Chapter 6
Me and My Shadow
I was in the office early the next first night. I'd like to say it was because I'd went to bed early and gotten plenty of sleep. But opposite day still wasn't a legal holiday, so I couldn't. I sat at my desk, Luna's letter open before me, as I waited for Ori to arrive. She always showed up a half hour before I usually did. She'd come in, put the coffee on, scan the papers for any items of interest, and set up my schedule, such as it was, for the day. She should be in any minute. To pass the time I read Luna's letter one more time, any hope that the words had changed somehow were quickly dashed.
Dear Johnny,
I am both shocked and overjoyed to receive your missive. It's obvious that all of the faith my sister had placed in you was justified. In only one days time in your hunt for our missing pony, you managed to find a lead on a case that has been cold for over a thousand years. I'm sure by now you have received some correspondence from my sister to verify that yes, the Maretese Phoenix does indeed exist. Judging from the fact that she has so far failed to contact me, I can only conclude that she doesn't wish to raise my hopes against dear Phil's recovery. I would imagine she has instructed you to do the same.
That being said, I cannot tell you how happy I am that you have chosen to make me aware of the situation. Rest assured I will not mention this fact to my sister, nor will you be put into a position where you will be forced to chose what information goes where.
This is because I have decided that, due to the increasing importance of our objectives, you shall no longer bear the sole responsibility of completing your assigned task. I am assigning you a partner.
Now I know you may harbor some misgivings over this, but let me assure you that the pony I have in mind will in no way hinder your efforts. She is, in many ways, just like you. Consider her to be my version of one of my sister's operatives. I will let her debrief you tomorrow. Expect her in your office at the start of your day.
Also, to be clear, although you will be her superior in this operation, she will report directly to me. From this point forward, anything you have to say to me, you can say to her. She has already been briefed about her status, and has been ordered to follow your lead in all things, unless directly ordered otherwise by myself. I expect you two will get along just swimmingly.
Sincerely,
Luna
I put down the missive as I hear the outer door open. Noticing the lights are on, Ori makes her way into my office.
"My, somepony's here early." She says with a smile. "Have a busy day yesterday entertaining the royalty?"
"Ori, you don't know the half of it. Pull up a chair, but not the fancy on over there, and I'll fill you in."
Ori casts a curious glance at the chair in question, as I quickly bring her up to speed on the events of the last twenty-four hours.
She whistle's appreciatively. "You sure pack your day full of minutes boss. So I'm guessing you wanted to tell me a few things before we lose our... privacy?" She asks, glancing at the clock on the wall.
Our 'guest' should be arriving shortly. And Ori was right, there were several things I needed to talk to her about before Luna's spy... I mean, my new partner, arrived.
I dug out the key I found from Bab's apartment, and gave it to Ori, and told her what I wanted done. Then I told her the name of the pony that I recognized from Bab's list of associates and friends, and had her begin a search for her current whereabouts. The last thing I told her about was the chair. Yes, I'm keeping it, and yes I wanted it cleaned, preferably today.
I had just settled into my first cup of coffee, and had begun examining the first night paper that Ori had brought in with her, when I heard the door to the outer office open once again. I glanced up at the clock. Nine on the dot. A moment later Ori walked into my office.
"Johnny, I believe the pony you were expecting has arrived." She said, an odd look on her face.
"Send her in Ori, we might as well get this over with." I say in return, placing my paper aside.
No sooner had Ori cleared the door, than the pony in question walked in. Surprisingly, it was a she. She was tall for a mare, almost my own height. A unicorn, like myself. Her coat was a dark storm cloud gray, and her mane was black as midnight. She wore a stylish black dress with petticoats of the type that was currently the rage in Whinnyappleous. She was lithe, and walked with confidence. She worked out, you could tell by the way she moved. And then there were her eyes. There was unshakable confidence there. An almost mocking pride. She was arrogant. Hmm, Luna said she was one of her agents, obviously not a desk clerk this one. Certainly not hard on the eyes.
She sat down without waiting to be asked. No manners on this one either. They must take lessons from their boss.
"Mr. Appleseed." She says, extending a hoof in greeting. "I was sent her to assist you by direct order of Princess Luna. I assume you were expecting me?"
For a brief moment I considered kissing the extended hoof, but I somehow doubted that old fashioned chivalry would go over well with this one. Instead I settled on a brief hoofshake.
"Indeed," I say in reply. Luna did inform me to expect your arrival this morning Mrs..."
"Moonlight Shadow." She says.
"Charmed. And please, just call me Johnny."
"Very well, in that case you may call me just Shadow."
"How apropos." I say in return, "since you will be my shadow for the upcoming endeavor."
The faintest of smiles quickly flits across her muzzle.
"Mrs. Shadow, may I be completely honest?"
"I would hope for nothing less," she says leaning forward attentively.
"Mrs. Shadow. According to this," I gesture briefly at the missive from Princess Luna, "you were sent here to be my partner for the duration of this case. To be frank, I neither want, nor need a partner. And even if that wasn't the case, I cannot, despite whatever level of competency you posses, consider you one." I hold up a hoof to forestall any protest. "Allow me to finish please. A partner in my profession is a being you trust implicitly. Someone whom you are willing to place your life into their hooves without a moments hesitation. That level of trust has to be earned over along period of time, and no decree, from no matter how high a source, can alter that fact.
I acknowledge the fact that we both have to work together on this case. And I will share whatever information we uncover equally between us. That being said I have neither the time, nor the inclination to school you in my methods, or shepherd you out of harms way. I will assume that as my counterpart, you already understand the dangers of this city, and I expect you will be able to take care of yourself if a situation arises. I also expect you to follow the letter of Luna's request in that you don't go off on your own, and that you will follow my lead, and not step out of line. This is my investigation, and I fully expect you to handle things MY way. Do we have an understanding Mrs. Shadow?"
I look her directly in the eyes during my diatribe. Her expressions tightens, as I continue. By the time I am finished I can tell it is taking much of her self control to maintain her decorum.
"It's Miss." She says.
"Beg pardon?" I say momentarily caught off guard.
"It's Miss." She repeats. "Miss Shadow. I detest the word Mrs.. It makes you sound like you have a muzzle full of bees." She says before smiling mischievously.
Well I'll be a son of a mule. SHE was studying ME the whole time. By the goddess, I think she'll do.
I smile back in return. "Of course Miss Shadow, I shan't make the mistake of misjudging you in the future."
"Oh I rather doubt that." She says in reply, in a voice that makes my heart jump just a little. "So, shall we go over what you already have? I have the report Luna gave me, but I'd like to hear whatever insights you may have, as well as what you think our next move should be."
I spend the next few hours going over almost everything with her. I say almost, because I have a hunch about something, and I'm not about to trust somepony I just met, especially not another spy. She listens attentively, asking all the right questions. She's done this before. Well, at least Luna didn't stick me with a rookie. I look at the clock and see it's almost what outsiders would consider 'noon'.
"Care to grab a bite?" I ask.
"I could eat. What did you have in mind?" She says in return.
"La Carrousel." I say, grabbing my coat.
"Ugh, I hate Prance cuisine. Could I twist your leg and talk you into a hayburger?" she asks back.
My opinion of her goes up a notch. "Not this time I'm afraid. La Carrousel is the place our missing pony was working at up until her disappearance. I think we should drop in." I note a brief look of disgust on her face. "Fine, There's a 'Five Ponies' on the way, best hay burgers and fries in town." I say holding open the door.
I stop at Ori's desk on the way out. She hasn't got back from the errand I sent her on. I leave a note on the desk explaining where I was going, and then Shadow and I hit the streets. 'Five Ponies' is only two blocks away, so we just walk there. We take our orders out to the steam bus stop and make small talk while we nosh. By the time the bus shows up, we've finished our meal. The bus is packed this time of day and the only two seats available are separated by two rows and on the opposite sides of the isle. I let Shadow take the front seat, as I setting in the back next to a zebra couple holding a small colt. He sits on his mother's lap fast asleep as she gently rocks him in her hooves. The father has his head in a book. Something about genetics on the cover. Looks thick and dry. Give me a sci-fi or fantasy any night.
I take a few moments to discreetly observe Shadow. Despite her designer dress, she looks perfectly at home on a crowded bus filled with the rank and file. I can't help but feel that she'd look that way no matter where we were. Part of an agent's training was to do just that, look like you belonged. I try to imagine what sort of training she's had. Couldn't be like what I went through, she still looks sane.
My thoughts drift back. All the way back to Celesta's School for Gifted Unicorns. It was a totally different world. I was so green back then. All I wanted was to be the best in the class. But that wasn't going to happen. No, no matter how good I was, Twilight was always just a little better. Oh sure, I developed faster in practical application, but when it came to magical theory, and spell matrices, she had me hooves down. I suppose it was inevitable that we'd develop a thing for each other. That night in the library, that first kiss...
It was then that I noticed Shadow staring at me. I must have been looking at her this whole time. I blushed furiously, looking away. Goddess, where did that come from? A moment later the bus came to a stop. Our stop. I quickly got up with Shadow and the others and made my way outside.
We could see 'La Carrousel' from here, just a little ways up the block. We began walking toward the restaurant. I felt compelled for some reason to explain myself in the bus, just as I was about to speak Shadow's name an explosion threw us from our hooves.
We shakily got ourselves upright. The restaurant we had been making our way towards was on fire. All of the glass of the windows and doors lay shattered across the street outside from the force of the explosion moments before. Neither of us said a word as we began to sprint toward the front of the building.
A steam bus that had been passing by the front of the restaurant had taken the brunt of the explosive force and had fallen on it's side. Ponies had begun to crawl of the shattered windows and onto the street to join other ponies that simply stood there dazed and bleeding, obviously in shock.
As I turned to issue instructions to Moonlight, I noticed that she was no longer by my side. Up ahead I saw her poke her head out of the damaged bus, as she handed up an injured pony into the waiting hooves of a former passenger on the edge of a window frame. I shook my head in disbelief. Teleporting into an unknown situation, and a barely perceived location? Was she insane?
She was just climbing out of the bus as I passed it by, heading into the entrance of the ruined restaurant. Tirek having a throw down with Sombra couldn't have caused as much devastation as what I saw in what was left of the dining area. I carefully made my way through and over piles of flaming debris as I moved toward the kitchens. I had been prepared for the worst, but surprisingly there were no bodies in the outer area. Apparently they must close after the lunch rush to prepare for the first night crowds.
The kitchen area was another story. Judging by the blast pattern the explosion must have occurred somewhere back there, and the force of the blast having nowhere else to go blew outwards through the front taking out the thin divider wall from the kitchen and the dining area. It must have been one hell of an explosion to decimate the dining area and still have enough force to turn over a bus.
I started to step through the opening in the blown out wall, and then paused one hoof still in the air. What I saw before me was something I hoped to never see again. The sight of those that were dead I took in stride, my job didn't allow for anything less. It was the living that were still in that room...
'La Carrousel' employed a large staff. Waiters, waitresses, chefs, sous chefs, assistants, and gophers (the ponies that went and fetched things, not the actual animal.) Not to mention the various others required to keep a restaurant afloat in a sea of competition. To carry that analogy one step further, it looked like the competition had come about and put a full broadside across her hull. The few survivors were sinking fast.
There were bodies everywhere. No, there were pieces of bodies everywhere. I was still frozen in the middle of the blown out wall. My body was in the present surrounded by flaming wreckage, the smell of blood and burnt flesh hot in my nostrils, but my mind was lost twenty years in the past. The classroom, the screams, the blood, so much blood, and Twilight... The look on her face as she stared at me. A mixture of horror and loathing. I knew in that instant, that she would never look upon me the same way ever again.
I was shoved from behind.
"What are you doing? Moonlight yells, "I can hear the screams from out in the lobby. Stop standing around and HELP them." She says shoving me inside.
I stumble forward. My hooves step in a pool of blood. It's warm. Moonlight pushes past me, going over to a mare missing a leg, her eyes wide in shock. Moonlight looks around frantically for the missing limb. Finally she locates it, but it's been destroyed beyond hope of repair. She turns back to the stricken mare. She uses her magic to stop the flow of blood and seal the wound over. She looks back at me angrily. I haven't moved since I entered the room.
"What are you waiting for?!" She yells at me, her frustration and anger rising. "Hurry up and use your magic to help theses poor ponies. I can't save them all on my own."
"I can't," I say quietly, not meeting her gaze.
"What do you mean you can't?" she all but roars back.
"I mean I can't!" I shout back. "I'm not able to. I'm a render, not a mender, I don't HAVE any healing magic!"
She looks at me for a moment. The disappointment in her eyes perfectly mirrors that of Twilight so long ago.
"Then what good are you?" she says finally, before turning away and moving to the next almost dead pony.
I look around at the living and the dead. The one rapidly becoming the other. As tears began to form I force myself to move forward. Nearby I see a rack of aprons that had remained mostly undamaged. I concentrate for a moment and rend them all to to tattered strips. I carry them in the air behind me as I move.
I force myself into detachment as I go from pony to pony. I may not have healing magic, but I know basic first aid as well as emergency field surgery. I had no tools except what I could improvise, but if I could save even one pony I knew I had to at least try. The first one I came to was missing an eye. He had half of a metal salad tong embedded in his shoulder. He was unconscious, but breathing steadily. I was glad he was out. This was going to hurt. I braced my hooves against him holding him down, and pulled the tong free with my magic. I let it bleed for a few moments since I had no way to sterilize the inside of the wound, then I packed it with apron pieces until the bleeding stopped, and bound it as well as the empty eye socket.
I moved onto the next one. She was a waitress, very pretty, but already dead, I shook my head sadly, and moved on. After her was a colt. He barely looked eighteen, an apprentice to a chef by the looks of what was left of his clothing. One leg was at an odd angle, and he had a deep long gash across his chest. He was looking at me and smiling, obviously still in a state of shock.
"Je suis sûr que ce ne est pas aussi mauvais que ça en al'air." He says, grinning like a fool.
"Pas du tout," I say in reply. "Mais garder avec moi pendant que je essaie de vous amener jusqu'à cousus. "
I cast about looking for something I can use as a needle. The goddess must be smiling upon me because I find a whole kit of trussing needles as well as spools of cooking twine of various thickness. I pick the smallest of each, and levitate a bottle of cooking sherry from across the room over to the young colt.
"Excellente. Je ne pouvais vraiment utiliser un verre dès maintenant!" He says.
"Désolé ami, ce ne est pas pour boire. Je crains que cela peut piquer un peu." I say in reply before pouring half the contents across the open wound.
"AHHHH! Putain, ce est pas comment on bénéficie d'un xérès..." he says, before mercifully passing out.
I use some of the sherry on the thread and go to work, making a neat row of close packed stitches across his chest, then I set his broken arm, using two wooden salad spoons as a splint and binding them with apron strips before moving on.
The next victim was a high ranking chef, you could tell by the height of what was left of his hat. It was missing half of the hundred pleats, that smart ass part of my mind that never fully shuts up wondered if that meant he could now only make fifty varieties of eggs. He was breathing heavily and clutching his side, a thin trickle of blood was seeping from his muzzle with every labored breath. I carefully unbuttoned his white double breasted jacket. Raising his undershirt I could see an ugly purple bruise along his side. I gently probed the area eliciting a gasp of pain as I felt around. Three broken ribs, likely punctured a lung. This I could not fix.
"Moonlight, this one needs you!" I shout, "punctured lung, broken ribs."
She looks over at me, her gaze softening somewhat as she sees what I have been doing.
"Switch with me, the ones along this wall were farthest away from the blast." She says as she hurries over. She's smart, she puts me where I can do the most good with what I am able to do.
After thirty agonizing minutes the Helping Hooves finally arrive. They are Luna's emergency response teams. They have their own customized steam buses which contain everything from first aid to field surgery as well as firefighting equipment and water tanks. Close behind them comes the Night Watch. I find the captain of the watch, and show him both my credentials and the writ from the princess. I persuade him to allow us to investigate the source of the blast before they come in with their own team. Whatever objections he may have had were washed away after reading Luna's orders.
It doesn't take a detective to find where the blast originated. It was just behind the kitchen proper in the small break area where the staff had their lockers containing their personal items. The coolers and freezers were on the other side and the thick steel walls insured that the blast was directed outward from here toward the front of the building. Even so the steel of the walls had buckled from the force of the blast attesting to just how strong the explosive was. Needless to say there was almost nothing left intact.
I consider my options. Before I can make a decision however, I decide to check something first.
"Moonlight, what forensic spells do you know?" I ask.
"Caballiopometry, hemotypografry, dactyloscopy, which is useless of course for ponies," she says, "let's see a spell to detect fibrous anomalies, the past/present spell of course, the luminescent fluids spell, also-"
"Past/present spell. Where you can use traces of the remains of a place to show us a vision of what things looked like in the past? That's an extremely complex and difficult spell. You can cast that?" I ask, impressed despite myself, hells I sure couldn't cast it.
"Yes of course. Give me just a moment to prepare." She says her gaze becoming unfocused.
While she is getting ready, I go out and find the captain, and fill him in on what we are about to do. By the time we return, Moonlight is ready. She looks at me and I nod back and she begins the spell. After a few moments a ghostly overlay begins to form about the room we are in. Moonlight wrinkles her brow and the overlay begins to change. It takes me a second to understand what I am seeing. The overly of the room is showing events in reverse. As we watch the explosion moves backwards in on itself. After another moment the blast is sucked in to a familiar looking ring of underground explosives. The same kind that was teleported into my office, only this time there was no Luna here to save anypony. Time inches backwards, and we see the ring vanish, and what looks to be the manager of the restaurant close a locker and then back away from in toward the kitchen an empty box is floating beside him by the magic of his horn.
"Stop that image." I say, as the scene before me comes to a halt. "Now play it forward slowly."
Slowly the manager approaches the locker again and opens the door wide.
"Freeze it." I say again, and the image ceases it's movements.
I walk over behind the image of the manager and peer into the open locker. On the back wall of it is a picture, obviously taken from one of those photo booths. It's a picture of a cream colored earth pony, and beside her with a hoof around her shoulder is Babs. Just like I thought. This was Bab's locker. The manager was probably cleaning it out. Assumed since she hasn't shown up or answered any calls that she must have quit.
I study the contents of the locker as best I can, not being able to touch anything. Her uniform hangs on the inside of the door. On the inner shelf lies a book about archeology. Nothing else in there that I can see. Hold on, there's a business card inside the book being used as a book mark. I snort in frustration, it's too far inside the book to make out anything. But then an idea occurs to me.
"Moonlight, run it forward, just as slow as you can." I say, without bothering to turn around.
The scene creeps forward at a snails pace. Suddenly two small red lights appear at the back of the locker. After a moment I realize that they are from two tiny glowing red eyes, eyes that are not looking at me, but rather at the manager preparing to reach inside the locker. Suddenly the eyes wink out, and a now familiar ring of explosives appear in mid air. Without preamble they explode in a shock wave of slow moving death.
I ignore the disintegrating form of the manager as he comes apart from the blast, instead I focus all my attention on the book in the locker. I'm hoping to get insanely lucky. And for once I do. As the concussive force of the blast impacts against the locker, the book is jarred upwards, the card flies free, and I have less than a second to read it's contents with my photographic memory spell rune before it is atomized along with everything else in the room.
"Okay Moonlight, let it go," I say as her face relaxes and the room returns to normal.
"Well?" The captain asks expectantly, "What have you learned?"
"I'm sorry captain, that's classified at the moment. I'll let your department know as soon as I am able." I say, knowing that this will NOT endear me to the Night Watch.
He scowl's at me, but says nothing as I make my way out of the restaurant. Luna's writ will keep him off my back, which at this point is a very good thing.
"I take it you found a lead?" Moonlight asks, trotting up beside me. "I'll assume that you will be willing to share it with ME at least."
"Of course," I say as we round the corner, heading uptown, away from the carnage.
"It seems Luna wasn't telling me everything." I say, as we come to an empty steam bus stop.
"What do you mean by that?" Moonlight asks, a hint of iron in her voice. Hmm, somepony is very protective of her boss.
"I mean, that Luna never mentioned the fact that she had dealings with Babs." I say in reply.
"What gives you that idea?" She asks, "something you saw in her locker? What was it?"
Before I can answer a steam buss pulls up. It's side emblazoned with a familiar ad. I point to the ad, and smile grimly.
"That." I say.
She looks over at the advertisement. A picture of princess Luna with her hooves around the shoulders of two competent looking scientists. "Night Industries R & D, Keeping your future bright, in the city of night."
"Oh... buck." She mutters.
