//------------------------------// // Crusaders of the Locate City // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 5 // by TDR //------------------------------// 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.”