Sherlock Hooves. Adventure one: Greg the griffon.

by 30bars

Chapter two: Rainbow Dash's Story

Chapter Two: Rainbow Dash’s Story.

As Sherlock was walking adjacent to a one way mirror installed in interrogation room B, he saw just how idiotic his dearstalker hat made him look. He tried adjusting it on his black and silver mane, but no matter how he arranged it, it still made him look like an idiot detective from the sixties. He peered over at his side kick that was walking down the hallway, looking serious and, may I also add, absolutely smashing in his groomed tan fur and bowler hat atop his head. Sherlock decided his fashion had to change.

“Watson do you perhaps have any extra bowler hats with you?” Sherlock was still staring at himself through the one way mirror. He was on the window side of the mirror though, but he could still recognize himself in the small reflection the window gave.

“Yea, I’m pretty sure my mom keeps some more in the back. Why?”

“Well I was thinking,” That was something Sherlock did a lot of, “If we want to get the most information from the mares in the next interrogation room, then I should probably look my best.” Sherlock lied. The real reason was because he just realized how much he hated his old hat.

“Um, Ok” Watson didn’t believe Sherlock. “You can probably ask my mom about it when she gets back with the books. I’m going to start interrogating our visitors.” Watson started to walk past Sherlock to Interrogation room C, but Sherlock stretched out his right forehoof, indicating Watson to stop walking and he drew in a breath making an “sssshhhhhhh” sound.

“What?” Watson sounded like he was just insulted.

“Well, you see, Watson, the thing is,” Sherlock began thinking of the right way to word his next sentence so it wouldn’t sound like he was insulting Watson. “I was kind of hoping that, maybe, you can go back to Greg’s house and find more clues. When you're all done you can come back here and we’ll both discuses what we found.

“What more clues do we need?” Watson really wanted to interrogate. It was fun, easy and you actually had pony to pony interaction. You don’t really talk to a lot of ponies when you’re on the field, so interrogation was what kept Watson sane. “And besides, the coroner’s office had probably taken Greg’s body and the bottle of poison away by now.” Watson walked past Sherlock, not looking back, and totally ignored his request. That is until Sherlock jumped in front of Watson path, forcing him to stop.

“Well, we got clues from the closet, remember. The coroners haven’t taken that away.” Sherlock tried to persuade his side kick. “Please, partner.” Sherlock put a lot of emphasis on the word “partner.” Watson could tell Sherlock called him his partner in order to do what he asked.

Watson sighed. “Sherlock, if I did search for more clues, then I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking! I don’t think it would be beneficial if I’m the one searching for clues. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to begin interrogation.” Watson walked past his partner, again and did not look back at him, again. “If this is about Sherlock breaking his fastest case solving record,” Watson thought to himself, “then he shouldn’t expect any help from me.”

Watson was a good ten feet away from his partner. Sherlock and Watson both had their backs tuned towards each other. Sherlock spoke up quietly, but loud enough for Watson to hear, “If I can tell you where to start looking,” He paused, “would you?”

Watson stopped walking. His back was turned to Sherlock and he let out a sigh of sympathy. He should have just darted for the interrogation room and completely ignored Sherlock, but instead he said, “Where do I possibly start looking for clues, Sherlock?”

Sherlock lightly smiled even though no one was there to see it. “Boxes,” was all he said.

“What?” Watson sounded confused and a little annoyed that Sherlock was wasting his time.

“Remember when we moved here from Manehattan?” Sherlock turned, facing the back of Watson.
“We’ve been in Ponyville exactly one week and six days.”

“So?” Watson turned as well, facing Sherlock who was lightly smiling.

“How many boxes did we use when we moved?” Sherlock started walking very, very slowly to Watson.

“I don’t know. Like, 40” Watson guessed.

“Close.” Sherlock was still walking slower than a snail’s pace toward his partner. “To hold all of our supplies we needed exactly 44 boxes.” Watson knew Sherlock was great at remembering things, so he believed that they used 44 boxes.

“So?” Watson didn’t know where Sherlock was going with the subject, but he realized that agreeing to investigate the house if Sherlock gave him a place to look was probably a bad idea.

“Now let me ask you this.” Sherlock was close enough to Watson now to speak in a loud whisper. “How many boxes did you see at Greg’s house?”

Watson tried to look back at the houses interior in his mind. He’s usually extremely observant about these types of things so he should have known if he saw any boxes. He thought as hard as he could, but didn’t remembered seeing any boxes at the house. He didn’t want to say, “There were no boxes in the house,” because he would have sounded like an idiot if there was. So instead, he said “I don’t recall seeing any boxes, Sherlock”

“That’s right!” Sherlock was standing next to Watson by now. “Why would someone move to Ponyville and not bring anything with them?”

“What if there were boxes in the bedrooms? We didn’t check in there.” Watson tried to reason. He really didn’t want to walk all the way back to Greg’s creepy house just to see if he had boxes in his bedroom.

“That’s the thing Watson, we didn’t check.” Watson groaned, loudly. Probably loud enough for all the mares in the interrogation room to hear. “So, if you can check the house for any boxes lying around then I can put that theory away and then you can come back and help me interrogate!” Sherlock had a forehoof around his aggravated side kick. “You did agree to check the house if I gave you a place to start, remember?”

Watson realized he was doomed. “I don’t want to.” Watson complained, but he knew his attempt where futile.

“Now listen here Watson,” Sherlock said loudly and seriously, “All I want you to do is check the bedrooms for boxes so we can put this theory to bed and to stop a mass murderer on the loose. I seriously doubt that any of those mares in there are the murderer so we need to work extremely hard to stop the perpetrator before he or she strikes again!”

Watson could have argued that the murderer only killed one griffin which doesn’t really qualify him or her to be titled mass murderer. Watson decided not to argue though, because that’s still one too many griffins to murder and justice still needed to be brought to him or her; Mass murderer or not. If justice was going to be brought, then the two detectives were going to need every clue they could find. Watson sighed knowing he was going to miss interrogation. “For Greg,” Watson paused, “I’ll do it.” Watson stopped looking at the floor and started looking at Sherlock, “But don’t expect a clue like the closet. We got lucky we found the stuff in there.

“That’s my boy!” Sherlock patted Watson on the back.

“Don’t ever call me that again.” Watson returned rapidly. Sherlock stopped patting Watson when he said that and removed his forehoof around his shoulder. Watson sighed, “Good bye, Sherlock, let’s meet back here say nine p.m.”

“That sounds good. That leaves me with about ten minutes of interrogation for each mare.”
“And it’s a twenty minute walk to Greg’s house and a twenty minute walk back so that leaves me exactly twenty minutes to look for boxes.”

“Not if you trot there, boy.” Watson rolled his eyes; So much for the not-calling-Watson-a-boy thing. He sighed one more time just because he was so upset about it all.

Without saying anything else Watson started to walk down the hallway.

“Trot, boy, trot!” Sherlock yelled out, “If you do find boxes maybe you can make it back before interrogation is over and help me finish!”

That motivated Watson enough. And he galloped away.

***************

Sherlock found a good sized bowler hat in Watson’s wardrobe and was currently staring at the new looking him in the wardrobes built in mirror. Everything was going perfect, except that he remembered he had to tell Alex something too. He made his way to the building’s lobby to see his receptionist typing at her typewriter and three books were lying stacked next to her on her desk. One book was considerably larger than the other two at the bottom o the stack. Sherlock looked at the books. Their titles were, Pine Trees From the Griffon's Land, Banished Plants of Equestria and the book at the bottom of the stack, The one that was about four inches thick was, Uses for Dragon Scales.

“You should check this one first.” Sherlock tapped the thick Dragon scale book. “It’s thicker and it’s full of the information we need.

Alexandra stopped typing and looked at Sherlock. “Me?” She wanted to know if she heard Sherlock correctly.

“Yes.”

“I can’t Sherlock I’m working.” She gestured to her typewriter. “I’m actually writing a newspaper article about you saying how many cases you’ve solved and you’re lucky I’m not mentioning all the times you hit on me.”

“Alex,” Sherlock spoke calmly, “Your son is looking for more clues and I’m going to be interrogating.” There was a long awkward silence in the room. “So,” Sherlock slid the colossal book across Alex’s desk toward his annoyed receptionist, “This is your new work.” Sherlock tapped loudly on the book twice, “You’re going to find out what Greg was doing with all the material we found in the closet."

Alexandra, just like her son, did not want to do what Sherlock said. She folded her fore hooves an looked at Sherlock with an “are you serious” expression. She was not about to read an entire book about dragon scales in one night.

“Now listen here Alex,” Sherlock said loudly and seriously, “All I want you to do is find what you can do with dragon scales, Laughing powder, West-Bolio pine tree leafs and frosting so we can find out what Greg was doing and stop a mass murderer on the loose. I seriously doubt that any of those mares in there are the murderer so we need to work extremely hard to stop the perpetrator before he or she strikes again!”

Alexandra rolled her eyes and took the book in her forehooves and cracked it open. Sherlock smiled. Apparently that speech works on all the Bells. “Don’t expect to have a smashing column in the newspaper though.” Alexandra said facing the book.

“Oh, and another thing!” Sherlock said, “I need you to get one of the mares in interrogation room C to meet me in interrogation room A. It’s more mysterious if they don’t see me all at once.”

Alexandra looked up from the book and said, “Interrogation room A? Why would you want to use that one?”

Sherlock remembered that about five days ago he used interrogation room A for a stallion that was a mud farmer. The mud farmer was very nervous and felt the need to attack Sherlock with his produce. Needless to say, the room got very messy and Sherlock decided he was never going to buy mud from that stallion, every. Not that Sherlock buys mud or anything it just brought him joy to say he was going to boycott the stallions company. “It’s not still all muddy is?” Sherlock was anxious. If interrogation room A was dirty then that would mean he would have use interrogation room B.

“I didn’t clean it.” Alexandra stated like Sherlock already knew that.

“I thought you stayed in after work to clean it!”

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know, but I left you a fifty bit bonus on your desk.”

“Sherlock, I didn’t know you gave me those bits for cleaning the room. I thought you were just hitting on me.”

“I don’t love you that much!” Sherlock realized what he said. Not only was it rude it was also a lie. “Ok, maybe I do, but that’s not the point!”

“Why don’t you just use interrogation room B?” Alexandra suggested.

“That the point! Interrogation room B was made for children.”

“Those mares looked pretty young.”

“No, filly children! The table is too small, the lighting is perfect and the walls are painted with flowers and rainbows.”

“Did you say the lighting was perfect? What’s bad about that?” Alexandria tried making the idea of using interrogation room B not that bad.

“Interrogations are supposed to be ominous and scary for the pony of interest. Imperfect lighting really gets them creeped out, you know?"

Alexandra smiled lightly and rapped her foreleg around Sherlock, “Now listen here Sherlock,” Alexandra said loudly and seriously, “All I want you to do is use interrogation room B so we can find out what has happened to Greg and stop a mass murderer on the loose.”

Sherlock blushed. I little of it was because Alexandra was touching him and the other little bit was because he realized Alex must of heard him saying that speech to Watson.

Alexandra spoke in a very cheesy, serious voice, “I seriously doubt that any of those mares in there are the murderer so we need to work extremely hard to stop the perpetrator before he or she strikes again!” Alexandra smiled knowing that she caught Sherlock trying to use the same speech twice.

Sherlock looked down. Everypony he worked with made sacrifices and now it was his turn. He sighed. “I’ll be waiting in interrogation room B. Send in one of the mares soon.” Sherlock made his way to the door that lead to the back room.

“Anypony in particular you want to speak to first?” Alexandra called out now looking down at her book.

“No.” Sherlock said as he walked through the door.

************

Sherlock shuddered as he walked in the room. The flowers and rainbows that were painted on the walls had smiley faces on them. Humongous, smiley faces. Instead of the room having one dull pendant lamp hanging from the ceiling over the table; small little lamps with their own tiny desk where placed everywhere. At least the chair wasn’t colorful. Sherlock sat on the grey chair, but had to rearrange himself to feel comfortable. Curse this room. Hopefully the pony of interest won’t think Sherlock as a joke and laugh at him instead of giving him information. Sherlock heard the door from interrogation room C open. Things were about to begin, Sherlock sat up strait in his chair took a deep breath, looked straight at the door in front of him an braced himself for the interrogation to begin.

Alexandra opened the door and gestured to a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, to sit in the chair across from Sherlock. As the rainbow manned mare stepped into the room, Alexandra closed the door behind her. She sat in the chair in front of Sherlock examining the painted walls.

Sherlock wished Watson was here. If he was, he would have used his super observant skills to get a ton of information from the mare just by looking at her. “You must be Rainbow Dash,” Sherlock estimated. It wasn’t that hard of an estimate though. There was one mare in the group called Rainbow dash and her rainbow mane probably had something to do with the word “rainbow” in her name.

“Yeah.” She spoke in a deep voice for a mare.

Sherlock noted in his mind that Rainbow Dash's rainbow mane clashed with the painted walls. He wished his mane looked that cool. Not rainbow colored or anything, just cooler than what he had.

“I swear, I didn’t murder Greg!” Rainbow dash pleaded, “I didn’t even know he was murdered until-”

“It’s ok,” Sherlock cut in. “I don’t believe any of you did. I just want to know if Greg told you anything or if you saw Greg do anything.”

Rainbow Dash Blinked. She didn't know what to say next

“Tell me about yourself, Rainbow Dash.” Sherlock wanted to get her to start talking and to feel more comfortable. Some ponies don't handle death well, even if they had nothing to do with the death. If she felt more comfortable then Sherlock would get more information from her and right now he needed all the information he could get his hooves on.

“Um, well, I really like to fly.” Sherlock showed fake interest in Rainbow Dash statement.

“Do you like to fly fast or try new tricks?”

“Both. A lot of my tricks come from my speed.”

At least now Rainbow Dashes mind wasn’t set on the whole creepiness of the situation. “Really?” Sherlock showed interest in his voice, “Ever since I was a filly I wished I was a pegasus.”

“Oh it’s so awesome flying through clouds and looking at all view below. Especially when you’re as fast as me!”

Sherlock chuckled at Rainbows boast. She smiled a little too. This was good, you want to be friends with the pony of interest when they have information you want. “You know Rainbow, you remind me so much of myself when I was your age.” Oh, that one was a good line, excellent in this situation.

“Really? I didn’t think of you as a competitive pony, Dr. Hooves.”

“Please, call me Sherlock.” Sherlock said cheerfully. The beginning introductions were going great. Now it was time to get what he wanted. Sherlock cleared his throat and stopped smiling to show the seriousness of the mood. “Now, Rainbow,” Sherlock paused for effect, “ What did you see Greg do?”
Rainbow stopped smiling too. She knew she was going to have to talk about Greg sooner or later and quite frankly, she missed him already. “Me and Fluttershy had him over for dinner.”

“That’s all?”

“No, he also helped me get out of a bear trap.” Rainbow remembered all the adventures he had with Greg earlier that day and wished the horrible misfortune didn’t happen to him.

“What?” Sherlock said more rudely than he expected to, “Wouldn't your hoof come clean off if you were in a bear trap?"

“No it was more of a net that would tie you up if you stepped on it. It was meant for bears, but I accidental flew into it because I had a bird house on my head.” Rainbow said seriously.

Sherlock blinked. He thought he would ask something, but then he didn’t. He didn’t know where to begin asking Rainbow Dash about her crazy day. “Why was there a bear trap...how did a bird house...what?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Sherlock sighed. “Ok, it would seem we have a tad bit of miscommunication here.” Sherlock had an idea, “I know, why don’t you tell me exactly everything that has happened in your day.”

“From when the time I first saw Greg?”

“No, Sooner than that. Start from when you woke up in the morning all the way to when you were asked to be interrogated.

Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath. “Ok, but you’re going to have to believe everything I tell you. No matter how crazy it sounds."

“Only if you speak the truth.” Sherlock lightly smiled, which was probably something Rainbow Dash had never seen before.

Rainbow Dash straitened up in her chair, rested her forelegs on the table and began to tell Sherlock everything that had happened today.

***************************

Rainbow Dash liked to sleep in. Especially when she didn’t have work. She felt bad for all the ponies that had to work on such a beautiful day while she was out enjoying it. She would of slept in longer, no doubt, if she didn’t have a doctor’s appointment to go to. The doctor wanted to be absolutely, one hundred percent sure Rainbows wing had healed properly. It had been almost a month since she was hospitalized from the crash and she felt that her wing was fine. However, the doctor insisted to make sure everything was all right.

So Rainbow flew down to the hospital.

***************************

“No, Rainbow Dash, I need your story to be more detailed.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t just say: I flew down to the hospital. I need clues. And something that might not seem like a clue to you could be a clue to me. So I need you to tell me,” Sherlock started thinking of examples, “Who and what you saw. What you smelled. How you felt.” Sherlock had paused after each sentence to think of a new example, “You know things like that.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and started her story again from where she left off.

***************************

Cold, bitter wind threw itself against the helpless pegasus. She didn’t mind the cold though. She was used to it by now. The air was thinner and the water evaporated quicker than usual at such a high altitude, making the poor creature thirst for a liquid to drink. As much as Rainbow didn’t want to make the endeavor down to the hospital, she knew she was going to have to. She spread out her wings and let the cold air rush through them, giving Rainbow the shivers. She dived from her cloudy home and flapped her wings to stay afloat. When she felt that she flapped enough, she held her wings horizontally letting her glide down to the ground. The air smelt so clean and so pure. Rainbow watched as she flew over the tops of trees and buildings. She saw all the ponies below her that already started their day long before Rainbow woke up. Rainbow thought to herself “I wonder how fast I can make it to the hospital.” So she lifted her wings and pushed backwards with a very hard force, thrusting herself forward at a high velocity. As she came closer to the hospital, she made her wings face up, causing her to slow down. As her hooves made contact on the grassy earth right outside the hospitals entrance, she smiled.

***************************

“Is that detailed enough for you, Sherlock?”

What was it with ponies saying Sherlock like it was an insult? “Um, actually, what you were doing before was just fine.” Sherlock needed Rainbow Dash to like him again if they were going to cooperate.

Rainbow Dash rolled her ruby colored eyes and continued her story.

***************************

When Rainbow opened the door she was surprised to see two familiar faces there. The first face was Spike. Spike is Twilight Sparkle’s baby brother; who is a one foot tall, light purple dragon, for all of those ponies who don’t know that already. Spike had bandages tied around his waist and back. The second familiar face was tying those bandages around Spike. It was Gilda, the griffin. Rainbow Dash used to be good friends with Gilda. That is until their fight they had about a year ago. Many harsh names were said and Gilda left the village and Rainbow never heard from here since. Until, today of course.

“Gilda?” Rainbow wanted to make sure he was remembering her old friend right.

Gilda finished tightening Spike’s bandages and turned to face the doorway Rainbow was standing in. “Rainbow Dash!” She cried out. It was hard to forget a pony with a rainbow mane like Rainbow Dash's.

“What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked, still stunned to see Gilda there.

“I’m here in the hospital to volunteer. Twilight told me it was a great place to help ponies out.” Gilda turned to Spike and asked, “Is that bandage on good enough?” She asked the dragon.

“Yea, it’s...fine.” Without saying anything else Spike walked past Rainbow Dash and out the doors to the outside.

“What...What happened to him?” Rainbow was still in shock seeing her old friend again.

“Oh, I think he fell out of a tree or something.” There was a long awkward silence after Gilda said that. She cleared her throat and spoke sincerely, “Listen, Dash, about what happened last time we talked...” Gilda sighed. “I...I really acted like a jerk.”

“Oh, you were worse than that!” Rainbow joked. Gilda cheeks blushed.

“You’re totally right Dash. I was worse than a jerk.” Gilda looked down from shame. “Do...do you forgive my worse than jerkiness?”

“YES!” Rainbow was glad to have Gilda back as a friend. The pegasus and griffin took a step closer to each other and hugged it out. “Hey!” Rainbow Dash suddenly had a great idea. She pulled away from the hug ad said, “Do you want to go flying and racing and pulling pranks and-"

“Slow down there Dash.” Gilda cut in and chuckled. “Man, you want to do everything fast don’t you.” Rainbow gave a confused look to her friend. “Don’t you think we should do those things after your checkup?”

Rainbow chuckled to from her own stupidity. “Right. Ok then I’ll see you when I’m all done!”

Thankfully the checkup didn’t take too long. Although, it didn’t help that Rainbow kept asking the doctor “Are we done now?” literally every five seconds. When the doctor confirmed that everything was fine with Rainbow she bolted out the door and met with Gilda. Gilda told a nurse that she was going to take her break and the two fliers were off.

***************************

“But something didn’t feel right.” Rainbow stopped talking after she said that.

“What do you mean.” Sherlock had to ask. You want to be cautious of the pony of interest’s feelings. If they get angry or sad then they could stop talking.

“It didn’t seem like the Gilda I knew. She let me win races, she complimented my moves and once when I asked her to, Top that! She just said, I can’t Rainbow, you’re a way better flier than me.”

“And this bothered you?” Sherlock spoke in his soothing psychiatrist voice.

“Yes! Gilda is always competitive and always thinks she’s the best.”

“Well, it seems that she might of changed.”

“But I don’t like the changed Gilda. I guess I secretly liked the old one.”

“But did everypony else like the old Gilda?”

“No, actually they all hated her. And she hated everypony too.” Rainbow sighed. “It’s not like her to change.”

Sherlock felt somewhat sad for Rainbow, but things were getting off track. This was turning into psychology time and not interrogation time. “So how long did you two fly for?”

“Hours.” Rainbow sounded nostalgic remembering the good time.

“So, you stopped flying after you couldn’t take anymore of Gilda’s niceness?”

Rainbow sighed. “No, Gilda’s Brother had to borrow her for a little bit.”

Sherlock got excited for the first time since interrogation started. Greg was just mentioned. Sherlock pulled out his note pad and began taking notes of the future victim.

***************************

“Hey, Gilda!” Greg called out from the ground. “I need to talk to you!”

“What’s up?” Gilda yelled back from the cloud she was resting on.

Rainbow was just about to attempt a sonic rainboom, but was rudely interrupted by what looked like another griffin. “Who’s that?” Rainbow said loud enough for Gilda to hear, but not loud enough for the stranger on the ground to hear.

“Oh! You must’ve never met my brother. Come on down and I’ll introduce ya!” Gilda leaped off her cloud and started falling to the ground.

Rainbow did the same. Her brother? In all the years Rainbow Dash had known Gilda she never knew that she had a brother. Heck, Gilda never even mentioned him so how should the pegasus know? As the two landed on the ground Rainbow noticed that the new griffin did show some resemblance to Gilda. She also noticed that besides Greg was an empty, dark purple basket.

“Greg, this is Dash.” Rainbow Dash silently waved at Greg, “Dash, this is my brother, Greg.”

“Oh, so you’re Rainbow Dash. Gilda has said a lot about you.”

“Yep, that’s me. The best flyer in all of Equestria!” Rainbow put her hoof on her chest.

Greg chuckled, “You might have some competition though, have you seen Gilda fly.”

Rainbow wanted to say, “NO! She’s been letting my fly while she just sat on her butt and watched from a cloud!” But instead she said “Yea, she’s pretty good.”

Greg felt that now was a good time to stop the conversation he was currently having and start a new one. Greg smiled at Rainbow and turned to his sister. “Gilda we need to talk.”

“Ok, what’s up?” Gilda asked Greg again.

“Come here” Greg grabbed Gilda by her wing and pulled her aside so he could whisper to her.

Unfortunately, Rainbow could not hear the conversation between the brother and sister. She did hear Gilda say in a loud whisper, “Ah, come on! Don't be such a baby!” Rainbow felt left out as the almost silent conversation continued for about two minutes. It ended when Gilda annoyingly sighed and said,

“I’m sorry Dash, but my brother wants to go into the Everfree forest to collect some plant sample for a project and he's too big of a wuss to go alone.” Gilda paused, not sure if Rainbow got what she was saying. “So I'm going to go into the forest with him.”

Rainbow frowned. “Can I come with you?” She asked hopefully.

“Trust me Dash, It’s going to be extremely boring in there. Why do you think I don't want to go?” Gilda put a taloned claw on Rainbow's shoulder, “Stay here and I'll be back in a few.”

Rainbow was a bit disappointed Gilda rejected her like that, but she was becoming more and more tired of the new Gilda so instead she said, “Alright, I guess I’ll see you later, but I'm probably going to be napping on a cloud, instead of being here.”
Gilda chuckled at Rainbow and put her talon on her shoulder again. “Dash you haven't changed at all.” Gilda tapped Rainbows shoulder a couple of times, took a few paces backwards and she and her brother flew off the ground and into the direction of the forest.

Although no pony was around to hear Rainbow, she said, “And you’re an entirely new griffin.”

Whenever Rainbow Dash is sad, she would walk for a bit instead of fly. She didn't walk fast and, depending on how depressed she was, never spoke a word. She had done her “walk of despair” for a long sixty minutes until something interesting happened. While she was strolling down the street she saw, lying in the middle of the dirt road, a cupcake. The cupcake had green icing with a cherry on its tip. It was an odd combination having a cherry on top of a green cupcake. Who was the owner of this colorful pastry? Rainbow looked around her surroundings and saw noppony in sight. Since nopony was there she started talking to the cupcake.

“Well whoever lost ya couldn’t be missing ya!” Rainbow picked up the cupcake in her hoof and took a large, satisfying bite.

Immediately after the cupcake touched Rainbow’s taste buds, she violently spate out the pastry that was in her mouth and dropped the rest of the cupcake on the ground. It tasted horrible. No, worse than that. It was more along the lines of horrendous, appalling and abhorrent. Rainbow coughed and made very loud gagging sounds. She could still taste the wretched thing in her mouth and unfortunately had nothing to get the taste out. At least now her mind wasn't on Gilda.

Rainbow heard loud hoof steppes coming from down the road. Rainbow looked up to see who had arrived and she saw a distraught looking Pinkie Pie accompanied with Fluttershy. Pinkie saw the half eaten cupcake on the ground and yelled in horror, “YOU ATE MY CUPCAKE!”

“That was yours!?” Rainbow could hardly believe why Pinkie Pie would ever get a cupcake so fowl tasting.

“Yeah, it was mine! I dropped it here and when I realized it was gone, I followed my hoof steps backwards to find MY BEST FRIEND munching on my desert!” Pinkie pie started breathing heavily when she was done screaming.

“Pinkie, that cupcake was awful!” Rainbow tried to point out. “Why would you get it?”

Pinkie gasped. “You didn't even enjoy it! Well there goes a perfectly good watermelon cupcake down the drain!”

“Watermelon!? Pinkie that tasted NOTHING like watermelon!”

“Yes it did! You obviously don't like watermelon!”

“Pinkie I beat you in a watermelon eating contest last week remember?”

Pinkie went silent when she remembered seeing Rainbow Dash win first place in the watermelon eating contest. Then she yelled, “YOU ATE MY CUPCAKE!!”

“I'm sorry ok! Listen, I'll bake you a new cupcake that's a million times better, alright?” Rainbow held out a hoof so she and Pinkie could have shook on it, but instead Pinkie made a jittering sound. Still holding a hoof up, Rainbow asked, “What was that?”

Pinkie looked at her tail. “Hmm, twitchy tail. So that means,” Pinkie pie looked up and screamed, “LOOK OUT!!”

Rainbow Dash had no idea what was going on. Before she could look up in the direction Pinkie was pointing, something landed on her and her entire world went black. She didn't know what that “something” was, but the fact that it hurt when it landed on Rainbow and also covered up her eyes, probably wasn’t a good thing.

Fluttershy yelled, “My birdhouse!” giving Rainbow a hint that a bird house had fell on her.

Apparently, the little hole carved on the side of the birdhouse to let birds in, had made its way on Rainbow's neck so she couldn't see a thing.

With the fallen bird house around Rainbow's neck, she panicked and started to kick and buck. She could hear Pinkie and Flutershy talking, but Rainbow couldn't make it out. In a panic, Rainbow dash tried to smash the bird house on the ground by hitting her head on it. Then she remembered that there was a mountain side to the left of her. If Rainbow could fly into the cliff hard enough, maybe the birdhouse would break.

Rainbow leaped up into the air and started flying quickly to her left. Rainbow was expecting to crash into a hillside by now, but the crash didn’t come. This didn't make any sense. Unless Rainbow was flying in the opposite direction a hill should have come up. If she was flying the wrong way, that would mean she was headed into the Everfree forest.

Rainbow knew she was flying the wrong way when her right wing hit the tip of a tree and caused her to spin and fall very, very quickly.

Rainbow Dash was lost in sense of direction because the bird house was still clung to her neck. Rainbow Dash started to spin uncontrollably and then her back hooves made contact to a tree branch, causing her to spin more. When Rainbow hit the ground, it was very unpleasant. She bounced and slid from all the momentum she built up flying. Somehow, the birdhouse was still around Rainbows neck. Right when Rainbow thought that her crash landing was going to be over, she felt something new. She heard a snap and then something that felt like a net, wrapped itself around Rainbow and carried her a few feet off the ground. Rainbow felt around her and she found out that a net was definitely around her.

Rainbow had no clue what just happened, but then she heard a familiar voice say, “Rainbow Dash! Is that you?”

“...yeah. Who are you?” The birdhouse that surrounded Rainbows head altered her voice a
little bit.

“It's me, Greg. How did you get trapped up there and why is there a birdhouse around your head?”

“To be honest Greg, I have absolutely no idea how this happened.”

Greg chuckled. “Ok, let me untie that net that has you trapped first, then I'll see what I can do about the bird house.” Rainbow heard the flaps of wings come closer to her and then heard Greg’s voice right next to herself say, “Man, these are gnarly screws.” Rainbow didn't move. She heard Greg struggling with something. “I can’t get these blasted screwes holding the net up loose. Do you think the hunter would mind if I just cut his net up with my talon?”

“Whatever gets me out.”

Greg chuckled again. “Ok, here goes nothing.” As Rainbow heard the snap of each strand being broken, the net's grip got looser and looser. Pretty soon she felt Greg's talons grab hold of her and pulled her out. Greg slowly descended toward the ground holding Rainbow in his claws. When the two got close enough to the ground, Greg let go of Rainbow.

Rainbow then heard the sound of wood being cut. She guessed that Greg was also cutting the birdhouse with his talon so she remained still. Then a few seconds later she saw a crack of light open up giving her a full view of the world around her. She could see again. Greg was standing awkwardly close to Rainbow and was holding in each claw half of the broken birdhouse. Greg threw the wood pieces aside and said, “Hey, Rainbow Dash, want to walk with me through the forest? Gilda and I kind of got separated.”

Without thinking about it, Rainbow said, “Uh, Yeah sure.” Greg smiled and picked up the dark purple basked Rainbow saw him with just a couple of hours ago. Greg put the basket around his neck like it was a necklace. Rainbow presumed that Greg put the basket around his neck so he could carry it around and also talk at the same time. “What’s in the basket?” Rainbow asked, trying to start up a conversation. There was a matching dark purple cloth hanging over the basket so Rainbow couldn’t see what was inside.

“Oh, this?” Greg looked down at the basket. “Science stuff. You wouldn’t like it. Hey, I saw this great cliff with an amazing view and I think it would be perfect for gliding.”

Greg started walking and Rainbow Dash followed. She felt there was going to be an awkward silence while walking with this mutual friend, so she tried to start up another conversation. “So......do you like science?”

Without looking back Greg answered, “Yeah, its pretty fun. The griffin king has actually wants me to do little projects for him because I have such a vast knowledge of everything.”

Now things were getting somewhere. “You’ve talked to the griffin king? What’s he like?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve talked PLENTY of times to him. In fact, I shudder whenever I have to speak to him. He always wants me working and finishing deadlines...”

“You should definitely meet Twilight Sparkle. She’s into science and stuff too.”

“I’ve already met her.”

“Oh.” There was an awkward silence. “What’s the griffin king like?” Rainbow asked again.

“Don’t ever meet him! That’s what I have to say. He hates a lot of things. And if he does like you then he’s a jerk to you.”

“That reminds me of somepony I know.” Rainbow didn’t want to tell Greg that, that “somepony” was actually Gilda.

“Do you smell that?” Greg stopped walking and looked puzzled. Rainbow didn’t want to ruin his concentration so she remind silent. “I want to say, it smells like...bear.”

As soon as Greg finished saying “bear” a loud filly sounded scream was heard. Greg quickly looked at Rainbow to see if she heard it to. When Rainbow and Greg went eye-locked Greg removed the basket from his neck and ran at a full sprint towards the scream. Rainbow tried to keep up with Greg, dodging tree branches and maneuvering her body around trees, but Greg was an incredibly fast runner.

The trees suddenly thinned out and Rainbow saw Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle standing on the edge of a cliff being surrounded by a big. Black. Bear. The bear had an outstretched paw ready to swipe at the three at any second. But before the beast could, Greg, who was running like a bullet, tackled the bear and started struggling with it on the ground.

Rainbow watched in awe as she just witnessed Greg save the cutie mark crusaders. Greg had a tight grip on the bear, but the beast was still able to get blows on the much smaller griffin.

“Go save them!” Greg managed to yell while still holding on the bear. The two predators were fighting awfully close to the edge of the cliff and the three fillies couldn’t get around them.

Rainbow flew into the sky, over Greg and the bear and grabbed the three nervous looking fillies in her hoof and carried them to a safer spot. Once Greg saw the four ponies were safe the fight got more interesting. Greg flailed and struggled more with the bear. Then Greg gave a mighty roar that sounded just like a lions and pushed off the ground. The push had direct contact with the bear and it was enough force to send him falling off the cliff.

Greg breathed heavily and stared down the cliff watching the bear fall. He turned around, clutched his shoulder and started walking toward Rainbow with a limp. “Is everypony alright?”

“We are, but what about you?” Rainbow asked.

“I’ll be fine, just some scrapes.”

“Oh, no you won't!” A new soothing female voice said. “Not without my help!” It was Flutershy. She flew over Rainbow and landed next to Greg. “Let me see your shoulder.” Greg moved his talon off of his injured shoulder and Flutershy gasped when she saw the damage. “You’re coming with me right away!”

“Where’s that?” Greg asked.

“In my cottage. We’re going to get that looked at pronto!” Fluttershy softly, but spoke with assertion.

Greg weighed his options. “Alright, Flutershy as long as you don’t treat me like one of your injured animals.” Greg started to fly. “But wait, I have to get my basket.” Greg flew to the trees to get his basket where he dropped it. Moments later all the ponies could see Greg fly above the trees with the dark purple basket around his neck saying, “Ok Fluttershy, lead the way!”

Fluttershy looked over at Rainbow and said, “Um, could you carry the girls, if that's alright with you…”

“Sure.” Rainbow said cheerfully. Fluttershy flew up in the air to show Greg where to go while Rainbow scooped up the girls and followed after the two a few feet behind.

The flight wasn’t too long, fortunately. As they all landed in Fluttershy’s front yard, Fluttershy said to Rainbow, “Could you take the girls home to their families,” Fluttershy stared at the cutie mark crusaders, “and make sure they found out what they were up too.”

“Ok.” Rainbow answered. Without saying anything else, Rainbow flew up carrying one filly in each hoof and had another filly riding on her back. Rainbow decided to only fly five feet off the ground just in case she dropped somepony. “You know,” Rainbow started to say, “You guys really shouldn’t go in the forest alone. You would have been toast if Greg wasn’t there.”

“You’re right Dash we won’t ever go alone again! Please don’t tell anypony!” Scootaloo pleaded while riding on Rainbows back.

“Trust me scoot,” Rainbow just made up that nickname, “If you get punished then you’ll think twice before waltzing alone into the forest.”

Scootaloo slouched, knowing a harsh punishment was coming. Rainbow saw Apple Jack walking alone down the road, looking agitated. Rainbow decided that she would start by telling her friend what the fillies had done. “Hey, A.J!” Rainbow called out to get her attention. Apple Jack turned. “I just think you should know that someponies were out in the forest and almost got mauled by a bear!” Rainbow could tell the news didn’t help A.J’s already rotten looking mood.

“What in tarnation!? Is everypony alright?” She said in her heavy southern accent.

“Yeah, everpony is fine, thanks to Greg.”

Apple Jack looked at her younger sister. “I thought I told ya girls not to go tah the forests!” The Girls looked at the orange mare with an “I’m sorry” face. Apple Jack gave an aggravated sigh, trying her best not to scream. “Come here apple bloom.” Apple Jack thought it would be awkward for Scootaloo not having to talk to any parents; being an orphan and all, so she added, “An’ you to Scootaloo! Come ‘ere” Scootaloo jumped from Rainbow’s back and followed Apple Jack and Apple Bloom to their House.

Since Rainbow only had to carry one other filly, Sweetie Belle, she was able to fly much faster to Rarity’s house, the Carousel Boutique. After about fifteen seconds of flying, the two made it to the house/shop. “Rarity, I have to tell you something. A certain somepony has been naughty!” Rainbow said while knocking on the front door. Rarity came out with a confused look on face at first, but her expression quickly changed to anger when she saw Rainbow holding her little sister.

“Please tell me you didn’t go in the forest.”

“Uh...well...we knew Greg would save us.” Sweetie Belle tried to reason.

“What?”

“Greg saved them from a bear attack by pushing it off a cliff.” Rainbow informed.

Rarity gasped from shock. “That’s two ponies that almost died today! Sweetie Belle go to your room this instant!”

Sweetie Belle trudged herself inside. Rainbow was about to question what Rarity meant when she said “That’s two ponies that almost died today!” but before she could speak Rarity spoke up. “So you’ve actually talked to Greg?”

“Yeah, we were talking for a bit.”

“Where is he? I feel that we didn’t have a proper introduction.”

“He’s over at Fluttershy’s cottage right now. You can walk there with me if you want.”

“That would be lovely.” Rarity closed and locked the door to make sure nopony tried to escape and started to walk with Rainbow. The two didn’t talk much during the walk. When they got to Fluttershy’s cottage they saw Greg walk out the front door with a bandage on his shoulder and the dark purple basket with the dark purple cloth around his neck.

“You’re leaving?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, I have a lot of science stuff to catch up on.” Rainbow noted that Greg looked pretty upset that he had to work now. “Goodbye.” And with that Greg flew off.

“Well...Some other time then.” Rarity said while watched the griffin fly out of sight. “He’ll be here tomorrow I suppose. I guess I’ll introduce myself then.”

“No. No.” Fluttershy said softly, “How about we make Greg some dinner and invite him and Gilda to it.”

Rainbow pondered the idea for a little bit and said, “That’s a great idea.”

***************

“So for the next two hours we all helped make dinner. I made the corn salad, Rarity made a chocolate cake and Fluttershy tried to cook up fish.”

Sherlock was a bit stunned that Fluttershy prepared a food with meat.

“Fluttershy said Greg was a carnivore or something and that he only ate meat. It was really hard for Fluttershy to bake and we had to help Fluttershy not pass out.

“Who’s we?” Sherlock asked.

“Oh, while Fluttershy was in town she got Applejack to come to dinner too. Me and A.J finished our dishes early and helped out Fluttershy.”

“What time would say dinner started?”

“Around six thirty, six forty-fiveish”

Sherlock remembered that Greg was murdered around seven thirty and he silently wished that, that time would never come in the story.

Rainbow sighed. “So at dinner, Greg started talking about protons and neutrons and how the sun will blow up in a billion years. Greg tried my corn salad and said it was good ant that he might switch to being an omnivore.” Rainbow sighed again, louder than the first sigh. “Then Greg had such concerned face after we told him he was all of our friends. He got up from the table and said that he had something to do.”

“What time was it?

“Seven twenty five.” Rainbow was struggling to hold tears back and Sherlock winced when Rainbow said what time it was in the story. “And he...he never came back.”

Sherlock closed his eyes in despair because he knew what must have happened.

“We waited for a little bit at the cottage,” Rainbow continued, “and after a while we all decided to check on him. But when we all got to his house,” Rainbow started to cry, “We saw police tape all over the place,” Rainbow sniffed because she was crying more, “and police officers were taking blood from a body.” Rainbow cried more heavily, “Then Fluttershy asked the officers what had happened. And they said Greg committed suicide.” Rainbow focused on her breathing and that calmed her down a bit. “Me and Fluttershy cried, A.J and Rarity were also very sad. We all sat down at a park bench and talked for a few minutes. A.J and Rarity were trying to calm us down and after a while Twilight came a got us and said someone wanted to interrogate us. She said that the police believed he was murdered.”

“And so now you’re here.” Sherlock finished. Rainbow shook her head as a tear ran across her face.

Sherlock looked down at his empty notepad. He was too engaged in the story that he forget to take notes. “Thank you, Ms. Dash you are free to go now.” Rainbow got up from her chair and wiped her eyes. “And if you could send in one of your friends I’d appreciate it.”

“Ok.” Rainbow said in a teary voice and left the room.

He thought that towards the end of the story Rainbow got a little vague. He hopped that the other mares would go into more detail about the dinner they had. Sherlock still had a few questions he wanted to ask Rainbow, but he decided not to because he would have other chances to ask the other mares the same question. He also noted Rainbow looked too upset to talk anymore so she probably didn’t want to answer Sherlock’s questions. The question that was on his mind was, “Why wasn’t Gilda at the dinner? Rainbow never mentioned her being there, but she could have been,” Sherlock supposed. What did Gilda do today and where is she now? Sherlock had reason to believe that she could be a suspect, if only he had more information about her. Hopefully one of the mares talked to her as well as Greg. That way Sherlock could know where Gilda had been and what she was doing. The way she just changed her personalities like that also seemed sketchy.

Comments

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Author's note: So this is going to be the main idea of the story. Sherlock is going to hear how each of the ponies day went to solve the murder. There were a lot of unexplained things that happened in Rainbows story, but they will make seance once everpony else has spoken.

As always, I appreciate any constructive criticism and if you see any grammar or spelling errors please tell me so I can fix them.

Hope everyone enjoys this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!

[andmos]

Good writhing. Hold your grammar issures and this story will cut throoth the eged.

[IamShadowDash]

Great story. Yeah, a few errors but all in all not bad indeed!