A bright atmosphere, and a certainly peculiar amount of color pierced the eyes of the companions as they both slowly arose from their landing point. To their bewilderment, it seemed their entire anatomical structure had changed into that of an equine. Holmes, rather fascinated, only gazed at the new form, sitting on his newly-developed hinds. Watson, on the other hand. . .
"Dear heavens!" he cried out in a baffled fear, "I'm a horse! I'm a damned horse!"
"Actually, from what I have observed," Holmes corrected, standing up on all fours, "we've actually manifested as some form of equus ferus caballus, a pony, but with more sophisticated vocal chords and motion. It appears you also have wings."
"Wings?" Watson turned back, noticing his wings for only a brief moment, "I'm naked!"
"I'm sure that doesn't particularly matter here," Holmes stated calmly, "but it would be good to make sure before making any public appearances."
As Holmes began to analyze his environment, Watson continued stumbling on his two hindlegs, tripping and falling constantly. After he was covered in bruises and sore to the bones, he finally managed to calm himself down and stand on all fours.
"You know, I sometimes wonder if ever meeting you was a mistake!" Watson exclaimed, attempting to brush off his fur of dead grass and dry dirt.
"I can't say it'd be any less exciting with the woman you chose," Holmes said under his breath, "just more enjoyable."
Holmes trotted towards a tree, having gotten used to the form rather quickly simply from his memory of equine anatomy. His curiosities were growing almost unbearably, but he kept calm, only analyzing what came immediately to his mind. Taking a leaf from the tree, he analyzed it's appearance. It was most definitely composed of the same biological substances, or nearly identical in form at the very least. There just seemed to be a difference in the workings of visible light radiation.
"Watson, have you taken a moment to observe the trees?" Holmes asked, still looking at the leaf, even tasting it.
"Holmes, I haven't taken a damn moment to do anything but stand up straight!" Watson exclaimed, "Even with all of your smarts, do you not find it a bit startling to have suddenly turned into a horse?"
"Pony."
"Pony—whatever! How can you be so calm?" Watson asked. Holmes sniffed the ground, before turning to Watson.
"If I weren't, I'd look like a blundering idiot," he replied, raising his eyebrows slightly as he returned to his leaf, "simply stick to all four of your legs as you are now, and you will be fine."
Watson sighed, shaking his head and choosing not to spend anymore time regretting his decisions. As he began to walk towards Holmes, he was suddenly interrupted by a spear piercing the ground.
"Eek!" he suddenly exclaimed, looking up at Holmes, who stared at the spear with a look of fascination.
"That kind of weapon is surely out of date to the precision of it's design!" Holmes exclaimed, his fascinated smile fading as he turned to see quite a large militia having assembled in the direction from which the weapon was thrown. Some of them were flying, others had auras around their weapons that seemed to originated from what looked like horns on their heads. Holmes noticed, however, that their organization and attire was far too complex for the creatures to have been mere animals. Surely, it was a kind of sophisticated society.
"Holmes, there's an army of equines that do not look like they are welcoming us," Watson said cautiously, looking at the army before darting his eyes towards his companion. Sherlock looked back.
"Do you think you can put up a fight?" Sherlock asked, before suddenly interrupting Watson's attempt of an answer, "of course not, you can hardly stand of straight. How about running?"
The two nodded at one another, before turning and running as fast as they could into the woods. It wasn't for too long, however, as the horned guards teleported directly in front of them before knocking them flat on their faces and binding them in some kind of presumably magic spell.
"Watson, this is remarkable! They're capable of using powers similar to magic!" Holmes exclaimed, before a hoof was placed on his face.
"Silence!" the equine soldier shouted, "by the orders of Princess Celestia, we're putting you under arrest for the murder of Shining Armor."
"Wait, I remember that name, Shini—" Holmes said before his face was met again with a harsh stomp, rendering him unconscious.
I've waited so long for you, who would have known that I would have met you in such a strange planet of mythological creatures? I suppose it truly takes a creature of myth to face me. I'm excited for us to meet, Sherlock Holmes, though I did not expect the magic of this world to interfere with yours so much that it got into your head. We shall meet soon, and I am sure that you will figure out this dream communication as well. Good luck, Holmes. I eagerly await your presence.
"Holmes!"
The detective woke up from his strange dream, remembering only bits and pieces as he turned to Watson. He was quick to pick up the ungodly stench of mold and fungus, the extremely low temperatures, and torch-lit stone-brick hallways in front of a small room with rusted metal bars.
"Ah, a prison," Holmes said. Watson shook his head, unamused.
"Of course it's a prison Holmes," Watson said, "they've kept us in here for nearly an hour now!"
"It felt merely as minutes to me," Holmes retorted.
"To you!" Watson snapped back, "sleeping like a restless child rolling over and mumbling things about 'creature's of myth' and some gibberish!"
"Yes, creatures of myth!" Holmes said quickly, grabbing a rock and starting to scratch notes on the wall, "something was communicating with me through the dream. I would coin it to overreactive neurological responses, but it seemed far too coherent."
Watson gave up trying to lecture his colleague before looking at what Holmes was writing down.
"I remember it vividly now, whichever culprit they were looking for is using magic to communicate with me, which is why I had such an odd dream in the first place." He drew a circle labelled 'residence', with a line that pointed to the word 'dream'.
"This was after I had taken this watch," He showed the watch, "yet before I had fixed it. After fixing it, the weather patterns had changed, which is the moment when the two of us noted it's odd functionality and behavior. Largely composed of gold as a structure, the watch was made of a different kind of material, and definitely was radiating something that is absent in our home world."
He drew more diagrams, pointing to the watch and some notes, before drawing another circle labelled 'portal'. "It pointed to this area, where there was presumably a portal of some kind to this land. This was where I saw the other creature, and where I found this watch. Therefore, they are inevitably linked by circumstantial probability."
Holmes circled all of them, then drew another line and a very cartoonish tree. "This is where we landed, the guards came to us shortly which leads me to believe two things. One, they have sophisticated 'magic' technology, we will say," Holmes wrote down the word 'magic' next to a sword labelled 'army'. "Two, that magic is sophisticated enough to have detected us, but not the culprit in time. Which leads me to believe perhaps one, or both of these circumstances are true: Firstly, that we are not magically-inclined enough, for obvious reasons, to counter this magic ability whereas the culprit is; secondly, that the culprit came through this place prior to us, which means the army was already on the way to investigate. Either way, I believe that with his attempts of communication, the culprit is well capable of sophisticated magic, thereby outsmarting the military forces, and their leaders, who I presume we shall meet soon if we are not being executed."
"Way to end on a bright note. . ." Watson sighed, before a loud slam of a large, wooden door was heard. Two guards walked up to the cell, noting the diagrams on the wall.
"This is definitely the one, let's try not to give them anymore wounds," the guard said, "the Princess will be irritated enough that they're bruised up as they are already."
"Not our fault, they came in like this," the other one muttered, opening the cell, "come with us."
Holmes and his colleague exchanged looks, before getting up and walking towards the guards with caution. As no threats were perceived on either side, the four peacefully made their way to another area.
From odorous, cold hallways to elaborate marble walls and quartz-lain floors, they traversed a stunningly beautiful castle, filled with many chandeliers of unexplainable light, many jewel-studded suits of armor, and several perfectly-fashioned weapons mounted on the walls. All of this was simply remarkable to Holmes, who took in every sight he possibly could as they continued through the structure. Within time, they had walked over large bridges and arches stretching between towering structures across a vast, mountain-hung city filled with some of the richest and most peculiar architectures that the two colleagues had ever seen.
"Apologies for the. . .ill treatment," one of the guard said to the two, "the Squadron General didn't particularly get the memo on that fact that we were not fetching the culprit."
"Ah, we've been through worse," Watson said, attempting to be polite.
"How do you know we are not the culprits?" Holmes suddenly asked. Watson turned with a confused and wide-eyed expression that almost screamed at Holmes before the guard answered.
"We had detected the usage of portals connecting to the outside of our world prior to your arrival," the guard answered, "we were on our way at the time but it seems we didn't get the first reading until right before you arrived."
"Ah, so I was correct," Holmes replied, "then the culprit you are looking for is surely sophisticated in his magic and knows enough about the reaches of this military's sciences enough to avoid them. In which case, I'd suggest trying a less orthodox method for detection. Many sophisticated criminals forget older forensics methods when averting their capture in a crime."
"So far, you've gotten further than any of our detectives," the guard replied.
"I find no surprise in that," Holmes said with a blank stare.
As they began to approach a set of doors, a pair of large and heavily-armored guards stepped in front. It was quite obviously the royal quarters, decorated with a large emblem of what looked like the sun, and studded with what looked like solid steel with sturdy metal framing. The escorting guards nodded to Holmes and Watson, before stepping backwards, turning, and trotting away. The two larger guards observed the colleagues, lighting their horns momentarily before nodding, and opening the doors inwardly. Inside were two large figures, bearing both massive horns and wings. One, dark, like the night, with the symbol of a moon on her hind. The other, much taller, and white, with the symbol of a sun.
"This is a rather interesting development," Holmes muttered, walking in cautiously beside Watson, "your highness, and your highness, apologies for our most probably inappropriate manners; as you may know, we are foreign to this land and would surely attend our ears to your correctional instruction on the matter."
"No need," the white one said with a smile, "your understanding is greater than any foreigner we have faced in this room prior, and we have faced many as of recent."
Sherlock nodded with a smile, looking over to Watson, who was visibly clueless.
"Come now Watson, treat them as you would an authority in our own world at the very least," Holmes said with a rather condescending tone. Watson grunted at him.
"We understand your troubles," the darker one said, "do not feel discomfort at our presence, we wish not to impose upon you any form of needless mannerisms, as there is a situation much more dire at hoof."
"Ah, so I have heard," Holmes said, "perhaps we should introduce ourselves, I am Detective Sherlock Holmes, this is my companion Doctor John Watson."
"A-ah, yes, nice to meet you," Watson said with a shaky voice and forced smile.
"You as well," the white one said, "my name is Princess Celestia, this is my sister, Princess Luna. We understand that in your land, the highest authority might be that of Queen, but in Equestria, it is Princess."
"For sake of clearing confusion, there are currently four princesses," Luna continued, "Celestia, of the sun; myself, of the moon; Mi Amore Cadenza, of love; and Twilight Sparkle, of friendship. The latter two princesses have been the most affected victims of the murder you must have heard about by now."
"Yes, and your culprit entered in through the same way that we have," Holmes said, "he's also attempted to communicate to me via dream. I figured that would be impossible, but it appears that such things are possible in this world. I have much to learn."
"This criminal is far more than we anticipated," Luna said, "he's able to access dreams that I cannot, able to block off alicorn magic, and. . .what is that on your foreleg?"
"Oh, this?" Holmes asked, holding up the watch from earlier, "I was going to ask you the same thing. It seems to have elements of origin that are not of my world. It led me and my colleague to this place."
"Sister, this is surely the one Zecora spoke of," Luna said, turning to Celestia, whose eyes were widened.
"Give him everything our former detectives have found," she said, "immediately."
"Well then, Watson," Sherlock said with a smile, "It seems we have a case on our. . .hooves."
Watson sighed loudly.