Chapter 18
"Oh my, I'm pretty sure that was a doozy!" shouted Twilight Sparkle over the rush of the wind as Princess Luna's chariot rose above Ponyville.
"A 'doozy?' Thou art certain? It looked as if yon mare suffered a seizure to mine eyes."
Twilight winced at the Princesses words. Either the alicorn spoke in that antiquated fashion when she felt under stress or Luna's modernization wasn't coming along quite as smoothly as the Sun Princess would have her believe.
The Princess didn't notice as her eyes took on a fervent gleam that made the lavender unicorn draw away. "So this is how my friends feel when I start acting crazy!" she thought silently.
"Doozy or not, it is of no importance to us now." Luna boomed, "A criminal most foul awaits us at Appleloosa! Guards! Make best speed for said pioneer town!"
The bat-winged guards nodded in unison and pumped their wings as fast as possible. The black, dagger-like form of the Lunar Chariot shot off towards the rising sun like a dark arrow, taking with it one cackling princess and one nauseous unicorn.
The chariot ripped through the air above the desert at a frantic pac.
At the now visibly exhausted guard's best speed the trip didn't take as long as the trip to Ponyville had the day before. Even now Twilight could see the wooden buildings that made up the foremost pioneer town in Equestria.
The sight was a nostalgic one as it dredged up memories of her friends, stampedes, horrible music, and pie. Lots and lots of pie. So much so that the conversation between Luna and Twilight turned to favorite pies to pass the remaining time.
"I personally like pumpkin pie, though apple pies are nice. What about you, Luna?"
The Princess thought for a moment. "Pecan pie. So crunchy and flavorful."
Twilight shot her a sardonic look. "Oh really, I would have thought you'd like a moo-"
The princess's face quickly lost all traces of her earlier good humor, her cyan eyes turning stern and unforgiving. "Tell us, Twilight, canst thou survive a three hundred meter fall?"
"Um…..no?" came the very hushed answer.
"Indeed. Now think. Doth thou really want to finish that joke?"
"What joke?"
"Exactly."
The two ponies rode in awkward silence before the Princess spoke up again.
"Now remember as soon as we touch down, we get serious. What do ponies say these days? "Let's get dangerous"?" The dark blue pony sat back on her haunches as she tried to remember. She could have sworn she had heard somepony say that.
"I don't recall anypony ever saying that…sounds catchy though." Twilight offered, feeling the slight fear she had felt moments before ebb away, only to be replaced by steely resolve. "Anyway, I've devised a search plan for us. Princess, you have the town…"
"What?! But We are clearly better suited towards sweeping yon fields which is where the thief is likely hiding." Luna protested as she raised a hoof to steady her crown as the now descending chariot was jostled by some minor turbulance.
"Yes, but the town will know you are here very soon if they haven't sighted us already. You'll need to keep them from panicking while at the same time organizing a marehunt."
The Night Princess had no answer to that as she clacked one silvery blue shoe against the metallic bottom of the chariot. "Oh fine." She relented, her voice momentarily sounding less like an authoritative princess and more like a resentful teenager. It didn't last as Luna cocked her head in puzzlement. "How doth thou propose to apprehend the villain?"
Twilight offered her best and most confident smile. "Our thief may be good at hiding, but she lacks one thing: Magic. If she is truly magically inert, then she should be fairly easy to subdue."
Luna wasn't impressed with her confidence. "She may be magically inert, but her cohorts definitely were not. Watch thy step with these ponies, Twilight. Magically skilled thou may be, these ponies have shown a willingness to kill and as we love our sister greatly, it would grieve us to tell her of thy demise."
The princess allowed her mask of authority to drop for a moment. "Not too mention I'd lose one of my first friends since my return. Be careful, Twilight."
The unicorn nodded bashfully, touched by her Princess's concern.
The chariot gave one last bounce as it touched down just outside of town. Both ponies exited the chariot. Twilight started towards the orchard at a trot. The princess paused for a moment as she watched the other depart. "Night watch over you, Twilight." With that murmured blessing, she took to the air and flew towards the town.
"Maybe I should have let the princess do this?" Twilight muttered to herself as she checked yet another empty row of trees. She had been so busy trying to divert the Princess that she had failed to take into account just how large the orchards were.
Still as she searched she shook off her doubts. The Princess would take swift justice into her own hooves. While Luna wouldn't go against her sister in this matter, she'd be sure to swiftly apprehend their quarry and take her back to Canterlot. While Twilight wanted justice done, she wanted to hear the answer to her burning questions from this pony's mouth. "Did you kill my mother?" and "Why did you steal from the Princesses?"
Twilight silently swore that she wouldn't rest until she got the answers she wanted. However in some dark corner part of her mind, the place where all ponie's darkest desires reside, some small part of her was certain of the answer and wanted this pony for another reason entirely. If this pony had killed her mother, Twilight would make sure she never threatened another pony again.
***
Deciding that it would take too long to check each row one by one, Twilight instead looked for ponies to ask, hoping that the excuse of "Royal business with the Princesses" would be enough of a deterrent to prevent them from doing something foalish, like warning the thief of somepony from Canterlot looking for them.
As she walked through the green trees looking for her quarry, Twilight noticed that the orchard had fallen oddly silent as if waiting for something. There! A sudden build up of magical energy, very similar in fact to the surge a few days before that had caused panic across Equestria! As the sudden increase in the ambient magic that caused a sharp painful twinge to her horn that caused her to yelp, she heard two similar yelps nearby.
It took her a second to comprehend it before a wolfish smile spread across her face. While pegasi and earth ponies would feel the magic, only unicorns could feel it with such acuteness as to cause pain. She had found them!
Heedless of any danger, the purple unicorn took off like a thunderbolt, her hooves pounding heavily into the rich soil as she charged towards the source of the sound. So elated was Twilight upon spying a tall pale unicorn mare with a dark navy blue mane and tail through the rows of apple trees that she completely disregarded not only the familiar mint green unicorn sitting atop the wagon her prey was pulling, but the fact all the gathering magic was being focused on their location, forming a vortex of swirling blue light around them.
"You!" Twilight shout as she leapt at the stunned pony, fully intending on knocking her to the ground. Gone was all uncertainty in her mind, the sight of the mare in front of her had crystallized her resolve. Just as she leapt however, the world ground to a halt. Suspended in mid-air, Twilight's mind raced as she tried to figure out what was going on. Lyra could only look on in awe at how saturated the area around them had become with magic. The last of them, Mayberry, was just starting to wonder what was going on before she recognized the dreadful tugging sensation.
"Oh shiiii-!"
The unfinished shout hung in the air as all three unicorns, their cart were teleported to regions unknown, leaving only a smoldering crater in their wake.
The robed stallion calmly watched the teleportation reception core. Long title for basically a room that just received items targeted by the long-range teleportation spell. The room itself was rather foreboding with its flat dark gray metal walls. Still he had insisted on getting them installed as one never knew what might come out of a long-range teleport and if all his long years had taught him anything, it was that caution must be taken at every turn. Inside were three ponies. Only two interested him at the moment. Caution still in mind, he manipulated magic-dampening rings onto the unconscious pony's horns from his hidden observation platform.
The elder mage thought for a moment, slowly stroking the beard protruding from his hood with a hoof before shrugging. "Might as well stuff them in the room with the beast." He mused, his dry, crackling voice betraying his great age. Underneath his hood, his horn flashed orange three times. In the room below all three ponies disappeared.
This done, the cloaked pony looked over at the small mountain of dirt and an amazingly intact wagon. Teleporting himself down into the room, he trotted over to the wagon. Taking great care not to stumble in his cloak, he climbed up and peered in. "Hmm. I wonder if our other guest is fond of apples." With a shrug, he floated three of the delicious fruits into a pocket.
Turning to the door nearest to him, the anciant pony walked out. After all things were finally underway and there was a large amount of spell crafting and casting that required his trained eye to accomplish.
In a separate room behind some truly formidable bars, three groggy ponies slowly awoke. Seeing Mayberry starting to rise, Twilight quickly gathered herself. "Stop right there!"
"Who? Wha-? Mayberry mumbled as her brain desperately tried to catch up to what was happening.
"You're the thief from Canterlot, aren't you?!" Twilight spat out, trying her best to glare holes into the other unicorn, before snorting steam in a reasonable imitation of a rampaging bull.
"What are you talking about, Twilight?" Asked Lyra, completely baffled by this turn of events. "Mayberry has been with me in Appleloosa for the past couple weeks. Mayberry nodded her head vigorously, hoping that this insane purple unicorn was talking about some other theft than her stealing that cartographer's gold, which was currently buried outside of their cabin.
Twilight practically danced in agitation as she stabbed a lavender hoof at her. "This pony has been accused of theft, stealing an ancient artifact that belongs to the princesses, and most recently, committing or helping others to commit of equicide!"
Lyra drew back as if faced with a viper. "Whoa, Hhold on there! That's some pretty nasty accusations to be throwing out, Twilight."
The blood drained from Mayberry's face at that accusation. Stealing money was one thing, but actually killing one of these creatures was another. She'd admit it, if she was in her true form, Mayberry would have been hard-pressed to not hug every single one of these creature. Harming them, much less killing one made her stomach churn.
"I'd never hurt anybody like that!" She yelled at the two, desperate to convince them.
Lyra made a lowering motion with a hoof. "May, volume. We're not that far away."
Twilight wasn't having it however. "We'll see about that at the trial. The Princesses will see if you are guilty or not." With that her horn took a lavender glow before quickly dissipating.
"What!?" Twilight yelped as she brought a hoof up to her horn as magical feedback painfully wracked her horn.
"What the?!" Lyra shook off her surprise as she lit up her horn experimentally. The glow of magic surrounded her horn before painfully dissipating as well. "Ow! Magic inhibitors!"
Mayberry, seeing the effects of trying to use magic, declined to see for herself if she had one of those inhibitors on. Not that she could do much aside from lift small rocks and blow up apple fritters as her magical studies had slowed down a bit, what with all the field work and such.
"I guess we'll do this the hard way." Growled the purple pony as she started pawing at the ground with a hoof. It was lost on her foe who, from her expression, found the gesture either adorable or just funny as she started laughing.
Just as Twilight Sparkle was about to start her charge, a minty green hoof wrapped it's self around her neck, holding her back. "Um, Twilight. You don't have your magic. Are you really that desperate to pick a fight with a pony almost twice as big as you?"
Mayberry had been thinking the same thing. While working in the fields left her usually too tired to do anything but the most basic of spells, it had helped her get into better shape than she had ever been in her life as a human and she was pretty active then. Any fat she'd had after the tranformation had been quickly disappeared during the time it'd take to get used to the food these ponies ate and the heavy work at the orchard had piled on lean muscle over the weeks. Apparently pulling very heavy wagons with tons of apples and an overly excited unicorn pretty much every day for a couple weeks was good exercise. Who knew?
"Hey if she's still game, I'll oblige her." Said Mayberry with a hint of challenge in her confident voice. Unheard by either of the other two was the small plea to not take her up on her bluff. While she may be stronger and larger, Mayberry did have the disadvantage of still not being truly used to her body. If this Twilight was used to fighting hoof to hoof, it didn't matter how much muscle she had if she didn't know how to use it.
Occasionally Mayberry would trip up then fall flat while walking, having forgotten temporarily which hoof to put down next. This had given her the reputation of being a bit of a klutz to most of the town ponies, while the town doctor had mentioned after one particularly bad fall, that she believe Mayberry might suffer from a neurological disorder that put her body at odds with her brain. The pale unicorn whole-heartedly agreed on the inside. She mentally referred to it as "Alien-ape-trapped-in-pony-body disorder"
Thankfully, Lyra hooked a companionly foreleg around her old irate friend. "Come on, Twilight. Chill out and let's talk first."
Sparkle didn't want to agree at first, but eventually the anger that gave her that manic energy was quickly burning itself out taking her strength and willpower with it, leaving Twilight feeling hollow inside. She hadn't thought she obsess over catching this pony so much. It just seemed so right though! This pony was exactly what the Princesses were looking for!
Mayberry sat and watched the two for a second before throwing a hoof in the air like an overgrown foal at school. "Could you tell me why ponies would think I'm a murderer? Kind of a hefty accusation to be throwing around willy-nilly." She looked Twilight dead in the eyes. "Especially without proof!"
Twilight flinch away from the accusing stare too reminded of her brother's wedding wheree she had done something similar before. The unicorn deflated a bit, her head and heart becoming downcast.
After a short silence she started talking. "A couple weeks ago, somepony mugged Prince Blueblood and apparently stole a hefty amount of money from him. They didn't down knock him out completely as he got up and chased them, catching glimpses of the thief. While that pony got away, we later found the route they likely took to get away. This included a small park."
Twilight's eyes teared up as her voice began to shake. "That's were they found my mother's body. You match both the description and you did take the train from Canterlot in that time period. The timing is to close to be mere coincidence!"
Twilight sniffed as she tried to conquer the tears that just wouldn't stop coming. Even through tear-blurred eyes, she could see the looks of horror on the other two's faces. Lyra's mind couldn't comprehend how anypony could do such a horrendous thing and quickly moved to comfort Twilight.
Mayberry, on the other hand, struggled under several horrendous shocks. The first and least of these was the realization that she had mugged a PRINCE of all things. Not a cartographer, but a damn prince! That on top of the news that there had been a theft major enough that the Princesses themselves were searching for her, coupled with the fact that that nice scenic park she had stopped at was the site of a murder! She may have well passed the actual murderer! The revelation that the murdered was this pony's mother hit Mayberry harder than she would have thought. Noone should lose a family member like that.
Questions quickly formed in her mind. "Could I have prevented that?" she asked herself. No, she was still new to being a pony at the time and likely would've only gotten herself killed. Still it unnerved her to know that in the time that she had a nap on the fountain that a murder had transpired.
Oblivious to Mayberry's meeting of internal affairs, Lyra continued to hug and sooth Twilight Sparkle who had broken down into heaving sobs after finishing the tale. It was obvious to the green unicorn that her friend was still healing from her mother's death. Loss like that doesn't disappear in mere weeks. Lyra remembered when she had lost her own mother to horn cancer years before. She hadn't been for to answer the door for at least a month, much less tracking down a suspected criminal who might have ties to the death.
Anger grew within Lyra. Not at either of her friends but at Princess Luna. It was obvious Twilight wasn't over her mother's death, making Luna's recruitment of the mare callous in the extreme in her eyes. The unicorn knew the Princess meant well, trying to distract Twilight from her grief, but sometimes ponies needed time to grieve. The unicorn said nothing though and simply let her friend cry on her shoulder.
***
The night passed uneventfully as far as they could tell from their subtereannean prison. They had slept in a pile of pony near the front of the cell to be nearest to the light. However it was an short fitful slumber that was oft interrupted. Twilght dreamt of her life and time in the castle followed by bouts of guilt at having ignored her mother so much during the magical time she's had with the Princess. Lyra dreamt of Bon-bon and home, while Mayberry dreamed she was back in her body as the Dread Pirate Queen of the Caribbean.
The rest of the time passed slowly as Mayberry and Twilight tried their best to avoid each other as best they could. Eventually the needs of the body became more demanding as a low growl rumbled through out the room, shaking the very air with it's bass rumble. This shook Lyra from her comforting Twilight. "Wow! Mayberry, you must be really hungry!"
Mayberry shot a look of dread at the other two ponies. Even Twilight had been roused from her weeping by the noise. "I was really hoping that was you, Lyra, because while I am hungry….that wasn't me."
Something very large shifted in the pitch dark half of their cell. Twilight tried lighting up her horn again to illuminate the cell but as before failed with a pained yelp. In a panic the ponies tried their best to escape the confines of their prison but the best they could do was huddle up against the bars waiting for whatever monstrosity to come forth to eat them.
"No." the low voice echoing from the darkness was familiar to Mayberry, but in her near-blind panic, she didn't recognize it. "That was me." It continued.
Low thumping noises heralded the beast's approach. Practically melding with the bars, eyes darting furtively around for any sign of escape or a way to defend themselves, the three unicorns could only watch in horror as the beast made it's way towards them. Just enough light was entering the cell to see something, but the creature stopped just outside of their sight. Without warning, it rushed forward and effortlessly lifted Mayberry into the air as she squealed in fright, closing her eyes waiting for the inevitable.
"Easy there, girl." Soothed that same maddeningly familiar voice. This time the identity of the voice clicked as she stared into the now-exposed face of the beast. The voice and face were her own.
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WHAT?! Well, I do like twists.
1448656 Kinda puts a new twist on the bit a little earlier on about probably not being able to resist hugging ponies in her human form.
1448681
Indeed it does
1448708 Also take roll of who all is in the cage to predict some of the hijinks in the next chapter.
So..... the murderer got her mind swapped the day after it happened or some such nonesense?
regardless, What a
!
1449026 Nope. Mayberry basically just got hugged by herself. One being in two bodies.
1449115 Spoiler alert.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/lolface_Celestia.png
1449162 Is it a spoiler if it's the author that told you?
1449172 Me thinks it becomes even more of a spoiler... I mean, then it is actually a legit statement.
1449192 Yup. Also we will be finding more out about the whole thief and murderess soon enough.
1449232 Spoiler alert! How do we know it's female, hmm? You've given no gender clues yet (aside from saying it was the protagonist, which clearly it was not)!
1449300 What's the male to female population of Equestria again?
1449307 Touche.
1449311 En garde! *raises frozen trout*
1449318 [youtube=i9SSOWORzw4]
I've seen enough internet to know where this is going. "MY OWN CLONE!"
Seriously though, that's going to be an awkward conversation.
Tell ME, Luna, do you want to be the one to explain to Celestia what happened to her faithful student?
Didn't you just threaten to drop her three hundred meters? Over a joke no less?
D'awww
A Darkwing duck reference now? Someone likes their masked crusaders of justice