The Town That Feared Nightfall

Rosey had not slept since returning to her room at the inn. Instead she sat by her bedroom window, watching as the raising sun banished the darkness that was the night. Usually at this moment there would be birds humming and the crow loudly welcoming the warmth. But there was none of that. Only the chilly air that set a shiver up her nose.

There was the sudden chime from the hallway clock, meaning that it was now 12 PM. Rosey had grown tired of sitting there all alone and just wanted to leave but she knew that she couldn’t. It would paint a bad picture of her, not to mention make her feel like she’s abandoning the town right after losing one of their own. She had to stay, as originally intended, and then she thought about Butter Joy.

Maybe the both of them could take their mind off of last night’s tragedy? It was worth a try, she thought. Rosey headed downstairs after she had built up the strength to move. As she descended downward she saw that the second floor was empty. It didn’t surprise her. She was the first one to leave the group at the earliest window. Now on the bottom floor Rosey made a bee line for the door that led to Butter Joy’s pub.

However as she crossed the first doorway and the waiting room was in view there was a voice that had made her stop. It was Speedy who had called out to her. Rosey gave him a small motion of her head as a way of saying hello. She didn’t feel like talking to anybody other than Butter Joy but the blue stallion had insisted for her to come over. She reluctantly did so, being unable to say no out of guilt.

“Hello, there” Rosey spoke as she approached the blue stallion who sat at a tiny table. Pinkie Pie, Silver and Axl sat with him.

“How are you feeling, Ms.Rosey?” asked Speedy. He had offered Rosey his seat since the table only had four of them and the red mare didn’t do much to hide her baggy eyes or tilted posture that made her seem anything but awake. She kindly declined, preferring to remain standing.

“Just fine, I suppose” was Rosey’s reply when asked how she was doing. “I’m not sure how to feel..on one hoof I barely knew Fritter Belle but on the other...I feel just terrible. Like, a big empty...something, right here in the chest”.

“That’s called a broken heart” spoke Pinkie Pie. Her frown stood out like a pony who had threw off their dress after wearing it for two straight weeks. It felt strange to see anything but a grin on Pinkie Pie. It was just so out of place that it like it should had broken some sort of natural order. Something that stood against logic and would only bring about chaos. But this is Pinkie Pie and Rosey knew better than to apply logic to her.

“But why would I feel that way?” Rosey spoke after carefully thinking on what the pink mare had told her. She went on to say in a pleading sort of way “I hardly knew her. Yeah we played games and chatted but I barely knew her. So why do I feel so empty?”

“That’s something only you can answer” replied Speedy, his hoof gripped Pinkie Pie’s. “Maybe it’s because deep down inside you just care a lot”. Rosey gave the blue Earth pony her attention, staring at him like she had heard something completely different. “Even if you had never spoken a word with somepony, a lost is an lost. You either care or you don’t. There’s no in between”.

“I...have no idea where you’re getting at” returned Rosey. “You can’t just grieve over somepony you know nothing about. It just doesn’t...shouldn’t, be that simple”.

“Well, you still feel the grief. Don’t you?” she had heard Axl’s voice.

Rosey didn’t say anything to him. She just merely nodded her head. It was right then as she was glancing in his direction that she had spotted the three fillies. The Cutie Mark Crusaders as she remembered them. They were seated at similar table that rested closer to the rightmost wall. They seemed to be holding last night as one would expect them to be.

“We’re concerned about them too” came Speedy’s voice. “This isn’t necessarily their first time experiencing death, but...well..”

“They should be with family” replied Rosey. Words couldn’t express how seeing those three fillies felt. They needed to be comforted, told that it would be alright and not sit by themselves feeling who knows what.

“You’re right” spoke Speedy. “Somepony should be acting as the parent figure”.

“What?” asked Pinkie Pie, reacting as if she had just heard that cupcakes were banned worldwide.

Rosey had turned just in time to see the blue Earth pony smiling, saying “You know what I mean”.

“I don’t follow” was the pink mare’s reply.

The two ponies would soon start a conversion that Rosey didn’t pay much attention to. They mainly talked back and forth on which one of them was a better guardian. Their argument ranged from diapers being changed to babysitting and even how much time they had spent with three certain foals. Rosey had no idea who the Cakes were nor did she knew who Flurry Heart was. In truth she didn’t really care enough to listen.

Rosey had turned her attention back over at the three fillies when she noticed Silver. He almost didn’t seem to be in the same room, looking like he was nothing more than a statue with some sort of express that the red mare couldn’t make out. “Hey Silver” Rosey spoke as she moved closer to him, “Are you feeling alright?”

“Don’t let me concern you” replied Silver, his eyes unmoving from the table. “I’m just thinking about stuff”.

“Stuff?” Rosey had repeated. She motioned towards him, about to stroke his mane away from his eyes but had caught herself. Thankfully he hadn’t seen her move, but whether the other three had seen her or not she couldn’t be sure.

“Well” Silver spoke after a moment’s pause. He looked uncomfortable. “It just seems like my bad luck is---”

“I’m gonna stop you right there” Speedy interrupted him. The medium grey stallion, finally moving his eyes, looked over at his friend with an expression similar to that of having no real emotion or reaction. It was just plain and empty, with maybe a little bit of concern buried underneath the surface. “You aren’t bad luck” Speedy spoke, resting his right hoof atop Silver’s left. “Never were and never will be”.

Silver didn’t anything, at least not at first. He just stared down at his friend’s thoughtful gesture. Then he smiled, saying “...Thanks, Speedy”.

“Just don’t worry about it. What happened to Ms.Fritter” Speedy was saying before he paused, his eyes glancing his right only briefly. “It had nothing to do with you” he started his sentence back up, he had a warm and heartfelt smile before he said the words “It likely would’ve happened even if we weren’t here”.

“Yeah, don’t go blaming yourself” spoke Rosey, placing her own hoof atop Silver’s shoulder. “No need to beat yourself up over something you couldn’t had changed. No matter how much you want too”.

“Suppose you’re right” sighed Silver. “I’ll stop thinking about it then”.

The rest of the conversion would remain a mystery to Rosey as she had excused herself around three minutes later. “She’s not in the pub right at this moment” came Sky Pop’s voice. She was seated behind the inn’s front counter, scribbling away on a piece of paper.

“Where is she, then?” Rosey asked, assuming Sky Pop had meant Butter Joy.

“She’s with Bubblegum Precious” was Sky Pop’s reply. It was then that Rosey noticed a rather short stack of papers resting beside the mare who seemed to be deeply focused on whatever she was writing about. “My guess their at the old Church” she said before whispering to herself “I really need to talk with her about slacking off...”

“Did you say Church?” Rosey asked, a little bit intrigued she approached the counter. It seemed to be carved from rosewood. It’s length would probably match up with that of two ponies standing side by side.

Sky Pop’s eyes stared at Rosey from above her glasses. She sighed pointing at a window that hung just above a small bed to her left. Rosey was certain of where she was pointing. She couldn’t see any other building in that direction that would be considered worthy of being a Church, and it was even more evident once she had stepped outside to get a better look. It loomed over her like a predator that was waiting patiently for its’ moment to strike.

Rosey walked across the freshly cut lawn and up to the wooden door painted in dull blue. She didn’t knock as she entered. Inside she could almost feel a rush of cool air. The inner walls rose high and were so wide it gave the single room a feeling similar to that of entering a darken cave that was suddenly lit up for no reason other than the sun’s warmth striking it. The state of the single room was anything but pleasant.

The entire structure, both the floor and walls, were cracked. They were also covered in holes and cobwebs mixed with dust. The many stain glass windows were either cracked or completely shattered, only a small handful were still intact. Rosey spotted a grand piano atop an extremely short set of stairs. It’s golden frame was crumbling with age. Between the stairs that rose about four or five steps and a row of few rounded seats were two mares. The first was Butter Joy who sat atop a crate that was placed separate from the others that all rested against the ledge that rose along with the steps.

The other, who was hammering away on a cracked beam that among five others held the ceiling up, was Bubblegum Precious. She was the first of the two to notice Rosey’s presence, saying as she turned to face the red mare “I’d watch my step if I were you”.

“I can see that” returned Rosey whose body twitched. She wanted to pick up a tool and spend the next few hours straighten the place out. “It looks like this place could fall at any moment” she spoke, wondering just how in Equestria were these two mares able to breath in here. She thought how lucky it was that she had gotten over her asthma a few years back otherwise she would had died upon opening the front door.

“Oh I didn’t mean this floor” replied Bubblegum Precious. “If you’re not careful the floor could give way, causing you to fall into the basement that’s been sealed for decades”. Rosey froze in place, her hooves trembling as she jumped to her side and crawled atop the nearest seat that she could reach. “I’m kidding!” Rosey heard Bubblegum Precious laughing. “This place has no basement”.

“That-wasn’t-fun-oh shut up Butter Joy!” Rosey growled. Hopping down her friend’s laughter only increased as she stumbled flat onto her belly. “Did you place that hole there?” she asked in a stern manner, yanking her hoof free of a hole that she had failed to see.

“Seems pretty funny to me” spoke Butter Joy, her hoof failing to hold her mouth shut. “Anyways” she said after a moment of controlled breathing. “What are you doing here?” she asked Rosey, her voice cheery and welcoming.

“I wanted to talk” Rosey answered, she almost choked on the dust that she had shook off of herself. “I couldn’t stand being by myself a moment longer. So, here I am”.

Butter Joy exchanged a look with Bubblegum Precious. Her happy demeanor faded as soon as it had appeared, now replaced with a look more fitting to last night’s event. “I bet Sky Pop told you where I was” Butter Joy had said, grinding the ends of her hooves together in a circular fashion. “Was she doing paperwork?”

“I think she was” replied Rosey, her eyes gazing down before quickly returning to her friend with an uncertain quirk to them. “She was writing something and didn’t even raise her head to me”.

“She must still be mad..” Butter Joy sighed, leaning backwards and stretching out her limbs. “I told her I’d finish them, but she just took them without any---”

“Well maybe if you hadn’t spent so much time playing around, you might had finished on time” interrupted the purple mare whose coat shined as a gemstone. Bubblegum Precious was in fact a Crystal Pony whose physical bodies resembled that of a diamond. It gave the race a rather ghostly appearance.

“What about you? Don’t forget you do have a deadline to meet!” Butter Joy replied to her crystal friend . She then shook her head uttering a single sigh before turning her attention back to her red friend. “I’m sorry, Rosey” Butter Joy whimpered, straightening her glasses that had slid to her nose.

“What are you sorry for?” returned the red mare. “Oh, you mean--you don’t have to apologize for that” she had added, having seen the sadden look in her friend’s eyes.

“I’m just sorry it had to happen on your very first visit, is all” Butter Joy said in a huff. “I still can’t believe it..” she spoke, momentary removing her glasses to clean them with the dress collar that she wore around her neck.

Rosey approached her friend, placing a hoof on her knee. Butter Joy sniffed, Rosey could hear her heart beating as they hugged. It was a little faint, beating slowly. “I didn’t know her that long” Rosey had spoken up, holding her eyes shut as a single tear fell. “But I feel like she was a wonderful mare, burnt out far too soon..” she whispered, a faint scream echoing deep inside her thoughts.

“She was the brightest light I’ve ever known” Rosey’s eyes had shot open as she heard Butter Joy’s soft voice. It was beginning to crack but she had still managed to sound very gentle. “You know” Butter Joy started to speak, her voice rose in pitch for only a moment. “We, just for fun, kept calling her Honesty”.

“Honesty?” Rosey replied as she looked at her friend’s face.

Butter Joy took a loud sniff, wiping her nose with the bow tie in her collar. She then said, with a little difficultly at first, “Yes. We actually told her on many occasions that she should’ve been the Element Of Honesty”.

After having just asked “She was that honest?” Rosey reached inside the pocket in her school uniform. She took out a small tissue, giving it to her friend who looked like she could do with a mountain of them.

“You had to know her to know just how honest she was” spoke Bubblegum Precious. She waited until Butter Joy had finished blowing her nose before continuing her sentence. “I remember one time Fritter Belle was so bad at lying that she apologized for even attempting to mislead me. And that was just for my birthday!”

Butter Joy gave a short laugh, saying “Do you remember when she was accused of stealing those one of a kind collector cards, and not wanting to lie she went an entire day without uttering a single word until Milkshake had confessed?”
“I sure do” returned the crystallized mare, the smile on her face short lived. “Things will just never be the same..” Bubblegum Precious suddenly emitted a small whine. She held her muzzle, tears were in her eyes as she went back to hammering. She gave a few hard hits when the hammer snapped in half, causing her to utter a curse as she tossed the worthless handle aside. “I’ll never finish at this rate..” she growled at herself.

“You do know you can take the day off?” Rosey told the crystal mare who, at hearing her had snapped her head in her direction, looked like she was about to slap Rosey something fierce.

“And lose my bet with Butter Joy?” replied Bubblegum Precious, her foreleg held over a gasping mouth. “Never!” she said with a loud roar.

“Um..did you just say bet?” returned Rosey, looking over at her dark friend who held the tissue close to her nose.

Butter Joy blew her nose once more before saying “I told her that I believed it was impossible for her to fix this place by herself”.

“I totally can, by the way” responded the crystallized mare with a large and proud grin on her face.

“We’ll see in four days if you truly can” spoke Butter Joy, her voice seemed to had returned back to normal.

Rosey took a moment to look around the large, single room. She had to agree with Butter Joy. This place was just too badly decayed, looking like it was abandoned centuries ago. “I’m a few centuries old” Bubblegum Precious replied to the red mare who had forgotten to use her inside voice. “Do I look like I’m so worn that ponies rather give up and forget about me?”

“Oh, right..” replied Rosey, her curiosity setting in as she paced. “The Crystal Empire was stuck outside time for a thousand years..I couldn’t imagine how it must’ve felt when the curse broke”.

“Losing all that time was tough” replied Bubblegum Precious. She stared down at her tools as she went on to say “A lot of us decided to just forget and more on. While others set out to give back the history we had lost”.

“School, you mean?” Rosey asked in her reply.

Bubblegum Precious gave a slight turn of her head, barely making eye contact for even a second before returning to her tools. “You’re heading to collage, is that right?” she finally spoke, tossing the tool kit aside.

“Yes” Rosey answered with a nod. “And I’m more than proud of it” she added with a smile. Then she frowned. “Some schools prefer to be more fun than educational these days, and most foals never even graduate”.

“I’ve seen the school in Ponyville once” spoke Butter Joy. “I saw the whole class skip school just because a filly got a Cutie Mark, which later turned out to be a fake” she then shrugged, giving a loud sigh.

“Why do we even keep schools open if you can just skip class whenever you please like that?” Rosey replied, almost in an angry growl. “I never left my seat at school. Unless I was sick I’m studying as hard as I can. I actually had to ask the teacher to take tests, which of course made my fellow classmates boo and hiss at me..”

“Fritter Belle attended collage, once” spoke Butter Joy. Rosey had started a joyful sentence but Butter Joy had interrupted her, saying “But she dropped out after three days”.

Silence fell as Rosey gave her friend a blank and emotionless stare. “Well that’s disappointing” she spoke with a heavy sigh, her face askewed for only a split second before she had said “But learning is my choice”.

“Such as my choice to leave the Empire for a new life” spoke Bubblegum Precious. She went back to her tools. “Me and Bubble Rain just couldn’t---”

“Bubble Rain?” Rosey had unintentionally interrupted the crystal mare. “You mean she was in the Empire too?”

“Yes” returned Bubblegum Precious, her voice clearly startled as a spider had found its’ way onto her knee. Bubblegum Precious understandably swung across it across the room. “Bubble Rain and I were roommates, for an while” she spoke after a great exhale of relive. “We actually intended to leave sooner but..well that curse kinda made it hard” Bubblegum Precious had forced a laugh, prompting the red mare to ponder something that had just entered her mind.

“Where is Bubble Rain now?” Rosey was unsure why she had asked this. It wasn’t because she wanted to get a second source to probe the Crystal Empire for studies. No, it was because of something else. Something that just wouldn’t stop nagging at her.

The other two mares shared an glance at the other before Bubblegum Precious had answered “She’s preparing Fritter Belle for burial”.

“O-Oh..?” Rosey had whimpered. She hadn’t expected that answer and she suddenly felt a bit out of place. “Why would she be doing that?” she asked, stuttering as she said “I thought you said she was the town’s nurse, Butter Joy?”

The brown mare nodded her head, saying “Whose better to prepare an body?”

Rosey didn’t say much else after that reply. She just wasn’t sure what to say in return but she had the overwhelming feeling that she should be talking. Although not to them, but to Bubble Rain. This wasn’t uncommon. To feel the urge to do something so greatly that everything else about her just stopped working. Since she was a foal Rosey always had a strange feeling, something almost like an inner voice that sounded like her own voice talking back to her.

Of course as she grew older she contributed that voice to the words you would normally think of when talking inside your own head. But the feeling she couldn’t explain away. The best answer that she could theorize as being likely true was that the feeling was similar to the sense Pinkie Pie was best known for. Pinkie Sense the pink mare would call it and, after reading an article about the lives of Pinkie Pie and her friends Rosey saw many similarities. She would have to ask Pinkie Pie personally when she had the moment to do so. But right now she wanted to talk to Bubble Rain.

Finding her wasn’t hard to do as Bubblegum Precious had told her exactly where to go. “Look for the building with a blue roof and two doors on one side” she told Rosey before the red mare had left them to.

Rosey had trotted for only a few minutes before she had found the right building. It was located closely to the South Eastern corner, the large stone wall casting a foreboding shadow over it. The windy air sent shivers down the red mare’s spine as she approached the southern side of the building where two doors were hidden from the road. She knocked on the first door but received no answer. She then saw a plate that was nailed to the door, she had no idea how she overlooked it as it pretty much covered the spot she had knocked on.

Curved across the plate were the words “The hospital's guest room is unavailable, Bubble Rain gives her apologizes”.

“Hospital?” Rosey had said under her breath. “This building is barely high enough to have half of a second floor..how is this a..” Rosey trailed off, pitching the place between her eyes in a heated sigh. Now wasn’t the time to be picky.

Rosey moved over to the second door that was over to her right. Gently leaning herself against the door she exhaled heavily as it gave way. As she took that first step inside her face was slapped with an icy chill similar to that of having ice cubes running down her neck and spine. Why, when it was already chilly outside, would anypony have the inside of their home so cold it might as well had been iced over? Rosey had to rub her hooves against her shoulders just to stay partly warm. She hated seeing her breath in the air as it felt like the life was leaving her body right before her eyes.

As the red mare trotted forward she came to a waiting room that was so small she actually felt cramped even though by looking around there was enough room for at least six to seven ponies to fit in it. There was just something about the size of this room, something about the freezing temperature that made her feel unconformable. She scanned the room and found it to be quite bare. On a short rectangular table laid magazines that were just begging to be organized. But Rosey held herself firm.

The ordinary walls were just plain wood that looked faded about a couple decades, but maybe that look was intentional. She couldn’t be sure. The floors bared a blue checker pattern and hanging from the ceiling was a single slow moving fan. Rosey spotted a door over towards the back and wondered if Bubble Rain was through there. She saw no other door besides the one leading back outside.

“If this is a hospital, then I’m an incredibly rich and famous country singer from Fillydelphia” Rosey laughed as she moved towards the back door. “As if I could sing”.

The door was green in its’ polish and felt light to the touch. Rosey shoved it open and saw a short, narrow hallway. At the very end she could see a flickering light coming from a doorless room. She stood there watching the light, progressing many different scenarios of what might happen. She wasn’t afraid, just uncertain of how Bubble Rain would act. Her friends seemed to really insist on not sneaking up or startling her. Rosey pushed herself forward, sliding her hooves up and down her forelegs for warmth.
The hall seemed to shrink as she approached the end where, out of instinct, she had jumped the last few inches and into the room with the flickering light. The floor was slippery. The air felt hollow and smelt of a scent that Rosey rather not linger on. The room was small, only slightly wider than the waiting room. The walls were metallic. The ceiling rose high and over against the back wall, just inches away from ten short lockers that laid across the wall, was a sink fitted with a mirror that caught the red mare’s reflection.

Over on the opposite side were cleaning supplies and four sets of filing cabinets, it was then that Rosey saw her. There was two medical tables against the right wall on Rosey’s left. Above the two tables were hanging lights, one of which being the source of the flickering light. Both lights were centered over a pony who laid across one of the tables. Fritter Belle looked so peaceful, almost like she was having a pleasant dream that she would never awake from.

Standing beside the table and scribbling away inside what seemed to be a journal was Bubble Rain. “Rosey, wasn’t it?” she spoke suddenly.

The red mare felt an eerie chill. How did she know she was there? Bubble Rain hadn’t turned her head, nor did Rosey make a sound that gave away her presence. “Um, y-yes” the red mare answered, nodding her head.

“What are you doing here?” asked Bubble Rain who kept her eyes solely on her journal.

“W-Well..” Rosey started to speak but had fallen silent soon after saying the first word. Should she be honest and tell the truth, that an overwhelming feeling led her to this room? Or should she lie, making something up and see where the conversion went? Her moment of silence was short lived as the bright green mare that was Bubble Rain ceased her writing, having turned her head at the silent mare. “I was hoping if you could...”

“You can talk” spoke Bubble Rain, her voice a bit muffled. “No need to be afraid”.

Rosey again nodded and found enough strength to move forward. She had to navigate around a few laundry hampers that laid about the room in a rather frantic manner. As she closed the rather short distance she noticed, much to her distress, medical tools. They laid about the second and vacant iron bed, they were recently used judging by the blood. Rosey stared at the lifeless lump that was Fritter Belle. She could see stitching across her lower half that ran up to her neck. Had she just walked into an autopsy?

As Rosey gazed at the winged mare she felt empty. It was almost like she wasn’t even alive herself but was instead merely a hollow shell that could crumble at any second. She would had cried if she had anymore tears to shed, but she had already used them all up previously and couldn’t muster to cry anymore. Fritter Belle laying there had made Rosey feel regret and scared. She wanted to just up and leave but something was telling her to stay. What had she hoped to accomplish by coming here? What exactly did she wanted to know? She figured that she would just have to ask, after all she had no other reason to be here at all.

“How did she die?” Rosey had finally spoke. “Was it a heart attack? That’s what I was told but for some reason, I just don’t believe it”.

“Well...” began Bubble Rain who then turned to Fritter Belle’s body. Was she debating something? She seemed to be tilting her head, almost like she was shaking something off as she scratched the back of her neck. “That’s kinda a bizarre thing to ask”.

“I totally agree with you” returned Rosey. “I’m not even sure why myself”.

“Yet you came all the way here to ask it” spoke Bubble Rain, her eyes centered on Fritter Belle’s body. “Seems suspicious, does it not?”

Bubble Rain’s words seemed to had made Rosey uncomfortable. “Suspicious?” she had asked herself silently. “Suspicious of what?”

“Well, why would you want answers?” Bubble Rain had spoken, startling the red mare. “In all intents and purposes there was nothing out of place. Nor was there any hard evidence of foul play. So, it’s suspicious because there’s no real reason for you to be here, in my morgue, asking me your question”.

“H-How did you hear that?” Rosey asked, a bit little unsettled now.

“I have a good sense of hearing” Bubble Rain answered quickly, shrugging as she turned around to face the red mare.

Rosey’s eyes instinctively glanced at the top of the green mare’s head. She was wearing a hat that matched her purple, crystallized sweater. Both of which looked ready for a harsh winter. Rosey would had assumed she wore them due to the freezing temperature in this room but she had wore them yesterday when it was quite warm.

“You heard me through that snow bogon?” Rosey asked, her eyes moving downward towards the other mare’s flank.

Bubblegum Precious had told Rosey that Bubble Rain was with her in the Crystal Empire when it was cursed to be outside of time itself for a thousand years. The Crystal Ponies were recognizable for their body resembling gemstones but they had one other feature that made them stick out. They were incapable of gaining a Cutie Mark. Bubble Rain had no Cutie Mark yet she wasn’t a Crystal Pony either. Could she had been originally from this town? Fritter Belle had told her the town’s history but she never said when the town was actually built.

“Hm, your eyes look, sadden” came Bubble Rain’s voice. “I had hoped they would be”.

“You--what?” Rosey asked, her eyes making contact with Bubble Rain’s red pupils.

“You aren’t from this town, so maybe I can actually trust you” Bubble Rain spoke, her eyes dead centered on Rosey’s during those brief seconds that they were locked. “But only if you promise not to tell anypony else. Do you promise?”

“Wait a second” Rosey responded hesitantly. “Why---”

“Do you promise or don’t you?” Bubble Rain had interrupted. Her large, rounded eyes resembling those of a hawk who had spotted a worthy meal.

“Her stare is burning right into my skull” Rosey thought to herself. Holding her hoof to her lips she bit down as she paced a few steps, thinking heavily on her reply. “I---will” was the reply she thought up. “I won’t tell anypony, is what I meant”.

Bubble Rain sighed in relief. “Thank you” she spoke straightening up her sweater. “I had to ask because---because, in this town making a promise has the same weight as wedding vows. With bad consequences”.

“Well, what’s so important for me to promise that I wouldn’t tell?” Rosey asked. Her eyes followed Bubble Rain’s back to the iron beds. She held a hoof up to her muzzle at what she had just imagined.

“I’ve examined the body for any sort of trauma” Bubble Rain said softly, almost silently as she flipped through her journal. “Bruises, cuts, stuff like that. I didn’t find any. So, and pray to Celestia that I’m a nurse or I would be killed for it, I cut her open”.

“Sweet Luna...” Rosey gasped. “Was that even necessarily?” she asked, feeling rather fearful for her own safety right then.

“Yes. It was necessarily” replied the green mare, her pink mane momentary hiding her face from Rosey as she turned back around. “I found bits of an apple and bread inside her stomach. Now, without the rest of the food I can’t be certain, but” Bubble Rain paused, turning to stare at Rosey before she had finished her sentence. “....I believe that Fritter Belle was poisoned”.