Friends like these

by Istaran

Act 2 - Chapter 6: With and without a clue

Detective John Capelli and Detective John Miller sat together in the small, cramped room, watching the last of the tape of Capelli interviewing Scott Jones. Capelli stopped the tape at the point where he got up and left, and then turned to Miller.

"Well?" Capelli asked.

"I see why you dismissed him. I would have too under the circumstances," Miller confessed. "He seemed sincere and straight forward, like he believed what he was saying. Have you gotten any reports of those pills causing hallucinations? I mean, other than Scott?"

"You really believe him then, don't you?" Capelli asked, frowning.

"You saw my tapes. And Scott was one of the passengers on my mystery bus. I'm not currently willing to dismiss the possibility that a pair of talking unicorns are responsible for the drug with seemingly magical powers. Any clue just exactly what it does yet?" Miller replied.

"The lab coats are saying it's some kind of placebo effect booster. Like, you know that thing where if you take a medicine that you think will work, your brain somehow just makes you get better? It's like it turns that up to 11. So a lot of what it does is, basically, whatever someone tells you it's going to do. Some idiot got the idea of telling someone it was poisonous, and nearly got the poor S-O-B killed!" Capelli answered.

"Geeze! How'd they get him past it?" Miller asked.

Capelli grinned, "you'll love this. They put some food coloring on another one of those pills to make it look different, and told him it was the antidote. Instant cure."

Miller couldn't help but laugh. "That's hilarious, but also kind of scary. Just goes to show how dangerous these things can be out on the streets like this. It could be a murder weapon, date-rape drug, and miracle cure all wrapped into one."

The looked at each other, no longer laughing.

Finally, Miller broke the silence. "So, you ever check out his apartment, see if there's any signs of unicorns there?"

Capelli nodded, "we found the machine that was making the drugs, including a bunch of dead snakes. No unicorns, but the lab guys are analyzing some suspicious blond hairs. They were able to quickly verify they were equine in nature, but they're having trouble pinning down the breed, much less explaining why Scott would have horses in his apartment."

"Ponies," Miller corrected.

"Ponies, whatever. I figure either your pretty purple pony is legit and we have some kind of crazy unicorn invasion going on, or he was whacked out on drugs. And I'm not ruling out 'both'," Capelli said.

"I think we should head over to the Swift cabin, together. Relena Swift is apparently trying to live there with no parent, and only one of these unicorns to watch out for her. Not so great a plan for an eight year old girl. If the unicorn is for real, we'll see for ourselves and figure out what to do from there. If not, we take her to CPS and get her a new home," Miller suggested.

"Alright. Hey, what about that email you got from that Holden creep. Isn't he supposed to make his move today? in like, an hour?" Capelli asked.

"I passed it along to the chief, and I'm sure she's ignoring it as crazy talk. But I'm going to take the advise he sent our missing person, and his other friends and stay out of the city. If he's just a loon, he'll get himself shot and that'll be the end of it. Otherwise, I want to be very far away when shit goes down," Miller pointed out.

"Never took you for a pussy," Capelli muttered.

"I don't run from gunfights, but I'd rather stay out of the way of spider-themed crazy cyborgs," Miller countered.

"Alright, alright. A nice cabin in the woods is sounding rather pleasant to me too right about now," Capelli said with a grin, as they stood and grabbed their coats.

---

"So, ah, what's a pretty mare like you doing at a place like this?" Rainbow Dash asked, making an awkwardly flirtation grin at the earth mare just on the other side of the low barrier wall from her.

Applejack responded to the question by quirking an eyebrow at the pegasus mare. "Uh, Dashie, are ya feeling a'right? Here, have some cider..." AJ pulled a pitcher from her cooler in her box seat, and poured RD a nice tall glass, before passing to over the wall to the athlete. Applejack had barely fallen below the cutoff line to compete in the event, but had spared no expense to be there for her friend.

"Thanks babe," RD said with uncharacteristic nervousness, among other oddities. "What say you and I go get some hay fries after the race, and we can admire my new trophy together?"

"Is the race making you nervous? Ah know you only came in second in the qualifiers, but Ah've seen yer trainin, Dashie, and Ah think you can git first place this time," AJ encouraged, uncertainly.

"Psshaw. I've got this in the bag," RD waved dismissively.

"Then what's got ya flustered, sugarcube?" AJ asked pointedly. "Ya know you can be honest with me about anything, right?"

"Anything?" Rainbow asked.

It was AJ's turn to be nervous, but she nodded.

Rainbow leaned in and whispered into her ears, and soon both mares were blushed bright red. But there was no time to fully process it, as the announcers was calling all runners to their marks.

Applejack was left alone with her thoughts and her cider as she tried to process what her friend had just told her. 'I love you.' Those three little words were scary enough, but good friends like them could use them in a number of ways. The more, ahem, explicit parts of the message made clear, however, that the pegasus wanted out of the friend zone. And into much more intimate territory.

Applejack honestly hadn't thought much about romance, at least nothing involving herself, since she had fully grown into adulthood. Adolescent foalishness aside, she simply was too busy to think about those things without a specific special somepony to think about. Well, now she had one. And worse, she had just a few minutes to decide whether to accept an invitation on what was essentially her first date, well, ever.

She struggled to keep her eyes on the race. The results would play a big part in the tone of their date, whether it was celebrating Dash's athletic victory, or consoling her over her defeat. Either way could be a suitable pretext for a bit of cuddling, AJ realized, as she watched the seconds tick down toward the race's conclusion. And either way, she would be there with her friend, she decided. Going on this one date together wasn't a commitment to being anything more than her good friend, AJ decided, and she didn't want to dismiss RD's advance without even allowing her this one date. She was too good a pony to dismiss so casually. Too good a friend.

Friend. That was the problem. AJ had less problem with the idea of dating another mare, than being afraid of losing such a great friend if things soured between them. As she grit her teeth, getting into the excitement of watching Rainbow Dash give her all to pull ahead of the earth pony that had beaten her in the qualifiers, she steeled her heart for what was to come.

When Rainbow approached her, first place trophy firmly grasped in her mouth, Applejack sat up straight. Before Rainbow could start boasting, she raised a hoof, securing time to say her piece.

"Dashie, about what you said earlier. You know, ya will always be one of mah closest friends, right? No matter what," Applejack began.

Rainbow looked visibly defeated, like she had just come back with a consolation prize instead of the historic first place in the first major race of its kind.

"That's why ah've decided that I will go out with you tonight. Ah can't promise much more than that, yet, ah just don't know, sugarcube. But ah do know that whatever happens, we'll always be friends." Applejack continued.

"Ah, I underst-" Rainbow began replying before her brain caught up with what Applejack was saying, casting aside her baseless assumptions. Before AJ could even brace, she was over the dividing wall, tackling AJ and starting to make out already.

"Rainbow Dash!" AJ objected loudly. "There'll be time for that later," she continued more softly, before giving in to a few light kisses.

Comments

[Morning Dusk]

I can just imagine somepony coming over to congratulate RD, only to find... That. Priceless!

[Istaran]

6082533
Thanks. :)
It's also a subtle nod to Silververse continuity, wherein Apple/Dash is a confirmed thing. While this is alt-timeline relative to that, there's no reason that would change. Just that in this timeline here's their first date, in Silver Stars you see them years later (having, of course, had a different first date) where they are just starting to come out more publicly.