Booker sat on the relatively small couch in Ditzy's living room, Anna on one side and Dinky on the other. The two children were currently fast asleep, having run off to dream land some time in that past few hours. Booker himself didn't quite remember what the three of them were doing, he remembered talking with Dinky, with the occasional input from Anna, and now the two of them were suddenly asleep. Ditzy trotted into the room, one eye watching the three of them, the other focused on the wall to the left of her, making her appear cross-eyed.
"It looks like my little muffin is getting acquainted with you and Anna." the pegasus giggled, trotting towards the couch.
Booker studied her face, shuddering briefly at the cross-eyed pegasus.
"What?" she inquired.
"Doesn't that...hurt?" Booker asked vaguely, gesturing to his face, knowing full-well that this wasn't the best way he could've worded the question.
"Sometimes, yeah," she replied, not seeming to be off-put at all by his phrasing "it used to hurt a lot worse when I was a filly."
Booker felt a twinge of guilt, having asked when he only knew the mare and her daughter for less that forty-eight hours. Booker adjusted himself, tempted to stand, but not wanting to disturb the positions of the sleeping children he was sandwiched between.
"My eyes really don't bother me all that much..." Ditzy said quietly.
Booker's eyes widened, realizing that the kind mare was angry at his question.
"H-How did you know I...?"
"S-Sometimes I can tell if somepony's lying...your facial expressions were a bit of a giveaway...but...your face is vaguely like a pony's...so...sorry if I offended you."
Booker sat in silence, staring at the pegasus, jaw agape. He then allowed a small smirk to spread across his face, directed at the backpedaling pony.
"We could've used someone like you on the force, back home."
Booker strolled casually down the street, away from Ditzy's house. To the casual observer, they might've said that he was out for a walk, heading in no particular direction. Colgate, however, was not a casual observer, as she watched him pass the window to her shop.
"Hey Cole?" her friend, Lyra, seated in the dentist char, her jaw hanging open "You mind finishing? I promised Bonnie I'd-"
"Uh-huh," the blue-coated pony replied absently "they're in the cupboard, Lyra."
"Seriously, I think the meds are starting to wear off-" Lyra stated "and I'd rather not have gaping holes in my teeth for my date."
Colegate shook her head, her two-toned mane bouncing over her eyes as she turned away from the window, and back to the task at hoof.
"I know you're obsessed with bipeds and everything-" Lyra began as Colegate pressed a hoof on the magic-powered box that sat on the floor, attached to the drill in her magic "but you really shouldn't get distracted from your work- more businesses go belly up that way."
"I'm not obsessed with bipeds," Colgate huffed, rolling her eyes "it's how they can walk on two legs that get me."
"I'm an accountant, not an anthropologist." Lyra replied.
"And a scientist, and a social worker, and a notary republic," Colgate chuckled, trying to make herself heard over the whine of the drill "how you manage all of that, I'll never know."
"Living next door to Pinkie Pie helps." Lyra said, trying to giggle herself, but was stopped by the drill in her mouth.
"I'll bet, for a mare who you'd think eats so much sugar, she's never had a cavity, as long as I've known her."
"It takes all kinds..." Lyra stated.
Colgate nodded in agreement, shooting a glance out the front door of her shop.
"He's not going to come in, you know," Lyra stated, trying to keep Colgate's attention while she had a sharp, rotating piece of metal in her mouth "even if he did, there's no telling when he would."
"How do you know it's a 'he'?" Colgate asked suspiciously.
"His foal calls him 'Daddy', what conclusion would you draw from that?"
"Oh, he has a foal...a single parent, how brave..." she whispered to herself dreamily.
"Can you just finish my teeth? I really need to get going." Lyra said impatiently.
Colgate shook herself out of her daze, and came back to the task at hand, carefully highlighting the problem areas of Lyra's mouth with her magic as her drill attacked them.
[hr}
Booker stared at the barracks-like building that Ditzy had described to him earlier, the very one that could jumpstart his career in Equina or whatever the hell it was called.
"Hello?" Booker called, pushing open the door to the building, the Vigors in the bag over his shoulder clinking together as he did so "Is anyone here?"
"Over here." a gray-coated stallion with a matching golden helmet and armor said, seated at a desk.
Booker assumed this must be one of the 'Royal Guard' that he'd heard about around town.
"Yes, I'd like to apply for a private contractor's license?" he asked.
"We don't accept mercenaries here, buzz off pal." the stallion stated gruffly, not looking up from the parchment he was scribbling on.
"I'm an officer of the law, not a damned mercenary," Booker spat, stepping closer to the desk "I'm a detective."
"Why the buck would you want to be a detective?" the stallion said, finally glancing up, now noticing Booker's full stature "Th-that's one of the lowest ranks the Royal Guard offers, just ahead of Corporal and Private."
"I'm a private investigator, I'd like to apply for a license." Booker repeated sternly, loosing his patience with the gray-coated stallion.
"Alright then," the stallion replied with a shrug, lifting a heavy packet of papers out of a drawer of his desk "here's the written test, we'll begin your physicals next week."
"Can't we do them sooner?" Booker inquired.
"No exceptions, come back next Wednesday." the stallion huffed bluntly, staring once more at his paperwork.
An hourglass raised itself onto the desk as Booker sat down, enveloped in an amber aura.
"You have two hours to finish the test, any more than that, and you automatically fail."
Booker nodded, and began the test, scratching on it with a short pencil he'd produced from his pocket.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Miss Twilight?" Ditzy asked, two bottles sitting between herself and the purple unicorn "I mean, these belong to Mister DeWitt, I'd be breaking his trust if I just gave them to you!"
"I agree," Twilight nodded "which is why I couldn't possibly ask you to do such a thing, I just want to take samples of the liquids inside, for study."
"Oh...well...I suppose that would be alright...there wouldn't be any real damage, I guess..."
"I'll only take half a vial, how does that sound?" Twilight said, producing two vials out of her saddlebags.
"I...I guess so...I mean, you're not really stealing anything..."
"I promise that whatever's left over, I'll bring right back, Pinkie Promise."
"O...okay..."
Twilight sat on her haunches, tongue sticking out of her muzzle as as she stared at the liquids contained in the two vials. Her results so far weren't much, and she was beginning to feel a panic attack coming on. Where did the strength lie in the mysterious liquids? who made them? What purpose did they serve?
These questions, and many more, filtered through her mind as she took two eyedroppers and dunked them into each of the vials. Pulling a petri dish over the smooth surface of her worktable, she squeezed the bulbs of the droppers, forcing a droplet to fall out each dropper. Green and purple mixed together, fizzling and crackling as Twilight backed away from the bench, fully prepared to run up the steps if necessary.
The concoction in the dish hissed violently as electricity crackled and sparked around it. Violet streaks of lightning shot across the lab, dancing and arching as Twilight ducked, fearful of what the end result of the experiment might be.
The dish burst, emitting a loud, almost explosion-like noise. Twilights ears popped as she covered her head, her hooves protecting her face from the wrath of the out-of-control experiment.
"Wow, cool!" a small, childish voice stated.
Twilight uncovered her eyes, lifting her goggles so they rested above her horn. Her jaw dropped in disbelief when she spied a completely purple filly with green eyes, no taller than her stomach, standing on the bench, above the petri dish. Her mane was composed of jagged crystal formations, sparkling and crackling.
"Where's my daddy?" it asked in the same voice, though raising in volume "I know you're not my daddy! Where's my daddy?!"
"Twilight- is everything okay down-"
The filly suddenly disappeared in a flash of dark lightning, slithering through the air as it hissed, discharging itself into the air. Spike ducked in the open doorway as it passed over him, coming dangerously close to electrocuting him.
"Twilight..." Spike murmured, standing back up.
"I honestly have no idea, Spike..." Twilight said tiredly, then passed out right on the steps.
Booker sat, staring at the test, wondering just what the hell he was supposed to do in case of magical build-up caused by something called an 'inhibitor ring', when the front door to the office blew open, startling the stallion at the desk, forcing him to fall out of his chair as a whirlwind blew into the office. The blur popped, transforming into a small horse. The thing landed on the floor with a clunk, then bounded into his lap, surprising the ever-living-hell out of him.
"Found you, daddy!" it shrieked, the familiar sound of Shock Jockey arching back and forth between the crystals that made up its mane.
'Sonofabitch...' Booker thought to himself as the creature placed its forehooves on his chest.
"Now I get to hide, and you seek, right?" it asked, grinning curiously.
Booker couldn't think of a proper response to this...this...thing, filly...
"Isn't it...that how it works?" she said, her grin wavering.
"Eh...yeah, that's...that's it alright..." he said, wondering why the hell he was so calm around the thing that had just called him 'daddy'.
"Oh, good," the filly said, sighing in relief "I wouldn't have wanted to get it wrong."
Booker cocked an brow, glancing back and forth between the guardstallion and the Vigor-like pony.
"I've got a...uh...personal issue to deal with..." Booker began.
The guard rolled his eyes, and flipped the hourglass.
"Come back and take the exam after your physicals."
"Is that standard?" Booker asked.
"No, but I feel as if that's about as close as I'm going to get with you."
"I'll be back." Booker said, standing. The filly, incidentally, clung to his vest like a magnet, further confusing the man it was attached to.
"I'm sure you will." the guard responded bluntly.
"We're we going daddy?" it asked, still hanging onto the front of Booker's jacket.
Booker looked down, meeting the filly's green eyes.
"Well...uh..."
'What the hell should I do?' he wondered 'Should I try and take her to Ditzy's? Who the hell should I ask about this kind of thing?'
"Uh...why don't we go home? You must be tired." Booker suggested.
"Nope! I feel as energetic as a penny in a light socket!" she cheered, swinging from his vest as he walked, then her face quickly turned into one of confusion "What's a penny? What's a light socket?"