Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Cry for me, Acanthite

The door was locked. That was not usual. Especially not for her house. She usually didn't lock the door. Especially not in the middle of the day, especially not when she was still inside. But the door was locked.

Well, he would just have to find a way to open it, of course. It would have been easier if she'd opened it herself, but it looked like she wasn't going to. Which was annoying, admittedly, but not the worst. He just needed to figure out how to get the door to open. He quite liked the challenge, actually. He always liked challenges. Riddles and puzzles and such, and that's what that was, no? A puzzle. He always liked puzzles. He was good with puzzles.

So. Details, details, details. Context. Clues. It was about that, no? Clues. Contextual clues. Deciphering the context of the puzzle to identify its elements. It was all about that. Careful observation and deductive reasoning, logical, critical thinking. And he was good at that, right? Yeah, he was good at that. He had experience and such.

Scarlet Ribbon's house had been built thirty years before, roughly. The small town was expanding at the time, after an influx of ponies moving there from the bigger cities. It had been built with wood from the local trees, during spring, finished by the time summer had rolled around. Some twenty years later it had gone near abandoned after the owners had moved again, maybe bored of the quiet life of the town as they were getting older, and five years or so later Scarlet had bought the place, after working enough to get a place of her own. Her parents were proud of her.

There was chip in the white paint on the front wall, two thirds of the way up to the second floor window. Roughly shaped like a square. Clearly relevant, part of the puzzle. There was a smaller chip on the door, to the left, three quarters of the way up. That one looked more like a small triangle. Probably important as well. The doorbell was there, but it made no sound, it had been turned off from the inside. The button still slid in and out though. He liked the button. He liked buttons. They were nice to press.

What more? Well, further back, if he turned around, there was another paint chip in the fence. And on the lawn, a small depression in the ground, likely caused by a mole digging a tunnel underneath. And then the tree, of course, the tree. The branches bare, it was autumn after all, a few of the red and yellow leaves still by the trunk, more wet than dry at that point.

And yeah, he could see it. He almost had it, yes, he was almost there. He could clearly see the connections, those bright thick wires from one thing to another, the yellow one running over the front wall that connected the paint chip with the tree, and the green one that passed beneath the ground and below that depression and had its ends at the two remaining paint chips, and then there was a red one that went up from the button and up to the roof and then-

A drop of water hit him right between the eyes. Oh, it was starting to rain. Well he couldn't be out in the rain, he'd get his clothes all wet. Oh well. Not the worst, not the worst. He'd have to visit Scarlet another time.

He turned around and quickly headed towards the centre of town, while a drop after the other began to pour down from the sky. Such a shame though. He'd almost solved that puzzle.

Author's Note:

Proofreading by IncongruousAndHarmonious

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

I feel like you could hear that chapter title either on a rock farm soap opera or a Steven Universe fanfic.

As for the puzzle... I'm more than a little worried for Scarlet. And anyone else who catches the puzzle solver's eye, though for different reasons.

[MoanForPonies]

This story is gonna give me a fucking aneurism

[Saix]

Well that's creepy. Scarlet might have had a lucky escape there.