//------------------------------// // 8 Rose Bundle // Story: Mule PI: The Watchstallion // by Oat Cakes //------------------------------// The dining hall was nearly as warm as the sun room, but in the place of smothering humidity there was the enveloping fragrance of fruit and pastries. The room was half the length of the Gallery, but equal in its width. The spacious place was faced with cases of rich brown around wide windows. There were a number of large tables, mostly filled; there were a few smaller tables tucked where the larger could not fit, empty. At the large tables it was clear that some ponies grouped themselves by profession. At the most crowded table were ponies with cutie marks of bowstrings, of hammers, of cane reeds, and of all kinds of musical doodads. The next most crowded table covered their cutie marks with denim overalls. The rest of the tables were harder to discern. There were ponies outfitted as porters sitting with masons and many others. From one of these mixed tables, a scruffy green colt waved to Quick. Quick waved back from his small table in the corner. “What are these?” Mule asked. Breaking from his greeting, Quick looked down at their table. He looked up again at Mule and asked, “You’ve never had salsa?” “Look closer, not salsa.” Following Mule’s direction, “That’s not salsa,” Quick confirmed. Mule took a chip and brought it uncomfortably close to his eye, “I don’t think it’s chips either.” “They must be chips,” Quick thought aloud. He looked, briefly, to the other tables to see some digging into their own ‘chips and salsa.’ He took a chip in his hoof and looked it over; he saw something was off, but could not place what it was. Whatever it was, it looked good to eat, and so Quick ate the chip. Finally finding what it was he cheered, “Cinnamon!” “Cinnamon chips?” As if to confirm Mule’s question, Quick scooped salsa onto his next chip and brought it closer to see. “I think it’s-- it’s fruit. It’s a fruit salsa, I can see strawberries,” he stated excitedly. “Hmp. Odd.” “Good,” Quick corrected, mouth full of chips. “Hmp,” Mule capitulated, mouth full of chips. When the chips were gone, Quick brought out the transcribed conversation and started to look over it. “So, what do you think happened?” he asked. “I don’t know yet,” said Mule as he wiped his mouth while looking at the remaining half bowl of salsa. “Don’t get those notes sticky.” “Sure. Nothing at all? Do you not trust Silver?” Mule snorted and said, “I don’t think Silver lied to me.” “Oh?” Quick leaned into the table, intrigued. “He’s got no stake in this. He only loses if we don’t solve this.” Mule leaned back in his chair, “What do you think?” Quick took a momentary glance at the pages in his magic, “I think he cares a lot about Gloom.” Mule looked out the window, despite it being across the room. “Go on, whys that?” he asked. “He only got all worked up when-- when he was thinking about him. The parties and-- and he really got worked up when Gloom was angry.” Mule gave half a smile, “Did you notice? He didn’t ask Sweet why she left him. I don’t believe he thinks about other ponies when Gloom is involved.” Quick took a moment to think about what Mule said. He watched a blue stallion dressed in white carry a number of baskets to each table while he said, “It makes sense. His whole life has revolved around him, right?” “Hmp. He was raised with stories about him, he probably paid for Silver’s law schooling. Now his every day is about Gloom,” Mule affirmed. The stallion ran out of baskets. “He didn’t do it,” reasoned Quick. Again, Mule half smiled, “Oh, he definitely didn’t do it. And he wouldn’t be an accomplice either.” Quick started putting the pages back into his bag. “You think there’s more than one pony involved?” The stallion grabbed one more basket. “I said I don’t know yet.” He was half way to their table. Quick watched as the stallion placed the basket at their table, turned, then walked away. “I think we should see the cemetery.” “I think we should finish our lunch.” Mule took a chip from the basket and, without looking from the window, dipped and ate it. “And then see the cemetery.” “Hi! I’m Bundle! Who’re you?” Mule and Quick had just left the dinning room when a rust maned colt puttered his hooves across the hardwood to follow. Quick waved, “I’m Quick.” “Hmp.” “He’s Mule,” Quick gestured. Bundle quickly inserted himself between them. “What do you do? You’re new.” Bundle looked up at Quick’s horn, “Do you do magic? I love magic!” “I umm...” “We keep walking,” grumbled Mule . Bundle frowned. “That’s boring. My brother walks all day to the train and he’s boring.” “I do some magic,” Quick volunteered. “Oooo show me, show me!” Bundle bounced in excitement as he trotted. They had entered the sun room as Quick explained, “Uh, it’s kind of hard to show. Do you know what arithmancy is?” Bundle was equally amazed and horrified as he asked, “You use magic to make spiders?” Mule grumbled again, but to himself. He advanced his pace and exited the southern door ahead of the others. “No, I use magic to do math,” Quick corrected. As if his coat could get more disheveled, Bundle creased his muzzle and stated, “Lame.” “Oh,” said Quick. He was, for a moment, downtrodden before he quipped, “Hehe, would you rather do the math yourself?” Bundle’s eyes widened and he gasped, “I can make the magic do my math work? Show me! Show me!--” “Maybe later, okay?” Quick interrupted Bundle’s cheering. “Okay,” Bundle said, no amount of cheer lost. He then pointed to Mule, who was just reaching the corner of the cemetery. “So what does he do?” “He’s a detective,” Quick supplied. Bundle looked up at Quick and confusion was clear on his face, “Where are all his gadgets?” “What?” Quick returned the confusion. “His gadgets! Where is his grappling hook?” Bundle made a pushing motion with a hoof as he walked. He mimicked a psh-shooo, then looked to Quick to see if he was understanding. “Oh, you’re thinking of Batmare,” he recognized. “She’s awesome!” Bundle pumped a forehoof in the air and skipped a step with a small hop. “Yeah, ummm. You saw how old he was?” Quick gestured to Mule, who was walking well ahead around the long perimeter wall of the cemetery. “Yeah, he’s all grey and stuff,” said Bundle. He stretched and made himself as tall as he could and whispered, “and he smells kind of old too.” Quick looked down at the colt, who returned his gaze with curiosity and expectation. “So uhh... it’s like...” he remembered how excited Bundle was about Batmare, “he’s too old to be doing back-flips and stuff.” “But what if there’s a super mystery and like he needs to do a back-flip or he gets caught?” “Uhh... what if... they can’t tell hes a detective because he doesn’t have his... stuff.” Lame, Quick thought and grimaced slightly. “Oooooh! Hes undercover!” Bundle ate it up. “Yeah, kinda.” Bundle took two steps away and asked, “So what are you?” as he looked at Quick in full. “Huh?” Quick didn’t follow. “Are you his sidekick?” Bundle guessed. “Umm. Kinda.” Bundle gasped even louder, “O-M-C! You couldn’t tell me all the awesome magic you know because it’s all for fighting bad guys, right?” he asked as he practically danced beside Quick. “Umm.” Quick responded. Lamely. Again. “Get over here!” Mule hollered. He was standing, as he had been for nearly a minute, at the fence. Quick picked up his pace and, smiling, swept Bundle onto his back with his magic. They reached Mule half way down the long north face of the cemetery. The fence itself was simple. Like the front gate, the pickets were tubes of brass. Unlike the gate though, the fence was tarnished and woven between them were numerous vines flowering in yellows, whites, and oranges. At the place where Mule stood though, the fence changed. Where normally there was a hoof-length between the bars, here they were bent. Along a length of eight bars, each were bent to accommodate a oval-ish opening. “Listen up!” Mule bellowed, despite Quick having closed the distance. “I don’t want anything disturbed. You, colt.” Bundle waved from Quick’s back. “You stay on his back, or you stay outside. Got it?” Bundle nodded. “Quick.” “Yes?” “If I say something, you write it down. If you see something, write it down. You don’t have to tell me. Got it?” “Got it.” Aqu, 11, 999 Impressions of the crime scene: Mule: Look here, on the ground. There’s vines. They’re not clipped, they’re snapped. Somepony pulled them off the bars (1). Mule: There’s no metal pieces on the ground. Follow behind. Quick: Basic scan shows no enchantments at the breach or on the surrounding fence. Mule: Ground is dry (2). We couldn’t get good prints anyways. Wow. I can see why he was angry. Lets start on the ground. The left door is shattered (3). Two major pieces, lots of rubble. Right door is faring better. Its got the painting (4). Red baton. It’s supposed to be white. Bundle: Creepy. Quick: Painting responds to basic scans. Very energy dense. Don’t touch it. It’s hot-- dangerous. Bundle: Cool! Mule: Look at the hinges (5). Right hinges are untouched, left are shredded. Left door took the majority of the force. Look at the way the pins sheared. The doors were pulled outwards. There’s a chunk missing from the right door (6). Go find where it landed-- see if has some kind of lock or bolt in it. Quick: The missing pieces are scattered between 4 and 8 hoofs towards the north west corner of the cemetery. Big piece has a metal chunk. Can’t tell what it was. Mule: Let me see. Quick: No residual magic in the metal chunk. Here Mule: Hmp. Yep, that held the door closed. Did a good job if they had to tear it up that much. Don’t follow me in. Lets see, there’s some urns here (7). Looks like they were disturbed. There’s some circles around where they normally sit, but they’re not on them. It looks like there’s-- yep. Ok, this is where the heirlooms were. Left is the lord, right is the lady. Bundle: Should he be um... I don’t think you’re supposed to open them. Quick: He knows what he’s doing. Mule: They missed some of the gems here. Quick: What about the ledge there. In the center. Mule: Empty (8). I don’t see an impression; it’s very clean. Looks like-- yep, this is Loud Horn’s. I don’t think he-- there's no urn (8). You see anything interesting colt? Bundle: No. But the door was real loud (9). Mule: What do you mean loud? Bundle: When they broke the door, it was real loud. Quick: Yeah, all this rubble-- and the door falling. Bundle: Yeah, it woke me up. Mule: It woke you up? Do you know when? Bundle: Uhhh. Quick: Did you see a clock? Bundle: Yeah. Quick: What did it say? Bundle: I dunno. I’m not good at clocks. Mule: Do you remember what numbers the clock was pointing to? Bundle: Uhh-- One was pointing straight up and the other one-- it was up too but not as much up. Quick: Do you know which was the shorter arm? Bundle: Uhh. No. Mule: One arm was pointing up. Was the other one on the left or the right of it? Bundle: This side is left? Mule: Yes. Bundle: Left. Quick: approximately 11:45 to 12:00 (9). Thank you Bundle. Mule: That’s a big help, colt. Lets check the gates now. They might have tried those first. No. Doesn’t look disturbed (10). Quick: East gate is not disturbed (10). Mule: Lets check the other side. It’s closer to the main gate anyways. No. Nothing here either (11). I’m gonna peak in here (12). Do your magic thing or whatever on the gate. Bundle: Show me! Quick: Here, touch my horn. Do you feel that? Bundle: It’s warm and kinda bzzzz but like I feel it in my teeth. Quick: That’s what my scanning spell does. When I throw some magic out and it hits some other magic it will come back. And if the bzzzz changes then I know I hit something. Bundle: Can you teach me that? Quick: Maybe later. Oh-- Bundle: What? Oh you found something! Mule: What is it? There’s nothing in the shed (12). Quick: The gate. There’s some kind of enchantment (13). Mule: You sure it’s not one of those opener gems. Quick: No. Look, there’s a normal lock for the gate. Mule: So what does the magic say then? You know what it does? Quick: Hmm. No, I can’t tell without potentially damaging it. Bundle: I think I know! Mule: Go ahead. Bundle: When me and Bramble play we-- Promise you won’t tell my mom? Quick: Promise. Bundle: We aren’t supposed to play in here. And when we do Miss Dreams always tells my mom about it. But look at the tower! You can’t see the gate from the tower since the tree gets in the way. I think the magic lets her see the gate. Mule: Nice deduction colt. There’s a magic alarm on the gate. Quick, did you scan the other gate? Quick: No, give me a moment. Mule: You can put him down. Quick: Yeah. It’s the same on the other gate (10). Mule: How about the fence? Quick: Definitely not. Mule: You scanned it already? Quick: When we entered and on my way to the east gate and back. Mule: Good. How about the mausoleum doors? Quick: Definitely nothing. The enchantments would be much less durable than the doors. Mule: Can you tell if they were enchanted before they were broken? Quick: Maybe if Gloom didn’t have a flare in there. Mule: Hmp. Lets get going. Carry Bundle out please. Bundle: Wheee! On the back of the page is a rough sketch of the scene.