Perspectives

I couldn't believe my ears. Executed. I nearly lost my footing, but a reassuring wing over my back stabilizes me. I look to my side at the wings owner, feather. I'm sure my expression was a weird mix between nausea and confusion.

"Murder and attempted murder?" Twilight asks.

"Indeed, she brandished a knife with her magic and killed one of my servants. When help arrived she had Cloudkicker pinned down and was prepared to kill her." Celestia explains.

"I... I think I'm going to go home." I mumble, stumbling towards the door.

"I'm gonna go with him." Feather says. I look at her with what I hope looks like thanks, she nods in understanding.

It's not even noon, and it's already been a very long day.

~~~~~~~

SCP's. I should have known. The Builder Bear, the Jade Turtle, all of it. I noticed, but I didn't know. But why? Why here? It's all too... coincidental.

"She's gone, you can relax."

"Huh?" I turn to look at Twilight and she rolls her eyes.

"Celestia. She's gone. You look like a deer in the headlights when she's around." Twilight explains.

"I can't help if she gave me PTSD..." I mumble to myself. "Yeah, whatever, I think I should go home." I tell her.

"Okay, it looks like progress on my research paper has halted for now anyways." Twilight says.

"That's what you're going with?" I can feel myself growing angry. "A pony dies and all you can think about is research."

"Sorry, but I don't feel all that attached to a random servant of Celestia's. Yeah, it's sad, but it doesn't affect me." Twilight argues.

"Not him you idiot! Starlet." I almost shout.

"The murderer?" She asks in surprise. "Why should I feel sad about her?" Twilight asks.

"Because she was our friend. More importantly, she was Mike's friend." I push.

"She was a murderer, Heartbreak." Twilight pushes.

"It's HB and you know it! Using my name in that way doesn't make me want to see your point. It's actually really underh-h-hoofed." I tell her. "Besides, she was our friend before she was a murderer."

"Well, HB, she was still a murderer in the end." Twilight says.

"What if it were Rarity?"

"What?" Twilight asks in shock.

"What if Rarity were executed?" I ask.

"Rarity’s not a murderer." Twilight says definitively.

"But if she was?" I challenge.

"But... she's not, so there's no point in pretending she could be." Twilight argues. This approach isn't working, Twilight doesn't do the what-ifs. I bat my brain around in thought before an idea comes to me.

"How do you know?" I challenge.

"Know what?" Twilight sighs, obviously trying hard to humour me.

"That Rarity is definitely not a murderer." Twilight freezes at the thought. "Think about it Twilight, what are the traits of a sociopath?" I ask her.

"Er... I imagine they don't fit in with society well."

"Wrong. It's the opposite. They fit into society extremely well. Rarity could very well be a sociopath who murders ponies, and you wouldn't know. Think about it..." I wrack my brain for moments in Rarities life that could point to her being a murderer. "Uh... Rarity doesn't come from wealth. In fact, I believe she was quite poor growing up, and I know that poor kids are bullied often. Say these bullies are especially cruel, though. Now say one day Rarity runs from said bullies, but these bullies are especially tenacious. Rarity is so sick of being bullied, so sick of being scared... so she isn't. She fights back, but she goes a little far... she kills one of them. Then another, and then they're all dead. To cover her tracks. Even a little filly could take down three older ponies easily with magic and a blunt object. Oh, and the element of surprise. Do you know Rarity to be a lady that's afraid to fight? I sure don't. Isn't that a little peculiar? A pony so bent on staying clean, being rid of filth? That she'd partake in any act of roughhousing at all is a scandalous thought, but there it is. Rarity isn't afraid to kick a manticore, and she never quivers in fear at a tussle. Do you know why I think Rarity isn't afraid of monsters, Twilight?" I challenge, leaning in close. Twilight's legs are quivering as she thinks more and more about what I've said.

"W-why?" She asks, almost regretfully.

"Because ponies like that stopped being scared of the monsters under their bed a long time ago. They stopped being scared when they realized the monsters were inside themselves all along." I say, pointing my hoof at Twilight for added effect.

"Are you so sure that Rarity couldn't be a serial killer? Or Rainbow? Or Fluttershy?" I ask.

"F-fluttershy?" Twilight whispers to herself.

"Anyone's capable of murder, Twilight." I finish. "It's just a matter of how far you’re pushed..."

"I-is she? I mean... you know a lot of things, are you trying to tell me something?" She asks fearfully.

"No. I just want you to think. If Rarity or any one of your friends was, or is, a murderer, what would you do? Would you care?" I ask her. She averts her eyes and doesn't speak for a long time.

"I'll talk to Mike next time I see him." Twilight finally says. "Thanks, HB..." her thanks falls a little flat. Almost like she doesn't honestly know what to say, and that's just her only thought. I shake my head and ignore it, Twilight's thoughts are her own. Whose place is it to try and dissect them?

“Whatever, I’ll see you later Twi.” I tell her, she doesn’t respond.

~~~~~~~

“A wake?” I ask.

“It’s a form of funeral.” Feather explains.

“I know what it is, but why would I go?” I ask in confusion.

“Because you’re Starlet’s friend, aren’t you?” she asks.

“I thought so… But that just makes me less sure. Why would I go to a wake for the pony she killed?” I ask, offended she’d even suggest it.

“I don’t know, but don’t you care? It would be an act of good faith.” She insists. “Look, I’m going. You’re more than welcome to join me.” She says.

“I don’t have anything to wear…” I tell her.

“You look fine, but it’ll be in about an hour, so we’d have to leave soon.” She insists. I sigh and nod my head, looking back inside my room briefly. Seeing nothing I could really need I sigh and follow Feather out. “It’ll be okay, Mike.”

“I know, it’s been two days and I still haven’t gotten over it. It was for the best, I just can’t believe I didn’t know. That I couldn’t help…” I tell her.

“You couldn’t have helped him, you weren’t there.” Feather says.

“No, not him. Starlet. No one’s evil without reason. I should’ve been able to help her.” I insist. “It just doesn’t make sense. I didn’t know she was so… deadly.” I shiver at the nightmares such thoughts bring. Feather lays a wing over my back, a gesture I’ve found increasingly comforting. I stop as I bump right into another pony, I stumble slightly and feather steadies me.

“Terribly sorry, was in a bit of a rush, didn’t see you. I’m a little early though…” I look at the brown earth pony as he dusts himself off. He has a spiky mane and an hourglass cutie mark, he looks up at me through his 3D glasses. “Oh, hello!~ Isn’t that interesting…” His voice sounds familiar, but I know I’ve never seen him before. “Oh, yes, that’s right! I had a thing, I need to do. I like things, don’t you? See you, very soon I imagine! though, that’s relative…” the stallion moves away, mumbling to himself about something or some other.

“That stallion,” Feather mutters before turning to me. “Ignore him, he’s a bit of an eccentric.” I just nod dumbly, not quite sure what to make of the clearly mad pony. The rest of our walk is a bit more serene, even if it’s not a terribly long walk. I notice the wake long before we actually arrive, there’s a large crowd of ponies. Everyone turns at our arrival, but quickly turns away as they see me. I’m not sure if they care or not, and that makes me uneasy. I look up at the casket and notice it’s closed. Aren’t the caskets usually open?

“Maybe this was a bad idea…” I say, starting to backpedal away. Feather flares her wings slightly behind me, halting my motions backwards. she pushes me forward with her front hooves and sits us down near the back.

“I’ve only been to one funeral before…” I admit, Feather turns to me.

“Who for?” She asks politely.

“My great grandma.” I tell her. That funeral was fairly recent. A bit before I arrived here, in talking colorful horse land. I frown, I don’t mean to be bitter about the fact I’m here, but the fact is that I’m not home. I’m in a foreign land I know nothing about and one of my newest friends is dead…

“I’m sorry to hear. Were you close?” Feather asks.

“Close enough for it to hurt.” I tell her, she winces and I sigh. I extend my wing over her and she  accepts it. “Sorry… but it was a while before I came here. To escape that grief, and then this.” I gesture with my other wing. I look at the wing disinterestedly, at least I can move it efficiently now.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” Feather whispers.

“It’s not your fault.” I release her from the hug and just pay attention to the procession.

The procession draws on longer and longer, until eventually we all move with the casket to the grave. There’s a pile of dirt off to the side of a large hole. They lower the casket into the grave, the older pony who was conducting the ceremony drones on about how precious life and death is. Eventually, he stops talking, and ponies start leaving. Everypony leaves, but Feather. I don’t know why I stayed so long, I just sat there watching the grave.

“Am I late? Oh, I am!” I turn to see the same brown coated pony from before, the one with the hourglass cutie mark. “Stupid hooves! Not good for TARDIS control.” He mutters to himself. My head snaps to him, that voice, that hair, that mark. Feather humphs, but I stand up.

“Doctor? THE Doctor?” I ask in astonishment.

“Whooves, Doctor whooves. How did you know?” Feather says.

“That’s what ponies call me. That’s what I call me. Why do I do that? I rather like it.” He says, half to himself. “Oh, you! You’re the griffon from before! Wait, how far off am I? When did we last meet?” He asks.

“In the street, earlier today. You were wearing your 3D glasses.” I tell him.

“How do you not remember?” Feather asks.

“Well, I’m not used to hooves.” He says, staring at the appendages. “All I know is I was off, but luckily not too much.” He says.

“Off?” Feather says.

“In time, He was gonna be here earlier. Well, relative to right now.” I explain.

“Wrong, no… right.” He turns to me curiously. “How do you know that.” He asks suspiciously.

“Plenty of people are late, Doc.” I tell him. Most just don’t do it by years.

“Right…” he says. “Doctor Smith.” He says. “I work with the Ponyville Morgue.” He says, pulling out a piece of paper.

“It’s blank.” I tell him, only glancing at it briefly. Feather looks at me weirdly.

“What do you mean, it says he works at the Morgue.” Feather says, looking at the paper.

“Well, that is interesting.” The Doctor mutters to himself, looking at me.

“Mike, It’s not blank.” Feather says.

“Psychic paper.” both me and the doctor say in unison, he narrows his eyes at me and continues. “Only allows you to see what you want.” He explains.

“Why are you here, Doctor?” I ask hopefully. His eyes brighten up and he turns to the grave.

“This! Notice anything strange?” he asks. I look closely, the ground over the grave is still bare of grass, but it’s level. The pile of dirt is gone, they’d been able to put it all back in the grave. The gravestone isn’t exceptionally strange, just a plain slate grey.

“Nothing's wrong with the grave.” Feather says annoyedly. I can’t help but agree with her, there’s nothing strange that I can see.

“Where’s all the dirt?” The doctor asks.

“In the grave, where it’s supposed to be.”

“But surely if someone- somepony. Ponyisms are fun.” The doctor says. “Ahem. If somepony were to bury something, surely not all the dirt would fit back in the hole?” he suggests. I blink slightly as I catch onto what he’s saying. I walk up to the grave and look at the bare earth, I prod it gently before laying my claw on it.

“We didn’t bury anything.” I whisper, a chill going up my spine.

“Precisely! however, there was a dead pony... supposedly. question, did you see the body at all?” he asks, walking around the grave inquisitively. I shake my head, the funeral was closed casket. “Right, well, I think we have ourselves a body to find.” He says cheerily. I can feel myself getting excited, despite my reservations. This is the chance of a lifetime!

“We? There’s no we, we’re not going.” Feather says decisively.

“Really?” the Doctor pauses and turns to look at us. “Suit yourselves.” he shrugs.

“I’m going.” I say, turning to Feather. She has a stunned look on her face, like she can’t believe what I agreed to. I give her a quick hug before moving towards the Doctor.

“You can’t be serious.” She says. “He’s a madman!” she hisses.

“With a box. I’m going.” I tell her, flashing a smile in her direction. “Be back soon, it’ll be like we weren’t even gone.” She huffs frustratedly, but doesn’t further attempt to stop me. I smile and turn to the doctor. “Well, where are we going?” I ask.

“The one place we know the victim to be!”

“The past?”

“The p-” The Doctor stops and blinks. He turns towards me and narrows his eyes. “Precisely.” He reaches behind himself and pulls out his screwdriver and places it in his mouth. He points it at me and it buzzes, I just stand still. He pulls it out and looks at it. “Hm…” He puts the screwdriver away and turns away, “Come on then… what’s your name again?”

“Mike.”

“Of course, it sounds human.” He mutters. “Come on then, Mike.” I repress a squeal of joy and follow the doctor, this day just got a bit better.

~~~~~~~

“It’s bigger on the inside.” I note, as we step into the TARDIS.

“Yes! Yes it is!” He says, spinning towards me and pointing. “That’s absolutely correct! Except it’s not! But nevermind that.” He says shrugging. “So, the reports seemed to say yesterday… Let’s go there!” I just nod approvingly and take a seat on the floor behind the doctor. He starts the TARDIS, but I don’t hear the tell-tale sound of it actually taking off. The doctor turns and he heads towards a bag on the far side of the TARDIS and rummages around. He pulls out a familiar device and his intentions become clear. He points the screen at me and it begins searching.

“That’s the species matcher, isn’t it?” I ask, much to the doctor’s annoyance.

“It could be called that, yes. But how would you know what this does.” He questions irritatedly, reading the screen. “Completely griffon! You’re impossible!” he says exasperatedly.

“How impossible? Like it’ll take you a couple of minutes?” I ask. He blinks, before turning away to think.

“Hm… Maybe. No, my priority right now is that butler. I’ll worry about you later.” He says.

“Aye aye el capitan.” I say with a mock salute.

“Now, if I pull this…” I can hear and feel the TARDIS starting to move and I hold onto the bar next to me lightly. “Geronimo!” He shouts.

“Allons-y!” I reply, he turns to me and smiles widely. A smile I’m surprisingly happy to return. I can feel the TARDIS settling beneath me, my excitement is rising. Real time travel, even if it is only yesterday.

“Okay, If I landed where I think we did…” The Doctor throws open the doors to the TARDIS and I look past him. “NO, of course not.” I look at the gigantic throne room we’re now standing in. The TARDIS sits right in the center, which makes it stand out all the more. “We’re on time though.” I look over to see the Doctor putting a tiny pocket watch away somewhere, presumably the same place he puts his sonic screwdriver.

“What time would that be?” I ask, a bit of a while before sunset. And before day court is over, the murder happened just after sunset.” The Doctor says.

“Well, then where is it?” I ask.

“The murder? Just down one of these halls…” He says, looking at the various doors lining the rooms walls.

“No, day court. Isn’t that handled in throne rooms?” I ask. I’m not all that clear on how equestria works, but i believe I learned enough from history to figure how day court generally works.

“Yes… it would be…” he pauses, shaking his head firmly before walking towards the large entrance doors of the throne room. I follow him out of the throne room and through various halls. For a moment I even think that maybe we’re lost, but eventually the doctor stops and bristles, pulling out his sonic screwdriver quickly. “Get down.” He whispers. We duck behind a plant, and in the distance I can see Starlet being led by a butler alone. “Do you feel that?” The doctor asks.

“Feel what?” I ask. The doctor goes silent, pointing his sonic screwdriver across the scene before ending up pointing it at one specific location.

“Her.” He says, pointing to a pair of eyes peering out a door next to Starlet and the butler.  But at the same time I notice Starlet brandishing a knife and attacking the butler ruthlessly. I turn away, feeling sick. How could she do such a thing? “Hmm…” The doctor says gently, still peering down the hall. I peer back down the hall in time to see Starlet get pinned to the wall by Cloudkicker. As we watch on, the Doctor clicks his tongue. I glance over at him and watch his eyes following the body. As they start to take it away he motions for me to follow him as he follows the dead body of the butler. “Where are they taking it?” he asks absentmindedly.

As we follow the guards along their twisted hallway path towards an unmarked door, we duck behind a corner once more as the guards knock on the door. Celestia pokes her eyes out and looks down at the body of the butler with… is that joy?

“Thank you,” We can hear her say before taking the body and turning to dismiss the guards. The guards salute her before walking back down the hall. “Doctor, you can come out now.” The Doctor laughs a bit before stepping out from the corner. I follow him shortly after.

“How’d you know, Celestia?” He asks with good humor.

“I saw your box. And what’s this? A new companion? And a Gryphon at that. Making the rounds are we, Doctor?” She asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“Quite. I’m just puzzling about that body you have there, because it seems that I can’t find it later.” The Doctor says in a questioning tone.

“I’d assume that would have more to do with this ponies will more so than it has to do with me, Doctor. It is quite unfortunate that such a thing could befall the citizens of Equestria after such a long period of peace.” The princess says.

“If this pony were to ask for cremation, why hold a wake?” the doctor asks pryingly.

“I don’t know Doctor. Maybe to show the community that this death will not pass without notice? Maybe because you’ve told me that I am to hold a wake for this pony. Either way, it has to happen.” Celestia answers with sorrow tinging her tone.

“Ah, that… well that does complicate things.” the Doctor says a bit sheepishly.

“Quite, Doctor.” Celestia answers. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a criminal to deal with and apparently a wake to set up.” the Doctor says nothing as Celestia gets up with the body of the butler. “If you don’t mind, I didn’t catch the name of your newest assistant.”

“It’s Mike.” I say finally.

“Mike.” she says, rolling the name off her tongue. “Well, Mike. I’m sure that I’ll see you around if you’re working with the Doctor.” She says with a hint of finality before turning and walking away. Once she’s out of earshot the Doctor speaks up.

“Something's not right,” He says, I look over to him.

“What?” I ask. As far as I could tell, her logic seemed adequate.

“That’s supposedly the first murder in Equestria in hundreds of years and yet she isn’t surprised one bit.” He states. I look at the hallway that Celestia had just walked down in leaving and realize that he’s right. She almost seemed to handle us like we were just regular business.

“Come on, we need to get back. Something isn’t setting right with me and I need to ask Cloudkicker what happened between her and Starlet.” the Doctor says.

“Cloudkicker?” I question.

“She was the one that caught Starlet first, she might know something.” the Doctor says. I nod and follow him as he leads us back to the throne room. The whole walk I think about Celestia. Having interacted with her twice, I’m not sure what to make of her. Clearly she’s friends with the Doctor in some way, but… there was still something different about how she acted. Something off.