The east side of Canterlot was mostly apartments and condos for the less-financially secure citizens of the royal city. The uniform buildings, placed evenly on the streets, were appealing to the eye, placed like a parade of Guards on the street.

But one of these buildings, a handsome two-story condo with blue paint and gold trim on the windows, was marred by the highly visible yellow tape stretched across the doorway that declared "CRIME SCENE: DO NOT ENTER" in bold letters.

As Phillip, Flash and Twilight approached, a Guard exited the door. He was a unicorn with stormcloud gray fur and coal black eyes, mane and tail. He was wearing the golden armored cuirass and shoes of a Canterlot City Guard, but no helmet, exposing his short haircut. His shoulderplate had a silver bar on it, designating him as an Investigator, and three chevrons were displayed on his collar. As they approached, the Guard used his magic to take a small bag and a pipe out of his saddlebag, the items surrounded by a dark blue field. Opening the bag, he took out a pinch of tobacco and placed it in the pipe. Striking a match, he lit the pipe and began to smoke it.

"That's Sergeant Blast Cap," Flash said in a low voice. "He's my current NCO."

The sergeant looked up as they walked up, his coal black eyes judging them. "Private Sentry, what are you doing here?" he growled.

Flash audibly gulped as he approached. "Sir, I—"

"He escorted me here," Phillip cut in, stepping forward.

Blast Cap glared at him, puffing the foul-smelling smoke into his face. "The great Phillip Finder," he sneered. "Come to stick your big nose into our business again?"

Phillip sniffed, seemingly unaffected by the stinging smoke. "Black Bronco mix number 64. And no. I have interest in this case."

Blast Cap snorted, smoke rising from his nostrils. "It's a straight-up suicide. Guy hanged himself."

"Then you won't mind if I look around," Phillip said.

Blast Cap glanced at Twilight and Flash. "And what about those two?"

Flash noticed the gleam in the Guard's black eyes when he looked at Twilight. There had been some ponies that hadn't accepted Twilight's coronation, seeing it as unjust favoritism of Celestia's favorite student. It seemed that Blast Cap was one of them. He instinctively tightened up, moving half a step closer to Twilight in preparation to push her behind him to shield her from a threat.

But Twilight's eyes were drawn to the holster on Blast Cap's side. The well-polished wooden handle and large, curved trigger guard/grip of a pistol poked out of it like the head of a poisonous snake peering out from within its coils. Guns were becoming more common among the Royal Guards, especially in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire, since Tirek's return, but Twilight was still not comfortable with them. She'd learned to become wary of ponies with potentially deadly objects within their reach.

"Private Sentry is here to assist me," Phillip explained. "And as this may be a matter of Equestrian security, Princess Twilight is here to observe."

Blast Cap glared at them all for a while longer, then grunted. "Fine. Knock yourself out."

Phillip ducked beneath the crime scene tape and entered the room. Twilight followed. Flash was about to enter as well, when Blast Cap reached out and stopped him.

"Now you're feeding your theories to your girlfriend, pretty boy?" the sergeant growled into Flash's ear. Flash did not reply, having long ago learned that rising to a superior's bait never worked out well.

"Just remember your place, colt. Just cause the 'princess of friendship' gave you a couple looks for some reason doesn't make you any better than us," Blast Cap snarled, giving him a little push and returning to his smoke. Flash gave a little sigh and entered, although he kept his head bowed even after he had passed underneath the crime scene tape.

Because of this, he bumped into Twilight's flank. "Oh!" he cried, turning red with embarrassment. "Excuse me, Your Highness—"

Twilight didn't answer. She was staring in shock at the corpse hanging from a noose tied around the ceiling rafter. The pony was a male Earth pony with white fur and light yellow hair that included a full beard. His cutie mark was a train engine with a white cloud of steam billowing from the smokestack. His green eyes were wide open and glazed over, staring straight ahead blankly. Gruesomely, the dangling limbs were a purplish discoloration from gravity pulling the now stagnant blood down into the lower parts of the body.

There was another Guard in the room, a white-coated, brown-maned unicorn who was sorting out photographs taken with an instant camera. "What was his name?" Phillip asked.

"Railrider," the Guard answered. "He was the engineer for a cargo train. Neighbor realized something was wrong when he noticed that he hadn't picked up the morning paper and found him like this. Based on body temperature and lividity, I'd say that he died sometime late last night."

Phillip looked over the photographs then started looking at the body, slowly walking around it as he examined every detail, taking his loupe glasses out of his vest and putting them on his snout, adjusting the magnification. Occasionally he would lean in close to examine a minute detail.

Flash turned to Twilight, noticing that she seemed to have frozen up and was staring into the cold dead eyes. "Your Highness?" No response. "Twilight? Are you okay?" he asked again, a bit louder, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

Twilight blinked and turned to him, her mouth thin. "I've seen a lot of scary and terrible things in my life," she whispered. "But this is the first time I've seen a dead pony."

"Me too," Flash said softly. He swallowed, forcing back a wave of nausea.

You have a job to do, Private. Get to it.

Reaffirming himself in his duty as a Royal Guard Investigator, he reluctantly turned from Twilight, and stepped forward. The unicorn Guard was now using his magic to undo the noose and lower the body to the floor, laying it on its back. Flash stooped over it on the opposite side of Phillip.

Phillip reached out and felt the underside of the corpse's jaw, then examined the red marks on the neck. Flash did the same, and as he did so, his lips seemed to thin a little. "Hmmm."

"Sergeant Blast Cap found a bottle of anti-depressants in his bathroom," the unicorn Guard said as Flash looked over the photographs he'd taken. "Looks like a straight-up suicide to me."

"Why would somepony take their own life?" Twilight asked quietly, unable to comprehend the idea.

"He didn't," Phillip stated. "He was murdered."

Twilight and the unicorn both gasped in shock. "How can you be sure?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?"

Everypony turned to look at the speaker. He cringed slightly under the abrupt attention.

"Well, first of all, the marks on his neck are curved downwards slightly," Flash explained, indicating the marks with his hoof. "That wouldn't have happened if he'd hanged himself. Also, his hyoid bone is broken; that doesn't normally happen with hangings.

"Furthermore, there's this mud stain on the back of his hind leg," he added, lifting up the leg. "That mud doesn't come from this area. And finally, according to this photograph, he has a gold watch that he's obviously attached to, considering it's age, but he's not wearing it and it's not in the house. Conclusion: it's more likely that he was strangled from behind by somepony who then stole his watch and set up the scene to make it look like he hanged himself."

"Flash, are you sure about this?" the unicorn Guard asked in a low voice, glancing up at the door.

"He's right," Phillip nodded. "Now the only questions are who and why." He stepped aside from the group, turning his back on the others. "Hush, all of you. I need to think."

Flash, Twilight and the other Guard fell silent, waiting for Phillip to speak. Twilight sidled over to Flash, being careful to not look at the dead body still lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

"What about those burglaries?" she whispered into his ear. "What about them is so important?"

"Well, I realized that—" Flash began, but was interrupted by a sharp "Shh!" from Phillip, and resumed his silence. The stillness resumed for a moment, then Phillip looked up.

"Do we know what Railrider's last trip was?"

"Uh...no, sir," the unicorn Guard said, glancing over his notes.

"It'll be kept at the records at the train station," Flash suggested.

"Come on, then," Phillip said, already heading out. Twilight and Flash followed, pushing past Blast Cap outside.

"Hey!" he shouted after them, but they ignored him.

Author's Notes:

I hated having to write this chapter, because this is the first time I've written a character actually dying, and also because of the minor gore.

But it's necessary for the story ahead.