//------------------------------// // 4. Play it Again, Home Body // Story: Clue: Who Killed Home Body? // by DagaYemar //------------------------------// Home Body was in bliss. His hoof clutched the bow tightly as it flew over the strings of his authentic Stradivarius, filling the ballroom with music. The sound rebounded off the glass windows and created a natural sound shell, directing it to the six ponies sitting in a semi-circle of chairs before him. Eyes closed, Body let the sound of his playing carry him away and he poured that feeling back into the violin with renewed energy. Unfortunately, playing the violin was clearly not his special talent. “It’s… wonderful, Homey!” Scarlet Letter said through clenched teeth, smiling so hard she felt her back teeth creak. She made a mental note to schedule an appointment with the local dentist. “Yes… absolutely top notch…” Colonel H. Mustard groaned. He had wrapped the rope several times around his head to tie his ears down, but by the look on his face it wasn’t working very well. Green Mail didn’t say anything. He was staring a little cross-eyed at the wrench in his hooves, as if weighing the pros and cons of thwacking himself senseless with it. Peacock Poppycock swung her eyes around wildly in order to find something, anything, that could take her mind off this ordeal and focused on Plum Pudding sitting next to her. The professor was tapping his hooves and swayed along with the melody. Peacock’s jaw dropped. “You can’t seriously be enjoying this!” she whispered into his ear. Plum blinked at her and shrugged. “He’s actually doing pretty well!” “I… see…” Peacock stated blandly, her left eye twitching in sympathy at several high-pitched scratches as the bow slipped in Body’s grasp. It may have been her imagination, but the ballroom's large window seemed to have more cracks in it than before the concert started. “Oh my, just look at the day pass away!” White Wash shouted, leaping up and staring out at the sun which showed it to be no later than two in the afternoon, “I’ve got to get started on dinner! I’d better just go get on that…” Mustard’s eyes lit up with inspiration as White fled the room. “Ah, Green Mail, my good fellow! I seem to recall you challenging me to a game of billiards earlier, didn’t you?” Mustard grabbed the unresponsive green stallion and pulled him bodily from the room. “And Scarlet Letter! We were going to… uh, we were… um…” Peacock stuttered, unable to come up with an excuse. “Read books quietly in the library!” Scarlet supplied, still smiling like a madpony. In her mind, her entire week was filling up with dentist visits. The two of them fled the room in a full sprint. Five minutes later, Body finished his solo with a flourish loud enough to set the chandelier swaying. Out of breath, he finally opened his eyes and saw that his only audience was an enthusiastically clapping Plum. “I guess that one did go on a bit,” he said, wiping the sweat from his brow. “At least you stuck around. How did I do? I only just started this week.” The professor grinned and walked closer to his friend. “My office back in Canterlot University was just down the hall from the youth music department. When you’ve listened to every mare and stallion who thinks they can pick up an instrument and instantly become the next Beecloven, Wolf Gang, or Elvis Prancly… well, you can get used to anything. You’re not bad at all in comparison!” “Er… thanks,” Body said, giving the unicorn an odd look. He set the violin on a special pedestal next to the grand piano and adjusted it fondly. “Come on, let’s see what the others are up to.” A loud knocking at the front door greeted the two ponies as soon as they set hoof outside of the ballroom. Body opened the door and stepped outside, leaving Plum standing on the threshold. A bubbly grey mare in a delivery uniform stood on the front step, holding a clipboard in her wing up to her face. “Hello, what can I do for you?” Body asked cheerfully. The pegasus held her clipboard closer to her face and proceeded to read carefully from it. “Is this the Body mansion, the only mansion outside of town, seriously, you can’t miss it?” “I’ve uh, never heard it described so colorfully, but yes?” Body said, leaning back a little. “Oh, good!” the mailmare said, tossing the clipboard carelessly over her shoulder. “This is the third place I’ve tried today. It easy to mistake a giant crystal castle for a mansion, right? And a farm is kinda like a mansion, if you ask me. Anyway, I’ve got a ton of packages here for you!” She gestured over her shoulder to a pile of boxes which had spilled out of the back of a wagon on his front lawn. Judging by the scuffs and bent corners, this wasn’t the only time these had been dropped to the ground. Home Body grinned widely and jaunted over to them. “Ah, these must be the party supplies I ordered. We’re celebrating a birthday this weekend, you see, and-” Suddenly, there was a massive cacophony of crashes from inside the mansion. “I didn’t do it this time!” the mailmare shouted, apparently on reflex, looking wildly at the open door as if it contained some kind of monster. “Oh no…” Body moaned, running past Plum back into his house. Ten minutes later, everypony was back in the ballroom, but this time there were a few differences. For one, Home Body was standing and frowning down at his guests, rather than playing for them. His guests were kneeling on the floor rather than sitting in the chairs, and each of them was trying not to meet his gaze. And lastly, his precious violin lay in the middle of the room between them. It had been smashed into tiny pieces with some kind of blunt instrument. “I’m not angry,” Body said calmly, “I just want to know what happened, and who did this to my violin.” Everypony immediately started talking at once, pointing to each other and trying to speak the loudest. “One at a time!” Body shouted, stamping his hoof. Everypony immediately quieted down and he pointed to the one on the left. Mustard scuffed his hoof sheepishly. “I was surprised by a loud crash and accidentally hit the cue ball too hard in the billiard room, sending it flying through the window. But I know I wasn’t the last pony to break something!” “I was in the kitchen polishing the glassware,” White Wash said, wringing the candlestick in her hooves nervously, “I was startled by all the bangs and booms, and that large pitcher with the floral pattern slipped from my wings and shattered. I think I heard three or four crashes before that, though I didn’t think to count them at the time.” “There was a large spider in a book I opened in the library,” Peacock said sheepishly, nursing a large bump on her head. “It jumped out at me and I leapt back into the bookcase, knocking it over. I took a nasty encyclopedia to the head, so I didn’t hear anything that happened after, but I don’t think there was a crash before mine…” Scarlet flicked her hair and spoke in a low voice. “I took a book and retired to the study to read, but when the noises started I jumped up and knocked the chair over. It banged pretty loudly against the wall. I don’t remember when it happened, but there were more crashes before mine than after.” “Well, the clacking of the billiard balls was making my headache worse,” Green Mail said, shooting a glare at the colonel, “So I went to the conservatory to get some peace and quiet. But when the commotion started I spun around and accidentally knocked over a potted plant with my tail. I’m pretty sure there was the same number of accidents before mine as after.” Plum Pudding, last in the line, shrugged as if he wasn’t concerned. “I was on the doorstep with you the whole time, so I didn’t break anything. But since I was watching you outside, I didn’t see anypony moving around the house. Although I believe the rooms I heard crashes in were all one after another in a straight line.” “I can’t help but notice that none of your stories included breaking my violin,” Home Body noted sternly, “Which means one of you is lying!” The mailmare, who hadn’t realized she wasn’t a part of this and had followed everypony into the ballroom, tilted her head in thought and suddenly bounced up excitedly. “Wait, if only one of you is lying, it must be you!” Who smashed the Stradivarius, and with what? And here's a map if you need it.