Your first stop is the home of one of the ponies you were out with the night before, and you can’t say you’re looking forward to it very much. Twilight makes an easy pace of it so you can keep up with her, but you can tell she’s impatient. Or maybe nervous. It’s so hard to tell those apart with her.

“Do you remember this girl’s name?” Twilight asks suddenly.

“Is she the blue one?”

“Yes, the one with an ocean related cutie mark.”

She's quizzing you, you realize. Trying to see how much you really did know these ponies. Is she still worried that you did something indecent with them? Or is she just judging you a little on how you think of these younger ponies.

“Oh, she was...um...Seabreeze?” You know it was something to do with the ocean.

“Close, Seaspray,” Twilight says. “She has a starfish cutie mark. You didn’t really know these girls very well, did you?”

It doesn’t sound like an accusation, but it sparks something in you, something resentful. It takes you a moment, and you’re already speaking, before you realize that feeling might be a pang of guilt.

“I know Wisteria pretty well, these were just her friends,” you say in your defense. “She comes into the Cakes’ a lot to buy strawberry shortcake cupcakes for her and her family. It’s how we started talking.”

“I see,” she says.

There’s more lingering behind her words, but you can’t be entirely sure what it is. You walk on in silence towards the edge of town, and soon the buildings dwindle to just one or two per block. A small house with a hay thatched roof appears in the distance, and Twilight makes a B-line for it. You bring yourself to a slow jog in order to stay at her side.

“Should I let you do the talking?” you ask, already pretty sure of the answer.

“That might be best, yes,” she says. “I’m not quite sure how her parents will react yet to you being there, so stay quiet if you can.”

“Got it.

Twilight knocks on the front door with one hoof and the two of you wait patiently. You hear the sound of someone approaching from inside, and a shaky female voice calls to you.

“Y-yes? Who is it?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” she says. Then, more hesitantly “and Anon.”

There is silence from inside.

“We’re here to ask a few questions, for the investigation,” Twilight says after a moment.

Another moment or two passes and you’re not sure the other pony is going to let you in. You can understand, what with the culprit still not being caught and all. Or maybe she just doesn’t like the sound of you being there. You’re pretty sure everyone knows you were involved in this somehow by now, gossip is pretty much a way of life in Ponyville. Then, at last, there is a click and the door creaks open.

A gray pony with dark creases under her eyes stands before you. She looks older, not Granny Smith old, but still quite affected by age. She regards Twilight numbly and then shoots you a disapproving glance. Yeah, you’d pretty much expected that.

“My daughter is sleeping,” she says gently, though you can feel the heat behind her words. “She’s been having nightmares ever since last night, can’t seem to stay down for more than an hour or two.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Twilight says. “But we really need to talk to her about what happened last night.”

You look away from the pony. Until now no one has really blamed you for what happened, except yourself. But it’s true that you did get the cider, you did take them up there because it was a beautiful view of Ponyville. If it hadn’t been for you…

You hear a shrieking whinny from inside and it jolts you out of your spiral into self-blame. The older pony spins and dashes inside without any further word to you. Twilight gives you a meaningful look and motions inside with her head. You follow her into the house, uncomfortable about not having been invited inside, but mindful that Twilight is in charge here and that the probably knows what she’s doing.

You follow her down a hallway and the two of you stand outside a partially closed doorway. Inside, you can hear the older pony talking, and you recognize the voice of Seaspray.

“Mom, I had the dream again it was...and I was running but I couldn’t...”

“Hush now dear, hush. You’re safe and sound at home. You’re fine.”

She sounds like she’s crying and shaking in there. There’s a wild terror to her voice, and you suddenly feel that questioning her right now is very wrong. It’s not respectful, not kind in any way. Just as you’re preparing to tell your companion this, Twilight clears her throat.

“Seaspray? It’s Twilight Sparkle and Anon here. Can we come in and speak with you?”

There’s a hasty sound of hoofbeats and the mother pony’s head appears through the partially open doorway. She looks anything but pleased.

“My daughter is exhausted and terrified,” she hisses. “How dare you-“

“Mom!” Seaspray calls from inside. “It’s ok. Let me talk to them. I-I want to help if I can.”

The mother pony closes her eyes and takes a slow breath, obviously trying to calm her nerves. She fixes Twilight with a firm look.

“You have five minutes, then I want you out.”

“Of course,” Twilight says.

She trots inside and you follow her, averting your gaze from the mother’s scornful look. The older pony makes a grumbling noise and steps out of the room, muttering something about cookies and milk as she goes.

“Hey there Seaspray,” Twilight says, smiling gently.

Seaspray is sitting up in bed, hugging her hind haunches towards her body. Her usually straight, blue green and purple mane is tangled and unkempt, and the fur around her eyes is damp from tears. She doesn’t return the smile.

“Hey Twilight. Hey Anon.”

She says hello to you in a quieter voice, and she doesn’t look at you.

“Uh…hi.”

You want to say something else, that you’re sorry about all this. But you’re not even sure where to begin with that, so you just stay silent other than that greeting.

“We just want to ask you a little bit about what you remember from last night,” Twilight says. “It’s very important.”

Her horn glows purple, and a notepad and pen float out of her saddle bags to hover in front of her, at the ready. Seaspray shrugs, shoulders trembling a little.

“We were up there partying because we’re all getting ready to go to secondary schools or academies next year. We got Anon to get us some cider.”

“What about when you were attacked?” Twilight says. She must be very aware of that five minute limitation, because she’s not giving any pause for Seaspray to collect herself. “Can you tell me about that? In as much detail as possible.”

Seaspray nods, and her face contorts like she’s forcing herself to do something very difficult. The sight of it makes your stomach lurch.

“We were looking up at the stars and making up names for constellations,” she says. “When Wisteria thought she heard something. We looked up and something was coming towards us. Anon called out to them to come join the party. I think he thought it was a pony.”

You don’t recall this part very well. You must have been a little more tipsy than you thought.

“And then the thing just started running at us. And it was tall and carrying a long metal stick and Marigold screamed. We got up and began running but I guess Marigold must have fell down or something. Anon stopped to help but we just kept running. And then...”

Her voice has started to tremble more violently. You can see tears beginning to form in the corners of her large violet eyes.

“And then we heard screaming. It was Marigold and she was just screaming for help over and over. And then she was screaming in pain. I think she called my name once. But we were running, and scared and we didn’t…we couldn’t…”

She starts to cry softly, trying to muffle her sobs with one hoof.

Twilight who has been writing things down on her note pad quickly stows the items back into her saddlebag and moves to the bed. She places a hoof on Seaspray’s leg, patting reassuringly, but firmly.

“We’re going to catch whoever did this, but you need to be brave and tell us more. Just tell me, hurry, what did the creature look like? Do you remember any defining features, did it make any sounds? We need you to remember, for everyones’ sakes.”

How can she ask so much of this girl? You want to say something to make her stop, but still you wait, holding out hope that she knows what she’s doing. Between sobs, Seaspray tries to speak.

“It had two...legs. And...and I think...”

At that moment, her mother bursts through the doorway.

“That’s five minutes,” she says.

Then she spots her sobbing daughter and her face grows flush with anger. You know in that instant that you should have tried to stop Twilight after all.

“I want you OUT!” She yells, rushing to encircle her daughter in a hug. “Look what you’ve done here, don’t ever come back! We’re not answering ANYmore questions, you understand me?”

Twilight gives a little bow of the head in lieu of a respectful parting word, then motions you towards the door. You follow her out, glancing briefly over your shoulder at the two ponies. Seaspray has her head buried against her mother’s neck, and she’s sobbing openly now, shoulders heaving as her breath comes irregularly and uncontrolled. The sight of it makes you feel more than a little sick this time.

Once outside, with the front door shut, Twilight lets out a slow sigh.

“Well, that was hardly helpful,” she admits. “But at least we have that the attacker is bipedal and does use some sort of metal weapon. It’s a start.”

You’re not entirely certain why you haven’t told her about what you saw that night, the face amidst shadows, the humanly familiar shape. Maybe you want to believe it wasn’t real. Maybe you are even more afraid that it was real and that this thing, this monster, might be another person. What would the ponies think of you then? Only two humans here and one of them is a killer? They might start to assume...

It’s probably irrational. You’ll tell her if you find any more information to support that this might be a person. Either way, you deem now is not the time to come clean. Not until you have some sort of evidence to back this up, or you might just be imagining it after all. That would be the better option, and you pray that's the case.

“Come on,” she says, already heading away from the house. “We need to talk to the other girl.”

“Wisteria.”

“Right.”

You jog up to walk alongside her. The more you think about what just occurred with Seaspray, the more uncomfortable you feel about it. The cold logic and methodical line of questioning is very much like Twilight, but the lack of compassion there…the insistence and seeming dismissal of the fact that the girl was hurting…hell, she even seemed a little manipulative about getting her answers. After a while, you can no longer stay quiet on the subject.

“Hey Twilight?”

“Yes?”

“You were…kind of harsh back there, demanding she keep talking. I mean, she was crying and everything. Couldn’t we have waited till later? Till she was less shaken up? You seemed almost-”

Twilight spins to face you. Her expression is bleak, eyes narrowed. You’ve never seen her look at anyone like that, and it silences you mid-sentence.

“Anon, I want to be nice about all this to everypony, but there’s a problem with that,” she says sternly, like she’s reprimanding you. “We need to keep everypony safe, that’s our first priority. So we need to work fast, just in case that thing comes back.”

You’re startled by how callous she’s being, especially thinking of her so shaken and crestfallen just earlier that day.

“But couldn’t you have been, you know, a little nicer?”

“Anon!” she barks. “You think I don’t feel terrible about how I made her cry? You think I wanted to scare her? I did it because I have to, for the better of Ponyville and everyone in it. I’m sorry if that offends you, but it’s the truth. We have to do what we have to do, even if it upsets some ponies. Even young ones.”

Without waiting for a response, she starts walking away, posture tense. You stand there watching her go for a moment, bewildered. She’s right, of course, but you hadn’t guessed that she’d get so thick skinned in this sort of situation so quickly. How fast these sorts of situations change people… With a shake of your head you follow her.

After the third knock on Wisteria’s front door, a neighbor pony pokes his head out a window to inform you that they’ve left town to visit relatives in Manhattan, where Marigold’s parents are. They wanted to tell the poor folks in person and deliver her remains, not to mention get away from Ponyville for a little while. You thank him for the information and leave without any additional clues to what might be happening. You quietly hope that Wisteria is doing ok, and that they’re able to break the news gently enough.

“Sorry the leads went cold, Twilight.”

“That’s fine,” Twilight says with a shrug. “I did a medical write-up of what I saw as far as her the injuries already. I’m glad her parents will have someone to comfort them when they hear the news. I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a child.”

Her voice sounds far away, and the emotion is back in place of that stubborn one-track motivation that was there before. Maybe it was remembering that someone, some filly, is dead that brought her back to an empathetic state of mind.

“Besides,” she continues. “I still have one witness to interview, but I think we’ll do that at the scene of the crime. If you’re up for it of course?”

Oh. Of Course. She’s talking about you. You cringe at the thought of going back up there right now, but you suppose it’s necessary. And you might actually get to search the scene for some clues that way, something to disprove your sneaking suspicion that the killer might be like you. Hopefully The mayor will be right, and it will just be some wild animal.

“Ok, I’ll take you there,” you say resignedly. “But nightfall is coming soon, so we can’t stay up there too long. Don’t want to worry the Pies again, I don’t think I could eat much more cake.”

“Oh don’t worry Anon,” Twilight says with an attempt at a reassuring smile. “I’m pretty quick with writing things down and collecting evidence, that sort of stuff. We’ll be back in Ponyville before you even know it, trust me.”

Author's Note

Ok, if you haven't realized it yet, these OCs might seem a little strange or weirdly named. So here's the thing:

Wisteria, Seaspray, and Magic Marigold are all previous gen ponies. What's more, they're ponies I had toys of when I was younger (Wisteria and Marigold were two of my favorites, and I still have my Wisteria somewhere.) So if you see an OC pony in here...keep in mind that they're actually just ponies from before FIM. Even her mom is modeled after a previous pony I had, though I didn't remember her name so I didn't use it.

In short, I'm weird, sentimental, and nostalgic. Deal with it.
The pace picks up a little more after this bit of my reminiscences, so fear not.

And as always, thanks for reading.

-Pencil