“Any luck?” Twilight called.

“Nope, not in my stack,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Nothing here either,” Shining Armor shouted from the other room.

The three had been there for some time in the large basement underneath the city courthouse, searching through the records of all imports and exports that the shipping companies were required to file. Although the documents were among the most-used in the courthouse, the room they were stored in was no less small or dingy. A bare lightbulb in the ceiling was their only source of light.

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were digging through the files of the Manehattan Shipping Company, a longtime regionally-owned corporation. Shining Armor was off in a small side-room which mainly housed records of Seashore Shipping Services, a recently-opened high-speed transport company from Vanhoover.

Twilight sighed. “We’ve been at this for hours, and still nothing.”

“Well, there’s a lot of records here,” Shining Armor said, walking into the room. “I’m surprised that we’ve even gone through as many as we have.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Twilight. “My eyeballs just feel like they’re going to fall out of my head.”

“Heh, you said it.” Rainbow paused and looked at her wings, stretching them out a tad. “How ’bout we take a break and hit the hay for the night?” she suggested. “Then we can get up early and finish ’em off before lunch.”

“Hmm… that’s not a bad idea,” Twilight said. “I could definitely do with some rest.”

“And food!” Shining Armor interjected. “We haven’t eaten since those hayburgers at lunch, and I’m starving.”

“Alright, everyone—put your files away, and write down where you were. That way we can make sure we start where we left off.” Twilight used her magic to put her file back together and shoved it back into its drawer. She pulled out a small pad and pen and wrote down the dates on the file before passing it to Rainbow Dash.

Once they all had finished, they left the room. Shining Armor brought up the rear, flicking the light switch off on his way out and shrouding the room in darkness.

Twilight rubbed the side of her muzzle with a napkin. “Thank you so much for dinner.” She sat on a plush purple pillow alongside Rainbow Dash; on the other side of the rectangular mahogany table, across from them, sat Mayor Quick Wit and Shining Armor.

The dining room was obviously intended for meetings with diplomats or city councilponies. Like the rest of the City Hall, the furnishings were garish—the table smooth and sleek, the carpeting clean and thick, the wallpaper detailed and intricate. Golden hoof-shaped protrusions in the wall held lit candles aloft, illuminating the room in a warm glow.

Rainbow lifted her head from her plate, licking her lips. “Mmm, yeah. Haven’t eaten this good since, like, Shining’s wedding.”

The mayor smiled. “Oh, it’s no trouble, believe me. Our Manehattan cuisine is indeed quite delicious and, as you’re doing a great service to our city, I thought it only fitting that you should get the best of the best.”

“Well, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Twilight shot back a concerned frown replacing her smile. “We still have a long way to go until we figure out what’s happened to these ponies. I mean, we do have a few different ideas to explore, but we can’t yet be certain if any of them are true.”

“Still, I’m quite impressed that the three of you were able to come up with any ideas at all,” the mayor replied, leaning back. “We’ve had a few detectives take a look at the case and immediately declare it unsolvable. Cited a lack of evidence.”

“Lack of evidence?” Rainbow asked, mouth half-full with spinach. She swallowed. “Guess they didn’t have these babies.” Smirking, she gestured to her magenta eyes. “One look at the crime scene, and I knew exactly what happened.”

“Oh?” the mayor asked, raising his eyebrows. “What would you say happened, then? Who did it?”

“Eheh… well, there are still a few teensy details we haven’t quite figured out yet,” Rainbow replied with a sheepish smile. “But we’re working on it.”

“Dash here found some deep-sea kelp residue at the sites,” Shining Armor explained, “so now we’re in the process of looking through the shipping records at the courthouse, to see if anyone’s imported any recently. It’s taking a while, but we should be able to finish tomorrow morning.”

The mayor, who had been staring forward blankly at the wall across the table, jumped backwards slightly. He gave Shining an odd look. “Oh! That’s wonderful. I wish you the best of luck tomorrow in finding… um… that.”

Shining looked at him, puzzled. “Something the matter, Mr. Mayor?”

“No, nothing at all… I’ve just remembered… I have some business to attend to, and I shouldn’t keep you any longer.” He wiped sweat from his brow with a foreleg. “Thank you so much, everypony, and good night. Captain Armor, if you could, please show these mares to their quarters once you all have finished.” With that, he jumped up from his seat and cantered through the northernmost door that led towards the mayor’s office and quarters. He slammed the door behind him, leaving the other three in silence.

Twilight picked at her spinach with a fork. “Did something… happen?”

“I’m sure he’s just stressed,” Shining replied. “He’s been having to answer a lot of questions about these disappearances, and he probably doesn’t know how to answer. Ponies are scared. Who’s to say they won’t be next? Plus, he did say that he had something else to attend to—I’m sure everything’s fine.” From his tone of voice, it sounded like Twilight wasn’t the only one he was reassuring.

“Mmmf… you guys ready to go, then?” Rainbow asked, shoving the last few cooked carrots into her mouth.

Twilight stood up and started to pick up the dishes with her magic.

“Hey, Twily, you can just leave the dishes for the servants to get,” Shining said.

“Oh, wow,” she replied, setting down the dishes. “I forgot that a city like this would probably have servants in the City Hall… I guess I’m more used to Ponyville now than living in the castle in Canterlot.”

“Heh, don’t sweat it; it’s good to be able to take care of yourself, anyway.”

The three of them walked out of the room. As Shining shut the door behind them, they found themselves in a long hallway. The large windows to their left overlooked the dark skyline of the city, peppered with small lights here and there. As they walked along, Twilight was reminded of the halls in Canterlot Castle; in fact, the entire Manehattan City Hall was more like a castle than a municipal government building. She made a mental note to look up the building’s history when she had a free moment; she knew that many of the major Equestrian cities had been duchies with their own monarchs and castles before the Equestrian unification and the Municipal Reform of 670, but she couldn’t remember whether Manehattan was one of them or just a newer city with an affinity for showing off its splendour.

“So, Shining, how’s it been working in Manehattan?” Rainbow asked. She had already started hovering, though she stayed closer to her companions than to the high ceiling overhead.

“Oh, it’s fine,” he replied. “I’m really only here because I’ve got experience with a changeling attack, and I’ll be able to lead the guard to protect the city if the changelings target here. I’ll be going back to Canterlot as soon as the guards are trained in changeling identification and defense. I’ve only been here for a couple months, and it shouldn’t be longer than a month or two.”

“Well, that’s good,” Rainbow said, nodding. “It’s fun to get away from things for a while, but I always like it when I can go home and sleep in my own bed, y’know?”

“Is Cadance here, too?” Twilight chimed in.

“No, she had to stay behind in Canterlot,” Shining replied. “She’s been writing a piece of legislation with another member of the House of Lords. She wants to set up a support system for changeling defectors.”
“Whoa, I didn’t even know that was possible!” Twilight remarked, excited. “I thought they were bound in a hivemind with Queen Chrysalis.”

“That’s what we thought, too, until a few arrived in Fillydelphia and swore their loyalty to Equestria then and there,” Shining explained as he walked. “It turns out that there’s no actual magical force that ties the changelings together; their social structure is just so rigid that anything beside conformity is taboo.”

“Oh, that’s actually super interesting,” Twilight said, nodding. “I’ll have to talk with Cadance about it once we’re done with… this.”

“Yeah, Cady’s been really amazing, helping these changelings when barely anypony else would.” Shining grinned, looking wistful. “I guess it’s the whole Princess of Love thing, or something. I really love that about her, you know…” He sighed. “It sucks that we have to be apart so soon after our wedding, but… thankfully it won’t be that long until I can be with her again.”

“Jeez,” Rainbow said. “Are we there yet? I think I need to take a shower to get all this sap off of me.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but Shining Armor just laughed. “Yeah, just a few more rooms down the way,” he said, gesturing ahead of them with a hoof.

They came to a door that looked like all the others: a dark brown slab only interrupted by a tiny silver-rimmed peephole and a silver-coloured doorknob. In fact, with the emblazoned number 45 next to the door, it looked quite similar to that of a hotel. Shining Armor magically twisted opened the knob, letting the two mares in through the open door.

“Have a good night, you two! Better get some rest, because we’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“Thanks for all your help, Shiny, and good night!” Twilight replied.

“Yeah, thanks, dude! ’Night!” Rainbow added.

Shining Armor closed the door as he left, and soon the two mares were alone in the bedroom. Again, much like a hotel, there were two queen beds along the wall. The burgundy carpet had a few lines crisscrossing the floor, but the design was fairly simple and geometric. In contrast, the wallpaper of the room was white with dense maps of burgundy lines, illustrating Equestrian landscapes and scenes from history. Twilight walked over to the rightmost bed and sat down on top of it, looking at the wall beside her.

“Yo, Twi, is it okay if I take a shower? You need to use the bathroom first?” Rainbow Dash asked, hindlegs already on the bathroom tile as she peeked around the doorframe.

“No, go ahead. I think I’m just gonna go to sleep.”

“Oh, cool. Well, goodnight, Twilight!”

“Goodnight, Rainbow.”

Rainbow Dash shut the bathroom door and a few minutes later, Twilight heard the familiar soft pitter-pat of the shower spray. She looked at the wall for a few minutes longer, and then crawled in between the sheets and shut her eyes. By the time Rainbow Dash opened the bathroom door, expelling a cloud of warm air and steam, Twilight had fallen asleep.

“I’m sorry. Yes, I know they shouldn’t have been—no, I don’t think they’ll find anything. It’s not like we haven’t been careful. We’ve covered our tracks.”

Mayor Wit sat alone in his office, curtains drawn closed, with only a candle on the desk to illuminate the room. Other objects on the desk cast large shadows on the walls, moving as the mayor paced around the room. In his magical grip was a small black stone which he held to his ear.

“They know it’s somepony who’s got connections outside of town, at least. How? They found kelp residue.” Silence. “Yeah, but they’re looking through the shipping records now.” He coughed. “Well, um, yeah. I could probably get someone tomorr—tonight? Oh, Goddess… okay. We can do that. Yeah, just teleport in. Which one should we—? Okay, okay. Yeah, I think I’ve got one in mind. And you still promise—? Good, good. I’ll get it done. Talk to you later.”

The mayor set the stone down on his desk and let out a long, drawn-out sigh. He stood still in the centre of the room, gathering his thoughts. A cold draft passed through the room from beneath the door, and Mayor Wit jumped slightly with the chill. He then turned to the desk and picked the stone back up, magically activating it.

“Hello, yes, is this Swift Hoof? I need you to come to my office as soon as possible… I have something I need you to do for me…”

“Hey, did you guys leave the light on?” Rainbow asked, hovering behind the other two. Sure enough, as Rainbow had mentioned, the single bulb in the ceiling buzzed as it shone yellowy light down into the shipping records room.

“Hmm… I don’t think so, Dash,” Twilight replied, scratching her head. “Didn’t one of you turn it off?”

“Yeah, I definitely turned it off last night,” Shining Armor said. “Maybe a janitor came in here and forgot to turn off the light? That’s not unreasonable, especially if a staff member told them that ponies had been down here.”

“I dunno, dude,” Rainbow said. She wiped a hoof on the ground and picked it back up again; it was covered in dust and lint. “This place is as crusty as ever.”

“Still, it’s probably not important,” Twilight said. “Does everyone have their places? Do you know where you left off?”

“Yup!” Rainbow buzzed off to another corner of the room.

“Yeah, I’ll be over in the other room,” Shining said. “Gimme a holler if you find anything.”

Nodding, Twilight turned back to the filing cabinet from which she had worked the previous day, and opened it up. She looked back at her piece of paper with the file number written on it and then carefully selected the folder and placed it magically on one of the room’s tables so she could leaf through it.

On the first page, there was nothing. Just a bunch of hay exports, banana imports, nothing too out of the ordinary. All stuff she had seen many, many times yesterday. The second page was much of the same. So was the third, and the fourth. And the fifth. Thinly-lined tables etched themselves into Twilight’s retinas. She looked up at the clock. It had been only five minutes, but already it felt like forever. She flipped to the next page. This one didn’t have a table; there were only a few paragraphs of notes about the conditions of certain crops imported to Manehattan from the islands. She flipped to the next page. Another table, with exports of hardware items. She flipped to the next page. And she flipped to the next page. Then, she flipped to the next page. After that, she flipped to the next—

“Huh?” Rainbow mumbled to herself.

“Something the matter, Dash?” Twilight asked, trying to get past the lull.

“C’mere, I think I found something!”

Twilight jolted awake and, eyes wide, trotted over to where Rainbow sat with a hoof pointing at a piece of paper with one of those infernal tables on it. But something was different about this one: the entry at the end stood out. While the rest of the items on the list were textiles and stationery products, the final entry was for a few pounds of deep-sea kelp, imported into Manehattan on a ship owned by the Manehattan Shipping Company at 12:32 p.m. about two months before. The buyer listed was a pony simply named Cinder Hooves. No address for the buyer was given, but that could be figured out later.

“Oh, Rainbow, good job!” Twilight exclaimed, wrapping her hooves around her friend.

Rainbow blushed. “Eheh… thanks—I didn’t really do anything, though.”

“What’s that I hear in there? Rainbow Dash being modest? What’s going on?” Shining Armor called from the other room.

“Dash found a record of a kelp import!”

“Oh, awesome!” He poked his head around the corner. “Does that mean we can get out of here? I’m feeling kind of claustrophobic.”

“Yes, of course,” replied Twilight. “We’ve got a name, so we just need to find an address associated with it. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“What do you mean there’s nopony named Cinder Hooves?”

“I mean what I said, Ms. Sparkle. Based on housing, voting, tax, and welfare records, there is no evidence of anypony with the name ‘Cinder Hooves’ that currently lives in this city.” The pony at the desk adjusted her glasses. Her tone was friendly, yet commanding; she wasn’t messing around. “I even checked the historical records, just in case, but no—all of our searches have turned up with no matches.”

Twilight sighed. “I see. Well, thank you very much for your time and effort; it’s much appreciated.”

“It’s really no problem at all, Ms. Sparkle. This is what I am here for.”

Twilight Sparkle walked through the glass doors and down the marble courthouse steps outside, where Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash stood conversing.

It was Shining who first spied her coming down the stairs. “So, what’s the verdict?”

“Bad news,” Twilight said, frowning. “Apparently there’s no record of anyone legally named Cinder Hooves who has ever lived in this city.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “What do we do now? Like, how do we even find a pony that doesn’t exist?”

Twilight facehoofed. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this. Maybe Cinder Hooves is somepony’s nickname? Street name? I don’t know.”

“We could find out if it has something to do with the underworld; ponies there usually have codenames or nicknames and there are all sorts of weird gang and faction names,” Shining suggested. “Honestly, this could tie into the idea that a gang is involved.”

Twilight looked confused. “Hold up… the underworld? What?”

“C’mon, Twi, you never saw any of the Batmare movies?” Rainbow asked.

“Um… no, can’t say I have.”

“Well, in most large cities such as this one, there’s usually a decent-sized criminal underworld,” Shining explained, ignoring Dash. “I’m not super familiar with the situation in Manehattan, but back home in Canterlot there were three main ones who had ties to different industries.”

“In Canterlot? Really? But, the princesses—” Twilight started.

“The princesses can’t go after everypony,” Shining said, cutting her off. “And, even if they could, they wouldn’t have enough evidence to convict most, especially because a lot of that activity falls under legal grey areas. The princesses can’t just lock them away without evidence in a fair trial. They’re not tyrants, Twilight.”

“Jeez, this is going to take some time to wrap my mind around,” Twilight replied, biting her lip. “I guess I never… really ran into that, seeing as I lived in the castle for so long... and then in Ponyville, which barely even has any crime.”

“Yeah, you’ve been living a pretty sheltered life,” Rainbow teased.

“Easy to say for a mare who spent her childhood with her head in the clouds,” Shining said, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, the point is, we’ll need to talk to someone who’s in with that whole scene. Someone who knows the underworld well, who’d know if this name is at all connected.”

“But how are we going to do that?” Twilight inquired. “We don’t know anyone in this city, let alone someone with underworld connections.”

“You don’t. But you’re forgetting something. Me,” Shining Armor said with a smirk. “I’m a member of the Royal Guard; I know ponies all over the place, in all trots of life. And right here in this city, I have an old contact called Shell Shocked. Used to be in the Guard, even, and I once worked with him to take down a trafficking ring near the Prench border. He’ll be pretty easy to find, too.”

“You know where he lives?” Rainbow asked.

“No, but that wouldn’t help; he’s never there,” Shining replied, grinning. “What I do know, though, is the location of every bar in this city. And I’ll be damned if he isn’t in one.”

It only took until the second bar for Twilight to start to regret tagging along with Shining and Rainbow. Part of it was simply exhaustion; the bars weren’t exactly close together. However, the bulk of it was that Rainbow had insisted on taking a shot of hard cider at each bar that they went to.

“Only a shot,” Dash had assured her. Shining Armor, her stupid brother, had shrugged, saying it wasn’t very much—and what’s worse, he even joined her. What he didn’t know, though, was that Rainbow Dash, athlete and flyer extraordinaire, was a friggin’ lightweight. Like, the lightest of the light. By the time they got to the fourth bar, saw that Shell Shocked wasn’t there, and gulped down their shots, Rainbow was pretty darn drunk.

Yes, that’s right. On four shots of cider.

“Y’know—hic—in that first bar, things were just okay. But—hic—in this bar, things... well, let’s just say they’re—hic—more my way,” Rainbow Dash stammered, a shit-eating grin plastered across her face.

“Ugh, Shiny, look what you’ve done,” Twilight reprimanded. Shining Armor, looking sullen, downed his shot and set the shot glass back at the bar.

“You’re right… that was horribly irresponsible of me. Mmff… let’s get out of here and go to the next one. And no more alcohol for that one.” He stood up from the stool and exhaled. “Me neither… I’m on duty, dang it.”

Twilight grasped Rainbow Dash in her magic and lifted the pegasus onto her back. Rainbow merely moaned.

“How many of these bars are left?” Twilight asked her brother, hopeful.

“Um… let’s see. We’ve hit four already, so, uh, I’d say probably seven,” Shining said with a sheepish grin.

Twilight let out an annoyed sigh and whacked Shining Armor’s cutie mark with a hoof. “Let’s get a move on, then. I don’t want this to take any longer than it has to!”

“Which one are we on?” Twilight wheezed. Rainbow Dash was so kindly demonstrating to the unicorn that even fairly light ponies were still really exhausting to carry for a long while.

Shining Armor took a moment to count mentally and then answered: “Eight. The eighth.”

Twilight groaned. “Please let him be here,” she mumbled under her breath. “Please let him be here, please let him be—”

“There he is!” Shining cried out in surprise.

He pointed across the bar to a table occupied by a lone black stallion covered in bandages like a foal’s mummy costume on Nightmare Night, so much so that it was impossible to tell whether he was a pegasus or not. He also wore a brimmed hat, concealing whether he had a horn. The stallion looked over at them, his green eyes glowing with recognition as they’d entered. Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash in tow, walked over to his table and took seats on the side opposite from Shell Shocked. Rainbow fell into her seat with a plop and remained there silently, still only semi-conscious.

“Ah, if it ain’t my old, uh, acquaintance. Captain Armor, right? Haven’t seen you since… um… a long time now, yeah it’s been?” Shell’s voice was low and rumbly, and only mildly articulate.

“Yes, yes, four or five years now, at this point,” Shining replied with a nod. “I had only just become Captain of the Royal Guard, then…”

“Mmm, yeah, somethin’ like that. Heh. Anyway, uh, what’re you wantin’ from me? Hooves? Intel? Something, um, less legal?” He coughed. “Though I hear you’re a married stallion, now… and to a mare, no less.”

“Intel would probably be the closest word to it,” Shining replied, ignoring the last comment. “We’ve got a name, and we want to know if it’s a codename, nickname, gang name, or something like that.” He eyed Shell’s bottle of vodka on the table that lay only a few centimetres from his hoof but said nothing more.

“Well, that’s something I can, uh, easily help with. Spit ’er out, why don’tcha?” Shell said, softly but forcefully.

Twilight piped up: “The name is Cinder Hooves. We’ve already checked to see if it’s somepony’s legal name, but no dice.”

Shell Shocked’s raspy laughs filled the air like billowing cigarette smoke—an ugly sound, not unlike that of an elephant choking on styrofoam. Twilight caught a glimpse of his brittle, yellowed teeth, and scrunched her face up in disgust.

“A’course. What did ya think? Some badflank mobster’s gonna use the name her momma gave her? Jeez, filly!” he admonished. “What do you do for fun, huff glue? With brains like yours… heh, well... you’ll be the next to disappear.”

Twilight shrunk at this, face hot. She wasn’t used to… this.

“That’s my sister you’ve just insulted,” Shining spat, brow furrowed.

Shell Shocked scratched his head. “Alright, alright, I, um, I apologise. I can get a little... well, you see… carried away, aha…”

“Fine, fine, whatever,” Shining said, still glaring daggers. “Now, can you please just tell us whether you know about anypony or anything called ‘Cinder Hooves’?”

“Yes, yes, I was, um, getting to that.” He paused to take a gulp of vodka from the bottle, and then coughed again. “Huh. That’s gross shit. Anyway… Cinder Hooves is, indeed, the name of, uh, well, of something.” He tapped his chin. “A small group of ponies—can’t be more than a dozen—and I think they’re aligned with the Chiropters. Not exactly sure what they do, though; I only started hearing the name a few months ago at most.”

Shining nodded, shifting to his elbow as he listened. “This is good, thank you. Do you know where we could find them, or a pony associated with them?”

Shell sighed. “Yeah, I… I think I’ve got an address that’s got something to do with ’em. Dunno if it’s a meeting place, or an actual base, or what, but I can give it to you if that’s what you want.” He pulled a small notepad from the pocket on his jacket, and scribbled down a few numbers and words onto the paper before tearing off the front sheet. “I wouldn’t go in there unarmed if I were you, though,” he mumbled as he hoofed the paper over to Shining. “Be a shame to see you all dead ‘n’ stuff.”

“Trust me, dude; I’ve dealt with gangs before,” Shining assured him. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Is that so?” Shell gave him a curt nod. “Well, um, good luck. And scram—can’t you see I’m, um, busy? Me and my new stallion”—he gestured towards the bottle of vodka—“are out on a date. See you, um, you ponies later.” He took another long gulp as Twilight and Shining stood up. Twilight magically lifted Rainbow Dash to her hooves, and Rainbow’s eyes fluttered open.

“Huh? Wha—where are we? Do we still—urp—still have to go to more…?” Rainbow stumbled forward and started to fall. Twilight caught her chest, holding her upright.

“Nope, we just got what we needed,” Twilight assured her. She turned to her brother. “C’mon, Shining, let’s get Rainbow somewhere she can rest.”

With a nod, Shining led the group out of the bar, and they emerged out into the midday sun. With Shining in the lead, Twilight followed close behind—and Rainbow trotted alongside Twilight, leaning on her friend as she needed to.