Equestria Noir Case 1 "The Big Macintosh Case"

by Jacoboby1

Chapter 7: Family Feud

Chapter 7

Family Feud

Granny sat back in her chair rocking gently as her eyes ventured to a different time and place. “Those two rascals did everything together. They played together, they worked together, they were practically inseparable”

“If they were inseparable what caused the feud?” I asked inquisitively

“Ah’m gettin to that young man! It’s bad manners to interrupt your elders y'know” I wasn’t about to argue with her. She was telling the story after all. “Now when they were old enough to work the farm by themselves they wanted to rename the farm ‘Apples and Oranges Acres’ but it was around that time when the differences between them started showin”

“What happened?”

“Well, Apple Buck wanted tah keep the farm traditional and farm the same way we’ve been doin since ah found the place. But Mandarin was always comin up with some newfangled means of farming. From orange pickers to some kinda chemical to keep pests of your oranges”

Twilight raised an eyebrow “Isn’t it a good thing Mandarin wanted to make the farm more modern?”

“Ya remember when the Flim-Flam brothers came to town?” Granny Smith said with an edge in her voice. “Mandarin was doing the same thing, tryin to speed up nature will only give you a sorry product. His oranges were never the quality Apple Buck had. A gap started to form between them when more ponies were willing to wait for good apples then subpar oranges”

Applejack looked at Granny Smith “But Granny, a simple business rivalry wouldn’t cause this kinda feud”

“You’re right dear, it wasn’t just the business…it was your mama that finally cemented the split” Granny Smith said gravely.

“My mama? What she gotta do with it?” Applejack said. I had a feeling she had quite a bit to do with it.

“Well, a few years after the boys got their business goin Apple Buck meets this beautiful young mare who moved here from a farm over east. Her name was Lilyblossom, she was Applejack’s mama. She was the kindest and prettiest mare he’d ever seen. Only problem was, Mandarin loved her too”

“I can guess they didn’t settle things with tea and small talk...” I said grimly as I stopped Pinkie Pie from taking a huge piece of the pie with my magic.

“Nope, it was all out war between ‘em. Problem was Mandarin got rich not from regular farmin but by selling his inventions and pesticide. Everything Apple Buck had went to the farm. He didn’t have a bit to spare to buy anything nice for her”

Twilight frowned “You can’t buy somepony’s love, Mandarin should’ve known that” Well where I come from you could buy love for fifty bits a night. But I’m pretty sure that’s not the love Twilight is talking about.

Granny Smith leaned back in her chair again “Well, a few months later Lilyblossom held a birthday party and invited everypony in town. She was quite popular among the stallions so the party was quite lavish. Mandarin came by the place with all these jewels and dresses he bought fer her. That turned away many a stallion in their quest for love. But not Apple Buck who came by the party for a short time and dropped off this old package he wrapped with newspaper for her”

Applejack looked at Granny, curiosity in her eye “What was in it?”

Granny pointed to the hat on Applejack’s head “That. It belonged to your grandfather, and his father before him. It was an Apple family tradition to hand the hat off to the next owner of the farm. Which is you dear”

“Wow…and ah thought it was just some old hat my mama wore to keep the…wait! My mama wore this hat? She accepted the gift from pa?!” Her face lit up in excitement.

“Yep, though not quietly. She marched up to mah front door the next day and demanded she see him. Ah let her in and the two got inta a huge argument. Apple Buck told her that the reason he gave it to her was because he loved her more than the farm. He was willin to give up something very important to him for her. That was a better gift than any of the dresses she got from Mandarin”

“That’s so romantic.” Pinkie Pie said with a sigh that all mares give when encountering anything remotely romantic.
Applejack took off her hat and looked at it for a quiet moment. “Mah pa did that for mama?”

Granny nodded “Apple Buck would marry Lilyblossom years later and have Big Mac a few months later. That’s what finally started the feud between AppleBuck and Mandarin...it started out with simple threats then it turned into all-out war. Pig stealin, sabotage, shootouts in the streets. It was a dark time fer both sides of the family”

I nodded “What ultimately caused the Oranges to leave town?”

Granny’s voice took on tone laced with sorrow. “Mandarin would marry some young mare from the city for her money...they had a colt named Tangerio. With his newfound money Mandarin was hopin to expand Apples and Oranges acres beyond Ponyville”

Twilight nodded “I can guess it didn’t go well over with Apple Buck...”

Granny nodded “Oh, he was furious at even the notion. Apple Buck argued that he’d never leave Ponyville behind for anything. The farm meant everything to him and he wasn’t willing to let it become like those farms down south that are really just factories made to look like farms”

Applejack put her hat back on “And that’s when the Oranges left?”

Granny frowned and I could see her eyes watering a little. “Yes, I watched my son walk out and turn his back on everything I tried to teach him about honesty and farmin. He didn’t look back as the train left Ponyville”

Applejack looked guilty “Had I known the Oranges were trouble...I never would’ve left Sweet Apple Acres”

“Don’t ya be sayin that stuff young lady!" Granny retorted "Ya left to find your place in the world. Had you never left you never woulda found out ya belonged here” Granny said that last bit with a smile on her face.

The two hugged for a bit, and I knew what I had to do. I couldn’t let the Apples lose something so important to them. I hated getting personally involved in cases like this, but I needed to if I wanted to bury this feud. It was time to pay Mandarin Orange a little visit.

___________________________________

We left Sweet Apple Acres behind as the sun was going down. I had a plan but I needed one final thing before I could move forward. I looked to Twilight. “Twilight, look into Mandarin’s wife. I want to learn why Tangerio looks nothing like his father.”

Twilight nodded “I’ll look into it, what are you going to do?”

“Get a warrant for an arrest. You and Pinkie meet me at Mandarin’s office building with as many cops as you can get”
Pinkie smiled “Are we gonna bust the bad guy? Show him all the bad things he’s done?”

“Yes Pinkie...we will”

____________________________

It was late at night as I sat in an office chair looking out at Manehatten’s skyline. It was pouring rain again, funny how I’ve come back to find my old friend the rain waiting for me. It was a calming rain that would put me to sleep normally. But tonight I would need every bit of my focus if I was going to put the nail in the coffin.

The door opened behind me and Mandarin Orange himself came out. He looked at me sitting in his chair and his green eyes glared at me. He had on an old fashioned business suit wet from the rain. “What the hell are you doing in my office?! Who are you?” He did not have the apple family accent.

“Detective Private Eye, I was hired to solve a case against your nephew Big Macintosh”

“That still doesn't explain what you’re doing here; get out before I call security!”

“Security is off tonight, and I’m here on a warrant. I’m legally allowed to be here tonight”

“For what purpose?”

“For getting you to talk about your son’s murder”

“Terrible tragedy...Tangerio was my only son you know, I’m holding a funeral for him tomorrow”

“Oh, you had more involvement in his death then you let on”

“What are you talking about!? I had nothing to do with his death!”

I turned away from the window and faced him, my face showing no emotion. “Oh, you had quite a bit to do with it Mr. Orange”

“So great detective...how was my son murdered?” His confidence was sickening.

“About a week ago you sent a letter to Big Macintosh offering to buy the farm for a ridiculous amount of bits. Big Mac wouldn’t sell so you had your snake Yahtzee hire a hitpony to try and intimidate him. Yahtzee sang like a bird when I applied a little pressure”

He growled “So! That doesn't mean I killed Tangerio! What does this have to do with the murder?”

“Quite a bit actually, I learned from the phone company that the night the murder occurred you made a call to Tangerio. As a detective I got a warrant to see your phone records and the operator told me all about the call. You told Tangerio to head to Ponyville to investigate Sweet Apple Acres”

“Again what does this have to do with the murder? I sent him, yes, to try and see how my niece was doing running the farm” He said trying to keep his voice calm.

I leaned back on the chair and put my hind hoofs on his desk just to irritate the bastard. “That night, Tangerio was murdered by Scarwing, the hitpony you hired to intimidate Big Mac; I found his feathers at the crime scene which proves he was there. Yahtzee then tried to let Scarwing take the fall for murdering your son”

“So this means my nephew isn’t going to the moon. So what?! Scarwing killed my son so why are you in my office?!”

“Because you hired Scarwing to frame Big Mac for murder, when that didn’t work Scarwing would take the fall for the murder. You however underestimated my integrity. I don’t accept bribes dear sir...”

“Yahtzee talked, I guess...”

“He said you hired him to have Tangerio killed that very night. Big Mac also got a letter that told him to go there, in order to put him in that spot so that he would be in jail and out of commission for farm work”

“Why would I want my own nephew in jail? He may be my brother’s son but he’s still family!”

“Because you knew that Sweet Apple Acres needed Big Mac to survive, with him out of the way the farm would be short its biggest asset. Applejack told me she wouldn’t have been able to make through last applebuck season without her friends to help. But if her friends kept helping her she’d have to hire them according to the law. You can’t just have a bunch of workers working for no pay without labor unions taking notice. While paying for her workers, Applejack would only be able to afford half of the apple trees she could plant. Her yield would be significantly smaller and the demand is just too high. Apple cider is there and gone like a chicken on caffeine”

His eyes narrowed “You’ve just showed me what I could gain from Big Macintosh being in prison...you still haven’t proved why I would murder my own son”

I didn’t say anything, just stared at him.

He smiled “Ah ha! Without motive I am innocent! No court will convict me of this ridiculous accusation. Maybe some rival had my son killed to get at me or maybe it was Yahtzee trying to get back at me for cheating him. Either way you can’t prove I killed Tangerio because I have no motive!” He started laughing and my face didn’t flinch or blink. My horn glowed however...and I telekinetically set down pictures. Pictures you wouldn’t want to show to anypony. Mandarin stared at the pictures his green eyes wide with shock.

“Your motive...was to cover up this little scandal. Tangerio isn’t your son at all. I got these pictures from an old friend of mine" My grey eyes didn't leave his for a second "It was going to be a huge scandal wasn’t it? Your wife, alone and unloved spent a night with a male prostitute. I can only figure you didn’t know about Tangerio’s blood father until recently. You thought you could escape. Have your son murdered and as a nice bonus, ruin the farm you were born and raised on. I can imagine it would’ve been the ultimate revenge against your brother”

He didn’t move. His eyes were wide in shock and he was sweating more water than the rain outside. He was caught in a corner at last.

“I always hated Ponyville...the limits brother set upon us...He had no ambition, no eye for progress! It was always tradition this! Tradition that! I wanted to expand the business beyond Ponyville but he was too stubborn to accept!”

“So you thought that destroying the farm would give you some kind of peace?”

“Call it vengeance or whatever you want! I couldn’t stand the fact that despite everything I did the Apples sold more than I ever could!”

“So you took over all those other farms to cover costs?”

“I had more than enough money to buy out the farm long ago! I bought out those farms to prove I could do it! But I knew that the Apples would never accept whatever amount of money I sent them! I tried to be reasonable with them! But no! They couldn’t be reasonable!”

“So you created this little scheme of yours...”

“It would’ve been perfect! Had you backed off the entire thing could’ve gone along smoothly!”

“A stallion once said something about the perfect crime, ‘that we don’t know about it...therefore it’s the perfect crime’ your crime was far from perfect”

“Well now I know how to make it truly perfect!” He pulled out a pistol from his coat, put it in his mouth and aimed it at me. Earth ponies don’t have good aim with firearms but they could hit a target like me from this range. “If you die the evidence dies with you!” he said his voice muffled from the gun.

“You wanna convict yourself for two murders?”

“Wha!?”

“I had this entire conversation recorded...and the cops are already here...”

Just then SWAT ponies burst through the door. They tackled Mandarin and a unicorn put hoofcuffs on him. Shinebadge himself entered, his old fashioned police uniform wet from the rain. “Mandarin Orange, you're under arrest for the murder of your own son. Celestia have mercy on your soul…”

Comments

[dbanksischillin]

Dam. That guy just got taken down.

[Subatomic Seal]

HAHAAAA! SUCK IT, MANDARIN!

P.S. Why does some parts of the "Doom" soundtrack go with this?

[Lunamann]

2558633
Maybe the guy was writing this while listening to said soundtrack...

[The Watcher 509]

I often call detectives "Smart Pyros" since the always inflict the largest amount of burn to a case, with some hard evidence to surround and support the burns.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

You just got busted!

[The Better Scotsman Duck]

3433669 if i'm correct that term is used to describe the arsonists who don't get caught.

[Insanecrusader]

Well, that cuts gonna sting in the morning...