//------------------------------// // Part III - Chapter 11: Sundae Investigates // Story: Return of the Mare // by Victoria //------------------------------// Chapter 11 – Sundae Investigates I reflected on my trip to Zecora the previous day trying hard not to fall asleep in the train compartment. She looked similar in shape to a pony, but slightly bigger and with a coat covered in black and white stripes. She spoke weirdly too, forming her sentences in rhymes which sometimes were hard to understand. Anyway, I explained my situation to her and she came up with a potion she claimed would help my memories to emerge. The problem was that it required a number of rare ingredients. Ingredients that would likely be found in Manehattan, the center of commerce in Equestria. That’s why I and three of my friends woke up early in the morning and were now on our way to the city. Of course, it wasn’t the only reason for our ride – the investigation was still our prime objective. Even Twilight reluctantly agreed with its necessity after Detective Seeker had admitted her inability to make an official move against the Doctor. It wasn’t even the lack of real evidence against him – since my attacker was a known criminal in Manehattan, the local police took the case under their own control, leaving our detective with no say in the matter. Starlight, who had agreed to go along, had a letter from Twilight to the police chief in Manehattan, where she, as a Princess of Equestria, officially asked them to take a closer look at the Doctor’s activities. She was nervous when she wrote the letter, saying it was the first time she used her authority for something like this and wondered if this was the right thing to do, but Starlight assured her that it was for a good reason. “We’re about to cross Silver Hoof Bridge!” Rarity shook me by the shoulder in her excitement, bringing me back from my half-sleeping trance. Everypony leaned to the window, enjoying the sight before our eyes. We had a great view of the city from the bridge we were crossing and I didn’t know if I should be more amazed at the urban skyscrapers or the big pony statue, both of which had a striking similarity to its American counterpart. Being used to Canterlot and Ponyville’s medieval appearance, I wasn’t expecting to see a city like that. Too bad Marcus had decided to stay back in Ponyville in case Twilight made a breakthrough – he was the only one who would understand my surprise. “Does it spark any memories, Sunny?” Ruby asked me all of a sudden. “What do you mean?” I returned the question in confusion. Starlight cleared her throat loudly and Ruby’s face changed to an expression of horror. “Nothing!” she assured me quickly, but seeing that I wasn’t buying it, added: “I mean, we visited here back then, when you still had your memories…That’s what I meant, I swear.” Though the sight was amazing, nothing seemed familiar to me, so I shook my head. Ruby’s behavior was weird, but I wrote it off as her desire to spare my feelings. Maybe she thought I would get all upset because I still didn’t have my memories back, but if so – she was wrong. I had gotten over that stage years ago and though the recent events made recent events had made the issue come up again, I had my emotions under control on this one. The rest of the ride was pretty short. Manehattan Station was the train’s last stop, so the platform was crowded with ponies leaving it all at once. We weren’t in any hurry, so we waited until the crowd thinned out and only then left the train. I put on my fabulous saddlebag and trotted behind Starlight, who levitated both her and Rarity’s big cases. A lot of noise met us outside the station. Ponies went about their business, even more so than in Canterlot, creating a maddening clopping sound. Most of the street was reserved for pony-pulled carriages which played the role same as the cars in the human world. I snorted at the silliness of it – horses were pulling other horses in carriages. It turned out to be pretty useful though. Rarity found us a taxi carriage with a big stallion pulling it and he took us to our destination much faster than we would have walked on hoof. She paid up, adding a generous tip for such a fast ride and we got inside the hotel where we planned to stay for the duration of our trip. We waited while Rarity went to the counter to book the rooms for us. She returned a while later with a slightly sullen expression, explaining to us that she had managed to get us only one room with two double beds – it was the only one available, with all the others being taken already. We assured her that everything was fine, so we proceeded up the stairs to check in and leave our bags there. The room we got wasn’t very fancy, but it was big and in good condition, which was only to be expected from a hotel like that. The two beds we got were also large and two ponies would easily sleep in them without disturbing each other, which was exactly what we planned to do when the time came. We still But we still had a whole day ahead. “I’m going to the Town Hall first thing,” Rarity announced to us. “You can enjoy the city while I’m gone and maybe even find a shop to buy the ingredients for Zecora. But I’m begging you, please, don’t start any actual investigation without me!” “Don’t worry, we won’t,” Starlight assured her. Ruby was itching to start doing something already, but she had to accept our decision. Finding the ingredients was just as important for me as investigating the Doctor and she knew it. We got downstairs together and separated only outside. Rarity went to find another taxi to take her to the Town Hall, while I and the others went looking for an alchemy store. Starlight took the lead, asking passers-by if they knew one nearby, but nopony had a clue. She even bought a map of the city in a tourist shop, but all in vain. We got lucky once we found a nice friendly stallion, which was a rarity in Manehattan from what I had gathered, who explained the right location to us. We were able to follow his directions and soon were standing in front of a store called Shade’s Alchemist Dream. It was situated in one of the smaller houses, squeezed in between two skyscrapers. The store was open, so we got inside without delay. The whole place was filled with both dry and live plants of various kinds, with rarer ingredients laid on display behind a glass showcase. I took a list out of my saddlebag with a list of the stuff we needed. I didn’t even try to read all the names on it, instead I just gave it to the young earth pony stallion, who had come out to greet us. I rightfully figured it was an employee. He gave a close look at my list and a big smile grew on his face. “You’re in luck, girls,” he said. “We have all the stuff you need!” The stallion took some time to collect everything we needed from all over the store and after he was done, he charged a sum charged a large sum of money, which made Ruby’s eyes go wide. “What?!” she screamed in shock after the stallion announced a 4000 bits bill, but Starlight took the news in stride. She had probably been expecting a price like that, which even I knew was pretty expensive. She reached out in her own saddlebag and took a large fat pouch and gave it to the salespony in exchange for our much needed ingredients. Did Twilight give her the money? I was both grateful and ashamed, thinking about how much Twilight was doing to help me. A terrible thought suddenly struck me — what if Twilight wanted me to pay her back? I had no idea where I would get that much money; I didn’t even have a job! I felt myself hyperventilating just thinking about it. I shoved such ridiculous thoughts aside. While I was driving myself crazy, the salespony was packing our purchases in a small bag with a black crown symbol on it. Ruby stared at the symbol like she had seen a ghost. Starlight noticed it too, but we waited until we were outside to question Ruby. The mare didn’t wait until we asked her, instead she spilled the beans as soon as the door closed behind us. “It’s his cutie mark!” she exclaimed, pointing a hoof at the crown symbol. There was only one pony in my mind she could possibly be referring to – Doctor Shade. Starlight levitated the bag up to her eyes and examined it closely. “Makes sense,” she said simply. “We knew he had some kind of business here and this store could be it.” We trotted down the street to find some kind of cafe to discuss our discovery, instead of doing it literally on our enemy’s doorstep. Manehattan was a big city and we passed a lot of ponies along the way. I was getting more and more nervous by the minute – big cities weren’t my thing exactly because of the big crowds they contained. Ruby leaned closer to me, noticing my discomfort and I felt better, knowing she was there to support me. I looked around more calmly, finally seeing the difference between the ponies of Ponyville and Manehattan, not counting the numbers obviously. Most of the ponies I saw around here wore some kind of clothing, while back in Ponyville most of them were naked. For the first time in a while I felt self-conscious for being without clothes. My nervousness had returned with new strength and I tucked my tail between my legs involuntarily, looking down in shame. I relaxed a little only when we got inside a cafe. It was almost empty and looked peaceful, so I could finally sigh in relief. We took a table in the corner, far from the windows on my insistence. Starlight ordered a milkshake for each of us and we sipped it while I tried to pull myself together. “What’s wrong, Sunny?” Ruby asked me, lowering her ears in concern. I didn’t answer at once, but after some encouragement from Starlight, I shared the reason for my nervousness with them. Ruby pulled me into a hug immediately – it was her answer to every problem it seemed. Not that I minded, of course. Starlight, in turn, gave me some more practical advice. “I’m sure Rarity has packed some clothes in that big case of hers,” she said. “You can ask her to lend you some of them if that’s the problem.” I nodded gratefully for her advice, though I wasn’t sure I’d follow it. I wanted to solve my issues once and for all, not indulge them. After a few minutes, I had recovered enough to bring up the issue we were planning to discuss in the first place. “So, the alchemy store belongs to the Doctor, huh?” I began. “I bet this store is just a front for his real business,” Ruby said, slashing her hoof decisively. “And that business is…?” Starlight asked. Ruby opened her mouth to answer, but couldn’t find anything to say. I was at a loss as well. But that was the purpose of coming here in the first place – to find more information about Doctor Shade. Now that we knew his official business, it was time to learn if there was a shady side to it, no pun intended. I voiced my thoughts to the others. “Twilight said we should go to the police first; maybe they know something,” said Starlight. Ruby snorted with contempt at her words. Her stance on the police was pretty clear to us, but we ignored it. I had no desire to be involved in all of this personally, I just did what I had to. So if Twilight’s letter persuaded them to help us or even take care of the Doctor themselves, I wouldn’t mind it one bit. “Rarity would be furious if she found out we went ahead without her,” I said with a sigh. “We didn’t know the store belonged to the Doctor, did we?” Starlight dismissed my concerns lightheartedly. “She’ll understand.” “But we’re not in a hurry,” I retorted. “We can wait for her in the hotel and then go to the police together.” Starlight agreed with me, while Ruby was raring to go and do something immediately. She even offered to stalk the store while we waited for Rarity in case something suspicious happened, but we talked her out of it, reasoning that nothing would happen in the middle of the day. We spent some more time in the cafe just having lunch and talking about stuff. We didn’t expect Rarity to return any time soon and it was a nice sunny day outside, so we had the opportunity to actually enjoy it without talking about all this trouble. I decided to ask my friends about Manehattan. I was interested to know more about the city, despite my dislike of its crowds, but Starlight knew surprisingly little. It was her first visit to Manehattan and she didn’t care much about its history. I was sure if Twilight was with us in her stead, she’d practically showered us with a bunch of various facts about Manehattan, both interesting and incredibly boring. Ruby mentioned that she’d been here before, so I asked her about her previous trips, but she was strangely evasive about them. Instead she started telling us about how big the city was, like I hadn’t noticed that myself. “Does this city have a large park in the middle?” I asked to confirm a guess. “It does!” Ruby smiled and her ears perked up. “Do you remember something?” “No,” I answered, making Ruby’s hopeful smile disappear. “There is just a city on Earth that looks very similar to this one. It also has a large park.” “Twilight would be interested to hear that,” noted Starlight. “A lot of similarities exist between our world and the human one.” I nodded thoughtfully. I wanted to know what Twilight would say about that when I shared my observations with her. She would likely have some neat theory explaining it all… We returned to the hotel soon after that, which wasn’t far away from the cafe. I felt better going through the crowd with both Starlight’s and Ruby’s support, but I was still happy to finally get off the street. We nodded to the pony behind the counter and went upstairs to our room. Rarity hadn’t returned yet, but we hadn’t expected her to. The Town Hall she went to was pretty far, not to mention how long it would take for her to sort out her problems there, so we had at least a few more hours of free time. If only they had the Internet here, so it wouldn’t be so boring… It was an opportunity for our daily magic lesson with Starlight though, so we began to practice with Ruby as my personal cheerleader. I found myself more confident with her by my side – she was happy at my success and cheered me up if something wasn’t going my way. On my insistence, Starlight had agreed to teach me a few defense spells. Those kinds of spells were more advanced than some simple levitation, which came to me intuitively. It took me a lot of tries to finally produce a weak, flickering shield around me. I was sweating and shaking from the effort, but I managed to force a proud smile on my face. My success was short-lived however, as my shield was disintegrated with a loud pop after Ruby touched it with the tip of her hoof. “Sorry,” she smiled sheepishly. I sighed in disappointment, but Starlight lifted my mood with her next words. “It was great! Most unicorns can’t do a spell like that, but I knew you were capable of it. It’s the first spell you did back in the human world.” I realized that she was right. I thought that spell felt familiar somehow and now I remembered why — I cast it reflexively when a dog attacked me and that probably saved my life. I had forgotten about it, even though it had happened just a few weeks ago, but with all the changes that had happened in my life it felt like forever. With renewed vigor, I tried to cast it again. This time I did it much more quickly and it looked stronger and steadier. Even though once again it was destroyed by Ruby’s hoof, it took considerably more effort on her part. After a few more attempts Starlight told me it was time to stop – she was worried I would overextend myself. I felt tired myself, so I didn’t argue. I was all sweaty after today’s exhausting training session, so I decided to check out the facilities. My jaw fell to the floor after I entered the bathroom. While Twilight’s castle had a simple bucket of water which I used to wash myself with, here they had a whole bath with a shower! Damn you, Twilight, why didn’t you tell me you had showers in your world? I closed the door behind me and happily jumped into the tub, turning the water on with my magic. I stood in bliss, feeling the stream of warm water wash over my coat. It felt much nicer than simply showering myself with a bucket as I used to. I knew I had to share my discovery with Marcus as soon as I returned – he would be grateful. Leaning on the wall, I stood upright on my hindlegs to allow the water to freely flow on my head and back. I rubbed my mane with a hoof, but clearly it wasn’t enough. I looked around in search of the shampoo and quickly found it on a shelf nearby. My first instinct was to reach out with a hoof, but then I remembered I had magic now. With a chuckle, I levitated the bottle towards me when suddenly somepony cleared their throat behind me. I gasped, dropping the bottle, and turned to face the intruder, which turned out to be Ruby herself. I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to lock the door, but it was too late now. Ruby picked up the bottle in her mouth and gave it to me like she wasn’t at all ashamed to intrude on a private moment like this. I suddenly realized that those ponies probably saw things a little differently, considering they went around naked all the time. Being in the shower wasn’t as private to them as it was to humans. With that in mind, I tried not to sound too annoyed. “What the hell are you doing here?” I growled. Oops, looks like I failed I had failed. Ruby drooped her ears and looked at me with a hurt expression. “I just thought I might help you…You don’t remember anything about being a pony after all, so I thought I’d…Explain things…” She stopped her mumbling and looked at me with her big, adorable eyes. I sighed and felt my annoyance at her vanishing. “Fine, you can help me wash my mane,” I allowed finally. “I don’t know how you do that with those hooves anyway…” Ruby took out a big brush out of her saddlebag and jumped into a bathtub with me, which made it feel crowded – the tube was obviously meant for one pony. Ruby didn’t care about that in the slightest though, so I just sat down on my haunches and relaxed, letting her handle my mane since she wanted to so much. “Oh, Sunny, your mane is so dirty,” she said after a few minutes of brushing. “What?” I asked in surprise. I washed my mane every day in Twilight’s castle. Though I may have dismissed the usage of a brush… In my defense, I had no idea how to use it with hooves and I wasn’t yet confident enough in my magic for such a delicate task. I didn’t want to pull too hard and tear off a lock. “Don’t worry, your friend Ruby will fix it up for you,” she assured me, continuing her work. It took longer than I had expected, but she was finally done. But it wasn’t the end. She gasped as she saw the state of my tail and I rolled my eyes, knowing what would come next. I couldn’t say I hated it though. It felt nice to just relax and let somepony else do all the hard work. “I know you didn’t have a tail when you were a human, but you have one now and it desperately needs some TLC,” Ruby gently chastised me as I burned from shame. It’s true, while I took some care of my mane, it had completely slipped my mind that I had a tail as well now when it came to washing. “Sorry, Ruby,” I said, drooping my ears. “It’s your tail you need to ask for forgiveness, silly,” she said, pulling on it slightly for emphasis. I performed a small act by taking my tail and petting it, pretending to beg it to forgive me. Ruby giggled at my improvisational display and I felt slightly silly for doing it. After that, the only thing left to do was to clean my coat. Just standing under a stream of water apparently wasn’t good enough for Ruby – she insisted I had to use the shampoo and brush it along with my mane and tail to be considered really clean. I followed her example and used my mouth to grip the hairbrush instead of trying and failing to use hooves. Working together like that we were done pretty soon. I jumped out of the tub and dried myself out with a big fluffy towel. Ruby didn’t waste her time on such nonsense however and just shook herself like a dog, spraying water all over the place. My ear flicked in annoyance by itself and I hoped Ruby didn’t notice that. I didn’t want to upset her just after she had helped me so much. We left the bathroom side by side. Starlight was lying on a bed in the main room and had been reading some book while we were busy in the shower. What got my attention was that it had a cover picture unlike typical books about magic that Twilight was so fond of. I trotted up to have a closer look. I couldn’t read the name yet with my limited knowledge of Ponish, but the picture displaying a mare in a hat facing a weird monster was telling me it was some kind of adventure book. The mare had a light brown color and wore a green shirt, making her look like an explorer. The jungle setting behind her supported my guess. “Ah, Daring Do books,” Ruby said, coming close to me. “I love them. The leading character reminds me of an old friend so much… She has disappeared too.” “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Starlight closed the book and put it to the side. “Are you talking about Rose? The pegasus who went through the mirror before Sundae?” “Yep,” Ruby nodded melancholically. “She was pretty upset about losing her cutie mark. I lost all contact with her after we returned from the expedition.” “You think the Doctor got to her?” I asked. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he did…” Ruby sighed, drooping her ears. I felt like it was my turn to give her a comforting hug and I did. She quickly recovered her good mood after that and started a lively discussion with Starlight about the story’s characters. I listened to the discussion silently from the side and even though I had no clue about the fictional events they were mentioning, I grew interested. The story sounded rich and exciting, which once again made me regret my lack of knowledge of the written language. My days would be much more fun if I had a good book to read in the evenings. I missed reading so much… Rarity found us in the middle of a heated argument about one of the side characters. I didn’t know when I joined in it joined in on it, but it was so engaging I hadn’t even seen Rarity return until she jumped onto the bed with us. “Oh my…Living in the castle with Twilight is clearly rubbing off on you,” she smiled at our startled faces. “Rarity! You’re back!” I stated the obvious, failing to mention that I had enjoyed reading even before meeting Twilight. “Well, of course I am, darling,” Rarity rolled her eyes. “I love what you’ve done with your mane by the way. It looks gorgeous.” “All it took was a bottle of shampoo and some actual effort,” Ruby mumbled under her muzzle. “Thank you,” I answered to Rarity, ignoring Ruby’s little remark. “How was your visit to the Town Hall?” “It was great!” she said with a wide grin. “Turns out I’ve got the permission to open a shop and they had sent me a letter weeks ago, but it must have been lost in the mail. I’m going to have a serious talk with Derpy when I get back…” “It doesn’t have to be her fault,” Starlight warned. “Letters get lost all the time and Derpy usually delivers on time, even if not always in the most gracious way.” “I guess you’re right,” Rarity agreed after a quick consideration. “They gave me another one in the Hall anyway, that’s what really important.” She proudly showed us the permission written on a fancy piece of paper with a big green stamp on it. We all patted her on her back to show our approval. “I also took the liberty to inquire about the Doctor and his company,” she revealed after we were done congratulating. “I’ve learned it’s called—” “Shade’s Alchemist Dream!” we finished for her and she blinked in confusion. “How do you know?” Rarity asked and pouted slightly. “You’ve been investigating without me, haven’t you?” Starlight explained our findings to her and showed a bag with the Doctor’s cutie mark on it. Rarity calmed down when she learned we weren’t trying to act behind her back and it was just luck that we stumbled upon his store. She also shared her own knowledge about his business, which gave us a clearer picture. Turns out, the store we found was just one from a whole franchise all over Equestria. There were a few more like it even in Manehattan itself. Ruby was convinced it was just a front for his no doubt more sinister operations, but we had no idea what that could be. To be honest, we had nothing on him except for a bunch of coincidences and Ruby’s suspicions. Hopefully, Twilight’s letter would be enough to convince the police to help us. We set out on our way without wasting any more time. It was getting close to the evening and we hoped to get to the Police Station before it closed for visitors. Once again, Rarity had quickly found quickly found us a taxi carriage which brought us to our destination in no time. Thankfully, the place was still open when we arrived. Rarity went forward as the most diplomatic one of the group and talked the police into letting us meet the chief, despite how busy she was. Mentioning a letter from the Princess certainly played its role, but we still were grateful Rarity was here with us to do the talking. Despite promising to meet with us soon, we had to wait in the corridor almost half an hour, but at least that gave us time to plan the strategy for the upcoming meeting. Everypony, including Ruby, had agreed that she should keep quiet at all times. Rarity and I would handle all the talking. Finally, the door opened and a secretary let four of us inside. Rarity and I went first with Ruby and Starlight following right behind. I glanced at Rarity and noticed a slight frown on her face after she observed the interior. I had to agree with her reaction — the room was filled with obviously expensive items which looked simply garish when put together. Everything was in a black and gold color and while it would have been nice within limits, here they were clearly exceeded. A gray earth pony mare in police uniform sat behind a massive table. I guessed she was the one in charge of Manehattan’s law enforcement. She watched us with a cold expression as we slowly approached the table. There was only one chair in front of it and the mare didn’t offer any of us a seat, so we remained standing. “I was told you have a letter from the Princess?” asked the chief, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “We do,” Rarity said with a polite smile, not letting such an unwelcome attitude affect her friendly tone. “But let me introduce ourselves first. I am Rarity and those are my friends Starlight, Sundae and Ruby.” “Chief Ironcuff,” the mare answered curtly. “Will you give me the letter or not?” “Well…yes, of course. Here you go,” Rarity said, letting her smile drop for a moment. She nodded to Starlight, who levitated an envelope in the chief’s reach. Ironcuff tore it up immediately, pulling out a letter. She read it for a minute, frowning more and more, and then suddenly crumpled it and threw it into a garbage can. We watched her shocking actions with open mouths. I didn’t know Equestria’s customs as much as I’d like, but even I understood that her behavior was outrageous. “What do you think you’re doing?” Starlight was the first to recover from the shock. “I don’t have time to waste on such nonsense,” the chief growled through her teeth. “I thought you had a letter from the actual princess, not some common upstart.” Rarity and Ruby both gasped from hearing Twilight being referred in such a way, while Starlight lit up her horn menacingly. I could tell the meeting wasn’t going the way we had hoped. “I dare you to try anything,” the chief said, staring Starlight directly in the eyes. She quickly realized that it was a bad idea to use magic on the chief of police in her own office, so she extinguished it, but she still had an angry scowl on her face. I felt it was my turn to step up before it could escalate even more. “Excuse me, Miss Ironcuff,” I opened my mouth and the chief’s cold stare snapped to me. I gulped nervously, but continued. “We will be leaving now.” “That’s right. Get out of my office, now,” the chief pointed at the door expressively. “I have a city to protect.” Right before we left though, Ruby turned around to face the chief and said: “I surprised you still have a city with such a nasty attitude.” She slammed the door, but I caught a glimpse of the mare’s reddening face. We hurried to leave the building before somepony tried to stop us. After that disaster of a meeting, it seems like we had to deal with the Doctor on our own. *** It was already evening when we reached the hotel. We didn’t go inside immediately though. Instead, we found a cafe close to our hotel both to get some snacks and think through our new plan of action, since Twilight’s had failed. “What an unpleasant horse,” Rarity repeated for the 5th time. The policemare had clearly gotten to her. “Yeah, already heard that one,” Ruby said and shook her mane in disgust. “Not that I disagree, of course. She’s a complete tool.” “Insulting her won’t get us anywhere,” I said, trying to get our talk to a more constructive path. “We must find out what the Doctor is up to ourselves.” “Let’s break into his store!” Ruby offered, her eyes shining in excitement for her idea. “I bet we’d find something… crime-y.” “He has five stores just in Manehattan, darling,” smirked Rarity. “I sincerely doubt he keeps anything suspicious there.” I hummed thoughtfully, chewing a surprisingly tasty flower sandwich. We desperately needed some information about his operations and that seemed like a good start. I sighed, thinking about how easy we would get it with the police cooperating, but that bridge was burned for us. The whole situation had taught me that despite Equestria seeming like a paradise at first glance, it had the same problems as countries on Earth — corrupted police being the main example. “A big store franchise like that should have their own warehouse somewhere. If our Doctor Shade is having some shady operations, we’d likely find some evidence of it there,” Starlight shared her thoughts. “I agree,” I nodded. “But we should check the store first anyway. There must be some documents which would tell us the location of the warehouse.” We hammered out a few remaining details before deciding the plan was good enough and set our sight on the closest store where we had bought the ingredients earlier. It wasn’t far from the cafe we were in and the time of evening was just perfect for our endeavor, so we began the execution of it immediately. The store was still open when we got to it though, so we had to spend some time just wandering nearby, waiting for it to close. Finally, the salespony I remembered from earlier left the store, closing the door behind him as well as lowering all the shutters on the windows. We approached the building as soon as he had disappeared from view. Starlight stopped before the door and closed her eyes to concentrate; her horn glowing. “There are some magical wards here, but they won’t be a problem,” she said after a few moments. “Wait here.” Having said that, she teleported inside the store. I glanced around nervously, but nopony was paying any attention to our actions — the streets were almost empty by this time. Then I heard a click and the door opened for us. We trotted in before somepony realized that a crime was happening before their eyes. “Told you it’s a useful spell,” Starlight commented for me. Rarity and Starlight lit up their horns with an illumination spell once we got inside. I, not wishing to appear inferior to them, tried to follow their example. It was a simple spell I’d learned right after levitation, but I hadn’t practiced it yet. Despite that, I still managed to produce a weak shimmering out of my horn, which was slowly becoming steadier. Starlight nodded in approval and I smiled briefly at my accomplishment. We skipped the customer’s area and went straight for the employees-only room. The door was locked, but there were no magical wards, so Starlight dealt with it swiftly. There was a small shelf with documents on it and a safe where all the money was probably kept. We weren’t here to rob so we didn’t touch the safe, focusing on the documents instead. “We’re looking for a warehouse address, but keep your eyes open for anything,” Starlight reminded us. Keeping that in mind, I grabbed the top folder and scanned through it. I wasn’t in luck; it was just an accountant book where every sale was written down. I found our own purchase in the middle of the last page by the number of bits we’d paid. There was the final sum of money in the bottom and I whistled quietly — it was a pretty profitable business by the looks of it. In the end, it was Rarity who found the information we needed. She copied the address to her own notebook and we put the documents back together as if no one had touched them. I gave the store one last look before we left it and sighed. There was so much expensive stuff…I wished to take something for myself as a compensation for what the Doctor had done to me, but I fought that desire back. I was above such things, I told myself. Starlight closed the door before I could change my mind and restored the wards she had to take down for us to enter. The store looked the same as before our little break-in. I had no moral qualms for breaking in — we did what we had to since the Police was less than helpful; everypony understood the necessity of it. We still agreed to keep it between us though; not everypony would see things our way. “Let’s go to the warehouse now,” said Ruby enthusiastically as we trotted away from the store. “I think I should go alone,” Starlight retorted. “There would likely be some kind of security guard. The more of us go there, the more likely we’d get noticed.” “There is no way I’m sitting this one out!” Ruby declared in outrage. “Honestly, I don’t think we would find anything interesting there at all, dear,” Rarity calmed her down. “What we really need is to find the Doctor himself and follow him around for a while. Following the suspect is what they usually do in detective stories.” They argued for a while and in the end we all decided to go to the warehouse. Ruby made it clear she would be going anyway and I wanted to keep close to Starlight in case the Doctor somehow learned about me being in Manehattan and sent somepony to finish the job. As much as I liked Rarity, I didn’t think she would be able to stop the assassin. The warehouse location was far from us, but we had to reach it on hoof because we couldn’t find a carriage that late. It took us an hour of fast trotting to get there and by the time we did, it was already night. Not a lot of ponies could be seen outside, which suited me just fine. The streets were brightly illuminated and I got a good look at the city around on our way there — it reminded me of the suburbs of London, but with fewer people walking about and much cleaner. The warehouse itself was a large building, surrounded by a fence. The only gate inside was guarded by a pair of ponies. “It looks pretty big for the kind of business the Doctor is conducting,” noted Rarity, looking at it from afar. “Looking at his store, I didn’t get the impression the supplies they sell would take up that much space.” “Suspicious,” agreed Ruby with a predatory grin. “I knew we would find something here.” “Hold your horses, dear. We don’t know if the whole warehouse belongs to him; it could be rented by a whole lot of different companies.” “Could be,” Ruby deflated slightly, “But I just feel like we’ll find something there!” We stopped behind the corner to hide from the guards and discuss our approach. Starlight once again offered to teleport herself in and handle everything alone, but we dismissed her idea. It felt wrong for us to let her risk getting caught while we just chilled out here. Besides, the more eyes, the better. Even I, while feeling reluctant at first, now felt excited to go. *** I slowly walked along the fence, trying to step without making a sound. My friends were doing the same thing in front of me. Our plan was simple — Starlight would levitate us all onto the roof of the building and from there we’d find the way down. So now we were getting in position, coming to the spot where the building was closer to the fence. There was a risk of meeting another guard who we had seen patrolling the area, so we wanted to do everything fast. It would definitely ring some bells in his head if he looked up at the wrong time and saw four ponies flying over the fence to land on the roof of the building he was supposed to protect. Starlight teleported onto the roof first to defuse any possible wards and waited some time until the guard was on the other side of the building. She carefully flew us up one by one. Our infiltration took no more than a minute and went completely unnoticed. We lay down, so nopony would see our bodies against the sky’s background and explored the roof. I felt like a spy while doing all that and I liked the feeling of adrenalin in adrenaline in my blood. There was a way down just as we had expected and we sneaked inside with no trouble, finding ourselves on top of a large warehouse area, filled with hundreds of boxes. It was dark inside and we could only see their silhouettes, but no one risked to produce a light, not with the guards strolling outside. “What are we supposed to do now?” Ruby whispered, addressing the whole group. “We need to find some charts that would tell us what type of cargo they have here,” Rarity answered in kind. “That would tell us if the whole place belongs to the Doctor’s company or if it’s shared with others.” We quietly agreed. We were on a catwalk which ran along the wall, so we slowly advanced on it, looking for a way down. Even when we got on the floor level, it took us a long time to find the office, since we had to do everything in almost complete darkness to avoid being discovered; the only source of dim light being Starlight’s horn. Once in the office, we closed the doors behind us and dared to illuminate it fully. All the documents were in a safe, which created a problem for us. Starlight could have easily torn it apart, of course, but we didn’t want to leave any signs of our investigation. That’s where Rarity and her strangely good lockpicking skills came into play. She tinkered with the safe for a few minutes and it finally clicked wide open, revealing a whole stack of papers inside. Rarity stepped aside with a superior smile, inviting us to dig in. “Wow, that’s cool,” Ruby told her in awe. Rarity’s smile only grew wider from the compliment. “A lady always has a few tricks up her sleeve,” she said. Examining the documents, we found out all we needed to know about the warehouse. It really did belong to the Doctor’s company alone and, based on the papers, contained an awful lot of alchemy goods. A great deal more than they would need for their trade. Either they had prepared for years in advance or…Actually, nopony had a solid theory as to why they would do that, so we went ahead to actually check a few boxes with our own eyes. One of our guesses was that he was doing smuggling on a large scale and the documents were simply faked. We went back to the main warehouse and chose a random box in the middle row. Opening it up, we found a bunch of dried plants, which Starlight was able to recognize as quite common and often used in various potions. All in all, it was nothing suspicious. After sealing the box shut, we found the next one and this time luck was on our side. Trays upon trays filled with bottles full of potions were inside it. I instantly recognized it as the same stuff the assassin had used on me back in Ponyville. No labels could be found on the bottles and I doubted dangerous potions like those would be allowed on the streets. Besides, there was no mention of potions in the charts we had found in the office. We exchanged worried looks with each other. The whole box was filled with explosive potions and there was no telling how many boxes like that were kept in there. If we weren’t careful enough…Starlight was able to calm our fears a little by casting a detection spell and confirming that each box was protected by some dampening magic, so it wasn’t likely to explode just because we’d touched it. Using the same detection spell, Starlight could tell the difference between boxes and led us to one with no special protection. A set of gray armor with some enchantments on it was in this one. I took a helmet that was designed for a unicorn, judging by a hole where a horn should be, and we examined it closely. “I’ve never seen such armor design before,” Rarity told us, touching the helmet with her pastern. “It’s well-made.” “Weaponized potions, weird armor… I don’t like it one bit,” Ruby stated, punching the box lightly. “Such a pity,” an unfamiliar voice commented from behind us. I jumped in the air, dropping the helmet, which rolled away clanking loudly. We turned around to face the voice as a bright light from the ceiling illuminated the whole place. A snow-white unicorn stallion with a short brown mane and tail stood there with a neutral expression on his face. He didn’t appear strong physically, but his horn radiated a menacing red glow, which gave me the creeps. He wasn’t alone, however. Five earth ponies stood beside him, glaring at us angrily. Each of them held a police baton in their hooves, though none of them were wearing any kind of uniform. It looked like we’d gotten ourselves into some serious trouble… “You!” Ruby yelled, taking a few steps towards the unicorn, but I stomped on her tail to hold her off. She threw me an evil glance, but obeyed. “Ruby. You haven’t learned to keep your muzzle out of other ponies’ business yet,” the unicorn said to her calmly and then his eyes switched to me. “The same goes for you, Sundae.” “Do you know this pony?” Starlight addressed both of us, but I shook my head. Even if I had known him in the past, I had no memory of it. “It’s Morning Bright, the Doctor’s henchpony!” Ruby answered instead. “I prefer the term second-in-command, if you please,” Bright said, frowning slightly. “Anyway, you shouldn’t have come here. I don’t want to dispose of ponies out of the princess’s inner circle, but I have no choice now. I’m afraid you know too much.” His horn flashed brightly red as soon as he had finished the sentence and he shot a spell at us. After that, chaos ensued.