Just Another Day At the Office

“Look, it’s those ‘humans’ again.”

Roseluck looked up from her stall at Daisy’s observation, spotting the group of five. She shuddered at the sight of them, all of them in weird clothing that covered their entire bodies apart from their heads. All wore long, grey coats with concealing hoods, a far cry from the normal ornate clothing that was worn. It wasn’t just their appearance that scared her however; it was mainly the piercing gazes that the bipeds shot at surrounding ponies.

“I wonder what they’re at the market for?” she whispered back to Daisy, the two florists watching as the humans walked up to a vegetable stall.

“Who knows, but I don’t trust them. Look at the way they stare at everypony, they’re up to something.”

Instead of replying, Roseluck continued to watch the creatures purchase a bag of carrots from the nervous Carrot Top. Daisy was right, the way all five bipeds glanced around certainly seemed suspicious. One of them turned to her, Roseluck shivering when the pair of beady brown eyes passed over.

The biggest human reached into its cloak and withdrew a large coin bag, beginning to count out the correct payment for the carrots. They hadn’t even haggled over the price, but she recalled overhearing the town Jeweller mention that the five had sold him a large amount of fine diamonds when they had first arrived a week ago.

Ponies gave the five a wide berth, the creatures projecting an aura of fear and menace. Roseluck and Daisy watched on while the purchase was completed, the bipeds grabbing up the bag and hurrying back towards the Ponyville Inn where they had been staying.

Roseluck knew this information from the town meeting that Princess Twilight Sparkle had called, urging everypony to treat the new creatures with the same respect as they would a pony. The humans had refused to answer questions or even appear at their own welcome party that Pinkie Pie had thrown, using the excuse that they were just passing through.

Suddenly, a young, earth pony mare trotted out from the side of a stall, colliding with the legs of the lead biped. Both crashed down to the ground in a blur of grey cloak, tan fur and brown mane.

“Hide!” Daisy shouted while ducking behind her stall, the humans pulling strange but intimidating objects from their clothing. Roseluck followed her friend’s advice, taking shelter behind her own stall while ponies screamed in fear and bipeds yelled.

“Is it them!?” A young male voice asked, seeming to Rose to be just as terrified as everyone else.

“They got Simon!” A female called, slightly more stable than the other voice. Roseluck continued to hide, the sounds of a scuffle breaking out in the market square will ponies bolted past in a hurry to escape.

“Please, please I’m so sorry! Don’t hurt me please!”

The sounds of fighting died down. Roseluck breathed deep and poked her head around the side of her stall, looking in towards the scene.

The biped who had fallen down was getting back up, the mare who had crashed into him cowering on the ground while the other four humans pointed their metal objects at her.

“It’s just a pony,” the female human breathed out, all of the bipeds lowering what Roseluck assumed were weapons of some kind. The mare they were talking about seemed on the verge of tears, the human who had fallen over bending down to help her up to her hooves.

“It’s okay,” he reassured softly. “You made a mistake and we made a mistake, we won’t hurt you.” Roseluck watched on while the mare sniffled, before looking up at the human.

“You… you mean it?” she asked, receiving a nod in return.

“I do, are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine,” the mare answered, the human patting her on the head before he knelt down to pick up the bag of carrots from the dusty ground.

“Good, just try to be more careful next time.” The human started forwards again, the rest of his group following him while shooting the mare warning glances.

“I will,” the mare called back, before approaching the flower stalls. Roseluck watched and waited until the humans were out of sight before standing back up. Daisy did the same, just in time to find the dirty mare point to a vase of daisies.

“A bunch of daisies please,” the mare asked, her eyes low while she used her mouth to open the coin purse around her neck. Daisy took a few moments to move, but after jolting she began to pick out the daisies that had been ordered. Roseluck waited until the mare had placed the ten bits needed on the counter before she glanced down at her selection of roses.

“Here,” she offered, pushing a lone rose across towards the mare. “On me, you look pretty shaken up.”

“Thank you,” the grateful pony accepted before taking the rose. “I’ll be fine, it was just so scary.”

“Yeah, those humans are pretty terrifying,” Roseluck replied, earning a slight smile from the teary mare.

“Humans?” the mare asked, Daisy finishing putting the ordered daises in a bag.

“That’s apparently what those bipeds are called, or at least that’s what they told Princess Sparkle when she visited them.”

“She sure seems keen to learn about them,” Daisy added with a frown, Roseluck giving her a warning look. Daisy had never been good with new things, and had constantly complained to Rose and Lily about the Princess’s interest in the new creatures. Even though Roseluck agreed with her on this matter, now was not the time to focus on that. Looking at the mare in front of them, Rose could see that she was still teary-eyed.

“What’s your name? I haven’t seen you around in Ponyville before,” Rose asked, the new pony giving her a smile.

“It’s Mellow,” she answered, turning around to show the two friends her left flank. Her cutie-mark was three pink marshmallows floating in a cup of cocoa, Mellow turning back around after both had gotten a good look. “I run a café in Manehattan, and I’m taking a short break in Ponyville for the week.”

“Oh?” Daisy asked, Rose sharing her curiosity. “You don’t sound like you’re from Manehattan.”

“I grew up in a small farming town, smaller even than Ponyville,” Mellow explained. “I only opened my café a year ago, so I haven’t picked up the city accent yet.” She smiled, picking up the brown paper bag of daises with her mouth and placing it in a yellow saddlebag on her right flank. “I hope I don’t ever pick it up, part of the reason I chose Ponyville to holiday in is because of the small town charm. It reminds me of home.”

“I can see why,” Roseluck answered, before glancing at Daisy and raising an eye. Daisy nodded with a smile, Rose turning back to Mellow with a grin. “Listen Mellow, me and Daisy join some other friends for tea every night. Tonight it’s at my house; do you want to come along?”

Mellow smiled in return, no more tears welling up in her blue eyes.

“I’d love to,” she answered before glancing back at her saddlebag. “I’ll make the same daisy salad that I do for my café.”

“Sounds great,” Daisy replied.

“It sure does,” Rose agreed while turning back to face Mellow. “Seven o’clock at thirty-five Main Street. It’s the house with the rose garden at the front.”

“I never would have guessed,” Mellow joked, all three mares laughing before Mellow waved a hoof goodbye. “I’ve got to do some more shopping, but I’ll be sure to be there.”

“You can tell us more about Manehattan!” Daisy called out to the disappearing mare, getting a nod in return. Mellow disappeared around a street corner, ponies gradually starting to fill the market square again. “She was nice,” Daisy commented while leaning on her stall, Roseluck nodding her head in agreement.

“She was, it’s a shame that those nasty humans scared her though.”

“The Hell was that back there?”

Simon Vergas placed the bag of carrots on the table, the group of five squeezed into the small Inn room. He turned to his four subordinates, examining each one while they lowered their hoods.

“We thought you were under attack,” Stez mumbled, the meek teenager fidgeting with his pale hands.

“Stez is right,” Harriet agreed, running a hand through her short cut, black hair. “It was a pony this time, but you know as well as we do that there’s always the chance that it won’t be a pony next time.” Simon sighed, glancing over to the object that had started all of this.
A simple black briefcase sat on the table next to the carrots, normal apart from the high-tech bio-lock that held the metal container shut tight.

“I know,” he replied, scratching his hairless head. “We’re just lucky that we got teleported to a planet with a peaceful population, pulling out guns every time one of them bumps into us is not a good idea. Lazarus knows, we don’t want to ruin the trust that the local Princess has given us.”

“I don’t trust that purple horse one bit,” Alexis grunted, the dour man removing his cloak to drape it over a chair. With the heavy garment gone, his lanky form was revealed. A simple set of grey military fatigues from their home planet of Solarium was all that he was wearing, two heavy grey handguns holstered at his waist.

“They’re called ‘ponies’,” the last one of the group corrected, a heavy-set man named Aries. “I agree with Alexis though, we’re taking too great a risk staying here. We’re far better off in the forest than this local town, at least there we can hunt our own food.”

“Not going to happen,” Simon refused, sitting down on the edge of the sturdy table. “Sure, we may certainly have the guns,” he gestured to the pile of ballistic rifles leaning up against the wall near the single bed. “But that forest is far from safe. You all heard the roars that come from it, staying in this town is the best option at the current time.”

“It seems like the big, brave soldier is scared of a few animals,” Alexis taunted, Simon brushing off the insult. The last week had been a test of their will, and a few strained nerves were to be expected on this mission.

“Shame we can’t all be like the buff, handsome public transport worker,” Harriet turned on Alexis, the two never having gotten along.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Alexis replied after he marched over to her and poked her chest. “I could have sworn that you were a waitress, not exactly a high-up position there-“

“Enough!” Simon interrupted, Aries and Stez moving to the back of the room to avoid the argument. Harriet and Alexis turned their glares on their leader; Simon however returned it with an unflinching glaze. “We’re all soldiers now, fighting for our freedom. We are accepted by the leaders of this country, we’ve got a place to stay and we only have to avoid detection and keep the cargo entrusted to us safe. Don’t spoil it by acting like children.”

“I don’t give a crap about us being ‘soldiers’, soldiers fight enemies, not spend their time hiding in towns with talking ponies!” While he complained, Alexis moved over to the pile of guns.

“Alexis,” Simon warned, his hand sliding down to the butt of the pistol concealed on his cloak.

“Relax,” Alexis growled, picking up a compact machine pistol and shoving it into a spare holster on his chest. “I’m going for a walk.”

“Out by yourself? It’ll be dark soon!” Stez spoke up, Alexis ignoring him and putting his coat back on.

“What difference does the dark make? At least that means fewer ponies to stare at me all the damn time.” With those parting words, Alexis exited the room and slammed the wooden door behind him.

“Should we go after him?” Harriet asked. “He’s armed after all, and the ponies are too inquisitive for their own good. What happens if that Princess Sparkle bumps into him?”

“Let him go,” Simon answered, raising his hand to stop any complaints. “Alexis just needs some time alone. We’re safe in this town, they won’t even think to look for us in a populated area, and that’s even if they know that we came to this planet. The biggest danger right now is us tearing at each other’s throats.” He turned to look at the door, the rest of the group staring with him.

“Well,” Aries spoke up after a few moments of silence. “We’ve got carrots, potatoes and spices. I’ll cook us some of that stew you all love, hopefully Alexis is back by the time it’s done.”

Simon continued to gaze at the door while the others moved around him, hoping that the frustrated Alexis wouldn’t cause any trouble for the ponies.

“Stupid fucking Simon and his talk about duty.”

Alexis grumbled to himself as he walked down the alley, kicking trash cans as he went. He was sick of the stares, the whispers as they passed by. He just wanted to go home, stuff the mission for all he cared.

He had taken the alley instead of the street, hoping to avoid as many ponies as possible. It was already dark, this certain planet having a wacked out day and night cycle. Instead of a gradual lowering, the sun and the moon raised and lowered within minutes. Still, the local ponies also spoke the same language as him, something that was far weirder than a fast raising moon and sun.

“Stupid ponies,” Alexis continued, his mood still not improving. He gave a trash can a particularly hard kick with his heavy boot, the metal clanging as it buckled in.

A second crash behind him caused him to whirl around, Alexis fumbling in his cloak for his machine pistol. He pointed it outwards, straight at the cause of the noise.

The cause being the same mare that had crashed into Simon at the market, the pony looking up at him with wide blue eyes.

“Fuck’s sake,” Alexis breathed out while lowering the gun. “Pony, do you have any idea how close you just came to being killed?”

“K-killed?” the mare repeated with a squeak, almost dropping the bag she held in her mouth.

“Yes, killed,” Alexis answered with a gesture towards his gun. “What are you even doing back here this late?” He softened at the terrified look on her face; even he had to admit that it was hard to stay mad at a cute pony face. It must have been the wide, doe eyes that they all seemed to have.

“I was taking a shortcut to a friend’s house, sorry Mister Human.”

“It’s alright,” Alexis sighed, stepping aside to let her pass. He tucked his gun back in his cloak, the pony looking up at him thankfully before she trotted past him. Alexis noticed that she sped up when she passed him, no doubt wanting to get as far away from the ‘scary human’ as possible. He watched her leave the alley before he took a seat on the cleanest trash can lid, leaning up against the wall and placing his head in his hands.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’ he thought to himself, the cool breeze blowing through the alley not bothering him thanks to his cloak. Another crash came from further down the alley, Alexis ignoring it this time and blaming it on the mare he had encountered. ‘Clumsy pony.’

A second crash caught his attention, this one closer than the first. He glanced up, and he slowly withdrew his machine pistol once again.

“Pony mare?” he called out, having not caught her name. “Are you okay?”

He received no answer, the alley falling into silence once more. Slowly, Alexis got off his seat and walked towards the noise, his gun held out in front on him.

Hooves clacked on a wooden floor, a beige unicorn stallion walking out of a bathroom into a decent sized bedroom.

Shetlock gave himself a once over in the full-length mirror next to his bed, making sure that his grey tie was straight and that his detective’s hat was sitting on his blond mane perfectly. He nodded to himself, his dark-blue vest already containing his notepad and pencils. Walking over to his counter, Shetlock retrieved his Manehattan police badge from beside his numerous awards and decorations.

Smiling to himself as he clipped it on, he made his way through the average-sized house, the small front garden and onto the busy street. He hummed as he walked amongst the early-morning crowd, ponies of all types filing forwards towards the centre of the city. He had been lucky in managing to find a house so close, meaning that his walk to work wasn’t long.

Shetlock glanced around him as he walked, always keeping an eye out for criminal activity. He was sure that he didn’t really need to worry, Manehattan rarely had crimes more serious than petty theft or drunken brawls after the main criminal gang had been taken into custody.

He loved the city, every tap of his hooves on pavement music to his ears. Born and raised in the inner city, living and working amongst the crowds of city ponies was heaven to him.

Such was his good mood, Shetlock made it to the station without even noticing the journey. He climbed the white stone steps, the uniformed officer at the main doors nodding his head in greeting.

“Morning Detective.”

“Good Morning, Constable,” Shetlock merrily replied, the officer smiling at him and opening the glass doors. Shetlock nodded in thanks and strolled into the station’s lobby, both regular officers and detectives going in all directions. His morning coffee the first thing on his mind, Shetlock headed straight to his office on the second floor.

After yet more stairs, he passed rows of offices belonging to other detectives before coming across his own. He paused for a second, a smile firm on his face as he read the name plate attached to the oak door.

‘Detective W.Shetlock, Major Crimes.’

Grasping the door knob with his yellow magic, Shetlock opened it and walked in. Leaving the door open, he flicked on the lights and placed his hat on a stand by the door. His task done, he turned to his desk, his papers and pencils neatly stacked in the appropriate holders and containers. With a frown, he noticed a stray pencil on the side near his desk lamp. Shaking his head, he used his magic to straighten it up and return it to the appropriate jar. His tidy done, he grinned and leaned down to the draws underneath the desk.

Shetlock retrieved the packet of coffee beans and placed it on the desk, going back down to pick up his coffee maker. He considered the privilege of having his own coffee maker in his office one of the best perks of his detective rank.

‘Totally worth the year of detective training,’ he thought with a smile, already able to taste the freshly-brewed coffee. Humming a tune to himself, Shetlock plugged in the machine and poured in enough beans for two cups.

It was Monday after all, not even his good mood could take away that fact.

Just as he was about to start it however, Detective Gumshoe poked his head in through the door.

“Yo, Shetlock,” the older stallion greeted. “The Chief wanted to see you in his office, pronto.”

“Can I grab my coffee first?” Shetlock asked, raising an eyebrow at his co-worker. “I’ll make you a cup as well, the beans are straight from Zebrica.” Gumshoe grimaced, shaking his head.

“I’d love to, Shetlock, but the Chief was pretty insistent that you see him right away.” Gumshoe entered the small office, the slightly overweight stallion narrowing his eyes and placing a yellow hoof up to his mouth. “There’s a Royal Guard in his office as well, so it must be pretty serious.”

“A Royal Guard?” Shetlock repeated, his eyes raising in surprise.

“Yep,” Gumshoe replied, adjusting his black tie. “Full armour and all. You better hurry; it takes a lot to get one of the golden boys down to talk to us lowly cops after all.”

“Yeah, I’ll go,” Shetlock sighed, hitting the button to start the coffee machine. “Do me a favour and watch the coffee, you’ll get a cup of course.”

“I have no issue with that.”

Shetlock smiled and squeezed past his fellow, heading back out into the station. He walked down the corridor, passing the open muster area were everyone was hard at work, and headed to Chief Beat’s office. His good mood faltered slightly when he passed the two uniformed officers sitting down outside the office door, the stallion and mare nodding at him respectfully.

“Chief’s waiting for you,” the mare told him, Shetlock nodding his thanks before opening the door and walking in.

“Ah, Shetlock!” the middle-aged stallion greeted while standing up from his large desk. The Chief pointed his grey hoof towards the left of the room, a single Royal Guard standing straight at attention. “This is Lieutenant Strike, from the Canterlot office. The Guard are requesting our help with a case in the town of Ponyville.”

“What kind of case?” Shetlock asked, alarm bells going off in his head. Something about this wasn’t right, and it wasn’t just the armoured Royal Guard with a sword at his side either.

“I haven’t been told,” Chief Beat replied, only growing Shetlock’s concern. “All the Lieutenant asked for was a reliable detective with an experience with violent crime. Given your excellent work on the Torneighdos crime ring case, the promising young stallion that is yourself was my first choice. I wish I could tell you more, but that’s all I know.”

“You need to come with us to Ponyville immediately,” Lieutenant Strike informed from the side as Beat sat back down. “You’ll be away for a couple of days, but everything will be provided.”

“What am I walking into?”

“I can’t tell you, my orders are to escort you to Ponyville where my superior will brief you.”

“This is top level stuff, Shetlock,” Beat spoke up. “You pull this off, and I’ll give you your own team and a promotion to go with it.”

Shetlock considered the information. From the sounds of it, this particular case was incredibly important and possibly dangerous. He would be under immense pressure, not only from his chief, but from the Royal Guard as well. On the other hoof, a promotion and his own team were the rewards, Shetlock always having desired the elusive role of lead detective. He glanced from his smiling boss to the stoic guard, his mind reaching one conclusion.

It wasn’t like he could refuse the Chief, and when he got back he’s have the experience of working alongside he guard under his belt.

“I’ll do it.”

“That’s great!” Beats happily declared, brushing his black mane out of his face. “See Lieutenant? I told you that Shetlock was a good choice. Barely a stallion, yet he aced the detective courses and closed one of this city’s biggest cases. He won’t fail you.”

“We’re counting on it,” Lieutenant Strike nodded. “Now, time is of the essence, come along Detective.”

The guard exited the office without a farewell to the Chief, Shetlock receiving a smile of encouragement from his boos before he followed the soldier. The pair walked down the corridor, not heading for the front doors but rather the back entrance of the station. They passed uniformed officers, Shetlock receiving curious looks when everyone stared at the guard escorting him, the sight breaking up the station’s early morning routine.

When they reached the back doors, Shetlock was surprised to see another two guards, these one saluting the Lieutenant before opening the doors.

Shetlock’s jaw dropped when he laid eyes on what waited him, a full Royal Guard chariot sitting in the back courtyard. Ten pegasi waited around it, a further four guards were harnessed to the vehicle and ready for take-off.

“By Celestia…” Shetlock breathed out in awe, one of the guards opening the chariot door.

“Indeed, Princess Celestia herself was adamant that this matter be resolved as quickly as possible,” Lieutenant Strike told him before gesturing towards the open chariot door with a wing.

Shetlock hurried over, doing a quick check of his things before he entered the awaiting transport. When his hoof ran over his mane, he realised that he had forgotten something important.

“My hat,” he lamented out loud, remembering that he had put it on his stand.

“There is no time,” Strike told him from behind. “Get in the chariot.”

“Yes sir,” Shetlock quickly acknowledged, before climbing into the chariot that would take him into a situation that he would never forget.
He still hadn’t had his coffee, either.

Shetlock shakily exited the chariot, only relaxing when his hooves hit solid ground. The journey had passed in a blur, the pegasi pulling the chariot not taking their time. Looking upwards, Shetlock took note of the sun’s position and came to the conclusion that barely an hour had passed since he had left the station.

“This way,” Lieutenant Strike directed, the guard dismounting the chariot with practiced ease. He trotted towards the town at a steady pace, the chariot parked on a grassy hill just on the outskirts. Shetlock followed, five other guards moving with them.

As they passed the first row of country houses, Shetlock noted with alarm that it seemed as if half the entire guard force was occupying the small town. Guards of both the unicorn and pegasus variety were patrolling the streets, the town’s citizens peering out of windows while they stayed in their houses.

Their group approached what Shetlock figured was the market area, numerous stalls in varying states of readiness crowding the cobbled street. He glanced around at each one, guessing that they had been abandoned in a panic. There were still crates of vegetables and other goods lying out, some spilling onto the street. The majority of the guards were focused in this area, thirty of them cordoning off a single alley way with their spears at the ready.

“Was it a gang fight, a brawl?” Shetlock questioned, Lieutenant Strike’s stony façade fading for a moment when he let out a snort.
“A gang, in Ponyville? No, this is much worse than a fight.”

‘I doubt anything can be as bad as some of the gang fights I’ve seen,' Shetlock thought while they approached the alley, remembering one particular case when two gang members had pulled knives on each other.

“Ah, Lieutenant,” a gruff voice called out, a unicorn guard in more ornate armour approaching them.

“Major Bastion,” Strike returned with a salute, the other five guards doing the same. Shetlock glanced around at them before refacing the Major, nodding his head. He didn’t know what else to do. Thankfully, the Major gave him a smile, but Shetlock could see… something in his eyes.

“I take it you’re the Detective that I asked for?”

“I am sir, Detective Shetlock of the Manehattan Police Department, Major Crimes.” Shetlock went to tip his hat, but he remembered that he didn’t have it. “So, what exactly are we dealing with? I’ve never seen this many guards in one place.” Shetlock and the two guard officers glanced over to the alley way as a single guard rushed out, the young stallion hurrying for a nearby bin.

“We’re dealing with something that makes a trained soldier sick, Detective,” Bastion answered blankly. “I must warn you, it’s not a pretty sight.”

“I may be young,” Shetlock started. “But I’ve seen some things in the city. Besides, from the sounds of it the sooner this is over, the better.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” the Major replied, before heading towards the alley. Shetlock and Strike followed him, the guards blocking the entrance parting to allow them through.

Shetlock glanced at the vomiting soldier, the guard leaning into the bin. It was at that moment that Shetlock began to question whether this was a good idea, but he was already in the alley so it was too late to back out.

“Down here, watch where you place your hooves.”

Frowning at the warning, Shetlock looked down. Seeing only stone, he wondered what was so important that he had to avoid. The Major swerved in front of him, and it was then that Shetlock saw what they were trying to avoid.

A puddle of dried blood was soaked into the ground, the distinctive copper smell unmistakeable. Pausing to examine the puddle, Shetlock continued on. The smell of blood grew stronger, guards marking the walls of the alley with chalk.

‘Why are they...’ his thoughts were cut off, Shetlock’s eyes widening when a guard moved a lantern to the side.
The walls were covered in blood streaks, some of them reaching up to the rooves of the surrounding buildings.

“What in Celestia’s name happened?” Shetlock whispered, awed and sickened at what could have caused blood spray like that.

“That’s nothing,” Major Bastion answered sadly. “Take a look.”

Shetlock hesitantly approached the guard’s side, looking out into the middle of the alley.

The area was surrounded with trash cans, all of them spilled over with the contents pouring out. White sheets, numbering twenty-three, were spread out over the area, hiding blood-stained lumps underneath. No one stopped him when he moved to the closest and largest sheet, a pit forming in his stomach when he smelt more blood. His horn glowed and lifted up a corner of the sheet, Shetlock staring at the object hidden underneath.

He couldn’t figure out what it was, the pallid pink object was stained brown in places. It was almost as large as a pony, but looked like nothing he had seen before. Major Bastion must have noticed his confusion, the guard moving up beside him.

“It’s a torso,” he informed.

Shetlock put the pieces together, his breakfast threatening to come back up. He dropped the corner of the sheet and turned away, breathing in and out to stop himself from vomiting. Guards shot him sympathetic looks, more than one possessing a green face themselves. Shetlock took a few moments to get his stomach under control, turning back towards the Major after his nausea was no longer a threat.

“From what? That’s not a pony there.”

“Do you know what a ‘human’ is?” Major Bastion inquired, Shetlock shaking his head. “There are five, well, four now, staying in the local inn. Princess Twilight Sparkle was in the process of finding out more about them.”

“So I’m guessing she’s the reason for all the guards?”

“Aside from the fact that something was butchered in an alleyway, then yes.” Shetlock looked back to the remains, the guards starting to collect them and locking them away in enchanted cold boxes. “Also, we’re missing a part.”

“Which one?”

“His head,” Bastion replied with a grimace. “We’ve searched the alley and the entire town; it’s nowhere to be found.”

“This is just getting weirder and weirder,” Shetlock commented with a shake of his head. He looked at the major, tilting his head to the side. “You said there were other humans?” The Major nodded at the question, gesturing for Shetlock to follow.

“They were all staying in the inn like I said, although I wouldn’t bother trying to question them. Last I heard, they refused to leave their room, and threated to ‘shoot’ anypony who tried to get in. We just gave up and left them alone; Princess Sparkle suggested that we give them time.” Bastion and Shetlock walked back to the alley entrance, passing yet more guards processing the crime scene.

Shetlock assumed that the guards were doing it because the town wasn’t large enough for its own police force; either that or the Ponyville police didn’t want to touch the case. Still, if it meant that he didn’t have to touch the body parts then he was fine with it. The pair reached the entrance, Lieutenant Strike having remained at the crime scene. Shetlock spotted the inn’s sign in the distance, starting to head towards it. He was halted when a hoof was placed on his withers.

“Listen, Shetlock,” Major Bastion began. “You might have more luck with them, but watch yourself.”

“They don’t like ponies?” he questioned, receiving a head shake from Bastion.

“It’s not that, they’re scared. They’re scared and lashing out at anything that they see as a threat. Watch out, the last thing we need is a dead pony.” A shiver ran down Shetlock’s spine, the Major’s eyes filled with genuine concern. “This is bad, Detective. You’ve got the guard backing you up, and I’m placing Lieutenant Strike in charge of the guards that I leave behind. I’ve been told that you’re one of the best, Celestia knows that we need it.”

“Thanks, Major,” Shetlock replied with a smile. Bastion nodded, removed his hoof and disappeared back down the alley. Taking a breath of fresh, blood-free air, Shetlock started down the path and headed towards the inn.

“Humans? Those five are up on the second floor, room seventeen.”

Shetlock smiled politely at the elderly earth pony mare, the inn-keeper initially refusing to tell him about the humans until his badge was flashed. The olive-green pony gestured down towards a box by the counter, plain cardboard with no markings except for ‘Room Seventeen’ written on the top.

“Please do me a favour and take that up to them as well, it was at the front door when I opened up this morning.” The mare shuddered, Shetlock glancing down at the box. “Don’t get me wrong, they haven’t caused any trouble and are pretty quiet, except for yesterday evening, but there’s something off about them.”

“Something happened yesterday evening?” Shetlock inquired, levitating out his notepad and pencil.

“Yeah, they were arguing about something,” she answered, raising a hoof to her chin and rubbing it. “Soon after that, one of them, the tallest one, walked out mumbling to himself. I thought that was pretty strange, after all those humans haven’t gone anywhere before if it wasn’t in a group. I assume that he came back later on before I closed, I tend to leave the door unlocked in case guests want to return late.”

Shetlock nodded, already gaining some interesting information. As he wrote down the notes, he made a mental reminder to question the humans about the argument. They were apparently in possession of weapons, and Shetlock knew that weapons plus arguments usually ended in violence. Maybe this case wouldn’t be as long as he had thought.

“Thank you ma’am,” he acknowledged, putting his notepad and pencil away. Using his magic, he picked up the cardboard box. It wasn’t that heavy, and whoever had packed it must have been careless as he could hear the contents rolling around. “There was no sign of who delivered this box?”

“Nothing,” the innkeeper answered, before she narrowed her brown eyes in concentration. “Oh, there was a piece of paper with ‘Innsberg Sorting Accountants’ on the top, but it fell off and blew away when I picked the box up off the step. I haven’t heard of Innsberg though, it must be a town up north.”

“It probably is, they have a lot of ‘bergs’,” Shetlock agreed. “Well, I have a lot of questions to ask, so I better get going.” He nodded again and headed for the stairs, only making it up three steps before the Innkeeper halted him.

“Wait, do the humans have something to do with all the guards out in the town? I know a few guards came around early this morning, but I thought it was just because they were checking up on them?” Shetlock debated on telling the mare what had happened, but he figured that she would find out soon enough. A murder of a foreign creature would likely be the subject to talk about for weeks.

“That human who went out last night didn’t come back,” Shetlock answered, leaving the mare to figure out the rest.

“You mean…?”

“Yes, those guards this morning were likely the ones to break the news. Now I’m sorry, but I really do have to get going.”

“Oh, sure,” the mare mumbled, returning to her desk with her head hung low. Shetlock resumed the climb, reaching the top of the stairs with the box still in his magical grasp.

“Seventeen, seventeen,” he mumbled to himself, looking around for the door. He spotted it, Shetlock approaching it and placing to box down at the side. One hoof knock later, and he heard movement behind the barrier. Shetlock knocked again after a few moments, still no reply. “Excuse me, I’m Detective Shetlock from the police, I’m investigating the murder of your friend and I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

Shetlock waited, some hushed whispers audible before a lock was unlatched. The door was cracked open, and a black barrel was stuck out. Shetlock stared at it, something about it seemed menacing.

“Are you alone?” a tired male voice asked, Shetlock clearing his throat before replying.

“I am, I only want to ask a few questions.”

The door opened a little more, a pink-skinned head poking out and looking around. Shetlock examined it while he waited, a small pair of brown eyes settling on him. No hair covered the human’s head, his mouth flat and expressionless. Shetlock was unable to see anything else, a heavy grey cloak covering the human from the head town. He was tall though, almost as tall as two ponies.

“I doubt any questions will bring Alexis back,” the human snapped, before sighing. “Look, we’re all on edge at the moment. Can we do this another time?” Shetlock glanced down at the black barrel, now the door was open he could see that it was part of an object grasped in the human’s hand.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I’ve been told to act with the utmost haste.”

The human sighed again, his eyes bloodshot. The barrel of what Shetlock assumed was a weapon lowered, however the human didn’t open the door any further or invite him in. “I guess that’s how it is, my name’s Simon, I believe that you said your name was Shetlock?”

“Detective Shetlock, from Manehattan,” Shetlock confirmed before taking out his notepad and pencil. “Now, I was told that you were informed of the murder this morning?”

“We were, apparently a shopkeeper noticed Alexis’ blood and found his body… or rather what was left of it.” Shetlock grimaced, feeling his stomach churn again. He did not need any reminder of that scene. “Then your Royal Guard told us, and then apparently the Princess wants to talk to us later today.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Shetlock informed, electing a cold chuckle from the human.

“Don’t be, it’s not like we weren’t expecting it to happen someday. I just thought that we’d be fairly safe in this town.” This raised a few more questions in Shetlock’s mind, the human sounding like he already knew who was responsible.

“I’ve been told that there was arguing up here last night,” Shetlock pressed on, his paper and pencil at the ready. “What was that about?”

“Oh, that,” Simon replied with a sad smile on his face. “Everyone was getting a little sick of always being cramped together, and Alexis wanted to take a walk by himself. He left, and the others wanted to go out and bring him back before he did anything stupid. I told them that this town was good, and that he’d be okay.” The human chuckled again, a dry chuckle with no humour at all. “Guess I was wrong.”
Shetlock shifted on his hooves uncomfortably, recognising the face of someone who felt responsible for a tragedy. Simon glanced back up at him, a questioning look in his eyes.

“Detective, Alexis took a few things with him, is it possible for us to get them back?” Simon nodded down at the black object in his hand. “Some things would be dangerous to ponies, and we kind of need all of the guns we can get.”

‘Guns?’ Shetlock questioned internally, writing the word down on his notepad. He looked down at the box on the ground, before facing Simon again. “The guards didn’t say anything about personal items, but I’ll see what they found when I head to the morgue. I can’t promise anything though.”

“It’s understandable,” Simon replied, running a hand down his face.

“There is this box, though.” Shetlock levitated it up to the human, Simon staring at it before grabbing it out of the air. “It was left at the front door, and the innkeeper asked me to bring it to you.”

“Thanks, I guess,” the human mentioned before he started to open it, Shetlock taking a step back when he pulled out a knife. The grey blade was long and sharp, one side serrated with lots of metal teeth. Simon plunged it into the box, cutting through the tape holding the flaps together. He opened it up, the human staring into the box silently.

“Detective,” he asked after a long moment, his voice flat. “Who delivered this box?” Shetlock checked his notepad for the name that the Innkeeper had told him.

“The innkeeper said that a piece of paper was on the top, with ‘Innsberg Sorting Accountants’ on it.”

Simon remained still, before he closed the box and set it down on the ground. “Thanks for trying to help, Detective,” he stated with a cold tone. “But you might as well give up. We’re dead men anyway, there is nothing you can do to stop it.” Simon started to close the door, pausing when Shetlock held out a hoof.

“Wait, what does that mean? Do you know who did it?”

“I’ll tell you one thing, pony,” Simon uttered sadly. “You seem like a good guy, drop it. Turn around and walk away, and tell your other pony friends to do the same. The less you know, the safer you are.” With that, Simon closed the door fully. Shetlock remained outside it, listening as the lock was re-latched and the sounds of scraping furniture could be heard. The door thumped as something was placed against it from the inside, Shetlock assuming that the humans had barricaded it with a heavy object.

With Simon’s words swimming around in his head, Shetlock quickly wrote down the information, before he put his notepad and pencil away. Turning to the box, he hesitantly used his magic to lift the flaps.

His cheeks bulged with vomit, Shetlock putting a hoof over his mouth and turning away. It was no use, and he vomited up his stomach contents onto the hard wooden floor. While he continued to heave, the box remained open with its contents exposed to the air.

The flayed human head that rested inside was locked in an expression of terror, the eyes plucked out with a single one attached to what was left of the forehead. A simple message was scrawled in blood on the back inside face of the box, a message so simple that even a foal could figure it out.

Five crude stick-figures matching the shape of the humans were drawn, one of them crossed out.

Running Out of Time

View Online

“Well, the head wasn’t removed by a blade such as a knife or a sword.”

Shetlock grimaced while the Mortician, Foul Play, poked and prodded the decapitated head with a scalpel. Lieutenant Strike looked equally as disturbed, the five other guard officers sharing the morgue all lacking the enthusiasm that the Manehattan-based specialist possessed.

“What was it then?” Strike questioned, looking at the dark-grey mare wearing the white lab coat instead of the head that she was suspending with her blue magic. Foul Play turned the head on its side, so that the neck area was plain to see.

Shetlock almost lost his lunch when he realised that he could see up the throat.

“Look at the flesh and skin; see how there’s still tendons and fibres of differing lengths, as well as the ripped edge of the skin? This head wasn’t cut off, it was pulled, or rather torn, off.”

“Torn off,” Shetlock muttered. “What could possibly tear the head off a creature like that, and still go undetected in the town?”

“I have no clue,” Foul Play replied, placing the head back down in a metal tray on the morgue bench. “What I can tell you is that, thankfully, the victim was already dead by the time of the decapitation.”

“How did he die then?” Lieutenant Strike inquired, with a green tinge to his face. Foul Play tittered and trotted over to a set of metal cabinets, the mare selecting one and levitating the draw open.

“Normally we wouldn’t be able to store a body like this one so easily, but with its current condition it’s a simple matter.” Foul Play lifted the white sheet, revealing the torso. Well, most of it. “It took some work, but I manage to find the fatal wound.” With her magic, she tapped the tip of her scalpel against a small cut on the pale skin. “Right where his heart was, there’s a very fine incision that goes straight through to the other side. Now, this was certainly caused by a blade, but I’m unable to tell what metal it’s made out of. All I can tell you is that the killer knew exactly where to strike, and judging from the lack of defensive marks managed to get up close without notice or suspicion.”

Shetlock forced the bile down and stepped closer. The cut in the skin was, strangely, just below a teat of some sort, and it was so small he doubted that he would even be able to see it if it wasn’t pointed out. What kind of blade could possibly make a cut so small?
“I thought this was a male?” a guard inquired, the mare staring at the torso.

“It most certainly a male,” Foul Play confirmed, tilting her head towards an unopened body-draw. “The remains in that draw are more than enough proof.” The Mortician went to open it, before Shetlock stepped in with a wave of his hoof.

“No, that’s fine, thank you very much, we believe you.”

“Fine then,” Foul Play shrugged, before turning back towards the mare that had asked the question. “Why did you think that this wasn’t a male?”

“Well, he has teats,” the mare pointed out. “I mean, it’s not part of basic training, but I was fairly certain that all males don’t nurse young.”

“Oh, those, they don’t produce milk.” Foul Play used her hoof to prod one, causing a few of the guards to look away. “In fact, I have zero clue as to why they’re on here. When they flew me down from the city, I was expecting to work on a corpse, not lead a biology class. That’s a job for other ponies, I just have to find out what killed the stiff.”

Shetlock could understand the Mortician’s callous manner, after all, he’d met a few of them in his line of work during accidental death investigations and all of them were a little odd. Still, he felt like the victim, not ‘stiff’, deserved some form of kindness.

“What’s going to happen to the body?” he inquired, Foul Play looking up to the white ceiling in thought.

“Well, I’ve got somepony coming in to take photos for the records, and another to help me prepare the pieces for transport. We’re shipping them to Canterlot tomorrow; the ponies up there want to have a look at the evidence themselves. Typical Canterlot really, no offense,” Foul Play nodded towards the guards.

“But don’t you think his people would want the body back?” Shetlock continued to question, Foul Play shaking her head.

“So far they haven’t said anything to my knowledge. Why, did they make any requests when you saw them and acquired our latest piece of evidence?”

“Yeah,” Shetlock remembered, checking his notepad to make sure. “Their leader, ‘Simon’, asked that the belongings we found with Alexis be returned.”

“Alexis?”

“That was the…” Shetlock paused before he glanced towards the torso. “Victim’s name. It’s a strange one, but they are very different from ponies.”

“Oh, they’re not really too different,” Foul Play remarked while recovering the torso with the sheet and sliding the draw back in. “They’ve still got a spleen, liver, heart, brain-“

“Thank you, Doctor,” Shetlock interrupted.

“Anyway,” Foul Play continued on with the slightest hint of a smile. “All of the items we found were taken to the local library, where Princess Sparkle has set up a crime centre. Well, except for the clothing he was wearing at the time, that’s all been incinerated.”

“Great, thanks,” Shetlock mumbled before flipping his notepad shut and putting his pencil back in his vest pocket. “I’d better be going, I’ve got to pursue other matters. Thanks for the help and please keep me updated.”

A chorus of the same was echoed by the other guards, everypony almost stampeding towards the exit of the morbid room. Shetlock managed to be one of the first out, and that moment when he emerged out of the cold hospital basement into the warm sunlight was one that he cherished.

“Library, library, library,” he muttered to himself while looking around. He had to admit, the small town was pretty nice and quaint, even though it was deserted at the moment save for armed guards and the occasional brave pony. He couldn’t blame the villagers; having such a gruesome murder like this one would shock even the hardest and most experienced detectives back in Manehattan, the worst city for violent crime in Equestria.

His eyes ran over houses and shops until they settled upon the large tree growing near the middle of the town, windows dotting the unusual structure. He recalled a few of the guards mentioning that the local Princess lived in the tree which served as her home and the local library, so he set out to head there.

In all of the confusion and shock of the day, he had forgotten to even ask where the local inn was, but while he trotted along on the cobbled stone he decided to leave it until later. Finding the items that Simon had requested returned was his top priority, and if they were as dangerous as the human implied then it would be better if ponies didn’t start touching things that could cause harm. On that topic, Shetlock didn’t even know if he should return such dangerous items. It was still possible that one of the other humans was the killer.

He soon approached on the library, easily identifiable as the location of the makeshift police centre thanks to the large groups of guards standing outside or resting on benches. To the left he spotted a line of tents set up in the space between the tree and a row of houses, evidently the guards wanted to stay as close as possible to the centre.

Shetlock went to tip his hat to the two guards guarding the door, but of course he had left it in Manehattan. Settling for a nod instead, he halted when they blocked his path with their spears.

“Your name and purpose?” one stallion asked, Shetlock levitating his badge out of his vest pocket.

“Detective Shetlock, Manehattan Major Crimes. I’m here in regards to the investigation and-“

“Say no more, sir,” the guard interrupted, he and his fellow removing their spears. “You’re on the list and you’ve been permitted access to all areas. Go right on through.”

“Oh, thank you,” Shetlock replied, the guard opening the door for him. Well, this was certainly the first time that Canterlot had ever been organised.

“One more thing, sir,” the guard whispered. “Watch out when talking to the Princess, she’s rather… emotional about the murder. She had a habit of talking to the humans, apparently.”

“Thanks again,” Shetlock acknowledged with a smile, however he was feeling less than pleased. While Princess Sparkle’s grief for the creature was understandable, and even a little admirable, it would mean that he’d be unable to ask her many questions about the humans. At the current time, she was the pony with most contact with them and any information she had would likely be worth its weight in gold.

Stepping into the library, his senses were assailed by a cacophony of noise. The door shut behind him, locking in him with a mass of guards swarming all over the main floor. The library appeared large, but when packed with desks, chairs, tables, blackboards, and armoured ponies, it was a chaotic disaster zone.

In other words, it felt just like the muster room of his police station back home.

With a genuine smile on his face, Shetlock spotted Major Bastion by a large table and blackboard. Dodging guards as they rushed about on their own business, Shetlock began to advance on him. Drawing closer through the crowd, he could see that the Major was talking with Princess Sparkle, three other guards and a yellow unicorn mare wearing a white lab coat. Their focus of attention was a plain metal lockbox sitting on the table, the unicorn scientist’s horn glowing a bright blue. Shetlock quietly joined the group and withdrew his notepad, receiving a nod from the Major.

“This item here appears to be some kind of weapon,” the scientist informed, a black object that had a barrel and same general shape matching Simon’s in her magical grasp. “From the limited time that I’ve had with the item, it seems as if these little metal devices here serve as ammunition, like crossbow bolts, for the weapon,” the mare levitated up a number of small, pointed cylinders of metal. “I haven’t tested the actual device yet, but we believe that these projectiles are loaded into this metal strip here,” a metal rectangle with a gap in the top was held up. “Which is then placed into the weapon via another slot in what we believe serves as a grip.”

“That’s correct,” Princess Sparkle spoke up with strain evident in her voice. “They use their hands to hold the guns, that’s what the weapons are called, and the barrels at the end are where the projectiles exit. Apparently, they were the primary weapon of their homeland’s military and law enforcement and they acted like they were superior to anything we have, telling me to never touch or let another pony try to us one, for our own safety.”

“Superior, huh?” one of the three guards unknown to Shetlock snorted. “If the two the human had on him are so ‘superior’ to anything we have, then why are we investigating his death? Some weapon.”

“The victim was taken by surprise or didn’t fear his attacker,” Shetlock added, the group’s attention turning onto him. “I just came from the Mortician; he was killed by a single thrust through his heart from an unknown blade. There were no signs of defensive wounds or other marks on the body indicating that he never saw an attack coming.”

“What, a big guy like him got stabbed in the heart?” the guard continued. “Princess Sparkle told us that they’re all fairly tall, at least double the height of a pony, and I don’t see any minotaurs running around town. It’s pretty clear that one of the humans is to blame.”

“We can’t rule anypony out,” Major Bastion warned. “Look at Researcher Bright Spark, she’s able to easily levitate a blade up above five times her height. I bet she could just as easily stab forward as well.” Shetlock stayed out of the conversation, something that the Princess had said was grinding the gears in his brain.

“I’d never kill anything though,” the Researcher defended, appearing pale at the very thought of such a cruel act.

“I know that,” Major Bastion reassured. “And I have faith that most ponies wouldn’t either. But I’m a guard; I’ve seen some ponies that would be more than capable. While I personally think it’s unlikely that it’s a pony, we must act professional and examine all angles, isn’t that right Detective Shetlock?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes it is,” Shetlock hurried out after being dragged from his thoughts. “There is one thing that’s bugging me though,” he glanced towards the Princess, formality forgotten in the heat of the moment. “Princess Sparkle, when you were talking about the human’s weapons, you said that they ‘were’ the primary weapons of their homeland. Why the past tense?”

Princess Sparkle swallowed a lump in her throat, the short alicorn seeming to stare at nothing in particular while talking. “When I was talking to them, I noticed that they used past tense a lot when describing their people. I tried to ask them why, and they refused to answer. I wrote everything down if you wish to see it.”

“Thank you, that would be of much help, Your Majesty,” Shetlock bowed his head slightly. “I ask because when I myself tried to interview them, they weren’t the friendliest group.”

“They don’t seem to want to talk to us,” the Princess admitted, a tear building in her eye. “I still enjoyed the moments I had with them, and they seem to know so much more than we do.”

“You didn’t notice them pointing their weapons at you all the time, or glancing around all of the time?”

“I did at first,” Princess Sparkle answered. “But they soon started to relax and… act more annoyed than scared.” She smiled slightly, the tear still in her eye. “I admit, I can be a little overenthusiastic sometimes, and they’re so different…”

Shetlock gave her a moment before continuing; evidently she was indeed affected by the death.

“One last thing, if I may.” Everypony paid him the utmost attention, Shetlock flipping his notepad’s pages back to his conversation with the humans. “When I talked to them, they seemed skittish and acted like they were being watched. Now, I didn’t get the impression that they’re afraid of us, but there was one thing.”

“The head in the box,” the Major guessed.

“That right, Major, but it’s more to do with what was on the box itself than what was in it. Now, the head itself is certainly a sign that our suspect is not… ‘normal’, but it was more of the note that was the real interest.”

“Note?” Researcher Bright Spark questioned.

“It was a note from whoever had left the box,” Shetlock elaborated. “It had, let me see here, ‘Innsberg Sorting Accountants’ written on it as the sender, and Simon-“

“The leader of the humans,” Princess Sparkle interrupted for the others, before giving Shetlock an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

“No problem,” Shetlock replied. After all, she was a Princess and he did tend to say things without explaining them properly. “So, Simon looked into the box and saw the head, and then without a change of expression he asked me who it was from. I answered him, and he told me in his own words that we should just ‘give up’, and that they were ‘dead men anyway’, as well as ‘there is nothing you can do to stop it.’ That tells us something incredibly important.”

“They know who killed the victim,” Major Bastion clued in. “And it seems like they believe that the killer will strike again.”

“I think they will too,” Shetlock added with a nod. “I take it you’ve all seen the picture on the box?”

“We have,” Bright Spark confirmed. “It’s chilling, to say the least. However, with all of the guards present striking again will be suicide.”

“I agree with Bright Spark on this,” the Major voiced. “We’ve got a force of fifty guards on this already, and Princess Celestia has made it very clear that all resources are open for us to use. Ponyville is no longer a quaint little country town, it’s more fortified than a border checkpoint with the Griffons.”

Shetlock still wasn’t convinced that it was over, but he had stated his opinion and the Major was the one in control of the guards. There wasn’t much he could do besides try to solve this before any more deaths.

“The fact that they seem to know the killer and aren’t telling us is irritating,” Bastion continued. “I say we press them for details, but still try to act with some tact.”

“I can talk to them,” Princess Sparkle offered. “I’ve spent the most time with them out of anypony, and I-“

“Excuse me for the interruption and for what I’m about to say,” Major Bastion cut in. “But that won’t be a very good idea. You’re obviously emotional about this, Princess, and trying to get information out of them will likely end in failure.” Bastion tilted his head towards Shetlock. “I say that Shetlock goes in. He’s used to this kind of work and he’s already managed to get a large amount of information from them.”

“You’re… you’re right,” the Princess nodded sadly. “I just, I just can’t deal with this. One day you’re talking to somepony and the next they’re…” She trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging. Nopony seemed willing to speak in the wake of such a comment, so Shetlock stepped up to the plate.

“I’d prefer to ask them the questions,” he informed. “I think the Major is right, they may be a little more open to me than to a random guard in armour. There is something I need though.”

“What is it?” the Major inquired. Shetlock pointed towards the box of items, as well as the gun that was resting on the table.

“They requested that I returned their companion’s items to them.”

“No, we can’t,” Bright Spark refused. “Most of these items are still unknown in nature and I haven’t had time to learn anything useful. Besides, should we really be giving them back weapons?”

“They already have more weapons in their inn room,” Bastion pitched in with a glance towards the table. “And to be honest, if we’re wrong and the killer is after them, maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll take care of the problem in defence.”

“Or they end up hurting a pony,” one of the other guards pointed out.

“I doubt they would, and for the chance to catch this murderer I’m willing to take the chance.” The Major glanced around at all of them. “Who’s to say the killer won’t move on to ponies if he’s denied access to his prey? We can’t know for sure. Our best bet it to let Shetlock return the items and hope that it eases their tongues.”

Shetlock looked to Princess Sparkle, with her approval he would be able to get something done. She was deep in thought, and he felt a twinge of pity for the newest edition to the royal ranks. No pony, not even alicorns, should have to deal with a crime like this.
“Go ahead,” she ordered. “A chance to stop whoever has done this is something we have to do.”

“I promise you all that I’ll do my best,” Shetlock reassured, Bright Spark grimacing when he used his magic to put the gun in the metal box and shut the lid. Lifting it off the table, he tested the weight and then balanced it on his back.

“I know you will,” Major Bastion encouraged. “I’ve only heard good about you, Shetlock, and so far you’ve lived up and beyond my expectations.”

“Thank you sir,” Shetlock nodded, before turning to make his way back through the chaos and towards the library door. “I won’t let you down.”

Shetlock trotted through the town’s market, a noticeable lack of stalls in the area. Spear-armed guards watched over the small number of townsponies while they quickly and nervously did their shopping.

Passing a tan earth pony mare talking with a rose-seller, he was struck with the sudden feeling that something was watching him. Glancing around, he saw only shoppers and guards, the box on his back feeling slightly heavier than before.

‘Must be my imagination,’ he dismissed, continuing on towards the inn. He received courtesy nods from any guards he passed, Shetlock pleasantly surprised that the normally stuck-up Canterlot guards were showing him respect. His previous interactions with them as a police officer had not been as great.

The inn’s bell jingled when he walked in the door, the same innkeeper as before looking at him with a concerned frown.

“You’re not bringing in another box, are you?” she questioned, Shetlock having a moment of befuddlement before he remembered the incident that morning.

“Oh, no ma’am, this is straight from the temporary guard headquarters. I can assure you that there’s no body parts in it.”

“There better not be,” the mare replied with a shudder. “I need all of the business I can get, I don’t need anything… else to go wrong.” Sighing, she gestured upstairs. “I can assume that you’re here to talk to them again? Go on up, they haven’t moved from that room of theirs.”

“Thanks again,” Shetlock acknowledged, not willing to say anything else to the innkeeper if he could avoid it. Instead, he headed straight up the stairs and approached the humans’ room, keeping the box on his back and knocking on the door.

He waited for a few moments, before knocking again.

“Hello?” he asked. “It’s Detective Shetlock again. I’ve got the items that you wanted returned.”

The sound on a lock being undone, along with the scraping of furniture was heard before the door opened. The barrel of a gun and a bloodshot eye stared out at him, the human examining him closely.

“W-w-what do y-you want, p-pony?” the human, a male, stuttered, Shetlock carefully taking a step back while trying to keep his eyes off of the weapon pointed at him.

“I’ve come here because Simon wanted to know if I could return the personal items we found at the crime scene,” he explained slowly. “Is Simon there? I’ve managed to get all of it and I was hoping to ask a few more questions as well.”

“One s-second,” the human stammered before the door shut. Shetlock waited, able to hear muffled whispering before the door was opened again.

This time, the human stuck his gun, and then head, of the opening to look around. He was quite large and bulky, with slightly browner skin than the human that had been killed. He was wearing a heavy grey coat and Shetlock could see that the clothing underneath was some strange green and brown splotch pattern. His head lacked all hair, and both of his blue eyes were incredibly bloodshot.

“C-come in, quickly,” the human ordered with a twitch. Pushing aside his concerns of entering a small inn room with a bunch of armed bipeds, Shetlock swallowed his fear and hurried inside. Any chance to get closer with the humans was one that he had to take.

A multitude of gun barrels met him when he walked inside to examine the room. He counted three humans, making the one at the door the forth. He breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed Simon, the human leader gesturing with a hand and lowering his weapon.

“Sorry for the poor hospitality, Detective,” Simon apologised, the rest of the humans lowering their guns but keeping them at the ready. “But as you can probably work out, we’re a little on edge.”

“Y-you can s-say that agai-again,” the large human who had opened the door muttered, walking over to sit at the small table.

“Don’t mind Aries, he hasn’t slept at all and he’s been hogging the rest of our stimulants.” Simon grumbled the last part, and Shetlock assumed that it was the stimulants that was causing Aries’ twitching, bloodshot eyes and abnormal behaviour. Looking over at the table, Shetlock could just see the bulky biped inject something into an arm before Simon pulled him from his thoughts. “Detective, I thought I told you to leave us alone for your own good.”

“I can’t do that, Simon,” he replied, not knowing any title to address the human by. “My job is to investigate a murder and prevent any more from happening, it’s my duty to ensure your safety.” He tilted his head towards the box on his back. “Also, I brought back Alexis’ things for you.”

“Thank you,” Simon sighed. “I guess you ponies just won’t take the hint. Never mind, as long as I’ve warned you then I’ve done my part. Aries said you wanted to ask some more questions?”

“I do,” Shetlock answered.

“It’ll do us no good, but suit yourself. Hang on; I’ll clear some space for you.” Simon stood up from his crouch and moved to a bag-laden chair meant for ponies. While he started to remove the assorted bags, Shetlock took the time to examine the room.

Two more humans were watching him carefully, weapons still in their hands. One was the smallest out of them, a thin, gangly-looking male with a short-cut brown mane. He seemed more nervous than the others, and scared brown eyes peered out from behind circular glasses. He too was wearing a heavy grey cloak, all of them were, and Shetlock noticed that his skin was a pale white.

The other human was slightly more interesting, a female if Shetlock’s judgment about the softer facial features was correct. She didn’t seem afraid, but rather cold. A sharp noise and piercing blue eyes stood out from her peach-coloured skin, and he noticed a long, thin scar that was over her left cheek.

The room itself was fairly typical of most inns. With wooden walls and floors, it had a single light hanging from the roof, a table, four wooden chairs and a small kitchen area. An unlit fireplace was at the back of the room, and an empty bookshelf was pressed up against it to block off the opening.

An immaculate single bed was up against the left wall, and Shetlock took note of the four bedrolls unrolled on the floor next to it. Adjacent to the sleeping supplies, leaning up against the wall, was a huge mass of metal objects. There were long ones and short ones, and it didn’t take him long to work out that they were more guns. There were also a few open boxes with the same metal rectangles that held the projectiles sticking out.

If Shetlock didn’t know any better, he would think that the humans were preparing for a war.

“There you are,” Simon announced, returning Shetlock’s attention to him. “Have a seat.”

The plain wooden chair was now clear, the bags of what Shetlock could now see were assorted medical supplies and food were stacked on the floor. Not wanting to possibly insult them, he placed the box on the floor and sat down. He noticed that the humans watched his magic warily, and their grips tightened on their weapons when he levitated his notepad and pencil out.

“I assume that is everything?” he inquired, Simon opening the box and rifling through the contents.

“It seems like it,” he answered, a faint smile on his face. “Thank you Detective, we need all of the supplies we can get.”

“It was no bother,” Shetlock replied. “It was the least I could do.”

Simon grunted and sat back on the floor, his coat falling open and revealing a pair of bulky black weapons strapped to his waist. He nodded towards Aries at the table. “You’ve already met Aries, this here is Harriet and Stez.” He gestured to the suspected female and the young-looking male.

“Hi,” Harriet greeted, her voice confirming Shetlock’s initial suspicions about her gender.

“Um… hello,” the other managed out after a brief hesitation, giving Shetlock the impression that Stez was less trusting of ponies than his fellows.

“So Detective, let’s get to the point,” Simon spoke up. “The less time you spend here, the better.”

“I want to ask you an important question, and I only want the truth.” He noticed that Simon grimaced, almost like the human knew where it was heading.

“Ask away,” he grunted, his smile gone.

“It’s obvious that you have a decent idea of who the killer is, so I want you to tell me who they are so we can catch him a lot sooner.”

“We don’t have a ‘decent idea’,” Harriet snorted. “We know exactly which kind of sick Bastard is after us.”

Shetlock had been raised good and proper, but he had spent a year as a city beat cop so he was used to harsh language. In his opinion, these humans had a far more legitimate reason to use it than the gang members he was used to dealing with.

“Who is it then?” he inquired with pencil ready.

Simon held a hand out towards Harriet, adopting a stern look and fixing Shetlock with a steady gaze.

“Once again, the less you know, the better it is for you and all of pony kind. We can’t tell you-“

“Why not?” Shetlock interrupted, snapping at the humans’ vagueness. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re trying to help you here. It’s our job and duty to help you, so stop worrying about us and actually think about things for a second. Already this entire town is too afraid to even walk the streets in broad daylight, another dead human will only make things worse for all of us!” While they stared at him in surprise, he took the chance to take a deep breath and calm down before continuing. “Look, we only want to ensure your safety, all of us including the Princesses. You can help us by telling us what it is that you think is after you, and the sooner we stop it the better.”

Simon continued to stare at him, before the leader shook his head and let out a humourless chuckle.

“I’m sorry Detective, I truly am,” he replied sadly. “But you just don’t understand.”

“Help me to understand,” Shetlock pleaded, looking around at the other humans. All were looking towards Simon, except for Aries who was alternating his gaze from blocked off windows to locked doors.

“We can’t,” Simon sighed. “We’re already doomed, we’d only be bringing you down with us.”

Shetlock had to resist the urge to smack the human. He’d had uncooperative interviewees before, but this was taking the cake. He waited for Simon to continue, but he seemed to be staring vacantly, lost in hidden thoughts. Suddenly, an idea hit Shetlock. It was risky and no doubt would be met with resistance, but it may be their only shot at getting some cooperation.

“How about this,” he tried, Simon and the humans focusing back on him. He leaned forward on the chair, pressing his front hooves together. “You move to Canterlot. We arrange for the guards, some with magical shields, to escort you all away from this room and into accommodations in Canterlot castle. You’ll have better food, be in the safest location in the known world and there will be guards everywhere for the entire time. Then you can tell us who’s after you and we can stop them.”

Simon glanced to his fellows, Stez furrowing his brows.

“Are you sure we’ll be safe?” he asked. Shetlock wasn’t sure, but he was fairly certain that the human was only a teenager, barely an adult judging from his mannerisms. He gave the colt, or whatever the human name for it was, a reassuring smile.

“I can promise you that you’ll all be as safe as you can be. Canterlot is the most guarded city in Equestria, and guards will be with you the entire time. I’ll have to run it by the guards and Princess Sparkle of course, but I’ve already been told that I’m to spare no expense in solving this case. In my eyes, your information is essential in doing that and if that means you have to move to Canterlot before talking then that’s what we’ll do.”

The humans all looked at each other, Harriet raising her hand.

“I’m for it, personally. If we’re going to die, then at least it won’t be cramped up in this room.”

Her words caused Shetlock to wince, evidently they were still convinced that no matter what was done, they weren’t going to survive. Simon nodded to himself, the leader deep in thought.

“I trust them,” Stez spoke up. “Besides, how do we know that they’ll stop at us? What happens if they decide to do that same that they did to Apolliana even if we don’t talk? You know the UIP, they’re monsters.”

‘UIP?’ Shetlock mentally questioned, guessing that it was an acronym. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound friendly.

“You’re right,” Simon agreed, lifting his head to gaze at Shetlock. “Detective, if you succeed in moving us safely and you give us protection, then we’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

Putting away his notepad, Shetlock nodded his head and slid off the chair. He’d made progress, and now it was time to act.

“I’ll organise it right away, be prepared to leave quickly.”

“We’ll pack up now,” Simon informed while walking towards the door. He drew a short, stubby gun and unlocked the door, holding the weapon out in one hand as he checked the area. “It’s clear, we’ll be waiting.”

Shetlock moved towards the door and exited the room. He turned around and gave Simon a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe and catch this scumbag.”

“Thanks,” Simon replied with a small smile of his own. “We’re relying on it.”

The door shut and the sound of a latching lock was heard. Shetlock turned and made his way back down the stairs, planning out his argument to convince the guards and Princess to accept his plan.

“That could be workable.”

The library was almost dead silent, Major Bastion having ordered all of the guards out while the meeting was ongoing. Shetlock watched Bastion while he considered the idea, Princess Sparkle and Lieutenant Strike also waiting for an answer.

“How would we get them to Canterlot?” Strike asked. “Chariots are out of the question, they’re not exactly subtle and could alert the killer of our plan. They’re easy to track and they could follow them without issue.”

“What about the train?” Princess Sparkle suggested with a tilt of her head. “It goes to different towns and cities, and it would be the last thing somepony would expect.” She trotted over to a table, and glanced down at a pile of papers near a calendar on the wall. “Also, if we move them today then the train is scheduled to leave at eight.”

“Giving us the cover of darkness,” Strike added, the pegasus using a wing to rub his chin. “A team of at least ten guards, with two unicorns to provide shielding should be enough.”

“Princess Luna is also sending us five members of her personal guard,” Princess Sparkle announced. Shetlock and the two Solar guards collectively winced at the news. The bat-ponies were excellent at night with their enhanced vision and hearing, but their fangs and eyes were off-putting to most ponies. In addition, they were often seen as ‘elite’ forces, causing tension between the Lunar Guard and the Solar Guard.

“That’s… amazing news,” Bastion groaned, before remembering that he was in the presence of a member of the royalty. “I mean, they’ll be a great boost to our forces for this operation.”

“They should be here within the hour,” the Princess informed, not seeming to pick up on the collective displeasure with the news.

“Are we doing this then?” Strike folded his wings back in.

“Yes,” the Major confirmed. “It’s risky, but we need that information. They’re holed up in that room with apparently dangerous weapons, so I’m not willing to try and force the information out of them. Transporting them to Canterlot is the best course of action open to us.”

“I sent a message to Celestia,” Sparkle told them, Shetlock remembering that she had stopped to write a letter as soon as he had informed them of the plan. “She also wanted the chance to personally met the humans, and to talk to them about their loss.” Twilight lowered her head. “I think she’s upset that something like this happened to them while they were in Equestria.”

“Understandable,” Bastion agreed, Strike nodding with him. “She’s always been caring like that.”

Shetlock felt like he was the only one who hadn’t interacted with Princess Celestia directly, and it was slightly unnerving. Still, he had work to do so he just ignored it.

“So, we’re going ahead with the plan?” he asked for a final time, Bastion looking at Princess Sparkle before nodding his confirmation.

“Ten minutes to eight is when we move, minimising the amount of time that we spend on the train stationary. I’ll accompany the guards onto the train and then see them off, and we’ll cordon off the town exits so nothing can follow it. That way, we trap the killer in and move the likely targets out. We get the information, and then we use it to put this crazy behind bars for good.”

“I’ll lead the escort team,” Strike volunteered. “If possible, can I get the bat-ponies on the team as well? They’ll be able to see an attack coming much more quickly than us.”

“I have no issue with that. What do you think Princess, can you order them to go along with the plan?”

Twilight seemed a bit shocked. “Why can’t you do it? Surely they’ll listen to a Major?”

“The Solar Guard and the Lunar Guard don’t get along that well,” Shetlock told her. “There are widespread opinions that the Lunar Guard possess the opinion that they are better than other guards.” Bastion and Strike gave him knowing look, likely picking up on the fact that he had encountered them before.

“Oh,” the Princess muttered. “I guess I can ask them then, I’m sure they won’t mind.”

“I’m sure they won’t as well,” Bastion reassured. “I just need to make sure that they are working on the same page as us. Shetlock, if you head back and let them know now, then I’ll organise everything and we can move tonight.”

“On it,” Shetlock nodded, turning away and leaving the library. He stepped out onto the cobbled ground and quickly went back over the plan in his head. It was solid, and he was confident that they could pull it off without a hitch.

Heading towards the inn, he prepared to encounter the jittery humans once more.

Shetlock stood behind the four solar guards and the five lunar guards while Lieutenant Strike knocked on the door to the human’s inn room.

“Are you all ready to leave? We have ten minutes before the train leaves.”

The door unlocked and Simon stuck his head and gun out, the human lowering the weapon once he saw that is was guards. Shetlock noticed a few of the solar guards as well as the five lunar guards peer at the human curiously, obviously the first time that they had encountered the bipeds. The bat-ponies had arrived that afternoon, and after all members of the escort team had been informed of the plain and their charges the operation had been given the go ahead.

Shetlock had requested to come along, mainly because he wanted to personally ensure the safety of the humans. Secretly, he was also there in case the killer tried to strike again, letting him get a first-hoof view of the perp.

“Not just yet,” Simon whispered as if he was afraid that he’d be overheard. “Stez is taking his time packing up the rest of the supplies.”

“We’ve got a limited time frame,” Strike explained. “We can transport anything up to Canterlot later, you need to go now.”

“With all due respect, we can’t do that. A lot of our things would be dangerous to untrained ponies and we can’t risk it.”

Strike grinded his teeth at Simon’s stubbornness, Shetlock cursing their bad luck. Suddenly Lieutenant Strike raised a wing in the air, Simon watching it with interest. “Okay, okay. How about we split up, I assume you’ve got more of your weapons?”

“We’ve got plenty of guns and ammunition,” Simon answered with a nod. “We’re all trained to use them as well.”

“Good,” Strike replied. “I was thinking that you and the two other humans go with Shetlock and four guards to the train station. Myself and the rest of the guards will stay here and help this ‘Stez’, and then we’ll move out as a separate group. You’ll be able to make up for the loss of guards in your group and we’ll have six. When you reach the train, Shetlock will instruct the conductor to wait until we met up with you, and then we depart for Canterlot.”

Shetlock wasn’t too enthusiastic about the plan to split up, but he kept his mouth shut. It seemed like the only way they were going to achieve anything, and they were already too far in to stop now. Simon also appeared concerned, and his looked around before glancing back at Strike.

“One second.” He ducked back inside of the room, the door closing. There were a few brief moments of muffled conversation before it opened again.

The guards backed up as Simon, Harriet and Aries slowly edged out of their room. All of them kept one hand in their long coats and their eyes on every doorway, Aries still twitching occasionally.

“Go in,” Simon spoke while edging towards the side to allow them entry. Strike nodded to the guards, three solar guards and two lunar hurrying into the room with their sword sheaths in easy wing or magic reach. Strike was last to enter, pausing to look at Shetlock.

“Guards, Detective Shetlock is in charge, follow his commands to the letter without hesitation. You humans, stay with them and we’ll bring your friend shortly.”

“Clear and received,” Simon replied quickly, Shetlock taking a second. He had never been put in charge of guards before, and he had never thought that he would see the day.

“Okay,” was all he could think of saying, his nerves racing. Strike gave him a nod and shut the door, Shetlock swallowing his apprehension and making his way to the stairs. “This way, stay in a group and keep your eyes, noses and ears peeled.”

“Yes sir,” the five guards acknowledged.

“We’re ready,” Simon spoke for his two companions, Shetlock nodding and proceeding down the stairs. Their group carefully made their way down the stairs and out of the inn, the humans bunching up as soon as they stepped foot outside.

“Shield going up,” the solar guard unicorn informed, his horn glowing blue. A slight shimmer appeared around them and Shetlock could make out a transparent barrier covering their group. Good, at the moment they had to hope that the killer would either not risk attacking them or, even better, not notice them at all.

“Good job, hold it steady. Everyone, let’s go.”

He took the lead, with the humans in the middle and the guards to the sides and back. The three bat-ponies were constantly switching their gaze from alleyway to darkened door frame, Shetlock thankful that they were present.

As they traversed the deathly quiet streets, he felt a chill down his spine. It was like something was wrong, and he paused to glance around. Their group was open to attack with their diminished number, and he almost wished that he had been given the six guards instead of Strike.

His rapidly beating heart started to die down when he spotted a few guards watching them in groups, Shetlock glad to see that they weren’t the only ones on the street. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

“Are you okay?” Simon inquired, the human carrying a black briefcase in his free hand instead of bags like his companions.

“I’m fine,” Shetlock reassured. “I’ve just got a feeling that… don’t worry about it.”

“Take an old soldier’s advice and trust your gut,” Simon murmured, his right hand coming away from his cloak. The human clutched a small gun in his hand, the black weapon held at the ready. “Better to be safe than s-“

He was cut off by a clatter coming from their left, Simon whirling to point his weapon at an ornate building. The other two humans dropped the bags they were carrying and pulled out longer weapons from their cloaks. Not to be outdone, the guards withdrew their swords with practiced ease, everyone looking towards the building that had produced the noise. Out of the corner of his eyes, Shetlock noticed that a few groups of the watching guards had noticed their alarm and were making their way towards them.

A purr came out from the darkness, and a white cat walked out from behind a silver trashcan, the feline grinning at them with pride.

“Stupid cat,” one of the bat-ponies muttered, the solider sheathing her sword.

Shetlock was just about to mention that it could’ve been worse, but the silence of the night was shattered by a loud crack.

He turned to look back towards the inn, a bright flash able to be seen through the upper windows. Lights from the surrounding houses flicked on, and Shetlock made a snap decision.

“Back to the inn, on your guard!” he ordered, beginning to gallop back the way they had come. The humans quickly picked up their bags and ran with them, every guard obeying without question. Racing back to the inn, they were joined by another six solar guards, the unicorns and pegasi drawing their weapons and lighting up horns.

“Lieutenant!” Shetlock called out as soon as he entered the inn, the first pony in. He spotted the inn owner peeking out through a crack in the door behind the counter, the mare appearing scared but alive and unhurt. With guards and humans behind him, Shetlock hurried up the stairs.

“Stez!” Harriet called out, none of them receiving an answer. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Shetlock’s blood went cold.
The room door was open, or more accurately it was almost smashed off its hinges. A body pushed past him, Simon racing towards the door.

“Stez!” he yelled, Shetlock hastily following him into the darkened room. The first thing he noticed was the sharp, acidic smell and the thin smoke. The next was far more alarming.

Guards were lying on the floor, none of them moving. Lieutenant Strike was lying beside the busted open door, Shetlock panicking when he saw the blood around his muzzle.

“Strike!?” he tried, leaning down and putting his ear over the Lieutenant’s mouth. He was relieved to hear breathing, but the blood was a major concern.

“Move aside,” a bat-pony ordered, shoving him away so that he could examine the Lieutenant. Shetlock let him be, the soldier no doubt having far more experience with medical matters. Glancing around, he saw that the rest of the guards were all attending to their fallen companions, and thankfully it seemed that all were still alive.

A cold gust of air blew in from a window while he looked around the room for the humans, but he saw none. A few bags were scattered on the floor next to the overturned table, a few guns poking out of the top of one. Evidently, the attacker hadn’t been interested in the weapons, so that only left…

Shetlock strained his ears, a faint sobbing audible over the shouted commands of the guards, more arriving and spreading out over the room. Shetlock ignored them, not even noticing when they started to move the bodies of the injured guards. Instead, he was focused on the wide-open door that led to the room’s bathroom.

The crying became louder as he approached, and with it came a smell that he had rarely smelt until this case.

That smell being the overwhelming coppery stench of blood, a sign of the attacker’s real motive.

Dreading what was to come, Shetlock made his way to the door and walked into the bathroom, spotting the three humans over near the bathtub. Simon and Aries were standing silent, while Harriet sobbed into her coat sleave while slumped up against the wall.

His hoof stepped in something wet when he began to slowly approach them, Shetlock looking down at the tiled floor. Lifting up his left forehoof, he realised that he had stepped in a few small drops of blood. Wincing, he continued on, knowing that he had a job to do. He wasn’t looking forward to it; already his stomach was rebelling at the scent of the blood.

He passed Harriet without notice, the female’s sleave soaked with her tears. Simon and Aries parted, allowing Shetlock to see what was the cause of the sadness.

He barely managed to keep down the vomit.

Stez, the young, nervous human, was lying face up in the bathtub on a pile of bags. His face was locked in sheer terror, his glasses hanging loosely from his nose. His left hand was mangled, a small one-handed gun lying on the bathroom tiles with a few dents in it.

The cause of death was obvious.

He had multiple stab wounds in his chest area, all through the simple grey shirt he wore. A large slice ran down his chest to his stomach, opening his innards for the world to see.

The final edition was that his throat was missing, less cut out and more torn out.

“By Celestia…” Shetlock whispered, turning around and leaving the room. He kept on walking past the awaiting guards until he was back in the hallway. He moved over to the opposite wall and placed a hoof against it, trying to breath in untainted air to get the smell of blood and guts out of his nostrils. He blinked his eyes, trying to get rid of the horrifying image that was stuck in his mind. Time passed, and slowly he found himself calming down.

“Shetlock!”

He recognised the voice of Major Bastion, the guard officer coming from the stairs with another two guards at his side.

While their hooves galloped towards him, Shetlock turned around to meet them. It seemed like their plan had failed, and know they had to deal with the consequences.

“Major,” he greeted, Bastion wincing at the sight of his face.

“What in Tartarus is going on, Shetlock?” Bastion questioned, his two guards moving to help their fellows secure the area. “We’ve got six guards wounded!”

“And another human dead,” Shetlock added, Bastion sighing and shaking his head.

“Where?”

“Bathroom, it’s not pretty.”

Bastion left him and entered the room, the Major returning a few moments later. Even the veteran was a little green, although he managed to maintain his composure.

“Well, this plan certainly went teats up,” Bastion muttered. “Celestia won’t be happy.”

“There was nothing we could do,” Shetlock replied with a glance towards the room. “How could we have known that the killer would attack the guarded room?”

“It was a risk, and this time it didn’t pay off. Now we’ve got to pick up the pieces. I take it there was no sign of the killer in the room?”
Shetlock shook his head.

“There was a broken window, which I assume was the exit point, but with all of the guards down we didn’t stop to preserve the scene.”

“You made the right choice,” Bastion reassured, placing an armoured hoof on Shetlock’s withers. “I’d gladly sacrifice any clues to ensure the safety of as many ponies as we can.”

Shetlock was going to reply, but was cut off by a unicorn guard racing up the stairs. The soldier headed straight to Bastion, giving the Major a salute.

“Sir, Lieutenant Strike has awoken in the hospital.”

“Good work soldier,” Bastion acknowledged. “We’ll head over right away.”

Shetlock gave him a nod, if Strike saw the attacker then all might not be lost.

“Inform the rest to escort the humans to the command centre at the library,” Bastion continued, the guard nodding.

“What about the body?”

Bastion grimaced. “Take the entire bath tub to the morgue. Don’t touch the body but try to keep it concealed. Inform the Mortician that she has work to do.”

“Yes sir,” the guard responded grimly, before making his way into the room. Bastion gestured towards the stairs, Shetlock following him.

“Shetlock, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Major,” he answered with a lie. “It’s just a little unsettling.”

“Shetlock, I’m a Major in the guard and that bathroom made my stomach churn,” Bastion informed while they trotted down the stairs, passing more guards heading up. “There’s no need to act like a super-stallion, what you saw is something that nopony could walk away from without feeling ill.”

“I guess,” Shetlock mumbled in reply, the pair exiting out onto the cobbled street. Guards had blocked off the entrance, lifting their spears to allow them to exit. Pegasi patrolled the night sky, searching for any sign of the attacker. Heading towards the hospital that was just opposite the inn, Shetlock paused and glanced towards the dark alley leading around the side.

“Has anypony checked that alley?” he inquired, the guards all shaking their head. Major Bastion picked up on the idea, and jumped into action.

“You guards, with me,” he ordered to a unicorn and four pegasi. They nodded and advanced with spears at the ready, the unicorn’s horn lighting up to provide light. Shetlock led the group into the alley, making sure to check that nothing was waiting to tear out his throat. It seemed clear, and the unicorn guard walked beside him.

“Heading in sir?” the guard asked, Shetlock nodding. Major Bastion and the rest were right behind them, the thin alley not providing much room. Carefully and with his eyes darting to doorway to trashcan, Shetlock soon made it to the spot he was after. Looking down, he spotted shards of glass and a few shards of wood, all likely from the shattered escape window. A few smears of blood also covered some pavers, and he carefully stepped around them.

“We need a sample of the blood,” he started to order, one of the pegasi heading back out to grab the needed equipment. “This area needs to be sealed off, but remember that the suspect could still be in the a-“

“Shh!” Bastion cut Shetlock off, the Major tilting his head with one ear cocked. “Hear that?”

Shetlock strained his ears, and heard the last sound that he was expecting.

The sound of a mare sobbing.

All of them turned to the large pile of old boxes behind them, the sobbing coming from behind them. Shetlock gave the guards a warning look before he slowly approached the boxes, levitating his badge out of his pocket while the guards readied their weapons.
“Hello?” he called out, the sobbing cutting off. “I’m Detective Shetlock with the police.”

“P-police?” the hidden mare asked, terror evident in her voice.

“Yes ma’am, and I have some royal guards with me as well” Shetlock answered softly. “You can come out, it’s safe now.”

A box moved out of the way, and a shaking mare with a yellow coat looked up at him with glistening blue eyes. She sniffled and glanced around at the guards, before her mouth quivered. Shetlock moved towards her and the mare pulled him into a hug, sobbing into his withers when he sat down.

“It was so scary!” she bawled. “There was a loud bang, and yells, and then a scream. I looked up and this huge… thing jumped out of the window and landed on the groud.” Shetlock began to pat her back to calm her down, the mare still shaking with fright. “It stood up on two legs and I barely had time to hide before it looked around. Then it disappeared down that way!” she pointed towards the opposite end of the alley.

“Are you okay here Shetlock?” Bastion asked, Shetlock nodding an affirmative. “We’ll chase this scumbag down, you help the mare and we’ll meet at the hospital to talk to Strike.”

With those words, Bastion and the guards dashed off down the way that the attacker had fled. Shetlock continued to hug the mare until she had stopped shaking, and it was only then that he pulled away to look at her. “What’s your name, ma’am?”

“Mellow,” she sniffled. “I’m staying in this inn, and I was just walking home from a friend’s house."

“That’s a brave thing to do, for a nice mare like you with all of this going on,” Shetlock tried to comfort. She shook her head in reply, her tan mane messy and tangled.

“No, it was a stupid thing to do,” she mumbled, Shetlock finding it hard to disagree. Still, what was done was done, and at least she may be able to provide a description of the suspect.

“Come on, let’s get you out of the alley,” Shetlock directed, helping her to her hooves. She continued to embrace him, and even when they were standing she pressed up close to him. Feeling concerned for her, Shetlock led her back to the alley entrance, the pair emerging into the guard-infested street. Looking towards the inn and remembering the scene within, he winced.

“I don’t suppose you know of another place to stay?” he inquired, also thinking of his own sleeping arrangements that night.

“I think the local bar has a few rooms for rent,” she replied, nodding towards the saddlebag she wore on her left flank. “I’ve got money, so I’ll just go there.”

“Let me walk you,” Shetlock offered, however Mellow shook her head.

“No, thank you though, Detective. I should be able to make it there by myself; all of the guards are around now anyway and you probably have work to do.” Shetlock glanced around and sure enough the guard presence was strong, with armed ponies investigating every alley while pegasi flew overhead.

“Are you sure?” he asked, and she nodded in confirmation.

“Yes,” she sniffed a final time before smiling. “Thank you, Detective. You’re a good pony.” Shetlock gave her a farewell nod before she turned and quickly trotted down the road, guards keeping an eye on her. Shaking his head at her decision to walk out alone after what had just happened, he returned to his original goal.

The hospital.

“It just came out of nowhere.”

Shetlock and Major Bastion stood around the hospital bed and waited for Strike to take a sip of water before continuing. Strike’s face was bandaged, the Lieutenant having received a broken nose, a few loose teeth and some singed fur.

“What happened?” Bastion asked, Shetlock holding his pencil and notepad at the ready.

“Well, we were helping that human pack up the rest of their strange things,” Strike explained, holding onto the glass with his wing. “He was nervous but nice; I don’t think he was even a full adult. Anyway, everything was going well and you’d just left. Then, there was a knock on the door.” Strike winced at the memory, Shetlock guessing that the Lieutenant felt responsible for everything.

“Go on,” Bastion urged, Strike sighing and shaking his head.

“We took up defensive positions and I asked who it was. The voice, male, said that he was part of Shetlock’s group and that it had been ambushed, with the attacked on their way. He sounded so young and scared, so I...”

“So you opened the door,” Shetlock guessed, Strike lowering his head and nodding.

“It was only a small gap,” Strike explained softly. “Barely enough to fit a hoof through. I went to peer out to see whether it was a guard, when something bounced off the door above me and into the room.” Strike touched his face with a wing before continuing. “Like a rookie, I turned to look at it. The next thing I know, there’s a deafening bang and a blinding flash. I felt heat on my face and that was it, I couldn’t see anything but white and there was just this constant, painful ringing in my ears. Then, something hit me in the face, hard.” He laid back in the bed, letting out a sigh. “And then I wake up here.”

“The same thing is confirmed by the other guard that’s awake,” Bastion informed Shetlock and Strike. “A young male voice at the door claiming to be a guard, then a silver canister of some sort landed on the floor. After the flash and the noise, she was also incapacitated; however she was hit so hard in her helmet that she’s got a concussion.”

“Celestia that’s hard,” Shetlock muttered, writing it all down on his notebook. “It seems we have a general description of the suspect though, a mare in the alley near the inn said that it was tall and a biped. It looks like it’s possibly another human.”

“Undetected in the town?” Strike questioned. “Impossible, we combed every alley and hiding spot today.”

“We can’t make judgements right now, anything is possible,” Bastion told them. “From the way the humans were acting, and going off the crime scenes, we’re dealing with something that we’ve never seen before.”

“About the humans,” Strike spoke up. “Is Stez okay? Did you get there in time?”

“No,” Shetlock replied softly. “He didn’t make it.”

“Oh,” Strike lowered his head, all three sharing a moment of silence for the latest victim.

“Well, we can only move forward,” Bastion broke the silence, the Major nodding towards Strike. “It’s not your fault Lieutenant; you followed everything by the book. We’re going to have to reassess what it is we’re dealing with. I doubt this is a normal murderer, something about this attack seems too military-like to me. The humans have been moved to the library, and we’ll question them in the morning to finally get some darn answers.”

“Shouldn’t we go now?” Shetlock pressed, putting his notepad away. “This attack only proved that the killer isn’t afraid of guards.”

“Princess Sparkle has cast a shielding spell around the library, blocking access to it.” Bastion tilted his head towards Strike. “Besides, I think we could all do with some sleep. We’ll continue in the morning with fresh minds, and hopefully we’ll get somewhere.”

Shetlock didn’t think he’d ever sleep again, but he could see the Major’s reasoning. With a nod, he turned and left, leaving Bastion alone to talk with Strike in private. Leaving the room and passing the two guards at the door, Shetlock made his way down the hospital corridor. He entered the reception area and passed the nurse, the white mare glancing around nervously.

Stepping out into the cool night air, Shetlock sighed before starting to trot towards the library. He hoped to borrow a tent for the night, and he doubted that he could ever return to the inn.

He passed houses with darkened windows, his thoughts plaguing him. Surprisingly, he didn’t blame himself for what had happened, Bastion was right. There was no way they could have predicted an assault on a defended room when they had a group out in the open. Still, the image of the body in the bathtub was burned into his mind, and it lurked in his vision.

A bright source of light drew his attention, and upon looking up he noticed that the town’s bar was open. Shetlock had never been one for drinking, but suddenly he longed for a drop to force the images away. Making a decision, he headed straight towards it and pushed open the double doors.

Looking in, it was practically deserted. The brown unicorn stallion tending to the bar looked up from a mug, and he nodded a greeting to Shetlock. A few ponies were sitting at tables in the back corner, and two were sitting at the bar itself.

He made his way over and sat on a stool, levitating out a coin pouch from one of his vest pockets.

“A glass of your strongest,” he requested, not knowing the particular names of the beverages. Golden coins fell from his pouch onto the counter, but a green glow took hold on them and shoved them back in. Looking up, Shetlock found the moustached-bartender smiling at him.

“You’re that Detective working on the case?” Shetlock nodded, the bartender setting a glass down on the bar. “Your money’s no good here, think of this as medicine and not a drink.” A brown bottle was soon emptying into the glass in front of him, Shetlock blinking his eyes a few times.

“Thanks,” he acknowledged, the bartender nodding before taking the bottle away. Shetlock took a swig of his drink, grimacing at the burn it produced in his throat. Still, the images were still there, so he toughened up and took another.

“Hey.” He looked beside him when a mare spoke to him, and he saw Mellow climbing up the stool beside him. She had a glass held in her hoof, only a small amount of brown alcohol remaining.

“Miss Mellow,” Shetlock greeted. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Yeah, well I needed a drink,” she muttered with a slight slur, evidently having already had more than one. “The same with you?”

“That’s right,” Shetlock confirmed, finishing his glass and setting down to face her. “How are you coping?”

“Pretty good now that I’ve got another room and some booze,” she answered, Shetlock smiling lightly. She grinned at him, and he noticed her eyes give him a once over. “So, you’re from the city?”

“Manehattan,” he told her, a clunk drawing his attention. Turning back to the bar, he saw that the bartender had refilled his drink. The brown unicorn gave him a wink and went back to cleaning the counter, Shetlock hesitating before lifting up his glass again. He took another swig, and he noticed that the images plaguing him were starting to get a little blurry.

“So, that means you’re staying in that inn, correct?” Mellow asked, moving her hoof on the counter in a circle. Shetlock was a little wary of where this was going, but he answered anyway.

“No, I was actually going to head back to the guard camp and borrow a tent after this drink.”

“Oh,” she murmured. He took another drink, and he felt better, a lot better. In fact, he was so caught up with the fact that he could no longer remember the bathroom that the next question from Mellow took him by complete surprise. “Um, Detective Shetlock, did you… did you maybe want to share my room with me tonight?”

It took his addled mind a few seconds to process what she was asking, and when he looked at her she had a light blush on her cheeks. He was lost for words, the question out of the blue. She wasn’t the worst looking mare, and she was likely seeking more comfort than drinking could provide. He had to admit, he did find the ideal of not sleeping alone to be a decent one.

“Are you sure?”

“I am,” she answered, her nose twitching. Making up his muddled mind, Shetlock finished his drink and nodded at her.

“Okay then.”

“Hrrbhf.”

Shetlock snorted and woke up, feeling soft sheets on his fur. After rubbing his eyes with his forelegs, he looked around. He was lying in a bed, a small and plain room around him. He slowly remembered what had happened last night, and he felt equally sorrowful and guilty. However, he had to admit that spending the latter part of it with Mellow had improved his mood, and he felt incredibly refreshed.

Glancing around for her, he didn’t see her anywhere. The black travel bag that had been against the wall was gone, and the side of the bed she had been in was only occupied by messy white sheets. He spotted a piece of paper on the bedside table, and using his magic he lifted it to his face. The first thing he saw was his name, and so he read the rest of the letter.

Shetlock,
I’m sorry for leaving without telling you, but you looked so peaceful and I thought that you needed all of the sleep you could get. By the time you’re reading this, I’ll already be on my way back to Manehattan. I’m sorry for not telling you last night, but with the alcohol and other things it slipped my mind. However, I want you to know that last night was great, and I’d like to thank you for helping me at the inn once again.

I wish you good luck with the case, and I hope that you make it back to Manehattan safely.

I also hope that we see each other again someday.

With love,

Mellow.

Shetlock smiled while he searched around for his vest, finding it draped over the back of the solitary wooden chair. He levitated the letter into the pocket before leaving the bed. Looking around, he spotted the door leading to the bathroom and started to move towards it with his smile still on strong.

Despite everything that had happened, at least one good thing had come out of it.

“Listen here, it’s too late to go back now. We’re sorry for your loss, but I’ve got six good ponies in the hospital and you’ve got another one dead. Stop being so darn elusive and tell us what you know!”

Shetlock, Bright Spark and Princess Sparkle shared glances while Major Bastion quizzed the humans sitting down in the middle of the floor. Guards were arrayed around the room, with a full six guarding the main door.

The humans were looking worse than yesterday, and apparently they hadn’t slept at all during the night. Sitting down in front of them with his notepad at the ready, Shetlock doubted that they had much more left in them.

Evidently he was correct, Simon looking towards the jittery Aries and the blank-faced Harriet before he sighed and looked down at the floor.

“I guess you’re already in too far,” he muttered, fidgeting with his fingers. “A shame, you seem like good people…”

“What’s after you?” Bastion pressed, sensing that they were about to break.

“Something far more dangerous than a simple murderer,” Simon answered. “Last night only proved it. The ISA sent an agent after us.”

“ISA?” Shetlock twitched at Bastion’s question. Something about the letters seemed familiar…

“Let me start from the beginning,” Simon explained sadly. “We’re not from this planet, we’re originally from a world called ‘Apolliana’.”
The human’s eyes seemed to stare at a distant place. “It was a beautiful world, and ever since Lazarus gifted our ancestors with sapience we had lived in relative peace. Sure, we’d have a few border skirmishes with other, less evolved, species from time to time, but we never fought each other. We were happy.”

“What changed?” Princess Sparkle asked, her eyes filled with concern.

“We found out we weren’t alone in existence,” Simon snorted. “One day, right in the middle of the planetary parliament, a single human in a plain suit just appears in a blue flash. He referred to himself as ‘Diplomat Vasquez’, and represented an empire called the ‘United Imperium of Planets’.

Naturally, our ministers all panicked until the Prime Minister calmed them down and addressed the visitor. We expected him to bring greetings, or to establish trade and relations.” Simon’s mouth twitched, the human’s fingers stopping their fidgeting for a moment. “What we got instead was a simple offer. Surrender or die.”

Shetlock felt a chill run down his spine, imagining how it would feel to be on the receiving end of that offer.

“Our government at first refused,” Simon continued. “They argued that peaceful co-existence would be preferable, and that the UIP had no right to take over the planet.”

“And…?” Bastion asked when Simon paused.

“They blew up one of our moons.”

Silence descended over the room, every single pony shocked speechless.

“They [l]destroyed the moon?” Bright Spark breathed. “How is that even possible?”

“A fleet of starships,” Simon answered. “The tidal changes alone wreaked havoc upon coastal cities, and we had no weapons that could possibly hit them. The government surrendered soon after that, with unconditional terms.”

“How horrible,” Princess Sparkle commented, her eyes quivering.

“It gets worse. With the surrender, their main forces came down from orbit and quickly secured everything. Our military was practically disbanded, lockdowns, curfews, street executions for the slightest offence.”

Everypony collectively winced at the last part, all picturing the mentioned scene.

“They took control of the economy and instituted a ration system, and implanted everyone with tracking chips under the skin.” He thrust out his arm and pulled up his sleeves, showing them all a long, messy scar on the underside of his forearm. “We’ve had ours cut out by one of our resistance cell’s doctors, but most people don’t have that option.”

“So, you’re resistance fighters,” Bastion observed, Simon nodding. “I assume that’s why you have weapons.”

“The group did provide us with supplies,” Simon answered. “I myself was a member of the army, Thirty-First Infantry Division. Harriet was a bank manager, Aries a government worker, Alexis was a painter and Stez… Stez was in his last year of university.” A moment of silence was shared around the room, the loss of the teenager still incredibly raw.

“I take it that fighting a resistance war was bloody.” Major Bastion seemed to be the only pony able to process the information without paling, hence he being the primary questioner. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re in Equestria.”

Simon patted the briefcase at his side, the strange lock on it glowing a faint green.

“To cut a long story short, we were given a task to protect this by one of the resistance leaders. The UIP was somehow closing in on our HQ, eliminating safe houses and killing our fellow fighters. I’ll never forget the amount of times a safe house would go dark, only for us to walk in and find corpses strung up from the roof.

One day, out of no-where, HQ was hit hard. A few scientists that had defected from the government, now the UIP’s pawn, were reverse-engineering a captured ISA sub-space teleporter. This brief case contains those plans,” Simon tapped it again. “We managed to use the captured one to get away, but we suspect that everyone else is dead or worse. So we’re stuck here, and we thought that we’d be safe. Obviously, we were wrong.”

“And that’s where this ‘ISA’ comes in,” Shetlock guessed. Simon nodded, and he noticed that the humans sneered at the acronym.

“The Internal Security Agency,” Simon spat. “More monsters than human.”

“T-that bad?” Bright Spark stammered, the sheer hatred that radiated off the humans nearly tangible.

“Normal UIP troops are evil Bastards, but they at least act within a standard military doctrine,” Harriet sneered, her fists clenching. “ISA agents…”

“Will cut you, gut you, record it and then send it to your loved ones,” Simon finished. “For fun.”

Shetlock shuddered, his pencil stopping. He hoped, really hoped, that this was all just over-exaggeration to make their enemies look worse. If not, then it all was utterly terrifying. To do all that must need a very wicked being.

“What makes you sure that the suspect belongs to this ‘ISA’?” Bastion questioned, giving Shetlock concerned glance. “From what you’ve described, it could be any number of-“

“It’s an ISA agent, no doubt,” Simon interrupted. “Look at what’s happened so far, everything points to them. They thrive on using fear, and they all take sick enjoyment from toying with people and watching them break down. A head in a box, killing us one by one, even the attack last night was a message. They’re able to get us at anytime, anywhere, no matter how many guards are around us, but they’re choosing to slowly kill us off one-by-one.”

No one spoke while Simon gripped his briefcase tighter, a look of defeat in his eyes.

“For the last time, it’s ISA. There’s nothing you can do, we’re finished. Soon we’ll all be dead and our mission will have been for nothing.” Simon looked up at them, shaking his head. “You already may have tried to do too much, and soon you’ll receive your very own ‘diplomatic offer’ from those godless demons. Let us go into the forest away from the town, and hopefully when we’re dead the ISA will leave you alone.”

Guards shifted awkwardly, Major Bastion and everyone else not knowing what to say to that. Shetlock hadn’t written anything down for minutes, too shocked to put pencil to paper. His mind was still churning over all of the information, a part of him regretting even asking for it. He was okay with it being a ‘normal’ murderer, now they were apparently facing a sadistic serial killer with military training who enjoyed their job.

Wonderful.

“No.”

Princess Sparkle’s voice surprised them all, humans included, the sniffling unicorn the last pony expected to speak.

“We won’t let them hurt you anymore,” she announced, anger showing through the sadness. “We won’t let you go and let yourselves die. What would be the point of sacrificing you to save ourselves? That would only make us as bad as them.”

“Princess, with all due respect-“

“No!” she shouted, cutting off Simon with fire in her eyes. “This is how it’s going to work!” She appeared to be unravelling, some strands of hair poking out from her normally straight mane. “We’re going to get the chariots, we’re going to stop anypony from leaving the town and we’re going to take you straight to Canterlot where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will protect you!”

“I agree,” Bastion sternly imputed, the Major’s face locked in a frown. “I’m sick of this creep getting the upper hoof on us, we need to unbalance them. If what you say is true, and I have little doubt that it is, then this UIP already knows where we are. It’s not just about you humans anymore, we ourselves need all the information we can get to prepare for any attack.”

“If we didn’t manage to stop them, what makes you think you have a chance?” Harriet scowled after spitting the question out at Bastion. Simon’s free hand patted her on the back, the female still not looking at anything but the floor in front of her.

“We have you,” Bastion answered. “You were resistance fighters, so you should know a lot about their tactics, equipment and weaknesses. Work with us, and we’ll take this killer down first, then we’ll prepare for any counter attack.”

“Trust us,” Shetlock pleaded. “We’re your last chance, and we want to help you with everything we have.”

Simon looked up at him, the human’s eyes showing many conflicting emotions. After a few moments, he ran his face and sighed in defeat.

“Fine,” he answered softly. “It’s digging your own graves, but fine. We’ll cooperate with whatever you want to do.”

“Good,” Bastion nodded. “We get you to Canterlot, and then we end this. Once and for all.”

Dropping the Mask

View Online

Shetlock watched while the three humans boarded the chariot, the bipeds all remaining quiet and shuffling along without much energy.

He noticed that Simon still held onto the simple black briefcase, the leader being the last one to enter the heavily guarded chariot. Sighing, Shetlock turned away from the library window and gathered up his notes.

“They’ll be safe,” Princess Sparkle told him, getting up from her chair. “Princess Celestia will make sure that nothing happens to them, then we can stop this.”

“I know, I just can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong,” he explained. He finished putting his notepad and pencil in his vest pocket, before he turned for the door. “This case isn’t over, not by a long shot.”

Without waiting for a reply, he passed to two door guards and emerged into the moonlit streets. The flapping of wings drew his attention to the road in front of the library, the chariot carrying the humans flying into the night sky with a swarm of pegasi guards surrounding it. Spotting Major Bastion and, surprisingly, Lieutenant Strike standing by a waiting chariot, Shetlock headed towards them.

He nodded a greeting to Bastion before tilting his head at Strike.

“Lieutenant, out of hospital so soon?”

“It’s not that bad,” Strike mumbled out, his nose still tightly bandaged. “My vision is still a little blurry and my ears are still ringing, but I’m okay to travel. Besides, if I have to return to Canterlot then I might as well catch a ride with you and the Major.”

“Don’t worry about Strike, Shetlock,” Bastion reassured. “We guards are hardier than we look. I take it that you’re ready to leave?”

“I am,” Shetlock answered, stepping towards the chariot’s open door.

“Good, if we leave now we should be able to catch up to the humans and land at the same time. The town has been blocked off and nothing is getting out now, the killer is trapped.”

Looking up, Shetlock noticed three pegasi fly overhead, the guards scanning the streets below them. “I just hope we can find out what we need to stop them,” he stated, Bastion stepping into the chariot.

“The same goes for me.” Bastion made room for Strike who followed him in, leaving Shetlock for last. “If this case collapses, then I’m the one who’s going to be reporting failure to the Princesses.”

Without much more to add, Shetlock climbed in after them. He sat down on the plain blue cushion of the guard transport, opposite the two guards. Guards outside the windows strapped themselves into the front of the chariot, and with a few flaps of their wings they pulled the chariot into the sky. Taking a second to once again admire the view from the sky, Shetlock’s gut churned when he focused on the town below them.

It would never be the same sleepy hamlet, not after what had happened. Briefly, he wondered how the inhabitants would cope before he gave up and levitated his notebook from his vest pocket. Flicking it open, he went over what information they knew.

The killer was likely a trained soldier of sorts, and had already displayed a twisted sort of enjoyment from their acts. Going off the voice that the guards had heard in the inn, they were positive that the suspect was male and a young adult. The mare in the alley, Mellow, had confirmed that the killer was a biped and so it was indeed a human. The suspect wasn’t afraid of the guards and seemed willing to inflict harm upon ponies as well, probably the most disturbing revelation.

“Shetlock, give yourself some rest.” He looked up, Bastion gesturing towards the windows. “We’ve had a stressful night, and we’ll be in Canterlot before the hour. Put down that notebook and grab some sleep, I think we’re going to need it.”

He was just about to protest, before he considered the advice. Sleep did sound good, even if it was only going to be a short nap. Hesitantly, Shetlock placed his notebook back in his vest pocket and leaned his head against the white wall of the chariot. As he felt his eyes start to droop, he was still surprised that he was even able to get to sleep at all, after seeing the things that he had.

“Shetlock, wake up.”

With a snort, Shetlock was greeted with a ton of noise and movement. Blinking his eyes open, he looked around. He was still in the chariot, Lieutenant Strike exiting it while Bastion was smiling at him.

“Did you have a nice nap?”

“It was dreamless,” he replied, thankful for that fact. He stretched his legs and looked out of the windows, a mass of guards surrounding a chariot next to them. Recognising it as the one that the humans were riding in, Shetlock got to his hooves and checked that everything was still in his pockets. Following Bastion out of the transport, his hooves clattered down onto the cobbled road.

They seemed to have landed in a city square, almost right next to the castle. That was a blessing, the closer they were to safety the better it was for everyone. He joined Bastion and Strike, the two guards watching over the unloading of the second chariot.

“Made it safe and sound,” Bastion observed. “Once the humans are secure, I’ll be heading back to organise the search in Ponyville.”
“I’ll stay here to question them, hopefully we can gain more of an idea about what we’re facing.”

“That would be most appreciated,” Bastion replied, giving Shetlock a grin. “By the way, expect your Chief to hear very good things about you, Detective.”

“Thank you sir,” Shetlock acknowledged. “However, I’d prefer you to hold your praise until this case is over and we haven’t got a killer to worry about.”

“I can do that.”

A scuffle over at the second chariot drew their attention, Bastion and Strike flicking their wings towards their swords at the noise of raised voices. With urgency, the three rushed over to the circle of guards, a stream approaching them from the castle. Upon getting closer, Shetlock could make out the angry words being exchanged.

“I don’t care what your Major ordered; you can’t just land next to the castle and expect entry straight away!”

“Listen here, bat-pony, we have orders from the Princess herself to escort these creatures to her at once, and to ensure their safety! To Tartarus with your rank and protocols!”

“I haven’t received anything from Princess Luna regarding any creatures, so you’ll just have to deal with it!”

“Princess Celestia herself permitted us entry, and Major Bastion has explicit orders to-“

“Well then, Sergeant, I don’t see this ‘Major Bastion’ around anywhere!”

“Actually, I’m right here.”

Shetlock followed Bastion while the Major pushed through the crowd. Now able to see, Shetlock noticed ten Lunar guards squaring off with the sixteen pegasi that had been pulling and guarding the humans’ chariot. Bastion trotted up to the leader, the bat-pony with a larger plume in his helmet, and stared down the other guard.

“Major Bastion?” the bat-pony glared, Bastion nodding his head. “Care to tell me why your guards are trying to enter the castle with unknown creatures in the middle of the night?”

“As my subordinate has already stated,” Bastion started to explain. “Princess Celestia has ordered us to escort the three humans to her, direct from Ponyville.” The bat-pony seemed to pale at the mention of the town. “I take it that you have been made aware of the situation?”

“I… I have,” the Lunar guard replied, his prior bluster gone. “So they are…?”

“The survivors,” Bastion confirmed.

“I still need to check it out,” the Lunar guard apologised, now much more civil. “Regulations, and we don’t know if you’ve brought the… problem with you.”

“We haven’t,” Bastion told him. “The town was sealed off before we left tonight.”

“I still have to check, now tell your guards to stand aside.”

Shetlock watched on while Bastion continued to gaze at the bat-pony, before the Major raised a hoof. “Everypony, stand down and allow them access.”

The pegasi all parted, spears still at the ready while the bat-ponies advanced on the chariot. The night guards investigated every bit of the transport, their leader opening the door and talking to the occupants inside. He stepped to the side, the humans and a unicorn exiting.

“Guard, over to the left,” a bat-pony ordered. The unicorn, tasked with shielding the humans, glanced towards Bastion. After a nod from the Major, he complied with the order and joined his fellow soldiers on the sidelines. The bat-pony leader inspected the inside of the chariot while his subordinates examined the humans and asked them short questions regarding their intentions.

All in all, it seemed rather petty to Shetlock, but he guessed that the guards just worked differently. The obvious rivalry wasn’t helping, the guards all tense and watching each other instead of the perimeter. Bored with observing the bureaucracy of the military, Shetlock instead took the time to examine the city around him.

He’d only ever been to Canterlot once before, and that was when he was a young colt with his parents. Now, looking over the elaborate buildings and the magnificent castle, he made a note to take them both out to lunch after the case. While the two tailors didn’t share his passion for crime-fighting, in fact they had told him that the thought of him in danger daily scared them, he still saw them once a week.
Scanning over the golden spires of the castle, he smiled to himself. It would certainly be nice, a relaxing meal in the wonderful capitol.

Focused on his thoughts of what that day would be like, Shetlock almost missed the small glint that he noticed coming from the top of a distant castle spire.

‘What was that?’ he mused, squinting his eyes. It flashed again, far from any gold that could have caused it.

“Are we done?”

He turned back to the humans when Simon asked the question, the bat-pony leader stepping around them a final time.

“While I don’t like you carrying weapons, no matter how blunt they are, I suppose that it’s okay as long as you remain with your escort at all times.”

“Trust me,” Simon answered the bat-pony emotionlessly. “We have no intention of going anywhere without them. We just want to get into the castle.”

“Go ahead.”

“Okay ponies, let’s get moving,” Bastion ordered, the pegasi forming up into an ordered square around the humans. The lone unicorn joined the three bipeds in the centre, Shetlock turning to look for a final time at the tower that the glint had come from. “Shetlock, we’re heading into the castle.”

“Wait,” he told them, Bastion halting the troops and walking up to join him.

“What is it?”

“I saw something on that tower,” Shetlock told him, pointing a hoof towards the spire in question. “Like the moonlight glinting off something.”

“A glint?” Simon questioned from the square, Shetlock and Bastion turning just in time to see the human’s eyes go wide. “Sniper!”
Just as he cried out, all three humans dived for the ground. For the confused Shetlock, time seemed to slow down. Harriet and Aries hugged the ground, their weapons still hidden in their cloaks.

Simon, however, was too slow.

The oldest human went to shield the briefcase he held with his body as he dived, but as soon as he moved something hit him. Shetlock could do nothing but watch in horror while a hole the size of his head was punched into Simon’s chest, a spray of blood flying out for meters to cover the guards behind the human. Simon’s eyes went wide, Shetlock and Bastion dashing forward towards him as Simon’s body hit the cobbled road with a thump.

It was chaos, the unicorn’s shield went up, pegasi ducked for cover, bat-ponies scattered and tried to avoid the same fate.

“Simon!” Shetlock and Bastion reached Simon just as Harriet and Aries did, the two humans crouching over their fallen comrade. “Simon, come on, you can’t die!”

Looking down, Shetlock could see that the dying human was not long for the world. The hole in his chest was losing blood fast, a third of the torso torn out thanks to the hole. He could see flesh, muscle and bone while blood weakly dribbled out. Harriet was sobbing over him, while Aries was shaking uncontrollably.

He couldn’t do anything, nor think of anything to say while Simon bled out. One of his hands was clasped around the handle of the briefcase, while the other was firmly gripping Harriet’s. Simon raised his head, the human’s eyes wide. Harriet looked into the eyes, Simon looking like he was about to say something.

A weak gurgle and a trickle of blood escaped his mouth, before the light in his warm eyes died out and his body went slack.
Shetlock stared down while the hand holding Harriet’s let go, the briefcase held in the other dropping to the road. The sounds of more guards approaching didn’t register with him; neither did the bellowed orders from Bastion telling to bat-ponies to search the castle for the human. He didn’t even react when Lieutenant Strike pulled him away, leading him into the castle past the streams of guards that were far too late to be of any help.

Shetlock continued to sit on the stone step while guards rushed past him.

He couldn’t focus, the sheer shock of Simon’s death flooring him. Sure, humans had died before and he had seen the scenes, but this time he had actually seen the one who he had talked to multiple times die right in front of him. Shetlock couldn’t work out why; their plan had gone perfectly up until then.

They had escaped Ponyville and had blocked off the town, it was impossible for the killer to follow them once they had left. He questioned whether Simon would have made it if they hadn’t been stopped by the bat-ponies, if that had somehow given the killer time to take yet another life. Once again, the murderer shouldn’t even have been in Canterlot, it was like they had somehow know the plan and had beaten them to the city.

He raised his head from his forehooves when guards rushed past him through the main gate, shields up and heads raised to scour the towers for any sign of activity. Spears and swords were drawn, more guards rushing out to meet them from the castle itself. Hastily-armoured Solar guards, alert Luna guards, all began to search for the intruder. Spotting Bastion in the crowd, Shetlock got up to join him, guards letting him through without complaint.

Closing in, Shetlock could see that Harriet and Aries were with Bastion, Aries clutching the briefcase to his chest while Harriet swept the rooftops with her weapon sights and a pained glare. A shimmering shield was covering them, the unicorn in the centre making sure to stay right next to the pair. Trotting next to Bastion, Shetlock accompanied them while they headed through the open courtyard.
“Major, what is going on?”

At the voice, everypony looked up.

Celestia herself flew down from the throne room window, four more pegasi guards with her. The sun princess had a stern look on her face, her guards peering around the area. Her golden-clad hooves hit the path, the Major not bowing but ushering her along.

“There is no time, Princess,” he explained while herding the humans along. “We’re under attack; the killer is inside of the castle!”
Celestia acted within seconds, a yellow shield covering them all when her horn glowed. Under the golden dome, Shetlock felt his heart rate return to normal and his breathing slow. Taking a deep breath, the fear he held bleed away to be replaced with a calming warmth. Celestia wasted no time in approaching Harriet and Aries, her wings spread.”

“Princess!” Strike tried to warn, but it was too late.

Celestia enveloped Harriet and Aries in a hug with her wings, moving with them until they had entered the main doors to the castle. She only let go and dropped her shield when the heavy barriers shut behind them, locking out all danger and leaving them safe. In the wake of the surprise embrace was two confused humans, their faces a mixture of sorrow, fear and horror.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered to them, wiping their tears with her wings. “Is the third-“

“Simon’s dead,” Harriet informed with a sob, Celestia moving to hug them again. All of the guards and Shetlock watched while the Princess comforted the two alien beings, Harriet’s gun held limp in her hands while she cried into Celestia’s wing. Aries merely shook, the human affected permanently by the experience.

“Hush, you’re safe now,” Celestia told them, before raising her head to look at a nearby solar guard. “Captain Arcane, search every inch of the castle and send more pegasi to help Luna and her guards scour the sky, I want the monster who did this found.”

“Yes Princess,” the unicorn answered. “And if we find them?”

“Do what it takes to ensure the threat is gone,” Celestia answered, before turning back to comforting the two beings she held. “There, there, I’ll protect you now.”

“Princess,” Major Bastion spoke up, the stallion visibly shaken. “We should make all hast to the safe room, only then can we rest.”

“A wise idea, Major,” Celestia murmured, before urging the two humans forward. The column of guards, numbering just over forty, moved as a mass down the corridor with Celestia, the humans, Major Bastion, and himself in the centre. Looking around, Shetlock assumed that Strike had left to help the other pegasi leaving only unicorn guards behind. Horns lit up and swords sat waiting in their scabbards, ponies checking every corridor that they passed.

They moved deeper and deeper into the castle, the safe room located underground was their destination. Shetlock didn’t know what it was, but he assumed that it was usually reserved for the Princesses and important nobles during times of war. During the walk, Harriet had moved out of Celestia’s hold to walk at the back of the centre group, looking behind them while keeping her weapon trained on any corridor.

Just as they turned the corner to enter a new corridor, a commotion came from the back guards. Celestia halted halfway down a long flight of stairs, the humans and accompanying guards also pausing to turn around. Shetlock found himself pushed to the left side, guards parting to allow a single pony through.

He winced when he noticed that the earth pony maid was bleeding heavily from a gash across her chest, the red staining the pink fur and white apron. Celestia rushed forward with her horn lighting up, but the maid waved a foreleg to stop her.

“Princess,” she huffed out, dropping her feather duster to the ground. “Something attacked me in the last corridor; the monster is on its way after me!”

Guards snapped into action without having to be ordered, the ones at the bottom of the staircase rushing up to put themselves between the VIPs and the oncoming threat. Shetlock found himself, the humans, Celestia and the injured maid pushed to the back, the guards all lowering their weapons in preparation to meet the attack. Shields flickered into life to cover them all, and he braced himself when the sounds of shouts and massed hoofsteps approached.

Spears were thrust out but hit nothing, another twenty guards skidding to a halt when they rounded the corner. The two groups stared at each other, before confused muttering broke out between them all.

“It was right here, we were right on its tail!”

“What do you mean? We’re waiting for it now!”

Shetlock however, was focused on a far more urgent matter.

‘Wait… why is there a maid down here at this time of night?’

Just as he figured it out, a chilling voice sounded from behind him.

“Oh, I also have a message for you, Harriet Snyder and Aries Brinstone. Was it all worth it?”

Shetlock whirled around with Celestia, Bastion and the rest of the guards, just in time to see the injured maid stand on her hind legs in front of the frozen Harriet. The human went to fire her gun, but with a supernatural speed the maid struck out with a hoof.

The hoof made contact with Harriet’s chest before Shetlock could even blink, Aries scrambling back towards the guards in horror.
Harriet swayed on her feet before the ‘maid’ withdrew the hoof, a thin blade emerging from the bottom of her hoof withdrawing with a faint coat of blood on it. Once again unable to do anything, Shetlock stared while Harriet dropped to her knees and then fell face-down onto the floor, the killer dropping back onto four hooves.

“Monster!” Celestia shouted, rage and sadness mixing in her tone. She lowered her horn towards the grinning maid and spread her wings, hiding Aries behind her while the guards shifted to counter the new threat. Shetlock once again found himself shoved back behind Bastion, the fuming Major levelling his sword towards the murder.

“A pony!?” Bastion yelled, Shetlock sharing his confusion.

That confusion turned to utter fear when the maid looked straight at him, her blue eyes flashing a menacing red.

“Well, not quite.”

A blue flash surrounded her form, causing them all to turn their heads away. When he looked back, Shetlock’s heart sank when his eyes landed on the familiar tan mare in front of them, facing the spears with a smile on her face.

“...Mellow?”

“Actually Shetlock,” she replied while raising her eyebrows at him. “My correct name is Unit One, and the ISA sends its regards.”

In the Hooves of a Killer - Taking Out the Trash

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Unit One, a prime example of the ingenuity of the UIP’s Artificial Intelligence Research Department, strolled the streets of the busy pony town with a merry tune on her lips. Currently she was sporting a very nice tan coat and brown mane, in addition to fairly generous hips with a generic ‘cutie mark’ on her flanks.

Surprisingly, she was enjoying masquerading as a pony mare, a cute one at that. She still couldn’t get over how her hooves clicked on the cobbled road, the satisfying ‘clip-clop’ sound soothing to her.

Still, she wasn’t here to enjoy parading around as pony and smiling at handsome stallions, she had work to do.

While her backstory as a café owner visiting from the largest city of this country was a little shaky, she was confident that she could divert everyone… everypony, with a few choice words. Local lingo was something easily picked up, the ponies just changing some words to sound more horse-like. More difficult had been working out how to control the tail; apparently she wasn’t supposed to be swinging it about everywhere.

The nice, embarrassed stallion that had told her that had received a kiss as a reward.

Smiling at the memory, Unit One began her trip to the town’s market area. If the last two days of observation proved correct, then her targets would be leaving their little hidey-hole to purchase their meagre supplies. She didn’t have that problem, needing nothing solid to subsist on.

Continuing to hum, she blinked her eyes and subtly changed her vision, the area in front of her lighting up with warm colours. Pony shapes glowing a bright white increased in number when she entered the market, Unit One glancing over all of the stalls and buildings until a cluster of large red shapes drew her attention.

Her vision returned to normal with a second blink, Unit One making her way around the stalls until she had flanked the five humans purchasing carrots. Biding her time, she adjusted the coin purse around her neck before the humans began to hurry back towards the street that led to the inn they had been sheltering in.

Waiting until the time was right, she rushed out from the empty stall she was hiding behind to intercept their path. Simon Vasquez, the leader, tripped over her while she crashed to the ground.

Looking up, she examined the weapons that each human was carrying, cloaks flying open to expose pistol butts and submachine guns. Her computer brain processed the images in a split second, coming to the conclusion that the amount of firepower would cause an issue if she just tried to kill them now.

‘When in Rome,’ she thought, remembering the saying that one of the scientists who had created her enjoyed repeating in their lessons. Curling up in a ball, she willed her fake eyes to shed moisture while the human leader landed heavily on her.

“They got Simon!” a women’s voice called out, Unit One identifying her as Harriet Snyder. Peeking out, she spotted numerous guns pointing at her, the humans’ heart rates rising rapidly. Seeking to avoid an issue at the current time, she quivered her lip and began to beg.

“Please, please I’m so sorry!” she began, weeping while she did so. The human leader started to get off her, while she continued her act. “Don’t hurt me please!”

Simon got to his feet, Unit One staying on the ground while trying to appear as non-threatening as possible.

“It’s just a pony,” Harriet sighed with relief, lowering the ballistic submachine gun that had been pointing at her head. The others followed her movements, Unit One no longer threatened by the projectile firearms. She still continued to cry, however Simon soon grabbed hold of her forehooves to help her up.

“It’s okay,” he told her. “You made a mistake and we made a mistake, we’re not going to hurt you.”

‘Oh, I can assure you, rebel,’ she thought, hiding her distain from them. ‘I did not make a mistake, and it is you that should be wary of harm.’ Now back on all four hooves, she still looked up at them with big doe eyes.

“You… you mean it?”

“I do, are you hurt?”

She shook her head to confirm that she was injury free, one of the many advantages of being constructed from nanomachines and energy. Even so, no scratches on her fabricated body were detected, a good thing since realistic looking blood was annoying to replicate and a waste of resources. “No, I’m fine.”

Unit One held back a grimace when Simon patted her on the head. The feeling was… strangely comforting, and she chided herself for getting too ‘into character’. She’d already been warned by the bosses to not become overly interested in common biological processes and feelings, especially after the repeated attempted seduction… incidents involving a fellow intelligence officer. It wasn’t like she could help it; she was designed to replicate a living, breathing, being after all and with that came certain impulses normal to living things.
It was probably why she was classed as a ‘failed prototype’.

The human withdrew his hand, bending down to pick up his dropped bag of carrots. She briefly calculated just how easy it would have been to kill him then and there, over sixty-five different methods and ways. She held back her desire to spill blood, however, her orders stating that each human was to die one after the other.

“Good, just try to be more careful next time.”

The humans continued to flee back to their sanctuary, shooting her warning glares while they did so. She repressed a smirk, they were so clueless as to what they were afraid of, not even knowing that she was the one that they feared so.

“I will,” she replied, before moving to strengthen her cover. Leaving the humans be for the time being, she noticed two stalls side-by-side, both offering flowers. Able to see the mares operating them huddling behind the cover, she made her way over. Glancing back, the humans rounded the bend and the hiding ponies emerged, one mare white with a red mane while the other was pink with a light-green mane.

Stopping at the second stall, she examined the flowers before nodding to the pink mare. “A bunch of daisies, please.” She kept her eyes on the coin bag, concentrating on getting the golden coins out.

She decided against forming two fingers to retrieve the troublesome coins, it would likely cause more of a commotion then when she first robbed that liquor store to obtain the funds. The sweet pegasus mare known as ‘Sticky Fingers’ was still currently wanted by the Canterlot guard, if the newspapers were anything to go off of.

Finally she managed to get ten coins out with her mouth, placing them on the stall and receiving a generous group of flowers in return.
“Here,” Unit One looked up when the other florist pushed across a single, beautiful rose. “On me, you look pretty shaken up.”

She didn’t know what to say, a gift was a rare thing for her.

“Thank you,” she answered, going for the stock response. “I’ll be fine, it was just so scary.” She joined the rose with her newly-purchased daisies, admiring the wonderful petals.

“Yeah, those humans are pretty terrifying.”

She smiled, less because of the shared agreement but more because she was reminded that the targets she was set to kill were nowhere near as threatening as the people that she worked for.

“Humans?” she asked, feigning innocence in the hopes to secure some local knowledge.

“That’s apparently what those bipeds are called, or at least that’s what they told Princess Sparkle when she visited them.”

The rose vendor was correct; it was indeed humans that she was hunting. The additional information that her quarry were communicating with a local leader was worrying, Unit One having seen the purple pony visit the humans while she had been watching them. Hopefully the Princess hadn’t been told too much, having to silence native royalty was always a chore.

“She sure seems keen to learn about them,” the daisy-vendor added with a scoff, Unit One tilting her head at that. The rose-seller shot her companion a glare, before looking back towards her.

“What’s your name? I haven’t seen you around in Ponyville before, I’m Roseluck.”

“I’m Mellow,” she turned to show off her flank-mark, something she had noticed ponies do when meeting a new person. “I run a café in Manehattan, and I’m taking a short break in Ponyville for the week.”

That was a lie, she’d never stepped foot in Manehattan and couldn’t cook to save her artificial life. The only experience with the culinary arts she had was spicing up food and drink with poison, and that was something that did not contribute to a healthy dinner guest.

After introducing her to Daisy, the… daisy vendor, Roseluck quizzed her on the details of her visit to their town. She stuck to vague answers, thankful that neither pony had visited the city in question. After placing her purchased goods in the saddlebag she had stolen from a cart when she had first arrived, Unit One made to leave but was halted by Roseluck.

“Listen Mellow, me and Daisy join some other friends for tea every night. Tonight it’s at my house; do you want to come along?”

She mulled the idea over, the meeting likely a great source of information regarding pony social etiquette and possible gossip regarding the humans. She still had their tracker registering in her systems, and she knew they wouldn’t leave town without the briefcase. One night couldn’t hurt, after all. Still, she’d have to play along to appear normal.

“I’d love to,” she answered before glancing back at her saddlebag. “I’ll make the same daisy salad that I do for my café.”

The next few sentences were lost with her brain telling her that she didn’t have a clue about making daisy salad. She caught the address and the fact that it had a rose garden out the front, however.

“I never would have guessed,” she joked, earning giggles from the two vendors. She waved and left, Roseluck requesting more information about Manehattan later on. Pushing aside the need to find out about the city to maintain her cover, Unit One made her way through the streets towards a store that sold quills and sofas.

She had already established that the local equine population weren’t all there, mental wise.

Ducking into the alley behind the store, she crouched down near a small window close to the ground. Opening it, she dropped her bag down before checking to make sure no one was watching. Convinced that the coast was clear, she commenced with her plan to gain entry to the shop’s basement.

The nanomachines that made up her body compressed, Unit One squeezing down through the window effortlessly. With a small smile, she plumped herself back up and added a little more to her rear for good measure. Giving herself an approving once over, she picked up her bag of ingredients and walked over towards a small workbench.

Plopping the flowers down, she peered under an old table.

Her metal case, as long as her pony body, was still there as well as the simple black bag containing all of the items that she had stashed two days ago. Pulling out the bag, she shifted through the numerous electronic devices to withdraw a simple plastic bowl.
Placing it on the bench, she emptied the bag of roses into it and stared at it, her forehooves planted on either side of it.

“Okay,” she said to herself. “That’s the flowers. Now what?”

Well, thankfully it turned out that a daisy salad only consisted of flowers and a dash of dressing. At least, that was what the old cookbook she had found said. Reflecting on this while she walked through the darkened streets towards Roseluck’s house, Unit One came to one conclusion.

Ponies were weird.

Trotting down the empty cobbled road, surprisingly merry thanks to the prospect of the dinner, Unit One stopped when she spotted a figure enter an alley way. What caught her interest was that the shape was bipedal, and when she looked closer she realised that it was alone.

“Well, well, well,” she muttered to herself with a smile, around the bag handle that she held in her mouth. “Running away from home? It’d be a shame if something was to happen.”

Heading towards the alley, she adjusted her vision to improve the brightness and slipped in after the human. Watching him move deeper into the alley, kicking trashcans as he did, she moved to a set of cans and waited for an opening.

“Stupid ponies,” the human muttered, giving a trashcan a vicious boot. Unit One put her plan into action, using a forehoof to knock the lid of a can to the ground.

As the lid clattered to the ground, the human whirled around a whipped a gun out of his cloak, a compact machine pistol. Drawing back in fear, Unit One widened her already large eyes and gazed up at him like a frightened puppy.

“Fuck’s sake,” the human breathed out, running a hand down his face while lowering the gun. “Pony, do you any idea how close you just came to being killed?”

“K-killed?” she stammered out, shaking. She deliberately fumbled with the bag in her mouth, the human pointing to his gun.

“Yes, killed,” he answered, before peering at her. “What are you even doing back here this late?”

She could see that his heart rate was dropping, and his movements began to relax. He had obviously come to the conclusion that she was not a threat, something that would prove to be his downfall.

“I was taking a shortcut to a friend’s house,” she explained, lowering her head. “Sorry, Mister Human.”

“It’s alright,” he sighed, stepping aside for her. He returned his gun to his holster, Unit One catching a glimpse of a second one on the other side. Nodding her head in thanks, she hurried past him towards the other end of the alley. Stopping out of sight around the corner, she looked back to find him sitting on a trashcan. The human had his head in his hands, Unit One grinning at his distraction.

Turning towards a group of four cans, she carefully placed the bag holding the salad container on the ground before leaping towards them.

Trashcans banged on the ground, lids flying off and a small amount of garbage spilling out into the alley. She lay in the middle, shutting off her nasal sensors and trying to appear hurt and weak.

“Pony Mare?” the human called out, Unit One smiling to herself. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t respond, but she did prepare to take his life. A stream of nanomachines, herself, quickly transferred themselves from the inside of her right foreleg to the middle of her hoof. They moved so fast that a normal observer would think that a thin spike was actually emerging from the hoof, when in fact the spike itself was forming from her own body.

The grey weapon was completed in seconds, the edge a mere atom thick. As long as half her foreleg, she concealed it under her body and awaited her ‘rescue’.

Her advanced hearing tracked the human as he stepped around the corner, paused and then resumed his advance. “Pony?” he inquired, slowing as he approached. “Pony, are you okay?”

“No,” she sniffed out, the human closing in on her. She heard him place his weapon on the ground while he bent down, and she soon felt rough hands place themselves on her shoulders.

“Come on, let’s get you up,” he told her, Unit One allowing him to turn her around while she kept her right foreleg hidden. Looking up at him, she was met with a concerned face.

“What happened?”

“It was terrible,” she sobbed out. “There was five of them.”

“Five?” he replied, his hand going for his gun. “Five of what?”

“Humans,” she replied, her saviour’s hand stopping. “Five of them.”

“Five humans?” he breathed out, before leaning in. “Pony, what did they look like, quickly, we’re in great danger!”

‘Oh, I know you are.’

Unit One stopped crying, beginning to move her right foreleg. Looking him deep in the eyes, she took a deep breath.

“They looked like filthy, rotten, traitors.” His eyes widened at her harsh tone. “And one’s right here now.”

She allowed him a second to comprehend just how badly he’d messed up, his eyes widening still. His hand began to reach for his discarded gun, but she was faster.

Her hoof-spike was rammed into his chest, Unit One smiling when she saw the shock in his baby-blue eyes. Since it was formed from her, she could feel it break the skin, part the flesh and pierce the organ. It was amazing, the feeling invigorating her and causing her to let out a groan of satisfaction. As good as the feeling of warmth was, however, his face was far more satisfying.

She could see him trying to figure it all out, his mouth opening and closing like a fish while his body struggled to live. All of a sudden, his eyes went wide for a final time before the light in them faded away, his mouth locked open with his dead pupils staring at her in horror.

Unit One felt a surge of elation when she registered no life signs from him, one target down with four more to go. It felt good, completing a mission objective, and she found her tail swishing happily at the result. Withdrawing the spike from his chest, she shook off as much blood as she could before returning it into herself.

Glancing at her bag, she checked the local time and realised that she still had an hour before she was due at the dinner party.

Looking down at the lifeless corpse in the trash, she shrugged.

“Well,” she mused to herself while selecting which tools she wanted to form and use. “Might as well kill some time with a spot of decorating.”

Two Parts of the Job

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Unit One watched from the street corner while the cream-coloured earth-pony exited the hospital. Taking note of the fact that he was wearing clothing, granted it was just a vest and tie, she guessed that he was some sort of specialist brought in from another location.

She ducked her head to peer into the bag around her neck when he glanced around, making it look like she was searching for an item. The bag was empty save for a few coins, and when she looked back up he was trotting off towards the large tree in the centre of the town. A spark of curiosity going through her circuits, she decided to follow him and learn some more information.

Already she knew that the large tree served as both a library and, strangely, the residence of the local ruling ‘princess’. She’d gone by it once before as the Princess had developed a fascination with her quarry, something that Unit One saw as a potential problem.

Trotting after the vest-wearing stallion, she stuck to the closed shops. He didn’t seem as skittish as the other ponies, continuing to trot without looking around fearfully. It was a breeze to follow him and she soon found herself watching him enter the treehouse.

Equine guards in their shiny armour filled the area, all of them armed with simple spears and swords. The pony she had been following spent a few moments looking around before heading towards the library door. Unit One searched around the courtyard, trotting towards a bench at the far side of the area.

Guards only gave her a passing glance when she passed them, prompting a small smirk from her. They were so convinced that it wasn’t a pony they were after that they flat out ignored her, and while it was true in a way, it was fairly sloppy on their behalf.

Then again, judging from their society she doubted that they could even comprehend what she was.

Sitting down on the bench, she surveyed the area while swivelling an ear towards the conversation going on between the stallion and the door guards.

“-when talking to the Princess, she’s rather… emotional about the murder. She had a habit of talking to the humans, apparently.”
It seemed like she was just in time to catch the tail end of their conversation. Noticing that the stallion she was stalking was permitted entrance into the library, she fine-tuned her audio microphones in an attempt to listen in further.

She winced when she was met with a mass of chattering voices, evidently the inside of the library was packed full of the local equines. Focusing, she searched for any indication of the voices she was after.

“-metal devices here serve as ammunition, like crossbow bolts, for the weapon.”

‘There,’ she thought. Filtering out the ambient noise, she could hear the female speak with more clarity. From the tone she figured that the mare was some kind of scientist, and Unit One also worked out that she was likely talking about the ballistic firearms left at the scene.

It mattered not that the ponies now had guns, the simple ballistic weapons were millennia old in design. More voices joined the scientist, including the pony Princess, and they were all debating the usefulness of the firearms. She snorted when a male dismissed the guns as harmless. They may have been simple in design, but even a single gun could wreak havoc with the pony guards.

“The victim was taken by surprise or didn’t fear his attacker.”

Unit One leaned in closer when the new male voice informed the group of his accurate information. His accent was different to the others, and she put her money on him being the sharp-dressed pony that she had followed.

“I just came from the Mortician; he was killed by a single thrust through his heart from an unknown blade. There were no signs of defensive wounds or other marks on the body indicating that he never saw an attack coming.”

“Spot on,” she murmured, making a note to mix things up in the future. The way he delivered the information led her to believe that he was some form of law enforcement, an even better reason to keep tabs on him.

She kept on listening, the ponies going through their ideas of who could possibly be the killer. Her smile at one of the males insisting that it was another human was short lived, a second voice dismissing the idea and saying that they couldn’t rule ‘anypony’ out. That was a shame; she was enjoying not being a suspect.

The ponies once again continued their discussion, until they reached one key point. With a grin, she listened while the foreign voice explained about her note and ‘gift’.

“Now, the head itself is certainly a sign that our suspect is not… ‘normal’, but it was more of the note that was the real interest.”

Not normal? The nerve of him, she was starting to doubt her interest. Still, she was curious to hear what he thought of her note.

“It had, let me see here, ‘Innsberg Sorting Accountants’ written on it as the sender.”

She couldn’t help but grin at her little joke. Oh, how she wished she could have seen the reaction of her prey when they found out just who had come to bring them to justice. The funniest part was that she was far, far worse than an ordinary agent.

Continuing to eavesdrop, she waited for the ponies once again. They talked about the nervous nature of the humans, the childish notion that their guards would stop her from killing another human, and the most important thing of all to her.

Their plans.

‘So, it seems like they’re going to try and talk to them,’ she mused. ‘Heh, that will be interesting.’ Figuring it would be best to be careful, she stayed and tried to pick up any additional information. She was rewarded with the name of the pony she’d been trailing, Unit One raising an eyebrow with interest. ‘Shetlock, what a strange name.’

Leaving the bench, she turned and headed back towards the town. It seemed like her next steps were to repeat her actions here at the inn, and to find out if the humans were willing to leave their makeshift fort.

Trotting along the cobbled path with a whistle, she entered the market district. There weren’t many stalls open, likely due to the fact that she had killed and decapitated someone the previous night, but she recognised a few of them.

Unfortunately, someone recognised her as well.

“Mellow!”

Cursing to herself, she looked to her left to find a white mare with a red mane wave a hoof at her. As if that wasn’t enough for an identification, the mare was also standing behind a stall heaped with fresh roses. Putting on a fake smile, Unit One trotted over towards Roseluck. She had to maintain her cover, especially with the newfound police interest.

“Roseluck,” she greeted back, stopping out the front of the store. “I must say, your party the other night was fun.”

“Yeah, about that,” Roseluck continued, lowering her voice. “Are you okay, walking around the town?”

“What?” she replied, tilting her head like she had seen the ponies do when curious.

“You know, with the murder…”

Oh, that was it, Roseluck was worried for her. It was kind of sweet really, and Unit One appreciated the concern.

Even if she was the last person to be worried about getting murdered.

“You’re still out,” she pointed out, Roseluck wincing.

“I don’t have a choice, I’ve got a business to run after all,” she answered, before glancing around at the empty markets. “Then again, it’s not like I’m swarming with customers.”

A twinge of guilt hit Unit One at that, despite not knowing her Roseluck had invited her into her house to meet her friends. She didn’t tend to have many friends, anyone who got to really know her tended to be wary about the small fact that she was a shape shifting AI automation that worked for one of the most feared intelligence agencies in existence. Carefully using her mouth, she withdrew a shiny gold coin from her bag. “I’ll take a rose.”

“Thanks Mellow,” Roseluck acknowledged, passing across one of the largest.

“No problem, they’re great roses.” Tucking it away in her bag with the top sticking out, she managed to catch a glimpse of the stallion named Shetlock passing by. He was carrying a brown box on his back and he paused, looking towards her and Rose. She acted nonchalant, returning her gaze to Roseluck. “So, I assume that your sisters are still refusing to come out of their homes?”

Roseluck sighed. “Yes, as if it wasn’t bad enough when the humans were just walking around. Now, I don’t think they’ll ever come back out.”

Oh, if only she knew just how much worse things were going to get for the small town. Unit One noticed that Shetlock had moved on from behind them, the stallion moving towards the inn down the street. With her goal in mind, Unit One smiled apologetically at Roseluck.

“Oh, well I better be off, things to do and such.”

“Okay then, I’ll see you later.”

“Bye,” she bid farewell to the flower vendor, trotting down the street towards the inn. She paused at the edge of the market, waiting until Shetlock had entered the building. Spying an empty cart sitting in a side street, she trotted over to it and made a show of rummaging around in her bag. Once again aiming her ears at the inn across the street, she tried to pick up a trace of the conversation.

“I’ve come here… Simon wanted to know… personal items we found at the… scene.”

She scowled, even with her advanced sensors the conversation was dropping in and out. Still, she couldn’t risk getting any closer to the inn; she could see the groups of guards maintaining a watch on the entrance and sides. Now was not the time to reveal herself just yet, there were still some final touches to put into place.

Fighting to find some valuable information despite the problems, her ears perked up when she heard one particular burst of words from Shetlock.

“You move.. We arrange for… guards, some with magical shields, to escort… this room and into accommodations in-.”

“Well, hello there.”

The male voice interrupted her spying right at the crucial part, Unit One recognising the tone.

Usually she was the one hitting on people.

Looking up, her right hoof posed to form a blade and stab the stallion if needed, her gaze was met by a single armoured guard. He was the same white and blue as all of them, however the difference was his smile. She could see his eyes roaming her fabricated body, Unit resisting the urge to roll her optics.

Out of all the guards to be stopped by, she seemed to get the horny one.

Great.

“I’m sorry Officer, do you want something?” It came out a little harsher than she intended, but she was still cross that he had interrupted her. In response, the stallion raised a hoof to calm her.

“I was just concerned about you,” he tried. “There’s a killer on the loose, after all.”

‘You better watch out that you yourself don’t piss the killer off any more, slimeball.’

“I can handle myself.”

“I know that Miss, but surely you’d appreciate me walking you back to your house just in case-“

“Private!”

The stallion went ramrod straight at the angry yell, another guard approaching them.

“Yes sir!”

“Are you harassing another mare!?”

Unit One had to suppress her laughter at the officer who had rushed over from the market and was glaring at the Private with only a snout’s distance between them. It was almost worth the interruption.

“No sir, I was merely asking her if she wanted-“

“I know full well what you were trying to do!” the officer bellowed, pointing a hoof towards the market. “Now return to your sergeant and consider yourself warned! I see this behavior again and I’ll have you stationed on the border!”

The threat was obviously a dire one, the Private rushing off to follow the order. Unit One looked at the officer, the stallion still fuming. “Thank you, sir.”

“It’s no problem ma’am, there’s always a few who need to learn how to conduct themselves. Do you need anything?”

“No thanks, I was just heading home.”

He nodded at her reply, turning and trotting back towards the market. “Okay then, take care.”

With a final nod, she turned down the side street and made for her makeshift camp. She had a stakeout to conduct, and she suspected that she’d need a few of her supplies.

Concealed upon the roof of the inn behind a chimney, Unit One peered out to watch as the group of guards approached. Zooming in with her optics she could see that they were led by an officer and Shetlock. Also of note were the strange half-bat, half-ponies that were amongst them, armoured in lacquered purple armour.

‘Huh, R and D would love to get their hands on them,’ she thought while observing them, knowing more than one xenobiologist in the Research Department who’d be interested in the bat-ponies. Looking over the rest of the street, she noticed the groups of guards concealing themselves around the area. Unfortunately for them, they lit up amazingly well on her thermal sensors.

She focused back on the twelve ponies making their way down the street, the guards armed with short blades. Each one was staring straight ahead while they approached her position, but she could see their eyes glancing over every alleyway and street they passed by. They were obviously waiting for her to make an appearance, and they dreaded her doing so.

‘Good, it’d be best not to disappoint them.’

Unit One smoothly hid back behind the chimney when the gaze of a bat-pony came close to her. With a grin, she acknowledged that so far they had been the only ponies wise enough to actually look up at the rooftops. Waiting until she heard the group enter the inn, she prepared herself for their exit.

Silently, the matter making up the inside of her left foreleg emerged from the bottom of her hoof in the form of a thin, silver blade a mere molecule thin at the point. Pressing her other hoof against her stomach, the fake fur and skin parted. The nanomachines that made up her body parted to allow access to the storage compartment she had created, a single cylinder dropping silently into the awaiting hoof.

Checking over the standard stun grenade she had brought with her on the assignment, she examined it for any visible issues. Satisfied that it would perform as expected, no real surprise with the usual reliability of standard issue UIP gear, she kept it held in her hoof via the slight magnetic field she was creating there.

The things one could do when they were nothing more than groups of nanomachines held together with a variable energy field.

Her plan was simple: wait for the ponies to exit the inn with the humans, throw the stun grenade, leap off the rooftop while everyone was blinded and deaf, kill her targets quickly and then avoid any remaining guards. It was a shame to end the fun so early, but there was no point in tormenting her quarry if she wasn’t going to get a chance to kill them. The Equines were a primitive people, but apparently they possessed some form of magic so she couldn’t underestimate them that easily.

Movement at the inn door drew her attention, Unit One preparing to strike while the guards and humans exited. A grin crossed her face when she counted half of the guards and only three humans. Focusing, she searched the hotel with her heat sensors and laid eyes upon a most wondrous sight.

One of the humans was still in the room, with only six guards as well.

To be honest it appeared to be a very obvious trap, she could think of no other reason as to why they had split into two smaller groups. Still, a lone human was a lone human, and she was fully prepared to play their game.

As silently as possible, she reversed towards the back of the inn, aiming for a room down the hall. Reaching the edge of the roof, she checked and found no guards watching the particular side. Thanking their carelessness, she took another step back and dropped down off the roof.

Falling past her targeted room’s window, she stuck her unladen hoof out. The synthetic flesh formed a sturdy hook, and she jolted to a stop to hang off the wall. With mechanical strength and strategic relocation of her body mass, she hauled herself up to the window. It was unlocked, thankfully she didn’t have to sear the lock off the gain entry. Swinging up inside, she landed on three hooves and quietly made her way towards the door.

With her optics still set to thermal signals, she saw that the hallway was empty. Opening her room door and closing it again, she approached the room that held her target. Pausing only to make the needed adjustments to her voice, she banged a hoof on the door rapidly.

“Help!” she yelled, her voice an exact copy of the soldier that had tried to pick her up earlier that day. “We were attacked, the killer is heading this way!” She had always known that her artificial talent for mimicry was amazing, but still she was pleasantly surprised with how scared she managed to sound while franticly knocking.

The soldiers on the other side of the door didn’t even question her, one of them approaching the door and making for the handle with a hoof. She stepped to the side, out of sight while she waited for the door to open.

Her right optic twitched when the door had a hoof-wide space crack. With the targeting systems in her brain working overdrive, she timed it just right and activated her stun grenade. With a toss, it flew through the small gap and she could hear it clatter upon the wooden floor.

And then it went off.

A thunderous clap of sound, a bellow of smoke and a blinding flash of light rang out from the small room, Unit One charging towards the door with her sensors immune to the sudden burst of sound and light.

Her shoulder smacked into the half-open barrier, her unnatural strength busting the door off its flimsy metal hinges. It flew inwards, Unit One hearing a muffled grunt and a crack from her right. She continued to charge into the smoke, hunting for her quarry.

A stumbling bat pony received a hoof-strike to the helmet, the metal crumpling due to the force of the blow. The mare dropped to the ground with a thump, Unit One moving straight on to clock a unicorn in the cheek with a second strike. He quickly joined his fellow guard on the ground, Unit One not uttering a sound as she quickly disposed of the rest.

The other three still standing were soon awarded their own injuries, focused strikes crumpling helmets like tin and smashing faces.
Unit One whirled around to face the bathroom, her body pulsing with energy.

At that moment, she felt alive.

Hastily trotting towards the open door, she was met with the cold grey barrel of a handgun to her forehead.

“A-a pony?” the bespectacled teenager holding the gun uttered with confusion. He was blinking his eyes rapidly, but it seemed like he hadn’t caught the full force of the grenade’s blast unlike his guards.

Unit One didn’t give him the chance to fully recover, lashing out with her right hoof. Tendrils formed from herself, the energy-bonded micro-machines wrapping around the gun held in the human’s hand. He screamed when she squeezed, crushing the gun and his hand into a ball of blood, flesh, and metal. It dropped from his hand and he reeled back, giving her room to sink her blade into his heart.

His voice cut off and his eyes widened, the teenager swaying slightly. She pushed forwards towards the bathtub filled with a backpack and assorted supplies, the impaled human stumbling back. He fell into the bath with a thud, his head cracking against the wall.

It mattered not, he was already dead.

Removing her weapon from his gore-soaked chest, she quickly slit his abdomen open and watched while the organs fell out onto his lap. She couldn’t help but tear out the human’s throat as well, it was sure to send the right message to the rest. Dropping the remainder of the larynx on the ground, she took a moment to admire the scene she had created.

Biological components had always fascinated her, and she was thankful that her work allowed her to study them frequently. However, now was not the time to dwell on the magnificent machinery that was biological bodies, she had an inn to escape.

The blade withdrew into her hoof, taking some of the slain human’s blood with it. She felt giddy while she felt the vital life fluid merge with her own form, the precious liquid oddly soothing to consume. Taking a quick microsecond break to delight in the feel of the numerous biological cells running against her artificial ones, she rushed out of the bathroom and headed for one of the room’s windows.

Jumping out, she ignored the glass shards getting caught in her fur and focused on her objective. Her boy bounced off the stone wall of the house forming the other side of the alley, and she managed to right herself before hitting the ground.

Landing on all four hooves, the kinetic force of the landing being distributed by her body around her entire form as additional energy, she formed an on-the-spot plan to further throw off her pursuers. Already she could hear them in the room above, the shouting waking up the entire town. She concealed herself behind a pile of cardboard boxes, drawing in moisture from the surrounding air. Compressing the moisture internally and forming tears, she let out a sniffle.

It wasn’t long before she had gotten a decent number of tears to flow, her sniffles increasing while she curled up in a ball and awaited rescue.

“Shh! Hear that?”

Unit One continued to cry while she listened to the ponies approach, making sure to appear nice and helpless.

“Hello?” a second voice that she recognised called out. “I’m Detective Shetlock with the police.”

“P-police?” she stammered back.

“Yes ma’am, and I have some royal guards with me as well. “You can come out, it’s safe now.” Taking that as her cue, she pushed aside a box before coming face-to-face with Detective Shetlock. The stallion was still wearing his vest, and was staring at her with concern. She made a show of looking around at the guards before she quivered her mouth. He stepped towards her and she moved into an embrace, both of them sitting on their rumps while she sobbed into his shoulder.

“It was so scary!” she bawled, implementing the next part of the plan.. “There was a loud bang, and yells, and then a scream. I looked up and this huge… thing jumped out of the window and landed on the ground! It stood up on two legs and I barely had time to hide before it looked around. Then it disappeared down that way!”

Upon pointing a hoof towards the far end of the alley, she allowed herself a small smile while her face was buried into Shetlock’s shoulder. It was perfect, playing on most of the ponies’ opinions that it was a human killing other humans. Judging from the glares of the armoured guards, they had already suspected as such.

“Are you okay here Shetlock?” The guard officer, wearing ornate armour tabs inquired. She felt the stallion she was hugging nod, Unit One slowing her sobs. “We’ll chase this scumbag down, you help the mare and we’ll meet at the hospital to talk to Strike.”

Hooves clattered on the cobbled ground, Unit One counting them and working out that she and the Detective were alone.

“What’s your name, ma’am?” he asked, and she lifted her head from his shoulder.

“Mellow,” she answered before continuing on with a risky explanation. “I’m staying in this inn, and I was just walking home from a friend’s house."

“That’s a brave thing to do, for a nice mare like you with all of this going on.”

Oh, how she relished the ponies constantly seeing her as an innocent victim. She might have to try and use her current form more often, who knew what she could get away with as a cute and innocent young mare back home?

Shaking her head to keep in character, she sniffed once more. “No, it was a stupid thing to do,” she mumbled, the Detective giving her a warm smile.

“Come on, let’s get you out of the alley,” he offered, Unit One nodding and rising with him. She stuck close to him while he led her out of the alley and into the dark street. It was swarming with frantic guards, a huge mass crowding around the inn itself. She saw Shetlock wince when he looked at the inn, no doubt remembering her handiwork.

“I don’t suppose you know of another place to stay?”

She nodded at his inquiry, smiling back thankfully. “I think the local bar has a few rooms for rent,” she replied. “I’ve got money, so I’ll just go there.”

“Let me walk you.”

“No, thank you though, Detective. I should be able to make it there by myself; all of the guards are around now anyway and you probably have work to do.”

‘Even if you are a gentleman for asking,’ she thought, warming up to the pony stallion. He glanced around the area, his face scrunching while he observed the chaos.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she answered, her smile genuine this time. “Thank you Detective, you’re a good pony.”

He gave her a nod of acknowledgement and she turned to trot off, a smile on her face while she left the nice stallion behind to deal with the aftermath.

She’d met a nice stallion and she’d managed to successfully eliminate another target while shifting the blame onto a non-existent human.

It called for a celebratory drink.

Unit One took another sip of her drink, the hard whisky a delight to her. The delightful blend of ethanol and carboxylic acids, amongst other equally interesting chemical components, traveled down her throat and into the fake stomach that she had formed. Instead of digesting it and allowing it to absorb into her bloodstream like a biological lifeform would, she was content to savor the taste and examine its makeup.

“You’re that Detective working on the case?”

The words caught her attention, Unit One raising her snout from her drink and looking over the heads of the stallions on the neighboring table. Sitting at the bar was none other than Detective Shetlock, the stallion looking like he needed a stiff drink and then some. What a stroke of luck, and Unit One was already smiling to herself.

There was much more to intelligence work than just hunting down traitors and dissidents, and thankfully she had also been designed for the plan she had in mind. Going off her memory of watching numerous fellow intelligence officers get hammered at work parties, she slid away from her booth and walked with an unsteady step towards the bar.

“Hey.” He looked towards her at the greeting, and she clambered onto the empty stool beside him.

“Miss Mellow, I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Yeah, well, I needed a drink,” she replied, taking care to slur a few words. She took another sip of her whisky before smiling at him. “The same with you?”

“That’s right,” he answered, draining his glass with a gulp. He set it down and turned towards her, Unit One examining him intently. “How are you coping?”

“Pretty good now that I’ve got another room and some booze,” she lied. She had booze, but had neglected asking about a room to stay in. Up until the present moment, she had planned on just returning to her basement hideout. “So, you’re from the city?”

“Manehattan,” he informed, Unit One taking note that he was from her cover city. That would be an issue that she would have to look out for. A clunk drew both of their attentions, the bartender furnishing Shetlock with another full glass. She noticed the bartender wink at Shetlock, and she grinned while pretending not to notice.

She watched Shetlock stare at the glass for a moment before he lifted it up with the crock of his hoof. The stallion drank from it, draining a third of it at once. As he set it down, she began to impulsively circle her hoof on the bar with a sultry smile.

“So, that means you’re staying in that inn, correct?”

He seemed wary at her question, but he soon relaxed and answered. “No, I was actually going to head back to the guard camp and borrow a tent after this drink.”

“Oh,” she continued, preparing for the final stage of her plan. She waited until he had taken another drink, Shetlock hopefully about to agree to her proposal. Focusing, clumps of nanomachines forming her cheeks glowed red, giving the illusion that she was blushing. “Um, Detective Shetlock, did you… did you maybe want to share my room with me tonight?”

OF course, she had no such room yet, but that was a second concern behind his surprised expression. He seemed lost for words, and she could see his brain putting the pieces together. Quickly relaxing, he tilted his head at her.

“Are you sure?”

“I am,” she confirmed, nodding her head. He paused to take another drink, finishing his glass and staring off into space for a second. She waited for him, and was rewarded when he looked back at her.

“Okay then.”

“Great,” she gushed, nodding towards the stairwell. “I’ll meet you up there.”

He smiled and left his seat, Unit One watching him trot up the stairs and out of sight. Turning towards the bartender, she found the brown had a slight smile on his face and a key in his green magic.

“Here,” he told her. “I keep a set of keys down here in case of drunks and the like. Take it and pay for it in the morning.”

“Thanks,” she whispered, holding in a giggle before taking the offered key with a hoof and leaving her seat.
She headed to the stairs with a bounce, anticipating her second most favorite part of her job.

Secrets (Contains Clop - Read at own peril)

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Shetlock grunted when she pushed down again, and she moaned into his neck at the action.

They’d been at it for a decent amount of time, and she was currently straddling him on the small bed. His hooves kneaded her flanks, and she lovingly gave him a small nip on the neck while she bounced down again.

Seducing targets was an intelligence gathering technique that traced back to the very beginnings of human history. With her creation, and the resulting improvements to the ‘official’ artificial ISA agents, the scientists of her empire had created something to drastically achieve that goal.

That creation being a sapient being capable of being anything or anyone, and also possessing the capacity to become the perfect lover. The fact that she could alter her artificial body to mimic almost all biological functions, including most standard forms of sexual reproduction, was a shining example of what happens when you give a bunch of educated nerds a bottomless budget. Of course she couldn’t actually produce offspring, that was just absurd, but the act of banging an enemy had so much other uses.

She increased the pace of her bouncing with a moan, the noise of the enjoyment genuine. She still hadn’t managed to find out just which genius had found a way for her brain to actually feel pleasure from being rutted like a biological, but when she did she had a big thank you in store for him or her. The added bonus of course was that it made the façade just that more realistic, but maintaining appearances was the least of her concerns at the moment.

Unfortunately, she still had work to do and couldn’t just spend the night riding Shetlock to exhaustion.

Leaning her mouth down beside the panting stallion’s right ear, she nibbled it playfully. “So Shetlock… ahh! Are you…mhmm, staying her long?”

“I can’t,” he groaned out, and she delighted in his scrunched up face. “I’ve got to... nggh… got to go to Canterlot sometime in the next few days.”

‘So that’s where you’re taking them,’ she mused, rewarding him with a number of short bounces in quick succession. ‘I guess that I’ll have to plan a change of location.’

“That’s such a shame,” she replied in-between pants. “And here I was hoping that you’d be free for another night.”

“It’s not a… a sure thing,” he told her with another groan in the middle of the sentence. “I just have a feeling that I’ll be there for work.”

‘Good boy, let good ol’ Mellow know everything.’

Now that she had the information, she had no further reason to continue the fun. Debating it in her mind, she regretfully decided to end it.

Sitting up straight, she made sure that his pleasure-laden eyes were watching her before she bit one of her hooves and moaned into it.

That did the trick.

“Mellow… I’m-“

“Go ahead,” she answered through her hoof, slamming down a final time and squeezing tight.

She arched her back when he released, and enjoyed the feeling with the knowledge that no consequences could become of it. Rolling her hips around, she stayed on top of him until his heavy breathing died out into small pants.

Giggling, she rolled over onto his side and nuzzled his chest, savoring the feeling of his warm chest rising and falling. His flushed face was amazingly cute, and she enjoyed the fact that she now had a wonderful story to annoy her co-workers with when she completed her mission.

“That was pretty great,” Shetlock panted out, prompting another giggle from her.

“It sure was,” she agreed. ‘In more ways than you know.’ “When I asked you to show me your truncheon-“

“Don’t even start with that,” he told her, Unit One obeying his wishes and snuggling up to him.

After a few minutes she felt his breathing slow while he slumbered, and she settled down to wait for the right time to leave. Right now, however, she was happy to just forget about the mission for a few hours to enjoy the moment.

After all, it wasn’t every day she was able to cuddle a sapient pony detective, who’s world she had just rocked, and who was also trying to arrest her for murder.

‘I love my job,’ she thought, sighing happily and continuing to enjoy herself without a care in the world.

Case Closed

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With a final pat on Shetlock’s head, Unit One carefully rolled off the bed and let the sleeping stallion continue to slumber.

She had what she needed, and once again it was back to the mission. There was, however, one thing left to do.

Spotting the quill and parchment sitting neatly on the small desk, an idea entered her mind. A short letter to explain her absence when Shetlock woke up would divert any trace of suspicion, and in addition she felt that she owed him some explanation.

Well, it was mostly going to consist of lies, but it was the thought that counted.

Finishing her short note, having already learnt the Equine written language thanks to her time observing their society, she folded the parchment up and trotted to the door.

“Sweet dreams,” she farewelled softly, opening the door to their room and leaving. Closing it without a sound, she silently made her way down the narrow hallway and wooden staircase. Not a soul was awake in the inn, a positive boon. Reaching the heavy front door, she was surprised to find that there was no latch or lock to secure it against outside intrusion.

With a shake of her head at the overly trusting ponies, she exited into the cool night air. The windows of the surrounding shops and houses were dark, the only illumination coming from the large tree in the middle of the town. Making a note to avoid the hive of activity, she instead crept down the alley beside the inn.

Passing trashcans in the surprisingly clean alley, she silently cursed the seemingly constantly full-moon. It lit up the area more effectively than a streetlight, and was a huge hindrance to a stealthy night getaway. Still, she didn’t have much time, it would take her a fair number of hours to make it to her target and she still had one final thing to take care of.

Manoeuvring from alley to alley, she slowly made her way back to her trusty hidey place. Upon reaching the basement window, she slipped inside and headed towards a cluttered and dusty workbench.

“Would it kill him to clean down here?” she muttered, thinking of the eccentric stallion that owned the store. “Then again,” she continued, pulling out a single metal case as long and wide as her foreleg. “He’d probably wouldn’t be too happy with all of the stuff that I’ve got.” Along with the case was a single metal box, a solid blue light on the top next to a keypad. Opening the front, she stashed her remaining stun grenade. Trotting over to a tool chest, she retrieved probably the more important item to be sent back.

A stack of parchment containing a hastily written report, travel guides, books of the equine language and maps of the towns and cities followed the grenade, Unit One closing the door and locking it tight. Then, after entering in the required data and codes, she activated the device and stepped back.

A short, three second burst of blue light flashed before the box faded away, the container safely returned to base for the scientists to go nuts over. Honestly, she herself couldn’t see in value in this world, it wasn’t like the equines or other primitive races posed any threat. Still, orders were orders, and with it done there was only one thing left to do.

“Next stop, Canterlot,” she grinned, hefting the metal case onto her back and heading towards the window.

Hopefully, she’d soon be finished with this relatively boring assignment.

“Oh Baby I be just waiting for you, waiting for you. Waiting for you to enter my hearttt again.”

Singing to herself softly, Unit One glanced around to make sure there were no flying ponies checking the castle rooftops. She’d seen more of the bat-ponies, but they all were content to watch the city gate and patrol the walls. They hadn’t even questioned her entry at such a late time, not even raising an eye at her cover of being a travelling business-pony held up by bad weather.

“I’ve got a present for you, a present for you. Oh Baby I’ve got a present for youuu right here.”

She once again checked the scope on the disposable railgun she had set up in her rooftop hidey-hole, the grey barrel pointed right at the castle gate. Unofficially called the ‘One-shot Show Stopper’ by those in her line of work, the two-piece compact weapon carried a single round of high-density metal. It was designed to be easy to conceal, easy to assemble, easy to use, and most importantly it came with an inbuilt self-destruct after use.

Peering through the small sight, she zoomed it in right on the entrance.

Shifting on the roof tiles she had torn up and repurposed as a seat, she continued to amuse herself while she waited in the small hole in the highest tower spire.

“Do-do, do-ba-do. Do-do, be-bah-do.”

Idly testing the trigger with her hoof, she was thankful the weapon was designed for armored fingers. She found her pony form to be amusing, and couldn’t wait to try it out once back at base once she was done. Having to form a finger would have been of little effort, but this way was just somehow more fun.

Sweeping the area for any signs of movement, she caught a glimpse of shapes in the sky. Removing her eye from the scope, she looked up at the full moon. Soaring through the sky, the shapes turned out to be two pegasi-pulled chariots. She continued to track them, all the way up until they landed just inside of the castle gates.

“Showtime,” she mumbled, peering back through the scope while scores of bat-ponies from all over moved to intercept the chariots. As the armoured pegasi detached themselves or left the chariot, they were set upon by a group of bat-pony guards who had streamed out of the castle. There was a furious exchange of words, before the bat-ponies swarmed over the chariots to check every nook and cranny.

Unit One watched and waited, until finally her targets left their transports and stood amongst the guards. She identified the pony Major and even Shetlock himself among them, her smile widening at his presence.

Placing her sights over Aries’ head, she watched him glance around nervously. Deciding against shooting him there and then, she gave him a few more minutes of life and shifted targets. Moving onto the women and the dark-skinned man respectively, she noticed the way Simon talked with a bat-pony guard as if he had the situation under control. He was calm, far too calm for her liking.

The guards of both types surrounded the humans in a square formation, swords and spears drawn while poised for action. Slowly they moved towards the castle entrance, Unit One deciding it was time to strike.

“Cause every time you leave…” the crosshairs lowered, focusing on the middle of Simon’s chest. The safety was flicked off, the rifle already charged and primed. “My heart begins to bleed.”

As she pulled the trigger, many things happened at once. The most noticeable was when Simon glanced up towards where she was, or rather the general area. His arms moved protectively around the briefcase, cradling it at his side. There was movement through the scope as an unintelligible shout rang out, ponies scattering while the two other humans dived to the ground.

It was too late for Simon however, a muffled crack signalling the railgun’s round breaking through the sound barrier on its way towards its target.

Unit One only watched long enough to see the massive hole punched in Simon’s chest, the human falling back with about eight kilograms of weight removed from his body mass.

It was a certain kill.

Leaving the already melting railgun to finish its destruction cycle, she immediately bounded out of the hole in the roof and climbed down the other side. It was an observatory, the wide gap in the dome making it simple to slip in. Her hooves made dull thuds when she landed on a star-speckled blue rug, and she immediately weaved her way through the piles of books to leave the room.

Given her knowledge of defensive fortifications, she assumed that the castle had a likely war-room or safe-room down in the sublevels, or failing that a dungeon or vault. During an attack it would be logical to take any VIPs down below to safety, so she focused on finding a way down.

Moving quickly along the deserted corridor, she glanced into each room with an open door while she galloped past. It was mostly bedrooms and studies, all deserted.

Then, success in the form of a large and ornate stairwell was found. Racing down the red carpet, she reached the bottom and stepped onto the floor of a massive entrance hall. Hearing the rapidly approaching commotion filtering in through the open main doors, she looked around for an entrance to the lower levels.

‘There,’ she thought, dashing to the small side-stairway leading down. She made it into the doorway just in time, Unit One looking back to see a tall white pony rush out with a squad of guards in golden armour. Descending the bare stone stairs, she emerged into a small kitchen. Judging from the small size and plainness compared to the rest of the castle, she assumed that it was for either servants or prisoners.

Not finding anything useful, she poked her head out of the open doorway. The plain corridor that greeted her sloped down to the right, and the noise of clattering metal was coming from the left.

‘We have a winner.’

Once again racing off down the right, she rounded three corners before reaching a section with a single door to the left with another corner at the end. She turned it just in time to see a spring-yellow mare in a maid uniform exit the room. The pony looked up at her with surprise in her purple eyes, Unit One aiming to solve two problems at once.

The pony opened her mouth to talk, but didn’t even have time to yell before she was tackled back into the room. Unit One pinned her down and shoved a hoof over the maid’s mouth, simultaneously shutting the door with a hind leg. Glancing around, she took note of the shelves of cleaning products and bedsheets before looking deep into the mare’s eyes.

Those same eyes widened in absolute terror when the hoof not in pony mouth morphed into a wickedly sharp double-blade. Already rapid and muffled pleas were spilling out of the maid’s mouth, the pony starting to struggle. Unit One leaned her head down, the maid going completely still.

“Shhh,” Unit One hushed into a furry ear. “Don’t worry little pony, I won’t kill you if you do exactly what I say, okay?”

The mare nodded, Unit One smiling warmly at her. “Great. Now, I’m going to take my hoof away. If you fight me, try to escape, or try to yell for help, then I’ll bury this blade into your soft little neck, understand?” The maid started to sob, Unit One shaking her head. “Don’t cry, if you do well then I won’t hurt you, promise.”

Another slow nod, Unit One waiting for the sound of the many galloping hooves to pass by the door. Once they had gone, she got up and let the maid stand up on all four hooves. The pony was still crying, but so far made no move to disobey her orders.

“Very good pony,” Unit One praised, before smiling sweetly. “Now, strip.”

Unit One finished slicing herself across the chest, getting the perfect amount of blood splashed across the uniform. The feather-duster she was holding in her mouth nearly fell out, but she chomped down harder to hold it. Glancing to the now unclothed mare sobbing in the corner of the room, she briefly considered eliminating the witness.

‘Eh,’ she internally shrugged. ‘It’s not like I’m going to be stealthy after this.’ Looking down at her bloodied uniform, it also raised the question of why she didn’t just form the disguise from the start over her now-pink fur. Turning to leave, she smiled while she kicked open the door and dashed out into the corridor. ‘This way’s more fun.’

Leaving the mare behind, she raced down the corridor and turned the corner. The change of clothes had been fast and simple, but she still had to find and catch her quarry. Speeding up, she rounded corner after corner of the same bare stone corridors.

‘Is this place just a giant corkscrew going down?’

Her ears perked up, able to hear armoured hoof-beats and shouts from behind her.

“It’s down this way!”

Speeding up, she assumed that the guards had found the maid. ‘Guess I should have killed her. Oh well.’

Switching her ears forwards, she could hear another group ahead of her. Turning two more corners, she came face-to-face with a corridor and staircase packed full of guards escorting the tall pony she pegged as Celestia and the surviving two humans. Oh, and Shetlock was there as well, but it was no time for introductions.

The guards parted to let her through, Celestia moving out to meet her with a face filled with concern. Her horn lit up with a golden glow, Unit One guessing that she was going to attempt to heal her ‘cut’.

“Princess,” she huffed out, dropping her feather duster to the ground to speak. “Something attacked me in the last corridor; the monster is on its way after me!”

The guards rushed to where she had come from, pointing their spears out in preparation for an attack. They pushed her back as they placed themselves between her and the ‘danger’, with Celestia, Shetlock, and the humans also funneled to the rear of the armed group. The eight unicorns in the group of thirty guards powered their horns, small shields flickering into life to form a protective bubble over them.
Unfortunately for them, she was already inside.

A massive uproar of shouting rose up when her pursuers rounded the corner only to skid to a halt. Both groups of guards stared at each other, questions being asked by all of the ponies before one guard from the newly-arrived group yelled out in frustration and confusion.

“It was right here, we were right on its tail!”

“What do you mean? We’re waiting for it now!” a guard in front of her asked back, glancing around the room.

While the ponies were busy figuring out what had just happened, Unit One had been slowly making her way to an optimum spot. Smiling, she positioned herself behind the humans, before noticing Shetlock begin to turn towards her.

It was time to act.

“Oh, I also have a message for you, Harriet Snyder and Aries Brinstone. Was it all worth it?”

Her voice was heard over the guards, everyone whirling around to face her. Unfortunately for them it was too late, Unit One standing up on both legs in front of the woman. The human’s eyes grew wider, her hand shaking while she made to raise her gun.

‘Nice try.’

Like a striking snake her right foreleg smacked into tit, a spike forcing itself through the skin and fat to sink deep into the chest. Being able to literally feel the pierced heart cease beating, she withdrew the hoof and spike before landing back on all four hooves.

The dead woman swayed on the spot for a few moments before toppling over, dead eyes open wide while blood flowed from her chest wound. All of the ponies were too shocked to move, however the last target scrambled back in an attempt to put as many guards between her and him as possible. Unit One smirked at how, even in his panic, he still clutched their oh-so-important briefcase tight.

Celestia was the first pony to react, leaping in front of Aries with a shout. “Monster!” Unit One could hear the sadness and anger in her tone, Celestia’s glare accompanied by moist tears. The Princess spread her wings like a shield, forming a barrier in front of Aries. Her long horn was lowered, beginning to glow.

Unit One doubted it was a healing spell this time.

The guards were sparked into movement at the actions of their ruler, Unit One finding a wall of swords and spear points barricading Aries from her.

“A pony!?” the guard she recognised as Captain Bastion questioned.

She maintained her smile, planning to have some more fun. Making her optics flash the evilest shade of red she could pick, she let out a small giggle. “Well, not quite.”

Making her transformation as flashy as she could spare the energy for, she once again rearranged her outer layer. Pink fur turned back to her original pony colour, and once again Mellow was standing with a smile as the glow faded.

“...Mellow?” Unit One resisted the urge to wave happily at Shetlock.

“Actually Shetlock,” she replied with a widening smile. “My correct name is Unit One, and the ISA sends its regards.”

Shetlock was frozen on his hooves, unable to say anything else as the full weight of the situation hit him. He tried to convince himself that it wasn’t Mellow, the sweet mare who’d he’d spent a night with. It was a shape-shifting monstrosity, similar to the changelings that had invaded Canterlot a year ago.

But, as hard as he tried to justify the creature’s ability to look like Mellow, the evidence added up. At almost every crime scene she had been there, he’d even told her where he was going and…

“Oh, Celestia…” he whispered, despite the actual Princess being right next to him. “I… I told you what where we were going…”

Mellow, or ‘Unit One’ now, smiled apologetically. “Well, not exactly Shetlock. Don’t feel bad, it’s one of the functions I was created for after all. It was a case of the right time at the right place for me.”

“What are you?” Celestia questioned, teeth gritted.

Surprisingly, it was Aries who answered. “I-ISA drone. It ca- can shapeshift.” The human got even more frantic. “Stay back! It’ll- it’ll kill you- you all without a thought!”

A snort came from Unit One, the thing seeming completely unintimidated by either the guards or Celestia. “Drone? I’m an artificial intelligence, thank you very much.” She narrowed her eyes at Aries. “You shouldn’t even know what I am, traitor. Then again, former Researcher Brimstone, you would have probably been promoted to my creators’ section if you hadn’t gone and joined a group of rebels.”

Aries didn’t reply with words, only taking a sharp intake of breath.

“I can’t allow you to hurt him,” Celestia took over, taking a step forwards. Shetlock stepped back despite his shock, the power radiating from Celestia starting to manifest as a glow. “You will pay for the death you’ve caused, for the suffering. No matter what you are, I will not let you harm another being.”

“Why are you defending them?” Unit One huffed. “They are the criminals after all. I’m merely doing my job.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed further. “Anything that murders others in cold blood, and enjoys it, is too dangerous to let roam free. Normally I’d banish you to Tartarus for the safety of all, but…” her gaze turned to the dead body of Harriet and back. “You’ve already caused far too much damage that I cannot risk you getting free.”

Unit One’s tail flicked with irritation, Shetlock not noticing the unusually pony-like gesture as his mouth opened and closed repeatedly.

“I can’t help it if I’m programmed to enjoy my work,” Unit One fired back. She glared at Celestia with a frown. “You don’t know what you’re interfering with, none of you do.”

“You’ll n-never get thi-this!” Shetlock looked back at Aries, the human hugging the briefcase to his chest. “I’ll end all of- of the UIP’s evil!”

Probably the last thing everyone was expecting was for the sudden bout of laughter to rise from Unit One. It was filled with complete mirth, the pony-lookalike shaking her head before grinning at Aries.

“’Never get it’? ‘End all of the UIP’s evil’? What, you think some subspace teleporter blueprints is going to help your almost non-existent rebellion destroy an entire empire? For a scientist you’re pretty stupid.” Taking a second to brush her mane back with a hoof, Unit One continued on nonchalantly. “Besides, you remember that technician that you gave the case to program in that lock code? Guess who was working for us.”

Aries’ eyes nearly grew as wide as dinner plates. “N-n-no…”

“Oh yes,” Unit One shrugged. “Funny how the promise of immunity and a wad of money can convince people to give up their ideals of revolt.
All he did was take out the plans, replace them with blank paper…” she paused, raising a hoof to her chin. “Oh yeah, and slipped in that tracking device for us. He was such a nice man. I hear he bought a bakery with some of the money, you know.”

A clang rang out as the briefcase hit the stone floor, Aries staring at his hands as if they were covered with blood. “That means…”

“Yep,” Unit One grinned. “All of those bases and safe houses? You and your friends led us to every, single, one. It was so easy, ad you and your dim-witted traitor friends didn’t expect a thing.” While Aries shuddered, she nodded to herself. “It was totally worth saving you for last, the look on your face is priceless.”

Aries started to openly sob, Shetlock boing pushed back while Celestia advanced on Unit One once more with horn charged.

“Enough, you are obviously a creature of darkness, whatever you are. Of all the foes I have faced, none have driven me to such pure hatred.”

Shetlock hid behind a shaking guard, Unit One crouching low with her tongue flicking over her lips. Her back glowed, three pairs of holes large enough to stick a hoof in appearing in the fur. Shetlock could see the dark metal insides from his spot, revulsion turning his stomach.
“If I have to go through, that’s fine,” she told Celestia. “I was asked to avoid killing you ponies, you know. Something about keeping the chance of future dealings open.”

“I will never cooperate to you or your dark masters, not while I draw breath.”

Unit One smirked. “Suit yourself. I guess all that’s left to do is to fill this corridor, you, your guards, Aries, and unfortunately even Shetlock with explosions and shrapnel.” The holes in her back seemed to twitch, Celestia’s face hardening at the threat.

“I… I can’t let it happen.”

All except Celestia turned to face Aries, the human’s speech the clearest he had spoken so far. Shetlock’s eyes widened when he saw the gun in Aries’ hand.

The barrel was pointed up against the humans chin.

“Aries, don’t…” Shetlock began, his professionalism breaking through his shook while he raised a calming hoof. “Relax, Celestia can protect you and-“

“No!” Aries shouted, causing them all to wince. Celestia began to glance back, the human glaring at Unit One. “I won’t let any of these ponies to get hurt, I just want it all to s-stop!” He closed his eyes, Celestia’s horn dying out as she reached out with a wing to stop him.

“Aries, n-!”

She was cut off by the gun discharging.

The guards at the back were spattered with specks of blood, the stone ceiling about Aries coping the most of his blood and brains. The smell of gunpowder mixed with copper filled the air, the bang of the gunshot ringing in every ear.

Aries collapsed forwards, Celestia vainly reaching out her wings to catch his falling body. She held his chest to her neck, but with the back of his head gone there was no chance of saving him. Shetlock watched while, for the first time for years, Celestia wept openly. No-one moved, even the guards unable to act with their eyes locked on their sobbing ruler.

“Huh,” Unit One broke the silence as she stood up and the holes in her back disappeared. “That sure made it eas-“

Celestia whipped her head around, horn and eyes glowing. “Murderer!”

A golden wave of magic fired out of the horn, engulfing Unit One and the stairwell behind her with burning light. Shetlock had to turn away, the blast so strong it was like the unrestrained radiance of the sun. He could feel the heat and smell his mane burning, his hat flying off to land behind them somewhere.

All of a sudden, the blinding light died out and cut off. Blinking to clear the spots from his vision, Shetlock turned back to see what was left. The guards were likewise recovering, spears and swords lying on the floor where they had been dropped. Celestia was still cradling Aries’ body, her face locked in a stone cold stare. The stone walls and floor of the stairwell were glowing red and warped, almost like they had melted.

Looking to where Unit One had been standing, Shetlock could see only four tan hooves, steam rising from where the fetlocks, legs, and everything else up had been completely obliterated. While they watched, the hooves crumbled into dust and disappeared, leaving zero trace of the murderous machine.

Unit One, also known as Mellow, was dead.

“Is… is it over?”

No one answered the guard, Shetlock sitting down on the dropped briefcase while patting out his smoldering mane.

‘Case solved,’ was his last thought, right before he fell backwards and finally passed out from the sheer shock.

Sweet Treats ambled over towards the bar, a smile on her face and a drink in her purple magic field. Her target was the vested earth pony stallion sitting alone, nursing what appeared to be a strong whiskey. His tie and the hat on the bar wasn’t unusual for a Manehattan drinking establishment, and he was rather cute.

Briefly making sure that her cherry-red mane was neat and her white coat was in order, Sweet Treats approached and climbed up onto the stool beside him. Taking a sip of her drink, she placed a foreleg on the bar and gave him a smile. “Hi there, you look a little down.”

He turned to look at her, the tired eyes not harming his looks as much as would be expected. Giving him a glance over, she noticed the badge on his vest.

‘Chief Detective Shetlock,’ she thought with a swish of her tail. ‘Oh, a police officer, this night might be better than expected!’

“What?”

The blunt question caught her off guard, Sweet Treats however quickly recovered and gave him a disarming smile.

“I was just worried about you,” she said, the stallion glancing down while she put a forehoof over his. “Such a cute stallion shouldn’t be looking so sad.”

Her hoof was not so much brushed but rather thrown off, the stallion finishing his drink with a gulp and putting on his hat before leaving his seat. “Sorry,” he apologised without looking at her. “But I don’t go with mares in bars anymore.”

Sweet Treats stared in shock as he trotted out without another word or further explanation. Turning to the barkeep, she noticed the blue pegasus stallion looked just as surprised as she was.

“Was it something I said?”

In a subterranean corridor underneath Canterlot castle, a single speck of blue light flashed briefly in the darkness.

In the corner, by a boarded up door with a dead rat beside it, another blue glow lit up the blackness for a moment.

A single, furless pony hoof twitched, and another stray nanobot came back online and added its tiny mass to the reforming shape.

And then, another.

And... another.

The End… for now.

Predator Turned Prey

by Dropbear

Just Another Day At the Office

Running Out of Time

Dropping the Mask

In the Hooves of a Killer - Taking Out the Trash

Two Parts of the Job

Secrets (Contains Clop - Read at own peril)

Case Closed