The Kill Box

Meanwhile, at the Ponyville Police Department

"I telling ya Flash, these days just seem to get shorter and shorter" Shining Armor chuckled as he stepped into the department's briefing room, "We're solving everything that's coming our way like" he snaps "that."

Flash sits down in a chair, and props his feet up on a table in front of him. Popping open a beer, he says "Right you are, sir," looking over at a small stack of papers on a nearby desk, "now if only we could solve those damn missing persons cases..."

Shining gets up and walks over to the refrigerator while looking at the files Flash mentioned. Frowning at the sheer number of papers and files litering the area near the desk, he moves to open the refrigerator door, but is interrupted by the phone going off in the room. Sighing, he instead moves to pick up the reciever, "Why is there always that one idiot who thinks that calling after hours will get more attention for his 'idea'?"

Flash smirks back at him, "Hey, if it's someone asking for the famous 'Captain Shining Armor, hero of the Battle of Canterlot, and wife of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza', then at least it's not the government or higher ups on our asses." Flash finishes with a sip.

"True to that." Shining says as he picks up the phone. "Uh, hello?...Yes, this is Captain Armor...yes I have the files, they're in the room with me...uhuh, yes, OK...yes I am aware, but what does this have to do with me?"

Flash takes a look over at Shining, "Who's calling?"

Shining briefly holds his hand over the microphone, "Give me a minute; what? Yes, Sergeant Flash is here as well, but can I have my question answered?" A faint voice is heard over the line, and Shining's face instantly pales. "W-what! No, repeat that to me once more...No...no fu-I mean no way." Shining sways slightly and his hand lowers the phone to hip level.

Flash jumped up from his chair, "What, what's going on?" He motions in front of Shining's face, "Sir, with all due respect. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

Shining takes a deep breath, "Flash, with all due respect to you. You're going to want to take a seat."

Raising an eyebrow, and with a frown on his face, Flash takes his seat and asked "So, what is the government asking of you that is getting you so worked up?"

Still holding onto the phone, Shining asks "It involves the missing persons cases, and a new-quite disturbing-addition to the set."

"And that is?..."

Another deep breath, "It's-", Shining's comment is interrupted by the phone chattering, "Wha-oh." He clears his throat, and brings the reciever to his face "Sorry about that. Uh, please continue..." Slight chatter is heard from the speaker, and Shining flinches for a second. "Are you sure?...Yes I will see into this. Right...t-thanks." He hangs up the phone.

Turning back to Flash, "Gods, uh..." running his hand through is hair, he looks down at the ground. "How do I put this?...The higher ups want us to really look into those missing persons cases."

"Right, so who's the new addition to the 'collection'?

"Well first off: 2 days ago, a muesum curator by the name of Lyra Heartstrings went missing right after hours ended; unsure of meathod of disappearance. The new one is the one that is most baffling though." A deep breath, few tears, and tense moment later, Shining continues, "It's...(sigh)...it's your girlfriend, and more importantly my sister: Twily."

Back within Twilight's cell

Groaning slightly, Twilight blinks back into consciousness. She looks down at the safe below her, and then back around the room. "Only way out of this, hope that the body has a key to unlock this. It's so cliché, but there has to be a way." She slowly crawls her way to where Lyra's corpse lay on the other side of the bed, blood trailing behind from her legs and feet. Twilight then begins to lightly pat-down Lyra's body to try to find somthing, anything, to help her. Looking all over Lyra's body, Twilight found nothing of use save for 2 hair clips  in the left jacket pocket. "Well at least there's some remedy to this maddness."

Gingerly, Twilight makes her way back into the blown hole. Sticking her head and hands into the crater, she fashions a crude lock pick out of the clips, and gets to work on the lock. After a few minutes of fumbling around with the lock, she feels the lock start to give. "AHA! Almost...THERE!"

Pumping her fist in triumph, Twilight pulls the now destroyed pick out of the safe and tries the handle.

No budge.

Getting frustrated, she slams her fist down on the floor; after which a light tinkling sound is heard coming from underneath her.

Feeling below herself, her hand runs over a key on the floor. Picking it up, she tries the key; getting the oh-so-sweet click of the lock. With a relieved smile, she finally pulls the door open. Inside is an aluminum duct, a .38 revolver, a small vial of red liquid, and a envelope.

Just as the safe is opened, the PA starts crackling again Well, well, well. So you FINALLY got through the first puzzle! Shame it's gonna take you forever to finish them all.

Twiight smirks back at the speaker, "Oh yeah? Well if I can get through one, I can get through them all!"

Oh don't 'Do one, do them all' me, egghead. We both know that you'll fall sooner or later. Now, how about you continue with these trap- I mean PUZZLES I have for you while I get some popcorn. TOODLES!

Twilight shrugs and reaches into the duct to pick up the items inside. She places the revolver in her right pocket, the envelope in her pocket, and drank the vial. As her wounds from earlier heal, she clambers down into the duct, going in the direction of the door. Once the duct ends, and she's on the other side of the door, Twilight pushes the opening up and gets out into a hallway.

The hallway is brightly lit, and suprisingly clean: walls are kept and well maintained, lights are new 120W, and there are doors farther down the hallway. Getting up, Twilight looks down the hallway and walks to 2 doors at the end. Checking the one on the left first, she finds it locked and proceeds to the next, which is open.

Twilight walks inside, follows down another short hallway, and opens the door at the end. Inside the room, is a bunch of rotary saws attached to pistons coming out of the floor. Just as Twilight enters the room and registers the contents, the saws intantly actvate, moving all over the place.

Twilight's face falls. "Oh dear."

Inside the Police Station

Back within the briefing room, the missing persons reports litter the main table, with Flash reading one with a stack next to him. Shining is standing off to the side, talking on the phone.

"So you can get here in 10? Great, I'll fill you in here." (beep) "OK. Star is flying in momentarily, and our new recruit is teleporting in-"

"TROOPER MOONLIGHT BLADE REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR!"

"Soon..." (sigh) "At least he's right on time. Alright, at ease Trooper. Take a seat and start going through the files with Flash."

"Yes Sir!"

"And ditch the formalities, kid."

Flash just smirks, "Looks like rookie here wants to be the 'model officer'."

As Blade blushes in his seat, Shining replies "Unlike you Flash? 'Courting the Princess' isn't being model? Though, then again, so have I."

Flash pipes up, "Back to our cases though. Where should we start? I'm at a loss here, and we've never done anything this big."

Shining nods his head, "You're right, we've been avoiding this to much; from here, total concentration of the matter at hand. You two stay here and organize these files. I'll meet with Sergeant Star Blaze and check out the last 2 adbuction sites plus the region where the Princess was abducted.

"Now, with that being said, we're on an insane time crunch to finish this case from higher ups. The sooner we crack this, the better. So, let's get to work.