“So that's the one?” asked a small brown pegasus wearing a pristine blue police ponies uniform. Her purple mane was slicked back and hidden under her cap. She softly sipped her coffee as she looked through the one way glass that separated her from the other room.

A larger, green coated unicorn nodded from besides the mare. He was wearing a similar blue outfit, though his uniform was wrinkled and unkept, with his messy brown hair sticking out from under the cap. “That's her,” he said as he looked into the room. The room was small and square, the only thing in it was a small brown table, chair and a light that hung in the center of the room. Sitting in the chair was a small unicorn mare with a light pink coat and red long mane. She was wrapped tightly in a big brown blanket as she trembled and held it close, as if it could protect her from the world.

“Really? How did a little thing like that pull it off?” the pegasus asked as she pulled out a folder and glanced inside. “Have they even found all the pieces yet? I hear one of the captains nearly threw up when a hoof dropped on top of him.”

“Most of them were found,” the stallion said as he sipped his coffee, ignoring the extra comment. “You'd be surprised what you can do when you're afraid for your life. I've seen a few worse things happen in my time on the force. After you've had a few cases, you might too.”

“Still... where'd she get the knife?” the pegasus asked as she closed the folder.

“Don't know,” the stallion said with a shrug of his shoulders. “One of the ponies there were probably going to use it on her. Sometimes they use ponies like that as merchandise, sometimes they just use them.”

The pegasus cringed. “What's her name? Do we know what her connection to them was?”

“No idea,” the unicorn said with a sigh as he set his coffee down on the nearby table. “She had some ID on her, but it didn't match. Asked her about it, she said she had a run in with some poison joke a month or so ago. Hadn't worked up enough bits to buy the antidote. She won't be needing it now,” the pony grumbled as he took a seat at a nearby table.

“What do you mean?” the mare asked as she looked inside the room at the trembling pony.

“Her lucks gone and run out,” the stallion said with a shrug. “She killed a lot of them tonight and whichever family they belong to isn't going to be happy.”

“We need to move her to a safe house then! She's-”

“There's no use in that,” the old pony said with a sigh. “Isn't a safe house out there any more that can protect a girl like that. Besides, short of the princesses coming down and telling us to do it, no way we'd be able to get permission. Mare like that isn't important enough.”

“We can't just toss her out there!” the pegasus snapped as she slammed her hoof down.

“No, that's exactly what I'm going to do,” the pony said as he pulled out a cigar and moved it to his mouth.

“You can't smoke in here,” she reminded him bitterly.

“I know, but it still feels nice to chew on the end. I'm going to tell her to hide,” he muttered as he chewed on the end of the cigar. “Files and paperwork will say everypony was dead. Got her showered and all the blood washed off so she won't draw much attention on the way home. Maybe if she has the alicorn's luck, she can go somewhere nice and find a new job. Maybe wait tables or something. Maybe, just maybe, they'll think she's dead and won't come looking.”

“That's a lot of maybes,” the mare mumbled as she glanced back into the room. “What if they were connected to King?”

“These days, maybes are all anypony can get. If they were connected to the King, she's as good as dead. Listen, rookie, I know you come into this job looking to change the world, but that's not how it works. It's like a sinking ship. You can't save everypony, so you save those you can. Then you let those you can't drown. Her? I'm throwing her a life preserver, but the sharks are already circling. If you go and get yourself involved, a whole lot of other ponies you could have helped are going to end up drowning or shark bait.”

“That's a rather bleak way of looking at it, sir,” the pegasus mumbled as she watched the mare for a few more moments.

“It's the way the world works now,” the older pony said as he got up and walked towards the door. “Just keep away from the sharks and avoid being crushed by the waves, and you just might be able to save a few ponies from drowning. I know it's hard to accept, but it'll get easier.”

“Fine,” the mare muttered as she turned her gaze down, eyes narrowed.

The older pony sighed as he shook his head. “So, rookie, what was your name again?”

“Scootaloo, sir.”

“Well, Scoots, let's go throw this mare her life preserver. May Celestia have mercy on her soul.”

Author's Note

Thanks for taking the time to read this story, but I feel a lot of people will have some things to say so I feel I should answer some things first.
1. No, I haven't read any of the mafia storyline/ask Etc things. I have, however, heard of the Octavia one and do plan to eventually check it out. I hear it's really good. I did do a bit of looking around because I was curious how common the prohibition/speakeasy stuff was, but I didn't look that hard so I might have missed it if it turned out it is fairly common.
2. As in the above, I haven't actually read much of it, so if my story is really similar to one someone has already written, please let me know. I don't want people to feel I'm ripping off their work. I'm hopeful this story is pretty unique.
3. As it is, the story is based on a book I've been wanting to write, but I kind of wanted to do it as a fanfiction first, so just a warning this story will likely have more OCs than any of my other stories.
4. I have this story as mature since it will eventually get a bit gorey, not cupcakes level, but more than I'd usually be comfortable with without giving a warning. All in all, I hope you enjoyed.