The Way Of All Flesh

"When was the body found?"

"Less than an hour ago, Your Majesty. High Inquisitor Ephemera sent us to inform you before the area had even been cordoned off."

"And where is the Inquisitor now?"

"Back at the station, ma'am. I'm told she's being kept busy there."

The Princess's dark blue eyes narrowed to slits. She took a deep breath, feeling the cold night air sting the inside of her lungs. A tone of impatience entered her voice. "How could whatever she's doing there be more important than this?"

"It isn't, ma'am. The station has been flooded with citizens attempting to report what they believe to be important information. It seems everypony wants to help us find out what happened."

"Deputy, we do not believe that what happened is in question. I'm sure most of our citizens are already aware of it. The question we face now, is why."

The batpony bowed his head. The navy glint of his helmet reflected the flashing blue lights coming from the nearby alley.

"It is as you say, Your Majesty. Nothing like this has happened in Canterlot for as long as I can remember."

The Princess wiped an imaginary bead of sweat from her brow and looked down at the ground. Dark thoughts began to rise up in the back of her mind. She let out a powerful sigh, as if to say 'me neither'.

The deputy shifted on his feet. The steel plates of his armor clacked lightly together as he turned towards the crowd slowly forming in the street.

"We should go, Your Majesty. If you wish to see the scene of the..." The deputy blinked hard and quietly cleared his throat. He might have been trying to gather himself, but she could see it wasn't working. "... the scene of the crime... then we must move before the crowds grow too large."

The two of them made their way across the street. The ponies at the back of the crowd noticed the sound of heavy hoofsteps from behind and began to make way for them. The Princess could feel their stares, filled with fear, hope, and expectation. She tugged at the plate armor necklace around her throat. Their faith in her was suffocating.

The two of them passed through the magical barrier blocking the entrance to the alley. Several members of her Nightwatch looked up at her, wearing the same expressions she'd seen in the crowd. She forced herself to keep walking, one step after the other.

A thick, sour stench filled the stone corridor. Large white floodlights were pointed towards the center of the narrow alley, like lights on a stage telling you where to look. Or where not to look.

Her eyes watered and the back of her throat began to sting. The dark liquid drenched the intricate brickwork, creating several scattered pools of green light. The blood seemed to thicken around a raised spot in the ground.

The Princess spoke, too quietly for the deputy to hear.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty." He curled a leathery wing into a cone and brought it to his ear. "I can't hear you over the crowds. I'm afraid I need you to repeat yourself."

The Princess took a deep breath before forcing herself to speak louder.

"Where is she now?" Her voice cracked under the effort.

"The victim, ma'am? It's already been taken to the Morgue. The Royal Surgeon should be preparing to perform the autopsy."

"So quickly? And whose decision was that?"

"The High Inquisitor's, ma'am. She wanted the victim taken off the streets as quickly as possible, and I have to agree with her judgment. The bystanders are unruly now, but they'd be worse if they'd... if they'd seen what we saw."

A noise from the entrance to the alley startled both of them. The crowds had begun to grow, and they had started chanting something in unison.

The deputy grimaced. "That didn't take long." He turned back to the Princess, whose face had filled with fear.

"Your Majesty?"

"I—I need to go. To the Morgue. You say the Royal Surgeon is performing the autopsy? I should like to be there when he does." She could feel her stomach began to tighten.

"Of course, ma'am. Come by the station when you're finished. Inquisitor Ephemera should have the case notes ready for you when you arrive."

The Princess nodded and hurried towards the opposite end of the alley. Her back hoof splashed into a dark, sticky puddle, and her stomach churned inside of her. Filth clung to the bottoms of her hooves as she clattered down the alley. Greystone walls echoed every hoofstep, mirroring the chanting that was building from behind her. The alley opened up into a small courtyard, and her massive raven-like wings shot out from her sides. With frantic motions, she shot up into the sky, away from the chanting crowds forming in the streets.

The freezing air rushing across her face seemed to ease the nausea in her stomach. The sight of her night sky glittering above cooled the raw nerves pulsing in her head. Deep breaths of the thin, cold air in the sky started to calm the pounding in her chest. But by the time she landed in the dark castle courtyard, the tips of her wings and hooves had started to go numb. The thundering sound of her heartbeat only grew stronger.

She walked quickly through the shadowy hallways of the castle. Her vision narrowed as she approached the medical wing, and the numbness in her limbs had nearly reached her torso. She started to breathe harder and faster, desperate to calm her accelerating heartbeat. By the time the entrance to the morgue entered her sight, she could barely muster the strength to stand.

The Princess fell against the cool stone castle wall, catching herself with a forehoof. The bile in her stomach churned, threatening to rise into her throat.

"Princess Luna?"

A voice called out from a nearby doorway. A thin, white unicorn stepped out from the shadows. The Princess collapsed onto her hindquarters, her vision almost totally black.

"My goodness. Princess, I need you to listen to me."

She felt hooves on the sides of her face, and her head was pointed back towards the unicorn now standing in front of her.

"You are hyperventilating. I need you to hold your breath."

She shook her head. The tightness in her chest was getting worse. "I... I can't."

"Yes, you can. Hold your breath, and count to ten. I promise you'll feel better."

The Princess pressed her mouth closed and pinched her nose between her hooves. Fear crept into her mind for a moment before her vision started to clear. The pins and needles under her fur began to retreat, and feeling returned to her limbs.

She let go of her nose, and took several smaller breaths through her mouth. The Princess pressed a forehoof to her chest. Her heartbeat was returning to normal.

"Any better?"

She looked back up at the unicorn, and nodded her head. She felt embarrassed by how easily he'd been able to help her. "Yes, much better. We thank you for your help."

The unicorn let out a strained laugh. "No problem, it's only my job. I'm Apollo, the Royal Surgeon."

The Princess widened her eyes. "Oh! We were on our way to find you for the, um... the autopsy."

His expression darkened. "Ah. Yes. Terrible, isn't it? There hasn't been a murder in Equestria for over a thousand years, and suddenly—bam! Right as I get the job, too. Dreadful."

Apollo glanced up at her with a nervous look in his eye, as if he suddenly remembered who he was talking to, and cleared his throat. "Hm. Right. Well. We'd best start the autopsy, then. Follow me please, Your Majesty."

The Princess followed closely behind him. The bluish-green carpet in this section of the castle had a scrubbing enchantment. Each strand clung to the bottoms of her hooves to pull away the grime they'd accumulated in the city. She shuddered at the sensation. It was more than a little unsettling.

Long white banners hung from the high ceilings, bearing images of owls and shields. Her gaze turned back to the unicorn in front of her. His limbs were long and wiry, and his coat and mane were ice white. His cutie mark was a pair of snakes wrapping themselves around a golden staff.

He led her to a small door tucked at the end of the hall. It opened to reveal a large room covered in faded white tile. Large metal panels covered the far wall. She shivered in the cold air, before noticing the table in the center of the room. A long grey sheet was draped over it, with dark green stains blotting the surface.

"Not that I think you will, but I should tell you anyway: do not touch the body as I work. It's important that the body is kept as close as possible to its original condition." Apollo walked to the opposite side of the room and began washing his hands in a large metal sink.

The Princess slowly approached the table, her hooves resounding sharply against the stone floor. The ground under her forehoof shifted as she stepped. She looked down to see one of the floor tiles slide out of place under her weight.

"Don't worry about that. This has got to be the oldest room in the castle. I tried shining a flashlight down one of the cracks in the floor before and man, do they run deep!"

She shifted the tile from its position to see an inch-wide fissure running underneath it. The Princess leaned over to peer down into it, but only an endless darkness looked back.

A metal bucket was placed on the floor in the corner of her vision. She looked up to see Apollo wearing a dubious expression.

"Now I know you're a Princess and everything, but you'll still need one of these. First-timers always puke, no exceptions."

Apollo walked to the opposite side of the table and held one end of the sheet in his hoof. The Princess pulled the bucket closer to her, wrapping her forehooves around it.

He looked at her with a serious glint in his eye. "Are you ready?"

She nodded.

The curtain slowly peeled away from the table, revealing the yellow chitin of the changeling underneath. She was lying on her back, resting in a pool of her own blood. The Princess felt nausea return to her stomach.

"Shit... what a fuckin' shame. She's so young, her wings weren't even fully developed." His brow furrowed. "Or... maybe not."

With a gloved hoof, he shifted the body onto its side and began inspecting her back. Dark blood poured from the wounds on the girl's flanks. The green liquid pooled on the table before washing over the edge, dripping onto the floor. The Princess stared as the blood pooled around her hooves before seeping between the white stone squares on the floor, draining down into the cracks underneath the tile.

He rolled the body back to its' original position. His eyes went wide upon seeing the blood covering the Princess's hooves.

"Aw shit. Sorry Princess, I should've been more careful." The unicorn let out a long sigh. His ribcage poked out from his white fur. "Still, at least we learned something. Her wings aren't undergrown, they're missing. Same thing for her horn."

Apollo moved to the end of the table and placed his hooves on either side of the changeling's head. He inspected the remains of her horn closely before setting it back onto the metal surface.

"Her wings and horn were both removed with a fine-tooth bandsaw. Probably the same one, I can run some tests to make sure. However..."

He walked to the side of the table where she was and pulled her onto her side. The yellow chitin by her flanks was gone, revealing the changeling's dark green musculature. The Princess was reminded of a pony anatomy diagram she'd seen in the Royal Library.

"A bandsaw couldn't have done this. Judging by the marks around the edge of the wound..." A floating metal scalpel pressed at the broken exoskeleton. "... I'd say the chitin here was removed with a chisel. Very carefully, too. Probably all in one piece."

The body rolled back into place. Apollo hummed to himself, wearing an expression like he was putting together a puzzle in his head.

"These are very strange though."

The floating scalpel tapped against the soft flesh of the changeling's belly. A dark blue substance was painted across her skin in a strange spiraling symbol.

"Drawings just like this one are all over her body. This one is right over her womb and emphig."

The scalpel drifted up to the changelings' head.

"There's one on either side of her neck as well. And then... "

The sharp blade flashed as it passed under the white bulb floating over the table.

"Another pair here, between the flank and avian pectoral. Right between where the wings and hips were cut away."

He shook his head. "I don't recognize these shapes. Hell, I've never seen anything like them."

Apollo wiped his face against his shoulder and took another long sigh. He looked up at her.

"Princess Luna. It's time for the vivisection."

Her blue eyes went wide. "Wh—what?"

"It means I'm going to cut her op—"

"We know what it means!" She shook her head, trying to clear her mind.

"Fine. Fine." The Princess looked up at him. "Go ahead."

He nodded, and began to cut. The scalpel traced an X-shape across the changeling's stomach, and a small bead of green blood trailed down her side.

Apollo's nose twitched. "Um, Princess? You might want to hold onto that bucket."

Luna tightened her grasp on the metal container, pressing the cool surface against her forehooves. The soft flesh of the changeling's belly peeled away, and an intensely foul stench filled the air.

The Princess felt her eyes water, and her stomach began to tighten. Suddenly she couldn't breathe as a wave of bile flooded her throat and spilled out of her mouth into the bucket. Her nose and throat burned with acid.

"Fucking, damn it all!" Apollo stepped back from the table and covered his nose. He pulled a surgical mask from a cardboard box by the sink and put it one before passing a second one to the Princess.

"That won't stop the smell completely, but it should help." He chuckled. "Still, you lasted longer than most. That smell almost got me too."

The Princess blankly nodded her head. She spat the bile in her mouth into the bucket and pulled the mask over her face.

"You know, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to leave. There's no shame in it. You sure you want to stay?"

She stared down at him and nodded slowly.

"Alright then."

Apollo levitated the scalpel back over the body and continued his inspection.

"It looks like the smell is coming from up here... "

The scalpel dropped down into her torso and poked a strange-looking organ in the center of her chest. A series of thick fleshy tubes wove themselves around it. Liquified tissue pooled in the cavity it sat in.

"It looks like her heart has decomposed much faster than the rest of her body. You can see how most of the cardiac muscle has been turned into plasma, and there are pieces of grave wax lining the cardial wall."

Apollo turned his head. The mask covered his mouth, but his eyes had gone wide.

"Well, maybe it's not just the heart. Take a look at this."

Her eyes followed the scalpel down to the changeling's abdomen. She focused on the shining blade, desperate to avoid getting a good look at the rest of the girl's entrails.

The scalpel dropped again and pressed into an organ she had never seen before. It was rotted and melted just like the heart, but she couldn't tell what it was. What it had been.

"This is the emphig. It's the organ that turns love magic into sustenance. Supposedly it's also how changelings share antibodies. If you've ever wondered why you've never seen a sick changeling, this is why. Pretty awesome stuff. Kinda makes me jealous."

The scalped floated back into the air. Apollo pulled the mask away from his face and looked at the Princess.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, Princess: the rest of the job is a whole lot messier. I'm gonna be meticulously checking every single organ, bone, and blood vessel in the entire body for any other signs of foul play. You sure wanna stick around for that?"

She grimaced and nodded her head. "N—no, we need to see it."

"I'm sorry?"

The Princess looked into Apollo's eyes, and pressed her hoof against her churning stomach. She replied through clenched teeth.

"We need to see it. All of it. Every single bit of damage that that monster is responsible for. So that when we finally bring him to justice, we can give him all that he is owed."

Apollo grinned. "Of course, Your Majesty."

A frantic humming sound grew louder as the Princess walked towards the Canterlot Police Station. White beams of light flickered through the building's windows as ponies moved around inside. The large brick building seemed like a buzzing hive, with every single worker bee focused on a single goal. She didn't have to guess what that goal might be.

She opened the door and stepped inside the front entrance. Chaos was her only greeter. Batponies in uniform ran around the station carrying steaming cups of coffee and bulging folders of paper. The Princess wondered why the experience was so strange before realizing the cause: nobody seemed to notice that she was here.

The Goddess of the Moon carefully made her way up to the second floor where the High Inquisitor's office was. The building was a labyrinth of long wooden hallways, but somehow she managed to find it.

The plaque on the tall oak door read 'High Inquisitor M.E.'. The Princess tapped her hoof against the door a few times and waited for a response. A response that never came. After a second attempt at knocking, she tried the handle and was surprised to find it unlocked.

She stepped inside the room and shut the door behind her. The moonlight from the window was her only source of light. Slowly, she made her way across the room and lit a small oil lamp hanging from the ceiling. The flame's soft yellow light cast the room in a strange hue. Dark wooden furniture filled the office, and a massive oak desk sat in the back by the window. The Princess made her way over to it and began to search for clues as to the Inquisitor's whereabouts.

The desk was covered in paper. Case documents seemed to be placed about at random, but one folder was placed neatly in the center of the desk's surface. The Princess's horn glowed softly and the folder floated into the air. The words 'Homicide Case Notes' were stamped across the front of it.

She opened it and inspected the contents. It had everything she was looking for: witness reports, scene photographs, possible suspects. The folder closed and drifted behind her as she made her way out of the office.

A batpony officer walked by the office as the Princess stepped out of it. He turned to face her and looked surprised, though not as surprised as she was. The pony's left eye was trained on her, but his right seemed to be spinning in its socket.

"C—can I help you?", he stuttered out.

The Princess was broken from her trance. "Oh! Yes, you can help us. Please, take this."

The folder she'd been carrying floated over to the officer. He grabbed it out of the air and stared at it with his functioning eye.

"Make a copy of that and have it sent to us at the castle. Return it to Inquisitor Moonlight's desk when you are finished."

His eyes grew wider, and his right eye began spinning a little faster. It was starting to freak her out a bit. "Y—yes, ma'am. No problem, ma'am. You can count on me, ma'am."

She gave him a weak smile and nodded, and the officer quickly walked off down the hallway. She could have sworn the copier was in the other direction, but maybe she was mistaken.

The glow of the roaring fire coated the shadowy library in an orange hue. The flames crackled and croaked as the wood burned down to cinders. Apart from the occasional turning of a page and the sound of a bottle tapping against wood, it was otherwise totally silent.

The Princess let out a deep sigh and rubbed at her eyes. The bottle she normally kept hidden in her desk floated through the air towards her. It tilted upwards, pouring its contents into the Princess's mouth and down her esophagus. She didn't even try to taste it, shuddering at the burning sensation of the moonshine coating the back of her throat. Her hoof wiped away a small drop from her dark blue lips.

The documents she'd requested had arrived at the castle before she had. She'd taken them to her desk in the library and started going over them. The body had been found at around midnight by a patrolling officer. They didn't have a positive ID for the victim yet, but given that the body was found in the red-light district, the girl had probably been a prostitute. Apparently, changeling sex workers had become relatively popular in recent years.

The Princess drew another sip from her bottle, attempting to drown her disgust in alcohol and cynicism. "Makes sense to me...", she murmured to herself.

Both the body and the scene itself were covered in unidentified symbols. The photos showed glyphs similar to the ones she had scene during the autopsy.

"I would swear I recognize these though..." She traced a hoof over the photograph, trying to remember where she might have seen them before.

"These might be... ancient Zebran?"

She vaguely remembered reading something about Zebran rituals a few weeks ago. Weeks ago...

The Princess turned from her desk and looked around the library. The massive room was lined with bookshelves that seemed impossibly tall, stretching up into the darkness. This was the Royal Library, meaning that only she and Celestia had access to this room. She'd been spending more and more time here, and she certainly didn't have Twilight's aptitude for sorting. Meaning that the book she'd seen these symbols in would be nearly impossible to find.

"Gods, this is going to take forever... what was it even called? 'Studies in Ancient Zebran Theology'?"

She leaned back in her chair, lamenting her situation. Her blue eyelids drifted shut as her drowsiness overtook her.

A sudden noise like a clash of thunder rang through the library. The Princess shot straight up in her chair, now completely awake. A book had fallen from the shelf above her and had landed directly on her desk. It was... 'Studies in Ancient Zebran Theology'. Her shaped eyebrows arched upwards. That was quite the coincidence. Maybe her sister had implemented a summoning charm to the library without telling her.

The Princess rubbed at her eyes and began flicking through the book at a breakneck pace. She'd read it before, and she already had some idea of what she was looking for. The pages stopped when she recognized a glyph in one of the images. The caption reads, 'Taken from an ancient dig site, historians believe this was a ritual to bring about change'.

She covered her mouth and let out a deep yawn. It was interesting, but it didn't really tell her much. Maybe the Inquisitor could find out more.

The bottle floated off the desk and tilted back against her lips, but only a few drops trickled out.

"Hmph," she pouted. She'd gone through her stash faster than she'd realized.

The Princess staggered down the long hallway back to her room, spurred by the feeling building inside of her. It was almost time for the moon to set. She could feel it in her bones.

The Nightwatch guards standing outside of her door rushed to her side as their Princess came into view, but she waved them off.

"Back to your posts. When we have forgotten how to walk, we will send for you. But not before then."

She slowly made her way into her room, ignoring the anxious looks on her guards' faces. The exhaustion that had built up during the night seemed to take her all at once. The Princess kicked off her ornate horseshoes and unbuckled her necklace. She kept the tiara. She liked the tiara.

The Goddess of the Moon flopped onto her large circular bed. Her eyelids lowered and she almost fell to sleep, before the sound of a throat clearing rocked her awake.

The Princess sat up in her bed, bleary eyed and drowsy, and looked around. A low wind blew through her room, ruffling the curtains lining each of her windows. Moonlight streamed through the balcony doors, but from her position she could not see through them.

She stood up out of her bed and slowly walked to open doors leading outside. A bright, shimmering tail flicked slightly into the room, and the Princess felt her shoulders tighten.

The Goddess of the Moon stepped fully out onto the balcony, and took her place standing beside her sister.

She looked up at her sister with a nervous tightness building in her throat. Her sister looked down at her with eyes reflecting disappointment.

"Sorry I didn't tell you. I knew I should've sent somepony to wake you, but I got too distracted."

Her excuses were met only with silence.

She cleared her throat and rubbed at the side of her face. Her back leg seemed to vibrate with nervous energy.

"W—we did some investigating on our own. Let us tell you what we know so far." Her tense posture straightened even further.

"The victim was a changeling found in the red light district. Her wings, horn, and thighs were removed with surgical instruments, and several of her organs had decomposed at an accelerated rate. Several strange symbols covered the scene as well as the victim's body. We discovered that these symbols were part of an ancient Zebran ritual to bring about change. We believe that the next step is to meet with the High Inquisitor and discuss our findings. Do you agree?"

Her sister's cold pink eyes turned to meet her own. The silence seemed to roar in her ears.

"D-do you agree?," she repeated, weakly.

The Goddess of the Sun turned back, facing out over the castle courtyard. Her horn began to glow a bright gold. The Princess hurried to match her, her horn casting a bright violet sheen into her eyes.

She turned her focus inward. Her eyes drifted shut, and the rest of the world seemed to fade away. It was only her, and her moon. Power surged through her body, forcing itself out through the fine tip of the horn on her head. In her mind's eye, a great purple limb stretched out to the heavens and wrapped itself around the massive white orb in the sky. The moon slowly dropped downwards, falling and falling, until it was directly below her. The energy coursing through her head tapered off, and the sounds of the world slowly returned.

The Princess opened her eyes, and was blinded by the sun's burning light. She could hear her sister's hoofsteps leading back into her room. Her forehoof raised to shield her eyes, and she turned her gaze down towards the courtyard. Her sister was walking along the ramparts below, exchanging morning greetings with her Sunguard.

Princess Celestia looked up at where her sister stood, and gave her a warm smile. She waved with her forehoof, the armor on her leg shining in the morning sun.

The Moon Princess's stomach turned into knots. She turned back into her room, watching her sister walk towards the exit. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, and the sound of her heartbeat started to roar in her ears. She stepped back into the room and her horn flashed with a blinding light.

Suddenly she was standing in front of the door, with a large silver saber floating beside her. The sword flew towards the imposter standing before her and pressed hard against their neck.

Her sister's face remained expressionless. The multicolored waves moving through Celestia's mane slowed to a crawl as she stared into her eyes.

Princess Luna, the Goddess of the Moon, spoke solidly and evenly. "Who are you, and why have you come here?"

Her sister's expression twisted and contorted. Her features shifted and shaped into a monstrous form. The corners of her mouth pulled back into a cruel smile, revealing two rows of ivory fangs.

And her eyes... her eyes were a pale violet.