Silver Lake

Turner quietly adjusted his jacket as he stood beside his truck, his sunglasses resting on his nose as he stood in three and a half feet of snow. It had stopped snowing thankfully after around two days, but the temperature had yet to get warm enough for any of it to melt. The sun overhead reflected off the vast fields of white, which is why Turner was compelled to wear his sunglasses. Currently he and his truck were parked near the train station, a large steam locomotive was pulled up down the line aways while the passenger cars were being loaded and unloaded.

Those weren’t the cars that Turner was interested in though, as he stood there with his rifle in hand he looked out over the landscape while several stallions wearing Guard Armor loaded crates of Zebrican Night Terror off the back of his truck into a secure government cargo car. Sheriff Long Wire was supposed to be there as well, but the older stallion lived a good thirty minutes out of town on a good day. With the snow as high as it was he wasn’t likely to get in for another two hours.

The locomotive hissed with steam as the bright sun glinted off it’s polished black paint job, the train was set to leave within the next ten minutes. At least Turner was able to make the evidence transfer with the Narcotic Enforcement Bureau, they had already loaded the first four crates with only the damaged one remaining. Turner watched as the stallions pulled on protective equipment before picking up the crate which was leaking the purple dust. They placed it in a special bin before a unicorn used his magic to gather up any of the dust that had been left behind in the bed of the truck or had fallen on the ground in the movement.

“Alright, Deputy… That’s the last of it. Just need your Sheriff to sign for it.” One of the grey colored NEB Agents said, Turner looked at him for a second before he shook his head.

“He ain’t here, it’s likely to be a couple hours before he gets through the snow. Can’t I sign?” Turner asked, the stallion paused for a second before he disappeared back in the car to talk to someone. Turner meanwhile got in his truck and pulled it a couple feet away from the train, just so it wouldn’t be too close when it departed. Once he’d finished and put it in park he got out again and trudged back towards the train car. By that point the NEB Agent had reappeared, the Deputy could see on his face that the answer was something he wasn’t gonna like.

“We need the Sheriff’s Signature or someone to verify it’s contents upon arrival, chain of evidence has to be airtight.” The stallions aid apologetically before he continued with an explanation, his gold armor was glaringly bright with all the light it was receiving. “We’ve had problems with evidence going missing or being tampered with before.”

“So, someone has to physically go with that stuff or else you need to offload it?” Turner asked, the stallion nodded. “Well, shit, why didn’t just say so?” The Deputy took his radio from his belt and cleared his throat before speaking. “Dispatch, Unit Two.”

”Unit Two, Dispatch. Send traffic.” Buckeye’s voice replied, lately the mare had been getting into the role of dispatcher and ensured everyone was using proper radio protocol… It could be annoying at times, but it was also efficient.

“NEB Agents need the Sheriff’s signature or someone to accompany them until they drop off the evidence or else we gotta unload all this stuff. I figured since I’m right here…” Turner trailed off as he leaned against his truck, listening as the train’s bell started to ring slowly. The train would need to depart in five minutes or else they’d have to unload everything and mess up schedules for at least a dozen other trains. “They gotta head out in five minutes.” He added.

“Roger… Accompany the NEB Agents as long as they need you, I’ll fill in the Sheriff when he gets here. I can hold down the fort. Want me to contact Sam and have her pick up the truck?” Buckeye’s timely response wasn’t even half done by the time Turner had made his way over to the train car and was climbing up into it. Once he was up he responded over the radio.

“Negative, Dispatch. I’m gonna call her and let her know what’s up.” Turner finished, Buckeye responded with a quick ‘Roger.’. before the radio went off. The Deputy reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, in the background he could hear the locomotive’s engine begin to ring its bell. Sam was on speed dial, within a couple seconds he had started a call. The NEB Agent, content that someone would be accompanying the evidence motioned him away from the door before he slid the metal aperture shut and secured it with several latches. Turner, still holding onto his rifle in one hand with his phone in the other, went towards a couple chairs set up in the dark and dingy rail car.

It was similar to a mail car, though it was far more secure. Metal reinforced walls, metal bars over the windows and what looked like a spellshield as well. There were chairs for the agents, a couple tables, and the area where the evidence had been secured off in the corner. Turner walked towards one of the tables and sat down, leaning his rifle against the wall as the bell continued to toll outside.

”Paige! I was just thinking about you.” Sam’s voice said joyfully over the phone as Turner heard her pick up. ”Specifically what you could do with those handcuffs of yours…”

“Hey, not while I’m working.” Turner replied in a hushed tone. “Last time you talked like that I couldn’t get up from my desk for thirty minutes.” Sam simply giggled as Turner let out a sigh and looked out one of the barred up windows before removing his mirrored aviator glasses and the hat that Sam had given him. Both of which he went about setting on the table. “I was just calling to let you know I’m probably going to be late tonight, I’ll explain more once I get back… Listen, I need you to head to the train station and pick up my truck.”

“Oh? Oh, okay, yeah no problem.” Sam replied with a chipper tone, Turner smiled and leaned back in his seat as the bell continued to ring from the front of the train. “You left the keys, right?”

“Yeah, they’re under the driver’s seat next to the tire iron… You remember how the four wheel drive works?” Turner asked, Sam let out a little scoff before once again speaking with mirth in her voice.

“Yes, I remember. Don’t worry about it, I’m getting my coat on now so it won’t be waiting long.” Sam’s voice was soothing as always, lately things had been smooth sailing between the two of them. They were communicating more, being more open about how they felt, all thanks to one night when the lights went out. “Do you have an idea what time you might be getting back?”

“Nope, this is the first time I’ve ridden a train anywhere. I’ll call you if I get an update, don’t worry.” Turner said as he stood up and stretched a bit, the NEB Agents were off at their own places doing whatever it was that NEB Agents did. “I gotta go, hon. I love you.”

“I love you too, be safe.” Sam replied, her concern was evident in her voice. To lift both their spirits she followed it up with something a little less dour. “Hurry back, we’ll celebrate your first trip out of town.”

“Sounds good, I’ll talk to you later.” Turner heard Sam give a slight hum before she hung up, he lowered the phone from his ear and slipped it back into his pocket. While phones were still rather rare to see in Equestria, as Gwen had predicted when they hit the shelves they’d become wildly popular. As he looked around he could see some of the NEB Agents were on their phones, doing what he didn’t know.

From the front of the train he heard the familiar howl of the steam locomotive’s powerful whistle, ever since that first train had been accidentally diverted to Silver Lake it seemed that the rail companies had been sending bigger trains, presumably because they could handle more cargo and cars. This train, for example, was around fifty cars long, mostly made up of cargo cars with only fifteen passenger cars in the rear. The train lurched forward as the locomotive started pulling ahead, despite that Turner didn’t stumble. As the train began to roll down the line he walked towards the lead NEB Agent, a unicorn mare by the name of Blazing Flare.

Unlike the other stallions who were varying shades of grey and wearing shined golden armor, Blazing Flare was wearing a blue jacket with the letters ‘NEB’ on the right breast portion of it and larger letters on the back. Her fur was an orangish red while her mane was a short crop of even darker red. As Turner walked closer he unzipped his jacket, as it was rather warm in the train car. His Deputy’s uniform was buttoned up as usual, as he knew that some higher government types could be sticklers for protocol. The Mare looked up from her clipboard as she noticed the man walking towards her, turning to face the Deputy with a neutral expression.

“‘Scuse me… Mind if I ask how far I’m accompanying this evidence?” Turner asked, gesturing to the crates in the Evidence lock up. Blazing Flare looked at him for a second before she lowered her clipboard.

“All the way.” She said simply, Turner raised an eyebrow at her prompting her to sigh. “All the way to our headquarters…” When that still left him with an unsure look on his face the mare took a deep breath. “In Canterlot.”

“Shit, that far?” Turner asked rhetorically, he looked around the room for a second before putting his hands on his hips in thought. “Well, guess it had to happen some time… Alright, any ETA on when we’re gonna be getting there?”

“We’ll get there when we get there.” Blazing Flare replied in an annoyed voice as she looked back at her clipboard, Turner merely rubbed his chin and started walking away. She was abrasive, of that there was no doubt. As he walked he could hear her mutter. “I guess even humans have hicks.” Turner briefly stopped, half tempted to turn around and give that mare a piece of his mind… Instead he closed his eyes and said the Serenity Prayer in his head, then walked over to the seat he’d chosen and removed his jacket. He rested the jacket on the back of the chair before sitting down and looking out the window as the train picked up speed, nothing but bright reflective white snow for miles in any direction.

The first hour or so he recognized the area and what they were going past pretty well, as they continued on the train began passing areas he was less familiar with. Mostly large rolling plains with patches of trees jutting up out of the snow. It wasn’t that dissimilar from riding a train in Wyoming, he couldn’t take his eyes off of just how far it all seemed the stretch. By the two hour mark they were flying down the tracks at sixty miles or so, the snow was a lot shallower which allowed the train to go a bit faster than it had been going before. Turner took that time to text the details he’d gotten from Blazing Flare back to Sam so she’d know what time to expect him home.

Hour number three hit, by that point Turner was leaned back in his seat with his hat pulled down over his eyes trying to get a little sleep. It wasn’t working, but the NEB Agents didn’t know that. Thinking that he was asleep he could hear them chattering together in hushed tones, still he heard them clear as day.

“So that’s the new human?” One of them asked quietly, Turner tilted his head ever so slightly so he could get a better idea of what was being said. “He’s bigger than I thought he’d be…”

“Well, yeah… He had to be to take down the Black Briar Butcher.” Another one replied, from the sound of his voice Turner could tell he’d likely heard some exaggerated story of how he’d taken in Mil Spec. It was not a fond memory. “He looks like one of those cowboys in the comics that my kid brother reads.”

“Comics based on humans aren’t real comics.” Another stallion piped up. “Have you read that one about the zombies and the guy with an army that destroys Equestria in two days? Totally unbelievable.”

“Not the point…” The first stallion said in an annoyed tone. “Still, if he was out there for six years without anyone noticing… Kinda makes you wonder who or what else could be hiding under our noses.”

“Like two hundred kilos of ZNT.” Blazing Flare’s voice cut in above the rest of the group, that caught Turner as strange. The clickclack of the railcars as they thundered down the tracks helped to soothe his nerves while he listened in, his eyes still hidden by the hat pulled down over his eyes. “It’s just a good thing that the train got diverted, otherwise who knows how long this operation would’ve gone unnoticed.”

Beyond that Turner lost interest in the conversation, and he actually did managed to fall asleep for a time. Three hours later he was awoken by the sound of the train’s whistle, the Deputy stood up and set his hat on the table before taking a look out the window. By this point he was long out of his depth, they’d passed through at least two more counties while he was out. There wasn’t a speck of any snow here, in fact it looked more like autumn was supposed to look. Leaves that were brown and red and yellow, as the train thundered past a row of trees it kicked up swirling vortices of leaves in its wake.

The trees gave way to something far more alien to Turner, a very large city. There were tall buildings that towered at least seven stories tall, and dozens of thatch roofed houses. Most notable was a massive crystal palace on the outskirts of the city, it stuck out like a sore thumb against the changing colors of fall. It had to be at least ten stories tall, it could’ve rivaled White Hall in Laramie. There had to be at least a couple thousand people living in that town, maybe even ten thousand. To his surprise the train wasn’t slowing down, either. This sprawling metropolis didn’t seem to be Canterlot, as he recalled Canterlot was located on a mountain…

He knew that there were big cities out there, like the one they were passing by out the window, but coming from Wyoming where the population of the state was estimated at only five hundred eighty thousand it was quite a big deal. As the train continued on it’s last hour towards Canterlot it began to wind its way up the mountain. Somehow a train of such size was going to be able to fit up to a city of over a hundred thousand residents, then somehow turn around and repeat the process only going down instead of up… That had to be one seriously big mountain side.

He was certainly not surprised to see that he was right, the mountainside that made up Canterlot was actually quite large. Large enough for the whole city to sit precariously perched on the edge of a tall, sheer rock face that just went down for around ten thousand feet. To top it all off, as the city came into view Turner could see structures massively tall buildings, one of which stretching a hundred stories or more in the air. The Deputy could only stand there, mouth agape, as he took in the sight of such a massive engineering achievement. The train was starting to slow down at this point, its’ whistle blowing every now and then as it went past railway crossings and passed further into the city.

“Fuck… Those are tall.” Turner mumbled as the train began to slow down considerably, its brakes were squealing as it started to pull its way through the train station. The whistle blew loudly a couple times more as the rail car gradually came to a stop. The Train station had a huge vaulted ceiling with a glass roof that he could see clear through, Turner looked around for a second before he went and put on his jacket and hat. He tucked his sunglasses into his breast pocket before grabbing his rifle and walking towards the door where the NEB Agents were preparing to unload the evidence.

“You don’t need to help.” Blazing Flare said sharply as she looked the Deputy over, Turner scowled but if she wanted to spend more time carrying heavy objects who was he to judge? One of the NEB Agents unlatched the heavy steel door and slid it open, allowing the loud chattering voices of the hundreds of ponies and other creatures roaming the station to reach Turner’s ears. A cart was pushed into place by a group of guardsponies while the NEB Agents offloaded the evidence, Turner watched closely as they took each one from the train and placed it on the well guarded cart. Once each crate had been set on it the NEB Agents disembarked with Turner not far behind them. “Deputy Turner.”

“Yeah?” Turner replied as he stood there, leaning against the train while looking down at the unicorn.

“For the Record, can you confirm that these are the evidence entrusted to us by your department?” Blazing Flare said firmly, Turner simply nodded which prompted a scowl from her. “I need you to say it, and then sign… This.” She levitated a clipboard over and held it up, as well as a pen. “With your full name.”

“To the best of my knowledge this is the evidence, yes.” Turner said in a slightly annoyed tone before he took the pen and clipboard, he read over the document which basically said that as far as he knew nothing had been tampered with under the threat of being charged with perjury yadda yadda yadda… Reluctantly he signed his name, his full name.

“Thank you, Deputy…” Blazing Flare took the document and looked it over. “Paige Turner? Your name is Paige?”

“Yes. My name is Paige, though I prefer just Turner.” Turner said flatly, the mare seemed to be holding back a giggle which prompted a sign from the Deputy as he adjusted his jacket. “Look, I escorted the damn evidence now can I go home? At this rate I’ll be lucky to get back by ten o’clock.”

“We’ll arrange for a ticket for you, the earliest that can be done is tomorrow.” Flares said as she handed the clipboard to one of the NEB Agents. Once again, Turner sighed and put his hand on his hips. “You should also be careful with that rifle of yours, it may be common in Evergreen County to carry something so openly but you’ll find the ponies of Canterlot a bit more… Skittish.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Turner said flatly before looking around. “Can I at least get a ride to… I don’t know, somewhere?”

“We can arrange for that, the earliest that would be is…” The mare said in that same dull tone of hers.

“Tomorrow, yeah, I get it…” Turner groaned. “Fuck it, I’ll figure something out… Do you need me for anything else or can I go?” Blazing Flares simply responded with a nod and actually shooed him away. With that little bit of encouragement Turner set off through the throngs of ponies and all other manner of strange creature. He didn’t pay them much mind, walking as he normally would towards an information counter. The ponies, however, were stopping to stare as the man casually walked past so casually. As he came up on the counter he noted that the mare behind it was chewing gum and looking down in her lap… Likely at her phone. “‘Scuse me… Can you point me in the direction of an exit?” Without looking up the mare pointed with her hoof at a door to the right of her, she didn’t say a word and just continued to chew her gum.

With a shrug Turner walked up to the door and pushed it open, stepping out into the bright sunlight and the bustling cacophony of noise that came from a big city. As Turner looked around at the massive crowds and cramped streets of the city he felt a strange sensation of anxiety wash over him. Like invisible walls had been set up to block any chance of escape, it felt like if he went anywhere near the crowds he’d be overwhelmed. With a sigh he reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, then looked through his contacts. There weren’t many. He picked Gwen first, figuring that it seemed likely she’d be in one of the downtown buildings that seemed to be all around him.

”Hello?” Gwen’s voice said over the phone, she sounded confused.

“Gwen, it’s me Turner… You got a second?” The Deputy replied, there were a couple seconds of silence before Gwen responded.

”Sure, where are you? I hear a huge crowd in the background.” Gwen asked, what followed was a quick rundown of events that already had occurred. Turner left out a couple bits, like how the phone call with Sam had first started and the bit where he fell asleep, but other than that it all pretty much came out as it happened. ”Well… Shit, I don’t really know what to do here. I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes otherwise I’d come pick you up. You should start making your way to the Castle, that’s where Thomas is… And call ahead, the guards over there get twitchy.”

“Alright… Later.” Turner sighed as Gwen hung up and once again he was on his own. Thomas’ number was next to be dialed as Turner started walking through the crowds, taking deep breaths and doing his best to remain calm. He’d never been in crowds so thick, unruly mobs of ponies and what he assumed were griffons or something seemed to unnerve him more than would be normal. As the phone rang and Turner kept walking more ponies would stop and stare at the Deputy strolling through their cosmopolitan streets… A stark contrast to the upscale nature of Canterlot as a whole.

”Hey, Turner. What’s up?” Thomas asked as he picked up, once again Turner relayed the story of what had happened as he had to Gwen. All the while he was making his way through the city, following street signs and his intuition. He could see the castle gates about ten blocks away as he walked past street vendors and shops. ”I see… Well, yeah you should definitely come here. This actually worked out really well, my boss and I were just talking about you.”

“Your boss? Twilight’s there?” Turner asked in confusion as he continued pushing his way through the crowd, he made sure that he kept his rifle secure in his hand with the safety on and the barrel pointed towards the pavement. Carriages and carts were being pushed and pulled along on the streets beside the sidewalk, all very busy and in a hurry to be somewhere.

”Oh, no she’s not my boss anymore. Since we’re in a relationship now HR made me move to a new princess’ staff, I work for Celestia.” Thomas explained, in the background he thought he heard someone speaking. ”She says ‘Hi’, by the way. Looking forward to meeting you.”

“Uh huh…” Turner said in a rather unbelieving tone, he stepped out into a crosswalk right as a yellow carriage was about to run a stop sign. It practically hit Turner, prompting him to smack the front of the carriage in frustration. “Hey! I’m walkin’ here!” The carriage driver looked at him in surprise before sheepishly nodding. Turner resumed walking while the carriage driver continued on his way. “Anyway, I’ll be there in about five minutes? Maybe? Just make sure her highnesses goon squad doesn’t light me up, okay?”

”They aren’t a goon squad… But yes, I’ll tell them. See you in a few.” With that Thomas hung up and Turner tucked his phone back into his pocket, as he continued making his way through the city he found himself more and more enthralled by the marketing everywhere. No doubt it was Gwen’s handiwork, and it seemed to be doing its job considering how many ponies seemed to be out shopping that day. After five or six minutes they thinned out considerably, replaced instead by ponies with cameras and wearing fanny packs who were snapping pictures of the looming Castle.

Turner stopped a couple yards in front of the gate, just admiring it for himself. It was big, made of marble, and it looked expensive as hell to maintain. He was just glad he didn’t live in Canterlot, the taxes for upkeep of that estate had to be astronomical. With that last thought he started walking towards the gate again, some of the ponies stopped snapping pictures of the castle and instead started snapping pictures of him. Again, he didn’t really notice, and if he had he wouldn’t really have cared. The guards standing at the front gate straightened up a bit as he got closer, word had only come down a couple minutes prior about the Deputy’s arrival.

“Deputy Turner?” One of them asked.

“Yeah.” Turner replied as he took his wallet from his jacket pocket and displayed his ID to the stallions. “So… I can just go in?” The guards looked at his ID, after a couple seconds one shrugged. He, being a unicorn, undid the lock on the gate and pushed them open.

“Go on ahead, but we ask that you leave your rifle here… You can keep your sidearm. It’s just, there’s kids on tour in there….” One of the guards asked, Turner briefly looked at his rifle for a moment before hesitantly handing it over to the guard. “Thanks, I’ll have it sent up with the next patrol when there aren’t any civilians around.”

“Appreciate it, have a good one.” Turner tipped his hat briefly before he just walked through the gate. What was so odd for the guards and pretty much everyone else watching was the fact that the front gate was hardly ever used, only heads of state or the Princesses themselves ever walked through the front gate. Anyone who wasn’t one of those usually had to be screened for hours at a time, but here was Turner just walking up the front driveway like it was nothing. Honestly, Turner found the castle grounds to be a bit too… manicured for his tastes. There were plants and bushes and trees sure, but they were all too perfect. Every leaf in place, every blade of grass cut to a precise height, it just didn’t sit right with him.

There was a notable chill in the air, but not as bad as it had been down in Evergreen County. The massive castle loomed ahead of him, spires climbing hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air and tall walls that towered around the area. The driveway was paved with cobblestone, his boots thudded against them while he continued to examine the shining white exterior. After a couple minutes he came upon a set of massive doors that lead presumably in the castle, seeing as there wasn’t any sort of doorbell Turner opted to just push on one and see if it opened.

It was surprisingly easy to push the massive slab of wood and metal inwards, he was quick to slip through and close the door behind him. The room he entered was less brightly lit than outside, there were massive paintings and tapestries hanging from the marble walls. Large stone pillars reached from the floor to the ceiling, some of them inset with gold or silver. The floor was marble as well, and a series of red carpets were spread out. The room seemed to be a T Intersection of sorts. One hallway stretched right in front of Turner while another ran perpendicular to that one.

Seeing as he had no idea where to go, he instead opted to wait where he was until someone came along that he could ask for directions. If need be he’d just call Thomas. In the meantime he took his phone from his pocket and began to type a text message to Sam, he was still getting used to that aspect of communicating with her, he’d never been a big texter. After around five minutes of typing he had summed up what had happened and that he’d likely be gone until tomorrow.

“Aaaand… Send.” Turner said aloud before tapping the little button on his phone, at which point he shut off the screen and slipped the phone back into his pocket. He looked up and sure enough there was some pegasus mare wearing a maid uniform walking towards him. It must’ve been a sight to see. A sheriff’s deputy standing in front of a pony dressed as a french maid while standing in a gilded castle. “‘Scuse me, I’m a little lost.”

“Oh, I know. The Princess sent me to collect you, follow me.” The Mare replied, adjusting her little bonnet, her grey fur was oddly familiar. Turner couldn’t quite figure it out, why did most ponies working at the castle or for the Princess in general come in varying shades of grey? Was it racism, or more accurately… Pigmentism? This was what consumed his thoughts as the mare lead him up a flight of stairs, then another flight of stairs, and another, and another… By the time they stopped Turner was feeling a bit winded. As expected, the castle looked just as gilded and fancy as it had since he first walked in, though Turner paid less and less attention to the decor as time wore on.

“Hey, question.” Turner said as he followed the Maid towards a large set of doors, the mare hummed in reply. “Why do all the ponies that work here and all the guards have like… White or grey fur for the most part?”

“Magic.” The mare replied simply, she adjusted her bonnet for a moment and lifted it a little. A wave of color washed over her, revealing her fur was actually more of a soft cranberry color. “Enchanted uniforms… Grey and white just match the marble better.” She lowered the bonnet back down and her fur went back to it’s shade of grey. “We get to choose what shade of grey though.”

“Uh huh… Good to know.” Turner said quietly as the mare stopped in front of the large doors and gestured to them. “They’re in there?” The mare nodded. “You don’t talk much.”

“Only when I’m working…” The mare replied with a shrug. “Anyway, they’re waiting on you.” Turner nodded and gave her a slight wave as she started to walk away, the Deputy then turned towards the double doors and pushed them open. They were far less easy, which was odd because they were considerably smaller than the front door.

“Magic, I guess…” Turner muttered as he finally shoved the doors open. “It’s always magic.” He stepped forward into the room and looked around while close the doors behind him. “So much magic why don’t they put in some elevators or something?” He took note that the room was much smaller, like a sitting room of some kind with a large window that looked out over the front of the castle and the driveway where Turner had come up. There were a couple couches there that looked like they were right out of Buckingham Palace, as well as a coffee table which had a pair of mugs resting on it. Turner quietly removed his hat and walked towards the window, peeking outside at what there was to see.

There was a door off to the side which is where Turner assumed that Thomas and the Princess were. The walls were decorated with blue and light blue vertical stripes, white molding up near the ceiling and at the floor. A couple chests and tables which bore busts of ponies or other knick knacks… Honestly, it reminded Turner of his aunt’s house… Minus the creepy collection of garden gnomes. He also took note of a couple paintings which were just as high class as the rest of the palace, images of noble ponies no doubt. The door opened just as Turner was leaning closer to one of the paintings across the room which depicted a light green mare with her mane in a tasteful bun, doing his best to read the signature at the bottom of the painting.

“That’s Lady Cucumber… Fan of the painting?” Thomas asked as he stepped into the room, Turner leaned back from the painting and turned to look at the man.

“Nah, should I be?” The Deputy replied as he adjusted his jacket, it was honestly a little warm now that he was inside. Thomas merely shrugged as he watched Turner take off his jacket and toss it onto one of the couches casually, he set his hat on top of it with far more care. He then adjusted his uniform shirt and straightened his Deputy Badge.

“Most ponies say they are.” A Mare’s voice filled the room, Turner put his hands on his hips as he watched a large alabaster alicorn walk through the door with her mane flowing in an atherial breeze. There were poems written about her beauty, her grace, her poise. Princess Celestia, the regent of the sun, the Ancient Savior of Equestria. Of course, none of that really mattered to Turner. “Deputy Turner, I’m glad we can finally meet. Thomas has told me many things about you. I am Princess Celestia”

“Yeah, I figured as much. The crown kinda gave it away...” Turner gestured to the mare’s shiny gold crown while speaking with a casual tone, Thomas looked rather nervous but relaxed when he heard the Princess start giggling.

“I like him already.” She said as she walked to the couch closest to the window and took a seat, Thomas sat at the other end of the same couch while Turner shrugged and took a seat on the couch that had his jacket resting on it. “So, Thomas informs me that you’re here for work, something about transporting evidence?”

“Yeah, apparently since the Sheriff couldn’t sign for the evidence someone from our department had to accompany it all the way here.” Turner replied as he leaned back and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt while trying to get comfortable on the couch. “Honestly, kind of annoyed by that. You can probably guess why…”

“I don’t know, actually.” Celestia replied, prompting Turner to look at Thomas. The man looked a little sheepish and tugged at his collar.

“The issue facing Sheriff’s Departments… The report’s been on your desk for the past two weeks.” Thomas informed her, Celestia looked at the man for a minute before looking back at Turner. “You told me you read it.”

“I did… I was still undecided on what to do.” Celestia’s tone was quiet and measured, but Turner could still hear her easily. “I hadn’t realized that your departure for one day was such a hassle to your department. Thomas has a tendency to exaggerate the severity of certain issues, particularly those that he has a personal connection to. All the better you’re here, you can tell me first hoof… or hand in this case.”

“I tried, Turner. I really did.” Thomas said, the Deputy just nodded quietly and leaned forward with a rather annoyed expression on his face.

“There’s just me, a deputy, and the sheriff to patrol a county that’s at least the size of the state of Delaware. Granted ninety percent of that is wilderness, but we still have to patrol it all the same.” Turner said quite flatly as he looked the Princess over, reading her facial expressions as best we could. “On top of that we barely have enough funding to maintain our vehicles, let alone pay our salaries, and even that isn’t entirely accurate because I have to pay out of pocket for my vehicle repairs.”

“Can you give me an example?” Celestia asked, Turner nodded and leaned back in his seat.

“A month ago the transmission and driveshaft on my truck needed to be replaced, it totaled around a thousand bits to get the transmission fabricated and another four hundred for the new drive shaft.” The Deputy let out an exasperated sigh, he’d told the same issue to half a dozen ponies in the past, he and the rest of the department had written a dozen letters or more, and still no one took them seriously. “Add to that new shock absorbers and you’re looking at a repair bill of over two thousand bits at the very least. That’s not counting time I have to take off to do the repairs myself.”

“I see… Is that everything that’s wrong? A lack of funding?” Celestia asked, her horn glowing as she levitated a pad and pen in through the doorway. A couple seconds later she’d also levitated a pair of black rimmed reading glasses through, which she perched on her nose before starting to write down notes.

“No, we either need more personnel or less county to patrol. There are roughly only five hundred ponies in Silver Lake, and a couple hundred or so living in the surrounding hundred miles.” The Deputy watched as Celestia continued to write down what he was saying, her eyes glued to her notepad. That was odd to see, someone like her taking her own Notes. Honestly, if Turner didn’t know better he would’ve thought she was actually paying attention. Of course, that belief was tempered by the fact that he knew Sheriff Long Wire had likely had this same conversation with the Princess at one point with no results other than a wasted trip. “Now, that’s still a large area but it’s way more manageable than a county the size of an entire state.”

“Worst of all, however, is our equipment is basically shot.” Turner said flatly, his expression becoming a bit grim. “My truck is the fastest thing we have, it has over five hundred thousand miles on it and still runs like a champ… Which is practically unheard of on Earth for a truck that old. There will come a time, however, when it becomes too far gone to fix… Then our response times will go back to hours instead of minutes.”

“So, it appears Thomas wasn’t using hyperbole when he said the situation was dire… Tell me more, I’m sorry I didn’t take it as seriously sooner.” With that, Turner, Thomas, and the Princess spent the next couple hours just talking about what was and wasn’t working. Eventually they moved on to the basics of how Turner was doing, what he liked and disliked… Honestly, for Turner it was getting a little tedious to explain his life story to every pony that asked, still, he supposed it was worth it if he could help out the Sheriff in getting some more supplies.

Electricity in the Sam and Turner’s apartment was still intermittent at best, as a result Sam was sitting in the living room lit by not only the sunlight but the light reflecting off the snow outside. It was surprisingly effective, and she had no problems seeing the papers laid out on the ottoman which had various notes scribbled on them. There were some official looking documents from her bank, Royal Crest Finances, the margins of which were also crammed with little notes. In addition to documents from Sam’s bank were some papers from Silver Lake Savings, these documents were in regards to Turner’s own account.

It was a very odd thing to see the difference between the two of them, Sam’s account listed her current balance in the hundreds of millions. All thanks the various technology she’d sold to the highest bidders in the country and her stake in Gwen’s ad firm. Turner’s account on the other hand, well, there was a grand total of four hundred bits in his account as of recently. For Sam, it was a stark reminder of her own childhood. Her family had always been well off, and from what Turner had told her his family had been essentially living paycheck to paycheck. It just didn’t sit right with her, that even here in Equestria that dynamic was still in place.

The purpose of her acquiring the documents in question was to prepare for when Sam and Turner settled on a place they liked, getting their paperwork in order beforehand to minimize the headache later. So far she had done just that, if they did find a house or property they liked they could easily close within a couple weeks. With a couple last glances over her work she concluded that she had done essentially all she could for the moment. Out of habit the woman gathered up both sets of documents as well as her nots and set them in a neat pile.

Digging through Turner’s bank statements had been about as easy as pulling teeth, he wasn’t kidding when he said he was bad at math. There were plenty of notes in the margins of his statements in his sloppy handwriting with entire long equations that could’ve been simplified to get the same result, or were flat out wrong and redone over and over again. At times it seemed he had misread one of his previous numbers and as a result added the wrong number and got a wrong answer.

Handwriting and math skills were just another couple things in the long list of things that were different between them, not necessarily bad, just different. Sam was just glad he had managed to catch most of his mistakes and hadn’t overspent… At least, not too often. Now that they were together she had taken up the job of balancing budgets, while Turner would often take care of things like cooking. It wasn’t rare that he would be kept out late, but for the most part he did all he could to get home before six every night.

Sam quietly stood up from the couch and grabbed the papers, then walked towards the dining room table where the binder with all their prospective homes was resting. She quickly tucked the documents inside before walking into the kitchen and looked out the window at the town. Outside she could see the various ponies going about their business, trudging through the snow as if it was just a fact of life. In Canterlot there would’ve been traffic jams everywhere with so much snow, the entire city would’ve been in complete gridlock.

With a slight smile, the woman turned from the window and walked over to a cabinet which served as the pantry. She opened it and peered inside before reaching past a couple cans of baked beans and boxes of pasta towards what looked similar to a coffee can. It’s orange wrapper made it apparent that it was not for coffee though, as Sam pulled it out of the cabinet and opened the lid a familiar smell met her nose. It was chocolate powder which could’ve been used for hot chocolate or chocolate milk… On earth it was commonly referred to as Ovaltine. It was one of the many foods that Sam had also introduced to Equestria, each can sold netted her a fairly sized percentage.

As Sam walked to the stove with the can in hand she found herself thinking about that percentage, that alone would have been enough to set someone up for life. The woman set the can on the counter and grabbed a pot from a rack hanging above the stove, after which she went to the fridge and quickly withdrew the milk. The door was closed quickly, minimizing the amount of cold air that escaped. If the power didn’t come back on Sam would need to start storing things out in the snowbank next to their front door.

That wasn’t important though, as Sam poured some of the milk into the pot and turned on the stove she found her thoughts wandering back to the can of chocolate powder resting on the counter beside her. She placed the milk down, letting the fluid in the pot come up to temperature as she continued to ruminate on just how odd it was. Every bit she made was with hardly any work on her part, meanwhile people in towns like Silver Lake were working themselves ragged with only minor returns, if any at all. It was a thought that she had had multiple times, a feeling of guilt that had formed after seeing just how much the ponies were willing to pay for human technology.

The hiss of milk boiling over in the pot snapped her out of her thoughts once again, she quickly turned off the stove before cursing under her breath as she saw the mess that had been made on the stovetop. Not a lot of milk had gone over the top, but it was enough to be a pain. With a sigh she continued what she’d set out to do in the first place and made herself a mug of hot chocolate. She was sure to put the milk away before doing anything else, Sam would need to wait for the stove to cool down before she could clean up the milk that had spilled there. With her mug in hand Sam made her way back to the living room and sat down on the couch, sipping her drink while wondering just what it was she would be doing once she moved to Silver Lake.

As she sipped her mug of hot chocolate her eyes moved over to the hat rack near the door, hanging on one of the pegs was the hat that Turner had replaced with the one Sam had given him. There was still a badge pinned to the front, glinting in the sunlight from the window. Sam briefly considered applying to the Sheriff’s Department, only a couple seconds later she started giggling and shook her head. As she sat there ruminating on the absurdity of that the radio flickered on, the power had returned once more. For how long was yet to be determined.

”...orecast for tonight is for snow, with a low of negative twenty. Tomorrow the high will be five degrees. That’s the weather for the evening, you’re listening to ECPR. Brought to you by contributions from listeners like you. On with the countdown!” The radio buzzed before the usual sound of country music filled the room, Sam sighed at the forecast. It meant she’d need to shovel the balcony walkway in the morning, something Turner had done the first time. She was from LA, she’d never shoveled snow in her life or even seen it in such massive quantities as there were in Silver Lake until recently.

She placed the mug back down on the ottoman before taking her phone from her sweatpants pocket and swiping it open. Sam browsed through some of the applications there before settling on the text messages, Turner’s last text was still there looking back at her. With a smile she began typing a new message, after a couple words she erased the whole thing and started again. Just a little something telling him how her day was going, and how she wished he was there to help her keep warm during the night. With some finality she typed a little heart using the less than sign and a three, with that she hit the send button. With a surprising amount of anticipation she watched the little icon that said it had been received, and finally read.

Turner smiled faintly as he looked down at his phone, he and Thomas were walking down the sidewalk of a rather upscale neighborhood. The castle was only around half a mile a way, every house had some form of large fence with a manicured lawn behind it. Many of the houses looked rather different, but there was also a good deal of them that looked the same. Turner and Thomas had stopped at a sporting goods store not long after departing the Castle to acquire a proper gun bag for Turner’s rifle, this bag was slung over his shoulder with care. This was to prevent the denizens of this particular neighborhood from overreacting, unsurprisingly this particular city wasn’t as supportive of spellguns as Evergreen County. This had put Thomas and his neighbors at odds.

The Deputy typed a quick reply to Sam’s text, after which he tucked the phone back into his pocket. With nothing else to occupy his attention his eyes roved over the area, the city in general was something he just couldn’t wrap his head around. So much concrete and steel in one place, taking up so much space, even Cheyenne hadn’t been this big. What was more, so many people living so close to one another, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to stand living that close to others for an extended period of time. No space to spread out, no space to do anything with the fear of someone looking over his fence to see what he was doing.

“Am I a hick?” Turner asked, catching Thomas by surprise as they continued to walk towards a house on the end of the street. The other man paused for a moment to look back at the Deputy, his expression was uncertain.

“Honest answer? A little bit, yeah…” Thomas said with a slight nod. “I mean, it kinda depends on how you define hick.” Turner shrugged, he didn’t seem that upset by the revelation. “Why do you ask?”

“One of them NEB Agents said I was one, I never really gave much thought on it before that.” Turner said with a shrug as they came up to a gate, Thomas punched in a couple buttons on a keypad before it began to slide open. “How do you define hick?”

“Well, someone who didn’t finish high school… Doesn’t mesh with more cosmopolitan types well. Maybe someone who has trouble with certain concepts…” Thomas sounded like he was trying to be as gentle with his explanation as possible, though Turner still didn’t seem that upset by it. “You kinda fit all three…”

“Yeah, I suppose so…” Turner said with a shrug as the gate finished opening and the two of them began walking up a pave driveway which sat beside yet another manicured lawn. The house ahead of them was only one story tall, it had really large front windows and a lit up path of rocks to the front door. “Do you think Sam minds?” Thomas stopped around to see that Turner had stopped and was looking at the ground thoughtfully. “I mean, shit… She’s one of the most cosmopolitan types I know.”

“Turner, just because some NEB Agent-” Thomas began, out of nowhere Turner cut him off.

“Who the fuck am I kiddin’, man…” The Deputy said with a sigh. “I don’t know why the hell this is just hitting me now, but damn. Do you really think it’s real between us, or is it just ‘cause she’s outta options?” Thomas was honestly a little speechless there, considering how well he knew Sam he knew that her feelings for the Deputy were quite real. At the same time, Turner had a point. On earth, it was likely Sam would’ve never in a million years even considered a guy like him.

“Let’s head inside, out here’s not the best place to talk.” Thomas said, Turner sighed but nodded and the two of them finished walking up the path to the front door. Thomas unlocked it and let both of them inside before he closed the door behind them, the inside of the house was just as high end as the outside had been. There were fancy couches, a fancy fireplace, fancy everything. Turner, out of habit, leaned his rifle near the door before removing his hat and setting it on a table nearby. “Now, look… Sam is many things, but a liar isn’t one of them. If she says it’s real, it’s real.”

Thomas walked towards a couch and sat down while Turner took off his jacket and tossed it over one of the seats. The Deputy walked to a free couch and sat down, they were set up in a reversed ‘C’ pattern, facing out the window while there was a flat screen TV sitting on a table on display. Turner gathered this was one of the things that Sam had had with her when she was brought to Equestria, as it bore the logo of an Earth company.

“If it wasn’t real she wouldn’t be moving to Silver Lake with you.” Thomas added, Turner looked at the floor for a couple seconds while he thought about what Thomas had said so far. Outside it was starting to get darker as the sun started to go down. “Now, I admit we ain’t known each other all that long, but I hope you trust me enough to believe that.”

“I reckon you have a point there, Tom.” Turner replied while rubbing the back of his neck. “Shit, didn’t think that was gonna bother me as much as it did. Sorry I got all weird on you there.” Thomas shrugged, though he could still see some uncertainty on Turner’s face, he figured that given enough time that uncertainty would fade. Like all things, time would eventually prove one way or another how things were meant to be.

“Hey, you wanna watch a movie or something until Gwen gets back? Sam has bunch of them.” Thomas asked, Turner’s expression shifted to one of interest at the prospect. Thomas could see the Deputy’s attention shift from the worry that had been present minutes earlier to something a bit more positive and calm.

“I doubt it’s there, but do you think she’d have a copy ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’?” Turner asked with a raised eyebrow, Thomas paused for a second before he stood up and walked to the table that the TV was resting on. It had a large drawer beneath it which he pulled out and began to look through them. After a couple seconds the man held up a case depicting the film in question, judging by the cellophane wrap it hadn’t ever been opened or watched. What followed was a couple hours of watching the movie in question, Gwen came home around eight thirty and Turner was asleep in by ten. Sam had texted that he could sleep in her room while he was there, it was better than sleeping on the couch…