Celestia has witnessed many things in her centuries of life, among them being many sunsets that have involuntarily pained her. But even a pony as ancient as her can be taken by surprise. Especially when it involves a filly’s innocent actions.

Inspired by the adorable Art by BranewashPV that you can see as the cover.

Managed to hold second place in the Featured Box for a while!
Actually reached top of the Featured Box!

Now with a reading by StraightToThePointStudio: Check it out!

And also a Chinese translation by TheFlint44

中文译文（Chinese Translation）：https://fimtale.com/t/25307

Monster attacks. Crime. Illegal hallucinogens made from electric fruit.

They say things didn't use to be like this. They say things were different, before Luna came back 60 years ago, but Detective Hard "Hardy" Boiled of the Detrot Police Department has never known any world other than that demarcated by the seedy streets of his beloved decaying metropolis; a world in which the coroners sing and dance, surveillance bugs have personality disorders, and the Chief of Police is a scarier entity than most of the eldritch things the city attracts.

The grey unicorn who turned up dead outside the posh High Step Hotel seemed like just another case, but her missing horn is the pointy tip of a very large and nasty iceberg. It's up to Hardy and his friends - a rejected monster hunter, a psychic cab driver, and an underground antiques heir - to find out what’s going on in an investigation that promises to stick more than a cupcake into the very eye of Detrot.

Especially if Hardy has anything to say about it.

By Popular Demand, there is now a Patreon

Additional editing by coandco Sig_Awesome, Hinds, Clint, and Raccoon!
Featured on EQD - 5 Stars!
Cover art by MisterMech (http://mistermech.deviantart.com/)
Now with TVTropes page here!

'R' and 'E' are right next to one another on keyboards, so I dismissed 'Mareiott' as a typo and booked my hotel room online. It was only after I found a pony waiting for me at the airport that I realized it was, instead, a horrible pun. Now I'm stuck in a horsey hotel for a week while attending a major trade fair on behalf of my employer.

Additional character tags: Snowcatcher, Flitterheart, Sunny Rays, Feathermay, Honeybuzz

Written for Admiral Biscuit's challenge/request for more slice of life fics featuring ponies working on Earth:

https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/869870/story-notes-labor-day-plus-a-challenge-to-readers

This story is a sequel to Changeling Space Program

Twilight Sparkle's experimental interplanetary drive has malfunctioned, stranding Starlight Glimmer, Spitfire, Cherry Berry, a changeling and a dragon on a hostile planet in another universe. With limited food supplies, very little magic, no communications with home, and no way to leave the planet, they must survive until somepony rescues them.

Fortunately they crashed right next door to another creature with the exact same problem- a creature named Mark Watney.

They're going to science the buck out of everything- and do whatever it takes to survive Mars and get everybody home.

TVTropes page here! Thanks to GymQuirk for making it!

Commissioned art and fan works from the readers! Thanks, everybody!

This experiment in an updates-daily story was made possible by a generous grant from Canary in the Coal Mine and viewers like you.

(Sex tag for crude talk about sex, but no actual sex in the story.)