Moondrop

The corpse of Suri Polomare was one of the worst Twilight had ever seen.

Her face was bruised and battered, sporting a broken nose and many chipped teeth. Her mane and coat were caked with blood that had dripped down from the multiple stab wounds on her chest and neck. Her fur was badly burnt, and small wisps of smoke still rose from it, filling the room with a pungent smell.

Trixie gagged and ran from the room, and Twilight didn’t blame her. She turned to one of the CSIs that was still going combing the room for any evidence. “Do you have everything you need from the body?” she asked, hoping the answer was no so as to delay the dreadful task before her.

“Yeah, we did. Do what’cha want with it,” the stallion answered. Twilight turned back to the corpse and, holding her breath, moved closer.

“Oh Celestia, this is bad...” she muttered, turning the body over with her magic. When she moved it, the stench became unbearable, and she dropped it back onto the table with a thud. Twilight mentally prepared herself once more and managed to flip over the body.

The mare’s back was completely scorched, black and burnt to a crisp. Twilight fought the urge to vomit and contaminate the crime scene. The mare’s burnt, but there’s no fire damage to the building, she observed. It was precisely controlled. Fire magic.

“Did you find anything useful?” Trixie asked from the doorway. Her face was tinged with green, and her pointed wizard’s hat was nowhere to be seen.

“It would be quicker if you came over here and helped me,” Twilight grumbled. “Not much use having a partner if she’s not willing to do anything.”

“Er... yes,” Trixie said, seemingly embarrassed. “Trixie was just... investigating the showroom. For clues. She found none, and will... help you now.” She slowly creeped into the back room, staring at the body as though she expected it to jump up and maul her if she made any sudden moves.

Twilight looked at Trixie. This mare is not cut out for police work, she thought. She’ll quit after a day. An idea formed in Twilight’s mind, a plan to test her new partner. After all, it was her job to teach Trixie about being a detective, and what better way to teach somepony than to give them tests?

“Whoever did this used fire magic, so it was definitely a unicorn. I think the killer came in last night when the vic was closing shop- notice the dried blood on the victim’s mane; this happened a while ago -and threatened her. Probably a robbery, judging by the cash register. Then, the victim ran in here and locked the door, but the culprit blasted it open with magic and attacked the vic. Vic was thrown on the table, got her face beat up, got stabbed to death, then the culprit took the money in the register and fled.”

Trixie hummed. “Really?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Well,” Trixie started. “Yes. Yes Trixie does. Trixie thinks the motive for this murder was personal. This murder was too violent to be a robbery. Trixie thinks the murderer wanted to make it look like a robbery to cover up their tracks.”

Twilight nodded. Trixie had come to the same conclusion that she had, and she wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. “Well,” she said. “I guess there’s some hope for you yet. Come on, we’re done here.” Twilight stepped over the shattered remains of the door and left the back room, Trixie following, eager to get away from the smell.

The two made their way back to the station, walking in silence. The day was cold, and specks of snow had started falling from the grey sky above. Soon enough they would blanket the world in a layer of snow, and the beginning of the coldest season would start.

“The murderer must be a pretty powerful unicorn,” Trixie commented as they walked. “They used some pretty strong magic to break that door.”

Twilight nodded. She had had the same thought as soon as she saw the burn marks on the victim. She wasn’t keen on facing a spellcaster of that magnitude- she was an adept sorcerer herself, and she knew it, but when she pictured what the murderer had done to Suri in her mind, she felt a jolt of fear shoot through her.

“Yeah. Nothing to worry about,” she lied. “I doubt we’ll have to face them personally, anyway. He’ll probably be nabbed by some cop out on patrol once we ID the guy.” Trixie nodded, unconvinced.

“So,” Trixie said, hastily changing the direction of the conversation. “Trixie would like to know more about you. If she’s to be your partner, she wants to know more than just your name.”

Oh great, Twilight thought, she’s a talkative one. “Well, I was drafted into army during the Great War when I was eighteen, got out when we won the war when I was twenty-one, became a cop when I was twenty-two, and got promoted to detective last week at the age of twenty-three. Oh, and then I got stuck with a partner who likes asking personal questions.”

Trixie ignored the jab. “You fought in the war?” she asked. “Was it as bad as everypony makes it out to be? It must have been terrifying fighting a bunch of bloodthirsty bat-ponies and crazy moon-lovers.”

Twilight sighed. “Yes, it was pretty bad. Now, if you want more information, go ahead and ask captain Shimmer, because I don’t have time for this.”

“Trixie has asked her, but she never likes talking about it, especially around Hearth’s Warming.”

Twilight glanced back at Trixie, who blushed. “Oh, um... we’re cousins. That... might have seemed strange to you, if you didn’t know already.”

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks. “Is that why she made you my partner? What, did she put you with me so you could spy on me?” Twilight turned and glared at Trixie, who withered under her stare. “Are you even qualified to be a detective, or did you just get in because you’re related to the captain?”

“Trixie is qualified! How dare you doubt her skill! She’s the best detective in Equestria! No, in the world! And for the record, she wasn’t assigned to you, she requested to be your partner! Sunset had nothing to do with that!”

The two glared at each other. “Fine,” Twilight finally relented, “I’m sorry I doubted your intentions. But please, no more personal questions.”

Trixie nodded. The two continued on their way to the station at a brisk pace fueled by the awkward tension that hung in the air.

“Wait, why did you request to be my partner?” Twilight asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Trixie turned her head away.

“That doesn’t matter,” she said. Twilight didn’t pursue the question any further. Their relationship was shaky enough as it was.

Twilight looked down. Hopefully we can stick together long enough to complete this case.

Back in the station, Twilight and Trixie peered through the one-way mirror at Coco, who was sitting in an interrogation room with a cup of water cradled in her hooves. She had calmed down considerably in the time they had been away, and was being questioned by a police officer.

“Can you tell me again when you found the body?” she was asking. Coco obliged. It went back and forth in such a manner for a few more minutes before the policemare got up and left, allowing Twilight and Trixie to question her.

“Are we going to be doing the ‘good cop bad cop’ routine?” asked Trixie before they entered the interrogation room. “If so, Trixie humbly requests the position of bad cop.” Twilight shook her head and opened the door.

Coco looked up at them when they entered. “Oh! Um, hello, detectives. Your friends already questioned me... so...” she trailed off.

Twilight sat down across from her, Trixie taking a seat to her right. “Can you tell us the name of your boss once again?” Twilight asked, pulling out a notepad.

“Suri...” Coco said, her voice almost a whisper. “Suri Polomare is- was my boss.”

“Can you think of anypony who may have wanted to harm her? An ex-coltfriend, or a rival seamstress, perhaps?”

Coco shook her head, then stopped and seemed to doubt herself. “No! Well... maybe. Suri is- um, was kind of a, um... difficult pony to be around. She was kind of mean, and, um, rude. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, she, um, had a lot of enemies.”

Twilight jotted that down in her notebook. “Can you think of anypony specific, maybe somepony who has been violent in the pa-”

Twilight was interrupted by Trixie standing up and hitting the metal table with her front hooves. “Why did you kill your boss, Coco? Why did you do it?!”

Coco screamed and fell back off her chair as Twilight grabbed Trixie’s cape and pulled her down. “I’m so sorry about that,” she apologized, glaring at Trixie. “What my partner meant to say was that if you have any information that you’re keeping from us, it’ll be better for everypony if you just told us now.”

“I don’t k-know anything about it!” Coco cried out, quivering in fright.

“When you came here this morning, you were frightened, but you weren’t crying. Why is that?” Twilight asked. Now that Trixie had ruined any sense of security Coco may have had, Twilight decided to get straight to the point. “Wouldn’t you be sad, knowing your boss was so brutally murdered?”

Coco looked down, refusing to meet either of the detectives’ eyes. “I... I’m not very sad she’s gone... but that doesn’t mean I did it! It’s just... she was so mean to me. I’m not sad, but that doesn’t mean I wanted her dead!” Twilight copied that down in her notebook. “Does... that make me a bad pony?”

Twilight shook her head and chuckled. “Trust me, I know a few ponies myself who I wouldn’t shed any tears for.” That got a small smile out of Coco, who straightened up a bit. “Before we go, if you have any information at all- anything, even if it seems unimportant -now’s the time to give it up.”

“Well, there is one thing...” Coco started. Twilight urged her on with a wave of her hoof. “Suri and I were both part of this group. We met-”

Coco was interrupted by a ruckus in the commons. “Hold that thought!” Twilight shouted, getting up and running out, followed closely by Trixie, who had assumed the worst and drawn her gun from its holster underneath her cape. They got to the commons, where ponies were running to and fro in a blind panic. In the middle of the room, in a trashcan sitting beside somepony’s desk, a large fire had sparked, causing the sprinklers to activate and douse the room in water.

“Glad my desk isn’t here anymore,” Twilight commented.

Trixie grabbed the tail of a passing pony. “What happened here?” she asked the confused stallion. He shrugged.

“The trash can just burst into flames, and the sprinklers went off!” he explained. The sight of his desk in the corner being soaked caused him to panic. “Oh, horseapples! My report’s getting wet!” He ran off, leaving the two mares to observe the chaos once again.

“We should go get Captain Shimmer,” Trixie noted. Twilight shook her head.

“No, that’s a bad idea,” she responded, imagining the horrible consequences the strict mare would unleash on the entire station. Except you, Twilight thought, looking at Trixie. “It’ll get sorted out. C’mon, we’ve got some information to gather.”

The two detectives returned to the interrogation room, where they had left Coco waiting. “Hopefully she hasn’t changed her mind about sharing what she knows with us,” Trixie commented before the entered.

“Sorry about that, miss Pommel, there was an incident in the commons,” Twilight explained as they entered the interrogation room.

Coco didn’t respond. She was looking down in her lap, unmoving, completely ignoring the two detectives.

Trixie stepped forward. “You were saying something before we were interrupted?” she prompted, to no avail. The mare didn’t answer.

“Hey, Trixie is talking to you!”

Trixie put her hoof on Coco’s shoulder and shook it, causing her head to roll back, revealing the large, burnt slit running from one end of her throat to the other.

Coco had been murdered.