Tools

by Samey90

Revelations

Go to the bathroom.

She went to the bathroom. Several ponies waved hooves at her, but she ignored them, hurrying to the door.
The club’s bathroom was recently renovated, some old pipes were still lying on the floor under the sinks. Nopony was there.

Take the pipe.

A red aura of magic embraced one of the pipes, levitating it to her eye level.

Go back there, find a turquoise unicorn and kill her.

"Why?"

Not your business. Do it. Kill Lyra Heartstrings.

The pipe, still held by her magic, did several swings.

"No."

Do it! Now!

Before she could say another “no”, her vision blurred. She teetered and had to lean against the wall to avoid falling down.

"Vinyl?"

Her vision sharpened again. She saw a cream-coloured mare coming out of one of the cabins.

"Vinyl, are you ok?"

Vinyl could swear that the disembodied voice muttered some curses under its breath. She tried to say something, like “watch out!” or “run away!”, but suddenly her throat tightened, as if somepony squeezed it. Her vision became blurry again, her ears were filled with the disembodied voice, now yelling “KILL HER!”. She could only watch the pipe, wielded by her magic, hitting the cream mare’s side. She heard the loud, sickening crack of fracturing ribs, and the mare fell on the floor with a look of betrayal in her eyes.

"What the hay are you…" she cried, spitting blood. She tried desperately to reach stunned Vinyl with her hoof, crawling on the floor tiles.

The pipe hit her head. The last bits of consciousness left her and she laid still on the ground.

"Bon-Bon!" Vinyl tried to scream, but her squeezed throat let her do only a whisper. The pipe, released from the magic aura, fell jingling on the tiles. She wanted to help the unconscious mare, but the invisible bonds held her still.

Get outta there through the window. Use the back door, go on stage and start the second part of the gig. Forget what happened here.
The image of Bon-Bon slowly dissipated from her memory.

***

Vinyl woke up. For a moment she was staring at the ceiling, panting heavily. Octavia muttered something in her sleep and turned over.

Forget what happened here.

She stood up and went to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of water and downed it in one go. She looked at the yesterday’s newspaper lying on the worktop. The storm of the century claims two lives.

Thank you, Equestria Daily for a daily dose of heart-warming news.

She opened one of the cupboards and moved the mugs in the back of it with her magic, to reveal a pack of cigarettes hidden behind them. Since the night she was arrested, she neither drank a drop of alcohol nor smoked. She had quit smoking when Octavia moved in, but still had several packs stashed all over a house in case of cigarette emergency.

She came to the balcony and lit up a cigarette.

Good, old Tavi. She bailed her out of jail without asking her anything. Vinyl still felt guilty about that, especially because when she wanted to give her money back, the cellist refused.

"I took the money from our swear jar," she said. "It is you who mostly contributes to it anyway."

Yeah, right. Even with that fifty bits note Tavi had to put there because of the speech she delivered when she overheard that one of the spectators called her a fillyfooler after the concert, the money in the swear jar wouldn’t be enough. Vinyl blew out the smoke and watched the ephemeral shapes it formed in the cold night’s air.

Tavi is always there for me. And I…

She recalled the years of coming home late, drunk or stoned, all the words she shouldn’t have said to the grey cellist. Every time she was hung over, finding out how acidic the contents of her stomach were, Octavia was there to make her tea, hold her mane to protect it from getting dirty and never said anything. Sure, she once hit her with a cello, but drove her to the hospital afterwards.

And now I almost killed Bon-Bon. Well, technically someone used her to kill Bon-Bon, but still it was her, who took the cider with a potion in it. If she was wiser, remembering what she was told about accepting drinks from strangers…
I don’t deserve you, Tavi. She leant herself against the balcony balustrade and for a long moment she stared into the ground below her.

Bonnie is still in a coma… And poor Lyra, she’s in the nuthouse. I failed all of you…

She closed her eyes, leaning closer to the barrier.

Wait. That voice told me to kill Lyra and I resisted it. But why? And how?

She opened her eyes, stared again at the dirty backyard under their balcony and tossed the cigarette butt over the balustrade, watching its short fall from the first floor. Then she levitated the phone from the kitchen and dialled the number she was given before leaving the arrest.

"Krissy? Hello. I know it’s late. It’s me, Vinyl Scratch. There’s something I want to tell you…"

***

When the grey pegasus approached the station, it was still almost empty. The only guard in the building was Short Shock, nodding off over the large pile of reports and forms.

"Hi there, Shorty," Krissy chirped, "What’s up?"

"Work, as you can see," he yawned, and took a closer look at one of the pieces of paper on his desk. "Cardiac dysrhythmia… How do you write “dysrhythmia”?"
"With “rh”, probably."

He thanked her and began silently spell the word that sounded like “impalement”. Krissy started to trot to her office, when he paused and said:

"By the way, that crazy unicorn wanted me to tell you to come to the lab as soon possible,"

"Surveillance? He is still here?"

"Boss? No, he left at 3 AM, leaving me with all this…" he pointed the papers at his desk, "I meant the other crazy unicorn."

"Oh… I get it," she replied and flew to the lab.

The door was closed. She knocked and waited for somepony to answer, staring at the old “Celestia wants you to join the Royal Guards” poster hung on the wall near lab entrance.

The door opened.

"Hello there! Come inside and wait a minute,"

The psychologist did so, watching Twilight with dismay. Unicorn’s mane was unkempt and her pupils were shrunk to the size of pinpricks. Moving like a sleepwalker, she went to the coffee machine and inserted a coin into it.

"Twilight, dear, are you OK?" Krissy asked. She noticed several styrofoam cups laying around. Unicorn nodded dazedly, watching the coffee filling another cup.

"Twilight, don’t tell me you stayed here for the whole night…"

"I did," she said, coming back to the lab. She sat on her haunches and took a sip of her coffee.

"Why? Something happened?"

Twilight lifted an ordinary-looking bottle of energy drink with her magic.

"I got this!" she said proudly.

"What? I understand coffee, but drinking those? Who knows what they put in them…"

"No, it’s not this. I got it from the crime scene. You know, that storm two days ago…"

"Yeah, don’t need to tell me. Yesterday I talked with some ponies from that weather team… What’s with that bottle?"

"My friend Rainbow Dash drank from it and suffered similar symptoms as Vinyl. I analysed the contents and found out that there’s still potion in it. I identified most of the ingredients and I hope this will help us with finding the killer – the Toolsmith, as I call him."

"Great! Speaking of Vinyl Scratch – she called me tonight. She had sort of a dream…" the psychologist told Twilight about the vision, mentioning that actually Lyra Heartstrings was supposed to be the victim. For a moment the unicorn stared at her absent-mindedly. Krissy thought that she ran out of caffeine again, but after a short pause lavender pony said:

"Well, I think that makes sense. You know, when we arrived to the crime scene, I talked with that mathematician…"

***

It just stopped raining. Cloud Counter sat on the ground, watching the Royal Guards walking through the crime scene. They removed Lighting Dust’s body from the tree, but Rainbow Dash was still sitting there, devastated, with the purple unicorn trying to comfort her. The mathematician always had a soft spot for unicorns (something that Rainstorm used to call “horny for hornies”), and maybe in different circumstances…

Cloudchaser, remember?

Oh Celestia! When Rainstorm was found dead he totally forgot about the sisters, thinking that they’ll never meet again. But when he realised that Cloudchaser’s life was in danger, he felt something he had never felt before.

His run of thoughts was suddenly interrupted when he saw that Rainbow Dash flew away and purple pony was now approaching him.

"Hello. My name’s Twilight Sparkle, and I’m a consulting detective. You’re Cloud Counter, aren’t you?"

"Yes, that’s me. Something new about Rainstorm?" he asked. For a moment he thought about putting on his accent, but something about Twilight Sparkle told him that it wouldn’t work.

"Maybe. I have a few questions for you. Do you know this mare?"

She levitated a photo of cream earth pony with two-coloured mane to him. He examined it carefully.

"No, I don’t think so,"

"How about this one?"

He looked at a minty-green unicorn mare smiling at him from the picture. Then something hit him.

"I think I’ve met her once, about a year ago."

***

"Hello there, Cloudy, what brings you here? A storm? A tornado?" Berry Punch chirped and began pouring him a drink.

I’ve been here ten times this year, and the only pony I know is a barmare. What does it say about me?

"You won’t believe me if I tell you that I’m on vacation, will you?"

"You? I have to talk to my informants: it seems that Tartarus froze over and nopony told me!"

"I assure you, if we ever try to freeze Tartarus over, you’ll be first to know about it. They’d probably ask me to plan such a big operation," he laughed.

"Would that be even possible?"

"Well, as they say in weather teams: there are no impossible things, only unprofitable ones…"

"Like running this bar," she sighed and took a quick sip from the bottle she kept hidden under the counter.

"Is it really that bad?" he asked. He knew that Berry liked to complain about her finances, but this was mainly an attempt to increase sales. Cloud Counter had an unpleasant thought that her interest in weather calculations was also a trick to persuade him to buy more cider, but he didn’t care about that. At least he had someone to talk with.

"Well, it’s better now, since that musician comes here to play," she said, "You’ll see her tonight,"

"A musician? Now you have my attention, Berry,"

"Yeah, but don’t try anything. I assure you, she won’t be interested. Besides, what happened with that funny student that was here with you last time?"

His expression suddenly faded.

"That’s something I don’t really want to talk about," he said, "and why do you think that she won’t be interested?"

"Well," Berry leaned to him and lowered her voice, usual thing when she was telling a gossip, "She doesn’t really swing that way, if you know what I mean,"

"Oh… well, you can’t always get what you want," he sighed, when Berry turned around to make drinks for a group of impatient pegasi, whom he recognized as members of local weather team.

Suddenly a cheerful sound of ponies’ talks that was filling the pub trailed away, and everypony turned to the small stage in the corner of the room. An aquamarine unicorn was sitting there on a stool, her hind legs hanging from it in an awkward manner. Her cutie mark was a lyre, similar to one she was holding.

"Hello," she said shyly, "My name is Lyra and, well, I’m here to play you some songs…"

"Not a mare of many words, huh?" Berry whispered. At the same moment Lyra started to play. Cloud Counter wasn’t very interested in music, but he had to admit that the song was beautiful. It resembled a simple folk tune, but as it progressed, it was becoming more and more complex. It seemed that the whole insecurity left Lyra at the moment she touched the strings. She started to improvise, adding various ornaments to the melody. Her horn lit, as she used her magic to play additional notes. The song reached its final and Lyra ended it with several arpeggios.

For a moment the audience stood in awe and then they began clapping their hooves. Lyra started to play another song, this time a bit calmer.

"I must talk to her!" exclaimed Cloud Counter.

"Told ya, you have no chance," Berry said, "By the way, her marefriend wouldn’t like that. Have you heard what they say about earth ponies?"

"I heard a lot of things they say about them, for example, that their livers are made of steel. Other sources state, that it’s not about the livers but…"

"Enough!" Berry laughed, "Liver thing might be true, I don’t know how about the latter – maybe I haven’t met the right stallions…" She was very proud of her ability to hold her liquor, Cloud Counter knew that very well. "But what I meant is their legendary strength. You’d be grounded for months if Bon-Bon kicked you,"

"Listen, Berry, I just want to talk, so…"

"Yeah, that’s how they call it nowadays… I know you too well, naughty boy…"

Cloud Counter shrugged and started to listen to Lyra’s song again. An hour passed and a bit tired unicorn left the stage and trotted to the bar. The mathematician was ready.

"Hello," he said to her, using his trademark accent, "may I offah you a drink?" He noticed Berry facehoofing behind Lyra’s back.

"Just water please," unicorn said.

"That was absolutely smashing! Nevah heard anyone playing lyre so well," he exclaimed. In fact he never heard anyone playing a lyre before, but that wasn’t important.

"Thanks," Lyra replied and started drinking her water. Berry sent him her “I told ya” look and said:

"This here gentlecolt is Cloud Counter, a mathematician, weather pony and incurable playcolt, who, despite his accent, isn’t even from Trottingham, if I recall correctly."

Lyra laughed.

"Thank you very much, miss Berryshine," he said sarcastically, feeling that his face is now bright red, "Indeed I am a weathah… weather pony," he corrected himself when he saw barmare’s expression, "Currently on vacation, looking for someone to show me the local sights,"

"Too bad, I’m not the best guide," Lyra said, "In fact I spend most of the time at home, playing my lyre or researching humans. Bon-Bon says that I should go out more, but I don’t really feel like,"

"Humans? Who are they?" he asked.

"Here we go…" Berry Punch groaned.

***

"We spent rest of the evening talking about humans, mathematics and such stuff. Then she went home and I went back to my room. I’ve never seen her since that time,"

"Wait a minute, you said that she mentioned Bon-Bon," Twilight said.

"Yeah, but it’s nothing special, I think. She was her marefriend after all,"

She shown him the photo of the first mare again.

"This is Bon-Bon. She was assaulted three days ago and is now in coma,"

"I think I’ve read about this. They were suspecting a DJ?"

Twilight sighed. She had to explain this to many ponies before and didn’t feel like doing this again.

"Yes, but it’s much more complicated than it seems. And, what’s most interesting," she paused, staring directly at Cloud Counter, "So far, all the victims are somehow connected with you."

***

"So now, when we know that Lyra was supposed to be killed, it makes even more sense," Krissy noticed. "Celestia, someone must be hating this guy…"

"Exactly. So far, the Toolsmith made that filly kill his friend, tried to make Vinyl kill Lyra and probably sabotaged the weather team to kill Cloudchaser or Flitter…" Twilight stopped, thinking something through.

"It’s a psychopath – the storm case shows it clearly, Toolsmith gives no buck about other ponies who might die," Krissy added, "By the way, how were the examinations of the potion?"

"Well, there are common ingredients, but skilfully blended. The potion has no taste, doesn’t change the properties of the drink it’s in… It was prepared to work for pegasi, that probably explains why Vinyl was able to partially resist its effect, and other side effects like this dream. Also, I have a theory that if an influenced pony suffers any kind of wound or shock, the potion ceases to work. That explains why Rainbow Dash regained her consciousness when the lighting exploded near her. The Toolsmith might be an unicorn or even zebra…"

"I don’t think so," Krissy smiled.

"Why?"

"Have you seen many zebras in Cloudsdale recently?"

"Oh… ok. I think I need to sleep… You think it might be a pegasus?" asked Twilight.

"I don’t know. Pegasi doesn’t make great potion brewers, but maybe, if guided properly…"

"I wonder who he'll choose next… Cloud Counter says he doesn’t have many friends. Maybe Berry Punch?" said Twilight, yawning. Krissy looked at her anxiously.

"Berry Punch? I don’t know… And you should really go home now. You won’t catch the Toolsmith if you work yourself to death,"

"That would be difficult, she’s an experienced barmare, who keeps a wooden club under the counter, next to the bottle of vodka. Everypony who’d try to attack her would end up in Dr Stable’s ward. It’d be easier to give her a poisoned cider. Maybe he’ll try to kill Lyra or Cloudchaser again?"

"Maybe. I’ll talk to Hot Pursuit about giving them police protection," said Krissy, "And now, Twi, go home!"

Author's Note:

I swear, it's the last time I'm putting flashback in a flashback...

Comments

[Azure Ravenscroft]

Flashback-ception, reminds me of Naruto Loving this so far, just need a quick break then I'll be back for more