Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc: Wonderland's Despair

by MangaKamen

Abnormal Days 2 - Bitter Sweet

Death.

It’s a fact of life that no one can escape or refute.

Everything dies – Ponies, dragons, griffons, diamond dogs, nature, cities, even continents perish at the hands of time.

At least that’s what Tracer told himself as he looked at the still form of Elo Castling, if it wasn’t for the blood, she almost looked like she was asleep.

“You okay?”

Tracer shook his head when he realized that Crowquill was speaking to him. There were only a few characters left in White Rabbit’s Storage besides Tracer and Crowquill. Smokey and Kopuz stood in different corners of the room, watching everyone in the room, but they weren’t the only ones standing watch – Geri was in another corner.

“Miss Freya wanted me to keep an eye on the investigation here,” The bowtie wearing diamond dog answered when Crowquill asked him earlier. “Miss Freya’s not a fan of blood, and wants me to report to her when you guys get done.”

Hawkward was also around… Somewhere. He had disappeared into the backroom when everyone else left to their own devices.

Tracer sighed, “Yeah… It’s just hard to grasp my mind around. Someone’s dead, and it was someone we knew.”

“Not to sound cold-hearted,” Crowquill stated as he turned away from Elo’s corpse. “But we need to investigate, otherwise we’ll meet the same fate.”

“Y-yeah,” Tracer muttered back with his ears drooping.

“If it’s too much, you should leave,” Crowquill suggested.

“I can’t,” Tracer replied, raising his head up. “I can’t look away from this, I need to continue onwards.”

Crowquill smiled slightly, “You’ve got a strong heart, Shot. How about you look around the area first? I’d like to look at the body closer, come back after a little bit.”

“Sure,” Tracer replied as he walked over to the area underneath the window.

A day ago, this was just a simple location where one could sit in the chair next to the table and enjoy a book. But there was a large amount of red feathers that covered the pieces of furniture, but there was something that bugged Tracer. ‘There’s… There’s something missing here. But I can’t put my hoof on it… I’ll come back to this later…’

Tracer lifted up one of the feathers from the bed and looked at it. The coloring of the feather was definitely a match of a certain pegasus mare’s feather colors. ‘But did Lore really do this? She doesn’t seem to be like that…’

Tracer took a breath, and then whiffed a few times. There was something in the air, despite the coppery smell of blood, it was noticeable. Tracer took a few more whiffs, trying to find the source of the smell, until he realized it came from the feather he had in his hoof.

He sniffed a little bit, and indeed, the feather had a sweet scent to it. ‘Not a bad smell, but, is it shampoo? I’ve never smelt a shampoo like this before…’

“Something caught your attention?”

Tracer turned to see Geri standing next to him, the stallion smiled sheepishly as the Diamond Dog crouched down slightly to look at the feathers. “Was… Was it that noticeable?”

“You’re standing in the middle of the room sniffing feathers,” Geri pointed out bluntly. “That tends to raise a few flags – And the ramifications about these feathers…”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Tracer stated as he held the feather up. “There’s something odd about these feathers.”

“Hmm?” Geri mused as he took the feather and leered at it. When he breathed through his nose, the Diamond Dog narrowed his eyes at it. “You’re right, there is something weird about it.”

“Really?” Tracer questioned. “What is it?”

“… Well, I don’t know much about grooming habits of ponies, so I can’t really say how well this’ll work,” Geri answered back as he placed the feather back on the chair. “But Diamond Dogs have a better sense of smell than other races, Tartarus, odor is sometimes a means of identifying members of other races.

“But this feather… Tartarus, all of them, they have a different smell to them rather than Lore.”

“How’s that possible?” Tracer answered back. ‘There’s also the fact that the smell seems familiar, but… Where?’

“Well, there are a few reasons,” Geri continued with his paws at his chin. “If you’re being hopeful, then the feathers don’t belong to Lore. But that’s easily explained if she used a different conditioner or whatever pegasai use for cleaning their feathers. What’s weird is why the feathers are here.”

Tracer looked up to the window, “Well, couldn’t the culprit lose the feathers by trying to get out through the window?”

“But why go through the window when you could go through the door?” Geri countered as he turned towards the opened door. “If we trust the Cheshire File, then Elo would’ve been here at around two thirty in the morning, and from what I heard, you can’t lock the door to this place while someone’s in here.”

“But the door was broken,” Tracer muttered back, looking at the door he and Smokey knocked down earlier. “That’s why me and Smokey had to bust it down, in fact, Freya can testify that the door wouldn’t open.”

“Huh, the two of you did that?” Geri commented with a smirk. “I may have to improve my opinion about you two.”

‘I had a feeling he didn’t like me,’ Tracer thought to himself.

Geri didn’t say a word as he eyed the couch, with a raised brow, the Diamond Dog placed his paw on the cushions, “What’s this?”

“What’s what?” Tracer asked.

The diamond dog drew his paw back and pulled out a familiar black piece of metal that was stained a little with blood and some black stuff on it. “A key?”

Tracer blinked a few times when he looked to the key, and his eyes widened before he galloped to the doorway. The earth stallion popped his head out of the storage and looked down in the grass. ‘It’s there!’

Among the grass was the same key that he had tried using earlier with Freya – The shape and size of the key was the same, and he brought it back into the building in his mouth. When he was back in front of Geri, the stallion placed the key on the ground, “Hey, Geri, do these keys look the same?”

The diamond dog picked up the key and compared it to the bloodied key, “… They’re similar yeah, but if you look at the heads of the key, you can tell that they’re different.”

Geri held the keys down to Tracer, showing the stallion that the keys did look a little bit different. ‘And the key that was outside didn’t work… But didn’t Cheshire give us just one key, but where did this second one come from?’

“Curious, isn’t it?” Geri muttered before he placed both keys on the nearby table. “But this still begs the question why culprit didn’t use the door…”

That little mystery stuck in the back of Tracer’s head as he turned back over to Crowquill who was… Was he actually touching Elo’s body?! ‘I think I’ll stay away from that for a while.’

“That’s kinda fucking disturbing,” Smokey muttered, turning away from watching the pegasus poke and prod the body.

Crowquill rolled his eyes, but then continued onwards, making sure that he wasn’t touching the blood.

Tracer decided to head to the backroom to see if Hawkward was still back there, there would be plenty of time to talk to Crowquill. So, Tracer walked through the doorway and immediately spotted the red stallion, “Hey Hawkward, you find anything?”

The alchemist turned his attention towards Tracer and then sighed, “The only thing I found were bed sheets, a few pillows, a grease stain on some clothes… Maybe you should try looking yourself first.”

Tracer opened his mouth to say something, but then shook his head. Hawkward did have a point, so Tracer began to look around. The young earth stallion had spent most of his time in this building since the group was taken to Wonderland, so if there was anyone who could see something out of place it would be Tracer…

As he walked over to the side of the shelved room, Tracer spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Sticking out of one of the bins was a small sheet of white cloth that had some ripped edges, curiosity grabbed the stallion’s mind and he walked to the bin and pulled it out. ‘A sheet? No, it’s too small…’

“Find something?”

Tracer jumped up and dropped the small sheet to the ground, the stallion turned around to see Hawkward was standing behind him. “Yeesh! What the Tartarus, Hawkward?! Didn’t you just say that I should look by myself first?”

“Yes, but still, never hurts to have a second opinion on something,” Hawkward replied as he looked down at the floor where the sheet fell. “Hmm, a wrecked pillow? Interesting… Mind giving it to me? I’d like to take a closer look.”

Tracer sighed and crouched down, hooking his hoof on the floor to grab the pillow, “Yeah, sure…”

As Tracer ran his hoof over the floor and lifted up the pillow to Hawkward, however, when Tracer lifted his front leg up, something fell from the pillow case and clattered on the ground.

“And what’s this?” Hawkward questioned, using his long braided tail to lift up the item that fell.

When the red stallion brought his tail up, both he and Tracer saw that the item in question was a pair of small glasses. Hawkward rubbed his chin, “Hmm, you know there was something I was wondering when I saw Elo’s body…”

“Wait, are these…?” Tracer asked.

“Yes, these are her glasses,” Hawkward stated with a concerned look on his face. “The only other individual here who wears glasses is Godfrey, and he was clearly wearing his when he came here.”

“But, what are they doing in here?” Tracer asked as he leaned out of the doorway and into the main hall.

“Curious, isn’t it?” Hawkward snickered as he rolled his head slightly. “Why would the murderer bother taking the glasses here? There’d be no point.”

And yet, even though he posed the question, Hawkward smiled. Tracer narrowed his brow at the red stallion, ‘Something tells me that he already knows why they’re here…’

“Back to the pillow,” Hawkward stated as he yanked the pillow casing from Tracer. For a few moments, Hawkward turned the pillow casing before he dropped it to the ground. “Looks like it was finely cut in half. And that’s all.”

“Wait, what?” Tracer questioned, blinking a few times at the pillow that Hawkward dropped to the floor. “That’s it? Isn’t there anything else to it?”

“You’ve got a brain underneath those goggles, right?” Hawkward asked with a smirk. “You should be able to connect the dots.”

‘Wow, he’s kind of a jerk,’ Tracer thought to himself.

“Besides,” Hawkward chuckled as he walked over to another shelf. “There’s a lot of weird stuff here…”

“Weird? Weird how?” Tracer asked.

“We’ve got the standard toiletries, some clothes and first aid stuffs,” Hawkward lifted his hoof up and pulled a strange spray bottle off of one of the shelves farthest from the door, “There’s some Aminophthaloyl hydrazide here, certainly wouldn’t want to mix this stuff up with shampoo or soap.”

“A min of what now?” Tracer questioned as he blinked a few times at Hawkward.

“My apologies,” Hawkward chuckled. “I tend to refer to chemicals by their more ‘technical’ terms. It’s luminol.”

Hawkward was met with a rather blank look from Tracer, “Yeah, I’m still lost.”

“Oh for the love of,” Hawkward growled. “The simplest explanation is that this stuff can be used to make things glow if it’s applied with the appropriate agent.”

“So, it’s like magic, right?” Tracer asked as he looked at the bottle. “It makes things glow? What’s the point of that?”

“First off, it’s not magic,” Hawkward growled with a flat look in his eyes. “It’s science! And secondly, this stuff can help us out, let me show you – Follow me.”

Tracer shrugged his shoulders as he followed the red stallion into the main room. With the bottle wrapped around in his tail, Hawkward walked over to the body, much to the chagrin of Tracer, but still the goggle wearing stallion followed.

Crowquill perked his head up when he turned towards Hawkward, “What are you doing?”

“Just doing a little demonstration,” Hawkward stated as he used his tail to point the bottle near a small splotch of blood. “Now watch, Goggle Head.”

With a little pressure on his tail, Hawkward sprayed the bottle on the blood, and the moment that the liquid touched the blood, a bright blue glow began to envelope the puddle. Tracer’s eyes widen as he watched the puddle glow brightly, “That… That’s amazing!”

But just as quickly as the blue glow appeared, it faded away back into the regular coloring of blood. Hawkward smiled coyly as he lifted the bottle up, “It’s nothing special, just a regular chemical reaction. It makes copper, iron and cyanides glow blue for about thirty seconds. And blood has iron in it. Interestingly enough, horseradish sauce can also make this stuff glow.”

“What was luminol doing in here?” Crowquill asked.

“Beats the Tartarus outta me,” Hawkward answered back with a shrug. “If I had to hazard a guess, Cheshire probably left it here for us for some reason.”

“Hmm, well, might as well not look a gift horse in the mouth,” Crowquill admitted.

“Ugh, that’s the thing I can’t stand about ponies,” Kopuz groaned out loud, looking up from some tarot cards he had spread out around his legs. “You’re all really great to know, but the horse puns are just punches to the jaw.”

With a roll of his eyes, Crowquill lifted his hoof up to Hawkward. “Despite that, do you mind if I borrow that luminol? There’s something that I’d like to check.”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Hawkward sighed playfully as he pulled his tail back, keeping the bottle out of Crowquill’s reach. “I mean, after all, this stuff can’t just be handled by anypony – And as an Alchemist, I’m more than capable of handling it.”

“And I assure you, I’m more than qualified to hand the chemical,” Crowquill retorted with a snort following.

“Oh? And what makes you so qualified?”

“Is that really important? We’re in the middle of an investigation where our lives are on the line…”

“And I’m not too sure if I can really trust you on this – You’ve been less than forthcoming throughout this entire situation!”

“Uh, is this really the time to argue?” Tracer asked, chuckling sheepishly when he realized that the two stallions were now leering at him. “I mean… like Crowquill said, we… We are investigating for our lives, now isn’t the time to argue.”

The red stallion sighed loudly and shook his head, “Whatever, after this whole ordeal is over with, I expect some answers from you, Crowquill.”

“Am I right to assume that you’ll humor my request?” Crowquill asked.

“Yeah, whatever,” Hawkward replied.

“Then yes, I’ll fill in some answers,” Crowquill replied with a smirk.

The two stallions walked off to the middle of the room, which left Tracer next to Elo. The two stallions were at the elephant in the room, the knife that sat on the rug a few feet away from Elo. ‘That must’ve been what…’

The earth stallion looked over the unicorn’s still body, feeling the chill run down his spine again. ‘I… I still can’t believe she’s dead. Even worse, someone killed her…’

Tracer’s eyes turned to the side, where he saw something blue amongst the blood, ‘What’s that?’

Making sure that he didn’t step on any of the blood, Tracer made his way to the item in question and lowered himself to it. The item in question seemed to be a blue shard of… Something. ‘What am I looking at here… Wait a second…’

Tracer turned back towards the table near the red chair, and narrowed his eyes. That’s when a spark flashed in his head, ‘That’s it!’

A small smile appeared on Tracer’s face when he came to that realization, but then his joy faded when another thought popped into his head, ‘But… Why did that thing disappear?’

Tracer brought his hoof to the blue shard and turned it over. He blinked when he realized that there was a small splotch of blood on it, and he turned back over to Elo’s corpse. ‘Could it be?’

Tracer’s eyes fell down to Elo’s body, where one of her hooves rested upon her chest and under the hoof was a piece of paper that was near the bloodied portion of her black sweater vest. “Hey, could someone with opposable digits come over here?”

Both Smokey and Kopuz looked to each other. Kopuz lifted his fist up, then pointed out two fingers, and then held his fingers flat towards the red dragon, who in turn nodded. Both the dragon and minotaur lifted their hands up and shook them at each other a few times before they snapped their hands towards each other.

Kopuz had his fist balled up

Smokey had his claws laid flat.

Kopuz lowered his head and slumped his shoulders in defeat before he dragged his hooves over to Tracer. “Yeah, Tracer? What’s going on?”

“Kopuz, I really don’t wanna ask this,” Tracer stated as he lifted a hoof up. “But, I think Elo’s holding something under hoof, and I think someone with fingers would be more…”

“More suited to getting it?” Kopuz interrupted before he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a number of beads. “I… I don’t mind, but I need to do something before I get it.”

“What?” Tracer asked, both confused and a little curious.

“It’s a religious thing,” Kopuz stated as he knelt down next to Elo, making sure that he wasn’t kneeling in blood. With both of his hands wrapped in beads, Kopuz brought them close to his face and began to rub his hands together. “Minotaurs tend to bless the dead, and to disturb a dead body without proper… Procedures, we tend to get cursed.”

“Those beads protect you from that?” Tracer asked.

“Yup,” Kopuz replied before he lifted Elo’s hoof up. “Sorry ‘bout this Elo, but we need to do this…”

The minotaur picked up the piece of paper and cocked an eyebrow at it, “Huh… Well ain’t that interesting?”

“What? What is it?” Tracer asked, leaning over to get a look at the paper.

“It’s a note,” Kopuz answered back.

“And she had it under her hoof?” Hawkward asked as he and Crowquill walked over to Tracer and Kopuz. Hawkward turned towards Crowquill, “You were looking over the body, right? Did you see that?”

“Yes, but I wanted to respect the body,” Crowquill answered, staring more intently at Kopuz. “That and the fact that I don’t have the proper equipment to acquire the evidence without damaging it.”

Kopuz blushed as he lifted the note up, “Yes well, I’ll just read this thing…”

The room went silent after Kopuz finished reading the letter.

“Someone planned this,” Kopuz sighed with his head lowered. “Think this thing holds any merit? Is there a way out?”

“Probably not,” Crowquill answered stiffly as he walked over to the door. “Kopuz, please keep that letter safe.”

“Uh, sure,” Kopuz answered as he pocketed the letter.

“And where are you going?” Hawkward asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I have something else to look into,” Crowquill answered back before he slipped out of the door.

“I’ll head out too,” Geri replied, following the white pegasus. “I’ll let the others know what we found here.”

And with that, the bowtie wearing Diamond Dog left the storage room.

“Hmm, yeah,” Hawkward replied as he looked about. “I think I’ll stay here for a little while longer as well. I still have an inkling with the backroom.”

“Who says ‘inkling’?” Tracer asked to himself.

Tracer watched as Kopuz returned to the corner of the room, his hands clasped together in prayer. Smokey was still in his corner, his guitar out as he plucked a few strings, trying to find a certain kind of beat, and Hawkward was heading back to the backroom, the bottle of luminol still wrapped in his tail.

“Tch, this is just bloody perfect,” a familiar voice spat out.

Tracer turned back to Smokey who was still trying to pluck a chord or two from his guitar, “Shouldn’t you be keeping an eye on the crime scene?”

“I can jam and watch at the same time,” Smokey countered back. “When you play mostly on the street for tips, you tend to watch the guitar and the crowds at the same time.”

“Well, alright,” Tracer admitted, looking over to the side as he patted the back of his head. “But Smokey, can I ask you a question?”

“You just did, equine,” Smokey chuckled with his tongue sticking out. “Nah! Just kidding ya, Trace, what ya need?”

“It’s nothing much,” Tracer answered back. “I just wanted to know how you got over here so quickly when me and Freya had to get inside…?”

“Ain’t no big mystery to that,” Smokey replied with a shake of his head. “It’s probably the same reason why you came here this morning - to get something to relieve the boredom. Dunno ‘bout you, but I couldn't get a wink of sleep and even practicing guitar can only do so much for a dragon.

“Then I figured that I should hit the cafeteria to get the key for this place, see what all the hubbub was about this place… ‘Course, that didn’t matter since the moment I took a step out of my room, I ran into the goat.”

“You mean Francis, right?” Tracer corrected.

“Yeah, that Prance guy,” Smokey grumbled. “He’s way too chipper in the morning – And I can barely understand two words from the goat. So, I ask him if the key’s still in the cafeteria since that’s his domain, but he said that it was already here.

“As it turns out, that diamond dog girl took the damn thing – Then I hear you yelling your head off with that pansy scream, and… Yeah, the rest you can probably remember.”

“… I need to get out of here,” Tracer sighed under his breath with a flat look on his face.

Walking down the path to the cafeteria, Tracer was really grateful that there was fresh air in Wonderland, it took everything that the earth stallion had to not vomit in the White Rabbit’s Storage. Although, when Tracer left the storage building, he had the misfortune to see what Freya had ‘tossed’ out on the lawn…

‘Well, at least I know that diamond dogs don’t really eat jewels,’ Tracer thought to himself as he walked down the path.

“This is just… Wrong…”

Tracer’s ears perked up when he heard that voice and saw that a few feet ahead of him, near one of the rose bushes was Alchymist, normally calm demeanor had faded away, and the unicorn’s eyes had narrowed down on the bush.

“Uh, everything okay?” Tracer questioned.

The rose-violet unicorn turned her attention towards the gray stallion, and the serious look in her eyes melted away as she slunk slightly away. Tracer lifted a hoof up, “Um, are you okay? Are you worried about the trial?”

Alchymist turned her attention to her hooves.

“I… I mean, I can’t say anything,” Tracer muttered as he looked about nervously. ‘Holy Tartarus, what’s going on with her?’

“… I… I’m not w-worried.”

Tracer perked up when he heard Alchymist’s voice again. “You aren’t?”

“I… I mean,” Alchymist continued, her gaze still not set on Tracer. “This whole s-situation is stressful… B-But, d-don’t we already h-have a culprit?”

‘So, she thinks that Lore did it,’ Tracer thought to himself. “And if she’s not the one who did it?”

Alchymist’s ears drooped slightly, “T-Then… I don’t know…”

Tracer didn’t know what to say to that.

“But… I wasn’t t-talking about t-the trial before,” Alchymist continued onwards.

“Huh? You weren’t?” Tracer asked, his head tilted slightly.

Alchymist gestured with her head towards one of the bushes near her – Tracer had come to terms that for some reason, most of the rose bushes here were having their roses painted white, but this bush was completely bare of any flowers.

“This rosebush,” Alchymist sighed with her head lowered. “It was the only one with red roses on it.”

Now that she mentioned it, when Tracer first stepped out of that classroom and into Wonderland, he too noticed that one of the bushes was only red roses.

“It’s a crime to see so many flowers painted,” Alchymist spat out, her eyes narrowing down on the can of white paint near her. The unicorn mare turned around and slammed her hoof into the can and kicked it away. “Paint like this will just kill the plants! Cheshire should be the one on trial for cruelty like this!”

“Uh, sure?” Tracer chuckled sheepishly, a little perturbed by Alchymist’s change in attitude. “But, uh, Alchymist, out of curiosity, did you happen to see anything related to the case?”

Alchymist stared at Tracer for a few seconds before she lowered her head, “… No.”

Tracer sighed.

“B-But if you find the roses to this bush,” Alchymist requested with her ears lowered. “Could you g-give them to me?”

“Huh? Why?” Tracer asked. “Do you know a spell that can bind the flowers back to the bush or something?”

“N-No, once something’s been… W-Well,” Alchymist stumbled to find the words. “Y-Ya know, ‘cut from its roots’, it can’t be returned to its original state. S-So, I figured m-might as well not have the r-r-roses go to waste.”

“Huh? What can roses be used for?” Tracer questioned. "I always thought that roses were just meant to look pretty or for decoration.”

Alchymist narrowed her eyes at the earth stallion, “E-Everything h-has a p-purpose. O-Other than j-just looking pretty r-r-roses can be used for perfume, clothing, medicine or even be used as a food or drink. I just w-w-wanted to make some rose petal tea to c-calm my n-nerves.”

It was possible that Alchymist was also shaken to see that someone had died – It wouldn’t be a stretch that she’d want something to give her peace of mind.

“Any idea who could’ve taken them?” Tracer asked looking at the bare bush.

“Um, w-well, w-whoever took them had hooves,” Alchymist answered back.

“… And how’d you figure that?” Tracer questioned, taking a good look at the bush.

“T-There’s a hoofprint in the paint,” Alchymist explained.

With her horn aglow with a bright blue aura, pulling back one of the branches slightly, revealing that there was a spilled can of white paint that had tipped over on its side. The paint was pretty much dried, but in the middle of the paint was a gap that resembled that of a hoof that had a slit going right down the middle of it.

“W-Whoever took the r-roses, they must’ve knocked the paint c-can over and stepped in it,” Alchymist explained, her eyes narrowed down at the hoof print. "They might've not noticed it cause it was dark out, or m-maybe cause it was between the branches..."

“Well, if I find them, I’ll let ya know,” Tracer replied before he walked past Alchymist. “It was nice talkin’ to ya…”

But before he could get past her, Alchymist’s horn lit up with a bright blue aura and several roots from some of the nearby bushes erupted from the ground and blocked Tracer’s path. The earth stallion skidded to a halt and turned towards the unicorn with a cold bead of sweat dripping down the side of his head. “Uh, w-was there something else?”

“Did… Did you mean that?”

“Huh?” Tracer asked, more sweat appearing on his brow as Alchymist’s deep blue eyes focused in on his face.

“About how it was nice talking to me,” Alchymist repeated, her eyes narrowed down even more. “Did. You. Mean. It?”

“Um, y-yes?” Tracer sputtered.

And just like that, the roots retreated into the ground and Alchymist smiled brightly before she playfully trotted off.

That left Tracer standing dumbfounded on the path as he watched Alchymist trot away. ‘… Dad was actually right; unicorn mares are crazy. I hope Mana and Prism don’t act like this when they’re older, if I survive here, I won’t survive that!’

After that uncomfortable moment, Tracer looked at the rosebush… Although, with the lack of roses, just calling it a bush would be appropriate. Who would just take roses and Tracer was sure that the flowers were on it yesterday, he wasn’t actively looking, but he did walk by the bush constantly.

Shrugging it off, Tracer continued on the path, but stopped when he was near the laundry room where Godfrey was seated outside with a stack of paper that was near him. The glasses wearing griffon lifted his head up and shook his head at Tracer. “Ah, Split Ends, what brings you here?”

“Oh, you know, investigating so I don’t die,” Tracer commented with a nervous chuckle.

“You should learn to relax,” Godfrey advised. “Too much stress will make your mane fall out… Although, that might actually be an improvement.”

“Yeah, but this is a stressful time,” Tracer countered as he looked at the stacks of paper that were near Godfrey. “And while we’re supposed to be investigating you’re…”

It was then that Tracer saw the top sheet of paper, and was met with an almost perfect picture of his face, “What the? Is that… Me?”

“Why, yes it is,” Godfrey chuckled a talon near his face. “I’m just finishing up some work that I started yesterday.”

“Yeah, now that I think about it, Misch got kinda mad at you for taking the name plates down,” Tracer admitted as he looked through the papers. These… These are really good.”

“Why thank you, Split Ends,” Godfrey chuckled as he pushed his glasses up. “I do try to do good work.”

“But in all seriousness,” Tracer coughed out. “What do you think happened to Elo?”

“Hmm, well, I think it’d be obvious,” Godfrey replied as he pulled his scissors from his pocket and began to cut into the paper. “One look at the crime scene would be enough to see what happened. A shame too since I saw Elo yesterday.”

“Where’d you see her?” Tracer asked.

“Nowhere special,” Godfrey replied with a wave of his talons. “I was getting the last of the name plates when I saw her hovering around someone’s room on the first floor. I assumed she was just looking for her own and forgot where she was staying, so I told her that her room was a couple over.”

“That sounds exactly like what happened to Misch,” Tracer pointed out with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. “Why exactly did you take the nameplates down?”

“I told you, because I wanted to change the pictures,” Godfrey sighed pushing up his glasses. “Those crude drawings from earlier were just an eyesore. And what exactly are you getting at?”

“I mean, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to finish these ones first before taking down the originals?” Tracer asked as he lifted the sheet that had his face on it. “That way you wouldn’t make a mistake when you were putting them back on the doors.”

“Humph, unlike the rest of you apparently,” Godfrey sighed with a shake of his head. “I’ve got a good memory, so I can remember which doors had the name plates on them.”

“But wouldn’t that cause a problem for everyone else?” Tracer commented, earning himself a leer from Godfrey.

The griffon sighed loudly and wrapped his tail around the papers, “Fine, I’ll put these up right now – Wouldn’t want to get anyone lost… Even though it’s been a day and no one’s messed up save for that grease monkey.”

‘I’m guessing you mean Misch,’ Tracer thought to himself as he watched the stylish griffon pack his stuff up. ‘Then again, how would changing the name plates affect what would happen at the storage place.’

“Godfrey, is there anything else you saw yesterday or this morning?” Tracer asked, fishing for more information.

Godfrey sighed loudly with a roll of his eyes, “Not really, I was in my room most of the night – Either working on these name plates or sleeping. Around six I got up and headed to the kitchen to get something for breakfast – And lo and behold, I was able to make my favorite drink, everything was in there already..”

“Yeah, that stuff feels like it could melt your teeth if you drank too much of it,” Tracer admitted.

Godfrey scoffed with a roll of his eyes and began to walk away, “Well whatever, if you excuse me, I need to cut and run."

It was then that Godfrey stopped and turned towards Tracer, “Oh that reminds me – Split Ends, you’ve been in the back room of that storage place, right?”

“Yeah? What about it?” Tracer asked.

“You didn’t happen to see something like this, did you?” Godfrey inquired as he pulled out a single pair of scissors from his chest pocket and held them in his talons.

“Scissors?” Tracer questioned, taking a good look at the long and surprisingly sharp metal. “I… I don’t think so, why?”

“I lost a pair of these,” Godfrey answered back with a snort. “I thought I dropped them in my room, but after I tore up the place trying to find them, I thought I must’ve dropped them in the storage backroom when you, Lore and I were there. I was going to look for them today… But you know.”

“But you’ve already got a pair, why do you need a second one?” Tracer asked.

Godfrey sighed before he tucked the scissors away and began to walk away, “Those who don’t have opposable digits wouldn’t understand. If you see them, please let me know, Split Ends.”

“Uh sure,” Tracer stated.

“*hic*”

“Huh?” Tracer questioned.

The earth stallion remained silent as he perked his ears up. He could barely hear it, but it was there, a sound that Tracer had heard before. Someone was crying, and given the situation, Tracer had a good guess who it was…

But where was it coming from?

Tracer looked towards the laundry room, and just remembered that he’d never been inside before, so, the stallion entered the building.

Considering what Misch had done yesterday, taking apart a washer and dryer, the fact that the single roomed building was a mess wasn’t that hard to imagine. Several pieces of machinery littered the floor with several towels soaked with grease were tossed into one of the laundry bins in the room. ‘I still don’t know how you get grease from a washing machine…’

However, Tracer saw a familiar white tail that poked out from behind the laundry bin, and noticed that the sniffling was directly coming from the room. The goggle wearing stallion cleared his throat, “Lore? Is that you?”

With a loud yelp, Lore jumped up and knocked over the laundry basket that she was behind. The young horror novelist was visibly shaking, her mane a mess and her eyes were puffy from the tears that were at her eyes. “T-Tracey?”

“Hey, are you okay?” Tracer asked as he gingerly lifted a hoof towards the pegasus.

The small pegasus sniffled as used her sleeve to wipe away the tears she had, “I… I wasn’t c-crying.”

‘Sure,’ Tracer thought to himself. “Any reason why you’re in here?”

“It… It was just the closest place I could find to hide,” Lore replied with her ears drooped down. “T-Those feathers…”

Lore then stopped, looking away from the taller stallion, but Tracer could probably hazard a guess what she was getting at. Pretty much everyone thought the feathers belonged to the small pegasus, and it wouldn’t be too much thinks she could get through the window and clip her wings on the way out.

But there was something more to it than that.

“Lore,” Tracer cleared his throat. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me what you did this morning. Whatever you say, I’ll believe in you.”

For a moment, Lore hesitated before she lifted her head towards Tracer, tears starting to well up in her eyes again, “I… I didn’t have anything to do with this! L-Last night, I was up all night trying to write – It’s what I do when I’m stressed, and after seeing t-those pictures… I…”

Tracer nodded, unfortunately, if what Lore said was true, she didn’t have an alibi for the incident. “I take if you were alone?”

“W-Well, yes,” Lore admitted, as she looked to the side. “I… I was in my r-r-room for the night. B-But… E-Everyone, they think I did it… Don’t they?”

Tracer didn’t know what to say to that, while there was evidence that did paint Lore as the culprit, there was just something that didn’t sit right with Tracer…

Lore sniffled again before her wings fanned out and she began to lift off of the air, “T-This is pointless!”

And like that, the young red pegasus flew past Tracer, making the stallion reel back. “Lore! Wait!”

The stallion started to go after her…

CLINK!

Tracer looked down amongst the dirty towels around his hoof, with his head tilted he pushed the greasy towels over to the side, and his eyes widened when he saw red. “This… This is?!”

The stallion then began to root among the towels until he saw some red fabric amongst the white and black. For a moment, Tracer just stood there before he pulled it from the rest of the towels and began to unfurl the red piece of cloth, however, when he tried to, Tracer noticed that it was tucked in tightly with his hooves. And with the splotches of red and a little grease, Tracer didn't want to test his luck with his mouth. ‘I… I can’t get this thing opened! But, what’s something like this doing here? It doesn't match the rest of the towels... Does it belong to someone?’

Tracer tapped his hoof against the tied up fabric a few times, earning himself a couple of clinks – It sounded like metal against metal, but… There was something off. ‘I need to ask someone here who has fingers, talons or magic to unravel this for me… And I may need to ask Misch about this, looking at the greasy towels, did she try using these to clean herself up?’

After the laundry room, Tracer made his way to the cafeteria building, where a familiar griffon was snoozing just outside the door with a zebra not too far. Tracer waved a hoof towards Zure, “Hey there.”

“Ah, hello Tracer,” Zure greeted with a dreary smile. “How’s it going at the White Rabbit’s Storage?”

“…” Tracer was quiet as he rubbed the back of his head.

Zure seemed to pick up on Tracer’s uneasiness and sighed, “That bad, huh?”

“What’s up with Misch?” Tracer asked, noting that the griffon was pretty much fast asleep.

“Oh, she and I were pretty much awake all night last night,” Zure replied, pointing to her own eyes – Indeed, there were some bags under her eyes. “We were both pretty uncomfortable after seeing those pictures yesterday, so after we left ya, we spent the night together.”

‘It’s probably more innocent than I think,’ Tracer thought to himself. “That reminds me, what about everyone else? I mean, now that I think about it, I don’t think anyone but you two have alibis for last night.”

“I couldn’t tell ya,” Zure answered back with a shrug. “I tried asking Lore when she flew by, but she just sped right past us and to her room – For a horror novelist she seems to be really scarred by the… I mean, Elo.”

“I wasn’t really clear headed about it either,” Tracer replied, remembering how he was about to lose it. “Then again, the only one who seemed to be calm was Smokey.”

“That’s the dragon, right?” Zure asked, getting a nod from Tracer. “Humph.”

“What? Don’t like dragons?” Tracer questioned.

“It’s just his attitude,” Zure replied instantly. “I don’t care for his use of language.”

“He does love his f-bombs,” Tracer chuckled slightly. “But he doesn’t seem that bad…”

Zure just snorted and looked away, “Whatever…”

“Anyway, I’ve got a question to ask Misch,” Tracer requested, looking down to his pocket that had the wrapped up red fabric in it. “Think you can wake her up?”

“She asked me to not disturb her until the trial,” Zure replied with a sigh. “She’s a lazy one, but when she does wake up, I’ll let her know you got a question.”

‘Well, that’s a bummer,’ Tracer thought to himself as he leered at the griffon who was snoozing.

“In any case, do you mind filling me in on what you guys found at the scene?” Zure requested, smiling at the stallion. “Since we’ve got that trial coming up, I’d like to be prepared.”

“Sure, that’s no problem at all,” Tracer replied. ‘Wait, wasn’t Geri supposed to do this?’

After taking a few minutes to explain almost everything that he could remember to Zure about the crime scene, Tracer made his way up to the upper portion of the building…

“Sacre-bleu!”

The sound of breaking glass filled the air, which made Tracer hurry up the stairs just in time to…

WHAP!

Get some grade-A red rubber flung directly into his face, “OW!”

The red rubber ball bounced against the ground, with Freki and Francis freezing up when they realized that the earth stallion was leering at them (with one eye now slightly bruised). Freki winced as he picked up the dodgeball, “Ooh, sorry ‘bout that, Tracer. I was aiming at the goat… Slippery bastard.”

“Ha ha! Zat zing shall never strike moi!” Francis laughed loudly as he swayed his hips left and right in a very odd dance.

“Somepony’s dead, and you two are here playing dodgeball!?!” Tracer yelled out, while he was mad about the fact he stated, he was also sore because of his eye. “Where’d you even get that thing?”

“Francis snuck it in, apparently,” Freki answered as he tossed the dodgeball up a few times. The diamond dog’s ears drooped slightly. “And yeah, I know it’s not the best time, but in order to get the gears working in the head, exercise gets the blood a flowing my friend! Hell, I heard that some unicorns exercise in order to make blood flow into their horn so they can get a little extra boost!”

“I… I actually agree with that,” Tracer stated looking down. He knew first hoof that exercise did help improve thinking to some extent, his parkour skills were testament to that. “But, that’s not what I’m here for – Francis.”

“Oui?” Francis asked with a bright smile on his face as he ran his hooves over the green ascot he had. “How can moi assist you, Monsieur Tracer?”

“You’re practically the only one who’s been in the kitchen,” Tracer continued as he walked over to the goat. “Do you know if there’s a knife missing from there?”

“Beats ze Tartarus outta moi,” Francis admitted with an annoyed look on his face. “Ze kitchen was a mess zis morning, somebody must’ve been in zere messing wiz everyzing zis morning! Oooh! After all ze cleaning moi did, it makes moi mad! Moi needed to vent some frustration!”

“Is that why you suggested dodgeball to me?” Freki asked before he threw the ball straight towards the goat.

Francis lifted up one of his hooves and caught the ball without moving an inch. The dodgeball spun in his hooves before it came to a halt with some steam rising up from the goat’s foot, both Tracer and Freki’s eyes widened before Francis wound up his legs.

“Yup,” Francis answered.

What happened next was something that Tracer would never see again in his life – The throw that Francis threw was on par with some cannons that shot out cannonballs, and how Freki was still conscious was another mystery to be thrown onto the pile.

“Momma, did you get the license of that chopper?” Freki moaned loudly before he fell back on the busted tables and chairs.

To add insult to injury, the dodgeball landed smack dab right on Freki’s nose.

“Uh, so Francis,” Tracer coughed getting the goat’s attention. “You think you could check for that knife?”

“Well,” Francis started.

Tracer and Francis froze when they heard those chimes, and sure enough, a familiar feline’s voice sounded through the air.

“… Yeah, it’s getting boring watching you guys run around. So, I think it’s time that we start this little shindig. Everyone please report to the Main Court immediately, attendance is required.

“And don’t think about running, cause I’ll have you know that I’m forty-percent tiger – And I will hunt you down and gut you like a fish! Or I’ll drag you to the Main Court, I haven’t decided on which yet: So you should show up so you don’t find out.”

Tracer growled, ‘Damn it! I don’t know if I’m ready for this or not!’

“Monsieur Tracer,” Francis stated as he placed a hoof on the silver stallion’s back. “Go on a head. Moi will look for ze knife for a few moments and drag Francis.”

“O-Okay,” Tracer sighed as he lowered his head. ‘Well, I guess this is it… Ready or not…’

Tracer walked down the stairs and reached the lobby, seeing that Misch and Zure were no longer nearby… However, someone else was.

“Crowquill?” Tracer questioned, garnering the white pegasus’ attention.

“Shot,” Crowquill replied with a nod. “How was your investigation?”

“… I don’t think I’m ready,” Tracer replied with his head lowered. “I… I don’t know how any of this works…”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Crowquill offered with a smile. “You might surprise yourself. Besides, don’t think that you’re the only one here working on this – Everyone has information here and you can always play off them: You just need logic and a clear head. You just need to consider everything that you know, and you’ll find something.

“And remember, if you curl up in fear, you won’t accomplish anything.”

Tracer lifted his head up, “That reminds me Crowquill, I only know one other pony would say something that corny – How… How do you…”

“I’ll make the same deal with you that I did with Hawkward,” Crowquill interrupted with a coy look. “However, with a little addendum. You have to try your best at the trial to find the culprit. Even if we’re about to face the worst, I’ll at least let you have a moment of reprieve.

“But that won’t come to pass – We’ll succeed.”

Tracer was a little surprised with Crowquill’s confidence, ‘Where does his conviction come from?’

“Now, come along,” Crowquill stated as he walked ahead. “Let’s see what Cheshire has in stored for us.”

Tracer nodded and followed the white pegasus.

When the two reached the Main Court, they weren’t the only ones there – A majority of everyone else was there. Lore was there, but she looked to be quivering badly, her mane a mess, while everyone else was casting looks at each other. The only ones who weren’t there were Francis, Freki and oddly enough Hawkward.

“Well, well, well! Not a bad turn out for the first trial!”

Atop of the fountain, Cheshire appeared with his usual cocky smile plastered on his face, “I was expecting a lot more of you to not show up – Although, we’re still missing a few faces. I guess I’ll be able to show off my skills at wrangling after all!”

“Hate to disappoint you.”

Hawkward strolled in, his eyes closed, and behind him was Francis, with Freki using the goat as a prop.

“Ah poo,” Cheshire sighed with a shake of his head. “In any case, since we’re all here now, we should head down to the court room.”

Cheshire then leapt off of the top of the fountain and actually dove into the water, a small splash following. After a moment, the fountain shook and began to lift up out of the ground, revealing a rather spacious circular elevator that opened up with a ding.

Cheshire’s voice rang out, “Please enter the elevator, now.”

Hesitantly, everyone slowly piled into the elevator, with Tracer being the last inside. The elevator was quite spacious despite its outer appearance, and the moment that Tracer’s tail was inside, the doors began to close.

And then the elevator began to descend.

“I swear, that Cheshire has some of the weirdest tastes,” Godfrey stated from his corner in the elevator. “Who puts an elevator under a fountain?”

“The same jackass who kidnaped us, obviously,” Smokey growled with his arms crossed.

“Yeah, but hot damn this is a nice elevator,” Misch pointed out, a large smile on her beak. “You can’t even hear the sound of it moving!”

Indeed, if it wasn’t for the conversation, it would’ve been dead silent.

After a few minutes, the elevator continued descending.

“How deep is this thing?” Freya asked.

“Maybe it goes to ze center of ze planet?” Francis offered.

“That’d be ridiculous,” Zure countered. “And dangerous.”

“You know zat counts as a rhyme, right?” Francis chuckled.

“Shut up.”

The idle chit chat continued as long as the elevator continued going down until finally…

DING!

The elevator stopped, and the doors slowly opened to reveal a rather large room that had several fancy decorations – velvet drapes, a beautiful carpet, and even a fancy golden throne where Cheshire was seated at. However, what really drew Tracer’s eyes, and probably everyone else’s, was the odd circular construct in the middle of the room. There were sixteen chest-high barriers, resembling that of a wooden banister.

There was also another door across from the elevator’s door, but that was little consequence.

“Welcome everyone!” Cheshire greeted from his throne. “Now, would every please be so kind as to take your designated positions, we can start this little game. Shouldn’t be hard to find with your names on it.”

Slowly, everyone made their way around the room, some stopping when they found their own stand. When Tracer found his, he was surprised to see that he was directly across from Cheshire himself, and no one seemed to stop at the stand in front of the cat.

And then, everyone found their stands, and Tracer was left staring straight into Cheshire’s one eye.

“I hope you all enjoy the accommodations,” Cheshire chuckled with his paws up. “This is our special courtroom, especially tailored for your pleasures! This place will decide your fates!”

“You’re a jackass!” Smokey snarled as he pointed a claw at the cat.

“And here I thought I was a Pisces,” Cheshire cackled back. “But enough classic jokes, let’s not waste any more time and electricity! Let the trial – Begin!”