//------------------------------// // Mare-in-the-box // Story: The Mystery of Stonehallow Manor // by F74mM4B73 //------------------------------// Chapter III Mare-in-the-box 6-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-9 Everypony was at shock at the sight of the untimely deaths of the Cakes. They all started to panic. Pinkie Pie covered the twins' eyes as much as possible, but they wouldn't stop crying. They all wanted to leave the house if not for the magical force field around the mansion. At the same moment, the whole house reverted to an unpleasant state. The chairs and tables had scratches on them. Parts of glass shattered away from windows and ornaments. Wallpaper was scratched out of the walls. The candles in the house blew away. Rust appeared in every metallic object in the house. The ponies could even hear roofings starting to break away. Everyone was yelling at the ground floor. "Why is this happening?!" "How could the Cakes die like this?!" "I wanna go home!" Twilight tried to quiet the ponies down, but to no avail. Instead, she asked Pinkie to help, and she took out an airhorn and the irritating sound of it blew through everypony's ears. "Stop!" shouted Pinkie, "Twilight has something to say!" Everyone now went closer to Twilight, still in fear. Twilight began to speak, "Okay, I know there is some major mishap right now, but we need to investigate further into this." "How do we do that?", asked Rainbow Dash loudly, "Two ponies just died here! We need to get out!" "For one thing, the ceiling supporting the chandelier was cut off in a seemingly ideal shape. So my guess is... this was murder." Everyone gasped, more fearful than ever knowing that there's a murderer in the mansion. "Trixie's the murderer!" concluded Twilight, "It all makes sense! She brought us here to have us murdered. Everything here is run by magic, so this house was never fully restored in the first place." Applejack yelled, "Let's get that darn varmint!" Everypony rushed going upstairs hoping that Trixie would be caught. A few ponies insisted on staying downstairs because they didn't want to go anywhere near the killer. The rest of the herd ran up until they were in front of the master bedroom. Applejack kicked the doors open to find nothing. The ponies checked the closets only to find most of Trixie's clothing. Not much stuff could be found under the bed or in the drawers. In conclusion, Trixie wasn't there. The ponies went back to the hall and looked around them. The rest of the hallway splits into different sides of the house as the ponies tried to decide on which way to go. "I think it's the left side." "I think it's the right side." The ponies hesitated until Rarity cried, "Why can't we just simply split ourselves?" The ponies agreed and they come up with Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Fluttershy leading the left side, and Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie leading the right. The ponies simultaneously opened each guest room. Each room contained the same aged furniture: a bed, a drawer, a closet, some lamps, and a desk. All six guest rooms had no sign of Trixie. The ends of the room were the siblings' bedrooms: Filthy Rich's on the left, Dirty Rich's on the right. Both groups opened the doors to find furniture nearly the same with one another. A door lay in between the rooms, and Applejack kicked the door open for both herds to meet up again. During investigation of the siblings' rooms, the ponies from downstairs came running from the Filthy's room. They were panting from running, and they all had despair in their eyes. "Did anything happen?" asked Rarity. Raindrops who was trying to catch her breath spoke up, "Cherry Berry... Berry Punch... killed... knives!" The rest of the ponies were in shock. "We should go check on them!" stated Twilight. "No!" Lyra cried, who was also downstairs, was also trying to catch her breath, "We can't risk... getting near the killer, besides... we still need to get... Trixie." The ponies agreed, but they didn't know where else to go. "I remember," Filthy Rich uttered, "Behind the clothes of the closets here are the attic doors." At the same time, the ponies opened both closets and dug through the clothing to reveal the attic doors. They opened the doors showing dusty, carpeted stairs leading to the attic. Each pony slowly watched their steps toward the dusty loft with some roof that fell to the attic floor. The wooden beams and pillars of the house were somewhat deteriorated but intact. There were a few chests laid beside furniture covered in white sheets. There was a faint light in the middle of the room showing a gaping hole on the floor, big enough that a pony would fit. Sure enough, there was a rusty saw beside the hole with little wood shavings stuck on its teeth. Twilight used her magic to create a ball of glimmering light to illuminate the dark attic. Knowing that this room would probably be the only place Trixie would hide, the determined ponies slowly took a look around the loft. Everypony checked under the sheet-covered furniture and looked into the chests. Most of the objects found in the chests are either old clutter before the abandonment or some of Trixie's unused equipment for her magic performances. Angel was hopping along behind Fluttershy while she was opening a toy trunk in the back of the room. Fluttershy went out to examine another chest while Angel hopped behind her until he stepped over something wet. He stopped to see a dark fluid under his hind legs. He went to Fluttershy and pulled the back of her dress. "What is it, Angel?" asked Fluttershy, when Angel pointed towards the small puddle of the liquid leaving tracks behind Angel's path. Fluttershy sniffed at the substance. "Umm... guys?" Fluttershy told every other pony, "I think I've found something here." The ponies went towards Fluttershy to examine for themselves the dark fluid on the floor. Twilight brought the light with her and the color of the fluid brightened a dark red. Upon sniffing, Twilight knew it was blood. More smears of blood was traced to the edge of the room at the side of the puddle. They followed the trail until the end up in front of a large trunk covered by a white sheet. Pinkie Pie bit a corner of the white sheet and pulled it away from the trunk. Streaks of blood can be seen at the side of the chest. The Crusaders opened the chest to find mostly spare silvery-blue fabric from Trixie's costumes. Twilight slowly levitated the fabrics away and slowly revealed blue fur. At the bottom of the chest, a unicorn's lifeless body was uncovered with a long, deep gash running down her back. It was Trixie. Everypony stood speechless hoping to find the expected killer but unexpectedly dead. Nopony had a clue on what to expect in the house. They all started to converse rushingly amongst one another. "Did she commit suicide?" asked Mayor. "I'd think it's impossible. I mean, what kind of pony commits suicide after a murder?" replied Twilight. "That murderder must still be out there then," said Applejack as she looked out the window. She noticed the faint blue spherical wall covering the house. "He or she cannot really escape with that stubborn forcefield blocking every possible way out of this joint." "So I guess the killer must still be lurking around the premises," replied Rarity. "I-I'm s-scared..." said Fluttershy, hiding behind Rarity's dress, "I-I don't wanna... d-d-die..." Angel unintentionally hopped over Fluttershy's dress. Fluttershy squealed and jumped up as she zoomed towards the back of Twilight's dress. Angel who tumbled scratched his head and stomped her feet repeatedly showing complaint of Fluttershy's immediate reactions. Spike pulled Twilight's dress and said, "Also, aren't there also two ponies downstairs who were just murdered as well?" "Oh right!" replied Twilight. She announced, "Everypony, we have to check on Cherry Berry and Berry Punch downstairs. If we all go down together, I don't think the killer would attack without getting caught." Steadily watching their paces, the ponies quickly but carefully made their way back towards the ground floor. Each pony was more watchful with their surroundings than before. They watched for each other while on the way down. The ponies, who first witnessed the attacks of Cherry and Berry Punch, led the others towards the dining room. When they passed through the doorway, at a distance they can see two pink ponies of different colored manes lying lifeless over puddles of blood. Doctor Whooves went over the scene and checked the two ponies' bodies. After a while, he finally spoke, "I'm sorry to say that they are dead." "Five murdered ponies..." uttered Twilight, "right at the bottom of our noses... with not much in common... this doesn't make any sense!" "No pony here is safe!" yelled Applejack. "I really need to bring the twins to a safer place," told Pinkie, "This bloody mess, especially with one that's their parents', is not going to make them feel any better." "We have to take some action right now," proclaimed Twilight, "I'll need to tell Princess Celestia about this. The others... let's go catch that killer!"