The cottage filled with flashing lights as officers moved back and forth through the doors gathering all sorts of evidence from cats of all sizes, smutty stallion magazines, to litter boxes of all size, used or not. All of the evidence only had a single commonality, they existed inside that cottage.
As they move stuff reporters ambushed them with a fury of questions,
"Is this is anyway related to the missing cat food lately?" An adult Diamond Tiara fired.
"Possibly, Golden Delicious is the world's greatest collector of cat brand," A buff pegasus flexed his big muscles while lifting a giant pile of bags out into the yard, only for each of them to be empty.
"I doubt that," Lightning Dust wasted huffed as she pulled a very stinky box of cat litter. The buff pony offered his help a few times but she refused, up until she crashed face-first into the box.
News reporters forced themselves to keep in their laughter as they watched with intrigue and shock, especially when one of the magazine piles flipped revealing all the details. Luster Dawn, being less crass then her other reporting foes refused to look upon the... measurements and rushed through the police tape while one of the police, a blue stallion attempted to pick the mess and hide his drool.
Seeing herself in the clear she spotted Captain Braeburn. "Strike for the goal!" Remembering her mother's words she charged forward at full speed.
Braeburn jumped back in utter fear at the sight of her and pulled out his shield. "Calm down, calm down, Luster Dawn!!"
"Sorry, just ready for the report for the princess." She stopped just mere inches in front of him, kicking up the dust. "Now, what can you tell me about the body?"
"Straight to the point, just like your mother." The captain sheepishly moved his eyes around. "Speaking of your mother--"
Luster Dawn deadpanned, "She still married to my father like she always will be, but my godmother told me that she said hello!" Her words quickly silenced him. "Now the body is it in any way connected to the Crystal Heart's disappearance yesterday morning?"
"Could your mother maybe dump him--"
"Focus!"
"Right, the Crystal Heart case, that is a high possibility. The body belongs to Thunderlane." Braeburn walked Luster Dawn inside the cottage.
"The guard that my aunt trusted with it." Despite all the stuff that had already been removed the place was still cluttered beyond belief and stunk so badly and Luster Dawn was tempted to use a cleaning spell at least three times while walking from the front door to the first room.
"Speaking of which--"
Luster Dawn shoved dirt in his mouth that she had brought from the outside. She was annoyed with his pitiful attempts but she wasn't too cruel to use the extra box of cat litter somepony missed. "Do you have any suspects?"
Braeburn spat of the dirt and presented her with the livingroom. "Four, actually." He pointed out to each of them as Lightning Dust, still knocking cat litter out of her face, was quick to point out their guilt.
"Here, we have an earth pony illegal trafficking an unknown basket." The hot blood pegasus waved her hooves around Babs Seed.
"This basket is where?"
"Unknown, it went missing during the rush to catch them." Braeburn couldn't hide his shame around Luster Dawn at all.
Lightning Dust moved over the next one, Golden Delicious. "This old hag was the buyer by the look of it."
"And your proof is?" Luster shot back and quickfire before the mare could think of 'add' more details.
Lightning Dust waved her hoof away from the other officer who was holding whatever Golden Delicious was tied up in, it was clear that stuff wouldn't prove her point either. "Then we have the mare, Derpy Hooves." She hissed at the gray mare. "She is an insult to the entire pegasi and was the one holding the body."
"Okay, she might have seen the murder..." Luster Dawn stopped and looked deep into the lopsided eyes. "Though, its unsure what she saw can be trusted."
Seeing that Luster's reporting skills were even quicker than Lightning Dust's police skills she moved to her final catch. The one she believed to be the best one yet. "And finally, the former king himself, Sombra." She presented him wrapped in chains and magical blockers.
"Yes, King Rexous Luster Sombra. The stallion of which I received my first name!" Luster Dawn's voice was filled with hate upon seeing the stallion is such a cheaply made prison.
"Oh... I forgot about that." Lightning Dust sheepishly moved back.
"Look, can I just make a quick gem call--" Sombra attempted to stand by the magic chains shocked him.
Luster Dawn leered her eyes over each of them one at a time, starting with Babs Seed. "Huh, you don't look like a criminal, little filly?" She questioned.
"Luster, that mare is older then you are--" Sombra was zapped again.
"Possibly." Luster Dawn moved over the old mare, Golden Delicious. "Applebloom tells me your knowledge of history is unbounded."
"Of course, if you want to know family Tree's, I'm the crazy old mare to talk to." The granny took a sip of her teacup of apple cider. "Though, Applebloom handles the history books nowadays."
"Yes, you have other collections now..." Luster tried to keep the image of that folded page out her head.
"Yeah, I'm on a quest to find the perfect size--"
Luster Dawn used her magic to silence her. "Okay, okay, I don't need to know what you do when you're alone." She laughed sheepishly. She turned her attention away from the old mare and to the other suspects.
Sombra could be seen gnawing on his chains only to be zapped again. Angered by this continuous assault he attempted to take his shadow form and leave. However, he found his body turning into an unmoving puddle instead... and getting zapped again.
Luster Dawn turned away his sight in shame; just how quickly his power had been fading was unclear but he certainly wasn't the great evil of legend anymore. There was no way he could be responsible for the crime. She turned to Derpy and found even greater disappointment. She finally caved, "Captain?"
"Yes," Braeburn answered.
"There no way any of these ponies are connected to the crime--" She was interrupted by a voice from outside.
"Giving up too early I see." A tall white unicorn stallion walked inside. From his clean pearl white blazer to his sapphire blue button it was clear this was a stallion of rich sophistication. Many of the mare guards were in awe of his magnificent form.
Luster Dawn on the other hand just deadpanned, "Blueblood, you were supposed to stay in the cart. I can handle this case on my own."
"I know princess Twilight chose my incredible former student to take on the case," his words only brought more embarrassment from the mare, "But I could just stand there and let you lose so much useful data."
"Useful!" Her voice almost sounded like her mother's for a moment. "None of them are useful in the slightest."
"Not true." Blueblood approached the black puddle and used a spell to reformed Sombra. "While the pieces might be strange and even disgusting," he noted just had badly Sombra had melted, "They all have a place in the final details."
"So what are you saying?" Braeburn questioned.
"I say we hear all their stories of what happened and the truth should become clear after that."