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// Day 2 
// Story: C.S. Pie 
// by DecadantHandshake 
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	Here is the first day I met him. The strange creature in that experiment. He was... odd. He had a strange way of talking. He would drag the last word of each sentence out and then just rumble a little. Kinda like a cat, but a more quiet and deep purr. He was extremely tall, more than twice my height. He towered over me in a very intimidating way when he stood, but when he talked he sort of pulled me in: made me forget he wasn't even a pony. I'll tell you about it.
So nothing happened in the morning, my usual morning suckiness dulled my mind to any thinking. I didn't wait up for the assistant that brought me home, I wanted to be alone for a little while. You know how I get. Well, I got hungry and thought of going back to the hotel for some food, but I realized they don't serve food in the hotel. But there is a bakery right next to the Hay & Stay, and so that is where I went.
The prominent color in there was brown.  All sorts of shades of it. There were cupcakes and cookies and all kinds of things. What I wanted was some flat bread. The ugly blue pony there with pink hair who was also fat and probably cheats on her husband to told me that they were all out of flat bread. Like everyone else in her life, I was disappointed. 
I got some normal bread and put it in my saddle bag. I left for the alley and sat down at the end where the two ponies walked by. I didn't think much about trying to appear normal. About six ponies walked through the area before nine hit. Three of them stopped by, two colts and a young filly, and for a couple hours they sat across the street from me just chatting. I listened every once in a while, and I thought I heard one of the colts dare the other to run into the alley and touch the body. He declined at first, but the two ponies egged him on. He was about to enter the alley while I was snacking on some bread, but I called out to him.
"Hold on!" I said, wanting to finish eating my mouthful of bread before talking. He stopped and looked at me with mild annoyance. "You shouldn't go in there."
"How come!" He said, probably not liking some random adult bossing them around.
"Cuz if you do, the guards are gonna be mad at you." I said, trying to talk in a way that would sound normal to him.
"No they wont." Shouted the girl after him. "They aren't even here anyway."
"Are you a police pony?" The boy asked. I shook my head.
"I'm just a window washer. But my boss isn't here today so I gotta sit around and wait for him." That bullshit lie wouldn't have worked on an adult, but you know kids... Well, the other boy was smart enough to look at my cutie mark. It's a magnifying glass, for the ponies reading.
"Oh! No you aren't! You're an investigator!" Dammit shut up! My face went completely serious for a moment, and he just stared back wide eyed at me. I tried to play it off with a laugh to calm him down.
"Hahah! No I'm not silly! I'm a... Magnifying glass... maker. I work with glass. This window washing thing is just a... side job until my place gets built."
"Your place?" The girl asked.
"Yeah, heh. It's going to be a big new... place here to make money for Ponyville. I'm going to make super cool magnifying glasses for... the school! You're in school, right?" They all shook their heads.
"Were out of school now. Now we need to find our talents and get jobs in a couple years." I was confused.
"Really? You kids look a lot younger than that." They gave no reply. The kid was about to keep walking, but I shook my head at him.
"Come on! They wont know."
"I'll tell a police pony, or investigator pony. When they get here, they will be super mad..." I trailed my voice up higher as I ended that, and went back to stuffing a piece of bread in my face and watching the sky.
"Hello everypony, it's a pleasure to see you all." Said a deep, bass voice. I didn't need to lower my eyes far, as the figure stood practically six feet tall. He was huge! You really should have seen him, he was like a timber wolf on two legs, and not made of wood. He wore this beautiful green cloak, it shimmered in the sun. I could see these two massive feet, hairier than most of his body, except his head.  His cloak had two clasps, which were unclasped, granting me full view of his underbelly. It was mostly bare, though his chest had some light hair from what I could see. It was all dark brown. As for his face, it kinda looked like a lion, except with alot less hair. His eyes were big and dark brown. They looked very sad though. His mouth was creased into a deep frown, wrinkles of worry running up his cheeks. His two hands were held behind his back and his chest was extended forward. His neck arched down to look back and forth between the four of us ponies. Well, needless to say I felt rather intimidated in his presence, especially being in such a feeble position on the ground. I gasped for breath for a moment, and then let out a weak hello.
"H-Hi?" My eyes lockedon his, but he just gazed passively at us all, like we were all just one pony.
"Mmm... Yes, it's my pleasure to meet all of you. My name is Herbert Dashwood." His formal tone was conflicting strongly with the picture my mind was already painting of him, a frightening creature that could pick me up and throw me into the floor. But when he said the words 'all of you', I recognized my responsibility as the adult in a group of children to address this. I tried to put some nerve into my voice, but I think it failed.
"What do you want?" He seemed to freeze for a moment, then he raised an eyebrow and arched his neck down to get a close look at me. His right eye was focusing on me in my entirety, looking me up and down. He pulled his head back and responded, an apology.
"I'm sorry if I'm intimidating the four of you, I suppose I do look a bit... unkempt. But I assure you, I am entirely benign to ponies." He walked to the other side of the entrance on the same side of the street I was on: across from the children. I just stared at him, but he was now actively looking back and forth between the all of us. Then he leaned his head over to look down the alley at the dead body. Then he looked back at me.
"Odd... You would think the guard should be here by now, right? Guarding the body? I've got to-"
"Hey everyone, what's up?" Me and the creature turned our heads to look down the alley in shock. There, I was relieved to find my escort, whose name I had not received once. He walked out into our little group, and sat beside me. It was comforting to have a stallion around when there was a predator nearby. Though, I doubt he would have been a match for that thing. "So what are you all talking about?" I didn't need to explain, Herbert Dashwood did it first.
"I was just asking about the body down there. Seems odd, it not being guarded. Unless..."
"Yeah, it seems funny." The puller interjected: who I think we can address from here on as Jiggles. I nodded in agreement. The kids just sat there, obvious to some passive aggression in the air between us and him. I didn't once make eye contact with him from then on. "I mean, what if the killer came and snatched that body right up? No one would be around to stop him."
"Or her..." Herbert muttered. I think I heard him sigh softly. Some time passed, Jiggles clopped his forehooves as time passed. The kids fell to discussing who knows what. Scenes were running through my mind of this creature killing that pony. I could just see him jumping up into the air and dragging that poor pegasus to the ground. I could see the horrible scenes in front of me, and I was going to cry.
"Investigator?" I flinched, and looked over at Herbert.
"Wha?"
"You are an investigator? I suppose you must be here for the body." Shit! He knows I'm on to him! He's gonna rape me! I was crying in my mind.
"I-" I was about to fumble for words, but the kids saved me.
"No she's not." Said the girl.
"Yah, she makes magnifying glasses."
"Mhm. She has a place here." The boy pulled out a spoon of yogurt from a little bowl that I hadn't noticed till now. The thing looked at my cutie mark. I really don't like those eyes on my flank... I shuddered a bit.
"Then why are you hanging around near a dead body?"
"Why are you hanging around a body? Looking for a meal?!" I spat at him with venom. I really didn't mean to, but the way he was talking me annoyed me, and I was afraid... Well, my partner, the children, and Herbert all stared at me in shock. Then he got this hurt look on his face.
"How dare you!" He shouted. I pushed myself up to the comforting side of my companion, but he pulled away from me, disapproval emanating. "That's..." He started hyperventilating. He jumped to his feet and shouted at me... I just sat there, terrified. The kids pulled back to the wall. When I looked up, his face was red like a crayon and he was panting, He had started shouting things that didn't really make sense to me. He then quieted down, and walked away without another word. As a matter of fact, the rest of my day was spent in silence. My companion had not said a single word to me. I went to my hotel room alone, and passed by the other chariot puller. Let's call him Quackles... No wait, he had a name. It was... Aaren! Right. I passed him, and he tried to talk to me, but I just said goodnight and went to bed.