Dissociation

Lieutenant Fair Breeze sighed heavily as he read through the report on his desk. It wasn’t easy reading and it certainly wasn’t what he had been expecting after being dragged back into active duty during a two week holiday. Murder…on the streets of Canterlot! More than anything the question was why? Violence in Equestrian society was usually non-existent apart from outside threats that invaded the realm and even then no previous incursion had resulted in death of any kind.

“Anything else you need sir?” asked a spritely young voice.

Fair Breeze looked up to find Warrant Officer Lilac Bloom grinning at him from the doorway and Fair Breeze couldn’t help but grin himself. The pair had known each other for years, Lilac having been his personal aide for most of that time. The young Pegasus was a bubbling ball of energy and he had yet been able to work out just what made her tick the way she did; still at the end of the day it didn’t matter and the bounding energy certainly helped her get things done in a timely manner.

“Nothing right now, come on in and sit down,” replied Fair Breeze with a wave at a seat, “Maybe you can help me work out what to do next.”

“Of course sir, although I must say it’s a grim affair is it not?” replied Lilac as she slipped into a seat opposite the earth pony.

“Grim is one way to put it for sure, are these all the reports we have?”

“Yes sir, at least all that have been filed so far. We’ve had guards interviewing anypony who knew or had dealing with Gleaming Moon all day. Some have been unreachable or are out of the city right now but I estimate we have about seventy percent of the reports in right now.”

“That still leaves a rather large gap…and we still don’t have any substantial leads either.”

“Unfortunately not sir, I’ve read them all myself three times but every pony is basically saying they are not surprised it happened but don’t have a clue who could have done it.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them aren’t in shock as well, I don’t think we’ve had a death by anything other than accidents or natural causes in hundreds of years.”

“Six hundred and thirty two years sir to be exact, I was curious so I looked it up myself.”

“Six hundred years, this could so easily spiral out of control if we don’t wrap it up quickly.”

“I understand sir, what do you think our next course of action should be?”

“We have to tread carefully for one thing. This is already going to be all over the front page of the Canterlot Gazette and the public will be expecting a resolution very quickly.”

“Indeed sir…can’t say I’m that comfortable myself knowing there might be a killer roaming the streets. We need to establish why and how it happened and who was responsible.”

“Good places to start, so any thoughts yourself?”

“Well…I’ve not been part of a criminal investigation before but whoever did this must have had a reason for it…”

“Are you sure?” interrupted Fair Breeze with a slight lift of his eye brow.

“Surely!” exclaimed Lilac, “No pony could kill another pony without a…sorry sir, that was out of line.”

“No that’s quite alright, I figured you would respond like that. I know what you mean, it is hard to believe that in modern Equestrian society a murder could occur without a reason but it is still a possibility. It may even be true that we aren’t dealing with a pony perpetrator to begin with, another race may be responsible.”

“Quite true sir, although at present the only non-pony guests in Canterlot is an envoy from the Griffon Kingdom scheduled to meet with the Princess tomorrow.”

“Keeping up to date with current affair, good good, although don’t forget that our culprit may have snuck into the capital undetected and may still be hiding.”

“Duly noted sir!”

“Now then, assuming that the murder happened for a reason what do you think about possible motives?”

“Gleaming Moon, a performance manager for some of the most prestigious and talented entertainers in all of Canterlot. He organised concerts, shows and galleries, made deals with venues, arranged advertisements and support nearly fifteen different artists. It gives a lot of scope for possible motives sir. Disagreements over pay, arguments with clients or venues, jealous business rivals…there are a lot of leads to go through.”

Fair Breeze just nodded in his seat, “Those are the leads you’ve been investigating today yes?”

“Yes sir, although as I said there isn’t much to go on. Most of them thought it was likely down to an unpaid bill or some sort of debt. Apparently Gleaming Moon was a bit of a gambler and liked to uh…sleep around…which has gotten him in trouble before.”

“We will just have to continue investigating then, when we get our next set of interview reports I want you to go through them, note any important details and then report back to me. Right now there’s nothing else we can do so I’m going to see if I can catch a little sleep, royal messenger woke me up at a very un-Celestial like hour this morning…she hadn’t even raised the sun!”

“Yes sir, of course sir!”

Fair Breeze slowly slipped from his seat and headed for the door. Behind him Lilac was busy putting the opened report away in its folder. The earth pony found himself pondering the current situation as he headed towards the barracks; something just didn’t feel right and it was the way the deceased had died. To be killed was one thing, but to be brutally beaten and stabbed…this wasn’t something that was done on a whim or in a rush. It had been planned and carried out with intent. The wounds couldn’t all have been caused at the same time, which meant whoever did it had had time to stop themselves if it had been a mistake…but they had carried on with the deed right until its bloody conclusion. In his opinion it was more than just a bad debt or a jealous husband involved in this situation.

As he crossed the small courtyard outside the barracks he couldn’t help but sigh to himself. There wasn’t much he could do as of yet regardless. Until they had all the potential evidence sources interviewed they didn’t have much to go by. A hoof didn’t leave much of a unique identifier and if there had been a trail to follow it had been scrubbed out by the perpetrator as they left the scene. It almost seemed like the perfect crime in a way.

Entering the barracks he casually saluted the guard pony on duty and then headed to the upper floor where the senior ranked accommodation was. Unlike the normal soldiers he was lucky to have his own private bunk with a small ensuite and right then he was glad of the isolation. He hoped that a good rest would settle his mind but he doubted that anything would do that at the moment.

Back in his office Lilac was just finishing her filing job. Ever since she had reported for duty that morning she had been feeling very much on edge. A killer in Canterlot, it was unheard of! Some might think she was worrying too much but she hadn’t even left the barracks since she had heard the news. That said she was glad her commanding officer Fair Breeze had been assigned the case, if any pony could get to the bottom of this it was him and she was determined to do her best to help him.

Looking back at the shelf of files she couldn’t help but sigh. What were they missing? Surely there must have been a reason or had Fair Breeze been right in suggesting there was no motive. No motive for killing? Lilac couldn’t think of anything worse, even the most callous official of the Canterlot elite would think twice before doing something like that.

“You look a little stressed Lilac, care to join me in the mess for a bite to eat?”

The voice made her jump and spin, her hair standing on end for a moment before she finally relaxed. In the doorway stood another Pegasus like herself and of a similar age to her as well. He was leaning against the doorframe with a grin on his face.

“By Celestia Blaze! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” replied Lilac with a heavy breath.

“Sorry,” replied the Pegasus, “You just looked so engrossed in whatever it was you were doing. How else am I going to alert you without making you jump?”

“How else indeed?”

Lilac rolled her eyes, Emerald Blaze was always like this. Always cracking fun and telling jokes, sometimes he really got under her skin but at the same time he really was a true friend.

“Well if you don’t want to join me…”

“No! No that’s alright…I’d love to,” interrupted Lilac as she headed towards the door.

Lilac wandered over to Blaze, the two Pegasus leaving the office and heading down the corridor towards the mess hall.

“What’s got you so jumpy? I know you always tend to jump at things but it looked like you’d seen Nightmare Moon by the way you flipped?” asked Blaze after a moment.

“Just this new assignment…”

“Oh, yes I heard you’d got that one. Enough to make anypony a bit skittish.”

“Skittish…more like paranoid. I just can’t seem to get my head around it.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t try to, personally the more I think about it the more it puts my head in a spin.”

“But you aren’t responsible for the case!” Lilac stopped a slapped a hoof to her forehead, “But perhaps you’re right. I’ve been so wrapped up in this thing all day maybe I just need to take my mind off it for a while…a few rounds of cider should do the trick.”

“Don’t go too heavy on that stuff, you remember what happened last time.”

“I slept for three days and nothing could wake me up, I remember, wasn’t the most glorious moment of my career.”

Blaze just chuckled to himself as the pair entered the mess hall.