“Hopefully there’ll be no reports tomorrow. Normally, ponynaps don’t happen at all. But here we are, with 17 missing ponies to look for, possibly more missing.” The chief of the Ponyville Police Department spoke. It had been a while since the PPD had tackled a ponynapping case and even then, it was never on such a scale. “With the ponynapper still on the loose, I expect more cases tomorrow, though I expect them to be at the minimum.”
Mayor Mare had been in the meeting room with the chief and the entire PPD staff. Due to the cases being so minuscule in Ponyville, the number of officers present were four, excluding the chief. They sat in the small meeting room. Outside, rain was pouring all about Ponyville and its surrounding areas. The rain and cloud sector of the weather factory really were getting back on their rearhooves. The meeting room’s double door entrance was closed as not to let the rain in and was flanked by two officers who were also attending the meeting. The four ponies sat at the table, trying to find ways to persuade one another to go their own way. On the maple table in front of them, a file with the missing ponies reports lay.
Mayor Mare wanted to have at least one pony who would agree with her about letting the public know of the loose ponynapper. Everypony who had been ponynapped were ponies that were active, and busy with their daily lives. They have nothing on them when they go out. However, if one were to stay in a familiar place and would have access to all defensive or offensive items within that familiar place, chances are that they’d catch the ponynapper very soon. Ponies that isolate themselves with whatever they could within their reach were so much safer compared to ponies who went about the streets without any sort of self-defence. The only thing that could be hidden was the force of bucks that could be used by certain ponies. Same thing went for unicorns. Nopony could tell the power of a buck from an earth pony or the magical capabilities of a unicorn.
However, seeing as to how persistent the chief is being, it might actually take a lot more logic to talk him into Mayor Mare’s idea.
“The only thing we can do now is to alert the public. We wouldn’t want any other pony getting kidnapped right?” Mayor Mare raised a question.
“And just how, by turning the public into a stampede of terrified ponies, are we going to do that?”
Mayor Mare voiced her opinion. Being the mayor, one of the advantages one gets is the power of speech. Mayor Mare delivered her opinion smoothly, as if the words were lubricated with butter. As the logic seeped into the chief’s mind, Mayor Mare heard mumbling between the two other officers that sat around the table. They were giving Mayor Mare approving looks. Success.... At first the words slowly got into the chief’s mind. Then, like a hurricane, the logic struck. If logic could be measured with force, then the force of the logic hitting the chief’s thick skull would be enough to level a whole building.
The chief sunk down in his seat, deep in thought. If he stuck with his opinion, there might be more lives in stake. But others running in panic wouldn’t help even the slightest bit. With isolated ponies, no one would be around to report a missing pony should there be another ponynapping case. This would mean more would go missing and not a single pony would know. Even if they did know, the chances of getting ponynapped on the way to PPD were high enough with the streets being so desolate.
Mayor Mare could only watch as the exasperated chief sat there. Not so stuck up now, right chief? Mayor Mare could have laughed had her years of politics not harden her sense of humour. Mayor Mare used to be the kind that would laugh even at a stupid joke. Not necessarily because it was funny, but because it was heartwarming. Mayor Mare had a wonderful laugh, she had to admit, but recently she started laughing less and less. And with the current case in their hooves, she doubted that she would laugh anytime soon. The crisis must end quick.
“If I may, chief?” An officer at the table spoke. The chief looked up at the officer. Even without the chief telling him to speak, the officer knew when to. The chief’s eyes had granted him permission.
“Forgive me sir, but I would have to agree with Mayor Mare. I mean, if what you are doing is right, then countless of other ponies could fall victim to whatever is going on at the moment. I pray to Celestia it doesn’t happen, but with so many going missing without others knowing, wouldn’t it be easier for the public to know what is going on? The population declining would not go unnoticed.”
The chief gave what the lad said a thought. “Well, if everypony were to stay at home, all for themselves to stay, “safe”, as you may call it. Okay, try imagining, if one isolated pony were to go missing, would anypony around be able to notice? With everypony hiding themselves, nopony would notice. If one were to go missing, others would assume that the missing pony would still be hiding. That’s the bad thing. And if anypony went missing, no one would come in and report. Hell, if we’re lucky, somepony might just come in to report a failed ponynapping attempt.”
The officer said nothing. Clearly the chief would still emerge the victor in this debate. If was as if the chief himself was familiar with whatever was going on, which he did. Nothing much could be said as the officer sat there quietly, pondering anything else he could use against the chief. He knew that he would feel bad if the chief were to lose the argument, but there were lives at stake. He couldn’t just clam up and say nothing else that comes to mind.
“The ponies that reported the missing ponies, do they have any description on the perpetrator?” Mayor mare voiced out. The chief took the file on the table, and started fanning through. With every page he went through, Mayor Mare saw nothing on the chief’s face. It was as if he showed no emotion as he fanned through the file. Mayor Mare was a rather good face reader, but the chief’s face was just unreadable. Mayor Mare was surprised. Normally in cases like these, there would be a look of either stress or fear on a pony. Anypony fanning through a file about victims would feel something.
The chief set the file back down, his face still expressionless. “No witnesses. In all of the cases, I was hoping for at least one witness.” The chief sighed before continuing. “Most of the reports stated that the missing ponies were out minding their own businesses, but they never came back. Which supports my suggestion that the public would be more in danger of staying home than in public.”
Mayor Mare was confused. If the victims were out in public with so many ponies around them, how can staying at home be more dangerous than staying in public? Mayor Mare must have thought out loud, because as if what she just thought was received by the chief, he continued.
“The reason why I say so is because, even in public, there are no witnesses to a ponynapping. It’s like what I said just now. Most of the ponies in Ponyville live independantly. Even if everypony was living with another pony, that wouldn’t mean that everypony wouldn’t have their own businesses to take care of. Take the Apple family for an example. One of the reports had said that one of the members of the family, Applejack, frequented travelling alone. Or take another report from Canterlot, this mare named Lyra. According to the report, Lyra had gone to give music lessons. She didn’t come back.”
The officer next to Mayor Mare raised a hoof. Mayor Mare could see her name tag clipped to her uniform. Carrot Top. Isn’t she one of Berry’s best friends? Mayor Mare had seen Carrot Top go to bars with Berry on several occasions, both of them returning home as drunken stupors. The chief looked over at the mare with curly carrot-orange mane. He waved at hoof at her, signalling her to proceed.
“I suggest adding patrols around town. With police making regular patrols around town, there wouldn’t be as much cases as we have now. With that, the public might not panic as much as you think they might when we tell them about the missing ponies. At least, even if they do get worried, they would be happy to know there would be police patrols around. The town isn’t that big, so it should be an easy task.”
Mayor Mare mentally facehoofed. Why didn’t I think of patrols around town? Carrot Top was right. Patrols might just lower the rate of crime in the town. Not that much crime goes on. The ponynappings might go down, though by not so much. The chief and the officer next to him thought over it. Well I’ll be... The chief couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Very well, Mayor Mare, let the public know what’s going on. But first, tell them about the patrols. And tell those that are close with the victims to stay calm, and that police are already investigating the case.”
A look of satisfaction came to Mayor Mare’s face. Just then, there was a banging on the doors of the meeting room. The two officers at the door turned to unlock the door. A filly tumbled in through the doors, messing up her pinkish-purple mane. She coughed momentarily, got up and fixed her mane.
“Somepony tried to ponynap me!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
Elsewhere, the mane three were trying to get into office number four the door was under a combination lock. Applejack was going through the list and photographs. Rainbow Dash was bucking the door and Twilight was searching for something in the hallway.
“Hey Rainbow, where the hay are we anyway?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow Dash paused, her rearhooves sore. Apparently she hadn’t learned from bucking the steel door earlier one floor below. She didn’t understand how Berry could have bucked Applejack’s door so easily. Alcoholic strength. Dash giggled, and immediately felt bad afterward. She coughed before telling Applejack. “You know the meadow on the way to your farm, Applejack? You’re in the office in that meadow. I was in one of the cottages, if you didn’t know that. Twilight herself was in one of the offices below.”
Twilight’s ears perked up, and she turned around to face Rainbow Dash. “You called me Dash?” she said. Dash laughed, and replied, “It’s nothing!”. Applejack shook her head. Rainbow sure can be a joker in times like these. Twilight shrugged, and continued searching the hallway. “Hey Twilight, what are you looking for anyway?” Twilight once more turned around to reply. “You know, Berry went out with her knife, right? I’m just wondering that when they took Berry did she leave her knife behind. At least have Applejack use something much better.”
“Oh.” was all Dash could say. She returned to the steel door she had been bucking earlier, now riddled with dents. Applejack snickered at Dash, to which she glared back at Applejack. “That’s not how ya’ buck ya’ silly pony! Let me do it.” Rainbow Dash stepped aside, giving room for Applejack to buck at the door. Applejack took in a deep breath, and a moment later she bucked at the door. The door didn’t budge. Rainbow Dash rolled on the floor laughing at Applejack.
“That’s one hell of a strong door we’re facing here.” Applejack grunted.
“Aha! Found it!” Twilight exclaimed. “Or at least some part of it.” The two ponies were staring at Twilight, not that she was looking at them anyway. Twilight found the hilt of the knife, with the blade missing. “Hey girls, watch your steps, there’s a missing blade around here.” Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked around, only Rainbow Dash responding, “I think I found the blade! But ugh, it’s bloody!” Rainbow Dash used some of the carpeting to wipe the blood off and took it in her mouth. This tastes awful. She handed the blade over to Twilight, who fused the hilt with the blade without a second’s waste.
Applejack once more bucked at the door, hoping to bring it down. This might take a while. She gave the door one last buck and, bearing no results, sat down. Scratching her head at the huge dents she had cursed the door with. It was then that Applejack noticed the combination lock on the door. Why didn’t Twilight do something about the lock? Anything that has dem fancy mathmatics should be easy for Twilight. Applejack called out to Twilight. “Hey Twilight, come over here!”
“Wait.” Twilight took the knife by the hilt and walked over to Applejack’s back. Before Applejack could ask, Twilight kept the knife in one of Berry’s saddlebags. Twilight then walked over to the door and looked at Applejack. “Yes?”
“Can ya’ try one of yer’ spells to find the combination to the lock on the door?” Applejack pointed at the lock. Twilight eyed the lock. The lock had roughly 5 digits tumblers to spin through. “I’ll try. But first, I have to take this brace out of my saddlebag. Wouldn’t want to pierce it anymore.” But then a thought came to Twilight. The leather brace in my saddlebag from earlier had pierced my bag three times. I thought they were supposed to sink inwards, not pierce outwards. Confused, Twilight took the leather brace out of her saddlebag and set it down on the carpeted floor near the spot Rainbow Dash had wiped the bloody blade on.
“Stand back.” Twilight cautioned to Applejack, to which she did step back. She nearly bumped into Rainbow Dash, who was also looking over in curiosity Twilight then proceeded to test out a spell. Immediately, the leather strap’s lights started flashing and a beeping resonated in the hallway aside from Twilight’s needle collar. Three seconds later, a needle shot out of the needle brace, harmlessly rebounding off a wall.. The three exchanged surprised glances.
“Is that thing supposed to do that?” Applejack asked Twilight. “I don’t think so. Those things are supposed to go inwards. You see those things around my rearhooves? The needles are supposed sink into my hooves if I tried magic, if you didn’t remember.” Twilight looked over at the brace. She studied it over and over in a matter of seconds. Twilight fitted the brace loosely over her right forehoof, much to the other two ponies’ surprise.
“Twilight what the hell are you doing!” Rainbow Dash shouted at Twilight, to which she winced at the pain in her ears. Dash noticed this and immediately lowered her voice. Applejack glared at Dash. Dash blushed and apologized.
“Please don’t shout Dash, my ears hurt everytime you do so. Anyway, I’m trying to find out if this thing has another function.” Twilight explained.
“Whad’ya mean Twilight?”
“Like I said, the needles are to sink into me everytime I cast a spell as long as three seconds. But when I took the brace off and put it in my saddlebag, the needle brace shot out the remaining needles while I was trying to revive you. Right now, I’m trying to see if the needles will sink inward or shoot outward.” Twilight took a deep breath, and proceeded to light her horn. The beeping on the needle brace started once again, and the lights started flashing. Three seconds later, a needle sunk in. Twilight had withdrawn her hoof just in time to avoid the needle sinking into her forehoof.
Twilight let out a sigh, and sat down on the floor, panting. “That was a really close one.” She said.
“What were ya’ trying to discover, Twi?” Applejack asked curiously.
Twilight recovered her posture and her breathing before answering Applejack. “Well now I got one thing clear. When my hoof is inside the needle brace, the needle will sink into my hoof. But if there’s nothing inside the brace, the needles will shoot outward. I think we found ourselves another thing to use.”
Three of the eight needles were used. Twilight left the leather brace on the floor, though much further to avoid further danger from the needles firing outward. Twilight then faced the steel door the office number four, and aimed her horn at the combination lock. Slowly Twilight’s horn glowed a bright green. For a moment nothing happened, then slowly the 5 digits on the lock started moving. As the zeros began moving, the bright green glow from Twilight’s horn turned a dark red. The first two digits came to a stop, which Twilight took to mean that the first two digits are correct. The spell continued until the other three numbers came to a stop.
The correct digits were painted red, which further strengthened the fact that the digits were right, and the lock clicked. Slowly, the deadbolts on the other side began to unlatch. Rainbow Dash must have sensed something about to happen, because she zipped past the door and crashed into the two, smashing them into a wall. Before the two ponies could wonder what happened, a cannonball was fired out into the hallway, destroying the wall of office three.
Twilight and Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash, bewildered. She may have saved both of them, but the only thing that came to their minds was just how she had done so. Rainbow Dash answered before either of the two ponies could ask. “I heard the cannon system thingy operate while the door was opening. I’m surprised you girls didn’t notice.”
Applejack had heard Pinkie Pie explain how her party cannon had operated a while back along with the rest of the mane six. She couldn’t keep up, and would understand if the others didn’t keep up as well. Twilight herself couldn’t keep up with what Pinkie Pie had said considering her rapid firing of words, but she could pretty much understand how the cannon worked. However, rigging a cannon to shoot when a door is opening was just unheard of.
For the first time since she woke up, Twilight thought of Celestia and what she could be doing at such a critical time. Somehow she must know that we're missing, right? Twilight sighed. I hope she can find us.