Journey Into Darkness

Twilight awoke to the smell of cooking.  She slowly dragged herself from her bed and dragged a brush through her mane.  She had been up for much of the night trying to calm her baby dragon, who was beside himself with fear from what he felt was an unprovoked attack by a complete stranger.  She had repeatedly assured him that Sherloch was only here to help.  Spike had startled him and Sherloch had overreacted.  She promised him that it was perfectly safe to come downstairs and a situation like what happened the night before would never happen again.

Descending the steps, she sniffed the air, trying to identify the smells of cooking coming from her kitchen.  She paused at the couch and saw that it was vacant.  She followed the smell to her kitchen where Sherloch was standing over her stove, cooking breakfast.

Without looking up from the skillet he asked, “How do you like your oatmeal?”

“Oatmeal?”

“You do eat oatmeal, right?”

“I prefer it with honey and brown sugar and I didn't expect you'd be preparing breakfast.”

“Why not?”

She sat down at the table and poured herself a cup of hot water from the teapot, “Should I have expected it?”

“Why was it unexpected?  I brought out the teabags from the cabinet.  Hope you don't mind.”

“Not at all.  In fact, this is my favorite tea.”  She replied, dropping one of the teabags into the steaming mug.

A bowl filled with oatmeal and toast slid across the table, coming to a halt right in front of her.  Her horn glowed and a spoon floated across to her, burying the tines deep into the fluffy, beige, pile.  Sherloch watched as she lifted a spoonful and deposited it into her waiting mouth.  She sighed and rolled her eyes in ecstasy as she chewed and swallowed, “This is incredible.  Where did you learn to cook like this?”

“When you've lived life alone as I have, you learn to care for yourself.  I didn't want to spend my life living on MREs so I learned to cook.”

“What are MREs?”

“Meals Ready to Eat.  They are prepackaged meals that are carried primarily by soldiers but they're sold to the general populace as well.”

“So, you're a soldier?”

He frowned as he considered her question, “Among other things, yes.  To explain my profession, I must first explain the universe and life outside of your tiny planet of Equestria.  Outside, in the galaxy, there are other planets with intelligent life of their own.  The peoples of these other planets are aware of the peoples of their neighboring planets, including Equestria.  Despite your mastery of magic, Equestrians are actually rather primitive.”

Twilight growled.

“It's nothing personal, just a fact.  Some of the less-desirable species see this and desire to take advantage of that for their own gains.”

“I'm sorry.  I don't think I understand you.”

“It is my theory that these missing ponies are being taken by one of these species.”

Twilight's fur raised, “For what purpose?”

Sherloch's eyes narrowed, “For slavery.”

Her blood ran cold as she thought about it.  She was assaulted with mental images of ponies in chains, in cages, whipped, starved, exhausted.  A painful lump grew in her throat as she reeled from this assault.  She forced the flood of emotions back and brought forth her logical, tactical, mind.  There would be time for emotion after they had found who was responsible for this.  “Whatever you need,” she said with conviction, “whatever I can do for you, name it and it'll be yours.”

“Twilight Sparkle, I am a soldier, I am an investigator and I am a diplomat.  It is my task, and the task of my people, to protect people such as you Equestrians when called upon to do so.  Each leader, like your Princess Celestia, is able to reach us when in crisis.  She believes that there may be an outside instigator to your problem and has called me in to assist in any way possible.  Twilight, I'm going to need your help and the help of anyone you trust.  I will not lie to you, this will be difficult, it will dangerous, it might even be lethal but I must insist that, if you agree to help, you'll stand by me regardless of what occurs.”

She pushed herself up with her front hooves, “I will.  I promise to help you in any way you need.”

He nodded, “Then you will sit with me in today's briefing when the Princess comes.”

“When is she due to come?”

“She didn't say, probably for security reasons.”

She picked at the remains of her oatmeal, having found that her appetite had left her.  If Sherloch was right and the missing ponies had been taken for slavery, she didn't want to imagine what that could mean.  She knew enough about politics to know that the abduction of  citizens by a foreign power constituted an act of war.  If it came to that, the best of the Equestrian military wouldn't stand a chance against a faceless enemy that could snatch foals from their beds without anypony the wiser.  “How do we deal with this?  What do we do?”

“We conduct a thorough investigation.  Once we find out who is responsible, we rescue those we can and...discourage...those parties involved from participating in such an activity again.”

“Rescue those we can?  I can only assume that you're referring to the missing ponies, why can't we rescue them all?”

“We wouldn't be able to find out where they all are.  Even if we could, there's no absolute that states we'd be able to access them or that they'd be still alive.”

“So we just give up on them?”

“Calm yourself, little pony.  We will try to find them if we can, but keep in mind that we may not be able to.”

Twilight simply stared at him, “Are you giving up on them already?”

“Nonsense.  You mistake my realism for pessimism.  I've worked abduction cases like this before and, unfortunately, they don't always turn out for the best.  One of the sayings that I live by is to hope for the best but to expect the worst.  I must be prepared for any possibility.”

“Is that why you carry that...thing?  That thing you shot at Spike with last night?”

“My Pulse Rifle.  Yes, among other things.  I possess a battery of technology that assists me in all endeavors, not just the ones concerning the cases that I may be working.”

“Do you have to kill other...beings?”

“Often.”  He replied.

She pushed her bowl away, “I think I'm going to be sick.”

“Why?  I'm certain that, in your line of work, you've had to take lives before.”

Twilight opened her mouth to deny his words but she remembered the “Pinkie Fiasco” when one of her friends had managed to make several clones of herself.  Though they hadn't been living in the conventional sense.  She had ended their lives.  She closed her mouth.

“You see?  It's not like I enjoy killing.  In reality, I rather dislike it but my hand is forced, on occasion.”

She nodded.  She hadn't enjoyed killing the Pinkie clones but it was something that had to be done for the sanity of all involved, “Will we have to kill again?”

“It's a possibility.  I doubt they're going to just hand over the ponies without a fight.  We may have to fight and kill to succeed in our objective.  Make no mistake, little pony, this will be difficult.”

“I understand.”

“There is something I need you to do, if you can.  We cannot do this alone so I need you to put together a team of ponies that would provide invaluable assistance.”

She thought for a moment before replying, “I know just the ponies but I don't know if they would be willing to go to the lengths we'll be forced to go to.”

“Why do you say that?   Do you think they wouldn't be willing to do anything to rescue those innocents affected?”

“It's not that.  I'm not sure I'd be able to ask them to do what we need to do.  I don't want them to experience what you and I've experienced.  It's difficult and, once it's been done, there's no returning to what you were like before.”

“Understandably so, Twilight.  But we will need others to assist us.  If you don't think your first choices are right for the task, perhaps you should select others.”

She shook her head, “No, there are no others that I'd trust as much.”

“Then I want you to recruit them and I want them together here before the Princess arrives.  I want them to hear everything straight from the horse's mouth.”  He paused as he rethought his words, “No pun intended.”

She stood up and started for the door, “The Princess will be here soon.  I should get going.”