DATE AND TIME UNKNOWN.
PLACE UNKNOWN…
“Allllll done!” The little unicorn proclaimed, holding the ring of flowers up in the air, happily smiling as she placed it tenderly upon her mother’s head. It was a good match to the lovely crescent moon necklace around the older unicorn’s slender neck, both pearly white in color, one a ring of roses, the other a ring of tiny stars connecting in a chain to the enormous crescent moon. “Happy Birthday, Mommy!” The little unicorn proclaimed, her mother putting an appreciative hoof on her child’s shoulder in the pale white room they were sitting in.
“It’s a lovely little present, Beatrix.” The female unicorn cooed tenderly, nuzzling her child’s head. “Thank you so much.”
“Your necklace is so lovely, mommy.” Beatrix added as she looked the sparkly crescent moon necklace over. “I sure wish I could have something like that for MY birthday.”
The older unicorn smiled a bit and gave her child a wink, patting her head. “Tell ya what, kiddo. You can have this when you grow up, okay? My promise.”
“Awww. Not now? When will I be grown up, then? I’m almost 9 now! A BIG girl!”
The older unicorn chuckled. “You’ll be a really big girl when you’re twenty years old, okay?” She insisted to the girl, faint footsteps approaching the oaken door at the far end of the room, by Beatrix’s plushy blue bed, the older unicorn stiffening as she whipped her head in the direction of the doorway. Oh no, not now-
The door slammed open with a THUNKA-THRUD, a glaring, baleful face hatefully snarling. “GIMME THE GIRL!”
A hoof grabbing tight onto the scruff of her neck. Beatrix’s scream ripped through the room as the older unicorn rushed towards the intruder. “STOP! Give me back my daughter!”
A SLAP rang through the air, the older unicorn reeling back as the intruder hissed at her. “Shaddap!”
“MOMMY!” Beatrix screamed out. “MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY-”
“GAUHHH!!!”
Beatrix L. Mare gasped, eyes snapping open as she held her hooves in front of her mouth, panting and heaving as sweat dripped down her brow, plopping onto the bedsheets around her, which were now soaked to the brim. She let out a loud groan, holding her pounding forehead with a hoof as she slowly crawled out of the big, plushy blue bed, opening up the door to her room and glancing at the Grandfather clock in the hall. Only one o’clock…
The same dream. Over and over she kept having it. Was it because it was her twentieth birthday? The “Great and Powerful Trixie” didn’t really know. But she did know one thing. She wanted her mommy back. She really, really wanted her mommy back…
She sighed, looking away from the grandfather clock…
…a figure at the end of the hall. A unicorn in a pale white dress. Part Changeling, just as she and her brother were…those eyes. Familiar eyes…soft, gentle…and a warm, tender smile…
Holding up a necklace with a crescent moon jangling at the end of a string of stars…
“You’ve grown, Beatrix…well, it has been sixteen whole years.” Wynonna T. Mare chuckled. “I came back to see you. Today’s your twentieth birthday after all. I, uh…heh.” She rubbed the back of her neck nervously, walking alongside her daughter. “I was going to leave it on your pillow. But ya caught me, kiddo.”
Trixie began to burst out crying, wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck, tears flowing freely as she sobbed into the soft, pale fur of the older unicorn. “Oh, MOMMY…mommy, I…I’ve been wanting this kind of dream to come true for so long…this is the best gift anybody could have gotten me!”
Wynonna’s spirit, or ghost, or “specter” glanced around, blinking a bit. “Wait. Where’s your father? He should have heard you crying. Isn’t he here?”
Trixie gulped nervously. “I…I just…he…he’s…out..”
Wynonna’s warm look turned concerned, surprised. “Wait. OUT? What do you mean out, sweetie? He…” She frowned a bit, lips pursing. “He’s out selling that water, isn’t he? He’s never around, is he!?” She pawed at the pasty red carpeting on the ground, glaring balefully at a photograph of herself and Sunray G. Cyrus on the wall. “I always TOLD him not to put the job before…that is it. THAT. IS. IT!” She insisted. “If he can’t even clean up his act when I’m GONE and can’t be ‘round for you two, then…that’s it.”
She slammed a hoof into the floor, eyes a blaze, voice cold as ice.
“YOUR MOTHER WILL BE TAKING CARE OF HIM.”
…
…
…
…CHRONICLES OF CRIME: MY LITTLE ATTORNEY
Pinkie Pie is lounging around in front of a television screen, holding a remote up in one hoof as she sits back in a nice, big, plushy beanbag chair. “Heya everyone! Welcome back! Tonight we’ve got a real puzzler for you all! It started with a formerly bratty blank-flank from the big city, barreled through to a body in a bedroom, and came to a bookend involving buckwheat, a bobcat and a beeeaaautiful bunch of jewelry!”
Pinkie giggles. “Hee-hee-hee. I LOVE alliteration! But you probably wanna know how things got to where they are. Well, previously on “My Little Pony”…”
Pinkie presses the remote button as the television turns on. “Shining Armor. I’ve got a confession to make. The baby isn’t yours.”
“What? Cadence, what do you mean?”
“It belongs to your twin brother, Englebert!”
“But Princess…I AM ENGLEBERT!”
“Oops. That’s not right.” Pinkie says with a frown, switching the channel.
“I vant to suk your blud!” Chrysalis, the Changeling Queen proclaims, waving her hooves in the air and cackling loudly in front of a big, red curtain.
“Bah. You think THAT’S scary?!” Serge N. Sprinklz chuckles, pulling the curtain back as Chrysalis shrieks in horror at the words “THE CUPCAKE FACTORY” being lowered to stage-light level from a catwalk above.
“GAH! CHANGE IT, CHANGE IT!” Pinkie screams, bashing on the remote.
“Heyyyyyy kids!” Binky the Clown said as the dwarf pony cheerily smiled at his studio audience in Ponywood. “Wanna see Binky do a magic trick?” He asked, squeaking his big red clown nose, a flower on his big white suit spontaneously squirting water as the little foals all cheered. “…WELL FORGET IT! I ain’t spendin’ another minute in this stupid clown outfit!”
“Ooooh.” Pinkie flinches.
“I am an actor!!!” Binky screeched. “But NOOOOO! Too SHORT they said!”
“Third time this week. He’s lost it.” Pinkie Pie chuckles, turning a dial on the remote, accidentally reverting to a saved DVD that was already in the machine.
“Pinkie! This is Bob, your very expensive talking parrot!”
Pinkie gulped, dropping the remote.
“Your gator is stalking me!”
“Oh no.”
“I’m making this tape before-NOOO! AAAAAIIIIEEEEE!!!”
Pinkie’s hooves flew to her mouth as she turned pale, gasping as a loud CHOMP and GULP rang through the air, followed by an equally loud belch. For a while, Pinkie just stared at the screen before…
“GUMMYYYYYYY!” She screamed out.
…
…
…
…NOVEMBER 4TH, 8:25 AM,
OUTSIDE PONYVILLE SHERIFF DEPARTMENT
“Hello y’all!” Sheriff Applejack cheerily announced to her police department, giving a big wave to everybody assembled, especially her little sister, the lightish-yellow and red-haired Apple Bloom, the pale and pearly sister of Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, the tomboyish, light brown little gal, all members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders…just like the new arrival to the town that was standing by Applejack.
For you see, this new arrival was an old friend of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a family member from Manehattan…Babs Seed, the Brooklyn-accented, dark-skinned, fringe-haired gal who took no guff. And Sheriff Applejack had big news.
“Babs has gotten herself a position at the Manehattan Police Department, passed through the Academy with flyin’ colors!” Applejack proclaimed, the blond-haired beauty putting a hoof on Babs’s shoulder, patting it gently as Babs grinned proudly at her friends.
“So good to see youse guys again. It’s real swell bein’ back here.” Babs told them all.
“Well. Manehattan girl…huh.” Shinedown T. Mare said as he patted his adopted son Squirt on the shoulder. The sunset-colored stallion and his dark-toned half-changling little buddy were also in the ranks of the police. Squirt had eeked through his tests at the local academy and was now a junior detective to Shinedown himself, who was the department’s senior officer. It was good to see more fresh young faces around Ponyville. And he liked Manehattan girls. They had spunk.
“One thing, though. Who’s bobcat?” She asked, pointing at a kitty cage, a baby bobcat pawing around inside as everybody else all looked around at each other, then simultaneously took a step back, gulping in fear.
Save for Squirt, who approached the cage and looked at the occupant. “Where’d ya get him?” Squirt’s nervous, slightly nasally voice inquired.
“Found ‘im on the street by the train station. Looked so lost n’ hungry. Led him into a little kitty cage with Reese’s Pieces.” Babs bragged. “He’s got a collar, but I ain’t found the owner yet.”
“What’s his name?”
“Siegfried.”
Shinedown raised an eyebrow. “What kind of name is Siegfried for a bobcat?”
“What kinda pony keeps a bobcat for a pet?!” Applejack had to ask.
“I keep a gator!” Pinkie announced with a big grin, waving her arms in the air, bouncing up and down. “…and I HAD…an expensive, rare talking PARROT!” She screeched out at said gator as he lowered his head in shame, Pinkie waving a newspaper threateningly above his head.
Everyone gasped as Squirt opened up the kitty-carry cage, lifting the bobcat out as it “meowed” in his face. They couldn’t believe how fearless the kid was as he sniffed it. “…he smells like…noodles. Is there anyplace around here that makes noodles?”
Shinedown whacked his forehead. “D’oh! Silly me! Dad!”
“Sunray G. Cyrus? Oh, right! They got that new “Equi-Fina” product, noodles soaked n’ prize water. They’re supposed ta add years a’ vitality to yer lifespan.” Sheriff Applejack remarked as Squirt gently stroked the bobcat behind its ears. “If there’s something that can be soaked, fried or boiled in his water, Cyrus’ll find a way ta make a profit offa it.”
“My dad, the “Scrooge McDuck” of Equestria.” Shinedown sighed as he shook his head back and forth. “C’mon, we’d better go bring the little guy home.”
…
…
…
…the large mansion house that operated as a means of production center for the “Equi-Fina” noodles that Sunray G. Cyrus made had a slightly imposing structure. Dark-tinted windows…a long set of walls surrounding the home with long, pointed rooftops…a row of bushes all hewn in the shape of horses. Everything was big, fancy, and above all, WEIRD. It was all just too much. The pathway to the front door? Made of ivory. The garden by the front gate? Roses of every color and hue. And the words “EQUI-FINA” in big golden letters on a sign high above the entranceway…all of this, all of it was just so ridiculous! Who would possibly like something so show-offy and-
OH.
Applejack frowned, her green eyes looking squarely at the light blue-furred pony that was standing in front of the gate, pacing back and forth, muttering nervously, light blue hair matted with sweat. The unicorn glanced up from the ground, looking at Applejack, Babbs, Shinedown and Squirt, gulping a bit as a small bobcat that she was giving some food to ALSO glanced up, then bounded over to little Siegfried, happily rubbing against him as the two began to bounce around each other.
“Seems like the two are close friends.” Sheriff Applejack remarked. “Who’s this little ‘un?”
“Her name’s Stella.” Beatrix L. Mane remarked, the “Great and Powerful Trixie” looking back down at the ground an instant. “Um…hi…” She mumbled out.
“…what happened?” Shinedown asked quietly, looking at the open door of the mansion.
“…it’s…dad.” Trixie muttered. “…it’s bad. Real bad.”
“…what HAPPENED, Trixie?” Shinedown wanted to know, his dark blue eyes slightly narrowing as he stepped towards her. “He’s…he’s dead.” Trixie murmured, sinking to the ground, covering her head with her hooves. “He’s got…white stuff comin’ outta his mouth…I know I’m…I’m not supposed to move the body…” She began to cry, Shinedown racing forward, lifting her up and hugging her tightly, nuzzling into her soft flank as she wept into his shoulder, Sheriff Applejack flinching as she turned to Babs and Squirt.
“Kids, I’m gonna hafta ask you to stay outta my way while I investigate the body, alright?” He insisted. “Where did you find him, if…if y’all don’t mind me asking?”
“…in his bed…” Trixie managed to mumble out. “He’s…he’s in the bedroom upstairs…take a right at the top of the stairs. Can’t miss it.”
…
…
…
…this, unfortunately, ended up backfiring in the worst possible way.
“What a barrel of bull-”
“SHH!”
Trixie “harrumphed” angrily, folding her arms in front of her chest and looking off to the side, glaring at a stain on the wall and pretending it was Sheriff Applejack. Shinedown lowered his hoof from his mouth, Babs and Squirt talking with each other at the other end of the room about everything as Shinedown put a hoof against the glass that separated him from his sister. “Trixie, calm down. I’m gonna get you out of here.”
“I cannot believe they arrested TRIXIE for this murder! Oh of course the daughter did it, the DAUGHTER had the most motive, Trixie HAS to be guilty!” She slammed her hooves on the desk before her, glowering angrily. “I didn’t do anything! My mother! MOM did it, I’m sure!”
Shinedown flinched and looked away. “Trixie, mom…mom’s been dead for years.”
“TRIXIE SAW HER!” Trixie yelled out furiously. When she got angry, she slipped into third-person. “I know…what I saw…” She whispered, hanging her head low. “I was having a dream about…the kidnapping from ten years ago. On mom’s birthday?”
Shinedown nodded slowly. “Yeah. I remember dad told me about it.”
“I got taken from mom by that…HORRIBLE demon-woman, she…she locked me in a small, dirty room…and then, I…I remember, the kidnapper was about to do something horrible when mom showed up and…and…” She trailed off.
“The kidnapper strangles her. I know. You told me so many times about that dream I started having it too. And then she says-”
“Don’t cry, sweetie, today’s your birthday…” The two repeated at the same time, their voices low and quiet, slowly putting their respective hooves to the glass that separated the visitor from the holding cell.
“What about yer pops?” Babs wanted to know, walking up behind Shinedown, chewing on some bubblegum, Squirt looking over at Trixie as she chewed on her signature hat.
“Dad never wanted to talk about it. He always got so defensive and frightened, and…mom…mom died soon after in that traffic accident at Station Square.” Shinedown mumbled. “Dad was never…his relationship with us always seemed so…shallow. He wasn’t there. Mom was. She was warm…and kind…and always smiling.” He murmured. “That smile. You inherited that smile. You should use it more often.”
Trixie nervously smiled up at him. “Th-thanks…I’m sure mom’s the one that did it. She HAD to have done it. She told me she would take care of him the night before I found the body, she TOLD me that.”
“But y’all don’t believe in ghosts, right?” Babs wanted to know, scratching her head, blowing the fringe before her face to the side.
“…well…hmm.” Shinedown rubbed his chin in a thoughtful fashion. “…that, I…I don’t…know. It isn’t impossible, given the world we live in.”
“Who’s gonna defend me?” Trixie asked. “You’re my brother, you can’t do it. TOTAL conflict of interest, right?” She asked, shaking her head back and forth as Shinedown T. Mare nodded in agreement.
“I asked Twilight to do it for me. She’s been reading up on Pony Law. She’ll take the case. I’m sure she’ll do fine.”
Trixie harrumphed again. “Yeah. RIGHT. Twilight Stupid is gonna TANK it. Trixie’ll be exiled to the moon faster than you can say “GUILTY”! I mean, the way I treated her in court that one time, and after what I did to her back when I-”
“Sis, please, don’t think like that.” Shinedown insisted. “You made up for what you did. Twilight won’t “tank it”.”
“…you really think so?” Trixie sniffled out, wiping her eyes free of tears with a hoof.
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“Pleeeeaaaaase!” Spike the Dragon begged Twilight, clinging to the purple-furred pony’s leg as she dragged it along, making for the library to freshen up on Pony law. “PLLLLEEEEAAAASE! Tank it! Tank it! End our Trixie misery! I’m begging you!”
“I’m not doing that!” Twilight insisted.
…
…
…
…NOVEMBER 5TH, 8:55 AM,
PONYVILLE DISTRICT COURT
THA-WHAM!
Princess Celestia slammed her gavel down upon her podium, looking out at the assembled ponies, mares and anthropomorphic beings that made up Ponyville’s new, diverse population. As part of the planet Mobius, the land of Equestria had become filled with a wide variety of strange new beings who had come seeking a new life for themselves yet wanting true protection under the law. Luckily for them, the law of the Princesses of Equestria would indeed protect them from unfair representation, and Twilight Sparkle herself was insistent upon making sure she lived up to the ideal that Princess Celestia’s will embodied. No matter how annoying Trixie might have been…Twilight wished to prove if she was innocent or guilty. The unicorn was owed that much.
“Meoooow.”
“Why did you bring the CATS?” Twilight murmured behind her as Squirt patted Siegfried on the head, Babs stroking little Stella.
“Well, Siegfried doesn’t have an owner now and he wouldn’t go anywhere if Stella wasn’t with him…” Squirt admitted. “You’ll be fine, Twilight. You know all the facts of this case, right?”
“I shall EXPLAIN said facts to the court.” The dark-green furred pony for the prosecution announced, adjusting the khaki-colored army fatigue vest he wore ever-so-slightly before brushing his even darker-green hair back, deep blue eyes glittering with intelligence. Twilight flinched at the sight of him as he spoke with his authoritative voice, gesturing around the courtroom with a wide sweep. “The victim is the defendant’s own father, Sunray G. Cyrus. He made bits upon BITS for selling EQUI-FINA products. Around 8:20 PM, two nights ago, the police received a call from Mr. Cyrus’s residence, placed by the defendant, Beatrix Lulamoon Mare. Upon arrival on the crime scene, we established he had died on his bed, suffocated due to a blocked airway. Blisters and rashes were all over his body, consistent with typical cases of anaphylaxis.”
“Taxis?” Babs muttered, scratching her head from the crowd as she looked about at everyone else. “Whuh?”
“No, anaphylaxis. It’s an extreme allergic reaction caused by bee stings or food. If the allergy’s severe enough then people DIE from it.” Serge informed her as he stood behind the prosecutor’s table. “And about five months ago Cyrus developed a severe allergy to buckwheat.”
“Buckwheat?” Twilight asked.
“Specifically, BUCKWHEAT FLOUR.” Serge went on.
“But his company had just started making noodles soaked in EQUI-FINA water SIX months ago!” Twilight said, scratching her head as Serge sighed and shrugged slightly.
“True, true. But then a month after they began production he found he could no longer handle certain foods. That’s what is so frightening about allergies.”
“So, naturally, he could no longer go into the factories where they made the new product?” Celestia wished to know, steepling her hooves before her face as Serge nodded. “How ironic that his latest product would cause him so much pain. In fact, did I not read about him recently being admitted to the hospital?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Trixie said, waving a hoof in the air as she sat in her chair. “Daddy got sent to the hospital because he bit into a dumpling that was made with buckwheat flour. He broke out into hives and started sweating and gasping in pain and-and he f-fell outta his chair.” She murmured, shuddering slightly as she shook her head back and forth. “It was really awful.”
“Then could his death not have been an accident?” Celestia inquired. “Perhaps he had a late-night snack that was made of buckwheat?”
“We thought that…until we found this lying next to a pitcher of EQUI-FINA water on his bedside table.” Serge announced, clapping his hooves as the baliffs brought forth the evidence, putting it down on the prosecution table one at a time, a tiny little bag in a plastic bag catching their eye as Serge held it up. “This is a bag with buckwheat flour found littered over it…and we found it half-emptied by the pitcher…and next to this empty glass.” Serge remarked, pointing at a cup in a plastic bag, next to another plastic bag with some medicine within it. “Our poor victim Mr. Cyrus had a prescription for medicine to alleviate the hives his allergy caused. You will notice the medicine…is the same color and form as the flour?”
“…wait…you mean?” Celestia asked.
“Yes. The victim thought he was taking his medicine. But somebody had replaced his medicine with the very thing it was meant to combat! Sunray G. Cyrus swallowed it with a glass of water, thinking it was medicine, and DIED because of this!”
“Was his daughter the only one who knew of his allergy, then?” Twilight asked. “Didn’t others know?”
“There’s only three individuals who knew. His daughter, Beatrix Lulamoon Mare, their housekeeper, Busy Boots, and his personal doctor from the hospital, Prima Nona. And out of those three, there’s only one of them who has a clear motive…his daughter.” Serge reasoned, pointing at Trixie. “He, their own father, was a non-presence in his own daughter’s life. Finally fed up with his failure to be a decent parent-”
“Now hold ON! My MOM did it!” Trixie yelled out as everyone else in the courtroom muttered amongst themselves. “I met her that very night!”
“And you are…sure it wasn’t someone else?” Celestia wished to know, raising an eyebrow in the air as Trixie vigorously nodded.
“I wasn’t sure at first, but it was definitely her. I’ve never forgotten her gentle smile. And there was no way anybody else could have known about the NECKLACE!”
“N-necklace?” Everyone looked at Trixie as she reached inside the magician’s hat she had on the defendant’s stand, pulling out her necklace as Celestia looked over at the baliff.
“Did she have that with her the whole time?”
“Oh yes, we brought her in with that in the hat.”
“Mom gave it to me that night. She was angry with dad not…bein’ around.” Trixie sighed. “She promised to come back on my twentieth birthday, after all and GIVE it to me!” She went on, holding the necklace up high. “And she was the only one who knew about the promise! So it had to have been mom! She told me she’d be taking care of him! Then I went back to bed, and when I woke up the next morning…dad was-I f-found his b-body…”
“That’s RIDICULOUS!” Serge insisted, shaking his head back and forth. “Your honor, you cannot honestly believe that a ghost is the murderer!” He proclaimed, waving a hoof back and forth in the air. “It’s Occam’s Razor, the simplest solution that fits the evidence is usually the right one.”
“We don’t have to assume it was a ghost, necessarily. There’s another possibility.” Twilight told everyone as she shook her head back and forth. “Wynonna T. Mare wasn’t really dead!” Trixie paled. Squirt gaped. Everyone in the courtroom muttered amongst each other as Twilight went on. “Perhaps her death was a false assumption, and that, in reality, she DIVORCED her husband. The victim would have found it difficult to explain divorce to his children, so he lied and said she died. THAT’S simple, isn’t it?”
“Well…dad did say that he’d been there on her bedside, but…neither me nor Shinedown was there when he said she died…” Trixie admitted with a nod of her head. “He coulda lied…”
Serge sighed, long and hard. “That’s all well and good, but the problem is I’ve checked the coroner’s reports. Mrs. Mare died of a strain of influenza virus several years ago! I have the reports right here.” Serge went on, pulling out papers from a notebook, waving them in the air. “So there’s two possibilities left. Either Trixie here was simply having a very lucid dream…or she’s just making it up to avoid charges!”
Twilight slammed her hooves on her table, standing up tall. “OBJECTION! Just because she KNEW of the allergy doesn’t mean she did it! If the medicine WAS replaced with flour, then the FIRST suspect ought to be…the DOCTOR. Let’s have her come in and take the stand!”
“Very well.” Serge said, nodding his head as he clapped his hooves together. “Bailiff! Please bring in Doctor Prima Nona! The prosecution suspected she might be called by the defense as a potential witness so we have her in the waiting room right now!”
…
…
…
…NOVEMBER 5TH, 9:30 AM,
PONYVILLE DISTRICT COURT
The long-maned pony sniffled a bit, her muzzle covered with a surgical mask and a doctor’s stethoscope around her neck as she adjusted her white lab coat with gloved hooves. “HA-CHOO! HA-CHOOOOO!” She groaned, sniffling a bit and struggling to get back up as her knees buckled a bit. “ACHOOO! Sorry, I-I gotta real bad allergy. I studied medicine in Marehattan-ACHOOO!”
“Geez, you’re a sneeze machine.” Squirt groaned as he struggled to get Siegfried calm, Stella letting out loud “meows” as Ms. Nona nervously bowed her head.
“I’m sorry. I’m terribly allergic to cats. Just hearing one meow makes me-G’CHAAAHHH!” She sneezed again, everyone ducking down low to avoid the wet spray.
“Your…testimony, please?” Celestia gently asked as she gestured with a hoof.
“Poor Cyrus’s allergy was really very, very serious. One packet of medicine contains 400 milligrams. If anyone with an allergy in such stages ingested even HALF of that in terms of buckwheat flour, it’d kill them on the spot. It was impossible for him to have a healthy day without taking his medicine.”
“And when did he usually take his medicine?” Serge asked.
“Usually at lunch.” Ms. Nona said, sniffling a bit as Squirt sniffed little Siegfried, then Stella. They smelled…odd. Like…flour. Then again, the whole COURTROOM was smelling of buckwheat flour.
“And was Trixie there at lunch? Did she have access to the medicine before lunch or only after he’d taken it-”
“Actually, it doesn’t matter if she did or didn’t because, well…I did it.” Prima Nona sighed, head bowed low. “He-he died b-because of me. I’m the one who gave him the flour-filled medicine packet.”
For a long, long time nobody said anything. Celestia slowly turned from her to the defense. Trixie gaped. Squirt’s mouth hung wide open. Twilight glanced from the witness to Serge, and Serge was turning a different color on the spot. “Ohhhhh!!!”
“Uh, Serge, you’re turning red…”
“OHHHHHH!!!!”
“Serge! Serge, you’re turning BLUE!”
“OHHHHHHHH!!! What?! Whaaaaaaaa?!?”
“I can’t let you keep treating that girl like that. These false accusations are just…I can’t stand it anymore.” Ms. Nona said as she bowed her head, holding his hooves over her head.
“Witness…please explain to me what happened.” Celestia asked, placing her hooves together and sighing. “What do you mean by all this?”
“The day before the incident, I was in my lab, filling medicine packets with flour. It was supposed to be a joke. A while ago a nurse at my clinic came to me having trouble with a hangover. I gave her a medicine packet with flour in it. She fell for it, hook, line and sinker. I really like playing little jokes like that.”
“It worked?” Serge wished to know, a surprised expression flickering across his face.
“Oh yes! The “placebo” effect. But…I think what happened was I mixed up my flour packets with my medicine packets. I’m-I’m really sorry…” She whispered, tears slowly flowing down from her eyes as she covered her head again. “It was all just a stupid prank, but-but it-it got him-got…”
“Does this mean Trixie didn’t do it?” Twilight wondered out loud as Squirt shook his head back and forth.
“She has to have proof.” Squirt insisted. “DO you?”
“Yes. This.” Prima Nona said as she held up something from her large brown doctor’s bag, pulling open the top lid to a “Powdered Cat Milk” can, showing off the true insides. Buckwheat flour. “I use it for cooking at home. I brought it to my facility. If you take it to your labs, I’m sure you can test it and prove it’s the same as in the packets. I keep it in a can to prevent it from drying out. I keep ALL my powdered goods in cans around the house, really. Flour, baking soda, sugar…”
“Wait. You own a cat?” Twilight asked.
Prima Nona paled. “N-no, this is an empty container a friend g-gave me-”
But then Siegfried bounded through the air and leapt into Prima’s arms as she blinked, then nuzzled him. “Oh, Siggy!” She laughed. “You silly willy cat! A-anyway, Mr. Wheatley WOULD have taken the medicine at lunch, but when I went to give it to him he spilled it on the ground. Sunray was kinda something of a butterfingers. So I gave him some packets and told him to take it at home…”
“Siegfried is YOURS?” Twilight asked as powder filled the air, making everyone ELSE begin coughing and sneezing as Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof. “HAC-HOO! Ma’am, please don’t lie on the stand, that’s perjury!”
“If you can’t be honest about something as simple as an allergy to cats, then why should we believe you about your testimony regarding the medicine?” Serge insisted as Trixie held herself up.
“I’m TELLING you, mom said she did it! Momma came back for me, she did it! She was just trying to help me!” She yelled out. “I appreciate you trying to help me, Ms. Nona, but-”
“Wait. There’s a simple way to clear this up.” Serge said with a sigh. “…I can tell you want to talk about your mother. So…in the interest of being fair, tell you what. I’ll let you do that.”
“Talk about the kidnapping.” Squirt called out, Celestia giving him a “Please settle down look as Trixie cleared her throat.
“It happened over a decade ago. I was just a little foal…” She murmured. “It happened on my mother’s birthday. A woman, a…a horrible DEMON took my momma away from me when we were playing and-and put me in a small, dirty room. I don’t know how long I was there…” She went on, shuddering as she clutched herself tightly. “Walls…walls all around me…musty, dank smell…closing-closing in…everything’s so dark…that person’s about to hurt me, that THING is going to hurt me, but-but then…then mom comes in. She bursts in, but…the kidnapper strangles her…her hooves are around her throat, and-and mom says…don’t worry about mommy…today is your birthday…let’s get home and…get some cake…”
“Soon after, your mother died in a traffic accident?” Twilight wished to know.
“Yes. Please, I-I gotta go visit mom’s grave tomorrow, it’s her birthday…” Trixie begged, tears beginning to form in her eyes as she struggled not to burst into tears, Squirt looking over at Twilight.
“You GOTTA help her, Twilight. Please. Think of something!”
“…I have.” Twilight said, her eyes widening. “I’ve got the answer!”
“What do you mean?” Serge asked.
“Trixie isn’t lying. Her memories are just mixed up.” Twilight explained as a smile spread across her lips and she gave Nona a knowing look. “Your mom’s birthday is tomorrow, right? And your mother gave that necklace to you for YOUR birthday, which was yesterday, right? So in other words, your mom’s birthday is two days after yours. But in your memories, the order was reversed.”
“…wait…y-you’re right!” Trixie realized. “Momma’s birthday should come AFTER mine, so that means…”
“Yes. You were locked up in that room first, and your mother came to help you…and then, later, you were playing with your mother when that same demon came to try and take you away. So let me ask you this…what if the woman you thought was your kidnapper…was actually your mother? What if those identities were also switched?” Twilight went on. “That’s what happened! A sympathetic kidnapper took you away from the cruel treatment of your mother, only for her to come back and try to take you back. That person who gave you the necklace…the one who PROMISED it to you when you were old enough…was dedicated to keeping you safe. And somebody even right now is trying to do just that…”
Twilight turned, looking squarely in the doctor’s face. “…aren’t you?”
“STOP!” Nona screamed out. “P-please! Stop! No more.” She whispered, tears streaming down her face as she removed the lab coat and her mask and stethoscope…or rather, a special charm designed to hide her true fur color. Her form changed before their eyes to a beautiful shade of light blue, her mane turning to a silvery/white as she looked up at Trixie, who’s eyes bugged out in surprise as she flopped back against the chair, everyone looking from her to…Wynonna. Wynonna T. Mare. The obviously NOT dead mother of Beatrix Lulamoon Mare.
“As you can see…Wynonna wasn’t really dead. So everything’s now clear.” Twilight insisted with a wave of her hoof.
“Sunray had…a wife already. I was never his actual wife in the eyes of the law…” Wynonna murmured. “He fell out of love with Marilith quite early in their marriage, and…met me. Not long after I got pregnant…and Sunray paid for a forged birth certificate for my children so nobody would know. But Marilith, she-she didn’t like it one bit. She was furious. She couldn’t take it out on Shinedown because he was away at the academy most times, so-so she took it out on Trixie. I finally had enough and tried to steal her away…”
“Only for her to steal her back, and then she got killed in an accident some time later.” Twilight finished. “Why didn’t you come back to your children, your husband?”
“I couldn’t openly come back. I didn’t…want everything that had happened to come out into the light, and we knew it WOULD make people start asking questions we’d have no choice but to answer.” Wynonna murmured. “And Sunray was so afraid that I’d lose our children because of the kidnapping…but he still loved me, so he kept me around as his physician and…and I kept a close eye on Shinedown and Trixie from behind the scenes. It was all I deserved.”
“I’m…truly very sorry.” Serge sighed as he held his hooves over his head. “But you realize that…” He stood up, shaking his head back and forth. “You have essentially confessed to murder and we now have to prosecute you.”
“You can’t take her away from me, not after I just got her back!” Trixie screamed out as the bailiffs had to restrain her from tearing Serge’s head off, Squirt getting a glint to his eye. An idea was forming in his head. A possibility. What if…
Yes. Yes, it could be possible. DEFINITELY possible.
“HOLD IT!”
Everyone immediately turned in the young Changeling-blooded foal’s direction as he slammed a hoof down on the defense table, standing by Twilight, holding himself up as high as his skinny legs could. “Not so fast! If you still gave him the packet at lunch, then he would have still broken out into hives when he opened it up and it spilled out, right? But he didn’t have ANY kind of reaction when he dropped it at lunch, did he? So then…what if he never actually touched any buckwheat flour from that packet? What if he got that reaction from something else?”
“You mean someone ELSE might have killed him?” Serge wondered. “…Wynonna Mare! Tell us! When you went to your husband’s room, what did you see? What EXACTLY did you see?”
“Sun-Sunray w-was…he was d-dead.” Wynonna murmured. “And his pet cat was on the table licking at the medicine packet.”
“Then perhaps it wasn’t medicine in the packet at all, just as you surmised.” Serge realized as he slapped his hoof on the table. “What is Siegfried covered in right now? What is STELLA covered in right now?” He demanded, as everyone took a sniff of the little kitty cats, Wynonna sniffing Stella as she held her up.
“This…is BUCKWHEAT FLOUR. How? Unless…” Wynonna opened up the can that had held her buckwheat flour and dipped a hoof in, tasting it. “…wait. This isn’t buckwheat flour. This is SUGAR.”
“You put SUGAR in the packets instead of buckwheat flour. You mixed up the cans.” Squirt realized. “You did say you use cat food cans for all kinds of powdery stuff. So then even if Sunray G. Cyrus HAD taken the packet, he wouldn’t have gotten a reaction from it. The buckwheat had to come from something else…and there WAS something else that was covered in buckwheat flour…one of two cats that now smell of it.”
Everyone looked immediately at Siegfried as he let out a soft growl, Trixie sniffing him. “So that’s it. He’s always playing around the factory…”
“He AND Stella.” Wynonna realized. “The two got COVERED in the flour. So what must have happened was…”
“It’s simple, yes.” Twilight agreed. “Your pet cats were out playing in a factory that often uses buckwheat flour for flavoring. They got it in their fur…headed back home…and that night, Siegfried cuddled up with his owner in his bed, neither aware that an allergy-inducing powder was lingering on the poor kitty’s fur. Just a little bit of flour in a cat’s coat was what caused Sunray G. Cyrus’s anaphylaxis!”
“Killed by a CAT.” Princess Celestia proclaimed sadly, shaking her head back and forth. “So this means…” She smiled sagely down at everyone else as Serge nodded in agreement, bowing and gesturing with a hoof at Twilight.
“The prosecution has no case. We find the defendant…and her mother…”
NOT GUILTY.
“This court…is ADJOURNED.”
…
…
…
…NOVEMBER 10th, 6:30 PM
SHINEDOWN T. MARE’S HOME
“I can’t thank you enough.” Shinedown insisted, bowing again and again with his head, the blue mane flopping down over and over as Squirt helped himself to a large assortment of noodles, passing the bowl they were in along to Trixie at the end of the circular table all of them were sitting and dining at. “Twilight, you really came through for me when I needed you most.”
“When WE needed you most.” Trixie admitted as she stirred some sauce onto her noodles, passing the noodle bowl onto Wynonna as she doled out some to Spike, who was sprinkling in diamond dust as a fine seasoning onto HIS plate of the delicious treat that Shinedown had brought over for the occasion.
“Anybody would have done the same in my position. It was my pleasure to help.” Twilight insisted as he nodded her head, Spike passing HER the bowl next as she put some butter on the EQUI-FINA noodles. “So what will you be doing now?
“Everything is all set for the funeral next week. Then Mom’s going to take over dad’s business.” Trixie said as she sighed sadly, Shinedown patting her on the back as he headed back to his seat. “And I’ll be doing my performance of “Beo-Hoof” in his honor tomorrow at the park.” She added, putting her hat to her head and bowing deeply.
“I’m sure your father would be proud of you, Trixie. You’ve turned yourself into something truly special. And you, Shinedown…you picked a truly special person to make your son.” Twilight admitted as she gestured at Squirt, Shinedown smiling over at him as he passed the Changeling-blooded little kid some Parmesan cheese.
“He’s got that knack for looking at things from a whole new light.” Shinedown proudly complimented. “You turned the whole case around on its head! I couldn’t be prouder of you, Squirt!”
The little Changeling deeply blushed, his cheeks turning a bright shade of red as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Aw, you guys woulda probably figured it out eventually.”
“No, really, Serge was almost ready to declare me guilty on the spot. That WAS clever of you to think of something everyone else paid no attention to.” Wynonna insisted as she gave him a sweet little smile. “And…I’m v-very…happy to have a grandson.” She added, a faint hint of breathlessness coming to her voice. “I always wanted one of my own. I don’t even care if you’re a Changeling.” She added, giving a nod and a big, warm smile to her son. “My husband would be proud of you to see how far you’ve come, Shinedown. And what great friends you have.”
“To friends.” Shinedown proclaimed, holding up his goblet of EQUI-FINA water in the air. “…and to family.” He added, the others raising theirs in solemn agreement.
“To friends and to family.”
“May they be always welcome…here.” Shinedown said, gently resting his other hoof over his heart.
“Hear-hear.” Twilight agreed. “Hear-hear.”
