//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Snow-Covered Cases // by Dashkie //------------------------------// Already the losses have been far too much for any of us to handle. Everyone was slowly losing their minds and focusing all on the murders and the killer. Rainbow Dash won’t talk to anyone anymore unless it’s related to the serial killer. Rarity has started to see a psychological therapist since she won’t let go of Sweetie Belle’s side. Fluttershy only takes care of her animals, but no one has seen her smile in so long. It’s hard for me to help any other person when I’m the one who really needs the help. For these past few days, I have not left my home. I believe Spike has gone off to help out Rarity, which is just fine, because I need to be alone. Books are everywhere…I can’t figure out this case! I apologize for my loss of sanity, but unfortunately it cannot be helped. Rainbow Dash usually comes over to give me a new theory of who the killer might be or their motivation, or even how to decide who the next victim will be, but every time there isn’t enough information to back up her theories. She decided questioning is just slowing down the process of her work. Today she was going to come by again so we could work some more, but a part of me right now just wants to give up. We’re not getting anywhere, people keep dying, and I can’t do anything about it. Who knows who will be killed next? We’ve already tried to put the town under lockdown, but still, no one felt safe, so we discontinued the program. I had nothing to report to Rainbow Dash, so her visit later today will make everything so much worse. I sat in the corner of the library, thinking hard about our next move. I considered visiting the crime scenes with Rainbow to find any clues or links to each of the victims. As I finished this thought, Rainbow came in. She wore a white undershirt and some jeans with a leather coat. Her hair was messier than normal, and the bags under her opalescent eyes were getting bigger and bigger. I can imagine I didn’t look too much better. “I found a link.” She said at first quietly. I didn’t quite understand what she meant; either she was joking or she really thought she was onto something. I remained hesitant to answer. “I found a link Twilight! Between the victims!” She exclaimed, louder this time. I stood up quickly and ran up to her. “Oh my god, Rainbow! What, what is it?!” Rainbow Dash grasped onto my shoulders and looked at me deep in the eyes. “Location.” I looked at her, slightly disappointed. “Location.” I repeated, looking at her skeptically. After all this time, how could they have come to such a simple deduction? Rainbow shook me a little, trying to get me to hold onto this theory, but it wasn’t working so well. “No, no, hear me out Twilight. Okay…um…” she stuttered a little. “Let me show you the diagram I drew.” She walked over to the empty wall space I usually used for presentations. The messenger bag she had was swung around to her front side as she pulled out a large diagramed paper that looked like blueprints, except it was white, and the paper was slightly translucent as she pinned it to the wall. The paper had shown the map of Ponyville with each of the houses named of their owners. Then, she pulled out another page, this one with no maps but just markings, made in red felt pen. This page was transparent, except for the felt marks. All I could make out were scribbles, a few words, circles, lines, arrows, dashed lines; almost like a kid who got a hold of a template wanted to draw. After she put that one up on top of the map she pulled out a third paper, but this one with calculations and what seemed to be a million sketches. This one was a simple column that she had put up next to her mapping. She set down her messenger bag and pulled out a black felt pen, similar to the red one with all the markings. My eyes were wide with amazement and awe at how she figured this entire thing out. The biggest drawing she had pointed out on the column that seemed to overlap on the other papers was of a clock. The clock was a little weird though; the only numbers on there were divisible by 12: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. “The link between the victims and future victims is the time of the approximated death, meaning the average time between the time deducted by the initial death and when the body was first found. Whoever this killer is, they are elaborate.” She uncapped her black felt pen and re-circled Ms. Cherilee’s home. “Ms. Cherilee was the first victim and the approximated death of her was 1pm with 36 ornaments. The second victim, Apple Jack, had an approximate death of 2pm with 30 ornaments.” She circled over Apple Jack’s home as well. Finally, she circled Pinkie Pie’s. “And then Pinkie Pie, the third victim, died at 3pm with 24 ornaments. My theory works if there are only six victims, which are more likely than seven since we deducted this, is about the trees.” She pointed to her drawn clock and the times she had written down. “The fourth victim will be killed at 4pm, the fifth at 6pm, and then the sixth at 12am or the following 12pm. I could’ve divided these times by 6, but that would only give me 5 times, so I had to up the ante.” I marveled at amazement and then conducted the theory over and over in my head. This really could work, this could REALLY be the link! “Rainbow Dash...this is incredible!” Rainbow Dash held up a finger for a moment as I quieted down. There was obviously more, and hopefully whatever she was about to show me was going to answer a few of my questions on this theory. She put away the black felt pen and then stepped off to the side to showcase the map and all of her markings. She pointed to the three houses of each of the victims. “I have drawn a larger clock as scale as I have been able to. As you can see...” she traced the circle of Ms. Cherilee’s home with her finger. A 1 was drawn through it. “Ms. Cherilee was murdered at approximately 1, and on the clock I have drawn pointing north, it’s at that number. The same is with Apple Jacks home; at the number 2, along with Pinkie Pies at 3. The only problem is no matter how hard I try, there is no link to how many days!” Instinctively, I looked up at the clock and my eyes widened; it was 4:15pm. “Rainbow, look at the time!” She looked up at the clock at the same time. “Crap! We need to get out into PonyVille and stay there for at least an hour.” I agreed so she left her mapping on my wall as we left my house and hurried over more into town. Already we noticed the square was empty, all except for Rarity’s boutique. People were piling out of the store, all seeing what happened. “Oh no, not Rarity!” Rainbow ran over to the boutique as I followed. Tears began to well up in my eyes, but I shouldn’t be the one upset; I knew Rainbow Dash always had a thing for Rarity, then again...Rarity is beautiful! So who wouldn’t? Although, once we pushed our way through the crowds, we had found out that it wasn’t Rarity who was the next victim; it was Sweetie Belle. Rarity was being pulled away from here inspiration room, screaming and crying. “No! How dare you handle me like this?! Sweetie Belle!!” Several police officers were holding her back so she wouldn’t try to get in the way of things. We got into the inspiration room, and I automatically felt sick to the stomach. Now the question is, why is this any different? Shouldn’t I be used to seeing a corpse mangled up like this by now? Yes, I should, but not a child’s one. One police officer was looking hard at the corpse and writing things down, so I went to see what was found while Rainbow Dash tried her best to comfort Rarity. “Officer...did something different happen?” He nodded and then studied the corpse for a minute, trying to find the words. “Signs of penetration...only vaginally.” This didn’t help my nausea at all. I took a step back, unsure if I could handle all of this. “So...she was raped, and then killed?” “Or the other way around...we're not sure yet.” I scowled at the thought and tried my best to shake it out of my head. “What kind of sick creature are we dealing with here...” I left the area and went over to Rainbow Dash, but I had to pull her away first, I didn’t want Rarity to hear this. We walked over near the door where not so many people were so we could have a bit more privacy. “Something different happened, although it’s nothing too severe to alter our theory.” She tilted her head and leaned in a little. “Like...?” I sighed; now I know how hard it was for the officer to project the thought into phrases. “Sweetie Belle...was not only killed but they found signs of vaginal penetration...either before or after she was killed.” Rainbow held a hand over her mouth, her face turned pale like she was to be sick. We left the crime scene and hurried back to my house in hopes of finding out who would be the next victim and put them into safety immediately. For all we know the next killing could be tomorrow. We looked at the number 6 that was on the mapped clock. Number 6 was my house...” Oh no...” Rainbow grasped both of my shoulders and looked me dead in the eye with all of the seriousness in the world. “Look Twilight, I will do whatever I can in my abilities to keep you safe. You’ll stay with me, and I won’t let you leave me side, no matter what happens. If this killer thinks they’ll hurt you, they’ve got another thing coming. The best part about you being targeted next is that if you’re with me, we can catch the killer a lot easier. I hope jail is ready, because this...this thing will be there for the rest of its pathetic life.” At that moment, I felt a complete wave of safety from everything; insanity, sleeplessness, anger, sadness, all of these feelings that could not be replaced. I went to go to Rainbow Dash’s home to stay with her and plan how we were going to attack the killer and get him behind bars. I felt relaxed after weeks and weeks of stress and anxiety for once.