Politics are a tricky business. Full of nobleponies, believing that they are the best, each trying to take a bite out of that big apple. Take this stallion for instance.
“I was pleased to get you’re invitation Miss De Lis” This is an earth pony, his name is unimportant-in truth I don’t even know it- but he is a big up-and-comer in the court. He gains support over shallow claims of fighting for ‘equality between the races’ that is the three kinds of ponies, I’ve never heard him speak of zebras or donkeys.
“Can’t we discuss this reasonably, Sir?” I raise my eye brow at him from across my very long mahogany table. There is a smile forming internally. The length of my table, the craftsmanship, the price of the cloth draping over it, these are sources of pride for me. These symbols of my influence, so key to negotiations like these.
“I don’t see what’s so unreasonable about not accepting your criminal terms.” He took a swig of his wine, toying with me. Of course he feels like he’s got the upper hoof, he’s a political giant, about to recreate the world. I’m a model he’s seen my shows.
“Criminal?” I chuckle. “You can’t carve out a section of Canterlot dedication to non-unicorns. You are trying to segregate us like in Manehattan.” I smile wryly, taking a sip from my own cup. My cutie mark appeared when I was barely a filly. Most assumed the fleur de lis is a symbol for beauty, or fashion I let them, it’s not like I’m lacking in either. But my mark is a reminder of my first trip to Canterlot. I discovered a plot to infiltrate the Princess’s Guard. I stopped it.
“Not at all. Just trying to bring some…diversity to the city” Diversity my flank. This is political gain pure and simple. Yes, there are few if any earth or pegasus ponies in the capital city, but this isn’t anything other than tradition. It was once a unicorn safe-haven, a place to recover from the relentless prosecution that unicorns often suffered. When Celestia and Luna built there empire they placed the center in Canterlot to symbolize a new era. The magic based culture of the cities makes life for a non-magical being difficult.
“There is always the issue” I start, “Of magic”
“Magic?” It is now the lord’s turn to raise his brow.
“Magic” I parrot. “Canterlot is the capital city. It is protect by magic. If any part of the city falls, the whole city will fall. We can’t have a whole inner section without magic users can we?”
“Oh” he replies knowingly. “That’s the issue.” The earth pony rises and walks to the center of the floor. He closes his eyes and mutters under his breath. A wind picks up inside the room and his mane flips about his face. The coffee table lifts, without an aura, and moves out of the way, clearing an opening. “There are ways around that.”
I feel my smile widen as I too leave her spot to join the stallion in the newly formed empty space.
“Such magic is taboo” I say carefully
“Yes” he replies, “But not illegal”
“Then how about a little wager?” These political types never seem to be able to refuse a bet.
“I’m listening.”
“We have a duel here…Oh don’t give me that look,” I say upon seeing his face, “It’s not like I’m known for my fighting.” He nodded in agreement. It is well known that my magic isn’t very strong “I propose a magic duel. If I win, you will withdraw this ridiculous notion from court.”
“And when I win?”
“If you win… I will openly support you.”
“Tempting,” he says coyly, “Why do you care so much?”
“Let’s just say a certain… benefactor has an issue with your plan” We two smile at each other, and shake hooves. A silent agreement has been met and the Lord and the lady turn sharply and take ten paces in opposite directions, turn again, and draw.
The earth pony starts his chanting again; the wind picks up, his hooves start to lift from the ground. It’s all quite impressive.
The corners of my lip twitch, my horn starts to glow, and I cast one of my best spells. The lord immediately stops talking. The wind dies. He falls with an ungraceful thud. He opens his mouth to speak again, but his tongue is in a knot.
“The effects will wear off in an hour, sir” I say as I stalk towards the body thrown on the ground. “I call it ‘tongue-tied;’ you won’t be able to speak for a while, so tap your hoof three times if you want to concede.”
He taps.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I just want to make sure.”
He taps again.
“Excellent” I’m watching him victorious, but there is a shadow, a flicker in the corner of my eye. I look up and see that I have an audience. A blond stallion grins ear to ear, and approaches her boldly. I pick up the lord with a simple levitation spell and place him on his feet; he trots away dejectedly as the new pony comes up.
“Howdy Milady” He tips his hat. The stallion is well built, a light blond coat and a dirty blond mane. He sports a leather vest, a Stetson and a giant red apple as a cutie mark. To some, he might be considered attractive.
“Are you lost, sir?” The stallion shakes his head vigorously, I frown. “Then why are you here?” His face sobers.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you, but I have a serious problem. My name is Braeburn; I’m from a settlement called Appleloosa. We’ve had a kidnapping, we need your help.”
I sit down at my table again and sip my wine. “I’m only a model” I say simply, batting my eyelids for good measure.
“And I’m an apple fritter,” he laughs. His face becomes strait again. “Please, Miss Lis, I have a cousin who you’ve helped, and I saw what just happened there” He gestures to the space that held the duel a few minutes earlier. “We need you. This is serious”
“Well kidnapping tends to be…”
“You don’t understand.” He shakes his head yet again, he’s oddly attached to that movement. “We just signed a treaty with the native buffalo tribe, sacrificing some land and apple pies for peace. Not to sound ungrateful, we enjoy doing it… Or most of us anyway.”
“Can I guess now? Some of the nay-sayers are using the disappearance of this pony to incite a new rebellion against the buffalo.”
“That is correct” Braeburn sighs.
“Why can’t you use your sheriff?”
“It’s his granddaughter,” he starts, “He’s likely to start a witch hunt.”
“Ah” I rub my chin, thinking. “I don’t normally do detective work, how much will you pay me?”
Braeburn blanches.
“Pay you? There is a girl’s life at stake!”
“How much?”
“30 bits”
“30?” I take another sip. “100.”
“100!”
“Yep”
Braeburn looks around panicking. I’m not a horrible pony, but houses like these do not come cheap. “Please miss, I don’t have that much money. The sheriff doesn’t have that much money, the father can’t afford it.”
“My time is valuable.” Fleur say haughtily. “And the mother can afford it”
“How did you know-“
I sigh and roll my eyes. “You got here somehow right? A poor family could afford a train, but in a kidnapping case, time is of the essence. No, they teleported you. Over that kind of distance, it would be awfully expensive. And you came to Canterlot, instead of a nearby law agency. Meaning the family has money to burn. If the father can’t afford it, the mother can. Her family’s bits probably helped build the town. And you are very, very close. What’s her name?”
“Silver Lining” The stallion stutters
I whistle, “a bit more money than I expected. 100.”
“50”
“100”
“75”
“100” I narrow my eyes, daring him.
“Fine” He surrenders, “100”
I flash him a brilliant toothy smile.
“When do we start?”
Author's Note
This is a bit of a supernatural mystery that includes some Marvel characters, but you don't need to read comics or have seen the movies. There are no Avengers. I expected this to be longer but I thought it was a good ending to an introduction. This was originally in 3rd person past tense, but I reconsidered. Any reviews, even criticisms are helpful, and I hope you enjoyed this and continue to read it.
“It’s just,” my companion starts, “I feel responsible. It was my turn to watch her…”
I sigh. I’m not used to this. In all my tenure as a mind for hire, I’ve never been called into do police work and I still don’t fully understand why I was chosen for this. he says he trusts me on a referral from his cousin, I suppose he means the issue with the mayor skimming apples off the top. That hardly qualifies me for a kidnapping case. He has not stopped babbling since we left my home, we teleported mid-sentence and he kept going. If I didn’t know better I’d think he was the parent.
We arrive right outside the town and proceeded to trot to the scene of the crime: The house of the concerned parents. Of course I asked him the usual questions, learned the backstory of this kidnapping. Dusty Star- the young filly belonging to Silver Lining and Wild Star, son of Silver Star, sheriff, went missing late last night. She had just gotten her cutie mark a few weeks earlier. The father was out and the mother had invited Braeburn over for company and a free sitter. She was asleep, he was drinking, somehow or other somepony took the young Dusty and hasn’t made any demands yet. Naturally, the sheriff tried to take over the investigation, but his first “interview” could have gotten him removed from office and Braeburn suggested me. Here we are.
The two of us continue walking, the earth pony is still speaking and I want to listen, I really do, he could be giving me such delicious clues, but I just can’t. I distract myself with the western architecture. I have never seen building like these outside of storybooks and I am surprised we have land left in Equestria to settle. I hear something, my ears perk up.
“It’s just the start, I say” The stallion is big, built strongly. He has a light brown coat and a dark brown name, his cutie mark a hammer and pike so I can only assume he helped build the railroad. “Those buffalos are gonna slaughter us all, one by one. You think that this so-called ‘treaty’ is gonna protect us? They want their land, and they’ll do anything to take it!” I roll my eyes and a small scoff escapes. There are a hoof-full of ponies around him nodding in agreement. The stallion keeps talking but my companion is finally giving me some new information.
“That there is Rosen Tall” Braeburn whispers to me. “He didn’t much care about the buffalo until the price of apple pie went up. Less apple tees and the free pie mean that it’s all suddenly worth more.” I look back at this Rosen Tall and see that he is talking to a new mare, a grey one with a wispy mane. She points her hoof in my direction and they both stare at us silently, with wide unblinking eyes as we turn the corner.
There are two other ponies that stand out on this street. A young mare, light orange coat, vibrant red mane, stands next to a familiar face. She’s, oddly, fully dressed: a frilly skirt and a loose fitting shirt. A locket is dangling from her neck. The only other clothing I’ve seen around here are the myriad of Stetsons that litter the town. The pony she is standing next to is a stallion the world knows as Coy. I know him as Beast.
We bypass these two and head into the Star’s family home. It is noticeably nicer than the rest of the houses in the settlement, there is something… cleaner about it.
The door opens and we see the living room. Two couches and an E-Z chair sit in the center of the room, one pony on each of them. The mare stands up when she sees us.
“Braeburn” she exclaims as she rushes him, pulling my traveling companion into a warm embrace. He returns it. I do believe she is rather pretty, even with her brown mane wrapped hastily into a bun. The stallion who I assume to be her husband stares expressionless. Sheriff Silver Star is the first to greet me.
“Howdy” He smiles at me grimly. I nod in response.
“You Fleur De Lis?” the other stallion asked.
“Yes. I assume you’re Wild Star?”
“You’d be correct.”
We regard each other for a bit before the mother speaks up again.
“We’ve heard a lot about you.” She smiles pleasantly through the tears that are forming.
“Well I still don’t think we’ve heard enough” adds the sheriff rather bitterly. He flops back down on his large, over-fluffed chair.
“Dad!” Wild Star exclaims.
The conversation is not very pleasant. Mostly it’s a rehashing of what I already knew. The family obviously is not happy, but I expected that. Their youngest was just kidnapped after all.
…
Braeburn leaves first, I figure the dirty looks that the father keeps giving him is a good enough reason. I leave too, with the two most vocal ponies in the group having not actually been there, I feel my time is better spent elsewhere.
Outside the door are the same two ponies, clattering away at a large machine that looks like a video game. Coy looks up at me, then back down. I know he really doesn’t want to see me but I really don’t care. In this town, these two are weird, and weird must be investigated.
“Coy” I say in his general direction. He is making quite an effort not to look at me. His friend on the other hand is paying me alarmingly close attention. Hank looks different then the last time I saw him, huge and muscular, hanging onto buildings by his back hooves. Right now he looks almost normal.
The mare opens her mouth to speak but is immediately cut off.
“Fleur, what are you doing here?”
“I’ve been hired to investigate the disappearance of Dusty Star.” I say simply. He grunts in acknowledgment, eloquent as always. The mare’s eyes twinkle and I swear I know her.
“My name is Patsy Trotter” she says cheerfully. Coy bangs away at his machine.
“Fleur De Lis” I reply. And now, I know who she is. “I read your comic book,”
Patsy Trotter was a popular comic that came out around the time I moved to Canterlot for the first time. Some romantic comedy fluff that I heard was based off of a true story.
“Oh that…” She blushed deeply and pawed at the ground.
“Uh huh”
She looks at me and her smile grows wider and toothier, like a child who knows something that I don’t. It’s a look I’ve never liked.
“It’s been nice seeing you again Coy,” I say as I walk towards the Salt Lick, a place I feel I can get some answers. I hear Coy yell the mare’s name and I turn sharply to see young Patsy Trotter galloping away.
Author's Note
Hope you liked it, please comment, all criticism is welcome.
