//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Forgotten Dreams on the Ocean Breeze Part 5 // Story: Danganronpa: In Harmony's Wake // by Dewdrops on the Grass //------------------------------// Chapter One: Forgotten Dreams On The Ocean Breeze Deadly Life “Aaaauuuuughh!” Flash screamed at the top of his lungs, tearing at his hair as he stared at the body. “Oh damn,” Adagio said under her breath, stunned. Twilight fell to her knees. “No...no! NO! This shouldn’t be happening! This can’t be happening!” DING-DONG-DONG-DING The horribly inappropriate rising happy chime preceded the screens all over the promenade lighting up, revealing Monoponi in his seat on the bridge, cradling his snifter of brandy. “Attention all passengers! A body has been discovered! Please report to the restaurant district of the promenade immediately!” People trickled in, one by one or in pairs. “Who was it?!” Rarity shrieked in panic, the first to arrive, eyes searching around wildly. “Where’s Sweetie Belle?! Where is she?!” “I’m right here sis!” Sweetie shouted, almost tripping over herself running into Rarity’s embrace. “I’m okay! It wasn’t me!” “Oh thank heavens!” Rarity burbled, tears running freely in messy rivulets, ruining her makeup. “Who was---oh no, Wallflower?!” Sweetie’s jaw plummeted to the floor. “Oh god I don’t believe it…” Rainbow Dash was the next one in, running pell mell only to freeze in place the instant she spotted the body. “Holy shit!” she muttered, her whole body turning pale. “Oh no…” Fluttershy arrived not far behind her, and immediately burst into tears, clutching at Rainbow Dash and burying her face in Dash’s shoulder. “Oh noooo…” Timber showed up next, took one look at the body, blanched, and stuffed his face in the nearest bin, violently retching. “God damn, what the hell!” he cried, wiping the sick off his face. “What happened?!” Diamond Tiara demanded as she barged in, her clothes half soaked and dripping wet. “Who--oh my god!” She screeched, holding her hands close to her chest. “Who… how…” Applejack thudded in, carrying a sleepy Apple Bloom on her back, and gasped soundlessly, covering her mouth with one hand. Her eyes filled with tears as she dropped Apple Bloom to the floor, then doffed her hat and held it to her breast. “Ah don’t believe it,” Apple Bloom whispered, staring at the body, open mouthed. Scootaloo, upon seeing the body, squeezed her hands into fists and quivered in rage. “Who did this?” she growled in the nastiest whisper I’d ever heard. “Who?!” Trixie was the last to enter, crying out in shock. “No! Impossible! Trixie won’t believe her eyes! Is Wallflower, is she truly…” Quietly, with as much respect as I could muster, I approached the body, and held a pair of fingers to her neck. As I expected, she was cold. “She’s dead,” I confirmed with a shuddering breath. Emptiness gnawed at me from inside, clawing at my heart, stretching out to every part of me to fill me with nothingness. “She’s gone.” Wallflower. You were always so angry at everything, at everyone. You kept to yourself like a complete idiot. And now you’ve paid the price. I wanted my eyes to fill with tears, to cry, to scream, to do something, anything other than just stand there, feeling empty, but I couldn’t. I had no tears to shed. They just weren’t there. You didn’t deserve this. You were a jerk, but you didn’t deserve this. No one does. “Who did this?!” Scootaloo shouted, eyes blazing with fury as she cast her gaze over us. “Who?!” “It… it couldn’t have been one of us, right?!” Rainbow Dash said as she held Fluttershy close, her own eyes misting. Pinkie, who by now had managed to shake herself out of her stupor and crawl to her feet, responded, “No way. It couldn’t have been,” in a quiet voice. Her hair laid completely flat against her skull, all curls gone, her eyes vacant of any of her usual cheer. “I refuse to believe it!” “Oh, but it most certainly was one of you!” We all let out various cries of fear as Monoponi calmly waddled in, the biggest most shit-eating grin I’d ever seen stretching his face from ear to ear. He swaggered with pride as he stood behind the body and hovered in the air so as to lurk menacingly like an angel of death over Wallflower’s corpse. “That’s a lie!” Trixie screamed, pointing a furious finger at Monoponi like she was casting a spell. “You did this! You killed her! Trixie knows you did! No one else could have!” “Oh please, spare me the accusations!” Monoponi fluttered his wings in anger as he plopped onto the ground. His horn lit and wrenched a chair over so he could stand on it. “The rules are clear! I, as your Captain, would never and can never participate in a Rescue Attempt. This was the work of one of you!” “But, why would anyone… how could they?” Fluttershy screamed, far louder than any of us had heard her speak before. Her eyes turned cold and judging as she cast her gaze upon us all. “Whoever you are, you heartless, horrible murderer! Turn yourself in! Now!” No one spoke up. We all kept looking at each other, each of us full of disbelief, of sorrow, but no one admitted wrong-doing. Of course they wouldn’t. The rules forbid it. “Upupupu,” Monoponi held one hoof to his mouth. “No one will answer you, Fluttershy. Because one of you wants to escape! How awful! How terrible! To think one of you would choose to leave this wonderful, welcoming ship, with all its luxuries and amenities…” “Shut up!” Diamond Tiara roared at him. “You’re the one who kept trying to get us to kill each other!” “And? It’s not my fault one of you decided their life was more valuable than the rest of you!” Monoponi snickered. “Because one of you did! One of you is happy to let everyone else die just so they can leave the ship.” “Mah word… Ah just can’t believe someone would be so selfish,” Applejack said. “But someone was,” Adagio spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest. “Someone gave in, and killed Wallflower. Honestly, I don’t blame them. She wasn’t very pleasant to talk to.” “Hey!” Sweetie Belle said, stomping over and getting up in Adagio’s face, or trying to anyway. She was shorter by a good six inches, so the effect was more comical than anything else. “How dare you?! Maybe she wasn’t nice, but that doesn’t mean she deserved to die!” “I didn’t say she did,” Adagio shrugged. She took two fingers and with a single flick against Sweetie’s forehead sent the shorter woman flying onto the floor. “Stay out of my face.” Rarity’s eyes bugged out of her sockets as she heaved and snorted like an angry stallion. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on my sister!” she snarled, moving into some kind of martial arts stance. Sweetie climbed to her feet and grunted, rubbing at her bruised hip. She held out an arm to block Rarity from advancing on Adagio. “Don’t, sis. This won’t help anything.” “Yeah,” Flash agreed, having managed to finally compose himself. He knelt down to help Twilight off the floor, who’d been bent over sobbing this whole time. “Fighting with each other won’t solve anything right now.” “B-but what do we do?” Timber gasped, hovering near the bin full of his sick and looking ready to duck back in at any second. “What can we do?” “We’re… we’re gonna have to follow the rules, aren’t we?” Pinkie answered, listlessly holding up her Monopad. “We gotta investigate.” “Oh good, I’m so glad you’re getting this so fast!” Monoponi clapped his forehooves together. “Usually it takes a good half hour of pissing and moaning before the group finally gets around to doing what they’re supposed to do.” “But where would we even begin? Trixie has never investigated a crime before!” Trixie tore at her hair in frustration. “And how?” Scootaloo spluttered as she stared at Wallflower’s body. “We can’t, like, dust for fingerprints or run DNA or whatever they do on crime shows! How do we do this?” I approached Monoponi, and brought out my Monopad. My gaze met his, and he stared right back, chuckling under his breath. “Go ahead, Monoponi. Send it. We’re waiting.” “Send what?” Twilight asked. “Oh fie, you’re trying to spoil the experience, Sunset! Shame on you!” Monoponi chided, fluttering his wings in frustration. “No, really, what is she talking about?” Sweetie asked. “She must be referencing that Dangan-whatever thing again,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “Oh, I wish I’d played it now,” Fluttershy sighed. “I’ve played all sorts of Neighponese visual novels, but I always avoided ones like those for being… too dark.” I crossed my arms, and stayed quiet, waiting for him to run out of patience. Monoponi let out a world-weary sigh. “Fine! I was going to give this a full set of pomp and circumstance, but little miss Sunset won’t let me have any fun! Such disrespect to her Captain, I tell you. She’d be whipped if she were on my crew, you’d better believe it!” With a quick flare of his horn, all our Monopads beeped at once, and everyone started bringing theirs out to look. “There. Satisfied, Shimmer?” “Not till you’re dead,” I retorted as I pulled up the new message. “Well whatever, then!” Monoponi grouched, huffing on the spot. “I won’t even bother explaining. You get to do it! In the meantime, you all! Your investigation time starts now! Good luuuuck!” Monoponi vanished in a flash of light. Twilight was the first to speak up after he vanished. “Sunset, what is this Monoponi File thing?” I sighed in frustration. “It’s an autopsy report. Just enough information on the body for us to use in the trial, without giving away anything crucial. It’s Monoponi’s way of making up for our lack of proper forensics tools. Don’t expect it to provide all the clues. It won’t.” “Well, if we’re going to investigate, we’ll also need people to guard the body,” Adagio pointed out. “Or else the culprit will probably try to destroy evidence.” “Yep, that’s pretty standard,” I agreed. Not that I think whoever did this is likely to try anything now. They probably discarded or destroyed all the evidence they could already. “I’ll do it!” Rainbow Dash volunteered, raising a hand. “I’m still feeling pretty bad after last night. I don’t think I’d be much help investigating.” “Wait, you can’t do it on your own though,” Twilight pointed out with a sad frown. “I hate to say it, but until we gather more clues? We’re all suspects.” “Are you saying I’m not trustworthy?!” Rainbow shouted, holding up a fist. “No,” Twilight replied calmly, refusing to back down. “I’m saying that we have to play this smart. I want to trust you.” She sighed, staring down at her Monopad. “I want to trust all of you. But can we really take that risk? If we get this wrong, everyone, we die.” “It’s true,” Adagio agreed, favoring Twilight with an impressed look. “She’s right. Our lives are on the line. And I have no intention of dying here.” “Okay, fine, so someone else guard the body with me,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Who wants to do it?” After a couple of moments of silence, Timber let out a frustrated sigh and stepped forward, still shaking and still pale. He dragged the bin with him, keeping it handy. “Guess I’ll do it. Sorry I won’t be able to help investigate.” “No, it’s fine,” I said with an understanding smile. “If we get a chance, we’ll get you some stomach medicine or something before the trial. Thank you, Timber.” “Alright, that’s decided then,” Diamond announced, glaring at me. “And let me say something else! None of us are going off on our own! Everyone sticks with someone else! Especially you, Sunset!” Her glare burned brighter, like someone turned up the heat on a stove. “I can’t speak for everyone else, but you’re my number one suspect! You had the biggest beef with Wallflower of all of us!” “Yeah, she did, huh?” Scootaloo said, scratching her chin. “Don’t worry, Diamond, I’ll stay with her,” Twilight said, adjusting her glasses to get a better look at her Monopad. “And we’d better pair off now. We’re running out of time.” She was right. Monoponi was only going to give us so much time to investigate this crime, and I wouldn’t put it past the pony puppeteer to stop us at any moment and laugh at us because we failed to find anything before the trial. We had to investigate. For Wallflower’s sake. And for the sake of us all. *INVESTIGATION START* My first act was to look at the Monoponi File, and read it carefully. I opened it up, and took a look, cringing when I saw what pointless title Monoponi slapped Wallflower with. Fact #1: Monoponi File I: “The victim is Wallflower Blush, the Ultimate Nobody. The time of death is estimated as being between 8:00 PM and 3:00 AM. The victim shows signs of multiple injuries to the stomach, neck, and throat. There are also traces of sleeping medicine in her system.” Damn. Not a lot to work with. “No cause of death? No proper time of death?! This isn’t helpful at all!” Twilight complained after reading it, scowling at her pad as if the thing offended her just by existing. “I told you,” I replied with a wan half smile. “Just enough information to give us a start. We should investigate the body.” Twilight bit at her lip, sighed, then nodded. “Right. Hold on, I think I have some gloves somewhere.” She dug around in her skirt pocket and pulled out two sets of disposable vinyl gloves, passing one over to me. “Here. I know we don’t have to worry about fingerprints, but…” “Yeah I don’t really want to touch a body with my bare hands either, thanks.” I slipped on the gloves, and approached the body, as did Twilight. Rainbow Dash and Timber both watched us closely as we started poking at it. I went for the cleaver first, since it was the most obvious thing. It was huge, sharpened steel with an engraved handle emblazoned with the letters “S. K.” It had split right through her clothes, staining most of her belly with pink. I avoided looking too closely at the wound, other than to note that it had bled less than I would’ve expected had it been the cause of death, only coating part of her shirt and pants. Fact #2: Cleaver: “A large stainless steel meat cleaver, found in the victim’s body. The letters ‘S.K.’ are engraved on the handle. The wound caused by the cleaver bled very little.” “I don’t think this was the murder weapon,” Twilight declared after taking a good look at the cleaver herself. I held up a hand. “No. Don’t speculate. We can’t. We’re going to bias the results if we do. Save it for the trial.” “Oh, right, of course,” Twilight let out a small sheepish laugh. “You’d think I’d know that, being a scientist and all. Sorry.” “It’s okay.” I resisted the natural urge to pat her on the shoulder, because I doubt she wanted blood all over her clothes. “I get it. We just have to be very careful. If we make the wrong assumption, well…” “Right,” Twilight nodded with a shaky breath. I moved on to examine her neck next. “Hrmm, looks like some kind of marks here,” I commented. It was a long, thick ring about two inches wide all the way around her neck, right at her throat. The marks were uneven, with an oddly inconsistent pattern. Fact #3: Body Condition: “There is a ring of marks around Wallflower’s neck. The pattern is two inches wide, with an uneven, inconsistent pattern. “So the culprit wrapped something around her neck, it looks like,” I commented. “But why did the File specify the neck and throat? That seems redundant.” “Maybe look inside her mouth?” Twilight suggested with a grossed out grimace. I nodded, took a breath to steady myself, then moved up to open Wallflower’s jaw. It was tricky, thanks to the rigor mortis that had set in, but I got it open after a moment or two. Of course the inside was rather dark and difficult to see. “Hey, Rainbow Dash, do you have a flashlight or something on you?” “Uh, yeah, I got a penlight,” Rainbow responded hesitantly. “Why?” I pointed to Wallflower’s mouth. “Can you shine it overhead? I need to get a good look inside.” “Ugh, really? Fine, jeez,” Rainbow Dash whined, but complied, pulling out the pen light and switching it on. With the helpful light, I was able to make out the inside of her mouth. Not having made a big habit out of staring at throats, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for at first, but then I saw it. “Huh. Looks like there’s some kind of injury there, right on the back of her throat. I see bruising, and a few cuts that left some blood, I think.” Twilight peered inside, and nodded. “Yeah, that looks unusual. We’d better notate that.” *UPDATED* Fact #3: Body Condition: “There is a ring of marks around Wallflower’s neck. The pattern is two inches wide, with an uneven, inconsistent pattern. There are also bruises and small cuts on the back of her throat. I moved on from her mouth now, to check the rest of her body. Her whole body was damp, I noticed, especially her hair and the area around her head and upper torso. “Why is she wet?” I wondered. Using my hands, I felt down her body, stopping when I reached her legs. “Hey, wait, her legs are a bit swollen too. That’s weird.” “Oh look, here, on her wrists!” Twilight said, holding up one of Wallflower’s arms. Right there, all around her wrists, were markings similar to the ones on her neck. “Okay, so she was tied up. Maybe…” I checked her ankles. “Bingo. Same thing there too.” “And look at her shoes too. They’re scuffed,” Twilight said, pointing at the heels of Wallflower’s shoes. Yep, there were scuff marks all right, big and obvious. “She must have been dragged.” “Yeah, I think so,” I agreed. *UPDATED* Fact #3: Body Condition: “There is a ring of marks around Wallflower’s neck. The pattern is two inches wide, with an uneven, inconsistent pattern. There are also bruises and small cuts on the back of her throat, and her legs are swollen. Her whole body is damp, especially her head and upper torso. There are further marks on her ankles and wrists, and scuff marks on her shoes. Twilight began to strip off her gloves. “Okay, I think we’ve learned all we can from the body.” “Wait,” I said, holding a hand to her gloves to stop her. “We should look underneath her.” She blinked owlishly at me. “Why?” “Just a hunch. Here, help me.” Together, we each lifted the body up off the dining cart, which was easier than I expected. Poor Wallflower hardly weighed a thing. She was a lot thinner than I’d realized, but fortunately that made it easy to hold her up and look underneath her at the same time. “Oh hey, there, what’s that?” I said as I spotted something. I set the body partially down with one arm and held it up just enough with the other to brush the thing I’d spotted onto the floor. “Okay, you can set her down now.” As she did so I knelt down to examine what fell. It was a few fragments of… some kind of material. “What do you make of this, Twi?” She picked it and examined it. “I have no idea. Do you really think it’s relevant?” I nodded. “I don’t want to dismiss anything right now.” Fact #4: Odd Material: “A few fragments of odd material were discovered underneath the body.” “Okay, now we can take off the gloves,” I said, stripping the things carefully and dumping them into Timber’s handy bin. “So what’s next?” Twilight asked as she carefully noted what we’d observed in her notebook. Desperately wishing I had some hand sanitizer, I avoided scratching my chin like I wanted to as I answered, “Well, there’s a couple places I want to check out, but since they’re right here, I’d like to ask Rainbow Dash and Timber some questions first.” “Yeah, sure, whatever we can do to help nail the bastard who did this,” Timber agreed with a grimace. Then he held a hand to his stomach. “Ugh, damn it.” I winced in sympathy for the poor guy. Probably still feeling the effects of that bad cider. That stuff was rancid. Then I paused. Wait. Wait a minute. Why was it bad? I remembered what I’d heard Applejack say last night. ~*~ “Hey now, Ah suffered too ya know!” Applejack shot back, holding up one hand to point in Rarity’s general direction. “Don’t go blamin’ this on me. Ah blame the distributor! Or maybe the packagin’. But the cider itself? Nah. Somethin’ made it go bad, mark mah words.” ~*~ Yeah. And it happened during the party. That’s gotta mean something. Fact #5: Tainted Cider: “The bowl of Sweet Apple Acres cider at the pool party made Applejack, Timber Spruce, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Diamond Tiara sick with vomiting and diarrhea. According to Applejack, the cider was tainted somehow. It was disposed of at sea by Pinkie Pie.” “Timber, when you drank the cider last night, did you notice anything odd about it? Like smell, or taste?” Timber nodded. “Yeah, it did smell kinda funky, now that you mention it. I dunno what it was, but I didn’t think anything of it at first. I figured that was just AJ’s family’s cider smell, ya know? But then it tasted kinda funky too, kinda nutty, and real bitter too, way more bitter than cider should be. Of course I was stupid.” He sighed. “I drank a huge ton of it at once, cause AJ was egging me on. Then after a few minutes my tongue and mouth started itching, ya know? And then it was just so bad. Oh god it was bad.” *Updated* Fact #5: Tainted Cider: “The bowl of Sweet Apple Acres cider at the pool party made Applejack, Timber Spruce, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Diamond Tiara sick with vomiting and diarrhea. According to Applejack, the cider was tainted somehow. It was disposed of at sea by Pinkie Pie. According to Timber Spruce, the cider had a nutty, bitter taste, and made his tongue and mouth itch.” “That sounds a lot like the symptoms of drinking ipecac,” Twilight mused. “Maybe someone put some in the cider? But where would they get it?” “Hold that thought, Twi,” I said. “Timber, how long were you in the bathroom?” “Uh, I dunno?” He shrugged. “Maybe forty-five minutes? I spent some of it cleaning the place up cause I felt bad about making a mess. It smelled so bad, I just sprayed cleaning stuff everywhere and air freshener on top. I dunno if I got all of it, but…” “Okay. Thank you,” I said. Fact #6: Timber’s Account: “According to Timber Spruce, he spent forty-five minutes in the bathroom, with some of that time spent on cleanup, using cleaning chemicals and air freshener.” “Rainbow Dash,” I said, turning my attention to her. She’d almost started nodding off… probably got about as much sleep as I did. Which reminds me: try to grab coffee before the trial. “Huh? Yeah, what?” she grunted, rubbing at her eyes and wincing. “Sorry, I’ve got a killer headache.” I lowered my voice a tad. “You helped clean up the bathrooms with Trixie, right? How’d that go?” “Oh, uh, um…” Rainbow Dash started laughing sheepishly. “It’s really hard to remember actually. I was kinda trying to blot it out afterwards.” “I understand that, but right now I need you to remember,” I persisted, urging her on. Rainbow nodded, then squeezed her eyes shut. “Ugh. Okay, so, Trixie told me to do the men’s while she started on the women’s, but I wasn’t in there very long. The whole place stank of air freshener, like someone sprayed it everywhere. And it was really clean too, like spotless. I still did a bit of stuff just to be safe, but then I joined Trixie in the women’s and uh…” She gulped, pinching her nose. “I stib dobt wabt to picture dab.” “Okay, thank you Dash,” I said. “I’ll stop bugging you two now. Just keep an eye on the body for us.” *Updated* Fact #6: Timber’s Account: “According to Timber Spruce, he spent forty-five minutes in the bathroom, with some of that time spent on cleanup, using cleaning chemicals and air freshener. Rainbow Dash corroborated his account, stating the men’s room was spotless and stank of air freshener, but she spent some time spraying cleaner anyway to be safe.” I waved for Twilight to follow me to a nearby table and waited for her to finish writing. “Okay, so that’s a lot we know so far. We’ll need to ask Shy, Rarity, and AJ about the cider too.” Twilight nodded, then grimaced at her pen and notebook. “Ugh. I wish I’d been able to wash my hands before I had to handle this.” “I know where we can do that. I was meaning to check it out anyway. C’mon.” We made our way to the Sushi King restaurant, and entered the kitchen, where we found Pinkie and Scootaloo poking around. “Hey there,” I said as I made for the handwash sink, which was thankfully well equipped with soap. “Find anything?” “Yup yup!” Pinkie chirped. She’d regained a bit of curl to her hair, but it was still mostly limp. “As soon as I saw that big knife, I was sure it came from here. And look!” She pointed to the knife set on the counter, which was almost complete save for an obvious missing piece. “I was right!” *Updated* Fact #2: Cleaver: “A large stainless steel meat cleaver, found in the victim’s body. The letters ‘S.K.’ are engraved on the handle. The cleaver came from the Sushi King kitchen. The wound caused by the cleaver bled very little. I nodded. “Yeah, I’m not really surprised. Did you see anything else in here?” “Um, I might’ve found something,” Scootaloo said, calling us over. She was standing at the janitor’s corner, staring down at the sink. “Look. The whole thing here’s wet, and I didn’t turn on the water when I came in. Neither did Pinkie.” “Interesting…” Twilight mused as she noted it. Fact #7: Sushi King Kitchen: “The janitor’s corner in the Sushi King kitchen was wet, as if it had been used recently.” I peered down at the sink with interest. “Wait, what…” I reached down to the drain and pulled something out. It was a long, thin thread of material. “Hey, Twi, look at this. This looks a lot like that other thing we found, doesn’t it?” She held it up to the light. “Yeah, it does. I’m still not sure what it is, but it’s probably not a coincidence. *Updated* Fact #7: Sushi King Kitchen: “The janitor’s corner in the Sushi King kitchen was wet, as if it had been used recently. A long, thin fragment of material identical to the one discovered under Wallflower’s body was found in the drain.” *Updated* Fact #4: Odd Material: “A few fragments of odd material were discovered underneath the body. A long, thin fragment of the same material was discovered in the Sushi King’s janitor sink drain.” “Yeah. So the culprit was probably in here, then, doing… something,” I said, frowning. “Maybe check the floors?” Twilight got down on her hands and knees and began looking around. “There!” she said, pointing out some curved black lines. “Scuff marks.” *Updated* Fact #7: Sushi King Kitchen: “The janitor’s corner in the Sushi King kitchen was wet, as if it had been used recently. A long, thin fragment of material identical to the one discovered under Wallflower’s body was found in the drain. Scuff marks were on the floor nearby.” “Okay, everybody try to be careful here, in case there’s other clues,” I said after writing down that info on Twi’s notepad for her while she was busy getting back to her feet and washing her hands again. “Hey, Sunset, do you think we should check the, uh, thing we found the other day?” Scootaloo asked, gesturing with her head towards the freezer. I snapped my fingers and grinned. “Yeah, good idea.” We made our way to the freezer straight away and popped it open. Inside, nothing much seemed out of place at first, until I looked down at the bags of ice. For some reason, the bag of ice I’d tossed there was back in place, perfectly lined up with the others. “Weird…” I said as I knelt down to move it. “Hey wait, this bag is open! It’s missing some ice.” *Updated* Fact #7: Sushi King Kitchen: “The janitor’s corner in the Sushi King kitchen was wet, as if it had been used recently. A long, thin fragment of material identical to the one discovered under Wallflower’s body was found in the drain. Scuff marks were on the floor nearby. A bag of ice in the freezer was open, missing some of its contents.” Twilight’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s kind of weird. Why--” at my held up hand, she shut her mouth. “Right. No speculating.” I moved the ice away from the vent. Like the ice bag, the vent cover was back in place perfectly, rather than messily like I’d left it. I popped it open and set the cover aside, then knelt down to look. “Huh, I don’t see anything. Scootaloo, can you…” “On it!” Scootaloo nodded, and got down to crawl inside. Like before I watched her go, as she had to scrabble her way around a sharp corner almost immediately so she could meander towards the fan. “Hey, there’s something here!” She began scooting herself backwards, feet first, then stopped. “Uh, I’m stuck! Can you pull me?” “Yeah I got you,” I said, reaching in to grab her by her ankles. I slowly pulled her towards me, careful not to make any sudden movements so she didn’t hurt herself. After a few minutes I got her out. She was holding something in her hands. “Ooof, thanks, Sunset. Here. This is what I found.” She handed it over. It was large, heavy, and very familiar. “Uh, Sunset, isn’t that…” Twilight said. I nodded. “Yup. Adagio’s missing first aid kit.” Fact #8: First Aid Kit: “Adagio Dazzle had purchased an ultra deluxe first aid kit on Tuesday, stocked with plenty of drugs and surgery materials on top of the usual contents. It was stolen Wednesday morning, and discovered inside the Sushi King freezer vent.” “Was there anything else down there, Scoots?” I asked. The little woman brushed herself off and poked at a forming bruise, wincing when it hurt to touch. “Ah, no, there wasn’t. Just that.” We left the freezer and set the case on a free space on one of the counters, brushing aside a rice cooker in the process. I popped open the case. “Whoa, that’s really messy!” Pinkie commented. It was. The kit was a jumbled up pile of wrappers, emptied out bottles, and torn up supplies. Almost everything in the kit was ruined, with lots of pills spilled into the trays all mixed together, with no idea what was supposed to be what anymore. “They sure jumbled it up,” I said, frowning. “But why?” *Updated* Fact #8: First Aid Kit: “Adagio Dazzle had purchased an ultra deluxe first aid kit on Tuesday, stocked with plenty of drugs and surgery materials on top of the usual contents. It was stolen Wednesday morning, and discovered inside the Sushi King freezer vent. The kit was effectively destroyed, all the supplies rendered useless.” “Well whatever the reason, it’s sure making the investigation harder,” Twilight grumbled, latching the case closed. “Not necessarily,” I said, something occurring to me. “Adagio said she was going to buy a new first aid kit. We should check with her to see if she has it. We can compare her intact one to this one.” “Hey that’s good thinkin’ there, Sunny!” Pinkie quipped. “But hey, I was thinking too! The Monoponi file said that she died during the party, right? Well I was paying attention the whole time! If you need the lowdown on the timeline of the party, I’m your girl.” “Yes, please, we should definitely record that,” Twilight noted, turning to a new page in her notebook. “I’m pretty sure I have a good timeline already, but it doesn’t hurt to refresh it and make it clear.” “Okie dokie loki! So it went like this: At 8:00 PM, everyone was going back and forth between the shops to get swimsuits, because we all forgot ‘em. But by 8:30, we were all changed and ready to go! I saw everyone except Wallflower during that time, so no one was gone more than a few minutes.” Pinkie placed a hand to her chin and cocked her head to the side, then continued, “Oh, and that was about the time you started playing the music, Sunny. Flash said he was gonna DJ, buuut he was too busy makin’ the moves on Twilight!” “Hey!” Twilight turned a bright pink, and stammered, “H-he was being a perfect gentleman!” “Twi, not really important right now,” I said in a warning tone. “Continue, Pinkie.” “Anyway, everyone hung out and swam and danced till 10:00 PM. Then the announcement played, and Timber went to get cider for Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Diamond Tiara, plus himself.” He offered me some, but in retrospect I’m so glad I didn’t have any. “Hey, did anyone have any cider before that?” Pinkie shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Why? Is that important?” Twilight immediately jotted that down. “Yes. It could help us figure out who spiked it.” “Spiked?!” Pinkie gasped, her eyes bugging out and jaw opening as wide as possible. “No, no, it was just a bad batch! I’m sure it was!” I shot Twilight a glare, then attempted to calm Pinkie down. “We don’t know if it was spiked or not. We’re just trying to figure out what happened.” “Oh.” Pinkie shrugged. “Okay! Anyway, they all ran for the potties at about 10:15, then came back at 11:00, except Rarity, who returned at 11:20. Then Monoponi showed up at 11:30 and was a big huge meanie about everything, and sent Trixie and Rainbow to clean up. They came back about 12:15. Then the party kept going, you, Flash, and Twilight left at 1:00, Sunny, and everyone else stopped at 3:00. I stayed a little longer to clean up, but it was really quick. We left the big tables out there though.” Fact #9: Party Timeline: “The party ran from 8:00 PM to 3:00 AM. At 8:00 everyone scrambled for swimsuits, but no one was gone for more than a few minutes. Everyone attended the party except for Wallflower Blush. Music was played from 8:30 PM till 10:00 PM, then at 10:15 Applejack, Timber Spruce, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Diamond Tiara became sick and left for the bathrooms. All except Rarity returned at 11:00, and she at 11:20. Trixie and Rainbow Dash left to clean up at 11:30 and came back at 12:15. After that Sunset, Flash, and Twilight left at 1:00, then everyone else at 3:00.” “Great, Pinkie that’s a really good timeline, thank you!” I said gratefully. “Okay, Twilight, let’s go.” Once we were outside the kitchen, I whirled on Twilight and said, “Twi, I get that you’re trying to figure things out as we go, but you gotta stop speculating, okay?” “But, it just seemed like a really safe conclusion!” Twilight objected, hurt visible in her expression. “Exactly!” I said, rolling my eyes in exasperation. Twilight’s face went blank. “Wait, what? I don’t understand.” “Remember the rules? Monoponi said these mysteries had to be complicated. On purpose. So it’s pretty likely the culprit’s going to try to mislead us. Which can and will probably include ‘safe’ conclusions!” I explained in an increasingly frustrated tone. “Yes, it might turn out to be right, but we can’t know that until we have everything and we start putting it together at the trial, okay? Trust me on this!” “Oh…” Twilight blinked once, twice, then her eyes bulged wide in shock. “Oh! Oh my god! You’re right! What was I thinking?” “You were just trying to analyze the problem,” I answered softly, trying to tone down the feelings of impatience coursing through my veins. We really don’t have time for this, damn it. “Hey, Sunset! Sunset!” interrupted the voice of Sweetie Belle. I turned to see Sweetie waving frantically at us. “Sunset, c’mere, quick! I think I found something!” “We found something, darling,” Rarity corrected, patting her sister gently on the head and ignoring the irritated glare Sweetie threw her way. “But yes, please, come this way.” We followed them down the promenade towards the end, right by the entryway to the cabin corridor, where the “Lover’s Corner” balcony lay. “Look, here,” Rarity said, squatting down to point at the floor. I knelt down to see. Back when we were first exploring, I hadn’t paid much attention to this little alcove, so I hadn’t realized it was carpeted, just like the rest of the promenade, even though it was outside, albeit with an overhanging roof. And good thing it was too, because there was a huge water stain all over it, like someone dropped a bottle and it poured out. Or shattered… but I didn’t see any glass, so probably not. “That is odd,” Twilight noted. “But are we sure this is relevant? I mean, anyone could have spilled something here.” “That’s what I thought at first too, darling, but then I saw these.” Rarity brought out two objects from her pocket, a plastic bottle cap, and a piece of paper. “I found the cap under the chairs. The note was caught in a piece of metal just below the railing. I only saw it because of the reflection.” “Reflection?” I questioned as I examined the note. Then I understood, as I read it. It wasn’t handwritten or typed. Rather it was pasted together pieces of letters, like a kid who cut apart newspapers and magazines for a school project. For some reason many of the letters were shiny, made from reflective material. Fact #10: Water Stain: “The Lover’s Corner alcove contained a large water stain on its carpet, along with a plastic bottle cap and a note.” Fact #11: Note: “The note reads: ‘Dearest Wallflower. You’re the prettiest chick I’ve ever seen. We should meet up tonight, at *blank* in the Lover’s Corner, so we can ditch those losers at the party and hang together.’ The note was not signed. The note was crafted from pasted together letters taken from other papers, many of which were made of reflective material. A few of the letters were torn off from the note, including the time of the meeting.” “Wow, that’s… bad,” Twilight grimaced, shaking in disgust. “Uuugh. I wouldn’t give someone who wrote something like this the time of day, let alone meet with them.” “It’s certainly not the most romantic confession I’ve ever heard,” Rarity admitted. “That’s because people confess to you like ten times a day, sis,” Sweetie teased, sticking out her tongue. “Not the point, darling.” “Yeah it’s weird,” I agreed. “This must’ve been what lured her out of her room, but really? She went on and on about watching out for trouble, keeping away from other people, and then falls for something like this?” I shook my head in disbelief. “I don’t get it.” “We all want to be loved, Sunset,” Rarity said gently, with a world weary weight to her tone. “Wallflower was probably no different. Maybe she just needed someone to break through her shell.” “And then they killed her,” Sweetie said, sighing. “Anyway, all that aside,” Twilight noted as she placed the note into our growing pile of evidence, “this at least suggests the culprit and Wallflower met here first. It’s a shame the time is missing from the note. It could’ve made solving this so much easier.” “While we have your attention, Rarity, there’s something I need to ask you about,” I said, changing topics. “Why did you come back so late from the bathroom?” “Oh!” Rarity huffed, then started grinding her teeth together before she composed herself back to perfect prim and proper calm. “That awful cider was just so wretched I just had to spend extra time cleaning myself up.” “And you did that in the promenade bathroom? Why not just go back to your cabin and shower?” Twilight asked. Rarity opened her mouth to speak, closed it, then shook her head and said nothing. “Hey, Rarity, come on,” I urged. Instead of saying anything, she suddenly turned on her heels and ran for the cabins. Almost quicker than we could blink, she was gone, Sweetie chasing after her. “What the heck?” Twilight thrust her hands over her head. “Why couldn’t you just answer the question?!” “We’ll have to ask her at the trial, when she can’t run away,” I groused, kicking one of the nearby chairs lightly in frustration. “Dang it, Rarity.” Then I kicked the chair again, harder this time when I realized we’d just missed an opportunity. “Oh damn it, why didn’t we ask her about the material we found? She could probably identify it for us!” “Like you said, we’ll have to wait for the trial,” Twilight mused. “In the meantime, I think we should go check some other things. Like the shop receipts.” “Right!” I said, snapping my fingers and pointing at Twilight. “We can get a record of who bought what. Maybe we can use that to figure out what was used to leave those marks on Wallflower’s body.” First stop was the convenience store, as the closest one. I approached the register, and fiddled with the display till I found the “print all receipts” option. That spat out a massive roll of paper that poured out of the register’s printer for a good thirty seconds before it finally stopped. “Why is it so big?” Twilight asked, eyes scanning the paper rapidly before I took it to look at myself. Over three quarters of the list was the same: some kind of snack food, next to Flash’s name.“We can probably discard all of this, since that was just us getting the snacks for the party. I don’t think they mattered at all,” I said, ripping off most of the receipt and chucking it in the bin, leaving us with just a few entries. But as I scanned them, I groaned in frustration. “None of this is useful either! Who cares who bought a bag of chips? I think this store’s a bust.” I made sure to grab a bottle of cold coffee and a sandwich before I left though, stuffing them both in my jacket pockets. We stopped by the other stores, printed their receipts, and, after finding a table to sit down at in the food court, eventually compiled the following list. In the process I realized a bit of a problem. Fact #12: Shop Receipts: “AD@RX Tue1005: Ultra Deluxe First Aid Kit. RB@RX: Tue1047: Melatonin, Ibuprofen. AD@RX Wed1440: Ultra Deluxe First Aid Kit. SS@RX: Wed1530: Basic First Aid Kit. WB@RX: Wed1725 Aspirin, caffeine pills, multivitamins. FS@RX Wed2005: Basic First Aid Kit, condoms, acetaminophen. RB@FS: Tue1020: Deluxe sewing kit, bolt of linen x 2, bolt of cotton x 2. RD@SG: Tue0812: Leather backpack, soccer ball, basketball. TS@SG Tue1225: Leather backpack, sneakers, yoga pants , fabric backpack. SS@SG: Tue1410 Leather backpack, running shoes, water bottle. RD@SG: Tue1415: Parachute cord, bungee cord, carabiner clips x 2. RB@OS: Tue1033: Deluxe arts and crafts kit. PP@OS: Tue1245: Deluxe arts and crafts kit. FS@ OS: Tue1420 Deluxe arts & crafts kit. TS@ OS: Tue1425: Notebooks x 6, pen x 12, pencils x 12, erasers x 3. DT@OS: Tue1515: Deluxe arts and crafts kit, notebook x 2, pen x 3. TS@ OS: Tue1622: Deluxe arts & crafts kit x 2. DT@ JS: Tue1825: Diamond earrings.” “Wait a minute, it doesn’t show our names,” I pointed out. “It just shows initials. But some of us have the same initials. How do we know which is which?” “We’ll just have to see at the trial, I guess,” Twilight replied, glaring down at the list we’d strung together. “This really isn’t as helpful as I thought it would be. It’s mostly useless information. Who knows what matters amongst all this?” I scowled down at the list myself, feeling more than a little frustrated now. “Yeah. I mean, now we know Wallflower took vitamins? Who even cares?” I pointedly did not mention what Flash purchased. I wasn’t about to get on Twilight’s case over that, not at such an inappropriate time. I can tease her later. “It does look like a whole bunch of people bought arts and crafts kits, though. Now I’m curious. What was in those, anyway?” Twilight shrugged. “Just a lot of basic things. Construction paper, colored pencils, shears, markers, popsicle sticks, scotch tape, beads, superglue, crayons, tissue pap--” “Oh, there you are!” cried a familiar voice, thankfully interrupting Twilight’s unnecessarily excessive listing. Adagio stomped over to us, Trixie in tow. “Scootaloo told me you found my missing first aid kit,” she said. “Said you needed to talk to me.” “Yes, we did,” Twilight responded, pulling the damaged kit out from our pile of evidence. “We wanted to compare your new one to the old one.” “Trixie does not understand why that would be necessary. Surely they’re the same?” Adagio flashed Trixie a simpering smile. “Please, be quiet and let the big girls talk, okay?” “Hmmph! Be that way, then,” Trixie said, crossing her arms and sticking her nose up in the air. Adagio pulled out her own first aid kit, and we opened them up together. “Wow. They trashed it,” Adagio quipped, picking up one of the pieces of random empty wrappers from the damaged kit, then dropping it back in. “Why are we doing this again?” “That’s what Trixie asked! Why is it different when you ask it?” Adagio whirled on Trixie and rudely shoved a finger in her face. “Shut. Up!” “Hrm… okay, look, look, see?” Twilight held up a small set of bandages from the undamaged kit, which bore labels with reflective lettering. “It’s reflective, so you can easily find it even in low light. And look, here’s the same wrapper from here--” she plucked a wrapper from the damaged kit seemingly at random “--with the same packaging, but it’s all cut up and missing letters. And if I’m right…” She dove back into our pile of evidence and brought out the note Rarity found. “Yup. Bingo. The letters on this note came from the first aid kit wrappers!” *Updated* Fact #11: Note: “The note reads: ‘Dearest Wallflower. You’re the prettiest chick I’ve ever seen. We should meet up tonight, at *blank* in the Lover’s Corner, so we can ditch those losers at the party and hang together.’ The note was not signed. The note was crafted from pasted together letters taken from the packaging of first aid kit supplies, many of which were made of reflective material. A few of the letters were torn off from the note, including the time of the meeting.” *Updated* Fact #8: First Aid Kit: “Adagio Dazzle had purchased an ultra deluxe first aid kit on Tuesday, stocked with plenty of drugs and surgery materials on top of the usual contents. It was stolen Wednesday morning, and discovered inside the Sushi King freezer vent. The kit was effectively destroyed, all the supplies rendered useless. Most of the packaging was torn up, letters removed to be pasted into a love note.” “Nice observation!” I crowed, pumping my fists in triumph. “Okay, that’s one little mystery solved at least.” “So the person who stole my first aid kit, used it for this?” Adagio plucked up the love note in two fingers and held it out away from her like it was a dirty diaper or something equally disgusting. “What a waste!” Twilight didn’t respond, as she was too busy digging through the undamaged kit. “Hmm, hmm, okay, right,” she muttered as she examined various drugs. “Oh, that’s interesting. Actually, that might explain a lot.” “What?” I asked. “What is it?” But before she could answer… DING-DONG BING-BONG The screens lit up with the usual image of Monoponi, gripping a snifter of brandy in his magic. This time the grin on his face was especially wide, as he swirled the brandy in his grip. “Your attention please! This is your Captain speaking! It certainly has been a sad morning, hasn’t it? One of you was so ungrateful, you decided it was better to rescue yourselves from this ship instead of enjoying its luxuries. Well now’s your time to shine, blackened! Investigation time is now over. All passengers, please report to the food court at the center of the promenade, immediately!” The screen winked off. My eyebrows shot up to the top of my skull. “Wait, the food court? What?” I murmured. “What kind of sense does that make?” “Are we going to hold the trial here?” Twilight wondered, looking around the room at the various tables. “It really doesn’t look like the best place to do it…” “No, that’s not it,” I replied with a shake of my head. “We’re just meeting here. Then we’re going… somewhere else.” “Where?” Adagio asked me with a glare. I didn’t respond, choosing to stay silent as everyone else assembled, including the recalcitrant Rarity, who took one look at the two of us before clapping her own mouth shut and refusing to speak a single word. “Okay, Monoponi!” Diamond Tiara cried out, looking up at the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. “We’re here! What do we do now?” “Now, you say?” Monoponi popped into existence before us, hovering in midair, forehooves held up to his mouth playfully. “Upupupu… now, my dear passengers, you get to see a wonderful surprise I’ve in store for you! And don’t you dare ruin it, Sunset! I won’t tolerate any more of your meddling in my reveals!” I crossed my arms and fixed him with a stony gaze. “Fine.” “Ahahaha, excellent! Wonderful! Brilliant! Sublime! Now then, ahem.” Monoponi landed, cleared his throat, then struck a dramatic pose, wings outstretched, hooves in the air, horn held high. “Captain Monoponi is proud to present to you the best kept secret on this ship! Well, one of them, anyway, upupupupu!” With a flourish of his horn, Monoponi spun on one hoof, holding the other three in the air to face the wall away from us. It was a plain, unadorned wall, just one section between the shopping district and the restaurant district. I’d ignored it every time I’d walked by. Clearly that was a mistake. Monoponi’s horn ignited furiously, surging with power as his crimson magic swept over the wall, wrenching it, shaping it, changing it from its current form into a massive pair of spiked iron gates that then swung open with a loud screeching of hinges that sounded like they hadn’t been oiled in ages. Behind the gates was a short passageway, leading to the sight I’d been expecting: a large cargo elevator, with enough room for all sixteen of us and space to spare. “What the hell?” Timber blurted, eyes agog. “It’s an elevator? To where?” Scootaloo inquired, staring back and forth between the elevator and the opened gates. “Still don’t believe in magic, Twilight?” I commented wryly to the poor researcher, who was slack-jawed, eyes the size of dinner plates, hands twitching, individual hairs popping out of her bun to poke out in every direction. “That’s… that’s not scientifically possible!” she screeched. Furiously she pointed a quivering finger in Monoponi’s direction. “You are not scientifically possible!” “Au contraire, mon chérie,” Monoponi retorted. “You’re just too stupid to recognize magic when you see it. But what else should we expect from a science-obsessed bookworm who’s so lonely and miserable she puts out on the first date?” One of Twilight’s eyes twitched madly as she raised a shaking fist, her whole body shaking with rage. “You… you little piece of… little piece of… piece of shit!” “Whoa, whoa, Twilight, cool it!” I cried, getting between them and placing my hands on her shoulders. “Remember what I said! Don’t let him get to you! He’s just trying to mess with your head!” “Let go of me!” Twilight snarled, struggling in my grip even as I strengthened it to hold her firmly in place. “Let me at him! I’ll tear him apart! I’ll smash him to pieces!” “Hey, Twilight, chill!” Flash joined in, helping me keep Twilight restrained. “I’m mad too, but it’s not worth it. He’s not worth it, Twi.” “But… he… I… oooh.” Twilight fell into Flash’s shoulder and gripped him tightly. I half expected her to burst into tears on the spot, but she didn’t. She just held him, her breathing slowing, her body relaxing. So I let go and backed off. “Now then, as entertaining as all of this is, and believe you me, it sure is,” Monoponi said, “it’s time for you to get aboard the elevator. Ride, my passengers. Ride to the courtroom. The trial awaits!” Monoponi bowed to us, gestured towards the elevator with one wing, then vanished in a flash of light. Wordlessly, we made our way onto the elevator. A single bare fluorescent light dead center in the elevator’s ceiling shone inside, casting long shadows as we filed our way aboard. Once we were all in, the doors slammed shut, leaving us in near darkness save for the one light. Several of us stumbled as the elevator surged into motion, moving its way down into and through the bowels of the ship. As we rode, I let the details of the case flow through my mind. Wallflower Blush. She was an angry, bitter person, or at least that’s how she always acted. We’d never know for sure now. She was stolen from us so fast, none of us hardly got to know her at all. While we were all having a blast at a pool party, she was being murdered, right there, on the same ship as the rest of us. At some point during the night, she was brutally killed, and I still didn’t know how. The clues we found gave me some ideas, somewhere to start, but it would take the trial to determine the truth. One of us killed her. One of us wants the rest of us to die, just so they alone can live. And it would be up to me to solve it. Flash said it as much at the party. They were counting on me. Hell, I was counting on me. I will solve this case. I swore before to do everything I could to stop Monoponi, and I swear it again. I will solve this case, for Wallflower, for my newfound friends, for us all. I will save our lives in this trial of life and death!