//------------------------------// // Chapter 8- Coolmrfreeze // Story: Thirteen Little Ponies // by trombrony98 //------------------------------// The whole crowd screamed in fear, all of them already on high alert and not at all expecting an explosion of all things. Twilight yelled, “Did anyone have an idea where that came from, or were we all too busy screaming?” The whole group looked away respectively all blushing in different directions, even Twilight did so respectively, save for Time Turner, who suggested that they all needed to find the source. He pointed to Cheerilee. “I'll go with her. Twilight, you take Bulk Biceps and search the lower floors while we check upstairs.” Cheerilee nearly lost it. Time Turner was at the top of her suspect list, and she preferred not to be stuck with a potential killer. “I don’t wanna go with him! I want to go with you two.” Time Turner responded, "Look. I know I may not be your first pick for a partner, but we have to stick to groups. Safety in numbers." Cheerilee slank back like one of her foals. “Sorry. I'm just a bit shaken up right now. You understand, right?” She tried to smile and hide her bits of rose red blush she may or may not have had. Time Turner waved off to Twilight and Bulk as they headed down the hall. Cheerilee marched off with Time Turner, trying ever so hard to get his “being” the murderer off her own mind so she spoke. “So, you wandered into Ponyville?” She smiled over at him, trying to make simple conversation. “Well,... I guess I did. I don’t know how I arrived there specifically, I simply walked into the city, and there were no walls to restrict my entrance so I just walked in, possibly from the east.” He gave her a slight puzzled look as he stared around the darkening halls. “It is night-time, Miss Cheerilee.” She looked over to him then back to the dark halls of the once well lit mansion. “I hope the others are okay. Maybe they'll have better luck finding something.” They walked along the corridor, finding few things of interest, other than bits of drywall on the floor. They stopped at a fairly large pile and looked up. “There is your cosmetic crack,but where is the source?” Time looked around suspiciously, walking down the hall. The half-hour chimes rang through the hall, scaring Time into Cheerilee's hooves. They stood there for a few moments, petrified. “Um,... feel free to let go at any time.” He backed off from her awkwardly. They continued down the hall, avoiding each others awkward gazes. Time Turner stopped in his tracks. “Miss Cheerilee, have you noticed that Rarity, Filthy, and Fluttershy are all missing? Now, I'm no genius but I am going to say, Filthy wasn’t at the closet with us due to his restraint by Twilight.” Cheerilee looked at him, confused. “Yes? So?” He sighed, agitated by his partner’s incompetence. “So, he couldn’t have destroyed anything, but it also means he could have been dispatched alone long ago by our killer.” He went quickly back into his thinking state. Something clicked in Cheerilee's mind. “So if he's still alive, we could still find him?” She smiled triumphantly at her conclusion. “Yes, theoretically we could. As I said, he could already be long dead with the others, but if he couldn’t have done it and COULD be dead, then he isn’t our killer!” Time smiled, able to narrow his list of suspects even further. So with Fluttershy incapable of magic and Bulk seemingly incapable of anything at all, concluded it must be either Twilight or Rarity. The only two unicorns left in the mansion and the only ones capable of magic as strong and or as dark as they were seeing here. “What are you thinking about, Time?” She looked to him as they walked up the stairs to another floor, this one a bit more burnt out and at the end of the hall stood a large pile of rubble blocking entrance to the dusty haven that was formerly the attic. “Oh my.” He paused, staring at the wreckage. “I was narrowing down my suspects, but respectfully, you can’t be the culprit due to the magic that would be needed.” He looked over to her giving out a soft smile. She smiled a bit more trustingly at her partner. “Likewise to you, Time.” They both marched quickly to the rubble that laid before them and what they found there surprised them very much. Amongst the rubble were flaming dresses and fabrics... they had no doubt found Rarity’s room. The doorway was impasable, but they could see that the whole room was burning, all the fabrics burned to the ground and the bed was being roasted. Time instantly threw his theory out. “Twilight! Why hadn’t I seen it before, that giddy little alicorn, all that magic in her, who’s to say she doesn’t hide darkness in her.” He angrily kicked a pile of rocks, knocking loose a lightly singed note reading, “Sweetie Belle, I love you.” There may have been more to it, but the rest of the note was charred beyond repair. “Poor Rarity. Time, what was on the note?” She curiously stared at him. “Sweetie Belle, I love you, why?” He looked back as he heard a gasp from Cheerilee. She had fallen to the ground, sobbing. “Why so sad? Is that important?” He looked at her curiously. “Sweetie is her sister, her little sister!” Cheerilee grimly thought about Sweetie’s reaction to her death. For that matter, what would her students think when they heard of her death? “What I can’t connect is why. Why drag all of us to this place, what is her motive in all of this, what could Twilight gain from killing us all?” He turned to Cheerilee, who was unable to provide an answer. “She's a princess, what could she possibly gain from this?” “Well don’t ask me, you’re the one with the plan here!” She stopped in her tracks, struck by a revelation. “Wait Time, you said Twilight was the killer. Bulk is with the killer!” Time looked back in horror. “I didn't think of that.” they heard loud sobbing from downstairs. Time rushed back down the hall and slid down the banister to the first story. Cheerilee followed pursuit, chasing him to the library, where they were met with an interesting scene. Twilight was huddled in a fetal position, clutching a burning book close to her chest. Bulk was standing off to the side, unsure of what to do. “Oh m-my, are you okay, Twilight?” Cheerilee flocked to her side. Time stood off to the side, coolly analyzing the situation. “Drop the act, Twilight. I know what you're hiding. You know exactly what I'm talking about, murderer.” Twilight looked up at him with tears streaming down her face as she held up a book from the smoldering library which, like Rarity’s room, was engulfed in flames. “I-I... I didn't do this!” She softly rocked back and forth on the ground, as she did none of them seemed to notice the time slowly ticking on and Buff scratching at his own coat. Cheerilee tried to non-violently pitch in. “Why are we fighting over who is doing this? We've already made the mistake of arguing over analyzing our options and or suspects.” “No Miss Cheerilee, I don’t trust this princess. Why is she holding a book?” He pulled it away only to see it was a scrapbook of her friends and family, most of which are now long dead or recently for a few. “F-Fluttershy was in there, she too is gone like the rest, we won’t make it till morning.” Twilight cringed as the clocked chimed in again. They all held their breaths were heard and the fire cast light into room as it was thrust into power loss, after a minute they all sighed as they were all accounted for. “WHAT MR KILLER TOO SCARED TO FIGHT US BY THE LIGHT OF THE FIRE!” Time screamed into the dark void. “Time, stop it! You’re not part of the solution so you’re part of the problem!” said Cheerilee. "Just because we survived another hour together...” She stopped as she she saw Bulk Biceps, his body all puffy and pulsing hard. He laid before them choking and wheezing on his own neck swelling hard and closing, they watched in fear unable to do anything to help as he just died before them. They sat many a minutes trying to piece together his death, then Time spotted the missing piece to his expiration. A small bottle laid in his swollen hoof, as Time suspected another bottle of pills laid in his room, this bottle did not match the original, he went into allergic shock and had swollen, the killer hadn’t missed a second too early... ====*****==== To be continued...