Ch 4. The End of Peaceful Days
Loud knocks came at the Twilight’s door. They were steady, but forceful. It was something important, but not immediately urgent.
Exulus awoke in the branches above and changed into his cat form where he peaked over the edge. There he saw a pony in uniform, a police unicorn with a serious expression.
Twilight rolled out of bed and answered the door, still sleepy-eyed. Yet, immediately as she saw the police unicorn, she stood up straight and asked, “What seems to be the problem, officer?”
The unicorn drew a notepad out with his magic and began, “Are you Twilight Sparkle?”
“Yes, that’s me. What’s wrong?”
“Please hold all questions until the end. Where were you last night between the times of 10pm and 2 am?”
“I was here in my home, sleeping.”
“Can anyone testify to this?”
“Uhmmm, Spike can, I guess.”
“Spike? Does he live here with you?”
“Yes, he’s my assistant.”
“Very well. Did you hear any loud noises or see any figures last night?”
“No. I was asleep.”
“Understandable. Now M’am I’m sure you’re curious about what has happened and I will tell you. Last night, someone broke into the mayor’s office. We’re not sure who, what, or why, but as of currently, the mayor herself is missing. We’ve checked her house as well as investigated anyone she may have been particularly close to. None of them have seen her but there have been reports of noises of breaking glass and seeing dark figures running by the library.”
“Oh no! The mayor is missing? May I go inspect the crime scene?”
“At this time we are preserving the crime scene. Investigation of the scene should be done within an hour or two. You may come by around then to see if they will allow you in.”
“Alright, thank you.”
The Police unicorn tipped his hat and made his way over to the next house, knocked, and proceeded to asking them questions.
Spike walked over to Twilight, rubbing his eyes, “What’s going on Twilight?”
Twilight was scrambling to assemble her detective gear, “The mayor’s office was broken into last night and the mayor herself is missing! I’m going to go investigate so you just stay here today!”
“The mayor’s missing!? What if it’s some kidnapper asking for ransom? Or what if it’s some pony-eating monster!? What if it comes here next!?!”
“Relax Spike. We’ll get to the bottom of this. And besides, we live in the middle of town with dozens of other houses surrounding us in broad daylight, nobody would try to break in here.”
“Yeah…yeah you’re right.” Spike said, still somewhat frightened.
Twilight had assembled everything she needed and now opened up a pair of calendars, rescheduling how her days and the following days were going to proceed depending on if this turned out to be a mystery or if it was resolved quickly. Without looking, she posed another idea, “Y’know Spike, Rarity might also be scared too. She’s already been kidnapped by those Diamond Dogs. What if she gets kidnapped again? Maybe you should go protect her today?”
“You’re right!” Spike said, puffing up his chest and slamming it with his fist, “It’s my duty to defend the fair Rarity from any dangers that might arise! A brilliant idea Twilight! I must make haste!”
Spike charged out the door and Twilight simply giggled to herself. Both he and Rarity would be safer together and she wouldn’t have to worry about leaving Spike alone. As she rescheduled, Exulus walked in and hopped up on the table.
She passed a glance to him, “Are you going to come investigate with me?”
Exulus nodded.
“Alright. Is there nothing I can say to change your mind?”
Exulus shook his head.
Twilight finished rescheduling and headed over to the mayor’s office where there were more police unicorns standing around. Twilight approached them, sporting her Sherlock Holmes outfit, minus the bubble pipe. She saluted, “Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia, I’ve come to conduct an investigation of my own.”
The police unicorns nodded and allowed her inside with Exulus following.
Most of the other doors to the building were open but none of them seemed touched. In the hallways there were some knocked over potted plants and unhooked paintings. Inside the mayor’s office it was a complete mess. There was a broken window, a bookshelf that was knocked over, the chair was knocked over, the desk was shoved a bit to the side, and the carpet was wrinkled and bunched up. All of the drawers of the mayor’s desk were knocked loosely open, save for one drawer that was locked shut with no sign of the key.
Twilight looked around, taking note of everything. She moved some books around, took note of what was on the mayor’s desk as well as what must’ve fallen off the desk and onto the floor. There was one odd thing she noticed. The window was broken, but the glass wasn’t on the inside. It was on the outside. Whoever they were wasn’t breaking in, they were breaking out. This in mind, she went over to the door. It was a large wooden door with designs of old mythical creatures on it. She looked at the door handle as well as where the latch went in. The lock was broken and the latch was in small pieces on the floor. The door must’ve been locked and whoever it was forced the door open. Whoever they were, they were strong.
Exulus was also wandering about the room, observing, investigating, but most of all, smelling. He sniffed all over the room. Most of it smelled like soil and the plants, books, and wood, but there were two other smells, both that were familiar and both worried Exulus. One of the smells lingered about the room, it seemed to be all over but very faintly. The other was coming from the window, specifically from the window. He hopped up on the desk to get an elevated look at the window. There were red specs on it, mostly on the jagged, sharp edges. There were also some gray strands hanging on the jagged glass. Exulus directed his paw at it and meowed loudly.
Twilight came over to relook the window. This time, as she looked closer, she noticed the small details and even took some of the gray strands, placing them into a small plastic bag using her magic.
A police unicorn approached her, “Did you find something?”
“Twilight, yes, I think I know what happened in here. It’s more than a break-in.”
“Hm?” The police unicorn said quizzically.
“Yes,” Twilight said, starting to pace back and forth as she explained, “The front door to the building was open and the hallway was in shambles, yet only the door into this room shows signs of being broken into. The mayor must’ve come in here and locked the door, which was eventually knocked open. The blood on the window shards could belong to anypony, but I believe that the gray hairs belong to the mayor. When her adversaries broke through the door, the mayor must’ve jumped through the window to escape and got cut on the shards. She was being chased by somepony, somepony she knew was dangerous.”
“So you believe she must’ve run away somewhere? Maybe she’s hiding from her pursuers?”
“I’m sure she’d be trying to. If she didn’t go to one of her closest friends, then she must’ve gone out into the wilderness somewhere. Running straight without making turns would be the fastest way to escape one’s pursuers.”
“But straight ahead leads to-“
“The Everfree Forest.” Twilight said, looking out the window and into the forest.
“We’ll dispatch a search party right away. Thank you for your investigation, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Don’t thank me until we’ve found her,” spoke Twilight in a serious tone.
The police unicorn ran off to report to his superiors while Twilight and Exulus also made their way out. They moved out beside the broken window. There the glass shards were slightly bloodied, but there was little clue as to which direction the mayor had indeed taken. Twilight searched with her magnifying glass for tracks or blood spots, but saw nothing.
Exulus meowed loudly as he sniffed the bloodied shards and began following the scent trail towards the Everfree Forest. After a few paces, he pawed at the ground to remove a thin layer of dust. There was a spot with a drop of darkened red blood on it. They were on the right trail. Exulus continued following the scent and Twilight followed him.
The scent trail led deeper into the Everfree Forest, but not much deeper until Exulus stopped. Twilight approached quickly, then she too came to an abrupt stop with an expression of horror reaching across her face.
Amongst the thick foliage of the Everfree Forest lie the mayor’s body, on her stomach, hoofs spread to the left and right, face down in the dirt, with a pair of bloody holes just above the top of the neck.
Twilight mumbled, “M…Miss Mayor? Mayor? Are you okay? H-hey…come on….you’re not being chased anymore! Come on!” Twilight reached out and nudged the mayor’s body with her hoof and immediately regretted it. The body was stiff and cold as ice. Twilight immediately turned and ran away from the scene, out of the Everfree Forest.
Exulus sat still a little longer, eyes wide with shock and a boiling anger now rising through his veins. There was no longer a doubt in his mind what was going on, and he knew that it wasn’t going to stop either. It was a taunt, a challenge, and a warning.
Exulus made his way back to Ponyville where he meowed and meowed and meowed to get the police unicorns’ attention and lead them to the mayor’s body. He then made his way back to the library where he simply used magic to open the door. He was done acting and he needed to let Twilight know.
Inside, Twilight had shed off her Sherlock outfit and lazily strewn it about the library while she herself hid under her covers, shivering. She was hoping to find the mayor, but not like this.
Exulus stared at her for a moment. He tried to empathize a bit, but he just couldn’t. Death was something normal, and though it wasn’t something particularly normal amongst ponies, it was still a natural occurrence. No, this wasn’t natural at all. The mayor was murdered, he got that, but this isn’t the time for Twilight to lay around and wimper. She has to DO something about it.
Exulus hopped up on the foot of Twilight’s bed and said, “Twilight.”
She didn’t respond.
“Twilight!” He called.
Still no response.
“Twilight Sparkle, you cease your blubbering this instant!” Exulus shouted and levitated the covers off of Twilight’s bed.
Exposed and shivering, Twilight looked at Exulus, but all she saw was an angry cat. Who was talking then?
“Twilight, face me and listen.”
Twilight heard the voice and slowly ceased her shivering, her gaze turning to Exulus with an expression of surprise. “What…?” She mumbled out.
“Yes. I, Mr. Kitty Cat, can talk. I’ve always been able to talk, and now I need you to listen.”
Twilight’s face was still filled with shock, but now it was added with curiosity.
“Listen Twilight, I know I isn’t pretty, I know you weren’t expecting it and probably hoped never to see something like that, but you have to face it. The mayor has been murdered.”
Twilight’s face began to shift into a wretched frown.
Exulus quickly shouted, “She’s been murdered, but that doesn’t mean you get to cry and cower and run from it! You’ve been scared before. You’ve been hopeless and saddened, what did you do then?”
Twilight shivered and just stared at Exulus.
Exulus shouted, “I asked, What did you do!?”
“I-I…” Twilight nervously mumbled out. She stopped and thought about it. Some relieving realization washed over her and she stopped shivering. She answered more calmly, “I was saved….by my friends. I talked to them….They helped me through it all. Through everything.”
“They’re still there and they can still help you through it. You can get that done real quick because I need someone with half a brain.”
Twilight turned her full attention to Exulus now, “You know what’s going on, don’t you?”
“I know more than you do, that’s for certain. However, I don’t have the support of every pony in Ponyville, that’s something I need you for.”
“You need me?”
“I need you to help me, otherwise more ponies are going to die.”
Twilight flinched at the mention of death, then responded, “Tell me what you know, please….uhm….Kitty-“
“Exulus,” He interrupted, “My name is Exulus. I was a little bit cautious these past few days because I thought I smelled something but couldn’t put my paw on it, but now, today, that room, your mayor, I’m sure of it now. She was attacked by a changeling. Maybe more than one.”
“A Changeling?” Twilight murmured, “But why? I thought they only fed on love, not killed ponies.”
“There’s more than one way to get love. One is through conversation and proximity, those are the usual ways. Another way is some large, green, cocoon thing. The last way is at the expense of the pony. By biting down around the spinal column and near the brain, love, in an extremely dense, liquid form, can be forcefully drawn out.”
“But why use that method instead of the more passive ones?”
“It’s the quickest way to get a lot of love quickly. It’s also the way that Changelings hate the most because that form of love tastes sickeningly awful and because they’re not fans of murder either.”
“So what do they need with more love than usual?”
“It was probably a command from the Queen. She was weakened during that failure at Canterlot and I guess she wants her power back.”
“So then, what do we do?”
“First off we need to deal with the changelings in THIS town, to make sure that nopony else gets harmed. Chances are they probably flew back to the hive to deliver the love from that first killing, so we have some time before they do their next killing to find some clues. I don’t know everypony in this town so that’s what I need you for.”
“Alright...I’ll do my best.”
“Glad to have your cooperation.” Exulus said as he hopped off the bed and headed to the stairs.
“One more question, Kitty- I mean Exulus….You’re a changeling too, aren’t you?”
Exulus lowered his head and turned to her, “No...I’m just a stray cat looking for love and a home.”
Twilight knew it was a lie, that he probably was a changeling, but he seemed to be cooperating, so he had her trust….for now.