//------------------------------// // Out of our Hooves // Story: Twilight, Mare of Power // by Banops //------------------------------// I was ready to move over to the subdued mare and put her out. I kept having the image of my grandson saying, “kill it.” I knew it wasn’t my family I wanted to avenge, but I couldn’t stand the thought of something corrupting a little colt like that. I trotted over to the killer not even thinking about what I was about to do. What was I about to do? Was I really going to kill her... Possibly. I wanted to snuff the bitch, for little Wheaty… for little Ellis. I had to make sure this mare would never hurt anyone again. All I’d have to do was walk over to her, turn around, lift my hind legs, and buck her head into the ground. I could buck her head until there was nothing left but splintered bone. It would be easy enough, even with my aged body… So I stopped in front of this monster, who was pressed against the road under the rookie’s subdue spell. I gritted my teeth when I looked at her. What a disgusting sight, and not just because I despised her. Maybe she could have been a beautiful mare, had it not been for her misshaped face, her blank white eyes, her disastrous mane and coat. She smelled horrible as well. She smelled like something died. The smell was so strong in fact that I nearly gagged just standing next to her. I kept looking at her. I kept looking and I kept getting angrier. And the more I watched her the more disgusting she became. The more disgusted I became of her, the more I desired to kill her. It got to the point where I was actually about to pound her face into the ground. I wanted her dead and I didn’t even care to ask her why she destroyed this family. Before I made any rash decisions, I glanced over at Rafferty. He seemed to be focused on maintaining his spell. I stepped closer to the mare and turned around, ready to release my anger. I leaned forward, getting ready to buck Ms. Sparkle in the head. Was I really about to do this? … Yes I was. And then… I released. I let my muscles push so that I sent my hind legs hurling towards the mare. But… I never connected. No, instead I was pushed over by some force sending me face first into the ground. It was a magical force, I could tell as I hadn’t felt anything touch me. As I picked myself up off the dirt road, I heard my partner speak at me. “What in the hell was that about?” He spoke through clenched teeth. Obviously he still trying to concentrate on subduing the mare. “What do you think this is, the Wild West? This isn’t some bounty you can just bring in dead or alive.” The damn rookie was trying to lecture me. “Besides, her papers say specifically to NOT kill her. She must be important.” “Yeah, well to hell with the papers!” I retorted, “She deserves to die.” “That’s not for you to decide! So step away from her.” He had said that last part half threateningly. I knew not to mess with a unicorn like this so I complied, trotting away from the mare, who still remained silent… watching us… waiting… It was pretty unnerving. “Are we going to have any more problems?” He asked as I stepped away. I responded to him coldly, “No.” Then I added, sighing and letting go of some of my tension. “Sorry about that, I guess I just… I just got caught up in the moment.” “Are y’all alright?!” called a voice several yards down the road. It was one of the two heads of the taxi we had been taking. The other taxi pony was still by the overturned cart trying to flip it back over. He glanced at the purple mare on the ground looking surprised. He didn’t say anything about her. He seemed to understand that we were cops and that he shouldn’t question us. “We’re fine.” Grunted the rookie. There was a crashing sound, and, I saw, the other taxi pony had managed to flip the cart back upright. He called out to the three of us standing here. “We’re in luck, the cart isn’t damaged. Is everyone ready to head out?” He too now noticed the purple mare pressed against the dirt. As he walked over to us he asked about the mare. “Who’s this? She do something wrong?” This pony was a little more talkative. “Yeah,” I said “ ‘fraid that’s all I can tell ya though” He seemed to just shrug off the notion that we had a new passenger. He couldn’t complain, since they would be getting more bits for taking three ponies instead of two. “Hey!” called the rookie trying to get all of our attentions. The two pony cart drivers and I turned our heads to hear what he had to say. “Y’all might wanna cover your eyes for just a sec.” And I did without question. I knew what he was doing, though I suspected the drivers didn’t because I heard the rookie say, “Suit ya’selves.” And then there was a flash of bright white light. The light was intense enough for me to see even though had my right foreleg covering my face. Rafferty was forcing the purple mare into unconsciousness. It was spells like these that made somepony like him necessary for these cases. I opened my eyes as the flash of blinding light came to an end. After my eyes adjusted to the dimmer daylight, I saw that both of the drivers were on the ground rubbing their eyes with their hooves. “What was that for!?” one of them shouted. “You should’ve covered your eyes.” Rafferty responded dryly. I chuckled under my breath. Everypony always questioned this spell the first time and everypony always had to learn the hard way. I looked to the now unconscious mare that lay on the dirt road. The spell had worked and Rafferty had stopped his subdue spell. The mare now lay in a motionless heap on the ground, mouth wide open, eyes shut. Thank Celestia too, her eyes were starting to creep me the hell out. When I looked back up at the rookie I noticed he looked a lot more relaxed then when he did while maintaining his subdue. So now with the culprit unconscious, we were ready to continue to Ponyville. Only now instead of looking for leads, we were headed to the Ponyville Police Department. I let out a sigh, reaching for a piece of tobacco in my pocket, a piece that wasn’t there. I cursed. When we got to Ponyville, I was going to pick up some some tobacco. I had to help the rookie lift the purple mare’s body into the wagon. She really wasn’t that heavy, which was good because I was getting too old to lift things like this… But hay… I was close to retirement. *** Our little ‘stop’ had only burned about ten minutes so within twenty more minutes we were already in Ponyville. Luckily the town was fairly small so it was easy to find the police department. After hauling the mare’s body off the taxi cart and hoofing an extra thirty bits to the taxi ponies they headed off. Boy would they sure have a story to tell. It only took another few minutes to get this body into a holding cell. Obviously, I thought, she wouldn’t be here long. She was arrested for treason and again she was arrested for murder. Crimes like that easily would put her in the royal Canterlot dungeon. Well, I guess it was time to call the chief. I gave a nod to my partner who, at this point, was just following me around. He gave me a nod back and continued to stay close. I found an old timey telephone laying at an empty desk in the department. For some reason each police station seemed to keep really old equipment and tech. I wrapped my foreleg around the receiver and put it up to my face. The calm voice of a mare spoke in my ear, “How may I help you?” I gave her my name and badge ID and then asked for her to connect me to the EEPD. “One moment.” Said the voice. There was a long pause and there were some clicking sounds followed by ringing. I took that time to say a word to my partner. “Hey could you go out to the market and get me some chew?” I asked him quietly hoofing him some bits. “Oh and get something for yourself to eat while your there, I’ll let you know what the chief says.” I added, giving him a few extra bits. “Sure, make the new guy run errands.” He said sarcastically and then smirked. He accepted the money and headed out. The ringing stopped and another female voice spoke into my ear. “Good afternoon Detective Hartigan how can I help you?” “Could you get me Chief Blueshield?” I responded and was met with another “please wait.” My anticipation started to build. I was getting excited to tell the chief that we had already caught our killer. After several moments a raspy voice sounded over the receiver, the voice of Chief Blueshield. “Hello detective.” “Chief!” I spoke excitedly. I always got worked up when I had good news for the chief. “I have good news, we got the killer and…” He cut me off “Stop, right there, just stop… Hartigan. We’re taking you off the case.” WHAT! “Wha- what do you mean off the case!” Was this really being taken from me! “Go ahead and come home, its done, you’re off the case Hartigan” He said, coldly. He wasn’t joking. He never joked. “You can’t just take me off the case I…” again he cut me off. I slammed my free hoof on the desk. "It’s already done Hartigan, we’ve been talking to the higher ups… its already out of our hooves. Who ever this Twilight dame is, she’s bad news.” I still couldn’t believe this was happening “What about the wife, she was never found, what about her?!” I was almost yelling by now and ponies all over the room had turned their head to look at me. “Don’t worry about finding her, she is going to take the fall for the murder.” He sounded a little disappointed when he said this, so at least, I thought, he wasn’t too happy about this turn of events. But I still couldn’t let this slide. I paused for a brief moment, an image of my grandson saying “kill it” popped into my head. “How can we do that, we know she didn’t kill her husband, WE ALREADY HAVE THE KILLER, she’s right here in this cell!” I waved my hoof in the direction of the holding cells where the unconscious mare was kept as if he could see the gesture. “Look,” he said “I understand how this sounds, but orders are orders. And since when did you care this much about what happened to the victims?” “Alright,” I said, trying to calm down, though I still was hardly thinking about my next words, “well then, considered this my retirement…” I said bitterly. I slammed the receiver back into its holder. Goddesses be damned! Well I just quit, so there wasn’t much left for me to do. But at least now I could continue to search for this wife, Cherrie Redberry was her name if I remembered correctly. I just hoped she wasn’t a corpse. I stomped my way out of the building, causing heads to turn as I passed, and sat down on a bench that rested just outside the station. I put my face in my hooves. I still couldn’t believe I just quit. After a few minutes, the rookie returned levitating a small box of tobacco and a daisy sandwich, which he took a bite of and then sat down next to me. He floated the box of chew to me, which I took. “So,” he sounded full of pep as always, “What’d Blueshield say?” “Go home kid, we’re through.” I responded harshly, I really didn’t feel like explaining the situation. “Excuse me?” “The chief took us off the case. Just go home, take a cab and go home.” I said opening the box of chew and stuffing a piece into my mouth. Then I frowned. I promised myself I’d quit chewing the stuff the day I retired. I spat the piece out of my mouth and onto the ground.