The Invisible

Chapter Two

Whats are the Heart of Evil?

Rocking, rocking. Alice or AppleJack as her friends called her. Swayed side to side as she readjusted her hat, peering outside at the endless desert that boarded her hometown. "So why are yah so interested in getting mah help huh?" She said, sipping from the bottle of water she had in front of her on a small table. Alexander looked at her, handing her another pair of files; these ones seemed much older than the last one she seen. "Whose this?" She asked, reading the file. "Octavia Philharmonica, ah recognize that name; a famous musician in Canterlot." He nodded, "keep reading." Alice read on, "foun' dead on July 5th at 9:05PM, dismembered body was located 45 feet from the body of another victim. Body parts were organized in a ritualistic manner." She opened the other file, "Victoria Scarletta, famous DJ nicknamed 'DJ-Pon3' Found dead 45 feet from the body of Octavia Philharmonica, body was impaled on what appeared to be a sharpened hollow rod, her stomach splayed open. Next to the body were a series of buckets filled with the victims blood and organs"

Alice kept reading the file out loud, the gory details nearly forcing her left overs from breakfast to reappear; "Written on the ground between the bodies, with what was identified as the victims own blood read: "What lies in the heart of evil?" She took a deep breath, closely examining the pictures of the bodies while holding back the urge to vomit. She looked up to see the look of pain on his face. "Is there something ya want to tell me?" She asked, closing the files and setting them down. "I...i haven't been completely honest with you." She tilted her hat back, "Victoria Scarletta...was, my sister." She took another deep breath "Now ah see why your so eager to find this person, ah feel that there is more to the story though." He nodded, "That afternoon we got into a fight, i tried my best to raise her after our parents died...but over the last few years she'd grown so distant from me..."

AJ nodded, "Ah know how that feels." He nodded, "I'd often get phone calls from the Canterlot police that she was in their detox chamber again. When i would pick her up, she'd be in various states of intoxication, from alcohol to drugs." He sighed as a tear formed in his eyes. AJ looked into the file, it also contained Ms Scarletta's criminal and drug conviction history, various pictures showed her in bad states of both mind and body. But in almost every picture, she was a high cut white shirt and loose fitting pants, her hair a contrasting shade of light and dark blue. In all of the pictures, she was skinny; with obvious track marks from repeated needle exposure. But buried at the very end of the file, was one picture; it appeared to be taken at a party. Ms Scarletta was posed in the lap of a beautiful brunette woman, she could tell that she'd gained a fair amount of weight.

"But i would always be there to get her every time. And when she'd met Octavia i was convinced she met someone she could love, someone who could help her get her life together." He slowly dried his tears, what kind of a sicko would do that to someone? The day i was called to the scene was when i made a solemn promise that i would make the one responsible pay." AJ bounced a bit as the train skidded to a halt. Before getting up, he stopped AJ, placing a hand on her shoulder as the train made a full stop. "Do you think she suffered at the end?" She shook her head "I don't know surgarcube...i hope not"

"We must be in Canterlot, We need to get to Headquarters." He said as a pair of gentlemen wearing the same color of suits that Alex wore, they escorted them to a black SUV, Alice adjusted the belt with her pistols, climbing into the car. Sometime later they arrived at a large ominous looking building. The front of the building bore the Princess' Royal Seal, surrounding the outer rim of the seal read 'Canterlot Royal Bureau of Investigation.' Once inside, the same two agents stepped infront of AJ, peering down at her belt. "I'm sorry ma'am you will have to relinquish your firearms while inside." Alice, sighed unbuckling the belt and handed it to one of them. Alex set his hand on her shoulder.

"Not to worry, you will get them back later." She nodded, following him inside. "I'm sorry about your sister." He nodded, "I thought she had really made a difference in her life when she met Octavia. They were even talking about getting married." They walked to the elevators, taking it down several floors.Once out of the elevator, she saw a large room with dozens of people walking around in fresh white lab coats. They walked into a room off to the right, where the Agency kept all of the cases information. Walking into the room, AJ was taken aback by who she was surprised to see in a white lab coat, "Twilight?" She asked, smiling; they embraced in a friendly hug, before she picked up a tablet, using the stylus pen to turn on a 3 dimensional machine. "Its good to see you too AJ, And just because i know your gonna ask, you know i have 5 doctorate degree's from Canterlot University; one is in Forensic Anthropology, i'm called in by the CRBI whenever bodies are too badly decomposed to identify or when there is a case like this one. but i'm afraid we have a lot of work to do, so let's get started." She said as the display powered on a showed a series of people who AJ believed was the victims and her heart hit with a hard pang in her chest.

"So far we have 15 victims, all of them were killed with a large surgical blade; they were all displayed in a ritualistic manner after death." Agent Alexander said, looking at the image of his sister Vinyl; a tear welling in his eye. "We believe the ritual is a means to appease an old legend about a deity named Nightmare Moon." AJ tilted her hat, "All for except the last victims, i think i got to him a little early but whats this Nightmare Moon?" She asked. "Its an old legend about a woman conqueror in the late 3rd century, the legend states that Nightmare Moon had the power to control all manners of Darkness and Nightmares. Using her abilities over dreams to manipulate the countries she attempted to conquer."

AJ nodded, crossing her arms. A series of knocks sounded at the door of the room; she turned around. "Miss AJ, you have a phone call on line one." Walking over to the phone and picking up the line, she heard a distraught Pinkie speaking quickly. "AJ AJ, you have to come back to Ponyville!" AJ huffed "whoah there nelly, slow down will yah? What happened?" She said trying to calm down the panicking woman. "Its, Big Mac; he's in the hospital." AJ's heart sank, as she dropped the phone, it pattered against the wall; swinging, the line going dead; the only audible sound was a series of beeps. Indicating the call was dropped. "The person you are trying to reach is no longer in service range, please hang up and try again." A womans voice stated before the line hung up and there was only silence, AJ ran to the elevators, once on the first floor; she grabbed her weapon belt from the guard. Bumping into a courier on the way out the door. Boarding the train back to ponyville, it took a couple days to get back to town; once the train stopped she took off running to the hospital, hair smacking her face as sweat built up on her face.

She entered the hospital, the nurse pointed down the hall she found Big Macs room, she looked at him. He had bandages around his head, various tubes ran over his body; he was unconscious. The only other person in the room was Granny Smith. "Granny, what happened? Where's Applebloom?" She asked, walking to the bed. Granny Smith hugged AJ. "She's out with her friends, she doesn't know yet." AJ sighed, "What happened?" Granny smith took a deep breath, "He was attacked last night after leaving the bar. They don't know who it was." She sighed, "they must have caught him by surprised, cause no one could beat Big Mac in a stand up fight." AJ looked at him as he lay unconscious in the bed, the blind beeping of the heart monitor. "Miss AJ?" She turned around and saw the doctor, "Luckily, there's no brain damage so there is very little chance of him to slip into a coma. But there's still a lot of damage to his internal organs and ribcage. He was hit over the head with a large metal pipe, and while fighting to not lose consciousness he was stabbed multiple times" A loud groaning brought her back to reality, looked down at the bed she saw Mac open his eyes."

Alice, slowly bent down and kissed his cheek. "Big Mac, you're awake..." He smiled, rubbing his head but groaned when a sharp pain broke into his chest. "Eeyup." She smiled, relieved he was ok. "What happened? Did you see who jumped you?" He shook his head, "nnope, it all 'appened too fast" He sighed, slowly sitting up. Hearing soft clacking outside the room she looked to the door and saw the nurse walk in carrying a small box. "Miss AJ, this just arrived for you, there was no courier; just a note." AJ tilted her head, confused. Opening the box AJ nearly lost her stomach, dropping the box on the floor, inside was a bloody clump of strawberry colored hair. Reading the note, that was left with the package, AJ's face flushed with anger, the letter read: "Find me, and you'll find her. The Clock is ticking." AJ looked at Mac and Granny. "He has Applebloom..." Mac tried to get out of the bed, "no no you're not going anywhere; ya too hurt i will find her. "AJ picked up the phone from the side of the bed, dialing the operator. Hello, i'd like you to connect me to Agent Alexander at the Canterlot Royal Bureau of Investigation." After a few moments on hold, "Alexander" She was on the verge of tears, "He has my little sister...this fella just messed with the wrong family i'm on my way back" "I'll send some agents to your brothers hospital room and your home to keep your family safe." She smiled, "Thank ya kindly" She hung up the phone,

AJ looked at Mac and Granny, "ah will find her, ah promise." She kissed her brother and granny on the cheeks before leaving the hospital, getting into a cab with the box carrying the bloody hair clump. She withdrew her revolvers from the holsters, loading bullets into the cylinders. The cab stopped at the train station, leaving the cab with a small bag of clothes. She boarded the next train to Canterlot, sighing she found her seat on the train, and once again; she was rocking, side to side. Each shake made her will more ironclad than the last.