Chapter 16: Undercity District

Mooncrescent yawns, trotting along the cobblestone on the way to the forensics lab for the third time in the past week. “How long do we wait before we just decide they’re traitors?” Mooncrescent asks idly. “It sure seems like it’s taking a long time for results to come back.”

Starblaze shakes his head. “Forensic science isn’t that fast, Crescy. Besides, we have a couple other leads to follow up on, if there’s nothing to find here this time we’ll just have to set off for the Everfree and see what we can find.” According to the experts they had brought in, the burr’s found at the scene of the crime were only native to the Everfree forest east of Canterlot. The only reason the two of them hadn’t already set out, is because the train ride to the nearest settlement is a full day’s journey away and they want to be sure they had followed up on every lead in Canterlot first.

Nopony stops the duo, probably on account of their guard uniforms; Starblaze notes this with a distinct feeling of unease. Would it be so easy for anypony in a guard outfit to get back here? Ponies trusting nature can be a fairly major detriment at times.

At least the body is still there in the lab; Starblaze was half expecting somepony to have snuck in and removed it. “Oy!” Mooncrescent shouts, waving a hoof to get someponies attention. “Royal Guards Mooncrescent and Starblaze, here! We’re here to check on your progress!”

A frazzled looking, sleepy eyed mare with a double helix cutie mark looks up from her work over some manner of arcane machinery, practically jumping in her seat before rushing over to attend the two of them, bowing her head deeply. “M-my apologies, I was too focused to see you come in. What can I help you with?”

“It’s been almost a week.” Starblaze states, grimly. “I’m going to need whatever information you’ve been able to dig up about our ‘friends’ over there, it can’t wait any longer.”

“Oh! Yes, right, of course. Actually you came at a perfect time, I was just recording some of the results. Right this way.” The mare pushes up her glasses and sits back down, rifling through some of the papers she had been working on as well as the oddly shaped device complete with eyepieces and some manner of holding mechanism in the center. “We strung together the most complete segments of DNA we could find from the corpses and cross-checked them with our records, but we can’t find a single match. Now missing one or two matches is typical but, this many separate instances of no matching records in our systems seems implausible. For those who still had teeth, there were no matches for dental records, either, so that’s what really set me off.” The forensic scientist start explaining.

Starblaze blinks and scrunches up his muzzle, somewhat struggling to follow along. He had heard something about the discovery of something called ‘DNA’ at some point, but he can’t really recall its meaning. At least Mooncrescent seems to be paying rapt attention, as the scientist removes a couple of folders and flips through them.

“Anyways, since nothing else was coming up, I delved a bit deeper looking for partial matches. We were actually able to find a few this time. They could be siblings or parents, maybe an avuncular relationship but it’s unlikely they’d be similar enough unless it was a case of inbreeding.” The scientist continues, removing a hooffull of papers and placing them on the table. “You can take a look here. I imagine the pattern should stick out to you.”

Starblaze takes the stack of papers and hoofs through them. Cherry blossom, born thirty seven years ago. Died fifteen years ago from unspecified causes, two years after having a foal. Snake Eyes, born thirty-eight, shanked in an alleyway after winning it big in gambling. Velvet Carpet, forty four years ago. Had a colt three years before disappearing mysteriously.

It isn’t exactly hard to figure out the connecting thread. Starblaze drops the papers on the table. “Yeah, lot’s of would-be parents of orphans. Why haven’t you come forward with this yet?”

The mare scrunches up her muzzle. “Well, I was going to, I was just running over the papers one more time to make sure I’d looked through them all thoroughly enough. But there’s more than that, they’re all around the same age range, thirty-five to forty-five. All of them are from eastern Equestria or Canterlot, lower class origins, or at least were lower class until right before their death in Snake Eyes’s case. Deaths all in the same time period, too.” The mare moves the papers around and presents one to the brothers. “This is the only one who didn’t show up in any obituaries. I can’t confirm that he’s still alive, but at least there’s no reason to think he’s dead, other than the general trends.”

Starblaze flips open the file. Collar Blue, 37 years old. Canterlot undercity district, works on and off at the railway depot. There’s a sizable selection of notes below; Starblaze looks up at the scientist with a raised brow, flicking his eyes down at the folder. “There’s a lot more in here than the rest. What gives?”

The scientist nods, eagerly. “Mhm, well, since he was the only apparently-living example, I thought the investigative team would want to know more. So I had my colleagues run a full background check and audit. Some very interesting tidbits came up.” She nods her head along eagerly, seemingly rather self-assured with her progress on the case.

Starblaze pauses before nodding. “Noted. Turn the full report into the palace when it’s done, we’ll see if we can pick up on some of these loose threads.”

The tip of Starblaze’s tongue pokes from his mouth while he peruses the files, riding in the back of a carriage heading downcity. The area around him has blurred to nothing as he focuses, counting on Mooncrescent to tell him if there is anything of interest.

No criminal record, but in the right demographic where it wouldn’t be surprising. Says he spends every night drinking out, married but his wife isn’t working. Surprising he can afford that on his salary. Starblaze is interrupted from his pondering when Mooncrescent taps him on his shoulder.

“Look, we’re coming up on the undercity now! Wow, it’s been a while since we were down here, huh Blazey?” Mooncrescent points a hoof forwards as the sprawl of sometimes-technically-legal structures built underneath the grand terraces of Canterlot proper comes into view.

The Undercity District is, strictly speaking, not supposed to be there. It had started as a result of nobles getting inventive with property law as a way to advertise more and more ‘Downtown Canterlot Residential Buildings’, which in reality were underneath the city. An exploitation of property laws which only considered the land’s latitude and longitude, not its altitude. The law had been amended and a crackdown on the practice had been implemented, but it was too late; A sizable chunk of apartment buildings or condominiums had already been constructed, shortly thereafter followed up by suburbia the likes of which you’d find in other less affluent cities, and then by slums populated by short-sighted dream seekers who’d moved to Canterlot without the wealth required to actually get a piece of the pie there.