Chapter 13: Mysterious Missing Mare 3

"The target is twenty-seven-year-old Starlight Glimmer," The Sheriff of Flamefall County told the officers of the precinct as they stood in an empty office space, cleared out to make room for more ponies.

"According to the investigation made by our Prince Blueblood and the Royal Guard, the mare has been researching advanced magic for the past eleven years and has never stayed in one place for longer than a year," The Sheriff made sure everybody that was available would be in this meeting, from Prince Blueblood and his protection to the construction investigators and medical specialists that will be coming with them.

"Five months ago, she sent a letter to her father, telling him of building a town where nobody has a Cutie mark, and everyone is equal." Whispers started to spread across the precinct when the Sheriff told them.

"We already have an arrest warrant ready, your job is to make sure none of the people living in her town start any trouble, try and keep confrontation to a minimum with them," The police officers nodded, "Our target is wanted on a number of charges, most notable being the illegal removal of Cutie-marks without a specialized medical license, and the illegal construction of a town. There's more to take her down for, but those are the main points of this operation,"

He turned to look at the more armored police officers, wearing equipment specifically made to take down Unicorns, The tools themselves will be proven mostly worthless against a magician that knows even the basics of combat, but most regular Unicorns simply throw objects around with telekinesis or fire beams of concussive force.

"Make sure everything is ready, we're leaving early tomorrow morning," He told them, receiving plenty of nods in return, "Any questions? Yes, Mushroom Puff, what is it?"

"Why are we leaving tomorrow morning? Why not now?"

"That is because we don't need to hurry, The Target doesn't know we are coming after her, and it is better to be safe than sorry, We'll be doing a check of equipment once this meeting is over," He told his officers before turning to the rest of the ponies in his precinct, "We will be moving out tomorrow at eight, please be ready and here by that time," The Sheriff turned to look at everyone in the room, "Meeting adjourned,"

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Flamefall County is a small County situated near the northern edge of Equestria, its towns don't have many commodities and its main attraction for tourists is a wealthy ski resort situated on top of a rather large series of underground tunnels.

For all intents and purposes, it was a glorified Ski and Caving region, which meant that most of the towns in the county were tourist hot spots.

That is how I found myself sitting at a family-owned inn in a nearby village, a mug of hot cocoa in my grasp and a warm blanket covering my body, sitting on a surprisingly gentle sofa while looking at the fireplace.

While sipping from the cocoa, I thought, "How will I explain this to Celestia?"

Surely once I return to the castle, she will throw aside all of her duties for the day and make sure that I am fine and uninjured, babying me as if I am a gentle foal who can't take care of himself.

I'm almost thirty, both me as a Human and Blueblood, I don't mind being treated special because of our familial connection, but I don't want it to happen every time I leave the castle.

As I thought of what to say to Celestia, I turned to look at the figure that stepped into my private space, pushed me to the side, sat next to me on the sofa, took my cocoa, and covered herself with my blanket.

"This isn't a Loveseat, I don't think this thing can hold both of our weight," I told the mare who was sipping from the Cocoa that I paid for.

She put down the empty mug and gave me a quizzical look, "Art thou calling us fat, Prince Blueblood?" Princess Luna asked as she shimmied herself backward on the sofa, taking the entire seat for herself, before pushing me off the sofa and away from the heat of the blanket with a gentle nudge from her leg, "And what is a Loveseat?"

Still laying on the floor, I explain to the princess of the night that a Loveseat is a chair that was invented by some old king so he could be able to hold his wives while sitting down, or something along those lines, I don't research furniture.

"How long were you planning on simply following me from afar, Princess Luna?" I ask her as I push myself off the carpeted floor, "If I didn't know any better, I would have guessed that you were checking me out?" I flick my hair, receiving a huff of amusement from Luna.

I move another Sofa closer to her and grab another blanket, "But in all seriousness, This investigation that you brought up to me this morning has really gotten out of hand fast,"

She looks away from me for a moment and sighs, "Yes... This morning... we wish to apologize,"

That caught my attention, apologize for what? "We made fun of you, insinuated that you were lesser of a prince on account of not being an Alicorn, We wish to apologize for that, You are just as much a prince as any other of the crown, and a lack of wings does not make you any lesser than Us nor Celestia, So we would like to apologize for our remarks at that time, we held no ill will in them,"

I blinked slowly as I listened to what she was saying before I turned my head fully to look at her and asked her "What are you talking about?"

Luna turned to me in shock and opened her mouth to ask something, But I cut her off "You already apologized for that, Didn't you? I practically forgot it happened already,"

Now it was her turn to blink slowly, "In fact, I find it more insulting that you thought bringing up my lack of wings or my position in the chain of succession was enough to hurt my feelings for longer than five minutes. I know I likely won't be the ruler of Equestria, Celestia has been ruling for more than a thousand years without stepping down, why would she do so in my lifetime?"

I laugh to myself as I lean back on the sofa, "I mean, what are the chances?"

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After our insightful talk, Luna left back to Canterlot, promising to tell Celestia of what I'm doing.

It has been a full night since then, and now I find myself wearing a winter coat as I stand on top of a cliff overlooking a small collection of houses stationed in two rows, a lone road in the middle between them and a larger house at the end of it.

"So this is the place," I say out loud, getting a nod from a Sheriff.

Even with his body covered with a heavy winter coat, colored blue to distinguish himself as a cop, he still had his white Sheriff's hat and a walrus mustache.

He kind of looked like Sam Elliott now that I think about it...

"Once we get down there, We should be able to get her arrested and under custody easily," He told me, "I'm more worried about what will happen if she tries to resist, You said she was a powerful Unicorn, yes?"

I nodded and told him what was written in the letters Firelight showed me.

"Then let us hope it won't come down to that," The Sheriff said and turned to address the crowd of police officers and specialists, While I walked over to the three guards that were here for my protection.

"Why is it so cold here?" Cherry Pop asked out loud as she shivered in her armor, "Canterlot is way warmer than this!"

"That's because we're near the border," The green guard who was left with guarding the carriage yesterday said as he pointed towards a row of mountains in the distance, "See those mountains over there? The other side of those is white snow, as far as the eye could see, And if you keep moving even further north, you'd reach Yakyakistan. It also helps the cold that it's still fall, and winter is just around the corner,"

"Why aren't you also cold?" Flash Sentry asked the larger green Pegasus, his wings rubbing against each other in order to generate heat.

"My Special Talent is building igloos," And that was all the explanation the two smaller guards needed.

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Walking into the makeshift village, we were welcomed by many smiling ponies.

"Welcome!" "Welcome!" "Welcome!" They were all smiling, their flanks had the same cutie mark, and their haircuts were mostly the same.

It was almost like a sight out of those cult movies, where the normal family moves to a new town, but everybody is acting weird. You know the movies I'm talking about.

"All their Cutie marks are the same," I hear Cherry Pop say.

"And their houses look the same as well," Yes Cherry Pop, we can all see that.

"And their mane designs are also-" I cut her off.

"Let me finish that line for you, Cherry Pop, They also look the same," I turn around to look at the red royal guard.

"Do you have any other wondrous observation that none of us was able to spot? Maybe how this rock on the ground looks just like that pebble over there? No? Nothing? good." I take a deep breath and count to ten.

"If you have nothing but the most obvious observations to add to a given conversation, then perhaps it is a better idea for you to be quiet," I tell her and continue walking toward the house that presumably belongs to Starlight Glimmer, ignoring the stares from the police officers on my back.

"Is he always like this?" One of the officers asks, receiving an affirmative grunt in response from Cherry Pop.

I stand right before the door to Starlight's house, "You, knock on this door for me," I tell Flash Sentry, who looks around to see if I was addressing anybody else, and walking up dejectedly when he notices that everyone is looking at him.

I make way for him to reach the door, where he quickly knocks on it three times.

No magical trap was activated, better safe than sorry.

"Coming!" A cheerful voice calls out from the other side of the door, The Sheriff walks up to stand next to me, and we wait in quiet as we hear hoof steps getting closer from the other side of the door, before it opened, revealing a light-purple Unicorn with a dark purple mane, Purplish-blue eyes and several light-turquoise streaks in her hair.

"Ah, You must be Starlight Glimmer!" I say loudly as I quickly grab her hoof and shake it, causing the mare to blink rapidly in confusion before taking her hoof out of mine, "Thank you so much for inviting us in!" I say loudly, moving into her house, followed closely by the Sheriff and my royal guards, ignoring the Unicorn's protests.

She quickly catches up to us as we stop in the middle of her mostly empty house, "I don't know who you are, but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave," she tells us.

I give a quick look to my guards, gesturing in her direction a few movements that got a nod out of the green Pegasus, who nudged Cherry Pop and Flash Sentry before whispering in their ears what I told him with those movements.

"Miss Glimmer, You probably don't know who I am, but I certainly know who you are" I tell her, making her look at me instead of at the sheriff who was carefully taking out a pair of cuffs, or at the guards who started to circle her.

"You see, for the last month or so, I've been following a trail that caught my attention," I ignore the blinks of astonishment from the guards at the obvious lie, "You see, It all started when a detective pal of mine brought over a poster he wanted me to look at," I told her, lying through my teeth.

"It was this missing person poster, posted by one Starshine Campfire, I'm sure you can find that name recognizable."

Starlight started looking around her, her hooves shifting around as if waiting to run. I smirked.

"What I'm trying to get at, Is that you are under arrest," and as those words leave my mouth, The guards that surrounded her jumped.

Unfortunately, with a quick aquamarine flash from her horn, Starlight was at the other side of the room, throwing a wooden bed straight at us.

We all quickly ducked underneath the bed, letting it fly and crash behind us in an explosion of splinters.

"After her!" The Sheriff yelled and a group of officers ran into the house, and down the tunnel that was hidden underneath her bed.

I sighed at seeing Starlight disappear.

I knew she probably would have tried to fight and escape, I just hoped it would be more exciting than throwing a bed and running away.

"We'll take it from here," The sheriff patted me on my shoulder, "Thank you for bringing this up with us, Your Highness."

I nodded and walked outside, intent on leaving the rest of the job to the people who actually get paid to deal with this.

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I sat underneath a pine tree as I waited for my guards to get the carriage ready so I could return to the castle, my job here was done, All I had to do was wait for the eventual report, and bada-bing bada-boom.

ZAP ZAP CRASH

I quickly stood up as those sounds hit my ears, I turned to look at my guards, only to find them out cold.

"You..." A voice said, and I turned to see a very angry Unicorn, with a shining purple horn pointing at me.

Oh...

Starlight wasn't caught yet...

"You took everything from me..." She growled at me, And If this situation wasn't as serious as it was, I would have told her that I didn't take anything and that she was being stupid.

But alas, years in the Navy taught me how to act when someone was pointing a gun at me.

"At the very least, I am going to take your Cutie Mark from you before I leave!" She yelled, and with a flash of pain, I felt as if a piece of my leg just got cut off.

"Hahaha! With this, you won't be able to use your magic to stop me!" She smiled as she looked into a glass jar, inside of which was a compass star, the same one from the Cutie Mark on my flank.

But, regardless of the seriousness of this situation, I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins as the danger of the moment made itself known.

And I smiled.

"You know," I told her, "I don't need my magic to beat you into the cold hard dirt,"

"What?" She asked, looking away from the jar and towards me.

Or more specifically, my hoof.

And as my hoof made contact with the Unicorn's face, the jar she held fell to the ground and I suddenly felt a warm energy flow through me as my Cutie-mark suddenly flew back onto me.

My smile only widened when Starlight turned back to me, her brows glaring at me and her horn glowing once more, ready to fight.

"Yes!" I yelled, running towards her, my front legs flying towards her as I punch in her direction.

She simply growled as she ducked under a punch, shooting a thin beam of Turquoise energy out of her horn which I quickly roll to the left to avoid, my smile widening at the sound of tree branches snapping behind me.

"This is what I live for!" I yell excitedly as a blue glow surrounds my horn, and a heavy tree branch is thrown at Starlight, who ducks under it while walking backward, her eyes not leaving me as I continue to move closer and closer.

And just as I'm about to hit her, I quickly dodge to the side and evade the massive pile of snow that fell from the branches above me, before springing forward and decking Starlight in the face.

"The Action! The Adrenaline!" I yell as I throw another punch, Starlight quickly teleports a few meters away, her horn ready to blast another spell as a bruise grows around her eye.

"This excitement!" I smile wider as I dash in her direction, ducking beneath the low-hanging branches in the way, ignoring the scratches on my body from all the dodging and rolling.

And just as I reached her spot, my hoof ready to rain another few punches at her, her eyes turned to pinpricks.

And with a flash of Aquamarine light and the sound of a hoof hitting flesh, we both disappeared.

Leaving behind us a snowy forest clearing, with pockmarks of magic and broken branches, a magical carriage, and three unconscious guards.

And my smile couldn't have been wider.