Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - The White Raven

by Rixizu

Chapter 11

Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - The White Raven
Chapter 11
by Rixizu

“What are you doing here?” Trixie sputtered.

“I’m here to rescue you obviously!” Twilight responded and pulled something out of her saddlebag. It was a pair of keys. She put them in the lock of the cell’s door. Trixie knew the cell was made of a metal that was enchanted to make the use of magic impossible while in the cell. Not even an alicorn could cast their magic in here. Twilight would have been trapped inside with her if she tried teleporting.

“Quick. I don’t know how long that sleep spell Corona casted will last.” Twilight said as the door opened.

“Sleep spell?” Trixie parroted.

“Yeah, why did you think nopony came when you two were chatting?” Twilight explained. “You weren’t exactly quiet.”

"That makes sense," Trixie said exiting the cell. I guess she got those keys from an unconscious guard.

Twilight gasped. “Trixie! What happened to your horn?!”

Trixie paused. What could she possibly say? She started stuttering. “It’s…um… a long story. Never mind about that now.”

"Whatever. Let's go already." Twilight said. She grabbed Trixie's shoulder. "Hold on."

“Wait!” Trixie said giving Twilight pause. “I’m really grateful for all this really, but do you really want to do this? You’ll be a criminal. A wanted pony. I can’t guarantee that I will be able to clear my name.” Trixie was hesitant to bring Twilight into all this.“And… something bad might happen to you.” Trixie trailed off. She didn’t want Twilight to end up like Pokey. She winced in pain thinking about him. She couldn't lose somepony else too. This wasn’t a game. This whole ordeal was wracked with danger.

Twilight looked Trixie dead in the eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure. I can handle myself. I know you didn't do it. You aren't that kind of pony. I want to help you, Trixie. You're… a friend. I owe you everything.”

"…Thanks." That was all Trixie could say. Twilight lit up her horn, and the two teleported out of the building.

Trixie blinked after the teleport ended. “Ugh.” She moaned. That was no fun at all. It felt like her insides were put into a blender. Not unlike the last time Twilight teleported her a month earlier. She shook her head and looked around. They were in an alley on Main Street Trixie thought. It was late in the night and the moon was already out.

Trixie could see other ponies outside of the alley going about their daily lives. She could see Bon-Bon with her sister Twist walking somewhere with a bag on their back. In the distance, Trixie could see Ponyville’s police station. It was very small, only a single-story box-like building. Ponyville didn’t have much crime, so it only had about two officers stationed at it at a time and the jail only had four cells. The rest of the officers she’d seen earlier were called in from Canterlot since Trixie’s charges weren’t something the local police could handle. They didn’t have a CSI team after all.

Trixie rubbed her chin. She pondered what to do next. She mentally kicked herself for putting off creating safe houses for just such an occasion. She knew she couldn’t go to a friend’s house since they were being watched, if not by the police, the Night Court no doubt would. This was not good. They would notice she was gone very soon.

“Oh, hello Darling. Fancy seeing you here.” Rarity said cheerfully.

"Hi, Rarity," Trixie said offhoofedly. Where could she go that would be…

“Rarity?!” Trixie exclaimed. Twilight, who was peering over the alley’s entrance to see if the coast was clear, turned around and gasped in shock.

“Why, yes darling I believe that is my name.” Rarity deadpanned.

“Oh, hey! It’s Rarity, right? It’s nice to see you again!” Twilight said quickly. “We are just hanging out here. Nothing even remotely suspicious or illegal or anything!”

Real smooth. Trixie sighed inwardly.

Rarity tilted her head. “Is something the matter?”

“Nope! Nothing at all!” Twilight gave out a nervous laugh. “What could possibly be the matter? Now if you would excuse us, we have things to do!”

Trixie resisted the urge to facehoof. “Yes, we really must be going.” She spoke in a tight voice.

“Nonsense.” Rarity said in a tone that gave room to argue. “Not when you’re wanted by the police!”

Trixie’s jaw dropped. “H-How do you know that?” Twilight tensed.

“Darling. Your arrest has been the talk of the town. It would be pretty hard not to notice.” Rarity stated matter of factly.

Twilight took on a defensive stance.

“Now stop that darling. I’m not going to turn you in.” Rarity huffed. “Like I would ever do such a thing. I know you didn’t do it.”

Trixie blinked. “How do you know that?”

“Please.” Rarity waved a dismissive hoof. “Despite what someponies say about you, I know you are a good pony at heart.”

“Thanks,” Trixie was surprised just how grateful she was for Rarity’s belief in her.

“Now, to Carousel Boutique!” Rarity proclaimed. “Unless you want somepony to see you and call the police that is?”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Trixie asked. “You’ll be harboring a criminal.”

Rarity gave a dismissive snort. “Lulamoon, what type of lady would I be if I just abandoned a pony in need?!”

Trixie inwardly groaned at being addressed by her hated last name, but this wasn’t really the time to correct the fashionista. “Fine. Lead the way!”

“Onward!” Rarity proclaimed. Trixie winced at how loud Rarity was being. She just sighed and followed to Rarity’s house.

---

Rarity’s house was just like Trixie remembered it. Even though she didn’t consider herself fashion minded, she thought the dresses on display were quite lovely. The last time she was here, Trixie was being fitted for a dress for the Grand Galloping Gala. She was loathed to go, but her friends were eager to see it for themselves after the princess sent them each an invitation. Trixie reluctantly agreed to come along. Trixie had to admit that Rarity’s design for her dress was a work of art and suited her tastes. Trixie could see it half constructed on a mannequin in the distance. She wondered if she would ever go to the Gala now. Trixie shook her head, now was not the time for doubts.

Trixie sipped her tea and tried to relax. It was a little awkward with just her hooves, but she managed it. She did her best to explain the entire situation to Rarity who listened intently.

“Oh dear, that is quite the mess you've gotten yourself into.” Rarity said sympathetically.

“What I don’t get is why they killed Pokey. I get they want me gone, but wouldn’t framing me for embezzlement be enough?” Trixie felt tears prick the ends of her eyes. Pokey was dead. Killed to get at her. It was all so stupid and pointless. How could they do that? Haven’t they already taken enough from her? She involuntarily touched the top of her horn. But Trixie knew they won’t stop, not until they destroyed all of her friends. Trixie gritted her teeth and scowled. Trixie’s sadness was consumed by unrelenting anger and hate. She would stop them. She would find Pokey’s killer and avenge him. They would pay for this. They would pay. Trixie took a deep breath. She needed to control herself. She couldn’t let her emotions get the better of her. She needed to think clearly. Losing control might cost another friend’s life.

“It’s just unnecessarily messy. Not really Greengrass’s style.” Trixie lamented. She drank more tea to calm herself down. She could still feel the rage bubbling beneath the surface, but she had control of herself now.

“Maybe he saw something in Canterlot and they needed to silence him?” Rarity suggested.

“What could he have possibly seen that would make them want to kill him?” Trixie asked.

"That is what we will have to find out," Twilight said, "Rarity, I heard you discovered Pokey’s body. Is that true?”

Rarity gave a slow nod. “Unfortunately, I did. It was a ghastly scene.”

“What can you tell us about it?” Twilight asked eager.

Rarity thought about it. “It seemed really clean to me.”

“Clean?” Trixie asked.

"Despite the condition of Pokey's body." Rarity made a face but continued. "There was a remarkable lack of blood."

"So, he wasn't stabbed there," Twilight concluded and Rarity nodded in agreement.

“No darling. I don’t believe so.” Rarity tapped her chin.

“I looked around and found a remarkable lack of clues,” Rarity continued, “there were traces of hoofprints being covered up, so it was hard to tell who was in the quarry. As far as I can tell, the killer dropped Pokey’s body off the top of the cliff and it slid down the incline to the bottom. You can see the markings of where he slid down.”

“Is it true that Pokey ‘wrote’ my name is blood?” Trixie asked. The police told her about it, but she could hardly believe it. That kind of thing only happened in mystery novels. She doubted a dying pony would be the right frame of mind to leave any message about their killer.

Rarity nodded. “Yes, although the calligraphy was a little too good for a pony dying of blood loss.”

“That's all the evidence they had that you did it?” Twilight asked in disbelief.

"No," Trixie said and sighed. “They have other things. They found one of my fruit knives with Pokey’s blood on it. It only had my hoofprints on it. They also have witnesses that saw me carrying a large pony shaped bag outside of town before the time of the murder.”

“Really, why did you do that?” Twilight asked perplexed.

“Ugh, I was just carrying out some trash to be burned. It was just old papers, mostly. The Apples allow me to use their furnace to burn my trash. Talk about bad luck.” Trixie groaned and cursed her habit of burning her trash at three once a week. She just had to take the scenic route that day too. Big Mac didn’t see her for at least an hour.

"There is also the fact I have no alibi and have a possible motive," Trixie said. Her audience perked up at this. "They think I killed Pokey because he found out about my ‘embezzling' and I had to silence him."

"Oh dear. That does point towards you being the culprit." Rarity sighed.

"Apparently, the head prosecutor thinks it is an open and shut case," Trixie growled. The head prosecutor was this smug oily little stallion with a bad toupee and stupid sunglasses. He loved to go on and on about how pointless it was to defend her case and that she might as well just confess. Just thinking about him made her wanted to punch that stallion.

"Would you believe that every attorney I contacted refused to defend me?" Trixie said. Princess Luna helped her with this by teleporting to Canterlot and talking with all the best defense attorneys in the city. "Apparently, they all thought that my case wasn't worth defending."

Twilight’s face darkened. “Father.” She spat the word.

Trixie crossed her front legs and nodded. Nopony seemed to want to cross the Viceroy. He had a lot of power in the Equestrian legal system. He wasn’t even charged for attacking her and cutting off her horn. Everypony seemed to fear him. She did her best to not start grinding her teeth in frustration.

"Well, at least the princess said she knew someone that could defend me and wouldn't back down from threats or be bribed," Trixie said, "and that he would defend me to the bitter end."

“Someone?” Rarity asked picking up on the unusual word usage. “So, she wasn’t talking about a pony? A griffon maybe?

“I don’t know. She just said he was out of town. It doesn’t matter right now, anyway.” Trixie said trying to get back on topic.

“We need to get to Canterlot and trace Pokey’s steps.” Trixie rubbed her chin with a hoof.

"Wait. Trixie, they will be expecting that. It won't be easy." Twilight said standing up.

"It's true darling." Rarity shook her head. "It seems rather obvious."

Trixie smirked. “Don’t worry about it. I have a plan.”

“You do?” Twilight asked.

“Of course,” Trixie said with confidence, “We just need to unpredictable.”

"We are going against Greengrass," Twilight said darkly. They both knew how dangerous and cunning that stallion was.

“True,” Trixie admitted, but she wasn’t going to be perturbed or scared by this, “but those Night Court jerks think I am a complete idiot. Something I am going to use to my advantage.”

---

"What a mess," Sleuth said rubbing the back of his neck. He just discovered the four guards assigned to Lulamoon asleep on the ground. Since it seemed unlikely that all four guards suddenly decided to take a nap, it was obviously a sleep spell. He kicked a guard, but he only stirred a little.

So, who could have cast a spell like this? Sleuth thought. He wondered if one of Trixie’s unicorn friends could do this. Maybe, but this appeared to be a powerful spell. He knew Lyra studied musical magic, so it wasn’t out of the possibility that she could use her lyre to cast this spell.

“What is going on here?!” Demanded a voice from police station’s entrance. Sleuth turned towards it.

“Greeting Archduke Fisher.” Sleuth gave a courteous bow.

“Never mind that!” Fisher growled. “Where is Trixie Lulamoon?”

"Gone," Sleuth replied.

“How?!”

Sleuth put out a breath. “Somepony used a sleep spell and stole her away.”

“What!” Fisher started pacing. “I have ponies watching over Heartstrings’ house. How did she avoid them? She doesn’t even know they were there!”

Sleuth quirked an eyebrow. “You have ponies watching Lulamoon’s friends?”

“Of course, I do!” Fisher yelled. “I just knew they would try something!”

If the archduke has somepony watching Heartstrings’ house, then it probably isn’t her. Sleuth pondered. “Check with your ponies if Heartstrings is still in her house. It might not be her.”

Fisher nodded and yelled for a pony in the distance. He came quickly like his life depended on it. He spoke swiftly with Fisher and was off again.

Sleuth thought of his options. Despite her connection to the suspect, he doubted the princess was involved. She would want to settle this matter legally. What other unicorns did Lulamoon know? And how many of them could use such a powerful sleep spell? It wasn’t Pierce obviously. Rarity? No, that didn’t seem right. Though he did hear that she came to Lulamoon’s rescue in the Corvus incident. Wait, the Corvus incident. There were rumors that Twilight Sparkle was the one that Corona turned into a monster. Strangely, none of the major papers reported on Corvus’s identity, but that didn’t stop the tabloids. He wondered if Viceroy Night Light covered it up to protect his daughter. This would explain the viceroy’s animosity toward Lulamoon. Maybe he blamed the Galaxy Rangers for what happened to his daughter?

"Say Archduke Fisher," Sleuth called out.

“What?” Fisher said impatiently.

“Is it true that Twilight Sparkle was the one who became that Corvus creature a month ago?” Sleuth asked. “Is that why Viceroy Night Light hates Lulamoon so much? He must have mentioned something.”

Fisher studied Sleuth for a moment. Sleuth tapped his hoof waiting for an answer. Fisher eventually sighed and relented. “Yes, you are correct.”

So, I was right. Sleuth thought with satisfaction. “So, where is his daughter now?”

"As far as I know, she disappeared," Fisher said. “And yes, he did cover it up. He naturally didn’t want ponies to know about his daughter becoming a monster. Lucky for him, there was a lot of confusion during the incident. So most ponies didn't get a good look at her.”

Fisher paused. “Why do you ask…wait. You don’t think that little filly is involved in this?”

"It is a possibly," Sleuth said. It was just a theory, but he wondered how Sparkle would react after learning about her savior's arrest.

“I would check the train station to see if anypony of Sparkle’s description came into town.” Sleuth knew all this was probably farfetched, but it won’t hurt to check.

Fisher nodded and left the police station with a fierceness in his steps determined to check out the matter himself. Sleuth waited patiently for him.

"Oh, sir?" The pony sent to checked up on Heartstrings returned after a few minutes. He looked baffled and a bit apprehensive at his boss’s absence.

"He left on an errand," Sleuth said addressing the messenger. "Just tell me, and I will report to the archduke."

“Okay then." The messenger didn't seem happy about not reporting to his master. In fact, he seemed a little scared about the whole prospect but relented eventually with hesitation.

The messenger cleared his throat. "Lyra Heartstrings has not left her house for the last four hours. She is asleep right now, actually"

Sleuth nodded and waved the messenger away. The pony was about to leave out the door when he was knocked out of the way and onto the floor by a large burly form who moved in a blur.

"You were right," Fisher growled, "Twilight Sparkle came into town an hour and a half ago."

“Damn that filly.” Fisher cursed. “You there!” He pointed towards the messenger.

“Y-yes sir?” He asked as he got up.

“I want you to tell Duke Greengrass and Viceroy Night Light that Twilight Sparkle is in town and she might be helping Trixie Lulamoon!” Fisher demanded. The messenger quickly nodded and left.

---

Trixie tossed and turned in her bed. Rarity was nice enough to let Trixie use her own bed. But despite how comfortable she was, Trixie was still unable to sleep. Sleep still wouldn’t come. Her mind couldn’t settle down. The thoughts and anxieties of the day raced through her head. She and her friends were in so much danger. How could she not worry? The idea that another one of friends might get killed haunted her.

“Trixie, stop being stupid. You need sleep. You need it for all your cunning plans and escapes! I order you to sleep!”

After about ten minutes trying to count sheep and doing everything in her power to not think about her troubles, she finally felt sleep coming towards her. Trixie closed her eyes for good and finally went to sleep.

Trixie stirred and blurrily opened her eyes. She thought her heard a sound. She rolled over to her other side covers tight in her hooves. It’s nothing. Ignore it.

Trixie’s eyes widened when she heard light hoofsteps. They were almost undetectable like a feather hitting the floor, but Trixie heard them. Her heart started to race. She closed her eyes and pretended to turn in her sleep again. She now faced the direction of the steps. She opened her eyes just a fraction of an inch.

"No," Trixie said in a horrified whisper when she got a good look at the intruder. It was Notary.

Comments

[Proper Prose]

Did Rarity tell the police what she told Trixie and Twilight? If she did then they shouldn't have held Trixie. It was quite the painfully obvious frame job. And now Trixie faces the actual murderer.

[DracoDarastrix]

A defence attorney from another town? "HOLD IT" Is it by any chance Phoenix Wright?

[RainbowDoubleDash]

7763202
Eh, I wouldn't say "obviously", though it isn't the most airtight of cases.

This is a lot more violent and murder-driven then I ever would have expected from a Power Rangers/MLP crossover...

[Proper Prose]

7764277
I know, this is surpringly dark by the standards of most Power Rangers series, given Pokey's murder and a conspiracy but government officials to actively get rid of the rangers or bring them under their personal control (I believe Lightspeed Rescue had a plot where the tried to replace the rangers with robots, but the plot was benign if I recall).

Even so, it is still a good and interesting story, most likely for the very things I just mentioned. Because really, when are we going to see things like this in a Power Rangers series?

[the other sans]

Twilight took on a defensive stand

1. Stance.