As the last train of the day stopped at Ponyville station two strangers to the village were among the passengers leaving the Friendship express. This in itself was not that strange outsiders often come to Ponyville for many different reasons and the two strangers had nothing that marked them as really special. Even if Rarity, of Rarity’s Boutique, would declare their use of simple saddlebags, capes and capotain hats to be highly unfashionable and quickly declared it her duty to help them get something more haute couture. Thankfully for the two unicorns, Rarity had been out of town since the destruction of the Day Spa. The two strangers, who did not encounter Pinkie Pie (to her great regret when she later heard about them), walked directly to the town hall.
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Since he had just finished what was supposed to be the last thing before going home secretary Tadwell could not help but give a quit groan at the sound of looked up from his work as he saw two unicorns – a pure white stallion and a young purple mare with sapphire blue mane with violet and brilliant-rose streaks – enter.
“Can I help with something?”
“Polis, Zodiac Yard”, said the white unicorn with a Prench accent as he holds up a badge with telekinesis, “I am inspector Zenith, this is inspector Twilight Sparkle, we would like to talk to Mayor Mare. We are expected.”
“Oh, yes. I’ll inform the mayor you are here.”
The mayor was glad to see them and explained the situation: five days ago the town’s Day Spa had destroyed by a very localized earthquake. Thankfully nobody had died thanks to the quick action of one of the town’s weather ponies, Rainbow Dash. This was something that had never happened before in Ponyville and nobody in the town had heard about something like it happening anywhere else.
Together with the monthly appearance of the strange looking pony that seems to live in the Everfree forest, and other stories that nobody normally would think twice about, had made idle gossip, about there being a witch near the town, into today's truth.
“Because of this I made a request to Zodiac yard for some witchfinders to help us find out what we’re dealing with”, finished Mayor Mare “And here you are.”
“Thank you mayor”, said inspector Zenith, “you did the right thing. Most likely it will be reviled to be nothing: eight time of nine it is just, as you said: idle gossip that ‘as gone too far. Or somebody looking for something to blame for their own mistakes or misfortune.”
“That’s good to hear. The telegram said you needed some items.”
“Yes”, said inspector Twilight Sparkles, “it was a map over the town, with the incident marked out and the houses of the involved; one map over the overall area; information in all involved; and some kind of sleeping arrangement.”
As Twilight had gone through the list of requested things the mayor and Tadwell had placed them all on her desk. “We also marked out the town’s inn on the map. We’ve informed them that you’re coming.”
“Thank you, we will return sometime after lunch tomorrow and discuss our findings, find us a time. And we would like any information you have on this ‘Everfree eremite’ then, a list of anyone that left the town just after the incident and anything else you think we could ‘ave interests in.”
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“What do you think”, asked junior inspector Twilight Sparkle as the two lawmares walked toward the Ponyville’s inn.
“It is your show Twilight Sparkles, you tell me.”
“As you said, statistically is it most likely to be something else then a witch, but until we have done our job we don’t know if it is that. We should begin with going through the material at the inn and make our plans from that.”
“Good idea but I think it could be worth taking a look at the incident site first.”
“Can we really find that much right now? Without any real light it will be hard to find anything and it has been days since it happened so any traces we can find would be old and possibly contaminated by now. We can just as well do it tomorrow after planning and with light to help us look.” Zenith looked at her though his dark glasses. “What have I forgotten?”
“That we don’t need light to feel after remains of magic energy.”
“But monsieur, the book says that any useful remains of magic energy would have disappeared by now.”
“You forget that the book is written with normal unicorns in mind, not you mon cher Twilight. Somebody with your talent could be able to pick up something, even after all this time.”
“Oh… Ehm, then I guess that it could be worth the time to go there now.”
“You have to remember Twilight”, said Zenith as they changed direction, “you are one of the most powerful and talented unicorns of this era. What other considers impossible you can do.”
“Yes, monsieur.”
“You have memorized the whole book; now learn what part of it is written with a normal unicorn in mind.”
“Yes, monsieur.”
The ruin of the Day Spa was that, a ruin. Only parts of the structure were still standing up, the rest of it was in shambles. Any real details of it was hard to see in the darkness but there was a temporary fence surrounding it and signs of ponies trying to clear up the debris.
Twilight sat down before the ruin and begun to concentrate. Her horn begun to glow and the ruin was enveloped in a light aura of the same colored. At first she sensed nothing, than she felt the traces of unicorn magic, nothing special and too new to be from before the earthquake, probably just unicorns helping with the clearing up. She had to, figuratively, dig deeper. Deeper. Just as she thought that Zenith’s faith in her was misplaced she felt something. Magic that definitely should not be there.
“Necromantic energy. The earthquake was created with necromantic energy.”