//------------------------------//
// The Bat - Part 4 
// Story: The Adventures of the Bat 
// by wyrdsmith 
//------------------------------//

	Detective Whinee Montoya was an earth pony with a pale grey coat and a stark black mane and tail that seemed to shine blue as she led Commissioner Twilight to the police archives. Her cutie mark, Twilight noted, was a police badge encircled by a magnifying glass. As they walked, Twilight had apparently been studying the cutie mark a bit longer than she thought when Montoya spoke up, "Keep staring at my flank like that and you'll have to buy me a drink."

Twilight's eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly ducked her head sheepishly, "Sorry about that. It's just, I've never seen a cutie mark quite like that one. I mean, yeah, my brother has a shield, but yours has so much detail."

Montoya slowed to a stop before turning back to face Twilight. The detective studied her new commissioner for a moment in silence. It was almost hard to believe that the alicorn in front of her had faced down some of the most dangerous beings in existence and had not only come out unscathed, but had put those monsters in their place.

Twilight, while Montoya looked her over, rubbed a hoof against her foreleg as she looked everywhere else, a bit embarrassed to meet Montoya's gaze. Floor, ceiling, lamp, wall, door, "Archives!" she said out loud and then just as quickly put a hoof over her mouth.

The detective blinked and took a half step back at Twilight's outburst, but gave a small chuckle. "Uh, yeah. That's where you wanted to go right? Come on." Montoya pushed open the door and held it for Twilight saying as she did, "So, what are we looking for and why? Harv only told me to take you to the archives and do whatever you said. Don't get me wrong, it's not every day we get a new commissioner, but I've never seen the ox so pissed."

Twilight followed the detective into the cramped room that was little more than a closet filled to the ceiling with filing cabinets and loose folders. "Well, I was hoping to learn more about Ponyville's vigilante."

Montoya paused only for a second, her eyes suddenly watching Twilight's every movement. "Vigilante, huh? The Mysterious Mare-do-well was a while back, and we don't really have too many reports involving her."

Twilight didn't seem to notice Montoya's behavior as she started opening and closing drawers trying to wrap her head around the archive's filing system (or lack there of). However, at the mention of her friends' former caped identity, she looked back at Montoya, who was standing very still. "Not Mare-do-well," Twilight said, slowly closing the drawer. "I'm talking about the one for whom this station has no official comment on. The one who's been doing your job for you."

The two ponies studied each other. Montoya, much to her credit, didn't react to Twilight's jab, but took it in stride. So that's why she's here, thought the detective. "Who's got you looking into this? The Mayor? One of her donors?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes. This was the third time somepony's become defensive about this vigilante and she was going to get to the bottom of it. "Nopony's got me looking into this; I'm looking into this of my own accord. I don't want anypony innocent getting hurt all because some sociopath has decided to take the law into their own hooves." How many more times am I going to have to defend doing the right thing, she briefly wondered.

Montoya's look hardened as she trained every detective instinct she had on what Twilight said. It was the look she reserved for interrogating suspects and dealing with hostile witnesses. Every waiver, every skipped syllable, every tic, every breath, all under scrutiny by the policepony. But what the detective found surprised her. It was nothing less than impassioned honesty. This new piece of evidence about her commissioner forced her to step back and re-evaluate the pony before her.

Twilight pursed her lips and stood her ground; she recognized that look, it was the same look Applejack got when she was trying to gauge a pony's honesty. While she was in no mood to play games, she decided to await Montoya's reply.

After several tense minutes, Detective Montoya nodded once. "Come with me," she said and moved towards the door.

Twilight hadn't been expecting that. "What-"

Montoya cut her off with a sharp look, "No questions. Not until we get where we're going. And don't say a word to anypony."

Twilight nodded in reply and followed the detective out of the archives and back into the hallway. At first, she thought Montoya was taking her back to Bullox's office as they passed once more through the bullpen, the collection of desks that the officers used for paperwork at the center of the police station. But Montoya took a hard turn towards a hanging sign marked "General Holding".

Twilight tensed as they drew nearer to the cells, and she forced herself to match Montoya's pace and mannerism. Head straight, shoulders back, walk slowly, but with purpose, she told herself. It was no different than walking through Canterlot Palace past the nobles. All eyes turned towards her and a few of the bolder stallions, and a few mares, gave her a whistle. She placidly ignored them and noticed that Montoya had glanced back at her with a small smirk before picking up the pace just a bit.

The cells were divided up between gender, but otherwise, ponies that were brought in because of a few overdue tickets were put in alongside some of the more violent offenders. Twilight studied each of them out of the corner of her eyes; while she knew intellectually that crime happened everywhere, it wasn't often that she was confronted with a truth that made her nauseous. Some of these ponies had made poor choices, some perhaps had no other choice, but for others, their hearts had been hardened beyond the touch of friendship.

No, I can't think like that, she told herself. All ponies deserve a chance. This thought was interrupted as she caught sight of one stallion that had scars criss-crossing his body as though he used his own hide as a macabre abacus. Twilight shuddered involuntarily and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was surprised to find that Montoya had led her down a second hallway that took the holding cells out of view.

This hallway seemed like it also doubled as a temporary storage room. There were a couple of large trash bins, a few boxes, and the only door was to a janitor's closet. It was at this door that Montoya finally stopped and glanced back at Twilight without a word. The two exchanged glances before she opened the door and led Twilight inside.

Twilight blinked her eyes to adjust them to the dimly lit room. Whereas the rest of the station was lit up by enchanted bulbs, the closet seemed to have just one weakly lit candle sitting on a small desk. The desk was occupied by an older earth pony stallion with a greying mane and a light blue coat. He wore a simple overall jumper and was busy fiddling with a small crystal radio.

Montoya noticed Twilight studying the janitor and introduced the two, "Princess, this is Samuel Bradlead. Slam, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, our new Commissioner."

The stallion offered a grunt in reply before setting aside the screwdriver he had been using to try and adjust something inside the radio's casing and looking up at Twilight with cold, grey eyes.

Twilight, by this point, had guessed she wasn't welcome in the station and wasn't surprised by the janitor's behavior. But after a brief look around the small, for lack of a better word, office, she turned back to Montoya with a confused and annoyed look.

Montoya gave Twilight a small smile, "Problem, Commissioner?"

Twilight frowned as she replied, carefully choosing her words, "Why are we in a janitor's closet?" She gave ‘Slam' a once over before continuing, "Specifically, why are we in a janitor's closet where the janitor has a police issued baton hanging within hoof's reach and the door is reinforced with steel, lead and enough locks to make a bank jealous?"

The janitor's hoof had been slowly making its way to said baton while Twilight spoke, but froze at its mention. He gave a quick glance to Montoya, looking for her cue to act. For her part, Montoya shook her head and nodded at the door. The stallion seemed to understand as he stood up and moved past Twilight to lock the door. He took his time, sliding the bolts into place and securing the pad locks that prevented anypony, unicorn or otherwise, from unlocking the door from the outside.

Twilight watched his movements with only mild trepidation, but something about Montoya's attitude put her at ease. Maybe it was just Twilight trying to fight fire with fire, or maybe it was because her curiosity was getting the better of her. Either way, Twilight matched Montoya's confidence and waited to see where all this was going.

Once the door was secured and the janitor returned to his desk, Montoya finally spoke, "Slam, here, used to be a detective for the Ponyville PD. After decades of service, he retired to being our janitor." The are-you-serious look from Twilight gave Montoya a small smile, but she continued, "Part of his duties is to guard this." Montoya turned to one of the industrial shelves that lined part of the back wall, and with a hoof pulled it outward to reveal a door set in stone.

Twilight glanced between the two of them and backed up a few paces, "What's going on here?"

Montoya answered by motioning Twilight to follow her and she opened up the door to reveal a smaller room cluttered with cardboard boxes and a few filing cabinets filled with dossiers and police files that Twilight realized, as she entered, should have been in the archives room. This room was lit by a single candle as well, and Twilight lit up her horn to reveal that the room was actually much bigger than she initially thought it was. The hidden roome was easily four or five times the size of the actual police archives and stacked triple deep with more shelves, boxes, and cabinets.

"This… this is… I don't know what to say. What is all this?" Twilight asked as she picked her way around piles of paperwork.

Montoya shut the door and a scraping sound could be heard from beyond as Slam, the janitor, slid the shelf back into place just outside. "It's the archive, well, the real archive at any rate," Montoya said.

Twilight lifted up a loose folder and read its date. "This is from nearly 15 years ago," she said while picking up another folder, "and this one is from over 20. Why aren't these files in the other room?"

Montoya shook her head, "Some of these files date back to the founding of Ponyville and the establishment of the Ponyville Sheriff's office. When the city adopted a local constitution, the Ponyville PD was established and they inherited all the Sheriff's old paperwork. After a few decades, all the old paperwork got pushed back here for storage. But then, about ten years ago the former police chief decided to change things up."

Twilight was skimming file names and document titles while listening. She moved from pile to stack to pile, her librarian instincts beginning to kick in. As she did, Montoya continued.

"He ordered that no document be held onto for longer than six months, and anything past its ‘expiration' should be burned. Well, Slam out there didn't take too kindly to the order. So he hung up his badge, became the janitor, and hid the files here in secret."

Twilight set the file she was reading down and looked to Montoya, "Burn the files? Six Months? But, most trials take years to fully get through."

Montoya nodded, "That's right. It was suspected that he got a pretty big payoff from someone higher up the food chain to change our procedure. Sure, we have to keep some stuff on record while a case is in court, but that's assuming a case ever makes it to a trial date."

Twilight considered what Montoya said and looked around at the overwhelming amount of records that surrounded her. "You said ‘former Chief', what happened to him and why doesn't Bullox change it back?"

"No pony knows. Chief Leob just didn't show up for duty one day about six years ago. They checked his house and it was empty. A train conductor said that the chief had bought a ticket for Stalliongrad on the red eye. No pony's heard from him since. As for Harv, well, the only reason he got the job was seniority. He's been here nearly as long as Slam has. He tried to get things back to the way they used to, but somepony's got a lot of pull around town hall. Mayor Mare all but told him that the policy couldn't and wouldn't be changed." Montoya carefully stepped around a bundle of files and moved to a pair of cabinets that reached the ceiling and were tucked into one corner of the room while she spoke.

Twilight, curious, followed her while listening intently, and when she finished, couldn't help but ask, "You also said, ‘if the case makes it to a trial date'. What did you mean?"

Montoya sighed and leaned up against the cabinets, "Why do you think Ponyville's got such a low crime rate? Sure, violent crime is low, but that's not the only form of crime out there. Embezzlement, theft, drugs, smuggling, hell I've seen it all. But here's the problem, most of the time you get goons like those morons from Davenport's or the occasional graffiti artist. They aren't a problem; they're actually what keep our crime rate as high as it is.

"But then you get guys like the Flim Flam brothers. They'll swindle you out of house and home, and do it by the book to boot. You'll be left with nothing but shame and a broken heart. And if they or one of their bucking hired thugs step out of line, they make bail, schmooze it up with the judge or one of the nobles and then their case never gets a court date. After six months, the paperwork goes poof, and it's like it never happened."

Twilight was stunned, "I had no idea- I've heard of the Flim Flam brothers, in fact I helped a friend run them off her farm a while back, but I had no idea that this was such a big problem here in Ponyville."

Montoya gave Twilight a rye smirk, "That's just the tip of the iceberg." She then motioned to the cabinets she was leaning against and tapped them lightly with a hoof, "Most of the files you're looking for are going to be in here."

Twilight stepped closer to the cabinets and tilted her head, "Which drawer?"

Montoya grinned, "All of them."