Taking Care of Animals

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 1
Chapter 10

Chapter 2

After we’d both stayed up far too late into the night, chattin’ away, Earth Pony rose and shone before I did. Hearin’ her movin’ around the main room snapped me right out of the little shut-eye I’d been able to find. Through the window, the skies outside were still gray, and my home was chilly like a usual pre-spring morning, but at least the rain had let up.

I walked out to the main area and caught Earth Pony slappin’ her mostly dry raincoat over her little body and tuckin’ her badge into one of the pockets. At the sight, my heart sank a little; despite our uneasy start to things, Earth Pony’d been my first honest-to-goodness company in Celestia-knows how long.

The sensible part of me didn’t want to lose that. And if I were bein’ honest with myself, even the mornin’ after, I was still pretty tore up hearin’ about Twilight. I wrestled between that and whether or not I had a right to be, since I’d let her fall out of my life. Right or no, darned if it didn’t sting anyways.

Before I could let Earth Pony walk out of my life forever too, I dug into my clothes trunk for my favorite garment. That stitched brown coat with white trim was a relic of a life long gone, but it was also one of my few creations that ponies didn’t turn their noses up at. Was dang proud of that coat.

I put it on, which earned me a chirpy, blue question: “What’s up, Applejack?”

She never did get around to tellin’ me her name, even after we’d talked well past midnight the previous night. Once she finally told me, I understood why. But that morning, all I could call her was my paltry nickname. “Well, Earth Pony, I’ve been thinkin’. Twi was a good friend of mine, once upon a time. I don’t know if it’ll do me any good, but I’d like to go with you to Ponyville.”

Earth Pony reeled at the suggestion. “I dunno... I mean, it’s not exactly a vacation, Applejack. I’ve got work to do, which...” She shrunk down. “Won’t really be easier if you’re there, like, grieving.”

I frowned, and my pride started talkin’: “Who said anythin’ about grievin’? I ain’t aimin’ to get underhoof. Just...” The rest of whatever reasoning I’d put together just came out as a sigh of the hot air it’d been in the first place.

For her credit, Earth Pony played along. I appreciated that. “Well...” She bobbed her head in a half nod. “I guess Ponyville’s kinda far to walk alone, even for me.”

Quite the ego sat on those shoulders of hers, but I couldn’t hold it against her. Heck, on her, I found it pretty darn endearing. Cute, even, if I were thinkin’ in terms of that. But no matter how she phrased it, she’d agreed to let me tag along.

First thing first, I stopped in with Boss Pony—that was the name his mom’d given him, not me—at the quarry and told him where I was headed. Didn’t get no argument from him. His wife was Ribbon Murder number forty six.

He understood what I needed.

When Earth Pony and I finally got started on our path, we walked side-by-side. Around us, the flat dirt that stretched for miles had turned to mud as far as the eye could see. I turned and looked at her, but she was lookin’ upwards, more interested in the clouds than she was in the mud. Couldn’t blame her, really.

I asked, “So, you know the way to Ponyville?”

“Yep.” She gave a quick little nod. “I used to live there, ’til about four years ago.”

“Small world.” I turned to watch the road in front of me. With all the mud, it took careful hoofwork to miss the bigger puddles. “But I don’t quite remember seein’ you ’round those parts back then.”

“Yeah…” Out of the corner of my eye, Earth Pony rubbed the back of her head. “I might’ve known Twilight a little, though.”

After hearin’ her referred to as a creepy shut-in, that came as somethin’ of as surprise; then again, Earth Pony seemed like the type to be coarse with her friends and rough on her enemies.

“So,” I started, “how’d you end up in the EGI, if you don’t mind me askin’?”

“I could ask you the same thing about your rock farm job!”

She caught me off-guard with her sudden defense, but I laughed it off. Lookin’ at her, it seemed to put her at ease. “It’s minin’ rocks out the dirt. I took the job ’cause I couldn’t find nothin’ better, after my clothes shop went under four years ago.”

Earth Pony tilted her perky head. “Huh. I wouldn’t take you for a clothes pony.”

“Beg pardon, but I wouldn’t take you for an Equestrian Guard.”

I took her quiet little throat sound she made as an admission of defeat. She followed it up with, “Ever since I was little, I liked taking care of animals. My mom never let me keep any in the house, though, so I had to find them outside. I had a gift for it, I guess, since they didn’t seem to mind. At first.”

Her expression darkened and she went on, “Anyway, I grew up, moved out on my own, and tried making a living off it. Turns out, vet school is expensive, so all I could really do was like a rescue-preserve-type thingy. But even then, no matter how much I took care of the animals, they never really seemed to like me, not like the ones back home…” She shrugged. “Four years ago, I called it quits and looked for more open interpretations of my cutie mark. Like being a criminal investigator. Two years of odd jobs later, I got someone in the Investigations Unit to put in a good word for me, and now, bam.” Her ears perked up. “Detective.”

I grinned for more than a few reasons at her story. One, I liked her way of talkin’. But more importantly, I knew exactly where she’d come from, what with hard work and lookin’ for a job that was more’n just wages. Course, I had to admit I’d settled into my rock mine a little too comfortably, but I wasn’t a stranger to hard work and perseverance.

I was happy it paid off for her in the end.

A long way down the road, near Ponyville, I finally found the nerve to ask, “What exactly happened to Twi?”

She shook her head. “Someone actually wanted to borrow a book for once, but they found the door locked. It seemed weird, so he asked around. Finally, word got up to the mayor’s aide, and she had a key…” I heard her gulp. “She was right there, in the main room. Her body was still warm. Y’know, recent.”

My stomach churned somethin’ fierce. “And she had…”

“The calling card, yeah. White ribbon on her neck. But she’d also been stabbed.”

We kept walking. I wondered what that’d meant, that Twilight’d been attacked with two weapons. Earth Pony furrowed her brow, but she didn’t say nothin’ neither.

Least not ’til we were on the outskirts of town, anyway. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “It was the middle of the day, near the center of town. Somepony had to see the murderer go into the library, or near it.”

Me, I just shrugged at that. “Whoever this is, they’re dang good at not bein’ seen. Been goin’ on for years.”

Earth Pony cast her eyes straight ahead and hung her head low. “Sixty four,” she muttered to herself. “It’s ridiculous. I’ve met griffin and changeling soldiers who fought in wars, and none of them took that many lives.”

“’Tain’t right. Though, I tell you, if I were in charge, first thing I’d do is start lookin’ at all the places ’round Ponyville that sell white ribbon.”

A lopsided smile spread across Earth Pony’s muzzle. “Applejack, when’s the last time you’ve seen white ribbon for sale? That was the first thing I looked at when I joined EGI. It hasn’t even been produced for two years in Equestria. Or Crystal Empire, or Griffalia. Whoever’s doing this, they have a supply. And before you ask, yes, we’ve scoured sales logs to find anyone who bought ridiculous-huge quantities of white ribbon.”

I knew when I’d been put in my place, so I reckoned I’d just pipe down and leave Earth Pony to her thoughts. She must have noticed my silence, and went on.

“It’s a good thought, though. Just… two years too late.”

“I had it three years ago, just didn’t think nopony would take it seriously,” I said.

Earth Pony snickered.

Right at noon, we were in Ponyville, and ’tweren’t long after that we were at the library. The outside of the place was swarming with police who’d fenced it off with a mess of yellow tape. Earth Pony’s badge was ’parently enough to get us through without a fuss. Heck, she even had folks callin’ her “ma’am”.

Inside the library, first thing I did was dry-heave. Thank Celestia, I’d skipped breakfast that mornin’. Twi’s body was gone, save for a chalk outline on the bloodied floorboards, and a thick, copperish smell in the air.

It reeked of death.

The officers on the scene, they didn’t seem too bothered by it. Guess on the sixty-fourth time through, somethin’ like that starts to lose its luster.

The library was a cozy little place, with shelves linin’ the bottom floor and personal quarters upstairs for somepony to live in. Other than Twi’s blood, by my count, there weren’t nothin’ out of the ordinary. There weren’t any scuff marks in the thick dust around Twilight’s outline—signs of a struggle—nor were there any signs of forced entry. I remembered, last time we’d spoken, Twi’d mentioned her spiffy anti-magic locks. There weren’t even any books taken off the shelves, not countin’ the heavy stack of magic tomes Twi’d been working through at her desk.

Earth Pony busied herself porin’ over a folder of photographs that one of the officers hoofed her. I sat down at the table across from her, not sure what exactly I was supposed to do. I watched her work, but that got boring quick. She must’ve spent a good half hour looking at each picture.

After a while of sittin’ there, I started feelin’ sorry for myself. Seein’ how far Twilight’d let the place go, how lonely she must have been the past few years... All that came back to me as guilt. I tried reasonin’ with the guilt—’twouldn’t do no good thinkin’ about what I should have done, but still.

Five years since I started up my clothes shop and met Twilight. Four years since I’d moved out of Ponyville. Three years since the murders’d started. That was a whole heck of a lot of time I could’ve set aside a weekend to come visit my friend. I could’ve done more, and that was the truth that clamped onto my heart and wouldn’t let go.

Eventually, the sun started on its downward trip through the sky, and Earth Pony silently shuffled the pictures back into the folder. My attention perked, and she nodded at me. “Hey. You...” She stopped. “You okay?”

I wiped my eyes. “Yeah. I didn’t reckon this place was gonna be so dusty.”

Once again, Earth Pony gave me a look that told me she knew I was feedin’ her a line, but she didn’t call me out on it otherwise. “Well, I’m done here for tonight. Wanna get something to eat?”

“Sounds nice.” I forced a smile.

Was nearin’ six o’clock by the time she finished reportin’ her findin’s to everypony. By then, the streets were only lit with lamps and completely empty. I hadn’t noticed it that mornin’, but for the first time, I saw the effects of the Ribbon Murders.

For the first time, I felt afraid of what’d used to be my hometown.

Earth Pony didn’t have anywhere in mind for grub, so I took the lead. I still remembered my way ’round those empty streets, and despite a growin’ fear of dark corners and alleys, I was done giddy when I found my old favorite place still standing. It didn’t look nothing special—a cheap eatery with indoor seating and a menu of sandwiches—but it held a place in my heart.

Once the two of us were inside and out of the streets, I started feelin’ a little better. Course, it was a false sense of security—only ’bout five of the murders had happened outside.

Pony and I both both ordered turnip sandwiches, and when mine came, I dug right in to it. Less’n a minute later, I ordered another. Through everything that’d happened that day, I realized I hadn’t eaten since last night. Walkin’ one town over could get a girl’s appetite up.

Then again, Earth Pony hadn’t done much more than nibble her crust. Her thoughts were somewhere else, with the only sound she made bein’ a hoof idly rapping her plate. Couldn’t blame her, after what she’d spent the last few hours lookin’ at.

Boy howdy, I didn’t know the half of it.

Pretty soon, she finally went and piped up. “Applejack, can you keep a secret?”

“Prolly, ’less it’s somethin’ that needs to be told,” I spoke through a mouth of turnip. Earth Pony glared seriously at me ’til I swallowed and nodded. “Right, I won’t tell a soul. Cross my heart.”

She sighed and leaned back in her seat. “Looking at those pictures, Applejack… I’ve been with EGI for a while, okay? I’ve seen a lot of things, and pictures of even more things. I’ve seen how hurt bodies fall and how ponies struggle against an aggressor, and I don’t think the police investigators here’ve noticed yet, but…”

She hesitated and bent in closer, bringing her voice to a whisper. I leaned closer to keep up with the conversation.

“This was a suicide, Applejack. Twi killed herself.”

Her accusation struck a nerve. I glowered across the table and spoke in a harsh whisper. “Twi was my friend, Pony. You here tellin’ me she was the serial killer all along?”

“No! I mean, I don’t think she was. I mean, where would she even get all that white ribbon?” She trailed off, but before she could get lost in thought, she snapped back to the conversation. “But seeing those pictures, this was definitely a suicide.”

“Twi wasn’t like that—”

“Years ago, when we knew her—”

“And I don’t much appreciate you insinuatin’ that she’d up and—”

“Come on, Applejack: even you must’ve heard the rumors. She went full-recluse. And she was smart. She knew anatomy, or she could’ve found a book on it. She would have been able to do a perfect, one-stab kill like that without a problem. All the other murders, they’re a lot more violent, almost euphoric. This was clean and… and emotionless. She just… stabbed and died.”

I grimaced at the words. They were startin’ to make too much sense for my liking. “That don’t explain the ribbon! If Twi did herself in, why was there a white ribbon ’round her neck, like the others?”

Earth Pony hung her head between her hooves and closed her eyes. “The ribbon doesn’t have a speck of dust on it, and you saw that place. Even the knife handle had dust on it—but no imprints like someone had held it. I can’t get our magic forensics pony here for a couple of days, but I’m pretty sure she’ll find the knife was wielded with magic, but the ribbon was hoof-tied, like the rest of them.”

“Which could just mean the murder’s a unicorn,” I pointed out.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I guess… I think the killer was there, at some point, but they didn’t kill Twilight. Or maybe they did. Maybe there was, like, mind control involved. Or maybe they just knew something that seriously got to Twilight.

Her and her theories. I shook my head. “I still think you’re full of horseapples.” After a quiet pause, I asked, “You gonna pass that up the chain?”

“No. Not yet. I met Twilight’s family while training in Canterlot, spent a lot of time with her brother. They’re going to be a mess right now, and I can’t drop a theory like this on them unless I’m completely sure. I need to figure this out more, on my own, before I say anything to anyone.” She opened her eyes, swallowed, and looked me right in the eyes. It made me realize just how close we were leaned in towards one another. “You’re welcome to stay and help, of course. It’s kind of nice to have somepony tell me I’m wrong about this. Bouncy ideas come back stronger. And… you know, it helps to have someone else who…”

She didn’t finish, so I did: “Knew her?”

Earth Pony nodded. “Yeah. It’s weird; I thought the next time I was in that library, I’d be telling her about all the embarrassing childhood stories her brother told me, not… not this.” Itchin’ to do somethin’ with her hooves, the girl leaned back and finally took a full-fledged bite from her neglected sandwich.

I also sat back on my cushion. “I understand. I reckon I oughta get goin’, then, to find somewhere to stay afore it gets too late out.”

“Oh!” Earth Pony exclaimed through a full mouth, spewing breadcrumbs across the table and over me. “I have this, uh… friend, now, in town who totally still owes me a favor. She’s captain of the weather team, so she’s got a big place. I’m sure she’ll let us bunk there if I ask.”

“Uh, are you talkin’ ’bout one of those pegasi in the cloud houses? Cause, you know, neither of us can stand on clouds.”

For a fraction of a second, I swore she wore the face of a wounded animal. But she quickly covered it with a practiced smile. “Oh, don’t worry. You’ll like her.”

Chapter 3

I didn’t like Rarity from the get-go.

And heck, after everything that happened, with all the ways she helped Earth Pony ’n me out, part of me feels guilty sayin’ that. But it was the honest truth—she was a generous pony, in her own way. “Her own way” just usually tended to be backhooved and darn near condescendin’ towards yours truly.

I first met her after draggin’ my tired behind up the entrance road to her house, led by Earth Pony. She hadn’t been lyin’ about Rarity’s house, either. It was a ways north of town, not quite on the outskirts, but I wouldn’t’ve been surprised to see a chauffeur pullin’ someone along in a cart. When I finally caught sight of it, I figured it must’ve been as wide as the town hall, and twice as tall.

It was less a “house” and more of a “small castle”. The darn thing had spires.

At the main entrance—the place had a normal-sized landin’, which looked tiny compared to the rest of the house—Earth Pony rang the bell. Surprisingly, it only took a matter of seconds for someone to answer. The door opened a crack, and a timid, fancy-soundin’ voice asked, “Yes, may I help you ladies?”

Earth Pony just grinned back until the door opened up more. Inside stood a well-groomed white unicorn in a purple nightgown; by now, her eyes were narrowin’ in a mix between confusion and growin’ fear.

Then, her eyes shot open and her mouth fell in a horrified realization. “Your mane!” she hissed. “Darling, what did you do to it?”

Earth Pony rolled her eyes in what I reckon was the most exaggerated manner a pony could muster. “Part of the job. I have to look inconspicuous.”

“But blue on blue? ’Inconspicuous’ doesn’t mean ‘monotonous’, dear. Pray tell, what job would even demand such guidelines?”

Out came the badge.

That unicorn looked at Earth Pony’s badge like it was a two-headed frog. She got over it right quickly, though. Her horn glowed and the door flung open the rest of the way. “Well, we certainly have a lot to catch up on, then! For Celestia’s sake, it’s been years. I didn’t even know you joined the Guard.”

“Heh… I guess I haven’t been keeping up with my P-Ville friends much.” Earth Pony rubbed her neck, and I felt another pang of guilt. “Oh! Yeah!” She turned to me. “Lemme introduce you guys. Applejack, this is Rarity. Rarity, Applejack.”

I tipped my head and held out a hoof to Rarity. She took it in hers and gave it a firm yet dainty shake. “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Applejack. A friend from Canterlot, I assume?”

I couldn’t resist a chortle. “Ain’t even close. I work down in the rock farm, couple of hours south of town.”

“She used to live in Ponyville the same time I did,” Earth Pony cut in. Her voice quickly dropped to a whisper. “She was friends with… you know…”

Rarity’s ears fell and her voice took on a softer tone. “Right. I read it in the evening paper. I must say, I’m still having trouble coming to terms with it. I had seen her so infrequently as of late, but I always knew she was there. And now, to think we’ll never speak ever again…” She sighed. “But enough of that. You’re in Ponyville on the case, I assume?”

“Yeah. Me and Applejack need a place to crash while we’re in town. Think you could spare us one of your bedrooms? Two, if you’re feeling generous?”

“Dear, for you I’d gladly spare three. Now please, do come inside.” She turned and faked a smile at me. “And you, too Applejack. I have some water on the stove if you’re interested in tea, and help yourself to whatever’s in the cupboard. It’s been far too long!”

Earth Pony’s face lit up and she burst forward. “So come on! Show us your place. Looks like you’ve built on since last time I was here.”

“Oh, have I ever,” she began, strolling deeper into her cave-like home.

I joined them, already feelin’ like a third wheel.

Now, I ain’t much for the finer points of architecture, and I gather Earth Pony wasn’t neither. We both did our best impression of interested listeners as Rarity showed us around. Even after hearin’ her go on about it, all I could really say was it was a darn nice-lookin’ place. Everything was stone gray. Lotsa arches, pillars, and the like. Paintings and furniture offered colors, and they did spruce the place up without poppin’ out too much. If I were the artsy type, I’d say there was somethin’ like coordination goin’ on. Since I ain’t, I’ll just say the place was tall, dark, and gray.

Just like her decorations, Rarity stood out as peculiar in my mind. I remembered how Earth Pony’d said she ran the weather ’round those parts, and when I realized she wasn’t a pegasus… well, that struck me as a rarity in its own right.

When I found a good gap to fill with a question, I piped up. “So, Rarity, ma’am. No offense or nothin’, but I ain’t ever heard of a unicorn leadin’ a weather team.”

“Oh, no offense taken, dear.” She smiled at me politely, like I’d just tracked mud in the house. “Destiny leads us to strange places, after all. I have to say, though, it wasn’t always easy, what with biology against me.”

“She had the town’s clouds stuck in a grid pattern for three months,” Earth Pony interjected.

I nodded. “I actually remember that.”

Rarity sighed. “Yes, it wasn’t my finest hour. Honestly, I sometimes wonder how I managed to make it as far as I did. But in the end—”

“I came in and saved the day,” Earth Pony butted in. “Taught her everything she needed to know about the weather, and being awesome, and from there…” She motioned around at the enormous hallway we were walking through. “Like I said, she owes me a favor.”

“Oh darling, you know you enjoyed helping me make those storms as much as I enjoyed painting your sky.”

I felt like I’d been left a few stops back in the conversation, but neither of ’em seemed to be offerin’ to bring me up to speed.

“But anyway,” Rarity continued, “enough about my work. You’re an Investigator now! And on the notorious White Ribbon case, no less! Do tell, has there been some new development preceding your arrival? Do the authorities have a suspect?”

“Nothing yet,” Earth Pony said. “I’ve been a junior detective on this case since I joined EGI. This is the first time I’ve actually gotten to leave Canterlot, though. When I heard about Twi, I asked to be bumped up to lead detective. They kind of laughed and said have at it. But it really felt like I should be here, you know?”

“I understand.” Rarity led Earth Pony and me into the living room—it was as big as mine, I noted with an ounce of pride, even if Rarity had more house built around hers. She gestured for us guests to take seats on the cushions ’round her brass-trimmed coffee table, which we readily accepted. She sat on the same side as us, on the opposite side of Earth Pony from me.

With a shimmerin’ sparkle of magic, Rarity summoned up a kettle and teabags from the kitchen and poured out three cups. “But tell me they’ve at least been making progress up in Canterlot?”

“We’ve got a bushel of horseapples,” Earth Pony shot out. “It’s been years and we haven’t found so much as a witness. Even when we plant undercover guards, the murders still happen—once, to the guard himself!” She sighed and looked down at her teacup, mighty glum. “We’re running out of options. It’s like he’s a force of nature. It’s been two years, and we still don’t know the first thing about this guy.”

“Or girl,” Rarity countered. “You must admit, there is something nefariously feminine about the calling card. A delicate white ribbon, tenderly tied in a magnificent bow around the victim’s neck…”

She stopped before I could get any jeebies to go with my heebies. I wasn’t gonna say nothin’ but ‘tweren’t right to go on about murder like you were dressin’ up a doll.

Earth Pony shared my sentiment and glared back flatly. “Anyway, the weirdest thing isn’t the guy’s gender, Rares. This one’s about Twilight’s death.”

“Oh? Do tell, provided it’s not too gory.”

“I looked at the crime scene photos as soon as I arrived. She’s got the white ribbon and everything, but her actual wounds… they look like a suicide. What’s your take on that?”

Rarity didn’t even blink. “I’m not surprised, to be honest.”

“Not surprised?” I cut in. “Beg pardon, Rarity, but the Twilight I knew wouldn’t take her own life. That filly was a fighter to the very end.”

“And when was the last time you spoke with Twilight Sparkle, Miss Applejack?” Rarity glared at me like I was speakin’ out of turn. “Because for me, it was less than a month ago, and I can tell you this: she was not the Twilight you knew. She hadn’t been for years, not since poor little Spike met his unfortunate end. She barely spoke to anyone, she never left the library, and…” She paused, thinkin’ somethin’ over. “I assume that my promises of confidentiality do not extend posthumously, so I’ll say that when last we spoke, she said what could be interpreted to be suicidal ideations.”

Now, I was mighty shocked by that rant, but Earth Pony’s cloudy mood turned into a storm like lightning. Afore I knew what was happenin’, she grabbed Rarity by the neck and flipped her onto the coffee table.

Earth Pony stood over her as she seethed rage. “You knew she was thinking about killing herself, and you didn’t tell anyone?”

Rarity took her compromisin’ situation in stride. Calmly—a little too calm for my tastes—she explained up to Earth Pony, “Twilight confided in me, and I promised her complete confidentiality. Imagine if she had a worse secret, but no one she could trust! And as I said, it was only an interpretation of her statements. Based solely on her words, I’d be hard pressed to conclude that she intended to take her own life.”

The words did little to calm poor Earth Pony down. At that point, I’d wrapped my head around the situation enough to try’n defuse things. “You mentioned her ‘statements’, Rarity. What all’d she say to you?”

Rarity uneasily rolled her head to look at me, ignorin’ the blue pony on top of her. “Strange things. Vague things. She kept mentioning a horrible mistake she’d made. One day she arrived at my home in a panic, tears streaming down her face, and kept asking, ‘Where’s Luna?’ over and over again. Another time she was furious, telling me she’d killed her younger brother.” She turned quickly up to Earth Pony. “She blamed herself for Spike’s death, dear. She may have held her secrets, but murder was not one of them.” Her head rolled back to me. “But to answer your question, the last time we spoke, all she told me was that she was glad I had made something of my life. She seemed defeated, but in an exhausted manner. Content, is the word. It was… strange, to say the least.”

Earth Pony blew out a huge sigh, climbed off our host, and retook her seat. She didn’t say nothin’ at first, instead decidin’ to rub her hoof between her eyes. “Alright, so great. My best friend, Twilight, was crazy and killed herself. Then a prolific serial killer appeared in her home and managed to tie a ribbon around her neck without leaving any sort of trace. And I’m supposed to make heads or tails of this, and somehow catch the guy—” She looked at Rarity. “—or girl behind it. Just great.”

A pregnant silence hung in the room. I reckon you could’ve heard a snowflake drop on the rooftop. Rarity, she let it hang a bit, then slowly climbed up and wrapped her hooves around Earth Pony.

She spoke firmly and without a mite of hesitation. “I have seen dozens of detectives come into Ponyville to try to solve this case. Every one of them has failed, leaving them right where you are now. But something deep inside tells me that you’re going to be the one that makes it, dear.” Rarity pulled away and lifted Pony’s droopin’ head. “Because you, my dear, have a tendency to boldly rush into danger where the less courageous would falter.” She pressed a hoof against the sagging pocket on Earth Pony’s raincoat. “And that’s why you earned this badge.”

A blush under Earth Pony’s fur turned that filly purple as a blueberry. “You’re just sayin’ that, Rares.”

“I’m saying it because I believe it.” What with Earth Pony back on track, Rarity took the opportunity to magic a sponge into the room and mop up the spilled tea—her tea kettle had taken the brunt of Earth Pony’s pile drive.

“Also,” Rarity went on, “I recall you saying that I owe you a favor. While I’d certainly be willing to call it even after providing you and your friend with temporary housing, I might have something you would be… more interested in.”

Earth Pony, gazin’ over Rarity’s shoulder, got a weird, skeptical look in her eyes. “It’s not another weird hat, is it? Because every time you said that to me before, it was a weird hat.”

Rarity smiled. “No such luck, I’m afraid.” She climbed off Earth Pony and turned around. “Come, dear…” As an afterthought, she added, “And of course, you as well, Applejack.”

* * *

The longer Rarity led the two of us into that maze of a house, the more anxious I got at tryin’ to remember my way out. I didn’t feel lost, and heck, the more practical side of me saw how many thin-lookin’ windows were in the rooms we passed. But still, somethin’ about the place just felt off to me—like I was bein’ watched, always from behind. I kept a look out the corner of my eyes, but I never saw anythin’ out of the ordinary.

When we finally reached the our destination, my heart was poundin’. Rarity opened the door, and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the room inside. I really wasn’t sure what to make of the red velvet carpet and ceiling, either, but I put that back in the cart for a moment.

Everything in that room—walls, tables, and corkboards—was smothered in information. Documents, folders, and pictures were pinned up all over and tied together with a web of multicolored string.

Earth Pony must’ve known what it was right away; she zipped past me and right over to one of the tables. I walked in a mite slower, but I still got a closer look at it all.

My heart skipped a hard beat when I realized what it all was.

Victims’ names, newspaper reports, maps with pins… Rarity had certainly gone all-out in reassemblin’ every recorded word, color, and location of the sixty-four White Ribbon murders. My stomach churned when I saw Twilight’s name, picture, and news article already pinned up with the rest of them.

I felt like I was in the heart of some sort of predator’s lair.

“Do you like it, dear?” I heard the hint of pride in Rarity’s voice.

“Rarity… how…” Earth Pony shook her head. “This is awesome. EGI isn’t even set up this neatly.”

Rarity made a proud little humph before walkin’ over to Earth Pony. “It hardly makes sense to keep living in this town if one isn’t willing to take necessary precautions.”

“Beggin’ yer pardon,” I cut in, “but is all this necessary? I mean, it’s sure… good and all, but I don’t reckon everypony needs a getup like this.”

Her baby blues cut right into me. “Perhaps I’m not as fortunate as you, to be able to live outside of this town, but that doesn’t mean I will succumb to a carefree lifestyle.” Each word grew hotter and hotter like she were strikin’ an anvil. “You’ll find that throughout this house, there are several security measures and countermeasures: locks, sensors, alar—”

“Okay…” Earth Pony stepped between the two of us. “Play nice, girls. No killing in the murder investigation room.”

I felt my choler rise at that; I hadn’t even asked nothin’ that hadn’t needed askin’.

Luckily, Rarity nodded and immediately apologized. “But it is growing late, I suppose. Will you excuse a few curt words from me at this hour?”

I shrugged. “Depends on if you were serious about puttin’ me up for the night.” Realizin’ how it came off, I tried to tie it together with a grin.

She forced a too-toothy smile back at me. “Of course.” Turnin’ to Earth Pony, she dropped me like a bad habit. “By the way, if you’re up for it… tomorrow morning, I may have discovered some refinements to our spell.”

Earth Pony’s eyes lit up like she were watchin’ a fireworks display. “You mean…”

Rarity nodded. “I’ve at least figured a way to weave the gossamer to give it a more rigid structure. I can’t make any promises…”

“No, no, I understand!” She started jitterin’, and I gave up on ever understandin’ what she and Rarity talked about right in front of me. Like I weren’t there. “But, I mean, it’s not too late…”

“Alas, it is for me, my dear.” Rarity put a hoof to her forehead. “But tomorrow morning, for sure.”

Earth Pony glared daggers at that, and right then, I knew Rarity’s type. She was a tease. All the times I’d sought after a prissy city gal, but they just turned out to like their teasin’ and carrots on sticks… Well, I remembered why I avoided those sorts.

Anyway, by that point, I was fightin’ between bein’ creeped out of my skin and wantin’ to sleep for a good long decade. There wasn’t room in my mind for callin’ Rarity out on her horseapples. ’Sides, she was puttin’ me up for the night; I didn’t like her or the house, but I’d slept in worse places.

Rarity and I bid each other good night, and I turned to go find some furniture to barricade myself in a room with. Maybe I’d read the signs wrong, but I was a little surprised when Earth Pony turned away from Rarity, too, and started followin’ me. She didn’t go to the same room as I did, but she at least showed me the way.

Part of me felt a little better knowin’ an EGI agent was just one wall over.

My bedroom was as grand and gray as the rest of the house; even with the velvet rug in in the center of the room, my hoofsteps echoed off the high, vaulted ceiling. Tired as I was, I slid the chest of drawers in front of the door and put my folded-up coat in it.

With my own peace of mind taken care of, I sauntered over to the bed and dove under the purple satin bedsheets. Boy howdy, Rarity was a bitch, but at least her mattress had an ounce of warmth and depth.

Before I drifted off, I took a moment to collect my thoughts. Tired as I was, concentratin’ on one particular thing was a challenge in its own right. Best I came up with was a weird, tiny feelin’ about everythin’. There I was, in town with some freshfruit investigator I’d met yesterday. Every resource in Equestria had been thrown at the case she was investigatin’; compared to that, Earth Pony looked like just one more drop in the bucket.

Couldn’t help but wonder if Earth Pony was feeling the same way ’bout it. More I thought on it, more I put pieces of her puzzle together. Best I could tell, she had confidence and courage, but that was stretched thin over a pit of self-doubt. I felt sorry for the girl, but darned if I hadn’t been there myself during the time I ran the clothes shop.

As I drifted off, I grinned to myself and thought of her flank. Maybe in the end, just like a butterfly strugglin’ to hatch, she’d come out on top and be all the better for it.

Chapter 4

Creepy vibes or no, I didn’t have too much difficulty sleepin’ that night. After all, I had spent the day prior in two towns, and I’d done an early morning with a late night on not a lot of sleep from the night before.

Point is, I slept like a rock. The only thing I remembered from my dreams was someone rustlin’ the door against the drawers I’d set in front of them.

When I first woke up, I felt cold air on my face. It smelled clean, like a fresh breeze, which confused me. Soon as I opened my eyes, I darn near jumped out of my skin.

Earth Pony was right in front of me, her big ol’ eyes and tiny muzzle an inch from mine.

She stepped back as soon as I was awake, but still. I barely kept from screamin’.

Earth Pony took a seat at the foot of my bed. She wore her raincoat and her tail flicked back and forth impatiently; the first thing she said to me was, “Applejack, why the hay did you put the dresser against the door?”

It ain’t that I ain’t a mornin’ pony, but I don’t do well with bein’ accused of wrongdoin’s by mares who’d just broken into my room. I pointed a hoof back. “I’ll answer that, Pony, once you tell me just what the buck you’re doin’ in my room!” I blinked a few times, since the cold air bothered my eyes. On my right, the drapes blew in front of... “You climb through the window or something?”

“Duh,” she said like it was obvious. “You barricaded yourself in. How else was I supposed to get in?”

“I dunno. Maybe knockin’, or waitin’ until it was a decent—” I gandered a closer look at the day outside my open window. Bed must’ve been darn comfy, ’cause it was bright enough to be well past nine. I did feel better after all that rest, so I groaned defeat, yawned, and rubbed a good ten hours of sleep out of my eyes. I didn’t want to start the day off arguin’ with Earth Pony. She was the closest thing I’d had to a friend in far too long a time.

Plus, now that I wasn’t so ticked off by her, I could see she was darn near burstin’ at the seams with energy. “Anyway,” I asked, “what’re you so hyped up about? You catch the killer or somethin’?”

“Wow…” Her ears drooped. “Way to be a buzzkill, AJ.” Her nickname for me made my eyebrow shoot up. “But anyway, wanna be me for the rest of the morning?”

I blinked. Cute mare on my bed or no, nine-thirty or no, this mornin’ was startin’ way too soon and complicated for my tastes. “Earth Pony, it’s too early for this. Talk simpler.”

She pulled her EGI badge out of her raincoat. “They still need me to do investigations at the library. But… stuff… with Rarity kind of… came up? Like, she had weather chores this morning, and I already checked in at the crime scene, but at ten-thirty, there’s something I haven’t done in a while, and it’s kind of personal…”

I cut her off. Weren’t with me, weren’t none of my business. What I did know was the obvious: “I ain’t a detective, Earth Pony. And I don’t even think them policeponies are even gonna let me look at the library without you there.”

“Being a detective’s easy,” she argued. “You just look around for anything that looks out of the ordinary and remember it. I’ll drop by this afternoon, you tell me everything you’ve found, and I’ll solve the case in ten seconds flat!” She pumped a hoof into the air on the last word, which seemed mighty inappropriate for investigatin’ our friend’s murder. “As for getting onto the scene, just take my badge and tell them you’re me.”

I frowned. “That don’t seem rightly honest.”

“It’s honest enough. You were already there yesterday, and I’m lead detective on this case. You’re not doing anything wrong.”

I pondered that over for a moment.

Earth Pony took that as a sign of agreement. “Anyway, here. I got you a bread.” She reached a hoof into another coat pocket and pulled out a cracked piece of toast. She tossed it and her badge on the bed in front of me, not givin’ me any more choice in the matter. “So go. Be me.”

That Earth Pony, she zipped outta my window with more spring in her step than a foal on Hearth’s Warming Eve. After notin’ how lucky she was we were on the ground floor, I felt an honest-to-goodness pang of jealousy in my chest. I wasn’t sure what she was excited for, but from everything I’d heard between them, I reckoned it had somethin’ to do with her, Rarity, and a structurally sound sex spell.

With that image in mind, I climbed outta bed. I got my coat out of its drawer and left the house as quick as I could. Mental images were one thing; I didn’t want to actually see, hear, or smell somethin’ I’d regret later.

My “bread” didn’t make it off Rarity’s estate, let alone do me any good. Toast ain’t breakfast. Once I got into town, I stopped by the local bakery and ordered a heapin’-large apple turnover.

With a full belly, I made my way to the library. The police presence there was thinner than yesterday, but I figured that made sense. From what I remembered from a few mystery movies I’d seen, the longer a crime scene sat for, the “colder” it got.

When I got to the yellow tape, a stallion in the telltale blue uniform muscled his way in front of me. Big fellow, looked like he could stop a train if he chose to. Yet he spoke gentle enough to remind me of home. “I’m sorry, ma’am. This is an active crime scene. We can’t let civilians enter.”

I swallowed and pulled out Earth Pony’s badge. “I’m with the head detective from Canterlot. Quirky li’l blue pony. I reckon you might’ve seen her yesterday?”

“I’m sorry. If she comes by with identification, we’ll let you on the scene. But until then—”

A minty green pegasus in a blue vest swooped down from above and cut him off. “She’s fine, Greenleaves. I remember her from last night; she’s with EGI. Probably a consultant or specialist.”

I nodded kinda sideways. “I used to be friends with Miss Twilight. Spent a good many hours in this here library with her. Ear… thee… investigator, she reckons I could help her notice if something were amiss. She’ll be back here this afternoon.”

The wall named Greenleaves saluted the pegasus, then looked at me. “I suppose it barely hurts by now, anyway. Just tell her to be quick about wrapping things up here; Ponyville wants us elsewhere. No sense keeping all the boys in blue bundled here when we should be fanned out across town.”

As impressed I was that Earth Pony’s plan was workin’ out, I knew enough to be polite to someone doin’ me somethin’ of a favor. “I’ll tell her.” Givin’ a short bow of thanks, I continued forward into the library.

Weren’t much different there from last night, though it stank less like blood. It was still there—Twi’s last little mark on the world—next to the chalk outline, but now, it was more a visual than a smellin’ sensation.

The folder of photos was on the table where Earth Pony left it. Rememberin’ how she’d looked through it yesterday, I figured it’d be a good place for me to start as well. I strolled over, opened it, and looked inside.

Soon as I did, I wished I hadn’t. Twilight’s face held none of that “peaceful sleep” horseapples. That there was a face of pure terror—at least, the half of her face that weren’t caked into the red river under her. I closed the folder and swallowed, hard, to keep my breakfast down.

That tiny feelin’ I’d drifted off to sleep with last night came back, but this time, it cut deep and festered. I wasn’t a detective. I wasn’t cut out to deal with stuff like seein’ ponies hurt, dead, or worse. I struggled between that truth and my duty to both Twi and Earth Pony; all that I could think was—

“I like your coat.” The voice boomed in the silence.

Once I climbed back down into my skin, I looked around. Above me, I found the pegasus gal from the entrance. Despite what I’d just seen and the scare I’d just had, her words brought a smile to my face. “Why, thank y’ kindly ma’am! I made it myself, actually.”

“Oh. Huh, I thought I saw something similar in a store once.”

Welp, pride’d been nice while it lasted. I muttered some mostly-indecipherable gibberish and walked deeper into the library. Maybe after everythin’ was said and done, I’d check the design section for somethin’ new to work on for the summer.

That pegasus cop, she weren’t done with the conversation. I heard her flutterin’ above me, followin’ me as she asked, “So, got any leads?”

I looked back up at her. Shoot, I hadn’t even been in the library for much longer than the ten seconds Earth Pony said she’d need. And she was the detective there, not me.

Still the pegasus cop’s question got me to thinkin’. I remembered last night, how a lot of things had been off about Rarity. She’d talked far too fondly ’bout the murders, let alone her meticulously set-up information room. I didn’t see that as ordinary, and that was what I was supposed to be lookin’ out for.

In fact, given how she’d had close contact with Twilight prior to her death… I bobbed my head and almost said, “Shucks.” If I were the detective there, I’d almost say I’d found a suspect.

Course, I didn’t want to do Earth Pony’s reputation like that—not without talkin’ to her about her marefriend first. I raised a shoulder and cricked my neck. “We’ve got a few hunches, but nothin’ solid yet.” Which was honest enough, really.

That must’ve been enough for the cop, since she zipped off like pegasi are wont to do—always brimmin’ with energy. Once again, I found myself alone in Twilight’s library. With everythin’ open as an option, I mostly felt confused about what to look at next.

With a shrug, I headed up the stairs and into my friend’s bedroom.

In there, nothin’ weren’t too out of the ordinary at first glance. Bed was messy—couldn’t blame her, I never made mine, neither. The stack of books by the bed had a single bookmark partway through the top one. I checked it to see what the last thing she’d ever read had been, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of the magicky mumbo-jumbo.

The sense of finality just made my eyes water up somethin’ fierce. ’Tweren’t right for someone as young as Twilight to be in Canterlot, bein’ laid to rest. I thought of all the times I’d thought of visitin’ Ponyville “next weekend”, but that weekend’d never come ’round. And all the while, if Rarity were spittin’ the truth, Twilight’d gotten more and more lonely.

All that sorrow got to be too heavy for me to carry on my own. I sat down at her desk and let it fall. Wasn’t too much shame in it, since I was alone—though I guessed I was leavin’ lots of little water droplets on the dust-covered desktop. But, as much as I’d tried to avoid it since I’d heard about Twi’s passin’, this was the first time I was alone.

The single thought in my mind was one of loss. I wanted my friend back.

’Twas a selfish thing to want, really. All that time I’d had I could’ve visited, but now I only wanted her back ’cause she was gone. I felt like a foal, ignorin’ a toy until someone else took it. Was that all I’d ever seen Twilight as? Somethin’ for my enjoyment, to only miss when she’d been taken away?

Between the guilt and the grief, it took me a while ’fore I could suck in a few deep breaths and pull myself together. I wiped my eyes and put myself back on track of investigatin’. I didn’t quite feel like movin’ yet, so I opened the middle drawer under her desk. Inside were several writing instruments and papers. I flipped through them, and underneath them, I found a stack of photographs bound together with an elastic mane tie.

Unlike the folder where she was dead, I could look at the pictures where she’d been alive. The first few were a couple out-of-focus shots of Spike holdin’ the camera out and takin’ pictures of himself. Then, an experimental, diagonal shot of that darned ugly wood carvin’ down in the lobby. Then, a picture of Twilight, eyes still bright, standing proudly in front of a wall of books…

I looked through all of them, and it warmed my chest a little. I still felt like dirt, but I could at least snap the hair tie ’round the photos, put ’em back, and walk over to Twilight’s closet. Like I remembered, the girl wasn’t too much of a fashion bug. Everythin’ in there was even dustier than the rest of the library, which almost showed effort on Twi’s part.

With a sigh, I headed over to her big, round, bed-side window. Celestia held the sun directly above Ponyville at that point, which gave the place a bright, oppressive look to it—leastways because the streets were dead-empty.

After havin’ let off some of my grief, I felt the same way—empty, with hard edges makin’ a hollow frame. I was mad at myself, sad at my loss... but mostly, I just felt helpless.

I breathed a long sigh. Any other case, I reckoned Earth Pony might have a chance at finding somethin’ in that library. But these Ribbon Murders weren’t motivated. The victims just died ’cause they were there, on some mad stallion’s list or however he chose them.

Then again, Twilight weren’t exactly like every other victim. She was the private student of Celestia herself, which probably made her one of the most powerful unicorns in all of Equestria. I couldn’t imagine her bein’ unable to defend herself, even if she were bein’ strangled.

Unless Earth Pony and Rarity were right, and she was the one who did herself in. I shuddered at the thought, but with it came the grimmest note of hope. If this “murder” really was different from the others in that regard, maybe there was somethin’ to find.

My attention snaped to the bedroom door creakin’ open. Through the threshold, Earth Pony stumbled in with—of all things—a cast on her hind left leg. She cracked a wacky smile in my direction. “Find anything?”

“What the hay happened to you?” As soon as I said it, I realized there was a mighty high chance I didn’t wanna know.

“I fell more than a hundred feet and only broke my leg, that’s what. And Rarity didn’t want to do the spell again after that…” She bristled, clearly irritated. “Now come on, we have to catch this guy who keeps killing ponies. What did you find?”

I shook my head. “Nothin’, ’less you’re lookin’ for old, blurry pictures of Spike takin’ pictures of himself.”

“What about the other pictures? The ones in the folder?” I grimaced, and a sympathetic look came over her face. “You looked at them, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“Do you think I’m right? About… you know.”

“I ain’t rightly sure, Earth Pony,” I said, despite the growin’ evidence against me. “All I can tell you is that she was mighty scared when she passed. She… she died with that look on her face. Like... if she’d made up her mind...”

Earth Pony nodded and cocked her head to the side. “I know it’s weird, but... sometimes, ponies like that are sure, up to the last second. Most of the time, it hurts, and they aren’t expecting that’s how their last moment is going to be.”

I tried not to think of Twilight, in her last moment, bein’ scared and desperately pleadin’ for a do-over. All I could manage was a long, hard blink that didn’t quite clear my head. “Ain’t nothing like you see in the movies.”

“It never is.” She kept her head tilted at me for a few more moments. Then, her gusto came back, and she perked right up. “Still, the Ribbon Murderer was here. There has to be something. If this were a movie, this would be the scene where we split up to cover more ground, then one of us has a big realization, and we blow this case wide. Open.”

Splittin’ up don’t end well in any of the murder movies I’ve seen. I kept that thought to myself as well. Earth Pony seemed motivated, and heck, lookin’ at my teardrops on Twilight’s desk, I had a stake in this too.

I gave Earth Pony a serious nod. “All right. Let’s catch us a killer.”

Chapter 5

Earth Pony and I left Twilight’s room alone so we could split up to cover the library’s upper floor. Compared to her attitude after the first day’s investigation, it’d been a mighty fine change to see her prancin’ ’round like she owned the place. Completely unfazed by a messed-up leg, no less. Whatever she and Rarity had gotten up to that morning—which was their business—it had filled her spirit right up to the brim.

I guess some of that rubbed off on me, at first. But five hours of searchin’ later, I started trustin’ my gut more and more that the entire investigation weren’t nothin’ but an exercise in futility.

Don’t you get me wrong: I’m a fighter. When my clothes store was goin’ under, I worked that sewing machine ’til the bank had the police escort me off the premises. I don’t just give up. I’d stick it out to the end—I liked Earth Pony, and not just her cute parts—but I had a hunch we weren’t gonna find any answers in that library.

The killer was more than good. He—or she; I still hadn’t gotten around to givin’ Earth Pony my workin’ theory on Rarity—was a monster. They were the sort of creepin’ shadow foals fear at night, hidin’ tightly under their covers and hopin’ against hope that a cotton sheet can stop claws sharp as sickles.

I reckon that’s how Earth Pony was, too—if you’ll excuse me comparin’ her to a foal. The monster was real, and it took her friend. She’d wrapped herself in a cocoon of cotton sheet convictions, and she wouldn’t let the claws of doubt cut through ’em. Why was there gonna be a clue in Twilight’s library? Because there had to be.

I felt bad for that filly. During our time upstairs, every half hour or so, she’d come to check on me. Every half hour or so, I saw the truth more and more in her saggin’ demeanor: we were wastin’ our time.

Still, I had a job to do—partly to avenge a deceased friend, and partly to help a breathin’, new one. I decided to take a break from the top floor of the library. Downstairs, in the library proper, Twilight had added in some shelves since I’d left town four years back.

I wandered through the newer shelves, the ones that were on the floor, not in the wall. As I walked, I looked for books out of place. Two shelves later, I smiled at a glimpse of the Twilight I knew: Dusty or no, not a one of them books were out of place.

Course, after six shelves, I also noticed that every books was covered in dust, so I doubted they’d actually been moved to get disorganized.

After my ninth shelf, I got pulled outta my bookwatchin’ trance by a draggin’, thunkin’ sound. My heart caught in my chest ’til it melted back down at the sight of Earth Pony hobblin’ down the stairs. I remembered her chipper, bright blue attitude that mornin’. Now, everythin’ about her drooped—her raincoat and tail dragged on the floor, and her eyes and ears carried the downtrodden look of somepony who’d failed even after tryin’ her hardest.

She spoke to me without a lick of inflection. “Find anything?”

I felt bad to tell the truth, but I gently kicked the bookshelf anyway. “No confession notes written in glitter and confetti, but I can tell you this: Twilight kept every book on every shelf in perfect alphabet-order, right to the very end.”

By then, the sun hung low enough in the sky that it painted our dusty room with golden rays and long, skewed shadows. Earth Pony hobbled through the growing dimness, over to the readin’ nook. “Right. So we know the guy doesn’t hate the alphabet.”

“Or girl,” I added.

That earned me a glare that was more’n a little hot, so I backed off. Now wasn’t the time for me to bring up my Rarity theory. Since Pony’d dropped the suicide angle on me last night at dinner, I figured I’d return wait until we got somethin’ to eat first.

For now, Pony walked forward, starin’ a thousand yards into the distance, until the front half of her collapsed face-first onto one of the public readin’ cushions. She sent up a plume of dust, and her shallow breathin’ was a spring windstorm in that library’s morbid silence.

It didn’t feel right to stand behind her with her rear in the air, so I jogged over to the other side of the cushion. I couldn’t see any of her face since her blue mane fell around her head like a mop.

Muffled, she asked a question:

“What is this guy, Applejack?”

I gathered my thoughts a moment and hack-strapped together the best answer to lift her spirits. “He’s a monster, Earth Pony. Ain’t nothin’ more than a spook who’s darn good at not bein’ seen and gets off on takin’ folks away.”

Earth Pony’s ears perked up at me, followed by her now-dusty face. “But he didn’t take Twilight! He just took credit for it. Why would he do that?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes things don’t make sense. The best folks like us can do is try’n think somethin’ out there makes sense, in the grand scheme of things.”

She didn’t say nothing. Hay, she didn’t move. Just sat there, quiet-like. I felt bad for her, but you know how it is. Sometimes a pony just needs things to be quiet to let her thoughts come together. I sat on the cushion next to her to give her some time.

After ten minutes, I felt it’d been enough. “C’mon, why don’t we go get some grub. Then, we can find you a pillow that ain’t a cloud of dust.”

Earth Pony finally stood up properly, stretched out her back like a cat, and grinned at me. “Excuse me, but I like clouds.”

I threw a smile right back at her. It was genuine, all things considered, and I figured the poor girl needed to see one. “You ever think you ought to’ve been born a pegasus, Earth Pony?”

She gave me a sarcastic smirk. “It crossed my mind once or twice. I guess…” By the confused look on her face, I thought she’d found a theory. Then she let out a bark of a sneeze that would’ve shook the leaves off the library had it been fall.

“Careful there.” I chuckled.

She returned it. “Dumb dust.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I mean, least it’s Twilight’s dust. Not a speck of it out of place, all evenly coatin’ everything.”

“Unless someone checked out a book or something…”

“In this town?” I raised an eyebrow. “I bet no one even goes to the movies anymore, let alone readin’ a book.”

We shared a chuckle, but as it tapered off, Earth Pony and I both got the same idea at the same time. Or at least, I thought so at first. She rushed over to the folder with all Twilight’s pictures, and I rushed back to the stacks. This time, I wasn’t checkin’ the books, but the dust in front of ’em. There were some uneven trenches in it, dusted over, where books had been moved at some point. I wasn’t lookin’ for dust, though; I was lookin’ for the shiny gleam of hardwood.

“It doesn’t say, Applejack!”

Earth Pony’s question shook me out of my search a moment. “Doesn’t say what?”

“The mare who came to check out a book and ended up finding Twilight. The officer didn’t bother asking.”

I blinked as I moved on to another shelf. That was actually a good angle, which once again reminded me why I wasn’t a detective.

Regardless of what I was or wasn’t, in the psychology section, I found fresh book tracks. There weren’t any dust in them, so they couldn’t have sat for long. The dust-covered book they were in front of had to have been recently moved, either by Twilight or another unicorn who’d been in the library.

“Pony, get over here!”

I heard stumblin’, a crash, and her cursin’ a table that fornicated with its mom. Earth Pony appeared a few moments later, bright-eyed and hopeful. “What is it?”

I pointed at the thick, green spine of the recently moved book: Coping With Loss. Earth Pony leaped on it like a cat on tuna, looked it over right careful, and delicately slid it off the shelf. She opened the back cover, nodded, and slowly sat down.

Then, she opened it upside down, pages facin’ the floor, and shook it. At first I was amused at her method of readin’ a book. Then I figured she was lookin’ for loose objects or papers that’d been between the pages. After she went on for longer, even that didn’t seem right.

Finally, I let my curiosity wander: “What was that all about?”

“Old trick I learned,” she muttered. She stopped shakin’ the book and opened it to about three-quarters through. “Sometimes, books that are opened to a certain page or section enough times get deeper creases in the binding. The sticker in the back cover says nopony’s checked this book out in two years, so it had to be Twilight who read this. And knowing her, she probably read it a lot.”

“Makes sense,” I nodded, impressed. “She’d lost Spike, and he was her little brother. Heck, she told me once she got her cutie mark from hatchin’ him.”

“Yeah, but…” Earth Pony flipped to the table of contents. “Death of a loved one is pretty early on in this book. The most-read section is in the middle of ‘degenerative nervous conditions’.”

“What, like anxiety?”

“No, like old ponies going senile. Long-term amnesia after an injury. That sort of stuff.”

I blinked, not sure what to make of that. “So… who’d Twilight know who lost their memories? Her parents aren’t that old…”

Earth Pony shook her head. “And her grandparents are pretty sharp, too. I met them at a Guard thingy about a year ago.” She snapped the book closed. “So that’s definitely a lead.”

Hope kindled in my chest. “Plus that one mare who wanted a book.” I wanted to keep listin’ leads, to make myself more useful. “And… uh, any other friends of Twilight who knew her. At least, they might know what’s up with that book. Or maybe they’ve forgotten, which... would answer that question, anyway.”

Pony stood up, swayed for a moment on two legs, and quickly hoofed me the book on loss. For as big as it was, the thing felt pretty light. Once she’d regained her balance, she tilted her head sadly at me. “Applejack… haven’t you been listening to Rarity, or me? Twilight… at the end… didn’t really have anypony. You were in her room. There weren’t any pictures of her with friends or anything.”

I blinked. “Beg pardon, Pony, but there were. She just kept ’em in her middle desk drawer.”

Earth Pony blinked back at me, several times, hard and furious. “You… you think you could have mentioned that four hours ago?”

“I did!” I returned her glare, minus the blinkin’. “I said, ‘weren’t nothin’ interestin’, unless you wanted Spike takin’ pictures of himself.’ They were pictures of her before the murder—”

“That’s important, Applejack.” She shook her head a little. “Sorry. No need to get snappy. But stuff like that paints a better picture of what she was up to before the murder, and can give us a clue about her personal life, which…”

“Neither of us know much about,” I filled in the silence with a wide, uncomfortable truth.

Earth Pony nodded. “And I mean, it might be a long shot, but what’s the thing you say? You miss twenty percent of the shots you never take?”

I grinned as she turned and headed up to Twi’s bedroom; it didn’t seem right to correct her take on the saying. I left the book on the table, next to Earth Pony’s folder, and then joined her.

That time, in Twilight’s room, the window had a view of the sunset sky. Bein’ alone in a strange, soon-to-be-dark house that’d recently been visited by a monster set my mane on end, but I swallowed and mared up.

Over at Twilight’s desk, Earth Pony sat hunched over the pile of pictures with a maginfyin’ glass. She’d hung her raincoat on one of the dresser knobs, which gave me a good view of her back—and the scars, plural, behind both her shoulders. They were symmetrical, and since they were both curved inwards, they formed a ghastly pair of wings, almost like a fourth butterfly to match the three on her flank.

My stomach broke the silence by growlin’. I muttered down at it. “Hush, you.”

Earth Pony chuckled, and I laughed too. However, the back of my mind dreaded how long it’d taken her yesterday to look through that fol—

“I’ve… I’ve got something.”

Somethin’ in her voice sounded mighty peculiar, and my hungry gut wrenched to wonder what it might be. Earth Pony was starin’ wide-eyed at a photo. I walked over to the desk to find out which one.

The picture was one of the blurry ones of Spike, and by his smile, it was obvious he’d taken it on purpose. Course, with how young the guy had been, he didn’t seem to know much about picture-takin’. He’d managed to get a reasonably clear picture of the wall, at least.

Earth Pony’s hoof shook as she gave me the magnifying glass. I swallowed, not sure why I was nervous. I scanned the picture from top to bottom, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I was lookin’ for.

The only thing in it other than Spike was a picture on the wall. At first glance, it looked like a family shot. Six ponies, all posing for a picture…

My mouth went dry.

I was in that photo.

I dropped the magnifying glass, shatterin’ it, and walked backwards. It had to’ve been an old picture of me, since I was still wearing my old Stetson from back on the farm. I’d left that in Appleloosa, with my little sister. I’d never had it in Ponyville, let alone worn it for a picture. But sure enough, it was in that picture, just like Twilight was there, and across from me had stood Rarity—a mare I had never seen afore yesterday. I’d remember a personality like hers.

Earth Pony looked at me as I backed away. There was somethin’ burnin’ in those eyes, and I remembered how she’d reacted to Rarity’s news last night. I didn’t want to fight in a library, let alone against an EGI agent. “Earth Pony,” I said in a shakin’ voice, “I swear to Celestia, this is the honest truth: I have never met Rarity afore now.”

The fear in her eyes didn’t abate one bit. “Applejack…”

“I do not remember ever posin’ for that picture, an’ if Rarity and I met afore today, I swear neither of us remembers it.”

“Applejack.”

“And buck it, I don’t even know those other three ponies!” I was on the verge of tears now. “I don’t know what this is, it’s some sort of trick, or—”

“APPLEJACK!”

I shut up. Earth Pony, she was breathing mighty heavy by now, but she weren’t mad. I was a good five feet away, and I swore I could hear her heart beatin’. Her mouth moved, but no words came out. She swallowed, inhaled, and finally managed to hiss out a reply:

“Applejack. I’m in this picture too.”

Chapter 6

Well, call me molasses and put me on pancakes, ’cause it weren’t ’til then that I finally put two and two together. Her lean, twig-like body, all her energy that came in bursts, how she always had her eyes on the sky, the scars on her back…

Earth Pony weren’t an earth pony at all.

Course, at that moment, the finer points of… er, Pony’s race were the least of my worries. Smack dab afore us, smaller than a postage stamp, was an itty-bitty picture of her, Rarity, and me that I reckoned none of us remembered bein’ taken.

For what it was worth, I managed to get a grip on myself and think of a pretty forward-workin’ question. My voice sounded hollow and distant to me when I asked, “D… d’ya know who the other two ponies are? Yellow and Pink?”

Pony blinked at me like I was snappin’ her back to reality. “Uh... I think the yellow pegasus is a classmate of mine, from Cloudsdale High. I’m pretty sure she lived in Ponyville when I first got here, working at the bakery.”

I nodded. “So who’s Ms. Pink?”

That earned me a shrug, so I just stood and watched while she got dressed again. She put the photograph in her coat’s pocket and threw the broken frame of the magnifyin’ glass she’d dropped into Twilight’s otherwise empty trashcan. After rootin’ around in her coat’s other pocket, she held a hoof out to me. “Badge.”

I reached into my own coat’s pocket and handed it back over.

Once it was back in its usual pocket, she said, “I don’t know who the sixth pony is, but we’ve got to show this to Rarity.”

At the sound of her name, I remembered my own workin’ theory about how she looked mighty suspicious in all this. I put that away for the time bein’; there’d be time to bring it up after we heard what she had to say ’bout the picture.

The two of us headed down into the library, I picked up the copy of Coping With Loss, and we headed out into the night air. It was cool, but somewhat moist—the sort of weather that made me glad I’d worn my coat. Made it pretty comfortable, especially for gettin’ a breath of fresh air after bein’ in that dusty library all day.

Along the route north, I had to ask. “So, uh… Whycome you don’t really mind me callin’ you Earth Pony?”

Her eyebrow rose and she gave me a sideways glance. “Because. You’re not the type to do that thing in a mean way. I never told you my name, you gave me a generic one…” She shrugged. “It’s not the worst you could’ve done, anyway.”

I nodded and cracked a dry joke. “Yeah, like Butterfly Butt.”

She looked away and muttered, “Or ‘worthless cripple’.”

My throat grew a lump at that injustice. Odds were, ’tweren’t her fault she’d lost her limbs; anyone who’d poke fun at her like that deserved a firm kick in the teeth. And get called “Gap” after.

The conversation died on that note, or it wanted to. I couldn’t let it... yet. There was a practical matter at hoof. “So, uh…” I took a few awkward steps. “What do I call you?”

“You didn’t read my ID card?”

“Slipped my mind.”

She chuckled. “Well, Earth Pony’s worked for the past three days. At least... it’s growing on me. Just don’t be weird about it.”

“Will do, EP.” I nodded, rememberin’ the nickname she’d come up for me that mornin’.

“Too weird.”

“Fair enough.” I grinned at her. It felt a little awkward to keep callin’ her Earth Pony, but I reckoned I could stick to it. The obvious question flashed through my mind—the one anypony wants to ask any disabled pony. I filed that away for later, since I didn’t want things to get any “weirder”.

’Stead, I asked a happier question, “So, what’re you gonna do once you’re done with this case?”

Earth Pony let out a chirp of laughter. “Done? AJ, even if we catch the killer tomorrow, it’s probably gonna be months before I see the last bit of paperwork on this case.”

I shrugged. “Okay. But that’s still... September. How’re you gonna spend the fall?”

She took a moment to think. “I think I’ve got some vacation time saved up. But I haven’t taken a break from work since, like, summer vacation. In school. I don’t know what I’d do without work.”

“Well, I think I know how you can sort that one out.”

“Oh yeah?” Pony cocked her head at me.

I waved the copy of Coping With Loss at her. “I’m sure they’ve got somethin’ in here ’bout unemployment.”

She let out a skitterin’, hissy chuckle.

The rest of the trip, we kept makin’ idle chit-chat. It mostly centered around two things we agreed on, other than discussin’ the photograph—we wanted dinner, and we wanted our warm, cozy beds.

When we got to Rarity’s mansion-castle place, just like the first night, Earth Pony rang the bell. Unlike last night, we waited for a few moments without response. “She might be asleep,” Earth Pony noted. Before I could question if that was going to raise any difficulties, she reached into her pocket, pulled out a key, and let herself in.

Which I could respect. Bein’ a favored guest or no, I still preferred to knock before enterin’ a home that weren’t mine.

As soon as we closed the door behind us, I noticed the smell—like nasty, burnt cookin’. After I got past the smell, that creeping feelin’ that someone was watchin’ me came back. Only this time, it was so thick I darn near had to swim through it.

Next to me, Earth Pony hung her coat by the door and her eyes snapped around the room like she were on red alert. I hung up my coat and set my grievin’ book on a table before I followed her deeper into the house.

The smell got worse as we neared the kitchen. Soon as we looked in there, the source was clear: a big pot of black, burned tar that’d used to be food. Couldn’t even tell what it was by then, unless we were supposed to eat charcoal.

“She left the stove on?” Pony whispered.

I pointed a hoof at the ceilin’. “Lights, too.”

“They’re on timers...” She shook her head. Then, she darn near broke my eardrums by hollerin’ out, “Hey, Rarity!”

It only echoed through the rest of the house that now felt too quiet.

“I don’t like this…” Earth Pony muttered over the ringin’ in my ears.

I had to agree with her, though. That whole mansion creeped me out, but now, all of a sudden, we were alone in it. The place was big enough for a platoon of soldiers to comfortably spend the night, let alone for a single, solitary murderer to be hidin’ in the shadows, watchin us...

I shook that all out of my head, tryin’ to hide some of the shiverin’. I reasoned, “Either Rarity ain’t here, or she’s got earplugs in.”

“Yeah, let’s check her bedroom.”

Even if she were joggin’ on three limbs and a cast, it was difficult to keep up with Earth Pony. She led me through the place like she was intimately familiar with it—which made sense, given our destination.

Earth Pony stopped outside of one closed door, took a deep breath, and opened it. The room inside was dark, but enough light spilled in from the hallway to show it was empty. I tensed, honestly hopin’ Rarity’d been in there. Now, I didn’t know where she was, and that put my nerves right on end.

I looked over to Earth Pony, but she ignored me and walked forward, slowly, tremblin’. I forced myself to follow her again, not sure what she was goin’ after. Then I saw it:

The door, presumably to the master bath, had a crack of light shinin’ through beneath it.

Earth Pony hesitated at the door, probably weighin’ her manners. She finally knocked, gettin’ no reply. She tried the door, and it was locked.

By that point, tears had streaked down both sides of her face. I wanted to say somethin’ to put her at ease, or at least comfort her. In the spur of the moment, nothin’ really came. I wasn’t sure what was goin’ on, other than that my heart was beatin’ like a jackhammer in my ears by that point.

Pony turned around, bent down, and—cast or no cast—bucked the door clean off its hinges. I was off to the side, so I didn’t get a clear view inside the place.

If there’s such a thing as Hell, I reckon it’d be filled with the pitiful, moanin’ sound Earth Pony let out when she looked into the bathroom.

“No… no, no, no!” Her voice broke on the last word, and she darted into the bathroom. My mouth dried out as my gut wrenched, but I forced my heavy hooves to follow her into the grandiose bathroom anyway. The floor tiles shone like glass, and against the far wall was a bathtub big enough for four ponies to swim in.

From where I stood, I could see Rarity’s head, bent back with a white ribbon tied around her neck.

I froze in place. Heck, the room spun, and I felt like I’d start heavin’ chunks if I moved. Earth Pony forgot all notions of decency and jumped in the bathtub, cast and all, and started slappin slappin’ Rarity’s too-pale, white-furred face. “Come on! Qu… quit messing around!”

’Tweren’t right for Earth Pony to have to see her friend like that, but slappin’ a corpse senseless never solved nothin’. I walked over to the side of the tub, leaned over, and put a hoof on her wet, blue shoulder.

Soon as I did, she trembled, broke down sobbin’, and buried her face in Rarity’s neck.

I wished I could think of somethin’ better to say. All that came out was, “I’m so sorry.”

The words sounded hollow, even to me. Course, I also had a pang of guilt ringin’ around inside my head; here I’d spent the past day suspicious of Rarity, thinkin’ she’d been the murderer… Why? I asked myself. Because she investigated the murderer who’d probably killed dozens of her friends?

In the tub, Earth Pony kept sobbin’ like… well, like she’d lost a part of herself. I let her stay in there as long as she needed to. After a while, she tapered off into silence, but her eyes looked dead and empty.

I rubbed her shoulder a little. “C’mon, sugarcube. You’d best dry off.”

She buried her face in Rarity’s mane. “No…”

I nodded and walked over to the toilet. Shoot, I didn’t need it, but it seemed the most comfortable place to sit while waitin’ for Earth Pony to make her peace with things. I sat there, in a haze, for Celestia-knows how long.

All that came through my mind were thoughts of how I wasn’t a detective. ’Tweren’t no excuse, but more like I was out of my element. I wasn’t good at dealin’ with the things that I’d had to see, smell, and worry about for the past two days since meetin’ Earth Pony.

A splashing sound drew my attention to the tub. Earth Pony, soaked to the bone, shook as she walked over to the sink. I headed over to join her, but I kept my distance after she punched the corner of the porcelain. The corner came clean off, fallin’ to the floor and shatterin’.

“Why!” The word echoed a dozen times through that bathroom. She hit the sink again, and again, and again, punctuating each blow with the same question, until there weren’t much sink left.

I knew better’n to answer an angry rhetorical. All I did was stand by and watch as she slowly looked up into the mirror.

“You…”

Her word carried a dark, pain-wishin’ undertone to it. I piped up to defend myself, “Pony, I couldn’t—”

She threw a punch at the mirror, crackin’ it like a spiderweb. I shut right up again.

“If I hadn’t been so stupid, leaving her alone like that!” She left another web on the mirror. “Just ’cause she didn’t want me to get hurt.” Another punch. “Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

At that point, I’d gone through too many emotions to let a new sense of fear bother me. In an almost trance-like numbness, I felt impressed at how well that mirror held up to its punishment. It had to’ve been tempered or special made, to withstand all them punches.

Earth Pony stopped swearin’ in words, and just screamed, punchin’ it even more. Finally, I knew enough was enough. “Pony, come—”

With one final crunching sound, the mirror finally gave in. Earth Pony went from hollerin’ to silent. I hurried over to make sure she weren’t hurt on broken glass. That was the last thing we needed.

Expectin’ to see blood on her foreleg, I was surprised to see her hoof was lodged deep in the mirror—far deeper than the wall on either side of it was.

She slowly pulled her hoof out, and both of us looked into the hole she’d made.

Behind the mirror sat a fancy-looking camera setup. I wasn’t an expert on motion picture equipment, but the three rolls on top of the camera were still spinnin’ as I saw both our reflections in the glass of the lens. Once again, I got that eerie sense I was bein’ watched; I guessed now, technically, I knew we were.

“What the… buck?” Earth Pony summed it up nicely.

Carefully, I picked up one of the broken fragments of mirror off the floor. I held it up, and Earth Pony snatched it out of my hoof. When she held it up to the light, I could see a dark, tinted version of the bulb. She asked, curiously, “A one-way mirror?”

I ain’t ever heard of such a thing, but seein’ it, I knew what it was. The bigger question I had was, “What does it mean?”

Earth Pony’s face fell for a moment, and her eyes closed. When she picked herself up again, she reached into the hole and carefully broke away bigger chunks. When it was wide enough, she pulled out the camera. “What this means, Applejack...” Her voice shook, but her eyes hardened. “Is that we finally nailed this son of a bitch.”

Chapter 7

Earth Pony was a mare of duty, through and through. It’d been just after nine-thirty when we’d gotten to Rarity’s. By the time she finished callin’ in the police, settin’ up a crime scene, givin’ her testimonies as a witness, and gettin’ her leg re-casted, it was closin’ in on three in the mornin’.

The local police put the two of us up in their headquarters—they had a room with bunk beds for when officers pulled long shifts. Soon as I saw ’em, I climbed into one of the bottom bunks, coat and all. I was all sorts of exhausted.

Course, I couldn’t sleep a wink. I counted sheep, I darn near suffocated myself tryin’ to breathe slower, but nothin’. My mind was racin’ a hundred miles an hour. Even though I could barely keep my eyes open, sleep weren’t comin’ easily.

After what felt like twenty minutes, from the bed above me, Earth Pony whispered, “AJ, you up?”

“Yeah, Pony, I am.”

The frame of the bunks squeaked as she moved over to one side. I rolled on my back, expectin’ to see her head hangin’ over the edge. Instead, her whole form dropped on the floor next to me. Then, she climbed on the bed next to me.

Boy howdy, my eyes shot wide awake. I wasn’t eager or nothin’; it just came so far out of left field I didn’t know what to do. But Earth Pony hugged me, and with quiet, quiverin’ sobs, she started cryin’ in my shoulder.

I put my hoof on the back of her shoulder and rubbed. Those days, I didn’t have enough faith in anythin’ to tell her it’d be all right. That bothered me, but there was somethin’ about bein’ the shoulder to cry on that made it easier to keep control of my own mental state.

“I… I loved her.”

Those three tiny words broke my heart, and not just because of the small twinge of jealousy they brought. I buried that feelin’ as well, instead tryin’ to get her to remember the good times. “You two seemed pretty decent together,” I admitted. “How’d you two meet?”

After a couple thick-sounding nose inhales, Earth Pony talked quietly. “You already heard most of the story. I came to town looking for animal work. Couldn’t find any. Rarity was on the weather team. Couldn’t do weather. It’s an easy job for pegasi—I mean, like if you don’t get a summer job doing something with it, your parents are loaded. I taught her and cleaned up some of her mistakes. Those were fun to fly through.”

She said the last bit with utmost sincerity, not the sarcasm I’d use if I had to plow through someone’s mistake at the quarry. I took a gamble and left the conversation up to her with, “I’ll bet it was.”

Earth Pony lifted herself and looked straight down at me. I could barely see her face in the dark room, but I could feel how close she was to me, and how warm she was on the outside of my coat. I thought of cold showers and Granny Smith’s wrinkly old knees. “You have no idea,” Pony said, her voice ripe with an out-of-place grin. “I mean, the wind in your mane and feathers, the speed, the view, the… how fast you’re going…”

I nodded. “Sounds like somethin’ special, all right.”

Her ears drooped, and she pivoted herself sideways to sit on the edge of the bed. “Rarity helped me, too. After I got on the wrong side of some crime guy in Canterlot, back in my freelance days.”

Even in the darkness, I could see the muscles under her scars twitchin’ up and down, unnatural-like.

“It wasn’t much,” she continued, “but Rarity conjured up some decorative wings for me. They worked, but I was a little too hard on them the first time…” She looked down at her cast. “And the second time, I guess.”

Begrudgingly, I had to admit, “That was mighty kind of her.”

Earth Pony nodded. “Yeah. And I know you guys didn’t really hit it off famously. You’re kind of blunt, she’s kind of… dainty. But she was always good at giving stuff away, like finding something while out shopping and holding on to it until she found the right pony to give it to.”

Tired as I was, I sat up and hugged Earth Pony. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

She returned the hug. “I know...” She turned, and our eyes met. “You know, I don’t think I’ve thanked you for helping me on this case.”

“Don’t say ‘thanks’ ’til that monster’s strung up with somethin’ thicker’n ribbon.”

I felt her hot chuckle on my mouth. “Jeez, Applejack. That’s kind of…”

“I ain’t just sayin’ that, Pony. We’re in this together. Thick or thin, no matter how hard it gets from here, I’m stickin’ it out ’til the end. Quarry can go dig itself a new hole for all I care. This is important. I promise.”

“Ah, I…” She turned away, but I saw her eyes waterin’ beforehoof. I looked at the back of her mane as she nodded. “Thanks.” She looked back at me and grinned. “You know, for somepony I just met, you’re a pretty good friend.”

I hoped my grin back didn’t look too disappointed in the dark. “You too, Pony.” I patted her shoulder. “You too.”

* * *

Next mornin’, I woke up alone in that room. ’Tweren’t much different’n I was used to, but given how eventful yesterday’d been, I don’t think I was wrong in havin’ a few concerns.

I had my coat on me already, and I didn’t have anythin’ else to carry—the police had taken Coping With Loss as part of their procedures. So I headed out into the main part of the headquarters. Out in the hallway, the mint green pegasus from the other day crossed my path. We said hey, and I asked if she’d seen my blue friend.

“Last I saw, she was down in the evidence room.”

I stared back, blankly.

She pointed down the hallway. “Three doors down’s the stairwell, then once you’re in the basement, it’s the first door on the left.”

Those directions meant somethin’ useful. I thanked her, then followed ’em. Had good timin’, too—right when I got to the bottom of the stairwell, Earth Pony opened the door from the other side. She was wearin’ saddlebags that looked filled to bursting, and somethin’ about her raincoat seemed different. Knowin’ fabric like I did, it didn’t fall the same way it used to.

I focused on more important matters, though. “Pony. Where in tarnation do you think you’re goin’?”

She blinked like she’d been caught in a lie. “One of my partner’s brother’s the owner of the movie theater. Ponville PD isn’t set up with the equipment to view Rarity’s surveillance tapes—”

“Hold on there,” I butt in. “Tapes? As in, plural?”

“The police found at least seven cameras throughout the whole place, Applejack. Rarity even told you, her house was secure. Maybe not… airtight, but…” She took a deep breath and swallowed the roots of some tears. “She didn’t die in vain. I won’t let her.”

“So you’re goin’ to watch those tapes, alone,” I guessed.

“Yeah.”

“And Celestia knows how long it’s gonna take.”

She nodded.

“And I’m comin’ with you.”

“No way.” She shook her head. “You stay here, where it’s safe.”

“You ain’t doin’ this alone, sugarcube. And I ain’t givin’ you the option. You might be quick, but I don’t think you can outrun me on three legs.”

At first, she raised her eyebrow like she were sayin’, “Wanna bet?” But that reflex died when she shook her head, frustrated. “You don’t have to do that.”

“The hell I don’t,” I countered. “What part of ‘we’re in this together’ don’t you understand?”

Finally, she nodded, and the two of us made our way up to the streets of Ponyville. Outside, the weather was bright and cold—almost glarin’ bright, but without a lick of warmth to go with the sun. At least all the rain from a few days ago seemed to have dried up; last thing we needed on a day like that was to deal with mud.

The outside of Ponyville’s movie theater looked about as I remembered it: a thatched roof on top of two auditoriums, so ponies had a choice of what they could go see. Course, business had probably dwindled ever since the Ribbon Murders started. I didn’t reckon anyone wanted to sit in a dark room for hours on end anymore.

Inside, a coal-colored stallion stood waitin’ for us. I’d seen him around the theater, back when I went to see movies, but that was the first time I realized he owned the place. The lines around his eyes and gray streaks in his mane were new. He offered us a, “Good morning,” but it sounded bone-achin’ tired. I knew how he felt.

“Do you need me to show you how to set up the projector?” he asked Earth Pony.

“No, I got it.” She patted her saddlebags. “Put the film in, spool it up, turn it on. Plus some other stuff.”

Didn’t exactly sound like she knew exactly what she were doin’, but the owner didn’t seem to care. He led us to a door painted with “EMPLOYEES ONLY”, and Earth Pony and I went inside. He didn’t follow us up the stairs, but I didn’t blame him. Heck, I didn’t want to watch those reels.

I had to.

The projection booth wasn’t much to look at—cramped, with lots of movie equipment. Luckily, a pair of cushions sat near the tiny window. Didn’t look like the most comfortable place to watch a movie, let alone surveillance tapes. Course, we didn’t really have much of an option.

Earth Pony unpacked her saddlebags, stackin’ seven reels on top of each other. She put the first one on the projector and got it set up with speed and finesse I wouldn’t’ve given her at first glance.

Once she finished, she turned the projector on, and the two of us sat on our respective cushions. I felt my throat tighten as the speakers popped on. Out in the pitch-black theater, specks flecked on the screen as the theater came to life.

Right away, Rarity’s face lit up the screen. An odd, ghostly sensation flowed down my shoulders like chilly snowflakes when she spoke to us from beyond the grave:

“Hello…” She sighed like she knew how grim the situation was. “If you are viewing this, then there is a very good chance that I have met my demise.” Her eyebrow lifted in a coy manner. “Although unfortunate, with things being what they are, I suppose it was only a matter of time. But I believe I have lived life without many regrets, so I hope you do not mourn me too deeply.”

Rarity took a deep breath, and her eyes sharpened. “Instead, I hope that something constructive may come from my untimely death. These cameras, located behind the master bathroom mirror, several paintings throughout the house, behind the kitchen sink, the fireplace in the living room...”

There were a lot of cameras in Rarity’s house, ’parently. When Earth Pony heard about the ones in the bedrooms, the poor girl squirmed like she were sittin’ on a hot iron.

“Each has enough film to record one day’s worth of surveillance, plus this introduction. Every day after today, I will rewind the tapes on days that I have not been murdered. So, I apologize if this is uncouth, but if I have met my demise, then there is a good chance that you are about to witness my murder.”

She took a deep breath and glared at the camera: “Don’t let it be in vain.”

The film cut to black after Rarity finished her last request. Then Earth Pony and I sat silently through five seconds of weird-lookin’ streaks and blurs. The film fixed itself, leavin’ behind a still image of Rarity’s empty bathroom.

After the first few minutes of nothin’ happenin’, I started to feel a weight of futility. Like, there I was, sittin’ around, watchin’ a movie of all things. I knew it was helpin’ out—heck, Rarity’d even asked me, indirectly—but sittin’ around didn’t feel like it was doin’ nothin’.

On screen, Earth Pony dashed towards the camera at a twitchy, unnatural speed. She did something below the frame—probably washin’ her hooves—and sped out on her way. Next to me, the real Earth Pony let out a quiet breath. “At least it’s sped up; I thought we’d be here forever.”

I nodded, then I wondered how Rarity’d hooked up everything on the film so she could give her last testament at regular speed, then have the actual surveillance sped up. With a sigh, I gave up. “She thought of everything.”

That earned me was a quiet, agreein’ grunt, but that was it.

The rest of the film passed by us slowly, even at freaky-fast speed. I saw Pony streak through the bathroom again, then Rarity, and then a long lapse of nothing. By the time Rarity came in and drew a bath, I almost muttered, “Finally.” Caught myself before I did, though.

Earth Pony, she was waitin’ for it just as much as I’d been. She leaned forward to watch closer, and I mirrored her motion.

I couldn’t tell how long it was in film-time, but after about two minutes of tense, silent waitin’, someone else entered the bathroom.

Right away, I recognized that pink mare, minus her poofed-up manestyle. She was Ms. Pink, from the photo of me, Earth Pony, Rarity, and Twilight. Earth Pony swore, and though it was a little rough for my tastes of cussin’, I had to agree it summed up the situation.

Even though it was just pictures on a screen, I wished I could do somethin’ to help Rarity. As it were, Earth Pony and I were helpless as we watched Ms. Pink talk to Rarity, who tried to scramble away. Before too long, Pink pulled a white ribbon out of thin air, and began stranglin’ her flailing, desperate victim. I wanted to look away, but I forced myself to watch, what with how I’d been accusin’ Rarity of bein’ the murderer in my head.

It didn’t make me feel any better. It just made me feel sick.

Rarity’s futile struggle ended quick-like, and she slumped down into the tub. Pink zoomed off-screen, presumably through the window, leavin’ behind the exact same image that Earth Pony and I had discovered later that evening. I finally let myself look away with a whispered curse word of my own.

My eyes drifted up to Earth Pony’s tear-streaked, teeth-gritted face. Her breathing picked up, and she started making a noise in the back of her throat. I thought she was gonna scream. Instead, she just whispered, “Now I’ve seen your face, you bucking animal.”

I nodded, and frankly, I was glad for us to be done with our job in the theater. “Okay, then, Earth Pony. What now?”

She turned to me with dark, cold eyes. “I’m gonna find her, then put her down.”

“That ain’t gonna fix anything…” I warned.

Earth Pony’s hoof shot to between her eyes. “I know, I know. I’ll put her in a cage, and then let the government do it. Like, due process and all that junk.”

I nodded. “Well, then. How’re we gonna find her?”

“I...” Earth Pony sounded a quick protest at my mention of “we”.

Behind us, a cheerful giggle filled the projection booth. It hit me straight in the gut, paralyzin’ me in fear.

“Why do you have to find me? Don’t you guys know you’re invited, too!”

Chapter 8

I don’t consider myself a violent mare. Sure, I know how to fight—the only farm girls who don’t grow up wrestlin’ with their brothers are the ones who don’t got any. But there’s a difference between know-how and doin’. Usually, I liked keepin’ my hooves clean, my ears open, and seein’ how peacably things could go from there.

All that vanished when Pink yelled “Surprise!” and jammed a knife into Earth Pony’s spine.

There weren’t time to look at Pony’s shocked, magenta eyes as she crumpled away from me, limp. I went for a weapon. If you’ve never been attacked in a movie projection booth, let me tell you—there aren’t many things good for hittin’ with. Best I could do was grab one of the film reels off the stack and whip it around in a two-hooved rage.

I saw that one in a movie once.

Course, it didn’t end great for me, neither. Pink dodged—landsakes, she was fast—and my swing kept me spinnin’. With my back to her, it took her all of a second to sling a white ribbon ’round my neck—or at least, that’s what I imagined it was.

“And don’t think I forgot about you, silly! We’ve got bobbing for apples, and your favorite: apple turnovers!”

I went cold, even as my throat clamped shut. Part of that fear made it easier to struggle hard as I could against that ribbon, but I was in the same death hold that over five dozen other ponies had been in by then. I gave it my all, but the harder I struggled, the harder my head throbbed, painfully, as everything drifted farther away, kinda soft-like.

The whole time, Pink kept musin’ about all the decorations of a party she’d set up for me. I was a bit preoccupied at the time, so I don’t remember the specifics. The important part was, she knew me, and even at the time, that didn’t sit right with me.

I kept slippin’ away until somepony yelled from far away. A blow landed, and Pink fell forward into me. I got the opportunity to steal a quick breath, and before she got her grip back, I smashed my head backwards. I felt a thick, solid connection, saw a few stars, but she let go of the ribbon long enough for me to scramble away and turn ’round.

Earth Pony was stabbin’ at Pink with what I thought was a bloody knife. Pink dodged, dodged, and then knocked it out of her hoof. When it clattered to the floor, I saw it was a cake-servin’ knife. Then, it occurred to me I there was a fight goin’ on, so I ought to make myself useful.

I ran into the fray right when Earth Pony threw a punch at Pink. She dodged into my tackle. I pinned her against the wall, but she slid down just in time for Earth Pony to put a mighty, splinterin’ dent in the wood.

The two of us turned to square off against Pink, who’d managed to get between us and the entrance to the booth. The three of us stared at each other for a moment—I was still tryin’ to catch my breath—and Earth Pony took off her coat. Her back had a pretty small wound she was bleedin’ out of, but it was tiny. That flimsy little raincoat of hers had somehow saved her life.

When she dropped it, it made a heavy-soundin’ thunk. I got a quick look at the inside of it, where she’d taped about a half dozen sheets of metal here and there.

Maybe that coat weren’t so flimsy after all.

That Pink, she giggled at us. Snapped my attention back to her, if I wanted to or not. She was somethin’ creepy. Her hair was streaked with dirt, her eyes were bloodshot, and—probably the worst of it—was her evil, skeletal smile.

She turned to Earth Pony and asked, “What’s the matter, Dashie? Don’t you want to come to the party?”

Like I said—somethin’ creepy. Took Earth Pony by surprise, too, by her wide eyes.

With a giggle, Pink flashed out the door to the booth.

“Son of a…” Earth Pony took off, three-leg dashin’ towards the door. I ran after her.

Down in the lobby, we were met by the owner of the theater; this time, he was splayed out over the concession stand and wearin’ a white ribbon. Mentally, I swore, but there weren’t time to grieve him.

For now, Earth Pony and I had an animal to take care of.

The streets outside were glarin’ bright when Earth Pony and I spilled out into them. We lost Pink for a horrified moment. I looked to the right, and Earth Pony shouted “There!” Without looking, I turned to the left—headin’ into the heart of Ponyville—and ran after my friend.

Once we had Pink in our sights, it was easy to keep on her tail. Very few ponies—I’d’ve guessed somethin’ less than two dozen in the whole town—were out in the streets. The ones who were gave our chase a wide berth.

When Pink led us through the deserted central square of Ponyville, Earth Pony shouted a new tactic at me: “Split up! Cut her off at the library!”

The library was on the other side of a row of businesses. Earth Pony kept takin’ the main road, so I turned and ran into an alleyway. Once I got there, overflowin’ trashcans and dumpsters lined the thin passage. I had to slow down to weave through ’em, and then I stepped in somethin’ squishy that made me slip up.

By the time I got out of the alley, Earth Pony whizzed through the intersection right by the library. I spat a curse and pushed myself even harder. Forget Pink; now I had to catch up with my partner.

It took some sprintin’ and heavy breathin’—not easy with a sore neck—but by the time we reached my old place of business, which was nearin’ the edge of town, I was runnin’ right behind Earth Pony. I had to give it to the girl—she ran fast for havin’ a broke leg.

“What happened?” she shouted over her shoulder.

“Alley obstacles.” I tried not to let on that I was gettin’ winded.

Earth Pony let out an exasperated grunt, but instead of cussin’ me out, she picked up speed. My legs were already sore—I had a workin’ mare’s endurance, but that was usually let out over the course of a day, not five minutes. I thought about Twilight, Rarity, and everyone else who’d been killed by that monster; that helped me push my legs through their achy flames.

It wasn’t enough.

Pink turned, headin’ deeper into Ponyville again. I felt helpless, like she weren’t interested in escapin’ through tactics and smarts. She could just outrun us, impossibly, forever.

When she took a turn down an alley, we had to split up just to keep an eye on her. That time, I took the main road, but I didn’t gain on Pink when she reemerged on the other end. Earth Pony billowed out after her; now, she was runnin’ behind me.

Over the wind in my ears, I heard Earth Pony let out a cry of desperation. I knew how she felt. All that we’d been through in the past few days—and heck, she’d been on that case for years—and it was gonna come to an end because she couldn’t catch the monster she was chasin’?

My hooves fell slower ’n heavier. We were almost right back at the movie theater by then, but I knew I couldn’t keep runnin’ anymore. I slowed down, hatin’ myself, and tryin’ to will my miserable legs to keep movin. Darn things wouldn’t listen.

Earth Pony ran past me, tears runnin’ down her face, and it was all I could do to keep up with her. She was mumblin’ something. I couldn’t make out most of the words, but I heard when she said “Twilight”, “Rarity”, and “Letting everypony down”.

I ain’t got an explanation for what happened next. Or, maybe I do, but at the time, I thought I was gettin’ delirious from lack of oxygen. Earth Pony’s cutie mark started glowin—at first, I thought it was the sun. But when they were glowin’ a bright, prismatic light, I knew somethin’ strange was goin’ on.

The light spread all around Earth Pony, formin’ a weird, rainbowy cocoon. I slowed down, but she kept runnin’, even when she weren’t more than a glowin’ blob with legs. I heard her say two final words:

“No. More.”

Then, she exploded.

I shielded my eyes at first, but when I looked where Earth Pony had been, a huge wave of rainbow light blasted out in a shockwave. It hit me like a rock, easily stronger’n any of the demolitions equipment I’d ever used in the quarry.

Once all that faded, a rainbow trail hung in the air, almost like light, ‘cept it was solid. As I stared, tryin’ to figure what that shimmerin’, beautiful color trail was, it started to fade. I ran to follow it, forgettin’ my earlier exhaustion.

Or maybe it’d just left me. As I started runnin’, I stepped over Earth Pony’s now-empty leg cast.

The trail led straight to Sugarcube Corner, of all places. When I got there, I could have followed the rainbow indoors. I didn’t need to. Up on the roof, Earth Pony had Pink backed against the edge.

Course, I had to do a double-take. Earth Pony, along with a gaze that spoke nothin’ short of pure murder, was sportin’ a pair of butterfly wings. That weren’t to say they were delicate. The things were sharp blades that crackled like lightnin’ and shimmered in every color of the rainbow.

They fit her perfectly, like a raw, elemental version of her personal drive and passion for the ponies she cared about.

“You got nowhere to go!” Earth Pony shouted. “Just give up!”

Just to make sure of that, I took up position on the ground below her. If she wanted to try jumpin’ off the roof, I could at least slow her down ’til Earth Pony flew down.

Pink didn’t seem too bothered. She just giggled.

“You’re under arrest, in the name of the Equestrian Bureau of Investigation. Pending investigation and trial—”

“Dashie…” Pink’s sing-song voice was shrill and sharp. “When’d you get so serious?”

Earth Pony’s eyes shot wide again, and instinctively, I knew it was a dirty trick. “Pony, look out!”

She reacted just in time, flappin’ her fancy new wings and dodgin’ a tackle from Pink. I ran ’round the building to cut her off again. Tryin’ to guess the whims of a madmare wasn’t exactly the best tactical position to be in, but it was easier ’n chasing her.

Earth Pony dropped her elbow down on Pink, hard. A couple of shingles broke off and fell towards me, so I had to dodge to keep watchin’ the rooftop spectacle.

Pink twisted her neck, lookin’ up at Earth Pony, and then down to me. Those blue eyes pierced me like knives, even when I saw an all-too-pony sadness flash through them. “And Applejack—”

I still didn’t know how she knew me, but hearin’ my name turned my stomach to ice.

She kept talkin’ to me. “How can you stand by when everypony’s just pretending things are what they aren’t? Isn’t that like lying?”

I got my wits back around me enough to shout up at her. “You’ve killed way too many of my friends for me to give half a darn ’bout whatever you’re goin’ on about.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Killed them? I just sent them to the party!”

Earth Pony threw a hoof into Pink’s side. That knocked the words out of her, and Pony shouted, “Enough, you sick freak! You’re going in a cage where you belong! No escape!”

Once again, Pink chilled me with a laugh. Only this time, it was less creepy because it was innocent-like, and more because it sounded exactly like the laugh I’d expect from a mare who’d killed over five dozen ponies in the past three years.

“Oh, Dashie, there is always an escape!”

Then, she leaned up and pulled Earth Pony into a kiss.

Pink slipped away from a wide-eyed, grimacin’ Earth Pony. As she ran, she laughed maniacally, headin’ to the far end of the roof—the one with a weathervane. I ran around to cut her off on the ground.

When I looked up again, Pink was wearin’ a white ribbon like a scarf. I puzzled over where she’d pulled it from, but only for a moment. She tied one end around the base of the weathervane, then she looked down straight at me.

“Sorry, Applejack. But now you and Dashie can’t go to the party with me!”

I just stood there with lead hooves, on the verge of tears I was so helplessly confused. She jumped off the roof, and her body twitched—just once—when the ribbon went taut with the dull thrum of an evil instrument and a thick, wet crack.

Over the past few days, I’d seen enough death to last me a lifetime. In time, the memories of Twilight’s and Rarity’s corpses softened and almost became bearable.

But with Pink, her death will probably haunt me to my own grave. She died a babblin’ maniac, and even though her limp body swayed like a ghost, her face stuck in a bright-eyed, wide-toothed grin. To me, it looked like she were laughin’.

Chapter 9

The days after the end of the White Ribbon murders rushed me by in a blur. There were news reporters, EBI investigators, and even ponies out in the street who’d stop me and ask what happened.

I did the best I could to keep everypony happy, even while tryin’ to keep it together on the inside. I’d grown up livin’ simple, and between the sudden popularity and all the death I’d seen, everythin’ started to get a bit much. As soon as I wrapped up my business with the EBI—Pony couldn’t interview me, for some red-tape nonsense reason or other—I booked it on out of town and laid low in my silo.

Pony stayed with me for the first few evenings after I left Ponyville. No, ’tweren’t like that. She was cute and had a rear that wouldn’t quit, but after everything we’d been through, we both agreed it’d be a mistake to try ‘n take things further. The honest truth is, she’d never got around to gettin’ a hotel in Ponyville, and we did enjoy each other’s company. Platonic-like.

Each mornin’, she made the trip back to Ponyville to continue the last bits of investigatin’. She hoofed it, since—in her words—her butterfly wings had died the exact moment the Ribbon Murderer did.

I tried goin’ back to the rock farm. Once. ’Bout two hours into it, I marched into Boss Pony’s office and quit. He refused, laid me off, and gave me a severance package that was close to what I would’ve earned in the rest of the year. Boss Pony was a good stallion—I just hated the holy heck out of his quarry.

Without work, I struggled to keep myself busy during the mornings. I tried readin’, but it was too stationary. I tried runnin’, but it was too mindless. ’Bout the only thing that worked out for me was, every day at three, I’d start cookin’ dinner for Pony and myself. She didn’t complain about havin’ a real, home-cooked meal waitin’ for her when she got back, and it made the first half of the evenings bearable for me.

In the time we spent together, we talked a lot of fluff—music, childhood, sports teams. Pony was a true-and-blue fan of the Wonderbolts, it seemed. After seein’ her stunt where she’d sprouted wings and flown near the speed of sound, I had to wonder if she ever could’ve made it to the team.

No matter if the wings were temporary, whatever she’d done had fixed her leg right up. She didn’t say anythin’ about it; I just noticed her walkin’ on it without much complaint.

We didn’t talk much about the investigation, either. The only time I asked how things were goin’, Pony told me, “I’ll tell you when I know what the buck’s going on.”

I didn’t press. I understood somethin’ of where she was at, mentally.

The week ended on a Sunday, so they say. After breakfast, Pony invited me to tag along with her to one of the crime scenes. I told her no, flat-out. However, sayin’ no to Pony wasn’t somethin’ you just did. She swore there weren’t any corpses or killers waitin’ for us that time, but the thing that convinced me was when she said she was headin’ out either way. By then, I was too lonely to spend another mornin’ alone, so for the second time that week, I found myself walkin’ with Pony up towards Ponyville.

Like most of the town, Sweet Apple Acres had seen better days. In foggy memories, I saw, far as the eye could see, rows and rows of pristine trees bearin’ their crisp, ripe fruit. That image troubled me at first, since I couldn’t seem to remember when I’d ever been to the orchard. I grew up on an orchard—in Appleoosa. I knew those trees. The memory of Sweet Apple Acres featured completely different trees, and I couldn’t figure out why.

No matter how or why I remembered its glory days, present-day Sweet Apple Acres was gnarled, twisted, and dead. Trees that hadn’t been groomed in years looked ugly and vile. Shadows loomed, and I got a creepin’ sense of familiarity as Pony led me down what’d used to be a dirt path. Now, it was mostly covered in grass.

We walked in silence, deeper into the orchard, until the path opened up to the yard of a run-down home. Paint was peelin’, shutters had all but fallen off, and the whole thing looked like it was rottin’ from the inside out.

Seein’ the house like that woke up somethin’ like indignation inside me. I stopped and took a deep breath, glarin’.

Pony turned me. “What’s up, Applejack?”

“I ain’t rightly sure…” I shook my head and started walkin’ again. “But it don’t seem right, seein’ the place like this.”

That earned me a cocked head and raised eyebrow, but Pony didn’t say anythin’ other than, “Let’s… go downstairs. Into the cellar.”

I looked at Pony, then pointed at the rickety house, whose windows were more hole than glass by that point. “Are you sure that’s wise, sugarcube?”

She nodded and zipped on up ahead. “Yeah, yeah. Busted house, creepy cellar. It’s safe, Applejack; trust me.”

Maybe not surprisingly, that part came pretty easy.

I don’t know how to describe the smell of that dark, tomblike cellar. ’Tweren’t rotten, but stale sweetness hung in the thick air and mixed with the musty, earthy scent that usually came in underground places.

Then again, it was an orchard’s cellar. And the smell was the only normal thing about the place, believe you me. The “decorations”, if I felt generous with the term, consisted of cracked tables pushed up against walls. Four walls and three tables were plastered with tons of papers—pictures, folders, notebooks, and the like.

“This is where she lived.” Earth Pony gestured around the room.

Despite everythin’, I took a small bit of solace knowin’ that some mares who did their basements up like that actually were killers. But unlike Rarity’s lair, which had a high degree of order, this nest of information was strewn random and chaotic.

The only exception was the table-less wall, which held five neat rows of photographs. Each row held fifteen photographs of different ponies; my breath caught in my chest when I realized they were almost in the same order that they’d all been murdered in. I saw the sixty-third victim—even now, I don’t remember her name—and right next to her was Rarity.

My picture was seventy-third, right after the yellow pegasus from the picture in Twilight’s library, and right before a rainbow-maned Pony, still equipped with her wings. Twilight’s picture was dead last, and it was the only one that had any sort of modification on it—a gold foil crown that had been taped on her head.

Pony walked over to one of the tables and flipped open a folder. “Her cutie mark was three apples, so I came out here on a hunch. No idea what this junk is; all it does is confirm she was a psycho.”

I walked over to the table next to Pony. The folder she’d opened was filled with clippin’s from a home decoration magazine, except they were just bits of furniture and ponies cut out. In a weird way, it reminded me of paper dolls I’d used to play with when I was a filly; that creepy déjà vu sent more’n a couple shivers down my spine.

After I shook the heebies off, I asked, “So… you got a workin’ theory on all this?”

Earth Pony nodded. “There’s some stuff about her family here, so someone’s gonna interview them. But I think this is the solvey-part of this puzzle.” She picked up a yellowed slip of paper. When I got a closer look, I felt my stomach drop—it was a receipt, for party supplies bought in bulk. Fifth from the bottom were the words “White Ribbon – 275 yd”.

“I did a quick checkup on this store, AJ. It… it’s impossible. This receipt is dated for five years ago, but ‘Bloons and Streamers’ went out of business six years ago. And it’s not like they were a franchise or something…”

“So, it’s like the picture then?” I blinked. “No one seems to remember this place bein’ open?”

Realization dawned on Pony’s face, and she dashed over to the wall with the victims’ photos. Her eyes locked on her picture, and she turned back to me with a victorious grin. “Yeah! Exactly! I…”

She’d barely said those three words before the wind dropped out of her sails. Her forehead scrunched as she started puzzlin’ over… somethin’. After givin’ her some time to think it through, I piped up, “What’ve you got, sugarcube?”

Pony turned from the wall and walked over to me. “I… I’m not sure. But something’s going on with memories and stuff. Like… she remembered my name, and yours. And she’s got all these pictures…” She shook her head. “I dunno what it means, AJ. But give me a few days, and I’ll have this figured out.”

* * *

A few days later, the two of us entered Princess Celestia’s study.

The summons—she’d called it an invitation, and we were stayin’ as her guests in the castle, but ’twerent like we had a choice to say “No”—had come on Monday mornin’. Pony and me made our way to Canterlot by train, but the three-hour trip seemed like the blink of an eye in hindsight.

Princess Celestia’s study was less grandiose than her throne room. Course, that’s like sayin’ a swimmin’ pool is less wet than the ocean. Everything was done up in finely polished wood, gold trim, and glass. She kept the place dim enough to be cozy, yet bright enough to remind everyone just which part of the sky she commanded.

Three bright yellow cushions sat on the floor, waitin’ for guests. I headed to the one on the far right, Pony went for the middle one, but before we sat, both of us leaned forward in a bow.

Celestia chuckled as she greeted us from behind her desk. “Applejack, Detective Rainbow Dash. Please, rise; you are my guests. Sit and make yourselves comfortable.”

I looked to my left, and the blue mare standin’ there met my gaze. I tried shootin’ her a look that asked, That’s your name?

She shrugged, quick-like, like she were sayin’, Yeah. So?

Regardless of if I had to hear her actual name from the regent ruler of all of Equestria, Rainbow Dash and I took our seats in front of Princess Celestia’s desk. It reminded me a lot of elementary school. I felt myself sink a good foot into the cushion. It was comfortable enough to make me feel lazy.

Once we got situated, the Princess didn’t waste no time in startin’ things. “I’ve read reports that you are the two mares who recently stopped Equestria’s most prolific killer in decades.” She bowed her head—actually bowed her head to me—and Dash. “For that, you have my gratitude.”

“Well shucks…” I skritched the back of my neck. “Beggin’ your pardon, your Highness, but I ain’t sure how much I had to do with all of it. Rarity’s the one who did her house up like a film studio…”

Dash turned and glared at me. “If I’d been alone in that booth, neither of us would be here right now.”

She had a brash way of shuttin’ me up that I didn’t entirely dislike. Plus, I reckoned I was sittin’ in front of a princess. Really, it was a better time to listen than to talk.

Princess Celestia smiled at me. “Please, ‘Celestia’ will do. And do not sell yourself short of your merits, Applejack.” Her eyes darted to Dash, then back to me. “Your friend speaks the truth.”

I nodded, but kept my resolve to stay quiet.

“But, if you’ll excuse my impatience, this case has personal meaning to me.” Celestia took a deep breath. “Even though Equestria is my personal charge to protect, that does not exclude me from forming closer bonds with some of its citizens.”

“Like Twilight?” Dash blurted out.

Celestia nodded silently.

I suddenly realized I didn’t want to be in that room, sittin’ idly by while Rainbow Dash explained to Celestia that her personal student, Twilight Sparkle, had probably killed herself. That would’ve been awkward on a royal level.

Luckily, Celestia already knew. “I read your report, Detective, and while disturbing, it fits in with our correspondence.” She levitated a scroll off her desk, and her voice started crackin’. “She sent me a farewell letter, before she did it.”

Seein’ the Princess tear up like that grew a lump in my throat. I looked away and swallowed. After what felt like a long while, Dash piped up. “I… I’m glad she got to say goodbye to somepony who cared about her first, at least.”

Once again, Celestia nodded. Only this time she were cryin’, silently and regally.

Dash went on. “And…” Her ears flipped back. “I don’t wanna be rude, but… I thought this was going to be about the Ribbon Murderer. Pinkie Pie.” Silence hung in the room, and I suppressed a nervous chuckle. Dash was a one-track mind, all right. Since she was too deep to pull out, she kept ramblin’. “And, I mean, Twilight’s… passing… was tragic. And it even got me to solve the case, indirectly. But the only connection was that Pinkie knew her…”

Finally, she shut up. I looked over at her, expectin’ to see her wearin’ a look of shame. Instead, she was just deep in thought, oblivious to the Princess and me. “But… Twilight knew Pinkie, too. So they were probably the two of us who actually remembered knowing each other…”

She clapped a hoof against her foreleg. “So that’s why they both went… antisocial. Them, Rarity…” She motioned at me. “You, me, and Fluttershy, used to know each other. Then something happened, and four of us forgot. Or maybe even five…” She trailed off, then her eyes sharpened back on point. “Yeah! Definitely five. And then Pinkie found her receipt, and all her other party supplies, and…”

“Beggin’ your pardon,” I cut in, “but I found out about all this, and I ain’t plannin’ on murderin’ nopony.”

Dash turned to me. “But you’re sane, Applejack. I read the interviews. All of Pinkie’s relatives and stuff, they all mentioned something being off about her. Like, cracked on the edges. So when something like this came in her mind, it probably shattered it…” Her head drooped a little. “And she didn’t have any friends who could help her through that.”

“She always loved throwing parties,” Celestia commented. Dash and I shot our attention to her, and even she seemed surprised at what she’d just said. Quickly, calmly, she regained her composure and muttered, “But that must mean powerful magic is in play here...”

I didn’t know what she was talkin’ about, exactly, and Celestia didn’t seem too keen on lettin’ Dash and me in on it, either. All she did was stand up and bow. “If you’ll pardon my abruptness, I have matters I must investigate.”

Not wantin’ to be rude, Dash and I rose, too.

“Until we reconvene, please make yourself at home here. The whole hospitality of Equestria will be offered to you.” She walked out from behind her desk, quickly, and the two of us followed Celestia to the door.

Outside, she parted ways with us, leavin’ me standin’ dazed and confused. I turned to Dash and asked, “You got any idea what’s goin’ on with the Princess?”

Dash nodded and cracked a sly grin. “Yeah, AJ. I think, for the first time in this whole thing, I actually do.”

Chapter 1

’Twas a bleak day when I learned the news about Twilight Sparkle.

Lookin’ back, the weather seemed suited for the occasion. Early March rain—the cold, clingy kind that could soak a mare straight to the bone—fell all day, givin’ me a bath I didn’t ask for but probably needed.

For the four years leadin’ up to that day, I’d earned my keep by minin’ rocks in that dadgum rock farm. It was miserable work without rain fallin’ down and turnin’ the ground to sucky mud. I ain’t a minin’ pony. I ain’t a clothes-maker, or a farmpony for that matter. Those days, I wasn’t too sure what I was, and even after all that stuff with Earth Pony, I’m still unsure. Least I know my name—Applejack—and my past, which is better off than some.

But I’m gettin’ ahead of myself.

On that rain-slicked rock farm, underneath steely gray clouds, I’d spent the better part of the day with a hammer in my teeth and chippin’ away at whatever rocks I could. I was wet, I was cold, and I was seriously considerin’ throwin’ in the towel for the day. Hittin’ rocks stuck in mud just pushed ’em in deeper, and part of me knew I was only makin’ it harder for myself when it came time to load up the cart.

The thing that snapped me outta my blank workin’ mindset was the sight of a stranger. I grit my teeth against the handle of my hammer. I wish I could say I was hardened enough and ready to defend myself. Truth is, those days in those parts, seein’ a stranger was the sort of thing that sent a shiver down your spine even after every other part of you’d long gone numb.

’Tweren’t that pony folk were normally like that, really. Heck, when I was growin’ up, there used to be songs the whole town’d break out in, just ’cause that seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

All that came to an end when the White Ribbon murders started.

Over the last three years, there’d been over sixty victims, all done up in the same way—strangled by a length of white ribbon. The farm was almost twenty miles outside of Ponyville, so for three years, I’d only heard bits and pieces of the story. From what I’d heard, after three years, it didn’t sound like the guards were gettin’ any closer to catchin’ the killer.

So when I saw someone I didn’t recognize walkin’ along the path near the rock farm, you can bet I kept my eye on ’em and took in the details. Light blue fur, dark blue mane, and cold blue lips, thanks to a shoddy raincoat that weren’t doing nothing for her—or a very feminine him.

Must’ve caught me lookin’, though. Those blue hooves stopped right in the mud path as we locked eyes, and my teeth clenched even tighter. ’Tweren’t just the cold that made me shake a little.

Still, we’d acknowledged each other’s presence, so there wasn’t much I could do other than see what his or her business was. It beat lettin’ ’em out of my sight, anyway. I hung my hammer in my belt, keepin’ it ready in case I needed to use it.

Then, I walked my clatterin’ hooves over to say hello. No need to not be friendly-like.

When I got close enough to tell her face was a cute mare’s, her peppy voice confirmed it in a shout: “What the hay are you doing out in the rain?” ’Tweren’t angry or nothing; just a genuine question.

I put on a grin and hollered back, still closin’ the distance. “Workin’! How ’bout you, sugarcube?”

“Same, heh.” She propped her forelimbs up on the wooden fence that separated the rock farm from the road. The wet fabric of her raincoat clung to her like a second skin, and since she didn’t have a horn, I could tell she was a lean, small-framed earth pony.

When I got over to the fence, her voice dropped to conversational volume and she asked, “Hey, you, uh… got a place I can crash ’til the rain lets up?”

I weighed my options. The safer one’d be tellin’ her to get lost, but somethin’ about her rubbed me the right way. My hooves’d long since stopped shakin’, at any rate. She was genuine, leastways enough to cut to the chase ’bout what she wanted. A mare with somethin’ to hide might try to shoot the breeze before invitin’ herself in to my home.

Course, it was also rainin’ like someone’d ordered a new lake from Cloudsdale. That’d make me pretty rude if I wanted to get out of it, too. In the end, I listened to my gut, which told me to do the neighborly thing. Pointin’ down the road, I nodded. “Up in the old silo. Got room for two, if you don’t mind the couch.”

That pony’s little blue ears perked right up at my words. “Couches are good. Better a dry couch than a wet road, right?”

I grinned a bit warmer. “Somethin’ like that. C’mon, it’s just over yonder.”

Boss Pony—that was his actual name—had long since gone home for the day, so I just climbed through the fence and headed home with my guest. I kept her in the corner of my eye the whole way there, since I wasn’t naïve enough to turn my back on a stranger.

She spent most of the trip lookin’ up at the clouds. I reckoned she must’ve come from one of them big cities where they had pegasi in charge of the skies. Nothin’ like out in the sticks, where we got the runoff weather from the Everfree Forest.

We shook off once we reached my home—what’d used to be a silo for storin’ rocks about a decade ago, before the farm moved. Boy howdy, I wouldn’t be surprised if my guest left an inch of water on my floor; poor girl was drenched to the bone. She crawled out of her coat and squished it on the coatrack, which gave me the first real look at her. Real lean for an earth pony, but it worked on her. I ain’t ashamed to say she was eye candy. Noticed somethin’ of a scar behind her shoulder, too, but it didn’t bug me none.

Once she got done hangin’ her coat, she trotted right over to my couch, which was kind of in the middle of the tall, circular room. I was about to stop her—I had towels in the bathroom—before she plopped down on the cushions and sent up a dust plume all around her. “Whew. Crazy rainy out there. Thanks again for the save, Miss…”

“Applejack,” I finished for her. I walked over and offered a hoof for shaking.

She clacked a hoof against it. “Right. Applejack.”

Didn’t introduce herself or nothing after that; she just quietly lazed back on the couch and kicked one leg over the other.

Left the talking to me, anyways. “So what brings you ’round these parts… Earth Pony?”

“I’m headed to Ponyville…” She paused, gave me a queer look, and then blasted out a sneeze that shook the room. “My boss... she, uh, has some work there for me to handle.”

“Ya sure didn’t pick a purty time to visit, y’know.”

She ran both hooves through her blue mane, givin’ herself a jagged, punky look. “Yeah, tell me about it. You’re the third pony I passed since this stupid rain started. None of them even wanted me standing under their porch.”

“You seem respectable enough for me,” I admitted. Sayin’ it reminded me to keep my wits about me. I had my minin’ belt, at least. “But hay, a pony can’t be too safe ’round strangers these days.”

Earth Pony’s and my eyes stayed mostly locked as I walked to the kitchen to get us some drinks. Was something peculiar in them, watching me deep. It didn’t seem predatory, but darned if it didn’t make me tense up.

“Yeah…” She nodded slowly, back at me. “What’s the killer’s count up to now? Sixty four?”

My gut churned and I stopped in place. “Last I heard it was sixty three.”

“No, there’s been one more. The librarian, earlier today.”

I gripped hammer on my belt and faced the stranger in my home head-on. “You mind tellin’ me how you know that?”

Earth Pony, her eyes went to my hoof, but she didn’t say nothin’ about it. Instead, she leaned forward and shook her head. “That’s kinda part of my job, Applejack. I got the news this afternoon in Canterlot, before getting stuck in this stupid rain. Number sixty four, the creepy shut-in. Twilight Sparkle.”

All the fear that’d built up inside me drained away, leavin’ me feelin’ hollow. The room was spinnin’ too darn fast all of a sudden, so I put my fourth hoof back on the ground. Earth Pony didn’t make a move or nothin’, but kept her in the corner of my eye as I bowed my head. “Twilight… Twi was a friend of mine.”

Movement in my peripheral snapped my attention up to Earth Pony; all she’d done was let her ears flop down. I watched her get off the couch to walk over to me. Brown, slimy dust-mud adorned her side and flanks from where she’d been sittin’.

When we were close, she showed me her empty hoof and slowly put it on my shoulder. Most of my doubts about her intentions vanished at her genuine, sympathetic eyes when she whispered, “I’m sorry, Applejack.”

“’Tain’t your fault,” I shot back hard enough to make her ears droop again. I made an apology by way of shakin’ my head. I’d gone through years of hard work, pain, and failure. Along the way, I’d lost patience for fake apologies from ponies who weren’t responsible.

Given the circumstances, however, I still couldn’t be too sure this one weren’t. I scowled and added, “Least, it better not be. You still ain’t told me what you do for a livin’, Miss Knows-Too-Darn-Much.”

That blue mare, she let out a chuckle. Sounded nervous, to me. “What, you can’t tell from my cutie mark?”

I looked down at her right-side flank. She wiped some of the muck off, revealin’ three pink butterflies on a cute little canvas. I wasn’t in any mood to keep starin’, so when I realized I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, I shook my head.

Earth Pony reached into the back of her soppy mane. She pulled out a wet leather wallet, opened it, and showed me her golden badge. The letters “EG” were engraved through the center—Equestrian Guard. Below the emblem, in smaller lettering, were the words “Investigations Unit”.

She smiled at me. “I take care of animals.”

Chapter 10

Boy, Celestia weren’t kiddin’ when she said the whole hospitality of Equestria was gonna be given to Dash and me. For nearly the whole week, I didn’t have to cook, clean, or tidy up after myself for anythin’.

Heck, the first mornin’, I went to the bathroom after I woke up, and when I went back into my mansion of a bedroom, the bed were made and a cart of breakfast was waitin’ for me. I thought it was all a bit much at first, but I shrugged and figured it weren’t permanent. I wasn’t no prissy city gal, after all.

Detective Rainbow Dash spent some time showin’ me around the mystical city, but for a few hours or so at a time, she’d have to buzz on back to EBI headquarters to deal with some things. I didn’t mind too terribly much; Canterlot was reasonably safe to explore alone, and heck, if it weren’t? Not like I wasn’t the only pony in Equestria to survive bein’ strangled by the Ribbon Murderer.

Still, the unplanned vacation did wonders in lettin’ me relax a little. Dash mostly kept me in the dark over what she thought Celestia was investigatin’—she wasn’t sure herself, and didn’t want to give me any biases towards her theories. But the way I figured it, Celestia’d been hit with the same thing that made me and all my friends lose their memories, and she was lookin’ for a cure.

As for that whole thing… I’d learned long ago, after gettin’ kicked off a farm ’cause of my girlfriend at the time, that there’s some fights you pick, and some you avoid. It bugged me, course, that my head wasn’t all rightly mine. But Celestia was the strongest livin’ magic-user in Equestria, and if she couldn’t put me back to normal, there weren’t nothin’ good that’d come from worryin’ about it.

I might end up puttin’ tables against walls in a basement.

Friday mornin’, a guard came and woke me up. He was one of the gray unicorn ones, a higher-up fellow, and he spoke softly to tell us Celestia was ready for round two of an audience with us. After a quick trip through the bathroom, I brushed my mane and headed back to the Princess’ study.

I met Dash outside, but that time, somepony else was waitin’ in front of Celestia’s desk. She was a light yellow pegasus, and I recognized her pink hair immediately from Twilight’s picture. Still, it struck me as somethin’ eerie, thinkin’ we used to know one another, like friends.

Rainbow Dash had a blunter method of dealin’ with that: “So, Fluttershy, right? Didn’t we go to school together? I thought we went to school together.”

Fluttershy flinched at the question, but as Dash and I walked closer to take our seats, I realized the poor thing was a nervous wreck. I understood. Lookin’ back at the summons Celestia had sent Dash and me, I figured that sort of letter would be somethin’ else to just receive out of the blue.

Finally, she muttered a quick, “Yes… we had math together.”

Rainbow and I looked at her for a few more moments, then at each other, and then we sat down. Speakin’ of school, Celestia was sittin’ patiently at her desk; after a quick silence, she told us all, “Good Morning.”

After we all said it back, Dash jumped right in again. “So, what’d you find out? Was it a spell? Did everypony get hit, or just us?”

Celestia smiled. “I see there is no point in small talk with Equestria’s premier detective.” She levitated a stone box up on to her desk and continued explainin’, “As you have surmised, there is indeed a deeper truth behind what you have come to know as reality. I know not how widespread the effects were, but certainly, you have an idea?”

“The murders,” Dash said plainly. “At first, I thought they were everypony who’d forgotten. But that didn’t make sense, since Twilight was on the list, and if Pinkie liked throwing parties, more than seventy-five ponies would remember her. So… I guess, just us, and anyone who ever remembered us before… whatever it was?”

Celestia nodded. “Although I have reason to believe it goes deeper than that, that is the basic truth.” She opened the box and pulled out a picture. Soon as I saw it, I knew it was the exact same one from Twilight’s library—only now, it was life-sized, instead of a speck in a photograph.

She held it out to Dash and asked, “Do you notice anything different?”

“Yeah, I’ve got w…” Dash paused, and took the photo from Celestia. “I’ve… I’ve got Rarity’s cutie mark.”

I took a gander at it. Apples on my flank would’ve done me better at home, but after seein’ who else had worn them, I noted it the other way, “And… Rarity’s got mine, in that picture.”

Fluttershy didn’t say anythin’.

“I originally considered that a powerful spell had been cast,” Celestia went on. “After more investigation, it seems that I failed my most loyal student.” Her voice hung heavy, and I felt a familiar lump in my throat. She didn’t start cryin’, though; instead, she looked back up and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. “I gave her a task: to finish an ancient spell. Given her expertise and affinity for the arcane, it was only natural to give her that assignment.

“I don’t know at what part of her spellcrafting it happened. For those of us it affected, indeed, the changes were sudden and absolute. In one instant, Twilight rewrote the destinies of her friends, and the memories of anyone who knew otherwise.”

“That don’t sound like Twili…” I paused. She wasn’t the sort of mare to do that sort of thing intentionally, but heck, I remembered seein’ her flub a few spells, back when I was workin’ the clothes shop. She was an expert, but that took practice, and that took mistakes.

The princess nodded at me. “I have no doubt she did it unintentionally. And although she went to great lengths to hide this from me, I cannot say I would bestow any guilt on her—posthumously or not. It was only when she sent me her letter that I finally understood that her perfectionism and shame had consumed her, and that she blamed herself for her adopted brother’s murder.”

Rainbow let out a sigh; Fluttershy and I sat by in silence as it all sank in. It was all a lot to take in—havin’ used to have different friends, and lives. That led me back to the question I’d held all week, even if it felt dumb. Then again, I remembered from school—if I even went to school—my teacher said there was no such thing as a dumb question. “Can you fix it?”

Celestia’s horn lit up, and she lifted three fancy-lookin’ pieces of jewelry. “By and large, no,” she answered. “Not yet. The spell’s effects make it nearly impossible to tell who has or has not been affected. I was able to re-learn my own past through revisiting the very forces that created me…” For a moment, I thought I saw her shudder. “However, that will not work for mortal ponies. Instead, I will spend as long as is necessary researching the spells required to return individual ponies’ memories to their original state, should any of them discover the truth.”

She levitated the three necklaces towards Dash, Fluttershy, and me. I leaned forward; the one in front of me seemed right familiar. I’d never seen the giant topaz that’d been done up to look like a jeweled apple; heck, if I’d ever owned somethin’ so nice, it’d probably’ve got sold before I’d let Carousel Boutique go under.

“In the cases of the Element Bearers, I believe may be a way to reverse the process. Nearly seven years ago, the six of you—not myself, as I remembered—wielded the Elements of Harmony in the service of the defense of Equestria.” Celestia smiled, and tears formed at the edges of her eyes. “Although my sister and I have long since parted ways, we owe the six of you so much… yet here you are only three, now, before me.”

Grief sunk like a stone in my belly, and Fluttershy made the first sound I’d heard from her in a while—a little sob. All my thoughts of Rarity came back, and Twilight, and even Pinkie. It hit me in the same instant that we’d all used to be friends, but now, we were never gonna see each other again.

The whole situation was a right mess, that’s for sure.

Celestia got her wits back about her and pressed on. “In order to have wielded these, each of you must have embodied this element. Perhaps, then, an imprint remains of your past selves? Your true selves?”

The word “true” struck a chord inside me. I looked over at Rainbow; she was lookin’ up at her gem. Compared to my apple and Fluttershy’s butterfly, her lightning bolt seemed a little duller, almost like it’d been spent up. I remembered her rainbow wings, at the end of the chase with Pinkie, and suddenly, it made a whole lot of sense. Whatever lightning bolt she stood for, she stood for it well, enough to let her fly without wings.

Rainbow Dash looked up at Celestia with an odd, severe expression. “So, we put these on, and we might get our memories back from before Twilight messed up her spell?”

“Perhaps.”

“And we’ll remember everyone, everything we’d done before then?”

Celestia nodded again and raised an eyebrow. “I cannot speak with certainty, but…” The necklaces floated down right in front of us. “If you wish to try, the choice is yours.”

My hoof was the first one to grab a necklace. I didn’t like the idea of havin’ a whole fake past behind me. Fluttershy must’ve felt the same way; she took hers next and asked, “Will it hurt?”

“Don’t most truths?” Celestia smiled warmly. “I can’t speak for what you are about to use them for, but the Elements were not created with the intent of causing pain.”

Rainbow finally reached out and grabbed her necklace. She looked at it a moment, then stood up and set it on Celestia’s desk before sittin’ back down. I looked at her, kinda surprised; she gave a weak grin and tapped her shoulder. “I remember what it was like losing my wings, Applejack. I don’t want even more awesome memories of awesomery to make me miss flying.”

I frowned. “But all your friends—”

“Are either in this room with me now, in the EBI, or dead.” After Rainbow’s bluntness, for a moment, I swore my necklace grew warmer in my hoof. “Besides, Applejack—you saw what happened to Pinkie when she knew something was up with her memories. I don’t want to be one of the like five ponies who remembers what things used to be like.”

I pointed a hoof at Celestia. “She just got done sayin’ how you used to be a hero—”

Rainbow turned on the princess. “Oh yeah? And what else, Celly? You remember, so tell me: Was being a ‘hero’ my full-time job?”

Celestia must not’ve been used to getting addressed like that; I felt my own stomach flop when her eyes went wide. Then, under Dash’s gaze, the ruler of all Equestria and commander of the sun turned to the side and admitted, “You were a weather pony, and a Wonderbolt.”

Rainbow’s ears drooped back as her mouth hung open. Quietly, she whispered, “I… I was a Wonderbolt?” After a moment, she shook her head, flipped her ears up, and turned to me. “But see? Stuff I can’t do anymore. And stuff that doesn’t really help anypony.”

“The weather is a backbone of Equestrian society…” Fluttershy mumbled.

After turning around to glare at her, Rainbow turned back to me. “Anyway, I… I know I’ve got an old life. But now, I’ve got a new life, with new friends. I help ponies, by investigating crimes and stuff. What’s it matter if I had a flick with some chick at summer camp or something? It’s not like she’d remember.”

I took a breath and pondered her reasoning. She was right, for the most part; it was knowledge that came with a price, and it wasn’t like I’d get to go around braggin’ to everypony about how there was a secret world that only Fluttershy and I remembered.

It’d be ostracizin’, that’s for sure. But at the same time… “I gotta know…”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow and smiled like a goof. “So do it, Applejack. No one’s stopping you just because I don’t want to do the same thing.”

I looked down at the necklace. “We’ll still be friends, right?” I craned my neck around Rainbow to ask Fluttershy: “You, too. I know we just met, but if we go way back, I don’t want to lose you.”

Fluttershy nodded, and Rainbow smiled. “Canterlot’s only a few hours away from Ponyville anyway; it’s not like any of us is dying or something.”

My mouth hung open as soon as her eyes shot open with realization of what she’d said. Despite it all, I found myself chucklin’. “Pretty poor choice of words, sugarcube.”

“Tell me about it,” she muttered.

In the weirdest way, sharin’ an awkward moment woke somethin’ up deep inside me, almost like it’d been asleep for a long time. I looked at Rainbow, and my heart moved; it felt like a long-lost connection with her.

I put out my hoof and asked, “So, we’ll still keep in touch, no matter what?”

She nodded and gripped my hoof. “No matter what.”

I shifted around to let Fluttershy join in our hoof-grip. She nodded, grabbed, and said, “No matter what.”

I smiled at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, both my old and my new friends. In a sense, it almost didn’t matter at that point, but with everythin’ said and done, the only thing left to do was put on my necklace and see what happened.

The important thing was, we’d find out together.