It had taken Spike all of ten minutes to list out everypony and group them together on the parchment at his feet.  Using one of the FlimFlam brothers’ hats, he ripped up a separate piece of paper with everypony’s names on it.  After taking a few names out and placing certain guests in groups with others that he knew they didn’t like, he randomly drew the remaining guests from the hat.  He was pleased with the results.  Although he had completely broken the circles of friendship among the guests, he felt that it was for the best in this horrendous scenario.

Keeping in mind that Mr. Rich would be out for an undeterminable amount of time, he made sure to arrange the guests in groups that were able to scour any place they were sent to investigate.  Receiving a map of the mansion from Butler, Spike assigned different wings of the four different floors to the different groups of ponies.  The mansion was massive, and the groups would have to split up to cover everything.  There were three aboveground floors, each covering at least 60,000 square-feet of area.  The basement was barely half of that, covering 30,000 square-feet belowground.

He assigned each group a letter and a wing of the house.  With Butler’s guidance, he was also able to pinpoint where the library, bedrooms, and entertainment rooms could be found on the map.  Taking into consideration the size of each floor and the abilities of each member of the groups, he assigned a semi-correspondent wing to each.  Without hesitation or complaint, each of the groups set off to explore and investigate their wings of the mansion.

Filthy Rich, Guard 2, Guard 3, Fancypants-----1st Floor Dining Hall

Two of the four attending Royal Guards were grouped in with Filthy Rich and Fancypants, assigned to ensure nothing else happened in the Dining Hall.  They wouldn’t be able to leave, even if they were assigned a different room anyway.  Mr. Rich was still out cold from when Doctor Whooves karate chopped him on the neck.  Fancypants was pretty useless as well, not capable of much more than frightened muttering.

The two guards paced back and forth through the Dining Hall, always facing opposite directions on opposite sides of the room.  They’d been given a job, and they were going to do it as well as they could.  While Mr. Rich lay asleep against the eastern wall and Fancypants sat in a chair beside him, the two guards were ever vigilant.  Diamond Tiara’s body had been moved into the foyer before the groups were sent on their own ways, so the corpse no longer sat upon the table.

The two guards stopped their pacing every now and then to stop and exchange casual conversation.  Their names were Steve and Stan, respectively.

“Never would’ve guessed something like this would happen.”  Steve sighed as he took a seat at the table.

“Nothing fun ever happens on our shift, and then this shit…”  Stan shook his head.

Steve managed a chuckle, “At least we ain’t sitting at the castle listening to Cadence and Captain get freaky.  Every damn night with those two!”

Stan couldn’t hold back a laugh, “Yeah, it could be worse, though.  We could be that poor stallion over there…”  He looked over at the unconscious Mr. Rich.

Steve bowed his head, “Yeah, true enough.  Poor guy.  I wonder what he was thinking when he snapped like that.”

“He probably wished it was him.  Or that it was anyone other than her.” Stan sighed.

Steve nodded, “I can’t blame the guy.  I would’ve completely lost it.”

The two decided it was best to drop the subject, and resumed their patrol of the Dining Hall.  They continued marching back and forth past the two silent stallions, waiting for anything and everything to happen at once.  The clock struck 8:00, and a voice came over the PA system calling everypony into the foyer.  The two guards looked over at Mr. Rich and Fancypants.

“I’ll get the poor fella, you two go on ahead.”  Steve said to Fancypants and Stan as he lifted Mr. Rich onto his back…

They walked into the foyer to see a horrific and terrible sight.  Fancypants fell to the ground, covering his head with his hooves.  Steve and Stan both let out identical, horror-filled screams…

Big Macintosh, Flam, Fleetfoot, Sweetie Belle-----1st Floor W Wing

The four of them were given orders by Spike to investigate the remainder of the West Wing of the first floor, beyond the Dining Hall.  Happy to oblige, Big Mac led the way through the large oak doors at the back of the Dining Hall.  He was more than happy to get away from the sight of Diamond Tiara’s corpse wrapped in the tablecloth.  The other three ponies were just as happy to get out of the high-tension room.

Of course, the room just beyond the Dining Hall happened to be the bar.  The first thing in sight as you walk into the room was a massive shelf filled with a plethora of exotic and rare alcohols.  Flam nearly lost his footing as he approached the bar.  Big Mac let him go about his business, before Fleetfoot interrupted.

“I don’t think now’s the time to be drinking, Flam.  We have to keep our senses focused.”  You could hear the irritation in Fleetfoot’s voice.  

Flam scoffed, “I would never consider drinking such delicious beverages while a minor is about, thank you very much!”  He pointed at Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle responded with an indignant shout, “You don’t have to talk about me like I’m some helpless filly!  I’m stuck in this nightmare just like you.”

Both Flam and Fleetfoot looked at Sweetie Belle with awe.  Flam chuckled, “Why of course not, Ms. Belle!  You deserve just as much respect as any of us other guests!”  He was clearly mocking the rules Butler had given them before this mess started.

Before the other ponies could say anything else, Big Mac interrupted with excitement in his voice.  He called to them from the far end of the bar, “Uh, y’all oughta take a look at what I found.”

With the other three ponies gathered around him, Big Mac pushed a couple of bottles of alcohol to the side, revealing a white brick sticking out of the black-brick wall behind the shelf.  The four of them shared looks of curiosity, and with a nod from Flam, Big Mac pushed the white brick into the hole behind it.  The quartet heard a faint clicking sound, and the shelf full of alcohol popped an inch from the wall on the side they were standing on.

“It’s a secret passage!”  Flam excitedly exclaimed as he slowly pulled the shelf further out.

Behind the shelf was none other than a wide corridor leading deeper into the mansion.  Sweetie Belle looked up at the others, “If it’s a hidden hall, there has to be something good in there!  Maybe it’s some of the evidence we need!”

Without hesitation, both Big Mac and Flam darted down the hall, Fleetfoot and Sweetie Belle following close behind.  If they had really found something, maybe they could leave and help the others explore.  The group of eager ponies reached the end of the hall, taking note of the doors on either side of them.  With a nod, Big Mac turned the knob on the right door and slowly pushed it open.

A light immediately turned on in the room, where just moments ago it was pitch-black.  Carefully, Flam stepped into the room, examining every corner and object with his eyes for some sort of booby trap.  The other ponies followed behind him, being careful not to let their guards down.

Just as soon as Sweetie Belle’s tail had cleared the doorway, the door slammed shut behind them.  With a loud rumbling sound, the ceiling above them shook wildly.  It suddenly started descending from its perch at the top of the room, inching its way slowly downward to the floor.  It was coming in to crush the ponies trapped within.  A recording of a voice could be heard above the rumbling sound.

“I guess you stumbled into the wrong room.  You know, if there isn’t someone to pull the switch in the room above you, the ceiling will continue to fall.  When I promised I wouldn’t cheat, I meant I wouldn’t personally cheat.  My traps are still fair game.  You had best hope you have someone that can save you, ponies.”

With a laugh, the recording stopped.  It was the host’s voice.  The four ponies staring in horror at the falling ceiling let out gut-wrenching cries of terror, unsure of whether they would reach anyone or even if anyone was there yet to hear them.  They lowered themselves as close to the floor as they could to allow for more time for rescue.  They continued their horror-filled screams.

Just when they thought it was the end of their road, the ceiling stopped ever so suddenly and rocketed back up to its original position at the top of the room.  The door swung open without cause, and the ponies looked at each other relief washed over their faces.  With shaky knees and a relieved sigh, Big Mac stood up and walked to the doorway.

His voice cracked as he said, “Let’s get the hell outta this room.”  Fleetfoot and Flam followed him as he left the room.  Sweetie Belle stayed behind, something on the wall catching her eye.

She walked over to the wall beneath where a portrait had once hung before being knocked off by the ceiling.  She noticed a small off-color square sitting where the portrait had been covering.  She trotted over to the square and pushed it in, just as Big Mac had pushed the brick before.  She let out a surprised scream as the wall in front of her lifted itself off the ground and into the ceiling.

Hearing a noise, the other ponies immediately darted back into the room, noticing the now-missing wall.  A stench of rot filled the room.  Directly in front of where the wall had been was a desk with open drawers.  On the far side of the room was a bookshelf with a single missing book and a hole in the floor.  Blood surrounded the outside of the hole.

Holding his nose so as not to smell the rot, Flam stepped over to examine the hole.  He let out a small scream in horror as he saw the corpse of one of the Royal Guards impaled on some rusted spikes.  Just as the other ponies were walking into the room, Butler’s voice came over the PA system asking everypony to return to the foyer.  The group left the study in a hurry, heading back the way they had come from.

They had no clue what to expect when they entered the foyer and saw Fancypants on the ground covering his face.  They noticed the blood running from the center of the room…

Twilight Sparkle, Trixie, Guard 4, Celestia-----1st Floor NE Wing

As much as they had hated it, Twilight Sparkle and Trixie had been grouped together.  Of course, Twilight maintained a positive attitude and outward appearance while Celestia was around.  Another one of the Royal Guards had been assigned to this group, although he didn’t see why he was needed.  All three of the unicorns could easily handle themselves.  His name was Mark.

The group had been assigned to the northernmost area of the first floor, on the opposite side of the foyer as the Dining Hall.  With hopeful thoughts and wary minds, they entered the wing of the mansion with care and caution.  Twilight was amazed to find herself in a private study full of large, age-old books.  If they were going to find any evidence, this would be the place.  A personal study used by their host for getting away from everything around him.

Twilight immediately began searching the shelves book by book, looking for anything that might give them some clue as to who the host was.  Celestia took it upon herself to start searching on the shelves opposite Twilight.  Mark simply paced around, checking to make sure the three of them weren’t up to anything suspicious.  Trixie began searching the desk and drawers in the corner of the room.

After what felt like ages of searching, Trixie exclaimed, “Eureka!  I’ve found something!”  Celestia and Twilight darted over to her side, Mark standing stiff as a board to watch the trio.

Trixie showed the other two a small black box she had found with the word ‘PLAY’ written on it.  Sharing a look of happiness with the other two unicorns, she pushed the button.  The host’s voice began to talk, just as when he announced the rules before.

“You’ve done well to find this recording, ponies.  I’m afraid that this message is not the only thing you will need to find my identity, but it will definitely help.  If you can solve my riddles and find the secret document hidden in this study, you shall be one step closer to finding who I am.  To stop playing this message and give you more time to solve the riddle, simply push the play button once more.” The voice paused for a minute or so before continuing. “The first riddle will be simple.  ‘I hold many pages, yet have not a binding. What am I?’"  Trixie pushed the play button, stopping the playback.

“’I hold many pages, yet have not a binding’…?” she repeated the words slowly.

Celestia looked around the room, knowing that the answer was somewhere within.  With a shrug of her shoulders, she shook her head in confusion.  Twilight looked around the room, scanning every object carefully.  After she had scanned the entire room, she sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

Mark laughed, “If you can’t solve the easy riddle, there’s no chance of us getting the clue!  It’s a bookshelf, you silly mares!”  Mark pointed at the long expanse of shelves along the walls.  “A bookshelf holds pages, but it doesn’t have a binding like a book.”

The three unicorns shared embarrassed looks, surprised that they couldn’t solve such a simple riddle.  Trixie continued playing the recording.  “Did you have trouble?  I feel bad for you if so.  Riddle number two is fairly simple.  ‘Of all the colors of the rainbow, I travel the farthest.  What am I?’”  The recording paused again.

Twilight clapped her hooves together, “It’s red!  Red has the longest wavelength, so it travels the farthest!”  Looking over at the bookshelf, she searched for a red book.  There were quite a few on the shelf closest to the door they had entered in from.

With a nod from Twilight, Trixie played the recording again. “I do ever so hope that you found no problems with the previous two riddles.  This one is a challenge.  ‘I was once owned by only the wealthy, but can now be owned by all.  I cannot be bought from a store or taken from a library.  What am I?’”  The recording ended abruptly.  That was the entire thing.

The three unicorns looked at one another.  Trixie thought aloud, “Only wealthy people owned it, but now everypony can.  You can’t get it from a store or take it out of a library.  We’re talking about books, right?”  

Twilight nodded, “It’ll be one of the red books on the shelves over there.  But there’s quite a few.  Looking through them all would take forever.”

Mark shrugged his shoulders, “It’s a phone book.”  The three mares looked at him in awe.  He continued, “Back in the day, only rich people had phones and phonebooks.  Nowadays everypony has one.  You can’t find them for sale in stores, and a library won’t let you check it out.”  He stepped over to the shelf to look for the phone book.

The three unicorns exchanged looks of embarrassment as they realized they had just been one-upped by a guard.  Both Celestia and Twilight considered themselves smart ponies, but they wouldn’t lie about not having a clue what the riddle meant.

“Aha!  Here it is!”  Mark placed a hoof on the largest book on the shelf.  It was a paperback, thin-page book.  On the binding it read ‘Canterlot Calls:  A Contact Reference’.  He started to pull the book from the shelf when the floor opened up underneath him.

Before any of the ponies had a chance to react, the guard that had been standing in front of them was suddenly gone.  In his place was the echo of the terrifying scream he had let out before allowing gravity to take its toll.  With a loud squishing sound, the scream faded, and blood spewed from the hole.  The three mares on the opposite side of the room didn’t dare move from their positions.

A loud, pain-filled groan rang from the hole in the floor.  “I-I guess…that makes sense.  Bookcases…are always tr-trapped…in st-stories…”  With a loud gasp, the voice faded.

Twilight took a deep breath and started inching carefully toward the hole.  She didn’t want to imagine what had happened to the guard to kill him.  With a stamp of her hoof, Celestia darted off in a run to the hole.  Nearly knocking Twilight over as she passed, Celestia was staring into the hole with horror and a sick feeling in her gut.  She waved a hoof as if telling Twilight to stay away.

Twilight reached the hole, looking directly into it.  What she saw horrified her and nearly made her vomit.  Large, rusted, metal stakes sprang up from the ground.  Mark had fallen right on top of them, puncturing through the side of his head and straight through his chest.  His hoof had been caught on the top of a nearby spike, and the force of the fall split his shoulder from his body.  Below him lay the long-dead corpses of several other unrecognizable ponies, slightly decayed.

The stench of rot quickly filled the room.  With a single, horrified nod, Twilight snatched the phone book from the shelf and darted out of the door.  Celestia and Trixie followed, trying to escape to gag-inducing smell.  After leaving the room and slamming the door behind them, they looked at the phone book that had cost Mark his life.  When the clock suddenly struck 8:00, Butler’s voice called over the PA asking everypony to return to the foyer.

Taking a few steps forward around the large staircase, the three unicorns watched as two bodies fell from the top of the chandelier, and landed with a squish on the ground.  Blood and guts spewed from the bodies.  Twilight let out a scream as Fancypants stepped out of the Dining Hall and collapsed.  Two other guards followed him…

Applejack, Flim, Amethyst Star, Photo Finish-----1st Floor SE Wing

As much as Applejack didn’t care for celebrities like Photo Finish, she hated Flim and Flam even more.  And who did she get stuck with?  Flim, of all the ponies.  She expected it after Spike said something about being with people you don’t trust, but she still hated it.  They were told to explore the southernmost area of the first floor, on the opposite side of the foyer from the Dining Hall.  Applejack wanted nothing more than to get the searching over with so that she could get away from Flim.

The area they had been assigned was actually a really small room compared to what they had expected.  It was a single narrow hallway that reached a dead end and a bathroom.  Thinking that there was nothing for them to actually investigate, Applejack wanted to turn around immediately and head back to the Dining Hall.  Before she made it to the door, Flim stopped her with a curious tone.

“Applejack, I think we oughta check this bathroom.  Mystery novels are notorious for having hidden rooms behind giant mirrors.”  Flim was being genuine when he said this.

With a sigh, Applejack pushed Flim out of the way, entering the bathroom and turning the light on.  Photo and Amethyst followed the two ponies inside.  One thing was certain:  this bathroom was large enough to fit at least twenty ponies in comfortably.  The four ponies immediately began searching every nook and cranny of the room.  They checked in every drawer and behind every curtain.  Flim even took the time to check every corner of the floor.

With an irritated groan, Applejack said, “So much for this place holdin’ a secret.”

Amethyst spoke up, “Uh…AJ, could you take a look at this for me?”  She was pointing at a small blue knob protruding from the wall beside the full-body-size mirror that stood against the wall opposite the door they had entered from.

Applejack face-hoofed, “You gotta be kiddin’ me.”

Flim didn’t say a word as he walked over to the knob to examine it.  Waving for Amethyst to back away, he tried pushing the knob further into the wall.  With no effect, he pulled the knob.  When that did nothing, he tried twisting it.  With a clockwise motion, the knob made a clicking sound, and the mirror slid to side opposite the knob.

Applejack’s jaw dropped.  Flim laughed, “I told you there was something here, ‘AJ’.”  He mocked her nickname, a smile covering his face.

Photo Finish scoffed, “Let us get on with this then!  No sense in wasting such precious little time we may have left!”  She stomped past the two bickering ponies, walking right into the passage that the mirror revealed.  Amethyst followed close behind her, the other two bringing up the rear.

The group found themselves in a large, solid white room.  There were a few small shelves in the corners of the room.  The ponies decided to each search a different shelf.  One pony for each shelf, one shelf for each corner.  The room was divided into four different sections by gray lines drawn on the floor.  Each section was the same size, almost as if it was meant to be four different rooms in one.  Applejack took the lower right corner; Flim took the lower left corner; Amethyst took the upper right corner; and Photo took the upper left corner.

Within the first minute of digging through the drawers, Photo shouted excitedly, “Hurrah, I have found something!”  She held up a small notebook that read ‘The Master of the House- My Thoughts’.  She tossed the book across the floor to Applejack and began rooting around in the drawer once more.  Applejack picked the book up.

“This has gotta tell us somethin’!”  She cheered as she read the cover.

“And look here!  I found something el-!”  Photo Finish was about to pull another object from the shelf, when a rumble sent the roof falling down on top of her.  With a loud crunching sound, Photo’s voice went away.

Staring at the corner of the room with horror, the other three ponies screamed.  The ceiling had fallen in place with the lines on the floor.  Sitting on the giant stone slab were Vinyl Scratch and Doctor Whooves, both of which rubbing their heads in pain.  Doctor looked around to see the mortified faces of the three ponies around him.

“Wh-what happened?  Is something…”  He saw the blood trickling from underneath the slab of stone.  His eyes widened with horror as Octavia and Bon Bon poked their heads into the hole in the ceiling.

Butler’s voice called to them from over the PA system, and everypony in the room stood paralyzed for a few moments.  The two mares above them jumped down the hole, landing on their hooves beside their teammates.  They were ignorant of what Doctor had immediately realized.  Applejack shook the tears from her eyes, and darted down the passageway back to the bathroom.  Flim and Amethyst followed immediately behind, Doctor ushering the rest of them from the room…

What had he just done?

Floor One Reunion

Five groups of ponies darted into the foyer almost immediately after Butler’s voice called them back.  Twilight’s group, Fancypants’s group, Big Mac’s group, Applejack’s group, and Doctor’s group all gathered in the foyer and witnessed the horror of two ponies dying.

The five groups gathered together around the pool of blood in the center of the floor.  None of them could speak about what they had just seen happen.  That is, until Steve and Stan noticed the absence of the guard that should’ve accompanied Celestia.

Steve raised a hoof and screamed, “Where the hell is Mark?  He was supposed to be with you three!”  He pointed his hoof at Twilight’s group.

Celestia bowed her head as she spoke calmly, “I’m afraid he died helping us recover evidence about the host.  A trapdoor opened under him, and he was impaled on spikes.  He died trying to help us…”  Her voice trailed off as Twilight and Trixie gave her sympathetic looks.

Flam spoke up, “So that’s who that guard was…”

Big Mac’s eyes widened, “The guard in the pit in the study?  The place Sweetie Belle found?”  Flam nodded.

Trixie shouted in confusion, “When were you in the study?!  We never saw you!”

Fleetfoot replied, “Sweetie Belle pushed a switch and the wall moved.  The room was empty when we got there…except for Mark’s body.”

Fancypants was finally able to get up from the ground.  “Where, dare I ask, is Photo Finish, Ms. Applejack?”

Applejack and Doctor turned away, while Flim and Amethyst held back sick groans.  Finally Doctor spoke up, “I killed her!”  Applejack shot an angry glare at him.

The entire group gasped before Applejack could say anything.  Hooves immediately raised in anger and blame.  Applejack screamed, “It ain’t what it sounds like!”  The crowd immediately shut up to let her talk.  “He must have hit a switch or somethin’ upstairs, because the ceiling just fell right on top of her and…crushed her… His group was searchin’ the room above ours, and they must have tripped somethin’!”

The commotion stopped as Applejack explained the situation.  Tears fell from Doctor’s eyes.  Despite his friends’ attempts at comforting, he had still killed Photo Finish.  He couldn’t forget something like that.

“And who are these two victims?”  Stan stepped forward into the pool of blood.  His hooves got soaked, but he continued approaching the bodies.

The rest of the crowd watched as Stan leaned down to examine the corpses.  A stampede of hooves could be heard coming from upstairs.  The double doors burst open, and Butler darted over to the ledge overlooking the foyer.  He had a terrified look in his eyes, and his body shivered horribly…