Steel Hearts

An errant beam of light strayed onto Crystal's face, causing her to snort and roll over. After a few minutes, the mare groggily opened her eyes, immediately wincing from the bright light. "When I find whoever it was that built a skylight in this cabin, there will be consequences..."

Crystal rolled off her bed, falling into an unceremonious heap on the floor. "Meant to do that..." she muttered. After standing up and brushing herself off, she trotted over to her suitcase and pulled out everything she would need for her morning routine.

After a few minutes, she was ready to head out and investigate. Her hat on her head and her gun on her hip, she opened the cabin door, ready to face the day, only to immediately close it and sigh. She had hoped for at least a few hours of investigation before ponies started to catch on that she was a cop, but was sadly disappointed. She held her breath and opened the door again.

Lying on the cabin porch was a mutilated cat with a not stapled on it. She didn't know who did it or why, but she intended to find out. "Ugh, I wish I was a unicorn..." she said to herself as she used her hoof to tear the paper note off the corpse. The hoofwriting was hardly legible, and she had difficulty reading it. After a few minutes, she decoded the chicken-scratch.

we dont like cops here

leave now or you'l regret it

stop investikating inveestigating searching and leave

Well, I guess I was wrong about it being a bear, Crystal thought. She took a plastic cover out of her saddlebags and slipped the note into it. The note immediately went into her evidence folder. Crystal hopped over the dead cat and quickly made her way to the admin offices. "How can I help you?" the receptionist asked.

"There's a dead cat on my porch. Don't ask how it got there, or why there's a staple in it, just get rid of it."

Earlier

The moon hung high in the sky as the pony shaped creature jumped from one tree to another, barely causing the branches to sway. It looked down, watching the blue pony's cabin. It watched as a pony dragged a garbage bag to the cabin, up the steps, and onto the porch. The creature recognized the pony as one of the campsite's maintenance workers, and wondered what he was doing.

The pony dumped the contents of the bag onto the porch, and the creature recognized it as a cat. Well, it used to be a cat, anyway. The pony took a stapler and a piece of paper out of his bags, and he attached the paper to the cat.

The branch the creature was standing on suddenly gave away, producing a loud cracking noise and falling to the ground. The creature leaped up just in the nick of time, grabbing a higher branch, but it was too late. The pony quickly turned around and looked up in the tree, staring right at the creature.

The pony opened his mouth to scream, but was cut short when a small object came hurtling out of the tree, embedding itself in his neck. The creature watched as the pony plucked the object out of his neck, discovering it to be a small needle. The pony quickly slumped to the ground, unconscious, as the powerful tranquilizers the needle had been dipped in took effect.

The creature deftly jumped out of the tree and landed on the ground. After placing the unconscious pony on its back, it turned around and bounded to the administrator offices to place him in bed, in the hopes that upon waking he would  dismiss it as a dream.

He didn't dismiss it as a dream.

"I'm tellin' yah, I don't know what it was! It had glowin' purple eyes, and they looked like little telescopes! There was wires all over its body, and it was shinin' like it was made a' metal or somethin'!"

The other ponies at the table laughed, slapping the table and holding their stomachs. "Sure it was, buddy! Lemme' guess- it woulda' eaten you, but a faerie came 'long and rescued yah?" one of the ponies asked, causing the rest to burst into another round of laughter.

"No! It made me fall 'sleep somehow!" he exclaimed, but to no avail. The laughter of the others drowned out his comment. Suddenly, the door to the office slammed open, revealing a grumpy-looking blue mare with a white mane. She had a gun strapped to her hip. The stallions at the table gulped.

The mare noticed the stallions and made her way toward them. "I'm Crystal Clear, with the Canterlot police. Can I ask you a few questions?" she asked, not waiting for a response before pulling out a chair and sitting down. The stallions looked at each other, nervous.

"Uhh, whaddya' wanna' know, officer?" asked one of the stallions. Crystal took out a notepad and a pencil.

"First of all, what were you talking about before I came in? Something about a monster?" she asked. One of the stallions glared at her.

"Was you listenin' in on our conservation?" he asked, angrily. The pony beside him nudged him in the ribs and whispered something into his ear. "Uh, I mean conversation. Was you listenin' in on our conversation?"

Crystal stared at him for a few moments, before nodding. "Yes. Yes I was." She turned to look at the pony who had seen the creature. "You saw a monster, you say? Where was this?"

"Out by the cabins, last night!"

"Uh huh, and what were you doing out there?"

All the stallions started to sweat. "Well, uh, I was... clearing rocks off the path..." he muttered.

"Well, you didn't do a good job. I nearly tripped on a rock on my way here. So anyway, why did you leave a dead cat on my porch?"

The pony did a spit-take with the coffee he was sipping on, soaking Crystal. "Eeeww!" she cried, jumping out of her chair.

"How did you know about that?" he asked, quickly backing away to the door to make a quick exit. Crystal didn't say anything, instead focusing on using a napkin she obtained from the table to wipe the coffee off her face.

"It was elementary, really. You see..." she started to explain. As she was speaking, she opened up her saddlebags to take out her notepad, and a slip of paper fell to the floor.

"Hey boss, ain't that the note I gave you?" one of the stallions asked. The other stallions started shaking their heads, miming for him to shut up and be quiet.

The "Boss" looked at the note, as did Crystal, who fell silent. From where he was, he could slightly make out the writing on the note.

Boss,

Theres a cop in the campsite. I think shes on to us. Should I close down the still till she goes away? maybe you should give her a warning, but do it diskreetly. dont let her know it was you.

"Okay, I lied," Crystal said. "I didn't use my amazing detective skills, I just found that on my way here." She took out a a few pairs of hoof-cuffs from her saddlebags and walked towards the stallions. "You're all under arrest for moonshining."

Crystal watched as the cuffed stallions were herded onto the train by some police ponies. Now that that was finished, she could get back to investigating what she was really here for. It's too bad they weren't the guys I was looking for, she thought. I really thought I found a clue when I saw that cat...

Crystal sighed. No use being disappointed now. She had some kidnappers to catch. Now that the cat incident proved to be unrelated, however, she was having doubts again that this was a crime. "Most likely just ponies getting lost in the woods. Probably eaten by mountain lions..." she muttered.

It wasn't her job to have a closed mind, though. Crystal looked towards the forest, scowling. "I guess I should be heading out to one of the campsites to look for any clues..."

So she set off into the forest, unaware of the danger she was walking in to.