Chapter 1 - The call

*beep* *beep* *beep*

“Uhh... Really? Right now? Did I forget to turn my alarm off?” I mutter as I throw my hoof around trying to hit the damn thing. I never forget to set my alarm off, I mean today is my only day off and I need the sleep. I knock something off of my bedside table, of course it is the only breakable thing on there. I finally find my glasses and start to look for the infernal device.

*beep be...*

I smack the damn alarm and get up to check the damage and the time.

“Wonderful... just wonderful. My grandfather's vintage hour glass... and more rain outside. Its going to be one great day! A day that is starting at four twenty eight and twenty three seconds in the morning...”

I get to my hooves and meander over to my fridge to get something to drink. Milk, gemstone infused tea, green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, herbal tea...

“Black tea,” I decide. I want a bit of caffeine to start the day. I wander over to the stove, turn on the burner and place my kettle on it. I look back to my room and sigh. Gramps gave that to me when I was really young, and I just broke it in half. 'Made out of timberwolf from the Everfree'. Not sure if I believed him, but I just let him spin his tales. Most ponies thought him mad, but I enjoyed his tales of his 'adventures in time'. As I walk over to the hour glass to see if I can fix it, I laugh to myself, thinking about the memories, and, with luck, it just seems to snap back into place...

“Ouch!”

Did my hour glass just bite me? Oh wait, yes... yes it did. Yup, that's blood... great. I start to bind my hoof with a wrap, wondering if this day could possibly get any better.

*Briinnngggg*

“Why do I think things like that? And Why are you talking to yourself Whooves? your starting to sound like Gramps.”

I walk over to my phone and look at the ID. Oh happy days, Sergeant Dawn...

“Detective Whooves here.”

“You sound awake Whooves, did you get your 'timely' sleep?”

Dawn trying to get me riled up over my OCD-like nature about time again, what else is new? Oh, and using my first name as a pun? Who would have thought?

“If you call two hours, twenty one minutes and twelve seconds of sleep good, then yes I did. What is it Dawn? Who died?”

I turn to my teapot, pour the hot water in and look for a good spot to sit down to hear the news.

“You're too good at this. You know that, right?”

Her sigh is loud and I hear her cover the mic on her phone to talk to someone on the other end. She says something about a spell or dragon... I can't hear it all.

My mind flashes. Spell, Changeling, unicorn, and then dragon. Dragon spells old, ancient, passed down, stolen during Solar Empire, seen freely for a brief time, destroyed or so thought. Rituals needed for ponies to cast dragon spells, not strictly legal. Normally needs a life to cast, or blood... or the promise of death. Most likely promise...

“Whooves! Did you hear me? We need you down here as soon as possible.”

Her voice stops my train of thought. I grab my travel cup and pour myself some of the hot liquid. She knows it's my day off and yet still calls me first out of all of the detectives. I guess the ones on call have no idea about how to solve a case...

“Where?” I sigh out of defeat.

“Thank you, Whooves. I think you’re the only one who can even solve this. You have a great mind when it comes to these puzzles. There should be an officer waiting outside.” She hangs up the phone and I continue to drink my tea.

Why did somepony use dragon magic? There are much simpler outlawed spells and enchantments that could do that job. Feeling a bit more awake, I walk over to my coat rack and grab my jacket and hat. I look at my hat, a simple pork pie that I have had forever, slightly warped from the rain. What is it with detectives and their material goods? Every detective I know has something that they can’t go out the door without.

I leave my apartment building, down and out on to the streets of harmony, where I breathe in the damp air and walk towards the police officer waiting for me.

“Morning, Hush. Nice day we are having, eh?”

Hush muffles a laugh. He is a unicorn of few words, but he likes me for even talking to the silent pony on the force. He is a bit of a funny pony, I'm never to sure what to make of him. He's smart, very smart. Doesn't like to boast about it though. It's a bit of a shame – we could use a pony like him with the deductive force.

Unicorns are what keep this city going – their magic operates every moving thing, be it auto-mobiles, phones, lights, you name it. After Apple industries made that discovery about sealing magic in temporary Cache Magic Containers – C.M.C. for short – magic became usable for almost all ponies. Well, the devices they power anyway. I still can’t use physics-defying levitation.

After the quiet ride I walk up the steps to the griffon embassy. As usual the architecture catches my eye. It seems to be a mix of Pegasus columns and natural earth elements – you can actually see veins of gold through some of the pillars. All of their art has this feature – they never cover anything natural. For the brutes that we, time and time again, paint them to be, they truly have old souls.

Lots of ponies here, and quite a few griffons... is that a changeling there too? What colour is his band? Gray... with yellow. No, it couldn't be... I walk up to the changeling in griffon form and quietly ask him.

“Nazir? Nazir Doo?”

The'griffon' looks to me and laughs. It is Nazir. No being can laugh like he can. It doesn't matter what form he takes – that laugh characterizes him to a T.

“Nazir, what are you doing here?”

Nazir is a very interesting character. Unlike most changelings, he dislikes his talent of being able to change. He once told me that changelings could be more susceptible to mental diseases than any other race if they continue to use their natural ability recklessly. This, of course, could be something to just try and throw me off. I heard a rumor about a Changeling that renounced his heritage and joined the griffon kingdom. Should have guessed it was him. You kind of grow to know someone after you have been chasing them for years.

“Well, I am a griffon, so there is a chance that I work here. I mean, slim as it maybe, I have been working a honest life. I take it you're here to look into the murder of Odysseus?”

Oh buck, Odysseus! Not the name I wanted to hear.

“Please tell me it's some random schmuck that works here and not the council member... Please Nazir. I don’t want to be wrapped up in a mess dealing with council members.”

Nazir shakes his head. He avoids eye contact with me before saying the unavoidable.

“Yes, Timely – it is Odysseus the council member. You had best get up there. I’m keeping the press and others busy so you ponies can get all of the info from the scene that you can.”

I nod and reply ever so thankfully. The last thing I want in my mane is the press. Especially if it involves one of the Six council members.

One of the officers calls me over to the stairs and informs me that the murder happened up the estate room. I rush into the room to find two ponies talking...

Dawn, the forensic team lead, and one of my best friends. She is a unicorn of the ex-solar empire with a white coat and a blazing red mane. Her cutie mark is like so many others – a setting sun, a sign that she is no longer under the empire that was not so long ago. Her size is always intimidating, as is that of most other solar ponies. They stand about a foot taller than any eclipse pony.

She's talking to Zak, a happy go lucky zebra. How being a cop is not getting him down, I have no idea. He has a striped mane and tail, standard stripes except the one that covers his left eye. Kind of gives him the look of always having a black eye. His cutie mark is an outlined badge.

“Morning, Whooves. Ready to get your hooves dirty?” Dawn asks as she passes me some hoof gloves.

I snap on the gloves and start looking around the room. I pretend that I didn’t hear anything that was said over the phone. I like hearing what happened again.

“So, what do you have for me Dawn?” I ask, looking around the body, checking for any damage to the feathers. Dawn grabs a notebook and starts to list everything that is known about the case...

Dragon spell due to aura. Instant death. No break in. Time of death'around' three twenty-five and thirteen seconds – again, Dawn's idea of messing with me, nice to know that she is taking this murder so seriously. Unknown if unicorn or dragon responsible.

Dragon spells normally touch or rune. Can’t see any obvious runes... so it had to be touch. Spells of this caliber can only be cast by adult dragons, or creatures with high attunement to magic - specifically, unicorns. This unicorn must have been a friend, because the room was immaculate. Nothing was broken, there was no fight, which is always unusual for a griffon murder. They are a race of warriors – even the weakest ones are a hassle to deal with.

His expression told it all. Pain. This is unlike any other kill spell I've ever seen. Most unicorn ones leave the victim with some kind of equinity. This spell just seem to... wait did its eyes just move?

“Am I the first pony to see this body?”

Dawn looks at me and walks over, levitating a clipboard with some info for me. I take the board and she says, in a quizzical voice, “No. I proclaimed him dead right after I called you, I haven’t had a chance to take a good look at the body yet. Why?”

As I'm reading the clipboard, I scratch out the phrase 'kill spell' and start to write my own idea in. Dawn takes a closer look into the eyes of the griffon and screams.

“He is alive! But I checked! He had no pulse! Nothing!”

“No, not really,” I reply in a calm voice. I give her back the clipboard and go back to examining the body. “Yes, technically he is alive, but only one part of him is here. Now the question is 'who took his soul and why?'”

Soulless bodies are very interesting. For the most part, they are dead – they look the part and sometimes they actually are dead – so it doesn't surprise me that they missed it. This is the first time I've seen a real soulless body, I've heard of weird cult cases before, but this...

I walk over to Zak and tell him to get the med unit in here asap. Zak runs out the door and we can hear the surprise. This gives myself and Dawn sometime alone with body before the medics get here and mess everything up. Hopefully giving us enough time to find out who's behind this...

Going back to the body, I start to go over it and get Dawn to help me. Dawn finds what we are looking for, and I pray to Luna it’s not what I think it is. A sun ruin, carved into his flesh below a thick clump of feathers.

It can really only mean one thing. The Solar Empire...

Damn it.

Dawn starts shaking. Tears start to form in her eyes. I rush over to her and try to calm her down, without much luck.

“Dawn this isn’t you. This isn't any of you with the Setting Sun. This is only a few of the crazies out there!”

She wasn't hearing me. I hear the radio blaring, the medics are on their way. I grab a glass and some water from the sink near by and throw it in her face. She yells and starts to look around.

“Timely, what... what happened?”

I sigh and reply, “You saw the symbol of the Solar Empire and collapsed. I can understand why, though. I thought that was all behind us to. Some ponies just live in the past and forget that the future is still ahead of us.”

She turns to the body – the symbol – and shakes her head. She looks back at the chart beside her and starts to change the info on it. Still a bit shaken she looks to me and starts to throw out theories. That's something that always amazed me about her – she didn't stop. Whenever something got her down she just got straight back up, no matter what.

“So we now have evidence that the Solar Empire is linked to this or is being framed. But why would whoever did this want a soul?” Dawn asked.

She has a very good point, why take a soul? The very essence of a pony – or griffon, in this case.

My mind flashes... Soul. Essence. Solar Empire. Cult. Sacrifice. Griffon. High profile. No fighting. Expected. Boom...

Wait... boom?

“What was that?” I look back to Dawn. She is looking out the window towards the griffon kingdom. A rainbow? Oh no...

“Is that a rainbow? Moving across the sky?”

She cocks her head and watches the rainbow moving incredibly quickly across the blue and gray sky. All of a sudden, it seems to explode in another wave of rainbows and sound.

“It's a sonic rainboom!”

I yell. The sound of it is ear-splitting. Myself and Dawn hit the ground as Zak comes running in with a pair of medics.

“What was that!? It sounded as if the sky just exploded!” Zak yells. He looks to see if we are okay, first helping Dawn up to her hooves and then myself. We both shake off the shock and I start to towards out the door.

“That was a Sonic Rainboom! The element of the griffon kingdom is here! Get Odysseus stable! She is not going to be a happy pony!” I quickly shout as I run to the staircase.

I look out to the street just to see it explode into a fury of dust and stone. The whole building shakes as dust and rubble fills the entrance. The guards at the front of the building open the whole double door as if expecting a manticore to walk in.

“Nazir! How did word already get to her!? I thought you said that we had some more time!” I yelled down to him. Nazir was paste white and looked back to me with shock and fear in his face. He tried to get sound out but couldn't.

“You have no clue how she found out, do you?”

Nazir shook his head and turned to the now settling dust and debris. He started to bow as soon as we saw the rainbow feather tips of Rainbow Dash the Loyal. Rainbow Dash of the Elements. Rainbow Dash the Hippogriff. Each step caused all around to bow deeper. Not only was this an Element of Harmony – it was an angry one.

“You have ten seconds to tell me what happened...”

Its five twelve exactly in the morning...

Chapter 2 - The Solar War

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It is now five twelve and ten seconds. Still way too early in the morning for this...

Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty, is standing right in front of me. Ponies and the other races often talk about the Elements and how they changed after the war. Rainbow Dash was apparently the first of the six to change. Standing at over eight feet tall, the half lion, half eagle with multi-coloured feather tips towers over the crowd of ponies and griffons. Her magenta eyes look from griffin to griffin, none of them looking back at their angry Element. Her voice booms out over the crowd.

“Its been eight seconds and no one has said anything! What happened to Odysseus?!”

All of the griffons back down and avoid eye contact with her. I don’t think anyone has ever seen her this angry before. Understandable. Her contact in the city is dead, no info about who or why. I stand up and walk towards her. Being this sleepy has its advantages – apparently, being fearless is one of them.

“Mistress, if I may,” I say meekly

Rainbow Dash looks down upon me. Her eyebrow twitches up.

“My griffons are scared to talk to me, yet this little pony is willing to speak up?!” A few seconds pass by in silence. Then the unexpected... she bursts out into laughter. She lays down on all four and finds a comfortable place.

“Go on then, I’m a busy griff – places to be, ponies to talk to. Oh well, I’m in town, I might have to go see the Wonderbolts... Oh wait, first Odysseus, then other stuff.”

Everypony seems shell shocked. I am too. But, again, no sleep means no fear. I take in a deep breath and start my report...

“This morning, at approximately fifty-three minutes and twenty-one seconds past three, the griffin Odysseus had an enchantment placed upon him that appeared to kill him. No break in. At fifty-seven minutes and ten seconds past three, a cleaner found the body and called the police. Being a part of the council, a team of unicorns and changelings teleported in to try and find the killer. No such luck – it appeared to be a clean getaway."

“Twelve minutes and twelve seconds past four, the forensic team came in and proclaimed him dead – no pulse, nor movement. Thirty minutes and thirteen seconds past four, the force called me in for the investigation. I arrived at around forty-nine minutes and one second past four. I determined that Odysseus was meeting his killer and informed that a dragon spell was used to do the deed."

“Fifty-nine minutes and thirty-two seconds past four, I was examining the body and found that its eye twitched. This not being a typical symptom of being dead, I took a closer look and it would seem that his symptoms were closer to the patterns of REM sleep. I have read about one case like this before, years ago – his soul was taken from his body. On his body we also found the mark of the Solar Empire. As we speak, Odysseus is being taken to the closest hospital to be stabilized.”

Rainbow Dash just looks at me with her magenta eyes, glances back and forth, then laughs. She even falls over, laughing about something that funny in her head, apparently. At last, she wipes the tears from her eyes.

“You remind me so much of my friend Twilight, it's ridiculous! I mean, I thought she was an egghead but you really took the cake there!” After a bit more laughing, she stops and goes dead pan. She stands up and starts to stare me down.

“So, Odysseus is still alive? But with no soul to speak of?” she asked with a more concerned tone in her voice.

“That is correct. I’m the pony in charge of the investigation. I will do whatever it takes to find his soul.”
I don’t know where the promise comes from – it just... happens. Rainbow Dash nods and starts to stand, to walk out, but she then she looks past me as if seeing something appear there all of a sudden. I turn my head and my jaw drops. You have got to be kidding me...

The Ethereal being of Magic herself... Twilight Sparkle. No longer a pony, but a being of pure magic. She has kept her unicorn shape, but now stands a good two feet over any pony. Her 'coat' and 'mane' are those of the stars and of the night sky, and her horn looks like swirling stars and planets to the tip. Where her cutie mark once was, there is a cluster of stars that form what used to be – or so I’m lead to believe – pictures.

“Rainbow, you should tell me when you are going to be coming by. It gives me time to prepare my city. It was rude for you to wake me when I just had a late night,” she said, yawning.

“Sorry Twi', just need to give my wings a bit of stretch. You know how it is after my month long nap.” She grins, as if she has just passed an invisible ball back to Twilight.

So here I am, standing between two of the six Elements of Harmony, one of them being the leader of the six. Great. The one morning that I’ve had no sleep and I’m dealing with a 'murder' case that involves one of the council members, the Solar Empire, two of the elements of Harmony, the press coming through the door, Dawn at the top of the stairs – mane still wet – Odysseus being carted down the stairs, dragon magic, souls, and now my brain thinks its a great time for a flash!

My head starts to spin, ideas firing back and forth... Odysseus’ soul. Dragon magic. Dragon Kingdom taken first by the Solar Empire. Spell from the time of old. Leader of the Empire stopped by the elements.

It starts like a normal flash, then my brain starts to fire off pictures that don’t make any sense to me... Pictures of soldiers – dressed in Solar Empire reds, whites, and oranges – all of them marching down the streets of Canterlot. Their leader stands over them and stares out above their heads.

There are more pictures that pass through my head, none of them making any sense... Dragons, changelings, Crystal ponies, zebras, ponies all with blank looks and with nothing in their eyes! The time is twenty-three minutes and twelve seconds past five, and I am going to faint...

“Time is a funny thing isn’t it Whooves? I hope you don't run out of sand anytime soon....”

*Splash*

Great... someone threw water in my face. Wait what? Suddenly, I can't see. I bolt my head up, trying to blink. Nothing but light...
“Who said that? WHAT TIME IS IT!”

I can’t see anything. My eyes can’t focus... I can feel my heart racing. How much time has passed? Where am I? Who threw water at me?! Still blurry. Can’t focus. Eyes. Somepony yelling something. Hooves on my shoulder--

“Whooves! It’s seven thirty! Don’t worry, pon! Breathe... Breathe...”

It was Zak. I hate when ponies see my panic attacks. They cause my already active mind to flash even more... I start to take deep breaths and look around for my glasses. Zak hoofs them over to me and helps me up.

“You okay, pon? You're still a bit shaky.”

I shake my head a bit and locate the clock. Thirty-two minutes and fifty-four seconds past seven. I sigh and get a better look around. Both of the Elements are gone, and with them the reporters. I look to Zak and ask, “So, am I still on the case?”

Zak bursts out in a fit of laughter and replies, “Yeah pon, you still be on the case. You gave the Elements a bit of a fright! Dawn explained to them about your lack of sleep and, believe it or not, apparently the bearer of magic knows of you.”

I look to him a bit stunned. The Element of Magic knows about me? About me? An earth pony detective, a detective overly obsessed with time? I shake my head a bit, still reeling back from fainting earlier. My mind goes back to when I fainted. I flashed...
“Zak, did I say anything as I was passing out?”

He thinks back, kind of shrugs and says, “Something about marching ponies or something like that. I didn’t get to hear much over the yelling.”

“Thankfully, you have someone who is used to hearing the unnoticed here, friend.”

Nazir. Now this might be an interesting development. Nazir had a knack for details. For Luna’s sake, it was the only reason that I could catch him. He continued on...

“Much of it was gibberish, but one set of words that caught my attention was ‘Guards of the Sun’.”

“That’s the name of a pub in the solar district. Not a nice crowd, even if you're a solar pony,” Dawn stated as she joined the group of us.

“Why would you say the name of a pub before you fainted Whooves?” Zak asks, looking at me with concern look on his face.

“I don’t know Zak... A lot of pictures flooded my head right before I passed out. Most of them to do with the Solar Marches. It may just be a fluke that the bar is of the same name, but the Solar District is going to be the best bet... Dawn, get Chief on the phone and ask if I can get Discrete down to the Solar District.”

I pick up my pork pie and place it on my head, looking at my friends and colleges. I let out a sigh, breathe in and continue. “Zak, I’m going to head over to the Solar District and give Discrete her task. I'll figure out my next move from there. Head back to the station and get a guard detail on all of the other Councillors. Nazir, if you hear anything, I’m the first pony to know. Dawn, after that phone call I need you to keep a close eye on Odysseus. Anything new, let me know right away.”

Zak, Nazir, and Dawn nod to me and I start to trot towards the door, to find Hush, who is standing there. I tell him where I am going, to which he nods.

The rain has picked up. It bounces off of the pavement as we run to the squad car.

Looking out the window, I watch as we pass by the buildings in the Crystal Haven. This district always was amazing to drive through in the rain – the homes built out of rarest materials, gems, and crystals. The rain just seemed to melt away, leaving the homes clean and immaculate. Nothing ever seemed to bother the Crystal ponies.

Even after losing half of their race, they just shrugged and moved along. Nothing ever seemed to phase them. Then again, they have a 'different attachment' to the world – or so they say Supposedly, they are made from the soil and the mountains. They believe that that is what forms new waves of Crystal ponies.

When the heart of the Crystal ponies was threatened by the Solar Empire, they had it moved from their old capital to Harmony City. But the price of hiding the artifact from the Empire was steep – a good fifty percent of the Crystal pony population was wiped out in retaliation...Which of the six watched over them again, My mind goes back to the griffon embassy and the elements.

"Hush." The slient unicorn doesn't say anything but give a nod to let me know that he is now paying attention to my voice.

"I have something I need you to check out, off books." Again he nods

Hush remains quite as we pull up to a red light. I take a sip of my now very cold tea and look over to Hush. Good thing I didn't add milk to this...

"I'm going to give you an address, don't tell any pony but me what you find." I really hope I'm wrong about this. I look back to hush and he nods.

"Right." Very typical Hush answer, quick to the point and ends conversation early. Its like he is saving whatever he has to say to make a point later on in life. As the light turns green we pull past one of the city's divide and cross over to the Solar District.

We pull over just outside of a cafe and Hush lets me out. I give him a small piece of paper with the address I need him to check out. If this hunch pans out it could remove the envelopment of the solar ponies this case, or give us plenty of warning. He nods without a word and drives off. I quickly run into the cafe and look for an empty table, the owner looks up and smiles. He looks to be older unicorn, gray hairs line his blue mane and his green eyes seem to have faded a bit over the years. A young Solar Pony mare with setting suns is also working, at the cafe, she has a cute smile.

I order two cups of coffee and a changeling brunch, and start to read the paper while waiting for Discreet to arrive. Hmmm... Marecouver lost to Manehatten, damn I had some money riding on that game. I look to the clock, five minutes and four seconds past eight. I sigh out loud, might as well read the personals, I need something to make me laugh right now. I flip to the personals and start to scan. Female dragon looking for a Earth Pony, for friendship and maybe snack., Male Crystal unicorn looking for female anything. Please i'm lonely... ,"Male Zebra looking for male Solar pony for a fun time. Must like cats and leather." You know what I'm done reading personals.

"You know if you were lonely I could consider this a date. But I see that you into colts here, well I could always be a colt for you detective." Discreet's voice purred into my head. she had a way of not scaring you when she appeared. It was like she was always here, that wall flower that finally joins the party. She smiled at me with her toothy grin and flashed the changeling band around her hoof to indeed show me that it was her.

"So boss, what do you need little old me for?" I never really found changelings to be attractive but she diffidently was able to me make me second guess myself. For somepony that who's job is not to be seen she knows how to get colt's attention when she wanted it. The waitress brings us our coffee and Discreet's breakfast. Ughh, I hate the smell of changeling food. A while back a Changeling and pony came up with an "editable" substance that can actually fill a changeling up, again it requires quite a bit of magic to make it but apparently it's very filling.

As I watch Discreet eat, My mind starts to wander off. Solar Ponies... their first campaign, the march to the Changeling Wastes. Not long after the dragons fell to the Empress's magic, nothing happened. The leaders of the other nations tried to use this time to created a union. The plan was to force Equestira to explain their actions and pay for them. Queen Chrysalis had even sent spies to Cantorlot, none of them ever returned. It's said that the Empress herself didn't trust anyone, no changeling had a chance. Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings attempted to attack the capital, with support from the union. The attack was almost in hands of the union, until a Bright flash enveloped the castle almost blinding the attackers... And out walked the pony know as Behemoth. A massive Solar Pony who's steps shook the earth. He was the first of many Solar pony. He was also the general of the ground forces, and Queen Chrysalis executioner. He alone fought off thousands before a second flash comsumed the castle. The union forces said that after the second flash the sky darkened under the wings of a thousand solar ponies. A voice cuts me out of my deep thoughts.

"Your head is in the clouds their Whooves. What's on your mind. A pretty mare like me feels quite bad about herself if a male suitor doesn't pay attention to her." I look to Discreet and smile, I'm glad that the revolution took place or else I wouldn't have most of my friend here anymore.

"Nothing much" I lie. "Anyway we have a very interesting case, how is your Solar Pony impression?" Her eye twitches up and that toothy grin that all changelings have creeps across her face. Never before have I been scared and admittedly having my mind wander to a place where a gentlecolt like myself shouldn't be. I tell Discreet about griffon embassy, and the missing soul. She couldn't believe that the elements were involved, but then again neither could I.

"So that's where you come in. I need you to be a Solar Pony for awhile, see if you can't spec a pony out and replace them. All legally of course, if you fine somepony we will move in an detain them. you have to make sure they are guilty of course or else the Harmony council will have my head." I finish my coffee as Discreet finished digesting what I had to say. She smiled and looked up.

"Does this mean that I get to be unsealed again?" she purred again. That noise, how the hell do they do that?

"yes it does... Discreet of the Harmony City hive." I start the official part of my job. "You are having your shackle taken off. This is not an excuse to harm, replace or disrupt a citizen of harmony city. You are working for the harmony city police department. Again you will not replace a citizen unless instructed to by the city. If you do not check in every 48 hrs you'll be considered by the department as a rogue changeling. You will be hunted down and taken before the courts. Do you understand?"

She could hardly keep her self still. Changelings hate the shackles, it prevents them from being deceitful. Well using their powers to be deceitful. The bands on their wrists can not be taken off and they cause the wearer pain if lie in non changeling form. Also they glow different colours to give away the fact that they are changelings when in other forms. I remove my pork pie from my head and wave it over top of the shackle. One of my runes in the hat glows and I hear a faint click. The shackle drops to the table and Discreet smiles.

It is twenty-three minutes and fifty-two seconds past eight and I have a changeling in front of me who's smile is scaring me. Just another day in Harmony City.