//------------------------------//
// The Investigation Starts 
// Story: The Collector 
// by The dead Pixel Brony 
//------------------------------//

“So what do you guys wanna do today?” Sweetie Belle asked, as she climbed the ramp to their clubhouse.

“I dunno,” Yawned applebloom from the top of the ramp, “A nap sounds nice. Somepony came pounding on our door last night, yelling about something or other.”

“Sounds serious,” Sweetie commented, cresting the top of the ramp.

“You’re telling me. Applejack was in all sorts of a frazzled tizzy this morning. Wouldn’t even let me leave the house, till you and Rarity showed up.”

“Now that you mention it, Rarity was acting a bit weird this morning.” Sweetie Belle said, finishing with a giggle, “Well, weirder than normal that is.”

“What ever happened, must’ve been bad to make them both act like that.”

“What do you think happened?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Dunno. Every time I asked, Applejack would just hug me and tell me not to worry.”

“If its important they would tell us, right?” Sweetie Belle asked with a nervous squeak.

        The only reply the unicorn received was a half hearted shrug. Sitting in silence for a bit, the two sat and watched the world around them. A slight wind blew through the trees, making the leaves dance on their branches. The leaves themselves were starting to change into multitudes of different colors, telling that fall was upon them. As the pair sat and watched the world in content silence, a loud buzzing sound grew in the distance.

“Scoots is here,” Applebloom said.

“Yep. Late as usual for a Sunday.” The white filly commented. 

        As the pair chuckled over the small joke, the figure of their pegasus friend grew in the distance. Riding atop her cherry red scooter, Scootaloo rapidly approached the clubhouse. Making a sharp turn with the scooter, the filly came to a screeching halt next to the ramp.

“Morning guys! Sorry I’m late!” Scootaloo yelled up at her friends, taking of her helmet off as well, “But y’know. Grandma only makes pancakes on Sundays, so I make sure to get my fill.”

        With nods of understanding from the other two, the orange filly trotted up the ramp.

“So whats on today's agenda?” Scootaloo asked, reaching the top of the ramp.

“Not much. I’m not allowed to leave the farm today,” Applebloom replied.

“And I was told to stay with Applebloom today,” Sweetie Added.

“What for? What did you do?” Scootaloo questioned with raised eyebrows.

“I didn’t do anything,” Applebloom replied with a touch of annoyance, “Something happened last night. I don’t know what, but its got the grown ups all shook up.”

        Just as Scootaloo was about to open her muzzle, a familiar voice to the trio called over the trees.

“That’s Applejack,” Applebloom confirmed, “Wonder whats shes yelling for.”

“You think shes calling for us?” Sweetie asked.

“Most likely,” Applebloom answered, heading for the ramp, “Only one way to find out though.”

        After descending the ramp, Scootaloo mounted the scooter while the other two pulled a little red wagon from behind the ramp. Hooking the wagon to the scooter, the three doned their helmets. Buzzing her wings, scootaloo propelled the scooter and the attached wagon down the dirt path heading towards the farmhouse.




        At the farmhouse, a haggard Applejack paced in front of the front porch, her friend Rarity watching her friend carve a rut into the soil.

“Applejack, you must calm down,” Rarity pleaded in a tired voice, “I’m sure the girls are fine, it is a long walk between here and the clubhouse.”

        With a sigh, the farmer came to a stop.

“I know, Rares. It just… with what happened to those poor fillies…” Applejack gubbled, “I can’t help but feel worried.”

“Thats natural,” A voice called from the front door, “It would worry me if you didn’t, considering what's happened.”

        Stepping from out of the doorway, a light blue unicorn stallion with a silver mane stepped out. Hanging from a string around his neck, a small badge swayed as he walked. He wore an easy smile as he walked out, his saddlebags bulging on one side with a red and white cloth hanging out.

“I see Granny gave you some food,” Applejack smiled.

“Yes,” He chuckled, “Apparently, I’m ‘Thinner than cider dumped into a pool’.”

        The stallion got a small chuckle out of the pair. Before they could continue their conversation, a small buzzing filled the air.

“What's that?” The stallion asked, looking around with a confused expression.

“That would be the girls, Detective,” Rarity said with a sigh of relief.

“Ah, good,” The stallion replied, “And you can just call me Lawful, Ms. Rarity.”

        With a nod from the alabaster unicorn, the three waited as the buzzing grew louder. After a few seconds, an orange pegasus filly riding a scooter pulling a red wagon containing two other fillies approached the trio. Coming to a screeching stop, the three fillies dismounted the scooter and wagon. Cautiously, the fillies approached the three grown-ups. Stepping forward, the stallion offered a smile to the three fillies.

“Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, Scootaloo, this is Detective Lawful. Hes here to ask you a few questions,” Rarity said to the fillies.

        A few mumbled hellos came from the fillies.

“You can just call me Lawful,” The Stallion said, “Oh, and Scootaloo, one of my co-workers has already talked to your Grandma. She said it was okay to talk to me, okay?”

“Okay,” Scootaloo responded, with a hint of curiosity.

        Sitting down on his haunches, the stallion’s horn lit up as a writing pad and pen floated out of his saddle bags.

“Okay, I’m going to start off easy, okay?” The Stallion asked with a smile, receiving nods in return,” Alright, now you three are familiar with Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon, correct?”

“Yeah, they bully us almost everyday,” Scootaloo huffed.

“Oh? Did they do so yesterday?” The Stallion asked, his pen scratching away on the writing pad.

“Yes,”Sweetie squeaked.

“Did anything out of the ordinary happen when they were talking to you?”

        Three thought for a second.

“Oh! Silver got these weird scratches on her side out of nowhere!” Applebloom said.

“Yeah, then she tried to blame it on me!” Scootaloo confirmed, “I wasn’t even anywhere near her!”

“I see,” The Stallion muttered, “And what happened after that?”

“They ran off, yelling about telling Diamond Tiara’s dad on us,” Sweetie belle answered.

“And which direction did they run in?”

“Uh… East, I think,” Applebloom answered, “We were heading back to the farm, and the road runs west towards here.”

“Did any of you notice anypony near by, besides yourselves, Diamond, and Silver?” The Stallion asked.

“No… Nopony that we noticed,” Sweetie Belle meekly offered.

“Hmm… Unless you three have anything to add, I think I’m done here,” The Stallion said, standing back up on all fours.

“I don’t have anything to add, but I have a question,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Alright, shoot.” The Stallion responded with a nod.

“What happened to Diamond and silver?” Sweetie Belle asked, “You only asked about them, so I figured something happened. Did it?”

“Do you mind if I tell them?” The Stallion asked, looking to his sides at the mares.

“They’ll find out eventually,” Rarity sighed.

“Eeyep,” Applejack gulped.

        With a sigh, the Stallion turned back towards the three fillies.

“Last night, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were attacked,” The Stallion lifted a hoof in a calming gesture at the gasps he received from the fillies, “They’re in the hospital, both in a coma. The doctors say that they are both fine despite the… wounds, they received in the attack.”

        After the Stallion had finished, he looked towards the mares and gestured at the three shocked fillies. Without much more provocation, the two mares trotted forward, grabbing all three fillies into a group hug.

“Well, I’ll leave you all to the rest of your day,” The Stallion said, and started to walk around the group. Floating out a card, and slipping it into Rarity’s saddle bags, “There’s my card, for if anything comes up.”

        With a nod from the fashionista, the Stallion began to walk away from the farm.








“Found anything new?” Lawful asked as he entered Silver’s room.

“Not really,” An earth pony stallion in a grey jacket replied from his crouched position in the middle of the room, “Nothing besides what you would expect to see from the injuries on that filly.”

        With a nod towards the stallion in the grey jacket, Lawful looked around the room. The walls were painted a light blue, while the floors were hardwood. Toys sat in organized piles, or chests around the room. A table and silver tea set sat in one corner of the room. The room was surprisingly clean and orderly, besides the small traces of blood spatter throughout the room. In the center, a small distance from the bed, a small puddle of blood soaked into the carpet.

“Do we know how whoever did this got into the room?” Lawful asked.

“Yep,” The stallion in the grey jacket responded from his spot by the puddle.

        The room lapsed into silence as Lawful stared at the grey jacketed stallion.

“Well?” Lawful asked impatiently.

“Hold on,” The grey jacketed stallion responded, “Theres some wierd pieces of something mixed with the blood.”

        After a few seconds, the grey jacketed stallion stood up from the puddle. A pair of tweezers were in his mouth, and a tube with small red colored blobs inside it. Sealing the tube with his free hoof, the stallion put the tube in his saddle bags.

“Alright, how they got in,” The stallion muttered, turning towards Lawful, “Well, there were no signs of forced entry anywhere in the house,” The stallion said, walking towards the window, “But, I did find scratch marks on the window.”

“Oh?” Lawful said, following behind.

“Yeah, I had a pegasus patrol pony check the wall outside, and she found a few leading all the way down to the ground below the window.” The stallion explained, stopping next to the window.

        Opening said window, the stallion pointed to three pieces of tape with a number next to three different scratches ending in gouges. Leaning his head out of the window, Lawful saw the series of numbered tape marks all the way down to the ground below. Pulling his head back slightly, Lawful looked closely at the marks. The scratches were not that deep, and were very long. The gouge at the end closest to the inside, were thin, but deep.

“We can rule out a pony doing this,” Lawful stated.

“How do you figure that?” The other stallion asked. 

“Well, the window is on the second story, so that rules out an earth pony. A unicorn might have teleported in, but we didn’t find any magical burns anywhere. A pegasus would have just opened the window, but would lack the dexterity of the wounds inflicted, as would an earth pony. A unicorn might have been able to float themselves up here, but floating yourself is a hard task in of itself. Add opening a window to that, and it rules out most unicorns in the area,” Lawful paused to look at the scratches, “And these add a whole new factor. The first thing that comes to mind, is a diamond dog, seeing as they go all they way up from the ground. But diamond dogs capture ponies to use as slave labor, they don’t kill them. Next would be a griffon. They could have flown up here, or climbed, and used their talons to open the window. But the marks are way too thin to be from a diamond dog, or a griffon. They look to be from a knife, or some similar object.”

        Stepping away from the window, Lawful took a look around the room.

“If it was a griffon, maybe using a type of climbing gear to throw us off?” Lawful asked, “Coroner, what can you tell me about the blood?”

“Well, the spatter is to expected, but its really high up,” The stallion, now known as Coroner responded, “The puddle, while it is also from where the filly bleed out, it is also gravitational. Which means she was held up in the air as she bleed.”

“About how high up?”Lawful asked.

“Oh… one, one and a half meters, I’m guessing.”

“Hmm… A griffon, even sitting on their haunches would only come up to one meter at eye level. To get that high, they would have to be flying. A diamond dog could have done it from that height when standing, but they would have to balance on their hind legs for a long time, and seeing as they are built top heavy, it wouldn’t work...”

        Lapsing into contemplative silence, Lawful looked around the room. Eyeing all the blood splatter, Lawful began to notice something. Walking to stand in front of the bed, he looked the slightly ruffled sheets over. 

“Theres no blood on the bed,” Lawful stated, “The perp must have been standing in front of it.”

“I could have told you that, all the blood is on the other side of the room,” Coroner added.

“Its just… ugh, I don’t know,” Lawful sighed, turning to look at Coroner, “A lot of things just won’t add up right now.”

“Well, you have been up since three A.M.,” Coroner stated, “Go get some lunch, take a nap if you can, and then look at it all again.”

“Thats not a bad idea,” Lawful thought, then sighed, “I need to head to the Hospital first, get the medical reports, and meet up with Night.”

“Go do all that, then get some lunch with Night,” Coroner shrugged, “All I know is that I have a lot to do here, and you have things to go do. So, get.”

        Lawful shook his head at Coroner’s antics, then turned and left the room.