The clip clop of his hooves signaled his arrival. Although they saw him coming, it didn't make the guards less tense, and they raised their spears, pointing them at the newcomer. The stallion let out a small sigh of annoyance, not making any moves.

An official looking unicorn mare suddenly appeared in the doorway, a frown on her face. Her coat was a lime green color, and her yellow mane was straight and boring, although the fedora she wore made up for it. Her cutie mark was a simple spy glass, marking her as a detective.

''One of the guard's informed me of your arrival. This is a crime scene, and nopony is allowed near here without permission from me. State your business.'' The mare said with an aura of authority.

The stallion sighed again, before pulling back his hood, revealing his face. His mane was a brown color, with a hint of bronze in it. The stallion's eyes were a deep brown, while the fur on his face was a dark blue.

The guard's recognized him immediately, and quickly lowered their spears. The mare looked around, a confused look on her face. What were they doing? Was this pony a high ranking Royal guard? No, that couldn't be, he would've shown up along with them, and not wearing an old cloak.

''Just who do you think you are!?''

The stallion removed the rest of the cloak, casting it aside, where it landed on one of the bushes that leaned against the house. The Mare let out a tiny gasp. He wasn't a guard, nor was he a detective. The stallion wore no armor, and his cutie mark wasn't a detective one.

His cutie mark was a longsword, and strapped to his back was a larger version of his cutie mark. He wasn't a guard, he was a warrior.

''I'm Swift Blade'' He introduced himself, ''And I'm here on Princess Celestia's order's to help investigate.''

The mare's jaw dropped, but she quickly realized her mistake and recomposed herself. ''oh really? Lets see a document with the Princess's signature on it.'' She gave a little smirk, thinking she had won. To her surprise and annoyance, the swordstallion pulled an official looking scroll from his saddle bags, and hoofed it to her.

Her eye's moved across the paper, and when she saw Celestia's handwriting at the bottom of the page, she let out a little sigh. ''alright, Mr. Blade, follow me and we'll get you acquainted with the crime scene.''

Swift Blade's eyes moved across the gory scene before him, and around the rest of the room, picking out the same details the Princess had mentioned when she briefed him on the case. All the details Twilight had spotted. He tapped a hoof to his chin, trying to think. ''What exactly could have done this...?'' He muttered to himself.

''Well Mr. Blade...have you found anything we might have missed? Or are you at the same spot as us?'' An annoyed voice said from behind him.

Swift turned his head to look at the detective staring at him. She frowned at him, pushing her fedora up with a hoof. Her assistant, a earth pony mare with a blue mane and pink coat, stood next to her, scribbling notes down on a clipboard.

''Not yet, but I do have one conclusion, whatever did this, wasn't a pony, nor was it a beast of the forest.'' Swift said, with a matter of fact tone.

The detective rolled her eyes, ''Well no kidding, we've already figured that out.''

Her assistant continued scribbling down notes, either on the crime scene, or the conversation going on.

Swift let his eyes narrow, before turning back to the subjects mangled corpse. Something caught his eye, and he moved in for a closer look, hearing the detective move behind him for a closer look.

His eyes narrowed, this was very strange. Two of the wounds made in the subjects body looked strangely like puncture marks. Large ones. they were almost perfectly round. They almost looked like they could have been made by...an icepick perhaps. No. the holes were to large for an icepick.

Swift leaned in even closer, trying not to wince at the smell filling his muzzle, and looked closer at one of the holes made into the corpse's stomach. There was something caught in one of the holes.

The swordstallion turned back to the detective staring over him, and smiled pleasantly. ''Do you have a pen or something I could borrow for a sec?''

She looked slightly taken back by the strange question, but swiftly plucked the pen in her assistants hoof with her magic and levitated it in front of Swift. He took it and turned back to the corpse, and carefully lined the pen up with the small object. He speared it and lifted it up, allowing a better look at it.

The object was a nut. Swift let it fall from the pen into his hoof, examining it. blood from the corpse still covered the piece of metal, and it appeared to have been burned. ''What the hell...'' Swift said under his breath.

''A nut? What in the holy name of Celestia was that doing there?''

''I don't know...'' Swift replied, trying to think. ''But I have a crazy idea of where, and why this was here.'' He turned around, facing the mare staring at him. ''We're going to need to get this nut to a lab, check and see where its been, meanwhile I want you Miss...?''

The mare gave him a small smile, holding out a hoof. ''Private Eye Spy Glass, but you can call me Spy.'' She gestured at her assistant, ''And this is my assistant, Scribble.''

Scribble gave a little wave, watching as the swordstallion and detective shook hooves, before returning to furiously scribbling down notes on her clipboard.

''Well, like I was saying, Spy. You two are coming with me. We're going to check out Pinkie Pie's Pizza.''

Twilight didn't like this. She had arrived at the castle, only to find Spike gone, and a note saying he was helping The Cutie Mark Crusaders with something. Which meant she was alone with nopony to help her with her investigation.

It had took quite a bit of convincing, but in the end, she managed to make Rainbow Dash keep her word, that she wouldn't tell anypony about what they had seen. She knew Dash would keep her word, but something still nagged her.

She levitated the object in front of her, and stared at it, as if trying to determine its worth. It was a bolt, blackened slightly, as if it had been burned. She had found it lying in a pool of blood from the crime scene and took it with her.

Twilight knew it was probably an important clue, even though it might be one less clue for the Royal guard to find, it was a risk she had to take.

The Alicorn Princess's scientific mind could only process a few reasons for a bolt to be lying there. It could have been from the lantern that had been dropped on the floor. Only problem with that theory, Twilight hadn't seen any bolts missing from the lantern. Another theory, was that it had simply been there, and wasn't evidence at all, but then, why did it seem like it had been burnt?

Even though she had no answers at the moment, Twilight knew how she could find them. She stood up from her desk, levitating the bolt next to her, she quickly cast a second spell, causing the piece of metal to vanish. She had sent it into the pocket dimension, a small hole in reality that unicorns used for storage.

The young Princess cast a teleportation spell, instantly transporting her into the hallway of her palace. She began making her way down the hall, passing the numerous doors of the palace, if she didn't live there, she might have gotten lost more then a few times in this large maze of a palace. she let herself chuckle at the thought, before snapping herself out of it. She had a job to do.

Twilight stopped in front of one of the many large doors, and pushed it open with her magic, stepping inside, and closing it behind her. Her lab. A familiar place that brought comfort to her, she had spent many hours in here, testing and creating things that might someday do great things.

She pulled the bolt from the pocket dimension, and gently placed it on the stage of a microscope with her magic. Twilight twisted the knob on the side of the microscope, lowering it closer to the bolt, before peeking into the ocular lens.

Though she couldn't be sure, whatever had scorched the metal had been magical in nature. This meant that, somehow, even if not directly, a unicorn was involved in this. To the average eye, the scorch marks would have just looked like scorch marks, but to Twilight, who had been studying magic for years, it was as clear as transparent glass.

The Alicorn withdrew from the eye piece and lifted the bolt up to her face. This discovery had just wiped out two thirds of the pony population, and completely wiped out any chance of another species being behind this. She quickly levitated a clipboard over to her along with a quill and ink bottle, dipped the quill into the ink, and began writing down notes. Twilight let herself grin, knowing she had just discovered something big, when something wiped it off her face completely.

Something had just laughed. It wasn't just an ordinary laugh either, it sounded vaguely pony, but had some sort of tone to it Twilight couldn't figure out. Dropping the bolt and clipboard on the table, she whirled around, searching for the source of the almost menacing chuckle. Nopony in sight.

The sound echoed in her ears again, louder this time, and she spun around again. Her ears flattened, this was creeping her out, and she wanted whatever it was, to stop, and leave her alone.

Almost as if it had heard her thoughts, the voices laughter vanished.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, and began to turn back to her work, when something stopped her again. A noise at the window. She lit up her horn, biting her lip, and squeezing her eyes shut. She quickly spun to face whatever monster was at her window.

''Whoa! Twi! It's just me!''

The familiar voice caused Twilight to crack an eye open, and then sigh with relief, letting the spell in her horn die, and opened both eyes. ''Oh, Rainbow, its just you.''

The cyan Pegasus cracked a grin.

''Don't do that, you almost made me jump out of my fur.'' Twilight scolded. ''wait...what are you doing here?''

The Pegasus flipped in the air, ''Pinkie's having a big ''Get Together'' party and I came to get you, you want in?''

Twilight stared back at her work, then at Dash. ''You know what? Sure, lets go.'' the Alicorn Princess gave her friend a small smile, and hopped onto the window frame, before spreading her wings, and jumping into the air. She hovered next to Dash, flapping her wings to keep her aloft. ''Lead the way.''

Dash shook her head, ''We cant just leave the others behind.''

Twilight looked confused at the statement, so Dash pointed a hoof down. Twilight followed it, spotting four familiar shapes on the ground below. ''Oh, hey girls!'' She called down.

Her friends waved up to her. She let herself grin, and looked up at Dash, ''come on!'' The cyan Pegasus said cheerfully, before rocketing down to the ground, Twilight close behind.

''Howdy Twi'' Apple Jack grinned at her friend.

Pinkie bounced in place, a wide smile on her face, ''YAY! Now we can have my super duper amazing great party!''

Fluttershy gave a nervous smile at Twilight, with a quiet, ''Hello...''

''Hey girls, how are things going?'' Twilight asked, trying to stay cheerful.

''oh we are quite fine dear'' Rarity smiled warmly, but it melted into a look of concern. ''But what about you darling, you look like you've seen a ghost.''

''oh, um...'' Twilight started, but was cut off by Rainbow Dash.

''yeah, I gave her a scare when I popped up at her window, heh, it was kinda funny.''

''Oh yeah how did the mission go Twilight? Was it fun!'' Pinkie said with another bounce, this one slightly higher then the others.

''oh, it was um...'' Twilight struggled to think of something, but her mind went blank. Could she really lie to her friends about this? Her inner struggle was interrupted by Apple Jack.

''Its okay sugar cube, you can tell us, we wont think it's boring''

Twilight glance at Dash for support, who quickly spoke for her. ''oh, you guys wont want to hear about it, it was mostly talking about, um...science stuff and things we wouldn't understand. Egghead things and junk.''

Even though she felt slightly insulted, Twilight made a note to thank Dash later, and nodded in agreement.

''Oh, alright, well, lets get to my party! its going to be the funnest thing ever!'' Pinkie exclaimed.

The others nodded in agreement, and began to follow the pink party pony, who was bouncing in excitement towards the park. Twilight trotted near the back of the group, next to Fluttershy, who she knew wouldn't be to talkative. However, she was surprised when Fluttershy asked her:

''what really happened Twilight? I'm sure Apple Jack noticed it too, but your acting strange...''

Twilight smiled nervously at the cream colored mare, trying to look reassuring, ''Really Fluttershy, nothing happened, don't worry about it...''

The shy Pegasus gave a concerned look, but nodded, and went back to staying silent. Twilight looked over at Apple Jack, who gave her a quick: your gonna have to tell us sooner or later, glance, and went back to walking.

Twilight shook her head, her purple mane flying past her face, before settling again. ''Relax Twilight, just enjoy yourself and have a good time hanging out with your best friends. Focus on figuring out who murdered Tech nology later.'' She thought to herself.

Pinkie let out a little cheer, as the park came into sight, and snapped Twilight out of her thoughts again. She briefly heard Rainbow Dash mention something about, ''leaving in a few hours, rainstorm to help out with.''

Well, that didn't sound like good news. The Alicorn sighed, thinking about how the rain was going to soak her to the bone when she headed home, before joining the others as the party began.

Something told it to wait. It could see the town through the trees, but some unseen force was telling it to wait, watch, and observe.

The being's three companions stood next to it, their eyes burning like its eyes did. Soon they would all move in, find their target, and tear it to pieces. soon their revenge would be at hand, but for now they would remain hidden in the forest.

Even though it had no idea how it knew, it knew tonight would be the time.

Far away, somewhere in Canterlot, a dark figure laughed.

Author's Note

Soon...soon they will have their revenge...

Now things get interesting, What will happen when these beings strike? What will Twilight do?

Next chapter coming soon, keep enjoying The Joy Of Creation - Reborn