Several Nights at Pepperoni's

by Mod On Death

Prologue: 15 Years Ago

A barricade had been set up around the crime scene. Too many ponies were starting to become interested in what had happened and were blocking the intersection where the restaurant was located. It was around eight in the morning and raining heavily. Not a good start to the day.

The Captain had arrived to the scene as quickly as possible when he got the call. Days like this were when he wished he was anything other than an Earth Pony. If he was a pegasus he could fly there fast or teleport around if he was a unicorn. He just had strong legs to run with. He'd need another coffee.

"Where the new guys at?" the Captain growled out.

"They should be here soon sir. They got the call when you did," a cadet reported.

"Well they better be here before their first day is their last." The Captain got a coffee from another wary cadet while waiting. He drank it all in one gulp and tossed the cup into the nearest trash can (ten feet behind him). Two young guards suddenly squeezed through the crowds and saluted to the Captain.

"Captain Headlock! Cadets Shining Armor and Retributive Justice reporting for duty!" The two were nervous as the Captain looked them over. One unicorn and one pegasus and he managed to get there before any of them.

"Y'all need to get around faster ta make it as a guard," he told them. "Be ready to get out fast when ya hear someplace in Canterlot is barricaded. Lotsa folk like ta gawk. Follow." The two followed closely to the Captain, passing by the ambulance. The doors to the pizzeria opened up before the three as four medical personnel came out, wiping their brow.

"Left all the stuff as is, sir," one of them told the Captain. "Just be ready for what you see."

"They'll be ready," Headlock said, looking to the two cadets. It sounded more like an order than a confident statement. "Let's go."

Inside the entrance of the place everything looked normal except for the other investigators around there. Cameras were flashing at average locations as if they were interesting. The three walked through to the back and that's when things started to get weird.

"Captain, you mind letting us know where the culprit most likely broke in?" Shining Armor asked.

"That's for you to find out, cadet. Keep yer eyes open," he replied. The blood smears could finally be seen coming out of a room. Looking closely they could see that the door was titled "Costume Room". Inside the room they saw what looked like a pool of blood that something had sat in before moving. Shining Armor and RJ were somewhat anxious and nervous about seeing their first real body. Their emotions turned sour when they saw the blood trail continue around the corner.

"This is getting, um, interesting," RJ said trying to contain his growing fear. The trail started getting thicker until they turned the corner and saw the body.

The two cadets were visibly shocked when they saw what had happened. Captain Headlock, even though he wouldn't show it, was just as shocked if not more at the sight. He'd spent twenty years as a guard and had never seen anything like this.

The body was inside of a duck costume. At least that's what they guessed. Whoever the unlucky guy was was currently wearing a duck head, so they couldn't get a good look at his face. With the condition he was in, the three guess that doing so would've been difficult.

"Medical guys came through here with CSI. Said they'll ID the guy using his teeth. It'd probably the night guy who's supposed to watch this place though." Headlock took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. "Picked the worst time to quit."

"Sir," Shining Armor interrupted, "guidelines strictly prevent anypony from bringing anything such as cigarettes or anything near a crime scene and lighting them." The Captain and RJ looked at Shining Armor as he said this, both with different kinds of incredulous expressions on their faces.

"Glad you caught me, cadet." The Captain then took out his pack and shoved to RJ. "Take care of this for me. Trying to get clean."

"Um, okay sir." RJ put the cigarettes away, but then he realized that he had managed to figure out what was bothering him before. "Say, who opens this place up?"

"What're you talkin' bout?" Captain asked.

"Is there a day manager that comes in early? I mean, somepony had to place the call for us to come. Not like we just came here and magically found this guy."

"We got the call from the morning janitor. He came in to find this mess. Don't envy that guy's cleanup." Captain Headlock was a stallion of many vices, as he took out a flask and started opening it.

"So was he the one who opened up?" Shining Armor asked.

"Couldn't. Says that he comes in about half past six after the manage-" Headlock, who was just about to take a swig, suddenly stopped his drink and somehow realized that nopony, not even the janitor had wondered about the pony who came in earlier. "Tell the other guys to check out the manager's house! Make sure that exits are secure again! The day manager for this place just became our number one suspect." Shining and Retributive were about to follow their Captain to wherever he'd be going when they heard a thud come from around the corner.

"Sir," Shining Armor whispered, motioning over to the two quietly. Without a word they got in formation to surprise whatever was around there. In a moment's notice they activate the plan and went around to confront the target.

On the ground was a large bear costume that looked as if it had been crawling. Behind it they saw was a fresh path of blood paved by whoever was in there. The head looked up at the three, the eyes not looking as if they belonged to any animatronic. He crawled some more, the legs not moving at all. The head raised once again and let out a pained scream that made the Captain truly remember what fear of the unknown was. The head dropped one final time, blood seeping out through the fur.

Two hours after that and the two cadets were still sitting out there, blankets wrapped around them. Shining Armor regretted the fact that his mother had prepared him a hearty meal that morning as he had the displeasure of seeing it all over again. RJ just muttered some things under his breath. He kept telling everypony he was fine and then continued talking to himself. Captain Headlock came forward to the two ad tried to talk with them.

"I'm sorry boys. I thought that the suit was the only thing in there." The Captain seemed to lose his hearty sounding accent. Apparently he used it to sound tough whenever he was with anypony under him. It wasn't time to sound tough. "I was thinking, 'Headlock, you show the rookies something this weird, nothing else will ever freak them out from this point on'. I was so wrong."

"Not so, sir," Shining Armor spoke up. "I doubt the two of us can say that there's anything more horrifying than what we just saw today." It was an odd thing to say, but slowly the three of them there just started chuckling of how absurd their day had gone.

"I never told you fellas this," the Captain started, "but I have a history with this place. About ten years ago I had just gotten to Lieutenant when I got called in here about four foals that disappeared. They say some creep dressed up as the mascot of this place and lured them back to where the employees go. Never found the culprit or the kids." Headlock took a deep breath after he told them that. "About a year later I get a call saying to check out the place because of some defective animatronic biting at some poor birthday colt's head. Pretty bad scene when I got there. Wanted me to keep control of the situation and make sure that it wasn't some kind of sabotage or something. Like I'd know that."

"That was you?" RJ suddenly said. "I totally remember that! I was there and saw the entire thing go down. Mare, ever since then I just cannot look at those robots and feel calm at all."

"If that's the case then why did you come to investigate a murder in a place where you were traumatized as a kid?" the Captain asked.

"Cause that's where my duty took me. Also, I decided after seeing how big and strong you were that I could give my fears something to worry about themselves: me." Captain heard that and couldn't keep his laughter down.

"You two are going places. That's for sure. Ret, you can take some solace in knowing that this place is closing down anyway. Health code violations and such."

"You know what they'll do with those robots?" Shining Armor asked.

"Hear that they're probably gonna store them and try selling them sometimes in the future. Nostalgia and whatnot. Wonder who'd buy something like that."

"Maybe some other pizza place," Shining Armor suggested. The three sat there silently, thinking about the day. "You think we'll find the guy who did this?"

"Hope so. This was just brutal. Guys from the lab came back recently and told me the first guy was the night security and the other was the day manager. The teeth were almost pushed out of their mouths." Shining Armor started gagging again when he heard that. "Sorry. Anyway, stranger thing was that they weren't attacked first or anything. It looked as if the suit itself is what killed them, what with all the sharp metal and electrical stuff in there. What's weirder is that nopony's found any forced entry into the place. It was all locked up until the day manager came in. This is gonna be a tough one."

"Pretty messed up way to die, sir. Don't know who'd want to kill someone by stuffing them into a suit like that," RJ chimed in.

"Indeed." The Captain finally got up and told them, "well, I think you two should head on home. Not the kind of first case I wanted you two to get. Do something to get your mind off of this stuff."

"Will do, Captain." Shining Armor saluted and walked toward the direction of Celestia's School of Magic.

Twilight was reading a new book she'd gotten and was really enjoying it when she received a note the Spike burped up.

"What's this?" She read the note and was so excited that she rushed off right then to the school's entrance. There she saw in full armor was her brother. "Shiny!" she yelled out.

"Twily!" he responded, hugging her. "How's school going for you?"

"Great! I learned how to make lead into gold and why you should never, ever do that to make money." Twilight noticed that her brother was still hugging her. "Shiny, is something wrong?"

"Not right now there isn't." The two spent the rest of the day together, the horror of the morning being forgotten.

Some horrors should not be so easily forgotten.

Comments

[Buddy Hooves]

I'm liking the first chapter! It tells the setup for the main plot and it had a detective type feel to it, which is cool seeing Shining Armor's beginnings. Keep up the great work.

[Tonto the Trotter]

Very good first chapter, and a brilliant setup, nice work.