//------------------------------//
// First case: Envious Apples Part 7 
// Story: Equestrian Judges! 
// by Zeno the Masked Writer 
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"Um excuse me, sir? But can I help you?" 


Mako had made his way to the mayor's office after his talk with Rarity. He was currently looking for any links to Silver Lockets past in the small town. He walked over to the receptionist who was shaking like a leaf just by looking at him.


"Yes, I need any information regarding the late Silver Locket. Anything relating to his family or place of residence." Mako explained as he showed her his badge. The receptionist seemed to look sick at the mention of the name and quickly tried to find the paperwork. 


As she ran around her small office Mako realized something strange. Ever since he got to ponyville, everyone has done whatever he asked without even giving a single complaint. 


"I guess fear between Anthro's and humans is still as strong as ever." He thought as she finally found the papers and handed it to him. 


Mako flipped through paper after paper trying to find anything that might give him a hint on where to search next. The receptionist still looked scared, however, she gathered up courage she had left to speak to him. 


"Umm excuse me." 


Mako looked up from the file and noticed the skittish attitude of the clerk. He sighed and started to walk out of the room until she asked a question that caught him off guard. 


"Your gonna find the real culprit right?" 


Mako turned around and looked at her with a shocked expression, however, the clerk seemed to shrink the second his eyes meet hers. 


"So you know huh?" Mako asked as the clerk nodded. 


"Of course! No one in town believes that AJ could have killed Silver Locket!" She exclaimed with determination as Mako took out one of his cigarettes and placed it on the table. 


"My personal motto is not to let today's troubles be tomorrow's burdens. Take some time to reflect on what you have and be ready to deal with whatever comes your way. I promise you, Applejack will get out of this mess." He explained as he took the file he was reading and left the Mayors office.


 


After 30 minutes Mako had made his way to Silver Lockets place of residence. He knocked on the door and after a few minutes, a stallion with a gray coat wearing a worn out suit came out and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the man. 


"Excuse me sir, but I came here to ask you a few questions about Silver Locket." Mako explained as the stallion seemed to visibly drop at the name.


He opened the door and gestured the man to come inside. Mako took a seat in what looked to be the living room while the stallion walked out of the kitchen with two cups of what smelled like tea. 


"I'm sorry for making you wait." He said placing the platter on the table and taking a seat across from the man. 


"Now I believe you wanted to talk about what happened to my son?" 


Mako felt guilty for bringing up something like this, especially to the father of all people. After drinking his tea, Mako decided to go ahead and dive straight into the problem at hand.


"For starters, I need to know everything about your family history, next I need to know about your son, and finally, I would like to know about your relation to the Apples." 


The stallion hesitated for a second, however, after taking a moment to think he started to explain.


"Well my name Is Silver platter and us, the Silver family, are nothing but a merchant family who serve the Rich family. Technically speaking we have been a part of this town's community since its founding." He explained while Mako looked through the papers he got at the mayor's office. 


"So your family has been here since the beginning? Earlier you said your family served another family called the Riches, what exactly did you mean by that?" Mako asked as Silver Platter sighed. 


"Our family were struggling merchants in the beginning.....we wandered from town to town selling poorly made silver to whoever would buy. However, after meeting the Rich family, they were able to perfect our art of silver crafting magic." He explained as he reached over to pick up a spoon. 


After a second the spoon began to melt down into a liquid state and suddenly reform itself into a small statue of the man. 


"I see so he uses his magic to break down the silver and then reconstructs it into what he would want." Mako thought as the stallion reformed the statue back into a spoon. 


"At first, we couldn't use our magic properly but thanks to the Rich family we were able to strengthen our magic. As such, we of the Silver family are forever indebted to them so we allow our youngest and oldest of kin to serve them as servants." He explained with a hurt look in his eyes. 


"I see, so I gonna take a gamble here and say that Silver Locket was one of the few who served as a servant?" Mako asked as Silver Platter nodded. 


"However, Silver Locket was much more.....opinionative than he should have been. He never wanted to serve them and it created some bad relations with other members of our family. But I never could believe that one of the Apples could take his life! After all, the Apples and the Riches share a strong partnership!" He explained which caught Mako's attention. 


"You see....both the Apples and the Riches were responsible for the founding of Ponyville. Thanks to the Riches excellent marketing strategies and the Apple's agricultural expertise they were able to raise seed money for the town."  


This particular information made things a lot easier for Mako to place the pieces of the puzzle. Finally, things were starting to turn around in his favor but there was still something bothering him. 


"Sir, can you tell me what your son was doing before he was murdered?"





Shiro had decided to go back to the barn today to inspect the body one last time before they took it down for his funeral. The ranch was completely empty with only a single guard on patrol. 


Shiro couldn't help but sneer at the pitiful display of protecting the crime scene. He was about to enter the barn but stopped when he felt someone's presence in the building next to it. 


He rested his hand on his hilt and walked into the building without so much as a squeak from the old flooring. He made his way upstairs and opened a door to what looked like a small bedroom. He noticed a small filly sitting on the bed with tears in her eyes. 


Shiro sighed while taking a step back and knocked on the door. The sudden noise caused her to fall off the bed in a panic and tried to find a place to hide, however, Shiro walked in and found her hiding in the closet. 


"Ok come out now." 


It took a moment but the filly walked out of the closet with a guilty look on her face. Shiro walked over to her and kneeled down and wiped the child's tears off with a handkerchief. 


"This place is dangerous for a child to be here. You need to go home immediately!" Shiro ordered as the filly could only stare at him. 


"But this is my home." She explained in a southern draw which surprised Shiro. 


He sighed and slowly took the child downstairs. He watched the child whimper and sob as she caught a glimpse of the barn.  


"If only I could remember!" She shouted in frustration as Shiro raised an eyebrow. 


"Remember what?" He asked as the filly turned to the man with a sad look in her eyes. 


"IF I COULD JUST REMEMBER WHAT I SAW THAT NIGHT! THAN MAYBE MY SISTER AINT GOTTA BE IN TROUBLE ANYMORE!" 


The little fillies words were so loud that Shiro felt like he had gone deaf, however, he did hear what she said. Suddenly it felt like the whole world was frozen while Shiro stared at the girl. 


"Your Applejacks sister, correct?" He asked with a deadly look in his eye while she nodded. 


"You need to tell me everything you saw that night, do you understand?" 


Once again she nodded and Shiro stood up and walked into the kitchen with the filly. He looked around for whatever was still edible and came back to her. 


"Now......I need to know everything." 


TO BE CONTINUED