CHAPTER 19

Sorry for taking so long with this chapter. I just wasn't feeling it today for some reason. Bunch of worries plaguing me right now, I guess. But I kept at it for two days, and finally managed to chisel it out in stone. I hope you like the latest chapter or volume twelve, everypony.

Back at Twilight's, I found myself spiraling. After seeing the gruesome murder scene and the cupcakes, I was beset by the implications of this case. We had three dead Pinkie Pies, and now somepony had baked a murder victim into cupcakes. That was her actions. Would anypony else do something so sick and twisted? Even if it were some Pinkie Cult, would they have gone that far? Or were there really a bunch of Pinkamenas out there, throwing their deadly parties? If so, how could that be? How could there be three or more of the same pony? The questions were eating at me, tearing at my sanity, and I knew...I felt that if we didn't do something fast, something terrible was going to happen.

"So this cupcake thing..." Steele started to ask. It was time to let the team in on the story.

"A little over five years ago, I was seconded to a criminal investigation..." I began. "I was in the regular cav back then, but Princess Celestia stuck me on this investigation because of my tracking skills and for whatever other reasons she thought made me the right pony for the job. A bunch of ponies had disappeared in this town. No trace. No leads or clues. So I came here and investigated. Long story short..." I sighed. I walked across the room and picked up the bottle of gin, and uncorked it. I was starting to take a drink when I saw Sergeant Masada nod in disagreement. I sat the bottle back down and fell into the wing-back chair.

"Go on, Lieutenant." Masada urged.

"The killer...Pinkie Pie...she was ponynapping ponies and...you want to know how bad this situation really is? Well here it is...she was torturing ponies to death and baking them into cupcakes. She was feeding the whole fucking town their own dead friends!" Steel took a deep breath and turned his head, obviously trying to mask his disgust.

"That's...that's fucking wrong, man..." Shadow commented, looking down.

"When I found Pinkie, she was about to kill Rainbow Dash. Pinkie attacked me, and after a Hell of a fight, I put her down. That's what this cupcake thing is about. That last Pinkie wasn't the last one...at least I don't think so. We have to get ahead of this thing. We have to find answers before this gets out of hoof..." We were interrupted by a policepony bursting into the house without so much as knocking. We all greeted him with curious stares as he stood there panting for a moment.

"Lieutenant Drake," The police officer began. He looked around at us a moment. "Are you aware that there has been another murder?"

"Yeah." I replied gruffly. "We were just over there an hour ago. The mare, right?" The officer narrowed his eyes.

"Huh? No...the other murder." I jumped up from my chair.

"What other murder?!" I exclaimed.

"Sir, a couple was killed in their home. We just made the discovery a few minutes ago."

"Shit." I muttered. "Alright, Dashie, you and Budder stay here with Scoots. Be armed. Steel, Masada, Shadow, you three come with me. Officer, lead the way. You didn't contaminate the crime scene, did you?"

"No sir..." He answered as we ushered him out the door. "I mean...the couple's...young son found them, and he ran into the police station crying and screaming that his mom and dad were dead." The policepony sighed and shook his head. "A couple officers rushed over and went in. When they saw what had happened, they figured they should shut down the scene and wait for you."

"Hm. Glad you guys learned the right protocol since my last visit." I muttered.

"Yessir...we were caught off guard by that...we revamped the way we did things. Mostly thanks to you..."

"Thank me when we end this..." I muttered.

We soon came to the crime scene. Once again, it was a fairly unassuming house, a two-story, thatched beam and mortar home a couple of blocks down from Twilight's. The officer led us past another uniformed policepony outside the door, and into the living room of the house. Living room...dying room was more like it, if you forgive the distasteful pun. I took one cursory look around, and walked into the next room, just to get out of that place. I found myself in a dining room, pulled out a chair, and sat at the table. I felt sick, and I couldn't fight the tears that were forming in my eyes. This was monstrous. As soon as I had entered, I got what the killers had done.

A mare and a stallion were in the front room of the house. They sat together on the large sofa one one side of the room, their eyes wide open, still frozen in the shock and agony of their final moments. On the coffee table before them was a plate heaped with cupcakes, and beside it, a large cake with red frosting rested on a platter, ready to be served. A hoof-painted banner hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room read 'Welcome home, Son'. The image was burned into my mind, and I felt like throwing up. I let out a choked sob.

"LT?" Captain Steel said in a low voice, standing in the doorway of the dining room. "You okay, sir?" I held up a hoof.

"Uhh...go uh...go tell the cops to take prints, alright?" I tried to breathe, but my chest felt tight, like I was about to panic. "Have them just uh...compare them to the ones from the other scene, alright?"

"Yes sir." Steel whispered, then left the room. I wanted to cry over what was in the next room.

"Drake?" Shadow's voice said softly. I looked up again. My young friend was standing by me, looking at me with concern in her one good eye. "You okay bro?"

"Fuck no, Shadow..." I said, my voice straining now, as I was trying to hold back tears. "You see all that?"

"Yeah..." She whispered. "I saw it..."

"It was a party for their kid...the killers wanted their fuckin' kid to see that when he got home!" I sobbed, and Shadow grabbed me in a tight hug. "Their fuckin' kid! Who...who does this?! Shadow..."

"I know, Drake." She said. "This is evil...they're pure fucking evil, and when I find 'em, I'm gonna cut their fucking livers out for this..."

"What if it was Budder?" I cried. "What if Budder...came home and found me...like that?! Oh...FUCK!" I kicked over a nearby chair.

"Shhh...shhh..." Shadow shushed like I was a little foal. "We'll get 'em, Drake. Okay? You find evil ponies, man. It's what you do. You find 'em, I kill 'em. Like always, right. It'll be okay."

"Shadow?" I asked, then sniffed.

"Yeah Drake?"

"Something ever happens to me..."

"Shut up, asshole." She returned. "Don't even say that. You ain't allowed to fuckin' die."

"Shadow."

"Yeah, okay?" She sighed. "You think you have to ask? Yeah, I'd take care of Budder. You know I would. So would Luna. I'd even settle the fuck down and get a little house with a fence if it meant taking care of Budder." Her last statement make me chuckle a little.

"Thanks, Shadow." I said seriously. The assassin gave me a little smile.

"Family, man." She shrugged.

"Everything...okay in here?" Masada questioned, poking her head in the door.

"Yeah..." I stated, then cleared my throat. "Just um...just talking about the scene." I stood and pushed in the chair. Then, for a reason I don't understand, I retrieved the chair I'd kicked over, and slid it back into its proper position at the table. I walked back into the living room, Shadow and Masada close behind.

"We're taking prints now." The younger officer stated as I entered. Steel was standing by the door, watching me curiously as I walked toward the front door.

"You good, LT?" He asked in his no-nonsense way. I nodded, then motioned with my head to the officer who had brought us to the house.

"Everypony...outside...now." I stated. I forced myself to clear my head and focus on the problem at hoof. I had a job to do. My team was depending on me to lead them, and that's what I had to do. When I got back to Twilight's, I planned to kiss Dashie and give my sister a big hug, and tell them how much I loved them. Right now, I had to be the leader.

"When did the kid leave?" I rotely asked the policepony as we walked out into the front yard.

"Uh...about two hours ago." The officer replied, quickly looking over his notes.

"When did he come home?

"A little over thirty minutes ago." He answered.

"Uh-huh." I mused. "Killer's out in broad daylight now. That's fun..."

"Sir?" The cop implored.

"This shit just got really bad..." I said. I turned to the others. "Killers normally don't change their MO. No criminal does. These guys are all over the damned board, and that means something big is about to happen. They're killing in broad daylight, and like...this." I gestured back toward the house. "Damn it!"

"Sir?" Captain Steele asked, puzzled at my demeanor.

"Captain, we have lost the initiative." I stated. "I think from here on out, we're gonna be backed against a wall, fighting a defensive fight."

"I don't want to think we've lost the initiative..." Steele muttered.

"The killers know we're after them." I explained. "They probably already know who we all are, and they know we've already found the dead Pinkies. Hell, they're probably watching us right now." That last comment made the three members of my team scan the area nervously. "We might have had half a chance of catchin' them when they didn't know we were staking out their haunts...look, they're killing right out in the open, and they're doing...shit like that. It's a dare. They don't care if we're after them." I sighed.

"So what is it you think we should do?" Masada inquired.

"Well, we've been staying two steps behind them this whole time. If we don't do...something, they're gonna depopulate this town before we catch them." I said, feeling frustrated that we hadn't made any progress. "It's open war now. I didn't want to do it this way, and I still don't, but we gotta lock this town down."

"Martial law?" Steele asked in a shocked tone. "Do we have that authority?"

"I have authority from Princess Luna to do whatever I need to do on this one. Don't mean I have to like what I have to do." I answered.

"So what are you proposing?" Masada asked.

"Officer!" I called.

"Yes sir?" The policepony answered, walking over quickly.

"Get your chief and the constable. Now!"

"Yessir." He nodded, and ran off.

...

"Alright everypony." I stated, turning the yard of the house into an ad-hoc war room. "Like I said...we have some serious work to do here. We're gonna lock this town down. Put a curfew into effect. Everypony stays indoors after sundown, and have to secure their houses completely. No exceptions. Door to door safety checks from dusk until dawn." I felt myself getting riled up. I felt like a general briefing his soldiers before battle. "Tier one civilians, to include the mayor and the Elements of Harmony will be housed at Sweet Apple Acres. Any citizens with military or law enforcement training, I don't care if they're former park rangers, will be deputized and armed. Send them to the farm to guard the ponies there." Steele and the police chief nodded dutifully.

"And us?" Shadow inquired.

"They wanna make cupcakes, we're gonna cut off their supply of ingredients." I said angrily. "Then, we're gonna try and catch one of them."

"And how the Hell you think we're gonna do that?" Shadow shot back. I felt kind of bad for my idea, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"They're predators, right? The only way to catch a shark...is to chum the waters." Their faces showed shock as it donned on each member of the team what I was talking about.

"Bait?!" Steele exclaimed. "You're talking about using live bait?!"

"Yeah, I am. We need somepony that's gonna look all sweet and innocent...somepony that can hold their own if they have to, and spring the trap..." Steel and Shadow knew what I meant. The killers would never go for obvious bait. With her bat wings, red horn and fangs, Shadow looked like a demon Steele was an obvious badass, just from appearances. All of us turned to look intently at Masada. She looked between us curiously.

"What?" She asked.

So the team has a plan now. Will it work? And was Drake right in deciding to go about things the way he did, using Masada as bait, or was it a mistake that might come back to haunt him? I will try to have the next chapter up soon, unless my writer's block gets the best of me. Until then, thanks for reading, everypony. -Drake