Death Note: Equestria

by Nonagon

Victory (part 1)

For Gods of Death, killing a pony without the use of the Death Note is a crime deserving of the highest level of punishment, followed by death.

It was long after midnight when Locket felt something hard and sharp poke her in the ribs. She curled up more tightly and tried to twist away, squirming beneath the weight above her, letting out a petulant sigh as sleep was torn away from her and cold reality came rushing back. An endless, dusty landscape behind her eyes vanished, and was replaced by the image of a small, confused dragon looking down at her in the near-darkness.

Memories of earlier that night struck like an anvil. Locket looked back and held in a gasp, turning a shade of red to match the heavy warmth next to her. She and Big Macintosh had stayed beneath the tree as the ground had trembled and the sky had erupted above them, eventually curling up together and allowing exhaustion to overtake them. The large stallion now lay behind her, still sleeping, with one foreleg wrapped around her barrel, his head bent over her to shield her from the rain. He started to come to as Locket scrambled out from beneath him, slipping on the muddy ground before rising and turning to face Spike. “This... this isn’t what it looks like!” she said quickly.

“It isn’t?” Spike scratched his head. “So you were just pretending to be asleep?”

“Uh...” Locket gaped for a moment before realization dawned. “Y-yeah. That.” She kicked at the ground. “And nothing else.”

Big Mac’s eyes opened slowly. “Good morning,” he croaked, then coughed to clear his throat. “Is it morning?”

“Barely,” Spike answered, looking at the moon.

Locket fretted as the stallion pulled himself up to his full height, but Spike seemed strangely calm. “Is Ponyville safe?” Mac asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine.” Spike turned away. “The others sent me out to look for you. Your sister’s waiting for you.”

“All right.” Mac shook some of the dirt off himself and turned to follow, then paused and looked back at Locket. “It’s a long walk home for you,” he said. “If you’re tired, we’d be happy to let you stay the night.”

Locket looked desperately to Spike for a yes or no, or at least some indication of how the night’s events had gone, but his face was revealing nothing. He was almost unnervingly calm, like it was just another night. “I’d like that,” she said eventually, her voice small.

They made the trek across the orchard in silence. The path was far less clear than it had been when they’d set out earlier. Although the local weather team had been swiftly alerted to the crisis and dispelled the rogue storm barely an hour after it had begun, the sheer force of a town’s worth of water coming down over such a small area had left deep gouges across the landscape. Brown puddles collected between hills, and what grass hadn’t been torn up was soaked through. Many of the trees had been completely stripped of their reddening leaves, adding a slippery and decaying layer to the uneven ground, and in areas where the harvest hadn’t yet been finished the fields were spotted with bruised and broken apples. Big Macintosh bore this well as he walked across the damaged orchard, though twice Locket caught him swallowing a tear as he snuck glances around his waterlogged home.

The farmhouse itself was relatively free of damage, although one of the drainpipes along the side had collapsed. Spike’s knock on the door was answered by Colgate, who immediately put a hoof to her lips as Mac started to speak. “Apple Bloom’s asleep,” she whispered. “Try not to wake her. She’s had a tough day.” She held the door open, and Mac walked calmly inside. Locket started to follow him, but stopped when Spike grabbed her leg and shook his head.

“Where’s Applejack?” Big Macintosh asked.

“She told us everything.”

Macintosh turned to look at Colgate. She’d lowered her horn towards him, a blue glow surrounding it. She stayed that way, frozen in place, watching for his reaction. There was no surprise in his voice when he spoke again. “Everything?”

“Everything.” She nodded slowly. “So please... don’t make this any more difficult than it has to be.”

Big Macintosh sighed. He slowly extended one leg and allowed Colgate to wrap a band of magic around it, linking his ankle to hers, then extending further and anchoring him to the far wall as well. As this happened he looked over his shoulder, back out the door, and stared into Locket’s eyes.

Catching this, Spike began to tug on Locket’s leg again, starting to pull her down the path. “Let’s go,” he said.

Locket couldn’t move. There was no accusation in Mac’s gaze, no questions, only calmness and understanding. Compared to the size of the lie that had been their friendship, she felt numb under the absence of weight from his stare. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Once Macintosh was secured, Colgate turned her attention back to the others. “Spike, wait,” she said. From behind herself she levitated up a thick pad of note paper, tightly bound together with string. “Take this with you. Don’t lose it.”

Mac’s eyes followed the papers as they traveled through the air. When they were halfway between the policemare and Spike, he suddenly lunged forward. The chain around him held, but he moved with enough force to tear a chunk out of the wall behind him, giving him just enough room to raise up and punch the papers out of the air. The string snapped and pages went flying, falling through the doorway in a disorganized heap.

Spike and Locket stared, their mouths open. Mac calmly backed up and stood next to Colgate again, looking at her with an unhurried, expectant expression. Her left eye twitched, and her face slowly curled into an acidic scowl, several weeks of suppressed fury coming to light at once. “I said,” she growled, sparks rising up her horn.

The rest of her sentence, if she ever finished it, was covered by a dull roar as a pulse of blue light lifted Big Macintosh off his hooves and threw him against the wall. As he tried to rise, a thick blue chain materialized around his neck, dragging him forcefully back down. More chains covered his legs, then his sides, rapidly encasing him in a glowing, slithering cocoon.

“Mac!” Locket cried, trying to rush forward only to be halted as Spike grabbed her again. Even though she knew she could easily overpower him, she couldn’t seem to find it in herself to fight against the claw on her leg. Helplessly, she looked through the doorway. Mac was staring back at her again; though his face was pained and he was gasping for breath, his eyes hadn’t lost their calmness. “I’m sorry,” she said again, though she couldn’t hear her own voice.

“It’s all right,” he answered back, though she didn’t see his lips move.

With a more insistent yank, Spike finally got the dumbstruck mare to turn around, then reached down and grabbed an armful of the scattered pages. The last Locket saw was Colgate advancing on the downed stallion, her eye steadily twitching, chain after chain surrounding her like a web.

“Miss Dash?”

Two words were all it took to bring Dash back into a world of pain. The slightest nudge against her side shot fire down her back and legs, jolting her back to consciousness more efficiently than a pail of cold water. Although, judging by the state of her mane, in the past few hours she’d seen a few of those already.

A quick hoof silenced Dash’s yelp and held her down as she tried to bolt upright. She looked around, tearing up as pain returned in abundance. She was tangled up in the branches of an apple tree, stuck in the place where she’d been thrown at the end of her fight earlier that night. Although she’d defended herself as best she could, the twin elements of surprise and unrivalled fury had made her attacker’s blows land like falling boulders. She’d had no time to get her bearings or a solid grip on one of the weapons hanging from her belt. Their tussle had only ended when Dash had crashed into one of the trees below, leaving a hole like a crater in the branches around her and pinning her in place as the grey pegasus had flown off towards the gathering storm.

With bloodshot eyes, Dash wearily looked around her. A familiar set of eyes looked back. Jazz had somehow gotten himself up into the tree with her, perching awkwardly on a thick branch. He held her down again as she forgot her position and tried to sit up, resulting in another spike of pain through her lower body. Wincing, she looked down. Her rear right leg was trapped in the fold of one of the larger broken branches. She’d tried to free herself countless times during the storm, but every movement felt like a dagger was slicing through her from the inside. Her wings were pinned down beneath her back; she was afraid to try to move them. The rain had drowned out her cries for help, and in the end she’d been forced to give in to her pain and exhaustion and had fallen asleep in a leafy, scratching embrace.

Jazz stroked her mane as memories of the night returned, softening her whimpers as pain flooded back. “Your leg’s broken,” he said bluntly, as though speaking to a foal. “You need to stay still. There might be more injuries we can’t see.” He leaned in closer. “What happened?”

Rainbow shook her head. “Forget about that,” she croaked, her throat dry. “You have to warn the others. Twilight—”

Jazz covered her mouth again. His eyes narrowed. “What. Happened?” he repeated, starting to raise his voice.

Dash’s resolve failed. “It was Derpy,” she mumbled. “She just came out of nowhere. She was trying to keep me away from Applejack.”

“I see.” Jazz retreated a little; Dash thought he looked relieved. “Was it her who took you from the town hall, as well?”

“No. I left myself. I had to warn...” She trailed off as Jazz’s scowl returned. “Look, you don’t understand! Applejack isn’t who you think she is! Twilight’s the one—”

“We know, Rainbow.”

She stopped. “You know?”

“We know.”

A translucent blue light surrounded her. There was a flash of light, and she and Jazz vanished from the tree and reappeared at ground level. She yelped as her leg was shifted out of place, only for another wave of magic to tighten around and support it. “I’ll take you to the hospital,” Jazz said, gritting his teeth through the strain of keeping her aloft. “You’ve done your part. For now, sleep.”

“No, wait,” Dash said as a horn was pressed against her forehead, but her words became slurred as magic rushed through her. Numbness crawled down her back and through her legs, and true drowsiness replaced her exhaustion from earlier. “Wait,” she continued, although she wasn’t sure that she was forming words any more. “I...”

“I need to...”

“I need to see her.”

“Wait.”

The road back to the base was longer than the one to the farm, but took less time to travel than their previous journey. Spike kept up a quick march through Ponyville’s empty streets, leaving Locket occasionally scrambling to keep up as she followed in a daze. They didn’t speak a word to one another, despite the obvious questions hanging over them, and their arrival at the park came as a relief to them both. The base’s trapdoor swung upon the moment they entered the hidden grove, and they both unhesitatingly descended.

No sooner had Locket stepped into the main chamber that Bon Bon had sprung up in front of her and covered her head with a towel, rubbing away some of the dirt and dew that was still clinging to her mane. “Goodness, dear, you look like you’ve been outside in a hurricane,” she fussed, quickly leaning forward to give her a brief hug. “Play along,” she hissed into Locket’s ear, then withdrew and made a beeline for Spike. The little dragon dropped his armful of pages on a desk, then pushed her away and marched off as the mare tried to dry his scales, leaving Locket standing and shivering on her own.

After the group of nine that had parted ways earlier that night, the main chamber looked and felt startlingly empty. Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Jazz were nowhere to be seen. Fluttershy and Derpy were dozing fitfully, snuggled together in a single chair; both appeared to have been trying to comfort the other before falling into their private, restless worlds. Locket decided not to question the latter mare’s presence. Bon Bon and Spike retreated into the kitchen, the mare still with her towel raised hopefully. At the far end of the room were a pair of ponies who made Locket’s searching gaze stop dead. The unexpected view of Luna, Princess of the Night and ruler of Equestria, would have sent Locket into an instant bow and hasty retreat for the nearest exit if not for the even stranger and more alarming sight just across from her.

L was sitting normally.

Once again disguised as an earth pony, the green unicorn had folded up her legs on one of the base’s ordinary chairs and was chatting amiably with Princess Luna. A notebook was spread open on the table between them, but no quill was in sight. L had a rare smile on her face, apparently completely absorbed in her Harpy Chords persona. Seeming to sense Locket’s stare, she turned and caught the blue mare’s eyes before she was able to turn away. “Hey, Locket!” she called, unnervingly chirpy. “Come settle something for us.”

“Quietly, please,” Luna chided at the detective’s raised voice. “Do not wake the pegasi.”

Locket started to creep forward, carefully averting her gaze. When Princess Luna finally turned to look her way, she dropped into a bow so quickly that her nose almost brushed against the floor. “M-my Princess,” she stammered out reverently, but found herself completely at a loss as to what was meant to come next.

“Rise, young one,” Luna said, waving a hoof with an air of restrained impatience. “Now is not the time for such formalities.”

L chuckled. “So yeah,” she continued as Locket finished her crawl in their direction, “since you’re the only one around who’s seen a real golem up close, we just wanted to ask — what did you think of Luna’s? How well did it match up with the real thing?”

“Um...” Locket shuffled, head still bowed. “It was...”

“Do not be afraid to answer,” Luna reassured her. “We simply... I only want to know whether the golems of today have changed.”

The dropping of the Royal We was sudden, but it did help to put Locket slightly at ease. “It was... all right,” she answered, though she still couldn’t find the courage to look Luna in the eye. “I only saw yours from a distance. It looked about the right shape. Except... maybe it was a little too big?

“Big?” Luna leaned forward, then straightened up as Locket reflexively flinched away. She hid a sigh by resettling her wings. “You mean that the golems of the Everfree now are smaller than those who once roamed these hills?”

This caused Locket to finally look up, but it was L who spoke her mind for her. “You mean that golems used to all be the size of the one you made?”

“As large and larger, if the gems were available. The enchantment for my puppet was made to mimic the appearance of one of the Earthen King’s common foot soldiers, a hundred of which guarded his walking fortress at the end of the Age of Titans. In fact, the speeches I gave this very night were styled after words the King himself spoke to my sister and I, thirty-two hundred years ago.” A faraway look came to Luna’s eyes. “And then a second time, two thousand years after that...”

A few long seconds passed in silence, broken when L softly tapped her hoof on the table. “So... you think that whoever’s behind the recent golem attacks isn’t the same pony who lived thousands of years ago?”

“It would appear not. The Earthen King sleeps still; the beasts who now walk your woods are pale shadows of the real master’s work. If we are lucky, this is merely the work of one who has uncovered his writings and is attempting to replicate them.”

“And... if we’re unlucky?” Locket asked.

There was another long pause. Luna’s eyes had begun to glaze over again. “...Princess?” Locket pressed.

Luna blinked. “Oh! I am sorry. ‘Tis one of the drawbacks to having lived a life as long as mine; once one begins to remember, it becomes difficult to stop...” Her attention started to drift again, but she quickly sighed and shook her head. “No matter. I am afraid my time here must now come to a close.”

“You’re leaving?” L asked, standing up as Luna did.

“Yes.” The princess spread her wings and stared upwards, a frown coming to her face. “There are pieces to this riddle that are slowly becoming clear to me. While we have earned one victory, if what we have learned is true, then this deadly game is only half over... and I fear that we may no longer be the only players. Before I can carry on, there is a place that I must go. I can say no more than that.”

L nodded, and Locket quickly dropped into another bow. “We’ll hold the fort until you get back,” the detective said.

“I trust that you will. Relay my blessings to L when she returns, and relay that,” Luna concluded with a grim look at the notebook on the table, “to my sister, if she can be found. Until then... adieu.”

Instead of heading for the door, the princess spread her wings and lit up her horn, wrapping herself up in a haze of shadow. A puff of smog momentarily seemed to fill the room, and by the time it vanished, so too had Luna.

L immediately fell back into her usual sitting position, her smile dropping from her face and her horn sprouting from her forehead. “A little flashy,” she muttered, levitating a bundle of papers out from beneath a nearby desk. “Something really is bothering her.”

Locket slowly raised her head. “What... was that all about?” she asked.

“A number of things, some of which are relevant to our current situation, and some of which are not.” The papers spread themselves across the table, and L began writing at a lightning-fast pace. “Portentous as Lady Luna’s words may have been, there are some things that even she remains in the dark about.”

“W-what?” Locket debated sitting down, but her legs refused to cooperate. “What are you talking about?”

“The game is over. All that remains is to decide how to break the news to her.” L reached out with her magic, and a pair of screens blinked on behind her. Locket gasped.

In identical padded rooms, both Twilight Sparkle and Applejack had been tied up. They were imprisoned in the same way that Fluttershy had been, covered in thick black bands that locked them into a sitting position. Both had been fitted with a black mask that covered their eyes. Applejack was sitting calmly, possibly asleep, while Twilight strained against her bonds, soundlessly screaming.

“I... I don’t understand,” Locket choked out once her breath had come back to her. “I thought... what happened out there?” She looked back at L, and realized with rising horror that the mint pony was wearing Twilight’s wristwatch.

“A great many things,” L answered with a sigh. “The past few hours have been... eventful. To explain it all, or even to summarize, would take almost as long, but—”

“Twilight’s the real Kira,” Spike cut in. He strode back into the room with a large tub of ice cream clutched in his arms, Bon Bon still following him with her towel. “There’s these two evil gods, Byuk and Mer, who’ve been playing a game by controlling Twilight and Applejack with magic killing notebooks called Death Notes. They’ve been killing ponies to trade deaths for clues, and whoever finds the other and burns their Death Note first wins. Applejack got captured on purpose to trick us into picking up her Death Note, letting Mer point out Twilight to us directly, leading to us capturing both Kiras at once. Derpy beat Applejack up, the other Apples have been put under house arrest until we can figure out what to do with them, Rainbow Dash is missing, and for some reason Luna isn’t allowed to know which one of us is L.” He sat down and glared at L, ripping the lid off his tub of ice cream. “Did I miss anything?”

L stared back, unable to mask a look of faint irritation. “No,” she said slowly, “that will do nicely.”

“Twilight?” Locket echoed. She took Luna’s seat, feeling numb. “But I thought...”

“Yeah,” Spike growled at her. “We all thought.”

He reached into his tub and pulled out a fistful of ice cream, only to drop it as Bon Bon caught up and wrapped her towel around his head. She rubbed furiously, getting a surprising amount of water and dirt from his scales. “Be gentle with him,” she said quietly once his ears were covered. “This is his fifth tub this evening. I think he’s taking this all rather hard.”

“I am not taking this hard!” Spike protested, wriggling out of the mare’s grasp. “I’m just...” He scowled, twisting away, and none too subtly covered one of his eyes. “Just... leave me alone, okay?”

Locket waited a few awkward seconds before speaking again. “But... how?” she asked. “Twilight was with one of us the whole time she was here, and she was locked up for half of that. How could she have been Kira as well?”

“To that,” L answered, “there is a short answer and a long answer, neither of which I think you would find fully satisfying. However, the most direct way to fill in the gaps...” She slid the black notebook across the table. “...is to read this.”

Locket stared at the six silvery letters on the notebook’s front, but could make no sense of them. She hesitated just before her hoof reached the edge; the others at the table seemed to be watching for her reaction a little too closely. Putting this aside, she carefully reached out and flipped the front page open. There was a clear divide at the start where a number of pages had been cut out, but she couldn’t tell how many. Nothing was written on the new front page, but more words, these ones written in Equestrian, had been inscribed on the inside of the cover.

“All right, you two,” Twilight said, planting her spade in the ground. “One more thing before we get started.”

Byuk and Mer glanced at each other. They’d been gathered together in a small clearing a short ways into the Everfree Forest, and neither was entirely happy to be in the other’s company. “Enough stalling,” Mer spat, shifting away from her dark counterpart. “Tell us your plan.”

“In a moment,” Twilight reassured her. She opened the bag she’d brought with her and levitated out two black notebooks, pulling them back as Mer started to move forward. “I have two Death Notes here,” she continued. “One of these was given to me by Byuk. It has a title and a complete list of rules on the inside, both written in Equestrian.” She flipped it open to demonstrate. “The other was originally owned by Geldus. It has his name on the cover, written in a language I don’t know, and no rules or title on the inside.” She looked up at the gods questioningly. “So why the difference? Who wrote these rules down?”

“I did,” Byuk answered. “In the Shinigami Realm, we have... I guess you could call them user guides for Death Notes. Since I was visiting a pony world, I found a guidebook and copied down all the rules that apply to pony realms. That’s why it’s in a language you can recognize.”

“I see,” Twilight said, a smile playing about her lips. “So you’re allowed to write on these however you want? Even if you wrote something that, say... wasn’t true? There’s no rule against it?”

This seemed like a novel idea to Byuk, as though he’d never considered the possibility before. “I guess so,” he replied, sharing Twilight’s grin.

“Though some have more dignity,” Mer muttered.

Twilight ignored this. “Mer,” she said, “with your permission, I’d like to copy some rules into Geldus’ Death Note. It would make my plan to rescue Fluttershy go much more smoothly.”

Mer turned away. “What is written may be unwritten. Do as you wish.”

“I’ll do it,” Byuk said, taking the Note from Twilight’s grip. “My handwriting’s better anyway.” He flipped the cover open and, with a twisting gesture that was slightly painful to look at, caused a bizarre, lumpy quill to appear in his claws. “Do you want the entire list? It’s getting kind of dark.”

“No, just the basic rules will do,” Twilight answered. She put the other notebook back in her bag before turning back to him with a smile. “Plus a couple new rules of my own...”

1. The pony whose name is written in the Death Note will die.

Locket looked up at L. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Surprisingly, no.” L flipped back through her pages of notes. “Although the book contains no traces of unicorn magic, it seems to match pages found hidden throughout the Apple household, and its effects appear to be consistent with Kira’s mode of killing. Of course, further tests will need to be done.”

“Seriously?” Locket held the notebook up, flipping through it. All of the other pages were blank. “You’re telling me that this little book has been the cause of all our problems?”

“Just keep reading,” Spike snapped through a mouthful of pink mush. Behind him, Bon Bon had managed to shift the dozing Fluttershy and Derpy into L’s wheeled chair and was pushing them quietly in the direction of the sleeping chambers.

Still skeptical, Locket turned back to the list of rules.

2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the pony’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, ponies sharing the same name will not be affected.
3. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the pony’s name, it will happen.
4. If the cause of death is not specified, the pony will die of a heart attack.
5. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written within the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
6. If this note is burned, torn, or otherwise made unusable, the owner and every pony who has touched the note will die.

“WHAT!?” The sixth rule caused Locket to immediately drop the book and flinch back, almost falling out of her chair. She flailed her front hooves, as though trying to get the touch of the paper off of her, before glaring angrily at Spike and L. “You could have warned me!”

“It will not be an issue,” L said nonchalantly, not even looking up. “I, for one, have no intention of committing suicide over a weapon. There is some danger in keeping it around, yes, but there are equally powerful weapons sealed all over Equestria. Once a suitable hiding place has been found, it will be locked away for a few hundred years or so, until all those of us who have touched it have passed on.”

This eased Locket’s worry somewhat, but she was still hesitant about approaching the book again. Breath held, she leaned forward and read the final two rules.

7. If a pony who has not been blessed by the God of Death attempts to use the Death Note, that pony will die.
8. Only one pony may receive the blessing of the God of Death at one time. Only when the current owner dies can a new pony be chosen to receive the blessing.

“Huh?” Locket blinked slowly as she tried to take this in. “That... that means...”

“It means there was no fourth Kira,” Spike said. “It was Twilight, all along.”

L nodded. “It is as I suspected,” she added. “One cannot simply stop being Kira. That’s impossible. She was Byuk’s champion from the beginning — scheming, infiltrating, murdering, and ultimately drawing herself closer and closer to Applejack. Fortunately, Applejack had not been idle herself, and used the Death Note’s rewards to deduce her opponent’s identity just in time. She allowed herself to fall into our trap, giving up her Death Note in the process, but at the same time exposed Twilight’s deception, allowing us to capture her as well. With both Kiras incapacitated and their Death Notes intact, no more ponies can be killed, effectively drawing the game to a stalemate.”

“That’s...” Locket sat back, feeling light-headed. She looked again at the screens behind L. Twilight hadn’t stopped struggling and sobbing during this entire conversation, mouthing a single letter over and over again. Tears welled up behind her mask and escaped in large, individual drops. “That’s...” Locket shook her head, planting her hooves firmly in front of her. “That’s ridiculous!”

Spike and L looked up sharply. “What?”

“I mean... you’re being ridiculous!” Locket pushed the Death Note away angrily. “Kira’s been piling on lie after lie for this entire game, but now she waves a magic book at you and suddenly you believe everything she says? You even locked up the only pony who’s ever liked you just because she told you to!”

“You think I did this without evidence?” L retorted. “As soon as we got back, we did a thorough search of Twilight’s belongings. Tucked inside of her books were several blank pages. Pages matching the ones found within the Death Note.”

“That’s even worse! You locked her up over some scrap paper?” Locket leaned forward and slammed the notebook shut. “What makes you think this so-called ‘Death Note’ isn’t a fake, if there’s no way to even test it? What makes you think even one part of this is the truth?”

From behind her, there was a creak.

She froze. A sudden chill seemed to crawl up her back, and she impulsively shivered. Her angry expression slowly faded as she realized that Spike and L were no longer looking at her, but past her, at something just behind her head. “For the answer to that,” L answered slowly, “there’s somepony who I think you should meet.”

With a face like glass, Locket looked over her shoulder.

Mer smiled. “Boo.”

It was several hours later when Jazz returned to the base. He brushed himself off as the iron doors swung shut behind him, then unblinkingly walked directly through Mer, making a beeline for the abacus. L was already waiting, leaning back against Minty’s base. “You’re late,” she said, not opening her eyes. She shifted a headset away from one of her ears; through it, Jazz could hear high-pitched wailing as Twilight Sparkle’s voice was played back at double speed. “Any trouble?”

“Nothing serious.” Jazz gently nudged L aside and started Minty up, briefly smiling at the machine’s crystalline purr. “Shouldn’t Bon Bon have put you to bed by now?”

“Too much to do. Besides, she’s busy with somepony else.”

Jazz glanced around the room. In the far corner, underneath a desk, Locket was huddled and shivering with a blanket wrapped around her. Judging by her wide-eyed stare, she wasn’t planning on getting any sleep tonight, or any night in the near future. Bon Bon sat beside her, gently brushing her mane. “So I see,” Jazz said dryly. “You had her touch the Note, then?”

“Yes. Are you still certain that you won’t do the same?”

“I am. I’d rather not risk a heart attack, one way or the other.”

“Fine by me.” L looked up. “Mer, you don’t mind, do you?”

The god snorted. “Do as you wish.” She drifted upwards and hovered over the abacus, closing her eyes as though asleep, though her bony ears continued to swivel.

The two ponies continued their work, L sketching some notes on a page beside her, Jazz running through some calibrations. Neither looked at the other as they continued their conversation. “Was Rainbow Dash where Derpy said she was?” L asked.

“Almost. She wasn’t far from the site of the golem. Given her general incoherency of late, it’s lucky she was even that accurate.”

“Was she alive?”

“Damaged, but not broken. I relayed her to the hospital. She confirmed that she knew about Applejack’s story before I put her under. One of the doctors medicated her further and told me she likely wouldn’t wake until the afternoon, after they’ve finished examining her. I left a bug with her, so we should be able to track her progress. One of us should retrieve her then for further questioning.”

“So they were in cahoots after all. A pity she didn’t speak up earlier.”

“Quite. How are the others faring?”

“Applejack’s been patched up. She hasn’t struggled, and fell asleep shortly after arriving. Twilight has continued to deny her involvement, and only dropped off within the hour. I’ll assess their states when they wake up, and we’ll further interrogate them then.”

“I see.” Jazz paused. He stopped his shuffling of beads and stepped back, looking down. “And... how are you faring?”

L didn’t hesitate. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? I know the two of you were... close.”

“I told you, I’m fine.” L shut off her recording and looked up. The pair locked eyes. “What was the first order that I gave you when you arrived?” she asked.

Jazz tried to hold her gaze, but had to look away first. “Don’t worry about me. That’s Bon Bon’s job,” he quoted with a sigh.

“I can shed a few tears, if it will ease your mind,” L continued. “But I prefer to save those up for time with Bon Bon. And don’t pretend you’re a stoic masterpiece yourself,” she added, turning back to her papers. “Not after you frittered half the night away fussing over your student.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Jazz grunted back, bristling a little. He began to move beads on the abacus again. “There was a long line at the hospital. Reportedly, nearly a third of Ponyville tried to evacuate after our fake threat, and a third of those have yet to make it back. There haven’t been any deaths, but there were a large number of injuries from carts and lost ponies stumbling around in the dark.”

“Is that a criticism?”

“Only an observation.”

“Such things are inevitable,” L tutted. “And it does not change my point. I instructed you to halt your search after three hours, and you’ve been gone for more than six. Even with a line, I’m sure between your wit and her status you could have found somepony reliable to leave her with. Either you were determined to search the entire night if you had to, or you stayed by her side for as long as they would let you.” She looked up again, smirking faintly. “Which was it?”

Jazz didn’t answer, though his pace with the beads increased slightly. Still grinning, L stirred and shut off her headphones. “Endearing though this may be,” she said, lifting herself up and picking up her notes, “it’s something we’ll need to put aside for now. I have a job for you.”

“I’m listening,” Jazz said flatly.

L trotted over to her desk near the active stratoscreens and began pulling more pages towards her, carefully leaving the Death Note in the middle untouched. “In a few hours, Applejack will wake,” she said. “When that happens, she will have more of her story to tell. However, she has already specified that she will only speak to L.” She looked back pointedly. “Alone.”

A few seconds passed before Jazz narrowed his eyes. “Harpy, we agreed.”

“Times have changed. I’ve already written a script for you.”

“For Sun’s sake, L, I’m an engineer, not an actor. I’m not going to impersonate you.”

“You managed to fool Ponyville’s best dragon and policemare when they first arrived, and that was without even trying. I’d say that’s qualification enough, wouldn’t you?” L returned, magically clipping some pages together. “Normally I would not ask you to do this, but I’m afraid our resources are limited. Just because our enemies are in chains does not mean that time is on our side. Before we can make any further moves we need to ensure that Applejack is on our side, and who of the two of us is she more likely to believe is the real detective?”

Grudgingly, Jazz accepted the papers and began to flip through them. “You don’t believe the game is over, then?”

“The game is never over, Jazz.” L glanced up. Mer’s eyes were still closed. “Not while even a single one of the players are still alive.”

“Good morning, Applejack.”
 
Applejack wasn’t fully aware that she’d woken up when she heard the voice. Her body was covered in floating and contradictory sensations, few of them pleasant. The dark mask that covered her head allowed no light to reach her eyes, not even a haze at the edges of her vision, but she could sense, rather than feel, bright lights being shined onto her body from every angle. Her nose ached and some of her teeth felt loose, and she could feel another dozen scrapes and bruises besides, but she still felt well-rested and not about to fall apart. But then, even if she was, the thick bands tying her uncomfortably in place would easily keep all the pieces together. She licked her dry lips and let out a small croak, indicating that, if nothing else, she’d at least heard that somepony had spoken.
 
Gently, with what Applejack recognized as the tug of magic, some of the bands around her hooves were loosened. She quickly stretched, letting out a sigh of relief at the dull burn of her muscles finally being able to move, if only by a little. Next came a light fumbling at the back of her neck, and with a tug that pulled her mane down over her face, her mask was lifted away. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of a few more strands of hair still clinging to her cheeks, before looking up at the pony in front of her.
 
On the far side of a small table, which she was almost certain hadn’t been there when she’d gone to sleep, a grey unicorn stallion smiled back at her. She almost didn’t recognize him at first — his normally sharp mane was somewhat disheveled, and he’d stripped down to only a shirt instead of a full suit — but there was a self-assured intelligence to his gaze that she hadn’t been quick to forget. Her eyes burned, and his true name blazed above his head, but she looked him in the eye and spoke the one that he’d given to her before. “Professor Jazz?”
 
“Ah, so you do remember me.” Jazz began to levitate bowls onto the table, still smiling warmly. “I was afraid you wouldn’t. The funeral was a difficult time for you, after all. I’m afraid I wouldn’t put too much stock in that particular memory, however. Twilight’s position in Canterlot was not the only, shall we say, alteration of the truth that I gave to you that day.” He gestured in front of himself. “Breakfast?”
 
Applejack looked down. A small bowl of soup had been placed in front of her, gently steaming. She was having difficulty breathing through her nose, but what little scent got through to her made her dry mouth water. “In a minute,” she croaked as her stomach protested. “Ah need to talk to L. There’s some things we’ve gotta get straight.”
 
“Ah, still putting the pieces together?” Jazz arranged a small salad in front of him and tucked a napkin into his shirt, chuckling softly. “I can’t say that I blame you. Everypony expects something different, after all. But as you can see, the cameras are off, and the door is closed. We shan’t be disturbed.” He leaned in closer. “We can speak, just you and me.”
 
Applejack looked around. True to his word, the cell’s door was still shut tight, and the cameras that she could see were all turned away, their lights out. There was only one thing missing. She turned back to the stallion in front of her and put on a grin of her own, slowly shaking her head. “You ain’t L.”
 
“Oh?” Jazz paused, a fork halfway to his salad. “Well, that leaves us in something of an uncomfortable position, I’m afraid. Is there anything I can do that might convince you that I am?”
 
“Not while sittin’ down,” she shot back. “See, Ah’m not a fancy detective like yer friend out there. Ah don’t stick mah nose where it’s not wanted, and Ah don’t worry mah head about tricks and traps if Ah don’t have to. Most days, Ah’ll just accept what’s in front of me and that’ll be that. But right now, it just so happens that Ah know a thing or two about this detective.” She coughed once, then narrowed her eyes. “Ah know enough to know that you ain’t her.”

Jazz’s smile faded slowly. He carefully put his fork down and untucked his napkin, refolding it and placing it next to his dish. He seemed about to speak when another noise filled the room, seeming to come from all directions simultaneously. “Jazz, get back here. Now,” a heavily distorted voice snapped before fizzling out.

Applejack looked around in irritation. “So we weren’t alone neither,” she said.

“Of course not,” Jazz said coldly as he stood up. “Who do you think we are?” Less gently than before, his magic wrapped around her bonds and snapped them back into place, locking her once again into a stiff sitting position. The mask wrapped back around the top half of her head, bumping once against the tip of her swollen nose, and the world went dark.

Applejack didn’t hear any hoofsteps leave the room; perhaps that was because of the padded floor, or maybe the mask was responsible for that as well. She could still smell, though, enough to know that her breakfast had been left in front of her. Her dry throat and empty stomach made their presence known and teamed up against her brain, and stubbornness was overwhelmed by thirst and hunger. She leaned forward as far as she could, but her uncovered mouth stopped just short of the meal. Straining against her bonds, her uncovered lips just barely grazed the edge of the bowl.

There was a soft ping, and then a snap as one of the bands across her withers released itself. She jolted forward as the pressure was released and all but smacked her head on the table, knocking against the bowl and splashing soup across the surface. She steadied herself and caught the bowl, managing to take a sip of the mostly-intact contents. Then there was a creak, and she heard the sound of hoofsteps walking away on stone before the door slammed shut.

Mer hovered contentedly over the abacus, her eyes closed. She liked the feel of the mechanical life form beneath her, all hard lines and sharply grinding innards, such a nice change from the pulsing and squirming meat-shapes that surrounded it. She felt much more familiarity with it than she had with any other being she’d met since coming to Equestria, even her own kin. It was precise. It was efficient. It didn’t get bogged down by attachments or emotions; not love, not fear, not this absurd “friendship” these pathetic creatures kept prattling on about. And, most importantly, it never made mistakes.

Yes, everything was going exactly to plan.

Opening her eyes a fraction of an inch, she smiled across the room towards the screen where Twilight Sparkle was displayed. She was still asleep, the pathetic thing, or so still as to make no difference. Mer bared her teeth and licked her thin lips, enjoying the little murderer’s suffering. In her head, she replayed a conversation she’d been having with herself ever since the funeral; the details had changed several times as her plans had grown and evolved, but it always started the same way.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Why?” In her mind’s eye, Mer touched down in front of Twilight, coming tauntingly close to her face. “That’s the most beautiful part, little pony. Because the punishment doesn’t need to fit the crime.”

The little pony trembled. Though she couldn’t see her eyes through that wonderful mask, she knew that they were wide and quivering with terror. “I don’t understand,” she said.

“And you never will.” She started to circle around the trapped creature, playfully dragging the flat of a claw along her side. “I thought about letting you remember,” she continued, toying with the straps on Twilight’s legs. “At first, I was going to force you to remember. I wanted you to know how much you have wronged me, to see the towers and echoes of your crimes, to hate yourself even more, if that is possible, than I hate you. But in the end, all I needed was a glimpse. That one moment of understanding, the look on your face when you realized just how badly you had failed, was worth a lifetime of retribution.” She stopped and laughed into Twilight’s face. “Because I knew that you and I both knew what was going to happen next.”

After a few seconds of shaking, the little pony managed to find her voice again. “What happens next?” she asked.

“Betrayal, Kira. A lifetime of betrayal.” She started her pacing again, this time in the opposite direction. “If friendship is what you love most, then friendship is what I will take from you. For the rest of your life, you will be caged and reviled. Every pony you’ve ever cared for will turn their back on you. Those you love will take great pleasure in hurting you, from now until the day you die. You will be hunted, hated, and destroyed in every way that a pony can be.

“And the best part? You will never know why. Without a Death Note to claim as your own, your memories will never permanently return to you. You will forever believe yourself innocent, thinking that you have been wronged. In your mind, the true Kira will still be free, while you suffer in his stead. You will never feel the pain of knowing that it was you who murdered Rarity, but every blow will fall harder, and every word cut deeper, when they fall upon you without cause.”

Without warning, she leaped forward and embraced Twilight from behind, mockingly nuzzling her mane. “And it was so easy!” she whispered, tracing her fangs against the little pony’s ear. “It took only the slightest touch to line up your friends exactly how I desired. Even your greatest detective couldn’t see through my ruse, not that there was anything to see; all I did was show her what was already there. Planting those pages in your room was hardly even necessary. You meat-ponies are so like children...” She paused, considering this, and slowly released Twilight. “Yes,” she said, more softly. “I can see why Byuk likes you so much.

“It is a shame, then, that we will never have this conversation.” She spread her wings and drifted in front of Twilight, knocking a farewell against her mask. “It saddens me to give this up after so much planning, but it will be a small price to pay to ensure that your punishment is complete.” With a flap of her wings, she lifted herself out of the room, watching Twilight Sparkle get smaller and smaller as she faded away. “For as long as it is possible for a pony to suffer, you will suffer... and you will never know why.”

With a faint yawn, Mer broke out of her daydream and glanced around the room again. Twilight was still on her screen, scared and alone, where she would stay for the rest of her days.

And yet, for the murderer of Rarity... even this is not enough.

Jazz walked back into the central chamber, dragging Mer’s attention to the other beings in the room. He was simultaneously pulling on his checkered jacket and running a comb through his mane, trotting towards the sound of muttering. “How did she know?” L repeated to herself, as she had been doing since the interview with Applejack had ended. In front of her was a bowl of cereal, which a second glance confirmed was made up entirely of marshmallow pieces. Behind her, Locket, Fluttershy and Derpy stirred spoons in identical bowls, wearing varying expressions of nausea. L looked up as Jazz approached, grinding her teeth. “How did she—” She sighed. “Jazz, go to bed. No, you’re not ‘perfectly capable’ of going on,” she interrupted as the older pony opened his mouth. “You’ve been up longer than I have and it’s not even sunrise yet. Get some sleep.”

Wordlessly, Jazz scowled. With a single, longing glance towards Minty, he shrugged his jacket back off and stomped towards the sleeping chambers.

“Um... didn’t Applejack see you when you arrested her?” Fluttershy meekly offered. “Maybe that’s how she knew who you were.”

“She saw me, yes, but nopony identified me by that name,” L muttered back. “She may have guessed at the time, but she had no reason to be so certain, not with Jazz playing the part in front of her. Mer, you’re certain you said nothing of this to her?” she asked, turning her gaze upwards.

Without moving from her spot above the abacus, Mer shrugged. It was true, how her little pony had managed to divine that detail was a mystery to her, but she didn’t consider it important. “Our game was to find Kira,” she said. “Why would I waste my time describing you?”

L held her gaze for a few seconds more, then gave up and turned back to her cereal. "Fine," she muttered. She started to take another spoonful, but only ended up tapping her spoon against the bowl. "Then this is simply one betrayal after another," she muttered. "The question now is... how much did Rainbow Dash really tell her about me? Or about any of us? Is she being controlled after all?"

At this, Fluttershy whimpered, sliding down further in her seat. L sighed and turned around. "Fluttershy," she said. "I'm afraid I've been putting this off too long. There's something we need to discuss."

Slowly, the detective started to wheel herself toward the table, then gave up and simply stood from her seat. Fluttershy shrank further into her chair at her approach, expecting magic to spring from her any second. Instead, to her surprise, L stopped and knelt down in front of her. "The rules are clearly spelled out," L said. "Only Kira has the power to wield the Death Note, and that power cannot be passed on. Twilight has always been the first Kira, and Applejack became the second after the former owner died. This means that it is impossible for you to have been Kira, either with Byuk or Mer. As such, every pain that has been inflicted upon you was done so in error. It is not within my power to take back what has been done; there is no pony alive who can do that. Until a suitable penance can be arranged, all I can offer you is my apology." L sighed, though she sounded more disappointed than repentant. "I'm sorry. I was wrong."

"I... um..." Fluttershy gulped. She looked at the others at the table; they seemed just as shocked as she was. "I... I accept your apology," she said. "You were only doing what you thought was right. I won't punish you for that."

"You are... too kind," L said flatly. Her face unreadable, she straightened up. "There is no longer any need for you to stay here. You may return to your home, and we will never bother you again. However, as the hour is still early, you are welcome to stay as long as you wish until you are rested."

"No... I'll go," Fluttershy said. She looked sympathetically at Derpy, who was staring morosely into her half-finished cereal. "Neither of us could sleep. And..."

Much as she tried to stop it, her gaze was drawn once again to the screens on the desk. Twilight Sparkle hung limply in her bonds, her breathing steady. A fresh well opened in Fluttershy's eyes, and she found herself painfully blinking back tears. "And I can't stay here," she finished. "I just can't."

L nodded. "There is... one more thing," she added, raising up her foreleg. Twilight's watch was still wrapped around her ankle; Fluttershy recoiled at the sight. "When we captured Twilight," L continued, "a piece of this watch came open. Inside was this." She tugged three times on the watch and opened the hidden compartment, then levitated out a folded piece of paper.

Locket narrowed her eyes at the scrap of leaf. "Is that a piece of the Death Note?" she asked.

"No." L unfolded the page, lifting it up and over to Fluttershy. "I first read this nearly two weeks ago, shortly after Twilight was confined. However, I believe that she would have wanted you to see it now."

Fluttershy took the page, her eyes widening. The print on it was very small — she had to wipe the remaining tears from her eyes before she was able to focus on it — but it was, unmistakably, Twilight's writing.

To whoever finds this letter,

If you're reading this, it probably means that I am dead. There are so many things I want to write, so many messages I want to give, but for now, all I can offer is the most important message of all. Whatever you think has happened to me, whatever the circumstances of my death may have been, I promise you that all was not as it seemed. There is no doubt in my mind that I was killed by Kira. That means that, if I am dead, this is not the end. I beg of you, do not let your guard down, and never give up the chase. The safety of Equestria is in your hooves now. I’m sorry.

Actually, there is one more thing that I need to write.

To Fluttershy, the love of my life,

I'm sorry that I can't be here with you right now. I really mean that. Even though we've only been dating for a short while, your love has been what's kept me going through this darkest of times. I've made some mistakes, and I've done some things that I don't expect you to forgive me for, but I want you to remember this: I love you. My only regret is that I never had the courage to say it while I was alive. No matter what lies Kira tries to weave around us, it will never stop being true. Hold on to that.

If you're reading this, it means that I can't be with you when you finish this battle. But no matter what, I know that you'll never give up, and that nothing's ever going to take away your inner strength. But I need you to be clever now, maybe cleverer than you’ve ever been, because I need you to live for both of us now. My final gift to you is that I'll always be watching over you from the heavens, guiding you, protecting you, and always believing in you.

Your marefriend,
Twilight Sparkle.

"She wrote this shortly after we captured you," L said once Fluttershy allowed the page to fall away from her. "I believe that it was a plan B in case Applejack managed to get to her first, allowing Byuk to pass on the Death Note to a new Kira without arousing our suspicions. However, it appears that even if her motives may have lain in evil, her love for you was entirely real."

Fluttershy’s lip trembled, but no more tears would come. She looked one last time at the far screen, where her marefriend was sleeping peacefully. “Oh, Twilight,” she breathed, almost silent.

“It is... for the best,” L said. She put a comforting hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder, which the pegasus was too shellshocked to resist. “You would not have been happy with her, not in the long run. This would have come between you sooner or later.” She looked around the rest of the table. “Derpy, would you care to walk Fluttershy home?

The mailmare took a few seconds to respond, almost not realizing that she’d been called upon, but then quickly nodded. “Okay.” She took a last spoonful of the sugary mush in front of her and stood up, wordlessly helping Fluttershy out of her seat. Sharing understanding looks, they turned in unison and started towards the door.

Through slitted eyes, Mer watched them go. Fluttershy’s pain was the one downside to this plan; it would break her heart to see her former friend be hurt so. Still, heartbreak seemed to be a necessary part of the life of meat, and it was folly to think, as Geldus had done, that she could protect her completely. But ponies had long lives and short memories, for meat. She’d shown no desire to touch the Note, meaning that, like Twilight, she would remain forever ignorant of who she had once been. She would recover. She would live. She would be happy. And in the end, Mer reflected, that was all that Geldus had wanted. All the pony had to do was leave.

And she did not like the way that the detective was watching her go.

All of a sudden, Fluttershy stopped. "I just... I don't believe it!" she yelled, turning back to L. "Twilight just couldn't have been Kira. She couldn't!"

A fraction of a smile appeared on the detective’s face, quickly covered up by a concerned frown. “The evidence does line up against her,” she said. “Do you have an argument against that?”

"...No," Fluttershy admitted. Derpy put a wing around her, which she shrugged off. "But it doesn’t matter! Maybe she would become a murderer, if somepony made her. Maybe she would kill evil ponies. But she would never kill Pinkie Pie and Rarity! She wouldn’t! She couldn’t!"

Locket had had enough. "She didn't."

Fluttershy froze. "What?" she gasped.

At the same time, Mer's eyes fully opened. "What?" she echoed, much more loudly.

“She didn’t. We made that up.” Locket shrank a little as the god glared down at her, but she stubbornly kept going. “Rarity killed Pinkie Pie, then killed herself. It was part of an attempt to prove that Twilight was Kira that went wrong. Maybe she was right, but Twilight didn’t have anything to do with her death. In fact, she did everything she could to save Rarity, not kill her.” She frowned. “But since you’ve been watching this whole time, shouldn’t you know that already?”

“You... you little fool!” Mer leaped from her floating position and landed heavily on the table, nearly snapping it in half and sending abandoned bowls flying. Fluttershy and Derpy yelped and tried to hide behind one another, while Locket almost fell out of her chair before Mer grabbed it. “Have you learned nothing?” she hissed, breathing glacial air into the terrified pony’s face. “Kira has the power to control fate! She controlled Rarity, forcing her to kill herself!”

L spoke up. “How, exactly?”

Mer slowly swiveled towards her, but L stayed where she was, apparently unafraid. “I’m only curious,” she continued. “What were the exact circumstances of Rarity’s death? What weapon did she use? What did she say? If you have inside knowledge of these events, then you should be able to tell us at least that.”

The god stared. She released Locket’s chair, which promptly fell over backwards, but said nothing. After a long stretch of silence, L spoke again. “I’ll forgive that. Perhaps you simply weren’t present. But tell me this, at least. You can’t have been unaware that Rarity was a false name, taken on simply for convenience. I can count on my hooves the ponies who knew who she really was, myself among them, and I can assure you, none of her friends were in that number. So if Rarity was killed by the Death Note, as you claim, then how could Twilight have written her true name when she only learned it a minute before she died?”

Mer hesitated. “Byuk,” she said, though there was a catch in her voice. “Byuk must have told her.”

“Did he?” L tilted her head to the side, keeping an impeccably straight face. “I’m not doubting you, but I was simply under the impression that that wasn’t allowed by the rules of your game. After all, if you could have simply told Applejack the name of her opponent at any time, then why would you have gone through this lengthy workaround?” The tilt increased. “And on the subject of Byuk, where is he? It’s my understanding that you’re supposed to stay close to your chosen Kiras, to watch over and guide them. Several of us have handled pages allegedly from his Death Note, so we should be able to see him. So assuming we have the right pony, why hasn’t he shown up?”

A low growl sounded. Mer ground her teeth together, starting to shift into a low, predatory stance. L smiled pleasantly. “I’d just like to get everything straight in my head,” she said. “You see, although you’ve made a point of not telling us, I’d almost started to believe that it was Rarity who’d been your Kira before Applejack. You can’t tell us the circumstances of her death, so that would appear not to be the case, but judging by your reaction, she still seems to have been somepony of importance to you. After you’ve gone through all this trouble, and after such good ponies have died for this cause, I would hate for this all this persecution of Twilight to have been because of some sort of... what’s the word...” Her eyes flashed. “Grudge.”

Mer jumped down from the table and stomped towards L, who remained motionless. “Twilight Sparkle is Kira,” she hissed. “She killed Rarity. She must have. I can prove it.”

“Can you? That would be ideal.” L beamed again. “Could you, say, lead us to her Death Note, or a page with her writing on it? I believe that that would wrap everything up nicely.”

Mer could. She knew exactly where Twilight’s Death Note had been buried, assuming that it hadn’t been moved. It would be all too easy to lead this little detective right to it, with all the answers and consequences that would follow. All she had to do was take her to the little clearing... right next to Fluttershy’s cottage.

Damn you, Kira. So this is the choice you would have me make? One pony’s freedom, or your imprisonment? She didn’t dare look in Fluttershy’s direction. Friendship or vengeance? You think that this is what will hold me back? You should have known me better, Twilight Sparkle. You should have known me better. But despite this, she didn’t answer.

L leaned forward. “Can you?” she pressed.

Mer twitched. Her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth... then stopped. With a frown, she looked past L, at the screens behind her. “What is she doing?” she asked.

Applejack was not looking well. She lurched and heaved within her bonds, looking about to be violently ill, but what could be seen of her face was deathly pale. L leaned forward and whispered into her microphone. “Applejack?”

“L?” Applejack shivered. “Did... did y’all mean for me to hear all that?”

Mer’s eyes widened. She looked towards L, who calmly flipped a switch on her microphone. “Oh, dear,” the detective said. “It seems instead of turning my microphone off, I only turned the volume up.” She smiled. “What a silly mistake to make.”

Mer roared. Flaps of skin and bone flared up around her head, and her claws fully extended as she reared up over the green pony. The lights flickered, and cold air filled the room. L only stared, unmoving.

After a pause, Mer dropped down. She reached past L and snapped the head off the microphone, then spread her wings and floated into the air. “Fine,” she grunted, her skin flaps folding back up. “Let yourselves get killed. See if I care.” She hovered back overtop of the abacus and curled up tightly, staying very still.

L looked back at Fluttershy. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” she said. “You’re still free to go.”

Fluttershy nodded. Though she’d only been able to follow half the conversation, she seemed to have gotten the gist of it. “It’s okay,” she said, suddenly much calmer. “I’m... feeling better now. Thank you for letting me stay. Goodbye.” She turned back towards the door. Derpy followed her closely, still looking shaken, and darted forward to open the trapdoor when they got close. Side by side, the two pegasi exited the base.

Bon Bon stuck her head into the room, tutted at the puddles of spilled cereal, and immediately left again to get a mop. L sat down at her desk and picked up her spoon. After a minute of silence, Locket crawled out from under the dented table. “So... wait, I’m confused,” she said, slowly approaching L. “Twilight isn’t Kira?”

“Did I say that?” L didn’t look back as she answered. “We have had this conversation a dozen times. You’ve already heard all the evidence that points to her. You saw what we found in her room. Even a god has chosen to testify against her. What more do you need?”

“Well...” Locket shifted her weight from one hoof to the next. “I guess I’m just not clear on what the plan is. If we’ve won, then why are you still working? How long are you planning on keeping these two here?”

“Until the legalities are sorted out, which could take some time. One of the difficulties with the Death Note is that it is impossible to test its veracity; forcing somepony to use it, successfully or unsuccessfully, would be murder. Until we can circumvent this and confirm or deny Mer’s story once and for all, there is little point even looking for its twin.”

“So the only thing we know for certain is that we still don’t know anything?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s... fantastic,” Locket grumbled sarcastically. She took another look at Applejack, who was dejectedly hanging her head. “What about the other Apples?” she asked. “You can’t keep them at the farm forever.”

“That will be... tricky,” L sighed. “Part of my plan involved the pages that they used to kill; as only one of them was able to write on Death Note pages without dying, they must have used a mix of killing and ordinary pages during their killing sessions. If the packet had been kept intact, then we could have studied our recorded footage to determine which of the three was using the real page. But thanks to your coltfriend’s stunt, we have no way of knowing whether the top page was a killing page, or a regular one.”

“He’s not...” Locket shuffled harder, then bristled. “You haven’t answered my question,” she said. “You can’t force them to stay at the farm forever. I don’t think you can keep Twilight and Applejack here either, not when you know they’re harmless without a Death Note. What’s really going on here?”

As before, L deflected the question. “All that’s left is to do a full interrogation of Twilight,” she said. “She may be able to provide the last answers we need.”

“Then why don’t you just...” Locket made a jabbing motion with her hoof. “Wake her up?”

“No. I need to see what she does when she wakes.”

“What? What are you expecting?” Locket stomped in frustration. “You should have everything you need to solve this case. What are you waiting for?”

L didn’t answer. Locket waited a minute before storming off, whinneying in exasperation at Bon Bon as the other mare entered with a mop and bucket. Once L was sure that Locket was gone, she reached out and traced Twilight’s face on the screen. “I need to see if she wakes up at all,” she whispered.

The sun was just starting to rise when Fluttershy and Derpy reached her cottage. Despite the early hour, little animals were already pressing their noses against the front windows, waving excitedly as their caretaker walked up the path. Fluttershy gasped and charged forward, leaving Derpy trudging along behind her. By the time the mailmare reached the front door, Fluttershy was already inside and attempting to cuddle with every one of her critters at once. “I missed all of you so much,” she sighed. “I’m never going to leave you ever again.”

The welcome wasn’t entirely warm; some of the more impatient creatures were quick to voice their displeasure at not having been fed the previous night, pointing at growling bellies and stomping tiny feet. Fluttershy immediately set to work, rushing back and forth from her pantry and filling tiny bowls and troughs. It was only after a minute of this that she noticed Derpy still standing just outside the door, staring at her front hooves. “Oh! Derpy, did you want to help out?” she called, gliding to a halt. “Little animals just love meeting new friends.”

“Uh...” Derpy kicked at the ground, hovering at the entrance uncertainly. “Can I... can I stay with you?”

“Huh?” Despite an impatient bunny jumping up and down to tap on her hoof, Fluttershy continued to stare. “Of course you can. But don’t you want to go home?”

Derpy whimpered. “I... can’t go home yet,” she said. “If I did, I couldn’t stay. And I don’t have anywhere else. Mister Brown...”

The grey mare started to tear up. Fluttershy quickly flew over to her and helped her inside. “There, there,” she said, nuzzling her comfortingly. “Colgate and I already talked to Boxy. He says he’s very sorry for what he did.”

“I know,” Derpy whispered back. “But that doesn’t make it okay.”

In fits and starts, the pair made it inside the cottage and Derpy was convinced to sit on the sofa. She was quickly surrounded by a dozen fluffy and fuzzy critters, one of whom immediately began to make a nest in her tail. “Would you like to help me make breakfast?” Fluttershy asked. “When all the critters are fed, we can get some real breakfast of our own.”

Derpy ignored her. “Fluttershy?” she said. “I did a bad thing.”

Fluttershy gulped. There was a long, pregnant pause. “I know,” she said eventually.

Another sniffle. “I didn’t mean it!” she moaned. “I didn’t want to hurt her. I just wanted to... make her feel bad... to understand...” She turned to Fluttershy and wailed. “She killed Big Muffin!”

Wordlessly, Fluttershy passed Derpy a bunny. She accepted it and snuggled with all her might, the unresisting creature taking his cue to comfortingly nuzzle her cheek. “It’s going to be okay,” Fluttershy told her.

Derpy managed to keep herself from crying in front of her new friend, but she couldn’t keep from shaking a little. “Why did they let me go?” she asked. “Why didn’t they lock me up?”

“Because you helped,” Fluttershy said. “Applejack wasn’t a bad pony, but she was being made to do bad things. Thanks to you, we were able to stop her from doing bad things. So even though you did a bad thing, it stopped somepony else from doing an even worse thing, which makes what you did a good thing.”

The mailmare’s eyes crossed as she tried to figure this out. “But I didn’t mean it,” she insisted. “I didn’t want to help. I just wanted to hurt her. Isn’t that bad?”

Fluttershy shrugged. “I don’t think what you meant to do matters,” she answered. “Only whether it made things better or worse. L does bad things all the time, and she’s a hero.”

“I guess.” Derpy frowned at the bunny in her hooves. It only wrinkled its nose back. “Couldn’t we have stopped Applejack without doing bad things?”

This gave Fluttershy pause. She sat back and thought about this, the reassuring look falling from her face a little. “I don’t know,” she eventually said. “All I know is that we did catch her by doing bad things. And isn’t doing a little bad and helping better than not being able to help at all?”

Derpy’s scowl deepened. “But if I did something good,” she argued, “then why do I feel so bad?”

Fluttershy frowned, but quickly hid it with a smile. She took the bunny back from Derpy and looked her in the eyes. “You’re a hero to me,” she told her. “And if you need to, you can stay here as long as you want until you feel better enough to go home. But no matter what happens, you’re a brave pony, and a good pony, and I don’t want you to forget that. Okay?”

Slowly, and with plenty of encouragement, Derpy smiled. “Okay.”

Morning in Ponyville. Despite the chaos that had gone on the night before, by sunrise the town had returned practically to normal. Virtually everyone had made it home in time to sleep that night, and many had risen early to catch the first news of how the Elements of Harmony had saved the day. A yawning construction crew was taking measurements of the new hole in front of the town hall, while the Mayor supervised and privately wondered whether she could spare the expense and simply leave it as a tourist attraction. Crystalvision had come back to life a few hours after midnight, so families everywhere huddled around their screens over hastily-cooked breakfasts, waiting for an explanation to come.

The relative calm and absence of chaos had been greatly aided by one thing, which had served to put most of Ponyville at ease, but was giving one pony in particular a headache.

“L?” Colgate whispered, speaking into a concealed crystal as she glanced out the window. “We have a problem.”

“What is it, Colgate?” the detective crackled back.

“Ponyville is swarming with guards.”

She hid herself behind the curtains again, cursing under her breath. She was copying what she’d once seen Derpy do, holding her crystal and small screen up to her mouth and ear; it was far from the most professional pose, but it kept what she was doing discreet. Calming her nerves, she forced herself to look out the window again.

A pair of ponies were walking away from the farm, mercifully not looking back. Even from this distance, she could see grey-plated ponies dotting Ponyville’s streets, and she’d counted at least three pairs that had taken to patrolling Sweet Apple Acres. “They’re from Lower Canterlot,” she clarified, withdrawing. “Straw Bolt’s guards. He probably raised the alarm as soon as he escaped. I’m not sure what they’re looking for, but they’ve already stopped here twice. So far I’ve been pretending nopony’s home, but if Straw Bolt himself shows up I don’t think he’ll bother with a warrant.”

“Your concern is noted,” L answered calmly. “How are your captives faring?”

“Still sleeping.” She looked back at the pair curled up on the sofa behind her. They hadn’t left her sight since Big Macintosh had arrived. “But... I’m not doing so good,” she added. “Between the incident at the golem and intimidating these two into staying put, my magic’s almost burnt out. All but one of the chains on Mac is just light now. If either of them makes a serious attempt to escape, I’m not going to be able to stop them.”

“Have they indicated any desire to escape?”

“...Well, no.” The pair were sleeping soundly. At several points in the night Apple Bloom had whimpered in her sleep, but without even waking Macintosh had pulled her close to comfort her. “But that’s not the point. I’ve practically run a magic marathon, and I haven’t slept since yesterday. I’ve only got a couple hours left in me before I collapse.”

“If you’re concerned about them escaping, you were given a set of sleeping bags for your safety.”

Colgate flared up at this. “I’m not going to black bag a little girl!” she hissed. “And right now, I think having her brother close is the only thing keeping her calm. Can you just... can you just send someone over here? Please?”

“I can do that. Stay strong, Colgate.”

“Thanks,” Colgate grumbled. “And... can you send some food, as well? For some reason there’s nothing in the kitchen.”

“That will be provided. Anything else?”

“Some answers would be nice.”

L disconnected. With an almost inaudible sigh, she returned to her work.

In Jazz’s absence, L had taken up his spot in front of the abacus in the middle of the room. Although she couldn’t move beads around with nearly the same speed that her assistant could, with a frown of concentration she was able to turn the head of the single cockroach inside the Apple household, making it follow Colgate’s return to the side of the sofa. This done, she returned to her original task of adding her notes on Twilight to Minty’s database. “Locket, could you come here, please?” she said once she’d resumed a regular rhythm.

On the far side of the room, Bon Bon was teaching Locket how to wash a floor. The blue mare winced as her name was called, only cautiously approaching. “Yeah, what is it?” she asked.

“Prepare some breakfast for our captives and guard. Lunch as well, if you can manage it. Don’t ask Bon Bon for help; I want to see what you can do on your own. I’d like you at Sweet Apple Acres within the hour.”

Locket dropped her mop. “Y-you want me to go back there?” she asked. “On my own? Are you sure... do you mean...”

L exaggeratedly rolled her eyes. “Fine. Wake up Jazz and take him with you. Colgate would be more comforted by two faces rather than one, anyway. Oh, and make sure Spike gets out of bed on your way out.”

“Um... okay.” Looking a little less afraid, Locket started to turn towards the kitchens. “Is he coming with us, too?”

“No, he won’t be in any condition to travel.” L checked Twilight’s watch. “By my calculations, by now he should have one...” She did some quick calculations on Minty, then nodded to herself. “Wicked bad tummyache.”

Derpy had fallen asleep almost as soon as she’d been put to bed. Even with a belly full of sugar, nothing could hold back her exhaustion from the night before, and she hadn’t put up any resistance as Fluttershy had tucked her up for a nap. She stayed there, curled up and blissfully unaware, as the other mare slowly crept her way downstairs and over to her refrigerator.

Shortly before Fluttershy had been released for the first time, when Colgate had been living in this house on her own, a little friend of hers named Mathilda Mouse had died. Colgate had blamed herself, thinking that she hadn’t cared for her properly without Fluttershy to guide her, but she hadn’t done anything wrong; little mice simply didn’t live very long, and Mathilda had lived for four happy years already. Not knowing how Fluttershy cared for those who passed on, Colgate had put the body into a paper bag and stored her near the top of the refrigerator. Fluttershy had said that was fine, and the subject hadn’t been brought up again.

With reverent care, Fluttershy lifted the unmarked bag from the fridge. She could feel the weight of the tiny body inside; she imagined she was lying as though asleep, a little smile still fixed on her pointed face. Carrying her friend’s remains as delicately as possible, she crept out of the house and turned away from the path, taking a direct route straight towards the Everfree Forest.

Fluttershy glanced up several times at her bedroom window as she slipped away from the house. Partly it was to make sure her tennant wasn’t watching her go, but mostly she just felt bad about leaving Derpy on her own. It was a shame; she liked Derpy — Ditzy Doo really — and they had a lot in common after the events of the last few days. Had the circumstances been different, nothing would have prised her away from the side of her new friend. But sad as it was, she didn’t have time to comfort her right now. One thing was more important.

She gulped as she came up to the border of the Everfree Forest. It wasn’t only the frightening nature of the place that gave her pause; she never liked walking this route, no matter the circumstances. She hadn’t felt comfortable bringing Colgate this way, and if caught, she hoped that Derpy would understand why she didn’t want her with her for this. This path was personal. It brought with it too many memories. Too many little friends, too many white bags that she’d carried back and forth time and time again.

But Twilight had told her to be brave. And so she pressed on, squeezing through what only appeared to be an impassably thick wall of shrubs, and emerged into the grove on the other side.

A long time ago, when she’d first moved to Ponyville, Fluttershy had buried her dead. This had been a mistake. While the animals who willingly clustered around her were kind enough to tolerate her customs, the scent of death called to the beasts of the Everfree like a beacon in a desert. No matter how far from the border nor how deep she hid their bodies, come the following sunrise the remains of her little friends would have been dug up and skeletonized, their inedible remains chewed up and scattered across her front yard. After countless nights of trauma and silent horror, she’d finally decided to cut out the middle ground. After all, ill-mannered as they were, the beasts of the Everfree were only animals too, and it wasn’t their fault that they needed meat to live. The animals she looked after never minded, and there were no more rustles and howls during the night. Everybody won.

But that wasn’t why she was here.

Eyes half closed, she retraced the steps she’d taken a hundred times before, but now with new purpose. Twilight had trusted her to be clever, and she was. It had taken a lot of thinking, but by the time she’d returned home, she’d figured out what she had to do. It had been staring at her the whole time. It was so simple.

At last, she emerged into the tiny clearing. This place hadn’t had any significance before she’d made it hers; it had only been out of the way and as good as anywhere else. The tooth-shaped stones that littered the ground had come later, appearing in greater numbers with every visit, as though the forest itself was changing to suit her needs. She used these to make little circles around her departed friends, for herself if nothing else, for they were invariably scattered when the ravenous creatures descended at sundown. But one of these had been planted firmly in the ground, a little ways from the others, at the base of a tree. At the sight of this, Fluttershy dropped Mathilda’s bag and stepped towards it, smiling.

My final gift to you

Because in her entire life, there had only ever been five ponies who knew about the existence of this place.

is that I'll always be watching over you from the heavens

Fluttershy finished the thought aloud as she knelt down, reading the inscription that had been painstakingly, magically carved into the stone. “Like an...”

Angel.

For a few seconds she only stared, scarcely able to breathe. All that mattered, everything she’d been waiting for, was right here. It started to cross her mind that she hadn’t thought to bring a shovel. She didn’t care. The next thing she knew, she was scrambling forwards, knocking the stone aside and tearing at the dirt with her hooves.

Of course Twilight hadn’t killed Rarity. She’d been foolish to believe that even for a second. It was unthinkable for a friend like her to do anything so horrid... and even more so for a defender of justice.

Slowly, resisting like living flesh, the ground began to give way. She began to pant as the earth opened up beneath her.

And if there was one thing their stunt had proved last night, it was that Equestria didn’t have any other choice. The Elements of Harmony were no good to anypony, not now that there were only four of them. And that guard who had attacked, the one who was supposedly one of the strongest Canterlot had ever seen? Luna had crushed him in a second. In a second.

Peering into the old wound, the soil beneath was fresher, more obviously disturbed. She frantically threw hooffuls of dirt aside, her swishing tail scattering stones behind her.

And L? That rude, unfriendly pony who hadn’t even cared that she’d been unfairly locked away? That was who Equestria was supposed to turn to in their time of need? She didn’t think so.

Without warning, her hoof struck something hard. Fluttershy froze, daring to imagine that she’d only hit a root or a stone, before reaching down and feeling for the edges of her prize. With shaking legs, she brushed the last of the dirt off her find and lifted up a clear plastic bag. Inside of the bag were two books. The first was massive and heavy, taking up almost all of the space inside. The other was thin and black, almost identical to one she’d seen before, save for the absence of an illegible name on the front.

She moved without thinking. In a single, clumsy motion, she reached inside and pulled the notebook from the bag.

And the world changed.

All sound faded. All light dimmed. An unearthly coldness gripped her. Before Fluttershy could begin to process a single one, a hundred memories leaped at her from all sides.

She couldn’t breathe. Impossible thoughts were strangling her. All traces of her smile collapsed. “No,” she begged, as loudly as she dared.

Monsters leered at her. A hoof swung towards her face. Sweetie Belle fell to the ground, over and over again.

Not like this. Not like—

Time released its hold. As consciousness rushed towards her with the speed of a train, she clenched her eyes shut as hard as she could and screamed.

When she opened her eyes again, she was on her back. The ambient light had returned to normal, only growing brighter. Stones were digging into her, but she didn’t mind. For some reason tears had come to her eyes, but a smile was on her face. She snuggled the Death Note close to her chest and sighed, contented. “I’m so happy.”

Peaceful as her loving recollection was, however, it was almost immediately broken by a yell. “Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy leaped to her hooves and flattened herself against the ground. She heard the panicked cry again, unmistakably Derpy, and hoofsteps coming towards her. Through the thick foliage, she could see a flash of grey running towards the forest. “Fluttershy!” Derpy called a third time, desperately searching for her friend. “Are you okay?”

Fluttershy trembled. Why did she have to wake up now? she wondered, terrified. Was I too loud? I can’t let her find me. Not now. What do I do? What do I do?

Her eyes fell to the black notebook in front of her, then to the bag, left fallen beside the hole she’d dug.

Tucked neatly into the bottom was a pencil.