I remember it was…really late at night when they came to my house.

A cold night. A dark night. Shadows long and thin as fingers reached out across the two-floor estate, a cold wind blowing through the busted-open door. Splatters of red across pale linoleum, photographs tossed about as bloody hoofprints led up the stairs…

There was a fight. They were yelling really loudly…

A discarded towel soaked in blood dropped at the top of the stairs. Pools of red slowly cascading down the stairway to the first floor below, tiny little droplets plunking down each and every stair…

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

They…they said they couldn’t find what they were looking for…

A child’s bedroom…the last stop. Untouched. The only room that hadn’t been torn apart…

…why?

None of it made sense to Applejack, the current sheriff of Ponyville. They hadn’t had a killing in the countryside county of the town’s district in…well, ever. The idea of anybody doing such harm to the well-off socialites in the picturesque country neighborhood, murdering someone…let alone four murders, it all seemed far-off. Like none of this was actually happening.

But it was happening. It was real. Sheriff Applejack slowly lowered her hat off her head, placing it over her light orange fur, her green eyes closed in a silent prayer before she placed it back and turned to her friend. “Have you called him up?”

“Yes.” Twilight Sparkle said, purple hair slightly frazzled, her face haggard and pained as her deep purple eyes gazed at the Spoon estate. “I had Spike send a letter right away. Shinedown said he’ll be here within the hour. Who called it in?”

“I got a phone call from Apple Bloom. She was on her way to a play date, Silver wanted to talk about something...” Applejack said as she shook her head back and forth. “She found…she…I don’t wanna think of this as a four-victim murder, but…with all of the blood loss…”

“I never spoke much with Tea. What do you know about Mrs. Spoon?”

“Ms.” Appejack corrected, waving a hoof in the air. “She and the mister weren’t technically married. They divorced, then got back together and were “livin’ in sin” for about two years now. Just never really remarried. Didn’t suit them, I guess.”

“How many kids?”

“One boy, one girl. When they divorced four years back, dad took the kid into a private school in Manehattan.” Sheriff Applejack went on as she and Twilight made their way down the long, cobblestone driveway, shaking her head back and forth. “Miles Spoon’s older than his sister by a few months. Smart kid, just like Silver.”

“And the father?”

“Antwiler. He took his wife’s name, stay-at-home father. He invested in stocks, day trading. Don’t really understand how it works, truthfully.” Sheriff Applejack continued.

“I could explain it, but believe me, the process is boring.” A voice rang out, Applejack and Twilight turning to see the sunset-colored pony that was making their way towards them, a belt around his waist with various pockets, a serious glint in his deep blue eyes. The hue of the magical paint that permeated his fur was a good contrast to the slowly setting sun in the distance as night continued to fall on the dark, empty house of the Spoon family. “And we’ve got two innocent children missing with their parents gone. If there’s any chance they ARE alive, we need to work fast to get to them.”

“I don’t even know where we’d start looking.” Applejack murmured as Shinedown T. Mare put a hoof on her shoulder, giving her a gentle nod.

“We start at the beginning.”

I loved my family…

Chronicles of Crime:
The Secret Life of Silver Spoon

…

…

…

… Sheriff Applejack looked over the photographs of the Spoon family was Twilight spoke with Apple Bloom outside the house, helping the investigation by getting her statement whilst the young foal’s older sister continued to search. Slowly she passed by photo after photo, staring intently at the proud, smiling family in the pictures. Young Miles was much like his father, dark black mane with soft silver eyes, but he wore thick-rimmed silver glasses over his face and had a slightly stupid grin on his face. Antwiler Spoon and his wife shared a quiet sophistication to their refined faces, and Tea looked rather stunning. Long, silvery locks flowing down the side of her face, a little Mona Lisa smile…if Silver Spoon grew up to be half as pretty as her mom-

…was Silver Spoon even alive to do just that?

Applejack didn’t want to think about it, but the fact that Silver Spoon was most likely dead continued to slowly hammer its way into her psyche, pounding incessantly at the back of her mind as Shinedown entered the room, placing down little yellow signs with numbers upon each and every one by the blood pools and droplets, collective evidence.

“The blood pools are dried. So the crime scene is at least twelve hours old. There were three major blood events, too. One in the hallway, another at the end of the stairs, and the third…at the top, by…the kid’s room.” He finished, biting his lip. “…when children are involved, I…it always hits you hard.”

“Didja collect for DNA?”

“Yes, I did. Y’know…there IS a possibility the family wasn’t the ones that died. Maybe they took off running?”

“My gut instinct is telling me otherwise.” Applejack said as she tilted her cowboy hat slightly and shook her head back and forth. “After doing this for so long, you get used to believing it…cuz its usually right.”

“I reckon so.”

“NOW you’re getting my lingo, city boy.” Sheriff Applejack chuckled a bit, whacking him on the shoulder. “Plus, they left their cell phones and wallets here, and there ain’t no silverware taken…which should have been the first thing grabbed if it was a robbery.”

“And they have a LOT of silverware actually made of silver…” Shinedown admitted quietly. “…Apple Bloom’s only a junior member of your force, a police informant for your juvenile crime division, do you really want her here, not just giving a statement but-”

“Apple Bloom wanted to help. And so did Twilight. And since Twi’s got the legal know-how on what we can and can’t do, she found a loophole she can use to justify assisting a police investigation.” Sheriff Applejack finished for him as she made her way out of the room with Shinedown, Apple Bloom carrying a camera around the house to investigate the outside of the luxurious, silver and gold-painted estate, Twilight heading up the stairs.

“Something doesn’t make sense. If you’re not going to clean up your crime, then…why take the bodies?” She wondered aloud as Shinedown looked at the hoof prints, taking down notes on their size and on the little grooves within each one, collecting imprints of the hooves to take back to their crime lab.

“Hmm.”

“You’ve got something?” Twilight called down as Shinedown looked over the collected imprints, his thick, Mohawk-like blue mane flopping down over his brow.

“I read up on Silver Spoon’s family before I came here. All wore special silver horseshoes, the father a size nine and a half, the mother a nine, the son wearing a three and a half, the daughter wearing a two.”

“There’s a nine and a half between blood pools number one and two.” Twilight agreed as she looked down from Silver Spoon’s room to the bottom of the stairway. “I saw that. And the bare hoofprints on the stairways match Tea’s size…maybe Tea grabbed hold of her daughter, tried to run her upstairs when the attack began and was shot through the back? It would explain why there are only three blood pools.”

“There’s other footprint sizes that don’t match the family, though.” Shinedown said, jabbing a pencil down on his notepad, shaking his head back and forth as his blue eyes narrowed. He put the pencil’s eraser in his mouth, chewing slightly as he murmured for a moment, puzzling over the data. “One size four that seems more like a gryphon’s tracks, and two sizes four and a half…and one of them’s going up into the bedrooms…speaking of, what did you find up there?”

“I found a “Jimmy Buffalo” shirt…” Twilight began, ratting off evidence as she waved a hoof in the air. “Painkillers in a bedside drawer, a photograph of the couple…” She took a deep breath. “And a gun. Evidently unfired. But I’m going to test it to make sure.”

Meanwhile, outside the house, Apple Bloom had taken notice of tire tracks leading slightly off the cobblestone driveway. She took a photograph of them, frowning a bit as she scratched her head. She KNEW nobody in the police department had a car with a hitch on it, but that was what these tire tracks were showing. Heck, she didn’t know anybody at school who’s parents had a car with a hitch on it. There couldn’t be that many. There were only a couple dozen who even HAD cars or carriages, Ponyville was very eco-friendly.

The tread led to the far back of the house, past some odd-looking plants that Apple Bloom popped into a tiny bag…before noticing something else.

…a little piece of gum. “Buffalo Bubble”, still fully wrapped. Stepped on a bit, but otherwise untouched. Interesting…

Meanwhile, Sheriff Applejack had gone upstairs into Silver Spoon’s room, having collected a hair off the bed. She knelt down to look under the bed, blinking in surprise at the tiny plate and the large bottle of cough syrup that was left underneath, along with some crumbs from what looked like a cheese sandwich. Sheriff Applejack frowned as she reached out, carefully tugging out the horseshoes that were also left underneath, rattling them a bit in the air.

I can’t stand the taste of that stuff…

…something inside was sloshing around. They were HOLLOW…and there was a tiny screwdriver at the far end under the bed. Sheriff Applejack unscrewed the top of the horseshoe, the unmistakable sight of cough syrup slightly sliding about in the hollow silver horseshoe. You clever, clever girl. You CLEVER, CLEVER girl.

I read a lot of crime novels. I know you always need to have something secret the bad guys can’t take from you. Something that they never expect. I thought a hollow horseshoe would work…you never know when you need to hide something small…

Sheriff Applejack put the collected cough syrup sample down, looking through the white-walled room of Silver Spoon, going past rows and rows of old-school crime novels with faded blue bindings, past photographs of Silver Spoon in school. One stood out in particular…a small medal hung around it, a photo of her having recently won a swimming competition with her otherwise-ordinary, but dark-brown-eyed gryphon coach gleefully holding her arms up as if she was Rocky Balboa, fresh from whacking Clubber Lang into submission.

I was GOOD that day. I felt more like a fish than a pony. I’ve never seen mom prouder…

Sheriff Applejack passed her flashlight over a small gumball machine in the room loaded up with “Buffalo Bubble” bubblegum, chuckling a bit…as a light chuckle rang through the air. She immediately wheeled about, heading in the direction of the chuckling little giggle that was ringing, invisible eyebrow raised as she made her way into what appeared to be the son’s bedroom.

“What in tarnation is THAT?” Sheriff Applejack asked, Twilight pushing down on a keyboard.

“Hee-hee!”

“If labeled correctly? This is Silver Spoon’s laugh. Her brother evidently enchanted this piano to play different sounds instead of normal notes.”

“Hee-hee!”

“Aw, that’s sweet!...and somehow, a lil’ creepy too.” Sheriff Applejack admitted as Twilight sighed slightly, holding something up from off a nearby desk.

“THIS is what worries me more…and it might give us motive. Look.” She said, pointing at the clump of papers she had in her hand.

“The Crystal Empire: a Detailed Analysis of Tyrannical Rule by Miles Spoon”. Applejack looked confused…until Twilight then held up ANOTHER clump of papers that were stapled together. “The Crystal Empire: A Look into Tyranny by Snips”. And then “The Crystal Empire: The Tyrannical Reign of Sombra, by Snails”.

“…wait…was he?” Sheriff Applejack began to say as Twilight nodded, opening up the desk, revealing bits upon bits of gold in one end of the desk, and dozens of written papers for OTHER people in the other.

“The kid was doing other people’s work for them and raking in the cash. Trafficking in term papers…”

“Reckon this COULD be motive.” Applejack admitted quietly, rubbing her chin. “But…my instinct is telling me somethin’ else caused this…”

“GUYS?!” Shinedown yelled out, everyone poking their heads out of whatever room they were in as they heard him calling from the basement, the thick door leading into darkness wide open. One by one they descended the steps, Apple Bloom gasping as Shinedown gestured at the enormous ganja garden he’d discovered, the marijuana nirvana laid out for all of them to see. “I smelled something funny when I passed by the door, so I went down to check it out after I saw that the lock to the basement had been blasted open…”

“And it’s a pot paradise.” Sheriff Applejack whispered before her eyes narrowed.

“It explains all the footprints throughout this house.” Shinedown admitted as Apple Bloom rubbed at her eyes, scarcely able to believe what she saw as Twilight immediately began taking pictures of her own. “So, Sheriff…what’s your gut telling you?”

“It’s saying this isn’t just marijuana.” Applejack growled out, tilting her hat slightly down with her jaw set firm. “This is MOTIVE.”

…

…

…

…Mommy’s garden was supposed to be a secret. Somebody must have told about it.

precise scale measurement tools, clotheslines for freshly dried marijuana leaves, and rows upon rows of enormous pots filled with “Sweet mary jane” were everywhere the eye could see down in the dark, air-conditioned basement. There was some remains of dried, “fresher” marijuana on the clothesline, but not much. The plants within the pots had been untouched, so logically, if THEY weren’t snatched up…

“So they went for the freshest to sell for big bits.” Squirt the Changeling said as his sickly yellow eyes gazed out at the field of marijuana around them all, having come from the crime lab to collect samples to bring back and test along with the other evidence in the basement.

“And whomever did it shot the lock out with a 25 caliber gun based on what happened to the basement door.” Sheriff Applejack said with a nod, gritting her teeth a bit as she glanced about. “Can’t believe them Spoons were doin’ this with two kids in their home. But if they didn’t care before, reckon they do now.”

Squirt carried the samples they had collected outside to the mobile lab they’d brought, Shinedown following after him as Twilight followed after as well. “I’ll get to work on checking out the samples and I’ll look at the doorknob you collected. I’d bet I can get the type of gun too depending on how it tore through the knob.”

“Your adopted son is getting good at this.” Twilight complimented Shinedown as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof and chuckled, a blush coming to his cheeks. “YOU’RE getting pretty good at this parenting thing.”

“Aw, Twi, you’re such a charmer. So tell me, did you get a chance to look at the telephone calls to the house?” Shinedown wanted to know as Squirt looked over a hoofprint sample they’d collected, typing into the computer he’d brought with him as it scanned the print over.

“No go on the house in terms of calls to the house on Sunday, which was the night of the murder.” Twilight admitted as she flipped her notebook open, going from one page to another, chewing on her lip a bit before stopping at one of the pages. “BUT!” She proclaimed. “BUT I found a call made to the house phone TWO nights before the murder at around 8:23. It’s registered to-”

“Marky Hooferton?” Squirt spoke up, Twilight and Shinedown looking at the young changeling-blooded foal, his black fur bristling a bit as he and Twilight finished at the same time. “That’s who you found too?”

“His hoofprint is in the Equestrian Crime Database?”

“Not crime. I expanded the search.” Squirt said, shaking his head back and forth, hair flopping about. “He belongs to Celestia’s Honor Guard, Junior division, training to be an actual guard. All of the members of the honor guard have hoofprints with a specialized micro-seal tagged into them so as to identify members just in case something ever goes wrong…or if one of THEM ever goes wrong.”

“Does the database say where he lives?” Twilight wanted to know as Squirt swiftly typed away into the computer, eyes narrowing intently as he shook his head back and forth.

“No, but it says where he goes to school, and if you RUN…”

…

…

…

…as it turned out, Marky Hooferton, a close-cropped, well-toned Pegasus pony was on his way off the soccer field with his friends, his car parked nearby along with a couple of others as he clapped one of his friends on the shoulder, showing off a big, toothy grin. “Man, I’m telling you, tonight you and I are gonna-”

“Heya, Marky.” Sheriff Applejack remarked with a slight chuckle, titling her hat up as the Pegasus stopped in his tracks, IMMEDIATELY turning pale at the sight of her leaning against his car with the other cop nearby, the stallion’s sunset-colored body tensed and ready to pin the kid to the parking lot if necessary.

“…er…um…”

“Funny thing about your car here. It happens to have some VERY interesting smells coming from it. One in particular my friend noticed earlier in the day.”

Marky’s deep brown eyes glanced quickly from Shinedown to the sheriff as she patted the trunk of his car. “And guess what, Marky? This here parkin’ lot is public property. And I got me a right to search things on public property. And you don’t got no right to complain seein’ as you’re a minor. So I suggest y’all open up yer trunk…or I’m gonna get a mite unhappy.”

Marky’s face was that of the dead, his head hanging low as he slowly ambled over to the trunk of the station wagon, cringing as he unlocked it and raised it up, Sheriff Applejack immediately whipping out a pair of hoofcuffs as Shinedown let out a long, deep whistle. “Well. Well. WELL.” He said, stepping away from the trunk as Sheriff Applejack cuffed the young stallion. “A last dance with Mary Jane. One more night to feel the pain, huh?”

“That song’s about pot?” Marky asked as Shinedown frowned darkly at him.

“There is no way in Tartarus this is a coincidence considering you called a home that was GROWING this stuff, and your hoofprints were found in said house. So you’d better tell us, Marky…” He growled out, blue eyes blazing like heated sapphires coming out fresh from a forge. “WHERE ARE SILVER SPOON AND HER FAMILY?!?”

...

…

…

… “Any luck?” Squirt called out from the crime lab’s analysis room as the whizzing and humming of Twilight’s specialized computer systems filled the air. Twilight was always happy to donate to the cause of science, and what better way to contribute than in helping to halt crime? The little changeling was in the deep blue-walled room where they’d brought the collected marijuana in, looking over the samples of pot they’d collected and the garbage bags they’d been in when they’d unlocked Marky Hooferton’s trunk.

Apple Bloom was examining the rest of the stallion’s car, passing a soft blue flashlight designed to scan for blood, the car having been dusted with “luminol”, which made the oxygen IN blood light up like a blue flame. But unfortunately for her…well…

“I got two things here, Squirt. Jack and squat. And jack left town.” Apple Bloom sighed, shaking her head back and forth and getting out of the truck, making her way to the analysis room as Squirt raised the goggles he had across his face to the top of his head. “Anyhow…four bodies wouldn’t fit in this car.”

“Well, whomever stole the pot had a gun and shot the lock off the basement door. No way this was a crime of opportunity…is there nothing you found in that car?”

Apple Bloom blinked suddenly, realizing something had gotten stuck to her foot as she’d exited the truck. She picked it up, looking it over, eyes widening. “Wait. A. MINUTE. Somebody visited the bank’s ATM on the night of the murder. I’ve got a debit card number here and everything!” She said, looking at what had gotten stuck to the back of the ATM receipt and what had gotten stuck to her foot…a piece of gum, wrapped up but slightly exposed.

Buffalo Bubble. Just like the piece she’d found outside the house.

“The pot texture is the same. The marijuana from the house is the same as the marijuana in the trunk.” Squirt spoke up, gesturing down at the microscope he was looking through.

“Guys!” Sheriff Applejack yelled out from down the hall, Apple Bloom and Squirt looking out from the room, eyes widening. “GUYS! I’ve gone over the DNA!” She proclaimed as everyone ran into the sheriff’s private office. Applejack was behind her desk, her small medals for roping, rodeo work and other wild activities hanging on a wall with a tiny golden medal pushed to the side to allow for the sheriff to look over several DNA reports. “There’s no blood from Silver Spoon in the house at all! Not a drop!”

“So either her death was bloodless or they took her alive.” Twilight reasoned, Shinedown rubbing his chin as the sheriff handed him the reports. “Well, I think this calls for a celebration! Apple Bloom, Squirt, how about we head to my house and cook up something nice for lunch? Would you all like that?”

“WOULD I!” Squirt laughed happily, rubbing his stomach as he licked his lips, Apple Bloom eagerly nodding her head like a doggy begging for a treat.

“I’m STARRRRVIN’.” She insisted, leaving the room with Twilight Sparkle and Squirt as Shinedown handed the DNA reports back to Sheriff Applejack, chewing slightly on his lip before pacing back and forth, trying to find the right words to get across his fears.

“So what do you think happened?” Sheriff asked him as Shinedown spoke carefully, deliberately.

“Miles Spoon wasn’t a very liked kid. He was a nerd, I doubt he was the most popular kid in school. If I were in his shoes…rich kid, smart but not very liked socially and with access to pot, well…if I was feeling particularly desperate for somebody to think I was cool, and “down with it”, I’d suggest I had pot to sell…”

“Which is what you think Miles did. He offered to sell Marky and his friends some pot, maybe to get some more money on the side or to make them think he was cool?” Sheriff Applejack wanted to know as Shinedown nodded, leaning against a wall by several photographs of Applejack’s family, noticing that the sheriff had put Silver Spoon’s “Missing Persons” picture on a clipboard to his right.

“Yeah…and one of them was stupid enough to bring a gun. And I imagine that they figured habeus corpus.”

“The body of the crime?”

“But whomever killed the Spoon family didn’t really get the meaning. They thought that without the body, there wouldn’t be much of a crime to investigate, that if the bodies weren’t in the house, it couldn’t be traced back to them, instead of just making us work harder to FIND the bodies.”

“If they’re ALL bodies.” Applejack commented, looking over at the photographs of Silver Spoon she had on her desk, quite a few of which showed her chewing on bubblegum, and another one showing her at a performance of “Beohoof”.

I’m gonna be a real big movie star one day. Everyone said I was so convincing as Beohoof’s wife…

“That’s, uh…actually kind of what I need to ask you about, Applejack.” Shinedown said, his voice becoming slightly pained and mournful as he hung his head slightly before speaking up again. “You’ve been treating this case like we’re on a rescue mission, but in my line of work, when the evidence looks the way it does right now, I…I really, REALLY don’t want to say this, but…it’s just…when things are like this…”

“You think she’s dead.” Sheriff Applejack finished, putting her hooves together, sighing quietly as she closed her eyes.

“You think she isn’t?” Shinedown wanted to know, speaking gently. “I think she was drugged. And she’s lucky that they tried to do that judging by the cough syrup you found, but…all I can think about is “what if we can’t save her”?”

“I keep thinking that too. But I’m not willing to give up on her.” Sheriff Applejack insisted, shaking her head back and forth, pushing herself off the desk and standing tall.

“…well, I’ve got some good news that might just make not giving up on her a whole lot easier. I traced the ATM card back to its owner. John Hawks. He’s a gryphon living not too far from the Spoon residence…and he has a son, whom I caught on surveillance footage at the bank from a camera outside…driving inside the car. The footage is grainy, but it IS him.” Shinedown told Applejack with a small, comforting smile. “I’m gonna have Twilight pick the footage apart, see what else we can get from enhancing the image. Reckon we ought to go down to the house?”

“Reckon ‘course.” Sheriff Applejack laughed, slapping him on the back as they headed out the office, the two chuckling between each other.

…

…

…

… “Would you look at this. See this plant? I found this exact kind of plant by the bubblegum I found outside the house.” Apple Bloom insisted to Squirt as she kneeled by the bottom of the boat that was attached to the Hawks family’s truck…a truck with a large hitch to hold onto said boat.

“You said that they took the boat out last weekend?” Sheriff Applejack asked Ms. Hawks as the long, golden/yellow-winged gryphon nodded her head, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “And they DO have access to your debit card?”

“Yes, my son has a spending limit, but he’s never gone over it.” Mrs. Hawks insisted to the sheriff as Squirt looked over some white rope that was in a compartment of the motorboat.

“Shinedown’s taken me sailing on the weekends whenever he can. Y’know what dad says the inboard end of an anchor rope is called? The “bitter end”.” Squirt said as he held the frayed rope up in the air with one hoof, another holding up verrrry-familiar-looking garbage bags as Apple Bloom frowned.

“So THAT’S why we ain’t found no blood yet.” She said, noticing something located by a seat cushion in the back, holding it up as Sheriff Applejack turned around to look at the two young foals. “Looky here! Buffalo Bubblegum!”

“Another one?” Sheriff Applejack murmured. “I think this girl’s leavin’ us a trail. Half the pictures I’ve seen of her, she has gum in her mouth, and she had a Buffalo Bubblegum machine in her room…”

“Sis! Uh…we’ve got pot in the glove compartment of this thing!” Apple Bloom yelled out, Ms. Hawks GAPING in surprise as Squirt took the pot out, holding it in the air, Applejack turning to Ms. Hawks.

“Could you bring your son in to the station?” She asked quietly.

…

…

…

… “We found your DNA in traces on the cough syrup bottle that was underneath Silver Spoon’s bed.” Shinedown said quietly, folding his arms before his chest as the quiet, demure-looking gryphon nervously glanced about the dark-walled interrogation room. “Your friend Marky isn’t talking and he’s going to pay for obstruction of justice, believe me. This is odd, Ajax. You’re a good student, you coach the swimming team, volunteer at the school…you’ve always done what’s right before. Do the right thing now.” The sunset-colored stallion whispered gently, persuasively. “Tell us what happened.”

BRIIING! BRIIIING!

Watching from behind one-way glass, Sheriff Applejack flipped her cell phone open, putting it to her ear. “Talk to me, Twi.”

“I’ve gone over the security camera footage from the ATM feed Shinedown collected.” Twilight admitted, her tone slightly panicked and concerned. “Listen. She’s on the footage. In the backseat and wrapped in a blanket, but she’s there! I see Silver Spoon, and she looks unconscious, but not DEAD. She’s sucking on her hoof in a nervous fit and is in the gryphon’s lap.”

Applejack paled for a moment before she spoke slowly. “I’ll call ya back later.” She muttered out, her voice barely a whisper before she slammed the phone lid shut, thinking back to that gryphon she’d seen in the photo in Silver Spoon’s room. The one with the gryphon holding Silver Spoon’s hand up, grinning broadly.

“So THAT’S what this is about.” Applejack snarled as she kicked the door to the interrogation room open with a loud KRUCHA-THROOOM, Ajax yelping as Shinedown swiftly got to his feet, Applejack staring accusingly at the young gryphon. “You coach the swimming team and volunteer because you like spending time around little girls, don’t you?! You tried to drug her but she was too smart for you!”

She pinned the gryphon to the wall, her face nearly unrecognizable with rage, practically spitting mad, fuming in the feathered fiend’s face. “I ain’t foolin’ around with you, son, WHERE IS SHE?!? I SAID! WHERE! IS! SHE?!?”

…

…

…

… I used to love going to the lake. Not anymore.

“Okay, we’re going to do a thorough search of this entire lake!” Shinedown yelled out to the assembled volunteers, pacing back and forth, blue eyes burning brightly as he walked by the shore of Ponyville’s largest lake. “Up and down, slow and careful, we can’t leave a single stone unturned, not one inch of this lake can go unnoticed!”

“Applejack, please understand that I mean no disrespect but…HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!?” Twilight screamed out at Applejack, belting in her face as Applejack tried to keep her cowboy hat firmly atop her head, the rest of their friends cringing as Shinedown momentarily stopped to shake his head back and forth in disappointment as Twilight kept reading Applejack the riot act. “What you did back in interrogation was completely out of line! You absolutely LOST it!”

“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.” Applejack murmured as Fluttershy directed her fishy friends across the lake, otters, beavers, and a couple eels making their way through the depths.

“I’m worried about the effect this case is having on you, Applejack. Worried how much its eating away at you.”

“I’m sorry. Honest, I am.” Applejack murmured, hanging her head low as she held her cowboy hat over her chest, biting her lip. “I didn’t mean to lose it like that-TWILIGHT.” She gasped, looking down at something that was by Twilight’s hoof, Twilight glancing down as well.

…a piece of Buffalo bubblegum. Twilight picked it up, blinking in surprise as an otter breached the lake, letting out a panicked yell, waving its tiny arms back and forth as Fluttershy paled, everyone racing over to where she and the otter were on the shore, Fluttershy’s hoof slowly pulling away from her mouth as she turned to them.

“…Alphy’s found something.” Fluttershy murmured softly as the otter began speaking to its brethren and the other little animal friends Fluttershy had brought with her, diving back into the water as the assembled ponies stood on the edge of the lake, Squirt gently putting a hoof on Apple Bloom’s shoulder as she looked away in horror at what was soon dragged up onto the beach…three bodies that had been tied together and wrapped up in large, verrrry familiar garbage bags. One of a young stallion, one of an older stallion…and another of an older pony.

Squirt closed his eyes, Fluttershy gasping in horror as Sheriff Applejack covered her face with her hat, Shinedown’s mouth becoming a taut line as he looked at the bodies for what seemed to be a long, long time before…

“…there wasn’t a fourth?” He asked one of the otters, Fluttershy translating as the otter shook its head back and forth. “…really?” He asked, his eyes lighting up with hope. “…REALLY?”

“…thank Celestia.” Sheriff Applejack whispered.

…

…

…

…luckily for them, the bullets they pulled out of the Spoon family had gotten a hit in the Equestrian Ballistics Identification Database, and it had led them to a man named “Criss Kross”, a dark-furred stallion…and, more specifically, to his son, Jump, who had had a hunting knife in his room…with pony blood on it. And his horsehoes had tested positive for blood as well. And the shoes just so happened to be size four and a half.

It wasn’t long before the orange/amber eyed Jump was sitting in an interrogation room with Shinedown sitting across from him, arms folded across his chest, deep blue eyes closed for what seemed to be a long time.

At last, he spoke.

“You just wanted to scare Miles, right? Intimidate him into giving you pot.”

Jump mumbled something under his breath as he looked down at his handcuffed hooves, Shinedown slowly opening his eyes to stare intently at the young adult.

“But Miles’s dad Antwiler was home. And Antwiler didn’t scare easily, did he? Even with the gun you had. And that was when things went south. Quick.”

“…”

“When Silver Spoon’s mom heard the shots, she ran downstairs whilst you and your buddies went to clean out all the pot you could find. You found her cradling her husband and son’s bodies, and when she tried to make a beeline for her daughter’s room, you shot her twice in the back as she was climbing off the stairs, just to make sure she was dead. Then you asked your friend Ajax to take care of Silver Spoon while you and Marky wrapped the bodies in garbage bags.”

Jump was fidgeting nervously in his seat, biting into his lip as Shinedown continued to speak softly and purposefully, not blinking once as he continued his damning accusations.

“Only he couldn’t DO it.”

Jump flinched, Shinedown slinging the sentence at him like it was a knife and he was seeking a decapitation attempt as the sunset-colored young stallion slowly got up, walking around to the back of the table, standing directly behind Jump as the foal froze on the spot.

“So he tried to drug her, then you took the bodies and the girl out, went to the ATM, got cash, and went to pick up the boat. You loaded the bodies onto the boat, went out onto the lake…there was just one last thing to do. So let me ask you this…”

Shinedown leaned in close, one hoof put on the kid’s shoulder.

“When you put that knife to her throat, I want to know something. Did it make you feel like a man…to kill a little girl?”

…

…

…

… “We’ve been up and down this lake for five hours…” Fluttershy murmured as she and Sheriff Applejack rode on top of a boat, Applejack scanning the lake as the moon hung high in the starry skies above, peering intently across the dark surface of the lake as the boat’s engine hummed. “Can you see any sign of her?”

“No. No, I…wait. WAIT.”

Something had flickered a bit off in the distance, glinting in the night, reflecting the light from the flashlight right back at them. Sheriff Applejack squinted slightly before her eyes practically bulged out of their sockets and she bounded out of the boat, paddling as fast as she could, panting heavily as Silver Spoon’s unconscious form lay flopped across some fallen marshweeds and cattails that had fallen down into the lake and piled up. Blood was paled across her neck, a pack of bubblegum clutched in one hoof…her tiny pearl necklace slightly stained with red.

…but she was breathing.

It was faint…

But she was breathing. Sheriff Applejack immediately began CPR, breathing into the little foal’s lungs as Fluttershy grabbed hold of the phone they’d brought onto the boat, already alerting the others…

And it wasn’t long before Applejack was visiting Silver Spoon in the hospital, her voice pale and hoarse as she waved a limp hoof at the sheriff. “Hey there, lil’ doggy.” Applejack cooed tenderly as she walked up to Silver Spoon’s bedside, several dozen flowers and balloons filling the room along with COUNTLESS get well cards that were stacked up to the ceiling. “Good to see you’re okay. I’m glad we found ya when we did.”

“…th-thank…you f-for…saving me.” Silver Spoon managed to hoarsely get out, rubbing at her neck as Sheriff Applejack mussed up the floppy white mane atop the foal’s head, tears brimming in the green-eyed pony’s eyes.

“You’re welcome, sweetie.”

“Where’s…my family?” Silver Spoon murmured quietly as Sheriff Applejack bit her lip, lowering her head before finally looking Silver in the eyes.

“They’re not here.”

“Don’t you B-BABY me.” Silver Spoon insisted, tears springing to HER eyes as Sheriff Applejack patted her on the shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, we…couldn’t help them. They were gone by the time we got to…I’m so, so sorry, little miss.” Applejack mumbled out.

Silver Spoon slowly closed her eyes, holding her hooves over her face before letting out a long, agonized, drawn out sob, finally flopping back down onto the bed, tears steaming silently from her eyes and down her cheeks as the others slowly looked in from the hallway.

“Silver?” Apple Bloom called out as she and Squirt entered the room, Silver perking up a bit. “Diamond Tiara’s on her way over. Their parents say yer more than welcome to spend the weekend at their place until we get in touch with yer aunt and uncle.”

“We know it’s really…really hard to want to talk about something like this, but if we’re going to really punish the people that hurt your family, do…you think you could tell us what happened when they came to your house?” Squirt nervously asked, rubbing the back of his neck as Silver looked off to the side for a few moments, unspeaking…

And then, finally, she sighed, turning back to face them.

“Okay.”

“We’ll go slow, okay?” Sheriff Applejack insisted gently, holding onto Silver Spoon’s hoof and squeezing softly, Shinedown warmly smiling at the scene as Silver nodded her head. “Just start at the beginning, alright sweetie?”

“I remember it was…really late at night when they came to my house…there was a fight. They were yelling really loudly…they… they said they couldn’t find what they were looking for…”