Stockholm Shimmer

"What do you think, chief?" Twilight asked.

"We're done." Chief Fate Blossom answered stiffly. "Trail's gone cold, we can't dive any further."

"But, we already found one of the bodies, we only need to follow the same steps again and..." Twilight tried to explain, but she was interrupted by her commanding officer, who simply raised a hand.

"No 'buts', detective, case is closed, that's an order." The chief had a stern look on her brow, and her gaze was frigid. She dismissed Twilight with a glance and sharply turned to the other officer in the room. "Officer Candlesticks, get these files to the archive, we're moving on from this."

"Yes ma'am." Candlesticks responded diligently and quickly began rounding up the paperwork on the desk. The chief made her way to the door, but as she turned the knob she glanced at Twilight one last time.

"I'm sorry." She whispered with a sad tone. "But even you can't save everyone, Miss Sparkle."

Twilight could feel the frustration build up inside her, she always hated closing case files she was sure she could solve given enough time and resources, but the South Canterlot Police Department was always running short on time and supplies. She saw every day how her fellow officers lost their hair to the constantly accumulating cases that made their way to their desks. The southern districts of Canterlot City were among the most turbulent zones in the entirety of Equestria, and she always felt like their performance was continuously getting more and more lackluster. She always made her best effort to tackle as many cases as possible, but the city was too big, and the week had only so many days, she couldn't possibly handle everything on her own. She needed a break, but she didn't want to take it. The citizens of Canterlot depended on her.

She helped Candlesticks get the closed case's files to the archive room. Candlesticks was one of the newest recruits to make their way into the South Department, he was a lot younger than her and a lot skinnier, had bone-white skin and dirty blonde hair, he was a humble and shy guy, they were good friends and regularly chatted about the cases she worked on, Twilight was glad she had someone like him to talk to when she worked overtime, she got along with most of her fellow officers, but she found it hard to make any significant relationships with any of them. The only close friends she had from her time at CHS that still lived in Canterlot were Sunset Shimmer and Applejack; nevertheless, she barely ever had time to visit or even talk to them; that was when Candlesticks' company came as a warm relief to her, despite his introverted demeanor.

She hadn't realized how much paperwork a case could generate, especially a big case like this one. When she was working on one she barely ever had time to stop and think about the documents she recovered and the ones she created, the only thing that mattered were the clues and the leads, all she cared about was finding out the truth. The last case had filled three huge boxes that stacked on top of each other were just as tall as her. Getting them down to the basement was a challenge in and of itself.

She was familiar with the archive room, but she hadn't visited it in a long time, at least, not with time to really observe it. It was a big underground storage area that encompassed nearly the entire basement of the police station, it had rows upon rows of shelves and racks topped with boxes of many sizes and colours extending all the way to the very back of the room, the light inside it was dim and one of the ceiling lamps seemed to be flickering, giving the place an eerie feel as one delved further into it. The older boxes smelled of moss and humidity and some were so old they had spider webs all over them.

"Where should this one go, Miss Sparkle?" the frail officer asked as they both arrived with their new boxes filled with paperwork.

"There's no space in the closest shelves, we'll have to go a bit further, just follow my lead" Twilight responded serenely. Candlesticks nodded and the two officers carefully moved through the completely packed and unorganized shelving of the archive room looking for a rack to finally be able to call it a day, Twilight really needed to unwind after the extensive work she did throughout the entire month. She was tired, and having the notion of a new unsolved case to archive certainly didn't help improve her mood.

"Someone really ought to organize this place." Twilight complained after a few minutes of walking through the rows of shelves. "Who could ever find anything in here?" She knew it didn't matter to anyone in the department though, archive files were rarely ever mentioned, let alone touched again after they were put in the room, once a case was archived, it was nearly guaranteed to never see the light of day again. The notion made her even sadder than she already was, Candlesticks kept a silent and steady pace, the lack of noises made Twilight moderately anxious.

After what felt like an eternity of walking, the duo finally made it to a nearly empty shelf in the back of the storage area, still a few rows away from the end of the room, it is a big room indeed, Twilight thought. The officers gently stacked the boxes of archive on the shelf and soon were ready to head back out.

"That's the last of them." Candlesticks said once they were done. "We should probably go back, our shift is almost over."

"I..." Twilight pondered for a second. "...I think I'll wait here for a second, you go on ahead, don't let me slow you down."

"Something wrong, detective?" Candlesticks asked, a concerned look had been drawn on his brow.

"It's nothing, just...thoughts."

"Are you sure you don't need help?"

"I'm alright, Candlesticks." Twilight reassured her comrade. "I appreciate your concern, but I promise, there is nothing to be worried about. Go home, you deserve some rest."

"If you say so." The officer replied. "If you need anything, don't hesitate in giving me a call, okay?"

"I'll keep it in mind."

The officer tipped his hat and walked away, disappearing into the rows of shelves. Twilight rested her back against a shelf, looking at the boxes they had just brought in, she breathed in deeply and then exhaled, she studied the shelves around her. The clean and unpolluted cardboard of the new crates contrasted sharply with the dusty and worn-out grim old boxes that surrounded them. There were other newer-looking boxes, but the archive was so poorly managed that it was almost impossible to determine what had been put where and when. Ancient-looking boxes were piled against pristine ones and many files didn't even have boxes, while others had been deteriorated to the point of breaking , causing an abundance of documents just laying around on the floor and shelves. Twilight felt the urge to start putting it all in place, but she was too tired, and no one would care anyway, it was all dead files. She sighed and stood straight.

"Sorry." She whispered, giving the unsolved case's files one last glance. She began making her way back to the entrance, as she went along she eyed the files on the shelves, most of them included labels with categories on them, evidence, personal data, field report; other boxes had labels with names of locations in the city, Merchant District, Star Swirl Avenue, Hoofield Street; and other had names of people, Peggy Fisher, Holly Frostlocks...

"Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight stopped abruptly as she read the label. At first she thought her exhausted brain was playing tricks on her, but when she turned to give the box a closer look she saw it again, it was an archived case for one Sunset Shimmer, labelled under 'missing person?'.

Twilight could feel her eyes widening as she placed both her hands on the box and cleared the dust off the label. She tried to analyze what was going on. Maybe it's a mistake, she thought, She can't possibly be...abducted, right?, maybe it's a joke...but the file is so old and dusty, it must have been here for at least a few years already.

She twirled the thought in her mind relentlessly, she didn't understand, what did that mean? She'd known Sunset for over twenty years already, she could not wrap her head around why she'd hide something like this from her friends. She hesitated from pulling the box out of the shelf, she feared what she'd find inside, she needed to look, but she wasn't sure if she had the strength to do it, a million thoughts rushed through the detective's head as she pondered about looking inside the box. She placed a hand on the lid to attempt to open it when suddenly...Riiiiiiiiing!

The alarm bell in her phone startled her so much she almost tripped on an empty box behind her, she managed to hold on to the shelf in front of her and recovered her balance. Riiiiing!. The phone kept on ringing loudly, the sound echoing off the walls all around her. She haphazardly took it out of her jacket and looked at it.

"Oh no, the meeting!" She exclaimed with a facepalm. "I'm late!"

She snoozed the alarm off and tucked the phone away, then she pondered, she looked at Sunset's box, then she looked at the door in the distance, then back at the box...she closed her fists in disarray as she looked back at the door and decided her friends were more important than some dusty old crate of files.

As she closed the door behind her, she could feel the box calling to her, as if it was her duty to find out the truth lying beneath the lid.