Clue: Who Killed Home Body?

by DagaYemar

12. Never Look a Gift Pony in the Mouth

“Why, it’s exactly what I wanted!” Peacock Poppycock exclaimed slyly, as she finished unwrapping the book set, “However did you think of it?”

“Oh, I just had a feeling,” Green Mail said smugly, grinning at the dark looks the others were shooting at him, “Happy birthday!”

He slipped back onto the lounge’s extra-large couch and dipped a hoof into his gift bag. He and the other guests had pestered Home Body until he relented and let them take their gift bags early in the party. Each bag contained fancy chocolates, bags of popcorn, small bottles of Apple Family off-season cider, paper party hats, and rainbow colored fans. Peacock’s mouth already had a chocolate ring around it.

“Here, open mine next,” Professor Plum Pudding said, pushing a large square box across the coffee table, “Happy birthday!”

Peacock ripped off the paper and blinked in surprise. “Your music box! But I thought you needed it for a lecture!”

“Oh, I was told that the investor who was going to attend isn’t going to be able to make it,” Plum said with a shrug, “So I don’t really feel the need to have a practical demonstration anymore…”

Home Body gave the Professor an odd look as Peacock moved on to the next package.

“Oh my!” she said, pulling a necklace graced with orange gemstones out of its box.

“I thought it would look just lovely on you!” Scarlet Letter gushed, fanning herself with her new fan. Plus, I was a little short on bits for some reason… and now I don’t have to worry about thieving rabbits…

Colonel H. Mustard handed the mare of the hour a square bundle. “I just happened to be in the bookstore the other day, and I noticed this on my way out.”

“Another book?” Peacock asked, before noticing the familiar pony on the cover. “Magic Even You Can Do by Green Mail?! I didn’t know you wrote a book, Green!”

“I can autograph it for you, if you like,” Green said around a mouthful of popcorn. “Us earth ponies have to show everypony what real magic is, eh?”

The two of them bumped hooves as Scarlet and Plum shot them flat stares.

“Here you go,” White Wash grunted, thrusting an envelope into Peacock’s lap.

“I wonder what it is…” Peacock said, before frowning at the paper inside. “A gift certificate for the local spa?”

White shrugged self-consciously at the looks everypony else were giving her. “What? Not every gift has to be relevant to the events of the past week…”

“And last but certainly not least,” Home Body said, clearing his throat and placing an intricately wrapped box on the table. Peacock eagerly tore into it and the rest of the guests leaned forward, interested to see what their host had gotten her. Everypony’s gasps a moment later showed he hadn’t chosen poorly.

Nestled inside a fancy box lay a luxuriant length of white silk that fairly glowed. A border of soft pearls and lapis lazuli ran along the edges, while shining round sapphires had been stitched into the shape of a peacock on the front. Poppycock lifted it out of the box reverently, and the silk whispered beautifully.

“Oh…!” Peacock said, overcome with appreciation, “You shouldn’t have!”

“It’s a stole I custom ordered from the Crystal Empire,” Body chattered happily. “They know how to make the best scarves in all of Equestria! I suppose it comes from living in a frozen wasteland all year round…”

“I love it!” Peacock exclaimed, wrapping it around her neck and prancing around the room. The many gemstones sparkled and shone.

Green hummed to himself and tilted his head, as if trying to run several calculations in his head at once. “I can’t imagine how much that must have cost!” he lied.

“And he sees fit to complain when I bring up getting a raise,” White muttered as she started picking up the discarded wrapping. “I do bring it up every morning, but still…”

“You should put it away before it gets all dirty,” Scarlet suggested, eyeing the cloth with a covetous gleam as she pushed its box across the table. With reluctance, Peacock took off the stole and returned it to its place in the center of her gifts, careful not to get any chocolate smudges on it.

Home Body clapped his hooves. “How about we move to the ballroom and play some party games?” he asked, and his guests all quickly agreed. They all picked up their bags and move to the door.

“I’ll be just a second,” one pony said, rubbing furiously at their eyes. They paused at the door and kept at it before glancing around to make sure they were the last one in the room. They dashed quickly to the table and pulled the stole out of its box, shoving it deep into their gift bag. Satisfied, the thief calmly strode out of the lounge and joined the others.

“Come on over,” Body called as the last pony entered the room, gesturing at a circle of chairs, “It’s a classic! Musical chairs! One of my favorites!”

Scarlet sighed and, along with the others, set her gift bag down by the door. She paused and pointed at the chairs. “Only five?”

“Well, someone’s got to run the record player!” he said brightly.

White Wash rolled her eyes and stepped over to the turntable, while the others took their places around the chairs. Five rounds later, a grinning Body claimed the winning chair from a thoroughly tired Plum. The other eliminated players gave him a small round of applause.

Wiping her brow, Peacock stopped her host as he moved to reset the chairs. “I worked up quite the appetite. Can we move on to the cake instead?”

A little disappointed, Home led the way to the dining room. Unfortunately for everypony, all the gift bags looked exactly identical. When they left. Green had Peacock’s bag, Mustard had White’s, Peacock had Plum’s, Scarlet had Mustard’s, Plum had Scarlet’s, and White had Green’s.

A few minutes later, Green frowned down at his plate. “Is it just me, or is the cake a bit dryer than when we taste-tested it?”

The Colonel lifted a bit on his fork and inspected it. “A little, yeah. But not enough it to matter, in my opinion.”

“Hrmm…” Green muttered, shoveling more salty popcorn into his mouth thoughtfully. Dipping a hoof into his bag, he realized he’d eaten all the popcorn he’d had left somehow. Checking to make sure nopony was paying close attention, he swapped his bag for Plum’s. He scooped out a fresh hoofful and smirked at his cleverness.

Across the table, White Wash had seen the whole thing and thought it was a fine idea. Chugging her bottle of cider, she dropped it into her bag and made a big show of getting a fresh slice of cake for the birthday mare. She swapped their bags at the same time and returned to her seat, sipping from her fresh bottle.

On their way back to the ballroom for more games, Plum excused himself to use the restroom. Meanwhile, Scarlet fanned herself a little too hard and snapped her paper fan apart. She pouted at it for a moment before noticing that White had excused herself to clear the dishes. Whistling nonchalantly, she swapped her bag for the one White had left behind in the dining room.

Once White returned to the ballroom, Home had her hang up a piñata by the chandelier. The guests munched away at their treats as their host took the first turn, and several noticed that they were running low.

The Professor returned, looking oddly pleased with himself, so they had him go next. Mustard stole Plum’s bag when the Professor took his turn, and then Green swapped for Peacock’s when she stepped up to bat. Realizing that his new bag was empty of that delicious popcorn, he swapped it for White’s while the maid was distracted gleefully bobbing the piñata out of everypony’s reach.

Scarlet, thoroughly annoyed at White's little game of keep-out-of-reach, used her magic to make the bat chase the piñata faster than the maid could get it out of the way. It exploded into a shower of candy, and everypony zipped around to get their favorites. When they returned to their bags, Mustard had taken Green’s, so Green picked up Scarlet’s, who was left with Mustard’s.

“This party has been great!” Peacock said happily, shoveling her haul of candy into her bag. The bag, not designed to carry as much as she’d enthusiastically picked up, split in half. “Oh, shoot! Hey, do you mind if I borrow your bag?”

Before the pony she’d asked could say anything, Peacock had snatched their bag and dumped its contents on the floor. And sitting amongst the chocolates and popcorn was a necklace with many shining orange gemstones.

“My present!” Peacock exclaimed, snatching it up, “You stole it?!”

“I don’t know how that got in there!” the pony said, backing away from the incriminating evidence. The rest of the guests surrounded the pony with pointed questions, all save one.

I’m glad she didn’t look in my bag, they thought, dropping a hoof into their bag to caress the hidden stole at the bottom. Through sheer luck, this pony was the only one to currently have their own bag back.

Who stole the stole?

And here's a map if you need it.

Author's Note:

Answer

Colonel H. Mustard

This puzzle is a little harder than most to follow, but it becomes easier if you make a list and carefully write down each trade. Colonel H. Mustard’s original bag was taken by Scarlet Letter, who later switched it for White Wash’s bag when her fan broke. This bag was stolen by Green while White was manipulating the piñata, and Mustard took it back after everypony finished scrambling for candy.

Plum Pudding was the thief who took the necklace, during his trip to the restroom, but Mustard took it during the piñata game. After the game Scarlet picked the bag up by accident, right before Peacock Poppycock found the necklace. Despite her protests, nopony believed she was innocent and she had to help clean up after the party.

Plum and Mustard didn’t get caught, which would have worked out perfectly for Mustard had he not taken a turn at bobbing for apples. While his head was submerged, Peacock took his bag, looking for more chocolates. The stole remained in her care for the rest of the party.

Comments

[Kinrah]

Hmm, I got the main culprit and the side culprit correct, but the patsy wrong. I may have analysed it too much, but here's the working.

[Inspector Brown]

Got this one right on the first try!

[Captain Snark]

"You never know when we're gonna stop.
We might go on forever...
You could get sick, waiting for us,
Or we could st-"

Love the callbacks to the previous stories.

Okay. The main culprit wasn't that hard to figure out, assuming I followed everything correctly.
I made a nice little chart in word but since I can't simply copy it over here I'll just go right to my solution.
Since I ended up with Mustard as the only one getting back his bag, that makes Col. Mustard the thief.

As for the secondary crime of the necklace. I have no idea. My first attempt to solve it left me with too many suspects, while my second and third attempts ended up in contradictions. At which point I decided I'd spent too much time on this and since it wasn't important to the solution I gave up.

What matters is who stole the stole.
Mustard stole the stole.

Next... Murder. Murder most foul.

Edit - Wait. When I charted out who had who's bag (whom's?) Plum had Peacock's when he stole the necklace. And this charts out when Scarlet ends up with it and is blamed. But Green was the first to grab Peacock's by mistake and he only swapped it away when there was no popcorn left in it. So how was the necklace found "amongst the chocolates and popcorn"?

And I'm 11 for 12 going into the final round.

[DagaYemar]

8579882
Excellent work, glad to see you're sticking through til the end.

[ExplosionMare]

White Wash

I got it wrong, but to be fair, I thought I was supposed to keep track of the bday mare’s bag instead of the perpetrator’s.