//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 "Murder?" // Story: Equestria Noir Case 10 "Pinkie Party" // by Jacoboby1 //------------------------------// Chapter 2 “Murder?” It was around midnight when it happened. One minute everypony was partying like there was no tomorrow. I myself was enjoying the taste of Twilight’s lips in the back hallway. Vinyl and Raiden were finishing up their epic musical battle to the death. Big Mac and Fluttershy seemed to be hitting it off well… But the next minute all of that went out the window when the scream was heard… AIIIIEEEEE!!!!! Vinyl’s record scratched as the music stopped and everypony looked to where Pinkie came running out of the basement. Her blue eyes were frantic and I ran out to meet her. “Pinkie what’s wrong?!” Pinkie just pointed to a storage room and I pulled out Blackbird to look inside. When I did…there was a body… She was an earth pony with a dark purple coat and a long mane of black. Her blue eyes were wide open as a knife stuck out of her neck. She was leaning against the wall of the entrance some boxes of baking powder. Blood drooped out of the wound on her neck. I looked back at Twilight who followed me into the room. “Get everypony in the main room…” She nodded and went about calming everypony down. I looked over the body and tilted her head up slightly. “Odd angle for a knife wound…like somepony attacked her from beneath…” I turned out her pockets and found a license inside “Balboey, 28, Rock farmer…” At least I could identify her for CSU later. I closed her blue eyes and walked outside. Twilight gathered everypony at the party into the main room. Many whispered frantically wondering what I was going to say. I stood on top of a table and spoke firmly “Everypony, there’s been a murder in the storage room…” Frantic shouts came about from the crowd. I facehoofed for saying the wrong thing. I tried and failed to get everypony calm. Suddenly Vinyl got back on her stage and turned the volume of her microphone to max. “EVERYPONY SHUT UP!!!!” She shouted into the mike. I covered my ringing ears as everypony quieted down. Vinyl levitated the mike to me with a smile. I smiled back and lowered the volume to a more manageable level “Everypony I’m going to have to ask you all to remain calm while I investigate the situation. Until then though I’m going to have to ask you all to comply with what I’m going to ask you” Murmurs of agreement came from the crowd. They were happy somepony was taking charge in this situation. I spoke firmly in my mike “Until this murder is solved I’m going to have to ask everypony to remain in here. Rainbow Dash will make sure everypony stays inside the building. Nopony is to leave until I give them personal clearance” Some tried to protest being trapped here but Vinyl threatened to silence them with the almighty bass cannon. That got them calmed down. I continued “I will also ask each of you to be subject to questioning. This isn’t saying that anypony here is responsible for what happened. The victim was a 28 year old earth pony with a violet coat and a black mane. She was found in the storage room and I can determine her death was recent. If anypony has any information, come forward immediately” I got down from the mike and looked to Vinyl “Thanks for the save” She smiled; I never really got to know Vinyl much. She was a year younger than me with a white coat and a short spiky blue mane. She almost always wore those odd sunglasses over her red eyes. Right now she lifted them to show those same red eyes. “Listen Private…I think I saw the mare you’re talking about” I pulled out my notebook “Could you describe when?” Vinyl nodded and tapped her hoof on her chin “I was feeling thirsty after one song with Raiden. I went to get some punch when I heard shouting coming from the back room. I saw Pinkie arguing with the mare you described about something” “What were they arguing about?” I asked She shrugged “I didn’t really pay attention. I was too busy trying to come up with what song I was going to play next. All I can say is that the argument was very heated. Like Pinkie did something unforgivable…” “Thanks Vinyl” I said smiling “Also thanks again for getting everypony calmed down” Vinyl smiled and replaced her sun glasses “You seem like the kind of guy who would get things done. Besides it’s interesting to see you in action” She nudged me with a hoof “If you ever wanna be on The Vinyl Scratch! Let me know, we’re always looking for vic- I mean…guests” I told her I would consider it after the case was done. I moved on and saw Rainbow Dash by the door; she was holding her wings out to make sure nopony passed her. She looked at me and her ears flattened “Hey sorry your party turned out this way” I nodded “It couldn’t be helped, Dash did you see anything odd tonight?” She shook her head “No…but I did see Lyra and Bon Bon go into a closet by the storage closet where the murder happened. Maybe they heard something?” I nodded “You also tell somepony to call Forceps and collect the body. Something seems off about this…” Dash nodded and went back to guard duty. I walked over to where Fluttershy was comforting a crying Pinkie Pie. I looked at her and my face turned to sympathy “Pinkie…are you alright?” She wiped her eyes and tried to smile “Sorry your party got ruined…” I shook my head “What’s important is that we find out what happened…Vinyl said you and Balboey got into an argument…what was that about?” Pinkie looked unsure at first but Fluttershy smiled encouragingly at her. The party pony looked at me “Balboey was a worker on my rock farm” “Rock farm?!” Twilight, who was following me the whole time, said astonished “You can’t grow rocks! That’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard!” “Actually it’s a pretty big business” I said knowingly “Fillydelphia had a lot of Rock Farms when it was founded” Twilight’s jaw dropped “Private! They’re rocks! Not plants! You can’t grow rocks!” I shrugged “Well I don’t know much about the practice but it’s a legitimate business” Twilight babbled on trying to put such a concept as a rock farm to logic. I looked back at Pinkie “How would you describe your relationship with Balboey?” Pinkie frowned “She was a big meanie pants back in the day. When I got my cutie mark in partying she made a huge fuss over it. Said I shouldn’t do parties and should keep working on the farm! My family was miserable working on that farm! My parties gave them the only happiness they’ve ever known!” I nodded “So you two got into an argument?” Pinkie nodded “She said I should come back to the farm. I told her I got a good job working here and my family was doing fine on their own. But then she got furious and started pushing me into that storage room…” I looked at Pinkie right in the eye. I hated asking it but it had to be asked. “Did you kill her?” Pinkie shook her head furiously “No! I’d never hurt anypony! My parties were always meant to be fun! She just pushed me and I hit my head on something…when I woke up she…was…” She started crying again. I hated seeing Pinkie sad…she was the one pony who was happy despite the situation. If she broke down then everypony else would… I simply put my hoof on her shoulder “Pinkie, I’ll get to the bottom of this okay?” She nodded and hugged me tight. I hugged her back; as much as she annoyed me I couldn’t help but give into her charm. She was just such a fireball of love and energy that she was just so enjoyable to be around. I broke the hug and she smiled at me “I’m reeealy sorry about the party…” I shook my head “I’m just happy I got a party in the first place” ________________________________________________________ Lyra and Bon Bon were not hard to find among the crowd. They always kind of stuck out together. Many ponies speculated they were in a relationship by how often they spent time together. One day it was finally pointed out to them and I was surprised to learn that they weren’t in a relationship at the time. They’ve only recently given the whole dating idea a try. Since then they’ve been seen everywhere together more than usual. I remember Lyra being the second pony I talked to at Ponyville. At the time she was a witness to a murder and now she was again. As I spent time in Ponyville I got to know the harp player. She had a strange fascination with Humans, fictional creatures that walked on two legs and had digits on their forelegs called…hands. She was a good pony at heart but I couldn’t help but find her strange. Bon Bon by contrast was relatively grounded. She owned a local candy shop and pretty much did anything that was needed around town. She reminded me a lot of myself at times with the way she puts up with Lyra. She also seemed to have a strange habit of switching what her voice sounded like every month or so. This month it was something along the lines of a normal equestrian girl “I can’t believe somepony would murder somepony else at a birthday party…” She said as her and Lyra sat on a couch together. She shook her cream colored head “It’s simply awful…” Lyra looked at me with her gold eyes “We’ll tell you anything you need to know Private” I nodded as I held my notebook in front of the couple. “You two went into the closet next to the storage room during the party right?” Bon Bon flushed bright red and Lyra simply laughed “Yeah we did, Bon Bon here was getting a little frisky so I was going to show her what I could do with my ho-“ Her marefriend shoved a hoof into mouth. Bon Bon simply frowned “To get to the point Detective what does me and Lyra getting intimate have to do with the case?” I spoke simply ignoring Lyra’s comment about horns. “Did you two hear anything as you were entangled in the cords of love?” Lyra pulled her marefriend’s hoof out of her mouth and spoke. “Well I did hear a yell…and then…I heard this weird clicking noise…I pointed it out to Bon Bon and we looked outside” “What did you see?” I asked Bon Bon frowned “We saw a strange looking pony run out of the storage room…he had a white coat and a red mane and the darkest green eyes I’ve ever seen” “Did you see anything that would’ve caused the clicking sound?” I went on Lyra shook her head “Nu uh, that was the weird thing. But then we saw Time Turner walk by the room with that weird pen thing of his. We just kind of chalked it up to coincidence and went back to intimacy” Bon Bon flushed again at how Lyra was so callous. She looked over at me “You think Time Turner would know what’s going on?” This Time Turner guy shows up right before a murder? Can’t be a coincidence… “Hey you get back here!!” I heard a voice yell I looked to the entrance and saw Rainbow yelling at somepony outside. I ran to the door and sure enough Time Turner was making a break for it. He seemed to be tripping over himself a little walking… I looked over at Rainbow “I’ll catch up with him! You stay here and keep everypony else here!” Rainbow saluted as I bolted after Time Turner. Time Turner took one look at me and bolted shouting “Allons-y!!!” ______________________________________________________ I chased after the strange pony into the woodland around Ponyville. I was in hot pursuit of the brown stallion as he made every effort to try and trip me up. I didn’t want to use my gun on him. I could get sued for shooting a suspect on a case. He looked back at me with those blue eyes of his and yelled “Legs don’t fail me now!” He then picked up speed. I followed him down the path and shouted “Stop! If you don’t I’ll be forced to use drastic measures!” “I would honestly prefer not having them used thank you!” He shouted back at me as he kept running. This guy was being hunted down by me and he was joking around? Who was this guy? I kept running after him as we ventured deeper into the woodland. Suddenly he ran off the main path and into the bushes. I followed and found myself in a dark part of the woods. Time Turner looked back and saw I was still in pursuit “Bloody hell you’re stubborn! You’re harder to get rid of then a dalek on a destroy and exterminate spree!” I had no idea what a dalek was so I ignored his comment. “Just stop! I’m getting tired of this chase!” “So am I!” He said and suddenly he turned around. He reached into his pockets and pulled out his device from earlier. He finally learned how to use his hooves to hold it. He held it in front of me and tapped a series of buttons on it. A loud sonic vibration emitted from the device causing my ears to ring painfully. I covered them and fell to the ground and watched as Time Turner kept running. I shook my head to get the ringing out of my ears. I leapt over a bush to close the distance between me and my prey. I kept running and he looked back frantic “Aww bugger all!” He swore as he kept running. I levitated out Blackbird, I hated doing this but I didn’t see any other… What the hell is that thing!? We came into a clearing and there was the oddest sight. It was a box, large and blue with what looked like a door on it. It looked like one of those old police boxes you’d see in Trottingham sometimes. Only I didn’t recognize the characters on the top…what language were they in? Time Turner used his distance from me to fumble for a key to the box. He managed to get the door open just as I got into the clearing. “Sorry! This space is not available for rent! Please come back never!” He ran inside the box and was about to close the door. I couldn’t let him do it. I levitated up a nearby rock and threw it as he was about to close the door. Time Turner slammed the door into the rock and it gave me precious seconds to run in and stick my leg into the entrance. Time Turner looked at me with frantic blue eyes and ran…deeper into the box? I pushed the door open and…this couldn’t be possible… The inside of the box was a huge room. Consoles and lights were everywhere around a central control area. Screens displaying various characters I didn’t recognize adorned the walls. I walked and my hooves clanked on the hard metal floor. The place was spacious…but how was this possible? The box outside was so small it’s… “Bigger on the inside…” I said slowly “Then it is on the outside?” I turned around and saw Time Turner smiling down at me from a railing above. “I always love it when they say that the first time they see it” I looked around at the spacious interior “This is…impossible…” “Not impossible just improbable know the difference please” Time Turner quipped in that odd accent of his I chuckled a little; he had an interesting sense of humor. Wait, Private remember why you came! I pulled out Blackbird and aimed it at the brown stallion. His eyes went wide as he realized he had nowhere to run. I was done playing games “You’re not a pony…” He simply smiled “I was wondering when somebody would figure it out” Somebody? Didn’t he mean Somepony? He really wasn’t a pony… He hopped off the railing and landed in front of me. He looked me with curious eyes “How did you figure it out?” “You’re shaky on your hooves…” I said pointing to his legs “Were you a normal pony you would have no trouble walking. Even foals can walk from birth…” He chuckled a little “It’s a pain to have to walk on all fours. Do you realize I have to eat with the same hooves I walk with? Truly fascinating” I never thought of it that way…I smiled a little. This guy was weird on a whole new- Private damn it focus!! I put my gun barrel to his face “You aren’t a pony…you hesitated when I called you Time Turner so that isn’t your real name. So I just want you to answer three questions: Who are you? What are you? And what are your intentions?" His answers came out slowly “The Doctor…The Doctor…Fun!"