The Stadium was lit by the lights reserved for night shows by upon the request of Golden Play who at the moment had allowed the Detective to go about with his lunacy.
"Umm Detective what are you talking about?" Derpy asked with a rather confused look.
"Why do you think somepony had sabotaged the Wonderbolts show?" She asked.
"Do you remember the video of Soarin injured Derpy? Do you remember what forehoof he was
holding?" The Detective asked in return.
"The left one." She answered. "But injuries like that are common, especially considering he probably crashed."
"Did you notice his breathing?" The Detective asked.
Derpy gave this a hard thought but failed to recall the manner of his breathing, to panicked by the injured athlete to remember the smaller details.
"Jagged and unsteady. That combined with his left hoof in pain, its possible that he was in a cardiac arrest." He finished.
"Then why are we here detective? Shouldn't we go to the hospital to confirm that it was a heart attack?" Derpy asked, slightly taken with the idea that a healthy stallion in the wonderbolts none the less had a heart attack.
"To confirm something I saw, or rather something I didn't see" He said before the two walked to where Soarin was first found.
A small patch of burnt grass confirmed that this was the location. The Detective looked around to see that this was the location that Soarin began to accumulate the clouds for the buccaneer blitz, looking for the box seats he had observed from.
"Derpy what do you take from this burnt patch of grass?" The Detective asked.
Derpy gave a questioning look, the answer seeming to obvious."That Soarin was hit with a lightning bolt?"
The Detective nodded his head confirming her answer.
"Well doesn't that explain the heart attack then? Soarin landed here and was then shocked causing the cardiac arrest." Derpy said almost too easy.
At this the Detective shook his head.
"Right before the main cloud in the trick went off did you notice Fleetfoot fly straight up?"
Derpy nodded her head.
"This is to get away from potential lightning bolts, like the one that hit Soarin. You see in order to complete the current and cause harm to a pegasus he or she must be close enough to either the ground, or something touching the ground. That's why they flew high and far away from objects as possible."
Derpy tilted her head unable to grasp how this had to anything to do with Soarin being struck from a lightning bolt he clearly did not prevent.
"So if Soarin was aware of such a dangerous risk. Why did he get close enough to the ground to let a current flow through." The Detective finished.
"Maybe he got dizzy from the trick and crashed?" Derpy asked recalling that the trick required them to spin around a cloud at a high rate of speed.
"Well Derpy did you notice the ground around you?" The Detective asked in a curious voice pointing a hoof at the ground underneath them.
Derpy looked around the area at the ground beneath her. This time determined to find what the Detective was hinting at even letting out a grunt of effort as she focused her eyes for an unseen clue. After a few moments the Detective continued talking.
"None of the dirt or ground is disturbed. He never crashed, he simply fell from his spot. After sending the clouds on a crash course with each other, the pegasus went to his position to fly away, but had a heart attack and fell straight down. Where a lightning bolt had hit him transferring into the ground causing the burnt marks." The Detective finished.
Derpy realized the mistake in her theory and surprised in herself that she hadn't made the coloration.
"When we imagine events in our mind, our brain tends to fill in gaps, or ignore them all together. Because of that we overlook crucial details. In this case the difference between what caused the heart attack." The Detective finished before starting to look around the stadium. He found what he was looking for when he saw the dugout. The location of the wonderbolts break area and the location of where the family stayed.
The two walking into the dug out turned on the lights and began searching. Looking underneath tables and opening already opened lockers. Taking care as to not rub off any hoof prints. It was obvious no one had touched the dugout since trash littered the area and dirty hoof prints scattered on the floor.
Derpy also attempted to look, however had trouble understanding what she was looking for.
"Where is it!?" The Detective yelled causing Derpy to let out a surprised gasp.
The Detective noticed he had frightened Derpy and gave her an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry its just..... Why isn't it here?" He asked no pony in particular.
"What are you looking for?" She asked hoping to lay down some stress in his mind.
"How the Saboteur induced the poison." He said quietly.
Derpy was surprised. Poison? Why would it be poison and why would anypony want to do that to Soarin
"There are three common ways poison is introduced to the body: By ingestion, by skin, and by injury from an open wound. If it where by skin or injury we would need to go to the hospital but what about ingestion?" The Detective asked.
"A poison like that could have been put into his breakfast his lunch or what I had theorized was his water. Yet his bottle is no where to be found." He finished putting a hoof on his chin.
"Well why not ask the family? Maybe they know what he ate?" Said Derpy.
"Yes but what about the bottle?" The Detective mentioned.
"I doubt his bottle was even touched considering that this is an closed off area. Pretty much only the coaches are allowed near the bottles and equipment." Derpy said remembering watching them train at one point.
The Detective sighed. "Still I hoped for some sort of clue here."
The Detective took a look at the dirt on the floor. The tracks left by the cloud machine along with hoof prints. The Detective inspected each closely but seemed to disappointed at his discovery. He then came upon a small spill of a black dirt. He pushed the dirt around then took some in his hoof to smell it. Then a tongue protruded from his mouth as he lifted the dirt closer to his mouth.
"Detective! What are you doing? That's dirty!?" Derpy yelled
The Detective payed no attention to his companion as he licked a small speck of the dirt tasting the sample.
Derpy was repulsed and quickly went to go find some water. Yet looking around could only find two bottles. Decorated with the wonder bolts cutie marks. The bottle where neatly placed inside a sink shelf waiting to be used or cleaned.
"Detective what about this?" Derpy yelled pointing at the green container that held the cutie marks.
The Detective spat the dirt out and walked over to the green bottles and inspected each taking the lids off and looking inside for any substances or marks and the smelling inside of the bottles.
"I doubt these are linked directly to the case but we can make an assumptions from these two." He replaced them back into their spot before turning the cutie marks outwards.
"What assumption is that?" Derpy asked.
"This was directed towards Soarin specifically." He then pointed at the bottles. "Think if you where in the saboteur position. If you wanted to interrupt an entire show the best way would be to either cripple the team leader which here is spitfire, either that or poison all of the bottles. Not only was Soarin the only one to be poisoned his bottle is the only one missing." The Doctor pointed out.
As he spoke Derpy noticed black smudges along the Detectives teeth.
"Detective? You have that black dirt all over your teeth." She said slightly disgusted and annoyed the Detective did not take heed of her comment before.
"Is there now?" He licked his teeth attempting to clean it up. "Hmm still no flavor." He said quietly
"Derpy this concludes our time here." He said
He began walking towards the door as Derpy followed.
"I'm quite glad you are here Derpy this is much more enjoyable with you here." The Detective said with a smile.
Derpy was happy although wondered how any of this was enjoyable when it seemed that a pony had intentionally given Soarin a heart attack.
"I mean spending time with you is enjoyable! Not that I like having anypony hurt, its uuu." The Detective had taken noticed Derpys confused look and attempted to fix what Derpy thought of him, however ended with sentence that had gotten away from him.
Derpy let out a giggle. She thought it was cute when the Detective lost control of his sentence, usually causing him to make undignified noises.
"So what now Detective?" Derpy asked.
"We have to talk to Soarin, perhaps he can tell us something." The Detective said as he walked out of the Stadium.
"But we will do that tomorrow. Its late and Soarin could use some rest, l'm beginning to doubt that this was meant to sabotage the wonderbolts show." The Detective said quietly.