Boy, I should really dust off these shelves...
Looks like Screen Saver is finally realising the hygienic problems his store is facing. He never really was known for being a clean pony, in more sense than one at that. It was only when he found mold in his old vintage store that he finally got around to fixing this mess of a place, albeit begrudgingly.
Sluggishly climbing on his ladder, Screen Saver started dusting off the shelves. His movements were slow, tired and unenthusiastic. He probably should have done this long ago, to save the hassle he’s currently facing but atlas, he’s not good at planning ahead.
Oh, and this mold is much tougher than he anticipated. No matter how hard he scrubs, it just doesn’t want to leave its newfound home. Maybe he should have brought som-
“Screen Saver.”
The pegasus jumped, his hooves completely missed the steps of his ladder. He had no time to sprout his wings and save himself from a rather painful fall. As such, he crashed right in front of the powerful voice that startled him. His front door finally made a noise when it closed. The detective entered without making a single sound.
“I’ve come to check on the tape.” Looking Glass didn’t seem to express much concern for the fallen pegasus. His tone remained still, calm and focused. Nothing really seemed to break this state of mind.
“Your tape?” Screen Saver groaned, rubbing his injured back. “Yeah, it’s fixed, well mostly fixed.” He went back to the counter, trotting painfully as the pain of his fall was now kicking in full force. “I tried my best, but some parts of the recording couldn’t be salvaged. I-T hope this won’t come as a disappointment to y-you.”
“I’ll be satisfied if I can get any information out of it.” Looking Glass said bluntly, apparently not caring about the less than desirable result he was handed. His amber eyes were as powerful as ever. Sharp, concentrated and... menacing. Even though his posture suggested no hurtful desire, his gaze alone was rather unnerving for the poor pegasus. Everything about the unicorn indicated that something was wrong, that he had seen or heard things no ponies should have experienced.
Screen Saver placed the tape on the counter. “Y-You, uh, have anything to play it, right?”
Looking Glass reached for his pockets. “I’m always prepared.” He then picked up the tape and placed it into the cassette, hitting the play button.
The recording started with heavy static and distorted audio. It kept on going until the noise became clearer, turning into sound, then... into a voice.
“-grandiose new spectacle for all to see.”
Screen Saver’s eyes slightly widened in surprise. That voice sounded unnatural, maniacal and evil. The pegasus could tell for a fact that it wasn’t because of the distortion. The stallion speaking had a rather otherworldly feel to his voice.
But what made him nervous was the changing expression on Looking Glass’s face. Gone was his calm and determined gaze, now replaced with a mixture of fear and anger. He gritted his teeth as the rest of the recording played out.
“Another one inv... your monstruo?” A different voice said. This one sounded deeper than the first, less... maniacal but it also had an evil feel to it. No doubts were they hearing the voices of two dangerous criminals. The interesting thing to note was the usage of Spanish, a foreigner most likely.
“Our adorable monstruo’s a keeper, friend!” The devilish voice remarked fiendishly.
“... volatile wrench. I do not... this plan.”
Looking Glass muttered something under his breath, his ears perked up to hear as much as possible. He looked visibly displeased to be missing some parts of the recording, but he still had enough to piece it together.
“Perhaps you should... the lankier one, hm? The one we don’t need anymore.” The fiend then giggled, the feed distorting his voice to make it sound almost demonic.
“I see... Where should we fire her?” The other stallion let out a chuckle of his own, sounding just as twisted as the one in charge. The two ponies were now on the same page.
“Only the brave and the bold dare venture into the Everfree. It’s dark and spooky in there. Fitting, isn’t it?”
“It’s close to a town, are you really sure we should do it there?”
“And why not? Don’t we want them to find the aftermath? It’s not just about taking care of a problem, friend, it’s about sending a message.” This time, Screen Saver and Looking Glass felt a chill run up their spine.
Sweet Celestia! This must belong to a dangerous arch-criminal! I-I don’t want to get involved in this! Screen Saver began to sweat profusely, his eyes going from the cassette tape to the detective in frantic movements.
“He he he... Let’s make some noise.” Looking Glass’s calm demeanor finally snapped. He looked just as nervous as the pegasus. His skin was pale and his eyes wide opened. A wound had been reopened.
Scrambling through his pockets, he slammed down a couple of bits on the counter and took the cassette tape with him. “Here’s the payment... as promised.” Despite his fears, his voice only slightly hitched. “Forget what you heard. Or else they’ll come for you too.”
Completely out of his depths, Screen Saver could only nod in response. He mindlessly watched as the unicorn exited the store, closing the door behind. Now left alone, the weight of what he had just witnessed came crashing down on him as his body collapsed on the counter, tired. I wish somepony else would come in for once.
It was getting late outside, really late. Nurse Redheart’s shift was soon coming to an end. While she did like her job, she always felt a little bored near the end of her shifts. Her days were often taxing for her body, and it was once the sun started lowering that she started to feel tired.
Tonight, the mare was more tired than usual. She had only ten minutes left, but with nothing to do, they felt like hours. If she closed her eyes and rested her head for even a second, she’d probably fell asleep. It was a fight to keep her eyes wide open. With coffee in hooves, she’d probably make it to the end.
She weakly lifted the cup to her lips and took a nice, hot sip. Ah, what a nice feeling.
“Redheart, do you have a minute?”
Nurse Redheart flinched, a terrible mistake. The coffee spilled on her face, dripping down to her neck. A powerful burning sensation overwhelmed her senses, and she didn’t quite process the fact that Looking Glass was standing mere inches away from her.
Quickly taking some tissues, she wiped away the stains on her crystal white fur. Sadly, with such a light-colored coat, she has no choice but to take a quick trip to the shower to clean it off. That’s the downside of not having a dark coat.
“Do you have a habit of sneaking up on ponies?” Redheart finally said, staring at her stained body in disdain.
“I do not. I’ve came in from the door as anypony would.” Looking Glass explained. His posture seemed rather impatient.
“Not everypony trots as silently as you. It’s no wonder you always startle ponies.” Redheart groaned, pathetically standing up from her seat. “What do you want?”
“I’ve been investigating Olive’s case for a while now. I’ve found some important information that I need to share with Princess Luna.” Looking Glass briefed, but that still didn’t answer the mare’s question.
“Okay, and why are you coming to me?”
“I want you to attend Olive’s progress review, where I’ll be sharing said information with Lu-Princess Luna.”
If eyes could speak, Redheart would be screaming ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’ with the glare that she shot at the detective, though she immediately retracted it once she noticed a change in his less than pleased expression.
“Sure, I’ll be there.” She sheepishly responded. “Oh, and when is it?”
“Tonight.” Looking Glass turned around and was already making his leave.
“Wait, tonight?” Redheart exclaimed in surprise. “You’re just deciding now to hold a progress review in the middle of the night,” she asked incredulously. “for a patient in... yeah not entirely stable condition but she's been in our care for a couple of days already. Is it because Princess Luna will be here?”
Looking Glass shook his head. “No, it’s about the filly’s background. I believe I’ve found the identity of her father.” The gravity in his voice sent a shiver down her spine. “I just hope I’m wrong about this.” he muttered as he left.
Now, Nurse Redheart was dying to know what he found out. She already knew that the filly’s father was a real bastard, but she could smell the detective’s fear. The same detective that stopped the brutal crime lord, the Crimson Mask. What kind of stallion could strike fear in such a courageous pony to the point that he wants to be wrong about his deduction?
Normally she’d be against the idea of going to a progress review right as her shift ended, but she cared too much for Olive to turn her back to this meeting.
“Okay well... if you’ll excuse me, I need to consume twice my body weight in coffee.”
Knock knock!
Applejack groaned from her bed. It was late, so she was understandably sleeping from her day of hard work. She wanted to remain in bed, hoping that somepony else would answer the door but atlas, her body got up on its own. Lighting up a candle, she trotted down the creaky staircase. At her front door, she placed the candle on a small table nearby and opened the door. Out on her porch was none other than the princess of friendship, Twilight Sparkle.
She sighed. “Twilight, Ah hope ya have a good reason to wake me up in ta dead of night.”
Twilight noticed the bags under her friend’s eyes and felt a little guilty. “Sorry to bother you, Aj, but I just received a very important message from Princess Luna.”
Applejack felt a sudden jolt of energy at the simple mention of the lunar princess’s name. She immediately knew it was somehow tied back to Olive. “What’s mah part in this? What’re we doin’?” she asked in rapid succession.
“Well, uh...” Twilight stammered before clearing her throat. “We’ve been requested to attend Olive’s progress review at Ponyville General.”
“A progress review? In the middle of ta night?” Applejack questioned, raising a suspicious eyebrow.
“I know it’s weird,” Twilight admitted. “I didn’t get much detail too. All that I know is that Looking Glass specifically requested for this review to be done tonight.”
“Looking Glass?” Applejack raised her eyes, the name did ring a bell. “Oh yeah, ta detective. Did he find somethin’?”
Twilight shrugged. “Most likely, I guess we’ll only know once we get there.”
Looking over to her right, the earth pony picked up her signature hat and put it on. “Ah sure hope it’s gonna be about that filly’s father. He needs to pay for everythin’s he’s done to her.” Though if it is about Olive’s father, then he must be quite the threat for the unicorn to summon a princess to a simple progress review... and for said princess to summon yet another princess. Gee, things were looking bad, aren’t they?
The alicorn nodded. “I’ll be sure to help as best as I can since I now have jurisdiction thanks to my princess status.”
Applejack smirked. “Heh, guess that must be another perk of bein' a princess!”
Twilight Sparkle smiled sheepishly. “I still have so much to learn about the art of being a princess. It’s crazy just how good I'm being treated by everypony despite not owning an actual castle... and a crown too at that.”
Applejack walked past her friend. “Alright, enough chattin’. Let’s get a move on.”
A flying chariot carried by two ponies in the sky caught the alicorn’s eye. It was heading towards the hospital. “It’s Princess Luna!” she exclaimed.
A sudden flash of magenta caught Applejack by surprise as she found herself dragged in one of Twilight’s teleportation spells. When the flash dissipated, the two mares were just in front of Ponyville General.
“Wha- how-Land sakes girl!” Applejack shouted. “Warn me before ya go and do that next time.”
The chariot landed near them, and Princess Luna stepped out of it in all her lunar glory. “Princess Twilight, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”
Applejack twitched slightly before taking a bow before the lunar princess. Twilight almost did the same before remembering that she was a princess too. Still getting used to that new status, ay?
“Rise, Applejack.” Luna said in an almost commanding voice. “You need not to be so formal whilst we’re among friends. We're friends, aren't we?”
"Totally, princess!"
“Eh... Anyway, Looking Glass summoned us here.” Luna began to explain, sounding mildly worried. “He sounded rather... nervous when he spoke to us.” She shot a brief glance at her slacking bodyguard. For tonight, she was accompanied by Mango.
Captain Mango wasn’t exactly the best bodyguard as of late. With how little threats the princesses have actually faced and how scarce the few ones were, he got into a bad habit of drinking often. Discord? Drank through it all. The changelings? Okay, he did do his job pretty well, but Luna sadly slept through the whole incident. The Crystal Empire? It wasn't his concern at all, nor was it even for Celestia and Luna, so he drank through it all. As such, he nabbed a couple of unflattering looks from Applejack and Twilight.
“Shouldn’t he be sober fo’ this?” Applejack asked, looking unimpressed.
“Technically yes.” Luna admitted. “However, we alicorns only have bodyguards on principle. We don’t truly need them. As such, I’ll allow it... for now.”
“And I’m grateful for it, princess.” Mango drunkenly muttered with a grin. Somehow, he wasn’t knocked down a rank or two for this behavior.
“Ugh!” Twilight huffed in frustration. “Can’t he take this situation seriously? We’re about to discuss serious matters!” She shouted, glaring at the drunken captain.
“Do not mistake his carefree attitude for a lack of resolve, young princess.” Luna spoke, sounding a little menacing. Her face darkened as she lifted her head, now looking down at the two nervous ponies.
“Those who seek to harm our subjects will face the full blunt of our wrath and be brought to justice. Yes, it’s frustrating to know that every day, somepony out there is living through Tartarus itself while for us; it’s just a day like any other. I can relate. We do what we can to protect and help those in need, but never forget that you serve nopony by drowning yourself in their misery. Captain Mango is one of our best royal guards. He’ll show you his resolve when the time comes...”
"Hm? Yeah, what she said." Mango muttered.
Twilight looked awfully nervous, lowering her head as she was unable to cross Luna’s eyes. Applejack herself felt uncomfortable. Sensing this bad shift in the air, the lunar princess calmed down, lowering her head to seem less imposing.
“But I don’t blame you for misjudging Mango. He never was great with first impressions.”
“Aw crapbaskets! I’m outta cider!” Mango yelled in the back, causing Luna to sigh.
“Further proving my point.” Luna waved at the three ponies with her wings. “Come, we shall speak more inside.”
Taking a deep breath, Twilight followed the taller alicorn in the hospital, with Applejack and Mango in tow.
“Do they have apple ciders inside?”
“Focus, Mango.”