Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 5
by TDR
Crusaders of the Locate City
[Equestria]
The sun was still hours away from rising when all hell broke loose.
Across Equestria every creature with a cutie mark was woken up, unless they were third shift, to their cutie marks glowing and thrumming. Even those without a cutie mark were awoken and all of them had an odd urge to go some where and do something, though they didn't know what.
And that was just the ones who didn't know.
Princess Luna and her sister had been informed what the odd event meant and before her sister had even woken, Luna and the entire legion of night Guard descended on Ponyville With the day guard and her sister close behind.
In the Crystal Empire there was a great deal of chaos as well though only Shining Armor set out to Ponyville with a gate spell created by Chrysalis that allowed a hundred strong force of Crystal Guard and Changeling warriors though before Chrysalis couldn't keep the gate open any longer.
In Ponyville things were much worse, the entire town was gathering at the Crystal Tree, Seshat, feeling drawn to it, and all of them freaked out more as swarms of Guards descending on the town.
Inside the crystal tree things were a bit wilder, mostly due to Seshat freaking out.
Rahs, Spike. Twilight, and Big Mac who was staying over, were trying to calm down the tree who was screaming about something. The most they were able to get from her was that whatever the issue was it was at Rich manor.
And as the sun started to rise in the sky, nearly fifty percent of Equestria's Guard marched on Rich Manor.
The investigation was short and the results terrible.
Every pony in the manor, from the maids, to the Rich's themselves was dead, save one filly.
[That afternoon, Seshat]
“.. We had the poison traced, but due to the nature of it, it's pretty easy to tell where it came from, and it's not illegal in Griffonstone, not even in large doses. Mrs. Rich had several deliveries from unconfirmed locations with strict instructions to be delivered directly into her hooves, not any servants. We found the box with traces of the poison still inside of it. The Rich's had a water softener on site and the poison was put into the water supply there along with the salt needed for filtration. Given the nature of the poison it would have been undetectable as anything more than organ failure had it not been for us finding that box and the sheer number of those affected. The only bright note in all that is that they all would have blacked out before their body stopped working so it would have been relatively painless death.” Comet Trail read off the scroll he had. Given the Guard presence in town Comet Trail had taken over citing local jurisdiction, though he accepted the aside of several specialists in the other parts of the Guard.
Two Princesses, The Sparkles, The Day and Night Guard Captains, The Element Bearers, as well as Saturnia and Jynx representing two of the local groups shifted nervously at this information.
“What was the poison?” Saturnia asked.
“One of our alchemists identified it as Wind Serpent Venom, It has an antidote, but if it's not administered before the victim has fallen asleep, it's too late. Even contact with the poison is enough to be fatal, which is what we believe happened to Mrs. Rich. We've treated all the guards who came in contact with the box as well as everyone else near the site just in case, including the daughter.” Comet Trail continued. “The information provided by her matches this hypothesis as she was informed not to drink the water very strictly before bed last night by Spoiled.”
“How is she doing?” Pinkie Pie asked with a frown.
“The therapist Mending Spirit is staying with her, she believes Diamond Tiara is in shock.” Comet Trail offered.
“Obviously.”
Comet Trail spared a glance at Rahs, who looked like he wanted to fight something, Comet knew the feeling, but there was no bad guy to punch this time.
“So far she's launched herself straight into what I want to call business mode. Mending Spirit called it something else, but the gist is she's focusing fully one tending to the estate given she's the sole inheritor. She's already summoned the family lawyers and is having her mother retroactively removed from all records of the family line.” Comet Trail. “ She's setting up the funerals already, opting for cremation of the bodies on our recommendation to avoid possible issues with the poison getting into ground water.”
“Is there a motive that we can ascertain?” Princess Luna asked.
“Surprisingly yes. “ Comet Trail sighed. “Seems like it was nothing more than greed and possibly jealousy. One of the maids who has been on vacation for the last week and the gardener were interviewed.”
“The Gardener's alright?”Applejack questioned. “Not that ah'm not glad, but ah'm surprised given he'd likely be in contact with tha water more'n any pony else.”
“Evidently Mrs. Rich had a issue with him using the house's water on the plants, so he used an old well near the back of the estate to tend the gardens rather than deal with her. This may have been part of the plan as the plants would have shown the effects of the poison long before a pony.” Comet Trail explained. “As for the motive the two of them explained that Spoiled and Filthy argued quite a lot with there being several times Filthy threatened divorce over something or another. “
“Unfortunately this seems very cut and dry.” Princess Celestia sighed. “ I suppose not having dealt with a murder that left six dead is what caused the commotion with Seshat?”
“This is not the end of this. The issue is unresolved.” Seshat stated clearly.”This only feels like the beginning of something worse.”
“There is a young pony who has been made an orphan by her own mother.”Shining Armor spoke up. “Of course this isn't over, it likely never will be for her.”
OUCH!!!! even I feel sorry for Diamond Tiara!!!
Well... That went down a lot harder than I was expecting. Crusaders of the Lost Mark is one of my favorite episodes and I knew you were going to have to do something different with it, but dang...
oof and a wtf to go with it
This is what happens when you turn up the realistic consequences factor and leave people like Spoiled Rich's personality intact.
At least I HOPE it's what it seems here, because the other option is even darker in that Diamond snapped, killed her whole family, and framed her mom...
And yet I still find this better than what we got in canon...
This is the second thing that has made me both angry and upset.
not to bad but thanks for the warning
Ok if you somehow later on do a twist of diamond murdering her family your getting a very angry comment
Wow.... I knew Mrs. Rich was a spoiled bitch, but das' nasty
Ohh snap!
That's the consequence of Crusaders of the Lost Mark? Oh boy oh **** oh **** oh ****! What will Season 8 bring, if THIS is the impact of that small thing?
<curses incoherrent for the next hour>
10756045
Wait what chapter was crusaders of the lost mark?
10756048
This one.
It worries me that I was barely phased by the events of this chapter. But then again I'm a member of the 'Game of Thrones' generation so I've been exposed to FAR worse.
Still an intriguing hook I will say!
Damn! I don’t know what to say...
10756050
Oh lol
What. The. Shit.
I have a very real feeling that it could just be Diamond Tiara framing her mom, and that is why Seshat went full blown panic.
Which, well...
We already know how far one villainous pink filly went in canon... And I feel that evil!DT would not be much less dangerous than evil!Cozy Glow.
10756065
You've read TDR's stuff right...sorry but thats too obvious, my money is silver spoon did it.
to spare her friend any further suffering and to help her become a better pony out from under her mothers influance, the servents were colateral damage most likely
Also this chapter has the creepy quality of potentialy being cannon....does anyone remember seeing spoiled and filthy after this episode...ever, or them being mentioned...we see tiara and silver in the background sometimes being oddly quite if 'seeming' happy but...
Well, I think you said souls were a thing in your pony universe, so maybe they could ask pony satan if spoiled milk is in there, if there's a minder for pony hell, that is.
The story suddenly took a sharp, dark turn. For a minute, I almost thought this was an April 1st chapter. Just hope Diamond won't be too much traumatized from this event.
Fuck me that went from 0 to some top tier Game of Thrones shit
I already have the popcorn
The only part I question is the family lawyers working with Diamond. She is still a filly and not much older than Spike. In most societies she wouldn't be allowed to make any of those decisions only survivor or not
10756031 I doubt Diamond Tiara had anything to do with putting the poison
in the water softener. First of all the guard said the packages arrived in Spoiled's name and simple contact while putting it into water softener killed her. With what was revealed about what the poison would've done to the plants much faster guessing it wouldn't of taken as much as it did to kill everyone else to kill Diamond Tiara.
10756095
At this point in the story DT is 16 given she was 11 in season 1, young, but close enough to make her own decisions by pony rules. also she's rich so she does what she wants.
Am... am I the only one that gets the "Locate City" reference?
What the hell sort of plot starts with a multiple homicide?
10756077
Spoiled appeared in a couple of episodes in season 6, and in season 9 tried to apply for the Vice Headmare position at the school of friendship.
Filthy appeared in season 6 receiving a shipment of zap apple jam from Granny Smith and in season 7 looking to buy flowers as a gift for Spoiled for Mare's Day.
10756118 The plot of almost every crime drama on TV
10756128
well thats a releif, i guess i must have forgoten.
Question: Is this an of out of season April fools Joke?
Sorry could not resist
Good chapter I like the twist, and I cant wait to see the next part
is this part of a DT becomes a better pony plot?
Kinda difficult to get my facts straight with this story that's in its 5th installment. But if Silver Spoon did end her friendship with DT, leaving her with no emotional support in the face of her overbearing mother, and given how emotionally unstable she was becoming, this was bound to happen.
Harmony probably saw a friendship problem but there was no clear answer and this might have sent Seshat into a panic. That's my guess.
Some part of me fears that the matter with Diamond Tiara may straddle Grimdark territory.
10756150
Of course it isn't. Don't you have a phone?
10756194
Dt ended it with Silver not the other way around.
10756159
it better be
10756202
Why again?
Damn, that was a dark chapter! Interesting development though...
10756219
Basicly Dt was sofocused on revenge that it was worrying SS and when SS called her on it DT told her to fuck off.
10756257
Ouch also yer kinda leaning a elaborate setup rn
10756095
Yes the packages arrived in Spoiled's name. If Diamond were framing it her would be rather stupid to order the stuff in her own, wouldn't it? Besides, how many kids use their parents' credit cards or online shopping accounts to order stuff behind their backs? Also the poison killing on contact as well as ingestion just makes it all that easier to set Spoiled up as the killer, since all Diamond would have needed to do was WEAR GLOVES when handling the poison before making up the story of her mom telling her not to drink any water.
10756280 Yeah, that's the feel I'm getting from this considering back chapters.
Seriously, the "Sorry, let's be friends" that we got in the show STILL feels like a setup. I mean SERIOUSLY, up until that episode the ONLY character that was even CLOSE to her personality was Cosy
10756280
DT is an Earth Pony, so she doesn't have hands. Also, that's trying to build a case on no evidence. Oh, and the "with strict instructions to be delivered directly into her hooves, not any servants" bit is kinda damning don't you think?
A little dark? Okay we can deal with that
*Species wide panic, seemingly related to cuite marks* okay Starlight is up to something it seems.
*She-shat-herself panicking and summoning all ponies* ...okay going somewhere else it seems
*Spoiled Rich happened* you fool you've doomed us all
O this is defiantly setting things up for a huge story twist.
a amazing chapter.
i get the feeling this is just a tiny tip of a huge iceberg.
10756280
The only issue with that theory is that Spoiled would, no doubt, check out what was inside just such a mysterious package sent to her, and would likely have died with the first one due to exposure, she's not the sort of pony to respect her daughter's privacy, and Diamond was already away from the manor for a while too, which means she wouldn't have had any means to prevent her mother from opening the packages and blowing the whole ordeal early.
Of course, another possibility is that some third party has set this up, rogue changelings perhaps? They're the only ones I can think of that would be able to accept the package in Spoiled's stead without, well, clearly not being her.
10756103
That's an old book, I had to use a wiki to find it. Not in D&D Beyond, far as I could see.
Also, fitting spell given Seshat freaking the buck out.
10756394
There is also Diamond Tiara's Special Talent, which is supposed to be getting other to do what she wants. She could have ordered stuff in her mothers name with those instructions and then intercepted the packages and then did her thing to get them and still get those delivering it to say they took it to Spoiled.
10756433
You never heard of the "Locate City Nuke"?
10756439
Nope
10756019
Don't be. Diamond Tiara will be the one to have done this by herself. There's no doubt in my mind. She's doing this because she's the sole inheritor of Rich's business, so she'll be able to drive the Apple family into pure poverty and get to the CMC that way.
10756370
Like someone else said, DT could be lying about everything and bought the package herself with those instructions. She could've threatened the gardener to go along with her plan with the very poison she put into the water supply for the house, and the maid could've easily heard about the packages but not realized anything as she was going on vacation.
I know you said this chapter was going to be dark, but DAMN! starting things off with multiple homicides was not what I was expecting. Obviously there is more going on here than just a jealous soon to be ex-wife, but for the life of me I've got no idea what someone would have to gain by killing the Riches, or why that would trigger a detectable international friendship/harmony problem.