The Demotion

Mr Herald looked faint... "An, an illusion? But..."

"That's despicable," Mrs Admirer hissed. "I knew the Snowflake of Kindness was too good to be true, Daylight! Of course when one has the other four, the fifth one would be impossible to resist! Oh, we have been played!"

Mr Herald, still deathly pale, turned to his servants, "Who sold us the Snowflake of Kindness?"

It was White Woods that answered, "A collector in Cloudsdale, sir! Not too sure what his name was, but he worked in weather control!"

"Who would set up such an elaborate scheme?" Nameless wondered, before Loyal shushed her.

"Cloudsdale? Hmm...So he definently had at least one accomplice. A unicorn for sure. Do you know any names or ties to any of this? Who would want it so bad to steal it and ill also need all the information of those you hired to transport the snowflakes."

Well if they are in Cloudsdale that puts the final stages of this out of my hooves. That jurisdiction is not in my payroll...Be nice if one day it was though.

Loyal clapped her hooves. "Nameless! Go get the information surrounding the hired help! White Woods, accompany her, do something for a change!"

When the two servants left, Loyal stated, "The collector in question is a pegasus named Ash Cloud. He also specialises in excavation of old artifacts like the Snowflakes of Harmony. His assistant is an old friend of mine. I can hardly believe that he could do something like this, but I can hardly believe anyone can do something like this. Ah, here we are."

Nameless passed the documents to the guardpony, and curtsied to him right after.

"Celestia guide you on your investigation, officer," Mr Herald said.

Renaultar gave his customary smile. "Thank you. Im here to protect and serve." With that, two things occured to him. One, this case would probably take days at the least to solve, probably many weeks since it was intercity. And two, his boss was here.

"Deputy Shielder!" Shouted a very gruff sounding voice demanded. Renaultar quickly stood at attention as a black pegasi entered. His stern eyes looked at Renaultar with little kindness in them. "I knew i should have sent you to a desk. Tell me you have got something 'lead investigator'."

Renaultar grinned nervously before nodding. "Yes Captain Stonewall. We have a lot here already written down, but the lead evidence here suggests that the stolen items were stolen a day or two prior and false magic ones put in their place to keep the ruse. We have several suspects with motives, but they lead to Cloudsdale..."

Captain Stonewall eyed Renaultar up and down a bit, living up to his name with his very still and sturdy nature. "Good to hear...Ill take over from here. Your free to return to your duties."

Unlike Renaultar, Stonewall didn't care much to comfort the victims, or keep them informed at all. Renaultar himself, while supposedly released from the investigation, lingered for now.

"Mr Herald, Mrs Admirer, I'm happy we could begin to help you, but with what we have, it may be a few days or weeks before we get any results...."

Mr Herald nodded. "I'm sure you will try your very best to retrieve the Snowflakes. At least they are probably still intact if someone took this much effort to steal them. So long as they are safe..."

Mrs Admirer stared cooly at her husband, "Despite that, I think I will feel better when the Snowflakes are returned. If that is all, officer...?"

In the background, Loyal Prudence was talking to the other servants. "Okay then, despite this disaster, we will carry on our duties of the servants of this household. White Woods, I've noticed that you have been pushing some of your duties onto Nameless, which is quite shocking if I may say so. Therefore as punishment, you will have to return the favour working overtime to do some of her duties-"

"Loyal," Mr Herald interrupted, "Can you send Nameless here?"

"Yes, Mr Herald. Nameless, you heard him."

The little filly strode in front of Mr Herald. "Yes?"

Mr Herald talked directly to Deputy Shields. "I would, however like to keep updated on your progress. That's is why we will be sending Nameless regularly to the department for news. Do you understand that, Nameless?"

Curtsy. "Yes, Mr Herald."

Renaultar was happy to help, but sending the...'servant' seemed a bit of a stretch. "Um..Yes ill be happy to keep you updated. Uh...The full name is Deputy Renaultar Shielder. You might hear some of the other Officers call me Renny or even less than appealing names. Most the precinct should know me if you cant find me."

In all honesty Renaultar wasn't sure if he would be kept on the case, but he could not turn these people down. They needed someone and he wasn't confident any other pony could give them the attention they were asking for, no matter how out of the book it was. He really had to stop deviating from it so much. It was just too hard to not to with all the rules.

"Just be careful in the streets. Wouldn't hurt to have a whistle to call for help. You would be surprised how much that can help."

"I'll keep that in mind sir," Nameless said, curtsying again.

As Loyal escorted the guardpony out the door, White Woods called Nameless over, and they both went to do their duties.

The mare maid was whispering something in the little filly's ear...