The Scent of the Sea

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 3

“Agent McGee, do you do this very often?” asked Twilight.

“Searching victims’ homes?” said the NCIS agent. “Yeah, it’s standard procedure. Also, you can call me Tim.”

“So if you’ve done this before,” asked the pony, “what do you do when the door is locked?” Twilight indicated the deadbolt that secured Petty Officer Wheeler’s apartment.

“We visit the apartment office and borrow a key,” answered McGee.

“I could…take care of it,” said Twilight, hesitantly.

McGee thought for a moment. “Well, we do have authorization to enter.” He nodded to the pony to “take care of it”, eager to see unicorn magic at work.

Twilight did not disappoint. Instead of brute-forcing the lock, she bent her head close, the tip of her horn nearly touching the key slot. WIth the lock surrounded by the purple glow of her magic, she delicately worked the pins into the correct combination and slid the bolt back.

“That was really impressive,” said McGee. He felt like he should applaud or something.

“It’s just a trick I picked up somewhere,” said Twilight modestly. The two of them entered the apartment. The lights were off and the blinds were drawn.

While it was doubtful that there was anyone there, it never paid to assume. Twilight noticed McGee’s hand never strayed too far from the gun on his hip. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who would shoot someone, but then she didn’t seem like the kind of pony who would join the Royal Intelligence Service.

After a slow tour through the apartment turned up no unwanted guests, the pair of them returned to the main room.

“You take that side and I’ll take this side?” McGee suggested.

“Fine by me,” Twilight replied.

Both man and pony were professionals, and no object in the apartment escaped scrutiny. After two hours, they met back up to discuss what had been found.

“I’ll be taking Wheeler’s computer back,” said McGee. “Also, the guy had a massive obsession with Darbeck’s Coffee. There were dozens of disposable cups in the trash can and a heavily used portable mug on the kitchen counter.”

“I didn’t find anything to indicate that he might have been killed here,” said Twilight. “There wasn’t really anything notable I saw, except for one thing.” She showed McGee a small blue notebook that appeared to have poetry written in it.

“This was under his pillow,” she said.

“It must have been important to him, then,” observed McGee. “What’s it say?”

“Well, I didn’t think it was very good poetry,” said Twilight. “Still, it looks to me like he wrote it with a lover in mind. Listen to this.”

The scent of the sea, I hope reminds you of me,

When I come home from afar.

If right there you be, that’s all right with me,

When I arrive, that’s right where you are.

“Well, at least it rhymes,” said McGee.

Twilight laughed. “I guess so.” A little more seriously, she noted, “We should probably try to find out who he was writing to. It might be important.”

McGee nodded. “While we’re here, we might as well go to Darbeck’s. If Wheeler was such a frequent customer, maybe they know something.” He pulled out his phone and within seconds found what he was looking for.

“There’s a location nearby,” he told Twilight, showing her a miniature map on the screen of the phone.

“That’s really impressive,” she said.

“It’s just a trick I picked up somewhere,” said McGee.

A couple of minutes later, the two of them got out of the car near the local Darbeck’s Coffee shop. One of the baristas and about half the customers were ponies. McGee wondered at that. For some reason, certain locations just caused Equestrians to congregate. That might be worth looking into for his next book.

He followed Twilight up to the counter, pulling out a picture of Wheeler.

“Pardon me, has either of you seen this man?” Twilight asked the two workers. McGee held the picture up.

“Yeah, I’ve seen him before,” said the woman. She looked at the pegasus beside her. “He comes in here at least once a day, right Skim?”

The stallion nodded. “Double latte, half-caf. Bryan’s as regular as a clock.” He frowned. “Wait, he didn’t come in today. Did something happen?”

“He was murdered,” said McGee.

The two baristas looked shocked. “That’s terrible,” said the woman.

“Did he ever come here with someone?” asked Twilight.

“Somepony,” said Skim. “The two of them were in here together every couple of days.”

“What can you tell us about this pony?” said McGee.

Skim thought for a moment. “It was a unicorn stallion. Medium blue coat, grey mane and tail. His cutie mark was a couple of stars. He said his name was Telescope.”

Other than the physical description, neither of the two coffee shop employees knew much about the pony. McGee and Twilight thanked them for their time and drove back to the NCIS field office.

The D.C. office of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was located inside Washington Navy Yard. The two of them had to show their identification several times at various checkpoints just to get back inside the office.

When they arrived, the workspace for Gibbs’ team was deserted.

“Why don’t we check with Ducky to see if he’s turned up anything with the body?” suggested McGee.

Down in the medical area, they found Dr. Mallard and a white unicorn with a styled indigo mane examining Wheeler’s corpse.

“Hello Timothy,” called Ducky. “With the help of Ms. Rarity here, I’ve managed to uncover a few surprising details concerning the Petty Officer’s death.”

“It wasn’t easy,” said the pony, stepping back from the examination table. Her horn glowed, and the scrubs she wore floated off her body and hung themselves on a rack near the wall.

“Miss, you have a very discerning eye,” Ducky complimented her. He lowered his voice. “I also praise you on giving Mr. Palmer some fashion advice. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“The poor man knows nothing about style,” said Rarity.

“Where is Palmer?” asked McGee, looking around.

“He took a long lunch to go shopping for some fashionable things,” chuckled Dr. Mallard. “He says he wants to impress his fiancé.”

“Getting back to the body,” said Twilight. “What did you learn?”

“The hoof prints were most likely post-mortem,” said Ducky. “It’s like they were made in an attempt to cover up something.”

“None of the wounds were inflicted to the face or other sensitive areas,” noted Rarity. “That could indicate that the pony knew Wheeler well, and was very sorry to be doing that to him.”

“We’ll have to perform a few more tests to cover everything,” said Ducky. He gestured to a few samples taken from the body. “Would you mind running these over to Abby?”

“We can do that,” said McGee. Throughout the entire conversation, he had never come closer than five feet to the body. He gingerly picked up the plastic bag from the tray beside the examination table and retreated.

“I don’t understand how Ducky does it,” said McGee as they left the room. “All those dead bodies day after day.”

“I know Rarity just avoids thinking about it by throwing herself into the task,” said Twilight. “I think it takes her mind off it if she’s working as hard as she can to get results. She’s a little obsessive about her work.”

The two of them went over to the lab where Abby Sciuto worked. When McGee opened the door, loud music washed out of the room. Inside, the forensic scientist appeared to be dancing with a pink pony.

“Oh, hey McGee, hey Ms. Sparkle,” said Abby, grinning. Her lipstick was black, as was her clothing, save for a white lab coat.

She gestured to her Equestrian guest. “Pinkie and I were just having a little party.”

“A totally awesometastic party,” agreed the pony. She and Abby toasted each other with large-size cups of Caf-Pow energy drink.

McGee glanced at the balloons floating around the ceiling, wondering where they had come from. “That’s nice.”

He handed Abby the bag of samples. “These are from Petty Officer Wheeler.”

Abby nodded, taking the drinking straw from her mouth. “I’ll get right on them. Hey Pinkie, do you want to see the Mass-Spec machine in action?”

“Do I!” exclaimed the pony.

McGee and Twilight left.

“Do you ever wonder if you’re the only normal one in the office?” he asked.

“Always,” she replied.

The two of them ventured upstairs. Ziva stood outside the door to the observation area for the interrogation room.

“We brought in Petty Officer Wheeler’s last-known girlfriend,” she said. “Gibbs has her in there right now.”

McGee and Twilight entered the darkened room. Tony was already there, standing among three ponies. He did not seem terribly pleased by their company.

“What have we learned?” asked McGee, glancing through the one-way glass where Gibbs sat with a woman.

“Her name is Joyce Bach,” answered Tony. “Up until a few months ago, she was dating Wheeler. Sounded like a nasty breakup to me.”

“What do you think, Applejack?” Twilight asked an orange pony whose straight blonde mane was covered by a cowboy hat.

The other pony pushed back her hat, looking thoughtful. “Well, Ah reckon Joyce ain’t tellin’ the whole truth,” she said in an accented drawl. “Ah wouldn’t mind askin’ her some questions.”

“I’ll trust your instincts,” said Twilight. “You wouldn't be our lead interrogator if you didn't know something about honesty."

On the other side of the glass, Gibbs got up from the table and left the room.

“My turn,” said Applejack. She ambled out into the hallway.

“Four legged redneck,” muttered DiNozzo after she had gone. McGee was the only one who heard him, and gave Tony a reproachful look.

Gibbs walked into the observation room. “Joyce definitely isn’t telling everything she knows,” he said, nearly echoing Applejack’s statement.

The pony walked into the interrogation room and pushed the door shut. The woman appeared to grow slightly anxious at the sight of her.

“Special Agent Gibbs told you this is a joint investigation ‘tween NCIS and the Royal Intelligence Service,” said Applejack, her voice feeding through the intercom to the other room. “Ah hope you’ll answer a few of my questions.”

“All right…” said Joyce slowly.

“How’d you get to know Petty Officer Wheeler?” asked the pony.

“My father and uncle are both in the Navy,” explained Joyce. “I’ve been around the military a lot, and we just kind of met.”

Applejack nodded. “Why did y’all break up?”

“Bryan found someone new.” Joyce sounded more than a little bitter.

The pony approached the table, intent on asking another question. The woman recoiled slightly at her approach.

“Something wrong?” asked Applejack.

“I don’t like ponies,” answered Joyce.

Applejack’s eyes narrowed. “Why’s that, exactly?”

“Bryan left me for a unicorn.”

Behind the glass, there was a stunned silence. Tony was the first to recover.

“Well, that’s a step further than don’t-ask-don’t-tell,” he said.

Comments

[Rex Moya]

DAMN! DAT TWIST!

[djthomp]

Welp, so much for my Joyce theory!

[iloveportalz0r]

RACIST

[Fernin]

She and Abby toasted each other with large-size cups of Caf-Pow energy drink.

NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE

[supersniper178]

I'm loving the fact that ponies are just part of every day life there. It's kinda cool

[Derpfish]

570244 Pinkie pie then went in insane mode and thought everyone was candy, thus eating them all. THE OTHER END

[CaptRicoSakara]

570244

Turned Abby and Pinkie into hyperactive maniacs!

[sockeye101]

“Well, that’s a step further than don’t-ask-don’t-tell”...

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[avatoa]

Gee, ya think Dinozzo? Gibbs, if you would?
(slap to the back of Tony's head)
Thank you.

[Onyx]

Pinkie and Abby?! I couldn't have thought of a better combination Love it!

[Brony2]

so the only connection between the two teams is that Rarity is basically Ducky
and dear god, if Pinkie starts drinking Cat-Pow like Abbey does (religiously) the world as we know it shall either end, or ponies shall invade Earth
[edit 4/1/2013] 568589 we already kinda figured that out earlier in this chapter, and as always in NCIS episodes, there is never a coincidence
there are a few spelling mistakes. One in the 4th parahraph where he spell "with" with a capital I. and during the scene at abbey's lab (aka labbey) he had cat-pow spelled caf-pow

[Base-Delta-Zero]

Just age-old nit-picking, but after my run-through of every episode of NCIS, as well as JAG's episodes titled "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown" (Bellisarius' backdoor pilot to NCIS, branching it off from JAG), one thing here I noticed was this: you called it the 'Mass-Spec Machine'. Abby always calls it 'Major Mass-Spec' (which she started doing around the middle of Season 2).

Once again, sorry for nit-picking, I just am on a large NCIS high right now after about two week's worth of binging on every episode released in commemoration of Michael Weatherly's time on the show (which I wish I could have done sooner, but was unable to devote a two-week period for it.

[guradmn]

Pinkie-Pie drinking Caf-Pow.Ummmm.Can you say BOUNCE OFF THE WALLS!!!!

[Marcthelightspark2004]

8278458
BOUNCE OFF THE WALLS!