Project Ghost: The Mystery Of The Dead Stallion

by Shimmering Thunder

Chapter 8 - The Archives

The walk from the library to the town hall wasn’t as long as I would have hoped. My thoughts were still kind of a mess. I bet Pinkie Pie also noticed this but didn’t say anything, which I thought was weird. Then again, I don’t think she has been in this kind of situation before. She must have had her own thoughts to sort out too. A glance at her face didn’t reveal much though. She looked happy, if not little absent. Gummy was riding on her back, looking somewhere in the distance. We then stopped outside the town hall as Pinkie finalized her plan.

“Okay, here we are, Gummy. Our mission is to find out more about that pony in the article and confirm if he’s our target,” Pinkie Pie announced her plan to Gummy and me. Or just me, I couldn’t tell anymore.

“Can I help you in some way?” I inquired. I wanted to help, but I wasn’t sure what I could actually do.

“Don’t you worry, I have got a job for you as well, should the need arise.”

That said, Pinkie Pie simply walked to the door and knocked on it--with her hoof this time. After a few moments, Mayor Mare came to open the door. It could have been just my imagination, but she looked a little bit tired.

“Why, hello Pinkie Pie. Can I help you with something?” the mayor asked, holding the door open with her hoof.

Pinkie’s get up was probably telling the mayor enough about her plans. At least her expression was mildly amused.

“Yes, I’d actually like to ask you a couple questions if you don’t mind,” Pinkie started. “Shall we go inside to talk in private?”

I was surprised by the level of seriousness with which she took her role as a detective. Was she actually serious, though, or just playing? I had no idea, but it was fun to watch.

“Uh, of course. Please follow me,” the mayor said and guided Pinkie Pie inside. This time, I slipped in before she managed to slam the door shut in front of my muzzle.

The mayor guided us to her office, where she sat behind her desk. I noticed how she closed one of the drawers, as if trying to hide something. My assumption told me it was the bottle, but I couldn’t be sure. She then collected some papers from her desk and neatly organized them into a stack.

“My apologies for the mess,” the mayor mumbled. She even looked a bit baffled for a second. “So, what’s on your mind, Pinkie?” she asked.

“This,” Pinkie stated shortly and flapped the newspaper on the table, causing the neat stack of papers to fly on the floor.

The newspaper stole the mayor’s attention from the fallen papers and I started to read them while she was distracted. I was interested to find out what was going on with her.

“Oh my, that’s the article about that dead stallion, isn’t it?” Mayor Mare inquired. “Do you have some information about the vict--I mean about the body?”

I quickly raised my head, just to notice that Pinkie Pie had caught the same word that I did. The article said the stallion had died by natural causes, yet the mayor thought he was actually murdered? Things started to get more interesting by the minute.

“Not exactly, I’m just interested to hear all about it. I mean, I thought you might know something about it as a mayor. What did he look like, does anypony know what happened to him?” Pinkie bombarded the mayor, who now peeked at her papers on the floor.

I managed to get a glance at the papers, but couldn’t quite tell what they were about. One seemed to be some kind of a letter, others were just full of some numbers and calculations. That said, she gathered them up quickly and put them in the drawer.

“Uh, I’m afraid I don’t know anything more than what’s said in the article,” Mayor Mare mumbled. “Did you have anything else, I’m quite busy.”

“Do you know who wrote the article then? It doesn’t have any name,” Pinkie asked.

“N-no, I don’t,” she murmured.

The mayor was clearly under some serious stress, but the reason was still in the shadows. Or in her drawers with the bottle. I looked at Pinkie Pie and found out she had came to the same conclusion.

“Ookay, we won’t bother you any further, thanks for the help,” Pinkie cheered, changing her mood from suspicious to her carefree self in no time.

“No problem, I think,” Mayor Mare replied, seemingly relieved, but also confused.

We walked outside from the office, and Pinkie Pie winked to follow her. She didn’t go outside, though. Instead, she trotted across the hall and in front of the room that had a label “Archives” above it.

“Psst, could you check if anypony’s inside?” Pinkie whispered to me.

After a moment of hesitation, I walked through the door, just to find a really dark room filled with large filing cabinets. There was just enough light coming from under the door to see that there was nopony here. I went back to Pinkie Pie.

“The way is clear,” I confirmed.

Pinkie Pie carefully opened the door and closed it even more carefully behind her.

“There’s definitely something suspicious going on here,” Pinkie Pie whispered. “The mayor clearly knows more than she says. Let’s find out what it is.”

“Alright, what’s your plan?” I asked.

“You’ll guard the outside and come tell me if anypony is coming. Meanwhile, I’ll go through these and try to find more clues about this whole thing.” Pinkie Pie beamed quietly.

Pinkie Pie then took out a flashlight from her mane and started digging through the cabinets. I went to my post outside the door and made sure Pinkie got to work in peace.

---

Working as a guard was more boring than I would have thought. The town hall was quiet and the mayor was still in her office. I almost wanted to go see what she was up to, but I couldn’t abandon my post in case somepony tried to enter the archives. Not that I had seen any other ponies beside Mayor Mare, but you never know. Plus, I didn’t want any troubles for Pinkie Pie.

My thoughts wandered back to that article. What if it really was me? How did I end up there? And if I wasn’t local, where did I come from? And if there was anything criminal behind my assumed death, who could have been responsible? I glanced at the Mayor Mare’s office. Could she have something to do with it? For all I knew, it could have as well been my new pink friend. I laughed at the thought. Some imagination I had.

As I was deeply buried in complicated theories of my own existence, Mayor’s door suddenly opened. She appeared to walk toward the archives. I quickly ran through the door to inform Pinkie Pie.

“Pinkie! Mayor Mare is coming! You need to hide,” I shouted.

Pinkie was in the middle of reading and she quickly reacted to my warning.

“Alright,” she whispered and turned off her flashlight. After that, I wasn’t sure where she went. She simply disappeared with the light.

Not having time to ponder it any longer, the mayor opened the door behind me. The light from the hallway revealed seemingly empty archive. The mayor then walked in and headed straight to one of the filing cabinets.

Opening one of the drawers, she flipped through the papers and sighed. “I should destroy these before anything bad happens.”

I quickly trotted next to her, trying to read what she had just taken out, but before I managed to get a look, she crumbled the pieces into a small ball that she then stomped on the ground. She twisted her hoof to shred the paper for good. She didn’t appear to be angry, though, mostly frustrated if anything.

After making sure that the papers were completely destroyed, she took the pieces and threw them into a trash can. I followed the mayor with my gaze as she exited the room, closing the door behind her.

I waited a minute if she came back before starting to look for Pinkie Pie. Where was she anyway? I walked through every aisle, but couldn’t find her anywhere.

“Pinkie Pie? Where are you?” I asked baffled. It was absolutely quiet. If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn Pinkie had left the building. “Pinkie! Gummy!” I shouted hoping for either one of them to reply. Nothing.

I walked around the room, going through the filing cabinets as well. “Come out, come out wherever you are,” I hollered, continuing my search.

As I went through one of the cabinets, I heard a faint giggle. Thanks to the basically silent surroundings, I could roughly figure out where it came from. I sneaked close to the cabinet number 246 and was about to ask Pinkie Pie to come out.

But just as I opened my mouth, a drawer behind me flew open with a loud noise.

I jumped to the air in panic, letting out a loud yelp.

“Surprise!” Pinkie shouted and smacked face-first on the floor, laughing hysterically at my reaction.

“Yeah, real mature to scare a poor ghost like that,” I grunted.

Pinkie stopped laughing and now stared at me upside down from the floor, having a way too large grin on her face.

“I told you it was my turn to hide next!” she giggled.

Comments

[artofwar77]

Heh, trust Pinkie Pie to spook a ghost.

[Shimmering Thunder]

9193799
Yup, just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.