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.