Chapter 19
“Well, this has been rather enlightening,” Twilight put the notes down.
The Unicorn mare hesitantly glanced at the hospital bed still containing Paul’s body. A doctor had finally arrived but all he really could confirm was that the Gryphon was no more to this world and then covered the body with a sheet. Then Vigilance helped the doctor wheel out Paul’s bed.
Big Macintosh stood near the force field bubble that still surrounded Silver Axe, by him was also Officer Mulberry. Neither Earth Pony needed to be there, but both felt they probably should be on guard just in case.
“Silver Axe, you did well by confessing and confirming that Snow Heart was actually the real mastermind behind the whole foalnapping incident. But you didn’t have to kill Paul,” the librarian addressed the large Pegasus.
Silver Axe made no move to response. He had resumed watching out the window. Twilight leaned to the side to try and see his face. The Pegasus’s expression was neutral but his eyes still looked misty after the crying earlier.
“I guess we better lower this force field and take you back to your room. We are going to have to restrain you again to your bed,” Twilight said, her horn began glowing as she prepared to dispel the bubble.
“Hold on, Twilight,” Big Mac suddenly spoke up and approached the Unicorn. The large Earth Pony sounded mildly concerned.
“Yes, what is it Big Mac?” she asked curiously.
“Don’t ya find anythin’ off about this here whole scenario?” the red stallion lowered his voice to whisper.
“What do you mean?” Twilight glanced between Big Mac and Silver Axe who appeared to be paying no attention to anyone.
“That pony just upright killed someone, Twilight,” Big Mac said.
“Ah yes, I know, Big Macintosh. I kind of saw the body and all,” Twilight reminded him.
“Twilight, he broke free of his restraints, came over to that Gryphon’s room, snapped his neck and then sat down all calm like in front of the window,” the Earth Pony counted up and first now his brow sunk into a slight scowl.
“Huh, he does have a good point there. Silver Axe looked awfully calm when we found him here.” Mulberry agreed from his spot near the force field.
“What are you guys saying?” Twilight asked but already in her mind she was trying to work it out. Now that I think about it…
“Ah’m saying, we should probably consider that this might not be an unknown territory for him,” Big Macintosh responded, the Unicorn didn’t seem to be listening as she was examining the notes again.
“Wait a minute,” Twilight flipped the picture note around. Both fillies have wings, but Silver Spoon is an Earth Pony.
Twilight looked up from the note, first she stared at Big Mac before slowly leaning sideways to see Silver Axe who still hadn’t moved. Using levitation she picked up the written note and read it again, over and over.
“Silver Axe, you say you brought the charred body of your daughter to your wife. But according to the reports from Cloudsdale I read, you crashed in that thunderstorm too.” Twilight put the note back down.
This time she got a slight reaction. Silver Axe hung his head before glancing ever so slightly back at her. He looked sadder but there was something off about it. Twilight couldn’t quite put her hoof on what it was.
They were interrupted when Lieutenant Knight burst into the hospital room, followed by the private ranked Pegasus guard and Vigilance. The senior guard came to an abrupt halt when seeing that Silver Axe was encased in a force field bubble, almost causing the private and Vigilance to crash into him.
“Do NOT drop that force field Twilight Sparkle!” Knight ordered, raising one armored hoof in alarm.
“Alright, you’re the second pony to tell me to not do that,” the purple Unicorn shook her head. “I take it you are here with something new to tell?”
Knight took a moment to catch his breath. He had first charged straight for Silver Axe’s room and had quite a fright when seeing that the large Pegasus was gone. But Vigilance spotted him and the other guard and told them were the prisoner was so he had raced immediately over hoping he wasn’t too late.
“Miss Sparkle, you know that I sent few guards north to check Silver Axe’s cabin, the private here has just returned and reported to me their findings. In fact he flew all night to report what he found,” the lieutenant began.
Twilight raised an eyebrow when noticing how Knight was staring with contempt at Silver Axe and the private guard eyed the force field worried. Mulberry as well glanced back and forth between the guards and the prisoner.
“They found bodies Twilight Sparkle, down in a basement that was accessed through the bedroom. Bodies of young foals all charred as if struck by lightning. They also found a backroom in the basement with small graves. That pony is a serial killer!” Knight snapped.
“And pictures sir, the pictures on the wall,” the private whispered. “And the writings…”
Twilight Sparkle couldn’t say a single word. Her eyes were wide as saucers and she grimaced while the new information sunk in. Mulberry’s gray coat actually seemed to grow paler and he looked as if Nightmare Moon, Discord and Queen Chrysalis had all three materialized right in front of him. Quickly the small stocky stallion scrambled away from the force field bubble, staring horrified at the large prisoner.
“Well, Ah’ll be darned,” Big Macintosh’s brow rose slightly and his were eyes fully open now.
“He’s…he’s…” Twilight stammered. Her attention was brought back to the prisoner when a steady stream of tapping reached her ears.
Silver Axe was signaling with his hooves. His eyes were narrow and looked more intense. The mouth was just a straight line. He didn’t stop tapping, just kept going and going like he was saying the same thing over and over again.
“W-what is he saying?” Mulberry asked. He found the constant stream of knocking unnerving.
“He’s repeating ‘I tried to save her’ over and over again,” Knight frowned.
“Just like he wrote on the walls in red ink,” the private guard whispered in disgust.
“I don’t think that was red ink, private,” the lieutenant cleared his throat before he looked straight at the royal guard Pegasus.
“Private, I want you to head immediately to Canterlot and request for the prison train to be sent here immediately. We are shipping this pony straight there to face trial, he’s going to be under maximum security from now on,” Knight ordered the guard who saluted quickly and disappeared quickly out of the room.
“I’m not risking anything with that thing,” The lieutenant glanced over to the force field. Silver Axe stance hadn’t changed much but it was almost as if his eyes looked more insane.
“I-I’ll maintain the force field around him, only powerful magic can dispel it,” Twilight immediately assured him.
“Good to know, by the looks of it our regular restraints aren’t good enough,” Knight nodded, glancing at the remains that still hung on Silver Axe.
“So wait let me get this straight,” Vigilance looked at the Knight. “This guy has been killing ponies… foals… regularly?”
“I dare say we have just solved several missing foal cases in one fell swoop,” the lieutenant muttered, glaring at the prisoner darkly.
Twilight picked up the notes once again with a levitation spell and stepped over to Knight and Vigilance. She showed the papers to the guard, making sure to flip them over when he was done with one side. The security stallion also stole a glance at the notes.
“You may want to take those with you to Canterlot. That pony needs psychiatrist care, it is obvious now that losing his daughter really sent him over the edge,” the Unicorn told him.
Knight nodded and took the notes. Mulberry now approached having recovered from his shock. The stocky stallion still looked disturbed. He was seriously reconsidering his stance of having more criminal cases in Ponyville. Big Macintosh still kept an eye on the force field trapped Pegasus, just in case since the pony had already surprised them few times.
“I’m going down to Town Hall… no wait Tango is no longer… wait, I’m the only officer left in Ponyville…” Mulberry groaned and hung his head.
“What were you going to do?” Twilight wondered, gently patting the stallion on the back.
“Ask Tango what to do next,” Mulberry muttered, he hated to admit it right now but it was usually his former work partner who knew what to do.
“Well you can still do that, you probably just can’t take anything seriously he says,” Twilight chuckled. Then an idea hit her. “Hold on, you should probably search his house, there might be more there regarding his connection to Snow Heart.”
“Of course, I’ll go do that,” the stallion nodded eagerly. Before he left, he gave Silver Axe a one last unsure glance. “Sounds more what I had in mind for police work than…”
“He does know that dealing with deadly criminals is actually regular for police officers right?” Knight asked when Mulberry was gone.
“You’ll have to excuse him; usually the most excitement he gets is when Rarity’s cat gets stuck up a tree. This isn’t exactly high crime area after all,” Twilight chuckled.
Tango wasn’t sure if he was supposed to feel embarrassed or disappointed in himself. This was quite a bit of a downfall for someone who had been a pony of law and order for the town. The stallion was also starting to regret his involvement a bit, but knew there was nothing to do about it and all he could do was face the music.
He glanced around the empty room. It was one of the rooms in the Town Hall that the Mayor was going to change into more office space. Due to nothing being in it at the moment and since the building also doubled as the police station this served as his and Snow Heart’s jail cell. They had never gotten around installing a proper one as it had never been needed before.
“I don’t suppose you had any plans for this?” he asked though not expecting an answer. Snow Heart had been stewing in one corner of the room since she was brought in and not even bothered looking at him.
“Well I suppose Mulberry got his wish, a real criminal case in Ponyville,” the stallion walked over to the window and glanced out, standing below it was the black Unicorn guard who had arrested him.
Tango could see the clock tower from his vantage point. It was late afternoon by now so he had been here for big portion of the day already. He watched Time Turner leave the tower and head off towards Ponyville garden. He saw the local mail mare Derpy Hooves fly past the tower, she carried her mail bags but instead of mail it carried her daughter Dinky who waved her hooves in excitement.
Yeah… I have a feeling it will be a while before I can watch this sight again, He shook his head in dismay.
The former officer backed away when he saw a Pegasus guard land in front of the Unicorn one and began talking with him in a hurried voice. Tango strained his ears to try and hear what they were saying, but mostly only managed to make something about the Gryphon dead and other prisoner going to be shipped to Canterlot.
Huh, wonder what’s going on? Tango frowned; the Pegasus looked to be in quite a hurry.
“Snow, I think they said Paul is dead.” The stallion looked at the mare.
“What?” Snow Heart looked up and sounded genuinely surprised.
“The guards outside,” the Earth Pony looked back out but the Pegasus was gone by now. “They mentioned something about the Gryphon was dead and that the other prisoner will be moved to Canterlot.”
“Other prisoner? In singular, not plural?” Snow Heart frowned in confusion.
“I think so,” Tango shrugged.
“Can’t be Silver Axe, they’ll probably give him a medal for confessing my involvement,” the mare grunted and lay down.
Tango didn’t respond and looked at the door that was opening. Snow Heart glanced back too and the two ponies watched as Lieutenant Knight and Mayor Mare entered the room. The former officer turned to fully face them, but the Unicorn didn’t move any more than she already had.
“Snow Heart, I need to ask one more time,” Knight addressed the white mare. “Where you aware of anything odd about Silver Axe or did you see anything strange in his cabin?”
“Oh for the love of… NO!” Snow Heart snapped. The mare rose up and turned around. “I already told you. I was barely in the main area of his cabin for a week and only returned later to hire him to help me.”
“So you never went into his bedroom?” Knight asked and quickly added when seeing the indignant expression arrive on the mare. “And access the basement?”
“What? What basement?” Snow Heart blinked in confusion. “There wasn’t even an attic; this was a single story cabin. I think there was a shed outside.”
“So you never saw the bodies, or the writings or the pictures he kept?” Knight asked in deadpan voice.
“No I… what?” Snow Heart stopped when she realized exactly what the Pegasus had just said. Tango was already ahead of her with a truly shocked expression and his jaw trying to make a break for the ground.
“It turns out that this Silver Axe quite literally had a few skeletons in his closet,” Mayor Mare told them, the way she spoke indicated she too was only recently informed of the grizzly revelation.
“Congratulation Snow Heart, you hired a child serial killer to foalnap a filly,” the lieutenant said in a voice heavily laden with sarcasm.
“I…huh?” Snow Heart plumped down to sit, her mouth wide open and her eyes shining both shock and confusion.
“I… never… no…wait…” the Unicorn mare couldn’t form a complete sentence; this had just been a bit too much even for her.
Knight turned to leave without further word, feeling he had pretty much confirmed that Snow Heart had been in the dark about Silver Axe. The mayor followed at first but stopped in the doorway and glanced back.
“We are still going through few things, but I’ll be talking with the judge soon about a trial date. Don’t think you’ll be waiting for too long though,” she told the two ponies, but they were still both just too shocked to respond.
The door closed and locked, leaving Tango and Snow Heart where they sat. The stallion did eventually manage to regain some of his senses and glanced towards the Unicorn. He bit his lips when seeing the tears that were forming in her eyes. The mare closed her mouth and swallowed something before slowly looking at him.
“I-I’m a monster,” she whispered, her voice broken.
“No, I think Silver Axe turned out to be that one,” Tango tried to helpfully point out.
“Yes and I HIRED him!” Snow Heart snapped at him. “I hired a serial killer to foalnap, nopony was supposed to die or risk dying. I was going to scare them yes, not kill them!”
“Is this a bad time to point out that Paul attacked Silver Spoon and dumped her injured into a dumpster?” Tango mentioned and cringed when seeing Snow Heart’s enraged expression arrive.
“HE. DID. WHAAAAT!?” Snow Heart screamed at the top of her lungs.
“No, no, NO. This was not supposed to happen!” the mare ranted and began pacing around, switching between as if she was about to cry or looking like she was ready to stomp someone to the ground.
Finally she just slumped down to the floor and covered her head with her front legs. Tango hesitated to approach, knowing that with her temper the mare might just well began raging again.
“I guess he took the ‘no witnesses’ a bit too literally,” the stallion said.
“I never said ‘no witnesses’. I told him to make sure nopony saw him foal nap her, I meant he was supposed to grab her when she was alone… oh what am I saying, who cares what I meant?” Snow Heart cried.
“I care?” Tango suggested but there was no response from the mare, she just continued to cry on the floor.
End chapter 19.