Monsters

By Sharpe Quill

Chapter 3: Speculation

Belle took off at a gallop along the stone pier towards the pillar of smoke. Keen Edge, without waiting for orders, leapt into the air and took off on his own, soaring over the tops of buildings in a more direct route to the fire.

Belle’s mind raced as fast as her hooves. A fire in Dock was rare enough, but two in two days? That was unheard of, not to mention extremely suspicious. Was this just unhappy coincidence or could there possibly be some connection between the two fires? Was the theoretical creature to blame for this fire? Things were getting out of hoof, and she needed to regain control over it.

When she reached the end of the dock, passing the last in the long row of warehouses, she almost overbalanced due to the camera rig still around her neck. In retrospect she probably should have left it behind, but the possibility of finding anything useful at the warehouse had been too important for her to leave it behind. She couldn’t just leave it behind now though, so she was stuck with it for the time being.

The stone platform that made up the majority of the docks ended abruptly with nothing but water in front of her. She turned inland and saw the latest blazing building. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the previous night.

The building in question was a small house, practically a cottage, located on the very edge of town. She wasn’t sure, off-hoof, who it belonged to but she didn’t think it was abandoned. A scarce two hundred yards beyond it the forest could be seen, and beyond that, rising just above the tree line in the distance, the beginnings of the Rambling Rock Ridge was just visible. Or at least on a normal day they would be. Today, however, that view was obscured by a thick black veil of smoke rising into the air.

The house was two stories but still somehow managed to seem quaint. About one quarter of its heavy thatched roof, useful in keeping out the elements but significantly less in protecting against fire, was ablaze and slowly spreading. Parts of the wooden walls were similarly coated in a sheet of flame. However, the vast majority of the structure was still intact, and the roof, while obviously weakening, was still holding up. This fire was obviously much younger than the previous night’s had been when she had first seen it, and already a large group of ponies were busy working to put it out. The very dock-master she had seen previously at the remains of the warehouse was visible directing her employees around the burning house.

Also unlike the previous night, the ponies had obviously managed to get this one under control much faster. A large raincloud, almost indistinguishable from the smoke, was busy dumping gallons of water onto the inferno, and the unicorns were managing to keep the fire from spreading further with their combined magic. In fact, Belle had a feeling she wouldn’t actually be needed here at all. Even as she trotted up to the dock-master the fire was dwindling, hissing, and sputtering in the steady downpour.

“Ms. Foam,” Belle shouted over the sound of the dying fire, “what happened?”

Sea Foam, a greenish blue earth pony with a curly white mane and tail, nickered. “Captain,” she shouted in acknowledgement, “I have no idea. My crew was working on the clean up from last night’s fire when we noticed the smoke. I led them here at once, and we were able to get it under control pretty quickly.”

“Any idea how it started? Did you see anypony in the area when you got here?”

Sea Foam shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Nopony was in the area when we got here, at least not that I saw.”

“Is there anypony inside? Who does the house belong to?”

“We called out when we first got here and checked the windows but we didn’t hear or see anypony so as far as we know it’s empty. I don’t think anypony lives here anymore, but I couldn’t tell you for sure. You’d have to check with Brine or the mayor.”

Belle snorted. Of course Brine would be the one to know.

With a final hiss the last of the flames was extinguished, leaving an almost fully intact, if rather blackened, house. The few pegasi present, including Corporal Keen, began to disperse the thick rainclouds while the earthbound ponies all sat back, recovering from their exertions.

“Is there anything else, Captain?” Sea Foam asked, a tad impatiently. “Only there’s still plenty of work to be done, and now this place is going to be added to the list.”

“No,” Belle said, “that should be all for now. I’ll be sending somepony around to take statements from your employees.” Sea Foam grimaced slightly but nodded her understanding. After she had turned to go collect her workers Belle had a thought and called after her. “Don’t touch the house until my team and I have had a chance to examine it.”

Sea Foam stopped and looked back at her. “I’m sure Mr. Brine will have someone take care of it, Captain.”

“I’m sure he will,” Belle said with a snort. “Nevertheless, this is a crime scene until I say otherwise. I don’t care what Brine has to say about it, he is not above the town guard, no matter what he thinks. Is that understood?”

Sea Foam paused for a second longer than Belle liked. “Of course,” she said at last, her tone unreadable. With that she trotted forward and began herding her workers while Belle glared after her.

Keen Edge finished disrupting the last of the raincloud above the house and dropped out of the sky, landing lightly next to Belle, who turned towards him. “Good job, Corporal,” she said. After a pause she added, “But next time, wait for my order before rushing off. You’re a guard, never forget that.”

Keen looked sour. “What would you have ordered me to do, Captain? If I may ask.”

“Just what you did,” Belle said with a snort. “But that’s not the point. If you are with a higher ranking officer, you follow their lead at all times. Is that understood?”

Keen grimaced and fluffed his wings agitatedly, but he nodded and gave her a salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

Keen didn’t have issues with authority as such, but he was rather hot-headed and had a tendency to act spontaneously. It was this, along with his occasionally snarky comments, that had caused his rejection from the Canterlot Royal Guard. He was a work in progress as far as Belle was concerned, but worth the effort in her opinion.

She considered him appraisingly for a moment before returning his salute. “Good,” she said, “now go inform Sergeant Grass about this.” She glanced at the sun’s position. Not even 2 o’clock yet she figured. The only guard scheduled for duty any time soon was Shining Star. “If Constable Star is there, have her meet me here; if not go get her from her house. It’s going to have to be all hoofs on deck until this is resolved. Either way, I want both of you back here as soon as possible.”

Keen Edge saluted again and took off without another word.

As soon as he was out of sight Belle turned her attention to the house. Trotting up to one of the undisturbed windows, she peered inside. There were no lights and all she could make out in the gloom were several vague, white shapes. It took her a second to realize that they were pieces of furniture covered in sheets to protect against dust for long-time storage. So the house was vacant then, or at least not currently in use.

And yet the house hadn’t spontaneously combusted, so somepony had to have started the fire, either deliberately or by accident. The only creature she had ever heard of that could breathe fire, or otherwise cause a fire, was a dragon, and she was quite sure a dragon would be far too conspicuous to go unnoticed. It had to have been a pony. Well, technically it could have been a griffon or a donkey or a diamond dog, but only a few representatives of those species were ever present in Dock at a given time. Odds were good that the culprit was a pony.

She trotted around the house to the fire-damaged side. The walls were blackened and had pock marks in it where the paint had bubbled from the heat. Considering the amount of smoke she had seen, and the amount of time it had lasted compared to the amount of damage, it looked like the fire had started on the inside and moved outside through one of several windows, which on this side she could see had shattered from the intense heat. After doing a complete circuit of the outside, Belle tried the latch on the only door.

Locked. Now that was interesting, who would leave a house on fire and take the time to lock the door behind them? A quick buck took care of the dead bolt, it must have been quite old to not put up more resistance, and the door slammed open. She entered hesitantly, scanning the area intently.

Most of the inside was coated in dust with cobwebs connecting almost all of the pieces of furniture into a chain of ghostly objects. She examined the undamaged rooms first. Finding nothing pertinent except more undisturbed dust, and no sign of any pony having been there recently at all, she moved to the upstairs room on the burned side of the house.

A large patch of the roof was missing, the combined result of flames and concentrated rain. The floor beneath the open section had a large portion burned away; the edges of the hole were twisted and unstable. She kept her distance.

A shaft of light shone through the hole in the roof, descending to the floor and splashing through the unusual hole onto the ground floor where it illuminated a large pile of burnt and charred rubble. Odd that, a hole in the ceiling and the floor; it looked like more than simple fire damage, almost like something had punched a hole through the floor from the first floor, and then continued to the roof. She knew that she didn’t have much experience in such things, so it was possible that she might just be overthinking things. Whatever the cause, it was good that it had happened, otherwise the rain might not have reached the ground floor in time to extinguish the fire before it got out of hoof.

Finding nothing else of interest, she made her way to the ground floor to inspect the damage there. As she approached the burnt portion, she studied the pile of rubble on the floor. Much of the wall was sagging and the cloth-covered furniture in the area had been completely consumed by the fire and collapsed. Bits of charred wood and roof thatching also littered the area, fallen from above. Everything in the area was soaked from the drenching it had received but she could still feel the heat in the area.

She stopped to study the rubble for a moment. Figuring she might as well use the camera since she was stuck with it, she began to take pictures of the area. She walked carefully right up to the largest pile of burnt debris, a combination of several pieces of furniture (a pair of large cabinets she guessed), and a sizeable portion of the ceiling. Something seemed off about it, somehow, and she peered closely after taking a few pictures. There, that bit right there, that wasn’t wood…

It was fur.

The realization struck her like a buck to the face and she immediately began digging into the debris with her forehooves, pushing aside bits of wood and ash. Somepony was under there!

A few frantic seconds later she had cleared enough to see a furry leg and… paw? Not a pony then, but a diamond dog! Belle hesitated for an instant, surprised by this unexpected turn of events, but she immediately shook it off and continued digging.

Soon she had finished clearing the rubble off of the unfortunate dog. He (she supposed it was a he, since she had never seen a female diamond dog in the town) was obviously in a bad way. Belle was no medical pony, but even she could see that both his rear legs had been broken, probably from the collapsing ceiling. Both of his forearms had been covering his head and were heavily bruised but didn’t appear to be broken. He had been badly burned as well with large splotches of fur completely burned away revealing horribly blistered and seared skin; even what fur that remained had been singed and blackened. The poor creature’s blunt face was a twisted mask of pain.

Gingerly, Belle placed a large ear against the dog’s chest, purposely ignoring the feeling of revulsion she felt at the touch of the burned skin. The odds weren’t good that he could have survived all that damage, but she had to check. To her absolute shock she just barely managed to hear something. Yes, there was definitely a heartbeat. Weak, fluttery, inconsistent, but definitely there. He was breathing too, but it was so shallow and so thin that it wasn’t noticeable just from looking at him.

Just then she heard the clopping of hooves on a wooden floor. She looked towards the front door and saw Keen trot in, closely followed by Shining Star, already in her light barding. They froze when they saw her standing over the horribly broken body of a diamond dog.

“Keen!” Belle snapped. “Fly as fast as you can to the hospital and get help.”

To his credit, Keen didn’t waste time with questions. He immediately whirled around and dashed off, taking to the air soon after. Shining Star hesitated before trotting forward. Belle could see that she looked terrible, clearly still shaken by the previous night’s events. Belle wondered if she had managed any sleep at all.

Between the two of them, they were able to carefully pull the diamond dog completely from the rubble. Shining pulled a sheet down from one of the undamaged pieces of furniture and they placed him upon it as gently as possible. Even so, Belle couldn’t help but feel that he wouldn’t last long. After they were sure he was as safe as they could make him, they stepped back, looking at the unusual form before them.

This could be what Belle was looking for. The diamond dog had obviously been present during the fire and surely knew something about it. It was even possible that he had been responsible for it; and if, as she suspected, the two fires were linked, then it was even possible that he was the one who had killed the foals!

She should have left him to die in that pile!

Whoa, where had that come from? She needed to calm herself down and think rationally about this. There was no evidence at all to incriminate the diamond dog. She shook her head, it would all be a moot point if he didn’t survive to be questioned, and she couldn’t do anything about that now except wait and hope he would make it.

She went back to inspecting the pile she had found the diamond dog in. She stared at it, willing it to reveal its secrets, to give her some clue about what had happened here. The pile remained unhelpful.

Something about it was off, its placement didn’t seem right. She prodded it tentatively. It shifted slightly, sending soot and warm ash into the air but otherwise didn’t budge. She was just about to move on when something at the base of the pile caught her eye. Some of the grey ashes were settling on the ground, except in one small section, a small patch just next to a blackened loose bit of wood.

She pushed the board and almost stumbled forward when it suddenly gave way, falling into a small pit in the floor with a loud clatter and a fresh wave of ash. Half the pile followed it, dropping into the hole while the rest fell away and scattered along the wooden floor. Shining jumped in surprise, her tired eyes wide.

A square hole, an open trap door, was situated in the floor, almost large enough for two ponies to enter at the same time. Most of it was still covered by several of the larger pieces of burnt and soggy wood. Steep stone steps, littered with debris, disappeared into the shadows.

A basement?

She glanced at Shining Star, trying to decide her next course of action. She needed to investigate this unexpected development, and the sooner the better. But she knew that even with her sensitive eyes, without some kind of light it’d be pointless to go down there on her own. Shining Star, as a unicorn, could make her own light, but she didn’t want to send her in by herself, and she didn’t want to leave the injured diamond dog alone until the medical ponies arrived. Belle needed to go herself, and as soon as possible. She glanced at the unicorn again and the answer came to her. “Shining, I need your lamp.”

Constable Shining Star started slightly before turning her tired eyes to her Captain. “Hmm? Oh, of course, Captain.”

A nimbus of light surrounded the small metal box that was clipped to the front of her barding. As a guard who routinely worked during the evening hours, Shining’s equipment included a small oil lantern with a single windowed opening, which would create a spotlight effect. A flash of her horn lit the lamp and she levitated it over, clipping it onto the front of Belle’s barding.

“Thanks, Constable,” Belle said. “I want you to wait here for Keen and the medics. Help as best you can. Once they’ve taken care of our patient here, I want you to help Keen. He’ll know what to do. If I’m not back in half an hour…” She trailed off. This was unlike anything she had needed to handle before and she wasn’t entirely sure of the protocol.

“We should seal it off and make sure no one else goes in?” asked Shining helpful.

“What?” Belle looked genuinely aghast. “No, I want you to come in and find me!”

The tired unicorn smiled and ducked her head once in a nod. “Of course, Captain.”

Belle turned and, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, carefully descended the steps, stepping tentatively to avoid the detritus. The light from her lantern, hardly noticeable in the relatively light room above, seemed to brighten as she crossed into the darkness. The stone beneath her hooves was warm, most likely from the residual heat from the fire above. When she reached the bottom of the steps, some thirty paces below ground, she stopped to raise her tinted glasses.

Belle had very sensitive eyes, one of the main reasons she wore the glasses everywhere but in dimly lit areas. Direct sunlight was both blinding and painful. In the darkness, however, her vision was top notch. The small light from her lantern was more than enough for her to see clearly by.

She found herself standing at the beginning of a long tunnel, surprisingly large and wide; easily twice her height and wide enough for five ponies to walk abreast comfortably. Unlike the stone steps, the tunnel’s floor was mostly compact earth but it was clearly not a natural formation.

Belle had heard stories of whole networks of tunnels much like what she now saw that were dug by large packs of diamond dogs. Could this be the home of a pack? It would explain the presence of the poor creature in the house above.

But that couldn’t be right. For one thing, diamond dog packs in Equestria were almost exclusively in the southern plains. Outside of the occasional sailor, they were unheard of in Dock. Even more significantly, the tunnel was connected to a pony’s house. No, whatever this was, it was most likely not a diamond dog’s warren.

Of course that left the question of what exactly it was.

As she began taking a few tentative steps forward, she noticed that the air and even the dirt were quite warm. She noticed odd shapes in the walls and ceiling, and when she directed the lantern light towards it, she recognized them as wooden beams, heavy struts holding back the weight of the earth. Could this have been a mine? She had never heard of mining going on anywhere near the town, but it was worth considering.

The passage went fairly straight for a few dozen paces, large wooden supports showing up at regular intervals. Suddenly the tunnel split, forming a ‘Y’ shape. The left passage was caved in, rock and dirt spilling out, completely sealing it off from her. It looked recent too, the loose soil covering the ground of the tunnel around her hooves.

She trotted down the unblocked route, which ran straight as an arrow. She didn’t have the best sense of direction but she thought that it was taking her east, away from the town. The light grew steadily brighter as she moved until suddenly the passage began to rise, growing steeper, and steeper. Suddenly she could see the exit, a wooden door covering the mouth of the tunnel. Light was streaming between the surprisingly large gaps between the wooden slats. The light, which would have been barely enough for another pony to see by stabbed into Belle’s unprotected eyes. She flinched, snapping her head to the side quickly and clenching her eyes tightly closed. She was careful to replace her tinted glasses before continuing on. The lantern on her barding was still lit but no longer necessary.

When she reached the door she saw that the wood was quite old, grey and green from the exposure to the elements, but it seemed sturdy enough. She pushed on it, and was slightly surprised when the large door swung open without resistance. She exited and found herself surrounded by trees but could clearly hear the sound of running water nearby. Looking around, she tried to get her bearings. She guessed that she was within the thin strip of forest that was within sight of the now-burned cottage.

Other than the unusual existence of the tunnel itself, the area seemed plain and innocuous. Nopony was around and it felt like it was literally the middle of nowhere. She stepped out, her hooves sinking into the soft earth of the area. She looked down at her hooves and saw that the area in front of the entrance was littered with prints. They were overlapping and hard to make out but she was sure that they were at least mostly hoof prints. She examined the area and tried to find a clear set of prints, hoping against hope that she would be able to find some kind of clue.

She took a few pictures of the ground but despaired of finding a clear set. They were too distorted, and too many were overlapping. It was while she was doing this that she noticed, off to the side, two sets of prints that were clear as day. They were two different set of prints, and neither were of hooves. One set was large, larger than her hoof, and they reminded her of a cat’s paw print, with four distinct toes. The other set was rougher but deeper, four-toed and long, unlike anything she had ever seen before.

She took several pictures, including one where she had gingerly made a hoofprint of her own in the ground next to them in order to give a sense of the size. This could be the proof she needed that there was a creature, or in this case it looked like two creatures, present around the town. She needed to get these prints identified, and make sure all the ponies in the guard knew to be on the lookout. It looked like monsters had come to Dock.

Belle made her way back to the house through the narrow strip of forest, forsaking the darkness of the tunnel. As she suspected, the tunnel’s exit was not far from the town’s border. As she approached the house after leaving the shadows of the narrow strip of forest she was pleased to see that Keen had returned and, in her absence, was roping the house off to discourage any curious ponies from wandering too close. Shining Star was nowhere in sight.

She was significantly less enthused to see a light colored unicorn mare with an elegant, and extremely curly mane. She had square lensed spectacles which she wore further down her snout than would theoretically be useful. A notepad and quill floated next to her, the quill scribbling away as she talked at Keen. He, for his part, didn’t appear to be answering, or even acknowledging her. If this bothered the mare she didn’t let it show.

Belle briefly considered just avoiding the news pony and just heading straight back to the guard house but knew that she couldn’t realistically do that. So she squared her shoulders and approached the house. As she got close the mare abandoned her fruitless efforts and turned to Belle, a wide and extremely bright smile gracing her muzzle. She planted herself directly in Belle’s path, forcing the earth pony to stop short.

“Captain!” she exclaimed with a slight Canterlot accent, evidently overjoyed at seeing her. “Mind if I ask you a few questions?” Without waiting for an answer she immediately began barraging Belle with rapid-fire questions.

“This is the second fire in as many days, is Dock under siege from an antagonistic arsonist? Do you have any suspects? Is it true that the two foals who died in the fire may were actually murdered? What can you tell me about that? Do you have any suspects? Should the ponies of Dock be worried about more fires?”

Eventually she had to take a breath, and when she did Belle jumped at the chance. “Miss Curiosity, if you please,” she said, her voice taking a tone of strained patience and long-suffering, the one she reserved for news reporters and sales ponies. “I am trying to conduct an investigation here. As always, when we have something beyond theory and speculation, then we will inform the paper.” She moved to walk around her, lightly bumping into the newspony by ‘accident.’ But the unicorn would have none of it.

“Word is that the mayor is losing patience with you, how do you respond to that?”

That made Belle pause for a second. The mayor of Dock was not an unkind pony, but she didn’t have much regard for the city guard, considering them to be mostly superfluous at this point. The fact that she was good friends with Brine didn’t help matters much. If she was getting impatient, who knew what she might do.

It was a second too long. Curiosity immediately slipped back in front of her, quill still scribbling away like it had a mind of its own. She had a knowing smirk on her face.

Belle sighed. “I have no comment at this time.”

“What of the reports of a diamond dog recovered from the second building here?”

“No comment.” Blast, she must have seen the medics carrying him away.

“And what of these sightings of a large creature in the alleyways last night?”

“No comm…” Belle froze mid-word. “Wait, sightings? What sightings?”

Curiosity let her smile slip into something more genuine. “You haven’t heard? Oh there were at least six different reports given this morning alone! How about a little quid pro quo, Captain? Answer some questions for me and I’ll give you all the information we have. If not… well I suppose you could just wait and read all about it tomorrow…” She trailed off, letting the offer hang awkwardly out in the open air. She let her gaze slip from Belle and looked at her notebook curiously with an air of casual indifference.

Belle ground her teeth together. She didn’t want to play Curiosity’s games, but time was a factor. The longer the creature, or creatures, if the two sets of prints were any indication, roamed free, the longer the ponies in Dock were in danger. She considered just demanding the information on grounds of her authority, but she hadn’t sunk so low to abuse her power like that.

“Fine,” she growled. “Ask your questions.”

“Splendid!” Curiosity exclaimed joyfully before quickly growing serious, although she still smiled. “First of all, what can you tell me about the recent fires?”

Belle frowned and then shrugged. “Nothing really. We’re still investigating.”

“Surely you must know something.”

“Just speculations at this point.”

“And they are…?”

Belle frowned. “Speculations. It would be premature to voice them now. Without hard evidence I have nothing more to say on the matter.”

Curiosity looked slightly disappointed but transitioned smoothly to her next topic. “What about the two children who were found in the warehouse fire last night, what can you tell me about them?”

Belle forced her expression to remain neutral, hiding her pain. “Nothing more than was given in the official report.”

“But you suspect something?” Curiosity pushed.

Belle hesitated. “Just… speculations.”

Curiosity gave a small sigh. “Surely there must be something you can tell me.”

The captain glared at her for a few moments before relenting. Curiosity could be quite annoying, but she was still only doing her job. “Look, right now we simply don’t know for sure, we’re still investigating. As soon as we know something for sure, I promise I will personally ensure that you know immediately.”

The reporter nodded. “Very well, I guess that’s the best I can hope for. But I’ll hold you to that promise. Now, how do you respond to the mayor’s criticisms?”

Belle hesitated. She needed to be careful in what she said, the last thing she needed was to get on the wrong side of the mayor. “I can… understand the mayor’s fears, and I share them. I will be meeting with her to allay her concerns. For the time being, the ponies of Dock should rest assured that they are still safe, and that the guard is working hard to ensure their continued protection. That being said, if anypony sees or hears anything suspicious, they should bring it to our attention as soon as possible.” She paused. “Is that enough, Miss Curiosity?”

Curiosity smiled. She still wasn’t looking at the quill she held in her telekinesis which was still scribbling away. “For now. Thank you, Captain.” The quill finally stopped its scratching and, along with the pad, began to float towards a small saddlebag on her flank.

After a moment’s silence, Belle coughed. “So, what about those sightings?”

Curiosity gave a look of feigned surprise. “Oh! Of course.” She brought the notepad back out and levitated it in front of her face, flipping back through the pages until she found the one she was looking for. “Let’s see… Says here there were reports of unusual creatures in the warehouse district last night and this morning, two before and four after the fire.”

“Unusual how?” Belle had to work to contain the eagerness in her voice.

“Well… hmm, says here that they were large, but vague shapes, and that they kept to the shadows. Nopony managed to get a good look. Hmm, one pony reported seeing a large cat. Another swears she saw a small dragon. The only consistency is that all the reports said there was a terrible smell and heavy breathing. However, none of the witnesses ever stuck around to get a better look. So what do you think, Captain? Did a menagerie have a breakout recently?” Curiosity’s quill was poised once again.

Belle shook her head. “We’ll investigate the claims as best we can. If anypony else witnesses anything unusual, I would urge them to come let us know.”

“Of course, Captain. Thank you for the interview.”

Belle nodded, but she wasn’t focusing on the unicorn. Normally, sightings like this wouldn’t be cause for concern. There were always ponies claiming to have seen a jackalope or a human, and they were easily dismissed. But this was different. Coupled with the evidence she had gathered herself, it all but confirmed that there were some kind of mysterious creatures haunting the shadows of Dock. The reports of a cat-like creature and dragon-like creature were consistent with the tracks she had photographed at the exit to the tunnel. She needed to get those photos developed and the prints identified.

On her way back to the Guard House, Belle dropped off her camera and film for development. The pony who ran Shadow ‘n Light Photography, a stallion appropriately named Shadow Nigellus Light, ensured her that they would be ready first thing in the morning. It wasn’t perfect but it was better than nothing.

When Belle returned to the Guard House, she found an unexpected and rather unwelcome surprise. The mayor was waiting for her.

Mayor Olive was a light, cream-colored earth pony mare, her mane was long and had at one point been ruby red but was now streaked with silver. These streaks, along with a few wrinkles around her eyes, were all that betrayed her age. A tightly bound scroll overlaid a large book on her flank, symbolizing her legal powers. Her large, light-green eyes always sparkled with intelligence and understanding. She was, however, completely devoid of any sense of humor.

“Good afternoon, Mayor,” Belle said politely when she saw her, trying to exude an aura of calm and competence.

It must not have worked because Olive frowned at her. “Captain,” she said in a surprisingly deep voice for a mare, “your office. Now.”

Managing to suppress an instinctual gulp of fear, Belle trotted past the mayor and led her into the building. Emerald was sitting behind the main desk, her horn surround by a soft light while she wrote out something on her desk. She rose when she saw Belle and opened her mouth to say something but immediately snapped it shut when she saw the mayor close behind Belle. She sat back down hurriedly, trying to look as busy as possible.

The captain led the earth pony politician into her office and quickly slipped behind her desk. There was something about being behind the wooden piece of furniture that made her feel bolder, as though the physical barrier was also a psychological defense. Mayor Olive closed the door behind her carefully before turning to face Belle.

“Captain,” she demanded without preamble, “what’s going on in my town?”

“How do you mean, ma’am?” Belle tried to sound as polite and suitably subservient as she could.

“I mean that there have been two fires, and two murders within the last twenty four hours. What. Is. Going. On?” Her voice took on an air of barely suppressed anger.

Belle flinched slightly but faced the mayor squarely. Taking a deep breath, she laid out all of her findings to the mayor briefly.

“So let me get this straight,” Olive said when she had finished, “you’re saying that some kind of animal is to blame?”

Belle shook her head. “To blame? I’m not sure yet, but somehow it, or rather they, if the prints I found are any indication, are mixed up in whatever is going on.” She had been mulling all of the facts over in her head ever since the second fire, trying to put everything together. She had reached the beginnings of an answer, but hesitated to voice them. But this was the mayor she was speaking to after all. “Right now, it looks to me like an attempt to smuggle some dangerous animals that went wrong.”

Olive raised an eyebrow. “And what led you to that conclusion?”

“The tunnels I found. If somepony was trying to illegally move exotic animals by ship to or from Canterlot, they would have to pass through Dock, but they can’t exactly register them at the shipyard, so they smuggle them in through the tunnel. I’d bet a dozen donuts that the blocked off passage of the tunnel led to the destroyed warehouse. Somehow something went wrong and the creatures got loose. The fires might have simply been an accident, or possibly used to cover up evidence.” Something that Brine had said the previous night suddenly came back to her. “Evidence like the murder of two foals, who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Her voice trailed off in the end as a sudden anger and realization overtook her. Brine was somehow mixed up with this, she could feel it.

The mayor cleared her throat. “Regardless of your… suppositions, things have clearly spiraled out of your control. Things are quickly getting out of hoof, and I will not allow anything to threaten the safety of my ponies. I’ve sent word to Canterlot asking for assistance, a representative should be here sometime tomorrow.”

Belle started in surprise. “What? You can’t be serious!”

Olive glared at her. “Captain,” she said, emphasizing the word as a reminder of Belle’s place in the current hierarchy, “I will do what I believe is in the best interest of the ponies of Dock. This representative will have complete jurisdiction, and I expect you to offer them your fullest support and aid. Am I understood?”

Belle could only stare at the mayor in shock. This had come completely out of nowhere. The mayor was clipping her wings, removing what small amount of power still remained to her. Why?

“Am I understood, Captain?” The anger in the mayor’s voice was clear now.

Belle slowly gave her a salute. “I understand.” After a pause, she added, “Ma’am.”

“Good. I want this matter resolved, Belle. The sooner, the better.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Belle’s voice was cold, seething anger just repressed by iron discipline.

The mayor nodded. Without another word she turned and, opening the door just as carefully as she had closed it, exited. Emerald stuck her head inside the office inquisitively, but ducked out again quickly upon seeing Belle’s wrathful visage.

The anger faded quickly, however, and Belle slumped behind her desk, feeling dejected and humiliated from this treatment.

Yet her mind raced. Some things didn’t add up. Why would the mayor call for outside aid so quickly? Belle knew that she had little use for the guard as a whole, but this was premature at best, and downright insulting at worst. Was there something going on that the mayor wasn’t telling her about?

She still had too many questions, and she needed answers, preferably before some busybody from Canterlot came in and derailed her investigation. And she knew the best place to get those answers too.

It was time she had a serious discussion with Brine. Whether he wanted to or not.

Author's Notes:

Once again, a huge thanks to my editor Expository Brony, for his proofreading and encouragement.

As always, MLP and its characters are © Hasbro and Lauren Faust respectively.

All OCs, however, are purely mine.