“So, Toolsmith died in the storm she caused? If that story was making sense, I’d say that Karma is a bitch,” Surveillance commented.
Again, they were sitting in his office. Twilight just finished referring him what she found out when she hypnotised Vinyl.
“But that doesn’t matter, because this story makes completely no sense. Of course, Parasol was in Cloudsdale when Rainstorm was attacked, and came to a concert in Ponyville, but she couldn’t poison our ex-psychologist, because she was lying dead in one of Dr Tulp’s fridges.”
“Yes, but I was thinking…”
“What were you thinking? Your whole argument is based on the hallucinations of a junkie!”
“Excuse me, sir,” Twilight tried to remain calm, “Hypnosis is not a hallucination. I only tried to explore Vinyl’s subconsciousness in order to find out if her memory…”
“Whatever! Whoever the Toolsmith was, she’s now dead. Case closed.”
Twilight sighed, and left the office.
***
For several hours she wandered aimlessly through Ponyville, not noticing anypony. Eventually she headed to the pub, but it was still closed, as its owner was in the hospital. The only good thing was that she met Rainbow Dash there, staring at the door with an expression of utter disappointment.
“Hello, Dash,” she greeted the pegasus, who suddenly jumped, scared.
“Twilight! It’s you!”
“Drinking again, Dash?”
“Me? No, I just…” she looked in Twilight’s eyes and sighed, “Ok, I was going to get wasted again. I still can’t get myself together after that storm.”
“Can I help you?”
“I don’t think so, unless you have a bottle of vodka… Anyway, you don’t look well too…”
“Yes, Surveillance closed the Toolsmith’s case…”
They trotted to the park and sat on a bench, observing the setting sun.
“Life sucks…” said Rainbow Dash suddenly, “I can’t even teach Scootaloo to fly, she’s still grounded. And I’m suspended from weather team till they finish the investigation.”
“Weather team… Dash, do you think somepony from the weather team could be the Toolsmith?”
“No, no way. Even this guy, Cloud Counter seems to be ok. Do you know that he went to Sankt Ponysburg with Cloudchaser?”
“Really? When?”
“Just yesterday. You know, that’s funny, how small Cloudsdale really is,” Rainbow Dash smiled.
“What do you mean?”
“He met Cloudchaser when he arrived to help us with the storm. After this whole story with Krissy, Flitter told me that they were together in High School, and Berry Punch now tells anyone who visits her in toxicology ward, that Cloud Counter and Krissy used to be together. Their break-up was quite rough.”
“So, maybe Surveillance is right: Krissy found out that he is now with Cloudchaser and decided to take revenge?” Twilight asked, “But then, why it was Parasol who gave the potion to Vinyl?”
“Parasol gave potion to Vinyl?” Rainbow Dash stared at her friend with shock. Twilight told her about the hypnosis.
“That’s crazy. What would Parasol have to do with it?” pegasus asked.
“I don’t know. Did you know her?”
“Not well. She was hanging out mostly with Flitter, Cloudchaser and Thunderlane,”
“Hmm…” suddenly Twilight reminded that Krissy told her something about weather team. But what?
“What’s up, Twi?”
“Nothing, I’m thinking…”
“Oh yeah, thinking again…” Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry, “Krissy maybe was a crazy knife murderer, but at least she was more talkative…” she stood up and flapped her wings.
“Talkative…” something clicked in Twilight’s head, “Dash, wait! I got it! I got it!”
“You got what?”
“The day she died! In the morning she told me that she had talked with some ponies from weather team the day before!”
“So?”
“Somepony could give her the potion! Whom she talked to?”
“I don’t know…” Dash shrugged. In her opinion, since Twilight started to help Royal Guards with investigations, she developed an annoying manner of switching between “leave me alone, the world hates me” and “Let’s see if I can be more hyperactive than Pinkie Pie!” constantly, definitely too fast for her liking.
“Dash, come on! It’s important!”
“You know, I hardly remember those days. In fact, my only memory is that I woke up in your bath, and Spike was telling me that dragon’s metabolism prevents them from being hung over,”
“Oh…” for a moment Dash saw a glimpse of sympathy in Twilight’s eyes, quickly replaced by shadow of fury (I apologised for the bath! she thought) which was soon wiped out by “Twi-the-scientist mode”.
“Maybe we should try hypnosis?” unicorn proposed.
“What? No… no hypnosis, I have an allergy. In fact I remember… something. Yes, she talked to Cloud Counter, Spitfire, Cloudchaser, Flitter, Snowflake, everypony who wasn’t in hospital,” said Rainbow Dash, thinking really quickly.
“Cloud Counter… we can’t forget about him. He left Ponyville just after the interrogation,”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t seem to be the guy who kills his former marefriends,”
“Yes, but serial killers usually look like any other pony,” said Twilight.
“I know! It couldn’t be Spitfire, but I wondered about Thunderlane. He was envious when he found out that Cloudchaser…”
“And so he decided to kill Counter’s ex-marefriends, using such a sophisticated modus operandi?”
“Oh… you’re right,”
“Dash, focus…” Twilight sighed, “Who, of all the members of the weather team, needed psychologist’s help the most?”
“Me,” Rainbow Dash said, “but my psychologist’s name is Apple Cider,” she smiled sheepishly, “Dunno, Cloudchaser and Flitter probably. You know, they tried to save her, poor Flitter, when I last saw her she looked really miserable. And I heard that she doesn’t leave her house now…”
“Cloudchaser! She went with Cloud Counter to Sankt Ponysburg! She wants to kill him!”
“Relax, Twi, not so loud,” Dash frowned, “Cloudchaser would be a killer?”
Twilight wasn’t paying attention to her.
“How fast can you fly there?”
“Really, Twilight, chill out, even I can’t fly with supersonic speed for a long time… Besides, it’s night, for Luna’s sake!”
“Oh… ok,” Twilight looked around, as if she just noticed the darkness enveloping the park. “But promise me, you’ll fly behind them in the morning!”
“Yeah, sure,” said Dash half-heartedly.
***
Thoughts raced through Twilight’s head when she came back to the library. Spike was already snoring in his basket, but, despite tossing and turning, she couldn’t fall asleep. Eventually she decided to come downstairs and read something to kill some time. She took “Halter’s Illustrated Biochemistry” from its shelf, brought a tea from the kitchen and sat in the library’s lobby.
“Hello, Twilight Sparkle,”
She opened her eyes, but saw nothing. Did I fall asleep? she thought.
“You probably wonder who I am.”
She tried to stand up, only to find out that she’s strapped to some pipes behind her.
“Oh, sorry, that’s just a precaution,” said a pony hiding in darkness, “I don’t want you to do something that would spoil my plan. Oh, and don’t bother with magic, I put a magic-negating ring on your horn,”
“Who the hell are you?” she shouted, although the answer was obvious, “Toolsmith…”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Toolsmith laughed, “Pretty nice name, thanks for that. Too bad, I won’t be remembered as the biggest killer in Equestria…”
“Why not? Most of your traps weren’t successful, but I must admit, your method was unusual,” said Twilight.
“Oh, I’m flattered,” Toolsmith deadpanned, “I won’t be remembered as Toolsmith, because after what will happen here, everypony will think that you were the Toolsmith,”
“How so?” Twilight couldn’t help laughing, “You somehow transported me to your basement, probably in attempt to kill me like in this poor horror novels, and you think you’ll get away with that?”
Toolsmith was unfazed.
“Technically, Twilight Sparkle, we are in your basement. And, by the way, don’t bother with screaming, your assistant is sleeping quite well after that powder I added to the tea,”
Twilight gulped, feeling the sweat running down her forehead. Her mysterious guest seemed to think about every detail.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why? Why?” Toolsmith mocked her, “Why do I want to kill you and act a humble pony, the last victim of the great Toolsmith who somehow managed to self-defend? Or why do I hate Cloud Counter so much, that I want to kill everypony he ever considered his friend?”
“Both,” said Twilight, desperately trying to contain panic, “You know, scientific curiosity. As a criminal mastermind, you probably know that feeling. You can kill me if you want, but I must know…”
“Oh, Ms Sparkle, you make me blush,” Toolsmith said. Twilight sighed with relief. Keeping that pony in a good mood could buy her some time.
“Well, I need to kill you, because you’re too close. This old idiot, Surveillance would never find a link between a mysterious murder in Cloudsdale, and DJ suddenly killing one of her fans here, in Ponyville. This was my mistake, by the way, as you know, this old recipe doesn’t work well with unicorns. I knew you wouldn’t believe that Krissy was a Toolsmith, so I had to follow you. And then, this evening I heard you and Rainbow Dash mentioning my name. I had to act quickly,”
“Still, I don’t know how do you want to get away with killing me,” said Twilight.
“Oh, it’s simple. Imagine poor, little, depressed pony, who comes for advice to the famous consulting detective. The pony noticed something during the storm of the century, and accuses the detective. The detective knows there’s only one way to silence the witness. Everypony who saw you in the hospital knows that you’re capable of casting lethal spells. The poor, depressed pony, however, brought an artefact from the First Griffonian War. You know, some kind of great-grandfather memorabilia,”
The mysterious pony lit the candle. At first Twilight was so focused on a small crossbow made of black wood and silver, that she didn’t looked at the pony wielding it. When she did, her jaw dropped.
The Toolsmith was a lilac pony with light blue mane, tied with pink bow. She was watching her with half-closed eyes, aiming a crossbow at her.
“F-Flitter?”
“Yes. But you can still call me Toolsmith, if you like. This,” she pointed at the crossbow, “belonged to my great-grandfather, it’s small, fast-reloading, and can pierce a heavily-armoured griffon. Do you prefer me to shoot you in the heart, stomach or maybe right through one of the eyes? Personally I don’t recommend stomach. And really, shooting at such an enormous brain would be such a waste…”
“You still haven’t answered my question,” said Twilight, her throat dry, “Why did you have to kill all those ponies?”
“Oh, Twilight, you’re asking me while you almost figured that out yourself? Ok, we have some time, I’ll tell you. You know that Krissy was Cloud Counter’s marefriend. Well, Parasol was too, at the same time. They eventually found out that descriptions of their boyfriends surprisingly match each other, and they broke up, but Krissy was still saying that she loves him! That’s pathetic, don’t you think?”
Twilight nodded. How long will it take before Spike wakes up?
“Of course, as their school friend, I knew everything. Krissy was really depressed when this poor excuse for a stallion left Cloudsdale and moved to Trottingham. Parasol and I really wanted to kill him,” Flitter sighed, “You probably can guess the rest,”
“You heard that he’d come to Cloudsdale to help weather team with that storm and you decided to take revenge?”
“Exactly!” Flitter exclaimed. Her eyes went wide, and her crossbow-holding hoof twitched. Twilight closed her eyes, expecting a bolt.
“I hope you’ll appreciate the irony,” pegasus said a bit calmer, “I found the potion recipe in your library. If you’d checked the books more often, you would have found out that I hadn’t given that book back,”
“And you prepared it?”
“Yes, shortly before Cloud Counter’s arrival. Too bad, Parasol started to have doubts…”
“Before or after you told her that you’re not going to kill Cloud Counter only?"
“After. She once told me that she saw him in a pub talking to Lyra Heartstrings and that gave me an idea. Stupid girl… she hadn’t noticed when I slipped a potion in her coffee. Now she was at my command!”
“When Cloud Counter arrived…”
“…I decided that his friend will be the first target. I went with my sister to the pub they were sitting in. It wasn’t difficult to split them: Rainstorm was the same asshole as Cloudy, but less subtle. I hit him and we left him in the pub. I ordered Parasol to follow him – it’s easy to control a possessed pony, although it makes me a bit unfocused, my sister thought that I was drunk. He went for a walk through Cloudsdale. I gave Parasol a bottle of cider with a potion, she was supposed to give it to Rainstorm and then order him to commit suicide. But then that filly approached them and I had to act quickly. I ordered Parasol to give the cider to a filly and when I had her in control, I made her hit Rainstorm with a wrecking bar. He was sitting at the edge of the cloud when she did it, which made the whole task easier…”
“But then it got complicated, because of your sister,” said Twilight.
“DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT!!!” Flitter cried, “My stupid sister fell in love with that dick, can you imagine that? I thought about killing him instantly, but no… I wanted to make him suffer…”
For a moment she aimed the crossbow directly between Twilight’s eyes, but then suddenly backed away, panting heavily.
“You know how it was with the DJ,” she said emotionlessly, “but you thought that this whole storm was aimed at killing me and my sister. You were wrong, Twilight Sparkle,” a trace of pride could be heard in her voice.
“Let me guess… your connection with Parasol started to wear off?”
“Brilliant! I was better at controlling other ponies, but somehow she was slipping from my hooves… So I gave a potion to Rainbow Dash and my sister. Nothing big, I only made Dash set a different hour, and ordered my sister to hide a small storm cloud in the orchard. When the storm started, we led Parasol there, and I bucked the cloud just above her head. She had no chance,” Flitter grinned, “I made my sister think that she was struck and we tried to save her, and flew to the rescue group. They really liked that show I made… And then they found Lighting Dust and nopony was asking about poor Parasol again… Only Cloudchaser, Rainbow Dash and I came to her funeral, everypony else chose Dust’s, even Spitfire, who had fired her from the Academy herself,” her voice was filled with sadness. Even Twilight felt sympathy.
“And then there was Krissy…”
“Yes!” Flitter chirped merrily and came closer to Twilight, “That’s funny, she only came to drink tea with us after the storm… And then she was under my control,” pegasus spread her wings, “Ok, Twi, that’s enough, time to say goodbye!” she turned around, and one of her wings hit Twilight’s face.
If you ever want to hurt the pegasus, aim at the wings.
She leant forward as far as the rope let her and bit Flitter’s wing with the full force of her jaw, which, for an herbivore, is substantial. The pegasus screamed and thrashed, trying to free herself from Twilight’s grip. Finally she managed to buck the unicorn with her hind legs and pull her wing from between unicorn’s jaws. She jumped away and stared furiously at Twilight, who spat some feathers, blood – hers and Flitter’s - and two frontal teeth.
“Now you really pissed me off, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, waving an injured wing, which was bleeding profusely, “I really wanted to make it quick, but now you deserve at least a quarter of painful agony…” she aimed the crossbow at Twilight’s stomach, “Any last words?”
“SHOVE THIS DAMN BOLT UP YOUR FLANK!” a battlecry tore the basement’s silence. Twilight watched, stunned, as the rainbow trail appeared behind Flitter and tackled her. A flash of green fire enlightened the room and she saw Rainbow Dash and Spike trying to disarm the other pegasus.
“Spike! How…”
“Dragon’s metabolism!” he explained, running toward her to free her. Behind him, Rainbow Dash managed to pull the crossbow from Flitter’s hoof, but was quickly hit with the other leg. Flitter caught her mane and tried to hit her once more, but Dash squeezed her injured wing, causing her to scream once more.
“Spike, take this ring off my horn!”
The dragon did so, and she untied the rope with a spell. They both turned to the fighting pegasi, ready to help Rainbow Dash.
However, she didn’t need any help. Flitter was lying on the floor, with the cyan mare standing on her injured wing and punching her repeatedly, yelling:
“That’s for Twilight! That’s for Parasol! That’s for Bon-Bon!”
“Dash, stop!”
“That’s for Lyra! That’s for Vinyl!”
“Dash, I said STOP!”
“That’s for Lighting Dust…” Rainbow Dash panted, and got off Flitter’s wing. The beaten pony gave her a half-conscious, but still unpleasant look and started to wipe blood and tears from her face with one hoof. Her right leg was resting at an angle suggesting that it was broken.
“Dash, really, that was unnecessary…” said Twilight, watching a pony crawling on the floor.
“What? She just tried to kill you! She killed all those ponies and wounded several others! And, by the way, that’s for Scootaloo!” She kicked Flitter, who rolled several feet and landed near the wooden pillar.
“Dash! I said, stop! Don’t be like her! How did you find me, by the way?”
“You told me to follow Cloudchaser, so I dropped to say goodbye and found Spike, half-asleep. We found it strange that you left an open book in the lobby. And also we heard a scream… Something like pegasus whose wing was bitten…” she gave a nasty glare to Flitter, who was trying to get up.
“Only thing I was able to do,” said Twilight, “But really, Dash, you shouldn’t have beaten her. For a moment I thought that you are the Toolsmith, and you’re trying to cover the fact that she regained consciousness after I bit her,”
“Twilight, you should give up that job,” said Rainbow Dash, “You’re getting crazy…”
“I know. Then I remembered that she was trying to kill me even after I bit her, so she wasn’t possessed…”
“Watch out!” Spike screamed.
In the opposite corner of the basement, Flitter was sitting with a crossbow in her good hoof. Although she was beaten, wounded and dirty, she was smiling when she aimed it at Twilight and released the bolt.
The unicorn felt that something heavy hit her side and fell on the ground. She recovered quickly and fired a powerful magical beam. It mixed in mid-air with Spike’s green flame and hit Flitter, charring her fur and sending her flying. With an unpleasant crack her body hit the wall and fell on the ground.
“Did we kill her?” asked Spike.
“I hope not. She missed?”
Nopony replied. Twilight looked around and saw Rainbow Dash standing in the place where she was standing just a moment ago.
“Don’t worry Twilight, I’m fine,” she said just before she collapsed on the ground with a bolt in her chest.