The Fierce Finale
Rainbow gathered everyone in the lounge. There was a bit of nervous chatter, aimless and confused.
Then Rarity walked in.
The chatter died.
Rarity strolled to the middle of the room. She pulled over a chair in her magic and sat down, facing the other guests.
Silence hung heavy in the air. Rarity swept her eyes from one guest to the next, from Fancy Pants, to Capital Idea, to Mr. Morass, and to his wife.
“I know,” she said at last, “who the blackmailer is.”
There was a moment of silence.
“I’ll admit, this case had me stumped for a little while,” Rarity said. “The pieces just refused to come together. Why did they choose this trip as the scene for their crime? Why the boxes in the first place? How had they managed to dig up dirt on so many ponies, and why would they waste some of that effort by killing two of their targets? So many mysteries… but in the end, it turned out to be quite simple, once I let go of a certain assumption I had been making.”
“The key to it all,” Rarity said, “was separating the roles of the killer and the blackmailer in my mind. Once I did, everything became clear.”
“What do you mean?” Capital Idea asked. Rarity shook her head.
“All will be revealed,” she said, “in due time.”
“Forget due time,” Mr Morass said. “I want answers now! Let’s get on with it!”
Fancy Pants put a hoof on the older stallion’s shoulder. “Let her have her moment,” he said. “It’s why she does this.”
Mr. Morass harrumphed. Fancy turned to Rarity, smiled. “If you’ll continue.”
“Thank you, Fancy.” Rarity draped herself over the back of the chair. She took a deep breath.
“The first clue to the identity of our blackmailer lay in the simple matter of the guest list. You’ll recall from your own invitations that one among us was not on it. That, of course, would be Mr. Capital Idea.”
Capital Idea nodded. “Sure, that seems to be the case. But how is that relevant?”
“Because of the boxes,” Rarity said. Everyone on the guest list received one—aside from you, Rainbow, of course, given you apparently have nothing to hide. That includes Capital Idea, which means that whoever put all of this together knew he’d be on board. That immediately narrows our suspects down to two. Quite a careless blunder on the blackmailer’s part—art least, that’s what I believed at first.
“Either way, that leaves the identity of the blackmailer to be either Fancy Pants, who arranged this trip, and Banner Byline, his partner in these matters. It was Banner, in fact, who asked that Capital Idea be added to the guest list. Between the two, I suspected Banner Byline, and I can now confirm that he was, in fact, the blackmailer.”
“B-Banner?” Capital Idea stammered.
“That’s right,” Rarity said. “Banner Byline was the one who assembled our boxes.”
“Banner Byline,” Fancy said. Even he sounded amazed. “But why?”
“It’ll make sense in a moment,” Rarity said. “Banner also had the means: his staff of reporters at the Manehattan Times, world-renowned for their investigative journalism. It would have been trivial for him to have his staff uncover some deeply-buried secrets, and on short notice, as well.”
“But what evidence do you have?” Capital Idea asked. “How could it be Banner—he’s dead, for Celestia’s sake!”
Rarity nodded. “And that is exactly why I know it was him: because he died. Or, more accurately—because he was murdered.”
“I thought he was murdered because he was trying to get us all to turn ourselves in,” Mrs. Morass said. Rarity shook her head.
“No,” she said. “That was also part of his plan.”
“Wait,” Capital Idea said. “Why would he want us to turn ourselves in if he was the blackmailer? That makes no sense!”
“On the contrary,” Rarity countered. “It makes perfect sense—if his true goal was something other than blackmail.”
Fancy Pants looked confused. “Something other than blackmail? Whatever do you mean?”
“I believe,” said Rarity, “that Banner Byline’s true goal was to have us admit to our secrets—to turn ourselves in. In fact, I think there was a certain someone—or someones—whose secrets he wanted to expose. What he failed to grasp was that someone on board was willing to kill to protect a certain secret. That was—for him—the fatal flaw.”
“Remarkable,” Fancy said. “What evidence do you have to support that claim?”
“All in due time,” Rarity said. “First, I think we should turn to the matter of Banner’s murder.”
“Yes, about that,” Mrs. Morass said. “I’m afraid I’m a bit puzzled. If Banner Byline was the blackmailer, then—did he commit suicide? Who killed Ruby Gleam, then?”
Rarity shook her head. “No. For you see—the one who killed Banner Byline was not the blackmailer.
“Based on the hoofsteps that Capital Idea and I heard pass our doors that night, it was clear that Banner left his cabin to visit someone on the left side of the hall. He and that pony then went back together to Banner’s cabin on the right side of the hallway. This was when the murder occurred. The culprit then fled Banner’s room and headed back to their own cabin on the left side of the fork. That narrowed the suspects down to just Capital Idea, Ruby Gleam, and the Morasses. Assuming, of course, that Capital Idea was telling the truth, which I believe he was. This left just Ruby Gleam and the Morasses.
“Then came the second piece of evidence, provided by the killer themselves.”
From a pocket in her trenchcoat, Rarity removed three pieces of paper: the notes.
“If you compare the writing on the first and second note,” Rarity said, “you may notice a discrepancy. A very difficult one to spot, mind you. I only realized it at the last minute—and it’s what broke the case for me.”
Everyone leaned in. They stared at the two notes, which Rarity held up to them with her magic. They looked from the first note to the second note, the first to the second, first, second…
“Well, I’m stumped,” Mr Morass said at last.
“Me two.”
“And me.”
“I’m done too,” Rainbow said.
Rarity smiled. “Look a little closer at these two sentences.”
She pointed to a passage on each note with her hoof. ‘For some of you, it may merely be a stain upon your honor.’ on the first; ‘Attempting to cheat me will not award you any favours.’ on the other.
Fancy’s eyebrows rose. “Celestia,” he said, his mouth twitching up into a bemused smile. “Can it really be so simple?”
“What?” Mr. Morass said. “I don’t get it at all!”
“The problem,” Rarity said, “lies in the spelling of the words “honor” and “favours”. “Honor” is spelled in the traditional Equestrian way: H-O-N-O-R. However, “favours” is spelled in the tradition of Trottingham: F-A-V-O-U-R-S. In other words, it’s spelled with a ‘u’.”
“Then… then the one who wrote that note was—”
“Correct,” Rarity said. “It was Ruby Gleam—the only one among us from Trottingham. It was she who killed Banner Byline.”
Rarity stood up from her chair, began to pace slowly back and forth in front of the assembly.
“Banner Byline went to Ruby Gleam’s door to talk to her about something. Perhaps she insisted that they go to Banner’s cabin instead, or perhaps that was Banner’s decision; it’s impossible to say now, as they’re both deceased, and there are no other witnesses. I’m afraid the exact details of their meeting will forever remain a mystery.
“Whichever occurred, they went together to Banner’s cabin. There, they must have had a discussion. Whatever it was about, it must have gone sour. Ruby Gleam stabbed him with a pair of scissors, as you already know.
“Where those scissors came from is not something I can determine. Ruby Gleam may have brought them from her room, suspecting she might need them, or perhaps they were in Banner’s cabin to begin with. Wherever they came from, they made a fine murder weapon.
“As for why she did it—I suspect the truth on that may come out in a minute, but for now, let’s just say she’d figured out Banner Byline was the blackmailer. So she used her scissors and the newspaper Banner Byline brought on board with him, as well as some glue—goodness knows where she found that—and forged a note from the blackmailer… not noticing that she’d made a fatal spelling error.”
“But why?” Capital Idea asked.
“Money,” was Rarity’s simple answer. “Ruby Gleam’s inheritance was running out. She had to dismiss her house servants recently—she must have been hurting for cash. Here, she saw an opportunity, and that is why she assumed the role of the blackmailer—and there was another reason as well.”
“What was that?” asked Mr. Morass.
“To protect her secret,” Rarity said. “Or, rather: their secret. A shared secret, something dark in their combined history. A secret that is also shared by at least one other—one of you.”
One of the ponies present’s jaw fell open—just for a moment. Rarity caught it—and smiled.
“And what is this shared secret?” Fancy Pants asked.
“I don’t know,” Rarity replied. “But whatever it was, it must have been quite heinous, to kill two ponies over. I believe exposing this secret was Banner’s true motive in all of this. Obviously, he must not have been able to expose it on his own—no, he needed all three culprits to come forward at once. And so he engineered this grand scheme to force their hands. Certainly, It should have worked on Ruby Gleam, who couldn’t pay the ransom… or, at least, that would have been his reasoning. As it turned out, Ruby had other ideas.”
“Now then,” she said, “let us turn to the murder of Ruby Gleam.”
Rarity stopped pacing.
“What I believe,” she said, “is that the third pony guessed correctly that Ruby Gleam murdered Banner Byline in cold blood. What’s more, I believe they became afraid for their own safety—and so, just in case, they set up a little scheme of their own.
“As Fancy was out in the hall on the right side all last night, I can say for certain that all activity took place on the left side of the cabin fork. That means it was either Capital Idea or the Morasses. Now, what happened is this: the guilty pony hid in one of the empty rooms adjacent to their own, and kept watch on the hallway from there. Ruby Gleam made her way to that pony’s cabin and knocked on the door. She probably meant only to reassure this pony that their secret would be safe, or something similar. However, this only served to fuel the pony’s suspicion that they were Ruby’s next target. And so, they slipped out of their hiding place, came up behind Ruby, and strangled her from behind. Ruby, of course, could not call out for help, and was unable to defend herself; shortly, she was dead.
“The murderer then dragged Ruby back to her cabin. A quick look in her box revealed the scissors, newspaper, and glue needed to forge a new note. They did this to cover their tracks, and to throw me off the trail.
“After their work was completed, they took Ruby’s box and retreated to the empty room next door to Ruby’s. There, they opened the window and threw all the evidence overboard. They remained in that room until morning.”
Mr. Morass looked flabbergasted. “How can you possibly know all of this?”
“It’s simple,” Rarity said. “From what your wife told me about the hoofsteps she heard in the night, and from the state we found the empty room next to Ruby Gleam’s in. It’s simply a matter of piecing all this information together.”
“But, then,” Mrs. Morass said, “who was the murderer?”
“Simple,” Rarity said again. “The murderer was the one who lied to me in order to cover his tracks—and the one who was in the wrong room, and so didn’t hear it when the two of you went to the bathroom in the middle of the night.”
She turned towards one pony in particular.
“Isn’t that right… Capital Idea?”
All eyes turned towards the stallion in question.
“Um,” he said. “I, er…”
And without saying another word, he bolted for the door.
Everyone watched, stunned for just a moment. Everyone aside from Rarity, that is.
“After him, Rainbow!”
They gave chase. Through narrow corridors, past portholes, up stairs, until finally, they reached the deck. Wind whipped through their manes.
Capital Idea stood at the front of the ship. Now, he really was cornered.
“Give it up, Capital Idea!” Rainbow called out. “There’s nowhere else to run!”
The stallion looked left, then right. Certainly, what Rainbow said was the truth… or, close to it, anyway.
With a shout, Capital Idea leapt over the railing.
Now, there is, of course, one major difference between a locomotive and an airship. If you jump out of a train mid-journey, and lady luck is in your corner, you might survive.
If you jump out of an airship? At cruising altitude?
Not a chance.
“Rainbow!”
“On it!” Rainbow shouted, already leaping off the side after him. She dived down after Idea, her wings at her sides, until she reached the falling stallion. Reaching out, she grabbed the him in her forehooves. Her wings snapped open, and she soared upwards, carrying her squirming cargo along with her.
Shortly, she landed on the deck. By now, they were no longer alone; the rest of the passengers had assembled on the deck as well. Capital Idea himself was white as a sheet; when Rainbow let go of him, he collapsed onto the wooden floor.
“See, darling?” Rarity said to Rainbow. “An extra pair of hooves—or, in this case, wings—can make all the difference!”
Rainbow fluffed her feathers.
“Now then,” Rarity said, striding up to Capital Idea, “I take this as an admission of guilt?”
Capital Idea nodded.
“I was right in everything I accused you of?”
He nodded again.
“Any words of regret?”
“I never wanted to kill her,” he said. “It was… it was self defense! I thought she was going to kill me!”
“We understand,” Rarity said. “And so will the police, once we land. But, before that…”
She put a hoof on his shoulder. “Would you mind filling in the one gap in my knowledge?”
Capital Idea sniffed; he looked as though he were about to cry.
Rarity tried again. “Would you tell us just what exactly happened between you, Ruby Gleam, and Banner Byline? What started all of this palaver in the first place?”
He nodded. Then, he began to speak.
“It was five years ago,” he said. “We… we killed a pony.”
“Who?”
“His name was Bolt Switch,” Capital Idea said. “If you’re familiar with Ruby Gleam’s past, you may already know who Bolt Switch was.”
“He was the pony who claimed to have invented the duct-reverse carburetor before Ruby Gleam’s father, no?” Rarity asked.
Capital Idea nodded. “He claimed Brass Gleam stole his invention. He tried to sue Ruby Gleam over it.”
“And you three killed him?”
“We let him die,” Capital Idea said. “You see…”
“Banner Byline and I were very good friends with Ruby Gleam back then. I might even have said I loved her, at the time. She was different back then. Sweeter.
“Well, after Bolt Switch’s allegations came to light, Ruby was very upset. She worried she was going to lose her father’s fortune to him. So, she arranged a meeting, to try to work something out outside the courts. She asked the two of us to sit in as well, as moral support. You must understand, she was terrified by this stallion. He was a threat to her very way of life!
“It was winter. Bitterly cold, I remember that, when we all convened at Ruby’s mansion. We had tea, made small talk, had lunch. Then, the negotiations started.
“Things went sour almost immediately. Bolt Switch was a very unpleasant pony, and he had a short temper, too. The negotiations quickly devolved into him shouting about what Ruby’s father had done to him. He was very indignant.
“Perhaps that was his downfall. In the middle of a sentence, he suddenly went silent and clutched at his chest. Then he collapsed. We assumed he’d had a heart attack.
“Banner was the first to move. ‘I’ll call an ambulance’ he said, and he ran for the hall… but then Ruby’s horn lit up, and the doors closed.
“’No,’ she said. ‘Not yet.’
“She stood up.
“’No one’s calling anyone yet.’
“’What are you saying?’ I cried. ‘He needs medical help!’
“’No,’ Ruby said again. She strode over to Bolt Switch, looked down on him where he was twitching on the floor. He looked up at her with wide eyes, but he couldn’t speak. He was in too much pain. They stayed like that for a minute.
“’Ruby’s horn lit again, and she took a pillow off of the chair he’d been sitting on. We watched in horror as Ruby placed the pillow over the stallion’s muzzle. She held it there for some time. Neither of us tried to stop her. We were too shocked.
“Shortly, Bolt Switch was dead.”
“We called for an ambulance after that,” Capital Idea said. “Too late, of course. We claimed he had just had the heart attack when we called. It was ruled a death of natural causes. Ruby got away with it cleanly—and there was nothing we could do without implicating ourselves. She threatened to bring us down with her if we told anyone. Banner had just bought the Times, then, and I was too afraid of prison. We couldn’t afford to come clean. But our friendship was ruined forever.”
“And so it remained, until today,” Rarity said. She stood up. “Well, it seems you’ll have to get over your fear of prison, Mr. Idea. You’ll be behind bars for quite some time after we land. May I ask what exactly was in your boxes?”
“A miniature duct-reverse carburetor,” he said, hanging his head.
Rarity turned to Fancy Pants. “I believe you can tell the captain to land, now. This case is over.”
“I’ve never been so happy to be back on the ground in my life.”
It was Rainbow who said this.
“Honestly, darling, I must agree,” Rarity replied. “This has been quite the taxing journey.”
They were off the airship, now; it had landed in the middle of a field outside the city, filled with photographers. This was about a half hour ago. Goodness knew what Fancy Pants was going to tell them about why there were two less passengers on board. They hadn’t stuck around for it. He’d find a way to hush it up somehow, Rarity was sure.
“So what did you ask Fancy for?” Rainbow said. “Your favour, I mean.”
“Carte blanche to use his eventual fleet of Anesidoras as needed for free,” Rarity said. “I figure that sort of transportation will be invaluable going forward. Oh, and I asked for the same for you, of course.”
Rainbow shivered. “Not going to use that any time soon,” she said. “I’ve had enough of airships. I’d rather fly on my own power any day.”
Rarity laughed. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”
They continued their walk towards the city. Hopefully, it would prove to be a better vacation spot than the airship had.
“You know, I’m still curious about one thing,” Rainbow said.
“What’s that?”
“What the heck an Anesidora is,” she said. “Oh, and what was in everyone else’s boxes. That too.”
“Well, perhaps a trip to the library can solve the first mystery,” Rarity said. “As for the second—me too, darling. I’m afraid we may never find out.”
She laughed again. “But, well, you saw what was in my box. I hope that’s enough to sate some of your curiosity.”
Rarity continued walking. It took her a few steps before she realized Rainbow was no longer beside her.
She turned around. Rainbow had stopped walking. A grim expression was on her face.
“What’s the matter, darling?” Rarity asked.
Immediately, the dark expression was replaced with an awkward smile.
“Nothing,” Rainbow lied. She took a few steps forward, and they resumed their walk.
But Rainbow’s mind was elsewhere. It was, in fact, stuck back on their first night on the Anesidora, when Rarity had gone outside the room to talk to Fancy Pants.
To when Rainbow had peeked inside of Rarity’s box. Before she’d revealed its contents to the rest of the ship.
And what had been inside hadn’t been a scarf.
Rarity smiled. “Well, at least it’s all behind us, now.”
Rainbow smiled back. “Yeah.”
No, the object Rainbow had seen inside Rarity’s box, the object that had made her go white as a sheet, had made her heart go frigid, had not been a scarf.
It had been a knife.
And its blade had been stained red.
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BU-WHA
Hm. Well, I guessed the identity of the blackmailer and the murders, but I got the motivations all wrong as well as the architect of the box scheme. That was a tough one, so I feel pretty good about getting as close as I did. Why Fancy Pants invited Rarity and Rainbow Dash and why he seemed so insistent that Rarity take the case still feels like a loose end. Of course, so does the blackmail material on Fancy Pants and the Morasses.
This is not the first time in the series where it has been implied that Rarity herself is capable of murder. She does seem to favor daggers, doesn't she? Given the way that this story ended, I imagine that we will eventually get a new installment of Detective Rarity. Perhaps then we may get more of a glimpse at those little rat skelletons in her closet.
Great story, and the stinger was good too.
Come now, like Rarity would leave a knife DIRTY.
Fantastic! And the twist was something.
It's something that's a little dissonant that early on in the series Rarity casually all but admits to Rainbow that she'd planned on killing Blueblood herself. And it was played for laughs. Here it's seen as shocking which I think I prefer. If indeed we are to infer that Rarity as killed before I can think of reasons. She would kill in self defence and defence of her family. If someone threatened Sweetie Bell, they could end up with a dagger in the back .
Or perhaps, in the style of Sherlock Holmes and Poroit, she is more interested in Justice than Law and wouldn't be above vigilantism if she identified a murderer who was above the law.
In the subject of the former, maybe Sweetie Bell could join in her next mystery? Somehow I can see her employing the CMC at a critical moment. Might be thematic for a kidnapping case....
Fan
11088594
"Or perhaps, in the style of Sherlock Holmes and Poroit, she is more interested in Justice than Law and wouldn't be above vigilantism if she identified a murderer who was above the law."
That is one thing that I loved about Holmes and Poirot--they didn't care in the slightest about the law. I certainly would not mind if Detective Rarity were to carry on that tradition.
"In the subject of the former, maybe Sweetie Bell could join in her next mystery? Somehow I can see her employing the CMC at a critical moment. Might be thematic for a kidnapping case....
The CMC as something like the Baker Street Irregulars is a brilliant idea.
Late to the ending, but this was still an exquisitely crafted whodunnit. Thank you for it, especially the bit at the end. This leads to all kinds of interesting further questions...
So here's a question: How did Banner find out that Rarity had a knife on her?
Ohohoho, that's rad
The ending puts the ending of the first story into a more interesting perspective. Has Rarity murdered multiple times, hence why she's so good at solving them?
Having read the whole series over the past week, I gotta say, well done, I love them all, and can't wait for more :D