As of this writing it was 2893 days ago
MLP FiM would air the final two episodes of Season 2 on April 21, 2012 who would be "A Canterlot Wedding"
Also on April 21, albeit 2018, Season 8, Episode 6 "Surf and/or Turf" would air.
if I said I was going for a flight, she'd be sure I'd sprout wings.
Ha
I like that Hardy takes time to comfort the heart. They have bonded so much in such a short time.
But I don't think Hardy cares about the heart as much as he does Swift. He gives her an out, she doesn't have to come with him. Of course she's going with him, but still.
Taxi sucked her teeth as she started after her. “Come on, before she decides she can take on the whole building by herself.”
I have to say, I love how Hardy gets Bari to back off. :D Wait, did Bari smile? Why did Bari smile?
Finding Cosmo broken is something that I honestly had forgotten, but makes sense. It's clear that when you visit his childhood home nothing is more important to him than his family. And that his Brother is prob the most important thing in his life. That his wish was to bring his brother back. While it doesn't excuse all the bad shit he's done, it at least gives him this tiny redeeming thing, it gives him an honorable purpose.
... I love how Cosmo just wants to be with his brother. The world is ending, and really, all he wants is his brother.
“Th-they grrr-aaannt...”
The second bullet was like a lover’s touch on my breast. It cut through the body armor, bursting through the back. I felt a tickle in my throat and coughed, softly, as though preparing to give a speech. It would have been a lovely speech, I’m sure.
In its box, the heart began to slam against the sides with wild abandon. Maybe it was worried. It didn’t need to worry. Things were okay.
For the end of the act, if I pick a comment, the whole thing will be pasted.
“The-they...gr—...” He stuttered, then his square jaw seemed to lock itself shut. I eased a bit closer, trying to hear whatever word his throat seemed to be trying to form. “Th-they grrr-aaannt...”
Wait, are we actually getting a "deal with the devil" law firm that's giving power to the criminal elements of Detrot, and perhaps Equestria at large, for their own purposes?
Time to lay down. Time to rest.
This... was not expected. Not even slightly. God this kind of cliffhanger would have been hell at release time. Can't wait to fidn out who's replacing our pony in grey.
I’m back from a break that needed to be taken because INSPIRATION HIT. Don’t worry, it won’t be anything fully tangible for a while, but all the pre-writing work is done and I can get back to this!
Blood Alcohol Content: 0.18%
Why am I not surprised?
“I don’t intend to die and I’m not going in unarmed. If this turns foul, we just have to get to a window, right?” I asked and Scarlet bobbed his chin, uncertainly. “Have your people waiting.”
Let’s play the “how badly is this going to go wrong?” game! Is almost everyone going to die, will it be a success that only realizes there’s worse secrets underneath, or will the entire place explode and nobody will have any proof of anything on either side?
Also don’t think I’ve forgotten about that cursed heart. (I say, two paragraphs before you mention it again.)
Bari tilted his head with a look of total incomprehension. “That... looks like a shotgun duct taped to a... a box?”
Hardy you madman. You brilliant, insane madman.
“S’you isn’t it? Tha’ damn cop,” a voice said. The words were stilted, slurred and sad.
Well, dang, I wanted to get my satisfaction out of watching this guy squirm. Now he’s just pathetic.
Whatever he was starting to say was lost as his jaw locked up again for some reason.
Me, the paranoid: there’s a magic spell keeping him from saying something.
“The-they...gr—...” He stuttered, then his square jaw seemed to lock itself shut. I eased a bit closer, trying to hear whatever word his throat seemed to be trying to form. “Th-they grrr-aaannt...”
Oh, holy crap, was I RIGHT? I wasn’t expecting to get told i was right so quickly. That's sure not a natural thing keeping him silent.
Oh well Hardy’s gone down, maybe he’ll be revived like Blackjack or we’ll switch to Cuddle
I mean... Its not like I didn't see it coming, but god damn, that really hit me hard
What an absolutely beautiful way to end Act 1. You could’ve totally pulled off ending the whole thing here, but where would the fun be in that?
So! Act One.
A quick recap for my own benefit as much as anything: Hardy and Swift are partnered and tasked with Investigating Ruby Blue's murder. The modus operandi makes them suspect Cosmo, and investigations on her past lead them to the Vivarium. There they discover that someone is spying on the assorted kinks and perversities of the city's higher-ups, and to prevent this information from allowing the mob to blackmail whoever they feel like blackmailing, which would a) bring the Vivarium down and swallow the Heights in gang war, and b) lead to the mob owning the entire city's government, they need to steal back the recordings. This leads them to the Monte Cheval, where they discover that Cosmo is working on someone's account, and then to the abandoned school to get the actual recordings and bring down Cosmo's operation while they're at it.
Now they're back in Cosmo's office, but he got assassinated before he could tell them anything and now Hardy has a bullet somewhere vital.
The main storylines this act started out with are largely tied up, but going forward there's still a lot to figure out. Hardy and his crew still need to find out who Ruby Blue was, why she was killed, who was pulling Cosmo's strings, what they goal even is, why Hardy wasn't tracked by the Scry, and likely a whole host of other things. Something tells me that even with the plots and conspiracies they've unearthed so far, they've only scratched the surface of whatever tangled mess they've fallen into.
This was very good reading. Now, onto Act 2!
*heavy breathing*
Okay. Since I'm at the end of Act 1, I'll just say this: I'm not very good with detailed commentary, but this story is amazing. The richness and depth of your world building and characterizations are what keeps me reading and what I aspire to in my own writings. The prose is, for lack of a better word, beautiful, and as it is told in 1st person through Hardy's eyes makes it so full of flavor. These characters are all memorable--every last one of them. Even the side characters and goonies. I just... love them all, geez.
About this chapter, I'm going to resist the urge to have a verbal panic attack due to the ending, and talk about something else. The lead up to them entering the casino was eerily relaxing. It stuck out to me in a way that felt nostalgic. I don't know why. I feel I've experienced that really blissful "calm before the storm" feeling before. Wonderful descriptions used there.
'Jingle Jangle's' breakdown. I mean, I didn't even think that I cared much about his character, but to see how wretched and bizarre he'd become in the end elicited a shocked emotion out of me. I think I audibly said "oh my god," to myself while reading that part. For some reason it was really difficult to get through, to accept a character like that falling so efficiently from his high pedestal.
...I still refuse to react to that ending. I'll just remain in sweet denial until I start the next chapter. Hehe.
Random things that I feel or think because I don't want to form them into something coherent:
-God, I ship Hardy and Taxi so hard, and I hate myself for it. It's such a disgustingly easy and generic ploy to go for (not that that should/should have deterred you if something like that ever happens in these upcoming or any future chapters). It's just so enticing... especially since they're best friends. UGH. Just... get drunk and fool around by accident dammit. Just once. *cries like an idiot*.
-The Tortellini twins. I knew I'd love 'em.
-Swift. It's interesting that she is surprising me just as much as she surprises Hardy. Everytime I try to fit her character into a neat, graspable box, she exceeds my expectations. I love her, even those freaky, hidden inner demons she's trying to keep a handle on.
-Taxi. I crush on her so hard. I mean it. Kinda irritates me sometimes that she's so damn good at most things, and beating folks up, and giving everything smug looks, but then I realize I'm just being jealous cause I can't be that girl with a souped up car and a death grip. Never change, Sweets. Never change.
... Okay, that's all. I'll just abruptly stop talking right now. 
Dat ending b liek
R.I.P.
Detective Hard "Hardy" Boiled
Long ago in an author's mind - May 13, 2013
Let it never be spoken that the ultimate price wasn't paid.
I just yelled "NO!!!" In the style of Luke seeing Ben killed... in a public place...
I hate you. You magnificent bastard son of a diamond dog
Wait, WHAT?!
I believe the title is an allusion to Lord of the Rings, the fuller quote being "And so we come to it at last. The great battle of our time." spoken memorably by Gandalf in the movie. (Though not, I understand, in the book)
Where do ponies go once their purpose is fulfilled? What if they fail to fulfill it?
Crayola and Eukanuba respectively of course! 
Bari tilted his head with a look of total incomprehension. “That... looks like a shotgun duct taped to a... a box?”
Holding real-Cosmo hostage with a magazine of 00 buck? Hardy you cheeky son of a mule! He better hope that those zebra talismans do not protect real-Cosmo's heart from gunshots...
I couldn’t resist tweaking the tight-ass just a little bit more. “Bari, baby, you really should relaaax! My driver over there gives a real good zebra massage.”
You magnificent bastard!
I’d bluffed. Simple as that. I couldn’t shoot the heart even if it came down to it. How could somepony destroy something so innocent? Beautiful even.
That cannot be healthy. Does this thing have some sort of mimetic, compulsion spell on it? Hardy seems to have grown unhealthy attached to the heart...
(Maybe real-Cosmo had the misfortune of having his heart become the Zahir? In which case, the worse thing Jingle could do would be to let Hardy keep it). 
“...The... dead streetwalker?” His face filled with incredulity, then his fury swelled again. “You run down my people, stick your flank in the middle of Jeweler business, and break into my home... over a dead whore?!”
"Pretty much yeah. Well that and the fact that Captain Equestria here used up all our department's printer ink stopping a File Cloud cascade".
No... no, I want to ask you a question now. How did you fritz The Scry? I saw you. You drank my scotch. You didn’t fake it. There was a spell on it.
How did Hardy avoid the tracker? Did I miss something in the previous chapters, or will this be explored later? Did surfing on Queenie-net somehow fry the Scry?
We had the room bugged.
*snerk* 
If it weren't for the fact that I was coming to this chapter with chapters already after it, by brain would have completely spazzed out and shat itself right now after what just happened.
Same here. Dat ending... 
Well, that's quite a thing to get back to. I suppose I shouldn't be entirely surprised, it being noir and all though.
On the other side of being late to the party, I don't quite have 3 weeks of cliffhanger, and can read the next chapter immediately. (Although, I had a good 4 weeks between this chapter and the previous :/)
Chessie Well, I've CREATED the page; it only has two examples on it thus far because derp, but I'm hoping we can get some other people to add stuff (or that I'll think of other tropes).
HEY EVERYONE! ADD THE BASIC TROPES TO THE TVT PAGE.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/StarlightOverDetrot
EDIT: Okay, so I managed to add a few more tropes; it's still NOWHERE near enough.
After reading this I was overcome with an urge to laugh manically for several minutes.
You have done very well, and I eagerly await the beginning of Act 2.
I do not believe I will be able to get to sleep with this anticipation.
Great finish for the opening act. I just hope there won't be too long a pause before the next chapters. Keep them coming.
Also, after reading the whole thing I still can't help but be thoroughly amused by Swift's name
I knew that all the buildup to Hardy's triumphant brass-balled return would culminate in another terrible setback for the noirest cop in Detrot. I also knew when Cosmo was revealed to be in complete breakdown mode that he wasn't the true antagonist.
But I couldn't have called that shot if I had been the one behind the trigger. Mein heart. It is rent asunder.
AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT SCRY DOES OR HOW IT WORKS PAST BEING SOLUBLE IN MID-TIER SCOTCH. GODAMMIT!
*throws tablet through window *
...
*retrieves and cleans tablet*
Oh, and top notch storytelling the whole way through. Imagery is, as always, simultaneously inventive and immersive.
Did spot one last hiccup;
It was unfortunate, then, that none of modifications to her car had preempted
Should probably read "none of THE modifications".
Don't worry. We'll be back soon and we've got LOTS of answers.
Next time on Starlight over Detrot: Hardy is tasked by Juniper's spirit to return as a ghost to solve the case of who murdered him. Unfortunately for Hardy, he has been gone for months, and in the meantime, the Taxi has become the leader of the resistance against the mysterious threat who controlled Cosmo, Swift has become a vigilante, and most terrible of all, the only pony who is able to notice Hardy is Slip Stitch. Hardy must race against time to uncover his killer, but is he prepared to know the truth?
huh Cosmo is dead.
and Hardy is...dead.
I didn't see that coming.
I liked Hardy. 
Well there better be a damn good explanation for why he died.
Still one of my favorite stories. Keep up the good work!
-Chessie
You did what ? 
Give Hardy back !!!!!!! 
However vader10001 bet seems appealing to me. Anyway I hope that you are not going to kill Hardy for real.
You and your cliffhangers... That will be long three weeks for your readers...
Poor Hardy, I hope he's ok. I hope Swifty didn't get shot 
Um, if Hardy dies, does that make Swift the main character? 
meerkat8472 Don't know. Considering what we just did to our main character, would you really want Swift to be a perspective personality?
-Chessie
Chessie Good Point, Hardy better be ok, if not... RUN SWIFT RUN!!!! For the love of Celestia, get out of Detrot!
Chessie Now if you wanted to rewared Gale with an OC appearance that would by cool... *Wink* *Wink* *Nudge Nudge* /beg
Whispering Gale We DO often find ourselves short of properly 'Pony-ish' names. Meh, the fans would eat me alive.
-Chessie
Next time on Starlight over Detrot: Hardy is tasked by Juniper's spirit to return as a ghost to solve the case of who murdered him. Unfortunately for Hardy, he has been gone for months, and in the meantime, the Taxi has become the leader of the resistance against the mysterious threat who controlled Cosmo, Swift has become a vigilante, and most terrible of all, the only pony who is able to notice Hardy is Slip Stitch. Hardy must race against time to uncover his killer, but is he prepared to know the truth?
WHOA. 
So bloody noir.
I'll trust ya, but you keep goin', you hear? Now you have to make this worth it. 
I wasn't aware you had a beloved main character who could die, when he was right in front of my face the whole time making friends with a disembodied heart and setting an example for others, and I know that you can go through with this (though I'm a lil' worried where you're going to get another central character even though that's likely right in front of my face too). Just know that you can surely bring him back IF you want to, but if you don't his death has to mean something, even if it's noir. This is PONY noir. It has hope, and it fights for what's right.
Dang.
meanwhile, the REAL kingpin just killed both of them and got away with it…
You heard it here, folks!
Starlight Over Detrot is "Better than Immanuel Kant!"
Take that, Kritik der reinen Vernunft! 
--CEO Kasen
My money is on Hardy surviving through heart transplant from Cosmo.
- 218 7th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1944 General Eisenhower sets D-Day for June 5th
Into the Jaws of Death by Robert F. Sargent
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