Equestria Noir Case 1 "The Big Macintosh Case"

by Jacoboby1

Chapter 3: The Apple Family

Chapter 3

The Apple Family

I walked out of the detention center and watched as Twilight trotted up to me her face betraying her anxiety. I shook my head and said “I don’t think he did it but the courts will look for motive and opportunity not the character of the pony”

Twilight’s face drooped then her violet eyes looked into mine “Do we have anything to prove that Big Mac didn’t kill Tangerio?”

“No, not yet but I think I have a lead” I levitated the threat letter from our mysterious M.O. Twilight’s magenta magic surrounded the note and she looked at with eyes used to scrutinizing details.

“So this guy wants to buy Sweet Apple Acres? Could there be a connection to the murder here?”

“It’s possible, but Big Mac wants to send us on an errand first” I held up the letter addressed to “Mah Little Sisters” Twilight saw it then nodded.

“Sweet Apple Acres is a little out of town I’ll take you there” She started trotting off towards the outskirts of town. I followed more determined than ever to find out the inner workings of this conspiracy.
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To say the farm was big would be like saying Canterlot was a little town. The trees spanned miles over the hills all filled with soon to be harvested apples. I was tempted more than once to pick the apples but my stomach lost against my conscious in this case. We trotted up to the big red farmhouse which towered above the trees surrounding it. Twilight walked up to door of the Apple family home which was just next to the farmhouse and knocked on the door. The door opened to reveal a young filly with a bright yellow coat and a scarlet mane tied in a bow. She looked up at Twilight whom smiled at her.

“Hello Apple Bloom, is Applejack home?” she said in a gentle tone.

“Yep, thanks fer comin Twilight" The filly said with a small smile “Applejack could use somepony to help her cope with what ‘appened” she shared Big Mac’s accent. This had to be his sister. She stepped aside and let us in and I could hear somepony crying in the living room. Twilight went inside and I could hear her speaking to another Pony, another one whom shared the Apple family accent.

“Twi, Ah wasn’t expecten ya" The voice said somberly "Ah would've dun something to make your visit more, ah don’t know...entertainin” She was trying to make small talk to try and lift the mood.

“It’s okay Applejack, I have somepony here who could help” On cue I walked in and saw Applejack. She was an orange colored earth pony with a blond mane tied with a hair ribbon at the end. Her green eyes were accented by freckles on her cheeks which have seen many tears today. She tried to wipe her eyes quickly when I came in and slapped on a brown cowgirl hat.

Twilight gestured to me “This is Private Eye; he’s the detective in charge of the case”

Applejack looked at me with a mix of relief and what was left of her earlier tears. “You the pony who’s gonna get mah brother outta jail?”

I nodded “I’ll do what I can to help". She sighed in relief. “Though we have another matter" I went on "Big Mac wanted me to give you this” I levitated the letter to her, she took it before my magic could even set it down on the table. She ripped it open and looked at it. Her eyes scanned the letter then she frowned.

“That no good son of a mule! He’s seriously going to make me do this while he’s in jail?!” She crumpled up the letter and was about to throw it when Twilight stopped her.

“Wait Applejack" She said "What did it say?” Applejack sighed then handed Twilight the crumpled paper. She tentatively uncrumpled it and read bits of it aloud. “Dear Apple Residence...we are pleased to inform you...offer you can’t refuse....Sweet Celestia!” Her violet eyes grew wide and she levitated the letter to me. My eyes got huge as well, there were more zeros on the offer then I could count. Twilight looked to Applejack “Somepony is trying to buy the farm with that amount of bits!? AJ you could buy twenty farms with that kind of money!”

The farmpony frowned at her friend, her eyes dead serious “Twi’ ya know Ah ain't never gonna sell Sweet Apple Acres if it kills me. This is mah home and nopony is going to take it from me!” I admired her courage in the face of all this.

Twilight shook her head though “Applejack this is serious! Somepony probably set Big Mac up so that you would have no choice but to take the offer”

I took a seat on a couch facing Applejack. Twilight was sitting with Applejack trying to console her. I decided to dig a little. “Don’t you have farm hands or family members who can make up for Big Mac’s work?” I asked.

Applejack shook her orange head. “Nu-uh it’s just me, AppleBloom, Granny Smith and Big Mac on the farm. Ah can’t ask mah relatives, they all have farms of their own to look after and I don’t wanna get inta the messy business of hiring extra hoofs”

“Big Mac was your lifeline you say?” I asked, writing what she was saying down.

“Mostly during planting time, he’s our plow pony and without him the orchard would only be planted half as much” She said with a sigh.

I nodded and decided to change the subject “Has Big Mac made any enemies or anything? Any unseemly characters he’s been around?”

Applejack tilted her head in thought “Well, Big Mac isn’t the kind of pony who goes around causin trouble. Ah don’t reckon there’s been a time he’s made anypony mad. Ya think mah brother’s ticked off the mob or somethin?”

“Nothing so serious or fanciful as that." I said reassuringly "But you have to remember, Sweet Apple Acres is a big prize for anypony to own”

“Nopony is takin Sweet Apple Acres on mah watch!” She said indignantly.

“Alright Applejack, I’ll see what I can do to get Big Mac out as soon as possible”

Applejack smiled and spit on her hoof. Her green eyes looked to me and she spoke firmly “Make it a promise”

I looked at the hoof then at Twilight who gave a look that said “just do it”

I spat on my hoof and shook Applejack’s “I promise Applejack, that I’ll do what I can to solve this”

“Thank ya kindly, now Ah trust y’all outta get back to the case”

Twilight and I left the house after that and politely declined Applejack’s offer to stay for dinner. We started walking the trail out of the farm when I heard a pony yell at me.

“WAIT!!! Mister Detective STOP!!!” I felt something bump my hind leg. I turned around and there was Apple Bloom looking up at me. “Ah gotta tell ya somethin! It’s very important!”

I looked at her, taking testimony from a child was always messy business but I was willing to listen. I smiled gently and said “What’s so important that you had to run here to tell us?”

“Member when ya said if Big Mac was with uh...unseem…unsee...Strange ponies?”

“Yes, Applejack said that Big Mac wasn’t with anypony strange though...” I said skeptically.

“That’s cuz she didn’t see them!” She interjected. This was an interesting development, I pulled out my notebook, and Twilight sat next to me as the filly recounted her tale.

“Ah was puttin away the chickens late one night about a week ago. That’s when Ah saw em! Two ponies were talkin to Big Mac real secret like. I hid behind the chicken coop so they couldn’t see me”

“Did you hear what they said?" I probed "Did you catch a glimpse of what they looked like?”

“I didn’t hear anythin, they were too far away but I did see em! One was a big black Pegasus with a nasty scar on his eye” She shuddered a little, I guess the scar was rather noticeable.

She went on “Then this other pony was a real short one with a top hat” A top hat! Finally a pony that’s into fashionable headwear! I wonder how he feels about fedoras? “They talked with Big Mac for a long time, and then they went off to Ponyville”

“Apple Bloom do you swear this happened?" I said, my grey eyes looking down at the filly "You aren’t making this up to defend your brother?”

Twilight looked at me in sheer astonishment “Private! How could you accuse her of that?!”

“It’s happened before" I replied not averting my gaze "I have to be sure”

Apple Bloom shook her head furiously and looked at me with pain filled eyes “Ah’d never make somethin like this up! I saw em! I swear by Celestia’s horn!”

I nodded “Alright I just wanted to hear you honestly defend yourself”

“Ya believe me?” She said her face voicing her shock.

I smiled a little at the filly. “Yes I do, and I’ll get your brother out Apple Bloom, I promise”

“Ya promise...?” Her yellow eyes looked up at mine. Damn it they were so huge I couldn’t accuse her again if I wanted to.

“I promise” I smiled at her and trotted off.

Twilight ran to catch up with me. “So you accuse her of lying to defend her brother, then you pull a complete 180 and say you believed her all along? What was that for?”

“I needed to hear her defend herself like that; nopony who’s lying would make such a firm statement like that. I could tell she wasn’t lying just by the way she stood up for herself like that”

Twilight looked at me then shook her head bemused “You’re odd Detective...”

“Anyways I’m going to ask around about those stallions that Apple Bloom mentioned”

“Great, where do we start?”

I looked at her and shook my head “‘We’ are not going to do anything Twilight. I’m going to meet you at the library later tonight. I think I have a lead and where I’m going you wouldn’t want to be”

She looked about ready to retort but held it back when she saw how serious I was “Alright, it’s getting late anyway” she gestured to the setting sun about to fall into the western mountains. Celestia was retiring for the night and so was the rest of Ponyville. “I’ll meet you back at the library and I’ll do a little research”

“On what exactly?” I asked

“Anypony who’d want Sweet Apple Acres to be axed” She trotted off ahead and I followed. We got back to Ponyville as the sun went down then we parted ways. I went over to one of the buildings and started walking down a set of stairs by it. It led me to a door with a sliding peak hole on it. I knocked on it three times, paused, then twice more. The peek hole opened and a glaring eye said “Password?”

I sighed and said “Lauren sent me” the slider closed and I could hear a complex series of locks being undone on the other side of the door. The bouncer that the eye belonged to opened the door and nodded as I walked in.

This was the Violet Rose, a quaint nightclub under an antique shop. Not many ponies know about it but I was able to find out about it from one of my older contacts. The place was spacious with many tables holding white table cloths. A band was playing on the stage at the head of the club with some ponies dancing on the dance floor before it. This was a place where one could cut loose after a long work week. I walked up to the bar and sat on a stool.

The bartender, a mare with a brown coat and mane, with a cutie mark that looked like a mug of cider looked at me. “Haven’t seen you before, you must be that new detective my customers keep talking about. What’ll it be?”

“Got a Grasshopper?” I asked glancing around

“Grasshopper?" She laughed a little "That shit they serve up in Manehatten? You might as well drink water” Some of the other customers laughed at my choice of drink. “I figured you were outta town but geez! Out here you see...” She got a big mug out “We pour Apple Cider straight from Sweet Apple Acres. You’re lucky, this stuff is about as hard to get a hold of as diamonds” She filled the mug and slid it to me. I caught it and took a sip. I’ll admit that the stuff was awfully strong and had a good taste. The bartender looked at me “So what’re ya here for city boy?”

“I’m looking for somepony, a mare named Larksong”

She smiled at me “Well if you wait two minutes she’s going to be on stage soon” She pointed her hoof at the stage and I turned in the stool to look. The band just finished up and a host pony took the stage.

“Thank you Ladies and Gentlestallions! Let’s give a big stomp for Octavia and the Midnight Serenade!” Several ponies in the audience stomped in response as the band left the stage. The stallion stepped up to the mic “Now tonight is a very special night, all the way from Manehatten is the wonderful...the beautiful...Miss Larksong...” he stepped away and that’s when I saw her.

She hadn’t changed much since I last saw her. She stood up there clad in a black night dress and looking at everypony with soft blue eyes. Her light green mane dazzled the stage with shining sparkles as she moved. Her well groomed gold coat shone like the sun as she took the stage. Several Stallions in the audience forgot their marefriends and beheld the beauty that was Larksong. Me? I was just taking in the sweet irony of it all. She walked to the microphone and smiled at the audience.

“Thank you all for coming tonight” her voice even in its normal speaking voice sounded like sweet honey to an untrained ear. Thankfully my ear was well trained for this. “This song goes out to all you little hearts out there...those of us...” she noticed me, our eyes met for two seconds then she smiled again. “Who have tasted the fruit of love and found it sour” She started singing at that moment. A ballad about a stallion that fell in love...but found out the love was not returned. That the love he so strived to keep was just a hopeless illusion. Several mares cried as she sung this tale of sorrow to them, I noticed a tear in many a stallion’s eyes too. Oh she knew how to play with the strings of the heart like a harp. Her music was one of tragedy but also of hope. That out there somepony was looking for that lonely stallion. Who knows? Maybe her music will cause love to blossom in this room. As for me...hell, I was just trying to enjoying the cider.

She finished her last song about a mare torn between love and glamor. She was treated to a thunderous applause. (One that got so bad one of the bottles fell from the bartender’s shelf). She looked at me with her soft blue eyes and motioned for a corner booth. I knew she was directing that first song at me and now she wanted to catch up. I nodded and left a few bits to pay for the cider. No amount of alcohol in the world was going to help me now. I walked to the booth and she and I sat looking at each other.

She smiled “Here I thought your exact words to me were ‘I never want to ever see you again’”

“Never just got a hell of a lot shorter”

Comments

[dbanksischillin]

hmmmm. seems legit again

[VampirateLycan]

'filly recounted her tail' Should be tale, as in story. Sorry. :D Loving it so far though, quite new to fimfiction.

[DeadpoolMLP]

"Lauren sent me"
shout out to Lauren Faust much?

[Fangmaster425]

Hey this is what ponies and people get for running into bad memories of past relationships...

[Gizmo Gear]

4312753 hmmmm.....

'Lauren sent me'.....

'God sent me'......

I swear Ive heard it somewhere before...........