Coal wakes up from his sleep behind the work desk from faint fillies’ giggles from behind the door to his and Nasty’s office. The clock on the wall reads 9 a.m., almost 2 hours past the end of their shift. Normally, Coal wouldn’t allow himself any sleep during work hours, but today was special - the summer vacation had started a few days prior and today was Sunflare Carnival, a holiday when colts and fillies dress up in various costumes, try to scare ponies or be bribed with candy, which they then “sacrifice” as magical accelerant to ensure Corona is kept trapped in the sun for another year. Many police officers took the day off to be with their foals, so Lieutenant Wildfire offered ponies without foals to pull a double shift for additional pay and free vacation days later, something Coal was seduced by. Technically his second shift started 1 hour ago, he slept through most of his own and was still sleepy. Nasty is snoring with his head on a pillow under the desk like he usually does when the two of them are in the office with no work to do. Coal knew there was actually loads of work to do, but since all the ponies he needed help from were too busy with their foal and the Carnival, he took a few advices from Nasty and slept.
Giggling was now followed by a tap on the door. Coal walks to the door, fairly convinced he knows who stands outside. Coal opens the door to a sight of three teenage fillies with a few years between them and all roughly the same size. They were an amber colored pegasus, an orange earth pony and a long legged white unicorn.
-”Morning girls!”
Although all three spoke in unison, not all of them shared the enthusiasm, making it all sound disjointed.
-”Good morning, Mister Helps…”
-”Come inside, your father is happy to see you!”
Fillies walk inside and notice their still sleeping father scratching his flank mid sleep and making grunting noises. The younger two fillies laugh and the older unicorn just grunts. She approaches Nasty and strikes her hoof on the table next to his head. In surprise Nasty jumps up and the two younger fillies kick his chair from under him, causing him to fall on his back, then start bouncing on him.
-”Ow, ow, ow, quit it you two! You’re not as light and soft as you think.”-They stop bouncing and Nasty cuddles them.-”I’m happy to see you too. And you too, Miss “I’mtoocooltohugmydad”. Am I right girls?”-The two fillies laugh and help Nasty get up. He extends a hoof and the older filly gets closer for a hug.-”I missed you too, Sourcream!”
-”Mister Coal, is it true your special talent is cause ponies to poop less?”-Sourcream snorts at her orange sister’s question.-”What are you laughing at, Sour? It’s poop more, isn’t it?”-Nasty strikes a table with his hoof and bursts out laughing along with Sourcream, giving her a hoofbump.
-”Ehm, no...Carrot Top, was it?”-The filly nods. Coal turns his side a bit to showcase his cutie mark of some white dots and a line connecting some of them.-”My special talent is to find the connections, it’s what makes me happy. Tell me, Carrot Top, what have you heard your father’s special talent is?”
-”It’s paying alimony and never being there when you’re needed!”
Now it was Coal snorting. Nasty looks with disappointment and frowns at lip biting Sourcream. He takes Carrot Top and places her on the table.
-”Topsy, my special talent is to surround myself with ponies I love. Like you three.”
-”Then why is your cutie mark a rose with a red drop on its thorns?”-The third filly, looking at Nastys cutie mark says.
-”Cutie marks’ images don’t always make sense, Wildfire. You’ll know for yourselves what really makes you feel happy though. Now! Weren’t we going to the Carnival? Why are you not in costumes yet?”-Two fillies eagerly run off and bring a bunch of bags in their teeth.-”And you, Sourcream?”
-”I’m not participating in this foalishness.”
-”You fail me yet again, Sourcream! You know what that means!”-Nasty slowly and menacingly approaches the filly.
-”No, dad! NO!”-Nasty corners her and sticks his muzzle to her side. He blows air through his mouth, making flapping sounds, while the filly twitches and laughs from tickling.-”Okay, stop! I have a costume! Dad!”
Nasty nods to Coal and leads his daughters out of the office. Coal sits down still smiling from the Melloway family show. Coal is one of the few ponies that knows Nasty’s true special talent - tragic love. Nasty lost a bet to Coal and was forced to reveal it. Nasty loves tragic love stories. He loves reading them, hearing about them, but most of all he loves making ones by participating in them. Each of his seven marriages were passionate, quick and tragic. Nasty claims he still loves his ex-wives, that’s why he pays alimony even to those he is no longer required to. Coal also knows Nasty’s second special talent - loving his daughters. One from every marriage. And surprisingly they all love him back. Coal knows one too many ponies that hate one or both their parents after they divorce, but Nasty managed to keep their love. Nasty is actually dirt poor, yet still always manages to get presets for them and organize whole cast of daughters to picnics and other festivities.
Nasty drives the car with daughters through the streets of town. The car is turning heads with its beauty, signature crystal engine low hum, but mostly because of its utter rarity and novelty. Ever since Nasty and Coal were gifted, or bribed, depends of Nasty or Coal’s perspective, for the case of Crystal Empire’s Prince disappearance, or violent debauchery, again depends of the perspective, Nasty just couldn’t imagine walking anywhere anymore. His daughters love to ride in it. Especially Sourcream. She just basks in the attention and envy everypony is giving. They drive up to a nearby shopping center, Nasty parking the car near the unloading docks. From the trunk Nasty pulls a heavy enchanted tarp, which his daughters help him pull over the car, making it look like a bunch of covered crates and boxes. The fillies then change into their costumes - Carrot Top into a bunny, Wildfire into a dragon and Sourcream into a bat. Satisfied they enter the mall, its pavilions decorated with drawn dark blue cloth roofs adorned with silver confetti to resemble the night skies and stars. Stages are set with various performers entertaining the foals that don’t gallop around in groups, practically extorting candy they place in bags shaped like small moons adorned with 5 hexagonal crystals of separate colors. Nasty asks his daughters about the Carnival and they, along with all the other ponies inside answer. In song.
“What do you know about Solarflare Carnival, fillies?”
The youngest, Carrot Top, answers.
“This is Solarflare Carnival, where everypony is making a scene.
We dress in costumes scaring ponies and eating candy in between!
But if we eat too much and sacrifice not enough to the burning ball,
The nasty Corona will return all pissed and burn us all!”
A receptionist continues.
“Your false Queen is living in the past,
So you won’t last
Without the proper care.
With a jaw punching farewell
And kick to her bell
We’ll send her off for another long year!”
Nasty asks more.
“Why do you care about Solarflare Carnival, fillies?”
The middle, Wildfire answers.
“This is Solarflare Carnival, where we have fun with our friends,
It is a known fact that it is something Corona not understands!
But if we get too relaxed, on our friends too dependent,
We’ll earn not our friends’ trust, just their resentment!”
A jester pony continues.
“Your false Queen is living in the past,
So you won’t last
Without the proper care.
With a jaw punching farewell
And kick to her bell
We’ll send her off for another long year!”
Nasty asks again.
“When do we learn about Solarflare Carnival, fillies?
Oldest of the sisters, Sourcream, answers.
“This is Solarflare Carnival, where Corona we must appease,
Bribes and intimidation, just so she won’t raise the degrees!
But if she gets too demanding, too stubborn to yield,
The power of friendship we’ll use against her as a weapon concealed!”
Everypony looks questioningly at Sourcream and shakes their heads. Sourcream just asks “What?” at them.
A rather short Corona impersonator steps out from behind a stall and continues.
“Your true Queen is living in the past,
So you won’t last
Without the proper care.
With a jaw punching farewell
And kick to her bell
You’ll send me off for another long year!”
Nasty gestures for the fillies to go and mingle about. Two younger ones immediately run off, while Sourcream slowly trots to the punch stand, where ponies her age just silently stand and look at eachother. Sourcream behaves no differently. Nasty himself spots lieutenant Firewall in a shadowbolt costume, picks up a two-cup salver with coffee in his teeth and walks over to her.
-”Coffee, Wallsy?”-She lightly kicks him in the leg.-”Coffee, Firewall?”
-”Thank you. Those two yours?”-She motions to Carrot Top and Wildfire running in circles around a cyan pegasus filly, laughing.
-”Sure are. Wait, is that...your…?”
-”Yes, Melloway, that’s Spitfire running around. She put on so much paint she can barely move.”
-”What did she dress as?”
-”There’s this filly in flight camp with her. Rainbow Dash or something, she painted herself to be like her. Spitfire absolutely adores this Dash. Keeps talking about how fast she flies and what difficult stunts she pulls. What she doesn't realize though, is that to notice Dash’s speed and stunts she herself must be flying faster and leaner. Foals will be foals I guess.”
-”Yeah, takes seven to agree. And you, where did you get that outfit? Looks impressive. Wait, that wouldn't happen to be from that one agent we arrested, would it? That’s evidence, Wallsy, evidence of you looking good in it!”
-”By Luna, you have no tact, Melloway!”
Coal is shifting through reports in his office. Investigators found magical residue in Fam and Ham’s supposed apartment, almost 5 miliclicks at the epicenter. Being a unicorn himself and calculating normal decay to time after spell, he approximated the initial magical energy output somewhere around 70 kiloclicks, that’s something rivaling a full platoon of soldier unicorns all focusing a ray of pure magic on something for 1 second, something that will burn through 1 inch of steel. Fam, the unicorn of the duo, is not known to be magically stronger than an average unicorn, and Fam is self taught, which means he is probably even weaker. Coal decides he’s not going to discover anything else, until the specialists get back, and switches to trying to find anything on Fillydelphia’s orphanages and their distances from known exotic nightclubs and the railway station. One was right between The Flare and the station. “Luna’s Warm Home for the Lost”. Thinking back to The Flare, Coal couldn't shake out the image of Candice on his legs, smiling and looking him in the eyes. Something tugged at Coal's mind about her. He checks for a file on her in Fillydelphia’s pony criminal index cards library. Almost immediately he finds the wanted file. Candice d’Mareseilles. Coat pinkish white. Mane pale purple-pink with white. Eyes navy blue. Cutie mark unknown. Current residence unknown. Several cases as victim of domestic violence. Suspect in several cases of causing bodily harm and property damage, all dropped. Also known as Fleur de Lis.