The Integral Investigation
“Heavens,” Rarity said, “this part never gets any less unsavory, does it?”
“It’s probably a good thing we aren’t used to it yet,” Rainbow replied.
“Good point.”
The two of them were standing over the dead body, hooves carefully positioned so as to avoid stepping in anything unpleasant. The first splatters of blood actually started closer to the middle of the room and made a trail to where the ex-pony lay now.
The cause of death was quite apparent—it was hard to miss the puncture wounds in the stallion’s neck. They themselves were quite small, but then ‘go for the jugular’ was an idiom for a reason.
“Where does ‘stabbing to the throat’ fall on your list of ways you wouldn’t want to die, Rainbow Dash?”
“Definitely up there now.”
Screwing up her face, Rarity reached out with her magic and turned Banner’s head, but there were no more wounds to be found there. Nor did there appear to be anything else of note with the corpse, which Rarity herself concluded after a brief and reluctant inspection.
That unpleasant task out of the way, she turned her attention to the note.
To the passengers of this most magnificent airship;
Make no mistake. This is a warning to all of you. Attempting to cheat me will not award you any favours. Continue your enquiry at your own peril.
“They seem to have it out for me,” Rarity said.
“Not surprising.”
She looked a little closer.
“Interesting,” she murmured. “Here, look around the edges of the newsprint. The red stain.”
Rainbow squinted at the paper. Indeed, the first few cut words and letters had a very slight red border along their edges.
“Is that… blood?”
“Most likely.” Rarity left the note on one of the empty bunks. “Given that and the… wounds… I think it’s fairly obvious what the murder weapon was.”
“…Scissors?”
Rarity smiled. “Very good, darling! We’ll make a detective out of you yet.”
Rainbow looked away. Rarity didn’t notice.
“Yes, I do believe Mr. Byline met his end to a pair of scissors. Odd choice of weapon, but I suppose one must make do.”
“So… all we have to do is find out who has a pair of scissors?” Rainbow asked.
“In theory? Yes.” Rarity turned away from the body. “In practice, I’m afraid not.”
“What do you mean?”
“The boxes,” Rarity replied. “If I were our blackmailer, and I needed to hide a relatively small object from a brilliant, fashionable, absolutely stunning detective, I’d put it in the one place she wasn’t allowed to look.”
“You promised you wouldn’t look in anyone’s boxes, so…”
“Indeed.” Rarity sighed. “It’s unfortunate; if I’d thought something like this was going to happen, I would have left myself a loophole. As it was, it never even occurred to me.”
She pouted. “Really, it’s all rather unfair.”
She stepped back, away from the body. “Doesn’t it seem odd to you,” Rarity said, tapping her chin in thought, “that our mysterious blackmailer would kill one of his own golden geese?”
“You mean why would he kill someone he was trying to blackmail?”
“Precisely,” Rarity said. “I suppose it could just be because he was trying to get us all to come forward to the police, but he wasn’t making much headway there, and the note makes it sound like they were going after me, not him specifically. But then why attack Banner and not myself? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe because we were together last night?” Rainbow suggested, but Rarity frowned.
“But we never told anyone we were bunking together, darling. No one should have known.”
“They could have overheard?”
“Hm…” She looked unsatisfied at this answer, but she followed it up with a “Perhaps.”
She sighed. “In any case, this has now become a murder investigation. And here I was thinking we’d finally gotten some variety in our caseload. We’ll need to act with twice as much urgency now that our culprit has shown themselves capable of killing.”
“At least this proves that whoever’s behind the blackmail is on board,” Rainbow said.
Rarity smiled. “Ever the optimist, Rainbow Dash.”
They began their investigations for the day with a quick search of the living quarters. The cabins were arranged as follows, starting from the left fork of the hallway: Ruby Gleam at the back, an empty room, then the Morasses, a second empty room, and then Capital Idea. On the right fork was Fancy at the back, Banner’s room next to his, an empty room, then Rarity’s, and finally Rainbow’s unoccupied room. Each of them was similar to Rarity’s, with the main difference being the tenants.
Not a one of them yielded anything useful. And so, it was on to interviews.
“Tell me about yourself, Mr. Idea,” Rarity said. They were in the lounge, Rarity’s chosen spot. Rarity was sitting in one of the chairs, Rainbow standing beside her. And across from them in another chair was Capital Idea himself.
“What do you want to know?”
“Where do you live,” Rarity supplied. “Where do you work, that sort of thing.”
“Well, I live in Manehattan,” Capital said. “I’m an investment broker.”
“What firm?”
“Equitrade.”
“You must be pretty well off, then,” Rarity said.
“Reasonably so. I’m certainly not hurting for cash.”
“What’s your relationship to Fancy Pants?”
“We have a mutual friend in Banner Byline,” he said. “Or ‘had’, I guess.”
“How did you know Byline?”
“We go back a long time,” he said. “He was one of my clients. We got to know each other pretty well.”
“Tell me about him.”
Capital Idea sighed. “He was a good guy. Trustworthy. Dependable. Bit of a boyscout. Never acted like he was as rich as he was, especially after he bought the Times.”
“How did he come into his money?”
“He started off with a modest inheritance,” Idea said. “Grew it into a fortune. He had a good head for money, Banner did.”
“Do you have any idea what might have been in his box?” Rarity asked. “We couldn’t find it when we searched Banner’s cabin.”
Idea stiffened. “No idea. I can’t even imagine what anyone could have on him. Like I said—he was a boyscout.”
Rarity nodded, then shifted topics. “What about the rest of the guests? Know any of them?”
“I’ve met Ruby Gleam before,” he said. “We travel in similar circles—she’s also from Manehattan. We used to be closer, but we had a bit of a falling out. I won’t go into the details.”
“Manehattan?” Rarity frowned. “Fancy said she was from Trottingham.”
“She travels between the two cities. She’s a Trottingham native, though, I suppose—I guess her accent gives that away, though. Sorry for the confusion.”
“Quite all right,” Rarity said. “And the Morasses?”
“Never even heard of them before.”
Rarity nodded again. “Let me ask you about last night,” she said. “How did you sleep?”
“I was awake for most of the night,” Capital Idea said. “I couldn’t help it. How is one supposed to fall asleep after that?”
“Understandable,” Rarity said. “I hardly slept a wink myself. I presume you spent the night in your own cabin, is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right,” he said.
“So you wouldn’t have noticed anything out of the ordinary.”
“Well—there was one thing. I could hear hoofsteps, outside my door.”
Rarity quirked an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yeah,” he said. “A few times, actually.”
“Could you tell me more?”
“Well, I don’t know when any of this was,” said Capital Idea, “there’s no clock in my cabin, and I didn’t bring a watch, but three times last night I heard someone pass my door. On the second occasion, I think it might have been two ponies.”
“And was there anything strange about these hoofsteps?”
“No,” he said. “I just thought it was a bit odd that there was so much bustle going on in the night. Maybe it wasn’t that odd after all.”
“On the contrary,” Rarity said. “The small details are often the most important.”
Capital Idea smiled. “Well, in that case, I’m glad I could provide them. People have always complimented me for my memory.”
“Well, I’m glad we have that to rely on!”
They both laughed.
“There’s one last thing that’s stood out as odd to me,” Rarity said, afterwards.
“Shoot.”
“I couldn’t help but notice,” Rarity said, “That your name was not on the guest list I received with my invitation.”
“Was it not?” Capital Idea said. “Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that. You’d have to ask Fancy Pants.”
“Oh, I intend to,” Rarity said. “May I ask when you received your invitation?”
“About a week ago.”
“Interesting. I received mine closer to a month ago.”
“Really?” Capital Idea seemed a little taken aback. “You know, I did think it was a bit short notice. I suppose I was a late addition.”
“I suppose so,” Rarity said. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Idea.”
Ruby gleam was frowning when she entered the room, and she was frowning as she sat down.
“Is something the matter?” Rarity asked.
“Why would anything be?” Ruby Gleam replied, still frowning. Rainbow Dash was left to conclude that Ruby Gleam wasn’t displeased with anything in particular so much as she was displeased with everything in particular.
“Well, we’ll do our best not to waste any time,” Rarity said, and this seemed to placate the mare somewhat.
“While I already know who you are,” she began, “for the sake of procedure and for my assistant here, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?”
“Well,” Ruby Gleam said, seeming to perk up, even. “”My name, as you know, is Ruby Gleam; my father was Brass Gleam, the famous inventor.”
“What’d he invent?” Rainbow asked.
“The duct-reverse carburetor.”
“The what?”
“Really now, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said. “Who hasn’t heard of the duct-reverse carburetor?”
Rainbow shrugged. “What’s it do?”
“It would be better to ask what it doesn’t do,” Ruby Gleam said.
“What doesn’t it do?”
“Answer ignorant questions like ‘What is a duct-reverse carburetor’.”
“What it did do was make your late father fabulously wealthy,” Rarity said, regaining control of the conversation while Rainbow bristled. “And, by extension, you.”
“Naturally.”
“Which, of course, has now made you a target for our blackmailer.”
Ruby Gleam’s expression grew sourer. “Yes.”
“So, on that track,” Rarity said, “tell me about your relationship with the other passengers. Have you met any of them before?”
“I’ve met all of them before,” Ruby said.
“Where had you met them before?”
“Oh, here and there,” she said. “At parties and the like. Oh, except for Fancy Pants. Fancy was a friend of my father’s.”
“Which is, I suppose, why you were invited upon this airship.”
“Correct. There are several duct-reverse carburetors on board.”
“What about Banner Byline?” Rarity asked. “Did you know him any better than any of the others?”
“I wouldn’t say we were friends,” Ruby Gleam explained, “but I suppose we were more than acquaintances, too. We used to exchange letters.”
“What about?”
Ruby Gleam frowned. “I hardly think it matters what my personal correspondence is like, Miss Rarity.”
“If it’s so inconsequential,” Rarity said, “then surely you wouldn’t mind sharing just a little bit?”
Ruby Gleam glared at her and said nothing.
“Oh well. I tried.” Rarity concluded, after a moment of awkward silence. It was clear they weren’t going to get anything else out of Gleam, tight-lipped as she was. “Let me ask you something else. Did you hear any hoofsteps outside your door last night?”
“No, I can’t say that I did.”
“Your room is at the end of the hallway, though, yes?”
She nodded. “That’s correct. So I wouldn’t have heard anyone unless they came to my room, which no one did.”
“You’re sure no one visited you last night?”
Ruby Gleam shot her a look. “That’s what I just said, isn’t it? No one came to my cabin last night.”
“Did you leave your cabin?”
“No. I went right to bed.”
“How did you sleep?”
“Like an angel. I do need my beauty sleep, and I get up on the wrong side of the bed if I don’t get my full eight hours.”
“Does your bed even have a ‘right side’?” Rainbow muttered under her breath.
If anyone else heard, no one said anything.
“I don’t see why she has to interview us,” Mr. Morass said. “We certainly didn’t kill anyone.”
“Hush, Nancy,” his wife said. “It’s just procedure. Right, Miss Rarity? You don’t actually think we’re behind any of this, do you?”
“I can’t rule you out more than anyone else at the moment,” Rarity said. “That being said, you certainly wouldn’t be my first choice of suspect.”
“You see?”
Mr. Morass harrumphed.
The couple hadn’t insisted on being interviewed separately, but for some reason Rarity felt it would be inappropriate to separate the pair. Mr. Morass was sitting in the chair, his wife standing at his side. Rarity gathered that the elderly stallion had some sort of problem that was alleviated by sitting down.
“Tell me about yourselves?” Rarity asked. “Banner Byline said you’d been married forty years, before his untimely passing.”
Mrs. Morass laughed. “Forty years? Is that all?” She laughed again. “I kid, I kid. I suppose that must seem like a long time to a young pony like yourself.”
“I confess it does,” Rarity said. “Happily married?”
“Very happily.”
“What do you do for a living?”
“Oh, nothing anymore,” she said. “We’re retired. But I used to do floral arrangements, and Nancy was a stock broker.”
“You must have done pretty well for yourselves, being where you are today.”
“It’s mostly Nancy’s inheritance,” Mrs. Morass said. “He had a rich grandfather. Left everything to him when he died.”
“I see,” Rarity said.
“Don’t get the wrong idea,” Mr. Morass interrupted. “We got on fine before the inheritance. I’m not the kind of stallion who has to rely on his relatives’ money.” He snorted. “Unlike some ponies on board this Celestia-forsaken tin can.”
“And which passenger of this Celestia-forsaken tin can would you be referring to with that comment, I wonder?” Rarity said. “I assume you mean Miss Ruby Gleam.”
Mrs. Morass looked aghast. “Nancy! Don’t say such things!”
Mr. Morass harrumphed. “It’s true though, and you know it.”
“I gather the two of you have met before,” Rarity said, leaning forward. Her notorious gossip side was getting the better of her.
“We have,” Mrs. Morass said. “Only once, at a party. I’m afraid Nancy didn’t come away with the best impression of her, as you can see.”
“And why is that?”
“They got into a heated discussion about money.”
“She made it clear in no uncertain terms that she felt we were wasting our money by not spending it,” Mr. Morass explained. “Better to save it for when you need it, that’s what I always say. A pony like her who’s had it good all her life doesn’t understand what it’s like to have to ration your pay. You understand, right, Miss Rarity? You’re a craftspony, after all, you must.”
Rarity nodded. She did understand.
“What about the other guests?” she asked. “Know any of them?”
“We’d met Banner Byline,” Mrs. Morass said. “Hadn’t we, Nancy?”
“We had?”
“Yes, dear. At that party we went to last year, in Canterlot.”
Mr. Morass looked perplexed. “News to me.”
“You just don’t remember,” Mrs. Morass said.
“My memory is perfectly fine, thank you very much.”
Mrs. Morass turned to Rarity. “Well, we did. Just briefly, mind you—just long enough to be introduced.”
“I see,” said Rarity.
“And of course, we know Fancy Pants,” Mrs. Morass continued. “We’ve known him since he was a little foal. Nancy was friends with his father.”
“A good fellow, Fancy Pants’ father,” Mr. Morass said. “Pity he died so young. Fancy looks a lot like him, you know.”
Mrs. Morass nodded. “He does.”
“So the only other guest you hadn’t met was Capital Idea,” Rarity surmised.
“That’s right.”
“How about this,” Rarity said. “Did either of you hear any hoofsteps last night? Past your door?”
The two looked at each other.
“I can’t say that I did,” Mrs. Morass said. “What about you, Nancy?”
“No,” he said, and he turned back to Rarity. “We weren’t up for long, though. Should we have?”
“Not necessarily. Did either of you leave your cabin?”
“No,” Mr. Morass said. “We stayed inside all night.”
“We both slept through the night,” Mrs. Morass added.
Rarity nodded. “Well, that’s it for my questions. You’re free to go.”
Mr. Morass nodded, stood, slowly. Mrs. Morass, however, hesitated.
“You don’t think what happened to Banner Byline…” She swallowed. “You don’t think that could happen to anyone else, right?”
Rarity shook her head reassuringly. “No, I think you’ll be quite all right. As long as no one sticks their neck out,” she said, “the only pony they should be after is me.”
This didn’t seem to do much for poor Mrs. Morass.
“They seem like a nice couple,” Rainbow said, after they’d left.
“They do,” Rarity said. “But looks may be deceiving. Remember: they got boxes, too.”
“It’s funny,” Rarity said. “You’re the first pony I’ve ever had to do this with twice.”
Fancy smiled. “Here’s hoping it’ll be the last, eh?”
It was Fancy Pants’ turn in the chair. Rarity had been particular about this, interviewing him last.
“Tell me what you know about the other guests,” she began. “What’s your relationship to each of them?”
“Where to start?” Fancy replied. “I suppose with Ruby Gleam. I was friends with her father, whom I’ve no doubt you already know was Brass Gleam, the inventor.”
Rarity nodded. “Of course. And I also gather that friendship isn’t the only reason you invited her on board.”
Fancy smiled. “I owe a great deal to her father. Without his invention, the Anesidora wouldn’t be around to make this trip. I suppose I felt I owed him. Plus… I confess, I also wanted to check in on his daughter.”
“Why is that?”
“There’s a rumor going around that she let all of her house staff go recently,” Fancy said.
“That might explain her temperament,” Rarity said.
“No, no,” Fancy said. “I can assure you, she’s always like that. Has been since she was a child. Not much like her father; I never met her mother. Died when she was young.”
“So, she’s broke,” Rarity summed up.
“If the rumor is to be believed. I haven’t had much time to talk with her since this whole business started.”
“Okay,” Rarity said. “What about Banner Byline?”
“Banner was… a good friend,” Fancy said. “And a major investor in this enterprise. I asked him to come along personally.”
“How did you two know each other?”
“We were school friends, at the academy, when we were both much younger. That friendship held strong for many years.”
“What about his friend, Capital Idea?” Rarity asked.
Fancy shook his head. “I’d never met him before yesterday. Banner wanted me to invite him.”
“I see,” Rarity said. “And the Morasses?”
“Like family to me,” Fancy said. “There’s not much more to it than that. I believe that’s everyone.”
“Who would have had access to the guest list?”
“Just those I invited and myself,” Fancy said.
“Did you hear any hoofsteps outside your room last night?”
“No, I did not.”
“And did you leave your room?”
“Yes, I did,” Fancy said. “I went to the bridge for a little while to talk with the captain, then went straight back to my cabin.”
“I believe I may have heard you pass by,” Rarity said. “The front walls of our cabins are very thin.”
“Are they that bad?” Fancy said, raising an eyebrow. “I’ll make a note of that. These are the sorts of kinks that will need to be ironed out before we go into full production.”
“We’re your lab rats, are we?” Rarity said.
“No, no, not rats,” was Fancy’s reply. “More like guinea pigs. Much cuter.”
The interview was wrapping up. However:
“One more question.”
It was Rainbow who spoke, not Rarity. She put her hooves on the table, leaned forwards so she could look Fancy in the monocle.
“What in the wide, wide world of Equestria is an Anesidora?”
Fancy blinked.
“One of the engineers came up with it.”
“Yeah, but what does it mean?”
“I’m afraid I haven’t the foggiest.”
“Well, that was less productive than I’d have liked it to be,” Rarity said, as she and Rainbow left the lounge. They were alone in the metal hallway that connected the rooms; they were on their way back to their cabin.
“I’ll say,” Rainbow agreed. “I don’t think we learned a single useful thing that entire time!”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Rarity said. “I think we learned several important things. Just not quite enough to tie things together.”
“Oh? Like what?”
“Capital Idea’s hoofsteps in the night for one,” Rarity said. “Combined with what I heard last night, I’d say they paint a pretty interesting picture.”
Rainbow waited for her to continue.
“I heard five sets of hoofsteps pass our door last night,” Rarity said. “Two ponies on the second occasion. Given the placements of our cabins, I suspect one of those two ponies is our killer.”
“But no one said they left their cabin last night, except for Fancy Pants, so…”
“So one of them is lying,” Rarity finished. “Nothing new there. Someone had to be. But the question is: who?”
They’d reached their cabins in the meantime, and were now standing outside Rarity’s door.
“I think it best we share a cabin tonight, as well,” Rarity said. “If that’s alright with you, darling.”
“Of course!”
“Though I don’t know if I’ll be getting much sleep,” Rarity said. “No, I don’t think I’ll be getting any at all…”
Time passed. Dinner was had. No new developments occurred. And then, it was time for bed. Rainbow and Rarity chose to spend the night once again in Rarity’s room.
The sun had long set when Rainbow felt a gentle push on her shoulders.
“Rainbow,” Rarity whispered. “Are you awake, darling?”
“I am now,” Rainbow said, blinking. “What’s up?”
“Would you mind joining me on a little expedition?” Rarity said.
“What?”
“I need to use the toilet, darling.”
“Oh.” Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Oooh.”
“I was hoping you’d accompany me; I don’t much like the idea of moving about on my own in the night.”
Rainbow rolled out of bed; they made their way outside. Rarity cast her gaze down the hall.
“Good evening, Fancy,” Rarity replied. “Any troubles tonight?”
“None so far,” Fancy said. He yawned.
Fancy was guarding Banner Byline’s door. He’d announced his intentions to do so at dinner. He now seemed to be regretting that decision; he looked barely awake.
“Well, keep up the good work.”
He smiled.
“Yes ma’am.”
Rainbow and Rarity continued on their way. Their trip to the restrooms was uneventful; however, on the way back, they ran into some familiar faces.
“Oh, good evening,” Mrs. Morass said. “We were just on our way to the toilet. Nancy has a weak bladder, you know.”
“You don’t have to tell them that!” Mr. Morass countered.
“Not so loud, Nancy! Ponies are trying to sleep.”
Rainbow and Rarity nodded to them, then headed back to their own cabin.
They stayed there for the rest of the night.
Morning light streamed through the porthole window in their cabin. Rarity’s hoof poked at Rainbow Dash’s ribs. Rainbow groaned.
“Get up, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said. “We’ll be starting a little early today. It’s the last day of our trip, and we still have a case to resolve.”
Rainbow mumbled something and turned over in her bed.
Rarity frowned. “Really now, Rainbow Dash, I know you’re not a morning pony, but we have a job to do.” She poked Rainbow in the ribs again.
“Five… more minutes…” Rainbow grumbled.
Rarity sighed. “Fine. I need time to think, anyway.”
Rarity retreated. Rainbow got comfortable again.
Then, there was a knock at their door.
“Curious,” Rarity said. “It’s a bit early for breakfast.”
She went to the door, pulled it open.
“Yes?”
“Come quick,” Fancy Pants said, his voice grim. “There’s been another murder.”
They followed Fancy Pants quietly into the room.
“Oh,” was all Rainbow could say, looking at the body. “Oh.”
It was Ruby Gleam’s turn to be the corpse, it seemed.
“Oh.”
Ruby’s face was grey, a painful, desperate expression on her face. Her neck was bruised an angry black. She was propped up against the back wall of the cabin, just as Banner Byline had been.
“Strangled to death,” Rarity observed. “Goodness, that’s quite high on my list of ways I don’t want to die. We’re getting quite the variety on this case.”
“I went around to check on everyone this morning, just to be careful,” Fancy said from the doorway. “There was no answer when I knocked, and the cabin was unlocked.”
“I hadn’t expected a second victim,” Rarity said. She stepped closer to the body. “This is a bit of a twist. Killing Banner Byline I can kind of understand, after his speech about turning ourselves in. But why kill Ruby Gleam? What did she do?”
She peered closer. “Hang on—there’s another note.”
The thing was tucked under Ruby Gleam’s limp foreleg. Rarity lit her horn and withdrew it from its hiding place. Once again, it was made up of cut-out pieces of newsprint pasted onto paper.
On this final occasion, the note is once more reproduced exactly as it was written for you, the reader:
This is your final warning. Cease your investigation at once or there will only be more blood on your hooves.
“Ooh! A direct threat to me. Spine-chilling! But I don’t know when the blackmailer expects to have time to kill again,” Rarity said. “We land this afternoon, no? And they’re hardly going to keep killing us after we’ve all gone home. Besides, what’s the point? Why do they keep killing off the ponies they’re supposed to be blackmailing?”
“Maybe they found out that Ruby Gleam was out of money?” Rainbow suggested.
Rarity didn’t seem satisfied with that answer. “It’s possible, I suppose,” she said, “but one would think they’d have figured that out before we took off. Which begs the question: why give Ruby a box at all?”
She re-examined the note. “Scissors, again,” she remarked. “The edges are clean. Presumably the same pair… interesting that they weren’t used as the murder weapon this time.”
Rarity looked around.
“Where is Ruby Gleam’s box? If I recall correctly from our cabin searches yesterday, it should be on her dresser, but it’s missing today.”
They made a quick search of the cabin, but the box was nowhere to be seen.
“Banner Byline’s box was missing, too,” Rainbow commented.
“Yes,” Rarity said. “The culprit must have hidden them somewhere, or…”
She trailed off. Something seemed to have caught her interest.
“Do you hear that?”
They all fell silent. Faintly, Rainbow could hear something: a quiet whistling, just barely audible.
“I think it’s coming from next door,” Rainbow said.
“That’s odd,” Fancy replied. “The rooms to either side of this one should be empty.”
“Shall we take a look?” Rarity asked. Together, they left Ruby Gleam’s corpse behind in the sorry state that it was and moved one room to the right. It took several moments for them to figure out what was out of place, but when they did…
“Aha!” Rarity said. “Look, the window’s open!”
The circular window at the back of the room was, indeed, open, just slightly; the air rushing through it was the source of the whistling. There was also a buzzing noise: the engines, just audible over the wind.
“But why on earth is the window open?” Fancy said.
“I suspect our culprit may have been using it to dispose of evidence,” Rarity said. “Did we pass over a lake last night, Fancy?”
“I believe we did.” he said.
“Good. I’m glad Ruby’s box isn’t going to hit anyone over the head, unless they were out in a boat in the middle of the night.” Rarity peeked out the porthole. “The real question is: why on earth is the window open in here?”
She closed the window; it shut with a click.
“If I was going to dispose of evidence from Ruby’s room, I would do it from Ruby’s room, wouldn’t I?” Rarity said. “Not from next door. What was the culprit even doing in this room in the first place? It’s quite bizarre, don’t you think?”
“It is weird,” Rainbow said, but she couldn’t think of a reason for it, either.
“Also, look at the bed,” Rarity said. “It’s rumpled, as if someone was sleeping in here. How odd.”
“Fancy,” she asked, “did you happen to see anything or anyone suspicious last night? You were out in the hall.”
“No,” he said, “I’m afraid the only ponies I saw last night were you two.”
They fell into a silence. No one had anything else to add.
Rarity pulled out her pocketwatch, gazed at its face. She grimaced. “What time do you expect us to be landing, Fancy?” she asked.
“Around nine,” he said.
“We’ve only got a couple of hours left, then,” Rarity said. “Rainbow! Come along, darling. There’s a question I need to ask one of the guests!”
“Tell me, were you awake again last night? Judging by the bags under your eyes, you must have been.”
Capital Idea did, indeed, have some heavy bags under his eyes. He was also looking quite cornered—which he was, literally; they’d encountered him in a bend in the hallway. Rarity had pressed him into the space between the two walls through sheer enthusiasm; he looked like a deer in headlights.
“Y-yes, I was up all night,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
“Ruby Gleam is dead.”
“Come again?”
“Ruby Gleam,” Rarity repeated, “is dead. Strangled in her cabin.”
Capital blinked. His mouth fell open, and he made a sort of gurgling sound.
Rarity rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, I know. Now, this is important. I need you to focus. We’re running out of time.”
Capital idea seemed to come together a little bit. Rarity continued with her question.
“Did you hear any more hoofsteps past your door last night?”
Capital’s mouth opened, closed. Opened again.
“…Yes, I think so.”
“I need you to be absolutely certain,” said Rarity.
Capital Idea swallowed. “Yes, I’m sure. I heard one set of hoofsteps past my door last night, quite early in the night.”
“You’re sure it was just one set?” Rarity asked.
“Yes.”
“No, I couldn’t sleep at all last night,” Mrs. Morass said. “Nancy was fast asleep, though. Why do you ask?”
Rarity smiled. “I just wanted to know if you heard any hoofsteps past your door last night,” she said.
They were in the lounge, the four of them: Rainbow, Rarity, and Mr. And Mrs. Morass.
“Well, let me think,” Mrs. Morass said. She tapped her hoof to her chin.
“Yes,” I think I did,” she said, after a few moments. “Yes, I’m sure of it: I heard some hoofsteps past my door. On two occasions, actually.”
“And was it just one set each time?” Rarity asked.
“Yes, I think so,” she said. Rarity smiled.
“Thank you very much.”
“This case is just full of questions, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said, pacing around the empty space in the middle of their cabin. “Absolutely brimming with them.”
Rainbow was sitting on her bed, watching the other mare go round and round, the tail of her trenchcoat fluttering along behind her. Rarity had a grimace on her face and a sense of urgency in her step.
About an hour and a half had passed; they’d spent most of the time on a brief re-examination of the other cabins, but nothing new had turned up. And so they’d returned to their cabin, and Rarity had begun to think. And while Rarity had continued to think, there had been nothing for Rainbow to do but watch.
Rarity gave off a sense of manic danger when she thought, and it only seemed to be getting worse with every second that ticked by.
“Five boxes,” Rarity was saying. “Two murders. But why those two? Why did our killer go after the ponies they did?” Her gaze was like a knife: sharp, incisive, and absolutely ready to bite into someone if it would get her the answers she wanted. “I think if we can find the answer to that, we’ll have the key to this whole thing. But what is it?”
Rainbow watched on in silence.
“There must be some connection… something we’re missing!”
There was a knock on their door. A moment later, Fancy Pants poked his head into the room.
“We’ve arrived in the skies over Vanhoover,” he said. “We’ll be landing in ten minutes.”
“Take us around the city,” Rarity ordered. “Call it a publicity stunt. I need time to think.”
She went back to pacing. Fancy looked to Rainbow Dash.
“She’ll get it,” Rainbow said. “Just give her a little more time.”
Fancy looked worried… but he nodded, and retreated from the room.
Rarity gave up on pacing. Instead, she flopped down onto her back in her bed. Her horn lit; three pieces of paper floated into the air over her face. She scanned each, line by line.
“Something we’re missing…”
Rarity’s eyes swept from the first note… to the second note… to the third… the first…
The second…
The first…
The second…
The first…
Her brow furrowed. Her mouth opened, then closed again.
“Rainbow,” Rarity said, with the brisk tone of someone whose thoughts are focused elsewhere. “I need a pencil. There should be one in one of my bags.”
“What do you need it for?”
“I need to make sure I’m right about something.”
Rainbow finally emerged with one; Rarity snatched it up in her magic.
“But there’s no paper—”
“Fancy will have to forgive me,” Rarity said, and she began to scribble furiously onto the wall. “I’m sure my saving of his derriere will lend me at least a little leeway!”
Rainbow took a step back. She didn’t want to come anywhere close to being in Rarity’s way; nothing good could come of it when she was like this.
At least it was better than the pacing.
Rainbow watched as a diagram of the cabins from above emerged on the wall of their cabin. Rarity began to draw lines over it, leading from one cabin to the next. Occasionally, she would stop, frown, and erase all the lines before starting again. This continued on for several minutes, until Rainbow could no longer follow what was going on.
“Aha!” Rarity announced, at last. She turned towards Rainbow Dash. Her chest was heaving, and there was an excited smile on her face.
She had that gleam in her eye; that passionate, predatory, positively alive gleam, and Rainbow knew what that meant.
Rainbow wasn’t going to deprive her of her moment, though.
“I know who killed Banner Byline,” Rarity declared. “I know who killed Ruby Gleam. And I know who started this whole mess in the first place.”
Something else Rainbow knew was what came next. What came after Rarity got that gleam in her eyes.
“I’ll round everyone up,” she said, standing up. “The lounge a good place?”
Rarity smiled.
“You know me so well.”
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awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter
My theory? The blackmailer... was ALL THE PONIES outside Fancy and Rarity and RD and Banner. They all wanted to try and see about scaring up some last bit of cash from Fancy Pants and in the process humiliate him one more time. However Banner was getting close to discovering the truth or at least have a sense of what's going on and they silenced him before he could do anything and tried to make Rarity back off in the process. However at this point Ruby got cold feet, maybe thinking murder was MUCH too far even for her angry self and decided to try and expose the truth about them all. Thus they needed to shut her up as well. But now they're all whittled down and losing control.
I've got nothing on who it is or why. Eagerly awaiting the next chapter.
How many chapters long will this story be?
11086402
Yes, indeed. Only one name was missing from the list: the last-minute addition Capital Idea. Things that make you go, "hmmmmmm..."
I will take a stab at it, but this one is tough.
Banner Byline was blackmailing Fancy Pants, although Fancy Pants had not known that it was him. Fancy Pants staged the whole charade with the boxes as a ploy to get Rarity to look for his blackmailer among likely suspects Ruby Gleam and Mr. and Mrs. Morass on an airship which they could not escape or contact any accomplices from. Fleur in disguise gave the boxes to the chef.
When Banner saw that Ruby Gleam--by chance another of his blackmail victims--was among the invited guests, he asked Fancy Pants to also invite a friend of his, Capital Idea, who I suspect launders his blackmail money, for support. Fancy agreed, still thinking Banner to be his friend. Banner did not realize what Fancy was about to pull.
After Fancy's big show, Banner tried to thwart the scheme by encouraging others to disregard the blackmail, but the dirt on Ruby, Capital, and the Morasses was good. As a family friend, Fancy had good sources on them, less so on the debutant Rarity. Panicking some, Banner met with Capital at night and came up with a plan to write some blackmail letters of his own, but he was confronted in his own cabin by his victim/ex Ruby as he was doing so. She saw him cutting letters out of newsprint and correctly determined that he was the blackmailer for the wrong reasons. Telekinetic unicorn that she was, Ruby snatched his scissors and killed him. She the hurriedly cut letters out of the bloodied newspaper and left a new note to cast the blame onto the mysterious blackmailer. She then disposed of Banner's box through the window in the empty cabin next to her room but not before discovering that the blackmail material tied him to Capital Ideas.
Capital Idea heard--and perhaps saw--her go by his room both times, and when Banner turned up dead he had a pretty good idea of whodunnit, which he tried to clue Rarity into with his story of hearing hoofsteps. Capital had looked into his own box and knew that the subject that he was being blackmailed for was the same as what Banner was being blackmailed for. That meant that Ruby, who took Banner's box, had all she needed to blackmail him. Lacking any weapon, he had to rely on brute force to silence her. He only found the scissors when he opened her box and found them hidden inside. He then did exactly what she had done after she killed Banner: he created a new note from the false blackmailer to cover his tracks.
tl;dr Banner was the real blackmailer, Ruby killed Banner, Capital killed Ruby, and the boxes were Fancy's scheme gone wrong in a way he had not anticipated.
Incidentally, has anyone else noticed the positively absurd ratio of views to likes on this story? A full quarter of the people who read this story press the up button. It does not matter, really, but it is notable.
I won't provide a guess, but I found it odd that everyone seemed to be assuming that both murders and the blackmail were committed by the same pony.