//------------------------------// // Day 10 // Story: Town of Ponyville // by Reeve //------------------------------// Day 10 Day ten… the tenth day of my new life, but what of my old life? I do not remember who I am or where I came from; I don’t even have a name to latch on to. And yet it feels as if the answers to all my questions are right there in front of me, waiting for me to reach out and take hold. That infernal itching has finally ceased, and in its wake I feel only a strange sense of clarity. It feels as if the mare I once was has stirred inside of me, that the life I once had and the life I built in these last ten days are threatening to collide. Today has been subdued, no murders, no executions. There are whispers of a formal investigation into the running of Ponyville from Canterlot. I haven’t seen Fluttershy all day, she’s locked herself away again, the events of the past week or so weighing heavily on her. So how did I spend my day? I left the flat and I walked out of town, I walked to an obscure area just outside of Ponyville, on the border of the Everfree Forest. The place where my old life ended and my new life began… the place where Trixie was buried. Strange how I was drawn to it, I spent hours just staring at the patch of earth that separated her from me. As I stood there I felt a most peculiar sensation in my heart, I felt an intense pain as if I were mourning the death of the pony who had murdered so many. But why would I care about such a monster? Why would I miss a pony I hardly knew? Why would I feel as if my mind is threatening to split apart just thinking about it… Who am I really? Who is this mare who appeared from thin air with no memories? What is my name? Where did I come from? How did end up in that spot that fateful night? And why… why did Trixie suddenly start killing as soon as I showed up? It feels as if all the answers to these questions are before me, but the more I reach out the further they seem to be… No… they’re not far at all. They couldn’t be closer in fact. They are right there, nestled in my forelegs, on the forefront of my mind and perched on the tip of my tongue. I know who I am… and yet I do not know. This is maddening! My thoughts have become a maelstrom inside my own head, waiting for one last little push to allow all the pieces to settle into place. Just… one… little… push… Diary of Spike Thursday 17th November I just discovered something deeply concerning, I’m not sure, but if I’m right… the implications could be catastrophic. I was reviewing the old cases again, the ones I believed Trixie to be responsible for, and I noticed a certain theme emerging. In most, almost all cases in fact, the officers investigating them believed the act to be carried out by multiple assailants. And in the majority of these cases, the agreed upon figure was two. There were two culprits, two serial killers, but that just doesn’t make any sense. I investigated those deaths in Ponyville myself; there was absolutely nothing to suggest Trixie was working with anypony. But if that was true, and she really had been working alongside somepony else in all those past incidents, then why did she suddenly start killing solo in Ponyville? Could it have something to do with why after all these years of killing ponies in other towns, she suddenly start murdering in her own neighbourhood? If she really had a partner all these years, where were they these last several days? Had they died, and the grief driven Trixie to kill all those ponies on impulse? Or was Trixie doing it to get the attention of her partner? Maybe they went their separate ways and Trixie wanted to prove she could do it on her own. Honestly I have no clue, but this raises the very dangerous possibility of there being a second serial killer still at large out there. They might even still be in Ponyville, waiting for the dust to settle before striking again. If that is the case, then who on earth could it possibly be, I barely found Trixie and that only happened by pure luck. As much as I hate the idea of getting involved with Ponyville again, if there really is another serial killer out there, then it means my job isn’t over yet. I can only pray I’m wrong about this, at the very least I might get lucky and the other killer has started a clean slate and stopped their evil ways. But in all seriousness what kind of pony could just forget being a serial killer for so many years… Wait a minute… Diary of Applejack Thursday 17th November It’s official, Applebloom is gone. I don’t know if she waited intentionally for me to be out of the house, but when I got back, her room was cleaned out and there was just a single note saying ‘goodbye’. I ran as fast as I could, but I was too late, I reached the station just a second too late. Although I was there right in time to be able to watch as the last pony I cared about sped out of my life. I didn’t want to believe it, but the ticket sales pony was able to confirm that he saw her get on that train. She’s gone, my little sister is gone. I returned home to find a letter waiting for me in my office, apparently a formal inquiry is being conducted into Ponyville after the events of the last week. They are particularly interested in issues involving ‘organised crime’. So that’s it, I sacrificed my last real family member for a chance at restoring the Family… only for it to fall apart anyway. Most of our associates are jumping ship, changing their names and swiping whatever money they can from our accounts before fleeing the town. Braeburn is begging me to come stay with him at Appleloosa until the heat dies down, I don’t know that I’ll go, can’t see much point in it. Once the inquire gets underway, any influence we have will be purged from Ponyville and I’ll be forced to start from the bottom up, and I know full well that once the ponies here are rid of us, they will not lie down again to allow us to come back. It’s over, the Family is finished. I’m sorry Mac, sorry Granny, I let you all down, but most of all I’m sorry to you Applebloom, the one I let down the most. If I do leave, what will there be for me? I won’t be the Matriarch of jack shit anymore that’s for sure. I could do a little underworld business, but… do I even want to anymore. Braeburn’s got a farm of his own, a lot like this one, I could always just go back to working the fields, the way things used to be. No scheming or conspiring, just… farming. Funny, after all the effort I went to protect the Family, after all I gave up… just going back to my roots and doing some real honest work sounds more appealing than anything. I guess my mind’s made up, I know I’ll miss this place, but without a real family under this roof… this just isn’t a home anymore. I wonder if Braeburn will be mad at me throwing in the towel, if he is I can always threaten to tell his ma about the things I caught him doing with Caramel in the barn last family reunion… or something less… monstrous. Diary of Scootaloo Thursday 17th November We’re on the train now, shouldn’t be long before we arrive so I thought I’d write this entry a bit earlier than usual. Really there isn’t much to say, it’s just that I’m planning on starting a new diary when we get there, you know, fresh start and all that. Don’t know what I’ll do with this one, a small part of me wants to destroy it as some stupid symbolic act, but the smarter half of me, the half I owe to Cheerilee, knows that years down the line I might be glad I kept this. We didn’t end up packing very much, Sweetie Belle’s place isn’t huge and we didn’t want to stuff it full of every item we own. So we just grabbed the essentials, and my scooter, I wasn’t going to bring it since I doubt I’ll get much opportunity to ride it around Canterlot, but the girls persuaded me to. We spent so long trying to get our cutie marks; it would be insane to leave behind the thing that helped get me my own. We’ll probably end up selling most of the stuff we left behind, along with Cheerilee’s house and Rarity’s shop. Sweetie says there are people you can hire to do that sort of stuff for you so we don’t have to go back to do it personally. As the train was driving away, we noticed somepony running after it. Applejack. Applebloom was a bit emotional after that, but she didn’t try to turn back or anything. I wonder if maybe someday she’ll be able to forgive her sister, I never will… but I wouldn’t stand in her way if she wanted to. Both of them are asleep now, none of us got any last night. I should probably get a few winks myself, but I can’t stop staring back the way we came, remembering everything we left behind… and everything that was taken from us. It really is over now, not just the stuff that happened but our old lives, they’re ending just as much as this diary, and likewise we’re starting new ones. We’ve all lost so much, we all lost our parents and were orphaned at a young age, we lost our brothers or sisters, anyone who we ever loved, and now our homes. But we’ll make a new home, and we’ll make it together, because no matter how much we lost, we still came out of it with each other. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, best friends together until the end. Diary of Fluttershy Thursday 17th November Is it over yet? I honestly can’t tell anymore. Anytime things seem to be getting better another wave comes crashing into us, dragging us from our tiny rock of safety back into the unforgiving ocean. Spitfire came by today, news of what happened is finally spread across Equestria. She was predictably devastated; she wondered why I apparently wasn’t. Oh I am Spitfire; it might not look like it because I have no tears left to cry. I’ve been hit over and over again, made to suffer so much these last days, so much so that there simply is nothing left in me. I feel so empty, so hollow. We went to visit their graves together, I’ve recovered enough that I was able to make the journey without too much pain. It felt strange to be standing there, the last two of our old group. We used to say that we would all grow old together, that we’d be the best mares and stallions at each other’s weddings. We would stay together and watch as our children all grew up together the same way we did. Now that dream has been extinguished, Spitfire has dedicated her life to the Wonderbolts; she couldn’t even stay for very long today. And me… I know I’ll never have any of those things for myself. The newcomer… I really wish I didn’t have to call her that, I wish I knew her name. Anyway, she came over again today, she tried to talk to me but I wouldn’t let her in. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, it feels like she’s the only friend I have left and I’m just shutting her out. Of course it’s hard to say you’re friends with somepony you don’t know a thing about, who doesn’t know a thing about themselves. I still remember when Soarin first came to in the middle of the night, telling me about this mare they discovered, he said she was injured and needed my help. Now, ten days later I still know nothing about her. Well, I know one thing… she’s the only friend I have left. I wanted her to make a good life here; instead her new life was filled with death and tragedy. I should make thing right between us, I shouldn’t have shut her out the way I did. I’ll go see her tomorrow, I need to make sure her head's alright anyway, also I’m concerned that second hit affected her memories even further. She had mentioned an itching sensation before which I thought might be signalling some recollection, but when I saw her after she woke up she seemed… different. Spitfire suggested before she left that I get out of Ponyville for a while, take a break and travel or something, it might help me recover. Maybe when I go talk to her tomorrow, I’ll ask if she wants to come with me, it might be the fresh start we both need.