Disguised in my grey hoodie, I followed my informant around the city of Boston. He wore a brown sweater, similar to mine, as he trudged through the shaded streets. It was the middle of the day and I’ve been following him everywhere to see if he might lead me somewhere important to my case, before he notices me. He made his way into a nearby alley, with me not too far behind. I mentally kicked myself as I carelessly walk through a puddle.
The man turned around with his hood down, showing me his anger and confused look. “Why are you following me,” he questioned flicking his dirty blond hair back. He scanned me, searching for any indication of why I would be following him and who I might be.
Knowing that hiding my identity wouldn’t last much longer, I casually lifted the hood off my head with a big grin on my face. I could see the skin on his face turn white before he immediately took off in a sprint, in the opposite direction. “Come on Jaune,” I shouted before I gave chase. “Don’t be that. I just want to talk.” The man tried any method to slowing me down; trash cans, crates, anything he could throw behind him. All his attempts were in vain, for I easily evaded each obstacle.
As he made his way down another alley, he found his path blocked by a fence. His attempt to scale it was futile when I grabbed him by his hoodie and slam him into the ground. “Hey Jaune, it’s dangerous climbing fences. Here, let’s dust you off and see if you’re okay,” I said playfully as I pulled him on his feet and slammed him against the wall.
My buddy groaned in pain before he turned his head to try and look at me. “W-What do you w-want to k-know now?” The man trembled in my grip while I held him against the wall. “P-Please don’t h-hurt me any m-more!”
The helpless guy act, I knew Jaune could do better than this. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to know where the new drug dealer’s stash is at.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about man,” he said while looking really nervous.
I looked over at his arm and sneered mischievously, “It looks like your arm looks pretty banged up from your fall, let’s take a closer look.” I grabbed his arm and pulled back nearly breaking it.
Jaune howled in pain as he tried to pull away, “Wait, wait, wait, wait! It’s all coming back to me now!”
I yanked his arm a little more while I kept him against the wall. “I’m waiting…” I let the man tell me about the drug dealer’s stash and how I can get to it. With all the information I needed to know, I released him and let him run off, clutching his arm in pain. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Jaune, and I can’t wait till our next meeting,” I called out to him before he turns the corner and leaves the alley.
With all the knowledge I gained from Jaune, I have everything I needed to give to Boss. But, before dealing with the boring stuff, now I can deal with my favorite part of the job. As I enter the police station, I come up to the front desk being greeted by favorite police girl. “Hey Leo, what brings you in today,” she asked, putting on her signature smile.
Seeing that make me want to put a smile on my face. “Sup Officer Clover,” I said jokingly. “I just got some info on that drug dealer you guys are looking for.”
She brushed her auburn hair back and sternly looked at me in the eye with her green eyes, “You know I hate it when you call me that.”
I waved my hand in dismissal, “Joking, I’m joking Emily. Hey! Is Boss busy, right now?”
She smiles back, shaking her head. “He doesn’t have any appointments ‘right now’, but he’s not in a good mood.” As if on cue, we heard a loud bang coming from his office.
I rolled my eyes and made my way to the chief’s office. “When is he ever in a good mood?”
As I knocked on his door, Chief yelled, “If it’s not good news, go away!”
“Hey Boss, I’m finished with that assignment, you gave me. You got any new jobs for me?”
“About damn time I got some good news,” he shouted. “Get in here!” I wasted no time going inside. I sat on the nearest chair I could find while he did his breathing exercise to calm himself. He brought his hand to his chest as he breathes in. While he exhales slowly, he waved his hand outward. “So what do you got for me, Leonardo.” I gave him the folder containing all the information on the dealer, which he tosses it on a pile of other folders dismissively, typical. “This next assignment is what the department has been working on for years. Have you ever heard of the name Von Adler?”
Von Adler, big mafia leader, who thinks he run the city. “Yeah, you guys tried to take him to court several times, but couldn’t get anything to stick.”
“Good, you know your next assignment. Now take this folder and get out.” As he tosses the folder to me, I caught it and walked out.
Before I left the station, Emily greeted me, “I didn’t hear a lot of yelling,” she smirked. “I suppose your meeting went well?”
I chuckled, “It went better than the last time I talked to him.” I looked at my folder. “But my next target is gonna be a tough one.”
Emily chuckled nervously and decides to change the conversation, “Hey, are you still available to go to dinner tonight?” I nod in response. “So do you want to meet up at the usual place?”
“No problem, I’m gonna run a few errands. You should be off when I’m done.” We said our goodbyes as I walked out of the station.
I sat down at a nearby cafe, ordering a small coffee and a danish before I read the information out of Von Adler’s folder: 38 years old, German, brown hair, blue eyes, 6’ 2” tall, married, average muscle build...suspected of murder, arson, extortion, dealing, kidnapping, assault, and millions of dollars in damages of government and federal property. Jesus Christ, it’s like they took a rule breaking dictionary and slapped his name on every gripe they could muster. There was a stapled packet inside which had cases that always seem to end when Von Adler’s name plastered on it before the cases reach a dead end. Not a lot I could go off of, so I will need to start from the ground up: deliveries, gang rallies, drug dealers, party crashing, etc.
I heard church bells ringing off in the distance...wait what time is it? I hit the power button on my cell phone, seeing the screen flicker to life and read the time it gave me. 2:29 PM? What kind of church let’s their bells go off at 2:29? I shrug the thought away and paid the waitress the money I owe and heads towards the grocery store. “Time to go do some odd jobs,” I whispered to myself.
On my way to the store, a kid stood in my way holding a gold watch to me. “Hey Mister,” the kids started. “Do you want to buy a gold watch from me? I promise I’ll sell it to you for at low cost.” Upon a closer inspection, I could tell the watch was fake, because coming across gold is difficult to find in a city like Boston, besides walking in a pawn shop that exists a couple blocks down.
“Sorry kid, but the gold in your watch is fake. It’s a knock off, I used to sell stuff like this at your age.” The kid stared at me in shock at my response as I walk around him. “You should probably sell that junk to tourists instead of locals, you get better sales that way,” I added, leaving the kid in a state of confusion.
Seeing that kid got me to think about my past and how I used to be that kid wandering the streets and coning people of their money. Things were kinda rough back then, I always was the troublemaker. Looking for jobs that paid well and didn’t care what kind of job I was doing. Most of the time, I was delivering packages that held weapons and drugs to big time dealers. I didn’t know any better at the time, I was in it for the cash. Doing such jobs helped me in the long run; I got to learn more about the streets of Boston. No one could really hide from me unless they live in some penthouse outside of the city.
The reason why I was so desperate about the money was to help mom support us. She was always working long hours and multiple jobs a day, we somehow barely scrape by paying the bills. It would’ve been easier if my sperm donor was around to help instead of running off with another woman, but everything played out well in the end. Me, my mom, and-
Now that I’ve made it back to the Crystal Empire, I need to talk to the professor. He needs to know of these strange readings I’ve found out in the Frozen North. As I trotted through the shopping district, heading to the University, I heard my name being called out into the distance.
“Aura,” a mare yells at the top of her lungs excitedly, swinging her hooves to get my attention, as she approaches me with a bag of groceries in her saddlebags. Her frazzled pink mane waved behind her and her shining white coat shimmering the light. “I didn’t know you were gonna come back from your field studies so soon.”
I knew that mare, Glimmer is her name, she’s my roommate and my best friend. “Hey Gee, I just found some strange readings, so I’m turning it into the professor to see what he thinks about it.”
Glimmer tilted her head in confusion. “What kind of readings are we talking about? For you to say strange, must be pretty bizarre.”
I nodded and furrowed my brow. “I agree, finding such strong readings in that barren wasteland is practically impossible. Which is why I need to go see the professor at the University?” Before I could think of anything else, my stomach growled loudly.
Gee snickered at me, “Since you’re hungry, how about we grab some lunch after you report in?”
I blushed a little and nodded to my roommate. “Sure let’s go to that one restaurant we went to, that other night. After you’re done dropping off your stuff, want to meet me in front of the professor’s office?”
“That sounds great, I’ll see you then.” Glimmer waved before we went our separate ways.
I stood in front of the Professor’s office, trying to piece together what I should say. My thoughts were interrupted by my teacher. I turned around to see him standing behind me, still wearing that ridiculous ‘Hoof-stitched Starswirl the Bearded Cape’ he made himself.
“Aurora, what in Celestia are you doing just standing in front of my office,” he questioned before he starts pushing me inside. “No need to be shy, in you go.”
I chuckled nervously, knowing how forward he is. “Sorry professor, I was trying to figure out what to say to you about what I found during my research out in the Frozen North.”
“What did you find that you’re having trouble trying to explain to me,” he asked as his eyes widened and his ears perks up with interest.
As we walked in, I pulled a crystal out from my saddlebag which was glowing a bright red. “My Magic Capturing Crystal was absorbing this strange magic as I explored the Frozen North. I tried to follow it to the source, but it magic suddenly disappeared.”
My teacher took the MCC in his magic and examined it. “Never seen a spell matrix like this before and the power behind it is pretty impressive.” He started levitating some books to his desk. “If Starswirl were here, he’d probably know what this is-oh! This is going to be great! This might take a couple days to piece out.”
It was strange hearing bells ringing off in the distance with the bells on the professor’s cape as he moved from one book to the next. I noticed that when he went into his ‘research mode’ that I won’t be able to break his concentration. So I decided to leave him to go have lunch with Glimmer. “Good luck, Professor.”
After meeting up with my roommate, we started walking to the restaurant. “I don’t think that stallion will ever change,” I sighed to myself.
“Is he still wearing that stupid cape,” she asked, giggling at her question.
“Yes,” I replied. “But don’t say that to him. You know how he gets.” We both shared a laugh before my stomach growled again. “Let’s hurry and eat before I starve.”
We arrived at the restaurant and sat on the outside patio. The waitress took our orders as we talked. “I love going on dates with you, Aura,” Glimmer started with a wink.
I rolled my eyes and chuckled, “We’re not dating, Gee. We’re just hanging out together.”
“You know we can always fix that.” As she wriggles her eyebrows at me.
“So how was your day?” I changed the subject quickly while I blush.
Glimmer pursed her lips, expecting an answer from me, but she let it slide. “I slept in, woke up and went to class, which was utterly boring by the way. I wasn’t expecting you to come home tonight, so I decided to go to the store and make something for myself.” The waitress comes back with our food. She ordered a crystal berry sandwich while I just order a salad.
I chuckled while shaking my head, before I take a bite out of my salad. It’s so good eating fresh food again. They don’t allow us to bring fresh food with us into the freezing desert, instead taking those horrible rations because they last longer. “You know I really-”