Norfolk
Daniels was back to waiting in line. The last communication he’d gotten from Applejack seemed to indicate that she wanted him to take his information to someone else. They didn’t have much ability to act on it in Ponyville. He carried a briefcase with a couple of files of paper in it.
For the moment, he was waiting on a school group to go through the doorway. A field trip to another dimension was something he hadn’t heard of before. All the kids had uniforms. Must be some kind of private school.
He had never been to Fillydelphia before. Really, for all the traveling that he did, he hadn’t seen very much of Equestria. When his turn came, he walked through the doorway.
The Fillydelphia terminal was a little larger and better decorated than its counterpart in Ponyville. Daniels stopped at the money changing desk before leaving.
The city was, well, a city. Compared to Ponyville, it seemed like a giant place. Daniels had a map that he’d picked up from the terminal. The RIS office was a couple blocks away. It was still early, though, and he decided to stop for lunch.
The restaurant didn’t serve any kind of animal products. Ponies were still a little touchy about that kind of thing, despite the fact that other countries in their world, the griffins, for example, ate meat. Daniels had a cucumber sandwich and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert.
He spent a little longer on the meal than he thought, and hurried towards the RIS building. He thought he made it on time.
“You’re twenty-one seconds late,” said a pony, who waited for him outside the front door.
“Sorry, cheap watch. I’m Kevin Daniels.”
“Constant Clock. Applejack told me you had some information.”
Right to business, then. “Right here.” He held up the briefcase.
“Come in,” said the pony. His tone of voice suggested that he took those twenty-one seconds rather personally.
The office looked remarkably like a human business. Other than the employees, everything seemed to be the same. The pony led him into what looked like an interview room and closed the door.
Daniels took a seat and opened the briefcase. He careful with it. The pony didn’t need to see the gun strapped to the inside of the lid.
Equestria as a whole didn’t seem to be friendly to weapons. While they had no specific laws against them, it was generally frowned upon to bring one through the doorway. Daniels kept his well hidden.
“This is Dr. Timothy Oswald,” he said, opening a folder. There was a picture, a brief biography, and a summary of his work. “He was the leader of the doorway project. He’s been missing for a while. We believe that he gave someone the doorway technology.”
Constant Clock considered it. “Do you have any leads?”
“When he disappeared, we weren’t able to track his movements. There was no indication that he ever passed through an airport. That tells us that he was most likely only traveling a short distance. Combined with a few other things that were discovered, it looks like he probably went to Chicago.”
The name meant nothing to Constant, although it sounded like a city.
“How about you?” Daniels asked.
Constant put a few photographs on the table. Two mugshots of nearly identical-looking unicorns. One of them had a mustache.
“These are the Flim Flam Brothers. They were suspected of being involved with the unauthorized doorway. Right up until they were murdered.” He dramatically dropped a picture of the crime scene onto the table. To his annoyance, Daniels showed very little reaction to the blood.
“Looks like gunshots.”
“They are.”
“How did you connect them to the doorway?”
“Receiving and transporting clandestine goods was something they were known for. We later discovered that their horseshoes matched prints found at the place where the doorway appeared.”
“Do you know why they were murdered?”
“They probably knew too much.”
“Suspects?
“None.”
“Do you know anything about Russia?” asked Daniels.
Constant stared at him for a moment. “Is that a country?”
“Yes. We found a Russian cigarette at the doorway site.”
The pony shrugged. “It doesn’t mean anything to me.”
They went around in circles for a while asking questions. Daniels learned a few things, but not much. He still felt that the pony didn’t really like him.
Daniels left copies of the Oswald file in Fillydelphia. Hopefully it would help.
Ponyville
The report from Constant about the double murder contained more detail than he’d told Applejack on the telephone. It was not something to read to young fillies and colts.
She sighed. The Flim Flam Brothers had been lower than dirt, but nopony deserved what had happened to them. She’d met a lot of nice humans, but there were obviously a few bad apples out there.
Lemon Slice was a yellow pegasus who worked with Applejack. She had a golf club for a cutie mark, rather than something related to fruit. Her brother Berry was a reasonably famous player of the game.
Lemon was not bad at anything, and could serve as assistant to either Applejack or Paper. At the moment, he was speaking to her on the bureaucratic principles of filing expense reports.
The door opened and a policepony came in. He was a Ponyville local named Sergeant Sprinkles. “Thought you’d want to know,” he said. “We spotted a human going towards the Forest.”
“The doorway site?” asked Applejack.
He nodded.
“Come on, Lemon,” she said. The other pony looked grateful to be pulled away from Paper’s lecture.
They followed the officer out. “We pulled the guard from the place when you finished up looking around,” he said. “Right now, the man is probably on his way back.”
“Ah don’t know why anypony would want to visit that place,” said Applejack, “but it looks mighty suspicious.”
“Are we going to arrest him?” asked Lemon.
“We can’t do that unless we know he’s done something wrong,” said Sprinkles. “If he acts suspiciously, we can hold him for questioning.”
“I knew that,” mumbled Lemon. “My brain just got fried listening to Paper talk about legal policies and procedures.”
Applejack chuckled. “Ah know whatcha mean, sugarcube.”
In the road, they encountered three fillies who were acting out some kind of elaborate choreography, completely silent. One of them was Applejack’s younger sister, Apple Bloom.
“Hey sis,” she said, spotting Applejack. The two other fillies facehoofed.
“You can’t talk in charades!” complained one.
“Hey Apple Bloom. What are y’all up to?”
“Me an’ Sweetie Belle an’ Scootaloo were trying to get our cutie marks for acting. We were tryin’ all different types.” The three of them were young, and had not yet received their cutie marks. They had decided to try anything and everything they could to speed up the process. They called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“That’s nice,” said Applejack.
“Where are you goin’, sis?”
“We’re gonna meet a human that mighta done something bad.”
“Can we come?” asked Scootaloo. “Cutie Mark Crusader Criminal Catchers!”
“We ain’t got no proof just yet,” said Applejack. “We’re just going to talk.”
“Is it a secret meeting?” asked Sweetie Belle. “I want to be a secret agent!” She posed dramatically.
“No, we’re just goin’ to have a friendly conversation,” said Applejack, getting a little flustered.
“Can we watch?” asked Apple Bloom. Her sister sighed. She looked at the two ponies with her.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” said Sprinkles.
“All right, but stay outa the way.” The Cutie Mark Crusaders cheered. They fell in step behind the policepony and the two RIS agents.
They met up with another officer at the doorway building. Sprinkles said that he’d had the pony posted there once the suspicious man had been spotted. Applejack appreciated his quick thinking.
“I’ll give you a signal when he comes in,” said Sprinkles. He took up a place near the door. Applejack and Lemon faded into the crowd.
They waited for a short while. Many humans and ponies passed through the building. Applejack was just beginning to wonder if the man had somehow gotten lost when she saw Sprinkles give her a short gesture. He indicated a man who had just walked in. He was large, with dark hair and a serious expression. She looked for Lemon.
She was across the room. She gave a short nod to indicate that she’d seen the policepony’s signal. The two of them began to move. Applejack saw the two officers closing in. The four of them were set up in a loose circle around the man, and slowly drawing closer.
He stepped into a short line in front of an open doorway. His folded passport rested in his hand. Applejack walked up to him. “Pardon me, mister.”
He glanced at her, handing his passport to the customs pony. “What?”
“I need to ask you a few questions.”
The man retrieved his passport. He looked over his shoulder, spying the two policeponies.
“I don’t have time.” Applejack thought she noticed a slight accent in his speech.
“You better make time!” shouted a young voice. The three fillies stepped up to the customs table.
For half a second, time seemed to freeze. Then all heck broke loose. The man lunged at the doorway, scattering the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Apple Bloom tried to grab him, but he knocked her off and kept going. She hit the floor in a heap. He kept going, ducking around the line and vanished through the doorway.
Applejack rushed to her sister. “Apple Bloom! Are you all right? Say somethin’!”
The filly moaned and slowly managed to stand. “Ah’m okay, I guess.”
Applejack glanced up. “Where’d that varmint go?”
“He got away,” said Sprinkles gruffly.
All eyes looked at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Even the usually pleasant Lemon Slice was not smiling.
“We’re sorry!” cried Sweetie Belle.
“We just wanted to help,” said Scootaloo.
Applejack gritted her teeth. She didn’t like handing out punishments, but sometimes it was necessary. “Git home,” she growled at Apple Bloom. “I’ll deal with you later.”
The three fillies ran off. Applejack shook her head and turned to face the customs pony. “What can you tell us about that man?”
“Um,” the pony stammered. “He was going to Chicago. That’s right through the doorway, there.”
“What was his name?”
“I can’t really spell it. It wasn’t like a name from the United States.”
“What country was it?”
“Ukraine.”
Applejack had never heard of the place, but sensed that this was something Daniels should know about. The police took a statement from the pony to get everything in writing. She and Lemon Slice took a copy of it back to the office. Paper seemed to be pleased to have something new to file.
By the time she left work that evening, Applejack had gotten the word out about the man who’d run from them. He was definitely guilty of something.
She walked back towards Sweet Apple Acres. In the distance, she heard the sound of apples being bucked. As she approached, she saw her brother, Big Macintosh. He had long practice in harvesting the ripe apples. She watched him clear a tree with a single kick.
He spotted her as she walked up the road.
“Howdy, sis.”
“Hello. Did Apple Bloom come home?”
“Eeyup. She told me what happened. I told her to go to her room and think about it.”
“Thanks. I don’t like punishing her m’self.” Applejack set up some baskets and bucked a nearby tree. It felt like a long time since she’d worked the farm.
“Mac, do you think I’m workin’ too much?”
Her brother shrugged, not willing to commit to a reply either way.
“Ah know somepony’s got to do it, but I don’t feel like I’m quite suited.” She paused to buck a tree. “Ah don’t know what ah’m doin’ in that little office, or chasin’ criminals all over Equestria.”
“So quit.”
“Well…ah don’t know if ah can. It feels like ah’m doing things that are too important.” She bucked another tree. The apples showered down. “At the same time, ah feel like I’m abandonin’ y’all here at the farm.”
Mac laughed. “Don’t worry about us. We can afford not having you around. Sometimes you got to go do your own thing.”
“All right,” she said. “Thanks big brother.” Applejack headed for the house. She still planned to give her sister a talking to, but in her good mood she decided not to make it too severe.
Author note:
I've never written Big Mac dialogue before. I don't think he's supposed to be that wordy. Oh well.