Day 13, 11:23

Trixie was the first to approach the wreckage, standing precariously on top of the destroyed table, to get a look at the top of the chandelier that had until recently connected it to the ceiling.

“Maybe it was an accident,” Vinyl suggested, although her tone made it obvious she didn’t believe that for a second. “What’s to say it didn’t just fall out on its own?”

“Yes, because why wouldn’t the chandelier unscrew itself?” Trixie said sarcastically, “and fall on Braeburn who was casually laying spread eagle on the dining room table? You know, like he always did.”

“Fine, I get it,” Vinyl said disgruntled, “We’ve got another murder on her hooves.”

“Attention everypony,” the Mastermind announced, causing all three mares to jump slightly. “A body has just been discovered in the dining room. Your time to investigate will begin now; the trial will be called in a few hours.”

Just as the recording finished, Soarin rushed in, breathless.

“I heard the crash and ran as quickly as I could,” he explained, still gasping for air, “Then I heard the Mastermind say…”

It was at that moment he stopped to take in what was before him, from the chandelier now embedded in the table, to the body pinned beneath it.

“Oh crap,” Soarin finished lazily.

“Crap indeed,” Trixie agreed, looking around impatiently. “Where are the others? How did they not hear that sound?”

As if on cue, the sound of hurrying hoofsteps were heard, and soon after, Fleur cantered into the room. She took one glance around, from the gathered ponies to the body crushed under the chandelier, and composed herself like it was just another day on the job.

“What do we know so far?” Fleur asked, joining the rest of them.

“This chandelier was unscrewed,” Trixie pointed out. “If it had been forced out, the screws would probably still be stuck in it, and I’m sure there would be damage to the ceiling.”

Trixie looked to Soarin expectantly, who took the hint quickly and ascended to the ceiling.

“Not a crack,” Soarin reported.

“So we can definitely rule out any possibility that the chandelier just fell out,” Trixie summarised. “Which now raises the obvious question, why was Braeburn lying beneath it anyway?”

“Sorry I’m late,” Redheart said, hurrying into the dining room, her eyes stretching wide at the sight before her. “What happened? The Mastermind said there was a body.”

“Braeburn was crushed by the chandelier,” Pinkie informed her.

“You took your time,” Trixie stated, hoping down from the table.

“Well I was near the gym when I heard the announcement,” Redheart replied tersely.

“So where is Gizmo and Cloudchaser?” Vinyl asked, looking over to the door, as if expecting them to run in on cue like the others had.

“I passed Cloudchaser near the parlour shortly before the announcement,” Redheart explained. “She should be here soon I imagine. As for Gizmo…”

Redheart didn’t get any further than that, as at that point an ear splitting scream rang through the room.

“That sounded like Cloudchaser!” Soarin exclaimed, running into the hallway. Pinkie and the others followed closely behind.

Once outside the dining room the agonised cries carried on, sounding distinctly close by. Soarin ran up the hall, heading for the kitchen, the others on his tail. Once he reached the open door he stopped for a second, frozen in horror at what he was seeing.

“Cloudchaser!” he yelled, running in.

Pinkie was the second to the door, and she immediately saw what had disturbed Soarin so much. Cloudchaser lay slumped against one of the kitchen counters, clutching her left wing which was barely attached to her, trying desperately to stop the blood pouring from the massive wound in her back. Pinkie simply stood at the side, stunned by what she was seeing, while Redheart pushed past them all and ran over to Cloudchaser’s side.

“Soarin, take my room key,” Redheart began urgently, throwing her key towards Soarin. “Grab the medical supplies I have there and bring them here as fast as you can. Now!”

Soarin didn’t need told twice, grabbing the key and flying from the room in a blur of colour. Redheart grabbed a clean tea towel and was pressing it against Cloudchaser’s injury, trying to stem the blood flow. All the while Cloudchaser cried for Celestia, for her mother, for her sister, the aguish piercing through Pinkie’s heart.

Day 13, 12:39

“That’s all I can do,” Redheart said at last, standing up from her patient, who lay cradled by Soarin and Pinkie. Every one of them was covered in Cloudchaser’s blood.

“Will she be alright?” Fleur asked terrified.

“She’ll live,” Redheart began, her voice dark, “but she’s suffered a lot of nerve damage, there’s a distinct possibility she’ll never fly again.”

“Cloudchaser,” Trixie said in a loud clear voice, leaning down beside the barely conscious Pegasus. “Do you know who did this to you?”

Cloudchaser nodded slowly, more tears rising to her eyes.

“I was on my way to the dining room,” she began weakly, “when I heard somepony in here. I came in and saw Gizmo, I didn’t know what was going on, but when he saw me, he panicked and grabbed the knife off the counter and…”

Cloudchaser trailed off as she began sobbing more. Standing up Pinkie took her first proper look around the kitchen; from where Cloudchaser had been lying was a large trail of blood leading up to the carving knife, discarded near the open door to the grounds.

“Gizmo,” Trixie said coldly, “it makes sense, he’s been avoiding us like the plague for days now, and he was a tinkerer, nopony better capable of rigging that chandelier to fall.”

“But where is he now?” Soarin asked, “if he went outside, he could be anywhere in the grounds by now, or he could have come in through a different door and could be in the house right now.”

“We have to find him,” Fleur stated, “investigating will just have to wait, we can’t have a dangerous stallion running free.”

“I’ll search the grounds,” Soarin offered, “I’ll be quickest covering ground as I can fly.”

“The rest of us can search the house,” Fleur said before remembering Cloudchaser. “Although first, Redheart and I will move Cloudchaser to one of the parlours for her to lie down in."

“Go to the one where we drink hot chocolate in,” Soarin suggested, “we prepared a fire in there, she’d probably appreciate that.”

Fleur nodded, and levitated Cloudchaser, and under Redheart’s guidance, they led her from the kitchen towards the parlour.

“Well,” Vinyl said once they were gone, her voice hoarse. “That just leaves us three to search the house.”

“You two should stick together,” Trixie stated, making for the hallway. “Watch each other’s backs in case he tries anything desperate.”

“What about you?” Pinkie shouted after Trixie.

“I can look after myself,” Trixie muttered back before departing from the room.

Day 13, 13:02

Pinkie and Vinyl stood outside Gizmo’s bedroom door, Vinyl tapping her hoof impatiently before reaching up and knocking the door a second time.

“Well I don’t hear anything,” Pinkie pointed out, pressing her ear against the door. “Including the sound of broken glass, so if he is in there he’s not so desperate that he’d throw himself out the window.”

Pinkie then looked at the digital map on her hoof computer; it showed two blinking red dots standing outside the room, but none inside.

“This says there’s no one inside,” Pinkie informed Vinyl.

“If you turn your computer off it doesn’t show up on the maps,” Vinyl replied, “I found that out a while back.”

“Well maybe he…” Pinkie began, not getting much further than that.

Vinyl spun around and bucked the door as hard as she could, causing Pinkie to squeal in surprise. The door remained steadfast, while Vinyl lay in a crumpled heap.

“Whoa,” Vinyl said, sounding dizzy.

“Vinyl!” Pinkie screamed, “are you trying to get us killed?!”

“Relax Pinkie,” Vinyl assured her. “You wouldn’t have got punished for something I did. Besides, as soon as I hit the door I got shocked, they must be protected with magic.”

“So now what?” Pinkie asked, still breathing heavily.

“Well he can’t stay in there for ever;” Vinyl said confidently, “the Mastermind did say anypony who didn’t participate in the trials would be killed.”

“Unless Gizmo is working with the Mastermind again,” Pinkie suggested, before mentally slapping herself.

No, they wouldn’t do that… not twice in a row at least, too predictable.

“Well then there’s no point standing out here any longer,” Vinyl said, starting down the hall. “Let’s check the third floor.”

Day 13, 13:50

Soarin stomped into the parlour where the rest were gathered, eager to hear if he had had any luck outside. However upon seeing his dismayed expression, they immediately figured the worst.

“I search high and low,” Soarin complained, “he’s nowhere to be found.”

“Well he didn’t just evaporate!” Trixie snapped.

“Hey, don’t get pissy with…” Soarin began just as angrily, before falling silent very suddenly, his eyes locked on the roaring fire in the hearth.

“Soarin?” Pinkie said, pulling him out of his trance.

“Who lit that fire?” Soarin asked suddenly, throwing everypony off guard.

“You did, didn’t you?” Vinyl answered as if it were obvious.

“No, Braeburn and I just prepared the fires,” Soarin corrected, “You know, setting the wood in and prepping it for lighting up later.”

“So what’s the problem?” Redheart asked from where she sat next to a barely conscious Cloudchaser. “Somepony probably saw the fire ready to be lit and thought they’d be helpful and start it up.”

“Except Braeburn had the matches when he went to the kitchen to clean up,” Soarin explained, “right before he died.”

“So who has the matches?” Fleur asked looking around, nopony owned up.

“What are you getting at?” Trixie asked.

“Before Braeburn died, he had the matches and the fire wasn’t lit,” Soarin elaborated. “If nopony here took or found the matches after he was discovered, then somepony must have taken them before he was killed, and the only pony who had to have been in the area at the time was the killer.”

Pinkie opened her mouth to say something but before she could, Soarin sped from the room, leaving a very perplexed room of ponies. Seconds later he came speeding back, the same determined look on his face.

“The other fire’s lit too!” he exclaimed.

“What’s the point?!” Vinyl demanded.

“Does anyone know if there is a passage connecting those two fireplaces?” Soarin asked.

The room fell utterly silent, as what Soarin was hinting at settled in. All at once, Pinkie, Soarin, Vinyl, Trixie and Fleur rushed from the room, sprinting to the kitchen and filling any container they could lay their hooves on with water and hauling them back to the parlour and game room. Several minutes later both fires were extinguished, and Soarin was fanning the air furiously to rid the chimney of excess smoke.

“If he tried to hide in there…” Redheart began, trailing off.

Everypony knew what that meant, but nopony wanted to say it out loud. Pinkie stepped forward as Soarin continued to fan the open hearth.

“I’ll go up,” she volunteered.

“Well pull up a chair,” Soarin said curtly, “it’s gonna be a while before this chimney is clear enough to be safe for crawling through.”

“Trixie can take care of that,” Trixie stated stepping forward, her horn aglow.

Pinkie expected her to cast something on the fire, but to her surprise, Trixie’s spell instead hit her square in the face. Once she regained her balance she noticed a large bubble expanded around her head.

“Breathing shouldn’t be an issue with that,” Trixie explained.

Pinkie nodded, and approached the fireplace once more as Soarin stepped to the side for her. Stepping inside the surprisingly spacious fireplace, Pinkie was forced to watch where she placed her hooves very carefully, lest the coals retained some heat despite being doused in water. Once she was inside, she pressed her hooves to the walls around her, and began manoeuvring herself up. Thankfully she didn’t have to travel very far as the entrance to the secret passage was only at head level… Celestia’s head admittedly, but that still wasn’t too far to climb.

Once her forehooves reached into passage, she used all her strength to haul her body up inside. It was a much tighter squeeze at this part, had Gizmo been a much bigger stallion, Pinkie would have ruled this out immediately. What little light entered the fireplace from the game room, didn’t reach this far, so the passage was entirely pitch black.

With some difficulty, Pinkie managed to angle her forehooves so that she could freely tap the screen of her hoof computer with her free hoof. Navigating through the now familiar screens, she reached one where the single option was displayed to her.

Turn Light On?

Hitting yes, the words vanished, the whole screen lighting up like a torch. Angling herself once more, Pinkie turned her hoof so that the light shone through the tunnel. It didn’t travel very far, as something large was blocking the tunnel about half way through. Bracing herself, Pinkie began crawling down, every inch she pulled herself, the more she could make out what lay before her. The slicked back mane, the thick rimmed glasses, the large bowtie.

Pinkie stopped a couple feet from Gizmo’s body, giving a small sigh in her protective bubble.

I’m sure he would have given anything for a spell like this while he choked to death. But why didn’t he just crawl out when the smoke first started pouring in?

Pinkie got her answer as she saw what was clutched in his hooves, a large tool box.

“I’m coming out!” Pinkie shouted back, she heard muffled confirmation, and began shuffling back the way she came.

The trip out was considerably slower than the one in, but once she was finally at the edge of the passage, she allowed herself to drop down, where she was caught by Soarin.

“Thanks,” she said gratefully, before noticing the soot he too was now covered in and adding, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he assured her. “Did you find anything?”

“Yes,” Pinkie said looking down. “Gizmo’s in there… he’s dead.”

“What?!” Fleur exclaimed, “How?”

“He must have choked on the smoke,” Pinkie exclaimed. “He had Braeburn’s tool box, I think he panicked and got himself wedged into the passage with it and couldn’t escape.”

“Damn,” Vinyl said in a low voice.

“I suppose it makes sense,” Trixie said, her voice betraying no emotion, “he must have used the tools to drop the chandelier, then tried to stash the evidence away.”

“Seems kind of like karmatic justice,” Vinyl pointed out, “he killed Braeburn, and then died himself when somepony lit the fires, not realising he was inside.”

“Wait, that can’t be right,” Soarin argued. “Somepony had to take the matches; it obviously wasn’t Gizmo, which means there had to have been someone else there.”

“Are you saying this is a double murder?” Vinyl asked unsure.

“Maybe,” Soarin answered, “it just couldn’t add up otherwise. Braeburn wasn’t restrained on the table, so how did Gizmo get him to lie there while he dropped the chandelier?”

“I can think of a few ways,” Cloudchaser slurred, giggling slightly. She sounded like she was heavily doped up on pain killers.

“And then somepony must have lit the fires when they knew Gizmo was in the passage,” Soarin continued, “why else would they light both of those fires in particular?”

“Well I’m not saying you’re wrong Soarin,” Redheart began, “but this all seems like a massive stretch.”

“I think he has a point,” Pinkie stated, “we should at least work with the assumption that this is a double murder.”

“Very well,” Trixie said, walking over to the fire place, her horn lit up once more. “Trixie will try to retrieve the body, how far in was it Pinkie?”

With Pinkie’s direction, as well as a little extra tugging from Vinyl, Trixie managed to telekinetically drag Gizmo’s soot smothered body from the fire place, dropping it unceremoniously onto the parlour floor.

Well at least the smoke is masking the smell of death.

Vinyl reached down and prised Gizmo’s hoof computer off.

“I’ll get working on this,” she explained, walking away with it, presumably to get it cleaned.

Pinkie, Redheart and Trixie all crouched down around the body. Using a tapestry Trixie had wrenched from the wall, they began rubbing the soot off Gizmos body. Once the scum was rubbed off, he looked perfectly ordinary, no other obvious injuries. However as Pinkie continued to look, she began to feel a slight itching in her skull, something was wrong, and while it was right before her she couldn’t place her hoof on what it might be.

Why is this body bugging me… and why do I feel like the same thing has bothered me earlier today?

Vinyl re-entered the room, carrying a stained cloth and a now fairly well restored hoof computer. Pinkie left the body, unable to figure out what was bothering her about it, and walked over beside Vinyl.

“Can you not clean that screen anymore?” Pinkie asked, pointing at the stains covering the screen.

“Not with a dry cloth,” Vinyl answered, giving the screen a tentative sniff.

“So what are you looking for?” Pinkie asked as Vinyl began tapping through various screens, with absolute ease.

“Messages for a start,” Vinyl answered. She reached said screen and Pinkie began reading the messages over her shoulder.

09:08- Braeburn- Are you comin down for breakfast? I need to know how many eggs to fry up.

09:19- Fleur- Gizmo, you’ve been gone for a while now, would you please let me know where you are.

10:11- Soarin- Gizmo, we're trying to get wood in for the fires, could you come lend a hoof

10:46- Redheart- Gizmo if you’re in your room, would you please answer the door.

11:20- Cloudchaser- Hey Gizmo, r u hittin the games room with us today???

All the messages after that were sent after patching Cloudchaser up, and were all variations of ‘where the heck are you?!’.

“Nothing useful there,” Vinyl said, moving to a different window.

Pinkie wasn’t sure what Vinyl was looking at now, but whatever it was she seemed to find very interesting.

“What’s that?” Pinkie asked when Vinyl’s eyes went wide.

“His search history,” Vinyl explained, “it basically shows the frequency at which he views different pages. In this case, Gizmo has been spending an awful lot of time viewing the profiles for Cloudchaser, Fleur and… me, wonderful.”

Vinyl flicked over to her own profile screen and held the hoof computer at an angle so the light reflected off it. Alongside Vinyl’s basic information was a full view image of her. Pinkie noticed that the position of the image correlated with the stains on the screen.

“Ewwww!” Vinyl and Pinkie exclaimed at the same time as they joined the dots.

“Attention everypony,” the Mastermind announced, “the trial will begin shortly, if you could make you way to the entrance hall so that we can begin.”

“Wait!” Redheart called out, “Cloudchaser’s in no state to be moved.”

“It’s alright,” Cloudchaser said, sounding more lucid than the last time she spoke. “I can manage.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” the Mastermind continued, “I’ll have a chair placed in Cloudchaser’s place. I can’t have the trial stopping just because she keels over.”

Redheart nodded reluctantly while Soarin stepped over and offered Cloudchaser a lift on his back. With Fleur’s assistance, she was soon on board safely and the ponies began filtering into the hallway. Pinkie and Vinyl lagged behind slightly, looking awkwardly at one another.

“Should we bring this up?” Pinkie asked gesturing to the hoof computer now being held by Vinyl’s magic as opposed to her hooves.

“Only if we really have to,” Vinyl said after a pause, “Only.”

Nodding stoically to one another, the pair left the game room, set for the entrance hall and the next trial.

Author's Notes:

Double the bodies... double the fun... for me at least.
Part 3 should be published on Sunday (but don't quote me on that).
Also I've had to ask a couple people to alter their comments to avoid spoilers. Please just bare in mind the whole point of a mystery story is 'who did what to who' and so on, theories are fine, but when you definitively say who's died etc it defeats the purpose for anyone who hasn't read it yet.
Finally, for anybody wondering, I have had the skeleton of this story planned since the prologue, i.e. who gets killed by who and in what order. So don't think I'm going to change who the culprit is or something just to mess with the people who have already guessed, I assure you I play fair.