//------------------------------// // Just Our Luck // Story: Solstice // by Scorpius //------------------------------// “Why do we always get cases like this?” Alexander Candentius Sparkle pointedly ignored the whining voice behind him and instead set to work. The first order of business when arriving at a scene was to take a good, thorough look around. It made no sense trying to analyse the evidence until it had all been taken in. He cast a few observational spells—checking for any magical disturbances, but also heightening his own awareness and vision. He was pointedly refusing to think about the bodies until he absolutely had to. “There’s no sign of any latent magic,” he muttered, a shimmer of amber hornglow spreading out from his horn like a web that covered the whole clearing. “No Illusions, no Wards, no Enchantments—” “You checked for Wards?” Emily sounded surprised. Most unicorns thought Wards only ever belonged in places like Canterlot, or the Northern Keeps, but Alex had seen them used in some truly awful ways at crime scenes before—and this was certainly an awful enough crime. Five corpses, all unicorns, arranged evenly in a circle around the clearing, their horns pointing inwards. A quick Illusion confirmed that the arrangement was exact, the lines their horns pointing along forming a perfect star. And in the middle of the clearing, perfectly centred in the circle, was the slightest indent in the grass, as if something had been resting there—likely until morning, if the lack of dew was anything to go by. “Sacrificial rituals often need Wards, Emily,” Alex said, smiling a little when she winced at the name. Before she could tell him off, he added, “Any ritual that required multiple unicorn deaths would almost certainly be volatile. Far too much magic involved in that. To even attempt it without some kind of safety Ward…” While he was thinking, Emily’s horn lit, and she knelt down beside one of the corpses. Sapphire hornglow traced along the barrel, dodging in and out of the skin. Alex tried not to cringe—autopsy spells always gave him the creeps, so he generally left them to Emily. It was a few moments later that she looked up at him. “I’m getting natural causes. Around three in the morning. No traces of any Curses.” “It can’t have been natural causes.” Alex shook his head, and gestured wildly around the clearing. “Look at the placement!” “Perhaps they were dead before they arrived?” “What kind of ritual needs dead victims?” For a moment the two stayed silent, before Emily rose and moved to the next corpse around. “Might as well check them all,” she muttered. Alex smiled, and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. It might have been a truly awful case, but it felt good to be out in the field again. Or, rather, the forest. Anything was better than another day at the office, pushing parchment—even guard duty had been more exciting than that. “Alex?” Emily’s voice was shaking as she called out. Five years of Adstra training, and a year on the job, and Alex had never heard his partner sound so unsure, or so frightened. Tense, he began to trot over to where she was kneeling, halfway across the clearing. “You need to see this.” “What’s different about this one?” he asked, praying to Starswirl and the Source that she wouldn’t need him to do an autopsy himself. Emily’s face was pale—paler than usual, at least—and she swallowed before explaining. “I was casting the standard autopsies, as usual. Nothing fancy, you know? And I’ve been getting the same result on every corpse I’ve checked… they’ve all died from natural causes, there’s not a trace of magic in them.” Alex frowned. “Okay,” he said, slowly. “But how is that different?” “I ran a diagnosis spell,” Emily replied, her voice almost a whisper. “It’s not standard procedure, but I figured it might give some more information about how they died? I mean, they use it in hospitals all the time to figure out what’s happened to you…” Emily had trailed off, but Alex had gotten her point. Turning to the corpse, he lit his horn. Medical spells really weren’t his forte, but after a few seconds he’d managed to get a stable diagnosis spell up. Not that it told him anything new, of course. The body in front of him had been a healthy earth stallion, twenty-three years old, who had been suffering from a sprained ankle and had died of natural causes some eight hours pre— Oh. “That’s not an earth pony,” Alex said, slowly. Beside him, Emily nodded. He didn't even want to think about what that would mean—for a unicorn to register magically as an earth pony? The very thought made his stomach churn. After taking a moment to settle his thoughts, Alex rose, and dispelled the barrier around them. “I’m going to call in the autopsy specialists,” he said, as he began to trot back towards their carriage. Behind him, he could hear Emily scrambling to her hooves. “This is far beyond our level. The boss will need to hear about this.” “I can have a report compiled by the time we’re at Everfree Station,” Emily said, briskly. No jokes—she really was shaken by that. As they left the clearing, Alex nodded sharply to the guards on duty, who were standing diligently beside the path, almost camouflaged in their dark, emerald armour. The captain nodded back, and wordlessly directed their escorts to join them. Alex would have laughed at the thought of trained Adstra needing a guard escort if they were anywhere else—but he’d grown up in Everfree Village, and the tales he’d heard of the forest always put him on edge. Besides, his training was mostly focused on investigating criminals, not self-defence from timberwolves. “I’ll get the parchmentwork done, then,” he said, softly. He’d need to do more than just the admin for the autopsy team: even with Emily writing up their preliminary report, he was going to need to request access to the Starswirl Wing for research. This kind of ritual went far beyond anything he’d learnt at the Arcana—and when he’d studied there, they still offered an optional course in ritual magic. Not that he’d ever admit to having taken it. Emily grinned at him. “I’ll race you—let’s see who can get all their parchmentwork done first.” Alex groaned. It was going to be a long carriage ride to the station, that was for sure.