Chapter 5
The sun was setting and Twilight decided to check on Tombstone and give him a quick tour. When Twilight opened the doors to his room she barely recognized it. The room was much darker in scope, with the walls, ceiling, and floor looking much rougher and duller than before. The bed was moved to open up the room more and the mattress was up against the window blocking any light from coming in. There were also some tables jetting out of the floor lined up against the wall with his lab equipment and other materials laid out on them, and a bookcase that was completely filled. The only illumination coming from candles that were spread throughout the room. Tombstone himself was at the desk looking over some papers when he heard the doors open and looked over to see Twilight.
“My you’ve been busy haven’t you.”
“I hope you don’t mind but I decided to make myself more at home. I’m used to working in a dark cave like environment.”
“Well that’s ok. It looks a lot like the lab back at your place actually.”
“That’s what I was going for.”
“Anyways would you like a quick look around the castle?”
“That’s fine. I can finish what I’m doing later.”
They started to make their way through the castle. An hour later and Twilight had shown him most of the major rooms by now, with just a couple more stops to go.
“Here we have the library.”
“Hmm a good size. A little bit bigger than I thought it would be, of course this whole place looks bigger on the inside than it looks on the out.”
“Oh this is nowhere near as big as your library.”
“True, but you have a fine collection of knowledge none the less.”
“Thank you, now we have one last stop. Right this way.”
With the sun now fully set. They traveled back through the castle and came to the finally stop.
“And this is the throne room.”
“So if this is your castle why are there seats for your friends?”
“Because it’s never been just me. Every challenge I’ve faced my friends have been right by my side to face it with me. If it weren’t for them I never would have become a princess. So it only makes sense that they would be there to help me with my duties as The Princess of Friendship as well.”
“I suppose that does make sense.”
Twilight then noticed Spike peak his head into the room.
“Yes Spike.”
“Pinkie wanted me to tell you that she’s finished setting up and that other ponies have already started arriving.”
“Ok, let’s get going then. We don’t want to miss out on anything now do we?”
“Let me just pack a couple of things in my saddle bag first, then I’ll be ready to go.”
“Alright. Spike you can go on ahead if you want.”
“Ok.”
It was night time in Ponyville and most ponies were either retiring for the evening or heading for Sugarcube Corner. Twilight and Tombstone finally arrived and made their way inside. Tombstone was at a loss for words. The place was packed with ponies, there were cakes and desserts on a long table off to the side, and there was music playing in the corner. The party itself had a subtle subtheme to it in the form of gravestone shaped cookies and some Nightmare Night decorations.
“I don’t know about this Twilight, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been in the same vicinity of this many ponies. I feel incredibly out of place here.”
“You’ll be fine, at least give it a try. You just need to loosen up a little and mingle.”
“Fine, I’ll try.”
Just then Pinkie sped up to Twilight and Tombstone, stopping just short of running into them.
“Hay there Tombstone, are you ready to paaaaarty!?”
“I guess so.”
“Come on you can do better than that. Here have some cake.”
“Uhh sorry but I no longer eat. My body is unable to process food anymore. It would merely sit like a lump in my belly.”
“Oh ok. Don’t worry the night is still young, and I’ll have you smiling by the end of it.”
And with that Pinkie zipped off and disappeared from sight.
“How can she?”
“Again it’s best not to question how she does anything.”
The Mayor was the next to approach the pair.
“Hello, as Ponyville’s Mayor I would like to personally welcome you to town.”
The Mayor then extended her hoof and touched him on the shoulder. Twilight thought that Mayor Mare would find it odd that he would be cold to the touch, but acted as though she didn’t even notice.
“Uhh thanks.”
“That’s an interesting cutie mark you have, what is it you do if you don’t mind me asking?”
Crap I forgot about that, how are we going to explain his cutie mark to other ponies. Hopefully Tombstone thought of something.
“Not at all, the subject was bound to come up eventually. I work with corpses mostly. I’m a forensic pathologist you see.”
“Oh that makes sense.”
That was close.
“Well I’ll leave you be for now. Enjoy the party and your stay.”
Twilight waited until The Mayor was out of earshot before asking Tombstone about what just happened.
“Why is it she didn’t notice your body being so cold?”
“I cast a spell earlier to warm up these old bones of mine and have my body generate false heat for a little while, just in case I had any physical contact with other ponies.”
“Good thinking, now come on I’ll introduce you to some more ponies.”
A little while later and Tombstone was starting to feel a little better about his situation. Some ponies decided to leave early, opening up the room more and a few ponies even stated to dance to the music.
“Care to dance?” said Twilight.
“Ok I guess.”
Twilight and Tombstone started to dance along with the others, though he really didn’t know how to, he just tried to follow her lead.
“This isn’t so bad I suppose.”
A slight smile crept on to Tombstones face.
“Glad to see you’re finally starting to enjoy yourself.”
Just then the door to Sugarcube Corner burst open with a distressed Carrot Top (who was breathing heavily) standing in the doorway. All eyes fell on her and the music cut out.
“HELP!” said Carrot Top while trying to catch her breath.
“What’s wrong!?” said Mayor Mare.
“MURDER!”
A collective gasp enveloped the room. Then they started murmuring to each other.
“What happened!?”
By now she had started to calm down and wasn’t breathing so hard.
“I-I was on my way home when I decided to cut though an alleyway and then I saw the body. Buttercup’s dead!”
Most of the ponies in the room found the news hard to take, none more so than Buttercup’s fiancé Cloud Surfer.
“That’s not, you lie!”
“I understand this is hard for you to accept but why would Carrot Top lie about something like this?” said Mayor Mare.
“Then take me to her dammit! I want to see if what you say is true with my own eyes!”
“Very well I will.”
Carrot Top, Mayor Mare, and Cloud Surfer began to leave. Tombstone decided he wanted a look as well and followed them. Twilight also went and the rest followed suit. The group traveled a couple of blocks over when they came to an alley and indeed found Buttercup’s body lying on the ground. Cloud Surfer was overcome with grief upon seeing her lifeless form. He walked up to her and broke down. Seeing this struck a chord within Tombstone, he too knew the pain of losing that which he loved most and decided to do something.
“Stand aside. Allow me to have a look.”
Cloud backed up a little and Tombstone started to look her over.
“Hmm she has miner bumps and bruises around the face and chest, obvious sign of a struggle, with bruising and marks around the neck which appears to be from strangulation which as of now is the most likely cause of death.” His eye drifted towards her flank and he examined that area as well. “Also appears she was raped most likely prior to death.” That last part for Cloud Surfer only turned his grief into anger.
“WHO!? Who did this!? I demand justice!”
“And you shall have it.”
Every pony looked at Tombstone slightly confused. He removed a quill and inkwell from his saddle bag with his magic, then drew a circle around her body and started writing strange markings on the inside edge of it.
“Tombstone what are you doing?” said Twilight.
“We need an eyewitness account of what happened and who better to ask than the victim. I’m going to reach out and make contact with her soul on the other side. I estimate she’s only been dead about twenty to thirty minutes so her soul should still be awaiting judgment, that and with her body here will make her easy to find.”
“What kind of pathologist are you?” said Mayor Mare.
“I’m unique in the practice.” Tombstone then summoned candles around the circle, when he finished writing he touched the circle with his hooves. The circle and markings lit up, and he began to speak something. “Dinok Zu'u faan voknau hi.” The smoke from the candles began to swirl round in the air above her body. When Tombstone finished his incantation a ball of light appeared in the smoke. “Buttercup can you hear me? Are you there?”
“H-Hello, who’s there?”
“Buttercup?”
“Cloud is that you? Where am I?”
“Buttercup my name is Tombstone and you’re dead. Your soul is in limbo at the moment.”
“I’m dead but, wait I remember, he killed me.”
“Who, give us a description of your attacker, did you know him?”
“I-I did, it was my ex-coltfriend Steady Hoof.” The others were shocked by this, most of them know Steady and they couldn’t believe he do something like this. “He was always bitter about the breakup and when he found out I was getting married I guess he just lost it.” Buttercup now started to cry. “Wait I see something, it’s a bright light.”
“Good that means your soul is journeying to a better place. Thank you for your time, now go.”
“Alright. Bye cloud, I love you.”
“Good bye Buttercup, I love you too.”
Then Tombstone put out the candles and the connection was severed. The circle went out and the ink disappeared.
“Now with that taken care of all we have to do is find this Steady Hoof and make the arrest, although in my opinion he deserves to die.”
“I second that!” said Cloud.
“Hear, hear!” said some random ponies in the crowd.
“Everypony calm down! We don’t need a mob scene here. I’ll contact the authorities and have them make the arrest, although I’m not sure how well a dead pony’s account will hold up in court,” said Mayor Mare.
“All you need for a conviction is inside her. His spunk contains enough DNA to prove he is the one that did it.”
“Very well I’ll go contact the proper ponies. The rest of you should return to your homes for the rest of the evening.”
The others started to leave, all except Cloud who wanted to keep watch over her body while The Mayor went to do what she needed too.
“Tombstone before you go I just wanted to thank you. If nothing else at least I got to say good bye.”
“You’re welcome, I know the pain you felt all too well.”
Twilight and Tombstone made their way back to the castle. Twilight made sure they were alone before asking him about what happened back there.
“Tombstone are you ok?”
“Fine,” he said in an angry tone. “Look Twilight I know you’re trying to get me to see the good in ponykind, but what happened back there reminded me just bad they can be. It’s a cruel world out there and you’d do best to remember that as well.”
“Life may be unfair at times but it’s not as bad as you think it is. By the way what were those markings you made?”
“That was dovahzul in its written form.”
“But those were nothing but lines and dots.”
“Exactly, dragons didn’t have writing utensils back then. All they had were their claws to carve into things, so it would be a bunch of lines and dots. Speaking of dragons where’s yours at?”
“He asked if he could spend the night at Rarity’s, just for tonight.”
“So we have the castle to ourselves then.”
“Yep, just you and me tonight. Uhh Tombstone I’m a bit shaken up from what happened back there.”
“I can imagine.”
“So I was wondering since it’s just you and me, if maybe we could spend the night together? I could really use the company.”
“You mean like staying up with me.”
“More like going to bed with me.”
“Oh, I can’t really sleep anymore.”
“Oh right.”
“But I wouldn’t mind simply lying next to you while you slept.”
“Thanks.”
They finally made it back to the castle. Then made their way to Twilight’s room and got into bed. Then she cuddled up close to him.
“Mmm still warm.”
“I refreshed the spell for you. It should last all night.”
That got a giggle out of Twilight.
“Thanks. It feels so weird to not hear your heart beat. How about you?”
“You get used to it. Good night Twilight, I’ll see you in the morning, maybe even sooner than that. You know Luna’s not the only pony that knows how to enter others dreams, but I’ll wait until you’re in your REM cycle before I visit.”
“It’s a date. Night.”
Date? Oh Tombstone what have you gotten yourself into. Do I really have a chance at love again?
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......... TOO FAST!
The murder bit I get, gives Tomb a chance to show off, but then he turns around twenty minutes later and kisses Twilight, who wasn't concerned by the pony's rape and subsequent strangling at all, and gets his feeling returned with an invitation to bed and a promise of a dream date from a mare that by all rights should have been riding quite the monster of an emotional roller coaster at that point.
And I get it, she was confined in a space with him for three months before hand, enough time to get to know him well enough to develop a crush on him, as well as get used to him killing things. But that wasn't addressed, so to me, as well as just about everyone else that read this I think, that came out of friggin nowhere.
That aside, I realized that I forgot to fave this particular fic earlier, so will be doing that now.
6092911
WOW! Not quiet the reaction I was expecting but I appreciate the constructive criticism. Allow me to explain.
Yes Twilight would be shaken up by what happened but that was partly the reason why she wanted to send the night with him. To draw comfort form his company and help put her mind at ease. Maybe I did rush it a little and maybe I will fix it up later but for now it is what it is. I apologize if anyone was a little put off by the way the chapter ended and any more feedback would be appreciated. Hope your all still enjoying the story though.
6093008 Yes, I am enjoying the story actually. That said, I would appreciate it if you could come back to this chapter sometime and put in some exposition around what's going on in purple smart's head.
6093413
Ok kamachakta and everybody I made some updates to chapter 5 so give the end a reread and tell me what you think, hopefully its an improvement.
6095659 Is an improvement, leaves me wondering when the next update is going to be now that I'm not hung up on it though. That aside, I found a thing that got missed.
In this particular sentenced, wired should probably be weird.
6095845
Fixed and thank you for thinking its an improvement.