//------------------------------// // Butterfly // Story: Earning Freedom // by Daxisle //------------------------------// Butterfly Macintosh sat in the living room, looking over at Winona and Applebloom. Typically, the dog played outside most days and they wouldn't see head or tail of her unless she was hungry or sleepy. Today, the border collie seemed content to just stay indoors and play with the fillies of the house. Scootaloo was upstairs, doing more homework. From what she'd said yesterday, Rainbow Dash hadn't given her an answer one way or the other as to the adoption. A fact which surprised Macintosh if he were being honest. The speedster was a loyal sort, but to even consider taking in, for all intents and purposes, a child on her own? That really spoke to her character and made him happy to be able to call her his friend. "Is she still in the house?" Applejack asked, wondering in from the kitchen. The apple mare liked to bake apple pies on Sundays and Granny was always happy to help. "Eyip!" Applebloom chirped, attempting to emulate Macintosh. The cow pony wondered over to Winona and looked her over, a notion that garnered a bunch of enthusiastic licks to the face. "Well, she don't look hurt or nothin'." AJ chuckled, petting the enthusiastic puppy's head. "Still, it ain't like her ta be in the house past dawn." "Oh fiddlesticks." Granny said, wondering out from the kitchen and offering her own affections to the canine. "Ain' nothing wrong with 'er, she's jest settlin' down n' gettin' old. Parta nature, doncha know?" Hardly. Winona was barely a in her fourth year, her kind of dog lived fourteen to sixteen years. In pony time, she was barley out of her twenties. Maybe it had something to do with the weather? Winona always stayed inside when the weather was going to be bad, pegasi had been putting up a little more cloud cover today than normal. The stallion stood from his place, wondered over to the dog and gave her a gentle pat before heading out the door to check on the gonja plants. It was a little funny how little he'd interacted with the family dog lately, he actually felt a little bad about it and wanted to make it up to her. Mac made a mental note to head into town and come back with a few doggy treats for her. Annabelle was already out in the hidden garden, picking at the carrots and other vegetables that were there to blend in the ganja plants. With Shade missing, there wasn't really anything to do with them besides give them to Zecora or let granny use them for her own medicinal needs. Macintosh was honestly surprised at how discrete the old mare was in her consumption of the drug. He'd been around when it was used as, what Shade called, a "joint"; and if one thought the plant stunk before... Yet he could never smell it on her, her behavior didn't change all that much either. 'Remember that she used to use the gonja before, maybe Granny knows a thing or two about how to use it and keep it secret?' Yea but, how? 'Beats me, maybe she eats it?' Mac shuddered at the thought. Just imagining it made him want to throw up. He'd never tasted the stuff, but the mix of imagining the texture and taste seemed absolutely revolting to him. "Hey Anna." Mac called, the mare halted her work and slowly turned to him, offering a sad smile before turning back to her works. That wasn't good, wait a minute... oh buck. 'Let's see here: Waking up before you did: Check. Early morning tending to garden without telling anypony: Check. Sad smile with no verbal response: Check. Aaaaand turning to go back to work, completely ignoring you: Check. Yep, she's upset about something.' "Annabelle?" Mac asked, walking up behind her. Again, no response. "Y'all righ'?" The buttermilk mare stopped her movements for a moment, then continued, pulling out a cleaned carrot into a wicker basket. It was unconventional and almost unbelievable, but for all of his marefriend's brashness and upfrontedness, her communication skills when upset were almost non-existent. Annabelle wasn't upset often, not much could keep her typically cheerful disposition down, but what could was something big, big and terrible. Something Macintosh almost always needed to know about. Not right now, though... He knew better than to push the issue when she was like this. He'd done it once and only once during her brother's arrest for what he did to Applejack. So, he gently raised his forelegs, gave her a gentle hug from behind and told the mare he'd be ready to listen when she was ready to talk. With a quick peck on the back of her neck, Macintosh slowly made his way to town, his mind a buzz with what could possibly be bad enough to send the mare he loved into silent seclusion. Spike peered from his trek up to the Ponyville clock tower, three minutes till nine, the offered time of meeting. He looked sighed and looked back at the stand he was by and down at the note again. Meet me outside Quick's Shingle's at 9 O'clock tomorrow morning. Come alone. The drake sighed and replaced the small slip of paper into his cloak pocket. Detective Inquiry had slipped him the note yesterday before following Social Justice out. Spike debated on if he wanted to show up to the meeting or not, but figured he'd have to meet up with him at some point. 'Because a certain mare couldn't keep her mouth shut.' Yea, it would be pointless to hold her to account though, Spike knew that much. "Punctual." The drake jumped and spun on his heels to find the grey unicorn from yesterday standing behind him. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Spike mumbled something under his breath before asking what the meeting was about. Inquiry looked around a bit and motioned for the drake to follow him. The pony lead the two into one of the dinners in town and made an order of two coffees. Spike felt a little unease by the offering, but also didn't want to make trouble. He took a sip of the coffee suppressed a groan. Weak sauce. Once settled and relaxed, Detective Inquiry magicked out a note pad and pen. "You were an associate of Sinbad Von Islander, correct?" "Yes." The pen began scribbling, requiring no real effort or attention on the detective's part. "Are you familiar with who Shady Oaks is?" "Not really, I just met her yesterday." Spike shrugged. "What did she say, exactly?" Painfully, the drake recalled the conversation, informing the detective about the sentinels of the black market being driven from their protective posts and threats of sex rings and drug cartels to muscle into the small town. More scribbling. For some reason, it made the drake irritated. Just hearing the pen's subtle movements that documented his every word and the almost inaudible turning of the pad pages put made him want to break the pen and rip the note pad to shreds. His feelings were farther exacerbated when the pony would pause and take an unnecessarily loud sip from his coffee between more mundane and almost irrelevant questions. Like who else was around? What were the circumstances that lead up to the encounter? What time and place did the two talk? If there was any black coated griffin's around. Each and every one of these questions lead into a cohort of sub questions the drake had to answer. Finally, after two hours of controlled breathing and emotional suppression through clenching and relaxing his claw, the interrogation seemed to be winding down. Which was a relief to Spike, he wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. "Did Shady Oaks say anything about the Black Talon?" "Black Talon?" The detective shook his head. "Apparently not." Inquiry magicked his note pad over to read, lifting up a few pages and glancing over the notes. "Is there anything else I should know about?" His irritation already festered, the adolescent drake brought his claw up to his chin in mock thought. He had some questions of his own, but he'd divulged everything he knew... but Inquiry didn't know that. "Might be, but I've got some questions of my own." Inquiry quirked a brow. "I'm not able to divulge any information to civilians on this matter." Irritation was a funny emotion. Logically, Spike knew he should just tell the unicorn stallion he knew nothing else and go about his merry way, but the drake had just wasted 2 hours of his life to the pony. As much as he wanted to just leave and go about his day, he was also worried about the foals around town, and wanted to know just how much danger they were in. "That's classified." Inquiry replied instantly. "You know who Shady is, why don't you talk to her?" "Classified." "Why are you questioning me about it?" Inquary opened his mouth to repeat the word, but hesitated for a moment. "Because, she's talked to you, and you aren't one of her lackies." He took another unnecessarily loud sip of coffee. "She's told you something she hasn't told me." Spike quirked a brow and folded his arms. "So you have talked to her." Grimacing, Inquiry nodded his head. "I have." "And what did she tell you?" "Classified." "Oh buck this." Spike growled, pushing himself from his half consumed coffee and making way for the door. His progress was halted when the familiar tingle of magic grabbed onto his feet and held him in place. The drake turned and leered at the detective. "Unless you give me some answers, we're done here. Now let me go!" "You said you might have more information. If it's as important as I think it might be, continuing to with hold it could have desasterous results for the foals of this town." Inquiries' eyes narrowed as his leer met Spike's own. "Could you live with yourself? Knowing that you could have spared a youngling one of the worst and most horrific fates in the world but chose not to?" Spike's eyes widened and he recoiled. 'Damn, he doesn't play around.' "And why should I trust anything you say?" The drake asked, his eyes becoming warry once again. "I've never seen your around town before. And the first time I see you, it's right after I talk to a black market type who you seem really interested in. How do I know you're even really part of the police force?" Inquiry stared at him neutrally. "If that's your excuse for not talking to me, it's a pretty bad one." He lifted his notepad, "considering you've already divulged that very information." "Granted." The dragon admitted reluctantly. "But even if you don't work under Shady, how do I know you don't work for one of the other bad ponies trying to move into town? Little strange that I haven't seen you around before." "I don't go out much, not that that matters, Mr. Sparkle." He flipped through his note pad to the back. "You work at the Lumber Jacker's Milling, spending most of your time outside of town anyway. Is it really an surprise we've never bumped into each other?" It was a good point, but Spike still wasn't convinced. He didn't get a bad vibe from the detective or anything, he was just skeptical about the pony's intent and running on irritation from both yesterday and today. "If you have more information that will save a foal's life, I suggest you give it to me." Spike felt his eye twitch and the familiar terror of cold blood coursing through his veins. His irritation had piqued into anger and the dragon marched over to the table and slammed his fist down with a loud thud, making the two coffee cups rattle with the impact. "If you think emotionally manipulating me will get you answers, then you're dead wrong." At that point in time, he didn't care. The foals, the drug cartels, the possibility of Ponyville becoming a den of drug trumped rape end pedophilia didn't even register in his mind as a concern. All Spike knew was this little bucktard was this close to getting an couple of eye fulls of razor sharp claws. The lone witness cashier of the diner be damned. "I've had enough of that bull crap to last me a lifetime, and all it does is make me spiteful. So, if you want my help, you'll be giving me some answers. If not, you're going to let me leave or so help me Celestia I'll-" "YOU'LL DO what??!" The detective spat, standing to full height and meeting the drake's glower with his own. Spike could feel the coolness in his veins coursing faster, making his claw shake and mind fog in a blanket of hostility. Even with the overwhelming urge to put this pony in his place, enough of Spike's rational mind still held his impulses in check. He knew that he wasn't helping himself here, that he should just apologize, explain that he really didn't have anything else to offer and just leave. Hostility and tension filled the air as the two stared each other down, Spike just waiting for the pony to make a move. Part of him wanted a fight, part of him needed to fight. He'd been so calm and so tense for so long, it started to dawn on him how bored and frustrated he was with his life. The Crystal Empire thing had been a complete let down, and he'd put so much energy into it. But this? This might be just the little bit of fun his primitive side was looking for... "Fine." Inquiry breathed, straightening out his trench coat, the movement making Spike flinch a little. The stallion's horn began to glow and he retrieved a badge from his coat, the official badge of the Ponyville Police Department. The two took a second to cool down and Inquiry explained himself a little better. "The black market in Ponyville was nothing big. Few drugs here and there, prostitution, unregulated goods and under the table work. I was assigned most of the cases. Never liked drugs or rutting for money, it was always a gateway for the darker and more bucked up things." The stallion retook his seat and breathed, Spike followed suit, happy things were finally going his way. "When your friend, Sin, was named the Arbiter of City Council by Celestia, I knew he was going to cause problems. Read up about him a lot when he moved to Ponyville officially a few months ago." The stallion chuckled mirthlessly. "Figured I'd end up having to arrest him at some point, what with all of the crime's he been charged with. All of that, and his punishment was to be confined to my town..." He stopped to take a sip of coffee. "As I'd figured, he'd gone and ransacked the ordinances of Ponyville. Slashed the budget for the extra services of the wealthier districts and as well as we commoners. Can't say I was sad to see those snobs lose out on their three times a week hedge trimmings though." He frowned, "but cutting the road work crews did rub me the wrong way, though." Spike cleared his throat, gesturing the pony to get to the point. "Right, sorry. Anyway, one day: the chief sends me to Town Hall at the Arbiter's request, and what do I find waiting for me when I get there? There mare I've been chasing for the better part of three months." Another mirthless chuckle. "I couldn't pin anything on her, but I know Shady's one of the most powerful drug dealers in town. Got informants everywhere to confirm it, but none of them will dare testify against her. What you gave me here won't be going on the record." Well, that was... good? According to Inquiry, Sin had set up a meeting between Shady Oaks and the detective to explain that the black market that Shady and the other bosses ran wasn't something that could be stopped. Inquiry had almost arrested Sin on the spot for conspiracy with the mare, but the Federalist was more than ready for anything the detective would throw. His position as Arbiter and connections to the crown, as well as the District Attorney made him nigh untouchable. Or so he'd thought. "I'll never get over the fact that he was finally put away because of a rat that I had nothing to do with." Spike furrowed his brow. How come he'd never been told about any of this? He knew Sin was a secretive pony, but... 'Are you really surprised?' "At anyrate, by the end of the first meeting I told him to go suck horse apples and left. I didn't care about prostitution and drugs being 'voluntary' or whatever. I knew what would happen if I didn't stop the drugs before they came in." He finished off his coffee and pulled out his bit bag. "Or so I thought." He stood from the table, left the appropriate amount of bits and walked for the door. Spike followed, eager to hear the rest of the story. Once outside, Inquiry pulled out a silver container and retrieved a cigarette. The second meeting between the two went about the same, but with Sin claiming that the black market was better left policing itself. A notion the detective found ludicrous and down right laughable. The Federalist claimed that the voluntary side of it, if incentive to do so, would keep out the violent and aggressive side. The bosses of the drug and prostitution rings had all agreed to remain peaceful and within their respective territories, so aside from hurting ponies doing peaceful business, there was nothing to be gained through police actions. Inquary didn't care about any of that, though. Despite Sin's best efforts to tell the stallion how ineffective and counter-productive his methods were, Inquiry was certain his methods of maintaining the law were best. The third meeting between the two occurred a month later, that was when the unicorn began to see how wrong he was... A tip had come in about a pedophile sex operation that had just opened up in Ponyville, in the industrial district. Inquiry had set up a sting operation, posing as an interested buyer of some 'young fun'. Sick though it made him to even think about, there were foals being raped and had to stop it. He'd entered a ware house alone to meet with the supplier, only to find the remains of three ponies. Two mares and a stallion, all three bodies were mutilated something awful: Hot iron branding all across their torsos and the bottoms of their hooves, their genitals flayed with the stallion's testicles shoved down his throat, and cauterizing of both the mares' vaginas and uterus'. He'd called in his back up and had the place thoroughly searched. Nothing had turned up from it though, no foals anyway. The warehouse was empty of anything but the corpses. Upon farther investigation, however, there was something inside the mouth of one of the dead mares. A small, crumpled piece of paper with a date written on it. The date was three days prior to the sting. Autopsy's revealed that the ponies had been dead for at least that long, all two of the ponies being identified as residents of Trottingham on the otherside of the Everfree forest. One of them a local mare, assumed to be a client. It made sense, Trottingham's political climate was run under Prince Blueblood and his 'yes stallion' ineptocracy. Crime rates there were an unbelievable joke. The third meeting with Sin happened two days after, when Inquiry walked in to his office, he found the stallion reading a news paper. Oddly, it wasn't the Ponyville Press, but a news outlet from Trottingham. He'd played coy at first, pretending not to notice the detective's enterence, but eventually read aloud that two young fillies had mysteriously turned up a police station yesterday after having gone missing a month ago. Two and two wasn't that hard to put together, even if Inquiry didn't want to admit to it. "After that-" he paused taking a final drag of his second cancer stick. "I agreed to work covertly with Shady in their dealings with the underworld and keeping out the sick bucks of the world. According to them, the pedophile sex ring had been in town for about two days before they caught wind of it. Three days quicker than my own informants could get to me." He stompped out the ciggarette and placed the butt into his coat pocket. "Now that he's gone though, the new Arbiter's trying to create a task force to handle anti-black market operations. I told her not to, but with my record all but stopping in terms of arrests as the head of the anti-black market, Justice is convinced I've been bribed or blackmailed into aiding the criminal underworld in some way." He lit up yet another nicotine stick and took a puff. "Sad thing is: she's really not wrong, either." Spike couldn't believe the story he was just told, it sounded like something out of a comic book. Government conspiracies? Foals being returned home with no explanation? Heros from the shadow killing bad guys while avoiding the police? "So this... anti-underworld taskforce... what do they do?" Another puff. "Basically, they are part of the royal guard that she's petitioned from Celestia. Now that Canterlot's getting back under control, she's got some free hooves to work with." Spike questioned why he had no power there in, Inquary seemed like he'd have some authority within the peace keeping system. Though he'd quickly learned the difference between the local police and the guard. One was an autonomous part of Ponyville, with limited obligation to report to the crown, the other was an imperial agency, one who was strictly funded and answered to the imperial chain of command. "Technically, the guard outranks us lowly local colts, but they stay out of our hair well enough. Well, until now anyways." He looked up at the clock to see noon approach. "I've gotta get back to the station." He pulled out a card from his coat. "If you find anything else out, don't hesitate to come and tell me. Alright?" "You sure it was a good idea to tell me all of this?" Spike asked, mentioning how everything he'd just divulged was 'classified'. Inquiry smirked. "Sin may have been a libertarian bastard, but he wasn't stupid. If he found Shady well enough to trust, I think you're pretty safe." He chuckled. "Besides, it's not like you have any love for the new Arbiter either." "Hey Uppity." Twilight said with a forced smile. She stepped aside and allowed the orange mare into the library. Spike was out for the day, leaving the two alone for a little girl talk. The librarian was still in awe of how things happened yesterday, not the least bit of how Uppity walked out with Justice after she'd asked her that terrible and uncalled for question. "Hey Twilight, sorry about yesterday... Justice, well she can get a little... animated during debates." Uppity's ears pinned back and here eyes darted in guilt. Twilight dismissed the apology, that wasn't Uppity's concern, but there was something for the two to discuss. The two sat down with two cups of coco. If the DA was a mess yesterday, than she was an absolute train wreck today. Her mane was lost in is usual braid, her eyes were almost twice as puffy and blood shot, making Twilight wonder just how long she'd stayed up in the past week. According to Uppity, she'd been using magical enhancements and spells to keep herself awake and alert when she needed to. The spells weren't dangerous if there wasn't continued prolonged exposure, but one had to question just how long "continued prolonged exposure" was. Twilight had delved into the enhancements during her time in Canterlot and found that, while her mind could handle the effects, her body played catch up with sleep, three days of staying up equaled a full 24 hours of continuous sleep. Boy did Celestia and Spike get on her for that one. "I was wanting to ask you, something." Twilight said, cutting through the silence. She wasn't sure if it was her place to ask this or not, but Uppity was her friend, if only one of her most recent. She cared about the mare and wanted to see her treated better. "Why do you let Social Justice treat you like that?" Uppity frowned and looked down into her chocolate brew. "Justice was one of my first real friends... Yea, she's a little brash and inconsiderate, but her heart's in the right place. She just hates ignorance to other ponies feelings and the privileges we as unicorn mares enjoy blinds us to the plights of other ponies." Unicorn mare privilege? Twilight had never heard of such a concept before, though Uppity seemed quite knowledgeable of it. According to Social Justice, unicorn's were seen as the most valued of the tribes for their ability to manipulate the world around them with magic. They were the powerful tribe that was born into ability that the other tribes were not, and thus, privileged. Privilege had to be checked and rechecked so as to not 'oppress' the other ponies by making them feel either inadequate, inferior or afraid. Mares, being the majority heads of authority, also had privilege in that they held a higher value in matriarchal society. Psychologically and physiologically speaking, mare's were also the bonded much closer to their foals than fathers were, since the birthing process starts and ends with the mare spending eleven months to a year with the foal before the father even gets to see it. Leading to mare's being more biologically predisposed to caring for the foal, and thus, holding the majority of foal custody during any divorce hearings. "It's rare, but paternal alienation against fathers is a pretty big problem if the mother doesn't want the foal to see the father." Uppity pointed out, becoming a little more animated. While Twilight could agree to the sentiment, she had to digress back to the original topic of Justice's treatment of Uppity. Though, her attempts were yet again deflected with the justification of Uppity's alleged "mare privilege". While the DA went on talking about the social inequalities that stallions, especially earth pony stallions, faced in society, Twilight was beginning to understand the relationship between the two. Uppity was a kind pony, a mare who wanted everypony to be happy, and for all ponies to be seen as equals. Justice played on this desire, and since she was one of Uppity's first real friends, probably pressured her into conformity through Justice's manipulative personality while claiming the moral high ground. It was complicated, but what the orange unicorn believed what she told Twilight about "unicorn mare privileged" than she was running on not only mare guilt but unicorn guilt as well. "Uppity." Twilight said in concern, placing her hoof ontop of Uppity's, halting the DA's explanation. It may or may not have been her place to say this, but the magic of friendship was her domain, and she wasn't going to let one of her own friends be in such a toxic relationship. "Yes, Twilight?" "How did you meet Social Justice?" The librarian asked, taking the tactical approach. "Well, it was in high school. I'd just moved to Canterlot from Manehatten. She was lecturing some fillies in school about micro-aggressions they'd committed against a colt when they scolded him for missing class again. Of course, I don't condone missing class, but with the way she was speaking, it made a lot of sense. I mean, if you're berating a minority who's already feeling oppressed, that's not really conducive to inclusivity." "I see, and you said you didn't have any friends before that?" Uppity shook her head sadly. "No, most ponies didn't like the things I did. Even in middle school, I had a impeccable memory and loved to look into law, figure out how the empire ran and why it ran that way. But others saw it as me being the ultimate tattle tail, the same in high school... but Social Justice thought my adeptness in law was amazing though!" Yea, a lot of things were making sense now.