//------------------------------//
// Triple Murder Discovery 
// Story: Sweet Revenge 
// by StormLuna 
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It was dawn in Ponyville and all seemed calm.  It would not be long until Silver Dime's day shift security guards would arrive at his mansion.  One of the guards, a unicorn, was the first to arrive.  Given Silver Dime's unnerving concerns as of late, the door had been kept locked more often and he always had to knock before being let in by the other guards.  He pounded on the door and heard nothing.  He pounded more loudly and yelled, "Mr. Dime, it is me Locked Vault.  Are you ok?"

Locked Vault heard nothing as the other day guard, Secure Lock, arrived.  Locked turned to his co-worker and said, "You know, something doesn't seem right.  Normally Mr. Dime or one of the other guards would have opened the door by now." 

Secure replied, "Well you're a unicorn.  Just unlock the door and go in, I have a bad feeling something horrible has happened." 

Locked Vault unlocked the door and the two guards headed in.  All they heard in the mansion was a deafening silence.  In the front room everything looked as it normally would.  They then began to check other rooms and would be surprised when they discovered the TV was on in the den but there was no sign of the night guards.  The two gave one another nervous looks and then began to check the bedrooms. 

The first three they checked were guest rooms and everything appeared as it normally would.  They then checked the bedroom Silver Spoon had as a filly and nothing was out of place in there either.  Secure Lock suggested, "Let's check Mr. Dime's bedroom, I have a feeling something is wrong." 

When the two entered the bedroom they screamed in horror.  Laying lifeless on the floor were the night guards and then in his bed was laying Silver Dime, his face badly bruised and it appeared that he was involved in a struggle.  They noticed that he had closed fists and that there was silver mane in both of them.  Locked gasped, "What the hay, silver mane?"

Secure suggested, "I don't know about all this but I think we probably should go tell Princess Twilight about this.  I think this is something the princess should probably know about." 

Locked Vault agreed and the two rushed over to the castle and pounded on the door loudly.  It was not long until Spike opened the door.  When he saw that it was a couple of security guards he asked, "Who are you and why are you pounding on the door like this?" 

Locked replied, "We need to speak to the princess.  A tragedy has struck at the Silver mansion." 

Secure added, "When we went into work this morning, we discovered that Mr. Dime and the two night guards had been brutally murdered." 

Spike's eyes grew wide and he rushed back to get Twilight.  He headed into the library to find Twilight studying books on advanced magic.  He yelled, "Twilight, you have to come to the front door.  Two ponies are here and said that Silver Dime was murdered last night." 

Twilight groaned in frustration, "Ugh, why didn't they go to the police station?  Investigating murders is NOT part of my job description." 

Twilight followed Spike to the front door where Locked Vault began, "Princess Twilight, I'm so glad to see you.  You have to come with us, there was a triple murder at the Silver mansion last night.  Silver Dime and his night guards were brutally murdered." 

Twilight sighed in frustration, "May I ask why you didn't go to the police station instead of coming and interrupting my studying?"

Secure Lock replied, "Your Majesty, three ponies were murdered last night and you were the first one we thought of." 

Twilight sighed, "Fine but we're going to the police station first.  This is something Silver Shield needs to know about."  Spike was beginning to follow them but would stop when Twilight added, "Spike, stay here.  This is something that I need to handle with these guards alone." 

Spike sighed in frustration as Twilight and the guards headed to the station.  There was silence among the three as they knew that Twilight was somewhat irked being bothered by this and the two guards weren't sure what to think.  They were trying to figure out who could have broke in and killed their boss and the night guards and why they would have done it.  Before they knew it the three reached the police station just as Chief Silver Shield was arriving at work. 

He saw the three and immediately spoke to Twilight, "Good morning princess, what brings you by?"

Twilight pointed at the two guards and replied, "I think it is best if you ask them.  They've seen the crime scene while I haven't." 

Silver Shield turned to the guards and asked, "Ok, the princess said something about a crime scene.  What is this about?"

Locked Vault began, "Well we were headed to work this morning but once we got there, we discovered a tragedy had struck in the Silver mansion." 

Secure Lock added, "We discovered that Silver Dime and the night security guards had been brutally beaten to death.  We don't know who could have done it or why they did but we think you should check this out." 

Silver Shield replied, "Alright, let's head over to the Silver mansion."

Twilight added, "I'm joining you since these two came to me first." 

As the four headed towards the crime scene, Twilight began to smile a bit.  She began to wonder if perhaps she hadn't been right all along about Silver Spoon and how she may cause problems.  She also knew about how she would receive 50 billion bits upon her father's death.  She thought to herself, "So, she killed her daddy for the money did she?  With any luck we can get her arrested, put her on trial for this," her smile got bigger as she thought, "get a conviction and then lock her up where she belongs!" 





When they arrived at the mansion, the guards led the officer and Twilight into Silver Dime's bedroom.  Silver Shield gasped in shock when he saw the badly beaten corpses.  He began to examine them and suggested, "Well we're going to have to get them transported to the morgue and have the coroner examine these bodies.  Then we can figure out what happened to them." 

Twilight began to examine the corpses herself and suggested, "Whoever did this had brass knuckles."  She then took a much closer look at Silver Dime and saw something in his clenched fists, silver mane.  She called for Silver Shield over to take a look, "Chief, come here.  I think I found something that may give us a clue as to who did this." 

The chief joined her and looked in shock at the mane in his fists.  He gasped, "Wait a minute, that looks like Silver Spoon's mane!  What I don't get though is why would she kill her father and these guards?" 

Locked Vault suggested, "I know you're going to think I'm nuts but he had it in his will that she would receive fifty billion bits upon his death and what if she decided she wanted the money early?" 

Secure Lock gasped, "You really think Silver Spoon would kill him with as good as he has been to her?"

Twilight knew that any input from her would likely affect their thoughts some, especially that of the police chief.  She suggested, "Chief, Locked Vault makes a very good point.  I need you to go to the police station, get a camera and take some pictures of the crime scene, especially of Dime's fists with the mane in them.  Then we can go and search where I think the murder weapon might be." 

Silver Shield agreed and headed back to the station while Twilight and the guards remained.  Twilight continued to look around the bedroom, focusing heavily on the mane in Silver Dime's fists.  She used her magic to create a couple plastic zipper bags and said, "Well, once Silver Shield gets back and gets all the pictures taken, we'll have to put that mane in these so the lab can run tests to see if this belongs to who I think it does." 

The guards were a bit surprised by the comment.  Locked Vault asked, "Princess, are you sure you can even do that?" 

Secure Lock added, "Aren't you worried that you handling the evidence might make it unusable in court?"

Twilight gave the two a smile, "It will be Silver Shield who handles it and gets it put in these baggies, I'm simply overseeing this." 





Ten minutes had passed when Silver Shield returned and not only did he have a camera, but he also had some baggies with him.  Twilight gave him a smile, "Well I guess these won't be necessary."  She then noticed he also had some vials with him to collect dried up blood with too.  She continued, "So are you going to do this alone or do you have deputies to aid you with this?" 

Silver Shield replied, "Unfortunately I'm alone on Sundays so I'll have to do this alone."  Given that he was a pegasus collecting all this would not be easy so he asked, "Princess, could you help me collect this evidence?  It is always easier when I have a pony with magic assisting me with this." 

Twilight replied, "I can help.  We don't want this evidence getting contaminated while we are handling this." 

Silver Shield then asked, "Princess, given the color of that mane in Silver Dime's fists, would you mind helping me do a search of Silver Spoon's house?  Having a unicorn, or an Alicorn in your case, with me makes doing searches so much easier." 

Twilight replied, "Of course I'll help.  If we can find who killed Silver Dime I'll help you with it." 

Twilight began to help the chief collect the dried up blood samples and carefully remove the mane from Silver Dime's fists.  As she was doing this, she was elated.  She was thrilled that she was able to assist in collecting this evidence because not only would it result in it being more cleanly gathered but that she would be heavily involved in any kind of trial that may come from this.