Equestria Noir Season 2 Case 2 "Dance of Death"

by Jacoboby1

Chapters

Chapter 1 "A Brand New Day"
Chapter 2 "Overture of Blood"
Chapter 3 "Waltz of Death"
Chapter 4 "Steps to the Truth"
Chapter 5 "The Last Dance"
Epilogue

Chapter 1 "A Brand New Day"

Equestria Noir

Case 2

“Dance of Death”

Chapter 1

“A Brand New Day”

Coming up with living arrangements wasn’t easy initially. With Twilight and I getting married we had to figure out who would live where. This discussion ultimately led to this result. It was decided that Spike would stay at the library and have Twilight’s old room to himself, the guy couldn’t sleep in a basket forever. Trixie was made to stay there as well, continuing to use Twilight’s spare room.

As for my house, Twilight moved in shortly after our return from the gala a few days ago. My bed soon became a double bed and my home book collection far bigger. Tailspin was happy to keep his living arrangements and I was glad to. This way, I can still keep track of him while also living out my married life with Twilight.

Twilight as a living mate came with it’s own issues though...for example...

SPROING!!

“GAH!!” I fell out of the bed as her wing flinged me onto the floor. Twilight groaned awake as Celestia’s sun entered the room. She saw me on the floor and tried her best to flatten her wings. “Oh Private, I’m sorry, I still can’t control them yet, it’s very annoying.”

“I’ll say,” I said, getting to my hooves and using my magic to fix up the bed.

Twilight looked at her wings and said, “You know, I’m starting to think these are more trouble than they’re worth.” She tried to flatten a wing, only to have it spring up in a random direction.

“It’ll just take practice.” I said encouragingly, I then climbed back on the bed and gently helped Twilight fold the wings into a position at her side.

She looked at me, “Thank Celestia your mom was a pegasus.” She smiled, “I just hope I can figure them out by the time we really need them.”

“You’ll figure it out,” I encouraged, running a hoof along her wing. “You only became a princess about a month ago, there’s plenty of time.”

She smiled and kissed me on the cheek, “Time to get your brother up.”

I watched Twilight head for the door, “I can get him.” I tried to implore, only to receive a head shake from Twilight.

“He’s my brother now too Private, and I think I proved myself capable of getting him ready in the morning” She smiled and trotted out.

“Only you would think to get Tailspin up and attum on a saturday” I said, rolling my eyes and chuckling.

I looked outside to Ponyville beginning it’s day. Ponyville was as good as new after all the repairs were done. Now, everypony was going about some semblance of a normal life here. The market stalls had been set back up, and the market was going on in it’s usual manner. Haggling, and selling, fruits and vegetables, various treats, and general harmony abounded in the square. There were ponies in the restaurants, and going into Sugarcube Corner. Rarity got the occasional customer, too, though most ponies went sans paltalones for most of their time. All in all, the Battle of Ponyville was becoming a memory, and an entry in the history books.

I left the picturesque view and went to get myself ready. After a quick shower, I donned my trademark, now restored, trench coat and slapped my Fedora on my head. It was, so good to be back in it again. Having to strut around in suit jackets or al naturale made me appreciate Rarity’s craft all the more.

I trotted over to the kitchen and went about trying to fix a breakfast. Twilight had tried cooking back on our honeymoon, sadly the best she could hope for in terms of getting food would be to teleport one of AJ’s pies over. So, I was relegated to head chef. I didn’t mind it one bit, just enjoyed the art of cooking.

I heard the sound of wheels and looked to see Tailspin enter. “Hey bro!” He said, rolling up to the table and digging into his breakfast.

Twilight followed soon after, “Tailspin don’t be so quick, you’re going to get crumbs all over you.”

“Twiliiight!” Tailspin groaned as Twilight began wiping Tailspin’s face with a levitated napkin. I couldn’t help but smile, Twilight was fitting into the role of sister in law pretty well. In all honesty, I’m glad to have another pair of eyes on Tailspin.
I looked in the fridge and examined our food stock “Looks like I’ll be taking a trip to the market.”

“The money is in the drawer Private,” Twilight said, before biting into some toast.

Twilight was the pony in charge of the money in our home. Her organizational skills came in unbelievable use since I’ve met her. Accounting is just a bunch of organizing, so she was more than happy to put it to good use on our checkbooks.
I took the money out of the drawer and stashed it into my trench coat. Tailspin finished his meal and spoke up, “Cross, Tyran, and I are gonna go meet up for today. I’ll see you guys later!” With that, the colt put his dishes in the sink and dashed out the door.

Twilight walked to me, “Eleven years old and still full of life.”

“Ponyville’s been good for Tailspin.” I said, “He never would’ve made this many friends back in Manehatten.”

“Helps he has the Eye trademarked charm.” Twilight said with a laugh.

I smiled and kissed her on the lips, “I’ll take care of the food, you got some alicorn magic to experiment with.”

Twilight got that twinkle in her eye that I always loved to see. When it came to her newfound alicornhood, she was most excited about her new spell repertoire. I haven’t seen her this excited since that one time she decided to try and figure out the timeline of Star Trot.

Twilight gave me a kiss and said, “I’ll be at the library, see you than, Privy” She smiled, using my nickname.

I smirked, “See you too, Twi” I didn’t really have a gooey pet name for her. Maybe I should drink love poison to come up with some names. Nah, bad idea, next thing you know I’ll be falling for a plant and name it George or something.

________________________________________________________

Twilight and I stepped out into Ponyville and she made her way towards the library. I went a different direction to find the market. Everypony around me was either waving or trying to get my attention on a particular product. But, I knew one stand had what I needed. Good ole Apple family tre-

I felt somepony bump into me and turned to see Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were the culprits. The pair shook their heads, Applebloom smiled up at me “Howdy Private, care tah buy some apples?”

I smiled at Bloom, “Well yeah, you don’t need to try and sell them okay, I’d like not to take half your sister’s stock.”
Bloom blushed in embarrassment as Belle giggled. Everypony remembers Applebloom’s early attempts at getting a haggling cutie mark. Suffice to say, she remembered it too.

Sweetie then stopped laughing. “Actually, Private, have you seen Scootaloo anywhere?” she asked.

I shook my head, “No why?”

“See,” Applebloom spoke up, “We were gunna try and ‘elp Dinky get her cutie mark. All three of us Crusaders got our own cutie marks, we think it’s time fer helpin’ the new batch.”

“But we can’t do it since we’re one crusader short,” Sweetie said, shaking her head “Lately, Scootaloo disappears like this every Saturday. We have no idea where she goes and we need her help right now.”

I nodded, “If I see her, I’ll tell her that you girls are looking for her.”

“Mighty ‘preciate it Private.” Bloom said, smiling up at me.

“Come on!” Sweetie started walking off, “You can crush all over Private later! Let’s go!”

“AH AIN’T CRUSHIN!!” Applebloom cried, chasing after her friend who was giggling the whole way.

“Seems Bloom’s still got a soft spot fer ya.” I looked to see Applejack occupying her stand.

“I’m just glad it’s just a filly’s crush.” I said, walking over to the stand. “She’ll grow out of it eventually.”

AJ smiled, “Out of apple merchandise huh sugarcube?”

I nodded and reached to toss the bits onto the stand. “That should be more than enough.”

Aj then took only half the bits.

“AJ,” I said, looking at her, “You can’t seriously...”

“Hero discount,” AJ said, walking over to her bushel of apples, “‘sides, we got a surplus this year and the harvestin’ is still young. Think of it as a way of showin’ appreciation to the stallion who saved Big Mac’s tail.”

“How is the soon to be husband?” I asked, leaning against the stand.

AJ chuckled “More nervous than you were. Whenever Ah try to ask ‘bout his proposal tah Flutters he gets more shy and quiet than his fiance.”

“Some things never change.” I said with a laugh.

“Now, let’s pick out a good...” AJ plucked out an apple, but then her eyes went wide. “Well ah’ll be, Scootaloo what’re you doin in here?”

I walked over to look and sure enough, there was Scootaloo’s head sticking out of the basket of apples. Everything below was covered by the apples as she glared at us. “Shh, don’t tell anypony I’m hiding!”

“What’re you doin?” AJ repeated herself “Does Rainbow know you’ve been hidin’ in ‘ere?”

“Well, sorta” Scootaloo said, a guilty smile came to her face.

“What do you mean sort of?” I asked, looking at the tangerine pegasus. “Sweetie and Applebloom have been looking for you. Are you three arguing?”

“No, we’re not.” Scootaloo said, looking away.

“Then why are ya hidin?” AJ reached her hooves into the basket and grabbed Scootaloo to pick her up.

“No wait!” Scootaloo said, struggling to remain in the apples despite AJ’s pulling. AJ pulled as hard as she could until...

Oh my gosh...

Scootaloo...was in a tutu...

Scootaloo’s face turned bright red as she was revealed. She was clad in said tutu, a pink tutu no doubt, along with a leotard and some...ballet slippers...

“Yeah yeah, get on with it, already,” Scootaloo grumbled.

“Aww,” AJj said, putting Scootaloo down on the ground. “Ya look pretty Scoots.”

“Geez,” Scootaloo groaned, “If either of you blab I’ll get Princess Luna to haunt your dreams I swear!”

“Come on Scootaloo,” I said, smiling at the orange filly “It’s not a terrible thing to be interested in dancing.”

“Wasn’t exactly my idea.” Scootaloo grumbled, crossing her hooves.

“Then who’s idea was it?” I asked.

“It was mine.”

I turned and saw a pretty earth pony mare in her late twenties walking towards us. Her coat was a soft cream color with a cutie mark of a pair of dancing shoes on her flank. Her mane was the color of bronze and was tied back and out of the way. Hey eyes were a soft golden brown, and they looked towards Scootaloo. The young filly was trying everything in her power to make herself smaller.

“Scootaloo, I was worried when you didn’t show up for your dance lesson,” She said, in a very sweet and gentle voice.

“Miss Tappy!” Scootaloo spoke up, “Do you want the whole world to hear I take ballet lessons?!”

“Not just ballet Scootaloo,” Tappy said, “But any form of dance is a good way to express oneself.”

She went on to lecture the young filly. I looked over at AJ, “I’ve heard of her, she’s Tappy Hoof right?”

Aj nodded, “Moved here not long before the Twi’s princessin’. She was here during the battle, after seeing how the kids were all sad with their town gettin busted up, she decided to offer up dance classes. Kids really like her from what I hear, she let’s them get their pain out through daincin’.”

I smiled, there seemed to be a lot to admire about Tappy. The mare finished her lecture to Scootaloo with, “Scootaloo, you have a great talent for agility.”

“In the air!” Scootaloo pointed out “I took the course because I thought it would help out with my flying! But I didn’t sign on to dance around in this frou frou dress!”

Tappy put a hoof on Scoot’s shoulder “Scootaloo, you have that talent both on and off the ground. I know you’re worried about what your friends will think.”

“I...” Scootaloo looked down at her hooves.

“You danced with Tailspin didn’t you?” Tappy asked.

Scootaloo blushed a little and said, “Well, yeah but, that’s because it’s Tailspin. He really wanted me to and well...”

Tappy just smiled, “I know ballet may not be the most, how do I say, cool of dances. But, it takes a lot of work and dedication. Not to mention intense physical strength, balance, endurance, and pain tolerance. But, I can guarantee that once your friends see you on that stage, they won’t judge you as weak or frou frou as you say. They will simply see a wonderful, beautiful dancer putting her heart and soul into something worth doing.”

Scootaloo smiled slowly, looked at Tappy and said, “Guess I’d better get to practice huh?”

Tappy winked at Scootaloo “I’ll walk you back, come along.”

With that, the pair walked away. Aj smiled after them “She’s done a lot of good things fer those kids. Ah’d sign up Applebloom, but we all know what happened the last time she tried dancin’.”

Part of me was glad I didn’t witness that infamous talent show.

I got everything I needed from the market and put it in my saddle bags. As I began my walk home I noticed somepony walking hammering a poster to a building. It was Lyra, the mint green unicorn had a sad look on her face as she finished her task.

“Lyra?” I walked over to her and said, “What’s wrong?”

She looked over at me and said, “You know Bon Bon and I were going to adopt right?”

Lyra and Bon Bon have been together for almost as long as Twilight and I have. They got married sooner however, around the time the crystal empire came back. I didn’t know they were thinking about something as big as this.

Lyra levitated over a picture of a filly, the picture showed that the filly was a young earth pony with a short baby blue mane and an aqua colored coat. She looked to be about five in the picture as she was holding a teddy bear.

“She’s really cute,” I said with smile.

“Her name is Minty,” Lyra said with a smile, “Bon Bon and I found her after the battle. Poor filly was hiding in our basement after a changeling chased her there. She just kind of entered our hearts after that.”

I saw the poster said missing on it. “What happened?” I asked.

Lyra shook her head, a tear starting to form in her eye. “I don’t know, she wasn’t at the orphanage yesterday, and just as we were about to take her home too. Bon Bon and I are posting these all over town, hoping that somepony finds her.”

I took the poster and said, “If I catch a hint, I’ll get right on the case.”

Lyra smiled wide, “You’d do that?”

“Hey, it’s my town.” I said, pocketing the missing poster in my trench coat. “I can’t have fillies disappear.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Private,” Lyra said, “Maybe you can help me investigate that human I know is in the Everfree Forest!”

I gave her a flat look. Her wife would not be happy is she found out I ran around the woods trying to find something that may or may not exist. I just said, “I investigate deaths and missing ponies, not missing humans.”

Lyra shrugged and then turned back to her picture. Her sad expression formed again, followed by a look of determination. “Don’t worry, Minty, mommy set the best detective on the job.” She put a hoof on the picture “He’ll find you.”

I only hope I can find a lead...

I didn't want to let Lyra, or anypony for that matter, down.
______________________________________________________

The next day...

SPOING! And suddenly, I was kissing the floor. This is getting to be a habit... I got up to find Twilight glaring at her errant wings.

“I swear if this keeps up I’m going to just chop them off!” Twilight growled, morning was not agreeing with her.

I got up, shaking my head “At least it’s not as loud as an alarm clock.”

“Just a lot more annoying,” Twilight said grouchily.

“It woke me up from a good dream I was having too,” I said, watching her rub sleepiness out of her eyes.

She then looked at me, a curious look in her eyes “What kind of dream?”

I smiled, “Oh, about some princess.”

“Really?” Twilight said, a grin coming to her face. “What was she like?”

“Smart, beautiful, a little nerdy though.” I replied, fixing up the bed.

“Says the pony with a crystal saber in our closet” Twilight said, giggling at my blush.

“That’s different! It’s geeky, not nerdy,” I clarified.

She laid down on the bed, her head in her hooves as she looked at me. “You know, I kind of like that side of you. Makes you seem like the rest of us.”

I smiled and was about to kiss her s-

DING DONG!!

“Who’s coming around this early in the morning?” Twilight asked.

I checked the clock, “Seven? Either it’s Pinkie hoping to snag a leftover cupcake, or it’s an emergency.”

I made my way outside and down to where the door was. I opened it and saw Cheerilee standing there. Her pink and white mane was frazzled and she was breathing heavily. She looks like she just woke up to. When she saw me, she sighed in relief “Thank goodness I found you Private.”

“Cheerilee?” I said, looking at the schoolteacher. “What’s wrong?”

Cheerilee’s green eyes bored into me “It’s Tappy! My friend Tappy! She came by my house this morning! She’s covered in blood! And it isn’t hers!!”

Chapter 2 "Overture of Blood"

Chapter 2

“Overture of Blood”

It took about ten minutes for Twilight and I to get ready. Cheerilee was now leading us towards Ponyville’s park area. Normally a quiet area where ponies could rest and play after a long day. Now, it was practically swarming with uniforms as we walked up to the area.

The three of us made our way to the police tape and a uniform stood in our way. She was a young, twenty something, yellow unicorn with a well kept blond mane tied in a ponytail under her hat. She looked at us and said stiffly “No civilians in the crime scene!”

Twilight spoke up “This is detective Private Eye, he’s here to help.”

The mare shook her head “Like I said, no civilians.”

This is weird, I’ve never been locked away from a crime scene before. Sure they would give me a hard time once I got in, but they were treating me like a civilian.

I was about to speak up, when another familiar voice did it for me. “Stand down rookie, he’s good to come in.”

I looked and saw Hoof Dunnit walking towards us. The uniform snapped to a salute “Sir, these civilians were trying to get in.”

Hoof rolled his eyes “Use your eyes Yang, one of them is a princess of Equestria and the other her husband.”

Yang started sweating as she realized her mistake. I got some flashbacks to when I was a uniform for all of six months. I’m glad I got promoted to traffic as soon as I could. She then lifted the police tape and allowed Twilight and I to pass under. Once there I gestured with my hoof to Cheerilee. “She’s a friend of the victim.”

Hoof nodded and Cheerilee was led in. Dunnit looked to Yang “Take her to Tappy, she could use friends right about now.”

Yang saluted and Cheerilee followed her towards an ambulance wagon nearby. I looked to Dunnit and saw his badge. “Moving up in the world I see.”

The orange earth pony smiled and stood proudly “Well, I have you to thank for that. Both Frisk and I got promoted thanks to that case with Pave Diamond. Now I’m a sergeant, looking after the other uniforms and making sure they don’t do anything stupid. Sadly, it’s still a work in progress.”

Twilight smiled, “I’m just glad you’re here to help.”

Dunnit gave a small bow “Anything for you guys, I knew you both back before the wings sprouted.”

“Dunnit,” I said, getting down to business “What exactly happened here?”

Dunnit nodded and spoke, “Miss Cheerilee was actually the one who called it in. About five in the morning we get this call from her about her friend lying in the park with blood all over her. I sent uniforms down here to secure the crimes scene and sure enough, that’s what we found.”

“What would Tappy be doing in the middle of the park?” Twilight said, shaking her head.

“According to Cheerilee she was unconscious when she was found. We’re having our forensics team look over her purse and other things to see if we can find anything useful.”

“Good work,” I said with a nod, “Now, I think Tappy owes us some answers.”

Dunnit led us to the ambulance carriage where Nurse Redheart was looking Tappy over, a bloody cloth in her hooves as she went about cleaning the mare. Tappy didn’t look well. Her mane was disheveled and her eyes a little red. Her coat had blood stains on it sure enough. Cheerilee was beside her friend with a foreleg over her shoulder trying to be comforting. Tappy just complied with whatever Redheart asked her.

We approached and Tappy looked up at me. “Oh, hello both of you.”

Cheerilee spoke gently to Tappy, “You remember Private and Twilight right? They’re friends of mine. I teach Private’s brother at my school.”

Tappy slowly nodded, seeming to be in shock. “Yes, I remember. Twilight let me check out some dancing books at the library.”

I spoke slowly and gently “Miss Tappy, I wanted to ask a few questions.”

Suddenly Redheart got in my face, “Listen, she’s in shock and had a terrible ordeal. Can’t the interrogation wait until she’s safely calmed down?”

“Well excuse me for trying to do my job.” I said, glaring back at her.

Redheart rolled her eyes “You detectives are all the same.”

“Redheart,” Twilight got between us “Private’s just trying to help.”

Redheart looked ready to retort, but then closed her mouth and shook her head. “Fine, but if she start shutting down I’m taking her away no questions asked. She needs care above anything else. As a nurse I cannot look away from that.”

Redheart then turned to mess with some medical equipment. I looked at Tappy and said, “Tappy, can you remember how you ended up with blood on you?”

Tappy put a hoof on her head, as if trying to push the memories into her brain. “I, it was late last night. I was cleaning up the dance studio after practice. I went outside as was on my way home when…” She shook her head, looking at me guiltily “I’m sorry Detective, that’s all I can remember.”

I then held up the pen I was writing with. “Could you, track this with your eyes please?”

Her golden brown eyes started to follow the pen as I moved it with my magic back and forth. But, after a while her eyes weren’t tracking the pen as well.

I whispered to Twilight “She may have been drugged somehow. Possibly kidnapped.”

Twilight nodded and whispered back. “Maybe she escaped and that’s how she ended up here?”

“What are you two talking about?” Cheerilee asked.

Twilight and I looked over and I spoke up. “Just that, Tappy may have been drugged.”

“Drugged?” Cheerilee said in shock “Who would do such a thing to Tappy?”

Tappy spoke up, “I, I do feel a bit woozy. How am I to perform a waltz for the girls this Saturday if I can’t…”

Cheerilee supported her friend before she could fall over. “Tappy, it’s okay, you’ve had a rough ordeal.”

“Alright, that’s it.”

Redheart got between us again. “I’m taking her to the hospital right now. If she’s been drugged than she needs care above anything else. I won’t have her suffer an interrogation without receiving it.”

With that, Twilight and I did the smart thing and turned away. Redheart helped Tappy get comfortable in the wagon before they were to set off. Cheerilee went with her friend.

“What’s their history?” I said, looking at my wife, “Her and Tappy I mean.”

Twilight looked at me, “From what I’ve heard, they were college friends. Both went to university at Canterlot before Cheerilee came back home to teach here. Tappy I heard went on to become a dancing teacher over in Manehatten believe it or not.”

“Let’s just hope Redheart’s willing to let us talk to Tappy once she’s better.” I said as we walked over to the forensics area.

I stopped as I saw somepony…

She was standing next to a tree just outside the crime scene. Her coat was the color of blood and her eyes a verdant green. Her mane was long and just as red as her coat.She couldn’t have been older than sixteen. She looked at me for a moment, her eyes seeming to stare right through me to somewhere else… Quite frankly… This filly unnerved me, greatly.

“Private?” I looked over as Twilight spoke “You okay?”

I looked back to the tree, and the filly was gone. Weird, am I seeing things? I shook my head and said, “It’s alright Twi. Let’s go check out her things.”

Twilight and I made our way to a taped area where evidence was placed. I saw a purse, a small camera, and some tracks on the ground all had plastic number stands near them. Common practice among police.

The pony standing over the evidence was a thirty something pinto with a long dark brown mane, light brown coat with tan splotches here and there. He looked over at us with bright blue eyes and a smile on his face.

“Oi, mates, how are yeh doin’? Oi’m Spottah,” he said, his accent a very loose version of Trottingham Cockney.

Twilight smiled, “A pleasure to meet you Spotter, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and this is my husband Private Eye.”

My hoof was suddenly shook vigorously by the pinto. “Well, it’s grand to meet yeh at last Private Eye. Everypona’s talkin’ ‘bout yer cases and how yeh ‘elped tha police. It’s only me second week on tha job afah I got transferred ‘ere but Oi ‘ope ta do ya proud, ser.”

“Thank yououuo” I said, trying to maintain a conversation despite the fact I was being shaken up and down by this guy.

He let go, “So, Oi reckkin’ ya want ta see wot we managed ta dig up?”

After composing myself I nodded, “Yeah, I’d appreciate that.”

He pulled a bag of hoof coverings out of his bag. “We still gotta run lab tests on tha evidence. So Oi’d appreciate it if ya didn’t get any magic powdah on ‘em.”

I nodded and took the bag in my teeth. I then walked to the purse, slipped the coverings on and opened it. I dug out your typical purse items. Lipstick, makeup, mirror.

I found a wallet and opened it, “There still a lot of money here, so she wasn’t robbed.”

There was nothing else in the wallet aside from her teaching license and a library card. I put the wallet aside and dug more into the purse. I dug around in one of the pockets and pulled out...a photograph of her class.

They were all smiling while sitting in front of the camera. I noticed Scootaloo was among them. But, I also noticed...Minty.

I compared the photograph of Lyra’s future adopted filly with the class photo. Sure enough, they were a match. “Minty was in her class. Maybe she knows what happened to her.” I said to myself.

I dug around more in the pockets but turned up empty. I moved over to the camera, careful to keep my forehooves from touching too much. I lifted the camera and looked at the film counter. “A lot of pictures on this thing, I’m sure Spotter will develop the film for me to see later.”

I set the camera down and moved over to the tracks. I held my magnifying glass to them. I saw trace amounts of blood on the tracks. “These belong to Tappy?” I asked Spotter.

“Yeah, compeahed ‘er ‘oof wit ‘em. Pehfect match, but tha tracks don’ mayke sense, they jus’ go all ovah the pahrk,” He replied.

I did notice the rather sporadic pattern to the tracks. It was as if Tappy was being chased by something, but had no idea where to go to run. They also looked like she was a little uncoordinated. Probably from the drugs she was on at the time. I’m still wondering, just what was she on? And how did it get in her system.

There’s only one pony who can answer that.

_____________________________________________________________

Twilight and I walked down the streets of Ponyville. Everypony was talking to one another. I’m guessing word got out that something happened to Tappy. I stopped as I overheard a conversation going on at an outdoor restaurant table.

Colegate was talking to her friend Berry Punch, “Did you hear what happened to Tappy? She woke up in the park all covered in somepony’s blood.”

Berry, thankfully sober, shook her head. “I was hoping Ruby might like to join her class. But, looks like there’ll be a delay in that. She’s going to be so disappointed.”

Colegate put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder and spoke words not meant for my ears. Twilight and I looked at each other. “Looks like everypony is suffering from this,” Twilight said.

I nodded, “I just hope we can solve this case soon. Before anypony else gets hit by this.”

I heard the sound of a hammer and looked over to see a pair of stallions. One of them was a tall, rather skinny looking unicorn with a long tan mane, green coat and ice blue colored eyes that looked at the poster. It depicted a colt, couldn’t be much older than five, with a pair of wings showcasing he was a pegasus. The photograph was black and white and showed the colt smiling brightly, despite the word missing written above the picture.

Next to him, was a stallion I recognized from the gala. “Spera?” I said in recognition.

The grey unicorn turned to me, a smile on his face “Ah, Private Eye, I should have known I’d be running into you.”

The unicorn next to him turned to us as well. “Are they friends of yours Spera?”

He nodded, “Yes Robust, I met them at the gala. Fine ponies, the both of them.”

Twilight smiled, “It’s good to see you again Spera. But what are you doing out here in Ponyville?”

Robust turned his eyes downward, Spera put a hoof on his friend’s shoulder. “This is Robust,” He explained “He’s a college friend of mine. We both went to university at Manehatten.”

Robust spoke up, “I was, hoping that the orphanage would let me bring home little Windstrum today.”

“That the colt?” I asked, pointing to the poster.

Robust nodded, “Yes, I came here a few weeks ago and saw him at the orphanage.” He smiled, “A wonderful colt he was, always smiling and wanting to play. I remember thinking to myself he was the son I always wanted. I was going to bring him home today, when they told me that he wasn’t at the orphanage. That he was taken away.” Robust closed his eyes, sorrow entered his expression.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Twilight said, “I’m sure he’ll be found, you and your wife will get to see him in no time.”

Spera rubbed the back of his head “Uh, that would be impossible.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Robust here um, rides sidesaddle.” Spera explained.

Oh….

Robust smiled a little, “It’s okay, I get confused a lot. Handsome stallion like me, you tend to get the ‘where’s your marefriend’ bit a lot.”

“Where’s your um,” I said, “Husband?”

“He’s back at Manehatten,” Robust said, “He works at a factory. We were going to move to Hoofington after we adopted Windstrum.” He shook his head “He’s going to be so crestfallen once he hears the bad news.”

First Minty, and now this guy’s foal. My gut tells me this can't be a coincidence.

“If you both see anything,” Spera said, “Please tell us. I’d hate for Robust to suffer any longer.”

“You’re such a worrywort Spera,” Robust laughed “I’m made of tougher stuff. I’ll be fine.”

“Sounds like somepony I know,” Twilight whispered in my ear. Causing me to chuckle a little. I do tend to get worry some as well.

Spera smiled in turn, “I only worry because I care.”

Robust just chuckled and then looked at us, “I’ll be staying at the hotel for a while, if you need me I’ll be there.”

I nodded, “We’ll see what we can find.”

Robust just turned to walk away.

Twilight then looked at Spera “So Spera, will you be staying in town?”

He shook his head, “Sadly, I have business to attend to back at Manehatten. I just came here to support an old friend.” Spera than smirked, “Before you ask, no I was not that close of a friend.”

Twilight blushed, “I wasn’t, I mean, oh gosh…”

Spera laughed a little, “Let’s just say I may have overheard a bromance comment. But, my barn door as they say, swings to the fairer sex.”

“So no dirty fics about us Twi,” I said, chuckling.

“You guys are terrible!” Twilight groaned.

“Sorry,” Spera said, “as flattering as that would be, I’m afraid I have to put the idea down.”

“Thank you, Spera!” I said, laughing.

Twilight groaned and muttered something about ‘boys’ and just trotted away towards the hospital. That was my cue to leave as well.

“See you around Spera.” I said, following after Twilight.

Spera just waved back and made his way towards the train station. As fun as it was to poke fun at the relationship, I can’t help but feel something. It was almost like, we were kin in some way…

I ignored the thoughts and trotted after my wife.

___________________________________________________________

Ponyville Hospital, we meet again. At least, this time, I’m not being wheeled in on a gurney, or poking into a friend’s medical records. And, of course, it looks about the same as it always did. Soothing greens and blues, white tiles, nurse’s desk, at the entrance, comfortable seating for those ponies waiting for visiting hours. Thankfully they were mostly empty. Just some family members with an elderly relative.

Doctor Stable looked up from the desk and said, “Ah, good to see you again Private, what can I help you with?”

“Have you guys finished checking up on Tappy?” I asked, Twilight walking beside me up to the desk.

Stable’s horn glowed green and he levitated a clipboard over. “Let’s see, the blood on her doesn't belong to her. The blood types don’t match. Aside from that, she has some cuts and bruises but nothing too serious.”

“Did you perform a drug test?” I asked.

He nodded, “Yep, found traces of mageth in her system.”

That would explain her memory loss. So I was right about her being drugged.

“Can you estimate a time when it would’ve entered her system?” I asked.

He shook his head, “I’m afraid that would be impossible, we got lucky in even finding the traces before it left her system. I’m afraid it will be a while longer before we can make an exact estimate. But, I hypothesize that she probably got them in around midnight judging by the fact her memory ends there.”

I nodded. “Well, we should ask her some questions…”

“WHERE IS SHE!?”

Twilight and I turned around, standing in the doorway was a unicorn in her late thirties early forties. Her coat was a soft pink color and her hair was forest green. Her lime green eyes were alight with fury.

Doctor Stable spoke up, “Can I help you ma’am?”

“You can tell me where that bitch Tappy is!” She cried.

“Hey, what’s your problem with Tappy?” Twilight asked.

“That bitch murdered my husband!”

Chapter 3 "Waltz of Death"

Chapter 3

“Waltz of Death”

“Uh, your husband was murdered by Tappy?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Do you need your ears cleaned?” the mare said rather rudely. “Yes she murdered him! There’s absolutely no doubt!”

“That’s a rather bold accusation to make,” I said, getting between the mares before Twilight decided to experiment with alicorn magic on her.

“I want that mare in prison!” she cried and pointed at me. “You’re a detective! You can make it happen!”

“If there’s evidence enough to warrant it,” I said firmly. “Now first of all, where’s your husband’s body located?”

“It’s at a warehouse on the outskirts of town,” she said, glaring daggers at me. “Once there, you’ll find out exactly why she should be locked up for good!”

“In all your shouting,” Twilight began over my shoulder, “I don’t think you’ve told us your name.”

She huffed and said, “Mrs. Ivy Rose, former wife of Prickly Rose.”

I maintained my composure and said, “Detective Private Eye, we’ll see if we can’t solve this matter without more bodies turning up.”

_________________________________________________________

The warehouse in question was old, abandoned and looked like it was being held together by spiderwebs. It’s age was probably a big factor. Ivy Rose led us to the warehouse where once again uniforms were standing guard.

Ivy stomped her way up to one and ordered, “I demand to be let in to see my husband!”

The uniform, a young twenty something stallion with a short aqua mane and yellow coat shook his head. “Sorry ma’am, I’m only allowed to let police in. Your husband’s body will be given back once the investigation is over.”

That was the wrong thing to say….

“What?! That is my husband in there, you inconsiderate hooligan! My husband! And you won’t let me in to see him! How can you do this!” she practically screamed at him hysterically. “You know who did it! Lock her up and do it now!”

“Twi...” I looked at my wife.

“On it,” she nodded, her horn glowing, soon Ivy’s eyes drooped and she fell to the ground right in front of the uniform. Poor guy looked about ready to wet his legs. I looked to the other uniform, a young pegasus mare with a bright orange coat and a dark brown mane.

“You’d uh, may want to put her someplace comfortable for the next hour or so,” I explained to her.

The mare saluted and picked up Ivy to take somewhere. I looked to the other uniform who was still in a state of shock. “Would you kindly let us in?”

“Ye-yessir” He babbled.

Twilight and I walked into the warehouse building. It was mostly empty aside from the gear the uniforms set up. Boxes were empty, their contents long moved to other warehouses. The uniforms themselves were looking all over the place.

Twilight and I entered to see a familiar sight, old Forceps was looking over the body of a unicorn stallion with a short blond mane and a silvery coat. His cutie mark was, you guessed it, a rose. I saw there was a large cut across his chest.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite dynamic duo,” Forceps said, smiling at us. “Care to sample some stiff here?”

“Uh, only to find out what happened,” I said, “But I think you can just tell us thank you. What happened?”

“Found the stiff about an hour ago,” Forceps explained, “Somepony gave us a call bought her husband becoming a stiff. We arrived and we practically had to throw her out to get anywhere near him.”

“There’s ‘in love’,” Twilight said shaking her head, “and then there’s just plain crazy.”

“Yeah, she wasn’t exactly the most pleasant pony to deal with,” I agreed, shaking my head. “But, what can you tell us about her husband?”

Forceps pointed to the cut on his chest. “Died when one of his arteries got severed with a knife. Bled out on the floor.” He pointed to the pool of blood around him, it looked mostly dried up but the effect still hit home.

“Did you find the knife?” I asked.

“Not yet. I’m having uniforms searching everywhere for it,” Forceps said, “But no luck, whoever did him in probably tried to dispose of the knife somehow.”

If only my DNA spell was more powerful. I could scan Prickly’s corpse for the DNA of the killer and find the trail to the weapon. Sadly, that would be impossible as it looks like he’s been dead for a while. “Estimated time of death?” I asked.

“From the temperature,” Forceps tilted his head in thought. “I’d say sometime between one and two in the morning.”

That would tie up with Tappy’s memory of leaving around midnight. But without knowing where she went between midnight and when she was found, there’s no way we can pinpoint if she’s innocent or guilty.

“Did he have anything on him?” I asked.

“Just these.” He held up a pair of plastic bags in his pale white magic. I took them in my own silver magic and looked at them. In one small bag was a calling card.

Light on your Hooves Dancing Studio
Learn the art of Dance and Joy
223-1245-0567
1132 Ponyville Lane

“That’s the studio that Tappy teaches at,” Twilight noticed, looking over my shoulder at the card.

“I’m starting to think that’s our next stop,” I said firmly.

I looked at the other bag, a powder was inside it. I frowned, “Mageth, I think I know how Tappy got it in her system.”

“Found the stuff on the floor next to the stiff,” Forceps explained. “Never understood the appeal of that garbage, but to each their own I guess.”

I nodded and gave the bags back to Forceps, and then I asked, “Forceps, is it just me or is everypony watching me?”

Forceps and Twilight caught some uniforms looking over occasionally. Forceps sighed, “New boss, Gunry Insight, he’s not exactly a fan of you solving cases for us.”

“So he’s sent more uniforms to spy on us?” Twilight asked.

“Probably looking for a reason to kick the both of you out of investigations,” Forceps said with a frown. “Frankly, for whatever mistakes Shinebadge made, he at least was willing to accept help.”

“We’ll keep an eye out,” I said, and turned to walk out the door.

Twilight looked at me. “Something just smells wrong about this,” she said, as we walked down the road.

“I know,” I said frowning. “Anyways, I want you to see if you can find out anything you can about the Roses. I doubt Ivy is in the best mental state to tell us anything without accusing Tappy every five minutes.”

“What will you do?” she asked.

I smiled, “Go for a dance lesson.”

_________________________________________________________

The studio was kind of obvious. Aside from the sign, there were large windows that let in a lot of natural light. The facade was painted white, with blue accents, and through the windows you could see the large mirrors that helped the aspiring dancers observe their own form, and make corrections. The entry doors were quite elegant, too, with oval glass with gold leaf accents, carved wood filigree polished to a mirror shine, and shiny brass door handles made for ease of hoof or wing manipulation.

I looked at the desk and saw there was a young teenaged pony sitting there working. Her mane was short, ivory colored, and tied back out of the way. Her coat was a deep purple and her reddish yellow colored eyes were looking at papers. I opened the door and the bell rang to announce my arrival.

She stopped what she was doing, adjusted a pair of glasses on her nose and asked, “Can I help you sir? I’m afraid there’s no lesson scheduled for adults until Wednesday evening.”

“I’m not looking for a lesson,” I said. “I’m Detective Private Eye. I’m hoping you know where Tappy went to last night?”

The mare looked uncertain, but replied, “My name is Stapley, and I’m Tappy’s secretary of sorts. I do all the business side of things while she teaches the kids. I also run the dance studio when she’s not around.”

I nodded. “Were you here last night around midnight?”

She thought for a moment. “No, I let Tappy close up last night. I had a date with my coltfriend around nine. I didn’t think Tappy would stay until midnight though... Is she in trouble?”

I decided to give her an honest answer. “She, disappeared for a while. I’m trying to find out where she was from midnight till this morning.”

She shook her head. “I’m really sorry, but I can’t help you there.”

“Okay,” I moved on. “Was Tappy acting strange lately? At all?”

She tilted her head in thought, and then said, “Actually, there was something weird.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I kept getting these calls from this guy named Prickly. Kept asking for Tappy. I would give the phone to Tappy, she would walk into the bathroom with the phone and just yell into the phone. I couldn’t make out what she said, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Tappy that mad before.”

“These started happening how long ago?” I asked.

“About a week after she started teaching,” she answered. “I tried asking her about it, but she kept saying it wasn’t anything important and just went back to work.”

Doesn't sound like Tappy was being totally honest…

“Did she get a call yesterday?” I asked.

She nodded, “Yeah, and she was in the bathroom for almost an hour. I had to keep the kids busy with stretches before she finally came out.”

This may be the connection we were hoping for. But why would Tappy want to talk with Prickly? And in such a heated manner no doubt. I only hope Twilight was having better luck than I was.

____________________________________________________

Watching Twilight at work was something to behold really. One of the reasons I married her was for her brain and I loved watching her use it. I entered the library to find books being levitated in front of her one after the other, notes being taken on parchment, and new quills being gotten as quickly as the old ones broke.

She looked back at me as I entered, “Oh, hey Private, any luck a the dance studio?”

“Well,” I began, “The secretary didn’t see Tappy leave. But apparently she got into a lot of heated discussions with Prickly.”

“That’s really weird,” Twilight said, suddenly a book teleported into existence in front of her.

“Where’d you get all of these?” I asked, looking at the levitating books around her.

“Access to the royal Canterlot Library,” Twilight smiled. “My teleportation spells have gotten much stronger. I can just teleport any book I could need right here. Since it’s law for every book to be preserved at the Royal Library, I can get any book we could need. It’s so amazing!” she added with a squeal.

I laughed at this and said, “Just so long as you don’t end up teleporting the entire library I think we’ll be fine.”

Twilight smiled at me and then went back to work. “I think I got a profile on our victim here.”

“What do you got?” I asked.

Twilight levitated the books into a pile and moved a chalkboard over. She wrote Prickly’s name on it. “Prickly Rose, 30, owner of one of the largest distributors of roses in Manehatten. Came into a lot of money after he left college with a degree in horticulture and started the company.”

“How’d he come into the money?” I asked. “I wasn’t able to pay off my student loans until I was two years out of college.”

“He got it,” she said as she wrote Ivy’s name, “Through the marriage to the lovely Ivy Vine, now Ivy Rose. She is was an heiress to a large chain of flower companies. After her father died of illness she graduated from college with a business degree and took over the company. She married Prickly about a year afterwards.”

“You got this from books?” I asked.

“Newspaper archives and census records mostly,” Twilight said, smiling. “It’s amazing what you can find at the Royal Library.

“So Prickly married Ivy for the money?” I said, looking at the chart, I took a piece of chalk myself and wrote Tappy on it. “But how does Tappy fit into all of this?”

“Beats me,” Twilight shook her head “I haven’t been able to find anything about her yet.”

“So she’s a no go yet,” I said, looking at the chart. “Did you find anything shady on Prickly? Any enemies or what not?”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “There was a court case about him about a few years ago. Something about accusations of kidnapping. But the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.”

Kidnapping…

This is very weird…

“I’m going to make the call.”

“Private, are you sure?”

“He’s the only one who would know about this stuff. Whoever killed Prickly is probably still out there. He’s out ticket to finding out why somepony would want to kill him.”

“We could try Octavia.”

“She’s trying to settle down with Vinyl, she doesn’t need any of this.”

“Alright Private, I trust you, but I really think you should bring Blackbird with you just in case.”

“Don’t worry, I can handle that buzzard.”

At least I hope so.

________________________________________________________

There were not many places you could meet with the guy. But the Violet Rose is the only place where a somebody could talk to without worrying about the wrong ponies asking questions. As I walked in I noticed that there was hardly anybody here. A couple of ponies were cleaning the tables but aside from that, the place was light.

Then again, it was still early for drinkers to show up. I walked to the bartender and she looked at me, “Can I help you detective?”

“I’m looking for a certain bird,” I said firmly.

“Not here to see Lark?” she asked, wiping a mug clean.

Larksong, my ex. I haven’t talked to her in ages and for good reason. “No, just the bird. But how is Lark doing anyways?”

“Didn’t you hear?” she answered, “She moved back to Manehatten. Awfully sad to see her go, she had a damn fine talent and drew a crowd. We’re all going to miss her.”

Lark…

“But if you’re looking for the buzzard,” the bartender explained, “He’s in the corner over there.”

I nodded and walked to where she was pointing. Sitting there was Grimwing, the black headed griffon had his claws folded together as he sat there. He looked at me with his yellow eyes and a small smile came to his face. “Well, looks like the great Private Eye has graced me with his presence once again,” he said in a mock reverent fashion.

“Been a while Grimwing,” I said, looking at him as I took a seat.

“So whaddya need now?” he asked. “Some warehouse broken into? Some goombah squashed?”

“You sound like a sales… griffon,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“I do wanna get dese favors taken care of,” Grimwing said. “Technically yous owe me for fighting in dat battle of yers here.”

“Yes, and I will accept the favor of not telling the cops we had this conversation.” I smirked.

He laughed, “A hoof extended but a knife behind yer back. Always fun working wit’ youse, Private Eye.”

“Look, what I need is information. Can you do that?” I asked.

“So long as yous don’t ask fer my daughter’s phone number I think we’ll be fine.” Grimwing said, one of his claws pointing at me. “Also, I say whatever information I get out, capice?”

“Yeah,” I said, “Posso parlare bitaliano grazie.”

He smiled, and asked, “So whaddya want ta know?”

“Do you know a guy by the name of Prickly Rose?” I asked.

Grimwing put a claw to his beak and rubbed it for a second. He finally answered, “Yeah, I remembah a guy who went by dat name. Involved in some kidnappin’ case a few years back.”

“What can you tell me about the trial?” I asked.

“Da skinny is some parents blamed Prickly for kidnappin’ deir kid. Said he lured da poor sap away while he was playin’ in the park and the kid disappeared of the face of da planet afterwoids.”

“They couldn’t find him?” I asked. “The police I mean.”

“Either da kid really did just vanish or dey were bought off ta do a half assed job of it,” Grimwing shrugged. “Eider way, da charges were dropped due to lack of evidence or some odda legal bullshit.”

“That’s what the papers said,” I said, looking Grimwing in the eye, “But you know more don’t you?”

He smirked, “Yep, I do. Toins out the family was under my protection. Deir grocery was one of da rackets I ran at da time.”

“Offering ‘protection’ are we?” I asked, giving him a steely glare.

“I ain’t the type what sends griffons to shake down joints if that’s what yer implyin’,” he said, reaching into his suit jacket and pulling out a cigar. “Do yous mind?”

“Just don’t blow it towards me,” I said, keeping my glare. “Doctor’s orders to stay away from smoke.”

“Suit yourself.” He took a lighter and lit the tip of it, he inhaled the cigar and blew out a puff of smoke. “Ahh, yous don’t get much better than Zuban when it comes to dese.”

“So, they asked you to look into it?” I guessed, trying to avoid inhaling the smoke.

“Yea, I sent my best boy, Eagle Eye, to stalk Prickly tah see what’s what. After a coupla days he tracked Prickly tah dis old boat house. Prickly was talkin’ to a coupla Saddle-Arabian ponies. Some cage was dere, too, covered with a blanket.”

“What happened?” I asked.

Grimwing blew another plume of smoke, “Eagle Eye got a little careless an’ his conscience got the beddah of him. Charged in claws foist and slashed one of da pony’s eyes real good. The odda Saddle Arabian pulled piece and started shootin’ up da joint. Eagle managed to flank ‘im and took ‘im out.” He inhaled from the cigar again.

“And Prickly?” I said.

“Bastard got away durin’ the fightin’.” He blew more smoke. “Eagle Eye lost track of him but he was more consoined about da cage.”

“What was in it?” I asked, but part of me knew the answer.

“It was da kid. Toins out Prickly did kidnap ‘im after all. Poor sap was knocked out cold but Eagle managed ta get ‘im home safe and sound.”

“Why did he kidnap him though?” I asked.

“Those Saddle Arabian’s? Yeah, dey weren’t t’zactly good ponies. They were scum from da sands who wanted to…” He took a minute to say the right words, “Profit from the kidnapping.”

Prickly… was a slaver….

Chapter 4 "Steps to the Truth"

Chapter 4

“Steps to the Truth”

I left the Violet Rose soon after hearing the information from Grimwing. It wasn’t easy to take in. To say this threw a curveball into everything was like saying the sun was hot. I ended up back at the library where I spent the next ten minutes explaining what I found from Twilight. The look on her face was one of shock.

“I can’t believe Ivy would be married to a slaver,” Twilight said, shaking her head.

“But what was he doing way out there?” I asked, shaking my head. “Why come to Ponyville of all places?”

“Ponyville is pretty remote,” Twilight speculated, “And the Everfree Forest does make a good meeting spot, if our past cases are any indication.”

I nodded and said, “Even still, we gotta figure out how he connects to all this and why would Ivy want to accuse Tappy.”

“Tappy doesn’t seem like the murdering type,” Twilight agreed. “She was shaking all over last I saw her.”

“We need to find that murder weapon,” I concluded. “If we can find that, then maybe we can find out how Prickly ended up getting sliced in the chest.”

Twilight nodded. “But how are we going to find that out?”

I smiled, “You still remember your tracking spell?”

She smiled in turn, “Like I’d ever forget a spell.”

__________________________________________________________

Twilight and I followed the glowing hoof prints in the ground. Luckily it was late afternoon at this point and most ponies were inside after a hard days work, so we had the street to ourselves as Twilight used her tracking spell to light up where Tappy walked. “Okay,” she began, “She took the street this way, but this is really weird.”

I noticed it too, “Her tracks are perfectly normal, as if she knew exactly where she was going.”

“Thankfully with Alicorn magic I can see them,” Twilight said, and then squealed. “Alicorn magic is amazing!”

I smiled, happy to see her so giddy about her newfound abilities. We then made a turn towards where the warehouse was in the distance. “Looks like a straight path towards the warehouse. Still she’s walking with a purpose.”

“No drag marks, no nothing.” Twilight shook her head. “This doesn’t make any sense, Tappy knew where she was going? She wasn’t kidnapped?”

“This whole thing smells fishy,” I said, looking at the footprints glowing on the ground.

“Hey! look over there!” Twilight exclaimed, pointing down an alleyway. On the street after that I saw another set of glowing hoofprints.

“Tappy must’ve taken that route to get back,” I said, cutting through the alley and coming to the tracks. I followed them towards another alleyway. There the tracks glowed in front of a trashcan.

I opened it and saw inside… a knife.

It was a simple packaging knife. Mostly designed to open boxes that were taped shut to much. But on it, was a lot of dried up blood. I reached into my trench coat, put on some hoof coverings and gently lifted the knife out of the garbage. Twilight looked over my shoulder at it. “Three guesses that’s our murder weapon?”

I nodded. “Has to be, look at the blood, it’s from an artery. We’d better take it to the morgue to be sure.”

__________________________________________________________

“Yep, it’s yer murder weapon alright,” Forceps told us as he held the knife in the plastic bag. We were standing in Ponyville’s morgue. Luckily we caught Forceps before he went to whatever the hell he does on his time off. Part of me really didn’t want to know.“Compared the blade with the slice on the stiff’s chest. Perfect match.”

Prickly himself was laying on the table, cold and stiff as death. Twilight took the knife in it’s bag and looked at it. “To think something like this could kill somepony.”

“Anything can be used as a weapon Twi,” I explained. “Just takes a little ingenuity and the right amount of desperation.”

Twilight nodded and looked at Prickly. “Maybe somepony found out about the slaving operation and then had him killed?”

Forceps shrugged. “Possible, least a slaver deserves in my honest opinion.”

I looked at the knife, and then at Forceps, “Would it be too much to ask for a blood sample from Prickly?” I asked.

Forceps shook his head. “It would be my pleasure, just give me a second.” He then went about his work as Twilight walked over to me.

“Private, you don’t think that his blood…”

“Would be on Tappy when she was found?” I asked. “I have a hunch.”

“Maybe she was close to Prickly somehow,” Twilight speculated. “Arterial spray can send blood quite a distance.”

“With all the blood she had on her, she’d have to have been pretty close.” I said, putting a hoof on my chin. “There’s also the fact her hoofprints were right next to where the weapon was found.”

Twilight shook her head, “There’s just something we aren’t seeing. Something that would make this much easier to solve. Something we’re missing.”

“Here’s your blood sample,” Forceps said, walking over with a vial in his magic. Prickly’s blood was inside.

“Thanks, Forceps,” I said as I pocketed the sample.

The door opened right then and the yellow mare from before was standing there. “Hey, you two, we got the schoolteacher outside, hoping to talk about what happened.”

“Cheerilee?” Twilight asked.

Cheerilee is a close friend to Tappy, maybe she knows something we don’t.

__________________________________________________________________

“Thank you both for coming,” Cheerilee said as we sat at Sugarcube Corner. The place, despite the garish confectionary exterior, was quite homey once you got inside. The floor was painted a soothing turquoise color, the walls the color of buttercream with oak wood beams showing through the plaster. Gingerbread trim, appropriately, added a certain flair to the posts and in between the wall supports. There were the occasional confectionery touches, but they were not overdone. Of course there were the titular display cases for showing off the treats, and shelves displaying candies from all over, though the lowest ones were given over to some of Bon Bon’s best creations. Overall you could definitely tell why Pinkie chose to stay here.

Ponies around us were enjoying treats provided by a bouncing pink party pony named Pinkie Pie. Swarm was also helping out, and it seems a lot of ponies have gotten used to the white unicorn/changeling being around.

Twilight however was focused on Cheerilee, “Private and I will do everything in our power to get to the bottom of this.”

The school teacher nodded, “I hope so, Tappy’s asleep right now, they just gave her a bath to get all the blood off. They put her on something to help her sleep and I’m just trying to spend the non visiting hours not panicking.”

“You and Tappy were close?” I asked.

Cheerilee nodded, “I mentioned to Twilight we were friends in college. Canterlot University, go Lions!” She laughed a little, trying to elevate the mood. It only helped a little.

Besides, everypony knows the Elk Ridge Chargers could beat the Lions any day. That’s not bias in any way at all.

“You guys didn’t have any more trouble with Ivy did you?” I asked.

Cheerilee looked down. “She tried to get in again while you two were gone. Thankfully guards were there to kick her out. She was so angry at Tappy. It’s sad really, she was closer than I was with Tappy.”

“Wait a minute,” Twilight shook her head, “Tappy and Ivy were friends?”

“The very best,” Cheerilee said. “Did everything together, homework, trips into the city, the two of them were like peas in a pod.”

“What happened that caused them to hate each other?” Twilight asked.

Cheerilee shook her head, looking down at her half drunk milkshake. “I don’t know, one day they were going to the movies, the next I find Tappy crying in her dorm. She said they got into a huge fight and Ivy didn’t want to see Tappy anymore.”

“Did she ever say why?” I asked.

“I respected her enough not to at the time. But, whenever I did ask she would just change the subject. We split after graduation and I hadn’t seen or heard from her since she came back after that battle here.”

“Did Ivy ever mention anything?” Twilight asked.

“I sort of stopped paying attention to her to be honest. I didn’t really like Ivy, despite how good she was to Tappy, she was just plain mean to everypony else. I had no idea why Tappy hung out with her. So, I just moved on with my life after college was done.”

“So you didn’t hear anything?” I asked, tilting my head.

Cheerilee shook her head, “I’m sorry I can’t be more help to you two.”

“It’s alright,” Twilight said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “the important thing is that you were willing to come forward with what you know.”

Cheerilee smiled, but suddenly I felt my leg get pulled on. Suddenly I was staring into the blue orbs of Pinkie Pie. “Private, I need you stat!”

“Pinkie, I’m right in the middle of an investigation,” I said flatly. “Can’t it wait?”

“Somepony is being all saddy waddy and I can’t figure out why! She keep staring at you so I figure she wants to talk to you!” she said, smiling. “Makes perfect sense right?”

Maybe in whatever cosmic anomaly your brain is Pinkie. I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to get out of this. “Alright, where is she?”

Pinkie pointed to a corner table, there sitting alone...was that red mare from before. I noticed this time that a small horn was coming out of her mane. She looked at her milkshake intently, as if trying to will the contents to tell it some unknown truth. Her verdant green eyes looked up at me for a moment, then back down at her glass.

I’ll admit, I handled younger kids better than I did teenagers. But, if Pinkie wants me to see what’s wrong, I guess it couldn’t hurt.

“You guys uh, talk for a bit,” I said, leaving my wife and Cheerilee behind with Pinkie as I made my way towards the table. The filly didn’t look up at me again as I approached. “Hey, uh, you okay?”

She blinked, and then looked up at me, her eyes didn’t seem all there. “Are you… talking to me…? That pink pony… really likes to talk…” Her voice was distant, as if it was spoken from far away.

“Yeah she does,” I said, trying to smile at her. “You, haven’t touched your milkshake.”

She looked at it, and then shook her head. “That’s, what it’s called…? Where’s the milk…?”

“Well, it’s made from milk, ice cream. Depending on flavor, it can have chocolate syrup or strawberries,” I said, giving her an odd look. Either she was very sheltered, or she was just plain off.

“Okay,” she said, and then looked at me. “Do they taste good?”

“Well, why don’t you try it?” I suggested. What was with her? She’s never had one before?

She slowly pulled it to her, and took a sip from the straw. She tilted her head, and drank a little more. She looked at me and said, “It tastes weird, all thick and stuff.”

“You didn’t order it?” I asked.

“No, that pink pony put it in front of me,” she said, pointing at Pinkie who was talking a mile a minute with Twilight.

Figures.

Finally I asked, “What’s your name?”

She looked a little wary. “Big Brother doesn’t like it when I tell others my name. Says it’s bad.”

“Okay,” I smiled, trying to be approachable. “Your brother sounds like a good stallion.”

“Big Brother is best brother,” She said, smiling to herself.

“Twilight may argue that,” I chuckled.

The filly looked at my wife, narrowed her eyes, and then smiled. “Her mane...”

“Hm?” I tilted my head.

“I like it,” she said, looking at me.

“I’ll, uh, tell her you do,” I said, retaining my smile. I then decided to ask, “You’ve seen me before have you?”

She slowly nodded, “Yeah, you’re the pony who was with the bloody lady.”

That’s a bit of a blunt way to put it. But anyways I asked, “What were you doing there all by yourself?”

“Big Brother asked me to,” She said, as if I asked what two plus two equaled.

“He asked you to watch a crime scene?” I asked in confusion.

She looked at me. “Hat man asks lots of questions.”

I’m thinking she’s talking about me. “Uh, I guess you could call me naturally curious,” I said. “Uh, where are your parents?”

“Dead,” she said, “Big Brother looks after me.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. “Where’s your big brother now?”

“He’s doing something important,” she replied, and then tilted her head. “More questions from hat man.”

“Well, I hope he comes to find you soon. You could worry him being here all by yourself.”

“Okay, hat man,” she said, looking at her milkshake again.

That was the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had with a pony. Teenagers, I’ll never understand them.

I walked back over to Twilight as Cheerilee left, my wife looked at me, “What was that all about?”

“Twi, I don’t even know,” I sighed. “Let’s just, not deal with teenagers.”

Twilight smiled and then said, “Well, I’m thinking we should probably check out the warehouse again. Maybe we can find some kind of clue there?”

I nodded. “Sounds good, let’s get going.”

As we left, I couldn’t help but notice…

The filly was gone…

____________________________________________________________

Most of the cops had left the warehouse and the uniform guards let us in. Mostly it had to do with me saying that I know their boss. They were easy to deal with after that.

Once inside Twilight and I began exploring every nook and cranny. Twilight lifted a box, “Nothing in here but dust, spiders, and some old parts.” Twilight said, levitating it aside.

“Just keep the spiders far away from me,” I said, looking over at her as I opened a box of old parts.

“Just what are we looking for?” Twilight asked.

“Anything,” I said firmly. “We’re missing something, some kind of connection that would help this all make sense.”

“That’s what I said earlier,” Twilight replied, “but just what is it exact- hey!”

I looked over and saw Twilight had moved aside some boxes to an old desk. “Private, check it out.”

I walked over to the desk, I noticed that on it was about an inch layer of dust. But the end of the part of the desk where one would sit at, had the dust slightly smeared.

I looked under the desk and saw a small button was under there. “Doesn’t look like the cops saw this,” I said, pressing the button.

I heard the sound of some kind of mechanism in the floor. A few feet away a trap door opened in the ground. Twilight and I looked down it to see a set of stairs. Twilight and I activated out horns and they acted as flashlights down stairs.

“Secret passageways? How did the police miss this?” Twilight asked.

“Sometimes the greatest finds are merely accid- Twi are you seriously writing that down?” I looked over at my wife who had a notebook out.

“Sooner or later I’m gonna write that book with these sayings.” Twilight said. “Maybe I’ll make it as part of my autobiography.”

I smirked, “You can entitle it, ‘Twilight Sparkle, Bookworm to Pretty Princess’”

Twilight shoved me and laughed, “Come on, let’s get going.”

The basement was not as musty as I would have expected. It was still part of an old, abandoned warehouse, and it showed its age in the darkening of the wood used in its construction, but there was one detail that stuck out. A door was down here, a metal padlocked door. I walked to it and lifted the lock on it, “No time to find the key.” I pulled out Blackbird, aimed it at the lock and shot it clean off.

The chains holding the door fell away and I bucked down the door. “HOOVES IN THE AIR!” I yelled as I aimed Blackbird inside.

“Wait! Mister don’t shoot!” A tiny voice cried.

My horn illuminated the inside. I saw to my horror, tiny fillies and colts in cages. All of them looked half starved and skinny. They hadn’t been fed in days. There had to have been at least a dozen of them. Poor kids…

Twilight and I ran to the various cages, using lockpicking and magic to remove the locks. The kids all came out, I recognized one of the aqua ones from the missing posters. She walked up to me, “Are you here ta save us misther?”

“You’re Minty right?” I asked.

The little unicorn nodded. “Miss Tappy said I was gonna have a private lesson with her, an I woke up here with all these other kids.” She started sniffling, “The bad guy kept us down here, an’ said we were gonna work all our lives at a mine somewhere. I was so scared…”

“You poor thing,” Twilight said, going to nuzzle the little filly and catch her tears.

Another colt walked up to me. “Are you gonna take me to my dads?”

I recognized the colt from the poster Robust was putting up. “You’re Windstrum right?”

“You know my name?” He asked, looking up at me.

“Robust, your adopted dad, sent me to find you,” I said with a smile.

“I knew he’d send somepony!” he cried, tears flowing down his eyes. “It was awful in here! He didn’ feed us an said all these mean things! I’m glad to be seeing my future dad again!”

Then, something clicked in my brain, I looked at the other kids. “How many of you were going to be adopted by a family with two mommies or daddies?”

They looked at each other, and one by one all of them raised their hooves. Twilight looked at me, she could tell I was onto something.

“What was the last thing you all remember before being brought here?” I asked.

One of the colts spoke up, “I remember Miss Tappy giving me a drink that tasted really funny. It made my head all loopy and stuff. I fell asleep and woke up here.”

“She gave me the weird stuff too!” A filly piped up.

“It smelled funny!” another colt said. “It was right after her class too.”

“Wait,” Twilight said, looking at the colt who spoke. “You were in her class?”

The colt nodded. “Yeah, I wanted to impress my moms so I took a dancing course.”

Another thing clicked in my brain… I asked…

“How many of you were a part of Tappy’s class before you arrived?”

Every single colt and filly raised their hoof.

Chapter 5 "The Last Dance"

Chapter 5

“The Last Dance”

Saving a dozen kids from cages is easy. Getting them all to head back to the orphanage without running all over the place? Yeah, that’s going to be a bit of a challenge. And naturally, they wanted to search the warehouse for ‘neat stuff’, and one adventurous little colt tried to climb up a beam. Thank goodness for alicorn magic, or we’d be down a colt. Once we got out… Oh boy. They wanted to go to Haybale’s or Sugarcube Corner for something to eat and drink. Seriously, we can’t afford to feed all these kids.

“We’re trying to get you back to the orphanage,” Twilight said kindly. “They’ll be sure to have something to eat there.” This was greeted by a chorus of disappointed “awwww”’s. As we moved through Ponyville, we had to keep the girls from running off to pick flowers, or after kittens; and the boys from jumping up on fences to walk atop them, or other equally reckless things… If we have kids, I don’t want more than two or three.

We finally managed to reach the orphanage, two of the colts were on my back as more kids were playing a game of tag and using my legs as an obstacle course.

When we got there, a familiar pair walked outside, the both looked glum. Suddenly Minty broke from the group and ran to them, tears in her eyes. “Momma Lyra! Mommy Bon Bon!” she cried.

Lyra and Bon Bon stopped in their tracks and looked on Minty as she ran to them. Tears flowed freely in both of their eyes as Lyra bent down to pick up the little filly in her forelegs and hug her tight. “Oh Minty! We were so worried!”

Bon Bon nuzzled Minty on the head, “Don’t scare us like that again. Lyra and I feared the worst.”

“I’m okay Mommy Bon Bon,” Minty said, nuzzling Bon Bon lovingly. “I’m fine okay, don’t cry.”

The kids shuffled into the orphanage and Twilight began the process of fixing her feathers. “Twenty two! I lost twenty two feathers thanks to them!”

“Well, maybe they wanted souvenirs?” I speculated. “Think how much your feathers will be worth in a decade or so.”

Twilight just gave me a light shove as Lyra and Bon Bon walked over, Minty lying on Bon Bon’s back, nuzzling with a great amount of love.

“We can’t thank you guys enough,” Lyra said, smiling wide.

“Where were they all?” Bon Bon asked.

“It’s a long story,” Twilight said nervously.

“We’d love to explain it all later,” I said, “But right now, we have to wrap something up.”

“I’m just happy to be with my mommies,” Minty said, hugging Bon Bon.

Oh my gosh, if she keeps this up I’m going to have a heart attack.

I smiled at the parents and said, “Take good care of that one.”

“We will,” Lyra smiled and looked at Minty. “Who wants a lollipop?”

“I do!” Minty cheered as the trio left. They were going to do alright.

Twilight looked at me. “Now you know what we’ve gotta do.”

“Doesn’t mean I like it,” I replied.

“I don’t like it either, but we can’t just let this go without doing something,” she said.

“Let’s make a hospital trip.”

____________________________________________________________

Visiting hours had just concluded, and the hospital was pretty empty. Thankfully there wouldn’t be too many witnesses to this. We were let in, due to being on the case, and we made our way to Tappy’s room. This wasn’t going to be easy, but it had to be done. She was in one of the few private rooms, due to her trauma. The walls were white, and sterile looking, and the floors were a white tile. Guess that’s one way to make sure that everything was clean.

Tappy herself was laying on the bed, clad in a hospital gown and having her back against the headboard. She looked a little better after having been cleaned up. But her eyes showed she was scarred by the events that transpired.

A large part of me felt bad for what I had to do.

“Tappy?” I said as Twilight and I entered.

She looked at us. “Oh, Private and Twilight, I thought visiting hours were over.”

“Not for a matter like this,” Twilight said gravelly.

“What are you two talking about?” she asked, looking at us.

“We know you were in the warehouse Tappy,” I said.

“But I...” She shook her head. “Why in the name of Celestia would I go there?”

“Because,” Twilight said, giving her a steely glare, “You were meeting with a slaver.”

“A slaver…” Tappy said, in genuine shock. “But no… Ivy said… he was going to give them a good home…”

“Prickly was a slaver,” I said. “You had no idea what he was?”

“I wasn’t meeting with Prickly!” she cried. “I just met with Ivy! She said she was going to give the kids good homes!”

“Then why were you talking with Prickly on the phone in the past few weeks?” I asked.

“I was just trying to connect to Ivy. She was busy and would ask Prickly to make the calls for her. I- I had no idea he was a slaver.”

“Then why in the name of all that is good would you kidnap kids?” Twilight demanded.

Tappy, looked down, ashamed.

It then clicked in my brain why. I slowly said, “It was because the adoptees were going to go to parents in same sex relationships.”

Tappy just kept her eyes down.

“Tappy, why?” Twilight said, looking at her. “Just why?”

“They weren’t going to have happy homes,” Tappy said. “It’s all a joke in the end. It isn’t love that brings members of the same sex together, it’s just plain lust. Once their parents found that out, the poor children would have to live through that.”

“Ivy called to help you with that,” I stated. “She lied, saying she would give them better homes didn’t she?”

Tappy nodded slowly, and then said, “She promised me, she said they would be happy with a mommy and a daddy. That they would have a better life. But it was just another one of her lies in the end.”

“You and Ivy were friends in college,” I pointed out. “Just how close were you two?”

Tappy’s golden brown eyes started tearing up. She wiped her eyes then and said, “She was the love of my life.”

“She was?” Twilight said in shock. “But, Ivy is married! On top of that she just seemed like a mean pony all around!”

“She wasn’t always so harsh,” Tappy said, looking at us. “At one time, she was generous and sweet. She wanted nothing more than to make me the happiest mare in the world. I thought I was in love with her. I thought she felt the same way, after all we shared a night together. So, the next day… I went to buy a ring…”

“She rejected you,” I concluded.

“I was... just a fling to her. She… she said it would be horrible if anypony in her family found out. I tried to get her to see my love was genuine, but she laughed at me. She called me a fool for thinking it could work… I was…” She started crying into her hooves. “I was a fool to trust her again, and now she paid the price…”

“Did you kill Prickly?” I asked.

“It was an accident,” Tappy explained through sobs. “I left that night after picking up Windstrum and taking him there. When I arrived, Ivy was there as usual. We talked, and but when I noticed how rough she handled Windstrum I started to question what was going on. Then Prickly comes out of nowhere, he screamed and yelled at Ivy about ‘betraying his trust’ and then, he came at me with a knife…” She broke down into sobs.

“It was self defense,” Twilight said, looking at me. “She was just trying to protect herself.”

“I- I took his knife,” Tappy said, looking at her hooves. “I don’t know how it happened, one minute I was standing there. The next, I was covered in his blood as Ivy was screaming.”

“That led you to leave, and then dispose of the weapon,” I concluded.

She nodded slowly. “Yes, I tossed it in the trash after I got a hold of myself. I was just, so scared and traumatized I… I took some mageth just to forget what happened.”

“That’s how you ended up at the park,” Twilight concluded. “You were in a stupor and just wandered in there.”

“I- I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” Tappy said, crying more. “I just wanted to help.”

“YOU CAN HELP BY DYING!!” A pony screamed from behind us. I turned and saw Ivy was standing in the doorway, a gun held in her pale green magic. It was trained right at us. “Nopony move!”

Twilight slowly turned to look at her. “Ivy, put down the gun.”

“What did I say about moving, you bitch!?” Ivy yelled.

Nopony calls my wife a female dog….

Tappy looked at her former friend, and sobbed, “Ivy, why didn’t you tell me Prickly was a slaver?”

“Think you idiot!” Ivy cried. “Would a goody four hooves like you really want to be a part of getting rid of some rabble?”

“They were kids Ivy!” Tappy cried. “Kids! Your husband was going to sell them to some evil ponies in faraway lands! Don’t you think that there’s something wrong with that?”

“You still are the murderer here!” Ivy said, pointing her gun at Tappy.

“Ivy, put the gun down,” I said, looking her straight in the eye. “What would killing Tappy get you?”

“Closure!” Ivy cried. “Tappy ruined my life! Her stupid idea of marriage nearly made me the laughing stock of my family! I was humiliated when my mother found out who I was visiting!”

Tappy spoke up, “They knew?”

“Do you think my family gives a damn about privacy? They’re rich, they just want to know if their daughter is going to get a husband with a mansion attached! I had to have a child to carry on the family name! Being with you wouldn’t have allowed that!” Ivy glared at her former friend. “Because of you I was forced to prove I was straight to my entire family by marrying Prickly! I was on my way to having that child before you killed him!”

“It was an accident!” Tappy implored. “Please, you have to believe me!”

“I’m done listening to you…” Her smile developed in a very creepy way. “I’ll kill you, make you suffer for all you put me throu-”

“You did it to yourself,” I said, boldly getting in front of Tappy.

“You think I’m afraid to shoot a cop? Or a princess for that matter?” Ivy snarled. “In the end you both bleed the same!”

“You try to pin the blame on Tappy, but if it wasn’t for you, she wouldn’t even be in this mess. You decided to start the affair, taking advantage of Tappy just to have a college fling. Then you didn’t have the guts to go through with the love you had. You decided your reputation was more important than what Tappy felt. So you tossed her out.”

“Shut up!” Ivy cried.

I went on, not listening, “Prickly caught wind about Tappy being the one who was providing the kids. He thought you’d squeal or something. So, he came to that warehouse because of you.”

“SHUT UP!! TAPPY KILLED HIM! TAPPY IS THE MURDERER!!” Ivy screamed. “She’s the one who should suffer! She’s the one who should die! I’ll kill all of you! Then I’ll take all those damn kids and sell them to salt mines as cheap labor! I’ll be rich while you’ll all be dead!”

I slowly, reached for my trench coat, opened it to reveal the bug inside. I smiled, “Thanks for the death threat, Ivy. You’ve been most helpful.”

“You bastard!” Ivy swore. “You had a bug on you the whole time!?”

Twilight smirked, and reached into her wings and pulled out a small bug too. “So did I, so in case the worst happened, we’d have at least one that caught you confession.”

“I’LL KILL YOU ALL!!!” Ivy aimed the gun at Twilight, she was about to pull the tr-

NO WAY SHE’S MURDERING MY WIFE!!

My horn sparked for a minute, and the tip of Ivy’s gun sparked as well...the barrel slowly sealed itself…

BOOM!!!

The gun exploded in Ivy’s face and she was thrown back. Tappy screamed as Ivy crashed into the wall from the sheer force of the blast.

Alchemy! I used it just like Voidera taught me! Yes!

I walked over to the now unconscious Ivy and cuffed her slowly, “Ivy Rose, I’m placing you under arrest for willingly taking part in slave trade, attempted triple murder, and breaking a mare’s heart and using her for your own sick gain.” I glared at her, “May Celestia have mercy on your soul.”

“I don’t think you can charge somebody for breaking their heart, Private. There would be a lot of ponies in jail, otherwise. Though the second part? That one she can be charged with. I do think it qualifies as fraud, or willful deception with intent to defraud,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “Either way, she’s going to be in prison for a long time for what she did.”

Tappy, was just sobbing as she looked on her former friend. She just kept saying, “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

___________________________________________________________________

The cops arrived a few minutes later for Ivy and Tappy. Twilight and I stood outside the hospital as Doctor Shelter and Nurse Redheart were nursing head wounds.

“Snuck up behind us when we were taking a coffee break,” Shelter said, putting an ice pack on his horn. “Smacked me with a fire extinguisher.”

“We really need to beef up security around the hospital.” Redheart concluded.

“I’m just glad nopony was hurt seriously,” Twilight said. “Ivy wasn’t exactly in the best of mindsets.”

“She still isn’t,” I said, pointing as Yang was leading Ivy out in hoofcuffs. A small crowd had gathered around, looking on as Ivy was yelling and screaming.

“She’s a MURDERER! A MURDERER! She should be KILLED! Hung, drawn and quartered, and left on display until the vultures had picked her bones CLEAN!” Ivy screamed, frothing at the mouth.

“Yeah Lady.” Yang rolled her eyes. “Just shut up and get inside before I find a reason to buck you to jail myself.” Yang was joined by another uniform and they tossed her in a police carriage. Good thing they took my advice to get two carriages.

Rule #1 never leave suspects alone together. Usually it’s so the suspects won’t come up with a story, and make sure they all get it straight. This time, it’s to keep Ivy from killing Tappy.

I looked at Dunnit as he came walking over. “She’ll be going away for a while. I can’t believe that we had the murderer right there.”

“Don’t worry Dunnit,” I said. “not all puzzles are immediately solvable.”

“I’m worried about this crowd,” Twilight said looking at them. “I can see a lot of parents out there.”

“We’ll keep them back as best we can,” Dunnit said, going to the uniforms to form a barrier. Tappy came trotting out, head hung low, in a posture of utter defeat. She, unlike Ivy, clopped to the carriage without a word.

The crowd angrily shouted at her, curses were thrown and they all tried desperately to get at her. Nopony was happy that she tried to sell their children. I wondered how the information got out so quickly. Then I remembered it was a small town, ponies were tight knit, if something happens, everypony will know about it.

Cheerilee pushed her way to the front. “Tappy!” She yelled, trying to get her friend’s attention.

Tappy just stopped, looked at Cheerilee and said, “Make sure that Scootaloo learns the steps okay?”

“Tappy…” Cheerilee said, tears falling down her magenta cheeks.

Tappy then went into the carriage without another word.

Twilight put a wing over me. “You feel bad too?”

“The worst,” I said, closing my eyes. “I destroyed a pony’s life by finding the truth.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Twilight said. “You and I couldn’t have known what could happen.”

“Even still,” I sighed, “This is, honestly, the worst part of my job. When I have to put hoof cuffs on good ponies who got caught up in something they couldn’t control.”

Twilight just pressed her muzzle into my neck. I could hear her softly sobbing as the weight of what happened got to her. I fought back tears myself as I watched the carriages get pulled away.

Epilogue

WARNING! This chapter contains rather disturbing content. Including torture, blood, and several other nasty things. Proceed at your own risk, you have been warned.
____________________________________________________________________

Epilogue

Perspective: ??

I used to play in trees like these when I was little. Big Brother would take me to the big park and let me climb them. I loved it so much I begged him to take me every time he had free time. But right now, I wasn’t playing. I was hiding, waiting for the carriage with the bad pony. I was hiding on the road leaving the small weird town. The pony called Tappy was going to be imprisoned somewhere else. So...the carriage was going to be all by itself...

I hid in the bushes as the carriage came around. I knew the bad lady was inside. She hurt a lot of ponies today. Big Brother said she had to pay…

I always listen to Big Brother…

I saw the carriage stop, the police ponies pulling it were taking a break. One looked at the other, “You know, one day I really wish they’d come up with carriages that pulled themselves.”

His friend chuckled, “Nah, you need the exercise you dolt. Sides, Ivy isn’t going anywhere.”

“Can you believe she tried to murder Tappy?” The stallion said as I moved quietly...oh so quietly...toward them.

“Bitch got what came to her to be honest,” The mare said, shaking her head. “I mean, kidnapping kids for slavery, that’s just messed up…”

“Just glad they’re both going away,” The stallion said with a sigh, “It’s still going to be a mountain of paperwork though.”

….now…

My horn glowed slightly and the stallion’s eyes closed. Being an earth pony he had no way to block it when the spell came. His friend tried to shout in shock, but my spell got her too.

Plop, plop they went to the ground. They weren’t going to know who cast the spell. They were going to go sleepy now…

I walked to the mare….I didn’t like her mane...too ratty…

I heard somepony coming outside of the carriage. Big Brother said I wasn’t supposed to be seen. I wasn’t going to disappoint him.

I hid on the other side as I heard a rough voice cry out. “The hell? What was that sound?”

I heard his hoof steps go pat pat on the ground. He was coming around on the opposite side.

I slowly climbed quietly onto the carriage. The stallion was a big pony, with a gun being held in his magic. He was a unicorn. He wasn’t going to go down with a simple sleepy spell.

There is a way...to make him disappear though...for good….yes….it would be bloody….

No...Big Brother said only the bad pony.

I looked and saw a large tree branch hanging above him. I reached into my belt that I had on and pulled out a long sharp knife. I levitated it in my magic, I then waited until the stallion was just under the branch.

SLICE!

Down went the branch onto him with a loud Thud!

That will keep him sleeping. Good thing Big Brother gave me knives that can cut real good…

“What’s going on out there?” I heard a rather noisy voice cry.

I walked over to where the door was open. I lowered my head to look inside. There was the bad pony. She was looking at me with a very surprised expression.

“Who are you?” She yelled. “Why are you here!”

I tilted my head and said, “I’m here, for you.”

“Oh? Are you one of my husband’s hirelings?” She asked, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “Come to rescue me from these ridiculous accommodations?”

“No,” I said, slowly smiling. “Big Brother sent me to find a bad pony…”

“Wh-” She was cut off when I jumped down, and fired a magic blast. Her horn had an inhibitor ring on it. She wasn’t going to be protected.

The spell hit her on the head and she fell back… Night night bad pony….

It’s time to play….

____________________________________________________________

“Uuh…”

“Wakey Wakey bad pony…”

“Where...am I…?”

“In my playhouse…”

“Wha-” Chink! Chink! “What is the meaning of this! Unchain me right now!”

“No…”

“Excuse me! You’d better listen to me young lady!”

“You’re a bad pony...I’m not going to listen…”

“Let me go right now!”

“Those chains won’t break...not even a princess can break them…”

“What is the meaning of this?!”

“Bad pony has bad ears…”

“I am not a bad pony!”

“Big Brother says you are...Big Brother never lies…”

“Who is your brother! I demand to know!”

“Big Brother also said not to tell…”

“You bitch!”

“Bad word!” SMACK!

“Ow!”

“No say bad words! Big Brother say they’re bad!”

“You little…”

“...”

“Girl…”

“That better…”

“Why are you doing this to me? You should have Tappy in here! Chained up like some kind of criminal!”

“I ask that to Big Brother. He said Tappy will get off on self defense. She’ll spend some time in time out but then she’ll be free.”

“Then why am I here!? She murdered my husband!”

“Big Brother didn’t like that you kidnapped little fillies and colts…”

“What…?”

“Big Brother hates it when kids get picked on...or sold…”

“That...That was my husbands doing! I swear!”

“LIES!!” SMACK SMACK!!

“OW!!”

“No lie! No lying from bad pony! Bad pony in big trouble!”

“Why are you doing this to me! I didn’t kno…”

Smack!! “No lie…”

“Please...just...I’ll pay you anything you want...I’ll give you anything…”

“Hmm….no…”

“Please! I beg of you!”

“Bad Pony….gets punished...like Big Brother said…”

*Unsheathing knife…*

“What...what are you doing…?”

“Punishing bad pony….”

“Ke-keep that knife away from me…”

“I...like your mane…”

“What…?”

“It would look very nice…”

“What...what are you doing…? Keep that away!”

“...on my dolly…”

SHINK!!

“AAHHH! OH SWEET CELESTIA STOP!!! PLEASE I SAID STOP AAAHHHHAHAAH!”

“Pretty mane...mine now…”

Drip...drip...drip…

“All bloody now though….”

“You...you scalped me….”

“Bad Pony gets punished….”

“Please...let me go...please…”

“....no...Bad Pony die now…”

SHINK!!SHINK!!

“In and out….in and out...the knife goes in and out...blood goes spout...pony goes down…She’s got a new mane...Scarlet is the prettiest mare in town…”