The rain poured down in uneasy gusts, each different from the last in volume and force. The Golden Oaks Library was silent except for the pattering of that rain... until Twilight Sparkle squeaked as a prelude to a sob, her hindquarters quivering and threatening to give out on her. If she hadn't looked at Zecora she would have collapsed into hysterical weeping on the spot, yet she was arrested by the sight of her friend (and often mentor) clasping a hoof to her mouth as her cheeks bulged out.
Using the last of her speed, strength and compassion Twilight levitated Zecora to the door, almost throwing her out before hearing Zecora vomiting her last meal beyond the doorway. Trying so hard not hear her wretch, Twilight wound up staring at the corpse. The pathetic form was illuminated by hastily-lit lanterns, like a sadistic pony-skin rug declaring that neither she nor Zecora could stop the end result of somepony's cruelty.
Twilight clenched her eyes shut at the sobs that were trying to force themselves out of her throat and placed one hoof in front of the other. She didn't know what to do, but she had to get away from the smell of the rain, and in doing so she was able to hear a familiar noise.
“Who?”
Turning as Zecora staggered in, Twilight saw Owlowiscious, wide-eyed on his perch. Before she could take that in, let alone Zecora's rain-soaked form, Twilight heard a muffled voice upstairs.
“Twilight? What's all the noise?
Spike had woken up and suddenly Twilight panicked.
“Zecora! Find the Equestrian Citizen's Rule Book, under immigrant literature. It had a section on crime scenes and how to summon the guard. Spike! Stay up there and don't look down.”
She was too late as she ran up the stairs to see Spike transfixed on the scene below. He blinked, not being able to fully understand what had happened beneath him. That was when Twilight seized him in her hooves and filled his entire view with her eyes.
“Spike, I need you to write a letter to Princess Celestia.” Her voice was calm and forceful. She was going to keep him from panicking any way she could, and tasking him with a letter was just the familiar busy work needed to focus him. She pressed a quill and parchment into his claws with her telekinesis. “Can you do that Spike?” It wasn't so much a question as an ultimatum.
“Y-yeah,” He trailed off as Twilight pushed him to the writing desk they shared.
“Princess Celestia, I write with an urgent warning. A malnourished mare was rushed to me by Zecora. Despite our best efforts she seemed petrified...”
“How do you sp...”
“She was more afraid of magic than anyone in Equestria I've ever seen. She was unable to be helped by myself or Zecora, and regrettably died by poison she stole from Zecora...”
“She killed herself!?”
“Spike!” Twilight was fighting her own hysteria too, yet she was damned if she was going to let Spike panic before she let the Princess know what was happening to... had happened to... NO! Staying in control meant fighting her shaking lip and continuing.
“Keep your focus.” She reminded them both with a steel in her eyes she could barely maintain. “The mare was malnourished and battered.” Her breathing was getting rough again. “Somebody did this to her and I will be contacting the guard as soon as this is sent. Both Zecora and I are going to help how we can yet,” A sudden sob escaped her throat and she clenched her eyes shut as she drew in a shuddering breath. “this isn't like anything I've seen or read about in all of Equestrian history. The cruelty,”
Twilight almost lost control again, realising if she dwelt on anything non-clinical she was going to lose control. That was when she felt a hoof on her shoulder and opened her eyes, releasing the fresh tears that had filled them. She looked into the teary blue eyes of Zecora, framed by her drenched mane. Sucking down a breath, holding it and then exhaling helped Twilight regain some of her control.
“Spike, just add that she should double her personal and palace guard,” She shakily sat down and extended a foreleg as she looked at her assistant. “then come here.”
The shaking claws of the dragon finished the letter and with a hoof on his shoulder he managed a puff of flame. The minute the scroll was turned to ash Spike gratefully found himself in Twilight Sparkle's familiar embrace which was soon reinforced by the warmth of Zecora's body, though who needed this three-way hug more could be debated. After a few minutes of tearful sobbing punctuated with the question “Why?” one of Spike's sobs turned into a belch of green flame that yeilded a scroll.
It fell to the floor, yet nobody moved till Twilight Sparkle gave Spike a squeeze before pressing her muzzle briefly against Zecora's shoulder. Releasing a long breath, she disentangled herself as Zecora kept a protective limb over Spike. Opening the scroll she read it's entirety to their astonishment.
“Please don't launch an investigation. The Royal Physician will be along in the morning to take care of the body. Luna will be monitoring your dreams for as long as you need to deal with this matter. Princess Celestia.”
Rain resumed it's tyranny over the sounds of the Golden Oaks Library. Twilight had now added disbelief to the sense of horror she had before and it seemed to be hitting Spike as badly as her. Zecora had a growing look of concern and subtle anger on her face. She didn't have Twilight's hero worship to blind her and now she had a focal point for her anger, summed up in one word: Justice.
“My Ponyville friends,
I fear betrayal.
There is more wrong,
Than the recent mail.
I saw this mare bares no cutie mark,
I fear that this bodes something dark.
Twilight lost her composure in the same way as when she thought one of her friendship reports was going to be late. With a whip of her mane she teleported downstairs and charged up her horn, lifting the corpse, stripping it of dirt while levitating it. The result was a much cleaner corpse that had a small pile of mud, leaves and detritus next to it. Now the wounds were bare to everyone; some healed; some healed-over; some might have killed her if the poison hadn't gotten there first. Twilight's clinical manner was interrupted by Zecora coming down the stairs, Spike walking with her, half-buried in her side. Zecora paused, rubbing Spike's shoulder before lowering her tone.
“This action is rash, and also forbidden.
Have you revealed something hidden?”
“She doesn't have a cutie mark.” Twilight's reply was flat. “Somepony injured her,” She measured her words. “and let her heal... repeatedly. There's abrasions from chains and I suspect internal injury.” There was another lavender wave of magic that slowly seeped into the dead mare's skin. The outer wounds and abrasions shimmered with points of indelible light, and were soon joined by some notable ones where the internal organs were supposed to be.
“A witchdoctor's eye I can lend,
These injuries took magic to mend.
The rips are closed, good as new.
She was missing many types of tissue.”
As Spike sniffled, clutching onto Zecora, Twilight trotted over to them both to resume holding him. Zecora's worried tone spoke volumes.
“Of injuries and medicine,
This sort I have never seen.
A pattern to the damage, I see none.
I don't understand why this was done.”
Twilight simply stared at the body before her, twinkling with purple dots.
“I suppose I should put her back as she was. I think the Equestrian Citizen's Rule Book says we're not supposed to move a body...”
Uncharacteristically Zecora cut her off in a slow, deliberate voice.
“I read that part, and you have it right.
Still, your Princess knew what you'd do tonight.
Perhaps you had best recall,
That she trusts you the most of all.”
“You're saying,” Twilight grew paler at the thought, “the Princess wants me to break the rules? Why wouldn't she trust the Royal Physician? She asked me to not investigate and I just examined... her.” Had she already thought of that pony as a corpse?
“So you start to gather proof?
Celestia knew you'd seek the truth.
I shall follow your path till the end,
Soon we may need trusted friends.”
“T-twilight?” Spike had turned his face to Twilight with a look of fear. He didn't have to say anything else to explain what terrified him so.
“Spike,” Twilight almost considered telling him to stay with Fluttershy for the night, then thought better of it. “Zecora, we need this to stay between us. The fewer ponies that know about this the better.” The nod she received was the only reply she needed. “Princess Celestia needs an investigator she can trust. Perhaps she's expecting us to report to Luna. Until we see otherwise I'm assuming that anyone who's not a Princess is a suspect.”
Zecora's eyes narrowed.
“Something strange occurs to me,
Since you cleaned this mare.
The dirt is from the Everfree,
Yet this stone's found far from there.”
So, in the middle of the Golden Oaks Library floor, an investigation began in earnest.
