Twain
Chapter: 01
"Welcome to Brumby Junction"
Written by: Arcict Gray
Once upon a time our story begins,
with two pony sisters, the Hope Twins.
Together in their town of Hollow Shades,
a place where memory into legend quickly fades.
Though twins they were called yet not entirely so,
one had a horn but the other, alas, no.
The older, the unicorn was brash and bold,
studying many arcane magics of old.
The younger was small and eager to help,
so sad, so pitiful, that little whelp.
Our tale begins when the older sibling,
noticed the younger was imitating;
the older sister's habits, likes and manners,
and yes even the elder's occasional stammers.
Wishing that the younger one could enjoy,
even the simplest of any unicorn toy.
As her wishes remained yet unfulfilled, the elder was forlorn,
Wanting nothing but to give her sister, her own unicorn horn.
Until one day, when the younger returned home from an errand,
and stumbled upon an unfinished spell, the elder's greatest errant.
Penniless Ambition walked slowly along the dirt path as it wound its way along the edge of the southern border of Foal Mountain Forest. As she walked, she barely noticed the striking sunset in the west, partially obscured by the mountains of Canterlot, the ribbons and rays of powerful gold and orange and rosy red light streaming through the thin clouds that were all that remained of what must have been somepony's afternoon rain. The yellow glow of evening striking and reflecting off the closer clouds in the east all but bathing the world in an otherworldly light that resonated and highlighted the natural beauty of the world all around her.
She barely saw it, partly because her head was shrouded under a hood that obscured everything except the road immediately before her. But mostly, because she cared not for beauty or light, not anymore. She had a mission, to escape and survive the horrors that had struck her home, Hollow Shades.
Penniless was no stranger to the basic wounds and scrapes that a scrappy and eager young earth pony would get themselves into. Even so, to see that much blood, over and over again. It was too much for the young mare and, as such, she had fled. It wasn't just the blood, nor was it that the victims had all been torn apart. It also wasn't just that there had been no less then ten victims. Nor was it that there had been a new victim almost every night since it had began. All of these things had played their part, but to Penniless, the most compelling thing about the murders was the very first victim.
The first victim had been her sister, Bountiful Ambition, and that one had been particularly gruesome.
Penniless trode on as the sun continued to sink, it's brilliant warm colors fading and shifting into the cooler purples and twilit hues as night began to creep its way into the world. Finally Penniless stopped on a gentle hill, little more then a small rise, giving her a view of what lay before her, the small community of Brumby Junction.
Brumby Junction rested at the last bend in the Old Forest Road that took it close enough to the railroad tracks so that a short simple trail (later developed into a street) could connect them. That meant that anypony that was walking west along the Old Forest Road had only this one last chance to get onto a train before the two parted ways. The community, though few in population, took up a fairly wide tract of territory as several ponies, though living a few miles away in some cases, still considered themselves residents to the village proper.
The town mostly existed along the street that connected the Old Forest Road on its northern end to the train tracks on its southern end. In the rough center of this street lay the inn. The inn boasted of no less then three stories, practically a shining palace to the small community. Besides the inn there was a short but broad (in the back anyway) general store as well as what appeared to be a small restaurant and even a small shack with a large gold star on its outer wall that glinted in the failing light.
Penniless finally had eyes for something and she quickened her pace as she went for the inn.
Though named Penniless, she did in fact have a few bits to her name, some of which she spent renting a room for the night. Seeing the rack of pegs used for hanging keys, she noted the empty pegs that were vacant of their keys.
"Is there some event happening that I don’t know about?" Penniless asked. "There are a lot of rooms checked out."
"It is a new holiday they are trying to set up in Ponyville." Answered the innkeeper, Bedtime Story. "Just like how most of us now celebrate the defeat of The Mare in the Moon on Nightmare Night. But down in Ponyville they are trying to create a new holiday, 'Harmony Day', to celebrate the defeat of Discord. The prospect of a new holiday has attracted an unseasonable number of guests passing through."
"I wish I had something to celebrate." Penniless murmured under her breath as she took the room key and trod tiredly away from the front desk.
Though the inn was simple it did maintain a few simple amenities. To the right of the lobby and front desk was a wide and well made stairway, boasting of its deep red rust-wood stairs, simple and boring elsewhere but exciting and almost regal-feeling in the small town. To the left of the front desk was the small cafeteria and guest-lounge, sporting several small rust-wood tables with glass tops surrounded by several smart looking chairs. Though the inn never made the income to justify it having a pool yet, even so there was a pond out back that the owner pined over expanding so as to attract boating tourists and the like.
Penniless slowly walked her way up the stairway to her designated floor and then turned into the hallway. As she did so, she passed several other rooms, and even a late night traveler who seemed to have some weird purple lizard as a companion of some kind. The purple unicorn used her magic to open their door and entered. Her companion began picking up a moderate sized luggage case he'd left on the floor as Penniless passed by them on her way down the hallway.
"But Twilight! I wanted to get some souvenirs while we were here." The little dragons complained.
"I know we're only here to pick up dates Spike." Twilight said as Penniless passed them in the hallway. "But they won't have them ready to go with us until tomorrow, souvenirs or no souvenirs, we needed to use the bits to pay for the room."
"Sure, you say that now." Spike grumbled. "But when you see the prices they'll charge for breakfast tomorrow you'll wonder why you didn't just spend the night under the stars."
"You mean the complimentary breakfast, I presume?" The purple unicorn said, poking her head out of the room to confront the grumbling dragon.
"Ah, heh heh," Spike laughed weakly, "I guess you noticed that too huh."
"And that's why I'm in charge." Twilight said, ducking back into the room.
Penniless thought she heard the little dragon mutter something else but she was too far away to hear any more of the conversation as she continued down a turn in the hallway toward her room.
Her room was much like the rest of the rooms in the inn. The doorway and much of the trim was a deep red from the rust-wood trees that'd been used to make them. The room itself was actually fairly plain and simple but each small convenience was painfully paid for by the owner and as such, they had each been carefully selected for utility and aesthetics.
In the darkness at the dead of night, shapes and shadows are impossible to distinguish. There was no temperature, no light, no sound, no wind, nothing. The faintest hint of the shadows of trees, colorless and leafless stood silently all around the mare, sealing in the clearing with no way out. Hearing her own breath with surprising clarity in the silent barren space, the mare looked around, taking in her bleak surroundings.
*THUMP*
The mare turned, fear and horror rising as she heard the noise. Despite her alarmed and alert state, she failed to discover the source of the sound. Again, the mare turned, this time her gaze settling on a simple dark shape that was settled at the other side of the small clearing. At first it looked like a dark rock but as she gazed at it, its form seemed to gather together in the shadows and gloom, it almost looked like a pony. But for a pony, it was made all wrong. Its edges were almost impossible to detect, it seemed to blend far too well with the gloom and shadows behind and around it, as though it had no actual border or boundary.
*THUMP*
The mare could only stare at the odd thing as again the sound reverberated, as quiet as a whisper yet as powerful as thunder. Its form was stronger now and easier to see, though its fur and mane whipped and dissolved in the air around it. The mare tried to make out more of its details, it wasn't a pegasus, it wasn't a unicorn, and it was very thin and scrawny. The entire image was eerily wrong somehow. For some reason, the mare could almost feel a desire coming from it, like a yearning of some kind, it was hungry for something.
*THUMP*
The mare winced, the more the weird sound came, the more and more of the mare's mind seemed to weaken. But the more she wanted to get away from the thing, to pull her attention away from it, the more her eyes and senses were forced to take in every detail of its existence, as though being drawn into whirlpool. It was black, nothing beyond simple blackness, like an ink turned into shadow turned into smoke turned back into ink again.
*THUMP*
The sound was louder now, shaking her mind and body to the core. The world began swimming and the mare struggled to keep herself from losing her balance and becoming dizzy. The world around her threatened to throw her into a horrible state of vertigo and, for a moment, her feeling of up and down was turned sideways. Trying to maintain her balance, the sensation of up and down continued to turn until they were exactly opposite what they should be, she was standing upside down on the underside of the ground that was above her, the sky somewhere below. With no mental power to stop it from doing otherwise, the world continued to "turn" until the ground was once again "down" to her.
*THUMP*
Reality actually blurred and washed away somewhat, everything, anything, any thought and concept was gone, there was no "up" anymore, just like there was no "down" either. The trees, the darkness, the very attempt at thought, all were washed away as the world became a smeared vortex of shades and darkness. Only the things at either end of the vortex were not wiped away and smeared with the rest of reality, the mare herself and the weird dark shadow pony that stared at her.
*THUMP*
The maelstrom of washed out thoughts and half ideas continued but didn't get worse. Even so, a change occurred, the distance between the mare and the shadow pony seemed to shorten, the storm now swirled around them rather then between them, barely any distance between them now. What was worse, the dark pony stared at her with its black empty eyes and began to open its mouth, revealing its teeth, a slight moan escaping its mouth as it did so.
They were not the teeth of any equine.
They were sharp, vicious and horribly jagged. Teeth made for one thing, to kill.
*THUMP*
The mouth widened into a kind of emotionless grin, much wider then any pony mouth could have opened. The world was still spinning and washing away into empty nothingness, draining her thoughts of all consistency and coherence. She was left sitting impotently in the middle of the storm staring at this jagged toothed dark pony thing. A low, guttural sound began issuing from the dark void behind those jagged teeth. As she stared, the dark pony seemed much closer now, just a few inches before her in fact, giving her a very good view of those jaws, the teeth they held, and the empty sucking void of darkness behind them.
*THUMP*
With a start, Nutty Pine bolted upright in her bed, panicked breathing and a thundering heartbeat reminding her she was alive. 'she was alive', she started realizing, 'she had a body, she had hooves, she had legs, a torso, a chest, a neck, she had a face'. She started trying to force her heart-rate from down Olympic speeds to a more manageable one, breathing more slowly and deeply.
Her awareness and consciousness, like a tiny bubble wandering up from deep under water, began surfacing and coming to her again. The world gradually came back into focus, her head was still swimming a bit, as though she'd been casting horribly strong and cruelly complicated spells all day long. Even so, she calmed herself, she was in a familiar place, her room at the inn of Brumby Junction.
Slowly, she tried to remember more about herself. She was a fairly plain brown mare with a golden mane and tail with a walnut and an acorn as her cutie mark. She was still young enough to be considered a young adult but, as her mother was often swift to point out, "time waits for no mare". She remembered herself and where she was, it was safe here. She had friends there, she reminded herself of how safe the place was and had been throughout the years she'd been there.
She was there when Sheriff Moss Topper had been elected even though at the time he had only lived there for two years. She was there when the place had attempted to get itself declared as an official village for the 18th time. She was also there when the rejection notice came too and the town was in such a state of not caring (it was the 18th rejection after all) that they had decided to celebrate anyway. She was there when that storm had nearly swept everything away last year. If she was any more involved in Brumby Junction she'd have to actually live there. She knew these ponies and none of them were dangerous or scary, even the local prankster was limited to merely setting off the occasional fire-cracker when you were least expecting it.
She reminded herself of the present, she wasn't in danger, she wasn't in the wild or anywhere unsafe. She was on her way back home from visiting her family up north, again. She was friends with the innkeeper Bedtime Story who, though he denied it constantly, she was convinced that he kept her favorite room open for her as a means of flirting with her. That was this very room, a room so familiar that merely being here could drive away nightmares and fears, cares and worries, even if only for one night. Room 302, that was her safe place in this town, the safest place in Equestria, in the whole world.
These thoughts gave her comfort as she came to herself; more and more, bit by bit, piece by piece she calmed herself in her simple, safe, comfortable room.
*THUMP*
The chill that ran down her back could have stopped her heart, and probably would have too if her heart hadn't suddenly decided to start running another marathon. Involuntarily, her breathing too began going faster and more shallowly. For a moment, there was nothing but silence and the sound of her scared breathing.
*THUMP*
She gave a small start, trying to track down where the noise had come from. Maybe, maybe somepony was knocking on her door her door. Yeah, that was it, the noise could have simply leaked into her dreams and maybe woken her up too. Slowly, she glanced towards the doorway, only slightly silhouetted by the dim light outside.
*THUMP*
With a slight cringe she realized that the sound was not coming from the direction of the door. Could it be that somepony was making noise from one of the other rooms. Fear started getting replaced with slight disgust as she thought of the kinds of noises that somepony could or would be making to go through the walls like that.
*THUMP*
With grim resignation and a fresh wave of fear she realized that the sound wasn't muffled enough to have come through the walls, it was fresh and present and, therefore, the sound was coming from inside the room with her. The only saving grace was that the sound wasn't making reality swim, in fact, it wasn't all that loud either. Of course, the downer of this was that the sound hadn't been very strong until near the end of the dream, it had started out much quieter though still very strong.
*THUMP*
Almost jumping slightly, she tried regaining control of herself and slowly looked around, taking in every detail of the room around her. She tried lighting her horn to get more light, it refused to work. Panic threatened to take over as a new piercing wave of icy cold crept like an infection down her spine. Again she tried to light her horn, only to have it give off the faintest of a glimmering sparkle that instantly faded to nothing, swallowed up by the lingering darkness and stifling shadows.
*THUMP*
She gave a little squeak. Now she really was starting to panic. Slowly, she crept out of the bed, the need for action driving her more then any tenable thought. Her hoof contacted the floor with the gentlest touch that she had ever made, daring not to make the merest hint of a sound. Gingerly, she copied this as one by one her hooves touched the ground. Her hair was standing on end and the chill down her back threatened creeping outward to infect the rest of her body. Her horn, despite her magical efforts and experience, felt cold and dead, draining like an open wound. Slowly and cautiously she crept, fearing to disrupt the momentary silence as she tried making her way to the door, she had to get out, to escape, to get help, get away, get safe.
*THUMP*
Nutty Pine froze, a foreleg suspended in mid step and half a tear forming in one eye. Unmistakably now, she recognized the sound's source, right next to her. Almost crying from fear, she averted her gaze from the door, her heart almost stopping at what she saw no more then a foot from her.
A single dark featureless pony, thin, gaunt and unhealthy looking, stood there, looking at her. Its head, body, even the eyes were completely black, no glimmer or reflection of any light at all, nothing but an empty blackness, sucking in her very being and presence of mind. It opened its jaw, revealing its many jagged teeth, grinning at her from inside of an impossibly large emotionless maw. For the first time since the dream began, she heard the thing breathe, a guttural, otherworldly sound as it opened its jaws wider and wider, revealing the impossibly deep void within.
*THUMP*
A scream rent the air from room 302, cut short by a silence like an impassable wall.
Twain
Chapter: 02
"Suspects"
Written by: Arcict Gray
And so ‘twas, in the junction of Brumby
A victim was made of fair maiden Nutty
And the law at hand, topped by Moss
Found itself at a terrible loss
For they had neither clue nor whisper, not a shadow
As to who could have left her legacy so fallow
Sheriff Moss Topper was not known for his looks, as a dark reddish brown earth pony with a deep green mane he didn’t stand out much. Moss’s best abilities were in crowd control, calming or rousing them. Unfortunately, because of his horrible sense for politics and a lack of career drive, he’d been passed over no less than four times. Finally Moss had simply had enough and he left Vanhoover to see his family who lived just west of White Tail Woods and when he couldn’t stand them another minute he went looking for some small town he could retire in.
When Moss found Brumby Junction it was only a few buildings and a small smattering of ponies living within five to ten miles of the junction proper. Now, several years later, it was still only a few buildings, maybe a few more, and a slightly larger smattering of ponies living within five to ten miles of the junction proper.
Honestly, being sheriff was a joke; he didn’t really make any money from it. To support himself he would take on odd jobs cleaning or carrying things. He would also occasionally help his neighbors with legal questions, drawing on his memories and experiences as a simple law officer during his days in Vanhoover. On several occasions he’d had to represent Brumby Junction on a whole as legal proxy because nopony else knew how to do it.
The main reason why being a sheriff at Brumby Junction was a joke though was because nothing ever happened. There wasn’t really any crime because there weren’t enough ponies to commit anything. The only ponies that lived out here were the ones that could survive on their own, run their own farms and small shops or were willing to sacrifice to stay out here. They were the kind of ponies that did not readily turn to crime to get anything they wanted or simply didn’t have the free time to get into any trouble anyway. Work wasn’t merely a virtue; it was a way of life.
When Moss Topper got tired of spending his bits on a room at the inn he spent them instead on a small building that he could live in. When that thief had come through town, stealing several items from the ponies, including several pieces of silverware from the inn, Moss had managed to track him down and catch him. After that incident, the inn keeper sprang some bits to put a large shiny metal star that now hung from the front of Moss’s home, just above the roof of the front porch.
That was four years ago and though the star was a bit more stained and rusted then when it was first put up, it still hung there. The star was a symbol that there was law and authority here in Brumby Junction. It wasn’t a town yet, it wasn’t really anything yet, officially anyway, but still they had their peace and justice; Moss Topper was there to ensure that.
About three years ago the son of Soda Pop and Cola Pop, young Bubble Pop had started setting off firecrackers to surprise anypony he could. Despite their small size Bubble Pop had become Brumby Junction’s unofficial prankster, frightening locals and visitors alike.
Then there was all the trouble they, and everypony in Equestria had suffered under both Nightmare moon and then later under Discord. They had weathered both as best they could. Being so small they had fewer ponies to worry about but also had far fewer resources to help them get through both incidents. Even so, they had survived, they had trudged through those difficulties and had grown, if anything, closer as a community because of it.
But this was different.
The thief, the prankster, the two wannabe warlords, this was different; this was Brumby Junction’s first murder.
Nutty Pine was technically not a local, she lived too far away on the nut farm where she worked with the Nutters, Acorn and Pea, who owned the place. Even so, she had family that was just close enough that she would visit them frequently and each trip would take her through Brumby Junction causing her to spend the night there coming and going. Thus her name was no secret to the locals.
It was also no secret that the innkeeper, Bedtime Story had a major crush on Nutty Pine.
It was morning, Moss Topper sighed, looking over the room, Nutty would be missed. Moss waited as Honest Work, son of the richest local, Early Retirement, finished taking his notes of the body, checking off things on his list as he did so.
Honest’s father, Early Retirement had managed to win several thousand bits by gambling, His son, Honest Work was different, earning money by whatever kind of work came his way. Honest had become more or less the community’s unofficial go-to-pony for whenever there was an odd job that needed doing, especially when it was hard. As such, with both Moss Topper and Honest Work pulling for odd jobs they would often share the load and had worked together on a number of jobs and local projects.
Given that it was Brumby Junction’s first murder, Moss Topper had deputized Honest almost immediately after sending off the mail-pony with his urgent messages to both the nearest hospital requesting a coroner and to the mayor of Ponyville. The first reply came in fairly quickly, a list from Doctor Crimson Fluid with a series of notes that the doctor wanted taken while he tried catching a train to get there to examine the body himself.
“Ya about done yet there Honest?” Moss asked.
“Almost,” Honest said, looking over the body again, “But I’m not sure of even half the things Dr. Fluid was asking about. Which part’s the Stifle and which is the Gaskin again?”
“Hay if I know.” Moss replied “just do your best and get the job done quickly so we can get out of the doc’s way when he gets here.”
As it was Moss had his own job, keeping everypony from coming through the door, specifically the innkeeper, Bedtime Story who kept up a silent vigil that Moss feared any moment now would turn to sobs or a wail accompanied by another attempt to push through the doorway.
Moss looked over the scene, it was eerily untouched. The curtains were all in place, there was little evidence of any kind of disturbance in the bed, even the little shampoo bottles on the nightstand right next to the bed appeared to be undisturbed. But the strangest thing, there was only the one pool of blood by the victim and very little spatter. It was as though the entire thing had been done in a single action.
“Is something going on?” Asked a female voice Moss did not recognize.
Moss turned to see a light lavender unicorn walking slowly down the hallway towards them.
Twilight Sparkle groaned as she awoke for the second time that day, the side of her head was aching though she couldn’t remember why, a vague thought about Applejack or… something.
“You awake yet?” Asked a gruff voice Twilight didn’t immediately recognize.
“I… think so.” Twilight responded.
“Good,” Moss said, “we’ve already got one fiasco without any young fillies fainting in the middle of my crime scene.”
“Fainting, where?” Twilight responded, “What happened, what are you talking about?”
“There was a murder last night,” Moss Topper said “happened in the other room. When you came forward I started trying to ask you questions about, ah… well anyway you seemed to zone me out and started staring at the body. Then you said something about apples and rushed past me and into the room and fainted right off. Mind telling me what that was all about?”
“Who… who died?” Twilight asked, fearing the worst, vague images teasing her mind with visions of her friends passing away.
“A local,” Moss Topper said “well, about as close to a local as you could get without actually being a local. Her name was Nutty Pine.”
“She… she was a unicorn?” Twilight asked, memories of things she’s witnessed coming back to her.
“Yeah,” Moss said “and a darn shame too, nice enough gal, not a bad looker either. For these parts anyway.”
“I…” Twilight said slowly “I think I remember, she… she looked like a friend of mine, Applejack. She’s orange and blond, but she’s an earth pony and… oh Celestia did I… collapse?!”
“You fainted.” Moss said flatly “and, rather comically I might add.”
With that Moss held up a small square piece of paper with his hoof and waved it in front of Twilight’s face so she could see. At first she didn’t know what she was looking at, it was a picture of some dark brown, some dark red and, Twilight now recognized it, something light lavender, an ear, her ear, only half an inch away from what Twilight now recognized as a pool of blood.
“Landed right next to it.” Moss said, “a few more inches and you’d have made a nice facial impression right in it too. Rather comical scene for how ridiculous it was, I can tell you.”
Moss took the picture back before Twilight could snatch it away from him.
“I figure, with the murder and all,” Moss said grimly, “that this’ll probably end up being the only good memory we get out of it. Tell you what though, if we catch this guy and can actually find out what’s going on, well there’s no reason to keep this. If we don’t then I’m keeping it so I can at least smile at my biggest failure, because it will be my biggest failure if I can’t catch this guy.”
Twilight inspected her face, looking to make sure she hadn’t hurt anything when she’d fainted.
“We cleaned you up well enough, “Moss said, “your ah, little companion was most helpful at that.”
“Where is spike?” Twilight asked, looking back up at Moss.
“Ah… the ah, young dragon that was with you?” Moss said, “well the thing about that is that he’s downstairs with another… ah, pony of interest.”
“Pony of interest, what are you talking about?” Twilight said, though still groggy physically her mind was already starting to kick into a higher gear.
“The murder was quick,” Moss said, “the victim, Nutty Pine, was bitten in the neck… just once. A gaping wound but nothing was missing, no flesh was gone, just bitten off and left there. She bled out from a massively large hole in her neck. But as you know ponies don’t have the kind of teeth, or the jaw line, to do that. But… well, your dragon on the other hoof…”
Twilight wasn’t a fool and could see where this was going.
“You are NOT telling me that you suspect him!” Twilight protested, “Because if you do I can tell you-!”
“Hang on there girl!” Moss cut her off, “now look here, I know he doesn’t have the jaw-line to have done something like this, it’s just too small. Besides that he’d have to be very skilled to pull something like this off without leaving any kind of incriminating evidence. I mean, it’s not only Brumby Junction’s first murder, but it’s our first locked room, leave no evidence behind perfect crime murder! Baby dragon stuff this aint!
But I’ve got a job to do, I must investigate any potential lead I can. And I have made certain not to hold him as a suspect exactly, just a pony of interest, well, dragon of interest anyway. He was actually pretty agreeable. We assured him that once the doctor can finish his measurements and confirm what I already suspect that we’ll get this whole thing cleared up.”
“And if your doctor can’t prove that Spike didn’t do it?!” Twilight protested, “what then?”
“Then I intended not to do anything until his, *ahem* official guardian was awake enough to have her say and then we’d work from there.” Moss Topper said, “But enough of this, I have need of your expertise.”
“What about my expertise?” Twilight asked, not entirely ready to let Spike’s situation just go like that.
“As a Unicorn, would you say that you would recognize a hate crime?” Moss asked, “specifically, would you recognize a hate crime against another unicorn?”
“Hate crime?” Twilight asked
“Yes,” Moss said, “specifically, could you identify the kind of hate crime that has been committed against our poor girl?”
“I… I’m not really an expert on hate crimes… but I could try.” Twilight said, feeling confused on top of feeling a little groggy.
“This…” Moss said, stalling a little, “this is going to be a little gruesome.”
Twilight swallowed, steeling herself.
“I’m ready.” Twilight said, unsure.
“Take a look when you’re sure,” Moss said, reaching into his saddlebag and pulling out another photograph and holding it up so Twilight could take a look at it.
Twilight took hold of the photo with her magic and held it closer. It was a photograph of a pony’s head against the floor.
“Is this,” Twilight asked, “her?”
“That it is,” Moss said “and, begging your pardon but when you’re done looking I’ll need it back, it’s evidence after all. But, about her horn…”
Twilight looked again, where the mare’s horn should have been, there were instead two, or rather, as Twilight looked closer, two halves. The unicorn’s horn had been split in two, lengthwise.
“Um…” Twilight said, looking like she was going to be ill. Moss quickly took the photo back.
“Not used to injuries and the like miss?” Moss asked.
“It was… just so sudden,” Twilight said, “for a moment I thought I was seeing Applejack, my friend, with a split horn.”
“Do you recognize it though?” Moss asked, getting back to the point, “why would somepony split a unicorn’s horn like that?”
“They didn’t,” Twilight almost laughed at the thought “no, the main kind of hate crime that would get committed against a unicorn would be to cut the horn off, separating it from the skull. They’re not fused, the bone that is, it’d be way too much of a health hazard to the skull if they were completely fused. The skull has a depression called The Pit and the bottom of the horn is a rounded side called The Hill. The Hill fits into The Pit and Haters would cut it off there because that’s where cutting it off would be the easiest.”
“Then…” Moss said, confused, “you don’t know what could have done this?”
“Not really…” Twilight said, still thinking, “unless…”
“Unless what?” Moss asked.
“Unless, she did it to herself,” Twilight said, “you can actually hurt your horn if you try channeling too much magic into it. In theory, you could do some major damage if you were channeling like, all of it in just a couple seconds. The amount of energy necessary to do something like this though… it’d have to be like a garden hose, with a whole lake’s worth of water being forced through it all at once.”
“Ouch.” Moss Topper said.
“Yeah,” Twilight said, “but it’s only theoretical, nopony, at least nopony I know of, could ever be capable of even controlling that much magical energy. At least… you see, as you practice with magic you become more capable of channeling more and more of it, as adults we can channel much more energy than we ever could as foals, but at the same time, your horn becomes more resistant to it too. So, in theory, if she had the power to use that much energy, then her horn should have been equally resistant to it. For some reason, this does not appear to be the case. That’s… really strange.”
Moss thought about it for a bit.
“I was right then,” Moss said finally, “I really do need your expertise. Not because it is a hate crime, but because it isn’t.”
Twilight slid out of bed and stood up, turning for the door.
“Can I see Spike now?” Twilight asked.
“Yes ma’am.” Moss said “truth be told, if you hadn’t er, taken a spell, so to speak, I’d have preferred you together, as his official guardian and all.”
Twilight recognized the hallway fairly quickly, not the least of which because she could see the police tape surrounding the door to room 302. A quick glance to Moss confirmed, that was the room where Nutty had died, so they were still on the third floor.
“We’ve moved her while one of my pegasi goes to inform her family.” Moss said, “by rights I should be doing it myself but I need to be here.”
They trotted down the steps quickly and soon found the small cafeteria and guest lounge where Spike sat in a chair, stuffing himself silly while Honest Work stared at the young dragon in awe, more because of how much stuff Spike was tucking away than for anything else. Honest glanced their direction and then did a doubletake, recognizing Moss quickly.
“Sheriff Topper!” Honest said excitedly, saluting as they approached, “it’s good to see you!”
“Er, at ease, I guess Honest.” Moss Topper said, then turning to Twilight “This is Honest Work, general handipony around Brumby Junction, and today he’s my deputy. So, Honest, any sign of the doctor?”
“He left, took the body with him.” Honest said, “oh, he finished the measurements first though.”
“Told you I didn’t do it,” Spike said between spoonfulls of whatever he was eating, Twilight couldn’t tell what it was exactly but it looked to be something between a kind of ice cream and some kind of fruit puree.
“Um, what are you eating?” Twilight asked, her own stomach growling lightly.
“Dunno,” Spike said “Honest found it back in the kitchen. It could be soap for all I know, but at least it tastes good.”
“The, uh, innkeeper, Bedtime Story, he’s been a little… distraught since…” Honest said sheepishly.
“It’s common knowledge Bedtime was after Nutty as his special some-pony.” Moss interjected, keeping Twilight informed.
“I’ve been trying to keep everypony happy by feeding them whatever I could find back in the kitchen,” Honest said, “but in truth, it isn’t very much. At least, there isn’t much that I could give them without trying to work the ovens and, well let’s face it, I’m no chef.”
Looking around, Twilight noticed every table in the room had two, three, four and one table even had no less than five ponies seated at it. Most of them seemed fairly content, as though they didn’t know what was happening. Everypony seemed to be just lounging around, except for one table in the corner.
“Ah,” Moss said, noticing Twilight’s gaze falling on the singularly occupied table, “you have noticed my other pony of interest.”
Twilight slowly approached the lone pony in the corner of the room, as she did so, she noticed that the pony in question seemed to be muttering or mumbling to herself.
“Um, hello,” Twilight said as she came up to the table, only too late realizing that if this pony was a shy one then she’d just made the same interrupting blunder that she’d made when she first met Fluttershy.
For a few moments, the lone pony continued mumbling to herself, then she stopped and looked up, her slate blue face half obscured behind an ash colored mane her copper green eyes staring up at Twilight with a sad, empty longing in her heart. Penniless Ambition looked up at Twilight, fear and sorrow painted on her face.
“Are you ready to tell us what you know now,” said Moss, approaching from behind Twilight, “because all you could say when you stormed into the victim’s room was ‘not again, not here, why did it have to happen here’ or something to that effect.”
Penniless looked back down at the table for a moment.
“This has happened before,” Penniless said finally, tears welling up in her eyes, “where I used to live in Hollow Shades. Some… thing, was attacking unicorns, and now it’s… it’s followed me here!”
“But, why unicorns” Twilight asked, “it doesn’t make sense!”
“I…” Penniless looked up at her, then quickly turned back to the table, a barely audible sob escaping her “I don’t know.”
Penniless maintained her silence and, for a moment, Twilight was worried she’d go back to her isolated mumbling again.
“Miss Sparkle,” Moss said quietly “let me talk to her, see if I can get some more details, you get breakfast and we’ll figure out what to do from there.”
Reluctantly, twilight agreed and walked back to Spike. Breakfast was a fairly simple affair and didn’t last long, as Moss soon returned with a request for Twilight’s help outside as soon as possible. Twilight finished breakfast quickly and left with Spike to meet Moss outside, as they approached they saw Honest leaving him quickly.
“You are able to do shields yes?” Moss asked, turning to face them.
“Yes,” Twilight confirmed “why, do you have somepony that you need protecting?”
“No, that is, yes,” Moss said, walking down the street as Twilight followed him, Spike riding on her back. “That is, I want to protect everypony. From what Miss Ambition said-“
“Ambition?” Twilight asked, “you mean that mare in the corner?”
“Penniless Ambition,” Moss said “now, technically she’s still a suspect, she could be the killer herself, but I suspect she isn’t. Not only does she not have the right jawline but Nutty was a working girl, even with her magic she was fairly strong. She was killed while out of bed, meaning that she was awake and alive when she was attacked. And Miss Ambition is so thin, it’s like she hasn’t had a decent meal in days, maybe weeks, things just don’t add up to her being able to do it. Assuming she’s innocent she’s confirmed that somepony, the killer that is, must have followed her as she fled from Hollow Shades. She fled because of the attacks that have been happening there. They were all fairly recent and we’re so small here that that’s probably why we haven’t heard anything of it before now.”
“I haven’t heard anything from Ponyville either.” Twilight said, “maybe they wanted to keep things quiet, not attract attention.”
“At any rate, I’ve sent Honest to find another pegasus for me,” Moss said “we need to get word out to Hollow Shades that their killer is here. It’s possible that attracting attention could be why the killer left but ultimately, why is a moot point, we need to keep everypony here.”
“We… wait, what?!” Twilight exclaimed.
“The killer is HERE!” Moss exclaimed, “we’re not Manehatten, we’re not even Ponyville for crying out loud! We don’t have the resources to go tracking down everypony that leaves. It is obvious that the killer is looking for more victims which really only leaves two ways, back up the trail to Hollow Shades or the train to Ponyville, or, presuming he doesn’t STOP in Ponyville, anywhere else the train can take him. So long as he’s here he has very few potential victims and with this shield we’ll have him trapped!”
Twilight tried keeping up with Moss Topper’s logic.
“And… you want to try and keep the killer trapped here?!” Twilight asked, alarmed at the conclusion that she’d be trapped with the killer.
“But,” Spike intervened, “If he’s killing unicorns, then he might target Twilight! If that happened the shield would be down and he’d escape!”
“I fully intend to keep everypony here safe.” Moss declared, “We’re not just erecting a shield and leaving it at that, that’s just the first step. We can keep everypony safe from this guy, I’m sure of it, but we need to stop him from escaping too!”
Twilight thought a few more moments.
“I’ve never done one that big before.” Twilight admitted.
“Twilight, you can’t be seriously thinking about…” Spike said, looking at her worriedly.
“We can’t let the killer slip away to where he might do even more harm.” Twilight said “and we have a much better chance of catching him if we keep him trapped amongst so few. And besides, even if he kills everypony here, it’s still much less damage than he could do if we just let him get to some major city, think of our friends in Ponyville, in Canterlot!”
“LET him get to Canterlot!” Spike challenged “I’d like to see some killer try to slip something past Celestia in her own back yard, or Luna for that matter! I mean, somepony up to no good in the dead of night right in Canterlot while Princess Luna is on the watch? No contest!”
“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed, frustratedly.
“Here it is,” Moss said, looking around, they’d walked to the train station. As Twilight followed his gaze she noticed a single Pegasus, flying up from the town and then headed off north, towards the mountains. “That’ll be our messenger to Hollow Shades. This is it. This is where one end of the shield needs to be, between the town and the train station, all the way to down there, at the other end of the street.”
Twilight gulped, looking down to the other end of the street, nearly a full mile away. Reluctantly Spike got off her back and backed up a little, giving her some space.
“Right…” Twilight said to herself “I mean, how hard could it be, My brother makes these all the time and it’s only insanely horribly hard for him to keep them going for a prolonged period of time and every time we’ve ever really needed a shield this big almost everypony ended up dying so yeah, no big deal, it’s just a big… strong… impenetrable… nearly impossible giant shield.”
Twilight lowered her head in concentration and began channeling her magic through her horn. Moss and Spike could only look in wonder and awe as the glow around Twilight’s horn increased until it began emitting enough light and glare they had to shield their eyes from it. The light enveloped them all and it was a few seconds before they could open their eyes again.
Spike squinted as the light subsided and he looked up. All around them, a semi-transparent dome surrounded the town. Still in awe, Spike gasped as he saw Twilight was bowed down on her forelegs, the burden of making the shield had been a heavy one to bear.
“Twilight!” Spike said, hurrying over to see if she was okay. Even as he approached though, she was already picking herself up.
“Well,” Twilight said woozily, her head shaking slightly as she tried catching her breath, “that was easy.”
“Whoa,” Moss said, looking up at the dome overhead. “Ain’t never seen that before.”
“Just make sure we catch this guy,” Twilight said, still slightly winded, “I have no idea how many more of those I have in me, and that’s assuming it actually does its job.”
“Aw it looks great Twilight.” Spike consoled.
It was much like her brother’s though instead of big enough to fit all of Canterlot in it, Twilight’s was only big enough to go around the small community. It didn’t reach far enough to include the intersection at the north, nor did it reach the train station to the south.
“It won’t stop everything,” Twilight said, “just ponies and living creatures, but water and air and the like will still go through, this includes any supplies we might need.”
“Right,” Moss said, “well let’s get back to the station, we’ve got some clues to puzzle over and I’ll need to try and settle the town down a bit once word starts to break out, things are gonna get uglier before they get better.”
Several of the ponies of Brumby Junction were already looking up and gazing at the purple dome in awe and bewilderment, several of them still didn’t know that there had even been a murder, let alone what Moss had ordered Twilight to do because of it.
“Sheriff,” Twilight said. “I’m going to need to renew this shield later today, probably at dusk and dawn if we want to keep it up for too long. And spike, just so you know, it’ll stop you as well.”
“That’s all right,” Sheriff said, “I didn’t think it’d be as easy eating hay.”
There weren’t many clues for them to go over. Nutty had been sleeping alone and only the innkeeper had the master key to all the rooms. They went to check the master key itself but found that there were several third floor rooms that it did not work on, including room 302. Several of the rooms had apparently been recently refurbished and Bedtime Story had forgotten to get a new master key for those rooms. While his oversight did not make Moss feel any better about the safety of the inn (a master key was a necessity in case of an emergency) yet it did help clear Bedtime as a potential suspect.
“Well, at least that’s one less that I have to worry about.” Moss said frustratedly. “Pity too, he could have had a good motive for it, he goes to see her in the night, she rejects his affections a little too abruptly, things start to go sour and she winds up dead. Still, that one came and went pretty quickly.”
“Par for the course really,” Spike said, “I mean, I got cleared before breakfast was over.”
“Don’t remind me,” Twilight groaned, not wanting to remember that her little baby dragon had ever been a murder suspect, it reminded her too much of his misdoings when she’d adopted Owlicious.
It wasn’t long before several ponies in Brumby Junction started gathering around the sheriff’s office, either wanting to know what was happening or wanting to voice an opinion about something, the shield, not having access to the train station or the rumors that something had happened at the inn.
Moss went out to address them, Twilight and Spike followed closely behind, not sure what was going to happen. There were a few trying to ask questions but who drowned each other out until Moss raised a hoof to silence them. Moss bade them to back off from the front porch so he could address them all from it as a kind of makeshift stage.
“Friends and countryponies,” Moss stated, addressing the crowd, “those familiar and those visiting, something terrible has happened and we need everypony to have their best mind and attitude so we can all make it through this. Panic is as poisonous as a snake’s venom so if you feel yourself panicking make for the nearest well and dunk your head.”
Several of the locals started laughing, recognizing the joke as one Moss had said before. Their laughter caused many of the visitors to realize he was joking and soon got the joke too.
“But, in all honestly, the temptation to panic is going to be very real.” Moss said grimly, “There has been a murder, Nutty Pine is dead.”
“Way to be nice about it.” Spike whispered sarcastically into Twilight’s ear as whispers and gasps rose from the crowd.
“Furthermore!” Moss said, cutting them off, “you all must be made aware of a few facts. First, these killings started in Hollow Shades. It is believed that the killer there followed a refugee, a sibling to one of the victims, and came here after her. This refugee is in custody at this time for her own safety. Second, I believe that the killer is still among us and given his ability to slip past the Hollow Shades authorities we believe that he will no doubt be able to kill many more if he were to reach an area of high population. That is why I have asked young Miss Sparkle here to erect the force field above our heads, to prevent the killer from escaping.”
There was a general uproar from the crowd, nopony liking the idea of being trapped with the killer. Twilight couldn’t help but shrink back a little, this was exactly the reaction she’d feared inciting in her friends when Trixie had first come to Ponyville.
“I have sent word to Hollow Shades, informing them of the situation, I expect a response promptly, as well as more evidence and hopefully some additional assistance.” Moss continued, raising his voice to be heard above the din. “But until then we are going to be on our own. ALL of the previous victims were alone and ALL of them were attacked at night, so until further notice, NOPONY is to be alone at night, if possible keep at least two or more to a room. If anypony fears that their buddy might be the killer well then make sure you have more than just your one buddy. THIS KILLER DOES NOT WANT TO BE CAUGHT! It is obvious that the killer is willing to go to very extreme measure to avoid getting caught, even deliberately NOT killing! It stands to reason that if you have more than one buddy with you then it will be that much more difficult for the killer to do anything without GETTING caught and thus, you will be safe.”
Moss paused to give this information a chance to sink in, the news that there was a plan to keep everypony safe gave them pause and quieted some fears.
“Brumby Junction has been an isolated little town for many years now.” Moss said, “we are a friendly folk with very few superstitions or apprehensions about each other or about any newcomers passing through. Keep it up! We CANNOT afford for anypony to go making any wild accusations at this time.
Keep an eye on each other and if you spot any unusual activity REPORT IT! I can’t imagine that I really need to explain that with a killer on the loose some stupid young bucks are going to think they’re spying on a potential killer only to be seen sneaking around themselves and get accused of being the killer for their trouble!
DO NOT! I repeat, DO NOT go trying to apprehend somepony you think is the killer! REPORT any suspicious activity you see or hear. We do have some evidence but until we get real proof we are not going to go throwing around wild accusations and the FIRST pony to go making said wild accusations earns himself a night in the jail for making themselves a nuisance during a crisis.”
The crowd murmured but nopony spoke up directly. Twilight could see many of them were trying to think through all of this. It was obvious that each one of them has suspicions but after Moss’s threat of throwing the first pony into jail that started stirring up trouble there were few willing to risk it.
“I have sent word to Ponyville,” Moss said, “until the killer is caught we will be under martial law and we will be isolated from everypony so we will need materials and supplies from outside and we look to Ponyville to provide them while we wait for help to arrive from Hollow Shades and we can get this matter resolved.”
“Where will we sleep?” Somepony in the crowd asked, “we don’t have the bits to stay very long!”
“Bedtime!” Moss called out, “Bedtime Story where are you?”
“I’m here…” said a smaller voice, still weak from the shock and loss suffered earlier that morning.
“Bedtime, I need to use your Inn to keep these ponies here for a few days.” Moss said, “or however long it takes to catch Nutty’s killer.”
Bedtime looked up at the sheriff for a long moment, his sorrow slowly turning to resolve, a slight glimmer of vengeance crossing his eyes. For a moment he glanced aside at another pony next to him, the only hired hoof the inn could afford, Ammonia Bleach, she quickly realized that Bedtime was looking for her opinion.
“Would everypony mind helping to keep their own rooms clean?” Ammonia piped up, “I mean, we’ve got the cleaning supplies, but the inn isn’t staffed to handle this many ponies for several days.”
“What do you say?” Moss said “the price of the room is helping to keep it clean and I’ll get us new cleaning supplies from Ponyville as they run out.”
The crowd murmured a little, not in grumbling so much as in processing what was happening.
“Keep together and keep an eye out for anything suspicious.” Moss said, “He can’t hide forever and there are so few of us here that hiding’s going to be a lot harder for him here than anywhere else. We’ve got him trapped where he can’t hide and where we’re ready for him! We’ll catch this killer yet and when we do we’ll put Brumby Junction on the map!”
The crowd again made some noise, this time rousing itself in support, putting Brumby Junction on the map was exactly what the locals wanted to hear.
“Do you even have a jail in there?” Spike asked, indicating the sheriff’s home as the crowd dispersed. “I mean, you’ve barely even got an office in there from what I could see.”
“Well…” Moss said shyly, not wanting to be overheard, “I’ve got a broom closet, it’s small, no windows, relatively secure and it smells of cleaning solvents, that’s pretty much close enough to a jail in my book.”