Adamantium Prosthetics proved to be a great brick warehouse with two massive chimneys, one of a number of factories that lined the wide circle of asphalt that was Steel Boulevard. The one thing that made it stand out from all the others was the giant moving model of a metal wing mounted to the side of the great sign that announced the company’s name.
As Flash and Prowl passed over the parking lot and landed in front of the door, a young, overweight security pony in a gray uniform that was far too small for him raced out, his cap flying off and his tie flapping everywhere as he ran. Huffing and puffing, he paused in front of them, red in the face.
“Where’s the fight?” Prowl asked impatiently.
“This way,” the guard gasped, turning back to the door. He led them back inside through the door, down a hallway with a locker room, a time clock, and a rack of punch cards, and then through another door into the main work floor.
Everywhere there were work tables with artificial limbs atop them, metal skeletons with some plastic flesh clinging to them. Hooves, legs, talons, wings for pegasi, thestrals, and griffons, and even horns lined the racks on the walls. Carts of materials and other tools stood on both sides of a painted yellow walkway that marked the floor.
Normally, there would be the sounds of machinery all around the floor. Right now, there was a raucous clamor of shouts and blows that announced the reason for the 10-10 call. Rounding a corner, the three officers spotted a ring of ponies surrounding a melee of flailing limbs, angry shouts, and sounding blows.
Two equines, a large donkey and a lanky blue unicorn, were rolling around on the floor, snarling and spitting curses at each other as they rained down blows on each other’s forms. An older pegasus was laying on the ground a few feet away, holding his bruised head and groaning. Some of the spectators were shouting for the two to stop fighting; a number watched in silence, while many egged the pair on with chants of “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
A few sharp blasts on Prowl’s whistle scattered the crowd and slowed the fight. “Break it up, break it up!” Bumblebee ordered as he, Flash, and Prowl forced the combatants away from one another.
“I didn’t do anything, Circuit!” the blonde bearded donkey in a lab coat snarled through a bloody nose as Flash dragged him away. “Where’s your Celestia-damned proof?!”
“I always knew you were a piece of shit, Nate!” the electric blue unicorn with the cutie mark of a gear and a lightning bolt shot back, glaring through a swollen eye as Prowl pushed him back. “And now everypony knows that you’re a liar and a thief, too!”
“Enough!” Prowl barked. “We’re taking you to separate rooms, and you’ll explain what happened. Either of you causes any trouble with us, we’ll be taking you downtown, and you’ll cool your heels in a holding cell until you’re calm enough to talk. Clear?”
Both stallions glared at each other, but nodded and allowed themselves to be escorted away.
“You okay?” Bumblebee asked as he helped up the gray-maned janitor.
“I’m okay,” the wrinkly-skinned pegasus groaned as he stood up, shaking his bruised head. “I suppose I could do with an icepack. I was just trying to break ‘em up.”
“Okay, let’s go over here,” Bumblebee said, guiding the janitor over to his cart and having him sit down.
“All right, the rest of you, back to work!” a short, portly gold unicorn with a copper mustache barked at the crowd of witnesses, who reluctantly returned to their stations. The sounds of grinding, sparking, and growling machinery soon started up again.
“You sure you’re alright?” Bumblebee asked, gently coaxing him to tilt his head back and shining a light into his eyes to check his pupils. “Any nausea, confusion, dizziness? Anything like that?”
“No, officer,” the janitor replied, his eyes tracking the light without any difficulty. “Just hurts.”
“You were involved in this fight?” Bumblebee asked, pulling a small vial out of the first aid kid that all officers kept on their belts. He gently applied the painkiller gel onto the janitor’s bruises, drawing a relieved sigh as the fast-acting potion dulled his nerves.
“I guess you could say that,” the janitor nodded.
“What’s your name, bud?”
“Soap Streak,” the pegasus answered. “Been working here for the past five years. Those two have been working here for nearly as long,” he stated, jerking his head towards the departing fighters. “And they’ve been at each other’s throats almost the whole time.”
“Who are they?” Bumblebee asked.
“The unicorn is Short Circuit,” Soap explained, taking out a packet of apple-orange chewing gum and chewing on a piece. “The donkey is Nathan Clay. They both work here: Nathan’s a sculptor, he helps shape the plastic and metal for the limbs into the proper shape. Short Circuit does the electronic do-dads that make the things move.” He waved a wing idly. “It’s all a bit beyond me.”
“So what started the fight?” Bumblebee asked.
“I’m not sure,” Soap shrugged. “I was over here collecting trash—they really need to hire more than one janitor around here—when I heard Circuit shouting at Nate. Apparently, Circuit was accusing him of stealing his key and taking some of the limbs from the vault. Nate shouted back and Circuit decked him.”
“Wow,” Bumblebee said. “They should call him Short Fuse.”
Soap snickered. “Yeah, true. Anyway, they start rolling around. I tried to separate them and wound up getting clobbered over the head by one of them.”
Guiding Short Circuit into a small conference room, Prowl sat him down in one of the dozen wooden chairs surrounding a table and faced him down. “Explain,” she stated.
Circuit gave her a resentful look and blew some of his cloud white mane out of his face. “My colleague is a thief who’s trying to frame me for theft, that’s what the problem is,” he growled.
“All right, start from the beginning,” Prowl said coolly.
“When I came into work, the manager called me into his office,” Circuit explained, rubbing his black eye. “He told me that two prosthetics were missing from the vault of completed limbs.”
“Two prosthetics?” Flash asked, looking up from his notebook as his heart did a sudden pitter-pat hammering against his chest. “Were they a griffon right wing and left forelimb?”
Nate, who was currently seated in a break room chair, leaning forward and pinching his nostrils shut with a provided hoofkerchief, blinked at him. “How did you know?” he asked.
“A lucky guess,” Flash nodded, forcing the mask of stoicism to remain affixed to his face even as his heart started doing backflips in his chest. “Please continue.”
“Well, anyway, he’d found that they’d gone missing in a routine monthly inventory,” Nate continued. “He was going through security and it turned out that somepony had used Circuit’s key to access the vault a couple of weeks ago.”
“How do they know that?” Flash asked.
“The keys are enchanted so that every time somepony opens the vault door, it records the time and date and which key it was in some kinda magical record off-site,” Nate explained.
“Except at the time my key was used, I had already clocked out for the night,” Circuit stated, folding his forelegs across his chest.
“Where are the keys kept?” Prowl asked.
“We’re responsible for the keys, so we keep them on ourselves,” Circuit replied. “I actually did lose my key a couple weeks ago for a bit; didn’t notice until I’d gotten home and was checking my stuff. I found it in my locker the next day, though, so I figured I must’ve just dropped it somewhere and somepony else put it in my locker to cover for me.”
“You didn’t report that to your manager?” Prowl frowned.
“Not at the time,” Circuit admitted. “I didn’t want to get written up for it...again. I’ve already lost a couple keys and had to pay for new ones. And believe me, enchanted keys are fucking expensive.”
Prowl glanced down at her notebook, where she’d jotted down some shorthoof scribbles regarding Circuit’s testimony. “And what made you think that Nate stole it?”
“Because I’d already used it earlier that day, and right after that, I had to talk to Nate,” Circuit growled. “Dumbass set me back in my work because he hadn’t gotten some artificial feathers polished off in time. He’s had it out for me ever since he started working here.” He crossed his eyes and affected a high-pitched whining voice. “‘I need this job for my kids that I shouldn’t have had, it’s all I can do, no one appreciates art, especially not from a poor donkey, wah, wah.’” He snorted. “Anyway, I knew it had to have been him who stole it and ran off to confront him. He denied it, of course, so I decked him. And it felt good to clock that little minority leech.”
Prowl scowled and resisted the urge to not-so-subtly flutter her thestral wings. “Is it possible he got your key mixed up with his?” she stated, her voice retaining its impassive tone.
“No way,” Circuit shook his head. “Nate’s just responsible for shaping the materials before they get assembled. He’s not allowed in the vault and doesn’t have a key, so he wouldn’t take one. Unless he was a thief!”
“Of course I didn’t take it,” Nate said, checking the hoofkerchief for fresh blood. Satisfied that he was no longer bleeding, he allowed his hooves to drop into his lap. “Circuit’s a specist asshole who’s hated me from the moment I started working here, but I’m not a thief, and I wouldn’t set him up to fail. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if he took them.”
“We’ll have to check for ourselves,” Flash replied. “Is there a security crystal watching the vault?”
“There is, but it wasn’t working a couple weeks ago,” Nate frowned. “Some jerk knocked it out of the mounting and broke it as a joke. Penny Pincher, the manager, was beside himself for having to pay to fix it, and he still doesn’t know who did it.”
Flash frowned and glanced at his notes. “Okay, I’m going to need to talk to my sergeant about what to do next. Wait here.”
“Whatever you say, officer,” Nate nodded, not looking up. Flash exited the room and rejoined Prowl and Bumblebee to compare notes.
“What now?” Bumblebee asked.
“We need to speak to the manager about the theft and start an official investigation,” Prowl replied. “We should also cite Circuit for assault. If he acts up, bring him in. Maybe that’ll get him to talk more about the theft.”
“Roger, sarge,” Bumblebee nodded. He pulled a citation book out of his pocket and walked over to where Circuit was sitting, grumbling to himself.
“Where’s Penny Pincher?” Prowl asked a watching worker.
“He’ll be up in his office,” the pegasus nodded towards the shaded windows on the factory office that hung from the ceiling.
“Thanks. Sentry, stay with Bee, back him up,” Prowl ordered, taking off and flying over the stairs to the door. She knocked at the door.
“Enter,” a voice called. Prowl entered the small office to find Penny Pincher, the short gold unicorn from before, sitting behind a desk. He looked up at her, copper mustache bristling.
“Tell me you’re not going to arrest two of my best workers for a damn scuffle,” he grunted. “I know those two hate each other for whatever reason, but I do need them here.”
“That depends,” Prowl replied. “We’re going to be investigating the theft of the prosthetic wings. I’m going to ask for your complete cooperation in this matter.”
“You’ve got it,” Penny nodded. “That wing and foreleg cost me twenty-five grand apiece. I want this thief found, no matter who it is.”
“You have reason to suspect either Circuit or Nate?” Prowl asked.
Penny shook his head. “They might not be able to exist in the same room without fighting, but they’re both good, reliable workers. They’ve never given me reason to be suspicious of them before. Not even him having his key used—”
Both of them were suddenly interrupted by shouting from downstairs. Rushing to the window, they looked back down onto the work floor.
Short Circuit was lying facedown on the ground, a torn citation on the floor next to him. He writhed and twisted in an apoplectic dance beneath Flash and Bumblebee as they cuffed his forelegs, spitting curses at the two officers. Bumblebee finished securing Circuit’s forelegs, then spoke to Flash, checking the already-forming bruise on Flash’s jaw.
Prowl glanced at Penny, who chewed on his mustache in a silent fury. “Well, there goes the next few days of work,” he grumbled.
Sunlight streamed through the window of the second story of the precinct and into Red Herring’s cubicle. The walls of the little cube were bare of any decorations, and the desk itself was littered in paperwork, the in-tray stacked several inches high.
But at that moment, Red Herring cared for none of that. He was currently leaning back in the rickety chair, staring at a photo frame that he held tenderly in his hooves.
The picture itself was faded from many years of direct exposure to the sun. If a casual observer were to look at the photo, it might take them a few moments to recognize Red on the right side of the photograph: not only was he much younger and wearing a well-pressed dress uniform, but he was also smiling. He was accompanied by a pale yellow pegasus mare with a wavy light green mane, and a small red pegasus colt with a frizzy, lion-like blonde mane. Red and the mare both had a hoof placed on the colt’s head, and each had a wing wrapped around the other’s shoulders.
Red sighed, slowly lowering the picture to the desktop. “You’ve got no chance of getting her back, Red,” he muttered to himself.
Somepony rapped at the cubicle wall. Red looked up to see Twilight Sparkle standing at the doorway, with a purple figure riding atop her shoulders. Red blinked at the scaly little creature.
“Well, holy shit. You do have a dragon,” he commented.
“Language!” Twilight cried in a rebuking tone, not noticing Spike rolling his eyes at her.
“Sorry,” Red nodded. “Whatcha need?”
“We’re going over the evidence from the taxi that was…” Twilight paused for a moment to collect herself. “Used in my abduction,” she finished. “But Fla—er, Officer Sentry just returned with his partners. He’s got a case that I think Major Crimes might be interested in. Trace is speaking to them now, he sent me to find you.”
“Why’s that?” Red asked. “Trace and I have a lot to deal with recently.”
“This may be a lead to the Talon,” Twilight replied. “A theft of a prosthetic griffon wing and foreleg. We’re almost certain that they were stolen for Roaring.”
Red’s eyebrows perked up. “Huh. How is it that you guys just keep stumbling onto these things?”
“Trust me, detective. We don’t go looking for trouble,” Twilight deadpanned. “Trouble finds us.”
Red stretched and stood up, following Twilight back downstairs. “I’ll go find Trace. Speaking of which, where’s the dynamic duo?”
“Downstairs helping with Doctor Suunkii and I,” Twilight reported. “But they’ll be leaving soon. They have to get ready to head to Canterlot.”
“What’re they headed up there for?” Red asked.
Twilight briefly explained what they had discovered about the Amulet of Ina’yk. Red stared at her for a beat, then let out a loud snort.
“You know, I remember years back, the most complicated magic you’d see on the job would be some glamours and minor thaumaturgical curses. You didn’t see high-powered magic like this on a regular basis. And all of a sudden, we’ve got stuff from legends pouring out of our ears around here.” He gave Twilight a skeptical stare. “You really think that this spell thing will find the Talon?”
“If Daring’s story is accurate,” Twilight nodded.
Red frowned for a moment. “You know, normally I’d make a comment about her past being useful, but now...I don’t feel like making it at all.”
Twilight smiled at him. “Because she’s your friend, detective,” she replied.
Red was silent for a moment, then let out a brief grunt of a chuckle. “Or maybe I’m just tired,” he muttered with a small grin.
They descended to the basement laboratory and proceeded down a hallway, then through a door that Twilight unlocked and up a set of narrow stairs. A sudden wall of cold air greeted them as they entered the underground garage where impounded vehicles were kept. The harsh glow of fluorescent lights guided them forward across concrete floors towards the lot where the taxi was sitting.
Doctor Suunkii, who had donned plastic gloves and a facemask and tied his mane back into a short bun, was currently combing across the floor of the front seat of the cab with a lint roller, slowly dragging it across the carpet. Every so often, he’d pause and peel a layer off the roller, then place it into a waiting paper bag. Phillip watched over Suunkii’s shoulder, occasionally making a quiet comment about a particularly large piece of trace; Daring was leaning against a concrete pillar, staring at nothing in particular.
“So what’s the story, doc?” Red asked.
“I am currently collecting trace from this taxicab,” Suunkii explained.
“Wow,” Spike commented, glancing over the bags of collected trace. “That guy does not know how to clean.”
“Be grateful that few criminals are as thorough and clean as you are, Spike,” Doctor Suunkii replied. “They might be harder to catch. Spike, could you please fetch another lint roller and more paper bags?”
“But—” Spike said, looking at Twilight.
“I’ll be fine, Spike,” Twilight smiled reassuringly. “I’ve got all of these ponies with me.”
“Okay,” Spike said, sliding off of Twilight’s back and scuttling off towards the lab.
“And what does this have to do with the prosthetic theft?” Red asked.
“Twilight Sparkle reviewed city surveillance crystal footage, and this taxi was spotted around Adamantium Prosthetics at the time of the theft,” Suunkii explained, passing Red a small recording crystal. “Seeing as the models stolen are similar to the type that Roaring is now using, I believe that this case is important enough for Major Crimes.”
“Damn straight,” Red nodded. He tapped the faintly glowing crystal, but nothing happened. Frowning, he tapped it a few more times, all with the same negative result.
“Like this, detective,” Twilight said gently, taking the stone for herself and gently stroking the stone. It glowed and an image was projected up into the air above the stone.
“Thanks,” Red muttered, taking the crystal for himself. He and Daring, who had seemingly regained consciousness, studied the moving image.
The date and time placed the image on Steel Boulevard, ten nights ago. The image stared down onto the darkened entrance of the street. As they watched, a taxicab with familiar numbering on the back, 47, entered the mouth of the boulevard. It swung around to the back of Adamantium Prosthetics, which was seemingly abandoned and silent at this hour of the night, and slowed briefly. A figure exited the back seat of the cab and dashed out briefly, then dove back into the back of the cab; one could faintly see them throwing a large wrapped package into the back seat. It drove back up the boulevard and disappeared up the road.
“Can we get a better look at that passenger?” Daring asked.
“Unfortunately no, I’ve already tried,” Twilight replied as Spike ran up carrying more of the required materials, which he happily passed to Doctor Suunkii. “Flash is working on getting better footage from the factory, they might have something.”
Daring frowned. “It does tell us a few things, though. Whoever they were, they’re either an employee, or were working with somepony inside. Looks like whoever stole the prosthetics wrapped them up and tucked them somewhere in the alley, where they knew they wouldn’t be disturbed, so they could be picked up later.”
“So it was probably stolen during the day, when somepony might notice a worker running off,” Red nodded, closing the projection. “Doc, you got anything solid?”
“Only trace evidence so far,” Suunkii replied. “I believe that Detective Burned Rubber is currently taking another look at the original theft of this taxicab, and Detective Trace Evidence is currently interrogating a suspect that Officers Flash Sentry and Bumblebee and Sergeant Prowl arrested. I suggest you coordinate with them.”
“You’re the doc, doc,” Red shrugged. “Let me know when you get anything solid.”
“We will,” Suunkii nodded.
Daring glanced at her watch. “Phil, we’d best get a move-on if we’re gonna meet up with Vel and Night Light and get the train.”
“Oh, yeah,” Red commented with a roll of his eyes. “Have fun chasing legends.”
“It’s what we do,” Daring replied as they started to exit.
“Good luck!” Twilight called.
Phillip clapped a hoof on her shoulder as he passed, then patted Spike on the back. “Keep her safe, mate,” he said quietly.
“You got it!” Spike declared with a salute as the detectives left.
The train to Canterlot clattered up the tracks to the platform, steam hissing from the engine as its brakes engaged with a squeal.
“I already sent a telegram ahead, so the Princesses know we’re coming,” Velvet stated as she, Night Light, Daring, and Phillip stood on the platform, saddlebags strapped to their sides. “They’ll get the Kyaltratek out of the Royal Archive’s Restricted Section for us and Nighty can translate it for you.”
“You can translate it? I didn’t think an astronomer would know much about languages,” Daring stated.
“You’d be amazed how many old astronomical texts are in older languages,” Night replied with a smile. “When ponies first learned to move the celestial bodies, including the stars and the moon, their movements became intertwined with our culture, so it’s changed throughout history; it’s truly fascinating stuff to see how the skies have changed throughout our history, and to speculate on how they might change in the future!”
“Oh, here he goes,” Velvet sighed, rolling her eyes.
“Thought you’d want to stay here,” Phillip commented as the train hissed to a halt in front of them with a great hiss, the carriage doors opening so that ponies could disembark.
“We’ll be back soon, and she’ll be protected. Besides, how could I miss an adventure with Detectives Finder and Do?” Velvet replied with a wide grin, though her mask of exuberance failed to completely hide the nervousness in her eyes as she glanced back east. The shadows were lengthening in Ponyville, facades of offices and edifices cast in darkness even as windows reflected the dark orange of the slowly setting sun.
Night Light laid a hoof on her shoulder with a reassuring smile. “I know you wish you could just put her in a box and keep her there so she’d be safe, but that won’t help,” he said quietly. “She’s smart, and she has good friends keeping her safe. She’ll be fine.”
Velvet swallowed and nodded, following her husband onto the train. Daring started to follow, but paused when she realized that Phillip wasn’t at her side. Turning, she saw him standing on the platform, head turned back towards Ponyville and a pensive frown on his face.
“Phil, you coming?” she called.
He hesitated for a moment longer, then clambered onto the steps with a grunt. “Yeah. Just thinking...Whitestone’s not the only one she needs to worry about,” he muttered.
“The faster we get this done, the sooner we can deal with her, and then Zugzwang and Scarlet are next,” Daring grimly replied as they proceeded down the carriage to a waiting compartment.
Phillip nodded and glanced at the platform as the train started to pull away, casting a glance over the creatures that mingled beneath the curved glass roof, greeting family and friends or checking their maps. As his gaze panned over the ponies, he suddenly froze, one hoof darting to his holster and half-sliding into the .38’s sleeve.
“What is it?” Daring asked, automatically tensing and half-reaching for her own weapon.
Phillip remained frozen for a moment, then lowered his hoof. “Nothing,” he muttered, throwing the compartment door open and taking a seat next to Night Light. Daring frowned at him for a few moments, then reluctantly shrugged it off and entered, closing the compartment door behind them and settling down onto the bench, pulling her helmet down over her eyes to take a nap.
It had to have been nothing, Phillip told himself, staring at nothing. A brief flicker of his imagination crossing across his mind, that’s all it was.
For a moment, he could’ve sworn that one of the ponies on the platform was staring back at him. With cold, empty black eyes.