Silver Lake

Thomas yelped slightly as the truck flew over a bump, it had been years since he’d done anything remotely close to offroading. While technically they were still on a road, the way it was maintained it may as well have been. The blaring sirens cut across the grassy landscape, eclipsing even the tremendous roar of the big block V8 that spurred the vehicle along. Clouds overhead gave the area an air of gray overcast light. The call that had come in over the radio had been very quick, and Turner had started the siren with such speed that Thomas couldn’t even ask what was going on. They’d at least gotten a chance to eat before the call came in, otherwise Thomas was quite sure their burgers would’ve been splattered all around the cab.

They’d driven to the basin, skidded southbound at a crossroads, and were now thundering alongside the Switchback River. In some cases they came close enough to the edge that Thomas saw water splash up on the window. He looked over at Turner, the man bore the composure of a steely eyed missile man. They’d covered a ride that normally would’ve taken a good four hours of slow and careful navigation of rough terrain in nearly thirty minutes. When the road became to rough he would drive through fields and dirt, tearing up plants and shrubs with reckless abandon. They blew past numerous houses, sirens blaring and lights flashing like it was the end of the world.

“Turner!” Thomas shouted as he finally found a moment when the siren wasn’t louder than he was, the Deputy briefly glanced over at him. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?!”

“Home Invasion!” Turner replied loudly as he leaned forward, Thomas now understood what the reason for such urgency was. After another two minutes the Deputy looked at his passenger and shouted. “Hold on!” Thomas did as best he could before Turner slammed on the brakes while the truck went up a driveway. It skidded to a stop just twenty feet from a large stucco covered mansion type home, Turner cut the siren but left the lights flashing. "Unit two on scene! Entering the residence!” He said into his radio before looking at Thomas. “You said you were a royal investigator, do you have law enforcement status?"

"Yeah, but I've never had to use it before..." Thomas uncertainly answered.

"You any good with a gun!?” The Deputy pushed his door open and started to get out.

“Yeah!” Thomas replied as he opened his door as well. “Why?” Turner took his sidearm from his holster and tossed it to the man beside him, then grabbed his rifle. “Oh… I got your back!” Turner cocked the rifle five times as he and Thomas ran up the river stone steps towards the front door, the house seemed to have flashing lights and loud music inside. Turner recalled that this was someone’s vacation home, supposedly they’d already gone home. What was even weirder was there seemed to be nearly a dozen carriages and chariots parked near the house. Without hesitation the men rushed the front door, with turner practically bashing the piece of oak clean off its hinges.

“Sheriff’s Department!” The Deputy loudly announced as he and Thomas burst through the door, expecting to find the home to be a wreck. That was partially true, there were overturned bits of high end furniture and hundreds of red plastic cups all over the place… This was because there were at least forty ponies drinking, dancing, and doing all manner of other things inside. To his and Thomas’ surprise, they cheered loudly and held up their cups when they saw the two men standing there with confused expressions… Some of them were even laughing.

“What the fuck…?” Thomas asked as he looked around, holding the weapon down and pointing it only at the floor with his finger safely off the trigger. Turner’s confusion dissipated far faster than his compatriot’s however, and the expression on his face became one of anger. After a couple minutes the music came to a stop.

“Whoa! Hey, guys! There’s two of ‘em!” Shouted a stallion from somewhere in the crowd, realization slowly started to dawn on Thomas and he too began to become annoyed.

“Who called in a home invasion?” Turner asked as loudly and as calmly as he could, his voice carrying over the entire room. No one spoke up, after a few minutes a very beleaguered and sheepish looking earth pony mare pushed her way through the crowd. Turner recognized her vaguely, she’d been one of the occupants when he’d first come to this house.

“Um… Hello, officer.” She said, the crowd began to murmur among themselves. “I think one of my friend’s guests might have put in a call to your department? It was a mistake…” Turner’s expression didn’t soften, not one bit. Quietly he reached to his belt and grabbed his radio, then brought it up to his lips.

“Dispatch, Unit Two.” He said as calmly as he could, though Thomas thought he could see the man’s eye twitching.

”Go ahead, Unit Two. Sheriff is on the way.” Buckeye’s voice replied over the radio.

“Good… Good…” Turner trailed off after a couple seconds he took a deep breath and sighed before continuing. “The call turned out to be a prank, there’s some sort of party going on out here or… whatever.” The mare standing in front of him began to speak but he quietly held up a finger, meanwhile the crowd of ponies was starting to appear more antsy.

”Seriously? Uh… Roger that, Unit Two. Ten-Four, will advise the Sheriff..” With that last reply Turner put the radio back on his belt, then put his hands on his hips as he took his sidearm from Thomas and slid it into his holster.

“I’m going to need to see the IDs of everyone here. Now.” Turner stated while he took yet another deep breath. From somewhere in the crowd he heard someone yell ‘Scatter!’, at which point the ponies started scrambling for whatever exits they could. If Turner wasn’t as upset as he was, he would’ve been impressed at the short amount of time it took for them to vacate the premises. Twenty two seconds by Thomas’ count. In the end, the room was practically empty, save for Turner, Thomas, The earth pony, the white unicorn mare with the electric blue mane that also lived there. In addition, there was also a pair of unicorn stallions whom both had their ears caught in a glowing reddish aura being cast by the unicorn mare’s horn. They looked particularly inebriated, each sporting similar Merlot red fur and light green manes.

“Uh…” The earth pony said nervously, her hair was somewhat frazzled. Turner quietly stood there, tapping his foot while he fought to calm himself internally. “Okay. Give me a second, mine’s upstairs, and so is hers…” She quickly rushed off to the stairway and disappeared up them, the white unicorn approached with the two stallions wincing in her magical grasp. Wordlessly she slid them forward in front of Turner and Thomas.

“They did it, I saw them do it earlier… I wasn’t able to stop them.” She said simply, unfortunately for Turner that wasn’t enough for him to take them in. Quietly he rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked at Thomas, wordlessly he handed the man his rifle so that he could take his pen and notepad from his pocket and begin jotting down what had happened so far.

“Oh, come on… We was only playin’ around… It was one lil horn call...” One of the unicorns said drunkenly, he looked at the stallion that looked rather like him for a moment and not so quietly slurred. “I shink… I shink they bought it…”

“C-Come on, flathoof… foot… thing… Have a sense of humor…” The other implored, Turner merely jotted down everything that they’d said. After a couple minutes of listening to more of their drunken slurring the Earth pony from before returned from upstairs with a pair of wallets, each she presented to Turner with a sheepish expression.

“Let’s see… Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch. Can you identify these two… individuals?” Turner asked, gesturing to the stallions who had now started giggling and pointing at the Deputy’s fingers, each time he would move one they’d giggle more. Despite all this, Thomas saw the man was remaining as calm as could be on the outside. His tone, while a little irritated, was still professional.

“This is Silver Mallot and Bronze Hammer.” Octavia said quickly, prompting Turner to nod quietly, Thomas was back to his usual observer status by this point. “I am so so sorry about this, Deputy…” Turner didn’t respond with more than a simple grunt.

“I’m writing the two of you a summons for the disregard for the maximum occupancy and fire safety code of Evergreen County, the most a two story private residence of this size may host is twenty people, of which at least one third must be sober.” Turner said as he took his ticket book from his back pocket and began writing out the summons. Octavia winced as the man ripped the summons from his book and handed it to her, her eyes became much wider as she read the fine.

“Five hundred bits! Are you serious!?” She asked in shock, the flat expression Turner gave her told her he was in fact very serious. “At least tell me that the county’s going to cover the replacement of the door.”

“You’ll need to contact the Municiple Offices of Evergreen County to put in a request, that’s all I can really say.” Turner said before looking around the room, the cool air was blowing in from the door and various windows that other ponies had fled through. Octavia was about to retort, but stopped herself… At least she and Vinyl weren’t going to jail, unlike to other drunk stallions. “As for you two, I’m placing both of you under arrest for Felonious Misuse of Police Resources, under Evergreen County Municipal Code 3409-2A....”

“You have all the code’s memorized?” Thomas asked, Turner looked at him before quietly responding.

“Not all of them, but seeing as most of our recent calls have been in regards to that code It’s stuck with me… Anyway.” Turner looked back at the two stallions and reached to his belt for his cuffs, at this point Silver Mallot reached out and put his hoof on Turner’s stomach. Thomas watched as Turner froze and looked at the stallion with a stoic expression. “Remove your hoof from my person. Now.” Silver Mallot responded by pushing Turner back with enough force to send him back couple steps, the deputy took exception to that and slapped the cuffs on him faster than the drunk stallion could process. “You just added assaulting an officer and resisting arrest to the list.” Thomas could tell that it was going to be a long ride back to town.

Nearly five hours later it was dark out, Turner and the Sheriff had rendezvoused on the road and handed off the prisoner’s to the Sheriff as he had a carriage that had more space than the truck. Now both of there vehicles were at the station. Thomas had opted to wait outside as Turner and the Sheriff filled out the paperwork, took the statements of a couple other ponies from the party that had turned up, and eventually were able to settle everything. At around seven thirty at night, Turner finally emerged from the Sheriff’s Office with a noticeable slump to his shoulders.

“So, what happened?” Thomas asked, Turner remained quiet as he slowly walked to the driver’s side door and opened it. “Turner? Did they confess? Are there any more charges?”

“Yes, they confessed.” Turner said tiredly as he pulled himself up into the cab, Thomas soon joined him via the passenger seat. “No, there aren’t any more charges… There aren’t ANY charges, in fact.” The man let out a very tense sigh as he took his key from his pocket and put it in the ignition. “Turns out their dad is a judge in Canterlot, they made one phone call and half an hour later we got a letter teleported to us from Canterlot. Some guy by the name of Prince Blueblood gave them both a full pardon.”

“That sack’a shit?” Thomas asked, Turner nodded. “I’m gonna have a word with Twilight about that when I get back, don’t worry… I have a lot to tell her, actually.” The deputy just grunted in response and slipped his key into the ignition, he turned the key and the truck rumbled to life once again… For all of about twenty seconds, until he put it in drive. Afterwhich there was a harsh grinding noise and the ‘Check Engine’ light came on. The man quietly put the truck in park and turned off the engine, his hands resting on the steering wheel as he stared intently at the dashboard. “Turner…”

“This truck has five hundred thousand miles on it… Can you believe that?” Turner asked rhetorically as he sat there in the quiet of the truck and put the keys in his breast pocket. “I think the transmission or the driveshaft might’ve just gone, which means I’m gonna have to get a new one fabricated and installed… Somehow.” Without a word the man opened the door and grabbed his rifle before he stepped out, then closed the door. Thomas scrambled out of the truck too, watching as the man placed his rifle on the hood of the truck.

“Turn-”

“God fucking damnit motherfucking cocksucking fuck!” Turner suddenly screamed loudly before he kicked one of the tires out of anger, this of course lead to him hurting his foot immeasurably, which in turn lead to more swearing. After nearly two minutes of him spewing obscenities that were far too graphic and disturbing to ever be repeated within the pages of this story he finally managed to calm himself down enough to grab his rifle and start limping home. Thomas followed behind him quickly, listening as the deputy quietly muttered to himself.

“I know this seems bad, but I promise you, the Princess is gonna hear about this!” Thomas said, trying to calm the deputy down. By this point they were around halfway to the apartment, Turner stopped walking and turned to face Thomas.

“Whoopty fuckin’ do.” Turner flatly stated. “We’ve tried going to them before, hell Sheriff Long Wire once went all the way to Canterlot to try and get this shit sorted out, even spoke to them in person. You can see how well that went!” Thomas quietly stood there as Turner gestured to the area around them, he could see the bags under the Deputies eyes. “We got drunk fuckin’ tourist kids calling us out all over the place more and more lately, they don’t have any respect for us or the law! God forbid someone actually needs our help while we're responding to one of those bogus calls!”

“So please... Forgive me if I don’t bust out the trumpets and balloons, but for now I have to worry about replacing whatever the fuck just broke in my truck.” Turner gestured in the direction of the Sheriff’s Office. “I also have to find someway to help keep the Harrow family from freezing to death this winter, and to top it all off I have tweedle dumb and tweedle dumbass back there laughing their asses off all the way home because of some fuckhead in Canterlot. Not to mention everything I need to do on that list needs to be done on a third of the salary I normally should be making!” The man sighed. “Look, I try bein’ an optimist, but lately there ain’t much to be optimistic about… Unless I see the Princess ride in on some gold fuckin’ chariot carrying bags of money, guns and the keys to a new truck I ain’t gonna celebrate.”

“You know you could solve a lot of those problems if you just asked Sam for help, right?” Thomas replied equally as flatly. “You know she’d help, heck, even Gwen would help!” The man walked towards Turner and looked him square in the eye. “I get it, you’re used to not relying on people, I was the same way… But you owe it to yourself and your community to exhaust every option open to you, right? Swallow your pride.” Turner looked at the man opposite him for a couple seconds, after which he sighed.

“You sound like my dad…” Turner said quietly as he turned and started walking again, Thomas began to follow him one more as well. The way he’d said it was odd to Thomas, it wasn’t angry, or spiteful, or nostalgic or joyful… It was just, well, a statement. After a couple minutes Thomas could hear the man mumbling something quietly. The rest of the walk home was spent in silence, the wind kicking up dust as the dim light from the town’s shops began to fade. The two men wordlessly ascended the steps, Turner opened the door to the apartment and left it open for Thomas to follow him through.

Thomas closed the door behind him as Turner took off his jacket and tossed it onto the loveseat. Gwen was sitting on the couch, and was honestly rather surprised that neither of them had said anything. She looked at Thomas with a raised eyebrow, the man simply shook his head subtly while quietly mouthing ‘I’ll tell you in a minute.’. Meanwhile Turner continued on to the bedroom, still carrying the rifle, he wasn’t about to leave it behind in his truck. He’d gotten into a poor habit of doing that, but recent events had made him keenly aware of how important it was to keep it safe and secure.

As Turner pushed the door to his room open he was surprised that Sam wasn’t there, but he could see the bathroom door was closed. Quietly he approached his closet and placed his rifle on a gun rack within, then started taking off his uniform with a tired sigh. He was tired, tired from all the driving and running, tired from getting so upset earlier. He stood there in front of his closet getting ready for bed while his mind raced with all that had gone on over the course of his day, sprinting once again towards the cliff of obsessive thought. He didn’t even notice when the door to the bathroom opened.

Sam emerged from the bathroom wearing her pajamas, she hadn’t heard Turner’s truck pull up or his entry into the room. When she looked around the room she saw him standing in front of the closet, one arm leaning against the door frame as he stared off into space. She walked a bit closer to see his face plastered with an absolutely baffled expression, occasionally he’d move his head a little, as if trying to figure something out.

“You okay?” Sam asked softly, the man jumped in surprise, which in turned caused her to jump as well as she was surprised by his surprise. After a couple seconds Turner looked at her and nodded, though his expression still looked quite stressed. “What happened?”

“It was… Uh… It was a home invasion call, but it turned out to be a bunch of drunk ponies playing a prank…” Turner replied as he looked at Sam for a moment before he walked to his side of the bed and sat down, he put his head in his hands and sighed loudly. “Man, this job is not what I thought it would be.” Sam quietly walked over and sat next to him, she’d noticed he was becoming a bit more stressed and anxious lately. Staring off into space, not realizing someone was talking to him. “I had to repossess someone’s only means of income, that was fun. Then we got dragged out to some house party and the jackasses that called us in got off without so much as a warning, that was followed by hours and hours of paperwork.” Turner rubbed his temples. “To top it all off, I think the Transmission in the Truck is shot, or the drive shaft, both are going to be a pain in the ass to fix… Especially since I can’t afford the parts.”

Sam noted the man paused after the last bit, his posture changed as it had the first time he’d told he had asked for a couple days off. She could see an ashamed expression cross his face before he looked over at her.

“I… Uh… I don’t… I need…” Turner fumbled with his words, but stopped when Sam put a hand on his shoulder. “I need help, Sam. I’m barely keeping my head above water here, and until things change I don’t have anywhere else to turn to.”

“It’s okay, just… Tell me what you need.” Sam gently squeezed his shoulder, something she found helped to calm him down immensely.

“I will do whatever I can to pay you back, I swear-” Turner began, but stopped as Sam moved her hand from his shoulder to his lips. After a couple seconds she placed it back on his shoulder and allowed him to continue. “I won’t know for sure until I figure out what needs fixing, but… At the very least a thousand bits… I also need five hundred or so, I had repo someone’s market carriage today, they didn’t have a chance to finish selling their crop and they don’t have any way of supporting themselves for the winter because of it… I get it, it’s my fault, I should be the one to-”

“Paige.” Sam cut him off. “You're not the one that didn’t make the payment on the carriage, if it hadn’t been you repossessing it it would’ve been someone else.” Turner looked at her for a couple seconds, then looked at the floor with a look of deep thought in his eyes. “So, you need fifteen hundred bits?”

“I know, it’s a lot of money. I shouldn’t be asking… I’ll just find another way.” Turner started to get up, but Sam was having none of that and pushed him back down where he was sitting on the bed.

“Stop. You're not alone anymore, remember? That’s what this whole thing between you and me is about.” Sam said in a vaguely stern tone. “If I came to you needing help you’d help, right?” Turner silently nodded. “That’s a two way street, got it?”

“Yeah…” Turner said as he looked off to the side. “Thank you.” Sam responded by pulling him closer and giving him a big kiss on the lips, after a couple seconds she pulled back and looked him in the eyes.

“I love you.” She said firmly, and almost aggressively. “Now, are you too tired to stay up a bit longer?” Turner looked at her as she bit her lip, and after a couple seconds he shook his head. “Good, because I wanted to do something special with you, as well as something special to show you.” Turner’s calm exterior was a far cry from what was going on in his head, and after a couple moments he gulped. Sam stood up and walked to her side of the bed, then got down on the floor and reached under the bed. After a couple moments she returned with a plastic binder and what looked like a brown paper bag…

Turner decided he needed to drastically change what he’d thought of when she’d said ‘Something Special’, Sam meanwhile smiled as if she knew just where his mind had gone before she climbed into the bed and pulled the covers up to her chest. Turner quietly joined her in getting in under the covers. The two of them were sitting up a bit, getting comfortable as Sam opened the plastic binder and showed it to her companion. They were property listings, quite a few of them actually.

“I’ve been looking at some homes in the area, and properties without any structures on them as well, just to keep our options open.” Sam said as she began to run through the properties that she’d gathered quite a spread on. A lot of them were off in the boonies without any road access, which was a must according to Sam. It wasn’t listed information, but Turner was familiar enough with the area to know which were and which weren’t good candidates. As the hours passed the two of them went through the whole binder, near the end there were two finished homes as well as a couple plots of land near Silver Lake.

“What do you think? Would you want to live there?” Sam asked as she pointed to a nice looking cabin that had made the cut, as far as Turner knew there’d never been a crime committed there, there weren’t any liens on the property, and it was only about twenty minutes outside of Silver Lake resting on a bit of land that had access to the Macintosh River.

“Doesn’t matter what I think, it’s your house.” Turner replied with a shrug, Sam shook her head and cleared her throat.

“Our house.” She warmly corrected him, Turner’s expression became one of uncertainty. “I know, it’s sudden… I'm impulsive, as you called it, but come on... It’ll be an adventure.” Turner looked at the cabin, then looked back at Sam.

“You haven’t even seen it yet. Assuming I say yes, how do you know it’ll be right for us?” The man asked, Sam hummed for a moment. “Alright, we can have a look at it, okay… As for it being ‘Our House’... Let me think on it? I’m still a little frazzled.” After a couple seconds Sam nodded and closed the binder, that left one more thing, the bag. “What’s that?”

“Open it!” Sam said with a smile, Turner quietly compiled and reached into the bag. From inside he withdrew the hat that Sam had purchased at the market from McSnare. “It kinda seemed your style.”

“Thank you… I really appreciate this.” Turner said as he put it on his head, to his surprise it fit perfectly. “And it fits like a glove, the other one I have was meant for a pony… It’s a little snug.” He smiled and removed the hat before setting it on his nightstand. “I’ll put my badge on it in the morning, for now though…” He leaned over and gave Sam a kiss on the cheek. “I need to get a little sleep, my eyelids feel like they’ve got weights on ‘em.”

“Alright… I’m a little tired too.” Sam replied before she leaned over and turned off the bedside light, the room was shrouded in darkness and the two of them slid down a bit more under the covers. Sam, as usual, put her arm over Turner’s chest and cuddled up beside him. She sighed contently, for her there wasn’t anything that could’ve made her happier in that moment. Turner meanwhile was staring up at the ceiling, a contemplative look on his face.

“Sam?” He asked, his voice resonating in the darkness. Sam replied with a small hum. “Do you think we might be goin’ a little too fast? I feel a little out of my depth…” The woman opened her eyes and looked at him. “Don’t get me wrong, I love you… It’s all just very new to me, the fast pace I mean. I’ve dated before, but most of the time it was a while before we even considered sleeping in the same bed together on the regular, and it never got to a point where we’d move in with one another…”

“I feel like we’re moving just fine…” Sam replied softly as she traced a finger along his chest. “Maybe you need a little more impulsivness in your life, something to shake things up.” Turner remained quiet for a couple seconds before he nodded.

“I guess, seems like doin’ the same thing over and over again and expecting different stuff to happen is kinda nuts…” He said with a shrug before he turned over and put his arm around Sam’s waist. “I suppose as long as one of us has their hand on the wheel we can afford to hit the gas…” Sam quietly nodded and closed her eyes again, after a couple more minutes of thought Turner also let his eyelids fall shut. All he needed now was eight hours of uninterrupted sleep….