The same morning of the Canterlot High Emergency Assembly was to take place Sunset found herself willingly walking into a police station. Just being in a police station made Sunset nervous. Having Philomena with her helped, but she wasn’t sure she liked the looks Philomena was getting. She’d told them why she was there followed by Sunset and Dusty being brought into a precinct room where they were directed to sit at a desk right about the same the CMC were also being told to sit. Sunset filled out a form detailing the assault, followed by another one about the break-in.
“Mr Shimmer, this doesn’t say where you were during these times?” the interviewing officer asked. He was an old man named Fish. A detective who should have retired years ago, but stayed on.
“On the road.”
“Truck driver?”
“Professional transient,” Dusty offered with a smirk.
“Is that what the police call cowboys?” Sunset asked curiously.
“Something like that,” He replied with a big smile. He turned his attention back to the detective.
“I’m her father, but I don’t live with her. Her school had me down as an emergency contact should her foster parents not be available. One of whom I’m legally married to. It’s complicated but calculated. Yes, Sunset was living alone. Because she’s stubborn, just like her mother. Once she got it into her head to move out we agreed on a compromise because we were worried that she’d just take off. She gets to live in her own apartment under certain conditions. First, we found someone who was renting who would be willing to keep tabs on her and let us know how she was doing. Second, she was to report in on a regular basis. She was doing fine up until about two weeks ago. I got an urgent message to head home a week ago.”
“Be about the same time a certain blog came out,” Offered Detective Fish. “My granddaughter goes to Canterlot High, so I’ve heard.”
“I’m so sorry,” Sunset offered. She was feeling very small. Philomena gave her a reassuring nuzzle.
“You don’t need to be, you’ve nothing to be sorry for. You’d have to have lost your mind to set yourself up like that,” Detective Fish offered.
“Kind of wish my friends had realized that,” Sunset said with an air of resignation.
“Considering what Phil told us, I’d say the deck had been stacked against you, and with luck, they’ll turn around and realize how unfair they were being. Especially considering the two that started it were the little sisters of two of your friends.”
“Maybe. Still, though, I’m thinking I might be better off starting over somewhere else.”
“Like Crystal Prep?” Dusty offered.
“The Night Shift Watch Commander’s daughter goes there,” Detective Fish offered. “It’s a good school. Kind of hard to get into. They like to know things like where are you staying so we can get in touch with you?”
“Staying? Oh, right. We’ll be at home tonight. That is with Lofty and Ms Holiday. It is Lofty's house after all. Later on, we'll talk about maybe getting a place we can all call home as I’m to be staying in the area for a while and Lofty's place might be a bit cramped. See if I can’t get a few things sorted out like Sunset's school situation.”
“You’re staying? I thought you being here was just temporary?” Sunset asked.
“Keep in mind that I do odd jobs for Mr Coulson. There have been three separate incidents that generated interest within the Intelligence community at Canterlot High, counting this latest incident, and I’m going to be on retainer.”
“Incidents, Intel… retainer? Oh, you’re that kind of cowboy,” Detective Fish offered with a knowing smile. “Say no more, I don’t need to know.”
“Palantiri Consultants Incorporated, and I’m just doing a favor for an old friend,” Dusty offered. “Let’s just say that sometimes it’s easier to get a freelancer than to justify a permanent specialist. The fact that my own daughter seems to be in the thick of it is just gravy because I get to spend time with her. For all I know this city has seen all the trouble it’s going to see and life here will be boring ordinary domesticity.”
“We should be so lucky,” Detective Fish offered in a dry sarcastic tone.
“Some communities just seem to attract weirdness, is that it?” Dusty asked.
“Dad, I think I probably need to go to Crystal Prep.”
“What makes you say that?” Dusty asked Sunset.
“It just occurred to me that Mr Coulson mentioned that Twilight Sparkle goes to Chrystal Prep.”
“Say, you know the Night Watch Commander’s daughter?” Fish asked.
“Daughter? Um, that is, sort of,” Sunset replied.
“Rare bird indeed,” offered the voice of someone approaching. Sunset and Dusty turned to see a woman in a fish and game uniform. “I’m Warden Lacy, and I’ve some questions about that bird.”
“She followed her,” Dusty offered.
“You are telling me an Akkadian Phoenix just happened to follow the young lady? It’s a protected species from an archipelago that is illegal to go to unless you are a native or have been invited by a native.”
“What? Akkadian Phoenix?” Just when things had been looking up someone goes and dumps a load of concrete in her gut. “She came to me.”
“Sunset bonded with the bird when she was little. Blame Snap Shutter. The bird flew all the way here to find her,” Dusty protested.
“Ms Lacy, you’re going to need to back off,” Detective fish cautioned. “According to her file in the database, she’s an honorary citizen of the Akkadia Archipelago. She’s listed as being granted the status of Apostle of the Sun Princess.”
“Eh?” Now Sunset was really confused.
“You probably don’t remember because you were a toddler,” Dusty offered. “Back in the nineteen-twenties, an island archipelago was discovered, or rather rediscovered in the Caribbean. Snap Shutter took Pippin and yourself along with him to visit the island when you were a toddler. It was before he’d married Mane Allgood. Even back then a person needed permission to visit the islands. He didn’t have permission.”
“The people there, were they savages?” Sunset asked.
“On the contrary, they turned out to be an abandoned English colony that had integrated with earlier settlers who were originally from Greece. Much of the original flora and fauna was untouched native species that existed nowhere else.”
“And the world community agreed to a hands-off approach to preserve what was there,” Warden Lacy added as she looked at what Detective Fish had on his computer monitor. “When did that show up?”
“Just now. The system connects to INTERPOL,” Detective Fish offered. “Mr Shutter never got charged in that incident but he was put on a watch list as a possible trafficker of exotic animals.”
“No charges? They are usually a lot stricter,” Warden officer Lacy mused. “Still, I’m going to need to call my office.”
“She goes where she wants to,” Sunset offered as they watched Ms Lacy talking on her phone.
“Seriously?” Lacy said a short time later. “Oh, I get it. It’s bonded to her and capable of seeking her out, I see. That might be why they are so strict. Smugglers stealing the eggs would be a disaster. It’s a beautiful bird. A miracle they survived Victorian hats, but then again they’d been cut off during that time hadn’t they. Alright, I don’t need to be here, I’ll see you later.” She disconnected her cell phone and put it away.
“Well, I guess I don’t need anything here.” Lacy offered. “Sorry for the trouble. I sure wish that had popped up prior to leaving the office.”
“So it’s good now?” Sunset asked.
“Yes, sorry to have bothered you,” Lacy offered, turned, and headed for the exit.
“Hey, quit shoving!” Shouted a girl about Senset’s age with burnt orange hair and light golden skin. She looked like she’d been in a fight.
“Autumn?” Sunset called.
“Sunset?” Autumn called back and hurried over, her hands handcuffed. “They haven't arrested you too? - Cool bird.”
“No, I’m filing a couple of reports. One from when Gilda and Garble jumped me, and another for trashing my apartment last night.”
“They what?” Autumn asked as anger boiled up.
“They trashed my apartment yesterday afternoon, told Mrs Crump I’d done it to get her to put a lock on the door,” Sunset informed her. “After everything that’s happened over at Canterlot High…”
“Get out of that school.”
“Get over here,” ordered the police officer who’d brought her in.
“I’m innocent, I didn’t do anything!” Autumn protested.
“What happened?” Sunset asked.
“I saw a couple of Griffin dorks with your guitar, they jumped me, and I’m the one dip-shit over their arrests!”
“Officer, if she said it was my guitar, it was probably my guitar,” Sunset offered.
“Officer Wiggum, by any chance did you get the guitar in Question?” Detective Fish asked.
“They said it was theirs.”
“Was it an off-white, older model Fender Mustang, a little beat up?” Sunset asked. “Because the people who trashed my apartment and conspired to get me locked out during one of the worst winter storms I’ve ever seen took mine. And I know the serial number on it. I nearly froze to death last night. Hell I almost fucking jumped, and you side against the one person who was telling you the truth!?”
“Sunset?! Would somebody un-cuff me so I can hug this girl!?” Autumn protested. “Damn it girl, why didn’t you come to one of us?”
“I didn’t want to be a bother, and I figured because of-”
“Anon-a-miss doesn’t know about the Niriks, Sunset. Not one secret in our neighborhood got spilled. If it had been you, and you really did plan to trash your own place and take off you’d have told the world about us but that never happened. Anon-a-bitch doesn’t know about the Niriks.”
“I obviously wasn’t thinking straight,” Sunset admitted as an officer came over and removed the handcuffs from Autumn’s wrists. A moment later Autumn had her arms around Sunset.
“Come on over to Crystal Prep,” Autumn offered. “It’s a bit of a shark tank but your smart enough that it’s not going to be an issue.”
“We were just talking about that. I could get a fresh start.”
“And you’ll have me.”
“What about the others?”
“Some of us are there, most are over at Peril Peak Vista High.”
“I hear that’s a rough school.”
“Only to outsiders coming in and causing trouble.”
“Then it’s a good thing I didn’t go to Peril,” Sunset commented with a smile. Sunset couldn't help but wonder how things might have turned out if she had known then what she knew now, and the whole Apostle of the Sun Princess thing just had to have been fabricated by someone with access to Equestria short of Philomena had followed her into Equestria. It still begged a number of questions concerning Akkadia. Were they somehow connected to Equestria, and if so how? Not to mention that Dusty seemed to be in on it as well.