The Tallmare (being reworked)

by hus

Ch9 Involvement

Twilight woke again to another morning but in a different bed than her comfy one at home. She still remembered what had happened before and her conversation with Fluttershy. Fluttershy was acting so different from usual and she was a lot more aggressive. It was a complete change in her friend’s personality, which made Twilight concerned about her friend’s mental well-being. But she wasn’t Fluttershy’s therapist so she didn’t want to go snooping around her friend too much. After a couple of minutes of blankly staring up at the ceiling, Fluttershy opened the door to Twilight’s guestroom.

“Um, hey. So, I’ve been thinking. What if this masked stallion lives in town?”

In response, Twilight raised her brow in response and nodded, “go ahead”.

“Those marks I must have put on him must still be on the pony behind the mask. So, I suggest we start looking around town today.” She gleamed while her secret fascination with true crime sparkled within her brain.

“Yeah, let’s get going!” Twilight said with the same amount of enthusiasm that Fluttershy had.

After that, the two mares got themselves a quick little breakfast before brushing their teeth and heading outside but then they remembered that Twilight hadn’t had a shower in days. Twilight rushed back inside the house and took a shower. Once she was done Twilight headed back outside and took a big breath of air.

“You ready to go?” Twilight asked Fluttershy with a small smile and feeling happy about how the morning was going but still having that sense of looming paranoia in the back of her mind.

In response, Fluttershy gave the nod and they started walking. Their first couple minutes of the stroll through town were pretty normal but a lot of the bystanders seemed to be talking about something. Twilight, out of curiosity, walked up to a very frail mare with a red curly mane and pale yellow coat and tapped her on the shoulder. “Um, what’s with the commotion?”

“Oh dearie dear, you do not know? The murders aren’t taking place in Cantalot anymore. The Sleep Killer of Cantalot is here!” the mare said frantically in a panic.

“Please! Just look around, my husband was killed last night in his bed. His organs literally decorated the bed. I’m not the only one. There’s a killer in town!!! There’s a killer in town!!!” But then the mare was quickly cut off by a pale green hoof that covered her mouth.

“Step aside, you’re under too much stress to be talking to the element of magic.” said a very robust light green earth pony officer that had royal guards behind him which made Twilight’s eyes widen because she knew that those guards were only reserved for serious state affairs.

“Sorry for that unpredicted situation Miss Sparkle, I’m officer Mint Tea and right now we’re collaborating with the royal guards and her majesty of the night Princess Luna, under the investigation of the sleep killings and to catch the killer in Ponyville."

“Umm, ok. Thank you for that. It’s nothing wrong. And uh let me guess, Princess Luna wants to see me?” She questioned the stallion, knowing why Luna was actually there.

“Indeed Miss Sparkle and right now I’m going to try and interview a survivor of this possible killer to gather further details.”

“Wait, someone survived the killer?” Twilight asked hoping that this survivor could reveal who the masked assailant that Twilight and Fluttershy had both seen.

“Yep, but sadly she claims not to remember anything from the night before. All we know of the actions of the killer is that they left several hoof bruises on her face hinting that maybe one of Their methods is trampling through the face.”

That’s when Twilight’s heart dropped. This pony wasn’t a survivor of a serial killer, this pony was the pony that survived Fluttershy.“Can you give me a name?” she asked maintaining a smile that hid her obvious involvement in the beating of the stranger.

The officer lowered his glasses thinking for a moment before letting out a huff.“Sure, actually the mare who got injured is very famous around here. I believe her name is Octavia Orchard.” Mint tea told her clearly amused that somepony famous survived the killing spree.

Now it felt like her heart had fallen deeper and landed in her stomach. She found out who the proxy was but she just didn’t expect it to be a mare, or a mare of high social standing. Could she be overthinking? She hoped she was but the description of injuries was to similar to the injuries she saw under the offender's mask. She didn't want Octavia to remember and suddenly tell the authorities

“It was nice talking with you officer now I’ve gotta go.” She then trotted off and the officer waved back at her.

“Nice talking with you Miss Twilight.” He said with a friendly wave of his hoof as she walked away.

As Twilight was walking away with her smile fading to a frown, she noticed the silent DJ of the town Vinyl blankly looking in her direction. And from her facial expression, she looked like she was entertained or amused by something Twilight had done. It just felt off.

“Twilight Sparkle you ok?” Luna whispered catching the unicorn off guard and causing her to quickly look back.

She sighed and looked up at Luna. “Yeah Luna, I am ok, just there’s been a lot happening since we last talked and I don’t feel safe talking to you right now.”

"Well, why is that? Certainly, I’m the safest to be around. After all, I’m no ordinary noble. Even if some random thug came behind us, they will be surprised by how powerful my kicks are.” Luna reassured Twilight, trying to make her older sister’s young apprentice feel safe.

“Yeah, I just feel like we have two extreme dangers to juggle. Plus do people really want to know why you’re here?” To that Luna took a step back considering the words of Twilight and thought about the implications of what she meant.

"Even though I see your point we got more important matters at hoof, so come along, we are talking in private." Luna said leading Twilight to where they would talk.

Author's Note:

Heyyy if you made it this far I hope your enjoying this. Im am writing this on the 8th of August 2023 because I think adding some author's notes would dearly help your readers. These notes would give you some small glimpses of my thought process and the world this takes place in without spoiling it.

SO NOW ON TO SOME EXPLAINING!

1. What is the exact setting of this version of Equestria?: Well I used the Equestria at war world as a format to this world and changed some lore elements to fit the story. This story takes place about 5-6 years after the great Equestrian changling war where equestria has experienced a strong technological and cultural shift. The best way I can describe the feel of the setting is that it has a strong early 1980's feel to it with early 2010s culture on the digital side of things. RAD AF.

2, How does magic work in this universe?: This magic system is heavily inspired by some aspects of occult philosophy particularly on the pagan side. Magic is like an ever-flowing part of nature and is omnipresent. It affects things physically like in spells but in also evolution of different species, resulting in stuff like dragons and timber wolves and UNICORNS. Magic is also karmic in the traditional occult since, making some spells ritualistic (which most spells are in this world. So yeah, twilight is witchy af.

3. who do I ship?: not telling you

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why is the synopsis entirely in bold?

[hus]

11539093
To be honest I forgot why, just I’m planning on fixing it when I have the time