Note-Worthy

“You sure this is the place?” Benedict turned to Cortland, his brow raised.

“One thirty four Amber Avenue,” Cortland fished out his notepad and flipped through a few pages before tilting his hat back and squinting at the numbers nailed above the door of the yellow, crystalline structure he and his partner were standing in front of. “That’s what it said in the file.”

Cortland made his way up the stairs and rapped gently on the door. Seconds later it opened, a blue unicorn mare with a white mane stood loosely in the doorway.

“Can I help you?”

“Good evenin’ ma’am,” Cortland started. “My name is detective Cortland; and this is my partner, Benedict.”

Benedict tipped his hat to her from the sidewalk.

Cortland cleared his throat and continued. “We were just wondering if we could have a word with Miss Honeydew?”

“Honeydew?” The mare blinked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“There’s nopony here by that name.”

Cortland plucked a photo from underneath his hat and showed it to her. “She don’t live here?”

The mare took the photo from Cortland and studied it for a long moment before handing it back to him.

“No,” the mare shook her head. “The only ponies that live here are me, my husband and our son.”

“And you’re sure you’ve never seen her before? While you were out walking or at the store maybe?”

Cortland still had the photo held out between them and she took another long moment to study the face before shaking her head again.

“Can’t say that I have, sorry.”

“Not a problem,” Cortland huffed as he stashed the photo back underneath his hat and slipped it on. “You have a good day then, ma’am” he said, turning and starting down the stairs.

“You too. Sorry that I couldn’t be of more help.”

“That’s quite alright,” he waved back to her. “You enjoy the rest of this wonderful day.”

“I will,” she smiled at him before shutting the door.

Cortland shuffled down the steps and filed in with Benedict who’d been watching the exchange whilst he feasted on what had once been a decently sized bear claw. Rumbling something low in his throat, Cortland fished a cigarette out of the carton he kept tied to his hat and took a long pull, letting the smoke seep out his nostrils with a long sigh.

“Ain’t it a mite suspicious that she would give a fake address?” Benedict gurgled through the pastry in his mouth. “Assuming she’s even who she says she is at this point.”

“Well, that coupled with the fact that she seems to have mysteriously vanished leads me to believe we just found our first suspect.” Cortland sucked the rest of his cigarette down to the butt in one long pull then threw it to the sidewalk and ground it out with his hoof. “Which would be a helluva lot more significant if we knew where in the hay she was.”

“Ain’t that why you brought me along?” Benedict smirked as he deposited the wrapper from his dessert in the trash bin he’d been leaning on and started off down the sidewalk.

Cortland looked up from trying to light another cigarette. “Where you goin’?”

“The kitchen,” Benedict responded over his shoulder.

“Wait, what?” Cortland sputtered, the cigarette pursed between his maw falling to the concrete. “Hold on, Ben, slow down!” he yelled as he chased his colleague down the sidewalk back toward the castle.

“Alright,” Sunburst said as he levitated a tiny, purple sphere into the corner of the room where the wall met the ceiling. “That should do it.”

Cadence came to stand beside Sunburst, raising a brow at the sphere stuck in the corner above the door. “I’m still confused. What are these things again?”

“Think of them like mirrors in a sense,” Sunburst explained as he led Cadence over to a much larger purple sphere situated nearly in the center of the room. “With this big thing here being the conduit that feeds into all of the smaller spheres.”

“You said they’d allow us to see inside of a room without actually being there?”

“Precisely,” Sunburst said. “All you have to do is give it a little spark and-” with a flick of his horn, the sphere was wreathed in magic and after a brief delay a bird’s eye view of the very room they were occupying was reflected on its surface. “-viola.”

“Sunburst, this is amazing.”

“It’s okay I guess,” Sunburst tittered. “I just wish I had time to tinker with them some more.”

“How do you see the other rooms?” Cadence watched as the sphere was once again wreathed in Sunburst’s magic before the scene reflected in its surface slowly changed to that of the adjoining bathroom.

“May I?” She asked, a twinkle in her eye..

“By all means,” Sunburst said, stepping aside.

Just as Sunburst had done, Cadence coated the sphere in her magic and the image in the sphere changed to that of the hallway outside their bedroom.

“How many of these did you put in?” Cadence asked as she continued to flip through the different viewpoints.

“Well, there’s one in here, one in the hallway, one in the kitchen, one in the throne room and one in the guest room. So...five in total..”

“Speaking of. How’s the moving coming?”

Sunburst gave a tiny, stifled laugh. “Actually, right when I got here Shining said he sent the some guards to get the last of my things, so it shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“I hope it isn’t going to be too jarring for you having to suddenly pack up and move like this.”

“Oh, no I’ll be fine,” Sunburst waved. “I do practically spend most of my time here as it is.”

The door opened just then and Shining Armor poked his head through.

“There you are,” he smiled at Sunburst as he made his way into the room. “They just finished moving the rest of your stuff into the guest room.”

“Oh,” Sunburst blinked. “Speak of the devil.”

“Did you put the spheres up?”

“Yup,” Sunburst nodded, gesturing to the sphere he placed in the corner of the room. “All five.”

“And the conduit?”

Sunburst gestured to the larger sphere near the center of the room. “Set and calibrated to just you, me and Cadence.”

“Excellent,” Shining sighed in relief. “I can’t thank you enough, Sunburst.”

“It’s nothing,” Sunburst smiled, averting his eyes. “Just glad I could help.”

The shrill cries of a foal rang out in the bedroom just then and Cadence flounced over to the crib and lifted the wailing Flurry Heart out of her crib.

“Oh, what’s wrong my little angel?” Cadence cooed as she lifted Flurry Heart out of her crib and began to rock her.

“You think maybe she’s hungry?” Shining queried as he made his way over.

“Maybe. You fed her before you put her to sleep, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. Half the bottle-”

Well,” Sunburst interjected lightly. “I’m gonna go unpack the rest of my things.”

“Oh,” Shining said, turning to him. “Do you need any help or…”

“No, I got it,” Sunburst replied, pulling open the door with his magic.

“Just come see us if you need anything,” Cadence said while she continued to rock a much more content Flurry Heart.

“Will do,” Sunburst said as he walked out, shut the door behind him and started down the hall. He reached the guest room in just under a minute and as he pulled open the door and stepped inside, he was nearly rendered speechless

There, strewn all about the room, were stacks and stacks of plain brown boxes. Sunburst walked over to one that was almost touching the ceiling, grabbed the box at the very top and pried it open.

A hefty layer of books filled the box to bursting. Sunburst set it down and went to retrieve another box from the other side of the room — this one filled to the seams with books just as the first had been.

With a heavy sigh and a long look around the room, Sunburst lit his horn. Slowly, he picked up the box at his hooves and maneuvered it toward the bed but stopped short when he caught a glint of something lying on the bedspread.

Setting the box down, Sunburst trotted over to the bed, a cold pit forming in his stomach as he stared down at the object perched delicately atop the bed sheets.

“Not again…”