Tools

by Samey90

Research

"So, Ms Sparkle, let me tell you what I figured out from this whole mess: our late psychologist used to be Cloud Counter’s girlfriend, and, Berry Punch’s long story short, their parting was rather rough. So, instead of strangling him in his sleep with a cloud, or whatever crazy pegasi do to each other, she came up with a wonderful idea, that she’ll kill all his future marefriends, not-really-marefriends and that poor guy whose body we scraped off of the ground. My Cloudsdale counterpart just informed me, that they found a large stash of ingredients in her house. They’re examining them at the moment, but it figures that they’re the same substances you identified as potion ingredients,"

Surveillance paused, staring at Twilight. She said nothing, so he continued.

"She was the first pony to talk with that drunk filly after she unknowingly killed Rainstorm. I think she also talked with her before that. She gave the cider with a potion to a DJ, spiced Rainbow Dash’s energy drink and then, when she found out how ineffective her method proved to be, decided to go on a good, old killing spree, luckily was stopped by our consulting detective and died from her own knife. Case closed," he smiled triumphantly.

"I don’t think so," said Twilight suddenly.

"Why not?"

"She wasn’t in Ponyville when Bon-Bon was attacked. She only arrived at the station after one of the guards called her,"

"Oh really? Who can prove that? She could have a mobile phone, or whatever,"

"And there was no possibility she could sabotage the storm,"

"Again, who can prove that?" Surveillance was annoyed. His theory was perfect and that civilian dared to undermine it!

"You, sir. She was at the station, talking with Vinyl Scratch just before she was bailed out of jail," this time it was Twilight who was smiling triumphantly.

"Oh sh- it doesn’t matter! She practically proven herself guilty when she went to the hospital with a knife!"

"I’m not sure. I wondered about her last words… feint within a feint within a feint,"

"That sounds like something my swordsmanship teacher would say…"

"Exactly. I suppose that you ordered an autopsy?" she asked.

"Yes, but it’ll take some time to obtain all results, like toxicology. If you want you can visit this old lunatic Dr Tulp, but for me the case is almost closed."

***

Although she tried not to show this to Surveillance, last few days weren’t particularly good for Twilight Sparkle. She teleported back from the hospital still covered in Krissy’s blood, and making no attempt to clean herself up, trotted to her bedroom and lay down on her bed crying. She barely noticed that Rainbow Dash and Spike are still in her kitchen. They hadn’t noticed her either, being too busy singing a terribly out-of-tune version of a popular song about things one cannot do to a hedgehog.

She spent the whole night thinking about the recent events. Her conversation with Krissy, when she mentioned that Berry Punch and Lyra might be the next victims. Did I gave her ideas? she thought. But why she went there to kill them herself, when she could give a potion to anypony? Unless…

Twilight Sparkle woke up in the darkness, but her mind was bright like Celestia’s sun. She had a theory and needed only proof.

***

Dr Tulp’s office was located in the underground part of Ponyville Hospital. It was barely visited by any patients, and its old, scratched door was almost indistinguishable from the door of nearby magazine of medical equipment. The only detail telling Twilight that she was in the right place was an inscription above the entrance:

Taceant colloquia, effugiat risus. Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae

“Well, optimistic…” she murmured, entering the room. The old unicorn with a greyish mane was sitting at his desk, reading a book. In the middle of the basement stood a metal table, there was also cold chamber by the opposite wall.
“Guten Morgen, young pony,” he said, taking off his glasses. His voice was low and deep, he also had slightly foreign accent.

“Err… good morning, Dr Tulp, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m a consulting…”

“Oh, I heard about you,” he stated calmly, still observing her, “That young politieagent Surveillance told me that you’ll visit me. He even hoped that you’d stay for a little longer,”

In one of those fridges, considering his sense of humour, she thought. The pathologist continued:

“I’ve also read about that… accident on the ward. Psychologist attacking her patient in the hospital always makes a good story for the news, especially when someone dies in the process. I’ve heard that if it wasn’t for young Dr Stable, I’d have two bodies here…”

“Yeah, bucking someone is not healthy when one just woke up from a coma…” Twilight agreed.

“Precies. Talking about the bodies…” he trotted to the cold chamber and opened one of the drawers. Twilight followed him and stared at the dead pegasus lying there.

It is sometimes said, that dead ponies look as if they were sleeping peacefully. Dr Tulp had washed the blood off, but bruises, large wound covering a half of Krissy’s right wing and burnt mane contradicted this image. On her chest, near the knife wound, a sewn, Y-shaped cut was visible.

“Not really nice, isn’t it?”, Dr Tulp said, “The cause of death was the knife, but this,” he pointed at Krissy’s wing, “wasn’t very good for her, either. As I was told, Ms Heartstrings just woke up and hit her instinctively with the pure magical energy, while the other beam she was hit with was far more sophisticated – designed to stun rather than kill.”

“I know,” said Twilight, her voice trembling, “I fired it.”

“Good attempt, but rather unnecessary. You know, pegasi’s wings are fascinating organs – in fact, I wrote some papers about them – their muscles need large amounts of oxygen, and they must react to every blow of wind, any change of air pressure – so they’re filled with blood vessels and nerve endings. But what’s their force is also their weakness – they’re extremely sensitive, to the point they can reflect pony’s mood, the phenomenon known as alae erectum or, more commonly, as…"

“Dr Tulp, I know what it’s called,” said Twilight, blushing slightly. I hang out with Rainbow Dash too much to not know.

“Oh… ok. Anyway, Ms Sparkle, if you ever want to hurt the pegasus, aim at the wings.”

“No, thanks. After all I went through I doubt if I’ll ever cast such a spell at anypony. Dr Tulp, I came here because I wondered if you found something strange in her blood.”

“Strange? Not really. Some common substances, probably medicines. However, they disappeared from the samples really quickly – when I wanted to repeat the tests, I found no trace of them. Ms Sparkle, are you all right?”

Twilight stood near the cold chamber, her mouth agape.

Well, there are common ingredients, but skilfully blended.

I have a theory that if an influenced pony suffers any kind of wound or shock, the potion ceases to work.
A golden magic beam, changing Krissy’s right wing into a bloody mess. A grey pegasus trying to reach Lyra with her hooves and say something when another beam hit her, pushing her on her own blade.

Feint within a feint within a feint.

“Ms Sparkle?”

***

“No, I won’t stay here overnight!”

“Ms Sparkle, Dr Tulp brought you here looking as if you suddenly woke up on his table! I won’t release you without at least basic examinations!” Dr Stable insisted.

“I only passed out! That’s not a big deal!”

“Listen, Twilight. You’ve been through a lot of crap recently,” he said a bit calmer, but fury was still visible in his eyes, “I’ve also heard about your… rather unhealthy lifestyle. Primum non nocere, that’s what I was taught. Releasing you now would be a harm,”

“Well, Doctor, I understand that you’re worrying, but I need to solve this case. When I’ll be done, I’ll come here, eat healthy food, go to sleep early, whatever you want. But now I need to go and check something!”

“Well, you’re an adult and I can’t keep you here against your will. But I’m worried about you. You found something out at Tulp’s office and passed out. What if the next discovery will be even worse?”

“Nothing can be worse, Doctor,” Twilight replied and left the ward.

***

The detached house she was heading to stood in the outskirts of Ponyville, and, like other houses in the neighbourhood, was surrounded by a large garden. When she approached it, she heard a cello playing somewhere on the first floor of it. She also felt something resembling a distant echo of an earthquake.

Twilight, once again, started to think about her plan. Krissy was definitely a victim of the Toolsmith, now it was time to reveal his, or her identity. The method she invented was rather unconventional, but she hoped it’d work.

She knocked the door. The cello music trailed away, and a moment later the grey pony opened the door. Her similarity to Krissy was so striking that for a moment Twilight felt that she may faint again.

“Good afternoon,” grey mare said. She had a trottingham accent, which sounded much more natural than Cloud Counter’s, “Twilight Sparkle, I suppose?”

“Y-yes,” Twilight replied, “You’re Octavia, right? Is Vinyl home?”

“Yes, she’s in the basement, making, as she calls it, music,” Octavia rolled her eyes.

Well, that explains why the ground is shaking.

“How is she?” Twilight asked, when they entered the living-room.

“Much better, I think. She found it ironic, when she read that her psychologist had gone nuts. Is that true that she was the Toolsmith? She seemed really nice,”

“Well, that’s actually the reason of my visit. I’m not entirely sure about whole that story and I hope that Vinyl will help me solve it,” explained Twilight.

“But how? She doesn’t remember anything, except of those dreams,”

“Still it’s more than any other possessed pony. What I want to do is to try hypnosis to see if she remembers who gave her the potion,”

Octavia managed to keep a straight face, but Twilight felt that she’s not fond of this idea.

“Hypnosis? Is that even possible?”

“Well, I’ve read a book…”

Octavia sighed.

“Ok, I have no idea how it’ll work, but it’s the only way!” Twilight yelled, “Only way, since I… I killed the only pony who could say anything about the Toolsmith!”

Octavia stared at her, shocked.

“You did what?” another voice asked. Vinyl came out from the basement and was looking at Twilight in a way similar to Octavia’s. For a moment Twilight wondered how she heard them over the beats.

She told them what happened in a hospital and explained her plan to Vinyl. The DJ, however wasn’t convinced:

“That’s some crazy stuff, Twi. Will the court even believe it?”

“I think so. There were some precedents…”

“Yeah, but will those precedents protect me from side effects? I don’t wanna go back to the nuthouse…”

“What?” Octavia asked, “You’ve never told me you were in the nuthouse…”

“It was long time before I met you,” Vinyl explained, “Some bitch hit me with a bottle in a bar, and I was brought to ER. They wanted to sew my wound, and I’m afraid of needles, ya know. So I ran away and hid on a psychiatric ward,”

“And what happened then?” Octavia wasn’t sure whether to laugh or facehoof.

“My roommate barked at me and bit my leg. When they found me, they not only had to apply stitches, but also gave me injections against rabies.”

Octavia finally failed to contain laughter. Even Twilight smiled faintly.

“So, Twilight, you’re not gonna mess with my brain?”

“As if there was anything to mess with,” Octavia deadpanned.

“Well, I’ve read in a book that as soon as I’ll finish, you’ll get back to normal,”

Vinyl muttered something that sounded like “I don’t wanna be normal”. Twilight took it as “yes”.

“So, Vinyl, I need you to lie down on a couch and relax…”

“That’s what he said…”

“Vinyl!” Twilight and Octavia scolded simultaneously.

“Ok, sorry, I’m relaxing now…” groaned Vinyl, lying down on a couch. Twilight aimed her horn at the DJ, lit it, and said:

“I want you to remember the events of the night when Bon-Bon was attacked. Do you remember who gave you the cider?”

Lots of colourful images started to pop up in Vinyl’s eyesight.

“Wooow… it’s like those mushrooms, remember, Tavi?”

“What mushrooms?” asked Twilight.

“I think it’s not that part of her memory,” said Octavia quickly.

“Are you sure?” Twilight asked her, staring at Vinyl, who was now smiling unconsciously, her eyes half-closed.

“Yes, the mushrooms aren’t important,” the cellist sighed.

“If you say so… Vinyl, do you remember who gave you the cider that night?”

“Wait a minute, Twilight,” said Vinyl, her voice surprisingly clear, “I think I’m developing some kind of hyperthymesia, even though I have never heard that word in my life. Or maybe I’m in contact with some higher intelligence, some supernatural being…”

“Twilight Sparkle, you’ve broken her,” Octavia deadpanned.

“...my spiritual self descends upon that point in time and space when Bon-Bon was attacked. Yes, now I am at my turntables, cheering the crowd, they love me, adore me, they shout my name…”

“Ok, she’s herself again,”

“Now I see somepony, giving me the mug of cider. Yes, I’d totally have a drink. There are lots of ponies there, pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies, one changeling without disguise, ponies think he’s a pony dressed as a changeling. Oh wait, he passed out. Do you know that changelings can’t drink alcohol? Well, this buddy didn’t know that…”

“Vinyl,” Twilight prompted, “Go back to the pony who gave you the cider…”

“Oh yes. I can see her as if she was here. A pegasus. Orange eyes. Purple mane. Yellow coat. Three umbrellas on her, quite attractive, flank. Yes, I totally swing that way, you may guess from the fact that I live with the sexiest cellist on the planet…”

“Oh, Vinyl…” Octavia muttered, her face bright red.

Twilight’s magic faded. Vinyl opened her eyes.

“I had a wonderful dream,” she said, “I became one with the Universe.”

“That’s great, honey,” Octavia replied, still flattered by DJ’s compliment, “But, what’s more important, you gave us the description of the Toolsmith! Now you’ll be able to catch her, Twilight! Twilight?”

Twilight was sitting on the floor near the couch, her face emotionless. She seemed to process something, muttering silently “yellow coat… three umbrellas…”

“Something’s wrong, dear?” Octavia asked, “You’ve never seen that pony?”

“No, it’s not that,” said Twilight, “I’ve seen her… on a photo in Surveillance’s office.”

“So, guards already know her!” Vinyl exclaimed, “It’ll be easier to catch her!”

“I don’t think so… Her name is Parasol. Or rather it was Parasol. She died during the storm, long before Krissy went on a rampage.”

Author's Note:

On a side note: what do colourful cartoon ponies living in a magic land see after eating mushrooms?

Comments

[CultonoDk]

Not to go into a Twilight Sparkle mode here, but think it depends on the pony and his/her personality. Some might see their worst nightmare, some might see their hottest fansatsy, others might see something from Earth. (dun dun duuun !!)