The search gets interesting
Always on the run. But for the moment he was safe inside the bar. Loud music was being played by a band on the stage, a typical tavern song, but it made almost every pony want to get up and do a jig. The tables had been pushed back so they could do just that, the floor was filled with couples enjoying a merry time together in the late hour. He wasn’t a stallion who smiled much lately, but the happy faces and the warm feeling all around him forced a grin onto his face. He had just started to lift his glass back up to his lips when he saw them, the guards had just entered the tavern and were looking around. One of them approached the bartender and slid a piece of paper onto the counter.
“Well…just when I was enjoying myself. Guess I should show the old legs the door.” the stallion muttered to himself. He rose to his feet casually and walked towards the door with a tiny bounce in his step, so as to seem a drunk on his way home. He was just a few steps from sweet freedom when an arm blocked his exit, along with a curious face. “Sir, have you seen this pony?” the guard asked, holding a piece of paper out to him. On the paper was a picture of one mean looking pony, his upper fangs hung out of his mouth, his hair was unkempt and along with the slits for eyes he very much appeared a cross between a snake and a pony. The stallion looked up from under his Gatsby with his azure eyes, smiled at the guard and said “No officer I have not, but I assure you that if I do I will come running as fast as my legs can carry me to tell you.”. The guard stared at him with a puzzled look for a second then nodded and walked off to ask some others.
The dark blue stallion with black markings continued on his merry way out the door and down the block. Knowing the only company he had right at the moment was the chilly air of Luna’s night he said to himself under his breath, “Hmm…can’t even remember when I wore that disguise. Oh well, I feel sorry for the guards, if only cause they’ll never find him.”. His grin had returned to his face, a little wider than before, as he strolled down the sidewalk humming a little tune to himself. In the morning the memory of this plain looking pony would be a fuzzy memory in the minds of all who saw him. Just as he wanted, to be nothing but a specter.
Flash Freeze was from far north, though he lived nowhere in particular, just a complex cave system he had made into his home. Still it was this time of year, when things started to get colder, that he ventured down to Manehatten to sell his wares, a rare type of berry that only grew in the frozen lands. It was popular because of its sweet taste, and because it was in very short supply even during times like this. However, Flash Freeze was a very fast Pegasus, so making repeat trips was no problem, plus the years of living in the cold made his wings resilient to the freezing weather, so no risk of freezing his feathers and having to make a crash landing. With his saddlebags full of his precious cargo he made his way over to the stand he had rented out and began setting up, placing bowels and a pitcher of water, as well as his price signs.
About 4 hours later he was almost ready to close up temporarily to go get another batch for the evening rush when he spotted a familiar face, drifting through the endless sea of ponies. Freeze took a stern look and watched the pony as he walked closer to the stand, the few customers who were at the stand took notice of this and glanced over at the approaching stallion. He walked casually up to the stand and placed a few bits on the counter, upon doing so Freeze slid a berry over. The stallion popped it into his mouth and gave a few chews before swallowing. He looked up from beneath his hat and stared straight at the white Pegasus running the stand and said “These berries taste like someone dragged them through a field of manure!”.
All those at the stand took a step back as the white Pegasus walked around to the front of the stand. “So, you don’t like ‘em, huh?” he said while moving right in front of the stallion, only inches from his face. “Yeah. They taste almost as bad as you smell bud.” the stallion retorted with a sly grin. They pressed their noses right against each others and all the nearby ponies braced for a fight, only to be surprised as the two placed a hoof on each others shoulders and began laughing loudly. The customers let out some relieved sighs upon the realization these two were simply friends giving each other a hard time. “So, been a while my good friend. Up north I am unlikely to see anyone, but even if I lived here I doubt I’d see you.” said Freeze to his buddy, both of them sitting on the stools behind the stand.
“So tell me…Specter, what are you up to now?” asked the white Pegasus. Specter tossed a few more bits into the money basket and took another berry before speaking. “I’m on my way to…wherever the wind takes me, as always.” he said with a small nod, tossing the berry in his mouth. Freeze smiled at his friend as the last few berries got sold and all the customers walked off, then his smiled faded. “I’ve seen the wanted posters you know. Your going to run out of disguises soon at this rate friend.” he said with a solemn look. His friend, not so solemn, gave a small chuckle and produced an apple from his jacket pocket and took a bite from it. Freeze lightly slammed a hoof on the counter, “I’m serious, your going to be in serious trouble if they ever connect the dots…though your famous “ghost act” would get you out of trouble, you’d never be able to show yourself in public again…”. Specter merely shook his head and grinned. “Your thinking about this too hard my friend, stop worrying so much.” he responded.
Specter took a drink from a bottle of water he somehow procured from the stall next to them without anyone noticing. “Look, I’m not going to do any…sleight of hand tricks for a while, gonna take a break for the holidays, maybe cuddle up with a cute mare or five.” he said with his trademark grin, a grin that more often than not meant he had troublesome thoughts in his head. “Besides, I’m here on business.” he said glancing around. Freeze tipped his head to the side. Specter’s eyes came back to the Pegasus, “I heard about…them, again. I want to meet this team of Celestia’s, the ones who do the “dirty work” . I especially want to meet this dragon I have heard about. If I could learn that ability I’d be set for all future capers.”.
“Ah, the shape shifting thing right?” Freeze asked, “Yeah if you could learn how to that you would never need to buy another disguise again.”. Specter gave a nod and got off the stool. “But first I need to actually…ya know, find them. I know they weren’t easy to find when they got together at the start, but after all the stuff with the Changelings I heard they went public. But ya know how things are, not always as easy as they sound and all that.” came his response. “But first comes first, I need to find a place to stay while I’m here, make some hotel think I’m a business guest or something.”. The two of them closed up the stand and walked down a few blocks together before Freeze spread his wings. He looked over at his friend, and with a warm voice said “Stay safe, I got to get some more berries before the evening, I always get a lot of customers buying them up for use in their dinner. Just…I guess telling you to stay out of trouble is pointless isn’t it?”. Specter gave a small laugh as response before the two parted, Freeze heading home and the stallion to find a place to spend the night.
He wandered around town for a bit, taking mental notes in case he needed something such as food or clothing, or a quick escape. Finally he came upon a cozy looking hotel, high class and as fancy looking as could be. The kind he liked the most. Ducking into an alleyway he quickly donned business attire, popped in his contacts and brushed his hair into a snazzy style, all so fast that if anyone saw him they’d have sworn they imagined the whole incident. Taking a second to adjust his saddlebag to a business style before walking in he gave a thought to the fake accent he should use this time. “Let’s try a one of those “apple” accents.” he mumbled. He walked into the hotel and up to the front desk and chatted up the receptionist with his realistic accent for a few minutes about his “reservation”. “I’m sorry sir.” said the well dressed mare behind the counter, “But we do not have any reservation for you noted here, are you sure this is the right hotel? There are a number of them in town.”. He shook his head. “I know it was this one here, ya’ll have the right color’d signs and them fancy lighting’s. This here’s the place alright. Unless this is some way of sayin’ ya don’t want my business here, just ‘cause I’m an apple farmer don’t mean I can’t stay at a nice place like this!”. He was brewing a storm up and putting his best act on, so good in fact that the manager came out and after hearing him talk for a few minutes he offered him a very sincere apology and offered to let him stay a few nights free while they “fixed” their apparent communications error.
After stating he didn’t want anyone to come into the room without permission, even room keeping, he put a sign on the door to not be disturbed and locked it. Shedding his outfit and stuffing it back into his bag he took a nice look around the room. Spacious to say the least, it could hold a whole party of ponies, the bathtub was big enough for 5 ponies and the bed was just as big! Fancy furniture was placed in the room and even the carpet and drapes were done with such intricate detail that he felt as though he were in the palace over in Canterlot. His grin reappeared on his face. He didn’t want to have to disguise and re disguise every time he wanted to come back to the room, or leave. Time to invite his good friend “Specter” to join him in the room as a business partner.
Making a phone call in his fake accent he detailed that his business partner would be staying with him, being sure to mention they that probably forgot that too, he told them he would be along shortly. Satisfied with the response he got he went to the window and opened it. Standing out on the balcony he looked down at the city, mostly empty on the streets right now. Just what he wanted, as he was about to do what earned him his name, be a specter. With but a thought he became transparent and fell through the balcony and into the sidewalk. He poked his head out slightly to make sure no one saw him do that, and happy that this street was empty he climbed out of the ground and solidified himself. Whistling a small tune he walked back into the lobby of the hotel he then signed the clipboard and took his key.
Back in the room he had everything packed up and was figuring out a way to transport it all, he figured he’d have to make several trips. Not that it was a problem, just time consuming. He sure was glad he picked such a fancy place to stay for the time being, they had such nice things to swipe, though he couldn’t take everything, like the furniture for example. Still, once morning came he would get the chance to search for the ponies he wanted to find so badly. But for now he had the chance to do something he didn’t get to do very often, have a good nights sleep. He turned out the lights and went to close the window, taking a look out onto the quiet city that lay in full view from here. Quite a site if he did say so himself. He got tucked into the blankets and drifted off to sleep, sure that tomorrow would bring him what he wanted.
Dawn broke and sunlight filled the room where Specter slept, rousing him from his bed. He’d grown used to not sleeping much and as such he always woke up quickly, in case he needed to make a hasty escape. Today was no such case as he was as alone in the room as the night before. He moved everything he had packed onto the balcony and then headed downstairs to find some breakfast. They had plenty to eat here and it was obvious the management was still trying to appeal to his “business partner” by offering them to eat all they liked for free. Sometimes he really loved his ability to trick people into doing what he wanted. After eating his fill he began to wander the town, eventually making his way to the rooftops.
Moving from building to building he eventually came to rest on the roof of some store, he was in the shopping district as far as he could tell. He had Intel that told him one of the members of the group he was looking for, Demon Fear, would be here today. He took the moment to go over a folder of information he had procured during the last few months, it detailed the group to some extent, but it was more than he knew personally, so it would have to do. Information about five ponies and the dragon was present, though two had no information beyond the fact that they had once been in contact with the others. The dragon was not from this world according to the paper, some kind of dimensional drifter who ended up here. Combined with the fact that he could take the form of a pony had made Specter skeptical about him even existing a while back, but he had too much information to be dealing with some imaginary monster, including pictures of the beast.
The others were equally strange, Onyx Masquerade was a Unicorn and a one time soldier for Celestia’s guard, though after a horrible mission that resulted in the loss of his loved ones he dropped out and went rouge for vengeance. Demon fear was a dark Zebra from a far away land who specialized in Necromancy, worshiping a dark god of nightmares. The Earth pony known as Falcon was some kind of blacksmith, always making fantastic and interesting, but mostly useless inventions. The other two were another Unicorn and a Pegasus who had once helped this group, but went missing before the Changeling war. Specter didn’t care about them, probably too cowardly to even help the Kingdom. It was the other four he wanted to meet. And he was just about to get his chance, despite not knowing it himself.
He looked down into the alleyway beside the building after hearing a trash can fall over. Two ponies dressed in a somewhat familiar fashion were hunched down, lying in wait for someone. The fact that one carried a crossbow made Specter nervous. “This can’t be good” he thought to himself. Something caught his eye, a much larger pony down the alley. He was dressed in the same outfit and seemed to be waiting just the same, only farther back. Probably going to wait around the corner for the target in case the bow didn’t bring him down. It was in this moment of watching the larger pony that the bow was fired. Screams on the street and a loud shout told him that they had failed to drop the target, and they were now running as fast as they could away…because their target was chasing them!
It was Demon Fear! Boy what luck for Specter, and bad luck for those two idiots. They ran right past where he was perched and down the alleyway a bit. Specter tried to catch up but heard the sounds of a skirmish going on, trash cans went being flung around and bottles broke against the wall. In the time it took Specter to catch up Demon Fear had been ganged up on and was laying unconscious on the ground, the three oddly dressed ponies around him. Specter thought for a second about jumping in, till the big guy hefted the unconscious Zebra onto his back and started walking off. It had been a long time searching for this group, and if he had to follow some stallions down an alley and take on all three to see his personal mission succeed, then that’s what he’d have to do.
Little did Specter know, but this choice of his was about to land him in a bigger adventure than he’d planned on. One he’d remember till his final days, if he weren’t already a specter.
