A Study in Cinders

by mocandragon5

2- Ember's Request

"So let me get this straight," Sherlock began, "These dragons are ruled over by a 'Dragon Lord', who is in charge due to a scepter, and these dragons have a tournament after the reign of the previous 'Dragon Lord' to find the next. The last of these happened only a week ago, and this scepter has already been stolen?" he added.
The group, now consisting of four as Starlight Glimmer had joined them, were sitting in a train carriage, heading towards the nearest station to the dragon lands.
"That's the brief anyways." Twilight responded, watching the detective study his 'gun' as he had explained it to be.

"I'm still surprised that I am expected to understand this world." Sherlock stated plainly.

"Well, we don't know what world you come from, so we can't explain things any better." Starlight interjected.

"Yes, I understand that." Sherlock stated, standing up and aiming his gun out of the window. He then lowered it and began pacing, his hands forming a triangle under his chin.

The train soon came to a halt and the four left the train. What Sherlock wasn't expecting to see was a woman, probably young twenties, with dark blue hair falling down to her back and pale blue skin which looked as strange as some of those scale-like tattoos, except they covered her entire body. Her eyes were a piercing orange, so harsh it made even Sherlock squirm somewhat. She was wearing a golden suit of armour, amplifying her menacing appearance. A pair of wings sprouted out of her back, reminding Sherlock of bat wings.

"Dragon Lord Ember, I presume?" Sherlock asked. "I can make quite a few deductions, but based on what I have recently learned it would make no sense to state them aloud."

"Yes. Spike and Twilight, I assume this is mister Sherlock Holmes?" Ember asked, receiving a nod from Spike. "He is as... strange as you said in your letter."

"I'll need you to recount any and all information about this case and show me where the crime took place." Sherlock stated, taking a notepad out of his pocket as well as a pen.

"Of course." Ember replied.

---

The case was thus:

The night before, Ember had put the scepter in a secured location, in a place only she, Spike and Twilight knew of. To secure it even more, Twilight had helped Ember by using a magical lock, allowing only a select few to open it with direct contact. Ember then headed off to go to sleep, and awoke a few hours later to find someone had broken in to her place of residence and the scepter was missing.

After arriving, Sherlock examined that there were shards of different materials, scattered about, including bone, glass, gems and paper. The gems and paper made sense, due to revelations to Sherlock that dragons ate gems and the fact that Ember was writing letters to Twilight. Glass could exist as Ember was a dragon, and there were sand deposits nearby, so its possible that she brought some in with her. The bone was not so easily explained, so Sherlock made sure to pocket a few of the shards before continuing his examination.

His next points of interest were possible entrances for outsiders. The main entrance had not been disturbed at the moment Ember had woken up, but now there were scratch marks on the outside wall around the entrance. There was a strange trail of scratch marks, leading directly from the entrance to the hidden location of the scepter, though yet again, Sherlock may have had to discard this as Ember was a dragon/ That one fact was making this case trickier than it actually was.

Twilight and Starlight were sweeping over the area, checking for any recent magical disturbance, which there was not, but there was a faint trail of some magic from near Ember's bed, which seemed to be a bit off as the dragon was unable to wield magic herself.

Once magic was brought into the equation, Sherlock felt completely lost. He decided to pass on the magical side to Twilight while he handled the physical elements.

A few scraps of cloth, a different colour to the garments either of them wore or Ember owned, so he recorded that and pocketed some of the fabric. It was a deep purple in colour and quite thin. Hints of gold could be seen on just one edge. Twilight had mentioned something about a friend of hers who could probably identify a good idea as to where it could have come from, which was a relief.

A mere moment after the discovery of the fabrics, Ember collapsed onto the floor, obviously in quite a large amount of pain. The group removed her armour and Sherlock, being behind her, had his attention drawn to a scar, going most of the distance between her two shoulders. A small section had reopened, new blood beginning to run down her back.

"Don't move." Sherlock commanded. "Spike, I need you to write a letter immediately to the nearest health center. It seems Ember here has suffered quite a large wound. Twilight and Starlight, go. Both of you. Spike, stay here. You're a dragon, you could probably help."

The two unicorns immediately ran off and Spike began consoling the injured dragonness. Sherlock, on the other hand, was discretely gathering a small blood sample onto a handkerchief and pocketed it, without Spike nor Ember noticing.

"This may give us a vital hint. Ember, I know you're in pain right now, but I need you to think. Why did you wake up early this morning, and make sure you remember exactly what you saw." Sherlock commanded, using an emergency set of bandages he kept on his person to help stop the blood flow.

Sherlock then made his way back over to where the scepter was hidden and took a scrap of gem which was hidden inside. The description of the scepter included a gemstone, and this may have chipped off during the theft. All he needed now was to take samples of both Spike and Twilight to rule out those who had easy access. This case was going to be a long one.

Comments

[mocandragon5]

7154619
Thank you for the feedback. I will ow address your comments point by point.
1. If you have not seen the show Sherlock, or even if you have, it may be difficult to understand that Sherlock uses both Deduction and Induction. Deduction is using only the facts in your hypothesis and Induction is taking leaps which make sense. Even one who spends a lot of time with books can be linked with probably spending a lot of time in a library, coupled with the habit of organization present in all the rooms, it can be safe to assume that Twilight would be working or has worked in a place which required a strict sorting system. Both of these facts together give a leap towards being a librarian. If that was too complex, I will explain in more detail.
2. this does indeed follow show canon, however as with visiting the human world depicted in Equestria Girls, compared to the world portrayed in this story, there would not be much of a leap except setting, and so I imagine Equestria Girls being, the inverse, Anthro Twilight finding a world inhabited by quadrupedal ponies in a school setting. Also, Sherlock only ever mentioned human in the comparison to a half-horse half-human creature, referencing what Twilight was. He never said he was human himself. Also, if the quadruped EQG is followed in this example, it would make sense as to Twilight not knowing what Holmes was on about. Final point, Holmes also mentioned horses I believe, which Twilight would not have encountered. (Yes, horses and ponies ARE different. Think for this setting Humans and Neanderthals in this world.)
3. About this, I can only assume you haven't read chapter 2 (as your comment was posted on chapter 1), and so you haven't read my description of Ember. My idea is firstly, as Spike grew up in a pony world, his body would have adapted slightly. Also, I think in this world as dragons mature, they would become more reptilian, starting off as vaguely similar to ponies, Spike just hasn't changed much as he hasn't yet reached- I suppose- Dragon Puberty.
As for your comment on describing clothes, I skimmed over Twilight wearing a dressing gown and mentioned Ember's golden armour. I didn't put too much description into either Starlight or Spike, and I haven't mentioned what Twilight wore for the trip, but I can describe her clothes in the next chapter, which will have a section the next day, if this would make you happy.

[FleetlordAvatar]

I'm really getting into this now, I love a good mystery, proably why I love Sherlock!

[Snicket]

Hm, color me intrigued. Please continue.

[boothemage]

This is amazing
Don't stop or else your worse then Moffat