//------------------------------// // Act 2: Questions and Clues // Story: (Hour Long Movie) Murder on Hearths Warming // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// ACT TWO The dead body was being removed, and taken in for an immediate autopsy to see how bad things were for Numeral. Meanwhile, the floor was marked in tape where he lay, and every-pony was still asked by the police to not leave the premises until the case was fully cracked. Lip was still the primary suspect, and still detained under watch of the officers. Applejack was getting really bored and yawned from being stuck here for what felt like forever. “I should’ve back at the farm by now to help with decorating.” “Applejack!” snapped Starlight “How can you be thinking about that at a time like this when some pony just got killed?” “I’m not trying to sound selfish and all that,” argued Applejack “But there’s nothing we can do about it. We know we didn’t do it, and yet we’re being kept here like potential suspects, and my family is going to be worried sick.” “I know it’s frustrating, Applejack.” said Twilight “But until everything is cleared up we have to stay here. Besides, I’d like to know the answer to this mystery myself.” Suddenly, the lights went out, and Rarity, in her detective garbs stepped forth from the bedroom. “I, too, seek the answer to that, dear Twilight, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.” The lights went back on a split second later, as one of the cops bashfully admitted, “Sorry, I leaned on the switch.” The captain then spoke to Rarity. “Look lady, this is official police business. It’s cool you want to help, but I think we got this, so just stay out of the way.” Rarity huffed, “You may think you have it, that your prime suspect is right there,” she motioned at Lip Smear, “But I think this jigsaw is missing a few pieces.” The captain rolled his eyes and again asked her, “Just stay out of this.” Rarity went into deep narration. “I wasn’t about to let some rude, yet rather handsome, police pony tell me what to do. I knew the first thing I needed were clues, and I knew just where to start looking…!” She considered the knife in the victim’s side, and how it was said there were no hoofmarks on it, yet a piece of Lip’s mane was found near the handle, and suggested that only a unicorn could use magic to lift the knife and stab Numeral with it. “I knew Lip Smear better than that from our childhoods, but I still had to consider her a suspect as well, seeing as all the evidence was still pointing at her, what with the thread of hair, and the bloody feather that fell from her purse.” Just then a dashing young pony entered the home. He was buff yellow unicorn with a brownish orange mane, and his cutiemark consisted of a sweatband. Rarity took one look at him, and felt herself going all soft and warm inside. Twilight, Starlight and Applejack felt the same way. Lip looked up at him, “Steel Hoof.” “Who’s he?” asked Spike. “I’ve heard of him.” said Twilight “He owns a workout center here in Ponyville. One of the best bodybuilders there is.” Steel looked her way and gave her a sharp wink, “You know it.” Twilight blushed. The captain then approached him. “Who let you pass into here?” Steel just gave him a strict look, “I heard that Lip Smear was here, and I also heard of the murder and I wanted to know if she was okay for myself. You got a problem with that!” The captain felt a little nervous, due to the mountain of muscles staring at him. “It’s okay.” said Lip “Let him pass.” Rarity caught on instantly. “Wait, is he your new colt-friend?” Lip nodded “We started dating a week ago, but a week after I broke up with Numeral.” Steel nodded, and motioned at a small wound on his hind leg, “That kid was just crazy jealous. He couldn’t accept the fact that it was over and he blamed for it, and he threw a rock at my leg a few days ago as we were passing by on a date. I got back at him though. I picked him right up by his collar and warned him never to do that again, and stay away from Lip, or I’d teach him a lesson he’d never forget.” Every eye the room was gawking at him. “Hey, hey, I didn’t kill him! I threatened him but I didn’t do it. I was shocked when I found out he did and I was worried about Lip.” He tried to comfort her, but the officer wouldn’t let him near. “What do you mean she’s under suspicion?” While the officers told him of the story, and Steel looked raging mad. Rarity contemplated about his temper. She too had heard of Steel Hoof, and like most typical body builders, they were prone to angry outbursts, that didn’t really make truly the murder, but she now considered him a suspect. “I’d like to ask you a question.” she said to him “Have you any other friends?” Steel blinked once. “Yeah, I’m part of a whole body-building squad. We don’t just help ponies at the gym, we go around helping others, like when we see bad guys, stalkers, or all that stuff, we make sure they learn their lesson to lay off, although sometimes we may go a tad overboard.” Starlight bolted upright, “You mean you’d actually beat them up?” Now Lip looked a bit livid, and Steel looked a little nervous, “Well, some of them do, but I’m not one of them.” The police seriously believed he was hiding something important. “Tell me,” asked Rarity “Did any of your other friends have a rather, bad thing, for Numeral?” “Hey!” snapped the captain “I told you to stay out of this. I’ll ask the questions.” and he repeated the question exactly, which annoyed Rarity. Steel answered, “Well, one of my buddies blamed him for the loss of his bank investment.” Rarity then started looking at the papers that were still on the floor and realized they were bank accounts, which were all on the verge of decline. “So he was an accountant?” asked Rarity. Lip confirmed, “Yes, he was the best with numbers, especially in college. That’s where we met, and dated ever since, for a whole year.” “Yeah, but he screwed up, big time.” added Steel “He was in charge of my friend’s account and the accounts of others, and then a few days ago he really screwed up the forms, messed a lot of accounts.” Rarity looked at the accounts, and noticed another paper was a notice of dismissal from the bank itself. She went into narration again. “He had broken up with Lip Smear, he was threatened to stay away from her, and now I learned Numeral had lost his job. This case was finally starting to mount up in evidence, and yet it seemed it was just twisting and turning more directions.” “One more question,” said Rarity, but the captain stepped up to her. “I thought I told you to stay out of our business!” “Hey!” snapped Applejack “Rarity’s just trying to help. Don’t you go talking to her that way!” The captain looked ready to blow his top, but Steel stepped in, “I don’t mind being asked. So let the lady talk.” Rarity held her muzzle up high, “Thank you. As I was asking: did your friend feel enraged at Numeral?” “Oh, did he ever. He kept on going about saying “I’ll kill him! He’s ruined everything for me!” Even the captain was shocked to hear that. “But don’t think wrong,” said Steel “He didn’t kill him. I would’ve known, and he wasn’t the only one who had it in for him. There were tons of ponies that were plenty mad with him. You couldn’t seem walk down the street the past few days and see any-pony throw a snowball at him.” Lip looked shocked. “Well that’s not very nice.” said Spike “He just made a mistake. He could’ve fixed it.” “Spike,” said Twilight “A banker’s responsibility is to maintain the money and accounts of all their clients. If things go wrong on their end, they’re liable to any faults and problems they’ve caused.” Spike blinked his eyes in confusion. “What she means is,” said Starlight “Numeral could have caused a lot of ponies lives to be turned upside-down with his mistakes in the figures. He put everyone in danger, so they’d all naturally be mad at him and scorn him. Though, I agree, it is a little too harsh to throw snowballs at him.” Spike understood now, but Lip didn’t. “Numeral was so great with numbers. He could do it all, even calculate the perfect trajectory of things for science. Why would he mess up at his own job?” Rarity scratched her chin and went into narration again. “Why would he mess up? That was something I’d like to know myself. All the questioning wouldn’t help me anymore at this point.” As she set her hoof back down on the floor, she felt something funny. She looked down at what had to be a single tiny seed, and she levitated it up high to look at it closely. “I knew I had seen a seed like this from someplace before, but from what I couldn’t think of right then. Time was running out, and if I didn’t crack this case soon, poor Lip Smear would most likely be hauled off to jail.”