Debt
"Captain Backwater, open this damned door now!" shouted a very angry voice from behind the window framed door which read P.I Backwater with a few spelling mistakes and shoddily painted letters. I stirred slightly but just brushed the voice off and wanting to go back to my drunken sleep I picked up a nearby missile, which was a Goldman Cider bottle and threw it at the door.
Since I was experiencing a fairly bad hangover and had just been roused I missed the door and instead hit a hanging photo of me and my wife on the wall next to the door. The glass in the frame of the picture broke and the photo fell off the wall and with a loud smash the frame was destroyed completely.
"Backwater you know the deal now this is my final demand or by Celestia we will break this door down and take your kidneys!" yelled the angry voice from the other side of the door which was being hammered on with a huge amount of force now.
"Backwater get the buck up now!" shouted the voice one more time before the world spiralled into a never-ending purple smoke swirl and I cracked my eyes open slowly.
I was waking up in reality now and I knew that because the hangover I'd had in the dream was now fifty times worse. I quickly moved my hooves over the desk until I found what I was looking for. Popping in some head soother pills I coughed and rubbed my scratchy throat as a small knock alerted me to a guest by the door.
I looked around the disgusting one room apartment with its boarded up windows and peeling wallpaper. Cockroaches controlled the corners whilst the bathroom had been seized by maggots and flies that were constantly under attack by a thriving ants nest in the ventilation system.
Different branded cider bottles lay strewn around all parts of the room but were concentrated heavily in the centre which had the desk I was sitting at with all my papers and other worthless possessions in my pathetic life.
The little knock was slightly louder this time but I heard it quite clearly now that I was up. I grabbed my ceremonial dagger from the desk and staggered over to the door until I was right up against it with the knife half-heartedly poised to kill anypony who had a grudge against me.
"Who is it and what do you want" I coughed out, afterwards exploding into a fit of hacks and coughs most likely due to the foul ventilation. "Sorry but is this residence of P.I Backwater or have I got the wrong apartment number" said an awfully posh sounding mare's voice.
I put the Phonograph which was on the floor on a table and opened the door for the lady. She was about my age and dressed in a pure white dress and like me she looked depressed at getting old and although forty for most was a blessing and not actually old for mare's and stallions with a line of work like mine it was a time for mourning the good life.
She however looked to be taking it better than me, actually she brought the smell of freshness into my hole of a home which made me feel sick since I was used to the high toxic levels of the apartment. She however was equally disgusted with the smells my apartment had and held a handkerchief to her mouth as if it would defend her from a pack of jackals of something.
"Sorry about the smell miss but, cleaning bills are too high nowadays right?" I said trying to make pleasant conversation. She smiled but didn't reply, simply putting her handkerchief away and sitting upright in the chair on the other side of the desk, which was also my bed. I went over to the broken backed chair I'd slept in and sat with a straight back (which is a challenge for a pony) and looked over at her in a very business fashion despite my untidy brown mane, unshaven face and dishevelled suit and what smelt like vomit coming from my pure white and slightly dirty coat of fur.
"I've heard from many that you were in the Royal Guard Backwater" began the mare but I interrupted her sharply stating "Yes I served since I was seventeen until I was thirty-nine". "Ah and how old are you now" she asked a bit too curiously. "I'm…I'm forty-one" I said between deep breaths, I really needed a drink.
She looked at me with a sad expression and quickly began an attack which I wasn't ready for. "So you now sit here and drink yourself to death because younger ponies look better in their Uniforms"?! I could have been angry but instead I was just bored, so many had tried to do this but I was so use to this I simply mumbled "You either want my services or not, you can't just come into my home and accuse me so if you don't need my help then hop it but if you actually need help then state your job and give me half my fee in advance".
She leaned forwards and locked her pale blue eyes with my hard brown and plain ones. A staring competition was initiated and we both weren't eager to back down. Although she was a lady through and through she had a glint in her eye which I didn't like very much. Our staring competition ended when she threw a brown file onto my lap. I broke eye contact and opened the file. I gasped at what I saw before myself. These were Royal Documents of the highest level; it even had Celestia's personal seal.
"Where did you get these?" I asked in shock, reaching into my desks draw to get another bottle of cider which I desperately needed. "Let's just say that the Royal Guard has dropped the ball in recent years and now its child play to get past their security".
I looked at her and then back at the documents and began to read through the top one carefully. It read:
Security Level 9 Clearance
This Document may only be viewed by a member belonging to the Royal Family under punishment of Quantum Displacement.
Prisoner Clearwater was born during the time of the three tribes to a unicorn family and served in the guard to after the three tribes united under the banner of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. An incredibly talented Unicorn, was taken for training by Starswirl the Bearded (see file 2980) that believed her to be able to take up his mantle upon his approaching death.
Prisoner Clearwater however couldn't wait for Starswirl's death so took the matter into her own hands using a destructive spell to blow a hole in the back of Starswirl however being seen by a servant outside compromised this evil prisoner and led to her incarceration using a time spell and then sealing her deep inside the castle of _ located in the Everfree Forest.
Prisoner should be treated with utmost caution, still known to give off magical resonance and potential to break out of prison. If magical disturbance in area of time spell may cause deterioration or complete Prisoner displacement of this dimension.
DO NOT REMOVE THIS FILE FROM THE ROYAL ARCHIVE SAFE ROOM
I looked up at the mare who was staring aimlessly around the room as if she wasn't showing me a top secret document which would give us all life in Stalliongrad Prison and completely erase our existence from society.
"I'm guessing that you had to crack a few vaults to get access to these" I remarked as I flicked through a few more pages in the file. "As I said before Backwater, the Royal Guard and in fact Celestia are all trapped in the delusion that this Empire is a nice little bundle of joy which doesn't have high crime or hate but you and I know the difference" the mare said with almost a sorry look on her face.
"I don't get what you want me to do though, I mean I wouldn't know where to begin investigating anything that happened a thousand years ago and if I did try it would require me to break the law which Is something I usually refrain from doing" I told her sternly, taking a few gulps from a nearby bottle of cider.
"Well you see now Mr Backwater, I haven't even told you what I would like you to do yet so I think it's fair that you hear me out about this" she said in a very commanding tone. "I understand you are heavily in debt to many rich ponies and thugs all across Manehattan and so if you do the job I need you to do I will not only pay every single debt off but I'll give you enough money to buy millions of bottles of cider so you can drink yourself to your heart's desire".
I looked up at her, listening carefully to her offer. Frankly I didn't care much if the debts weren't paid all that would happen was the repossession of my apartment and in the cases of the cities criminals who I owed money to probably a trip into the sewers.
However more cider meant less pain so I quickly asked "Ok what do you need me to find"? "Not what Mr Backwater… but who" answered the mare. "You see Clearwater is in my opinion a pony who if given the right instruction can be pushed to do great things, almost like toppling an Empire or perhaps strengthening it in a way that nopony could ever again threaten it which is why you are going to go a free her from her prison and in doing so free yourself of all your debt" explained the mare who I now believed to be one of the ponies I owed bits too having a laugh.
"You cannot be serious" I began, "For a start by just reading five minutes through this file it says she is criminally insane and a powerful magic user the like of which nopony should mess with and on top of all that I'm a detective… that means I investigate things, take a few photos, sneak around and write a report on it at the end of the day for some stallion who thinks their mare has a lover not a bloody mercenary sword for hire, besides I'm an Earth Pony how can I break a magical barrier!" I finished with my hoof pounding the table.
"I see… well I have something that might make you change your mind Backwater" said the mare rather coolly, taking a brush and combing her pristine hair. "Well if it's all the cider in the world no sale" I answered, putting my head in my hooves as I tried to make the pounding headache which had started go away.
"You do realise that this girl here had the power of life and death itself" said the mare. "So what" I said looking up. "Well maybe I didn't explain well enough, it means she can reach into the underworld and pluck ponies like your wife from its stony halls and pull them into this world" explained the mare quite smugly, knowing it would get my attention.
I shot up like a bolt from a crossbow and looked at her with my sleep depraved eyes ferociously. "Who told you about my wife" I said dangerously. The mare didn't look so threatened and responded "Oh nobody, but I'm telling you now that it would be like nothing ever happened, you could go back to the way things used to be… well minus the fact that you wouldn't be in the Royal Guard of course but think about it, you'd be rich and have your wife back" she explained knowing that the next question she asked would win me over.
"Don't you want to live again"? I thought about this for a minute, staring into nothing. I looked around the poor and wretched, bottle covered and insect infested room and answered "yes". "Well then read the file I gave you and bring the girl to the Celestia Tower in five days at midnight and everything will be fixed" she said getting up from her seat.
"How do I know you'll keep your word and that the girl won't just kill me when I free her?" I asked with many other doubts besides the ones I'd just pointed out present in my mind. "Trust in faith Mr Backwater, maybe you'll find it is more rewarding than you have been led to believe" said the mare trotting over to the door and exiting it without another word.
I sat there and stared as her blurred figure through the window frame on my door with the peeling letters and thought I saw it flicker for just a moment before the mare whose name I hadn't even been given left and with her carried the hopes of my return to normal life.
The file wasn't large so I picked up a saddle bag with a picture of a tree being blown greatly by the winds and put the file into it. Next I put a bottle of cider in the saddlebag since it was a long way to the castle in the Everfree forest.
I got out a map from my desk and folded it into it as well along with a book on magic which I'd never read before or thought important. Then I headed to the corner of the room and after chasing away the cockroaches I reached under my mattress and got out a beautiful, jewel encrusted short sword with a refined sharp diamond edge and a small black case containing a clever little gadget I'd been given from the weapon smith at Canterlot before I'd been discharged.
Next I quickly rummaged around and found a bottle of old looking water and taking a breath I poured it all over me and combed my mane a bit before dressing in a new suit and donning a hat which I only wore because I wasn't allowed to wear a war helmet anymore.
Packing all my stuff in to my saddlebag, I thought that this was probably the best time to leave since I wasn't drunk and headed out the door and down the stairs of the grotty block. Hitting the busy streets I hailed a cab which was pulled by a scrawny tired looking stallion.
I looked at my map and up at him. He asked "Where to buddy"? I climbed into the cab's back and responded the train station, and from there to Ponyville". He nodded and the taxi took off towards what i expected to be an easy job...
Big Thank You to The Awes0me 0ne for editing!