The Cutie Mark Ripperby BraveryChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10PrologueEpilogueChapter 1 Twilight watches from her throne as the ones she holds dear walk into the room, all brave to come in after learning of shocking news: Her big brother, Shining Armor, Captain of the Crystal Guard and King of the Crystal Empire, her sister-in-law Princess Cadance, Queen of the Crystal Empire and Princess of Love, her niece Princess Flurry Heart, Princess of Hope, her current captain of the royal guard Gallus, and her faithful and top-ranking student Luster Dawn. Twilight gives a reassuring smile to the small group, “Thank you for coming on such short notice. As you read in my scrolls, There are 7 missing ponies. 3 Pegasi, 2 Earth ponies, and 2 unicorns, last seen in different places across Equestria. I have called you all here to help me find them.” Shining Armor steps forward, his mane greying early due to stress, “Don’t worry Twilight. I’ll train the guard just like old times.” “Except you’ll be working with Gallus here.” She gestures to Galus, “He’s been climbing the ranks since the last time you were here, big brother.” Galus looks over to Shining Armor with a smile, but not his typical smirk, but a genuine smile. “Oh, I see. Well then, you better show me how things are run with a griffon in charge.” Shining says jokingly. “And we’ll see how they react with the old unicorn coming back.” Gallus jokes back. “Hey, he’s not that old!” Flurry Heart retaliates. “It’s all good banter, sweetie. No feelings hurt.” Shining replies. Twilight clears her throat, “Speaking of which, it has come to my attention that the moral in the cities the ponies were last seen in are at an all-time low. Ponies do not trust one another, early winter setting in, a clear sign the wendigos are circling.” “Say no more, auntie!” Flurry Heart perks up, jumping up to fly in the air, “We’ll spread light and hope to all of Equestria!” “I sure hope you do…” Twilight says melancholily, “With every passing day, those ponies are suffering, and I cannot let them suffer. Everyone except Luster is dismissed.” Everyone but Luster leaves the throne room, closing the door behind them. Twilight flutters down to Luster, who appears nervous, “Luster, you probably have the most important job of all.” Twilight wraps her wing around Luster to comfort her, “I didn’t want to scare Flurry Heart so I didn’t bring this up while she was in the room, but several leads have led me to believe that… Those ponies…” Twilight stops to collect herself, “Are dead.” “Dead? What leads you to think that, your majesty?” Twilight lets go of Luster, “Before I summoned you all here, I had to do some investigation into these disappearances, to figure out if they were connected. All I had was that they were all ponies, mares, 2 to 1 to 1 on each tribe. That isn’t a lot to go off of as you can imagine.” Twilight flies over Luster and lands four feet away from her, “But my gut told me they were connected somehow, and then, I found it.” “What did you find?” “This sigil burned into the ground of where they were last seen.” Twilight projects a sigil on the ground. A number wheel, with various numbers, letters, and symbols, “I decoded this symbol and realize it was a teleportation sigil, meaning whenever they burn, they teleport the pony to a set location.” “But where?” Luster questioned. “That’s the thing, Luster, I couldn’t track down where the original sigil is. Although… I did learn something gruesome about the families and their experience with this crisis…” “And dare I ask what that is…?” There’s a hint of fear in Luster’s voice. “They were... mailed the victim’s cutie mark.” “Yeah? Like in… Glass jars? Didn’t you tell me once your first student had cutie mark magic?” “It’s nothing like that Luster… Nothing like that. The cutie mark was never removed from the pony. But the skin the cutie mark was on was removed.” Luster gagged a little, “Oh I’m so sorry Luster. Maybe sending you on this mission isn’t a good idea…” “No no, Princess! I can handle this. Please, continue.” “Oh… Ok…” Twilight hesitates for a moment before continuing, “The skin the cutie mark was on was dried and shipped to the family of the victim, along with letters similar to this.” Twilight holds up a scroll and gives it to Luster. Luster opens it and reads it: ‘To the Star Family, I, The Cutie Mark Ripper, am gifting you one last piece of your lovely earth pony daughter, Sweet Star. I assure you none of her will go to waste, and that we both have one last piece of her before she disappears forever. Who knows, maybe you’ll find her again, but we will see. - The Cutie Mark Ripper’ Luster looked at the letter with disgust, rereading to understand what the letter could mean, and rolled it back up and a look of sorrow. “Your gut may be right, Princess… But I don’t understand this part, ‘I assure you none of her will go to waste’ what does that mean?” “This Cutie Mark Ripper must be referring to how she gets rid of the bodies, saving the cutie marks for whatever sick reason they have for doing this.” Twilight starts pacing around, “I don’t know why they are targeting only ponies, but that’s not the point. The point is, they are still on the loose, and we need everyone on deck for it.” “You can count on me, Princess! I still haven’t made any friends but I’m sure I can solve this case.” Luster stomped her hooves on the ground. “Thank you, Luster Dawn. But please… Remember the offensive magic you learned in school. I- It pains me to think you could become the Ripper’s next victim…” Twilight hugs Luster close, a tear coming down her face. “Don’t worry Princess.” Luster let go and jumped forward with confidence, “The hammer of justice will rain down on the Cutie Mark Ripper!” “I admire your confidence, Luster. And if you need anything, please don’t be hesitant to ask me.” Twilight climbed back onto her throne, “Not go. Every second wasted, another pony could be in danger.” “You can count on her Princess!” Luster ran out of the throne room, ready to take on this new challenge. Meanwhile, Spike looks over at Twilight as she does her breathing exercises, “You alright, Twilight?” Twilight covers her face with her hooves, “It’s just… How could I have let this happen right under my nose? I’m the ruler of Equestria, I’m supposed to protect my subjects.” “And you’re going your best. You couldn’t have known about any of this. Everything will be ok in the end.” Spike patted Twilight on the back and Twilight looked at him with a smile. “Thanks, Spike, but I hope you are right. I hope everything will be ok in the end.” Chapter 2 “Come on, you Tin Buckets! Put your rears into high gear!” Shining Armor yelled at the guards who were doing laps around the track, “Except for you Tin Buckets! Keep it up, soldier!” An Earth Pony stallion whinnies with pride, and runs faster than before. Shining Armor walks over to Gallus, who was giving orders to the nonpony guards. Once they walked away, Gallus turned to Shining, “So you know the truth behind the ‘disappearances’?” Shining did air hooves. “Well yeah. Everyone in the guard knows. Once one guard knows, the news spreads like wildfire, but we swore allegiance to the Princess. This news won’t get out to the public.” Gallus and Shining walk together, watching the soldiers. “That’s good. When I read the scroll, I burned it so Flurry couldn’t read it by accident.” “She’s your daughter, right?” “My pride and joy, even now when she’s going through her teenage years. She’s kind and forgiving, but her worldview could shatter if she knew the beings she brings hope to are being slaughtered.” “So she’s a precious little cinnamon roll, huh?” “That’s right.” “Yeah, I know someone who sounds just like that. Are you familiar with Silverstream?” “Niece to Queen Novo? How could I not? She and Flurry are always bouncing off the walls during diplomatic missions to Mount Aris. She seems like a nice hippogriff. Are you friends with her or something?” “Well yeah. We became friends at Twilight’s Friendship School during its early years, saving Equestria together with our other friends. After we graduated, I guess something just clicked because I became very romantically attached.” “D’awwwww, young love.” “Oh stop it.” Gallus playfully punches Shining Armor while the latter laughs, “But yeah, I kinda wanted something more than friendship. She’s just the most precious thing, and with my career in the Equestrian Army, I could protect her from any threat. But…” “Things didn’t work out.” “I’m not upset about it. I explained my feelings and she explained she doesn’t feel that way, but I think that only strengthened our friendship. Now, Silverstream is looking to help me with my military job in any way she can.” “And being connected to the Hippogriff Royal Family is a big deal. Queen Novo can be such a pain to work with sometimes, but we manage to get meetings with her and such. I guess the isolationist mentality never left her.” “Yeah, it’s kinda the same in Griffonstone. We are so used to being alone and only taking what we can get, opening up our borders was tough.” “I can see why, but it’s good to see the idea of isolationism leave the minds of the younger generation.” Suddenly, a unicorn mare guard runs up to Gallus and Shining Armor, “Sirs! We just installed the policing force on several streets of Canterlot.” “Finally.” Gallus replies, “A bunch of other cities already have the police force. I have no idea why the Princess didn’t install one here in the capital.” “Trust me, I tried to after the Canterlot Invasion, but with the return of the Crystal Empire, I had to abandon that plan and go deal with the problems over there.” “Well, no use in complaining now. We have our police force. Thank you for the info, Pearl Diamond.” The guard, Pearl Diamond, salutes and runs off. Gallus sighs and sits at a bench, “I’ll be honest with you Captain. Morale is going to take a massive hit if the news gets out that the missing ponies were killed. I know seven isn’t a lot, but in terms of lives, that’s a lot. If a few rumors and three powered up villains almost caused the end of Equestria, I don’t know what will happen when the public finds out.” Shining Armor hops on the sat and pats Gallus’ back, “Calm down Gallus. Look in front of you. Do you see all these soldiers? Everyone here will protect Equestria and beyond from any threat that faces our way. It’s like you said, we must protect the innocent from any threat.” “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right!” Gallus jumped out of his seat, “We just gotta have our heads high!” “That's the spirit!” Shining Armor gets up from his seat as well, “Come on, let’s go run some drills.” “Already ahead of you.” Gallus says while holding up a megaphone, “Alright you sad sacks! Everyone, step into formation! Basic exercise drills!” Chapter 3 Luster Dawn hops off the train to Manehattan, taking in the sights of the city. However, she wasn’t there for sightseeing. It has been 2 days since she was given the case by the Princess, and she had no leads. Whenever she thought she had something, it led to a dead end. This was her last chance: Moonshadow Blaze’s family. The busy streets of Manehattan were difficult to navigate; Carnerlot was never as busy as this place, but she managed to find the apartment block where the Blaze family lived “Alright Luster Dawn. This is your last chance for a lead. You got this, you got this, you got thiiiiiiiiisssss….” Luster says to herself, less confident with every word. She enters the building and goes straight for apartment 42, climbing up 4 flights of stairs and straight ahead, “49, 40, 41, ah-ha, 42.” Luster knocks at the door and waits for a reply. The door slowly creaked open, revealing an older silver coat mare with dark blue eyes and a light blue mane with bangs, “Uh, hello. I’m Luster Dawn. And you are a member of the Blaze family, right?” The sorrowful mare opens the door widely, “Yes… I am Sunspot Blaze. Why do you ask?” “Well, you see, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle’s star student, and I was assigned to-” Luster stopped herself, remember the last 6 times she was blunt in that remark, and that she must choose her words, “To… To…” Luster breathed in then out, “To bring justice to the one who needs it.” Sunspot initially looked shocked and shed a few tears once the shock wore off. She wiped away the tears and looked at Luster, “Yes yes… Please, come in.” She stepped aside, and Luster walked in. The apartment is nicely decorated with sunny imagery and flowers, however, the place was slowly decaying, as it seems to not be taken care of often, “Apologies for the mess. I didn’t expect company today, otherwise, I would have cleaned up.” Sunspot takes a seat on the couch. “No no, I don’t blame you.” Luster hops on and sits as well, “I am so sorry for your loss.” Sunspot sniffles for a bit before composing herself again, “It's ok… I’ve been slowly accepting it… But it hasn’t been easy… I’ve gotten so much love and support but it’s been 6 months when it felt like 6 years since she disappeared right in front of me! Oh my Celestia, I remember that day, clear as crystal…!” Sunspot begins to tear up, “We-we were cooking lunch together… Veggie stew, her grandmare’s recipe, when all of a sudden-” Sunspot gasped to stop herself from crying but to no avail, “that stupid, stupid circle appeared under her and burned, sinking her into the floor. Oh my Celestia, I can still hear her voice…! Her pleads for help…!” At this point, Sunspot let the dames break, covering her face with her hooves, unable to face the truth. Luster Dawn scooted over and rubbed Sunspot Blazes’ back to comfort her. After 10 minutes of crying, Sunspot rubbed her eyes to get rid of the tears, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” “No no, don’t worry. Trust me, how you’re acting is reasonable. I mean, losing a family member? That can’t be something you just ‘get over’. You lost someone dear to you.” Sunspot sniffled a little and nodded, “And right now, the hammer of justice needs to rain down, and I know this next request may seem morbid, but I need to do this to see if there’s any connection, any rhyme or reason for this chaos-” Sunspot cut her off. “Yes yes! Anything!” Luster took a deep breath, bracing herself for yet another negative reaction, “I… I need to see her cutie mark. I know you were sent it and…” Luster stopped herself. Who is she to ask for the last remains of somepony’s loved one. Instead of the anticipated outcome of Sunspot crying some more, looking disgusted, demanding Luster leave, or some combination of the three, Sunspot looks at Luster Dawn with a scarily neutral face, slowly turning her head towards a door. She points to it and says in a neutral voice, “In there, in the urn on the desk.” Luster gives Sunspot one last hug, “Thank you.” Luster got up and headed for the door. The room was dark and dusty, as Luster experienced first hoove that the spiders were the real monsters for free loaning in a crime scene. Looking around, Luster sees a bed, a dresser, and lots of moon imagery. There’s even a Luna doll on the dresser. This was Moonshadow’s room. Looking to the floor by the dresser, and there was the teleportation circle and a dropped necklace on the ground. Luster picked up the necklace and examined it. It was a simple black string necklace with a charm that had a crescent moon and a glistening sun: Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks. Luster puts it aside and looks to the dresser. There, a large urn decorated with Moons and Suns with a plaque at the base of it that reads, ‘Moonshadow, loved by all and cared for in life, will be remembered forever as strong as she was.’ Luster couldn’t bear to think about what torment Moonshadow had to face to meet such a grim end. Luster Dawn shook the thought out of her head and took the urn off of the dresser, “Here does nothing.” Luster opened the urn and took out the stolen cutie mark. It was just like how the others were like: A perfectly cut square of skin from a pony’s flank, dried and mailed to the victim's family. Luster wasn’t fazed anymore at just a grim sight. After the first 3 times she got an opportunity to see the skinned mark, she stopped gagging at the sight. Luster took out her notebook and took a few notes, ‘Moonshadow, Tribe: Earth Pony, Cutie Mark: A Radenting Moon. Meaning: Destined to work for Luna and/or use moon magic.’ She placed the mark back into the urn and the urn back on the dresser, taking a moment of silence for the fallen, and walked back into the living room. Sunspot was still sitting at the couch, now with a cup of tea, “Oh, you’re back already?” Luster sat back on the couch, “Yes, and I must thank you for letting me do this.” “It’s the least I can do. If the princess is doing a full-scale operation, then I must allow any evidence to be recorded. I should be thanking you for being so brave, Luster Dawn.” Luster nodded in agreement, “It’s no problem really, though collecting evidence wasn't easy. I do want to ask a few questions about Moonshadow if you don’t mind.” Luster has parchment and a quill ready. “Oh, yes, of course.” “Alright. Was Moonshadow acting strangely during the week leading up to her disappearance?” “Oh, no-no-no. She was as quick and cheery as ever. No change in behavior.” Luster wrote that down, “What about her friend group? Anything weird there?” “No, she had the same number of friends, nothing weird there.” Luster frustratedly wrote that down, “Oooook… Did she talk to any pony suspicious?” “No no, not that I knew of.” Luster wrote that down before scribbling on her paper angrily, “Uh… Are you alright?” “Yes! Yes everything is fine! It’s not like I’m not able to get some leads!” Luster shouted angrily before planting her face into the couch cushions. After a minute of awkward silence from a slightly stunned Sunspot, Luster rose from her angry place and looked at Sunspot with a tired expression, “I’m sorry. It’s just… This case has been difficult to solve… I haven’t gotten a lead in the last 48 hours. When I did, it always led to a dead end. The Cutie Mark Ripper is an anomaly all in its…” A wave of realization came across Luster Dawn, and she jumped up from her seat, “That’s it! To find an anomaly, you gotta speak to an anomaly!” “Wha- What in Equestria are you on about?” Sunspot quizzed. “Thank you for your time, Miss Blaze, but I just hit a crack in the case!” “I’m… Glad I could be of assistance?” And with that, Luster Dawn rushed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her. Sunspot Blaze for her part took a sip of her tea, “Oh Moonshadow… Justice will be brought forth, and you will have peace.” Chapter 4 Luster Dawn paced around the train station, mumbling to herself, “Oh I can’t believe the train to Ponyville is delayed.” “Yeah, you say it, sister.” A voice says. Luster turned around and saw a blue coat kirin with a purple mane, “Honestly, I nearly turned Nirik, I’m so annoyed.” Luster Dawn huffed, “Come on train we all have to be somewhere!” “Yeah, train! Some of us got jobs and families to go to!” The kirin mare jumps in. Luster Dawn giggles a little, and the kirin continues, “I mean, I got places to be, this unicorn here has places to be, that changeling and dragon couple over there has some places to be, that deer over there has places to be, everyone here has some places to be!” Luster burst out laughing, “Oh my Celestia, you are such a card!” The kirin walks over to Luster Dawn, “Well I am Jokes Kard. A pleasure to meet you.” Jokes reached her hoove out for a hoove shake. Luster shakes Jokes’ hoove but is immediately hit with a powerful yet short electric shock. Jokes Kard laughs, “Oh the old electric hoove trick. Never gets old!” “Ah... well…” Luster shook off her daze, “That was pretty funny.” Luster laughed along with Jokes. After a while, the train finally arrives, “Oh there’s the train.” Luster looks at Jokes, “You going to Ponyville too?” “Oh yeah, I have to grab some produce from the market place there.” The two stepped onto the train, “I know it’s a long ways away to get some vegetables and fruit, but hey, support the ones who produce it directly, right?” “Right!” Luster hops on a bench and gestures for Jokes to sit down. Jokes smile and sits, “Since we’re going to the same place, we might as well chat.” “Thank you, Ms uh…” “Oh! Luster Dawn.” “Luster Dawn? Aren’t you the student of Princess Twilight Sparkle?” “Why yes, I am.” “You really shouldn’t be flaunting your title like that you know.” Luster crooks her head, “Why not?” Jokes Kard leads in close and puts her hoove next to her mouth so no one could read her lips. She then whispers, “Because the Cutie Mark Ripper is still at large.” “Wha-! How do you-!” Jokes cover Luster's mouth. “Not so loud.” She whispers as Luster nodded, signaling her to put her hoof down, “News travels fast if you're in the right groups, and us truth-speaking kirin can spread news fast.” “Oh no… I gotta solve this case then. The more ponies that know, the more likely the wendigos will circle.” “The… Wendigos?” Jokes suddenly got worried. “Yeah. Didn’t you hear about it?” “Hmmm…” Jokes Kard thinks for a moment, “So that’s why I saw Princess Cadance and Princess Flurry Heart earlier today. Off to spread hope and light.” “Exactly. While I’m sent to catch this ripper.” “Hm. Tell me more.” Jokes smiled devilishly. “Well” Luster held up some pieces of paper, “according to my research-” But quickly put them away and gave Jokes a look, and stared at her for a while. The kirin was just sitting there, smiling not in any creepy way, eyes half close and just, so calm. But that expression shifted to a frown. “That was a joke,” Kard explained, “A good detective won’t tell a stranger all the evidence they have accumulated.” Kard shifts herself so Luster could leave the booth. Luster took this opportunity and hopped off to find another booth. “You’re a weird one, Jokes Kard.” She comments before leaving. “Yeah, I get that a lot.” Luster found a new vacant booth and sat down, taking out her papers to review what she could find. Out of the seven missing ponies, the five cutie marks she got to see to review special talents, and the series of questions she got to ask six out of the seven families, Luster finally had a picture to work off of: All of the ponies that were missing had no new friends and no unusual events happened leading up to the teleportation activating. Each of their special talents, that were reflected by their cutie mark, was something to do with magic, whether that be studying it, brew potions, use magical remnants to heal, or use magic to control the weather. No matter what tribe they belonged to, it was a shared trait among the ponies. Luster put away her notes and got out a piece of parchment and a quill, writing, “Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle, “While I failed to find the who or where the Cutie Mark Ripper is, I have found the why to this mystery. Through my detective research, I have found that each pony had great magic to them, no matter the tribe they were in. While you may fear that the students in the magic school may be under threat, I believe that they aren’t. The Cutie Mark Ripper isn’t aiming to only target unicorn magic, but magic from all the tribes, targeting primarily Pegasi for some reason. With unicorns being the minority. Thought that’s not to say you shouldn't take precautions. Right now, I got a few hunches and I need answers. “Since the Cutie Mark Ripper is targeting innate magic users, I must figure out if the Cutie Mark Ripper is either taking it for themself or just killing the ponies just for being so powerful with magic. And to answer that, I must seek out Discord. You taught us that Discord was a chaotic entity, an anomaly of chaos and disharmony. So I reasoned that, since the Cutie Mark Ripper is such an anomaly, he can help me find them. I am currently on a train from Manehattan to Ponyville right now, going to go question the draconequus. “However, all that may be unnecessary if this next hunch is correct because I met a shifty figure on the train just now. A kirin by the name Jokes Kard. She says she’s going to Ponyville to get produce, which isn’t a likely story. Can you get the local police to take her in and question her please? I’ll feel much safer with her cleared. “Your best student, Luster Dawn.” With the letter signed, Luster sent the letter to her mentor. With a heavy heart, she looks out the window to the scenery passing by, sighing. This adventure was taking its toll on the young unicorn. Chapter 5 “Next stop, Ponyvillie!” The conductor yelled. “Finally!” Luster shouted, watching the window as the train stopped. She imminently noticed two things: One, four guards waiting at one of the doors and the draconequus himself, Discord, waiting at the station with one of the Princess' friends, Fluttershy. As soon as the doors opened, Luster rushed out to meet with the guard, “Hello officers.” “Greetings Luster Dawn.” One of the stallons said, “Discord is right over there, but before you go, can you please tell us what Jokes Kard looks like?” He asks as the other guard stops anyone from leaving the train. “Oh yes yes!” Luster got excited, “She’s a kirin mare, blue coat, purple mane, green details, and dark green eyes.” “Thank you, Luster Dawn.” The guards quickly became organized and filed everyone to look for Jokes Kard. Luster for her part walked up to Discord and Fluttershy, who seemed to be having a conversation. “Now Discord, when working with Luster Dawn, can you promise me you won’t be too chaotic? She isn’t used to your chaos magic.” Discord rolled his eyes, “Oh fine. But I’ll only do it because the author of this fanfiction can’t seem to figure out how to write me.” “Oi! No breaking the fourth wall!” “Sweetie, the audience can guess the ending from a mile away, you aren’t fooling anyone.” “What?! You don’t know what I have planned.” “I am a Spirit of Chaos, oh dear author Bravery, I have ears everywhere.” “Well fine. You can break the fourth wall but that is it. Also, don’t tell characters things they should know yet.” “Oh ok fine. But you aren’t any fun.” “Who are you talking to Discord?” Fluttershy perks up. “Oh, no pony important.” Jerk… Luster Dawn walks up to them, “Uh… Hello. I’m sure you’re Discord, right?” “Oh I don’t know, maybe I’m just Discord’s cousin, Princess Eris.” With a snap of his claws, Discord transformed his head into a pink bird with ram’s horns and peacock feathers, “Oh look at me, I’m Princess Eris! I am the alternate-universe Lord of Chaos and I keep evil Celestia on a leash!” He quickly changed his head back to normal, “Oh how I dislike her. Yes, I am Discord.” “Oh! That’s good.” Luster shifted a bit and took out her notes, “Now uh… Can we go somewhere private? I don’t want anyone to hear.” “Oh of course! I know a bunch of places. How about-” Fluttershy steps in before Discord could snap his fingers. “You can review your evidence in my cottage. It’s far away enough so no pony will bother you.” “Thank you, Fluttershy.” Luster Dawn said. She then turned her attention back to Discord, “Teleport us to Fluttershy’s home!” “Oh ok fine! No need to shout, I’m right here.” With a snap of his claws, teleport the three of them away. Meanwhile with the guard, one of the mare guards exits the train as it leaves the station, “Anything?” One of the stallion guards asks. “No… There were no kirins on this train.” “Any changelings?” “No. No changelings on this train.” “That’s… Unusual… We must report this to the Princess.” “Ahead of you sir.” The other mare guard says. “Ummm… Sir?” The other stallion guard peeps, “Do you think this could be one big wild goose chase?” “Maybe.” The veteran says, “If this Jokes Kard wasn’t on this train, we might as well have been hoodwinked! Tell the princess at one!” “Yes sir!” The other guards say while saluting. The veteran stallion steps aside and looks to the town, “In Ponyville… Anything could happen. Whether that’s for the better or the worse…” Luster Dawn sits at a couch, watching as Discord reviews the evidence she had collected, reading glasses and all. Fluttershy comes out with a cart of tea and cucumber sandwiches, “Tea anypony?” She asks. Luster nods her head and Fluttershy pours a cup of tea and hands it to Luster. “Goodness, even Celestia’s horn writing isn’t this bad.” Discord comments. “Discord…” Fluttershy rebukes. “It’s legible, but I must say, you need to work on your horn writing Luster.” Discord levitates a teacup and the teapot, flipping the cup upside down as the tea pours upward into it, “Although, I must say, you truly are Twilight’s student if you are this diligent in your research.” “Thank you. But I know I’m missing several pieces of information. Which is why I came to you.” Luster takes out more parchment and a quill, “I need to know if this ripper is taking the magic for themself or just killing ponies.” Discord rolled his eyes so far they rolled onto the floor. He picked them up and popped them back in, “In case you didn’t know already, I can sense if there’s a magical imbalance.” He snapped his fingers on his lion’s paw and reappeared a few feet away from the crouch, along with a large wooden box with buttons and lights, with a consent stream of paper that has a spiky red line, “As you can see here in the paperwork, you can clearly see that… That…” Discord took a closer look at the graph, “That can’t be right.” his tone shifted to one more serious, “No no no, this magic is identical to Tirek’s magic stealing magic… But he’s still trapped in stone, how could this be possible.” Fluttershy and Luster Dawn exchange looks of worry. Luster gets up from her seat and to Discord, “Is there a problem, Discord sir?” “Is there a problem? Is there a problem?!” Discord gets into Luster’s face, “Twilight’s right about this being a crisis!” He snaps the equipment away and starts pacing around the room, “This is major! Equestria never faced a threat like this! Not when Nightmare Moon returned, not when I returned, not when Chrysalis attacked, not when Sombra returned, not when Tirek returned, not when the Storm King invaded, not when Cozy Glow drained the magic, not even when Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow got powered up!” With every villain named, DIscord made a small figurine of them. He then threw them across the room, “None were as dangerous as they were, because they never killed any pony to get their magic!” “Discord, you have to calm down.” Fluttershy flies up to him and hands him a paper bag to breathe with. Instead of the bag inflating, Discord’s neck inflates. He calms down and makes the bag disappear. He then hugs Fluttershy, “Oh Fluttershy! How I fear you may be next and I may not be there when you need it! I wasn’t there when the changelings captured you all those years ago!” Fluttershy pats Discord’s back. “Ummm… Should I still be here?” Luster Dawn asks. “Oh? Did you get the information you need? Fluttershy asks. Discord immediately answers, “Whoever this Cutie Mark Ripper is, is stealing magic in a similar fashion Tierk did when he stole everypony’s magic way back when. I should also point out that they are masking their antics with various spells so the magic becomes more dispersed. That’s why I didn’t detect anything sooner. Got all that L.D?” While Discord was talking, Luster was furiously taking notes, “I think I do. Thank you for your time Discord.” “It’s no problem at all.” With a snap of his fingers, he takes the saddlebag Luser has been carrying around and plops it onto her back with all her notes in it, “Now hurry along, go make Equestria safe!” Luster nodded and trot out of the cottage, off to figure out the case, “You know, author, you wrote me quite well.” “Why thank you Discord.” “Who are you talking to, Discord?” Fluttershy questioned. “Oh, no one important Fluttershy.” He he, Fluttercord forever…! Chapter 6 Luster trekked through Ponyvillie, thinking long and hard about what she had learned that day before. It’s been three days since she was given the mission and has been 19 hours since she met Jokes Kard. Now, she hasn’t caught even a glimpse of Jokes all morning at the market, which made Luster very untrustful of everyone there. She couldn’t help but think, “What if Jokes is the Cutie Mark Ripper? What if she was coming to Ponyvillie to hunt for her next target? Why was she so calm in talking to me the other day? Is she targeting me?” Her thought all came to a head when she ran into a tall unicorn, sending both their saddlebags off of their back and all over the ground, “Ah! I’m so sorry!” The unicorn, tall and elegant, powder snow coat and black straight mane were also wearing a beautiful long cloak. She looked down at Luster Dawn, who was attempting to gather all her things. The unicorn, silently, helped her get her things back in order, and placed Luster’s saddlebag back onto her, “You should be a bit more careful young one.” That voice. It sounded all too familiar. Luster looked up but saw the unicorn was gone. Luster shook her head in confusion, “Must have been my imagination… Or, maybe it wasn’t…” Luster was too confused to think straight. She looked around the surrounding area, and there! Sugarcube Corner, “Oh yes! I need a hot chocolate.” Luster trotted over to the lovely bakery, treading carefully, watching out for Jokes and that mysterious unicorn. Luster enters the sweet establishment, smelling the air for whatever incredible smells it had in store. However, instead of the anticipated smells of chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, or the like, she was met with a thud to the face, with the following smell of rubber. Luster looked down and saw the item that aggressively booped her nose: A rubber chicken with the number 6 on it. A young yellow and messy pink mane colt ran up to it and picked it up, hugging it. He then looks up at Luster with a smile, “Sorry about that ma’am! Boneless 6 often has a mind of his own.” He swung the now named Boneless 6 around so it was riding his back. Luster simply rubbed her nose and smiled back, “It’s ok. Nopony was hurt.” The young colt runs to the backroom while a pegasus stallion flies out, stopping mid-air when he spots Luster, “Luster Dawn!” He shouts, flying over to give Luster a hoof shake, before turning his head towards the back door, “Pumpkin! Luster’s back!” A yellow unicorn came from the backroom and spotted Luster, running up to hug her, “Welcome back Luster!” The twins back off to give Luster some space, “What brings you back to Ponyvillie?” “Hey Pumpkin, hi Pound. I’m on a case and I came to Ponyville to speak with DIscord. But now I’m kinda at a dead end.” “Oh, that’s bad.” Pound Cake flies to the counter. “Do you need anything, sugar?” Pumpkin asks, following her brother. “Yesh, I could go for a hot chocolate.” Luster sits at a nearby table and chair, laying her head on said table. “You got it! Pound, can you go make it for her?” Pumpkin asks. “Sure thing sis!” Pound Cake zips right into the backroom. Pumpkin walks over to demoralized Luster Dawn and pulls another chair up to sit on, “What troubles you, sugar?” Luster sighs heavily and takes out her notebook, filled with various notes on her quest, “It’s just… The Princess sent me on a mission, and even though I feel like I have every bit and piece for the puzzle, something is missing. Like, I’m missing that last crucial piece of the puzzle that will make this whole case crystal clear.” Luster face-planted into the table as Pound Cake came out with her hot chocolate. “Oh dear… I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling, sugar.” “Yeah, sounds like you’ve been to Tartarus and back again.” Pound Cake comments, “Maybe you need to take a step back, look at the bigger picture.” Luster looks back up, “I’ve tried that, but no matter what angle I look at it, this case is an anomaly… Unsolvable, until something new happens. And I can only fear what that could mean…” The twins look at each other, confused but wanting to help their friend. Pumpkin nudges the hot chocolate to Luster and Pound Cake grabs a slice of apple pie with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, “Don’t worry Luster Dawn.” Pound Cake says, “You are the smartest pony we know. You’ll solve this case.” “Yeah! You solved mysteries even we couldn’t solve. Remember that time we couldn’t figure out the culprit of the eaten birthday cupcakes a month ago?” Luster smiled a little, “Yeah I guess…” “Yeah! Who knew it was Li'l Cheese behind it!?” Pound Cake shouts. The colt in question hops out from the back room, “I regret nothing!” He says in a singsong voice. The three grown ponies laugh and Luster takes a swig of hot cocoa, “You know what? You two are right! I can solve this mystery. I will find the culprit! Justice will be severed!” She pounded her hoof on the table, “And it will be served cold.” Pumpkin clapped her hooved together, “Great line delivery, Luster.” “Thank you Pumpkin.” “Eh hm!” A voice perks up, “I hate to break the lovely moment, but I would like to be served today.” The three ponies turn and see a green Changeling waiting by the counter. Pound and Pumpkin Cake cheerfully trot over to assist a customer, but Luster takes a good long look at the Changeling. There wasn’t anything too special to this particular Changeling, but her mind was sending all the red flags. Something about her pose, her calm demeanor, just something this changeling was giving her gut a bad feeling. Her voice didn’t sound familiar, but at this point, Luster wasn’t paying attention to what was being said, but rather what the Changeling was buying: 3 dozen cupcakes, all vanilla with real vanilla frosting. The Changeling paid for the food and walked out of the establishment. The twins noticed Luster staring at their customer, and once the changeling left, they walked back to her, “Is there a problem, Luster?” Pound Cake asks. “I… I don’t know. But every bone in my body is telling me that changeling is up to no good.” Pumpkin rolled her eyes, “Sugar, Ms. Junebug isn’t some crazed changeling. She’s a very nice changeling, one who loves to host small get-togethers. She’s simply getting ready for another get-together.” “I know my suspicions may be arbitrary, but I just know it. Something isn’t right here.” “Yeah… Ok.” Pound says with disdain in his voice. Suddenly, a grey coat, yellow mane pegasus stumbly flies into Sugarcube Corner. She gets back onto her hooves and looks around, “Letter for Dawn Luster? Oh no, I meant Luster Dawn.” She then takes out a scroll. “That’s me. Luster Dawn.” Luster gets up and takes the letter from the mail pony, “Thank you.” She opens the letter and starts reading it, suddenly looking very nervous, “Oh no…” “What’s wrong?” The twins asked in unison. “I’m being summoned to Canterlot at once!” Chapter 7Author's Note I’M BACK FROM MY WRITING BREAK! LET’S HECKING DO THIS!!!! Chapter 7 Luster Dawn ran through the streets of Canterlot, running past many bystanders, “Out of the way!” All Luster could yell at anyone in her path. Thoughts racing in her head, listening to the letter on loop, repeating it over and over and over again, “Dear Luster Dawn, “It has come to my attention that the past 3 days has been incredibly stressful for you, and that your judgement may have been clouded. However, I cannot blame you for your worries. “I am summoning you back to Canterlot at once so we can discuss this case pony to pony. “Your teacher, “Princess Twilight Sparkle” Luster could hear the letter in the princess’ voice, over and over and over again. What could she mean? Luster wasn’t stressed. She was on the brink of solving the case! She just needed more time. Luster ran through the white and gold gates, through the palace halls, and barged into the throne room, “Princess Twilight! I came as fast as I…” Luster’s sentence trailed off when she saw the room was empty, aside from the two guards that stood guard of the throne. Luster walks up to them, “Excuse me, sirs? Where’s the princess?” “Oh, uh… She’s in the kitchen.” “The kitchen? Well uh… Thanks.” Luster trots through the castle, looking for the kitchen. Why would the Princess be in the kitchen? Luster couldn’t help but wonder this. After asking several maid’s staff about where the heck this kitchen was, Luster finally opens the door and find the most unusual of sights: The Princess of Friendship, still in royal attire, covered in flour and other ingredients of baking, mixing bowl, all while the oven is cooking something else. Twilight looks over to see Luster standing in the doorway, confused. “Oh! Luster! There you are! Take a seat, take a seat!” Luster just places her bag aside and sits at the foot of the long table. Twilight brings out several small tarts, all appearing to be of different fruits, “I made 50 tarts for us to try!” Luster never heard the Princess use that tone of voice with her before, “I made banana, strawberry, kiwi, dragonfruit, that one was Spike’s idea. Coconut, pineapple, oranges, lemon!” Twilight took a moment to breathe, “And my favorite: The Surprise Tart.” She holds up a rainbow colored tart. “Uh… Dare I ask what the surprise tart is made of?” “That’s the best part! I closed my eyes and picked a random fruit! Now we have to eat it to figure it out!” Twilight split the mystery tart in two. “Princess, I don’t think-” Luster was cut off when Twilight shoved one half of the tart into her mouth, as she took a bite of her half. Luster tasted something she never had before. Something incredibly sweet, “what…?” Is all she could say with a full mouth. “Ooooh! Zap Apple! And they weren’t even in season! Isn’t that amazing?” Luster swallowed her treat and pounded the table, “Princess what is the meaning of this?!” Twilight took a step back, slightly shocked, “Ponies are dying out there and you pulled me away from my work for tarts!?” A few guards and staff poked their heads into the door to listen, “The Cutie Mark Ripper is out there, preying on powerful and magic oriented ponies of all tribes, feeding off of their magic, slowly growing stronger, under the radar of even Discord! And you summoned me here, right when I was about to solve this case, and you brought me here for desserts!?” Luster could feel her mane and tail going up in flames for how heated she felt. When she finally stopped seeing red, she looked up and saw the bewildered face of her mentor, quietly putting away the tarts, “wha- No no Princess! I didn’t mean-“ “No, I don’t blame you Luster. When I got the scroll from you on the train, I panicked and sent guards to find this Jokes Kard. But when they reported no Kirin on the train, or Changelings, I thought that, maybe you were imagining things.” “Maybe, now I think about it… I wasn’t in the best of head spaces…” “Hmmmm… And after your visit to Discord, he came straight to me and told me what he had found. I realize at that point that I had a choice to make: Let you continue looking for the ripper under threat of becoming a target. Or summon you back behind the walls of the castle, and let the royal guard find the murderer. Oh… It took me a while weighting my opinions, Luster.” “But you chose my safety above all else.” “Please forgive me, Luster.” “No no… I do forgive you Princess. You just want to protect me. I’m sorry for blowing up on you.” “It’s ok. It’s ok.” There’s a moment of silence between the two. Not one of awkwardness or anger, but rather them winding down after all that had happened. Luster took her bag off the floor and spilled it’s contents on the table, “Did you find anything new out?” “No… What you know is what I know. Magic stealing, the stealing of cutie marks, ponies for different tribes, and the victims all having a common destiny in magic, no matter the tribe. We don’t know who or what the ripper is… And It could be anyone. I’ve been so paranoid that practically every stanger I met I suspected to be the killer.” “Well… Can I see your notes? Maybe I can figure something out.” “Oh yeah sure.” Luster elevated her notebook off the table to the Princess, when she noticed something strange: A stray gemstone, a jet black stone that is, radiating black pulses. Luster lifted it up with magic, studying it, “Hey what’s this?” Luster got up from her seat and held the stone in her hoof. Suddenly, it let out a strong pulse Luster and Twilight felt. Before Twilight could react, several numbers and symbols appear around Luster, and a circle has been drawn; the teleportation circle. “Luster!” Twilight ran forward and tried to reach for her student, but was pushed back to a dark aura around Luster. Both Luster and Twilight tried to use magic but the aurora blocked Twilight’s energy beam, and Luster couldn’t cast any magic. Luster could see the circle around her burning up, as she sunk into the floor. “Princess!” Luster desperately tried to climb out of the burning sigil but it was no use, the dark aura pushed down on Luster, causing her to lose her grip on the edges of the sigil. Tears of fear stream down from her face, “Help me!” She loses her grip and falls into the void below, screaming the long way down. On the Princess’ end, she watches through tears as the magical portal closes and the sigil stops burning, leaving a scorching mark of the circle in the place of where Luster once stood. Twilight could only cry in her hooves as the worst has just transpired. It would take an hour before the tears stopped and for Twilight to face reality. Chapter 8Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter 9 Rosie walked over to Luster’s left, as Luster was sweating profusely. On one hoof, she doesn’t want this to happen, but on the other hoof, if she moves, she will receive another shock. With little options to her, Luster could only watch as the blade came closer and closer to her flank. The hot blade soon came into contact with Luster’s skin, and a shiver went up her spine, “D’awwww, scared? Don’t worry, little blood will be lost. I remembered to heat these up before usage.” Rosie applies little bits of pressure, but not enough to go deeper than skin level, cutting a perfect square just 3 inches around the cutie mark. Luster did her best not to scream due to the pain, as warm tears started to stream down her face, “You are very brave Luster Dawn. More so than some of my other victims. Ready for round two?” Rosie says moving to Luster’s right mark. Luster tried to shake her head no but the strap restrained her. Rosie chuckled a little, “Good.” As she started to cut again, carefully and slowly taking the hide off of her flank, making sure any opened blood vessels were cauterized. After what felt like forever to Luster, she saw Rosie levitate the two cutie marks in front of Luster, whistling at them, “Wow! I don’t think I have a cutie mark quite like this one before. I’ll have to take great care when drying them.” Rosie placed the marks away from Luster’s view as a smirk grew on Rosie’s face, “Now… Time for stage two.” “What…?” Luster whimpered as she could feel the air on her open wounds, “What’s stage two?” Rosie laughed a wicked laugh as her horn started to glow as Luster could a part of herself being stripped away from her horn, as orange magic flowed from Luster to Rosie, who appeared to be consuming the magic. Once it finally ended, Luster weakly looked up at Rosie, who was licking her lips as she lapped up some orange substance off of her lips, “Ooooooh ho ho! I tell you, you only can get a fraction of the taste of a pony when stealing their magic, but it’s just so delectable! And you had such rich magic, Luster Dawn. Kinda regret not savoring it for long enough.” Luster can only groan, “That’s… great…” “Ugh. I hate that about magic stealing. It physically drains my victims. No matter, for I do have a solution.” Rosie grabs a syringe and injects it into Luster’s thigh. Luster jolted awake, heart-pounding and lungs racing for air. “Wha-? What did you do?” “Inject adrenaline into you. I can’t have you sleeping on me and risk you not waking up.” “What? But you have all that you want from me. What more do you want?” Rosie giggled a little. Then the giggle turned into a laugh. Her laugh turned into a cackle, “Oh you innocent little pony.” Rosie lurked behind Luster, “You simply don’t get it. How do you think I get rid of the bodies?” Rosie goes right up to Luster’s ear and whispers, “I don’t just kill them. I eat them.” She then licked Luster’s ear as a sensation went down Luster’s spine. Such a weird feeling, “Oh you like that huh? Naughty little pony.” Rosie giggled as she walked back to her cart. All Luster could do is look disgustedly at her tormentor. However, disgust quickly turned to fear as Rosie levitated several tools up in the air. Luster tried one more time to escape her bindings, but as promised before, Rosie sent out another electric shock into Luster, this one for not as long, but more powerful, “Stop moving. Otherwise, this will be more painful than it is.” Luster couldn’t help but weep, “Princess….” “Oh stop the waterworks.” In one quick movement, four scalpels slash at Luster’s abdomen. Luster let out a scream as a perfect square of flesh falls from her body, “For the fun has just started.” With the opening now in place, Rosie gets a good look at what she has to empty out, watching the blood and cauterizing the opened blood vessels. She will only let Luster die once she has one organ in hoof. Using magic, Rosie starts to poke around in Luster’s inners, “Oh so many sacks, so little time! What should I pull out first?” Luster began to gag at the scent of her own exposed organs and getting the feeling of the desire to throw up. To Luster’s disgust, Rosie set her sights on the intestines, using magic to grab the large intestine, setting it aside somewhere unseen, doing the same with the small intestine. The smell alone was enough to make Luster physically gag and throw up, but nothing came up, “I cast a bunch of spells to clean you of anything that was still digesting. You realize Zap Apples aren’t in season, right?” Luster continued to cry, not because of the pain, she became numb to it for the most part. It was mostly from the emotional turmoil she’s been through, “Princess… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sor- AAAAAAAAAH!” She screams as Rosie pulls out her liver. “Very, very healthy liver you have. Can’t wait to sink my teeth into it.” Rosie places it aside and takes out the gallbladder and a kidney, watching the blood flow, “Hm… I need to cut more.” With another quick movement, she slashes up on Luster’s chest with her trusty scalpels, revealing the rib cage. Luster continued to scream but her voice started to fade. The screaming didn’t concern Rosie, as she reached for the bone saw. She aimed and started to carefully look at the ribcage, being a little sloppy due to how eager she was in getting her prize. Luster could feel her will to live slipping away. There was no point in fighting anymore, she thought as Rosie tugged at one of her lungs, trying to brush it aside. “I’m sorry princess… I’m sorry….” “There’s the prize.” Rosie paid no mind to the dying Luster, “Well Luster Dawn, it’s been fun, but your spirit has to move on from this mortal plane. It was nice to know you. Goodbye.” Rosie, beyond any better judgment, plunged her hooves into Luster’s chest cavity and ripped out the heart of the pony. Luster, the star student of Princess Twilight Sparkle, was no more, as a last gasp of breath left her mortal body. Chapter 10 Luster slowly opened her eyes, rubbing her head to rid of the headache she suddenly got, “What… What happened…?” Luster glanced down and saw herself? She screamed in fear and look at her hooves. Transparent. She looked around the room. She was still in the kitchen but somepony turned on a fog machine. Luster looked towards the ground. She was floating! Screaming in sheer terror, she tried to run but run into some pony. “Woah woah woah, sweetie! Calm down!” A calming voice spoke. Luster looked at the figure she runs into. She was a pastel yellow unicorn mare with a light pink and white mane. Her cutie mark a snowflake with magical sparkles around it. “You… You’re Solar Snow.” Luster backed up and run into another pony. She looked over and saw a flying Pegasi, one with a navy coat and a blonde mane, “And you’re Mythic Fashion.” Luster looked around the room as several other ghostly ponies appeared, “Silent Step? Moonshadow Blaze? Ruby Moonlight? Sandy Dream? Ivory Charm?” Solar Snow walked, no hovered walked, to Luster and placed a hoof on her shoulder, “And now, Luster Dawn.” “Welcome to the ghost team, Luster!” Ruby Moonlight shouted. “Ruby! Be more sensitive!” Ivory scolded, “She just died.” “Um… Yeah… You should be sensitive, Ruby…” Sandy barely mumbled. Silent Step walked over to Luster and gives her a hug, “Uh….” Luster questioned. “Yeah, Silent doesn’t say much, but she does do a lot through action.” Moonshadow comments, “I think she wants to comfort you.” “Well… I’m definitely going to need it…” Luster looks down at her body, which was being unstrapped from the boards by Rosie and placed it on the island counter, belly side up, “I don’t know what to do now…” “Is it true? You’re the Princess of Friendship’s top student?” Moonshadow quizzed. “Yeah, it’s true… Though I guess that title made me an easy target…” Silent Step gave Luster some head pats, “But I’m just… I was so close to solving the case! At least now the Princess has all my notes… She’ll solve this case…” “You place a lot of faith in your mentor.” Silent Step spoke and everyone’s heads turn to listen, “to bring justice on our tormentor. Our flesh and blood, this beast will reign. But we hope that she will be detained…” Rosie could hear all. She knew of the ghost, she knew they wished justice. But justice wouldn’t come to them, for Rosie knew, if there were no bodies, there was no chance she could be caught. And what better way to get rid of bodies then to feed hungry mouths it. Rosie took off the remaining hide on Luster’s body. No need to have a burned coat on the meat. She also cut and shaved off the mane and tail of Luster, planning on anonymously donating them to a charity. Once she stripped the meat of the hide, she used her magic to lift the butcher’s knife and cut off Luster’s head and all of the hard hoof parts of the legs. Once that was done, she continues to take out all the organs from the cuts she made earlier, making sure no organs burst open, so no bodily acid spill out and all the good meat would go to waste. She had that happen a few times in the past, she won’t let it happen again. Besides, this was Chanterlot pony meat. She only had it once but she craved more of it. Once the body was gutted completely, she continued to clean out any remaining membranes. Finally, once everything was cleaned out, Rosie took the inners that weren’t edible to her and placed them in the sink, cleaning them with hot water. She then placed them on the cutting board and chopped them up into small pieces and put them in a dog’s bowl. She placed it on the floor against the wall and whispered, “Niko! Come here, boy!” A large dog comes bursting from a doggo door under the door and charges for the food, chowing down on the meat, “Who’s my good partner in crime? You are! Yes, you are!” She says petting the beast’s head. Once she was done doting on her pet, she returns to the meat on the counter, levitating it into the large sink, running water on it. Being very thorough she cleans the meat with her hooves, knowing magic won’t cut it for cleaning. Once she takes the meat out of the sink, Rosie used magic to create dotted lines all over the body, right where prime cuts were. First, she cut the fats from the body, as she never liked that part of it. Next, she cut off the front legs, being cut just under the shoulder blades. She then removed the belly meat from the rest of the body and removed the back legs. Next was removing the pelvis, neck, and ribcage, which was very easy to do. She set those aside in a pot; Rosie planned on making broth with them. Finally, she organized the pieces and cut the loins into sections for cut selection. Whipping her face with a clean towel, Rosie Plague stepped back and admired her work: From a Unicorn to meats, including two back legs, two front legs, two belly meats, and three loin sections. She will be eating well during the month. “Job well done, Rosie. Job well done.” Rosie took out a large rectangle pan and placed a back leg on it for dinner, and set it aside. She then took saran wrap and several large and small white styrofoam plates, placing the meats on them and wrapping them up tightly, storing them in the freezer. Once all the pieces were placed in, Rosie grabbed some cleaning supplies and started to clean up the blood and gore that was all over the kitchen, whistling while she worked. Niko walked over to his pony owner, lapping his chops, and sniffed the ground at where a blood puddle was, whimpering, “Oh don’t worry Niko. We won’t be caught. There’s no way to know it was me. The Princess of Dreams no longer walks in them, so the magic of dreamscaping is not a threat to us. As long as I play my cards right and lay low for a month, no one will figure it out.” She says, plunging the mop back into the bucket, completing the butcher session. Prologue Princess Twilight Sparkle rose from her bed and used the amulet she'd used for many years to raise the sun and lower the moon, starting a new day for Equestria. Ruffling her feathery wings, blushing her divine mane, and putting on her royal entire. Twilight walks out and looks out from her balcony, watching the lovely citizens of Equestria, pony or otherwise, go about their lives. Twilight takes a deep breath in, smelling the lovely scent of roses in the air, “Well isn’t this a lovely day in Equestria.” “Just don’t break out into song while you’re at it.” Twilight turned around to see who spoke, and there, leaning against the doorway was her number #1, Spike. “Spike, you’re up early.” Twilight walked over to him, “Heh, normally you would be sleeping in on your days off.” “Well, I would if there wasn’t a crisis.” Spike holds up several scrolls that sit in a pouch. One scroll falls out, unraveling a little, revealing in big red letters ‘MISSING’. Twilight gasps and lifts the scroll up to eye level and unravels it entirely, reading it, ‘MISSING! Solar Snow, Unicorn, Age: 23, Last Seen: Whinnyapolis, Reward: 100 Bits, if found, please contact the Snow Family’ Twilight could believe what she was reading, “There’s more.” Spike adds. Twilight quickly grabs two, three more scrolls and unravels them, ‘MISSING! Mythic Fashion, Pegasi, Age: 25, Last Seen: Neigh York, Reward: 100 Bits, contact the Fashion Family’ ‘MISSING! Silent Step, Pegasi, 21, Cloudsdale, Reward: 100 Bits, contact the Step Family’ Twilight dropped the scrolls and sat on the ground, covering her face with her hooves. “We have a crisis Spike…” She looks up to him, “How many more are missing?” Spike looks in the bag, counting, “One, two, three… Plus the three you dropped… Seven.” “Seven ponies missing… How long were they missing?” “The oldest one was a year ago, the newest for just a month ago,” Spike said with sorrow in his voice. Twilight got back up on her hooves and took a deep breath in, holding back tears, “Send a scroll to Shining Armor, tell him to be ready to train the guard. And send a scroll to Luster Dawn. I need my top student to help crack this case.” Twilight runs out of her room with Spike following close behind, “I really hope we aren’t too late.” Author's Note Hello everypony! Thank you for reading the prologue of The Cutie Mark Ripper, inspired by Cupcakes by Drecker Jones aka Sergeant Sprinkles. I cannot wait for you all to read this story and enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it. With that, I hope you have a wonderful day! Epilogue Twilight sits quietly in the throne room, head low as she sets the amulet for sunset. The door to the darkened chamber opened and Spike stands in the doorway, “Uh… Twilight?” Twilight looks up to look at Spike, “Yes…?” “I uh… heard about what happened…” He flies over to Twilight and hugs her, “I… I’m so sorry.” “I just… I don’t know what to do Spike… My best student, the one I taught the values of friendship, the one I told myself I would protect, disappeared right in front of me… If only I got a hold of that stone, I could have done some research on it, and figure out who made it narrow the suspect list.” “Look, Twilight… I don’t know what to do either. I’m trying to make sure the news doesn’t get out, but there are a few places that know, and ponies are starting to get suspicious. I know this is difficult for you, especially after… That… But we gotta keep moving forward and figure this mystery out.” “I know Spike… I know… Can you send scrolls to my parents, Shining, and Cadance? I need my family with me… And… Send a scroll to Sunburst and Trixie… They have to know the news too…” “Alright… You want me to stay here for a bit?” Twilight hugs Spike again, “Yes please…” Author's Note Thank you very much for reading The Cutie Mark Ripper. I will be continuing this story sometime in the future. But for now, I'll be taking a mental writing break. Once again, thank you very much for reading my first ever MLP fanfiction.
Chapter 1 Twilight watches from her throne as the ones she holds dear walk into the room, all brave to come in after learning of shocking news: Her big brother, Shining Armor, Captain of the Crystal Guard and King of the Crystal Empire, her sister-in-law Princess Cadance, Queen of the Crystal Empire and Princess of Love, her niece Princess Flurry Heart, Princess of Hope, her current captain of the royal guard Gallus, and her faithful and top-ranking student Luster Dawn. Twilight gives a reassuring smile to the small group, “Thank you for coming on such short notice. As you read in my scrolls, There are 7 missing ponies. 3 Pegasi, 2 Earth ponies, and 2 unicorns, last seen in different places across Equestria. I have called you all here to help me find them.” Shining Armor steps forward, his mane greying early due to stress, “Don’t worry Twilight. I’ll train the guard just like old times.” “Except you’ll be working with Gallus here.” She gestures to Galus, “He’s been climbing the ranks since the last time you were here, big brother.” Galus looks over to Shining Armor with a smile, but not his typical smirk, but a genuine smile. “Oh, I see. Well then, you better show me how things are run with a griffon in charge.” Shining says jokingly. “And we’ll see how they react with the old unicorn coming back.” Gallus jokes back. “Hey, he’s not that old!” Flurry Heart retaliates. “It’s all good banter, sweetie. No feelings hurt.” Shining replies. Twilight clears her throat, “Speaking of which, it has come to my attention that the moral in the cities the ponies were last seen in are at an all-time low. Ponies do not trust one another, early winter setting in, a clear sign the wendigos are circling.” “Say no more, auntie!” Flurry Heart perks up, jumping up to fly in the air, “We’ll spread light and hope to all of Equestria!” “I sure hope you do…” Twilight says melancholily, “With every passing day, those ponies are suffering, and I cannot let them suffer. Everyone except Luster is dismissed.” Everyone but Luster leaves the throne room, closing the door behind them. Twilight flutters down to Luster, who appears nervous, “Luster, you probably have the most important job of all.” Twilight wraps her wing around Luster to comfort her, “I didn’t want to scare Flurry Heart so I didn’t bring this up while she was in the room, but several leads have led me to believe that… Those ponies…” Twilight stops to collect herself, “Are dead.” “Dead? What leads you to think that, your majesty?” Twilight lets go of Luster, “Before I summoned you all here, I had to do some investigation into these disappearances, to figure out if they were connected. All I had was that they were all ponies, mares, 2 to 1 to 1 on each tribe. That isn’t a lot to go off of as you can imagine.” Twilight flies over Luster and lands four feet away from her, “But my gut told me they were connected somehow, and then, I found it.” “What did you find?” “This sigil burned into the ground of where they were last seen.” Twilight projects a sigil on the ground. A number wheel, with various numbers, letters, and symbols, “I decoded this symbol and realize it was a teleportation sigil, meaning whenever they burn, they teleport the pony to a set location.” “But where?” Luster questioned. “That’s the thing, Luster, I couldn’t track down where the original sigil is. Although… I did learn something gruesome about the families and their experience with this crisis…” “And dare I ask what that is…?” There’s a hint of fear in Luster’s voice. “They were... mailed the victim’s cutie mark.” “Yeah? Like in… Glass jars? Didn’t you tell me once your first student had cutie mark magic?” “It’s nothing like that Luster… Nothing like that. The cutie mark was never removed from the pony. But the skin the cutie mark was on was removed.” Luster gagged a little, “Oh I’m so sorry Luster. Maybe sending you on this mission isn’t a good idea…” “No no, Princess! I can handle this. Please, continue.” “Oh… Ok…” Twilight hesitates for a moment before continuing, “The skin the cutie mark was on was dried and shipped to the family of the victim, along with letters similar to this.” Twilight holds up a scroll and gives it to Luster. Luster opens it and reads it: ‘To the Star Family, I, The Cutie Mark Ripper, am gifting you one last piece of your lovely earth pony daughter, Sweet Star. I assure you none of her will go to waste, and that we both have one last piece of her before she disappears forever. Who knows, maybe you’ll find her again, but we will see. - The Cutie Mark Ripper’ Luster looked at the letter with disgust, rereading to understand what the letter could mean, and rolled it back up and a look of sorrow. “Your gut may be right, Princess… But I don’t understand this part, ‘I assure you none of her will go to waste’ what does that mean?” “This Cutie Mark Ripper must be referring to how she gets rid of the bodies, saving the cutie marks for whatever sick reason they have for doing this.” Twilight starts pacing around, “I don’t know why they are targeting only ponies, but that’s not the point. The point is, they are still on the loose, and we need everyone on deck for it.” “You can count on me, Princess! I still haven’t made any friends but I’m sure I can solve this case.” Luster stomped her hooves on the ground. “Thank you, Luster Dawn. But please… Remember the offensive magic you learned in school. I- It pains me to think you could become the Ripper’s next victim…” Twilight hugs Luster close, a tear coming down her face. “Don’t worry Princess.” Luster let go and jumped forward with confidence, “The hammer of justice will rain down on the Cutie Mark Ripper!” “I admire your confidence, Luster. And if you need anything, please don’t be hesitant to ask me.” Twilight climbed back onto her throne, “Not go. Every second wasted, another pony could be in danger.” “You can count on her Princess!” Luster ran out of the throne room, ready to take on this new challenge. Meanwhile, Spike looks over at Twilight as she does her breathing exercises, “You alright, Twilight?” Twilight covers her face with her hooves, “It’s just… How could I have let this happen right under my nose? I’m the ruler of Equestria, I’m supposed to protect my subjects.” “And you’re going your best. You couldn’t have known about any of this. Everything will be ok in the end.” Spike patted Twilight on the back and Twilight looked at him with a smile. “Thanks, Spike, but I hope you are right. I hope everything will be ok in the end.”
Chapter 2 “Come on, you Tin Buckets! Put your rears into high gear!” Shining Armor yelled at the guards who were doing laps around the track, “Except for you Tin Buckets! Keep it up, soldier!” An Earth Pony stallion whinnies with pride, and runs faster than before. Shining Armor walks over to Gallus, who was giving orders to the nonpony guards. Once they walked away, Gallus turned to Shining, “So you know the truth behind the ‘disappearances’?” Shining did air hooves. “Well yeah. Everyone in the guard knows. Once one guard knows, the news spreads like wildfire, but we swore allegiance to the Princess. This news won’t get out to the public.” Gallus and Shining walk together, watching the soldiers. “That’s good. When I read the scroll, I burned it so Flurry couldn’t read it by accident.” “She’s your daughter, right?” “My pride and joy, even now when she’s going through her teenage years. She’s kind and forgiving, but her worldview could shatter if she knew the beings she brings hope to are being slaughtered.” “So she’s a precious little cinnamon roll, huh?” “That’s right.” “Yeah, I know someone who sounds just like that. Are you familiar with Silverstream?” “Niece to Queen Novo? How could I not? She and Flurry are always bouncing off the walls during diplomatic missions to Mount Aris. She seems like a nice hippogriff. Are you friends with her or something?” “Well yeah. We became friends at Twilight’s Friendship School during its early years, saving Equestria together with our other friends. After we graduated, I guess something just clicked because I became very romantically attached.” “D’awwwww, young love.” “Oh stop it.” Gallus playfully punches Shining Armor while the latter laughs, “But yeah, I kinda wanted something more than friendship. She’s just the most precious thing, and with my career in the Equestrian Army, I could protect her from any threat. But…” “Things didn’t work out.” “I’m not upset about it. I explained my feelings and she explained she doesn’t feel that way, but I think that only strengthened our friendship. Now, Silverstream is looking to help me with my military job in any way she can.” “And being connected to the Hippogriff Royal Family is a big deal. Queen Novo can be such a pain to work with sometimes, but we manage to get meetings with her and such. I guess the isolationist mentality never left her.” “Yeah, it’s kinda the same in Griffonstone. We are so used to being alone and only taking what we can get, opening up our borders was tough.” “I can see why, but it’s good to see the idea of isolationism leave the minds of the younger generation.” Suddenly, a unicorn mare guard runs up to Gallus and Shining Armor, “Sirs! We just installed the policing force on several streets of Canterlot.” “Finally.” Gallus replies, “A bunch of other cities already have the police force. I have no idea why the Princess didn’t install one here in the capital.” “Trust me, I tried to after the Canterlot Invasion, but with the return of the Crystal Empire, I had to abandon that plan and go deal with the problems over there.” “Well, no use in complaining now. We have our police force. Thank you for the info, Pearl Diamond.” The guard, Pearl Diamond, salutes and runs off. Gallus sighs and sits at a bench, “I’ll be honest with you Captain. Morale is going to take a massive hit if the news gets out that the missing ponies were killed. I know seven isn’t a lot, but in terms of lives, that’s a lot. If a few rumors and three powered up villains almost caused the end of Equestria, I don’t know what will happen when the public finds out.” Shining Armor hops on the sat and pats Gallus’ back, “Calm down Gallus. Look in front of you. Do you see all these soldiers? Everyone here will protect Equestria and beyond from any threat that faces our way. It’s like you said, we must protect the innocent from any threat.” “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right!” Gallus jumped out of his seat, “We just gotta have our heads high!” “That's the spirit!” Shining Armor gets up from his seat as well, “Come on, let’s go run some drills.” “Already ahead of you.” Gallus says while holding up a megaphone, “Alright you sad sacks! Everyone, step into formation! Basic exercise drills!”
Chapter 3 Luster Dawn hops off the train to Manehattan, taking in the sights of the city. However, she wasn’t there for sightseeing. It has been 2 days since she was given the case by the Princess, and she had no leads. Whenever she thought she had something, it led to a dead end. This was her last chance: Moonshadow Blaze’s family. The busy streets of Manehattan were difficult to navigate; Carnerlot was never as busy as this place, but she managed to find the apartment block where the Blaze family lived “Alright Luster Dawn. This is your last chance for a lead. You got this, you got this, you got thiiiiiiiiisssss….” Luster says to herself, less confident with every word. She enters the building and goes straight for apartment 42, climbing up 4 flights of stairs and straight ahead, “49, 40, 41, ah-ha, 42.” Luster knocks at the door and waits for a reply. The door slowly creaked open, revealing an older silver coat mare with dark blue eyes and a light blue mane with bangs, “Uh, hello. I’m Luster Dawn. And you are a member of the Blaze family, right?” The sorrowful mare opens the door widely, “Yes… I am Sunspot Blaze. Why do you ask?” “Well, you see, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle’s star student, and I was assigned to-” Luster stopped herself, remember the last 6 times she was blunt in that remark, and that she must choose her words, “To… To…” Luster breathed in then out, “To bring justice to the one who needs it.” Sunspot initially looked shocked and shed a few tears once the shock wore off. She wiped away the tears and looked at Luster, “Yes yes… Please, come in.” She stepped aside, and Luster walked in. The apartment is nicely decorated with sunny imagery and flowers, however, the place was slowly decaying, as it seems to not be taken care of often, “Apologies for the mess. I didn’t expect company today, otherwise, I would have cleaned up.” Sunspot takes a seat on the couch. “No no, I don’t blame you.” Luster hops on and sits as well, “I am so sorry for your loss.” Sunspot sniffles for a bit before composing herself again, “It's ok… I’ve been slowly accepting it… But it hasn’t been easy… I’ve gotten so much love and support but it’s been 6 months when it felt like 6 years since she disappeared right in front of me! Oh my Celestia, I remember that day, clear as crystal…!” Sunspot begins to tear up, “We-we were cooking lunch together… Veggie stew, her grandmare’s recipe, when all of a sudden-” Sunspot gasped to stop herself from crying but to no avail, “that stupid, stupid circle appeared under her and burned, sinking her into the floor. Oh my Celestia, I can still hear her voice…! Her pleads for help…!” At this point, Sunspot let the dames break, covering her face with her hooves, unable to face the truth. Luster Dawn scooted over and rubbed Sunspot Blazes’ back to comfort her. After 10 minutes of crying, Sunspot rubbed her eyes to get rid of the tears, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” “No no, don’t worry. Trust me, how you’re acting is reasonable. I mean, losing a family member? That can’t be something you just ‘get over’. You lost someone dear to you.” Sunspot sniffled a little and nodded, “And right now, the hammer of justice needs to rain down, and I know this next request may seem morbid, but I need to do this to see if there’s any connection, any rhyme or reason for this chaos-” Sunspot cut her off. “Yes yes! Anything!” Luster took a deep breath, bracing herself for yet another negative reaction, “I… I need to see her cutie mark. I know you were sent it and…” Luster stopped herself. Who is she to ask for the last remains of somepony’s loved one. Instead of the anticipated outcome of Sunspot crying some more, looking disgusted, demanding Luster leave, or some combination of the three, Sunspot looks at Luster Dawn with a scarily neutral face, slowly turning her head towards a door. She points to it and says in a neutral voice, “In there, in the urn on the desk.” Luster gives Sunspot one last hug, “Thank you.” Luster got up and headed for the door. The room was dark and dusty, as Luster experienced first hoove that the spiders were the real monsters for free loaning in a crime scene. Looking around, Luster sees a bed, a dresser, and lots of moon imagery. There’s even a Luna doll on the dresser. This was Moonshadow’s room. Looking to the floor by the dresser, and there was the teleportation circle and a dropped necklace on the ground. Luster picked up the necklace and examined it. It was a simple black string necklace with a charm that had a crescent moon and a glistening sun: Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks. Luster puts it aside and looks to the dresser. There, a large urn decorated with Moons and Suns with a plaque at the base of it that reads, ‘Moonshadow, loved by all and cared for in life, will be remembered forever as strong as she was.’ Luster couldn’t bear to think about what torment Moonshadow had to face to meet such a grim end. Luster Dawn shook the thought out of her head and took the urn off of the dresser, “Here does nothing.” Luster opened the urn and took out the stolen cutie mark. It was just like how the others were like: A perfectly cut square of skin from a pony’s flank, dried and mailed to the victim's family. Luster wasn’t fazed anymore at just a grim sight. After the first 3 times she got an opportunity to see the skinned mark, she stopped gagging at the sight. Luster took out her notebook and took a few notes, ‘Moonshadow, Tribe: Earth Pony, Cutie Mark: A Radenting Moon. Meaning: Destined to work for Luna and/or use moon magic.’ She placed the mark back into the urn and the urn back on the dresser, taking a moment of silence for the fallen, and walked back into the living room. Sunspot was still sitting at the couch, now with a cup of tea, “Oh, you’re back already?” Luster sat back on the couch, “Yes, and I must thank you for letting me do this.” “It’s the least I can do. If the princess is doing a full-scale operation, then I must allow any evidence to be recorded. I should be thanking you for being so brave, Luster Dawn.” Luster nodded in agreement, “It’s no problem really, though collecting evidence wasn't easy. I do want to ask a few questions about Moonshadow if you don’t mind.” Luster has parchment and a quill ready. “Oh, yes, of course.” “Alright. Was Moonshadow acting strangely during the week leading up to her disappearance?” “Oh, no-no-no. She was as quick and cheery as ever. No change in behavior.” Luster wrote that down, “What about her friend group? Anything weird there?” “No, she had the same number of friends, nothing weird there.” Luster frustratedly wrote that down, “Oooook… Did she talk to any pony suspicious?” “No no, not that I knew of.” Luster wrote that down before scribbling on her paper angrily, “Uh… Are you alright?” “Yes! Yes everything is fine! It’s not like I’m not able to get some leads!” Luster shouted angrily before planting her face into the couch cushions. After a minute of awkward silence from a slightly stunned Sunspot, Luster rose from her angry place and looked at Sunspot with a tired expression, “I’m sorry. It’s just… This case has been difficult to solve… I haven’t gotten a lead in the last 48 hours. When I did, it always led to a dead end. The Cutie Mark Ripper is an anomaly all in its…” A wave of realization came across Luster Dawn, and she jumped up from her seat, “That’s it! To find an anomaly, you gotta speak to an anomaly!” “Wha- What in Equestria are you on about?” Sunspot quizzed. “Thank you for your time, Miss Blaze, but I just hit a crack in the case!” “I’m… Glad I could be of assistance?” And with that, Luster Dawn rushed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her. Sunspot Blaze for her part took a sip of her tea, “Oh Moonshadow… Justice will be brought forth, and you will have peace.”
Chapter 4 Luster Dawn paced around the train station, mumbling to herself, “Oh I can’t believe the train to Ponyville is delayed.” “Yeah, you say it, sister.” A voice says. Luster turned around and saw a blue coat kirin with a purple mane, “Honestly, I nearly turned Nirik, I’m so annoyed.” Luster Dawn huffed, “Come on train we all have to be somewhere!” “Yeah, train! Some of us got jobs and families to go to!” The kirin mare jumps in. Luster Dawn giggles a little, and the kirin continues, “I mean, I got places to be, this unicorn here has places to be, that changeling and dragon couple over there has some places to be, that deer over there has places to be, everyone here has some places to be!” Luster burst out laughing, “Oh my Celestia, you are such a card!” The kirin walks over to Luster Dawn, “Well I am Jokes Kard. A pleasure to meet you.” Jokes reached her hoove out for a hoove shake. Luster shakes Jokes’ hoove but is immediately hit with a powerful yet short electric shock. Jokes Kard laughs, “Oh the old electric hoove trick. Never gets old!” “Ah... well…” Luster shook off her daze, “That was pretty funny.” Luster laughed along with Jokes. After a while, the train finally arrives, “Oh there’s the train.” Luster looks at Jokes, “You going to Ponyville too?” “Oh yeah, I have to grab some produce from the market place there.” The two stepped onto the train, “I know it’s a long ways away to get some vegetables and fruit, but hey, support the ones who produce it directly, right?” “Right!” Luster hops on a bench and gestures for Jokes to sit down. Jokes smile and sits, “Since we’re going to the same place, we might as well chat.” “Thank you, Ms uh…” “Oh! Luster Dawn.” “Luster Dawn? Aren’t you the student of Princess Twilight Sparkle?” “Why yes, I am.” “You really shouldn’t be flaunting your title like that you know.” Luster crooks her head, “Why not?” Jokes Kard leads in close and puts her hoove next to her mouth so no one could read her lips. She then whispers, “Because the Cutie Mark Ripper is still at large.” “Wha-! How do you-!” Jokes cover Luster's mouth. “Not so loud.” She whispers as Luster nodded, signaling her to put her hoof down, “News travels fast if you're in the right groups, and us truth-speaking kirin can spread news fast.” “Oh no… I gotta solve this case then. The more ponies that know, the more likely the wendigos will circle.” “The… Wendigos?” Jokes suddenly got worried. “Yeah. Didn’t you hear about it?” “Hmmm…” Jokes Kard thinks for a moment, “So that’s why I saw Princess Cadance and Princess Flurry Heart earlier today. Off to spread hope and light.” “Exactly. While I’m sent to catch this ripper.” “Hm. Tell me more.” Jokes smiled devilishly. “Well” Luster held up some pieces of paper, “according to my research-” But quickly put them away and gave Jokes a look, and stared at her for a while. The kirin was just sitting there, smiling not in any creepy way, eyes half close and just, so calm. But that expression shifted to a frown. “That was a joke,” Kard explained, “A good detective won’t tell a stranger all the evidence they have accumulated.” Kard shifts herself so Luster could leave the booth. Luster took this opportunity and hopped off to find another booth. “You’re a weird one, Jokes Kard.” She comments before leaving. “Yeah, I get that a lot.” Luster found a new vacant booth and sat down, taking out her papers to review what she could find. Out of the seven missing ponies, the five cutie marks she got to see to review special talents, and the series of questions she got to ask six out of the seven families, Luster finally had a picture to work off of: All of the ponies that were missing had no new friends and no unusual events happened leading up to the teleportation activating. Each of their special talents, that were reflected by their cutie mark, was something to do with magic, whether that be studying it, brew potions, use magical remnants to heal, or use magic to control the weather. No matter what tribe they belonged to, it was a shared trait among the ponies. Luster put away her notes and got out a piece of parchment and a quill, writing, “Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle, “While I failed to find the who or where the Cutie Mark Ripper is, I have found the why to this mystery. Through my detective research, I have found that each pony had great magic to them, no matter the tribe they were in. While you may fear that the students in the magic school may be under threat, I believe that they aren’t. The Cutie Mark Ripper isn’t aiming to only target unicorn magic, but magic from all the tribes, targeting primarily Pegasi for some reason. With unicorns being the minority. Thought that’s not to say you shouldn't take precautions. Right now, I got a few hunches and I need answers. “Since the Cutie Mark Ripper is targeting innate magic users, I must figure out if the Cutie Mark Ripper is either taking it for themself or just killing the ponies just for being so powerful with magic. And to answer that, I must seek out Discord. You taught us that Discord was a chaotic entity, an anomaly of chaos and disharmony. So I reasoned that, since the Cutie Mark Ripper is such an anomaly, he can help me find them. I am currently on a train from Manehattan to Ponyville right now, going to go question the draconequus. “However, all that may be unnecessary if this next hunch is correct because I met a shifty figure on the train just now. A kirin by the name Jokes Kard. She says she’s going to Ponyville to get produce, which isn’t a likely story. Can you get the local police to take her in and question her please? I’ll feel much safer with her cleared. “Your best student, Luster Dawn.” With the letter signed, Luster sent the letter to her mentor. With a heavy heart, she looks out the window to the scenery passing by, sighing. This adventure was taking its toll on the young unicorn.
Chapter 5 “Next stop, Ponyvillie!” The conductor yelled. “Finally!” Luster shouted, watching the window as the train stopped. She imminently noticed two things: One, four guards waiting at one of the doors and the draconequus himself, Discord, waiting at the station with one of the Princess' friends, Fluttershy. As soon as the doors opened, Luster rushed out to meet with the guard, “Hello officers.” “Greetings Luster Dawn.” One of the stallons said, “Discord is right over there, but before you go, can you please tell us what Jokes Kard looks like?” He asks as the other guard stops anyone from leaving the train. “Oh yes yes!” Luster got excited, “She’s a kirin mare, blue coat, purple mane, green details, and dark green eyes.” “Thank you, Luster Dawn.” The guards quickly became organized and filed everyone to look for Jokes Kard. Luster for her part walked up to Discord and Fluttershy, who seemed to be having a conversation. “Now Discord, when working with Luster Dawn, can you promise me you won’t be too chaotic? She isn’t used to your chaos magic.” Discord rolled his eyes, “Oh fine. But I’ll only do it because the author of this fanfiction can’t seem to figure out how to write me.” “Oi! No breaking the fourth wall!” “Sweetie, the audience can guess the ending from a mile away, you aren’t fooling anyone.” “What?! You don’t know what I have planned.” “I am a Spirit of Chaos, oh dear author Bravery, I have ears everywhere.” “Well fine. You can break the fourth wall but that is it. Also, don’t tell characters things they should know yet.” “Oh ok fine. But you aren’t any fun.” “Who are you talking to Discord?” Fluttershy perks up. “Oh, no pony important.” Jerk… Luster Dawn walks up to them, “Uh… Hello. I’m sure you’re Discord, right?” “Oh I don’t know, maybe I’m just Discord’s cousin, Princess Eris.” With a snap of his claws, Discord transformed his head into a pink bird with ram’s horns and peacock feathers, “Oh look at me, I’m Princess Eris! I am the alternate-universe Lord of Chaos and I keep evil Celestia on a leash!” He quickly changed his head back to normal, “Oh how I dislike her. Yes, I am Discord.” “Oh! That’s good.” Luster shifted a bit and took out her notes, “Now uh… Can we go somewhere private? I don’t want anyone to hear.” “Oh of course! I know a bunch of places. How about-” Fluttershy steps in before Discord could snap his fingers. “You can review your evidence in my cottage. It’s far away enough so no pony will bother you.” “Thank you, Fluttershy.” Luster Dawn said. She then turned her attention back to Discord, “Teleport us to Fluttershy’s home!” “Oh ok fine! No need to shout, I’m right here.” With a snap of his claws, teleport the three of them away. Meanwhile with the guard, one of the mare guards exits the train as it leaves the station, “Anything?” One of the stallion guards asks. “No… There were no kirins on this train.” “Any changelings?” “No. No changelings on this train.” “That’s… Unusual… We must report this to the Princess.” “Ahead of you sir.” The other mare guard says. “Ummm… Sir?” The other stallion guard peeps, “Do you think this could be one big wild goose chase?” “Maybe.” The veteran says, “If this Jokes Kard wasn’t on this train, we might as well have been hoodwinked! Tell the princess at one!” “Yes sir!” The other guards say while saluting. The veteran stallion steps aside and looks to the town, “In Ponyville… Anything could happen. Whether that’s for the better or the worse…” Luster Dawn sits at a couch, watching as Discord reviews the evidence she had collected, reading glasses and all. Fluttershy comes out with a cart of tea and cucumber sandwiches, “Tea anypony?” She asks. Luster nods her head and Fluttershy pours a cup of tea and hands it to Luster. “Goodness, even Celestia’s horn writing isn’t this bad.” Discord comments. “Discord…” Fluttershy rebukes. “It’s legible, but I must say, you need to work on your horn writing Luster.” Discord levitates a teacup and the teapot, flipping the cup upside down as the tea pours upward into it, “Although, I must say, you truly are Twilight’s student if you are this diligent in your research.” “Thank you. But I know I’m missing several pieces of information. Which is why I came to you.” Luster takes out more parchment and a quill, “I need to know if this ripper is taking the magic for themself or just killing ponies.” Discord rolled his eyes so far they rolled onto the floor. He picked them up and popped them back in, “In case you didn’t know already, I can sense if there’s a magical imbalance.” He snapped his fingers on his lion’s paw and reappeared a few feet away from the crouch, along with a large wooden box with buttons and lights, with a consent stream of paper that has a spiky red line, “As you can see here in the paperwork, you can clearly see that… That…” Discord took a closer look at the graph, “That can’t be right.” his tone shifted to one more serious, “No no no, this magic is identical to Tirek’s magic stealing magic… But he’s still trapped in stone, how could this be possible.” Fluttershy and Luster Dawn exchange looks of worry. Luster gets up from her seat and to Discord, “Is there a problem, Discord sir?” “Is there a problem? Is there a problem?!” Discord gets into Luster’s face, “Twilight’s right about this being a crisis!” He snaps the equipment away and starts pacing around the room, “This is major! Equestria never faced a threat like this! Not when Nightmare Moon returned, not when I returned, not when Chrysalis attacked, not when Sombra returned, not when Tirek returned, not when the Storm King invaded, not when Cozy Glow drained the magic, not even when Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow got powered up!” With every villain named, DIscord made a small figurine of them. He then threw them across the room, “None were as dangerous as they were, because they never killed any pony to get their magic!” “Discord, you have to calm down.” Fluttershy flies up to him and hands him a paper bag to breathe with. Instead of the bag inflating, Discord’s neck inflates. He calms down and makes the bag disappear. He then hugs Fluttershy, “Oh Fluttershy! How I fear you may be next and I may not be there when you need it! I wasn’t there when the changelings captured you all those years ago!” Fluttershy pats Discord’s back. “Ummm… Should I still be here?” Luster Dawn asks. “Oh? Did you get the information you need? Fluttershy asks. Discord immediately answers, “Whoever this Cutie Mark Ripper is, is stealing magic in a similar fashion Tierk did when he stole everypony’s magic way back when. I should also point out that they are masking their antics with various spells so the magic becomes more dispersed. That’s why I didn’t detect anything sooner. Got all that L.D?” While Discord was talking, Luster was furiously taking notes, “I think I do. Thank you for your time Discord.” “It’s no problem at all.” With a snap of his fingers, he takes the saddlebag Luser has been carrying around and plops it onto her back with all her notes in it, “Now hurry along, go make Equestria safe!” Luster nodded and trot out of the cottage, off to figure out the case, “You know, author, you wrote me quite well.” “Why thank you Discord.” “Who are you talking to, Discord?” Fluttershy questioned. “Oh, no one important Fluttershy.” He he, Fluttercord forever…!
Chapter 6 Luster trekked through Ponyvillie, thinking long and hard about what she had learned that day before. It’s been three days since she was given the mission and has been 19 hours since she met Jokes Kard. Now, she hasn’t caught even a glimpse of Jokes all morning at the market, which made Luster very untrustful of everyone there. She couldn’t help but think, “What if Jokes is the Cutie Mark Ripper? What if she was coming to Ponyvillie to hunt for her next target? Why was she so calm in talking to me the other day? Is she targeting me?” Her thought all came to a head when she ran into a tall unicorn, sending both their saddlebags off of their back and all over the ground, “Ah! I’m so sorry!” The unicorn, tall and elegant, powder snow coat and black straight mane were also wearing a beautiful long cloak. She looked down at Luster Dawn, who was attempting to gather all her things. The unicorn, silently, helped her get her things back in order, and placed Luster’s saddlebag back onto her, “You should be a bit more careful young one.” That voice. It sounded all too familiar. Luster looked up but saw the unicorn was gone. Luster shook her head in confusion, “Must have been my imagination… Or, maybe it wasn’t…” Luster was too confused to think straight. She looked around the surrounding area, and there! Sugarcube Corner, “Oh yes! I need a hot chocolate.” Luster trotted over to the lovely bakery, treading carefully, watching out for Jokes and that mysterious unicorn. Luster enters the sweet establishment, smelling the air for whatever incredible smells it had in store. However, instead of the anticipated smells of chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, or the like, she was met with a thud to the face, with the following smell of rubber. Luster looked down and saw the item that aggressively booped her nose: A rubber chicken with the number 6 on it. A young yellow and messy pink mane colt ran up to it and picked it up, hugging it. He then looks up at Luster with a smile, “Sorry about that ma’am! Boneless 6 often has a mind of his own.” He swung the now named Boneless 6 around so it was riding his back. Luster simply rubbed her nose and smiled back, “It’s ok. Nopony was hurt.” The young colt runs to the backroom while a pegasus stallion flies out, stopping mid-air when he spots Luster, “Luster Dawn!” He shouts, flying over to give Luster a hoof shake, before turning his head towards the back door, “Pumpkin! Luster’s back!” A yellow unicorn came from the backroom and spotted Luster, running up to hug her, “Welcome back Luster!” The twins back off to give Luster some space, “What brings you back to Ponyvillie?” “Hey Pumpkin, hi Pound. I’m on a case and I came to Ponyville to speak with DIscord. But now I’m kinda at a dead end.” “Oh, that’s bad.” Pound Cake flies to the counter. “Do you need anything, sugar?” Pumpkin asks, following her brother. “Yesh, I could go for a hot chocolate.” Luster sits at a nearby table and chair, laying her head on said table. “You got it! Pound, can you go make it for her?” Pumpkin asks. “Sure thing sis!” Pound Cake zips right into the backroom. Pumpkin walks over to demoralized Luster Dawn and pulls another chair up to sit on, “What troubles you, sugar?” Luster sighs heavily and takes out her notebook, filled with various notes on her quest, “It’s just… The Princess sent me on a mission, and even though I feel like I have every bit and piece for the puzzle, something is missing. Like, I’m missing that last crucial piece of the puzzle that will make this whole case crystal clear.” Luster face-planted into the table as Pound Cake came out with her hot chocolate. “Oh dear… I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling, sugar.” “Yeah, sounds like you’ve been to Tartarus and back again.” Pound Cake comments, “Maybe you need to take a step back, look at the bigger picture.” Luster looks back up, “I’ve tried that, but no matter what angle I look at it, this case is an anomaly… Unsolvable, until something new happens. And I can only fear what that could mean…” The twins look at each other, confused but wanting to help their friend. Pumpkin nudges the hot chocolate to Luster and Pound Cake grabs a slice of apple pie with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, “Don’t worry Luster Dawn.” Pound Cake says, “You are the smartest pony we know. You’ll solve this case.” “Yeah! You solved mysteries even we couldn’t solve. Remember that time we couldn’t figure out the culprit of the eaten birthday cupcakes a month ago?” Luster smiled a little, “Yeah I guess…” “Yeah! Who knew it was Li'l Cheese behind it!?” Pound Cake shouts. The colt in question hops out from the back room, “I regret nothing!” He says in a singsong voice. The three grown ponies laugh and Luster takes a swig of hot cocoa, “You know what? You two are right! I can solve this mystery. I will find the culprit! Justice will be severed!” She pounded her hoof on the table, “And it will be served cold.” Pumpkin clapped her hooved together, “Great line delivery, Luster.” “Thank you Pumpkin.” “Eh hm!” A voice perks up, “I hate to break the lovely moment, but I would like to be served today.” The three ponies turn and see a green Changeling waiting by the counter. Pound and Pumpkin Cake cheerfully trot over to assist a customer, but Luster takes a good long look at the Changeling. There wasn’t anything too special to this particular Changeling, but her mind was sending all the red flags. Something about her pose, her calm demeanor, just something this changeling was giving her gut a bad feeling. Her voice didn’t sound familiar, but at this point, Luster wasn’t paying attention to what was being said, but rather what the Changeling was buying: 3 dozen cupcakes, all vanilla with real vanilla frosting. The Changeling paid for the food and walked out of the establishment. The twins noticed Luster staring at their customer, and once the changeling left, they walked back to her, “Is there a problem, Luster?” Pound Cake asks. “I… I don’t know. But every bone in my body is telling me that changeling is up to no good.” Pumpkin rolled her eyes, “Sugar, Ms. Junebug isn’t some crazed changeling. She’s a very nice changeling, one who loves to host small get-togethers. She’s simply getting ready for another get-together.” “I know my suspicions may be arbitrary, but I just know it. Something isn’t right here.” “Yeah… Ok.” Pound says with disdain in his voice. Suddenly, a grey coat, yellow mane pegasus stumbly flies into Sugarcube Corner. She gets back onto her hooves and looks around, “Letter for Dawn Luster? Oh no, I meant Luster Dawn.” She then takes out a scroll. “That’s me. Luster Dawn.” Luster gets up and takes the letter from the mail pony, “Thank you.” She opens the letter and starts reading it, suddenly looking very nervous, “Oh no…” “What’s wrong?” The twins asked in unison. “I’m being summoned to Canterlot at once!”
Chapter 7Author's Note I’M BACK FROM MY WRITING BREAK! LET’S HECKING DO THIS!!!! Chapter 7 Luster Dawn ran through the streets of Canterlot, running past many bystanders, “Out of the way!” All Luster could yell at anyone in her path. Thoughts racing in her head, listening to the letter on loop, repeating it over and over and over again, “Dear Luster Dawn, “It has come to my attention that the past 3 days has been incredibly stressful for you, and that your judgement may have been clouded. However, I cannot blame you for your worries. “I am summoning you back to Canterlot at once so we can discuss this case pony to pony. “Your teacher, “Princess Twilight Sparkle” Luster could hear the letter in the princess’ voice, over and over and over again. What could she mean? Luster wasn’t stressed. She was on the brink of solving the case! She just needed more time. Luster ran through the white and gold gates, through the palace halls, and barged into the throne room, “Princess Twilight! I came as fast as I…” Luster’s sentence trailed off when she saw the room was empty, aside from the two guards that stood guard of the throne. Luster walks up to them, “Excuse me, sirs? Where’s the princess?” “Oh, uh… She’s in the kitchen.” “The kitchen? Well uh… Thanks.” Luster trots through the castle, looking for the kitchen. Why would the Princess be in the kitchen? Luster couldn’t help but wonder this. After asking several maid’s staff about where the heck this kitchen was, Luster finally opens the door and find the most unusual of sights: The Princess of Friendship, still in royal attire, covered in flour and other ingredients of baking, mixing bowl, all while the oven is cooking something else. Twilight looks over to see Luster standing in the doorway, confused. “Oh! Luster! There you are! Take a seat, take a seat!” Luster just places her bag aside and sits at the foot of the long table. Twilight brings out several small tarts, all appearing to be of different fruits, “I made 50 tarts for us to try!” Luster never heard the Princess use that tone of voice with her before, “I made banana, strawberry, kiwi, dragonfruit, that one was Spike’s idea. Coconut, pineapple, oranges, lemon!” Twilight took a moment to breathe, “And my favorite: The Surprise Tart.” She holds up a rainbow colored tart. “Uh… Dare I ask what the surprise tart is made of?” “That’s the best part! I closed my eyes and picked a random fruit! Now we have to eat it to figure it out!” Twilight split the mystery tart in two. “Princess, I don’t think-” Luster was cut off when Twilight shoved one half of the tart into her mouth, as she took a bite of her half. Luster tasted something she never had before. Something incredibly sweet, “what…?” Is all she could say with a full mouth. “Ooooh! Zap Apple! And they weren’t even in season! Isn’t that amazing?” Luster swallowed her treat and pounded the table, “Princess what is the meaning of this?!” Twilight took a step back, slightly shocked, “Ponies are dying out there and you pulled me away from my work for tarts!?” A few guards and staff poked their heads into the door to listen, “The Cutie Mark Ripper is out there, preying on powerful and magic oriented ponies of all tribes, feeding off of their magic, slowly growing stronger, under the radar of even Discord! And you summoned me here, right when I was about to solve this case, and you brought me here for desserts!?” Luster could feel her mane and tail going up in flames for how heated she felt. When she finally stopped seeing red, she looked up and saw the bewildered face of her mentor, quietly putting away the tarts, “wha- No no Princess! I didn’t mean-“ “No, I don’t blame you Luster. When I got the scroll from you on the train, I panicked and sent guards to find this Jokes Kard. But when they reported no Kirin on the train, or Changelings, I thought that, maybe you were imagining things.” “Maybe, now I think about it… I wasn’t in the best of head spaces…” “Hmmmm… And after your visit to Discord, he came straight to me and told me what he had found. I realize at that point that I had a choice to make: Let you continue looking for the ripper under threat of becoming a target. Or summon you back behind the walls of the castle, and let the royal guard find the murderer. Oh… It took me a while weighting my opinions, Luster.” “But you chose my safety above all else.” “Please forgive me, Luster.” “No no… I do forgive you Princess. You just want to protect me. I’m sorry for blowing up on you.” “It’s ok. It’s ok.” There’s a moment of silence between the two. Not one of awkwardness or anger, but rather them winding down after all that had happened. Luster took her bag off the floor and spilled it’s contents on the table, “Did you find anything new out?” “No… What you know is what I know. Magic stealing, the stealing of cutie marks, ponies for different tribes, and the victims all having a common destiny in magic, no matter the tribe. We don’t know who or what the ripper is… And It could be anyone. I’ve been so paranoid that practically every stanger I met I suspected to be the killer.” “Well… Can I see your notes? Maybe I can figure something out.” “Oh yeah sure.” Luster elevated her notebook off the table to the Princess, when she noticed something strange: A stray gemstone, a jet black stone that is, radiating black pulses. Luster lifted it up with magic, studying it, “Hey what’s this?” Luster got up from her seat and held the stone in her hoof. Suddenly, it let out a strong pulse Luster and Twilight felt. Before Twilight could react, several numbers and symbols appear around Luster, and a circle has been drawn; the teleportation circle. “Luster!” Twilight ran forward and tried to reach for her student, but was pushed back to a dark aura around Luster. Both Luster and Twilight tried to use magic but the aurora blocked Twilight’s energy beam, and Luster couldn’t cast any magic. Luster could see the circle around her burning up, as she sunk into the floor. “Princess!” Luster desperately tried to climb out of the burning sigil but it was no use, the dark aura pushed down on Luster, causing her to lose her grip on the edges of the sigil. Tears of fear stream down from her face, “Help me!” She loses her grip and falls into the void below, screaming the long way down. On the Princess’ end, she watches through tears as the magical portal closes and the sigil stops burning, leaving a scorching mark of the circle in the place of where Luster once stood. Twilight could only cry in her hooves as the worst has just transpired. It would take an hour before the tears stopped and for Twilight to face reality.
Chapter 9 Rosie walked over to Luster’s left, as Luster was sweating profusely. On one hoof, she doesn’t want this to happen, but on the other hoof, if she moves, she will receive another shock. With little options to her, Luster could only watch as the blade came closer and closer to her flank. The hot blade soon came into contact with Luster’s skin, and a shiver went up her spine, “D’awwww, scared? Don’t worry, little blood will be lost. I remembered to heat these up before usage.” Rosie applies little bits of pressure, but not enough to go deeper than skin level, cutting a perfect square just 3 inches around the cutie mark. Luster did her best not to scream due to the pain, as warm tears started to stream down her face, “You are very brave Luster Dawn. More so than some of my other victims. Ready for round two?” Rosie says moving to Luster’s right mark. Luster tried to shake her head no but the strap restrained her. Rosie chuckled a little, “Good.” As she started to cut again, carefully and slowly taking the hide off of her flank, making sure any opened blood vessels were cauterized. After what felt like forever to Luster, she saw Rosie levitate the two cutie marks in front of Luster, whistling at them, “Wow! I don’t think I have a cutie mark quite like this one before. I’ll have to take great care when drying them.” Rosie placed the marks away from Luster’s view as a smirk grew on Rosie’s face, “Now… Time for stage two.” “What…?” Luster whimpered as she could feel the air on her open wounds, “What’s stage two?” Rosie laughed a wicked laugh as her horn started to glow as Luster could a part of herself being stripped away from her horn, as orange magic flowed from Luster to Rosie, who appeared to be consuming the magic. Once it finally ended, Luster weakly looked up at Rosie, who was licking her lips as she lapped up some orange substance off of her lips, “Ooooooh ho ho! I tell you, you only can get a fraction of the taste of a pony when stealing their magic, but it’s just so delectable! And you had such rich magic, Luster Dawn. Kinda regret not savoring it for long enough.” Luster can only groan, “That’s… great…” “Ugh. I hate that about magic stealing. It physically drains my victims. No matter, for I do have a solution.” Rosie grabs a syringe and injects it into Luster’s thigh. Luster jolted awake, heart-pounding and lungs racing for air. “Wha-? What did you do?” “Inject adrenaline into you. I can’t have you sleeping on me and risk you not waking up.” “What? But you have all that you want from me. What more do you want?” Rosie giggled a little. Then the giggle turned into a laugh. Her laugh turned into a cackle, “Oh you innocent little pony.” Rosie lurked behind Luster, “You simply don’t get it. How do you think I get rid of the bodies?” Rosie goes right up to Luster’s ear and whispers, “I don’t just kill them. I eat them.” She then licked Luster’s ear as a sensation went down Luster’s spine. Such a weird feeling, “Oh you like that huh? Naughty little pony.” Rosie giggled as she walked back to her cart. All Luster could do is look disgustedly at her tormentor. However, disgust quickly turned to fear as Rosie levitated several tools up in the air. Luster tried one more time to escape her bindings, but as promised before, Rosie sent out another electric shock into Luster, this one for not as long, but more powerful, “Stop moving. Otherwise, this will be more painful than it is.” Luster couldn’t help but weep, “Princess….” “Oh stop the waterworks.” In one quick movement, four scalpels slash at Luster’s abdomen. Luster let out a scream as a perfect square of flesh falls from her body, “For the fun has just started.” With the opening now in place, Rosie gets a good look at what she has to empty out, watching the blood and cauterizing the opened blood vessels. She will only let Luster die once she has one organ in hoof. Using magic, Rosie starts to poke around in Luster’s inners, “Oh so many sacks, so little time! What should I pull out first?” Luster began to gag at the scent of her own exposed organs and getting the feeling of the desire to throw up. To Luster’s disgust, Rosie set her sights on the intestines, using magic to grab the large intestine, setting it aside somewhere unseen, doing the same with the small intestine. The smell alone was enough to make Luster physically gag and throw up, but nothing came up, “I cast a bunch of spells to clean you of anything that was still digesting. You realize Zap Apples aren’t in season, right?” Luster continued to cry, not because of the pain, she became numb to it for the most part. It was mostly from the emotional turmoil she’s been through, “Princess… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sor- AAAAAAAAAH!” She screams as Rosie pulls out her liver. “Very, very healthy liver you have. Can’t wait to sink my teeth into it.” Rosie places it aside and takes out the gallbladder and a kidney, watching the blood flow, “Hm… I need to cut more.” With another quick movement, she slashes up on Luster’s chest with her trusty scalpels, revealing the rib cage. Luster continued to scream but her voice started to fade. The screaming didn’t concern Rosie, as she reached for the bone saw. She aimed and started to carefully look at the ribcage, being a little sloppy due to how eager she was in getting her prize. Luster could feel her will to live slipping away. There was no point in fighting anymore, she thought as Rosie tugged at one of her lungs, trying to brush it aside. “I’m sorry princess… I’m sorry….” “There’s the prize.” Rosie paid no mind to the dying Luster, “Well Luster Dawn, it’s been fun, but your spirit has to move on from this mortal plane. It was nice to know you. Goodbye.” Rosie, beyond any better judgment, plunged her hooves into Luster’s chest cavity and ripped out the heart of the pony. Luster, the star student of Princess Twilight Sparkle, was no more, as a last gasp of breath left her mortal body.
Chapter 10 Luster slowly opened her eyes, rubbing her head to rid of the headache she suddenly got, “What… What happened…?” Luster glanced down and saw herself? She screamed in fear and look at her hooves. Transparent. She looked around the room. She was still in the kitchen but somepony turned on a fog machine. Luster looked towards the ground. She was floating! Screaming in sheer terror, she tried to run but run into some pony. “Woah woah woah, sweetie! Calm down!” A calming voice spoke. Luster looked at the figure she runs into. She was a pastel yellow unicorn mare with a light pink and white mane. Her cutie mark a snowflake with magical sparkles around it. “You… You’re Solar Snow.” Luster backed up and run into another pony. She looked over and saw a flying Pegasi, one with a navy coat and a blonde mane, “And you’re Mythic Fashion.” Luster looked around the room as several other ghostly ponies appeared, “Silent Step? Moonshadow Blaze? Ruby Moonlight? Sandy Dream? Ivory Charm?” Solar Snow walked, no hovered walked, to Luster and placed a hoof on her shoulder, “And now, Luster Dawn.” “Welcome to the ghost team, Luster!” Ruby Moonlight shouted. “Ruby! Be more sensitive!” Ivory scolded, “She just died.” “Um… Yeah… You should be sensitive, Ruby…” Sandy barely mumbled. Silent Step walked over to Luster and gives her a hug, “Uh….” Luster questioned. “Yeah, Silent doesn’t say much, but she does do a lot through action.” Moonshadow comments, “I think she wants to comfort you.” “Well… I’m definitely going to need it…” Luster looks down at her body, which was being unstrapped from the boards by Rosie and placed it on the island counter, belly side up, “I don’t know what to do now…” “Is it true? You’re the Princess of Friendship’s top student?” Moonshadow quizzed. “Yeah, it’s true… Though I guess that title made me an easy target…” Silent Step gave Luster some head pats, “But I’m just… I was so close to solving the case! At least now the Princess has all my notes… She’ll solve this case…” “You place a lot of faith in your mentor.” Silent Step spoke and everyone’s heads turn to listen, “to bring justice on our tormentor. Our flesh and blood, this beast will reign. But we hope that she will be detained…” Rosie could hear all. She knew of the ghost, she knew they wished justice. But justice wouldn’t come to them, for Rosie knew, if there were no bodies, there was no chance she could be caught. And what better way to get rid of bodies then to feed hungry mouths it. Rosie took off the remaining hide on Luster’s body. No need to have a burned coat on the meat. She also cut and shaved off the mane and tail of Luster, planning on anonymously donating them to a charity. Once she stripped the meat of the hide, she used her magic to lift the butcher’s knife and cut off Luster’s head and all of the hard hoof parts of the legs. Once that was done, she continues to take out all the organs from the cuts she made earlier, making sure no organs burst open, so no bodily acid spill out and all the good meat would go to waste. She had that happen a few times in the past, she won’t let it happen again. Besides, this was Chanterlot pony meat. She only had it once but she craved more of it. Once the body was gutted completely, she continued to clean out any remaining membranes. Finally, once everything was cleaned out, Rosie took the inners that weren’t edible to her and placed them in the sink, cleaning them with hot water. She then placed them on the cutting board and chopped them up into small pieces and put them in a dog’s bowl. She placed it on the floor against the wall and whispered, “Niko! Come here, boy!” A large dog comes bursting from a doggo door under the door and charges for the food, chowing down on the meat, “Who’s my good partner in crime? You are! Yes, you are!” She says petting the beast’s head. Once she was done doting on her pet, she returns to the meat on the counter, levitating it into the large sink, running water on it. Being very thorough she cleans the meat with her hooves, knowing magic won’t cut it for cleaning. Once she takes the meat out of the sink, Rosie used magic to create dotted lines all over the body, right where prime cuts were. First, she cut the fats from the body, as she never liked that part of it. Next, she cut off the front legs, being cut just under the shoulder blades. She then removed the belly meat from the rest of the body and removed the back legs. Next was removing the pelvis, neck, and ribcage, which was very easy to do. She set those aside in a pot; Rosie planned on making broth with them. Finally, she organized the pieces and cut the loins into sections for cut selection. Whipping her face with a clean towel, Rosie Plague stepped back and admired her work: From a Unicorn to meats, including two back legs, two front legs, two belly meats, and three loin sections. She will be eating well during the month. “Job well done, Rosie. Job well done.” Rosie took out a large rectangle pan and placed a back leg on it for dinner, and set it aside. She then took saran wrap and several large and small white styrofoam plates, placing the meats on them and wrapping them up tightly, storing them in the freezer. Once all the pieces were placed in, Rosie grabbed some cleaning supplies and started to clean up the blood and gore that was all over the kitchen, whistling while she worked. Niko walked over to his pony owner, lapping his chops, and sniffed the ground at where a blood puddle was, whimpering, “Oh don’t worry Niko. We won’t be caught. There’s no way to know it was me. The Princess of Dreams no longer walks in them, so the magic of dreamscaping is not a threat to us. As long as I play my cards right and lay low for a month, no one will figure it out.” She says, plunging the mop back into the bucket, completing the butcher session.
Prologue Princess Twilight Sparkle rose from her bed and used the amulet she'd used for many years to raise the sun and lower the moon, starting a new day for Equestria. Ruffling her feathery wings, blushing her divine mane, and putting on her royal entire. Twilight walks out and looks out from her balcony, watching the lovely citizens of Equestria, pony or otherwise, go about their lives. Twilight takes a deep breath in, smelling the lovely scent of roses in the air, “Well isn’t this a lovely day in Equestria.” “Just don’t break out into song while you’re at it.” Twilight turned around to see who spoke, and there, leaning against the doorway was her number #1, Spike. “Spike, you’re up early.” Twilight walked over to him, “Heh, normally you would be sleeping in on your days off.” “Well, I would if there wasn’t a crisis.” Spike holds up several scrolls that sit in a pouch. One scroll falls out, unraveling a little, revealing in big red letters ‘MISSING’. Twilight gasps and lifts the scroll up to eye level and unravels it entirely, reading it, ‘MISSING! Solar Snow, Unicorn, Age: 23, Last Seen: Whinnyapolis, Reward: 100 Bits, if found, please contact the Snow Family’ Twilight could believe what she was reading, “There’s more.” Spike adds. Twilight quickly grabs two, three more scrolls and unravels them, ‘MISSING! Mythic Fashion, Pegasi, Age: 25, Last Seen: Neigh York, Reward: 100 Bits, contact the Fashion Family’ ‘MISSING! Silent Step, Pegasi, 21, Cloudsdale, Reward: 100 Bits, contact the Step Family’ Twilight dropped the scrolls and sat on the ground, covering her face with her hooves. “We have a crisis Spike…” She looks up to him, “How many more are missing?” Spike looks in the bag, counting, “One, two, three… Plus the three you dropped… Seven.” “Seven ponies missing… How long were they missing?” “The oldest one was a year ago, the newest for just a month ago,” Spike said with sorrow in his voice. Twilight got back up on her hooves and took a deep breath in, holding back tears, “Send a scroll to Shining Armor, tell him to be ready to train the guard. And send a scroll to Luster Dawn. I need my top student to help crack this case.” Twilight runs out of her room with Spike following close behind, “I really hope we aren’t too late.” Author's Note Hello everypony! Thank you for reading the prologue of The Cutie Mark Ripper, inspired by Cupcakes by Drecker Jones aka Sergeant Sprinkles. I cannot wait for you all to read this story and enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it. With that, I hope you have a wonderful day!
Epilogue Twilight sits quietly in the throne room, head low as she sets the amulet for sunset. The door to the darkened chamber opened and Spike stands in the doorway, “Uh… Twilight?” Twilight looks up to look at Spike, “Yes…?” “I uh… heard about what happened…” He flies over to Twilight and hugs her, “I… I’m so sorry.” “I just… I don’t know what to do Spike… My best student, the one I taught the values of friendship, the one I told myself I would protect, disappeared right in front of me… If only I got a hold of that stone, I could have done some research on it, and figure out who made it narrow the suspect list.” “Look, Twilight… I don’t know what to do either. I’m trying to make sure the news doesn’t get out, but there are a few places that know, and ponies are starting to get suspicious. I know this is difficult for you, especially after… That… But we gotta keep moving forward and figure this mystery out.” “I know Spike… I know… Can you send scrolls to my parents, Shining, and Cadance? I need my family with me… And… Send a scroll to Sunburst and Trixie… They have to know the news too…” “Alright… You want me to stay here for a bit?” Twilight hugs Spike again, “Yes please…” Author's Note Thank you very much for reading The Cutie Mark Ripper. I will be continuing this story sometime in the future. But for now, I'll be taking a mental writing break. Once again, thank you very much for reading my first ever MLP fanfiction.
