Sherlock: The Magical Murders

Even though it was mid-morning where Sherlock and John came from, it was still night time for the ponies of Equestria. Princess Celestia and Twilight agreed to let the two examine the body of Speech Speaker while they rest. The body was placed in the castle hospital, and Sherlock and John stood over the operating table where it lay under their examining eyes.

John looked it over and even took a few X-Rays. "Well, from what I can see, he died because of a force affecting his insides. Like if something was almost strangling and choking him on the inside."

"Yes, that's how the Princess said the murders worked. Try not to be so repetitive, John!" Sherlock had his head in his hooves thinking.

John sighed and looked up, his face painted in disbelief. "Look Sherlock, maybe we shouldn't do this case."

He looked up. "Why not?"

"Well, one, we're in a land full of talking ponies!"

"So what? Parrots talk, and you don't freak out about that."

"Well, we were transported, unknowingly, to a weird freaky world where colorful horses are smart enough to talk and build and cook and fly and, well," John used his hooves to exaggerate his little speech, his voice tainted with anger, "doesn't that bother you at all?!"

"Well, a bit." Sherlock looked over the body, his investigating eyes examining every detail. "I forgot to throw out the trash."

"The-! Ugh! Second, this murderer is killing ponies with magic! How are we supposed to investigate magic?!"

Sherlock held out a weird device that looked round and had a small screen and buttons on it. "We have the magic detector, remember?"

John face-hooved. "Well, third, doesn't it bother you in the slightest that we're ponies ourselves?! I mean, look at me!" He stretched out his wings.

Sherlock clapped his hooves in applause with a fake smile. "Great for you John! Very, very good!" Then, he dropped the smile and put down his hooves. "John, unless you want to go back to a boring, old, Saturday, with no murders, no cases, and peace, I suggest we stay here. At least something interesting is happening here."

John frowned and sighed. "I swear I will never get you, Sherlock, but alright. Let's get on with this." Suddenly, he couldn't get a nagging feeling out of his head that the gray detective might've looked a bit..... anxious? Nervous? He took the thought out of his head. "Right, other than what I previously found, I have got nothing."

Just as Sherlock was about to open his mouth, the door burst open. The Princess stood in the doorway, showing fatigue in her face and slightly-ruffled, still-majestic mane. "Another murder has taken place!"

In the sitting room, a file of all the recorded murders lay on the table. The Princess pulled the newest made one out. "Dazzling Show, the magician, dead. She was a performer for foals, and found murdered tonight."

John looked at the file. "And same results? Magic residue of many forces but can only be one? No pony near the scene of the crime?"

She nodded. "Yes. And we have no idea how it happened. Sherlock, your opinions?"

Sherlock's intelligent eyes were examining the other files. "Well, at least we know how the murders were connected."

Celestia looked at him, surprised. "You know how they were connected? Tell us, please."

Sherlock looked at the Princess. "You didn't know? It's quite obvious."

"Sherlock, please, just tell us."

"Alright John! Don't be so impatient. This is how they're connected," Sherlock put a gray hoof on all the files. "They're all magically talented."

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. "Not all of them are unicorns,-"

"No, no not that! They were all very experienced in magic, and not just because they were unicorns."

The Princess looked closer at the files. "Mr. Holmes, could you please explain?"

He flashed a disapproving look. "Wow, and you'd think the Princess would be smart enough to figure out the obvious." Ignoring the annoyed glance from Celestia, he continued. "Look, Dazzling Show, the magician, known for entertaining foals with her impressive magical abilities. Speech Speaker, the orator, said himself he had great ideas for Equestria with more help from the unicorns. Green Greatness, the gardener, doing studies on how plants could grow better."

"Um, what does that have to with magic?", John asked, a bit confused.

"One of the notes found in her drawers at home was how magic could speed plant growth!" Sherlock leapt off the sofa. "And there are plenty more examples where that came from." A smile formed on the corners of his mouth, and a glimmer appeared in his eyes.

John smiled. "Oh, he has the look."

Sherlock feigned confusion with a smirk. "What look?"

"The 'I know so much more than you look', which means you have even more information on how to solve this case."

"Yes I do!" His grin grew. "Now, Princess, answer me a hunch I have. When a unicorn dies, what happens to its magic?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, it naturally goes away into the world around us, absorbing itself into the air, until its nothing more but-"

"Yeah, yeah, save the speech, Queenie." Sherlock said, holding up a hoof. "Well, when I checked the body with the magic scanner, it had magic residue from the attacker, but...?"

John resumed his sentence, getting at what he was saying. "...But no magic inside the unicorn itself!"

"So apparently, the attacker means to gain their magic. Take it all before it 'absorbs itself into the air'." He added a joking tone as he quoted the Princess's words.

Celestia's look of anger at Sherlock quickly turned into a look of awe. "Why, we've never thought of that!"

Sherlock flashed a smile in John's direction. "See John? Looks like the ponies aren't as super-intelligent as they seem."

The Princess growled under her breath, looking like she was going to yell. "Mr. Holmes," she said as calmly as possible, "does anypony ever tell you that you show off, and a lot of the time?"

He gave a smug smile in response. "They never really stop."

"Uh, Sherlock? I think I might've found a flaw in your discovery." John raises a hoof, like a kid in a classroom. "If the murderer wanted to kill ponies to absorb magic, why are the victims not all unicorns?"

The gray stallion took out several photos from the files, all x-rays of the victim's heads. "Alright. John, you're a doctor. Spot the difference."

The orange pegasus looked over the papers. "I don't see- wait." He furrowed his brow. "These pictures of the brains look peculiar. Different from any I've seen."

"Well, you've only seen human brains until now, Mr. Watson," Celestia said. "They probably just look different because of that."

Sherlock facehooved. "Ugh, it's like talking to five-year-olds! The cerebral matter looks different because it's been probed. Not just the magic was taken out of the bodies, but all information on it."

John raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Did we just.... solve the case in the first hour we were on it?"

Celestia and Sherlock shook their heads and spoke in unison. "No."

The annoyed Princess glared at the consultive detective. "Oh, so you know how this can affect my kingdom? Okay, Mr. Consultive Detective Holmes, you explain!"

"Why thank you Princess!," Sherlock said with a smile. "I was going to ask, but now I don't have to." He dropped the smile. "We  have the reason how the crime happened, but we still need the why. But more important is this. Many people have had the magic drained out of them, all knowledge on the subject removed from their heads. A little information is dangerous. So how dangerous would a lot be?"

The weight of the situation fell upon the ponies in the room like dumbbells. "So, if the murderer used the magic against us......?"

Sherlock grimly continued the sentence. "..he'd probably win."

Suddenly, the alabaster princess looked very worried. "Mr. Holmes, if this pony is looking for magic, then my student will probably be the next victim!"

"If her magic levels are as high as you said, then she would become a future victim. Bravo for figuring it out."

John was next to look very worried. "Wait Princess, earlier, didn't you say anypony who took the case was murdered too?"

Before she could answer, Sherlock interrupted. "Yes, she did, John. Weren't you paying attention?"

"Excuse me, but I was too busy trying to adjust to the fact that-"

"YOU HAVE WINGS! We get it Mr. Obvious!", Sherlock yelled out, obviously irritated.

"SILENCE!!!!!!"

The power of the Royal Canterlot voice made the two arguing ponies close their mouths and look up at the Princess, who was now a teense close to bursting into flames. Which was true, seeing how the edges of her majestic mane started to glow and spark. Then, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. "Now, I just want explanations from here on out. No showing off, no arguing, just talking and listening. SO TALK!"

Sherlock took an instinctive step back from the furious alicorn, and then proceeded to talk. "Considering how many people- er, ponies, have already been killed and magically drained, Twilight will be next or will be targeted very soon."

The Princess nodded. "Okay. I have a plan. You two will temporarily move to Ponyville, Twilight's home, and one of you will have to be around her at all times. To protect yourselves, my sister Luna and I will lend you some magic to form small magic barriers around you two to protect yourselves from strong magical forces. That way, you can investigate."

A frown appeared on Sherlock's face. "Princess, we aren't going to become anybody's bodyguard just because-"

Celestia closed her eyes and made her mane become pure flames. Her eyes glowed deep red and the Royal Canterlot voice boomed once more through out the room.

"YOU TWO WILL DO AS I SAY OR PERISH BY THE FIRES OF THE SUN!"

She quickly de-flamed herself and her eyes returned to normal. Sherlock and John's manes were whipped backward by the sound waves of her voice. After shaking his mane back to proper order, Sherlock turned to John and said, "Well John, we better get some rest if we want to get to Ponyville on time."