Elusive: A Detective Story
by Alesiopdv
Chapters
Chapter 1
Elusive: A detective story
Outside, the rain was falling hard and uncaring, following the royal schedule, all the ponies in the kingdom locked behind doors, aware from days ago that this day they were not allowed to go outside. As usual, every pegasi foal and colt was sad and blue but even some adult ones couldn't help but sigh, the joy of flight denied to them, just for this afternoon.
The doctor scribbled some more notes and looked at his patient, the pegasus colt wings flat at his sides, one of them still marked with the claws of the enemy side. Since the cyan pony wouldn't, the doctor had to take the first word.
“Rainbow Blitz, you have been quiet the entire session.”
Silence.
“We need to talk for the healing process to begin. Now, tell me about your week.”
“You know very well how my week was.” He turned over, his rainbow mane had grown to cover the upper side of his face, he let it grow wild and disheveled, a clear sign of the distress he was enduring. “My best friend just died and I couldn't save him.”
“Please Rainbow Blitz, you need to talk about it.”
Rainbow Blitz sighed and sit straight on the chair on a pose a unicorn friend of his back in the military, used to take.
“Well, I suppose the story began when we solved the case of the Marzipan Cake...”
*********
All the ponyrazzi were desperate that day to get a picture of us. Well, a picture of Elusive. He was the main star, the Great Detective whereas I was merely the companion when not just outright the “partner”. We stood there, in front of the Canterlot Express trying our best to smile while chef LeGrande repeated for the fifteenth time the story of how we captured the culprit. Of course, he made himself sound like the hero, very politely skipping the aprt where he hide behind a table while we fought against the ninja mule.
A strange weekend indeed.
“...and that's how I, Gustave LeGrande, save the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue cake!”
“Pompous arrogant feathered head, I should have left him fall off the train!” Elusive complained at his back.
“He would have just fly back up.” I gently remind him.
“Still, I can't believe a perfectly fine weekend in Canterlot got ruined!”
“Donpt be so upset. You solved another case, I said that's a green check on my book.”
“Oh yes, I figured who took a bite of a cake! Surely they would give me a medal for that!”
And of course, the Royal Captain was there to handle a big shiny medal.
“Oh my heavens!”
“Shut up, smile and take the medal. And put on the bowtie, the press loves it.”
“I certainly won't put on that ridiculous thing!”
“Put. On. The. Bowtie.” I said, pushing the jewel encrusted present Spines, our dragon assitant made for him almost a year ago, on his neck.
Elusive put on his biggest and most rehearsed smile for the cameras.
Little did we know, that while we were busy being regarded as heroes, another pony was making to himself a name as a villain.
I still don't know how he snuck inside the Royal Castle, bypassing magic barriers and fooling pegasi squads; but I have stopped trying to find an explanation for the things he does a long time ago. Being in the brink of death several times makes you accept the craziest things in life. And there was no better definition of craziness as that bouncing, grinning pink pony. The evil mastermind that hide behind silly baking songs and party decorations loaded artillery.
He made his way up to the chambers of the Sun bringers, laid in top of Princess Celestia bed and waited for her to come in. I can only imagine her reaction. Her jaw must have dropped to the ground upon seeing, there laying over the blankets, covered on frost cake; the slim figure of Berriswainer DaVinci Bubble.
“Hello Cely, care for some mmmmbananas?”
********
“Wait wait, you are way ahead of yourself Rainbow Blitz!”
So immersed was on his story that for a second, Rainbow Blitz had forgotten the doctor was even there. “What do you mean?”
“Your description of Bubble Berry is quite detailed and frightening. Far worse than anything the papers could do. But that's understandable since both you and Elusive had first hoof contact with this criminal. It's plain obvious the tremendous influence this pony had on both of your lives.” Rainbow Blitz snorted at this commentary. “I need you to tell me exactly how you two met him.”
Rainbow Blitz snorted again.
“Fine...”
*******
The streamers hanged on the ceiling like a macabre exhibition on of those frontier pony towns were they used to execute criminal on the gallows. The eerie polka music continued to play even when the player had fell to the ground several minutes ago. I struggled against my binds to no avail, still tied to that chair, head place of that insane celebration that nopony other than Berry would dare to call a party.
All the other inanimate guests were still there, the pile of rocks, the sack of flour, the bucket of turnips and the clump of lint; still grinning their invisible smiles. Probably it was still the effect of the poison joke (even when I had developed a small level of resistance to the thing which allowed me to regain consciousness faster than Berry expected.) but I could swear those things were laughing at me.
Elusive had arrived just in time. Berry had just finished placing the cupcakes and was about to play “Cut the Pony Tail” and considering I was the only other pony there...
“This game ends now!”
“Oh don´t be such a party pooper!”
He had promised to let us go. Of course he was lying. A second after he left he was back, bouncing and giggling all the way, He had already killed six ponies that week and Celestia knows how many more over the years, what's two more names to the list? And while Berry was a mad pony who had no resemblance of a soul inside him Elusive, despite his cold and uncaring exterior, was truly a noble heart so I was sure that despite his glaring horn he wouldn't shoot that beam at Berry; so only question remained, how were we supposed to get out of this one?
We stood there in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before the tension was broken by a clumsy grey pegasus crashing into the ceiling. She quickly got up and hovered over Berry´s head.
This is your singing telegram ♪
A really important one
Your special somepony is calling you ♫
So you better take it back
She stopped the second she realized exactly where she was standing.
Berry sighed and said in an exhausted tone. “You mind if I take that?”
“Please, you have the entire day.” Elusive said.
The pegasus whispered something to Berry while Elusive looked at me for an answer. I couldn´t help but giggle at little at the fact he was so confused he asked ME for an explanation.
“WHAT?!” Berry grabbed the pony by her throat. “This is exactly what she told you?! Her exact words?!”
The poor pegasus barely nodded.
“AAAAARGH!! Okey okey, tell her...tell her that if she´s lying to me I would find her and I would made a fine dress with her coat, yo got that?” The pony nodded again. “Fine, go.”
As the pegasus fled for her life, Berry pulled his mane up, returning it to his bouncy state. “Sorry so sorry but I had to go. This was fun though, we should have another party soon only then...I would kill both of you! See ya later, alligator!”
And with that he was gone but that was not the last time we will see Bubble Berry.
*****
The record finally hit it´s needle, stoping the recording.
“Oh pony feathers!” the doctor rushed to change the disk while Rainbow Blitz took the time to once again look at the dark stormy sky.
“I´m sorry Blitz, I need to find another disk. In the meantime, why don't you refresh my memory? You met Berry after the Nightmare Night incident, right?”
“No, before that. The Nightmare Night case was shortly after Spines´ birthday.”
“My notes are such a mess...why don't we start all over again? Tell me how you met Elusive.”
For what he felt liek the fithites tiem that night, Rainbow Blitz sighed.
******
I was one of the many curious ponies in the crowd, listening to Chief Inspector Butterscotch as he was giving a press conference related to the sudden parasprite´s infestation. The poor fella had a hard time finding the right words, unaccustomed as he seemed to public speaking.
“So the umh investigation has leaded us to well to what we believe the umh source of this eh infestation lies in…”
Suddenly one of the dragons blurted out a scroll. The reporter pony took it and after reading it raised his hoof.
“P-please, I know what´s in that scroll and I´ll prefer it if you could just ignore it…if thats what you want, of course…”
A second dragon blurted out another scroll followed by a third one.
“P-please! Ju-just ignorethemn! And can we continue with the umh press conference?”
Then all the dragons simultaneously blurted out, flooding the place with colored smokes and paper scrolls.
Poor Butterscotch facehoofed as somepony read a paper scroll directed at him:
“You´re an idiot!”
The parasprites incident was resolved in a discreet manner thanks to the assistance of my friend but I didn’t become aware of that until much later. A few days after the press conference incident I was in Ponyville, my old home town, looking for a place to live. My army pension wasn’t exactly generous and with my wing broken I sure wasn’t able to get a job at the weather patrol. That made accommodations a problem that needed to be solved quickly. After unsuccessfully visiting five locations, I ended up visiting my old army friend Klutz Hooves, now chief of the town post office; but, when I got into his office, I ran instead into a white alabaster unicorn sorting through all the packages and envelopes. I looked at him confused but I figured he wasn’t a thief because Klutz was on a nearby desk helping him search for something. I gave Klutz a nod and talked to the stranger:
“Hi! My name is…”
“Griffon or dragon?”
“Excuse me?”
“Your wound. griffon or dragon? I´m going for griffon since I don’t see any burn marks…”
“How did you…”
“You like the violin?”
“What?”
”I like to play the violin when I´m thinking. Sometimes for two or three hours straight, usually at 3 or 4 at the morning. I figured it will be better we straighten that up before we start living together.”
“Wait! How did you know I was looking for a place?”
“Unless you have developed some kind of paranoiac habit, those saddlebags on the door were clue enough.”
“Oh, right…but wait, how did you know about my wound?”
“We´ll talk later. At dinner or maybe not I usually don’t eat at home or eat at all for that matter. Food goes for your own, by the way. We have a housekeeper but she´s not particularly adept at her work so each pony at this own, I presume.” and he took one brown package and head for the door.
“Wait! What makes you think I´m going to say yes? We don’t even know each other´s name!”
He sighed and turned around to face me. “Your mane is rainbow colored and your tail follows a lightning bolt shape so I´m torn between Spectrum Strike or Rainbow Blitz. I´ll go with the last one. I know you serviced during the war in the zebra´s land due to the spots on your left hind leg, signs of poison joke poisoning. You work out everyday but you´re not very applied to exercise, preferring to take long naps and you just waked up from one as your disheveled mane proves it. You hate losing and had a bad temper but you´re also loyal and dedicated to your friends and I’m sure you got that wound protecting one of them. And you have a pet turtle as the sand in your hooves shows.”
“Tortoise.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“Turret is a tortoise.”
“Oh, whatever.”
“That was…amazing!”
” You think so?”
“Of course, it was! It was extraordinary. It was quite extraordinary.”
“Huh! Not what most ponies would usually say…”
“And what do ponies usually say?”
“Are you a wizard?”
“Okay, if we´re doing this I need to set a few rules. First, I can take any mare I want home…”
“Vetoed.”
“Two. I always take an hour and a half nap so I’ll appreciate it you don’t play the violin during that time.”
“I’m not going to change my habits solely for you. Go sleep on a cloud or something. You’re a pegasus!”
“And three…never call me Blitzie. I hate that name.”
He smiled at this. “Jeh. I see you at home, old chum!”
“I never said yes!” I shouted as he was leaving.
Surprising, he peeked through the door to tell me something more.
“By the way, the name is Elusive and the address is 221b Baker Street. “
Chapter 2
I should have known better. I mean, I served next to buffaloes during the War so I knew the hatred they receive from some Equestrian citizens it´s unfair; but nevertheless, I should have known better than to trust in that Little Strongheart. Of course, she was the leader of the rare books thieves circle. Of course, she lied to us when we coincidentally ran into her in the Golden Oaks Library just after the latest hit. And OF COURSE, that she was luring me and my date to a trap, intended to kill us both because my marefriend of the week just happened to have the one book that proved the buffaloes did it.
And of course, Elusive was so kind to remind me to every single one of thsi facts as he gloated on me hangin upside down an alligator filled tub.
“...and then I made the connection between the hoofprints outside the library and the ones we found outside the dead book dealer store.”
“Yes Elusive, we got all that. Now will you be so kind as to put us down?!”
“I was just about to do that, don´t fret my old man. Ladies first of course. Allow me miss...who was this one again?”
“Blossomforth.” she basically growled.
“Oh yeah, the flexible one!”
“You know Elusive I rather prefer you leave me here hanging..”
****
“You´re doing it again, Rainbow Blitz.”
The former Mayor of the Equestrian Army look up and was met with the exasperated expression on his doctor face.
“I was doing what again?”
“You startled rambling about a different case.” the doctor said.
“Oh, I´m sorry...” and with that Rainbow Blitz went silent again. After all, the only thing he had left were the memories of his friend. Without them, he had absolutely nothing to say.
The doctor made a few more annotations before he spoke again. “Why don´t we return to the issue with Bubble Berry? Tell me again how was it that you two ran into him.”
Rainbow Blitz remained silent.
“I´m sure this a difficult issue for you Blitz but you need to express what you feel. Working together I´m sure we can explain the figure of Bubble Berry and how it affec-”
“Explaining Bubble Berry it´s easy.”
“Oh.” the doctor surprised reaction was sincere.
“Bubble Berry is...”
********
“He´s a prankster!”
“Uh, a prankster?”
Poor Inspector Butterscotch. He was actually pretty competent on his work but he lacked Elusive curious way of thinking. He was a straightforward type of colt, he saw the world in simple terms, good ponies who had made bad decisions...and bad ponies get sent straight to the moon. So when coming across those complicated types of crimes, those that could be defined as an enigma, he had no idea what to do so he went to Elusive for help.
Granted, the friendship this those had was odd. On a later case, Elusive will confess to me that he didn´t had “friends” but “a friend”, namely I. So his relationship with Butterscotch was more of an awkward business one; Butterscotch will show on our little loft above the Cakes´bakery with a seemingly impossible to solve case, Elusive will insult his intelligence in a pretty obvious manner to everpony but Butterscotch and then we will trot over all of Equestria until we caught the bad guy.
Standard proceeding.
Carry on, old chump.
“Of course he is! Only a spaced goat will fail to make the connections! The use of cakes filled with poison joke it´s a social commentary, each victim specifically selected to turn into a caricature! A tough assertive trainer turning into a wimpy tutu wearing coward, the mayor of our beloved town,a figure of authority, turned into a pink ridiculous clown! Oh the nerves! Since Gabby Gums I haven´t seen some pony had so much courage to mock the establishment!”
“Elusive, this is no laughing matter!” Butterscotch cut down Elusive´s rambling with that peculiar high-pitched roar of his. “Four ponies have already died and two more are in serious condition! If we don´t find this “Bubble Berry” fellow before it´s too late, who knows who else will be a victim!!”
Elusive was completely speechless. I tried to suppress a chuckle. He was so used to think of crimes as mere puzzles that he failed to realize the suffering of other ponies around him. Hay, he was even ignorant to the fact that Celestia raised the sun every morning.
Luckily, the tense atmosphere was cut by the appearance of the bumbling and chirpy new assistant of our landlords , who appeared carrying a tray of cupcakes.
“Tea time!!”
“Umh thank you...”
“Pinkie Pie!”
Butterscotch had the usual reaction than everypony had upon learning the name of the tall stallion. Ironic, taking his own name into account.
“It´s actually short for Pinkerton Desmond Pie.”
“That will be all Pinkerton.”
Elusive tried to hide his embarrassment with a cold attitude. I decide to save him some small amount of face by taking the lead in the conversation. “During the War I saw firsthoof the effects of the poison joke. And earlier today Nurse Redheart took me to the hospital to see the latest victims. It was...uncomfortable. That poor pink pony wasn´t making any sense and the least I talk about the barking one, the better.”
“I personally find disgusting that somepony is using delicious pastries to commit such heinous crimes. Sweets are supposed to make ponies happy, not killing them.” Pinkie Pie said while chewing on a cupcake.
“That´s the whole point. A sick twisted joke. And we´re still missing the punchline.” Elusive said.
“Well I rather not hear the end of a bad joke.” Butterocht said, getting up. “I have work to do. The Mayor conditions is deteriorating. Blitz, if you discover something let me know. Make the little darling send me a message.”
“Oh isn´t Spiney-wimey adorable?” Pinkie Pie was clearly planning to stay in our studio.
Elusive decided to ignore him and went into his “zone” as he called it when he put on his glasses and began working on a piece of cloth or playing the violin. When he got in that mood there was no way on getting him back to reality so I decided to take my leave and escorted Butterscotch to the door, Pinkie PIe waving us goodbye.
“I know he´s the smartest pony in Equestria but sometimes he gets on my nerves!”
That was a strange confession to make for the usual mild mannered inspector to make.
“There´s a criminal on the loose and he acts like it is some kind of game!”
“He is perplexed. He actually has no idea what´s going on so, like a little foal will do, he tries to hide it acting like a jerk.” I said.
“I suppose you could be right. Still, he could be an excellent police officer if he actually cared.”
“You know he never will.”
“Well, I better go back to duty. We have a possible lead. A feather was found near one of the crime scenes and it matches a fugitive, one Gilda Griffon, a war criminal who escaped from Hollow Shades last month.”
“You better watch out, Scotch. Griffons can be pretty nasty.” I said, my old wing wound still aching.
As Butterscotch flew off, I couldn't help but wondering myself what was going on. Bubble Berry´s actions didn't seem to make much more sense. Even if Elusive was right with his theory of the pranks (and he was always right) I failed to see what was exactly his intention with all of this. What was the point he was trying to prove?
Still, one problem at the time. That was the type of pony I was. I had to do something about the Mayor´s condition and I knew what pony to ask. Just then I noticed our lovely dragon assintant helping the Cakes with the store.
“Hye Spines, want to join me in an adventure?”
******
“So, who is this pony we are going to see again?”
“Her name is Zecora and she is not a pony, she´s a zebra.”
“A zebra? What´s a zebra?”
All our way to the Everfree Forest, the little dragon assaulted me with questions. Was this how Elsuive felt when around me? Now I hated him just a little less. Just a little.
“Like a striped pony from a faraway land. I met her during the war and we became friends.”
“Just friends?” How does she wiggled her eyebrows if she doesn´t have none?
“Stop it, Barb. She was a doctor and I was hurt. She didn't care whatever the injured were ponies, zebras, griffons or whathaveyou. She really has a generous heart. And she knows more about medicine that anypony I know so I´m sure she will have some remedy for the poison joke. Hay, these spots in my leg are the proof she can. Although I was just only exposed to it instead of eating it. I wonder how he baked the flower? Did he mad a jam out fo it? yes, that must be...”
“Rainbow, you´re rambling. Again.”
Guess I really do that. Maybe I picked that up from Elusive. “I´m sorry, Barb.”
“And stop calling me Barb! Only my dear Elusive can call me Barbara! ♪”
“Okay. And where does that whole Barbara thing came from anywhere?”
“I don't know. Elusive said I remind him of a fairy tale character. My poor Elusivee! My poor poor darling! I hear him at night, roaming across the studio, shouting that he has searched high and searched low, high and again low, but he can´t still figure it out the answer! Why is this case so complicated, Rainbow? Why is he so obsessed?”
I didn't answer her. The mystery fo this “Bubble Berry” was one that went as far back as our first case together, when a series of attacks were hurting the members of the Wonderbolts. At first, we suspected of the rival team, the Shadowbolts; but Elusive figure out it was one of the Wonderbolts the culprit, the pie loving vice captian Soarin. According to Elusive, this “bubble Berry” was the one who gave the pie to Soarin, but figuratively and literally.
Spines knew all that but there was one thing we kept secret. One thing that only the two of us and I suspected Butterscotch figured it out as well (he´s smarter than Elusive thinks); that the dath of the Soarin was no accident. Elusive had gone all out of his way to solve the case. He became obsessed like he was always did, going to Cloudsdale to catch the pegasus, risking his safety depending on a “walk-in-the-clouds” spell. He played a deadly bet with that pony and had I not pulled that storm cloud our partnership will had ended pretty soon. In a sense, i always thought that Elusive owed me this one. I saved his life but had I never met him ,I would have probably sunk into depression. Elusive saved me and now I have to save him from this mystery.
“Rainbow?”
“We´re here.”
Zecora´s hut. According to what she told me once, those masks at the door meant “Welcome” but I wasn't feeling a very welcoming air around them. Spines shared my sentiment hiding behind my legs. I knocked the door and was greeted by a familiar friendly face.
“Hello Zecora. I don't suppose you remember m-”
Ah, the old zebra custom to greet you with a kiss. Well, at least SPine stopped being scared to go back to starry eyed romantic little girl.
“Glad to see you alive and well, dearest of my friends./Please, you and your little dragoness on my house are guests!”
Well, I was glad to see she was still speaking in that rhyming style.
*****
Zecora got the antidote just in time to save the Mayor and Butteocht follow the griffon route, cornering her on the Canterlot Garden Party where her next target was notorious entrepreneur Fancy Pants. We managed to save him and put the griffon down after an extended fight. I will spare the details, mostly because half the battle involved the griffon strangling us down until Butterscotch came to save us. Say what you want about the meek pegasus, I do NOT want to be in the receiving end of his Stare.
After all the ruckus (or fracas as Elusive insisted on calling it was over) we find the final piece of the puzzle. A business card from a Berriswainer DaVinci Bubble, the mysterious pony who had sent the deathly gifts to all this ponies, had disappeared in a puff of smoke like a bad performer after an Ursa Minor attack. According to Butterscotch, the griffon had no idea who was the pony who send her the cakes with the instructions but she didn't care. With his minion captured, i assumed the attacks will stop. The identity of Bubble Berry remained a mystery but the imminent danger was over. It was the end of this adventure and with that thought in mind, decided to go and visit Zecora again. Elusive was feeling a bit disappointed that the case had ended on a dead end but I was sure that Spines could cheer him up.
I failed to notice that the business card had a stainiof jam. The same kind of jam that was found in our own kitchen. The stain that made Elusive realize who was exactly the new assistant of the Cakes.
I failed to notice that and when I woke up after passing out on my way to the hut I woke up to the worst of nightmares.
Final Chapter
The windows of the office trembled as the thunder roared outside. The Royal Weather Patrol had really outdone themselves.
Rainbow Blitz was drifting again, his mind going back to Zebrica, to the savannah, to the cloudless regions where the zebras lurked. He remembered being with the patrol team gathering the cloud in order to create a thunderstorm, he remembered the faces of all his friends; the names were a bit blurry, lost in the whirlwind of claws and feathers caused by a surprise griffin attack. He remember falling, falling down and there was no ground below, only darkness.
“Rainbow Blitz…” the doctor once again had to bring him back to reality. “Our session is almost over. Would you like to continue next week?”
“No. Let me wrap up the story…”
***
Berriswainer DaVinci Bubble was found guilty of treason and conspiracy against the crown. Technically, he had done nothing but mock the entire Royal Guard, sneaking inside the private chambers of the Princess; but that was enough.
He was condemned to the highest form of punishment, one so horrible that only being inflected in the God of Chaos itself, being turn into stone.
We were witness to the trail or should I say execution. Berriswainer gave no explanation for his actions, he just smiled, that cold, heartless smile of his. I felt disgusted. Elusive, he just stared back with no expression whatsoever, he just watched as Berry was slowly petrified by the royal alicorn magic.
After the trail, things actually improved. Without Berry to spark chaos and anarchy, the crime rate in Equestria diminished. My old zebra contact was able to gather a cure for Poison Joke and several victims were saved.
In a personal level, my life was improving. I got a job as a supervisor in the Weather Factory and my life seemed to be getting back on track. In our little house in Baker Street, life was cheerful. The twins were growing up, Spines was happier and discovered a passion for baking, turning into a temporary assistant for our landlords.
Everypony was happy, except for Elusive. The absence of Berry made him lose all motivation for crime investigation. He even abandoned his passion for suit tailoring. He just locked himself on his room, coming out only for having dinner. Eventually, he stopped coming at all.
One day I had enough and kicked down his door. Then I realized he had already lost it.
This was not his usual “organized chaos”, it was merely chaos. His room was filled with newspaper clips, all tied together with strings; an intricate web of conspiracies theories.
“He´s alive, Blitz! I know he is still alive.”
“Elusive, we both saw him that day. He is gone.”
“No no no, he´s still out there!”
“Yes, in the park. As a statue! I just saw hgim this morning, he´s still standing there with that awful smile, being covered by pigeons crap!”
“No Blitz. He can move. He is free. He is planning something, his biggest prank yet. Even bigger than the one he pulled at the wedding.”
At this I lost control and slammed him against a wall. “Listen to yourself! Look at the mess you are! You are ruining your life chasing a shadow!”
“But….but his prank…he must have prepared some kind of prank. Some kind of trick for me…”
“If Berry´s planned prank was turning you into a wreck, well then he succeed!”
“Wreck…a wreck. Yes, that must be. A…a kind of garbage…spare parts! What was the name of that smuggler, Yankee Doddle something…he must know something, he must…”
I left him there, among his papers and his delusions.
I went to the park. I didn´t believed that Berry could be back but I still felt the need to visit the park. To make sure he was still there. He was, still frozen, still smiling.
I spent about an hour looking at that hideous grin until a mailmare (curiously, the same mailmare from back then) appeared and gave me an invitation. It was from Sweepie Bell, Elusive´s brother; he wanted me to meet him at the Cutie Mark Crusaders Saloon.
****
“I´m sorry. The Cutie Mark what now?” the doctor interrupted him.
“The Cutie Mark Crusader, a secret order founded by Prince Artemis back in the days when he was a little colt. Only blank flank colts and fillies were allowed in that order.” Rainbow Blitz explained.
“…I´m sorry but that sounds incredibly stupid.”
“Anyways…”
****
I went inside the old building. Inside it seemed like if a boarding school had been overthrown by the students. Dozens of fillies and colts jumping around, doing whatever they pleased. A polite colt named Apple Buck and a tomboyish filly named Scootaloo guided me to a room where Sweepie Bell was waiting for me.
“Good to see you again, Blitz. How´s my brother doing?”
“Don´t play dumb with me, Sweepie. You know very well that he´s losing his mind.”
“Yes well, Elusive always had a knack for melodrama…” he said while calmly drinking his tea.
“Don’t talk like that. You have no idea what he is going through. You never knew Berry.”
“Actually… I did.”
My jaw almost dropped at this. “What? When?”
“Remember when he tried to pull that scheme at the Royal Wedding?” he asked.
“Yeah, he ended up falling through those Crystal Caves. We thought he had hit rock bottom but he obviously managed to escape. “
“Not quite. He actually did hit the bottom and almost died in there. When we found him he was a bloody mess.”
“What did you did to him?”
“We keep him locked. We tried to understand his “Berry Sense”, a strange special ability of his that allowed him to predict event before they happened.”
“You tortured him?” I asked, disgusted.
“If you count forcing him to watch paint drying…yes.”
I turned him over, trying to suppress the need to punch him right in the face.
“We eventually let him go. We couldn´t get any answers out of him and having him in a cell was actually a bad idea. Berry´s presence helped control the criminal elements of Equestria, most criminal were too scared to work with him around. Now that he´s gone, they will slowly come back. There are already reports of Diamond Dogs attacking carriages near Ghastly Gorge…”
“You had it with you all this time, and never told Elusive?”
“What was the point? What my brother seeks it’s a challenge, a dare. He was never interested in stopping Berry, if anything he needs him. He needs the excitement of the game.”
I laughed.
“What´s so funny, Blitz?”
“That you, his own brother, know nothing about Elusive. I am actually a better brother for him.”
I ignore if this comment made him mad, I didn’t turn around.
“As far as the Crown is concerned, Berriswainer DaVinci Bubble is gone for, so you better please tell my brother to stop wasting his time chasing after a ghost and start worrying about some real problems, like those Flim Flam smugglers. Apple Buck said they are taking over the cider business south of Appleloosa.”
I didn´t say anything. I just turned around and leave. When I returned home, Elusive wasn’t there. He had finally gone outside. Spines told me there was a package for me. It was a book and the only signature in the card was a star shaped Cutie Mark, the same one as that of Twilight Sparkle.
****
“I´m sorry, who was she again?” the doctor.
“The one from the Royal Scandal Case.”
“Oh yeah, the mare who…seduced the Crystal Princess.”
“And who turned out to be Captain Armor´s sister.”
“You know Blitz, you never told me the full details of that case.”
“You know I can´t share that information doctor.”
“Yes, yes of course. Please continue…”
****
I ran straight to the park. I knew that Elusive was there, he needed to see it too. It didn´t surprised me when I found him fighting against Bubble Berry. I jumped ad grabbed Berry, who was only barking and howling like a mad pony. Just when my strength was fading and seemed like he would smash my head with a rock that a blast of magic hit him and Berry inflated and exploded in a rain of streamers.
Elusive was in shock, his horns till glowing.
“I…I…”
“Its okay, Elusive. You didn´t kill him. He wasn´t real.”
I showed him the book. It explained about a Magic Mirror Pond that could create a perfect duplicate of any pony who watched his reflection on it.
“That´s how he did it! He switched places with the copy, that´s what is smiling like an idiot in the park!” once we went back home Elusive started to rambled.
I must confess I was quite happy to see him back like this.
“Now that we know that, the next question is where is Berry hiding?” I asked.
“No, that’s not the question. The real question is why did he do this? Why did he create that copy? Why fake his imprisonment?”
“That’s easy, to lure into a false of security!”
“Yes…yes Blitz, maybe you´re right.”
I got up and patted his back. “Come on Elusive, cheer up! We´re back in the game! The big leagues! Let’s chase after the true criminal mastermind and leave those stinky Diamond Dogs to your brother!”
Amazingly, he smiled. “That sounds like fun. Wait, did you say Diamond Dogs?”
“Uh? Oh yes, you brother said there were sightings of Diamond Dogs near Ghastly Gorge. He wanted you to take care of that but I´m sure Butterscotch can handle it.” I explained.
“Yes, Scotch…Scotch is a very competent officer.”
That was weird, Elusive never said anything positive about Scotch before.
“If you excuse my friend, I need to go outside. All this inside had ruined my coiffeur, I need to visit the spa.”
And he left. I decided to clean off his office. He´ll surely get mad for “disorganizing” his work but I felt like doing it, to bring some order back to the order. I was picking up some clips of our older cases when it suddenly hit me.
Its on times like those when I realized how stupid I am. How could I miss that important detail? The Diamond Dogs were Berry´s old henchbeast, the ones who attacked us n a regular basis. If the Diamond Dogs were back there was only one pony responsible for that…
I ran to the door but was intercepted by Mrs. Cake. Spines was suffering a terrible case of spam-belches, spouting letter after letter. I had to take her to Zecora, who manage to create a potion to make her stop. I didn´t even needed to read the signature of the letter to know who was holding me back.
I flew to Ghastly Gorge, pressuring my injured wings more than I could handle it, but I needed to be there, to be there before…
“ELUSIVEEEEEEE!!”
I arrived too late.
Elusive and Bubble Berry feel, embraced in deadly combat, and were devoured by the giant eels.
****
Rainbow Blitz cleaned his tears while the doctor put down his notebook.
“So…are you sure he didn´t…”
“Have you ever seen giant eels eating, doctor?!”
“Yes, of course. Sorry.”
They remained in silent for a few minutes while the rain poured outside.
“Our session is over.”
Rainbow Blitz got up, took his hat from the coffee table and moved to the door.
“Blitz…”
He stopped.
“I know how unprofessional it sounds but…I´m truly sorry for your lost. I have no words, no advices. I can only hope you can continue with your life.”
“You don´t have to worry about me doing something stupid doctor. I never lost the will to live. Otherwise, I would have stayed in that pool back in Zebrica. I pretend to keep on living. So at least one pony can remember my good friend Elusive and all the good things he did.”
The doctor watched Rainbow Blitz leave the building and walked under the heavy rain. Behind him, a shadowy figure came out from behind a curtain.
“I believe he suspect something but he´s trying to convince himself to ignore those suspicions.” The doctor said.
“Blitz is smarter than he believes himself to be.” The shadowy figure commented.
“I´m still quite confused. When did you have the time to go visit the Magic Pool before confronting Berry, Elusive?”
“That´s why I sent those letters. Poor Spines, he must had a terrible time. Berry did a lousy job covering the pool, a simple rock covering the hole. It was a piece of cake to lift it.” And he pointed at his horn.
“Was that the only reason?” the doctor asked.
“No. I was also trying to save Blitz. Berry´s plan was flawless, either Blitz arrived in time and I had to watch my best friend die or…either way, Berry had the final laugh.”
“Perhaps. But you are still alive Elusive. You could eventually laugh again, in a new life, in a new world.”
“Its true what you told me? About other worlds?”
The doctor nodded. He went back a few steps and dispelled the illusion spell that made him look as an earth stallion, going back to the form of Dusk Shine.
“Plenty of them. Want to see them, Elusive?”
“…yes.”
Dusk Shine smiled and began to gather the magic orbs around them. Elusive had never seen magic so bright.
“I must say that learning this universe has a female version of myself was quite a shock, Tell me elusive, how was this Twilight Sparkle?”
Elusive smiled.
“She was quite unique.”
And they both disappeared in a blink, leaving behind small fireflies that circled the office before disappearing.