Silver Lake

The sound of insects buzzing in the breeze was common across Evergreen County, that included the plains overlooked by Briar Peak to the north of Silver Lake. The midday sun loomed overhead, bathing the ground in the usual post-summertime heat. Late August made for some of the highest temperatures of the year, as if the season was giving it’s final hurrah before being swept aside by Autumn. Wildfires were common around this time of year, and that made keeping a patrol within close distance to the plains vital.

Turner was sitting in his truck with the A/C on, having stopped for lunch after a couple hours of driving around making sure that any campers were adhering to the strict fire ban. So far he’d had to write three or four tickets, which was quite an accomplishment for him since he was finally somewhat fluent in Equestrian text. It had been a month since Sam’s visit, things between them were good, Turner sent a letter every week or so. It was more writing practice, and he also found it to be quite therapeutic to have someone to correspond with.

For the moment, however, Turner was more focused on the chicken sandwich that was waiting for him in his brown paper lunch bag. There had been a large influx of tourists in the last month, news of another Human had driven them all to see the sleepy little backwater. Truth be told, Long Wire likely would have had Turner closer to home to deal with the increase in crime, but a wildfire wiping out farms and homesteads seemed to be unquestionably worse than a purse snatcher. There had been a couple times where the Sheriff had contemplated calling in the ‘Terries’, the local nickname for the Territorial Garrison. Nearest comparison Turner could make to them was basically Military Police. From what he’d heard they were usually run by some nepotism hire from Canterlot, liked to arrogantly parade around in their shiny armor, and almost always trampled on local jurisdiction.

If the Sheriff was even considering bringing them into his County then the situation had to be pretty dire, far more dire than he let on. Turner took a bite of his sandwich and sighed as he looked out over the brown parched plants that lay begging for water in the sun, the last thing Silver Lake needed were a bunch of overpaid pencil pushers telling the Sheriff how to do his job. The man ruminated on the possibility of maybe proposing the deputizaton some of the Changelings from the compound, Mourning Cloak trained his people well, and they had the numbers and equipment to be of help… Before Turner could think any further on that he was interrupted by the crackle of his radio.

”Turner, it’s Static. You still out by Briar Peak?” A gruff voice called over the radio, the deputy put his sandwich down and picked up the radio to reply.

“Yup, still here. What’s up?” Turner replied, his eyes scanning over the treeline.

”We got a mare who says she found a body up by you a couple minutes ago.” Static replied quietly, Turner paused for a moment as he listened to what had just been said.

“Did you say a body? And did you say a couple minutes ago? It takes me half an hour at full speed to get back to town, how’d she find it minutes ago?” Turner looked dejectedly at his sandwich, which likely would be forgotten if it turned out that this wasn’t some sort of hoax.

”Some new invention thing, magic communicator… I think it’s called a ‘Cellular Phone’.” Static replied, Turner let out a deep sigh. Seemed Sam had been a little off with her prediction of when cell phones would start hitting the market, but whatever, if it cut down on response time he was all for it. ”Anyway, she said she’s about two past the the Black Briar trailhead. Want me to get Doc Meadowbrook out there?”

“Nah, not yet. I’ll check it out first, but I think it’d be wise to keep the Sheriff appraised regardless.” Turner said as he tossed his sandwich back into the brown paper bag and set it aside, afterwards he flicked on the lights and siren. “Anyway, Unit Two responding.”

”A’Firm.” Static replied before the radio cut out, Turner hit the gas and tore off down the road. It was going to take around ten minutes to get where to the described location, the ride was a bumpy one. Thankfully there was little in the way of obstructions, but the thought of finding another body was not a fun one, so a quick response was a bit of a double edged sword from where he stood. The dust kicked up behind the truck and the wail of the sirens was a sure sign that anyone on the road had best get out of the way.

He blew past the Black Briar trailhead and continued on, passing by a few rather surprised hikers that were still near the start of the trail. As he neared the location reported by the mare he cut the siren and slowed down, though the lights continued flashing away. A tan pegasus mare with a black mane was standing on the side of the road, waving him over towards the side of the road. The Deputy quietly opened the driver’s side door, grabbing his radio as his boot set down in the dry dirt of the road. With a sigh the man walked towards the mare, closing the door behind him. Overhead he saw a couple carrion birds, vultures from the looks of them. They were circling the area off the side of the road, as if signalling the location even further.

“You call in a body, ma’am?” Turner asked calmly, the mare looked at him with surprise for a couple seconds. The glint of the light reflecting off his badge brought her attention back to the situation at hand. From what Turner could see, the mare was beyond freaked out.

“It… It uh… I’ve never seen so much blood…” The mare replied, she honestly looked like she’d thrown up recently. “I didn’t realize what I was looking at at first, and then… Wham… Y’know? W-What could do something like that?”

“Ma’am, I understand you’re upset, I need you to calm down for me, okay?” Turner said as he approached her, bending down a little to get closer to her level. The mare simply nodded and wiped her eyes, briefly glancing towards the side of the road before looking back at Turner. “Can you tell me your name first, ma’am?”

“Yearling… I just go by Yearling.” She replied, taking a couple deep breaths.

“Alright, Miss Yearling? Are you injured?” Turner asked, the mare shook her head. “Did you touch the body in anyway? Touch anything in the surrounding area?”

“N-No… Yes… Sort of.” Yearling replied, once again glancing towards the side of the road. “I travel, a lot… I’m an archeologist, I heard about the Double Ott Treasure recently and thought ‘That’d be a good challenge to find!’.” The mare rambled for a couple moments but stopped. “I.. I was following an account I read in his journal, stopped every now and then to take some keepsakes… Then I saw the blood, and… And… Everything else.” Turner quietly placed a hand on the mare’s shoulder and started leading her away from the side of the road. “I’ve been all over the world, been attacked by all sorts of animals… I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“Okay, I need you to wait here by the truck for me, okay?” Turner said, Yearling nodded and sat beside the vehicle. Turner reached to his gun belt and drew his side arm, for all he knew this had been a bear attack, and he didn’t want to take any chances. As the Deputy approached the side of the road he could hear the buzz of insects was far louder here than it normally was. When he reached the side of the road he looked down the embankment, which went down around twenty feet near a dried up creek bed. As he looked out over the scene Turner’s jaw quietly dropped open.

“Holy shit…” Turner said under his breath as he started down the embankment, when he reached the bottom he walked along the creek bed. He had to step carefully to avoid bits of the dry soil that had been soaked red in blood. A body was certainly there, though not in one piece. All the limbs had been removed from the torso and tossed randomly, while the head of the pony was off in it’s own little spot. Turner cautiously knelt down and examined one of the severed limbs, he could see down to the bone. “Please don’t let there be…” Turner trailed off as he looked a little closer. “Kerf marks…” Clear as crystal, marked in the bone were the telltale signs of what looked like the teeth of a saw.

Turner stood up straight and quietly coughed as the smell started to overwhelm him, the scent of a corpse that had been left out in the sun for perhaps a day. The body was too deformed for Turner to tell if it was a mare or a stallion without a closer look, and the fur was caked in mud. The butt mark had been removed as well… Perhaps the worst part was the amount of blood surrounding the body, that amount of blood told him that whomever had done this killed the pony there in that spot. The man quietly brought his radio to his lips, his throat felt dry as he continued to survey the scene.

“Static…” Turner said with a slight tremble.

”Go ahead, Turner.” The gruff voice replied.

“Gonna need the Sheriff, Static. Send Doc Meadowbrook out here too.” Turner stepped back from the body and started making his way towards the truck. He couldn’t afford to lose his nerve now, it was one thing to do it when you were with other officers, but there was a witness here that needed to see that he had the situation well in hand or else she would likely freak out even more. “Judgin’ by the state of the body, I’d say we’ve got an equicide on our hands…”

”Equici… Shit. I’ll get ‘em out to you right away, Turner. Sit tight.”

“Roger that, and Static…” Turner said softly, slowly he began his trek back up the road to his truck. He needed to cordon off the area, make sure no one else came in and messed with the scene… Or saw the body. “It’s bad, make sure they step on it.”

Turner was leaning against his truck while Miss Yearling sat inside, she wasn’t in any condition to walk or fly back to Silver Lake on her own and Turner couldn’t leave the scene. It had been only an hour since Turner had called in the body as a murder, the Deputy was glad to see a covered wagon rolling down the road with Sheriff’s Markings on it. Riding along in the driver’s seat was the Sheriff while in the passenger seat Static was sitting with his horn glowing. It seemed the unicorn was using his magic to propel the carriage faster than a pony normally could. It skidded to a stop beside the truck, prompting Turner to step aside.

Long Wire hopped out of the driver’s seat while Turner saw Doc Meadowbrook hop out of the back of the covered wagon. Response times had always been a sore spot with the Sheriff, but Turner was the only one able to use the controls of the Truck. Still, his response was good comparatively, the Sheriff walked towards Turner while Static reclined in his seat. He wasn’t here to see the body, and he had no intentions of doing so on accident.

“What’ve we got, Turner?” Long Wire asked as he and Turner walked towards the edge of the road, they stopped at the top of the embankment as the Deputy quietly pointed out at the corpse. “What makes you think it’s murder?”

“I inspected the body, no claw marks or sign of a bear attack, looks like the limbs were cut with a saw.” Turner replied, Long Wire let out a tired sigh. “From the amount of blood, I’d say the victim was killed here… And considerin’ the spray. They were likely still alive when the killer started cutting.”

“There ain’t been a murder in Evergreen County since before I was in office…” Long Wire said with a grunt as he started down the embankment, Turner followed with him. “Doc! Gonna need you down here!” Turner stopped briefly to see that Doc Meadowbrook was indeed following them, she paused at the top of the embankment and her features went pale. After a couple seconds she started down the embankment with the rest of the law enforcement officers. “What did the witness have to say?”

“She’s some sort of treasure hunter or somethin’, was out looking for Double Ott’s Treasure and taking keepsakes…” Turner replied, Long Wire paused for a moment as he reached the bottom of the embankment and waited for Turner and Meadowbrook to join him.

“Double Ott’s Treasure? Most hunters say it’s buried near Blue Mountain, that’s about fifty miles from here. So what’s she doing here?” Long Wire said as the three of them began walking along the dry river bed, wrapped around a couple trees was yellow tape that read ‘Crime Scene - Do Not Cross’ which cordoned off the area. “Think she might have something to do with this?”

“Honestly, Sheriff, she was pretty messed up when I got here.” Turner replied as the three of them ducked under the crime scene tape and came upon the body in all its gore. “If she ain’t telling us somethin’ she’s a real good actor.” Meadowbrook cautiously approached one of the legs that was laying in the dry river sand, the mare knelt down and examined it.

“Discoloration of the flesh puts time of death at at least twenty four hours ago… I’ll need to run more tests to get a definitive number, but it’s at least a day ago, at most a day and a half.” Meadowbrook stated. The mare reached into a bag around her waist and withdrew a pair of rubber hoof gloves, which were exactly what they sounded like, gloves for a pony’s hoof. “And Turner’s right, judging by the blood and the spray, they were killed here and… dismembered while they were still alive. Looks like scavengers removed the cutiemark post mortem, it might still be in one of their stomachs.”

“Really?” Long Wire asked, Meadowbrook nodded as she moved on to examine the torso.

“Yeah, Cutiemarks are magical, so they and the skin they’re on can survive more than normal flesh can… Don’t ask how I figured that one out.” Meadowbrook said, it was clear that she was not enjoying her current task, but no one did for that matter. “Might help with an ID though.”

“Alright… Turner, get your rifle and take down those Vultures.” Long Wire said with a grunt while pointing at the birds over head, he sighed as he looked up towards Briar Peak. “And tell Static to call the Territorial Garrison, looks like we’re gonna need their help on this. Can’t keep the peace and investigate a murder with just three officers. Speaking of which, make sure Buckeye knows to stay at the station until the Terries show up.”

“Yes, sir.” Turner said, he paused for a second. “Sheriff?” Long Wire looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Why not deputize some of Mourning Cloak’s guys? They’ve helped us out in the past.”

“Normally I would, but these are tourists we’re dealing with, they’re more likely to panic if they see a Changeling Holdout than they are if they see a Royal Guard. The last thing we need in a murder investigation is a public panic.” Long Wire replied with a sigh, the stallion looked at the ground. “Now get on taking out those birds.” Turner nodded and started walking up the embankment, after a couple minutes he reached the top and walked towards the truck.

“Static!” Turner called out, the stallion who was reading a newspaper in the passenger seat of the covered wagon looked up. “Sheriff wants you to call in the Terries, and to remind Buckeye she needs to stay at the station until they get here.” Static looked a little annoyed at the prospect of bringing in outsiders, but regardless nodded and hopped down from his seat. He moved around to the back of the Wagon where he could summon his radio equipment, meanwhile Turner opened the driver’s side door of his truck and reached inside to grab his spellrifle from the gun rack. “Miss Yearling, you’re gonna hear some spell shots in a moment. You aren’t in any danger.” He said quietly as he looked at the mare who was staring out the window, she didn’t respond.

Turner closed the door and walked around to the front of the truck, he rested the barrel of the spellrifle on his forearm, which in turn was resting on the hood of the truck. As he sat there he couldn’t get the thought of the body out of his mind, the blood everywhere, the sheer brutality needed to do something like that. His sight landed on one of the vultures, he exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The loud pop of a spell being cast out the barrel of the spellgun echoed through the area as a bolt of blue light lanced through the sky and struck the vulture. It squawked loudly before spiralling out of the sky and landing down in the embankment out of sight.

The Vultures stayed in their circular flight path over the body, even the threat of death wasn’t motivation to dissuade them from their meal. Turner racked the lever, which recharged the rifle with enough energy to fire another spell, weak as it was. Over the course of the next five minutes he dropped the remaining vultures from the sky, watching as each one spiralled down out of the sky and down into the dry creek bed. Turner brought his radio up to his lips as he stood up straight and rested the rifle on the hood of the truck.

“That’s all of ‘em, Sheriff.” Turner said as he grabbed the rifle by the foregrip with his free hand and approached the edge of the embankment, he looked down at the dry creek bed and saw that the Sheriff was examining the corpse while Meadowbrook was tending to the task of recovering the butt mark from the now dead Vultures.

“Deputy.” Static said from behind as he walked towards Turner. “I called the Terries like you asked, they’ll be rolling into Silver Lake in about an hour…” The stallion stopped and briefly looked down from the embankment. “Sonovabitch… Just what I didn’t want to see.” The older stallion scowled and looked away, his eyes settling on the rifle in Turner’s hand. Trying to purge his thoughts of the dead body down the embankment, Static decided it best to change the topic of discussion to literally anything else. “Anyway, Buckeye said she’ll be waiting there for ‘em.”

“I take it she weren’t too happy about that?” Turner asked, Static nodded and started walking back towards the Wagon. Turner meanwhile was having trouble keeping his eyes off the body below, specifically the area around the body.

“Turner, get back down here!” Sheriff Long Wire shouted up from the creek bed, Turner started down the embankment once more, this time making it down a bit more quickly than before. He walked towards the body once again, the smell filling his nostrils as he got closer and closer. “Looks like there’s some tracks around the body, they ain’t mine or Meadowbrooks, they ain’t scavengers, and they ain’t yours.” The stallion removed his stetson and wiped his brow. “Think you could track them?”

“Sure can try.” Turner replied, walking with Long Wire towards the tracks in question. Turner knelt down and examined the dry sand, looking over the pattern of the hoofprint. “Well, you’re right, this wasn’t you or Meadowbrook… Or Miss Yearling, the witness. Print’s too big for any of you.” He looked off up the dry creek bed. “Looks like they head up that way.”

“Get on it then.” Long Wire stated, Turner nodded and stood up fully. “And Turner, load more than one rack in that rifle of yours.”

“Sir?” Turner replied, prompting Long Wire to take his rifle and rack the lever more than once.

“It’s a multi-charge rifle, haven’t seen one in a while so I wasn’t sure at first when you brought it in from Haste’s farm.” Long Wire finished racking the lever ten times, which took him about eight seconds to do. “Got phased out since it was quicker to reload with spellrounds, but out here it could be your best friend. Max you can charge this thing is ten times, one time makes it basically a pellet gun, and ten… Well.. Ten’ll practically stop a brown bear in it’s tracks.” Long Wire handed the rifle back to Turner, who gripped it carefully. “Whoever did this may still be out there.”

“I’d feel better about this if I wasn’t going out there alone.” Turner replied as he looked over the rifle, Long Wire nodded.

“Yeah, so would I, but we don’t have a choice until the Terries show up. The longer we wait the colder that trail gets.” The Sheriff said with a sigh, Turner started walking along where he saw the tracks. “And Deputy Turner?” The man stopped and looked at Long Wire. “I may not be able to call Mourning in to help in town, but I’ll see what I can do about getting him up here to help you out.”

“I’d appreciate that, Sheriff. I may be good, but he’s better.” Turner said with a nod, with that he was off once again following the tracks in the sand. As he walked he was sure to vary his attention, focusing to much on one sense would leave him deficient in others. The sounds, the smells, the sights. As the tracks left the sand they started up a small hill populated by saplings and older trees, Turner stopped for a moment, looking over the area for the subtle signs that someone had been there.

The birds chirping in the distance drew his attention momentarily, as he refocused he noticed something about the saplings. With his usual caution Turner walked towards what he saw, specifically several branches that had been broken on the end. Saplings were by nature pretty malleable, more likely to bend than break unless something hit them with sufficient speed or force. That, coupled with the tracks, sent Turner up the hill. Other things he noticed as he moved along were the occasional scuffs in the tree bark, as if someone had smacked into it at a decent clip of speed. So they were big, fast, strong, and somehow skillful enough to dismember a body, but clumsy enough to smack into trees…

“Unless it was dark…” Turner said under his breath as he looked around him. “Otherwise they’d have gone around, or knocked it over fully.” The man quietly put his hand on the tree, feeling the bark as he panned his view over the area. A speck of green caught his attention, it was a little too green. The Deputy approached a larger tree, snagged on a branch was a piece of forest green fabric with a slight pattern to it, like it had come from a camouflage shirt that was more style than actual camouflage. Not something a hunter would’ve worn.

This went on for an hour or so, each step was taken to be as quiet as a fox, each movement as fluid as possible. The creekbed gradually became less visible through the trees, Turner was heading a bit further up the mountain. Every now and then he’d find a scrap of cloth, a scuffed tree, snapped twigs, or brush that had been pushed aside. These were all rookie mistakes, or those made by someone who didn’t care if they were tracked. The Deputy paused once in a while to reorientate himself, from what he could recall about the area he was coming up on a service road.

As he worked his way further up the ridge the trees thinned out, until finally the service road became apparent. It was overgrown for the most part, the grass had started to reclaim it and there were flowers blooming there as well. Turner could see where the tracks lead through the grass, until they stopped abruptly at another familiar set of tracks. A carriage had been pulled through recently, its wheels had cut through the grass and foliage like knives. As Turner stood there and looked around, he found himself thinking about something… Something very odd.

“Blood was everywhere at the crime scene, the killer would’ve been covered in it, so why wasn’t there any residue along the trail?” Turner asked himself, he squatted down near the carriage tracks. “Unless the killer was a unicorn, they could’ve done it from a distance.” The man looked near one of the tracks in the sand and hummed, then reached down and lifted a tiny ball of white and tan paper which had been crumpled up. There was a dozen or so of them. “Cigarettes… Field stripped, and a lot of them.” Turner noted the side of the tracks they were on, indicating they were likely from the driver, which helped him determine which direction they had come from to begin with.

Turner froze for a second as something else stuck out to him, slowly and fluidly he straightened up in his squat and cupped his hands over his ears, his elbows out to the side. He looked like a nut for all intents and purposes, but in actuality he was helping to funnel sound to his ears. After a couple seconds of listening Turner slowly lowered his hands, grabbed his rifle from the ground, and stood to his full height. After a couple moments he turned towards the other side of the road and raised his weapon, taking aim at a bush.

“You got ‘til three to come out of there!” Turner shouted, a soft chuckle emanated from the bush before it burst into a ball of green flame and a Changeling took it’s place. The man let out a gasp of shock and quickly pointed the gun away. “Mourning Cloak! Son of a bitch, I almost killed you!”

“With that thing? I saw you shooting it earlier, you could barely knock over a tin can.” Mourning replied, Turner quietly pointed the weapon at the ground, away from something he didn’t intend to destroy.

“I just was informed it’s a multi-charger.” Turner said flatly, which caused Mourning’s grin to slowly diminish. “Yeah, and it’s set to full, which apparently can kill a bear. Anyway… Flash.”

“Thunder.” Mourning replied quickly, the two of them had long ago established a series of signs and countersigns, as Turner had pointed out the possibility of a changeling masquerading as another changeling could very well be possible. “So, the Sheriff called, told me you were out here… What’ve you learned so far?”

“Killer’s big, like an Earth Pony, but they either have really long legs or they’re a unicorn as well.” Turner said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “They had an accomplice waiting here, which tells me that this wasn’t a random killing… The came from the North, judging by the cigarette butts.” The man looked around quietly. “One of them’s local, the other isn’t.”

“How can you tell?” Mourning asked, more like a teacher asking a student. Turner put a hand on his hip and gestured to the area around them.

“Only a Local would know this service road is even here, look how overgrown it is… But the killer wore that cheap ‘Fashionable Camouflage’, y’know?” Turner said, sweat was starting to form on his brow in the Summer heat, prompting him to start undoing the top buttons of his shirt. “I think they also might’ve struck at night, used some kind of Night Vision spell, kind that gives ya poor sense of depth perception. Good portion of the trees on the way up here looked like a big motherfucker ran into them.”

“Okay… On your unicorn theory. What if the killers changed their clothes and carried them with them?” Mourning replied, Turner looked at him for a couple moments before nodding. “I agree, it’s likely at least one of the ponies here was Local. Now, tell me something… What does the kill say to you? Dismemberment is very particular.”

“It wasn’t to hide the identity, the butt mark and head were still at the scene…” Turner mused while listening to the birds chirping in the forest around him. “It happened while the victim was still alive, if that ain’t overkill I don’t know what is…” Turner stopped and looked at Mourning Cloak. “This was personal. Whoever did this spent time thinking about it, they came prepared… Tells me that at least one of the killer’s and the victim knew each other.” He paused for a moment. “You have any sandwich bags on you by chance?”

“I figured you would need some…” Mourning replied, he lifted one of his wings and levitated out a couple plastic bags, which Turner used to secure the cigarette remains, as well as the other bits of evidence he’d recovered. “And I think it was a single killer.” Mourning said simply. Turner looked at him with a raised eyebrow, prompting Mourning to walk over to the spot with the cigarette remains, he gestured to some which were flatter than the others. A hoofprint was there that Turner hadn’t seen before, much smaller than the others. “Two sets of tracks moved away from the carriage, only one came back.” The changeling gestured to some lighter tracks that went a little further down the road. “One murderer is tough to believe as is, but two? One is more likely… Though what it was they were doing out here is still a mystery to me.”

“All I can say with any certainty is that whoever did this, if they aren’t local, probably hopped the first train south this morning.” Turner said with a bit of a grunt. “Unless they’re very stupid.”

“Or very smart.” Mourning added. “As any changeling will tell you, sometimes the best place for someone to hide is in plain sight.” Turner sighed and once again looked around the area, following the tracks the carriage had made. “Where now, Deputy? What do the tracks tell you?”

The man took a couple seconds to look at the wheelbase of the carriage, the width between the tracks told him it was narrow. The wheels were also narrow, more akin to a set used by a carriage that rarely left the road. After which he tucked the plastic bag containing the evidence into his pocket.

“Getting out here would’ve been a rough ride for them, this road is pretty much overgrown.” Turner started to quietly walk North, following the tracks left by the carriage as it had made its way up the road. Mourning walked behind him, silently observing the human as he tracked the carriage back. The heat was becoming rough on both of them, but at this point Turner was committed to his task. He removed his uniform shirt and was down to a white tank top, the shirt was tied around his waist while he merely pinned his badge to the tank top.

As the two of them followed the tracks Turner became acutely aware of his surroundings, the trees, the animals, the wind… All of it seemed to coalesce in his senses, and it was because of that he noticed something that didn’t quite belong alongside the road. The man stopped and knelt once more, observing a patch of the dry grass which appeared burned. It had burned itself out thankfully, but that wasn’t what was important. Turner reached down and picked up a matchbook which had been fully used.

“Ever heard of someplace called The Smoked Oat?” Turner asked, looking over his shoulder and showing the matchbook to Mourning, the Changeling hummed to himself and levitated the bit of cardboard closer.

“It is a restaurant in Canterlot.” The Changeling replied as he handed the matchbook back to Turner. “I recall it rather well, it’s on restaurant row. During our failed invasion I happened to be one of the wing commanders in that area.”

“Right… You’re gonna have to run me through the invasion thing again one of these days.” Turner stated while gesturing for another bag, Mourning levitated out another bag from under his wing which the deputy used to secure the matchbook. “By the way, storing evidence bags under your wings? Maybe don’t do that anymore? Why aren’t you wearing your usual gear?”

“There’s Terries on the way.” Mourning replied, glancing around them. “How do you think they’d react to a Changeling Holdout in full combat gear?” Turner paused, then nodded in understanding. “Besides, that was the last bag I was able to bring, so you don’t have to worry about anything.” Turner tucked the bag into his pocket again and looked at the sun above, then walked off the road to take a seat in the shade. He reached to his belt and removed his radio.

“Sheriff, it’s Turner.” He said into the radio, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. “Out here on the old North Peak Service Road, got some evidence up here. If you could have Buckeye come pick it up I can keep tracking, and maybe bring some water and some more evidence bags just in case.”

”Deputy Turner, this is Lieutenant Agendum of the Territorial Garrison.” A rather obnoxious sounding voice replied over the radio, Turner immediately groaned to himself as he listened further. ”The Sheriff is currently filling out the necessary documentation to receive the documentation to be filled out so that we can begin our operations. Please do not interrupt.”

“Paperwork to fill out more paperwork?” Turner said to Mourning in disbelief, the Changeling rolled his eyes and took a seat under the shade as well. He put the radio to his lips again. “Fine… Buckeye, it’s Turner, could you do what I just asked the sheriff to ask you to do?”

”I’m afraid she’s also filling out paperwork, so again, don’t interrupt.” The voice replied over the radio, Turner growled under his breath.

“Fuck this.” He stood up and started walking back towards the trail he had followed from the crime scene. “Come on, Mourning. By the time these pricks are finished with their damn paperwork we’ll be dead from dehydration.” The Changeling nodded and hopped up onto his hooves, following Turner as once again the two of them started back through the forest.

Turner had dropped off Mourning Cloak on the edge of town, as him and the Territorial Garrison weren’t on the best terms. The walk through the forest had yielded more support for the changeling’s theory on the killer knowing the victim, but there was no further evidence other than some more broken twigs. They’d reached the truck without incident, having decided to navigate around the crime scene and by extension the Terries that had been sent to examine it for themselves. Turner was just glad to be back in his truck, in the sweet embrace of the A/C, with access to the water jugs he kept in the back of his pickup truck.

Turner had decided to leave his beige shirt off for the moment, opting to just wear the tank top with his badge on his leather lanyard. As the truck was driving through town Turner became acutely aware of the amount of traffic that had formed, normally not a problem, but he was enroute to deliver evidence that could prove crucial in solving a murder case… So there was that. Increased tourism meant increased traffic, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The Terries had their own flying chariots, they were supposed to be parked near the Sheriff’s office or literally anywhere that wasn’t the main street.

The Deputy groaned as he came to a stop behind several Terrie chariots that had all decided to stop in the middle of the road, Turner hadn’t been having that good of a day. He’d seen someone dismembered, hiked up a mountain tacking the killer, then hiked all the way back down. It was safe to say his patience was running short, he was about to get out and give those Terries a piece of his mind. Just as he was reaching for the door he caught sight of something hanging from his rearview mirror, his rosary. The man took a deep breath and leaned his head back, exhaling through his nose.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change; the courage to change those I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…” He said under his breath before he looked ahead at the carriages that were still blocking his path. It wasn’t like getting up set would change that he needed to get around them, but he could change how he went around clearing the way. Turner opted to look at a the switches for the light bars and sirens, he flicked on the lights first before chirping the siren a couple times. The Terries took notice and looked over their shoulders at the truck, at which point Turner gestured for them to move their vehicles.

Hesitantly they pushed the carriages out of the way, allowing Turner to drive past without further incident. The rest of the drive went pretty well, he didn’t encounter any more illegally parked chariots at the very least. At least, not until he got to the Sheriff’s Office. There was a Terrie chariot parked in Turner’s spot, which was irksome, but not worth getting upset over. He simply parked next to it and got out, he grabbed the evidence bags off the seat beside him before walking up the steps to the door. As he pushed the door open he could hear at least a dozen voices chattering inside, within he saw many ponies wearing either Territorial Garrison badges on lanyards or straight up golden armor.

“Sheriff!?” Turner shouted over the noise, he couldn’t see the Sheriff among the crowd. Once again the Terries seemed too busy to notice. Seeing as shouting was getting him nowhere, Turner instead put his fingers up to his lips before he whistled loudly. After a couple seconds the stallion’s stopped chatting and looked at Turner. “Where’s the Sheriff?”

“Turner! Back here!” Long Wire shouted from somewhere in the back, the man walked through the crowd that rapidly was getting back to their chattering among one another. The Sheriff and Buckeye were both crammed behind Turner’s desk, each looked rather annoyed at the situation. “Tell me you have something.” The Deputy tossed the evidence bags down on the desk, some containing the fabric scraps, some the cigarettes, and one containing the matchbook from ‘The Smoked Oat’.

The Deputy also passed on his theories about what he’d seen so far, one of the ponies that had gone out there was a local, one wasn’t. From the matchbook they could’ve been from Canterlot, from the amount of disturbed foliage it could be assumed that they had been using some sort of night vision spell with poor depth perception. He added the other parts of his theory, and the things that Mourning Cloak had picked up on, all the while Long Wire nodded quietly and examined the evidence bags for himself. When Turner had finished the Sheriff let out a sigh and looked around at the Terries.

“Well, we have a name for our victim. Turns out it was a mare, Doc Meadowbrook also found remnants of her horn, so you were right about a unicorn being involved.” Long Wire said as he eyed the matchbook. “Victim’s name was Emerald Aura, we found what was left of her ID in one of the vultures you took down… As well as the cutie mark. She’s local, for all intents and purposes. Was a doctorate candidate that was working on research over the Ley Lines. Time of death was midnight last night.”

“So that means our killer is probably an Earth Pony… A big one.” Buckeye said with a bit of certainty. “If they were a pegasus they would’ve flown back to their carriage, there was a full moon last night, visibility couldn’t have been clearer.”

“I appreciate the work, Turner.” Long Wire said with a nod as he picked up the evidence and gathered it in a small pile. “I interviewed Miss Yearling, turns out she wasn’t involved… Just happens to be some sort of famous author that wanted some privacy. So our suspect pool is pretty much empty.”

“Good thing we’re here then.” A familiar, but equally irritating, voice spoke up from the right. The three Sheriff’s officers turned to see a white pegasus with a short blue mane, he was wearing guard armor but no helmet.

“Deputy Turner, this is Lieutenant Agendum… Lieutenant Agendum, Deputy Turner.” Long Wire said, introducing the two as peaceably as possible. The stallion offered his hoof, which Turner shook despite his earlier irritance. “As I recall, Lieutenant, the Territorial Garrison is only here to aid us in day to day operations. Murder cases are outside your jurisdiction unless we invite you in.”

“That’s true…” The stallion said with a nod, he looked at Turner and sighed. “I apologize for my bluntness earlier on the radio, I sometimes forget that there’s more to police work than filling out paperwork.” Turner gave a slight shrug. “I understand you were able to track the killer through the woods, may I ask where you learned to do that?”

“A friend taught me, though he asked to remain nameless.” Turner replied, again the stallion nodded.

“Turner, first and foremost… Go home. Take a shower.” The Sheriff said, steering the conversation back towards the issue at hand. “No offense, but, well you stink.” Turner paused for a moment, he guessed he hadn’t noticed. “Second thing, you got a package while you were out.”

“I did?” Turner asked, Long Wire nodded and opened the top desk drawer. Inside he withdrew a small box with a postmark from Canterlot. The man picked it up and looked it over before pulling off the tape and opening it. Within was what looked like a smart phone from Earth, with the distinct difference that it had a glowing gemstone in the back where a camera would’ve been. “Huh… Is this one of them new cell phones Static mentioned today?”

“Yeah, though I heard they still weren’t out in stores yet…” Agendum spoke up, looking at it with surprise. “Only ponies who work at the company or know someone there have them so far…” Turner looked at the stallion with a raised eyebrow. “The ads aren’t here yet, but trust me, in a month everypony and their mother is gonna want one of these things.”

“Regardless, Turner, go get cleaned up. When you get back I want you to bring the Lieutenant up to speed on your usual patrol duties…” Long Wire cut in again, the Deputy nodded and slipped the phone into his pocket.

“Sure thing, Sheriff.” Turner said before he started walking out of the building, what followed was another quick drive to his apartment. It seemed Sam had sent him something in the mail, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. Maybe she didn’t much care for writing letters like Turner did, which would explain why she just sent him a phone. He couldn’t help think what that must’ve cost her, unless of course it was free, he wasn’t to clear on whether or not she owned a tech company or what.

As he pulled in to the parking lot the man cleared his mind, only when he parked did he consider taking the phone from his pocket. He cut the engine and hopped out of the truck, grabbing the remnants of his lunch before taking the phone from his pocket and pushing the button on the side. When it turned on he swiped up on the screen, it seemed it worked just like a normal phone. As he walked he quietly selected the phone icon, it seemed there was already a number programmed in that simply read ‘Sam’ with a little smiley face next to it. Turner picked that one and put the phone to his ear as it started to ring.

Canterlot, a bustling center for commerce and culture. The city stretched out in all directions around the downtown area, at least as far as it could considering it was on the side of the mountain. Reaching up out of downtown were more than a few highrises, though they couldn’t hope to rival those that came from the royal castle. Off to the east of said castle were larger houses and mansions, many of which had pools in the background. Home to many nobles and those who could afford to live there. The Neighborhood was pretty much made up entirely of pegasi and unicorns, with some Earth Ponies being present. However, one house happened to be home to three very different persons.

Sitting out back around the pool were two human women, Samantha and Gwen. Sam was relaxing in a reclining seat, wearing a bikini as she enjoyed the warmth of the sun while she read one of her romance novels. It was no coincidence that this one was set in Dodge Junction and involved a roguishly handsome Sheriff.

Gwen, a far more pale redhead, was seated beneath an umbrella further from the pool. Unlike Sam, she was looking over expense reports and proposals from her Ad Firm. The two hadn’t really discussed Sam’s visit to Silver Lake, only that it was confirmed that there was indeed another human out there and that he seemed pretty nice. Of course, Gwen had her doubts that was all that had happened… After all, Sam had been a lot less… Well.. Sam lately. More upbeat, more engaged.

Sam quietly turned the page on her novel, biting her lip slightly as her eyes danced down the page. Just as things were starting to really heat up she heard a noise of to her right, one that initially annoyed her. Her phone was vibrating on the glass table beside her chair, with a grunt she put down her book and picked it up. WIthout looking at the caller ID she answered it and put it to her ear.

“What?” The woman said rather sharply, prompting Gwen to look up from her report to see what was going on.

”Uh… Sam? Is this a bad time?” A familiar twangy voice replied from the other end, Gwen noticed her friend’s posture relax considerably and a bit smile crossed Sam’s face.

“No, no, this isn’t a bad time at all! I thought you were someone else is all…” Sam replied warmly, twirling a strand of her hair with one of her fingers. “How’s everything going down there?”

”Not so good, actually… Can’t go into details, but we caught a doozy of a case down here.” Turner replied, Sam paused to listen a bit closer. ”It, uh… It weren’t pretty. Was actually pretty messed up, if I’m bein’ honest. I’m pretty glad you sent this phone when you did, I needed to hear your voice.” Sam could hear him grunt in the background, as if he was walking up the steps to his apartment. The odd part was she hadn’t sent a phone, in all honesty she’d actually enjoyed corresponding via letter. Her eyes glanced over at Gwen, the ad exec was smiling knowingly.

“Well, I’m glad I could help.” Sam said as she sat up in her seat, she could imagine herself there in Turner’s apartment if she really concentrated. “You sure you can’t tell me what happened?”

”You honestly are better off not knowing.” Turner replied, Sam stood up and quietly walked over towards where Gwen was sitting, taking one of the seats beside her under the umbrella. ”Look, I ain’t got a lot of time, we got the Terries involved down here and there’s all sorts of stuff I need to bring them up to speed on. Just wanted to call and let you know I got the phone, and that I miss you.”

“Aw, well I miss you too. Go do what you need to do... And Paige? Please stay safe!” Sam said insistantly, she heard a slight chuckle on the other end of the line.

“I will… Bye!” Turner said, Sam replied with a quick ‘Bye!’ of her own before she heard him hang up. Sam put her phone down on the table and looked at Gwen with a bit of an unbelieving expression.

“Did you send him a phone with my number in it? Without telling me?” She asked, Gwen nodded slightly, her grin growing wider. “Why?”

“Because otherwise you would’ve agonized over whether or not it’d be overstepping for a week before ultimately just coming to me for advice and eventually sending the phone anyway.” Gwen replied, she had a slight Canterlotian accent from all her time spent talking with the ponies of the city. Her brilliant green eyes were hidden beneath a pair of darkly tinted glasses, though she pushed these down slightly to look over the top at Sam. “Come on, I make a living on reading people. You think I didn’t know there was more going on then you just being pen pals? You would check the mailbox thirty times a day when you were expecting a letter from him, a blind man could’ve seen it.”

“I didn’t realize it was that many times.” Sam replied, blushing faintly as she looked at the phone on the table. Gwen quietly removed her glasses and closed her open expense report before leaning forward, adjusting her bikini top slightly as she looked at Sam with a curious cheshire smile. “What?”

“Is he cute?” Gwen asked, Sam blushed a bit more and looked off to the side.

“Kinda? He’s a big guy, like six feet tall, really wide shoulders… Kinda reminded me of that guy from ‘The Punisher’, the Netflix one...” Sam replied, Gwen paused for a moment as she tried to remember the actor. “Jon something…”

“Bernthal?” Gwen replied, Sam nodded quickly. “So he looks kinda like Jon Bernthal? How so?”

“Similar build, more straight than curly hair, and his nose is a little smoother… And his eyes, they’re really blue, like I can’t even exaggerate how blue they are. It’s like looking into an ocean.” Sam said wistfully, leaning back in her seat as she looked thoughtfully off into space.

“I see.” Gwen said with that same knowing smile on her face, Sam hated when she smiled like that, because most of the time it meant that Gwen was predicting what was going to happen and likely going to try and influence the outcome as she saw fit. “So, I take it things with him are pretty serious?”

“Well, I don’t know...” Sam replied as she looked at the phone again. “He doesn’t strike me as the ‘Just a fling’ type of guy.” Gwen hummed once again, quietly she picked up Sam’s phone and looked it over. “Why do you care so much?” Gwen quietly thumbed through the features on the phone until she seemingly grew bored and put it back on the table.

“Hmmm, only four humans on the entire planet and two of them are in a relationship with one another? Can’t see why that would be worth looking into.” Gwen said flatly, Sam frowned and picked up her phone, being sure to keep it out of Gwen’s reach. “It’d help if you told us more than ‘He seems okay.’ when you came back.”

“You’re so interested, why don’t you go and talk to him yourself?” Sam retorted, Gwen gestured to her expense reports and projects that needed approval. “Oh, so my personal life is important, but only until it interferes with your job? Typical, you always do this.” The woman crossed her arms and looked at the ground with an annoyed expression. Gwen remained quiet for a moment, putting on her usual poker face as she looked between her expense reports and Sam. The silence between the two of them was growing uncomfortable, for Gwen her entire goal was selling things to people, and silence didn’t sell very well.

“I assume they have a post office in… Wherever he is, considering he got the phone.” Gwen said as she quietly closed the folder on the table. “Fine… I can finish these on the train I suppose. Go grab Thomas, we’re taking a household vacation.” Sam brightened at that, standing up from her seat, she stopped for a moment as she looked at Gwen, then her phone. Gwen was gathering up her files and had pushed her glasses back on her nose without so much as another word.

“Great, I’ll call him and let him know.” Sam replied, Gwen merely shrugged as she stood up and started walking towards the house with her files. Meanwhile Sam browsed through her phone until she found Turner’s number again and hit dial. She put it up against her ear and listened as it rang, after a couple rings it stopped and was replaced by Turner’s voice.

”You’ve reached Deputy Turner of the Evergreen County Sheriff’s Department. Leave a detailed message after the tone and I’ll return your call as soon as possible.” The answering machine said in a somewhat friendly but professional tone, at least he’d taken the time to set up his outgoing message. She waited patiently until she heard the beep.

“Hey, Paige! It’s me! Uh, quick heads up. Gwen decided she wants to come meet you, and she’s bringing me and Thomas too… I hope this isn’t too sudden! So… Uh… Yeah, call me back when you get this! Okay… Bye.” Sam’s message was a little unfocused but it got the point across well enough, she hung up and began walking towards the house as well. While she wasn’t consciously aware of it, she did have a slight spring in her step.