Sherlock Hooves

Once Val and Sherlock had managed to chase the offending.... things away, Sherlock sighed with a bit of relive. "Don't know if I can deal with to much more..... That's not a bad look for you Val." Sherlock chuckled as he joked with his partner, attempting to make him feel better about growing antlers. He returned to the rock and began to inspect it, he started to dig around its base to see if they could lift it out. With little luck at lifting the stone out he did manage to find that the stone was far larger than he thought. "Wow this thing is big... more than I thou..... Hold on, what in Celestia's name?" With a little more he had found an opening, a hole. What was odd was that the hole was carved, this was pony made.

Sherlock began to twitch a little and start to feel his sanity slip but regained control, sadly to late to avoid being struck upside the head by a thick bit of liquorish. Falling to the ground and shaking the stars out of his head he quickly got back up. "Right I'll have you for that!" Charging forward Sherlock made an attack then dove between the monster's legs. He ran at the one holding Val and jumped, landing both hooves right in the animal's gut trying to dislodge Val from the monster's grip. Losing its grip on Val the creature turned its attention on Sherlock. Just in time to see the pony spin around and buck the monster in the face with both his hind legs. "Better think faster than that Val!"

Sherlock gasped at the attackers then groaned very audibly. "Really?! We're really going to have to fight these things?!" As they advanced he growled and jumped onto his hooves, "FINE! Val if I remember right you're a trained fighter correct?" Before Val could answer properly Sherlock shouted interrupting him. "Granted at this point it doesn't matter! HAVE AT THEE!" He charged at the kangaroos laughing a little mechanically.

Sherlock blink in a bit of confusion at Granola's comment, he smiled "Um... Yes I suppose we both are... brown. Granted I'm not sure if we have all that much in common.... Oh I'm sorry that came out wrong.... What I mean by that is, I'm quite eccentric and don't really fit with to many crowds. I drive most ponies nuts with my actions to be honest." He turned his attention back to Luna for the moment as she spoke, then taking note of the lone guard pony with her. "Oh well... didn't see you there mate.... sorry. Well I guess I was wrong.... that doesn't happen that often.... well I suppose everypony has their off days." Hearing Luna excusing herself Sherlock bowed lower than her, "If you insist your highness.... I would like to offer you something in return for my rudeness if I can." He thought for a moment then he had an idea, "Oh I have it! Your Majesty, and miss Granola. If the two of you, and your "escort" are still available later this evening you could stop by my favorite night club. I'm a member of The Speakeasy, its an invite only night club and restaurant. You two shall be my guests." Before either of them could refuse he raised his hoof, "Now before you object please let me insist. It was very careless of me, and I was quite rude to you both. Let me make amends." He pulled out a pencil and card, jotting down the address and hoofing it to Luna. "Please princess, it would mean the world to me if you would allow me to make amends."

Sherlock held back a snerk as Val reentered the vehicle dressed up, "I-I wouldn't dream of it.... *ahem* But you're right I think we're fine for now.... not sure if that was just a random attack or if we're being targeted.... I hope it was random. If Discord knew what we were planning...." He trailed off into silence as they continued to their destination. After entering Buffalo territory and a few miles in they had reached the last known location of the first item needed to destroy Discord. "There's nothing here!" Sherlock said frustrated, "Horse feathers.... I knew it was to good to hope that, that information would be that accurate.... It is over 1000 years old." He slumped against the vehicle and tried to think about what to do next, then something managed to catch his eye. A stone protruding out of the desert, "Hold on.... what's that? It looks like... sandstone? It is, now that is curious." Looking at Val's reaction Sherlock answered before it was need to asked. "Out of everything we've seen so far out here.... this is the most.... normal. Its unassuming if you weren't looking for it. But currently the sand we're standing on has been turned into sugar.... but this rock hasn't changed, why do you suppose that is?"

"Bullocks! Hang on!" Sherlock jerked the wheel left and right trying to force the oddity off the vehicle. Unfortunately with little success, the strange creature managed to stubbornly keep its hold. "Try and kick her off, and hold on!" Still shifting violently left and right Sherlock hoped that Val would be able to dislodge the thing from them.

"Mmm For about five years now. I've worked with their majesties' security forces and the investigation and enforcement guard. But I haven't been asked by any of the royal family personally.... Though I have been called in front of princess Celestia before.... though that was on.... *ahem* a criminal matter...." He chuckled and took another sip of his tea trying to think of a way to steer the conversation away from his incarcerations. "I actually got into the business because of my grandfather, he was the chief inspector for their majesties' investigation and enforcement guard."

Sherlock smirked at the guide a little, not wanting to ruin the fun for everypony else. "Oh I couldn't.... what fun would there be for everypony else if I just give away the secret. My apologies for interrupting please continue." He smiled some more trying to not accidentally insult the guide or anypony else that worked on the house. He truly thought it was very well done, he could just see through most of it.

Sherlock looked behind them out the back to see the charging heard and twitched at the site. "OH BOY! The long vertical peddle on the right!" Stomping the peddle to the floor the vehicle surged forward, kicking up a cloud of dust. Keeping an eye on the rear Sherlock saw the stampede gaining on them. "Blast they'll overtake us at this rate!" Thinking quick he quickly turned right then left to avoid being hit by them. Taking a lot of close calls, he managed to maneuver them away from the heard. Breathing a sigh of relive he smiled before looking back to the front and seeing the them all turn and charge them. "Oh horse apples."

Sherlock watched the ponies behind him faint and get carried off, he had to stop himself from laughing. Instead coming out as a snerk; He wasn't trying to laugh at the poor ponies, he just found this kind of thing amusing. One of the benefits... or drawbacks... to his type of thought process was the ability to break down a situation for what it was. See through the smoke and mirrors and find the truth; it came in very handy in the field but in times like this he wasn't able to experience the scariness of the haunted house. "Impressive acoustics these ponies really know their illusion tricks." He turned to Cherry standing firm, but still shaking a little. Trying to comfort her he wrapped his neck around her's and smiled, reassuring her that she was safe with him.

"Well I don't think we need much room... now... I think that these things are suppose to run under their own power.... How to activate it though....?" After a few minuets of looking Sherlock found the keys in the ignition, "Ah there we go... now... drive, accelerator, and break. Okay well this shouldn't be too hard." Pressing the accelerator, a bit too hard, the two fly off down the road and nearly crash into a wall before stopping. "Gah! Well.... okay then. A bit sensitive on the acceleration... keep it genital.... Lets try again." After a second attempt the two were off on the road to the great western plains and Appolusa

Sherlock blinked in confusion and looked out the window. "What in Equestria is an SUV? Oh... those new runabout vehicles? Well I think that will work... I don't know how to drive them though... But I'm sure that they can't be that hard." He reviewed his notes and nodded to his new partner, "Well the closest artifact's last known location was deep out in the Buffalo lands a ways out past Appolusa." Quickly folding up his notes he quickly made his way out of the library and to the waiting transportation.

Sherlock chuckled at Cherry as she took hold of his tail. "Just don't try and rip it out if you get scared love." He looked at each of the paintings taking note of them. The guide said that clues were left, "Lets see how obvious they're being with these clues." He looked them over intently and noticed several things immediately, but dept them to himself. Normally he would have told Cherry, but on top of being his fillyfriend she was also learning to be a detective, so he wanted to see if she could catch them as well.

"Its not something I'm very keen on doing myself Val... but its our last hope. I just hope we can find these things again. The locations listed here are from over 1000 years ago... they could be anywhere by now." Sherlock jotted down some notes from the originals and placed them back on the shelves. "The only thing is how are we going to keep our sanity while we're doing this?" He sighed and started for the upstairs, "We'll need to see if we can procure transportation, preferably something that has been exposed to the shielding spell."

"Its because if we do this it will kill him..." Sherlock immediately answered Val's question. He was a little cold about it, he didn't even look up from reading the notes. "That's why we never heard of it. The princesses knew about these items and they knew that they would stop him... but they couldn't do it. As much as it was needed to stop him... Celestia and Luna couldn't kill him..." Sherlock got a little solemn as he reads on. "Now it is pretty thin... even when Celestia and Luna fought Discord the first time around this was just a myth... but the three items are supposedly at the far corners of Equestria, and when they are found they need to be brought together and destroyed... That's real thin... freaking anorexic." He looked up and thought to himself for a moment. "Though at this rate... I'll take thin over horse shoes made of jello."

"Wait a what?" Sherlock asked as he nearly pushed Val out of the way and read through the passage. "A dagger, magic 8 ball, and a pogo stick? This seams strange... but this is Discord... Maybe there's something mentioned in the Princess' notes." He turned back to the parchment he was reading through skimming for the items mentioned. After a fare amount of time he beamed and cheered. "That's it! That's the answer!" He started to bounce happily and laugh with a little bit of glee. Eventually he stopped and chuckled a little maliciously, "This is the answer. According to the Princess' notes there was a myth about three objects, of unknown origin that held his power, and bound Discord to our world. I would bet the small amount of my sanity left, that those three things are what the myth were about." He smiled triumphantly as he continued, "The myth says that if these three unknown objects are brought together and distroyed, Discord will lose his power and be cast out of existence!"

Blinking a little from the swift change in lighting Sherlock smiled a little at the spectacle. "Oh well that was actually quite good, well executed." He turned to Cherry and gave her a reassuring nuzzle, he hated to admit it but she was cute. Following the new guide up the stairs he chuckled quietly at her words. He didn't scare easy, well at least when it came to theatrics, but he wasn't about to be rude and start pointing things out. That would be unfair to the group and the effort put into the attraction; so for everyone's sake, especially Cherry's, he kept his attention on her trying to make her feel safe. "Its alright Cherry I'll protect you from any more monsters." He struck a silly heroic pose trying to take her mind off things for a little bit.

"Indeed, trying to hang on to the little remaining sanity in this world now is like trying to empty out the ocean with a tea spoon." After a few minutes of searching Sherlock gave an excited shout, "YES! This should prove useful..." He pulled out not a book but a few leafs of parchment and set them on a desk. They were covered in dust and very old but not as delicate as one would think, a preservation spell perhaps. "Lets see... "The year 3434 of the Second Age, here follows the account of Celestia, Princess of the Sun and ruler of Equestria." This is the personal notes of the Princess! I wonder... this will take some time to read through.... with luck there will be something about Discord in here." Taking the papers and dividing the stack in half he hoofed one half to Val. "Here read through those and see if anything comes up."

Sherlock rolled his eyes at the guide through the house, but he knew that Cherry wanted to go here so he kept his mouth shut. Noticing Cherry shaking like a leaf he set a hoof on her shoulder and pulled her in close to him. "Don't worry Cherry, you'll be fine" He followed the group into the parlor, made up to look like a more terrifying version of a 19th century home, their version of terrifying was to make it look old and uncleaned for some reason. Sherlock was familiar with the works of Mr. Poeny, they were good horror poems and stories, but he never thought of them as terrifying.

Sherlock spun around ready to fight the possible intruder, seeing that the young stallion appeared normal and coherent he relaxed. "Normal... I find that somewhat ironic..." He chuckled a little then started talking more to himself than to Val. "I mean everypony thought I was very odd back before all this happened... I guess they still think me odd though... because I'm not a crazy as the rest of them... Sorry, yes to answer your question, I have yet to be affected by Discord's chaos." He turned back to the stairway and started walking still speaking, almost like he expected the stallion to follow him. "I had grown so annoyed of... this... that I finally had to try and figure out a way to stop it. Sadly my research has yielded nothing." The stairway ended and opened up to a large old looking room with only the lite from upstairs casting a faint glow. "Oh this wont do... lets see." Pulling something from his vest pocket he reached up to a hanging torch and made a spark lighting it. The pail lite reviled a large room with shelves, old shelves. And rows of old books. "But maybe this will be of help... Mind giving me a hand with the rest of these?"

The doors opened and a pony dressed at a vampire jumped out to greet them. "Hsssss Velcome to vhe haunted manson. Ve warned, all who enter abandon hope! HA HA HA!" Sherlock rolled his eyes at the comically silly looking vampire pony and started into the house, "Veee'll see about D'at!" Sherlock sarcastically replied

"No, NO! Out get out I'll not have more of this in here!" Sherlock was shouting a a heard of balloons and forcing them out the door of his office. After getting them out he gave an exasperated and frustrated sigh. He stomped his hoof very angrily, he was tired of it. He wasn't putting up with this any longer, "That's it! If I stay in this world much longer I'll lose myself to this lunacy! So either I find a way to fix this... or I die trying to. Either way I'm free of it!" He laughed, somewhat insanely then quickly got hold of himself. He could feel it, it was harder and harder each day. He got his things, that were still normal, together and started out; looking back at his home for what could be the last time, then bolted down the street. "I still know of one place in this loony bin that hasn't fully lost itself. The ward that Celestia put on the palace will probably be the last thing to fall to Discord." He bolted past the chaos and confusion dodging moving walls and dancing bison. Finally he reached the palace, the wad protecting it kept the chaos influences at bay. Only allowing ponies not yet effected by Discord's influence. Racing up the stairs he made his way to the library, and began to scan through the books, enjoying the moment of peace that has eluded him these past weeks. He had spent hours looking through the books, history, magic, the elements of harmony, but nothing. "ARGH! Nothing! Not a single clue" He gave into his frustrations by tossing the book he was reading at a wall. "To everypony's knowledge only the Elements of Harmony could stop him... but they failed... so what now?" Taking a deep breath he regained his composure and waked over to pick up the book he had tossed across the room. When he got there he noticed something odd, he could swear he felt something. A breeze, very faint but it was there. Setting the book down he pulled out a small pouch with a nozzle on the end; giving a squeeze a fine white powder was sprayed out and floated around, then was blown away by the breeze showing its origin. "Hmmm peculiar..." Placing the pouch back he started to feel at the wall and knocking on it in different places listening to the sound. *thunk* *thunk* *THUNK* "There we go" Feeling along he noticed a hinge on the wall lamp, he gave it a tug and the wall and part of the floor opened to revile a passage, a spiral staircase going down. "Most engaging"

Sherlock smiled a little out of embarrassment and waved his hoof. "Oh its nothing amazing as all that. Its not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. Get a case, track down suspects, wait... wait some more." He chuckled trying to play off his job choice as more of a tedium than some of the excitement he went through the night before. He stretched his back and forelegs before taking another sip of his tea, sighing happily "Oh excuse me Miss Misty... I didn't get the best night's sleep either... and I suppose I look quite the mess." He chuckled a little about his appearance.

Sherlock awoke... well that would imply that he had actually gotten sleep to wake up. No he had, once again, the worst night's sleep ever. There was just no getting comfortable with the lunacy that was going on. Ever since Discord had taken over Equestria nothing was what it was suppose to be, the detective hadn't had a case in months and everything else in the world was starting to get to him. He had been asked by the palace guard and security force to help with anything that could stop Discord, but ultimately they failed. From that day things had began to slowly fall apart; at first the damage was limited to Ponyville and the valley it rested in, but soon enough chaos had spread to all corners of Equestria and the capital fell. By shear will he had managed to hold onto his sanity and a few scraps of order in his life, but they were weak and wouldn't last for much longer. He sat at his desk... well the giant marshmallow that use to be his desk and stared out the window at the constantly changing sky. "I can't deal with this much more... I mean I use to be thought of as eccentric but this!... I can't just let this continue.... what to do...?"

Sherlock chuckled at Cherry's reaction usually she was a lot braver and more together than this, he found it very cute. He looked back down at his costume and smiled for her, "Well I'm very happy you like it Cherry. You... uh look very good as well..." He stood at her side and started to walk with her into the house, chuckling at Cherry's fear of monsters. "Don't worry I'll keep you safe."