The Adventures of the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well!

THE CPD HEADQUARTERS

“Shining Armor...SHINING ARMOR,” Spitfire yelled to catch my attention.

“Sorry lieutenant, I must have been zoned out for a second,” I responded. Spitfire stood in front of my desk with her hand on her hips, giving me one of her well-known glares.

“What, you still thinking about your little sister?” she asked. I blankly nodded my head, agreeing to whatever it was she said. Although Twily had been on my mind lately, that wasn’t what I was thinking about at the moment. No, my attention was elsewhere. I had been staring at the Commanders door for the past ten minutes, where I swear to God, I saw IT in there with him. I could faintly see its silhouette sometimes, moving across the doors glass. It had been visiting the commander for the past week. I don’t know what it is, but I have a hunch that it’s our little night owl the boys in lockup have been talking about. Spitfire must’ve realized where my true attention was, because her eyes were now following mines.

“Oh, for the love of, are you still fixated on the commander? Sergeant, I already told you earlier this week that what the commander does in his time is none of our concern,” she said. I turned to look at her with tired eyes, grimacing a bit harder than I intended.

“Oh, come on lieutenant, you don’t find it a little suspicious that for the past week around this time the commander shuts his door, and talks to himself?” I asked. Spitfire rolled her eyes and sat on my desk with her arms crossed.

“What are you blabbing about, the Commander is obviously on the phone,” she insisted. I shook my head at this response.

“At two in the morning?” She just shrugged at this comment.

“Could be his wife asking him when he’s coming home. Could be one of his superiors, point is who cares, it’s none of our concern. What you should be concerned about are your officers. Where is your superior?” she asked looking around the quiet office.

“You are ma’m,” I said straightly with a grin. Spitfire rolled eyes again and smiled.

“Not me you numb nuts; I mean OUR superior.” I sighed and gave light chuckle before leaning into my chair and throwing both feet onto the desk beside her.

“Shit, Captain Fairy Flight went out with officer Thunderlane. Something about a shooting in the sewers or some shit. I told the captain it would be a waste of time, but you know him. Always eager to strike fear into the hearts of the criminal underworld. ” Spitfire giggled to herself, before looking down at my desk, more specifically, at the framed picture I had of Twily.

“You still heading back to Crystal Prep to talk with Principal Cinch?” She asked.

“Of course. Twily has been...well.... a little more reclusive than usual, and with the friendship games coming up, they wanted me to come over and give her a little prep talk.” Spitfire raised an eyebrow at this.

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” She asked. I sighed and sat forward in my chair, looking at the picture of my little sister.

“Twily isn’t someone that has a lot of school spirit. Her work is all that really matters to her and Cinch is afraid she won’t want to compete in the friendship games. So, as an alumni and previous champion of the games, I could...well...you know, convince her of the game's importance.” Spitfire looked at me if had spoken an entirely different language.

“That’s gotta be the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. Who gives a shit about the friendship games? If your little sister wants diddily fuck to do with the damn things, then just leave her alone.” I figured she was going to say this.

“It’s not that simple. Crystal Prep is an honorable school, and to represent it is an incredible honor. My sister should be honored to-”

“Holy fucking shit sergeant, it’s been like, four years since you graduated. It’s just some preppy high school, you can’t seriously believe that it was the prime of your life,” she interrupted. I sighed and slumped a bit in my chair.

“No, of course I don’t really care. It’s just, Twily hasn’t really been talking to me or our parents. Especially after a couple of weeks ago. I went to mom's house last week and she was mumbling something about magical energy at the dinner table, which I might add, she was on one of her gizmos the entire time ignoring that I was even there,” I truly didn’t really care about Crystal Prep or the games. I was honored to have graduated from such a school, but I just wanted Twily to do anything other than stay in her own little world. Spitfires face softened a bit, and she took out a carton of cigarettes from her shirt pocket.

“Well sergeant, I can’t say I relate to you,” she began while lighting her cigarette with a match. “But, and I mean this in no disrespect, don’t you think you’re being a fucking idiot?” She asked while offering me a cigarette. I laughed while declining, I wasn’t much of a smoker.

“And what is that supposed to mean Lieutenant?” Spitfire blew out a cloud of smoke while loosening her tie. Only she could keep her uniform clean and proper after a long day at the office. I never understood it. It seemed after the first hour I come into work my tie is already off, my shirt sleeves are rolled up and my shirt is halfway untucked. But Spitfire? No everything was still in line.

“I mean what kind of fucking sense is that supposed to make? Your solution to making your sister more sociable is to make her do things that she doesn’t want to do? Seems a little counterintuitive don’t you think?” She was obviously right about this, but my mind had been so preoccupied with work that I felt I was just going with the flow. We’ve been busy the past couple of days. The drug market has ramped here in Canterlot, and to top it all off, we don’t have a single trace to the source. What concerns us however, is the recent two criminals we found left by our little night owl. Iron Will, an enforcer for Prince Blueblood...well, suspected at least. We found him in a smelting factory off 12th Ave drugged up on some kind of red substance we’ve never seen before. He was as big as a semi-truck, with muscles as hard as steel. It took boys down in medical twelve hours to drain the drug out of his system, the first two hours were spent trying to find a needle that could pierce through his skin. But the second finding really has everyone down in precinct on edge.

Lieutenant Fleetfoot down at the Canterlot Highs precinct was called in for quite the shocker. Some high schoolers were kidnapped by Changeling members, and taken to an old warehouse. The two older kids were beaten badly, and the younger ones were scared shitless. We found four suspected Changelings...along with something far beyond what we’ve ever seen before. A monster of some sorts was located outside the building. Far bigger than Iron Will. I arrived on scene a bit after they took it in, which they needed a helicopter to extract it. We thought it was dead on account of the electricity burns all across its body, but miraculously it survived. No one down in medical had ever seen anything like it before, he was like a giant bug man or something. They couldn’t find any traces of the substance they found in Iron Will, and the effects of whatever it was that created the thing seems to be permanent, but we are certain it was a human at some point. DNA testing confirmed that it was a well-known criminal named Cercus, a hitman for the Changeling gang, and someone who had quite the wrap sheet. He killed a number of people over in Philadelphia, starting with his grandma when he was twelve. Bashed her head in with a hammer, real gruesome shit. It’s still unknown why he did it, but the man is...demented for better words. Other than that, we don’t know anything about him. Where he came from, his parents, where he went to school, when he came to Canterlot, nothing. Just two arrests, one off his first murder and another years later for skinning a woman's dog alive. For someone like this to have the ability to turn into whatever the hell it was he turned into, well, we’re a little scared.

To make matters worse, it seems like we have a vigilante in our city. Numerous reports by some guys down in lockup say that some ghost had terrorized them for the past weeks, and we’re certain that this ghost took down Iron Will. We’d ask him, but the damage in his mind is beyond repair and Blueblood has denied questioning...again. But the other night we found Cercus, one of the hostages says that they were saved by some ghost dressed in black, though, they claimed they didn’t interact with whoever this was. All they know was that they were kidnapped on account of extortion for their farm or something. The four other Changelings refuse to talk and Cercus is still knocked out, so who knows. But I suspect our little ghost friend has been visiting the Commander, I can feel it.

“You make a point Lieutenant. You been back to Canterlot High recently?” I asked.

“Christ, I try not to. Hated going to that school, but apparently Fleetfoot went over a couple months ago. There were complaints about loud explosions and some old man said he saw a fucking rainbow in the sky...at night. Fleetfoot says the front of the school was blown up, and a large hole was by that statue. You know, the white one. Principal Celestia said it was a gas explosion or some shit, but they never bothered checking up on that. I did go the past week for their career fair. Some punk kid named Flash Sentry was pretty interested in joining the department. He plays in a band, but he seems like a good kid. Another kid that seemed kind of interested was this one rainbow haired girl with spunk...she kind of reminds me of myself,” Spitfire said. I smiled and leaned forward in my chair.

“Great, just what we need. Another one of you on the force.” She nudged my arm lightly before extinguishing her cigarette bud on a nearby ash tray. Our conversation ended abruptly by the sound of the Commanders door opening. Commander Easy Glider walked out, rubbing his eyes from exhaustion with his coat wrapped around his arm. Before he closed the door behind him, I swear I saw some kind of red crystal glistening on his desk.

“You two still here? Damn it's been a long night.” He said. Spitfire hoped off my desk and stretched her arms out in front of her, popping her shoulders in the process.

“You’re telling me Commander. Any word on Firefly?” She asked. The commander sighed and shook his head.

“Nah, city hall hadn’t gotten back to her about it. Fucking suits. They’re trying to tell us how to do our jobs with their hands tied around their balls. I wouldn’t expect anything from it.” Spitfire sighed, staring at the ground disappointingly. The it he was referring to was more funding for a team Firefly had wanted to implement. A team designed for the strange threats like Iron Will and Cercus, but city hall didn’t seem to interested.

“Well, I’ll see y’all later today,” the Commander said while putting his hat on. I stood up and spoke, stopping him in his tracks. I had wanted to talk to him about another issue I had on my mind.

“Sir, permission to go with detective Soarin for tomorrow night's undercover mission?” I already knew the answer to this, but that didn’t stop me from asking.

“Denied sergeant. If you want to go with him, I’ll demote you personally back down to detective if that’s what you want,” he said. I stood up straight and stared him in the eye.

“Yes sir, I’ll accept that if it means I can go with him.” Easy Glider scratched his chin as if he were deep in thought, before turning around and walking towards the exit.

“Denied on that too sergeant. Now stop asking me,” he ordered. I sighed and slumped back down in my chair. Spitfire was laughing to herself as she walked back to her office.

“Smooth Shining. Real Smooth. I know you’re worried about your detective, but he’ll be fine. Soarin’s clumsy, but he’s one sharp son of a bitch,” she said before she entered her office. I looked back to the Commanders door one last time, staring intently at the dark window.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Hey, does it kind of smell sewage?”