//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: B.B.B.F.F. // Story: Equestria Noir Case 3 "Brothers in Blood" // by Jacoboby1 //------------------------------// Equestria Noir Case 3 “Brothers in Blood” Chapter 1 “B.B.B.F.F.” I opened my eyes to stare up at Twilight’s ceiling. I was lying on her couch. The blanket I had was long discarded to the floor. I never sat still when I slept; it drove Twilight crazy for the first couple of nights since I became essentially her roommate. She’d have to learn to put up with it for a while at least. Under normal circumstances I would’ve leapt for joy at the thought of a mare wanting to share a house with me. But this was Twilight and she wasn’t the best roommate I’ve ever had. She would often spend late nights studying, keeping me up with her candle flickering from her room. I never complained but it was a small peeve I had with her. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that Twilight is willing to share her home with me. In fact I'm a little too grateful about it. I just found it harder and harder lately to resist the temptation to join her in for a “Private Study Session”. No pun intended. I rolled over off of the couch and shook my head to get rid of the sleepiness. I put the blanket back in its cupboard where it belongs. I didn’t want Twilight to accuse me of being a bad guest. I looked up as Twilight descended the stairs from her room. Her mane in a state of bedhead few have ever seen. “Morning Private, sleep well?” She said trying to be polite. “I slept fine, though you really shouldn’t stay up so late at night” I said honestly She shook her head “I had to send a report about last week's case to the Princess last night” She yawned a little “Sorry if I disturbed you” I shook my head “I could’ve helped Twilight, I could’ve wrote a fine report to the Princess” She smirked “As your assistant I can tell you that your ability to write letters is lacking. As your friend I can tell you that you should just leave the letter writing to me” “If you say so Twi, where’s Spike?” I said looking around. “He’s helping out Rarity today; luckily Owyloysius is capable of covering for his work” She said after fixing her mane with a brush. I looked over at Twilight’s pet owl. I don’t know why but the nocturnal avian gave me the creeps. Maybe it was just the eyes or the fact he could only say “Who?” he was a case for another day though. I shook my head and looked back to Twilight as she went to work at her desk. Twilight looked at me for a sec “You know that spare room is available if you want it” I shook my head “I couldn’t ask you to do that, I’m already imposing by staying on your couch” Twilight shook her head and smiled a little “I don’t see it as imposing, you’re a guest in my humble abode” “I’m the one who should be humble” I said while levitating some books that fell off of the shelf. “You sound like you have something on your mind” Twilight said looking away from her desk to look at me. “No, nothing just got a letter from a partner of mine” I said moving on to the next pile of books. “You had a partner?” Twilight said her curiosity kicking in on cue. “Several in fact, this one was my protégé for a long time” I said simply “Why’d you make such a fuss about me joining you then?” Twilight said walking to me. “If you’ve teamed up with other ponies before it shouldn’t have been a problem” “That was...I’d rather not talk about it” I said not looking at Twilight. Twilight was about to protest then she nodded. “I understand. Another mystery to add to the conundrum that is Private Eye” she said grumbling. Just then the phone rang. I insisted Twilight get one in case we got a case call while away from the office. Twilight ran to answer it. She held it up to her ear with her magic. “Ponyville Town Library, this is Twilight Sparkle how can I help you?” I let Twilight talk on the phone as I noticed a book she dropped on her way out from her bedroom. I levitated it to eye level and saw the title. The Conundrum of Private Eye I looked over to Twilight as she kept talking on the phone. I at least had the right to see what Twilight wrote about me. Right? I opened the book to the first page and my grey eyes scanned the writings. There were pictures of me and writings about me. Most of them were about what I did and quotes of what I said. I flushed a little at Twilight’s descriptions of me. She took great care and detail in trying to piece together things about me. The whole thing reminded me of my notebook during a case. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or creeped out about this book. I closed the book quickly and put it back where I found it. I tried to shake off what I saw. Then I turned to see Twilight looking at me worried. “Private!” She ran to me “My brother! He’s being accused of murder!” “Your brother? ShiningArmor?” “Do I have another brother I don’t know about?! Come on!” She grabbed me by the trench coat with her teeth and started dragging me out the door. “Twilight! Twilight!” I said as she dragged me. “What?!” Twilight said stopping suddenly “You left the lights on and the door open” I said pointing with my hoof at the door standing agape. Twilight flushed “Oh” ________________________________ “So where are we going again?” I said as the landscape of Equestria rolled by in the window. The Train we were on wasn’t first class but neither of us cared at this point. “Canterlot, that’s where the crime scene is” Twilight said looking out the window anxiously. “You said the suspect was ShiningArmor? Isn’t he the guy who got married a few months ago?” “Yeah that was him, I just know there’s gotta be some mistake here” Twilight said leaning back in her chair. “Tell me about him I never met the guy personally” I said taking out my notebook out of habit. “Well, I wasn’t exactly the most social pony in the world. So Shining and I were the best of friends. He was my B.B.B.F.F.” “Big Brother Best Friend Forever?” I said in an almost sing-song tone. Twilight’s jaw dropped a little “How did you guess?” “Tailspin called me that one time” I smiled and said proudly “I won the best brother in the world contest 6 times in a row” “I’d have to see the judges on that one” Twilight said chuckling a little. “Did Shining contact you at all about this?" I said while writing in my notebook. "Did he give any hint that he would be performing a crime?” Twilight shook her head “He’d just got married. He and I haven’t talked much since he got back from his honeymoon by the coast. I wanted to respect his privacy as he got spend time with Cadence. Even then when I did talk to him it was only just a ‘Hi how are you doing’ more than anything else” “So he didn’t tell you anything prior to this?” I said taking note. “This guy didn’t even tell me he was getting married until the day of. I think he deserves a little leeway” Twilight said frowning. “If you say so, let’s try to find out what we can” I said closing my notebook. “Private, thanks for helping out with this case” Twilight said smiling a little, her violet eyes gazing at me. "It really mean a lot to me" I flushed a little at that then smiled “No-no problem” Luna! I was acting like an idiot! _________________________________ The crime scene wasn’t hard to find at all. Twilight and I found the old apartment building. It was fairly old with only a few stories and a flat roof. Twilight and I ascended the steps and I flashed my badge at the two uniforms guarding the door. We entered the crime scene and I smiled when I saw Forceps kneeling to look at the corpse. “You sure you aren’t following us Forceps?” I said as I walked to Forceps who was bending over the body of a forest green pony with an emerald mane. I also noticed his cutie mark was of a sword. “Nope sonny” Forceps said chuckling “I just came for the stiff” “What have we got?” I said pulling out my magnifying glass. Forceps stood up and looked at me “Stallion, I’d say adult and judging by his build I’d say he was a soldier” “Do you have a cause of death?” I said examining the body with my magnifying glass. Forceps nodded “Strangulation by magic” “Magic?” Twilight said looking at Forceps who nodded grimly. “See those marks around his neck?” He gestured to the faint lines on the victim's neck “They ain’t hoof marks, and there’s a little magical residue surrounding the marks. Signs of telekinesis” I looked at Forceps “Magic leaves behind this dust?” I said using a swab to pick up some of the dust surrounding the marks on the stiff’s neck. I tossed the swab to a uniform. Twilight nodded “Yeah, you have no idea how long it takes to clean up” I stood up and looked at Forceps “Do we have an ID?” Twilight looked at the corpse then at me “I know who he is, this is Sharpblade. He and my brother were partners in the royal guard” “Did you know him personally?” I said looking at her. “Not really, he visited occasionally but I didn’t really talk to him” I turned to Forceps “Who found the body?” He gestured to a uniform sitting by himself “Officer Frisk over there. A neighbor called it in when she heard a noise coming from the room” “Thanks Forceps, if you find anything else let me know” I walked over to the uniform and he saluted. He was a young cop just out of college with a brown coat and a striking red mane. He reminded me a little of myself when I joined the force. “Officer Frisk sir” the uniform said firmly. “You found the body?” “Yeah, me and my partner found it” I pulled out my notebook and started writing “Tell me what happened” “My partner and I got a call about a noise complaint at this apartment. When we arrived we heard yelling coming from the apartment. When we tried to open the door it was locked. So we yelled for somepony to open the door. Then we started hearing sounds like somepony being choked. We then bucked down the door and saw the suspect standing over the victim” Twilight looked at Frisk “You’re sure it was my brother?” Frisk nodded “I remember seeing his face in the paper when the wedding happened. So yeah, I’m very sure it was him” “Did you hear any strange noises coming from the room other than the choking?” I said writing everything down. “Aside from a pony being choked to death? Nu uh I just remember the door being a pain in the ass to open” Frisk said shrugging I turned to Twilight “Have a look at the door and see if there’s anything strange about it” Twilight’s horn glowed as she ran a scanning spell on the door. Her violet eyes widened after a minute. “Somepony used a sealing spell on the door, not a good one but enough to stop anypony trying to enter” Frisk nodded “That would explain why it took two bucks to knock down the door” I nodded and turned back to Frisk “Alright, you and the rest of the uniforms comb this area and see what else you can find, also start knocking on doors to see if anypony saw our suspect come in” ________________________________ “Twilight if you want to hang back I wouldn’t blame you” I said as we walked down Canterlot Lane. She shook her lavender head “I’m going to help prove Shining didn’t do it” “You have an awful lot of faith in your brother” I said observing “Of course I do, Shinning would never do anything like this” She said firmly I nodded and looked around at the various houses “So you said his home was somewhere around here?” Twilight nodded then gestured with her hoof at a small house on a hill. “That’s a home they’re staying at until their house is built. Shining and Cadence want to build a house in the mountains together” “Let’s see if the lovely wife is willing to make a house call” I said walking to the house. I raised my hoof and knocked on the door. After about a minute there she was. Princess Mi’amore Cadenza was standing before me. She was a very beautiful pony a couple of years older than me. She had a soft pink coat and a multi colored mane with white, purple and gold colors. Anypony would stop right in their tracks if they saw her, but right now though she wasn’t looking like she was going on a night on the town. Judging by the sorry state of her eyes she’d heard the news already. I took off my fedora and looked at the pink Alicorn standing before me. Her violet eyes were already starting to well up with tears. “Your highness, I’m Private Eye. I can tell you’ve already heard news of your husband-” The princess ran right past me and embraced Twilight. Twilight returned the hug and the two sobbed into each other's coats. I stared at the two of them then understanding gripped me. Twilight was close not only to the captain of the royal guard but royalty as well. Right now, they both just needed each other. I didn’t say anything as they cried into each other. _________________________________ “I apologize Detective, it’s just, all so horrible” Cadence said sitting in front of me. She was sitting on a small blue couch in front of me. The house we were in was nothing extravagant, just a one bedroom house to serve as a temporary shelter until the couple had their house built. I was sitting on a small chair in front of her trying to give what little comfort I could give. “Don’t apologize your highness, your reaction is perfectly normal” I said giving the princess a small smile. Twilight was sitting beside her sister in law. She laid a hoof on the princess’ shoulder for comfort. “It’s alright Cadence, Private is here to help” The pink Alicorn nodded then looked at me .Her eyes were no longer waterworks but you could tell she was going through a lot at this point. “Thank you detective, if you don’t mind I would like to be called Cadence” “Sure Cadence” I said taking out my notebook. “Could you start with when you last saw your husband?” Cadence nodded “I haven’t seen him since yesterday actually; he got up early this morning before me” Twilight raised an eyebrow “I literally had to put a brick on his head to get him up one time. Shining never gets up early” I looked at Cadence “Has your husband been acting odd lately aside from him suddenly becoming an early riser?” Cadence looked at me “Yes actually, Shining has been acting on edge lately. Though I mostly left it up to nerves” “Moving on: The victim was Sharpblade...do you know him at all?” I said Cadence’s eyes grew wide “Sharpblade is dead!? Celestia....” My eyes narrowed “I take it you knew him” Cadence looked at me then nodded “Yes, he was my ex somepony...” “I can guess that you two did not part on the best of terms” I said looking at the princess, Twilight was giving me this odd expression that I couldn’t read. “No we didn’t, Sharpblade was Shinning’s friend back when he was training for the royal guard. That was how I met Sharpblade. We dated for a while then...” “You tossed him out like last week’s hay?” I said “Private!” Twilight said indignantly Cadence looked at Twilight “Twilight please” Twilight’s ears flattened in relent. Cadence looked at me then spoke firmly “Yes, after a while it became apparent that I loved Shining far more than Sharpblade” I looked at Cadence “I think I’d appreciate a little context. Could you explain how you and Shining met?” Cadence sat back in her chair “It was back when I was a filly. My aunt Celestia said her student needed somepony to watch her” Cadence smiled at a blushing Twilight. “Shining made it quite apparent he didn’t want me around though” “I thought you two were in love” I said “That’s what the tabloids will tell you” Cadence said laughing a little. “Truth is we couldn’t stand each other initially. Shining would always argue with me every time the subject of Twilight was brought up” Twilight flushed a little more “I didn’t realize I caused you two so much trouble” “Not your fault Twilight” Cadence said smiling “We were both just too stubborn to give up on you” I nodded writing all this down. It was more for my own sake then the sake of the case. I was a sucker for an interesting love story. “So how did you guys come to accept each other?” Cadence sighed “One night Shining and I got into this huge argument over who would watch Twilight that night. Twilight overhears us arguing and decides to run away to get away from us arguing” “You did that Twilight?” I said looking at Twilight in a new light She flushed a little more “I was a filly at the time and not the brightest one at that. I thought they were arguing over something I did. I just couldn’t stand the two of them arguing and I wanted them to stop” Cadence smiled “Good thing you did because both Shining and I found her together. Since then we realized we both cared about Twilight equally. That's...what led us together” Cadence smiled and I could see her absently twisting her horn ring with her magic. She was reminiscing, something that'll help her turn her focus away from the sorrow of the situation. “Is that what led you two to fall in love?” I said Cadence flushed a little but nodded “Yes, but not immediately. I was still young and I could never admit how I felt to Shining. He wouldn’t admit he cared for me either. I was afraid it would ruin our friendship or worse” “What caused you two to finally fall for each other?” Cadence looked at me with her violet eyes. She closed them as her memory came to that day long ago. “It was several years later. Shining went off to train to become a royal guard and I went on to become a full time princess. Sharpblade would ask me out one day and for a long time we were dating” Twilight looked at Cadence “You never told me you dated anypony before Shining” Cadence shook her head “It is not a good time for anypony to remember. Sharpblade wanted...more from me. I wasn’t willing to give it to him...” I nodded “So he tried to force himself upon you...?” Twilight glared at me but relented again at Cadence’s gaze. Cadence slowly nodded. “Yes, though when Shinning found out he was going to do it he was furious. He came storming into my room during the whole thing. Said ‘get the heck off her!’ Than he ripped Sharpblade off me and told Sharpblade that he was never to hurt me again. I’ve been in love with my knight in Shining Armor ever since” Twilight’s eyes glowed in admiration “That’s my brother alright” My eyes however narrowed “Gives him strong reason...” Cadence raised an eyebrow “I’m sorry detective?” “If I knew my wife was being stalked or something I would want to take action...” Twilight glared at me “What are you suggesting?” “Just saying this would give him a strong reason to kill Sharpblade. Did Sharpblade send you anything...incriminating Cadence?” I said looking at the princess. “You can’t seriously think Shining would kill over something as foalish as this! This is my sister in law we’re talking about here!” Twilight said getting up from her couch to march over to me. I stood up as well and returned her glare. “That was years ago and you don’t have proof that Sharpblade threatened Cadence” I frowned “I’m not accusing, merely speculating” “Well don’t speculate without proof Private! Or did you forget your own words?” Twilight said her brows furrowed “You got any other good reasons why a body of Shining’s enemy is dead at a scene he was at?” I said my own brows furrowing “Again, you don’t have proof so don’t accuse my brother!” “He’s already being accused I’m just trying to figure out if he could have done it” “Newsflash Private, not everypony agrees with what you think all the time” “Why you inconsiderate little-” “Go ahead! Finish that sentence Preventus!” She said incredulously “Nopony calls me Preventus!” I said my fury reaching a boiling point. “Preventus! Preventus! Preventus!” She said in a mocking sing song tone that made me want to strangle her. “Why I outta smack you ar-” Suddenly I felt like I was hit in the neck by something small. Suddenly I looked at Twilight and...Oh boy. It was like every flaw I could think of about Twilight just melted away. I was in the presence of a goddess among ponies before me. I gazed into her violet eyes and swam in them like the ocean. Her coat glistened like stars in the night sky. I drank in her every feature and I felt my heart beating like a brass drum. She returned my gaze and slowly smiled as well. It was probably the most beautiful smile, no wait it was THE most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. “Twilight, I’ve never noticed...how...beautiful you are...” Twilight smiled in turn “I’ve never noticed how handsome you look Private...” I could drink her essence in fore- wait! What the hell!? We both shook our heads as the effects of whatever just happened wore off. Twilight glared at Cadence who was holding a hoof in front of her mouth trying not to giggle. “Cadence!!” Twilight shouted indignantly The princess giggled “Sorry, old habits die hard...”