Back In Town

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 3

Back in the car, Forest was busy sending a flurry of text messages, because it was faster than calling.

“Do you mind telling me what’s going on?” I asked.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t figured it out.”

I shrugged.

“It means White Feather is in town.”

I almost ran over a pedestrian. “What? I thought she was a story used to scare rookie Shades!”

Forest laughed. I didn’t think it was funny. “She is, but the stories had to come from somewhere.”

“How many of the stories are true?”

“True? I don’t know. But let me put it this way, I’ve never heard one that I thought she couldn’t have done.”

Great. Living nightmares, coming right up. White Feather was just about the worst thing that could happen in any given situation. She was supposedly a Shade assassin who’d quit to go out on her own. That was the kind of thing that wasn’t allowed, but she was deadly enough that nopony wanted to challenge her on it.

Stories breed stories, and in the end, nopony was sure of anything. There was no solid description of her, or any other information. That could be found in her files, but those were locked up tight. It was probably embarrassing to have a Shade give everypony the hoof and leave, and those in charge probably just wanted to sweep it under the rug.

While Forest texted, I noticed an black car with white racing stripes following us. It looked like it might have been a new Phoenix. Whoever was driving it didn’t bother trying to be covert.

I called Forest’s attention to it. “It’s her,” she said.

“What do we do?” The windows of the car were tinted and I couldn’t see anyone inside.

“Find a place to park.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Trust me.” Forest seemed confident that Feather would cause her no harm. I hoped the same applied to me.

There was a parking lot coming up, so I made the turn. The car pulled in behind us and stopped when I stopped.

The door opened and a pegasus mare got out. She was tall and also completely white. Even her eyes were pale.

She walked up to our car. “Roll the windows down,” said Forest. I gave her a look, but did as she said.

“How’s it going?” said Feather to Forest. She smiled.

“Well, a stallion was giving me important information when suddenly his head exploded.” Forest glared at her.

I did my best not to move. Feather turned to look at me. “Haven’t seen you before.” Her tone was conversational.

“I just got here a couple of days ago. I used to be an analyst.” I tried to see what she was thinking. I could tell that I was tuning in to her brain, but I couldn’t hear a thing. A pony can be taught to block their thoughts from a talent like me. She did it masterfully.

I offered my hoof carefully. “I’m Harvest Peach.” I braced for her to break my bones or something, but she shook rather civilly.

“I’m White Feather.”

“Your reputation precedes you.”

“What the hell are you doing in Ponyville?” said Forest, steering the conversation back.

“Just a job. I checked Module out and it seemed like the world could get along without him.”

“Who hired you?”

“That’s client-killer confidentiality.”

If we knew who it was, Forest thought, we might get a better idea of what’s going on here.

“Well, if you think you can help, let us know,” I said.

White Feather nodded and walked back to her car without another word.

I relaxed slightly and turned to Forest. “So did she kill Module for the money or because he was a bad guy?”

“Feather is a gun for hire,” Forest said. “She has a pretty loose set of morals, but usually only kills ponies who deserve it.”

We headed back to the office, once again having our day cut short by unexpected events. We also seemed to be turning into celebrities around the office. I didn’t care much for it, and I don’t think Forest did either. I got a sense from her that she’d just been trying to fit in her whole life, but that had never happened due to circumstances. It was sort of like how I was always trying to fit in somewhere that wasn’t my hometown.

I did the report, taking the time to make sure it wouldn’t be sent back. I made sure to include the name Silver Anniversary I’d gotten from Module. Maybe it would lead somewhere.

After I dropped Forest off at her place that afternoon, I went to move into my apartment. After being in the same room as a stallion who’d been shot, running around and having my heart rate up pretty much all day, I really needed a shower.

Of course, the water hadn’t been turned on yet. I went to the maintenance office and managed to borrow a bucket. I knocked on my neighbor’s door.

A wave of fruity perfume washed out of the apartment when the door opened. A young blonde unicorn wearing ugly but probably expensive clothing stood there.

“Hello, I just moved in next door,” I said to her. “My water hasn’t been turned on yet. I was wondering if I could borrow some?”

She giggled. “Borrow some water?”

“Or whatever.” I was quickly losing the professional tone I’d started out with. I had no idea how to handle somepony like this.

She nodded to me and stepped back from the door. “Sure. Come in.”

I followed her inside. It was…pink. I practically had to squint to keep my eyes from overloading. She showed me the sink and I filled the bucket. If I used it right, I could probably bathe with a gallon.

I started back to the door. On her coffee table was a circle of some symbols and things drawn in lipstick. Another circle around it was made of lipstick tubes stood on end. I stared at it for a moment and realized I was looking at some kind of setup for enhanced magic.

“What’s that?” I asked around the handle of the bucket.

She giggled. “That’s my focus circle. I’m a clairvoyant. By the way, my name’s Kimmy.”

“I’m…I’m Harv. Thanks for the water.” I hurried out.

I almost wished I’d stayed. If I had, I could have used Kimmy as an excuse not to talk to my mother when she called a few minutes later. Then again, maybe she knew where I was and would have waited until I was free.

“Harvest, you should come see me. It’s been so long.”

“I’ve got a lot of things to do tonight, mom.”

“Come by tomorrow, then.”

I closed my eyes. “Okay, I’ll be there after work.”

I made small talk with her for a few more minutes before begging off because I was tired, which was true.

I’d had the foresight to take some soap before leaving the hotel where I’d stayed the first night. I made the water that I had work. That left me with nothing to drink. I didn’t have any food, either. I sighed and went out to find a grocery store. It was getting late, but I managed to find one still open.

I remembered the place from going shopping with mom when I was younger. There were some interesting memories there. I remembered how she would delight in me helping to select the best fruits and vegetables. That was maybe the last time I did anything I was particularly suited to. Funny how life sometimes goes.

Returning to the apartment, I opened a can of soup and heated it on the stove. That appliance was working, at least. The internet hadn’t been hooked up yet, and I didn’t own a TV, so with nothing else to do, I decided to sleep. That was when I realized I didn’t have any sheets or pillows.

Forest must have picked up on my unpleasant mood in the morning, but didn’t comment. Since our recent adventures, Water Drop decided that we should stay at the office for a while. I agreed.

We collected and compiled data, names, numbers and other things in order to figure out what we knew and what we wanted to know. We organized what we wanted to know into lists for pairs of investigative Shades to go collect.

We also managed to track down an address for Silver Anniversary, who turned out to be a griffon financial manager. The information was dutifully filed and some Shade would pick it up and go see him.

I was surprised to discover that I would rather be out and about than doing paperwork. I was happy reviewing reports back in Mareami, but once I found out what kind of excitement I was missing out on, I couldn’t think of going back. Sure, getting shot at scared the heck out of me, but that wouldn’t be happening every day, would it? After this case was over, things should go back to normal.

At quitting time, I asked Forest for a favor. If she would go with me to my mother’s place, I could use her as an excuse not to spend too much time there. She agreed.

Mom lived in a nice little neighborhood that probably hadn’t changed much in a hundred years. The houses were all fairly small and old, but well maintained and landscaped.

“You gave me the impression that you grew up in the boondocks,” said Forest.

“Mom moved here when I left for college.”

“What about your dad?”

“They divorced at about that same time. I’ve heard from him a couple of times since then. I would be okay with the same amount of contact from my mother, but that’s not what happened.”

We pulled up in front of the house. “Ten minutes,” I said. “If I’m not back by then, come in and get me.”

I went up to the front door but it opened before I could knock. Mom had evidently been watching from the window.

“Harvest! It’s so good to see you.” She wrapped her forelegs around me and pulled me in. As much as I complained about her habits, I couldn’t really get pissed about a hug.

She looked over my shoulder and spotted Forest. “Who’s that?”

She pushed past me and started down the walk. “Hello dear! Harvest didn’t tell me he brought a friend.”

Forest politely exited the truck to speak to her face to face.

“Introduce us, Harvest,” said mom, from the side of her mouth.

“I’m Forest Song.” She stuck out her hoof. “I take it you’re Harv’s mother?”

“Yes I am. How did you meet my son?”

“Coworkers,” I said. “Listen mom, I have to take Forest home and then finish setting up my new place, so I don’t have much time.”

“Can you at least stay for dinner?”

“Well…”

Mom looked at Forest. “How about you, dear?”

“That sounds great,” said Forest. She grinned at me.

You should spend more time with your mother, Forest thought as we followed mom inside. I shot her a look, but said nothing.

When we got to the kitchen, I almost felt guilty for trying to avoid my mother. She’d gone to the effort of preparing an enormous pile of chow. As much as I hated to admit it, the smell of home cooking caused my mouth to water. This was what I’d missed after being out of town for so long.

“So what have you been up to in Mareami?” mom asked.

I chewed for as long as I could before replying. “Just work. If it was interesting, I’d have told you.”

“Well, now that you’re back home you can hang out with your old friends.” She smiled.

Truth be told, I had pretty much given up on any acquaintances I had in Ponyville. That was part of giving up on the town itself. “I have friends in Mareami.”

Mom clicked her tongue and changed the subject.

Forest watched us talk. She never appeared to take very much to eat, but I realized that quite a lot of food had crossed her plate by the end of the meal. I don’t know if mom noticed or not. Forest excused herself to wash her hooves and mom set about making me a plate to take with me. She knew that I would have to come back to the house eventually to return the plate.

“She’s a good looking girl,” said mom.

It took me a few seconds, but I got her meaning.

“Mom, I work with her.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“I’m not comfortable with office romance. Besides, we aren’t the same age.”

“She looks young, sure, but the difference can’t be that much.”

It can be very frustrating living a secret life. Luckily, Forest came back and mom stopped talking. I’m sure Forest heard the entire conversation, though.

If Forest hadn’t been there, I probably would have had to sit and catch up with mom for a while after dinner. She let us go, though, and Forest and I walked to the truck.

“I like your mom. She’s friendly.”

“Too friendly.”

“At least it’s nice to have someone.” I instantly felt guilty again. Forest probably hadn’t had a mother in quite a long time.

I drove her to the house where I’d dropped her off before. She thanked me for dinner. It almost felt like I was taking her home after a date, and I worked hard to get rid of the thought.

The next morning, they put us on Silver Anniversary. We went downtown to an office building. Not where I would be looking for gangsters, but then again, Chip Module had been pretty upscale.

Forest and I decided to show up unannounced. That made it harder to get in to see him, but more likely to give us the advantage of surprise.

We stopped outside the glass door of the office. We would need a plan to bluff our way past the secretary. I concentrated on her for a few seconds and determined that she wasn’t the kind of pony who would simply accept an excuse like “we’re friends of his.”

Forest pulled a piece of white paper off a nearby message board and folded it. “Got your badge?” she asked me.

I pulled out the realistic copy of a Ponyville Police badge that I had been issued by the Shade office. I hung it in plain view on my pocket and we walked through the door.

“You’re Red Pen, right?” I asked the secretary. I showed the badge and the folded paper. “I’m Detective Smith. This is my partner, Detective Black. We came to talk with Silver Anniversary.”

“Do you have an appointment?” As I suspected, Pen was going to follow procedure.

“They didn’t call you?” said Forest. “We have a warrant.” She showed Pen the paper, although didn’t unfold it to reveal that it was fake. “We urgently need to speak to Mr. Anniversary.”

We started towards his office door. Pen got up from her desk saying, “You can’t do that!”

Forest turned the knob and swung the door open. All three of us froze. Silver Anniversary was slumped facedown on his desk, a pool of blood spreading from under his beak and dripping on the carpet. Pen fainted.

“I’ll see what I can find,” said Forest. “You keep the secretary busy.” She walked into the office. I knelt and waited for Pen to wake up.

Forest grabbed Silver by the feathers and lifted his head. His throat had been cut. She pulled out her phone and began taking picture of the scene while rummaging in his pockets.

Through the open office door, I could see that it didn’t look like anything else had been disturbed. The window was open. It took me a moment to realize that was strange. The October weather in Ponyville was turning cold, after all.

Pen began to wake up. I moved to put myself between the door and her line of sight.

“Oh my Celestia,” she said. “Is he dead?” She started to get up.

I put my hoof on her shoulder and gently held her down. “Yes, he is. You should rest for a minute.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Forest held Silver’s cell phone and was transferring its contents to hers.

I turned back to Pen. “Tell me, do you know who might have done this? Who was the last one to go into his office?”

“The last client came in about an hour ago, but he couldn’t have killed Mr. Anniversary because I saw him show the client out the door.”

“What kind of client? What do you do here?”

“We’re a financial company. We keep track of ponies’ investments.” I didn’t detect any sense that she was hiding something. That must have been what Silver told her and what she believed.

Forest came out and shut the door. “We need to go downstairs and meet the forensics team.” To me, she silently said, Let’s get out of here before the real police show up.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked Pen. She nodded. “Okay. Somepony will be back to check on you in a few minutes.”

Outside, Forest said, “One guess who did that back there.”

“White Feather.”

“Someone higher up the food chain is hiring her to kill off the underlings. Underlings that could tell us what’s going on.”

“What did you find in his office?”

“Not much with the time I had,” she said. A police car went by us with the lights and siren on. “We’ll have to see what we can get from his cell phone.”

The way things were going, it felt like we had been kicking over one hornets’ nest after another. At some point, we were bound to run into real trouble.

We went back to the office and parked at the curb rather than going back to the garage. It was important to get Silver’s cell phone information back as quickly as possible.

There had been a stallion standing against the wall talking on a cell phone when we pulled up. He shifted his position a little as Forest and I got out of the car.

As we neared the front door, I turned to look at him, tuning in to his thoughts. I realized the phone was to his ear, but he was faking the conversation. I touched Forest’s shoulder and she stopped.

The pony saw me looking and knew I was on to him. He grabbed for a gun. Forest slammed the door open and we fell inside, the glass shattering around us as bullets flew. As I lay on the floor feeling stunned, Forest jumped up and dashed back outside. There were a few more shots and then silence.

I got up. Forest pushed the door open with her shoulder and dragged the unconscious stallion inside, through the broken glass. Her other shoulder was bloody and hanging limp.

Forest dropped him. Ponies began coming out of their offices to see what had happened. Forest pulled the stallion’s gun out of her pocket and gave it to Water Drop as he showed up. It was a small chrome-plated semiautomatic.

Water Drop studied the scene. He looked at the gun, the stallion on the floor and Forest’s shoulder. “Guess he didn’t use enough gun.”

“It was a twenty-five caliber. Lead bullets,” said Forest. She picked up a pen from a nearby desk in her teeth and carefully worked it into the bullet hole, wincing. I watched her, grossed out but fascinated.

Forest found the bullet and worked it out. She dropped it into an empty coffee cup on somepony’s desk.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“I’ve had worse.” The wound was already starting to scab. She turned to Water Drop. “We need to talk. Come on, Harv.”

The three of us went to Water Drop’s office and closed the door. “He was waiting for us,” said Forest. “The guy who shot me was outside the building when we pulled up.”

Water Drop thought about it. “I suppose it could have been a coincidence and he was trying to mug you or something, but we can’t afford to take that chance.”

“He wasn’t any kind of professional killer,” I said, using experience I had gained from reading reports. “Like you said, he didn’t have enough gun. From the lead bullets, we can also tell that he didn’t know who he was up against.”

Water Drop nodded. “We’ll have to wait until we know more, but right now we have to face the possibility that someone out there knows that we exist. They don’t know all the details, but they want us out of the picture.”

“What happens now?” asked Forest.

“We’re going to have to quarantine the office. Essential personnel in and out only. More security. Everypony else is going to have to work from home.”

“How are we supposed to stay in touch?” I asked. “Their information has to come from somewhere. It’s possible our communications are compromised.” Forest nodded, agreeing with me.

“I’m going to contact Canterlot and ask for all the help we can get,” said Water Drop. “Taking care of this isn’t going to be easy or painless, but now that we know we have a problem, we can start working on a solution.”

When we left his office a few minutes later, I thanked Forest for pushing me out of the line of fire.

“No big deal.” She rubbed her shoulder. Some of the dried blood had flaked off and it was already looking better. “I hate getting shot.”

I filled out the report, not caring if it got sent back. We left together, escorted out the door by a security Shade.

On the way to drop Forest off, I mixed up my route a little, watching for pursuit. I didn’t see any.

That night, I slept with my gun beside the bed. Sure beats a teddy bear for peace of mind. The small apartment didn’t really feel secure. Despite not wanting to put mom in danger, I almost wished for my bed back home.