//------------------------------// // XIX: Investigations // Story: A Prose By Any Other Name // by Jarvy Jared //------------------------------// The days went on by, growing more short as winter approached. Most of the pegasi were getting ready to deliver the snow clouds from Cloudsdale, getting their shipping routes from the higher ups. While the weather wasn’t particularly cold yet, some ponies were found wearing scarves already, preparing for the incoming freeze. But while the pegasi worked, one, a cyan, rainbow-maned mare, had other plans for today. The timing had to be perfect. There couldn’t be any mishap. The distraction had to be just enough to not warrant coming back. Of course, the distractor had to unwittingly be a part of the investigation; but, Rainbow supposed, that was necessary. She may have been arrogant and headstrong, but she understood the value in stealth. That said, she had decided to wait a safe distance from the house, doing her best to avoid entering any potential opening. If Dusk was as good at observing as Applejack, Rarity, and several other ponies had been saying, she needed to exercise caution as her highest priority. On her side was a small satchel that had a few select items necessary for her investigation. She watched as Scootaloo and the Crusaders bounded up the steps, smiles on their faces. She wondered what about Dusk made them smile; surely, it wasn’t his cold persona. No, it had to be something else. Her mind jumped at the possibility of it being something malicious. But then again, she knew Scootaloo. She had good intuition. She wouldn’t trust anypony right away if she hadn’t already known they were alright. Rainbow wondered if it had to do with either Sweetie Belle or Apple Bloom. The latter, however, seemed to fall into the same situation as Scootaloo. Sweetie, then, was the prime suspect in convincing them to hang out with Dusk. Rainbow had been tempted to question Sweetie, but she didn’t want to provoke Rarity either. Considering how Rarity also refused to accuse Dusk, I wouldn’t put it past her to start a riot. The fillies had stopped at the door, wearing their signature capes. Nervous, Scootaloo took the front. She knocked on the door three times, then stepped back and resumed waiting. From Rainbow’s vantage point, she saw movement from upstairs. It was shaded, the form masked and dark. She guessed it was Dusk. She didn’t see his mouth move, but judging by Scootaloo also moving her mouth, she guessed that Dusk had posed a question. The fillies frowned at Dusk’s response. Sweetie then walked up to the door and pushed it open, entering inside. Rainbow was more surprised that the door was even unlocked. A short while later, the fillies were pushing Dusk outside. They were dragging with them Dusk’s own Crusader cape. Their voices were growing louder, though they sounded more exasperated than upset. “C’mon, Dusk!” Scootaloo said as she pushed him outside. “You promised you’d go crusading with us when we asked you to!” As they hastily placed the cape around him, he looked more than displeased, but did not try to dissuade them. An almost amused frown was on his lips. He looked tired, like he hadn’t gotten any sleep, but that didn’t stop him from making a quiet, snarky reply. Sweetie lightly bopped him on the head for that. Rainbow had to resist the urge to snicker. The cape secured on his body, Dusk gave himself a quick look-over. Seeing that everything was as it should be, he nodded, though the frown still remained. The fillies smiled, before pushing him forward, leading him away from the house. They were chipper, distracting him with what they would do today. To her relief, he didn’t see Rainbow as she sat in the tree, watching. She saw them go down the road and head into town, their voices slowly becoming more distant and faded. Though her entire body wanted to immediately leave her spot, she forced herself to stay put, making sure that Dusk had no intention of coming back. She glanced at the house, seeing that the door was still slightly ajar. Just like I told Scootaloo to do. She grimaced. Scootaloo had been confused as to why Rainbow would want such a minute detail, and she had to lie and say that “didn’t want the house getting too hot.” Conveniently, today was supposed to be rather hot, so the reason made sense. It made her feel guilty that she had to lie, but she had a strange feeling that if she hadn’t, Scootaloo would not have allowed Rainbow to enter Dusk’s home. She shook her thoughts away, glancing towards town. By now, Dusk and the fillies were little more than dots on the horizon. Good. Rather than fly off and risk creating a loud sonic boom, Rainbow opted to lower herself to the ground. Hugging the tree, she slid down the trunk, hooves touching the grassy field softly. She let out a slow breath, checking around to make sure that the coast was still clear. She nodded, seeing that it still was. She carefully trotted forward at a brisk pace, glancing around occasionally. The house quickly approached, its massive frame hulking and slightly intimidating. What kind of pony lives in someplace so odd? she wondered. She walked up the steps, noticing that the steps did not creak. She found herself impressed that Dusk had taken it upon himself to fix the building and its numerous initial flaws. With the new paint coated on, one would think that the house had never been in any form of disarray. She shook herself. She couldn’t be distracted by these thoughts. She placed a hoof on the slightly opened door, pushing it. It didn’t creak; Dusk had oiled it up quite well. She frowned. This was not what a user was known for. Stepping inside, she was met with another surprise. The house was clean, free of the clutter that she had thought all users had gathered up. The floor was shiny and clear, the furniture dusted, and the picture frames righted, and the pictures themselves smudge-free. It was by no means an exemplary home, but it was certainly above poor-quality housing. Applejack had her farm, Fluttershy had her cottage, Twilight had her library, Rarity had her boutique, Pinkie had the Corner, and Rainbow had her cloud home; but Dusk lived in a rather luxurious place, all things considered. She couldn’t tell if she was impressed or confused. A user living in a nice house? It doesn’t add up! Seeing all this, she had no idea where to start. She had thought it would have been easy; shuffle around some garbage, find some evidence, fly out of there. But, seeing as there was no garbage, she couldn’t go down that line of investigation. So, then, where to start? After a few moments, Rainbow decided that upstairs would do. After glancing around once more, making sure she was all alone, she carefully moved up the steps towards the second level. It crossed her mind that Dusk could be hiding something in the bathroom, so she went in there first. She paused for a moment, thinking back to one of the stories she had read. Trent Collins, though fictional, was every bit an astute detective. His stories and adventures could probably translate over quite well to real life, despite the character being a fictional ‘human.’ If there was one thing that Opacare Prose had made his character’s methods out to be, it was realistic. Aside from the usual toiletries, a gel canister, a clean sink, and a spick-and-span mirror, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. She half-considered checking the toilet, but stopped when she figured that Dusk wasn’t that dirty. She walked out. She checked the upstairs closet, noticing that there appeared to be several boxes. She opened a few of them; they were all empty. Probably for storage. She frowned. Storage for what? She had no idea, but decided that was suspicious enough. She turned to her satchel and opened it, pulling out a small camera. It was from Pinkie; where she had gotten the device Rainbow wasn’t sure, but it had proven to be helpful in the past. A few clicks of the shutter later, she had several pictures of the empty boxes in her inventory. She allowed herself a satisfied smirk. The bedroom was next. As she stepped into it, she shivered. Entering inside felt forbidden, like it was sealed with a curse of some sort. The curtains, though not fully drawn, still held an air of restriction around them. The room was darkened, absent of any light; whether it was a safe haven or a recluse for the dangerous was unknown. She was quick to notice that the bed had been made, a behavior that she wasn’t sure all users were known for. Her eyes glanced over to the side, where the desk lay. Walking over, she noticed that there were several crumpled up papers laying on top, with a blue quill and black inkwell nearby. She frowned; had Dusk been trying to write something, then had given up? She unfurled several of them, her frown deepening as she saw that none of them had any writing. She glanced at the ink and quill. The latter looked dry; it had not been used in at least a day. The inkwell had been capped and sealed. That’s strange. Why would papers be crumpled and rolled up? Usually it was because what was written wasn’t up to standards. She frowned. There had to be more than just empty scrolls here. Where else would papers be found? Her eyes lit up in realization. The wastebasket! She glanced around the side, grinning as she saw the cylindrical metal container lying beneath. There were several more crumpled pieces of paper in there. She placed her bag on the desk, bending down and retrieving the pieces. She placed them back on top, before unfurling each one. The first few were blank as well, confusing her. The next were mostly just smudges and incoherent thought, like Dusk had no idea what he was writing. A few were completely illegible, so corrupted was the writing. She took a few pictures, despite knowing the scrolls gave very little. The last scroll actually had writing on it, though it was mostly just smudges and incomplete phrases. Most of the words had been blotted out by dry rivers of black, leaving a somewhat incoherent message. The lettering was also smudged, leaving behind a bolder set of words. Raven Lock, You will ████████████████████████die██████████████████████████████████████████There is ██████████████████████danger, should you be found█████████████  ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ I ██████becom███this monster. I █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ what I’ve done. ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ The syringes████████████████████████locked in my freezer, hopefully sane████████████████████████████████████████blood████████████████████████ Opacare Prose is gone.████my hooves█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████killed him█████████████████████████████████████████████████true. █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ███████████████████████████████████████I’m insane.███████████████████████I’ll be returning to Manehattan████████████████████████████████bury Opacare Prose███████ ███████████That was███very funny. █████████████████████████████████████████a confession.████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████continue this operation? ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ███████████████████████████ █████████████ Rainbow’s mind seized up. She dropped the letter in shock, her mouth gaping, eyes wide. She glanced down back at the paper, rereading it, making sure she hadn’t misread. Questions began flooding her mind. Who’s Raven Lock? What does Dusk mean by him dying? There’s danger? What did Dusk do? She clenched her eyes against the onslaught of questions. How does he know Opacare Prose is gone? What killed him? What’s true? Is Dusk insane? What does he mean by burying Opacare Prose? What confession? What operation? She fell on her bottom, trying to slow her breathing. She couldn’t comprehend what the message was saying. She could assume that Dusk had wrote the message; but she didn’t understand why! Why was he talking to this Raven Lock like he was going to die? Why did he talk about Prose like he knew him? Why did he sound like he had some involvement in Prose’s disappearance— She paused. Was it possible? She stood, unsteadily, looking back over the letter. “Opacare Prose,” “my hooves,” and “killed him” were all in the same paragraph, so she guessed that he was talking about something relating to the terms. The first thing that came to mind was something nefarious had happened; something that Dusk had to be a part of. She remembered that Mayor Grifford Finch had been saying that it was likely that Opacare had been abducted by somepony familiar, somepony whom he wouldn’t think had any malicious intent. What if Dusk was that pony? What if Dusk knew Opacare Prose? Did that mean this Raven Lock was involved? The more unsettling question was: did Dusk Prosa kill Opacare Prose? She had no evidence, besides this letter. And she found herself doubting the credibility. After all, Dusk had admitted that he was insane in the writing. She thought back to Rich’s encounter with Dusk, how Dusk had reacted violently and sporadically to the business stallion. He was vicious, which was part of the reason why she didn’t like it when Scootaloo was around him. Given his violent tendencies, would it really be unreasonable to think him capable of murder? Admittedly, it was a stretch; but a stretch was a hunch, and a hunch could be considered. So, with a strained sigh, she lifted the camera in her hooves, and took several pictures of the smudged scroll. Afterwards, she re-crumpled up the papers, doing her best to make the desk seem as it was before. She tossed the papers back into the wastebasket and splayed the others out all over the desk randomly, figuring that Dusk wouldn’t care about the order. Another tense breath escaped her. Okay, Rainbow, focus. I’ll tell Twilight and the others what I’ve found the next time I see them. Hopefully we’ll be able to sort out this whole mess. She stepped away, leaving the room and closing the door quickly. She shivered, unnerved. Still, though, her investigation wasn’t over yet. There was still one issue left to resolve. She trotted down the stairs, making her way to the kitchen. With a frown she entered, walking up to the freezer. She hoped that she was guessing wrong; but she had a sinking feeling… As she opened the door, the sinking feeling became an abysmal sensation. She stared at the red cylinders in complete numbness, ignoring the cool wind that washed over her face. They glared back at her, and the little measures looked like grim faces. She felt nauseous. What… what is this? She turned away, trying to calm herself down. The wind blew past her, ruffling her mane. It seemed to clear her thoughts just enough for her to do something reasonable. She turned back, a determined grimace on her face. She grabbed her camera and held it before her, facing the syringes. Strangely, behind the lens, they seemed less intimidating. It was like the fear factor was lessened behind glass and wood. She clicked a few times, taking several pictures, before letting out a relieved breath as she closed the door. Her brow furrowed in worry. Worry for Scootaloo, worry for the town, worry for what Dusk was doing— She stopped as she heard the cries of a trio of fillies. She glanced out the window, seeing the four ponies returning from town. “What? Already? Buck me!” she whispered fiercely. There was no time to investigate any further. She had to leave, now. Rainbow placed the camera back in her satchel, zipping it shut. She took two steps backwards, before violently turning and sprinting for the back. She could hear their voices approaching. She knew she couldn’t fly out; she’d be seen, and be questioned immediately, and that was something she did not want to happen. She approached a window, doing her best to open it without making a loud ruckus. The glass was pulled up, and she dove out with a strangled yelp. She landed, and turned, pulling the window down just as the door opened. “Did we really have to come back here for this?” she heard Apple Bloom asked. “Of course,” Dusk responded, his voice sounding cold. “You wanted something for Scootaloo’s scooter, remember?” She heard him trot on the wooden floor, shuffling around some boxes in a nearby closet. “Let’s see… I was sure they were around here somewhere…” He stepped closer, growing dangerously close to the window. “Maybe I left it near here?” She hissed, tense and shaking. He heard it. She heard him stop, and could practically see the frown on his face. Silently she cursed her clumsiness. She pushed herself against the side of the house, trying to shrink against the wall. The window slid up, and she saw the underside of his chin stick out. Her breath caught in her throat. His head swiveled around a few times, searching. His head began to lean down, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before he saw her. “Hey, Dusk! What’s taking you so long?” The orange filly’s slightly scratchy voice never sounded so relieving. Rainbow promised to thank Scootaloo later. The chin vanished, and Dusk trotted away. “Sorry, Scootaloo. I thought I heard something.” She could picture Scootaloo bristling in annoyance. “Nevermind that. I found the wrench you needed. It was in the other closet.” The stallion grew faint as he left the window. Another moment passed, and Rainbow heard the door shut once more. The Crusaders’ voices then grew distant, and she knew they were returning back to town. She waited. Five seconds, ten, twenty. Then one minute, then two, then five. Then, she stood. Only now did she see how stressed she was, as her legs nearly toppled out from under her. She took slow, steady breaths, glaring down the road. Dusk and the fillies had gone; she was all alone. A shiver ran through her. She had not expected to find what she had found. She almost wanted Dusk to have certainly been a user, than have seen what was inside of his house. But she couldn’t reflect on that now. At the moment, she had information. She had to get the pictures developed as soon as possible. Only then would the truth be revealed. With a roaring, nerve-wracked boom, Rainbow took off for Ponyville.