Stuffed Toys

Lily, an earth pony with three lilies for her cutiemark. She was the next victim. She reluctantly agreed on having lunch with StitchedHeart and Nightlight, and she was reported missing almost immediately after she was drugged. Police had, once again, asked the Light family about the missing pony. Unfortunately for Lily, the police were more concerned about why everyone had bruises on them. Nightlight and Firefly had bruises on their face and StitchedHeart had bruises on her hooves. They took the three ponies in for questioning, to see if anybody had been abused.

Two ponies entered the room that Firefly was held in for questioning. One of them was a male pegesus in a coat called Puzzle Piece. He had a brown coat and a black mane. The other one was a female earth pony called Cold Clue. She had a blue coat with a black mane. The two ponies looked at Firefly, who was trying to avoid eye contact. They sat next to the filly.

"...Can I help you..?" Firefly muttered sarcastically.

"Firefly, I'm detective Clue and this is detective Piece, we're investigating what happened to you." Cold Clue told her.

"Seriously? You guys can arrest fillies?" Firefly cheered. Her face lit up.

"Fillies?" Puzzle Piece asked. "Your bruise... That was from a filly?"

"Yeah!" Firefly responded. "Her name is Diamond Tiara, she came up to me the other day an' punched me!"

"Huh..." Clue looked at Puzzle Piece and then exited the room.

"Sir, why did you take my parents into jail?" The filly asked the pegesus.

"They're not in jail, we're just asking them some questions." Puzzle replied.

In the other room, Nightlight was gently rubbing his face as Cold Clue entered the room. He sat up properly, straightening his back and crossing his hooves to look professional.

"Can I-I go home?" Nightlight stuttered.

"Not yet, sir." Clue sighed. "I need to ask you something... How did you get that bruise on your face?"

"Fell down the stairs, ma'am." Nightlight chuckled. "Stupid mistake, I know."

"Sir." She smiled softly. "You're safe here. You can tell me who did this to you."

"You think someone did this to me?"

"There are bruises on both yours and your daughter's face. And there are bruises on your wife's hooves."

Nightlight slammed his face on the table, sighing heavily. He looked up at the detective. He looked like a moody cat.

"Yeah, my wife fell down the stairs too. She landed on her hooves which made her bruise up massively." He rolled his eyes. "Why do you even care about an accident?"

"Your daughter was punched by a filly, did you know that?" Cold Clue asked.

"Yeah." Nightlight chuckled. "She's all right, and we had a talk with the parents."

Puzzle Piece came into the room. He gestured to Cold Clue to follow him, and she exited the room with her partner. Puzzle shut the door firmly.

"We have nothing to go on." He sighed. "We have to let them go, boss' orders."

"Are you sure we should let this one slide?" Clue asked. "They might be abused."

"They're all saying the same thing." Puzzle sighed. "We can't continue, and we can't brake them."

Four hours later, the Light family were released and they returned home. The three sat in complete silence at the dinner table. StitchedHeart had cooked some omelettes, Firefly's favourite. Nightlight had gotten half way through his dinner before he looked up at his daughter.

"What did you tell them, Firefly?" He asked.

"Oh, just that a filly punched me an' not you." She cheered. "They- um - tried accusing you of punching me!"

"That's it?" Nightlight sighed. "Nothing else?"

"Promise!"

StitchedHeart remembered about Lily, already turned into a doll and ready for her daughter. This time, the decomposition spell had been put on. She would never make that mistake again. Putting down her fork, StitchedHeart hopped off of her chair and went to the corner of the room where a table sat. She pulled a box from underneath the table and levitated something wrapped in a blanket. Firefly watched as her mother did this, crunching on her meal. StitchedHeart stepped towards Firefly, and slowly unwrapped the white blanket.

"What's that?" Firefly questioned, food still in her mouth.

"I felt bad for getting you a faulty teddy." StitchedHeart murmured. She told Firefly that it was 'faulty', and that sometimes teddies brake. "So, I made you a new one! Fresh and especially made for you, my little angel!"

The white sheet dropped gently on to the ground as StitchedHeart revealed a pony with three lilies as it's cutiemark. It had a lily in her mane and it had yellow buttons for eyes that shone from the light of the lamp. Firefly squealed, running towards the teddy, jumping and catching it, then landed on her back, cuddling the plushie.

"Thank you! It's not faulty, is it?" Firefly stood up, still clutching the Lily corpse.

"No, I made sure of it." Stitched laughed.

That night, Firefly was sleeping peacefully, holding the Lily and Applebloom plushies. Unfortunately, she was rudely awoken by a voice coming from no-where. She opened one of her eyes, looking around her darkened room. She wiped a bit of drool off her chin, and leaned upwards. She thought she heard a voice say 'help me', but when she listened again, she heard nothing. Firefly shrugged it off. It must've been her imagination. That is, until she had a nightmare about Applebloom. She heard her screaming and kicking, begging for her life, calling for Firefly to help her. She tried to reach out, but she was stopped by her parents. Nightlight told her to stay where she was, and StitchedHeart stabbed Applebloom with a scalpel. The nightmare woke her up once more. She sighed, wiping sweat off her head.

"Just a nightmare..."