Dinner that evening was sandwiches, since towards the middle of the day the heat had become unbearable and left the castle a sweltering eighty degrees. With a little convincing, Twilight had allowed an small indoor water gun/balloon fight and now all the residents of the castle were sitting in soaking wet clothing passing sandwich items around.
"Hey AJ, toss me those tomatoes!" called Rainbow, pointing to the container of sliced tomatoes next to the farmer.
With a nod, the apple farmer launched the container into the waiting hands of the athelete, much to Rarity's dismay. While everyone ate taking their time, the CMC and Spike rushed through dinner and soon asked to be excused. Twilight looked at the three children with suspicion in her eyes.
"You usaually never rush through dinner Spike, why'd your rush today?" She asked, wiping her hands on her napkin.
The young drake scratched the back of his head, "We kinda wanted to keep playing. At least for another hour, then I'll come back and finish the dishes, I promise."
"Aw don't worry about it Spike! Shy and I'll clean up!" said Pinkie, rubbing the boy's head, "Right Shy?"
"Hm? Oh um yes."
Spike and the crusaders looked at Twilight with pleading eyes causing the scholar to sigh, "Alright, just stay in the 'wet room' alright?"
Spike quickly hugged his companion, "Thanks Twi." With that the group ran out of the dining hall.
The sounds of the children laughing and talking soon faded as they walked down the hall, leaving the Mane 6 sitting and eating in silence. It was oddly awkward for the six friends, no one made eye contact, busying themselves with their food. After ten more minutes of this Twilight spoke up.
"This is ridiculous!" the scholar exclaimed, "We usually have tons of things to talk about, and this stupid game shouldn't change it!"
"Its kind of hard to do that when you don't know if you're friends gonna kill you in your sleep Twi." replied Rainbow, looking at her friend, "Maybe we're just really getting into it, but I think this game is getting to all of us." with that Rainbow got up and left the dining room.
"If its really a problem Twilight, we can stop the game... I just wanted us to do something.." Pinkie's hair deflated slightly as she got up, "I'll go tell Rainbow and the kids."
Twilight sighed and shook her head, "No Pinkie, we'll keep playing." at those words the pinkette hair reinflated.
"And, um, I'll talk to Rainbow about not taking the game so seriously." said Fluttershy, clearing her and Rainbow's plates.
The small quartet had finished up their water fight a few minutes ago and where heading to their rooms to get changed. They had enjoyed themselves, running and splashing each other. Spike stretched his arms behind him and felt something in his pocket. Pulling it out he realized it was a water balloon. Spike snuck up behind Sweetie Belle, water balloon in hand. Chuckling quietly to himself and closing his eyes, he threw the water balloon, only the shriek he was expecting wasn't the one he got.
"Spike!"
With the expression of that of a child who got caught with a hand in the cookie jar he opened his eyes, "Oh, uh, hi Twilight. I thought you were Sweetie Belle.."
"I thought I told you if you where gonna play with water stay in the wet room!" Twilight moved her now drenched bangs out of her eyes.
"You did, and we did! But I had this one water balloon left and-" he was cut off when Twilight sighed.
"I get it, just go get changed, it's pretty late and everyone's heading to bed. I was just coming to tell all four of you that." She looked at the three girls who were struggling to stay awake.
"Alright. That's what we were gonna do." Spike waved goodbye to his friends who waved lightly and headed to their rooms.
As Twilight and Spike walked together towards their shared room, Twilight looked at her companion. Remembering times from yesteryear a thought popped into her head.
'Could it be him?'
Twilight shook her head lightly, no way it was him. It just couldn't be, if it was it would be bothering him. He'd be jumpy, nervous, she'd've figured it out easily. Twilight opened the door to their room and subconsciously nodded as Spike said he was going to use the en suite bathroom first. Grabbing the comb on her dresser, she combed through her hair, her bangs had dried fairly quickly but they were still slightly damp. After grabbing a set of pajamas she walked behind the changing screen to change clothes. Quickly changing Twilight went and sat on her bed watching as Spike came out of the bathroom and walked over to his own bed.
"G'night Twilight." Said Spike as he laid down.
"Good night Spike." replied Twilight turning off the lamp.
A shadow crept down the large halls of the castle. A storm had come in around midnight and right now the rain was pounding against the windows. Slowly opening a door to one of the bedrooms, the person aimed the weapon at the head of the sleeping victim.
"Bullseye." The killer fired the weapon.
Foosh
Silently closing the door of the victim's room, the person walked back to their room and shut the door. Pulling off their mask and setting the weapon in the closet, they climbed back into bed.
With a smile, they whispered to themself, "One down, nine to go."
By process of elimination...
Spike: Sheriff
Rainbow Dash: Doctor
Twilight: Wondering who murderer is, so the chance is low that they are the mafia member.
Applejack: Has not been shown too often, and would be easy to catch in a lie.
Any of the CMC: Not enough seen about them, and they are still playful. Besides, if it was one of them, they'd probably stay in the same room and would notice one of their group leaving.
Rarity: Once again, nothing to suggest guilt or innocence. Haven't seen too much of them.
Pinkie Pie: Willing to let the game end, which a mafia member would never do... it's too much fun.
Fluttershy: Acting suspicious and very quiet... which spells guilt in any game of Mafia for me.
So who is the murderer? Who did Spike investigate? Can Rainbow Dash save the victim? Only time will tell because there is simply no decisive evidence.
By the way, who is the referee/host? There always has to be one for the sheriff's identity to remain anonymous, because, frankly, seeing a claw holding the badge pretty much says everything.
PS: If you like games like this, look up Town of Salem. It's pretty much mafia but better... and online.
6104125
Woah, that's a good analysis. Like really good.
In the first chapter it's stated there are 2 policemen. Someone else is another officer. Spike is just one of two, the other one is still in the building, maybe. Wait, there's gotta be a ref? Oh shoot... Gah.. Uh, dang it....
I will check that game out.
6104694 There is usually a ref (Or, rather, a host), but then again most games of mafia are 20 minutes long. This can be a special version of mafia since its spanning over several days. Also, I kinda forgot about the second sheriff... Oh well. Can't wait to analyze this to the extreme.
6104694
I think your explanation for how the sheriffs work means a ref wouldn't be necessary. The way the Doctor works makes no sense though. If they sleep in the same room as the killer, the killer would immediately know they are the doctor and kill them. You might want to retcon that and have the Doctor leave a special mark or item in the room of person they think might be targeted.
Also, the rule should be that the dead players can still be around, but can't discuss the investigation. It would be too easy to "help" in a way that would unveil the killer without saying their name (i.e. "Don't mind me, I'm just glaring at Fluttershy. Why? Oh, no reason in particular."
Also, there needs to be a clear consequence for a false accusation by a sheriff. Otherwise, why not just accuse willy-nilly. I think a wrong accusation by a sheriff means that the sheriff loses their badge. So each sheriff only has one chance to make an official accusation, and if they are both wrong, the killer get's away with it. Likewise, the killer's win-condition should be to either kill everpony except the sheriffs, kill both sheriffs, or cause both sheriffs to make false accusations. I guess that would also mean if one sheriff "dies" and the other makes a false accusation, they would also win.
If you wanted to make things harder on the killer, you could say that if the killer tries to kill a sheriff, the sheriff arrests them instead. That way, the unknown killer would have to be careful who they target, and would only have two ways to win, by getting two false accusations made or by murdering the non-sheriffs.
6139808
I agree with a lot of what you say. The victim doesn't know who killed them, either they are too heavily asleep or there's that little thing that the killer is wearing a mask.
Actually a lot of what you said is addressed in the next chapter.