//------------------------------// // Act 2, Chapter 24: Blood and Family // Story: Starlight Over Detrot: A Noir Tale // by Chessie //------------------------------// Starlight Over Detrot Act 2, Chapter 24: Blood and Family The Equestrian cutie mark is a powerful advantage; in fact, one might say it is a key factor in why ponies are the world's dominant species. This is not simply because of special talents. Every species has talented individuals. No, it is the search itself that provides a large portion of this edge. The hunt for one's cutie mark encourages innovation, experimentation, creativity, and persistence at a very early age; The longer one remains a blank-flank, the more these skills are learned. The result is a hardworking populace open to new ideas - and, as empirically determined, one tenacious and technologically advanced enough to win a war against dragons.     It's not entirely without downsides; not all experiments are successes, and some are rather spectacular failures. The economic damage caused by overzealous fillies and colts attempting to earn flank iconography probably numbers in the low 7 digits of bits annually. Most of this is lost productivity by parents attempting to get, say, sap out of horsehair, but occasionally an overzealous blank-flank will try for a cutie mark in vehicle racing and propel a car directly into somepony's living room, or get in a position to cause a low-intensity national pastry scandal. But the damage caused in the quest is a small price to pay in aggregate - even if some have to pay more than others. --The Scholar The day a pony gets his or her cutie-mark is supposed to be a gloriously happy day. It’s a celebration of self-discovery and of destiny found. Unfortunately, I remember the days before I got mine with the vividness only trauma will allow. My only comfort, down through the years, was that I hadn’t been alone.            Junior pounded down the stairs, rebounding off the wall that his mother, Dove Tail, had reinforced specifically because telling him not to was a lost cause; the wall held against his thin frame, even if he’d have liked a few more pounds on it. He skidded into the kitchen, barely pulling up before he hit the table. His bat, slung on a strap around his chest, slid forward and nearly clocked him on the side of the head. “Mom! Mom! Can I go outside? I’m done with my homework!” he squeaked. For a colt his age, the squeak was forgivable, as was his lack of a cutie mark. Being a blank-flank would have been a bit less terrible if he could have defended himself. Karate classes had been a lost cause, because ‘discipline’ and ‘Hard Boiled Junior’ seemed to be opposites, though he’d found baseball a decent alternative. Not because he was any good at it, but because having a valid excuse to cart around a bat tended to discourage the bigger colts and fillies from trying to express childhood angst with violence upon his person. His mother, Dove Tail, stood in the kitchen with her chisel in her teeth and her thick brown mane covered in wood shavings. She was leaning over a beautifully carved race-car clamped in a vice, putting on the finishing touches. The small house’s kitchen often doubled as her work-space, since Hard Boiled Senior kept his guns in the garage. There’d only been a few incidences of wood chips in macaroni. She rolled her eyes as she heard him bounce off the wall, then tear down the hallway. Like father, like son. Setting her chisel to one side, she stepped back from her project. “Junior, your father’s going to be home in two hours for dinner. You’ll be home then, right?” “Yes, Mom!” She scratched her chin, looking like she was thinking, but mostly using it as an excuse to wipe mahogany out of her mahogany fur. “...You be careful if you’re going over to Sweet Shine’s house, you hear?” Junior frowned at his mother. “Come on Mom! Shiny’s an okay pony.” “It’s not Shiny I’m worried about, Junior… and when you get home, I wanna check your math. Thirty times thirteen does not equal ‘butt’,” she snickered, while her son looked a little downcast. “I thought that was funny…” “So did Miss Ampersand. Funny enough to call me today just to relay the joke. You should have Shiny tutor you. At least she knows when to be funny, and I’ll give you a tip. It’s when your math grade is higher than a C.” “Ugh, Shiny’d tutor me with my bat, Mom.” Dove Tail laughed and ruffled her son’s short black mane. “It might get through that especially thick head you and your father share! Now go on. Have fun.” **** Junior stood outside of Sweet Shine’s house, tossing rocks in the air and trying to hit them with his bat. Trying to do both the throwing and batting with your teeth is especially difficult, particularly when you don’t have ‘batter’s jaw’ and have to go pick up your bat after almost every swing. Even his muzzle guard didn’t stop him having to do that, although it kept him from losing teeth. He dropped his bat, spat out his guard and tugged his saddle-bag open, fishing out his old watch with the broken leg strap to check the time. Five minutes. Shiny was nothing if not punctual, but that day, she was five minutes late. He stuffed his guard and his watch into his bag, then slung his bat over his back, pacing up and down in front of Shiny’s mailbox. Sweet Shine’s house sat directly across from the Boiled residence, but the two could not have been more different. Where Dove Tail liked to do her own maintenance, such that every aspect of the facade and small, white washed porch were in perfect repair, Shiny’s parents were less fastidious.          As a matter of fact, their lawn would have done well as a scrap yard for old mining equipment. A barrel of pickaxes lay against a hunk of machinery whose original function might have been drilling or sorting or maybe even pie-making for all the likelihood it'd ever work again. The house itself wasn’t totally ramshackle, but the roof sagged in a couple of places and gutters were missing on both sides.          Junior thought it looked gloriously spooky, but he’d never been allowed over, so he didn’t know what it was like inside. He’d asked, a couple of times, especially considering all the time she spent at his place, but both his parents and his friend seemed to be against the idea, so he’d let it drop.          What he did know was that, about three nights a week, he heard shouting over there and the night before, it’d been especially bad. He couldn’t make any words out, but usually after her Mom and Dad had a bad fight, she’d come over to his place after the lights had all gone out over there.          Last night, she hadn’t. He checked his watch again. Ten minutes. “Hey! Hardy!” The sound was right beside his ear. He yelped and spun to see his friend grinning at him from the middle of the sidewalk. “Shiny! Sweet Celestia, don’t do that! I almost peed on my tail!” he gasped, putting one hoof over his chest to slow his breathing. “Where’ve you been?”          “What do you mean ‘where’ve I been’? I had to make sure everypony was gone or asleep before I left!”          Sweet Shine was a little bit taller than Junior, with a wild black and white mane. She was a blank flank, one of only two in their class. That was enough bond for two kids living through the slings and arrows of elementary school. Adults said her soft, pink eyes seemed ‘old,' but to Hardy, she was an endless font of energy. Every day, she’d have a new adventure in mind, plus she had the added bonus of being able to beat up any colt or filly in their class. That helped enormously, because Junior was a little on the small side. For a colt with a bat and a best friend, those days were good. “Okay, okay, no big deal. Sooo...what’re we doing today?” “I’ve got a couple ideas,” Shiny replied. “Dad won’t be home from the mine for at least two hours and Mom took her medication early. I’d have been here sooner if I’d known she was out cold, but Dad made me sleep downstairs last night so it took me a bit to get out of the window.” Junior glanced at Shiny’s single story house, then did his best to put the thought of ‘sleeping downstairs’ out of his mind. The boiler was in the basement, and Junior didn’t like his well-maintained, perfectly shined and functional boiler. The boiler in Shiny’s house must have been a real fire-breathing monster. Hefting his bat, he prepared for whatever quest they might be on. He hoped it wouldn’t involve spending bits. His allowance wasn’t for two more days and he’d already spent last week’s. Shiny never had any, but she somehow always managed to find fun anyway, even if it did mean getting chased out of the movie-theater now and then. “Alright, lead the way!” **** Sweet Shine seemed to go everywhere at a dead run. She never held back. It’d taken Junior a few weeks of knowing her before traveling from place to place didn’t leave him flatly out of breath. First stop was just up the road at the baseball pitch in the little park beside the school to collect some protection money. They pounded down the empty road, neck and neck, with Shiny pulling a little bit ahead, then Junior. He’d been getting stronger month by month, and soon nopony but his pegasus class-mates and Shiny could catch him. She made a thing of being a good sport, though, and sometimes even let him win. Rounding the corner at the end of their road, they saw the old groundskeeper, Mr.Sweep, a heavyset and older gentlecolt in a dusty cap and apron with bright blue eyes and an even bluer mane, standing beside the chain link fence surrounding the batting cage, surveying a scene of destruction. “Mister Sweep! Mister Sweep, sir! We’re here!” Shiny called out. “I saw them coming in this morning when I was on my way to class!” “Ahhh...kids. Good to see ye! Couldn’ta come earlier, could ye?” he said, with a big, cheerful grin. “Sorry, sir. I don’t think my last period teacher would like it if I skipped class,” she replied.  Junior would have said something similar, but he was still catching his breath. “It’s no worry. I’m just glad ye here. Ye come out and run this bunch off, I might just have things cleared up for game time night after tomorrow,” he said, waving the end of his broom toward the pitch. Dozens upon dozens of fat, contentedly slouching geese in browns and whites waddled around the field, quacking and beeping at one another conversationally. And pooping. Lots and lots of pooping. The geese were an annual menace, coming down from Las Pegasus and further north to kip at the little lake beside the field. Unfortunately, that meant that before every game, somepony had to go out and scrape up their poop; that was, unless a pair of enterprising young ponies could convince them to bugger off instead of roosting. Every few weeks, a new batch had to be taught who the bosses were. That was, after all, Junior and Shiny’s task, and what Mister Sweep paid them for. Nopony else wanted to go run around in goose poop. “Alright kids, here’s ye plastics.” Mister Sweep held out two sets of four rubber socks with padded bottoms. They were, in theory, for cleaning up plumbing spills, but they worked just as well with feces of all stripes. Junior and Shiny sat beside the pitch and struggled into their socks, wiggling their toes down into the latex. “First to fifty is goose crap!” the filly shouted, then charged a big gander who looked unimpressed until he found himself on the receiving end of full power earth-pony fury. “I got this one!” Junior called back, ducking low to crash underneath an especially chunky hen, sending her honking into the sky. **** A half hour later, they were both sweaty but feeling accomplished and Mister Sweep disposed of their stained socks, shelling out a few bits into both of their hooves. The field was clear of geese, with only a few stubborn holdouts quickly waddling off towards the lake. Back on the sidewalk, they trotted along, side by side, off to parts unknown; two mighty warriors, back from the battlefield, happy to be alive. “Oof, did you see me get that big one who tried to bite me? Betcha he was surprised,” Shiny giggled. “Yeah, especially when I jumped on his back when he tried to take off!” Junior nickered. His friend laughed, giving him a light bump with her shoulder. “You almost face-planted in poop when he whacked you with his wing.” The colt sniffed and turned around, flipping his tail at her. “I didn’t see you helping.” Grinning, he swung back and leapt at his friend, sending both of them crashing into the grass beside the road. Under normal circumstances, that would have prompted a wrestling match. Junior didn’t care that he usually lost. It was fun wrestling with Shiny. She was strong and smart and didn’t bite like other fillies did. Instead, Shiny screamed. It was one of those throat tearing screams that cracks at the end, emptying lungs and leaving ear-drums ringing. Junior yelped and quickly climbed off of his friend, who curled up on her side, clutching her stomach with both forehooves. She lay there, apparently in agony, her eyes pinched shut and tears leaking from the corners. He’d only seen Shiny cry on a few occasions, and never where anypony else might have seen her. “...Shiny?” he asked, cautiously, touching her rear leg with one hoof. “I’m… I’m okay…” she whispered, trying to uncurl. She got about halfway there, before her muscles seemed to seize. Now that he got up close, there seemed to be an ugly discoloration under the bright yellow fur on her side.          “Did you do all that running... with that?” he asked, gawking at the bruise.          Slowly, his friend pulled herself to her hooves, wiping grass out of her mane. “Yeah...so?” “Did you… fall down some stairs or something?” Shiny gave him a teary eyed look, then put her hoof on his face and gently pushed him away. “Yeah. Something. It was my fault. It’s nothing. I think you’re gonna win if we wrestle today, though. Can we just go get some ice-cream?” Something was off kilter, but Shiny had never been forthcoming and could still probably whip him in an actual fight, injured or not, so he didn’t want to push it. She sounded desperate to put whatever had happened out of her mind and he was relatively happy to comply. “Uh...yeah. Yeah, sure. Ice cream...” he replied, having not really heard most of her actual words; he was still trying not to look at the nasty purple marks. **** Contrary to their intentions, there had been a few stops on the way, but finally Shiny and Junior made it to ‘Sweet Eats Ice-Creamery and Delicatessen.' They sat across from one another at the ice-cream parlor, the only foals in the building at that time of the afternoon, sipping ice cream shakes that Junior’s mother would have called foul on for ruining his appetite. If she knew what he was doing for extra bits she might have something else to be upset about. Shiny’s mother never seemed to worry about such things, or at least, Shiny never brought it up if she did.          “Sooo… alright, ice cream, geese, tag, making Miss Bobble’s poodle bark so hard he peed himself, chasing ducks, climbing that tree to get somepony’s frisbee, and...what else is there to do tonight?” Junior asked, trying to avoid the subject that just wouldn’t leave him alone. Thoughts of Shiny’s injuries sat in the back of his head, refusing to accept the non-explanation she’d given him. His mother always said his curiosity would get him in trouble one day.          “I wish it’d hurry up and be tomorrow,” Shiny opined. “Daddy’s leaving town for another of his ‘trade union’ meetings. Him and those union ponies are going up to see the governor. He’s coming down from Las Pegasus.” “Well, your mom’s going to be around, right?” “Yeah, as much as she ever is. She and the mail pony, Ms. Goodie, are spending more and more time together when dad is out.” Junior sniggered and sucked a bit more of his shake. “You think they’re kissing?” Shiny didn’t laugh. She should have laughed, then maybe socked him, but she didn’t. She just looked a bit sad. “Uh… that was a joke,” Junior clarified. “I know,” his friend said, scratching her crazily mismatched mane. “Sorry, I’m a drag today. Daddy’s under a lot of stress and I should be making it easier for him, but I keep messing up...” “Do you want to go see the doctor about your side? Doctor Ham's clinic is just up the-” “No!” Shiny said, quickly. The ice-cream bar minder raised his head from behind his newspaper, made sure everything was alright, then went back to his reading. “I mean… no. It’s okay. Really. Doesn’t hardly hurt unless some dumb pony leaps on me.” She gave him a sharp look and he lowered his head. “Sorry…” “I’ll just brain you as soon as I’m not hurt. Anyway, come on. I need to get home.” Junior tugged his watch out and peered at it. “It’s barely five thirty. Your dad won’t be home for a half hour, right?” Shiny’s eyes went round as dinner plates. “Five thirty... Oh Celestia! I’m not supposed to be out! It’s going to take me more time to get in! Come on! I’ve got to get back!”          She was off her chair and out the door before the colt had a chance to protest. He paused to toss the bits for the ice-cream on the table, then wiped his muzzle with the back of his hoof and chased after his friend.          ****          They rounded the street corner just in time to catch the beaten, battered shape of a wagon turning into the house across from the Boiled residence. It was piled high with cardboard scraps, paint cans, wooden dowels, and a few rusting pick-axes. There were five houses and lawns between them and the basement window Shiny must have crawled out of.          An ancient, reptile part of the brain shouted ‘too much open ground’ in the back of their heads and the filly skidded to a half, then grabbed Junior’s leg and dragged him into the bushes at the side of the road. They peered out from between a pair of begonias at Shiny’s father, Stone Shine, as he began unhitching himself from the front of the wagon.          “Why are we hiding from your dad again?” Junior asked, in a low voice.          “I told you, I’m supposed to be home. I’m grounded because… well… because…” she hesitated, then shook her head. “He made me sleep downstairs and if he finds out I can get out, he’ll nail that window up.”          “Oookay, that’s… creepy, Shiny.”          Shiny’s gaze lowered. “It’s not his fault. I keep trying to do better, but since the mine closed down, everything’s been so...hard for him and I know I’m not helping and I sh… should stop sneaking out… because a good daughter doesn’t do stuff like... like that. I know I… I hurt him when I’m not there when he gets home. I… I try to keep the house clean, but mom takes her medication a few times a day now and while she’s on it she doesn’t want to do anything and I don’t think Daddy knows and Ms.Goodie is…”          Junior put his hooves up on his friend’s chest. “Shiny, Shiny… chill out. It’ll be okay. Really, we’ll get you back there and your dad will never know.”          “How? Do you have an invisibility cloak in your dumb saddlebags?” she grumbled.          He looked back at his green saddlebags and patted the Wonderbolts buckle. “My saddlebags are not dumb!”          “Yeah, well, that doesn’t make the question any different. What sort of magic plan do you have? Daddy’s going to go right in and call for me in like, two minutes. He’ll know I left! I’ll be grounded forever!”          “Shiny! Stop it! We’ve got to get you back! Now come on!”          With that, he grabbed his friend’s leg and dragged her behind the nearest house. They wiggled between the slats of one fence then hauled themselves over the top of another, dodging a snarling poodle that thought better of trying to assert his dominance when Shiny charged headlong at him and retreated instead underneath the porch.          Three more lawns and both Junior and Shiny were covered in leaves, tiny cuts, and sweat. Shiny in particular seemed to be having trouble and every time she took a breath, she clutched at her side with one hoof. Junior was worried. Usually he was the one getting worn out.          They’d made it, though, and together they crouched under the rose bushes beside Shiny’s house. Stone Shine was just finishing the job of unhitching himself from his wagon. Up close, the filly’s father cut a very imposing figure. He was almost a head higher than Junior’s dad, who wasn’t a small pony by any means, and his slate grey fur was patchy around the knees like it’d been worn off. His jaw was so square it would have been laughable on just about any other stallion, but a hard, cold edge in his eyes kept anypony from commenting on it. Junior squirmed a little, trying to push one of the bush’s thorns away from his hip. “Okay, where’s the window?” he asked. Shiny’s eyes were glued to her father, who couldn’t have been more than a few meters away. He was absorbed in unloading the wagon, slinging signs and buckets of paint on ropes over his wide barrel. She pointed in the general direction of the back of the house. Junior could just make out the edge of a window propped half open at ground height. “Shiny, listen, alright? I’ll go distract your dad. You go sneak in.” “What?!” the filly gasped. “Trust me. It’ll be fine.” “You’re nuts. Why do I hang out with a crazy pony?” “Because nopony else would chase geese with you. Now wait until you get a safe chance to run.” Reaching back into his saddle-bags, Junior pulled out the bright red frisbee they’d found in a tree. Giving it a good wind up, he took a deep breath and winged it as hard as he could across the street, over Stone Shine’s head, then he charged headlong at the giant stallion. At the last moment before impact, he shouted, “I got it!” then braced. He’d have done more actual damage if he’d hit a brick wall. The frisbee skidded into the street, rolling end over end as Junior smashed into Shiny’s father’s side and sat down hard, black spots dancing in front of his eyes. Stone Shine looked down at the little colt with an expression that said he was considering heavily whether or not to simply paste him with his enormous hooves. It wouldn’t have taken much. “Sorry, Mister!” Junior said, in as chipper and endearing a manner as he could. Rising on wobbly legs, he stumbled sideways and leaned against the wagon. Adults usually went for his bumbling foal act, particularly if he threw in a bit of stage injury and a stiff upper lip. Pretending injury after hitting Stone Shine didn’t require much acting. His forehead felt like he was going to have a goose-egg there. Fair trade for bullying all those birds. “You’re… that cop’s child, aren’t you?” Stone Shine growled, looking over his shoulder at the house across the street. “What are you doing on my lawn?” “Oh! Um, I was just out tossing my frisbee around and it went over there,” he answered, waving towards the space between the buildings, but Stone didn’t even glance that way. Reaching down, the stallion grabbed Junior by the scruff with his teeth, a little more roughly than necessary. The colt yelped as he was lifted off his hooves and carried over to the curb, where the bigger pony gave him a slight swing and sent him rolling end over end into the street. “Are you a stone, colt?” Stone Shine asked. “W-what, sir?” Junior asked, confused. “I don’t think your ears are broken. I asked if you...are a stone.” “N-no. I’m not a s-stone-” The big stallion’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve seen you with my daughter. She might not have told you this, but my talent is to dig the worthwhile things out of the chaff of the world, boy. I don’t care who your daddy is. You only get one warning. She is mine.” Stone Shine picked a rock that happened to be laying beside his mailbox, raised his hoof, and brought it down. Junior felt the ground shake with the impact. A blast of dust and shattered pebbles rose up around his leg and when he moved his hoof, the rock was gone. “You come onto my property again, we’ll break you open and see if there’s anything valuable inside.” Junior’s eyes darted over Stone’s shoulder and he tried to pick out Shiny down the way, but she was gone. He hoped, desperately, she’d managed to get back inside. “Uh… yes, sir. Sorry, sir.” Stone Shine didn’t reply, instead grabbing three more strings worth of paint cans and trotting up onto the porch, shoving open the front door with his shoulder, and disappearing inside. Junior just sat there for about ten seconds, taking deep breaths. That’d been way more intense than he’d thought it was going to be. He’d certainly seen Stone Shine in passing, but Shiny was usually very good about being home on time and they’d been friends for months without a situation like that developing. She’d always insisted on meeting him. Rising, he tried to get a look down the driveway at the window that Sweet Shine must have used to sneak in, but he was at the wrong angle. Sighing, he hiked his bat up higher, settled his saddlebags and fixed the straps, then trotted off to find the frisbee. **** Bored, bored, bored. Worried and bored. It was sixth period. School was about to be out, and he was worried. Mostly bored, but worried, too. Worried was not a natural state for Hard Boiled Junior. Adult ponies worried. He chased geese, played baseball, climbed trees, and generally enjoyed life. It was Shiny who had him worried, too, which made it worse. Sweet Shine was a pony about whom he was not used to worrying. She always seemed to shrug off the world, like it didn’t affect her. Sure, she might fall or bang her head, but she got right back up and went back at it. What she didn’t do was miss class. He’d once seen her come in sniffling and sneezing, shivering with fever. She just tossed her jacket around herself and kept taking notes. When the teacher had asked if she was alright, she’d said she was absolutely fine. Shiny was invincible, or so he thought, and yet he was staring at her empty seat. Finally, the bell rang. Junior was first out of the room and off down the street before morning announcements had finished. **** It was only as he rounded the corner onto his home street that it occurred to Junior that he didn’t know exactly what he was going to do about Shiny not showing up for school. Go knock on her front door? That sounded awfully stupid, especially after her dad’s threat. He could always tell his dad, but then what would that do? He slowed from a full on gallop to a contemplative trot as he moved down the rows of houses, his legs carrying him home while his young mind tried to unknot the tangled problem. Stopping by his own mailbox, he looked up at the sloppily painted letters that said ‘The Boileds’, and then across the street at his friend’s house and the lawn covered with junk. What was the worst that could happen? It wasn’t like Stone Shine could actually hurt him, right? Sure, he might tell his dad, but that would just be a scolding and he could explain he was worried about Shiny and then it’d be okay. So why was he scared? Truth be told, it was Stone Shine himself. Something just seemed so off about that pony. Telling himself he was being silly, Junior set his hooves and marched across the street. This self-reassurance had a very short half-life, because by the time he was stepping up onto the curb, he was overcome with a series of extremely nasty ‘What-ifs,' the least of which involved Stone Shine setting tigers loose on him. “Okay, so… sneaky. Sneaky where? Oh come on! You don’t even know where her room is… and now you’re talking to yourself,” Junior smacked himself on the forehead, trying to clear his thoughts. Downstairs. She said she’d slept downstairs the last couple of nights. Checking the driveway, he made sure Stone Shine’s wagon was gone, then bolted for the alley between Shiny’s house and the next. Wiggling himself into the spot they’d hidden the day before, he checked the street in both directions, then listened for any movement from the house. Nothing. He moved from under the rose-bush, keeping low to the ground, and snuck around until he could reach the window Shiny had pointed out. Putting his hoof up on it, he tried to peer in, only to be met by a piece of plywood nailed across the glass. “Huh…” he murmured. He moved down the back of the house. The backyard was, if anything, messier than the front. There were huge wheels from some vehicle he couldn’t identify stacked beside spools of wire and broken cogs that were bigger than he was. Like most things in a young colt’s life, Shiny’s back yard was usually out of his sight and therefore largely out of his mind. His friend had only moved in a couple of years ago and he hadn’t thought it at all odd that she kept them well away from that area. Now, however, the thought wouldn’t leave his head. Why hadn’t she ever invited him over? All that garbage laying out there would have made for fantastic games of hide and seek. He nosed around the outside edge of the house, listening for any movement inside that might have let on that he’d been nicked, but all was quiet. The windows all seemed to have been shut up entirely. Finally, frustrated, he slumped against the side of the house and scratched his ear. “Oookay… so, knock on the front door? Pretend I have a good reason to be here? Borrowing sugar or something?” he asked himself, feeling like his other options might have been exhausted. “Psst!” The voice was right near his flank and he let out a yell of surprise, then clapped both hooves over his muzzle.          Turning in circles, he looked for the source. He seemed to be alone.          “Shiny?”          “Down here, doofus!” his friend whispered.          Looking down, he found a tiny grate, barely six inches across, set into the base of the house’s brickwork.          Getting down on his belly, he wiggled up close. “Shiny, is that you?”          “Who else would it be?” she replied. He tried to peer through the grate and caught a glimpse of yellow fur and pink eyes. Something was off about the left one. It seemed darker, somehow, and there was a tinge of red in one side.          “Shiny!...why are all the windows nailed up? I thought we got you in clear and clean.”          “You did…” she exhaled, sadly. “Daddy was really angry last night. Something about the union ponies being ‘spineless’.”          “What’s that have to do with you?”          “I… um… It’s my fault, Hardy. Daddy told me I couldn’t go out and that I’d have to stay in. Then...he caught me when I tried to get out the window. I thought he’d gone to bed and-”          “Is… is that why you weren’t in class today?” Junior asked.          She nodded.            His eyes were adjusting to the darkness through the vent. He could just make out a little cot and a candle sitting on the table beside it. His friend was sitting on the cot, the fur around her eyes smeared with tears. She didn’t look like she’d had a bath since yesterday. There was still a spot of chocolate shake on her chin.          “Shiny… nopony deserves this! I’ll go tell Father and-”          “No! Hardy, don’t! Please don’t!” she begged, her eyes full of panic. “It’s… it’s my fault. Please, don’t. Daddy is just trying to help me...”          “Help you? I’m not gonna leave you down there. That’s stupid!” Junior exclaimed.          “No... Hardy, promise me. Promise you won’t tell anypony. I’ll go away and you’ll never get to see me again. Daddy’s already moved us a couple of times because somepony got too nosy about our lives. Please, I don’t… I don’t want to lose you…” she pleaded.          Junior’s ears flattened to his head. He didn’t know what to do. Sweet Shine was practically his only friend. He’d never been especially good at making friends and she was the only one he felt like he could really be himself with. Everypony else was intimidated because his dad was a police officer, or didn’t like him because he was a blank flank. There weren’t any other kids on his street, either, which didn’t help.          “I promise. I won’t tell anypony.” He put his toe against the grate and she touched it through the wire mesh. “I’m going to visit you every night, though.”          “C-could you bring my homework? I’ll be back to class soon, I hope. I don’t know how long I’m grounded for...”          “What did you do? My mom only grounded me like...once ever and that was because I almost burned the house down trying to get my fire-swallower cutie-mark.”          “I… um… it was bad. I fought Daddy about something. I defied him and...he...is teaching me my place. It’s right here. Please, go on. Daddy’s going to be home soon. I’ll see you later tonight, alright?”          “Uh... sure.”          Reluctantly, Junior rose, took one last look at the grate, then darted off back down the alley.          ****          That night, well after his parents had gone to sleep, Junior slipped out of his bed. He’d been distracted at dinner and had to spend an extra half hour with his mom working on math. His father noticed his distraction and asked about it. He’d felt bad saying he was just worried about a friend from school, because while it’d technically been the truth, it certainly didn’t encompass the whole truth.          Hauling on his bat and saddlebags, he poked through the messy hole that was his closet until he found his old checkers set and stuffed that in on top of Sweet Shine’s homework.          Tiptoeing downstairs, he eased the back door closed. It was, after all, the door farthest from his parents’ room.          Circling around the house, he waited for his night vision to catch up before darting across the street.          There was some arguing of some sort going on in the Shine household. He saw Stone Shine through the front window, sprawled out on his back across the couch in the flickering glow of the television. Sunshine, Shiny’s mother, was leaning against the doorframe of the living room.  Her white fur appeared off-blue in the illumination of whatever show was on. She seemed to be shouting something, but Junior couldn’t make out what. What he could see was a big, round bruise on her eye. Maybe clumsiness ran in the family?          Moving around the side of the building, he edged along the side, moving on the tips of his toes so has to disturb as little grass and gravel as possible. He almost tripped over a cog that’d been left in the hedge, barely catching himself on the side of the house.          After what felt like an eternity, he made his way to the back of the building and slid down onto his knees. In the dark, it took several minutes to find the vent.          Dropping down, he poked his muzzle against it and whispered, “Shiny. Shiny, you there?”          For a long moment, he was afraid she was back upstairs and he was wasting his time. Equally, he kind of hoped he was. Something about the whole situation seemed very, very wrong, but he didn’t know what to do about it. He’d promised, after all.          There was a flash of yellow, then bright, shining eyes appeared at the grate.          “Hardy... oh, Hardy! It’s... it’s really nice to see you,” Sweet Shine whispered. She still didn’t look like she’d had a bath. That bit of chocolate hadn’t moved.          “Yeah, yeah, don’t get all mushy,” he replied with a little smile, then reached back and pulled her homework out of his saddlebags. Rolling it up, he gently fed it through the grate, one piece at a time. “Here. I’ll come by tomorrow morning and take it to class with me.”          “Eesh... Thanks. Yeah, I’ve been so bored today… I hope this punishment is over soon. Daddy’s acting really funny. He keeps checking and rechecking this list. I asked him if I could help and he told me to go into my room.”          “Well, I did bring this, if you want to play,” he said, laying out his checkers board on the grass beside the grate.          “How’re we supposed to do that?” she asked, poking at the vent.          “You tell me where you want to move, and I’ll move for you. Duh!”          “Oh... right. Okay, I’ll take black!”          ****          It was two hours later when Junior, exhausted and thoroughly beaten at checkers, fell into bed. He thought he’d fall asleep immediately, but he couldn’t. His thoughts wouldn’t settle.          Junior had been grounded before, but never in the basement. That just felt odd. Shiny seemed to take it in stride, but she had always taken things in stride. Nothing seemed to ruffle her mane. Well, nothing except her dad. She rarely talked about him and when she did, she always started acting mopey and weird, so he was usually happy not to talk about Stone Shine whenever possible. Her mom was almost a non-entity.          It struck him, then, how little he actually knew about his friend of many months. He knew her likes and dislikes, what board games she liked to play, how she liked to sleep, --usually curled up in a little ball on the end of the bed-- and a few other details that he’d picked up, but did he really know her? He couldn’t say for sure that he did. She was very good at escaping from places, and sneaky as could be. He knew that.          He knew she liked collecting things. She’d once shown him a whole bunch of sparkly rocks and said she had lots of others at home. When they were out, she’d often pick up small stuff, like buttons or strange stones and put them in her saddlebags.   He knew her mom and dad didn’t get along as well as his mom and dad did. Sure, his mom and dad had disagreements, but they almost always sent him out of the room for them. That was almost the sum total of what he could actually think of just then. There was lots of little stuff, like how hard she tried in school and how she was always talking about traveling. No, not traveling. Running. She talked about escaping a lot, particularly on the nights she’d sneak over to his place after her parents had been at it. They’d lay together under his blankets, a flashlight between them, and talk for an hour or two before they fell asleep. Shiny was expected to take herself to school most days so her parents never missed her. Her dad was up and gone before she left and her mom almost always slept until noon.          It was funny, now that he considered it. He’d known her so long and his Mom and Dad were almost his whole life, but hers... well, it was funny. After her dad was angry, she’d say strange things, like how badly she’d screwed up, but it was always things his parents wouldn’t have even let him do, like cooking or trying to repair stuff in the house. Truth be told, he admired that she even could plunge out a toilet. The one time he’d attempted to get his cutie-mark in plumbing, his mom hadn’t let him have dessert for three whole days. What was slowly occurring to him was that if he was going to be friends with her, he definitely needed to know more about what her life was like. Some part of it felt very off kilter, but he’d promised he wouldn’t tell anypony, and he kept his promises. Fortunately, she hadn’t made him promise not to start nosing around.          The first inklings of an idea began to form, as Junior drifted off to sleep.          ****          Junior stumbled down the stairs, sneezing and coughing, into the kitchen where he slumped down in front of the breakfast table. His eyes were wet and glazed.                  His mother took one look at him and trotted over, putting one hoof on his forehead.          “Goodness! You’ve got a fever!” she exclaimed.          “I’m okay, Mom. I feel-” He tried to stand, staggered, and sat on the rug. “-alright, I feel awful...”          Dove Tail frowned, then pointed back toward the stairs. “Bed. Now. I’ll be up with breakfast in a few minutes.”          “Awww, come on, Mom! I’ve got a test today!” he protested.                  “And...that’s how I know you’re not faking. If you were faking, you’d have let your teacher tell me that. Now up you go! I’ll make you some soup.”          ****          Junior sprawled in the bed, quickly pushing the bottle of hot-sauce he’d sneaked out of the kitchen under his pillow. It wasn’t a pleasant way of faking illness, but a bit of ‘Mama Z’s Everfree Forest Super Spicy Mareuga Pepper Sauce’ definitely did the trick, fever and all. He’d only used a tiny lick worth, but it was enough to have his nose running and his entire body warm to the touch.          He laid back, one hoof behind his head, running down the mental list of things he’d need for that day. With any luck, it’d all be for nothing and he’d be playing with Shiny by next afternoon, but his father had taught him that if you needed to know something, the best way was to watch other ponies and ask only when you knew what the right questions were. Something was wrong in the world. It was something he couldn’t identify. Something he didn’t understand. He knew it in his gut. He knew it good and deep, in a place a little colt had no business knowing something. When he looked out his window at Sweet Shine’s house before, he’d only felt a sense of general curiosity. Today, laying in his bed, and since the night before, he’d felt the wrongness in a way he’d never felt it before. Sure, there’d been times when he was bullied, or he saw ponies get hurt who didn’t deserve to be hurt, but never before in his short life had he ever been so sure that something was... unbalanced. That was the word. Unbalanced. It was like his tiny world was a great set of scales, and all of a sudden, an enormous weight had been dropped on one side. He didn’t like lying to his mother or faking being sick. The guilt was already gnawing at him and, truth be told, he found staying home more boring than school, but he also knew that whatever was wrong was somehow more important than that. So he laid there, thinking through his idea as best he could. The earliest part was ‘buy some time’. He really did have a test that day and an extra couple of days to study would help. His mom came up about ten minutes later to check on him with a plate of fruit and muffins and the thermometer. He had to do another hit from the hot-sauce bottle while she was on the stairs, then lay back and wait, his entire tongue feeling like he’d chewed on some hot coals. Step two involved the hot-water bottle hidden in his bedside drawer. As soon as she was out of the room, he laid the thermometer on it until it was up to temperature, then stuck it back in his muzzle when he heard her coming back. “I’ve called the school,” she told, checking the little glass tube, then shaking her head and laying it on the night stand. “They’re going to keep your homework for you. I also called Doctor Fine Weather and he said to take bed rest, fluids, and if you’re not okay in a few days, to come see him. I’ve got a couple of errands today and your father will be home at six. Are you going to be okay, if I’m gone for an hour or two?” He nodded, weakly. “I... think so. Could you read me a story when you get back?” He didn’t especially need a story read to him, and hadn’t for a couple of years, but it’d helped him get to sleep when he really was sick and his mom enjoyed just about any excuse to be motherly. “Yes, dear. I’ll see you soon!” **** Junior’s mother busied herself around the house, making sure he was as comfortable as possible before she’d finally get ready to leave. As soon as he heard the front door shut, he was moving. Crawling over the end of the bed, he pulled open his old toy-box and began fishing through it until he found the various items he was looking for; two ‘Junior Police Colt’ walkie-talkies with extra power stones, his ‘Sail The Seas’ enchanted range-finding telescope, a half-empty note-pad, and a pencil with hoof-grip. Setting the magical telescope on the window-sill, he swiveled it around until he could see Sweet Shine’s house, then took a big bite of his muffin. With that, he waited. Junior was good at waiting, if nothing else. Not a patient pony, but definitely one who could sit in one place if what he was doing held his interest. It helped that he had a good book to read. A.K. Yearling’s most recent was a longer novel than the last couple, but he didn’t let himself get so engrossed that he wasn’t paying attention. At eight o’clock and three minutes, Stone Shine shoved open the front door of the Shine residence, back weighed down with heavy saddle-bags. He seemed to be wearing some kind of kerchief around his broad, gray neck. His permanent scowl was plastered on his blocky features. Junior picked up his pencil in his teeth and began noting every detail he possibly could: Stone Shine leave at 8:03 has big heavy bags, no hat. Bags have paper, maybe or tools. Looks angry. Maybe he just always looks like that? The powerful stallion hitched himself up to his wagon and was gone, off down the road, in a matter of minutes. Through the house’s front window, Junior had a mediocre angle on the living room and, through an open door, part of the kitchen. It would have to do. After about twenty minutes, Daring Do had climbed the tower of Ahuizotl and was seconds from finishing off the mad beast, when he caught another movement from inside the house. He peered down the telescope and tried to get the focus right. At first, he found himself looking at a gigantic monster, its jaws wide to swallow him, his house, and the entire neighborhood all in one bite. He zoomed out a few inches and found himself staring at an ant on Shiny’s front stairs. Unlimited range didn’t really mean unlimited range, for practical purposes, since his telescope’s aperture was only a couple of inches across and the curvature of the world kept him from seeing other countries, but it was a very handy feature to have. He’d never used it for spying before, but it made gazing at the moon and other planets a cinch. Twisting the adjuster, he raised his view so he could get a good look at the shape moving around inside his friend’s house. It was Sweet Shine. She was inching along the hall, one hoofstep at a time, into the living room. Vanishing for a moment, she reappeared hauling open the curtain across the front window. It gave him a much better view of the inside of the house and he silently thanked her. It was then that Junior could see an unconscious shape slumped on the sofa. Shiny’s mother lay there, a glass of something yellow near her foreleg and an uncapped pill bottle beside it. Sweet Shine crawled over the couch, light as she could, and gently pressed her hoof to one side of her mother’s throat as though she were feeling for something. After a moment, she nodded to herself, then climbed back and went into the kitchen. Instead of going for the fridge, she disappeared into the pantry, returning a moment later with a pot in her teeth and a bag of something that looked like rice or grits. Junior noted each of these events, carefully as he could, in his notepad. Trying to get a better look at Shiny was up to, he refocused the telescope’s lens a little and noticed something around her neck. It looked really weirdly like a collar; a really heavy collar with some kind of black ring on the front of it. Shiny didn’t seem much bothered by it, but as she walked, it bounced against her chest. ‘Collar, approximate weight unknown, purpose unknown.’ Pulling his eye away from the telescope, he squinted as best he could at the kitchen across the way. “That’s... really... I… Shiny, you never get to give me poop for being weird again...” he said to himself, then shook his head and went back to taking notes. **** His mother returned home about two hours later and brought him some chicken noodle-soup, along with a package of his favorite crackers.  The next time his mother came to check on him, he pretended to be asleep. She patted his hair and he shifted, giving her a sleepy smile, then a few good hacking coughs to really sell it. His acting was so good, he had to pretend to swallow a spoonful of something foul and cherry flavored. As soon as she was out of the room, he spit it in the garbage, then went back to his telescope, watching as Shiny laid a bowl of something steamy along with a cup of what he thought might be coffee beside Mrs. Shine's head, then vanished back down the hallway.          Soon after, Shiny’s mother was moving. The pale mare heaved herself off the sofa and blearily stumbled down the hall towards what he assumed was the bathroom. Her mane was a tangled mess, but when she returned some minutes later, it was at least brushed. She picked up the coffee and downed it all in one gulp, then twisted the top off the pill bottle and popped a few of those in her muzzle. Certainly more than the recommended dose.          Shiny was back by then, but her mother ignored her as she bustled about the house, a broom in her teeth and a dust-pan attached to one hoof, other than to lift her legs so the filly could sweep under the sofa. Soon Shiny’s mother had planted herself in front of the television with a box of tissues, attacking the meal her daughter had prepared. Hardy couldn’t tell what she was watching from the angle he was at, but every now and then she’d dab her eyes or blow her nose.          ****          Two hours later, the mail-pony, Miss Goodie, arrived on their street.          She was a hefty unicorn mare, with a big smile and a big laugh. Her fuchsia mane and tail were just starting to go grey, while her sea-green fur contrasted badly with the royal-blue uniform. Junior had always liked her, though like most of the ponies in his life to that point, he knew very little about her. She started on his side, trotting along with her cart behind her, and worked all the way down to his house where she stopped and exchanged gossip with Junior’s mother for about five minutes. Then she was on her way. She finished their side, and Junior watched as she seemed to take longer, and longer at each house until she was simply standing at the end of Shiny’s drive. She stood there staring up at his friend’s place for almost ten minutes.          Junior scribbled a note in the margins: Stressy mail mare? She finally began dragging herself down the walk. Sweet Shine met her at the door and the mailmare seemed to relax noticeably, giving one of her trademark smiles as she unhooked her mail cart from her back. Shiny wasn’t returning the smile, but simply turned and trotted back into the depths of the house. Miss Goodie wiped her hooves on the mat, then pushed the front door closed. A minute later, she was in the living room. Shiny’s mother looked up with a sleepy grin, her mane still in disarray. Goodie’s horn gleamed, and the curtains snapped shut. In spite of his best efforts, Junior couldn’t get an eye on what happened next. He could see some kind of activity that might have been wrestling going on on the couch.          ****          It was a half hour or so before there was any more action at the house across the street. Junior was mid-way through a game of solitare, his book propped across his knees, when the curtain was pulled open again. Miss Goodie was buttoning up the front of her uniform and brushing the kinks out of her mane while looking in the hall mirror. Shiny’s mother lay on the couch still, sprawled bonelessly on her back, a stupefied grin on her face.          Trotting to the door, the mail-mare smiled back at Shiny’s mother, then did something that looked very distinctly like blowing her a kiss. Junior blinked through the telescope, then shook his head. Maybe that part had been his imagination.          Soon thereafter, she was re-hitching her mail-wagon and was off down the road to her next delivery. I’d been talking for long enough that my tongue was dry. Swift seemed to be lost in thought as she trotted along beside me. Once we were out of Saussurea’s cabin, my partner had insisted on full disclosure. Taxi shrugged and said she didn’t care one way or the other. Deflecting a curious pegasus was, as always, like pulling tail hairs, but after a few pointed questions poking holes in my story, I decided to start from the beginning. As we’d approached the elevator, Taxi trotted up beside the Warden and began speaking to her in a low voice. Rather than taking us on to our destination, Warden turned off the path and started towards the little pond. I didn’t care to ask why we were going for a little walk, but eventually figured Taxi was giving me time to tell my tale and maybe putting a few more minutes between herself and what was sure to be an unpleasant reunion. “Didn’t you know what was going on, sir?” Swift asked, suddenly, lifting her head.          “I was a foal. I didn’t have the benefit of having been raised with a grandmother who worked in a brothel for my sexual education,” I grunted as we plodded along behind the two mares, just out of earshot.          “I… well, okay, I understand that. Mom worked there, too and… Dad didn’t want me exposed to stuff, but Mom said I had better at least learn from safe ponies, so she had Miss Stella give me ‘the talk.' What I meant was...”          “Why didn’t I figure it out? There was nothing to figure. At that point, I hadn’t seen anything, remember? Heck, I’d never even had a mare-friend by that point. Shiny was the only filly who wasn’t ‘icky’.”          Swift’s nose twitched, as though on the scent of some important question.          “Alright. What about your parents? I mean, they must have known what was happening to Shiny, right?”          “The abuse? Yeah, I think they suspected, but... there’s more to it,” I explained, unhappily. “Father was... he was a great stallion, but he couldn’t do anything without proof. You have to understand just how bad things were. Sweet Shine would never have asked for help. She didn’t like getting help with homework, much less with her family. If me or my dad cornered her, she’d have lied. Stone Shine would have taken his family and vanished again before anything could be done.”          ”She’d have lied?!” Swift gasped. One of Taxi’s ears flicked in our direction and my partner said, more quietly, “B-but why? And if he hit his wife...why didn’t she leave him?”          “A pony gets hurt bad enough, particularly by somebody they love, and they don’t tend to act especially rational. How would you have reacted if your father hit you?”          Swift’s mouth opened, then shut several times. “I... I don’t know. Dad never hit me…”          “Not even a spanking? Not even once?” I asked, surprised.          “Mom would have turned him over her knee if he ever did. I mostly got time-outs.”          “Well, I can tell you this, because I only GOT one spanking during my foalhood. The emotional pain hurts longer than your butt does. My father spanked me exactly once, and he hated it just as much as I did. I’m pretty sure he decided that wasn’t going to be his ‘go-to’ punishment after that. I know the old cliche about ‘hurting you as much as me’, but I sincerely believe it did hurt him badly.”          Swift stared at the dirt between her forehooves. “So… did it hurt… Stone Shine?”          I shook my head. “No. No, kid, I don’t think it did. Like he said. He dug things out of the dirt and if there was nothing worthwhile there, he ground it into dust. Believe me, I’m sure my father would have loved to arrest him just for what he suspected..but as I said, no proof. That and…” I paused, trying to think how to word what was coming next.          My partner tilted her head. “That and... what, sir?”          “I’ll be honest, I don’t know all of what happened in that house or in the years before Shiny moved in. I don’t know if anypony besides Stone Shine does. Sweets isn’t exactly a reliable source on the topic, but I put together a bit of it. Kid... What do you know about the early days of the Jewelers?”