How Friends May Fall

How Friends May Fall – Part 1

“Come on Twilight, you have to let me come with you!”

The next day had dawned. The sky was covered in dark clouds, and a layer of fog hung over Ponyville. Without Rainbow Dash, the pegasi had a hard time clearing the sky of clouds on days like this. As such, they had simply decided to let it rain some more often. Although certainly not everybody was happy with this sudden change, the local farmers thought of it as a nice opportunity to water the harvest. The crops and other vegetables would grow big, and so would the apples at Sweet Apple Acres.

Even after all that had happened in the last few days, life in Ponyville was steadily returning to normal. As if the residents had already forgotten all about it, or simply made an attempt to do so.

Twilight put her scars around her neck, and placed her saddlebags on her back. She filled then with a few basic tools; tweezers, a magnifying glass, a camera… Everything she thought could be helpful for finding any clues or evidence.

“I’m sorry, Spike.” said Twilight, as she was busy with packing her saddlebags. “I don’t think the princess or the policemen will allow you to come with me. I already had to convince the princess for my own approval.”

“But it’s not fair!” shouted Spike. “I want to find out what happened too! You already didn’t take me to the funeral!”

Twilight zipped up her bags and turned her head towards Spike. He too had trouble dealing with Pinkie Pie’s death and Rainbow Dash’s institutionalization, but he clearly didn’t know how to express it. At one time he would be indifferent, though at another time he would be angry, only to become sad later on.

“Pinkie was my friend, too…” he said with a somber tone in his voice, hanging his head to the ground.

Twilight rested her hoof on his shoulder to try and reassure him. With a sigh he raised his head, and stared deep into her eyes. Though he was still a youngling, he too could see that Twilight was still suffering from within. He suspected that trying to find the actual cause was just a way for her to block her own sadness and confusion.

“Look, Spike, I’m sorry I didn’t take you to the funeral yesterday.” said Twilight, withdrawing her hoof from Spike’s shoulder. “But I promise you that it was for your own good. I’m just not sure if you could have handled it.”

“I guess…” replied Spike, rubbing his shoulder. “Can I at least visit her at the graveyard?”

“Sure, with supervision.” replied Twilight, as she opened the door of the library. “Come on, I’ll take you to Rarity’s.”

Spike climbed on top of Twilight’s back, and together they trotted to Rarity’s boutique. For the past few days, the boutique had been closed. Today was no exception.

Twilight knocked on the door, and to her relief Rarity opened the door just a few seconds afterwards. She seemed perfectly fine, with the exception of her usually perfect make-up, which had turned a bit runny today. She too was still unable to forget about it, thought Twilight.

“Oh, hello Twilight.” said Rarity with a forced smile. “What can I help you with?”

“Hi, Rarity. I’m heading off somewhere for some research.” replied Twilight. “I was wondering if you could visit Pinkie Pie with him in the meantime.”

“But of course, darling.” replied Rarity with a nod. “I was just about to visit her myself in a few minutes.”

“Thank you, Rarity.”

Twilight patted Spike on the head for a last time, and turned around to walk into an alley. She didn’t want her friends to know where she was going. This was something she had to do on her own, to try and make some sense of the situation. Even right now, nothing seemed to add up. Why would Rainbow Dash ever hurt her friend? Why did Pinkie Pie become her victim? The longer she thought about it, the more questions popped up.

She couldn’t help but take the long road. As much as she wanted to discover what happened on that day, part of her was terrified by the thought of returning to the place where her friend gave her last breath just two weeks ago. It seemed too soon… But it was now or never.

As her mind began to clear, she realized that she had already reached Sugarcobe Corner. The entire street was under constant surveillance by police officers, and a number of ponies packed with equipment were researching parts of the area around Sugarcube Corner. As she walked closer towards the crime scene, a dark-maned colt with sunglasses halted her.

“Sorry, ma’am.” said the colt. “But you are not allowed to trespass In this area until our research is done.”

“I was granted permission by princess Celestia to take a look inside Sugarcube Corner, sir.” replied Twilight. “I promise not to interfere with any police business.”

The colt analyzed Twilight for a few seconds, and signed for another colt to come towards them. The two began to whisper against eachother, often peeking in Twilight’s location. She couldn’t make out what the two were saying, but they were most certainly doubting her story.

“Pardon, ma’am.” said the other colt suddenly, turning his head towards Twilight. “Could you tell me your name, please?”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

The colt turned back to the other, and nodded. The dark-maned colt turned away and went back to work, while the other moved towards Twilight.

“My apologies for the wait, miss Sparkle.” said the colt. “We were notified of your visit by princess Celestia, but we had to make sure that you were the one she wrote about. It’s just a formality.”

“I understand.” said Twilight with a nod. “Could take a look inside of Sugarcube Corner now, please?”

“Certainly.” said the colt, motioning for Twilight to follow. “Though I’ll be staying with you, to make sure that you do not hinder our own investigation.”

Twilight followed the colt to a small trailer set up near the crime scene. It was filled with all sorts of tools and equipment for the investigation of crime scenes, even including special clothing and spare sunglasses. The colt took eight gloves from a pile in the corner, and tossed four of them towards Twilight.

“Put these on.” he said. “Wouldn’t want to leave your hoofprints everywhere.”

As Twilight put the gloves on her hooves, she couldn’t help but notice how the colt was staring at her saddlebags. Although she had hoped that she could simply use whatever she wanted while researching the crime scene, the look on the colt’s face told a different story.

“I’m going to have to take a look inside your bags.” said the colt. “There’s certain items which we don’t allow to be used by people who don’t actually work for us.”

With a sigh, Twilight levitated the saddlebags off her back and laid them down in front of the colt. He began rummaging through her bags, and quickly found the tools she had packed within them. To her disappointment, he took out almost everything she had taken along with her. Only a piece of parchment, a quill with ink and a magnifying glass were left.

“I’m sorry, miss Sparkle.” said the colt, as he zipped the bags shut once again. “But I’m afraid that civilians are not allowed to use all these tools on a crime scene. And they’re especially not allowed to take pictures.”

“Plus, make sure not to spill that ink anywhere.” he continued, after taking a last quick glance at the items he had left behind.

Twilight closed the bags and levitated them back up on her back. She began to doubt the effectiveness of this research, especially now that she could only use her magnifying glass. There probably wasn’t much to discover with just that, and so there was especially no need to take notes. The colt could easily tell how disappointed Twilight was.

“Look, miss Sparkle. I’m sorry that I can’t allow you to do more.” he said. “But I’m not the one who makes these rules, and the fact that a civilian is allowed on a crime scene is in itself completely taboo in our field of work. Especially with a one-in-a-lifetime case like this, we have to make absolutely sure that the evidence is not tampered with. Do you understand?”

“Right…” replied Twilight with a sigh. Though still disappointed, she still couldn’t deny that the officer was right.

She followed the colt out of the trailer, and into the crime scene. As she approached Sugarcube Corner, she began to feel increasingly uncomfortable. Was she truly ready to do this? Was Celestia right that her questions would be better unanswered? As much as she tried to suppress her doubts, they only piled up and increased in strength.

She hesitated to step in when she reached the front door. Feelings rushed through her body, and memories rushed through her mind. She remembered the last time she was here, with Pinkie Pie joyfully eating most of the things that Mr. and Mrs. Cake had prepared for the day. She remembered the parties that Pinkie used to give in her room upstairs. She remembered the day when princess Celestia came to visit Ponyville. She remembered so much more.

Suddenly, Twilight’s memories were interrupted by the colt’s voice.

“If you’ve changed your mind, you can still go back.” he said, waiting for Twilight to either step down or follow him inside.

“No, no, I’m coming!” Said Twilight with a fake smile on her face, slowly stepping inside Sugarcube Corner.

Sugarcube Corner barely resembled the place that she remembered. The stalls were empty, almost all the furniture was gone, with the exception of a few that were covered by sheets. All sorts of equipment laid everywhere spread on tables, researchers were checking out every corner of the room for evidence. Just finding a good place to start looking would be hard, and the risk of interfering with somebody else’s work was too high.

“Excuse me, officer…”

“Lieutenant.” said the colt, interrupting Twilight’s sentence. “Lieutenant Mane.”

“Right. Lieutenant.” she replied, rolling her eyes. “Is there a less crowded place for me to start?”

“Well, I’m researching the kitchen by myself.” he said, pointing in the direction of the kitchen. “You can help me there if you’d like. It’d save me some time with my own work.”

“Sounds good enough, I guess.”

The lieutenant turned around, and motioned for Twilight to follow. As they entered the kitchen, Twilight noticed how everything was uncovered, and how all objects seemed completely untouched. One of the ovens was still turned on, and a bowl of dough was standing on top of another, with a whisk still lying in the dough.

“I haven’t actually started yet, so we’re going to have to start from the beginning.” said the lieutenant. “How about you use the magnifying glass of yours to look around?”

“What exactly am I looking for?” asked Twilight.

“I don’t know…” he replied, turning away to work on the other side of the kitchen. “Hoofprints, signs of struggle, whatever.”

With a sigh, Twilight hovered the magnifying glass out of her saddlebags and began looking for clues. She silently cursed the lieutenant for making her do this. All she expected to find were hoofprints of Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Pinkie Pie, as well as the occasional stain on the floor. She felt like the lieutenant was just trying to keep her occupied so she wouldn’t interfere with the real work.

She was partially lost in thought as she continued her research, until the lieutenant accidentally bumped into her. The sudden startle caused a small shockwave to erupt from Twilight’s horn, throwing the magnifying glass to the floor and sliding it under one of the ovens.

“Oh, sorry.” said the lieutenant, approaching the oven that the magnifying glass had slid under. “Let me get that for you.”

The lieutenant lowered himself and stuck his hoof under the oven, attempting to grab the magnifying glass. He got a hold of it quite easily, but something seemed to bother him. Twilight didn’t know what he was doing, but she could hear him tapping his hoof on the tiles beneath the over.

“That’s strange…”

The lieutenant got back up, and pressed the magnifying glass into Twilight’s hooves.

“Miss Sparkle, think you can move this oven out of the way, please?”

“Why?” asked Twilight, placing the magnifying glass back in her saddlebags.

“Just do it, please.” said the lieutenant bluntly, turning back in the direction of the oven.

With a grunt, Twilight used her magic to levitate the oven, and place it down on the other side of the kitchen. To her surprise, it took minimal effort to move it. While an oven was usually difficult to move due to its weight, this one seemed to be nearly weight-less.

Suspicious, Twilight opened the oven, to find completely nothing inside. All the machinery had been taken out, and only a hollow casing had been left intact.

“It’s completely hollow!” said Twilight to the lieutenant.

“And these tiles are loose.” said the lieutenant, lifting them off the floor one by one. “This is unusual…”

As the lieutenant removed the tiles, they discovered a hole in the concrete base of the floor, filled up with a mixture of dirt and sand. The hole didn’t look like it was made by accident, it was far too large for that. This hole was made by someone of purpose.

As Twilight and the lieutenant removed the dirt and sand, they discovered a hidden trap door. The lieutenant opened it, and found a deep tunnel leading far beneath Sugarcube Corner, with a ladder down made of a strange white material.

“Hey, everypony!” shouted the lieutenant to the researchers in the living room. “I found something over here!”

One by one  the researchers moved into the kitchen, signaling for more to come. This sudden discovery had surprised them all, and a few of them began to discuss as to whether or not they should call for additional support

As the lieutenant began to discuss something with the other researchers, Twilight remained at the trap door and looked down the hole. She could only barely see the bottom, but from there it lead into a hallway which was out of her sight. Wondering as to where it could lead, she shifted her attention to the strange ladder mounted to the trap door. She just couldn’t decipher what it was made from, but the material looked familiar in some way… The very least she could notice was that it was custom-made, as it looked rather shoddy and was kept together with pieces of string.

“Me and a few other researchers are going to climb down.” said the lieutenant to Twilight. “You can join us if you’d like, but you’re not allowed to touch anything.”

Without hesitation, Twilight accepted the lieutenant’s offer. She didn’t expect to find anything else in Sugarcube Corner with just a magnifying glass, especially with all the work the other researchers had already done. Although the idea of anything relevant to the case being down there was far-fetched, the least she could do was take a look.

The lieutenant handed her a flashlight, and soon she followed after the researchers into the hidden basement. The entire place seemed to be hand-made; the dirt walls and ceiling were kept from collapsing with wooden joists, and the floor was covered with holes and bumps. Whoever had dug this out had seemed to be in a hurry.

As she reached the end of the hallway, a terrible stench began to fill the air. It was potent enough to make her, as well as all the researchers, cringe in disgust. Never before had they smelled such a wretched odor.

“By Celestia!” said Twilight as she covered her nose, slowly moving into the room at the end of the hallway. “What in Equestria could possibly have this kind of--”

She didn’t finish her sentence. Her body had completely frozen. Frozen in disgust. Frozen in shock. Frozen in pure, raw terror. Not even her worst nightmares could have prepared her for this moment.

For as she stepped into the room, there was nothing to greet her but darkness, and dozens of mangled remains…