Death Note: Equestria

by Nonagon

Sacrifice

A pony can shorten his or her own life using the Death Note.

Even during the day, the bottom of the ravine in the Everfree Forest was dark. At night, it was nearly pitch black. What little light the moon provided was cut off by a pale and unnatural fog; Zecora described it as ‘the final breaths of an ancient spell, though its purpose of old I cannot tell.’ The zebra led the way through the mist, carrying a greenish lantern that cut through the unnatural cloud. Two pegasi followed close behind; another fork early on had cut the party in half once again, reducing the once-mighty force to three.

The path was long and harsh. The river had dwindled to little more than a stream and the ground on both sides was cracked and uneven, leading up to sharp, narrow cliffs. Evidence of golem passage was obvious; the difficult terrain was littered with freshly-fallen rocks the size of carts, and many of the path’s narrow edges were smeared with clay. Straw Bolt and Quicksilver took note of each of these in turn, constantly on the lookout for any signs of activity or an entrance.

It was almost midnight when Quicksilver discovered something that made her stop dead in her tracks. She kept exclusively to the left side of the dwindling river, weaving back and forth across the rock-strewn ground and occasionally flying up as high as the lantern’s light allowed to search from overhead. Part of her desperately longed for speed, to zip off down the passageway and scout ahead, but Straw Bolt had insisted that they stick together and search carefully, leaving no stone unturned. Quicksilver was reminded of the aptness of this expression as she rounded a boulder nearly twice her size and froze in place. She tensed up for a second before approaching her find, whispering into the darkness around her. “Sir, you’re not going to believe this.”

Straw Bolt approached cautiously. “What is it, lieutenant?”

“It’s a dead changeling!”

A closer look revealed this to be true. A black shape lay sprawled and partially buried beneath the rubble beside the stream. Its eye sockets were empty, face frozen in a snarl of fear. Quicksilver tentatively brushed some of the loose dirt aside and knocked on its head; it echoed hollowly beneath her hoof. “It’s nothing but a husk now,” she said quietly, kneeling down. “It’s been dead for a long time. The river must have carried it here.”

“Strange.” The guard captain eyed the corpse warily. Though nothing but an empty shell, the shape evoked memories of darker times. Now there’s a face I was hoping never to see again. “Zecora. Are these creatures native to the Everfree?”

The zebra emphatically shook her head. “Never a creature as this have I seen, for a changeling will never stray far from his Queen. Unless,” she added after a moment’s thought, “it was linked to a host when it died. Where changelings are found, there are ponies nearby.”

“Then our foe might not be far.” Straw Bolt stared into the ravine ahead, trying to make out details through the thick fog. “Do not tarry, Quicksilver,” he said as the smaller pegasus continued to brush rubble off of the creature’s body. “We’re getting close.” Reluctantly, Quicksilver rose, and the trio carried on down the darkening path.

The captain’s claim was more accurate than he’d realized. As the trio rounded the very next bend in the river, something flashed in the fog ahead. Straw Bolt halted at the sight, spreading his wings cautiously. A second later, a heavy rumbling echoed through the ground. Zecora quickly stopped and snuffed out her lantern, while Quicksilver continued curiously towards the source of the sound. “Get down!” Straw Bolt hissed as the rumbling happened a second time, then a third, but Quicksilver carried on regardless. Cursing inwardly, Bolt made a blind leap into the darkness and slammed into his lieutenant, tackling her to the ground. At her captain’s touch Quicksilver went completely limp, putting up no resistance as he dragged her behind a nearby boulder. Zecora quickly joined them, nestling into the space between the two.

Everything went red. A deep and pulsing light emerged from the fog, illuminating the ravine in a dark crimson. Heavy footsteps brought the source of the light closer and closer. Quicksilver peeked out from the shadow of their hiding place, then ducked back as a massive shape came into view. “It’s so big,” she said, trembling. The group huddled close together, Straw Bolt having to hunch over sharply to keep his massive frame hidden.

Just short of the boulder where the trio lay, the footsteps stopped. The light shifted as the golem looked from side to side, the ruby on its face pulsing at irregular intervals. Straw Bolt nodded. His eyes showed rare traces of fear, but his smile was triumphant. “It’s a guard,” he said quietly, trusting the slow trickle of the river to mask his voice. “And that means that there’s something close by that’s worth guarding. My friends, I think we’ve found our missing filly.”

Quicksilver gulped. “Can it hear us?” she whispered as the crimson lights continued to turn.

Zecora shrugged. “I’ve known many creatures that live without ears,” she said. “With their all-seeing eyes, they have no need to hear.”

“Keep your voices down, just to be safe,” Straw Bolt said. The slow turning stopped. “As soon as it’s gone, we’ll head back and send up a flare. Once we’ve regrouped, we can tackle this place head-on.”

A minute passed. The light didn’t move. Zecora coughed. More time passed, only the light trickling of the river providing any noise. Quicksilver squirmed, trying and failing to find a comfortable position without leaving the shadow of the rock. Straw Bolt slowly folded and unfolded his wings, already feeling an ache building up in his neck. Still the golem did nothing. After an uncomfortable age, Quicksilver spoke. “I don’t think it’s going away.”

Straw Bolt cursed. “We can’t risk a run for it, either,” he muttered. “Even if we can somehow take this one out, if the alarm is raised we’ll lose everything.”

“But you said it’s guarding something, right?” Quicksilver said. “That means it’s probably guarding it for somepony. So if we wait long enough, maybe somepony else will come this way?” Straw Bolt didn’t answer. Discouraged, Quicksilver wriggled against the boulder and looked down at Zecora, who was squashed somewhat awkwardly between the two guards. “Hey, Zecora. Are there any stories about golems in the place that you’re from?”

The zebra cleared her throat. She pulled back her hood and lay down, freeing up some space. “We have many a story of the great living earth, but they refer to the land, not this dark, walking girth. But I know a few tales that might pass the time, as I was taught in my youth, by the elders of the rhyme.”

Straw Bolt chuckled. “Out of curiosity, do you ever not rhyme?”

“No.” Zecora thought for a second before continuing. “Though I know of one tale that stands out from the rest, of Zebrakind at its worst, and adventure at its best. There are monsters and spirits and a great golden tower, and a foal in a peril that is very much like ours.”

Straw Bolt looked unimpressed. Quicksilver, however, nodded enthusiastically. “It sounds like a great story. It’s not as if we’ll be doing anything else for a while.”

Zecora smiled. “Then relax while you can, and forget all your ills,” she began, slipping into an even more melodic tone than usual, “and I’ll tell you of the day when the sun stood still...”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Locket winced every time her hoof hit a step. She stumbled forwards under the weight of the heavy trunk on her back, full of her books and other personal effects. Even though her legs felt like jelly after carrying it so far, the weight made her hoofbeats echo loudly down the narrow passageway to L's underground base. Despite that, she was already regretting not extending her trip to leave it at her apartment; she'd only brought it to Fluttershy's cottage on the assumption that she would be left in privacy. Colgate showing up unexpectedly had rattled her, and the whole day she spent showing her what to do she'd been nervously shying away from it, afraid that the police pony would see it and be tempted to peek inside. In retrospect, the base wasn't much safer, but she'd panicked on her way over and started down the stairs without thinking. Now, she supposed, it was too late to turn back.

After what seemed a much longer descent than usual, Locket reached the iron doors and knocked nervously. A second later they creaked open. Jazz stood before her on the other side. He looked her up and down once, then nodded. Locket started to whisper a "hello" to him, but the stallion had already turned away and was trotting back to his abacus. She bit her lip and started to walk around the edge of the chamber, heading towards the safety of her room.

"Hey, Locket. What's up?"

Locket winced. She kept up her slow pace as a cyan pegasus fluttered to the ground beside her. "Not much," she muttered.

Rainbow Dash leaned closer, keeping pace with her. "What was that?"

"I said not much," Locket snapped. She tried to move a little faster, but after the long walk from the cottage she felt close to collapsing. Just a little further, she told herself. "I just got back from Fluttershy's place. It was nice there, I guess. I haven't done much."

"Cool." Rainbow Dash put her head to one side. "Hey, that thing looks heavy. Need a hoof?" Before Locket could protest, the pegasus grabbed the sides of the trunk with her front hooves and lifted it into the air. "Whoa!" Dash gasped, dropping a few inches as her wings struggled to keep the container aloft. "It is heavy! What do you keep in here, rocks?"

Trembling, Locket dove underneath the box, bracing herself to catch it if it fell. “Just... stuff,” she muttered, keeping her eyes on the ground. "I can carry it, really. It belonged to my grandfather. I don't want it getting scratched."

"Don't worry, I got it." Rainbow Dash adjusted her grip and hiked the trunk up a little. "Do you want this in your room?"

Locket started to protest again, but sighed as weariness finally got the better of her. "Yes," she said. "And... thank you." Not really listening, Rainbow Dash sped away towards the rightmost hallway. Locket felt a distant unease as she watched a pony she barely knew fly away with her most precious possession, but she pushed it down and walked towards the far side of the room where L sat.

The detective’s corner had expanded greatly since Locket had left. She took a moment to admire the vast array of stratoscreens before sitting down at a nearby table, sighing as the weight was taken off her hooves. From across the table, Bon Bon smiled at her. She offered up a tuft of pink cotton candy, which Locket declined. Nearby, Spike leafed through an old comic book, though his mind was clearly elsewhere.

"So, you've returned." Abruptly, L spun around in her chair to face Locket. She balanced a half-eaten, head-sized stick of cotton candy in one hoof, as well as two more in her lap. "Anything to report?"

"No, nothing." Locket looked to the side, habitually avoiding L's gaze. "Colgate's settling in well. She's a unicorn, so I think she'll have more luck reaching the birds than I did."

"That's good. Did she seem distressed at all when she arrived?"

"Hm? Um, no. She seemed fine." Locket glanced up at the wall of screens behind L. She frowned slightly. “Um...” Her question dissipated as L turned away. She sighed and leaned across the table to Bon Bon, whispering. “Um, why is Twilight still in there? I thought, since Kira’s come back...”

Bon Bon made a noncommittal shrug, while Spike shook his head. “That wasn’t the deal,” he explained. His voice seemed deeper than Locket remembered it being, and, though perhaps it was her imagination, he seemed to take up more space in his seat than he had when she’d left. “All more ponies dying proves is that Kira was prepared. Twilight doesn’t leave her room until we’re one hundred percent certain whether or not she’s Kira.”

“Actually, her release may have to come sooner than that,” L interrupted. She spun around again and wheeled herself over to the table. In just a few bites, she’d reduced her current cloud of spun sugar to a fraction of its original size. “I have been considering the possibility of releasing Twilight Sparkle as early as tomorrow, if no change occurs.”

Spike clenched his teeth together. “I just said that that wasn’t the deal,” he growled. “You can’t let Twilight out.”

L sighed. “It is only one of our options at this point. In truth, this is a situation that I too would like to avoid. Unfortunately, our options have become limited." With a smack of her lips, she finished off the last of her cotton candy and held out the stick expectantly. Bon Bon rushed from the chair and took the stick in her mouth, raising another to L's waiting hoof before dashing off towards the kitchen. "Clearly, Kira has played her hand. Every day now, more ponies are dying, and Twilight is providing us with no answers. Would you have me keep her for a month? For a year? We cannot afford to waste more time on her. Releasing our prime suspect would be a folly, I agree. But she cannot simply stay... here."

Spike made a face. "Then what are we going to do?" he asked sourly.

L took a bite of cotton candy. She put a hoof to her chin, swirling the spun sugar around in her mouth thoughtfully. "Under the current circumstances, it would be wisest to proceed in a manner that would not unnecessarily risk lives," she said. "To that end, if Twilight Sparkle is to remain in our custody, we must use methods other than passive confinement to extract a confession from her. I do not doubt that Colgate, amongst others, would not approve of such a treatment. But it will be done if it must."

The table fell silent. Spike slowly clenched and unclenched his claws, his breathing becoming more audible, while L simply stared at him impassively. Between them, Locket hunched down in her seat and tried to make herself as small as possible. After a long and uncomfortable silence, hoofsteps could be heard from the furthest hallway. "Hey, Locket?" Rainbow Dash called as she entered the main chamber. "I left your stuff by your bed. Sorry it took so long to find your room." She stopped talking as she rounded the abacus, passing Jazz and sitting down in what had been Bon Bon's chair, looking around at the disturbed faces around her. "What's going on?" she asked.

L didn't answer. Spike glanced at Dash and then at the ground, still scowling deeply. Locket gulped as Dash's gaze landed on her. She took a few breaths to make sure her voice would be clear, then spelled out the situation as clearly as she could. "Harpy wants to torture Twilight."

"What!?" Rainbow Dash leaped from her chair, spreading her wings and hovering angrily over the table. "Are you crazy? Nopony tortures anypony, ever. That's... that's just sick!"

"Miss Dash, what we are doing is already torture," L said calmly. "But it is a torture that Twilight has prepared herself for. If she is Kira, mere confinement will not be enough for her to reveal her secrets to us. We must strike her in a way that she does not expect."

"No. No!" Dash shook her head. Her furious wingbeats were slowly carrying her higher and higher above the table, but she paid it no heed. "When I brought Twilight here, I trusted you to keep her safe. Kira or not, she's still my friend. And I will not let you hurt my friend!" She glared around the table, displeased at the otherwise passive response. "Come on, guys! You know this is wrong, right?"

"Dash, she's... she's right." Spike stared at the ground, slowly tearing holes in the upholstery of his chair with his claws. "Something's gotta change. We’ll never get anywhere if we just wait for something to happen.”

“But torture?” Dash gaped at the dragon, disbelief written over her face. “Isn’t Twilight like family to you? Dude, you can not be okay with this!”

“We have to... we have to do the right thing.” Spike glared at nothing. A tear slipped past his guard and crawled down his face to drip from his chin, making a faint hissing noise as it hit the chair below him. “Every day, I get a letter telling me how many more ponies Kira’s killed. They had families, too. And if Twilight was somehow behind this... wouldn’t you do everything you could to make her stop? Wouldn’t you do anything?”

Rainbow Dash hesitated before turning to the last pony at the table. "What about you? Are you really going to go along with this?"

Locket squirmed. She looked left and right, avoiding Rainbow's gaze, but the pegasus only seemed to creep closer. "I... I don't know," she muttered. "I can't decide. L... L always knows best."

"Well, that's typical," Dash spat. She folded her wings, landing solidly in the middle of the table. "Do you ever do anything that that pony doesn't tell you to do?"

Locket winced. She avoided Rainbow's glare for a few seconds more until the pegasus turned away in disgust, stomping back down to her seat. But... she's right, Locket realized, guilt settling in the pit of her stomach. I don't do anything L doesn't tell me to. I don't even think anything L doesn't tell me to. At least, nothing... pleasant.

Sighing inwardly, Locket tried to sink back into the pit of silence that she was most familiar with. This time, however, something remained. A spark flared, a tiny, indignant spark. And as she looked up at Spike's face, seeing the resent and anger emblazoned on it, the spark flared into an inferno.

Maybe I should. Maybe there’s another way.

Just before sunset, something buzzed in Fluttershy's cottage. Colgate looked up from her comfortable position on the couch as every bird in the room began to squawk, chirping angrily at the unwanted noise. She sighed and picked up her mug of hot chocolate, carrying it over to the dresser where L's stratoscreen was hidden. She pulled out the miniature slab of rock as well as the crystal that allowed her to speak back, activating it with a touch of her horn. She laid these both on the table and took a sip of her drink before speaking. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Colgate?" To the policemare's surprise, it wasn't L's face but Spike's that flickered onto the screen. "Good, you're there. Listen, we..." He glanced over his shoulder. "We're gonna try something. You're probably not gonna like it, but we need your help, so just hear me out. Okay?"

Colgate listened. Before Spike was finished talking, her hot chocolate hit the floor.

Halfway between letterboxes, something buzzed in Derpy’s mailbag. She immediately sat down, much to the surprise of the cart-puller who had to swerve around her, and rummaged through her gradually lightening bag for the source of the noise. Withdrawing her buzzing stratoscreen triumphantly, she held the tiny slab to her ear and spoke into the crystal that came with it. “Hello?”

“Derpy? Good.” Colgate’s voice came in clearly through the makeshift earpiece. “Listen, I need you to drop everything... I mean, stop what you’re doing and meet me at the post office. It’s really important.”

“Now?” Derpy looked with disappointment at the mailbox across the street, tauntingly close. “But I got work.”

“This is work too. We need Ponyville’s best mailmare on the job, because we’ve got a really big package to deliver.” Colgate paused, then spoke in a lower voice. “Do you know from this angle I can see right up your nose?”

Twilight Sparkle focused on her breathing. In... and out. In... and out. She kept her eyes closed, utterly focused on her task. With the lights perpetually on and sleep and meals coming at seemingly random intervals — she'd already lost track of which one was meant to be breakfast — she'd been forced to develop a different method of determining the time. Her own body was the only thing in this room that changed on an observable level. Once she regulated her breaths to intervals of exactly six seconds, she would be able to keep on top of Equestrian time and save herself some readjusting later on. In... and out. In... and out. Still a little too slow. Just relax. In... and out. In... and out...

Something changed in the faint hum of the room around her. Twilight's ears pricked up. She lost track of her breathing, cursed internally, and raised her head to look around. A white mist swept across the room, followed by the clangs of both magical and physical seals unlocking. The cell door slid open. "Twilight?" a familiar voice called.

Twilight frowned. She rose to her feet, a little shakily, and took a step towards the door. "Colgate?" she whispered back, squinting outside. The lights in the hallway were off. "What's going on?"

"You're being relocated. Come on, don't just stand there."

Twilight took a few steps forward. Something about this struck her as off, but her mind felt a little fuzzier than it should have been, and she couldn't quite put her hoof on what. "Where's L?" she asked.

"Where she always is. Come on!" Colgate stepped slightly into view, gesturing impatiently.

"All right." Twilight lurched forwards. "Does this mean you've come to an agreement about me?"

Colgate shuffled nervously. "Not really." She backed up to allow Twilight room into the darkened hallway, then drew close again as soon as the door was behind her. "Twilight, I'm so sorry about this."

"What?"

Before she could fully take in her surroundings, a black bag was pulled over Twilight's head by another, unseen pony. A sleeping enchantment woven into the bag overwhelmed her, and she only had time to scream before everything turned to blackness.

The next thing Twilight was aware of was a flapping noise. She tried to open her eyes, but her vision was obscured by a thick blindfold. Overhead, rain beat heavily on a metal roof. Somepony nearby muttered something. Twilight recognized the voice as Colgate’s, but her words were lost beneath the echoing pounding of the storm. She raised her head and tried to stand, but something seemed to be weighing her down. “Twilight!” Colgate exclaimed, closer and more audibly. “It's good to see you again.”

"What..." Shaking her head, Twilight felt around her. She was pressed against a corner of thin metal walls and a hard floor that seemed to sway beneath her, as though the room was floating. As she again tried and failed to stand, a thick blanket fell away from her body. A rope wrapped around her right hind leg, the other end tied to a hook in the corner behind her. "Where am I?" she asked, shivering.

Gently, the blanket was pulled back over her. "Hush, now," Colgate whispered. "We're inside a mail cart. It's the biggest one available, used for special deliveries to Canterlot. Derpy and Rainbow Dash are flying us there right now. Spike sent a letter ahead, so the Princesses know we're coming."

"What?" Twilight looked around, panicking. "You told the Princesses?"

"Only as much as they needed to know," Colgate said. "Nothing's going to change. You'll still be kept under twenty-four hour surveillance until a decision can be made. In the meantime, the rest of us are going to keep looking for Kira without you."

Something was wrong. Colgate’s voice was too fast, and too cheerful. "Why now?" Twilight asked, trying not to give anything away in her own voice. "Did something happen at the base?"

Colgate paused. "No, everything's fine," she said dismissively. "This is just more of a... practical consideration." A bowl of something was pressed against Twilight’s lips. Hesitantly, she drank. The liquid was thick and flavorless, but it was warm and it soothed Twilight’s trembling a little as it entered her body. “Try to get some rest,” Colgate said when Twilight was finished. “I’ll put you under again when we reach the castle. I just didn’t want you to spend the whole trip with a bag on your head.”

“Colgate,” Twilight murmured. “You know I would have followed you. Why did you need to bag me at all? Why... did you need to move me at all?” There was no answer. “L... knows about this, right?”

“Twilight... there’ll be a time for talking later. But for now, I just need you to trust me.” Colgate turned away. "Spike, they need me to pass security. If she so much as breathes funny, just say the password and the spell will break. Okay?"

"Yeah," Spike grunted back, revealing his presence at the opposite corner. Twilight almost called out to him but cut herself off, biting her lip. Colgate walked to the far side of the room, her hooves echoing on the hard floor, before exiting through a small door in the cart to the passenger's section in front. The door slammed shut.

A minute passed quietly. Twilight tried to relax, worrying and listening to the sounds of rain on the roof. The storm grew more violent as they flew, buffeting them from side to side. Then, there was a faint noise like the rustle of fabric, followed by whispering. Another long pause. From his position in the opposite corner of the cart, Spike stood up. Twilight listened to his claws clack across the floor to the place where Colgate had left. There was a loud, metallic scrape. Then Spike spoke. "Twilight, we need to talk."

“I know.” Twilight raised herself up a little, gathering her blanket around her and getting into a sitting position. “What’s really going on here?”

"Not about that." Spike walked slowly into the middle of the room and then stood, presumably staring at her. “I have a lot of questions. I’m not expecting a lot of answers. But before anything else happens, there’s just one thing I want to get clear.” He sighed. “You were the one who broke Fluttershy’s jaw, weren’t you?”

Twilight froze. All breath left her and she shrank against the wall, a little filly once more. “How did you know?” she said, her voice suddenly very quiet.

Spike grunted. He shuffled a little closer and knelt down. “L asked Fluttershy how it happened. She asked her every day, over and over again, and she never got an answer. But she never asked you. Maybe she already knew. Maybe she only cared about why Fluttershy was hiding it, instead of how it actually happened. Well, I care about how it happened.”

Memories of that night flooded back. The whole sequence felt hazy and nightmarish, like looking through a lens into another pony’s dreams. It was hard to remember what had been said; so much of that night was lost in a haze of tiredness and emotions. Trembling, Twilight leaned forward and awkwardly reached out to her assistant. “Spike...”

Spike flinched away as Twilight’s hoof touched his claw. “Why did you do it?” he hissed, every word affecting Twilight like a punch to the gut. “What am I supposed to think, huh? How am I supposed to keep believing you’re innocent when you’re the kind of pony who hurts her own friends?”

The accusation struck Twilight to her core. She had to choke back tears for several seconds before she was in a condition to respond. “Spike, listen. I didn’t mean... I never...” She took a deep breath. “It was just after Rarity and Pinkie Pie died, okay? She came over in the middle of the night, after you’d gone to bed. We talked for a while, and... she told me that she loved me. And... and I got scared.”

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut. Even though the thoughts had been lurking in her mind for over a week, for some reason the guilt squirming through her felt fresh, as if she were living the events of that night for the first time. With a sniff, she continued. “I never wanted to hurt her. Every time I... I touched her, it was like I was hurting part of myself. But she was saying things that I’d never heard from her, and... and she wanted things to change...” She grasped for words. “It was like I was losing another friend, all over again. And I just... couldn’t... handle it!”

Twilight bit her lip and looked towards Spike. The dragon gave no response to her outburst. “And I did a bad thing,” she finished, more quietly. “She forgave me right after, and I thought that we could just put it behind us. But you’re right. That doesn’t make it okay. I hurt somepony I love because of a stupid, selfish reason. Maybe I do deserve to be locked away for that. But even if I can’t take back what happened, I just want you to know that... that I’m so, so s-sorry...”

All restraint gone, tears flooded the inside of her blindfold, flowing freely down the unicorn’s face. She hunched over, sobbing. Spike’s voice softened, though only a little. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said. He extended his arms and stepped forward, and Twilight gladly accepted his embrace. “I’ll tell her you’re sorry. Even the best ponies can make mistakes.” As Twilight held him tightly, her first physical contact in days, his voice slipped back down into a low growl. “Even the best.”

Twilight felt a thin sliver of worry flit across her mind as Spike grasped more firmly at her sides. The pressure beneath his claws grew into mirrored pinpricks of pain, digging deeply into her skin. "What... hey!" She pulled back and shook him off, shrieking as the sharpened appendages raked across her flesh. She rubbed at her sides, flinching; she was used to occasional nicks and scratches, but that had hurt. "Spike, what was that?"

Something scraped. “Twilight, I have a confession to make,” Spike growled. His voice was growing deeper by the second. “I lied to Colgate. I never sent any letters to Celestia. She doesn’t know we’re coming. Because you’re never going anywhere.”

With a painful tug, the blindfold was ripped from Twilight’s face. She winced as her eyes adjusted to the dim light inside the cart, then froze as she focused on Spike. He looked up into her eyes and growled, causing her to retreat against the wall again in fear. Gone was the friendly and complacent face she was used to; now, Spike’s eyes were slitted, and his mouth curled into a dragonic snarl. She had seen him look at her with disappointment or anger before, but this was different. This was hatred.

Gradually, the rest of the cart’s interior came into view behind Spike. The chamber was large, big enough to hold an entire regular-sized cart and still leave room for a grand piano. A small lantern illuminated the interior, steadily swinging back and forth as the storm pounded on the cart from the outside. A large rear door covered the wall on Twilight’s left, and a smaller one lay opposite where Colgate had exited. And, in the opposite corner to Twilight, there lay a bound, covered pony. “Fluttershy?” Twilight gasped.

Fluttershy raised her head. She was bound in the same way as Twilight, her wings wrapped in a tight band and her leg tied to the wall, a plain blanket thrown roughly aside beside her. Her blindfold had been removed as well, along with a pair of earmuffs that now hung torn and ragged around her neck. Her left ear slowly dripped blood from a gash that tore along the length of it. “Twilight,” she mumbled, barely audible above the pounding rain. “Thank... you...”

“Colgate wanted to hide you somewhere safe,” Spike interrupted. “L wanted to torture you, if you can believe that. But they’re both wrong. There’s only one way to put a stop to this for good.”

Twilight's eyes widened as Spike breathed in. She ducked just in time to avoid a jet of green and yellow fire that roared over her head, singing the tip of her mane. Embers set her blanket alight, and she scrambled to throw it off of her and smother the flames before they could spread. In the background Fluttershy screamed, but her voice was weak and hoarse. "Spike, what are you doing?!" Twilight cried, cowering. "It's me! It's Twilight!"

"I know it's you!" Spike yelled. Perhaps it was an illusion of the swinging light, but his flesh seemed to ripple as he towered over her. "It's always been you! From day one, everything has been about you!" He snorted, sending a plume of smoke from his nostrils. "Don’t you get it? Doesn’t anypony get it? As long as you're around, the deaths will never stop."

“What deaths?” Twilight’s breath quickened. “L said that the deaths stopped when I was imprisoned.”

“No, Twilight. They started again. Ponies are still dying. And they’re not going to stop dying. Not until you stop.”

“Spike, no!” Fluttershy had retreated as far as she could into her own corner, paralyzed by fear and confusion, but the conversation was finally turning into words that she could understand. “This is not how we do things! Wouldn’t killing Twilight just make you as bad as her?”

“Then so be it.” Spike didn’t look back, glaring down resolutely. “I’m not like Kira. I won’t hide. But this has to happen, before it’s too late. At least this way you won’t suffer so much before.”

"What are you saying?" Twilight whimpered, holding back a scream as something from her nightmares loomed over her. "Spike, for the last time, I'm not Kira! Killing me won't solve anything!"

Spike shrugged. "I don't know if you're Kira. I don't even care any more. Rarity had the right idea. You're woven so deep into this that it doesn't even matter. You're the common element to every bad thing that's happened since Kira showed up. But no more." His eyes narrowed. "The web revolves around you. Without you, it collapses. This is the way it has to be, Twilight. You know it. You've always known it."

"No. No!" Twilight yanked uselessly at the rope anchoring her to the wall. If I had my horn, I could cut through this like... no! Useless! Colgate, where are you? "Spike, listen to me!" she said desperately. "Can't you see this is what Kira wants? If you do this now, you'll only-"

"Shut up!" Spike roared. A puff of smoke hit Twilight in the face. "Without you, Rarity would still be alive! Pinkie Pie would still be alive!" He breathed in, inner fire illuminating his face. "It's all your fault!"

Everything slowed to a halt as Spike inhaled for the second time. The adult part of Twilight cowered on the floor in front of him, bracing herself for the inevitable and listening as Fluttershy tried and failed to scream again. But some part of her, a quiet, pervasive little voice that had dwelt in her subconscious for as long as she could remember, kept going. Rope burns at a temperature of 150 degrees, or at a magical frequency between 031R and 049C. Compensate for reduced reaction time, allow for heat dispersion, and... now!

With nimbleness fueled by pure terror, Twilight leaped onto her hooves and flung herself to the side as a blast of fire passed beneath her. The flames licked at the rope behind her, and searing heat enveloped her hoof for a second before the bond snapped and she was able to yank it away. She made another leap and darted around Spike, almost stumbling as the room swayed beneath her.

Her progress was cut off as a claw wrapped around her tail. She struggled against the impossibly strong grip, hooves scrabbling uselessly against the floor. Spike started to say something, but he was cut off as Twilight bucked back with both rear legs, striking him square on the chin. While normally this would have been enough to send the little dragon flying, Spike seemed barely dazed as he staggered back, mercifully releasing Twilight’s tail. She leaped forward towards the door at the front of the cart, now screaming. “Colgate! Col—”

Just before she reached the door, a flashing blue barrier appeared in the air in front of her and pulsed as she collided with it, knocking her gently onto her haunches. Of course, the analytical part of her chirped as the rest of her head spun with a not unpleasant dizziness. Timekeeper magic. Favored among the more talented police-unicorns, very difficult to unlock without a password. What password? No, something she’d know I would never guess...

“She can’t hear you,” Spike said, slowly advancing once more. “The room’s soundproof. Maximum protection against you.”

Twilight gulped. Okay. New plan. Not daring to look back, she turned and leaped over Fluttershy’s discarded blanket, diving behind the shellshocked pegasus. Upon closer inspection, the rope attached to her was bound by nothing more than one of Spike’s knots; it came loose with a single tug of her teeth.

“Don’t you drag her into this!” Spike snarled, hesitating despite the easy target. “Fluttershy doesn’t have to be a part of this. Don’t you think you’ve done enough to her—”

With another rapid twist, Twilight kicked Fluttershy’s blanket into the air, then grabbed it with her teeth and threw it onto Spike. The fabric felt like it was lined with lead, probably weighted for the occasion, and it knocked the dragon onto his back as it covered him. Twilight shook her head, panting from the exertion, then grabbed Fluttershy by her mane and started to drag her to the back of the cart. “Come on!” she hissed, at which the unresponsive pony was able to get to her hooves and stagger after her.

The rear door was spring-loaded, snapping open at the touch of a hoof. Both ponies stepped back as the whole wall retreated into the roof, letting a blast of frigid wind and rain into the room. Outside was blackness, a sheer wall of falling water and rapidly-moving clouds. “Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled over the increased volume of the storm. “You have to fly us down! If you can just get us a short distance, then...”

Twilight stopped. The hollow look in Fluttershy’s eyes told her all she needed to know. For one, the bands that wrapped around the pegasus’ wings weren’t mere bandages, but thick black bands that wouldn’t be shifted as easily as the rope. On top of that, Fluttershy could barely stand. Her limbs trembled from the effort of holding herself up, thin and pale from many days of forced immobility. Even if conditions had been ideal, it was clear that Fluttershy wouldn’t be flying anytime soon. “Twilight,” she said, leaning onto the unicorn for support. “I’m sorry...”

A frenzied roar snapped both ponies’ attentions back to the middle of the room. Spike burned his way through the thick blanket in a plume of fire, pushing his head through the hole as he stood. He carried the remnants with him as he kept up his increasingly unsteady advance, now a hulking creature wreathed in flames. “Fluttershy,” he hissed. “Get away from her. I don’t want to kill you, but you can’t make me stop.”

Fluttershy didn’t answer. She sat down and leaned closer to Twilight, reaching down to hold her hoof in her own. Twilight momentarily considered throwing her out into the relative safety of the storm, but decided against it; there was no guarantee that there were any clouds below to land on, and in the raging storm she might not be discovered in time. There are... worse ways to die than this. “Fluttershy...”

“I love you, Twilight,” Fluttershy whispered into Twilight’s ear. “No matter what happens, I’ll never let you go.”

Spike nodded. He breathed in one final time, deeply and powerfully, and Twilight knew that this time he would not miss. She squeezed her eyes shut, rain masking her tears, and held her friend as tightly as she could. “Fluttershy, I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

To her surprise, Fluttershy whispered back. “I forgive you.”

Then, with a roar that shook the entire cart, Spike released his flames.

Twilight screamed as fire danced over her skin. There was heat, more heat than she’d ever felt in her life, and it seemed as though she was burning from the inside instead of out. Just as quickly the heat turned to biting coldness, a chill that struck her to her core. Then something small and hard rammed into her chest, almost knocking her over, and... hugged her?

Twilight opened her eyes, though it was a few seconds more before she stopped screaming. She breathed heavily, looking around in confusion. Her body was whole and intact; in fact, she felt a little better after being warmed against the rain. In addition to Fluttershy still trembling against her side, Spike now had both arms wrapped firmly around her neck. Not big, monstrous Spike, but small, gentle, number-one-assistant Spike. “I knew it!” he said as he held her, burying his face in her mane. “I just knew you’d do it, Twilight.”

“Huh?” was all Twilight could think to say. A few seconds later, she said it again. Fluttershy stirred, whimpering but still refusing to open her eyes.

Spike leaned back a little. He looked up at Twilight, his eyes still alien and slitted, but his face full of love. “It’s okay!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “Twilight’s not Kira!”

With a slow whirring sound, the spell around the far door wound down to nothing. At the same time, the mail cart began to slow. There was the loud click of a latch and Colgate bounded into the room, her eyes full of wonder. “Oh my gosh, Twilight! Oh my gosh!” She charged giddily across the cart, kicking aside Spike’s still-smoldering blanket, and then wrapped the trio in a bone-crushing embrace of her own. “Oh, thank Celestia,” she breathed, sighing happily.

Before Twilight had quite absorbed this, there was a bump as the cart came to rest on a cloud just outside of the storm. A second later Rainbow Dash appeared at the back of the cart, pulling off her weather goggles. She tossed these aside and tackled Fluttershy from behind with a whoop, sending the whole group toppling over onto the floor. Derpy followed close behind, jumping happily on top of the damp and squirming pony-pile. “What... what the hay is going on?” Twilight gasped.

Still smiling, Spike wormed his way out of the pile and stood proudly, staring up at a corner of the room. "How was that, L?" he panted. "How did I do?"

A familiar voice echoed in the tiny chamber. "Quite admirably. It was a very convincing performance."

The group hug broke apart, allowing Twilight and Fluttershy to get back to their hooves. Twilight frowned while Fluttershy looked around fearfully, the only pony in the room more confused than she was. “L?”

Something moved in the darkness. A tiny black shape scuttled down the wall, spun in a circle once as it reached the floor, then ran out into view in the middle of the cart. A black cockroach sat up and preened its antennae before the stunned ponies, only a flash of crystal at the front of its shell giving away its true nature. L’s voice continued, echoing loudly in the chamber despite having no obvious source. “I offered your friends a plan that did not involve risking their lives unnecessarily. But after much discussion and weighing of alternatives, they insisted on proceeding with one that did.”

“What...?” Realization struck. “You mean this was some kind of test?”

“Precisely. Twilight, if you were Kira, you would have killed Spike instead of sacrificing yourself. The Kira I know would not hesitate to kill even a close friend if her own life were in danger. You were given plenty of opportunities to retaliate; even if you chose not to use your killing power, a pony with your level of ingenuity would have found some other way of fighting back, and the open door provided a convenient means of disposing of the evidence. With the scratches on your body and Spike's demeanor, nopony would have questioned your need to defend yourself. The same applies to you, Fluttershy. The second Kira would have killed to protect the first, and would not have been so quick to throw her life away needlessly.”

Twilight mulled this over. “Then that means that... Spike...” She turned to the little dragon, her eyes widening. “You... you really...”

“Correct,” L interrupted. “In essence, he agreed to bet his life on your innocence.”

The dragon himself stared sheepishly at the ground. “I’m sorry I had to hurt you guys,” he said. “L said I had to be as rough with you as possible. You might not have believed me otherwise.”

“But... but your eyes!” Twilight gasped. “And you grew, and...”

Spike laughed. "You like it? It took hours to get my eyes to stay like this." Focusing hard, the dragon clenched his eyes shut and grunted loudly for several seconds. When he opened them again, his irises were their familiar round shape. "And I haven't gotten any stronger. You've just been drugged, on top of sitting around motionless for a week. You'll feel better after you start walking again. Why do you think an ordinary blanket felt so heavy?"

“But... Spike...” Twilight stepped forwards. Fluttershy nervously kept pace with her, unwilling to leave her side even with her friends around her. “How did you know I wasn’t Kira? How did you know you wouldn’t die?”

Spike paused. “A few days ago,” he said, “L asked me to believe that you were Kira. Just for a few minutes, just to see what it felt like, and afterwards I could go back to believing whatever I wanted. So I did. I told myself that you were Kira, and that you’d always been Kira. I really, really believed it. And when those five minutes were over, she asked me how I felt.”

The dragon stopped again, not quite looking at Twilight. Twilight gulped. “And what did you feel?”

Spike looked up. “I told her I could imagine a pony like you being Kira,” he said. “A pony as brilliant, and as temperamental, and as obsessed with making things right as you.” He stepped forward, putting a hand on Twilight’s leg. “But not you. Because more than anything else, I felt like a world where you were Kira wasn’t a world worth living in.”

Twilight teared up. She reached down and traced her assistant’s face, her heart overflowing with words. Just then, however, Rainbow Dash coughed. “Is this going to take long?” she said. “‘Cause I don’t know about you guys, but we’ve just spent like half an hour flying in circles in the rain. Do you think we could maybe head back and towel off before we start getting all sappy?”

“One moment, miss Dash,” L said. “Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy. Whether you realize it or not, Kira has used both of you. You were dangled in front of me like bait, Twilight through association, Fluttershy by an apparently amateurish mistake, and then abandoned once you could no longer be of use. As this experiment has shown, either you are now beyond Kira’s control, or she no longer cares whether you live or die. Which presents us with a very interesting opportunity.” The fake cockroach scuttled closer, causing Fluttershy to squeak and duck behind Twilight. “We may now be able to turn two of Kira’s pawns against her. Twilight—”

“Of course I’ll join you,” Twilight interrupted. “I’ve wanted nothing more since this whole thing started.”

“Then we can discuss the rest once you have returned,” L concluded. “Of course, until the real Kira is caught you will both remain under our surveillance, this time for your safety rather than ours.”

“But no more confinement,” Colgate added.

“Quite. See you soon, my little ponies. We have much to discuss.” With that, the cockroach turned away and crawled back into the shadows.

There was a long pause before Rainbow Dash sighed. “We still have to fly back, don’t we?” she said wearily. “Oh, well.” She nudged Derpy, starting back towards the dark exterior. “Come on, derp-face. Let’s get this thing back before anypony notices it’s gone.”

Nodding happily, Derpy spread her wings and followed Rainbow Dash out into the night. Colgate magically closed the door after them, and within a minute the mail cart was in flight again. She tried to snip the restraints around Fluttershy’s wings, but the pegasus shrank away when she came near. “Fluttershy?” Twilight said gently, following her. “What’s wrong?”

Fluttershy stared at her. In place of an answer, fresh tears began to run down her face. “Hey, it’s okay,” Twilight said, stepping forward. Gently, she pulled her friend into a hug—marefriend, she reminded herself, though the word still felt strange and somehow wrong to her—as Fluttershy began to sob into her shoulder. “I know. We’ve both been through a lot. But things are going to get better, you’ll see. We’re going to be safe from now on. I promise.”

"You've taken to this quite well, haven't you?"

Mer floated calmly in an upper corner of the darkened room. She glanced down at her claws before drifting over to the other wall, watching the pony working below her. "I'm so glad you've stopped being difficult," she continued. "It's actually quite pleasurable once you get over the shock, isn't it?"

The pony at the desk ignored her. A knife descended to a black notebook laying open on the wooden surface and slid along the spine, seamlessly extracting a single page from the book. The knife itself was large and obviously unsuited to this task, but the pony who guided it was steady and unhurried. Mer continued to talk as the free page joined a growing pile of others just like it. "Of course, I knew you'd take to this eventually. There’s no shame in giving in to power, after all. And besides..." The god grinned. "You seem like the kind of pony who’s used to making sacrifices."

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned some of the ways that trust can help and hurt a friendship. Part of being somepony’s friend is learning when it’s okay not to trust them, when they’re hiding something or can’t look after themselves like they should. At times like this we might have to go behind their back to help them, or confront them about something that makes them uncomfortable. It can be very difficult to put one of your friends through this, and it can be just as difficult to be on the receiving end of it. But so long as it’s for their own well-being, nothing is too small to give up for the sake of your friends... even your friendship.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.

Next episode: Potato chips!