Misunderstood, Underapreciated, Overworked

One Day Ago…
Earth Shadow slowly trotted towards Frost’s office, “I wonder if he’s busy…” he thought to himself quietly, he slowly opened the door to see Frost looking out his window and at the moonrise… he thought he saw frost smile and shed a tear but it also might’ve been his Imagination.

Frost noticed the pony behind him; he slowly turned to face him…
”… Yes? What can I do for you Earth Shadow?” Frost asked in his normal relaxed tone of voice…

Earth Shadow said nothing and held out his hoof… a small folder balancing on it
”For me?” Frost asked as he raised an eyebrow

Earth shadow nodded, “yes sir, this came in a few minutes ago… an anonymous pony reported a crime… I thought you should read it yourself…”

Frost paused a moment; he takes the folder from Earth Shadow and opens it, inside is a piece of paper folded once; he then folds it open…

“… get your gear ready… we have a task to perform” Frost said seriously as he took his coffee and drank it in one gulp

“uh… you sure?” Earth Shadow asked uneasily… ,”the letter states that the one currently at the scene is the aggressor…”

Frost made a motion with his hoof signaling silence… ,”this particular crime stated on the letter is what grabs my interest for now… it is our objective to investigate this… now shut up and meet me there”
he tossed the folder back to Earth shadow.

Earth shadow caught the folder with his mouth and nodded…,”yes sir”

Frost flapped his wings a few times before opening the window… he smiled to himself as a bolt of lightning flew down from a cloud above and hit him, dissipating him entirely; a second bolt of lightning struck near sweet apple acres…

Earth Shadow blinked a couple of times to get the spots out of his eyes; he frowned…,”I hate it when he does that…” he said to himself as he dropped the folder on the floor and went to the lobby

The lobby was empty with the exception of his fellow colleagues… Quaker and Quickshot sat opposite each other playing cards on a coffee table, while Fleur-de-lis and Solar Ember talked about current happenings in the field of fashion; they all looked up from what they were doing at Earth shadow…

Earth Shadow waited patiently for somepony to talk…,”…” until he got tired of waiting that is… ,”what? is there something on my face?”

Solar Ember ignored the question, “where did Frost go?” she asked the light brown pegasus pony.

“He went to go investigate a crime scene near sweet apple acres… I’m heading there now… anypony want to come with?” he both answered and asked the fiery maned unicorn

She thought about it for a moment…,”… sure why not…” she turned to face Fleur, “coming?”

Fleur shook her head, “no… I have to organize these files… I’ll go on the next one…”

Quickshot and Quaker both gave their answers in sync…
“Nah…”
“Nay”

Earth shadow waited for solar ember to grab her saddle gear… ,”she never takes off that cloak” he thought to himself as she trotted to him.

“Ready” she said with a smile on her face

Earth shadow nodded as he held the door open for her before going through it himself
The streets of ponyville were quiet and empty with the exception of drunks and nightclub goers
They were halfway there when Earth shadow decided to speak to her

“So… you and Frost huh?” Earth shadow asked with a grin

Solar tensed up, ”You know it’s not like that… Frost loves another mare…”
“… and you’re okay with that? “ he asked… he knew how to push her buttons…

She sighed, “no… I’m not… but I shall let things run their course”

Earth shadow frowned… ,”then why bother…” his eyes widened, those words left his mouth before he even knew what he was saying…

Solar ember scowled, “because I can… did you want me to come with you so you could taunt me Earth shadow? It’s a wonder how you get mares with how your personality is…”

“Hey, I get mares because I’m sexy” Earth Shadow retorted back

“Me and Frost have known each other since I was born… and that was a long time ago…” Solar ember began but halted midsentence…

Earth shadow frowned, “she was going to tell me something… I’ve known frost for a while, but I don’t know him… the only thing that has ever told me that he was a living thing was when I saw him bleed… and that was a while ago…” he thought to himself…

“… sorry…” earth said

Solar sighed, “… it’s okay… I forgive you…”

“It’s just that I don’t feel like I know you two… I can understand the others because I met them before coming to S.P.U, but you and Frost… it’s like you don’t exist…” earth shadow stated suspiciously…

Solar coughed… ”when the time comes… you will know… but for now keep your mouth shut and focus on the current task” solar said harshly…

Earth shadow nodded, ”soon” he thought “soon you will tell me your secrets” he thought…

“No… I won’t…” solar answered nonchalantly

“You can read thoughts…?” earth shadow asked mortified…

“Yes but only the weak minded…” she taunted… “I can’t read Frost’s”

Both ponies finally reached sweet apple acres… they could both see a cloud of cold carbon dioxide rising from behind a hill…

“I believe that’s Frost…” Solar said to earth shadow as she trotted towards the cloud

Earth shadow followed close behind… both ponies finally made it over the hill where they saw frost… he was standing next to a trapdoor

”finally... I was starting to think I was on my own for this one…” Frost said in an attempt to mock earth shadow for his tardiness… he slightly bows his head when he sees Solar ember, “Solar?”

”yes Frost… Earth Shadow invited me to come along” she said, avoiding eye contact with frost

“yep, I did” Earth shadow butted in… ,”so… do I get to see you two make out or something?”

Frost coughed and looked away while solar shot a glare at him…

“shut up feather brain!” solar snapped at the brown pegasus

“Earth shadow, search the room” he opens the trapdoor, “alone…”

“what?! seriously?” earth complained “I was only making a joke!”

“Well I didn’t find it funny…” solar stated… ,”as a matter of fact… I found it distasteful”

“We’ll be waiting out here, if we hear anything… we’ll think about helping you… now go…” Frost said irritated…

Earth Shadow sighed in defeat, “… yes, sir…” he reluctantly trotted downstairs…

“You think he’ll be alright?” Solar asked somewhat concerned for the safety of her colleague.

“Yeah, he’ll be alright… he may be kind of a loudmouthed jerk sometimes… but he can handle himself in probably any situation…” Frost said whilst looking at his boots…

“Probably?” Solar repeated uneasily…

“Uh… well… we’re here in case anything happens…” Frost attempted to lighten the mood, “so… what’s up?”

Solar shrugged… “Eh, not much… you?”

“No… nothing new…” Frost looked up at the moon for what had to be the fifth time in the past two minutes…

Solar noticed this, “thinking about somepony frost?”

“Hmm? …yeah…” Frost replied awkwardly

Solar ember sighed… “Why don’t you think about me?” she thought to herself…

“… I do…” she heard frost’s voice in her head

“Oh, yeah… I forgot… you can also communicate mentally” she replied to his thought

“yes… I can…” he sighed, “why would you think I didn’t care about you?”

Solar replied quickly, “Because you don’t show it!”

“I cannot show emotion… you know that…” he tried to justify himself

“Why? Because it shows weakness?”

“No…. because it…” their mental conversation was interrupted as earth shadow poked them both in the side with his hooves…

“Uh… you two okay? You’ve been standing there glaring at each other for about five minutes…” earth shadow asked the two, somewhat concerned about their sanity…

“Hmm? Oh we’re fine… right sir?” solar asked frost

“yes, yes… we’re fine” frost agreed with her, ”so… did you scout the room?”

“Yeah… positive I.D on Big Macintosh of the Apple family…” earth reported

“Give you any trouble?” Solar asked

“No, he was tied up in restraints… I have to assume that his sister put him in those after she rescued the victim” earth shadow took a moment to breathe “that of course is speculation as to what happened… we need to get his sister to confirm this… or even better, the victim”

“… alright… this is what we’re going to do, solar, you’ll wait up here for the transport to arrive… me and shadow will go downstairs and carry the suspect” Frost told the two ponies.

“Yes sir” Solar responded with a nod

“Alright then… follow me Earth Shadow…” frost trotted downstairs with earth trailing close behind.

As they entered the room they saw the big earthpony stallion tied up in restraints… next to the inert stallion there was a box of cream cheese.

“… I wonder what exactly happened here…” frost commented to himself as he paced in a circle around Big Macintosh… “He seems to be out cold….”

“Yeah, I told you that… uh, so how are we getting him loose?” earth asked…

“Why? Afraid of damaging him?” frost asked as he looked around the room for more evidence…

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to hurt even a strand of hair on his mane…” Earth shadow replied…

“Reasons why if I may ask?”

“Both political and personal… Big Mac is one of the members of the apple family in ponyville… which itself is a portion of the Apple clan scattered all around equestria… if he got hurt… I’m thinking incident and scandals…” he took a breath, “and as I said… personal reasons”

“Mhmm… wait, here we go!” Frost unties the binds causing the apple family member to fall rather painfully onto the floor.
Earth shadow winces, “damn… he fell on his… I hope It still works…”

“Alright then… let’s drag him upstairs… come on…” Frost said as he pulled on the pony’s forelegs.

“yes sir” Earth shadow grabbed the farmer’s hindlegs and pushed him up the stairs….

“So Frost…”

“Hmm?”

“Are you doing something after this?” Earth paused, “me and the guys are going to grab some brew after we trot Fleur home…”

Frost thought about it for a moment, “… Yeah, I’m trotting Solar home…”

Earth shadow gave him a wry smile, “you going to ask her for some coffee?”

Frost thought about it for a moment, “I guess a cup would be nice….”

Earth shadow facehoofed immediately, “ugh… so oblivious…” he muttered under his breath.

Both stallions finally managed to carry the farmer up the stairs, out the trapdoor, and into the transport that arrived moments earlier… Frost said a few words to the driver who nodded, waved goodbye, and drove off… leaving the three officers standing on the hill.

“So… is this where we go separate ways?” earth shadow asked to other two…

“…Well I should be getting home… I’m pretty tired…” Solar ember managed to yawn out.

“Yeah… mares need their beauty sleep solar” Earth chided.

Solar ember rolled her eyes, “so how about you Frost?”

“I’m going to trot you home Solar… and after that I’ll be headed home as well”

“aww… come on Frost you need to relax and lighten up… some drinks should do you good… you barely ever smile…” Earth
shadow nudged his commander, “it’ll be fun!”

Frost sighed, “maybe some other time Earth…”

“Pinkie promise?” Earth asked him…

“no… that’s like a blood bond… I’m not making that commitment… as I said some other time…” Frost replied… “I’ll see you later earth shadow… try to get some sleep…”

“pfft… sleep is only good when you’re doing it with somepony else…” Earth said as he trotted away, “See ya guys!”

“Bye” Solar waved

They both watched as earth shadow trotted away into the night…

“so… I guess we should get going…” Solar suggested…

“yeah... we should” he said as he draped a wing over her back and pulled her closely, “let’s go…”

And the two friends trotted side by side under the moonlight…