No One's Star

It was when Twilight woke up later in the afternoon and traveled into town to see Mayor Mare that she heard the news.

Lily was dead.

She had been stabbed in her sleep by an unknown assailant. There were signs of forced entry on her home, but there was no weapon and no hoofprints to be found. Twilight was aghast as she spoke to Mayor Mare.

“Wait, Lily, you said?” Twilight asked, jaw open in alarm.

Mayor Mare nodded. “It’s a tragedy indeed. Murder! In Ponyville! Such a thing is nearly unheard of.” She stamped a form and scribbled on another. “I’ll need to mobilize a proper police force for the town, I think. Volunteers at first, but…” Mayor Mare trailed off, looking down at the papers in front of her.

Twilight wondered if she should bring up the radio station from last night. She decided against it, though. She could say it, but what if the station didn’t come on again? Everypony would pin the blame on her, because who better to murder someone without leaving a trail than a unicorn? Especially one just come from outside town? No, she needed more evidence, and for that, she was going to have to do research!

“Mayor Mare, I realize this may be a bad time, but I need to research radio stations here in Ponyville. Do you have a list of the ones you have here in Ponyville over the past decades?”

Mayor Mare stared down at her papers for a moment, then looked up, confused. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“A list of registered radio stations in Ponyville over the past few years. Do you have one?”

“Oh, yes. Give me a moment.” She stood up and walked over to a wall of filing cabinets. She began to shuffle through them until she found something she was looking for. She pulled out a folder and dropped it on the desk in front of Twilight.

Twilight grabbed it and opened it. She looked at the dates to see that all the information was as up-to-date as it was going to get. It contained all information on registered radio stations up to last year, and their operating hours. Twilight flipped through it all, hunting for station 606 AM. Unfortunately, it wasn’t listed. He had called himself the Lost Sun Radio, but there was nothing here.

“Damn. Nothing at all,” Twilight said. She passed the folder back to Mayor Mare, who took it and put it next to her on the desk. She smiled a small smile for Twilight and nodded.

“I’m sorry it didn’t help you find what you were looking for. I hope your day goes well, Twilight.”

“I hope so as well. Would it be too forward of me to attend the funeral?”

“Not at all. You’re new here, but I don’t think anypony would mind. You are one of the elements of harmony after all.”

“Yeah… yeah that’s right. Thank you again, Mayor.”

Twilight gave a little bow to the mayor and excused herself from the office. It was late afternoon and she had a few more errands to do before it was going to be too late for any shops to be open. She rushed about, buying herself groceries and talking to ponies about things here and there, but her thoughts were always on her goal that night, when she would listen to Lost Sun Radio again, hoping to hear what he had to say about the murder. It was likely going to be her best bet to stop him.

When night fell, Twilight was in her room, sitting up with her radio next to her and Spike tucked into his basket nearby. She kept the volume low, pulled her blanket up over her head, lit her horn, tuned in, and waited.

There was hissing static for quite some time, and Twilight entertained herself with a book, but eventually, a voice came over the radio. “Well, Ponyville. I did it. The first step toward us having a better tomorrow with proof instead of nothing more than conjecture and the word of our Princess to go on. I wasn’t stopped, and I’m sure many of you are questioning if I’ll do it again. Well, the answer is yes.

“I wasn’t stopped, and that’s fine. That was expected. You can’t start a good epic tale without blindsiding the characters with some information they may not be willing to hear. There’s a whole lot going on, and you can’t expect them to know what’s happening before it happens. No. This was the prelude. This was the start of our story, and it was a taste of things yet to come.

“I wanted to make them aware that something is going on, and I’ve done that. Murder hasn’t happened in Ponyville for decades, and I’m setting up a new trend, or bringing an old one back, depending on how you look at it. Ponyville’s a small place, and so the last murders were done by a pony by the name of Placid Waters back in the early days. Lived by the river, he did, and would take to drowning ponies because he liked to watch them struggle. Said it made him feel alive.

“Well, I’m not placid waters, and I don’t kill for the fun of it. This is an exercise in awareness, ponies! I’m waking you up, whether you like it or not! Don’t take everything you hear at face value! Not even me! I’m not talking to you because I think you’re stupid, I’m talking to you because I think you’re unaware. Unaware of what the princess is doing, and unaware what you’re doing!”

Twilight listened in morbid fascination. The pony on the radio, Lost Sun, she decided she would call him, was trying to make ponies question their leaders. It was interesting, and as a scholar, she was fascinated by it. As a pony with new friends, however, she was horrified. He was killing to try to make ponies question what they heard, and specifically to question the princess’s claims that the elements of harmony had returned. While it was true that the last instance of the elements existing was one-thousand years ago when Celestia had banished Nightmare Moon, there was no reason to believe they didn’t still exist. They were well-documented, in text and in art.

“So, to wake you all up, I’m going to continue with the distasteful quest of mine. I know none of you want this, and if it were up to you I’d stop, but it’s not up to you. Or it is, but only as far as you bring out the elements of harmony to stop me. Go out, find them, question them, ask them for help, and get them to stop me. Twisty Pop, if you’re listening or anypony who knows you is listening, you’re next.

“I’d be lying if I weren’t making some of this personal. You’re making those awful noises with those stupid balloons day in and day out, and I’ll admit that I’m tired of it. You make foals happy, however, and so the loss of you will be noticed by young and old alike. If you hear this, and if you know Twisty Pop, please tell the elements of harmony and help him out, alright? It’ll be coming soon. Lost Sun Radio, out.”

The radio devolved into static, and Twilight was left alone under the blankets with her thoughts. They were whirling to and fro and she wasn’t sure what to make of it, but she knew it would eventually be up to her and her new friends.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know this pony. This “Twisty Pop”. He made balloons? Awful noises, so he made balloon animals? Twilight hadn’t ever met him. She was still fresh to the town so she barely knew any of them. But she couldn’t just leave it!

Twilight sat for a moment, then slapped a hoof onto the bed. She threw off the covers, raced downstairs and out the door. She didn’t know the pony herself, but surely she could alert somepony and have them check on him! The town didn’t have police, but surely Mayor Mare had some volunteers by now, and they could find him and check up on him.

Twilight went to the mayor’s office and pounded on the door. She didn’t know where Mayor Mare might live on her own, but she was hoping that there would be somepony available at the office she could talk to.

Much to her dismay, there was not. It was well past midnight, and the office was closed and locked up tight. The windows were shuttered and there were no lights on save the lamp out in front of the office, giving her very little light on its own. Her horn was aglow, but it didn’t help with her current predicament. She thought about pounding on a door nearby and just asking for help from a random pony, but what were the chances she would find somepony who knew where Twisty Pop lived? She would come across as awful and annoying, and ponies might even accuse her of doing it! Who would know somepony was going to be murdered ahead of time except for the murderer themselves!

Twilight paced back and forth in front of the office for some time until she finally was forced to admit defeat just before dawn. She didn’t know where he was, where to find him, or who to talk to. She’d been beat. She hung her head and returned home.

“Twilight, where have you been?” Spike called when she came back inside. He hurried down the stairs to her, concern plain on his face. “You woke me up when you ran off, then didn’t come back for hours! Where did you go?”

“It’s… a long story, Spike,” Twilight said. “But I think I know who died tonight, just like Lily died last night.”

Spike covered his mouth in alarm. “You know who did it?”

“You remember that radio station from the night before?”

“Yeah. I don’t remember what all was said, but I remember you were listening to it.”

“I think the radio host is the one doing the killing.”

“What? How do you know?”

“Because he talks about it. Yesterday he was talking about Lily being the one to die, and this time he mentioned somepony named Twisty Pop. I knew Lily, she offered me flowers when I arrived, but Twisty Pop I don’t. I went outside to try and warn him, but there’s no police force in Ponyville, and the Mayor’s office was closed!” She covered her face with a hoof and groaned.

“So if he dies today, then…”

“Then I was right! And I couldn’t help!”

“But why is he doing it?”

“He says he wants to prove the elements of harmony really exist.”

“Stopping Nightmare Moon wasn’t enough?”

“Nopony saw that! He mentioned that, and he was right! We stopped Nightmare Moon in the Castle of the Two Sisters, with the only witnesses being me and my friends, and the Princesses!”

“So he wants you to prove it in public?”

“I guess so,” She climbed upstairs and flopped into bed, exhausted.

“Can’t you just get your friends together and do some magic or something?”

“I don’t think we can just turn it on like that. I know next to nothing about the elements besides me and my friends being able to use them. I don’t know what to do.”

“You’ll think of something. You always do.”