Equestria Noire: The Beginning

Spike had written and now sent the letter to Shining Armor. It took a couple of minutes, but he wrote back saying he was on his way. From what Spike read to us, it sounded like he was happy to hear about this. Must take what he does extremely serious. Like he actually does have regard for the well being of his guards. I guess I can respect that.

Rainbow Dash then came up over to me and said "Well, since we're going to be working together, I guess we'll have to introduce ourselves. My name is--".

I interrupted her as I said "Rainbow Dash. I know who all of you are."

They did look a little surprised at that. I then pointed at each of them and said their names.

"Your Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and the dragon is Spike." I said to them. Spike then smiled all giddy-like as he appeared happy to know that somepony knew who he was and how famous he is.

"How the hay do y'all know our names?" Applejack asked.

"I've read about all of you in the papers when I was living in Michneighgan. Plus, I think everypony in all of Equestria knows who all of you are. And if they don't, they're probably living under a rock, or are just not all that bright." I said to them.

Then Rainbow Dash, who I figured had a big ego, then spoke with complete confidence. "Well yeah, everypony knows the Greatest Flyer in all of Equestria. Not to mention all the times we saved Equestria from complete Doom."

I had a deadpan stare on my face as she stroked her ego in front of me. Not that having an ego is wrong. Everypony has somewhat of an ego. I know I have one. So if I said anything, then I would, frankly, come across as a hypocrite.

"So since you know us, have you seen any of my awesome performances in the Wonderbolts?" She asked me with a confident smile on her face.

I answered "No. I'm not a fan of the Wonderbolts."

She looked shocked. Like she did not see the twist coming at the end of the movie.

"YOUR NOT A FAN OF THE WONDERBOLTS? WHY?" She asked me with a loud tone to her voice.

"I just never got into them as a kid. I never had time too." I answered her. Wait, why did I say that last part?

"What do you mean you never had time too?" Dash asked me looking confused.

Should I tell her about my past? FUCK NO! I don't feel comfortable doing that. That, and if I did, they'd feel sorry for me and try to be my friend. Can't trust it. Not after what happened to me. So I guess I'll tell a little white lie.

"Let's just say I had a rough childhood. I was constantly working with my family. So I had to grow up a lot quicker than most foals do." Yeah that'll work.

"Did y'all work on a farm?" Applejack asked me.

Why did they have to know details?

"Something like that." I answered to her, looking as straight faced as possible.

She then looked at me as if I was lying. Like she could tell a liar when she sees one. Granted, I know I'm lying, but I'm lying for selfish reasons that are nopony's business but mine.

Thankfully, Fluttershy spoke before Applejack did.

"I'm so sorry to hear you never got a chance to be a kid. Everypony should at least some fun in their life." She spoke in her quiet and calm voice. She sounded very genuine.

"Well it happens to some ponies. I was just one of them." I said to her.

"Are you and your family still close?" She asked me looking curious.

It was at this point I literally had to hold in my rage. still close? STILL FUCKING CLOSE? NO I'M NOT CLOSE WITH THOSE FUCKERS. AFTER WHAT THEY DID TO ME? She could----*groan* never understand what my real "family" has done to me. I wanted to tell her off, but we're all on the same page here. If I yelled, everypony would be on my ass again. So I spoke in the best way possible. So I took a breath, and calmed myself down.

"No. We aren't close. In fact, we don't talk at all. And, frankly, I'm glad we don't." I answered her. She looked a little shocks to hear what I just said.

Then Applejack spoke again. "How can y'all say that bout your family? Family is important. I'd be nothing without my family." She said looking all defensive at me. Did I really have to tell her? No. She'd probably just yell at me again.

"I don't really want to talk about. I hope you can respect that." I told her. She was about to speak, probably about to tell me to tell her about it, when all of a sudden the doors came bursting open. It was Shining Armor. He had with him a couple scrolls, which, if I had to guess, were the royal guards' positions around the castle and everything else.

"Big Brother." Twilight squeed with excitement. She ran over and hugged her brother. I would say this was sweet, but, due to personal reasons that I don't want to get into right now, I just rolled my eyes. Thankfully, nopony saw me do that.

"Good to see you too Twily. Now where is this Night Mist guy?" He asked her, while also looking around.

I came up to him and extended my hoof to him. "I'm Detective Night Mist. You must be Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guards. Correct?" I asked him.

"Yep. That's me." He said as he and I shook hooves.

"Now, before we talk about the documents, I need to ask you, Mister Armor, about the three royal guards that went missing." I said to him with a straight expression. I did need to gather as many facts as I possibly could to find these guys.

Shining Armor nodded his head and said "Go right ahead."

I pulled out my notepad and pen. I've always carried around a notepad with me when I'm on a case. It's very hoovedy to have when you want to remember clues when your about to catch the suspect.

"So what are their names?" I asked him preparing to write it all down.

"Platinum Shine, Bronze Shield, and Steel Bar. They're all about 23 or 24 years old. They've been royal guards for about 3 1/2, 4 years." He answered me as I wrote down all the info he gave me.

"Can you give me a physical description of all them?" I asked.

"Sure. Platinum is about 6'5, muscular, a light blue coat with a dark grey mane. Bronze is actually taller than all three of them. He's 6'11,kinda skinny, but still in pretty good shape. He's got a bronze coat with a dark brown mane. And Steel, he's the shortest one of the group. He's about 6'2. He's actually in the best shape out of all of them. I think he works a lot harder than most of them because he's a lot shorter than all of my guards. He's got a silver coat with a dark blue mane." He explained to me in great detail. Most ponies would say they don't need all the details, but when your a detective, you need every detail you can get.

"Can you tell me anything about their personalities? Like, are they good to get along with? We're they good at their job? Things like that." I asked him. This could be a pretty good lead on them.

"Well, I can't say much about Bronze or Platinum personally, because I'm not all that close to them, but my wife Cadence actually knows Bronze's marefriend. Those two go to the spa every week. Their actually pretty good friends." He said to me.

"What's her name?" I asked him.

"Meadow Blossom. All I know is that she and Bronze live in Ponyville. At Ponyville Pines Apartment. She's in Room #54." He answered me as I was a bit surprised at that. A loved one of one of the victims lived in the same apartment as me. I think he noticed my surprised look, cause he looked at me and asked

"Hey buddy, are you okay?" He said looking concerned for me. Twilight and the others did as well. This I could actually be honest with them about.

"Yes. I'm fine. It's just I also live in that apartment complex. You've actually given me another lead. Thank you for that Mister Armor." I said to him.

"No problem. And just call me Shining." He said with a smile on his face.

I went back to asking him a few more questions.

"So your not personally close with Platinum, but do you know anypony that is?" I asked him.

"The only one who I think could be is his partner Silver Star. They work together. And, from what Silver has told me, they actually are very good friends. He's on shift right now in Canterlot. If you want, I can tell him to come here and answer some questions for you." He offered me. His offer seemed genuine. Like everything he was saying, he meant it. I think maybe I can trust this guy. Or at least I hope I can.

"No, that won't be necessary. But thank you for the offer. Now, the last guard I wanna talk about is Steel Bar. How close are you to him?" I asked him.

"Actually, it's kinda funny. I'm the one who personally asked Princess Celestia to hire him. This guy busts his ass because he really wants to be a royal guard more than anything. I was impressed by how hard he works. So, I figured, why not give the guy a chance to show us what he's got. So I went to her, asked her to hire him, and she said yes." He said to me with a smile on his face.

"Sounds like the two of you are very good friends." I told him.

"Oh yeah, we are. Hell, I was actually the only pony he came out to before he disappeared." He told me.

"So, he's gay?" I asked him.

"Yeah, and his boyfriend Picture Frame is pretty worried about him. I actually have his address as well. They live together, in the Crystal Empire in a pretty small house. 1319 South Leland Street is the address." He told me.

I wrote down every thing that Shining Armor had told me about the three royal guards. So, I've got Meadow Blossom, the marefriends of Bronze Shield, Silver Star, the partner of Platinum Shine, and Picture Frame, the boyfriend of Steel Bar. Those were pretty good leads. Also, I still had the documents to look over as well.

"Thank you, Shining Armor for that information. You've been a big help." I told him.

"No problem Mister Night Mist. Anything to bring them home safe." He said with a smile on his face.

I put my note pad and pen away. Now, it was time for the documents.

"So, now that I have some info on the guards, do you have the documents I asked for?" I asked him.

He looked a little hesitant before he showed me the papers.

"Yeah, now before we go over this, I just want to know one thing."

"What is that?"

"Will any of my other guards be hurt in the process if I give you this information?" He asked with a tone of seriousness in his voice.

I had a feeling he was going to ask this. I can tell, after three of his guards went missing, he didn't want any more getting hurt. I could tell he was a good stallion. Wait, why do I feel this way? ...... Maybe I'm just in a good mood.

"Shining Armor, I give you my word, I will do everything in my power to make sure nothing bad happens to your guards, like what happened to the others. I promise." I told him with a bit of boldness in my voice.

He smiled at me and then gave me the documents. I took a look at them. This looked like a lot of paperwork. I'm gonna need some time to look this over.

"This looks like I'll need to do some studying. I'll look this over back at my apartment. I'll report back to you all some time tomorrow." I told everypony in the room.

"Why not just study here? We have some rooms you could study in." Twilight offered.

"Thanks for the offer, but I prefer to study in private. With nopony else around. Plus, I just feel more comfortable in my own apartment. That, and I also have to ask Meadow Blossom some questions." I answered her. She looked a little puzzled at my answer.

"While I'm going over these documents, I have a job for you Shining Armor. And for you Twilight Sparkle." I said to them.

"What do you want us to do?" Shining asked me with a look of seriousness.

"Anything you want, we'll do it." Twilight said.

"Shining, I want you to go speak to Silver. Get as much information as you can from him about Platinum. Then report to me over at my apartment. It's number 32." I told him.

"Understood." Shining said with a salute. I don't know why he did that, but he did.

"So, then you want me to speak to Picture Frame?" Twilight asked me.

"Yes. Get as much info as you can out of him. Then, you also report back to me at my apartment." I told her.

"Yes sir." She said

Then, I looked over to the her 5 friends.

"As for you guys, I want you to keep on a look out for anything that you may find suspicious. Anything you find that seems suspicious, report to me." I told them.

They nodded in agreement.

"Like I said, I'll contact you all tomorrow. See you then." I said as I walked towards the front door. I then levitated the documents and put them in my bag. I knew I was going to stay up late tonight. Gonna have to drink a lot of coffee.

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*3rd Person Point of View* *Castle of Friendship after Night Mist left*

Twilight looked at the exit with a bit of confusion. Mist seemed to have a bit of trust issues.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to give him those documents Shining?" Twilight asked her brother.

"If it's any step closer to finding out what happened to those guys, I'm willing to take that chance." Shining said.

"Maybe so, but can we trust him? Cause he was such a rude obscene stallion when we first met." Rarity asked with a bit of drama to her voce.

"Even if he is, he's the right pony for the job. And if Princess Celestia says he's okay, then I'll be okay with it." Twilight answered.

"You know fellas, I don't know bout you, but I think he's hiding something." Applejack said.

"Oh come on Applejack." Twilight said to her with a bit of annoyance in her voice.

"I'm serious Twi. He looks like he's keeping something secret from us."

"Honestly, I'm kinda agreeing with Applejack on this one." Rainbow Dash said.

"Okay, what makes you say that?" Twilight asked.

"He looked kinda suspicious when he was talking about his past. Like, something happened to him that he doesn't want us knowing about." Applejack said.

"Yeah, he looked like he was avoiding talking about that." Rainbow Dash said.

"Well, maybe its something really personal. Maybe he's just a private pony." Fluttershy said.

"Fluttershy is right you two. If he doesn't want to talk about something, you can't force it out of him." Twilight said.

"Yeah, well I still wanna know about it." Rainbow Dash said.

"I do to. If he's gonna keep secrets from us, how can we trust him?" Applejack said.

"We don't have a choice. Sorry girls, but there's nothing we can do." Twilight said.

"Yeah, well I'm gonna keep my eye on this guy." Rainbow Dash said.

Shining Armor looked over at Rainbow Dash and said "Look, I'll admit I'm a little curious too, but if he's gonna help us, we need him to trust us. I need my guys to come home safe. And if I have to do everything he says, I'll do it to get them back. So, Rainbow Dash, can you please just deal with it for now?"

Rainbow Dash groaned in annoyance. "Fine. But I'm still curious and nothing can change that." She said.

Everypony looked annoyed at her comment. But they dealt with it.

"So, what should we do now?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Well, I'm gonna go over to Picture Frame's house right now. Shining, you go see Silver." Twilight told Shining.

"You got it. I'll see you guys later." Shining said as he ran out the door.

As Twilight approached the door, she was stopped by her friends.

"Anything you want us to do Twi?" Applejack asked.

"Why don't you girls go see if there's a friendship problem. And if there is, go do it, and while you are, ask around about the three guards." She told them.

"All right. We'll get right on it." Rainbow Dash said as she and her friends went over to the Cutie Map.

"Okay good. Come on Spike. We got work to do." She said to her little dragon assistant.

He nodded and ran up to Twilight and hopped on her back. They then left to go ask Picture Frame some questions. They just hoped that they would get some information that would help solve this case.