AT AN UNDISCOLSED LOCATION

“Oh my God”, was all I could mutter. The scene that was playing out before my very eyes had horrified me more than anything I’ve ever seen in my entire career as a cop. The pure savagery and violence that was on display was insane. My name is Soarin, and I'm a detective for CPD, or more specifically, Commander Easy Gliders unit, the Wonderbolts. I had been working undercover on a case for the past two weeks. A case that would lead me directly to a hidden stash of stolen diamonds carried out by an underground gang known as the Diamond Dogs. The purpose of my mission was to infiltrate the criminal underworld and gain leads on where the diamonds were being sold. Through weeks of snooping around the shit cesspool of degeneracy and human cockroaches, my investigation led me to where I currently am at the moment. An underground fighting ring ran and operated by the Diamond Dogs. It was a popular place amongst criminals to come and bet, do illicit transactions and just to hang around. But right now, everyone was here for a different reason.

My main goal tonight was to wait for an informant to come and meet me. From there he would get me into another more high-rise area where they sold the stolen diamonds, leading me closer to the source. But as I was waiting, the fights announcer stopped everything, letting everyone know that tonight's fight was special. To my utter shock, two large Diamond Dog gang members barged through the doors of the entrance, dragging somebody by the leg. I couldn’t see this person, but the roaring of the crowd told me that it was somebody of importance. The Diamond Dogs violently threw the poor son of a bitch into the ring in the center of the room, and that’s when my eyes widened in shock. It looked to be a woman dressed in an all-purple attire. With a purple cloak, purple mask with blue eyes and a purple fedora. I believed I was looking at the vigilante that had been rumored to exist. She had appeared to be in an almost daze like state, and her condition was beyond battered. When they threw her into the ring, they lowered a large cage over the entire ring, locking it together so she couldn’t escape. The announcer had picked up the mic and spoke as he paced around the cage.

“We found this little shit snooping around the place, threatening the boss and shit. Seems like we got ourselves a fucking rat. And what do we do to rats?” the announcer gleefully asked.

“KILL THEM, KILL THEM, KILL THEM!” The audience yelled in unison. At this point, the vigilante was barely getting to her feet, stumbling around a bit as she tried. It looked like they beat her badly before dragging her in here. Satisfied with the audience's reaction, the announcer opened one of the cages entrances, letting a group of three Diamond Dogs into the cage. The thing about the Diamond Dogs where their size. We believe that the gang was consisted of members of a large family that specialized in diamonds and other jewels. Three of the younger sons of the family actually attended Canterlot High, though we’ve never had any trouble with them. Good kids from what I hear. They were distinctive with their grey skin, green eyes and massive bodies. It seemed all of them had some kind of natural inhuman like strength. Well, they just sent three of these beasts into a fighting ring with this girl. All three of them towered over her, and the poor girl still looked so out of it.

“You heard the crowd boys, kill the bitch. First one to kill her and strip her corpse naked will get a million dollars!” said the announcer. The three of them raised their hands in the air and howled in joy. That’s when the vigilante stood up, and took a fighting position.

“I’m not in the mood for this shit...bring your boss out or I swear to God I will put all of you bastards in the ICU,” she snarled. Her voice was so cold and foreboding that it sent a shiver down my spine, despite her clearly being at a disadvantage. The three men had howled in laughter, pounding on their chest and stomping on the floor. The crowd began to chant louder, and louder. After the show of power, the three rushed at her all at once, and she charged right back at them.... that had been over two hours ago. Over time the audience had stopped cheering. Had stopped the excitement, and were now just watching the carnage unfold. For two hours the vigilante fought. Beating the first three, then the next three, then the next. At this point she must’ve fought over ten guys, who were now all sprawled across the floor bloodied and barely breathing. At some point, members of the audience began to leave, scared at what would happen when the cage opened. Some even believed she would rip the bars off since she was acting so crazy. That’s when a man named Ripper, the boss of the establishment and one of the highest generals of the gang came down himself, and entered the ring. At that point the crowd had entirely dispersed, including the announcer. He was twice the size of any Diamond Dog, and scars littered his tatted body. He had one good eye, as the other had been lost years ago from a bar fight rumors say. He was one of the best fighters in Canterlot, yet for the past twenty minutes since he entered, he could not take down the vigilante.

She stood there in the corner, eyeing him down like a lion. Her cape was entirely ripped off, and the state she was in... God she shouldn’t be alive. Her entire left sleeve was torn off, along with the right pant leg. Half her mask was shredded, revealing part of her face. I couldn’t even see what skin color she was, there was so much blood. Her eye that was exposed from the torn side of the mask was blood shot red, I didn’t even think she could see from it. For the past two hours she’s been ganged up on and almost beaten to death, but she kept getting back up. She didn’t seem human. At this point in the fight, she had gone full ravaged. Like an animal blinded on rage. Even through that one bloodied eye, I could see the pure hatred and anger displayed. I swear to God I couldn’t even tell if some of the guys on the floor were dead or not. I saw her stomp on the jaw of one of them earlier, and twist another guy's arm in multiple directions.

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” Ripper shouted, pounding on the floor like a gorilla. The vigilante yelled back, her voice cracking in the process as she violently pounded on her chest like some kind of crazed monkey. I wanted to call for units, but the mission would have been jeopardized if I had done so. But in all honesty, I think I had just been lost in the carnage. My informant had been standing beside me, I don’t even know when he arrived. But like me, he too stared in awe at the scene in front of us. They pounded each other relentlessly, splattering blood all over the already red stained matt.

Ripper picked up the vigilante by the throat, and slammed her into the ground. He then picked her up again, and slammed her down repeatedly. I don’t know how she was even still breathing. As he attempted to pick her up again, she jabbed a fist into his throat, causing him to drop her and stagger back. From there, she charged him, tackling him into the iron cage. With his back up against the bars, she began to violently beat him. Throwing fist after fist at the side of his face. Even when he was vomiting out blood, spitting teeth out, she didn’t ease up one bit. I don’t think she was even aware of what was going on. Everyone had ran off by now, even my informant left realizing that the scene was getting bad. But that’s when I saw something that I couldn’t explain.

As she was beating Ripper to a bloody pulp, an orange like aura surrounded her. I don’t know what the hell I was looking at, but she appeared to be.... levitating a bit. But that wasn’t all. Through the top of her mask, what looked like horse ears protruded out, and her hair started to flow out from the bottom of her mask. Despite the vicious state she was in, her hair was almost hypnotic. Beautiful in a way, the fiery design it had was one I’d never seen before. It grew long as if it were a horse tail. I can’t explain it, and a part of me was terrified looking at her. But the other half was mesmerized, lost in the sheer beauty that was in front of me. In a fucked-up kind of way, she was gorgeous, despite not even seeing her face really, and the part that was exposed was a bloodied crazed mess. Regardless if the sight was trance inducing, it didn’t detract from the brutality on display. She continued to violently beat Ripper, ignoring what was happening to her as if she wasn’t aware. Through the torn bottom of her mask, it looked like she was smiling. Through bloodied teeth, her grin was wide and sadistic. I had never seen someone look so psychotic in my entire life.

After what seemed like an eternity of violence, she picked up the large man with both hands, and hurled him at the cage, shattering the bars in half as Ripper flew out of the ring, and crash landed into a table next to me. I fell out of my chair and onto the floor, terrified at what I just saw. It shouldn’t have been possible, but she just threw a man through iron bars. She flew out of the ring like a bat out of hell, and landed directly on top of Ripper. He started to vomit out blood as her boots dug into his stomach, but before he could get a drop out, she violently grabbed his face, covering his mouth as blood splattered all over her hand.

“Alright you fat piece of shit, you better answer my questions or I’ll take your God damn head off,” she angrily yelled as she punched Ripper hard in the stomach. “You stupid mutts are working for Sombra. One of your underlings told me you bastards locate the crystals that Sombra is selling. He told me all this before I dislocated his jaw. Now I’ll do a lot more to you if you don’t tell me where the hell you swine’s are finding them!” Her voice was so haunting. So cold and devoid of any emotion other than rage. It sounded as if she had been in a long, terrifying nightmare. She didn’t immediately uncover his mouth, instead tightening the grip around it while repeatedly punching his stomach. Ripper's pupils constricted as the pain was evident on his face. Eventually she removed her hand, allowing the man to gasp for air and cough out the blood that had been stuck in his throat.

“Alright...alright. Just please don’t hurt me anymore. We have a team that goes out north past the Everfree Forest. On Mount Everhoof, inside the caves there’s tons of this shit.” She applied more pressure onto his stomach, making him rile around in agony. “AGH! I swear to God that’s all I know! They don’t tell us what they do with this shit, they just pay us for getting it. Honestly.” With that, she hopped off him before socking him one last time across the face, knocking him out.

I sat there terrified, looking at the beast in front of me, and the aura around her slowly vanished. The ears had disappeared and her fiery hair retreated back into her mask. Her breathing was slowly steadying, and her fist unclenched themselves. She looked over to me with her one bloodied exposed eye piercing me down. It was the eyes of a predator, and underneath its gaze, I felt so weak and small. After a minute of looking at me, she turned around and walked back into the ring, grabbing her torn fedora off the ground.

“Did you get all of that.... detective?” she said without looking back to me. The rage in her voice was gone, and it was now instead a cold, raspy whisper. My blood ran cold for a moment, and I sat there paralyzed in fear. How the hell did she know that I was a cop?

“y... yeah. I got that,” I muttered out like a scared child. She stood there for a bit, not moving. It seemed like she was swaying, or that she was lost in some kind of thought.

“Good. Make sure you inform Commander Easy Glider,” she finally said, before walking off the ring, and exiting through the back door. Even after she was gone, I sat there in utter fear. My mind wasn’t even racing. It was just at a complete standstill, trying to process what in the hell I had just witnessed. With wide eyes, I looked around me. The place was completely empty minus the scattered knocked out Diamond Dogs around the ring and myself.

Up until this point, I had thought of the vigilante as nothing more than a myth. Even despite the witness testimonies with Cercus. I thought it was just something that the inmates down in lock up made up to mess with us. It wouldn’t be the first time. I mean, some son of a bitch once told us that him and a crew of bank robbers were stopped by some pink chick who called herself the ‘Masked Matter Horn’ over in New York. Crazy bastard said this costumed individual shot energy beams at them or some shit. Well, I had just assumed it was some bullshit story like that. Or if the vigilante did exist, it would have just been some stupid nutcase in a costume one day away from getting themselves killed. But....holy hell I never expected this.

This vigilante, this Mare-Do-Well as the degenerates called her. She wasn’t just some vigilante. It wasn’t just some nut in a costume. No, this was a true monster. I don’t think she’s even human. She has to be a ghost. Something that’s already dead. The pure rage, the unwavering brutality of combat, and the...well...whatever magic shit just happened. No this couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be a human. This was something far greater. A true force of nature. I had to see her again. Building up the nerve to just move, I grabbed my phone from my pocket, and dialed HQ.

“Hey sergeant, it's Detective Soarin, I'm coming back in.”

Author's Note

Don't worry, just one more short story before we get into the next major arc. Promise!