The Misadventures of a Few Ponies

by Power Hors3

Ch. 9: Closed Case, New Case

Ch. 9: Closed Case, New Case

Around 3pm of a Sunday day, the group of ponies from the Everfree had returned town.

“All of you ponies need to come with me to the police station to complete a full case of your individual experiences” Cherry orders. Hesitantly, most of the party groans but follow her. “Alina, I need to speak with you privately” She whispers to her.

“Sure thing” Alina says back. They enter the station and soon other officers are one by one pulling in each of the victims over for a testimony.

“Alina pppst!” Cherry waves her hoof, motioning her to come to her.

“What is this about?” Alina asks as they go in her office.

“Okay so that batpony that took me to find the others, his name is Nin; and he had detected a few timber wolves on our trail so he stayed back and drove them off. Thing is I don’t know if he’s okay.”

“Are you going to look?”

“I can’t, but maybe you can? We picked up that other batpony with us, maybe go with him?”

“This may be a chance to do more research! Sure, I’ll go!” Alina squees.

“Please be careful okay? Don’t take all day, just go check in and go out, don’t stay longer.”

“Oh darn…fine, I’ll go if it helps you”

“Thank you Alina, it ‘ll take that off my mind.” Cheery hugs her firmly, giving her a friendly kiss on the cheek.

Alina blushes a bit, “Mhm, don’t get too overwhelmed here either.” She says and goes form the room.

Walking into the lobby, the yellow unicorn had just finished his testimony and sees her.

“Hey Alina, right?” He calls her attention.

“Yep, what’s up?”

“I was wondering where the little batpony went off to?” He asks, sounding worried.

“I don’t know but I’d like to speak with him too.” Alina comes to him, “We’ll look around, couldn’t have gone too far.”

“Let’s split up here in the station okay?” He says.

“Yeah, I’ll cover all the left wing” Alina rushes away. Striker looks at the rooms that are open and peek in with no sign of the batpony.

“Einstein?” He keeps going, enter the restrooms, he hears a constant flushing that had drawn him there.

“Striker come look!” Einstein says from a stall.

“Hu?” He opens the unlocked stall door catiously, seeing Einstein watching the water swirling. “What about it?”

“There’s infinite water here and it goes down and place cold new water!” Einstein flushes again, intrigued.

“Oh right, you guys have those hole restrooms where the waste goes into a pit.” Striker smiles, “It’s modern plumbing, we have it nearly everywhere.”

“Woah?!” He goes to the sink, “An infinite well of water? Everywhere!?”

“Sort of heh, come on there are more things I need to show you. Oh and Alina is looking for you”

“For what?”

“I didn’t ask but if she was searching, it must be of some importance” Striker pats his head. Einstein nods with a little grin and sticks to Striker, being shy of all the modern things around him.

“There you are” Alina spots them coming up to them, “Einstein, I need your help to check on one of your commanders”

“Hey, I can go real quick and check myself if you’d like, it’d be less of a hassle for you guys” He replies quietly.

“Yes, that does sound better, it’s one named Nin” Alina says.

“I’ll go with you Einstein” Striker volunteers.

“As nice as that is, I need you Striker so that you may meet up with your parents instead now that I think about it.” Alina intervenes.

“Oh…right, sorry little buddy, looks like we’ll have to rendezvous somewhere else” Striker says to the small batpony who nods, hugs him and starts to go.

“Now you Mr. Striker…” Alina frowns.

“Oh no, am I in trouble…?”

“You could be because of your illegal selling to museums and they also could be in for a lawsuit, so as it turns out; you’ll be staying here at the station, we called your parents in to meet with you.”

“W-what? Am I under arrest??”

“Not yet, but definitely under investigation”

“So I can leave right now if I want to?”

“It’s not recommended, however you could go”

“Guess I’ll stay here, no need for me to cause unnecessary things...”

“Good choice. Look…I don’t mean anything against you, it’s just, unethical...I’d hate for something bad to occur to you or any other scavenging and then getting hurt” Alina says to him before going back to Cherry’s.

Alina knocks at Cherry’s office door. “Come in” Cherry answers, Alina steps in. “Oh hey again, back already? Teleport there and back?”

“Oh, that was an option right…” Alina facehoofs then sits down, “No, I told the batpony to go and check”

“Saves some time, anything else you needed?”

“Yes actually, that unicorn, Striker, he’s involved in a bigger scheme of illegally obtaining artifacts and selling them to museums.”

Cherry smiles a bit, “Sweet really?? He told you about it?”

“Hehe, yeah in a casual conversation, I thought maybe you’d like to look into it.”

“Yes! What’s not to want with a big case like this? Museums will likely hide the accusations, and we’ll need to find more evidence.”

“Yes, and Striker is our lead, I’m excited cause I go to museums sometimes for research; I could dig into some information for you there.”

“That sounds good, I’ll talk to the unicorn and see if he knows of others involved.” She stands up, “Go ahead and get to looking into the libraries”

“On it ma’am heh” Alina teleports away.

Cherry goes to Striker who is holding his sword in his hooves, “Woah, hope you’re not planning on taking that out in here.” Cherry snickers, taking a seat by him.

“N-no not at all ma’am” Striker sets it at his side.

“Don’t worry we have an open-carry law here. Where’d you did you get it?”

“It was my father’s, he passed onto me after he trained me.”

“It looks nice, may you come on a walk with me?” Cherry asks.

“Yes ma’am, certainly.”

“Just call me Detective Cherry, or Cherry hehe” She trots out with him, “Can I see your sword Striker?”

“Sure, I do like showing it off when people ask” He jokes.

Cherry takes it and takes it out, “It is nice, pointy…heh, I know nothing about swords”

“Oh, well this is your average two-sided sword, except this one’s enchanted to cut deeper and have a lighter feel to it.” Striker describes.

“Fancy” Cherry plays around with it and sheaths it back, giving it to him.

“Detective Cherry…am I in trouble…?”

“Maybe, it depends if you’re willing to cooperate with us. As of now only I and my lovely assistant Alina have knowledge of your involvement”

“So you’ll let me loose if I help?”

“Not necessarily, I have a code as an officer, but I could make it lighter on you with my influence”

“Oh…” He sighs, “I didn’t want anything bad to happen, I was just trying to make some bits and show my parents that I could sustain myself…”

“If you help you’ll be doing good for your community, the job market for archeologist have gone down due to this so it’ll help a lot of ponies out.” Cherry tries make him see it her way without causing pressure on him.

“You think so…then what about my job?”

“Find a different profession, this path you’re on leads to death, corruption, and long term harm for those needing that job”

“I see your point and- Mom, Dad?” Striker looks at two other unicorns coming their way.

“I’ll give you some time with them, I’ll be in my office” Cherry walks off.

“Striker…son, it’s been years” His mother tears up.

Striker hug them both, “I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch…I wanted to show you guys that I could make a life for myself…”

“You can son” His father says, “But you weren’t ready at the age you left, hardly an adult and wanting to take on the world.”

He keeps hugging them, “I understand now…I’m just happy to see you again, how did you know I was missing?”

“We saw your image on a poster missing with a group of other ponies. Then we got the call a few thirty minutes ago that you had been found…”

“I’m sorry for everything…” He hugs them tightly.

They talk on for a good hour, before agreeing on going out as a family sometime to catch up some more.

“Striker, how’d it go?” Cherry asks when he returns to her office.

“It went a little rough at first, but then I started to get a grip of the conversation”

“Great, glad it went well. Now to get down to business. I need the names of these museums.”

“Right ma’am, I intend on righting my wrongs.”

“Best choice, you’re being really willing to work with me. Here” She passes him a paper and pen. They spend the next hour discussing how involved each museum is till Cherry gets a call.
End of Chapter 9.

Author's Note:

Museums are always so sketchy, you never get to see the best of the things cause they're kept in the back.