//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: To Protect And Serve: A Sisterverse Tale // by brokenimage321 //------------------------------// Radiance pushed open the front door of her apartment, then plodded heavily into the middle of her living room.  “Hey, Big Arr,” came Curly’s almost-gratingly chipper voice, “How was your day?” In answer, Radiance stood up on her hind legs, pressed the back of a hoof to her forehead, spun elegantly on one leg, then fell dramatically backwards onto her sofa.  “That bad, huh?” Curly replied. Radiance opened one eye. Curling Iron, a short, slightly chubby, purple unicorn sat in an armchair against the opposite wall. Her mane-styling magazine (“101 Do’s To Die For!”) lay open on her lap. Radiance closed her eye again, groaned dramatically, then nodded.  Before Curly could reply, another voice cut in. “Are you going to just lie there and moan and groan until we ask you what’s going on?” the voice asked with a sardonic edge, “Or shall we save us all a little time and cut straight to the exposition?” “He-e-ey,” Curly said, “Be nice, Penny! You wouldn’t want her to be mean if you had a bad day, would you?” “I wasn’t being mean,” Pen replied. “I was just pointing out she could very well skip the dramatics. And let me assure you,” she added, “when I have a bad day, I won’t bring it home: I’ll leave it at the Fat Cat, where I will be drowning my sorrows in entirely too many Moss-Cow Mules.” “That’s a drink, right?” Curly asked doubtfully. Pen paused before responding.  “Actually?” she said thoughtfully, “I haven’t decided yet.” Curly gave a little snort of laughter, and even Radiance smiled  Radiance knew Pen’s voice without having to open her eyes. Penny Pincher, “Pen” to everyone but Curly, had a grey coat, and wore her mane straight and long. She was probably sitting at the kitchen table, almost certainly double-checking something she’d brought home with her from work.  “You have no idea,” Radiance said loudly, interrupting the conversation, “what I’ve had to go through today.” She shifted uncomfortably on the couch. “And this sofa isn’t helping matters…” “I keep on telling you,” Pen called  from where she sat at the kitchen table, “That couch is probably older than you are. Fine for sitting, bad for fainting.” Radiance stuck her tongue out at Pen, but she had already returned to her work..  The three of them--Radiance, Pen, and Curly--lived together in a cramped little apartment somewhere downtown. Radiance’s family lived close enough to the station where she might have been able to walk to work each day, but she had made it a point of pride to start supporting herself as soon as she could. It wouldn’t do to have a policemare living in her parent’s basement, after all. And yet, despite the nobility of her intentions, one simply could not support a completely independent lifestyle on the salary of a mere rookie.  Enter Curly. She was also trying to scrape together the finances for an apartment in Canterlot, working as a manestylist, of all things. When she spotted Radiance sitting in a coffeeshop leafing through the wanted ads, she pranced over and introduced herself with her typical fearless enthusiasm. It was only after Radiance had said yes that Curly thought to mention Pen, a second-year accountant who had already paid her third of the security deposit. The apartment itself turned out to be a little small, and the appliances needed an update, but the company made up for it all. The emotional whiplash of having to deal with both Curly’s energy and Pen’s dry, sarcastic wit was often rather taxing, but Pen gave wonderful advice, and Curly was an excellent listener. To say nothing of the location, which was to die for…! “So…” Curly began uncertainly. “Did you want to talk about work today, or…?” Radiance bit her lip, but, before she could speak, Pen interrupted.  “Of course she does,” Penny snapped. “She only faints when she wants someone to listen.” Radiance very nearly shot back a snarky response, but then, the memories of what she had seen came flooding back. Her stomach began to sink, and her mouth went dry. Slowly, she sat up.  “Do you really want to hear about it?” she asked. “It’s… it’s serious.”  Curly sat up straighter, her magazine falling off her lap. Pen looked up from her work, took off her glasses, and set them down. “ ‘Course we do,” Curly said for both of them. “Talk away.”  Radiance flashed a little smile of thanks, but it quickly faded.  “Something… something happened at work today,” she began.  “What sort of something?” Curly asked.  Radiance shook her head. “I’m not entirely sure,” she admitted. “I thought I knew, but I didn’t get a good look…” Pen wrinkled her nose in slight irritation. “So,” she asked, “what do you think happened?” Radiance looked up at her, then back down. “I think…” she began uncertainty. “I think that I saw someone getting beaten at the Station.” Curly gasped and covered her mouth with her hooves. “So?” Pen asked. “Happens all the time, doesn’t it? When someone won’t behave, I mean?” Radiance shook her head. “Not like this,” she said solemnly. “It looked like they were trying to hurt him. Like, actually hurt him.” Curly gasped again, and even Pen’s eyes grew a little wider. “That… could be a problem,” she admitted. Radiance nodded in miserable agreement.  “I don’t know what to do,” she continued. “I feel like I need to do something, but I don’t have a clue of where to start…” “You should!” squeaked Curly. “I don’t know what I’d do if I were you…” Pen leaned forward. “What’s the Department’s policy?” he asked.  Radiance waved her hoof dismissively. “Probably a form for it, or something. I don’t know off the top of my head.” “Well,” Curly interrupted, “go get one! That’s the place to start—” Radiance let out a sigh of annoyance. “You’d think so,” she said, “but I get the feeling that’s not how things actually work…” Curly and Pen glanced at each other. “What do you mean?” Curly asked carefully. “Are you saying that the Canterlot PD is, what—” she gestured vaguely “--on the take?”  “No no no,” Radiance said irritably, waving her off. “I just… get the feeling that ponies don’t always follow the rules like they’re supposed to. And that forms don’t always make it to whom they’re intended for...” “So…” Pen said, “what are you going to do, then? You have to do something, don’t you?” Radiance slumped into her seat. “I think I do. But Tartarus if I know what…” Pen made a small Hmm sound and looked down at her lap. Curly bit her lip, then glanced around the room. Her eye fell on one of Radiance’s discarded fashion magazines, and her entire face lit up.  “I know what we should do,” she said. “We should go down to the Tasty Treat, just the two of us, and get some nice takeout. That always makes you feel better.” Her smile widened. “And, maybe on the way back, we could stop by that horseshoe emporium you like so much…?” Despite herself, Radiance started to smile.  Pen put her pencil down with a snap. “Hey, don’t leave me out of it.” she said, standing up. “I love a good curry as much as the next mare--and I owe you for those leftovers the other week—” “Yes, you do,” Curly said, her eyes narrowing. “I was saving those for lunch! What else was I gonna eat?” “Your own groceries?” Pen asked, as she put her mane up into a ponytail. “Bought with your own money?” “I told you,” Curly replied, “I’m too tired to go food shopping after being on my hooves all day!”  “Maybe it would help if you didn’t sleep in so much!” “Well, maybe it would help if you didn’t steal my lunch so often—!” Despite herself, Radiance started to smile. It was kind of comforting to hear the two of them bickering, in its own peculiar way. And a good dinner and some shoe shopping promised to help her feel even better. At the bottom of her gut, and at the back of her brain, what she had seen at the Department lurked like a shadow--but that was a problem that could wait for tomorrow.  Hopefully.