Brave New World, Discord's Revenge

The Detective pulled out a small handgun and aimed it at Harpsichord's face. She lept back, avoiding the three bullets that shot out of the gun's barrel. She stood there, examining him. She smiled, wildly and shot a beam of pure crimson energy at him. The Detective ducked, allowing the shot to collapse a nearby house.

Before long, the guards had arrived.

The first, a tall white pegasus, launched himself at Harpsichord. But he didn't take her by surprise. She thrust her hoof at him, knocking him to the cold and unforgiving floor. The force snapped his neck and killed him instantly.

The second, a smaller unicorn, was attempting to attack her with bolts of magic. He aimed for her legs and one of the bolts actually hit it's target. The bolt knocked Harpsichord to the ground. She hissed in pain. She threw a small knife concealed in her coat, at the unicorn, striking him in the forehead. She turned around and two more guards were coming for her. She growled.

She had had enough of this little game.

The Alicorn Amulet glowed a deep crimson, and the first guard suddenly stopped. His face was contorted with confusion. He gave a cry, half out of fear and half out of confusion. After a few seconds, his neck turned inside out, his spinal column showing. The dead pony hit the road with a crunch.

The second attacker turned to see his companion dead on the road, his blood flowing freely onto the street. As he stared, Harpsichord got to her feet. The Amulet once again flashed.

The second guard felt a beam of light hit him. He started to smoke and soon he set ablaze. The fire engulfed him and fried his brains for several seconds, before he to, fell to the ground.

The Detective had reloaded his firearm and had aimed it at Harpsichord's head, sideways. His eye's narrowed and he licked his lips. He thumbed off the safety and pulled the trigger sharply. A single bullet shot out of the gun and went for her head.

Harpsichord turned around and the bullet stopped. It floated in mid-air for a moment before turning to dust right before the Detective's eyes. He stood there, staring at the dust. All around there littered dead ponies. Harpsichord smiled.

"You can't beat me, Detective. So I wouldn't recommend trying. At all." Her eyes flashed white.

She walked, calmly off into the night and disappeared into the shadows.

The Detective looked up, panting heavily. He glanced at the four dead guards littered around the place.

"Damn."

***

Many officers of Celestia were at work trying to figure out what was going on. One pony that the Detective knew had turned up. They had been discussing Harpsichord and her strange discovery of the Alicorn Amulet. They came to the conclusion that she had read about it and dug it up out of the Everfree Forest.

Some officers were drawing chalk lines on the floor around the dead guards and the other victims, while others were scribbling  down notes on small notepads. Even the Captain of the Royal Guard was there, Shining Armor.

He and the Detective had been talking about Harpsichord's past crimes. Eventually, Shining Armor went to talk to his sister, leaving the Detective alone.

The Detective sat on a small bench and stroked his chin with his hoof. He closed his eyes.

"Hmm." He thought. He opened up a mental image. The image showed Harpsichord's anatomy, her reactions and her brain capacity. He then added the evidence to the mental image that he had found earlier. After much debate between brain cells, he came to a conclusion. He opened his eyes.

The Detective smiled and he turned to Twilight. "Get everyone in Ponyville to the main square, if you don't mind."

Twilight looked confused, but she nodded and called her friends to round up everyone in Ponyville.

***

Everyone was sitting or standing in the Ponyville main square. The Detective was standing in the middle of the square with Twilight. All the Earth-born ponies were there too, sitting on some benches looking intently at the Detective. He stood there, staring at the ground. Bon Bon was looking happy, as Lyra was sat next to her, in her usual sitting position.

After a few minutes everyone fell silent. The Detective looked up.

"We are gathered here today, because a mare has ruthlessly killed our fellow ponies... And thus, she should be punished.          But to do this, we must firstly discover her identity." He pulled out a notepad and read out his evidence.

"This mare was had a green mane, as shown by the forensic team, earlier. She also was a unicorn, using unspeakable magic."

The Detective paced around the square. Eventually he stopped.

"I know who killed those ponies, and I know why."

"Because, the person who has the key to this mystery... IS YOU!"

He was pointing at Lyra.

Lyra looked aghast.

"Your accusation is incorrect..." She muttered.

"Oh, really?" The Detective mused. "So, you wouldn't mind telling me where you were from the hours of six till seven o'clock tonight?"

Lyra looked terrified, but she spoke.

"I was...um.. Oh yes. I was sitting in my room reading a book."

Bon Bon looked at the ground, nervously. The Detective noticed this.

"Well, if that be the case, how come it took Bon Bon here so long to find you, don't you... live together?"

Lyra's eyes widened.

"Bon Bon searched for you the whole night. It's quite odd that she couldn't find you in her own home."

Lyra shuffled slightly.

"Let us change the subject." The Detective began to pace again, this time he turned to Bon Bon.

"How long have you known Lyra?" He asked, politely.

Bon Bon looked as scared as a sheep being mauled by a viscous wolf.

"Um... A fe- few years... I -I guess..."

"Have you noticed anything strange over those few years?"

"Well..." She mumbled and looked at Lyra.

"Sometimes.. She goes out on evenings... and doesn't return till the next day. And she'l never tell me where she's going..."

Suddenly she burst into tears and stood up.

"I'm sorry Lyra! I can't help cover up the fact that you murder innocent ponies!" Tears were streaming down her face.

Lyra was looking at the ground. She smiled and parted her coat, revealing the Alicorn Amulet.

Bon Bon shook her head. "Please, I love you. Don't do this. We could start afresh! A new life. Whatdya say?"

Lyra looked up and her eyes glowed red.

"No." She whispered before there was a flash of lightning. A few moments later, Bon Bon's lifeless corpse was laying on the ground, blood streaming from the gaping hole in her forehead.

There was panic. Ponies rushed to escape from the mad mare. She smiled and turned to the Detective.

"Your level of intimidation will not work on me, Detective." The Amulet glowed again.

The Detective stood there. He pulled out his revolver and aimed it at the base of Lyra's skull.

"Looks like we have a good, old-fashioned stand-off."

They both stood there for a few minutes.

"Old fashioned stand-off's are mighty boring." The Detective muttered. He nodded and pulled the trigger.

The bullet sailed past Lyra's head. She laughed, hysterically.

"You missed you half-wit foal!"

The Detective tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.

Lyra frowned and turned around to see what was there. She was expecting some sort of explosion, or something else. A firing square perhaps.

The Detective pocketed his revolver and brought out his sword. He launched himself at Lyra, who created a sword out of thin air to combat him. They both attacked and parried each other's shots.

"Such a clumsy attempt." Lyra snarled as she spun her sword towards his neck.

"Not at all." The Detective replied, blocking the shot, and thrusting the sword forwards towards her stomach.

Lyra parried the blow and went for his neck. The Detective, used his blade to chip away at Lyra's knuckle guard. He dug the blades tip into the knuckle guard and twisted.

The sword flew out of Lyra's hoof and a landed on the ground with a thud. The Alicorn Amulet glowed red again.

"Sweet dreams!" Lyra yelled.

The Detective lurched forward with his sword, it sheared through the Alicorn Amulet, leaving two, worthless halves of it on the floor.

Lyra was shocked, she turned to the Detective for an explanation.

He was stroking his sword, gently.

"You see, I had this rapier modified. It's made out of woven steel. It'll go through pretty much anything."

He pointed the sword at Lyra's throat. "You're under arrest."

Lyra looked up at the Detective. She didn't want to lose to him. Not that smug, little idiot. She lent herself forward, violently, so that the sword pierced her windpipe.

The blood spurted out, indicating her death. The Detective looked at her. He sighed and put away his blade. Twilght came running up to him.

"Are you alright?" She questioned, panting slightly."

"Quite." He replied. "Well. Crisis averted." He turned to walk away.

Lyra sat up, covered in blood and crawled towards the Detective. The Detective, completely unaware, continued. She grabbed at his hind legs, causing him to fall face first into a puddle of rainwater. He sat and and saw two royal guards and Shining Armor leap on top of her.

He smiled and turned to go. He brushed off his coat and insured his hair was...

Twilight looked in disbelief at him. His hair had been dyed a black colour and his cutie mark had been painted over. She stared at him.

"Professor?" She croaked.

The pony in front of her didn't try to hide it. He simply brushed of the rest of the dye and scrubbed the paint of his rump. He wrapped his hooves around her neck.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

By this point everyone else had arrived. Sam, Ebony, Tom and Aimee looked in disbelief.

Twilight broke off from the hug. "How did you survive?!"

"Well." He said, he sat down on a bench." It was a pure coincidence really."

And so, he started his tale.