Equinicide  Detective Frank Morris looked at the victim again, there was something not quite right about the look on the poor stallion's face. It made the brown fur on his mane rise up. For a short while Frank felt a chill and then the heat of the room slammed back onto him. Frank was a Neigh City Earth Pony stallion born and bred, went to school in the Broncos or as the residents called it Da Broncos. Now he was working in Manehattan, been a Equinicide Detective for 15 years now.

Ask Frank if he thought he was attractive, he would laugh a bit and say, I don't sleep alone too often. Well, his main squeeze was Dame Justice, the mare with the blindfold and when things were going badly, a big strapon with no lube. Dame Justice treated him pretty good well except for 2 times. Both had to do with dirty lousy unicorns.

The first one was Nino Petruzzo, a green unicorn with a white mane, cold grey eyes, a real piece of work, like to use his wife for his own private fight club. Too bad she was not the punchy sort. Nino had friends in high places and Frank found out the hard way who had his reins, the hard pull came from up the chain of command. If they were real reins, Frank would be spitting blood for days, felt like that anyway, had to bite his tongue a lot. Say the wrong thing and life got more interesting but not in a good way. Nino was untouchable. Well until Nino screwed up again.

Nino ended up killing his wife and his friends in high places dropped him hard. Now Nino was in the Big Stable upstate in Sing Song. Frank was in a local watering hole when they interrupted the baseball game on tv to show Nino do the perp walk through a gauntlet of reporters. That was great. Worth raising a glass of Applejack McDaniels to. Felt good to flip him the bird too not that Nino could see.

The 2nd one was Mac Brendon, a real smoothie, a brown unicorn with a black mane, friendly blue eyes, he was a confidence stallion. Was pretty good with the enchantment magics, ponies would give him anything. Mac could walk up to a happy pony and use his mind control stuff and that pony would shuffle off to the glue factory like he was going to meet his one true love. Probably would jump into the rendering vat like he was doing a high dive in a fancy resort pool.

Thats how Mac messed up, a simple murder would have taken that talkative accountant off of the company books but Mac liked reaching into pony's heads and twisting what was there. Had that poor accountant doing a highwire act but hooves are not so good for that. They had to clean up a big mess when the poor guy lost his balance.

Got some help from a Guild mage and Frank was hot on Mac's tail, until Mac looked into Franks eyes and Frank found himself with his gun in his mouth about to pull the trigger. Frank's innate stubborness saved him or maybe someone upstairs was really looking out for him. It had been really close, too close. Once Frank was able to shakily put down his gun and holster it, he was off to Mac's home. Mac was gone. 3 years of searching, chasing leads, got him nowhere closer.

Yeah, I don't sleep alone, my demons warm my bed for me. Sometimes Frank would have that recurring nightmare that he is in his house, his gun in his mouth smelling the cleaning solution, feeling the sweat run down his face, fingers straining to stop pulling the trigger. Click, click, click, feeling that after a few clicks things will end. Nothing like a good nightmare to make you wake up screaming.

Not that anyone could hear him, somebody was always screaming in Frank's building any time of the day. What do you expect for a place with a cheap rent? At least the roaches were not big enough to carry away anything useful. Frank lived in a place that even dumps would be looking down on.

Nah, Dame Justice is my only love, any other mare would have to squeeze in next to her and Dame Justice had a big rump.

Frank told the uniformed cops to leave the room for a bit and to get him a coffee.
Maybe I should have asked for a bottle of water instead, this room is hot. Who would turn off the air conditioning? Time to sniff around for clues. He sniffed the vic, there was the smell of sweat, rotten pony flesh, green slime and something else. Not sure what it was.

The victim was a white painted pony with brown splotches. After a few days dead, he was a bit on the grey side. He had a grimace on his face that was a mixture of pleasure and horrible pain. There was also small patches of some green slime on the victim's body and privates, that smelled pretty rank like still water from an underground pond. The wallet was gone but the vic still had his watch on. Robbers would take all they could carry. Why did they leave the watch? It was a knock off but an expensive knockoff. There were pawn shops that would give you a nice amount of bits with no questions asked.

Time to type the info into the DataPad and see if anyone in the office could give some ideas. The reply came back quick, almost too quick. That was strange, they were telling him to stay on the scene. Usually he can go back to the office.
Where was that coffee?

Frank could hear someone was coming up the stairs. Maybe it was someone with that coffee. Maybe it was better that the Magical Crimes Unit (MCU) took over? This case could be something nasty. Had that feel to it.

Frank looked at the white unicorn in the doorway, great, I get a kid fresh from the Mage guild. Another unicorn, prissy high maintenance and arrogant. Well, not all of them. Ma was not, Celestia rest her soul. Mousy brown mane and tail, well at least she has brown eyes, thats good. The peach colored dress was good, it accented what she had nicely even if she was a bit on the skinny side. Can see this one misses meals when busy.

Lets see how long it takes for her to step up and get to work. Her ID badge says Lindsay Snow, looks like she is melting in this heat. Oh right, she finally steps up.

"Hello, my name is Lindsay Snow and I am here to evaluate this scene to determine if the MCU needs to be involved", Lindsay said a bit too fast. "Slow down kid, you do not have to say it all in a Neigh York minute", Frank replied. Could see Lindsay's ears go back for a sec, great, the kid's got a temper. Frank waited for some sort of attack. Lindsay looked away and at the victim, "let me scan the room for magical information. You will need to clear the room, please". "Sure", Frank said. "Can someone get me a coffee!", Frank said, as he left the room. Frank cracked the door a bit so he can see what was going on inside.

Lindsay calmed herself, that guy was annoying and started to scan the sweltering room. It was a typical hot sheets hotel room, bolted down tv and a picture done by Kereen. It was a typical Kereen picture, two foals with abyss dark eyes stared back at her. Dying in a room with that picture of the soul sucking foals would be a last insult. Ok, lets see if we can get some sort of magical clue about this guy. Another bead of sweat started its run from her mane to fall down her back.

Frank watched Lindsay from the cracked door, so far she was doing what he would do, walk around, scan the room. Then Lindsay's horn stared glowing and Frank got very interested. Mac's horn had glowed like that, right before Frank went home and tried to eat his gun. Lindsay stood for a few minutes and then her horn stopped glowing.

Lindsay's ears went down and her tail drooped, it was quick but Frank caught it, she is afraid of something. Then her ears moved back to normal and her tail went back to normal. Ok, lets see what she is going to say. Frank thought.

Frank waited patiently for Lindsay to walk up to him and say her spiel. "I have scanned the poor victim and his death was magic related. This will be a MCU case".
Can you tell me more?, asked Frank.
"No", replied Lindsay.
"Your supervisor will tell you more", Lindsay said in an officious tone.

"Damn unicorns", Frank thought.
Frank yelled "where is my coffee"?

While Lindsay walked down the stairs she thought about what she had learned from the body. Changelings! She had been a foal when the attack happened and now it was happening again. she was scared, they really know how to break in the new officers. It seemed that afternoon was not so bright and hot.