//------------------------------//
// A culprit 
// Story: Through Another's Eyes 
// by Prince Colgate 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash flew out of the elevator eagerly. I followed her out, significantly more timid. We turned the corner and found ourselves in another hallway, this one much shorter. It lead into a room with another reception desk, and several desks with computers and papers and the works. Police were running all around investigating everything.

There was a woman at the reception desk. She was gorgeous. Her hair was long and brown, and her eyes were a dark bluish green. I stopped when I saw her. There was a policeman standing behind her, watching her. Unsure of what to do, I stepped up to the reception desk.

“Um, hello, I’m looking for...” He started.

“Sorry, no press allowed right now.” She said, without looking up from her computer.

I was caught slightly off guard by her presumption. What about the way I looked implied that I was press? Rainbow Dash landed behind me, giggling. “Um, I’m not press, I’m...”

“Oh. Then if you’re not press, and you’re clearly not police, you have no business here anyway.”

“I.. Er...” Such a rude receptionist! “I’m... Er, my name. Riley Compton, yes. I’m a, er... Private Detective.”

“Ah. I see.” She looked up at me for the first time. “Who hired you then?”

I winced slightly. I really hadn’t thought this through very well. “I... Er, well, see, I’m a very private detective.”

“So no one knows you exist?”

“Yes, that.” I avoided eye contact. 

“So you’re just here for the hell of it?”

If she was my receptionist, I would fire her. For the hell of it. “Um... Well, yes, that’s about it.” 

“Well, there’s no need. The police already have a culprit.”

I gave a noticeably disappointed look. I guess this whole thing was a waste of time. “Oh. Well, that’s good, right?” I was pathetic.

“I guess so.” She seemed unamused. After a short awkward stare, she returned her gaze to her computer, and I turned to leave.

“Hold it!” Rainbow Dash shouted from behind me. She jumped in front of me, blocking my way to the exit. For a few moments, I forgot that she wasn’t actually there, and that I could have walked right through her. I stopped dead in my tracks. “So, you’re just gonna give up, eh?”

“That was the idea. They already have it figured out.” The receptionist and the police guard guarding her both gave me strange looks. I realized that to them I was talking to myself, and became embarrassed. Dash laughed for a moment, then got serious.

“You could at LEAST do some detective-ing while you’re here! Think about it. Use your logics!” I had no idea what she was talking about. I looked back at the receptionist and the guard who was guarding her. I couldn’t really see anything else past the reception desk, except some empty office desks. All I saw was the receptionist and the guard guarding her.

Wait a minute...

I stepped back over to the reception desk. “So um... If there’s a big investigation going on in there...” I pointed to the policeman standing behind her, who seemed to be staring off in the distance. “What’s he doing over here?”

“He’s guarding the culprit, of course.” She responded, not looking at me.

“Oh, so YOU did it?”

“According to the police, yes. I guess I underestimated you, you clearly have some real top-notch deduction skills.” She said, noticeably sarcastically. 

“... But DID you do it?”

“What does that matter? You don’t look like a defense attorney to me.”

“Er... Well... I guess not...” That was a lie.

I went to college at North Carolina State University. I was a psychology major. I then proceeded to Campbell Law School for four years, and am now, in fact, a bar registered lawyer. Amazing that I did all that without ever leaving Raleigh, North Carolina. Unfortunately, I proved to be completely inadequate as a lawyer, and remained completely unemployed.

And that is how I became a useless PI. It all started when I was a useless lawyer. Anyway, the flashback cuts away and I find myself in the middle of an awkward silence. She is still focused on whatever is on her computer. “Right then...” I say, and turn to leave, giving up.

“Hold it!” I hear a male voice from behind me. I wonder for a moment why all these ponies found it necessary to yell so loudly. I turn around to see a brown pony standing in front of the receptionist’s desk. His mane is a darker brown than his fur, and his flank was labelled with a peculiar yellow hourglass. If this pony had ever existed in the actual TV show, I had never noticed him.

“Um...” I almost asked him what he wanted, but stopped because I didn’t want to look foolish. I just stood there and waited for him to explain himself. The guard and receptionist paid me no mind this time. 

“Don’t leave... Please. I need you.” I stood dumbfounded as the pony pleaded. “Well... She needs you.” He motioned towards the receptionist. I stared blankly for a few moments before I finally understood. All the males I’ve seen have female pony personas, so it only makes sense that a female would have a male persona.

“I... Er...” I mumbled. The cop guarding the receptionist turned and looked at me, but the receptionist herself couldn’t care less. I motioned towards the elevator, and the brown pony nodded, and followed me to seclusion.

“What are you talking about?” I asked when we were finally alone. “She said she doesn’t want help, so clearly she doesn’t want help.”

Rainbow did a facehoof. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

“I guess not.” I mumbled.

“She needs help, she’s just too stubborn to ask for it.” The brown pony explained. “Though we subconscious projections aren’t tied back by things like stubborness.”

“I see...” I didn’t actually see at all. 

Rainbow shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Come on man, get back in there and solve that crime!”

“But...” I was confused. “The police already have a suspect, what’s the point in...”

“The suspect is innocent.” The brown pony interrupted. 

“How can I know that for sure?”

“Look at my face, do I look like I’m lying?” I honestly didn’t know. I had never taking courses on the body language of equines, unfortunately. I glanced at Dash, who was floating beside me with a stern look on her face. 

“Does it look like he’s lying?” I asked Rainbow.

“How should I know? YOU’RE the private eye.”

“Right... Well then... I guess there’s only one way to find out.” I reached out and pressed the third floor button. It was at that point I realized that the elevator had never left the third floor. The door opened, and I saw the cop who was guarding the receptionist standing outside. 

“That was a weird conversation.” He must have been listening in. “I wish I’d heard the other half.” He had a disappointed look on his face. Of all expressions, I was expecting him to look confused, or think I was a freak. Instead, he just seemed disappointed.

“Well.” I said with a sarcastic tone. “This brown horse wanted me to investigate this crime, so I was arguing with him over whether or not I should.” It would have sounded crazy if it didn’t seem so blatantly sarcastic. 

“Oh!” He perked up. “Well, you’d better get to investigating.” He leaned closer to me. “You don’t want to disappoint those horses.” And he slid into the elevator as I stepped out.

“What a loon.” Rainbow Dash commented. 

“Yeah really.” I answered, foolishly. Luckily, no one else was around. The receptionist was no where to be seen. I let out a sigh of relief, then took a look around. There were three little work spaces inside the room. To the far left was a door, and there was another door to the far right. They both lead to larger offices. Directly across the room from the entrance were two more doors right beside each other. The door on the far left opened and a man came out.

“Who are you?” He asked. He was a man of average height and average build, with average short brown hair, and he wore an average business suit. When it came down to it, he seemed like a pretty average guy. 

“My name’s Riley Compton.” I introduced myself. “I’m a private investigator, I’m here to investigate the robbery.”

“A P.I.? Who hired you?”

“Well... Er... No one actually. It just seemed like it was worth investigating...”

“Ah, I get it, you have no clients so you’re trying to solve a random case in order to gain some publicity?” Was it really that obvious?”

“Something like that... So uh... Do you know anything about the crime?”

“All I know is that my girlfriend Brittanie was blamed for it.” He seemed unhappy about this... Obviously.

“And you don’t think she did it?”

“No, she couldn’t have.”

“Oh really?” I looked off to the side a little bit, and saw Rainbow Dash sprawled out on a desk, clearly uninterested with the current investigation.

“Yes, she was with me at the time! We were at my place, alone, and what not.

“Oh.. Well, that’s a fairly sturdy alibi. Couldn’t imagine why they didn’t believe you.” I turned to Rainbow, who was no longer on the desk. Now, she was talking to a white unicorn, who had appeared at some point by the desk.

“What are you looking at?” He looked over at the desk. 

“Oh, I... Er... Was looking at...” I stepped over to the desk, looking for something to claim that I was looking at. THat’s when I found a framed picture of the receptionist, wearing a yellow tank top. I grabbed the picture and held it out to him. “This! I was looking at this! This is your girlfriend, right?” 

“Why, yes, she is. What’s your point?”

“Well it seems weird that a picture of your girlfriend is on someone else’s desk, doesn’t it?”

“... That’s my desk.”

“... Really?”

“Yep.”

“... But you were just...” 

“Meeting with our HR rep?”

“... So that’s not your office?”

“Do I look like I have my own office?” Honestly, he did.

“Um, well, no... But...” 

“You’re really not very good at this investigating thing, are you?”

In the corner of my eye, I saw Rainbow Dash bawling in laughter, while the white pony chuckled in a sophisticated manner. I believe she was Rarity, the prim and proper, fashion pony from the series. “No, I guess I’m not.”

Without another word, the man headed to the elevator. Once he was gone, I leaned down beside the white pony. “Who are you?” I asked.

“My name is Rarity, I-”

“I know that, I mean who are you with?”

She gave me a scolding look. “It’s rude to interrupt, you know. I’m with Calvin McQueen, the under-appreciated advertisement agent, and the only man here who knows how to treat a lady.”

“... You mean tht guy who just in here?”

“Of course! He’s going to run this place one day, I just know it!”

“Odd.... You seem nothing like him.” 

“Hey buddy, I’m nothing like you either, yet here I am!” Rainbow jumped in. She had a point. I examined the glove on my hand. This SPES thing was certainly hard to keep up with, especially since everything it did seemed completely random. 

“Was the receptionist actually with... Er... Calvin at the time of the robbery?”

“Of course he was! Did he LOOK like he was lying?”

I sighed. Apparently all these ponies were on the same wavelength or something... Oh wait, they were, literally. “No, but you can never be too sure.”

“The police just don’t believe because they know he would cover for her, for ANYTHING.” She stared off for a few moments. “He truly loves her. It’s so lovely.”

The problem with this is that she had a point. It’s the word of the defendant and the defendant’s boyfriend against the evidence.... “Wait, do they even have any evidence on her?”

“How should I know?” 

“Er... Well, I just thought...”

“Is the brown horse back?” A familiar voice came from behind me. I turned around to see the cop who was guarding the receptionist early. He was staring down at me, and had quite possibly been there for several minutes.

“Er... No, this time it’s a white unicorn.” I told the truth, equally sarcastically.

“Wow, you’re actually honest about speaking with us.” Rarity commented. “I respect that, not at all like that hooligan who was here earlier.”

“Wait, what?” I asked, caught off guard.

“What?” The cop asked, confused.

“WHAT!?” Rainbow asked, just for fun, then started laughing again.

“Nothing, sorry.” I said.

“That other guy with those glasses. He was so rude.” Rarity answered.

“What other guy with glasses.” I questioned further.

“What about glasses?” The cop was even more confused. 

“OH!” I heard an unfamiliar, female voice butt in. “That prosecutor, right! Yes! I guessed it! I win!” I saw a pink pony bounce from out behind the cop. Pinkie Pie, no doubt. I remember Pinkie Pie distinctly. How could you forget her?

“Someone else can see you guys?” I gulped hard. Well, there goes my ONE advantage in this case...