//------------------------------// // 16. Chapter Two: "The Secret Ingredient is Never What You Expect" Part 5 // Story: Super Danganronpa 2: On Harmony's Shores // by Dewdrops on the Grass //------------------------------// Chapter Two: “The Secret Ingredient is Never What You Expect” Part V Big Macintosh froze in place, staring down at the body in sheer disbelief and horror. “...Miss Derpy?” he whispered as he fell to his knees. “Oh my god!” Zephyr screamed. “Oh god, not Derpy! Who did this? How did this happen?” Cranky’s eyes narrowed, his mouth turning down before he looked away and shut his eyes. “...damn it.” Shining let out a wordless snarl and slammed a fist into the truck cab.  For my part, all I could do was stare down at the body, a deep sense of loss welling up inside. We used to be best friends, she told me. We’d started rebuilding that friendship, just like I had been rebuilding my friendship with Sunset. And now Derpy was dead, just like Sunset. Was this my fault too? Was this because I didn’t speak to her last night when she was trying to talk to me while I was too busy listening to Vignette? Did I do this to her somehow? Would Derpy be alive if I had just listened to her? DING-DONG DONG-DING! “Attention, this is your caretaker speaking! A body has been discovered! Please report to the truck stop, by the intact red semi-truck.” Autumn Blaze and Sour Sweet were the first two to come running, with Sour Sweet’s wrist tied with an elastic bandage. “Who was it?!” Autumn Blaze screamed. “Who was–oh no…Derpy…” “Shit,” Sour Sweet groaned. “She got hit with a trap too, huh?” “...we don’t know yet,” Cranky said. Everyone else filed in shortly thereafter, each echoing horror, with Fluttershy especially whimpering, “it happened again, it happened again… why…” Rarity appeared dead last, her jaw stretched in a mighty yawn as she trudged in at a snail’s pace. She wore no makeup and heavy bags hung under her eyes. None of that stopped her from screaming and slapping her hands to her face when she saw Derpy’s body. “Good heavens!” Right after that, Monohuman appeared in a swirl of sparkles, making a show of assembling himself. He carried his baton under his arm as he held his hands up to applaud. The clapping silenced everyone and drew hateful glares from several of us, especially Shining, who looked ready to throttle the hologram. “Well, it seems congratulations are in order,” he said. “One of you simpletons managed to kill, again! And thank goodness you took out Derpy; that woman was far too cheerful and peppy for my taste. Kept the mood around here too light, if you ask me.” “No one asked you, jackass,” Shining snapped.  Monohuman held a hand up to his mouth. “Puhuhu. Well, time to see if the victim here is human or if you’ve managed to eliminate an Equestrian.” Silence reigned as Monohuman performed his test, though a few people quivered in terror, with Zephyr especially whimpering just below his breath. For my own part, I remained numb on the outside, with that well of sadness inside threatening to spill forth and inundate me, or worse. Drown me. Eventually, after what felt like hours, days… maybe even months… Monohuman stood back up and clicked his tongue, shaking his head with a clear expression of distaste. “What a shame. What a waste of a good life! Yet again, someone has murdered a human instead of offing a pony. Second chance, second failure on your part, people. That’s another life lost that you could’ve saved if you just eliminated the ponies already.” “Oh shut the fuck up!” Sour Sweet roared. “Ooooh, look at me, I’m Monohuman, I’m sooo nice and sweet and want to save lives so I put everyone into a murder game! Fuck you, you hypocritical prick!” Monohuman harrumphed, clicking his tongue once more. “Such rudeness. But really, I should expect no less from you by now. Say what you will. But you know what you must do.” Everyone stilled at that. Investigation. We would have to investigate again. Determine who the culprit was again. Send someone to their death. Again. “Oh no,” Fluttershy whispered as she broke into fresh tears, almost immediately held over the shoulder by, oddly enough, Sour Sweet, whose look of fury at Monohuman only intensified. At first, no one seemed prepared to stand up. Everyone looked at everyone else expectantly while Monohuman waited, less patient by the minute, for someone to volunteer to take over. Everyone, that is, except for Vignette, who stared at me, her arms crossed, her eyebrows raised, as if wondering why the delay.  Perhaps I’d been hoping someone else would find the courage. After all, last time I had Sunset Shimmer. She knew what she was doing, she knew where to look, what to find, even if it ultimately led to her own… death. She did the right thing the whole time. Who did I have without her? I hadn’t let myself admit it, but deep down I assumed it would be Derpy who would help me investigate any other murders. It’d be a sign I trusted her. A sign we were friends. But now I had no one. …or do I, I thought as my eyes once again fell upon Vignette, who adjusted her look just a little, as if in answer to my unspoken question. So I stepped forward. “Alright, Monohuman,” I said, my voice stronger, projected louder than even I expected, causing me to recoil slightly from myself along with the whole crowd, who stared at me in shock. Evidently my leading the last trial at the end wasn’t enough for them to expect this… and I couldn’t blame them. “Do you have the Monohuman file?” His hand shot to cover his mouth. “Puhuhuhu… I never expected to hear that from you! How intriguing, how wonderful, how delightful! Yes, yes my dear, I have the Monohuman file all ready to go for you.” He tapped his fingers in the air, and my tablet, and soon everyone else’s as well, let out the beep of a message received. “There you are. Good luck now. I’ll see you all, you know where, you know when.” He snapped his fingers and dissolved into sparkles, leaving only the rising sun and the lamps to lend their light to the grisly scene. The instant he disappeared everyone broke into a flurry of whispers, most of them directed at me. Anxiety rippled through my body, cold fingers working my nerves like I was a harpsichord and they were playing the strings. “Are you sure you want to run this, Wallflower?” Shining Armor asked me. “You don’t have to. I’m still a police officer. I can take over–” “No offense, Shining,” Vignette said, her words all but coated in clear, intentional offense as she traipsed over, deliberately giving him a once over with lips curled in a sneer, “but if you wanted to step up, why didn’t you do it before she had to volunteer, hmm?” “Because I–” “Because what?” Vignette pressed, getting up in his face, despite their difference in height. The fact he towered over her, police cap on his head, scowl deepening by the second as his fingers twitched seemed not to affect her in the slightest. She poked him in the chest. “Because you know you’d be terrible at it without your fancy tools and your forensics teams, hmm? You’re obviously not a detective. I’d trust you to break up a fight or to negotiate for hostages. But actually solve a crime? Hah!” Shining’s teeth bared, his lips parting in such a way that, for just an instant, I had a picture in my head of him leaping upon Vignette and tearing her throat out. Then he turned away. “Fine. But I’ll still help guard the body. Cranky, care to assist?” “Not really,” Cranky said with a world weary sigh as he gave Derpy another look of clear sadness. “But I’ll do it for her sake. Poor girl didn’t deserve this.” “None of us deserve this, Cranky,” Autumn Blaze declared, her demeanor flashing fiercely, her eyes practically igniting with fury. She gave me a solid look. “You need me, you ask, you got it, Wally? I’ll be here, whatever you need, whatever she needs.” “Right,” I said, turning back to the body. “Then it’s time to get to work.” *INVESTIGATION START!* My first act was… “No, wait!” Sour Sweet’s furious voice cut through my focus. “No one start investigating! Not until I get some answers!” Everyone looked at her, confused. “Answers about what?” I asked. “About the traps, Sweaterface! All of a sudden there’s traps everywhere! What the hell?!” “Eee-yup,” Big Mac concurred. “Like to know that myself.” “Oh.” Grimacing, Shining Armor stepped forward. “That’s…” He glanced over at Autumn Blaze, who had an expression of awkward terror on her face, then at Zephyr, who just looked confused. Finally, he sighed. “There was a room in the truck stop full of trap-making materials.” “What?!” Cheese Sandwich screeched. “Holy guacamole, you knew about this and didn’t tell anyone?!” Shining somehow stood tall, even as he slightly cringed. “We couldn’t lock it up and we couldn’t get rid of it. I decided it was safer to avoid saying out loud what it was for. I didn’t think it was likely anyone who hadn’t received police training would recognize it.” I suddenly realized what he meant: that storage room full of “mechanical stuff” we’d seen when we cataloged everything.  “You thought no one would figure out there would be trap stuff in the Tourist Trappe?!!” Sour Sweet fumed. “That’s exactly the kind of stupid joke Monohuma–Ack!” She cradled her hurt arm, which she’d foolishly just tried to point with. “Shit shit shit! Pain sucks! I hate pain! Shining Armor, this pain is your fault!” “Come on,” Cranky chided. “What’s done is done. Shining made his choice, and I for one think he made the right one. If he’d told us, someone woulda set traps even sooner.”  I instinctively braced myself for Sour Sweet’s furious argument, but it never came. Fluttershy had swooped in. “Oh, please don’t get so upset,” she cooed. “I’m worried you’ll hurt yourself more. Let’s just go so I can finish looking at your arm?” For a brief moment, Sour Sweet’s face lit up in sarcastic cheer, but then she sighed and scowled. “Fine.” “Oh, thank you.” Fluttershy glanced over her shoulder. “Um. Big Mac? Could you come, too, maybe? I want to make sure you’re not hurt.” The huge man simply nodded, and the three of them walked off. I felt a familiar respect-jealousy seeing Fluttershy managing to be assertive, but Cranky cut that off quickly. “Hey!” he grunted, looking at me. “You’re wasting time, gawking on this when you should be working.” I blinked in surprise, but he was right. I stepped up to gather clues and I needed to get going. *INVESTIGATION START!* My first act was to open up my tablet and bring up the Monohuman file, to see what information he had imparted upon us with it. Fact #1: Monohuman File II: “The victim is Ditzy Muffins Do, also known as Derpy, the Ultimate Klutz. Her body was discovered in the parking lot of the Tourist Trappe Truck Stop at 7:24 AM.” “Tch,” Vignette sniffed as she read over my shoulder. “That doesn’t tell us much at all.” “No, it doesn’t,” I said. Now that the investigation had begun, the anxiety had fled, my mind cool and composed, working out the problem. As if, with something to focus on, I could dismiss my other concerns. That had never worked for me before, but it was working now, so who was I to question it? “If it’s not telling us much then that means any information it could share is critical,” I continued as I put my tablet away. “We need to check the body next.” Vignette made a face. “Ugh, but she bled all over the place.” “That’s why we use gloves,” I said as I pulled out a pair and handed it to Vignette, then got a pair for myself. “Keep the blood off us.” She eyed me. “You seem far less squeamish than I remember you being when it came to Pear Butter.” A sly smile spread on her face. “Good. Means you’re learning.” “Not like I’ve got any other choice,” I sighed as I knelt down to examine Derpy’s body. Seeing the shocked, scared look in her bloodshot, bugged out eyes tore at my heart more than anything else. She didn’t just die, she died afraid. I wanted to close her eyes, but something told me that detail was important, the shape of them. Bugging out… that wasn’t a typical response to being stabbed in the chest. A bit of shock, maybe, but they wouldn’t freeze like that. Especially not bloodshot. I glanced down the length of her face, searching for other details, when an odd scent hit my nose. A scent I was more familiar with than I wanted to be thanks to my anxiety. I pushed her lips open. There was nothing unusual in there I could see, but the pungency increased. “Hey, Vignette… what does this smell like?” Vignette’s face turned a nasty shade of green. “It smells like… vomit! Eugh! Close her mouth, close her mouth! I can’t stand that smell.” I resisted the urge to quip about how much she sounded like Rarity as I followed her instructions. “Weird,” I mused. “I could see someone vomiting from a whole lot of pain, but…” “Stoooppppp,” she wailed. “Don’t talk about it, don’t even think about it! Ewwwww.” She pressed her hands against her face, shuddering in horror. I decided to give her a minute to calm down, so I examined the wound itself. I confirmed what I had suspected upon first glance: it was caused by a long, if light, jagged piece of metal, presumably ripped from the wreckage of one of the nearby trucks. While not quite aimed at her heart, it was close enough it likely punctured a lung. The wound itself was fairly clean, but the more I looked at it, the more I felt like something was wrong. The skin around it was swollen and red, as if something had given her a bad bruise. It was strange. Fact #2: Condition of the Body: “Derpy’s chest was impaled by a long, jagged piece of metal which had been broken off one of the trucks.  The weapon is large and sharp, but not particularly heavy. The area around the wound was swollen and splotchy.  Her eyes are large and protruding, and her mouth smells like vomit.” “Are we done here?” Vignette groaned as she only briefly touched the body with her gaze before backing off again. “Not even close,” I said as I continued to examine the body. I checked her clothes next, wishing I had some kind of forensics flashlight, the type that with a single click could show all sorts of hidden clues. Granted that was more fake television drama than it was real science, but I ate that kind of show up. It served the morbid side of me well.  “Huh,” I muttered as I looked her over. “That’s odd. Where’s all the blood?” “Blood?” Vignette repeated, her mouth creased into a grossed out frown. “Down there. On her. The pink stuff. The lots of blood right there.” “This isn’t a lot of blood.” I pointed to the piece of metal sticking out of her chest. “People bleed a lot when they get stabbed. Especially if it was shot into you by a trap, like it looks like it was here. But she’s barely got any blood on her at all.” Vignette raised her eyebrow, one corner of her mouth curling up. “Sure looks like a lot of blood to me. I couldn’t handle much more.” “Blood doesn’t bug me like it does some people,” I admitted.  “...Huh. Where did you learn about this stuff, anyway?” Vignette asked. “I don’t know.”  “Ah. Fair enough, fair enough.” Fact #3: Blood: “There was less blood splattered on the body than expected for the type of injury.” Looking back at the body, I continued to check up and down it for anything else, briefly sticking my hands into pockets and the like, finding nothing save for her room key, which I slipped into my own pocket for later checking. I was about to stop looking altogether when I noticed her left hand curled inward a bit more than her right, and examining it showed a scrap of a clean, white note, clutched there. Fact #4: Derpy’s Note: “There was a note clutched in Derpy’s left hand. It reads ‘Meet me at the red truck at 7:20. I know why he left.’” “I know why he left?” Vignette read off the note, her nose wrinkling. “What could this note be talking about?” I had a sick feeling I knew, and I hoped I wasn’t right. “More importantly,” I said, “look at the time on the note. 7:20. That’s barely 4 minutes before we found the body. Meaning she was barely dead at all when we found her.” “Really?” Vignette laid her hand against Derpy’s face. “I suppose she is still quite warm, but…” I carefully documented the note in my Monopad with the rest of the evidence. “Okay, let’s check the cab,” I said as we stood up, keeping my gloves on for now.  Gingerly, I stepped around the body and up to the cab itself, where the driver side door lay ajar. I grasped the door handle and carefully pulled it open, half expecting a bomb to go off, or something. But nothing happened; I just brushed the rusty residue off my hand and leaned into the cab and took a look.  The first thing I noticed was a spring attached to a simple piece of pipe, large enough for the piece that penetrated Derpy to fit inside of. The second was just how filthy the interior was. Every surface was covered with grime and junk, every piece of metal rusted into uselessness. I’d noticed it before when we were first exploring, but the sheer immensity of it astounded me.  “Well?” Vignette asked, her eyes squeezed shut. “Is it atrocious in there? Like a hashtag hurricane tore through?” “It’s pretty gross, yeah,” I said. The floor and seat of the passenger side were especially bad, with some ancient clothes-food-mold blob filling most of the space. Other than the filth, there was just one other detail I noticed. Or rather, lack of detail. “But there’s hardly any blood. Just like the body. Huh.” Updated: Fact #3: Blood: “There was less blood splattered on the body than expected for the type of injury. The same proved true for the inside of the truck, especially on the body of the trap.” I pulled myself up onto the step outside the truck door and peered closer at the mechanism, tracing the spring. “Yup, this was hooked to the door alright,” I murmured as I experimentally pressed on it, I saw it hooked to the catch on the inside of the pipe, where it pressed backward with the spring. “So as soon as she opened the door: bam.” Fact #5: Truck Trap: “A spring-based trap lay inside the driver-side of the truck cab, set to go off as soon as someone opened the door. It fired a piece of rebar that impaled the victim.” I cast my eyes around the cab, frowning. “Hey, looks like the passenger side window back here is half-shattered.”  “Be careful of glass, Wallywall!” Vignette warned. “I’ve punched enough mirrors and phone screens to know that stuff’s dangerous.” I surprised myself by not getting sidetracked by her nonsense. “There isn’t much glass. Looks like it was broken from the inside.” I tried to visualize the scene; again, it was oddly easy. “I think, when the trap shot the rebar, the launcher recoiled back and hit the window. Fact #6: Truck Passenger Side Door: “The top half of the passenger side window was shattered from an impact from the inside. The door was also locked from the inside.” I took a few pictures with my pad to ensure that we recorded this fact; something told me it’d be crucial for the trial. “Okay, well, I think we’re about done in here,” I said as I shimmied my way out of the truck, brushing the rust off my jeans. Or trying to at least; there was so much of it. Vignette shivered in disgust and pulled out something from her pocket before running it all over herself, apparently feeling dirty just from standing near me. “Always carry a lint roller,” she said before handing it to me, allowing me to use it on myself. “You never know when you’ll need it. Lifehack!” I rolled my eyes as I handed it back to her. “Sure. Let’s move on..” I turned to Shining Armor, who’d been watching us this whole time with a nasty look in his eyes, aimed squarely at Vignette. “Shining Armor, mind if I ask you and Cranky a couple of questions real quick?” Shining’s dagger-filled scowl continued to bear down on Vignette for a few moments before he finally deigned to face me. “Go ahead. I’m not sure what we can tell you that you don’t already know.” I nodded. “I just want to establish an official list of alibis for everyone. Plus, with this crime involving traps, well…” A half frown rippled across his face. “Right. No way of knowing when it was set up. Any of us could be suspect.” He dropped his arms and stuffed them into his pockets. “Alright. Well, this morning, as you’re aware, you, me, Cranky, Autumn, and Zephyr were all running together for exercise. Rarity usually joins us but she no-showed this time.” Fact #7: Morning Alibis: “Runners: Cranky Doodle, Shining Armor, Autumn Blaze, Wallflower Blush, Zephyr Breeze.”  “Were you running for long before Wallywall met up with you?” Vignette pressed. “No,” he said, the words ground out just a little harder than before. “We had only just met and were about to get started when Wallflower showed up.” “And last night?” I added with a slight frown. “After dinner. Anything suspicious then?” He shook his head. “No.” “I didn’t see anything either,” Cranky said with a disgusted sigh. “Feels like I should have though. Damn it. Pear was bad enough, but Derpy… she was practically still a kid.” He showed no tears, but from the way he gripped his fists and tensed his face, I knew he’d shed them if they were there. “Alright, thank you,” I said gently, looking around at the scene one more time. The tarp… I’d noticed it stashed there when it wasn’t there before. “Does anyone know when that tarp was put there?” Of the people present, Vignette, Shining, and Cranky all shook their heads. The others had dispersed to check other scenes, so I’d have to ask them there. Still, it felt important. Fact #8: Tarp: “A waterproof tarp was present at the scene of the truck trap. It was next to the passenger side door, which was the side facing the truck stop.” “Alright, let’s check the next closest scene… that should be the museum, where Big Mac ran into another trap.” Vignette sidled up to me as we walked past the rusted hulks of trucks on the cracked, broken asphalt, her expression coy. “So, got any ideas who the killer is yet?” The question soured my stomach. “No,” I grunted. “Too bad. I was just thinking… ooh, but why spoil it?” I stopped and looked her dead in the eye. “No. You’re not pulling this bullshit again. If you know something, say it.” “Temper, temper, Wallywall,” she replied, her tone dropping an octave for just an instant, as if she was tossing in a dash of sultry to her potpourri of smugness. “Don’t you remember what I told you last night?” Her reaction threw me off, and a flash of the old Wallflower Blush returned to me, the need to retreat, to get away, to avoid confrontation. “...Nevermind,” I whispered, turning away from her to head towards the museum at a doubled pace. She rushed to catch up with me. “Wait up, Wally--Wallflower.” She huffed and brushed her hair aside. “Fine, fine, I’ll dispense the theatrics. No, I don’t know anything.” “Then why act you like you?” I snarled, louder than I intended. To my displeasure she didn’t recoil an inch. “Because it’s all about projection. Think about it this way. If we project ourselves as if we already know what we’re asking, we can intimidate people into letting go of tidbits of information they might not otherwise. It’s all about confidence.” I snorted. “Where’d you read that? Some detective pulp magazine you found laying around the convenience store?” “No, it’s something I’ve figured out by being a people person,” Vignette said. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder for just a second, just long enough for me to freeze up in surprise before she let go. “Now buck up, Wally. And don’t forget. B.B.Y.B.B.” Right. Her advice. I took a deep breath to calm myself, and nodded. “I’ll… I’ll try.” Soon enough we entered the museum, and made our way to the workshop area. Zephyr Breeze was there, looking around the place, and holding himself very carefully, as if afraid of running into any other traps. It was a good idea. “Okay, hang back, Vignette,” I said as I gingerly stepped into the room. “We’d better take this slow.” I scanned the room, searching for the elements of the trap. The first one I spotted immediately: a tripwire running to the lightswitch, set up to turn the light off and blind whomever came inside. A simple mechanism, one that looked slapped together in a hurry. I left it alone for the moment. As I stepped forward, a shock rolled through my body, my heart skipping a beat as Vignette shouted, “Look out!” I ducked, covering my head, only to hear her snickering after a moment. “No, no, Wally… you were about to trip.” “Huh?” I asked, my nerves trembling with a nasty tingling sensation. She pointed, and I looked ahead to see what she meant: a second tripwire laid along the floor at ankle height, perfectly positioned to send the person tripped onto a section of floor rendered slippery by a huge puddle of soapy water spilled everywhere. Fact #9: Museum Tripwires: “Two tripwires formed the key components to the museum trap. One tied to a simple mechanism to turn off the light switch, the other at ankle height to trip someone onto a slippery section of floor.”  I stood up straight, my whole face burning like fire. “R-right, yeah. Don’t slip on the floor. Got it.” “Why is there soap all over the floor, though?” Vignette wondered. Zephyr coughed and pointed to a nearby shelf. “Probably because of that.” I stepped over the tripwire and through the slippery soap to examine the “that” in question, which turned out to be one of the shelves, the closest to the slippery part of the floor. A gleaming sharp knife was taped by its handle to the shelf, positioned perfectly to slice up the hand of anyone reaching for it. And it stank. “Ew,” I muttered, waving my hand in front of my nose as I examined what appeared to be some kind of odd liquid shining on the blade. “What is that?” I received the second shock to my senses in less than five minutes when Monohuman’s hologram coalesced out of nowhere, already sticking his baton out between us and the knife. “Oooh, I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” he warned, a sick little smile on his face. “That knife is poisoned.” “Poisoned?!” Zephyr screeched, throwing his hands on his head. Wailing in fright, he fled the room immediately. “What do you mean, poisoned?” I managed to mutter after taking a moment to catch my breath. I looked at the knife again, thinking. As I considered it, I realized the stink was familiar; it smelled just like the rattlesnake venom we’d all dumped out on the sidewalk the other day. Looked like it too. Fact #10: Poisoned Knife: “A knife was taped, blade exposed, on a shelf next to a puddle of soapy water in the museum workshop. The blade was poisoned according to Monohuman, and the sheen on it both looked like and smelled just like the rattlesnake venom.” “Just that,” Monohuman said as he pulled his baton back, twirling it in his hands. “So don’t touch it, unless you want to be a corpse. Which in your case would probably be an improvement.” Snickering to himself, his hologram vanished into sparkles. “Jerk,” I grunted as I looked away from the knife to examine the rest of the room. I noticed that many of the shelves of parts appeared to have been raided, but that was no surprise; these traps had to be manufactured somehow, and the museum workshop was the only real source of parts apart from the convenience store. I next checked the janitor’s closet, and found a mobile mop bucket, the sort that janitors use to wash up large areas. The design was odd next to the ones I was used to seeing in restaurants or stores, older, but it still functioned just fine after I tested it. Curiously, it was wet, still dripping with soap, rather than dry. “That’s odd,” I murmured. Fact #11: Mop Bucket: “An empty mobile mop bucket was tucked away inside the janitor’s closet, still dripping with soap.” “Ugh, are you still in here?” Vignette groaned, abruptly grabbing my arm and dragging me out. “Come on! Let’s get out of here; I don’t want to be anywhere near that knife!” “H-hey, Vignette, let go of me!” I shouted, struggling to free my arm. I shook her off after a moment, after she got us most of the way out of the museum. But perhaps it was just as well she grabbed me, because I spotted something crumpled on the floor just as we were leaving, somewhere I never would’ve noticed it otherwise. “Hang on,” I said, holding up a hand. “Oh, what now?” she moaned. I squatted down to peer at the object. It was a sheet of paper, one that looked just like the motive paper I received the other day! I snatched it up and uncrumpled it. Unfortunately it wasn’t intact; parts of it had either been smudged or erased somehow, because only a small portion was intact. And it was… weird. Fact #12: Motive Paper: “One of Monohuman’s motives, found in the museum. The beginning and end are illegible, but what is reads ‘...Belle had just long enough to scream one last time, desperately trying to stuff her intestines back into her abdominal cavity as she plumm…’” “Belle?” My heart stopped momentarily as I contemplated that. The only Belle I knew was… Rarity Belle. But what could this mean? Was she like me? Had she somehow died in the previous game, like I supposedly had? Was this some record of her death? “Here, look at this.” I showed the paper to Vignette. She read it, did a double take, then read it several times more. “What in the heck?” she murmured. “But… Rarity’s alive.” “I know, right?” I shook my head as I took it and folded it neatly, placing it in my pocket. “I don’t know what it could mean, but…” I let out a small sigh. “We’ll find out at the trial. Maybe. Come on.” As we exited the museum, I saw Fluttershy, Big Mac, and Sour Sweet huddled around a bench around the corner. The group had been joined by Autumn Blaze, who looked up and grinned as we approached. “I’m a nurse!” she boasted. “Um, Autumn Blaze has been helping me take care of Sour Sweet and Big Macintosh,” Fluttershy gently clarified.  “Mostly me!” Sour Sweet squawked. “I’m the one with the broken wrist!” “It’s… not broken, it’s…” “Ow,” Sour Sweet interrupted cradling her freshly bandaged wrist. “Ow ow ow.”  “Wow, Fluttershy being a secret superhero over here,” Vignette remarked. “Nice work! You did that this quickly?” “Oh!” Immediately turning scarlet, Fluttershy cowered and smiled. “It’s not. I just know some first aid and, well, Big Mac’s been helping the whole time, and then Autumn Blaze too!”   “No one’s talking enough about my attempted murder!” Sour Sweet snapped. “What kind of jerk does that, huh? Who would ever want to kill me?” “I dunno, anyone who’s ever had the displeasure of hearing you speak for more than five seconds?” Vignette suggested, smirking in a nasty fashion. Sour Sweet’s eyes flashed, but it was Fluttershy who spoke up, immediately snapping out of her bashfulness and casting a serious glare at Vignette. “Come now, Vignette, that wasn’t very nice.” “No, I suppose it wasn’t,” Vignette conceded, her nose up in the air and her face looking away. “Sorry about that, Sour Sweet. I’m just trying to help you Rise Above.” “Aww, that’s okay, I forgive you,” Sour Sweet chirped, before rolling her eyes and growling, “Even though you’re just the worst. Don’t even look at me.” I snapped my fingers and brought out my pad. “Sour Sweet, we know where you were during the murder. Do you recall when exactly you arrived?” “Uh, I dunno, 7:10 maybe?” she muttered, glaring at me. “What about it?” “Just trying to establish alibis,” I said as I noted that down. “Did you happen to see the tarp near the truck?” She rolled her eyes. “The tarp? No, I didn’t see the tarp. I only glanced that way a bit.” “Ah saw it,” Big Macintosh added, his words a little hoarse. “Right about 7:15.” I wrote that down too. “Okay, okay, and we know you were in the museum. Fluttershy, what about you?” “Oh, I was in my room till the body discovery announcement.,” she said. “I was about to take a shower.” *Updated* Fact #7: Morning Alibis: “Runners: Cranky Doodle, Shining Armor, Autumn Blaze, Wallflower Blush, Zephyr Breeze. Trap Victims: Big Macintosh, Sour Sweet, Derpy Rooms: Fluttershy, Rarity.”  *Updated* Fact #8: Tarp: “A waterproof tarp was present at the scene of the truck trap. According to Sour Sweet, it was not there as of 7:10, but was there as of 7:15 according to Big Macintosh.” Sour Sweet grunted, her eyes momentarily squeezing shut in pain as she cradled her hurt wrist. “Anyway, I still can’t believe someone set up a trap for me.” “Well, if someone wanted to kill someone and be sure about it, you’d be a good target,” Vignette said, pursing her lips. She snorted when Fluttershy and Sour shot her another glare. “What? All I’m saying is, Sour Sweet kept her schedule obvious. Everyone knows she goes to the convenience store to get one of her gross sodas every morning. And whoever wanted to kill her obviously needed to keep their hands clean to avoid suspicion.” “Oooh, I suppose you’re right,” Fluttershy said, bowing her head. She twiddled with her fingers. “It’s awful.” “Yes, terrible, terrible,” Vignette agreed dismissively. “Sour Sweet, why don’t you tell us exactly what happened, hm? You went to get your soda, then…?” “Ugh, if it’s so important for me to relive my trauma for the murder investigation, fine. I was just standing there, innocent and pure-hearted. I opened up the cooler, and I heard a thump, then a snapping noise. But before I could do anything, this big heavy brick fell out of nowhere and smashed into my hand!” I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “It hit your arm, but you didn’t dodge it at all?” “Did I fucking stutter?” Sour Sweet replied, gently cradling her wrist. “Damn this hurts. Ow. Ow ow ow.” “Big Mac?” I prompted, setting a hand on his trembling arm. The poor man quaked at my touch, drawing away. “...Sorry.” “Nope,” he replied, gathering himself and meeting my eyes. “Mah fault. What is it?” “Um, could you do the same thing Sour Sweet did? Tell us exactly what happened to you in the museum?” “Yup.” He paused for a moment, getting a new round of shivers under control. I couldn’t help feeling sorrow taking it in; he’d lost the two closest people to him already, and it was wrecking him. “Ah came in and saw a piece of paper on a table. But when Ah started moving toward it, Ah tripped. Everything went dark, and Ah stumbled forward, where Ah tripped again. There was some sorta thunk, but the floor had soap all over it and Ah fell forward.” He indicated the bruise above his eyebrow. “Face first.” Vignette nodded. “Maybe want to put some ice on that or something.” “Ah’m fine,” he grunted. “Anyways, Ah got to my feet, even though it was still real slippery, and Ah groped my way to the door.” “Groped?” I asked. “Still dark. Ah could smell that rattlesnake smell, so’s Ah mostly was tryin’ to move away from that.” “Hm,” Vignette mused. “I can’t tell if you’re lucky or unlucky. What were you doing there so early, anyway?” “ Ah was given some kinda note, said to meet someone there.” As he spoke, his whole body trembled, his palms sweating up a storm, prompting him to repeatedly wipe them on his pants. “A note?” Vignette asked. “What note? Where did you leave it?” “It’s, it’s in mah room… Ah didn’t bother bringin’ it. Ah was probably gonna head there anyway to get somethin’ for a little memorial Ah’ve been puttin’ together for mah momma, and I… I…” “Hey, hey,” I cooed, trying to comfort him by rubbing my hand on his arm. He froze for a moment, then allowed me to hold it. “It’s okay. You’re safe.” “By the skin of his teeth,” Vignette remarked. “We saw the whole trap, the knife and everything.” “Knife.” He glared down at the floor for a moment in silence. “Ah ain’t been in there, but Ah thought it was something like that.” “Big poisoned knife,” Vignette clarified with far too much cheerfulness. He nodded. He wasn’t calming down, exactly, but he was getting quieter, and I figured that was a good sign. “And,” he said brusquely, “y’all saw it. How close did I probably come to touchin’ it?” “Probably very, very close,” Vignette answered.   He nodded again.  “Yup,” he said. “Really almost died.” His eyes were dark. “Um… Wallflower?” Fluttershy offered. “Vignette? I think if everyone’s gotten what they need, we should stop dwelling on this? It’s probably so upsetting to talk about…” “Nope,” Big Mac interrupted. He looked straight at me, stony. “Ah am upset. But not more’n I’m determined to survive. Ah can talk about it.” “Good to know, but I think that’s everything!” Vignette chirped, , dragging me away again. “Let’s go check out the convenience store while we still have time during this investigation, mmkay?” “Wha, I…” I glanced back at Big Macintosh, who I saw breathing a sigh of relief, before I faced Vignette again. I ripped my arm out of her grasp and walked with her. “You could try asking, you know.” “I could,” she admitted. “But I won’t. The poor guy was putting on a brave face, but he was miserable.” Snorting, I followed her past the now dried up pool of venom and into the convenience store. I found Autumn poking around inside, along with Juniper, Cheese, and, oddly enough, Trixie, who seemed especially put out by having to be here. “Ugh, could these bloodthirsty brutes please try to contain themselves for more than a few days? Trixie is trying to survive this awful mess,” she snarled when she saw me. “Oooh, I’m sorry, Trixie, did those mean murderers interrupt your precious schedule?” Vignette  simpered, her face split in a wide grin.  “Vignette,” I groaned, trying not to facepalm. “Please stop that.” Trixie, for her part, simply raised an eyebrow at Vignette before harrumphing and sticking her nose in the air. “Trixie does not need to justify herself to you.” Vignette chuckled under her breath. “Good. Nor should you.” Rolling my eyes, I decided to go ahead and collect some more alibis. “Trixie,” I said, bringing out my pad once more. “Where were you this morning?” Trixie eyed me suspiciously for a moment, her eyes dropping to my pad, then back up to meet mine, as if sussing out my intentions. Evidently satisfied, she turned to me and answered, “Trixie was just finishing with her morning shower. She was going to work on a project for a short while before she attended breakfast with everyone.” “A project, oh?” Vignette sauntered over to get up in Trixie’s space, fluttering her eyelashes. “What kind of… project?” Trixie reeled back and for a moment I feared she’d punch Vignette before she opted to push her gently back instead. “Do not crowd Trixie! Trixie is working on something for herself, to pass the time; Trixie has hobbies.”  “So, nothing important to the murder then,” I concluded, interrupting Vignette from going on another teasing rant. Trixie bit her lip and shook her head. “No. Not… not to this murder.” “Got it.” I wrote that down. “Thanks, Trixie.” She fussed with her hat and turned away, but I caught the briefest glimpse of her cheeks blooming with red. “Don’t mention it.” I stepped through the shelves over to Juniper, who was examining the case of Sluggo Cola. “Hey, Juniper,” I said. “Mind if I ask about your whereabouts this morning?” She looked up at me, her face a mask of shed tears and poor attempts to cover it up. “Huh? Uh… yeah, yeah. I uh… yeah.” She coughed into her hand. “So I was uh, I was in my room, right about to hop into the shower, when suddenly the alarm went off. I came running to see. And before you ask, I didn't see anything last night either; I went right back to my room after dinner to work on my movie scripts.” “Alright, alright, I believe you,” I said, raising my hands up in surrender. “It’s okay, Juniper. I get it. Derpy…” “She was a good person, Wallflower,” Juniper blubbered. “She didn’t deserve to die like that. No one deserves to die like that.” I froze up, not knowing what to do, and remained even more still when Juniper abruptly burst into full tears and latched onto me. After a moment I found myself stiffly patting her on the shoulder and back. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s okay,” I said. I don’t know why comforting her felt so much harder to do than comforting Big Macintosh had been. Fortunately for me, Juniper only held me for a while longer before she released me, albeit not before drenching my shoulder with her tears and a bit of grody snot. “S-sorry about that,” she murmured as she reached into her pockets for a tissue and blew her nose. “I… it’s not like I knew Derpy well, but she was so sweet, and kind, and innocent, and just… oooh…” “We get it,” Vignette said, not unkindly. She placed her hands on Juniper’s shoulders. “But listen to me, Juniper. I’ll give you the same advice I gave Wallflower. Buck up. B.B.Y.B.B. Better be yourself but better. Got it?” “...not really?” Juniper said, staring at Vignette blankly. While she launched into an explanation, I dodged around the two of them to ask the last person wandering around the store. Unlike the others, Cheese was picking out a snack, grabbing for some chips and a drink and scarfing down on them. “Oh, sorry,” he murmured through a mouthful of food. “I just figured we’re gonna be down there for hours. Gotta keep the blood sugar from crashing!” “Are you diabetic?” I said, raising an eyebrow. “No, but I don’t wanna be stuck down there for hours feeling hungry, and I doubt that Monohuman would let us eat anything while we’re in the trial.” It was a good point, a remarkably good point, and soon enough I followed his example. Despite my stomach twisting into knots, the brief bite of food helped. It would stave off any hunger till after the trial, at least.  “Thanks for the advice,” I said as I finished off the last bit. “So what were you up to before the body was discovered?” He shrugged. “Just getting up. I didn’t get a chance to shower before the announcement.” *Updated* Fact #7: Morning Alibis: “Runners: Cranky Doodle, Shining Armor, Autumn Blaze, Wallflower Blush, Zephyr Breeze. Trap Victims: Big Macintosh, Sour Sweet, Derpy Rooms: Fluttershy, Rarity, Trixie, Cheese, Juniper.”  “Alright, thank you, Cheese.”  He waved me off. “Yeah, you got it.” I looked over my Monopad. Though I marked her as having been in her room, I still hadn’t had a chance to speak with Rarity directly. I needed to do that before the trial began. And while I was at it, there was something else I needed to know. Derpy knew something, something she told to Sour Sweet yesterday, something I never pried out of her.  Soon as I was finished here I planned to track her down so I could get some answers. In the meantime I returned to the cooler, where Vignette was waiting for me, Juniper nowhere to be seen. “About time you got back,” she said, giving me a curious look. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped off a few crumbs from my mouth. “There. Much better.” “Thanks, I think,” I murmured as I examined the trap itself. It was a much more complex mechanism than the one I found in the museum, much like how Derpy’s trap had been complex. A nasty looking cinderblock had been tied onto a length of metal pipe, which was rigged into a hinge, an elbow joint, and spinner, triggered by a spring-based tension mechanism. And yet there was something wrong here as I examined it more closely. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but something stood out to me. “Vignette, stand back,” I said as I reached down to reset the device. “I’m going to deliberately trigger it.” “You’re going to what?!” Vignette cried. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” “No,” I answered, the trap snapping into place as I finished. “But if I’m right…” I took a few deep breaths, then, using a nearby broom, I opened up the cooler door. The mechanism triggered, and the cinderblock spun around and walloped the cooler door right in the same place as before, leaving a small dent. A place nowhere near Sour Sweet’s head or chest. In fact, it landed right exactly where I’d seen Sour’s hand hold the cooler door open. “Okay, that’s weird,” I said, pointing to the trap. “Look at this. It’s clearly non-lethal.” “Looks pretty lethal to me!” Vignette objected as she stared mutely at the cinderblock. I shook my head. “No, look where it landed. Go over and mime as if you were reaching into the cooler.” “:...alright.” She did as I requested, then did a double take, staring at the impact location. “Wait a minute… you’re right. That never would’ve hit my head.” “Or Sour Sweet’s,” I agreed. “It looks like it was deliberately designed to smash her wrist, not kill her.” “But why would this trap be less lethal than the other two?” Vignette wondered, setting a hand on her chin. “That doesn’t make any sense. She’s the only one that we knew for sure would be here.” “I don’t get it either,” I said as I examined the cinder block and mechanism again. “But whoever did this had to have done it on purpose. But why?” Fact #13: Convenience Store Trap: “The trap at the convenience store was a complex mechanism designed to swing a cinder block on a pivot at Sour Sweet’s wrist when she opened the cooler; it was explicitly designed as a non-lethal trap.” “Okay, well, that’s all the traps,” I said as I jotted down my notes. “We still need to get Rarity’s alibi, and I need to speak to Sour Sweet about something.” As soon as we left the convenience store, we headed back to District One, where the dorms and mess hall were located. Something in me told me that was the way we needed to go, and sure enough as we came up over the hill, we spotted Sour Sweet, leaning against the fence pole, sighing to herself. “Hey, Sour Sweet, you okay?” I asked her as we approached. She waved me off with her good hand. “Yeah. Just wanted a few minutes to myself. Fuck, this hurts,” she groaned. She eyed the pharmacy. “Hey, walk with me to the pharmacy, yeah? I’m gonna need two hands to open up some of the meds.” “Sure,” I said as Vignette and I walked with her. “I needed to ask you something anyway.” “Oh yeah?” We entered the pharmacy. “What’s that?” I bit my lip, then faced her. “Derpy kept trying to talk to me about something yesterday, something that I think she told you at breakfast yesterday morning. You said you’d tell me later, then you never did.” “Oh! Right! That.” Sour Sweet let out a frustrated sigh. “Look, I… I dunno if I should say it now. It sounds pretty bad, and I don’t want to be pointing the blame at anyone before the trial.” Vignette gently set a hand on Sour’s shoulder. “Sour Sweet, please, just tell us. You’ll have to say it sooner or later anyway; it sounds like it’s too important to keep quiet.” Sour Sweet pulled away from Vignette and took a couple of moments to search the shelf of pain medicines, eventually selecting some extra strength ibuprofen and handing the bottle to me. I popped it open for her, and she muttered a quick thanks as she tossed a couple of pills back and dry swallowed them before making a face. “Alright, alright,” she said. “But seriously, it sounds really bad, alright?” She placed the pill bottle in her pocket and rubbed at her wrist. “Derpy told me that she overheard Rarity saying something about Big Macintosh.” “Saying what, exactly?” I pressed. She looked away for a moment, worked her mouth, then grunted and looked back at me. “She said that Rarity said, and I quote, ‘Big Macintosh is so big the only surefire way to kill him would be poison.’” “Poison?!” Vignette echoed, as did I, albeit at a whisper. “Are you sure?” Fact #14: Derpy’s Statement: “According to Sour Sweet, Derpy overheard Rarity saying the best way to kill Big Macintosh would be via poison.” “Positive,” Sour Sweet said. I thought back to the trap that Big Macintosh ran into. “The knife, it was poisoned. Monohuman said as much. If Big Macintosh had slipped and grabbed onto that knife as he was falling…” “We’d have two bodies on our hands, not just one,” Sour Sweet said with a sneer. “I don’t get it. Why set so many traps? Why not just one?” “Maybe they wanted to be sure they’d kill someone,” I murmured, trying to process this new information. “Or maybe we’ve got more than one potential killer on our hands,” Vignette suggested. My blood chilled in my veins at the thought. “I don’t even want to think about that,” I whispered. “That… that’s too horrible to consider.” “I dunno, she might be onto something,” Sour Sweet replied. “Maybe, but…” I shook my head and threw my hands up. “Okay, we’ll discuss it during the trial. There’s still a few things I want to check out.” “Yeah. Okay.” Sour Sweet gave me a sideways look, then snorted. “...thanks for the meds.” I nodded to her, and together Vignette and I left the building. “So what now?” Vignette asked “Big Mac’s room,” I said, pointing to the dorms. “He said he left his note in his room, and I want to see what it said.” As we headed for the dorms and entered the building containing Big Macintosh’s room, I almost ran face first into Rarity. “Wahahaaaa!” she wailed as she caught herself just before we smashed into each other. “Oh my word, darling, do watch where you’re going!” A momentary panic gripped me before I got it under control, but not before I blubbered, “Err, sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to–”. She glared at me, and as I did so I got a much better look at her than I had when she showed up to view Derpy’s body. Her eyes were bloodshot, like she’d been crying, while she wore no makeup to speak of, and her hair was far from immaculate. Even her clothes were askew, and there were bags under her eyes. But while her gaze softened after a moment, her demeanor didn’t change. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Where are you going in such a hurry, anyhow?” “We needed to check out Big Macintosh’s room,” I answered, still a little unsettled by her appearance. “...are you okay, Rarity?” “Okay? No. No I am not okay,” she answered, a growl deep in her throat. “I am furious. We’ve another murderer on our hands, and to think, they killed perhaps the most innocent of us all! Derpy never hurt a soul, nor could she. She was far too nice. Perhaps a bit naive at times, but she was a good person.” “Yeah, so we’ve heard,” Vignette said. She eyed Rarity. “You know, we wanted to ask you about last night anyway.” “Oh? What about it?” Rarity flipped her hair back and ran a hand through it, as if trying to make it look halfway decent. All she was truly managing was tossing it into even more of a mess. “We wanted to know what happened with you,” I clarified. “We’ve got everyone else’s alibis, we just need yours.” Rarity huffed and blew a few stray strands of hair out of her eyes. “Well, if you really must know, I was terribly tired last night. I don’t know what came over me; I’m never that tired. But I needed to sleep badly, so I excused myself from dinner early and left. I was asleep until the body discovery alarm went off.” “And no one ever saw you after dinner?” Vignette asked, a smirk gracing her face. “Of course not, because I was asleep.” Rarity scowled at Vignette, and I could practically see the sparks beginning to fly. “I hope you’re not insinuating something.” “No, no, she’s not, Rarity,” I said, putting myself between them. “She’s just clarifying, making sure we understand.” Fact #15: Rarity’s Statement: “According to Rarity, she went directly to her room after dinner and slept the entire evening all the way through to the body discovery.” “Yes, well, I don’t see how I can be any clearer,” Rarity said as she crossed her arms over her chest. Vignette continued to smirk, and tapped her lips with her finger. “Hmm, actually, I have an idea. Why don’t you let us search your room?” Rarity’s eyes darted to Vignette, wide and scared. “What?” she gasped. “Whatever for?” “To clear up any remaining suspicion,” Vignette continued, her smirk growing. “You know, just to be safe.” Rarity’s mouth rippled into a savage snarl, her hands tensing at her sides. “How dare you–” “Whoa, take it easy, Rarity!” I said, this time grabbing her wrists and holding them in place. Had Rarity been the more violent type I’m sure I would have received a headbutt for my troubles. Instead she merely twirled about to break my hold. “Don’t hold me like that,” she snapped, pushing my hands away. Then, with a great big huff, she sighed and added, “But… very well. If you must.” She reached into her pocket and offered her key, but Vignette shook her head. “All the rooms are unlocked during the investigation, remember?” Rarity sighed and stuffed it back in her pocket. “Oh. Right. So they are.” She looked at us both, then rolled her eyes. “Oh, go on. I’m sure you don’t want me present. Just… if you move anything, please put it back where you found it. I’m going to go get some coffee before we’re inevitably dragged underground.” She shoved her way past us and headed in a dead run for the mess hall. Vignette sniggered under her breath as she watched Rarity go. “Oh, Rares, Rares, Rares. She’s so easy to manipulate sometimes.” “You’ve really been kind of a jerk this morning, you know,” I said as we climbed the stairs, heading for Big Mac’s room first. Vignette shrugged. “Maybe. To be honest with you, I didn’t sleep well myself.” “Where were you this morning anyway?” I asked, feeling a sudden chill run through me at her words. After all… last time, my investigative partner turned out to be the killer. Could history be repeating itself already? Goodness, I hoped not. “Same as a lot of people. In my room, making myself beautiful for the day.” She looked back at me and flashed me a smile. “Oh, I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering if I had anything to do with dear Derpy’s death.” “...the thought had crossed my mind,” I admitted. She patted me on the head. “Oh Wally, don’t worry. I’m not like Sunset. I won’t kill someone and lie to your face about it. Really, I just want to survive this ordeal, just like you do. And I won’t be killing anyone, you can count on that.” *Updated* Fact #7: Morning Alibis: “Runners: Cranky Doodle, Shining Armor, Autumn Blaze, Wallflower Blush, Zephyr Breeze. Trap Victims: Big Macintosh, Sour Sweet, Derpy. Rooms: Fluttershy, Rarity, Trixie, Cheese, Juniper, Vignette.”  “I hope so,” I said. I don’t know what instinct ran through me just then, but whatever it was, it made me reach out and give Vignette a hug. Not a long one, or a tight one. Short, quick. In and out, then release. It still caught her by surprise nevertheless, complete with an actual blush appearing on her cheeks. “Oh, well, I…” She coughed into her hand. “Anywho, how about Big Macintosh’s room, hmm?” We entered it, and began poking around for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. I made sure to look in the fridge, just in case, but was unsurprised to find the only thing inside were a few bottles of apple cider and an untouched sandwich. After a bit more searching, Vignette raised her hand in victory, waving a slip of paper. “Got it! Here, read this.” She showed it to me, and I eagerly scanned it. Fact #16: Big Macintosh’s Note: “A note given to Big Macintosh. It reads ‘I know what happened to your youngest sister.  Meet me at the museum at 7:20 tomorrow morning.” “Youngest sister?” I murmured. I had to think, but nothing came to my mind. I remembered Applejack existed, but who was their youngest sister? “Maybe this is her?” Vignette said as she lifted up a picture in a frame near Big Mac’s bed. She handed it over, and as I examined it, I saw several people standing together. I recognized Big Macintosh and Applejack. But there was also an older woman, skin tone similar to mine but with white hair in a bun, and a shorter, younger woman, almost still a teenager. She possessed red hair with a big red bow tied into it, and a bright yellow skin tone. I glanced at the back, and saw a date, plus four names: Applejack, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, and Apple Bloom. “Huh,” I murmured as I looked it over one more time. “Must be. Apple Bloom… the name doesn’t ring a bell.” “I might’ve heard it once or twice,” Vignette said with a shrug. “We should get to Rarity’s room, and quickly.” She was right; we’d been at this investigation for so long Monohuman was likely to call us together any minute now. Fortunately the room was just a few doors down, so after setting everything back and closing the door behind us, we ventured inside Rarity’s abode. The place was, unsurprisingly, full of every tool of fashion the woman had been able to get her hands on, as well as plenty of cloth and other things to work with. She’d even fashioned makeshift mannequins to hang clothing on. “Well, at least she’s keeping busy,” Vignette murmured as she began to search through piles of sewing needles, pin cushions, thread, and other assorted stuff scattered all over Rarity’s dresser. “This’ll take a while.” “Just move quickly,” I said as I went for the bathroom first. I found a few beauty products, mostly what was available in the pharmacy, though I also found a few that she must’ve brought with her here. Nothing useful though. “Oh, Rarity, you hopeless romantic,” I heard Vignette musing. I looked over; she was standing next to a desk, looking over a piece of paper.  “What is it?” I asked, moving closer. “A letter to her wife.” She indicated a small stack of envelopes on the desk, each bearing the address of Sweet Apple Acres in Canterlot. “Or ex-wife, if Sunset was right.” She shook her head and sighed. “I hope not, though. I’m pretty much the reason Applejack and Rarity even got together, did you know that? I was just trying to delete people out of existence, but I’m such a natural matchmaker, I…” “Please stop,” I grunted, and thankfully she did. I pointed at the paper she was holding. “Is that another letter?”  “Yes, but it’s not finished yet. Also, Rarity might be going insane?” She handed the paper over. “Seems bad.” I took the letter. It was short, but the more I read, the more confused I became, until I had to reread it a couple of times to make sure I understood. Fact #17: Rarity’s Letter: “An unfinished letter to Applejack, supposedly written by Rarity and found in her room.  She says she has discovered ‘something terrible’ and is tempted to ‘do something she’ll regret the rest of her life.’  She ends with, ‘Sweetie Belle is safe, right? She couldn’t have–’ and then it cuts off.”  “Who’s Sweetie Belle?” I murmured. I thought back to the other note we found that mentioned a Belle. Maybe it was this Sweetie Belle, and not Rarity? DING-DONG BING-BONG We both looked up as the monitor on the wall activated, revealing Monohuman’s smiling visage. “Well, well, well, it’s that time again, my lovely little volunteers. Time to make your way to the rear of the Mess Hall and to the mines! Your elevator to the trial awaits. Oooh, I’m looking forward to this one… it will be so full of intrigue! Puhuhuhu…” The monitor switched off, leaving Vignette and I looking at each other. “What do you think, we found something important?” she asked. “I hope not,” I sighed, setting the letter in my pocket along with my pad. “We’d better hurry. Monohuman won’t wait long.” She nodded, and the two of us left the room, making our way in a hurry towards the Mess Hall. We ended up filing into the group with the rest as we headed past the feast of food left mostly untouched, though a few people grabbed up handfuls of sausage patties or bacon or toast or something as they passed it by, stuffing their faces as we walked. When we reached the fence just outside, we found Monohuman waiting for us. “Hello again, everyone,” he said jovially. “Isn’t it lovely to be here again, ready to head down into the depths, to once again match our wits in a trial?” “No, it isn’t,” Shining Armor declared, stabbing a finger in Monohuman’s direction. “This is because someone gave into you, again. And whoever it is, we’re going to figure them out, just like we did last time.” “If you say so, Mister Second Best!” Monohuman chortled. He waved his baton around, and the magical lock keeping the gate closed dissolved into a flurry of sparkles. “But I’d be careful about who you accuse. This trial might surprise you. See you in the courtroom!” He too then dissipated in a flash of light.                                                                                                                                                                         “Yeah!” Sour Sweet added. She raised her injured fist. “I dunno which one of you jerks is responsible for this, but this hurts like friggen crazy! I didn’t deserve to get my wrist crunched up just so you can try to get us all killed!” “Derpy didn’t deserve to die, either,” Juniper added with another sad sigh. “But here we are. Sometimes life isn’t fair.” “No… no it ain’t, at all,” Big Macintosh moaned. The huge man seemed like a shadow of himself as he took a few steps forward. “Last time, someone killed mah mom. This time, someone almost killed me. And they did kill Miss Derpy.” He sniffed. “Poor, sweet Derpy.” Everyone bowed their heads. Not a single person had anything negative to say about Derpy; she was just that likable. “We all enjoyed her presence,” Vignette said. “She was a sweetheart, an innocent soul, lost before her time. Whoever was responsible will be found.” “No one wants to play Monohuman’s game,” Shining Armor said as he looked over us all. “Least of all me. It’s going to be hell down there. But we don’t have a choice. Let’s get through this as quickly as we can. And whoever you are, the one who did this?” He let out a sad sigh. “I apologize, ahead of time, for what Monohuman’s going to do to you. But we can’t let you win. Not when it means the rest of us would die in your place, I’m sorry.” He turned and gestured for us to follow before pushing the gate open, and taking the steps down the path. The morning sun beat down on us at an angle, thankfully not nearly as harsh as the sun later in the day had been on the long stretch of road. Even so, by the time we reached the mine, I was forever grateful to Cheese Sandwich for his idea of grabbing something to eat and drink, as I still had water to finish off before we approached the elevator itself. “This is it,” Vignette murmured as people began to file onto it. “Here we go again.” And as I joined her, I considered the case one more time. Ditzy Muffins Do, aka Derpy, dead before her time. A trio of traps, all rigged up with three separate victims. One unharmed, one injured, one fatality. And just about any one of us could’ve rigged these traps up. None of them were overly complicated, or required an undue level of strength. All it would take is a bit of time… and we’d all had plenty of it. So who was it? Who tried to kill us all again? Was Vignette right? Were we dealing with multiple suspects, or just one? Whatever the case, whomever we face off against, I know they’ll be counting on me. Counting on me to win this trial of life and death!