Effigy of Anarchy

Silent let her hold the hug for a moment, and, at the next opportune moment, pushed her away. Chase`s face betrayed every emotion in the rainbow, mixing grief with panic with pity with anger.

“Where’s Flitter?” Silent asked.

“That’s all you can say? You just beat up a bunch of guys and almost got killed and all you say is ‘Where’s Flitter’? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I told you,” Silent said pointedly, “not to worry about me. Now, where’s Flitter?”

Cloudchaser’s jaw dropped and she began shaking. An internal battle broke out about just how to go about berating Silent, with the eventual result of a stalemate forcing her to pick the most practical option: get far away from this place before the thugs woke up.

“She’s down there,” Cloudchaser said with a sigh, turning and pointing towards the basement door.

As she did so, the door opened and her little sister slowly walked out. Silent had only met Flitter on one occasion, but it was easy to see, all these years later, that it was the same pony. Flitter and Cloudchaser were identical twins, only distinguishable by their cutie marks and, if they chose to allow it, their mane-cuts.

Still, it didn’t take long to see that something was not quite right with Chase’s sister. She walked awkwardly, putting one leg in front of the other at an unnatural angle. Her hips jerked randomly while her eyes did not focus on anything at all. Even more curious was the choice of attire: a small black necklace with a yellow jewel on it. It drew Silent’s attention even more than Flitter’s strange movements.

Flitter walked towards the two, making it halfway towards them before she stopped dead and stood completely still. Silent tapped Cloudchaser on the shoulder as she leaned in close to her ears.

“Something’s up. Be careful,” she whispered. Cloudchaser nodded.

Silent split off from Cloudchaser and slowly paced in an arc around the now stationary filly. She kept two body lengths between them as she tried to note Flitter’s behavior, but nothing made sense. There were no twitches, no reactions. Flitter’s eyes did not follow her as she moved, and her muscles did not tense or relax. It even seemed her breathing had ceased, and where once had been a pony, now stood an elaborate carving.

“What happened down there?” Silent asked.

“She was just standing there, exactly like this. She didn’t listen to me when I told her we needed to get out of here.”

Flitter’s head snapped to face Silent in the blink of an eye, causing her hairs to stand on end. Cloudchaser yelped, and nearly took off into the air. As quickly as it had come, it went, and Flitter resumed her total immobility, except now transfixed on Silent’s position. Then, she, it, spoke.

“I would like to speak with you,” rumbled a deep baritone, the voice of somepony big and powerful. Silent glared in response, turning her head ever-so-slightly in hopes of spotting something, anything, which could explain this turn for the bizarre.

Without warning, Flitter spun in place and trotted towards the basement door. Cloudchaser moved to pursue, but was stopped by Silent suddenly extending a hoof. Silent merely shook her head slowly, and the two watched Flitter go.

Flitter reached the basement door, then spun in place at an exact right angle. She walked off into the darkness, and Silent waited before allowing herself to follow. She heard the sound of a door opening in the blackness. While Flitter could evidently see in the dark, she could not, and she detoured to pick up one of the lanterns to take with her.

Silent and Chase crept along where Flitter had trod, finding a half-open wooden door labelled ‘Manager’s Office’. The two exchanged a look, as the room beyond was completely dark, yet neither had heard a pony stumbling over anything. Gingerly, they stepped towards the door and pushed it open.

The lantern illuminated the room beyond, casting shadows towards its edges. The room was a mess. The two bookshelves had had their contents turned out and the desk completely ransacked. The hardwood floors were covered in assorted papers, while books and binders lay strewn everywhere except the desk, which had been overturned. A wastebasket in a corner sat surrounded by ashes, and the faint smell of smoke pervaded the room. Silent focused on the far corner of the room not lit by her lantern, and approached it.

Flitter was standing there, facing the wall, and only as Silent approached did she turn and speak. Again, the rumbling baritone replaced her light and chipper voice.

“I observed your performance outside,” Flitter said, “and I was quite impressed. Where did you learn to do that?”

Silent and Cloudchaser held their breath. As before, Flitter was not looking at either of them, or at anything in particular. Silent slowly paced around her again, noting that her eyes did not follow her movements.

Silent decided to try a different approach. “Who are you, and what have you done to Flitter?”

“Ah,” Flitter said, “So my voice is not adequately disguised. Thank you, future revisions will need to fix that.”

Silent and Cloudchaser exchanged another look. Cloudchaser’s confusion was tempered by Silent’s calm demeanor, and she held her tongue.

“You know, I intended to let you have the girl back. I’m surprised you came all the way out here to get her,” Flitter said.

“You didn’t answer my question. I said, what did you do to Flitter?”

Flitter cocked her head sideways at forty-five degrees, unnatural in every way. She clearly felt no discomfort.

“You are an interesting specimen. Focused to a laser point. I may decide I need to perform some further tests, and I’d be honored if you’d be my subject.”

Silent nodded slightly at Cloudchaser, who returned a confounded look. Silent inaudibly mouthed “the necklace”, causing Chase to nod and refocus. A yellow stone pendant with a black chain… she’d never seen Flitter wearing it before. Chase mouthed back to Silent, “not hers”. Silent nodded.

“It seems the game is up, then. If you would indulge me, I have one further test to conduct. I will be seeing you soon, I should hope. Farewell,” Flitter said.

All three stood stock still, as if daring each other to make the first move. Silent held her breath and tensed up, preparing for the worst. Flitter gave no indication she was going to do anything.

Before she could react, Flitter had shot forward and bucked Silent in the chin. The blow was incredible, the kind of kick delivered by a pony three times her size, and it sent Silent sprawling. The lantern flew out of her mouth and clattered as it rolled across the floor. Fortunately, the light within was not extinguished by the impact, and Silent hit the ground and attempted to roll into a stand. She slid and thumped against the wall, falling over as she tried to right herself.

Cloudchaser was barely able to utter a peep before Flitter had launched at her. She had exactly enough time to shut her eyes in terror before the impact…

The blow was not to come. As she chanced to open her eyes a moment later, she saw Flitter frozen in a striking pose mere inches from her nose. Flitter’s eyes were, this time, focusing on hers, and her head was shaking very slightly. She bared her teeth and snarled for a moment, then began rapidly opening and closing her eyes and Cloudchaser held perfectly still, terrified of what might happen if she moved.

The world held still as Silent froze and stared at Flitter. For ten very long seconds, nothing moved save for Flitter’s face, which trembled and shook randomly. Finally, Flitter spoke again.

“Fascinating,” she said.

“Chase!” Silent shouted.

Cloudchaser snapped out of her funk and quickly grabbed at the pendant. She pulled with all her strength and the wire snapped clean off of Flitter’s neck. Flitter held still another moment, then abruptly collapsed where she stood.

Silent busied herself sorting through the papers in the office as Cloudchaser stood over her fallen sister. She had not moved for ten minutes, merely lay where she was, scarcely breathing.

Silent dug through the stacks of strewn paper, but one thing kept calling back her attention: the wastebasket next to the desk. The smell of smoke and presence of ashes suggested something had been burned, and quite recently. She could only guess at when, but it would have been sometime tonight, possibly even after her own arrival.

The various papers and documents were nothing special, mostly detailing activities at the winery and account records. That nothing stood out did not surprise Silent in the slightest: somepony had been here, destroying records. What made her stop and gaze at the overturned chairs and scattered books that now littered the dim office was the pattern. Nothing fits, she thought, but it has to.

Flitter abruptly snapped awake, once again startling Chase to the point of panic. This time, Flitter looked around in fright before relaxing. She quickly stood up and spun in place a few times.

“Where am I?” she burst out, this time in her own, lighter voice.

“Flitter!” Cloudchaser shouted as she wrapped her forelegs around her sister’s neck. Flitter let the hug continue as she struggled desperately to comprehend her surroundings.

“Chase? What happened?”

“I’m not done being relieved yet, it’ll be a minute.”

Flitter now patiently waited for Chase to get it all out. As she continued to scan the room, she noticed Silent, now approaching from the edge of the lantern’s glow.

“Uh, who’s she? Do I know you?” Flitter asked.

“Silent Rivers,” came the reply, “but that’s not important. Do you remember how you got here?”

"Silent? From high school?" Flitter asked, still in a daze.

“Silent, give her a minute,” Cloudchaser snarled. Flitter tried to pry her off during the moment of respite, to no avail.

“I need to know,” Silent said, “do you know how you got here? Who brought you here?”

Flitter blinked. “What? This is the hotel, isn’t it?”

Silent waved her foreleg around, indicating the scattered papers and crude woodwork. Flitter frowned.

“What? It isn’t?”

“No,” Silent said, “it isn’t. You don’t remember?”

Flitter shook her head. “What time is it?”

“Flitter, stop worrying! You’re safe now, that’s what matters,” Chase said. Finally she relented and allowed her sister to step free.

“Safe from what?”

Silent stepped forward and produced a small black necklace with a shattered yellow jewel. In the lantern’s light, it gave off a faint glow from somewhere inside, dancing across Silent’s hoof.

“This.”

Flitter instinctively recoiled and backed up, bumping into the wall of the office. The impact shook loose a book from a nearby bookshelf, which plopped onto the ground with a soft thud. Flitter did not take her eyes from the jewel, until Silent tucked it under her wing.

Cloudchaser tried to comfort her sister, only to be pushed back. Flitter covered her face with a wing and stared at the ground.

“What happened?” Chase asked.

“I don’t know. Just - keep that thing away from me.”

“Interesting,” Silent said, “I’ll just hang onto it then.”

Silent and Cloudchaser conducted another brief search of the office as Flitter tried to compose herself. She refused to meet her sister’s gaze, covering herself with her wing whenever she looked. She just stood near the door and waited.

“Can we go home yet? I feel like I could sleep for days,” Flitter complained.

“Not yet,” Chase said. Silent said nothing.

“What are you looking for?”

Neither pony responded, they just turned over more of the endless tax receipts and shipping invoices. At last, Silent tapped Cloudchaser on the shoulder and pointed towards the door.

“We’re not going to find anything here. Somepony got here first and covered their tracks.”

“How do you know they didn’t miss something?” Chase argued.

“We don’t. But we also don’t know what we’re searching for, so we won’t know it when we find it. We have to assume everything that mattered is currently in that charred wastebasket.”

“So we’re just giving up? What if they come after Flitter again? We’ve gotta stop them!”

Silent shook her head. “We can’t.”

Cloudchaser made as if to pout, but Silent did not yield. Chase argued with herself before ultimately losing. She sagged her shoulders and made for the door, passing a very confused Flitter on the way out.

“What are you guys talking about? Are you ever going to fill me in?” Flitter asked.

“You were kidnapped and taken here, where somepony did experiments on you. At least, that’s what I’m guessing. It seems a side effect was a loss of memory, unfortunately.”

“Experiments?”

“That’s what it sounded like,” Silent said. She give a slight shrug and made for the door, only to find herself suddenly blocked as Flitter thrust herself forward.

“What did they do to me!?”

“I don’t know. Neither do you.”

“But they did things to me! Oh my gosh, I don’t even know who they is! Ugh, what if they… you know… touched me…”

“Calm down, getting upset isn’t going to help,” Silent growled.

“How can you be so damn placid!?”

Silent merely glared in response as Flitter returned the favour.

“Sweet Celestia!”

Silent and Flitter both bolted towards the sound of the scream. Cloudchaser stood just outside the office, staring at the pile of colts Silent had dealt with earlier.

“What happened?” Flitter asked as she ran up.

Cloudchaser merely pointed. As Flitter followed the line, she saw six colts all lying together, with the bodies piled next to one another. Her eyes began to widen as she realized that a red liquid was pooling up beneath them, and it certainly wasn’t wine.

“Oh my gosh… are they?”

Silent trotted forth and checked the bodies. Chase and Flitter held their breath as Silent circled the group a few times. She leaned in to take a pulse, and leaned back out a moment later.

“Dead,” she said.

“But - but - but,“ Flitter stammered.

“Throats slit by a glass shard, all six of them.”

“Did you do this?”

Chase spun and quickly whacked her sister. “Don’t talk like that! Silent would never hurt somepony!”

“Hurt, yes. Kill... ,” Silent said as she kept her eyes focused on the bodies. She ran over the possible scenarios in her head, pacing around as she did so.

“Uh, yeah,” Chase said, “That’s what I meant to say.”

Silent suddenly snapped her eyes to look right at Chase, who returned the surprise. “We need to leave, now.”

“No argument here,” said Flitter, who betrayed a slight quiver of fear in her voice, “I can’t wait to go home. Chase, I never want to go to Trottingham ever again.”

“But, why?” Chase asked, “Shouldn’t we call the Guard? Maybe an ambulance?”

“Because,” Silent said, “we have six corpses in a room with clear signs of struggle and our hoofprints all over them, with more than enough murder weapons and evidence to put us away.”

“But we didn’t - “

“Listen to me, Chase, and listen carefully,” Silent snapped. Cloudchaser quieted in an instant.

“While we were in there searching, somepony was out here tying up loose ends. This is a set up, and I’d be willing to bet the Guard is already on their way. We can’t be here when they arrive. Now, let’s go. Follow - “

A sudden clank from outside caused Chase and Flitter to nearly bolt in fright. All three ponies focused on the source of the sound, coming from somewhere near the entrance to the winery. Flitter instinctively grabbed at Chase as they held still. Silent calmly trotted over to one of the windows and scratched at it to remove the frost.

“Are they here? Are we gonna go to jail?” Flitter asked.

Silent trotted to the door and disappeared outside into the blowing darkness. Cloudchaser and Flitter exchanged a look before following.

They found Silent at the mailbox next to the winery’s gate. Its metal lid and frame would be of the right size to clank when a mailpony dropped off a letter. Silent had busied herself reading it as the twins approached.

“Silent, we gotta get outta here!” Chase pleaded.

“Yes we do, and I know exactly where we need to go,” Silent said.

“What, you found something?”

“Yeah, a name.”

Silent pointed to the letterhead. The letter read:

From the desk of Mrs. Rook

Messerschmitt, I’ve been very patient with you, but I won’t stand for this any longer. I don’t care what it is you’re doing up there, I’m losing money every day I can’t get my stock in or out. Whatever your plan it is, you’ve got two days to wrap it up before I’m resuming operations. If you can’t sort it out in that time, you’ll have to move it someplace else. The elders will back me on this.

-J. Rook

“So? We already knew Rook was involved, she owns the place. It’s called Rook`s winery,” Chase said.

“Correct, but this guy’s name wasn’t in any of those documents,” Silent said, pointing at the letter.

“Who’s Messerschmitt?” Flitter asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Silent said, passing the letter to Chase, “but finding out is what I do.”