Time to lay your sleep head: Murders in ponyville

by starfox64x

The First Victim

This was a particularly cold winter in Ponyville, not one that was common around these parts. The weather ponies couldn’t explain it, their weather systems were working normally and they were taking all the appropriate actions to get it back to a reasonable temperature for this time of year. Even removing all the clouds for a week couldn’t warm the town enough to notice a difference.

Rainbow Dash couldn't get herself to get comfortable on the icy clouds above, so she instead found herself sitting alone outside a little café, sipping some juice and looking over a recent edition of a flier’s magazine, looking through an article about the Wonderbolts… She wasn’t paying much attention, but a looming shadow came over her, and caught her attention. She looked up and saw a familiar plume of feather surrounding a bright yellow beak staring down at her.

“Sup?”

“Gilda…” Rainbow glared up at the griffon staring down at her, an unamused look on both of their faces, “I didn’t think you’d ever come back…” Her cold words sounded as if she had been hoping that they’d be true.

“It got cold up north… I’m heading south… Thought I’d stop by and say ‘hey’”

“Well you said it, now how about getting lost?” Dash turned back to her magazine, but was suddenly grabbed and pulled out of her chair. Onlookers gasped, uncertain of what to do about the situation.

“You’re really ticking me off with that attitude of yours Dash.” She snarled, gritting her teeth together.

“Really? I learned it from the most annoying birdbrain I know.” Dash simply smiled, showing no fear to the griffon’s actions.

Gilda took a second to reply, letting the steam vent a bit before calmly saying, “I was GOING to give you one last chance to redeem yourself, Dashie… I was going to take you with me”

“Well too bad, I’m not interested, I told you before how I feel… I don’t like you, I don’t like how you treat me, or my friends… Now get out of here before I buck your beak in…”

Suddenly Gilda’s claw swiped at Dash’s face, sending her body to the floor. She let out an angry roar before turning and walking away. “Always a dweeb! There’s no help for you!”

Dash sat up and rubbed her face. Luckily she didn’t have any cuts, but she was still furious. She didn’t even bother finishing her drink; she just turned around and walked away, hoping to cool her own hot temper somehow…

Twilight bounced down the street in her little winter saddle and snow boots, with Spike sitting on her back, munching on an apple, “mm, how does Applejack keep these so fresh in the winter?”

“Not sure Spike,” she replied, hovering one close to her face with her magic, taking a big bit out of it, “Maybe- mm….” she swallowed most of it before trying to speak again, “Maybe you should ask?”

“Hm, I think I will, maybe it’ll work with Rubies…” Spike turned his head, looking down the road a bit. He suddenly grew less interested in his food and more curious about the commotion nearby. “Hey, what’s going on?”” Spike noticed a large group of guards hovering around an alleyway with yellow tape blocking anypony from getting too close. Twilight’s curiosity caught her and drove her to approach the tape, “Uh, excuse me sir’s… what’s going on here?”

The closest guard put a hoof out, signaling her to move back, “Ma’am, we have to ask you to move along…”

“Hey! Wait, that’s Twilight.” Another guard called out, heading over to the other’s side.

“Who?”

“Princess Celestia’s pupil?” he mumbled, hinting at the importance, to which he responded quickly.

“OH! Y-yes, sorry about that Miss Twilight… but still… I don’t think you should be around to see this…” he glanced around, feeling like Celestia herself was watching him…

“Why? What’s going on?”

The guard who came to her defense sighed, “There’s been a murder, Twilight…”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she swore her heart stopped briefly. Spike tried to swallow to relieve the sudden dryness in his throat, but with all the apple in his mouth he found it hard to do so…

“Yeah… we have no idea who did it… All we have is the body…”

Twilight took a deep breath, trying to stay calm, “Who was it?”

The guard shrugged, “A griffon, that’s all we know… no griffon’s live around here, so we’re not sure who it could be…”

Twilgiht twitched at this fact, “A griffon…” she only knew one griffon, but why would she be in town? “How did she die?”

The two guards looked at each other briefly, “We didn’t say it was a ‘she’…”

Twilight blinked, realizing her fluke, “Oh, well, I only know one griffon, and it’s a she, so… she’s been in town before, but… I don’t know why I thought it was her, it just slipped out…”

The guards’ eyes met once again, before turning back to her, “She was stabbed in the neck with a small sharp object… she died fairly quickly…” he turned slightly, motioning toward a line trail of red dots leading away from the alley, “Whoever attacked her took the murder weapons with them and went this way, towards the outside of town… the snow covered the tracks, just left the blood.” Twilight just nodded, looking down the road, imagining a pony running down the road with a knife in their mouth. “You say you know a griffon… would you mind taking a look and see if it’s the one you know?”

Twilght gulped, “I… I don’t know…” she glanced at Spike, fearing that the sight would torment his young mind… not to mention her own. She had seen cadavers in books, and thought nothing of it… but a body in her face… it tore at her heart just thinking about it.

“We’d really appreciate any leads we can get…”

Twilight took a deep breath, levitating Spike off her back and onto the ground, “Wait here Spike.”

Spike didn’t argue, he didn’t want to see the dead body… it scared him terribly just thinking about it…

Twilight carefully ducked under the tape, heading into the alley. Other guards were examining the scene, taking notes on anything suspicious. In the center of the alley there was a large tarp covering a large lump. Twilight could see what looks like a lion’s tail poking out of the end. Twilight carefully approached, holding her breath as the tarp was pulled back to reveal the face. The pained expression on the griffon’s face, her last emotion frozen on her face before losing consciousness… it was terrifying. But Twilight tried to keep herself from looking long before turning away, “Yes, Yes it’s Gilda alright…”

The tarp was quickly returned, “Alright, thank you… would you mind coming down to the station with us? We’re gonna have a few questions about Gilda here…”

She blinked, “Oh, I don’t know much about Gilda, she was just Rainbow Dash’s friend… a long time ago… but she broke off their relationship when she came last time, I don’t understand why she would be back… Or… who would want to kill her…” Sure, she knew a lot of people who dispised her with a passion… but not enough to kill her…

“SIR! Sir!” A guard rushed in from the other end of the alley, trying to get the Captain’s attention, “We asked some ponies at the local coffee shop, they saw the griffon with Rainbow Dash, and they apparently had a tussle just before they split up.”

“Well…” the captain seemed intrigued, “We’ll just have to ask miss Dash to come down too…” he turned to Twilight once again, “Is that alright with you?”

Twilight felt a stabbing pain in her heart. For a brief moment she thought that Dash might’ve attacked Gilda… but… no, no way, she would never… would she?

At the station Twilight sat in a room alone. They asked Spike to go to another room for questioning as well. She knew Dash was in another room being questioned as she was earlier, although now being a prime suspect she was probably being pressed for information more than her. She was simply asked where she was and how she knew Gilda…

The door swung open as the captain entered, “Alright miss Sparkle, you’re free to go now, your friend Spike is finished too. Both of your stories check out.”

“What about Rainbow Dash?” she quickly stood up, now knowing she was free to go when she pleased.

“She’s still being questioned, and her home is being searched… she could be here all night, or if we feel she might be our suspect, we could lock her up for the night.”

She bit her lip, feeling her eyes beginning to water, “She’d never do it! I know her! She’s a great friend and the loyalist of ponies… She’s never hurt someone…”

“Well according to a witness she exclaimed that she would buck her beak in… It’s a threat, could’ve been an empty one, who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see… nothing you can do except head on home an-“

“CAPTAIN! There’s something you should see!” the captain turned quickly, seemingly confused, “Sir, there’s…. there’s something strange out in the park…”

“What is it?”

“Blood… LOTS of blood, but NO body anywhere near it!”

Twilight stared in disbelief along with the captain, “That’s… What? How?”

The guard shook his head, “I don’t know! A big puddle of blood in the snow, with the stuff splattered all over the place… there were two trails leading UP to the splatter, but no trail leading away, and no body… just… Lot’s of blood…”

“I’ll be there in a moment… Did you get a sample?”

“Yes, already starting to test it against the missing ponies database… We’ll find out who’s it is…”

The captain turned to Twilight, knowing of her curious nature, “Twlight, I want you to go home… stay inside for a bit… Check on your friends if you must, but get home soon…”

“And Dash?”

“I told you, we’re keeping her here for a bit… we’ll let you know how things end up…” he gave Twilight a look as if trying to tell her to get going. She quickly obliged, taking Spike with her.

The streets seemed barren; news had gotten around fast. She made sure to move quickly, heading for her library for now. When she arrived, she found just about all her friends standing around waiting for her; Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike and even Applebloom and Scootaloo were with the group.

“Twilight! Thank goodness you’re here.” Applejack rushed over, worried over the sudden fear gripping the town, “What’s going on?”

Twilight took a deep breath, hoping she had her facts straight, “Well, I know there’s been one murder…” The room was silent. She expected some sound of horror, a gasp or something. Any noise would’ve been good to hear, but the terror that filled the hearts in that room forced them silent, “And then there’s apparently another incident… a lot of blood in the park but no body… There’s a murderer running out there.”

“Oh no! Sweetie Belle!” The group turned to Rarity, seeing her horrified expression, “I-I sent her out hours ago to get me some supplies! She’s still out there!”

The group didn’t have time to get their terror up to Rarity’s level. The front door opened up and Sweetie Belle hobbled inside, “Rarity? Are you in here?” she called out, looking around the group of ponies gathered around.

Before she could react, Rarity’s magic pulled here little sister across the room and into a hug, “OHMAYGOSH! I’m so glad you’re here! What on earth was taking you so long? Why are you limping?” an over exasperated gasp escaped her lips, “Was it the murderer? Did he get to you?”

Sweetie Belle smiled, although twitching as a bit of pain ran through her from the tight hug “I’m fine sis… I was just taking the long way home… I tripped and hurt my leg after I heard about the attack though… I tried to go home but you locked the door… so I came here…”

“Oh goodness, I’m so sorry Sweetie Belle…” She hugged the little one tight, pecking her forehead multiple times. Applebloom and Scootaloo giggled the sight.

“Rarity! Not in front of my friends!”

Applejack was getting a little annoyed by the scene she was making, “Look Rarity, we’re all glad that your sister is okay, but now that we know she’s fine we need to start focusing in on what the hay we’re going to do…”

Twilight decided to step back in, “Well, we only know of one person who’s been attacked… for all we know the blood could’ve been Gilda’s and she flew away to the alley… She didn’t exactly have a pleasant visit when she was here last, it could’ve been someone who was particularly hurt by what she did when she was here…”

The comment lead the group of ponies to glance at one another… as if labeling possible suspects already… Twilight was annoyed by the mere thought that any of them would have anything to do with it, “Hey! I see you all looking around, What the heck girls?”

Applejack felt a bead of sweat run down her neck, “H-hey, I’m not blaming anyone… you just said someone who was hurt by Gilda, and I was just thinking that what she did ta’ poor Pinkie was really harsh… I’m not saying she had anything to do with this!”

“Of course I don’t!” Pinkie said loudly in protest, “She may have been a big stinky meanie head! But I tried to throw a party for her! I tried to be friends with her, but she refused…”

“Come to think of it…” Rarity’s mind began to wander, and her mouth didn’t remain closed, “Didn’t you finally hit the edge when she yelled at Fluttershy?”

The attention of the room went to Fluttershy, who felt the heat of the spotlight and just shut down, staring back at the group like a deer in the headlights…

“Uh… Fluttershy… you haven’t been seeing Iron Will lately, have you?”

Fluttershy remained stiff, unable to move a muscle under the pressure of the situation.

“Of course she hasn’t…” Twilight stepped in, defending her, “none of us here did it… Sure Gilda may have hurt all of us, but none of us are murderers… And Dash isn’t either, we all should know better than that…”

The group suddenly felt terrible, mentally spreading blame to their friends… the all began to apologize to one another, even Fluttershy managed to speak up… apparently even she had some thoughts in her head…

“That’s better… now then, lets just all keep calm and head home… girls…” Twilight looked at the little ones, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, “You should all stay inside for a while, no going out to your clubhouse alone.” The three nodded, not really wanting to argue over this fact… they would probably be too scared to go out alone anyway…

“Alright… everyone stay safe… I’m sure this will all blow over soon…”

Comments

[Red-Zan]

A good start, I sure wanna read more of this murder mystery

[Harmony wing]

You have to continue this story

[starfox64x]

2503100
2502702

Dont worry =3 I have about 3-ish chapter already written, i just wanted to see if this got any interest attached to it...