Mareton's head fell straight off.

It plopped to the ground by Dell's hooves. Dell reared back and screamed.

Bravado stared at the head in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes. There was no way he could have done that. What had just-

He realized everypony and everyzebra in the street was staring at him. Including three winged zebra guards.

Bravado uttered a curse under his breath and took off through the crowd.

Of course the winged zebras had the advantage, since they could fly over the crowd while Bravado had to plow through it. But most of the zebras and ponies rushed to get out of Bravado's way.

The explorer dashed down a short, narrow alley and emerged into another bright street, this one a bit less crowded. The alley was too narrow for the guards to fly through, so they had to stop and land to continue the chase.

Bravado thought he'd lost them, but to be sure he decided to find another hiding place. He ducked into an antique shop and banged into a griffon.

"Hey!" Storm Talon growled. "Watch where… oh. It's you again."

"Bravado?" Daring Do said, setting down the green vase she'd been looking at. "How many more times-"

"Hide me," Bravado said. "The guards are chasing me."

The two young pegasi sisters slid a rack of oriental rugs aside a bit. Bravado dashed behind it just as the guards came in.

"Have you seen a gray earth pony with a red mane?" one of them asked in Marabian.

"What?" Daring Do said in Equestrian. "Speak slower!" Then she turned and whispered excitedly to Storm Talon, "Honey, do you think we could get a picture of the kids with these guards?"

The guard stared at her in annoyance, then ran out the backdoor, muttering about tourists.

"Don't call me honey and don't try to fool anypony into thinking I'm your husband," Storm Talon hissed at Daring as soon as the guards were gone. "Seriously, I'm older than your father…"

"Gracias," Bravado said to the two girls. He slowly pushed the rack to one side so he could climb out, wondering why the girls were staring at him oddly.

Then he looked at his front hooves and realized they were sticky with blood and dirt.

"Ah…" he said. "I suppose I ought to explain why the guards were chasing me…?"

"Yeeeeeeeeah, I think you owe us that much. At least." Daring said.

Bravado sighed. There was no way these guys would ever believe him. He didn't believe it himself.

"Well, short version, they think I killed Sebastius Mareton," he said.

"Well, did you?" Storm Talon said.

Bravado shook his head and stared at his bloody hooves. Apparently something had actually happened. "I have no idea. I really don't," he said softly.

"Why?" Daring said. "How can you not be sure?"

"Well it sure looked like he died, but heads are not supposed to just fall off when you punch them. It was like his head had already been cut off and I just knocked it loose."

Daring blinked. "Uh, maybe it had."

"But he was talking to me just a second before my hoof connected… I just… I'd think I've been in the sun too long or had too much to drink or something… but this blood got here somehow, and those guards were chasing me for some reason…" Bravado looked at his hooves and had a sudden horrible thought. What if he'd killed somepony else- while he was blacked out or something- and he'd just hallucinated killing Mareton to take the place of that traumatic memory?

No, that was silly. That kind of stuff didn't happen.

Neither did talking sadistic bears, ponies turning into clockwork automations, Smooze, cutie pox…

Scratch that. Any kind of stuff could happen.

"The guards will be back any minute," the oldest pegasus sister, Sandstorm, whispered.

"Okay," Bravado said, wiping his hooves on a red oriental rug. "I guess I'll just try and blend in with the vendors or something… Gracias again, mis amigos."

He stepped out the antique shop and banged into an abada who was searching through a barrel of knives.

"Watch where you're going!" the abada snapped.

"Oh, hello again," Bravado said.

"Bravado?" Daring said, following him outside. "Do you know this abada?"

"He's the guy who bought a bunch of knives from me before," Bravado said.

"Absolutely correct," the abada said in perfect Equestrian. "If you happen to have any…"

He trailed off as Storm Talon came out of the shop. Then the abada raised one hoof, which was encased in a black leather 'glove', and pointed in the griffin's direction. "I'll give you fifty jangles for that, if you're willing to sell," he told Bravado.

"It's not mine to sell anymore," Bravado said, looking at Daring.

Storm Talon unhooked a dagger from his belt. "What, this knife? This is worth a lot more than fifty of your (censored) worthless (censored) you call money."

"I meant the griffin," the abada told Daring. "Maybe sixty jangles. I've come into some money recently."

Daring was taken aback. "Storm Talon isn't for sale."

"Are you sure?" the abada said, apparently not noticing the fury gathering on Storm Talon's face. "I would think you'd find him a bother to take care of. And really, I'm giving you an amazing deal here, seeing as he's defective merchandise. I mean, missing a leg and a wing and a tail? You should be happy you're getting paid for him at all; if I wanted to I could just pick him up and-"

"-get mutilated for you troubles, you (censored)!" Storm Talon shouted, whacking the abada on the head with his prosthetic wing.

Storm Talon was not normally very testy about ponies commenting on the various limbs he'd lost over the years, which had been replaced by prosthetics. But the circumstances were hardly normal.

The abada seemed too outraged to speak for a moment. "I cannot believe you just did that!" the abada said, glaring at Storm Talon. "Do you have any idea who I am? I am Doctor-"

"Doctor Zerato!" a young looking guard said in Marabian, flying out of the antique shop. "All right, put 'em up!"

"Oh, you must be new," Doctor Zerato said in Marabian, not appearing concerned.

"Red Shield!" an older guard said, starting to follow him.

"No, stop where you are," Doctor Zerato said. "Now that I think about it, a winged zebra will work just as well. And you shouldn't harass valuable citizens."

The older guard backed off. "I-I'm sorry…" His voice was oddly quiet.

"What?" Red Shield said, looking nervously from the doctor to the other guard.

"Nothing," Doctor Zerato said, resting his black-gloved hoof on the front of Red Shield's throat. "Hold still. This won't hurt too much."

"What-"

Sharp talons sprung from the black leather glove. They dug into the soft flesh of Red Shield's neck. Then Doctor Zerato ripped the zebra's throat out.

Red Shield collapsed onto the ground, blood flowing into the dirt.

Bravado's eyes bugged out. That escalated quickly.

"What did-" Daring started as she shielded the eyes of the younger pegasi with her wings.

"Nopony move!" Doctor Zerato shouted, pulling his white lab coat off and flinging it over the zebra guard.

Daring and Bravado gasped again. Doctor Zerato had been hiding a pair of wings under his lab coat, wings that didn't seem to belong on his body- like they'd been grafted on. They were huge wings, strong and muscular, with brown feathers.

Griffin wings.

"Nopony try and follow me," Doctor Zerato said, wrapping the zebra guard up and beginning to flap his wings. "He's mine, you hear me? All mine!"

He flew up into the air and off across the city.

Neither of the remaining winged zebra guards made any attempt to follow the doctor. They turned to each other and shook their heads sadly.

"What will we tell Red Shield's parents?" one of them asked.

"Hey!" Daring said. "Tell them what? What was that guy's deal?"

The guards turned back to Daring. One arched his eyebrow. "Huh, I thought you only spoke Equestrian."

Daring and Storm Talon glanced at each other. "W-well…" Daring said.

Bravado sighed inwardly. He could only think of one way to get Daring out of this.

"All right!" he shouted in Marabian, lunging forward and grabbing the littlest pegasus. "That's it. So much for your acting skills, you silly pegasus!" Bravado pulled out a knife and pressed it to the young pegasus' throat. "If you won't hide me, then you'll never see this girl again!"

The older sister screamed. Daring gaped at Bravado.

"Play along," he said in Equestrian.

"N-no!" Daring shouted in Marabian. "Don't take her! Please!"

"You stay away from me," Bravado told the guards in Marabian, waving a knife at them, "or this cute little girl gets her throat slit."

The guards backed off, sat down on their haunches and held up their hooves. "We give."

"What?" Storm Talon said in Marabian, wheeling around on the guards. "That's it? That's all? You are just going to let him get away with it? You'll let him just kidnap a little filly like that? What kinds of guards-"

Bravado dashed away, half-dragging the filly behind him. "I'm going to let go; pretend you're escaping, okay?" he whispered to the kid in Equestrian. The he let go of her hoof.

Gentle Flower dashed back to her sister. Bravado ran through a crowd, hoping to lose himself from the sight of the guards.