Triskaideka

“You aren’t squeamish, are you, Agent Mercury?” The coroner looked to his guest, a tall, brown, earth pony stallion with blue eyes.

“N-no, let’s see it.” The stallion stuttered and adjusted his tie as he tried to compose himself. The coroner lifted the sheet off the mutilated corpse and turned to gauge the investigator’s reaction.

“Now, what would you like to know about Miss Libra?” The coroner stretched a rubber glove over his hoof and let it snap loudly when he released it. The brown earth pony put on a glove as well and leaned over the operating table. The mare’s face was a crisscross of lacerations right down to the skull. Her chest cavity was wide open and what was left of her internal organs sat in shredded piles.

“First off, what was cause of death?”

“Severed Carotid Artery.” He pointed to a large gash on the mare’s neck. “She would have bled out almost instantly.”

“So, was this—” The stallion pointed to the mess of cuts and gashes on the mare’s chest, “—post or perimortem?”

“Peri I’m afraid. They all show signs of hemorrhaging. Poor thing was alive for all of it.” The doctor held up the mare’s limp forearm and held her hoof straight out. “I found a perimortem break here, indicating she fled from her attacker.” The ankle jutted out in odd angles and the doctor set her forearm back on the table.

“Was anything…missing?”

“You mean aside from these?” The doctor lifted the sheet completely and exposed the bloody stumps where the mare’s rear legs had been. “THESE were postmortem if you’re wondering—but no, from what I can tell everything else is intact, even if it is a shredded mess.”

“Were there any similarities between her and the other two victims?”

“Aside from location and manner of death, not really—though I did find…’traces’…of victim two inside Libra here. Their times of death were only minutes apart so I assume they were interrupted during a romantic encounter.”

“Anything missing from victim two?”

“The family jewels are missing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Libra here cut them off. Ha! Oh—and his stomach, liver, and kidneys; all completely missing.” The coroner covered Libra’s corpse and escorted his guest to another covered body. “I assume they would have taken his heart as well had it not been punctured.”

“So you don’t think it’s animal attacks?”

The coroner scoffed and lifted the sheet covering the stallion. “That’s what the police are saying to keep every-pony calm during the Nightmare Night celebrations. But then…Why would a Fed be investigating animal attacks, hmm, Agent Freed Mercury?”

Cold Case swallowed nervously and wished his brother could come up with something other than famous musician names for aliases. He suddenly wondered how his brother, “Agent Spruce Springsteam”, was doing at the police station. “We’re just covering all our bases.”

The coroner squinted at Cold Case with contemplation etched across his face. “Fair enough,” he said at last. “Victim number two endured far more than his lover over there.” He turned his attention back to the stallion on the table. “Cause of death was a broken heart. Poetic, huh? In all seriousness, something punctured this fellow’s chest and did major damage upon exiting.”

Cold Case could see clean through the hole to the operating table. The stallion’s abdomen was ripped open and the entrails had been pinned in place, similar to a frog in a science fair.

“It was the best method to establish what was and wasn’t there.” The coroner poked his gloved hoof at a large empty space between the organs. “And as you can see, there is no stomach, liver, or kidneys.” Once again the coroner covered the corpse and led Cold Case to another.

“Victim number one? Found in about the same area two days prior to the most recent attacks?” Cold Case asked.

“Bingo.” The coroner removed the sheet and Cold Case had to look away. The pony’s muscles were completely exposed by a lack of pelt. “This is why the police were quick to call it an animal attack.” He pointed to several strange marks across the corpse where bits of fur had been left behind. “Something skinned this pony with its teeth.”

“Tell me it was post—”

“Peri.” The coroner put the sheet back over the poor, deceased stallion. “Anything else I can help you with today, Agent?”

Cold Case shook his head to get the image of a pony being skinned alive out of his mind. “No, you’ve been more than helpful. If, um, if anything odd turns up, give me a call.” Cold Case gave the coroner a card from within his suit pocket and turned to leave. He could feel the coroner’s eyes upon him as he walked away.

“Oh Agent.”

Cold Case turned slowly around and saw the coroner taking off his blood covered gloves.

“Do be careful out there. I don’t want to see you on one of these tables.”

Cold Case forced a smile and quickly ran up the stairs and out of the morgue. His brother Redeemer was outside, leaning up against a light post and eyeing some young mares setting up Nightmare Night decorations. He distractedly munched on a candied apple and sprinkles collected on the front of his suit.

“Yo, we were right, definitely not animal attacks.” Redeemer didn’t reply and continued to eye the mares with a goofy smile on his face. “Redeemer? Deem? DEEM!”

The short stallion dropped his candied apple in surprise as he was shaken back to reality by his younger brother’s voice. “What? What? I’m doing research!” Cold Case just looked at him skeptically. “Alright, I’m listening, what did you say?”

“I said we were right about it not being an animal attack.”

“Were-pony, right?”

“M.O. doesn’t fit; all victims still had their hearts for the most part.”

“Most part?”

“Yeah.” Cold Case began walking down the crowded street and Redeemer looked at his candied apple in disappointment before following. “So what did you find out?”

Redeemer fished through his suit pockets for his notepad and several bar napkins with feminine hoof writing fell out. At last he pulled the notepad out and flipped past several pages of doodles and cuss words. “All right, I got it,” he said stopping on a page of actual notes. “The police have gotten scattered reports of ‘creature’ sightings all week. Supposedly a ten foot tall pony-like creature with glowing red eyes has been seen around where they found the vics.”

“Anything about this prior to this week?”

“No, nothing more than a timberwolf sighting going back almost two years. Get this though, I did some digging and five years ago there was another string of deaths like this. Same time period and there were witness reports of a giant pony with red eyes.” Redeemer ran his hoof through his black mane and put his notepad away. “See, I can do research.”

“So was it just five years ago or did it happen again before that?” Cold Case asked, loosening his tie.

“Errr…I didn’t dig that far.” Redeemer grabbed another candied apple from one of the many booths set up on the main street and tossed a few bits at the attendant. “Man, why do we get stuck working a case EVERY Nightmare Night? Just once I’d like to go trick-or-treating.”

“Deem, aren’t you a bit old for that?”

“Hey, you are never too old for free candy.” He took a big bite out of his candied apple and sprinkles stuck to the sides of his mouth.

“If you say so. Anyway, we’re burning daylight, let’s go to where they found the bodies, and see if we can get some EMF or something.” Cold Case suggested. His brother nodded and grabbed one more candied apple for the road.