//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 "Trixie Tale" // Story: Equestria Noir Season 2 Case 12 "Big Top Fall" // by Jacoboby1 //------------------------------// Chapter 2 “Trixie Tale” “Excuse me?” Yang said, raising an eyebrow. “You’re telling me your mom was cheated out of this circus?” “Yes, and if you will not pass Trixie shall banish you!” She said, pointing her hoof. “Riiight,” Yang replied with an eye roll, “Come on, we all know the joke. I’ve heard about your not so peaceful takeover of Ponyville. Without an amulet you have about as much magical talent as a wheel…” “WHEELS ARE EVIL!” All of us blinked at Trixie’s outburst. “Trixie, just wants everypony to be aware of that.” She said firmly. I walked over towards the pair and said, “Trixie, what are you doing here?” She looked at me and huffed, “Well, if it isn’t Twilight Sparkle’s hubby.” “You know her?” Yang asked. “My wife’s student,” I said. “Kind of a long story.” “Whatever, she’s your problem now, just make sure she doesn’t encase Manehatten in a dome or something,” Yang replied with a shrug. “That was one time!” Trixie yelled. “Yeah right, hun,” Yang said with a laugh, walking aways away. I raised an eyebrow at Trixie. “This may be off subject but, what was with the wheel thing?” “Trixie would rather not say,” She said firmly. “And also would like to make note that wheels, rocks, and cheese graters are never a good combination to use when trying to vanquish.” At this point I don’t even wanna know. “Trixie, just what are you doing here?” Spike asked coming over. “If you’re looking for the show, it’s not for a few hours.” “Trixie was hoping to speak with the ring master, she must know about my mother being cheated!” Trixie said, a foul expression on her face. “My aunt cut my mother out of the picture!” “Wait, you mean to tell me your mother was one of the ‘sisters’ that owned the circus?” Spike said. “I find that a little hard to swallow.” “Trixie knows it! Trixie saw it in the royal archives!” She yelled back. “Abusing your teacher’s access huh?” Spike deadpanned, crossing his arms. “Look, can we just stop for five seconds and take a breath?” I said. “None of this arguing is helping out.” Both parties ignored the breathing part, just sort of glared at one another. Spike always made it perfectly clear he did not like Trixie being a roommate at the library. I had my misgivings about it at first too, but then again Spike didn’t see what that crowd did to Trixie all those months ago… Maybe I just have a bit more sympathy, since it was partially my fault it all happened. “Trixie, you, come from a caravan of performers don’t you?” I asked. “Shining Armor told me about it a while back.” Trixie’s expression sobered after that, she got uncharacteristically quiet. “Yes, I, did come from there. It was where I learned my craft.” “Your parents were performers?” I asked. “My mother was, she had a talent and flare for illusion magic,” Trixie replied. “A joke magic to many unicorn circles. She and my father married when they were young, he was the owner of the caravan and he convinced her to leave home to become a star on tour. She left her family behind for him.” “If your mom was going to be a star, then why haven’t I ever heard of it?” Spike asked. “Because she never did make it big,” Trixie said somberly. “She had the flair certainly, but audiences on the road are far less kind than those that are friends and family. She did manage to hold the caravan together, barely, and she had me not too long after she started performing. But…” “Your home life wasn’t pleasant was it?” I asked. “No it wasn’t,” She said with a shake of her head. “My parents argued about everything, from my mother’s performances, to attendance, to… well like I said, everything. I was, surprised when you and Twilight Sparkle seemed to get along so well. Then, one day she just up and left, she said she was looking into something...she never came back.” “You assumed…” Spike began. “Of course we assumed, it was obvious that my parents hated each other,” Trixie said firmly. “Trixie had to endure such horrible things! My home caravan falling apart, my father dying by being a drunken fool! Everything! This wagon is all I have left of that caravan!” Spike and I blinked, comprehending all that was said. “Trixie, neither of us had any idea.” Spike said. “All this time, I never bothered to ask…” Trixie huffed, “There, now you know the truth. I found out about my relation to one of the sisters who owns this establishment. I planned to talk to the Ringmaster about it until miss yellow cop decided to butt in.” “Right, Trixie, we’d love to let you in, but we got our own case to investigate here.” I said. “Maybe you should check out the library, see if you can find any newspaper articles about what happened all those years ago. Just tell the librarian I sent you.” Trixie frowned and said, “Fine, but only because you are Sparkle’s mate.” With that, Trixie walked off. “Geez, she’s just getting more and more agonizing to deal with,” Spike said with an eye roll. “Come on, we got to ask around, maybe one of the workers saw him last night.” I said. “Hey Private,” Yang said, walking over. “I got that info for you.” “Going behind Insight’s back?” I said, with a smile. “Nice.” Yang smiled in turn. “Hey, I don’t care what the chief said, he’s just jealous you actually solved some cases instead of having me stand outside of crime scenes for days on end. But just so you know, if you blab to anypony about this stuff I’ll beat you to next year.” Okay note to self, don’t piss her off. More than usual anyways. “So what did you find?” I asked. “Well, CSU did some digging around the area, found this.” She reached into her uniform and pulled out a plastic bag, with a bottle inside of it. Spike read the label, “Flairy and Flimsy’s magical coat coloration potion. Guaranteed to give your coat a shine you’ll never forget.” He shook his head, “What is with us and running into bad slogans?” “Some kind of coat dye?” I asked. “Yep,” Yang said, “Used to make your coat a different color. Honestly unless your coat is peuce I wouldn’t want it.” “You sure it doesn’t belong to any of the workers?” I asked. “CSU already showed it around to everypony in the staff, nopony’s claimed it yet.” “Then odds are, it may belong to our killer., I said, making a note of the color...Grass Green. “Did you guys find anything on Spindle? Was he in any sort of trouble?” “Everypony we talked to said he was on edge but the guy’s record is clean. We’re gonna look over his financials, maybe he just got desperate or something,” Yang replied, “Now, there’s something else that’s important. Everypony we talked to, wasn’t there the night of the murder.” Spike shook his head in disbelief. “You gotta be kidding me, the staff, vendors and all?” “A janitor found out about the body this morning,” Yang said. “Nobody was in the tent all night because it was locked up, everypony else already went home.” “Yet he stayed...something tells me this whole thing was a set up.” Spike said firmly. “That’s what I was thinking too Spike,” I said, “But the question is, just what was he so knee deep in-” Suddenly a mare almost hit Spike, she was older looking wearing a sun hat, a coat that covered her fur and sporting long silvery hair. She looked at Spike and said, “Oh, terribly sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” “Ma’am,” Yang spoke up, “Are you one of the staff here?” “In a way,” The mare said, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Fawna,” Her blue eyes turned to me, “I’m the aunt of the ring master here.” “Fawna Ringing?” Yang said, “Wait! Oh my gosh you were one of the original performers?!” “Well, that was years ago, hun,” She said with a small laugh. “I’m retired now, my niece runs the circus now. I couldn’t be more proud of her. But this business with Spindle Wire, very unfortunate and bad timing.” “Bad timing?” Spike asked. “Well, we are going to open soon, this business of a murder incurring on our doorsteps could lead to bad press. I do hope everything gets wrapped up well,” She said with a smile. “Ma’am,” I said, “Did, you ever have any other siblings?” “Why ever would you ask such a question?” Fawna asked. “Because, I was told you had another one, that one of my friends was related to the family.” I answered. She, blinked at that, and then said, “I’m not sure what you are talking about, I only ever had the one sister. Now, if you all will excuse me, I should be heading home, I have a bridge game to host.” With that, she walked under the police tape. Yang called after her, “Be sure to stop by the station in case we need you!” “Very well dear! Taxi!” Fawna called, stepping into one that pulled up. Huh, usually you’d have to throw yourself in the street to get a taxi around here… “You think Trixie was lying about it?” Spike asked. “The whole, her being related to the owners?” “I doubt it, trust me when I say that I know when Trixie is lying,” I said firmly. “And she rarely jokes about her family.” “Right, so what now?” Spike asked. “You, are going to occupy yourself at that comic book store over there, I’m going to do some digging. I know exactly who to talk too if something shady was going on here.” I said. “What, that Enchanted Comic Book store?” Spike said, pointing across the street. “Whaddya take me for anyway?” “A fan who should know they got the latest issue of Power Ponies in stock.” I said with a smile. “You know me too well.” Spike said, sighing as he walked across the street. There was, one griffon I could talk too… ________________________________________________________ The redolent smells of garlic, baking bread, and marinara made me a bit hungry, as I walked into the Bitalian restaurant. Strangely enough the griffon community loved Bitalian cooking, even though they utterly ruined it by adding meat. True, it was from the bovine community, and only when somebody passed away of natural causes, but it’s still pretty disgusting. Even with its griffon clientele the place looked quite classy. Dark wood panelling, heavy oak tables, with cheerful red-check tablecloths. Linen napkins, glassware imported from the Crystal Empire, nice cutlery, and comfortable upholstered chairs were all set to make dining an experience to be savored. The griffons, and few ponies, that were eating there was dressed to the nines, too. Suits and ties, and simply elegant dresses abounded in this place. To me it was like being a casual dressed pony at a comic book convention, I stood out like a sore thumb. The griffons not so casually looked over at me every five minutes. I certainly hoped none of them were considering me in place of the scampi. I made my way towards the back, seeing Grimwing awaiting me.He had changed little since I last saw him. Still the black headed, fedora wearing intimidating griffon with a metal tipped beak I remember. “Got yer call, whaddya need this time?” He asked nonchalantly. “Look, I need a favor.” I said firmly. “Ya seem ta be askin’ dat a lot dese days. Fact, day we first met ya were askin’ me a favor.” “Look, are you going to help me or not?” “I mean, it’s either I help ya and ya keep yer mouth shut about our relationship, or I squak and every cop will be ridin’ yer ass fer associating with me.” The black headed griffon said as he put a cigar in his mouth and took a long inhale. “I need to find out information about the Circus that’s come into town.” I said. “You too?” He asked. “What do you mean?” “One of my men, nice guy, big family griffon, he started lookin’ into it too.” He said, puffing out smoke from his nostrils. “He took his kid to that show one time, only some things didn’t add up. The sets were huge, probably costing enough bits to buy a joint like this. Normally it would’ve been just a good show, only thing is the audience was small, could never have paid up enough tah pay fer all that.” “So what you’re saying is, your boy found out that the circus was doing something shady?” I asked. “He didn’t find out about it, had tah protect his family. I respect that, I don’t let one of my boys into somethin if family is on the line. Ya gotta look out fer them, I learned that da hard way.” He took another puff of his cigar before squashing it on the ash tray. “So, what did he find out?” I asked. “Found out that there was definitely somethin’ suspicious goin’ on, I’m no expert on finances, but that circus shouldn’t have the budget it does and stay open after some sorry turnouts. So yeah, we all smelled a rat.” “Connected to any of your gang friends?” I asked. “If it was, don’tcha think I would’ve known about it?” Grimgwing said, “No, it ain’t one of my boys. It’s not drugs either, I don’t let that kind of shit fly in our town. Somethin’ fishy’s goin’ on in that circus.” “Maybe their finances will turn up something…” I said. “What? Who ya gonna contact tah let ya have a look, ya ain’t exactly popular at the station nowadays.” He said, looking at me. “No, but I know one lawyer who’ll at least give me a look.” _________________________________________________________ “What did you find?” “Private you know this could get me in serious trouble.” “I know Sanda, but this is really important.” “Okay, I used some connections to dig into their financials. Your hunch was right, something is definitely not adding up.” “What do you mean?” “For one thing, the circus was totally in the red a few years ago, several notices were posted and final notices and you get the picture. Then suddenly, a few months back, the circus was in the black again.” “Did the circus receive any donations? Maybe some sort of third party?” “Yeah, there was a third party alright. A loan was given out to save the circus at first. Then the place starts bringing in the green over the months, but in smaller and smaller amounts.” “Who’s the party?” “Some place called Jingle Jangle Savings and Loan, I don’t have the place on any official lists. So I’m smelling a loan shark.” “Got an address?” “It’s in town, lower east side on Fifth and Lex. I had to call one of my contacts to find that one out.” “Thanks Sanda, you’re a lifesaver.” “Hey uh, any word on Raiden?” “He didn’t call you?” “No, I tried contacting his apartment, but they said he moved out months ago. Just what happened?” “He...he didn’t take what happened with Soyokaze well…” “Have you seen him at all?” “Sanda…” “Look, yes he’s a troublemaker but he’s still my brother, I’m worried alright?” “I get you, if I see him I’ll...see what I can do.” “Private…” “Yeah Sanda?” “Just...make sure that Baka knows he’s still got a family…” “I know from personal experience how hard that can be…”