Sherlock: The Magical Murders

The ever-changing colors that flashed around the barriers blindingly glowed as the pain filled up each of the three ponies like a fire inside of them. It seemed to twist and burn their insides, a complex and well-made torture. They all let out a blood-curdling cry as it coursed through them, growing greater every second.

Sherlock was starting to think that they were about to be done for, when suddenly the pain focused deep inside his head. More accurately, right on his brain. His cries grew louder as he felt a burning deep down inside his skull. But then, in his tortured trance, his subconscious and intellect started to fight against the mysterious force, almost like a battle of wits. It tried to push the force out, more mentally than physically.

Then, it stopped. It simply stopped. The glowing colors stopped flashing against the three's magical barriers, and the pain simply went away, leaving the victims feeling slightly drowsy and achy.

John slowly tried to open his eyes. He and the others felt weak from the inside-out, and simply opening his eyes took a lot of work. When they opened widely enough to gaze at his partner and Twilight, he saw that their manes were sticking straight up, as if they stuck their hooves in an electric socket. If the experience they had just been through wasn't painful and maybe life-threatening, he would've chuckled. Then, putting a hoof to his sandy-blonde mane, he felt that his was the same.

Once Sherlock opened his eyes, he immediately tried racing out of bed, but only ended up tripping over his own hooves and falling face first on the floor. He used all of his might to get up on his half-numb hooves, straining from the effort.

"Gah! John! Get the magic detector!"

John groaned, but did as the detective said, and got the small device from his coat pocket. Fumbling, he hooved it over to Sherlock. The consultive detective was now standing tall on the floor and focused on turning the device on. Suddenly, many beeps and buzzes were heard from it as numbers flashed upon its screen.

"It says there's a strong magical trail heading from here to an open field near here! Let's move!"

Before John could answer, his partner pulled him out of the sheets on the bed and started to gallop away. He watched him go in astonishment. "How does he recover like that so easily?" Glancing over at Twilight and seeing she was safely unconscious, John started to slowly gallop after Sherlock.

He made it out of the tree library and onto the moonlit streets. It was still late at night, and nopony was up. John tried to catch up to Sherlock, who was very far ahead of him, but his numb hooves wouldn't let him. Then, he noticed his wings weren't as numb as his legs and started to fly after the gray detective.

The houses and cobblestone streets turned to trees and dirt roads as they galloped and flew over to Whitetail Wood, which was purely dominated by lots of trees and wildlife. The green leaves moved silently in the night breeze, as bushes and ferns laid peacefully on the forest floor. John was only a foot behind Sherlock now, having caught up during the journey. The two stopped at an open patch of the forest, where there were less trees and a bare piece of ground that only had grass on it. The consultive detective glanced at the magic detector with a scowl.

"It just stops here. Our little 'attacker' must've done his attack from here."

The gray pony immediatly started to check out the scene, the moon's light glinting off the ebony curls of his mane. As Sherlock examined the space of woodland area, John closed his eyes and yawned.

"God, am I tired." He blindly walked around before his hoof stepped on something pointy. "Ow!" He opened his eyes to see a small piece of paper. He picked it up and looked it over. "Hey, Sherlock? Look at this."

His partner glanced over at the piece of paper before diverting his gaze back to the grass of the woods. "Litter."

"No. Buisness card."

He turned his head back to John with an expression of surprisment, and then walked over to him. After yanking the card from his grasp, he read the name on it, which was laid between the shadows of two pony heads.

Flim Flam Brothers

Mechanical and Magical Needs!

The address was conveniently under the name of the business. The two detectives looked it over before John spoke up.

"So, do you think it's a clue?"

"It might be, and it might not. But it's the only one we have so far."

The orange pegasus silently poked his head through the front door of the tree library and looked around, only seeing the darkened room. "okay," he whispered, "it looks like she might still be asleep. let's get moving."

Sherlock and John silently crept through the door and tip-hooved to the stair-case, trying not to wake anypony. Suddenly, the lamps magically flickered on and flooded the room with light, showing a groggy-looking Twilight Sparkle at the top of the stairs, and she wasn't looking too happy. The two braced themselves for any harsh words she was going to say.

The purple unicorn only sighed and shook her head.

"Thank you."

Sherlock put a confused expression on his face and rubbed his ear with a hoof.

"John, I seem to be not hearing well. I think I just heard Twilight Sparkle thank us for something."

"No!" Twilight sighed sadly. "I mean, thank you. I haven't been treating you two very well lately. It might be because you truly get on my nerves, or I'm just a bit nervous that a killer's on the loose, but you guys are trying to protect me and I should be grateful for that." She walked down the stairs and worriedly held out a hoof. "I'm sorry. Can you accept my apology?"

Sherlock stared at the hoof in confusion, while John took it and shook it. "Apology accepted, Ms. Sparkle. We know you didn't mean any harm."

Sherlock decided to do the same as John. "Yes, we knew."

Twilight gave a smile and yawned. "Well, there's still some time to get some sleep. Spike is still hiding in the closet after what happened. I'm going to get him out, and then send a letter to the Princess. You two should get in bed."

"Oh, Twilight, in the letter, could you include that the Princess should make the barriers a bit stronger for us? If she can."

She nodded at the detective and started to walk over to the broom closet. John and Sherlock walked up the stairs and started to get to sleep again.

Once the gray detective got into bed, he turned his head to John. "That apology thing that Twilight did, that's sympathy, right? Or another emotion?"

"Probably another." John decided to comtemplate how Sherlock couldn't understand feelings later, when he was well rested. "Do you think we should investigate that card after the race tomorrow?"

"We should. I think you'll do good, John, seeing how you flew today."

The orange pegasus finally realized he had flown that day. "Oh yeah, I did. I guess it just came naturally to me."

He realized his partner was staring at him with something that looked like...... worry? But when he noticed he saw that, the consultive detective turned away.

"Well, let's be getting to sleep. Good night, John."

"..... Good night, Sherlock."

But as his partner eased into sleep, Sherlock stayed up, his thoughts processing at a million miles a minute, trying to figure out what this case was all about. He also thought about how they had dimension-jumped, how far away from home they were, how  different this all was. He could only wonder how the next day would turn out.