A Cheery Household Herd

At the tailor shop, below the main floor…

Ms. Diavolo trotted down the steps into her underground factory where at least three dozen ponies were working on what appeared to be an assembly line of products that were encased in syringes.

“Come on-a! We don’t-a have much time to waste,” she barked at her subordinates, “We need to get all of these products shipped to Saddle Arabia before we get caught. Once there, they’ll be beyond Equestrian jurisdiction and they can’t do a thing about it then.”

“Intesa!” her cronies shouted in response.

Meanwhile, outside…

“You’re good to go, boss.”

“Thanks, Corkscrew,” Pale cricked his neck to the left, then to the right, “It’s showtime. You know what to do, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, boss,” Cork saluted with one of his wings, “I’ll be here as soon as you need me.”

“Good,” Pale would proceed to pick the lock on the door to the store, and enter. “I’ll be right back…”

Down below…

Diavolo and her ponies had nearly finished loading everything up. All that was left now was for them to put all of the crates of syringes onto carts so they could be taken to the nearby shipping port under the cover of night. A perfect plan, in her eyes.

“Perfecto. Everything is going just how I--”

“Hey, miss!” one of her earth pony workers ran up to her, “Miss D--we got a bit of a problem--”

The mare rolled her eyes and groaned. “Ugh--what? What in nonna’s name could-a be wrong right now? We’re about to get our-a products moving out in a minute. Make it-a quick, wouldja?”

Their ears would flick and their eyes would widen as they heard the sound of multiple ponies grunting and falling to the floor. Several strikes and blows were traded over the course of the last thirty seconds indicating the sounds of hoof-to-hoof combat.

SLAM!

A stallion’s body was sent through one of the nearby doors and flopped on the ground next to Diavolo with his hooves cuffed behind his back--fully unconscious.

Everyone looked up to see…absolutely no one in the doorway.

“What the--get up there and deal with it!” Diavolo shouted, and turned her attention to the other ponies that were busy loading up the carts that were nearly ready to leave the garage. “And you all--hurry yourselves up and--”

But as soon as she looked over, she saw that every single one of her workers had also been cuffed and subdued just as the first pony was.

“Oh no…” Now that she was alone, Diavolo flew into a panic--literally. She flapped her wings and flew into the air so that she’d have a full view of the room from the ceiling. “C-come on out ya coward! You ain’t-a so tough if you’re-a just gonna hide!” she spitefully yelled through her quivering lips to hide her fear.

CLINK!

“AGH!”

Out of nowhere, her wings were suddenly cuffed together. She was forced to stop flying and fell down to the floor with a hard thud as she yelled out various obscenities in a different language.

Moments later, Pale walked out to greet her from behind one of the crates in the room. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you. But I’m sure you’ve heard the rest by this point, hm?”

“Gaaah! You’ve made-a big-a mistake!” Diavolo bit down on her lip and let out a shrill whistle…

Which alerted more pony guards to Pale’s position. Various unicorns teleported into the room with their horns flashing and prepped to strike as they surrounded Pale in a circular position.

“Ha!” the pegasus boss shouted from the floor, “Who’s-a laughing now, officer? Now I might-a be swayed to let you go if you join us…”

His answer was obvious.

“I don’t think so. You’re all headed to prison for peddling illegal substances and abusing them--”

Before he could finish that sentence, Pale was bum rushed by a few of the unicorns, but Pale would quickly subdue them as well. First, he leapt forward and dropkicked one of them, sending the first unicorn into a wall. Then, once he was on the floor, he tripped the other two by punching the floor with his hoof hard enough to cause a small quake that caused them both to fall forward, horn-first, disrupting their magic in the process. Pale would then place cuffs on them both, but was caught off-guard when a rogue blast from another unicorn’s horn struck him from behind.

“...!”

It was a paralysis spell…or it was supposed to be. In reality, the unicorn mare that thought she had caught the detective off guard with a snide grin on her face would almost instantly change her expression to a strained grimace once she realized Pale was actively fighting against it. She broke a sweat trying to maintain the hold on him…to no avail.

ZAP!

With a grunt, Pale overpowered, and broke out of the unicorn’s spell which sent her into a momentary daze due to being mentally drained from trying to hold it against the well-built earth pony stallion. It was foal’s play for him to overcome, and he immediately tackled that mare and cuffed her up as well.

“...”

The last five unicorns stared at him blankly--clearly not expecting him to break out of the spell so easily.

But Ms. D refused to give up so easily. Even while she was restrained. “What are you waiting-a for? Get him!”

Against their better judgment, the unicorns would charge at Pale with various weapons raised in their magical grip.

One pony tried to stab him with an ice pick that pale swiftly kicked out of his attacker’s hoof followed by lifting the unicorn over his body with a swift suplex--slamming his opponent into the ground where they could be seen with cuffs on their hooves shortly after.

Next, two unicorn stallions would attempt to attack Pale at once with throwing knives, but they would miss each time as the detective effortlessly dodged their attacks with a bored frown on his face as if he could see their attacks coming. The stallions would grow increasingly frustrated with their failed attempts as each of their knives flew through the air and lodged themselves in the walls with sharp shnk! noises.

Pale would grab one of the knives in his teeth and speak through it, “Ya know. You’re both pretty bad at this. As a fellow Yorker, let me show you how you really throw a knife.”

With a swift turn of his neck, Pale released the knife from his teeth and tossed it at a 45-degree angle…away from the stallions?

“Ha, yous missed,” one of them said.

“No,” Pale replied, “I don’t think I did.”

Dink!

Plink!

What Pale had actually done was throw the knife at one of the wooden wheels attached to the cart they were planning to use for transport, causing it to destroy the tire, ricochet off, and--

Crack!

Knock out the lightbulb that was above them. In the darkness, pale was able to quickly overtake the pair and cuff them as well.

But just then, the low humming of the light would resume as one of the last two unicorns replaced it via levitation.

“Oh come on-a!” Diavolo complained as she angrily shouted to the heavens while wiggling her hooves, “How-a many of you fools does it take to change a lightbulb and defeat one pony?!”

Pale looked at the last two unicorns and shook his head. “Just stand down and make this easier for yourselves. I don’t think you want an assault on an officer charge on your record as well.”

For a moment, it seemed as if they were going to surrender. One of the unicorns got down on his knees…but then quickly fired off a laser spell from his horn!

Foreseeing this, Pale would grab ahold of the magical laser with his teeth! Then, he would apply his own earth pony magic to the laser in order to make it not only harmless, but tangible as well. The end result was a white laser that was something more akin to rope attached to the stallion’s horn.

Then, he gave a powerful tug and forced the stallion towards him, much to the unicorn’s peril as he yelped aloud.

“Ey what the--?!”

Pale held up his hoof, and delivered a nasty clothesline to the stallion, knocking him out cold and cuffing him as well. He then looked at the last unicorn standing…who had already willingly gave up--much to the annoyance of Diavolo.

“Ugh! You-a ponies are like-a rats! Useless! All of you are-a useless!”

“You all never learn. This is a clean city and I intend on keeping it that way,” Pale walked over to the garage door and pushed a button for it to open…where Corkscrew had been waiting with Quick Draw and the rest of the local Manehattan Police Department.

“Goddamn, he does it again,” Quick commented with a chuckle. “We’ll take it from here.”

“Yeah! That’s my boss!” Cork proudly proclaimed with a flap of his wings. “Er…our boss.”

Pale rolled his eyes. “And here I thought I was gonna be able to relax on this trip. Sorry you two.”

“Make up for it by inviting me next time,” Quick Draw said with a half-lidded, teasing smile as she bumped her flank against Pale’s, “...big daddy ‘P’.”

“...How do you--”

“Let’s get a move on, everypony! Sweep this area and raid it! Let’s go, let’s go!” Corkscrew commanded the other officers who followed him inside.

Pale simply sighed to himself as he watched his friends work. “...Yeah they haven’t changed at all. Love to see it.”