And so the case slowly dwindled to a close. Any and all active members of the Syndicate left in Ponyville either fled the town or were hunted down and arrested thanks to a codex of names left behind in the underground hideout. Together, Quick and Flash managed to compile quite a lot of footage both of the town and of the various locations they had visited in their journey. Everything was shaping up rather well and it seemed a fitting close to the case. Reports were flying in of arrests all across Equestria of ponies with ties to the Syndicate, especially the weather technicians whose “negligence” led to the formation of a rouge tornado which hit Ponyville unexpectedly.
All seemed well considering the depth of the conspiracy that had just been uprooted, but despite the strength of the evidence against them, a number of suspects managed to escape trial with strong alibis and character witnesses. In total, across Equestria, ponies everywhere were being checked for ties to this organization which, as Celestia herself proclaimed, threatened the very sanctity of peace and justice in Equestria.
Quick and Flash had just settled down for lunch at the same cafe which had so recently tried to poison them. The chef, quite ashamed of his mistake in hiring two suspicious stallions without a proper background check, offered the pair a lunch on the house in return for not publicly releasing the name of his establishment in the report afterward.
“Feels good to finally eat something after all this, Quick. Glad to know there isn't some pony out there trying to poison our every meal anymore.”
“Don't be too sure of yourself yet, Flash. At the first sign of sickness I'm taking you to the hospital to get your stomach pumped.”
“Ha, wouldn't you be afraid the nurses there would try to slip something in the medicine?” Flash replied sarcastically.
“Good point, I'll have to keep that in mind when I write your eulogy.”
“Very funny. So do you think this will get us back into the business again?”
“Flash, if this story doesn't make us famous, nothing will. We've uncovered a scandal that reaches across all of Equestria! They had ties to arms manufacturers that were shut down before they could sell weapons across the world to various other criminals. We stopped a crime wave that could have overtaken civilization as we know it in only two days!”
“Good point, do you suppose they're still active though? The Syndicate, I mean.”
“Naturally. We may have put a big dent in their plans, but I doubt they're finished. After all, if Golden Delicious was so important, I doubt she would have had any direct contact with ponies on the outside. Clearly this operation must be a lot bigger than we could have imagined.”
“And what about her threat? Do you think they can managed to strike back at EU?”
“Flash, I don't even know where EU's headquarters are. Nopony does. We submit our stories through remote sources and they publish them to help maintain anonymity when it's necessary.”
Without warning, a purple fireball materialized above Quick's head and dropped down onto the table between the two.
“A letter from EU? Must be important, Quick, you'd better read it.”
Quick glanced at the note and turned visibly pale at the sight of it.
“Attention all EU reporters, this is an emergency notice. An attempt has been made on our facility as well as our very lives. It seems an unknown agency doesn't want us snooping around in their business anymore, which means somepony out there is doing their job right for once. To protect some of our own more closely guarded secrets, I've enclosed a single micro-capsule containing a fraction of our stored information. Protect it with your lives. Continue your respective investigations as normal, but be aware that you are all now in grave danger as the information you possess is of the utmost importance. Find each other if you can, keep the capsules safe. I will arrange a meeting with you all as soon as I am able. Be safe, be suspicious. Trust no one, not even your fellow agents, as any one of them could be a spy. I'm trusting you to carry on our work. Good luck!
Signed,
The Lost Quill
Your Equestrian Underground Chief-in-Staff”
A small metal cylinder fell from the unrolled letter and landed softly on table in front of them.
“This is awful, Quick, we'll have to do something!”
“Agreed, but I don't know where any of the reporters are heading at the moment. I only know where we might find one if we're lucky.”
“A chance at one is better than nothing, let's get moving already. Where are we headed?”
“Flash, we're setting a course for Baltimare!” Quick proclaimed proudly.
“Baltimare? What's out there?” Flash inquired.
“The very story that we were going to have to take, my friend. If we're lucky enough, some poor sod was unlucky enough to get it instead of us!”
“Baltimare it is!”
And so the duo packed away their lunches and made way for another sleepless journey to the eastern shores of Equestria where rumors of a Giant Cockatrice plaguing the outskirts of the Everfree Forest had attracted the attention of EU's reporters. And what of Golden Delicious, still at large? Perhaps our heroes will find themselves embroiled in another mane-deep plot.
Find out in the next spine-stiffening adventure where the puns are doubled and action is too while Quick and Flash try to uncover the mysteries set in stone in Baltimare!
Note from the Author (the guy who has been wasting your time)
If you've read this far, you've either skipped the first 42 pages or you have some serious guts. As a result, you should either return to page 1 and reread the whole darn thing to either prove yourself or point out all of its obvious flaws. Thank you so much for reading! I'll be back, and hopefully you will too!