Shadows in the Darkness

Chapter Two: The New Detective/ The Birthday Party/ The Surprise

The weekend came and went almost like it was nothing, and yet it still was, but now that it was a new week there were much more troubling matters to attend to like finding a pony good enough to actually figure out what was happening here, Shining Armor and Cadence reviewed the list which included ponies from other cities too since they had told the other princesses and the main six what had happened to them, and all sent letter back in return. Celestia and Luna expressed deep concern about their well-being and suggested some advice for them to take, Twilight also expressed this concern, but unlike the other two princesses who knew their place and where they should be Twilight directly asked if she could come help rather than just simply stating that if the situation came to it that she would come to help (but she did include that as part of her royal duties and business). The rest of her friends also asked if they could come help too and expressed similar concerns, it was all generic, all except for one letter from Pinkie Pie which stated that she had an odd sense coming from their family, a bad vibe that was very small in the empire, an itchy twitch that she just couldn’t get rid of no matter how hard she tried to do so. They almost dismissed this as her crazy ramblings, but considering there was a spy in town, well, they didn’t this time. The day went a bit slowly as they tried to figure out which detective they wanted, they considered many options in and out of town and then sent out letters to the ones they wanted inviting them to come to the city.

A few days later and no return mail had come yet, the first letter back came almost three weeks later with one simple answer in it, no. The best detective of Canterlot declared that he wasn’t crazy enough to get himself killed or injured especially when changelings were involved, much less Chrysalis herself.

Similar letters appeared soon after with every single detective saying no and that it didn’t matter how much money they were paid, some were busy and still said no because of these reasons and many more too, nopony was crazy enough to take the case, and those that were, well, they weren’t good for the job sadly enough. But perhaps there was one, a pony that they never heard about before.

Thankfully there was, and he arrived in the most peculiar and unusual, strange, and odd fashion that anypony could’ve ever imagined before.

He arrived inside a box, inside a coffin, on top of a piano with a cake, inside a moving cart, delivered straight to the throne room, but that wasn’t how he actually arrived, that’s how his assistant arrived actually, he just simply walked through the front doors unnoticed as ponies panicked at the sight of the pony inside the box. He walked right up to a supporting column of the castle as his assistant was being cuffed up, “I wouldn’t advise putting away my assistant and friend, putting ponies in jail is the quickest way to make enemies after all.”

Everypony in the room turned to the sound of his voice with surprise and shock, “Oh, well hello there, didn’t notice me walk in here? Can’t say that I blame you, the security in any royal castle is terrible and complete and utter bullshit.”

A few ponies didn’t know how to react, but one guard rushed forward only to be on the ground unconscious as the strange new mysterious pony stood victorious over him, “Oh my, that’s no proper way to greet a guest of yours now, is it?”

Everypony stared in silent shock at him and Cadence got up from her throne chair, “Okay, what is going on here? Who are you and what do you want?”

“Well my dear princess, my name will be kept a secret please, but you may simply call me Charles Watson until the investigation is over and the spy has been successfully captured, or if it comes to worse until we are all dead and the case has failed and we’re all slaves to the changeling queen instead, but until I rule you out as a suspect I cannot and will not tell you my name, that would ruin my reputation as a good and expert pony of my field. I am a detective here to investigate this crime scene, for a price of course, but have no worry, I am the best at my field, and the only reason you haven’t heard of me yet is because I like to keep my work secret and I come to ponies usually when I like a case, not the other way around, after all, few cases are a challenge or interesting to me, and this one certainly is both of those things. But I do have a few conditions, one, answer all my questions honestly otherwise I’ll know when you’re lying, I have a sense for that sort of thing, two, please don’t question my methods or tactics and just let me do my job, three, I expect to be paid in full and don’t worry, I always have a fair and reasonable price for my work, but even if I didn’t I suspect that nopony else is as skilled or talented as me and crazy enough to actually take this job otherwise there would already be a pony on this particular case of peculiarity. Four, once you have been ruled out as a suspect then I will be more willing to share secret info with you, but not all of it, I would like to keep my plans a secret, you need to trust me and take a leap of faith. Five, if I request something I want it done as quickly as possible. Six, if I request privacy I want absolute privacy unless it’s a dire emergency. Seven, I don’t want any royal guards following me around until I can verify their identity. And finally, number eight, do not mess with me, do not touch me in any way unless I say you can, and do not disturb my sleep unless it’s a dire emergency, that’s about it.

Now then are my terms and conditions agreeable and acceptable to you princess or are they not?” the pony asked with a warm bright smile on his face now.

Cadence stared in silence at him for a few minutes still recovering from her shock, “I don’t know who you are, but what makes you think that you can just barge in here without being noticed, claim to be some detective I’ve never heard about before, make all these terms and conditions, and not expect some kind of consequence or questions at the very least?” she angrily asked him loudly.

“I did expect the questions, but to answer your question I am the best there is, and crazy too, if you doubt my identity simply write a letter to Celestia and Luna, they can and will verify my identity, but I suggest you let me do my work while you wait for their response and not waste valuable time by throwing me into some kind of dark cold boring old dungeon jail cell that is easily broken out of.”

Cadence at this point was left almost completely speechless, his logic, it was flawless, perfect, amazing, incredible, the way he talked was impressive enough, but his black suit and bow tie with a white collared shirt and nice combed back jet-black hair with his emerald green eyes and a black question mark with a magnifying glass overlapping it with the corner of a blank piece of paper and the end of a pen underneath the question mark as his cutie mark. His coat was a long dark syrup brown and the atmosphere around him screamed of well, just pure genius and brilliance. “Uh, yeah, sure thing Mr. Watson…”

“Please, call me Doctor Watson, I took a PhD in criminal psychology and law and I’m also a lawyer on the sidelines too, I take great pride in my work, but I like to keep my true name secret, but just in case you were wondering, yes, the name does come from literature, Watson from the Sherlock Hooves and Doctor Watson book series, and Charles from my father, that’s all you need to know about me.”

“Uh, yeah, okay, whatever you say, I agree to your terms and conditions, but please don’t try to cause any trouble and follow the rules here, okay?”

“As you wish princess, but I cannot make any promises just yet!”

Cadence sighed heavily, “Fine then, whatever, just make sure to clean up your messes please, and try not to get noticed by anypony you don’t need to, okay?”

“I’ll try my best, but once again I will still make no promises as of yet!”

Cadence sighed heavily again, and as they would all soon discover he would only answer them with the obvious, a question, or random crazy odd stuff, sometimes it was very strange and unusual too. The detective merely smiled as guards slowly backed away from him but stayed nearby to observe his behavior as Cadence went to write a letter to her aunts to verify the identity of this new stranger, whoever he was they would get to the bottom of what he wanted.

Flurry Heart was very curious about this new stranger too but wanted to stick around to see if she could learn anything from him, she couldn’t.

He was just doing his job and going around to ask questions. He collected facts and just did his job, nothing more or less, Flurry wanted more though.

“So, where are you from exactly? Flurry asked.

“Out of town, I’m not saying anything that the spy can use against me until we catch the spy, and no, I’m not ruling you out as a suspect just yet.”

“Are you going to answer any of my questions at all?” Flurry asked.

“That depends on your question,” he casually replied back with a smile.

“Are you going to keep making nonsensical random answers?”

“Perhaps, maybe you should start asking different questions though.”

“You are really insufferable; did you know that?” Flurry asked him.

“Ponies tell me that all the time, so yes, I do, any more questions?”

“No, not right now, but maybe later, nice to meet you.”

“You’re lying, but I don’t mind or care, off you go please.”

Flurry was taken back by his comment of lying but decided to ignore it instead.

I wonder what’s his deal… whatever, I have to report this to Chrysalis right now.

She slowly walked back to the castle and entered her room and locked it.

She went to the closet again and pulled out her secret amulet and opened it up, “What is it? What do you want this time?” Chrysalis asked within a minute of the signal just like last time and many times before then too.

“The detective, well, we have one now, but I know nothing about him, nopony does, he won’t even tell us his true name until the spy is caught, and he’s not riling anypony out of this, he’s really good and smart as his job, clever too I’d say, he also seems half crazy too, and there’s something else off about him too.”

“Interesting, I would normally say that he would be no challenge for us, but now I am not so certain, keep a close eye on him and try to remember what he says and how he acts, we must be diligent and wise and smart, good luck.”

Flurry nodded and smiled and she quickly put away her amulet back into the secret hiding place in her closet and she sighed as she plopped into her bed and started to remember a much better time, an easy and simple time for all things.

4 Years Ago,

Flurry had grown into a strong and respectable warrior and fighter, at least to Chrysalis, to her parents and Chrysalis what she did was never enough, but her parents were harsh on her while Chrysalis was supportive of her. But today was the day that she was finally ready to see the changeling army for them.

Chrysalis smiled as she slowly led Flurry up to the black rocky edge which was like a balcony and she gasped when she saw the sheer size of them, there were thousands of them, no, tens of thousands, there were so many of them.

“Isn’t this beautiful Flurry? All these warriors and fighters ready and willing to serve us? One day the time will come for us to use them.”

“I can’t wait for that day, but are you sure there isn’t anything else I need to learn or do?” Flurry asked with a warm smile of hope on her face now.

“All you need to do is train and practice what you already know, the rest will come with time and I assure you that there is nothing you can do unless you have help to do it, but don’t worry, soon enough I will have plenty of ideas and things you can do to appease me, but as it were just keep doing what I have told you to do, send me the weekly report about your parents and the town.”

“As you wish Chrysalis, I hope that I can make you proud,” she said.

“Flurry, you already have,” Chrysalis said with a warm smile hugging her tightly.

Present Day

A knock came at the door and she got up and opened it to see that Charles was here, “What do you want? Why are you here? Can’t you leave me alone?”

“No, I can’t, if I didn’t include you with my case I would be a terrible detective, and that would be contrary to my job you know, all I want from you though is to answer some questions, and don’t try to lie to me otherwise I will know it.”

She sighed and opened the door for him letting him slowly walk inside with a warm smile on his face, “Fine! But only for a few minutes! Don’t touch anything either! I haven’t given you permission to do anything like that!”

“I didn’t plan to, that will be left for the royal guards and police to decide, now then, please tell me whether or not you know Chrysalis, have ever met with her, engaged in a deal with her, or anything like that,” Charles said.

“I only know Chrysalis in name, nothing more, I’ve never met her before in my life and I would certainly never make any kind of deal with her either.”

Charles let out a heavy sigh, “Flurry, don’t try to lie to me, I have a special gift and talent that makes it impossible for a pony to lie to me, I may not have wings or a horn, but you can’t fool me, so please, stop trying to lie to me, okay Flurry?”

“I’m not lying to you and I don’t believe you have that kind of special gift or talent either, please, leave, go away, I don’t want to answer any more questions,”

“As you wish, but once again, you lied, I look forward to talking to you some more in the future for my case princess, see you later,” he said with yet another warm smile as he slowly walked out of the room and went outside leaving her completely alone again as she once again thought back to the past.

2 Years Ago,

Chrysalis had invited Flurry over to the hive for a surprise, she didn’t know what it was going to be obviously, but even if she had known she still would’ve gone over. She entered the dark, smelly, cold caves of the hive and managed to get to the center where the new throne room lay and then she could clearly see that Chrysalis was sitting there in a very revealing and sexy costume dress, where she got it or how Flurry didn’t even bother to ask, all she knew was that it made her blush, like a lot. “Well hello there, Flurry! Do you like my dress?”

“Uh, yes, I do, but may I ask why you’re wearing it?”

“I’m wearing it for the occasion of course! This is a special day for you and me and for all of us, this is the day that you will finally feel true love in your life! I know that you yearn for love, that your mind and body desire it, don’t try to deny it, I can give you everything you want and I’ll feel no guilt in doing so since I am your friend and nothing more, now then, do you want me to be a stallion or mare or both? I don’t mind what you ask, I’ll be anything for you.”

“I don’t understand, what are you talking about?” Flurry asked nervously.

“Simple, sex, but if you don’t want it then I understand,” Chrysalis said.

Flurry was completely shocked and unable to speak anything.

“Well then, if there are no objections or suggestions then I just guess I’ll have my fun with you in whatever way I want then,” Chrysalis said with a warm and devilish smile on her face now, she grinned as she tore off the dress and slowly started to approach Flurry as she stood there fearful and nervous. “You’re just a poor unfortunate soul, I left you completely speechless, didn’t I? Sorry, I’ll try to do better next time, but feel free to express yourself however you want to, I don’t mind, I’ll actually enjoy it, besides, nopony will ever be able to hear is either.”

Flurry stood there in silent shock as Chrysalis circled around her like a shark and touched her hooves to her flanks and warm soft body, it felt so cold and yet so warm and hot too, “Now then, please hold still while I make you feel like a royal queen,” she said with yet another devilish grin as she used her magic to roll Cadence onto her back and then Chrysalis slowly caressed her soft hooves on Flurry’s soft warm furry body getting a soft little moan out of her.

“I hope you like being my sex toy,” Chrysalis said with yet another grin as she slowly rubbed Flurry’s stomach, and then her legs, and then her vagina, and then her nipples which were near her vagina, each time she rubbed she got a soft little moan out of Flurry as her eyes started to roll back inside her head now.

Chrysalis continued to ravage her for many hours and over time Flurry enjoyed every single second and minute of the wonderful, incredible, amazing experience, it was almost too much to describe, there was so much going on right now.

Chrysalis used her hooves to press deep into Flurry’s vagina and licked up the white delicious juices streaming out of her (cum). Then she used her tongue to dig deep into her pussy licking the inside walls slowly and methodically, and then she used her magic to get more creative by first summoning vines to insert themselves into Flurry’s ass, pussy, and even mouth and they wiggled around inside her like snakes or worms, and once she got Flurry to cum again she went on to pound Flurry in a more stallion body, with a dick. This process of filling in her holes and bodily pleasure of sex went on for many hours, but it couldn’t last forever sadly enough, even though Flurry was starting to wish that it could.

After their little sex session Flurry slowly cleaned herself off and Chrysalis said that if she ever wanted more than all that she had to do was ask.

Present Day

Flurry needed a new distraction of some kind or the other rather than just sitting here and thinking about the past, she needed to do something, maybe she should snoop around for more information about Charles and sneak into his room, but she didn’t even know where he was staying yet, or anything about him really.

She would have to wait for information on him if any was to be found, and it could be days or weeks before Celestia and Luna got that back to her mother and father and asking him wasn’t going to do any good either. Besides, even if she wasn’t doing anything she was sure that the army of changelings would be doing something by now already, hopefully even maybe a better job of it too.

The only thing that she could really do right now was to remember the past.

Three Weeks Ago,

Today was Flurry’s eighteenth birthday, a day of great joy and celebration in the entire empire because now she was finally an adult, but she didn’t certainly feel like it yet, with the way her parents treated her and acted towards her, and their words and actions were so much different, there were so many lies in her life right now, and ones that she couldn’t even see yet. Ponies flocked from all over the nation and brought her many gifts of various sizes, monetary value, and other such things and stuff too (like color for one such example).

Friends and family came from all over, the main six, Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst and even Spike were there too, but she didn’t mind or care for them either.

“I can hardly believe that you’re eighteen now! I mean you were so small and cute and little, and now here you are, you’ve finally grown up and I couldn’t be any prouder of what you’ve become,” Twilight said with a warm bright smile tightly hugging her, but Flurry did not return that gesture or the smile either.

“Yeah! This is a pretty awesome and amazing and awesome occasion for you, I can remember my own eighteenth birthday, needless to say it was awesome! You have the rest of your life to be totally cool and radical and awesome!”

“Rainbow Dash! I thought you said you were going to try not to use that word anymore!” Applejack angrily declared with a snort stomping her hoof hard and deep into the ground as Rainbow Dash slowly fluttered down to the ground.

“Hey! It’s not my fault awesome is such a cool part of my vocabulary!”

“Yeah, fine, whatever you say, but please just minimize your use of it, okay?”

“I’m not making any promises Applejack,” Dash said with a warm casual smile which had an undertone of a subtle little tease behind that smirk.

“Yeah, well, whatever Rainbow, happy birthday Sugarcube,” Applejack said.

“Indeed, happy indeed, there are so many decorations here in this place! It’s so beautiful and extravagant, your parents really went all out on this!”

“Rarity, is there ever going to be a time that you’re not focused on fashion and beauty or is that too much to ask of you for even one simple little day?”

“Applejack, please don’t be so harsh on me! I just choose to see the good and positive in things, and it just so happens to be beauty and fashion.”

Applejack sighed and then randomly from nowhere confetti exploded everywhere and then popping out of Applejack’s hat Pinkie Pie appeared there with them.

“I AM SO EXCITED, ARE YOU SO EXCITED LIKE ME?” Pinkie Pie asked loudly.

“Pinkie, calm down please! And take it easy with the party cannon!”

“Sorry! I just can’t help myself sometimes, and sometimes my mouth rambles on faster than my thoughts or just as fast too, but I just want to see everypony sing and smile and laugh and have fun! But Flurry Heart over here isn’t smiling at all and she certainly doesn’t look like she’s having fun so I decided to come over here and surprise her with my party cannon to bring a smile to her face, but it seems that didn’t work out at all because she still isn’t smiling yet.”

“You know, you actually have a fair point Pinkie Pie, why aren’t you smiling?”

“I don’t need to tell you so please stop bothering me and don’t ask Rainbow.”

“But you should be happy! WHY AREN’T YOU HAPPY YET?”

Flurry was silent and scowled angrily at Pinkie Pie before Fluttershy stepped in to calm the two of them down, “Okay girls, please calm down and everypony take a step back and take a deep breath in, if Flurry doesn’t want to tell us she doesn’t have to and it’s not our place to say what she can or can’t do anymore since she’s an adult now, that’s up for her to decide, not for anypony else, got that?”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack almost looked ready to fight back against her, but quickly started to back down with a little bit of fear as Pinkie Pie nodded and smiled and bounced off far away as Twilight went up to Flurry Heart instead and quickly hugged her firmly and tightly, “Well, if you do feel up to telling us or anypony else know that you will always have friends and family here for you.”

“Thanks Twilight, and I thank you too Fluttershy,” Flurry said with the smallest of smiles on her face now as the hug quickly ended and she escaped Twilight’s embrace only to have a few final last words being spoken by Fluttershy.

“You're welcome Flurry Heart, but please also remember not to be afraid to tell us the truth, whatever it is can be fixed and dealt with far more easily than whatever the consequences of not telling us might be, don’t learn this lesson the hard way, please, oh, and one more thing, please try to have fun and enjoy the party, see you around later if you’re still here,” she said leaving her to be alone now. Flurry sighed finally relieved to be alone now, she could finally have a break. Or at least that’s what she thought until she saw Starlight Glimmer and Trixie walk up to her bearing gifts for her, “Well hello there, Flurry! Nice to see you again! I can’t believe how big you are now! Anyhow I won’t bother you too much, but we have gifts for you, happy birthday! Have fun and enjoy the party!”

“Thanks, but there’s a table for the gifts,” Flurry said.

“We know! We just wanted to give you these personally like Twilight and her friends, anyhow we’ll be off now unless you want us to stay?”

“Nope, not really, it’s okay, fine really, go off and have your fun.”

“Thanks!” Starlight said beaming brightly as she dragged Trixie off before she could start rambling off her crazy random and odd nonsense. Flurry sighed and sat all alone as the party went on for hours and she slightly enjoyed the activities, but not the company here, she wanted to be alone, not something like this.

Towards the end of the part was when things really started to get interesting, ponies lined up in a row for any last-minute gifts and Flurry sat on a very long table along with the main six, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Sunburst, Luna, and Celestia too, but one pony seemed to stand out from the crowd for some reason.

The reason was very clear and simple now, it was because the pony had worn a dark long thick hood over their entire body. The pony walked up straight near to Starlight Glimmer as she smiled and waved at them, “Hello there, is there something that you want or need or that I can help you with?”

“Yes, there is actually, you can die!” the pony said screaming furiously before pulling back the hood to reveal a rebel changeling, Starlight gasped with shock and surprise and before anypony could react the changeling dived towards Starlight with its fangs bared aimed directly at her neck, luckily enough however Starlight had a protection spell around her that blocked the attack, and Celestia and Luna along with everypony else at the table except Flurry Heart went to capture and secure the rogue changeling. “You may be able to stop one of us, but you cannot stop the army that is to come much less my queen’s wrath and fury, she will not only kill you, but completely destroy everything you love! You will see ponies near to your heart die or be corrupted by her words and power! My queen wishes your death, your misery and suffering Starlight Glimmer!”

Starlight looked like she was almost ready to cry, but anymore words were quickly cut off by a spell from the princesses, “We must take him to the dungeon to see if we can get anything at all out of him sister,” Luna quickly said.

“Agreed, but we must do so quickly and carefully, changelings like this tend to expire after a certain amount of time,” Celestia said before she saw that the changeling on the ground was struggling, but not against its chains or the spell, but it looked like it was in real pain, and there was foam on its mouth too.

But before they could even call for a doctor the changeling was dead. “It died of poison,” the doctor would later say when examining the body and they thought that the changeling somehow managed to knock out a fake tooth and ingest a poison deadly enough to quickly kill the changeling so that way no possible amount of information could be gained from it, after all, not every changeling was as strong as Chrysalis against mind invasion. “It is really too bad that we could not extract any information from this changeling sister,” Luna said.

“Indeed, I had hoped we would gain something, but I suppose Chrysalis is too paranoid and wary to let any information fall to the enemy, smart of her really.”

“Indeed, but I suppose that we will have to be wary now too and increase or change our security measures, Chrysalis is still very much a threat to us. But do you think she will come after us if she gets to Starlight?” Luna asked.

“Undoubtfully, maybe she has already gotten to one of us, just in a way that we cannot see yet, but no matter, that is for latter discussion for now all that we need to do is to clean up this mess, and we apologize for this happening today of all days Flurry Heart, Cadence, and Shining Armor, we are truly sorry for this.”

“You have nothing to apologize for, you weren’t the one that crashed in here with a death threat against Starlight Glimmer and ruined the party.”

“True enough indeed Cadence, but still we will do our best to be more cautious in the future, but after cleanup is done here we must leave, we cannot stay, after all, we still have duties back in our own royal city,” Celestia said.

“We understand, and we thank you for all your help today and now in the future too,” Cadence said with a warm smile on her face and a slight bow too.

With that said they all went about on their own ways as Flurry stayed behind casually cleaning up what little she could knowing that this event, well, it marked the start of the end of her goal and plan, her patience would finally pay off.

The cleaning went slowly, but when it was finally finished Flurry silently went back to the castle into her room and locked herself inside for the rest of the day.

Present Day

Flurry sighed and gave a small smile to these thoughts, but everything seemed so dull and boring and old and gray these days, and she still had no idea why that was. But whatever the case she was going to do something soon, she was sure of that, but until then she needed some sleep and so with a sigh she turned out all her lights and closed her eyes to let dreams and darkness overtake her.