Chapter 1: The Boom!

The Investigation of My Life

By The Accursed One

March 20th

As of the time I’m writing this, I am extremely tired. Winter Wrap Up was today, and pushing those snow plows is some pretty hard work. But before I regale you with the tale of this year’s Winter Wrap Up, I have a story to share with you…

*The month before…*

I woke up to the sound of somepony screaming for a guard, a loud noise not unlike a loud clap of thunder, and the acrid smell of smoke in the air. Naturally, an Equestrian Bureau of Investigation agent like me would be on the scene right away, but since there was a detachment of Royal Guards in the town due to an upcoming arrival by Princess Celestia, I decided I could stay in my house. Boy, was I ever wrong.

In the span of five minutes, the smell of smoke increased, signaling a spreading fire; the screaming was starting to have the distinct tones of multiple voices, signaling some sort of disaster; and a knocking at the door combined with the roaring of a fire. Quickly grabbing my creds, I ran out of my door and was immediately greeted with a brightness similar to that of the early morning, yet it was past midnight. Turning to my right, where the glow was the brightest, I saw a lot of blackened debris scattered on the ground. It was then that I almost got flattened by some filly I’ve never seen before.

“Bureau Spector, there’s been an explosion at Sugarcube Corner! From what somepony said, all of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony were there, but now they’re gone!” She seemed like she was in shock, but that was obvious. Equestria’s most relied on protectors were missing.

That was all I needed to hear. As I ran to the site of the explosion, the smoke became heavier, making it harder to breathe and almost impossible to see. Through the smoke, barely visible, were the smoldering remains of Ponyville’s beloved bakery. There was not much left of the building save for some charred wooden chunks. Anypony in the blast zone would definitely have been killed immediately, most likely not leaving much of a recognizable corpse. It was then that I feared the worst: the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony were dead. Equestria was left without its last resort and greatest means of defense.

Anypony would believe that they died. Being a bit of an optimist, I hoped that they weren’t dead, just incapacitated, with non-terminal injuries. Unfortunately, when I walked closer to the site, nothing of the sort had happened. They were dead. Wait, no. Not only were they dead; they were completely disintegrated. Not a trace of anypony remained. Equestria lost its main means of defense against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Hanging my head down in both sadness and defeat, I turned around and walked away, towards my house. Or rather, I would have, if a certain white pony wasn’t standing in front of my path.

I immediately bowed, paying respect to the Princess. She told me to get up, then proceeded to walk towards my house. Sensing that I should follow Celestia, I started towards my house. Inside, I received horrible news: the Elements of Harmony were lost, and I was the only one who was to go and find them, since all the other EBI agents were on duty or not available at the time.

This job was do or die, and quite literally too; if I don’t rescue the Bearers, then Equestria would fall for sure with the next attack on the country. Sure, the Elements are basically just an ace in the hole, but their main purpose is to improve guard morale. So, I turned to leave my house to investigate the blast further. It turned out that talking with the Princess took longer than expected, as it was early morning, and the sun was shining bright. I figured I could get a better view of the scene with the smoke also having been cleared out, thanks to the Ponyville Weather Team.

So, getting a closer investigation of the bomb site proved that I was missing something. At first, it looked like a lucky terrorist attack on where the Elements were at, but that theory was shot down when I saw the epicenter of the blast. It was almost exactly in the center of where Sugarcube Corner was, so it would have to have been an extremely precise bomb; plus, the residue didn’t seem similar to that of any conventional explosive. I decided to question a witness to find out what the blast looked like, then relay that info with a residue sample to the explosives department. Hopefully they’d know what went off.

“Excuse me, ma’am? From the information I’ve received, you’re an eyewitness to this disaster. Don’t worry, you’re not in any legal trouble; I’m just trying to get more information. Could you please describe the blast?” I asked the mare.

“Certainly. From what I remember, there was a bright yellow flash like lightning that beamed out from the explosion, and it sounded kinda like a cannon firing. You know, like a thunder-y sound,” she replied.

Okay, lightning-ish flash and thunder-y sound. I went home to grab my saddlebags, which luckily were already full with travel supplies thanks to a vacation I took a few weeks ago. Laziness does have its advantages, I guess. So, grabbing my stuff for my trip, I went to the train station and bought a ticket to Canterlot.

One long, and honestly boring, train ride later, I arrived in Canterlot to talk to the explosives experts. I was halfway to HQ before it dawned on me that the main offices were opening late today. So much for trying to get this done quickly… Crestfallen, I walked around Canterlot for an hour or so until I knew the offices would be open, got something to eat on the way (Thank you levitation spell), and headed to my destination. I finished my sandwich at about the same time I got to the department I was heading to.

“Hey guys, can you please identify something for me if possible? I’ve got something from the blast in Ponyville, and a description of the blast itself, and need to know what it is and/or what caused it,” I said, putting my demands into a clear, concise sentence and giving one of the ponies the vial of ashes from the epicenter.

“Yeah, sure. We’ll get you the results in a little bit. You wanna talk about your latest job while you wait?” One of the ponies in the department, Total Teardown, replied.

“I guess I got time. So, turns out that during the explosion in Ponyville late last night, which I bet is going to be in all the papers today, Sugarcube Corner was destroyed. All six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony were inside, and must have been killed. I’m on orders from Celestia herself to find the culprit and bring him or her to justice. That’s just about all I know, but I know it wasn’t caused by a random pony trying to just wreak havoc on Equestria. But I have to do this job as quickly as I can, because the whole of Equestria is at stake,” I described my job in as much detail as I could, hoping that it might even lead to getting another clue as to who, or what, caused this.

Author's Note:

Thank you to Candle_Jack for looking this chapter over.
Thank you to DEF-Pwny for the main character's name.
Thanks to some of my other friends for various things
And thank YOU, for reading this. :D

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