Day 4
Serial Killer…
Someone who kills three or more ponies over a long period of time, well that criteria certainly doesn’t apply to the murderer we’re dealing with, but that hasn’t stopped everyone referring to them as such. I’ve heard them muttering to one another as I walk the streets, seen them huddled alongside those closest to them, viewing anypony else as suspicious. They say we’re being hunted by a serial killer, a pony who won’t rest until they’ve picked us all off one by one, which has everypony asking the same question, who will be next?
True the killer has claimed three victims, the third found this morning, another one of Fluttershy’s co-workers, Doctor Horse, but they were killed in only three days, considerably less than one month. They might have to classify this pony as a brand new type of killer, like a serial killer but much more efficient. So in order to answer the question ‘who will be next?’, one would first have to determine why the previous were chosen, find the link…
I might sound a little strange today, but I’ve had a lot of time to myself, Fluttershy has become quite withdrawn, she hasn’t visited me at all today since she left this morning. I would have been worried but I saw her at today’s town meeting, I know she’s alive and that’s good, but afterwards she went home before I could get a chance to talk to her and make sure she was alright. What am I saying, assuming she was friends with Doctor Horse that means three of her friends are dead, she’s obviously is not alright.
Anyway, because I had so much time to myself, it really got me thinking in more depth about everything that’s happened these last few days. I ended up wondering, not who, but why. Why would anypony want to kill those three ponies? Was it random? Do they really just desire to see us all dead… or is there something that connects those three ponies? I should probably leave these questions to Rainbow Dash or the investigator, but I just can’t help myself from wondering.
I feel this itching in the back of my skull, forcing me to dwell on these killings. Everyday that’s passed, every victim claimed, it’s been growing worse. But what really confuses me is that I’m sure this feeling is linked to the ‘serial killer’, not any of this mafia business or town executions, it’s something about these killing in particular. When I think about them it’s almost as if…
I just stopped and read all that back to myself, I sound like a crazy mare. Maybe Fluttershy is right, I need to stop stressing and let myself recover, maybe the damage to my head is worse than I thought. Speaking of Fluttershy, I really am worried about her; I wondered if she would stay over here again tonight. No such luck it seems, I hope she’s safe at her own home though, more than that I wish I could do something to help her through all this.
With the exception of Doctor Horse, there were no other murders last night, unless you count the brother of Flim, Flam. From what I heard he was executed in private last night in jail. Nopony really drew attention to it, although I could tell that the idea of the sheriff’s office killing ponies off has really frightened folks. Anyway, I’m going to get some sleep, take Fluttershy’s advice and rest. I’m clearly putting too much thought into all this, although it’s hard not to when I could be slaughtered in the middle of the night.
Diary of Spike
Friday 11th November
Today’s victim was a Doctor Horse, the second medical professional in two days. Some would consider that a link, but then those same ponies would discard the link when they realised that Thunderlane was not connected to them. I however was not so quick to drop this lead, and as a result I have now determined the identity of my first strong suspect. A pegasus named Fluttershy, apparently works part time as a doctor as well a vet, a lot of responsibility for one pony.
She was the same pony taking care of the new pony who lost her memories. Turns out Miss Shy worked alongside both Nurse Redheart and Doctor Horse, but more than that, she was a foalhood friend of Thunderlane. I was able to speak with her earlier this evening at her home, she wasn’t in a very good state, but then that’s hardly surprising considering the circumstances. I questioned her for a while, and while I acknowledge that she is under a great deal of emotional stress, her responses really did not line up too well.
But it wasn’t the answers she gave me that really bothered me, but while she was in the kitchen I discovered that she keeps all her medical equipment in her own home, including a great variety of cutting implements. I casually mentioned it to her and she explained it was because of the work with her animals. Still, we haven’t made any progress in finding the murder weapon, and when I was able to examine Doctor Horse’s body first hand this morning I picked up on something very troubling.
The killer is clearly very good with a knife; every wound is very deliberate, severing all the right blood vessels in all the right parts so that the victim is pretty much guaranteed to die… but slowly. I asked the sheriff to show me the other bodies, and the wounds are the exact same on both. Whoever this killer is they have either taken many more lives than the three this week, or they have an extensive knowledge of pony anatomy, perhaps even both.
This suspicion is not entirely leak proof, obviously I don’t know of any motive Fluttershy could have for doing this, all three were apparently her friends, and who suddenly kills three of their friends for no reason? I’ll have to ask more questions tomorrow, find out if ever anything happened between them that might have created animosity. I haven’t approached the sheriff or her partners with any of this, when I learned that Fluttershy was friends with Thunderlane since childhood, I also learned that they were both part of a tight knit group consisted of themselves, Rainbow Dash, Fleetfoot and Soarin.
If I tried to tell them that their oldest friend was a killer without some real, tangible proof… I wouldn’t be surprised if they dragged me straight to the next train to Canterlot and told me never to come back. If I can find something to support my theory, and I present it in a tactful way, I might be able to convince Soarin to watch her for a while and see what she does. Until then I should still consider the possibility that I’m wrong, if I set out looking for something specific, I could miss something right before my eyes.
There were no random lynchings today during the town meeting thankfully, although it appears the Mayor has gotten around that by allowing the sheriff and her crew to execute ponies privately overnight. They jailed another member of the mafia, Flam, brother of the guy who was executed yesterday. Dash told me that Fleetfoot interrogated him; he admitted to his involvement with the Family and even revealed a little useful information, when she was done Fleetfoot had him executed.
I could tell from the way she spoke that Dash hadn’t authorised that and Fleetfoot had done it on somepony else’s orders, probably the Mayor. When I asked Dash to tell me what they learnt from Flam, she told me I was here to catch a serial killer and that I shouldn't be worrying about what the Family say or do, even ending it by telling me to get my priorities straight. As if this case wasn’t difficult enough, now Dash won’t work with me and can’t even keep her own jailor under control.
Diary of Applejack
Friday 11th November
Dash has gone too far. She was annoying before, but that was when she couldn’t really do anything against me, but now she’s actively removing my associates. It would seem getting caught runs in the family as Flam managed to go the way of his brother and get executed after Soarin caught him breaking into Berry Punch’s house. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be sad to be rid of such clearly incompetent agents, but who knows what that fool told them in the hopes of being pardoned.
No further actions were taken during today’s meeting, but I’m sure Dash is already planning her next move. I always knew she wanted to ruin me, but I never truly believed she could. The killer is still out there, claiming a third victim in three nights, the rate they’re working at Ponyville will be a ghost town before long, whoever doesn’t die will most likely pack their bags and flee. I don’t know what to do, I am the Matriarch and I don’t know what to do.
Many under my authority would have Rainbow removed, or at the very least her subordinates. If I even could do that it would be a foolish move on my part, in this climate a direct attack could be the signature on my own death warrant. The killer is taking a life every night, and not my agents, the sheriff’s office or even the investigator from Canterlot have found a lead. This Family is being assaulted on two fronts and I don’t know what to do.
Applebloom is taking to her new role enthusiastically, she is drawing up a list of every pony in Ponyville, attempting to determine whether they are suspicious or not. But she’s only one pony, and she acts like the killer will just admit to everything as soon as she asks them to. As much as I prefer to act slowly and subtly, this situation may call for more rash actions to be taken, as such I have discussed it with Mac and from tonight onwards we will be targeting high profile figures and eliminating them.
We will not stop until the murders do. We’ll go off of the list Applebloom provides us with… after it’s been reviewed by a number of our associates first, after all we don’t want to target Cloudchaser just because Applebloom doesn’t know what an escort is. I love that girl, but she is almost an adult and she is oblivious as a brick. Speaking of Cloudchaser, I approached her in private today, tried to offer her a position in our Family. This new investigator could prove troublesome if allowed to poke his nose into our affairs, and with Rainbow Dash upping her efforts at bringing us down, I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to recruit him to their cause.
So I offered Cloudchaser a little pay raise in return for keeping the little guy busy, unfortunately she refused… outright. I tried to make her see that consort had a better ring to it than escort, but she was seeing none of it. When all this is over I may have to send some ponies around her way to remind her who really runs this town. Mac’s going to pay a visit to Filthy Rich tonight, Applebloom spoke with him today, apparently he described himself as an executioner. She didn’t know what to make of that and marked him as suspicious, but truth be told I don’t get it either, we’ll know tomorrow though I’m sure.
Diary of Rainbow Dash
Friday 11th November
Fleetfoot killed Flam last night. I arrived into the office this morning to find her washing the blood off her hooves. The resulting ‘talk’ wasn’t pretty, I said a lot of things, she said a lot of things, but in the end just let it go, partly because we just received word of yet another murder, and partly because I can’t help but feel she was right in doing it. She got him to admit to being a framer for the Family, even getting some details of previous jobs he’d done. On top of that he identified the guy he was speaking to when Scootaloo first overheard him discussing the Berry Punch job, a guy called Cabelleron.
Fleetfoot did some research on him, he’s from out of town, shows up occasionally but nopony knew why… until now. She explained that the Mayor gave her permission, and honestly I’m not sure if I’m happy about that or not, I prepared a list of ponies for Fleetfoot to jail from tonight onwards, but I would have half a mind to remove half of them if I thought she was going to chop their heads off on a whim. She assured me though that she would only do it in extreme circumstances or in cases where it was clear cut.
Anyway, onto the murder. It’s really bad how much of a habit this has become; it doesn’t even have the same impact as the first two did. The last thing I want is to get used to this, I swear we’ll catch the killer soon and put a stop to this. The victim was Doctor Horse; I knew Fluttershy would take that badly since it was the third pony close to her to die in such a short space of time. Spike was hovering about doing his own investigation; he seemed to pick up on something about the stab wounds, even asking to see the other bodies.
I hadn’t even realised it until he pointed it out, which I’m pretty pissed off about, but the victims haven’t just been stabbed in the same way, they’ve been stabbed in the EXACT same way. I asked him what we were supposed to make of that but he said he didn’t know, but I’m sure he did know and was just sore about me not telling him what Flam told us. When I had a moment I went and found Fluttershy to tell her the news, I wanted her to hear it from me in private rather than during the meeting.
She took it really badly, I did my best to comfort her, but short of bringing back the dead I don’t think anything could fix the way she feels. Soarin hadn’t seen anything suspicious last night; he apparently hadn’t been near Doctor Horse’s house last night, so we had nothing to go on for today’s meeting, so no public hangings today. I also got a visit from Cheerilee today, turns out she was having concerns about Scootaloo’s involvement in our work what with the recent murders. I tried to explain to her that I would never put Scootaloo in harm’s way, that I was only getting her to do some eavesdropping and reconnaissance, it seemed to placate her but I could tell she still wasn’t happy about it.
Scootaloo’s proving to be a really useful asset even if she still won’t tell me anything more about AJ’s new operative, I’d hate to lose her, but at the same time I really don’t want her to get hurt or killed on my account. She did however catch Pinkie Pie whispering to Filthy Rich in the streets today, she was talking rather blatantly about who the Family were planning to kill, but apparently Filthy Rich didn’t know what she was going on about. I actually don’t know if Pinkie Pie has ever had any involvement with the Family, I did once hear that she was a distant relative of AJ but I didn’t know it was true. It just sounds like another of Pinkie’s random moments, but it might be wise to keep an eye on her just in case.
Diary of Cheerilee
Friday 11th November
I did something terrible today.
I finally got to talk to Rainbow Dash today about Scootaloo; she assured me that Scootaloo was in safe hooves, that she was only doing some spy work. Honestly I don’t know if that’s good or not, with everything that’s going on, I really don’t want Scootaloo caught in the middle of a war between the Apples and the law. But the terrible thing I did wasn’t to do with that, it was when Rainbow Dash had to step out of the office for a minute to speak to another pony.
While she was gone I began walking about, I was getting too nervous and fidgety just sitting there, but as I walked I came across the sheriff office’s gun cabinet… it was unlocked. I don’t know what came over me; maybe I thought I could protect Scootaloo better or if I just felt unsafe in my own home at night but… I took a gun. I shoved it into my bad along with three bullets and went back to my seat before Rainbow Dash got back in.
She was barely back a minute before I was saying my goodbyes and trying t get out of there as quickly as possible, I’m worried she noticed. Maybe she’ll open the cabinet and realise something’s missing. If I get caught with it I’ll go to jail, I might even go the same way as Flam did. I could return it, but who’s to say they won’t still throw me in a cell. Oh, I should never have touched it, now I feel trapped.
To make matters worse I think Scootaloo is hiding something from me. I noticed it yesterday but it was more pronounced today, something is bothering her. I wish she trusted me enough to open up to me and let me help her, she used to after all. It feels like only yesterday she was knocking on my front door in the middle of the night as the rain poured down. I’ll remember that moment for the rest of my life, as I opened the door to find her shivering, soaked to the bone, her eyes red and puffy from crying.
She turned to me that night, she trusted me… when did that change? I love Scootaloo dearly, as if she was my own child, and I would use this gun to protect her just as readily as I gave her shelter all those years ago.
Diary of Rarity
Friday 11th November
Dear Diary, I am in love!
Yes I know I’ve written that line a few times before, but this time I know it in my heart to be true. Last night Soarin visited me briefly during his shift, the time we spent together was truly bliss. Last night I felt a true connection with him, in a crystallised moment I knew that he loved me back, that he loved me in the way he could never really love that Rainbow Dash. While in the past I was content to wait for him to make the first move, I was filled in that moment with the impulse to do it myself.
I declared my love for him; I got a little emotional so I may have been a little less eloquent than I usually am. I told him that I knew how he felt and that the only thing for it was to make our love known, for him to leave Rainbow Dash for she was not capable of loving him the way I could. The poor dear was awestruck by my declaration; he could barely form the words to respond. He did eventually muster enough strength to say it wasn’t a good idea.
I admit my heart stopped for a second there, but then it became obvious. He was afraid of Rainbow Dash. Of course he loved me and wanted to be with me, but Rainbow Dash was oppressing him and he dared not cross her. After what she had done to that Flam gentestallion I’m not entirely surprised, but it is clear that if Soarin is to be free of her and we are to be together as we both desire, then Rainbow Dash has to be removed.
Luckily I have the means to do so, I may be a little rusty, but I’m sure a few days of practicing should make me fit to carry out the deed. I only hope my beloved Soarin will be able to hold on for a few days, and not be broken under the tyranny of Rainbow Dash.
Diary of Scootaloo
Friday 11th November
Applebloom has joined the Family.
I was always afraid this day would come, ever since Rainbow Dash took me under her wing and revealed to me the truth behind the Apples. She was so happy about it which was the worst part. I’ve been watching her closely since she told me and Sweetie Belle yesterday; true to her word she is just questioning ponies in the hopes of finding the killer. An innocent enough and even virtuous endeavour, but today it’s investigating, but what tomorrow? Now that she’s in how far will her sister drag her down?
I can’t bring myself to tell Rainbow Dash, she might cut me loose, she might see me as a danger to the job due to my relationship with Applebloom. I don’t want that, I want to help Rainbow take down the Family, and I’m doing it FOR Applebloom as much as anypony. I couldn’t even tell Cheerilee, I’m afraid that if I bring her into this, and my involvement becomes known to Applejack, she’ll be targeted.
I thought of telling Fluttershy, but I visited her house today and she wouldn’t open up for me. I even went to Sweetie Belle, a part of me wanted to tell her the truth about what I was doing, though I don’t know if that part of me would have won out if I had got to see her. As it is she wasn’t at her sister’s house and Rarity didn’t know where she was, Rarity actually seemed really distracted. I looked around for a while but I couldn’t find anypony who’d seen Sweetie Belle around.
While I was looking I overheard Pinkie Pie saying some weird stuff to Filthy Rich, she was making out that she was a member of the Family and she knew who they were planning to kill. It sounded like a load of crap, but I reported to Rainbow anyway, that pony seriously has a few screws loose. I don’t know what to do; I could warn Applebloom about her sister and hope that she believes me, but then what? But even getting that far would require Applebloom to believe me, and I think if it came down to between me and her sister, I know who she’s choose to trust.
Diary of Sweetie Belle
Friday 11th November
I can’t sleep…
I can’t make the voices stop.
I hear them whisper during the day, anytime I’m alone. The more I try to ignore them the louder they get, filling my head until it’s ready to burst. If I try to listen to them they become indistinguishable buzzing. It’s worst during the night, it’s as if they’re right beside me, I can almost feel them breathing down my neck as they speak to me.
At night I can understand them, they tell me terrible things… they tell me about the pain, about how it felt to have the knife penetrating their body, or to feel the noose tighten around their neck. I hear the voices of the dead. I can’t escape them no matter where I go. They torment me, won’t let me sleep, they’re going to drive me to madness. I can’t tell anypony, not even my sister. They’d think I was crazy; they’d have me carted off and locked up like Pinkie Pie.
Maybe they want to be avenged so that their souls can rest in peace, but I can’t help them. In all the things they’ve said to me they never tell me who killed them. I don’t know if they don’t know or if they’re incapable of telling me, but even if I ask they won’t tell me. I screamed at them last night, begged them to tell me who did it, but they continued talking about their agony as if I hadn’t said anything at all. How am I supposed to help them if they can’t tell me how?
I’m even hiding from my best friends, afraid that if they ask I’ll tell them the truth. When Applebloom told us she was investigating ponies I made my excuses and ran, terrified that if she got the truth out of me she would see me as some sort of freak. I’d lose her, I’d lose Scootaloo, I’d lose everything I care about, it would all be taken from me until all that would be left is the voices…
I’m so afraid.