//------------------------------//
// Colors 
// Story: Breadcrumbs 
// by TantiMount 
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“This is your best batch yet, Pinkie!” a stallion complimented while chewing happily on a multicolored-iced cupcake. His tan tail hung over the stool he sat at, covered partially by a similarly-colored trenchcoat he was wearing. Most thought him a bit odd that he’d wear a trenchcoat during a perfectly sunny day. He did so because it made the most sense. How could he investigate without it?
        Keen Flatfloot was his name. He preferred to go by Keen or Detective Keen, mainly. He wasn’t fond of Flatfoot. He’s had too many bungled investigations because somepony would make the mistake of thinking Fleetfoot was said, and peace is something that needs to be kept during an investigations. Celebrities are simply not the best method for retaining peace.
        “I’m glad you like it, Keeny! I used a new secret ingredient for these! Get as much as you want, ‘cause once they’re gone, they’re gone!” Pinkie exclaimed shortly before popping two of the same cupcakes into her mouth. Keen always made it a point to drop by Sugarcube Corner every so often during his shift, just to chat with the locals. Keeps the locals up to date and friendly with the local law enforcement.
        Not that Ponyville needed it, really. Nothing ever happens except for maybe the occasional lost cat or possession. It’s always been so boring, so he just trots around town, greeting everypony, and helping out with any light chores that wouldn’t force him to overcommit. It’s important to keep the department in a good light, or at least, that’s what the chief keeps telling him.
        He scarfed down the other half of the cupcake in a single bite, levitated a napkin, and wiped his mouth of any excess frosting. Pinkie always made the best secret-ingredient cupcakes, and she always uses a different ingredient every few months. Nopony has any idea whatever it is she uses, but everypony agrees, whatever it is, it’s absolutely delicious.
        “Thanks again, Pinkie! I’ll be back in later on this week, so I’ll see ya around!” He hopped off of the stool and left the bakery with an enthusiastic Pinkie smiling and waving behind him. As he passed by the entrance, he levitated his hat back onto his head and walked out. Keen felt relieved that he had his hat on, seeing as it kept his eyes from the strong sunlight outside.
        The pegasi must be busy today. There’s not a cloud in the sky, he thought. A nice breeze drifted through the town, doing no more than rustling his coat and mahogany mane. He lazily strolled through the roads, briefly glancing at the fruit stands and salesponies positioned on either side. Peace and tranquility was what he came to expect from Ponyville, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
        His horn glowed briefly and caused his body to convulse a bit. The magic was a combination of red and blue, and made a sound only he could hear. It wasn’t much, but it did alert him. A call? Now? he thought. He’d just gotten to the best part of town: the farmer’s market. One of his favorite ponies sold fruit there, and there wasn’t a whole lot in town he looked forward to more than chatting with her.
        “Detective Flatfoot? We need you here now. This is… oh god, just get over here.” His horn stopped glowing. The voice on the other end sounded a bit nauseous, which is unusual, given nopony in the department had a history of sickness, and the only sick officers were out today. Probably somepony’s prank gone a little awry… A dizzy spell, most likely. They weren’t common, no, but it happened sometimes. A small colt or filly trying out a new spell on a friend just to see what happens isn’t much of a crime, but it gives him something to do.
        He trotted over to where the call came from. The spell that alerted him had three effects. The first was the light and sounds that alerted him of the second, a voice transmission from the unicorn who called him. The last was an imprint in his mind of where the call came from. The spell’s functions were a bit complex to understand, but the spell itself was simple enough to learn. Keen wasn’t the most able unicorn when it came to magic.
        From what he could understand, the place he was called to was under a pretty large cloud on the outskirts of Ponyville. It wasn’t far from where he already was, so once he left the town, he knew exactly where he was going. Oh, the Dash place. Wonder what happened with her this time?
        Rainbow Dash was well known not only for her speed and athleticism, but also her ability to create property damage with those talents. This call was probably no more than another blunder that he had to report on. After a short walk down the only path to her house, he noticed other patrolponies and some caution tape strewn about the base of her cloud, barring entry to all except those authorized. He figured almost the entire force must have been there, as the largest number of ponies he’d ever seen were wandering about the crime scene.
        He pulled the tape up and walked under, spotting the mischievous blue pegasus among the crowd. “Rainbow, how many times this month are you going to make me come out here and clean up your mess?” he joked during his approach. She neither turned nor responded at all. Usually by now, she’d quip one back at him. “Rainbow?” he asked again.
        “Detective Flatfoot, uh, she can’t talk to you…” an officer tentatively mentioned to him as he inched closer. The smell around her was getting a bit strong and unusual, causing him to gag slightly when the breeze picked up and launched an odorous attack on him. He moved his collar closer to his snout to cover the smell, and moved even closer.
        “Oh… oh my… I think…” he started before he felt a small puddle of vomit forming in the back of his throat. He understood now why Rainbow Dash never responded. She was no longer of this world, but in the worst possible way he’d never been able to imagine. Her wings had been sewn back on at the base, and her cutie marks had been stitched back on to her rump. A large strip of skin on her back and leg was still missing, revealing the mannequin underneath.
        Keen stepped back and vomited on the ground behind him. His lunch and snacks, like this unfortunate mare, were no longer where they belonged, and the same perpetrator was behind the loss of both. “What sick pony would even do this?” he choked out.
        Another officer stepped forward. “Sir, that’s why we called you. We have no idea.” Nopony in the area seemed to have taken it well. Her eyeless gaze and restitched face didn’t sit well with anypony, and it seemed Keen wasn’t the only one who vomited on first glance. Several other officers still sat on the ground near what he could only assume were their own responses, and others still were continuing their first impression.
        Keen gathered what energy he had left, swallowed what lunch he had left, and started working. This is what he trained for, but not what he ever expected to actually happen. He staggered over to the scene and began examining what he had: a body and the area around it. He wiped his muzzle and pulled out his notepad and quill, ready to take notes.
        “Has a pegasus already checked the interior of her home?” he started. A few feet in front of him, an officer raised her wing. Before he could even ask, she slowly shook her head and lowered her wing. Great. No leads there. “How about witnesses? Anypony seen her being dragged here?”
        “Sir, she wasn’t dragged here, or levitated. We’ve already run our magic scans and no unicorn magic had been used anywhere in the vicinity for several days. In addition, we’ve been unable to discern any drag marks anywhere near the body.” The bespectacled earth pony turned back toward the body and continued examining what he could. Keen wrote down a few points indicating this, and turned toward the next officer.
        “Autopsy report?”
        “No, sir. Estimated time of death was 4 PM yesterday. Our coroner said he’d be able to get a more exact time once he gets the bod-” he paused. “-what’s left of the body.” Keen nodded and jotted down the details.
        “Something isn’t making sense…” he mumbled. “Anything found around the body that could have been from our killer?” he continued.
        “No, sir. Nothing besides the dirt at our hooves.”
        “Hoofprints?”
        “No, sir.”
        “Seems like our killer is probably a pegasus, then.”
        “No, sir,” the officer shook his head. “We’ve already scoured the ground for wingbeat marks, but there are none around the body.” Keen paused. Something wasn’t making sense. How did the body get here? Where was she murdered? And who in Equestria could even manage to move her without a trace?

“Hrm…. How can I help you?” a maroon mare inquired. Keen had finished his investigation (or what little of it there was) at the crime scene and had gone home to contemplate his notes. There wasn’t a whole lot to go on until he had the autopsy report from the coroner. After resting on his thoughts, he made the trek to the coroner’s office to figure out what could have happened to Dash.
        The unicorn in question seemed a bit aloof. Not quite all there. Her lab coat was patterned with blood in odd places, as if something had squirted out at her unexpectedly. She always has to ensure everyone that it isn’t, in fact, fresh, and that blood stains worse than wine most days. She tapped her hoof absentmindedly at the desk, awaiting the answer from Keen.
        “Yes, Ms…” he started, glancing at her chest for a name plate, as he had forgotten her name. It was there, but a bit hard to read, as it was positioned upside-down. “...Ms...Clean… Cut. I’m here to ask for the autopsy report for Ms. Rainbow Dash.” She glanced at him briefly before looking down at her tag. She stared at it for a few more seconds than Keen thought necessary before shrugging and jumping off of her stool. She gestured towards a box on the desk before trotting through the doors behind her.
        Keen grabbed one of the sterile horn wraps, positioned it properly on his horn, and followed. She may seem like an airhead, but she was the best in the business. At least, the best in Ponyville. He hadn’t really met many coroners.
        “Hrm… I… uh… Dash…” she stammered to herself. She was not much of a pony-pony, so wasn’t quite as skilled as others at speaking. She browsed through the lockers on the wall, checking each label for the correct name. She squeaked out an “ah!” upon finding it and pulled out a table, on which lied the dead pegasus. Or, at least, the skin of the dead pegasus.
        “Dash… She, uh… There wasn’t.. er… a body, really. Mannequin.” She gestured toward the corner where a red-stained mannequin sat. It was cut in a few places where Clean had to carefully extract the parts from the hide. “Just skin.” She poked the skin with a sterilized magic prod to emphasize her point. Keen felt nauseous again seeing the mutilated mare, but kept his composure this time.
        “How was she killed?” he asked.
        “Tortured…. Ripped… Slashed… Organs… Skinned… Drugged… Don’t know which.” She pointed with her hoof to several areas while she listed out the causes: the strip of skin on Rainbow’s back, her wings and throat, an I-shaped cut on her torso, her cutie marks, followed by Clean gesturing towards her own mouth.
        “Drugged? How were you able to figure that out?” Keen was interested in how this pony was drugged. Rainbow was a ball of energy, and if she suspected somepony of harming her, she’d be gone faster than they could blink.
        “Follicles…. Not much… Trace…” She gestured again toward the skin, but this time, to a part that was freshly sliced as a sample. Clean Cut levitated a clipboard to Keen to show him what she meant. He got it under control himself to see what she meant. A single phrase was underlined thrice under the section Chemicals: ground snorchid. “Non-lethal… Short nap…”
        Keen thought for a moment. “Short nap? So you think Rainbow woke up shortly after being drugged? And that the killer did that on purpose?” Clean nodded. He jotted down this information into his notebook. Now he knew several things he didn’t before. The killer had access to rare flowers and herbs and knew how to convert it into potent drugs. The killer wanted Rainbow to be awake for the torture he or she had in store, and knew how to taxidermy her after the deed was done.
        Whoever this pony is, they probably have a cutie mark for murder, for Celestia’s sake. He knew more, but it only brought more questions to the table. “Do you have a time of death?”
        “Before discovered…. three to five hours… maybe…” She laid another hoof on the pegasus’ skin. “Still warm.” Keen began to question that last statement before she interrupted with, “Then… Not now….” She yawned, yanked the clipboard from his grasp, and pushed Rainbow back into the locker. He followed her out of the morgue and into the sitting area once again, where she gave him a manila envelope. She got back up on her stool, laid her head down on her hooves, and fell asleep.
        Keen pocketed the autopsy report, whispered a “thank you,” to her, and traipsed out. This is going to be a long week, he thought as he sighed and headed to the station.