CSI: Los Pegasus

CHAPTER TWO: SEARCHING THE HOUSE

It’s been five years since the crime lab was started.  Rainbow Dash had worked her way up from her entry level position to supervisor of the grave shift and Fluttershy has become her assistant supervisor.

The sun was setting in the city of Los Pegasus.  A dark yellow unicorn pony with a light blue mane, and a moon and star cutie mark, was walking down the sidewalk in Hooferson, one of the surrounding towns just outside of the city.  As she walked, she noticed a house practically in ruin.  This wasn’t new to anypony who lived in the neighborhood.  Outside on the mailbox was an image of seven bubbles.  The yellow pony shook her head and smiled until she noticed something different about the house.  The door, which was usually kept closed, was now wide open.  If anypony knew Derpy, they knew that, without fail, you would always find her door closed.  It was common knowledge that she valued her privacy above a lot of things.  Nopony even knew if she ever had anypony inside for a visit other than her family.  The yellow pony decided to see what was going on and entered the house.  “Derpy?” she called, but there was no answer.  As she walked through the house, she noticed a cracked table with a note on it.  While the crack in the table wasn’t anything new (it was like clockwork that once a month, Derpy needed to get new furniture) the note caught her attention.  After the pony’s bright pink eyes had read the note, she let out a scream.

Half an hour later, members of the Equestria police force (EPF) were standing outside of Derpy’s home.  Shining Armor was interviewing the yellow pony.  “So your name is?” he asked.  “Moon Bright” the yellow pony said.  “Alright Ms. Bright” Shining Armor said, using his magic to levitate a quill and notebook, “what did you see?”  “Not much” Moon Bright said, “I was taking a walk when I noticed Derpy’s door was open.”  “Is that so strange?” Shining Armor asked.  “For Derpy, yes” Moon Bright said, “she ALWAYS keeps her front door closed.  She values her privacy.  Anyway, I went inside to ask her why the door was open, and I found the note.  I read it, screamed, dropped it, then called for help.”  “Alright, thanks” Shining Armor said, putting his quill away into his vest, “If you give this officer your contact info, we’ll get in touch with you in case we need to speak with you some more.”  Moon Bright nodded and went to the officer Shining Armor had indicated.

Passing Moon Bright as she was giving the officer her info, Rainbow Dash and the others walked over to Shining Armor.  “Hey Shining Armor” Rainbow Dash said, “What have we got?”  “Apparent foalnapping” Shining Armor said, flipping through his notes, “A Miss Derpy Hooves.”  Rainbow practically froze when she heard, but continued walking as Shining Armor continued.  “A pony on a walk noticed something unusual about the house…”  “Other than it not being condemned?” Pinkie Pie joked.  “Yeah” Shining Armor said, “Anyway, when she got inside, she found an apparent ransom note, dropped it, then ran out.”  “Has anypony been inside since?” Twilight Sparkle asked.  “Not that we know of Twily” Shining Armor said.  “Well,” Applejack said, “Let’s get in there.”  “Agreed” Rarity said, “The sooner we’re done, the sooner we can get out of there and I can clean off.”  “I’m going to head off girls” Shining said, “I need to get started on the paperwork.”  “Alright” Twilight said, giving her brother a hug before he walked away.

As the six ponies walked inside, they had a good look around.  Inside, there was practically all grey furniture (about half of which was damaged), with a bright yellow rug, and a yellow cabinet with seven bubbles on it.  Spread across the floor was several papers, as well as some glass fragments from what appeared to once have been some picture frames.  “Are we supposed to determine if there was a struggle in this?” Twilight asked.  “I hope we can” Fluttershy said.  As the team started searching the room for evidence, Rainbow just stood still, looking the room over.  Rarity finished looking through the cabinet (which happened to be full of bubble juice and wands), when she noticed Rainbow still standing in the doorway.  “Is everything alright darling?” Rarity asked.  Rainbow just stood there, “I just don’t know what went wrong.”

Theme Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSnnWyWa_1o

Back at the police department building, Shining was walking back to his office when the secretary behind the desk called his name.  “Yes?” Shining asked, changing his course to the front desk.  “Somepony is waiting for you in your office.” the secretary informed him, “Princess Celestia sent him down to help out.”  “Ugh…alright” Shining said.  If there was one thing he didn’t need on his mind right now, it was the training of a new guy.  “What’s his name?”  “Spark” the secretary said, “apparently, he used to work in the Cloudsdale weather factory loading the storm clouds with lightning bolts.”  Shining Armor nodded and headed back to his office.

Shining’s office was set up pretty simply.  It had the standard desk and plush chair.  File cabinets lined one of the walls, each filled with files he had written up for each case in the police department’s history.  In one of the corners, the Equestria flag hung, and in the opposite corner, the Neighvada flag hung.  On the desk, there was a finished wooden nameplate with “Capt. Shining Armor” etched in a gold plate, a stack of papers, a stray quill and bottle of ink, and some photos.  Most were of Cadance and himself, one of which was taken at their wedding. One picture was of him and his parents from when he was first given the position of Captain of the Royal Guard.  Next to that picture were a few pictures of Twilight, one taken when he was teaching her how to fly a kite.  Behind the desk was a table lined with plants.  In front of the desk was a set of simple wooden chairs.

Inside the office, a dark yellow pony with red eyes, orange mane, freckles on his nose, and a cutie mark depicting 2 yellow lightning bolts, which were hard to make out against his coat, was sitting on one of the wooden chairs.  “You must be Spark” Shining said, closing the door behind him as he entered.  “Yes Sir Captain Armor” Spark said.  “And I hear Aunt…I mean Princess Celestia sent you down here” Shining said.  Every now and then, he referred to Celestia as Aunt and not Princess.  “Yes she did” Spark said, “She informed me that it was because of my ability to handle lightning.”  “I don’t understand” Shining said, sitting down behind his desk.  “Well” Spark explained, “to work with lightning, you need to be very careful, otherwise you’ll end up shocking yourself all the way from Cloudsdale to Canterlot.”  “I understand” Shining nodded.  “Anyway,” Spark continued, “I have a very gentle touch, so the princess thought I’d be good at collecting and handling the evidence.”  “I guess that makes sense” Shining said with a sigh.  This was noticed by Spark, “Is something wrong sir?”  “It’s that you are the fifth new guy in a month” Shining explained, “It’s as if Princess Celestia doesn’t think we can do our jobs.  We solve more crimes in one month than the Royal Guard does in one year, and we don’t need some new pony coming in right now…especially one who doesn’t know the job.”  “With all due respect sir,” Spark said defending himself, “I thought our job included reserving judgment until all the facts are straight.  And you’re prejudging me.”  “Very well then” Shining Armor said, “I’ll see how you do first.  Our Grave Shift CSI’s are out right now.  When they get back, we’ll see how you do.”

Rainbow had finally moved from where she was standing.  “Alright” she said, “Twilight, you and Fluttershy take the bedrooms.”  “Got it” Twilight said.  “Applejack, you get the kitchen and the bathroom.”  “No problem” Applejack said.  “Pinkie, you’ve got the dining room.”  “Okey-dokey-lokey.” Pinkie said.  “And Rarity, you get the perimeter.”  “Alright” Rarity said.  “And I’ll take the rest.” Rainbow said, finishing dealing out assignments.  Everypony nodded and walked to their assigned areas, being careful not to disturb anything.

In the master bedroom, Twilight was searching the drawers, while Fluttershy was searching the bed.  “How can anypony live like this?” Twilight asked, trying to pull a drawer out of the broken dresser.  “I’m not sure” Fluttershy said, taking a set of tweezers and a little envelope out of her vest.  “What have you got?” Twilight asked, walking over.  “A blue hair” Fluttershy said, “I found it on the pillow.  And Derpy’s mane is yellow.”  “Nice” Twilight said, walking over to the night table.  Using her magic, she pulled a jar of black powder and a brush out of her vest.  She took the lid off the jar, dipped the brush in the powder, and started dusting the top of the table.  Eventually, a hoofprint was uncovered.  “Aha” Twilight said, putting the brush and powder away and pulled out a tape lift, “A hoofprint.”  “But it could just be Derpy’s print” Fluttershy said as Twilight took a photo of, and lifted the print.  “I know” Twilight said, putting the print in her vest, “But it’s the only print I could find.  The only other prints I could find was a few dots, and I’ve only seen prints like that once before.”  “When?” Fluttershy asked.  “Back when we first started working here”, Twilight explained, “I wanted to practice, so Spike helped me out, and in the process, when I dusted for prints on things he touched, all I found were dots left behind from his claws.”  “I guess that makes sense, but it seems strange for dragon claws to be in Derpy’s home when Spike is the only dragon around for miles.” Fluttershy said as they both got back to searching, finishing the master bedroom, and working their way into the guest bedroom.

Applejack was in the bathroom searching, having just finished the kitchen, and only finding a few dots like Twilight did with the powder (without realizing what they were), and a few scratch marks on the wall.  She dusted for prints like before and found more hoofprints, and more of the little dots.  “That’s a might strange,” she said to herself, “I found the same markings in the kitchen.”  She took out her camera and snapped a picture of the markings, lifted them, and continued her search.  She looked under the sink, but found nothing.  Applejack then turned to face the shower.  She pulled the curtain aside and again, found long scratch marks on the walls.  Applejack took some pictures.  “What in blazes went on here?” she asked herself.

Pinkie was searching the dining room.  She walked over to a china closet, full of cracked or broken dishes, and opened the cabinet doors on the bottom.  There wasn’t much inside.  Just a few table cloths and a brown paper bag with smaller bags tied to it.  “I remember that” Pinkie said, picking up the bags, “this was Derpy’s nightmare night costume.”  Pinkie put the bags away and continued the search.  After a while, she didn’t find anything.  She then took out a spray bottle and shut off the lights.  She sprayed the bottle of a chemical known as Luminol on the floor and table.  Within seconds, small patches of bright blue appeared on the table.  Pinkie took a swab out of her vest, swabbed the blue area, and sealed the swab.  After putting the swab into a pocket on her vest, she continued to sweep the room.  Her eyes were drawn to a trash can in one of the corners of the room.  She trotted over to it and looked inside.  Amongst the expected crumpled papers, and other trash, a discarded bandage was settled near the top.  Pinkie used a set of tweezers she pulled out of her vest and picked up the bandage.  On one side of it, a small bloodstain was dried, making it obvious that it was a few days old.  Pinkie put the bandage in a small envelope and stuck that in her vest as well before continuing her scan of the room.

Rarity was outside searching, happy to be out of the dirty house.  While walking around the perimeter, she didn’t find much.  While she did find hairs and feathers, there was no way of knowing if they were connected to Derpy’s disappearance, just blew onto the yard on the wind, or fell off a passing pegasus or bird.  Regardless, she bagged them.  Rainbow had once told the team ‘Everything is relevant in a case, until it’s not’.  As Rarity was approaching the front door to head back inside, and the end of her search, she saw some paw prints and dots embedded into the ground outside the window.  Rarity looked at the hoofsteps she was leaving.  The depth of her prints weren’t even half the depth of the paw prints, as if somepony heavier than her had jumped right on that spot.  “That’s peculiar” Rarity said as she took out a bag of plaster and poured it into the paw prints.  After a few minutes, the plaster hardened and she picked them up and, reluctantly, went back inside.

Rainbow was finishing up in the living room.  She had finished searching down the hallways, finding the same scratch marks Applejack had found running down the walls.  As she was searching, she discovered the ransom note, picked it up, and read it.

To Whom It May Concern

I have Derpy Hooves.  If you want her back, place 10 million unmarked bits in a saddle bag next to the Princess Luna statue out front of the Celestia’s Castle casino this Saturday, or get her back one hoof at a time.

Anonymous

It was extremely difficult for Rainbow to admit to herself that this had actually happened.  Pushing the thought to another part of her mind, she continued searching the room for evidence.  Among the debris of scattered papers and the glass fragments, were some photos, proving that the fragments were in fact from picture frames.  Rainbow looked at the pictures briefly before sealing them inside evidence bags and continuing by looking for hoofprints, a weight in her heart increasing slightly after having viewed each photo.  After uncovering the last set of hoofprints she could find, she bowed her head and closed her eyes as the reality of the events in the case entered her mind.  “I’m sorry Derpy” Rainbow said to herself, not noticing her team entering the room.

“Sorry for what?” Fluttershy asked as the team regrouped.  “Uh, nothing” Rainbow said, pushing the thought to the back of her mind again, “So what did you fine?”  Twilight had a feeling that Rainbow was hiding something, but just let it go…for now.  “Well,” Twilight said, “There wasn’t anything in the guest bedroom, but Fluttershy and I found some hairs, hoofprints, and some claw marks revealed by the hoofprint powder in the master bedroom”  “I found some scratch marks, hoofprints, an’ some strange dots revealed by the hoofprint powder.” Applejack said.  “Can I see them?” Twilight asked.  Applejack nodded and passed Twilight the slip with the dots she lifted.  As everypony looked, Twilight nodded, confirming her thoughts.  “As I thought” she said, handing them back to Applejack, “these are just like the dots Fluttershy and I found.  These are claw marks.”  “Are you sure darling?” Rarity asked.  “Positive” Twilight said, “Spike helped me train for this job when we first got here, and these look just like the prints he left with his claws after I lifted them.”  “Nice Twilight” Rainbow said, “At least we know what they are now.  Pinkie, what have you got?”  “I found some blood on the dining room table” Pinkie said, “though it looks as if somepony tried to clean it up.  I also found a bloody bandage in the trash can.  It’s dried, so my guess is it’s a few days old.”  “I found some hairs and feathers,” Rarity added, “though they might not even be related to the case, just some debris blown onto the lawn.  I also found some paw prints and those claw marks embedded into the ground.  What’s weird though is that my hoofsteps didn’t even reach half the depth of the paw prints.”  “Strange” Rainbow said, “And I found some scratch marks, hoofprints, and claw marks.”  “There’s one thing we don’t understand” Fluttershy said.  “Yeah” Twilight continued, “The claw marks look like they’re from a dragon, but Spike is the only dragon within the city.”  “Good point Twilight” Rainbow said, “We should get back to the lab.  We need to get this stuff processed ASAP.”  Everypony nodded and left the house for their crime lab.