//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: M.F.D. // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// Sitting in the observation nest, Holly thought about the events of the past few days as she kept watch. The sweatshop, the hidden basement, the forepony’s shack on the roof. The day after when nothing had happened. The day after that, when nothing had happened. Then the day before this one when something had happened and Holly couldn’t go, because she was still on light duty. Holly’s ears, hearing the creak of the door, perked. She looked down and saw a few ponies she knew. Her replacement, Knock Knock, and Cornflower. Grinning, the shimmied down the ladder, not up for a long distance leap at the moment. “Hiya Corny!” Holly said, ignoring the dismayed look on the stallion’s face. “Holly.” Officer Cornflower raised his wing and waved. “Corny has some news for us… so spill it,” Knock Knock said. The blue pegasus gave a disappointed grin. “I did some talking to the right ponies. I had to ruffle a few feathers and step on a few hooves.” Cornflower’s grin faded. “I was able to secure an agreement for the M.F.D. and the M.P.D. to work together. That’s the good news.” “There’s bad news?” Holly asked. “Yeah.” Cornflower nodded. “There is.” The pegasus’s face looked sour. “I was made the official liaison to the M.F.D. for the sake of cooperation between our two respective departments.” “But that’s good news… I think?” Knock Knock’s mustache quivered and he looked at Cornflower. “Something yous ain’t telling us?” “The job comes with a new pay scale. I got my pay cut down by almost a full quarter. I get to start at the bottom of a new career,” Cornflower replied, his ears folding back against his skull. “I also got a new badge. Had my old one pulled. My effective powers for law enforcement have been… diminished.” “Ah, damn, I’m sorry.” Knock Knock looked away, staring at a factory smokestack that was belching out smoke, and he took a deep breath. “I’m angry, but what can you do? These assholes… I had to put the screws to them. I had to run my mouth. I had to make a few threats and throw my weight around. I did the right thing… and I’m being punished for it.” Cornflower let out a dismayed sigh and shook his head. “Anyhow, there’s another piece of news. I might have a lead for us. There’s a small time crook, a runner, and he might know something about our sweatshop fire. He was employed there by a one Mister Stokes, who is now missing. Probably on the lam. I know where our perp is, he lives with his mother. Want to go pay him a visit? We should… talk with him.” “Hmm.” Knock Knock looked thoughtful. “Up for a field trip?” Holly nodded and flexed her knees. “We’ll have to take the subway. Yous twos can’t fly, and he’s all the way out in the ‘burbs. I hate being underground, but I’ll manage.” “We’re looking for Fink Apple, son of Fourberie Apple, sister of the infamous Flim and Flam Apple. These are the Bad Apples, shamed members of the Apple family, one of the families responsible for the founding of this city, and the reason why Manehattan is called ‘The Big Apple.’ Fink is a small time criminal, his cutie mark is a smashed apple shaped padlock. If you squeeze him, he’ll sing.” “I’m related to the Apples,” Holly said. “I’m not surprised,” Knock Knock replied. “It’s by marriage… I think. I’ve never paid it much attention. I come from the Oranges and somepony married one of the Apples. There was a fight. Or something, I dunno.” Holly thought about her aunt, Cara Cara. “The Oranges were one of the families that started Manehattan. There was a bit of squabble between them and the Apples about who was more important and who really made the city what it was. That was a long time ago, but some of the Apples and the Oranges keep the feud going,” Cornflower said. He stopped for a moment on the sidewalk and looked at his other two companions. “See that run down lookin’ dump over there? The little cracker box house? That’s where we’re going. There’s a police call box right over there on the light pole. I’m gonna hit that, then I’m going to knock on the front door and speak to Fourberie Apple. While she’s speaking to me, Fink is going to slip out of the back door and make good on his escape. So I needs one of yous to go back there and wait by the back door, but out of sight. There’s an alley that runs along the back. There’s no back yard, the back doors of these places open right up to the alley and there’s a buncha dumpsters and stuff back there.” “I’m on it, Holly said as she took off at a trot, heading off down the sidestreet for the alleyway. “I’ll do what I do best.” Knock Knock smiled and smoothed out his mustache. “This is the sort of job I was born for, Officer Corny.” “Wisepony,” Cornflower muttered. “Hello again, Fourberie,” Officer Cornflower said. “This is Fire Officer Claybourne. We’d like to speak with your son, Fink.” The blue pegasus gave the mare in the doorway a hard stare. Fourberie Apple looked tired. A cigarette hung from the corner of her mouth. Her wheat coloured mane was still up in curlers. Her face was wrinkled and prematurely aged. One of her fake eyelashes had come loose and was hanging from her eyelid. “Fink doesn’t live here anymore,” Fourberie said in a raspy, croaking voice. “He’s done moved out.” She coughed and looked Cornflower in the eye. “Why don’t you just piss off and leave us alone? Just because a crime happens doesn’t mean that Fink is involved.” “We need to speak to your son, and we need to speak to him now. The police are on their way… in force.” Cornflower’s eyebrow raised and his glare hardened. “Like I said, piss off. You got a warrant?” Fourberie looked more bored than anything else. “Of course I have a warrant. That’s why I’m here,” Cornflower said in a voice that no longer had any patience. “And I know you’re stalling so he can make his escape out the back door.” Fourberie, no longer looking bored, smiled, revealing yellow teeth and cracked lips. “Thing is, I have the back door covered.” Cornflower grinned as a terrific crash came from behind the house. “I suspect that dear little Finky is getting schooled right now.” There was a scream of pain and Fourberie’s smile faded. Her cigarette fell from the corner of her mouth. There was a loud metallic thunk, followed by a wail of pain, and then a loud gong sound. Knock Knock cringed when another howl filled the neighborhood. “Ooh, that’s uglified,” Cornflower muttered. “I bet numbnuts back there decided to try and push Holly over.” As he spoke, there was a sound that sounded like a dumpster falling over, followed by a whimpering cry. “Is she killing him?” Fourberie asked. Knock Knock shook his head. “Naw, she’s a roller derby star. It’s all scripted violence. It’s not real.” The unicorn’s mustache quivered and his ears perked when he heard another metallic gong sound. “That sounded like somepony using two garbage can lids as cymbals.” Fourberie, eyes wide, nodded. Knock Knock came around the corner of the house and froze. There was trash everywhere. On the ground was a colt at the end of his adolescence. A big colt. Holly was standing with a big stupid grin on her face, not even breathing hard. The dumpster had a few head shaped dents in it and was tipped over on its side. Garbage cans were knocked over. Holly’s eye was starting to swell, which infuriated Knock Knock, but Fink Apple was a bloody mess. With the colt’s red pelt, it was hard to tell where the blood started and ended. “He got feisty,” Holly said. “Tried to run. I clotheslined him and he fell down, but he didn’t stay down. His mama did a bad job of raising him. He suckerpunched me. After that… well, it was time to juice a heel. He might claim that I picked up the dumpster and hit him with it, but let’s be honest… ponies just can’t pick up a dumpster and hit another pony with one… that’s silly.” Coughing, the colt spit out a few teeth, curled up into a fetal position, and laid still. “Heya, chum,” Cornflower said in a steely voice. “I know you worked for Mister Stokes… we need to ask you a few questions… and you’re going to talk to us. You want to talk to us… believe me, you want to talk to us.” “I ain’t got nothing to say to you, screw,” Fink moaned. “Oh, but you see, I think you do. We recovered some photos from a recent crime scene. Foal pornography photos.” Officer Cornflower lowered his head down low and placed his lips next to Fink’s ear. “In several photos, there is a red leg.” Cornflower glowered down at the colt. “Say… you have a red leg. Got something you want to tell me?” Cornflower’s eyes narrowed and his voice dropped in a dangerous whisper. “What would your mother say?” “Piss off, screw.” Fink closed his eyes. Cornflower looked up and saw several pegasi flying in, and with them, a paddywagon. He looked back down at the colt. “Because of that red leg in the photos, that one that looks just like yours, Princess Luna is sending one of her agents to come and speak with you. They’re gonna do things to you. Real bad things. You got anything to say about that?” “I ain’t done nothing wrong,” Fink replied. “I want the name of the pony living in the forepony’s shack on the roof,” Cornflower said to the colt. “You and I, we’re going to talk. One way or another, you’re going to tell me everything I want to know, so make this easy on yourself.” In the alley, a pair of pegasi pulling the paddywagon landed. “His name is Cooper. I don’t know his first name. Just Mister Cooper. He’s a unicorn. He has a barrel mark.” Fink opened his eyes as he heard hooves approaching. “Where’s my mom? I wanna say goodbye… don’t let them send me to Luna… no… please, look, I’m cooperating! I’m cooperating! I’m not being a jerk!” “Too late, son,” Cornflower said. “Yous done messed up and got involved with the wrong sorts of ponies.” The pegasus watched as the colt squeezed his eyes shut and began to sob. Knowing that one had pissed off the Princess of the Night had that effect on ponies. Tough ponies stopped being tough. Hard boiled ponies softened right up. Cornflower had watched some of the hardest criminals he knew turn into big bawling babies once it had sunk in that Princess Luna was now getting involved. “Look, all I did was run notes back and forth, honest. I ain’t had nothin’ to do with no foal pornography, honest, honest, honest!” Fink’s sides began to heave with panic and he lifted his head. “My last job was taking a note to Mister Silver Farthing, the bank manager… we… we printed up a bunch of fake banknotes… certificate thingies… I don’t know what they were or what they were for, but we printed them by the thousands for him. He tried to screw us, he refused to pay the quoted price. Mister Stokes found another buyer for the certificates, but I don’t know who.” “Mister Fink, your cooperation is noted. Princess Luna’s agent will be happy to know that you’ve cooperated,” Officer Cornflower said. “For your sake, I hope you’re as innocent as you say. You’s in deep dung, son.” Walking back to the subway station, the trio were subdued. Behind them, the neighborhood was swarming with cops, cops with full powers of the law. Officer Cornflower had been dismissed and thanked for doing his duty. “You need some ice on that eye,” Knock Knock said. “I’ve had worse,” Holly replied. After hearing everything that had been said, Holly was no longer smiling or jovial. She walked with her head low and a troubled expression upon her face. “You think he’s innocent?” Using his wings, Cornflower shrugged. “Princess Luna’s agent is going to sift through his memories. Whatever he’s guilty of, it will be found out. There’s no hiding. He’s gonna be worked over. Gonna be rough on the poor colt.” “Do you think he’s the type though? I mean, do you think he would do it?” Knock Knock asked as the trio walked abreast together. Squinting, his lip curling back away from his teeth, Cornflower weighed what he knew about Fink in his mind for a while before replying, “Yeah, yeah I do think he’d do it. The little twerp is spineless. A bit of pressure, a bit of bullying, and he’d be right there with the rest of them making some poor filly cry. He might cry about it later, but he’d get over it. He wants to be a tough pony. Wants to be a wisepony. Wants to be a gangster. But he’s a spineless chump and a two-bit flunky.” A cold gust of wind blew and Holly turned to look at her companions. “That’s pretty sad. He did fold pretty quickly though.” “He lives up to his name… Fink Apple. He’s rotten to the core. But damn, I hope he’s not guilty. Filly diddling is one of those ‘unforgivable’ crimes that Princess Luna don’t brook. If he’s guilty, we’ll never see him again. If he’s innocent… after the agent gets done with him, poor Finky is going to spend the rest of his life jumping at every shadow, pissing himself at every loud noise, and he’ll never get a good night’s sleep ever again. They say it changes a pony. Not in a good way. Those night agents… they drag out every little dirty thing you ever did. You confess to everything. You ever steal money out of your mama’s drawer? You’ll tell them, and then you’ll cry about it.” Cornflower stepped over a crack in the sidewalk, not wanting to break his mother’s back. “What could do that to a pony? Some kind of unicorn magic?” Holly asked. “No… the fronkin’ Night Guard… they’re not ponies… not anymore. They’re something else… and if you look into their eyes, they’ll see right into your brain. I’ve met one before. He was real nice. Real polite. Real professional. Nice fella. Wore sunglasses indoors. Creepy as something escaped out of Tartarus though. Had a forked tongue and wings like a dragon.” Officer Cornflower shuddered. “I’ve heard stories that they lay eggs. It’s weird and spooky.” “Eh, ponies don’t lay eggs. That’s gotta be an urban myth,” Knock Knock said in an uncertain voice. “I bet it’s all illusion and superstition to scare ponies into line. They’re probably just regular pegasi with illusion spells.” Shaking his head, Cornflower replied, “I dunno, but I don’t think so. Wait till you meet one…”