Time to lay your sleep head: Murders in ponyville

Chapters

The First Victim
Burnt apple pie.
before their time...
return to normalcy

The First Victim

This was a particularly cold winter in Ponyville, not one that was common around these parts. The weather ponies couldn’t explain it, their weather systems were working normally and they were taking all the appropriate actions to get it back to a reasonable temperature for this time of year. Even removing all the clouds for a week couldn’t warm the town enough to notice a difference.

Rainbow Dash couldn't get herself to get comfortable on the icy clouds above, so she instead found herself sitting alone outside a little café, sipping some juice and looking over a recent edition of a flier’s magazine, looking through an article about the Wonderbolts… She wasn’t paying much attention, but a looming shadow came over her, and caught her attention. She looked up and saw a familiar plume of feather surrounding a bright yellow beak staring down at her.

“Sup?”

“Gilda…” Rainbow glared up at the griffon staring down at her, an unamused look on both of their faces, “I didn’t think you’d ever come back…” Her cold words sounded as if she had been hoping that they’d be true.

“It got cold up north… I’m heading south… Thought I’d stop by and say ‘hey’”

“Well you said it, now how about getting lost?” Dash turned back to her magazine, but was suddenly grabbed and pulled out of her chair. Onlookers gasped, uncertain of what to do about the situation.

“You’re really ticking me off with that attitude of yours Dash.” She snarled, gritting her teeth together.

“Really? I learned it from the most annoying birdbrain I know.” Dash simply smiled, showing no fear to the griffon’s actions.

Gilda took a second to reply, letting the steam vent a bit before calmly saying, “I was GOING to give you one last chance to redeem yourself, Dashie… I was going to take you with me”

“Well too bad, I’m not interested, I told you before how I feel… I don’t like you, I don’t like how you treat me, or my friends… Now get out of here before I buck your beak in…”

Suddenly Gilda’s claw swiped at Dash’s face, sending her body to the floor. She let out an angry roar before turning and walking away. “Always a dweeb! There’s no help for you!”

Dash sat up and rubbed her face. Luckily she didn’t have any cuts, but she was still furious. She didn’t even bother finishing her drink; she just turned around and walked away, hoping to cool her own hot temper somehow…

Twilight bounced down the street in her little winter saddle and snow boots, with Spike sitting on her back, munching on an apple, “mm, how does Applejack keep these so fresh in the winter?”

“Not sure Spike,” she replied, hovering one close to her face with her magic, taking a big bit out of it, “Maybe- mm….” she swallowed most of it before trying to speak again, “Maybe you should ask?”

“Hm, I think I will, maybe it’ll work with Rubies…” Spike turned his head, looking down the road a bit. He suddenly grew less interested in his food and more curious about the commotion nearby. “Hey, what’s going on?”” Spike noticed a large group of guards hovering around an alleyway with yellow tape blocking anypony from getting too close. Twilight’s curiosity caught her and drove her to approach the tape, “Uh, excuse me sir’s… what’s going on here?”

The closest guard put a hoof out, signaling her to move back, “Ma’am, we have to ask you to move along…”

“Hey! Wait, that’s Twilight.” Another guard called out, heading over to the other’s side.

“Who?”

“Princess Celestia’s pupil?” he mumbled, hinting at the importance, to which he responded quickly.

“OH! Y-yes, sorry about that Miss Twilight… but still… I don’t think you should be around to see this…” he glanced around, feeling like Celestia herself was watching him…

“Why? What’s going on?”

The guard who came to her defense sighed, “There’s been a murder, Twilight…”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she swore her heart stopped briefly. Spike tried to swallow to relieve the sudden dryness in his throat, but with all the apple in his mouth he found it hard to do so…

“Yeah… we have no idea who did it… All we have is the body…”

Twilight took a deep breath, trying to stay calm, “Who was it?”

The guard shrugged, “A griffon, that’s all we know… no griffon’s live around here, so we’re not sure who it could be…”

Twilgiht twitched at this fact, “A griffon…” she only knew one griffon, but why would she be in town? “How did she die?”

The two guards looked at each other briefly, “We didn’t say it was a ‘she’…”

Twilight blinked, realizing her fluke, “Oh, well, I only know one griffon, and it’s a she, so… she’s been in town before, but… I don’t know why I thought it was her, it just slipped out…”

The guards’ eyes met once again, before turning back to her, “She was stabbed in the neck with a small sharp object… she died fairly quickly…” he turned slightly, motioning toward a line trail of red dots leading away from the alley, “Whoever attacked her took the murder weapons with them and went this way, towards the outside of town… the snow covered the tracks, just left the blood.” Twilight just nodded, looking down the road, imagining a pony running down the road with a knife in their mouth. “You say you know a griffon… would you mind taking a look and see if it’s the one you know?”

Twilght gulped, “I… I don’t know…” she glanced at Spike, fearing that the sight would torment his young mind… not to mention her own. She had seen cadavers in books, and thought nothing of it… but a body in her face… it tore at her heart just thinking about it.

“We’d really appreciate any leads we can get…”

Twilight took a deep breath, levitating Spike off her back and onto the ground, “Wait here Spike.”

Spike didn’t argue, he didn’t want to see the dead body… it scared him terribly just thinking about it…

Twilight carefully ducked under the tape, heading into the alley. Other guards were examining the scene, taking notes on anything suspicious. In the center of the alley there was a large tarp covering a large lump. Twilight could see what looks like a lion’s tail poking out of the end. Twilight carefully approached, holding her breath as the tarp was pulled back to reveal the face. The pained expression on the griffon’s face, her last emotion frozen on her face before losing consciousness… it was terrifying. But Twilight tried to keep herself from looking long before turning away, “Yes, Yes it’s Gilda alright…”

The tarp was quickly returned, “Alright, thank you… would you mind coming down to the station with us? We’re gonna have a few questions about Gilda here…”

She blinked, “Oh, I don’t know much about Gilda, she was just Rainbow Dash’s friend… a long time ago… but she broke off their relationship when she came last time, I don’t understand why she would be back… Or… who would want to kill her…” Sure, she knew a lot of people who dispised her with a passion… but not enough to kill her…

“SIR! Sir!” A guard rushed in from the other end of the alley, trying to get the Captain’s attention, “We asked some ponies at the local coffee shop, they saw the griffon with Rainbow Dash, and they apparently had a tussle just before they split up.”

“Well…” the captain seemed intrigued, “We’ll just have to ask miss Dash to come down too…” he turned to Twilight once again, “Is that alright with you?”

Twilight felt a stabbing pain in her heart. For a brief moment she thought that Dash might’ve attacked Gilda… but… no, no way, she would never… would she?

At the station Twilight sat in a room alone. They asked Spike to go to another room for questioning as well. She knew Dash was in another room being questioned as she was earlier, although now being a prime suspect she was probably being pressed for information more than her. She was simply asked where she was and how she knew Gilda…

The door swung open as the captain entered, “Alright miss Sparkle, you’re free to go now, your friend Spike is finished too. Both of your stories check out.”

“What about Rainbow Dash?” she quickly stood up, now knowing she was free to go when she pleased.

“She’s still being questioned, and her home is being searched… she could be here all night, or if we feel she might be our suspect, we could lock her up for the night.”

She bit her lip, feeling her eyes beginning to water, “She’d never do it! I know her! She’s a great friend and the loyalist of ponies… She’s never hurt someone…”

“Well according to a witness she exclaimed that she would buck her beak in… It’s a threat, could’ve been an empty one, who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see… nothing you can do except head on home an-“

“CAPTAIN! There’s something you should see!” the captain turned quickly, seemingly confused, “Sir, there’s…. there’s something strange out in the park…”

“What is it?”

“Blood… LOTS of blood, but NO body anywhere near it!”

Twilight stared in disbelief along with the captain, “That’s… What? How?”

The guard shook his head, “I don’t know! A big puddle of blood in the snow, with the stuff splattered all over the place… there were two trails leading UP to the splatter, but no trail leading away, and no body… just… Lot’s of blood…”

“I’ll be there in a moment… Did you get a sample?”

“Yes, already starting to test it against the missing ponies database… We’ll find out who’s it is…”

The captain turned to Twilight, knowing of her curious nature, “Twlight, I want you to go home… stay inside for a bit… Check on your friends if you must, but get home soon…”

“And Dash?”

“I told you, we’re keeping her here for a bit… we’ll let you know how things end up…” he gave Twilight a look as if trying to tell her to get going. She quickly obliged, taking Spike with her.

The streets seemed barren; news had gotten around fast. She made sure to move quickly, heading for her library for now. When she arrived, she found just about all her friends standing around waiting for her; Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike and even Applebloom and Scootaloo were with the group.

“Twilight! Thank goodness you’re here.” Applejack rushed over, worried over the sudden fear gripping the town, “What’s going on?”

Twilight took a deep breath, hoping she had her facts straight, “Well, I know there’s been one murder…” The room was silent. She expected some sound of horror, a gasp or something. Any noise would’ve been good to hear, but the terror that filled the hearts in that room forced them silent, “And then there’s apparently another incident… a lot of blood in the park but no body… There’s a murderer running out there.”

“Oh no! Sweetie Belle!” The group turned to Rarity, seeing her horrified expression, “I-I sent her out hours ago to get me some supplies! She’s still out there!”

The group didn’t have time to get their terror up to Rarity’s level. The front door opened up and Sweetie Belle hobbled inside, “Rarity? Are you in here?” she called out, looking around the group of ponies gathered around.

Before she could react, Rarity’s magic pulled here little sister across the room and into a hug, “OHMAYGOSH! I’m so glad you’re here! What on earth was taking you so long? Why are you limping?” an over exasperated gasp escaped her lips, “Was it the murderer? Did he get to you?”

Sweetie Belle smiled, although twitching as a bit of pain ran through her from the tight hug “I’m fine sis… I was just taking the long way home… I tripped and hurt my leg after I heard about the attack though… I tried to go home but you locked the door… so I came here…”

“Oh goodness, I’m so sorry Sweetie Belle…” She hugged the little one tight, pecking her forehead multiple times. Applebloom and Scootaloo giggled the sight.

“Rarity! Not in front of my friends!”

Applejack was getting a little annoyed by the scene she was making, “Look Rarity, we’re all glad that your sister is okay, but now that we know she’s fine we need to start focusing in on what the hay we’re going to do…”

Twilight decided to step back in, “Well, we only know of one person who’s been attacked… for all we know the blood could’ve been Gilda’s and she flew away to the alley… She didn’t exactly have a pleasant visit when she was here last, it could’ve been someone who was particularly hurt by what she did when she was here…”

The comment lead the group of ponies to glance at one another… as if labeling possible suspects already… Twilight was annoyed by the mere thought that any of them would have anything to do with it, “Hey! I see you all looking around, What the heck girls?”

Applejack felt a bead of sweat run down her neck, “H-hey, I’m not blaming anyone… you just said someone who was hurt by Gilda, and I was just thinking that what she did ta’ poor Pinkie was really harsh… I’m not saying she had anything to do with this!”

“Of course I don’t!” Pinkie said loudly in protest, “She may have been a big stinky meanie head! But I tried to throw a party for her! I tried to be friends with her, but she refused…”

“Come to think of it…” Rarity’s mind began to wander, and her mouth didn’t remain closed, “Didn’t you finally hit the edge when she yelled at Fluttershy?”

The attention of the room went to Fluttershy, who felt the heat of the spotlight and just shut down, staring back at the group like a deer in the headlights…

“Uh… Fluttershy… you haven’t been seeing Iron Will lately, have you?”

Fluttershy remained stiff, unable to move a muscle under the pressure of the situation.

“Of course she hasn’t…” Twilight stepped in, defending her, “none of us here did it… Sure Gilda may have hurt all of us, but none of us are murderers… And Dash isn’t either, we all should know better than that…”

The group suddenly felt terrible, mentally spreading blame to their friends… the all began to apologize to one another, even Fluttershy managed to speak up… apparently even she had some thoughts in her head…

“That’s better… now then, lets just all keep calm and head home… girls…” Twilight looked at the little ones, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, “You should all stay inside for a while, no going out to your clubhouse alone.” The three nodded, not really wanting to argue over this fact… they would probably be too scared to go out alone anyway…

“Alright… everyone stay safe… I’m sure this will all blow over soon…”

Burnt apple pie.

Time went by slowly. The winter remained icy cold, but the panic and terror gripping the city had begun to loosen it’s grip. The Gilda murder was still unsolved, and had very few leads to go on. Twilight was getting very little information about what was happening other than the investigation was still going on… She finally decided to head over to the station to get some answers.

She walked right in and passed by the receptionist, who was too busy with the phone to pay her much mind anyway. She spotted the chief and called out to him, “Excuse me sir!”

The chief looked over, letting out a sigh. He was apparently dreading this moment, “Hello Twilight… Lemme guess, you’re here to hear about the case?”

“You’re a smart stallion, Chief.” She smiled sweetly, hoping her charm would get her more info.

The chief just sighed, “to be honest, not much… we know the murder weapon was small, but sharp… a new pocket knife or something maybe… no suspects… and as for the mysterious blood, we found some chunks of what looks like bone… but it’s not nearly enough to go on…”

“Bone fragments? Not from Gilda?”

“Nope, not a match… we’re checking patient records at the hospital and looking through the missing ponies list, but so far we’ve got nothing”

“So then Rainbow Dash is no longer a suspect?”

“Yes, she still is a suspect… and… to be honest, many people in town are still suspects… she was not a friendly person, and she made a lot of enemies… Rainbow Dash is just a big one considering she was frie-“

The front door slammed open, a large red stallion rushed toward the receptionist, “We need help! Some guys were attacked on our farm!”

Twilight blinked, “Big Mac? What on earth is going on?”

“Twilight!” Mac rushed to her as fast as his legs could take him, grabbing her shoulders in a panic“The Flim Flam brothers! I think they’re dead!”

Every soul in the room looked at him with their jaws dropped… another murder… a double homicide.

Twilight, Big mac, the police chief, and a few investigators all stood in the middle on the apple fields, staring at the large mechanized vehicle once known as the Super Cider Squeezy 6000. it’s engine had blown, and a fire raged across it’s entire length. The first body was beneath the vehicle, tire marks dented into the very flesh of the crushed pony.

The other body took a moment to spot… but amidst the flames was the suctioning device used to pull Apples from their trees… and a pair of charred legs stuck out from in the entry nozzle as it blazed away.

Big Mac looked like he was going to be sick at the sight, forcing himself to look away from the horrible atrocity that had been committed.

The chief shook his head, sighing at the scene, “Can somepony please put this fire out?”

Twilight nodded, lighting her horn up with her magic, taking a chunk of snow from a nearby tree and melting it before drizzling it onto the flames. A thick black smoke began to rise from the burning mechanics, filling the air above…

“Alright boys and girls… you know what to do… take a look at what’s going on and I’ll talk to our friend here…” The chief motioned Big Mac to step aside with him while the investigators rushed to the scene to collect evidence. Twilight quietly followed the two, hoping to get some information on what happened.

“Well Mac, tell us what happened…” The chief led him far from the scene to keep his mind off of the bodies, while Twilight stood to the side to listen in, hoping her presence would comfort him…

Mac took a deep breath, rubbing his head as he tried to sort things out in his head, “Well… I was just working in the barn, er, just outside it anyway… When my little sister and her friends came running up from the fields… they said the Flim Flam brothers were riding around the fields… I was gonna go out and give them a piece of my mind… I bumped into Applejack and told her what the girls told me… she said she’d take them back home so they wouldn’t get involved. I eventually found… that…” he pointed over toward the scene, keeping his eyes away.

“So you were the first to discover the bodies… how long did it take you to find it from when your sister got to you?” the chief was taking mental notes, keeping detailed information in his head.

“Uh, about twenty minutes after Applebloom got to me… took me some time to find them… I think it took me another twenty to get to the station and back here…”

“What the vehicle on fire when you got here?”

“It was smoking…. But not on fire… I… I think the suction thing was still working when I found it…” Big mac seemed nervous, uncertain with the information he was giving… Twilight was beginning to get worried that he would be a suspect…

“So your first reaction when you saw this was not to stop the suction, or to see if the victims were okay. Instead you just ran?”

Big mac felt his heart drop, “I-I panicked! I didn’t know what was going on… I just… I just ran for help!”

The chief continued to press for information, “That seems like plenty of time to rough up a couple of skinny city folk to me…”

Big Mac’s jaw dropped, “I-I…”

“Chief, you know you cant make accusation like that.” Twilight said quickly, finally stepping in, “And Big Mac, you’ve given your statement, you don’t have to say anything else until you have a lawyer… and… just in case, I’d recommend it…” he nodded quickly, shutting his mouth and sealing it tightly.

The chief rolled his eyes, “Yes, but considering his statement that makes him a prime suspect… and I think his sister is just as big of a suspect as well…”

“Applejack???” Mac spoke up again, but a quick glare form Twilight caused him to shut up once more.

“Why is that, chief?”

“he said that he ran into her in the orchard… she could’ve been out here with the brothers… and the fact that she didn’t want her little sister to ‘deal with them’, it sounds to me like she might’ve been protecting them from seeing this…”

Mac bit his lip, trying to force himself from opening his mouth again…

“I can see what you’re saying, but it’s all speculation.” Twilight seemed confident in her knowledge of the legal system.

“Chief! Found something!” One of the investigators rushed to the chief, holding a few papers in his unicorn magic’s grip.

The chief glanced through the two papers before looking Mac dead in the eyes, “I’m gonna have to ask you and your family to come with me to the station.”

“f-for more questioning?” Mac asked sheepishly.

“No, we’re putting you under arrest under suspicion of murder…”

“What?” Twilight jumped in once again, “What kind of evidence could you have to do that?”

“Apparently an invite from the Apple family to the Brothers…” he said, reading over the piece of paper, “for some sort of… ‘Final challenge’… we’ll talk more later, but YOU.” Mac felt the cold eyes of the chief land back on him, “You’re coming with me…”

At the station the entire Apple family was separated into their own rooms, including the cutie mark crusaders who were put in their own room together with a child psychologist.

Big mac had given him story once more, going into as much detail as he could about what happened, hoping his honesty would prevail.

Applejack on the other hand, was angry and insulted that she was being questioned, “I’m the head of my families farm! You think I’d do somethin’ as stupid as murdering somepony and risk losing everything?”

“Look ma’am, we just want you to recall what happened today…” the officer was getting a bit annoyed by her stubbornness, but kept his cool under the pressure.

“I toldja once, I was walking around the fields inspecting the trees all dern day long.”

“It’s winter, what on earth could the trees be doing?”

“Tending to the trees is a year ‘round job! See if any trees are dying and whatnot…”

“Were any dying?”

“well, yeah, a couple…”

“Did you keep a record of which ones were dying?”

“Course I did! Right here in my noodle!” she pointed at her head, grinning with a bit of self satisfaction. She always did have a good memory when it came to her farm.

“Not on paper thought?” The officer didn’t have the time to take to admire her memory…

“Nah, I don’t need it…”

The officer suddenly pulled out a sheet of paper, “So then this doesn’t look familiar to you?”

Applejack pulled the paper closer, seeing the map of her farm with tiny X’s marked here and there, maybe a dozen throughout the farm. “No… where didja find this?”

“It was on Flim’s person” he said simply, “That, a letter, and a bushel of apples were all that they had…”

“Apples?” she blinked, looking down at the map once more.

“Applejack, this doesn’t look good for you.” The investigator explained, “You admit to looking around for keeping track of dead trees, and here’s a map of your farm where the bodies were…”

She looked up, connecting the dots the officer was giving her, “Hey now! I told you! I was memorizing them! I didn’t need a map!”

“Hm… well if that’s all you’re going to tell me, I’m going to talk to your grandmother… you stick here for a moment”

“Now don’t’chu go accusing her of nothin’! She’s been in the market all day! You found here there when you rustled us up!”

“I know, but we still have questions…” Applejack let out a huff, annoyed by the whole situation… but deep inside she felt afraid… her little sister was out playing and somepony was murdered… it could’ve easily been her instead. Although now she began to realize that as a prime suspect, she could be sent to jail for this…

In the other room, the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat with a special officer, a kindhearted cheerful young mare with a big smile, “How’re you doing girls?”

“Good.” The girls said around the same time. None of them knew what was going on exactly… they just knew they were being asked questions for… something….

“That’s wonderful girls… So what were you doing today before you got on the fields?”

“We were trying to see if making snowponies was our super special talent.” Scootaloo said quickly with a big bright smile.

“I made the best one.” Sweetie Belle added with a big grin.

“No way!” Applebloom quickly jumped in “Mine was so much better!”

The officer could tell she had to stop this before things got out control, “O-okay girls, tell me about what you did on your way home…”

Applebloom knew the farm best, so she started to explain, “Well… we were taking a shortcut through the fields when we heard voices… we looked and we saw those Flim Flam brothers picking a couple apples from our trees while they were driving around the field…”

“Really? What did it look like they were doing?”

“Well… I watched ‘em for a moment…” Applebloom said with a thoughtful expression, “Looked like one of ‘em was examining apples from each tree and the other was marking something off on a piece of paper…”

“Really?” the officer recalled a piece of evidence from the scene that may have related to this, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah! I couldn’t tell what it was, but he was definitely writing something down… Didja catch him up to no good? He was definitely stealing apples! Didja arrest him for it?”

“Er… I can’t tell you that…” the officer got nervous, not wanting to tell the little girls exactly what happened… “When did you leave?”

“Well, we thought they heard us, so we scattered… we found each other after a few minutes and ran back to the barn to get Big Macintosh.”

“Did you see Applejack around anywhere?”

“No, I didn’t see her…”

The officer nodded, scribbling down some notes for records, “Okay, how long was it from when you last saw the brother to when you got to Big Mac?”

“Oh, uh… I think about twenty minutes? I found Sweetie Belle first, then we got Scootaloo and headed up to the barn.”

The officer looked at the girls, seeing if they seemed like they had more to say… “Well thank you girls, just hold tight, we’ll have you out of here in a bit, okay?” the officer stood and head out to share her information with the chief…

Twilight sat in the chief’s room, waiting for him to finish examining the date he had… He finally let out a sigh, leaning back in his chair. “Well… Here’s the situation as I see it… The brothers were running around the fields gathering apples for some sort of challange with the Apple family that they claim they didn’t make with them… the little girls spotted them and caught them taking apples from their trees and marking something on the paper… from what they told us, the were taking good apples and marking where they got them on a map, the spots match up almost perfectly, so the map isn’t Applejack’s after all… The girls split up, and after twenty minutes they got back together and found Big Mac. Applejack took the girls back home after working the fields all day, and Big Mac found the bodies twenty minutes after that… so within a forty minute period the two were killed by somepony… Applejack doesn’t have much of an alibi to go on, and Big Mac has a much smaller time frame… but it doesn’t mean he couldn’t have done it too… There WAS that mentioning a ‘final challenge’ from the Apple family that still bugs me…” he shifted in his seat, waiting for Twilight to give her opinion on the situation.

Twilight thought quietly for a moment, “What EXACTLY did the letter say?”

“Well, it was from the Flim Flam brother to the Apples… It said ‘we accept your challenge, and we plan to put your money where your mouth is… We’ll be victorious, and it truly will be our ‘final’ challenge…’ It seems to me that they emphasized that because whatever letter they received mentioned it first…”

“But there wasn’t a letter FROM the Apples anywhere to be found?” Twilight seemed to have found a lead that she was following, hoping to help her friends.

“No… nothing like that…” the chief had a feeling he knew where this was going…

“Than you have no proof they invited them…” she grinned, wanting to flaunt her insight, “perhaps they planned to do something else and it backfired… they WERE caught stealing apples…”

“From a statement from three little girls…” he reminded her quickly.

“That’s right, THREE witnesses that say they saw them stealing apples.”

“which give the Apple family a perfect motive to get rid of them…” Twilight blinked, suddenly finding herself unable to talk, “Not to mention they tried to run them out of business once before… sounds like a strong motive to me… we just don’t have any strong physical evidence saying they did it… but we do have enough to detain them for a bit while we gather more evidence.”

Twilight listened quietly… and unfortunately she felt that he was right… “Okay… I understand… but what about the girls?”

“Well, Rarity says she’ll pick up her sister… but Applebloom will either have to be picked up by another relative or a close family friend… Scootaloo though, she doesn’t really have anyone… We’re going to need to send her to a foster home soon. We’ve been trying to get to her for months now…”

“Wait, you’re sending Scootaloo off?”

“Yes, we have a few places in Trottingham that would love to have a daught-“

“Whoa Whoa Whoa! You can’t do that! She’s Applebloom and Sweetie Belle’s best friend! You can’t take her away.”

The chief sighed. He really wasn’t in the mood to argue with Twilight about the issue. He had enough on his mind and having his guilty conscience being bombarded with more attacks wasn’t going to make him feel any better, “I know, but she’s homeless, we know she sleeps in Applebloom’s barn or sneaks into Sweetie Belle’s home at night. We know she’s stolen food before… that’s just no way for a girl to live…”

“I know it’s not, but still…” Twilight bit her lip, trying to think of a solution. “Let me and my friends keep her safe at least… if you take her away she’ll only run away and be alone outside… that would put her at risk for someone to hurt her… You don’t want that, do you?”

The chief twitched… again, Twilight’s stubbornness was getting to him. He let out a groan, rubbing his eyes, “Look… If she ‘happens’ to leave the station by ‘mistake’ and as long as we don’t catch her alone outside I suppose we won’t worry about her much… but if we find her out and about alone, we’re taking her somewhere safe, okay?”

Twilight’s face brightened, “Wonderful! Thank you sir.” She hopped up and quickly headed over to tell the girls the good news.

“Hold up a second!” The chief called out, “This case is getting big, and I need all the help I can get… If you find out ANYTHING about these murders I want you to get my attention quickly…” Twilight stared at him, a bit confused by what he meant exactly, “If you discover anything new I want you to send up some fireworks. Just a couple of red and blue strobes… I’ll come running as soon as I can, okay?”

Twilight nodded, “Yes Sir! I’ll make sure to get it done!” she started out once more, but stopped herself, “Oh, Is there any new information about the mysterious blood in the park?”

The chief sighed, “No, the extent of what we know is that two tracks led up to the blood, no body, and some fragments of bone… we have no theory as to what it could mean…”

Twilight bit her lip, the mysterious incident was bugging her… she felt like something horrible would be discovered about that… but for now she tried to push the thought away and headed out to gather the girls.

before their time...

At the library, Twilight had the girls in the kitchen, making snacks for them. Applebloom was getting frantic; she was never told why she had to leave the police station without her family.

“B-but Twilight! I finished my questions, and I saw more than they did! Why aren’t they coming home tonight?” she begged to understand why things were going this way, panicking about every little detail, “We can’t just leave Sweet Apple Acres unattended!”

“It’s okay sweety… The grown-ups just have more to discuss… It’s nothing to get all worked up about…” She had to admit that there was a tinge of concern in her heart… but she felt confident that the evidence wouldn’t be nearly substantial enough to keep them in jail.

“But-But!”

Sweetie Belle stuffed a hoof into Applebloom’s mouth, getting her to quiet down. “It’s nothing to worry about, Applebloom. They’re going to be fine… Just give it a little time and they’ll be out again! Don’t be such a worrywart.”

“Sweetie Belle’s right! Don’t freak out…” Scootaloo said with cheerful burst of energy, causing her wings to flutter rapidly for a brief moment, “It’s your family! They’ve dealt with the Flim Flam brothers before, they’re not going to take their stealing lying down! Those guys’ll be locked away forever!”

Twilight couldn’t help but feel a tinge of pain in her heart… if only they knew, “That’s right girls… you don’t have to worry about those thieves anymore…” she spoke softly, unable to put up much enthusiasm about the situation… “Now then, who wants a PB&J sandwich?” All three of the girls jumped up at the mention of food, eagerly waving their hooves in the air. Twilight passed the plates to them and let them get distracted by the food.

A knock caught Twilight’s attention before her mind could drift off to terrible places. She wondered who it could be, but then it hit her, “OH! Girls, weren’t you and your classmates suppose to be coming to the library to look for books?”

Sweetie belle swallowed first, so she was first to answer, “Yeah, but that was before the whole Flim Flam thing…”

“Right… well you all can hang out in here while I help them out.” Twilight casually trotted over to the door, opening it up and spotting Cheerilee surrounded by the class, “Hello! I’m sorry I had the door locked…”

Cheerilee smiled, giving her an understanding nod, “It’s okay, I understand… with all that’s going on around town, I’m locking my doors at night too…” she ushered in the students, counting them out to make sure they were all there. “Alright children, take a look around. I want everyone to pick out one book to take home tonight to read. Run along now.”

The children scattered and began to take a look around, mostly finding very advanced books. However they managed to find books of interest to them, even at their lower reading levels.

Cheerilee was approached by twilight, trying to start a conversation, “So uh… have you heard about what’s going on at Sweet Apple Acres?” Twilight hoped she could talk to somepony about this, maybe ease her mind knowing the burden of her knowledge was being shared.

“I heard something was happening… a lot of police, but… I haven’t heard much else…” she lowered her head a bit, quieting down to a whisper, “Is everyone okay?…”

Twilight hesitated, but even in the brief second of silence she could see the worry in Cheerilee’s eyes double, “Well, the Apple family is okay… Applebloom is in the kitchen right now…”

“Oh thank goodness… but… is someone NOT okay?”

Once again, Twilight hesitated, “You remember Cider Season not too long ago?”

“Yeees?”

“The flim Flam brother?”

“Yes…”

“They’re gone…”

Cheerilee felt her heart sink, “Oh no…”

“Yeah… I know… It’s terrible… the rest of the Apples are in custody right now being questioned…” Twilight shifted a bit, now feeling worse than before. Spreading the burden didn’t lessen the weight for her, and now someone else had to bear it.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry…” She reached over and gave her shoulder a pat, hoping the contact would cheer her up… It didn’t.

Another knock at the door caught their attention. “I wasn’t expecting more company…” Considering the events as of late, she felt nervous to answer the unknown guest… but her magic opened the door and allowed them inside…

A hooded figure headed inside, not the usual brown cloak she was use to from Zecora. However the starry night sky and crescent moons on the faded purple fabric was more than familiar. The mare’s head flicked back, removing the hood and revealing a silvery blue mane and a horn. Twilight was shocked to see the familiar face, “Trixie?”

Trixie immediately approached Twilight, pulling out a roll of parchment, “Trixie received your letter… your apology was very touching…” it unraveled to reveal a letter, addressed from Twilight to Trixie; A heartfelt apology for upstaging her during her performance.

“I-I didn’t write this…” Twilight took the letter quickly, “I never sent an apology letter!” Twilight protested as she read through it.

“It’s is fine Sparkle, there is no need to be embarrassed about being sorry for your actions…” she waved her hoof to hush the protests coming from Twilight, “But… The great and Powerful Trixie must admit… things might not have been so bad if Trixie had not boasted so much... The fans would not have gotten so eager to see Trixie vanquish the great Ursa Major if Trixie had not lied… And for that, Trixie is terribly sorry…”

Twilight blinked, feeling confused, “I… okay, Thank you?” Twilight looked up from the letter to find Trixie much closer than before, her nose nearly touching hers.

“Wonderful, Trixie is glad that you accept her apology.” Suddenly the mare leaned in and pressed her lips to Twilight’s. Still distracted by the cloud of confusion, she couldn’t force herself away. Trixie pulled back and pulled her hood up once more, “Now then, Trixie will be heading back to the hotel on 3rd street… And Trixie doesn’t mind guests…” She smiled and headed back out the door, leaving Twilight paralyzed with confusion.

Cheerilee wasn’t sure if she should giggle or be mortified. Luckily most of the children were distracted by books… unfortunately the Cutie Mark Crusaders were right there watching the whole time, “Oh wow, that was… interesting.” Scootaloo laughed heartily at the look on Twilight’s face.

Applebloom let out a little giggle as well, “Aw heck, she doesn’t seem as bad as everyone said she was. She was nice enough to give ya a kiss! How can Trixie be that bad?”

“Wait, that was Trixie?” Snips and Snails quickly rushed over, seeing the mysterious mare leaving.

“What? Why didn’t you tell us!” Snips looked at the cutie mark crusaders, as if he was insulted that they didn’t let him know sooner.

Scootaloo look annoyed, “What? Are you two still fans of that show off?” She didn’t seem too impressed by what she saw…

“Well, kinda…” Snails replied in his drawl voice, “I mean, she’s still great and powerful to us, right Snips?”

“Yeah! She’s still super awesome! Even if she did kinda make up the Ursa Major thing.”

“Yeah, and remember how she convinced two dodo’s to go out into the woods to bring an Ursa Minor back into town?” Applebloom replied, glaring at the two boys. She didn’t seem to be very forgiving on that fact…

The two shrunk back a bit, obviously still upset by their own reckless actions…

Twilight was still frozen, he normally quick mind was at a standstill. She couldn’t process the information fast enough and it caused her to just… stop… but finally she latched onto a fact that didn’t involve Trixie directly…

“A letter I didn’t write to someone who negatively affected me a long time ago… Just like Applejack and the brothers… Oh no…”

Cheerilee could see the horrified expression sweeping over her face, “Twilight? What’s wrong?” she asked quietly, moving closer so their conversation didn’t get to the nosey children nearby…

“Someone sent a fake letter to the Flim Flam brothers and lured them into Ponyville… and now someone sent a letter to Trixie to get her here…” Twilight looked at Cheerilee, a bead of sweat running down the side of her face. “Somepony is going to try to kill Trixie.”

Cheerilee felt a chill run up her spine, uncertain of how events would unfold now… “I’ll gather the children and take them to their homes… you get going and find Trixie… Children!” she called out to everyone, “I hope you have a book! Let’s hurry and get out of Twilight’s hair for the day… it’s almost sundown anyway!” the children began to gather around, all carrying their own book, “Okay, You three should come with me as well, we’ll drop you off at Rarity’s house.”

“But Twilight was taking care of us…” Sweetie belle whined soflty.

“Twilight has things to do… now come on! We should get going…”

“But I haven’t had time to get a book!” She whined once more.

“That’s fine sweetie Belle, we’ll worry about that later, for now I need you to come with me, Let’s go!” she seemed very insistent and soon the children were all heading out the door.

Twilight took a deep breath, trying to get her courage up to go out and find Trixie once again and save her… if only Spike was here…

“Spike? SPIKE!” she took a look around, her little friend was nowhere to be seen… “SPIKE! WHERE ARE YOU?” She yelled, starting to get worried. She couldn’t recall seeing him lately… where was her little friend?

“I-I’m up here!” his voice echoed from the bookcase… Twilight rushed to it and began pulling out books shelf by shelf until she spotted spike, hiding in the back in the fetal position.

“Spike! What’s wrong? What are you doing?” her magic pulled him out of the confined space.

“Are you crazy? There’s a murderer out there! I’m staying in hiding until he or she is caught!”

“Spike… I’m here for you…” she pulled him close and gave him an affectionate hug. “I’ll make sure you’re safe… but you gotta stick with me… you can’t hide where I can’t find you…”

Spike smiled awkwardly, finding his childishness a bit embarrassing, “Yeah… okay Twilight… Thanks…”

Twilight smiled at him, giving him another hug, “We need to go find Trixie, she’s in danger.” She explained, placing him on her back.

“Wait, you mean like murderer danger?” Spike felt his musles getting tense as fear swept over him once more, “I… I think I’ll stay here…”

“Spike, Please, I need your help!”

“I-I don’t think I’ll be any help… I’ve already seen too much… I don’t want to see any more…” he quickly crawled off her back, heading toward the stairs.

She almost forgot… he WAS a baby dragon… and already he had seen three dead bodies at such a young age… she couldn’t force him to risk seeing another… “Okay Spike… I understand… get some rest, I shouldn’t be long…”

Spike smiled at her as he headed up the steps, letting out a short yawn before disappearing into the unlit bedroom.

Twilight took in a deep breath, looking out the door at the descending sun… “I better get going…”

The upscale hotel was a pretty big deal in Ponyville. Usually it was too upscale for casual visitors, and only made up for that during the holiday seasons. But somewhere inside Trixie was in danger… And Twilight had to save her.

She headed inside and went up to the receptionist, “Hello, I’m looking for Trixie? The er… She calls herself ‘the great and powerful Trixie’.” She couldn’t help but feel silly asking for her like that…

“Oh, yes, she was expecting you… here’s your key ma’am.” Twilight look at the key being presented to her, “She’s in room 404.”

“Uh, okay… Thanks?” She took the key into her magical grasp and headed upstairs.

The room was at the other end of the hall on the third floor, and the key fit snuggly into the door, “Trixie! Trixie you in here?”

The room was dark… and silent… not a sound was uttered other than the brief echo of Twilight’s own voice. She took a step inside, flicking the switch to turn on the lights… but the room remained dark… a couple more unsuccessful flicks prove hopeless. Instead she used her horn to shine a dim light around, barely lighting the inside of the room. She saw a lump on the bed, and feared the worst, “Trixie… Trixie answer me! Are you okay?” she took a cautious sep inside, “Trixie?” another step put her inside just enough to not be hit by the door as it swung shut, blocking the hallway light, leaving her only with her dimly lit horn, “Who’s there? Show yourself!” Suddenly the room burst into sight as candles lit up around the room. The sudden brightness stunned her eyes, but as she opened them up a horrifying sight came into focus…

Trixie lay on her side, grinning mischievously at the guest in her room. Her cape lay in a suspiciously perfect position. Just barely covering her… personal areas… other than that all she had on was that smile directed towards Twilight, “Oh Sparkle… Trixie had a feeling you’d be coming here…” the dim lighting of the dozen or so candles spread across the room reminded Twilight of all the raunchy romance novels she skimmed through during a particularly lonesome phase she went through a few years back… Candles always meant someone had a certain something on their mind…

Twilight wasn’t going to allow herself to get shocked into submission again. She quickly pushed all this aside and blurted out, “Trixie we have to get out of here! You’re in terrible danger!”

“Oh? So we’re roleplaying then?” the grin only grew wider at the thought. Suddenly she disappeared and reappeared in front of her, her front legs already draping around Twilight’s neck, “Oh PLEASE Twilight… Save me from the horrible pony trying to hurt me… I know a place where we can be safe… and alone…” her voice was soft and silky, begging for attention. She let out a soft breath into Twilight’s ear, making her skin tingle…

Twilight wouldn’t have it though, she quickly pushed her away, “Trixie! I’m telling you that you’re in danger! There’s a murderer in town somewhere I think you’re next on the list!” Trixie stared in disbelief, uncertain of what to think… “I need to get you to someplace safe… Please, come back to my house, I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

Trixie just giggled, her little grin quickly returning as she felt like she was putting the pieces in the right places… “oh Twilight, you don’t have to make up stories just to get Trixie home… you just have to ask nicely…” She began to lean in, closing her eyes as she puckered her lips…

A loud smack echoed through the room. Trixie found her head facing towards the left now, and recognized a strong pain beginning to form in her cheek. She saw Twilight’s right hoof extended to the side, having just backhoofed her face… “OW! No! Trixie will not accept foreplay like THAT! Trixie is a lady! And Trixie deserves resp-“

Another smack sent Trixie into silence, her head facing the other way and Twilight’s hoof on her other side. Now both of Trixies cheeks were sore from the assault, and now she was the one shocked into silence, “Are you done yet? I’m trying to keep you from DYING Trixie, I have no interest in… whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish here…”

Trixie blinked, the words finally getting through her thick skull, “So… you didn’t come here to spend the night with me?” there was a lot of sadness building up in her voice… disappointment from this rejection was already tearing away at her heart…

“No, I came to rescue you…” she responded quickly, trying to stand strong in the face of a dying heart…

“Rescue? Really?” there was a sudden shift… just above complete and utter sadness, if only just so.

“Yes, there’s a dangerous pony running around and I’m afraid you might be next…”

Trixie suddenly felt a smile cross her face. A genuine smile of happiness, not just lust, “So… You care enough about Trixie to risk your own life to save Trixie’s?”

Twilight didn’t exactly like where this was going… but she nodded, “Yes, I do… I don’t want anypony hurt…”

“Trixie will accept this as first base,” she said proudly, walking past the purple mare, “we’ll move onto the others when the time comes… now then, you say you want Trixie to come home with you so you can protect Trixie?”

Twilight used her magic to blow out the candles before turning around to follow the magical mare, “Yes, that’s right… now come on, it’s already dark outside…”

“Yes Yes, don’t worry, Trixie will protect you from the things that go bump in the night…”

“Trixie. Don’t make me regret saving you…”

Twilight led Trixie back to her library without much resistance. However she couldn’t help but feel annoyed, feeling like Trixie was still lusting over her from behind… “Alright Trixie, we have a guest room next to mine, you can…” she trailed off, noticing something off… all the lights in the house were off creating a strange looming feeling…

“Your home seems very poorly lit…” Trixie commented as they approached.

Twilight ignored her and opened the front door… everything seemed very quiet… Spike was nowhere to be seen, “I could’ve sworn i-.” She quickly stopped talking, her ears twitching at a soft sound…

“Sparkle?” Trixie said softly. Twilight quickly raised a hoof, hushing her…

Humming… not from a machine, but a voice… a soft and familiar tone being hummed by someone somewhere in the darkness… Trixie motioned to twilight, tell her she was hearing it too… the two quietly entered the home, looking around slowly… then the humming turned into soft singing…

“Hush now, quiet now it’s time to lay your sleepy head…” The melody was a familiar to both of the girls, a fairly popular bedtime song sung for ages to children… but the mysterious voice singing in the dark gave it a much more creeping feel that something not quite right was about…

“Hush now quiet now it’s time to go to beeeed.” The voice echoed quietly throughout the library, it’s walls of books causing the sound to bounce back and forth around the room.

“Drift- drift off to sleep, the exciting day behind you…” Twilight motioned towards the kitchen, believing the voice was coming from that direction. “Drifting off to sleep, let the joy of dreamland find yooouuu…”

Twilight quietly approached the door, illuminating her horn brightly to look around… in the center of the floor she saw a lump. It was too dark to see… but something was laying on the floor. Trixie saw it and quickly flicked on the lights… finding that the lump was actually two bodies… two small bodies.

A skinny orange body lay ontop of a smaller, pudgier body, both limp and unmoving… “Oh dear Celestia no!” Twilight rushed to the children, but when she got close enough, she wasn’t sure what to do… if she were to attempt to revive them, she’d be messing with a crime scene… if she did nothing, than all hope would be lost… she decided to try… and flipped both of the boys onto their backs. She used her magic to perform CPR on both of them at once, pressing hard into their chests to try and get them to breath. But neither pony gave a response…

“T-Trixie will call the police!” Trixie shouted, rushing toward the door.

“Send up fireworks!” Twilight called out, still attempting to resuscitate Snips and Snails. “Red and blue strobes! As many as you can get into the air! They police will come then!”

“R-right!” Trixie rushed outside, using her flashy magic to send up a flurry of fireworks, lighting up the night sky with red and blue lights. Princess Celestia herself would envy how brightly her magic lit up the world. It easily caught the attention of police as well as the rest of the town…

The library was filled with police and gaurds in a matter of minutes… blocking off the entire home and questioning houses nearby…

“We’ve done all we can do… I’m calling it…” A paramedic sighed, taking a look at her watch, “Time of death, 10:42pm…”

Twilight felt herself losing control. Tears were pouring out of her eyes, and her body was shaking… She had already seen three dead bodies but to find two little boys dead in her own home… she found herself inflicted with many horrible feelings; somepony out there was mad enough to kill innocent children, and to lead them into her own home before murdering them… how could anypony do this?

“Alright Twilight… What happened?” The chief turned to her, a dark look on his face. Twilight couldn’t respond. The chief was getting annoyed, “TWILIGHT! There are two dead kids in here right now! The longer we wait around for you to get a hold of yourself the longer that killer is out there!”

Twilight let out an ‘eep’, shrinking away from the chief, “I-I-I just came home after getting Trixie… she got a letter like the Flim Flam brothers so I thought she was in danger. I came home and I… I heard…”

“You heard WHAT?” The chief was growing impatient, his own anger over the situation flaring up.

The room suddenly went silent at the chief’s yelling, but no one could get upset with him for what was happening. But their silence was interupted… everyone in the room heard a soft whimper coming from beneath the kitchen sink… Twilight looked towards the cabinet doors beneath the sink, using her magic to open them up. Inside Sweetie Belle was curled up, cowering in the back.

“Oh jeez, Someone get that girl out of here!” he called out. Some of the police scrambled over to try and help her, but she screamed, kicking at their attempts to save her.

Twilight rushed over, trying her hand at helping, “Sweetie Belle! It’s okay! It’s me! Twilight! I’m here for you!”

Sweetie belle sniffled, her eyes red from crying so much, “I saw it…” She whispered, wrapping her arms around Twilight, “I saw it kill them!”

“It?” Twilight could only wonder what ‘it’ was… “Sweetie Belle, you HAVE to tell us what happened… What did you see? What were you all doing here?”

Sweetie Belle took in a deep breath, trying to focus, “I-I didn’t want to get in trouble for not having a book… so I asked Snips and Snails to take me back here to the library to get one… We came in through the back and… something was in here already…”

“Something? What something?” Twilgith stroked the girls head, trying to comfort her.

“I-I don’t know… it looked like a pony, but… it couldn’t have been one… nopony would ever do what it did… only a monster could!”

The entire room felt their hearts aching. The poor little girl just couldn’t believe how horrible ponies truly could be… her mind morphing an average pony into a monster.

“I ran and hid in the cabinet… but… it got Snips and Snails… it said… it said it was getting rid of all the bad ponies… All the ponies who hurt others…”

Twilight couldn’t imagine what on earth the boys could have done to deserve such a fate… but it finally hit her… They DID bring the Ursa Major into town… The Flim Flam brothers tried to run the Apple’s out of business, and Gilda horrified and threatened dozens of ponies in town…

She quickly shook her head; she was beginning to justify the killer’s actions in her mind… There was no excuse for that. “Come on Sweetie Belle, I’ll take you home…”

“Hold on a second Twilight.” The chief stopped her, “Did anything else happen that might help us out.” Twilight could see the grief in his eyes. She knew he didn’t want the girl exposed to this any longer… but he felt like he had to stop these events from happening again…

Twilight thought for only a moment, finally thinking of something, “I heard singing…”

“Singing?”

“I heard it too…” Sweetie Belle added quietly.

“It was an old lullaby… ‘Hush now quiet now’…”

The chief nodded, running the song through his head… he imagined the killer singing it as it took the lives of these boys… “Alright… if that’s all, then get her home…”

“I think so, Come on sweetheart, let’s get you back to Rarity…” Twilight levitated the girl onto her back, setting her down gently. She latched on tightly, sobbing quietly into her mane.

Trixie decided to follow, “So… you weren’t joking about the murders, were you Sparkle?”

“Not Now Trixie…” She said sternly, motioning at the petrified girl on her back. “You just stay here until I get back…”

“Uh… Trixie would feel more comfortable-“

“You! Stay!” she instructed sternly, glaring daggers at the magician.

Trixie backed off, “O-okay…” She decided to try and find a spot to relax while the police did there work…

Twilight walked casually through the dark streets, keeping herself attuned to the world around her. She wasn’t going to let herself get surprised tonight. She walked up to Carousel Boutique and casually knocked on the door. She noticed that all the lights were out inside, which was usually strange for the hard working Rarity.

“Sweetie Belle, was your sister home when you left?”

Sweetie Belle hadn’t even noticed that they had arrived. She looked up at the building, noticing the lights too, “Y-yes, she was home working when I left…” her eyes widened, “Oh no! The murderer got her too! They murdered Rarity!” she screamed out loud, beginning to panic.

“Don’t say that! I’m sure she just went to bed.” Twilight quickly unlocked the door and rushed inside, heading up to the bedroom to search for Rarity. Sweetie belle quickly followed on foot. Rarity was nowhere to be seen, not in her room, her work room, or anywhere in the shop. And not a sound returned to them as they called out her name, turning on all the lights as they searched the house.

“They got Rarity! They murdered Rarity!” her words turned to panicked ramblings as she cried aloud, wailing in the middle of the shop.

Twilight was beginning to wonder if her crazed shouts were true or not… but she tried to calm the young girl, “I’m sure she’s fine, she probably noticed you were gone and went out to-“

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity rushed in through the front door, having spotted her home light up like a beacon, “Oh Sweetie Belle! What’s wrong?” Sweetie Bell latched onto Rarity, hugging her tightly as she cried, happy to see her sister alive and well. “Twilight, What’s going on? Where was Sweetie Belle?”

“Well…” Twilight took a breath, hoping to put the whole situation down gently, “Sweetie Belle was suppose to get a book at the library today… but she didn’t. So she went and got Snips and Snails to take her there to get one…”

“Snips and Snails?” Rarity almost sounded disgusted at the sound of their names, “Those two little hoodlums? What did they do to Sweetie Belle? Did they hurt her? I swear I knew those boy’s were no good!” she wrinkled her nose, appalled at some of the memories those two brought up in her mind, “Always causing trouble… Why if they hurt my little Sweetie Belle I’ll hang them I swear! I’ll hang th-“

“Rarity!” Twilight quickly interrupted her before she could make Sweetie Bell cry more. Just from what she said Sweetie belle grew louder as the images returned from earlier, “They’re dead, Rarity… They were murdered not tenminutes ago…”

Rarity’s eyes widened. She didn’t speak another word about the boys… she only sat there in silence, Sweetie’s cries still filling the room. After a few seconds of silence Rarity tried to calm her little sister… “Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to lay your sleepy head… hush now, quiet now, it’s time to go to bed…”

“Miss Rarity…” A new voice came up from behind her. They three girls turned and saw a police officer standing in the doorway, “I’m going to have to ask you to come down to the station…”

“What? What for?” She blinked, trying to understand what was going on.

“We found a silk scarf at the crime scene.” She explained, “A very fancy silk scarf… something you might own… we believe it’s the murder weapon.”

Rarity had a fire glowing in her eyes, “What? How dare you! You’re saying I murdered those boys?”

“I’m saying after hearing you threatening to hang them, and you being missing from your home right after the murder that you have some explaining to do…” Rarity felt her rage turning into fear. Her slip of the tongue was now evidence against her, “Not to mention the lullaby you were singing just now was what the killer sang as they were strangling the boys…”

She could only stare in disbelief… she was being pegged for murder. She looked down at Sweetie Belle, who could only look in silent horror at the events unfolding before her… “Sweetie Belle… Be brave for me…”

“NO! You can’t go!” Sweetie Belle cried.

“I have to… The police say so…” she stroked her hoof across her cheek, trying to comfort the horrified little girl. “I’ll be fine, you go with Twilight, she’ll take care of you…”

“P-please! Don’t go! I won’t let you!”

Rarity sighed, closing her eyes and concentrating. Her horn glowed softly, enveloping Sweetie Belle.

“No! Not the sleep spell… No… don’t…” her eye’s closed, and in just seconds, she found herself fast asleep on the floor.

“Take her with you, Twilight… Please keep her safe…” Rarity turned away, nodding at the officer as she was led out of the home.

“I will, Rarity… I’ll protect her…” she held the sleeping girl in her arms, stroking her head gently “Don’t worry Sweetie Belle… we’ll find out who really did this..."

Author's Note

And here is where the thumbs down will arrive... I know, this is really upsetting... but it works with the story... the reasoning of the murderer... if you can call it 'reasoning'

return to normalcy

Days passed quietly. The citizens went about their days in silence. The schoolhouse closed as students were kept in their homes, mourning the loss of their classmates. Twilight kept the cutie mark crusaders close while the Apple family and Rarity were questioned.

Finally Twilight got some good news from the police chief; a letter telling her that the Apple Family and Rarity were being released from custody due to a lack of evidence.

“Great… Thank goodness.” She muttered, turning to the girls who were currently playing dress up with Spike… using Spike as the mannequin. It was clear he wasn’t exactly enjoying himself, but considering it was either this, or dealing with three little girls in mourning, this was the better option.

“Girls, good news, the police are letting your sisters out today… they’ll be heading to Sugarcube Corner around noon.”

The girls turned to her, their eyes gleaming with happiness, “Really? That’s great!” Applebloom was the first to begin jumping with joy

Sweetie Belle was just as eager to hop into the joyous moment, “Thank goodness! I was worried about Rarity”

Scootaloo looked over at Twilight curiously, “Is Rainbow Dash still with them?”

Twilight shook her head, “She’s been at home for a few days I think… She was pretty shaken up when… her old friend got hurt…”

“You mean when Gilda was killed…” Scootaloo said softly, shifting in her seated position. The other girls didn’t seem to flinch at the words. They all knew what really happened, and even though it hurt their hearts they had come to accept the facts…not to mention Gilda wasn’t exactly the one they were mourning.

Twilight was a bit surprised by this… at their age she had no concept of death… but with Applebloom’s and Scootaloo’s parents leaving this world at a young age for them it became clear how they knew about death. Although it clicked in her head the Sweetie Belle was the odd one out. As far as she knew she didn’t have a death in the family… but, perhaps being friends with the others gave her this knowledge…

“That’s right girls…” she said softly, “Come on, let’s go ahead and get to Sugarcube Corner. Spike, go ahead and send a letter to Dash and Fluttershy to meet us there.”

“You got it!” he said, quickly pulling the dress off and scribbling a note to the other friends while following Twilight, who led the girls to the bakery.

The bakery quickly became filled with happy faces and cheerful laughter. The little girls were reunited with their families and loved ones, hugging and kissing each other lovingly. Twilight smiled as she watched the scene of happy loving family and friends gather together. The Apple’s all in a group hug, Rarity snuggling with her little sister, And Rainbow Dash hugged Scootaloo as Fluttershy ruffled her hair, all happy to be reunited. She did notice a missing piece to their little get-together.

“Anyone see Pinkie around?”

“I’m up here!” called out a tired voice along with the sound of footsteps, “Sorry Twilight, Mr Cake is out of town and Mrs. Cake had to go see a friend, so I’m watching the babies… whew! It’s exhausting work.” She said as she arrived with the others, “I’m glad everyone is okay.”

“We all are... it’s good to be back with people we care about.”

“Why don’t we all celebrate by baking some cupcakes? Maybe send some to Princess Celestia?” she suggested with a big smile. Anything to get her mind off of the workload of being a babysitter was good for her.

The group cheered, happily agreeing to the idea and moving onto the kitchen. With almost a dozen ponies in the kitchen one would think things would get hectic, but with the large area to work, everyone had plenty of space to make their own treats for themselves and Celestia. Everyone seemed to dip their hooves into every part of the process, from the batter to the frosting, to baking and cooling.

Before long the group had a tower of cakes and pies and cupcakes all prepared and ready for consumption.

“Alright! Who’s up for taking our share before we send the rest to Celestia?”
The group cheered before making their approach on the tower and plucking various treats from the pile.

“What’s in this?” Applebloom wondered, looking at pastry filled with dried fruit.

“Figs, I doubt you’d like them” Sweetie Belle warned, pushing it away.

“Eh, no, I don’t think so… I think I’ll just have a cupcake!”

“Oh! I forgot!” Pinkie exclaimed, “I meant to put on some special sprinkles for the Princesses cupcakes, hold on.” She left the room and headed upstairs.

“I wonder why she leaves her special sprinkles upstairs.” Fluttershy mused, still nibbling on a cookie she made.

“Are you honestly trying to rationalize how Pinkie works?” Rainbow Dash asked before chuckling, “She’s crazy, you know that.”

“Oh come on, don’t say it like that, that sounds mean.”

“I didn’t mean it like that! She’s still my friend… just crazy.”

Meanwhile, Applejack relaxed with her family, glad to be back with them and not locked up in a cell, “I can’t believe they honestly thought we had anything to do with that…”

Granny huffed, still a bit ornery about the situation “If those dern brothers weren’t so stuck up and dirty, none of this would’ve happened in the first place!”

Big mac bit his lip, quietly speaking to his grandmother, “Granny… You shouldn’t be that way… We should be respectful to the dead… Especially around Applebloom” he made sure to emphasize the last part, motioning to the littlest girl who was eating with her friends.

Granny huffed again, but said nothing.

Applejack poked in with her two cents “Granny, I know what yer saying, they weren’t nice people… but that’s why we’ve got to be better than they are…”

“Ah’ know…” Granny grumbled, taking a bite of a bran muffin.

Pinkie returned and decorated a few of her cupcakes before tucking the special sprinkles away, “Okay! So then, Why don’t we send these off to the castle?”

Twilight gave a little nod, turning toward Spike, “Spike! Would you mind?”

Her little dragon assistant gladly walked up to the pile, cracking his knuckles.

“Can he even send all that?” Applebloom mumbled to her friends.

“I’ve heard he’s been training with bigger stuff.” Scootaloo mumbled back.

Spike inhaled deeply before breathing a huge flume of flames against the desserts, engulfing them before making them disappear before their eyes.

There was sparse applause for Spike and his abilities, to which he bowed graciously, “Thank you! Thank you! I’ll be here all week.”

“That was pretty neat there Spike! But we’d best be heading back home.” Applejack said as she took a stand, “The apple trees haven’t been touched in days! Sorry we can’t hang around much longer.”

Applebloom hugged her friends before waving at them “Bye Sweetie Belle! We’ll see you tomorrow! Come on Scoots! You can sleep at our house tonight!” The two girls rushed out with the rest of the Apple family, talking about their plans for the night.

Rainbow Dash sat up and took to the air, “I should be heading home too. The weather team has been nothing without me around.”

“I’ll fly you home” Flutterhsy commented as they flew out together, “I don’t think it’s safe out there alone.”

Pinkie smiled as she watched the two leave, “They’re really good friends, aren’t they?”

Twilight smirked a little, “Yeah… Very good friends…” she snickered at the thought, apparently Pinkie didn’t know…

Rarity looked around, seeing their mess still evident in the kitchen, “Well… it certainly would’ve been nice if they had offered to clean up a bit…”

Pinkie just giggled at the comment, “Nah, they’re busy, it’s okay! I don’t mind cleaning up a bit!”

“Well you certainly shall not take on such a task by yourself. Twilight, grab a broom, we’re going to make this place spotless! And we won’t take no for an answer.” Without asking she magically summoned a washcloth, wetting it in the sink before wiping the counter. Twilight grabbed a broom and dustpan, sweeping up while Pinkie and spike worked on putting away the extra supplies.

“What can I do?” Sweetie Belle asked, grinning widely at the group.

Rarity hesitated, “U-uh… Well… Why don’t you relax in the other room? You’ve helped out plenty today.”

Sweetie Belle frowned, “But I can do something!”

“You’ve helped out plenty today cooking… Go on; relax for a bit. We’ll be done in a moment…”

Sweetie Belle huffed, grumbling as she headed back to the other room.

Twilight moved over to Rarity’s side, “Why aren’t you letting her help?”

Rarity sighed, washing out the cloth in the sink, “she’s still struggling with her magic… she’s desperate to use it but… she can’t do it… it’s… heartbreaking really.” Rarity rubbed her hoof against her skin, her eyes starting to get misty, “I’ve tried teaching her… I’ve been thinking about taking our savings and putting her into a special school, but… I don’t know if it’ll even help…I-I’m worried that she’s disabled…”

Twilight moved close, stroking her back with a gentle touch, “Hey, don’t worry about it… maybe I can pull a few strings and ask the princess about getting her into a special program…”

Rarity’s face brightened up, “You’re too sweet Twilght… thank you…”

Suddenly the front door’s bell rang, signaling a guest. “Hello Mr Cake!” Sweetie Belle called out before the tall orange pony walked into the kitchen,

“Hello girls! What’re we up to in here?” Mr Cake asked as he walked in, seeing the clean kitchen. “This place is awfully clean! I’m sure the misses is happy about this, huh?”

“Oh! Misses Cake is actually out at the moment, has been all day” Pinkie said with a cheerful smile… But her smile was not met with the same enthusiasm…

“Oh… did uh... she mention what she was doing?”

“Nope! I figured she needed some time alone, so I’ve been watching the babies all day. Speaking of which, I should check and make sure they’re not up to any mischievous, hehe.” She hopped past him and headed upstairs.

“hmph, They’re not the ones I’m worried about being ‘mischievious’…” he mumbled as he watched her head up the stairs, only to recall that the other two were in the kitchen. “So! Uh… had a good time I hope?” he grinned widely, clearly forcing it.

Both Twilight and Rarity glanced at one another, their curiosity piqued, but their minds telling them that it would be best not to ask… Instead they nodded happily as Twilight spoke, “Yes Sir! Had a wonderful time. We made some sweets, had some for ourselves and sent some to the Princess.”

“Great! Well why don’t you two take Pinkie to relax and enjoy herself for the rest of the day… I’ll take care of the kids and wait for Mrs Cake.” He said before heading out to the main room, finding Pinkie sitting on the couch with them and Sweetie Belle.

“Hey Mr Cake!” Pinkie called out cheerfully, giving him a wave.

“Hey Pinkie, I bet you’re exhausted being alone with the kids all day.” He said as he walked over to her.

She chuckled moving some loose hair from her eyes, “Yeah… But it’s nothing I can’t handle…”

“Well then, why don’t you go and enjoy yourself for the rest of the day? I’ll watch the babies…”

Her face brightened up a bit. She loved the babies but they were a lot of work for the young girl, and the idea of a break was a huge relief for her. “Okay! I have some errands I need to run anyway…” she kissed the two babies on the head before standing up. “Hey Girls! What’re you up to for the evening? Not heading home yet?” she asked, looking at Rarity and Twilight.

“Not yet… but I should be heading off soon, Trixie is still hiding in the library…” she said softly, “I want to make sure she’s still okay.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Rarity chimed in, a worried look on her face, “I mean… What if someone tries to hurt her?”

“I put an invisible bubble around the library. It’s very hard to break, and if any other life forms enter it I’ll know and Trixie will get a warning. I’m comfortable in these precautions.” She said with a confident smile.

Rarity nodded, tapping Sweetie Belle to usher her out. “Alright then… Let’s head out.” Rarity, Twilight, Sweetie Belle, Pinkie Pie and a sleepy Spike began heading out of the bakery… only to bump into Mrs. Cake.

“Girls! Well its’ good to see you! What brings you around here?” she asked before noticing Pinkie in the group, “Pinkie, why are you heading out? You’re watching the babies!”

“Oh! It’s okay Mrs Cake!” she said with a cheerful smile, “Mr Cake is back!” she responded with a big smile.

Mrs. Cake was not as enthused as she was, “O-oh… Well that’s great!” she said, forcing a smile, but it was clear she had a bit of a nervous look on her face.

Mr Cake arrived at the door, seeing her and smiling, “Hey Sugar Bear… Pinkie says you’ve been out all day…”

“Yes sweetheart… I was just hanging around with some friends…” she said with an innocent look as she walk passed, her eyes moving off to the side as she walked. However Mr. Cake suddenly jutted his head toward her bag, plucking a large orange feather from its contents…

Everyone was silent… the tension could be cut with a knife… Mrs. Cake had a look of pure guilt on her face, bits of shame and sadness sprinkled across her face. Mr. Cake glared daggers at his wife, one could imagine steam spewing out of his ears, and it seemed like he would scream at any moment… finally he glanced at the group of ponies, who seemed to be making assumptions on the situation before them… “Lets talk inside…” he said in a low voice before turning to the girls, “You all stay safe.” He said before heading inside with his wife, closing the door behind them….

Rarity bit her lip, shifting awkwardly, “Weeeelll we uh.. had best be off. Would be rude to stick around…” Inside they could already hear raised voice, but they ignored it.

Twilight nodded, rubbing her hoof nervously, “Yeah,um, lets get along Spike.” She looked back, seeing he was already sleeping on her back.

“Rarityyyy!” Sweetie Belle cried, hopping around with a pained look on her face. “I gotta go pottyyyyyy.” She cried out, holding her hind legs together.

Rarity glanced down the road seeing their house in the distance, “Well then we should head on back before-“

“No I gotta go noooow!” she whined, “I’ll just run inside and run back out.” She said, heading for the door

“Sweetie! I don’t think that’s such a good id-“ before she could speak the door opened up and closed behind her.

Rarity sighed, shaking her head, “I pray she doesn’t bother those two…”

“What’s wrong with those two anyway?” Pinkie queried, obviously not sensing what was obvious to the others…

“Uh… Well… Pinkie…” Rarity started, trying to think of a way to explain things, “You uh… you know about Mrs. Cake’s um…. ‘summer fling’ last year?”

Pinkie cocked her head, obviously not getting what she meant.

“The summer where she and Mr Cake had some… ‘issues’… And Mrs. Cake went off to Hoofington for a week?”

“Sorry, I can’t recall a specific time when she went off to hoofington… She went there a lot last year!”

The two unicorns glanced at each other… fearing that the reality was worse than the rumors, “Uh… w-well… You know how Mrs Cake gave birth to a unicorn and a pegasus… and Mr Cake is neither of those…”

“Yeah! But his great-great-great-great grandfather was a unicorn, and Cup Cake's great aunt's second cousin twice removed was a Pegasus!”

Twilight couldn’t help but twitch… the logic behind that was so flawed it made her head spin… The unicorn MIGHT make sense, but the probability was astronomically small… then there was the pegasus who had no bloodline relation to the stallion… but she didn’t dare try and pop Pinkie’s innocence, “Sure it does, never mind what Rarity is saying.” She gave Rarity a look, as if telling her to zip her lip…

“So why would that be a problem?”

“N-nothing… don’t worry about it… you go on and relax for the evening and we’ll see you another time…” Rarity cooed, waving her away.

Pinkie shrugged, “Okie Doki Loki! I think I’m gonna go get some more party supplies, I got a doozy of a party planned next week.” She trotted off with a big smile, unaware of the fight raging on inside…

Sweetie belle suddenly popped out, allowing the sounds of fighting out of the enclosed home, before closing the door behind her, “What’re they fighting about in there?” she asked curiously, hoping for an answer from her big sister.

“I’ll uh… explain it when we get home… we should be on our way…” she prodded her along, forcing her to get moving toward their house.

Twilight looked about, finding herself alone with Spike, still resting on her back… “Say, Spike… You awake?”

Spike muttered, apparently awake enough to understand that he was being spoken too.

“Well, I was hoping I could ask you about the night at the library… you were hiding right?”

“mmph, I don’t wanna talk about that…” he grumbled, shifting a bit, “Bad memories.”

“I know I know… but… still…” she couldn’t help but think about that night… someone snuck into her home and murdered two boys, while spike was hiding upstairs and Sweetie Belle in the kitchen… “You say you didn’t hear anyone or anything?”

“No… just you screaming… I came down to help but I only saw them…” he muttered, shivering a bit at the memory. “Hey… didn’t you put a barrier up?” he asked, rubbing his eyes as he stared at the library.

Sure enough, there was no a barrier to be seen. Twilight blood ran cold, “Wh-what? But I would have felt something!” she broke into a run, with Spike gripping onto her mane as he attempted to stay on her back.

She broke through the door, looking around desperately. Everything seemed normal; nothing was out of place… “TRIXIE! Where are you?” she cried out, rushing up the stairs. The door swung open to the bedroom, and in her bed in the dark room was a lump under her covers. A lump was caught in her throat. She could only imagine what terrible scene lay beneath, “Oh gods… Trixie…”

“Mmph, what is it?” a voice groaned as the lump moved. A figure rose, and looked her way, “You’re interrupting Trixie’s post-dinner nap…” she groaned, rubbing her eyes.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, “Trixe… I thought you were dead…”

“Aw, that’s so sweet…” she cooed in a tender voice “You care about Trixie.” She fluttered her eyelashes at her, giving her a sultry smile.

Twilight rolled her eyes, knowing the deeper meaning behind it, “But something is still wrong… someone turned off the barrier I put around the house.”

“That was Trixie’s doing… the light was coming in through the window and Trixie couldn’t sleep.”

“WHAT? Trixie! That was the only thing protecting you from murderous ponies!”

“Trixie has her priorities…”

Twilight groaned, using her magic to throw a pillow at her head before heading back downstairs, getting a book out in hopes of taking the time to relax and enjoy herself…

A few hours passed, and the sun descended into night… Twilight casually read through a novel, enjoying the little romance story… When a frantic knocking on the door caught her attention. Twilight quickly got to her feet and rushed to the door, opening it to find Pinkie, her eyes filled with tears and her hair no longer it’s usual poofy self.

“Tw-Tw-Twiliiiight!” she cried out, grappling onto her with both hooves, “Mr Cake left!” she wailed, hugging her tightly, “and he took the babies!”

Twilight blinked, “Wh-What? Pinkie! Slow down! What’s going on?”

She sniffled and backed up, taking a long breath before speaking again, “They had a fight… Mr Cake said that she cheated on him again and he wasn’t going to stand for it… so he took the kids to his mother’s house so he could file divorce papers…”

Twilight stared at her, feeling her heart sink, “Pinkie… I’m sorry… Maybe we should comfort them…” She felt bad for Mrs Cake, even though she brought it upon herself…

“Sh-She said she wanted to be alone… she kicked me out and locked the door.” She sniffled, rubbing her eyes, “c-can I sleep here tonight?” she asked softly, her voice cracking and her body shaking.

“Of course… I’ll make you a bed…” she said, stroking her shoulder before going around the house and gathering up some extra pillows and sleeping bags.

Time passed, the night continued on without hesitation, the two girls sleeping in bags, Spike in his little bed between them, and Trixie slept upstairs in Twilight’s bed… Twilgiht was unable to sleep though, the events of the past few days rushing through he mind… trying to piece together the events that had been going on…

Gilda was stabbed in an alley after confronting with Rainbow Dash. The twins were destroyed by their own machine. Surely anyone who could overpower a griffon as well as a pair of skilled unicorns would have to be powerful. But then there were the colts, Snips and Snails… how could anyone want to kill a pair of innocent children. Perhaps… they were witnesses What if they came in on the killer and were taken out… What would they be doing here then? Were they here to kill her? Was Twilight the target before the kids came along? Maybe… But… the victims… Gilda, the Flimflam brothers and the boys… they had all caused a lot of trouble in town… Maybe not purposefully, but they did cause a lot of trouble in town… perhaps this person was a vengeful and misguided person who thinks they’re being a hero by ridding the world of these people… but surely the children didn’t deserve this… but who would be next?

Trixie was certainly a topic of interest… After her original trip to ponyville an ursa major attacked, although that was mostly due to the boys. Although her second trip was much less devastating to the city itself, it certainly shook many ponies’ hearts… But why has she not been attacked yet? She was left alone all day and was unprotected… Surely that would have been the time to strike… maybe it wasn’t a good time for the murderer…

He concentration was blown away as the door to her home swung open, and magic laser fired into the room, hitting her, Pinkie and Spike, freezing them in place, making them unable to move. She could hear more magical blasts from upstairs, and voices in the kitchen. “WH-What’s going on?” she cried, seeing the ponies flooding into her home… they were royal guards, dozen of them.

“Main room is secure.”

“Kitchen and basement clear”

“We have one more in the bedroom, the rest of the house is clear.”

Two of the guards opened the front door, allowing another unicorn into the room… the captain of the guard, Shining Armor, Twilight’s brother. “What’s the situation?” he asked, looking at his second in command.

“Three ponies and a baby dragon have been incapacitated.”

“Shining! What’s going on?” Twilight cried out, feeling a bit panicky. She wasn’t in control of her own body movements and having ponies raiding her house.

“We’ll set up base here. Reform the basement to contain the suspects, Take readings of everything, look for diaries, and send out a squad to gather any and all witnesses.”

“SHINING! What is going on???” Twilight demanded, getting more frustrated. She began to concentrate, making an attempt to break the spell over her.

Shining used his own magic to strengthen the barrier around her, “Twilight if you try and get out of your bindings we’ll consider you a threat and treat you as such…” Twilight blinked, stopping her magical attempts. Shining seemed detached from the situation… like he wasn’t putting his sister under arrest,

“Twilight Sparkle, Pinkamina Diane Pie, Spike, You are all under arrest for the attempted murder of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and high ranking Royal officials.”

Twilight's jaw dropped, her words caught in her breath… did she hear him right? Was this really happening?

"As well as a resident of ponyville"

she blinked... was she being charged for one of the previous murders? or.. .god forbid... someone new...

“You have the right to remain silence… Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

“Shining… What happened?”

“You have the right to an attorney…” he continued, unmoved by her words, “If you can’t afford one, one will be provided for you…”

Author's Note

Uh oh... What is this twist?