CHAPTER 1
Thunder, rain, and darkness. A storm hovered over Canterlot. Everypony was inside, out of the coldness of the night. The wind blew violently across the drenched city, and across the cloak and mane of a single grey Unicorn. He stood with a sinister look, his red eyes contrasting the darkness enveloping the city. His face was covered by the many layers of his black mane, his devious smile flashing off his silver blade. The pony began to pull a dagger out his jacket pocket with his magic. He angled it so that the blade pointed downward, before letting it slice through the clean neck of his victim. First, a single chuckle, then an insane laughter exited his mouth, not caring to even pull out the knife.
Several hours later, the storm soon passed and the light began to shine throughout the city. The sun’s rays shone into the lids of my eyes, waking me up from my deep sleep. I rolled out of my bed, put on my favorite brown jacket, and walked over to my mirror. I trotted to my door to fetch the daily newspaper, as I always have. I was just in time to meet the mail pony outside my home. He handed me the paper with a horrified look on his face.
“Interesting articles today,” he said to me, with a forlorn smile on his face. I thanked him for the paper and went inside, and turned on my coffee machine. I sat on my living room chair and proceeded to read, as the machine made its usual hum. The main title read:
UNNAMED PONY FOUND DEAD AT 3:39 AM LAST NIGHT IN CANTERLOT
My eyes widened, a hoof going to my forehead. I've never heard of a murder ever happening in Equestria before, aside from border disputes, there wasn’t much fighting at all. The picture of the crime scene showed a lifeless, white pony with a light blue mane with a deep cut near her neck region surrounded in a pool of blood. I turned away from the paper in shock and tried to collect my thoughts. There’s a murder here? In Canterlot of all places? I dropped the paper and ran outside to see everypony gathered around the scene of the crime. I heard somepony say that the crime was near the Royal Castle, so I decided to run and inspect the scene. I arrived at the entrance of Princess Celestia’s castle. Yellow tape that indicated to “KEEP OUT” was placed all over. I peered over the tape to see a sheet that covered what looked to be the body, I couldn’t tell however, as it was in a body bag.
“Holy shit.” I said to myself, scared for my life. A Royal Guard stepped in front of me.
“Excuse me sir, this area is for authorized personnel only.” I shot him an angered look and slowly walked away. The inner fear began to kick in and I slowly felt myself understand the gravity of the situation. Oh Celestia… there’s a fucking killer on the loose. In this city, what do I do, where do I go? I staggered back to my house and sat in my chair, placing a hoof to my head yet again, my mind reeling at the implications. This isn’t true, it can’t be. I can’t recall how long I was sitting there, but soon after there was somepony knocking at my door. I opened it, leaving it only open a crack to see who it was, ready to slam it at any moment. I was shocked, however, to find a familiar purple Alicorn with a dark purple mane standing before me. I bowed my head right away and stuttered my words, still thinking about the murder.
“Hello, what brings you here, your m-majesty?” She gave me a confused look.
“Umm… I heard about the recent murder and was sent to investigate who would do such a heinous crime,” she said.
“I haven’t seen or heard anything. I don’t even know who was killed. I just live here, I don’t know anything, I promise,” I said. She began to interrogate me, asking me questions about anypony who would have done something like this or if somepony acted skeptical. My only reply was “no” or “I don’t know.” Finally,she just said, “thank you for your time” and left, a frown appearing on her face. As she walked away, I felt some kind of guilt deep within me. For some weird reason that I still can’t explain, I ran after her.
“Princess Twilight, wait!” I shouted. She stopped walking and turned her head around.
“Oh, did you remember something?” a smile appearing on her face once again..
For a moment, I simply stood there, not knowing why I ran here. With a moment of hesitation, I looked up. “I think,” I said, still unsure. “I want to help join the investigation.”
“What did you say your name was again?” she asked, her expression becoming more maternal..
“I’m um, Talon Ironwood.” I said, remembering that I was speaking to royalty.
“I’d love to let you join the investigation”
“Really?”
“Of course” she said, motioning for me to follow. One of her guard escorts tapped her shoulder and whispered in her ear.
“I understand, do what you must, but I believe he’s fine. He’s just scared like everyone else,” Princess Twilight said.
“Yes, your highness,” he said, giving a quick salute and sending two of the guards to surround me.
“Just a precaution, Talon. A murderer would love to get close to royalty, and we’re all a little on edge,” the guard to my left explained. She seemed happy. I gave a smile back. We passed many confused bystanders along the way. I heard some whispers saying something like, “is that Princess Twilight?” or “What’s she doing with him?” I think I caught one even mutter “That must be the bastard that did it” It was about 20 minutes before we reached the Royal Castle. We stood before the gates as they opened for us. Twilight walked on, into the castle, leaving me to stand there alone.I was not royalty, I couldn’t enter the palace. Twilight looked back at me. “You’re not coming?” I gave her a confused answer.
“Am I allowed in there? I mean, it’s the Royal Castle!”
“Any friend of mine is welcome here.” she replied. My face lit up like a fire in a dark forest. I smiled widely and ran in with her.
“Oh, alright,” I said, still seeing that haunting image of the murdered pony. We both entered the castle and walked into the Royal Court. The room was huge, something you would only think of in a dream. The room was empty, except for one pony. The throne was occupied by Princess Celestia herself, trying to smile, but even I could see the stress and worry on her face.
Twilight turned to me, “Is something the matter?” she asked. I looked at her, my eyes reflecting the quiet acceptance of reality.
“Even she’s worried.”
“I don’t like seeing the Princess like this, having to deal not only with the issue, but also the media and political backlash of it all."
We bowed as Celestia stood, addressing Twilight.
“Welcome, Princess Twilight. We have urgent matters to discuss.” She turned to me. “And who’s this?”
Twilight spoke, “this is my friend, Talon Ironwood. He’s going to help me in my investigation.”
“I see,” Celestia said. “Welcome, Talon. I hope you and Twilight successfully capture whoever has committed this heinous crime.”Her expression becoming somber, her face showing her centuries of experience. “Princess Luna and I have gathered some intelligence on the pony who did this.”
Our eyes widened and my ears perked up. “We’ve learned that the suspect is not from Equestria. He is a pony, but his race is unidentified. We found the dagger that was used for the murder. We checked for hoof prints, but we couldn’t find any. It was most likely a Unicorn’s doing, but invisible hoof print potions also exist, so that’s still unknown.”
“A pony not from Equestria?” Twilight said, astonished.
“No, but some scouts caught a glimpse of what could be a campsite deep in the Everfree Forest. We suspect it could be a base for the killer.”
I looked at Twilight, “That could be where we can start.”
“You’re right.” She looked to Celestia, “thank you Princess Celestia. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“On your way out, a guard will give you equipment for your journey.” said Celestia.
Twilight and I exited the Castle. A guard handed me a single-edged sword, a dagger, and some throwing knives, and sheaths for all of them. The weight of the weapons overwhelmed me, causing me my knees to tremble. He gave Twilight what seemed to be spell books and some potions, along with a saddlebag for them. A group of five pegasus guards, all armed with halberds, decided to accompany the Princess as well. We equipped our items and prepared to fly with us to the Everfree Forest. We readied our wings and propelled ourselves into the air. The saddlebag and equipment weighed me down, as I wasn’t used to flying with such supplies. We dodged several clouds and flew past several towns on the way. We passed by a suburb-ish town which looked familiar to me. Then I remembered,
“Hey. It’s Ponyville!” I pointed out to Twilight. She smiled, like she remembered a fond memory. “Isn’t your house here?” I asked.
“Yeah, we’re flying over it right now.” I looked down to see a tree house.
“Cool, I’ve always wondered. You sleep in the library?” I shouted over the wind. Twilight chuckled then said, “ Mhmmm. Oh, it appears we’ve just flown over Ponyville. We must be close to the Everfree Forest.” I looked forward and squinted.
“I think I see it!” I said. I spotted a small glade, which I believed to be the entrance to the forest.
“Let’s land there, in the entrance.” said Twilight.
“Why can’t we just fly over it?” I asked.
“The canopies are too thick. We can’t see from the top.” We soon landed in the front of the large forest. The mouth of the forest was dark, the trees preventing even light from filtering down. The killer must be in that forest, and we were going to find him. I looked at the Princess, and she nodded, her gaze not leaving the forest.
“Let’s go,” she said. As we entered the forest, I looked back and noticed that the entrance was gone.
“What the hell?” The entrance had entirely become another forest. There was no way out. I spun in a circle, trying to find some way out of our predicament. I looked up at the canopy, and inspected my wings. The branches were too thick to break through, and my breathing started to quicken.
“What’s going on?" Twilight said.
“I have no idea.” I replied. “But we’re trapped, and I'm sure that whoever did this must know that we’re here, and they won’t be too keen on letting us leave.”
END OF CHAPTER 1