//------------------------------//
// Memories 
// Story: The Last Alicorn 
// by Cerulean Swirl 
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	She could scarcely remember how they all passed, but the memories were there, clearer than she could ever remember them. The purple mare was in her castle, in it's library, the only place she truly found peace in these days. It was about mid-morning, with the sun cheerfully shining into the grand library. 
Her memories were laid out on her library table for her to inspect and pick apart. All were there, and each resided in her renovated happy place: her mind. It was the only source of happiness now. 
Each death was not an accident. She knew it then, and she knew it now. Even though she knew at first, each was widely recognized as so by the public.
The first death had left her speechless. It was a drowning, in which a certain white unicorn was found in her bathtub, soaking wet, with all signs of life gone from her eyes. Though their princess commanded it, the police didn't even open a case. The head officer suggested that the unicorn could have fallen asleep in the bath, or was sick earlier in the week and could have died then. 
The only compromise the alicorn could get was that an autopsy would be performed as soon as possible. In the meantime, the lavender princess was left to grieve in peace, with the remaining Elements. The evidence and body were sent away, but the police didn't hear anything back. The only thing that returned was the body of the white unicorn. In a gray silk bag. 
The second was more intriguing. A sky blue pegasus mare had been flying home at dark after seeing her friends and helping her princess friend grieve, when a beam came off town hall's structure suddenly, and fell on the rainbow maned mare before she had a chance to react. By the time she was found the next morning, she had bled internally and externally a great amount, and had died alone under town hall, with the beam carelessly strewn and now lay close beside the body.
It was then that the lavender mare could not and would not believe that it was an accident. So many questions had she thrown at the police, hoping desperately that they could answer them. Why hadn't anypony heard the beam come down on her pegasus friend? The princess was sure that town hall was built more satisfactory than that. She had also begun to suspect(though lightly) that the sky blue mare had been murdered, along with the white unicorn. But by who, she hadn't the slightest clue. One part of her wanted desparately to believe that the deaths were accidents....but another part of her thought otherwise.
The police dismissed her questions, knowing nothing, but they awarded their princess two victories: one which was to hire building inspectors to come and look at town hall, the other was to suspend the case for further questioning. The lavender alicorn was still furious at this, and for days the three remaining Elements and a certain dragon could not get her out of her castle bedroom. Those days dragged longer than three hundred years, and when they were finally able to pry open the door, they found her laying on her bed, staring deep into space. 
Then the third death came to strike Ponyville. It's resident party pony had been found dead in her quarters at Sugarcube Corner, and when the investigation was made, one police officer found the trace of some sort of plant just under the pink earth pony's bed. The trace was sent to a lab, and when the test results returned, the plant was identified as oleander. 
The lavender alicorn now had a stronger belief on what her other side thought on the whole ordeal. Unknown hints of rage joined the ever stream of grief. She demanded the police keep all three cases open, just in case any possible shred of information came up. They agreed, but also made arrangements for their funerals and burials, which the lavender princess reluctantly agreed to. But not after spending an extra four days in her bedroom. With the door tightly locked. 
The chief of police argued frequently with his princess, though he was often shaky about doing so, saying that maybe the white unicorn's and the pink earth pony's deaths were in fact accidents. He agreed that the building incident was suspect, but he also classified it in the accident nature. He insisted that maybe the white unicorn died of sleep, old age, or shock, and that the pink pony couldn't take the grief that the deaths of her other friends before her had brought on. The cyan pegasus was a terrible victim of improper building, and he promised the royal that someone in that department would be fired right away. 
This arguing only made the princess more angry and more questionable, and with three remaining friends, she was desparate to find answers.
And then, as if on cue, the mare got one. She had been returning from her most recent argument with the police, when she saw it. It was written crudely on a scrap of parchment that had a putrid perfume scenting it. It was delievered shortly after she returned home from the police station. 
A beloved owl's wing pointed to the crack under the door, indicating the letter's sliding entrance. It had a crusty wax seal, as if it had attempted to look presentable, and naturally no return address. The princess had it open so fast that the envelope had barely come out of the opening in one piece.



A beautiful princess sits on a throne
Among all she finds joy in to own
However this joy will change it's tone
When the princess's joy is overgrown
I remain to you, Unknown
And unless my demands are sewn 
Those dear to you will be overthrown
Including you.
Give up your throne to me, and I will spare lives. 
-U



The lavender mare visited the police station for the second time that day, sending all officers in an uproar. 
Clearly their princess was a basket case, but when she showed them the letter they understood. 
After a half hour of coaxing and calming, they were finally able to put the royal in a comfy chair with a fluffy pillow and a cup of coffee. The head officer soothed her by saying that it was nothing; a simple prank played on her by the local schoolfillies. She pressed it, and they allowed her to demand that they put the letter away in evidence and to open a case, just so she would leave the station. She was to bring all other letters of this nature to the station immediately. This action seemed to work, at least for the time being. 
She waited. She had memorized the letter, and spent many nights and days pondering its whereabouts, with the remaining Elements and the dragon to assist her. Just when she needed the letters to come, they did not.
She had no leads, either. The only thing she had accomplished so far was heavily questioning the remaining villains who now held places in Equestria. Discord had long since passed away, and Queen Chrysalis was in prison. 
King Sombra was somewhere in the Arctic, enjoying his solitude and learning to be good, and Sunset Shimmer was being taught friendship back in the alternate world. The alicorn did not get a chance to talk with Sunset, and the villains she had spoken to knew nothing. Tirek, of course, was back in prison, and though she had yet to visit him, she knew he was heavily guarded and too weak to make another appearance. 
During these dry spell days, she stayed mostly alone or in the company of the remaining friends, letting them soothe and calm her as best as they could. Their attempts were futile, and they knew it, for the alicorn mare was not the only one in disarray. Nopony was taking the situation lightly. 
The lavender alicorn had even taken the precaution of questioning Zecora, the old zebra who had recently taken residence in Ponyville Retirement Home, trying to keep herself busy and her mind off the obvious. Although the princess found it doubtful that the zebra would send such a letter, but she saw no harm in questioning. As expected, Zecora was innocent, and the mare was back to square one.
She had begun the process of accepting her beloved friend's deaths when another death and another crusty letter came to pass. A certain butter yellow pegasus was found at the edge of the Everfree forest, with a delicate white hankerchief and a smelly envelope just nearby. The hankerchief was sent to the same lab used for the pink pony's investigation, and it returned, it was found to be filled with a mysterious substance. One only recognizable as ether. The letter was examined, and sent to the lavender mare's castle.



Such a delicate life this one lead!
I do hope everything is alright in your head. 
But there's nothing more to be said,
Now that another has come up dead. 
I ask again, before more bloodshed,
Let this be the dawn of your dread.
Give up your throne to me. Hold a public assembly in front of your castle and invite your dear princesses. Then make the announcement, and say nothing of anything I have told you. I will come out of the audience and you will tell the audience and the princesses how you wish to give your crown to me. 
If you do not hold the assembly, my death will continue to spread. Tick tock. You're running out of friends. 
-U 



With the new evidence, the police finally began an official investigation, though not every officer was assigned to the case as their royal would have liked. The lavender mare was beyond a mess, as were all the others, and the police personally asked therapists from all over Ponyville to take a look at her and her friends. 
With only two remaining friends, the lavender princess insisted that the orange farmer come and stay with her in her castle, away from harm. The purple dragon was moved to the room closest to her, and both chambers were to be heavily guarded at every moment of the day. The farmer and the dragon were the only ones who could comfort her now, to save her from her blooming insanity, and from the mysterious U.  
So many unanswerable questions swirled in her mind, keeping her awake at night, along with her irreplaceable grief. Though heavy bags stood at attention under her eyes, no sleep came to her. The ever nagging rage kept her on her hooves every day, and she refused to believe that she was out of options.
Just when she couldn't be torn apart a second longer, another struck the town, along with it's deadly signature. A certain purple dragon, along with three of the princess's guards were walking by the edge of the Everfree when they were viciously attacked by something. An old herb farmer found all four mangled bodies, and had seen the bite marks and the blood. The letter now had blood tattoos when it was finally given to her highness. 



What a waste to kill a perfectly good drake.
I hope that now you will choose to end your self inflicted heartache.
For if not more deaths will undertake,
As I said, only you can stop this outbreak.
I still have not yet heard you call a public assembly, but I am waiting patiently until you do. I've seen you at the police station, and I know how badly you are being shaken up. Do as I instructed, or I shall take the one remaining. If you still do not comply, more deaths will occur, this I promise you.     -U



The police were becoming quite used to her visits by now, and this visit didn't shake them up as much. A full blown murder investigation was called, and every avaliable officer was set on the case. Officers were to be stationed by the princess and the remaining Element at all times, and houses were being randomly searched at points in the day. The train station was guarded, and any suspicious beings were to be taken into custody immediately. 
Numerous suspects were brought in and questioned, but none of them turned out to be correct. Their royal was called down to the station some of the time, but mostly, she was left at peace. 
This was no longer the princess being paranoid. This was a real case, and the head officer no longer believed the deaths to be mere accidents. In fact, when the royal was around, the word 'accident' was not to be mentioned. The mare's condition continued to worsen, with bloodshot eyes, a train wreck mane, and increasing bags finding places under her violet eyes. 
And now the couch dweller was dead. All because she couldn't bring herself to give up her royalty. One side of her screamed at her conscious for not being able to give up her crown, while another cowered at the thought of just who she would be giving her magic and power to. 
The remaining Element was shot by an arrow, right in the stomach, in broad daylight. In the square. With at least five witnesses. It's shooter was not found, even after an extremely extensive search. The police could only locate one thing: a bow, left behind in an alley close to where the body was found. A letter was attached to the arrow. As the farmer died, she was brought back to the barn so that the words could be exchanged. When the bow was inspected for hoofprints, none were found. 
And now, as she sat in her library remembering, her decision was clear and indefinite. She stared at the clean piece of parchment in front of her, and the quill levitating inches above it. A letter to the princesses. Saying to come at once. They knew of her predicament as well, and had taken the necessary precautions.
There were no words to describe her fear. It had joined the rage and grief as she sat up at night. It was the knocking of an innocent branch on her window, and the howling wind that sang across the castle. It wasn't the deaths or the abdicating or the heavy guards that scared her the most. It was U.
The very thought of him watching her made her insides chill straight to the marrow. She rarely slept anymore without five guards in the room with her and her horn alight with a spell ready to stun. Grief clouded and dulled her once loving heart, and it filled her entire body. The void grew, and the heart shrank. She could feel its weight on her head everywhere she went, and it never left.
She stared at the most recent letter, reading its words over and over again until she got it tattooed on her mind. This one had yet to be given to the police, even though it had been sent over a week and a half after the couch dweller's death. She was so heavily guarded now that it ceased to matter. 



There are no more, and this is the end
And yet your mind has yet to bend
My killing spree has yet to extend
Unless you do as I ask this very weekend. 
Just as I have so tirelessly instructed you to. I will come out of the audience and you will not breathe a word to anypony about our arrangement. I know guards will be watching for me, but one word from you and they will not harm me.
Have you noticed how lovely the princesses are lately? I certainly hope nothing bad happens to them. 
-U



There was no other way for her now. U had given her no choice. She dipped the levitating quill in the inkwell and lowered it towards the parchment, ready to write, the cinder block of grief weighing her forehead down.
As quick as a gunshot she was taken back into the old barn, and she was looking into the couch dweller's grass green eyes, and with the carrot orange hooves grasping her lavender ones. The plea reverberated through her mind, and it's place there ate away parts of her withered mind. The plea was so loud that it echoed through the very room and across every shelf, book, and speck of dust. 
"Find who did this to me....and....and to them....please, Twilight." 
The quill was slammed straight through the parchment so violently that a bleeding black hole found its way inside the untarnished abyss. Lavender hooves shook violently as more tears fought their way to the princess's eyelids.
"NO." 
She knew this rage. She had felt it bubble inside her every time she got a letter. It was the only thing that had kept her constant company throughout the stream of deaths. She had to find this pony. She WOULD find this pony. Whoever he or she may be, the lavender mare would not rest until she saw him or her dead. For good. 
It would be done slowly. Painfully. The mare would take all the emotion gathering inside her and would make this murderer feel her wrath. They would pay a thousand times over for what they have done. She swore on her life, then and there. They would pay for what they took from her. 
Muzzle tensed, eyebrows tight, and hooves clenched so tightly together that miniscule drops of blood were beginning to surface, the alicorn lowered the quill in a clean corner of the parchment, away from the hole. Taking a large and shaky sigh, the quill began it's journey across the parchment, her slow and loopy scroll decorating the parchment. She was sending for each of them, and she would arrange for an Equestria-wide search. They, of all ponies, would understand completely. 



Dear Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence,
I'm sure you've all heard of the predicament I am in currently. I am writing to all of you to request that



WHAM
The door was thrown open so violently that it came back to the wall, richocheted off it, and came bouncing back before abruptly stopping. Tensed even more, the princess turned and readied herself to give whoever was disturbing her a death glare. It was, of course, none of them. 
They're no more, her mind reminded her dutifully. 
It was simply one of Twilight's royal guard, armor and sweat clad, as always. However, he was sweatier than usual, and he seemed to be panting, as if he had been galloping for a long while before reaching his princess.
"What is it?" she called, trying not to bark. She knew that her guards knew of her daily escapades to the police station, and they probably thought that she hadn't been right in the head since the incidents.
"Your......majesty.......I came as fast.........as I.....possibly.....could......" he panted, and he calmed himself, leaving Twilight in suspense while he rested.
"Well?" she asked, trying desparately to be gentle in some way, though the rage was boiling in her insides.
"Your majesty......I bring news....very urgent!" he panted still, though his breath calmed. She tossed him an expectant look, which he responded with a look that showed his apologies.
"There's.....well....you see, your highness...."
"Spit it out." she said, sighing in an attempt to calm herself. 
Finally, he stood properly, looked her straight in the face, and resumed the proper guard demeanor. He was still panting softly, but he had her attention now. Worry shot through her and found its way among all the rage as she waited. Then, he spoke.
"It's Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, your majesty. There's been an accident."