Nasty stumbles into the office yawning holding a tray with a cup and several pastries on it in his mouth. He plumps down into his chair and places the tray on the table.
-"Good morning, Nasty. I see you're all up for the morning shifts week."
-"Don't get cocky, Helps. That'll be you in a couple of years."-Nasty points his hoof at himself.
-"Guess I better start drinking and smoking immediately, if all I have is a couple of years to be like you."
-"Funny...."-Nasty takes a sip from his cup and swallows a cream donut whole.-"I prefer the morning shifts. It's better to be sleepy at the start of a shift than to sleepwalk back home."
-"Anyway, you missed the briefing. I convinced the lieutenant to let the two of us question Colgate."- Nasty nods while chewing.-"I also figured you could question the foals at the orphanage, I'm no good with them."-Nasty looks questioningly at Coal as he takes a sip from the cup.-"Luna's Warm Home for the Lost"...F&H's little helpers in distribution....like the ones I in "The Flare"..."-Nasty extends his hoof towards Coal and nods.-"Where do you wanna start?"
-"At 12 Starbright Lane, Moldingwood Hills. Colgate's place. Maybe you'll even get the chance to return that favor to Jimmy."
Coal and Nasty knock on the door of a lavish two story house. They hear a weak voice behind the door.
-"Who is it?"
-"F. P. D., we wish to speak to Colgate Heartstrings."-Coal places his shield next to the eyehole in the door.
-"Ehm, uh...Just a minute, please!"
They hear some rustling and door unlocking sounds. The door handle is enveloped in a golden glow and it turns opening the door to reveal a grass green unicorn filly with a two tone mane much like Colgate's, only in shades of seaweed green.
-"Can we please come in, young Miss?"-Filly nods and Coal and Nasty walk in to the living room. Nasty looks at the filly as she closes the door back and locks it with her golden telekinesis. Nasty smiles at her.
-"That is very impressive, young lady. I have a daughter much older than you, who still can't get her magic touch to be soft and precise. What's your name?"
-"Lyra. Mom and Dad taught me to be gentle so I'll grow up to be a famous string instrument player one day, just like Daddy.”
With that she runs off only to drag back a large acoustic guitar, which she locks between her rear legs front fetlocks, placing tips of her hooves on the bridge and sits down looking extremely uncomfortable, Coal and Nasty scrunch at the sight. The filly plays a slow tune only occasionally missing or faking an accord or two by an octave. Coal and Nasty smile at her enthusiasm and talent.
-”That was lovely. Miss Lyra, can you please tell your mother we wish to speak with her.”
-”Oh, she’s at work.”
-”Are home all alone then?”-Nasty looks concerned for the filly, having an experience with leaving foals all alone to their devices.
-”No, uhm, Dad is also home.”-Lyra looks down at her hooves guiltily.
-”No! Get them off! Ah! No! No!”-A scream from somewhere upstairs makes Lyra jump.
-”Nasty, the back door! Lyra, hide!”
-”It’s ok, no, trust me!”
Neither detectives listen to her. Coal shoves the filly with his head to behind a sofa and summons his slingshot to filly’s great amazement. He runs up the stairs, while Nasty rushes through the kitchen to the back door. Coal aims the taught slingshot at different corners as he comes upstairs and to the room, from which the muffled screaming keeps coming. Taking a deep breath, he bucks the door open and rushes inside, with Lyra running directly after him. Coal sees Jimmy strapped to the bed by his entire body and a nurse with towels in her mouth, that she dropped immediately as she noticed the slingshot being aimed at her. Lyra runs up from behind Coal and stands between him and the nurse.
-”No, it’s just Daddy feeling bad, everything is ok! This is Soft Touch, she helps Daddy get better!”
-”Good day…”-The nurse’s voice shakes and she tries to swallow. Coal disspells the slingshot and smiles at the nurse.
-”No...No…I can’t, this is too much…”-Sweating Jimmy keeps hallucinating and rolling from side to side.
-”Coal, are you ok, nothing at the back….”-Nasty rushes by the stairs into the open room and takes in the sight.-”Well, that explains it, I guess.”
-”Sorry for scaring you Miss Soft Touch. Miss Lyra, can we please talk downstairs?”
Lyra, Coal and Nasty are sitting at a kitchen table with a glass of juice next to Lyra and Coal’s fedora next to him. The kitchen itself is quite barren, with a lot of half open emptied cupboards and various jars packed into cardboard boxes stacked by the walls. Nasty is already scribbling something into his notepad.
-”Is Dad in trouble?”-Lyra’s voice is shaking and her ears droop as if she were guilty.
-”Not as of the moment. Lyra, I’m going to need you to relax. We came here just to talk to your mother.”
-”Is she in trouble?”-Lyra looks up at Coal, still looking guilty.
-”I’m afraid she might be.”-Coal decides to sweeten the truth a bit.
-”That’s why we’re here, kiddo! To help her out!”-Nasty jumps in, drawing Lyra’s attention and calmingly smiling at her.-”Yes, we are. Now this stallion here is Coal, he’s going to ask you some questions. He may seem a bit harsh or angry, but don’t be afraid, he just takes everything very seriously. If you don’t like something, or want us to leave, just tell me, okay?”-Lyra nods to Nasty.
-”Lyra, I’m going to ask you some questions about your mother, if it’s fine with you?”-Lyra nods slightly.-”Is your mother at work right now? At Legendpony studios?”
-”Yes...she leaves every day at around 7. What kind of trouble is she in?”
-”She, uh...Said something that turned out to be not true. So now we want why she did that.”-Coal looks to Nasty which lifts one of his eyebrows at Coal, but says nothing.
-”I see…”
-”Lyra, can you please tell us, have you noticed anything strange about her behavior, in the last two or so months?”
-”Ehm, no, not really. She did start getting home later in the evening than usual ever since they started shooting at her work. Sometimes she is also very angry, but that’s because she has a lot of work.”
-”Shooting?”
-”Yeah, that’s how she describes it. She tried explaining why it’s called that, but I didn’t understand it, something to do with light and pictures.”
-”So, apart from her getting home later and being angrier…”
-”Not angrier, just more….”
-”Frustrated?”-Nasty throws in.
-”Yes, frustrated!”-Lyra nods.
-”So, apart from that, she behaves her usual self?”
-”Yes, I guess.”-Lyra lowers her eyes and turns them slightly to the right.
-”Very well. What about your father? Did he start behaving differently in the last two months?”
-”Yes…”-Lyra looks at her glass of juice.-”He was always...moody. Lately he got worse.”
-”Has he been violent with you or your mother?”-Nasty bumps into the conversation looking stern.
-”No, Dad was never violent, he’d never hurt a fly! He... would come and leave at random...Act all weird, like burst into song or just go to the bathroom and cry. When I asked him about it, he just said it’s because he was searching inspiration for his next work. He hasn’t recorded anything in the last few years. And…Now he’s sick.”-Lyra switches from looking at Coal to Nasty and back.-”He was gone the whole last week. When he came back two days ago, Mom put him to bed and called in Soft Touch to look after him. Soft Touch says he will get better in a few days. I...I just want him to be better!”-Lyra starts crying uncontrollably.
-”Now, now…”-Nasty picks up Lyra and places her on his legs as he sits down in her chair, stroking her mane with his chin.-”Just let it all out! We’re all friends here.”
-”I just want things to go back the way they were! Before we moved to this stupid place! I want Mom to be happy again, I want Dad to sing me to bed, I want them to stop fighting, I want to not be afraid of my friends!”-Lyra hugs Nasty and cries into his chest. He wipes her nasal bubbles and tears with a napkin Coal levitates to him.-”Please make it all better! I don’t want to be all alone!”-After crying some more, she eventually calms down and look at smiling Nasty, not noticing Soft Touch standing in the doorway behind him.
-”Well, feel better now?”-Lyra nods at him.-”You know, I was about your age, maybe a bit younger, when my family moved from Stalliongrad. I hated the new place, my parents were always arguing, everything seemed weird, I had no friends and I felt it was all somehow my fault.”-Lyra listens to him with utmost attention, as if hypnotized.-”Luckily, one day, an old mare from the farm not far from ours called me over. She asked how we were all settling in. I told her exactly how I felt. She just looked at me, gave me a sack of oat cookies and said the most true thing I’ve ever heard - “A true friend is worth more than a thousand bits. Your family are already your friends and you are already rich, even if you’ll never have any money”. I went back home and told them what bothered me. Everything. I felt much better. Then I asked them to tell each other what really bothered them. After the initial swearing and a night of fighting, they found, that the only thing they couldn’t agree on, was what to have for dinner. We were poor and afraid ponies will perceive us as poor, so we each tried our best improve, tugging and tearing away at our family. My parents decided to coordinate their efforts, rather than each try their own thing. I have decided not to even try and fit in myself and make friends even outside my age group. Things were still rough, but at least I knew that my family and those few true friends I had, were always there for me, and I felt safe and happy. When you try to fit in too much, you’ll just become an outcast. If you look for anypony to be your friend, you’ll always be alone. Just relax and do what you know and feel is right. Don’t be afraid of new things, meeting new ponies, but also don’t be afraid of listening to your heart and sometimes telling ponies to go away. So, when your dad gets better, why won’t you tell the two of them how you feel and ask them how they feel, okay?”-Lyra happily nods and wipes away the last of her tears and Nasty lowers her to the floor. There is a short bit if silence.
-"I was meaning to ask you, Mister Coal. How do you do this thing with the slingshot? Make it appear and everything."
-"You mean like this?"-With a glow of his horn, Coal summons the slingshot and it just falls onto the the table.-"It's a little trick I learned in the Military Academy. What you do, is basically reach out with your magic to something you know, like this slingshot, fill it up from the inside with your magic..."-Coal levitates the slingshot as it starts glowing Coal's yellow aura.-"Then yank it with your magic like a whip to your horn."-In a small yellow flash, the slingshot pops right by Coal's horn.-"I'm pretty bad at this, myself. I can only make it appear right by my horn, but the pony that taught me this could summon several objects to appear wherever he wanted. For my birthday he summoned a cake in my face when I was giving speech to my family 500 miles away from me."-Lyra lets out a small chuckle and Coal smiles at his memories.-"At the time I didn't find it funny though, as the cake had still burning candles and one of them got lodged in my throat because I was speaking."-He gives Lyra a deliberately stern look, then wholeheartedly laughs, making Lyra and Nasty laugh as well.-"I think I made it sound easier than it really is, but that's just the way I personally do it. It works better on objects you come in contact with everyday. What you should never do though, is try it on living ponies and animals, ever! It never ends well."-Coal thinks back to the dangerous teleportation scroll and if it works by same principles.
-"I won't!"-Lyra closes her eyes, focusing hard and her horn glows faintly. A ruffle and the sound of something falling down and breaking is heard from the living room. Lyra opens her eyes and jumps up, looking behind her and noticing the nurse. She smiles sheepishly at her.-"Oh, hello Miss Soft Touch."
-”Coalsy and I better get going now. Thank you for your hospitality Miss Lyra.”-Nasty turns to Soft Touch.-”My friend and I are sorry if we scared you.”-Lyra walks them to the door out.-”Oh, I made this for you.”-Nasty tears away a page from his notepad and gives it to Lyra. She looks at a picture perfect portrait of herself on it and smiles.-”Have your mom or dad carry it in their wallets or purses, and things will get better, I promise.”-As he leaves, Nasty waves back to a small filly smiling at him from the doorway.
-”Every time, Nasty, every time! You should have a second cutie mark of foal parenting!”
-”No-no-no-no! I already have seven of the monsters, I don’t want to have to deal with more of them!”-Nasty climbs into the driver’s seat and puts in the crystal key.-”What I can’t deal with even less, is them crying. Makes me turn over inside.”
-”Your girls are lucky to have you as a father, Nasty. I mean it.”-Coal climbs inside and shuts the door.
-”5 out of 7 of my exes are going to disagree with you. Is “Legendpony” the one by the tar swamp or the weather patrol cloud storage tower?”
-”The tower.”
The car pulls away from the house and shortly after stops moving. Coal gets out and starts pushing. Shortly after, a massive flame escapes from exhaust pipes and coats Coal in a thin layer of burnt out crystal dust which explodes slightly singing Coal and his entire coat produces smoke. The car accelerates so quickly it almost runs into a nearby house wall. Nasty pulls his head out of the door window and laughs at Coal.
-”I guess I should now call you Ember Helps!”
-”I take back all I’ve said!”-Coal shakes the burnt out crystals off himself.
-”You look so angry, there’s smoke coming out of you!”-Coal climbs back inside the car.-”All we need to do is get you some mirrors and you’ll be the just like Quartermoon!”-Coal menacingly looks at Nasty, who then loses his cheery attitude.-”We should probably get this thing checked or something.”