Silent Graves

Ace fumbled with his keys until he found the right one, slipping it into the lock and opening the door. "Soft?" He stumbled in and almost tripped over the coffee table. "I'm home!" He shuffled forward and flopped down on the couch. "I made a profit of three hundred bits tonight. Never mind how, just know that I did it for you."

He scooted his way forward, resting his head against the arm of the couch. He needed a nap for now, like he needed a win last night. He hadn't meant to say such horrible things, and he knew that Soft was right. The biggest thing keeping him from going to rehab and swearing off the booze for good was the fact that he would have to pay for it, and that was expensive. He was already costing her an arm and a leg with his luck running dry, as well as with his addiction taking up so much of their income. He wanted to be better, but he needed help, and he couldn't afford it, especially if he wanted to be married in the future.

He was just about to drift off when the front door swung open. "You have a lot of nerve coming back here!" shouted a shrill voice.

"This isn't your apartment, Biz," answered Ace, not even bothering to look up. "You need to leave, or I'm calling the guard."

"You wouldn't want to do that," she snapped. "You wouldn't want them to see what you did to your marefriend."

"Sure I would. I let her sleep all night while I was out. No crime there."

"I'm talking about when you hit her!"

Ace rolled over and scowled. "I did no such thing. You were not welcomed into our apartment, Ms. Busybody. You have been asked to leave. This is your final warning. Leave, now!"

"Not until I see what you did to her!" Leaping over the coffee table, Biz rushed into the hallway, grabbing their camera off the table as she went. Ace was too tired and still partially intoxicated, so it took him several seconds just to roll off the couch and pick himself up off the floor. By the time he could stumble after her, she'd already made it to the bedroom, ripped off the comforter, and taken several pictures. A sudden scream was enough to both awaken him and sober him up temporarily. As adrenaline rushed into his veins, he rushed to the other room, to protect his fiancé. Unfortunately for him, she was not the one who had screamed.

Soft Spoken was unable to make a sound. Her stomach had exploded in the middle of the night. A stream of blood and vomit ran down her cheeks from the corners of her mouth down past her ears. Her eyes were popped out, barely clinging to her by what remained of the optic nerves. She was as cold as ice.

Busybody ran out of the apartment, screaming her way down the stairs and into the street. Ace couldn't move from his position. The shock at seeing her like this had frozen him in place. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Yesterday, she'd been so full of life, and now she was dead.

Suddenly, he remembered what she'd broadcasted yesterday. Somepony was going around killing ponies in a way that left the victims like this. He needed to tell the guards everything he could when they arrived.

He looked around the room. The first, most noticeable thing he saw was the writing on the wall. Some kind of dark red paint contrasted with the light blue walls of the bedroom. It might have been blood, but he wasn't sure whose. It could have been hers, but perhaps it was somepony else's. He didn't have the equipment to check. He could read it, though. "TOO CLOSE," it said in large letters. He wasn't sure what it meant.

Next, he saw the drapes fluttering in the breeze. He stepped over and pulled them back. There were shards of glass in the carpet, but none on the fire escape. Whoever had done this had come in through the window. Unfortunately, this was a blind alleyway. Unless somepony happened to be taking their trash out at exactly the right time, they wouldn't have seen anything. There were probably no witnesses.

Third and finally, he saw a syringe dart sitting next to Soft's body. There was also a puncture hole nearby. She'd been hit with whatever was in that syringe, and that had killed her. The guards could draw hoof prints from that, and possibly catch the perpetrator. That meant that they could stop the guilty party before more ponies died.

"That's him, there!" came a shout from the doorway. Biz was back, and she'd brought guards with her. "He killed his fiancé, and now he's trying to escape through the fire escape!"

Two guards rushed forward, grabbing Ace and holding his hooves behind his back as they escorted him out of the room. He didn't resist. He knew he was innocent, and he could almost prove it. He just had to cooperate with the guards.

His trial was a long and embarrassing one. After he'd left his apartment, three neighbors had heard her discussion with Ms. Busybody, so they knew she was alive when he left. He'd gone to a bar right away, which was confirmed by the bartender that was working that night. He'd had a small glass of gin and related to him his problems. The bartender admitted to giving him fifty bits in exchange for a blowjob. This was his attempt to help him with his money problems.

Six more patrons of the bar decided to pitch in, as well, and after taking multiple shots in the mouth, Ace had one more drink to wash out the taste, a cup of coffee to help him walk home, and a net profit of three hundred bits. All of the patrons he'd serviced showed up as witnesses to confirm his story, including one who had taken a picture. His alibi was airtight.

An investigation into the syringe yielded no hoofprints, not even partial prints. The user had cleaned it before use and was wearing gloves. The small amount of remaining contents were tested, and found to be a tranquilizer for large animals. It hadn't administered any poison, it had put her back to sleep after the window break. It had gone unnoticed by Ace in the short time he'd spent, but next to the door was a hole in the drywall. A bit of crumbled drywall was also in Soft's mane, meaning she'd fallen.

After all of that, Ace was found innocent. The judge didn't even have to hand down his ruling; the prosecutor had reconsidered everything and dropped all charges. After he was released, Ace took all of the things from their apartment and moved them into a storage shed. Then he took all the money they'd saved up for their wedding and checked himself into rehab. He would never see his beloved mare again, but damned if he wasn't going to keep his promise to her, to become a better stallion. In this way, perhaps he would find her again in the afterlife, and they could be together again with no more fighting.