Featherfall
A Light that Shines in Darkness is the Light that Shines Brightest...
Chapter 1
The Abduction
From the outside there seemed to be nothing wrong with Bread & Buns Bakery. The “Open” sign was still sitting in the window, and the doors were both propped open. From its cheerful exterior the only thing that hinted at the gruesome scene that lay within was a thin yellow line of crime scene tape strung around the perimeter keeping patrons from their usual breakfast and lunch haunt.
As Featherfall picked her way through an avalanche of stale biscuits, glass shards crunched like autumn leaves beneath her hooves. It was impossible to avoid. The floor sparkled like a diamond mine. Featherfall stopped and sniffed the air. Contrary to previous crime scenes the air was fresh, warm, and inviting. Somehow it only made the destruction around her seem that much worse.
“Smells nice, doesn't it?” Foresight asked, mirroring Featherfall's thoughts. “Not our usual gig.”
Featherfall frowned at her unicorn companion. “Yeah... Why are we on this case?”
Foresight skirted through the debris, making his way behind the counter. “Crackshot's orders,” he answered vaguely.
“Fore...” Featherfall growled.
“Sweet Bread vanished in the middle of the day and nopony saw a thing despite her shop looking like... this!” From behind the counter Foresight waved a hoof over the debris.
Featherfall looked around. Most of the furniture had not survived the event. The bakery looked like a set from the finale of a Daring Do movie. “Still...”
“Also, she was catering a garden party up at Canterlot Castle in three days and somepony up the chain thinks it might be related.”
Featherfall felt herself stretching her wings and quickly folded them, denying her baser urge. The crime scene needed to be kept as close to its original condition as possible. With so much debris the slightest careless twitch might shift something out of place and obscure vital evidence. “What about the register?”
The register's bell rang cheerfully as Foresight coaxed it open. “The money's still here. Looks like they had a good morning before our suspect showed up.”
“Okay so probably not robbery,” Featherfall observed. She looked around the room, trying to pick out anything that might suggest a motive. To the laypony the place simply looked trashed. Featherfall's training and experience said otherwise. The encounter had begun at the tables in the back where Sweet Bread's apron lay. Ruptured stitches along the seams of the apron strings said it had been torn off her body and it was pinned partially under an overturned table. Everything else between there and the wall was pristine. The scuffle had proceeded across the room toward the door, but had ended before the victim and her assailant reached the door.
In her mind's eye Featherfall could see Sweet Bread's thrown body flying through the air and crashing into the display case. Bread and glass poured down around her like a waterfall, spilling across the floor and mingling with freshly spilled blood. That was where things stopped making sense. Glass shards shimmered like rubies in spilled blood, forming a gruesome path to the bakery's front door.
“What drives somepony to attack in broad daylight and then take their victim out the front door?” Foresight asked. “It's a busy street out there. Surely somepony would have said something if they saw a mare being carried out in the middle of the day.”
She looked back at the crushed display case. It was hard to believe that Sweet Bread had gotten up and willingly walked out with whoever had just thrown her around like a ragdoll. Perhaps duress?
“Sourdough and Pumpkin Bread have arrived outside. Please go out there and make sure they don't come inside,” Foresight instructed. He looked up from his work and surveyed the mess of glass, bread, and blood. “They don't need to see this.”
Featherfall looked out the window but couldn't see them. Foresight's ability always creeped her out a little. She had never said so but she was pretty sure he knew. The older stallion seemed to be clairvoyant. “Alright,” she said, and marched outside. Two earth ponies were waiting with a uniformed officer.
“Agent Featherfall,” the officer said. “We were just about to come get you. This is Sourdough. He's the one that called us about the disturba... err.. disappearance.”
“Hello,” Featherfall said, looking back and forth between the despondent stallion and his disinterested son. “I am Agent Featherfall with the Magical Crimes Unit.”
“Sourdough,” the father responded feebly. His eyes were bloodshot and watery. Grief was etched into his face. Dark circles under his eyes said he probably hadn't slept much since making the report. “Please, have you found my wife? Why is Magical Crimes involved? We don't do any magic here.”
“She probably ran off with someone,” Pumpkin sneered. That brought back some vitality in the stallion.
“You keep your mouth shut,” Sourdough snapped.
Featherfall braced herself for the storm brewing between the father and son, a typical hazard in her line of work. She stifled an inward yawn, wishing she had slept on the train. “Officer Flintlock, would you mind talking with Pumpkin for a few minutes? I have a few questions for his father.”
Flintlock gave her a pleading look, but the pegasus did not budge. Finally he sighed. “C'mon kid. Let's go.”
“I understand that this is a hard time for you, Mr. Bread,” Featherfall said once they were out of earshot of the others. “I have to ask you a few questions and I need you to stay calm and answer them to the best of your ability. That is the best way to help us find your wife. Alright?”
“Yes, that's fine. Anything to help.”
“When did you last see your wife, Sweet Bread?”
“Yesterday morning. The breakfast rush was winding down. There were only a few customers left. I went home to check on Pumpkin. He's grounded right now and I was worried he'd been sneaking out while we were at shop so I thought I'd drop in on him, maybe catch him gone.”
Featherfall plucked a feather from her wing and began scribbling everything Sourdough said into her notebook. Despite the lack of an inkwell, words were flowing out onto the page, seemingly seared into the paper.
“I was gone less than an hour. When I got back the police were there and one of our regulars was saying how the shop was wrecked. Do you think I could look around? They didn't let me inside. Maybe there's something I could point out?”
“Was there anything valuable in the shop?” Featherfall asked. “Something somepony might want to take?”
“Well...” he looked thoughtful, but his ears drooped. He knew the implications of his answer before he said it. “No.”
“Secret recipes maybe? Information can be as valuable as diamonds.” Sourdough shook his head. So much for the robbery angle. “What about your son?”
The baker frowned. “What about him?”
“Was he home?” Featherfall asked.
“He was, but he hadn't done his chores. We argued about it and I sent him to his room. This is supposed to be a safe neighborhood...”
Featherfall thought for a moment, licking the tip of her quill. She went wide-eyed as it sent a little electric buzz through her tongue, reminding her that this was not a regular quill. She shook it off, trying to pretend it didn't happen and ignored Sourdought's unhappy frown at her eccentric behavior. “It's a memory spell. Don't worry about it. Why was your son grounded?”
“But you're a pegasus...” the stallion said, levelling an accusatory hoof at her. “How can a pegasus do magic?”
Featherfall took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Sir, we need to focus on your son. Why was he grounded?”
Sourdough scowled. “He snuck out of school to hang out with his delinquent friends. I told him he's not allowed to see them anymore.” He stamped his hoof. “They're a bad influence.”
“What about your wife? Do any of her friends bother you?”
“All of them,” Sourdough lamented, looking skyward for a moment. He heaved a weary sigh. “They prattle on endlessly, gossiping. They're all harmless.”
“So no real problems there then? Nopony in her life that might have a grudge against her?”
“No, no definitely not," he said. "Everypony loves Sweet Bread.”
“And what about you?” Featherfall inquired. "Any threats? Business deals gone wrong? Anypony asking inappropriate or odd questions?"
Sourdough shook his head and sighed. “Nothing, sorry, I mean, I'm not sorry. We're good ponies. Respectable. We don't cause trouble and we don't want any. I just.. I don't know what to tell you!”
“No that's good,” she said, sensitive to the stress the baker was under. “I'm sure you're thinking that this isn't helping but it is. You're helping to direct the investigation.” This was partly true, local police were still likely to interview most of Sweet Bread's friends and neighbors, but to the seasoned investigator it looked like none of them were a likely culprit.
Back inside the bakery Featherfall found her partner going through the receipts for the day. It was a task made all the more difficult by a spilled jar of maple syrup. She thought to offer to help, but decided to leave this to somepony with easy access to telekinesis.
“What did you find?” Foresight asked without looking up from his work. Strip after strip floated into the air before him, their syrup coating dripping off into a bowl.
“Good family, obnoxious kid. No real enemies. Sourdough says he was only gone for an hour, and there were only two patrons when he left. Two unicorns, a light blue mare with plenty of money in her purse and a grey stallion with a bad attitude. They arrived separately but ordered together.”
“Regulars?”
“No, never saw them before. Said he was pretty sure he would have remembered them. Didn't get a good look at their marks either.”
“I wish he had...” Foresight lifted a small tuft of fur from the wrecked display case. It was dark grey.
* * *
Featherfall was the second to arrive in the conference room. Foresight didn't look up from his notes when she trudged through the door. “Good morning Featherfall,” he said and took a little sip of his coffee. “I got you one.”
The pegasus seized the cup that floated over to her and took a swig of the near-scalding liquid. It had the desired effect. She shook her head as her feathers bristled. With Foresight's eyes on her she lumbered over to her seat and slouched into it, resting her head on the table.
Foresight turned his attention back to his notes. “You look tired,” he commented, probing.
Featherfall was too well seasoned to fall for that. “I am,” she answered, deliberately vague.
The notes dropped back to the table. Foresight's concerned eyes were fixed on her now. “What's your feather count?”
“High enough.”
Foresight wrinkled his nose in frustration. “Featherfall...”
The pegasus rolled her eyes. “Plus eight.”
“Are you sure?”
She lifted her head off the table, summoning enough energy to glare crossly at her partner. “Yes!”
The unicorn's ears perked. “Crackshot is coming,” he warned. The irritated pegasus quickly straightened her mane and sat up straight. A moment later the unit's only earth pony arrived. The tough old stallion had a reputation for getting the job done and a low tolerance for nonsense. Swansong followed shortly after. Coldhorn was last to arrive, slinking in a few minutes late. She sidled up to Foresight's chair without being noticed.
“Good morning Foresight,” she hissed into his ear. He sprung up quickly, hackles raised.
“Do not do that, Coldhorn,” Foresight growled.
Crackshot stomped his hoof. “Agent Coldhorn! Take your seat.”
“Whatever you say boss,” Coldhorn said. The flippant detective found a seat next to Featherfall. She was a sunflower yellow unicorn with a pale blue mane and tail. Featherfall knew better than to fall for Coldhorn's disguise. Still, she was thankful for it. In her natural form Coldhorn easily set Featherfall's nerves on edge. The pegasus wasn't sure which was more unsettling: the changeling's fanged, disingenuous smile or the holes that dotted Coldhorn's limbs. She looked up from her coffee and found Coldhorn grinning at her. A little chill ran up her spine, waking her up in ways the caffeine couldn't. Definitely the smile. Featherfall instinctively leaned away, but it only drove the changeling detective to lean in closer.
“Now that everypony's here...” Crackshot continued. All eyes turned back to him. “Robbery division has noticed an increased number of thefts in districts four and seven. Keep an eye out for suspicious behavior if you're in the area and call it in. Also we've had our units on the ground looking for Sweet Bread but there's been no sign of her still. It's been three days. We do not want this case to go cold, ponies! Press your CI's for information. Somepony brazen enough to rob a place during the middle of the day is probably going to brag about it. I want leads people.”
Featherfall could feel delirium setting in as she struggled to brace herself for the hour long meeting ahead. Freedom came in the form of a knock at the door. Crackshot carried on in spite of it, but a pegasus nosed it open. He had a courier's satchel across one shoulder and a hat to match.
“Lieutenant Crackshot?” he asked.
Crackshot grimaced. “Yes, what is it?”
“There's been a murder...”