Harmony Lane [Finished]

Kira had been wandering about the streets for sometime, she just enjoyed these long walks that was she got up much earlier than she needed to so she could have time for these long walks.

As she rounded a corner she came up on the group of ponies that was standing there and talking, she recognize then as her neighbours from the apartment building she lived in. Still an MoM officer was something that always made her nerves when they were around, but she had noting to hide still she had heard that some gryphons worked for the Zebras.

"Good morning." Was all she said as she walked up to the group sure she was not sure how much time she had before she had to be at work but some friendly conversation was something she could spare.

Kes had just finished his first mile and a half when he decided to pick up the pace a bit. His dogtrot became a run, and then a full on sprint. His motions were fluid, powerful, predatory. He was truly living up to the reputation of his species.

Each flex of his powerful muscles sent him flying across the sidewalk, the steady burn in his legs slowly but surely growing into a raging inferno.

Kes ignored it however. Pain was easy to ignore.

He finally began to slow down a bit when he was once again coming up on the Apartment Complex. Up ahead he could see the group had grown in size while he was gone. The MoM agent was still here, looks like he was trying to interrogate some blue Pegasus. Off to the side Kes noticed the familiar outline of another gryphon, huh looks like he wasn't the only one here after all.

His sprint became a run, then a trot, then a finally a nice steady walk just before he came up to the group; his dog tags bouncing a bit with each step. Kestrel did not really look like he was interested in talking.

For some reason he did not think that would stop the group from talking to him however.

The exit from Bakewell’s apartment predictably turned into an exit from the entire building. As the mare stepped out into the direct sunlight she paused briefly, looking around while her eyes readjusted to the bright sun. There was almost always nice weather in Harmony Lane, and the earth pony would be lying if she claimed not to enjoy it. But wait, now wasn’t the time to stop and smell the roses! She had places to go and pastries to bake! An order from a ministry was a rather big deal, after all.

The mare charged off into a gallop, head down. She felt no need to pay much attention to where she was going. After all, she knew her path like the back of her own hoof, buildings or carts were large enough to notice without paying attention, and anypony with a lick of sense would surely move out of the way to avoid getting hit. Bakewell went where Bakewell pleased.

Now that the danger of being stopped by the MoM officer had passed Scrap slowed down, his earlier faster pace had given him enough time to slow down and observe the scenery.

Not that he did much observing, he was to busy thinking about what he was going to be working on today-hopefully it wasn't working with the weapon design team again. He was so enraptured by his thoughts that he didn't notice the sound of somepony galloping until a tan mare slammed into him.

"Don't worry Violet, Sky isn't a traitor, ...at least today! but theres no telling who treason can affect!!" Cross stood on his hind hooves raising his right hoof into the air.

"Come on Starry and Violet its about time we got to school!" Cross grabbed Violet in one arm, and wrapped his other around Starry. Alrigh- wait a minute..." Cross's horn flared up and Amber was dragged over by his tail.

"Now thats better, now... Ms. Night and Violet ARE YOU READY!?!?!" and before Cross got a reply, his magic swallowed the four four of them.

"To the Moon!!!"

*Flash*

(In the classroom now)

After a half-minute of traversing the stairs, Shutter exited the apartment building, only just dodging a mare that sped past him on the way out of the building.

"H-hey! Watch it!"

He called out after them, before continuing on. He needed to get some good scenery pictures...perform a few interviews...and then find a way to compile all of this into something that would finish this report.

Grunting a bit as he felt his lack of sleep induced headache pain him once more, he headed down the path, eyes searching for any photo ops that might arise, and that could take his mind off this annoyance throbbing within his head.

Starry grinned at Cross. He was a pretty cheery pony, most ponies from the Ministry of Morale were, but Cross was particularly nice. With this bit of extra help from Cross, Starry might actually beat her best attendance record for the month!

"Alright, class!" Starry said, as she appeared in the front of her classroom with Violet, Cross, and Amber, "Today, we have a very special presentation for you! We have a guest, Mr. Cross from the Ministry of Morale, here to conduct a live interrogation for us! Give a warm welcome to Mr. Cross!" Starry stamped her forehooves on the ground to applaud Cross Roads, followed by the applause of the rest of the class.

"Okay, Violet, why don't you take your seat now. You may begin whenever the two of you are ready, Mr. Cross and Mr. Amity," Starry told them, as she trotted behind her teacher's desk.

“WEEEE! That was fun Mr. Cross!” cheered Violet as they appeared in the class, wide grin on her face. She hopped a bit in joy, before leaping through the air and landing on her desk, quickly taking her seat.

She opened up her saddle bag and took out a pencil and notebook, opening the latter up as if to take notes. However, as she waited for Cross to start the ‘Interrogation’, she opened up to a page in the book with a list of names on it, including the job and a sketch of each pony that the name belonged to.

Cross Roads, Starry Night, Sky, Kestrel, Shutter, Scrap Parts, Athanix, and a few others.

This...Whatever this was had been fun, and may continue to be fun for awhile, but Violet was a smart pony, she knew she couldn’t stay here forever. She needed to figure out what this was and who caused it, how to get the others back their memories, and finally get out of here. And she already had a plan for the middle bit!

That doesn’t mean she wasn’t going to have fun with this...In fact, her first plan should be amusing to carry out. She turned the page, listing several different plans of attack with Starry’s on the top of the list.

‘And I already have the rope...’

Cross smiled warmly at Starry and then turned to the class.

"Well foals as you know my name is Agent Cross of the Ministry of Morale! Its my job to make sure ponies love Equestria as much they can!" Cross's horn lit up and dragged Amber Dusk front and center.

"Now....here is a pony who doesn't think Equestria deserves the best, he'd like to take everything for himself! this...foals is a what a potential traitor looks like! .....I've gotten reports, of get this!, he's been going to markets and using his ration tickets to get MORE potatoes for himself!!" Cross slapped Amber on the back of the head, trying to emphasis how bad it was to be selfish.

"Not only is that stealing precious food from our soldiers on the front line, it appears that potatoes have been going missing left and right on Harmony Lane, RIGHT around the time you do your paper route!!! Now Amber....or Paper Pony, whichever you prefer, what do you have to say for yourself? You KNOW you gotta to share.....that you gotta care.....For Equestria!!"

Cross pulled out his baton, but had yet to flick it out, this was only a demonstration, no need to get down to business in here ...just yet..

"Now remember kids, I say potential only because I've yet to write down the details, but when this is over he and I are going to a long talk on why he's acting like a *shady* zebra" Cross halted and looked around at the foals, all staring wide-eyed to see a Morale Officer at work, especially Violet who was nearly falling over her desk.

"Violet, is there anything you'd like to say or ask? I would really love to see how a junior member of the Ministry of Awesome would handle this!"

(OOC: Amber, this is when you realize Athanix has been sneaking out to go steal potatoes when you do your paper route.)

Apparently assuming that all of the ponies here had the common sense to not stand in her way was being too gracious. Typical.

Normally, Bakewell would have simply plowed through and left the hit pony, continuing on her way on without pausing for even a minute. Unfortunately her ability to do such a thing this time was slightly impeded as something, possibly some bit or other of the stupid pony she ran into, caught the mare’s front leg and tripped her. Her eyes widened in realization and time for the mare seemed to slow down as she gracefully began to flip forwards…

…before landing directly on her face in an extremely silly looking position.

Sky looked around to see they were gone, but however a unexpected visitor had come her way. A Black griffin, with dogtags hanging around his neck. Sky knew most griffins fought as mercs, and most were employed by the zebras. But a certain few fought for the ponies, if she remembered the news correctly. Sky walked up to the griffin, hoping to strike up a conversation.

"Hey was up, your a merc. Right?"

"Ugh...whahappend...why am I on the ground...?...oh right..." Scrap glanced toward the mare who had plowed into him, who was now performing a rather humerous face plant. Stifling a laugh Scrap asked "Are you okay?"

Called it. Kes rumbled to himself mentally before stopping and turning to face the little blue pegasus that had asked him a question.

It was a shocking comparison really, the size difference between Kestrel and the pegasai. She looked to be only 3 or 4 feet off the ground at her shoulder, while Kes was at least 5. He scanned her carefully with his gaze, vibrant Predatory eyes looking for anything out of place.

The he spoke, his voice cold, calm, and gravelly. Like something out of an old western or some such.

"Was. Then th' Mareine Corps hired me."

"that's pretty cool, i have an uncle in the corps. Haven't talked to him in awhile..." Sky trailed off, the answer wasn't something she would expect. But it was a good answer nonetheless, to meet a griffin who was taken by the marine corps.

"look at me trailing off, but yeah that's cool. I guess ill see you around, im late for work. Bye." Sky unfurled her wings and took off to the sky, heading to the cloud factory.

Kes watched the pegasi fly off then turned and began to walk back towards his apartment. He still had to make it past what remained of the group, the other gryphon, before he could start ascending the staircase towards his home.

Shouldn't be to much trouble.

“Nrgh.” The mare replied dazedly before pushing herself up and swatting at the air in an attempt to get the little imaginary birds to stop circling her head. “I’m fine, thanks.” She replied sweetly. As she brushed herself off.

Then the mare’s eyes narrowed as she realized who had asked. Her expression instantly became harsh as she scowled at the unicorn. “Which is more than you’ll be able to say if you pull anything like that ever again, dork.” She growled, shoving her face into the unicorn’s. “What are you even doing here?” She demanded, as though walking somewhere was a crime against nature.

"Me pull something!? You ran into me!" Scrap replied back harshly. "And what I'm doing here is going to work, where I build the robots that help keep jerks like you safe! Now if whatever you do is more important then that feel free to continue to yell at me-if not then would you kindly get out of my way!"

Kira just looking at when the MoM agent teleported away in front of her, rude much but then again they probably had better things to do then talked to her. It was after the bright light had dissipated when she saw the other gryphon talking to a blue pegasi both she recognized from the apartment building. Her interest peak when she heard that the gryphon was part once a mercenary.

"Nice to see some of us fighting for Equestria." She said after the pegasi flown off to were ever. "I would be joining as well if it were not for my bad wing."

“I know exactly what you did.” Bakewell growled, her large eyes showing pure fury as she pushed forwards in an attempt to make Scrap back up. This dork thought he was better than her. Above her. Unacceptable.

“Your robots are trash. Come one hundred years they’ll probably be malfunctioning and shooting us. They can’t think. They can’t smell. They don’t even have real emotion. Your robots may offer temporary protection but they can’t make somepony happy, especially with someone too dumb to even sidestep working on them. Want some advice? You should be a clown instead, you’re plenty dumb and at least that way you’d actually make life worth living for someone." She huffed and backed up slightly, gesturing to her left

"But whatever, dork. If you still want to go play with your little metal toys then don’t let me stop you. There’s plenty of room here for you to go around me, and to move aside when I pass. Try not to blow yourself up.”

Violet grinned, playing a starstruck filly was fun! When Cross asked her what she thought, the filly suddenly took on a look of contemplation, opening up a blank page in her notebook and writing stuff down.

“Well, I’d check in with all the ponies in the markets and such who are missing potatoes, and see if they could collaborate in seeing Mr. Amity anywhere near them when their potatoes went missing. If they agree that they all saw him, then we have reasonable suspicion. However, there are most likely other paperponies out during his time, and other ponies that could be stealing the potatoes and trying to frame him for it by committing the crimes during his time. Why they’d do so I have little clue, but I believe further investigation is required.” she nodded, a serious look on her face. Everypony just stared at her for a few moments, before she broke out in a wide grin. “Oooor, we just get some explosives, blow a hole into his apartment, and send a team of powered armor ponies to clean the place out!”

Of course, she knew that it was probably the Zebra hiding in his apartment, Mr. Zebra or Athanix, that was doing the deed. She saw the zebra hiding there during one of her investigations, and did recall seeing him recieve a large shipment of potatoes from Amity during Starry’s party. She wasn’t going to say any of this, of course, she knew how Equestrians treated zebra’s during this ‘time’, and she didn’t want to see Mr. Zebra get hurt!

"I didn't do anything!" Scrap snarled back, pushing forward towards the mare. Scrap was normally a nice pony, but this mare had pushed him to far.

"My robots may not be in perfect shape in 100 years but at least they will stay be around! As for them never making anypony happy thats bullshit! They make the ponies they save happy! They make me happy!" Scrap growled at her. "And as for your advice I didn't ask for ask for it so you can cram it! Next time you run into sompony because you think your better then everypony else, I hope you break something-like your neck!"

Amity just stood there straight faced the entire time. This would be the 3rd time this month that he had been pulled to the side for whatever reason to be questioned for his suspicious activities associated with Nix doing some random crap that he had specifically told him NOT to do. That zebra must be some damn ninja-zebra if he hadn't been caught yet. That or the Ministries were slacking...

Hay, he had been through this one thousand times by now, and he hated doing it every time. But he had a friend to look after, and that's what friends do.

But Amity was still going to scold Nix for being such a hayseed. But hey, what are you gonna do?

Amity just straightened out his posture and whipped his face slowly where the MoM agent had slapped him before he spoke.

"What are you suggesting..." Amity said slowly as he eyed the MoM agent with a questioning look in his face. If all went as it usually did then the Agent would probably accuse him of being a "Zebra Sympathizer" or a "Traitor" in front of all these schoolchildren. The agent was looked smart enough to have a plan of his own.

And there was also the mare in the corner with the wide grin on her face. She also looked smart enough to deduce what is really going on. Looks like Amity would have to prolong this conversation a little longer.

But Amity would be ready to anticipate any move that they would make. Things were already going smoothly and he made sure that no part of him gave away his growing satisfaction with the situation.

“So you’ve already claimed. What, is your name ‘Broken Record?’ It’d fit.” The unicorn clearly wasn’t going to go around, so Bakewell began shoving forwards once more. She really, really wanted to just buck this stupid pony in the head and be done with it, but while Bakewell wasn’t super smart she also considered herself to not be an idiot. Running into a pony was an accident. Hitting them full force without it being self-defense was surely a crime.

“Honestly? I hope you break every bone in your body. Every. Single. One. The difference between your insult and mine is that mine could actually happen. I imagine getting stuck in a stiff breeze would probably be enough to cripple you. Don’t worry your dainty little unicorn head too badly about it though, I’m sure your robots will save- oh wait, your precious robots are to dumb to even know simple things like how to care about the fate of their creator, aren't they? Oh well! I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, even for machines!"

"I give up! There's obviously no knocking common sense into someone as thick headed as you!" Scrap snarled, returning the tan pony's hatefilled gaze with one of his own.

"As much as I would love to continue this absolutly fantastic conversation, I've got to get to work, so I can resume as you so eloquently put it; making trash." Scrap said in a voice so filled with hate and sarcasm that it seemed to be dripping off it.

Stepping around the mare he continued forward, only pausing long enough to deliver one last parting jab. "Before I go, I've got one suggestion. Do me and the rest of Equestria a favor and go off yourself."

“I assure you that you of all ponies are most incapable of knocking anything into me. Now if you want to go, then go! I’m not stopping you, the only thing keeping you here is yourself! Bakewell sneered as she turned, body constantly facing Scrap as he stepped around her.

“Your suggestion has been noted, Garbage-mare. Unfortunately nobody is around to give a hay about it. Come back later?” She sneered after his retreating form before haughtily resuming her trek. The effect was slightly spoiled by the fact that she and Scrap had been going the same direction prior to the accident, forcing Bakewell to follow the unicorn until their paths split.

It sure was another sunny day on Harmony Lane.