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Beaten Old Hat (part one)

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There was a crispness to the air that comes with the advent of the Running of the Leaves and seemed like deeper breaths were in order just to savour it all. Perched on the cliffs that overlooked Neighagara Falls, Sagittarius Lockstep, "Terry" to his friends, was not using those breaths to cheer the aerial display going on like the rest of the crowd, but to shout at his wife.

"I don't care how much you think it's worth, we're not buying it! You already have one!"

"I've told you, you bought it the wrong colour; it matches nothing I have and I am buying a new one!" Hollyhock Dancer's horn glowed and she raised her wine glass to her lips, wishing she could do something to stop him talking instead.

"It's nearly a month's salary!" he howled.

"Mine. My salary. Which is higher than yours," she spat.

Thirty feet away, over the gorge, Sunny Racer was trying to concentrate on her routine. Cheers and swooning she could deal with. But the nonstop staccato of the bickering unicorns was drawing her attention away. She glanced back and realized the rest of the team had things covered, and though it was the height of unprofessionalism, she could stand it no more and with a mighty flap of her wings, she brought herself to the stone and mortar wall that separated the groundlings from the ground, so far below.

"Excuse me," she sneered at the unicorns, who immediately broke from their spat to regard her with incredulity. "Some ponies are trying to watch the show." Indeed they were. The "show" was now her. Even her teammates had stopped in confusion, ruining the act.

But rather than quiet down, the unicorns united in venting their anger at her. The three ponies exchanged ever-heightening expressions of offense, quickly becoming the entertainment for the crowd. Finally Sunny realized she was making fools of the team, and she was about to toss one last well-crafted insult and resume the act when she noticed the necklace broaches worn by the two dozen unicorns or so all gathered together before her: the cutie mark of the legendary Starminder... chosen symbol of the Trueblooded League.

"You!" she sputtered. "You're that bunch of bigots!"

"Get back to work, clown," Holly sneered.

"I wouldn't pee on you from the clouds, much less perform for the likes of you!"

"Then buzz off, horsefly," Terry shouted.

Sunny's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "What did you call me?"

"Horsefly! Are you deaf as well as stupid?"

Sunny saw red. She flicked herself around and aimed a kick at Terry's head. Terry winced and jerked his head away, horn glowing.

The whole crowd heard the sickening snap and witnessed the spray of blood and the jutting of bone from the humerus of Sunny's right wing. Feathers exploded and she screamed in agony, her wings fluttering uselessly now. And Sunny Racer, pegasus, fell from the sky, down to the hungering rocks and spray below.




"Claims he's innocent."

"'Course he does. So would Discord, but who'd believe him either?"

Such was the bullpen banter as Northstar Trueguide plodded into the detectives' squad room.

"Hey, North," called Firefly Brightflash. "I see you changed your soup stains."

"Yeah, just for you, Flash," the Appaloosa stallion said. The jokes about his spots were older than he was. And that was saying something.

"Cap's been asking for you," Braverly advised.

"He said there was no hurry."

"You should know by now, they never mean it."

"Then they shouldn't say it." He was wandering past them when Flash slapped him on the flank.

"Equecide!" he whistled. "Not many of those in Equestria. Probably not one dick in ten gets that on his blotter, and here you go, not just with a case, but with it presented to you all tied up with bow like a present! You lucky hay-shagger."

"What do you mean?"

"The Sunny Racer case. They're giving it to you. Signed, sealed, and delivered."

"Yeah? Why me?"

Braverly threw a look at Flash. "Because if they give it to anypony with a brainbone or pony feathers, there's going to be hell to pay. Geez, pick up the Equestria Daily and read it once in a while."

"I see. You don't suppose it's because I'm good at my job, or anything, do you?"

The unicorn and pegasus chuckled. "Yeah, North, whatever you say."

The earth pony nodded, and completed his journey across the room and into the Captain's office.

Captain Redfire looked up from his desk and glared. His horn glowed and he shook the magic pager that had been sitting on his desk at North. "I paged you almost an hour ago."

"You said there was no hurry."

"North, you've been a cop long enough to know it's always a hurry."

"All you have to do is say so."

"Look, fine, we just want to get this summed up. You know the basics, I assume?"

North mulled over the details, practically chewing them in his mouth. "Well, from what I understand, and you'll correct me if and where I'm wrong, now... one Sagittarius Lockstep, unicorn, 32, is being charged with the second degree murder of Sunny Racer, pegasus, 24, yesterday afternoon at approximately 4 p.m. at Neighagara Falls, in the performance of her act as one of The Sky Riders."

"First rate talent of a third rate crew," Redfire said. "Something of an up-and-coming, till she went down-and-out. Statements from her teammates suggest she was on the verge of a breakthrough... in negotiations with The Cloudbusters."

"A second rate crew," North said.

"Precisely. So, clash of egos, fight ensues, gets physical. Racer throws the first kick, Lockstep reaches out with his mind and snaps her wing, three hundred feet above the gorge. Open and shut."

"But he says he's innocent."

"Yeah, he claims he didn't do it. Imagine that."

"What does he claim?"

"Some malarkey about just wanting to shield himself from her kicks."

"You don't buy it, Cap?"

"Does it sound like I do? I ain't the only one. The Crown Attorney rejected his lawyer's claim that it was justified self-defence."

"Well, no, it wouldn't be. Not if all he had to do was duck—"

"Which he did."

"—In which case, breaking her wing in midair is an equecidal act."

"Yes, which is why he's being charged with second degree murder. Though the reality of it is it'll probably be pleaded down to horseslaughter." The Captain stared at a photo and sighed. "Nice looking girl," he said, flipping the photo over to show North. A pretty, fiery-looking pegasus smiled out of the publicity still, surrounded by what North assumed were her family: a rugged, handsome-looking pegasus stallion and their two tiny foals. "Mother of two. Promising career. Thrown onto the rocks."

North nodded.

"Worst of all, to have to die in that silly costume," the Captain remarked.

North closed his eyes, biting something back.

Redfire closed the folder and shoved it across the desk at North. "Well, you know the drill. Take a few statements. Sign off. Have it on my desk by the end of shift."

"Sorry, what?"

"Wrap it up. It should be simple, even for an old duffer like you."

"Captain, this isn't somepony stealing an apple cart or crapping teeth 'cause he climbed on somepony else's wife. This is a murder."

"I know what it is. I assigned it to you, remember? But there were fifty witnesses or so and they all say the same thing, except for the killer. I'd call that pretty conclusive."

"Well, you won't mind if I just ask a few of them exactly what it is they remember, will you?"

The Captain looked like he had something unpleasant in his mouth that he had to decide whether to swallow or spit out. He chose to spit it out. "North... I didn't really want you on this case, okay? This came from the Chief. He wanted you on the case. And do you know why?"

"Because for some reason, all the other detectives in the precinct are unicorns, or a few pegasi, and in this case, an earth pony is called for... and there just don't seem to be all that many of us who aren't trotting a beat. Could that be why?"

"Don't let it go to your head, North."

"Captain... either give me my reins, or give it to somepony else."

Redfire glared at him. "Fine. Take your time. Have a nice paid vacation, North. I guess you're due. But let me know when you're done so you can get back to work, okay?"

"Yeah, fine." North glanced at the apple on the edge of Redfire's desk. "You gonna eat that?"

Redfire pointed to the door.




Terry Lockstep shivered in his cell. He was alone. Murderers were uncommon in Equestria and even hard cases didn't like to be around them. "Please, let me out," he begged North. "I won't run. I won't try to leave town. I just have to get out! Please!"

"Calm down," North said. "You won't be in here that long." It was a lie, but a necessary one.

"How long?"

"Couple of days, till we get this sorted out."

"Oh, Celestia... days? It feels like weeks already!"

"I'm Detective Sergeant Northstar Trueguide. I need to ask you about what happened."

"I've already told it ten times!"

"Tell it to me. I'm the investigator assigned to the case. This one matters."

"I didn't kill that mare!"

"That pegasus?"

"Yes."

"Horsefly...?"

Terry winced and his eyes were pleading. "I didn't mean that. I was angry with her."

"Angry with a pegasus... and you a member of the Truebloods. You are, aren't you?"

"It's good for business..."

"Yeah, I'll bet. I have to tell you, Sagittarius, from where I sit, it looks like you're standing neck-deep in a barrel of fertilizer here. If you can't sell it to me, how are you going to sell it in court?"

"I'm telling the truth. You've got to believe me!"

"No, I don't. And neither does the jury. Because all the evidence says you did it."

"I wasn't attacking her! I was trying to put a field between her and me, so if she kicked again, it wouldn't hit me."

"Then why did her wing break?"

"I don't know!"

"Why did a young wife and mother fall three hundred feet to smash on the rocks?"

"I don't know!!"

"Well, that's it then. Get used to these bars. You might want to start picking out names for them, because they're going to get very familiar over the next twenty to fifty years."

Terry sobbed. "I didn't kill her! I don't know how to break a wing!"

North's face darkened. "What's that?"

"I don't know how to break her wing! I don't know how, I don't know how..."

"Don't know how? What does that mean?"

Lockstep's face was buried in his hooves; he was lost in his despair. North left him to it. His mind was elsewhere, and his body needed to catch up with it.




Precious Creamcoat was the desk sergeant, and she was even older than North. She was a unicorn, but she didn't play the game, so... Precious Creamcoat was the desk sergeant.

North peered around the corner. "Percy?"

She looked up. "North?"

"You alone?"

She smiled. "Can't it wait till after shift?"

He smiled back. "It's a date. But I have something else in mind."

"Oh, well if it's that new mare public defender, I can't help you."

"You can't?"

"Won't."

"I want to ask you a question."

"Okay."

"A unicorn question."

"Okay."

"Is that okay?"

"North... I like you, but you're about to take a kick that'll postpone our date."

"Can you break that cup?"

"What?"

"Can you use your magic to break that cup?"

"My coffee cup?"

"Yes."

"My father gave me this when I made corporal."

"Alright... how would you use your magic to break it?"

"I'm not going to break it."

"Percy, dear, my kick probably wouldn't be quite as effective, but—"

"Alright. And don't call me 'dear' unless we're in the broom closet." She looked at the cup. She sighed, her horn glowed, and she raised it into the air. A little cold coffee slopped over the side. "I supposed I'd just wind it up, and throw it against the wall."

"Why not just pull it apart?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, instead of throwing it, why not crush it, or break it apart?"

"I... well, I don't know. It just doesn't occur to me. But don't ask me to try. I'm serious, North."

North looked around. "The newspaper," he said.

"Alright," Percy said. She set the cup down and lifted the newspaper into the air.

"Now rip it up."

She looked at him, then at the paper. She seemed confused. She concentrated. The paper shook, but nothing happened. "I, uh..." she started, "...I guess I can't. I never really thought about it before."

"You can't do it?"

"Is this going someplace?"

"Why can't you rip it up? Think hard."

She looked at it. "It's... I was holding it. How can I rip it if I'm holding it?"

"Do you think it's like that for all unicorns?"

"I never thought about it. I guess so. When I want something, I think about it, and it just rises into the air. But it's like holding it. Holding it in your hoof, say."

"Just one hoof. Right?"

It was like the light came on. She beamed. "Yes! Exactly."

"Ever seen a unicorn mother grab her foal? You can see the glow around the part she's thinking of, but it's the whole foal she gets, not the just the part."

"Right, yes."

"You don't see her ripping off an ear, or pulling a leg out at the shoulder."

"Oh, North, you—"

"Or a wing broken in two...?"

"Oh, I see."

North smiled at her.

"So he really could be innocent?"

"Maybe. Or at least, he had a partner. Thanks, Percy." He gave her a quick salute, and turned to go.

"Glad to be of service. Oh, and, North?"

"Yup?"

"Speaking of partners? I don't want to do it here in the broom closet."

"Then we'll do it in the broom closet at your place."

"Okay."




It was not a pleasant chore, going to the morgue to view what had once been Sunny Racer. North considered himself calloused over, but seeing the broken body of the young mother, even with her head covered by a sheet, was affecting. In quick succession he was horrified, then deeply saddened, and then angered. It wasn't as though she had simply made a mistake in flight, had a quick, sudden accident, and it was over. She had taken a long, terrifying drop, and it was because somepony had deliberately chosen that for her.

The coroner, displaying no more emotion than an old historian, guided North around the map of injuries that had once been the vibrant, soaring pegasus. His horn glowed as he levitated a pointer around her like retelling the events of a great battle on the sad, still relief map of her body. "Initial injury was here. Flexion break of the right aerial humerus. In itself, it wouldn't have been fatal, but at the very least, it would have been a career-ending injury. Set properly, she would have flown again, but not professionally. That appears to have been her only injury until she struck the rocks in the gorge. She landed on her back on the right side, breaking her hip, fracturing her spine in several places, shattering her right femur, and pushing seven of her ribs into various organs. Even if it had ended there, that would have killed her. She'd have bled to death long before help could have reached her."

North sighed, watching the pointer skate over the sad geography of murder.

"A split second later, her right shoulder struck the ground. Similar injuries. Broken collar bone, shattered humerus. Her neck broke during the whiplash event that followed. Some of the injuries are compounded... she bounced and hit the ground a second time... but they're just adverbs modifying the big verbs of her first hit. As to that, what actually killed her, instantly, was when her head struck the rocks. I can lift the sheet if you require to see those injuries, but if you don't—"

"I don't. Thank you for your consideration."

"It's not like I haven't done this before."

"So her actual death was a pretty standard result of hitting the ground after a fall from a great height."

The coroner nodded.

"But the injury that started it all?"

"That's the mystery. I've seen injuries like that as a result of bad mid-air collisions between pegasi or with stationary objects, but not just spontaneously. Her bone was strong and healthy. It wasn't diseased or previously injured."

"The word is, it was unicorn magic."

"Oh, really?"

"Supposedly."

"I've never heard of anything like that. But we don't get many equecides."

North stared sullenly at the ugly, shattered wing. "Are you saying it's impossible?"

"Nothing's impossible, North. Just varying degrees of unlikely. But this is an extremely unlikely injury, and if that's the explanation, it's better than anything I could come up with."

"Could you make me a copy of your report?"

"No trouble. You're finished, then?"

"I've seen more than I wanted to already."

The coroner pushed the slab into the wall, returning Sunny Racer to the darkness.




Back in the squad room, the new shift was in. Copperside Grapevine didn't look up from his desk when he said, "Somepony to see you, North. The husband. He just got in on the train a couple hours ago."

"Where is he?"

"Deposition Room C. Precinct psyche's with him."

When North got to the deposition room, the stallion was alone. When he looked up at North, the pony had the air of somepony who'd had his soul ripped out and badly stitched back on. "Who are you?"

"I'm Detective Sergeant Northstar Trueguide. I'm the detective assigned to investigate your wife's death."

The pale grey was as striking as the photo had suggested. He was a strong, good-looking young stallion. The effects of the stress had him molting on the floor. Even as North watched, a small, downy feather slipped off and pirouetted down to join several others, as though decorating the boring precinct tiles.

"It was Cloud Featherbright. I'm sure of it. It wasn't a bonehead. Cloud killed Sunny."

North knew the name. Cloud Featherbright was the leader of The Sky Riders and owner of the organization. He was Sunny's boss, in other words. North shut the door and sat down with the pony. "Okay. Tell me about it. First, start with your name."

"Oh... I'm sorry. Thought they told you, or something... I'm Ash Pinebreeze. Sunny's... Sunny was my wife." Ash lost his composure and began to cry when he mentioned her.

"I'm really, truly sorry for what happened to her."

"They made me look at her," Ash said. "To identify her. That was cruel. Cruel of them. Why did they do that? She was Sunny Racer. She was famous. They knew who she was. Why did they make me? Oh, Luna's horn, why did they make me see her like that?"

"I'm sorry. They had to. It's a standard legal procedure. It's always hard, but the law requires we be sure." He gave Ash a chance to gather himself and moved on. "Tell me why you suspect Cloud."

"They were having an affair."

"Cloud and Sunny?"

Ash nodded. "I found out four months ago. Sunny didn't love him. Cloud... he demanded it of her. Her and any other mare who wants to stay in the act. He's a monster. That's why she was working so hard to get into The Cloudbusters. She was good enough, and she needed to get away from him. He couldn't handle it. And yesterday he saw his chance to strike back at her and he did."

"How, exactly?"

"Somepony broke her wing. Right?"

North nodded.

"It wasn't that unicorn. That was just the distraction. I wouldn't put it past Cloud to have set that up. Then he used one of his signature moves. Windswept Thunder."

"Can you explain what that is to me?"

"Cloud has a few signature moves he's honed for years. Windswept Thunder is a sharp sudden downbeat of his wings. He's learned to make it directional, and he can splinter a two-by-four with it." Ash gritted his teeth and fought back his tears without much success. "And yesterday when they were looking at her and not at him, he used it to break her beautiful wing..."

North worked it over in his mind. It was a plausible explanation that nicely filled the gap left by the seeming impossibility that Sagittarius Lockstep had done it. Jealousy among performers and lovers? That certainly fit with the picture. But North eyed Ash coolly from behind the mask of concern and compassion. A jilted husband using the death of his wife to get back at her lover also fit the picture. In any case, Ash hadn't been there, so he could only be guessing. But was it a good guess, or just spiteful wishful thinking? Well, finding that out was what they paid North to do.

"We have two little foals," Ash said through the tears. "They think Mommy's at Grandma's house." He looked at North. "What am I going to tell them, Sergeant? Oh, Celestia... what do I tell them?"




Half an hour later he had his snout in an ale. He needed one. Or three. Or four. The bartender told him he'd open the beer taps and run him a bath if that would help. North almost took him up on it.

"Excuse me. Are you Northstar Trueguide?"

North lifted his foamy muzzle out of the brew and looked up into the face of a well-groomed young unicorn mare about half his age. "I am."

"I'm an associate of Ivory Snowdrift, Chairpony of the Trueblooded League," the youngster said. North caught sight of the Starminder pin on the smart blue vest she wore. Ivory Snowdrift was a name North knew, vaguely; rich unicorn mare, skilled artisan and entrepreneur, social mavin. Her representative continued. "She was in attendance at yesterday's tragedy, and she has information she thinks will help your investigation, and she'd like to speak with you at your convenience. She can be contacted at either her shop or her home address," the unicorn said, floating a business card to North. "She's at home today, so perhaps when you're... finished here," the mare said, eyeing the beer with disdain, "feel free to call on her if she can provide you any assistance whatsoever."

"Well, thank you," North said. "I'll do that. Would three o'clock be okay?"

"I'll let Ivory Snowdrift know to expect you. Good day, officer."

"Good day to you, too, uh...?" North said, waiting for the pony to give her name. She didn't.

North stewed over it as he drank. Why the urge to speak to a cop? The usual course of things was for him to have to track down witnesses and practically twist a leg behind their back in the form of subtle guilt-tripping to get anything out of them at all. But now somepony had a story to tell. Why? What was the angle? Maybe simply an upstanding citizen who wanted to do what she could to help out. Maybe. But he doubted it.

Suddenly there was a commotion in the corner. Shouting. Something sliding heavily across a table and crashing on the floor. By the time North was getting to his hooves it was already a fight. Blood. He recoiled like any equine from the sight and smell of it, but it was his job to brave it. "Break it up! Break it up!" He threw his weight between the combatants. Three unicorns. One was the one who'd just issued him the polite, if cold, summons. She had a small nick in her shoulder. Another was urging her away, eyeing North frostily. The third was a small young mare with a blue mane. She'd taken a kick in the face and her nose was bleeding.

"Who started it?"

"She did!" the blue-maned mare shouted.

"She deserved it," the unicorn he'd been speaking to hissed. "She said something vile."

"Do you want to press charges?" North asked the sky-mane.

"No! I just want her to go! Her and her crew."

North turned to the other two. "Leave. Now."

Nursing the horn-nick to her shoulder, the other turned away. Her horn glowed and she rained bits disdainfully down on the bar across the room. She and her confederate left.

"Are you going to be okay?" North asked the bleeding mare. Her own horn glowed as she held napkins to her snout. The bartender came with a clean towel and instructed her to tilt her head back.

"I'll be fine," she said. "No teeth broken. She just sucker-kicked me."

"It's none of my business now that it's over, but she was just talking to me. I'm curious what your argument was about."

"Oh... they wanted my endorsement."

"May I ask for what?"

"This twisted little bigot burg they have in mind to build. Mystic Acres. Heard of it?"

"I have. They're connected with that?"

"They're Truebloods. It's their big idea of some unicorn paradise."

"Ah. But not yours."

"Ponyville, my hometown, is all the paradise I need."

"So you said no."

"I told them where they could go stick their horns."

North fought unsuccessfully to keep the smile off his snout. "Good for you," he said quietly.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "You're a cop," she finally said.

He nodded.

Now it was her turn to be curious. "What did they want to see you about? You're not a unicorn."

"On the matter of a recent death."

"Sunny?" she said, sitting up. "Was it about Sunny?"

"You know her? ...Knew her?"

"A little. I hung with her a few times. Every so often I coordinate the music for Sky Riders shows."

"Wait... yeah, I recognize you now. Um... DJ Pon-3."

"It's just Vinyl Scratch when I'm offstage," she smiled, and they tapped hooves in introduction.

"So they wanted you on board for Mystic Acres, is that right?"

"No, they couldn't care less about me. All they want is the name. My stage name to stick on fliers and white papers and press releases. They've been giving me the eye the last couple of days. A bunch of them were there at the falls, when... when Sunny died."

"I don't suppose you know how to break things with your horn," North said.

Scratch eyed him strangely. "Maybe poke holes in them," she said.

He chuckled. Then he said, "Somepony broke Sunny's right wing in midair. There wasn't anypony near her, and she was healthy."

"You think... it was... one of us...?"

He nodded softly.

"Murder?" she asked, pain and horror growing in her pretty eyes.

"It looks that way. I'm open to other possibilities, of course, but that's kind of where things are pointing."

"But why a unicorn? The ponies who knew her best are other pegasi. I don't want to talk out of turn, but they're probably the only ones there who'd have known her well enough to want to... to have that kind of a grudge. But I don't know anypony who did, anyway. And for sure, not any unicorns."

"There's a problem with the unicorn theory anyway. None of the unicorns I've spoken to can break things with their telekinesis. Move things, yes. But not break them."

Scratch looked puzzled for a moment. Her horn glowed, and a bloodied napkin rose into the air. She concentrated on it, and it flipped around, spun, and fluttered, but no matter what she did, it didn't rip. "Well, what do you know," she said. "I guess it just never even occurred to me to even try before."

North nodded. "So that's where I am right now. There was nothing wrong with her bones, no pegasus collided with her or was even near her when it happened, and unicorns don't have the power to do it. As far as I can see, there's no way she could have suffered a broken wing and fallen out of the sky. But the thing is, she did. I had to go look at her in the morgue. Somepony's responsible for that." He let that hang in the air.

"I wish I could help you," she said, finally.

"You may have already."

"What... really?"

"Possibly. Solving a crime's a little like sculpting. Except you're not always sure what's sculpture and what's going to end up a chip on the floor till you're done."

"Well, if I've been any help, I'm glad," said Scratch. "I liked her. I want whoever did it to pay."

"So do I," North said. He rose to go. "Thanks for opening up."

"No problem. Hey—what's your name?"

"Northstar Trueguide."

"Good luck, Northstar. Keep on rockin' in the everfree world."

North plunked some bits on the bar and swallowed his drink. He looked at the time. Lots of time for a few more drinks but he had a job to do and an appointment to keep. An important one. So he left the bar and wandered. The flurry of activity swarming around the poor dead mare was affecting him now. Her death was becoming increasingly personal to him, and finally, in his sadness and frustration, he found himself back at the morgue.

The coroner was surprised to see him. "North? You're back?"

He swallowed the urge to make a smart reply and just said, "Can I see Sunny Racer again?"

"Yeah... sure... think you missed something?"

"I'm not sure."

Their hooves clopped unaccompanied by any other sound, echoing mournfully. The coroner produced the body of Sunny Racer again, bringing her once more back into the light.

"She was beautiful," North said. He could see that even through all the hideous injuries and distortions.

"Hey, North, are you okay?"

"No. I need to get angry. Then I'll be okay."

"Aren't you guys supposed to keep emotion out of it? Think clearly?"

"The squad's full of ponies who don't give a fig and are thinking clearly, and they're ready to lock up the first name on the list. I need some fuel for the fire," North said. "I need to be just a little bit passionate about this. After all, she's dead."

The coroner nodded. "I noticed."

"How long did she fall?" North said.

The coroner made a face. "Oh, geez... uh, about 300 feet, maybe a little more... that's... four or five seconds. Mind you, she was a pegasus, not a stone, so she likely fought hard against it, so... another two or three seconds. Seven or eight."

"Long time when you're falling, I bet," North said.

"The rest of your life," the coroner said. North looked at him. There wasn't a trace of humour or irony on the pony's face.

"I wonder what she was thinking about. Just the panic? Or the ones she cared about she'd never see again? The things in her life she'd never put right?"

"Good-byes," the coroner said. "Oh, you're bad for me, North. Not supposed to get into moods like this in this job."

North leaned in and took the edge of the sheet covering Sunny's face in his teeth.

"North..." the coroner warned. North ignored him, and pulled it back just enough to bare Sunny's snout. Her lips were bruised, and they were parted, like those of a little filly who doesn't understand something she's just seen. Maybe that was the last thing she was thinking about when she struck the ground. Why?

Why?

North blinked back the tears, and he put the cover back over that silent question. Mother. Lover. Dancer in the sky. He swallowed the sorrow he felt and squeezed it down into something else, something angry and powerful. Cunning. Unequine and predatory. He set his jaw and hardened his brow.

"Now I'm okay," he said, and sauntered away, leaving the coroner to ease her back out of the world of the living and into the darkness one last time.
Neighagara Falls Detective Sgt. Northstar Trueguide is faced with solving the very public murder of pegasus performer Sunny Racer, an "open-and-shut" case he feels is a little too neat and tidy.

Part two: [link]
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Argofinkal's avatar
Neat, I like police stories.

I also like it when the protagonist uses his or her head when the others just want the easy way out.