Chapter 4
The Bonds that Connect Us
Octavia sighed as she took the seat next to Radon Wing at the bar. "You didn't have to do that, you know?"
Wing shrugged and took a sip from his drink. "It got us some privacy, besides, I've got a reputation to uphold."
She glanced over at the stallion, their smile having left the moment Lyra left the room. She could see why everyone at a glance took him for a mare, his build combined with the long flowing mane and his softer voice did a lot.
She huffed. "I thought you'd stopped messing with every stallion you ran into?"
Wing smirked. "I need to do something to make all the parties I'm going to less boring," he took another sip. "First time I've had it happen with a mare though."
"I'd prefer if you didn't mess with my friend."
Wing frowned. "Well, like I said, it got us some privacy, so I'd say it was worth it."
Octavia sighed and turned her gaze forward towards the well stocked bar.
"How's the investigation going, 'Miss Detective'?"
"How much do you know?"
"Considering the fact that they weren't attempting to be quiet the next room over, and that I was intentionally listening in..."
"So basically everything."
A silence settled as Wing took another small sip from his glass.
"I'm surprised you're not accusing me."
Octavia snorted.
"What? You can't pretend I don't have perfect opportunity to have done it, what with having no one to vouch for me."
She went over it in her head. She knew Radon Wing, although not all that well, but just fielding the idea sounded preposterous. He was, however, right, she shouldn't rule him out immediately. Still, even aside from the obvious, if he'd left or returned to the lounge around lunch time, someone would have spotted him; the room only connected to the dining hall, nowhere else.
After what happened though... there was no way Wing would sit here and be as calm as he was if he'd killed another pony. Which begged the obvious question...
"No, you couldn't have killed Pen. More importantly though, why did you hit on Lyra, there is no way you couldn't have known who she was?"
Wing sighed. "I mostly wanted to have a moment to talk to you in private, what with the topic at hoof. Besides," and he turned to look her in the eyes. "you haven't told her, correct?"
She snorted. "I'd rather she remember her mother for the musician she was, not..." she trailed off and waved her hoof. "What she was doing back then."
Wing nodded and turned his focus back to his drink. "It'd be best for everyone if what happened in the Countess' mansion be forgotten," he sighed. "If only it was that easy."
As the silence once again settled between the two, Octavia ran through things in her head. Wing would never kill a pony, but that didn't mean he didn't possibly know something useful. She fished up her notebook and pen and put it on the bar.
"Is there anypony that you think would have wanted to kill Pen?"
Wing snorted. "The better question to ask is: who here wouldn't?"
She glanced at Wing with a raised eye.
"You've talked to his and my family, you know how they are. Flair couldn't care less about anyone but herself, my old man and Uncle Thor are both too caught up in the family legacy crap," he snorted. "The reason Polo is going to succeed the family and not me is because she's a unicorn. The fact that Graphite Pen is a pegasus would be enough to paint a giant target on his back."
Despite how long it had been since Equestria's founding, there were still ponies who considered one of the tribes to be superior to the others. The fact that most of the noble houses in Equestria were composed primarily of unicorns were hardly a secret. She'd meet enough aristocrats to know what the common talking points were. If they got to decide then earth ponies and pegasi would not be welcome within the higher echelons of society.
Octavia stopped her note taking. "But wait, it was your mother that was arranging this in the first place, at least that was my impression."
"Exactly. She married into the family, and..." Wing trailed off. "Top's always been a good mother," he let out a sigh. "But she never really understood the whole thing with unspoken rules that nobles must abide by."
He raised his glass and downed the rest of the drink before slamming it down on the counter. "Frankly, the only ponies in this mansion beside present company that don't have a reason to want Pen dead is your lyrist friend and that unicorn my sister is so taken with."
She frowned. "Including your sister?"
Wing just sat there, starring straight forwards while gripping his glass tight.
"I wouldn't rule her out," he eventually said. "I doubt she'd do it, or even be capable of doing it, but she quite clearly didn't care in the slightest about marrying Graphite Pen."
"Then why did see agree to it?"
"I think she was... planning on skipping out on it," he said while a troubled expression made it's ways onto his features.
"Regardless," Wing placed a key on the counter using one of his wings, where he'd gotten it from she did not know. "I've got a safe in my room. There is a tape, tape recorder, and tape player there. A week and a few days ago I went out to a bar with Graphite Pen under the guise of getting to know my new brother in law better. A guys night out, if you will."
He shrugged his shoulder and slide over the to key to her using his wing. "What we talked about might help your investigation."
She eyed the key before glancing at Wing. You didn't just start recording your nights out without reason.
"You expected him to die?"
He shrugged. "No, not really," he eventually said. "But that's what I'm constantly worried about. That all of a sudden another pony will fall dead beside me, killed by a supposed loved one or poisoned to death by somepony with an agenda."
"You're paranoid." It was a statement, not a question.
Wing snorted and stared at her. "I don't want to hear that from the mare that packs a firearm to a performance," he pointed squarely towards her left hoof.
Her eyes widened. "You can see it?"
"Why wouldn't- oh I see, it's got one of those fancy enchants on it?"
"A perception filter," she replied as if she was reading a manual. "Only ponies that know about it already can see it properly."
She glanced down to her hoof where she'd attached it. The entire thing had the gleam of brass, it was a bracelet that could be opened and attached to a hoof. Perpendicular to where the leg would go was a long thin cylinder. On the front of the bracelet rested the gem that contained the enchantment.
Taking a deep breath she recalled how it felt to use it. You only needed to apply tension to your muscles in a certain way and that would cause it to fire, assuming the safety toggle along the barrel had been flipped.
"A souvenir from the debacle with Countess Call then, I take it?"
She nodded.
Wing sighed. "All three of us carry stuff from back then..." He reached over the counter for a bottle already opened and quickly refilled his glass. He offered the bottle towards her but she just shook her head.
"I must have seen and heard it when it was used back then, even if I don't remember it."
She nodded while Wing took a sip from his refilled glass.
"... is that why you're here, why you're drinking? Because of the memories?"
Wing frowned and stared at his glass before eventually sighing. "No, I'd rather be out there doing stuff to keep myself busy."
"Then?"
Wing closed his eyes. "I stopped by two months ago, mostly to check in with my sis. She's been getting worse, and I wanted to be there for her."
Octavia nodded.
"And yeah, she's been in a sorry state lately," he swirled his glass around on the counter. "So when I visited she asked if I loved her..."
"And?"
Wing snorted. "Obviously I said yes. We haven't been that close in recent years, but I always liked her. The problem," he interrupted himself by chugging down his glass. "Is what came after, I couldn't just leave her alone here anymore..."
She glanced towards Wing and the troubled expression on his face.
"When I said I loved her, she smiled, stared me straight into the eyes and asked me to kill her."
Octavia sighed as she made her way towards Radon Polo's room. What Wing had mentioned was disturbing for sure, yet he didn't know anything more. According to him he thought his sister was suicidal because of either her condition or a bout of depression. He refused to leave his sister alone after learning that, coming up with an excuse to sit around in the mansion all day to be able to be at her side. She'd have to ask Polo for more details, assuming she was willing to talk about it.
But because he'd pretended to constantly be drunk, which probably wasn't far enough removed from reality, his parents had insisted that he'd lock himself in the lounge for the duration of the party. Because the bar was more than well stocked be it with snacks or drinks, and with the connected restroom, he'd not needed to leave for the past two days.
Similarly, no one had come in to talk to him prior to herself and Lyra. This meant that she felt very confident in ruling him out as the potential murderer. She couldn't completely rule out suicide, but the logistics of ramming a knife into your own throat was enough to give her halt.
So lost was she in her thoughts that she almost collided with the unicorn coming around the corner.
"Oh, it's you," she blurted out towards the white unicorn with a two tone blue and cyan mane.
"Sup Tavi?" the unicorn said as she removed her oversized purple shades.
'Who even wears shades indoors?'
But then, that was hardly the only problem the unicorn had. Vinyl Scratch, better known by many for her scene name "DJ-PON3". And also, unfortunately, her roommate.
When she'd seen the ad for the housing option in Ponyville it had sounded just perfect. "Musician looking for like-minded roommate to split house with." Of course, it wasn't until after she moved in that she realised the Miss Scratch had a very different idea on what constituted as music.
She took a step back. "Excuse me?"
Vinyl shrugged. "I heard your mate from the orchestra call you that, sounded dope."
She scoffed. "I hardly think we are close enough for nicknames."
Vinly put on her shades again, shrugging while flashing her a smile.
Octaiva rubbed her forehead, regardless of what she thought of the unicorn, she needed to hear what she had to say. "Regardless, perhaps you could tell me what you did between breakfast and lunch today?"
"Sure thing. If I wasn't chatting it up with Polo about beats then I was behind the scene prepping my set."
"...That's it?"
Vinyl just smiled and nodded.
"Yeah," Polo paused to cough. "Vinyl's been with me for most of the day."
The unicorn mare lay on her bed covered up to the head by a large blanket. Her green coat reminded her of Lord Radon's, though it was a few shades lighter. Her white mane was quite long. Her yellow eyes were also in a similar shade to her brother's.
"And you're... a fan of her music?"
Polo smiled. "There's few things I can do when I'm too weak to move, Miss Melody. So I get a lot of joy out of listening to music, but I believe you can understand that."
Octavia nodded. "Quite, though I think our preference is quite different," she flashed the sick mare a smile.
Polo chuckled. "Yes," she nodded. "My parents are the same, but my birthday is coming up in a few days. And since I got to decid on the entertainment..."
"...you picked something that you liked," Octavia finished.
Polo smiled. "Yes."
Octavia went over her notes, there were a few important things she needed to ask the mare. Her bad condition combined with her and Vinyl vouching for each other meant that it was very unlikely that either could have killed Pen.
"What do you think of Graphite Pen?"
Polo sighed, a sad expression on her face. "He's a nice colt, great artist too... but, that's not what you want to know."
Octavia nodded.
"I don't mind him, and I'd not mind being around him, I suppose. Which, yeah, that's not really enough when you're supposed to spend the rest of our lives together, is it?"
She hummed. "Lord Radon mentioned that he offered you plenty of times to back out of the wedding."
Polo snorted. "It's true, he did. But ponies keep pretending that I'd even be around to see it."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm dying, Miss Melody. I've been on deaths door for almost a year now."
"Your illness?" Octavia guessed.
Polo snorted again. "Sure, something like that."
"What can you tell me about it?"
Polo groaned and rolled over onto her back. "My Uncle is convinced it runs in the family, and he's probably right. Most in the family don't make it to a very old age, it's always something different, usually some weird internal disease or oddity."
"And this is why Lord Radon's parents aren't around anymore, I take it?"
Polo nodded. "I only met grandma once when I was really, really young. Grandpa was dead before I was even..." she trailed off before shaking her head. "They think I just happened to get it worse than others, and that's why I'm so sick at such a young age. After all, no doctor could figure out what is wrong with me," she glanced towards the window and chuckled.
"But you don't think it's the same thing?"
For a moment the only sound that could be heard was snow smacking against the window.
"Tell me, Miss Melody, how well do you know my father?"
"Not that well, I met him for the first time yesterday."
Polo sighed. "He's practically impotent."
"Wha-"
"Don't worry, I don't really care, as long as you keep this to yourself," Polo glanced towards her. With a sigh she continued. "But yes, my father is not very good at those things. Probably the family disease, right?" She chuckled. "But no, Wing, my brother, was basically a miracle."
She turned her head over to stare into Octavia's eyes. "What do you think is the likelihood of a miracle happening twice?"
She frowned, there was only one place Polo could be going with this; at least that she could think of. "You're adopted?"
Polo smirked. "Yes, from Manehattan. I was picked because of how I look, nothing else."
Her expression must have been quite harsh because Polo chuckled and commented on it. "You don't need to get worked up over it for my sake. For better or worse I ended up with one of the richest families in all of Equestria."
She was going to ask how no one knew about this but... well it was obvious when she thought about it: It would be easy to cover it all up with enough bits.
"But," Polo continued as her eyes trained on the ceiling. "Because I'm not their flesh and blood, it would make little sense for me to have whatever bad genes they do."
"Then, what about your sickness?"
Polo closed her eyes and sighed. "I've got a pretty good idea of what it might be. But, I'm obviously not a doctor."
"And that is...?"
"For me to know and you to guess," Polo smiled.
Octavia let out a sigh and went over her notes. Polo had been nothing if not forward, yet there was still no clarity on who might have killed pen.
"What about Pen, do you know anything about who might have murdered him?"
"Ah," Polo smirked. "The question of the day, isn't it. I've got a pretty good idea, to be honest, but nothing concrete."
"And your thoughts are?"
"Well, I could tell you... but not for nothing."
She frowned. "You do realise the guard will ask the same thing, correct?"
"And you're desperate to solve this, despite not being a guard," the smile never leaving her lips.
It was a bit frightening how easily the mare read her. She could see Wing being very good at seeing her motives, they'd been through the same mess. Yet the mare before her could apparently see the obsession clear as day. She wasn't keen on agreeing to just anything, however. But... she could use as much information as possible, so she supposed it didn't hurt to at least ask what Polo had in mind.
"Fine, what do you want, maybe I'll consider it?"
"It's simple," her smile grew wider. "I need you to fake my death."