Shadow Spade and the Murgese Falcon

Janurary 7th - 1957

Do you know how most ponies have a special talent in them? Some of us are great singers and dancers, while others have a sort of daredevil act in them. It's true what they say, that everypony has a talent, or maybe even a talented pet. This is the story of one of them.

It was a hot summer's day in Ponyville and I was doing my usual routine; wake up, shower, dress, comb my hair, and then begin on my most latest job of all... Waiting for a mystery. You see, my job is one that I take personal care of, I'm a detective working under the leadership of Princess Galaxia. Sure, my job gets out of hand sometimes, but all and all, I am one impressive detective; solving cases, gathering clues, investigating scenes of crimes, Et cetera, Et cetera. But this story is about a most talent mystery that I shall never forget.

As I finished up my routine for this morning and went to my desk, I soon heard a ringing noise coming from my telephone, I used my magic to lift up the phone and answered the call. "Hello?" I asked, "Special Detective Shadow Spade here. Yes, I can search for a missing animal. A Murgese Falcon? Well... Okay. Why don't you come over to my office so that we can discuss this further. Bring a photo too." As I hung up, I wondered about this Murgese Falcon, it seemed like a rare bird. So the fact that I had to find it, really peeked my interest. A little while later, the pony who called me entered my office, he was wearing a red sparkling vest with a top hat, and his cutie mark was in the shape of a circus tent, leading me to believe that he might be a ringmaster.

"Hello, I am Wonder, the ringmaster of the Ponyville Circus." He said as he sat comfortably in front of me and my desk, he then handed me a picture of the Murgese Falcon; it's feathers were all black and his beak was a goldish yellow, and I saw that he was also balancing a ball on his beak which meant that THIS bird was a performer at the Ponyville Circus. "Here is a snapshot of Marco; our specially trained Murgese Falcon performer." Wonder continued, "He seemed to be snatched by somepony after his performance, the rest of the circus is getting worried about him. So I decided to ask you if you could find him AND his kidnapper." I looked at Wonder, then the picture. A bird as rare as this might be impossible to find, but he sounded upset, and I wasn't the kind to let somepony down if I didn't do the case, "Of course, Wonder." I said, "I'll find Marco and whoever took him."

Wonder thanked me with a hoofshake and said "Be sure to see me once you have found poor Marco, we do our next show tomorrow at Ponyville Park." He then left my office as I prepared myself for the mystery that I was about to investigate.

I started off by going through Ponyville and examing the streets for any clues, it was a bright blue sky today so I was able to examine the streets easily. I began my clue searching by looking for hoof prints, so I had brought out my trusty miniature duster and began dusting the parts of the street. It took a while to do, but I managed to find a certain pack of hoof prints that appeared to be guiding across the road, but when I followed them in order to be led to whoever made them, they somehow ended right by a curved. Luckly for me though, I managed to discover the first clue to this Murgese Falcon mystery.

A beatened camera; it was all beaten up from top to bottom, but it was still worked perfectly for a reason that I couldn't think of.

As I examined the camera, I saw that inside it, the film was filled, so I decided to examine the film so that I could see if my next clue was somewhere in the pictures.

When I returned to my office, I took the film out of the camera and sent it into my DarkRoom; I use this room to turn film into photographs which is a very difficult proceedure to do, but it does help me out with finding clues... At least, that's what I know of. I placed the film under the Enlarger and turned on the Safelight just so I wouldn't ruin the paper, then by using the Focus Finder, I magnified the film to get a clear view. As I continued working on coverting the film into pictures, I noticed that I happened to come upon my second clue which was found on the second panel of the camera's film.

A gold chain with a blue diamond that was wrapped around somepony's neck, meaning that whoever snatched Marco, must have an impressive way of dressing themself. I, of course, never doubt this pony's code of dress for a second, but I knew that THIS pony wasn't one to trust, for they might be the one responsible for Marco's capture.

As I finished converting the film into pictures, I noticed that one of the pictures was showing the same gold chain wearing pony heading into some kind of resturaunt named Bargee's Masterpieces, meaning that this could be another clue! I knew that I was getting closer to solving this case, but I needed to investigate at Bargee's Masterpieces to see if these clues could be true or not.

As the sun set, I reached Bargee's Masterpieces and booked myself in for dinner, secretly hiding the fact that I was actually here to find out who snatched Marco and bring them and Marco back to the Ponyville Circus. As I sat down by one of the tables provided, a waiter came up to me. "Hello, Madame. Welcome to Bargee's Masterpieces, where we serve the best kind of food that anypony has ever seen." He said to me, "Hello, I am ready to order now." I said with a smile. The waiter nodded at me and awaited for what I was about to order, but just as I was about to reach my menu, I noticed that the waiter was wearing the same gold chain that I saw in the camera's film,meaning that I might be one step closer to solving this mystery! "Uh, are you okay?" The waiter asked me, I shook the thought out of my head and said, "Oh, sorry about that. I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I'll take the special, please." The waiter nodded and trotted his way to the kitchen, but since he had that gold chain around his neck, I decided to follow him so that I could investigate further on what he's doing.

Instead of heading into the kitchen, I saw the waiter heading into a room that had a wooden door enterance, I followed him in quickly just as he was about to lock the door, perfectly able to not been seen, thanks to my skills of camoflauge. As I continued following the waiter, I saw something that was completely out of the blue... The waiter was approaching a bird cage, and in that bird cage... Was Marco! The captured Murgese Falcon!

I had hit the jackpot! The clues that I found were right!

"You know." I said as I stepped out of the shadows to confront the waiter as he was eyeing Marco, "You shouldn't take things that do not belong to you, espically animals and circus performers." The waiter was startled when he saw me stepping out of the shadows, but soon became worried as he nodded in shame. "I know, I know." He started, "But... I did it because we needed a new talent for the performances that we have each night at Bargee's Masterpieces. Our original performer was sick today, so, seeing how this Murgese Falcon was really talented, I had to take this amazing rare bird as a substitute performance." He then sighed with guilt, I only just smirked, and chuckled a bit.

"What so funny?" The waiter asked with a stern look on his face, "Buddy, you don't need to take Marco to be a substitute performance." I said as I approached the waiter, "You have your own talent. Even if ponies think it won't think it's as good as your original performer, they will still appreciate your talent. And you can bet, that it'll might be a show that the audience shall never forget!"

The waiter smiled at what I said, and nodded in agreement. "You might be right, I DO have a special talent in me!" He said as his worry started to fade away, "I shall have Marco returned to the Ponyville Circus and do my own talent to please the audience at Bargee's Masterpieces!"

And boy, was he right about that! Because the very next day, the waiter showed the audience at Bargee's Masterpieces his most greatest talent yet; juggling, it really made everypony clap and cheer for joy. Meanwhile, I managed to return Marco to the Ponyville Circus, Wonder congratulated me for a job well done as Marco continued to perform with the Ponyville Circus for as long as he lived.

As for myself, who knows what the next mystery will be; the case of the robbed Candy Shop, the investigation of the missing museum art, or maybe... A case of the missing Elements of Harmony. Whatever kind of case it will be next time, I'll be sure and ready to investigate it and solve it!

Author's Note:

Note: This story was inspired by one of the novels from the MLP: FIM series of the same name - https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Literature#The_Adventures_of_Shadow_Spade

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