"Hush, Little Baby"
A riverside bluff topped with flat-topped mounds, a winding river who's surface glittered in the light of day, sandy buffs and deep woods lining he opposite shore, another entrance to Everfree Forest. It was on one such mound on the riverside bluff that Shinedown T. Mare sat, looking over the land of Equestria, thinking…thinking.
"What's on yer mind?" Sheriff Applejack wanted to know, trotting up to him, rope in one mouth which she tossed onto her saddle. She was out getting back to nature for the weekend before she returned to work. The MLPD usually didn't have an issue with a lot of hardcore crime, and this month had been an "easy" one. She could afford to take a day or two off.
"…the past." Shinedown decided to say. "…just the past."
"I appreciate y'all comin' back to say hi." Applejack told him, patting him on the shoulder. "Big Mac was real pleased to see ya! How's it goin' over there with the Peacekeepers in New York? Any big cases?"
"The only case on my mind right now is what's going on with Shin. He's been taking "personal time" off. But nobody's seen him in days." The sunset-colored stallion admitted as he ambled along with Sheriff down the bluff and along the river, their reflections perfectly visible in the blue. "Boy, this brings back memories." He said wistfully. "Remember when we first met? Our first "case"?" He wanted to know.
"Course I do!" Sheriff Applejack chuckled. "Can't ever forget it. It was your first day off your probationary period, you had become A MAN, a real member of the MLPD. And your friend was jumpin' for joy…"
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… "You're gonna hurt my back jumping up and down like that." Shinedown chuckled, his fur like the skies of the morning being illuminated with rays, a small dragon with scales like a sunset fiddling around on his back, squealing happily at the sights around him in the MLPD Headquarters, a brightly lit place with pleasant blue walls, mares and stallions milling about as they discussed a very unfortunate series of increasingly escalating incidents at the Podunk little village of Quiet Falls. Since Sunset the dragon had never been inside of a real police station before, this was big for him. After all, he'd had to learn all about Shinedown's probationary police work secondhand…now though…
"This is SO AWESOMESAUCE." Sunset insisted as he raced around the headquarters from place of note to place of note. "The photocopier! The snack bar! The Waaaaater Cooooler!" He crooned, his eyes going all starry as Applejack looked over some papers in one hoof, glancing up at Shinedown. She was fairly new to the whole "Sheriff" deal, but she was proving to be very good at it all the same, and she had that "down-to-earth" attitude and kindly demeanor that made you really open up to her.
"Like a lil' filly on Hearth's Warming Eve." She chuckled as she looked over at Sunset, who placed one hand on a large wall filled with photographs of people who had gone missing during the whole conflict, glancing to the side at a woman who was being interviewed by another officer.
"Mah poor Jimmy. I never woulda lettim go tah that dahng town if ah knew that he was gonna go missin'! It was his dahng friends, they dun gotten him inta Quiet Falls!" She sobbed, covering her face. "Mah poor Jimmy! Mah lil' James! He said he got a letter from his dead wife! HIS FRIENDS WERE JUST PLAYIN' A HORRIBLE PRANK ON 'IM!"
"You sad, sad souls." Sunset said softly, one clawed hand resting on a picture of a young filly. "One by one you came to Quiet Falls, and whatever you may have gained, you have lost just as much. I promise…we'll carry your messages home. Your rescue shall be front page material!"
"I THINK what he's trying to say is, well…" Shinedown rubbed the back of his neck. "Could we somehow assist in the investigation?"
Sheriff Applejack put down the small stack of papers and looked at them. "Well…I dunno…"
"Please, sheriff." Shinedown insisted. "I know that the police department and I have had…issues…"
"You beat me over the head and dragged me by my legs into a fraternity." Officer Plinkett snapped as he sipped on some coffee, waving a hoof in the air, his considerably curly mane bobbing slightly.
"Yeah, but it was for a good cause! If you'd just LISTENED to me-"
"Who would believe that the founder of the biggest pony Fraternity was secretly serially-killing people and using their body parts for baked goods?"
"I did. BECAUSE I SAW THE BODIES." Shinedown snapped. "Which you would have seen SOONER if you'd not wasted five whole minutes LAUGHING at me."
Everyone in the office immediately shut up, nervously looking down at the ground as Sheriff Applejack spoke up. "Shinedown, we know you and Serge were good fr-"
"Please don't…don't talk about him." Shinedown muttered. "…he's dead to me, okay? Serge N. Sprinklz is DEAD to me. And I NEVER wanna hear about him ever again. Now…can we PLEASE just move on?"
It was then that the phone rang. Applejack picked it up from her desk, listening in. "Talk to me!....oh. OH. Oh my. I see." The mare's face began to fall as everyone heard her voice begin to gain a quiet, sad tone, a sense of foreboding filling them all. "…you know what? I'm in charge now. And I say you can come. But I tell you, boy…you ain't gonna like what you see."
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…
… "Ain't gonna like what you see" indeed.
"Get those people back, we gotta murder scene here!" Sheriff Applejack insisted as she knelt down by the dead form of a young mare, a fairly large crowd milling around as Shinedown, Sunset and other members of the MLPD tried to do just that, with one stallion pushing through, gasping in surprise at the yellow-furred body below, which lay on the steps of Quiet Falls's old library. The town DID appear very abandoned, run down buildings every way you looked, large piles of trash in allies, and cracked signs on every street, the faint buzzing of flies filling your ears…
But now, ironically, the sight of fresh death had brought new life into it.
"Oh no. No…NO." The other yellow-furred stallion that had pushed his way to the body whispered, sobbing tearfully. "Bill, Bill…"
"Is this a friend of yours, sir?" Sheriff Applejack asked gently, taking her hat off and standing up to face him, her face somber and solemn as the stallion's face became filled with rage, his black eyes glittering brightly.
"I'm Leo, that's…that's my BROTHER, man, he been…it's those damn Coltsville sonsof…they gonna get GOT for this." The stallion insisted, his squarish jaw set as he slammed one hoof on the ground. "They're gonna get GOT!"
"Eleven shell casings…four bullet wounds." Shinedown said as Sunset kneeled by him, the crowd somewhat calmed by now…save for the lone stallion.
"The killer must have been moving and shooting." Sunset reasoned. "Emptied the gun completely. The bullets that missed must have hit that." He said, pointing at the library as Shinedown noticed two young foals evidently enacting the shootout in a nearby alley.
"Bang-bang! And BAM, down he went! Like Liston!"
"Oh, you know he didn't get capped like that!" The other insisted, rolling his eyes as Shinedown approached. If these two kids HAD seen something…
"AH! The po-po!" His friend squealed out, seeing Shinedown approach, the two taking off down the alley, one of them tripping and slamming into a fairly large garbage bin, knocking it down before he regained his footing and bolted, Shinedown sighing as he waved the foul air in front of his nose away. Or rather, TRIED to. Why did it stink the way it did? It smelled so…wrong.
"Oh no, no, c'mon, man." Applejack insisted gently. "That only ends in more people getting shot up or you getting tossed in jail. C'mon, talk to me about this, who do you think's responsible, we can send some officers-"
"Look man, we take care of ourselves, y'heard?" The stallion snapped.
Shinedown's eyes widened slightly. Wait. He KNEW that smell. He had smelled that smell back in college. Back on that night, when he'd been wandering the halls of the fraternity, just trying to find a candy bar, opening up a door that had nearly blinded him with the horrors that lay within. Oh yes. He knew that smell…
He slowly opened up the hood of the garbage bin…
A moment that seemed like an eternity gazing upon what lay within before everyone tore their heads in the direction of his scream, Sheriff Applejack shooting up as Shinedown yelled for help. She and Sunset rushed over, finding Shinedown cradling a very, VERY young, and very, VERY dead little foal in his arms, his voice now turned to tiny, sobbing gasps.
"I wanted to solve a case that would be front page material. This isn't what I meant…who…who could have done this?" Sunset whispered quietly, his voice hoarse and barely audible.
"That's what we're supposed to find out." Sheriff Applejack growled. "What we WILL find out."
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… "Someone tried to just…throw this kid out with the trash." Shinedown finally managed to say, the coroner examining the body, Doctor Hooves sadly shaking his head back and forth as he turned to the others in the cold room of the morgue.
"The kid hasn't been dead more than 24 hours, he's JUST coming out of rigor mortis." The doctor admitted.
"But why's…she's mummified." Sunset mumbled. "She…she looks like an ad for hunger relief in Haiti or something." He insisted, still struggling to make sense of what was before him, staying very, VERY close to Shinedown. And indeed, the young foal's body did look mummified, almost greyish/white in form, every bit of her seemed dried out and crusty.
Doctor Hooves nervously placed his hooves together, tapping them slightly before gesturing at a small table to the right. "I've collected hairs, you may be able to get sufficient DNA evidence from this. In addition, I did find some kind of…powder." He added, gesturing at a strange orange powder he'd scraped off the trash.
"How old was she?" Sheriff Applejack asked.
"…five. She was just losing her baby teeth." Doctor Hooves murmured, Sunset feeling the bile rise as he raced for the trash can. "She has "bucket handle" fractures on his arm from…well, in layman's terms…shake the baby. It's VERY specific for abuse."
"And the reason why she's so emaciated?" Shinedown wanted to know, his voice quiet, murmuring.
"All of these symptoms…soft tissue withdrawn around the skull, eyes are sunken in, ribs are poking through the skin…all point to the cause of death being renal failure due to starvation." Doctor Hooves informed them all as he shook his head again. "Her fat and muscles were being used for fuel."
"…this took WEEKS." Shinedown said, his tone becoming cold and steely.
"It seems…unusually cruel to do this to anyone. Especially to a child." Doctor Hooves admitted as Shinedown glanced at the girl's face.
"When children are involved it always is." Shinedown growled out. "…Sheriff, I KNOW I'm fresh off probation. I know that I don't have any right to ask you this but-"
"You're on the case." Sheriff Applejack told him. "You don't gotta ask me twice. Doctor, I want X-rays. Immediately. Check her gut, check her for blood, ANYTHING. We need tah find out who she was. And we gotta find out YESTERDAY."
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… "Okay, so MOST of the purple hairs were synthetic. We're looking for someone with a wig. But there was ONE hair that was real." Sunset said as he held a lab report up, waving it in the air. "Good news! We can tell it's not the kid's hair. Bad news…we've nothing to compare it to." He added, sighing as he sat down in a chair at Sheriff Applejack's desk as the blond-haired pony typed away at her computer with ferocity.
"I'm looking over sinus identification papers that child protective services put in their database." Sheriff Applejack told them all, Sunset blinking stupidly.
"Sinus-their NOSE? Really?"
"Yeah. We can't rely on fingerprints, but sinuses are unique too! The nose knows, y'all." Sheriff Applejack chuckled. "Hard to identify kids with this, but…" She kept comparing head x-ray to head x-ray, trying to find the right case file. "Wait…wait!" Applejack jumped slightly in the air. "GOT her!" She yelled out, Sunset and Shinedown going behind the desk, looking at the x-ray that CPS had made up. It was a perfect match to the one that they'd taken of the young foal's body. "Danielle Fillson. And there's a foster home listed n' everythin'."
It didn't take them long for them to reach Louise Tanning, who ran a fairly large foster home in Coltsville, a large brick building with a yard filled to the brim with half-abandoned toys, a trampoline off to the distance. Lousie was a nice-looking, fairly fat bovine, but, unfortunately for them, she was not in a very good mood.
"Which one of them lodged a complaint?" She groaned, whacking her face with one hoof as Shinedown frowned a bit.
"We're here about Danielle Fillson." The light-furred male pony said.
"He hasn't lived here in six months." Louise said stonily.
"Since he got a horrible fracture on his arm."
"I was CLEARED in that, sir. I don't like what you're implying!"
"The records say he lives here."
"The records are wrong. I don't have him here."
"Checks are sent here by CPS-"
"I send them BACK, I've got the copies to prove it." Louise snapped. "You think I'm some corrupt old cow mooching off of little ponies, is that it? Fine. Let's do this down at the station."
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…
… "What a lovely woman." Sunset muttered as he poured himself some "Colt Cola" from a can, sipping it slightly as he and Shinedown sat in the lounge, having finished interviewing Ms. Louise in the interrogation woman.
"…and what a right hook." Shinedown mumbled, rubbing his cheek.
"Well then next time don't say you're gonna "keep milking her for information"." Sunset groaned, shaking his head back and forth as he handed Shinedown the can, the two plopping down onto the couch. "I mean, C'MON! That's as bad as the "Steers are Queers" joke that Rainbow Dash keeps trying to pump."
"Okay, okay." Shinedown sighed, sipping his cola as the two watched the "Felix the Cat" clock on the wall swing its tail back and forth. "When are we supposed to get those results from-"
"Ha-ha-ha! Allonsy!" Doctor Hooves announced, sweeping into the lounge, holding a printed paper high and grinning proudly. "Have I got news for you!"
"Good news?"
"MOLTO Bene." The brown-furred brony laughed. "I've identified that orange substance that was in the garbage can and a substance that was in his stomach. The orange substance was made of mineral oil, titanium dioxide, steric acid, isopropyl palpitate…:
"…in ENGLISH, please? Smaller words, you're losing Sunset." Shinedown insisted, the little dragon stupidly blinking as he struggled to try and make sense of what the good doctor had babbled out.
"The orange substance is makeup. Burnt sienna foundation. The CHEAP stuff." Doctor Hooves informed them. "Thank Celestia our database is so thorough. And the things in his stomach were lead-based paint chips. They stopped using them 40 years ago."
"The whole TOWN looks like it stopped being inhabited forty years ago though…" Shinedown said, scratching his head. "He could have come from ANY of those buildings!" He sighed as Sunset left the room, going into the waiting room that was across from the interrogation room, Sheriff Applejack trying to get Louise to talk some more, and SINCERELY apologizing for Shinedown's terrible taste in puns.
Louise's many foster kids were all sitting in the waiting room, many of them playing with Etch-A-Sketches and the like, though one young filly was reading a book that Sunset instantly recognized, his eyes glittering brightly like little gemstones.
"The Hoovey Boys Mystery Series?" He asked, the little tyke glancing up at him. "I LOVE having my best friend read me those when I'm about to go to sleep. My favorite's "Ruckus at the Ranch"."
The kid closed the book slightly and brushed some long orange hair back. "Yeah, though this is my favorite. "Investigation at Icicle Inn" is SO much cooler."
"I hope you brought your earmuffs." The dragon chuckled as he sat down next to the kid, who rolled his eyes.
"Don't quit your day job, sir." The young filly said, tugging his face down and groaning.
"Sorry. Just trying to put you at ease. I know what its like to be shuffled around by the system." Sunset admitted. "Having your fate decided by somebody else…living with strangers…"
"How long were you in the system?" The kid wanted to know.
"Four years." Sunset admitted. "You're…CONCIOUS…when you're an egg. At least, somewhat. I felt so…trapped. I kept getting regrown and then shrunk back to…ugggghhhhhh…" He shuddered, clutching his sides and shivering madly. "But then Shinedown's sister popped me out and she DIDN'T send me back to being an egg. She asked her testers at the academy if she could keep me…got bored with me in two weeks and passed me off to her brother. Best day of my life." He insisted, rapping his chest with his fist.
"I've been in foster care eight years." The filly admitted. "Believe me…Louise is one of the good ones. She's just been burned by the system a lot. She really DOES care. Cares enough to be honest."
"Uh…do you know a kid named Danielle?"
"Oh yeah!" The filly nodded eagerly. "She was cute. Nice smile, too. Not much for mysteries though." He admitted, tapping his book. "He left a while back. Why all the questions? Did something…" The filly's mouth opened slightly. "…wait…is…is he?"
"…he…he died." Sunset admitted quietly, his voice lowering slightly.
"Th-that can't be. Their MOM picked them up. That…that NEVER happens." The filly mumbled, holding his head in one hoof. "I could tell how much she loved them, what…I don't get it…"
"Loved "them"? Wait…wait, did she have family at the home?" Sunset realized, eyes widening.
"Yeah. Two older brothers. Kale and Ronnie." The filly admitted as Sunset felt a chill rise in him.
"…what happened to them?"
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… "Welfare, police records, nothing, nothing, nothing, no, no, NO." Shinedown groaned, holding a hoof to his head as he paced back and forth in Sheriff Applejack's office. "Their mother is dust in the wind! How can we not pin her down?"
"Probably because she's, y'know, on the run." Sheriff Applejack said, rolling her eyes. "Hittin' her abusive husband with a brick ONCE might getcha cheers. Hitting him five times is overkill. Maybe we'll catch her a'breakin' the speed limit out on Route 41." She wondered aloud, leaning back in her chair and rubbing her chin.
"I FOUND IT!" They turned their heads to see Sunset rushing into the room, panting heavily, holding a sample of some of the hair they'd found. "I ran it through the database. Ding-ding-diiing! I got a hit! Someone from Princess Celestia's reserve guard." He told them, tossing the small plastic bag at Sheriff Applejack, who caught it in her hooves as Sunset quickly leapt over Shinedown with a "Heeyup" and landed on the desk, typing away and bringing up the needed files. "Here we go…"
AN HOUR LATER…
"Mr. Phoebus…this is, I'm sure, a first for you. I imagine usually you're the one bringing people in here, not the other way around." Sheriff Applejack admitted. "Now, we wanna ask you a few questions, see?" She inquired of the white-furred Pegasus as he nervously fiddled with his stubby, square-cut hair, Shinedown and Sunset standing outside with several other police officers as they all looked on in to hear Mr. Phoebus T. Stallion's story.
"I'm really not sure what this is about." The brown-eyed Pegasus insisted. "I don't have any kind of record."
"I know, I know. You reserve guard are very important. Not everyone can even make it into THAT. You're a lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky luck boy. But couldja tell me…why we found your hair at a crime scene at Quiet Falls, off of Fifth and Main?"
"What?" The Pegasus stupidly blinked in confusion.
"Your hair was found in a garbage can in Quiet Falls." Sheriff Applejack said with a shrug. "How'd that happen?"
"Wait…that? Oh, you're not going to arrest me for dumping trash illegally, are you?" The Pegasus asked nervously.
"There was a dead foal's body in the trash." Applejack said bluntly, the expression on the Pegasus pony's face becoming horrified.
"…wh-what?"
"There was a DEAD…FOAL'S…BODY…IN THAT GARBAGE BIN." Applejack growled out, leaning in over the interrogation table and getting up close and personal into the stallion's face. "Now then. Why…were you there? Start talkin'."
"Look, I-I didn't know anythin' about no dead bodies! I was just taking this bin out to somewhere the stuff would get picked up. This lady wanted me to do some chores for her for uh…some favors…" The Pegasus stammered. "I didn't know there was a dead kid in there, I swear!"
"What did this mare look like?" Applejack asked.
"Brown fur, really bad makeup, brownish/red…" The pegasus mumbled as he scratched his head. "Name's "Dezire". She's…um…she uh…she works out of "Sanders Matthews's place."
"S&M? THE S and M? The rapper?" Applejack asked.
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…indeed.
Some people only see my white fur, ignorin' skill,
Cuz I stand out with my ears and my orange grill!
"I will NEVER understand rap music." Applejack insisted as they made their way through the neon-lit walls of S&M's Dance Club, "affectionately" titled the "LKL Bar and Grill". And if you don't know police slang, you're probably better off not asking what the LKL stands for. If you do…let us say the title was very, VERY well deserved. Especially if you really pissed off the dancers inside, one of which was off her pole and talking to a skinny stallion in the back, brushing her large earrings back…with burnt sienna makeup all over her face, a purple wig on her head…
"Baby, I tell you, we've got brands of ALL sizes back there." The pony insisted to the stallion, holding his head in her hooves. "My daddy aaaaallways asks where-oh-where did I get that print?" She chuckled, shaking his head slightly back and forth before Shinedown cleared his throat, Sunset sitting on his back as Sheriff Applejack, flanked by several other officers, held up a pair of handcuffs.
"Hello." She said with a large grin. "Time to russle you up."
"Oh hell no, you can't arrest me for this kinda stuff, I gotta license-get your hooves offa me!" Dezire shrieking as they led her outside. But it wasn't long before she went from loudly protesting to smugly defiant as they sat her down in the interrogation room after collecting a DNA sample.
"Slam dunk." Sunset said, handing the collected results to Shinedown and Sheriff Applejack as they looked them over in the room. "A match to the hairs we found…a match to the other DNA and…a match to hers."
"You have SEVEN alleles in common with the victim." Shinedown murmured. "That makes you related…to the victim. Now, to starve…anyone…is…is beyond…me." Shinedown mumbled at her, looking up from the folder at the woman as she calmly folded her hands across her considerably large bosom. "But…to do it to a CHILD…A RELATIVE…that's simply unforgivable." The horse snarled.
"It wasn't even LIKE that. My stupid cousin left me with three brats and no money!" The mare hissed. "How the hell was I supposed to feed 'em?!"
"You sure don't look like you've missed any meals." Shinedown snapped right back at her, looking at her chest.
"Screw you, buddy, I JUST scrape by!" She yelled.
"Even if you DIDN'T have any money, why didn't you just report your circumstances to social services and have THEM do your job for you?" Applejack wanted to know.
"My cousin Mally had gotten burned by them before. She woulda killed me if I'd done that." Dezire said with a shrug.
"And what the heck do you think she's gonna do to you when she finds out her son is dead?" Sunset muttered.
"Now you tell us…" Shinedown growled out, slamming his hooves into the table as Dezire gulped nervously. "WHERE ARE THOSE KIDS!?"
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… "Can you believe this?" Shinedown snapped as he held up an envelope he'd collected from the woman's bedroom in her condo, Sunset gently patting one of the children on the back as they carefully and slowly ate some peanut butter sandwiches, Sheriff Applejack on the phone with the children's mother as they and a small group of policemen looked around Dezire's home for other evidence in her upcoming trial. "She WAS sending money. Ms. Mally Marchen sent 300 just last week. And that…that DISGUSTING excuse for a mare used 200 of that on an XBOX."
"You're going to be alright." Sunset gently told little Kale as the young foal nodded nervously in between bites of his sandwich. "She can't hurt you anymore, okay? Your mom's on her way here, alright? You're safe now."
"The mom's on her way." Sheriff said, turning the phone off. "She'll be here in two hours. She's…pretty broken up about her kid."
"…she left her kids with a hooking, pole-dancing pony. She should have known better." Shinedown mumbled. "…but…I think you should let her see Kale and Ronnie first, ma'am." He insisted to the sheriff. "I think that the dead can wait."
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…
…the wind. It was so nice against his face, he decided, sitting down at the tiny grave, some flowers freshly placed in a pot nearby as Sheriff Applejack stood off in the distance, some feet away from the graveyard's gate as her other friends looked on, Big Mac also standing with them.
"He's been there for a while." Applejack admitted.
"Eeeyup." Big Mac sighed.
"…I guess he felt it couldn't wait anymore."
"…I don't know what I'm supposed to say." Shinedown admitted. "…sorry I haven't come back sooner?...oh, that's stupid, that's…" He slapped his face, groaning a bit. "…I just…I just know I really miss you, Sunset. Having a partner like you was the best gift my sister ever gave to me. But I'd give up every nice thing I ever had if it meant you could come back to me." He managed to get out, covering his eyes with one arm as the tears began to form.
The grave was silent. There would be no answer he could expect. But Shinedown kept talking.
"…I gained so much. But I suffered loss as well, haven't I? You made the paper, y'know. I think you would have liked that, so…so I…"
He coughed and hacked, a small little pouch falling out from his mouth as he removed the contents, and put some duct tape on the back of an article displaying the headline "Heroic Rookie Killed in Duty".
"Front page, Sunset…just like you wanted…"
