You think you know me? A light blue unicorn mare with an hourglass cutie mark thought to herself, You don’t know anything. The mare seemed to wander aimlessly though the park near the White Tail Woods as she smiled at passerby, seemingly without a care in the world. Ignorance is your downfall; your grains of sand are running low.
The mare stopped at a seemingly random spot, and then casually looked around for anypony watching. Confirming her privacy, she lit up her horn with a soft glow the color of her coat. What will you do, I wonder, she thought as she picked up two similar magical signatures, both saturated with dark magic, what will you do, as the last grain of sand drops?
Her private monologue was interrupted by a throaty scream, one born of true horror and trauma. Natural pony instincts kicking in, the mare quickly joined a crowed running through town. Soon enough they were able to feast their eyes on a very uncommon sight: a mother and father weeping over the disfigured form of their daughter.
The mare used to be an investigator for scenes such as these; unfortunately her new career forbade any actions that risk ponies asking too many questions. But, as the mare soon found out, old habits die hard. Her horn was once again glowing with a soft color. She quickly caught herself and cut off the flow of magic, but not before realizing a faint magical signature leaked from the poor filly. With another slight burst of magic she was able to match it to one of the signatures from the park. She found evidence, all she needed now was to match the signatures with the suspect and the case was closed.
As casually as she could, she backed away from the scene, leaving the crowd of ponies to look on in horror. The mare lit her horn, there were more interesting things going on than a lone mare lighting her horn for no apparent reason, so her cover remained secure. She was able to see the faint trail of magic that seemed to leak off of the filly. She was able to follow the trail through town to the road that lead to Sweet Apple Acres.
As she approached she heard the tell-tale sign of the Cutie-Mark Crusaders quickly approaching. Seeing her chance to investigate a suspect, the mare walked out to the center of the road and with another quick spell was able to match the magical signatures she discovered to Sweetie Belle. The mare was horrified; the report had her as a suspect for simply being near the scene of the crime, but to suddenly discover that she was the murderer?
The realization made the mare freeze up on the spot. She had taken down countless murderers, assassins, and just plain crooks, but never was a filly involved. The situation was far beyond her control. She knew from both her training and personal experience that hesitation was the sure-fire way to a quick death, but to kill a seemingly innocent filly?
“Hey Colgate, what are you doing standing there in the middle of the road?” Scootaloo asked as she slowed to a stop in front of the mare.
“Oh, I uh… Just realized something that I forgot! Well I better go take care of the thing I was just realizing I forgot about… ehehe…” Colgate said as she smiled widely, her eyes shifting back and forth as sweat cascaded down her face.
“Um, are you feeling alright, Miss Colgate?” Sweetie Belle asked. Her voice made Colgate even more nervous for a moment before she turned and fled from the trio.
Colgate ran as fast as her legs could carry her back to her house. She ran inside and slammed the door, leaning against it for a moment to catch her breath. She peeked out the spy hole to see if she was followed, she wasn’t. With a heavy sigh she turned to her fireplace and turned a knob on the side. It burst to life immediately with angry red flames. Her horn glowed once more as the image of Princess Luna appeared in the flames.
“This better be important, this line is reserved to emergencies only, it’s not a spy network if somepony discovered this secret, Agent Colgate.” Luna’s voice echoed though her mind.
“I have found and identified the target, Your Majesty.” Colgate said nervously.
“So, is it truly little Sweetie Belle as my sister fears or is there a second party?” Asked Luna, Colgate looked away from the image in the fireplace. “It really is Sweetie Belle, isn’t it? By Faust, how could this happen?”
Colgate cleared her throat to regain some composure, “The signatures at both murder scenes matched with the filly Sweetie Belle, I’m sorry Your Majesty, but I could not bring myself to believe such a child possessed the book. Living here in Ponyville for as long as I have has shown me how sweet and innocent she is to the world around her and I… I couldn’t…” Colgate broke off as she was wreaked by a sob. She was stuck between two places she never thought she would end up. She never failed an assignment, but could never bring herself to believe a child was solely responsible for the murder of two ponies.
“Two murders?” The image of Luna asked.
“Sorry,” Colgate sniffed in an effort to calm herself before continuing, “The second murder was a filly by the name of Diamond Tiara. The scene looks like she committed suicide by leaping out of her third story bedroom window. However, after a quick examination of the body I discovered a dark spell with the same signature as one of the two I found in the park.”
“You know crime scene investigation is to be left to the local guard.” Luna said sternly.
“I-I know, I’m sorry, I just started going through the motions before I could stop myself. But after I made the discovery of the spell encasing the corpse, I followed the trail to the road to Sweet Apple Acres where I stumbled upon Sweetie Belle and her friends. I was able to make the final connection of undeniable proof that she was the murderer.” Colgate said, tears forming in her eyes once more.
“You said two signatures in the park, what was the other one?” Luna asked after a moment of thought.
“It was like Sweetie brought the second one into existence out of thin air. It was similar to Sweetie Belle’s signature but far darker and more evil feeling.” Colgate said, bringing up the copy of the signatures her horn took.
“Based on what I did as Nightmare Moon, Sweetie summoned a demon from the pits of hell themselves, no doubt to kill the pony after Dinky. Due to this change of events, I want you to keep an eye on her, and if you can, retrieve the book from her possession in any way possible. If we’re lucky then she shouldn’t know too many spells. If we fail to end this now she will grow infinitely stronger until she is able to throw the entire world into war. I’ll give you one day to retrieve the book, then my sister and I will be forced to intervene to take the book by force if we need to.”
She rubbed the tears from her eyes and glared at the image of the princess with a fierce determination, “Alright, I’ll do it. I’ll complete the mission.”