After waiting a full five minutes for the table to be cleaned off the group gathered with their first suspect. Babs Seed sat on one side of the table while Blueblood sat on the other side. Braeburn brought over the files and Blueblood took them but didn't read them, "Hmm, you look a little small for those cuffs, right?" Blueblood's eyes narrowed on Babs Seed's small hooves. "You could slip right out of them and murder each one of us."
On that note, all the guards aimed their weapons right at Babs Seed in complete fear. "We will kill her first!"
Blueblood facepalmed, "I was being sarcastic." This brought a sour mood to all of them as they stood down. "However, out of all the suspects, I don't trust you in the slightest. Do you know why?"
"Because I'm too cute?" Babs Seed questioned sheepishly.
"While that is good enough for anyone not to be trusted, it's the data in your file, filly." He pushed the file forward and open it for the first time, pointing his hoof to an age. "Or should I say mare." Braeburn and Luster Dawn's eyes went wide at the bold age of thirty-five.
"Ha, I was right!!" Sombra's yelling of joy could be heard in the background as the rest were left utterly stunned.
"How did you know that?" Suddenly Babs Seed's voiced deepened to the sounds of a strong mare.
"The large amount of makeup around your eyes told me everything." Blueblood used his magic to remove the makeup and show the slightest of bagging of age that only somepony as vain as himself would care about. "Now the only question is why are you so short?"
"Twilight Sparkle."
"What? Don't insult the princess!" Luster Dawn was quick to counter her words.
"No, no, no. It makes sense. Through the look of her form, the magical accident happened long before Twilight took the throne."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. A fancy-schmancy spell that was meant to fix her friends' mortality hit me instead. The problem being instead of freezing my age, it froze my height and body shape." Babs Seed huffed in annoyance, "Can we just get onto the questions!!"
Blueblood smiled in victory before stomping his hoof. Knowing all too well what he was asking Luster Dawn grabbed out her notepad and asked. "Okay then, Babs Seed, what were you doing here?"
"I was delivering cat food to my granny."
Blueblood lifted his hoof to his chin and scratched lightly, it was clear to Luster he didn't believe a single word especailly after the big reveal so she changed the question. "Where is the cat food?"
Babs Seed's face went white and she gave a sheepish smile.
"I knew it, she killed him!!" Braeburn jumped to conclusions.
"Please, that makes lesser sense than you gaining a date with Luster's mother." Blueblood shot back.
Hearing those words sent the earth pony over the edge. It was annoying enough when Luster Dawn did it, but for this bold and crass stallion to insult him. "That is it!!"
Luster Dawn was quick to stop the captain. "Okay, okay. enough banter about my mother."
"She's right. Babs Seed couldn't have killed Thunderlane since he flew in with Derpy." Blueblood corrected the earth pony.
"I knew it, the dumb one did it!!" Braeburn shouted louder.
"Enough blunt assumptions," Blueblood was just as quick to shoot that answer down as much as the other one. "Besides the only dumb one here is--"
He was cut off as Luster Dawn cleared her throated and attempted to get attention back on the proper questions. Luster Dawn moved closer and placed her hoof over Babs Seed's hoof. "Just tell us where it all started. If you have done nothing wrong then all you need to do is make that clear."
The unicorn was trying her best to establish a bond. Her tutelage under Princess Twilight had taught her many things about friendship, and her training under Blueblood had shown her to twist and turn the legal system for the right reasons. She knew deep down nopony was out to ever do evil, but simply survive.
Babs Seed pulled her hoof away but smiled at the unicorn's actions. "It all started back in Manehatten, Applebloom had came to visit..."
As the earth pony's words weaved forth a story of events, a pair of green eyes watched from the shadows just outside a window.
Huh so Babs only looks like a kid because of one of Twilight's experiments. . . makes sense in hindsight, and it isn't uncommon in fanfics for Twilight to do very questionable things to keep her friend's with her.
Also i hope Blueblood remembers next time to be careful with the sarcasm, he is dealing with the Equestian military, the most inept military group in fiction history. (what else do you call a group that's only notable achievement in 9 seasons is to arrest a already defeated child. )
10361926
Well, I wanted some sort of achievement for Blueblood to show his brilliant deductive skill. While I was a bit on when to reveal it I knew I couldn't have it happen during the flashback or else it would feel like an exposition dump. Plus, much like Red in the movie I needed something about Babs Seed that separated her from the classic kid mold, for Red, it was kickass moves, for Babs Seed, she is a mare locked within a filly's body.
As for Braeburn, yeah it would have been fine for any guard to say that, but that stallion has had some brainless moments as well so adding a character to the mouthpiece of the joke adds more character.
Also speaking of Cozy Glow, I do plan to make at least some reference to that when she can finally speak. Though it was very quick in the first chapter she did appear but got no speaking lines yet because out of all the replacement she is going to be the hardest for me to justify.
10362330
Yeah plus along with all of that you also needed to give a reason why Babs still looked like a kid while Luster Dawn is their, but yeah i agree it was a nice way to show off Bluebloods skills.
Well i was talking more about the solders who where about ready to stab Babs at Blueblood's comment about her slipping out of her cuffs, but now that you bring up Barburn i am a bit surprised that no one has pointed out that two the the suspects are family members of his, i am getting the feeling that he is going to get a earful latter because of this.
Yeah i am going to enjoy seeing how you justify giving Cozy Glow the role of Twitchy, while i can see how she would end up working with Sombra it will still be funny to see her in that role.
10362417
While I can't give her a motor mouth or over hyperness in general I do plan for something very fun. I'm sort of pulling on something a lot of fans have curious about ever since her imprisonment in stone as a child.
I will be giving hints before the punchline like how Red had a random encounter with Twitchy during the falling scene before we got Wolf's version of the story and understood just what was wrong with him.
10362451
Well i will be waiting to see what you plan to do with Cozy regardless (i am unsure what thing fans have been curious about so it will be a surprise to me), it is funny to be that you didn't have her take the part of Boingo Bunny but then i suppose that would of been too obvious, huh?
Good to hear, you know one of the best parts of Hoodwinked was how most of the stories intertwined together, with some bits like Red meeting Twitchy having multiple perspectives to them to show each side of the story.
10362486
Don't worry, I have the perfect choice for that role.
10546584
Glad to hear that. The movie needs more love.