Chapter 25
64 POV
I walked what I thought was the quickest route towards Hoofer Elementary, which consisted of back alleys and hidden routes, perfect for anypony to sneak up and nab somepony else. I looked around for any evidence along the way, but there was so much junk and debris that it would have been tough to see anything incriminating.
I looked around to see if there were any hiding spaces or hidden areas where a pony could jump out in broad daylight and manage to make off with a filly.
“Could it have been a unicorn? And they just teleported out of here?” I questioned myself, wondering if Magic Detectors would have been able to pick up anything from 2 weeks in the future. I knew that wouldn’t be the case, so I continued through the alley, searching for anything.
The efforts to find anything were in vain, so I knew that my only lead I had rested in Lucky Guess. I continued towards Hoofer Elementary, seeing that it was a simple school building just like in Ponyville, a stark difference to what I thought was going to be there.
“Lucky Guess… you better have something for me…”
I walked into the school room and saw the class paying rapt attention to the teacher, who was a green coated and yellow maned mare. She saw me and froze up for a bit, before I motioned for her to continue. She did and eventually announced that there was going to be a short recess, as the children flooded out of their seats and ran out the door towards the small playground right next to the building.
“You know, I would think that most of the parents would be a bit apprehensive about still allowing the kids to go out for recess, especially with what’s been going on.” I said, resting against the wall.
“My cousin Cheerilee sent me a newspaper clipping with you in it, a few actually.” The mare said, pulling out a drawer in her desk and pulling out a few pieces of newspaper. The first was of me when I had first revealed myself in Ponyville, with me running towards the Town Hall. It was blurry, but it perfectly captured my figure running towards the blaze.
The second one was of me going toe to toe with Super Nova the first time a week later, with me narrowly avoiding a stream of lave headed straight for me. Next was me being forced to my knees in my mock trial right after I had helped defeat Super Nova, with my shirt off and bandages covering the entirety of my torso.
“You’ve been really busy lately… I got a new one a few days ago, and I have to say that this one if definitely my favorite.” She said, as she hoofed the clipping over to me. It was me in a hospital bed, with bandages covering nearly every part of my body. I was unconscious, and the headline read, ‘TWO LEGGED HERO GOES FACE TO FACE WITH DISCORD, AND NARROWLY ESCAPES WITH HIS LIFE’.
“After I saw this, I asked her to send over the entire article. I have to say, it paints you in a really good light.”
“Damn, I never guessed I would have a fan.” I said cheekily, making the mare giggle.
“My name is Chrysanthemum, but you can just call me Chrys.” She said, holding out her hoof for a shake. I gladly took it as a more serious demeanor washed over my face.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, but I’m afraid I’m here on a more serious matter. As you probably already knew, Crescent Rose has been missing for about 2 weeks now. I’m here to investigate the nationwide foalnappings happening in Equestria, and this was the first city hit. Is there anything you can tell me about her that might be able to help?” I asked, pulling out my notepad.
“Not really, you can guess how shocked I was to hear that Crescent was the one foalnapped. I’m still so worried for her, as if things weren’t already bad enough for her.” Chrys explained, as I looked up at her.
“Can you elaborate on that?”
“Her father… is a bit of…”
“A deadbeat drunk ever since his wife died?”
Her face lit up with surprise, glasses nearly falling off of her face. “How did you know?”
“I visited the parents of the victims before coming here, and Crescent’s dad told me where she went to school. He also told me she was good friends with a colt who goes by the name of Lucky Guess, is he here today? I want to ask him some questions.”
Chrys looked at her class roster and nodded at me. “Yes, yes he is. Would you like me to call him in?”
“If you can.”
She stepped outside for a moment, giving me a moment to look around. I saw the class photos on the wall and inspected them a bit, looking at the filly in question. Crescent was standing with a big smile on her face 2 years ago, but after the jump from 4th to 5th grade, her smile is gone completely, replaced by a slight scowl.
“Must’ve been hard…” I muttered, remembering the newspaper clipping about the Timberwolves.
“Hello?” A new voice called out, making me look towards the door. It was a brown colt with a black mane which was combed to the side, with two white dice for his cutie mark. “I… I was told my Miss Chrysanthemum to come and talk to you? About Rosey going missing?”
He obviously looked very nervous, which was normal for a colt his age being asked to speak with a strange looking creature regarding one of his friends going missing.
“Yes, take a seat.” I said, to which he sat down in one of the desk in the front row. “My name is Project 64, and I’m gonna help and find Crescent Rose and bring her back. You have to tell me, is there anything you might know about this?”
He shuffled in his seat uncomfortably for a little, before nearly whispering out. “I… I usually walk with her to school every day, but I remember that she didn’t come to our special meeting space one day, even though I was late that day.”
“What do you mean late? For school that day?”
“No, me and Crescent Rose always met at a special place every day before school at 7AM, but I remember that one day I was really late, but she wasn’t there. When I went to school later, I noticed that she wasn’t there either.”
“Can you tell me about this special place? Was it like on a specific street, in front of a candy shop or something like that?”
He looked down at the desk for a second, as if he was contemplating if I would actually keep it a secret
“How about this?” I asked, putting away my notepad and crossing my arms. “You take me to this special meet up place where I can search for clues, and I won’t say where it is, does that sound ok?”
The colt nodded his head and got up out of his seat. “C’mon then, we have to hurry and get back before recess ends!” He called out, running out the door. I quickly followed, as Chrys tried stopping Lucky from running.
“Hey it’s ok, he’s going to show me where he and Crescent Rose met every morning. He says she didn’t show up one day, and I want to start looking there for clues.” I assured, as she very slowly let him go.
“Alright… but please bring him back before school is over. His parents are already mad about his cutie mark and have started picking him up, so I don’t want any other problems.” Chrys asked, making me nod. I think I knew why parents would be mad about their son getting a cutie mark about gambling.
“I’ll bring him back, don’t worry about that. C’mon little guy, let’s get going.” I called out, as Lucky led me down the road, surprisingly back to one of the alleys that I walked through to get to the school. After a few of the same twists and turns I took this morning, I began to doubt if I would end up finding anything.
“Alright, we’re here. We always met right here every morning.” He said proudly, stamping his hoof down on the ground. I looked around to see that there was nothing significant about the area around me, until it dawned on me.
There weren’t any windows around me, meaning no witnesses unless they had specifically taken the route that Lucky and I had taken. There was trash littering the floor around me, meaning that I would need to clean up a bit before investigating to see if there was anything I could find in the debris.
“So you both meet here, then walk to school?” I asked, as lucky nodded to me.
“Yep, every day. But ever since she’s disappeared, I haven’t been here. The police tried looked everywhere, but they never came here! I tried tell them about it, they just shrugged me off and told me I was just a ‘stupid kid’.” He grunted, kicking a few pieces of garbage on the floor.
When he did, I noticed something underneath him.
“Hey, wait up. What’s that underneath you?” I asked moving him aside gently. I cleared off the trash and looked down at what I saw, and smirked, knowing I was onto something. It was a Sewer Cover, and it was recently pulled off.
I could tell due to the weld that the Sewer workers have to make to prevent kids from opening them up and jumping down had been recently cut and not sealed back up, meaning that the Foalnapper could have easily opened it and taken Crescent Rose while she was waiting for Lucky to arrive.
“Lucky, I think I just figured out how Crescent Rose got kidnapped.” I said proudly, lifting off the sewer cover and putting it off to the side. It got dark really quickly down there, so I dropped a small fireball down the hole, seeing how far it went down. It wasn’t that far, but I knew I couldn't just go down headfirst like nothing.
“So you’re gonna go down there and look for Rosey?” Lucky asked me, as I nodded at him.
“Yep, but I can’t just leave you here. I have to take you back to the school before your teacher gets pissed at me.” I said, covering up the entrance to the sewer.
“Aww… why can’t I go down there with you? Rosey’s my best friend, so I think I should help look for her!”
I looked down at the colt and was nearly swayed by his pleading look, but I knew better. I picked him up onto my shoulder and placed him there, allowing him to balance himself.
“Sorry, I can’t let you follow. Don’t worry, I assure you that I’ll find your precious Rosey, ok? Maybe then you can try and get her to be your special somepony.” I said teasingly, as his face suddenly lit up in redness.
Hit the nail on the head.
3rd Person POV
After 64 dropped lucky back off at the school, he immediately returned to the Sewer Cover, using magic to enhance his eyesight in the dark tunnels. The first thing that hit him was the unimaginable smell of all of the filth Las Pegasus had to offer. All that 64 was in right now was a tunnel headed straight for the main sewer line, so from there the Foalnapper could have went anywhere in the immense sewer system.
64 began to scan the floor, trying to set apart the filth that was down here, from the pony DNA. Lots of it was found, but sadly none of it was the kind 64 was trying to look for. 64 stopped scanning the floor and sighed, knowing that it would have been a lost cause to check any further.
He put his back to the wall and cracked his neck, looking the floor over one more time to try and see if he missed anything the first time. He came across nothing but trash, clumps of hair, and discarded food. Looking a bit closer, he saw one last thing, a string of red hair.
“Please let this be what I think it is.” 64 grunted, lightly grabbing the red hair and bringing it up to his eyes. He rubbed the hair gently to check if it was red dye, to find that it flaked off and became black.
“Ah shit…” he said, nearly throwing the hair away, before realizing that dye wouldn’t flake off, it would smear. The ‘dye’ on this hair was blood. He brought his other hand up towards the hair and scanned it, hoping to find more blood in the immediate area so he could track it.
Using a glimmer spell, 64 saw that there was also blood on the wall that he was just lying back on, ad saw that there were bits of hair stuck in the blood. They were all the same color, meaning that Crescent had in fact been down here, and had been injured.
“The kidnapper probably slammed Crescent’s head into the wall to get her to stop struggling…” 64 whispered, as he saw that drops of blood continued on into the sewer. He followed as he covered his nose, trying in vain to block out the putrid smell invading his nose.
The blood continued to drip all the way to the main sewer line, before it slowly started to subside. 64 followed it as best as he could, until it eventually stopped heading east, going into a smaller sewer, heading back towards the surface.
He followed the route he would have expected the foalnappers to take, heading past the first exit he found and continuing on deeper into the sewer. It once again split into a multitude of different routes, with 64 being clueless on which one the foalnapper might have gone.
“Son of a bitch…” 64 muttered, looking in every direction the he had at his disposal. He turned around to go through the exit he had seen just before reaching the split, when he saw a cloaked pony standing behind him, their legs up and ready to buck 64 in the chest.
The legs came shooting out at 64 who was hit in the chest and was sent flying into the torrent of putrid water, arms and legs flailing to get out.
“HEY! GET BACK HERE!” 64 yelled, seeing the pony start running away, he saw that they had dark red fur. He continued to be thrashed by the rapids which were the Las Pegasus sewer system, losing his sense of up while underwater.
He held his breath for as long as he could, trying his best to break the water’s surface and get back onto land. Eventually the rapids seized, allowing 64 to pull himself back onto the solid ground on the sides of the rivers of garbage.
He spat out whatever had managed to wriggle its way into his mouth and immediately vomit, not being able to handle the stench invading his mouth. The only upside to the situation was that his Satchel Pocket was waterproof, and everything he had collected and found had been safely preserved.
“Ugh… fucking disgusting… Rarity is going to be pissed at me for ruining the clothing she had made me…” 64 grunted, standing up and seeing there was a ladder escape next to where he was standing. He sluggishly climbed up and out of it, before looking at his surroundings.
He was currently in the middle of the Las Pegasus Strip, with about 300 hundred curious eyes staring at him.
“Woah… did you just come out of a sewer? Or am I having another bad trip?” A spaced out pony said, his eyes red and puffy.
64 shook his head. “I’ve just had a really bad day…” He muttered, ignoring the onlookers and simply walking sluggishly through the most heavily populated part of the city. Many ponies kept their distance due to the horrible smell 64 was giving off, and that was just fine for him.
His first order of business was getting clean, then he would find out who the fuck kicked him into the shit rapids of Las Pegasus. He pulled out the charm around his neck and tuned it to channel 17, before charging magic into it.
“Hello? This is Biped requesting pickup, sending coordinate beacon now.”
“Copy Biped, Nightlight on our way.”
All 64 did was wait, before seeing a Chariot of Bat Pegasi heading into the strip. He started running in the opposite direction as they began to catch up, until they were sailing right above him. He jumped up and climbed aboard, as they began to gain altitude.
“Location sir?!” One of the Pegasi asked, as 64 looked down at his notepad.
“Appaloosa, but first see if you can stop by any lakes on the way, I need a bath.” 64 said, writing down a few things that he had found in Las Pegasus.
64 POV
Well I learned something new today, shit stains were a pain in the ass to scrub out of heavy clothing. I sat at the edge of a lake in my underwear, using a bit of steel wool to scrub stains of foulness out of my clothing.
I laid out everything I had cleaned to dry, as I dove into the water and tried to clean myself to the best of my ability. I had done this countless times before, so it obviously wasn’t very difficult. What was wracking my brain right now was the question, who the hell had bucked me into the sewers? All I had was that they had dark red fur, and I think I caught a glimpse of a black tail?
“Ugh… hopefully I can find more clues in Appaloosa. Trail’s gone pretty cold in Las Pegasus, but it’s only been a week since the foalnappings in Appaloosa, there’s bound to be something…” I said to myself encouragingly, scrubbing my face a bit with my hands.
After I cleansed myself I once again dressed up and got back onto the chariot, before we once again went flying off into the air. I looked through my notebook and saw what I had been drawing into a blank page.
Ever since she had given me her magic, I had developed near photographic memory, allowing me to remember nearly everything I see. It was a drawing of what I saw right before getting bucked in the chest, with the two rear legs wound up and ready to strike me. It was a Red Stallion from what I could remember, with a long black tail. It was straightened, a very strange thing to do.
“Fuck he seems familiar...”