Chapter 1 "Lightning Strike"
Equestria Noir 2
Case 4
“Lightning’s Wrath”
By Jacoboby1
Chapter 1
“Lightning Strike”
Perspective: Spitfire
Another day, another batch of paperwork to deal with. I know it comes with the job of running this academy though, so I was willing to put up with it. I sat in my desk, clad in my base uniform as I went about the paperwork. I moved aside some papers and saw another report on Rainbow’s progress.
She’s a good kid, a bit showy, but good nonetheless. She proved that much when she was willing to trade in the chance to become a Wonderbolt if it meant she had to sacrifice her morals. I’ll admit, it probably wasn’t the nicest thing to elevate Lightning Dust like that. But how else was I going to get Rainbow to push herself? Kids like that work best when they have competition.
The reason why I had her partnered up with Lightning was so that Rainbow saw just where to draw the line. While it is good to be a little reckless, you should never sacrifice your team or your friends.
That’s why Lightning Dust is cleaning the bathrooms and Rainbow is out training. She’s doing very well, still I could tell she was giving internal fangirl squeals every time I entered the room. It was kind of nice to have a fan so close.
I heard a knock on the door. “Come in,” I said, putting aside the paperwork for a minute.
In stepped in none other than Soarin, my big, dumb, sweet as hell partner. He walked in, carrying a pie as per usual. He smiled at me and said, “You think you can spare a pie break?”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Soarin, you’d find any excuse to gorge on pies. I’m surprised you haven’t put bakeries out of business,” I said, watching him set the pie on my desk.
“Ah, gotta keep the weight down. You know how coach gets when my flight suit suddenly becomes too small,” Soarin said, taking a bite of the pie.
“Just make sure you don’t plummet to the ground during training,” I said with another laugh. “I’d hate to have a flat colt friend, kind of hard to make out with.”
Soarin got that stupid grin on his face every time I called him coltfriend. Soarin may not be the brightest bulb in the bunch, but he’s a great flier and kind of sweet. The cadets found him a bit more approachable than me, but that’s okay, my job is to scare them shitless, not play patty hooves.
“Expecting anypony today?” Soarin asked, before trying to do a double dose with the pie. I gave him a look and he reluctantly put down one piece.
“Just reviewing cadets,” I said. “Dash is doing pretty good, I’m thinking of having her lead a flight course tomorrow.”
“If they can keep up with her,” Soarin said.
“They’ll keep up,” I said confidently, “If Rainbow’s good at anything, it’s putting confidence in everypony by being very sure in herself.”
“Aside from that,” Soarin said, “you get to see that new coach today?”
“Yup,” I said with a nod, “His name’s Cumulus or something. Seemed kind of nervous dontcha think?”
“A little,” Soarin said, swallowing pie. “Kept asking me about the security of this place. It’s an academy, it’s not like anything…”
KRACKOOM!!!
I fell out of my chair in shock at the sudden crash of lightning. I shook my head as alarms went off. I looked at Soarin who was holding his pie. “Saved it!” He cried in triumph.
“Less gorging!” I yelled as I got to my feet. “More finding out why the hell is there a lightning strike when a sunny day was planned?”
I opened the window and flew outside into the open air. Soarin followed behind shortly after, pieless and alert. I looked over towards a smoky building nearby...that was an old storage shed. We never used it, I was actually planning on adding another runway where it was now.
Soarin and I flew towards it as everypony was starting to fly in too. I looked towards a guard that flew up to me. “Keep all the cadets out, I wanna see what happened here!” I ordered and then zoomed towards the building.
As I got closer I noticed there was a large hole in the roof, the smoke was coming out of it. I landed and slowly opened the door…
Suddenly it was obvious where the smoke was coming from…
_____________________________________________________________________
Perspective: Private Eye
I held Silver Wolf in my magic, my eyes closed as I stood in the Castle’s training area. I felt the pads beneath my hooves, suffice to say my face had gotten very much acquainted with those pads. I could hear the soft hum of my magic along with more hums steadily adding to it.
“Don’t trust your eyes Private,” I heard Voidera’s voice say. “For there are many things in this world they cannot perceive. If you wish to become a true master of the blade, you must put your trust in it. But it’s a two way relationship. You must trust in your blade to fight, and you must trust yourself to lead it.”
“This is starting to sound like a movie I once saw,” I said, my ears listening for any movement.
“However incredibly fascinating you're motion pictures are,” Voidera said, “You should focus on training right now.”
Whoosh!
I heard it flying towards me. Three o’clock! I turned and slashed my blade and felt a slight resistance as it sliced a practice sword that Voidera was levitating.
Whoosh!
Two, seven o clock…
Slash! Clang! Slash!
Had to work a little with that one. He probably increased the thickness to give me a challenge.
“Good,” His deep voice rang through the room, “You are sure footed and your balance strong.”
“Thanks I guess,” I said.
“Let’s remedy that…”
Suddenly I heard the sound of alchemy being performed. The pads below me began to shift and move about like I was standing in the middle of an earthquake. I tried to find sure footing.
Whoosh!
Another one, eleven o clock!
I tried to swing my blade but suddenly what felt like a blunt force hammer uppercutted me in the chin. I fell back and landed flat on my back. I groaned in pain as my eyes opened and I saw Voidera smirking down at me.
I frowned. “That wasn’t exactly fair,” I said.
He just kept his smirk. “Your enemies won’t play fair,” He said.
I got up and saw him replace his practice blades on the shelf. I saw the little rock pillar he summoned in order to hit me in the jaw. I wiped my forehead with a hoof as sweat got to me. “Most of my enemies probably don’t know alchemy,” I said.
“The key is to always be prepared Private,” Voidera said, his horn sparking, the rock pillar returned to the floor from which it came. “Your opponents are never going to fight fair. In your line of work you should expect that.”
“When I signed on to become a detective,” I said, taking a towel and wiping more sweat off me. “I didn’t think I’d be facing alicorns, changelings, and all sorts of monsters.”
“Adaptation is a virtue here,” Voidera said.
“So,” I asked, looking at him, “when am I going to be able to start lifting rocks and stuff?”
“Alchemy is more than simply summoning pillars Private,” Voidera said, “It’s an art that takes years to truly understand and master. An alchemical master could rebuild an entire city using his magic alone.”
“Really?” I asked.
“He’d probably die from the strain,” Voidera quipped, “But, it would be rather impressive you have to admit.”
For somepony who’s supposed to be fifteen hundred plus years old, he could stand some maturity lessons. I know he’s supposed to be my teacher, and I really respect him for that. In a few months he’s taught me so much. Swordplay, Alchemy, how to efficiently use my magic during a fight all to prepare me for...something.
He’s been very quiet as to why exactly he’s training me. But, another mystery for another day I guess. I slipped my trench coat and hat back on. Voidera was a very no training armor sort of guy. Then again, I probably would be useless in heavy armor anyways. I liked being able to move thank you.
“I just hope Celestia is a bit gentler with her than you are with me,” I said, looking at the dracorn.
“Worry not for your beloved,” Voidera said, “Tia has trained many in her time as ruler. Twilight is an avid student, she will rise to the challenge.”
I nodded, sheathing Silver Wolf and setting her on a table. Twilight was upstairs receiving her own training from Celestia, mostly flying and how to better control her newfound alicorn powers. She couldn’t fly more than a few inches off the ground yet, but she was learning. If Twilight was good at anything, it was making something work.
Suddenly the door burst open, in came one of Voidera’s own personal guards. The dragoons wore red lined black armor with frills that resembled a dragon’s. They looked about as intimidating as Lunar Stallions, and I was glad they were on our side. The Dragoon ran to us and bowed before Voidera and said “Milord, news for Sir Private Eye.”
I nodded and asked, “Go ahead, what’s the message?” I asked.
The Dragoon spoke quickly and to the point, “Sir, we received word from Rainbow Dash at the Wonderbolt Academy. Another death has occurred.”
I looked at Voidera who shared my grim expression. I said, “I gotta deal with this.” I looked to the guard. “Where’s Twilight?” I asked.
“Her highness is training with Princess Celestia right now,” the Dragoon responded.
“Right,” I said, “tell her I-”
“Will handle this one without her,” Voidera interrupted.
“Excuse me?” I said, looking at him.
“Private, while it is admirable that you would want your love at your side.” Voidera said, “You cannot rely on her forever. You should not use her as a crutch when things go awry.”
I guess, I did kind of used Twi as a crutch. I always relied on her magic to help us out of a tight spot when we were together. I went on cases without Twi before, but, this was one of the few times I got a choice whether to leave her behind or not.
I sighed, “Alright,” I turned to the Dragoon and said, “Tell Twilight I will be taking a case, and tell her not to worry, I will be home soon.”
The Dragoon nodded and ran out.
Voidera came with a small box in his hooves. “You may want these.” He said.
He opened the box and there was a full set of silver horseshoes. He looked up at me. “They are cloudwalking shoes,” He explained, “in case you ever need to step on clouds and have no time to bring up a cloud walking spell.”
I nodded, and slipped the shoes on. Normally I don’t wear horseshoes, I found them uncomfortable to be honest. Luckily, these fit pretty well and a magical sealing spell was all it took to keep them on.
“Be careful Private,” Voidera warned as I packed up.
“Aren’t I always?” I said, with a smirk of my own.
He gave me a look.
“Okay, I guess I don’t have the best track record when it comes to caution.” I admitted before heading out the door. I only hope Rainbow is okay.
___________________________________________________________
The Wonderbolt Academy was a series of clouds, and cloud buildings situated on an incredibly high plateau. It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights, or else, I’d have panic attacks, going to this place. The plateau was rocky, with a cave in the side, and atop it was a runway, and the obstacle course that the rookies would have to run.
On the clouds surrounding the plateau was the bunkhouses made of sturdy cloudstuff to weather any abuse from rowdy cadets. The main office was larger than the dormitories, with a pair of statues flanking its entrance, and off to the side, a cloud cliff had a fall of rainbow water falling into a riverbed on the plateau, which mixed with regular water, and fell, spectacularly, from the height.
I myself was flying towards it in a sky chariot. A pair of solar guards were providing the necessary pulling power. It felt, strangely awesome to actually be coming to my crime scene like this. It made me feel like I was some kind of celebrity or something.
I wasn’t going to let any of this get to my head though. I had a job to do, and ponies expected me to do it. If I was going to get home in time for some romancing with Twi, I was going to have to do this.
The guards slowly came to a landing on the runway. I stepped out of the chariot, and tossed a pair of bits at them. “A tip for the trip.” I said, trotting away.
Just as I was about to get my bearings…
ZOOM!!! CRASH!
I found myself flat on the ground, Rainbow standing over me. “Private! You’re here!” She said, smiling.
“You did call for a detective,” I said. “Although, you may get a detective with three broken ribs.” I felt a little winded from the tackle that Rainbow provided.
“Heh, sorry,” She said, getting off me and helping me get to my hooves.
I shook my head and looked at her, seeing her clad in her trainee uniform. I noticed she also looked a bit more muscular than before. The training here really helped Rainbow start to improve.
She hit me on the shoulder. “You really do come when needed huh big guy?” She said, laughing a little.
I rubbed where she hit me and said, “Yeah, but I’d appreciate not getting tackled.”
“So, where’s Twilight?” Rainbow asked, looking around, “I was hoping to run her through some wing drills.”
I sighed, “Sadly, she’s not coming this time.”
“Oh,” Rainbow said, a little disappointed. “But hey, it’ll be just like our first case together. The hard boiled detective and future captain of the Wonderbolts!”
“Hope you’re not pining too hard for my job, Dash.”
Rainbow nearly jumped out of her skin as Spitfire stood there. Dash stood at attention and seemed to be visibly sweating. “No ma’am! I was-”
Spitfire rolled her eyes and smiled. “I was kidding.” She walked past Rainbow and looked at me. “Been a while Private, heard you got wed to some Princess.”
I smiled and said, “Yeah, she’s pretty great.”
“I’d love to chat more,” Spitfire said, but her face turned serious, “but, you probably want to get to the crime scene.”
“I was gonna take him there ma’am,” Rainbow interjected.
Spitfire nodded and said, “Right, get to it rookie.” She flew off after that.
Rainbow let out a breath. “Man,” She said, “I thought I was gonna be doing wing ups for the next year.”
“Come on Dash,” I said, rubbing her mane, “we got a crime scene to get to.”
She chuckled, batted my hoof away and said, “Alright.” She flew into the air. “I’ll lead ya to it.”
With that, we made our way towards the crime scene.
________________________________________________________________
Rainbow explained to me on the way that the place was an old storage unit. Used mainly for storing repairing equipment for the various machines used during training. Right now, it was swarming with police. I walked up and saw a pegasus uniform standing there.
I sighed. “Can I come in?” I asked.
The pegasus nodded. “Chief said to let you in if you came,” he said, holding up the tape.
Gunry said I could go in a crime scene? After the last case I thought he’d find some excuse to arrest me for breathing near it. I wonder what exactly convinced him?
Dash and I ducked under the tape and I saw a pegasus laying against the back wall. Light poured in from a hole in the ceiling and shone on him. He looked to be in his forties, with a short greying black mane, a sky colored coat and pale blue eyes. I noticed they were also a little, slanted. The eyes, he was Neighpanese or Dinese, maybe even Kloprean. He was also wearing a uniform that I saw Spitfire wear.
Either way, his body was covered with scorch marks, like he was struck by lightning. His eyes looked like they were in shock. He had to have been surprised, or maybe scared. That wasn’t the only detail that stuck out…
He had a large cut on his chest.
Forceps was once again at the helm. He looked up at me, “Bit of an odd feller this one.” he said.
“Dude,” Rainbow said, looking at the corpse, “what happened?”
“Frankly somepony zapped the stiff,” Forceps said, once again using his own personal brand of humor.
I nodded, and stepped forward. I used my magic to lift up his wallet out of the military jacket. I opened it. “I.D. for you Forceps,” I said, “Cumulus, he’s forty two, here’s his coaching license.” I tossed it over to a nearby uniform.
I reached into another pocket and pulled out...a passport?
I opened it and Rainbow looked over my shoulder. “Dude,” She said, “this guy’s been a lot of places.”
“You know him?” I asked.
“Not really,” Rainbow said, crossing her hooves, “he was supposed to be a coach teaching us about heavy weather or something. I might’ve seen him talking to Soarin earlier but that’s about it.”
I looked at the passport again, “Well, judging by the earliest dates, looks like he’s from Neighpan.”
“That’s where Raiden’s family is from,” Rainbow said.
I nodded, and looked back at Forceps. “So, what’s with the cut?” I asked.
“I’ll be takin’ him to a lab over in Cloudsdale fer a better look.” Forceps answered, “but, if I could hazard a guess, I’d say the death was only an hour or two ago. The cut was probably pre mortem, look how the flesh is burnt, it was burnt up after the blood started flowing.”
“Dude, that’s kind of awesome you can tell that,” Rainbow commented, “but still gross.”
“You guys go deal with him,” I said, nodding to Forceps, “Rainbow and I are going to start inve-
“Hey come on let me in!”
Rainbow and I turned. I saw a pegasus trying to get past the uniform. The pegasus was the same size as Dash, maybe a little shorter. Her coat was an aqua color and her mane was blond and very, tall I guess you could say. Her eyes were a yellow orange color and they narrowed at the guard. She couldn’t have been much younger than I was, probably Rainbow’s age. She was wearing the same uniform as Dash, she had to be a trainee here too.
“Look, we can’t just let anypony in,” The uniform said.
“You let Rainbow Dash in,” the pegasus mare responded. “Besides, I got something important to tell the detective!”
I was about to walk over, before Rainbow Dash zoomed over to the mare. “Lightning Dust? What in the hay are you doing here?” She demanded.
So this was the infamous Lightning Dust. Pinkie was all too eager to tell me the story about how she nearly got everypony killed via a tornado. Suffice to say, I didn’t much appreciate anypony putting my marefriend in danger.
Lightning Dust just smirked. “I am actually helping out here Dash,” She replied.
“Uh, hello,” Dash exacerbated. “I’m the one who’s helping Private out here. Sides, shouldn’t you be cleaning toilets right now?”
Dust subsequently flew past Rainbow, the guard, and came up to me. She smiled and held out a hoof. “Names Lightning Dust, how you doing?” She asked.
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m, well aware of who you are Lightning Dust,” I replied.
“Okay, this is a little awkward,” She said, lowering her hoof. “Didn’t think when a detective was getting assigned, they’d send the big guns.”
“You’ve heard of me,” I concluded.
“Duh,” Lightning said, “Everypony in Equestria has heard about you Private Eye. Though, I wasn’t expecting you to be friends with miss stick up her flank back there.”
“Hey!” Rainbow cried.
“I’d appreciate if you kept comments about my friend to yourself thanks,” I said, all too reminded of Trixie.
Lightning just nodded. “Anyways, I got something really important to tell you,” She said.
“That would be…?” I asked.
“That I saw the criminal...and he looked an awful lot like Dash’s boyfriend….”
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LIES!!!!
FUCK YES!
YOU AND YOUR
ING CLIFFHANGERS!!!
Oh, crap. I hate when someone gets wrongly accused just so the person accusing gets something out of it.
But, chances are you (as always) are gonna make this story amazing.
Just like with Trixie, I don´t think Lighting Dust is the assassin, despite her character.
However, I wonder how would she react may she discovers the only reason Spitfire is keeping her on the Academy is merely to be Rainbow Dash´ sparring.
im a sucker for a good mystery, keep it up
It's not Raiden. There's going to be something to prove that later on.....right?
i was just looking for something to read and came across this i've been waiting for a sometime now <this was when i was at the top>
I hope it's not raiden <when i was at the bottem>
looking at your other stories i predict the chapters will be 2-4 days apart
i posted this comment for no reason
p.s. awestruck by your storys
Damn the cliffhangers, though it can't be Raiden I think.
gamesareevil.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-003-550x412.jpeg
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait.
Forceps is a pegasus? Wasn't he a unicorn?
OBJECTED OBJECTION!
But...it couldn't of been Raiden....could it?
the question is WHERE IS Raiden?
4264463 i know i was thinking that too hmm
I can't remember if I mentioned this already, so here it goes.
If there is one reason I keep enjoying your stories, it's because you have realistic time elapsing in them. So many fanfic series (MLP or other) or comics would have the main characters go back to default status quo even if the writer has been working on this series for several years.
You on the other hand, have had Twilight and Private meet, fall in love, and now married for the rest of this series. You've had other characters go thru growth of varying levels. And I love that!
Great job on showing life go on alongside the mysteries you write.