//------------------------------// // Twilight is on the Case! // Story: The Crimson Smile. // by Cookietheif //------------------------------// “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” -Edgar Allan Poe Knock, knock, knock. “Rarity!” The lavender unicorn called. Twilight Sparkle was standing in front of Rarity’s door even though the sun itself was barely coming over the horizon and she knew Rarity was probably asleep. But… Last night she had a dream and it seemed so real! Something went in Rarity’s room with a knife, but then found a smaller target back downstairs… And that’s where it found Sweetie Belle! Twilight shivered from the memory of that horrid dream and knocked again; she had to make sure that Rarity and her little sister was ok. “Alright, alright. I’m coming!” That was Rarity’s voice, and she didn’t sound so happy to be woken up this early. But what came next, is something twilight prayed that she would never come… “SWEETIE BELLE!!!” Rarity let out a scream that ran anypony’s blood cold, “WHO COULD HAVE DONE THIS?!” Twilight gasped and then busted down the door and ran into the kitchen where the screams were and then she saw the horrific site… There was not much left of Rarity’s little sister. All that was left was her skeleton, almost all of her flesh was gone and a small pool of blood soaked the bones with its crimson beauty… The site was all too much for both mares; they couldn’t help but to turn away and expel whatever they had in their guts… Poor little Sweetie Belle, never lived long enough to earn her cutie mark… Twilight was doing her best to comfort her friend while detectives were examining what was left of her little sister. The site was burned into their minds and the sick feeling never went away. Both were outside and were waiting to be questioned… But neither of them had answers. Just as much questions as the police did… Who could have done this? Why was there nothing but some blood and bones left? Would... Would the thing that did this attack some other pony soon? “I’ll make whoever did this pay…” Vowed Twilight, anger wrapped around her mind… She told rarity that she would be back and then she went to the bones. “Who would even do this…?” She thought. Twilight knew her dream was more like a vision now, the scene of what happened to the poor foal through the killer’s eyes. But she couldn’t see the face of the killer. All that she knew is that the suspect was a unicorn for she saw the dark aura. But there are many unicorns in Ponyville! Suddenly she realized something… How many ponies with dark aura did she know? The only one she knew was Princess Luna, but there is no way it was her! But then who else could it have been? “I’ll just have to find out…” Twilight began to examine the kitchen, the detectives roped off where Sweetie Belle’s bones laid, but twilight could still clearly see them and what evidence they held… Bite marks! The killer gnawed on the bones… Just what sort of monster was that unicorn…? But this gave twilight an idea though. Brightsmile can help! The white-furred dentist could figure out who it might have been just by the marks alone! Twilight decided that she’ll have a talk with Bright soon. But first, Twilight needed to look for more evidence… The smart unicorn wandered out of the kitchen, glad that she did not have to look at the bones for a while, and easily noticed something that the detectives simply looked over… The killer left all sorts of fabrics out of place! Twilight could only tell because she knew her friend well… Rarity always had her fabrics in certain places so she always knew where they were… But the killer messed with the fabrics and tossed them aside! “This is making no sense… There seems to be no motive…” Twilight assumed. She examined the mess, putting what little pieces she had together, and decided that her best bit of evidence was those marks… It took forever to convince the police to let twilight handle the case… But luck was on Twilight’s side. She helped the Ponyville police force many times. So of course she eventually got the case, and now she needs to get Brightsmile to see the bones. She began to head to the dentist’s home, but she made a stop at her own home to have Spike a special letter. And then she was at the house that belonged to the bright white mare… ~10 minutes before Twilight was at Bright’s doorstep~ Light finally seeped into the dark room and shone on her pretty white pelt… She slept peacefully last night, as if the voices never once disturbed her. Brightsmile woke up when the light washed onto her; she did not have the outfit that her demon wore… But there were some things that the creature left… Blood was on her muzzle, and plenty of the flesh was caught between her lightly red teeth. The sight of the blood was the only thing that stopped her from screaming… It was like the blood grasped her throat and prevented her from letting out as much as a squeak… Nor let her take in a breath… She never moved as much as an inch, as if she was waiting for the blood to just go away… But then she felt some excitement… This blood means… That special voice kept its promise! Does this mean the voices will stop tormenting her now…? Is she free from the maddening voices that would keep her up at night…? But… This means that something horrible happened… She… ate another pony… Who could it have been? Whose blood and flesh did she consume…? Guilt started to swell within her chest… What she did was unforgivable… Nopony has been murdered in hundreds of years! But that wasn’t the worst part… What if someone finds out that she was the murderer! That thought was all Bright needed to get out of bed, and run to the bathroom so she can try to wash away the evidence… But the blood was persistent. She managed to get the flesh out of her teeth and got her precious smile to be whiter then snow, but the blood on her own muzzle, refused to go away so easily… After a long while the stained fur was back to its former glory, and the dentist’s fears were washed away with the blood… (I’d say… 2 minutes of washing her face, and then 7 minutes of teeth cleaning lol.) But then, as if irony itself had this planned, something reawakened them… Knock. Knock. Knock. “They found me out!!!” Thoughts screamed in Brightsmile’s mind… It was all over, she could see herself at the gallows… A rope to her neck, and a lever opened the floor beneath her… Brightsmile began her way to the door… She was secretly planning an escape route… A way to run to… To hide… But for once, luck came to her side. When she opened the door, ready to run away, she found that it was only the brilliant twilight! She quickly tossed her thoughts aside. The only thing she had to do was give twilight no suspicion about what she did last night. That should be easy, right? As long as the guilt doesn’t get the best of her… She noticed that Twilight wasn’t in good spirits… Could it have been someone she knew well that died? This wasn’t good… Guilt began to wrap its dreadful presence around Bright… She shrugged it off and began to speak before twilight could detect hesitation. “Hello, Twilight. What can I do for you?” Bright spoke as calmly as she could, a single misstep could send her to the gallows. She could not mess even a single motion up… The lavender mare cut straight to the chase… With each word, Brightsmile realized that luck has betrayed her… “There was a murder… The victim was the little sister of one of my closest friends… All that was left of her was bones, with bite marks all over them. I need you to come with me and figure out who could have made those marks.” Things can now only get worse for Brightsmile… Because those perfect little marks… Could only have come from her perfect little teeth… Before her were the bones… Brightsmile was at the morgue, and now she was staring at the work of the demon within her… Sweetie belle’s bones were plainly screaming who did this to her, but only Bright could hear who did it… And the answer only strengthened her guilt; she let something inside her kill a little child! She nearly jumped out of own skin when a hoof rested on her shoulder. She looked at the colt that worked here; surprisingly the colt wasn’t bad looking for someone that would work at such a dreadful place… “Not a pretty site, isn’t it?” He said with a gentle voice, he was right about that… He went to the other side of the table and picked up the chart before continuing speaking, “normally I have a body to tell what did them in, but the bones are just enough in this case…” Brightsmile’s sense of panic only grew in this case… He was absolutely right! Teeth are just like hoof prints… Each set are unique and could only belong to one pony, this was the end of her… Tamper with the marks The voice that caused this entire mess whispered throughout her mind, the feeling of grief and fear vanished as she heard the solution… All it would take to get out of this was if the perfect marks were perfect no longer. Brightsmile backed away from the bones and let out a long sigh. Her sadness was only partly real, but it was enough to fool the other pony in the room. “I’ll go through my records… But Dr. White would know who could have done this much more quickly. Do you think you can go find him?” She asked the colt, for some reason though… lying to him made the guilt slowly creep back… The colt thought it over… And luckily didn’t see anything wrong with that. So he left to get the retired dentist, and at once Brightsmile got to work… Brightsmile get some pictures of the teeth of some of the ponies of Ponyville. There was an old spell that she remembered from her first year in becoming a dentist; the spell allowed a dentist to create dentures made of just their magic. Normally it is used for figuring the identities of bodies that were too messed up to identify by looks alone. But in this case, it will be used to cover up who killed sweetie belle… She found a set of teeth from pictures that had a few similarities to her own and made a fake set of teeth that matched, and then defiled Sweetie Belle’s bones to ruin her bite marks… She did this just in time. Once she finished getting rid of any evidence pointing to her, Dr. White came in and they attempted figuring out who did it… And luckily the new marks, mixed with the old ones, told them nothing… ~20 minutes after the results from Dr. White and Dr. Brightsmile~ Twilight was in a mix of sorrow… And rage… Her room was in ruin; when she heard that the marks led to a dead end she simply lost it… “Now I’m back to square one!” She shouted as a book went across the room. She sat the edge of her bed, hooves covering her face, and tears began to run down her cheeks… Was the killer really going to get away with this? Yes things are looking bad for her… But has that stopped her before? She has helped save all of Equestria so many times. Will she let just one pony get away with a crime like this? “No… I am not giving up… I said I will make the killer pay… And I will keep to my word…” She said; her confidence was slowly coming back to her, and just in time. Outside she saw a flying carriage coming, and in it… Was Princess Luna! She must have gotten the letter that Twilight sent! She rushed outside to greet the princess, with Luna now here; the killer will be caught in no time. Luna stepped out of the carriage once it landed and looked at her sister’s favorite student; she saw how much hope she had now that the Princess was here. “Hello, Twilight Sparkle. It has been a while” Princess Luna said; she was glad to see Twilight, but she wished that the reason for seeing her was much more pleasant… But there was no helping it. “It has, let’s go inside before somepony tries to listen in.” Twilight replied, she led the way inside her home and as soon as Luna was inside a barrier formed around the library. Twilight quickly got to work on cleaning the library, levitating books left and right and setting them in their proper place, and she spoke while doing so. “We don’t have almost any evidence that would tell us who the suspect could be. Other than the he or she is a unicorn that has black aura, and may be a… Cannibal” She gave a small shiver when she uttered that last word, the fact that there are ponies that eat their own kind was not a pleasant thought… Luna thought about all of the possibilities… There is hardly anything that could help them! The only thing that showed any promise was the aura. Wait… The aura… “We will test every unicorn in Ponyville and see which ones have the aura!” The Princess declared; this plan had to work! Twilight placed the last book in its place and whipped around to the princess, why didn’t she think of that?! “That’s a great idea!” She said; there was no way a unicorn can change the color of their own aura. Soon Sweetie Belle will be avenged… The word began to spread quickly through Ponyville; tonight there was going to be a meeting for all unicorns, teenager and up, at 6 O’clock. If you didn’t come on time, you will get a one way ticket to the police for questioning by Luna herself… Twilight appointed almost the entire police force around the town hall, where the meeting will be, and she will personally observe the ponies taking the tests. The tests were very simple. All you needed to do was levitate a few items and you passed. Unless your aura is dark of course… Twilight had everything planned for tonight. If the suspect tried leaving, he or she will meet a large group of Luna’s own soldiers. There was no way of getting out unseen. But something still felt off… Twilight felt that the plan would soon fall apart. But how could it? The plan is bound to work! …Right? …Wrong… ~5:55 P.M. Brightsmile’s office~ The sweet dentist was working on a teen Pegasus, her voices was silent while she worked on her patient. The Pegasus was brown with a black main and tail, and his cutie mark was a pencil, his name was Blitz. Brightsmile was busy putting braces on him, but with each second that she was here also meant that she was a second closer to missing the meeting… They wouldn’t question her if she was just working right? “It won’t take much longer, just relax” She said when Blitz began to fidget around. She was just tightening the braces when suddenly the pain began to burst inside her… Crimsonsmile was hungry… Bright gave out a gasp as the dark aura wrapped around her horn and exiled the light aura, and the pain flared through her as she was losing control of her own body… Blitz was freaking out by this of course. Forget braces, he needed to get out of here!!! But… It was far too late to escape… The drill that was always on the tray began to levitate off the tray; it gained a life of its own and a dark hunger with it as well… It went down and forced itself into the throat of the Pegasus and began to drill into the flesh and soon his neck bone… All Blitz could do now was gurgle in pain and thrash about, but none of that would help him now… Crimsonsmile pulled the drill out once she had control and began to suck on the hole, drinking the liquid of life out of the helpless brown Pegasus… The weakening kicks made by Blitz only excited the demon… Eventually she stopped, for she had a new idea… The spell that ruined the marks on the bones… She could make use of that. The creature closed her eyes and began to vision a new set of teeth… One that could shred any flesh they began to sink into… Make it easier to eat that oh so good red meat. And that is just what she got… Crimsonsmile opened her eyes once her new set of teeth, they were nice, perfect fangs of a monster… And at once they sunk down into Blitz’s belly; taking large, greedy bites out of the almost dead Pegasus… Blitz could barely feel the demon chowing down on him… Everything was blurry, all except the sound of his own flesh being torn apart and chewed by his dentist. But it didn’t matter anymore, because he was gone, nothing but a warm meal now… Crimson let out a dreadful cackle as she even watched Blitz’s heart stop beating; she opened up his entire chest and stomach up and was chewing on his intestines as she watched the Pegasus pass. It was a nice meal with a nice show! But now the show was over, for the party crashers were knocking on the front door. “Buck!” The demon spat, she totally lost track of time! What is she going to do now?! She can’t just let Brightsmile take the fall just yet… So why not make her look like a victim? The creature grinned as the idea came, as clear as day. She took the dead Pegasus’s heart by biting the tubes off but leaving long bits of the tubes still attached. Then she tied most of the tubes together, and then she began to write on the wall by squeezing a little blood out of the heart and using the tube like the tip of a pen. And when she was done she looked at it with satisfaction. "BEST PALS" She made quick work with picking up the corpse of blitz and had him in a sitting position on the floor, his back against the wall. Then she sat beside him and quickly started smearing more blood onto herself. She had to work fast. Because now she can hear somepony breaking down the front door! Crimson got what was left of Blitz’s intestines and wrapped it around her own throat; she made him lean on her before she began to strangle herself. The instinct to survive fought hard, screaming at Crimson to stop now… But she had to do this for Brightsmile. She quickly began to fade away from the lack of air… The intestines were soon loosened up when the demon didn’t have the strength to tighten them… Just in time as well… The door was flung open as Luna came in to take Brightsmile in. But all she got was the most bone chilling, nightmarish sight in all of Equestria… 2 “Best Pals”