Chapter 16 - Trust
Twilight tore apart the study as she searched through it again and again. There had to be a clue here somewhere. Something, anything to shed light on what had happened in this room. What had happened to Celestia, and Luna, and Pinkie Pie, and...
Her eyes kept being drawn to the pile of ashes in the center of the room, and she shuddered, trying her hardest to deny that possibility.
"Twilight..." Rainbow Dash mumbled as she watched from the corner. "Tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it. Just, anything, I need to..."
"Don't touch anything!" Twilight snapped as she pulled her head out from under a dresser. "I don't want you contaminating any evidence. Not to mention...”
Twilight trailed off, frowning as she raised a hoof to her mouth. "Wait, where's Applejack? She saw what happened, right? Wasn't she right behind you?"
Rainbow Dash started, spinning around. "I... no. I flew up here as fast as I could, and Applejack isn't as fast as me, so..."
Twilight cursed under her breath. "It might not be safe for us to split up. Especially if something was already after her."
"Ain't no need to go running about on my account."
"Applejack!" Twilight cried out, turning to find her friend standing in the doorway. "Are you okay!?"
Applejack barked a short laugh, her voice bitter and hollow. "Twilight, I ain't never been less okay."
Twilight stared at Applejack, looking over the state of her friend. Her eyes were baggy and glazed over with the sheen of a pony who had already given themselves up for death. "Applejack, please. Tell us what happened here. Where are Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie?"
"It's hard to say," Applejack said flatly, turning away to stare at the burned table. "Everything happened so fast."
"What are you talking about?!" Rainbow Dash yelled, stomping her hooves. "You were just telling us about how the others were in danger! Well, where are they? What happened here? Who did this?"
Applejack lowered her head and bit her lip. "I..."
Twilight stepped in between the two of them and spread her wings. "Rainbow, please calm down. Applejack is going through a lot right now."
When Rainbow Dash backed off with a huff, Twilight turned to speak with a soothing voice, "Now, Applejack, I know this is hard, but it's really important that I know what happened here."
Applejack closed her eyes and nodded. Her mouth worked silently, mimicking the words she was going to say before she finally spoke. "When... When the three of us got here, something was wrong with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Before we could do anything about it, that mare from the portrait, Golden Wish, appeared and started talking all kinds of nonsense. Then she summoned a bunch of shadows, which attacked us. I was able to round them up into the hall, but I got locked out of the room. That's when I came to get you."
Twilight blinked, her mouth falling open. "You're serious? She's actually real? I never thought..." She paused to look over the charred remains of the furniture. "What about all this, then?"
"No idea," Applejack said, shaking her head. "Just the shadows, and then I came to get you."
Rainbow Dash sank to her knees and let out a strangled cry. "This can't be real. Pinkie... Flutters... there's a chance they're okay, right? Maybe they're just being held hostage or something. Twilight, please..."
Twilight closed her eyes and swallowed. She could feel the oppressive weight of despair crushing her to the floor, piled on along with the expectations of her friends that she could somehow still save the day.
There was still a tiny glimmer of hope that they were alive somewhere. Unless she saw their bodies with her own eyes, she could continue to hold onto that possibility, no matter how remote it might be.
"Applejack, you said you lured the shadows into the hall, right? Can I see them?"
Applejack took her hat off and wiped at her forehead. "I can show you, yeah. Dunno if they stuck around, though."
"What do you mean by shadows, anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh, well," Applejack stammered as she led them out of the study, "like shadow ponies, I guess? Kinda hard to describe. I guess I could say they looked a bit like changelings, but more shadowy."
Twilight pushed ahead to take the lead, her horn at the ready. "And what did you mean about the Princesses acting 'strange'? Can you elaborate on that?"
Applejack let out a sigh. "I said it all happened pretty fast, so I'm not super clear on the details. They looked like puppets, or something."
So this 'Golden Wish' was able to disable both of them in some way. The idea that such a powerful and malicious alicorn could actually exist was still hard to process.
Rainbow Dash stopped at the bottom of the stairs, then flew up to the top of the entrance hall to get a better look. "I'm not seeing any shadows, AJ. At least, not the kind that move around on their own."
Applejack shrugged. "This was where I left them."
Twilight looked for signs of a struggle but didn't see any. But when it came to magical shadow beasts, who knew? She flew up to join Rainbow in the air, then landed next to that ominous portrait overlooking the entrance to the mansion.
"Are you real, then?" Twilight asked, her voice soft. "Should I expect you to come to life right now to finish what you've started? Or are you just an illusion, skulking in the shadows?"
The portrait gave no response, and Twilight let out a sigh. She needed more information; who was doing this, why, and how? But the books she had stayed up all night researching were useless, and there wasn't anything else to...
"Fluttershy!" Twilight cried out, smacking her head with a hoof. "How could I have forgotten?"
Rainbow Dash dropped down next to her in an instant. "What is it, do you know where she is?!"
Twilight shook her head. "I'm afraid not. But I did have a conversation with her late last night, and I remembered that she said she had a book about Golden Wish in her room. I would've borrowed it, but it was way too late at night."
Rainbow Dash's face fell. "Oh. You really think this is the time to be reading books? Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie could still be in danger, we need to find them!"
"By doing what, just checking every room one by one? This mansion is huge, and there's probably some secret room somewhere we wouldn't be able to find. The book could lead us to where we need to go. Plus, if we have to start looking somewhere, Fluttershy's room is as good of a place to start as any."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "How about you go do that, then. I'm going to go save them."
She tensed up to immediately speed away, but Twilight grabbed her firmly with her magic. "No way, Dash. It's too dangerous to go out there alone. We need to stick together.”
"Let me go!" Rainbow Dash growled, struggling against the magical bonds.
In a soft voice, Twilight added, "Please? I can't stand to lose any more friends today."
Rainbow Dash wilted and let herself be lowered to the ground. "I'm scared, Twi, I just..."
Twilight nodded, her eyes alight with determination. "I know. I'm scared too, but we'll get through this together, I promise."
Applejack mumbled something in agreement as she joined them at the top of the stairs.
"Right then. Everypony stick close to me and keep your eyes and ears open. We really have no idea what our opponent is capable of," Twilight said.
Twilight lifted a hoof to start leading the way but paused and turned to look at the others. "Er, do either of you actually know where Fluttershy's room is?"
Rainbow Dash shrugged, and they both turned to look at Applejack.
Applejack blinked, slowly raising her head. "Er, sorry, what was the question again?"
Rainbow Dash scowled, dashing over and butting her forehead against Applejack's. "Fluttershy! You know, the friend of ours who's missing right now? The one who you left to die! You could at least pretend to care about the rest of us, but no. Rarity's the only thing that matters to you, isn't she!?"
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight cried out, pulling her away with magic once again. "That's completely uncalled for! We can't afford to be fighting each other at a time like this."
"But she...!”
Twilight continued struggling with the pegasus, but stopped suddenly when she heard the sound of Applejack laughing.
"It's alright, Twi. She's right; Rarity was my everything. I love you girls, but compared to her, y'all aren't even on the scale. And now she's gone."
"Applejack..." Twilight stared at her in disbelief.
Applejack took a few steps down the hall, then turned back. "Fluttershy's room is this way. You coming or what?"
As they made their way to Fluttershy's room, Twilight had time to imagine up all sorts of horrible nightmares that could be waiting for her. Fortunately, as she shakily pushed the door open, her fears, for once, were unfounded.
"Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie? Hello?" Twilight called out, her eyes darting about and her horn at the ready. There was no sign of any other ponies inside, though the room did look well lived in.
"She's not here," Rainbow Dash muttered as she lowered her head. "There's gotta be a better place to look."
"Well, help me find what I'm looking for and we might have a place to start," Twilight said as she began levitating Fluttershy's personal belongings into the air. "Should be a book. No idea what it looks like or what it's called."
Rainbow Dash let out a long groan as she pointed towards a small bookshelf in the corner. "I think Fluttershy's been catching up on her reading. This is a waste of time!"
Twilight shook her head. "Please, Rainbow. I need to focus on doing this right now. We can't just run around scared hoping we stumble onto the answer."
Rainbow Dash continued to grumble under her breath, but said nothing more as she began searching the closet.
Twilight pulled all the books off the shelves with her magic, quickly scanning the titles. There were romances, mysteries, and horror-novels, and some others she didn’t recognize immediately, but nothing about vengeful alicorn spirits. "Applejack, I know you told me a bunch last night, but now that you've actually seen her, is there anything more you can tell me about Golden Wish?"
Applejack kicked at the desk lightly as she lowered her head. "I, uh, well, she looks exactly like that portrait out in the hall, and she talked a bunch of nonsense about stories I didn't really understand."
Twilight frowned as she continued her search. "And what did you mean exactly about Celestia and Luna being puppets?"
"I don't reckon I know. Might not’ve really even been them, just fakes or something."
"I see." Something was off. None of this felt right at all, but she just couldn't wrap her head around it.
“Uh, I think I found something.”
Applejack turned around, holding what appeared to be a envelope in her teeth. Twilight took it gingerly and noted that it was addressed to her, but was otherwise relatively unadorned, a plain envelope with no seal.
Applejack shrugged, looking away. “Was on her desk in the back there.”
Twilight carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. The script was small and cute. It definitely looked like it belonged to Fluttershy.
Dear Twilight,
Don’t let the others see this. I think you’re in grave danger.
Um, I’m sorry. I’m not very good at explaining things. By the time you read this, I’ll already be dead. Um, I think so, anyway. I’m not very good at predicting the future, either. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.
Golden Wish is real, Twilight. Everything that’s happened so far is about you somehow. This sick game that’s being played with our lives. There’s something out there on a higher level than us, pulling our strings like puppets. I wish I understood it, and I wish I could have told you sooner. But that’s not the way this story is written.
You’re the only pony that can stop this, Twilight.
I believe in you.
-Fluttershy
P.S. HONESTY is not always the best policy.
Twilight stared at the letter in front of her, quickly reading it a second, then a third time.
“Well? What’s it say?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying up to peek over her shoulder.
Twilight jumped slightly, quickly pulling the letter away and folding it up. “It’s, um, nothing relevant I’m afraid. Any luck with that book yet?”
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes, but turned back to continue searching the closet.
Fluttershy… So she really was dead. And she had somehow seen it coming. Why hadn’t she told her earlier? If she had known something, Twilight might have been able to stop all of this from happening in the first place.
Twilight shook her head, trying to hold back tears. None of this made any sense. What was Fluttershy trying to tell her with all this? And that last line…
“Keep looking for me, would you?” Twilight asked, raising her voice. “I just need a moment to think.”
Not bothering to watch the reactions of the others, Twilight stepped out into the hall, partially closing the door behind her.
Twilight unfolded and smoothed out the letter, holding it up to the light and reading it over again. What did it all mean? Was that bit about honesty trying to suggest something about Applejack? Or was this letter even written by Fluttershy in the first place? The writing looked like it might belong to her, but she wasn’t an expert.
Dark shapes from the other side of the paper caught her eye as the light bled through, and she flipped it over to find that the message wasn’t quite done.
“There are no more than eight ponies in this mansion.
Fluttershy is dead.
Pinkie Pie is dead.
Rarity is dead.
At midnight, everypony in this mansion will be dead.
I will kill you.
…
Who am I?”
Twilight turned the page and blinked, staring at the empty sheet in front of her. Had a blank piece of paper gotten mixed in?
The next page was blank as well, as was the one after that. She quickly pulled apart the remaining stack of paper with her magic, spreading them out in the air individually and found no more words awaiting her.
“Fluttershy… where’s the rest of the story?”
“What? It’s right there, isn’t it, Twilight?”
Twilight shook her head, flipping the pages around to check both sides. “There’s nothing here.”
Fluttershy stood up, sifting through the stack of papers herself. “That can’t be right… I finished the story, didn’t I? I know I was tired, but I can’t have gotten that far ahead of myself…”
Twilight pursed her lips. “Could you have left it back at the cottage? You were still working on it when I arrived, weren't you? Maybe we just forgot the grab the last bits.”
Fluttershy sunk low, burying her head under her hooves. “I don’t know, maybe? But if we had left part of it behind, why would we have taken blank pages?”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Was this really going to be it? It was one thing to have an unsatisfying ending, but to just cut off without any resolution whatsoever? “Well, what do you want to do about it, then?”
Fluttershy whimpered softly. “I think I really didn’t write the end. I must have gotten all twisted up inside my own head and thought I had already put the ending down. I’m sorry, Twilight.”
“Well, how much was really left?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “A chapter or two? It’s hard to say, I guess.”
Twilight walked away, moving to stare outside her window. The bright sunlight and peaceful weather outside served as a stark contrast to the literary world she had become so engrossed in. “What’s the ending, then? Does Twilight win and solve the mystery? Er, either of them?”
Fluttershy opened her mouth to respond, but stopped, lowering her head. “I… don’t want to say.”
“I see…” Twilight chuckled, an odd smile spreading across her face. “So, unless you go back and write it, or tell me the ending, I won’t be able to tell if the cat is alive or dead, right?” Twilight glanced over at Mira. After knocking the vase over, the cat had curled up and gone back to sleep without a care in the world.
It wasn’t as if she was expecting a happy ending, anyway.
“I guess we could stop and I could write it… but I feel so lost now. I was so sure of myself when I was writing it; everything just flowed onto the page. But now, after being here with you, I’m just not sure if I can get into the right state of mind again. Or if this was ever really a good idea in the first place.”
“Well, it’s natural for a writer to doubt herself, and inspiration doesn’t always come easy. But…” Twilight frowned, tapping a hoof against her chin. “The mystery itself. Are there any absolutely vital clues that are revealed in the missing chapters?”
“Hmm…” Fluttershy scrunched her face up as she scratched at her head. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, I haven’t written it yet, but I’m pretty sure everything’s there that needs to be. It’s really just the narrative that’s inconclusive.”
Twilight grinned and lit up her horn. “Well, how about I solve the mystery right here and now? I’ll find the truth, open up that catbox, and we’ll give Twilight and everypony the happy ending they deserve.”
Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hooves, her smile peeking out from either side. “If you really think you can do it, Twilight… I believe you have what it takes.”
"That's what this is all about, right? Me-me solving the mystery. Well, 'Great Detective Twilight Sparkle' is on the case!"
Twilight took a few steps backwards and cast a spell. A soft light began to play across the floor, lines growing to form several boxes in an illusory diagram.
"So, across both books we have four closed rooms total, right? In book one, the shed where you and Pinkie were found. Rarity's room where Applejack and Rarity were found. Then in book two, we have Rarity's room again, and the Princesses’ study. All in all, we've got similar locations both times, as well as a similar grouping of deaths."
Fluttershy leaned in, looking over the diagram with clear interest. “These look good, Twilight. And yeah, those are all the main ones, anyway. I guess there’s some minor stuff you could consider as well, but those are all the closed rooms with bodies in them.”
“Let’s start by working backwards then, with the final closed room.” Twilight pulled the fourth diagram into the air, causing it to float between her and Fluttershy. “A closed room where Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were murdered. A key was used to lock the door, but the key was then destroyed inside. Somehow the culprit was able to escape the room without using magic, along with the body of Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy is dead, but it wasn’t suicide, nor trap assisted homicide.”
Twilight glanced over at Fluttershy. “I at least assume we can consider the red in that letter to be equally valid? Even if crossing layers doesn’t make any sense.”
Fluttershy nodded, and she continued.
“For the third closed room, we have Rarity murdered inside. Two keys, one locked inside the room, the other sealed in an envelope that was never opened. Once again, no magic, no windows.”
Twilight looked up from the diagrams, catching Fluttershy’s attention. “We don’t have any red truths yet for the first game. I figured it’s already the case, but can I at least get confirmation?”
Fluttershy nodded, placing her hoof on the red orb. “Every closed room is a ‘Golden Closed Room’.”
Well, she had expected that the definition was meant to apply to everything. Both of the first two were relatively similar. Instead of shenanigans involving keys, both were sealed from the inside with a chain lock. Since they were simple enough to unset from the outside with levitation, it wasn’t a particularly popular style of lock in communities with a significant number of unicorns.
Of course, a dexterous earth pony or a pegasus with a wire could accomplish the same feat.
“It seems a bit too simple, but I guess I should check anyway. The culprit was able to set the chain lock from outside the door by using a tool or device such as a wire.
“Well, you’re right on the simple part,” Fluttershy said, grinning. “For the purposes of this game, no tool or device capable of setting a chain lock from the outside exists.
“Hmm.” Twilight stood up and began to pace around the room, levitating a cloth off the table and wiping the sweat from her brow. There was a thread running through each one, a trick explaining how the culprit had managed to commit the crime and escape a seemingly closed room without using magic. Each red truth closes off a possible answer, eventually leaving only one out of a limited number of paths as the ‘truth’. But try as she might, it seemed like the only way to properly deduce how to reach the correct path was by guessing until all other options were exhausted. She couldn’t make the clues add up into a solution. Was it the fault of Fluttershy, or herself?
No… maybe she was looking at this the wrong way. Well, she was almost certainly looking at this the wrong way. Rather than a bunch of individually unique and interesting tricks for each room, perhaps each one was thematically and mechanically linked. A central, ‘Golden Trick’, pulling them all together.
Magic, hidden doors and windows had all been denied across the board. But something each crime could easily hold in common based on the clues left behind… maybe there was something after all. Although in one case it would be a bit of a stretch.
“Fluttershy, I think I have something,” Twilight said, opening her eyes. She hadn’t realized it, but while she was engrossed with her thoughts she had unconsciously set each diagram spinning about her horn. “Are you ready?”
Fluttershy bit her lip and ducked behind her mane, nodding softly.
Twilight took a deep breath, then fired up her spell. “For every closed room, the culprit was still inside the room hiding at the time Twilight opened it!”
It was one of the oldest tricks in the book. Why hadn’t she seen it sooner?
“Twilight, I’m…” Fluttershy looked up, blinking several times in rapid succession. “Oh.”
“In each of the closed rooms, there’s more than enough room for it. The layout of the shed was vague, but it’s not unreasonable to assume there were some boxes or crates that would work as a decent hiding spot. For Rarity’s bedroom, under the bed or behind a dresser, or in the third case, disguised as one of the ponykins.” Twilight paused, shuddering. “A creepy thought.”
Fluttershy shook her head. “Golden Wish already explicitly denied the possibility of a pony hiding out in the fourth closed room, don’t you remember?”
Twilight grinned. “If I remember correctly, the exact words were, ‘At the time Twilight Sparkle entered the study, there were no living ponies inside the study. This applies to all three interior rooms'. But there’s a slight gap there, in the first sentence.”
“I’m not sure I follow you.”
“Right after Twilight Sparkle opened the study but before she entered it she paused, coughing on the dust kicked up by tearing the door open. The culprit was hiding nearby, and slipped out of the room right before Twilight actually entered it!”
Fluttershy fell back on her haunches and raised a hoof to her forehead, chuckling lightly. “Wow. Um, that’s quite a theory, Twilight.”
Twilight found herself beaming as she continued to pace back and forth. “I know, right? It’s a neat trick, but I think it cleanly explains how Golden Wish can run around undetected while still pulling off these murders. To think that Twilight was so close to catching her in the act each time… but unless she checks, she can’t know she’s there, right? It’s your catbox metaphor all over again.”
Fluttershy’s face fell, and she stared at Twilight for a long time, her gaze distant. “For each of the closed rooms, the culprit was not present inside the room at the time the door was opened.”
Twilight reeled backwards as if she’d been struck in the face. It was that easy, huh? Her theory, cut to ribbons in an instant. She was so sure…
“Come on, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, her voice soft, “is that really all you’ve got? The truth is right in front of you, I’m sure you can see if it you really look.”
Twilight grit her teeth. Fine, then. It was silly to get attached to any particular theory in the first place. She would just have to keep attacking until she hit the weak spot.
“Before the key to Rarity’s room was sealed in an envelope, it was used to create a mold! Afterwards, the mold was used to create a key, which was used to commit the crime before the culprit destroyed it. At the time Twilight received the key, there were only two keys total.”
Fluttershy pawed at the ground, not looking up. “For the purposes of this game, no devices exist capable of forging a new key out of a mold.”
Twilight bit back a curse. “This is getting a little arbitrary, right? In any other mystery, all of these will be perfectly viable solutions and closed room tricks.”
“But this isn’t any other mystery, Twilight. This is mine.”
She was definitely beginning to see why Meta-Twilight had been so frustrated.
“Fine then. After committing the crime in the study, the culprit hid themselves somewhere like a dresser drawer before killing themself. Pinkie Pie’s corpse was hidden in the same manner. This bypasses both red truths, as a dead body is no longer ‘the culprit!’”
Fluttershy let out a long sigh and sunk to the floor. “Knocks’ 8th: It is forbidden for the case to be resolved with clues that are not presented. Can you provide any foreshadowing or evidence that would lead you to this conclusion?”
“What?” Twilight asked, stomping a hoof. “Why are you bringing this up now? Since when have any of these colored truths required evidence or backing?”
“I know I made everything get a little crazy, but this is still a mystery, Twilight. Whodunnit, howdunnit, and whydunnit all factor into the truth. Maybe the bodies were hiding in the dresser. What kind of author would I be if there weren't any clues pointing to that, and you were just expected to guess the right answer?” Fluttershy stood up back up, and moved to go stare out the window. “I know I’m not perfect, but…”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Why not actually answer the question in red, then? Is it because you can’t?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “Fine, if it’ll really help, the culprit did not die in the study.”
Blocked at every turn. This whole mystery was a vague, confusing mess with twisted logic and unrestrained cruelty. Yet Fluttershy had written the whole sun-blasted story, all so Twilight could solve it. It hadn’t made the slightest lick of sense from the beginning.
“Rarity and Applejack committed suicide in the second closed room! After Applejack confessed the truth about her relationship, Rarity freaked out, and after they reconciled they agreed that the only resolution was a lovers suicide!”
“It’s more plausible than your last try, but Rarity and Applejack did not commit suicide.And since I already know what you’ll try next, Rarity and Applejack did not kill each other.”
“For the first closed room, the culprit dismantled the shed in some fashion and then rebuilt it around the bodies!”
“The shed has remained intact for the entire duration of the game.”
“The culprit killed Pinkie Pie and put her in the shed, then fed or strapped some kind of small bomb to Fluttershy! After forcing Fluttershy to lock herself in, the culprit detonated it, killing her!”
Fluttershy stared at her blankly. “Twilight, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Twilight growled, stomping a hoof. “I’m just getting started! For the fourth closed room, the culprit—”
“Stop, just stop! That’s enough, okay?” Fluttershy wiped at her eye with a hoof as she continued to stare out the window. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do this anymore.”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight stared at Fluttershy, her blood still boiling with energy. “This whole thing was your idea. You told me I had to solve this mystery. So I’m trying to solve it!”
Fluttershy hung her head. “I made the mystery solvable… at least, I thought I did. But this will never work. I’m not sure why I ever thought it would. It could be your fault, I guess, but it’s probably mine. I’m sorry for wasting your time, Twilight.”
Fluttershy turned away and started walking to the door, but Twilight teleported in front of her, spreading her wings to block her path. “I won’t let you give up that easily, Fluttershy! Maybe these closed rooms are stumping me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t solve this! I just need a hint, or maybe the actual end of the novel after all.”
“Twilight…” Fluttershy smiled, a pained look on her face. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t think there’s anything more I can give you other than outright telling you the answer. It’s all there. At least, it should be. If you can’t see it… well, it’s probably for the best.”
Fluttershy pushed her way past a stunned Twilight, standing with a disbelieving expression on her face.
“Argh! Then just tell me! If we’ve passed the point of no return, just spoil the thing and tell me why you went through all this trouble in the first place!”
Twilight teleported again, bearing directly down on Fluttershy with a fierce gaze.
Fluttershy flinched back, but continued to make eye contact. “If I just told you the truth, I’m pretty sure you’d hate me. If you figured it out on your own… well, you probably still would, but at least then I tried.”
Twilight blinked, pulling away from her stare. “I could never hate you, Fluttershy. Maybe I’m a little frustrated right now, but we’re friends, remember? Nothing will ever change that.”
“I appreciate that Twilight, but...” Fluttershy continued to stare at Twilight, her eyes beginning to mist over slightly.
Twilight nodded, pulling her wings in and letting Fluttershy have her space. “Just let me know the truth, Fluttershy. I’ll accept it.”
Fluttershy took a deep breath, then shook her head, chuckling softly to herself as she stared at the floor. “Okay then, here’s a truth for you. It was an experiment, Twilight. I just wanted to field test a bunch of unique ideas for a murder mystery. One I’d actually publish. I just wanted you personally invested in everything because you’re the smartest pony I know and you could tear holes in all of my ideas.”
“I… what?”
Fluttershy nodded, her eyes distant. “Yeah. I mean, I guess if you look at it that way, it wasn’t perfect, but I’m sure there’s enough to work with here.”
This couldn’t be true. Fluttershy had put her through all that… just to get ideas on a novel? No. Twilight took a good long look at the pony before her: a strained expression, eyes avoiding contact with her own and ready to tear up. She saw the cracks in the facade and saw her heart peeking through.
“You’re lying.”
Fluttershy bit her lip in a grimace. “Am I? Prove it.”
“Prove it? How do you expect me to do that?”
Fluttershy pushed past her and opened the door. “A lie that everypony accepts becomes the truth. So unless you’ve got a truth of your own that can supercede mine…”
Did she want another blue truth from her? What answer could she possibly give?
“Goodbye, Twilight. Thanks for putting up with somepony like me. Don’t worry, I’ll probably stick to my cottage for a week or two, but after that we can go back to being friends and pretend this never happened. And no, I won’t be writing a third novel.”
“Fluttershy…”
Twilight stood in her doorway watching Fluttershy walk away, and didn’t go back inside until long after she was out of sight.
“Twilight, I thought those books were your precious memories. You really shouldn’t treat them like that.”
Spike watched, eyebrow raised, as Twilight threw yet another book across the room, stomping her way through a temper tantrum.
“Who does she think she is, anyway? Getting me all invested in a mystery, in her story. In MY story. Just to deny me an ending, twice, then yank the rug out from under me like that? She makes her villain look downright benevolent!”
Spike let out a sigh. “Come on, Twilight. I still don’t really understand what’s going on here, but Fluttershy was definitely super bummed out when she came to relieve me from animal-care. Do you really think she’s that malicious?”
Twilight wheeled on Spike, her aura flaring up as more books flew into the air. “Of course not! And that’s what makes me so angry! Fluttershy’s still Fluttershy, through and through. How can I possibly be angry at her? It’d be easier if she was a cackling villain!”
Twilight whipped the rest of the books she was holding at the wall, then fell to her haunches, letting some of her anger drain away. She couldn’t stay angry at her, not really. Even if for the moment she was furious.
Just as the second novel had repeated the same setting with similar, but different situations, Twilight found herself in almost the same position she had been last night. Fluttershy had left the incomplete novel here once again, so she could always try re-reading it. There could still be something she overlooked entirely, even if it hadn’t helped the first time.
Or maybe she really should just give it up, let bygones be bygones, and pretend it never happened.
Would that make Fluttershy happy?
Would that make her happy?
“I’m going to bed,” Twilight announced loudly as she began to stomp off towards the stairs.
If she was going to have weird dreams again tonight too, maybe they would help her make sense of things.
Spike watched as Twilight made her way up the stairs. Shrugging, he turned to start working on the mess she had made that he had known he would have to clean up anyway.
He failed to notice the lithe black form creeping up after her.
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Ugh. This is getting to the point of 'Mystery Spaghetti'.
4623640 There's a lot of balls to juggle here. But they'll all come down eventually. We're about to enter the third (And final) arc of the story.
I have every intention of providing all the answers and tying up every loose end by the time this is over, preferably in a narratively satisfying manner.
Humph. Gra-humph. Here go my theories, in the trash-bin, with my self-respect and my dignity. I'm still rooting for a no-murder solution, though it has become a quite frankly difficult position to hold. So it's time to think and recapitulate. A litte foreword of warning: I'm really accustomed with Umineko and the thinking behind it, so my theories have a good risk of being, at least partially, true. Don't read the spoilers if you want to think by yourself.
Of the four closed rooms, the first, third and fourth ones have very simple solutions not contradicted by any red truth. Namely: Pinkie was still alive and closed the door of the shack, the key to Rarity's room was put in it after everyone was already here, and the key to the Princesses' room was never destroyed. The second closed room is a mess, because I simply can't fathom a reason for RD to be the murderer. I hate this closed room. It makes no sense.
What do we know? In both games, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are both very obviously working together. In the first game, RD has a very suspicious comportment. She's an evident accomplice. In the second game, something happened to AJ to make her an accomplice. Obvious character traits here. Good.
My first theory was and still is the no-murder solution. Problem: well, Rarity and Applejack did not commit suicide, so they were murdered. Possible solution? The same as the first murder of the second game: Rarity's magic, some fake magic blood, two transformed ponykins. Okay, so we get a workable no-murder theory, but why would they both fake suicide? To escape Golden Wish? Maybe. A little shaky, though. Here goes the blue: In the second closed room of the first game, Rarity and Applejack both faked suicide in order to escape Golden Wish, using Rarity's magic.
The killing blow is the red on the envelope, of course. I hate that red with every fibers of my being. But there is ways to go through it. By dead, Fluttershy means something else than their bodies not-working. They were transformed, changed, but their bodies are still alive. Not the first time such thing would happen. I hate that red. I really do.
So, what's my big idea? Here my entire theory, since the beginning, in all its grandiose shakiness:
No murder. No killer. All a game.
Fluttershy wants to play a mystery game with Twilight, to make her vacation unforgettable, and maybe some other things. She enlists the help of Pinkie Pie, and, in the first game, Rainbow Dash. First game, first closed room: Pinkie was here, smiling, pretending to be dead. RD pushes Twilight to play the game as it was meant to be played, puts the envelope down. Rarity and AJ fake suicide. RD panics, tumbles, injures herself. Twilight kills everyone in the end in a magic accident caused by her craziness.
Second game: Fluttershy wants to play a mystery game with Twilight. She enlists the help of Pinkie Pie and, the first day, after Rarity and AJ have a little chit-chat, the help of Rarity. Rarity creates a false ponykin of herself, dead. After the first closed room, both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie get AJ in a corner of the building to enlist her help. AJ is unwilling, but finally convinced to play the game, though these lies take its toll on her.
Okay, so I actually think I might have solved the third locked room last chapter... hm...
"There were more than eight ponies in this mansion before Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were killed."
This would depend on your definition of pony, and whether a dead body qualifies.
"Rarity and Applejack did not commit suicide, and Rarity and Applejack did not kill each other, but one of them killed the other and then committed suicide."
Assuming the culprit is consistent between the two sets of crimes, this heavily implies Applejack is the culprit, but that almost seems like a red herring. It also doesn't explain what attacked Rainbow Dash in the first set of murders.
Going back over some past truths, here is something that stood out.
There is a reason this is in blue and not red. This was presented by Fluttershy, so there's something about this statement that's incorrect. Otherwise, why wouldn't she state it as a red truth? Doing so wouldn't even confirm the presence of an accomplice, because it would be a statement of truth related to a potential truth. I think it is this portion of Knocks 1st rule.
I'd argue that the heavy use of an accomplice or accomplices that were not foreshadowed would go against the spirit of rule 1, since the author could easily move you away from the real culprit by giving them one solid alibi, and therefore rob you of any chance to identify any person involved with the murder ahead of time. So if there is an accomplice, they were foreshadowed in some way.
Final Thoughts: I still feel like we can't take Golden Wishes visions that show herself interacting with characters other than Meta-Twilight at face value. And there's something about the whole "dead" thing that still seems funny... I guess I keep thinking back to this type of line.
"Fluttershy is dead. Now there's only Monstershy."
That is to say, maybe the dead being referred to in the red truth isn't deceased? But that's probably stretching things. I'm okay with being a bit paranoid about the red truths, but in order for them to be truly effective they can't all have double meanings. If they did, then all you'd have to do to solve things would be to take none of them at face value. A few of them have to be completely true so you can effectively sneak the misdirection into others.
I do think if Twilight wants to connect the dots, there are two things she has to start doing.
1. Get red truths related to the first set of murders.
2. Start considering motives/suspects outside of the abstract.
4624138
FYI, I'm only examining a few portions of the spoiler text, not all of it, but here are my refutes.
1. In terms of the first murder if Pinkie Pie was faking dead, I feel like that would violate Knox 10 and Knox 8. For the former, I'd consider disguising yourself as dead to be a disguise, and there is no foreshadowing when Twilight examines Pinkie that she might be anything but a corpse. if anything, that argument could be made for Fluttershy, but that doesn't explain the locked room. And I think it at least violates the spirit of Knox 8, because how can the reader be expected to solve a case if the detective misses such key details as the fact that the dead pony they are examining isn't, in fact, dead.
2. For the third murder, I think you're theory leaves too much to chance. These rooms seem to be very well constructed. If the key was simply placed after the others arrived in the room, there is always a chance that Twilight, upon first entering the room, notices that there is nothing on the dresser, and would realize it must have been planted after she found Rarity. I think my theory, that the key in the room isn't, in fact, the key that goes to the room, just a key that has the tag for that room, is a better fit, because that doesn't leave anything to chance.
3. The theory for room 4 makes sense, but also feels too easy.
4. I don't accept your premises for the characters either. I do believe that Applejack is quite probably an accomplice for the second set of murders, if there is one. But I'm not sure the accomplice idea isn't a red herring. I don't see anything linking Pinkie and Fluttershy as some sort of team other than the fact that both times they apparently died together. There was no foreshadowing of such in the first set of murders, and very little during the second. I am not convinced that Dash is an accomplice, even though she obviously knew more than she was telling in the first game. She was too shaken up by the deaths that occured to have had a hand in any of them.
As far as the faking suicide theory, that violates the Golden Closed Room, since nothing accomplished solely through unicorn magic was used in the creations of the closed room. If the only way around Twilight's examination was unicorn magic, that fails.
I did not read the portion listing your entire theory, so will not comment on that.
4624189
As a note, Fluttershy put this forth in blue because it's a possible interpretation of the application of that particular rule. As she is in fact not Roan A. Knocks, she doesn't have the authority make a statement about it in red.
If Twilight were so inclined, she could have proposed an alternative interpretation in blue herself. Both would stand as valid, and neither would have the authority to supercede the other unless one of them agreed to accept the others theory instead.
Of course whether or not it is actually applicable to the story / closed room at hand could still be taken either way.
4624508
Well, that makes sense. I wasn't relying on that observation for the theories I'm trying to work out anyway, it was just something I noticed that didn't make sense. Thanks for the clarification.
4624370
1. Faking is in no way disguising yourself, for there is no confusion of identity. Pinkie Pie doesn't try to pass as Fluttershy or something else. If anything, she's using her identity fully. I can't see how even a very narrow interpretation of Knox 10 would create difficulties here. As for the lack of clues, the fact that she was smiling, her corpse was without apparent cause of death, and that nopony did a serious checking on her corpse are enough clues. Remember, a clue can be present by omission: someone not speaking of something important is as important as someone speaking of it.
2. Then Fluttershy would have put down the key somewhere else. Fluttershy bet than Twilight, in her current disposition, would be too bothered to catch any funny thing. The fact that it was Fluttershy who found the key, and the key was found after everyone contaminated the crime scene, is enough to invalidate any semblance of seriousness that closed room could have.
3. Easy is good. Remember Occam's razor. No matter what Golden Wish says, we are likely not dealing with superpowered mastermind with centuries of practice behind them. If anything, I find some parts of my theory too complicated.
4. Accomplice. People in the know. It's the same thing. AJ knows something the other don't, and is willing to roll with it, though it is obviously very difficult for her. As for Dash, you should reread what happen after the first closed room and before the second. Dash is positively apathetic and as bad of an actor as Applejack. She only freaks out after the second closed room.
As for the unicorn magic red, well, of course, no unicorn magic was used in the creation of the closed room. But we are not discussing the creation of the closed room, are we? We're discussing the faking of a murder which just happen to be in a closed room that was created by completely mundane means. Reds are misleading.
4624568
1. That's just it. Twilight did a serious check of Pinkie's body in the 'Chapter 5 - Challenge'. It had no pulse, and she was confident enough to estimate a time of death. I seriously doubt that anything short of magic could make Twilight so wrong that said subject is actually alive. Also, a slashed throat is a cause of death.
2. Fluttershy, from what we saw, didn't ask Twilight for a detailed description of what she had and had not seen upon entering the room. So how would she know what Twilight had or hadn't noticed?
4. Actually, it's the third closed room she freaked out for. The first closed room was Twilight being locked in the library. The second closed room was the shed, the third closed room was Applejack and Rarity... except I spotted that Rainbow Dash never actually says that the door was locked when she arrived. Twilight asks a flurry of questions, to which Rainbow Dash gives confused answers before settling on not finding a weapon in the room. I think the door to that room was unlocked by Applejack and Rarity. Maybe they were leaving the room, or maybe somepony showed up they trusted. Said pony then killed them, and left the door open.
And if they faked their deaths, then the fact that they never unlocked the previously locked door would be the explanation for the locked room. Which only makes sense if they played dead. At which point, the explanation for how they were killed in a locked room is that they never were killed in a locked room, at which point the magical disguise becomes a key portion of the locked room mystery. If the way the murder was committed (or not) is key to the explanation of the room, it would violate that rule.
4624900
1. I didn't remember that. That throw a wrench in my theory. Now I need to think about it.
2. Again, it was a bet. She bet Twilight was too messed up to have noticed anything, and if anything else, she wouldn't be suspicious of her friend, more likely to believe a magical 'it just got teleported explanation.' And it's maybe not Fluttershy. It could be anyone, really.
4. Let's keep with the nomenclature used by the fic, 4 closed rooms, one for each murder. And indeed, RD never said the room was closed, so the second closed room is very easy to crack.
You're assuming too much for the closed room red. It only says that no unicorn magic (effectively) factored in the making of a closed room. If there is no closed room, then obviously no unicorn magic factored in the making of that closed room. If there is a closed room done by mundane means, but the murder in it was done by unicorn magic, then again the red would be still true. If the closed room was done by mundane means, there was no murder, and the faking was done by unicorn magic, the red still works.
4625019
2. So you really think the explanation for the closed room is that the murderer got lucky that nopony noticed the key wasn't there before? As opposed to some other explanation in which the culprit is in complete control of the situation with much less margin for error?
4. I'd completely forgotten about Twilight being locked in the library, and how that happened is going to be important. Because it doesn't fit the themes of this story for it to be a random element that is never explained. Twilight was locked in there for a reason, and the how of that may actually be crucial to the how of the first "murder" locked room.
I'm saying that how does the fact that it was closed because there was never a murder have nothing to do with how the closed room was created? How the murder was committed in the locked room is the whole thing at stake. If the way it was done is that it was never done because Rarity used unicorn magic, it violates that rule.
In your scenario, if she didn't do that, Twilight would show up and go "Oh, you guys are alive. You locked the door yourselves, right? Okay." There is no locked room mystery of Rarity doesn't disguise herself, therefore disguising herself is part of the construction of the room.
Darn mistory novel
Really neat the way the meta-world is bleeding out in both direction - into the world of the Twilight reading the story, and the world of detective-Twilight. Definitely doing a good job of tying all the levels together.
I'm pretty sure at this stage that the upper-level plot is that Fluttershy wants Twilight to work out that story-Fluttershy is in love with story-Twilight because she is in love with Twilight herself, but how that interacts with the Witches of Miracles and Certainty and Fluttershy's weird inspiration and possibly the story worlds (if they're in some manner real) is going to be interesting.
I was wondering if those small bombs were going to turn up in a silly theory...
I'm still pretty happy with my solution to the first book from last chapter, so let's try to solve the closed rooms of the second one with some of the same ideas.
Rarity's locked room seems pretty simple. The key was placed in the envelope after the door was locked. If you're at all suspicious of Fluttershy that one kind of answers itself.
Study locked room is a bit more complicated, but the overall result would seem to be Applejack accepted the "two for one" offer. In the meta-story it was offered by Goldie and refused; in the unseen story it was probably offered by Fluttershy, and accepted.
"A tragic heroine, sacrificing herself to bring a loved one back from the dead. It's got a certain poignant resonance to it."
"But this story is about selfish fools and the poor choices they've made, and those who suffer because of it. If you refuse to stick to the script, that's fine, but..."
"The ending won't change!"
Because there was only one key and it's said in red to be destroyed, I'm going to assume that Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie never went to the study at all, so Twilight was in fact investigating a room which was never the crime scene. The entire setup of that closed room is "Study was locked. Key was destroyed. Applejack lied about anypony being inside the room at any point after she last saw Twilight and Dash.". From there, Applejack's story is pretty much a bunch of lies that Fluttershy told her to pass on (Applejack is pretty vague about a lot of the details as well, likely because Fluttershy's story was too complicated for her to retain all the details). The envelope she "found" was one Fluttershy told her to deliver.
Was Fluttershy avoiding eye contract or eye contact?
Good fiction thus far. Looking forward to further updates
This. This story is going to make my head explode by trying to figure it out.
And I love it. I love mystery stories, especially well-written ones like this.
This story reminds me of the first time I watched "The Bone Collector"; me trying to figure out the where the puzzle pieces go, how they got there.
Frankly, I'm shocked that this story only has 70 likes.
And speaking of "The Bone Collector"...
What if the antagonist (I'm not going to call her Golden Wish because I honestly doubt that is her actual name) is actually leaving clues for Twilight to find, but the clues are in obscure places, and Twilight just isn't finding them; like the clues she does find are only the parts of the actual clue? (I'm not good at theories).
Fluttershy is possessed by something. Something that's MAKING her.write all this, and only Twilight solving the mystery will free her. ...At least, that's what I think. Also, the key to the Applejack/Rarity murder was thrown through the window, hence the break in the glass allowing the cold in. But that one is pretty obvious, so I'm probably wrong...
I don't remember if I actually finished reading the Golden Witch... I know I got pretty far, it's an interesting manga, but the ending eludes me. Maybe I should read it again, it might provide some insight...
Ok, you got me. This one's DESERVES a fav.
All I can think of is that Applejack is an accomplice. Also, I think Rainbow was lying about the doors being locked in closed murder 2, making her the accomplice for the first set of murders. Finally, did murder number 4 actually take place in the study?
One last puzzle I have in my mind, and in my opinion, harder to grasp than the closed murders, is the mystery of motivations. Why, why is Applejack incapable of getting together with Rarity without a miracle? Why did Rainbow Dash agreed to be an accomplice in the first arc? And why did Fluttershy go to trouble in getting that specific locale and tell the story to her friends?
Well, this story managed to get me to dust off my old FIM account to try and solve. Its an extremely well written mystery, and I ended up going page by page writing notes in an attempt to solve. In short, there are the following mysteries to solve:
DUE TO COLORED TEXT, SPOILER COMMENTS ARE UNMARKED IN THIS COMMENT
* Why was Twilight locked in Library in game one
* Closed Room 1
* The Remains in the Boiler
* Closed Room 2
* What is the truth
* Closed Room 3
* Closed Room 4
* What game is Golden Wish explicately playing
* Why is Fluttershy writing a novel for Twilight
I'm going to make a serious attempt to solve this, but before that, I'm going to lay down some rules. The first of these are the Golden Truths, ones that *have* to exist by dint of the medium:
Golden Truths:
* Once you remove the impossibe, whatever remains, no matter how improbabe, must be the truth
* To successfully prove a culprit, that culprit must have had means, motive, and opportunity
* Knox's rules hold true throughout this story
Throughout the story, there are what I refer to as "Global Red Truths", which are true for all cases:
* No tricks accomplishable solely by unicorn magic factored into the construction of this closed room
* There are no hidden doors in this room. A hidden door is defined as anything a pony could use as an entrance or exit that is not discovered by the detective
* All the windows are locked from the inside
* The three preceding truths will define a 'Golden Closed Room'
* Every closed room is a ‘Golden Closed Room'
* For each of the closed rooms, the culprit was not present inside the room at the time the door was opened.
* For the purposes of this game, no devices exist capable of forging a new key out of a mold
* For the purposes of this game, no tool or device capable of setting a chain lock from the outside exists
* For the purposes of this game, ‘pony’ refers to any sapient creature capable of free will
* Nopony can pass through a magical barrier created by Twilight Sparkle without breaking it
* For each of the closed rooms, the culprit was not present inside the room at the time the door was opened.
* I wrote this mystery to be solvable
None of Twilight's blue statements affects the game as a whole, so they won't be listed here.
In addition, I'm laying down my green truths. Green truths are what I assume to be true unless the narrative overrides them. As before, these are globals, and apply to all individuals, the first five state facts that can be reasonable deduced from the narrative
* Doors, unless stated otherwise, must be explicately locked or unlocked
* Princess Celestia and Luna, in both games, was are at least partially aware of the truth
* As a collary to the previous, they are unable or unwilling to overtly interfere in events that are playing out
* There is a unifying theory or rule that binds events together referred to as 'the truth'
* Due to Knox's rules, only items and informationfound, or known by Twilight and relayed to the reader can be part of the solution of a room. Information Twilight from a 3rd party learns MAY be part of a solution as well, but such accounts may or may not be truthful due to Knox's 9th Rule
We'll be adding to this as we go along, but these define a baseline in which to work from. We can dereive a few postitutes from this, which I'll mark in purple.
* For purposes of the game, rooms that were locked with a chain lock must have been locked from the inside
This is inferred from the following red rule, For the purposes of this game, no tool or device capable of setting a chain lock from the outside exists, as following the first Golden Rule: Once you remove the impossibe, whatever remains, no matter how improbabe, must be the truth
* Narrative that the detective experiences directly must be accurate.
* Narrative that doesn't directly incorporate the detective directly may not be accurate
* The proceeding two statements shall be referred to as the Narrative Postitue
These is directly derieved from Knox's 9th, as well as my final green rule. The narrative isn't clear on WHO the detective is for a given section, but we can make some guesses. For the first arc, Fluttershy explicately states its for real-life Twilight to solve, not the in story one, thus, our first postute.
* Reader!Twilight, unless proven otherwise, is the detective for the events of the first arc of the story
Golden Wish states Metaverse!Twilight is the detective herself, and Fluttershy makes no comments on who is supposed to be able to solve it. Thus we will derive the second postitue as follows.
* Both Reader!Twilight and Meta!Twilight are the detectives of the second arc of the story.
Since its clear from the authors that this is a Fair Play Whosdoneit, we can assume that narrative with the in-game Twilight at the very least is accurate. When I refer to facts that meet the Narrative Postitue, I'll mark them in turqoise, as they facts defined from the narrative.
The first major mystery presented to us is Twilight was locked in the Library at the start of Chapter 4. Per the narrative, we can derive the following facts about this locked room
* The door was locked by being both bolted and chained from the outside
* Rainbow Dash found her in the library, with her hooves covered in something red
* Twilight's cutie mark was painted on the door in red
Notably, this room isn't explicately defined as a closed room by the narrative, as the term is not nominally defined, only being applied by Fluttershy directly to the first game
Since we need to define closed room, I'm going to make a global green truth about it:
* For the purposes of both games, a closed room refers to any room which has been locked from the inside with no obvious means of how such a task was accomplished.
As this makes the library meet the definition of a closed room (door locked from the inside, though no murder), Every closed room is a ‘Golden Closed Room' applys, and truths relating to that are thus applicable.
As well as the following postulates:
* Twilight was alone in the library until she unbolted the door.
* Derived from For purposes of the game, rooms that were locked with a chain lock must have been locked from the inside, and For each of the closed rooms, the culprit was not present inside the room at the time the door was opened.
* Twilight's body physically locked the door from the inside
* Derived from the previous posture, and the first golden truth, Once you remove the impossibe, whatever remains, no matter how improbabe, must be the truth
Still with me? The astute will have noted I phrased the second posulate very very carefully. Since I can't prove which Twilight(s) are truly the detective, I'm going out of my way to make sure none of them violate Knox's 9th However, if Twilight's body physically locked it without her mind being aware or present for it, it would not strictly violate the #9.
From Twilight's later conversation with Golden Wish, while unicorn magic in and of itself can't be used in the construction of a closed room, alicorn magic can.
We can derieve a green truth from this, Magic only available to alicorns can be used in the construction of a closed room, as long as it conforms to Knox's 4th rule. To summarize, Knox's 4th states It is forbidden for unknown powers or hard to understand scientific devices to be used. In universe, there are six alicorns explicately menthoned, Princess Wishlight, Golden Wish, Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and Cadence. Wishlight is only menthoned in passing and never appears in the story itself, furthermore, Cadence only appears as a menthon at the end of the first arc, so these two can be elimated. The red global rule For each of the closed rooms, the culprit was not present inside the room at the time the door was opened. elimates Twilight, and as Celestia is never implied in canon or in-universe to have any ability to manipulate someone, so Knox #4th elimates her.
There are two suspects who had the means and opportunity to commit this crime: Princess Luna and Golden Wish. In the metaverse, Twilight explicately states:
GW explicately did not deny it, and furthermore, stated she wouldn't even acknowledge that a lazy accusation had be made. However, Golden Wish does not have an explicate motive. However, Luna had means foreshadowed, as well as motive, and opportunity. In their only appear in the first arc, we're granted a very slim insight into both Princesses.
While neither alicorn was happy about the cirmstances, Luna was much more bothered by what was going on than Celestia (a trait that reappears in the second arc). She has motive to interfere in some way if she believes it will help. Her means are foreshadowed much later:
The story goes out of its way setting up a roundabout way to introduce Knox's laws, involving a dream sequence, and a lot of other misdirection, quite possibly to setup this one individual line. Reader!Twilight believes that sleep reading is something Luna could help her with. Even removing this, Luna in general is known to have powers and magic related to manipulation of the night and dreams, which would still allow Arc 1 to be independently solvable without this. I admit its a strech, but given the cirmstances of the library, Luna is the only one who had means, motive, and opportunity to lock her in the library. I thus derive the following version of events to explain the locked library, which conforms with the second golden truth: To successfully prove a culprit, that culprit must have had means, motive, and opportunity.
Twilight fell asleep in the library in an attempt to confirm Fluttershy's story. Princess Luna, who was deeply unconfortible with how events were playing out chose to enter her dreams and cause Twilight to walk to the door, and lock it from within, in an effort to protect her. As a consquence for this action, she was punished by Golden Wish, and her horn torn off and disposed of which was later found in the boiler.
Given the timeframe involved, it is unclear if this was before Pinkie Pie was killed (which is stated to have happened several hours before the body was discovered). As Fluttershy's time of death is unknown, the status of the shed closed room is unknown at this time. Furthermore, Twilight was not involved in painting her cutie mark on the door.
This leaves us with unanswered questions, which I'm going to mark in orange, and then return to:
* Who drew the mark on the door?
* What is the signficance of the marks on doors?
I'm going to post this as is for now, as I write up the next section, to see if anyone can pop holes in it since this is the first explination for the library I've seen. Furthermore, since we're due an update soon, in case this updates so I can say I came up with at least part of my solve attempt before we get into the final arc, and I want a fair shot at solving this before hand
(reposted since I put this again the wrong chapter originaly)
You know, after I finished writing up the first part of my solve attempt, I had a realization in the shower which changes things. I still think my attempt for part one is still semi-valid (that Twilight unknownly locked herself in the library via outside manipulation), but I'm going to continue from there with the cavaet that I reserve the right to readdress this scene.
As before, no spoilers below due to colored text screwing with them, and its the only reasonable way to figure out what is true :-)
Not long after the library, we get to the first murder scene. To summarize, here is whats known.
* Every closed room is a ‘Golden Closed Room'
* For purposes of the game, rooms that were locked with a chain lock must have been locked from the inside
* The door was locked by being both bolted and chained from the inside, like the library
* The door had a mark of butterflies in a balloon
* Twilight had to forcibly remove the door to get inside due to it being chained
* "Judging by the temperature and state of the corpse, estimated time of death is between six and eight hours ago"
* "She appears to have been killed via a cutting implement to the jugular, and died of blood loss"
* "There are no signs of a struggle, and the expression on her face suggests she may have been sleeping peacefully. The amount of blood in the shed suggests she was killed here. Perhaps she was drugged before being brought here, but I can’t tell with the tools I have available."
* What little is left from Fluttershy's remains can be found in the back
* The murder weapon was *NOT* found in the shed
* “Knocks’ 1st. It is forbidden for the culprit to be anyone not mentioned in the early part of the story.
* if a character’s purpose is to be used as a mere tool or as a weapon for others, their presence in the narrative need not be foreshadowed. Thus, it would not contradict Knocks.
I'll admit, this closed room drove me crazy, and I had a different theory as to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's death which technically worked, but felt far too out of character to make sense. That is until I made a realization that the murder weapon is never menthoned, simply something sharp. I'm not quite sure how I made the leap of logic, but there is something in the narrative that explicately makes wounds like this:
Furthermore, we hear a poem about the mystery of the mansion.
The operative words here are render asunder, which can also be written as "torn apart", or "ripped to pieces", which is a very accurate description of what happened to Fluttershy. If that isn't related, I'll eat my hat. Furthermore, this is the second time we see Fluttershy more or less aniliated, though what appears to be under different cirmstances. Each time though, it appears to be related to 'the truth', which lies at the heart of the game.
I'm going to propose two postitutes about this:
* Slashmarks as found on various corpses are caused by a variant of the "truth spells" that Twilight and Golden Wing later use. This is refered to as the Killer Truth theorum.
* Because there was no motivation to kill, there is no culpart for the first three rooms, in line with the second Golden Truth.
To strengthen this, lets fastforward a bit, to the second closed room. Just before Twilight and Rainbow Dash discover the bodies (within five minutes), we see Rarity and Applejack having an argument, stating varoius statements about lies, truth, and similiar, before being found with deep cuts over their hearts that killed them both as they lied in bed. The narrative right before they died states this; I've added some color to make my point here:
In the entire build up for the second murder, these are the only two explicate, defined statements made to the other party, the rest either random thoughts, answers to questions, or just musing. I've colored Rarity's declaration in love is in blue because it appears that Golden Wish made it possible, not that it was true in and of itself. That being said, its not possible to exactly determine truth from lies here, merely what is stated for our benefit. Thus its not clear if telling the truth, or passing the truth as a lie will trigger the effect:
* In Applejack and Rarity's re-declarations of love, were they both being host to each other
* Is the Killer Truth tiggered passing a lie as the truth, or is it triggered by telling the truth
Weak evidence on the second question suggests that the Killer Truth activates when someone tries to pass the truth off as a lie, to quote:
It should be noted that Fluttershy was not aware of magic that could do this, or expecting any when talking to Twilight. Since its very late for me, I'm going to summarize what I think are the plausable change of events up to the third closed room, as the fourth has enough to throw me that I'm not 100% sure on. The strength of the lie likely would influence the backlash if it was true. We can derieve the possible chain of events from here:
In the first game, Twilight fell asleep in the library in an attempt to confirm or deny Fluttershy's story. Because she was searching for the truth on the legend, the red symbol appeared on the Library door. Princess Luna, who was deeply unconfortible with how events were playing out chose to enter her dreams and cause Twilight to walk to the door, and lock it from within, in an effort to protect her. As a consquence for this action, she was punished by Golden Wish, and her horn torn off and disposed of which was later found in the boiler. Given the timeframe involved, it is unclear if this was before Pinkie Pie was killed (which is stated to have happened several hours before the body was discovered). As Fluttershy's time of death is unknown, the status of the shed closed room is unknown at this time. Furthermore, Twilight was not involved in painting her cutie mark on the door.
Sometime in the middle of the night, probably after Twilight was locked in the library, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy goes out to the shed to discuss something, and lock it, likely being concerned on being overheard. Their discussion triggers part of the legend which leads to "Abandon self; Rend asunder, and begin anew.", which is why Pinkie Pie looks extremely peaceful in death, and Fluttershy was literially renderd asunder. The context and contents of this conversation at best are unknown, but may be related to Fluttershy talking with the Princesses as in game two (right before her disappearance, she goes to check on the princesses in their study
Because the conversation involves a search for truth, the red marks show up in the garden shed, which is where Twilight finds them. As of yet, it is difficr ult to explain why Fluttershy exploded, and Pinkie Pie was merely struck down, but it can be postulated that Fluttershy made a statement of truth to Pinkie Pie, and whatever the response was caused Fluttershy to understand Golden Dawn's riddle. As neither Princess can be found in the matter, and due to the closed loop, it can be postulated they are in the meta-realm later seen between Golden Wish and Twilight Sparkle, but all that is known for certain is that they are not in the mansion or grounds, but have not crossed Twilight's barrier
Due to Luna's earlier interference and Fluttershy getting very close to "winning" the game, Fluttershy's animals are murdered, and their remains, plus the horn are placed in the boiler. As this is not a closed room, it could simply have been done with simple teleportation. Said remains are discovered by the survivors, as seen in the narrative. Events in the narrative continue as seen until Rarity and Applejack seperate from Rainbow Dash and Twilight; during this time, Applejack reveals the truth (presumed to be the same event seen at the start of game 2) about her relationship with Rarity
Applejack and Rarity have a second confrontation in her room. They argue for a bit, reaffirm their love for each other, and make a statement about deserving each other. Given that both of them die with two deep cuts in their hearts, it is likely something they stated was a lie; Applejack explicately feels a kick in the chest. A red truth from Real!Fluttershy states that they did not kill each other, or commit suicide. Suicide however, is defined as per the Merriam Webster dictionary "the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally especially by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind".
Accepting that the Killer Truth theorium kills a pony if they tell a strong enough falsehood, Applejack and Rarity inadveriantly killed themselves; since such an act was not intention, it is, by defintiion, not suicide. This solves the second closed room. Once again, due to their conversation dealing with truths, the strange symbol appears on the door
Events of the narrative continue to the third closed room. We're shown that Applejack loves Rarity at the beginning from her point-of-view. In the second game, Applejack's love for Rarity is an absolute truth, and she discusses the wish with Twilight extensively, honestly believing that both her's and Rarity's feelings must be true and pure. Because of this Applejack is NOT struck down for telling a falsehood, but Rarity is, likely admitting that she hates Applejack or similar falsehood. It can be assumed at this point Applejack went, got drunk, and collasped out in front of Twilight's door. Locked alone in her room, the Killer Truth strikes, and Rarity's cutie mark appears on the door
I've got to admit, after I write this up, this is really out there, but it seems to be in line with what we've seen, and solves the centralized theme of the first three closed rooms (plus the library). I likely have a logic hole somewhere, or I'm going to wake up and find this all crud, but I think this is a reasonable explination on the "howdoneit" and a partial explination on the "Whodoneit" part of it, but it doesn't explain the Why.
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Well. Those certainly are some... colorful theories. They're adding up to be longer than some of my chapters!
Thanks for reading, though. I'm glad you felt inspired enough to write so much on the subject. As usual, I won't confirm or deny anything, but I look forward to seeing what else you have to say.
Next chapter will definitely drop tomorrow, so have fun with that.
(Are you magnum12 from TvTropes?)
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Honestly, coloring coding is the only way I could keep anything straight. Having slept since writing my walls of text, I'm not sure I'm right anymore, but I feel there's a lot of foreshadowing on a lot of elements that makes me convinced that something nasty/nastier happened to Luna in the first game which is why her horn was found.
This story made me look at Uminek, and I kinda want to get into it, but I'm not sure the best form, I'd need a way to legally buy it then apply the translation patch, or read the manga. All I know is the anime is kinda cruddy; recommendations on that front?
Also, I'm on TVTropes, but not magium12
This is quite the impressive mystery. I think I understand the first closed room, and I suspect the Luna theory is accurate for the library; the second closed room ...
The room was locked from the outside. Fluttershy was not killed in the room in which her ashes and the molten key was found.
That's as much as I've got.
Good god. I'm such a literal minded person that Twilight's frustrations mirror my own.
media.tumblr.com/0576d4bc9c32e4d1c784e809d8eebb0f/tumblr_inline_mfhod93TWw1r1src9.gif
this has been me since arc 2
I sorta feel like fluttershy is the culprit in the second story. I feel the same way toward you right now that Twilight feels toward fluttershy. This story is frustrating and has left me feeling completely drained. 10/10
Heh...Twilight, you are incompetent! *cackle* *cackle* *cackle*
This line stands out to me:
That seems to blatantly contradict that Golden Wish makes 9. For a moment I wondered if dead bodies don't count as "ponies," because we've been told "For the purposes of this game, ‘pony’ refers to any sapient creature capable of free will," but this line seems to treat dead ponies as "ponies:"
I'll assume that dead ponies count. In which case, I have three candidate solutions.
First, one or more ponies have been removed from the mansion since we saw Golden Wish. This is almost trivially true, as we're missing bodies for Pinkie, Celestia, and Luna. I do assume "in this mansion" means in the building, though, so that there may be more than 8 ponies at the mansion if some are outside or in the shed, as examples.
Second, one of the ponies believed to be in the mansion has been Golden Wish the whole time. Perhaps the pony she appears as died before the story began. The reverse could be true, such that Golden Wish is the disguise. Either way this would likely be a violation of Knock's 10th law of no disguises, so I don't think this is true.
Third, one or more characters lack free will. Fluttershy writing "I wish I could have told you sooner" seems to suggest that she doesn't have a totally free will. I'm not sure I approve of this solution, though. I don't know how this interacts with Knock's 4th law of no unknown powers, and it trivializes red text that refers to "ponies."