All In - An Applejack Noir

by Belligerent Sock

Chapter Nine

It started like they always do: in a dark room.

There was earth beneath my hooves, I think. Earth that smelled of a fresh rain and fallen leaves. Earth that went on forever. Earth like the end of a long tunnel with no beginning. My head hung low, my legs lifted slowly as I made my way forward to nowhere. The sound of my footfalls changed with every step. Mud. Gravel. Wood. Cobblestone.

I looked up and I was past nowhere. Pillars of light stabbed up into the non-air, burning against the void like a forest aflame. I wandered among them and they towered above me, pressing in on all sides in neatly ordered rows. An orchard of shining trees.

A pink spot of light drifted past me, like cotton in the wind. I could smell it; it was the smell of a pencil being chewed, of silver cufflinks which cost too much and yet they still didn’t leave an impression. I followed the thing, watched it sprout a blue tail, and then it rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. I followed, my hooves pounding, muffling the beat of my heart as I ran and ran.

Except I was no longer running. I was lying on my back, gazing up at the great canvas of the night sky, except the stars were red and the sky was leafy green. Thunder echoed over the hills and the stars started falling and kept falling until there was no ground to fall to and no light in the sky. I fell too, into the sea of red. Drowning.

Something brushed by me. It felt like an undertaker’s desk, or the crank of a printing press. Maybe it was a hundred biting mouths, or a thousand tickling hairs. I swam through it. I swam in no direction at all, except toward a lime-colored island off in the distance. I swam until my lungs burned like they were full of hot coals.

I pulled myself up onto the pale green sand, coughing and hacking. The sand smelled like sour apples. I picked my gaze up from where it lay, probably somewhere deeper than Tartarus. I looked far away, and the horizon turned orange, the red sea heaving beneath it into a crooked mountain. The mountain twisted and dripped, and two emeralds shone down on me, lighting the island like green fire. Something else writhed into being below them: white and red. Teeth and bleeding gums.

There was a scream. It screeched like the sound of iron gates being torn open and marble walls crumbling. It wailed like lightning wrapped in a cloud of silk, like three comets streaking across the sky. There was pain and fear in it. It echoed around my head, scratching marks on the walls of my skull. Where had I heard that voice before? Oh, right.

It was mine.

Rumbling sounded beneath my hooves as the earth tossed and swayed. The sand turned hard, grew a short scalp of deep-green fuzz. Walls rose on all sides, like the walls of a honeycomb. Near one of them, something stood up from the flat expanse. It was a tombstone, as big and square as a barn door and carved with the likeness of some great queen. She held a wilting flower aloft in one hoof, and a staff of lightning in the other. Her eyes were burning ice.

Then it wasn’t a tombstone anymore. It was a thousand-bit cheque that fell to the ground and bled into it and made a thousand bits sprout from the green turf like daisies in spring, like corn in autumn. They waved against a breeze, grew up around my hooves, twinkling and chiming like they were singing some hideous song. I shook my head, squeezed my eyes shut, but it didn’t help. They kept playing their song and whispering of great halls of power and mountains of grain. They stopped, all at once, and I opened my eyes.

There was a castle in the center of the island, its walls made of woven bits. And behind the castle was a figure. It had broad shoulders, close-kept hair. There were others alongside it—a hook-nosed thing to one side and a mountain on the other. The first one did something, and a titanic scythe started waving its way across the plain. It carved sweeping lines in the surface, uprooted the bits from the earth. It crashed through the castle, and whistled straight toward me.

I thrashed, but my hooves were buried in the bits. I bucked my legs out, but not in time. I screamed because it was all I could do.

The scythe cleaved through my head like it was nothing. Because there was nothing. There was just a run-down office in a cheap part of town with an orange mare behind a desk and her head in her hooves. What was she doing there? Sleeping? No, that couldn’t be, because she was awake.

Awake.

I could smell the wood of my desk. Oak and applewood. Familiar, like the frosted glass of the office door. Welcoming, like the feeling of heavy eyelids.

I straightened up as my neck did its best to snap itself. I tilted my head back and forth to loosen the sore muscles, worked my jaw to set it right after being propped against my forelegs for so long. I checked my watch. Eight forty-seven. Who in their right mind made such an ugly-looking time?

Sighing, I sat back in my chair, letting my head flop over the back. It felt good. To think chiropractors got paid for this stuff. What a racket. I closed my eyes, and for a moment, I might have drifted off again.

Something knocked on the window. I turned to look—a face swam just outside the pane. It was pale, had a muddy blond mane. Blood dripped from its mouth. Its eyes stared in at me as though expecting me, right where I was.

I shook my head. No. No, it was just a face, with a brown coat and a messy blonde mane. A young face, attached to a small pegasus body. Standing and stretching my aching neck, I crossed to the window, unlatched it, and slid it open, leaning my head out.

“Heya, AJ,” said Lightning Blink, tossing his mane out of his face.

I smiled like I was dragging a rock on a leash. “Mornin’, Blinks. What’s up?”

“You didn’t come by for your mornin’ paper. I figured you musta been sleepin’ in your office again.” He gave an aerial shrug. Even his flapping wings seemed to. “Couldn’t let you start the day without your news.”

I nodded. “Nopony’s buying your stock, eh?”

“Dang it. No, they ain’t.”

“How much you asking?”

“Three bits,” he grumbled.

“Good boy.” I fished a hoof-full of bits out of my coat and tossed them up high. With a flash and a flip, he caught the lot of them in the little pouch around his neck. A sly grin washed over his face.

“Y’know, I’ve got a few copies of Halter’s Weekly, too…”

I frowned. “We at the end of the week already? I swear I’d never know if it weren’t for the dates on the papers. Sure, I’ll take one of those.”

He passed me two papers, and a few more bits went flying. He caught them in his hooves, looking them over. One of his eyebrows quirked.

“Uh… Three bits for the Messenger, and Halter’s is only four bits. I got twelve here.”

I smiled at him. “You know that little bakery a few blocks up Vineyard from here?”

“Rising Crust’s joint? Yeah, I know it.”

“Do me a favor and grab me a couple of bagels from there. Do it quick, and I might toss a few more your way.”

A grin lit up his face and he snapped a hoof to his brow in salute. “You got it, AJ!” he said, and he took off like a tornado of fuzz and feathers. It was a wonder his cap managed to stay on.

Shutting the window, I took the newspapers to my desk and sat down. For a long while, I just stared at them. My head swayed back and forth like the tide on the East River. I could feel the ropes in my neck twisting tighter. They squeezed my brain like an orange.

Truth be told, I’d gotten lucky; it wasn’t the worst night I’d had. I could handle the surreal—the worst ones were more concrete. Still, it was far from the best, either. I’d gone to sleep hungry. That never helped, and it certainly did me no favors now that I was awake. Heaving a sigh, I ran a hoof through my mane.

Something was missing. Where was my hat? I cast my gaze around, and it caught its hooks near the foot of my chair. Reeling my hat in, I dusted it off and set it carefully on the desk. I looked to the newspapers.

I bought them, might as well read them. I took to the Messenger first. It was pretty much what you’d expect—a few bright spots of news here and there, buried in the mud of the campaign for Mayor. Cotton Twine was still making speeches about providing more food for Manehattan. About cleaning the filth from the streets. About how the city would see a new golden age if it just voted right. Majordomo barely got a word in edgewise. I set the paper aside, taking up the other.

Halter’s Weekly tended to cover whatever the other papers didn’t like to print. Refugees from the mainland starving on the docks. A two-page spread with illustrations of the town of Saddlebred, now abandoned and wrecked by monsters. The ongoing losses of the Grain Trains from raiders in the countryside. Accusations of corruption in Manehattan’s Food Commission. A nice, big cartoon of Cotton Twine as the Statue of Harmony, holding a torch aloft while the masses behind him held their hooves out for food. Subtlety wasn’t Halter’s strong suit. I turned the page.

My thoughts went still as I recognized the face of Flying Quill smiling out at me. Next to him was the headline:

A Sad Farewell

It is with a heavy heart that we must report on the death of one of our own. Flying Quill served Halter’s Weekly for many years, and was a cherished member of our staff. His tireless devotion to this publication and everything it stands for served as an example of the highest order.

Quill was found dead in his apartment yesterday. The exact cause of death is still being determined. The MPD assures us that a statement will be made later, once the preliminary investigation has concluded. Details are sketchy, with…

Nothing about what I’d seen at his apartment. Ol’ Black must have managed a gag order on things. I shuddered. Maybe it was for the best that they stay quiet about that butcher shop.

Something moved at my door. I looked up just as a tall silhouette raised a hoof and knocked fast and loud.

“Come on in,” I called.

The door all but exploded inward. Red Oak stood on the threshold. “Ms. Applejack!” he cried, waving a newspaper. “There’s something you need to see!”

Without a word, I held up the issue of Halter’s.

“Oh.” His face was like a bird that had hit a window. “You’ve read it already?”

“Yep.”

“T-that was him, right? The stallion who met my Sugar Beet?”

“Yep.”

“S-so…” He breathed heavily. “What does that mean? Is she…?”

“It doesn’t mean anything,” I said firmly, “just that there’s one less lead out there.”

“What?” He shook his head. “A stallion is dead, Ms. Applejack! Somepony killed him trying to get to Sugar Beet! That means something, all right!”

I took a breath. “Calm down, Mr. Oak.”

“‘Calm down’?” He laughed, biting and bitter. “‘Calm down’?! I hardly slept a wink last night because I couldn’t stop thinking about Sugar Beet. I only managed it because I told myself that you’d handle this whole thing. And what do I find? I find you sitting in here, twiddling your hooves, reading the morning paper! What the hell have you been doing, Ms. Applejack?!”

“Mr. Oak…”

“She’s out there, Ms. Applejack. And she’s either scared senseless or worse, and you’re not doing anything about it!” He slammed his hooves onto my desk; the cider in the nearby bottle tossed like the sea beneath a hurricane.

I locked gazes with him. It was like staring into a timberwolf’s eyes. “Calm. Down.”

Slowly, he did. The fire drained from him. His bared teeth vanished behind their curtain once again, the raging storm of his breathing passing like thunder over the hills. “I… I’m sorry,” he said, quietly laying his hooves back on the floor. He looked away.

I swept the flecks of dirt off my desk. “Mr. Oak, just think for a minute. Flying Quill died days ago. I smelled him, so I know. Sugar Beet’s apartment was tossed not long after, but she wasn’t there when it happened, otherwise there wouldn’t be ponies casing her work. Now, what do you think that means?”

His head gave a little shake. “I don’t know.”

“It means she’s still out there.”

Slowly, he looked back up at me.

“There’s still time,” I continued. “You said she was smart, and I’m startin’ to think the same. She’s buried herself deep. I’m following a cold trail, and so’s everypony else.” I stood up. “But, I do have some leads.”

Crossing to my safe, I spun the combination into the lock and opened it. I reached in and pulled out the spyglass, as well as a bag of bits. I set both of them on my desk.

“This thing here,” I said, holding up the spyglass, “I pulled from that carriage over on De Prancy. It’s easy to trace. I’ve already got a glassmaker nailed down on the Lower East Side. We’ll see if he can be convinced to give up some dirt on his employer.”

“But… that’s just one lead, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Well, what if that turns out to be a dead end?”

“Then I fall back on another plan. I’ll just have to start bucking the apple tree and see what falls out.” I paused, and shook my head. “Somepony is going to know where she is. Somepony has to be hiding her. I figure I just need to get that pony’s attention somehow.”

“And how’re you going to do that?”

There was a knock at the window, causing Oak to jump. I turned to it with a smile. “That kid is so darn punctual, it’s a thing of beauty.” I went and opened the window wide. “Come on in, Blinks.”

He tumbled into the office, stood himself up, and brushed his dusty vest to no effect. “Special delivery for one Ms. Applejack,” he said proudly, holding up a brown paper bag.

“Thank you kindly. Mr. Oak? Meet Lightning Blink. Blinks, this is Red Oak.”

His eyes flicked over Oak. “Heya. Nice suit.”

Oak’s mouth hung open slightly. “Uh… Hello.”

Blink leaned in toward me. “Cold fish, huh?”

“Hush. Now, I told you if you got back quick there’d be more to come, and I’ve got another job for you, if you’re interested.”

He kicked a hoof back and forth against the floor. “I dunno, AJ…” He drew the last word out far longer than he needed to. “I mean, I still got a lot of papers to sell.”

“I’ll make it worth your while.” I nudged the bag of bits on the desk. They clinked happily.

He didn’t say anything, but his eyes had trouble staying away from the bag.

“I’m trying to find somepony for a client. She’s got a pink coat and a rose-colored mane, and her cutie mark is a sugar beet. That’s also her name.”

“Sounds pretty. You try over on Bridleway?”

I let that one slide with a smile. “The deal is this, Blinks. You back me up on this one, and I’ll pay you for the information you turn up. I’m not asking you to dig deep, but I am asking you to go far. Ask around all the usual spots, see if anypony’s noticed anything out of the ordinary.”

“Lotta work for just one colt, even if he’s as quick as me.”

“Well, you can get help, can’t you? What’s it going to take to get your newsie buddies on this case?”

“Hm…” He tapped a hoof against his chin. “Most of the boys on the west end are nice enough. The guys up north are gonna be a real hassle, though. I’m gonna need at least fifty bits to get them all to help.”

“Yeah, that’s about what I figured.” I reached for the sack of bits. “My client is going to have to deal with this as an added expense. ‘Additional investigative fees’, we’ll call it.” My gaze flicked to Oak for a moment—not long, but long enough for his eyes to meet mine. He didn’t object. I counted out fifty of the coins and handed them to Lightning Blink. “There you have it. You come to me with some good info, and you’ll get your commission.”

“Y’know, thinking on it again…” He rolled his eyes as though expecting a halo above his head. “They might need a little more convincing. Maybe you ought to give me another ten bits or so, just in case.”

I nuzzled a hoof into his cap, mussing up his mane. “Don’t you be playin’ games now, boy.”

He batted at my hoof and squirmed out of reach. “Okay, okay! I get it. I’m on the job!” With a flutter of his wings, he zoomed back to the window and hoisted himself up on the sill.

“Oh, and Blinks?” I said.

He braked to a halt, half of him already through the window. “Yeah, AJ?”

“Don’t be flashing that cash to anypony, you hear? Keep it out of sight and out of mind.”

His brow furrowed in understanding. It was the most serious I’d seen him. Then his grin came back. “Yeah, yeah. I got it, Mom. I’ll be fine.” And with a scuffling of hooves and a loose feather, he flew the nest.

I shut the window again. The thing was certainly getting a workout this morning. I turned to Oak.

He raised a brow. “Your own private army, huh?”

I shrugged. “Nah. Just some kids who always appreciate a few extra bits.”

“You don’t worry about them? You were shot at.”

“Don’t remind me. Blinks’ll be fine. He and his friends do their best work in plain sight.”

“If you say so.” He stood like a jay perched on a shivering branch. “You didn’t mention I was your client.”

“Well, you are my client, Mr. Oak. Privacy’s part of the contract. Now, if it’s alright with you, I’m going to have to charge those extra bits as an expense. Sorry to spring that on you.”

“No. No, it’s fine.” He chuckled, once and quick. “‘Additional investigative fees,’ was it?”

“Good to know we’re on the same page.” I picked the bag of bits up and went and stowed it in the safe again. I snatched up the spyglass and stowed that in my coat. “Now, what are you going to do?”

“I… I guess it’s back to the hotel for me. I’ll… just have to have faith in you.” He looked at me evenly, a slight smile on his lips.

I tossed my hat onto my head, pulled the brim into its proper place. “Lucky you came to me, huh? Now, come on. I’ve got to lock up.”

Comments

[FloydienSlip]

I like Blinks. Already I can tell he's a well-developed character, and I hope that we get to see more of him later on.

Verrrrrrry interesting. This is getting swiftly murkier, and I can only hope that AJ is careful and quick about solving the case.

[HocusPocus]

I love your descriptive writing style! It's not too long and doesn't drag out, and the metaphors are awesome too! Keep up the good work!

[Csquared08]

Blinks is a pretty cool dude. He eased himself right into the story quite naturally.

[Monanniverse]

Have fun.

The longer this reading goes on, the more I wish someone else was reading it instead. Not that I don't want to continue reading, I do, I find it incredibly enjoyable but I wish someone who was more experience would take the rein instead, I feel that they would do the story more justice.