How Friends May Fall

How Friends May Fall – Part 7

Twilight stared at princess Luna and the lieutenant with a look of disbelief. She had read many books about Nightmare Moon before their first showdown, and she had read even more about the history of Equestria. But never before had she even heard rumors of anything like this happening in the past. She could only imagine the lengths the royal house had gone through to keep this information away from the public.

“But… Why me?” asked Twilight in a soft, scared voice. “There are other unicorns who are better at magic then me… Is it because I wield one of the Elements of Harmony as well?”

“You underestimate your own power, Twilight Sparkle.” replied the princess. “Your special talent itself is magic. You have the potential to exceed even me and my sister in magical prowess, and we believe that the Lunar Society recognizes this potential.”

“The Lunar Society?”

“The cult that worships the force of Nightmare Moon.”

“But, furthermore…” continued the princess, frowning in concern. “The Lunar Society prides itself on exploitation. The fact that you wield the Element of Magic is indeed another reason why they have targeted you.”

“There are already two wielders of the Elements of Harmony that are incapable of using them. And while the wielders can be replaced, finding the right ponies to bear their power is a very difficult task that may take months, if not years, to accomplish. So the more wielders they can take out, the better their chances become.”

“Without the Elements of Harmony, only me and my sister may stand a chance against the powers of Nightmare Moon. But they know that princess Celestia could never strike down her own apprentice, and I do not possess the power to take on Nightmare Moon on my own.”

“In other words, it’s safe to assume that you’re the new host.” said Lieutenant Mane, interrupting the princess. “With all those factors depending on you, they know that our chances are over once they’ve got you on their side.”

As the words began to sink in, Twilight slowly began to panic. She could have never imagined herself playing such a significant role in a grim scenario like this, let alone be a target of a cult with such a sinister and foul agenda.

Paranoid thoughts began to fill her mind as she turned her head towards the window. How many of those cultists are there, out there? Could they be spying on her right now, even here  in Trotham City? Can anybody out there be trusted? Do they know who she is, and where she is?

“We’ve told enough.” said the lieutenant, pounding his hoof on the table. “Time for you to start answering our questions, Sparkle.”

“Lieutenant!” said Princess Luna, as she turned towards the lieutenant with a disapproving look in her face.

“Don’t give me that look, princess. This is still my case, and I intend to solve this thing instead of giving history lessons and speeches.”

Twilight turned back towards the lieutenant. The panic and paranoia that filled her was clearly visible in her expression, as if she was certain that a cultist could walk in right through the door to take her away. Yet while the princess bore a sad grimace of concern on her face, the cold lieutenant completely ignored her insecurity.

“As I’ve said before…” continued the lieutenant. “Tell us what Rainbow Dash told you. And this time, tell us everything.”

As the lieutenant stared deeply into her eyes, Twilight tried to swallow her fear and focus for just a moment. She closed her eyes, and tried to think back to her visit with Rainbow Dash. The recent shocks had left her memory a bit blurry, but she believed that she could still remember the majority of their brief conversation.

“She… She knows what she has done.”

“Yes, and?” replied the lieutenant impatiently.

Her thoughts and memories were chaotic and disorganized. Although she was trying to ignore it, paranoid thoughts and whispers kept on bothering her. Can Lieutenant Mane be trusted? Why is he so obsessed with rushing this case? Could he be…

Then, she finally remembered.

“She told me that Pinkie had invited her over for cupcakes.” she said. “But the cupcakes were drugged, and she passed out because of it. The next thing she remembered was waking up in the basement, and being disemboweled alive.”

She opened her eyes, and stared back at the lieutenant. For the first time, she could see a slight look of surprise on the lieutenant’s face.

“For a moment, she seemed convinced that Pinkie Pie tried to murder her, and that she only defended herself. She turned back to normal right when I left, but that’s all I got her to tell me.”

The lieutenant narrowed his eyes, and looked over his notes.

“The basement…” he said, still looking through his notes. “Do you mean--”

“Yes.” interrupted Twilight. “Or at least, I think she referred to the same. But it sounded awfully accurate.”

Lieutenant Mane and Princess Luna looked at eachother for a moment. The princess gave a nod to the lieutenant, who took his notebook and walked out of the room.

“Come with us for a moment, Twilight.” said princess Luna, as she too stepped out of the room.

Twilight followed the princess through a set of corridors and staircases, walking past and through several rooms full of researchers and police officers. She couldn’t help but wonder about how many ponies were actually involved in this situation, and if they all really knew about the Lunar Society and its origins. Most likely, the full details were just kept by the ponies in charge. Although it did remind her somebody else.

“Princess Luna?” said Twilight. “I was wondering… What about princess Celestia? Does she know about all this?”

The princess kept on walking, but slightly turned her head back towards Twilight as she replied.

“She knows of the Lunar Society and about what happened in the past, but she doesn’t know that this case involves them once more.”

She turned her head back forward to see where she was going, but she continued to speak.

“Considering that this is the first murder case in centuries, she’s currently dealing with a lot of stress and questions from the public. I thought it was wiser to wait with notifying her until we were completely sure that the Lunar Society was involved; Which we’ve only officially confirmed just now, thanks to you.”

“But… princess Celestia already warned me before I began my investigation. Could she have already known about it?”

“It’s a possibility.” replied the princess with a nod. “After all, the last murder case that we’ve dealt with was caused by the Lunar Society, as well. It would only be natural to assume that this case could be linked to them again.”

Suddenly princess Luna stopped in her tracks, causing Twilight to bump into her. They had arrived at the front doors of what appeared to be a laboratory, with a few packs of researchers working on their own experiments and formulas. Twilight closely followed the princess as she walked through the doors, though she was curious as to why they would go to this place. She couldn’t think of a way that chemistry was related to the case… Or was it? She had been surprised by a lot of things thus far.

She spotted one of the researchers talking to Lieutenant Mane, who had arrived at the laboratory just before Twilight and the princess had done so. The lieutenant soon took notice of the princess and Twilight, and sent the researcher in their direction. It was a chocolate brown-coated colt, with a spiked dark brown mohawk mane and an hourglass for a cutie mark.

“Good afternoon, princess Luna. And nice to meet you, Miss Sparkle.” said the researcher politely. “My name is Doctor Whooves. I’m the head researcher of this department.”

Twilight nodded, but was cut off by princess Luna before she could introduce herself.

“Doctor, I would like to ask some questions about the magic barrier. I have heard that you’ve been doing research on the subject as of late.”

The magic barrier. Hearing it being mentioned again at this time piqued Twilight’s curiousity. She had never heard about it before, but could it possibly be somehow related to the case?

“Indeed I have, princess. It’s quite an interesting subject, really, considering all the mysteries still surrounding--”

“Please, doctor. This is urgent.”

“Ah, right.” said Doctor Whooves, rasping his throat. “What would you like to know, princess?”

“Well, for starters, could you briefly explain what exactly the magic barrier is?”

“What? You don’t know what the magic barrier is? Surely somepony of your stature would--”

The doctor’s sentence was interrupted by an annoyed glare on the princess’ face, as she slightly nodded her head towards Twilight.

“Right.” he said, as he turned around in the other direction. “Follow me, please.”

The trio walked towards a chalkboard on the other side of the laboratory. It was filled with formulas and calculations, but before Twilight could even make any sense of them they were wiped away by the doctor.

The doctor drew a few shapes on the chalkboard, and began his explanation.

“It’s quite simple, really.” he said, rubbing his hooves together. “The magic barrier is simply the combined name for the latent magical energies in our world’s atmosphere. The purpose of these magical energies is to partially hold back the flora and fauna of our nature, to prevent certain areas from being overgrown. This comes at the cost of several natural processes being blocked as well, such as leaves dropping from the trees during fall or certain kinds of flora growing on their own. For this, we have events such as Winter Wrap-up and the Running of the Leaves. Some unprotected areas like the Everfree Forest do still have these natural processes, though they are significantly less habitable due to the overgrown flora and the often dangerous creatures.”

“And what exactly happens when the magic barrier is broken?” asked princess Luna.

“Well…” began the doctor, as he drew a line through one of the shapes on the chalkboard. “The magic barrier can only be broken by objects that disturb the air current hard enough to basically ‘blow’ the magical energies away. In other words, it has to move extremely fast. But when it is broken, it creates a temporary void around the object, in which there are neither natural nor magical energies. The magical energies race back to close this void, which causes them to collide into another; Creating various effects, depending on the angle, shape and size of the object.”

“So that’s how a Sonic Rainboom is made…” said Twilight to herself.

“A sonic what now?” asked the doctor.

Princess Luna shook her head, and instead asked a question herself.

“And how exactly do these magical energies end up in the air?”

“Well, the magical energies themselves decay over time, or they can be absorbed by whichever object breaks the magic barrier. But every time a unicorn casts a spell, a small amount of magical energy is leaked into the atmosphere. So, in a way, it’s thanks to the unicorns that some areas have become habitable!”

“And what if a unicorn is murdered?”

Both the doctor and Twilight were startled by the princess’ question. While it definitely seemed to be much more relevant to the case, it seemed to be thrown out right out of nowhere; Especially surprising the poor doctor, who seemed to be taken completely by surprise.

“W-Well, um…” stuttered the doctor. “When a unicorn is threatened, or… murdered… they get a certain reflect which gives them a temporary magic surge. Depending on the magical abilities of said unicorn, this will either just spill right into the magic barrier, or manifest itself into a spell of sorts.”

“And what if the unicorn happened to be intoxicated during this magic surge?”

“I’m not too sure about that, really… I suppose the unicorn in question will still get a magic surge, though only a small one due to its befuddled sense of perception.”

Princess Luna looked back at Twilight and Lieutenant Mane. While the lieutenant still bore the same cold and stern grimace as always, Twilight seemed to have been taken by surprise with the previous two questions, as she seemed stuck in a frozen stare towards the princess.

“Ahem.” coughed princess Luna, slightly embarrassed by the looks of Twilight and the doctor. “Thank you for your assistance, doctor. You can go back to work now.”

“A-Any time, princess.” replied Doctor Whooves, wiping his brow as he walked back to his chemistry tools.

Twilight followed close behind as princess Luna left the laboratory. Although the two didn’t speak a single word as they walked through the corridors again, Twilight began to see a certain pattern in the questions and answers she just heard. Every time Rainbow Dash would do a Sonic Rainboom, Buccaneer Blaze, or anything else that broke the magic barrier, she would unintentionally absorb some of the magical energies that were pulled towards her because of the void. If some of those magical energies had really come from murdered unicorns, would that explain the reason behind Rainbow Dash’s nightmares? It could be a plausible explanation...

But, if it's true... Then what was Pinkie doing in her dreams?