Every pony in Equestria knows the names Octavia Philharmonica and Vinyl Scratch. Every musician in Equestria knows and reveres their talent and most semi-jokingly complain that Octavia and Vinyl's relationship should count as a monopoly on musical talent. Very few know their early story, years ago when Octavia had only just left Canterlot Conservatory and Vinyl was... well, being Vinyl.
Total Words: 1,716,317
Estimated Reading: 4 days
Monster attacks. Crime. Illegal hallucinogens made from electric fruit.
They say things didn't use to be like this. They say things were different, before Luna came back 60 years ago, but Detective Hard "Hardy" Boiled of the Detrot Police Department has never known any world other than that demarcated by the seedy streets of his beloved decaying metropolis; a world in which the coroners sing and dance, surveillance bugs have personality disorders, and the Chief of Police is a scarier entity than most of the eldritch things the city attracts.
The grey unicorn who turned up dead outside the posh High Step Hotel seemed like just another case, but her missing horn is the pointy tip of a very large and nasty iceberg. It's up to Hardy and his friends - a rejected monster hunter, a psychic cab driver, and an underground antiques heir - to find out what’s going on in an investigation that promises to stick more than a cupcake into the very eye of Detrot.
Especially if Hardy has anything to say about it.
By Popular Demand, there is now a Patreon
Additional editing by coandco Sig_Awesome, Hinds, Clint, and Raccoon!
Featured on EQD - 5 Stars!
Cover art by MisterMech (http://mistermech.deviantart.com/)
Now with TVTropes page here!
[Complete! With TVTropes apparently!]
Also, apparently, an animated trailer.
In a world of brass and steam, Twilight Sparkle had thought she had made a life-changing discovery with the invention of the telescope. For better or worse, she was correct.
Now her discovery has not only changed her life, but the lives of those she seeks out in her desperate attempt to contact the only other creature as lonely as Twilight herself.
It all would have been much simpler, but it had to be the one Twilight could only call The Mare on the Moon.
Decidedly not within walking distance, then.
[Featured on EQD before story was meant to be submitted. 4/03/2015]
[Editing team: Southpaw, Wolfvenom, Maskedferret, SwanSong and BluePaladin42, without whom this story would be a fraction of its current state.]
[Special thanks to Novel-Idea for the updated cover]