Ponyville PD

Chapter One

Shepard sat at the front of the dark van as it drove quickly down the streets of Ponyville. His hooves twitched nervously on each bump of the street. He didn’t know why he was so nervous now. Normally, he was incredibly calm, but it had been something about the op that just didn’t feel right to him. It was all too easy, but the intel was supposed to be good, so he didn’t question it.

“What’s wrong with you today?” His friend Charlie said nudging him with his hoof.

“Something about this op doesn’t sit right with me.” Shepard said gazing out the blacked out window of the van.

“C’mon, you’re a legend old timer. It’s just a simple snatch n’ grab and we’re out of there.” Charlie said shifting the gear.

“Then why do we have them?” Shepard said pointing behind him to the ponies in the back of the van.

“Precaution.” Charlie said. “Speaking of which,” He trailed off as he picked up his radio and pressed on the side button. “Ready up gentle men, we’re almost there.” He said into the radio and released the button.

Almost instantly, there was a rustle of movement in the sheltered back of the van followed by the snapping of body armor and cocking of firearms. He pulled his own hoof gun out of his coat and checked it for the fourth time that morning. Everything was properly assembled and cleaned. As he put the hoof back into his jacket, Charlie rounded the corner and the warehouse came into view.

Shepard tried to control his breathing as it came into view. The massive, gray building had supposedly been used by several drug lords and was currently said to be occupied by one of the most wanted ponies in the Equestrian Republic, Jeremiah Fink.

Charlie pulled into an alley across the street from the warehouse and pulled the keys out of the ignition. Shepard immediately hopped out of the van and waved to the other two as they arrived. He tapped on the rear of the van and the doors burst open and six heavily armed ponies poured out of the back and took up ranks at the front of the alley, quickly joined by the other armed ponies from the other three vans.

“You keep this thing ready to go!” Shepard called into the van before closing the back doors.

“Somepony sounds nervous.” A voice said from behind Shepard making him jump in fright. He turned around quickly, his hoof rested on his holster, ready to draw his gun. But instead of a criminal with a gun to his head, his partner, Clair, stood behind him, an amused glint in her eye.

“Dammit Clair!” He exclaimed sliding his gun back into the holster at his hip.

“Someone’s grumpy. C’mon smile.” She said pushing up the corners of his lips with a her hooves producing a half goofy, half insane smile on the older detective’s face.

“Hey, if you two lovebirds are finished, we’ve got a job to do!” One of the armed ponies called back to them.

Shepard quickly swatted her hooves away and stuffed his in the pockets of his coat. While Shepard stood there, an embarrassed blush growing on his cheeks, Clair walked past him and over to the team of ponies.

“Don’t be jealous.” She said flicking the pony’s nose and walking past him to the edge of the alley. Shepard rushed to join her, catching strange looks from the entire team of ponies. He took his spot next to her and peeked out across the street at the warehouse. There didn’t seem to be any guards or anybody for that matter.

He put his earpiece in and the rest of the ponies followed suit. He pressed a small button on his cuff and whispered, “We’re on the clock.” Suddenly, four ponies ran out across the street, each of them carrying a large metal pole that they were using as a battering ram. Behind them the rest of the team followed, save two ponies armed with high powered rifles who deployed the bipods on the hoods of a pair of cars and clocked on their sights.

Last to follow were Shepard and Clair, who made their way across the street as quickly as they could and took up positions next to the SWAT ponies. Shepard removed his hoofgun from its holster and clicked off the safety but kept his hoof off the trigger. He nodded to the four ponies carrying the pole and they backed away from the door.

“One, two three!” The pony at the front yelled and on three they slammed the pole into the metal door of the warehouse. It collided with a loud ringing bang, but it didn’t give. They brought back the pole for another blow. “One, two, three!” The pony at the front called out and like the first time, they brought the pole forward and slammed it into the door again, with an even louder bang. “C’mon colts, one more.” The pony at the front called to the other three. “One, two, three!” He yelled and the ponies slammed the pole against the door harder than they had the first two times.

But rather than the door swinging open, it fell right off its hinges and slid across the concrete floor of the warehouse. The four ponies dropped the pole and readied their weapons. One of the swat ponies peered into the warehouse but was met by darkness. “Flash lights on.” He said clicking on the light at the end of his shotgun. Shepard took out a small flashlight that he kept in his pocket and pressed the button on the end which switched it on.

The pony at the front nodded and rushed into the warehouse followed one by one by the rest of the ponies and finally by Clair and Shepard.

From the outside, the warehouse didn’t seem like much, but on the inside, the floor was littered with all kinds of equipment and shelves that went up and disappeared into the darkness. “Alright colts, they know we’re here. We split into three groups, group A, take the right, B, left and C, right. Unknowns are hostiles.” tHe lead pony said quietly. He motioned with his hooves  and the ponies split themselves up.

“Clair, you go with them.” Shepard said pointing to the group going down the right side of the shelves, searching for anypony in the warehouse. “I’m going left.” She nodded and hurried after the ponies. He had a hunch that something bad was about to happen, but he couldn’t act on hunches alone. He followed the ponies on the right, his padded boots making just the slightest sound as they hit the floor, but it was drowned out by the stomping of the SWAT ponies.

Suddenly the warehouse lights came to life, illuminating the entire building. THe SWAT ponies scurried under the shelves and behind boxes for cover leaving Shepard standing alone in the middle of the aisle. “Who the hell turned the lights on?” One of the ponies behind him hissed into his earpiece.

As if in answer, three gunshots rang out from the other side of the complex. “Shots fired, I repeat, we have shots fired!” A voice crackled over the microphone.

“Shit.” Shepard said ducking under a shelf.

“What’s going on over there?” The pony next to shepard asked.

“Oh shit.” A younger pony said over the microphone.

“Answer me boy, what’s going on!” The pony shouted into his radio. As if in answer, more gunfire rang out. “C’mon.” The pony said stuffing his earpiece back into his ear and moving out from the cover of the shelf.

The rest of the ponies followed suit and began rushing towards what had been the sound of gunfire. As they trotted, they could hear more movement in the distance, making Shepard pick up his pace until he had surpassed the SWAT ponies. He could feel it in his belly that this was what was destined to go wrong that today, and Shepard wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it was.

They rounded a corner and a crowd of ponies in full tactical gear came into view through a glass window  leading to the overseers office. Several ponies inside noticed Shepard coming and one picked up his radio. “Hey, keep Shepard out of here, he doesn’t need to see this just yet.” The one said into his radio, but Shepard didn’t hear him because his earpiece dangled down around his collar.

He grasped the door handle and twisted it. At this point, everypony had noticed them coming and watched him open the door. He stepped into the room and looked dubiously the saddened faces of the ponies around him, though he couldn’t see why as they were standing too close to make out what was in the center of the room.

“Let him by.” A voice said from the center of the room. The armored ponies shuffled out of the way, making a path towards the middle of the room. All that he could make out was a small pony in a field nurses uniform standing hunched over a smaller figure. The nurse stood up and stepped away from the thing in the center.

As she moved out of the way, Shepard saw what she had been hunched over and dropped his hoofgun on the ground with a loud ‘clunk.’ The blood in his veins turned to ice and time seemed to slow down. He didn’t want to believe what lie before him, in front of his very eyes. for on the ground lay his partner. Clair was dead.

He shuffled his hooves over to her and dropped to his knees next to her. Blood still seeped from three gunshot wounds to her chest, but her heart no longer beat. He turned his attention from her wounds to her face. Her mouth was drawn back in a snarl which stirred Shepard’s heart. ‘You always were a fighter.’ He thought to himself. Her green eyes had glazed over with pain and her pristine white coat had been stained red by her own blood.

He placed his hooves over her eyes lids and drew them down as well as closing her jaws, so at least she looked peaceful, and then he wept He wept harder than he ever had, harder than he had when his father had died, harder than when his sister had been murdered while he was serving in ‘The Second Great Changeling War.’

But his vision started to go fuzzy and an acute ringing began in his ears which grew with intensity until his vision went black and he was deafened by his own ears.

His eyes snapped open against the weak moonlight. His body was shivering and drenched in sweat. He untangled himself from his sheets which were now a mess, as they always were now adays. He was plagued by constant nightmares and hardly ever got a good night sleep anymore.

He stood up and popped his back, and that’s when he noticed the knock at his door. He quickly made a grab for his hoofgun and brushed his mane out of his eyes. He walked out of his room and into his small living room which he had kept relatively clean, unlike the kitchen. As he reached the door, the knocking stopped and a voice called from the otherside. “Shepard, drop the damn gun and open the door!”