Rarity gathered everyone together in what passed for the manor’s living room. In a house this old, there was no television, cable, gaming consoles, nor apparently a working phone. What there was were a few sofas, tables, and bookcases which were easily old enough to be considered antique. The most up to date tome upon the owner’s dusty shelves was a copy of Reader’s Digest from the 1970s.
“I’ve made a discovery,” Rarity declared, eyeing the girls with caution.
Upon returning to the house, the first thing Rarity did was head for Sunset’s room, locating her pair of boots from Lavender’s. With them accounted for, this meant that the offending laces came from another pair, one owned by another of the girls.
While that alone wasn’t enough to affirm guilt, it was still enough to plant a seed into Rarity’s mind. There was a chance that one of these girls, one of the woman Rarity loved, had murdered Sunset Shimmer. It was not a thought that Rarity enjoyed entertaining, but it was one that the evidence pointed towards, if only remotely.
“What did you find?” Pinkie Pie asked, her crestfallen posture and sorrowful voice stinging at Rarity’s heart.
Rainbow draped an arm over Pinkie’s shoulder, pulling her into a one-armed hug. It seemed to brighten her demeanour, if only a little.
“Any leads on the murderer?” Fluttershy asked, her gaze locked upon her own shaking hands.
Rarity nodded. “When Twilight and I left the house, we found that the van had been driven last night and cleaned thoroughly afterwards.”
“My van?” Applejack asked.
“Yes, whoever killed Sunset appeared to have somehow gotten the keys.”
There was a murmur as the girls began to whisper amongst themselves. Cleary, the revelation was worth something, if only to act as an accelerant for discussion.
“How the hell did they manage that?” Applejack asked. “I kept them in my bag and only y’all know where that is?”
Rarity bit her lip. “Well…”
A silence settled in place, smothering the room.
“Wait,” Rainbow whispered. “You’re not saying that…”
Rarity held up her hand, cutting Rainbow off prematurely. “I need each of you to do me a favour.”
“What is it?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“I’ve bought each of you a pair of boots for your birthday. Do you remember?” Rarity asked. “A pair from Lavender’s?”
Rainbow cocked a brow. “Yeah… those really fancy ones, right?”
Rarity nodded. “I need each of you to go grab your pair.”
The girls looked across the room, fixing each other with an expression that was equal part concern, suspicion, and confusion. However, they didn’t debate Rarity as they got to their feet and promptly went their separate ways. This left Twilight and Rarity alone, both of whom were proven innocent by the fact that they still wore theirs.
“You don’t really think that…” Twilight began, trailing off and leaving her statement open ended. Though Rarity could pick up on her question easily enough.
Rarity shook her head. “I don’t know, Twilight. We both saw the same evidence and, while I don’t enjoy entertaining the idea that we have a murderer in our midst, you must admit that it is still a possibility.”
Twilight was silent, looking to the floor.
Finally, she spoke up. “But why would one of them do it? What was their motive?”
“I haven’t got the faintest idea, dear.” Rarity shook her head and motioned with her wrist. “I mean we all have our own checkered pasts with Sunset, but I was sure that each of us had left them behind at some point.”
“All of you?” Twilight asked, a hint of surprise in her voice.
“I mean yes, she drove us apart and made two years of our lives a living hell. For me personally, she set back my career in fashion by at least half a decade.” She let out a hollow chuckle. “I nearly gave up on working in the industry because of her.”
Twilight nodded solemnly. “Still… I hope your prediction is just a coincidence.
“For the sake of Sunset and our collective relationship, I hope the same thing.”
“Are you going to be ok?” Twilight asked, placing her hand tenderly on Rarity’s arm.
Rarity shook her head. “I’m still waiting for the crash, dear. It’s like… it’s like I still haven’t really processed that she’s gone, yet. I’m great at faking despair but when legitimate tragedy actually comes around and haunts me, I feel myself woefully underequipped at expressing myself.”
Twilight nodded. “Yeah, I know how you feel. Like, she’s gone… but I still find myself instinctively trying to insert her into our plans and whatnot.” She snorted. “I’m still half expecting her to come out of the woodworks with some cobbled-together scheme for solving this mystery.”
“Twilight?”
“Yes Rarity?”
“Can I bother you for a hug?”
They turned to face each other and Twilight threw her arms around Rarity, pulling her into a tight embrace. Rarity allowed herself a shuddering breath of despair before closing her eyes and stroking Twilight’s back tenderly. Tears wanted to come forth and break free, but she denied them for now. There would be time for plenty of those later.
In that moment, Rarity was absolutely certain she could trust Twilight. It was a gut instinct, but those always seemed to lead the detectives of her novellas in the right direction. At the very least, it was a reassuring thought, knowing that she had someone else to help her.
They broke apart just in time for Pinkie to return. She plopped down silently on the sofa, placing her boots on the coffee table. They were as vibrant as the day Rarity had bought them.
Soon, they were joined by Applejack, whose own boots were a bit more weathered but were still in her possession.
Then Fluttershy came in, adding her boots to the growing collection.
Finally, they waited for Rainbow Dash. They waited. And waited. And waited some more. Time seemed to drag on and still she didn’t return.
After several long minutes, she eventually burst into the room in a huff.
“I can’t find them anywhere!” she declared, collapsing on the sofa.
Rarity studied her for a moment, her calculating mind working in tandem with her analytic gaze.
Rainbow’s reaction seemed absolutely genuine, positively sincere. She appeared legitimately surprised at not being able to find her footwear. Not something that an amateur killer would easily be able to fake.
“What was this all about anyways?” Applejack asked.
Rarity sighed. “When searching the van, we made the discovery that the killer had likely been wearing a pair of Lavender’s boots while committing the crime. And since she’s the owner of a rather niche store in Canterlot, I didn’t think any of the locals would own a pair. Meaning that... well…”
“You think one of us did it?!” Rainbow blurted out before pausing, horror gripping at her complexion. “Oh gods, you think that I did it?!”
Rarity bit her lip. “It’s… a remote possibility.”
“I can’t believe you think I killed Sunset,” Rainbow growled, stomping her foot. “I loved her!”
“We all loved her,” Fluttershy mumbled.
“Plus, I can vouch for Rainbow,” Applejack said. “She stayed the night with me.”
“And you’re sure she didn’t leave in the middle of the night?” Twilight asked.
“I hardly got a wink of sleep and I didn’t feel Rainbow stir even once.”
“Wait, if you were awake, did you hear anything? Like somebody walking through the halls?”
Applejack shook her head. “Not with that storm booming outside.”
Rarity sighed. “I’m sorry for implying that you were involved, Rainbow Dash. I just…” She waved her hand, “it was all I had to work with and that piece of evidence did create a slim possibility that one of us was the killer.”
“We’ll need more than just a shoelace and a fingerprint,” Twilight said.
“A fingerprint?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight nodded. “The killer left one behind on Applejack’s bottle opener.
“Could you like fingerprint us?” Pinkie asked, her smile returning but still reserved. “That way we can prove that we’re all innocent.”
Rarity looked to Twilight. “Do you know of a way to do that?”
Twilight shook her head. “Not off the top of my head, no.”
“So, where do we go from here?” Applejack asked. “Because I gotta be honest, I don’t know if I’m very fond of y’all going at each other’s throats like this. Won’t take long for things to go straight into McCarthyism territory.”
Twilight blinked. “You know what McCarthyism is?”
“Well I needed a history credit, so I took modern world history.”
“Huh.”
“I do in fact have a little book smarts, sugarcube. You know that, right?”
Rarity sighed. “Really, I can only think of two courses of action we can take.”
“What are they?” Rainbow asked.
“First, we try and find a motive.”
“And second?”
“We follow the tire tracks into the forest and see what we can find.”
“I like answering question,” Pinkie Pie interjected. “Let’s do that one.”
“I’d rather be safe in here than out there with the killer,” Fluttershy said, shuddering.
Rarity nodded. “And I’d prefer to let the weather settle a bit.” She stepped towards the edge of the room. “I’ll be right back with my notepad.”
The girls all nodded and waved in confirmation. Though before Rarity slipped out, she looked at the boots once more, mentally flinching as she picked up on a little fact she had forgotten.
All of the girls wore size sevens. Generally, this was a perk for their little relationship commune, but in this scenario, it meant that literally any of them could’ve comfortably worn Rainbow’s boots.
Still, she tried not to let this fact bug her. There was no reason to be making assumptions like this with only the flimsiest of evidence at her back.
She slipped out of the living room and headed up the manor’s old stairs. In order to reach her room, she had to pass Sunset’s, feeling a certain pang of despair. Tonight, was supposed to be her night sleeping in that room, sharing the evening with Sunset.
There would’ve been wine, gossip, foreplay, and maybe a smidge of intercourse. Yet, none of those would ever happen again. At least, not with Sunset.
For sure, Rarity was in some form of intimate relationship with all of the girls, and each of them with her. But the logistics of trying to shove seven girls onto one bed was difficult to say the least. As such, they had picked a vacation home that provided each of them with their own room and often two or three girls would share one bed before swapping for another combination of lovers the next night. An imperfect, but effective system of sharing affection.
Remembering this, Rarity tried to recall where everyone was last night.
For starters, Applejack and Rainbow were together. Then of course, there had been Fluttershy and Pinkie. However, Rarity, Twilight, and Sunset opted to spend the night alone, not an uncommon situation. Sometimes a girl just needed an evening to herself.
Maybe it’d be pertinent to ask Fluttershy and Pinkie if either had stirred in the middle of the night?
Before she could think too hard about this, she reached her room, pushing inside.
It, like the rest of the manor, was antique with furniture that was at least half a century old. However, Rarity had cleaned up the musty abode, setting up a haphazard workshop in the limited space, with a sewing machine placed on the room’s desk. A dim ray spilled in from the nearby window and washed over her designs, bathing them in the beautifying natural light.
Oh sure, she was on vacation, but an artist’s mind was always churning and to be without her tools would’ve been torture.
She headed over to her bedside table and opened the drawer.
Rarity gasped and covered her mouth, shaking at what she saw.
Inside, was a blood-soaked piece of white linen.
What was that doing in there?!
She picked it up with all the care her shaking hands could muster. It was heavier than just a sheet. There was obviously something wrapped up inside.
Rarity placed it upon her bed and opened it, revealing a black handled kitchen knife with red gore caked onto its blade.
The murder weapon!
Tears prick at Rarity’s eyes. This was the very tool used to rob her beloved Sunset of life.
What was it doing in her room?
Rarity could distinctly remember opening her drawer this morning, before the grisly discovery, and there hadn’t been a knife within. That meant that…
She looked around, trying to see if anything else was out of place. Were there fabrics missing? Was a needle misplaced? Was there a single thing that was out of order?
Nothing, nothing else had seemingly been tampered with.
Someone had simply walked in, gone to her bedside table, and left this incriminating evidence behind. That someone also happened to be a person who would’ve been at this house sometime today, narrowing the choices down to a mere six.
One of six girls. One of six lovers.
Plus, she knew this blade, there was a set similar to it in the kitchen. She’d bet a considerable amount of money that this one was missing from the collection.
Should she tell the others?
How would she even explain this?
Would they believe that the evidence had been planted or would they immediately turn against her?
No, how could they not go against her. After all, wouldn’t the guiltiest party be the most likely to try and shift the blame onto someone else? Plus, how likely would they be to believe her innocence when she produced the murder weapon under such dubious pretenses.
It was torture. She had a clue, but likely one that would only bring her harm and allow the villain amongst them to abscond.
Without too much additional thought she snatched up her notepad and returned the knife to its temporary residence. It was something that could be brought up later, if at all.
She closed the drawer quickly, hiding this evidence away. Then she swallowed down her addled nerves and got back up.
Yes, this was definitely a problem for later.