Murder

by Pendo

Chapter 4

It took a few minutes to restore order, after a guard had fled the basement while screaming like a little filly. Somewhere above, there was the sound of raucous laughter. Twilight had remained at the top of the stairs, apparently knowing what to expect.

“I tried to warn you…”

Part of the basement had been converted into a larder. Enchanted tiles fitted with thin slices of carved gemstone kept the interior cool, and the skinned carcasses of several animals hung from the ceiling. In another room, a bloodstained desk was framed by a rack of blades…one of them almost the size of Shining Armor’s torso.

It was a grisly sight, but not much worse then what he’d seen on a trip to the griffon kingdom. It was as tidy and clean as such a place could be, but Armor’s eye was drawn to an empty hook on the blade rack. From what the doctors had told him of Ironhorn’s wounds…

“Search this place, top to bottom. And call the human down here.”

The guards acknowledged his order silently, unwilling to open their mouths while they had enough trouble keeping the contents of their stomachs down. The ponies fanned out, horns glowing and hooves tapping. The tower had been rebuilt after long disuse, but it soon seemed there were no hidden rooms or hidey-holes left over from the renovation.

Still wobbling slightly after being woken up, the human came down the stairs flanked by three guards. A few moments later the fourth came down, somewhat green in the face. Armor took a long look at the human, and didn’t take his eyes off him when he pointed to the blade rack.

“Malachi, you’re missing something.”

The human followed the gesture and frowned at the empty hook. He took a quick look around the room and at the floor around him.

“Strange. I thought Bruce was thief, but I don’t know what he’d want with bonesaw.”

As soon as the word left his lips, everypony present grimaced in revulsion. Except for Twilight, who had come partway downstairs and was leaning in just enough to see her brother’s reaction.

“What’s wrong?”

Shining Armor hoped, for a moment, that an answer would come to him if he just stared at the human hard enough. Malachi certainly didn’t show much in the way of emotion, his face flat and neutral. Some people just had tighter control over the emotions they showed, he supposed.

Or the human was the murderer. Armor didn’t know, and had no immediate way to be sure.

He also couldn’t take the chance.

“Malachi, resident of Equestria and pledged to uphold Pony law, I must place you under custody of the royal guard.”

“What? Brother, why?”

The guards slowly formed a circle around the human, who took a step back. In reflex, Armor hoped, and not to get closer to the blades now within reach.

“Twilight…”

“You can’t believe…why would you think that he’s the…the…”

Murderer, the silence said. A word not heard in Equestria for a long, long, time.

“Twilight, the vic-Ironhorn, he…” Armor’s voice cracked, and he had to force the words past rising bile. “His horn was sawn off and taken.”

Twilght was frozen in disbelief. The reality of what was said was…incomprehensible. Her mouth opened, and only disconnected syllables spilled from her mouth as her eyes darted between Malachi, an empty hook, the bloody block, and all the hanging carcasses that her imagination was busy warping into the shape of friends and neighbours. She scrambled backwards and hit the wall, sliding along it and tripping over the first stair in her attempt to get away. She didn’t stand after falling, only screwed her eyes shut and tried to block the images lingering in her mind.

Armor stepped back and then rushed to his sister’s side, forced to use magic to get her to her feet. At a gesture, a guard took over and began hauling her up the stairs and outside. He wanted to go with her, more than anything else right now. But he wasn’t just a brother anymore. He was the captain of the guard as well.

It took the human a little longer to process what was said. He shouted something in the human language, and followed that by repeating a different word several times as he shifted and paced on the spot. He growled out a few more words before finding something that they could understand.

“What…happened?!”

“A pony was murdered. The unicorn’s horn was taken. We believe a human is the culprit. There are three humans whose whereabouts we can’t confirm. Can you prove you are not responsible?”

The human’s brow scrunched in the universal sign of confusion, and Armor gave him the time to think. The human had seemed genuinely shocked to hear of the murder, and Armor was slowly revising his opinion of him, but orders and process stood.

“I…cannot.”

“Then by Equestrian law, I am ordered to take you under my custody. If you try to resist-“

“I will not.”

The human purposefully stepped away from the blades and spread his arms, showing empty hands. Cautiously, the Unicorns spun spells that formed chains and shackles that pulled his limbs tightly together, and true to his word, the human didn’t move, except to look pointedly at Shining Armor and then nod towards the stairs.

Armor took a few halting steps, waiting to be sure that the binding spells had coalesced properly before rushing outside to tend to his sister.

----------------------------

Armor guided his sister out of the tower and towards some fresh air. She’s all but laughed off his concerns at first, but he was quickly coming to realize that everything she’d faced before had come with a certain…familiarity, as crazy as it sounded. Dragons, monsters, dark magic…old hat for Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and Celestia’s personal student. But murder? Personal, senseless loss? That was another beast altogether.

“…Do you really think…” Twilight began after finding her voice.

“We can’t take the chance. He’ll have to be held until we can be sure one way or another.”

Any further conversation was stifled when Malachi stepped out, immediately turning his eyes away from the sunlight. Restrained by four separate binding spells, it didn’t make for a very pleasant spectacle. Chariot or no, they couldn’t fly like this. It was going to be a long and awkward walk back to Canterlot.

At the edge of the Everfree, as their paths began to split, Twilight found her voice again.

“…Malachi?”

“Yes?”

“Why…why would a human want a Unicorn’s horn?”

Malachi closed his eyes, and they shifted in their sockets as walked in thought.

“In ancient myth, a unicorn’s horn was said to purify bad water and destroy poison. I remember a story, a king asked for a drinking cup carved from unicorn horn because he feared death by poisoning. But in modern times…” The human furrowed his brow, and turned to face Armor. “Did…was their sign that killer had taken some of Ironhorn’s blood?”

“His…blood? Why?”

“To drink.”

That did it. Twilight disappeared behind a bush and emptied the contents of her stomach. Armor risked a few steps closer to the human and lowered his voice so that Twilight didn’t have to overhear anything more.

“Actually…” Armor’s mind worked. Had those cuts been made to kill, or bleed? Were those bloody smears accidental, or intentional? “I can’t be sure. Why?”

“A new story. Drink the unicorn’s blood to keep death at bay. Few people know the old stories anymore. But they take and change the old stories to make the new stories. It is said that the magic of a creature is in a…certain thing. In the blood, or the hide, or the horn. These things have power.”

“…Are you saying that a human tried to…to steal Ironhoof’s magic by stealing his horn?”

The Human shrugged in his bonds.

“Maybe. I don’t know. But this human, this killer, I can tell you. Humans have not had magic for a long, long time. He is no wizard. But maybe he thinks he is, and is trying to make new magic out of old stories. And he is crazy enough to kill to try.”

The human fixed him with a look, and lowered his voice another notch as Twilight stumbled back onto the road.

“And if he will kill to try, he will kill to try again.”

Comments

[ancientdragonduelist]

Wow, this is a well-written and interesting story. I do think you were too casual about the humans appearance in Equestria, that should've prompted some kind of national emergency. But you quickly move us past that and into the heart of the matter. A murderer. In Ponyville.

I like how you have the toughest and hardest of all ponies working the case, and how utterly lost they are. Whereas humans can track you from the touch of a finger on metal, the ponies literally do not know how to respond to it. Twilight's knowledge of humans and experience in combat is pretty extensive, but she has not been formally trained in combat. Shining Armor has, but he's not quite as good at tracking as Twilight is. Then, there's his responsibilities to the citizens and his sister. Poor guy.

I'm really liking this so far, and hope it gets updated soon. Twilight is getting in more and more danger the closer they get to the criminal. We all know that. I'm just waiting for the lights to go out and the blade to drop. Keep building that tension.

(Why hasn't the Princess come? Murder is a pretty damn serious business)