The morning was a dark grey as the pegasi prepared the sky for the rain scheduled to come, on the ground I saw several of the royal guards encircling an open grave searching for something in the perimeter. And while they were gathering what bits of evidence they could find within the short distance of the open grave, others were keeping the area secured to the best of their abilities with a gap of about five feet between one another. It was to their luck that no word had made its way to the local press as of yet, giving them the most breathing room they could ask for the time being.
As I walked up over the small mound I could see and hear two ponies talking among themselves, “Who spotted this open grave?” A guard asked as she made a cast of the hoof and hand print closest to the grave.
Next to her a camera flash shined and came to a quick end as another guard faintly groaned, “One of the weather team over head, no telling how long this grave had been dug up.” Looking around with his back turned towards me, the guard couldn’t help but take the surrounding area into account, “Given how this spot dips into the landscape this grave could have been disturbed anywhere from a day ago, to even the last rainstorm. Your thoughts?”
As the mare slowly stood back up she looked at the piles of dirt around the opening with a look of shame upon her face, “Maybe three days at… the… most,” She groaned as her attention slowly drifted towards the sounds of several guards snickering, and whispering among themselves as I walked passed them, “oh dear sweet Celestia.” Turning back around she tapped the arm of the stallion next to her, “Go get the Corporal.”
With a groan she glared at the at me as I walked towards her. The pony you now see in the torn and tattered hooded trench coat with the rather plain clothing is me, though my hood is covering my head for the expected rain I’m sure it's easy for you to tell I’m a unicorn. A dark emerald green colored unicorn if that wasn’t obvious from the color of my horn, and at one point in time I was the best damn detective in all of Equestria.
“You need to get out of here.” She growled as I drew closer towards her to better examine the grave.
“And you need to learn when you are not doing your job right.” I replied with a faint chuckle as I pointed at the drying goop, “Isn’t that your partner’s hoofprint you’ve made a cast of?”
With a blushing gasp she looked down only to groan as she came to notice my trick a moment too late. By the time she looked back up towards me, she soon found I was already gone from that spot. Having jumped into the grave I landed with a thud as my hooves hit rotting wood.
“We’ve already done our work down there!” She snapped only to feel her body lock up as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Soon enough I heard a voice I had not heard in nearly ten years, “Take your brake while the cast mold dries.” The Corporal commanded as she looked down into the open grave, “Any relation between you and the victim?” That damned voice, soft yet commanding, simple yet somehow overbearing and how it irritated me to no end that I found her voice grading.
She and I both served alongside each other back in the day, but authority used to get to her head back then. I disobeyed an order from her to save a life, the victim was stabbed when the ransom didn’t make it but because of my actions the wound was non-fatal. Sure she’s changed a lot since then, but I have one single rule I’ve always kept to since I was orphaned as a young foal.
Never make the same mistake twice and never trust that anyone has completely changed, “This grave is over a thousand years, you tell me.” The I mockingly replied as I looked at the wooden bones that now filled the coffin.
I hear her sigh as she often does when her regrets come flooding back, “This didn’t make the papers yet, so I doubt you’ve been hired by any living relatives.” All she got from me was a sarcastic tone as I inspected what was left in the coffin, “You’re not with us, which means you have no right to be here. So how did you know we were here, and why are you even bothering to show up to a crime scene you have no right to be at?”
“You have guards posted at spots where they look like gophers popping up out of the ground. All I had to do was walk by and see that. If you didn’t want to draw attention you should have used fewer guards, and had them acting like they were paying their respects to those here. I’m sure they wouldn’t have mind doing that.” Tossing up one of the bones I smiled at the Corporal, “So I walked up ready to see where all of you fucked up in your search, and show all of you how it’s done.” Twirling one of the carvings between my fingers I looked up at the sky before pulling back my hood, “You know I’m right, I’ve had to come wipe your asses a few times after I quit the guard ranks before.”
“It was different then,” She sighed as she got down on one knee, “you left us without any warning and nopony to properly replace you. The detectives we did have were spread too thin across Equestria and you knew that.” Looking around the Corporal groaned as she crossed her arms over her abdomen, “How did you even get past the guards I have posted?”
“You’d be surprised how far you can get when you carry around an old note with Celestia’s name on it. And you’ve got green horns so fresh out of the academy, I can tell them Celestia has a dick and they’d believe it.” I laughed as I reached back into the coffin, “So these bones are wood, and the armor of this guard has been torn to shreds. Anything else that isn’t out here that I can beat you to?”
“Only the fact that you continue to anger me with your foalish antics.” Waving her hand around she pointed at the guards searching the area, “We’ve already examined the grave, now I have everypony progressively moving out in a radius surrounding this spot to find clues. We are currently fifteen feet out and all we have are the hoof and hand prints, and some residual magic from what we can assume to be levitation and teleportation spells.”
“Did anypony bother to look under the coffin?” I asked only to hear her scof as the Corporal asked me why, “For the same reason I jumped down here,” I groaned while reaching deeper into the coffin till my shoulder met the base, “there’s a hole here that the criminal dug. The deceased wasn’t their target, but they took them anyway to make it look like a grave robbery and possible desecration of the corpse.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, why would they?” The Corporal groaned as she climbed into the grave to inspect the newly discovered hole.
“Better question is what was down in there that they had to dig up this old bastard?” Before the Corporal could berate me for that statement I carefully pulled out a small piece of wood, “I’m willing to bet something that Celestia may know something about. He was at one point in time her most decorated and trusted guard, so the criminal risked quite a bit to come digging in the Garden of the Honored for something a rough one foot wide by one foot long.”
Looking at the piece of wood I compared it to the wooden carvings in the grave, “Are you sure it’s not just a hole they dug to throw off our trail?” She asked me as I stood up.
“Do you have a unicorn here who can tell different types of wood, because the one I just pulled out of the hole is red.” Without saying a word to me she called over a private to inspect the pieces of wood.
She was young enough to be my little sister and without knowing me she glared in disgust, “You called for me Ma’am?”
“You studied wood craft at the academy, what can you tell us about the piece in his hand?”
Putting on a glove she held out her hand and began to inspect it, “It's been here a little longer than the grave from the looks of it, so I’d say he was buried on top of whatever it was.” I had guessed that much but what drew my attention back towards that hole is what she said next, “From the looks of it, this is a piece of wood that can’t be found anywhere near here. Its native only to Sadale Arabia.” She went on to explain it was a strange tree that while naturally growing, it had the characteristics of two other native trees in the area.
The name of it was strange and I could never get the pronunciation right, “So what is a piece of coo-sap-ing doing here in Equestria?” I asked myself only to hear the young mare giggle in a condescending tone.
“It’s a Sycxaul tree not whatever you were trying to say. And while it's very strange, it's half as common in the region that it's mostly used to decorate gardens.” As she looked it over I climbed out of the grave and began walking, “I haven’t ever heard of it being used for crafting anything.”
“Where are you going?” The Corporal called out to me as I walked away pondering what else had been removed from the grave.
“To look for answers to the questions we’ve just come across, and see where the clues lead us.” I called back as I reached back to pull my hood back on, “Clearly there aren’t any to be found around here, and from the looks of things you’re all going in circles.” Stopping for a moment I point at the ground a few feet to my left, “Also our criminal teleported away from the area around here, better collect the evidence before the rain washes the burns away.”
“Talk about the once great detective, they teleported away only a few feet from the grave.” The young mare shouted at me with a mocking laugh, “There’s even drag marks from when they removed the body.”
It didn’t take long before I heard the Corporal curse me as she called a few ponies to collect the burns I pointed out, “I hate it when you’re right!” Now I had more questions than I knew where to look, the criminal was smart to teleport away from the scene.
But it didn’t make sense to me that they did it so close to the grave, best guess I had at that moment was a mistake on their part, but the second burns on the ground gave me a possible theory. One that young mare had made without realizing it, one of these marks was to throw us off their trail if we used a tracking spell to find where they went. However, it was still a possibility they didn’t teleport far to a spot they knew was clear, and walked away from there meaning it could be a cold trail to follow.
While they focused on the grave robber I turned my focus towards the real focus of the crime, the hidden item under the grave. Was it buried there by that guard or was he unknowingly buried on it, was it possible that Celestia buried something there and had him guard it in death? As I walked my mind shifted to only one pony in all of Canterlot who could even remotely point me in a direction.
I walked for several hours before I came to her store, a small strange little shop that made many say she loved Nightmare Night a little too much. I groaned as I clenched my fist looking at her strange little shack, the outside of the building stood on stands carved to look like chicken legs. The building itself always appears spinning to the naked eye, but the off putting thing about her shop was the fence with pony skulls decorating the top.
As I neared her shop I let out a sighing groan as I rolled my eyes, “Nightmare Night is a way of life.” I muttered under my breath bringing the illusion to an end followed by the front door flying open.
“Welcome to the only shop in Canterlot dedicated to Nightmare Night and all things of the macabre.” Two elderly mares cackled as they greeted me.
“Cut the crap I’ve come to see Baba Yaga, so open the door to the bar she’s hiding in.” I snapped unwilling to deal with their front of the store bullshit.
They simply cackled and laughed louder as they slapped the counter, “You’re talking to her.” They spoke in sync with one another only drawing more at my patience to tolerate their crap.
Pulling my hand out of my pocket I cast a spell to fabricate a gun and fired a single shot in the air, “I was tired of this crap the first time I kicked in your door, I know the two of you are her sisters. Open the fucking door now!” I demanded as I pointed the gun at them, “Or would you both prefer being taken in to the royal guard, for restricting the progression of an ongoing investigation?” The two of them simply smiled and laughed as they walked towards the back of the shop.
“You must have a death wish to go this far to see our dear sister.” One of them claimed as she reached behind a set of masks hanging off the wall.
“No dear sister, death won’t come for him that soon.” The other laughed as she reached for the wall behind some costumes, “You know our sister would be dreadfully bored if she lost her favorite plaything.” As they pushed on the wall the small section began to wave and slowly cleared up, at best it was a spell they cast and only they could remove ensuring those shopping won’t stumble upon it.
As the wall faded from sight I gazed upon a dark winding staircase leading down, the faint sounds of chatter and glasses clinking was all I could hear from down below. Walking down the stairs I knew this bar was a hide out for the worst criminals from all across Equestria, everyone of them down here was granted a safe haven by Baba herself provided they served her in some way. How I hated walking down the steps a second time, each one reminding me of how close I came to locking Baba up all those years ago.
