Sherlock: The Magical Murders

"Sherlock!" The calm streets were empty and quiet as John trotted after the consultive detective who had just stormed out of the party. "Sherlock!" Once he had caught up to him, and had caught his breath, the orange pegasus glared at him with anger. "What was all that about?!"

"John, you know that you're my friend, I simply meant in general-"

"No, I don't mean that! I mean how you answered Twilight's suggestion! It wasn't bad enough for you to have to do a spit-take!" After saying that, he shook some more punch out of his mane for emphasis.

"Wasn't that bad? Wasn't that bad?!" Sherlock stopped walking and turned to face John with an expression of slight anger. "John, she asked if I wanted to find out more about 'the magic of friendship'. The magic of friendship! Doesn't that just.... disgust you?" he asked, grimacing.

"Disgust me? No! Well, it weirds me out a bit, but still, you could've just said no. Politely." The pegasus put a hoof on his friend's shoulder and smiled. "Plus, it might've not been a bad idea. Sure, the whole thing's a bit girly, but it could teach you how to respect other people's feelings. Wouldn't that be nice?"

The gray detective simply stared at John in surprise. "Did you just hear what you just said? And to whom you said it to?"

"... oh, you're right." He put his hoof back on the ground. "It's impossible for you to understand any emotion, I forgot about that."

Sherlock looked at John, and John looked back at him. A second later, they burst into quiet laughter.

After he stopped giggling, Sherlock sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have have acted like that."

"No, it's alright. I should've known not to expect kindness from Sherlock Holmes: the crime-solving automaton." This made the duo burst into giggles once more.

"What are you two laughing about?!"

The harsh voice made the two stop and look at the angry purple unicorn who was heading towards them. Twilight looked like she was going to pummel somepony into dust, and her eyes burned with pure annoyance. "I can't believe that you did that! Not only did you storm out of there after acting like that," she pointed a hoof at Sherlock, "but you," she pointed at John, "left me there after the Princess told you in words succinct that one of you has to be around me at all times. What do you have to say for yourselves?!"

Sherlock simply grinned with a childish gleam in his eyes. "How about....... Race you back to the library!" He sped off, galloping as fast as he could towards the huge tree-library. Only a split-second behind, John joined him.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Twilight stood there blinking in surprise for a moment before running after them. She looked super-charged now as her hooves pounded on the cobblestone streets. "When I get my hooves on you..!"

The orange pegasus laughed while he galloped alongside his partner. "Do you think she wants to kill us?"

"Definitely! Just keep running!"

The two ran and laughed in childish glee as they got nearer and nearer to the library.

Twilight decided that Sherlock and John would share the extra bed she had up in the library's upper floor. It sat across from her own bed and was reserved for guests.

Sherlock enjoyed the library's many books, and had started to read a few. When he did this, he put them into two piles; The 'Boring' pile, and the 'Interesting' pile. The former grew much faster then the latter. Soon, he was up-to-date on information that ponies knew and were expected to know, so he would not be caught off guard in conversations with ponies.

Now, it was later in the night, and Sherlock lay on the bed, staring at the moon, which was high in the sky. He had taken a shower and his coat and scarf had been put lazily on a drawer for the next day. His face showed utter concentration as he let his brain wander into deep thought. He was contemplating his situation here, trying to figure out how magical fonts worked, and how pegasus's wings could lift the said pegasus in flight.

As he was in his thinking state, Spike the dragon was watching from the lower floor. When John passed by, his head in a towel because he had returned from the shower, the baby dragon asked him, "Um, how long is he gonna be doing that?"

"Probably a while. His brain can work so hard you're surprised you can't hear the gears in his head turning." The pegasus chuckled a bit, as this was proven true many times.

This also earned a laugh from Spike. "Man, that's just like Twilight! When you get her into some experiment or report, you can't get her out! She goes into 'crazy scientist mode'."

John raised an eyebrow. "Hey, that's probably nothing compared to Sherlock's experiments! He once-, wait, do you have fridges here?"

Spike, being told that they came from another dimension, nodded.

"Well, once he kept a severed head in the fridge!"

The purple dragon's eyes widened in surprise. "Woah! He didn't!"

"Yeah, he did!" John laughed. "And he scared the heck out of our landlady by keeping a bag of thumbs in there!"

"Gross!" The dragon and the pony erupted into laughter.

"Will you please be quiet?!"

Again, the angry complaining came from Twilight, who was getting a plate of daisy sandwiches from the kitchen. "We're going to eat right now, so stop talking about severed body parts!"

She magically carried the plate to Spike, who put it on the table and passed a sandwich to John. "Hey Twi, what's wrong? You're being even more bossy and annoyed then usual."

"There's a time when she's less bossy then that?"

All three heads turned up to see Sherlock looking down at them. Twilight frowned. "Ha ha, very funny. Stop acting so irritating or I won't let you have dinner."

"I'm not hungry, and you're not my mother."

"Well, you're not my son!"

The detective scoffed. "Wow, great comeback, Ms. Sparkle."

John cleared his throat before any madness could ensue. "Well, I believe we should be getting to bed now. I have a race to attend tomorrow."

As he walked up to the bed, Sherlock looked at him. "A race?"

"Rainbow Dash asked me to race her tomorrow after lunch. I'm going to meet her at her house." John put the towel on a drying rack and laid down on the opposite side of the bed.

Sherlock moved from his position on the bed to give the orange pegasus room. "Well, if Ms. Grumpy-pony lets me, I'll watch you race."

"Wow, you mean you'll be there to cheer me on?"

"No, I'll be there so I can see you fail miserably."

"Ha ha, very funny."

Spike had gone up to his bed, which looked like a cat basket, and curled up. "Good night. you guys!"

"Good night," both of them said in unison.

Twilight had also gotten in her bed and turned off all the lights. "See you in the morning, you two."

Sherlock closed his eyes and prepared to let sleep overtake him, when suddenly, a tremendous glow surrounded him and John. They both sat up and saw that the round barriers that Celestia had given them were glowing and flashing every known color they had ever seen. They also saw that Twilight's barrier had done the same. Then, the glowing intensified and each pony felt tremendous pain burning up inside of them, searing the insides of their bodies.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"