P.O. Box Manehattan

22:30

April 16

"Mmrgh..." I groaned.

As I regained consciousness, I noticed that I was still sitting at my wooden desk and a bit of drool was dripping from the corner of my mouth onto it. I really needed more sleep, but this case can't solve itself.

I raised my head, wiping the drool away from my mouth, and glanced at the various documents cluttering my desk. Two in particular stood out from the rest: a letter with a rather elegant design on the paper it was typed on and an envelope with a gold seal on it. I opened it and read the letter that was inside. Apparently, it's an invitation.

Do you like sweets? Want some fun and good food? Well then head on down to our our bakery at 4251 Mane Lane! We are hosting a party for the grand opening of our shop and the first 10 ponies to arrive get a surprise! We can guarantee you won't be disappointed by our selection of goods!

There wasn't a name for the bakery, it was one of those invitations. Fine, guess I'll continue playing along. At least until I end this Celestia damned case.

With that, I got up from my seat and searched my office for my gear. Though the room was moderately organized, papers were strewn on the carpeted floor around my desk, dust covered the spines of the books on the shelf to my right, and my potted fern plant in the left corner across the room seemed to be wilting a little. I really haven't had much time to spruce this place up, even for a small while.

Eventually my eyes rested on the saddlebags lying right beside my desk. As usual, I double checked the contents inside my bags. Gauntlet? Check. Mask? Check. Extra ammo? Three arrowheads, need to make more of these.

I secured the bags on my back and opened the metal door that led to the streets outside. It was pretty late, and barely anypony roamed these streets anymore. These murders were taking its toll on the night population, but it did allow me to work in secrecy more efficiently. I trotted to the location mentioned on the letter.

Second Event: Sugar Rush

A purple earth pony mare wearing saddlebags approached a one-story building in an area where most would consider to be run down, the building was no different. Its white color was deteriorating to a slight yellow while the windows were intact but spots of dirt prevented them from being entirely transparent. There was a white chimney at the top but no smoke came out of it and the front wooden door seemed sturdy but old.

The mare stood in front of the building, her silver mane barely reaching her neck, her eyes a deep black, and her cutie mark a shield with a crescent moon in the center of it. She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a metallic gauntlet with three arrows circling it, the heads jutting out slightly, securing it onto her left foreleg. She then pulled out a mask resembling a screeching cockatrice, its color a feathery white and its artificial comb a red hue. She donned the mask, transforming her purple coat into a scaly green and making her cutie mark cease to exist. Her muzzle protruded out of the hole of the mask's open beak, allowing her to hold items with her mouth.

Inside the building, a cloaked unicorn was standing behind a glass counter on guard duty. Two cloaked earth ponies were playing poker on a table to the right, their weapons, a pipe and a knife, lying near them for easy access against possible intruders. A fourth cloaked pony was sleeping on a chair to the left of the counter, his head resting on top of another table.

The front door burst open, revealing the scaly green mare with her gauntlet aimed straight at the unicorn behind the counter. Before the unicorn could fire off a shot from its horn, an arrow suddenly perforated its head spilling blood and grey matter out the back of its skull.

The two ponies playing poker immediately grabbed their weapons and charged while the sleeping pony woke up with a jerk. As the two armed ponies closed in on the mare, she twisted her body and bucked both of them in their faces, one with each hind leg. The two were knocked unconscious and dropped their weapons while the now awake pony looked on in fear. In a desperate attempt for survival, it made a beeline for the dropped knife but was stopped when the mare swung her left foreleg and cut open its throat using one of the jutting arrow tips in her gauntlet. The cloaked pony gurgled on its own blood while the mare walked towards the fallen knife, grabbed the handle in her mouth, and sliced open the other ponies' throats before they could wake up.

With the checker tiled floor seemingly clear of living cloaked figures and painted a new shade of red, the mare walked towards the back door behind the counter, apparently leading down into a basement room.

A cloaked earth pony trotted up the stairs leading to first floor to investigate the commotion. Just as it was reaching for the handle, the door slammed in its face causing it to tumble back down. As its head impacted with the smooth stone floor, its neck twisted violently and the pony seemingly stopped breathing. The mare entered the basement floor and jabbed the knife in its throat for good measure.

In the basement, two door-less rooms were located to the left and right creating a hallway. Burners and bottles containing chemicals were arranged on tables propped up in the rooms. Bags filled with white powder were stacked on top of one another against the walls. A cloaked unicorn was busy mixing the chemicals in the room to the left with two brawny earth ponies guarding the entrance. In the room to the right, two other earth ponies were sitting at a table and chatting.

The sound of something falling was heard near the stairs to the basement. The two ponies standing guard decided to investigate the noise. As they were walking out to the hallway, one was suddenly shot in its right eye with an arrow while the other spotted the intruder and rushed towards her with a burst of adrenaline. It attempted to buck the intruder but as it did so, the mare swiftly side stepped and twisted her head. The knife became lodged in pony's neck, causing it to suffocate on its own blood as it feebly attempted to pull it out.

The two ponies chatting in the room to the right saw what was happening in the hallway and grabbed nearby pipes to defend themselves. The mare appeared at the entrance, she pointed her gauntlet at one of them and shot out the last arrow into the head of her target. The other pony charged with a pipe firmly held in its mouth, but was knocked to the floor with a forehoof strike by the intruder. The mare walked towards the incapacitated pony and stomped on its head until its face was no longer recognizable. She grabbed one the pipes and headed towards the left room

The unicorn working with the chemicals was now cowering behind a table. As the mare entered the room, she looked around and spotted the frightened pony. It began to back away, attempting to distance itself as far as possible from the beast in front of it, until it bumped into a wall. The mare closed in on the unicorn and swung her pipe, disorientating it and knocking it down. She straddled the unicorn, switching her grip on the pipe to her forelegs while doing so, and began beating its face in. the unicorn's face swelled with each blow, eventually becoming a pile of red mush.

Everything became silent and the floor was caked with blood. Death surrounded the mare accompanied by the slaughtered ponies' looks of agony.

The mare trotted up the stairs to the first floor. Bits of brain from the shot unicorn lay on the floor behind the counter while bucket loads of blood added to the theme of death. Bodies lay everywhere and silence permeated the room just as it did with the basement.

The mare took off her mask, changing her coat back to its original form, and gauntlet. Despite the blood spilled, she was surprisingly clean from any traces of it except for her gauntlet. She placed them in her saddlebags and exited the building.

I opened the door and entered the diner. A few ponies were eating their meals in the booths along the wall and some sat on the metal stools that lined the front counter. The smell of hay burgers and coffee wafted from the kitchen in the back. The stallion behind the counter glanced at me and smiled.

"Morning Night Shield. What'll you be having?"

"The usual," I replied.

"Alright then, coming right up."

I walked up to the counter and took a seat at one of the stools. After about five minutes, a cup of hot coffee and a dish with two stacked pancakes along with a small pitcher of syrup were placed in front of me. I thanked the stallion and began to dig into my meal.

"Hey Shield, no offense but you don't look so good," the stallion said.

"Yeah, I haven't gotten much rest ever since this whole thing about beasts in the city started popping up."

He smirked, "Well try to take better care of yourself. Don't want to lose one my regulars."

"Will do," I replied, returning his smile.

After finishing my meal, I paid the bill and placed a tip of five bits on the counter. With my stomach full, I left the diner.