“Get out!”

“Where is she?”

“Coming down!”

“Monster…”

Hunter’s Apartment

10:01 a.m.

Ponyville

I woke up groggily from my sleep, the dreams were getting more intense everyday. Even more so now since I came to Ponyville. Filthy Rich’s store doesn’t open for another hour so I decided to walk around town to pass the time.

Golden Oak Library

10:06 a.m.

Ponyville

Walking around I stood in front of the town’s local library. I haven’t read a good book in awhile, Canterlot’s bookstores and libraries usually only had romance novels and I really was not interested in those. I’m more of a horror/sci fi kinda guy. I entered the library and was greeted by a small looking lizard thing.

“Hey there! You’re that Hunter guy right?” asked the purple lizard.

“Uh, yeah that’s me little lizard,” the little guy seemed to take offence as a frown placed itself on his face.

“Why does everypony think that I’m a lizard? I’m a baby dragon!” a dragon? Holy Celestia, is he even allowed to be in here?

“Spike? What’s going on down there?” a voice came from the stairs above us and sounds of hooves came down the stairs. In front of me, was Princess Twilight Sparkle! I quickly bowed to her and she giggled.

“No need to bow to me detective Hunter, I’m not really comfortable with all of the royal stuff yet. Please just call me Twilight,” I rose from my spot and nodded my head.

“So, how goes your investigation?”

“Right now my current lead is on Filthy Rich,” this seemed to shock the princess.

“Filthy Rich? What does he have to do with this?”

“Apparently, the victim went to him for money, and a witness saw Roseluck with a big bag of bits. Her house was ransacked so I’m assuming that maybe Rich had ordered someone to either teach Rose a lesson, or to kill her,”

“Hmm, it is known around town that Rich gives loans to ponies that are a little short on bits. I can’t though see him ordering someponies death,” I figured that either Rich was genuinely a nice guy, or that’s just a front.

“You know if you want you can look at the records of loans ponies took from him. With the amount of money he gives away, the mayor and I decided to keep a records book to keep track of it. Me, the mayor, and Rich all have a copy and make sure that it’s up to date.” Twilight levitated a ledger to me and I inspected its contents.

I scanned through the list of names from the book. Daisy’s name was on the list, taking out a ten thousand bit loan! I found Roseluck’s name and discovered that she took out a three hundred and fifty thousand bit loan from Rich! That’s a lot of money, no wonder somepony wrecked her place, heck I’d kill for some money like that.

I closed the ledger and hoofed it back to Twilight.

“Thanks for your help Twilight,”

“Of course! Anything you need I’ll be more than happy to assist you. While you’re waiting, why not read a book? The store doesn’t open for a while now so you can kill some time reading,” that was what I came here for anyway.

I browsed her selection, she had everything here! I noticed the entire Daring Do collection was there. I wasn’t a fan of the series, but my little cousin was a huge fan of the books. She’d sometimes visit and talk about them for hours on end to me. I did enjoy hearing her talk about them though, she is a very passionate mare.

I settled on a horror story called “The Void” and sat down to read the book.

Later…

The book sucked. So many plot holes! A grandfather clock chimed in another room and that was my cue to leave. I bid Twilight and Spike farewell and headed off to the store.

Rich’s Super Emporium

11:21 a.m.

Market District, Ponyville

The store had a clean air to it, the tiles and walls were a clean white, and the walls colored yellow. I walked around for a bit hoping to find a manager’s office or something. I accidentally bumped into somepony and knocked them to the ground.

“Oh crap, sorry about that,”

“No problem good sir, it was an accident,” said the stallion. I offered a hoof to help him up and he took it into his. I noticed a bit of blood and saw him wearing a bandage.

“You okay? What happened to your hoof?”

“Ah this? I was chopping onions, but uh went a little too fast. If only I was a unicorn, being an earth pony is good and all, but makes it harder having to use exclusively your hooves to grab objects like knives,” I had to agree to that.

“Ah where are my manners, allow me to introduce myself, I am Stitch Heart. Pleasure to make your acquaintance,”

“Lawful Hunter,” his eyes beamed and widened upon hearing my name.

“Ah so you are the detective everypony is talking about! I must say I expected you to be shorter. Though those newspaper photographs are alway a few sizes inaccurate,” wait, when did somepony take my picture? I don’t remember that. Anyway I looked more closely at Stitch he had a yellow coat, white short mane, he also seemed to have Heterochromia iridum, green in one eye, and purple in the other, his cutie mark was a needle going through a heart.

“Well I must be off, it was a pleasure meeting you detetive Hunter,”

“Likewise, Mr. Heart,”

“Please Mr. Heart was my father, call me Stitch,” he chuckled and walked away.

After our goodbyes I headed towards the back room and entered Filthy Rich’s office. A medium sized brown office that was really clean, a portrait of an old stallion hung above right behind Rich’s chair, I assumed it was his great grandfather or something. There he was sitting in his chair doing paperwork was Filthy Rich. Rich looked up at me and smiled.

“Hello there, what can I help you with?”

“Mr. Rich I’m detective Hunter working for the royal guards. I assume you heard about Roselucks death?” Rich gave a sad look.

“Indeed I heard, a nice mare she was, I always bought my daughter some roses from her,”

“Would you mind answering a few questions for me?”

“Of course not, please sit down. Would you like some coffee?”

“Please,” I said.

Rich quickly whipped up two cups of coffee and set them down on the table.

“I’ve heard from two ponies that Roseluck was going to see you about money issues?”

“Yes that’s correct, Rose was in heavy financial debt and asked me for my help. I of course agreed and gave her a modest sum to help her out,”

“Hmm, Princess Twilight mentioned that you, her, and the mayor had a ledger of loans taken out?”

“Yes, with so many ponies borrowing money we needed to keep a more detailed record of bits borrowed,”

“May I see your ledger?” I asked, Rich nodded and pulled out a book and passed it over to me.

I opened the book and looked for Rose’s name. Upon closer inspection I noticed something strange. In Twilight’s ledger Rose took out a three hundred and fifty thousand bit loan. Yet in Rich’s copy it says she took over eight hundred and seventy thousand bits. Was the information inaccurate?

“Why is Rose’s loan higher in your ledger than in Princess Twilight’s? Here she took over eight hundred thousand yet the princess’s is only three hundred thousand?” Rich sighed and gave a frown.

“You see, the princess and mayor decided that there was to be a set amount of bits one pony was allowed to take out. The limit was at four hundred thousand, anything higher than that was to be declined immediately. Rose came in one night and begged me to give her more money. She was desperate and I couldn’t just say no. So I just gave her more money and lied to the princess and the mayor about how much she took,”

“I see, and had Rose payed you back before she died?”

“No, I’ve… had some men look for it at her home, Ms. Daisy was kind enough to give us a key and allowed us to check her home. So far nothing had turned up,”

“Alright, that should be all Mr. Rich have a good day,” I left the store, I didn’t trust Rich he paused during that explanation I stayed around the joint until closing time and followed Rich behind the store.

Rich’s Super Emporium

8:34 p.m.

Market District, Ponyville

Rich was waiting rather impatiently behind the store, a few minutes later a stallion wearing a robe came out from the alleyway nearby. I listened to what they were saying.

“Did you find the money?”

“No sir, we wrecked the whole place, the hole behind the bookcase was already empty when we discovered it,”

“That damn mare, what about our “friend” have you heard from her?”

“No sir, we lost all contact with her after Roseluck was killed. We know for a fact that she didn’t do the job,”

“I’ll bet that son of a bitch took the money, never trust a hitpony especially one who is known to betray her employer’s,” Rich grew angry over this hitpony that supposedly robbed him, now I had another pony of interest. Whoever this pony was they were hired to kill Rose, but the Maker got her first. I’m also going to need evidence to get Rich arrested for even paying for someponies death.

“Search everywhere, we need to find her now!”

“Yes sir,” Rich left shortly after.

The robed stallion was heading back to the alleyway, I decided to follow him. Let’s see what we can find out here...

Author's Note

Well than, another chapter finally finished. This one had to be delayed a bit due to a certain game wasting my time *cough, borderlands 2, cough* anyways I hope you all enjoy, hopefully...