//------------------------------//
// Part Two 
// Story: Frostbite 
// by MDNGHTRDHTLN 
//------------------------------//

	“Frostbite?” I heard a voice call to me from the first floor. I recognized the voice. It was a friend of mine from the force. A pegasus named Nickel. He was my best friend except for Jetset. But now he was my best friend.
“I’m upstairs,” I choked out.”
“Be up in a…oh, shit, Frosty, what did you do?”
I said nothing.
He appeared in the doorway. His grey coat stood out against the red blood that was on the wall behind him, but I can’t say the same about his rust-colored mane. As soon as he saw Jetset and Looking Glass, he stopped in his tracks. “Frostbite…I…”
I looked up at him, tears staining my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he managed to get out.
“Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault,” I reassured him. It was mine. I put too many mob associates in jail. Nickel was on white-collar crime unit. Strangely, the mob never operated on the white-collar level. Never laundered or stole money. Just had income from hits, drugs, and prostitution. I actually met Nickel at a prostitution bust. We each thought that the other was a pimp, and we aimed our pistols at each other. Having a standoff forges quite the bond. We had been friends ever since. I trusted him with my life.
”What...what happened?”
”They’re gone. The mob decided to come and get revenge on how many of their guys I put away.” For the past three years, I had been cracking down on mob activity. Over half of the force was corrupt and on the mob’s payroll. But there were a few good cops left . I knew that Nickel and I were clean, and I knew the same about Ink, Mist, and the Doctor. I had a feeling I would need their help on this one.
”I’ll call an ambulance,” resolved Nickel.
The ambulance was there in about five minutes. They left the mobsters for the coroner, but took Jetset and Looking Glass to the hospital. Hospitals...I remember the day Looking Glass was born.
”Push!” the doctor shouted.
”Dear Celestia, Doc, I am trying my best!” Jetset countered. “I don’t need reminders every five seconds!” She turned to me and smiled. “So, honey, how was your day?”
I never had the chance to tell her about my day. As soon as I had come home, she went into labor. She smiled at me. 	“Good timing.” 
I don’t know how she wasn’t in pain.
I rushed her in to the hospital and the doctors hooked her up. I guess you know the rest.
“It was good. Yours?” I replied.
She laughed. “Fantastic. And that’s not me being sarcastic.”
“I guess not. Can I ask you something, Jet?”
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“How are you not in any pain? Aren’t mares usually in a lot of pain when they deliver a child?”
She smiled. “Old trick I learned from Daring Do while working on Crystal Crown. She was an explorer at once, you know. Famous one, too. When she came back and regaled her family and friends about her adventures, word spread, and she got book deals. The books turned into movies, so on, so forth. Anyways, she taught me how to calm my nerves to reduce pain. She said she picked it up during an adventure to the farthest reaches of Equestria. This, to me, feels like having a stomachache.” She smiled. “A beautiful, awesome stomachache.”
The doctor cut in. “As interesting as that is, I’m required by law to tell you to push one last time. A big push, mind you.”
She complied. When she did, we heard a small wailing. The wailing came from a small gray pegasus with a black mane and blue eyes.
“It’s a boy,” the doctor said.
I kissed Jetset.
The doctor snipped the umbilical cord. “We’ll go get him cleaned up and dressed. I’ll send a nurse to bring him back when he’s ready. Until then, you two relax.”
He left Jetset and I in the room. Jetset could hardly contain her excitement. “A baby boy, Frosty! A baby boy who we can feed and raise and-“
I cut her off with a kiss. “I know, honey. I know,” I said. “But you should relax for now.”
She sighed. “I guess you’re right.” She put her forearm around my neck and pulled me in for another kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I replied.
“Frostbite?” Nickel snapped me out of my reminiscing. “We need to go. The Chief just called. Wants to know what happened.”
I walked with Nickel out of the room, down the stairs, out of my home, and into his car. He started it up and drove. I’ll save you the car ride, since nothing happened on it, save for me crying and Nickel driving.
We stepped into Chief Bronze Badge’s office.
“What the hell happened, Frostbite? What was so important that you shot two ponies?”
“My wife and son were murdered in front of my eyes,” I explained. “My wife and son were murdered by the two bodies you call ponies. That’s what was so important, Chief.”
“Do you think I give a damn about your family, Frostbite?”
My answer to his question was a kick to the face. Blood came out of his snout.
“Fuck you, Chief. I quit.”
“You can’t quit, you hear me?” he shrieked.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re fired!”
I took the badge out of my pocket. It was golden, and bore the insignia of the Manehattan Police Department, also known as the Society for Corrupt Pricks.
I threw my badge at his face as hard as I could.
This got him really mad.
“Oh, you son of a-“ he started.
“Don’t you dare start, Bronze Badge!” a loud voice boomed. “I am here to help Frostbite, so if you try anything, you will regret it.”
Princess Celestia. How convenient.
“Hello, Frostbite. I am deeply sorry for your loss.”
I bowed. “Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault.”
“That may be, but it still does not prevent me from feeling grief. But, I have come here with news. Frostbite, you and your friends will be getting revenge. And you have my sister’s support, as well as mine.”
That was the best news I had heard all day.
I couldn’t say the same for the Chief.
“What the fuck is this? He just bucked me, and you’re going to let him hurt more people? With all due respect, Princess, this is the worst idea I’ve heard in a long time.”
“And that was the worst reason to not let him get revenge on the group that took everything he loved from him that I have heard in a long time,” Celestia countered. Turns out the kitty does, in fact, have claws.
She turned to me. “Frostbite, I have already informed Mist, Ink, Doctor Whooves, and Steam about the problem, and they have proven more than willing to help."
Looks like we’re getting the band back together. This just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?
“I also have two contacts lined up who would like to help. They are quite experienced in combat, and I am sure that they will prove most helpful. You can go meet them at the Broken Vase downtown. You know the bar, correct?”
“Yeah. Been down there a few times.”
“Good. I think your old friends have already met my contacts. They should be down there already, waiting for you two.”
Nickel poked me. “Looks like we better get going. Meet you at the car.”
“Allow me,” Princess Celestia offered. I always hated teleportation. Makes me feel a bit woozy. But, nonetheless, we were whisked away to the main entrance of the Broken Vase.
“Good luck,” said Princess Celestia. “I’ll meet you back at the station when you’re ready to start. I have a lead for you to follow. I expect you want to take out the kingpin’s lieutenants before you head in to take him out, correct? Soften him up?”
She had this figured out. “That’d be great,” I agreed.
She smiled. “Your friends are waiting for you.”
“Thanks for everything, Princess.”
“Don’t thank me yet. After all, there is work to do. Now go, meet your friends. Like I said, I’ll be waiting.” Without another word, she enveloped herself in a yellow glow and was off.
Nickel and I walked in. As soon as the bell signifying our arrival rang, Mist, a gray earth pony with a white mane, looked over at us and smiled. “Well, look who it is!” she cooed. “The boys are back in town, huh?”
“We’ve always been in town, Mist,” I replied. I wasn’t really in the mood for jokes.
“Celestia, what happened to you?” she asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice. “You usually love to joke around.”
“I’ll tell you later,” I said. “Hey, guys.”
The rest of our merry band of cops turned around almost at the same time. Almost. A chorus of  ‘hello’s and ‘hi’s rang out from the group. I immediately recognized Ink, the unicorn with the dark grey coat and even darker mane. I also recognized Steam, the unicorn with the white coat and red mane. The Doc was also there, his brown mane and coat being one of the only colors there that wouldn’t be right at home in an old movie. There were two other ponies at the table. One was a pegasus with a light red coat and black mane, and the other was a dark blue earth pony with a white mane.
“Hello,” said the pegasus. “I’m Steady Aim, and this is my friend Storm. Pleasure to meet you,” he spoke. His voice sounded like Mist’s. I guessed he was from Trottingham like her.
“What he said,” spoke Storm. His accent was that of a pony from Stalliongrad. “It’s a pleasure.” He smiled.
They seemed nice enough. And I haven’t given you any backstory about my friends.
I’ll start with Mist. I met her when I was starting out on the force. Remember how I said that Nickel was my friend? Mist was my partner on the force. I remember how she held my hand through everything. She taught me how to fill out paperwork, mob lingo, and everything in between. I owe her my career. For a while, she was my only friend. Then I met the Doctor.
I know he also goes by Time Turner, but that’s the alias he uses when he goes undercover. Fantastic at that stuff. He was an Internal Affairs guy. Met him when a cop was killed, and they suspected it was another cop who killed him. After the investigation was finished, he came back. He had been demoted, since the guy he had put away had mob connections, and the mob had tried to bust the guy out. They failed, but three guards were hurt. No casualties. His boss deemed the incident Doc’s fault. When he was demoted, Mist and I got the Chief to let him into our partnership. We helped him out with getting started, and the three of us became the Major Case Squad under the Chief’s orders, which brings me to Steam.
Steam was fresh out of college when he joined the MCS. Valedictorian. Kid was a fucking genius. He had one of the sharpest sets of eyes I had ever seen. Could find a needle in a room full of haystacks. Helped us put away three serial rapists, actually. Like I said, fucking genius.
Ink…where to begin. I met Ink through Nickel. She was Nickel’s partner on the white-collar squad like Mist was my partner on homicide before the Major Case Squad. She was…eccentric, to say the least. Collected bottle caps. Did research. White-collar suited her perfectly. She and I became fast friends over our mutual love of intellectual pursuits. I hate sports. I was not pushed out of the warmth, comfort, and safety of my mother’s womb, screaming, into the cold world so I could watch grown stallions run across a field or whatever the fuck they do. Jetset didn’t like sports, either, and I don’t think Looking Glass did, either.
I miss them so much.
Here come the tears.
“Nickel?” I said. I could hear my voice wavering. “I need some fresh air.”
“Sure,” he said. He put a reassuring hoof on my shoulder. “Want me to tell them what happened?”
“Didn’t Celestia already tell them?”
“No,” he said. “She just told them that you had been hurt, and that we needed their help. Nothing else.”
“Alright,” I said. “Tell them. I don’t think I could.”
“I will.”
I gave him a weak smile and walked outside. The street was empty, save for the group inside’s cars. So empty.
No one would find my body for a while, I bet.
I pulled my gun from my holster. Almost forgot I had it. It was a nice gun. Got it my first day on the job. It’s killed more criminals than I could count. Jetset knew I killed people. I don’t think Looking Glass did, but I bet he figured it out when he saw the body of the guy that killed my wife…
My beautiful, beautiful wife…
I remember the first time we slept together.
It was our fifth date. We had come back from a fantastic dinner at the local Neighponese joint. She always loved 	Neighponese. I had taken her back to my apartment, which was our future home. A nice apartment, really. Had two floors, two bathrooms…it was a house, but in an apartment building. Anyways, I had taken her there. Opened a bottle of wine. I had picked it up just for this occasion.
She sipped her wine. “This is great,” she said. She snuggled closer to me. I could feel her warm breath on my chest.
“The wine is pretty good,” I agreed.
She snuggled even closer. “I wasn’t talking about the wine,” she said, and planted a few kisses on my neck.
I went red. “Are you…”
“I am.” She pushed herself on top of me. “Ready?”
“Well…I…”
She pulled herself towards me and met my lips with hers. Our tongues vied for dominance.
She pulled away. “Listen, as much as I love the couch and all, it’s not really that comfortable to…you know, lay on top of each other?”
I grinned. “I hear you.” I wrapped my arms around her waist and flew us into the bedroom and onto my red sheets. 					When we landed, we started to giggle.
“Where’d that confidence come from?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Good question.”
“We need to stop delaying, huh?”
“Yeah, we do.” I pulled her in for another passionate kiss.
After we were done, we flopped back on to the bed, exhausted. We were breathing heavily to show for it.
“That was fun, huh?” Jetset said.
“Yeah.”
She wrapped her hooves around me and pulled herself closer, shifting under the covers as she went. When she got close enough, she snuggled her head into my chest, similar to the position we were in before we started. “Frosty?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
I put my muzzle into her mane. “I love you too.”
It’s so cold out here.
I took the gun I had in my hoof and put it in my mouth. Voices in my head kept chanting, DO IT! DO IT! PULL THE 	TRIGGER! DO IT!
I complied.
I was met with nothing.
Safety was on.
I pulled the gun out of my mouth and gasped for air.
Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me…
Time to go back inside, I felt.
As soon as I walked in, all eyes turned to me. Mist got up and walked towards me. Without saying a word, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close.
“I am so sorry. I loved them, too.”
Everyone else joined the party, including our two new friends.
Who I really wanted to meet.
“So, I guess you want to know who I am, huh?” asked Steady Aim.
“Are you some kind of mind reader?” replied Steam.
Steady chuckled at this. “Must be. I was born and raised in Trottingham. When I grew up, I joined the army. Was dishonorably discharged for disobeying direct orders, but Celestia saw something in me. What, I don’t know. She made me a part of her Elite Guard.”
“Just about the same story over here,” said Storm. “except I was born in Stalliongrad. But that’s pretty much the only difference.”
“Seems convenient,” commented Steam. Observant as always.
“Well, we were part of the same squad in the army,” explained Storm. “That’s how we know each other so well.”
“I see. Forgive me if I came across as uneasy. It’s my job to decide whether or not people are lying.”
“I understand,” said Steady.
There was a silence, which I broke.
“So, you’re all here to help me take down the mob?”
“Yes,” said Ink.
I smirked.
“Where do we begin?”