Chapter One: The Curious device
The only sounds to be heard in the candlelit study were the soft shimmer of unicorn magic, punctuated by the rapid clicking of an old mechanical typewriter. Flecks of dust illuminated by the candles floated in and out of view as the mare typed away, completely immersed in the tale she was spinning.This is not to say that she didn’t notice the dark shadow paint the wall behind the stairs, as a shadowy figure quietly entered the room.
She looked up from her work, just in time to see the figure lower its hood, revealing a dark colored stallion with surprisingly bright blue eyes. He seemed unsure, lost even, and both ponies looked intently to the other, him looking for guidance, and her looking for intention, before he finally broke the silence. “Are you her? The Crystal Shadow?” He looked down as he spoke, still unsure of the situation. “I was told this is where I would find you.”
Her horn lit up, pressing a key on the typewriter. The sound of the carriage return made the stallion jump. She leaned forwards revealing an alabaster coat and a deep purple mane, still half obscured by shadow. “There are some that know me by that name, yes.” The stallion’s sigh of relief brought a gentle smile to her face.
“If you really are her... I need your help”
“Many do, but I am a busy mare with a shop to maintain and a growing list of clients, unless you have something particularly interesting, i’m afraid there may be a substantial delay.”
He looked down to the floor again, before raising his eyes to meet hers. “I need you to solve the murder of a good friend of mine.” He moved towards her and reached into his cloak, removing a strange looking metallic object and placing it on her desk. “This is all I have, the only lead. I’ve not found anypony who knows what it is, or what it could mean, not even the best detectives in town.”
She leaned further forward, revealing more of her expertly styled mane. Her horn lit up again, the object floating into the air as she carefully examined its intricate runes and almost alien design. It was primarily constructed from a dark metallic substance, forming two rails meeting at the back, with a round depression leading into the gap between them. Two leather straps underneath the device wrap around in a way that would suggest mounting it to a foreleg, but the runes running down the length of the rails reveal nothing of its possible function. She raised an eyebrow, this had her attention.
“Do you know what it is?”
“No. I can’t say I do.” The stallions face fell. “But I know of somepony who might.”
“Really? Do you think they can help figure all this out?”
“It’ll be a start. Where did you find this?”
“It had been dropped in an alley behind our apartment, just meters away from his body”
“And how was he…”
“When I found him, it was already too late, whatever they did to him, it put a hole right through his head, there was nothing I could do.” He lowered his head again, then looked to the ceiling, tears forming in his eyes. He let out a sigh, shuddering slightly. “Can you help me?”
“I don’t know, but I’m most certainly going to try.”
He nodded, and slipped a piece of parchment onto the desk, on it was a name and an address.
She looked back up to meet his brilliant blue eyes. “I look forward to working with you, Lloyd”
“Thank you... Shadow.”
“Please darling, call me Rarity”
He gave her one last look then descended the staircase, allowing her to catch a glimpse of his cutie mark, two meshed gears, before again leaving the study in silence. She turned to face the typewriter. It was an old mechanical model, from well before the magic powered machines of today. She found it much more satisfying to use, the solid sounding clicks of the keys helped to soothe her nerves, and though she had tried the more modern versions they couldn’t compare.
Sitting in the paper-table was her latest work detailing her most recent case, a rich couple living in a gorgeous mansion upstate had a valuable set of jewelry stolen, no clues, no leads. Others had called it unsolvable, but that had never stopped her before. Unfortunately for her they were right. Whoever had taken the stones had pulled off the perfect heist, and up until now, it had remained unsolved. She levitated the unfinished manuscript and placed it in a neat pile to the side, and wound a fresh piece of parchment onto the platen, locking it in place. She had never abandoned a case before, and it felt wrong to do so, but something about this case was different, this Lloyd character had piqued her interest and the mysterious metal contraption sitting on her desk gave her a feeling she was about to discover something dark and unknown. Her decision made, she started typing.
Once again, the shimmer of magic, and the clicking of keys filled the study, this time joined by the soft patter of rain on her window, each droplet reflecting the amber candlelight, until the candlelight was no more. Hours passed as night turned into day, and finally the clicking of keys was replaced by the rhythmic breathing of a sleeping unicorn.
She woke with a start, her mind still racing with thoughts of the previous night. Shaking her head to clear her mind, she gazed over at the pools of candle wax that had taken the place of her light sources and sighed. She had to stop doing that. Shaky hooves carried her to the bathroom, stretching her aching legs as she went. It was well after opening time, and her customers would be getting restless, so she hurried through her morning routine and prepared a particularly potent batch of herbal tea before heading downstairs to greet the growing line of ponies at the front door. Try as she might, she couldn't stop thinking about that curious device.
Author's Note
Hey, so long time no see, right?
Its been quite some time since I uploaded something on here, and as much as I was thinking about a continuation for "Twilight Levels Up", I decided I wanted to try something different. This first chapter is more of an experiment than anything else, I had an AU swimming around in my mind and finally got around to writing a quick little pilot chapter of sorts.
This is basically here to gauge interest and help me decide if I want to continue it or not. I most likely will regardless as I very much enjoyed writing it, but if I can have people enjoying it with me, that's just an added bonus!
Note that in later chapters, the majority of the story will be presented as exactly what Rarity is writing, I plan on going full noir with this, meaning lots of first person inner monologues, as I've always wanted to give that a try.
