//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Back In Town 
// by totallynotabrony 
//------------------------------//

Back In Town




Traffic was light.  The radio was playing good music.  I tapped my hooves on the steering wheel as I drove.  I was in a good mood that morning.  The sun over Mareami was excellent and the temperature was just right to drive with the windows down.
Contributing to my pleasant attitude was the fact that it was my last day at work, or at least, my last day in Mareami.  Not that I had anything against the city, but I was excited to have a change of scenery.  
At the company I worked for, the jobs worked on a rotation cycle.  An employee was up for transfer every three years.  They would be given a list of the available locations and jobs, and if they so chose, could pick their top three choices for a new assignment.  The selections were compiled and jobs were handed out.  My date of rotation, October first, had come.
I hadn’t screwed up in the last three years and I didn’t think I had picked anything that was in high demand, so I was confident that I would get one of my top choices.
I came into the office.  Jump Rope, the secretary, was the first pony I encountered.  She had been in the office longer than anypony else.  Some ponies find a place they like and start turning down transfers.
“Good morning, Jump.”  I nodded to her.
“Good morning, Harv.  Your transfer paperwork came in.”  She turned in her swiveling chair to the mailbox and retrieved an envelope addressed to me.
In Mareami, I was an analyst.  Reports came in, I read them, and I sent them to where they needed to go after that.  It was a very stable job, and sometimes the reports were entertaining.  I had applied to the same type of job, but requested transfer to Seaddle, Dodge Junction, or Canterlot.
Jump Rope offered me a letter opener.  I slit the envelope and pulled the letter out.  It read:
Harvest Peach,
Report to Field Office Ponyville no later than 6 October to fill empty position of Investigative Agent.
Jump Rope seemed startled by the expression that crossed my face.  “Is there something wrong?”
I stared into space.  “Yes.  They’re sending me home.”
“You don’t want to go?”
“Why do you think I moved here?”  I stuffed the letter back in the envelope and walked away.
I ended up at my desk.  I realized that I should probably take a moment to calm down when I began slamming drawers and attracting attention from my coworkers.
I sat down in my chair for the last time, thinking over the letter I’d gotten.  I’d left Ponyville because I couldn’t see myself with a future there, among other reasons.  I didn’t relish the thought of visiting, much less spending the next three years there doing a job I didn’t want.
This is probably a good time to clarify that I didn’t work for any regular company.  It was a government sponsored group that regulated the supernatural community that the general public didn’t know existed.  It was one of those secrets the government kept that was at such a high level of security that the employees weren’t even allowed to know the name.  Obviously that created some identity problems, so we’d been forced to invent some things.
Back in the day, some clever individual had branded all the employees Shades.  I could live with that.  It added some mystery to my desk job.  The individual offices were disguised as inconspicuous buildings in major cities around the country.  The Mareami office had no sign on the outside, but if any curious pony should wander in, Jump Rope would tell them we did shipping.
The need for secrecy was a given.  The general public did not need to know about things like vampires, ghosts, and psychics.
My thoughts turned to the new job tasking itself.  I didn’t want to be an investigative agent.  Basically, it was everything you saw on detective TV shows.  Go talk to some ponies, solve some cases, and maybe have a token gunfight now and again. That’s how it had been described to me, anyway.  It sounded fun, but I was happy with what I was already doing.  Changes of pace are overrated.
I would have liked to simply stay in Mareami than go someplace I didn’t like.  Unfortunately, this is a government job and once the paperwork is filed it might as well be the word of the Princesses.  I had to leave.
I sighed and finished cleaning out my desk.  My job didn’t require a lot of material of my own, so there wasn’t much to take with me.  I took the standard issue telephone out of my bottom desk drawer where it had sat for the last few years and replaced the bright red telephone on my desk.  The phone so rarely rang that each time it did I imagined some crisis was going on.  Hence, the red phone.  I packed it up with the rest of my things.
There were a few ponies to see me off.  I traded hoofshakes, and reluctantly walked out of the office.
Every Shade office has a barrier spell placed on it.  The company employs ponies with advanced skills in magic to create them.  Barriers are designed to only let certain ponies through, and you have to be built into the spell.  Since I was leaving, it would soon be rebuilt without my ID in it.
When I left the building, the level of noise increased, and that wasn’t just because I’d stepped outside.  I can read minds.  There’s a technical name for the exact ability that I have, but I can’t spell it.
If you want, you can get the spell builder to craft the barrier in such a way that it suppressed your own supernatural abilities while you’re inside the building.  Since I could hear ponies’ thoughts, I had gone for it.  Otherwise, I would be trying to concentrate on reports while listening to snippets from the minds of everypony in the greater Mareami area.  With effort, I could block it myself, but it was easier to not have to deal with it.
I don’t remember when I first realized that I was a mind reader.  Sometimes it’s helpful and sometimes it’s terrifying.  It sure got me good grades through school, but it taught me things I really didn’t want to know my parents’ sex life.
Since I wasn’t going to be there all day, I’d parked in the one hour parking right across the street.  I had bought my truck off a stallion who couldn’t afford to pay for the gas anymore.  I didn’t have problems with that.  One of the perks of the Shade job is a gas card.
The truck was old, barely painted, and excessively large in every dimension.  The previous owner had used it to play in mud holes.  I didn’t find much time to do that, but it was nice to know that I could if I wanted to.
I was single.  That’s part of how I could get away with the truck.  It was hard to park and not fun to drive long distances on the highway, but I wasn’t paying for the gas and it was tough enough to shrug off head-on collisions.  I figured there was a chance that I would eventually meet the right girl, but until then, I was going to keep on truckin’.
I climbed inside and put my belongings on the seat beside me.  I paused and checked the rearview mirror.  My reflection showed a green mane and sort of a roseish-tan coat.  I looked like a peach, basically.  Coincidentally, my cutie mark let me pick the freshest produce at the grocery store.  It’s not anything I can really use at work.
After adjusting the mirror I started the engine and took one last look at the office before driving away.
I’d canceled my apartment lease, and everything I owned was in the back of the truck.  There wasn’t a lot of it, but it served to remind me that it was only the second time I had ever moved.  I still wasn’t thrilled that I was moving back to the place I had left from.
The long trip to Ponyville sucked.  There was nothing to do but drive.  It didn’t help that Mareami and Ponyville are both very flat places, but to get between the two, you have to cross a mountain range.
It was a farming community that I grew up in, and we could legitimately be referred to as hicks by ponies from the city.  This is possibly why I like big trucks.
I got out of there, though.  I didn’t loathe the place, but I could see that if I stayed, I was never going to do anything with my life.  I went to a prodigious university and got a fancy degree.  I never got a chance to use it, though, because the Shades recruited me.
Along the way, I got a call from some Shade working in communications.  She said I should stop at the Fillydelphia office along the way.  I asked how to get there and she told me, but wouldn’t say why I was supposed to go.
I had to turn to the detail pages in my atlas to find the place.  When I got there, they confirmed my identity by taking blood.  Security Shades use these nifty little devices that look and function about like a blood glucose meter for diabetics.  You give them a drop and they confirm that you are who you say you are.  Don’t ask me how they got a handheld device that can identify anypony just by their blood.  Government secret.
Once they knew who I was, they gave me an envelope.  That was it.  Slightly annoyed at the delay, I got back on the road.  I opened the envelope when I stopped at a hotel that night.
There was a picture of a mare, a brief biography and a short note explaining that she would be my partner when I was doing my new investigative agent thing.
I put down the note and picked up the picture.  It was a color wallet-sized headshot.  The mare looked young, maybe eighteen or so.  She had a dark blue mane, brown eyes, and a light olive coat.
Name: Forest Song.  Nice, I thought.  It contrasted with my rather plain name of Harvest Peach and might add some flavor when ponies referred to us collectively.  Peach and Song.  Song and Peach.  Harv and Forest.  Eh, maybe not.
Race: Earth pony.  Like me.
Variant: Lycan.  I let out an explosive sigh and rolled my eyes.  Damn it, why couldn’t I get a normal partner?  I know the company is supposed to be an equal opportunity employer, but special needs get in the way of work, especially if she would be transforming into a wild animal every full moon.  I suppose it was better than getting a vampire, though.  Or a troll.  That would have been really terrible.
Birth date: Unknown.  Great, she was old enough that she couldn’t remember.  My new partner was immortal.
Previous assignment: Strike team commander, Canterlot.  Well then, not only would she be older and cuter than I, but she would have combat skills, too.
I was beginning to wonder if I would survive three years in Ponyville.

I got to my old hometown in the evening and checked into a hotel.  I would have to find someplace permanent to live, but that could wait a day or two.  At least I didn’t have furniture or anything like that to move with me.
Before showing up to work the next day, I took a little more time on my appearance.  First impressions are important.  When I was satisfied, I drove down to the office.
It was smaller than the one in Mareami.  Ponyville is smaller.  Even a couple hundred years after the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony were identified as local residents, the place hadn’t grown much from a small town.
I could claim to be related to the Element of Honesty, Applejack, although somewhat distantly.  I guess that looking into a pony’s thoughts was the ultimate method of discovering the truth, even though what came out of my own mouth was often a lie of necessity.
  The Ponyville Shade building was nondescript with a small attached parking garage and no signs to identify the business.  After parking, I went to the front door.  They took blood again and let me through the barrier into the office.  Until someone built my ID into the barrier, I would have to be blooded in each time.
There were fewer ponies than I was used to.  I realized that I wasn’t going to be just a face in the crowd, and that made me nervous.  I asked the way to the station chief’s office and somepony told me.  A station chief was in charge of each field office.  It was a position that came with seniority.  I found his office and went in.
Water Drop appeared to be as old as the oceans.  In other words, his name fit him perfectly.  He had an easy smile and appeared to run the office effectively.  In a chair across the desk from him was Forest Song.
She looked even younger than she had in the photo.  Despite that, she was also rather fetching, a feeling that I had to clamp down on quickly.  Office romances are never a good idea.  Not that I’d had any, I just knew from experience.  Maybe I would have one of the office shrinks burn feelings for her out of my head.  I did take a furtive glance at her posterior, just long enough to see that her cutie mark was a half note.
“Mr. Peach,” said Water Drop.  “Good to meet you.  I hope your trip wasn’t too bad.”  He got up to shake my hoof.  The office barrier hadn’t yet been set up to block my mind, so I got a sense of genuine interest in my well being from him.
“The trip was all right, sir,” I said.  Forest took my hoof after Water Drop.  Both had a firm grip.
“Song here came to town early to find a place to go through her monthly changes. I presume you read her dossier?”
I nodded.
“Great.  Song's had a tour of the building.  She can show you around.  Well, I’ll let you get settled in.”
Forest Song and I left his office together.  I got a sense of neutral interest from her, waiting to see if she would like me or not.  I hoped she would.
“So what brings you to Ponyville?” I asked.
“Change of scenery,” she replied.  “I’d never worked here before, so I figured why not.  What about you?”
“Actually, I’m from the area.  I hated it, so I left at the first chance I got.  I was unpleasantly surprised to discover that I would be coming back here.  I didn’t put it on my transfer paperwork.”  I immediately regretted saying so.  I didn’t want to come off as a whiner.
She gave me a look.  “Well, they evidently needed somepony here.  Sometimes the system just screws you.”
I followed her down the hallway to a plain office with two desks.  One had things on it.  I put my own things on the other.  As I began to unpack, the door opened.  Two stallions came in.
“Thought we’d come by and say hello,” said one.  “Call me Lock Box.”
“We’re down the hall,” said the other.  “I’m Ivory Hammer.”
“Forest Song.”
“Harvest Peach.”
Hoofshakes all around.  
As quickly as they’d entered, they left again.  I unpacked a little more.  A couple more groups came in and introduced themselves.  I began to suspect we’d see the whole office by the end of the day.
In an interlude between introductions, I got to know my partner a little better.  She preferred Forest, so I let her call me Harv.  She’d done the investigative agent thing before, although it had been a couple decades.
“I saw that you’re a mind reader,” she said.  “How’s that going for you?”
“Oh you know, everything has its advantages and disadvantages.”  As a lycan, she knew that pretty well.  Being superpowered was great, but it cost you one night of insanity each month.
“How much range do you have?” Forest asked.
“I can hear a couple of miles in any direction.”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a psychic that could cover that much area.”  She was impressed.
“Neither have I.”  Actually, I was sort of proud of that.  “I have trouble with precision, though.  I can’t pick somepony’s thoughts out of the crowd unless I can actually see them.”
Just then, another pair of agents came in.  A stallion and a mare this time.  Chapstick and Earthquake, they said.  
“It’s nice to meet you. Pity it’s under grim circumstances,” said Chapstick.  
Forest and I traded glances.  “What do you mean?” I asked.
“Oh, no one told you?  You’re the replacements for two investigators who were killed last week.”  Sunbeam and Chalk Line, I got from her thoughts.  Well, that explained why they needed new agents in Ponyville.  I felt like an ass for complaining.
“What happened?” asked Forest.
“Gang initiation,” said Earthquake.  “Dirtbags had to kill somepony to join.”  And Earthquake had been one of the first on the scene.  An image of the crime from his mind flashed to me.  The car was riddled with bullet holes and the two bodies in the front seat looked like Swiss cheese.  Not pretty.
“Did they know who they killed, or was it random?” Forest asked.
“We don’t know yet.  A few of us have a nasty suspicion that they might have.”
All four of us were silent for a moment, taking that in.  A street gang who knew about Shades was nasty, indeed.
“Thanks for the heads up,” I said.
Earthquake and Chapstick left, but not before inviting us to lunch.
“Looks like finding this gang is going to be the number one priority,” said Forest.
I agreed.  I didn’t know Sunbeam or Chalk Line, but she and I might as well pitch in on the efforts to avenge them.
I turned back to the things I had brought with me and pulled out the red telephone.  It was a small office, so I connected it to the only phone line.  Forest stared at me.
Before she could ask, I said, “It makes me feel like a superhero.”  I picked up the receiver.  “Hello?  What’s that?  They’re robbing the bank?”  I put it down.  “Come on!  To the Shademobile!”
She stared at me some more.  “When you get to be as old as I am, you start to lose your grip on pop culture.  As it is, I’m doing continuing education every twelve years, and I’m still barely keeping up.”
I could tell that she did at least know who Batmare was.  Still, I thought that somebody at headquarters should change the policy.  Things changed too fast to be covered every twelve years.  I guess I would have to be her guide to modern society.
We had lunch with Earthquake and Chapstick.  They took us to a restaurant that I remembered.  It was actually one of my favorites in Ponyville, although I didn’t say anything.
That afternoon, Forest and I dug into the case, going out to question ponies of interest.  Since we hadn’t been around long enough to put together our own list of suspects, Earthquake and Chapstick shared theirs with us.
Being a government organization, Shades could have gotten a deal on a bulk order of cheap, cop-like sedans, but luckily somepony was smarter than that and had gotten other cars that didn’t scream “law enforcement.”  Forest and I got a set of keys and she let me drive.
With some help from me, Forest figured out how to put the addresses on the list into the GPS unit in the car.  It spat out directions for us.  First up was a stallion named Rhubarb Pie.
Rhubarb lived in a rundown apartment building.  It wasn’t a slum, but the rent was probably cheap.
“How do you want to do this?” asked Forest as we walked up to his door.
I shrugged.  “You probably know better questions to ask.  I’ll just see what I can dig out of his head.”
We knocked.  The door was answered by the stallion himself.  He looked at us and decided we weren’t cops.  There was no way Forest looked old enough, and even at twenty-five, I probably didn’t either.
“What do you want?” Rhubarb asked
“We just came to ask you a few questions,” Forest replied.
“Who are you?”
At any mention of law organizations, Rhubarb would probably slam the door in our faces.  I quickly said, “Census Bureau.”
Nice, thought Forest.  “We’d like to know if you belong to any clubs or organizations.”
Rhubarb thought about it for half a second.  I caught a glimpse of something, but he said, “No.”
“What do you do in your spare time?”  I imagined that he had a lot of that, since he was home in the middle of the day.
“I…I watch TV.”
“How often do you hang out with friends?”
“What is this about again?”
“We told you, the census.”
“I filled out the form and sent it in.  Leave me alone.”  He shut the door.
As we walked back to the car, Forest said, “Even I could tell he was hiding something.”
“Yeah.  He’s in the gang, or at least a gang.”
We visited a few more ponies of interest and didn’t turn up anything useful.  Late in the day, we took what we had back to the office.  
Forrest hummed musically as we went over the paperwork.  I didn’t particularly mind, although I could see how some ponies might.  We went over the evidence until it was time to go.
“At my last job, I moved around a lot and didn’t have a car of my own.  Do you mind giving me a ride home?” Forest asked as we walked out of the building.
“I can do that,” I said.  She followed me to the parking lot.
My truck was at least a foot taller than any vehicle around it, and not nearly as pretty.  Forest looked at it skeptically.  “That might be the largest, ugliest vehicle I’ve ever seen a Shade drive.”
I shrugged.  “What can I say?  I grew up country, even if I’m still trying to get away from it.”
After unlocking the door and climbing inside, I popped the lock on the passenger door.  Forest used her supernatural strength to jump in easily.
The window crank on the passenger side was broken off, so Forest couldn’t stick her head out the window.  I think she probably would have been insulted if I had suggested it.  I was thankful she couldn’t hear my thoughts.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
She gave me directions to the place and hummed a little to herself while we drove.  In a few minutes we were there.  I glanced at the house as we pulled up.  “Are the lights supposed to be on?”
“It makes it look lived in,” Forest explained.  “What would the neighbors think of a kid like me living alone?”  She grinned.  “Thanks for the ride.”
I gave her a smile in return.  “Well, it was a good first day.  See you tomorrow.”