“All of them!?” Twilight gasped in confusion. There must have been hundreds of files between the two cabinets. “How could something like this go unnoticed for so long?”
“I think it’s easier to show you.” Montoya said as she opened up a lower drawer and pulled out a pair of files. She set them down in front of Twilight and motioned for the alicorn to open them. “At first, we didn’t really know what we were dealing with. These are two of the earliest cases we’ve been able to identify as being resolved by Him.”
Twilight pulled one of the files towards her. With a flick of her magic, she opened it up and began reading. “The victim was a young mare walking home after a late night shift at one of Ponyville’s cafes. She had just turned down the side street that led to her home when another pony in a black ski mask ran past her, knocking her to the ground, and grabbed her saddlebag in the process. She never saw the pony, nor caught which way the thief had run off. The suspect was later found a block away, unconscious.”
Twilight looked up at Montoya, “I don’t get it. According to both officers that were on the scene, it looked like the suspect got tangled up in the saddlebag and tripped and fell, slamming his head into a wall. Not very normal, but it doesn’t sound like the work of a vigilante.”
Montoya nodded and reached out with a hoof to tap a tab near the back of the file, “That’s true, but take a look at the medical examiner’s report a few days after the incident.”
Twilight frowned but flipped to the tab in question. It took her only a few seconds and her eyes widened in surprise as she read the report. “Cracked ribs and bruising consistent with being bucked? There’s no way the suspect would have gotten these injuries by simply tripping.”
Montoya smirked and pushed the second folder towards her, “Now read this one.”
Twilight lifted the second folder up and flipped it open reading quickly. When she was done, she looked back up at Montoya. “Three suspects found beaten up at the scene of an attempted robbery, now that does sound more like our vigilante. But, in this one, the injuries suffered all seem to be consistent with the three getting into a fight with each other. The medical examiner even compared the suspects hooves with the bruises to verify that all the injuries were inflicted on each other.”
“Again, true,” Montoya said. She then smiled as she sat back on her haunches and watched her commissioner as she asked, “But then, if the three all got into a fight, who knocked the last one out?”
Twilight started to respond, but stopped herself just in time to consider Montoya’s question. She reread the medical examiner’s report carefully this time, trying to read between the lines. After a few moments she slowly looked back up at Montoya and said, “Fractured jaw.”
Montoya nodded, “The pony that received the fractured jaw was hired muscle and only received superficial bruising, whereas the other two had received deep tissue bruising that would have left them knocked out long before the thug would have tired out.”
Twilight quickly skimmed over the report again, thinking aloud as she did so, “You think that somepony was there, watched them fight, and then stepped in to clean up the mess.”
“Given the dates on the two cases and the M.E.’s reports, yeah, I do. There are one or two weird ones prior to these, but these two are the oldest I’ve found that have enough evidence to suggest our mutual friend was involved,” Montoya said.
Having closed the file, Twilight looked at the two filing cabinets and let out a small sigh, “It’s going to be a long day.”
Montoya glanced up at the cabinets as well before looking back to Twilight, “Listen, I’ve been with the force for the last four and a half years, I’ve seen a lot of perps come and go. I’ve talked to ponies who’ve just had their lives destroyed and criminals who don’t understand the meaning of the word remorse. I’ve seen monsters, figuratively and literally, walking the streets of Ponyville in broad daylight. And I’ve seen innocent ponies get hurt over something as stupid as a few bits.”
Twilight started to respond, but was cut off by Montoya’s hoof, “Ponyville is sick, but nopony can see it. We’ve lived here long enough that most of us turn a blind eye to its symptoms. Maybe this vigilante is just another infection, but then again, maybe he’s not. Maybe he’s just trying to do what he can. What I do know, is that you care about Ponyville, about all of us. You’ve saved Equestria more times than most of us know. For that, I trust you. So let’s get down to brass tacks. I’ll tell you everything I know and we’ll find this guy. Maybe we’ll even figure out if he’s on our side.”
---
Twilight yawned and stretched her hooves out over her head in an effort to get the kinks out of her back. She was sitting on the floor of the hidden archive deep within the Ponyville PD surrounded by stacks of cases taken from the drawers of the twin filing cabinets Montoya had shown her. Her internal clock told her she had been there for several hours, long past lunch at least, but she had barely scratched the surface of what the cabinets had contained.
Montoya, true to her word, stayed by the Commissioner’s side, helping her sort through the cases by date and explaining police jargon and procedures as necessary. The detective was proving to be invaluable help as Twilight had begun to feel overwhelmed by the number and nature of the cases she was reading.
Twilight closed her eyes and counted to ten. It was a simple trick that she had practiced over and over when she started to feel like everything was out of control and worked well enough that when she opened her eyes, she no longer felt swamped by the files around her.
Opposite her, Montoya looked up from a case she was reading and gave Twilight a look of concern, but said nothing.
Twilight smiled slightly and shook her head. Her voice broke the silence that had been building while the two studied, “Sorry, just a lot of cases to go through, and I think I’m starting to get sore laying on the floor.”
Montoya shut the file she had been reading and tossed it into a pile of cases that, while interesting, weren’t as interesting as the smaller pile between the two mares. “I can understand that. Give me one second, let me check the time.” She stood up and, after a small stretch, knocked twice on the only door to the archives. After a few seconds of faint scraping, Slam opened the door and poked his head inside.
“Hey Slam,” Montoya said, “What’s the time?”
“Round-about four,” Slam said as he eyed the files littering the floor where the two mares had been sitting.
Twilight blinked in surprise at the time, “Four! Oh no, I should really get going. Spike will be wondering where I am, and I’m supposed to meet Rarity.” Twilight immediately stood up and started rapidly shuffling through the ‘interesting’ pile of files on the floor, magicking some into her saddlebag and the rest back into a filing cabinet.
“Whoa, hold up,” said Montoya in alarm. “What do you think you’re doing with those files? You’re not thinking of taking them with you, are you?”
Twilight stopped what she was doing, a file floating near her head encased in a purple aura, “Umm, yes?”
Montoya shook her head, “No. Absolutely not. There’s not only the chain of evidence to consider, but those files could get lost or destroyed. Or worse, what happens if they’re found by the wrong person and word gets out that we’ve got this archive of ours and somepony with a lot of clout comes down on our heads? Harv and I could lose our jobs!”
Twilight glanced between the files in her saddlebag and Montoya who was breathing very hard by now, but before she could reply, Slam stepped between the two mares, and looked Montoya in the eye.
“Whinee? You’re a good detective and I know you care a lot about the ponies around you, but I think you’re just going to have to trust Commissioner Sparkle.” Slam’s words caught both ponies by surprise, giving him plenty of time to continue. “Commissioner Sparkle worked Ponyville’s library for a number of years, so she’s used to handling sensitive documents. What’s-more, these files don’t officially exist, so there is no chain of evidence to observe. And if somepony did find them, they’d probably think there were just some copies that an old retired officer kept around to remind him of the good old days before he retired and became a janitor.”
Montoya caught the look in Slam’s eye and let out a slow breath, “All right. I gotcha.” She then looked past the former-policepony and nodded at Twilight, “Just be careful, all right?”
Twilight smiled reassuringly at both ponies, “The castle is probably the safest place in all of Ponyville; They’ll be in good hooves.”