Artist’s comment:
 
As Phoenix and Quick Silver were finishing up their breakfast in my Equestria dreamscape, another pony was finishing up business on their end.
 
Blank Check stared down at the mare who was lying bound on the stockroom floor. The earth pony started squirming in terror as the unicorn mare slowly closed her eyes.
 
“No! Please believe me! I didn’t betray you! I di–”
 
The mare never finish the sentence. Blank Check’s eyes snapped opened and her usually cold flint grey eyes were replaced with orbs of glowing white light. The mare on the floor vanished. No teleportation flash, no puff of smoke, no singe mark, the mare had simply ceased to exist. Blank Check closed her eyes again and when they opened they were her flinty grey again.
 
“We could’ve just whacked her and then dumped the body fer ya boss.” Said a bright orange unicorn with a fiery yellow and red mane. Heh! Or I could’ve torched her fer ya.”
 
Blank Check glared back at her. “We don’t have time to be fucking around with bodies Flash Point! Have you destroyed the documents as I instructed?”
 
The orange mare grinned at her employer. “Oh yeah! They’re nothing but fine grey ash now mingling in the sewer water of Manehattan.” She reached up and quickly tapped her horn with a front hoof. “I torched enough paperwork to make this thing toasty warm. I think it might singed my mane in the process. Does it look burnt to ya?”
 
Blank Check gave Flash Point a deadpan stare. “Your mane is fucking fine! Are you ready to leave?”
 
“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. We’re all ready to go. Well except fer Prophecy. She’s been freaking out all morning.”
 
“Can you be a bit specific?” Growled Blank Check as she walked past Flash Point and left the stock room. Her lieutenant followed and settled into a walk alongside her. The unicorn sighed.
 
“Oh come on Blank! Ya know that most of us have no clue what she’s saying even when she’s not freaking out! When she gets like this she’s a gibbering spaz!”
 
“It is because of her advice that we’ve haven’t been caught. So cut that so-called spaz some fucking slack! Where is she?”
 
“Last I saw her she was mumbling to herself in your room.” Said Flash Point as she paused and admired the sheen on one of her front hooves.
 
The pale pink unicorn grunted. “I’ll go talk to her. Go down to loading docks and make certain the regular associates know their plans for tonight. Have them recite their instructions back to you.”
 
The mare rolled her eyes. “Oh come! They’ve been over this shit a hundred times already!”
 
“Well then reciting it for one hundred and one time should be a fucking breeze for them now won’t it?”
 
“And if they haven’t got it?” Asked Flash Point.
 
“Then torch one of the fuckers and see if that helps jog their damn memories!”
 
Flash Point grinned and went to carry out her orders.
 
Blank Check made her way upstairs to her room. Actually it had been the warehouse manager’s office before she’d converted into a makeshift bedroom. This warehouse wasn’t owned by her Association, but the owner owed her a huge favor. So she’d cashed it in. The last week had been a game of cat and mouse staying ahead of Royal forces that had looking to arrest her. According to the newspapers she was the most senior member of the Blood Mane Association that had not been caught or killed. She planned to keep that way, and with any luck her and a few of her most trusted soldiers would be slipping out of town tonight.
 
One of the things that had kept Blank Check and her crew out of custody had been Prophecy. The mare had been able to accurately steer them clear of the many traps and ambushes set for them. That alone had earned her Blank Check’s protection and support.
 
Reaching the door to her temporary room the mare paused and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she gently swung the door open and stepped into the room.
 
The blinds had been drawn and oil lamps in the room extinguished. From the shadows she could hear the tiny sounds of a mare sobbing. As Blank Check’s eyes adjusted to the darkness she was able to make out the silhouette of the young mare lying on divan that had been brought in.
 
“Prophecy. It’s me.” The mare spoke softly. “I’m going to light one of the lamps okay?”
 
There was a change in the sound of sniffles. From past experience Blank Check translated that as being Prophecy’s way of saying okay. The crime boss’s horn sparkled a little and the oil lamp on the floor slowly came to life. With more illumination in the room the older mare could see her charge. Slowly she walked over and began stroking her mane.
 
“Hey now. What has you so upset?” She cooed softly. Prophecy was the only pony under her command that she spoke to with this type of kindness. “Can you tell me please?”
 
Prophecy was young unicorn mare of 19 years. She’d been with Blank Check for the last 4. The warm of the light from lamp danced off the dark bay mare’s coat and lanky black mane. It also turned her stark white blaze and matching on socks on her front legs a creamy yellow. She stared the older mare with ice blue eyes.The eyes were highlighted by black vertical stripes that ran down her cheeks.
 
“It makes no sense. It makes no sense at all!” Muttered the younger mare in frustration. “It keeps changing, shifting, morphing. I can’t make any sense of it!”
 
The older mare continued to stroke her mane as she spoke. “What makes no senses dear?” Prophecy possessed a very special and rare talent. A talent that only very a small number of Blank Check’s lieutenants knew of. It was a talent so rare that many ponies didn’t even believe it was real. Accurate, consistent clairvoyance. Usually no more 12 hours in advance, but that advantage had helped Blank Check rise to where she was in the underworld and had saved her life several times.
 
“What’s going to happen to night!” Prophecy shivered. “It’s, it’s like someone is playing with the future, and keeps swapping things out! It’s all a jumble of images and sounds, and, and…”
 
The mare’s body went tense for a second and then relaxed. As Blank Check watched Prophecy’s eyes slowly rolled up into her the top of head. Like the drums on a slot machine the ice blue irises were replaced by garnet red irises that rolled into place. A scowl settled onto the mare’s face and in a firm, confident voice the mare resumed speaking.
 
“There is a high probability that our enemy will attempt to thwart our efforts to move out of the city tonight.”
 
Blank Check groaned. One because of chance of running into the law. Second because Viper had shown up now. Along with her clairvoyance, Prophecy had a couple of what she referred to as Riders. They seemed to be certain facets of the mare’s subconscious according to the experts that Blank Check had been able to have examine the young mare. The older mare had taken great care to assure that these experts were appropriately paid, promoted, extorted, threatened, or in a couple of cases permanently silenced so they’d keep their mouths shut afterwards about what they’d seen.
 
However what Blank Check had learned about the research that Prophecy’s biological parents had been conducting she wasn’t so sure of the experts conclusions. The freakish eyes were one point. The experts had assured her that it was just spontaneous illusions generated by the young mare’s subconscious during her episodes. Viper was one of the two Riders and the most frequent. At least she made some sense.
 
Blank Check sighed. “Are the police going to try and fuck up our plans Viper?”
 
The young mare shook her head. “I perceive them as being involved, but it’s another element that I am sensing. A very fluid, dynamic, and dangerous element. It might be the military but whatever they are….”
 
The mare convulsed and once again her eyes started rolling up into her head. Usually this signal the end of an episode and the return of Prophecy’s normal personality. However instead of the mare’s normal ice blue eyes a pair of vivid emerald green eyes with horizontal rectangular pupils rolled into view. This was Creeper.
 
“I see a dark form holding two bowls with the sands of time in them.” Hissed the mare. “The figure is pouring the sand back and forth between the two bowls. This figure seeks to thwart your destiny mistress.”
 
The crime boss groaned. Creeper’s predictions were almost impossible to translate since they were always given in this cryptic fashion. Blank Check took a deep breath. “Any thing else you wish to tell me?”
 
The mare began moving her head around slowly as if she was looking for something in the room. Her gaze fixed on the far wall. Then something happened that Blank Check had never observed. Creeper froze and look of horror crept across the young mare’s face. After a few seconds she spoke softly.
 
“Extinction is coming for us all, and it’s wearing a red bow.”
 
Blank Check groaned. “Thanks.”
 
To be continued.