Strider

by Olakaan Peliik

Canterlot - III

We were back on the train to Canterlot soon after our 'meeting' with Mr. White.

I had Mr. White write to the thief and ask for another piece. More exotic this time. While he was in Ponyville police custody, Mr. White's mail was to be redirected to the police department and opened by Phillip Finder, per RBI directive. Finder was then to get a message to me if the thief replied.

In the meantime, I had a trap to set.

After getting back to Canterlot, I had Amber go back to the RBI to help Skylynx, and Sugar on their other cases.

I made my way to the Castle. I had to report to Celestia, and return the recovered items.

It was late, and getting in to see the Princesses was a little harder now that they were under 'an assassination threat' per our cover story.

I had to go through nine different ways to convince them I wasn't an infiltrator. The worst one being a potion that was meant to dispel any potion-related transmogrification. It tasted like… well, despite what the Guard told me, it didn't taste like apple juice. I can tell you that.

Finally reaching the Princess' chamber a guard knocked for me. "Enter," I heard her call.

The guard and I entered. Princess Celestia took looking out the window with her horn aglow. She was bringing the sun down to the horizon; at the same time, the moon was rising. Princess Luna was likely in her chambers performing her own magic.

I let her finish and turn to me. "Leave us,” she ordered her guard. The guard didn't hesitate, turned about-face, and excited the room. Celestia locked it behind him. "Report."

"Four pieces recovered." I gave her the package. "We arrested the buyer, the broker was cooperative in leading us to these pieces. We located Warder's hideout. He left a lot of flimsy evidence pointing to Captain Keep, nothing damning. But seeing as Warder was unable to track down any of the other pieces it is safe to suspect that our thief still has them."

She gave a quick sigh of relief. "That is rather comforting in a way. Anything else?"

I nodded. "We want to set a trap. Catch the thief in the act. We asked our buyer to write the thief a letter asking for something new, exotic, and gothic."

She thought a moment before speaking. "Which means something of my sister's. Makes sense, nothing of her's has been stolen. If she didn't know better she would attribute the loss as a misplacement. A good plan and I think I should discuss the trap with my sister. We might have a few tricks we haven't used in some time."

I never thought I would hear the Princess say she knew a few tricks. "Very well. I trust you will keep me informed?"

"Indeed we will, by letter for now, not to raise any more suspicion from Captain Keep, if he is indeed the thief." Celestia nodded for me to leave.

I bowed, said my farewell, turned and left. After stopping by the RBI to log my hours I went home to my family.

---

Stepping through the door to the house I looked up at the clock, eight. Snow would've started eating dinner by now.

"Snow!" I hollered to the house.

"We're at the table!" I heard her call.

I walked into the kitchen and looked over to the dining room. Snow and Jett were both sitting there just starting their dinner. "Sorry for the delay. Had to talk to the Princess before logging my hours at the office."

"How was Ponyville?" Snow asked.

"Interesting. I met up with an old friend. A private detective. He, his partner, a pair of officers, Amber and I worked the case. If there hadn't been all of us working it today it would've taken until tomorrow evening."

"Was it Phillip Finder?" Jett asked.

"Yeah, and let me tell you…" I pointed to Jett. "If you ever find yourself in Ponyville and in trouble, you want Finder helping you."

There was some silence as we ate. Then Snow kept looking up at me and looking at Jett when she knew I was looking at her. Jett just kept eating happily. It only took me two looks to catch her meaning.

"How was your first day of school?" I asked.

She smiled sheepishly. "It was okay… I, uh, have a rival."

"Details. Spill," I said, interested.

"Well, there is this colt in our physical education class who was boasting that he was the fastest and most agile in the class. I kinda beat him in the placement race the teacher had us do. I was first, he was second. He didn't really like that and made a big deal out of it. He was told that if he wanted to do something about it, he'd have to beat me in the next race."

"You gonna go for the race team?" I asked.

"I might."

"You're fast, and agile. I don't see why you can't." I tried encouraging.

She shrugged. "It might just be too much with classes. They are so much harder here." Jett said looking at her food.

"Yeah, tell you what just think about it for now. We can really talk about it when tryouts get closer, yeah?"

"Yeah. That sounds good." She nodded.

There were a few more moments of silence. I turned to Snow. "How was your day?"

"Good. Kinda wishing your RBI would hurry up and find that trafficker. He is messing up our system. A nurse almost gave a patient two hundred milligrams of who knows what because it was labeled as painkillers. Took us nearly thirty minutes to set the patient straight because he didn't get his medicine on time."

Okay, I now have my first priority tomorrow. "He's okay though, right?"

"Yeah, he's fine. It's just frustrating," she shrugged.

"I'll see who is in charge of that investigation tomorrow and ask them if they can get a move on." I wasn't allowed to tell them I was the one investigating.

"Thank you," she said, touching my hoof.

We talked for a little while after that while eating but then we put leftovers away, did the dishes together, then sent Jett to bed. We went up to our room as well. I put my armor away while Snow took a shower; after she was finished, I took mine.

Soon enough we were both sitting in bed. "I stopped by the orphanage like I said I would," Snow said.

"Oh really. And?" I asked.

Her horn lit up and levitated over three files. "I talked to the social worker there. He was particularly helpful. I told him about Jett and how she came to be in our care, and about us. He said with our jobs we could easily get another, the issue is if Jett gets along with them."

"Did you tell him anything else?"

"Yes I told him we were looking to adopt a boy if possible, and he gave me these three candidates."

I read the file names. Cannon, Earth Pony. Bolton, Pegasus. Thorne, Unicorn. I didn't even bother opening them. "Did you meet any of them?"

"Well no I just…" Snow caught onto what I was saying. "You think the social worker is just trying to get these kids off his hooves?"

"Put it this way. Jett was considered a lost cause case when I got her in that orphanage. They were ready to send her way if I hadn't gotten her out of there. I did some research afterward. Turns out that most social workers rarely promote the ones who are having a rough time adjusting. The ones that accept it quickly and move on, almost relish in the fact that they have no parents to tell them what to do, and start causing trouble in some cases, those are the ones who get homes quicker."

"So there could be other foals there…" Snow began.

I nodded. "That needs us more."

"I didn't think about it like that." Snow admitted.

"We'll make an appointment for the weekend, take Jett with us, maybe let her decide," I suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea." she agreed.

"Let's get some sleep. We both have busy weeks ahead of us."

"Yeah. Love you."

"Love you too." I gave her a kiss, then we both slipped under the covers for sleep.

---

The next day I walked into the office and immediately asked Skylynx for a report. "The trafficking continues to be a nuisance to the employees at the hospital, they concluded that the crates in question are coming from Fillydelphia."

"Okay, that's a start. Get to the hospital, a nurse almost gave a patient some of the stuff that they've been shipping through there, get a sample down to the labs to see what it is," I ordered. "Amber, go with him."

"Yes, sir," she said as she started to get ready to go. "Anything that we should know sir?"

"Yes, my wife Snow works there, she is a former City Guard. You can inquire with her if she has noticed anything out of the ordinary. Just don't let her know that I'm your boss, because I won't hear the end of it."

"Got it, sir." Amber and Skylynx headed out the door in a dash.

Once they were gone Sugar Shake stepped up to me with her case file. "Sir, during your field trip to Ponyville, I wasn't able to get near that witness to talk to him."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Equestrian Marshals had him under guard in their offices, they said I didn't have the clearance to get in." She informed me.

"Ah, " I sighed. "Our direct competition. You'd think that these guys would recognize a friendly face. I mean their only jobs are to guard the prisons, oversee prisoner transfers, and assist in witness protection. And they are so, so bad at that last one."

"Sir?"

I was getting my things together. "Ran into them in a previous case, they lost a witness, I had to find him for them. Can't say more than that really." I stood up and started toward the door.

"Sir, where are you going?" She asked.

"Going to talk to your witness. You coming?"

---

We were at the Canterlot Marshal's Office in no time. Not that it was far. It was next to the City Guard Compound. It wasn't labeled so you had to know where you were going, otherwise you’d get stuck in a lobby with a particularly unhelpful receptionist.

This first room was bland. Boring. There were four chairs for those who had to wait for help, the receptionist's window, and a door just to the right of her with no doorknob. But there was a crystal scanner, for the kind of implant I had in my hoof.

I walked straight up to the door. "Don't we need to talk to the receptionist?" Sugar asked.

"No." I held my hoof up to the magic crystal. It glowed, and the crystal beneath my skin glowed with it. The door unlocked and I pushed through it. Sugar followed.

A few Marshals glared at us as we walked in. I held my head high and walked through without looking at them. They glared at me, practically hating my uniform. You’d think we were on the same side, but these guys were in it for glory which they rarely got or earned. Sugar and I walked past near everyone straight to their holding cells.

I stepped up to the pony in charge of the facility, the Deputy Director of the Equestrian Marshalls. "I'm here to see a witness," I stated.

"What case?" he asked.

"Are there that many RBI cases that we allow you to hold a witness?" I asked.

He glared. "Watch your tone, Agent. I outrank you."

I narrowed my glare. "And yet the RBI has more say over the Equestrian Marshall office. Now take me to my witness, or I'm gonna have to get my boss involved. If I'm not mistaken, they aren't on the best of terms, right?"

He tried to glare harder, attempting to intimidate me. I helped fight a basilisk, you are not even close to that intimidating, I thought. The Deputy Director huffed as he led me into the holding area, and into the observation of an interrogation room.

“We will bring the witness shortly. Wait here," he grunted, leaving us there.

I paced the room. Sugar waited near the door patiently. After a few moments, she cleared her throat and spoke. "Sir, do you like serving your country?"

Odd question. "Um, yeah. Why?"

She shuffled her hooves. "I know you haven't been our boss very long, but you have already taught us more in the short time you've been here than Agent Mustang did. I wanted to know if there was any shame in leaving the RBI before my probationary period is over?"

I thought about my next answer. "May I ask why you want to leave?"

"I joined because my mother was RBI, and my father was an Army recruiter, and because I thought it would make them proud.” She frowned. “But all it's done is make me miserable."

"What would you rather be doing?" I asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. But I think I'd like to make ice cream. I make some of the best tasting ice cream around, and I like to see ponies smile as they eat, because it means they are happy," she explained, puffing up a bit at the thought.

"That’s good enough reason for me. I can talk to the ponies in Pony Resources. Maybe we can get you a discharge where it will be like you were never here, or at the very least a transfer into The Reserves. That would be the best-case scenario: better than a dishonorable, definitely." I thought aloud. "But first, let's get these cases finished up okay?"

She nodded, looking a lot happier than I’d ever seen her. "I can do that, boss."

We didn't have to wait too long for our witness to be brought to us. On the other side of the glass, a brown unicorn stallion stepped in looking particularly nervous. He had a brown and lighter brown striped mane.

We watched as he timidly sat down at the table. On second thought, he didn’t look nervous; he looked depressed.

Time to give the kid some real-life practice. "How do you think we should interrogate him?" I asked. "Just by looking at him right now. How do you think the standard interrogation techniques would do with him?"

"Oh,” she jumped a bit. “Um... well, he looks more sad than he does nervous, but if we make him too nervous he might shut down and not talk about anything," she observed.

"Very good. So what should we do?"

"We just need to talk to him for a minute. Get him comfortable with us before we start in on him," she reasoned.

"You are better at this than you think. You go in there and chat him up. Ask him about his family, maybe his marefriend. I'll let you decide when it's the right time to ask about the pirates and missing supplies."

She stared at me, eyes wide, and gulped. "You want me to go in there? Alone?"

"Yes: I'm still gonna teach you, even if you might not be staying with us. Experience is experience."

She gulped again, then took a shaky breath and nodded. "Okay, sir." She left the observation room.

After a brief moment, she entered the interrogation room. The stallion stood to attention. "Oh please, there is no need for formalities, this situation you’re in is already unpleasant as is,” Sugar reassured him, gesturing for him to sit down. “Please sit."

Calm and courteous to him, very good. That will put him at ease, I thought.

"I'm sorry ma'am. I wasn't expecting an RBI agent," he mumbled.

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not a full RBI agent. Still probationary,” Sugar admitted.

"I suppose you want to know about the pirates," he said, looking down at the table.

"In a bit. First I want to know about you, why'd you join the guard?"

The witness shrugged. "It was a good fit, and it paid well. I live with my grandfather, I do my best to take care of him."

"I suppose that partially answers my next question. How's the family?" Sugar asked, giving him a smile.

The witness sighed, looking even more depressed than before. "My grandfather only has a few years left. My sister moved to New Horseleans some time ago, she doesn't visit often.” He paused for a few moments, then admitted, “I'm recently engaged."

"Oh, congratulations! Tell me about her!" Sugar acted like a girl just eating up gossip. I was curious as to where she was going with this.

"She's a unicorn, a hospice care nurse. I had originally hired her to take care of my grandfather while I worked. We bonded."

"When was the last time you got to see her, or your grandfather?" Sugar asked.

He was getting choked up. “I-I havent seen them in about a month. I haven't even talked to them, the Marshals have made me send them letters telling them I'm on a courier mission to Trottingham.”

“They must be worried,” Sugar said. He nodded. “Do you think they’d want you to help us investigate this claim of pirates buying guard weaponry? That way you can go home.”

He seemed to freeze. He looked down and didn't say anything for a good minute. Dammit, she botched it, I thought, moving towards the door.

"Okay."

I stopped and stared in surprise as the witness looked up at Sugar. "Staff Sergeant Bear, the Quartermaster for my unit. It all started when he kept inspecting the crossbows in the emergency stashes around my unit’s area of Canterlot where we patrol. He told the captain that we needed new ones: the old ones were getting a little old and rusty. So they requisitioned new ones. When we received the new weapons we put them in the stashes, but then a week later they had all been replaced with the old weapons that had been sanded and given a fresh coat of paint.”

“You knew they were the old weapons?” she asked, writing down every word he said.

“The new ones were brand new Barn Crossbows, Groundcracker Mk.V’s; Fresh off the line, the same ones our soldiers and Royal Guards use. The old ones are from Tenpinto Archery, Mustang Mk.I’s; They've been in service for at least twenty years, they don't even make parts for them any more.”

“Right,” she nodded as she kept writing. “Keep going.”

“Well imagine my surprise when I’m doing my weekly inspection on the stashes when I find the Mustangs in most of the stashes instead of the Groundcrackers. I talked to my squadmates and they said that I was imagining things. That they had ordered refurbished Mustangs and not new Groundcrackers. While yes they do look similar, the triggers are what give them away. The Mustang has a downward curved trigger where you have to practically squeeze the hell out of it, the Groundcrackers have a straight hair trigger that is incredibly sensitive. Don’t even get me started on the serial numbers, he didn’t even try and change them.”

“So what did you do?” she asked.

“I tried to say something to my Sergeant but he wouldn't listen without evidence so I went out with an old camera of my grandfather’s and staked out the last stash. At first I just got pictures of the Quartermaster switching them out. I decided to follow him to find out where he was taking the crossbows. It wasn't until we got to the undercity when I realized I was in deeper than I had asked for. I followed him to a ship where he traded each weapon for a sizable bag of unmarked gold and gems.”

“You said you had a camera?” she acknowledged.

Good ear, focus on what happened to the camera, I thought.

“I got a few good ones when he was under the streetlights. But the docks don't have the same lighting. My grandfather’s camera has an enchantment that senses when it needs a flash, so...you can imagine. They noticed me. I bolted. As I ran I threw the camera into a bush in Harmony Park."

"So you're saying all the evidence we need is in a camera somewhere in Harmony Park?" Sugar repeated

He nodded. "I went through Harmony Park because of the trees; the griffons chasing me couldn't see me, so I ditched the camera, then I went and hid somewhere else. I figured that they couldn’t go after both."

"So why were you reluctant to share with us?"

"As the griffons flew over the park they shouted out, threatened me, said they would be hunting me and my family. So as soon as I knew I was clear I made a break for the Equestrian Marshal's building, I knew they'd help me."

"That is until your case got bounced around the Marshal’s office, around City Guard office, back to the EQ Marshal's a few times, and then up to the RBI?"

"Yeah." He nodded and looked down.

"Tell you what, we are gonna look for that camera. If we can't find it, we will be back with a sketch artist so see if we can get something from you that way. Okay?"

"That sounds like a good plan.” He leaned back in his chair, looking relieved. “You were much easier to talk to than the Marshal that interrogated me yesterday."

What?! I shouted in my head.

I exited the observation room and knocked sharply at the interrogation room door, pausing for just a moment before entering.

"Excuse me. Don't worry Agent, you did magnificently, " I said to Sugar, who let out a relieved breath. "Who interrogated you?" I asked the witness.

"A stallion, a bit gruff and mean, likes to shout. I think his name is Swift."

"Thank you. I'll make sure you are transferred to the RBI witness facility. It's much nicer. Agent Sugar, let's move." We left the interrogation area and out into where a Marshal was standing. “Swift had better be in my office in the next hour, or I bring down hell on the Equestrian Marshal’s Office. Understood?” I asked as I passed him.

“Um…yes sir,” he stuttered as I passed him and made my way out of the building.

Author's Note:

I kept forgetting to publish this chapter. It's been done for a few weeks now. Sorry about that everyone. Things are crazy right now.

Comments

[Quiznak]

Can't wait for more!

[harts fire]

so just how deep is the corruption?
i have a feeling this is going to go way up the food chain.

[LegallyFluffy]

I’m glad I finally got around to reading the new chapter. It’s good to see that this story is still going, still to this day it is one of the best I’ve ever read.

[Northern Star]

So...is there a chance it will continue at some point? I quite like it.

[harts fire]

calling this story dead 2 years with no updates.

[Olakaan Peliik]

11160688 has it really been 2 years?

[harts fire]

11165750
a few days short of that. it's amazing how fast time passes and the older you get it goes way faster.