Mini Mysteries

“For the last time, I didn’t murder Astral Thunder! I barely knew her! Why would I want her dead?”

Inspector Bagshot narrowed his eyes. “We’ve a witness. A post pony. He’d just delivered to No. 10 when he saw an ochre-coated unicorn pull open Astral’s front door and enter her house. A few seconds later, he heard a scream and rushed over to investigate. Through Astral’s window he saw the unicorn strangling her with a garrotte. He ran into the house to help, only he was knocked unconscious before he could get any farther than the hallway – by an accomplice, he reckons. When he came to, Astral was dead and her murderer gone.

“He went straight to the Guard. Identified the killer as Sun Spinner, a local bar pony – you.”

“That’s not true!” exclaimed Sun Spinner.

“Despite the case against him,” Bagshot told Slipstar later, “Spinner refuses to confess to the murder.”

“This post pony – is he to testify?” inquired Slipstar.

“Yes. Doctor Haste is keeping him in the hospital overnight – blow to his head was a nasty one. We’re trying to press Spinner for the name of his accomplice, but he continues to insist he is innocent.”

“I’m not surprised,” remarked Slipstar, “for there was no accomplice, and your witness is lying!”

How did Slipstar know?

While attempting to frame Sun Spinner for the murder, the “post pony” made a fatal mistake. He claimed to have seen Spinner “pull open” Astral’s front door. Impossible. Private house doors open inward, a fact that any real post pony would know. Furthermore, Slipstar suspected that his story of being struck on the head by the murderer’s accomplice was phoney. It was Astral who, while fighting for her life, had struck her killer.