//------------------------------// // A Confounding Investigation // Story: The Ties that Bind // by the7Saviors //------------------------------// Inspector Bottom Line made his way past the many Royal Guards stationed around the perimeter of the Sparkle estate. His trot was brisk and a scowl was plastered on his muzzle. He was not a happy stallion. He had been called out to Canterlot from his office in Manehattan to investigate a crime scene on very short notice and hadn't even had time for coffee and a decent breakfast. Unfortunately there wasn't much you could do when the Princess herself called on you personally to do your job, so he bit down on his irritation and set off to do his job. Things were already in motion by the time he arrived. Curious and concerned onlookers were being asked - sometimes forcefully - to clear the area and all civilian traffic was being redirected away from the scene by the Royal Guard. Before he could get too far into the scene of the crime, he was stopped by two of the guards and asked to leave the premises. The disgruntled steel grey earth pony rolled his eyes and tapped the ID that was very clearly pinned to the outside of his jacket. The two guard looked it over, glanced at each other, and wordlessly stepped aside. Bottom Line stepped past the guards and into the the large house itself where he found the captain of the Royal Guard and the rest of the investigation team already on the scene. As he neared the captain he gave the main room a quick but thorough glance. The first thing that caught his immediate attention was how clean everything looked. Too clean. No obviously misplaced furniture, no sign of a struggle. Everything looked dusted, mopped, swept, and otherwise tidied up. He was contemplating taking a detour to the other rooms in the house when he saw the captain trotting up to him out of the corner of his eye. "Chief Inspector Bottom Line?" the captain asked as she stepped in front of the stallion. Bottom Line swept his gaze over the main room once more before turning his attention to the captain. "The one and only," he grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck with a sigh. The mare nodded, "I'm Captain Iron Heart of Princess Celestia's Royal Guard," she said with what Bottom Line noticed was a forced smile, "it's a pleasure to meet you." Bottom Line raised an eyebrow at the mare's name - a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Iron Heart who rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I get that a lot," she said dismissively. She turned and gestured for Bottom Line to follow, "I don't want to waste any more time so I'll explain the situation on the way." Bottom Line watched for a moment as the tall pegasus mare trotted towards a set of stairs at the other end of the room, weaving her way past the several ponies trying to collect evidence. After a moment, he let out another tired sigh, ran a hoof through his hastily combed maroon mane, and followed after her. "It's only ten in the morning and I can already tell I'm gonna need a drink after this," he muttered to himself, "wonder if Canterlot has any cafes that can brew up a decent cup of coffee or two... or three..." As the two headed up the stairs, Iron Heart pulled a small notebook and some photos from beneath her armor. She looked over the notebook briefly before speaking to Bottom Line. "We got ourselves a double homicide, Inspector," she stated without preamble, "that much is certain so far. The rest... not so much." Bottom Line's eyebrows rose slightly but he didn't say anything otherwise. "A husband and his wife, brutally murdered sometime late last night from what the coroner tells me." Bottom Line nodded and turned a stoic gaze and a practiced frown towards the captain. "Details?" he asked as they turned a corner and trotted down a long hallway. "It isn't pretty, Inspector Bottom Line," she warned, hoofing him the photos. Bottom Line took the photos and examined them closely, grimacing at the images. The first photo was of the body of an off-white mare splayed out in front of what looked like a bedroom closet that had been thrown open. Laying off to the side, just barely within the frame, was the mare's head. Bottom Line was suddenly thankful he hadn't eaten anything before he arrived. "Wouldn't be surprised if the Princess brought back the death penalty for this one..." he muttered with digust, "this is sick." Iron Heart nodded with a grim frown and gave Bottom Line a side glance. "Notice anything odd?" Bottom Line furrowed his brow as he continued to examine the photo. In front of the body he saw the scorch marks of what looked like an explosion that originated from within the closet. "...What the buck?" "See for yourself, Inspector." Bottom Line looked at Iron Heart in confusion before turning his gaze to where she was pointing. They had stopped in front of the destroyed doorway of a bedroom - the very same from the photo. The door itself looked to have been blown open from the outside and was currently resting splintered against a wall on the opposite side of the room. Like the main room downstairs, he gave the bedroom a quick and thorough glance. There were other ponies still gathering evidence from the scene, and unlike downstairs, there seemed to be plenty to gather. Just standing in the doorway he could see the signs of an intense struggle. the bed had been split down the middle, two dressers were smashed up against each other, and an entire row of bookshelves were knocked over, books now scattered all over the room. And then there was the blood. There was a bit spread across the floor here and there, but the broken bed seemed to be covered in it. He deduced that that was were one of the bodies must've been before the medical ponies removed it. He knew there'd be more somewhere inside from the photos. Speaking of photos... Bottom Line look back to the pictures and examined the one he hadn't seen yet. The photo showed a blue stallion all but crushed in between the two halves of the bed - blood splattered behind the body and pooling down to the floor below. "Coming?" Bottom Line blinked and looked over to Iron Heart. Apparently he had been examining the scene for longer than he thought, because standing in front of the two of them was a bright green unicorn mare whose entire body was encased in a translucent yellow glow. Looking to Iron Heart, he could see the same glow surrounding her. She looked at the Inspector with an expectant raise of her brow. He looked back down at the photos for a second before hoofing them back to Iron Heart who tucked them away in her armor. "I'll need to sterilize you before you can enter, Inspector," the green mare stated. Bottom Line grunted in affirmation and the mare lit up her horn. After a moment, he was wrapped in the same yellow aura that encased Iron Heart and the rest of the ponies inside. With that done he stepped into the bedroom. "You were able to identify the victims I take it?" he asked Iron Heart as he swept his eyes over the room once more. "The mare was Twilight Velvet," she answered, looking over her notebook, "36 years of age and mother to one Twilight Sparkle and one Shining Armor. The blue stallion was her husband, Night Light, 40 years of age." "And the children?" he asked, trotting over to examine the closet. "Missing. We couldn't find any bodies or signs that they had been part of whatever struggle took place here." "I wouldn't be so sure..." Bottom Line muttered, glancing back and forth between the large bloodstain near the closet and the closet itself. Iron Heart looked up from her notes and raised an eyebrow at Bottom Line. "What do you mean?" "Whose bedroom was this?" he asked suddenly. Iron Heart gave him a bemused look before flipping through her notes. "Sources say the room belonged to Twilight Sparkle. But I don't-" "What can you tell me about her and Shining Armor?" "Well," she flipped through more of her notes, "she's an eight year old filly with no cutie mark to speak of yet. Lavender fur, indigo mane with pink and violet highlights. Apparently she was a smart kid, read a lot. Liked to study magic and from what I was able to gather, it looks like she was on the fast track to being accepted into CSGU." Bottom Line nodded, his intense stare locked on the closet, specifically the scorch marks within. "And Shining Armor?" "Thirteen year old colt," she replied, "light grey coat, mane striped navy and baby blue, cutie mark is a pink six pointed star inside an indigo shield with three blue stars above it. Seemed to be a strong little guy, always trying to do right by his family - especially his little sister." She flipped to another page and gave an impressed nod after a moment, "Looks like this one was grooming himself to be a Royal Guard. Impressive drive for a colt his age." Bottom Line had finished his inspection just as Iron Heart finished her report and he turned to face the mare as he spoke. "Do you have any leads on where they might be? Or if they were foalnapped?" Iron Heart shook her head, "None. Princess Celestia has already sent out a search party to look for the two, but we have nothing to go on right now. We asked around, but there were no witnesses anywhere near the scene at the time." Bottom Line nodded to himself slowly before turning his gaze back towards the closet thoughtfully. "What about the perpetrator?" he asked turning back to Iron Heart, "anything?" "Absolutely nothing so far," she stated, not even bothering to look at her notes, "whatever pony did this didn't leave a single thing to link them back to the murders despite the... mess they left behind." Bottom Line blinked. "I... find that very difficult to believe, Captain," he said raising a skeptical eyebrow, "there has to be something, there always is." Iron Heart frowned at the Inspector. "We haven't been able to identify any evidence that specifically relates to another party inside the house other than the family. We searched every inch of this place and found nothing, Inspector. No fluids, fur, flesh, feathers, or weapon," she shook her head again, "not a single trace." "Hmmm..." He looked around the room and spotted a dark blue bespectacled unicorn stallion wearing what he recognized as the uniform of a researcher from the Institute of Magical Research and Development. He observed the stallion for a moment as he trotted around the room, his horn aglow and his eyes roaming over every surface he came across. "Gimme a minute," he finally replied to Iron Heart, "I'm gonna get a second opinion." "Do what you want, Inspector," Iron Heart responded, "but I'm telling you, this isn't gonna be a simple open-and-shut case." With that she put her notebook back in her armor and trotted away. He made his way over to the stallion and cleared his throat, causing the stallion to cease whatever he was doing and look at him curiously. "Can I help you?" he asked politely. "Maybe," Bottom Line replied, "would I be correct in assuming you were brought here to identify any lingering magical signatures that might've been left behind?" The researcher nodded in affirmation, "That's correct. Was asked to come out here by the Princess," he grimaced, "nasty business, this. But somepony's got to do it." "I know what you mean," Bottom Line agreed with a nod, "but that aside, have you found anything conclusive? Anything we can use?" "Well..." the stallion adjusted his glasses as he answered, "unfortunately I wasn't able to detect any foreign signatures in the room - or anywhere else in the house for that matter." Bottom Line gave the stallion an incredulous look. "You can't be serious," he replied with a scowl, "everypony has a magic signature they leave behind no matter how small. Every single unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony," he punctuated his statement with a stomp of his hoof, "you're really gonna stand there and tell me there was no signature left behind?" "Not at all," the researcher replied easily, causing the Inspector's eyebrows to raise in bewilderment. "Wha - then what are you talking about?" he growled. The dark blue unicorn turned to look at the open closet as he clarified. "If there was indeed a foreign signature to be found here, I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint it because of whatever happened in that closet," he looked back to Bottom Line, "you see, there was - and is - a magical signature present in this very room, probably several in fact. "Unfortunately, one extremely powerful signature has completely drowned out any others that might've shown up in my scan," he pointed to the blackened closet, "and it very clearly originated from the pony that caused that." Bottom Line stared at where the stallion had pointed with a contemplative frown, only half listening as the researcher continued. "The signature that was left behind is so potent, it covers the entire house - and even a bit of the yard outside. This makes it impossible for me to pick up anything else, and the reason that's a problem is because the signature doesn't belong to the perpetrator." "It belongs to one of the family members, right?" Bottom Line guessed. The researcher nodded with a frown. "Do you know who?" "After going through the magic signature registry for everypony living in the area..." he explained pulling out several documents from some saddlebags and reading them over, "I've managed to identify the one pony this unique signature belongs to, and let me tell you, it wasn't easy." "Who was the pony, professor?" Bottom Line repeated, already having good idea. The researcher looked at the documents once more before turning to the Inspector. "Twilight Sparkle."