Taking Care of Animals

by Nicknack

Chapter 4

Creepy vibes or no, I didn’t have too much difficulty sleepin’ that night. After all, I had spent the day prior in two towns, and I’d done an early morning with a late night on not a lot of sleep from the night before.

Point is, I slept like a rock. The only thing I remembered from my dreams was someone rustlin’ the door against the drawers I’d set in front of them.

When I first woke up, I felt cold air on my face. It smelled clean, like a fresh breeze, which confused me. Soon as I opened my eyes, I darn near jumped out of my skin.

Earth Pony was right in front of me, her big ol’ eyes and tiny muzzle an inch from mine.

She stepped back as soon as I was awake, but still. I barely kept from screamin’.

Earth Pony took a seat at the foot of my bed. She wore her raincoat and her tail flicked back and forth impatiently; the first thing she said to me was, “Applejack, why the hay did you put the dresser against the door?”

It ain’t that I ain’t a mornin’ pony, but I don’t do well with bein’ accused of wrongdoin’s by mares who’d just broken into my room. I pointed a hoof back. “I’ll answer that, Pony, once you tell me just what the buck you’re doin’ in my room!” I blinked a few times, since the cold air bothered my eyes. On my right, the drapes blew in front of... “You climb through the window or something?”

“Duh,” she said like it was obvious. “You barricaded yourself in. How else was I supposed to get in?”

“I dunno. Maybe knockin’, or waitin’ until it was a decent—” I gandered a closer look at the day outside my open window. Bed must’ve been darn comfy, ’cause it was bright enough to be well past nine. I did feel better after all that rest, so I groaned defeat, yawned, and rubbed a good ten hours of sleep out of my eyes. I didn’t want to start the day off arguin’ with Earth Pony. She was the closest thing I’d had to a friend in far too long a time.

Plus, now that I wasn’t so ticked off by her, I could see she was darn near burstin’ at the seams with energy. “Anyway,” I asked, “what’re you so hyped up about? You catch the killer or somethin’?”

“Wow…” Her ears drooped. “Way to be a buzzkill, AJ.” Her nickname for me made my eyebrow shoot up. “But anyway, wanna be me for the rest of the morning?”

I blinked. Cute mare on my bed or no, nine-thirty or no, this mornin’ was startin’ way too soon and complicated for my tastes. “Earth Pony, it’s too early for this. Talk simpler.”

She pulled her EGI badge out of her raincoat. “They still need me to do investigations at the library. But… stuff… with Rarity kind of… came up? Like, she had weather chores this morning, and I already checked in at the crime scene, but at ten-thirty, there’s something I haven’t done in a while, and it’s kind of personal…”

I cut her off. Weren’t with me, weren’t none of my business. What I did know was the obvious: “I ain’t a detective, Earth Pony. And I don’t even think them policeponies are even gonna let me look at the library without you there.”

“Being a detective’s easy,” she argued. “You just look around for anything that looks out of the ordinary and remember it. I’ll drop by this afternoon, you tell me everything you’ve found, and I’ll solve the case in ten seconds flat!” She pumped a hoof into the air on the last word, which seemed mighty inappropriate for investigatin’ our friend’s murder. “As for getting onto the scene, just take my badge and tell them you’re me.”

I frowned. “That don’t seem rightly honest.”

“It’s honest enough. You were already there yesterday, and I’m lead detective on this case. You’re not doing anything wrong.”

I pondered that over for a moment.

Earth Pony took that as a sign of agreement. “Anyway, here. I got you a bread.” She reached a hoof into another coat pocket and pulled out a cracked piece of toast. She tossed it and her badge on the bed in front of me, not givin’ me any more choice in the matter. “So go. Be me.”

That Earth Pony, she zipped outta my window with more spring in her step than a foal on Hearth’s Warming Eve. After notin’ how lucky she was we were on the ground floor, I felt an honest-to-goodness pang of jealousy in my chest. I wasn’t sure what she was excited for, but from everything I’d heard between them, I reckoned it had somethin’ to do with her, Rarity, and a structurally sound sex spell.

With that image in mind, I climbed outta bed. I got my coat out of its drawer and left the house as quick as I could. Mental images were one thing; I didn’t want to actually see, hear, or smell somethin’ I’d regret later.

My “bread” didn’t make it off Rarity’s estate, let alone do me any good. Toast ain’t breakfast. Once I got into town, I stopped by the local bakery and ordered a heapin’-large apple turnover.

With a full belly, I made my way to the library. The police presence there was thinner than yesterday, but I figured that made sense. From what I remembered from a few mystery movies I’d seen, the longer a crime scene sat for, the “colder” it got.

When I got to the yellow tape, a stallion in the telltale blue uniform muscled his way in front of me. Big fellow, looked like he could stop a train if he chose to. Yet he spoke gentle enough to remind me of home. “I’m sorry, ma’am. This is an active crime scene. We can’t let civilians enter.”

I swallowed and pulled out Earth Pony’s badge. “I’m with the head detective from Canterlot. Quirky li’l blue pony. I reckon you might’ve seen her yesterday?”

“I’m sorry. If she comes by with identification, we’ll let you on the scene. But until then—”

A minty green pegasus in a blue vest swooped down from above and cut him off. “She’s fine, Greenleaves. I remember her from last night; she’s with EGI. Probably a consultant or specialist.”

I nodded kinda sideways. “I used to be friends with Miss Twilight. Spent a good many hours in this here library with her. Ear… thee… investigator, she reckons I could help her notice if something were amiss. She’ll be back here this afternoon.”

The wall named Greenleaves saluted the pegasus, then looked at me. “I suppose it barely hurts by now, anyway. Just tell her to be quick about wrapping things up here; Ponyville wants us elsewhere. No sense keeping all the boys in blue bundled here when we should be fanned out across town.”

As impressed I was that Earth Pony’s plan was workin’ out, I knew enough to be polite to someone doin’ me somethin’ of a favor. “I’ll tell her.” Givin’ a short bow of thanks, I continued forward into the library.

Weren’t much different there from last night, though it stank less like blood. It was still there—Twi’s last little mark on the world—next to the chalk outline, but now, it was more a visual than a smellin’ sensation.

The folder of photos was on the table where Earth Pony left it. Rememberin’ how she’d looked through it yesterday, I figured it’d be a good place for me to start as well. I strolled over, opened it, and looked inside.

Soon as I did, I wished I hadn’t. Twilight’s face held none of that “peaceful sleep” horseapples. That there was a face of pure terror—at least, the half of her face that weren’t caked into the red river under her. I closed the folder and swallowed, hard, to keep my breakfast down.

That tiny feelin’ I’d drifted off to sleep with last night came back, but this time, it cut deep and festered. I wasn’t a detective. I wasn’t cut out to deal with stuff like seein’ ponies hurt, dead, or worse. I struggled between that truth and my duty to both Twi and Earth Pony; all that I could think was—

“I like your coat.” The voice boomed in the silence.

Once I climbed back down into my skin, I looked around. Above me, I found the pegasus gal from the entrance. Despite what I’d just seen and the scare I’d just had, her words brought a smile to my face. “Why, thank y’ kindly ma’am! I made it myself, actually.”

“Oh. Huh, I thought I saw something similar in a store once.”

Welp, pride’d been nice while it lasted. I muttered some mostly-indecipherable gibberish and walked deeper into the library. Maybe after everythin’ was said and done, I’d check the design section for somethin’ new to work on for the summer.

That pegasus cop, she weren’t done with the conversation. I heard her flutterin’ above me, followin’ me as she asked, “So, got any leads?”

I looked back up at her. Shoot, I hadn’t even been in the library for much longer than the ten seconds Earth Pony said she’d need. And she was the detective there, not me.

Still the pegasus cop’s question got me to thinkin’. I remembered last night, how a lot of things had been off about Rarity. She’d talked far too fondly ’bout the murders, let alone her meticulously set-up information room. I didn’t see that as ordinary, and that was what I was supposed to be lookin’ out for.

In fact, given how she’d had close contact with Twilight prior to her death… I bobbed my head and almost said, “Shucks.” If I were the detective there, I’d almost say I’d found a suspect.

Course, I didn’t want to do Earth Pony’s reputation like that—not without talkin’ to her about her marefriend first. I raised a shoulder and cricked my neck. “We’ve got a few hunches, but nothin’ solid yet.” Which was honest enough, really.

That must’ve been enough for the cop, since she zipped off like pegasi are wont to do—always brimmin’ with energy. Once again, I found myself alone in Twilight’s library. With everythin’ open as an option, I mostly felt confused about what to look at next.

With a shrug, I headed up the stairs and into my friend’s bedroom.

In there, nothin’ weren’t too out of the ordinary at first glance. Bed was messy—couldn’t blame her, I never made mine, neither. The stack of books by the bed had a single bookmark partway through the top one. I checked it to see what the last thing she’d ever read had been, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of the magicky mumbo-jumbo.

The sense of finality just made my eyes water up somethin’ fierce. ’Tweren’t right for someone as young as Twilight to be in Canterlot, bein’ laid to rest. I thought of all the times I’d thought of visitin’ Ponyville “next weekend”, but that weekend’d never come ’round. And all the while, if Rarity were spittin’ the truth, Twilight’d gotten more and more lonely.

All that sorrow got to be too heavy for me to carry on my own. I sat down at her desk and let it fall. Wasn’t too much shame in it, since I was alone—though I guessed I was leavin’ lots of little water droplets on the dust-covered desktop. But, as much as I’d tried to avoid it since I’d heard about Twi’s passin’, this was the first time I was alone.

The single thought in my mind was one of loss. I wanted my friend back.

’Twas a selfish thing to want, really. All that time I’d had I could’ve visited, but now I only wanted her back ’cause she was gone. I felt like a foal, ignorin’ a toy until someone else took it. Was that all I’d ever seen Twilight as? Somethin’ for my enjoyment, to only miss when she’d been taken away?

Between the guilt and the grief, it took me a while ’fore I could suck in a few deep breaths and pull myself together. I wiped my eyes and put myself back on track of investigatin’. I didn’t quite feel like movin’ yet, so I opened the middle drawer under her desk. Inside were several writing instruments and papers. I flipped through them, and underneath them, I found a stack of photographs bound together with an elastic mane tie.

Unlike the folder where she was dead, I could look at the pictures where she’d been alive. The first few were a couple out-of-focus shots of Spike holdin’ the camera out and takin’ pictures of himself. Then, an experimental, diagonal shot of that darned ugly wood carvin’ down in the lobby. Then, a picture of Twilight, eyes still bright, standing proudly in front of a wall of books…

I looked through all of them, and it warmed my chest a little. I still felt like dirt, but I could at least snap the hair tie ’round the photos, put ’em back, and walk over to Twilight’s closet. Like I remembered, the girl wasn’t too much of a fashion bug. Everythin’ in there was even dustier than the rest of the library, which almost showed effort on Twi’s part.

With a sigh, I headed over to her big, round, bed-side window. Celestia held the sun directly above Ponyville at that point, which gave the place a bright, oppressive look to it—leastways because the streets were dead-empty.

After havin’ let off some of my grief, I felt the same way—empty, with hard edges makin’ a hollow frame. I was mad at myself, sad at my loss... but mostly, I just felt helpless.

I breathed a long sigh. Any other case, I reckoned Earth Pony might have a chance at finding somethin’ in that library. But these Ribbon Murders weren’t motivated. The victims just died ’cause they were there, on some mad stallion’s list or however he chose them.

Then again, Twilight weren’t exactly like every other victim. She was the private student of Celestia herself, which probably made her one of the most powerful unicorns in all of Equestria. I couldn’t imagine her bein’ unable to defend herself, even if she were bein’ strangled.

Unless Earth Pony and Rarity were right, and she was the one who did herself in. I shuddered at the thought, but with it came the grimmest note of hope. If this “murder” really was different from the others in that regard, maybe there was somethin’ to find.

My attention snaped to the bedroom door creakin’ open. Through the threshold, Earth Pony stumbled in with—of all things—a cast on her hind left leg. She cracked a wacky smile in my direction. “Find anything?”

“What the hay happened to you?” As soon as I said it, I realized there was a mighty high chance I didn’t wanna know.

“I fell more than a hundred feet and only broke my leg, that’s what. And Rarity didn’t want to do the spell again after that…” She bristled, clearly irritated. “Now come on, we have to catch this guy who keeps killing ponies. What did you find?”

I shook my head. “Nothin’, ’less you’re lookin’ for old, blurry pictures of Spike takin’ pictures of himself.”

“What about the other pictures? The ones in the folder?” I grimaced, and a sympathetic look came over her face. “You looked at them, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“Do you think I’m right? About… you know.”

“I ain’t rightly sure, Earth Pony,” I said, despite the growin’ evidence against me. “All I can tell you is that she was mighty scared when she passed. She… she died with that look on her face. Like... if she’d made up her mind...”

Earth Pony nodded and cocked her head to the side. “I know it’s weird, but... sometimes, ponies like that are sure, up to the last second. Most of the time, it hurts, and they aren’t expecting that’s how their last moment is going to be.”

I tried not to think of Twilight, in her last moment, bein’ scared and desperately pleadin’ for a do-over. All I could manage was a long, hard blink that didn’t quite clear my head. “Ain’t nothing like you see in the movies.”

“It never is.” She kept her head tilted at me for a few more moments. Then, her gusto came back, and she perked right up. “Still, the Ribbon Murderer was here. There has to be something. If this were a movie, this would be the scene where we split up to cover more ground, then one of us has a big realization, and we blow this case wide. Open.”

Splittin’ up don’t end well in any of the murder movies I’ve seen. I kept that thought to myself as well. Earth Pony seemed motivated, and heck, lookin’ at my teardrops on Twilight’s desk, I had a stake in this too.

I gave Earth Pony a serious nod. “All right. Let’s catch us a killer.”

Comments

[Reese]

"After all, I had spent the day prior in two towns"
I'm a bit confused. What was the other town?

[Skulljack17]

Heh, Earth Pony WOULD get a spell that's unstable and probably stress it to the point of it ending early. Leastwise that's what I figure happened. A mini mystery within a mystery!