//------------------------------//
// C23 - The True Nature of Home 
// Story: Trapped In Canterlot 
// by TartarusFire 
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"No Twilight, I am not angry." She grabbed her with a wing and levitated Spike away from the wall. "But I do need this," she hugged them both.
 
 
 
***
 
 
 
The scene in the family’s house on Twelve East Street was finally being wrapped up. The several detectives on the scene were finishing up with the final room, the master bedroom. Throughout the house, there had been seeds scattered about, but for some reason, there had been a stain on the carpet of the room which continued into the hallway and down into the basement.
 
Now the reason was clear. The room was in a disarrayed state. And there was broken furniture in the middle of the floor, a dresser. The trail was thin from the dresser, but one of the bedposts was broken off and the stain was magnified into a splash; that stain in the eggshell carpet led out of the room.
 
Documenting the scene caused the detectives to scribble furiously, each one writing down what the scene and theorizing what it meant. The privates to the detectives stepped in and took pictures after the senior detectives had finished.
 
Still unfinished, crime scene investigators collected the evidence when was then encapsulated in metal containers and given back to the guards for safekeeping. It was like this that the entire house had been documented.
 
The closet was bare; the dresser was empty, and the room was mostly bare. The bed however, was lavish. Probably left over from a more peaceful time, it rose off the ground enough to have boxes stashed under it. Most of the objects appeared to be keepsakes, but one box stood out. It was slightly poking out from under the bed with residue and detritus on it.
 
Inside was a photo album.
 
 
 
Magic experts had been cultivating the basement after it had been documented. The magic lights were still off as they could be trapped, so protocol demanded portable light to be set up.
 
Two massive tables were placed side by side, taking up the entire center of the room. A grille was still warm from the recently burned out flame that hadn’t been shut off since Empathy snagged her translucent, purple potion. The rest of the space was covered in all manner of powers, glassware, alchemic instruments, and substances of questionable health hazards.
 
The little walking space that was left around the tables was blocked at the corner of a room by a black box. It had a door on its bottom, which when opened revealed spent coals. It had another door, much larger than the first; which revealed a smokehouse with cured meats in it – noting too out of the normal in Canterlot, as there was a meat eating population of thestrals and fancy upper crust ponies.
 
The four ponies working on deciphering the alchemy’s means coordinated with the two criminal investigator mages to determine what magic had been worked in the room. Any information was documented, and it added up to a conglomeration of several types of magic.
 
Even more disturbing were the burned scorches on the ground. The potions themselves were not just alchemy, but they were appeared to be mixed with a physical form of an unidentifiable magic type. Then, the team assumed regular unicorn magic activated the potion, triggering it.
 
Whatever the magic was, it permeated the scorch mark, and flooded the air.
 
 
 
Even though it was one of the first rooms to be dissected, Caedes’s bedroom was still being cataloged to the point of a paperwork nightmare. After the initial report of her condition being stabilized, they had been given instructions to find out the living conditions of her room, due to her deteriorated state.
 
So far, it had been discerned from the matted state of the carpet, along with a few spills that she had been in the room often, if not completely shut inside. It may have been foal neglect, but without further evidence or testimony, it was forced to be overlooked.
 
The room had two small desks, one with school supplies and one closer to the door with a few cards on it. There was a folded blanket on the floor with a worn dictionary and some paper on it. There was not much else to note, other than a bookcase which had dust gathering before it was assaulted by debris from the explosion.
 
The reason it was taking so long to finish the work on the room, was because the explosion had covered everything in hunks of wood and splinters, not to mention scorching everything in a five foot radius.
 
 
 
"Mondays." The sergeant on the scene was not happy after Caption Strongbrows had left shortly after the Princess had.
 
A guard who had been loading containers into a covered chariot transporter nodded after being told by one of the investigators to pack up. He ran over to the sergeant, "Sir," he saluted, "We have cleared out all evidence necessary, and the ponies inside will be done shortly." He stood at attention.
 
"’Bout time. It’s almost noon and lunchtime." He blinked at what he had said. "Er. Private, whoever is working now will stay and hold the scene. Anyone currently working will also take a lunch break after the relief comes, and then you will take post again. Am I clear?"
 
"Sir!"
 
"Dismissed."
 
 
 
The road crews had marked everything, but there was ultimately less evidence as it was last leg of the event. Only one covered transporter was needed, but the scene was still off limits to the civilians. Strongbrow had notified the sergeant the same way as the one by the house.
 
 
 
***
 
 
 
"So... you’re not mad, Princess?" Twilight had asked from under a wing.
 
Celestia considered this and drew back, lest she accidentally hug Twilight too hard and cause her to choke on her sandwich. "Well. I think it’s more complicated than that. I’m not angry at you.. or any pony in particular. It’s just everything recently has been very taxing."
 
Twilight moved back over to the food trolley, grabbing a pear while spike had a ruby and a salad. "How so princess?" She spoke between bites.
 
The princess snagged more food and a familiar dessert from her favorite establishment. "Ah. The cake’s good. But in all seriousness Twilight, it is nothing you need concern yourself about. It should be resolved in a few weeks at the longest." She ate a fancy parfait, "You seemed rather rushed when you came in. Would you like to share?"
 
"Oh yes!" Twilight clopped her hooves together, smiling vehemently. "I had this idea, and I think it has validity to it from the research I did all morning. How are ponies dissimilar to other races that have little to no access to magic?"