Chapter 2 - Accusations

“Dusk I told you to be quiet! They probably heard us now! You probably also interfered with the recording,” The first voice said.

“It’s not my fault, and we can just cut it out later.” Said the second voice-Dusk, probably.

Sleuth pulled out his revolver and walked slowly to the door. Once he arrived, he quickly pushed the door open to find two ponies in black skin-tight suits. “This is Detective Sleuth! Name yourselves and put your hooves in the air!”

The two ponies quickly got up and ran for the window as Sleuth fired after them, putting two bullet holes in the ground and one in the window.

Applejack ran over to Sleuth. “What’s going on out here?”

Sleuth fired another bullet at the two spies, missing one and hitting the other in the leg, followed by a scream of pain from the pony.

“These two ponies are trying to record our voices.”

“What for?”

“I don’t know,” Sleuth said, and fired again, shooting the second pony in his leg. “But judging by the bulge on the pony on the right’s sides, he’s a Pegasus, which explains his name.”

Applejack ran down the hallway to the two ponies just as they got the window open, and jumped out. Sleuth ran over to the window and shot down his last bullet, barely missing Dusk.

“Dammit!” Sleuth shouted.

“At least we know one of the names,” Applejack said.

Sleuth turned around and started walking back to the Mayor's room. "Let's ask Mayor Mare if she knows who 'Dusk' is."

As they were about to enter the room, a nurse stopped them. "Mayor Mare needs her rest, so I'm going to have to advise you two to leave."

"Can't we ask her one question?" Sleuth asked.

"No, you cannot. She needs her rest if you want her to get better."

"Fine. I'll go ask somepony else, then," Sleuth said as he walked away.

-~-~-~-

As Sleuth and Applejack left the hospital, Sleuth turned to Applejack. "Do you know anypony that would know who Dusk is?"

"Well," Applejack said, "I have a friend who knows everypony in Ponyville. Her name is Pinkie Pie."

"Did somepony call me?" A voice asked as soon as a pink pony appeared out of nowhere.

"Holy crap!" Sleuth yelled as he grabbed his revolver and fired, disappointed that it was empty and he couldn't defend himself from the attacker.

"My name's Pinkie Pie, and I know everypony, and I mean everypony. For example, I know Applejack, Fluttershy, Dashie, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie-oh wait, I'm Pinkie Pie, so of course I would know her. I also know Mayor Mare, Cranky, Spike, Sweetie Belle, Big Mac, Berry Punch, Mr. and Mrs. Cake and their two babies, Pound and Pumpkin, Lyra, Bon-Bon, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Ms. Cheerilee, Octavi-" Pinkie Pie was cut short as Applejack put a hoof in her mouth.

"Ah think he gets it, Pinkie," Applejack said.

"Yes, quite," Sleuth concurred. "Do you know anypony named 'Dusk'?"

"Of course I do. He's reeeaaally nice."

"Can you tell me where he lives, by any chance?" Sleuth asked.

-~-~-~-

"You better be right about this, Sleuth; not that you ever are," Snow said.

"I am almost one hundred percent sure this is one of our guys," Sleuth said, and then turned to Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie, what does Dusk do?"

"He works with electronics and stuff, mostly cameras and recording systems; kind of weird why his name is 'Dusk', though."

Sleuth turned to the door and knocked. "This is the police! Come out with your hooves up!"

The door opened and a dark blue Pegasus came out. "Hello, sir. What appears to be the prob-" Dusk stopped talking as he noticed all the police with guns outside his house, and slammed his door shut, followed by the click of a lock.

"Bust down the door!" Snow commanded.

Applejack turned around and bucked down the door, then moved to the side to allow the police to get in.

After a few minutes, Dusk was being pushed out of his house in hoofcuffs.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you," Sleuth said.

"But I'm innocent! I don't even own guns, and I voted for Mayor Mare every year! I'm not even smart enough to set up that timer used on the machine gun! Why would I try to kill somepony? That would risk me getting in jail, and that would be bad for business!"

"Tell it to the judge," said a large stallion in a gruff voice.

"What's going on?" Pinkie asked.

"Dusk here has been arrested for attempting murder, and, until further notice, killing an officer," Snow said.

"So I helped solve a crime?" Pinkie asked with growing excitement.

"Pinkie, wouldn't ya be upset if your friend was arrested?" Applejack asked.

"Not if he was secretly a meanypants behind my back!"

A police pony walked up to Pinkie. "You will be expected to appear in court in two weeks," he said while handing her a paper.

"Wowee! My first court appearance!" Pinkie exclaimed as she put the paper in her mane, and then bounced away.

As Applejack and Sleuth left the crime scene, Applejack turned to Sleuth. "Hey, Sleuth. There's this new ice cream place nearby, do you wanna go with me to check it out?"

Sleuth smiled, probably for the first time since Applejack saw him. "Sure, why not."

-~-~-~-

"Ah would like an apple sherbet with apple pie flavored ice cream on top, please. With rainbow sprinkles too, along with some apple-flavored ones if you have 'em," Applejack said.

"Do you only eat apples?" Sleuth asked.

"No. I also eat chocolate, amongst other things," Applejack replied.

Sleuth turned to the cashier. "I would like an orange-flavored ice cream, please, on a waffle cone with hot fudge."

"How can you stand oranges?" Applejack asked. "I think they taste awful."

Sleuth grabbed the two ice creams in his magic, and gave Applejack hers. "How can you not like them?"

Applejack and Sleuth took a seat at a table and ate their ice creams. After a little while, Applejack spoke up. "So what was it like in Manehatten?"

"It was kind of..." Sleuth started to think of a word.

"Crappy?" Applejack suggested.

"I was thinking shitty, but that works too."

Applejack chuckled. "Mah first experience there wasn't that great either. I can't believe the higher class ponies there can survive on such little portions!"

"I know, right?" Sleuth said. "It's crazy! I usually eat like a horse!"

"We are horses," Applejack said, confused by Sleuth's statement.

"I know. That's how I eat like one. But seriously, I do eat a lot. Well, at least I used to, back when I could afford food."

"Yaknow, Sleuth. You're not that bad for somepony who likes oranges."

"You're not too bad for somepony who never had an orange."

"I've had oranges!"

"How many?"

"Like.... One. Maybe two. Ah don't quite remember...."

Sleuth chuckled.

"That's the first time Ah've heard ya laugh," Applejack said. "Why are you so serious?"

"I don't know. I guess living through the hard times made me lose my emotions or something. I don't know, I'm not a psychologist. I sometimes got so dirty that my coat would turn as black as night from all the garbage, dust, and pollution."

"Interestin'." Applejack said. "Not even I could get that dirty, and I work on a farm. Is the city really that dirty?"

"Sometimes. Especially near the industrial areas. It gets filled with so much smoke that Snowldier turns a darker shade of black than me if he's there for more than an hour."

"Why do you call him Snowldier?"

"Eh, long story. I'll tell you later," Sleuth said. "Hey, I don't have anywhere to stay yet, so can I just stay at your place until I get off my hooves?"

"Sure, we got us an extra room upstairs," Applejack said.

Sleuth looked out the window as he and Applejack finished their ice creams. "It's pretty late, we should have dinner soon."

"Ya can eat with me and mah family, they won't mind, 'specially if it's somepony helping us figure out who's trying to kill Twi."

Sleuth froze. "We can leave now, if you like. We just gotta stop by the town hall to pick up my luggage and we can head to your place," Sleuth said in a monotonous voice.

Applejack was surprised at Sleuth's sudden change in emotion, but decided not to dwell on it; after all, he is fairly new to her, so she doesn't know if he has mood swings or something. "Alright, we can leave now, just let me throw our trash away."

Author's Note

Sorry for this chapter being about half as short as the other and lack of importance (except maybe the arrest of Dusk), but I assure you that the ice cream part is necessary for a later part of the story and I was kind of busy (despite being on this site a lot, I still couldn't find much time to write) and I couldn't exactly think of much, so I decided to make a short chapter with something of importance, and something that will have no importance until later, as kind of a filler-chapter.