Private Eye sat in his office early that morning, the rays of the sun blocked off by the blinds on the window. Spike, ever the diligent assistant even in such dark times, had finished filing away some of the papers given to him by his temporary guardian. The detective took another sip of coffee and stood up, walked tiredly over to the window and pulled on the cord, flooding the room with warmth and light. He cringed briefly at the brightness, almost annoyed by it. It was almost insulting to him in a way, given that only about a week had gone by since the last of the Elements of Harmony, save for Twilight, had been killed and he still had to pretend to be researching the subject matter.

But there wasn't anything he could do about that. Their killer was still loose, according to what the rest of the precinct and the media believed, and there was no way they were going to consider what he knew to be anything but insane. Tell them somepony was murdering others in their dreams as a ghost and they'd lock him away in a nuthouse.

With a sigh, he sat back down at his desk right as Spike laid another small stack of papers on it. More work. It never ended. Not that he wasn't used to such things, but it was still allowed to irk him from time to time. The little dragon returned to one of the two chairs opposite Private Eye and also breathed a heavy sigh. Private Eye glanced up, finding Spike hunched over and gazing at nothing lethargically.

He frowned, knowing how hard this whole ordeal must be on the youngster. No doubt he missed Twilight and his other friends, even though the gifted unicorn was alive and likely on the way home.

As the detective reached for his pencil, the door to his office creaked open and his partner stuck his head instead.

"P.E.?"

"Morning, Gumshoe. What's going on?"

"There's...been another murder."

Private Eye and Gumshoe approached the busy house without a word said between the two. What point was there? It wasn't that long ago that they were dealing with five deaths in five days, and Private Eye had already been briefed as they left the station. Apparently a loud DJ was found in her recording studio by her roommate that morning as she was heading out to run some errands.

Barely being held back by the three security guards at the door were a dozen or so press and paparazzi, snapping their cameras and throwing a barrage of questions at the stoic stallions. A flash of the badges hanging around the detectives' necks got them past the blockade with little trouble, much to the annoyance of the reporters.

Once inside, the pair took a quick look around the living room, seeing the usual goings on in a crime scene: prints were being dusted for, window locks were being checked, information was being taken down. Private Eye parted ways with Gumshoe and curled his ear toward the sound of a distraught mare coming from the next room, which turned out to be the kitchen. He went inside, finding a gray mare sitting at the table in the dining area shaking visibly while she talked to one of his fellow officers.

Private Eye waited until there was a break in the questioning. While he did, he glanced over the terrified mare and saw the same misery on her face that he saw on Twilight's not that long ago. It didn't look like the cellist had slept a wink in a month. No doubt every once of her energy had been spent that awful morning.

"Miss Octavia, is it?" Private Eye said between statements.

"Y-Yes, that's me."

"My name's Private Eye." He leaned over to the policepony beside him that was speaking with Octavia. "Can you give me a moment alone with her, please?"

"Sure thing."

Once the room was clear, he sat beside her and continued, "I heard about what happened on the way over here. I'm very sorry. I know you might have already told my friend about what happened this morning. Can you tell me?"

"Um...well, I got up and made some breakfast for us. I wanted to get some grocery shopping done before heading to practice. I'm trying to land a part in the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra. I-I went to Vinyl's room to see if she wanted anything to eat, if she could even get up. Sh-She likes...liked to work on her music late into the night sometimes. When I didn't find her in bed, I thought I'd check to see if she fell asleep in her studio. She's done so before. When I hoped the door, I...she..."

As much as she wanted to finish, she simply couldn't. Remembering the gruesome scene she stumbled upon reopened the floodgates. Her tear-stained cheeks became wet once again, and she collapsed onto the table, sobbing.

"I-I know she was a handful sometimes, and...and she could annoy the neighbors with her late nights, but wh-who would do this?!"

The detective lifted a curious eyebrow. Late nights?

"Vinyl was up late last night?" he asked.

Sitting back up, she nodded, not even bothering to wipe her tears away. "Yes, a few of the neighbors were banging on the door. It was...it was at about half past three when I told her to keep it down. Why?"

His eyes narrowed and the wheels inside his head started to crank. "Tell me, did Vinyl happen to know any of the Elements of Harmony by any chance?"

"The Elements? Um...I think she was a little chummy with...oh, what was her name? She was always very lively and full of good cheer. I didn't know her terribly well myself, but–"

"Pinkie Pie?" Private Eye suggested.

"Yes, that's her! They would hang out from time to time. I...I heard about what happened to them not long ago. It was all over the papers. Why did you want to know? What do they have to do with this?"

Sneering, he looked away, still trying to determine if what he was starting to fear was true. But he still needed to give Octavia an answer. Spike did mention the other night that Pinkie told him her attacks were going to be unpredictable. So, what could she want with Vinyl Scratch if they were friends? Then again, she was friends with Twilight and the others and look what she did.

He answered her question, choosing his words carefully. "I haven't seen the body just yet, and we won't know the cause of death until later. But I'm...starting to wonder if the same pony who murdered Pinkie's friends may have had a hoof in this too. The Elements, save for Pinkie, were killed late at night like Vinyl was."

"Do you know who did this?" Octavia asked, anger and rage sneaking into her voice.

"We have a few suspects. I can't really name names just yet. Whoever it is has been covering their tracks pretty well so far, but they'll slip up. They always do."

It wasn't what she wanted to hear. All it would have taken was a hint or two as to the identity of the killer and she would have probably stormed out of the house right then and there, taking matters into her own hooves. But deep down, she knew it would make her no better than them.

She hung her head and sniffled, a million things racing through her head at once. Sorrow. Fury. Confusion. Hatred. But mostly, Octavia felt numb. As nuts as Vinyl made her sometimes, she was still her friend.

"Listen," Private Eye spoke up, "do you have anyplace you can go for a few days? Friends, relatives?"

"Yes, I–"

"Shh! Don't say," he quickly hushed. "Just go. Don't want them to get their hooves on you too. I have an assistant at the station who can help me get in touch with you when we've straightened this all out."

"Alright. Once you're done here, I'll grab a few things and head out. Thank you."

Private Eye stood and rested a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "We'll get them. I promise."

He turned and headed out of the room, wanting to see the body at the scene. A small sigh escaped his lips. He hoped he was doing the right thing by sending Octavia away. Pinkie did say she wanted Twilight in Ponyville immediately. Did that mean she would only attack ponies in town, provided that she was the cause here too?

The detective stood on one side of the body of the popular DJ, laid out on the examining table at the city morgue. Across from him was an off-yellow unicorn, the medical examiner that Private eye had asked to look over the corpse the moment it was moved in.

"So, what all were you able to figure out?" Private Eye asked.

"Well, not as much as I had hoped, given that you wanted me to do this autopsy as fast as possible. You do realize it takes more than just a single day to determine cause of death and all that, right?" the doctor said as he pulled the sheet down with his magic, revealing Vinyl Scratch's frozen, dead face.

"I know, I know. I do appreciate it though."

"May I ask why you needed to know so quickly?"

The detective wanted to grit his teeth everytime somepony wanted information regarding the killings. Having to keep up the lie was beginning to bother him. As much as he wanted to be a bit more honest, he also liked having a job and living with his wife.

"Trying to determine if Vinyl's death here could be connected to a recent string of murders. The killer seems to work at night, particular when the victims should be asleep. I thought they may have skipped town, but this may show otherwise and I want to try and prevent another death if possible. Plus, my assistant, um...received an anonymous note from somepony, threatening to come home, so to speak. I was hoping it was only a sick joke."

"Fair enough." Hovering a scalpel up to one of the body's ears, the examiner scraped delicately at the dried blood and continued. "As far as time of death goes, I'd place it between four and four-fifteen in the morning."

"Well, there's strike one," the detective said with a grimace. "Her roommate did say she last saw her at about three-thirty."

"I haven't been able just yet to determine cause of death – haven't opened her up yet – but I did happen to spot something interesting." Once the doctor had gathered what he needed on the instrument, he levitated it up to Private Eye for a closer look. "Take a look at that."

Private Eye had seen more than his fair share of blood in his time. It came with the job after all. But the spot of caked maroon fluid he expected to see in actuality made him cock his head. A tiny bit of greyish-brown sat alongside it.

"What is that?"

Setting the surgical piece back on its tray, the examiner said, "Can't be completely sure until I do a more thorough investigation, but based on what I know, I'd say that was grey matter."

"You mean it's her brain?"

"I believe so. It almost looks like it was somehow liquified and began to leak out of the cavities in her skull."

"Gruesome death, strike two," the detective muttered, pursing his lips.

"Where was the body found? There's not much that can do this to a pony brain." the examiner asked as he covered Vinyl back up.

"She has an in-home recording studio. Her roommate claims that she found the body with her headset on."

The unicorn rubbed his chin, thinking hard. "Interesting. I do know that high decibel levels and intense sound vibrations can do damage to a pony's eardrums and affect their hearing. I think everypony with a teenager at home knows that much. It's possible that she had her music playing too loudly in her headset and this was all an accident, but I can't imagine that she wouldn't have taken them off if it got to be too much, even for her."

"There's no way. When I was in college, I lived in a small apartment with a roommate that slept two rooms away, and he woke me up more than once because he'd decide to play his rock music way too loud at all hours. Can't deny those were more fun times though," he said with a chuckle.

"Well, something or somepony prevented her from removing them and her mind was literally blown."

Private Eye stared solemnly at the covered body on the table for a moment before contorting his face in anger. "Thanks, doc." He turned to leave and said under his breath, "Strike three."

The door to Private Eye's office swung open with a loud creak, waking the napping baby dragon inside. Spike was startled away completely as the detective closed the door a little harder than he wanted, his frustration slowly reaching a boiling point.

"Hey. What happened? Who was it?" Spike said, rubbing his eyes.

The earth pony sat down hard in his chair, pulled his badge from around his neck and slammed it on the desk. He shook his head and growled through his teeth.

"Here we go again. Dammit!"

Spike cringed at the outburst, seeing something in the policepony's eyes that he hadn't really seen up until this point: a subtle hint of panic. Granted, he still had no idea how to combat Pinkie, but seeing her attacking other places in the papers gave him a moment to breathe. Perhaps he would have been able to figure something out on his own or simply wait for Celestia and Twilight to return from their journey. Now, it was falling back onto his shoulders all over again.

"Private Eye?"

Sighing, he replied, "Sorry kid. Was Vinyl Scratch. Local DJ."

"Vinyl?!"

"You knew her?"

"Sort of," the downtrodden dragon said. "If it wasn't Pinkie throwing the best parties, it'd be Vinyl. She was DJ'ing Twilight's brother's wedding up in Canterlot not too long ago when the changelings invaded. She was...pretty cool."

"I remember that. Did Pinkie know her? I know she told you that she wasn't going to be holding back now. Any particular reason she'd select Vinyl?"

"Yeah, Pinkie knew her. Whenever she threw a really big party, she'd ask Vinyl to come play some music for her. She never said no." With a shrug, he continued, "I-I really don't know why she'd...you know."

"Unless she really, truly doesn't care at all anymore. Going after ponies she has no reason to..."

"Should I write to Celestia?" the baby dragon asked.

"No real reason to. We're not going to tell her anything she's not really expecting," Private Eye grunted.

A moment of uncomfortable silence passed. Spike finally broke it.

"So...what do we do?"

The detective stared and stared at the desk, unable to come up with an answer.