“Your Earth-dialect is very good. And you’ve been here for only…”
“Four months. I actually speak several human languages. English, Latin, a little Greek…”
Unlike with other humans, Dion’s clothing was very simple, little more than a sheet wrapped around him and pinned at the shoulders. He had a brightly-colored image on his arm, like a cutie mark, showing some kind of basket with what might have been fruit pouring from it.
“And much better behaved than most new arrivals, I see.” Armor’s stone-faced expression didn’t waver as he locked eyes with the human, who only shrugged.
“This world is amazing. I’ve got better things to do than obsess over other people’s personal lives.”
“Such as?”
“I’m looking to get into business with some farmers along the Unicorn Range. I love cooking, and I want to see what I can do with the food here.”
The ponies he’d assigned to investigate Dion’s story had confirmed his alibi for the time of Ironhorn’s murder. Discreetly, they’d investigated his whereabouts at the estimated time of Bruce’s murder, and he seemed to be clear of that crime as well.
Shining Armor shuffled the reports levitating in front of him, and didn’t miss the fascinated look on the human’s face at even this tiny display of magic.
No. He didn’t know humans well enough to be sure, but it wasn’t fascination. Not exactly.
“Tell me, did you know Bruce at all?”
“We talked a few times. I was thinking of inviting him to come with me when I headed out west, but the last time we talked, he was going on about a job he’d landed around Cloudsdale. Is he in some kind of trouble?”
“In a manner of speaking. He’s wanted for the theft of a unicorn’s horn.”
“A…how do you steal a unicorn’s horn?”
Armor’s expression went from stony to ironclad.
“By murdering a unicorn and cutting it from his corpse.”
“What!? No way Bruce could have-“
“We have magically-gathered evidence that proves his guilt.”
“I…I don’t know, man. Bruce, he…he wasn’t that kind of guy. I mean, I heard he had a problem with sticky fingers, which was why I was gonna help him out. But murder? Why would he do it?”
“We’ll know as soon as the royal guard finds him. Until then, if you encounter him or find any clue as to his whereabouts, I expect you to contact the guard immediately.”
“Yeah. Oh course.”
Armor turned and made his way back to the town’s main street, the royal guard falling into step behind him. The human left to rejoin the ponies he’d been talking to before the royal guard had caught up to him, and Armor didn’t look back. It wasn’t until he was far out of sight that he relaxed the spell and immediately began massaging his aching jaw. The spell was an old one, made by a unicorn fond of gambling who nonetheless had a terrible poker face, and so resorted to magic to keep his facial muscles in line.
It was something that Malachi had suggested. Armor didn’t like it, but he could see the logic behind it. Keeping Bruce’s death and discovery a secret might lull his killer into a false sense of security, making him or her think that everything was still going according to plan.
And barring the involvement of an unknown, there was a very small pool of potential suspects for Bruce’s murder. And it was murder – the mangling of his corpse was savage, but far from random. It was also a dead end. Nothing of value could be learned from Bruce’s body, despite the best efforts of the unicorns involved in the investigation. Something was interfering with the forensic spells, and the implications of that had managed to make this case even more disturbing.
And that left Armor to report to the Princesses that he had absolutely nothing to on, unless the murderer made a mistake…or killed again.
------------------------------------------------
Shining had cleared a wall of his office to put up scraps of information regarding the case, an old habit of a famous investigator whose journals he was consulting. Elementary Deduction had been a crotchety old Pegasus in service to the princesses, some two hundred-odd years ago, and was last crime-investigator of any real note in Equestria’s history. So few major crimes had occurred in the interim that no one had made a profession of criminal investigation in the last half-century.
Shining did sympathize with Deduction on one note – the feeling that you could solve a case if you just stared hard enough at the evidence.
A picture of the deceased’s home was pinned above a timeline of events. Pictures of humans had attached notes and lines of string connected various papers together.
At the top, Malachi. Proven not to have killed Ironhorn, but his unusual qualities could account for the disruption of forensic spells cast upon Bruce’s remains. He was known to be withdrawn but polite, generally respected by his co-workers, but capable of violence with great skill and little hesitation.
Dion. On the road at the times of both murders, and was vouched for by the ponies traveling with him. Friendly and well-liked by those that knew him, and had never caused problems like other human arrivals had. His reactions and answers during the interview had seemed perfectly honest…but there had been that look in his eyes when Shining had used magic. It was the one oddity in the entire encounter.
Bruce. Petty Thief. The kind of guy who started running the moment someone discovered his duplicity. A person like that didn’t just jump to murder for no reason. And the horn? Aside from Malachi’s theories, Shining could think of no reason whatsoever to do such a thing, besides a sudden and inexplicable bout of insanity.
All the rest of the humans were in their own little pile to the side, next to every report on those being who might possibly desire a severed horn. That made for a very thin pile, and Shining had not returned to it after the first read-through.
Shining sat down at his desk and grimaced at the stale coffee he’d been about to drink. None of the humans, not even Malachi, really stood out as a murderer in his mind. He glanced at the blank space on the wall, reserved for unknowns. Elementary’s journals bore repeated warnings about the dangers of assuming one had all the pieces of a puzzle. When you think you know everything, your case will be built on nothing but assumptions.
Shining lowered the coffee cup slowly.
Did he really have all the information? Could there be a human or other creature running around that no one knew about? If someone wanted a unicorn’s horn, why kill Ironhorn specifically? Why do it where someone might have caught the killer in the act?
Shining’s mind whirled as he returned to staring at the wall.
What if Ironhorn = not relevant? Only horn = relevant. Bruce = killer/killed. Killing Ironhorn in town = obvious + blame firmly on Bruce. Bruce = decoy. Why decoy? Entity desiring horn = unknown. If entity = unknown, then decoy = unnecessary. Why decoy?
You want a decoy to distract someone.
But Ironhorn’s death had only served to warn the guard of whatever new evil that had appeared in Equestria. They would be out searching for those responsible and be on the lookout for anything unusual. Committing such a blatant crime was…idiotic. It was an anti-distraction. With the guard now on high alert, the perpetrators could accomplish nothing without being noticed.
Unless…they wanted the guard distracted from something that had already been done?
Outside, ears flattened at the loudest cursing Equestria had heard in a thousand years. Hardened guardsponies ducked when the door to the captain’s office slammed open and Shining stormed out, barking orders left and right.
Shining simmered with tension as papers were passed up to him and reports were made and quickly discarded or cut off mid-word. A single sheet of paper would bring the chaos surrounding him to an abrupt halt. A unicorn merchant from Van Hoover had gone missing just a few days ago. A comment scribbled in the margins noted that his assistants knew nothing about what was being transported, just that the merchant insisted on personally hoof-delivering it.
His business? Magical artefacts. The kind that were often old, unusual, and potentially dangerous in the wrong hooves.
The merchant had disappeared while traveling through the Unicorn Range. That left a lot of ground to cover. But unlike Earth Ponies, unicorn farmers often focused on growing luxury items instead of staple foods. And just before being recalled, Shining had been sharing a glass of wine with his wife. A good year. Made locally.
Ironhorn had not been chosen at random after all. No. He had been a brewer. A vintner.
A momentary glance at a map on the wall reminded Armor where Bruce had been found, which gave an idea of the direction he’d fled in after the murder.
Armor’s stomp cracked the floor, and his shouting sent ponies running faster than they’d ever felt the need to.
Dion was gone. Last seen leaving the west gate out of Canterlot, but had quickly left the road and disappeared into the woods. The low mountain chain that ran the length of the Unicorn Range was well-know to be riddled with caverns. It would be impossible to find and check every possible hiding place.
Less than an hour ago, Shining Armor had been face-to-face with a murderer, had let him just walk away, and now it was possible Dion would never be found again.