Death Note: Equestria

by Nonagon

Victory (part 2)

31
*Victory*
(part 2)

All ponies, without exception, will eventually die.

The taste of the hospital reached Dash before anything else. The warm and sterile air teased the inside of her dry mouth, and before even the second of her senses had returned to her, she already knew exactly where she was.

The thing she hated most about hospitals was how long she was made to sleep inside of them. This was far from the first time she’d wound up in this room (and she privately doubted that it would be the last) but no matter how badly she’d damaged whatever part of herself she’d crash landed on top of this time, by the time she woke up it had already been set into place with a cast just finishing to dry. She understood why it was done, of course; keeping patients asleep was the best way to keep them relaxed and out of pain, and there was an unspoken trust that they would wake her up before doing anything they needed her permission to do. Hospitals were carefully monitored; any doctor who attempted anything intrusive without a patient’s consent would find being fired the least of their problems.

But even with full confidence in the ponies who’d dedicated their lives to helping others, Dash never felt fully comfortable waking up and knowing that she’d been handled by strangers. For hours afterwards she would feel the tingle of ghostly hooves poking and prodding her parts back into place, and sleep would never come easily in the nights to follow. So when she felt the glow of waking magic on this occasion and her senses started to return to her one by one, the first words that echoed around her head were the exact opposite of the ones she wanted to hear.

“No, what are you doing? Put her back to sleep again, now!”

With a faint snap, the world shot back into focus. Dash blinked, blearily looking from side to side. Above her were two doctors, one so dark as to be almost black, the other a sandy brown, both unicorns. She didn’t recognize either of them, but that was nothing new. “Can’t stop now,” said the brown one, a bright yellow line linking his horn to Dash’s forehead. “She’s got an appointment that she needs to be awake for. Morning, Dash.” He waved. Dash waved back, her strength returning.

The dark pony bared her teeth. “Her only appointment is with me, to clean her wings. It’s on her chart. We don’t know if it’s safe for her to move around yet.”

“I don’t care what’s on the chart. This guard guy got the okay from Doctor Cross himself to speak to her personally, and if we say no to him, we’ll be hearing no end of it from the board. Besides, it’s just down the hall.” With a final jolt of light, he finished his spell and smiled down at Dash again. “Ready to move around, sport?”

“Uh... yeah.” Dash coughed and swallowed hard. Now that the spell was gone, she felt like she’d been awake for a few hours already. Most of her body was covered by a blanket, but as she tried to lift herself up she felt the state of her body as the different parts of her protested. Though most of her was simply sore, she felt a few bandages run up her back, including one which she was sure must have covered stitches. Worse, her hind right leg was fully encased in a cast, refusing to bend as she tried to move.

The brown doctor nodded sympathetically at Dash’s pained expression. “Don’t worry, sport. It’s a big break, but not a bad one. We should have you up and running around in a week. Juice?”

Dash nodded gratefully. As she reached up to accept the proffered cup, she felt something pinch against her side. The doctors had left her belt on, perhaps afraid of setting off one of the orbs that hung from it if they moved it. She counted this as a blessing as she took a sip of the drink — Grape flavor, yuck. — and the doctors continued to argue above her. Snatching what little time she could, she pondered her options.

First things first. She needed to get back to the base. Jazz’s reassurances last night had hardly been satisfactory, and there was no way of telling how much time had passed since then. Every minute she spent here was another that Applejack might be trapped in captivity, waiting for somepony to arrive and clear her name. The doctors would probably only keep her until the end of the day, but if Straw Bolt managed to get his hooves on her, he probably wouldn’t let her go until she’d spilled every last secret that she’d spent the past month protecting. And if Twilight of all ponies was the mastermind they’d been chasing this whole time, there was no telling what tricks she’d have time to pull in the meantime.

Until she got back, there was no way of knowing if the others were still alive.

Her resolve tightened as the doctors finished their argument. “Look, I know it’s inconvenient,” the brown one was saying, “but it’s out of my hooves as well as yours.” He pulled a wheelchair closer to the bed. “Now are you going to help me or not?”

The dark one glared, but obediently lit up her horn. In a magic glow that was half yellow and half pink, the covers were pulled back and Dash found herself being gently lifted from the bed. She moved her wings as weight was lifted off of them, but instantly regretted it; although most of the debris had been removed, her feathers were still painfully unsettled and interspersed with leaves and bark. The doctors carefully laid her out in the chair, keeping her leg stretched straight out, and began to wheel her from the room. She held onto her cup, only pretending to drink more than she needed to soothe her dry throat, and waited for an opportunity.

One of these almost immediately presented itself in the form of a window. They were on the third floor of the hospital, where a series of corridors ran straight from one side of the building to the other, a glass portal to the world outside at each end. She was being wheeled directly towards one of these, the north square almost visible just outside, cramped offices passing her on each side. She eyed her opportunity and braced herself, hoping for a stop as close to her destination as possible.

Only two doors down from the window, the chair came to an abrupt halt. One doctor stayed behind her, while the other stepped up to an unmarked door. As she raised her hoof to knock, Dash made her move. She threw the last of her juice over her shoulder, splashing most of it in the brown doctor’s face, and as he yelped and covered his eye she threw herself from her chair. Right away she cried out in pain as she stumbled over her own leg, feeling the now familiar sensation of a knife sliding across her insides, but landed hard on her three functioning limbs and took off running. Pain continued as her rear leg dragged along the floor behind her, but the element of surprise gave her enough time to reach the window before the second doctor came to her senses.

The windows on these floors weren’t locked; this one came open with a simple push. Dash felt a magical grip tighten around her tail as she squeezed herself outside, but the dark doctor wasn’t able to keep hold as gravity took over and she tumbled her way to freedom.

A second later than she would have liked, her wings extended with the feel of glue coming unstuck. She nearly cried out at the sensation, but stayed her tongue. One wing refused to extend all the way, pulling her sharply in one direction, while her heavy leg dragged her back in the other, and an attempt at a flap only caused her to lose height. But by sheer effort she was able to maintain a glide, and what would otherwise have been a painful tumble to the ground turned into a speedy swoop that carried her all the way to the edge of Ponyville.

Dash landed heavily on a cobbled street, her functional legs shaking. The few other ponies who were meandering about gave her strange looks, but she ignored them. She plotted a course from here back to the base and groaned at the result; she had more than half of Ponyville to cover. Those doctors would soon be after her, and if they caught her, they’d... well, they’d still let her go, sooner or later, but not soon enough, and that was the point. She couldn’t leave a friend hanging, not if her life was on the line. She just couldn’t.

But I can’t run and I can’t fly, she complained, and then stopped. She laughed. As if that would ever stop me. With a deep breath, she mustered her reserves and began a clumsy, three-legged charge in the direction of her friends.

---

“Ouch,” Fluttershy whimpered.

“There, there,” Derpy soothed her. “Nearly done.” She finished wrapping a last layer of gauze around Fluttershy’s leg and started to tie it up.

The yellow mare whimpered again, this time more for effect. She looked around. Even though it had been several minutes since Derpy had carried her in and laid her down on the sofa, none of her animal friends had come to see if she was okay. She could only imagine that they’d been frightened away by the sight of blood. “I’m sorry for scaring you,” she said for the sixth time. “I shouldn’t have been so careless. Next time I’ll look where I’m going.”

“It’s okay,” Derpy answered, not losing her cheery demeanor. “Sometimes little roots can sneak up on you.” She planted a tiny kiss on the finished bandage and straightened up. “All done.”

Fluttershy lifted up her leg and examined it. Somewhat uncharitably, she’d been half-expecting that she would have to unbind it and start again on her own once Derpy had finished; for such a small tool, the pencil that she’d jammed into herself had made an awfully big hole. Derpy had seemed perfectly in her element, however, and had cleaned and dressed the wound without so much as a moment of hesitation. “This is... really good,” Fluttershy admitted. “Have you done this before?”

Derpy blushed. “I taught myself,” she said. “I fell down a lot when I was little, so I learned to fix things that got broke. Except sometimes I did it wrong and made it worse, and sometimes I made myself sick. After I had my little Muffin, I got some books and learned to do it right.”

Fluttershy examined the knot around her foreleg. It looked well-practiced. She mulled over everything she’d learned about Derpy in the past few days, and something in the pit of her stomach turned over. “Do you... have to do this a lot?” she asked carefully.

“I used to.” Derpy’s smile didn’t falter, but she did look away. “Little... Dinky used to be like her mommy. She’d trip and drop things and fall down the stairs. Every time she went on an adventure, she’d come back with holes in her. But she’s better now,” she quickly added as Fluttershy’s face fell. “She learned to be careful. She got better. She’s happy.”

Fluttershy spoke softly. “Just like her mommy?”

“...No.” Derpy turned fully away. “Not like her mommy.”

They stayed that way a little while in silence. A few critters poked their heads into the room, but quickly ducked out again. “I bet she misses you,” Fluttershy said after a while.

Derpy shuddered. “She has a new mommy now,” she mumbled. “A better mommy. She doesn’t need me any more.”

Fluttershy guessed at her meaning. “That doesn’t change anything,” she said. “Whoever’s looking after her now isn’t her mommy. You are. And I bet she misses you.”

Derpy looked back, lower lip trembling. “But—”

“No buts. Maybe you’re not the kind of mother you wanted to be, but right now, you’re the only family she’s got left. She’s your little girl, and you’re her mommy. There’s nothing you could do that would ever make her stop loving you.” She paused, waiting for Derpy’s reaction. They grey mare was silent. “You should go to her.”

Hesitantly, Derpy started to rise. She looked towards the door, then Fluttershy, then back again. “How do I make things right?” she asked.

“You don’t,” Fluttershy answered. “No one can. But you make things better, and that’s enough.” She reached out and gave her friend a farewell hug. “Now go. Your filly’s waiting for you.”

Still slowly, Derpy pulled away and stood up. She approached the door as she would a sleeping tiger, and her hoof was shaking when she pulled it open. When she looked back at Fluttershy one last time, however, there was a smile on her face. “Thank you,” she whispered. Then she ran outside, first trotting, then breaking into a gallop, and finally spreading her wings and soaring into the sky.

Fluttershy waited until Derpy had passed completely out of sight before letting out a sigh. “Finally,” she muttered.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like Derpy. Her advice had been genuine, after all. She just wished it hadn’t taken so long.

Without pause, Fluttershy left her cottage and hastily retraced her steps back into the forest. The path seemed shorter than the previous times she’d walked it, and before she arrived she could already see a dark shape hovering above the clearing. Her eyes widened with recognition. “Byuk!” she yelled, charging forward.

The god turned his head at her voice. He grinned broadly. “Hey, there you are!” he said, settling down on the ground. “I was wondering where you’d gone.”

Fluttershy stopped short in front of him. “Just some business,” she said breathlessly. “It’s so good to see you again! Oh, excuse me. I’m sorry.” She quickly bowed.

Byuk laughed. It was difficult to tell, but he blushed. “Hey, you don’t have to do that,” he said. “I got your present, though. Thanks for that. It was really thoughtful.”

Confused, Fluttershy straightened up and glanced around the clearing. She almost immediately caught sight of the bag that had held Mathilda, now torn open and empty. Bile filled her mouth. “I’m... glad you liked her. I mean it,” she mumbled, internally screaming.

“Sure was tasty. I think I like apples better, though. They’re juicier.” Seemingly oblivious to Fluttershy’s sudden paleness, his grin widened. “Hey, that reminds me! Want to try a Shinigami Realm apple?”

Fluttershy grinned weakly. “You have apples too?” she asked. “I thought nothing grew in your world.”

“Normally, nothing does. But sometimes, one of us will bring up some seeds from another realm and try to grow things there. It normally doesn’t end well, but since I’m not supposed to stay in another world without a reason, I had some free time on my hands, so I brought up some Pony Realm apple seeds to see if they’d do any better.” He reached into a space behind him and produced a perfectly spherical, dark green apple. “The first thing I learned is that pony apples grow really fast. The second...” He held it out to Fluttershy.

Cautiously, the pegasus accepted the fruit from him. It was surprisingly light, but appeared shiny and healthy. Although a little worried about whether it was safe for pony consumption, Byuk’s proud, foal-like smile made her hesitant to disappoint him. With a gulp, she raised it to her lips. The instant her teeth brushed the skin, however, it burst like a balloon, showering her face and the inside of her mouth with an impossibly fine grey dust.

“That usually happens,” Byuk continued as Fluttershy broke down into heaving coughs. “Do you think I should have watered them more?”

It was close to a minute before Fluttershy was able to speak or breathe without choking. “Maybe,” she wheezed. Swallowing hard, she moved past Byuk and reached into the hole she’d dug earlier. The bag and Death Note were right where she’d thrown them, only a quick scattering of dirt and stones keeping them from view. Her bloodied pencil was on the ground nearby; she picked this up as well. “These belonged to Twilight,” she said. “I know she wanted me to find them. But what am I supposed to do? How can I save her now?” She looked up at the shinigami behind her hopefully. “Is that why you’re here? Did she tell you what she wants me to do?”

“Nope.” Byuk scratched his head. “To be honest, I never understood the plan in the first place. They way she talked about it, it seemed like she thought you and her would be able to walk out of there together. But I was only watching about half the time while I was gone, so maybe I missed something.” He leaned over her, blinking at the two books. “Did she leave a note?”

Fluttershy picked up the Death Note again and flipped through it. Inside were pages and pages of Twilight’s familiar writing, but no messages for her. Next she reached into the bag and pulled out the remaining, far heavier book. Before she’d even managed to get it free, an envelope fell out from between the pages.

Byuk said something, but Fluttershy barely heard him. She grabbed the envelope and ripped it open with her teeth, frantically pawing out the letter within. All sound seemed to fade away as she unfolded it and started to read.

Dear Fluttershy,

(and I really hope it’s you reading this, and not anypony else, because otherwise this plan is... not looking its best,)

I’m sorry to do this to you again, but... if you’re reading this, it most likely means that I’m dead, or will be very soon. I haven’t told Mer or Byuk, but this was always the price for setting you free. In order to clear your name, I had to take your place. If L hasn’t executed me by now, the Third Kira soon will. But even though it may hurt, don’t be sad for me. This was my decision, and even though my memories may never return, I think some part of me, deep down, will know that everything’s going to be okay. Just as I have taken your place, I have full confidence that you will be able to take mine.

Fluttershy... after I’m gone, I want you to become Kira.

This isn’t a small thing that I’m asking of you. It’s a big job, and a dangerous one, too. Your name may be clear for now, but you will always be hunted, by good forces as well as evil. But despite this, I know that you have the strength and confidence to carry it out just as well as I ever could. I’ve written some guidelines and parameters below; memorize them well, because I want you to destroy this letter once you’re finished with it. With Byuk’s help and my teachings, you’ll be able to move past your old mistakes and become, truly and completely, the hero that Equestria needs.

You’re going to have to be brave. You’re going to have to believe in yourself. And you’re going to have to be so, so clever; you’ll need to know what rules to follow and what rules to break, when to strike and when to hide, who to trust and who to dispose of. But if you can do this, if you can rise to the challenge and save Equestria from destruction, then I promise that even if I don’t remember you, I will love you forever.

Fluttershy started to tear up. “Forever?” she whispered.

“Forever?” Byuk repeated, reading over her shoulder. He sounded genuinely confused. “Is that really how love works?”

The pegasus ignored him. She turned the page and continued reading.

But that isn’t to say that I’ve left you without any plan at all. If I’m right, and things have progressed in the way that will allow you to read this, then it won’t be long before you find L back on your tail. You see, Fluttershy, this mare isn’t like the police. She has no capacity for mercy or kindness. I’ve seen the way she gets when she’s on the hunt, and I already know that she’s not going to stop. My sacrifice will throw her off the scent for a while, but if you begin to kill as Kira while she’s still in the picture, then she won’t hesitate to betray you and everyone you hold dear if it means getting what she wants. Which is why, before your new life can begin, there’s one more thing that I need you to do.

Do you remember the mare who came to my door unexpectedly the last time we parted ways, just before you were captured? If you can, kill her now, and do it quickly.

“Oh!” Fluttershy raised a hoof to her mouth, thinking hard. She could remember that moment, though after losing her memories she’d thought that it had only been significant in retrospect. Even now, she could picture L’s face staring back at her in faint surprise, her name burning in the air above her head. And that name was...

It was...

Fluttershy’s face fell. It had been weeks since that day, and she’d had more important things on her mind than some pony whose only crime had been visiting a library in the morning. “I know this,” she told herself, concentrating her hard. “It was... something to do with her cutie mark... some kind of... harp...” She perked up, gasping joyously. “Yes! Harpy Chords!”

A pause. Her ears flattened again. “No, wait...” She sighed, sinking down. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I just can’t remember. Byuk, do you know?”

“Sorry,” the god said with a shrug and a grin. “Can’t tell you. It’s the rules. And even if it wasn’t, I’m not the type to just give names away. It’s my rules.” His smile widened. “And I got those rules from an old friend of mine. See, a long time ago, there was this—”

Ignoring him, Fluttershy went back to reading.

If you can’t, don’t worry about it. I don’t know how long it will be before you read this. Killing her alone wouldn’t solve your problems, anyway.

I wish I could say that I’ve had every part of this planned out since the beginning, so that I could give you a step-by-step set of instructions for winning. Sadly, that’s impossible. It was a lack of foresight from both of us that got us into this mess in the first place, and I’m not going to make that mistake twice. The truth is, I don’t know what L’s plan is going to be. I don’t know where I’ll be, how much you’ll know, or who’ll still be alive by the time you read this. I can offer advice, but nothing more. It’s going to be up to you to finish this.

This will be your first and only test. I’ve written down some of the most likely scenarios and best courses of action, but you’re the one who has to put the pieces together. If you can pull together all you’ve learned and put an end to this deadly game once and for all, I’ll know that you are ready to become Kira.

I believe in you, Fluttershy. I love you.

There was more to the letter, much more, but for several minutes Fluttershy simply stared at that one line, oblivious to Byuk’s continuing chatter, the gears in her head slowly beginning to turn.

---

Moans of agony echoed around Applejack’s chamber. They crackled along the walls, filling up every corner with a low, non-stop cry. Applejack sat in the middle of this, completely motionless, her head bowed.

It was a long time before the noise started to die down, or at least it felt that way; there was no way of measuring time in here. Eventually, however, the pained howls died down to a dull whimper, and another voice spoke. “Feeling better, Spikey-Wikey?”

A loud grunt. “Never call me that again.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. For some reason, the microphone in whatever room her captors were in had been reactivated a while after it had been shut off, awakening her near-constantly to the pressing news of Spike’s bellyache. Maybe they were trying to catch Mer off-guard again, or maybe somepony out there just wanted to keep her in the loop. If this was a show of goodwill, it certainly wasn’t a pleasant one.

Although every noise that passed through the speakers was distorted, there were a few subtle differences between each voice that she’d slowly learned to pick up. She could tell that Spike was in the room with them, along with somepony called Bon Bon, who seemed to be looking after him. Closer by was the one they called Harpy, who seemed to be in charge; of course, if this was the same Harpy whom Applejack had caught glimpses of in the storm last night, she was clearly far too young to be the real L. Maybe she was the detective’s assistant. Those were all the voices that she’d heard since the microphone had come back on; she could only assume that Mer was still alongside them, but if she was, the god was being very quiet.

Applejack bore all this in mind, but it wasn’t her focus at the moment. With all the pieces of the puzzle that she’d collected that day drifting back and forth around her, she focused all of her attention on the one thing that she’d come to realize shortly after finishing her breakfast.

Her right foreleg was loose.

When her jailer had tied her up again before leaving, he’d been hurried and unfocused. The black band around her hoof had been, at first, a little too tight, but as she’d flexed her ankle to try and work some blood back into that part of her leg, there’d been a faint pop and her binding had gently released itself from her.

With her right hoof free, and the main binding around her top half already removed to allow her to eat, this left only one band pinning her leg to the rest of her body, just below her knee. She’d spent her time since straining at this last trapping, feeling its fibres stretching and struggling to keep her in place, all the while trying to look like she wasn’t moving at all.

Over the speakers, a quill scratched on paper. A distant chair scraped. Somepony took a bite of something crunchy. There was no way of telling when a good time would be to make her move, or whether a good time would ever come. All she could do was stretch. And so she stretched, clenching her muscles as tightly as she could, until at last, her efforts were rewarded by the snapping of a single fibre. There was a soft, metallic ping.

All at once, silence. A tense pause, and then a soft, whispered voice. “What is she doing?”

Oh, horseapples.

In an instant, Applejack forgot all about stealth. She twisted her hoof out of its bindings and raised her foreleg high, punching out with all her might. On its own, the lone band was no match for her strength and snapped loudly, freeing her. Right away she began to paw at the back of her head, searching for the key to removing her mask. It was tied on with a simple but large knot, which she chose to simply slide off instead of untying, plucking out a few hairs from her mane that had gotten tangled up in it as the mask came free.

Already there were noises; scrapes and stomping hooves, and little clawed feet getting closer and closer. Part of her found itself disappointed that there weren’t any alarms. She heard Harpy’s voice. “Bon Bon, sort her out.”

More hoofsteps, then the noise from the microphone cut out. Applejack shook her mane from her eyes and traced her hoof across the bands around her left foreleg. The buckles were near-invisible and lay flat across the slightly rubbery surface; it took several seconds of frantic scratching before she figured out how to pry it up and twist it loose. “Come on, come on,” she muttered, painfully pulling at her leg as she pulled it free.

Before she even had time to examine her lower half, she heard hoofsteps running in the corridor outside. For a moment she flailed uselessly at her trapped limbs, then froze and curled her lip as a new idea came to her. She reached forward and kicked over the table in front of her, scattering the remaining bowls and utensils, then threw herself forward as hard as she could. The extra reach was enough to let her overbalance, falling onto her front hooves and carrying the chair with her.

The speakers switched on just long enough for Harpy to deliver a short message. “Stop struggling, Applejack. You can’t get away from us.”

“Watch me,” she grunted back. She closed her eyes and leaned forward. She could hear the heavy clunks of the door being unlocked, but she ignored it. Clenching her teeth, Applejack pushed backwards. Even bound, her hind legs began to twist themselves into a position they’d assumed thousands of times before, straining to snap out with the force of a cannon shot. Her flesh burned as dark bands tightened and scraped along her sides, fighting just as hard to keep her in place.

With a dull, ominous creak, the metal surface beneath her began to buckle.

Seconds before the door opened, the chair burst apart. The seat bent against the backrest until it snapped off completely, and two of the legs flew out horizontally and impaled themselves in the padding on the back wall. The bands around her hind legs slid right off, and it only took another yank to detach the metal remains from her back and let the last of her bindings fall to the floor. The moment she was free, she charged towards the door. A face which had just started to peer inside quickly withdrew, but Applejack rammed her way through before the portal could be closed again. She shoved aside the tan earth pony who barred her way and charged in the direction she guessed the hoofsteps from before had come from.

A stray observation nearly made her turn around for a second look, but she managed to resist the urge to slow down. Even so, a stray thought buzzed around her head as she ran. The hay kind of name was that?

Unmarked doors passed on each side; Applejack's hooves thudded dully against the stone floor. She’d guessed by now that she was underground, but more than that she couldn’t say. A junction reared up towards her and she paused just long enough to listen, turning in the direction of a magical hum. Less than a minute later, she emerged into a large, square room.

Spike stared at her in horror, a sandwich falling apart in his hands. Above an otherworldly, cube-shaped apparatus in the middle of the room, Mer slowly opened her eyes into a glare. However, neither of these two caught Applejack’s attention. It was the room’s third occupant that she found her gaze being pulled towards: a mint green unicorn, the same one she’d seen outside, sitting at a desk and staring back at her unblinkingly. She didn’t look angry, or afraid, or even surprised. She was only staring, as though waiting to see what the earth pony would do next.

In the air above her head, her name burned.

Mer broke the silence first. “Where do you think you’re going?” she hissed.

Applejack gulped. She tore her gaze away from the pony at the desk and glared back up at the god. “Home,” she answered. With that, she took off again, easily dodging around Spike as he desperately tried to stand in her way, and aimed herself towards the large iron doors on the room’s far side. They swung open easily, not even locked, and she wasn’t followed as she stumbled out to a dark staircase, leading up to freedom. She started to slow as she ascended, uncertain if this was really happening, and stopped when she reached the top. A ceiling of wood barred her way. One kick was all it took to clear her way. The earth moved, and the sky opened up before her.

Behind her in the base, the iron doors finally clicked shut. None of the room’s occupants had moved. Mer gave L a long, suspicious stare, then slowly spread her wings and lifted herself up through the ceiling.

Spike blinked a few times. “What... just happened?” he asked. When this failed to provoke a response, he tried again. “Should we go after her?”

“No.” L lifted herself out of her chair and walked towards Spike, still calm. “I want you to find Fluttershy and Derpy. Tell them I need them to come back here as soon as possible. Tell them it’s very important. Then, once you’ve done that, lead them back here as soon as possible.” She stopped and leaned down towards him. “Can you do that?”

“Uh... yeah.” Spike blinked again, thoroughly confused. “But what about Applejack? Shouldn’t we do something about her?”

“Ponyville is full of guards, who I suspect are on the lookout for her, as well as her friends,” L said casually. “She won’t get far. Even if she does, let me worry about her. You have a job to do.” Spike stayed still a moment longer. “Go!” L insisted, jabbing towards the door. Spike took off, pausing halfway to lean over and clutch at his stomach, but then darting as fast as his legs would carry him towards the exit.

As soon as Spike was gone, L returned to her desk. She picked up a small stratoscreen and the Death Note, which she had covered up with other papers, and turned back in the direction of the prison cells. As she trotted out of the room with a strange spring in her step, she passed Bon Bon, who was trudging the other way while rubbing her side with a scowl. “Everything all right, dear?” the earth mare asked.

L grinned slyly at her. “Just as planned.”

---

Applejack stared out from beneath the tree she’d taken shelter under. Mer was soaring overhead, probably looking for her, but didn’t seem to have noticed her yet. After a minute of waiting, the god spread her wings further and rose higher in the sky, drifting off to parts unknown. Applejack let out a sigh. She was safe, for now.

Getting back home would be tricky. She set her sights across town, frowning. She’d already made it most of the way across the park before paranoia had made her stop to hide from Mer; thankfully, it was too early for anypony else to be out yet. She didn’t have far to go, not if she took the shortcut across the river near the Carrot homestead... but she had no idea what she was going to say when she arrived. She didn’t know what to do, period. She’d been a farm girl her whole life, and she’d learned at a young age that you didn’t solve problems by sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. The only way to make things better was to act, and down in that prison, her every instinct had been screaming at her to get up and do something. She just didn’t know what.

The weight of the day seemed to weigh heavy on her. Groaning, Applejack collapsed against the tree, rubbing her eyes. “What do Ah do?” she asked.

As if in answer, a familiar voice called to her from across the park. “Applejack?”

Applejack looked up. A streak of colours was hobbling towards her from the park’s entrance, a relieved smile on her face visible even from this distance. “Rainbow!” she called back as loudly as she dared, beckoning but not yet willing to leave the shelter of the tree. She froze and her jaw dropped as her friend came fully into view. “What the...”

Rainbow Dash stumbled to a stop, panting and out of breath. “AJ, what...” She froze as well as she got a good look at the earth pony, trembling in shock. “What happened to you?”

Applejack stared in incomprehension, then followed Dash’s gaze and raised a hoof to her own face. Her cheeks and eye were still swollen up, and she could feel flakes of dirt still crusted to her skin. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the tip of her nose jutting slightly to one side. She considered her reputation and decided not to reveal who exactly had done this to her. “It’s nothing,” she said, shrugging it off. “Can’t even feel it any more. But...” She gestured to Dash’s leg and mangled wings. “What happened to you? You look like a cracker box that’s gone through a grain thresher!”

Dash looked down at herself. She considered her reputation and decided not to reveal who exactly had done this to her. “It’s not important,” she said. “Just had to hitch a ride in a straw cart to get here. But what are you doing here? Are they still looking for you?”

“They got me. But Ah got out.” She winced as Dash’s expression turned to one of panic. “Don’t worry. Nopony’s dead, as far as Ah know. But listen, we don’t have time to catch up. They’ve got the Death Note, and the real Kira’s still out there.”

“Death Note?”

Applejack sighed. “It’s the magical notebook that Mer gave me,” she explained quickly. “If Ah write somepony’s name on a page from the book, that pony dies. But if somepony other than me tries to use it, they die instead.”

Dash took a moment to absorb this, shaking her head. “Normally I’d call that impossible, but...”

“Don’t. We don’t have time.” Applejack nearly grabbed her friend for emphasis, but under the circumstances decided against touching her. “Whoever’s in that base has mah Death Note, and Ah’m no closer to finding theirs. Even if Ah took it back, they’d just hunt me down again. They’ve got me right where they want me. Ah can’t win.”

“No, it’s okay,” Dash reassured her. “Twilight’s Kira. Jazz told me they know.”

“Twilight ain’t Kira.”

A look of intense relief crossed over Dash’s face, followed by realization and fear. “Really?” she squeaked.

“Really.” Applejack nodded. “Don’t ask how Ah know... it would take too long to explain. But Mer was wrong, or maybe she was lying, Ah don’t know. Somehow, the real Kira got Twilight to take the fall for her. Either way...” She looked at the ground. “Ah’ve lost.”

Dash thought. After a while, she spoke. “If your Death Note gets destroyed, and you lose the game... will you know?”

Applejack nodded solemnly. “If mah Note is burned, Ah’ll die, along with everypony else who’s touched it.” Her eyes started to water. “Including mah family.”

“Right.” Rainbow swallowed this and kept going. “Just... there was one other pony who I thought fit the bill for Kira. But...” She glanced back towards the base. “I guess not. If it was her, she would have burned your Death Note already by now.”

“What?” Applejack’s head snapped back up. “Dash, how many of you are normally in the base?

“Um...” In a panic, she counted to herself. “There’s ten of us total.”

“When Ah got out, Ah only saw three.” Applejack gulped. “Sugarcube, she’s got me pinned tighter than a flightless owl in a landslide. She doesn’t need to hurry. If she burns mah Note, she’ll die too, but if she uses her own to kill me, she can keep them both and stay Kira for as long as she wants.” She leaned forward for emphasis. “Right now, she’s sending everyone away so she can kill me without being seen.”

Dash froze in fear. Applejack paused before speaking again. “What does she look like?”

“She’s... she’s a green unicorn...”

Applejack stopped her by putting a hoof over her mouth. “That’s enough,” she said. “Now Ah’ve gotta get home. You stay here and stop Kira from killing me until Ah get back, okay?”

Dash nodded in incomprehension, but smiled at her friend’s change in tone. “Are we gonna stop Kira?”

“We are.” Grinning like madmares, the pair bumped hooves. “Don’t let me down.”

“Awesome. Hey... hey, wait,” Dash called as Applejack started to turn away. Clumsily, she reached down and unbuckled her belt. “Take this,” she said, pulling off one of the hanging orbs for herself and holding out the rest. “If nopony’s at the base, some of them are probably guarding your house. These might help. I don’t know what they do, but they’re supposed to be good for getting out of trouble. Just pull out the pin and throw.”

“Thanks.” Applejack smiled gratefully, throwing the belt over her shoulder. “Ah’ll be back soon, alright?” She started running before Dash could respond, yelling over her shoulder. “Just stop her from using the Note!”

“All right!” Rainbow Dash shouted back. She turned the other way and started the fastest trot she could manage towards the base’s entrance, getting halfway there before realizing the flaw in Applejack’s plan. But... you don’t even know her name...

---

“Good morning, Twilight.”

Twilight awoke to the feel of her mask being gently removed. She winced at the harshness of the light around her, only slowly coming to recognize the green face uncomfortably close to her own. “Oh,” L said, peering closer still. “You really were asleep?”

“Yes!” Twilight shook herself as much as she could, trying to wake her stiff body up. “You left me in here all night! I thought it was just going to be a few hours!”

The detective shrugged unapologetically. “Time passes. You’re not the only one who has a role to play. Deal or no deal, you’re still my prisoner.” She held up a honey-glazed cracker shaped like a duck. “Breakfast?”

Twilight tried to call some energy into her fake horn, but it was no use; the Devouring Seal inside her head had closed up again during the night. Reluctantly, she opened her mouth and allowed L to feed her by hoof. As this was going on, she thought back and tried to recollect what had gone on the previous night.

Touching the Death Note had been terrifying. Somehow, without needing to be told, she’d known exactly who Mer was and exactly what was going to happen to her. A sense of absolute evil and terror had filled her, as well as a foal-like guilt, the feeling of being accused. This feeling had abated once the book had been knocked out of her grip, but the angry and fearful stares of her friends bored into her even now. The only respite had been L’s last words to her, moments before a black bag tightened around her head:

“When you wake, scream for an hour, then tell me everything you know. Scream some more, then pretend to sleep until I come for you.”

For the first half hour, she hadn’t been acting. She’d awoken into bondage and pain, and at first couldn’t remember that L had said anything at all. But once her time was up, she told her... everything. She told her about her deteriorating health in the early part of the investigation. She told her about the long, sleepless nights, and her dream of being haunted by a nightmarish incarnation of Rarity. She told her about the flashes of white she’d seen at the Apple house, and the hisses and words that L hadn’t seemed to be able to hear. And all throughout, she’d found herself repeating the same words, over and over again:

“Maybe I am Kira.”

“You’re not Kira,” L said, seeming to read her mind. “Which is not to say you’re not involved. It does, however, paint a more comfortable picture of past events.”

Twilight shivered. “Are... are you certain?”

L smirked. “Twilight, do you want to know a secret?” she asked. “I have never been certain of anything in my entire life.” She turned away. “There were, however, clues. Kira has played a very careful game, and the easiest place to conceal a lie is hidden between two truths.” From behind her, she held up the Death Note. Twilight recoiled at the sight. “I have no reason to doubt that the Death Note is real. Even if we can’t confirm its killing power, there can be no denying that is has otherworldly properties. Applejack, too, has left nothing out. By one means or another, her side of the story seems to be genuine.” She looked at Twilight curiously. “How much of that were you able to catch?”

“I think... most of it,” Twilight answered. “I was still screaming at that point. But I caught Mer’s story, and the rules of the Death Note. It got quiet after that.”

“That was when Luna came in. You were up to date, so I let you rest. Which means that the lie in this bitter sandwich, then,” she continued, “was Mer herself.”

“What do you mean?”

“I checked your suspicions and rewatched our footage from the Apple household. Now that I have touched the Note, she’s clearly visible in the recording... but only for the first two days. After that, after your dream, she began to hide herself.” L began to flip through the Death Note casually. “Furthermore, I’ve been searching the contents of your room every twelve hours ever since you arrived. The pages that implicated you only appeared within the past twenty-four hours. However, the most damning piece of evidence was one that she presented herself, almost as soon as she arrived.”

“Wait, you’ve been going through my stuff?” Twilight asked.

L ignored this. “I believe that Applejack can be forgiven for not catching this, but it’s not something that she could slip past me. Twilight, do you speak any Neighponese?”

“Um... only a few words.”

“The name that Mer gave us for her species... shinigami.” L almost spat the word. “There are a few definitions that apply, but the most accurate translation is... god of death.”

L grinned as Twilight’s eyes widened in comprehension. “It’s for this reason that I’ve been sending everypony from the base, one by one,” she explained. “It’s for this reason that I allowed Applejack to escape. It’s—”

“You what?”

“Oh, that was quite simple.” L shrugged. “I allowed Applejack to overhear half of a confession from Mer, incensing her to boiling point, and gave Jazz coded instructions to leave her partly untied after speaking with her and not engage any magical safeguards. These black bands are Blight-standard, but they’re mostly psychological, and actually quite easy to get out of. If she had not attempted to break out on her own, I would have staged it myself, but she ran like a mare possessed.” The emphasis was not lost on Twilight. “By then, nearly everyone else had been sent to safety, allowing Applejack to run out unimpeded and distracting Mer long enough for us to have this conversation. It is vitally important that she does not find us here.”

Twilight looked around. “You let a murderer go just to create a distraction? What if she comes back for us? And if you haven’t noticed, Mer can walk through walls; do you really think this inescapable cell is the best place to hide?”

“Oh? You still haven’t figured it out?” L flitted about Twilight, a teasing smile playing about her lips. “And don’t worry about Applejack. She won’t be a threat for long. All she has to do is keep Mer distracted until my plan comes to fruition.”

“So... I don’t understand. You think Mer is the real Kira?”

“No, Twilight,” L answered. Her smile fell away. “Whatever power she once had, she’s a playing piece, just like the rest of us. She’s the weather pony, while you are the butterfly, and I the coveted lightning bolt. No, the real Kira has been playing a very long game — taking on multiple roles, pulling her victims into place, and even throwing wool over the eyes of a god of death. The entire past month has been one long, complicated setup, but not of Applejack. Of you.”

“Me?” Twilight tried to sit up straight, only struggling uselessly against her bonds. “Why me?”

“Why not you? It can’t have escaped your attention that you make a perfect Kira. Almost... too perfect.” L held up a hoof. “Step one: steal the book of Equestrian Justice Records from you, enhancing her killing potential and drawing you into the investigation right away. Step two,” she continued, shaking her hoof but not raising another, “use the powers of the Death Note to fake the murder-suicide of Rarity and Pinkie Pie right in front of you, giving you both the leverage and motivation to join the team.”

Twilight turned white. “You mean... you think Rarity and Pinkie Pie really were killed by Kira?”

“Of course they were,” the detective spat. “I figured that out almost immediately. You and I both know Rarity would never kill a friend of her own accord. Step three.” She shook her hoof again. Her eyes hardened, staring directly into Twilight’s. “Infiltrate the investigative team and further implicate you by seducing one of its members, then amateurishly exposing herself as the second Kira.”

If it were possible, Twilight would have paled further, and her breath all but stopped. “What?”

“Step four. Pass the Death Note — or, given the running theme of duality, more likely a Death Note — on to a new Kira, preemptively scheduling the deaths of more farmers to lead us to them. Step five: Feign ignorance until released. After all, nopony would permanently detain so innocent a victim who was so obviously being set up. Step six.” At this point she finally lowered her hoof and raised another. “Allow the fake Kira to be captured. Her partner, or at this point sidekick, Mer, spins us a false story about two duelling gods, distracting from her true motivation and pinning you, Twilight, as the true villain. She then exits the investigation for good, as the rules make it impossible for her to be Kira if both you and Applejack are. Step seven: return to power, having never given up the Note in the first place, and continue the game. She doesn’t need to kill me; doing so would only allow others to take my place. As long as she has me believing this false narrative about Byuk and Mer, she can control the clues as she pleases and keep me hunting shadows forever.”

Twilight shook her head. “That’s... that’s impossible!” she yelled, struggling mightily against her bonds. “She... I... I don’t care if it makes sense! Fluttershy would never do that!” She glared. “And for all your talking, you still have no proof!”

“We’ll... see about that.” L picked up the stratoscreen she’d brought and turned it on with a tap. “You see, when I allowed Fluttershy to leave the base, there are two reasons why I sent Derpy Hooves with her,” she continued. “The first was an act of mercy. Of the lot of us, Fluttershy excluded, Derpy is by far the least intimidating and the least likely to be a potential threat. Had I sent anyone else, they would by now be dead. The second reason...” The screen finally connected, and L scrolled back and forth through the recording. Her hoof was strangely hesitant, as though she was trying not to see something more than she was looking for it. “While I can’t say that I have the same level of expertise with the analytical engine as my associate Jazz, I do have enough of an understanding of it to move a single crystal camera bug around at a time. Say, for instance... to instruct it to move from one source of heat to another.” She paused the screen and held it up so both she and Twilight could see, deliberately not looking at her. “Take a look.”

The view was a dizzying one. The louse that had spent so long in Derpy’s mane was now only shakily attached to a new surface, wavering wildly at the slightest movement. The screen was blurry and unfocused, trying and failing to adjust to the inconsistent light. A few details, however, could be made out. A thin yellow fuzz highlighted the right edge of the screen, while an uneven waterfall of pink obscured the left. Fluttershy was in some kind of forest, close to the ground, with the wind moving the grass and shrubs around her. And laying open in front of her, clutched tightly in her hooves, was what was unmistakably a thin, black notebook.

L sighed, staring blankly at the screen. “And so it ends. There was no fourth Kira; there was not, truly, even a second. It was Fluttershy, all along.” She picked up a cracker shaped like a rabbit and decisively bit off its head. “As they say... gotcha.”

“No.” The last of Twilight’s will to live drained out of her as she stared at the screen. “It... it can’t be true.” She tried to hang her head, but couldn’t tear herself away from it. A lifetime of adventures flashed before her eyes — meeting her in the park, discovering their Elements together, fashion shows, hiding Philomena, fighting Discord, picnics in the park, watching her jumpstart a cyclone, bathing together, sharing stories, their first kiss, being set alight by Spike in the rain — and then crumbled and vanished beneath this new image of an unrepentant murderer. She whimpered and closed her eyes. “Was it all a lie?”

“Perhaps.” L finally turned back towards her captive. “Do not cry, Twilight,” she said, laying the screen down and gently touching her face. “I have already sent Spike to retrieve her. It will all be over soon.” Her voice lowered in volume. “For her and you.”

“Huh?” Confusion blurred the edges of her sorrow. “What are you talking about?”

“Step eight, Twilight.” Slowly, as though holding a wounded animal, she reached forward and wrapped her forelegs around the bound pony, pulling her into an embrace. “In order for the game to continue,” she whispered, “a new set of Kiras have to rise. According to the current rules, the only way that that can happen is if the original Kiras are dead. Twilight... The only reason I’m telling you this is because I believe you’re about to die.”

There was a long silence. “What? What. What!?” Abruptly, Twilight thrashed within her black bands. She would have thrown L off of her if she’d been able to do so. “You let her go knowing that she was going to kill me!?”

“This was my one chance at catching her.” L didn’t move. “What would you have had me do?”

“So you’re leaving me to die?” Twilight snarled back. She twisted her head enough to smack her cheek against L’s, but the detective didn’t even flinch. “I thought we were friends, you... you heartless monster!”

The grip around her tightened. “What would you have had me do?” L growled. “If I had kept her here without proof, I would have been forced to set her free eventually. In that time, Mer could easily have raised up a new Kira to face me, and hundreds more ponies might have died. I had to make a choice. All my life, I’ve had to make these choices.” Just like that, she was shouting. “Do you think I wanted this?”

Twilight was speechless. L lifted her head up, not enough that Twilight could see her face, and her horn lit up green. Unlike the first time, there was no pain. The bubble in Twilight’s head popped, and her fake horn dissolved into smoke. In its place, her real horn smoothly slid back out, passing through her skin like water. “There,” L muttered once her spell was done. “Your powers are returned. If you want to hurt me, hurt me. If you want to kill me... do it. Blame it on the Death Note. Bon Bon can finish the case without me. I just...” Her voice cracked. Something wet rolled down Twilight’s neck. “I just don’t want to lose you.”

Experimentally, Twilight called up her magic. It felt exactly the same as when it had been sealed away, right down to a lingering ache from her headache the day before that. She encircled one of the bands around her leg and effortlessly snapped it open, throwing it across the room. Then she did another. She moved up her body like this, freeing herself piece by piece, gently nudging L when she needed to. The detective didn’t otherwise move. When she was completely free, she lifted up her forelegs, hearing them creak after being still for so long. She pressed her hooves against L’s middle and tensed up, as though she were about to push her away. After some seconds, she moved forward further and encircled her, completing the hug. “You stupid pony,” she muttered.

They stayed that way for quite some time. Then, overhead, the lights flickered.

L broke the embrace, all but leaping away. Whatever expression she had been making while Twilight had held her, her face was now blank and dry. “That was a distress signal,” she explained before Twilight could ask. “Twilight, are you still with me?”

Unsteadily, Twilight stood up. She almost fell as she jumped down from her chair, but managed to catch and steady herself at the last second. “Yes,” she answered firmly.

“Thank you.” L pointed her horn at the door and fired a complex series of energy bursts at it, unlocking it from the inside. White mist began to form at the corners of the room. “When that door opens,” she said, “prepare to run.”

---

The Apple family’s kitchen was all but silent. Big Macintosh and Jazz sat at the table across from each other, staring at one another in silence. On the table’s third side, Colgate dozed. She’d insisted on sitting with them at first, making an effort to look alert, but had soon put her head down and started to snore. Her breakfast, a bowl of raw carrots and gummy worms, lay untouched in front of her.

On the floor beside them, Locket played a game of checkers with Apple Bloom. She’d at first tried to go easy on the filly, only to find that she didn’t have to; the little pony had already beaten her six times out of eight. In her defense, she argued to herself, she had other things on her mind. Big Macintosh hadn’t so much as acknowledged her presence since she’d walked in. She’d been making an effort to do the same to him, but hadn’t been able to keep herself from staring pleadingly in his direction every so often.

Time passed. Apple Bloom sniffed. In the background, a clock ticked.

“You know,” Big Macintosh rumbled, “jazz is a kind of apple.”

“Is it?” said Jazz.

“It is.”

“Hm.”

Silence fell again. Colgate shifted, just slightly. Apple Bloom won another game. The two stallions at the table continued to stare.

Just then, there was a crash. The front door was brutally kicked open and slammed into the wall, knocking down a set of portraits. Applejack staggered in, panting for breath. In an instant, Jazz was on his hooves, his horn already charging for an attack. Colgate woke up, looking around frantically and nearly falling over, and Locket shrieked. At the same time, Mer dropped down through the ceiling, hovered over the table, and pointed at the escaped pony triumphantly. “Hah!”

A small orb bounced off the tip of Jazz’s horn, rose up towards the surprised god’s face, and split open.

There was a loud bang and a blinding flash of green light, and a sudden wave of smoke filled the room. “Jazz!” Colgate yelled, starting to stand, but was cut off as Big Macintosh leaped up and flipped the table. The edge of it caught her under the chin and lifted her into the air, carrying her with it until she crashed into the cupboards on the far side of the room. A second later, Apple Bloom followed suit and flipped the checkerboard, bopping Locket smartly on the nose, then leaped at her with the ferocity of a feral cat.

Applejack strode forward, coughing. Already the air was starting to clear. Both Mer and Jazz had simply disappeared, and Colgate appeared to be out cold. Locket ran past her in circles, shrieking as Apple Bloom clung to her head, biting and yanking at her mane. “Apple Bloom, knock it off,” Applejack commanded. The filly reluctantly let go and dropped down, growling and backing Locket into the far corner before retreating to stand by her brother’s side.

Big Macintosh regarded his sister’s approach calmly. “Nice toy,” he said. “Weren’t expecting you ‘til later. Maybe months later.”

“Lyra Heartstrings,” Applejack said in place of an answer. “Mer’s plan didn’t work. The real Kira got Twilight to take the fall for her. She’s free while Twilight’s locked up. So we’re goin’ with plan B.”

Mac nodded. “Good to hear you didn’t take those eyes for nothing. Nopony else knows you’ve got them?”

“That’s right. She won’t know what hit her.” She looked around the battered kitchen. “Where are the killing pages?”

Her brother sighed and looked towards Colgate. “She searched the house, even the hidden spots. She even got the ones pinned under your desk. What she didn’t take, she burned. There’s nothing left.”

Applejack trembled. Without warning she let out a roar and bucked the doorframe next to her, knocking a chunk of wood out of the wall. “That’s it, then,” she groaned, shaking her head. “Ah’ve got nothing left. Kira wins.”

“Now, hold on.” Big Mac approached her. “What does she look like?”

“It doesn’t matter—” Applejack started to snap, but then restrained herself. “Ah’m sorry. It doesn’t matter if Ah tell you what she looks like.” She gulped. “Look, Ah’m sorry that we never talked about this, but... Ah’m the only one who can use the killing pages.”

For the first time that day, Apple Bloom spoke, so quietly that the others almost didn’t hear her. “What?”

Applejack sighed deeply. “Mer lied to you,” she said. “And... Ah lied, too. Half the pages in that pile were fake. Mer and Ah worked it out after she arrived. We needed y’all to believe you were part of the process, but the truth is, you had nothing to do with it. Ah was Kira, all along.”

Big Mac stepped closer, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “That ain’t true,” he said.

“It is,” Applejack told him. She smiled sympathetically. “You ain’t even seen the real notebook. It’s black like death itself, with six—”

“—silver letters on the front, and eight rules on the inside,” Macintosh finished.

Slowly, Applejack’s jaw dropped. “How did you...”

“Because Mer came to me first.” He smiled gently, eyes cold. “Before she ever showed up at our table, she came to me, and together we made a deal. She needed a team, and Ah knew that you would try to take the fall for all of us, whether you believed it or not. So we let you believe that you were the real Kira, just for a little while, and before the first session she took a page from the bottom of the pile and moved it to the top. That means it was you who wrote on the fake ones, while mine were real. And that means that you,” he said, leaning down and pressing his forehead against Applejack’s, “and you,” he added, looking towards Apple Bloom, “have never killed anypony.” He stared deep into the filly’s wide eyes. “Not once. Not ever. You’re innocent.”

“...Mac.” Applejack took a step back, wiping her eyes. “Ah don’t know what to say.”

“You can tell me what Lyra Heartstrings looks like.” He looked back towards her. “And we can be rid of this curse once and for all.”

“All right.” Applejack gulped. “She’s a green unicorn with a white and green mane. Yellow eyes. Cutie mark’s a golden stringed thing; some kind of harp. But Ah don’t know what good this does you,” she argued. “It still won’t work if you haven’t seen her face.”

Big Macintosh paused. He slowly turned and looked towards Colgate, slumped against the counters. His memory began to stir. He recalled the other time he’d seen her unconscious; the night at Brass Tap’s, when she’d drunk her own weight in cider and begun to ramble about her life. The night she’d finished by falling to the floor, and having to be carried home. Most vividly, he remembered the fast-talking mare who’d come to collect her.

“No,” he said, “Ah know who you mean.” He looked back towards Applejack. “But the one time Ah saw her, she was an earth pony.”

Applejack started to frown, then stopped. Her lips trembled and began to move of their own accord. “Like...” She hardly dared to finish the thought. “Like a unicorn who’d lost her horn.”

All of a sudden, she felt light-headed. Maybe it was the smoke, or exhaustion, or the feel of being in her home again, but all of the cares of the past nightmarish weeks seemed to drop away. For the first time since this had all begun, she genuinely smiled. “Big Mac,” she said. “Apple Bloom.” She looked back and forth between them, her eyes shining. “Ah love you.”

Applejack
Heart attack
Goes to her brother and reveals to him the true name and face of the pony known as L, and removes all obstacles preventing him from leaving. She then dies.
Also, she doesn’t feel any pain and she dies happy and at peace after telling her family that she loves them.

Applejack’s legs buckled. Slowly, as if she were falling asleep, her eyes closed. She hit the floor with barely any sound at all and lay still.

Neither of the remaining Apple siblings moved. Apple Bloom stared in silent horror, beginning to tremble, while Big Macintosh didn’t react at all. Instead his eyes flicked up to the far corner of the room, where Locket had stood paralyzed throughout this exchange, too terrified to move. She squeaked and fell onto her rump as he took a step towards her. “Stay away from me!” she cried as he stomped his way up to her. “Don’t come any closer! Stop—”

With a light, gentle touch, he reached out and lifted her up until she was standing on all fours again. Then he kissed her, powerfully and slowly.

A second before the kiss ended, he felt something tighten around his ankle. Pulling away only slightly, he looked back. A chain of light wrapped around his rear leg, snaking across the kitchen floor and up to the tip of Colgate’s horn. She’d raised her head enough to look at him, a mad grin on her face, her eyes alight with pure hatred. “You’re... not... going... anywhere...” she wheezed.

Big Mac ignored her. He turned back to Locket and planted a final peck on the end of her nose, looking into her stunned eyes. “Look after Apple Bloom,” he whispered.

Then he turned away, reared up, and galloped across the house and out the front door, dragging Colgate bouncing and cursing behind him.

---

In a flash of light and smoke, Mer and Jazz reappeared. The unicorn immediately started choking and collapsed to the floor, while Mer took in her surroundings. They’d arrived in a white and padded room, clearly one of the cells within that L pony’s base. She kicked at the pony below her, causing him to convulse. “Meat!” she yelled, forgetting naming conventions in her panic. “What was that?”

The pony didn’t answer. He seemed not to have heard her; in fact, aside from the kick, he seemed not to be aware of her presence at all, being much more preoccupied with coughing and twitching on the ground. She growled in frustration. Absurd pony magic, she reckoned. If I’d been ready, that wouldn’t have affected me at all. Grumbling to herself, she floated out through the door, finding herself in a hallway of identical doors. Picking a direction at random, she started to drift.

Many minutes later, she was still drifting. The doors around her had changed from empty cells to empty storerooms and back again, the hallways turning and branching at odd angles and irregular intervals with no indication of which, if any, was the main passage. She was starting to get the impression that she was going in circles, but of course she trusted that she was far too clever for that. The layout of this preposterous structure simply didn’t make any sense. She cursed whatever idiotic pony had designed it, and was about to rise to the surface and try to find her way back from there when she heard the echoing sound of running hooves nearby. Curiosity rising, she followed.

A few wrong turns and not much time later, she finally found a corridor that she recognized and followed it to the main chamber. There, she found an unexpected sight. Twilight Sparkle was standing free and unbound near one side of the room, eyes wide with shock, with L beside her, her horn glowing brightly. The Death Note hung in the detective’s mouth, but she spat it into her hoof before glaring across the room and then, even more surprising, shouting. “Get away from her!”

On the far side of the room was Rainbow Dash, her wings full of twigs and her hind leg encased in a strange white substance. One foreleg was wrapped around Bon Bon’s throat, while the other held another orb up to her mouth, her teeth closed around the pin. Neither side seemed to have noticed Mer. Hovering up to the ceiling, she folded up her forelegs and prepared to watch the show.

“Is that the Death Note?” Rainbow Dash called back, having to grunt around the metal in her mouth.

Bon Bon tutted, apparently unconcerned. “Sorry, dear,” she yelled across the room. “She was a little faster than I thought she’d be.”

L didn’t react to this. She lifted up the notebook with magic, unceasing in her glare. “What of it?” she asked.

“Drop it!” Rainbow demanded. She jangled the orb threateningly. “Or I’ll pull this pin and blow us both away!”

Twilight gasped, but L only rolled her eyes. “Miss Dash, you don’t even know what that does. Do you really think I would trust you with an even remotely deadly weapon?”

Dash considered this. “Well, no,” she admitted. “But I still bet it would hurt a lot if it went off right in somepony’s eye. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll...” She almost immediately ran out of ideas, settling for tightening her grip around Bon Bon’s neck. “I’ll do something bad! So drop it, now!”

L shrugged. “As you wish.” The Death Note hit the ground.

Twilight found her voice. “Rainbow, why are you doing this? We’re not your enemies.”

“You’re not. But she is!” the pegasus spat back, gesturing with her knee. “We figured it out. She’s been pulling the wool over our eyes the whole time. Kick it over to Twilight!” she demanded, gesturing again.

L raised an eyebrow. “Really, Rainbow?”

“Harpy, wait,” Twilight said. She looked at the detective, and then back at Dash, a dark fear taking shape in the pit of her stomach. “Dash, what are you talking about?”

“Don’t you get it?” Rainbow hissed. “There was no fourth Kira. She’s been using us to cover for herself from the beginning. You’re not Kira, Fluttershy’s not Kira, and Applejack’s not Kira. L is Kira!” She stretched out her leg and pointed wildly. “Now kick the bucking book!”

With a resigned sigh, the detective reached out and slid the Death Note in front of Twilight. “So much as look at a pencil and I’ll knock you out,” she hissed.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Twilight whispered back, hesitantly reaching down.

“Good,” Rainbow Dash said, nodding. “Now—” She froze, staring at the grenade in her outstretched hoof, then down at the pin still between her teeth. “Oh, p—”

With startling speed, Bon Bon bit down on Dash’s leg hard enough to draw blood, then nimbly dropped down when her grip loosened and shoved her away. In shock, Rainbow Dash lost her balance and dropped the orb, helplessly watching it fall parallel to her. It struck the ground at the same time she did, splitting open down the middle.

With a loud bang and a burst of dragonfire, Rainbow Dash disappeared. In the large room the ensuing smoke quickly rose up and dissipated, leaving only Bon Bon coughing. L rolled her eyes again. “What an absolutely pointless distraction,” she muttered.

Bon Bon clambered to her hooves. “Shall I see where she’s ended up?”

“Don’t bother,” L called back. “Save time and just unlock everything. She’s no real threat, and we’ll never be able to talk sense into her while she’s caged.” As Bon Bon scurried to another desk and began flipping switches, the detective glanced back towards Twilight. “Don’t worry about her,” she said. “Whatever lies Mer and Applejack have poisoned her with, we’ll soon get the truth out. I promise you that.”

There was no answer. Frowning, L turned around completely, looking Twilight in the face. “Twilight?” she asked.

Twilight had picked up the Note. She stared back at L, completely silent, mouth curling up into a smile.

---

Big Macintosh ran. He ran across dirt roads and muddied fields; he ran through ruined orchards and the cream of the crop. He ran as if his life depended on it. He ran faster than he’d ever run before, which was, it did not need to be said, very fast.

Colgate’s chain had faded from his hoof some time ago. He scarcely noticed its absence.

Around three quarters of the way to his destination, a pair of harsh voices put a stop to this flight into terror. A dual “Halt!” echoed overhead at the crest of a sunny hill, and Big Macintosh obediently slowed to a crawl. Two pegasus guards in iron plate, one white, the other an unfortunate off-white that hinted at a bad dye job, fluttered from the sky and landed in front of him. One of them cleared his throat. “Are you—”

“Guards!” Mac said loudly. “Just who Ah was hoping to see.” He reached out and clapped them both on the shoulder, panting for emphasis. “There’s a policemare a ways back there,” he said, pointing the way he’d come, “who’s fallen and can’t get up. She’s looking pretty beat up, so Ah was worried Ah’d hurt her more if Ah tried to carry her myself. Is there anything you folks can do for her?”

The pair glanced around him, one eyeing him suspiciously. “We’ll... see what we can do,” said the off-white one.

Mac nodded gratefully. “Thank you kindly. Best hurry, now.” Without another word, he darted between the two guards and galloped down the hill. Sparing a glance backwards, he saw the pair leaning one way, then the other, before rising into the air and flying in the direction where Colgate lay.

It wasn’t long before his destination came into view. A familiar clearing came up ahead, which he entered almost before he’d realized he’d arrived. Even in the day, spectral and nearly-invisible trees clustered around him curiously, but he ignored them, charging straight through them if they got in his way. At the centre of the clearing he skidded to a halt, throwing up a shower of mud, and then crashed to his knees.

The makeshift tombstone of his grandmother lay before him. He reached out and stroked the untreated wood, tracing the apple pie that Apple Bloom had so carefully drawn. “Granny...” he whispered. “Forgive us.” Then with a yell, he grabbed the plank and ripped it out of the ground.

Pinned to the underside of the wood was a piece of paper. A flick was all it took to rip it free. The page floated lazily to the ground, coming open as it fell. Written across the inside were names; dozens and dozens of names. The names of farmers. This was part of the deal he’d made with Mer. The random killing of criminals had not been enough, not if they wanted any chance of catching up with Byuk’s Kira, not if they wanted any chance of staying alive. In order to get the others to cooperate, he’d had to buy Mer’s story. In order to save his family, he’d paid a terrible, terrible price.

He hoped to Celestia that it was worth it.

One layer of dirt deeper, a pencil was buried under the page. He dug this out as well, brushing dirt from the tip, and pressed the page against the back of the plank, reminders of his past sins facing down. His calm exterior left him completely and he shook with fury. “Time to end this,” he whispered.

Grasping the pencil carefully between his teeth, he thought of a face, and a name.

---

“...Twilight?” L repeated.

A month and a half of memories screamed their way through Twilight’s brain. She stared back at L, numbly aware of a serpentine grin fixed to her face. And while her emotional side shuddered and cracked and hot iron flooded through the softness that had been her heart, the analytical part of her chirped unstoppably on. Assuming that Fluttershy knows about as much as I do, and that Mer followed the plan more or less as I asked her to, and given that we’re all still here and Applejack managed to escape alive, it means that Fluttershy probably went with a close variant of plan B. And if L came to me shortly after Applejack left the base, taking into account her injuries, the distance to Sweet Apple Acres, and the time for Big Macintosh to get to wherever he’s going, that means...

She’d planned out this moment dozens of times before. During breaks in her rage-fueled executions she’d pictured that smug green face blossoming into a work of agony, seen her most hated enemy collapsing to the ground time and time again. She’d rehearsed little speeches to herself, trying to capture the perfect last words for that murderer to hear, and once or twice had even practiced her triumphant laugh. She’d imagined running to catch her at the last second, clinging to her tight and feeling the life drain out of her. She’d known, right from the start, the exact, perfect face that she would make.

Instead, she simply smiled back at the detective, not triumphantly, but fondly. “Harpy?” she said, almost whispering. “We had some good times, didn’t we?”

L only looked puzzled. She opened her mouth to speak.

LYRA HEARTSTRINGS
HEART ATTACK
PAINFUL

All that emerged was a thin, strangled croak. Her lips twitched. She stopped and raised a hoof to her chest, more in disbelief than in pain, and then stiffly, awkwardly, toppled over.

Twilight didn’t catch her. She stayed where she was, Death Note resting in one hoof, secretly afraid that if she tried to raise her legs then she, too, would fall over. She heard Bon Bon start to scream, but her brain tuned it out, focused only on what was right in front of her. Before L hit the floor, everything that had come before had flashed before her eyes.

It was... all so simple. And you were so, so close. One more step from you, or one wrong step from me, and you could have caught me. But there was one thing you got wrong. This was a setup, right from the beginning, but it wasn’t of me. It was of Fluttershy.

First, I hid my Death Note and turned myself in as the First Kira, knowing full well that you would find this suspicious, but leaving you with no choice but to comply. Then I gave up my memories of the Note, returning me to who I was before I found it; a naive innocent, waiting for a justice that would never come. At the same time, I had Mer deliver the Death Note to both Big Macintosh and Applejack in turn, forcing them to resume the killing in my place. With the death toll rising and no way to prove our guilt, you would have no choice but to let us go, and no way of keeping an eye on us unless you let us join the investigation.

After that, it was a matter of waiting. I knew that the old part of me would want to seek out the pony who had, albeit indirectly, caused the deaths of two of her closest friends, and would help you seek out the new Kira with a vengeance. I also knew that, just as you wouldn’t let your suspicions go and would try to get close to me to learn my plan, I would get close to you to seek out the good in you and try my hardest to be your friend. It’s just the way I am.

I knew, of course, that a pony as clever as you would quickly work out the most obvious outcome of my plan: that I would pretend to be your ally until we captured the fake Kira, at which point I would take back the Note and reclaim my powers right under your nose. And so, to fool you a second time, I took a gamble in which every outcome worked in my favor. In addition to her story about two duelling gods of death, I told Mer to use hidden killings and verbal clues to frame a member of our team as an elusive “fourth Kira” in order to double the speed that our two sides would come together. In reality, such a pony never existed. Given her hatred for me, I knew that she wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to put the blame on me, forcing me to suffer an ironic fate while Fluttershy went free. But the moment that her trap was sprung, so was mine.

If you fell for Mer’s deception and arrested me, then Fluttershy would be free to leave, as according to the fake rules it is impossible for both of us to be Kira — even if you suspected she was working for me, she would be unable to use the Death Note for herself. Her enduring love for both Kira and me, along with a final love letter that I doubted even you would be so heartless as to deny her, would lead her to the hidden grove where my own Death Note lay buried. There, she would regain her memories and take my place as the new Kira. Sure, maybe she doesn’t have the same level of foresight as I do, but she’d already proved that she could handle the job. With my rules as well as not one but two gods of death watching over her, she really could have taken my place. I believe in her.

If, however, you saw through Mer’s deception and arrested Fluttershy instead, by the exact same rules you would have no choice but to release me in her place. By one means or another I would then regain access to the Death Note you recovered, and you would still need to allow Fluttershy to dig up mine to prove her guilt. No matter what path you chose, one of us would regain our memories and become Kira, and we would get one solid shot at killing you.

Because there’s one advantage we had that you never knew about. You never learned the secret of the trade for the Eyes of the Shinigami. You thought you were invincible because nopony knew your name, but you were dead the moment you let Fluttershy look at your face. Regardless of whether it was her or I that you suspected, Fluttershy would still have time to unleash my vengeance, either killing you directly or setting Applejack and Big Macintosh into motion. No matter what you tried, one of us would live, and you would die.

If there was anypony who I could have wanted as an opponent, it would have been you. You were smart. You were passionate. You had the best team and all the best tools at your disposal, and a shinigami who was on your side, if you had only told each other the truth. You even, towards the end, had the help of the magic of friendship. But I had the Death Note. I guess that in the end, that’s what really matters.

L’s head struck the stone floor. Twilight only watched, calmly, as the mint pony curled and writhed against the floor. Her death was not coming quickly; she clawed at her breast, spittle flying as she choked on air, her lower half spasming uncontrollably. Twilight felt no guilt at her pain. They’d known from the beginning that these would be their terms; right from the very first broadcast, when together they’d killed Caramel just to prove a point to each other, it had been the start of an unspoken agreement that only one of them would leave this game alive. But reassuring as this was, she wasn’t finding any joy in her enemy’s suffering, either. The conclusion to this grand, complex plan, which had made her cackle with delight when she’d first committed it to memory, now stared back at her as hollowly as an empty husk.

Slowly, she took a step forward, and found that her legs shook as she did so. Keeping the Death Note aloft, she shuffled up in front of L, stopping short as the wounded pony’s crazed and frantic eyes looked up towards her. She gulped and her smile started to crack, but she wouldn’t allow herself to show her opponent any signs of weakness, not in her moment of triumph. “Hey,” she said, just loud enough for her to hear. “Good game.”

L hissed in response. Something in her gaze shifted, and one corner of her mouth twitched upwards into a shaky grin. She let go of her chest and reached out to paw at Twilight’s leg, trying to breathe in and failing. At last, she got a grip on Twilight’s ankle and looked into her eyes, releasing her breath in a few wheezed, final words.

“Let’s play again... soon.”

And then there was nothing.

It felt like a very, very long time passed. All on its own, the hoof clutching Twilight’s leg released its hold and slid down to the floor. Twilight stepped back, her face still frozen. She felt as though half of her insides had turned to stone, blood crashing in waves against her hardened organs, the parts still flesh being ripped to shreds as the two sides ground together, and for a moment she wondered if Big Macintosh had carried out his vengeful curse on her, as well. The prospect did not bring with it any fear.

So.

This is what victory feels like.

But this sensation didn’t last. Reality came flooding back in waves, faster with every pulse of information, until it could no longer escape Twilight’s attention that not only was Bon Bon still screaming, but the noise was rapidly changing in pitch.

Twilight looked up, her senses rapidly returning to her. Bon Bon had made it about halfway across the room before stopping in place and keeling over. Twilight’s first thought that Kira had struck again dried up as she realized the mare was clutching not at her heart, but at her skull, her eyes shut painfully tight. Her screams, which had been shrill to begin with, were only growing higher and louder; the beads on the abacus nearby were beginning to rattle. Then, before the startled unicorn’s eyes, something else changed as well. There was a crack as the air around Bon Bon glowed green, sparking with magics that no pony could produce, and with the sound of tearing flesh, a dark, curved horn erupted from her forehead.

Bon Bon’s hooves hit the floor. She began to run, bits of skin flaking off around her ankles, still screaming. From her forehead, a green glow crawled across her skull, transforming as it went. Her ears became ragged. Flat teeth became fangs. Flesh became dark and hairless. For the second time in as many minutes, a barrage of memories shot through Twilight’s mind all at once.

Quite the motherly type “experience in helping ponies through bad news”

draped over her like a second blanket

“I share my bed with an earth pony, after all.”

some of the fear fell away from her face

“ghosts... affect her”

“She can do so many voices...” “It’s her job to keep me happy.”

“Don’t take her away from me.”

The creature opened its eyes. As it completed its charge, it wasn’t a pony that leaped towards Twilight, fangs bared, but a black-shelled, insect-winged monstrosity, its bright blue eyes burning with animalistic hatred.

Bon Bon was a changeling.

Diabolical scheming made a hasty retreat and pushed gut instinct out in its place. Twilight yelped and teleported away, landing several yards behind her attacker. She instantly cast a bubble around herself and charged a simple magic bolt, spinning around and preparing to counterattack. “Hah!”

She stopped. The creature hadn’t been aiming at her at all. She had instead thrown herself on top of L’s body, nuzzling her mane, eyes now closed. Her frail wings buzzed sporadically and she made tiny, inequine mewling noises. Some parts of her were still pony, centered around her back legs and tail, being eaten away as green magic crawled along them. The three wrapped candies on her flank were the last thing to disappear.

Twilight gulped. She lowered her shield and approached cautiously, still expecting a trap. The Bonling didn’t move. This supposedly heartless creature was curled and trembling like a kitten, head and shoulders shaking with what, from a pony, would have been sobbing. Twilight wondered if it was physically possible for a changeling to cry.

Eventually, the childlike noises stopped. Shakily, the creature raised her head. Twilight lit her horn up threateningly, but the Bonling didn’t seem to notice. Dark fire swirled around her mouth, and when it cleared her teeth were flat once more, lips pale. Out of this alien, parasitic creature, Bon Bon’s familiar voice floated forth. “Was she right?”

There was no point in lying. Twilight looked down, swallowed hard, and honored her fallen foe in the only way she could. “Yes.”

Bon Bon nodded in understanding. She reached out with her pointed snout and carefully closed each of L’s eyes, then, for the final time, kissed her with her pony lips. She then let go and stood up, wiping away a greenish fluid that leaked from the corner of her mouth. “Don’t worry,” she said to Twilight, looking at her with an utterly unreadable expression. “I’ll take care of it.”

The room erupted in light. Twilight had to take a step backwards as a pillar of fire engulfed Bon Bon, all but obscuring her from view. The high-pitched screaming began again, interspersed with mad changeling laughter. Patches of pelt appeared in flashes and assembled themselves like a jigsaw. When the light cleared, she no longer looked like herself, or anyone at all. The body and mane were that of Fluttershy, or a close approximation thereof... but the claws, the fangs, and the wide, ravenous eyes all belonged, unmistakably, to Mer.

The new form grinned, and a deep, gravelly voice rumbled out. “I’ll destroy her.” Then, before Twilight could move or even think, the creature turned and, half running, half flying, charged out the door.

After a few seconds, Twilight blinked. “Huh.”

This momentary reprieve was interrupted as she was startled yet again, this time by Mer crashing into the floor right next to her. The pale god ignored her shriek and advanced further, backing her into the corner, all the while gnashing her teeth in fury. “What have you done?” she demanded. “What did you tell her?”

Twilight halted. She steadied herself as Mer tried to keep walking forward, only succeeding in pacing around the unicorn like an animal. She grinned. “Nothing she didn’t know already,” she answered, disconcertingly calm. “And it looks like it’s too late for me to stop her.”

“You... traitor!” Mer rose up into the air, wings and claws extending. “Double-crossing meat murderer! You dare to turn against me now?”

“Hey, it wasn’t me who tried to mess with the plan,” Twilight answered, turning away nonchalantly. “If you’d just done what I said and not tried to frame me, L wouldn’t have picked up on your stupid plan and gone after Fluttershy instead. Don’t try taking this out on me, because it’s your fault, not mine.” She felt the air behind her grow colder, and the shinigami’s rage-filled growling grow louder. While Mer couldn’t see her face, she stifled a gulp and took some deep breaths to still her fluttering heart. “Oh, and before you make any rash moves,” she added, “there’s one more thing you should know.” She turned to face her, smiling confidently. “I knew all along.”

Their gazes met. Twilight held her breath, keeping her smile steady, waiting for a reaction.

And so, the final stage of my plan comes into play.

I always knew this was a risk. You’ve never liked me, but before now your threats were nothing more than bluffs; the laws of your world forbade you from touching me as long as I was bound to Byuk. Now, I’m at your mercy. This Death Note I’m holding won’t protect me; I don’t own it, not while Big Mac is still alive, and even if I did, I would only be bound to you. With your Death Note, you can kill me however you want.

But here’s the thing, Mer. You don’t know that.

Right now, the only pony who can save Fluttershy is you. If you do this, you will die. That’s a big sacrifice to make, especially for someone who has the choice of living forever. But I’ve been watching you closely, Mer, and I’ve seen the way you look at her. I saw how you reacted when I talked about losing a friend. Geldus was important to you, more than you’ll ever admit, and this little pony is the only thing of his you have left. Whether you’ll accept it or not, I think you do know about the magic of friendship, and I don’t believe you’ll do nothing to protect it.

But that still leaves me. There’s nothing stopping you from killing me and then shooting off to the rescue... nothing except this bluff. For all your watching and guessing and speculating, you can’t prove that I never gave up Byuk’s Death Note to begin with. You don’t know I’m not just that good an actor. And if I’ve had my memories all along, then there’s nothing you can do to me. Will you take that risk? Clock is ticking, Mer; will you waste precious seconds writing down a name that won’t do anything? Will you face torture and death by killing me with your own claws? For all your posturing, you’re no better than a pony; you were born with the power to take any life you choose, but right now, you can only give your life for one.

So what will it be, Mer? Vengeance? Or friendship?

Her smile was frozen onto her face; the cold air kept her from sweating. Everything hanging on this moment, she fixed the scowling, seething god with a knowing gaze and waited.

Mer growled once more, but it was forced. Even with fury written on her face, she too seemed to understand the urgency of the situation. With a last, spiteful glance, she withdrew her claws and floated away down the corridor.

Finally, there was silence. Twilight sighed to herself, now genuinely smiling. “Well, can’t stop now,” she said to herself. “Time to wrap this up.”

Stepping gingerly around L’s corpse, she approached the central abacus and peered into it. Minty’s memory crystals twinkled from somewhere within her depths. If Mer was here the whole time up until Applejack’s release, Twilight reasoned, then L wouldn’t have been able to discuss her suspicions with anyone for fear of being found out. I doubt she said anything to Spike, either; she couldn’t risk him looking nervous when he went to collect Fluttershy. Which means that the only evidence that Fluttershy has a Death Note is right here. Gingerly, she reached out with her magic. Which means that all I have to do is...

Surprisingly little, as it turned out. As soon as Twilight started to lift the first of the crystals from its casement, it started to glow brighter until it was almost painful to look at, then blew up. A second later, every other crystal within the machine followed suit, filling the abacus’ insides with crystal fragments and sending a spray of shards in all directions. Only a quick shield prevented Twilight from being showered in razored crystal pieces. A wave of violet light shot out around the room, crackling from screen to screen, and then vanished. “Huh,” she said once her senses were clear. “That was easy.”

Job done, she turned and trotted towards one of the nearby desks. Finally looking down at the Death Note she held, she flipped it open to the first page. “And now,” she said, picking up one of L’s quills, “all that’s left is to tie up some loose ends.”

---

Locket hadn’t moved since Big Macintosh had left. She’d stayed where she was, her breaths lengthening and shortening but never regulating, unable to look away from the body in the middle of the room. Apple Bloom, however, seemed to be handling the situation better than she was. The filly hadn’t cried, or even made a noise, but had stirred herself enough to walk out of the room and up the stairs, returning a minute later with a familiar brown hat that she’d put onto Applejack’s smiling head. She’d then lain down next to her, pressing herself against her sister’s belly, and wriggled under one of her legs in a lukewarm, morbid embrace.

After a while, Apple Bloom spoke, the first time she had put out more than a word at once since Locket had arrived. “Locket?” she asked. “Will you sing something for me?”

“Um...” Shakily, but then firmly, Locket nodded. “Of... of course. What do you want me to sing?”

The filly shrugged. “Somethin’.”

Quiet fell, and Locket clamped her mouth shut. She tried to tell herself that her brain had gone blank, but that wasn’t the case at all; one song had sprung instantly to mind. She tried to ignore it or think of something else, but the melody persisted, echoing louder and louder until she could ignore it no longer. “There is... one song I know,” she said, much as her inner self protested. “It was the last song my Mama Lillywhite sang to me. It reminds me of her.” She pursed her lips and looked up. “Is that okay?”

Again, Apple Bloom only shrugged.

“...Okay.” Locket stepped forward. She took a few deep, shaky breaths, trying and failing to steady herself, but when the first words came out, they came out smooth and slow.

---

“My little pony, the hour’s grown lonely

and bedtime is coming so soon

come up and creep to the place where we sleep

as we hide from the eyes of the Moon.”

Mer retraced her path through the bowels of the underground complex, utterly and deliberately lost. Every door she passed was now open; every room was empty. It still seemed absurd to her that ponies, those fleshy, squishy, emotionally clouded pieces of filth, could have built such a place where she felt at once trapped and perfectly at home.

This is not about Fluttershy, she told herself, reaching back along her side. This is not about friendship. She traced the black rectangle on her left flank. Under her touch, what had at first appeared to be a symbol transformed. The darkness rippled under her hoof, peeling away from the bones that were her flesh, until she held her own Death Note in front of her. Its cover was blank, inside and out, without so much as a speck of dust obstructing the blackness.

“The ocean of night-time is filling the sky

to soothe all the pains of the day

just lay down your head at the end of the bed

and let the dark float you away.”

This is not about Geldus, she continued. It isn’t. It can’t be. Already, she felt lighter than she’d been before. It wasn’t about the numbers — every death would change someone’s lifespan, somewhere, for better or for worse — but intent. She knew what she was about to do, she could feel herself already doing it, and so her insides were already turning to dust in protest, falling away like a thin stream.

No, she decided. This is about revenge. But I won’t kill you yet, Twilight Sparkle. That would only break Fluttershy’s heart. She flipped her Death Note open; at her unspoken command, all its pages became blank. A quill materialized between her claws. But my revenge will still be complete. Even death won’t stop me from taking what you love away from you.

“But if you’re afraid while the silence flows down

I’ll stand by your side in the stream

it’s daytime somewhere

at the world that we share

in the place where we go when we dream.”

Far above and away, Bon Bon careened wildly through the air. Her long tongue lolled out, her legs dangling uselessly, wings flapping without rhythm or direction; she clearly hadn’t flown in a very long time, if at all. Even so, a grim determination drove her on, towards a cottage coming into view on the horizon. She’d already overtaken Spike, whom she’d glimpsed still puffing along steadily along the path.

“When you close your eyes you’ll go flying away

to a landscape that only we know

where there’s sweetness abound and adventures are found

just wherever that you want to go.”

Revenge consumed her. Violence was her only thought. For her, one way or another, this would be the end.

BON BON L-43-01
heart attack
now

Spread throughout her body, the five ridged, grape-sized muscles that served as her hearts simultaneously seized up and stopped. Her wings halted mid-flap, then crumbled. Without even the green fire that normally accompanied it, her disguise vanished as she began to fall, a snarl frozen on her face. Long before she landed, the lights in her eyes had grown dark.

“There aren’t any bullies or monsters or fears

or the darkness that walks in the day

the whole world’s asleep with the stillness that keeps

all the wandering shadows at bay.”

Mer felt herself vanish. Dust poured out of her like water, dissolving her from the inside out, leaving a trail as she drifted down the hallway. Still she kept writing, furiously inking out a second name below that of the bug-pony’s, followed by a considerably longer description. She felt nothing as her hind legs drifted away from her completely, only speeding up in her writing. Almost the very second that she finished the final word, the hoof that was holding up the notebook collapsed, dropping the Death Note onto the floor.

With a sigh, Mer stopped and dropped down. With her last remaining hoof, she tore the page with two names free and set it alight, burning it into the same impossibly fine ash that now surrounded her. She then lay there, numbly feeling the remains of her body break away from her, and pushed the deadly notebook closed.

“So I promise you that the nightmares won’t come

not while you and I are a team

you won’t be alone

you’ll always be home

in the place where we go when we dream.”

Dust started to cloud her vision. Dimly, she was aware of rapid hoofsteps coming towards her. She smiled a thin, venomous smile, and then this too vanished.

“In dreams you’re whoever that you want to be

but the best one to be is still you

I’ll stay by your side as you soar far and wide

and make all of your wishes come true.”

Big Macintosh’s lungs ached. After all this time, he was still running; he’d taken the long way back in hopes of avoiding the guards. He stopped for breath, resting in the shade of a tree, and watched for movement ahead. Nothing stood between him and his home but space. He straightened up, smiling in relief and exhaustion.

“Hey!” a voice barked behind him. He started to turn, then abandoned the gesture and simply ran. He heard more shouting, then the pounding of hooves and the clank of armor, but this only spurred him faster. Love drove him on, a love that would not stop for anything.

“Everyone plays all the games that you want

nopony will turn you away

and you’re never lonely, you’re my one and only

from night-time and all through the day.”

He was so close. The open door was in view. Heart leaping into his throat, he opened his mouth to yell.

Twilight smiled.

Big Macintosh

“Your family’s waiting to welcome you home

with candies and cookies and creams

your friends will be there

you’ll play without care

in the place where we go when we dream.”

The noises from outside were getting louder, but Apple Bloom didn’t seem to have noticed them yet. She barely moved at all. Locket found herself edging closer and closer as she sang, watching her little chest rise and fall, seeking for movement behind her closed eyes. A tiny smile was on her face, perfectly mirroring her sister’s.

“The curtains are closing, it’s time for goodnight

and soon I’ll be gone far away

but sweetheart don’t weep, I’ll be here when you sleep

and I’ll always have more time to play.”

Apple

Locket felt her voice crack. She shuddered, struggling to keep herself composed, but she couldn’t stop the words spilling out of her.

“Our world full of sunshine will last through the night

and nothing is lost if it’s shared
Apple Bloo

if you’re always kind then some day you will find

when you wake up you’re already there.”

She was crying. She told herself she didn’t know why.

“So hush little Shoeshine, remember this song

there’s no need to hide or to scream

this isn’t the end

I’ll see you again
Appl

in the place where we go when we dream.”

With a last groan of frustration, Twilight tore the page out of her notebook and threw it away, blasting it with a bolt of fire. Its incinerated remains floated to the ground, invisible among the ash from the grenade.

Locket stopped. Her voice, as well as the song, halted. Her throat felt clogged; she doubted she could speak, let alone sing another note. She slid to her rump and sniffed loudly, wiping her nose on her foreleg. After a while, Apple Bloom spoke. “Thank you.”

With a gulp, Locket answered. “You’re welcome.”

All was quiet until the guards burst through the open door.

---

Twilight stretched. Carelessly, she tore her wristwatch from L’s leg and wrapped it back around her own, patting the glass surface with a smile. With a mighty, heaving sigh, she sat down in L’s chair. She reached out, leg trembling, and dropped the Death Note onto the desk. Nothing changed when it left her grip. The notebook was hers now. She was, once again, Kira.

But just when it seemed like everything had finally come to a halt, one more noise drifted up to her from the corridors. “Twilight?”

Her ears pricked up. She recognized the voice and the direction and connected them to two more stray threads that she’d neglected to tie up. Fast as she could, she was back on her hooves and galloping towards the noise. “Rainbow, wait!” she yelled back.

“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash called excitedly. “I think I found something!” Twilight tried to respond, but instead had to stop and yelp in pain. The rush to the central chamber had been bad enough after a night tied stiffly to a chair, but this abrupt gallop had pushed her to her limits and past them; she’d just pulled muscles in both her back legs simultaneously. Grimacing, she staggered onwards, her fears confirmed as she saw a trail of dust form along the floor in front of her.

Rounding the nearest corner, she caught sight of Rainbow Dash and stopped dead. The pegasus was crouched in front of a large grey pile at the trail’s end, poking at the mass with her hoof. “What is this stuff?” she asked. “Some kind of spell residue?” With a swipe and a flap of her wings, she moved more of the dust away, revealing a thin black notebook buried underneath.

Twilight darted forward, raising a hoof in warning. “Dash, don’t touch it!” she yelled.

It was too late. Rainbow Dash reached down and scooped up the book, breathing in sharply as she recognized the design. “Is this what I think it is?” she asked.

Twilight didn’t bother to answer. She came to a halt beside her friend, pretending to pant for breath, all the while glaring at the Death Note in her hooves. Congratulations, Rainbow Dash, she thought glumly. You’re the fourth Kira.

“Twilight...” Dash said slowly. “This is proof. Applejack was right. I was right!” She turned towards Twilight and raised the notebook high, starting to shout. “This is L’s Death Note!”

It was only then that Twilight realized the full extent of what she had done.

---

One by one, they returned to the base. One by one, they heard the news. One by one, they came across the same sight.

Twilight lay on the floor with L, clinging to her body the same way she’d clung to Pinkie Pie. She wept into her mane, eyes tightly closed, looking for all the world as though she wished to die herself.

She did not have to pretend. The tears were real.

---

Dear Applejack,

I love you. You and the girls are my best friends and you all mean so much more to me than a silly piece of paper could ever tell you. If I could I would write down I love you a hundred million times and it still wouldn’t be enough, but I have a lot of letters to write and not a lot of time, so I’ll have to settle for writing it just a few times and asking you to read it really, really hard. I love you. Whatever happens, wherever we go from here, I want you to remember that.

If you’re reading this, it means I’m not around any more. This is when things start to get fuzzy. I don’t know when she’ll come for me, of if she’ll come for me at all, but I can promise you one thing: whatever you think has happened to me, it wasn’t what it looked like. I need you to know this because if she can’t get what she wants from me, she’ll come after you next. Please don’t ask me how I know this. It would break your heart if you knew.

So far, I’ve been trying to make things easier for everypony by giving gifts and spreading cheer, but that’s something I can’t do right now. I’m really sorry, but instead, there’s something I need you to do for me. It might not make sense right away, but I need you to Pinkie Promise you’ll do it, okay? No loopholes! If the worst happens, go to Twilight. She has the answers, but she doesn’t know it right now. That’s a last resort, though, and I mean that. The most important thing is this.

I need you to find my body. I need you to keep me safe.

Your bestest friend forever,

Pinkie Pie.

PS: Just kidding about the no-present part. I made a photo album of all my favorite moments with you. It’s hidden in my closet.

Author's Note:

I know that for some of you, this is where the story ends.

I can understand the reason. I know what many of you are thinking right now because I've thought it myself many times, before and during the writing of this: "Death Note the series just wasn't as good after L died." (Warning: The previous sentence contains spoilers. If you wish to avoid spoilers, do not read the previous sentence.) And if you feel this way, I'm afraid you're in the right. I'm far in the minority in that I actually liked Near, but there's no arguing that he was a poor replacement for L. Light got sloppier and unluckier with his plans, and Mello and Near spent as much time fighting each other as they did Kira. Although both sides managed to pull themselves together in time for the finale and scored a memorable victory using the magic of friendship - no seriously, that's pretty much how it happens - the road leading up to it just wasn't as much fun as the previous arcs had been.

So we're going to do something a bit different.

Just so no one accuses me of being misleading: yes, there are going to be a Mello-pony and a Near-pony. However, they're no longer Twilight's primary antagonists, but instead act as what they always should have been: stepping-stones to something greater. There's an all-new villain stirring in Equestria, one who's ready to take all you think you know about the Death Note saga and crush it into a fine paste.

Maybe L's the only anti-Kira for you, and I won't begrudge you that. If you wish to leave now, I won't blame you, nor will I try to stop you. But if you'll let me tempt you just a little while longer, there's a whole new adventure waiting just around the corner. The choice is yours.

See you on the other side.
-9

Comments

[The Fiery Joker]

Noooooo comment. You already know what I think.

[Dead Turtle]

So, there's still more after this, huh?

Not sure what to think. I'm already happy with Twilight winning and all.

[Darkrainb0wdash]

3303809>>3303368>>3302550>>3302488
Thanks. The story is on my to read later list. I have other shit to do first.
Tootles

[EsotericPhantasm]

I'll favorite this fanfic... AND READ IT!!!

[OddDreams]

I still find the ending of Death Note to be total BS.

Even after Near explained it all, Light wouldn't have been so sloppy as to notice the notebook that he's guarded for so long... well you know what I'm talking about

[Fon Shaolin]

I just want to see Twilight!Kira vs Celestia.

That's all I want.

[Dirty Bit]

Tragic and full of twists. It's a good thing she had second thoughts about killing Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom (Or did she actually kill Big Macintosh?)

Either way, this was yet another heavy and gritty chapter that had me on the edge, and I approve of this being the conclusion to the season finale.

I look forward to the next season

[katosen27]

Well.

That turned out better than I would've hoped.

[Iggypots]

I like how TwiLight is... How to phrase this... Fully aware of her own decay.

[Kail]

I'm pretty sure that if you keep giving us the same kind of work you've done so far on future chapters you won't have to worry about anybody leaving the story anytime soon. I now I'm not gonna stop reading any time soon.

[Dawn Flower]

This chapter was absolutely epic. Death Note Equestria was the first fic that I read on this site, and even after all the great stories I've read so far, this is still one of my favourites. I have so much to say about this that I'll say it in points.

1. Bon Bon is a changeling. WHAT. THE . HELL?
2. I sung the lullaby to the tune of the shows opening theme.
3. When Twilight said that the Death Note is more important than the magic of friendship, she passed the point of no return.
4. However, I was still happy to see that she couldn't bring herself to kill Apple Bloom. Considering how she reacted to Fluttershy killing Sweetie Belle, perhaps there is still has some of her own character left, and not just being a pony version of Light.
5. Every single part of making it look like L was Kira was done perfectly.
6. This stories chapters are reaching Fallout Equestria length.
7. The Season 3 villain (or hero; depends how you look at it) will most likely be related to the golems. I'm interested to see how the story will go from here.
8 Don't forget about Sunny Days.
9. More Discord, please.
10. The last few chapters of this story made me really like Big Macintosh as a character. I was sad to see him die, but it had to happen for the sake of the story.
11. Season 2 Credits

[scytho]

My word! I loved everything about this chapter!
I'm definitely sticking around to see how you handle the second season. While it won't be quite the same without L, from what I've seen so far you will prepare an awesome ride for us.

3304651
You have no idea how disappointed I was in how Death Note ended.

[Braininthejar]

3305921 It ended exactly as was said in the first chapter

[scytho]

3305967
I see what you did there!

[BlaappyMLP]

Twilight. Why you no stop killing?!

[Braininthejar]

3306075 You do realise how ironic your emotes are?

[OddDreams]

3305921 It's the only anime where the ending ruined the entire thing for me. It was amazing for 45 episodes...and then suddenly 46 happened and the one episode made the other 45 worthless

[Dawn Flower]

3306164 There are only 37 episodes of Death Note and L dies in episode 25

[ibyea]

3304651
I think Light's sloppiness was justified. Him defeating L and the years of no major threat made him proud and complacent. Not only that, even at the beginning of the show, Light is shown to not think things through when emotions overwhelm him. As L said, Light has a childish temper tantrum streak, which caused him to take the bait in the TV broadcast, and pin him down in the Tokyo area.

[ibyea]

I am actually curious how this is going to go from now on, since the author promised a major game changer. I am quiet happy things are not going to follow the anime and the author is going to put his/her own ideas in it.

I am quiet glad that Twilight is not a total psychopath. I remember in a deleted scene that the first thing Light did when everyone else left L's graveyard was drop down on the grave and laugh like a maniac, proclaiming his victory in a childish rant.

Also, I can't wait to see what was the second name (probably Twilight) and cause of death (the part I really am curious about) that Mer wrote.

[BlaappyMLP]

3306102 I do indeed understand the irony. But there were no other crying emoticons that really fit my reaction. Lol

[OddDreams]

3306465 It wasn't sloppiness that did Light in though. They replaced his deathnote with a fake

I have a hard time believing someone who'd literally obsessed over and not lost sight of said book for so long would be so easily conned with a 20 minute forgery.

[ibyea]

3307004
Good point. In my defense, though, the guy who did the forgery did have a magical super power ability to copy a handwriting perfectly just by looking at it.

[OddDreams]

3307127 I used to find books in my backpack by feel, and I never once was wrong except when it was brand new textbooks with zero wear and tear.

Books are among the hardest things to forge, the actual physical book, not the words inside.

Knowing Light he would have never expected to need to worry about a forged Deathnote, but knowing Light he would have planned for it anyways and made his book FEEL different in an imperceptible way.
Perhaps the wear pattern on the spine was SLIGHTLY off center or the crease of page 452 was JUST SO. It would have been something he'd notice right away, you can't really fake a book that's seen wear and tear.

[katosen27]

3307158

Considering the otherworldly properties of the Death Note, whose to say that it can develop wear? Tear, certainly, but it DOES seem to replenish in paper.

[Nonagon]

3307158>>3307204
How To Use XXXI: 1
"The number of pages of the Death Note will never run out."
Just adding my two cents and further confusing the matter even more than it already is.

[Nonagon]

3307158>>3307204
Besides, it wasn't Light who was fooled by the fake, but Mikami, who was extremely methodical but didn't have quite the same level of foresight as Light.

[OddDreams]

3307258 The pages may never run out, but the pages that are there will remain, yeah? Also, that's true he did fool Mikami. However, if Light was even half as good as he's supposed to be he'd have known Mikami went to the bank, and thus would have let him take the fall,

[ibyea]

3307158
So like I said. Magic copy ability!!

[EchoWolf31]

Oh my god, I love this story. But I am a bit confused as to why Twilight is crying about the fact that ponies now think L was Kira? Can someone explain why.

[Derpamena]

Can someone give me a recap of this chapter?

[dziadek1990]

Your stories are too good. There's no way I'm leaving right now. :)

[Braininthejar]

3307255 Actually, she did draw the line for the first time in the series - she didn't kill Applebloom.

[Braininthejar]

3307355 They are in several games, either as henchmen, redshirts or even recurring boss. The names seem to be originally from Star Wars though.

[Nonagon]

1605211>>3307355>>3308454
Let me just settle this one:
Biggs is a reference to Star Wars.
Wedge is a reference to Final Fantasy.
Any questions?

[Alien Entity]

THIS WAS SOOOO GOOD OH MY GOD
Sorry, I just finished and I had to do that. I cannot tell you enough how utterly amazing this fic is. I'm not kidding when I say I might just like this better that the original. Also, I can only imagine that Pinkie has way more to do with everything than we know...

[Alien Entity]

3307957 I think she's sad because she greatly really respected L as a worthy opponent (and maybe as a friend?), and now everypony will always hate L for being Kira and no-one will know or care how great of a detective she was... That's just what I got from it.

[Ulquiorra2ndS]

Well, that's how you wrap all of this up. This was truly incredible. I sat there with the reactions of one who never saw the events of Death Note taking place. Since I've seen it and remember it, that's saying something. I hope Kira wins this entire game but, I won't hold my breath.

[Laluzi]

My god. By this point, reading this story was like twisting a scalpel around in my chest. I need some hot, steaming WAFF, stat. Possibly intravenously.

[Duhad8]

3309036 To be even more clear Biggs and Wedge are in both Starwars and FF. FF putt them in as a reference to Starwars, but there larger roles in FF make it perfectly valid to call them characters from either series since there is legitimacy to both.'

Sorry, I have a friend who is a HUGE fan of Wedge from the Starwars expanded universe and a friend who is a die hard FF nut and neither would forgive me if I did not put on my ultra dork glasses to clarify that.

[Duhad8]

3307957 She set up things so that now all of her friends are doomed by accident. Dash was the last member of the mane 6 not to have been cursed with the note (which has serious negative consequence for the users soul) so no she has lost that thine chain that allowed her to think that something good would be left after she burned the old world to make her new one.

Any chance for her friends enjoying the fruits of her labor are now gone. She has won a pyrrhic victory and from here on out the only thing she can hope for is to sit alone upon the thorn of her new world, knowing that not a one of the ponies who truly mattered will benefit from it.

Don't know about you, but that's about the point where I would either put a gun in my mouth or decided that at this point all there is left is victory at any price and truly cross the moral event horizon.

Care to fiddle with me as Rome burns? I have just the song!

[The1templar]

3305020 celestia is a terrible in all aspects revolving the Kira vs. now if she was say nightmared, then that's a different story.

[EchoWolf31]

3311150 Thanks for the explanation. Knowing Twilight, she'll go with the latter.

[Professor Donger]

so did big mac die? i'm confused

[Braininthejar]

3313398 Yup, full name was written

[Endrax]

Wow, what an end. Well, kind of an end. Personally, I just lost interest in Death Note half a dozen episodes after L died. Hopefully I won't lose interest in this story, I doubt it though, the next arc sounds interesting.

[Chalice Longshot]

3309036

I'm fairly certain that biggs and wedge from final fantasy are infact a reference to star wars. read somewhere the the developers were big fans of the movie though I could be wrong.

and btw I was always a mello fan. im staying.

also I suspect I figured out who the true villain is.

can you at least confirm if hes been "introduced" (or at least mentioned) in the story yet.? (no harm in asking)

[Nonagon]

3315447 As far as I'm concerned, any use of the names Biggs or Wedge from here on out is a reference to DN:E.

I can confirm that by now every member of the villain's party has been introduced or alluded to, though some are subtle. Feel free to lay your theories out; fan feedback always warms me up like a little bundle of joy.