"How many more need to die Starlight!" Starlight's assistant slammed her hoof down on the table. Natasha certainly wasn't the most patient pony, but she knew how to get a point across.

"We've lost too many officers! Filthy, Fancy, even the fucking mayor! How many more ponies need to die! Yegor's trap didn't even work!"

"Wait, what happened to Yegor?" Starlight said curiously.

"He was shot, and his stallions slaughtered. Next pony he's going to be after is the Mayor of Whinnyapolis."

"What makes you so certain that he'll go after her? She's practically useless and her job is already done."

"Because he's determined. There is nothing more dangerous then the will to win."

"Fine, we'll see what we can do."

Pulling the first sheet out of the folder, I noticed that it was a set of emails between the mayor and Starlight. Starlight was going under the alias of a stream of numbers. Smart, but if you have insight you already know what she did. She was promised a large sum of money if she were to cut off Whinnyapolis's terms of communication to the outside world. It must've worked because there was no news from Whinnyapolis for months now.

I threw that on the coffee table, then pulled out the next sheet. It was supposed to look like official police documentation on their rival gang, something wasn't right about it. It just seemed to be... too informative. They had everything, and I mean everything about this gang in fine print. That leaves the question, why didn't they do a bust on them? They didn't need me if they knew all this.

"Something isn't right about these."

"What is it?" Octavia said out of the kitchen, which too was connected to the living room I was in.

"Well for one, the police report seems to have been altered in the points regarding their affiliation with Starlight. It my just be a coincidence or a bad officer wrote the report. It's just off. Lastly, something tells me that Yegor wasn't who he said he was."

"I'm pretty sure I understand that..."

"Well there's more to it, there's no reason this gang would have affiliation with Starlight, there are a few thousand police officers in this city, there's no way a gang like this could overthrow them. The whole thing is off, it just can't be tr-." I stopped right there, in awe at what I saw.

"Cloud? You alright?"

I didn't respond.

"Cloud!"

"Serve and protect."

"What?"

"Serve and protect. That's what's on the badge of the Manehattan PD, not the Whinnyapolis PD."

"What do you mean?"

"They used the wrong stamp and signature on this report! The entire thing is fake! There's no way that this can be true unless it was written by the MPD, which it wasn't! It says on the report that it was filed by the Whinnyapolis PD, not Manehattan. This is as phony as a 3 bit bill!"

At this point Octavia was over my shoulder, reading the paper carefully.

"There's more." she said

"What?"

"Typos."

"What? Where?"

"Near the bottom, they misspelled Whinnyapolis, it has two N's, not one."

Sure enough it was right there, Whinyapolis. I reread it to make sure our eyes weren't playing tricks, and they weren't. I walked to the restroom, pulling my zippo out as I went there.

"What are you doing?"

"Ashes to ashes."

As soon as I was in the bathroom, I lit the paper on fire and watched it burn in the toilet bowl. It burned out quickly, leaving a small black stain on the bowl. The stain disappeared as soon it I flushed it. It was as if it never existed.

"Why'd you do that?"

"If anypony finds it, then my entire job is in jeopardy. I can't allow that to happen. I burned it to make sure that nopony could ever read it."

"Makes sense."

I trotted towards the fridge and pulled out a beer. I then walked over to the couch and turned on the TV. There were no channels, just static. The signal must've been cut. Whatever, it was the same with the radio.

"Octavia, I'm going to get some rest. You take the couch tonight."

At this she groaned, the couch was far from her favorite place to sleep. It'd have to do for tonight. I am not going to rest just yet, I need answers. I pulled the gem out from my bags and pressed on it, Twilight's face appeared in the image.

"Make it quick Cloud."

"What do you know about the Mayor of Whinnyapolis?"

"Why are you in Whinnyapolis?"

"I go where the chase brings me, now what do you know?"

"Well, she's not the nicest pony. She never married to spite against social norms, instead she just has a boyfriend that she lives with. She's known as 'Mrs. inhospitable' due to her emotional instability. She's been accused of taking bribes many times, the worst of which came from the possibility of her being bribed to lower police raids on gangs. Why?"

"She might be working with Starlight, were you aware that Whinnyapolis has been under military quarantine for the past three months?"

She was silent.

"Were you?" I said to her.

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently the Mayor has cut all access to the outside world. I didn't know about it so I guessed you didn't know either."

"Should I tell Celestia?"

"Not yet, I'll tell you when."

"Fine, not sure how much longer she can keep it a secret though."

"Don't worry, I work quickly."

"Anything else?"

"Watch your back, Starlight might be catching on."

"You got it, I'll see you later Dasher."

I hung up on that, how could she keep this lockdown that secret for this long? It just didn't make sense. I lied down on the bed, and was met with sleep.

Author's Notes:

Yes, the title is Latin. Yes, I do love Latin.