//------------------------------// // Baltimare II // Story: Strider // by Olakaan Peliik //------------------------------// I was in a half asleep, half awake state, comfortable in my bed. My blanket was snug against my coat, keeping me warm. My pillow felt like a cloud. Comfortable, safe, cold—wait cold? “Ahh!” I shivered and tried to wiggle away from the tendrils of cold air that pulled me from sleep. I looked down to see Snow’s horn dimming as she finished up her trademark frost wind spell. “I missed this,” she smiled smugly from below. I glared at her. “I didn’t,” I snapped. I actually did. I really did. “Get up, lazybones. We have an hour and a half to get ready and eat before we report to Special Investigations,” Snow said, floating several things around the room. I hopped down from my bunk and bumped Snow on my way to my locker. “I almost forgot that you're an early riser.” “One of us has to be, it’s not like Stone is gonna be the one to keep us on schedule.” Snow pointed a hoof at Stone, who was still asleep on his bed, snoring loudly. “All your usual tricks didn't work?” I asked. “Nope, he sleeps like a rock,” Snow replied. “Hmm, I have an idea,” I walked up to him and poked him with a hoof. “Stone, wake up or you'll miss breakfast.” He snorted as he twitched awake. “I'm up.” “Well, I could have done that,” Snow huffed. “Come on, Stone, get your armor on and we'll go to breakfast,” I told him. As he got up he looked at me. “Do you think they'll have Apple Rings in the cafeteria? It’s my favorite cereal.” “I'm sure they'll have something of the sort Stone. Just focus on getting your armor on,” Snow instructed him. “If you can call it armor,” I said having my first look at it. It looked more like a uniform rather than armor. It was mostly a thick red and blue fabric. Light mushroom leather scale sat hidden underneath the fabric. There were no helmets or headgear of any kind. I felt exposed just looking at it. I suppose it was meant to look more casual: investigating in full plate armor probably wouldn't go unnoticed. I carefully put it on and got my wings through the allotted holes. “Either of you feel a little underdressed?” The uniform armor felt almost weightless compared to my last set. “I kinda like it. It's not as constricting as my old set of armor,” Snow said, looking at herself in the mirror that sat on one of her locker doors. I looked over at her. Of course, she made the armor look good. That's probably why she got so many stares back at the academy, now that I think about it. “What?” she asked, noticing me staring. I cleared my throat. “Nothing. We should go get some breakfast,” I looked over to Stone. “Come on, bud. Let's go get some food,” Stone finished with his armor then followed Snow and I, down and out of the barracks. Making our way across the yard to the dining hall we walked with many guards in normal sets of armor. A few in much heavier armor than normal, and very few in the uniforms Snow, Stone, and I were wearing. Making our way into the dining hall, we got in line for the food. I balanced my tray on one wing while I got my servings using the other. Snow was kind enough to assist Stone with his tray and servings. I got a healthy helping of pancakes and eggs with tomato soup. Once we had our breakfast we found a nearby empty table and sat down. We started our meal in silence. Halfway through, we were interrupted. “So you three are our new investigators?” a black pegasus stallion with a white, slicked back mane asked as he sat down beside me with his tray of food. An all gray pegasus mare who seemed kinda timid sat down as well. “We are. My name is Guard First Class Flame Strider, you can call me Strider. This is Guard First Class Snow and Second Class Stone,” I said gesturing to each of my companions. “And your names?” “I’m Guard First Class Ace, and this is my partner Mist,” He pointed a wing at his partner next to him. “We mostly handle missing foal cases and things of that nature.” “We heard you took down a team of mercenaries back in Tall Tale?” Mist asked me curiously. “I helped certainly. My partner at the time, Knight Gaze, and my NCO Sergeant Arrow were instrumental in the investigation,” I said with pride. “Such modesty,” Ace laughed. “Anyway. Mist and I have been instructed to show you three around Special Investigations before you get your first assignment that is. The lieutenant doesn’t like his ponies not knowing where anything is.” “Sounds good to me,” Snow smiled. “I know I’d rather not be stumbling around the department.” “Agreed,” I said before putting more pancake in my mouth. We continued the idle conversation until we were all finished. Once done with our food, we put the trays into the wash bin and proceeded out of the dining hall, and into an unlabeled single story building, it was right next to the jail. “Alright, welcome to Special Investigations,” Ace said as we passed through the doors there were a few chairs and a guard behind a magic-proof window. “This is the lobby. It's really a security checkpoint, but we just call it the lobby.” After clearing the security point, we walked beyond the second set of doors and there were many first class guards with their partners at their desks going over paperwork, evidence files, and case boxes. Each pair of desks were in a separate cubicle. There were about forty ponies in here, some of them bending over their desks, others studying maps and pictures tacked up on the walls, and some rushing back and forth between offices, clutching papers. “Here we have our desks. Each one has a separate key so you can keep your cases separate from one another.” Ace explained. There were offices set to the sides of this section and a conference room near the lieutenant’s office. “The interrogation rooms are over there, we have two,” Ace pointed a wing. I looked and saw four doors labeled, “Room One,” “Observation One,” “Room Two,” “Observation Two.” We continued through the desks in this area and through a door toward the back. Ace pointed to the left side of the hallway. “Back here we have the morgue and cold storage. We have two to three coroners on duty at one time or another, you’ll meet them eventually.” He chuckled once. “They’re an interesting group of ponies.” As we passed the door but I peeked inside. It looked like a creepy operating room. Nopony in there at the moment and all the freezers were fortunately closed. We came to a heavily armored door at the end of this hallway, it required two keys and a unicorn's magic to open. Through a small window, it showed some stairs going down. I couldn’t see what was beyond that. “Down there is the back entrance to our jail. We have our own entrance so we don’t expose the detainees topside when we want to question them,” Ace told us. “Interesting set up so far,” I commented. “We haven’t even got to my favorite part.” Ace smiled. Snow glanced my way before saying anything. “Well, lead on.” We started back down the hallway now listing off the things on the opposite side of the hallway. Three Griffons each doing something different. One, a brown and tan hawk-looking Griffon male, was tending to plants and insects. Another, a white and spotted black owl-looking female, was examining documents and pieces of artwork. The third, a black and white eagle-faced Griffon male with big goggles on, was taking apart and putting back together crossbows and anything of mechanical nature. “Our laboratories, and their specialists. This is Hadvar our Botanist, Geologist, and Entomologist; Otulissa, our resident Forensic Artist; and Gary, our grease monkey,” Ace said pointing to each of them. “Hello!” the three of them chirped, smiles on their beaks. “I assume these three are new, Ace. Probably best we get better acquainted later. Lieutenant Strong Hoof is hoofing out assignments in a few minutes. Better get to the conference room.” Otulissa said, pointing a talon towards the door. Ace looked up at a clock on the wall. “You are right, Otulissa. We’ll be back down to visit eventually,” Ace said to them before turning back to us. “Come on, best not be late.” We made our way out to the conference room that held many chairs. Other fellow guards in the same uniform as us came in and sat down. Snow, Stone, Ace, Mist and I all sat in the middle of the room as it filled. Eventually, the flow of arriving guards stopped for a moment. There was some idle chattering but nothing of note. “Attention on deck!” a sergeant barked as Lieutenant Strong Hoof walked in. Strong Hoof was a brown and steel maned earth pony. Following him was a warrant officer, a red and purple maned unicorn mare. She carried a stack of files in her magic beside her. Strong Hoof stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat. “Alright, everyone, we have some newcomers to our little slice of heaven. Strider, Snow, and Stone. Raise a hoof, let us know you’re here.” The three of us raised our hooves as instructed. “Very good. Let’s all help them get acclimated. Now, down to business. Evergreen, Red, Grill, Heavyweight, two separate thefts on the opposite ends of the city. Decide amongst yourselves which one you’ll take care of.” The warrant officer levitated two folders over the four. They took the assignment and left the room. “Tuff and Ruff. You two got a break-in on Forty-seventh,” the lieutenant said as another file levitated across the room. “Cypher and Kit, you’re on this week's anonymous tips.” A stack of files was levitated over to them and they exited as well. “Everypony other than the newcomers, you’re all on standby in case something else comes up.” On that note everypony other than Stone, Snow, and I stood up and left. “You three come up here, I have something specific for you to do,” he said, stepping down from his podium. There was one file left. I could only assume that one was ours. The room was empty save for the three of us, the lieutenant, and the warrant officer. The lieutenant looked each of us in the eyes and huffed through his nostrils. “I need to be blunt about this, best to see your real expressions. This last assignment is a delicate one. I’m choosing to trust you with it because you’re fresh, and there is a low chance you’re on any of the local gangs payrolls.” “This case has something to do with the gangs?” Snow asked, opening the file and having a look. “I’m hoping not. But the murder was committed in a part of the city we know has high levels of known gang activity. If it is gang related, I want to know which one and I want to take them down. Understand?” “Sir, please excuse my confusion. If this is so sensitive, then why are you asking us to do this?” I asked trying to get at least one question answered. “Because like I said: you’re fresh. No time for any of the gangs to influence or threaten you. Believe me, If there was a better choice for this I would have taken it. I don’t like trusting something like this to rookies. But take this as your chance to prove me wrong.” Strong Arm finished and exited with that signature officer scowl. I watched him leave. “So what are we dealing with?” I asked looking at Snow who was looking at the current case file. “Pet store owner, dead, thestral stallion, the wife, and daughter are missing. That’s pretty much all it says,” Snow shrugged. “Body was found early this morning by an employee, responding Guards and a Coroner is still at the scene.” “Sounds like we’re already late,” I said, moving toward the door. Snow and Stone followed. We were coming up on the crime scene. A few reporters stood outside trying to get some questions answered. The loudest among them yelled, “Why hasn’t the City Guard dispatched Investigators to the crime yet?” “Because the paperwork was at the bottom of the stack,” I whispered to myself. As we got closer I started running through the handbook on how to handle crowds. “Okay, Stone. Help the guards outside, widen the perimeter and make sure nopony enters through the back of the building just to be safe,” I instructed. “Make a circle. Got it.” Stone nodded, moving to get to work. After a few moments, he managed to get the reporters pushed closer to the curb allowing us better access to the pet shop. Snow and I stopped just outside the door. “Snow, find that employee and start to ask them some questions.” I turned toward the door. “What are you gonna do?” Snow asked quickly. “Have a look at the crime scene,” I said entering the pet store. I could smell the odor of animal feces. Flies had taken to buzzing over the now covered corpse. Not much sign of a struggle save for the obvious dead pony in front of me. The coroner was standing off to the side writing something on a notepad. I knelt down to get a good look at the corpse. “What can you tell me?” I asked, pulling the tarp off the body. I examined the body as dispassionately as I could while simultaneously fighting the urge to vomit. She gave a weary sigh. “Thestral stallion. A stab wound to the back, likely puncturing a lung, tendons on the all four knee joints look severed, wings shredded as well, likely to prevent escape or making a scene. My first guess as the cause of death is that he drowned on his own blood. This definitely looks like a gang hit,” she observed. “I can give you more definite answers once I get him back to the morgue.” I couldn’t help but feel as if I recognized this stallion. I couldn’t pin down why though. “Thank you, get him back to the campus and on ice. We’ll need everything he can tell us, even in death.” “You got it,” the Coroner said heading to get some assistance. I approached another Guard, a silver unicorn taking notes on the empty pet cages. “Where are all the animals?” I asked. “We had animal control take them away. Poor things had to watch this,” he said in a sympathetic murmur. “Yeah. Make sure Animal Control keeps all those animals, and alive. I may have some ideas on how they could be useful.” “They’re animals, how can they be useful in this situation?” he asked. I walked passed him further into the shop. “Not sure yet. Just make sure they’re all alive and well for the duration of the investigation.” I could hear his grumbling of disapproval. “Fine.” He started to walk out. I noticed a staircase heading up. “Hey, where does this staircase go?” I called after him. “Into the family apartment. Nopony has been in those areas, seeing as how the murder was down here.” the guard said, still headed out the door. Snow entered as he pushed passed her. “The neighboring store owners didn’t notice anything unusual,” Snow reported. “Or, at least, they’re not saying they did,” she added with a huff. “I find it hard to believe that nopony saw anything,” I muttered. “Especially since the store next door is a twenty-four-hour liquor store. I’ll work on getting in touch with whoever was on the clock there last night,” Snow said. “Good,” I said blankly. I started up into the apartment. I opened the door to the apartment level. It was clean, well as clean as to be expected for a couple raising a filly. Some dishes were still in the sink. Despite this, it still had the feeling of a home. Some still packed boxes in the hallway to one side of the living area and the bedrooms. I moved past them. Into the parent's bedroom. “Look at this place,” Snow started, looking around. “It looks like their lives just stopped here in this moment. Interrupted.” “I’m sure our friend downstairs would agree with you,” I mumbled. That sounded insensitive. “That was indelicate.” Snow stated, clearly appalled by my statement. “You're right, I'm sorry. How long has the victim and his family been living here?” I wondered. “According to the employee, only about five months. She was hired only a week or two ago, though,” Snow answered. “What do we know about the victim?” I asked, opening some of the boxes having a look. Snow cleared her throat as she read from her notebook. “Name is Nightpaw, thirty-one years of age. The neighbors said they largely kept to themselves, good with animals though, moved here from Canterlot. The wife’s name is Moonluck, the daughter’s name is—” “Jett?” I asked, finally picking up a picture of the family on the nightstand beside the bed. Without looking at her it was obvious that Snow was surprised. “Yeah, how did you know that?” The memory was so many months ago, but it felt fresh enough. “Because I met them during the last Summer Sun Celebration. Jett had wandered off and I helped her parents find her.” Snow blinked at me sympathetically. “Well, we need to find the wife and daughter. They are the best chance of finding out what happened to Nightpaw.” I heard a thud coming from the living area. “Did you hear that?” “No, what?” Snow asked, looking around. “Sounded like it was coming from out here.” I walked back into the living area. Snow followed close. Upon closer inspection of the living slash dining slash kitchen area. On the table was a bowl of cereal. “Hmm.” I stepped closer to the table bench seat. I put a hoof on the side of the bowl. “It’s still cold.” “Why, what's important about the temperature of cereal?” Snow asked. I pointed to the bench in front of me. “Hinges,” I whispered. “It’s a container. Perfect hiding place for a small pony.” I wiggled a wingtip beneath the seat and flipped it up revealing a very scared all black nine-year-old filly with feathered and leather wings. She was holding what I assumed was her pet, a little green gecko. “Oh,” Snow whispered to herself. I gave a kind smile to the shivering filly. “Hello again, Jett. You’re safe now.”