"You know you're going to have to come out of there."
It had been an extremely long morning, and her attitude wasn't making anything even the tinest bit easier. He needed a coffee, an aspirin, and a nap just to look at her. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get those needs.
After she got an eyeful of the hat, she had opened her wings faster than anypony could blink and had flown from her place on the podium, taken the hat from the guard's magic, and had locked herself away in the nearest bathroom. It had taken forty five minutes total to find where she was, and it was taking even longer than that to get her out of said bathroom. He had been standing there, along with five other crystal guards, for a grand total of an hour and a half, coaxing, yelling, threatening, and trying every way he knew to get her out, and yet she still refused to budge or even consider opening the door.
He had even gone to the princesses and asked them to come and speak with her. They made a fuss as well, and the sun princess had threatened to destroy the door, but she was too clever; using her elusive and extremely powerful magic to make the door and every window invincible. All that was left to do now was to wait for her to decide to come out. Which was probably going to take days, at the current rate. He didn't think she cared, either.
The assembly came down with fire after she left the platform. The Empire's citizens went into an uproar. Some began to sob uncontrollably, others yelled, and others just stood there, waiting for instruction with perplexed looks on their faces. He had never laid eyes upon the hat before, but from the way she began to sob on the podium and the way she had distanced herself from everypony else made one thing clear to him: she knew the hat's owner. And from her reaction, the hat's owner, he supposed, had passed long ago. One of her friends, he guessed. But how did the hat find it's way here?
Suppose U was intelligent enough to place this particular bogey into the crowd as proof that he/she was a notorious graverobber, but this fact was highly unlikely. Even if U was so, why take the hat in the first place? Perhaps it was the most recognizeable object to her? Or perhaps this hat's owner had died very recently, the most recent of all the deaths?
He pushed those thoughts from his mind. Now wasn't the time to make accusations. He didn't know why or how, but the hat found its way here.......and now it was tearing apart the youngest princess. Almost to the point of no return. He sighed heavily, and lay himself up against the grand bathroom's door and released another heavy sigh into the ornate wood.
"Twilight. Please come out of there. Haven't you been in there long enough?" he asked carefully, letting the words roll off his tongue.
"No. I'm too close to an answer, Flash!" was the reply.
"Please, your majesty. I beg you. What is it that you have discovered?"
"This hat belonged to Applejack. I'd know her hat anywhere. But.....this doesn't make any sense. How would Applejack's hat find it's way to the Crystal Empire? I buried her hat with her..........and unless U is a grave digger, I don't know any possible solution." she said on her end. He almost blanched. Her thought patterns were extremely similar to his, perhaps he could assist her in her investigation............
"Unless.........." she interrupted his train of thought.
"What do you think? That Applejack is alive?" he asked her, his voice raising. He fought hysteria back down his throat.
"No. She's not alive. I watched her die, Flash. She's in her grave......in Ponyville. Just like they all are." came the response, her voice quieting and he could detect notes of emotion even through the door.
"Twilight, I know you're upset about this. I think this whole thing has hit us on a personal level, but.....you have to come out of the bathroom. We aren't going to solve your problem with you sitting your life away." he said, trying to be reassuring. There was silence on the princess's end.
"You're right." she sighed finally, and he allowed the familiar and long awaited sound of a lock clicking unlocked to fill his ears. And then, there she was again. She looked in disarray, as she often did these days, with her mane a wreck and bags attatched, almost permanently, to the rims of her eyes. Levitating haphazardly between them was the source of her behavior; the hat. It was just as he had seen it before; worn, leather, but loved to the fullest.
"What do you think?" she asked, softly, her deep violet eyes searching his sky blue ones.
"Worn, but loved." he sighed heavily.
"I don't understand, Twilight. How is your deceased friend's hat going to help us find U?"
"Simple. U was in that crowd and is likely still in the Empire. He/she always told me that when I abdicated, he/she would come out of the crowd and accept the throne. U's here, Flash."
"Be that as it may, I thought you said that U followed you here. To keep killing the ponies you questioned?"
"Well yes. I've always assumed that. But now my suspicions are correct. We can trap U in the Empire and find him/her faster than ever! Don't you see? By cutting off means of transportation, we can catch him/her!"
"But....what if he/she is a pegasus? Or has already left the Empire?"
"It's only been a few hours! They couldn't possibly have left, they're waiting for me to truly abdicate!"
"Yes...........but......"
"No more contradictions, Flash. I can do this. I'm going to find U, just as I promised Applejack. I can't stop the investigation now, I'm so close! U won't kill the princesses or anypony else, not while they're here in the most protected part of this Empire."
He considered this. She was correct for the most part, but there was one detail that she had missed, one that would surely, if true, could cost her more lives.
"Your majesty.......what if U......is inside the Palace?"
"They aren't. They can't be. If they were inside the Palace they would have killed the princesses by now, or even a few maids, or have sent me a note asking why I haven't abdicated by now."
"They could be hiding out, waiting for the chance to strike."
She shook her head.
"It's alright, Flash. I know you're worried, but now that I've found this I think I may have the answer."
The violet eyes found his once more, and one look in her face and he had all the answer he would ever need. As a royal guard, he would stay loyal to his princess until the very end.
"I need you to do something for me, Flash."
"What is it, your majesty?"
"Send for the royal guard second in command, under my brother."
"My boss, your Highness? What would you-"
"Yes, your current boss. Also, send word to the Ponyville Police Station. I want the reports on the investigations of my friend's deaths." she interrupted. He opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it. He bowed, and gave her a nod.
"Consider it done."
"Incompetence. I'm surrounded by incompetence."
A cloaked and unseen figure paced across the quiet and bone chilling floor of the shack and glowered at the pony before it.
"Please......listen to me......I fully intended to do what you asked-"
"And that is exactly why you have displeased me!" the figure interrupted, so enraged that it could spit.
"But......."
"I tire of your excuses and countless acts of incompetence. Why did I ever agree to listen to one word out of your filthy muzzle?"
"Hear me out, I-"
"No. I'm sick of hearing you out, listening to you beg me for second chances. I ask you to do one simple thing and even that you cannot do correctly."
"Give me another chance!"
"You're out of chances. I am in no longer need of your services. You have made You-Know-Who very angry, and me as well."
"I.......have?" the shivering pony shrank down even more at the pony that the figure had named. It was one thing to upset the figure, but it was surely another for him to anger.............no.......he couldn't have possibly.......
"Yes, you have, you dirt-eating street worm. I have your mess to clean up, and your fire from U to put out."
"What can I do to redeem myself?" asked the pony, crumbling before the figure's very eyes, on the verge of crying his eyes out.
"Get out of my sight. And as quickly as physically possible."
"You're...........letting me go?" Hope dawned on his face.
"I never said that, now did I? I asked you to get your raggedy flank out of here. You will receive no compensation, as your work was highly unsatisfactory. That being said, I do not wish to repeat myself. MOVE."
The pony scrambled to his hooves, hastily wiping tears out of his eyes and throwing declarations of thanks to the figure. He opened the door of the shack, allowing a blast of cold to infect the entire shack, and the figure wiped snow out of it's eyes as the pony made his retreat. Silence resumed in the shack, and hidden figures began to emerge from the shadows, turning to face the figure. Henchmen of They-Knew-Who.
"What do you wish us to do, Master?" they inquired, in raspy voices. It only took a few moments for the figure to send them on their way, with a single statement from the figure's mouth.
"Kill him."
"I have done what you instructed, your majesty."
After a dozen phone calls, three ponies yelling straight into his eardrums, about two miserable hours, and ordering himself hoarse, he had accomplished what his princess had instructed of him. It had not in any way shape or form simple, either. Even as the events that had occurred in the past hour slid back and forth deep in his conscious, his head still found reason to throb.
Firstly, a call to the Ponyville Police Station was made. He spent a grueling thirty minutes attempting to persuade the receptionist that he was, in fact, calling from the Crystal Empire, and that his call was important enough to be transferred to the chief. When he at last got his call transferred, but the chief was on his coffee break and couldn't be disturbed. He was set on hold for ten minutes, when finally the chief answered. When told of the predicament, it took an extra ten minutes to convince the chief that this wasn't a prank or a fake call. When that was sorted out, the records were asked for in as much kindness as he could possibly muster, though at the moment he felt anything but kind.
The chief not-so-kindly informed him that he would have to be transferred to the head of records keeper, and did so without him even asking twice. When he was put through, it was revealed that the record keeper was also out, but for an early lunch. By this time he was extremely close to throwing somepony through a plate glass window as hard as he could, but he figured that now may not be the best time. Instead, he was put on hold for the second time, until at last the records keeper got on the line with a lazy greeting.
When the records were requested, the records keeper lazily inquired if the chief had sent him, which in fact, he had already had that conversation with the chief. It another precarious ten minutes to locate the records another ten to verify that these were the correct ones and that he in fact was calling for his princess, the youngest alicorn. The records keeper moved extremely slow, but at last, the records were arranged to be sent by the fastest mode of transportation avaliable, and were due to arrive in an hour.
Moments ago, the sweaty but package clad deliverypony had arrived just outside of the Crystal Palace. There was no conversation between them as he wordlessly nodded a thanks and took out a stamp to sign for the records. After which, the deliverypony hurried off, taking the clipboard, and leaving him with hasty instructions that the pony would return for the records when he was called at a specific number, which was left in his hoof.
All the while he rushed around making numerous calls, she was hard at work in questioning the next suspect, which happened to be his boss. He was thankful that he wasn't around to experience his boss's questioning; fear wasn't something that could be forced into his superior.
But here he was, after his grueling task, standing outside of her door, with the records intact, waiting for her invitation to come in. He wouldn't be allowed a second of break until she was satisfied, no matter how much his hooves threatened to go to jelly. Her wish was his command.
There was rustling from the other side of her suite door. A sense of deja vu clouded his senses, as he had just been in front of a door with her on the other side almost three hours previously. Only this time, he was ten times as agitated, and she was going to let him in at any moment.
Then, as if on cue, the suite door swung open, with her usual tangled mess of self standing before him. Without so much as a thank you or even a simple hello, she snatched the package he held out of his hooves and disappeared into her suite, this time leaving the door ajar. She bounded over the plush carpet and onto her bed, where she began ripping the package open like a small filly opening a present on Hearth's Warming Eve. He went inside the suite, and stationed his exhausted self at the bedside, watching her.
The package's paper went everywhere, and though he figured it wasn't the most efficient tactic, it did prove to be effective. The records were printed especially neatly on clean white parchment, with minuscule writing marching across. At the top, the records stated the day of which they were made, the incident, the name of the chief of police in Ponyville, and the victim. They were placed in alphabetical order, from what he could see, and he watched as she devoured them each hungrily, like she was eating chocolate cake instead of reading police records.
As much as the sight of her reading the records almost obsessively should have scared him, he couldn't help but feel like she deserved to read the records and to attempt to get somewhere in her investigation. He supposed that if something of this nature ever occurred to him, then he would be acting exactly the same way. Meanwhile, she had yet to say anything to him, much less thank him, but she had now successfully skimmed all of seven records, and was now pouring over one in particular, leaving the rest in a pile off to the side. Without uttering a sound, he eased one of the records off the pile and peered at it. She glanced at him, but didn't make any contradiction. He skimmed past the day, and the chief of police's typed name, and lead his eyes straight down to the victim's name.
NAME OF VICTIM: Dash, Rainbow
REPORT: Victim found deceased at site of Ponyville Town Hall at 10:05 a.m. on 16 May. Address 294 Main Street, Ponyville, Equestria. (1)Fallen and damaged oak beam found beside victim, along with letter delivered to Princess Twilight Sparkle at 10:30 a.m. on 16 May.
MEDICAL REPORT: Minor outer damage including a scratch on L. cheek, scuffed hooves, matted coat, but severe internal bleeding around wing/lung/and heart area. Both wings broken, damage to r. bone on L. wing.
WITNESSES:
It went on to list several neatly printed witnesses, none of which actually saw the beam fall down upon the pegasus, all except for one, who was clearly not emotionally stable enough to comment on the report. He sighed, placed the record back into her neat pile and took another.
NAME OF VICTIM: Pie, Pinkamina (Pinkie) Diane
REPORT: Victim found in Sugarcube Corner, 231 Main Street, Ponyville, Equestria at 2:30 p.m. on 31 May. Found on floor, with no serious physical outer damage inflicted. Search conducted at 3:45 p.m. on 31 May. Identified herb: oleander, found under victim's bed at 4:10 p.m. Sample sent to lab. Letter found. Delivered to Princess Twilight Sparkle at 4:45 p.m.
MEDICAL REPORT: Very little outer damage, scuffed hooves, matted coat, scratch on R. cheek. Traces of oleander found on victim's saliva, and in victim's bloodstream.
WITNESSES:
From there, the report listed the witnesses, just as before. At first inspection, the deaths seemed pretty cut and dry, in his opinion. Deaths that could very well be explained outside of murders. He was sure, though, if she pondered each enough, she would find something that he hadn't caught. This would be of little surprise to him; surely her intelligence matched, if not exceded, his own.
As his eyes fell upon her figure once more, he almost let a laugh escape. She appeared almost comical, with her back hunched over and her eyes devouring the records as if they were her favorite foods. He was glad that she was doing something other than moping around. It made his job all the more easy. At least, for now.
All at once, the violet eyes stopped skimming as fast as they could. They were stopped on a single sentence.
"Your majesty?" he inquired. There was no acknowledgement.
"What are you........?" his voice trailed off. Silence rang out through the room, chilling him.
"Flash........" she spoke at last, her eyes filling with something that he himself had not seen in the longest time.
"I...........I........."
"You what?" he asked, softly, studying her. She turned around as quick as a whip and bore her eyes into his.
"I found something."