//------------------------------//
// The Bat - Part 3 
// Story: The Adventures of the Bat 
// by wyrdsmith 
//------------------------------//

	"Can I help you, Princess?"

After speaking with Mayor Mare, Twilight immediately made her way to the Ponyville Police Station. Initially, getting past the officer at the front desk proved difficult, but a quick reminder of who the officer was talking to prompted the pony to escort the Princess to Chief Harvey Bullox's office. She now stood before the owner of said office and her mind was frantically piecing itself back together after coming face to face with the Chief of the Ponyville Police.

Twilight quickly shook her head and took a deep breath, "Er, sorry about that Chief Bullox, I suppose I wasn't expecting you to be, well…" She glanced around the room looking for the right word, but was interrupted by the Chief.

"An actual bull ox? Yeah, I get that. Some ancestor of mine had a real sense of humor." His voice was best described using the same words one might use to describe a gravel road, and he creaked in his chair every time he moved, his massive frame barely supported by the tiny wooden piece of office furniture.

Twilight blinked and blushed slightly, offering up a small smile to match Bullox's emotionless face, "Eh heh, yeah. So…"

Bullox snorted with impatience and he reached out with a hoof to pick up one of the numerous files overflowing his inbox, "Listen, Princess, unless there's something you need, I'll have to ask you to please let me get back to work. As you can see, while Ponyville may appear to be some sleepy little hamlet, it's not without its share of problems."

"Actually, Chief Bullox, one of those problems is the reason why I'm here," Twilight said as simply as she could having finally overcome her initial shock.

Chief Bullox made no effort to pay attention to Twilight, but instead busied himself with scribbling a note in the folder he was reading.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Twilight decided to continue. "It's about the thieves that were brought in yesterday, the ones that were apprehended at Mister Davenport's shop."

Bullox kept his muzzle buried in the file, but replied all the same, "Yes? And? Perps caught, nothing stolen. Open and shut case."

Twilight stepped closer to his desk, her patience growing thin as she silently demanded he look up at her. "Yes, but it wasn't your officers that apprehended them. It was some mysterious vigilante."

Bullox shut the file he had been working on and swapped it out with the next one off the stack of folders, quickly moving through it. "So? Perps have already confessed. It's a done deal and Davenport's shop is back in business."

Twilight gritted her teeth and silently seethed. It was like talking to a brick wall made out of Apples, she thought.

The Chief seemed to sense Twilight's growing ire and finally looked up. He watched her for a moment before letting out another frustrated snort, "Look. Princess. The station has no official comment, one way or another, regarding masked vigilantes and their existence. Yes, sometimes our officers arrive on the scene to find criminals already apprehended and pacified. Is this the work of a vigilante? Maybe, maybe not, maybe one of my colts likes to get an early start. Either way, it's police business. Criminals ain't usually looking to make friends, but when one shows up that is, I'll be sure to give you a call. Until then, I need to get back to work."

All that could be heard in the small office was Chief Bullox's quill scratching across the paperwork in the folder on his desk as he returned to work. Twilight had stopped breathing, her mouth hung open, and one eye involuntarily twitched as she stared across the desk at the massive ox. Seconds turned into minutes and eventually, Bullox looked back up.

"Yes, Princess," he asked with a sigh.

Twilight clenched her jaw and slowly forced a smile, the twitch in her eye slowly getting worse. Her eyes met his and the pair were locked in a staring match that threatened to give Rainbow Dash and Applejack a run for their money. Eventually though, a single word from Twilight broke the silence, "Commissioner."

Chief Bullox frowned and tilted his head, "What was that?"

"It's Commissioner," Twilight said as she slowly drew closer to the chief to the point where her muzzle almost touched his.

Chief Bullox felt an instinctive urge to run, but damned if he was ever going to run from some filly, princess or otherwise. "I don't quite understand what you're getting at, Princess."

Twilight's grin grew and the twitching of her eye finally stopped. "Hehe, funny thing about that. It's Commissioner Twilight Sparkle now. True I'm still the magical Princess of Friendship, but now I'm also your boss." Twilight's horn flashed and the form she had filled out at Mayor Mare's office suddenly appeared in front of Chief Bullox's face in a burst of smoke. "Police business is now my business. Got it?"

Chief Bullox's expression grew darker the further down the form the read. When he reached the bottom, his eyes flicked past the parchment to Twilight Sparkle's who met his gaze with an unwavering glare. Without looking away, he closed the file he had been working on, tucked it off to the side, and then placed his hooves squarely on his desk. "All right, Commissioner. What do you want?"

Twilight smiled saccharinely as she vanished the form with another flash of magic. "I want every record you have on file regarding this vigilante. I want every document, every folder, every shred of evidence related to our officers finding criminals at the scene of the crime trussed up like some kind of Hearth's Warming casserole. I also want the unsolved cases, the ones where you and I both know there was something else that was going on that never made it into the report. And furthermore, I want you to give me the names of any and all ponies that have ever reported a sighting of bats and/or demons with glowing eyes."

By the time Twilight was done, her front hooves were placed opposite the chief's and she was staring into his eyes, inches from his face. Bullox, blinked slowly, and leaned back into his seat, mentally ticking off what she listed. After a moment, he replied, "Anything else… Commissioner?"

Twilight stepped back and composed herself, adjusting any stray hairs that may have popped out of her mane during her list of demands. She then nodded and said, "Yes. I also want whoever you can spare to help me sort through it all. Preferably whoever has the most experience with the subject matter."

Bullox grunted and nodded, "Fine." He slowly stood up from his chair and rose to his full height, now head and shoulders above Twilight. Then, with a combination of a yell and a growl, he called out over her head, "Montoya! Get your flank in here!"