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// Two Days to Retirement by Firebirdtops 
// Story: Friendship is Optimal: Tiny Morsels of Satisfaction 
// by pjabrony 
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Felicitations, friend. I'm Daniel. At least, I am for another few moments. I was a P.I. and not too bad of one, if I do say so myself. I mostly tracked down runaways and dealt with cheating spouses. No big deal for me. I had, er have. one large family. I had cousins in every job imaginable. Judge, cop, lawyer, doctor, heh. All of the important ones were covered, but what made me a good P.I. wasn't just that. I had a few nephews in gangs, a couple of shady uncles and aunts, and even a brother in law that was doing hard time. Still, we were family, and we stuck together. No one closer.

So, yeah, I had connections. I could usually find anyone who went missing, just by asking around the family barbeques. Brought in some good money. I wasn't rich, but I was sure comfortable. Then one day I met my partner. Didn't think it mattered much one way or another, but I was a brony. Started watching it with a niece, and just decided to keep going after she went home. It was relaxing, thinking about a world where sticking by your friends could solve all the problems. Never did the online stuff, though. I'm not a computer kinda guy. Had an older brother that was.

Oh yeah, my partner. Can't tell you how many times I got laughed at for showing her off, but I've never worked with anyone more efficient or connected. She knew pretty much everyone, and when she didn't know them, she'd at least have a good idea of who they were related to. She was crafty too. One time I was working with my cousin in the cops, on a missing persons case turned homicide. Never seen anyone get into a perp's head like her. She told us everything the guy was thinking, almost before he thought it. Said she had a good grasp on his values. She only worked on cases where she thought she could save someone though. One time they tried to death row a guy, and she flat out refused to do a thing for them. She asked me a few times to come over to her place, but I always turned her down. I told her that as long as my family was around, where I lived was just going to have to do. Smiles all around, and back to work we'd go.

Now as I said, I'm a P.I. That means that I'm pretty observant. One of my cousins went missing just before a BBQ, so of course I noticed. I had been showing off my partner, and one of my uncles comes over to ask me to  take the case. No one could have stopped me, so my partner and I started hunting. Took a month to find a lead solid enough to go on, and wouldn't you know it? Turns out the guy got taken abroad. We finally tracked him down in Japan. He'd gotten shot during the rescue, but my partner managed to step in. Couldn't have saved him otherwise. A few days of seeing the sights, and I was headed back to the states. Hadn't talked to my family since I took the case, and I was looking forward to seeing them.

What I came back to was an empty home.

I don't blame her. She told me everything upfront. Still felt like a knife in the back, though. I've never been in a situation that I could call lonely before, and in a few more minutes, I don't think I'll ever have to worry about that again. I still think the worst part was realizing that it was all my fault.

Well played, partner. Well played, Princess Celestia.