Blue Syringe
I get to my hooves and try to give a quick glance around the town, I never was good at the hiding part of hide and seek whereas Trixie was a fiend, spent three hours trying to find the mare once.

Spotting a small alleyway in a series of houses, I make my house over as I also hear the flurry of hoofsteps into the morgue and shouts of pain, fear and anger emanating throughout.

Okay, let's consider this rationally in the little time I have here, they need to deal with the four ponies so one needs to stay at the least, the town cannot have many law enforcement officers though they might have some eager volunteers and they are looking for a disguised pony.

So first things first, lose the disguise.

I pull at the buttons on the suit with my magic, and I hear the morgue door bang open at the time I manage to get my suit jacket off.

"Damn Snake in a suit, Braeburn y'all sure about this? We got four ponies coming back from the dead here."

"Ahm sure Sheriff, look Applejack sent a letter."

"Fine, right Star stay with them. Make sure to treat the injuries and keep 'em fed, even if it is a con, they don't need to suffer. There's a first aid kit inside somewhere. Braeburn, get a telegram to the royal guards, we ain't equipped to handle something like this, I'll expense the damn thing so leave nothing out. Fetter, work out where that damn mare went, pretty sure the window at the back was boarded up."

Looking down in the sand after hearing conversation, I see the tracks leading directly to me.

I manage to yank the last pieces of the suit off and leave it under the decking of one of the houses.

Poking my head out from my little alleyway, I can see the main street of the as well as the sheriff starting to rile up some volunteers.

I'd wager I can scratch getting a cart out of here then.

Starting down the alleyway, I try to stick to the harder pieces of dirt to make my hoofsteps less obvious and give a glance around as I hit the other end.

Looking right, I spot a scarecrow standing in a random garden and notice someone has adorned it with a stetson.

I canter over and grab it, and tie my mane up and put it on my head.

Okay, I might be able to get out of this.

"Sheriff! Looks like she came into this alley and ditched her suit"

Oh Irony, you are but a cruel creature.

Trixie, I am gambling your lessons were actually true.

I walk into one of the side streets and confidently trot into the main street.

Looking around I can see some ponies already start looking around town and are going in clusters of three to five.

I quickly attach myself to one of the clusters of four.

"What colour suit did the Sheriff say she was wearing?" I heard a stallion speak in my group.

"Why does that matter?" a mare returns.

"Well we need to identify 'em when we see 'em don't we?" the stallion snarks back

"Look around, Turnover, who in this whole damn town do you know wears a suit?"

"Legal Work does, at least on court dates!"

"Okay, Ah'll tell you what. We see Legal walking around then I'll accept that question but as ah'm pretty darn sure she's in Baltimore this week, then any damn shade of suit will do"

I see the stallion go into a sulking mood as I try to make myself merge into the group with some brief nods and pointing of hooves, I can't even attempt to talk as my accent will probably reveal itself straight away.

The lead mare of the group turns to us and says "Right, lets check out the north-eastern part of the town."

I follow the group for what feels like forty minutes, desperately hoping that they don't notice the increase in group size but it seems they are amusingly more focused on finding me.

The mare in charge stops our group and turns to face us "Right, this is going too slowly. We are going to split up, so holler if y'all see anything. I think the Sheriff wanted us all back in the square in about twenty minutes, give or take a few"

With a cacophony of a variety of "yeps", we split apart and I give a few houses a cursory glance until I am out of sight.

Then heading toward the orchards, I start galloping and thanking my lucky stars that Trixie's advice actually worked.

She showed me something when we first met. When it comes to her stage shows, ponies will notice a pony trying to be sneaky when they are looking for one but in times of excitement ponies will ignore the obvious in an attempt to look sneaky. She showed me in this hoof puppet show and in a fact that will annoy me to this day, managed to walk a Gorilla in Ponies clothing across the stage.

The plan is I'm going to meet up with the buffalo camp and then I sho-

Crack

I trip to the ground as I feel my back hoof yank out behind me.

Turning my head around, I am try to see what on Equus just happened and I see a nondescript pony holding a lasso attached to my leg.

Trying to bring my hoof to un-slip it rewards me with a yank across the ground as the pony silently trots towards me.

Feeling the panic setting in, my mind races and I say "Please my family is waiting for me, they are just ahead in the orchard."

"No they ain't, y'all just were with the search party" the stallion says reaching my position, I notice that his eyes seem sunken "Noticed your cutie mark and thought to myself, I ain't been to the town in a couple of years but I know most ponies here"

"Pleas-" I opened my mouth to say.

"Shut. It." The stallion says, painfully tightening the rope around my leg "If all y'all is going to spill is lies then your silence is worth more than your pitiful life."

I try to spin up a telekinesis spell around my horn but feel a hoof clatter with the tip of my horn, I feel tears start to well up in my eye.

"Try that again, Ah'll snap the damn thing off" the stallion says and starts wrapping the rope around the rest of my hooves.

I look around for anything, and aside from dust, rocks and the stallion in question, there seems to be nothing that can help my situation.

Though, looking back I think I noticed that the stallion seems to have an empty pie casing for a cutie mark.

Wait, maybe not just a pie casing?

"Pie Sh-" I managed to get out.

"Ah thought ah told y'all to shut… Wait, how'd you know my name?" the stallion, evidently named Pie.
"Your cutie mark, it's a pie shell right? You are from the Shell family" I say, holding myself back in fear of another punch.

"I'm a proud Shell all right, and you desecrated them. The sheriff showed us that letter, you pretend to bring back loved ones as a con. I hope you rot in prison" Pie says with venom in his voice.

"Wait, I hadn't made any demands of you had I? I didn't realise you even existed until this second, please just hear me out" I say, desperation slips in my voice to counter his venom.

"Maybe, y'all didn't have the chance. We've had some very persistent snake oil merchants come through here before."The stallion returns, though sounding a lot less sure.

"No, I managed to resurrect them after the Sheriff started to break down the door. Ask him if you don't believe me, I wouldn't be able to make any money off that. Please, I just want to help people. I read their obituary. They were so loved and I just wanted to bring them back." I say, almost pleading at this stage.

"Why? What does it bring you?" The stallion's voice seems to almost acquire a hollow rattle to it.

"A long time ago I really could have had someone to do it for me, it seems so unfair to leave so young. " I say, a tone of sincerity that I hadn't spoken in over ten years.

"Let's say I believe you, let's say that they really are my family" I hear a hint of hope start to creep into Pie's voice for the first time in the conversation "Then what do you y'all suggest here? Because it seems I am still going to lose them when the guard arrives."

"Go get them from the building, from what I heard when I was leaving there is only a deputy in the building, I'd wager as the surviving family you can say you just want to collect them to keep care off until the guard comes and then run as fast as you can."

"Where do ah go? They never wanted to leave, almost disowned me when ah left for school." Pie seems to open himself to reality, for which i'm internally screaming in joy because I was bucked otherwise.

"Anywhere, get them out for now. If you untie my hooves and we get out of the open, I can give you a way to contact me and I can see if I can arrange a new life for you and your family."

Pie seems to hesitate for a few moments, this probably rips at his core as a decision but I really wish he'd make his mind up quicker.

"Fine, not like the other option is any happier. At least this way ah'll have a family." Pie says as he unbinds my hooves and I manage to stand up.

We start cantering into the orchard away and when we get far enough that I feel safe, I stop and grab a stick with my magic.

"Right, you need to watch this carefully as it requires an amount of precision" I say turning to Pie and start etching a symbol into the floor with practised ease "Put this symbol at the top of any piece of paper and then anything on this page will be communicated. Please don't use many pages nor fill the pages up with nonsense, it is a very costly method of communication for me."

"Any page?" The stallion says with a quizzical look.

"Reindeer magic luckily is very unrestricted when it comes to the definition of paper, it also is untraceable in any method that any mages is looking for these days" I say.

Pie nods and turns around towards the town "Bid you luck then, ah'll message if all goes well and if not then ah suppose y'all will find out anyway."

Going by my tender horn and bruised ankle, the stallion probably doesn't need luck on his side but I do return the sentiment.

I then turn around and gallop away as quickly as I can.

Not that I think he's going to change his mind but I'd wager the grief is probably the only thing that gave me a chance there and I'd like to be far away if he starts to be rational again.

I'm going to head to the buffalo tribe now, get some fresh supplies and go home. There is a lot I need to think about if situations like this are going to start to arise.

Author's Note

Took me four moths to write the last chapter, wrote this in a day.

Inspiration you fickle beast

Edit: forgot to change the dashes to a line