//------------------------------//
// 16 - Dead Mare’s Tale 
// Story: Blink Again 
// by Amarandream 
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A shrill scream filled the air. Whose was it? Rarity's? Sweetie Belle's? Light's own? Common sense could tell her it was likely the first of those, given said pony's flair for the dramatic, but sense suddenly seemed in short supply. After all, the impossible had happened.

Before them lay the broken, lifeless body of a pony who Light had called friend just the day before. Twi was gone. Her injured leg was now broken near in half, a piece of bone stuck out from her neck, and her shoulder bore a nasty gash. Splattered all over the ground: fresh blood and yellow feathers.

Yellow feathers?

Light was broken from her stupor, only to turn and see Rarity and Sweetie Belle still frozen in shock, the latter looking quite nauseous. "Um, where's Fluttershy?" 

She glanced around, frightened and overly alert. If something had attacked Twi, it may have gotten to Fluttershy too. Of course, that didn't explain the lack of a body, but there were many creatures that might hold an appetite for ponies. Manticores, chimeras, bugbears, hydras, cragadiles, rocs and many more came to mind. Any of them could have killed Twi and... no, not a one of them would have eaten Fluttershy. She could have any one of those things practically at her beck and call in no time. And wait, if said monster was large enough to eat a pony, wouldn't their group have seen it by now anyway? It would have had to be present since before they woke up for them not to hear the teleportation.

The logical explanation was that there was no monster, at least not like the ones she'd been thinking of. That meant that Fluttershy was still here somewhere, and uneaten, though not necessarily unharmed. She would have cried out for help though if she was still alive, which meant that something must have killed her and dragged her off. But why would it hide her body and not Twi's? And then there was Fluttershy's off behavior that morning, as described by Sweetie Belle. Had she known something was coming?

It was staring to make Light feel sick, analyzing her friends deaths as if they were just another mystery, no different than when she and Pinkie investigated the mystery of who ate the Cakes' cake. She'd feel bad about it even, at the callousness of it, if it weren't for how badly she needed to know the answer. Every second of not knowing was another second they were in danger, unable even to properly prepare themselves. The best she could do was still her heart and allow herself to mourn later.

She wasn't going to figure this out alone though. It was good then that she had an expert detective by her side—at least, so long as Rarity's story of how she saved Rainbow Dash's career hadn't been too badly exaggerated. The fashionista did have a tendency to do that. She also tended to freak out, a habit now only held in check for her sister's sake. The last thing that filly needed was to see her supposed protector panicking.

Light turned to her friend. "Rarity?"

"Ah!" Rarity jolted back, clutching her hoof to her chest in shock. "Oh, Light, don't scare me like that. What is it?"

Light watched as Rarity stroked a hoof through Sweetie Belle's mane, trying to reassure her following that scare, then nervously cleared her throat. "Uh, well, I was hoping you could help me figure out what happened here. I've already ruled out pony-eating monsters, and it must have happened very quickly if they didn't have a chance to scream for help."

Rarity began slowly nodding along with her, then suddenly frowned at the mention of screams. "Well, this may come off as reflecting poorly upon myself, but even if they had screamed for help, I doubt I would have heard. Truthfully, last night may just have gifted me with the soundest and deepest sleep I have had in ages."

"Yeah, me too," Light began to nod in agreement, before abruptly cutting off at a thought. Both of us? That can't be right.

"You did? That's a rather odd... coincidence..." Rarity trailed off, a look of anxiety flashing across her face. "Say, didn't you tell me that Twi gave the rest of that potion to Fluttershy? It was to be used as a sleep aid, wasn't it?"

Light's eyes widened in shock, her jaw going slack. Oh no...

Rarity eyed Light from out of the corner of her eye, then gave a short, hesitant nod, more to herself than anything else. "Yes. I see. Still, best we see what we can find here. Sweetie Belle, I need you to be on guard for us while we take a look at things. Just stay right there and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. If you see something, scream. Understood?"

When the filly responded with nothing more than a small dip of the head, Rarity rounded on her, meeting her eye to eye. "I'm sorry, dearest, but I need to know you understand. After all, I am laying a rather large amount of trust and responsibility at your hooves. Can you do this very important task for me?"

Realizing that she'd been given an actual mission, Sweetie Belle threw up a shaky salute. "D-don't worry, Rarity, you can c-count on me!" The attempt at confidence was ruined by her stammering, but it seemed to satisfy Rarity for the time being.

When Rarity turned back to face her, Light could see it in her eyes: Rarity had already come to the same conclusion she had. They both knew what had probably happened. It just added up—Fluttershy's recent strange behavior, the feathers, the sedative, the pegasus's sudden disappearance, the fact that Twi had once wanted said pegasus dead. Even that "scarf" Sweetie had mentioned Fluttershy wearing that morning now appeared as a bandage in Light's mind.

And yet, neither she nor Rarity could give voice to their joint conclusion. After all, such a thing was simply inconceivable. With any pony but Fluttershy, they might have given word to their suspicions already, but not her. She, of all ponies, could never do such a thing. And so, as likely as Fluttershy being at fault was starting to appear, they knew that there had to be another explanation.

Rarity stooped over Twi's body, examining the damage with the same keen eye she applied to imperfections in her designs or outward appearance—though she did mutter about the lack of her red cat-eye glasses. While she did that, Light examined everything around the body, hoping that the blood and feathers might indicate a trail for them to follow.

"Well," Light sighed after a few moments of searching. "I'm not seeing any patterns in all of this. Nothing that might lead us to Fluttershy or anywhere else useful, that is. I can't say for sure, but I think that somepony may have intentionally scattered the blood and feathers as haphazardly as possible to avoid leaving a trail. Such intention would indicate an intelligence behind the attack, but it could also just be a coincidence."

"I highly doubt it is a coincidence, darling," Rarity said absentmindedly whilst staring at Twi's neck. "Hmm, have you seen this bone sticking out of her throat?"

"Yes, I have. A broken cervical vertebra, correct?"

"Well, I'm not sure how a 'cervical' vertebra is different from any other kind, but no, I do not believe this is part of her spine. This piece didn't come out of her neck, it was shoved in. I am rather inclined to believe it is some kind of shiv."

"...I see." Light paused to consider the implications of that discovery. "Anything else?"

"This cut along her shoulder, should it be black like this? I don't know much about body decomposition, but I'm fairly certain that shouldn't be happening this early."

"It's black? Hold on." Light stepped beside Rarity, taking a closer look at the wound. "Huh. Is it just me or does that look an awful lot like that snake venom?"

"It does," Rarity nodded grimly. "I'd hoped there was another explanation." She threw a look over her shoulder to make sure her sister was okay. "That makes for a rather nasty complication, does it not?"

"Yeah, and we both know who ended up with the snake's corpse."

A dead silence fell between them as they each became certain of the same thing, Sweetie Belle's nervous shuffling in the background seeming a stampede in comparison.

Resigning herself to the truth, Light finally choked the words out—the words both of them knew needed to be said. "It was her, wasn't it? She did this."

Rarity's nod came stiffly, as if forced by some sort of mechanical contraption. In her eyes was a distant look, the look of a pony realizing that nopony was too innocent or too kind; Nopony was immune to becoming a monster.

"What do we do?" Rarity's voice came with a quiver, almost too quiet to hear.

Light gazed at the pile of texts Twi had assembled before her death. "I'm going to search those for any sign of my newest plan having been tried before. If it hasn't, I'll prepare myself for the next teleportation, even if I need to train with darts all day and stare at that spot in the air around the clock to make sure I time it right. If it works, it may be more than our way out of here, it might just be the only way to get Fluttershy the help she needs."

"But, Light, what are we going to do about her now? We can't just let a murderer have free reign of the place."

"We don't have choice. She could be hidden anywhere amongst these bodies, and if we go looking for her, it will just give her the perfect opportunity to ambush us. No, we take a defensive posture, keep somepony on watch at all times, and wait until she reveals herself. Unless she like raw carrion, she'll have to come out to cook her food eventually, and we have the only supplies for making a fire. Otherwise, the stuff will just make her sick and we may not have to deal with her regardless."

"And when she comes?"

"Restrain her if we can..." Light glanced at Sweetie Belle, who was looking more terrified the more of the conversation she overheard, "...and do whatever we must if we can't. We have too much to protect to do anything less."

Rarity followed her gaze to the filly, then a look of concern came over her and she pulled her sister close, kissing her atop the head in an effort at reassurance. "Do you hear that, Sweetie? You're going to be safe. We'll make sure of it, no matter what."

Sweetie buried herself in Rarity's coat, Light taking up the filly's abandoned watch duties. "Thank you. I wish I wasn't so scared, but I am. I'm so scared. I don't understand anything, and I don't want anything bad to happen to you. Either of you." She sniffled, tears rubbing off into her big sister's fur. "I'm really glad you two are here with me. Please, promise me that won't change?"

"It won't," Rarity said without hesitation. "Do you want to know why?"

"Why?"

"Because we're family." Rarity gave Light a meaningful look. "All of us. And that means we stick by one another, no matter what—because that is all that we have, and that is all we need. Just each other."

Light couldn't help it: despite herself, she turned away from the watch just long enough to offer the others a tender smile. A smile given because for once, despite all they'd lost, she found herself almost believing in Rarity's sweet little fantasy. Her plan would work, and they would all get out okay. Together.





Fluttershy watched her friends from where she had disguised herself amongst and under the corpses. They were looking for her, shocked and horrified by what she'd done. It was, unfortunately, the reaction she expected.

They would never understand the necessity of what she had done. They could not see how much safer they were without Twi. Fluttershy only wanted to make everything safe, and sound, and secure. Oh yes, like a warm blanket wrapped around so tight one could not see the monsters looming over. Maybe then she could pretend that the endless tune she'd been ever so softly humming was a normal thing. Just a sweet little lullaby, not a mournful threnody too old to have ever been sung in ponyville.

Light's gaze passed over her location, unable to spot her within the dark crevice she found for herself. Beside the alicorn, Rarity held her sister close, speaking softly in an attempt to keep the terrified filly calm.

Light and Rarity. Those two would be a problem.

Oh, how Fluttershy wanted so badly to go over to them. She would hug them, and cry, and explain why she had to do what she did. In return, they would comfort her, tell her everything would be okay and that they could all be friends again. Or they wouldn't.

No, of course they wouldn't. They would hate her, attack even. She was nothing but a threat to them now, and they to her. Light was just a less experienced version of Twi, and Rarity would crush her like she had that snake if she thought it would keep Sweetie Belle safe.

She could see the danger lurking in her former friends' eyes. That look of grim resolve Light held, and the anxiety Rarity tried so hard to paint over with confidence. They would hurt her, but she wouldn't let them. Even if she had to act first.

And as for Sweetie Belle? The poor little filly was an innocent, undeserving of all that had happened and would happen yet. Fluttershy could take better care of her than those two. Yes, much better.

Of course, being outnumbered would make things difficult. She would just have to be patient, prepared, and well-equipped with the advantage of surprise. Only then could she make her move.