Ponies began to show up periodically, drawn to the sound of Twilight’s weeping. Rarity was emotionally distraught when she saw Pinkie’s lifeless corpse, Fluttershy attempted to console her without any luck. Trixie’s shivering had only increased and Rainbow Dash was pacing about the room in a rage induced frenzy. Another one of her best friends had been killed, she would be damned if another were to be added to the body count.

Twilight stood slowly and had calmed her breathing to speak through her tears. “I think it best to remain calm. Let us be rational about all of this, we need to face the reality that somepony else is probably going to be murdered soon. It is our job now, as survivors, to prevent that from happening.” Twilight counted the number of ponies in the room and gulped. “Is this everypony still alive?” She polled the room.

“N…No, Sunset Sh…Shimmer is upstairs in the bathroom tending to a wound.” Trixie stammered.

“And to my knowledge, Gilda is still investigating the kitchen. Lightning Dust is dead as well… I’d rather not talk about it.” Rainbow shuddered at the memory of Lightning’s self-inflicted demise.

“I’m sorry to hear that Rainbow Dash.” Twilight placed a gentle hoof on Dash’s shoulder to calm her nerves. “Why did you leave Gilda though?”

“I didn’t want to stay in that room, that’s where this whole ordeal started and that’s where two murders have already happened. It just fills me with dread to even think about now.”

“Okay then, did you happen to find anything in the kitchen while you were there?” Fluttershy peeped just above a whisper.

“Actually, we found a considerable amount of evidence. I was hoping to find you guys; maybe one of you can shed some light on it all.” The group opened their ears to what Rainbow Dash had to say and listened intently. “So the glass on the floor is definitely not Lightning’s, at least, Gilda and I were confident that it wasn’t. We still don’t know whose glass it was in the first place so that mystery is still on the table. My guess is that the killer dropped their glass when trying to put up the poem in the dark, and then they somehow managed to find and refill Lightning Dust’s glass while she was trying to find a light switch, I still don’t know how anypony could do that without magic, but they did. My other theory is that they refilled Lightning’s glass before they put up the poem and dropped it as a means to frame Lightning, knowing that she would be killed, making it so that we lose the killer’s trace, but that just doesn’t make any sense to me so I’m sticking with the first theory. We also confirmed that the glass had been refilled because the champagne glass was emptier. Gilda knew that because she was the last one to touch the bottle before the lights went out. That’s another reason I left, I just don’t trust her anymore,”

“W…why not?” Trixie asked.

“Well for starters, she was extremely adamant about leaving the kitchen in the first place which lead to Applejack’s death. She also was the one to give Lightning Dust the drink that killed her.”

“But wait, how do you know it was the drink that killed her?” Twilight queried.

“She said her drink tasted funny, and she didn’t have anything else tonight. The drink is the only thing I can think of that would possibly cause her to lose control.”

“But she wasn’t the only pony drinking champagne though.” Rarity pointed out.

“I had a glass with m…me, but I never drank any, and Twilight and S…Sunset were too b…busy having a deb…bate. They didn’t drink any either.” Trixie announced, confirming Rainbow Dash’s account.

“But I still don’t know if the whole bottle is contaminated or if Gilda just poisoned the glass when she got it. If it was the bottle, she may not have known about it.” Rainbow scratched her head perplexed.

“So how do we explain what happened to Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy posed the question. She motioned her hoof toward Pinkie’s corpse, still shriveled and stagnant.

“That’s where I’m at a loss.” Rainbow Dash admitted. The group was silenced briefly as they thought about Pinkie’s case.

“I don’t know much, but Pinkie told me before she died that she encountered the killer directly.” Twilight announced. The room stood still with unease. Pinkie was the first to interact with their tormentor. She may not be the last.

The uncomfortable silence in the room reflected the collective moods of the survivors. Rainbow hated to be the one to break the hush, but there was more she needed to say.

“I think we need to consult the poem. Somehow the killer seems to know what is going to happen, when it will happen, and who it will happen to. They haven’t been wrong yet. AJ ‘kicked’ the bucket, Lightning Dust went crazy and ‘lost control’ and killed herself, and I think the next line said that somepony would be betrayed by their element.”

“That makes sense now, Pinkie was the element of laughter and the killer filled the container with nitrous oxide.” Twilight gestured toward the metal canisters in the corner of the room.

“Um, Twilight dear, Layman’s terms please?” Rarity asked for clarification.

“It’s l…laughing gas.” Trixie answered before Twilight could get a word out. Twilight only nodded.

Rarity raised a hoof to her mouth, “that is so cruel…”

“Rainbow Dash, do you remember what the next line said?” Twilight probed.

The rainbow maned Pegasus brought her hoof to her muzzle in thought. “Vaguely, I think it said something along the lines of ‘seven little ponies, one liked to play tricks’ which I can assume would be Trixie, Pinkie, or I…”

“I don’t think they were referring to P…Pinkie if that were the c…case. The k…killer already knew she would d…die.” Trixie stammered. “B…but how would they know who w…would be alive at this point?”

“That doesn’t make sense to me either.” Rainbow Dash agreed. “It’s like they planned everything out so meticulously, but there is no way they could have known what would happen.”

“What else did it say?” Fluttershy beckoned Rainbow to continue.

“Um… I’m pretty sure it said somepony would ‘go up in smoke,’ I’m not certain what that means either. Maybe there is going to be a fire somewhere.” Rainbow theorized.

“Okay, I think we should split up in groups and find Gilda and Sunset Shimmer to figure this mystery out once and for all.” Twilight suggested.

“I’ll go and find S…Sunset, I promised I’d c…come right back.” Trixie volunteered.

“As much as I don’t want to go back, I need to know what else Gilda found.” Rainbow loathed the idea, but her curiosity got the better of her.

“Okay, I’ll accompany you to the kitchen. Rarity, Fluttershy, you two can go with Trixie to find Sunset Shimmer. When we find everyone, meet back at the main room with the map so we can settle this once and for all.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you darling, but why are you shivering and stuttering so much?” Rarity questioned Trixie innocently.

“Yeah, you weren’t like that when we were having drinks earlier.” Fluttershy added.

“I…I don’t know for s…sure. I haven’t been able to make it st…stop since Applejack died. Maybe I’m j…j…just scared.” Trixie answered nonchalantly.

“Oh, alright then…” Rarity felt uneasy between Trixie and Fluttershy. She never trusted Trixie to begin with, and Fluttershy hadn’t seemed phased by anything which was so uncharacteristic of her. She had no choice other than to go along with them and find Sunset Shimmer.

“How are you fairing Rainbow?” Twilight interrupted the stillness between them. They had slowed their pace to the kitchen tremendously as Dash’s hoof had continued to cause problems.

“About as well as you could expect Twilight, I appreciate the concern, but my hoof is the last thing on my mind right now.” Rainbow continued to hobble along, ignoring the glaring pain in her leg. With each step, her pain grew worse but she pushed the thought as far back in her mind as she could. She wanted to focus solely on finding Gilda before tragedy struck again.

“You really should take care of that Dash, I know it doesn’t seem like much, but you aren’t safe in your current condition.”

“I’ll deal with it later.”

“There may not be a later if that injury is constantly slowing you down.”

“Twilight, I don’t know if you know this or not, but I have one goal in mind and that is surviving. Yeah the injury sucks, but you forgot to take something else into account.”

“And that would be…?”

“My will to fucking live.” Rainbow kept her head down as she pushed forward. Twilight watched the pegasus walk away, momentarily stopped by her friends drive and determination.

“Perhaps I could learn a thing or two from you Dash.” She mumbled to herself before following her friend to the kitchen.

Sunset Shimmer had sat in the bathroom for much longer than she wanted to. She had no other option than to go out on her own. She was extremely vulnerable in a room with only one exit and an injury.

“Thanks a lot Trixie, prick” Sunset grumbled to herself. She took her leg out of the bath and wrapped it in fresh bandages before using the sink to hoist herself up. She almost collapsed as the pain from her leg reignited. She grit her teeth and pressed on. She exited the bathroom and looked left and right. She didn’t want to risk her leg giving out and suffering a dangerous tumble down the stairs so she turned to her right and began her search.

Gilda had all but driven herself mad scouring for more clues that would identify the killer, but alas there had been nothing to find. Surely she was still missing something, a crucial detail that would crack the case wide open. She believed her best bet was to continue to look around the drinks as she knew the killer must have been there at some point in the evening.

She perused the cabinets above the counter-top; it was the only place she hadn’t yet looked. She went down the line of cabinets, paying very close attention to the contents of each one. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as she noted different spices in one cabinet, baking supplies in another, and a wide assortment of oils in the one above the stove. She opened the last cabinet and found exactly what she was looking for or at least, something not normal for once. The cabinet was entirely empty except for a small jar full of a white powder. The label on the jar had small letters and numbers on it. She squinted to examine the characters on the jar. She could read PbHAsO4

“Not sure what the hell that means, but this is what killed lightning Dust, I’m sure of it.” Gilda reached to grab the jar of what she could only assume was poison to investigate it further.

Trixie, Fluttershy, and Rarity had ascended the staircase and headed for the bathroom. When they arrived Sunset Shimmer was nowhere to be found.

“I told her n…not to leave, where c…could she have gone?” Trixie was annoyed that Sunset couldn’t follow simple instructions.

“Perhaps she went to find the rest of us; I would certainly be frightened being alone with a killer lurking about.” Rarity sympathized with Sunset’s decision.

“I highly d…doubt that, her leg is severely d…damaged.” Trixie added.

“How did she get hurt though?” Fluttershy asked with genuine concern.

“She was coming up the stairs and she triggered a trap. L…long story short, sh…she got an arrow shot through her leg.”

“She couldn’t possibly have made it that far with an injury like that, let’s explore the rest of the upstairs level and find her quickly.” Fluttershy was never one to make an authoritative decision, but now seemed as good a time as ever to finally break out of her shell.

The girls split up in search for the crippled unicorn. Trixie didn’t bother though; she could tell Sunset was a stubborn and sturdy mare. Despite her concerns, she figured the mare would be able to take care of herself. The magician made her way back to the bathroom to see if Sunset had taken anything suspicious, only the bandages appeared to be missing. Trixie then began to rummage under the sink for anything else out of the ordinary.

“Find anything?” A voice came from behind Trixie as a mare stood in the doorway. Trixie, already anxious, jumped in surprise and slammed the back of her head hard into the bottom of the sink. She rolled onto her back, grabbing her head in pain. Her ears rang and her vision went fuzzy before coming into focus on a visibly upset Sunset Shimmer.

“Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you?” Trixie growled through a grimace, her head still throbbing.

“I went looking for you of course and give you a piece of my mind. You can’t just leave me like that with a murderer running around. There was no way I could possibly defend myself.”

“You’re right, I apologize. I was so caught up in Pinkie’s death. I went downstairs to look for the others and found everypony gathered around Pinkie’s corpse.”

“Hm, anyone else dead?” Sunset wondered

“Lightning Dust killed herself according to Rainbow Dash. Other than that, I believe everyone else is still alive. So now that means there are seven of us.”

“Okay, did you come by yourself?”

“No, Rarity and Fluttershy accompanied me and they should be around the upstairs area. We split up to find you, we should go look for them now.” Trixie got to her hooves with Sunset’s help as both mares hobbled out of the bathroom and into the halls of the upstairs level.

“How much closer to the kitchen are we Twi? Your house is massive and my hoof is getting numb.” Rainbow grew restless with impatience.

“Calm down Dash, the kitchen is just around the corner of the hall to the left. I want to get a good look at that poem when we get there. I’m usually pretty good at riddles and puzzles, maybe I can figure out who’s…”

“Shh!” Rainbow abruptly interrupted Twilight. “Do you hear that?” Both mares remained silent as they listened for the noise together.

“That’s somepony screaming!”

Gilda was struggling to maintain the fire that had erupted before her. When she pulled the jar out of the cabinet, she failed to notice the translucent chord of fly-wire wrapped around the neck of the glass. She had followed the path of the string to an unknown location before the burner next to her had ignited. When she went to turn it off, another jar had fallen from a makeshift hole in the cabinet above. The jar shattered on the flame and fire erupted before her, lapping at her face.

Now she stood panicked at the rapidly growing flame before her, unsure of how to extinguish the blaze. She reached for a nearby pot and quickly filled it to the brim with water. She chucked the water onto the inferno.

At that moment, the entire kitchen erupted in flames as tendrils of red hot fury engulfed Gilda and her surroundings. Her skin and eyes burned beyond comprehension as more flame began to swallow her up.

The searing pain of the flames that crawled over her skin felt akin to dragging a thousand razor blades along her flesh. The fire had reached her face and eyes; she could feel the fluids in her eyes beginning to boil as her vision faded to black. She was now completely immersed in fire.

Her skin crawled as it blistered and boiled, bubbling up before bursting with blood and puss. Her feathers had been burned off, exposing only her sensitive skin to the overwhelming fire. She writhed and screamed in torment, clawing at her face. Her skin peeled off beneath her claws causing blood to spill down her chest before boiling over revealing the bones in her face. The rest of her body began to char as Gilda’s world went black. Each passing moment resulted in pain even more unbearable than the last.

The billowing smoke burned her lungs as she desperately gasped for any amount of air. She coughed and hacked up blood before shriveling down to the floor, continuing to burn and char. Her screams had long since faded into nothingness behind the roar of the flame.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash stared in horror at what they had seen. The smell of roasting flesh was so repulsive and revolting, Rainbow had to hold back from regurgitating. Twilight fainted as Rainbow turned and ran from the scene. She knew it had been a terrible idea to come back.

The roaring and crackling flames slowly engulfed the kitchen, consuming the corpses of both Lightning Dust and Applejack. Twilight eventually came to as she felt the presence of another pony hoisting her onto their back.

Seven little ponies

One liked to play tricks

One went up in smoke and then there were

Six

Author's Note

Business is really starting to pick up! I hope you guys are catching on to the little details littered throughout the story and not just the poem. Both should be used in tandem to decipher the true mystery.

I've also decided that I will add a walkthrough of the whole story at the end. Yes the killer will have their evil villain monologue when they explain how they did it, but I will go through every little detail you may or may not have missed while reading.

As always, Happy Sleuthing!