Despite moving to Ponyville, Octavia's career is going strong. In high society, name and recognition is everything, this is holds true for anypony who wishes to work in those circles. So sometimes having a reputation helps in getting those well paying jobs at private parties.
But sometimes? Sometimes Octavia hates her reputation. Because when a pony is found dead in the estate of House Radon, every eye turns to her to figure out who killed the pony, including the main suspect herself: Lyra Heartstrings.
With the rest of Canterlot a blizzard away, help is not likely to show up any time soon. So not only will Octavia have to figure out who among the guests is a killer, she'll also need to confront past demons she wishes she'd left behind.
This was written for the Whodunnit? Youdunnit! Contest
Every pony in this mansion is crazy
11730519
Yes!
What’s a radon?
11730844
Radon is a gas, it's often found in nature, but generally not in large quantities.
Right off the bat I'm impressed. You've already set up Octavia as a character, an intriguing mystery about her past, the murder, tied in the prompt, and it even has Lyra in it. Strong start!
I must say, you have completely and utterly stumped me. I have not been able to put together a single puzzle piece this entire time. The only thing I have any confidence in saying is that I think Polo is being poisoned, either intentionally by either her father or brother or passively through something like lead pipes, and even that conflicts with her still being ill while hospitalized. You've left me completely baffled as to who murdered Pen, and so I continue on to the next chapter with bated breath.
So I'm going to throw out a random guess that it was Carbon Cake. Because he got almost no screentime.
Oh this was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. The story was great, the writing was great, the mystery was great... I was a little disappointed that we didn't get more info on whatever happened in Octavia's past, as it felt the story was angling towards that being a prominent feature, but I suppose given the wordcount there wouldn't really have been room for that. I do also wish there had been some decisive evidence that proved the murderer's guilt, but that's always a bit tricky to pull off, in my experience. Otherwise, fantastic work!
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Thank you!
Originally I had an epilogue planned, but there wasn't either room nor time for it, sadly. There were a few loose plot points I wanted to wrap up.
A great mystery story! It's my fault for not keeping up with names, so when this chapter revealed it, I was honestly not sure who it was until the relation to the victim was shown, which then made sense.
I also liked, at least from what I gathered, that Octavia went with a certain bias towards the class that then changed. The plot twist at the end surprised me, mainly because I assumed some kind of poison or an unexpected pregnancy and hence the wish to run away or a cover up, but this made much more sense.
In short, a great mystery story
11751569
I'm glad it's an enjoyable read. It was my first time doing a mystery story so I wasn't sure how engaging it would be.
I thought Radon Wing was a girl in this story, I'm a little lost here...
Great story so far, but that part is a little confusing
I wonder who that prissy unicorn would be..
I don't like seeing poor Vinyl be depressed in stories, but I'm glad Octavia did her best to cheer her up.
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He's a very feminine looking Stallion, so Lyra, who has never met him before, confuses him for a mare. Mayhaps it wasn't clear enough in the narration.
11852730
Fair enough, and thank you for the clarification. This was a very neat story, yet I do definitely feel for Vinyl at the end. Hope she gets cheered up by her friends, she deserves it!