//------------------------------//
// Episode 1: Lies Part 1 
// Story: Dissident Corruption 
// by masterchef227 
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 	"Give me the worst description of a liar, and you will find yourself talking about everypony around you. Everypony lies, its just a fact." Croix Calvert,

[Begin log:]
The computer screen was showing himself, a rather well groomed though looking rather frazzled colt. The computer shined a silvery blue light making him contrast with the outside darkness. Dr. Glowstone Epitaph had a grey coat coat, and a dark brown mane. He was wearing a suit, blue and black striped tie, and a white undershirt. He looked like he worked at a day job selling office supplies. He had orange eyes, and a square face. He looked at himself and began to speak to the computer.
"Right now it is 9:54pm. Today is Thursday the 15th of June." His voice was low, serpentine, and fluent. He sighed as he spoke again, "My name is Glowstone Epitaph, founder of the Epitaph Case Firm, and my assistant Mrs. Rose Hearth suggested I begin these logs." He grabbed a red folder with Celestia's insignia on it, and opened it. He turned a few pieces of paper over and exclaimed. "Ah, here it is. The case file from today, which I am still working on." Dr. Epitaph was sitting in a leather chair, behind him was a window which in poured street lights. There was a desk strewn behind him will documents, file bins, and papers all across the surface. It had office supplies such as staplers and pencil sharpeners on the sides in danger of falling off.
He sighed and then spoke again starring straight at the camera. "Dissident even until the very end. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that she would leave some details out, after all today's case was rather uncomfortable and quite disturbing." He ran a hoof through his hair, and leaned back in his chair. A silver keyboard was in front of him, with a mouse on a black track pad to the side of it. "Tuesday, June 13th this week at 12:40 am a little filly was murdered in front of Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville. The CCPD couldn't ascertain a suspect, so they hired us to see if we could get some results." A smug look appeared across his face. "Needless to say we did, though..." The smug grimaced and was replaced with a look of distant frustration, "...we couldn't ascertain the criminal. We did manage to find a few suspects, by interviewing the witnesses and such."
His eyebrows were concave to the bridge of his nose, and his mouth curled towards the left. This was an obvious sign of anger. He took of his suit jacket and loosened his tie, while placing the jacket on the back of his chair. He breathed heavily while running another hoof through his mane. His face relaxed with his eyebrows returning square to the top of his eyes. "Oh well, I suppose since this is a log I should start from the beginning." He breathed heavily again, and sat bending towards the screen. He had his hooves crossed and lifted on up as he began to speak. "Today is my birthday, and I woke up this morning with quite a start."

I woke up with cold sweat from the nightmare I was having. My room was in an apartment complex, with jungle green carpeting and beige walls. Last night I dreamed yet again the night of my sister's suicide, still vivid after so many years. My sheets were silver, and I pulled them out from underneath me to reveal a white under sheet. I put two hooves on the floor and looked at my nearby end table with a blue lamp and a black alarm clock. The alarm hadn't even gone off yet, and the numbers read 7:22am. I had it set for 8:00, I woke up a half our early. There was sunlight streaming from the window, near a white, square framed door. On the other side of the bed was a mirror closet holding a few boxes and suits on hangers.
With all four of my hooves on the carpet, I rubbed my eyes. I clicked the alarm on the clock, and it reset. With the faint light that was coming through the curtain, I sighed and headed towards the door. I felt for the doorknob, and twisted it open. "SURPRISE!" A small group of ponies had shouted. I jumped back in shock, resulting in boisterous laughter from the group. My living room was decorated head to toe with paper cut outs, showing different facial expressions. My coffee table had a coffee maker brewing up, "Celestia's Golden Brew" coffee, my favorite brand. There was pastries on the back counter of the kitchen, and a cake, with dark violet frosting. Decorated with light yellow rock candy, making a lined pattern along the edges. It had 39 candles on the top with red icing spelling, "Condescending Birthday Glowstone...".
I then laughed in response to seeing this. "We'll, how long did it take you to do thi?.... Ms. Hearth." The group turned to face a scarlet pony, with a dominantly orange mane, striped with yellow. This was Ms. Rose Hearth, and She had a cutie mark of a silver fire, with gold tips. She was sitting on the couch when she spoke, "Took me about 20 hours to get everything planned, ready, decorated, and you in a deep sleep so you wouldn't wake up." She smirked, and then laughed. The others did so lightly, except for a gryphon who began to speak, "Happy Birthday, though its not really my thing." The gryphon was  named Gilda, who is the most recent addition to our firm. She left from Ponyville recently rather distraught, we found her in an alley behind the firm looking solemn. Marks were on her feathers from when she was just previously crying. We gave her a job working at the firm, and a place to stay just a few doors down from my apartment.
"Gilda, you sure do know how to make a colts birthday part one of a kind." I grimaced, and the rest of the group laughed. "Heyo boss, I would like to stay but me and the mrs. have plans." It was an orange pony who spoke at this, and his name was Orange Kindheart. He unfortunately has a medical condition where he cannot tell a single lie without great difficulty. In fact he tells the truth so often, we don't even have to read his face to tell whether or not he is lying. This has some major downsides, and this was demonstrated when Gilda retorted, "Plans? What plans could you possibly have?" This was the worse question she could have asked. "Well first we were going to drink some wine, then sleep with eachother, then maybe eat some leftover potato salad." He was speaking as if this was an every day thing.
Me and the rest of the group except for Gilda were laughing at this. "Okay... too much information." Gilda said while waving a claw in the air. She was standing right next to my sofa, and Rose. Orange himself had a silver shield cutie mark, with a sun encrusted upon it. He had an orange coat and a brown mane, with red irises in his eyes. He questioned, "What? What's so funny? She did ask a question." He looked confused, and this was met with a retort from me. "Its nothing Orange, but why in my apartment? Why not in my office or..." I was interrupted by Rose. "Well you see Glowstone, I figured it would be more fun for you to have just woken up, and for us to see you outside work for once." I snarled, "I assume you find it highly amusing then?" She replied, "Of course I do? Glowstone, I though you knew me better?" She stated sardonically while putting a hoof to her chest and gazing outwards as if offended. I laughed, though still slightly irritable.
"Anyways, can we eat now?" Gilda inquired. "Gilda, you have the grace that Celestia herself would have approved. But yes, let us eat!" Rose exclaimed. Gilda looked confused, clearly unable to detect Rose's sarcasm. But then she just moved on to eat some chips, grabbing some with her claws and shoving them in her beak. "Um... Happy birthday... Glowst..." A yellow pegasus had spoken. This was the first time he had the entire time, as apparently he was hiding behind the couch. This pegasus had a golden mane and maple irises. He had a golden coin for a cutie mark, with a picture of a certain pony as its insignia in the center. He had wings, as most pegasi do, but he could not use them. Well, he could its just that he was always so scared to, and he couldn't fly.
"Um... great party... I really like the, um..." He paused for a moment, looking down and rubbing a hoof on the carpet. "The cake looks good..." I replied, "Yes, yes it does. Thanks for coming Golden Cream." Golden Cream was actually one of the best readers we have. He has helped solve more then his fair share of cases, but he always was so shy. He never actually. "No problem Glowst..." He never actually said my full name, as he apparently is afraid of me. This always humored me and I found it a great source of amusement. His head was hung low, his eyes avoiding my gaze, and his mouth was shaking a little. He showed clear signs of fear, but I must commend him on the effort he was showing. "Well, lets go have some cake then shall we?"
Golden looked up a bit, then replied, "That would be nice... And, what did Orange mean by sleeping with his wife? Do they go to sleep together?" I laughed, much to Golden's shock. Golden was only a teenager, but he lived with Orange. He had fled from Ponyville, the same place Gilda came from. Gilda tells me she wasn't from Ponyville, but none the less that is where I consider her origins lie. "Hey Golden!" Yelled Orange from the kitchen. Golden jumped, and went to hide behind me.  After a few moments he came out from behind me. "Yes Orange..." He said softly to Orange. "Come on and try this cake! Its amazing!" Orange was stuffing his face of the cake that Glowstone had actually been looking forward to.