C.R. Detective Agency: Case File, Corrupted Roots

Chapters

1 Another Typical Stormy Night
2 Hog in The Pig Pin
3 One Piece at A Time
4 Square One
5 No Stone Unturned
6 Dock Yards
7 The State of Things

1 Another Typical Stormy Night

C.R.’s Detective Agency: Case File, Corruptions Roots. By: Snoopy8009

Chapter 1: A Typical Stormy Night

Manehatten, the city for the rich and filled with the corrupt, I’m Citrus Rock, everypony calls me C.R., I'm an orange coat and brown maned earth pony, I run a private detective service, and that night was supposed to be another typical stormy night, me sitting at my desk and it was until she trotted into my office.….

Watching the rain pitter patter down the glass pane, looking out onto the city streets, C.R. took a long drag from his cigar, after a moment he let out a satisfied sigh, adding a new wave of smoke in the room, to his left and right the walls of his office, lined with book cases that are neatly filled with old books, trinkets, other odds and ends from past cases. On his desk sat the glass of cheap whiskey and the nearly empty bottle, along with cases that were never solved, some old, some newer, either way C.R. didn’t like leaving a job unfinished.

The other side of the door he could hear muffled voices must be another case they always seem to show up when it’s raining, one was the familiar voice of his secretary, Cherryl Rosebosh, she is the assistant. For a Pegasus she was good, she also wasn’t a bad looker either, a dirty cherry red coat with a long flowing well kept brown mane, with emeralds for eyes but C.R. always kept it professional, well mostly after awhile they became good friends. C.R. always did enjoy the rain, felt like the city was getting a little cleaner from it, Luna knows that isn’t true but it’s a nice idea.

A knock at the door stirred C.R. from his thoughts, “Hey Rocky, got a case for yah, you wanna talk with ‘em?” Cherryl says. “Sounds like another missing pony.”

With a grunt and a protest from the chair C.R. swivels around and leans forward. “Yeah, thanks Cherryl, just give me a minute then let them in.” said C.R. as he started to down the rest of the whiskey in his glass.

Cherryl replied “Got it Rocky.” After she closed the door again C.R. flipped the old and new cases shut, sliding them into one of the near empty drawers on his desk, followed by the glass and bottle, taking a moment for a few more drags on the cigar, he snuffs it out in the overfull ash tray.

As he snuffed out the cigar the squeak of the door warned him of the pony approaching, looking up the pony started to introduce herself.

“Hello detective Rock, my name is Starry Eyes and I am in desperate need of your services.” Oh sweet Luna C.R. though, her voice trembled and her fiery red lips gave her a pouty look, her eyes were blood shot from crying but appeared to be a peach color, her makeup was slightly runny from the rain and crying. Her coat was a cream color, her wet mane and tail was a two tone red, she had a beautifully provocative dress on and from what one could glance at her cutie mark was a film reel; all in all she was a knock out.

“Now calm down Miss Eyes and tell me what’s going on, you have a missing pony you want me to find?” replied C.R. as she took in a breath from the smoke filled room, C.R. finally noticed her perfume, smelt strongly of roses.

“It’s my son, he hasn’t returned from work for three days now, the police won’t listen to me and the local garrison of Sparkle Guards are busy with the unrest on the other side of the city. Please you are my best hope to finding him.” She pleaded, eyes sparkling with a mix of hope, desperation and on the brink of a break down.

“Alright, calm down now, what can you tell me about your son? How he looks, where he works at and his last known sighting, anything can help so try to be as though as possible.” C.R. stated.

“His name is Wally. He was last seen leaving his job, a shipping plant near the industrial hotspot; he used to go on about how you could see the castle from the rooftop, he always wore a gray paper colts hat, and has a peach colored coat, with brown eyes and mane. His cutie mark is a crowbar and a hammer crossing each other and he is a unicorn.” Scratching down everything she was saying C.R. asks

“Miss, did you son,” looking at his notes real quick, “Wally, have any friends, where did he hang out at when he wasn’t working?” After a few moments of thinking she replied

“w-well, I don’t really know who he hangs out with or where he goes after working…but I do remember him continuously mentioning somepony called pig or was it a tavern called ‘the pig pin’? I can’t remember much about it, I hope that I had been able to help.” Tapping on the call button for Cherryl, C.R. tells Starry that she was more help then she realized. Cherryl pokes her head in and asks.

“Yeah Rocky?” waving her in C.R. asks.

“Cherryl, yah mind settin’ Miss Starry here up in a hotel or something?” with a roll of her eyes she replies with a well meaning smirk

“Yeah sure Rocky, you gonna give me that raise anytime this century? I’m a book keeper not a witness protection service.” With a smirk C.R. Retorts

“Hey doll, if we would get more cases I’d give you that raise but business is slow right now and the lights don’t pay for themselves!” as she turned and motioned for Starry to follow she throws one last retort to him.

“Well, Rocky how about you stop brooding at that window every time it rains and we might get some money coming in.” closing the door after that C.R. fumbles for a worthy retort and yells back at the door.

“It’s not brooding! It’s contemplating!” with an annoyed huff, C.R. trots to the coat rack in the corner.

Author's Note

Be Gentle, this is my first story ever and any help would be appreciated and welcomed.

2 Hog in The Pig Pin

C.R.’s Detective Agency: Case File, Corruptions Roots. By: Snoopy8009

Chapter 2: Hog in the Pig Pin

Hours after the meeting of Starry Eyes, C.R. knew where to start, Hog, really to call him that name is an insult to swine in general. He is, surprisingly, a skinny unicorn who has a pink coat, brown mane with brown eyes; his cutie mark is a wad of money. Hog has a track record a mile long, most of it is small stuff like unarmed robbery, dealing illegal substances, that sorta stuff. While it is unusual for him to work with other bigger dealers, Hog has been known to work with others for a time; the smart ones are able to continue living. Hog has another nasty reputation of being a back stabber. In his tiny corner of the city, The Pig Pin a dirty little dancing joint, is usually where Hog can be found.

C.R. had readied himself, slipping on the holster for his trusty chrome .44 mag snub nose, with the words “Stub” stamped into the leather holster, next he grabbed the dark green canvas duster from the coat hanger standing next to the door and last he flipped the fedora, sending it spinning in the air and making it land on top of his head. With a grin he whispers to himself “Still got it…” and heads out the office door.

On the other side there was a small desk sitting near the door where Cherryl normally sat. Must still be setting Miss Eyes up C.R. though after pausing by the desk he writes a note telling Cherryl where he was going. On the desk sat a type writer, unopened bills mixed with open ones, and other paper work that clients need to fill out before they talk with him, he placed the note on top of the typewriter keys and C.R. headed towards the exit, passing by a couple of chairs that had seen better days, deciding to take the stairs down this time C.R. spends the time enjoying the sounds of the rain fall and the heavy squeak of the stairs as he went. As he approached the glass exit door he stopped, it was still raining pretty heavy, beyond that he could see taxi ponies trotting and running back and forth, each one trying to make a living carting ponies about. Farther past that faceless ponies trotted to and fro next to ruined buildings, and some better kept ones and each pony seemingly having to do something that is more important than the pony next to them.

With a heavy sigh he pushes the door open and steps into the storm, turning right towards the Pig Pin and Hog. After walking down the street for a minute C.R. was drenched and thought, ‘for the love of Celestia, couldn’t those bird brains control this shit better’, enjoying the rain from inside his office and being out in it were two different things. Things seemed to run better when the princesses where around, everyone able to live in safely ordered and peaceful time. After the princesses disappeared, Celestia’s personal student, Twilight Sparkle, had tried to take control and restore order. Granted she might be the most powerful unicorn in equestrian, only topped by the princesses, it was still too much for her to handle.

She’s doesn’t know much the noble politics, they seen this and all had tried to manipulate her into doing what they wanted. Though she may not know all the ins and outs like a noble, Twilight is no fool, she seen what they were doing and appointed the only ponies she trusted, her friends from Ponyville, as her aids. Needless to say the nobles where pissed, when they failed to manipulate they tried to run her out by ruining her reputation, after awhile they failed that too, a few nobles went so far as hiring assassins, this also failed and after that she had the few nobles executed, publicly shamed, banished or jailed for the rest of their miserable lives, one even had that whole list upon him, some say his corpse is still buried out in the everfree, somewhere. This show of force had broken most of the nobles and quelled those who voiced their doubts about the validity of her taking rule; the few who dared fought her on every front they could, by stonewalling her politically or instigating the constant riots in the streets. Anything they could do they did, and it was starting to show, Twilight stopped appearing at social events and tightened laws and regulations on just about everything.

A group of Sparkle Guards trotted by clanking and splashing as they went, their two tone purple and red trimmed armor looking warn down from crowd control and looked like it was chafing most of the wearers, their armor always seemed to let water in, even with spells and other techniques, shame it looked like quality made too. Their flanks had Twilights symbol stamped into the metal, a faceless unicorn head sitting in front of a book, part of the title made it look like a book of law. The guards faces showed strain and ware from continuous work, so many young faces. When you join the Sparkle Guard you’ll be lucky to make it 5 years, while most of the populace wouldn’t actively attack them, they wouldn’t bother lifting a hoof to help when they need it, the radical rebels kill anypony who helps the guard, if you’re lucky that is, and there are fates worse than death. Tipping his hat as they went by C.R. noticed the street he was on.

“Finally, seems like the walk to the Pig Pin gets longer every time.” He said to himself. “Let’s go get this over with.” Rounding the corner the neon sign appeared, lazily blinking in the rain. Heading towards the Pin, C.R. hears a rough voice, like somepony had once too many shots of The Rocks.

“Well, lookie here! Why if it aint my good buddy, Rocky!” the pony said “Watcha doin’ waay down ‘ere Rocky baby?” turning around C.R. seen who it was, he could have made a good guess it was her, the president of his own personal fan club, Slips.

With a sneer C.R. replied “Whadda want Slips? And only my friends get to call me Rocky.” Feigning as if her feelings had been hurt and holding a hoof to her chest Slips says.

“Rocky baby, I thought we had something special with each other, don’t tell me you’ve been cheatin’ on me with that broad of a book keepa’!” smiling at C.R. she continues “But never mind that Rocky, ‘ah forgive yah, looks like yous is going to the Pig Pin, you lookin’ for a certain swine maybes? Or was you down this way to visit little ol’ me?” doing the best she could to give C.R. ‘bedroom eyes’.

With a frustrated sign C.R. looks at Slips face, she was an earth pony with a sickly green coat, light brown mane, which is messier than usual, and two different colored eyes, one green and one brown, her flask cutie mark was covered in dirt along with, hopefully, mud all over her body. “Look Slips, I don’t have time to mess around, I’m workin’ and unless you have some information worth wild about Hog or the missing pony, I’m gonna walk away right now.”

A disappointed sigh escapes Slips mouth. “You know Rocky baby you should take it easy once in a while, come visit me I’ll take care of you the only way a mare can take care of a stud like you.” Before C.R. could trot off she follows up with “But I know one day you’ll come down here just to see little ol’ me, until then I might have some information you’ll want to know.” With that C.R. pinches the bridge of his nose, trying to quell the headache that was slowly forming; talking to Slips could give anypony a killer headache.

“So what do you want in return for the information Slips? The usual or something different this time?” with her ever widening grin, showing more and more of her messed up teeth she happily and enthusiastically responds to C.R.

“How kind of you to offer Rocky, but I have enough of my fix this time, you haven’t been down this way in awhile so I found another source. I want something different this time, it has been raining more than usual and I’ve been getting the chills at night Rocky baby and since you won’t come down and help me stay warm, how about you give me that nice trench coat of yours, look it’s even in my color!” After a moment to think it over he finally gives up his trusty trench coat up for the hopefully good Intel.

“This better be worth it slips, that was my favorite coat, and I just gotten it broke in just right.” C.R. stated clearly and slips clearly pleased with her new prize, and quite possibly the most important addition to her ‘Rock collection’, she responds hardly able to contain herself as the coat gets handed to her.

“Rocky baby, you know everything I put out is good,” with a wink she continues “besides you can always buy a new one. Ok look so Hog has been in and out for the last few weeks, looks like he’s cooking something big up Rocky, word on the street say that he’s leaning on the other gangs, and snubbing those who don’t fall in line, he’s grabbing as much turf as he can.” With a frown and a moment to take this new information in, C.R. pushes for more info.

“Slips, there better be something more than that, my favorite trench coat is worth more than this.” With said coat draping over her shoulders, her frail looking frame barely able to fill it. Her enthusiasm falling off and hurt in her voice she replies.

“Calm down Rocky, I was gettin’ to the good stuff, so as I was sayin’ Hog has been in and out, he’s out doin’ something now, buuuuut somepony snatched a few keys off of him before he left one night, and maybe you’ll find said keys in said pony’s living arrangements out behind the Pin, I’m sure Hog has some juicy shit locked up in his office. You might even find some information about that missing pony you’re lookin’ for.” With that and a wink she strutted around towards the ally, leading to the rear of the Pig Pin, purposely making her hips sway side to side, lifting her tail slightly giving anypony who followed a good view of her mare hood through the tail of C.R.’s old trench coat.

With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, he reluctantly followed her around back, the subtle noise of dance music bleeding through the old brick walls of the Pig Pin, behind the Pig Pin there was a small set of stairs leading to a plain steel door going in the building, along the opposite wall is a dumpster with a tattered tarp, one side hooked to the dumpster, the other nailed to the cobblestone, making a lean to. It was lined with cardboard boxes, mostly old booze boxes from the Pig Pin, some thread bare blankets, beat up tin ware, Slips turns slightly to see if C.R. followed, with a wide and mostly toothless grin she continues to saunter into her ‘home’ and rustles around what belongings she has managed to steal or otherwise acquired.

After a few minutes she comes out of her lean to, key in her mouth, she leans in to give C.R. the key. She mumbles something through the key ring that sounded close to “’Ere yea’ go” C.R. leans in to grab the key with his mouth, only for her to thrust forward and give him a kiss while she pushed the key ring into his mouth. After a moment she pulls back, with a satisfied look, grin and a string of saliva connecting the two that only breaks after she tells him “Thanks for that Rocky baby, the keys are free and so is this bit of information, Hog is usually gone for a couple of hours around this time, and he left about half an hour ago, so I’d hurry if I was you stud.” Flabbergasted by what has happened C.R. nearly chokes on the key ring, spitting it out into his hooves then spiting onto the cobble stone, he glares at Slips.

“Thanks for the information and the keys, but don’t ever do that again. Ever.” With a giggle, she turns and lays back in her lean to; enjoying the view of C.R.’s toned flank as he walked away and with her new found warmth from the trench coat she calls out to C.R.

“You can always stay here and keep me company Rocky baby.” With a grunt C.R. heads to the back door, keys in hoof.

Author's Note

If any one sees anything that I could improve one, please let me know. Otherwise I hope you enjoy the story!

3 One Piece at A Time

C.R.’s Detective Agency: Case File, Corruptions Roots. By: Snoopy8009

Chapter 3: One Piece At A Time

After fighting with the door and lock C.R. was in luck and unlocked the back door. Carefully pulling it open enough to peel inside, C.R. finds a dimly light hallway, about a pony and a half apart, one way led left the other right. After a minute of watching and waiting, he goes inside, carefully closing the door, the music is much louder now, almost deafening, the smell of perfume and sex wafted into his nose. Taking a guess C.R. goes left, after a short trot and an increase in music volume, he comes upon a red plush looking door with brass studs lining the door and in the middle a tiny round window with colorful lights dancing beyond, before he could peek through the back of a pony’s head appears and the door starts to swing towards him, starting to panic and nowhere to go, C.R. readies himself, deftly pulling out Snub, he grips it with his mouth and is able to pull the trigger with his tongue. The pony was busy yelling to another unseen pony, causing the first one to stop mid-way to talk, C.R. couldn’t hear the second one but going from the first one it sounded like the first one was in trouble with somepony higher than him.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the door swings back to its closed position and the pony moves off, taking a deep breath and calming himself, C.R. holsters and un-cocks Snub. Quickly looking through the window C.R. sees a big open area, filled with a few off duty Sparkle Guards, you can always tell from their movements, everyday street ponies and other more scummy bunch gathered around, on the wall to the left was a long bar with stools. On far end a small ‘Exit’ sign is dimly light, ponies sat and drank their poison of choice, the end closest to himself was blocked from the small window, panning to the right slightly there was tables set up for more drinking and the added benefit to watch the dancers, the middle area was lined with brass bars to establish a boundary that the guests could go and from what he could see there was a red velvet rope leading to probably VIP spots, the back wall was the same deal as the middle, except for the addition of a second floor. The wall closest to C.R. must have been stages; everypony was looking towards that wall. The left side of the Pig Pin wasn’t visible in this position. Seeing enough he goes back to the door he slipped into to try the other way instead.

After a short while and thankfully uneventful trot, C.R. comes upon a heavy wooden door, from the smell and look it probably came from the Everfree Forest, a brass key hole stands out from the dark wood, using one of the two possible keys left, and he gently presses it inside the key hole. It turned easily with a solid thump from the lock signaling the release of its hold on the door. After opening the door, a click of the light switch turns on a sickly yellow light, C.R. quickly scans the room in search of the container that the last key unlocks, failing to find anything in his visual sweep from the doorway, he moves inside, closing the door as he went and moves behind Hog’s desk, a heavy wooden one with various writing utensils and paperwork, a nice sized map of Manehatten hung on the wall behind the desk. Glancing at the papers on the desk reviled nothing important, mostly business expenses; ‘you think he’d be paying his dancers more than this, cheap bastard’ C.R. thought.

Trying the drawers on the desk also reviled nothing too impressive, some old bits, a old revolver with bullets, way too big for that caliber, rolling freely inside the drawer, more junk paperwork, and current porno magazine. Plumping down onto Hog’s chair, ready to give up his search, C.R. looks to the clock on the wall. ‘Shit, almost time for me to go’ was his thoughts. If Slips information is to be trusted C.R. had about fifteen minutes before Hog’s return. Glancing at the map on the wall, he finally notices that it stuck out from the wall farther than it should normally be. Getting up from the chair and feeling a little tense he gropes around the frame, a latch was half way up the side. With a grin and a whisper to no one in particular ‘There you are…’ he pulls the latch, causing a loud click and a soft squeak as it swung the map outwards.

Behind was a fairly good sized wall safe with warn golden leaf work all around it, big words etched into top middle of the face said, ‘Flim-Flams un-breakable safe!’ and a tiny version of said brothers faces winking at you, one on each side of the etching, a keyhole was smack in the middle of the safe, brass surrounding it. Sliding the key into the keyhole, a *Thunk Thunk* could be heard as the key turned. The door smoothly opened as if it was just bought off of the show room floor, say what you will about the Flim-Flam brothers but they know how to make a damn good safe, inside was about a whole length of a pony’s hoof, there was a lot of currency on one side, the middle sat a very expensive looking gun, a golden pistol with pearl handle, etched into the side of the pistol was a beautiful cursive writing that simply said ‘Enforcer’.

Under the gun sat some important looking file, grabbing it up and setting it onto the desk, he flips through it, inside the file was documents about the all gangs in the whole city, some of the names had been scratched out, some had been highlighted with the words ‘Recruit?’ next to them, some had both. Looks like Slips wasn’t lying about Hog moving up his operation. After glancing through the list of gangs, some familiar others not, he comes upon a list of ponies names, witnesses that need to be quieted, those that are in Hog’s pocket, and more. Each list had been organized by district of the city, Market District, Harbor District, Noble District, and a few others.

As he was about to continue reading he heard the door lock and the doorknob jiggle accompanied by the voice of Hog on the other side. ‘By Luna’s fucking beard’ quickly closing the safe, locking it and swinging the map back over the safe, C.R. grabs the file, leaving the keys on the desk top. His heart rate soaring from adrenalin kicking in, he searches desperately for a way out, no way can C.R. take on all of Hog’s guards and the buildings security at once. Seeing a vent grate just above some filing cabinets, C.R. bounds to it, slightly denting the top of the cabinets and luckily enough it looks like it was only held in place with clips for easy removal, prying it open he goes inside, quietly closing the vent grate as he went. As the door opened he could hear Hog talking to another pony.

“Huh, that was strange, I’ll have to get that door looked at later, but in the mean time let’s talk business.” Hog came into view, C.R. feeling like he was in the clear now, heart beat slowing slightly. Before Hog got halfway to his desk, he stops mid-stride, staring intensely at his desktop. After a moment of confusion from C.R. he then realizes what he was staring at, the keys, the Celestial damned keys! Quietly moving deeper into the maze of vents C.R. could hear Hog yelling.

“INTRUDER! SECURITY GET YOUR LUNAR DAMNED FLANKS IN HERE!” A bell starts going off somewhere in the building and the eco of hench ponies scrambling into Hog’s office, “I WANT THIS FUCKER FOUND, LIKE YESERDAY PONIES, MOVE IT!”

‘Well there goes my quiet in and out plan’ C.R. thinks, figuring out a new way to get out alive he continues onwards. After crawling for a ways, going left and right, listening to the ponies running around underneath him with the club DJ still at it, causing loud music to bounce around in the vents, C.R. reaches a branching point, the one on the right going up, one going straight ahead, and the last one on the left going down at a steep angle, hearing the cling clangs of ponies scrambling along behind him, he decides going straight would be too risky, the ponies following would get a clean shot at him if he didn’t make the next bend in time, and going down probably leads to the basement with the possibility of no exit, so he goes right and up all the while praying to Luna.

Soon after taking the right passage, the dance music starts to get louder than ever with its steady beat *Dun, Dun, Dun* with a warble here and there, it wasn’t no smooth jazz but it wasn’t the worst thing he’s heard either. C.R. comes upon a straight path that leads to a dead end; it was lined with multiple small vent holes for escaping air. The cling, clangs of the other ponies had started to get louder, they must have split up. ‘Looks like this is my Ali-mare’ C.R. thought, moving as far as he could to the end of the vent, so he can be a little harder to hit, with a protest from the metal panel below him, he suddenly feels the vent floor disappear under him. A loud *CLANG* echoed throughout the room and no doubt in the vent as well, C.R. gave a yelp as he fell and hit the floor, followed by the squeaking of the vent door as it swung freely. Trying to gain his bearings in the dark room, C.R. smelt a strong sent of bleach, some kind of tree smell and other chemicals all invaded his nose at once causing him to cough.

Getting up and realizing he was in one of the no doubt many janitorial closets, he gives quick thanks to Luna for this blessing. As he got up and moved to the door, he could hear the ponies were almost to his escape hole, he could vaguely hear two of them say something like ‘…going up around the side!’ followed by another one saying ‘…one smart son of a bitch’ seeing a big white jug of bleach on the shelf, C.R. grins as un-screws the lid and then grabs the handle tossing it into the vent. A loud scream could be heard, must have gotten in somepony’s eye, he followed up by tossing an equally large jug of window cleaner after the bleach.

Tying an old rag to his face, C.R. could hear the rapidly retreating yells and choking noises from the vent. Feeling his eyes start to burn from his chemical bomb, he stashes the prized folder under his hat, pulling out Stub and cocking the hammer, C.R. crashes out the door of the closet. Music instantly started assaulting his ears along with a tiny whizzing sound that didn’t really follow the music. Going to his left he flips over the nearest table for cover. Peeking out from his makeshift cover C.R. could see he was on the second floor and looking down he could see everything he seen before, except for the exit sign. C.R. could also see lots of Thompson wielding security personal, in various outfits, most were in normal club security, few others had full on body armor, those must have been Hog’s guard, everypony who had any brains in their heads had cleared out, ‘Good minimal casualties’ was all he had time to think.

All of the security personal was currently scattered throughout the first floor, taking pot shots. C.R. could feel his cover whittling away from the .45 caliber bullets, poking his own gun out from cover he started blasting, not expecting to hit anypony it was more to make them take cover so he could move freely.

*BLAM, BLAM* the thumps on his shredded cover stopped, rolling to the side he bounds up and sprints for the ledge, not bothering to aim C.R. fired one shot in the general direction of the security personal, leaping over the rail, he falls towards the first floor, firing two more shots as he went. By this time they had gotten brass balls or were just too stupid to be scared because they had gotten out of cover and their guns were answering him.

C.R. could swear time slowed down, so much so that he could see the contrail following the bullets from their guns, the muzzle flash seems to last minutes instead of seconds and the DJ kept the music loud and the bass drop seemed to make ripples in the air, the DJ even changed the tempo to make even gun fire sound like music, the zinging bullets only added to the music like it was something the god of war himself would approve of, it was almost hypnotic in a way.

Reality kicking back in and C.R. landed fast and hard, squarely on one of the many tables, causing it to shatter like glass and leaving a big chunk of broken wood sunk deep in his flank, crying out in pain through his gun handle he climbs off the wreaked table. Gaining his bearings he finds the exit sign and with all haste he dashes on 3 hooves to the door. He only slowed down to turn his head back to shoot in the direction of the hench ponies, unfortunately ‘Stub’ is a six round capacity revolver, only allowing him to shoot back one more time before the hammer clicked on an empty cylinder. Not having the ability to reload and run at the same time and not wanting to be left out in the open to reload C.R. stuck to running, just as he is about to turn the corner at the exit door a loud, deafening ‘boom’ drowns out the music, followed by parts of the brick wall dusting C.R.s head, Hog must have finally caught up and he was pissed.

Not bothering to confirm this, C.R. ran out the steel door, coming to the front of the Pig Pin, slamming the door shut and yanking the wooden steak out of his flank, he blocks the door shut with the piece of table. Soon after he hears hooves beating on the steel door, followed by the scream of the ‘Enforcer’ causing loud *pings* with sizable dents in the steel door, luckily it held fast.

The rain not letting its heavy assault up yet made it so the blood from his wound will not leave a trail and the clean rain water helped wash out his wound. Taking off the make shift mask, he tries to stem the bleeding from his flank and starts limping off towards his office.

After putting a sizable distance between himself and the Pig Pin C.R. stops to adjust his fedora, Hog must’ve gotten close to killing him he though because his fedora was allowing more rain on his head than usual. He stopped suddenly; patting his naked head spinning around to see if it fell was on the ground behind him. “FUCK!” he yelled, “First my trusty trench and now my favorite hat, can it get any worse?” asking no one in particular. As if on cue a taxi cart zooms by, causing a particularly dirty puddle to splash over him. C.R. had then muttered with a deadpan look “Of course it would…”

4 Square One

C.R.’s Detective Agency: Case File, Corruptions Roots. By: Snoopy8009

Chapter 4: Square One

By the time C.R. got back to the building with his office it was well into the night, from ground level he could see a couple of lamps turned on inside his office, ‘Cherryl must still be in’ he though. Opting to use the elevator this time he mashes the button, a chime rang out in the empty foyer of the building. The ride up was a slow one, it was a poorly maintained elevator and he hoped it wouldn’t go out in-between floors, once it had gotten stuck in-between the seventieth and eighteenth floor and word has it the occupant who was stuck didn’t do close spaces well and had tried to get out onto the eighteenth floor, unfortunately for him the elevator started going down while he was half way out and proceeded to cut him in half. It was a bad day to be the janitor; they say you can still see the stain in the floor on eighteen.

Thankfully the elevator chimed at C.R.’s floor and the doors slid open. Going to his office door and opening it he limped in. C.R. was met with Cherryl cheerful face followed by her giggling. “What did you lose everything in a poker game again?” she said with a smile, until she had seen the bloody rag and trickle of fresh blood down his back leg. “Geez Rocky, what happened, are you alright?” she said the smile left her face and was replaced with concern as she sprang up to help him.

“What this? It’s nothing, just some young fiery red headed mare stole my clothes and her father stabbed me in the flank as I jumped out the window.” C.R. said with a smirk.

“Oh har, har, go sit down so we can take care of that before it gets infected, you can’t afford an amputation and I won’t do it for free.” She replied, moving off to get the medical kit after she sat him down in the chair outside his door she asked him from the small side room, “So what happened? Did ya find anything out?”

Adjusting himself for a better seating position he replied “Yes and no,” taking a moment to think about the afternoon he continued. “I went to the Pin and met Slips out side; she gave me some information and keys to the back door and safe inside for my coat. After I infiltrated the joint I got into Hogs office and found some hot information about what he was up to.” Taking a moment to breathe and to allow this information to be soaked up, Cherryl trotted back in with a large medical box, it was canary yellow and had a pink cross, and somepony thought it would be funny to put three butterfly stickers on the old medical box. Spitting out the box handle and flipping it open Cherryl pulls various supplies that would be of no help in this case.

“Well at least you had gotten out of there mostly intact.” She responded “Now hold still while I clean this.” as she took a clean but old rag from the box, opened a bottle of alcohol and soaking the rag. After doing this she started to clean away the dirt, and only stopping to remove the pieces of table that had not been removed when C.R. pulled the larger piece out and with each dab from the rag C.R. winced from the stinging, burning sensation accompanied by the cooling sensation as the alcohol whisked away, leaving behind a strong smell and a germ free wound.

“Yeah but unfortunately I lost the ledger, and I didn’t get a good look at it, so may as well have been for nothing, how’s Miss Eyes doing? You get her set up someplace?” C.R. grunted out. Cherryl finished cleaning out the wound to the best of her abilities; she grabbed a wing-full of gauze and started dressing the wound.

“She’s doin’ fine for now, I put her up in a nice motel a few blocks from here. So what are you gonna do now Rocky?” Cherryl asked, the look of concern not leaving her face. C.R. scrunched up his face in deep thought. After a few moments and a heavy sigh he responds.

“Well I can’t poke around the Pig Pin for awhile now, plus I don’t have the keys anymore so I’ll have to go ask around about the missing kid at the Docking District, hopefully somepony there will be able to help me.” As she finished her work C.R. said “But first I need sleep and whiskey, thanks for patching me up Cherryl.”

“No problem Rocky, you’re lucky that it don’t need stitches. I aint much of a seamstress.” Her facial features relaxed a bit and a small smirk appeared as she continued. “But really I’m glad you aren’t hurt bad, and sleep sounds like a good idea, I might have to skip on the whiskey part though, I’m more of a scotch mare myself.” She said as she neatly stuffed the supplies back into medical box and put it back into the side room. After which she moved to grab her things and after she turned off her lamp and the main lights in the waiting room she started to head out the door. “I’ll see yah in the mornin’ Rocky, unless you need me to stay for awhile.”

With a wave of his hoof he replies “No, no you go on, you’ve stayed long enough today I live here, you gotta walk across town and it’s already late, I should be asking if you want me to walk you home.”

“Not with that leg of yours mister, I don’t want to have to patch you up a second time today!” she says with a grin. “But thanks for the offer Rocky. Good night Rock.” With a squeak the door opens and softly clicks into place, followed by the sound of the deadbolt as she locked it. With a groan C.R. moves to the side room where Cherryl got the medical kit and inside it was big enough for a hammock the rest of the room was filled with filing cabinets, and file folders.

Most of the folders were neatly tucked inside the cabinets but they had started to create mountains of folders all were from past cases, slowly limping to the cabinet closest to the hammock C.R. pulled out the bottom drawer, inside was a big bottle of the good whiskey and a small glass. The worn out label had said something like, ‘Sweet Apple Jack Whiskey’ it was before Applejack had been given duties to manage the food production in Equestria. Now she wouldn’t even have time to make this special whiskey. It takes almost a lifetime to make this stuff, and it’ll make even the most stout drinkers tattered in no time. Pouring himself a glass worth about two shots, he gingerly sipped the drink, relishing the taste and the burning as it went down smooth, real smooth. He finished the last bit in his glass and corked the bottle putting it away, with a heavy sigh he climbs into the hammock and drifts slowly to sleep.

5 No Stone Unturned

C.R.’s Detective Agency: Case File, Corruptions Roots. By: Snoopy8009

Chapter 5: No Stone Unturned

Citrus Rock didn’t sleep well; his dreams were filled unpleasant memories as he tosses around.

He awakes to find himself in a small apartment there was blood, a lot of blood. Blood splattered the walls, ceiling and floor as if somepony was trying to re-paint the room red. Three ponies lay motionless in the middle of the room. Two gripping each other in fear; one was laying a little ways away from the two, as if the pony was cut down trying to defend the other two.

The sole pony had dull looking armor. The insignia on, what was left of, the chest plate had shown the protector was a part of the Lunar Guard. The other two were civilians, C.R. knows them but he doesn’t want to believe it, he doesn’t want to relive this moment. No matter how hard he tries he can’t forget this moment, not for lack of trying.

A noise to his left, quickly drawing Stub as he turns he is about to shoot in the direction of the noise he stops, with tears welling up and burning in his throat he only finds a colt at the other end of the gun, fear oozing from both of them, the colt whimpers as he tries to hold back his tears, as if he was hiding from somepony, the colt sees C.R. staring at him and screams, pushing himself away, trying to physically push through the wall.

C.R. puts Stub back into his holster and calls out to the colt trying to calm him, he moves slowly towards the colt, but this causes him to struggle and thrash about more than before. A door squeaks open and the sound of a pony walking slowly into the room as the hooffall stops, C.R. has sweat beading down his face, he feels his spine shiver. C.R. doesn’t need to turn around to know that HE is standing behind him, he knows what is going to happen next, it’s almost the same every time.

Regardless he turns and sees the silhouette of the murderer, standing in the door. Blood drips from his weapon, a small axe meant to make kindling for a fire, his eyes seems to glow of hatred and joy, C.R. hears the pony chuckle and takes a step forward, and he reaches for Stub only to find that it is missing, everything in the room seems to have gotten bigger and his heart is beating franticly. Looking around for a way out C.R. sees a pistol laying a few hoofs away from the Lunar Guard.

Lunging for the pistol C.R. gets knocked off course, a sharp pain emanated from his side followed by a sharp cracking sound, a few ribs had been broken. The mad pony had used the blunt side of his axe to keep him away from the pistol and continues to toy with C.R., with a cry he rolls only to be stopped by slamming his back into the Guards battered and broken chest armor, causing a loud ring. The mad pony is insanely laughing now and charges forward, flinging blood of his previous three victims. Panicking C.R. reaches around for anything to defend himself, he after what felt like hours he finally finds a dagger in the belt loop of the fallen Guard.

Fighting with the sheath he drags the small blade out, with a scream he holds it with both hooves, screaming at the top of his lungs and he suddenly feels weightless, which was strange because he doesn’t remember ever feeling weightless before.

Suddenly he is violently awoken when his muzzle connects with the hard floor, scrambling up he searches for the mad pony, only to find the once bloody room turned into a small cluttered office space. Sweat rolls down his face, his heart slows and he shudders after realizing what had occurred. Groaning from his wound from yesterday’s events, along with a sore muzzle, he lifts himself up and slowly walks to the bathroom on the other side of the small office storage.

With a flick of his tail he turns the hot water to max, which is about room temperature the failing hot water tank will probably be patched up by the building manager again. Letting the shower run for a minute to warm up he trots to the mirror on the wall, and stops short of looking into it, as if what he sees would jump out and attack him. After a moment he slowly approaches and looks hard into the mirror. He sees a sturdy stallion with a deep chocolate brown messily kept mane, an orange coat and lastly he looks deep into his eyes, his baby blue eyes. Though the nightmares have subsided for the most part, in those eyes he could see the fear of that night, it still lingers and tortures him. But behind the fear he sees a desire to stop these atrocities from happening again, he sees hope.

Breaking himself away from his thoughts and the mirror he takes the wrapping off of his wound and hops into the warm shower then proceeds to wash away the sweat and grime. The water swirls down the drain. The water has a red tinge to it, the blood that hadn’t been clean off yesterday slowly began to come off, his wound biting sharply as the soap and warm water makes contact only served as a reminder to him that he was still surviving in this cruel world.

Turning the water off he goes to dry off, stepping out of the storage room with the towel and trying to dry out his wet mane he walks out to see Cherryl already at her desk working away, she turns with a grin and greats him. “Hey Rocky, how’d ya’ sleep last night?”

With a tired expression he replied “Not good, had the nightmare again Cherryl. It seems like it only gets worse every time I have it.” with a shudder he throws the towel back into the storage room. Moving towards his office to collect his gear he hears Cherryl tell him.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like going through that Rocky but I have something that’ll cheer you up! I went and picked up another trench coat and hat for ya’ Rocky, this time you’ll have a set that doesn’t clash with your colors.” Opening his door he sees a coat and hat exactly like his old ones, except they weren’t OD green, they were a nice dark tan color. With a small smile he turns and replies with feigned hurt.

“I’ll have you know I went to art school and have a very good taste in color coordinating,” with a genuine grin he continues “But I thank you for thinking of me when you didn’t need too.” He goes through the motions he usually does when getting ready to follow a lead. Checking the ammo count in Stub and the quick loads he has made out for his trusty sidearm, he puts the holster on and with Stub securely in place he gets the trench coat on by making it twirl around him as he put his front legs in the coats holes, it took him many a years to perfect this technique. Lastly the hat, he flicks it up in the air, it spins like it’s supposed to, but instead of landing squarely on his head it lands with a steep angle, blocking his vision. “Well looks like I need to practice a bit with this new hat.” He calls to Cherryl. The hat was a little heavier than his old one.

She giggles, having watched the entire process take place. She flies over to him and sets his hat so it would sit correctly on his head. “How long did it take yah to get this stuff down Rocky? Looks like it’s pretty hard.” With a sly grin he replies.

“Well you know some stallions, such as myself, are just gifted and by Luna, that damned good.” He finished his sentence with a wink. With a roll of her eyes Cherryl replied as sarcastically as physically possible.

“Yeah, sure Rocky I bet you tell all the gals that one,” She follows up with a serious tone “are you off to follow a lead now?” He answers her question

“Yeah, I gotta’ go poke around the Ship Yard and see if anypony has seen our missing pony…” as he moves closer to the exit he opens the door but before he leaves he pokes his head back in. “…Oh and I don’t tell just any gal that, I only tell that to the ones that mean something to me.” With another wink he leaves before she can reply.

The walk down was as dull as always, approaching the door he thinks ‘but at least it stopped raining for now.’ Leaving his building he trots off into the general direction of the Ship Yards, there were at least two major Ship Yards in the city, both were on opposite sides from each other. C.R. decided to go to the closest one first, which also happens to pass by the local police station for this part of the city, deciding he should swing in and see if they had any information about his missing pony.

A trot through many different small markets he finally sees the front of the Police Station, it had a group of police ponies in riot gear standing outside along with a large mob of angry ponies, each officer was equipped with a tall roman like shield, their helmets had face shields as well, they were all pulled down except for one who was standing behind the defenders, they were in a horseshoe shape at the bottom of the stairs and the sole unicorn pony, that only had his protective vest on, was at the top of the stairs using a mega horn to amplify his voice. The defenders were more for show, there were far too few of them out front to stop this mass of ponies from attacking. It seemed to work though, because no pony had tried to start trouble…yet.

The pony with the mega horn was talking about something and asked the protestor to remain calm. That got him a couple of bottles thrown at him, nicking the side of his head, he stumbled to the ground and the few officers that were on reserve seen the culprit, the front lines had pushed the crowd away from this pony, the reserves pulled out batons and started to pummel the mare into the ground. This got the protesters riled up, getting angrier; eggs and other unrecognizable things had started pelting the officers.

Mega horn, after getting up and fresh blood trickling down his head, yelled at the two reserves and upon hearing their commander they quickly drug the battered mare behind the established line, the defenders moved back into place shields raised to protect themselves.

With the protestors increasing their assault, the unicorn had lost his mega horn and had opted to use a magic based voice amplifier, and while he did that a little ball of magic had shot from his horn straight up. After rising high into the air it suddenly made a starburst, causing everypony to become temporarily blind.

C.R. was unfortunately well within the range of the starburst. Seeing nothing but white and hearing the screams of terror and hate from the protestors, he could clearly hear mega horn above the rest.

“Please disperse and return to your daily activities! We are doing everything in our power to solve everypony’s problems, but we are severely understaffed at this time and cannot get to everything right this second! Now if you refuse to leave peacefully we will take action and place you in custody. It is unfortunate that a mare had gotten injured and the officers involved will be reprimanded!”

His deep voice had been loud and clear for everypony in the area. C.R.’s vision slowly returned to normal, everything first looking like a dark blob, then slowly the finer details returned to him, save for the little splots of white and black that swam in the edge of his vision.

The first thing he saw again was the protestors, they had slowly dissipated, all the energy that had been gained now lost. As the crowds cleared the small square that the police station was on, C.R. made his way towards the still standing blockade of riot ponies, now covered in many rotten foods and other things, the horse shoe group of ponies all stiffened as he approached, their shields raised slightly and one of them called out.

“S-Stop! State thy business!”

C.R. stops a few hooffalls away from them and thought ‘just a buncha kids’, they are young and inexperienced, it is practically emanating from their front line.

“I said state thy business or move along civilian!”

This time C.R. seen who was yelling at him, it was a bright red Pegasus pony, with a two tone electric neon blue tail, he had full riot gear like the rest so his cutie mark was covered, he looked like he was just as experienced as the rest in the line.

“I just need some information so I would like to talk to the C.O.” C.R. stated with calm and level voice

This caused most of the guards to relax slightly, the unicorn with the mega horn was almost in the door when he heard the commotion and descended back down the stairs. With an authoritative tone he asks the Pegasus stallion.

“Afterburn! What is going on here? Who is this pony?”

To his credit he didn’t flinch as the unicorn yelled at him, he also didn’t show his back to C.R. and responded hastily.

“Sire, this pony wishes to speak with thee!”

“For fucks sake greenhorn, I wish you would stop using ye olden words and speak like a normal pony.”

“I’m doing my best sire!”

Pushing through the line mega horn pony faces C.R. addressing him instead of Afterburn.

“What can the MPD district number sixty-nine do for you today good sir?” forced politeness oozes out as the pony speaks and C.R. gets a feeling of unease and distrust from him already, much like one would get from talking to a sales pony.

“Well I was hoping to talk to the pony in charge, I know her and I need to see her right away.”

With the officers around them shifting uncomfortably and slightly shifting away from the two of them, the unicorn replies with a snort.

“Must be living under a rock or something, didn’t you hear? She got replaced a few months back; you’re talking to the new boss right now.”

While not always on the best terms with each other C.R. had always liked the gruff and tough police chief. She will be a sorely missed acquaintance. With a ting of sadness in his voice C.R. asks

“What happened to her, do you know?”

With a look of genuine surprise the unicorn replies

“You mean you really don’t know? Geez, listen lets go to my office and we can talk there, it’s too noisy out here.”

With a quick shout the short wall of ponies separates and allows both of them to pass, the trip to the office of the unicorn was a daunting task, inside the police station it was packed tighter than a can of Steve Sea Monster Sardines, there were ponies trying to yell above one another trying to get the attention of any police pony willing to listen, most of these police ponies looked ragged and been working long hours.

After getting through the living maze of ponies they both stand outside the unicorn’s office while he unlocks the door C.R. sees his name stenciled onto the frosted glass window was the unicorn’s name, ‘Chief of Police Bik Bushnell’, after getting his office door open Bik motioned for C.R. to take a seat in one of the wooden chairs.

The office didn’t change much from the last time he was here, a sturdy desk in the middle, short shelves along the walls; a single large florescent light hung in the center of the ceiling, the office was enclosed by thick wood panels that only went half way up, the other half was more of the frosted glass. Sitting down in the hard chairs C.R. sits quietly for a moment so Bik could get settled in.

The commotion outside the office turned into a low murmur as the door was closed. As Bik walks around the desk he floats two glasses up from his side, sliding a desk drawer open he produces a bottle with a golden brown substance that had hardly been drunk, the label was on the other side so he couldn’t tell the brand, but from what he could see it the paper was yellow with age. Bik floats the glass to C.R. while tempted he says.

“No thanks, it’s still a bit early for me to start drinkin’” with a shrug Bik responds

“Your loss, this is hard to find,” he pulls the cork out, releasing a strong aroma of liquor. “Genuine ‘BlackJack’s seal of approval Wild Pegasus Whiskey’”

Floating one of the glasses back in its storage spot he pours himself little more than a shot and a half and continues to ask. “So you really didn’t hear about the old chief getting replaced?” as he re-corked the bottle it joined the empty glass in the drawer.

“Been pretty busy of late, lotta ponies been going missing lately, lotta ponies want answers.” C.R. replied “So what happened to her? She finally get that transfer she wanted?” he asked with glimmer of hope in his eyes.

With eyes and voice full of sadness Bik responds “Sorry to be barer of ill news but she just up and vanished, no trace much like those ponies. We had searched for her up until three weeks ago but there simply wasn’t enough to even point us in a direction to look.”

With the glimmer of hope extinguished C.R. responds. “Shit.” With a slight break in his voice he continues onto his reason for being at the station. “Well maybe you could help me out then.”

“If it is at all possible I will try and assist you.” Bik said with conviction.

“I need some more up to date info on Hog, he runs a joint called The Pig Pen on the other side of town, and a young unicorn stallion named Wally, he has a crowbar and hammer crossing each other, peach coat and brown mane, Wally recently had gone missing.”

Rubbing his chin, Bik stands up walks to a small book self in the corner, his glass of whiskey following him the entire way. As he searches through his shelf he takes sips periodically as he talked to himself quietly. C.R. could barely make out the words ‘Hog, and The Pig Pen’ followed by ‘Wally’ he speaks up as he takes a folder out with his magic.

“Well, I can’t help you out with this Wally fellow but I do have a lot of information, both confirmed and not, on Hog.” Setting a thick folder on the side closest to C.R., Bik continues “we’ve been trying to get him for awhile now; slippery bastard keeps dodging us though. And from what we can make out so far is that he’s grabbing up all nearby territory, all the gangs in the area are in the crosshairs.”

As C.R. goes through the folder he asks “You have any idea why?” curiosity ebbing out of his voice.

“No idea but we speculate that somepony is squeezing him, not sure who would have the balls to threaten and not to mention the ability to back up that threat though.”

After going through the newest information, C.R. had seen enough, everything the police had he already learned from his recent trip to the Pig Pen but they were missing information that the ledger had. He closes it up and slides it back to Bik. “Well thanks for the help anyway, you guys are missing a few things though.”

Bik with raised eyebrows asks. “Really? What kind of ‘things’ are we missing?”

Telling Bik about the excitement that had happened, while omitting how Slips had tried to seduce him, and how he had found a ledger, upon telling Bik about the ledger, he sat up straighter and leaned in. after recalling his story Bik leaned back in his chair.

“And this ledger did you still have it? It would really help us to lock up Hog for good.”

With a resigned voice C.R. replied. “No, I had the misfortune of losing it in the gun fight.”

With a sigh Bik says “figures… and I doubt Hog is dumb enough to keep it at the Pig Pen now but maybe we’ll get lucky, I’ll send a few officers to look for it. Thanks for the heads up.”

Standing up, the chair making loud scratching sound, C.R. continues on his mission to the docks to search for Wally. Before he opens the door into the living maze, he turns to Bik.

“Thanks for trying to help,” hesitating he continues “and thanks for telling me about her.”

Bik gives C.R. a nod and wishes him luck in his search. And with that C.R. opens the door and exits into the maze of ponies.

As the door shut Bik’s face turned from a sympathetic look to a sour one, as if he had gotten done sucking on a lemon, he hoofed the intercom hanging under his desk, a crackled response from a subordinate somewhere in the building responded only for Bik to tell them with venom in his speech that told of unspoken consequences for failure.

“Sergeant, get a few of the new recruits in my office for re-assignment, it’s time to show them the ropes.”

Author's Note

Sorry if anyone was waiting for this, I had been pretty busy with college, work and I currently have no internet at home so I must use my college's internet to post these. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter! And as always if you see something wrong please let me know, I have no pre-readers so i'm doing the best I can.

6 Dock Yards

C.R.’s Detective Agency: Case File, Corruptions Roots. By: Snoopy8009

Chapter 6: Dock Yards

After navigating his way out of the police station, C.R. emerges from the stuffy station. Trotting down the stairs with less enthusiasm than before he thinks of his next move, while the information he was looking for was not what he had hoped for but he did get a good bit of knowledge on this Bik fellow, he had learned from this encounter was to be wary, while not giving him any reason to distrust Bik, his sincerity, while warm and genuine from an untrained pony, was in fact hollow and cold but his act didn’t fool C.R. in fact it only seemed to confirm the suspicion that Bik was hiding something. Filing this information away in his mind C.R. brushes off the encounter and continues on his way to the closest of the two dock yards.

He passes disgruntled market goers and stall owners; many complaining about the general state of Equestria after Twilight took over, although quietly while not common place it still isn’t unheard of for ponies to go missing after criticizing the new ruler. Continuing on he passes more officers leading more ponies to the overfilled police station.

As he neared the edge of the market he stops to grab a rather sad looking sandwich from a busy stall, dropping a few bits on the counter and taking the paper wrapped food in his hoof, he continues on to let the next pony forward to get a greasy looking wrap. Slowing to un-wrap the questionably made sandwich he hears a pony calling out to him.

“Sire! Sire! Hang on, I must speak with thou!”

Closing his eyes with a sigh, he could only think of one pony who would use such dated speech, the greenhorn he had recently met in front of the police station, the red pegeaus with the 2 tone neon mane. Turning around and waiting for said pony to reach him, he sees the red pony floating in front of him no longer equipped with his riot gear, or any police uniform at all, C.R. asks him. “Yeah, what do you need kid?”

Landing and ruffling his feathers to make them sit in place correctly he replies with a salute. “Sire, I’ve been ordered by mine commander to give ye assistance in thine quest to further prevent these misdeeds.”

“This is an appreciated offer but I don’t need any more pony power right now.”

With as much gusto, and sparkles, as the legendary stronghooves, Afterburn hovers above the ground while speaking loudly “Non-sense good sire! Ye can never have a big enough host* when combating evil and all its forces!” followed by much less gusto and noticeably lacking in sparkles, “even if ye doth not needth my assistance, mine commander hath commanded me to follow ye.” *Army

“So Bik wants you to dig up information about what I’m up too?” as C.R. starts to continue slowly on towards the docks, Afterburn floats alongside him continuing the conversation He waves his hoof around in a disgusted manner as he replies.

“Truthfully methinks mine commander wishes to be rid of me for his pelf* collecting and this task was an excellent way keepth me out of his mane for you see my troth* prevents me from doing anything too illicit, given my line of work I’m sure the sister shall understand my transgressions when I finally transcend.”

With a confused look C.R. asks “Your what?”

Afterburn replies “My troth, uuhh methinks thee calls it faith, or religion.”

“oh, you’re not one of those ‘Praise the sun’ loonies who knocks on doors at three in the morning are you?”

With chuckle he shakes his head “neigh, forsooth* not. For I follow the sister of the moon, we’re those other loonies across the street and we sooth* say ‘Luna Nos Custodit’. We’ve been toldeth this mean ‘The Moon Keeps us’ or something of that nature, tis difficult translating a dead language.”

*Believe *Actually

With a confused look C.R. asks “You seem awfully easy going about your belief, I don’t mean to offend you or anything, it’s just all the other religious ponies I came across are always busy trying to ‘save my soul from eternal damnation’ or some such non-sense and you don’t seem like the others, why is that?”

With straight face he replies as he casually waves his hoof around for emphases “is't not a free equestria? Trying to force mine own beliefs onto another shalt not maketh those folk believeth it anymore than thee couldst maketh a dog fly, so wherefore would one worry about forcing mine own beliefs onto another? But if 't be true thee wanteth I can recite sections from the Lunarum Ordinem Libri about how thee shalt beest imprision'd on the moon for mundane offenses, I particularly enjoy the section on how moonfire shall burn your skin off as nightmare moon kills your family, tis a riveting tale.”

Slack jawed all C.R. could do was stare doubtfully at Afterburn. After a moment he couldn’t stop his chuckling as it turned slowly into full blown laughter, he was laughing so much that the cart was shaking. As C.R. gripped onto the sides of the shaking cart, he gathers his wits enough to respond. “Is there really a section in that book like that?”

Wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes and slowly calming his laughter, he says “Oh luna preserve me, thee non-believers art so gullible, neigh comrade, Nightmare Moon tis just a fairy tale to scare the younglings into compliance, much like thine tales of sir spike and how that gent combated off a battalion of soldiers with a single claw.”

“Wait, so do you really believe in all that religious stuff or not?”

With a mischievous hum Afterburn doesn’t say a word more about subject, causing C.R. to have his jimmies rustled even further.

The rest of the trip to the docks continued in relative silence, occasionally Afterburn would throw out a hook to try and get C.R. to bite again but it wasn't going to happen again, today anyways. Among the many casts of his line, Afterburn, would also throw tid bits of information out about the sections they had past through. Like the statue of Maximus Makyus in the market place, it wasn't just a big hunk of iron honoring the hero who gave his life to saving many lives from a terrorist bomb. He had found the vile pony acting as a walking bomb, he shielded everypony by using his own body and a ponyhole cover, which is also why the statue was made of iron instead of the typical quarts, it was a dreadful but a much needed reminder of why we should always 'Be Aware! Be Suspicious! Report Everything!!', well that's what he'd been told to say anyway.

After what seemed to be days of turbulent and educational flight, the bustle of the docks could be heard in the distant, with the faint smell of the ocean had finally started to seep through the normal everyday city stench and silhouettes of big equipment could be seen peeking over the horizon as the decrepit city-scape slowly changed into a more sickly industrial state.

As Afterburn slowed his flying to a crawl, a large chain linked fence started to show itself.

Author's Note

Hey! look another chapter! Sorry it took so long to release another chapter but personal family stuff had came up and I had been busy tending to that instead of writing.

Anyway here is another one and I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you guys think and forgive me for the bad old english translating stuff, I dont know many words and have to rely on a translator. If you see a mistake let me know and I'll fix it, thanks!

:derpytongue2:

7 The State of Things

C.R.’s Detective Agency: Case File, Corruptions Roots. By: Snoopy8009

Chapter 7: The State of Things

Now I suppose I should probably explain a little more in depth about the situation of Equestria, after both Celestia and Luna vanished without a trace, the economic state of things kinda took a massive dump, many ponies committed suicide, others lost a lifetime of work put into their business. Wealthy ponies became poor and poor became less than that, military nearly lost control of borders as other nations near by started pushing in when they heard the news of the disappearances. In major cities many mobster and gangs took over the streets as red rivers filled the gutters.

Twilight had seen what was transpiring around her and decided to take matters into her hooves, when no successor could be decided upon between the nobles, after many attempts to usurp the newly self appointed princess, Twilight started to rule with an iron hoof. Only her most trusted friends were appointed to a position of power to help mitigate some of the stress of leadership, as well as appointing appropriate experts to their rightful positions.

Fluttershy is in charge of the general welfare of every pony within our borders, she mostly deals with the medical side of things, R&D for cures and defenses against any biological threat, she also has asked to take on responsibilities with caring for any critters that need relocation and rehabilitation.

Rarity runs the embassy with close neighbors, like the Gryphons and others. She also deals with propaganda, meaning when a radical terrorist happens to make a claim to a bombing someplace, she can turn it around into something to inspire our troops with, or spin it into something to make it seem like an accident instead of an intentional bombing.

Not very many ponies know this but Pinkie is the chief of Twilights spy agency, I'm not too sure what she does exactly but I like to fancy that she trains ponies in the art of being sneaky, so agents can be sent into enemy lines to fish for much needed information. But her cover story is that she regulates and maintains of all forms of entertainment within equestrian borders, like casinos, bars, strip joints, stuff like that Pinkie is more than likely going to have her squishy pink hooves in it.

Rainbow Dash is the second in command of the military after Spike, she mainly deals with planning training exercises, training for the main army, defense placements, best attack routes for possible wars. Some even speculate that she even has a super secret spec ops group based off of the wonder bolts.

Spike is and always will be Twilights most powerful ally and not just because he is a young dragon, he was put in charge of the main military force of Equestria, he also is commander of the Sparkle guard. He approves of any new tactics, combat simulations between neighboring countries and having the special guard spar with the regular armed forces and lastly he keeps Rainbow Dash in line and out of trouble.

Applejack is organizer of all food production and is Twilights first choice when in need of honest council of important matters when others would let their ego get the better of them, she would tell Twilight upfront if she thought something was a good plan or not, what will be successful or what will fail.

She also had appointed a few other not so close aquatints for other positions that her friends just couldn't cover themselves, like how Filthy Rich is the economic expert, or how Ditzy Doo is chief of the Equstrian Postal Service, how she got that job no one knows.

Finally we come to the special guard of each VIP, Twilight had insisted that everypony have their own personal guard apart from the regular military, this was supposedly a deterrent so that no one pony could overtake the others or push out the current ruler of Equestria.

Twilight has her Sparkle Guard, which we've seen earlier, Twilight had only accepted unicorns into her guard at first but after awhile and a lack of raw recruits she opened the doors to allow citizen of Equestria into her rank, after hearing this call Griffons, Minotaurs and many other creatures joined up, she even had to raise the standards up to the point where only a few could make par, otherwise her guard would be as big if not bigger than Equestrias own military force. Those who couldn't join her guard usually joined the regular military.

Fluttershy has her 'Pack' which is mostly predatory animals that are willing to give their lives for her, those that aren't animals wear canary yellow armor with pink highlights and tend to be the more meek looking than any of the other guard forces.

Pinkie Pie has actual clowns called the 'Fun Squad' they don't even have armor, it's just a bunch of clowns that one would see in a carnival but don't let that fool you, they match or are better than the best in both close and ranged combat, most of the Equestrian forces in the Fun Squad are either Ex-convicts or Ex-military, either way one has to truly question the sanity of the individual who seeks to join the Fun Squad. Pinkie enjoys pushing her guard to the limit by sending them on missions that have been, approved by Twilight, and is considered 'Extremely Sensitive' or 'Low Survival Rate Expected'.

Rarity's own 'Fashionistas' are beautiful as much as they are deadly. Some how Rarity has figured a way to make battle armor look gorgeous as well as a functional, each piece looks slightly different from the next but each of them bare her cutie mark as well as a spell that will activate when a fraud tries to infiltrate her guard.

Applejack hadn't really named her guard but her brother Big Mac had named them for her, they are called 'Apple Rangers', they have many apple family members acting as the main force but others have been known to join in as well, but only if they can obtain Big Macs approval, he had appointed himself the head of her guard and if fiercely protective of Applejack. Her guards armor colors are normal steel color with orange and red trim with an apple either on the flank plate or the shoulder armor.

Rainbow dash's guard is titled 'Shadow Bolts', some say it's because she was never able to obtain her dream of becoming a Wonder Bolt, so she named her guard after the fabled day when Nightmare Moon had returned and tried to trick her into betraying her friends. The colors she has chosen are said to be the same as Nightmare Moons, black, blue and purple. While she has chosen for her guard to wear lighter armor and to be made of mostly of those who could fly, they are quicker than a blink of an eye.

Author's Note

I probably should have done this first but 'better late than never' anyway hope you enjoyed learning more about my vision of Equestria.