind me.“ Scarlet nodded to herself and started off toward the door. She creaked it open, finding no one in the following passage. “Coast is clear. I can hear machinery… fuck me, those are pneumos.”

“Gah, watch your mouth!..” Jade muttered haughtily.

“Hmmm. Yeah, if they got security anywhere, it’d be here…”

“Oh. Hmm-hmm-hmm~” Jade stifled a laugh, perhaps a nervous one. Scarlet rolled her eyes and snuck onwards. “Sure, let’s go with that…”

“Shh!”

Infiltrating places she wasn’t wanted in – now this was more her speed. The suit almost didn’t make her skin crawl. Maybe if she had her trench coat, the mare would have her trusted zap baton on hand. Even so, it didn’t seem like they’d encounter any unfriendly guards…

Especially because less than five minutes of traversing vacant corridors, the sound of pneumatic machinery only got louder, all with no sign of security. The mare silently wondered how this section could be so clear of guards. It reeked of... secrecy. Figuratively and literally – in here, away from the bath-like scents of the main establishment, the smell of turpentine and crystal dust betrayed an active, operating tube lift. How come there was no one here?

The mare arrived at a dislocated wall panel. It didn’t even take her rampant cutie mark tingles, or her extremely sharp eyes, to notice how blatant that was. She puffed her nostrils and pulled at it, swinging the deceptively light wall section into the rest of the wall and opening up the high-tech pneumotube reception chamber.

Scarlet opened her mouth, the first syllables of a hearty curse leaving her lips, as she saw a guard look up from his news tablet. The rest of that curse came out in a garbled, outraged squelch as she watched Jade slip out from behind her, somehow appear behind his seat within the blink of an eye, and grab the stallion’s neck in a tight choke hold. The guard fell limply back into the seat, drooling out the side of his mouth, as the dragon grinned from the shadows, her teeth glittering in the scant green lighting of the receptory.

The unicorn grit her teeth, her knees buckling. She tore into her hair.

“…the FUCK WAS THAT?” she wheezed, pointing with both palms at the guard, who slumped in the seat. Fortunately, his loud snoring ensured the serpent apparently knew what she was doing. “I mean… good fuckin’ choke, but what the hell?!”

“Oh come on, Starlite, dearie, I’m simply distributing some nicety. Here, let me sweep up our trail…” The dragoness slid over to the guard and groped his face with her fingers, rolling up his eye and blowing in his ears. She rubbed her hand over his forehead, pushing the pendant deep up against it. “There. He won’t remember the last few minutes before his loss of consciousness – certainly not the flashy suit I rented for you…”

“How the fuck does that-“

“Language! And please, I’m a shrink.” Jade shrugged and proceeded over to the control panel. “Besides, I know you. You’re just jealous you didn’t get to clock him out with a punch to the face. You’d do that to a poor worker just scraping by in this cruel world, I know.”

Scarlet wiped her forehead and grumbled off at the serpent, proceeding over to the tube mechanism herself. Somehow she didn’t feel like arguing as to whether the line about keeping her victim from remembering the last minutes before her assault. It seemed plausible, and besides… it may not have gone to her scenario – yes, her fists were aching for a workout – but damn if her partner wasn’t right.

Her partner and Scarlet’s own instincts, of course.

“Okay, shit, well… let me just dig up its transportations schedule…” the mare grumbled.

Her horn lit up. Sticking out her tongue in effort, the mare got her aura to change to a neutral color – a homebrew spell that would make tracing her telekinesis almost impossible. This time the color shifted from red to aqua teal. The mare scowled – it must’ve been the stupid bath scents.

“Why don’t we just… go down there? It only ever goes one way,” Jade suggested.

Scarlet stopped. “It does?” She rifled through the machine’s cardbox. Sure enough, the schedule prints inside marked only one destination… The mare nodded to herself. “Yeah. Shit, yeah.”

“Laaanguaaaage~”

“We’re on an infiltration gig, missy, we-“ Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Well, really, normally you don’t speak at all when you’re sneaking, but we’re on a roll. How about that…”

“The tube is nearly here, by the way. It looks to be empty. Maintenance back-and-forth plain-running routine. Cheap construction, needs to stay in motion to avoid chugging up.” The dragoness smiled. “I get to sit in at a lot of extravagant home accessory debates with Silver Ingot. Oh, and he uses these for his operation over in the District of Clouds.”

“Well, we ain’t going there.” Scarlet looked into the chute. “We’d be going down…”

“Yes! Oh, I just knew not to take my high heels this time!”

The pony frowned. Away from the haze of a full day of interrogating idiots, she only now noticed that unlike herself, the dragoness dressed less extravagantly. A tight-fitting dark button-up shirt topped with a blouse, a subtle choker, a couple rings on her fingers and black dragon pattern flats. Jade didn’t have much trouble maintaining stealth even in her usual cumbersome suit and heels combo, but this getup at least didn’t scream out for help anywhere near as much as the stupid suit Scarlet herself was forced into.

Like a suit was gonna stop her. She felt a particular tugging in her heart, replicated with a stinging in her flanks. She beat her knuckles and cracked her neck.

“My behind is all atingle. Now that you downed a guy…”

Jade rolled her eyes. “…generously saving him from your itchy knuckles…”

“…now that we’ve got a bodycount, we may as well. I still feel hazy and this suit is garbage for sneaking missions, but hell. It’s worked out so far!”

As she said that, the tube arrived with a ‘ding’. The two partners looked at one another and Scarlet motioned for Jade to get in first. After all, just this once, it was the serpent who got them on a breakthrough run.

The Petrifier’s lair… The mare practically drooled. This was going to be something. And even if he were watching them? Stupid Rogue. Jade could disappear seemingly at will, an apparent trait of her species, or something. Scarlet, meanwhile? All anyone could see of her was this flashy suit for pansy posers. Ain’t ever gonna be seen in that.

Scarlet was damn excited. She did feel an oddly nervous urge to chain some smokes as they descended through the City… but Jade began complaining after one, so she kept it there.

A perfect infiltration was always made of a soup of random happenstance. Probably. Could as well keep her head clear – she’d huffed enough odd smelling substances back in that stupid bathhouse. This was gonna be more her element.

“Ah, fuck this…”

“Alright, gentlecolts. I’m sure we’re having a misunderstanding here? Yes, it must be my accent. Let me repeat-”

“HUFF. HUFF.” The brutes blocking their path expulsed loud, staggered breaths, perforated and shredded by cumbersome gas masks. A string of jumbled, scratchy noises emitted from underneath the masks. One of the brutes shook his or her head, producing a string of noises from its own mask’s speaker. “#@&*? %@$@#*.”

Jade groaned and waved her hand in front of one brute.

“Excuse me, but exactly how difficult is it to let us pass?” she whined, twirling her pendant provocatively. She tilted her head, crossed her legs and fluttered her eyelashes. “Please, look at us, do we pass for… whoever it is you hunky individuals are guarding this public passageway from?”

Scarlet pulled at the dragon’s tail. Jade thrust it back, intending to continue negotiating. The mare hissed to herself, clinging to her head.

This WAS the District of Beauties, damn it. Stupid note was no bluff. A Sun-forsaken hive of scum and villainy, where every other street looked like a war zone. Jade was positively excited once they got down here. That, for a time, was a source of her own confidence too…

But three close shaves with the local wildlife, transient scavenger gangs and a near drop into toxic waste from the District of Clouds made her reconsider. Fuck’s sake, she meant to prep for an excursion like this, not do it in a stupid suit, with none of her tools, or, hell, even her wits? What was she thinking?

This gnawed at her for a bit, hence why she was glad their path was near one of the few public transportation terminals still left intact. But, obviously, this was too much to hope for. The mare grit her teeth as Jade nearly flew back from a single push to her shoulder. The brute didn’t appreciate her trying to speak right in his masked face.

“GAH! You freaks,” the dragon began to whine. “That was insolent. Do your superiors know you’re pushing innocent ladies around? Come now, isn’t this place a forgotten hole? Nobody’s watching you, you can just do your good deed for the day and-“

“Friggin’ can the backtalk, holy shit!” Scarlet whispered to her ear, talking out the side of her mouth. She squeezed the dragon’s arm to get her to listen. “These. Aren’t. Cops.”

“HUFF. #@(**@. HUFF.”

“What?” Jade stared at her in confusion. “But they’re wearing Hazard Force uniforms. And their communicators-“

“They’re fuckin’ looted you scaly prick! These are Protocol goons!” Scarlet whisper-screamed. “They are the law, alright, only they ain’t running the show for the City! It’s a different fucking Rogue! I didn’t know they were here, they don’t usually…” As if on cue, loud clattering, panicked voices, static-mixed garbles and the signature sound of doors being kicked in emitted from the building right next to them. Jade gulped. “Fuck me, it’s cleanup day…”

“Pah! Well if they’re just regular old gangsters who’d harvested some equipment, then…” The serpent bit her tongue. The guards blocking the alleyway had remained nearly motionless, but each of them kept exuding a loud breath every now and again. Judging by the pressure rising in Scarlet’s chest, it was to keep them informed they weren’t wanted. “Then they’re not going to be a problem.”

Jade got out of her grip, spun around, and pushed Scarlet back with her tail. The dragon spun the pendant around her index finger, approaching the two with her hips swaying. The mare felt a heavy grogginess fall upon her as her knees buckled.

While she fought off her sickness, she could hardly think. But she did hear the signature sparks of a Hazard Force stun baton, overclocked to around 120% power. Shortly thereafter, the sickness was suddenly completely gone. Thank the stars for adrenaline. Scarlet was able to hop up, grab Jade around the waist, swing her aside just as one of the grunts swung for her.

“@*@#!”

Swearing profusely and ignoring Jade’s outraged screaming, the mare got one of them to stumble with a harsh application of her telekinesis – despite using enough force that’d normally wring a pony’s leg out. She followed that up with a swift, harsh kick to one of the oculars. Blissfully, it cracked, the teal luminosity fading from within, and a series of electric noises betraying the cessation of whatever mechanism ran within, likely electrocuting the owner. These weren’t in the best repair.

“PANT. PANT.”

She then tore off her suit and flung it at the other, the fabric catching fire from contact with the stun baton. It spread to the few fabric linings included in the pilfered cement grey kevlar uniform, leaving the other guard disabled as well.

“GET TO THE- aaagh, shiiit!” Scarlet growled, seeing the public tube being nowhere near this unholy stop. Luck was on their side though: even down in the District of Beauties, distant transportation hubs drew cabbies to them. She sprinted toward the banged-up crystal lifter. “Okay, change of plan.”

“What plan?! Aaaagh, nothing is making any sense, why don’t they-“ Jade complained as she caught up in a moment’s notice, shortly outpacing the mare.

“THEY’RE FUCKING DUMMIES! I DON’T THINK THEY’RE EVEN AWAKE! OR ALIVE?!” the mare screamed in frustration. “IT’S THE DISTRICT OF FUCKING BEAUTIES, THERE’S A ROGUE ON EVERY CORNER, WITH A puff PRIVATE ARMY OF SOME FUCKING KIND! THIS IS WAY HEAVIER THAN OUR DUDE!”

“What- DUDE!- BUT- That… is insane! I didn’t… well… I… paaah!” The serpent hissed, having outpaced the mare to the crystalline sky-carriage. She bent to face the driver. “Oh great. He’s… …pacified.”

Scarlet groaned under her breath, feeling the District’s air sting her coat now that she was down to just the plain white undershirt.

“AAAGH WHY DID WE GO HERE?!”

Fortunately, a drop-kick to the flimsy vehicle’s door did the job, and Scarlet was able to handle the lock with her magic while the basic magical security system dealt with the sudden blunt impact. The mare swung the door open, tossed the driver out and climbed inside, pulling Jade in by her tail. Thankfully the dragoness was flexible enough to fit in.

“I’m sorry about the suit, lady,” the mare said, starting the vehicle and taking off, thanking every star in the night sky that the Protocol drones weren’t being particularly thorough with their perimeter duty tonight. How could she forget what sort of shit went on down here? What was she thinking?

“I… I…” Jade sighed. Scarlet listened to her slowly even out her breath. Maybe she was holding back tears, or maybe she was meditating, or something like that. Who knew with her type of dragon. At least her serpentine nature let her fit into this cramped box. It was invigorating that she put effort into calming herself more than nagging her. Invigorating enough that Scarlet kept a steady grip on the wheel and got them to the District’s long-busted exit port. “Don’t worry about the suit, Starlite, dear. It was a rental, anyway. My more… ahem, permanent valuables, are intact. Thanks to your quick thinking, of course.”

“Don’t mention it…” the mare muttered. “Alicorn’s graces, what the fuck were we thinking?..”

“More should’ve been expected of me, yes…” the dragon added. “What a disturbing series of events. I feel filthy.”

“Me too.”

Scarlet was glad she didn’t receive a lecture for all this. The more she thought about what happened, the more outlandish these events felt. How could she have been so cocky? The mare nearly began to doubt her own abilities, but then… At least the dragoness, her partner, such as it was, got carried out by her skills. She would’ve never gotten out of there, no doubt. To run into a Protocol patrol – it’s a quicker fate than some, but an ultimate one nonetheless. And she was smart enough, smarter indeed than the mare had assumed.

She knew her partner was doing all the real work. The good work! Yeah. Jade, the picky lizard, would’ve had a lot more to complain about, even after being pulled out of deadly danger by her tail, literally. Maybe this was a near-lethal dud, but after this? Oh yes. Scarlet grinned, gripping the wheel. Now the stand-offish, stealthy, choke-holding shrink knew who had which role in this here partnership. That dragon? She must have just felt the dire need to compensate for her inherent secondary nature by pulling off all sorts of stunts.

Clearly projecting on Scarlet’s place in their vertical chain of command. No red tape to force her to obey this stand-offish, eccentric non-equine – and with the scales being balanced, she predictably took the reins of control in their professional relationship. It made sense; unlike griffons, for example, dragons didn’t play well with authority. Yeah. Now she knew. Now she knew who was who, and the detective could take the reins.