• Published 18th May 2017
  • 4,921 Views, 665 Comments

Ponyville Noire: Tails of Two Private Eyes - PonyJosiah13



Daring Do is a thief trying for a second chance. Phillip Finder is a private detective with no scruples. Ponyville is a city embroiled in corruption with war on the horizon. They may be the only hope for law and order left.

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Case Six, Chapter Two: The Griffon's Claws

Daring landed in front of the revolving doors of the PPD headquarters and smirked at Phillip as he ran up. “I bloody hate you,” he growled at her, adjusting the shopping bag around his neck.

“If you want to vent some of that rage, we can arrange that tonight,” Daring replied, giving him a brief kiss on the nose. Still smirking, she pushed through the door and into the lobby of the department, with Phillip following. Walking through the lobby, the two pushed through a doorway into an interior hallway and walked down to the end. They stepped down a set of stairs and into the laboratory. Classical music greeted them as they entered the lab. Doctor Suunkii was standing at a table, looking over a magazine with Twilight Sparkle.

“So, these ‘chromosomes’ are believed to be the foundation for life?” Twilight asked, tapping a page in the magazine.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle,” Suunkii nodded. “And it is believed that if said chromosomes could be extracted and studied, they might be useful for identifying traces.”

Twilight squealed excitedly and clapped her hooves. “Incredible! Absolutely incredible!” she said. “I’ve got to find out more about this! If we could perfect such a process, just think of the possibilities!”

“I am thinking of them, Twilight Sparkle,” Suunkii said, smiling at his younger assistant. “And I believe that if there is a single pony in Equestria who would be the right pony to reach for such a discovery, I believe that it will be you, mwanafunzi wangu.”

Twilight blushed.

“Sounds like a project,” Phillip said as he entered, setting the shopping bag down next to the door.

“Hello Phillip, Daring,” Twilight greeted them. “What can we help you with?”

“Mortis in?” Phillip asked. “Need to see a body.”

“Doctor Mortis is indeed in the morgue,” Doctor Suunkii said. “Which case are you concerned with?”

“Donkey named Josephus,” Phillip said. “Shot and killed by a mugger couple days ago.”

“Ah, yes. That is an unfortunate case,” Suunkii nodded. “We have not been able to run evidence from his murder yet, unfortunately. I will see if I can find his case file.”

“Thanks. I’ll go talk to Mortis.” Phillip nodded and exited the lab, with Daring following. They walked down the hallway to the morgue and pushed through the doorway.

The morgue was as cold and dark as the last time Daring had been down here, and the smell of soap hung heavy in the air. Doctor Mortis, wearing an apron and a surgical mask around her neck, was standing at the freezers in the back of the room, carefully pushing a stretcher covered with a sheet into a chamber.

“There you go,” she said to the covered body. “Just rest easy, my friend; you’ve earned it.” She closed the vault-like door with a clang and locked it shut with a key from her belt. It was then that she turned and saw Phillip and Daring entering.

“Ah, welcome to the dungeon!” she chirped cheerfully as they entered. “There somepony in particular you needed to see?”

“Yeah, the owner of the closest liquor store,” Daring said, staring at the body of a young pegasus mare laying on the cold metal table next to her; her limbs were colored purple from lividity, her mouth hung open to expose the purple tongue, and the y-shaped incision on her chest was hastily stitched back together. A distinctly v-shaped bruise was wrapped around the corpse’s neck, brightly, horrifically distinct against her pale white coat. Daring shuddered and looked away.

“Donkey named Josephus,” Phillip said.

“Ah! I was just about to pull him out of the freezer and take a look at him.” Doctor Mortis took the key from her belt with her magic and unlocked another freezer, pulling out the stretcher within. She whisked away the sheet covering the body with a flourish like a stage magician, revealing the corpse of a middle-aged donkey with a full brown beard. His bloodstained chest was perforated with three holes. Mortis used her magic to carry Josephus’ body out of the freezer and onto a waiting table, bearing the body with a gentle care and reverence.

“All right then, Mister Josephus,” Mortis said, snapping on a fresh pair of rubber gloves and lifting her surgical mask to cover her mouth and nose. “Let’s see what you have to tell us.” She snapped on a lamp hanging over the table and began her external examination.

“I don’t think we really need to wonder too much about COD,” Mortis commented, indicating the tight grouping of three bullet holes on the body’s chest. “Examination of the wounds suggest that the shooter was, I’d say, at least three feet away and standing face to face with our victim.” She pulled out a long metal rod and carefully inserted it into one of the holes, studying the angle and depth. “A right-hoofed shooter, I’d say.”

“What’s this here?” Phillip asked, pointing to Josephus’ right hoof. Three distinct red marks were drawn down his foreleg towards his hoof.

“Hmmm,” Mortis murmured, studying the marks. “Looks like a griffon made these. Defensive wound, maybe?”

“No, there are no other marks like it,” Phillip said. “Looks to me like the mugger tried to snatch something he had in his hoof.” He then bent over Josephus’ neck. “Marks here; looks like he had some kind of necklace. Mortis, tilt the light a bit.”

Mortis tilted the lamp to the side slightly. In the indirect light, the faint outline of a necklace with a simple ring became evident on Josephus’ neck and upper chest.

“Wedding band,” Phillip concluded. “Check the back of the neck.”

Mortis obligingly lifted the corpse’s head with her magic, allowing Phillip to study the back of the neck. “No marks. Looks like the vic took it off himself.”

“Okay, if we’re done with the external examination, I think it’s time we went digging for bullets,” Doctor Mortis said, reaching for a sharp scalpel on the table.

Daring Do blanched slightly. “Uh, I’m gonna go see if Suunkii and Twilight have found that evidence yet,” she said, quickly backing out of the room.

Mortis shrugged. “Her loss,” she commented and started making an incision in the corpse’s chest.


Daring retreated to the relative safety of the laboratory to find that Doctor Suunkii and Twilight were placing a large cardboard box on top of one of the tables and extracting a number of items from it: a suitcase, a single simple blue saddlebag, a white coat and blue and gold scarf, and a long gray-blue feather.

“Did you find anything useful from Doctor Mortis?” Twilight asked.

“A few things,” Daring said, quickly reviewing their conclusions.

“A griffon? That might help with identification,” Twilight commented as she began to catalog the items inside the saddlebag: a pair of train tickets for a round trip from Canterlot to Ponyville, a street map of Ponyville, and a couple loose bits. “There aren’t a lot of griffons in the center of Ponyville.”

“No bit bag or jewelry,” Daring noted, scanning the victim’s items. She turned her attention to the suitcase. “Let me take a look at that.”

“Be careful,” Twilight cautioned her, passing her the suitcase. “I don’t want you to mess up any evidence.”

“Take the stick out, will you?” Daring muttered, using a table-mounted magnifying glass to study the suitcase.

The case’s brown leather was still pristine and shiny, as though it was just off the shelf. It was still locked securely, but the leather surrounding the four-digit combination lock and clasps was scored by vicious slashes. Clearly, the griffon mugger had attempted to scratch his way into the suitcase, but had failed. Daring took a closer look at the lock and noticed a brand name stamped into the lock: Dragonsteel Locks.

“This is a good lock,” she said. “Special pickproof enchantments and magic-repulsing material. There’s no way a griffon would be able to get past this on their own.”

“It appears that the mugger assaulted Josephus and demanded his money and jewelry,” Suunkii theorized. “It is possible that when Josephus refused to give up his briefcase, the mugger shot him and attempted to open the briefcase, but failed and fled.”

“Possibly,” Daring mused. “But it’d be pretty foolish to just assume that nopony got in there.”

“Why?” Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Trust me, it’s important,” Daring said. She frowned at the combination lock. “Four tumblers, nine digits each. That’s…”

“Six thousand, five hundred sixty-one possible combinations,” Twilight said. “It’d take you hours to try them all.” She frowned. “If it wasn’t made of magic-repelling metal, I’d use a spell to try all the combinations. How are you going to get into that?”

Daring frowned in thought, pondering in silence for several seconds. “Anypony got a crowbar?”

“I’m not letting you destroy evidence!” Twilight squawked.

“Got a better idea?” Daring deadpanned.

“Got the bullets,” Phillip announced, walking into the lab with a small sealed glass jar. Inside were three blood-stained bullets, all of them slightly warped and misshapen. “Thirty-eight caliber, I'd guess.”

“The comparison microscope?” Twilight asked Suunkii eagerly.

“Yes, the comparison microscope,” Suunkii nodded with a small smile. Twilight let out a little squee of delight and took the jar from Phillip with her magic. She walked over to another table, upon which sat the comparison microscope. Taking two of the bullets out of the jar, Twilight carefully set them into the slides beneath the twin scopes and set to studying them.

“Thirty-eight caliber, yes,” she confirmed. “I see...three lands, two grooves, counterclockwise twist.”

“Daring Do, on the shelf behind you, there is a thick blue notebook. Please hand it to me,” Doctor Suunkii requested. Daring looked up, quickly spotted the book amidst the rainbow-colored menagerie atop the groaning shelf, and gave it to Suunkii.

Suunkii opened the notebook and began flipping through it. “Three lands, two grooves, counterclockwise twist,” he repeated to himself.

“What are lands and grooves?” Daring asked.

“Come take a look at this,” Twilight said, beckoning Daring over to the microscope. Daring pressed her eyes to the scope, observing the close-up views of the two bullets.

“You know that guns have grooves etched into the interior of the barrel to make the bullets spin,” Twilight Sparkle lectured. “If you look closely, you’ll notice that this leaves marks on the bullets that the gun fires. See? There are two large grooves etched into each of the bullets with a counterclockwise twist, leaving three ‘lands’ of raised metal between them. This can help us narrow down the type of the gun used, and eventually discover who owns it.”

“Most likely be a griffon-made weapon, Suun,” Phillip said, reading the notebook over Suunkii’s shoulder. “Trigger guards on pony-made guns are too big for griffons to wield effectively.”

“That is likely,” Suunkii agreed, continuing to flip through the notebook. “Is it likely that this was a revolver?”

“Considering the lack of bullet cartridges at the scene and the amount of powder dispersal on the wounds, yes,” Phillip nodded.

“Then the most likely weapon is a .38 caliber M1819 Naudaunt revolver,” Suunkii declared. “I do not believe that is a weapon that is commonly sold here in Ponyville, or, indeed, in Equestria.”

“Might make finding records easier,” Phillip mused. “Even if they brought it over from the Griffon Empire, he’d have to get a license for it.”

“I shall examine this feather,” Suunkii declared, picking up the bag with the blue-gray feather inside and placing it under the microscope. “Perhaps there is some trace on it that will further narrow down our search.”

“Good,” Phillip nodded. “Daring, let’s see if we can find Trace and Red. They can—”

“Detective Evidence and Detective Herring are not available,” a cold voice spoke from the doorway.

Phillip and Daring both looked at each other, a scowl crossing Daring’s face, then turned to face the new pony. Cold Case entered the room, her eyes on Phillip the entire time.

“Doctor Suunkii, Miss Sparkle, give us the room, please,” she ordered.

“Yes, Chief Cold Case,” Suunkii nodded, giving Phillip and Daring a concerned look as he led Twilight out of the room. Twilight looked back at them as she stepped over the threshold, upon which Cold Case closed the door with her magic.

“Your...client ordered me to assist you in this case,” Cold Case spoke, her voice sour, as though she were chewing lemons. “However, I cannot afford to offer you any assistance from my detectives.”

“Why not?” Phillip asked.

“Because you’re a bi—” Daring started to say, but Phillip quickly cut her off with an elbow jab to the chest.

Cold Case glared daggers at her for a second, her small pupils flashing like fire, then grunted and turned back to Phillip. “Because as much as I hate to admit it, we’re short-staffed. I had to fire over a full third of the department after I was sworn in as chief, and of course, the crime rates surged directly afterward.”

“Silvertongue’s got a lot of enemies,” Phillip commented. “They can sense weakness, they’re closing in on him.”

“Possibly,” Cold Case muttered. “And it is admittedly possible that Scarlet Letter is at the head of it. However, the fact of the matter is this: I do not have enough competent staff to spare much attention to this case. As important as royal orders are, my duty is to this city as well, and I will not fail that duty.”

She sniffed and rubbed her nose for a moment, then sighed. “I can, however, afford you three officers to assist you,” she added. “They’ll also be watching you very closely, and are under strict instructions to report to me if they find that you step out of line.”

“Noted,” Phillip said coolly. “Who are they?”

“Surprise!” a happy voice chirped. Bumblebee bounced into the room, followed by Prowl and Flash Sentry.

“Good luck,” Cold Case grumbled, sounding as though she’d rather drink acid than wish them luck. She turned on her heels with a loud sniff and walked out of the room, storming past Suunkii and Twilight. No sooner had Cold’s tail disappeared out of sight than Daring emphatically gave the door the Flying Feather with her right wing.

“Be nice, Daring,” Prowl warned her. “Cold would love any excuse to kick you off this case.”

“What do you need us to do?” Flash asked, standing smartly at attention as Suunkii reentered the room and placidly took his place at the microscope.

“We’ve got a lot of records to go through, and some names to hunt down,” Phillip said. “Twilight, in the records room, think you can find the gun licenses?”

“Easy,” Twilight scoffed.

“Narrow it down to .38 Naudaunts?”

“I can even sort them by date and address if you like,” Twilight said.

“Not necessary,” Phillip said with a hint of a smile. “But we do need a list of names.”

“I’ll be right back!” Twilight said, and disappeared down the hallway, looking extremely giddy.

“That’s the only pony I know who gets excited about paperwork,” Prowl mused.

“Nerd,” Daring muttered.

Suunkii looked up from the microscope. “Phillip Finder, I have identified soot on this feather. It is likely that the griffon in question works with coal.”

“Noted. Thanks, Suun,” Phillip said. “Oh, almost forgot.” He walked over to the shopping bag that he had dropped in the corner and extracted a small black box. He handed it to Suunkii. “For Muziqaa,” he said.

Suunkii took the box and opened it up. Inside was a small silver harmonica that shimmered beneath the light of the laboratory’s lamps. Suunkii smiled. “He will love it. Thank you, Phil.”

“Doing my duty as honorary uncle,” Phillip said with a small smile. “Hearth’s Warming gifts are part of it.”

“He and Sirba are missing you,” Suunkii said. “They have not seen you in over a year. You should come for a visit again.”

“I’ll have to find time,” Phillip said. “Maybe after this case.”

“Aww!” a voice cooed from the door. Twilight had reappeared, carrying several files in her magic. “That’s so sweet!”

“Yeah, it’s nice, but can we move this along?” Daring asked. “Kinda got a murdered donkey to deal with.”

“Right, right,” Twilight said. “I found all the copies of the licenses for .38 Naudaunts.” She gave Phillip a large stack of folders.

“Thanks, Twilight,” Phillip said.

Flash hesitated for a moment, then walked up to Twilight. “Um, are we still on for Ogres and Oubliettes this Friday?”

“Oh, of course!” Twilight smiled. “Spike and I are both looking forward to it!”

“Great,” Flash smiled. “And, um...were you planning anything for Hearth’s Warming?”

“Um...nothing really special…” Twilight admitted, a blush coloring her cheeks.

“Well, Sweetcream Scoop’s has a special pricing on Hearth’s Warming,” Flash said.

“On your own time, Sentry,” Prowl interrupted, looking over at the stack of folders that Phillip was filing through. “We’ve got some work to do.”


An hour, many stacks of folders, and two pots of coffee later, the group had cut the large grouping into a working pool of twelve suspects. And then came the truly hard part: tracking down their suspects, one at a time, and checking their alibis.

“Number eleven is a bust,” Daring said, exiting a white apartment building in the Dockside District. “He was at a movie during the mugging, he’s got the tickets.”

“That’s just number twelve left,” Phillip announced, looking at the list that he was carrying. “Bluedust. Lives near the Everfree District. Works in a coal distribution factory.”

“Okay, then, let’s go,” Prowl said, already taking to the sky again. Bumblebee climbed into the driver’s seat of their cruiser, followed by Phillip. Flash swung his legs over his motorcycle and kicked the engine to life. Daring followed Prowl up into the air and the group drove northeast to the Everfree District.

They arrived at the address provided in Bluedust’s file, a small red cottage that sat on the further eastern borders of the city, within the reaches of the Everfree forest. The entire house leaned to one side as though something had rammed into it.

Phillip and Daring walked up to the door and knocked. There was no reply. Daring knocked harder. “Hey, Blue!” she shouted. “Open up in there!”

Again, there was no reply. Frowning, Phillip walked over to the window and peered inside.

“Layer of dust, place in disarray,” he reported. “Doesn’t look like anypony’s lived there for weeks.”

“So now what?” Bumblebee shrugged.

Flash thought for a moment, then reached into the cruiser’s window and extracted the pile of folders. He plucked out Bluedust’s file and scanned it.

“Hey, he’s got a brother,” he said. “Palewing.” He plucked out a photograph and showed it to the group. In the photograph were two griffons. One was a tall gray-blue griffon with brown eyes, scowling at the camera. The other was a darker blue with white feathers and green eyes, a full head shorter than his brother. The blue and white griffon was holding a golden retriever on a leash.

“Address on the brother?” Phillip asked.

“Uh...yeah,” Flash confirmed. “He lives a few blocks from here.”

“Then let’s get moving,” Phillip said, already climbing back into the cruiser.

They arrived at Palewing’s house within a couple minutes, a white cottage that almost blended into the snow covering it and the lawn around it. A mailbox with no door stood at the edge of the lawn, with only a few letters inside: most of them bills, several days old. The group trudged through the snow to the front door and Phillip knocked.

“Who is it?” a voice grunted through the door, every syllable accented by a Thrussian accent.

“Palewing, this is the police,” Prowl called through the door. “We need to speak to you.”

There was the sound of a chain unlatching and the door opened a crack. Palewing peeked out, his green eyes clouded with worry. “I no speak police,” he grunted.

“It’s about your brother,” Daring said.

“My brother no speak to me for months,” Palewing said. “Go away.” He started to close the door.

“Then how come there’s a letter from him in the mailbox?” Daring asked, holding up an envelope with crude Thrussian writing scrawled across it.

The green eyes widened in shock. “Otkuda vy znaete moj jazyk?” he asked.

“Ja čitaju knigi,” Daring replied. “Where’s Bluedust?”

Palewing frowned for a moment. “He...he come to me a few days ago. Gives me some bits. Say he...say he do something bad. Big accident. He need hide for a while.”

“Where?” Daring pressed.

“Back of the house!” Prowl suddenly shouted. Everypony looked up to see a griffon with blue-gray plumage wearing a faded trenchcoat flying out of a back window and headed east, soaring drunkenly through the lightly falling snow.

Flash, Prowl, and Daring all took off as one, tackling Bluedust out of the sky. The tangled mess of limbs tumbled into the snow with a great white plume. Phillip ran over to the group as Prowl and Flash wrestled Bluedust into hoofcuffs, with Bumblebee huffing and puffing behind.

“I do nothing!” Bluedust protested as the cuffs were snapped over his claws. “I do nothing!”

“Yeah, I’m sure you did,” Prowl growled, roughly patting him down. She quickly snatched a revolver from within the folds of his coat: a .38 Naudaunt. “On your feet.” She and Flash hauled the griffon up and the entourage marched him back to the cruiser.

Author's Note:

Translations:

mwanafunzi wangu: Swahili, "my student." Yes, Suunkii does have a soft side.

Otkuda vy znaete moj jazyk?: Russian, "How do you know my language?" (Original Cryllic: Откуда вы знаете мой язык?)

Ja čitaju knigi: "I read books." (Я читаю книги.)

Daring would also like to add for the record that she speaks Thrussian, Crystalline, and Prench fluently, along with some Mareabic, Japonese, and Gerwhin, and dabbles in some ancient languages. It's amazing what you can learn from books.

In any case, we've caught our killer...maybe? Is that the end of this case so soon?

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