Dead Rising: Case Equestria

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 59:54:34

To say that Spike and the group were tired was an understatement. A more appropriate description would be that they were all downright pooped! Of course, this was understandable due to all the adventuring and investigating they had done over the past day, Spike especially, and as the dragon mulled over the case files he had built up so far he was glad that at least he had a nice place to rest and stock up on supplies in the safe room. In fact, at the moment he was actually taking a quick nap to recharge his batteries while the others kept watch for anything out of the ordinary, Applejack and Rainbow Dash being the most vigilant of them due to their younger siblings being on the line.

"You know it's weird," the cyan mare said to her partner on the watch.

"What do ya' mean RD?" Applejack gave the pegasus a questioning look.

"Well I'm just saying that all this doesn't make sense, if Blueblood is just in this for the money why didn't he just take the payment for being the announcer of the Grand Prix. I mean, sure robbing a place sounds like a high payout but the service awards they give out at the stadium aren't dirt cheap either!"

"Hm...you know what...you've got a point there..." The farm-pony was beginning to question the prince's motives herself now that her friend had brought up the topic. However, as the farm-pony was about to give her own thoughts on the matter, Pinkie bounded up and interrupted the conversation.

"Hiyah Applejack and Rainbow Dash, whatcha' doin'?" The bubbly pony asked, her never ending reserves of energy keeping her going when even the hardiest of stallions would drop from exhaustion.

"Oh hey Pinkie," Rainbow greeted the bouncy mare with a nod, "me and AJ were just talking about what Blueblood's motives for causing this are, but we really haven't come up with much."

"Hm...well I don't think I'd know much about that..." Pinkie said as she rubbed her hoof under her chin in thought, somehow gaining a trench coat and a fedora not unlike a detective would commonly wear. As she continued to contemplate the matter she slowly pulled out a pipe, and blew into it softly, a stream of bubbles emitting from the other end in response. After a few minutes of thinking she shrugged and threw off the clothes, "well anyways I just came to warn you that my Pinkie sense was warning me about something in several places at once!"

"Wait really? What do you think it might be?" Rainbow asked with both curiosity and worry mixing into her voice.

"I dunno! But instead of it being in one spot, it's coming from the three casinos located across the Pegasium Mall!" She cried out as she stretched her arms out wildly.

"All of them huh? Well ah think we better wake Spike back up then. Poor guy hasn't had a rest, but this sounds like it could be pretty bad!" Applejack said hesitantly, but ultimately remained steadfast and found the dragon in question, who was currently sleeping in the cafeteria with his chair tilted back and his legs planted on the table top. He was sound asleep as the three heard him snoring lightly as they walked up to him. Grinning a little bit Rainbow Dash decided to pull a small prank on the sleeping dragon, if nothing else but to make his day a little more surreal. She quietly got a paper bag and began blowing it up until it was filled with so much air that any contact would result in a very loud bang. Holding it up to Spike's ear, she braced herself for the incoming noise and slammed her hoof on the air filled container.

"WAH TWILIGHT I DIDN'T FORGET TO ORGANIZE IT I SWEAR!" Spike cried out frantically as his brain was having a hard time realizing that his dream was over during the initial shock. Needless to say, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all got a kick out of his reaction and had quite a large fit of laughter as a result. Once Spike got ahold of himself he gave a small glare at them before giving a small chuckle himself. After the mares had calmed down he proceeded to ask them what was going on, and they explained to him what Pinkie had sensed earlier. "In all three of the casinos eh?" He asked with an eyebrow raised, the mares nodding back to him. "Well then we've got no time to lose girls! Let's get moving!" He declared as they all ran to where the vents were and climbed in.

As they left the maintenance portion of the plaza, they saw that surprisingly enough, the portion of the plaza that served as the entrance to the Equestricana Casino was cleared completely of zombies.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Rainbow Dash said quietly as she eyed the casino's entrance.

"Ah agree with Dash on this one, this entire situation is just givin' me the creeps..." Applejack said, narrowing her eyes in suspicion as she scanned the path ahead.

"Well, unfortunately it looks like we're going to have to go in if we want to figure out what's going on..." Spike told the skeptical mares.

"Well alright, but we better be on guard at all times ya'll." Applejack said begrudgingly.

"Right." The rest of the group chorused as they advanced into the casino. Upon entering, they found that much of the zompony populace was still present in the area, instead of missing like in the plaza they had seen before. However, Pinkie suddenly began getting a familiar twitch in her tail.

"Twitch-a-twitch! Twitch-a-twitch!" She cried out, alerting the rest of the group to what she was feeling. Since the group was pretty knowledgeable about most of the Pinkie signs and combos, they immediately looked up, and much to their surprise, a zompony fell down with a splat, and lay on the ground un-moving while the group awkwardly looked on.

"Well...that was...random..." Spike said puzzled by the phenomenon.

"You said it..." Rainbow agreed with an equally confused tone of voice. After Pinkie poked the zompony a couple of times couple of times to see if it'd wake up, they turned their attention to what Pinkie said was the source of her Pinkie Sense combos from earlier. It turns out that it was coming from the other side, namely, the casino's vault area where all the bits that customers paid, won, or most frequently lost when visiting.

"This is it guys! This is the place that was driving my Pinkie Sense up and off the walls!" Pinkie said, pointing a hoof to the closed door that lead to the cashier's office.

"Alright then..." Spike said as he wrapped his claws tentatively around the doorknob, pausing for a moment to brace himself for whatever might be behind the door. "You guys ready?" He asked looking back at his team, and they nodded, signaling him to open the door. He took one last moment of preparation and suddenly flung the door open. The room behind the door looked to be a long hallway leading to the casino vault, with a side room that looked like an employee break room. As Spike took a peek into the room through the window nearest him and saw 5 earth ponies, presumably some of Blueblood’s men, pretty much just lounging around and raiding the fridge. The dragon then silently motioned the others to come and take a look, and they crowded around the window while silently listening in to see if they could find anything out.

“So when do you think the drill will finish up its work?” One of the ponies casually asked his partner while taking a bite out of the slice of veggie pizza he had grabbed.

“Drill?” Spike thought puzzled but soon remembered something, “wait, that’s the stuff Blueblood and his goons were loading on the tram in the underground!"

"What's the plan Spikey?" Pinkie Pie asked eagerly, almost breaking the group's cover with her loud whisper and bouncing, "ooo are you gonna burst through the window and take em' all out like one of the action movies? Speaking of which I saw this really great action movie last wee-"

"Actually Pinkie," Spike interrupted her as a sly smirk found a way onto his face, "I've got a better idea!"

Seconds later, the five earth ponies snapped to attention as the door to the break room swung open. What they saw was a small purple dragon looking quite smug.

"Hey what are you doing here!" One of the ponies yelled out to Spike, "you're not supposed to be in here!"

"Hey, aren't you that dragon Blueblood was looking for?" Another one asked as a look of recognition crossed his face.

"Hey yeah it is!" Another one confirmed, and the group of guards then began to advance upon their master's most wanted enemy. "Alright buddy claws in the air! We don't want no funny business from you." The guard ordered, and Spike obliged, the smug look never leaving his face.

"Huh, I don't know what the boss was so worried about, this dragon ain't so tough!" One of the group chuckled, "he practically gave himself up."

"Oh I wouldn't say that guys." Spike said with a chuckle of his own, making the group snicker at his words.

"Oh yeah?" One of the guards challenged, "what are you going to do? there is five of us, and only one of you!"

"Wrong." Was all Spike said before the lights went out.

"H-Hey!" A guard yelped shakily, "w-what happened to the OH MY CELES-" he was suddenly cut off as the lights flickered back on, revealing that the stallion had gone missing.

"What the?" Another one said puzzled, "but where did he-" he was cut off as the lights again switched off another time. "Aw crap the lights went out agai-OH CRA-" another yell was heard, and this time the faint echo of a cannon was heard shortly thereafter. The lights flickered dimly, revealing the group's total to be cut down to only three stallions.

"Ok just what the hay is happening!" The lead guard demanded, turning to Spike with a fearful look on his face. The dragon only giving a shrug as if he didn't have a clue, while the smile on his face said otherwise. The lights then went out a third time, and this time the leader felt himself suddenly get pulled up by an unknown force. He gave a short yelp, and found himself in the clutches of something horrible, and as he opened his eyes back up timidly he found a pair of light cerulean eyes looking back at him.

"WHERE WERE THE OTHER CUPCAKES GOING?!?" A deep voice bellowed in demand, making the stallion cower before the sheer volume of the words.

"W-what?" The stallion said bewildered, his fear clouding his ability to think. However, he hastily spoke up as the eyes began to glare at him, "I-I never knew I swear to Celesti-"

"SWEAR TO ME!" The voice roared, and he yelped once again as he felt himself being swung around and pushed into a small space.

"W-who are you?" He asked, his voice wavering despite his attempts to calm himself down.

"...I'm Pinkie." Was all he heard before the thunderous boom of a cannon rang in his ears, and was launched all the way across the casino, landing perfectly into a garbage can, which, surprisingly was the spot that held his comrades that had disappeared before him.

"What just happened..." He asked himself as he fell unconscious, the mysterious pony's words still ringing in his ears.

After Pinkie had dealt with most of the group, Spike had an easy time taking care of the rest of the group as Rainbow Dash and Applejack dealt with the drill, which was easy enough to destroy given the proper tools, and the group all shared a laugh between themselves as they headed out to their next objective.

"Shoot Pinkie, the way ya'll dealt with them stallions was a real hoot!" Applejack congratulated the party planner, who was busy taking a mask type of device off of her muzzle.

"Yeah, man you should've seen the looks on their faces, it was hilarious!" Rainbow Dash said, cracking up as she recalled the scared looks the stallions had gained after the first member of the group had disappeared.

"Aw, thanks girls!" Pinkie said happily, "good thing I had this voice changer lying around though, and had it set to 'Batmane' as well!"

"Alright, now that that's out of the way, time to head over to the next casino!" Spike declared as he pulled out a map of the Pegasium's mall. "Hm, it looks like the nearest one would be the Slot Ranch casino, so let's head there!" He told the group as he put the map back into his pocket.

"Oh hey Spike hold up!" Rainbow said as he began to walk off, making him stop and turn towards her.

"Sure Rainbow what's up?" He asked his friend curiously as she held out a metal briefcase that looked like it probably held item, or items of importance. "What's in the case?"

"I don't know, I just found it lying around the drill we destroyed." She explained, and gave it a couple of shakes, "I tried opening it, but it looks like it's locked!"

"Shoot, lemme' see that!" Applejack told the pegasus as she took the case into her hooves and looked it over. "Just gotta' give it the ol' Apple family one two!" She muttered as she lined up the case near her back legs, and gave it a good kick with one of her hind hooves. The lock shattered, letting the case swing open and letting the group take a look inside. Their eyes widened in shock at what the case contained.

"Oh mah stars!"

"I've never seen that many bits before!"

"This could buy a whole lotta' cupcakes!"

"Woah, now that is a lot of cash!" Spike whistled as he saw that the case was filled to the brim with bits. "We should probably put this back in the safe room with Twilight, but I don't think we'll have enough time..."

"No worries Spike, I've got it covered!" Pinkie said as she suddenly sped off, leaving the rest of the group looking at each other with confused looks, before they finally shrugged, knowing that Pinkie was yet again defying logic.

[Safe Room]

"Oh man, thank Celestia that this coffee is almost done!" Twilight said as she eagerly waited for the caffeinated beverage to finish brewing. She was tired from the events of the day so far and needed a drink to recharge her mental and physical functions. A small ding signaled that the coffee was done, and she happily grabbed a cup and waited for her energy-booster to pour into the pitcher underneath the dispenser. She waited...and waited...and waited... "Ok what's wrong?" She sighed, irritated that she was being denied the drink she so needed. "Did this thing jam or something?" She muttered as she gave it a few whacks, finally seeing a few drops of coffee begin to trickle out of the machine again. "Ah-ha!" She exclaimed as she perked up once again.

"Hi Twilight!" The unicorn screamed as Pinkie popped out of the coffee dispenser with a grin.

"Uh Pinkie how did you-"

"No time to talk, just take this!" The party planner cut her off as she pulled out a metal briefcase and placed it into her hooves, the poor librarian's tired mind still not registering what had just happened. "Bye Twilight!" Pinkie said, giving a short wave before she popped back into the coffee machine, which then started dispensing coffee like it normally would.

"..." Twilight couldn't respond as only one look was etched upon her face now that the mixture of confusion, stress, and worry for Spike's safety had finally gotten to her.

"So how'd it go Pinkie?" Rainbow asked the pink mare as she rocketed back to the group.

"Oh I'd say Twilight took it pretty in my opinion!" The mare giggled.

"Say, do ya'll smell...coffee?" Applejack asked the group confused as she sniffed the air a couple of times.

"Now that you mention it..." Spike trailed off as he took a whiff of the surrounding area.

"Hey guys so the Slot Ranch Casino right?" Pinkie interrupted them quickly, bringing their attention back to their current mission.

"Oh right the Slot Ranch!" Spike snapped back to reality as he shook his head a couple of times to clear it. "We better get a move on if we're going to make it in time!" He said, beginning to speed up as his walk turned into a run as the rest of the group followed him. "Come on guys, whatever Blueblood is planning with those drills can't be good!"

[Underground Tunnels]

"Prince Blueblood sir, you wanted to see me?" An earth pony guard tentatively made his way to the room in which the royal unicorn resided.

"Ah yes, I need an update on how the plan is going so far." The prince said as he swiveled his chair around to face the messenger.

"Yes sir, drills 1 and 2 are making good progress, but..."

"But?"

"The team from drill 3 hasn't reported in on schedule, I feel that something may have came up..." The pony gulped as he noticed a look of anger flash across the prince's face.

"That blasted dragon!" The prince whispered harshly to himself, almost certain that Spike and his friends had been behind the disappearance of his men.

"Uh sir?" The guard was getting worried that maybe he had done something wrong, until Blueblood looked up with an icy gaze, which made him gulp nervously.

"Tell the teams on the other drills to double their security, I do not want that dragon or his little partners to ruin anything else!" He ordered.

"Yes sir!" The guard galloped out of the room to carry out his task, and left Blueblood to contemplate what to do next.

"That dragon is becoming too much of an annoyance..." He thought to himself. "I'll have to take matters into my own hands if he keeps this up. I've worked too much for my plans to fail now...it'll be a cold day in Tartarus before I let you win, mark my words *dragon.***" He then turned back around, thinking about what to do next.

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARDS Arrive: 58:34:09