//------------------------------//
// Time On My Side 
// Story: Right on Time 
// by TheLoveless 
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	Another cold and sleepless night crept up like a slow rising ash from an amber fire.  The case of four murders still were unsolved, and the stakes kept getting higher.  One pony every time; Never letting others die form his methods.  One by one, ponies fell victim to his immature ways of massacre.

The first pony to die was two years ago, bloody, and the first of the tragic deaths. The second to die was one year ago, just as evil, but more controlled.  The third, six months; Fourth three months.  And the fifth murder, time, place, and victim, all undetermined.

Only a few days left till the infamous killings of the mad man struck again.  And our trusty dagger was ready to quit.  "This case is some real bull shit.  No sleep, and no overtime, and only ten people are working it."  Grumbled a stallion, resting his head on the mahogany wood desk.  “I came here because I didn’t want to deal with the wife, and I needed the money.  Do you think the killer will just quit and disappear like the last case?  I’m tired of missing my Luan."

Angered, and enraged by the futile hope of his colleague, he stood out of his chair, knocking it backwards, letting it chip once more after so many days of remaining upright.  "The next time I hear you say that, I'll lock you in a cell with Crazy Sam."  Getting the full undivided attention of the pony, he returned to his overturned chair; setting it upright once again.  'Crazy invalid.  Doesn't he know Sam died.  Poor ol' fool.'

Returning to his paper scattered desk, he didn't care whether or not he had to put up with yet another joke, he couldn't even tell whether it was a threat or not.  Re-reading his papers, he got nothing new to invite to the party, "We'll I'm gonna head home for the night.  You need anything before I leave?  Any request?"  Satisfied with himself and his hard 26 hour shift, he might as well have done something for the stallion he'd leave alone for the night; or till some poor sap showed up.  "You're gonna be alone for another four hours. Anything come to mind?"

Pressing his hoof against his chin, only one thing came to mind.  The most foul, immature way of pleasure that was allowed in the investigation room.  "Ya.  Can you get me a Cola?"  Remembering the last time he asked for one, he added on, making his demand more certain, "None of that diet crap you drink."  Watching his good friend drift out of sight and down the hall, he waited patiently.  Waiting for his friend to return with the most pleasurable thing around.

A few good minutes of solitude passed, and his friend returned.  "Sorry, but they were all out of regular; it was either diet or that fake “zero” calorie stuff."  Sending a diet soda to the angry stallion, who had warned him about bringing the diet soda up again.  Getting a grim stare from across the room, he replaced the diet soda with a regular, old-fashion cola.  "That stuff'll' kill ya.  Not to mention, rot your teeth and eat your heart out."  Lifting a hoof in the air, and walking out the door, he didn't mind leaving the soda can behind.  Letting it's existence in the room harass the hard headed stallion.

"See ya', Xivi."  Staring down the can he left behind, anger took over once again, and the soda before him went to waste, getting thrown into his drawn with three others.  'You damn pony.  Now I know you did this on purpose.  Lucky you're not on my list for tonight.  Thats reserved for the killer.'  Collecting himself, and waiting for the right moment, he prepared for the long journey that lay ahead of him, 'Time to get something done.'





Waiting in silence and analyzing the charts, he came to a conclusion.  "Here!"  Pinning a larger, oversized tac on a orphanage, he smiled to himself, "That’s where he'll strike next!"  Overjoyed with his analysis, he waited patiently for the next worker to enter the room, and fulfill his duty as a worker, and keep the office in check till morning.

"So, you found something out?"  Examining the work he hadn't helped at all with, he was amazed.  "You did all this by yourself?  Incredible!"  As shocked as he was, he knew that something was wrong, deep down, he knew that nopony could have found out the location without reason.  'This guy must be insane.  Nothing can back this up.'  "So, Xivi, was it.  How did you figure this out?  It all seems randomly guessed."

Grabbing a portable dry-erase board from his desk, he began to demonstrate.  "Okay, we're going to say that point ‘A' is the first location from two years ago.  So where did the second scene happen?"

"To the right, a few blocks away."  Not interested, he waited through the presentation of drawing on a board.

"Okay, we'll say that the twenty blocks is the length of five centimeters," drawing a line from point A', to a new point titled B'.   "Then from point B', we have the third killing.  It was a little bit more to the right, but under A'.  About twenty blocks away as well, give or take."  Catching the attention of the bored stallion, he continued.  "From there we have the fourth killing.  In the center of A' and B', but a little bit higher than the middle of them."  Drawing the last point he finished his diagram.  A star.

"So you're basing this murderer’s next killing, on a star?" Shocked and amazed at how futile his idea was, he laughed.  "Anything else you have to back it up?"

Sighing deeply, he answered him, "this time, he's going to kill the victim with fire."  Getting the attention of the stallion once more, he explained once more, "In a book I read, it had this shape, and on the shape it had 5 important items, all crucial to the world, and life."   Losing the stallion, he went on.  "Okay, the five elements, as the book called them, were Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, and Earth.  One can not exist without another.  Fire burns wood, to make ash, in this case, Earth.  Earth makes metals.  The Metal brings forth Water, and then Water brings forth Wood."  

"How does your little trip through nature help us solve this case?  It doesn’t even relate in any way!"  Tired of the idiotic ponies ramblings, he was almost ready to walk out on his shift.

"He's killed the first with brute force, most likely, meaning earth.  the second he killed with a torture device made from cast iron, for metal.  Next he drowned a girl, then poisoned the next with some natural poison mixture."  Not needing to go on, and not wanting to, he was relieved.  "Next he's going to burn a pony to death."

"I'm impressed," clopping his hooves together, and smiling, "you have gone more insane than Sam. I think you need to get some rest more than I need to get to work."  Smiling happily as he shoved the red eyed stallion out, he waited for him to leave.  "Don't come back till tomorrow, ya' here?"

Stumbling down the stairwell, he barely managed to keep awake, “sure thing, just don’t do anything we’ll regret.  okay Drac?”





'Ya, this is the place.'  Not having anyone to co-operate with, he readied his oil, and gasoline.  "I think everyone's gone."  As careless as always, he bumped into a child.  The child.  "What are you doing up?  Its nearly midnight?  Go to bed you tireless child!"  Not getting any answer from the girl, or having the privilege of watching her walk away into the dark.  He was curious what made the filly follow with him.

"Can I have something to drink, please?"  In a soft voice the filly asked him blindly, unsure of who he even was.  "I can't see very well, and everyone else is asleep.  Can you help me get something to drink?"

More interested in the girl, than angered by her, he did what she was asking for.  He helped her get something to drink.  "Now go to bed!"  Walking away from the girl, and pouring flammable liquids on the floor, he did what he had planned to do since 2 years ago.  Burring down the Marry Skies orphanage.  Practically abandoned, only a few residents remained.  "Good bye, Ophran."  Lighting a match in his teeth, and setting the house into a blaze, he backed away and watched his childhood home burn down.

"Why don't you like Ophran?"  as if by pure luck, the girl had left the house and watched the blazing pile of wood and stucco crumble, but not before startling the cold hearted stallion.  "Why did you burn the orphanage down?"

Startled that the girl snuck up on him, more disturbingly, she didn't seem to care.  "Your home is on fire!  People are dying!!!  Don't you have anything to say for yourself?!"  Looking at the filly’s cold gray eyes, and icy silver fur, he had one last question.  "Who the hell are you?"

Turning to his general direction, she smiled, "my name is silver note."  Taking a deep breath, breathing in the tainted air of smoke and ash, she sighed.  "I'm the one the news was talking about last year."  Ignoring the smoky haze before her, she returned to the stallion next to her.  "We'll I can't live there.  Do you know where I can go?"

Thinking it over, nothing came to mind.  "I could take you to the police department, but if I do, you need to speak with the stallion named Xivi.  He's the only one who can help you.  You ready to go, Love?"  forgetting, once again, the girl was blind for the most part.  “Do you think you can walk there, or would you like to ride there?”

Turning her attention to the sinister pony before her, she didn’t have much choice.  “What will I be riding?  I think there was a wagon inside the orphanage.”  Getting taken by surprise, she was uplifted and placed in the left side of a saddle bag.  Letting the cool relief of the partly solid bag comfort her, she was once happy again.  ”Hey mister.  What your name?  Or, eh-, Something I can call you by?”

Intrigued by the girl’s inadequate want to learn more about the pony who, in a way, robbed her of her “home”, and is kidnaping her.  All while dropping her off at a place where he would most likely be confronted with some kind of questioning as to why he had a underaged orphin with him lated at night.  “Well, I killed my name a long time ago.  So if they ask, just tell them I called myself Clockwork, like the mechanism.  And your name?  I’d be impolite not to share.”

Looking at the high rissen street lights, she gazed into their splendid array of bright light before realizing what was going on.  “Oh, my name is Silver Note.  But everyone just calls me Silver.  And I already told you once we met.”  Letting her voice slip, she lowered herself into the bag’s darkest den.

“Sorry for the bother.  It’s okay if you don’t want to talk.  We’ll have more time to talk later, lass.  Till then, this is your stop.”  Falling down slowly, and tipping the bag’s contents and girl out, he ruffled the hair on her head, “remember, Clockwork, wants you to talk with the stallion named Xivi.  Okay love?”

Looking up with hollowed eyes, she smiled.  “Okay Mr. clockwork.  But what does Mr. Xivi look like?”  Peering upward at the kindhearted killers face, she saw only blissful joy in the dead image revealed from her dieing eyes.  “You have a line on your face?”  Raising a hoof to the left foreskin on his face, she tried to feel the severity of it, only to be snuffed out by a hoof lowering her’s.

“He’s the one with icy eyes, a dead voice, and dark blue mane and tail.”  Pushing the adorably colorful gray filly forward, he began his walk away.  “Oh, and there’s steps in front, be careful love.”  Watching her find her footing on the steps, she began her ascension.  ‘And to think I almost burned that cute girl alive just for my own reasons.’  Shrugging and leaving, he smiled, ‘I wonder how this will play out.’  Laughing to himself, Clockwork left the scene of his kindest activity in days.  Pondering how the day would have gone if he had killed the girl in her sleep like he wanted.





Climbing up a set of unidentifiable steps to the light coming from an elevated location, she pressed on with a smile on her face.  "Almost there."  Climbing up the third to last step, she saw the doorway to a bright paradise.  The central lights above the doors shone brighter than the burning ashes of her past home.  "Pritty!"  Walking to the door she pressed her snout against the glass, and tried to see inside, not getting much to see.

Trying to grab the handle to open the door, she couldn't find one.  Blinded by the overly powerful lights above her and to blind to even see a pencil 4 inches away, not much could be done by her.  Knocking on the glass, she waited for someone to check.  But like always, no one came to the door.  Continuing her banging on the pain of glass, she waited desperately for someone to let her in.  "Hello?  Anyone in there?!"  Calling out just made her feel worse.  Reminded her of the fact no one was around to help her once again.

'Guess I'll just wait here till some one come out.  Or till frost bite catches me.'  Closing her eyes and lying down in front of the door, she began to sleep.  Not her usual unruly nightmare of horrors, or ghastly depictions of mysterious ponies she never met.  But she sleep soundly, no fears in site, except the reality.  It was all in her head.  'Maybe I'll get to met them this time.  Maybe they will smile.'  They didn't show up, nor did they smile.  tortured souls never smiled at her.





"Is she dead?"

"How should I know?  I'm just the janitor!"

"God this sucks, if she died on the steps what are we gonna do about it?"

Listening in on their conversation on someone being dead, she wondered.  'Are they talking about me?'  Trying to move, she couldn't will herself to do anything but lie and listen.  'Just great.  I'm blind, and I can't even move.  Just my luck.'  Still only able to listen, she listened on.

"Maybe we should bring her inside.  Ya know, instead of letting her freeze away outside."  the voice called out, not even bothering negotiating on the treatment of her body.  Disturbingly, without warning, she was risen, and placed on ruffled fur and jagged bones, "Whether you’re in or out, I'm taking her inside."  Entering a place where the air was lighter than the cold bitter frost outside, and the floor smelled of detergent instead of dirt and concrete.  "Wake up soon, okay?"  Walking away and retunding to his duties, he ignored the girl as little as possible.

'Okay mister janitor!  I'll do my best.'  Trying to move once again, she fell short.  Not letting the feeling of not moving get the best of her, she tried once again.  This time, something small.  Her eye.  'Come eye, open!'  Willing the small muscles into opening worked.  Overjoyed she smiled.  "Okay, now lets get the rest working."  Limb by limb, she willed them to move from their nearly dormant state.  Not wanting to become the one pony who never got to meet the stallion who destroyed her home.  She had bigger plans than becoming a fruit in a hospital bed.

"Oh, so you're finally up!  Welcome back, sleepy head," A familiar voice called.  Looking around the room, she couldn't see anyone worthwhile;she couldn’t see much at all.  "Don't you know it's impolite not to introduce yourself, lass?"  Turning around, she saw a familiar stallion; But one she hadn't remembered meeting.  "My name is Xivi, and your's, lass?"

"Oh, um, sorry Mr. Xivi.  My name is SIlver Note.  But everyone calls me Silver."  Looking up at the stallion, she finally made the connection, Xivi wasn't as happy as he let on with his voice, Clockwork made sure of that.  "Um, Mr. Xivi, you can stop being happy.  I know you're not that happy."  Looking back up at the stallion, she smiled, seeing the wondrous glow in his hollow eyes.

Looking down at the filly who he had thought was dead, he smiled, "have we met before Mrs. Note?"  Peering deeply into the girl’s overly sized pupils and foggy eyes, he smiled.  "Its up to you whether we met or not, I'll give you time before I star-."

The filly cut him off, "i have something important I need to tell you!  It needs to be in private.  Only you can here."  Pushing herself through the corridor of empty desk, the girl went to the seemingly back of the office.  "Come on!"

"Okay Silver Note, I'm going."  Rushing after the filly, he found himself in the strangest location he had ever seen.  inside a mares and fillies restroom entryway.  "Um, I don't think this is the best place for us to be."  Getting ignored again by the filly, he had to keep pressing onward.  "Okay,you've dragged me to the mare's restroom.  What did you need to tell me?"

Checking the best she could, he made sure nopony was in the room, "okay.  The thing I needed to tell you is, I'm blind."  Letting him sockin the though, she gave him a few seconds before beginning again, "aside from that, I missed you Clockwork!"  Jumping at the barely visible pony before her, she landed a hug on him, dangling slightly.  "I knew it was you the second I laid eyes on you!  You're the one who-," a hoof was pressed against her lips, ending her sentence short.

"yes.  But you must only call me Xivi,  I'll explain everything when I get home.  And seeing as how your, "former home", burned down in a fire, I'll take responsibility for you.  Deal?"

Rubbing her chin with her hoof.  She thought over the circumstances.  Not bad a deal, aside from the fact she didn't get much from it.  "Buy me an ice cream latter today, you got a deal."  

Smiling, he decided to get something for himself, "Check to see if anyone is outside, I'll buy you two cones."  Not hearing a word of hesitation, the girl left the room, and swiftly returned, signalling Xivi to leave, "thank you, and expect a surprize latter, okay lass?"

"Okie!  So now what do I need to do?"  As happy as always, she smiled and awaited a reply.

Angered with the girl, he decided to get things straight.  In the cruelest way possible, with the truth.  "I don't like it when you talk like that.  Just be your self lass.  Nothing wrong with being your own."  Pating the soft mane atop her head, he accommodated her back to the area they first began, the office room.  "Okay, now that thats done, our chief interrogator is going to ask you some questions.  Alright lass?"

Nodding happily, and smiling once again, she waited for the stallion in a bright green jacket to begin his questions.

"Okay.  What is your name?"

"Silver Note."  Upon her uttering her name the man jotted down the information.

"Okay, Silver Note, do you have any history of Dementia, or any illnesses?"

"No."  Once again, the investigator jotted down the info.

"So far you’re doing good.  Okay, did you experience any strange occurrences while, or after you encountered the pyrotechnic who burned the orphanage?  Any strange events, things you saw that were out of the ordinary?"

Thinking back, and looking at Xivi, who nodded in a way to say "tell the truth".  Being true to her words, and the smile on her face, she began, "well, for starters, he was kind, and helped me get something to drink.  After that, and he burned the house down, and he offered to walk me here."  Recollecting her thoughts she continued, "then he sent me here and then I couldn't get in so I went to sleep.  For once in a long time, I didn’t have a nightmare."

Jotting down what happened once again, he asked her yet another pointless question, "did you see the stallion?  His fur color, his hight, anything?"

Like asking the deaf how the thought the song was, her answer was just the same, "I'm very blind, and it was dark.  Sorry mister."  Lowering her head in sadness, Xivi lifted it up once again.

"You did a good job thus far Silver," patting her head once more, he smiled.  "Guess its time to get you home."  Looking towards the investigator next to him, he shrugged.  "Thats the all clear.  Lets go half blind filly."  Bending forward and letting the filly climb onto his back, he left the station with a new, non-permanent member of his family.  "Way to go silver, your first interview with a police officer.  Impressive."

Slightly discouraged, she lowered her head and watched the lifeless rocks merge into the concrete, "it wasn't my first.  It was my fourth."  Saddened by the memories, she dropped onto Xivi's back, fore and hind legs on each side.  "But lets forget about the past, tomorrow the sun will rise again!"  Raising a barely visible hoof, she smiled.  "So where are we going?  Your brilliantly hidden house hidden in the woods, or your underground bunker where rats live!?"

"What is it with ponies nowadays?"  Not a fan of stereotypes, and the like, he didn't enjoy criminals being portrayed as a different kind of pony, or even as monsters.  Mostly how they asumes every evil person lived in some strange location, or had some weird obsession with something out of the ordinary, "both, no.  Who exactly do you think I am?  I live in a normal house like most every pony."  Turning into a walkway he pointed upward at the canopy over the doorway.  "See?"

Blind as ever, she didn't see much, "you forgot already?  Remember silly, I'm blind."  Watching the pony slam his hoof into his face she laughed, "you one crazy pony."  Falling over the side of his back, she waited patiently for something new to happen, resting on her head.  "So, you still owe me an ice cream, or can I change it?"

Resting his face against the door, he looked down at the filly behind him, "what might you want more than ice cream?  Isn't that what all kids want?"  Watching the girl stick her tongue out, he resisted the urge to smile, and returned to the door.

"I want you to not kill anyone anymore."  Pressing her hoove onto her tongue she added on a small 'preventive', "unless the person you killed attacked you first or provoked you. okay, Mr. Xivi?"  Smiling as happy as ever she rolled herself over and walked next to her captivator.  "What do ya say?"

Chuckling quietly, he opened the door for the filly, "I'll let you try and convince me.  You'd have about 7 days least."  Letting the adorably annoying filly in his home, he smiled.  "Would you like to try?  I'll still buy you ice cream either way lass."

As spunky as ever, she accepted, "you have yourself a deal.  Prepare to give up unjust killing!"  Unleashing an conspicuous aggressive hoof swing before him she smiled, "I'll only need 3 days for you."

"Good to hear silver.  Now go to bed, it's nearly 4 a.m."  Shoving the girl into the living room and placing her on the couch, he left for blankets, and vanished.

'Three days, hum.  More like three hours.'  Waiting patiently for her next victim to return she rested her head on a pillow. “Just you wait.”’  Yawning, she closed her eyes and went back to sleep, once again, sleeping soundly.