Bait 'n' Switch Codologyby NoobblueChaptersPrologue: Is this thing on?Epilogue: That's a wrap...Chapter One: Dinner DebacleChapter Two: Hallway HorrificsChapter Three: Losing LifeChapter Four: Perilous ProfundityPrologue: Is this thing on? "Okay miss, please, for the record. Can you state your name, occupation, and cutie mark in that order?" "Bullseye; one word. I work as a private investigator outside of the New-Manehatten Skylines. My cutiemark is an eye, the same as my own, with a magnifying glass instead of an iris." "Let the record show that Bullseye is a light green mare, with a lighter green mane, almost turquoise, but with a white tint instead of blue. Her eyes are a milky gray, as are her marks. For the transcript, she speaks with an old Manehatten accent." "So, Miss Bullseye. You obviously know why you're here." "Yes." "Would you state that for the record please?" "I'm here as a potential culprit, or otherwise witness for the murders that took place at Tul'foht's recently." "Thank you Miss Bullseye, woul-" "I'd rather for you to just call me by Eye. Or Iris, if you want." "If you could please not comment during the intervie-" "Interrogation." "..." "The rest won't talk to you, huh?" "We cannot comment on any state of being of any creatures in or not in our custody." "You heard me say I was a P.I. right? I know this little song and dance. I have power here, so I wan-" "That's... not exactly how this works. Though, as your lawyer, I'd recommend against it.." "Gerald. Please." "..." "He's right though, we can make you tell the truth with magic." "Guess that's my own fault." "If we could please stay focused." "Sorry G, Iris? Could you just start at the beginning? You were at the... tofoholt? man-" "Tul'foht. You have to roll a silent 'H' in the middle, old Manehattenite accents." "You were at the mansion that night... why?" "I was there to kill Origami." "The Syndicate head. We've got a lot of details on that, but if you can clarify, how exactly did you even get close to him?" "It was dumb luck. I was investigating a case, tailing a tail, you know how it is. I track this stallion down to an apartment east of the three fifty seven phaseway, just under the 'stalks near western isles road. I go lookin' yeah? Bust up some info. I got to his apartment and smell blood. One breaking and entering charge later, and I find this poor bitch dead as a doornail, icer bolt straight through her left eye. I was searching her crap for any info, numbers or ID, and I found a letter. I-" "I'm sorry, stop for a second please. Where was this?" "You know that griffonia cuisine knock off restaurant down past fifty five?" "How do you know it's a knock off?" "Been to Black Rock Castle myself, they don't even get the searing even a little bit right." "Gerald, that's not the question we should be asking her." "Right, sorry." "This whole other crime then? What did you do with the body, and why didn't you report it?" "I was getting there. So I found this letter right? It's an invitation to the Tul'foht mansion, in two days, this poor bitch was-" "Please refrain from using vulgarities for the recor-" "Ay-ay, no, you got it wrong. She was a bitch. Literally, a diamond dog, they don't appreciate that name anymore though." "Oh... Well, continue." "As I was saying... This letter for her, it's an invitation in two days' time. Some kinda business deal. Turns out, she knew somebody up top, somebody Origami knew. Origami wanted to meet her, possibly talk business, make connections, that sorta deal." "But she was dead." "As a doornail, like I said. Thing was, I knew of Origami. He... He offed my father when I was young. My daddy was a professional boxer, real top of the line stuff. Origami told him to throw a fight, he didn't, and that was that." "Are you... admitting to the murder of Origami?" "Origami ain't even his name, and what's it matter to you?" "We're..." "I'm joking. So, I figured, 'now's my chance'. I had one of those shaping charms back home. Good for a single night, if you know what I mean, all I had to do was make sure Terri's death didn't make it back to Origami or his goonies, take her place, and strike as soon as I was close." "You casually jumped into a premeditated murder plot simply because the means just fell into your hooves? Just like that?" "Yeeeup." "That's kind of impressive." "Gerald!" "Sorry." "If you're trying to convince us you're innocent..." "It's more complicated than that. Plus, not like anybody's gonna care; or miss the rich, sideways, hat wearing bastard for that matter." "...?" "Slang honey, ignore me, so anyways. The letter had a specific time, just after Queen-T lowered the sun for the night. I get there, and it's spooky as all get out right? There's this creepy stone pathway up through the gardens-" Bullseye, or in this case, Terri, plodded her way up an angled hill. The terrain around her was thick with shaped trees, shrubbery, stone sculptures, and any random rich person knick-knacks that one would simply throw money at until it all ended up in their yard. The overhanging, white painted, vine toating arches around the path she was walking under mostly blocked her view of the sky, and the gray overcast clouds above it. Looked like rain, and soon. The ridged cut stone path was tight, but efficient. None of the rocks shifted under her weight, and there weren't any cracks where her lower paw toes could catch and cause her to tumble over. She'd practiced for the last two nights, standing on her back hooves, it was far easier when you had the spine for it; though Bullseye still hadn't figured out the gait yet, she was stuck to slow waking. The path was winding, weaving up the hill, back and forth, to make the slope more manageable. Where it ended, Bullseye could see lights, and her now even more sensitive ears could pick up the low sounds of conversation over the wind. As she approached, she made out through the glare of the setting sun over the ridge of the island, a group of ponies standing at what looked like a front door. Most of them were silent, but there was some light conversation. As she approached, the majority turned to look at her, though one, a gray black stallion, barely old enough to be one, wearing a hacksaw like black Mohawk turned to what looked like a maid standing at the door. She was a unicorn, pristine ivory fur, and a low cut pink mane. "Ay, see, there they are. Can we go inside now?" The maid shook her head. "I'm sorry master Telephone. We're still waiting on one more arrival." "Cow, please." The teenager took another step forwards, "It's bloody cold out here! Just let us in, you can wait out here for 'em yourself." "Lay off her, Wire. She's just doin' her job." Said another, a stallion with a leather duster. One that hung all the way down to his hooves and covered his cutiemark. He was tall, with a darker orange mane than his sunny red fur. "So, they were all just waiting outside?" "I'm getting there bird brains, you gonna let a mare tell 'er story? Or arya gonna keep pestering me?" "I think, what my partner is getting confused by, is the timing of all of this. Could you describe what you know about them all now? First?" "Actually, could you also describe Ms. Terri? The... bitch you had stolen the shape of?" "Terri was a petite thing, tall, with gray fur, darker highlights where it was thicker, but only if you were lookin' real close. Flat chest, dainty little paws, but damn was she tall. 'Bout twice as high up as you our me. She had one of those smoother faces, probably descended from one of them Gem Hybrids." "Thank you Iris." "Ah sure. Now, Telephone Wire, the colt tryna be a stallion. He's just a punk, far as I knew at the time. The unicorn stallion that could've hidden a body in that coat? I never learned his real name, or if he lied to me, but he called himself Immersion. Then there was the maid herself, pretty little thing, with a cropped tail way up high, so obviously she wasn't just a maid. Her name was... Snow Cone- yeah, that was it. Then the big guy, I'm sure you've seen 'em already. Goes by Johnson- a Western name-" Despite the conversation, Bullseye's eyes were drawn towards the hulking, nearly chest height brown stallion without a mane. He had a blonde tail that ran down his back legs at the normal pony tail length, which on him, made it look barely enough to cover his backside. When they met gazes, his neutral frown upturned at the edges, and he inclined his head gently in her direction. A real gentlepony. Bullseye thought while drinking in the form that probably could have folded her into several separate sections if applied correctly. Before she had the chance to embarrass herself more by gawking, a snow white griffon with strikingly blue eyes approached and jerkily lifted a talon for a handshake. She spoke with a near Prench accent, if Bullseye hadn't learned Prench when she was growing up, she would have missed it. "Verglas Ley. I'll tell you this, it's good to see another non-pony around. I thought I was going to be the only one." "You know Prench?" "..." "Right, sorry, please continue." Bullseye reached for the talon, hoping not to mess up the first real test of her practice with the new form. As far as she could tell, the gesture went swimmingly. She gripped tightly, shook once, heftily, and the griffon chick smiled. "Good handshake. I like you already." "What's... what's going on here?" Bullseye said, gesturing out to the lingering crowd. Verglas turned to look, and nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I got that too. Apparently Origami invited an entire gaggle of people. We're all supposed to wait outside until everyone's here." This had spontaneously become three times harder. She figured she'd have to deal with sneaking around the staff to poison or gut the guy herself, but now with five other people in the mix, with one yet to arrive... Bullseye knew she probably wouldn't get away with it. She knew she'd probably get caught, even a shaping charm didn't cover up a magical signature, as soon as Origami was dead, big wigs, mages, everything. They'd find her. Actually killing the prick was all she cared about, and now, the path forwards was skewed even further than: "Just wing it". "Help me understand something Iris." "Shoot." "You knew you'd get caught, you're a smart enough P.I. to know that regardless of how you did it, you'd leave a trail." "Yup." "So why? Why go through with it at all? You don't seem like you're frothing at the mouth like you're mad. You seem too stable to just throw your entire life away for revenge. I've read your case files, just skimmed through them. Reunited families, solving advanced dead cases, bringing peace to loved ones? You do good. Why give all that up?" "..." "That was alotta nice stuff you just said about me, so I'll treat you to an honest answer. Filly, you grew up somewhere nice, somewhere where you didn't have to worry about your daddy getting his head caved in 'cause the guy at the show that night wanted a certain kind of spectacle. Out here? Under the 'stalks? We gotta do the right thing. Ain't nobody, talon, claw, paw, hoof. They won't stand for the gobbledygook Origami was toatin’. He came from up where you were born. Brought all his money down to lord over the small people. You're right. It wasn't about revenge. It was about respect, honor. Any real people who know what livin's like? They'd take out a pony like him the first chance they got. It's about showin' people like you what people like me will and won't stand for, even when the law's too slow to show it, or too ignorant to care." "..." “It just so happened to be personal.” “...” "Please continue Miss Bullseye." "So what's your story?" the griffon chick asked sideways, looking out towards the rest of the group. They were removed, enough that their conversation would be audible, but not intelligible to the rest of the group. Bullseye raised her eyebrow, at least, she thought she did. It certainly felt like she did. "What do you mean?" "All of us are here for a reason." She stated before putting a claw over her chest feathers. "Me? I got called in because of my art, apparently it caught his eye. You?" Bullseye spun in place. She'd practiced a single pirouette hours ago when she used the shaping charm. The dress she was wearing was an off navy, meshed in with her fur along proper color theory. It stopped just above her chest, and was tightly fit under her arm so as to not fall without shoulder straps. It had an open back, and hung all the way down to her legs, with a slit near the side to show off... enough. She had a deeper blue scarf hung over her arms to complete the look. Verglas smirked, "Ah. I see. Honest work then?" "As honest as anything else." Bullseye realized her slip back into her personal accent, and quickly asked another question to cover it up. "What about the rest of them?" She lifted a talon to point, not directly, but politely. "The big guy? He's tight lipped, nobody knows his story. The coat? He's a crooked cop, here to trade stories or what have you with our host. The kid? I dunno. He's part of some gang or cult. He's really proud of it too." Verglas stopped, having come to an end of the descriptions. Bullseye lifted one of her gangly arms and gestured towards the maid before letting it drop. "What about her?" Verglas' beak twisted in a confused expression. "What about her?" "Well she's here isn't she?" Verglas waved a talon, though her tone remained inquisitive, rather than dismissive. "Sure, but she's just the help." "Absolutely, but look." Bullseye gestured to the side of the mansion. The structure itself was opulent, but in a word, simple. It had pillars, wood overhangs, ornate stone carvings and colors that meshed together beautifully in the dusk sun. That being said, each section of wall was a copy of the last. It was geometric, isolated, and repetitive. Each window had the exact same window shutters as the last, and they were all evenly spaced. "The windows? All of them are dark. Nobody else is home. If we're here for talk, or if Origami lived here full time, surely there'd be some lights on, right? If he's got a full staff, then where are they?" Bullseye gestured behind her, "No groundskeeper either, nothing. Looks like it's just her." As Bullseye talked, Verglas raised a talon to her beak, thinking, and slowly started nodding along while Bullseye continued. She waited, politely, until Bullseye had finished before nodding again and speaking. "That's an incredibly astute observation. If that truly is the case, then I do wonder why this maid in particular is here tonight. Surely there's a reason...?" She trailed off looking to Bullseye for conjecture. "Well... I don't want to be presumptuous..." She said in the way that gossipers do when they absolutely want to talk smack. "But...?" Verglas waved a talon in a 'go on' gesture. "Real maids don't wear dresses like that." Bullseye tilted her head in the direction, not pointing, but definitely trying to get Verglas to look. "See how the skirt goes up at the back instead of down? See how she's got a cropped tail, and the way the dress pinches her sides?" Verglas snorted and rolled her eyes, looking back to Bullseye. "Seems like Origami has some... wide reaching tastes." "Fine tastes." Bullseye humorously corrected while using a paw to push some of the fur around her head into place. She had to keep her story believable, despite how the nature of the person she was pretending to be irked her. Verglas chuckled and shook her head. It was then that the sound of hoof steps on stone reached Bullseye's ears. She turned to spot the next pony walking up the path. Another mare, dark lilac fur, watermelon red mane. She had cutiemark of a yellow parasol on her flanks. She walked up the path and stopped when she noticed all the looks. She turned to look over her shoulder, noticed nobody was behind her, then looked back to them with a frown and asked, "What?" She said it with haughtiness, the kind that marked one easily as a noble mare wannabe. Her question sounded far more like: 'Whhaght?' A classic butchering of a 'supposed' higher tongue. The doors opened behind the maid and Telephone Wire vocalized his satisfaction. "Finally!" "If all of you cou-" the maid tried to gesture everyone in, but nobody waited for her to talk. She frowned, and the look of stress piled up in her eyes as she tried to step into the foyer in front of everyone. It didn't work. "Wai-" She did a tiny little jump and then rushed forwards. "Please wipe your hooves before-" Telephone trotted past her, "Yeah, whatever." Her ears folded down, and she seemingly gave up. Bullseye called out to her from the door, and the mat she was on meant for said hoof wiping. "Hey, girly!" She smiled and waved as the maid looked up at her, and went through exaggerated motions of wiping her paws before stepping in. Verglas followed suit, as did the mare that had shown up last. The maid took that as an invitation to speak, and crossed the short distance as they all entered the foyer. The interior held the exact kind of ambience Bullseye was expecting. Posh-wooden-nighttime. It was red flickering chandeliers on dark oak colored walls and art that was probably more expensive than she was. The doors shut on their own as the large stallion stepped in after the coated stallion. "Thank you." The white mare said, "You must be Mistress Terri, Mistress Verglas Ley, and Madam Violaceous Wave. I am Snow Cone, the on-site staff. Anything any of you require, please feel free to ask me, and I'll make sure your needs are tended to." The word 'needs' was lilted as she said it, a clear implication. Bullseye refrained from cringing. My needs are fully satisfied, thank you very much. "Yeah, actually. I've got somthin'." Telephone Wire turned away from one of the eclectic paint smear paintings on the wall. "Where's the food? I thought we'd be getting grub." Snow shifted, taking a step back and then walking backwards towards another door that opened as she got close to it. "If you'll all follow me, I can take you to the dinning hall. Master Origami will be down from his study soon, and dinner is already set out for you all, once he arrives." Bullseye took a glance around, and winked towards Verglas as she broke towards the opposite side of the group where the stallions were following. She took the spot at the back, and tuned out Snow talking about the history of the various pieces of art dotting the hallway as she leaned over to the sunset-esc unicorn. "So?" She said, empty of meaning. "So?" He responded, confused. Bullseye took another step daintily, shifting her weight to match her tone. "What do you think of all this? It's not what we expected, right?" Stallions love to talk to a stupid girl. Go on, spill the beans bucko. The hall itself was deceptively similar to outside. Sure, things were spaced around isometrically, but the floorboards, the spires going up the walls, the walls themselves, they were all copy pasted. Every few strides Bullseye noticed the repetition again, like the interior was thrown up as a distraction from how dull the structure actually was. "You keep mentioning that. Is it important?" "Heh, you're the detective, you tell me?" "Miss Bullseye-" "Iris. Why yougoin' backwards girl?" "..." "Because I respect you." "..." "Alright, fine. Yeah, it's important. You see, top of the line housing isn't cheap past the islands. Under the 'stalks, we get stuff cobbled together like it was in the older days of Equestria, read a book, you'll see. Ponies who pay for mansions like that, and let's be honest, it's only ponies with that kinda money, they don't buy 'magically generated' structures. That mansion looked like it was thrown up in a month. You tell me, if you had the money to build a mansion, would you pay twenty percent less for it all to be cookie cutter copies all the way around?" "I'll admit, it's weird." "And you'd be right, Origami had way too much cash to burn to buy something so cheap, what kept catching my eye is that, yeah, sure, some rich wiggins think that spartan is better, squares with no texture down to the horizon, but those houses are obvious. Somebody who buys an all-white box and likes it, wants it to look like a cheap as dirt, all-white box. This house was cheap, but the décor was trying to hide how cheap it was. If he really liked geometric repetition like that, why leave it on the outside, but cover it up on the inside? I figured it was because the gardens were meant to be the disguise, nobody but me even noticed, even when I pointed Ley to the windows, I don't think she saw." "Which still begs the question of why it was built that way." "I'll get there, hold onto your feathers for now buddy." "I think it's odd." He said slowly. "Got this nagging feeling." "I know what you mean." Bullseye responded before holding out her paw. "I'm Terri, by the way." His orange horn lit with magic, and an aura surrounded her paw, shaking it loosely as she moved with the magic. "Immersion." "Charmed." Bullseye snarked, "What's your story then?" His response was clipped and confident. "Plain clothes detective. Origami pays my checks, so I work for him. I don't know why I'm here yet, I just follow instructions." He sped up a little, after he was done talking. Clearly he was done talking. Bullseye sent a look towards the big brown stallion, watching from just off to the side with a smirk. They met eyes, he shrugged at the same time that she did. Bullseye turned her attention back towards the front of the group, and followed on in silence. Epilogue: That's a wrap...Code Name was having an interesting day. The room was the standard run of the mill interrogation room. Dark, muggy, clearly under budget. Space for four ponies to sit. In Bullseye's case, float. The walls and floors were made out of some thick material Code Name probably wasn't allowed to know, disguised behind a rocky popcorn paint façade, all lit from a single electric lamp, hanging from the ceiling. She was listening to an interesting mare, and a fantastical story. Code had been around the block far more than her presented 'fresh from boot' cop façade would have otherwise indicated, and as far as she could tell... Bullseye at least believed everything she had just told them. Ending on the explosion that killed her, and supposedly, the monster chasing her. "So... I take it, that's all you've got to tell us?" Gerald asked Bullseye nodded. "At least about the whole... uh... yeah." Gerald looked to Code for what to do next. He'd done his part as the interchangeable good cop flawlessly, like he always did. The fact of the matter was, this was her show. Luckily, and after three seances, she'd gotten what she needed. She took a deep breath and used a hoof to gently set down the pen on her notebook and toss it closed. "If you have any last remarks, now would be the time." She said professionally. "I do-actually. Did they make it out?" "Who?" Code asked back. "Immersion and Johnson. Did they make it?" Code frowned. She hated giving answers like this, "We can't discl-" "Well, actually..." Gerald started, "If she's his next of kin, she has the right to know." Now is not the time to be a lawyer, Gerald. "Exactly. If." Code rebutted. "He's fine." Gerald said quickly. "Gerald." Code warned. He shrunk back with a guilty smile. Bullseye's ethereal self leaned forwards. "My boxing gloves. They were my daddy's. Make sure he gets 'em. My tombstone; Make sure you put Terri's name on there too. She deserves it, after all that happened." Code and Gerald exchanged a pair of looks. Code glanced at the unicorn in the room, casting the spell making this all possible. They continued to mutter with their eyes closed. They never did anything else. Bullseye continued after the silence dragged on. "Or at least a picture... or something. I died wearing her face, that's all I'm sayin'." Code leaned over, "That can be arranged." "Thanks. Will it hurt?" Bullseye gestured to the unicorn in dark coverings. The runic circle they were standing on, and the magic keeping her there. "No." Bullseye nodded. Code gestured to the unicorn. "That'll be all, specialist." The unicorn's mumbling stopped, and the magic arching from their horn cut out. The runes on the floor went silent and stopped glowing. There was a lashing bit of magic that Code could only really sense, rather than see. Years of experience. Bullseye made a face, "Oh-yeah. And, I never caught your name." Code smiled, "No you didn't." Bullseye smiled back as the mist she was made up began to fade. "You really got me with that." She said in a mixture of annoyance, appreciation, and melancholy. Then she was gone. Gerald sighed and flopped onto the table. Code rolled her eyes, "Stop it. That wasn't nearly as bad as what happened with the griffon." "Not like I can blame her." "You're just tired, you big baby." The unicorn left the room without a word. Both of them sat there in silence for a moment while Code collected her notes. "So?" She raised an eyebrow, "So what?" Gerald monotoned, "So what's the verdict? Miss, suit and tie." Code Name adjusted said objects as she stood. "The verdict is I'll be dealing with this tomorrow, I have other things to attend to for now. Deciding what's true or not is your job, isn't it?" She shot back. "You mean arguing about what's true or not." "Whatever." She tossed the notebook and spare documents into her saddlebags. "Tired then?" "Late shifts." She answered. Gerald gave her a sideways look, "I still think we should have told her." "Gerald." He lifted up a claw placatingly. "Listen, I kn-" "We talked about this." Code Name cut him off, "And it's not either of our calls. Telling her we found Origami dead to a bullet miles away from the mansion would have only driven her into not talking to us at all." He continued trying to back track, "I just th-" "It's not your job to think." She cut him off again, "It's your job to be the slightly silly, dull in the head lawyer, who can good-cop-bad-cop with me so we can get the information we need to get this done. Okay?" Gerald stared at her blankly as she huffed for a second. "You need to get laid." He said in mocking surprise. Code Name facehoofed. "How about drinks? On me?" He asked She glared, "You wish." A shrug, "Can't blame a guy for trying." They both argued their way out of the interrogation room. Neither of them saw the hanging lamp shift ever so slightly as they left. It was probably just the air pressure changing in the room as they opened and closed the door. Chapter One: Dinner Debacle "The dining hall was long. One of those real posh ones that you see in movies. Big lengthy wooden table, all set out with sparkly cutlery. Chandyliers, windows on one side of the hall looking out into the gardens. The works." Bullseye was starting to get the hang of this bipedal walking thing. She filtered into the dining hall along with everyone else. Snow Cone, however, kept walking backwards. "And this is where we'll be eating tonight. Over pleasant conversation, of course." She gestured to the table in question, still in her pitched 'tour guide' tone. Wire interrupted. "Yeah, maybe it's just me, but I can't help but notice the supreme lack of anything to eat." He huffed, "Still." Bullseye heard Ley 'snrk' next to her as Cone gave the most polite reprimand she'd ever heard. "Well Master Telephone, if you'd exercise just a little bit of patience" She turned towards the rest of the motley crew. "and if the rest of you would kindly follow me into the kitchens?" So that's why she's still moving. Her continued backwards walk made a little more sense when she reached the double doors hidden away behind an shoddily placed armoire near one end of the hall. Behind it was white tile, metal counters, overhead fans. What looked like an entire restaurant, at least, the kitchen was built for a restaurant that could seat at least a hundred people at a time. Not needing another reason to start moving, everyone made their way through the doors. "You were right." Ley's slightly refined Prench accent said from her side. In response to the questioning look Bullseye sent her way, Ley continued, "The staff. A whole kitchen like this, and not a single peep. Not even in the halls." "Well-" Snow appeared between them out of nowhere. Having never been surprised on two legs before, Bullseye fell over. "Whoah!" She was halted in midair by an orange glow, and smoothly set back upright by Immersion, who's horn was dimming as she caught his eye. "Be more careful there Terri." Bullseye's eyes narrowed. I never told you my name. The question never left her mouth, as Snow Cone darted in front of her, apologizing profusely. "Please, accept my sincerest apologies Mistress Terri, I didn't mean to frighten you, I-" "Whoah, hey." Bullseye waved her paw. Neurotic little thing isn't she? "No harm done. Relax, all is forgiven." Snow Cone gave off a smile and flopped her ears. Something about the smile didn't reach her eyes, she probably thought Bullseye was just being polite. "Food!" Wire exclaimed. He'd wandered over to a series of carts covered in cloth. After removing the cloth and finding the platters underneath, he had apparently removed that and uncovered a tray of tarts, decorated in all the colors of the rainbow. One had already disappeared into his gullet, and he was midway through reaching for another one before Snow Cone gasped. "No!" She rushed over to him. Wave, the hilariously purple mare beat her to him. She slapped the tart from his hoof with her own and put on a voice that unconsciously made Bullseye's tail tuck in between her legs. "Don't you have any manners! It's incredibly rude to start without our host!" "But-!" "If you reach for another one of those tarts mister I'll slap you upside your bottom!" She continued to scold. "I don't care that I'm not your mother, if yours didn't teach you any manners, I gladly will." She ended with a vicious smile, and Wire thankfully stepped away before the situation could escalate further. That didn't stop him from huffing, crossing his hooves, and generally being a petulant teenager. Snow Cone was busy rearranging the tarts so as to make it look like none were missing. Bullseye raised an eyebrow at the behavior, but was distracted by a deep bass voice. "She's right kid." The first words Bullseye heard from the brown beast of a stallion. "It ain't polite, and you worried Snow Cone there something fierce. You should apologize to her." He rolled his eyes in response. "Sorry, Snow Cone." Though he sounded anything but. "That's Miss, Snow Cone." Wave corrected, "If you're not actually going to be sorry, at least show the proper respect." Snow Cone turned away from the display, leaving it as it was. "It's okay, and it's Missus, but I don't mind at all." "You haven't done anything like this before then?" Immersion asked, joining in on the conversation. Snow's ears folded down, "Is it that obvious?" "Don't worry about it Snow." Ley jumped in, "We won't tell your boss." Snow Cone breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank you-" She shook her head, "Anyways..." The carts began sliding along the floor, moving out of the way for a pair of cabinets to open, revealing a wine rack, cushioned with a velvet interior. Several came floating out drifting in front of Snow as she spoke again. "Master Origami wanted you all to pick the night's wine before I set out the table." "If I may, Iris, and sorry for interrupting you again." "Go ahead boss mare, ask away." "I can't help but notice... When you fell, and when Immersion shook your... paw, at the time, with magic, you were very clear about his aura and the color. Yet, when referring to Snow Cone, you didn't even mention her horn glowing." "I didn't." "..." "Is there a reason for that?" "Not one that I know. She didn't have an aura. Maybe her aura was just clear, or maybe she was one of those psyche ponies from up top." "Psychic ponies are a myth, only griffon's can manipulate forces like that." "Hey, remember who asked who?" "Fair enough, please continue." "Right... where was I?" "I don't drink wine." The hulking brown pony responded. "Nor do I." Said Immersion "I'm trying to watch my figure." Said Wave. "I'm allergic to some fermentation chemicals." Ley said. "I'm sixteen." Came Wire's snark. All eyes turned towards Bullseye. Including Snow's, who was becoming once again, increasingly nervous as they all subtly declined choosing. "Hell-" She shrugged, "I can still choose wine, I'll appreciate it, but I ain't gonna drink it." She stepped forwards, holding out a paw. "What do you have?" Snow looked grateful and Wave interjected, "Well of course. I didn't wish to make it seem like I wouldn't assist you Snow Cone." "I know a bit about wine." Immersion added in. Snow's smile widened, and she projected for them, both to end the conversation and present their options. She lifted the first, "We've got a 1455 red, cherries. A deeper red, 1499 and this was a mix between a leftover batch that got lost in transit when one of the biggest wine company of that age shut down." All of their eyes widened "Hold on, you're talking about the fourteenth century like it's not been seven hundred years since then." Immersion cut in, "How expensive are those wines?" He asked incredulously. "As far as I know, they have no conceivable price." Snow sweetly responded. Everyone shared a look. "You're not lying are you?" "Why would I be lying?" "Embellishing?" "..." "There's no way, even somepony like Origami would have never been able to get his hooves on something like that. That's practically an artefact, something like that should belong in a museum." "Yeah, it would've been impossible... Legally." "Right..." "And if that's what you really think, you probably won't like what I did with it." "Well..." Ley said from Bullseye's side. "Shit." "You can say that again." Said Immersion. Ley spoke again. "Pass me one." Snow did as instructed, and Ley sat back and grabbed the wine bottle as it got close. Wave gasped like she'd just seen someone drive into a building as Ley nonchalantly popped the topper off with a talon. "Ley!" Bullseye shouted in alarm. "That's pricier than you!" She shrugged, "Well if we're gonna drink it-" She took a whiff and her eyes went wide, "Holy shit." Stood up and swung the bottle with her precariously. "Alright, I've never drank wine before, but I've been to enough fancy parties and wine tastings to know what to look for." She kept moving the bottle as she walked three-limbed over to immersion, she handed it to him. "Have a whiff." He took it in his aura, and Bullseye turned to Snow, who was animatedly showing off the other wines to the brown stallion. It was a funny thing to look at. As the shortest pony here, just barely shorter than Wire, she came just eye level with his barrel. The view of her trying to sell a stallion twice her height, probably three times her size, floating bottles of wine was something Bullseye was going to remember for a while. She had something else to focus on though. Specifically, the vial nestled in between her breasts, underneath her dress. Wave had joined in the conversation with Snow, adding in her expertise, which meant nobody was looking as Bullseye quickly pretended to adjust her dress, while using her dexterous fingers to remove the vial and tuck it in her palm. "Poison?" "A magical venom, actually." "Venoms aren't deadly, not even magic ones." "No, but red tracker feathers do a wonder on the immune system, throws it for a loop. A pony as old as Origami? Within a day, he'd get a cold, and that'd just be it for him. Completely untraceable in a dead body." "Where'd you acquire something like that?" "Please, this is the 'criminal underworld' boss mare. I'm a P.I. I get paid in all sorts of ways, by all sorts of people. Where do you think I got the shaping charm?" "You're saying it was a payment?" "A specials request for payment from me, long time ago." "From whom?" "...You don't actually think I'm going to tell you that, do you?" "Do secrets really matter to you now?" "Duh, of course they do. Client privilege. I'm not about to sully my reputation, especially now." "I guess... it's not really the focus of this conversation anyways. Please, if you would." "Darn right it isn't. So..." Bullseye walked up towards the now trio of two ponies and one griffon. Wire was pretending like he wasn't listening, but he was. "It's crazy. Somepony like this, how rich could they reasonably be?" Ley said. Immersion was focused on Bullseye as she walked up. Bullseye was focused on the wine, which had seemingly disappeared. "Hey, where'd the wine go? I want a sniff too." She joked, and the bottle appeared out from under Immersion's coat as he lifted a hoof. His horn lit a moment later, and he levitated it up to her height for her to grab it. "Thanks." She added on, and she lifted it to her nose with both hands. As she held the bottle, she pressed one of the nails at the end of her thick paws into the vial's cork. These fingers sure are useful. Gonna miss 'em. This was going to be close. She'd have to be quick, but messing it up would be far worse than just failing, so somewhere in-between quick and precise. She took a deep inhale while looking between the three ponies. She just had to divert their attention. "Hey Wire?" He looked over at her, just with his eyes. "What kinda stuff did you spot under there? I'm starving." "Treats, mostly. Deserts, candy." He answered wistfully. "Come off it, really?" Immersion asked, "I'm old, I'm gonna need some actual food." "You don't look that old." Verglas joked. Now. Bullseye took a wide step to the side and turned. As soon as her hands were out of the line of sight of the other ponies, she lifted the vial to her fingers and used a quick bit of practiced dexterity to pull the cork out and drop the clear liquid into the wine in a smooth motion. Her turn slowed, and she slipped the vial back into her palm before she came waist to face with Snow Cone. Bullseye's heart leapt into her chest, and she viscerally forced her expression to remain unchanged. "What do you all think of this one?" She asked sweetly. Sweet T's flanks. Bullseye breathed a measured breath of relief and handed the bottle down towards Snow Cone. She tried to keep the adrenaline from her voice as she responded. "Smells great Snow, which one is that?" Snow took a second to look at the floating bottle, "Mmmm... Thirteen, ivory smoked-apple Piedmont. The oldest in the collection." Ley popped up from the side. "Sounds good to me." "Seconded." Immersion added. Wave joined the small circle while the brown stallion stayed where he had sat down on the floor. "Well, if we're going to be sitting at a table with the most expensive wine this side of the world, we might as well choose the most expensive wine." She lifted a hoof towards Snow, "May I?" The bottle floated over to her, and she balanced it on one hoof and took a short inhale near the rim of the bottle. "Oh my, that is divine." She turned and started walking for the door. Nobody was quick enough to stop her, or ask where she was going. "Surely we mustn't wait for it to air, we can set the table now can't we?" "Oh-" Snow started moving up, "Madam Violaceous; wait- if-" "Nonsense darling." Then she stepped through the door. Everyone else was following suit so Bullseye figured they were leaving now. She spared a glance towards the carts, but decided that she'd done enough sleight of hand for the night, and left the tasty treats where they were. Instead, she leaned her head down towards the big stallion as he walked past her and matched his pace. He caught her eye and lifted a hoof as he walked. "Johnson." He said simply, in his deep baritone. She bumped his hoof. "Terri." "Oh!" Came Wave's muffled call from just on the other side of the door. Both Bullseye and Johnson peaked out of the door at the same time, spotting- Origami. The old stallion, he had a checkered suit on over his dark blue fur. His coiffed yellow mane was untouched aside from the product in it. He was gently sitting down at the head of the table as they walked in. Wave was clutching the bottle under her barrel, on her right side, and the moment of surprise passed as Snow Cone jumped into action. "My apologies, Master Origami, I'm sorry I wasn't here to greet you." The bottle slipped away from Wave's grasp. "Please, our esteemed guests, make yourselves at home." Snow took several striding steps up towards Origami, then fell silent. Bullseye shared a glance with Verglas as she split to move towards the other side of the table. All of them moved. Wire was the first to sit, closest to Origami, Bullseye sat down next to him, her longer gait letting her get closer. Immersion took the seat next to her, and across the table, Ley sat down next to Origami, and Johnson, next to Ley. Origami gestured outwards with his hooves after Ley took her seat. "He had this accent, it might be useful placing him. Like Open-Esekerte mixed with Eastbounders. You know the way some ponies talk quiet and clipped like they're running their mouths in one of those old gang violence movies?" "..." "Is this really important Ms. Bullseye?" "Yes." "Continue." "Well... that's it really, he talked all slow like, and intentionally. Something made up, clearly, to cover up a more traditional accent that I couldn't place at the time..." "Now that everyone is seated." Origami looked over the table slowly, his eyes not leaving the center of the table, "Tell me, how were the gardens? They were made to impress. I have to say, I am curious about the first opinions." Wave jumped in almost immediately after he was done talking. Her voice pitched, and she switched from a 'stalks dialect into northern Equish. "Oh they were to die for. You'll have to let me poach your groundskeeper." "No." He said simply, letting a smirk rise to his face as Wave's blathering was brought to a halt. "And I trust my attendant has been undertaking her profession with the grace instructed of her?" Johnson responded, and Bullseye was almost certain the table shook ever so slightly as he spoke. "She has, wowed me for sure." The mare in question was standing to Origami's side, far enough away to be ready to listen to his next command while not close enough to be a distraction. Origami waved her forwards, "Be a dear and set the table, I trust you followed my secondary instructions?" Origami's eyes turned from the front of the table towards Snow. "Yes sir, and I did, Master." She nodded, and spun around all the way and hastily made her way back into the kitchen. Origami watched her leave, and Bullseye ground her teeth. Origami, heedless of Bulleye’s growing desire to kill him early, turned towards Johnson. "Johnson Hammer." Smiled, "It has certainly been a time. I have to say, I'm glad to finally see the respect required of my station." "I'm turning over a new leaf." Johnson replied simply. "And Terri." He lifted his hooves, "A beauty, and a paragon to your beastly kin. It is such a joy to finally find one of your stature and... shall I say, professional talent?" "Princess Twilight... that's... really? He said all that?" "It only really got worse from there birdy, with only what... six sentences? he'd justified me killin' him." "I'm not sure about that..." "I am, and I'm not sorry." sigh "Just carry on." Bullseye let herself fake a smile, pulling off her best 'dumb girl' smile to hopefully avoid having to talk. She only had violent, angry words in her throat at the moment, not something particularly useful in the current situation. He turned towards the rest, in time with his words. "Verglas Ley, the painter from another world, or nearly." He inclined his head, "And Telephone Wire, I've heard a lot about your skills out on the streets." "Come off it oldie. What do you know about me?" He snarked. Wave was about to smack him upside the head when Origami loomed over the table, his tone calm, his inflections unchanged. "I know you're an information broker with faces and names. I know you have connections everywhere. I know your value." He leaned back, and his voice lost some of its edge. "And I demand respect at my table, from all parties, boy." "Yes sir..." Shit... okay... oldie came to play. Bullseye let a paw rest on the table, spreading out the digits as she spoke again, putting on as much 'voice' as she could into her words without verbally snapping. "Sir, I have to ask. I'm curious as to... the amount of attendees? I thought this would be a..." Bullseye cringed internally, "Private meeting?" "Not intentionally." Origami continued with his plastic smile, "Say, where is that servant? I told her to retrieve dinner, did I not?" He looked towards the door, hidden behind the shelf, where Snow Cone had disappeared. "I'm sure she's simply checking all of it for quality." Immersion said diplomatically. "Can't serve anything less than perfection, correct." Origami's smile widened, and his eyes shifted as he looked over Immersion. "Ah, and Immersion. I've only ever heard of you and your work. You've always done me and mine well, I sincerely hope you are enjoying my..." Origami looked back towards the door, "Hospitality." Snow Cone exited, the doors invisibly opening in front of her, trailing the carts and the single wine bottle behind her. "That's when it started raining, just a few trickles at first. It really set the mood while Snow Cone was setting the table." "I get the feeling that's also important?" "Nah, ha. I'm just checking to see if you were payin' attention." "Iris, please." "What? Can't I have some fun?" "To switch gears, I get the feeling the conversation at the table was... dead. To put it plainly?" "It's like I said, the message in Terri's invitation implied... It didn't say outright, mind you, but it heavily implied that this would be a solo meeting. All the ponies there... Maybe aside from Wave and Snow, knew what something like that meant. Something was up, that much was obvious." "And?" "And what? Something was up! It always is with stuff like this. That's my point boss mare, nobody gets to where all of us were without a little bit of suspicion, and we were all feeling it. At the time, I just figured it was... well I figured that it was just Origami playing games. Obviously, an old, rich stallion like that has to get off somehow, messing with people is good enough I suppose." With food in front of her, Bullseye made the effort to eat. Origami had already started, and the sound of rain mixed with utensil scraping against the ceramic plates, and Snow darting around the table to levitate Origami whatever he wanted before he asked for it. Bullseye had to admit, the amount of food Telephone Wire was capable of eating was impressive, especially at such speed, and with little noise. With everything moving, and the conversation well and truly dead, it was only a matter of time before Origami looked to the wine. Unlike the majority of the things she did, for lifting up the wine, Snow Cone hesitated, and then steadied herself. Origami raised an eyebrow, clearly impatient. "Well?" "I'm sorry Master Origami." Snow's mane adjusted itself, and the bottle flew down the length of the table before uncorking itself and upturning it into his wine glass. The glass came up to meet it, lowering the amount of froth created by the drink. Snow set everything back down, and the crystal wine glass went to Origami's outstretched hoof. He continued to lazily glare at her. All eyes were subtly on Origami. Bullseye was making the effort to look away, but he had it. It was in his hoof. One sip, and all of this was worth it. It'd be over, she'd finally get her revenge for what he did to her father. ... Terri's face slipped for a moment, expressing some surprise into a tray of green beans. Revenge? That's not what I'm here for. "Snow Cone, you're such a disappointment." Origami flippantly groaned. Bullseye watched with a rising heart rate as Origami put the glass down and sighed heavily. No... He leaned over the table in mock confusion, apparently still wondering why Snow Cone wasn't doing what he hadn't clarified for her yet. Snow Cone wilted. "Yes sir..." "Now hold on now." Johnson half stood, which looked more like he had spontaneously chosen to loom over the table, due to his size. "What's the matter, Sir? She ain't been doing nothing but taking good care of the table this whole time." Origami scoffed, "She's sullying my name is what." He turned towards her, "I ought to have you replaced. Really, how difficult is it to pour out six more glasses of wine?" He near drawled, in an old accent, filled with lilts and enunciations in just the right place. "I'm sorry Master." Snow Cone didn't wilt anymore, she simply stayed in place with her ears folded and her gaze turned towards the floor. "Sir Origami, I do believe there's been a misunderstanding." Wave interjected, "Snow Cone asked all of us long before you arrived of our preferences." Origami's head pulled back, and he asked in disbelief, "So she did something right?" "Yes Sir." Wave responded simply. Her purple mane moved with her head as she nodded. "It just so happens that none of us drink, I'm watching my figure, Telephone Wire is far too young, Johnson is an athlete, and so on." "Ridiculous." Origami postured, turning towards Bullseye. Bullseye had to avert her gaze from the wine glass sitting in front of Origami, her focus having drifted to it. "You, you drink wine. you must." Came as a question, definitely, veiled as an attempt to misdirect his mistake. "No sir, I've never been able to pallet wine." "Ugh, Dogs, no wonder your species is so culturally inept." He turned towards Verglas, "And you?" "Allergic, Sir." Verglas responded in a clipped tone, reaching down to take a bite from her fork to avoid having to speak on the topic further. Origami mulled over the words for a moment. Snow Cone drew his attention as he spoke, "I still asked them, as you demanded of me, Master. They all wished you to have the best wine, even if they wouldn't be partaking." "Well you still, should have poured them glasses." He grumbled, "It's not about them drinking. It's about respect, stupid girl." Bullseye felt Johnson flex the table. A board her leg was pressed up against running lengthwise of the table strained. So you hate that too. Good to know. She had to restrain a gasp as Origami lifted the glass in his hoof again. He sighed as he brought the glass to his lips, then pulled it away again. Bullseye's eye bugged out as she continued to desperately try to focus on anything other than how close she was to completing her mission. "It's so hard to find good help nowadays." He said aloud, melancholic. Drink the poison you piece of- Then he took a sip. It didn't feel like an explosion of success. All of the tension drained from Bullseye's current canine body. The rain continued to fall outside, and Bullseye let out a silent breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Wait. Stop." "What?" "You actually succeeded?" "Would you shut up and let her talk?" "..." "Yeah, what she said." Origami made a face. The glass came back up to his lips. The fluid in his mouth drained back into the cup. Everyone was already watching, so they saw the 'dinner table' faux pas that was spitting out something without a napkin, or an extremely good reason. Origami leered, out at all the eyes looking at him, and his previous action. "Poison." He said simply. "I can't really describe the sensation. Really, having been caught. Especially after I thought I'd done it." "I don't think you need to." "It felt like watching a cake flip over. Like you've got a whole meal in front of you, hours of cooking, and you just pick up the plate wrong and then it goes all over the floor. Except then the floor points a CTT-Nineteen at your head. I was scared, pissed, and definitely up shit-creek by definition." "You're having a lot of fun messing with us, aren't you?" "Anyways..." "Excuse me?" Wave said, leaning over the table, her voice pitching up. Origami pressed his front hooves together, keeping his posture pristine, as he turned to Snow Cone. "I guess I should have had you..." He breathed, "Replaced." Snow Cone's eyes went wide, and Bullseye knew the look of a mare who was about to run. The maid's hooves stayed glued to the floor, however, they were clearly shaking. He thinks it was her. Suddenly, Bullseye's mind churned. First and foremost, how could he have tasted the venom? It had no flavor, how could it have gone so wrong so quickly? Now a life was on the line, and it wasn't hers, nor Origami. That was her fault. Bullseye had to do something, so she did. She stood up, letting one of her large hands rest on the low table. "Sir, what are you saying?" She led with a paw, "Are you saying Snow Cone..." She feigned concern, innocence, probably not very well. "Snow Cone tried to poison you?" "Tried." He clarified, still glaring daggers at the maid. "Is the keyword, yes." "Now hold on a second." Johnson also stood. "Anyone of us coulda' poisoned that, you can't be certain it was the lady." Origami's brow furrowed, "That's preposterous. How could any of you have the chance to? She was the only one who manipulated the bottle. It explains why she took so long too." He pointed an accusatory hoof at Snow. "I-" Snow Cone tried, but she was shaking too much. Verglas came to her rescue, saying what Bullseye was about to. "Snow Cone showed us all the wines, as you instructed sir. We all handled the bottle." At the same time, Verglas looked around the table. Those eyes marked all the other creatures, eventually settling on Bullseye, the eyes of a predator, trying to figure out how to get its talons around its next kill. Shit-shit-shit-shit-sh Wire said something to her side, Snow Cone kept trying to get something out of her mouth. Origami was staring on with barely contained aggression while struggling to regain control of the table vocally. Verglas had already accused Johnson. Immersion and Bullseye were the only two ponies not adding to the sudden cacophony. "Except for Wire and Johnson, that is." Wave clarified, calling over the chatter. Bullseye looked at Johnson, who briefly met her own gaze with a steely look before turning back to Verglas, who had finished her spiel that nobody listened to. Shit-shit-shit-shit-shhhhhhhhhhhh Was all that was running through Bullseye's head. Origami roughly pushed himself away from the table. The chatter stopped, and everyone looked towards him as he stood. "I have never been so disrespected in my own home." He sneered. "Here's what's going to happen." He took several steps backwards. "I have all of your names and faces. If any of you run, the police will come after you. You have until morning to figure out who the..." He looked towards Snow, still backing up. "Culprit. Is. If you can't, the police will simply arrest all of you; you'll all spend the rest of your lives in prison." Origami opened the double wooden doors behind him, and left. Just as the door closed, the rumble and flash of thunder and lightning signaled the true start of the storm. Chapter Two: Hallway Horrifics "So there we were. All of us suddenly pit against each other. Obviously, I still had a chance to catch up with him, but I knew what that would have looked like." "So... from there on, you just gave up?" "Ay. Listen birdy. I'm not proud of it, but sometimes you've just gotta know when to bail. It was more important that I get the fuck outta there so I could get the chance to try again." "So you had to pin it on somebody else?" "If that's the case, why would you have tried to draw suspicion away from Snow Cone?" "Well I'll tells ya." The doors slammed shut, and the lightning flashed. Everyone looked back and forth between themselves. Verglas Ley was the one to break the silence. "Well then." She said, sitting back into her cushion. "There's a killer among us. Anyone feel like volunteering?" Telephone Wire put his hoof up, along with a smart-alec smile. Several eyes were rolled. "There's 'ah point to be made." Johnson said, "Me or the kid never touched the bottle." "Yeah?" Verglas sarcastically asked back, "Well how can we be sure? I mean, is anyone certain? Did anyone here have their eyes on the bottle the whole time?" There were more looks shared between everyone. Bullseye was desperately trying to put the pieces together. She was an investigator, not an actor, not a crime scene 'maker-upper'. "Well it wasn't me." Violaceous claimed, a hoof to her chest, and nose in the air. "What about when you left the kitchen?" Verglas postured. Bullseye latched onto that, calmly, and pretending to be considering her words as she spoke them. "Hey... yeah... you took the bottle right from Snow Cone, and then you walked out. None of us could see you." Wave scoffed and waved her hoof, "Origami was in the room, do you really think I would have tried to poison his wine right in front of him?" Snow Cone piped up quietly, taking a few steps forwards and resting a hoof on the table. "Origami is old, he has bad eyesight. It's possible..." She didn't wilt under Wave's glare, just continued looking around at the placements where everyone sat or stood. The comments were getting quicker, the tension was growing, and suddenly the focus was directed to Bullseye. "And what about you?" Immersion said, looking towards Bullseye, "When you took the wine bottle from me, you turned around... oddly." "That was because I heard Snow Cone walking up behind me." Bullseye responded immediately, then flapped her ears, "I've got a wider range of hearing than you." Snow Cone nodded, and Immersion let his eyebrow raise. Bullseye pointed back at him, "And what about how you were hiding that wine bottle beneath your cloak? What else could you be keeping under there?" "That's enough." The base rumble of Johnson was accompanied by another flash of lightning from outside. "Yall've established that it could'a been any of us. There's no point arguing over it." "Well then what do we do?" Snow Cone said, "I-" She shook slightly, "I can't go to prison..." She was still shaken up. "And that's fair, in my opinion. The poor girl... She's not a hardened mare like me, she'd probably never been so stressed before. I can't imagine what kinda tale she was spinnin' in her head about what was gonna happen to her moments before." "I'm lost." "How so?" "Origami is dead." "That's right." "How? He left, didn't he? How could he have gotten killed?" "Well, there was still time to catch up with 'im. He's old you see. The way I figured it, whoever came here to kill him... well... me, that is, wasn't gonna give up so easily, but I couldn't just make it look like I was all rearing to go wandering about, lookin' for him. That's what I would've been looking for in a suspect." "You needed to act suspicious of all the other people. You needed someone else to suggest splitting up so you could get the chance to find Origami again. That's why you alleviated the blame from Snow Cone." "You're smarter than you look bossmare. If I had just wiped my hooves of the whole thing and threw her under the bus, then I wouldn't've gotten my second shot. All of them were lookin' for someone now, and if I wasn't crazy careful to fly under the radar, I was as good as got." "I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around how any of that happened though." "Well, your partner there hit it right on the head. I needed someone else to suggest movin', and luckily..." Violaceous tapped her hoof on the table next to Snow's. "Whel- I don't think any of us truly believe that Snow Cone was capable of attempted murder, do we?" There were several shakes. Despite Bullseye not wanting to cut off a potential scapegoat, she went along with it. Immersion on the other hand, merely narrowed his eyes as Violaceous continued. She did what noble mares did, with her upturned nose, her sneer, and her haughty voice. "I'm not standing around in a room with a murderer. I know I had nothing to do with this, and neither does Snow. So we'll be finding somewhere to rest, while the rest of you bicker amongst yourselves and figure it out." "Now hold on a second." Johnson rumbled, stopping the purple mare's advance to the door. "How can we trust you?" "How can we trust you?" She shot back. "Both of you stop it." Came Verglas' voice. "I could use some air myself, if we all pair up, anybody who..." She side eyed Bullseye, "Slips away or gets hurt? We'll know who the poisoner is. It's that simple." "Safety in numbers." Bullseye agreed. "Yeah sure." Telephone Wire pushed himself away from the table and got up, moving towards the kitchen. "I'm going to stay here. All of you's can wander about to your content. I don't care about going to prison." "What?" Snow Cone asked, genuinely confused, and still worked up. Telephone wire kept talking as he walked to the kitchen, "It's not like it would've been my first go." Then he stepped inside, and it was just the six of them left. They looked at each other. Verglas was the first to break the silence again. "Me and Terri, we'll go see if we can find Origami, talk to him, see if we can sort this out. He can't have left yet." She turned to Snow, "Where would we find him?" "Oh-uhm" Snow turned away from Ley's gaze. "I don't know if I should say..." "That's okay." Bullseye interrupted Ley's opening beak. "We'll go looking for him ourselves." "I could stretch my legs." Johnson said, standing up, he looked to Immersion, who matched his look and stood up too. Verglas clarified for them all, counting up to two on her talon for each pair. "Then it's me and Terri, Immersion and John, is it okay if I call you John?" He nodded, "Immersion and John, and Ms. Wave and Snow Cone." "And Telephone Wire is going to stay in the kitchens." Snow Cone added, as Immersion and Johnson were already heading for the far door, opposite the one Origami had left from. Violaceous was already dragging Snow Cone by the hoof towards the door Origami had left out of as Bullseye and Verglas Ley locked eyes. There was silence between the two as all the doors closed, and the hoof steps faded out under the sounds of rain hitting the windows and wind jiggling the shutters. Both of them sighed at the same time. Bullseye managed a small smile, "This is gonna be a long night, isn't it?" Verglas just shook her head while matching, maybe unwillingly, Terri's tiny-tired smile. "Let's get moving on. We've got to catch him before he leaves the grounds." "And just like that, the chase was on again." "That's... too lucky. Something's up wi- What are you smiling about?" "Ya know, I am having a bit too much fun with this." "If you could take this seriously-" "Nah, that's what happens you know? When you tempt a mare with a good time." "Miss Bullseye, please." "..." "Whatever... You're right, by the way. Something was going on. You gotta remember, magical crime fell outta fashion ages ago because of all them magi-teck-dodads y'all tote 'round." "You're saying there was foul magic at play?" "Well... yeah? I mean, I was already disguised as someone I wasn't. Stealing a face isn't exactly smiled upon." "I think we're getting off track again." "Yeah, yeah. So me and Ley, right? We head out the doors and we're wandering around for a bit. Nothin' between us. Not that I minded. Just the rain and some walking. That is, until..." Both Verglas and Bullseye, in disguise, were walking along quietly through the cookie cutter halls of the mansion. It was the same table, with the same similarly looking plant every corner, and Bullseye would have sworn they were going in circles if it weren't for the occasional window marking their progress. They'd found a flight of stairs leading up, but elected to ignore it. If Origami was leaving, he wouldn't bother doing it from anywhere other than the ground floor. "So did you do it?" Verglas asked out of the blue. "What?" Bullseye mentally recoiled for a second, "No. Of course not." Verglas sent her a look that said 'I'm unconvinced.' "Look." Bullseye tried, clasping her paws in front of herself. It was strange, being able to articulate both your front limbs while walking. Though she couldn't say she hated it. "What do I stand to gain from killing him? I wanna catch whomever just as much as you do. Origami was my ticket out of this waste bin of a world." She finished off, sullenly, selling the look by folding her ears down over her head. If puppies could do it, so could she. "Yeah... well..." Verglas was still clearly unconvinced. "I can't prove it to you, okay?" Time to try a different method. "But at the very least, you can trust me not to pull something now." Verglas half rolled her eyes and inclined her head. "I guess that's fair." "Here's my reverse ask-" Bullseye turned down to the griffon, "Did you do it?" "Heh, when would I have?" She asked back "I wasn't paying attention, could have been any time." Bullseye raised her eyebrow, "That, and there was a distinct lack of people talking about you when it all kicked off. You were doing most of the talking, if I remember correctly." She pursed her beak, and raised an eyebrow in a mix of pride and amusement. Something Bullseye didn't catch properly. "I'll admit to doing that on purpose, however suspicious that sounds-" She waved a claw, "But I didn't want to risk all the hooves suddenly pointing at the griffon, if you know what I mean." "Yeah. I do. And hey, seriously Ley, I've got your back." And that wasn't a lie. The griffon wasn't a bad bird, none of those ponies were. Despite Bullseye's intent to violently break the law, and the willingness to try again after failing the first time. Despite Bullseye's general disregard for the law when figured there was something she wanted, or something she had to do for the job... The only one she wanted to see hurt was Origami, no one else. Verglas lifted up a claw for a bump as a bolt of lightning struck somewhere outside, letting out a burst of light from a window around the corner. Both of them waited for the thunder to stop reverberating, and Bullseye met the fist bump with her own clenched paw. "I'll keep that in mind, and I'll make sure none of those ponies try to take you out either." "You really think..." Bullseye cut herself off, pretending to stumble over her words, "You think one of those ponies is the killing type?" "I had my eyes on Johnson." She ruffled her wings, "I know a bit about musculature, being an artist and all. He's no body builder. He's built for combat, weight, leverage, strength. I wouldn't be surprised if he could pop my wings off, the point is, why would someone like him be here. Of everyone at that table, he stuck out the most." She started counting off on her talon, "I can understand: an artist, a crooked cop, an information rat, a whore-no offense, and a noble mare, but what is... what is he here for?" Bullseye's brow furrowed. What is he here for? It was a strikingly good point. More and more... This was starting to make less sense. Call her paranoid, say it was just the stress, but beneath her disguise, she could feel her cutie mark tingling. She was missing something. "And that's when the lights went out. You don't expect them to, because of how the magical mix of electrical flame kept everything eerie, but lit well, but all at once, every little flame, every recessed glow gem went out." Pitch black. There was the sound of an electrical hum revving down, just after. Bullseye struggled to maintain her balance without any visibility, and there was truly no visibility. The disguise was just a disguise. It only affected her senses to the point where she could move and function properly, it didn't give her the skilled nose of a dog, or the vague night vision that some of them have. She still had earth pony eyes, and she couldn't see fuck-all with them. "Shit. Ley, you good?" "What just happened?" "The lights went out?" Bullseye asked back, confused, as what happened was obvious. There was a grumble, "No. I mean, why did they go out?" "Lightning must of hit something important." There was a click, and the hallway was barely illuminated by the beam of a flashlight. Now with minimal light reaching her eyes, she could make out the shape of Ley from behind the flashlight. The talon was clearly visible, with the red glow coming around from the back of the flashlight lens. "Where'd you get that?" Bullseye asked, seriously surprised. Verglas wasn't wearing anything, and she didn't have a mane like a pony. Where the hell did a whole flashlight come from? When no response came, Bullseye asked again, scooching slowly close to Ley so as to not spook her in the dark. "Ley? You good?" "Shut up Terri." "He-" "Shut the fuck up right now." Bullseye shut up, and felt a talon wrap around her paw. She leaned down as it tugged her closer to the floor. The flashlight pointed down the hallway, illuminating just far enough to see the far wall. Without the signal masking from the electric hum, the rain was far more audible, as was the rolling thunder from lightning too far off in the distance for them to see the flash. "Listen." Ley whispered. Bullseye strained her ears. She heard it. Thumping. Hoof steps. Aggressive thumping. Trotting or galloping, heavy hoof steps. Heavy hoof steps that were steadily, quickly getting louder. Bullseye's adrenaline was already pumping, her hackles had risen as soon as the lights had gone off. Ley's warning had flipped on her honed survival instincts, and now? Fight or flight had just triggered. Bullseye may not be a predator like Ley, but she knew. Whomever those hoof falls belonged to, they were coming to hurt them. She felt it in her bones. "Time to go." Bullseye whispered back. She leaned up again, and pulled on Verglas' opposite talon. She was already moving, tugging and pulling on Verglas to match her deeper stride. Verglas hissed back while trying to keep pace, "Where?" Bullseye spoke quickly, just as quickly as she was trying to move. She spoke quietly, but it was still nearly a shout reaching up to a normal indoor voice. Those hoof falls were getting louder fast. "Back towards the others, we'll-" Verglas gasped. "RUN!" The talon slipped free from Bullseye's paw, and the gust of feathers scooping up the air caught along with the flash of light from the hand-held lamp in her eyes as Bullseye spun around to see what Verglas had suddenly decided to fly away from. She caught the glimpse of a mask holding back a mane. A pony face, a heavy coat, and a wooden bludgeon tinted a deeper brown with blood. She'd never run in this body before, much less sprinted. The lack of experience didn't stop her, not after the thing screeched. She ran as hard as she could. On two legs, there wasn't any kind of high speed she could pull off, it was all about bouncing forwards after falling. What it did mean is she had far more mobility, there was a corner coming up, she could tell from the vague flashing outline provided by Ley's retreating form. She went straight, Bullseye waited until the last possible second to twist on her legs and dip to the side. She crashed into the wall, stumbling onto her stomach and scrambling her paws across the surface of the wooden floor for purchase. For a split second, she was a pony again, running on all fours from something bigger and scarier than she was, running for her life. Then she was back onto her back legs again, lumbering at a dead sprint as fast as she could. She still couldn't see anything, not without Ley. She was simply hoping that the hallway went on straight forwards long enough for her to get away. Eventually, she stopped dead and held her breath. Her bottom paws slid, and she had to reach out into the dark for a wall to stabilize herself. She kept holding her breath, even as her brain screamed for air, and her lungs tried to claw up out of her mouth. She listened over the rain. No hoof falls. No steps. Just rain. She gasped, and let the air flow into her. "What the fuck-" She panted, "-the fuck was that. What the fuck." She slid down the corner she had grabbed onto, sitting down and letting her dress fold up on her. Her scarf was long gone. Lost in the scramble to get away, probably when she ran into the wall. She could already feel the nasty bruise forming on her breast and face from where she clipped it. "I just sat there. Catching my breath. I'ma be honest with you bossmare, I lost my cool, you don't get chased in a pitch black hallway by a masked pony with a bloody cudgel and keep your cool." "That... Must have been..." "You can say it. Big mares talk about their boo-boos." "Traumatic." "You see stuff like that... down here, doesn't make it better that I'm used to it though." "This is probably going to sound insensitive, but I have to ask the glaring question." "Go ahead birdbrain." "...Did you kill Origami?" "..." "You've been talking about it like it was a sure thing. Except... Your attempt to poison him failed, and now... if you're not lying, that is, your story is that a pony chased you through the halls, with the intent to kill. Did they get to Origami? Is that why you couldn't find him?" "..." "You're right." "I am?" "Yeah, that was completely insensitive." "Miss Bullseye, we're here to solve the case, an-" "And if you wanna know wh- Sorry. If you want to know what happened, you're gonna have to hear the full story. It won't make sense otherwise, and... it ain't right to leave out certain bits. Those bits need context, so I might as well tell the whole thing." "We're not against that." "And I'm not against you asking questions." "..." "..." "Well, I'm glad we could come to an agreement... could you-" "Yeah, so... where was I-? Yeah, I had just slumped down like a sack of potatoes..." "Fuck it All." She whispered to herself. Still in the midst of catching her breath. She had to get up. She had to find Ley. I just fucking left her, I left her to get killed. Was Ley going to die? Unlikely, catching a griffon, even indoors, while in flight? And while you were on hoof? It was likely to be impossible. Though... They could have been a pegasus. Bullseye only caught a glimpse, enough to be sure they were a pony, but nothing else. I still left her. I told her I had her back an- It wasn't Bullseye's fault. The instinct to dodge just came to her. It was a snap decision in an emergency that worked. "Okay Bulls-" She cut herself off. "Terri. You can do this Terri. Get up." A beat passed. "Get. Up." She hauled herself up. Standing was different as a Diamond Dog. She didn't pay a lot of attention to it, she just strained her eyes to search through the darkness. Still pitch black. She had no idea where she was, no idea where to go. More importantly, she was alone. I need to find a window. "I'll spare you the details of me stumbling around in the dark and jumping at every noise until some of that lightning led me to a window. Honestly, I-" "Miss Bullseye..." "...Yeah?" "Do you need a break? We can stop... If you'd like?" "Pfft, what'd make you figu-" "Your hooves are shaking." "..." "..." "It's okay." "Nah-yeah, I know tha- I mean- I jus-" "Mi-" "Shut up for a second. I'm sorry, just... thinking about Ley... I guess I'm still a bit shaken up." "..." "I know I'm saying this to a criminal, and geez, who thought I'd be in this position? But it's okay. You're... safe now?" "..." "..." "Wow." "..." "I know." "I don't think I've ever seen someone fail so drastically to comfort somebody else." "I know! Like, what was that shit?" "Ugh- Fine, I get it, I'll just shut my beak." "Uh-huh. Anyways-" "You were at a window?" "Ah yeah- So I went stumbling around until the lightning led me to one of the inside walls..." Bullseye found herself staring at an open air garden. Outside. The mansion was apparently a large ring, with trees, shrubbery, and what looked like a small shack sitting in the middle. Probably a tool shack... From the ground floor, she had a path around, but she didn't know exactly which side she had come from. So it was back to wandering. There were no landmarks inside the structure, and Bullseye wasn't about to call out to anyone who may be nearby. That's when the screaming started. It started off pitched, surprised. Then it mixed into pain, and got louder. Bullseye was an older mare, she had the experience to recognize the age of the scream. It was Telephone Wire. There was no doubt in her mind, nopony else would have been able to scream like that. She ran, shortly bouncing off a wall as she picked a direction. Both because something had to be done, and because now, she suddenly had a heading. If Wire was near the kitchen, then they were near the door. She could hear his voice echoing from close by. Please-please-please-please She just hoped it was close enough. There was still barely enough light to tell when she passed through another junction. It was the sound of the scream that let her know she'd just passed it. The sudden oscillation meant she'd gotten closer, then farther, so she spun around for the edge of the wall, slamming a paw against it and quickly tracing it to the corner. Then the screaming stopped. "No!" Bullseye started running again. Her heart resisted, like if you were sticking your hoof into the garbage disposal. Her adrenaline filled muscles saw the dark, in the direction of screaming and said 'danger.' but she kept running. "Kid!" She kept her paw on the wall, hoping to find an indent. A door. Anything. "Kid! Talk to me!" Her paw brushed over an indent. She slammed down on it, and it gave slightly. The next second, she found a door handle and threw it open. "Wire!" Nothing. Empty room. Or he was already dead. She kept down the hallway, moving slow enough to feel the doors as she came up to them. Each door she passed yielded another series of bangs, and- "EAE-A-A-H-" Bullseye's entire body twisted on reflex, nearly painfully, and she leapt across the hallway and bodily slammed into the wall. She heard him. He was right here. Less than fifty meters away. She had a chance. There was a door. She hit it. "KID!?" Choking. The sounds of somepony dying. This was it. The door was locked, of course. Her limbs came down on the knob, but it was made out of metal. So she threw her shoulder into the door, but it didn't budge. She kicked at it, but her legs weren't designed for bucking at the moment. "HOLD ON KID!" She threw herself into the door again. There may have been blood, it sure felt like it, the bruising and slamming could hurt hurt all they liked. He was dying. She could hear him dying. "DAMNIT" Two more punches, two more reverberating shocks up the arms and into her back. "FUCK YOU! YOU BASTARD, LET HIM GO!" Two more kicks, more like pawing at the door uselessly. She took four rough steps backwards, nearly swaying, then screamed a battle cry as she sprinted across the tiny distance, lowered herself down, and launched herself into the door. Something gave. A bolt, a board, a hinge. The force knocked something loose, she felt it in the reverberating impact. The door was still in place, but it was working. She still had a chance. Three more backwards steps, and she threw herself into the door again with just as much force. It rattled in its hinges, the wood frame creaked, and then Bullseye caught the orange horn glow of Immersion as he turned the corner. "MOVE." He yelled, deeper than Bullseye expected. Normally, Bullseye would have fucking not done that, but the only other illuminated object, besides his horn, was a solid black-cast iron six shooter. Bullseye, already stumbling back from the door, made space for Immersion to come skidding to a stop in front of the door. He pressed the barrel of the gun nearly into the crevice where the knob met the wall and fired off two shots before kicking with his leg in a practiced breaching sequence. Bullseye was only an instant, behind him as they both shoved their way into the room. "Telephone Wire!" - "Kid!" "..." "..." "..." Telephone Wire was near one of the walls. It was a bedroom, of some sort. Filled with the same kind of unnoticeable furniture as the rest of the building. Behind him was what looked like a load bearing wooden pillar, running up the wall. Illuminated by the orange glow of Immersion's horn. The colt's two front hooves were nailed into the ground. There was flesh and bone open to the air. His head was stretched upwards, suspended by the thick corded telephone wire wound around one of the beams in the ceiling. He had been nailed to the ground, and then hung. Chapter Three: Losing Life "I vomited. After I saw... I..." "... I'm not surprised." "I feel like vomiting right now." "I wish I had the... I wish I could vomit right now. Not hungry... I guess." "..." "I don't...?" "..." "What? What were you gonna say?" "Nothing. I'm just gonna shut up and let you tell your story." "..." "... Thank you... Uh... what was your name again?" "Gerald." "Thank you, Gerald." Bullseye was catching her breath outside the door. She'd just puked a stream somewhere on the floor behind her, and was barely standing, a paw gripping the door frame as she fought off the spontaneous shivering fit she had tearing up her shoulders. She was cold when she definitely shouldn't've been. Open mouth breathing, even through the stomach acid still staining her face and mouth. She was just blankly staring out into the hallway, barely orange from Immersion. He was still in the room. She could hear him shuffling about. Aside from the rain, that was the only thing she could hear. Why can I hear rain, two floors down, from the center of the structure? She continued huffing, but looked up, where she could barely see the ceiling. The shadows danced along the beams, now with some light to dance to. Bullseye stood up a bit straighter and used her opposite limb to wipe her mouth. She turned, and saw Immersion had taken down the wire, and pulled up the nails. Telephone was laying on his side. Immersion stood over him, a stray hoof inspecting the fur on his neck. Bullseye took a step into the room, intent on getting either an answer, or Immersion to respect the dead. "What are you-" "Hello! Help!" Immersion's ears perked, having heard the same thing she did. "Help! She's hurt!" Immersion looked at Bullseye, "Is that Snow Cone?" "Sure sounds like it." Bullseye looked at Telephone Wire as Immersion stepped away. "He's dead." He said, filling the phrase with finality intentionally. "We can't do anything for him. Let's go." Immersion pushed through the doorway, leaving Bullseye to step backwards into the hall and watch him turn to leave towards the sound of Snow's voice. Bullseye took a shaky breath and quietly closed the door as she followed after him. The hallway was measurably easier to traverse with horn light, even if it tinted everything around it. Finally being able to see would have calmed Bullseye's racing heart, steadied her rough breathing if she couldn't hear Snow Cone calling for help. Immersion wasn't running. Sure, he was moving, but trotting steps were measured and specific. At each turn, he pointed the light from his horn down each hallway before continuing on. He's a professional... That comment about him being a cop? Seemed more like detective at this point. "Somebody help!" Immersion sped up. Bullseye kept the pace until they rounded a corner towards what Bullseye recognized again as the dining room, with white light coming from underneath the door. Both of them entered without waiting. Floating boules of white magic floated around in the air around Snow Cone, casting the room in a static tint that mixed with Immersion's orange. It would have been pretty if not for the body Snow was cradling in her hooves. Immersion responded first, totting around the table. "What happened?" Bullseye seemed fit to let him have this one. She was far more shaken than he was, apparently. Just... take the backseat and calm down. Snow Cone looked ragged, she still had a few tears on her muzzle, but she let Violaceus go and stepped away. "She-something came out of the dark. She's-she's hurt really bad." The poor mare was taking it far worse than Bullseye was, and she hadn't seen a pony get nailed to the floor. Wave was dead from an impact wound to the back of her head. At a glance, Bullseye could just tell. You don't get very far in her line of work without picking up a few simple skills like that. Immersion apparently did too, after a simple inspection under the part of her mane where the blood was seeping out. "She's dead." He said simply, looking up and quickly glancing around the room. "W-wh-" Snow Cone stuttered. "What? No! She-" Immersion shook his head. "She's older than she looks. Some kind of treatment probably. It was probably half the impact, half the fall, but she's definitely dead." Snow Cone dropped onto her flanks and the tears started flowing again. "No..." She said quietly. "I-" A shake wracked her body. "She can't be..." Bullseye took a few steps over and sat down with the mare. She didn't lean into any contact, but Bullseye still felt the need to be there. Immersion turned back towards the body. "There's good news though." His horn lit, and Wave's mane lifted in his aura. "With a blooded impact wound, I can trace the murder weapon. We can find this bastard." Snow Cone's shaking increased, but the tears stopped. Bullseye's brow furrowed. Immersion did some magic, a flash and a twirl from his horn, and then a lamp shone orange like it was made of one of those glowy drinks. Immersion didn't waste any time lifting it off from the inconspicuous counter it was on, to find the blood underneath it. Bullseye stood again, and took a single step away from Snow Cone. "Who puts the murder weapon back on the table?" "Somepony who had the time to." Immersion said in subtle agreement as his face creased with focus and his horn exploded with light again. Waves of magic flowed like nearly invisible waves around the lamp stick, before spontaneously cutting back to simple levitation. He's not just a detective, he's a proper mage. He drew his pistol and pointed it at Snow Cone. "Do you want to explain why this is covered in your aura?" "WHAT?" "The submissive maid? Are you kidding me?" "Shut up for a second, there's more." "I-" Snow Cone shook again, and whatever she tried to say was cut off by a choked sob. "Something came out of the dark? In far reaching light like this? Something? Snow Cone?" The pistol levitated forwards, and Immersion intelligently kept his distance. Bullseye stepped in-between the pistol and Snow Cone. Immersion sent her a look, but she just lifted her paw. She still couldn't believe it. It still didn't make sense. Her cutie mark was itching something fierce. She was till missing something. She turned toward the maid and offered a paw. "Snow Cone." The maid looked up at her, still cringing and shying away. She thinks... Bullseye knelt down. "Snow, I'm not gonna hurt you. At worst, you're gonna go to prison." That got the blubbering started again. Damnit Bullseye, prison? That's the best you can come up with? "I-I-I-di-" A hiccup. "Didn't mean- She just... I-" More tears. "It-it- Accident. I didn't-" A huff and more tears. Bullseye reached out for Snow Cone's mane and gave it a gentle pat. It seemed to help. "She found out." Snow choked. "I didn't mean to hit her so hard." Her hooves came up to Bullseye's paw and gripped it like a life line. "You have to belie-" another hiccup "-eve me. I'm sorry-I didn't mean to." Bullseye inched forwards in her kneel and hugged the mare. Fuck. That was an admittance. Snow Cone had murdered Violaceus Wave. This whole situation is fucked. "I'm-I'm so-rry!" Once Bullseye had initiated the hug, Snow had reciprocated like it was the last thing she was ever going to do. "I just wanna go home!" She continued to cry, "I wanna see my filly again!" Immersion snorted, "Then you shou-" Hoof steps. Multiple, and incoming. "That's when I figured out the first part of the puzzle. Snow Cone wasn't the killer." "She... she wasn't?" "She did literally kill someone." "She did, but she said it was an accident, and I was inclined to believe her. That, and if she was the cudgel wielding maniac from before, why use a lamp to kill Wave? And why stick around after the fact? Wave's death was just that, an accident, and as soon as I heard those approaching hooves, I was reminded of the actual danger." "... If that's true, it still begs the question of why Wave was killed." "..." "..." "What's that look?" "Yeah-uh- I may have forgotten about that part? In the moment?" "What?" "How coul-" "The oncoming ponies! There were things happening and I got distracted!" Bullseye let go of Snow Cone and stood up. "Stay behind me." Then she turned to Immersion. "How many left?" His eyes remained narrowed, but he got the message and turned with her to face the sound of incoming hooves. His pistol raised up in front of him, close enough for him to see down the sights of the tiny thing. "Four." Was all he said. Then they waited. The hoof steps got louder. Bullseye tensed, strained her ears. Prepared for a fight. If a pony with a cudgel came through that door? They were going to die. The moment dragged on, and a different noise resolved through the heavy hoof steps. Talons. Bullseye held out a paw to Immersion, who raised an eyebrow and lowered his pistol. Verglas and Johnson entered through the door, slowly revealing themselves in the light. Bullseye let out a sigh of relief, and Immersion holstered his pistol again, somewhere underneath his duster. Verglas matched Bullseye's happy look that they were both still alive after getting chased. She didn't mention it though, cutting right to the chase. "The hell is going on." Ley summed up everyone's thoughts. Bullseye opened her mouth but Immersion beat her to it. "Telephone Wire is dead-" Snow Cone gasped and interrupted, "No! That- I didn'-" Bullseye hushed her, "It's okay Snow, we know. You couldn't've." "Wave's dead then." Johnson said calmly. Inspecting the mare, who had yet to be moved. She was still just laying sprawled out on the floor. "Snow Cone killed her." Immersion answered, seemingly trying to match Johnson's grace. Ley's eyebrows shot up, "whAT?!" Bullseye continued standing in front of Snow Cone. "It's not what you think." "Oh?" Verglas stepped up, "Please explain then!" "Just relax!" Bullseye looked back towards Snow for a second, which was apparently the wrong move. "We're in a labyrinth." Johnson stated. "Where did you go when we all broke up, Johnson?" Immersion accused. Bullseye tried to calm the group. "Wait! Stop!" It didn't work. "Um... ?" "I followed after you." Johnson answered, still low and steady. "Where did you go?" "I was with-" Just as he turned to Bullseye, she shouted. "EVERYONE SHUT UP." A beat passed. "Something bigger is going on here-" "Hey, yo-" Bullseye continued, "We can't be bickering. What do we know?" Verglas was the first to talk. "That pony that chased us? They were a pony. Definitely." That rules out her and Terri. Immersion nodded with Ley "Telephone Wire was strangled by hooves. So that checks out." Wait "Guys?" Bullseye turned fully to Immersion, "What do you mean strangled? He was choked, wasn't he?" Immersion shook his head, "That was what the killer was originally going for. They must have given up when you got there and gone for a quicker kill." "Are you sure?" Bullseye took a step closer. "There was blood in the eyes, and bruises around the neck." Immersion grumbled. "Yes I'm sure." "So they were in a hurry." Johnson questioningly added. Verglas narrowed her eyes, "A hurry to get down here, and kill another, perhaps?" As soon as all eyes pointed to Snow, she pointed at the walls. "LOOK!" Near the corners, blocked from vision by the paneling in the ceiling and seeping through the cracks in the wood was white smoke. It was already filling the air, and collecting on the ground. "GAS!" Bullseye screamed, "EVERYONE OUT!" There was a tumble of limbs towards the door. Ley got there first after leaping over the table. The doors jangled, but they stayed closed. "Locked!" She shouted, followed by a viscous cough. "Immersion!" His pistol drew with a flash of orange, and it hovered in front of the door for a moment. Everyone held their breath while nothing happened. "What are you waiting for?!" Ley shouted at him. Immersion's eyes were jumping to points on the door, "I can't find the bolts! It might be magically sealed!" "The kitche-" Snow's exclamation was cut off by a cough. Bullseye was starting to feel it too, the itching in her throat, the burning in her lungs and nose. They were running out of time. Snow was already stumbling her way towards the hidden doors. "There's a way out though the other side of the kitchen!" Bullseye's cutie mark itched. "Snow Cone! Wait!" She went stumbling away from the door too, coughing, and woozily twisting as her legs tried and failed to respond to her instructions properly. She nearly stumbled, but Johnson suddenly jumped to her side and started leading her forwards. Ley had jumped up onto the table, scattering materials and taking a deep breath before catching up with the rest of them. Snow Cone passed through the hidden doors and screamed, the yelp was cut off in the middle. No... "Snow!" The path through the smog lasted agonizingly long, Bullseye couldn't move any faster. She had to move faster. Eventually, she took a quick breath as soon as they barreled through the doors. Everything in her body jumped into action, expecting the cudgel or a gun or something. It was just an empty kitchen. The rest came in, and Ley shut the doors behind them. "Where's Snow?!" Immersion shouted, coughing and stepping away from the door. "Leave her! She killed Wave!" Ley argued Johnson looked like he was about to punch her in the face, "She's the only one of us that knows how to get the hell outta here you idiot!" With that settled, Bullseye was already shouting and coughing in tandem. "SNOW!" Not again "SNOW, TALK TO ME! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Bullseye didn't realize how loud she was until she turned to see both Immersion's and Johnson's ears folded down. "Help me! I'm trapped!" Bullseye spun around. Desperately trying to find where the voice came from. "KEEP TALKING SNOW! WHERE ARE YOU?!" "I fell! There's-" The rest was cut off by Ley flapping her wings at the door. The gas was seeping in, she was pushing it back with her wings. They were running out of time. THINK BULLSEYE. Everything went quiet. The flapping slowed, the metal in the kitchen glimmered from Immersion's horn light. She passed through the door and whatever got her, it happened immediately. No where in line of sight. She fell. The yell cut half way through. She's still alive, close by, trapped, fell, cut-off, nearby, audible, cut-off, fell, close by- Everything came back into focus, and Bullseye knelt down. "SNOW!" Her paw came down in a fist on the tiles. The other was feeling along the grooves in the grout, the mixture of banging and feeling led her to something that didn't feel quite right. "SNOW! SNOW ARE YOU DOWN THERE!" "The hell are you doing back there!?" Ley shouted over her shoulder. "YES! HELP! IT'S FILLING WITH WATER!" It was some flat thing, the grout lines disappeared, even though they were there visibly, and the impact of her paw on the fake tiles made it clear that there was an illusion. Immersion stepped up, having apparently figured out the same thing. "Move!" Bullseye rolled, instead of standing up. A flash of light, and a pane of glass embedded into the floor revealed itself. "Help me!" Snow cried. Really cried, the tears were audible. Bullseye rolled back and got a good look. It was a small chamber made of metal, just barely big enough to fit a pony, it wouldn't've fit Johnson. Snow was stuck at the bottom, and water was flowing up from the grate at the bottom that made up the floor. There was no way out, and the water was already up to her fetlocks. Immersion's pistol flipped out with zero hesitation, and a bullet went straight into the glass. Bullseye flinched from the volume, but watched the ping as the glass resisted with nary but a scratch to its surface. "Shit!" Immersion shouted "What's going on back there!?" Ley yelled back, still trying to keep the gas at bay. She'd taken several steps back, and Bullseye could tell from the exertion that they didn't have much time left. The doors were practically invisible at this point, covered in gas. "Move." Johnson stepped up to the glass pane, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Bullseye wisely moved out of the way. "That's when Johnson proved his innocence in all of this." "He saved her?" "Oh, yeah. It wasn't saving her that proved him innocent though, it was the way he did it." "Explain?" "He proved that if he really wanted to kill us all? He could have just done it. You'd expect somepony that size to be slow right? You know, lumbering, but back breaking punches, right?" "..." "His hoof came down on that glass four times before I could even blink. Not to mention the roar. He screamed like a dragon who just had their hoard stolen. You ever see someone punch through glass designed to stop a bullet?" Bullseye recoiled with eyes wide. She felt the impacts as they happened. On the fourth, the one where she recognized what was actually happening, Johnson's hoof split open and covered the pane with blood on the fifth. Every strike involved raising his entire body up, making his torso jump back up, nearly getting air, every time the hoof came down. On the seventh strike, the glass cracked, on the tenth, his hoof went through. What was left of his crumpled leg reached around the inside of the shattered glass, and in a blur of brown fur stained red, he peeled the glass back until something broke on the edges. The broken glass cover got to enjoy a short flight as it flew across the room and exploded on the wall. The entire series of events took three whole seconds to happen. Bullseye shoved a paw into the hole and grabbed Snow just as Ley screamed in pain. Immersion bodily shoved Snow out of the hole and into Bullseye's arms with his magic. "Mage rifle! Get down!" Ley stumbled away from the door, the gas pouring in as another hole got punched through the door and the floating gas like a viper moving so quick, that only the backlash was visible. Bullseye bodily hefted herself and Snow up. She was still blubbering, Bullseye practically dragged her along as Johnson and Immersion both dove for cover. How the fuck can he even move still. Even with his leg broken all the way up to the shoulder, Johnson was still the fastest to find cover of any of them. Bullseye got Snow around the corner of a pillar, and then sunk down, whipping Snow around with her. "Snow!" More crying. Bullseye lightly shook her, "Snow! Focus! You have to tell us how to get out of here!" Another crash, the sound of a mage rifle round passing through tiles and metal like butter. Snow nodded and sucked in a breath, already moving. Bullseye leaned out from cover to get a look. It was a monster. Near chest height to her, and not proportional either. The limbs were extended, the fur was missing in those particular regions. The pony in question, even under the mask, had fluid spewing and foaming at their mouth glittering with alchemical magics. Their steps were jittery, shaking with barely contained energy that simply didn't belong in their body. Muscles rippled and strained against the flesh underneath, tearing in certain places, weeping crimson blood down their coat and onto the floor. The mage rifle in their front hoof leveled in her direction in the split second she stuck her head out of cover. A crack sounded off, gunpowder, and Bullseye watched in stunned flight or fight as one of Immersion's shots glanced off the pony's coat. Sending them stumbling and squealing in rage like a pig. "This way!" Snapped Bullseye out of her trance, and she turned to see Snow hefting open a heavy metal door. A freezer. Bullseye didn't hesitate, half jumping from four limbs to two. Her and Johnson reached the door first, and she watched him slide past on three legs as Bullseye roughly shoved Snow past the door with him and held it open herself. Immersion was next, he ran in trailing his gun in his aura and Ley over his shoulder. Her right wing had been nearly shot off. Bullseye began to slam the door closed just as stallion, she was sure it was a stallion now, turned the corner and spoke. "I wouldn't call it speaking. Really." "How would you describe it? He was on something, I take it?" "Like if you could still talk while you were drowning. It was loud, guttural, and it scraped at my insides." "RUN-RUN-RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!" They gagged in a yell, advancing on the door. Bullseye slammed it shut and stepped backwards into the frigid air of the freezer. Her ears picked up the rest of the pony's terrifying proclamation. "I'LL CATCH YOU." She turned and dashed. Not really sure why anymore. She just had to get away. There was a hallway, there were ponies at the end of it. Go. Was all her mind told her. As she ran, holes opened up in the wall as Mage rounds passed through the walls, food and shrapnel of ceramic tiles flew in almost complete silence to her mind as she sprinted across the freezer to the opposite door. She stepped through as the other one opened, and Johnson slammed the portal behind her closed with a well placed buck that sent it rattling in its hinges. Ley and Immersion were already running ahead, Snow had waited to start moving, and Johnson had already pulled ahead. So she kept running, ducking down instinctively as more destroyed ceramic shards flew from the wall. She heard the monster of a pony cackling as they fired round after round. Then they were out of the opposing kitchen, and into more hallway. The cackling went quiet as Bullseye stumbled through the doors, but the rain didn't. She could hear the lightning, and she sprinted off, overtaking Johnson, who nodded to her as she passed. "They're going the wrong way!" Snow yelled. "Immersion!" Bullseye yelled up, but a peal of thunder silenced the sound. They turned a corner, and it was the only thing they could do to follow. Snow gasped and stumbled just ahead of Bullseye. Her eyes snapped to Snow's form as she half stumbled, and as she was moving, she knelt down and grabbed Snow by the hoof. Snow tried to keep up with the dragging, but she was gasping and retching and whimpering every time Bullseye had to tug her forwards to keep pace. Fuck this! A twist, and a random application of force with limbs that she didn't know how to use properly led to Snow getting scooped up in her arms. "It was sheer luck on my part, that I didn't fall. I don't even know how to describe what I did, I just did it." "Why was..." "I'm sure you figured it out already." "..." "Mage rifles are illegal for a reason. As far as they've been tested, infinite penetration, and completely silent. There are just some things that you shouldn't use on a fellow." Bullseye's chest felt wet. The blood running down Snow's coat had found hers. Snow continued to gasp, and lightly paw at Bullseye, staring off into the middle distance. "Hold on Snow!" Bullseye and Johnson turned the corner. Immersion was at a door with windows, rain was pouring in from the side. It was the center of the structure, the garden. "Move it! This way!" Snow's words struck again, "WAIT!" That's the wrong fucking way idiot! There's no way out! Despite that, Bullseye kept running towards the door. There was too much going on for her to suddenly turn around. A hoof wrapped around her paw. "I'm sorry." Snow said softly. "It's okay Snow-" "Beanie-I love you so much." Snow's words were strangled, from her position upside down in Bullseye's arms, stomach up, the blood was flowing from her face, strangling her words. The quarter sized hollow tube now running from her flanks to her chest was pressurized now. Bullseye could feel the heartbeat in the hoof grasping her paw slowing down. Bullseye followed Johnson out the door, and into the gardens. It was too much. She was just moving. Snow continued to whisper. "I'm sorry." Talking to something or someone unseen. The rain and the sudden smells of being outdoors only amplified the confusion. A flash of lightning and the three seconds delayed peal of thunder covered the time it took for her to catch up to Immersion and Ley. They were struggling with the shed, it was locked of course. Snow started to convulse, shivering as the cold and rain water filled her fur and her wounds. Bullseye tried to shield her from the worst of it. Immersion fired a shot at the door. Ley still couldn't get it open. There was a crash of glass as the monster simply went through one of the windows, laughing all the while. Bullseye snatched Immersion's pistol from the air as he tried futilely to slam it into the lock. She had better leverage, and shook her whole body with the force of desperately trying to break in. Snow leaned over as Bullseye struck down again. She reached a hoof out, and there was the vibrant sensation from Bullseye's inner core of something happening as the lock picked itself off the door and fell to the mud. Then Snow's heart stopped. "IN. NOW!" Bullseye wasn't sure who said it, but they all piled inside in a flurry of limbs, shoving past each other to get inside. Immersion's magical glow slammed the door shut behind them then snuffed out. Submerging the group in darkness, and the wet sounds of rain. Chapter Four: Perilous Profundity "I swear I blacked out... or something. I didn't even realize how hard my heart was beating until the moment passed." "Passed? You mean, whoever they were-" "They left. Yeah. Just like that." "I don't understand." "Neither did we, but that didn't stop us all from mindlessly holding our breaths for nearly a minute before somebody said something." "Is-are they gone?" Ley grunted, a talon still trying to stem the blood flow from her wing. That snapped Bullseye out of her terrified, adrenaline fueled haze. She nearly dropped the dead mare in her arms, instead, setting her down as quickly and smoothly as physically possible. The rain was deafening on the wooden shack. Yet, oddly, Bullseye felt metal between her back paws, and her limbs as she set down the maid. She only noticed after the weight was out of her arms that she still had Immersion's pistol in her hand. She stuffed it into her dress, if he wanted it back, he'd ask. It made her feel better to have it. Immersion responded with. "That doesn't make any sense. They could have killed us all, just put every round through the wall until we're all dead." "But they didn't." Johnson added "Not that I'm opposed-ow-fuck" Ley twitched her claw away from her still destroyed wing joint. "Snow's dead." Bullseye said quietly. The lack of anything else to focus on letting her catch up to the moment. "Will somebody help me?" Bullseye heard the snarl from Ley. Her eyes caught through the barely visible orange glow, Ley wrapping her wing with white cloth she had produced from somewhere. "Snow is dead." Bullseye said louder, cutting through the sound of the rain. Silence passed for a few moments. "She died opening the door for us." The rain fell. This wasn't going at all like what Bullseye expected. Every step something changed, or someone died. She was barely afloat. "Fuck..." Ley breathed after another few seconds passed in silence. "Fucking-what the fuck. What is going on?!" "I'd like to know that myself." Immersion said, stepping forwards and lighting his horn with a spell. Snow's body began to glow orange, and her dress ruffled from the telekinetics. It took a moment for Bullseye's brain to catch up with what she was seeing. "The fuck are you doing!" She stepped forwards, intent on punching his lights out. Johnson stepped between them and held her back with a hoof that said, 'if you make me actually hold you back, I'll just break your pelvis.' She stopped of her own will but still snarled at Immersion. "Copping a feel you cold-sick-fuck!?" Something removed itself from Snow's dress. An empty vial, clearly shown in Immersion's aura. "I'm sorry, what?" "You heard me." "Now I know this is a lie, you poisoned the wine. Not Snow Cone." "Hold on for a second Gerald..." "...Bossmare sees it now... You've got a cute thinking face, ya know that?" "...Continue with your testimony, please, Miss Bullseye." "Yes ma'am." "What the fuck is that." Ley asked, even though they all knew . Johnson turned, no longer needing to hold back Bullseye. "Are ya saying that..." "She poisoned the wine? Yes." Immersion said simply, "Which is odd." He continued. "Because I distinctly remember poisoning the wine myself." Holy shit... Bullseye's mind itched in satisfaction as all the pieces came together. "It's a trap." "What?" Immersion answered Ley's question. "We're all here for the same reason; to kill Origami." Another beat of silence passed. Bullseye was staring off into the middle distance, still trying to put her thoughts to words. The rain kept pouring, peals of thunder shook the shack. "That doesn't make any sense. What about Wave and Wire?" Ley asked Immersion responded flippantly, "Why do you think the information broker was killed first?" Silence from Ley as another moment passed with rippling thunder. "Alright." She sat up a little straighter, "I'll admit it. I poisoned the wine too." All of them sat there. Their images flickering in the orange horn light of Immersion. There were shared glances of creatures that no longer wanted to be here. Creatures that were scared and hurt. Deep breaths Bullseye, hold it together. She took a step away from the growing blood puddle on the ground. "Why." Immersion stressed, "All of us. Any clue could get us out of here. I'm a double agent, been working the bad side for years to get close enough for a shot at taking him out. Ley; You next." She sighed, "I'm an assassin. Money. That's it." "You don't look it." Johnson commented. Ley snarled back in his direction. "I'm not a movie assassin. I get paid to kill things quietly, not fight monsters." Immersion grunted, "Shut up. Johnson, you next." Johnson's destroyed limb came to his chest, cradling itself against the fur, already tinted red. "Origami wanted my brother to throw a fight. He didn't, whacked him in an alleyway, this is justice, for me." Bullseye's eyes narrowed and she looked at Johnson in confusion. "Terri. You next." Immersion stated, breaking her reverie. "My..." She started, catching Johnson's eyes as she stuttered, "My daddy was killed... for the same reason." Her cutie mark itched. "Deadeye." She said, the name she hadn't spoken in years rising from her throat with passion she wasn't expecting. Recognition lit up in Johnson's eyes. "Little Iris?" He asked in awe. He looked her up and down, "Why are yo-" "The fuck is happening right now?" Ley asked in equal confusion. "That's impossible. My daddy didn't have a brother." Bullseye affirmed. Johnson staggered a step closer, "We went into boxing together. He used to say, 'pick up your hooves-" "-and fight something bad'." ~ "-and fight somethin' bad'." They finished together. The rain fell, the thunder rumbled, they were all probably going to die here. Probably. But they were together. They stared at each other in silence as Immersion continued, "We all know why Snow wanted out. So that leaves the question of who is trying to kill us." Bullseye opened her mouth. "No. I don't- What? Are you serious?" "Terri was dead for a reason. Snow was forced to be there, alone. The only staff for the whole mansion, built specifically for one thing: to be a trap. We were all invited, lied to about the details by who? The same pony who wasn't at all surprised that there was poison in his wine. He had a plan before he tasted it, he was already leaving by the time any of us figured out we'd been caught." "Origami..." "It was a trap the whole time." "A trap for his would be killers." "So he could have a go at us like a hunter letting out a bunch of foxes into secluded woods, just to track us down." "..." "Fuck." "Fuck is right, birdy boy." "Sonuva-" Ley began Immersion's horn shone brighter. The interior of the shack was revealed. The walls and ceilings were wood, but that's where the features of the shack ended. The metal floor reflected the orange light, and the shack was shown to be empty. It was just a topper to a very slim staircase at the back, surrounded by more metal grating. "Where is this?" Johnson asked as he took a slow step towards the stairs. "Our way out of here." Ley answered, standing up and moving towards the stairs. "Wait." Bullseye said, heavily. This isn't over. The motley crew of damaged survivors turned to face her. She stood as tall as she could. "We're not leaving yet. Not without dealing with Origami." Immersion inclined his head. "I'm not sure you noticed Terri, but he took a bullet and barely cared. I've only got one left. You willing to bet all of our lives I can put one through his eyes? To bet that it'd even work?" "Then let's lay a trap." She argued. Ley snorted, "Fuck that. I'm out. No money is worth this." Immersion slowly acquiesced, following Ley to the stairs. It was clear he wanted to argue the point more too. "I'm sorry but she's right." Johnson's unbroken hoof patted her side. "Sometimes, ya just gotta know when to bail." Hoof steps on metal. Like hell I'm... Bullseye looked towards Snow Cone, and the blood pooling around her, staining her disgusting dress and what should have been her pristine white fur. I'm going to kill him. She wanted to take Snow with her. She couldn't lug a body around like that. She wanted to. "..." "..." "Your goons busted up my place already, yeah?" "They did." "Didja find my money stash?" "..." "...No they didn't." "Gerald." "It's her money anyways." "Give it to... whoever the-just. Find out who Snow Cone's filly was. The stash is under the door. You've gotta remove the frame on the inside to get at the floor panel it's hidden under. Tell 'em I'm sorry I couldn't do better by her momma, and that she died doing real good." "...There's no telling when we'd be able to, or-" "You know, it's funny." "What?" "I totally forgot to write down anything that just happened in the last minute or so, and I'm struggling to remember. Did you say anything important that I should take to the law just now?" "Gerald." "Nope." "Well that's good enough for me." "Thanks." "..." "..." "...Fine..." The sounds of steps on metal were mixed with the wet, echoing dripping noise of water getting into the concrete tunnels beneath the manor. Down the stairs, there was a three way intersection, with pipes and lines of arcane ducts up at the top corner of the wall. It was pitch black in any direction not lit by Immersion's horn light. "Well what now?" Ley questioned, as they Immersion and Johnson both stared off into the subsuming darkness Bullseye, meanwhile, had her thinking cap on. The pipes. "This whole place is rigged to the nines." She was, at the moment, tall enough to reach her limb up to the thickest pipe. Not only could she feel the water rushing through, but she could hear it, from this close. "Pressure. For hydraulics." Immersion joined her, looking up at the equipment, "You mean, something that could lock a door?" "Exactly what I'm thinking." There were other pipes in there too, nothing for hot water though. Bullseye smiled when she came across one that said: 'Warning: Flammable'. "Think you can get those bolts loose?" She asked. Ley immediately interjected herself into the conversation with an accusatory "I'm not sure I like where this is going." Immersion creased his brow, "It'd be easier to just cut the pipe open, but why?" Bullseye smiled, "Not open. Loose." She pointed down the hallway. "The water's coming from that direction, it's pressurized, which means there's a pump. We loosen these until we find the source, and then we blow it to Tartarus." Verglas nodded "Then all the pipes down this way will rupture, sure, but we don't have the time. That... thing isn't just gonna leave us down here." "We burn the fucker out." Johnson decided. "Let's get to work." Immersion agreed. Ley hung her head and sighed. "I thought they were against setting a trap?" "I think it was more that they were against fighting Origami, or coming up with another plan. This one was easy, and readily accessible, despite it taking longer to get out. If there was a way out down where we were going." "I just... why the change of heart?" "None of them wanted to leave the bastard alive bossmare, that's what you're forgetting. I just needed a solution, options; rather than what I had, which was only loose hope that we could take him out." "How long did it take? Before you got to where you were going?" "Well, we ended up only mussing up the bottom halves of each pipe. Four bolts per, loosen all of 'em, take out the bottom so it'd drip. It was smelly, gas, something-I dunno, but Immersion was getting his hackles up about how long it was taking, so we had to cut corners." "Alright, this one's done." Immersion ducked away from the pipework and trotted forwards. Bullseye slammed her fist against the pipe at the seam where they connected. It shook, and started to drip. As they loosened more pipes, the fumes were starting to fill the hall. Ley was still against the whole process, but was at least willing to go along with the group. "Can we hurry this up?" "Seconded." Immersion kept the pace, but skipped the next seam. Bullseye and Immersion kept working until they came to another junction. Immersion was the first to stick his head around the corner, he had the horn after all. "Which way do you think?" Bullseye looked down each path before letting out a soft hum. "We're under the mansion now. I can't hear the rain." Bullseye noted. Immersion nodded, but didn't say anything. "Whatever we're doing, can we do it now? Please?" Immersion took a few steps forwards, "Right it is then." Ley followed after, and Immersion started on the next seam when Johnson pulled on Bullseye's dress. She turned, of course. "Bullseye." He said. Bullseye waited for a second, mulling over answering to her name right now. "Yeah?" She eventually settled. "I..." Johnson seemingly also had no clue what to do. "Ahm not very good with words." Bullseye turned the corner, Johnson tailed after, "Later then, when we get out of here." Johnson fell silent. Guess that's the end of that. "Hey, look alive back there, there's light's ahead." Ley called back. Bullseye and Johnson quickened their pace, meeting with Ley and Immersion as the group passed through a door-less opening into a two story room full of screens and more exits. The catwalk along the sides of the walls had no clear way of getting up besides just having wings, and all of the screens were dark. There were no pipes in here, they had converged into the wall and seemingly gone around. Overall, it was a bland, empty room, and put them no further to escape than another hallway would have. Ley walked up to the railing and looked down into the room. "Where do we go now?" "We-" "DUCK!" "I honestly have no clue who said it. It could have been me, and in hindsight, it probably was." "Duck? Did-" "Yeah, the fucker turned the corner. I drew Immersion's pistol, it was a messed up draw, what with the fingers and all for a unicorn pistol, but I did get it out." BANG Bullseye inhaled quickly after she pulled the pistol. She was not ready for that kick. The split second it took her to aim and fire was enough though. Origami, looking notably less monstrous, flinched back, and there was a spark of arcane energy that popped and sizzled from his rifle. In the next moment, he pulled the trigger, and another spark and a zap signaled the weapon's death by Bullseye's aim. There was a standoff as everyone in that basement realized who was outnumbered and suddenly unarmed. "Get him!" Immersion shouted, just as Origami spun into a gallop down the opening he came from with a wet laugh. There was a tangle of limbs. Bullseye roughly stuffed the pistol back into her dress. Somehow, Johnson overtook all of them, running on three legs. He was the first to catch up with Origami, Bullseye watched him grab the bastard's tail from behind, silhouetted by Immersion's horn light against the dark. She watched him nearly take Origami's back hoof to the face too but he turned and rolled it into his shoulder. Immersion tried to flip Origami over as Bullseye just threw her weight onto him from above. Origami didn't care. He kept laughing and laughing. While less viscous looking, and still hidden behind the mask, he ignored Immersion's telekinetic shunt and reared up, slamming both hooves into Bullseye just as she got close. Bullseye came-to with her lungs telling her they still weren't full even after she sucked in another breath from her spot collapsed against the wall. Shadows flashed in her blurred vision as Immersion and Johnson continued to tussle with their tormenter. Bullseye could smell the gas as she sucked in breath after breath. Ley came to her side as Bullseye was getting up. "Are you okay?!" "I'm go-" Bullseye coughed up blood "He's getting away!" Bullseye pushed Ley, "Go! Go-" Another cough, "A-after him!" Ley ran, Bullseye chased after the fleeting horn light of Immersion as they turned a corner. The adrenaline in her system let her ignore the bruising in her back, and the stinging in her chest. Another corner, and Bullseye heard a strange noise as she was plunged into pitch black. "..." "... Is this whe-" "No. Sorry. I knew this part was gonna be hard." "What happened?" "..." "We can take a moment? If you'd like?" "...No. No I'm okay." Bullseye collapsed against a wall as another cough took her. Fuck, broken ri- Her thought was cut off as blaring white flood lights blinked on and forced her eyes shut. The wall she was leaning on was a door, a door that had been shut. Bullseye stepped back and looked around. She was still in the hallway portion, but it opened up. There was glass that showed the other side of the room. Verglas Ley was trapped inside; on the other side of the opposite wall, also looking through the glass was Johnson and Immersion. Clunk. The ceiling came down a hoof. Heavy gears shifted loud enough for Bullseye to hear through the wall, and the whole thing dropped like a stone. It was stone, which made plenty of sense. Ley was trying to force the door open with her talons. Clunk. Another hoof. Bullseye realized through her haze what was happening. There were marks in the wall where a rail or gears or something could slide down it. It was a crusher. Clunk Bullseye coughed again as she inhaled more acrid gas. There must be some hydraulics in the door, something malfunctioning. If I can find it and break it more- Bullseye looked up as Ley started banging on the glass on her side. Her mouth moved but Bullseye couldn't hear her. She pointed at the door and then dove for it. Bullseye tried to find an edge to stick her paws into, and barely found one. Clunk It was head height with her now, and there was no moving the door. Bullseye stumbled to the side and ran her fingers along the seam of the glass and metal the wall was made up of. Right where it came into the stone near the edge of her hallway, there was some sort of fluid sealer leaking the fumes. Clunk Ley started banging her talons on the glass while Bullseye used her nails and claws to desperately try and dig into the stone. Using a shaping charm made her look like a diamond dog. It didn't make her claws as sharp as steel, it didn't give her their strength. She was still just an earth pony underneath, and she'd yet to meet anyone who could dig through solid concrete at will. Clunk Ley shrunk away from the window and pressed her talons against the ceiling Bullseye stepped back with her eyes wide. Clunk The albino griffon's arms crumpled under the weight. Bullseye watched a bone in Ley's forelimb snap as the weight of the ceiling simply moved her arms out of the way. Ley was crying now, she had stumbled up the glass again, and was beating at it with her good leg. Clunk She screamed obscenities' and pleas and blame Clunk Then her head disappeared below the glass as she was forced onto her stomach. Clunk Bullseye could barely hear the scream. But she heard it. The gargling, jagged scream of someone who had been halfway crushed. Clunk Then nothing. Nothing but Bullseye's heavy breathing, and the near silent white noise that was pervading the back of her mind as she tried to rationalize what she just saw. She was mindlessly clutching at her stomach, the weight of her broken ribs on the rest of her body. Then she heard the laughing. She spun around, and there he was. Still weeping blood from tears under his fur, still disgusting, still a monster. He revealed himself, stepping into the light fully, and Bullseye could finally make out the relative shape. He walked towards her idly, like he'd already gotten the kill. "I'm going to fucking kill you." Bullseye said. "HA" Was his crazed response. She lunged, but he was faster. A hoof came to her face as soon as she was in range to claw at him. She went stumbling, but caught herself. He kept closing, but slowly. "Origami, right?" Her cutie mark itched as she inhaled again. He laughed again, "You think you're such a clever bitch don't you?" Was his wet rebuttal. His voice was twisted like his body, completely unrecognizable to the snotty and slightly refined voice from before. She lunged again. He back hooved her again. She let herself fall this time, towards the glass, towards the wall. "You're so pitifully weak." He continued to advance, and Bullseye could hear the smile from under the mask. "I'm going to pull your ovaries out through your nose with my bare hooves." He chuckled. She kept sliding herself away with her paws, scooting away from him on her butt. Bullseye pulled out the pistol. He stopped for a second. "That can't hurt me." He took another step forward, "Give up. You can't win." "That's the thing about ponies like you." Bullseye smiled. "You think I can't kill you and live to tell about it." Origami snarled, something between a mix of a growl and slavering beast grunting in rage. He tried to slam a hoof down on her leg, she scrambled backwards until her back was to the wall. "And you're right." Bullseye quipped, still leveling the pistol at the monster. It was out of bullets, but that didn't matter. He stopped to consider what she said, she saw his brow furrow. "I don't mind throwing this fight!" She stuck the pistol into the leaking gas-click
Prologue: Is this thing on? "Okay miss, please, for the record. Can you state your name, occupation, and cutie mark in that order?" "Bullseye; one word. I work as a private investigator outside of the New-Manehatten Skylines. My cutiemark is an eye, the same as my own, with a magnifying glass instead of an iris." "Let the record show that Bullseye is a light green mare, with a lighter green mane, almost turquoise, but with a white tint instead of blue. Her eyes are a milky gray, as are her marks. For the transcript, she speaks with an old Manehatten accent." "So, Miss Bullseye. You obviously know why you're here." "Yes." "Would you state that for the record please?" "I'm here as a potential culprit, or otherwise witness for the murders that took place at Tul'foht's recently." "Thank you Miss Bullseye, woul-" "I'd rather for you to just call me by Eye. Or Iris, if you want." "If you could please not comment during the intervie-" "Interrogation." "..." "The rest won't talk to you, huh?" "We cannot comment on any state of being of any creatures in or not in our custody." "You heard me say I was a P.I. right? I know this little song and dance. I have power here, so I wan-" "That's... not exactly how this works. Though, as your lawyer, I'd recommend against it.." "Gerald. Please." "..." "He's right though, we can make you tell the truth with magic." "Guess that's my own fault." "If we could please stay focused." "Sorry G, Iris? Could you just start at the beginning? You were at the... tofoholt? man-" "Tul'foht. You have to roll a silent 'H' in the middle, old Manehattenite accents." "You were at the mansion that night... why?" "I was there to kill Origami." "The Syndicate head. We've got a lot of details on that, but if you can clarify, how exactly did you even get close to him?" "It was dumb luck. I was investigating a case, tailing a tail, you know how it is. I track this stallion down to an apartment east of the three fifty seven phaseway, just under the 'stalks near western isles road. I go lookin' yeah? Bust up some info. I got to his apartment and smell blood. One breaking and entering charge later, and I find this poor bitch dead as a doornail, icer bolt straight through her left eye. I was searching her crap for any info, numbers or ID, and I found a letter. I-" "I'm sorry, stop for a second please. Where was this?" "You know that griffonia cuisine knock off restaurant down past fifty five?" "How do you know it's a knock off?" "Been to Black Rock Castle myself, they don't even get the searing even a little bit right." "Gerald, that's not the question we should be asking her." "Right, sorry." "This whole other crime then? What did you do with the body, and why didn't you report it?" "I was getting there. So I found this letter right? It's an invitation to the Tul'foht mansion, in two days, this poor bitch was-" "Please refrain from using vulgarities for the recor-" "Ay-ay, no, you got it wrong. She was a bitch. Literally, a diamond dog, they don't appreciate that name anymore though." "Oh... Well, continue." "As I was saying... This letter for her, it's an invitation in two days' time. Some kinda business deal. Turns out, she knew somebody up top, somebody Origami knew. Origami wanted to meet her, possibly talk business, make connections, that sorta deal." "But she was dead." "As a doornail, like I said. Thing was, I knew of Origami. He... He offed my father when I was young. My daddy was a professional boxer, real top of the line stuff. Origami told him to throw a fight, he didn't, and that was that." "Are you... admitting to the murder of Origami?" "Origami ain't even his name, and what's it matter to you?" "We're..." "I'm joking. So, I figured, 'now's my chance'. I had one of those shaping charms back home. Good for a single night, if you know what I mean, all I had to do was make sure Terri's death didn't make it back to Origami or his goonies, take her place, and strike as soon as I was close." "You casually jumped into a premeditated murder plot simply because the means just fell into your hooves? Just like that?" "Yeeeup." "That's kind of impressive." "Gerald!" "Sorry." "If you're trying to convince us you're innocent..." "It's more complicated than that. Plus, not like anybody's gonna care; or miss the rich, sideways, hat wearing bastard for that matter." "...?" "Slang honey, ignore me, so anyways. The letter had a specific time, just after Queen-T lowered the sun for the night. I get there, and it's spooky as all get out right? There's this creepy stone pathway up through the gardens-" Bullseye, or in this case, Terri, plodded her way up an angled hill. The terrain around her was thick with shaped trees, shrubbery, stone sculptures, and any random rich person knick-knacks that one would simply throw money at until it all ended up in their yard. The overhanging, white painted, vine toating arches around the path she was walking under mostly blocked her view of the sky, and the gray overcast clouds above it. Looked like rain, and soon. The ridged cut stone path was tight, but efficient. None of the rocks shifted under her weight, and there weren't any cracks where her lower paw toes could catch and cause her to tumble over. She'd practiced for the last two nights, standing on her back hooves, it was far easier when you had the spine for it; though Bullseye still hadn't figured out the gait yet, she was stuck to slow waking. The path was winding, weaving up the hill, back and forth, to make the slope more manageable. Where it ended, Bullseye could see lights, and her now even more sensitive ears could pick up the low sounds of conversation over the wind. As she approached, she made out through the glare of the setting sun over the ridge of the island, a group of ponies standing at what looked like a front door. Most of them were silent, but there was some light conversation. As she approached, the majority turned to look at her, though one, a gray black stallion, barely old enough to be one, wearing a hacksaw like black Mohawk turned to what looked like a maid standing at the door. She was a unicorn, pristine ivory fur, and a low cut pink mane. "Ay, see, there they are. Can we go inside now?" The maid shook her head. "I'm sorry master Telephone. We're still waiting on one more arrival." "Cow, please." The teenager took another step forwards, "It's bloody cold out here! Just let us in, you can wait out here for 'em yourself." "Lay off her, Wire. She's just doin' her job." Said another, a stallion with a leather duster. One that hung all the way down to his hooves and covered his cutiemark. He was tall, with a darker orange mane than his sunny red fur. "So, they were all just waiting outside?" "I'm getting there bird brains, you gonna let a mare tell 'er story? Or arya gonna keep pestering me?" "I think, what my partner is getting confused by, is the timing of all of this. Could you describe what you know about them all now? First?" "Actually, could you also describe Ms. Terri? The... bitch you had stolen the shape of?" "Terri was a petite thing, tall, with gray fur, darker highlights where it was thicker, but only if you were lookin' real close. Flat chest, dainty little paws, but damn was she tall. 'Bout twice as high up as you our me. She had one of those smoother faces, probably descended from one of them Gem Hybrids." "Thank you Iris." "Ah sure. Now, Telephone Wire, the colt tryna be a stallion. He's just a punk, far as I knew at the time. The unicorn stallion that could've hidden a body in that coat? I never learned his real name, or if he lied to me, but he called himself Immersion. Then there was the maid herself, pretty little thing, with a cropped tail way up high, so obviously she wasn't just a maid. Her name was... Snow Cone- yeah, that was it. Then the big guy, I'm sure you've seen 'em already. Goes by Johnson- a Western name-" Despite the conversation, Bullseye's eyes were drawn towards the hulking, nearly chest height brown stallion without a mane. He had a blonde tail that ran down his back legs at the normal pony tail length, which on him, made it look barely enough to cover his backside. When they met gazes, his neutral frown upturned at the edges, and he inclined his head gently in her direction. A real gentlepony. Bullseye thought while drinking in the form that probably could have folded her into several separate sections if applied correctly. Before she had the chance to embarrass herself more by gawking, a snow white griffon with strikingly blue eyes approached and jerkily lifted a talon for a handshake. She spoke with a near Prench accent, if Bullseye hadn't learned Prench when she was growing up, she would have missed it. "Verglas Ley. I'll tell you this, it's good to see another non-pony around. I thought I was going to be the only one." "You know Prench?" "..." "Right, sorry, please continue." Bullseye reached for the talon, hoping not to mess up the first real test of her practice with the new form. As far as she could tell, the gesture went swimmingly. She gripped tightly, shook once, heftily, and the griffon chick smiled. "Good handshake. I like you already." "What's... what's going on here?" Bullseye said, gesturing out to the lingering crowd. Verglas turned to look, and nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I got that too. Apparently Origami invited an entire gaggle of people. We're all supposed to wait outside until everyone's here." This had spontaneously become three times harder. She figured she'd have to deal with sneaking around the staff to poison or gut the guy herself, but now with five other people in the mix, with one yet to arrive... Bullseye knew she probably wouldn't get away with it. She knew she'd probably get caught, even a shaping charm didn't cover up a magical signature, as soon as Origami was dead, big wigs, mages, everything. They'd find her. Actually killing the prick was all she cared about, and now, the path forwards was skewed even further than: "Just wing it". "Help me understand something Iris." "Shoot." "You knew you'd get caught, you're a smart enough P.I. to know that regardless of how you did it, you'd leave a trail." "Yup." "So why? Why go through with it at all? You don't seem like you're frothing at the mouth like you're mad. You seem too stable to just throw your entire life away for revenge. I've read your case files, just skimmed through them. Reunited families, solving advanced dead cases, bringing peace to loved ones? You do good. Why give all that up?" "..." "That was alotta nice stuff you just said about me, so I'll treat you to an honest answer. Filly, you grew up somewhere nice, somewhere where you didn't have to worry about your daddy getting his head caved in 'cause the guy at the show that night wanted a certain kind of spectacle. Out here? Under the 'stalks? We gotta do the right thing. Ain't nobody, talon, claw, paw, hoof. They won't stand for the gobbledygook Origami was toatin’. He came from up where you were born. Brought all his money down to lord over the small people. You're right. It wasn't about revenge. It was about respect, honor. Any real people who know what livin's like? They'd take out a pony like him the first chance they got. It's about showin' people like you what people like me will and won't stand for, even when the law's too slow to show it, or too ignorant to care." "..." “It just so happened to be personal.” “...” "Please continue Miss Bullseye." "So what's your story?" the griffon chick asked sideways, looking out towards the rest of the group. They were removed, enough that their conversation would be audible, but not intelligible to the rest of the group. Bullseye raised her eyebrow, at least, she thought she did. It certainly felt like she did. "What do you mean?" "All of us are here for a reason." She stated before putting a claw over her chest feathers. "Me? I got called in because of my art, apparently it caught his eye. You?" Bullseye spun in place. She'd practiced a single pirouette hours ago when she used the shaping charm. The dress she was wearing was an off navy, meshed in with her fur along proper color theory. It stopped just above her chest, and was tightly fit under her arm so as to not fall without shoulder straps. It had an open back, and hung all the way down to her legs, with a slit near the side to show off... enough. She had a deeper blue scarf hung over her arms to complete the look. Verglas smirked, "Ah. I see. Honest work then?" "As honest as anything else." Bullseye realized her slip back into her personal accent, and quickly asked another question to cover it up. "What about the rest of them?" She lifted a talon to point, not directly, but politely. "The big guy? He's tight lipped, nobody knows his story. The coat? He's a crooked cop, here to trade stories or what have you with our host. The kid? I dunno. He's part of some gang or cult. He's really proud of it too." Verglas stopped, having come to an end of the descriptions. Bullseye lifted one of her gangly arms and gestured towards the maid before letting it drop. "What about her?" Verglas' beak twisted in a confused expression. "What about her?" "Well she's here isn't she?" Verglas waved a talon, though her tone remained inquisitive, rather than dismissive. "Sure, but she's just the help." "Absolutely, but look." Bullseye gestured to the side of the mansion. The structure itself was opulent, but in a word, simple. It had pillars, wood overhangs, ornate stone carvings and colors that meshed together beautifully in the dusk sun. That being said, each section of wall was a copy of the last. It was geometric, isolated, and repetitive. Each window had the exact same window shutters as the last, and they were all evenly spaced. "The windows? All of them are dark. Nobody else is home. If we're here for talk, or if Origami lived here full time, surely there'd be some lights on, right? If he's got a full staff, then where are they?" Bullseye gestured behind her, "No groundskeeper either, nothing. Looks like it's just her." As Bullseye talked, Verglas raised a talon to her beak, thinking, and slowly started nodding along while Bullseye continued. She waited, politely, until Bullseye had finished before nodding again and speaking. "That's an incredibly astute observation. If that truly is the case, then I do wonder why this maid in particular is here tonight. Surely there's a reason...?" She trailed off looking to Bullseye for conjecture. "Well... I don't want to be presumptuous..." She said in the way that gossipers do when they absolutely want to talk smack. "But...?" Verglas waved a talon in a 'go on' gesture. "Real maids don't wear dresses like that." Bullseye tilted her head in the direction, not pointing, but definitely trying to get Verglas to look. "See how the skirt goes up at the back instead of down? See how she's got a cropped tail, and the way the dress pinches her sides?" Verglas snorted and rolled her eyes, looking back to Bullseye. "Seems like Origami has some... wide reaching tastes." "Fine tastes." Bullseye humorously corrected while using a paw to push some of the fur around her head into place. She had to keep her story believable, despite how the nature of the person she was pretending to be irked her. Verglas chuckled and shook her head. It was then that the sound of hoof steps on stone reached Bullseye's ears. She turned to spot the next pony walking up the path. Another mare, dark lilac fur, watermelon red mane. She had cutiemark of a yellow parasol on her flanks. She walked up the path and stopped when she noticed all the looks. She turned to look over her shoulder, noticed nobody was behind her, then looked back to them with a frown and asked, "What?" She said it with haughtiness, the kind that marked one easily as a noble mare wannabe. Her question sounded far more like: 'Whhaght?' A classic butchering of a 'supposed' higher tongue. The doors opened behind the maid and Telephone Wire vocalized his satisfaction. "Finally!" "If all of you cou-" the maid tried to gesture everyone in, but nobody waited for her to talk. She frowned, and the look of stress piled up in her eyes as she tried to step into the foyer in front of everyone. It didn't work. "Wai-" She did a tiny little jump and then rushed forwards. "Please wipe your hooves before-" Telephone trotted past her, "Yeah, whatever." Her ears folded down, and she seemingly gave up. Bullseye called out to her from the door, and the mat she was on meant for said hoof wiping. "Hey, girly!" She smiled and waved as the maid looked up at her, and went through exaggerated motions of wiping her paws before stepping in. Verglas followed suit, as did the mare that had shown up last. The maid took that as an invitation to speak, and crossed the short distance as they all entered the foyer. The interior held the exact kind of ambience Bullseye was expecting. Posh-wooden-nighttime. It was red flickering chandeliers on dark oak colored walls and art that was probably more expensive than she was. The doors shut on their own as the large stallion stepped in after the coated stallion. "Thank you." The white mare said, "You must be Mistress Terri, Mistress Verglas Ley, and Madam Violaceous Wave. I am Snow Cone, the on-site staff. Anything any of you require, please feel free to ask me, and I'll make sure your needs are tended to." The word 'needs' was lilted as she said it, a clear implication. Bullseye refrained from cringing. My needs are fully satisfied, thank you very much. "Yeah, actually. I've got somthin'." Telephone Wire turned away from one of the eclectic paint smear paintings on the wall. "Where's the food? I thought we'd be getting grub." Snow shifted, taking a step back and then walking backwards towards another door that opened as she got close to it. "If you'll all follow me, I can take you to the dinning hall. Master Origami will be down from his study soon, and dinner is already set out for you all, once he arrives." Bullseye took a glance around, and winked towards Verglas as she broke towards the opposite side of the group where the stallions were following. She took the spot at the back, and tuned out Snow talking about the history of the various pieces of art dotting the hallway as she leaned over to the sunset-esc unicorn. "So?" She said, empty of meaning. "So?" He responded, confused. Bullseye took another step daintily, shifting her weight to match her tone. "What do you think of all this? It's not what we expected, right?" Stallions love to talk to a stupid girl. Go on, spill the beans bucko. The hall itself was deceptively similar to outside. Sure, things were spaced around isometrically, but the floorboards, the spires going up the walls, the walls themselves, they were all copy pasted. Every few strides Bullseye noticed the repetition again, like the interior was thrown up as a distraction from how dull the structure actually was. "You keep mentioning that. Is it important?" "Heh, you're the detective, you tell me?" "Miss Bullseye-" "Iris. Why yougoin' backwards girl?" "..." "Because I respect you." "..." "Alright, fine. Yeah, it's important. You see, top of the line housing isn't cheap past the islands. Under the 'stalks, we get stuff cobbled together like it was in the older days of Equestria, read a book, you'll see. Ponies who pay for mansions like that, and let's be honest, it's only ponies with that kinda money, they don't buy 'magically generated' structures. That mansion looked like it was thrown up in a month. You tell me, if you had the money to build a mansion, would you pay twenty percent less for it all to be cookie cutter copies all the way around?" "I'll admit, it's weird." "And you'd be right, Origami had way too much cash to burn to buy something so cheap, what kept catching my eye is that, yeah, sure, some rich wiggins think that spartan is better, squares with no texture down to the horizon, but those houses are obvious. Somebody who buys an all-white box and likes it, wants it to look like a cheap as dirt, all-white box. This house was cheap, but the décor was trying to hide how cheap it was. If he really liked geometric repetition like that, why leave it on the outside, but cover it up on the inside? I figured it was because the gardens were meant to be the disguise, nobody but me even noticed, even when I pointed Ley to the windows, I don't think she saw." "Which still begs the question of why it was built that way." "I'll get there, hold onto your feathers for now buddy." "I think it's odd." He said slowly. "Got this nagging feeling." "I know what you mean." Bullseye responded before holding out her paw. "I'm Terri, by the way." His orange horn lit with magic, and an aura surrounded her paw, shaking it loosely as she moved with the magic. "Immersion." "Charmed." Bullseye snarked, "What's your story then?" His response was clipped and confident. "Plain clothes detective. Origami pays my checks, so I work for him. I don't know why I'm here yet, I just follow instructions." He sped up a little, after he was done talking. Clearly he was done talking. Bullseye sent a look towards the big brown stallion, watching from just off to the side with a smirk. They met eyes, he shrugged at the same time that she did. Bullseye turned her attention back towards the front of the group, and followed on in silence.
Epilogue: That's a wrap...Code Name was having an interesting day. The room was the standard run of the mill interrogation room. Dark, muggy, clearly under budget. Space for four ponies to sit. In Bullseye's case, float. The walls and floors were made out of some thick material Code Name probably wasn't allowed to know, disguised behind a rocky popcorn paint façade, all lit from a single electric lamp, hanging from the ceiling. She was listening to an interesting mare, and a fantastical story. Code had been around the block far more than her presented 'fresh from boot' cop façade would have otherwise indicated, and as far as she could tell... Bullseye at least believed everything she had just told them. Ending on the explosion that killed her, and supposedly, the monster chasing her. "So... I take it, that's all you've got to tell us?" Gerald asked Bullseye nodded. "At least about the whole... uh... yeah." Gerald looked to Code for what to do next. He'd done his part as the interchangeable good cop flawlessly, like he always did. The fact of the matter was, this was her show. Luckily, and after three seances, she'd gotten what she needed. She took a deep breath and used a hoof to gently set down the pen on her notebook and toss it closed. "If you have any last remarks, now would be the time." She said professionally. "I do-actually. Did they make it out?" "Who?" Code asked back. "Immersion and Johnson. Did they make it?" Code frowned. She hated giving answers like this, "We can't discl-" "Well, actually..." Gerald started, "If she's his next of kin, she has the right to know." Now is not the time to be a lawyer, Gerald. "Exactly. If." Code rebutted. "He's fine." Gerald said quickly. "Gerald." Code warned. He shrunk back with a guilty smile. Bullseye's ethereal self leaned forwards. "My boxing gloves. They were my daddy's. Make sure he gets 'em. My tombstone; Make sure you put Terri's name on there too. She deserves it, after all that happened." Code and Gerald exchanged a pair of looks. Code glanced at the unicorn in the room, casting the spell making this all possible. They continued to mutter with their eyes closed. They never did anything else. Bullseye continued after the silence dragged on. "Or at least a picture... or something. I died wearing her face, that's all I'm sayin'." Code leaned over, "That can be arranged." "Thanks. Will it hurt?" Bullseye gestured to the unicorn in dark coverings. The runic circle they were standing on, and the magic keeping her there. "No." Bullseye nodded. Code gestured to the unicorn. "That'll be all, specialist." The unicorn's mumbling stopped, and the magic arching from their horn cut out. The runes on the floor went silent and stopped glowing. There was a lashing bit of magic that Code could only really sense, rather than see. Years of experience. Bullseye made a face, "Oh-yeah. And, I never caught your name." Code smiled, "No you didn't." Bullseye smiled back as the mist she was made up began to fade. "You really got me with that." She said in a mixture of annoyance, appreciation, and melancholy. Then she was gone. Gerald sighed and flopped onto the table. Code rolled her eyes, "Stop it. That wasn't nearly as bad as what happened with the griffon." "Not like I can blame her." "You're just tired, you big baby." The unicorn left the room without a word. Both of them sat there in silence for a moment while Code collected her notes. "So?" She raised an eyebrow, "So what?" Gerald monotoned, "So what's the verdict? Miss, suit and tie." Code Name adjusted said objects as she stood. "The verdict is I'll be dealing with this tomorrow, I have other things to attend to for now. Deciding what's true or not is your job, isn't it?" She shot back. "You mean arguing about what's true or not." "Whatever." She tossed the notebook and spare documents into her saddlebags. "Tired then?" "Late shifts." She answered. Gerald gave her a sideways look, "I still think we should have told her." "Gerald." He lifted up a claw placatingly. "Listen, I kn-" "We talked about this." Code Name cut him off, "And it's not either of our calls. Telling her we found Origami dead to a bullet miles away from the mansion would have only driven her into not talking to us at all." He continued trying to back track, "I just th-" "It's not your job to think." She cut him off again, "It's your job to be the slightly silly, dull in the head lawyer, who can good-cop-bad-cop with me so we can get the information we need to get this done. Okay?" Gerald stared at her blankly as she huffed for a second. "You need to get laid." He said in mocking surprise. Code Name facehoofed. "How about drinks? On me?" He asked She glared, "You wish." A shrug, "Can't blame a guy for trying." They both argued their way out of the interrogation room. Neither of them saw the hanging lamp shift ever so slightly as they left. It was probably just the air pressure changing in the room as they opened and closed the door.
Chapter One: Dinner Debacle "The dining hall was long. One of those real posh ones that you see in movies. Big lengthy wooden table, all set out with sparkly cutlery. Chandyliers, windows on one side of the hall looking out into the gardens. The works." Bullseye was starting to get the hang of this bipedal walking thing. She filtered into the dining hall along with everyone else. Snow Cone, however, kept walking backwards. "And this is where we'll be eating tonight. Over pleasant conversation, of course." She gestured to the table in question, still in her pitched 'tour guide' tone. Wire interrupted. "Yeah, maybe it's just me, but I can't help but notice the supreme lack of anything to eat." He huffed, "Still." Bullseye heard Ley 'snrk' next to her as Cone gave the most polite reprimand she'd ever heard. "Well Master Telephone, if you'd exercise just a little bit of patience" She turned towards the rest of the motley crew. "and if the rest of you would kindly follow me into the kitchens?" So that's why she's still moving. Her continued backwards walk made a little more sense when she reached the double doors hidden away behind an shoddily placed armoire near one end of the hall. Behind it was white tile, metal counters, overhead fans. What looked like an entire restaurant, at least, the kitchen was built for a restaurant that could seat at least a hundred people at a time. Not needing another reason to start moving, everyone made their way through the doors. "You were right." Ley's slightly refined Prench accent said from her side. In response to the questioning look Bullseye sent her way, Ley continued, "The staff. A whole kitchen like this, and not a single peep. Not even in the halls." "Well-" Snow appeared between them out of nowhere. Having never been surprised on two legs before, Bullseye fell over. "Whoah!" She was halted in midair by an orange glow, and smoothly set back upright by Immersion, who's horn was dimming as she caught his eye. "Be more careful there Terri." Bullseye's eyes narrowed. I never told you my name. The question never left her mouth, as Snow Cone darted in front of her, apologizing profusely. "Please, accept my sincerest apologies Mistress Terri, I didn't mean to frighten you, I-" "Whoah, hey." Bullseye waved her paw. Neurotic little thing isn't she? "No harm done. Relax, all is forgiven." Snow Cone gave off a smile and flopped her ears. Something about the smile didn't reach her eyes, she probably thought Bullseye was just being polite. "Food!" Wire exclaimed. He'd wandered over to a series of carts covered in cloth. After removing the cloth and finding the platters underneath, he had apparently removed that and uncovered a tray of tarts, decorated in all the colors of the rainbow. One had already disappeared into his gullet, and he was midway through reaching for another one before Snow Cone gasped. "No!" She rushed over to him. Wave, the hilariously purple mare beat her to him. She slapped the tart from his hoof with her own and put on a voice that unconsciously made Bullseye's tail tuck in between her legs. "Don't you have any manners! It's incredibly rude to start without our host!" "But-!" "If you reach for another one of those tarts mister I'll slap you upside your bottom!" She continued to scold. "I don't care that I'm not your mother, if yours didn't teach you any manners, I gladly will." She ended with a vicious smile, and Wire thankfully stepped away before the situation could escalate further. That didn't stop him from huffing, crossing his hooves, and generally being a petulant teenager. Snow Cone was busy rearranging the tarts so as to make it look like none were missing. Bullseye raised an eyebrow at the behavior, but was distracted by a deep bass voice. "She's right kid." The first words Bullseye heard from the brown beast of a stallion. "It ain't polite, and you worried Snow Cone there something fierce. You should apologize to her." He rolled his eyes in response. "Sorry, Snow Cone." Though he sounded anything but. "That's Miss, Snow Cone." Wave corrected, "If you're not actually going to be sorry, at least show the proper respect." Snow Cone turned away from the display, leaving it as it was. "It's okay, and it's Missus, but I don't mind at all." "You haven't done anything like this before then?" Immersion asked, joining in on the conversation. Snow's ears folded down, "Is it that obvious?" "Don't worry about it Snow." Ley jumped in, "We won't tell your boss." Snow Cone breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank you-" She shook her head, "Anyways..." The carts began sliding along the floor, moving out of the way for a pair of cabinets to open, revealing a wine rack, cushioned with a velvet interior. Several came floating out drifting in front of Snow as she spoke again. "Master Origami wanted you all to pick the night's wine before I set out the table." "If I may, Iris, and sorry for interrupting you again." "Go ahead boss mare, ask away." "I can't help but notice... When you fell, and when Immersion shook your... paw, at the time, with magic, you were very clear about his aura and the color. Yet, when referring to Snow Cone, you didn't even mention her horn glowing." "I didn't." "..." "Is there a reason for that?" "Not one that I know. She didn't have an aura. Maybe her aura was just clear, or maybe she was one of those psyche ponies from up top." "Psychic ponies are a myth, only griffon's can manipulate forces like that." "Hey, remember who asked who?" "Fair enough, please continue." "Right... where was I?" "I don't drink wine." The hulking brown pony responded. "Nor do I." Said Immersion "I'm trying to watch my figure." Said Wave. "I'm allergic to some fermentation chemicals." Ley said. "I'm sixteen." Came Wire's snark. All eyes turned towards Bullseye. Including Snow's, who was becoming once again, increasingly nervous as they all subtly declined choosing. "Hell-" She shrugged, "I can still choose wine, I'll appreciate it, but I ain't gonna drink it." She stepped forwards, holding out a paw. "What do you have?" Snow looked grateful and Wave interjected, "Well of course. I didn't wish to make it seem like I wouldn't assist you Snow Cone." "I know a bit about wine." Immersion added in. Snow's smile widened, and she projected for them, both to end the conversation and present their options. She lifted the first, "We've got a 1455 red, cherries. A deeper red, 1499 and this was a mix between a leftover batch that got lost in transit when one of the biggest wine company of that age shut down." All of their eyes widened "Hold on, you're talking about the fourteenth century like it's not been seven hundred years since then." Immersion cut in, "How expensive are those wines?" He asked incredulously. "As far as I know, they have no conceivable price." Snow sweetly responded. Everyone shared a look. "You're not lying are you?" "Why would I be lying?" "Embellishing?" "..." "There's no way, even somepony like Origami would have never been able to get his hooves on something like that. That's practically an artefact, something like that should belong in a museum." "Yeah, it would've been impossible... Legally." "Right..." "And if that's what you really think, you probably won't like what I did with it." "Well..." Ley said from Bullseye's side. "Shit." "You can say that again." Said Immersion. Ley spoke again. "Pass me one." Snow did as instructed, and Ley sat back and grabbed the wine bottle as it got close. Wave gasped like she'd just seen someone drive into a building as Ley nonchalantly popped the topper off with a talon. "Ley!" Bullseye shouted in alarm. "That's pricier than you!" She shrugged, "Well if we're gonna drink it-" She took a whiff and her eyes went wide, "Holy shit." Stood up and swung the bottle with her precariously. "Alright, I've never drank wine before, but I've been to enough fancy parties and wine tastings to know what to look for." She kept moving the bottle as she walked three-limbed over to immersion, she handed it to him. "Have a whiff." He took it in his aura, and Bullseye turned to Snow, who was animatedly showing off the other wines to the brown stallion. It was a funny thing to look at. As the shortest pony here, just barely shorter than Wire, she came just eye level with his barrel. The view of her trying to sell a stallion twice her height, probably three times her size, floating bottles of wine was something Bullseye was going to remember for a while. She had something else to focus on though. Specifically, the vial nestled in between her breasts, underneath her dress. Wave had joined in the conversation with Snow, adding in her expertise, which meant nobody was looking as Bullseye quickly pretended to adjust her dress, while using her dexterous fingers to remove the vial and tuck it in her palm. "Poison?" "A magical venom, actually." "Venoms aren't deadly, not even magic ones." "No, but red tracker feathers do a wonder on the immune system, throws it for a loop. A pony as old as Origami? Within a day, he'd get a cold, and that'd just be it for him. Completely untraceable in a dead body." "Where'd you acquire something like that?" "Please, this is the 'criminal underworld' boss mare. I'm a P.I. I get paid in all sorts of ways, by all sorts of people. Where do you think I got the shaping charm?" "You're saying it was a payment?" "A specials request for payment from me, long time ago." "From whom?" "...You don't actually think I'm going to tell you that, do you?" "Do secrets really matter to you now?" "Duh, of course they do. Client privilege. I'm not about to sully my reputation, especially now." "I guess... it's not really the focus of this conversation anyways. Please, if you would." "Darn right it isn't. So..." Bullseye walked up towards the now trio of two ponies and one griffon. Wire was pretending like he wasn't listening, but he was. "It's crazy. Somepony like this, how rich could they reasonably be?" Ley said. Immersion was focused on Bullseye as she walked up. Bullseye was focused on the wine, which had seemingly disappeared. "Hey, where'd the wine go? I want a sniff too." She joked, and the bottle appeared out from under Immersion's coat as he lifted a hoof. His horn lit a moment later, and he levitated it up to her height for her to grab it. "Thanks." She added on, and she lifted it to her nose with both hands. As she held the bottle, she pressed one of the nails at the end of her thick paws into the vial's cork. These fingers sure are useful. Gonna miss 'em. This was going to be close. She'd have to be quick, but messing it up would be far worse than just failing, so somewhere in-between quick and precise. She took a deep inhale while looking between the three ponies. She just had to divert their attention. "Hey Wire?" He looked over at her, just with his eyes. "What kinda stuff did you spot under there? I'm starving." "Treats, mostly. Deserts, candy." He answered wistfully. "Come off it, really?" Immersion asked, "I'm old, I'm gonna need some actual food." "You don't look that old." Verglas joked. Now. Bullseye took a wide step to the side and turned. As soon as her hands were out of the line of sight of the other ponies, she lifted the vial to her fingers and used a quick bit of practiced dexterity to pull the cork out and drop the clear liquid into the wine in a smooth motion. Her turn slowed, and she slipped the vial back into her palm before she came waist to face with Snow Cone. Bullseye's heart leapt into her chest, and she viscerally forced her expression to remain unchanged. "What do you all think of this one?" She asked sweetly. Sweet T's flanks. Bullseye breathed a measured breath of relief and handed the bottle down towards Snow Cone. She tried to keep the adrenaline from her voice as she responded. "Smells great Snow, which one is that?" Snow took a second to look at the floating bottle, "Mmmm... Thirteen, ivory smoked-apple Piedmont. The oldest in the collection." Ley popped up from the side. "Sounds good to me." "Seconded." Immersion added. Wave joined the small circle while the brown stallion stayed where he had sat down on the floor. "Well, if we're going to be sitting at a table with the most expensive wine this side of the world, we might as well choose the most expensive wine." She lifted a hoof towards Snow, "May I?" The bottle floated over to her, and she balanced it on one hoof and took a short inhale near the rim of the bottle. "Oh my, that is divine." She turned and started walking for the door. Nobody was quick enough to stop her, or ask where she was going. "Surely we mustn't wait for it to air, we can set the table now can't we?" "Oh-" Snow started moving up, "Madam Violaceous; wait- if-" "Nonsense darling." Then she stepped through the door. Everyone else was following suit so Bullseye figured they were leaving now. She spared a glance towards the carts, but decided that she'd done enough sleight of hand for the night, and left the tasty treats where they were. Instead, she leaned her head down towards the big stallion as he walked past her and matched his pace. He caught her eye and lifted a hoof as he walked. "Johnson." He said simply, in his deep baritone. She bumped his hoof. "Terri." "Oh!" Came Wave's muffled call from just on the other side of the door. Both Bullseye and Johnson peaked out of the door at the same time, spotting- Origami. The old stallion, he had a checkered suit on over his dark blue fur. His coiffed yellow mane was untouched aside from the product in it. He was gently sitting down at the head of the table as they walked in. Wave was clutching the bottle under her barrel, on her right side, and the moment of surprise passed as Snow Cone jumped into action. "My apologies, Master Origami, I'm sorry I wasn't here to greet you." The bottle slipped away from Wave's grasp. "Please, our esteemed guests, make yourselves at home." Snow took several striding steps up towards Origami, then fell silent. Bullseye shared a glance with Verglas as she split to move towards the other side of the table. All of them moved. Wire was the first to sit, closest to Origami, Bullseye sat down next to him, her longer gait letting her get closer. Immersion took the seat next to her, and across the table, Ley sat down next to Origami, and Johnson, next to Ley. Origami gestured outwards with his hooves after Ley took her seat. "He had this accent, it might be useful placing him. Like Open-Esekerte mixed with Eastbounders. You know the way some ponies talk quiet and clipped like they're running their mouths in one of those old gang violence movies?" "..." "Is this really important Ms. Bullseye?" "Yes." "Continue." "Well... that's it really, he talked all slow like, and intentionally. Something made up, clearly, to cover up a more traditional accent that I couldn't place at the time..." "Now that everyone is seated." Origami looked over the table slowly, his eyes not leaving the center of the table, "Tell me, how were the gardens? They were made to impress. I have to say, I am curious about the first opinions." Wave jumped in almost immediately after he was done talking. Her voice pitched, and she switched from a 'stalks dialect into northern Equish. "Oh they were to die for. You'll have to let me poach your groundskeeper." "No." He said simply, letting a smirk rise to his face as Wave's blathering was brought to a halt. "And I trust my attendant has been undertaking her profession with the grace instructed of her?" Johnson responded, and Bullseye was almost certain the table shook ever so slightly as he spoke. "She has, wowed me for sure." The mare in question was standing to Origami's side, far enough away to be ready to listen to his next command while not close enough to be a distraction. Origami waved her forwards, "Be a dear and set the table, I trust you followed my secondary instructions?" Origami's eyes turned from the front of the table towards Snow. "Yes sir, and I did, Master." She nodded, and spun around all the way and hastily made her way back into the kitchen. Origami watched her leave, and Bullseye ground her teeth. Origami, heedless of Bulleye’s growing desire to kill him early, turned towards Johnson. "Johnson Hammer." Smiled, "It has certainly been a time. I have to say, I'm glad to finally see the respect required of my station." "I'm turning over a new leaf." Johnson replied simply. "And Terri." He lifted his hooves, "A beauty, and a paragon to your beastly kin. It is such a joy to finally find one of your stature and... shall I say, professional talent?" "Princess Twilight... that's... really? He said all that?" "It only really got worse from there birdy, with only what... six sentences? he'd justified me killin' him." "I'm not sure about that..." "I am, and I'm not sorry." sigh "Just carry on." Bullseye let herself fake a smile, pulling off her best 'dumb girl' smile to hopefully avoid having to talk. She only had violent, angry words in her throat at the moment, not something particularly useful in the current situation. He turned towards the rest, in time with his words. "Verglas Ley, the painter from another world, or nearly." He inclined his head, "And Telephone Wire, I've heard a lot about your skills out on the streets." "Come off it oldie. What do you know about me?" He snarked. Wave was about to smack him upside the head when Origami loomed over the table, his tone calm, his inflections unchanged. "I know you're an information broker with faces and names. I know you have connections everywhere. I know your value." He leaned back, and his voice lost some of its edge. "And I demand respect at my table, from all parties, boy." "Yes sir..." Shit... okay... oldie came to play. Bullseye let a paw rest on the table, spreading out the digits as she spoke again, putting on as much 'voice' as she could into her words without verbally snapping. "Sir, I have to ask. I'm curious as to... the amount of attendees? I thought this would be a..." Bullseye cringed internally, "Private meeting?" "Not intentionally." Origami continued with his plastic smile, "Say, where is that servant? I told her to retrieve dinner, did I not?" He looked towards the door, hidden behind the shelf, where Snow Cone had disappeared. "I'm sure she's simply checking all of it for quality." Immersion said diplomatically. "Can't serve anything less than perfection, correct." Origami's smile widened, and his eyes shifted as he looked over Immersion. "Ah, and Immersion. I've only ever heard of you and your work. You've always done me and mine well, I sincerely hope you are enjoying my..." Origami looked back towards the door, "Hospitality." Snow Cone exited, the doors invisibly opening in front of her, trailing the carts and the single wine bottle behind her. "That's when it started raining, just a few trickles at first. It really set the mood while Snow Cone was setting the table." "I get the feeling that's also important?" "Nah, ha. I'm just checking to see if you were payin' attention." "Iris, please." "What? Can't I have some fun?" "To switch gears, I get the feeling the conversation at the table was... dead. To put it plainly?" "It's like I said, the message in Terri's invitation implied... It didn't say outright, mind you, but it heavily implied that this would be a solo meeting. All the ponies there... Maybe aside from Wave and Snow, knew what something like that meant. Something was up, that much was obvious." "And?" "And what? Something was up! It always is with stuff like this. That's my point boss mare, nobody gets to where all of us were without a little bit of suspicion, and we were all feeling it. At the time, I just figured it was... well I figured that it was just Origami playing games. Obviously, an old, rich stallion like that has to get off somehow, messing with people is good enough I suppose." With food in front of her, Bullseye made the effort to eat. Origami had already started, and the sound of rain mixed with utensil scraping against the ceramic plates, and Snow darting around the table to levitate Origami whatever he wanted before he asked for it. Bullseye had to admit, the amount of food Telephone Wire was capable of eating was impressive, especially at such speed, and with little noise. With everything moving, and the conversation well and truly dead, it was only a matter of time before Origami looked to the wine. Unlike the majority of the things she did, for lifting up the wine, Snow Cone hesitated, and then steadied herself. Origami raised an eyebrow, clearly impatient. "Well?" "I'm sorry Master Origami." Snow's mane adjusted itself, and the bottle flew down the length of the table before uncorking itself and upturning it into his wine glass. The glass came up to meet it, lowering the amount of froth created by the drink. Snow set everything back down, and the crystal wine glass went to Origami's outstretched hoof. He continued to lazily glare at her. All eyes were subtly on Origami. Bullseye was making the effort to look away, but he had it. It was in his hoof. One sip, and all of this was worth it. It'd be over, she'd finally get her revenge for what he did to her father. ... Terri's face slipped for a moment, expressing some surprise into a tray of green beans. Revenge? That's not what I'm here for. "Snow Cone, you're such a disappointment." Origami flippantly groaned. Bullseye watched with a rising heart rate as Origami put the glass down and sighed heavily. No... He leaned over the table in mock confusion, apparently still wondering why Snow Cone wasn't doing what he hadn't clarified for her yet. Snow Cone wilted. "Yes sir..." "Now hold on now." Johnson half stood, which looked more like he had spontaneously chosen to loom over the table, due to his size. "What's the matter, Sir? She ain't been doing nothing but taking good care of the table this whole time." Origami scoffed, "She's sullying my name is what." He turned towards her, "I ought to have you replaced. Really, how difficult is it to pour out six more glasses of wine?" He near drawled, in an old accent, filled with lilts and enunciations in just the right place. "I'm sorry Master." Snow Cone didn't wilt anymore, she simply stayed in place with her ears folded and her gaze turned towards the floor. "Sir Origami, I do believe there's been a misunderstanding." Wave interjected, "Snow Cone asked all of us long before you arrived of our preferences." Origami's head pulled back, and he asked in disbelief, "So she did something right?" "Yes Sir." Wave responded simply. Her purple mane moved with her head as she nodded. "It just so happens that none of us drink, I'm watching my figure, Telephone Wire is far too young, Johnson is an athlete, and so on." "Ridiculous." Origami postured, turning towards Bullseye. Bullseye had to avert her gaze from the wine glass sitting in front of Origami, her focus having drifted to it. "You, you drink wine. you must." Came as a question, definitely, veiled as an attempt to misdirect his mistake. "No sir, I've never been able to pallet wine." "Ugh, Dogs, no wonder your species is so culturally inept." He turned towards Verglas, "And you?" "Allergic, Sir." Verglas responded in a clipped tone, reaching down to take a bite from her fork to avoid having to speak on the topic further. Origami mulled over the words for a moment. Snow Cone drew his attention as he spoke, "I still asked them, as you demanded of me, Master. They all wished you to have the best wine, even if they wouldn't be partaking." "Well you still, should have poured them glasses." He grumbled, "It's not about them drinking. It's about respect, stupid girl." Bullseye felt Johnson flex the table. A board her leg was pressed up against running lengthwise of the table strained. So you hate that too. Good to know. She had to restrain a gasp as Origami lifted the glass in his hoof again. He sighed as he brought the glass to his lips, then pulled it away again. Bullseye's eye bugged out as she continued to desperately try to focus on anything other than how close she was to completing her mission. "It's so hard to find good help nowadays." He said aloud, melancholic. Drink the poison you piece of- Then he took a sip. It didn't feel like an explosion of success. All of the tension drained from Bullseye's current canine body. The rain continued to fall outside, and Bullseye let out a silent breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Wait. Stop." "What?" "You actually succeeded?" "Would you shut up and let her talk?" "..." "Yeah, what she said." Origami made a face. The glass came back up to his lips. The fluid in his mouth drained back into the cup. Everyone was already watching, so they saw the 'dinner table' faux pas that was spitting out something without a napkin, or an extremely good reason. Origami leered, out at all the eyes looking at him, and his previous action. "Poison." He said simply. "I can't really describe the sensation. Really, having been caught. Especially after I thought I'd done it." "I don't think you need to." "It felt like watching a cake flip over. Like you've got a whole meal in front of you, hours of cooking, and you just pick up the plate wrong and then it goes all over the floor. Except then the floor points a CTT-Nineteen at your head. I was scared, pissed, and definitely up shit-creek by definition." "You're having a lot of fun messing with us, aren't you?" "Anyways..." "Excuse me?" Wave said, leaning over the table, her voice pitching up. Origami pressed his front hooves together, keeping his posture pristine, as he turned to Snow Cone. "I guess I should have had you..." He breathed, "Replaced." Snow Cone's eyes went wide, and Bullseye knew the look of a mare who was about to run. The maid's hooves stayed glued to the floor, however, they were clearly shaking. He thinks it was her. Suddenly, Bullseye's mind churned. First and foremost, how could he have tasted the venom? It had no flavor, how could it have gone so wrong so quickly? Now a life was on the line, and it wasn't hers, nor Origami. That was her fault. Bullseye had to do something, so she did. She stood up, letting one of her large hands rest on the low table. "Sir, what are you saying?" She led with a paw, "Are you saying Snow Cone..." She feigned concern, innocence, probably not very well. "Snow Cone tried to poison you?" "Tried." He clarified, still glaring daggers at the maid. "Is the keyword, yes." "Now hold on a second." Johnson also stood. "Anyone of us coulda' poisoned that, you can't be certain it was the lady." Origami's brow furrowed, "That's preposterous. How could any of you have the chance to? She was the only one who manipulated the bottle. It explains why she took so long too." He pointed an accusatory hoof at Snow. "I-" Snow Cone tried, but she was shaking too much. Verglas came to her rescue, saying what Bullseye was about to. "Snow Cone showed us all the wines, as you instructed sir. We all handled the bottle." At the same time, Verglas looked around the table. Those eyes marked all the other creatures, eventually settling on Bullseye, the eyes of a predator, trying to figure out how to get its talons around its next kill. Shit-shit-shit-shit-sh Wire said something to her side, Snow Cone kept trying to get something out of her mouth. Origami was staring on with barely contained aggression while struggling to regain control of the table vocally. Verglas had already accused Johnson. Immersion and Bullseye were the only two ponies not adding to the sudden cacophony. "Except for Wire and Johnson, that is." Wave clarified, calling over the chatter. Bullseye looked at Johnson, who briefly met her own gaze with a steely look before turning back to Verglas, who had finished her spiel that nobody listened to. Shit-shit-shit-shit-shhhhhhhhhhhh Was all that was running through Bullseye's head. Origami roughly pushed himself away from the table. The chatter stopped, and everyone looked towards him as he stood. "I have never been so disrespected in my own home." He sneered. "Here's what's going to happen." He took several steps backwards. "I have all of your names and faces. If any of you run, the police will come after you. You have until morning to figure out who the..." He looked towards Snow, still backing up. "Culprit. Is. If you can't, the police will simply arrest all of you; you'll all spend the rest of your lives in prison." Origami opened the double wooden doors behind him, and left. Just as the door closed, the rumble and flash of thunder and lightning signaled the true start of the storm.
Chapter Two: Hallway Horrifics "So there we were. All of us suddenly pit against each other. Obviously, I still had a chance to catch up with him, but I knew what that would have looked like." "So... from there on, you just gave up?" "Ay. Listen birdy. I'm not proud of it, but sometimes you've just gotta know when to bail. It was more important that I get the fuck outta there so I could get the chance to try again." "So you had to pin it on somebody else?" "If that's the case, why would you have tried to draw suspicion away from Snow Cone?" "Well I'll tells ya." The doors slammed shut, and the lightning flashed. Everyone looked back and forth between themselves. Verglas Ley was the one to break the silence. "Well then." She said, sitting back into her cushion. "There's a killer among us. Anyone feel like volunteering?" Telephone Wire put his hoof up, along with a smart-alec smile. Several eyes were rolled. "There's 'ah point to be made." Johnson said, "Me or the kid never touched the bottle." "Yeah?" Verglas sarcastically asked back, "Well how can we be sure? I mean, is anyone certain? Did anyone here have their eyes on the bottle the whole time?" There were more looks shared between everyone. Bullseye was desperately trying to put the pieces together. She was an investigator, not an actor, not a crime scene 'maker-upper'. "Well it wasn't me." Violaceous claimed, a hoof to her chest, and nose in the air. "What about when you left the kitchen?" Verglas postured. Bullseye latched onto that, calmly, and pretending to be considering her words as she spoke them. "Hey... yeah... you took the bottle right from Snow Cone, and then you walked out. None of us could see you." Wave scoffed and waved her hoof, "Origami was in the room, do you really think I would have tried to poison his wine right in front of him?" Snow Cone piped up quietly, taking a few steps forwards and resting a hoof on the table. "Origami is old, he has bad eyesight. It's possible..." She didn't wilt under Wave's glare, just continued looking around at the placements where everyone sat or stood. The comments were getting quicker, the tension was growing, and suddenly the focus was directed to Bullseye. "And what about you?" Immersion said, looking towards Bullseye, "When you took the wine bottle from me, you turned around... oddly." "That was because I heard Snow Cone walking up behind me." Bullseye responded immediately, then flapped her ears, "I've got a wider range of hearing than you." Snow Cone nodded, and Immersion let his eyebrow raise. Bullseye pointed back at him, "And what about how you were hiding that wine bottle beneath your cloak? What else could you be keeping under there?" "That's enough." The base rumble of Johnson was accompanied by another flash of lightning from outside. "Yall've established that it could'a been any of us. There's no point arguing over it." "Well then what do we do?" Snow Cone said, "I-" She shook slightly, "I can't go to prison..." She was still shaken up. "And that's fair, in my opinion. The poor girl... She's not a hardened mare like me, she'd probably never been so stressed before. I can't imagine what kinda tale she was spinnin' in her head about what was gonna happen to her moments before." "I'm lost." "How so?" "Origami is dead." "That's right." "How? He left, didn't he? How could he have gotten killed?" "Well, there was still time to catch up with 'im. He's old you see. The way I figured it, whoever came here to kill him... well... me, that is, wasn't gonna give up so easily, but I couldn't just make it look like I was all rearing to go wandering about, lookin' for him. That's what I would've been looking for in a suspect." "You needed to act suspicious of all the other people. You needed someone else to suggest splitting up so you could get the chance to find Origami again. That's why you alleviated the blame from Snow Cone." "You're smarter than you look bossmare. If I had just wiped my hooves of the whole thing and threw her under the bus, then I wouldn't've gotten my second shot. All of them were lookin' for someone now, and if I wasn't crazy careful to fly under the radar, I was as good as got." "I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around how any of that happened though." "Well, your partner there hit it right on the head. I needed someone else to suggest movin', and luckily..." Violaceous tapped her hoof on the table next to Snow's. "Whel- I don't think any of us truly believe that Snow Cone was capable of attempted murder, do we?" There were several shakes. Despite Bullseye not wanting to cut off a potential scapegoat, she went along with it. Immersion on the other hand, merely narrowed his eyes as Violaceous continued. She did what noble mares did, with her upturned nose, her sneer, and her haughty voice. "I'm not standing around in a room with a murderer. I know I had nothing to do with this, and neither does Snow. So we'll be finding somewhere to rest, while the rest of you bicker amongst yourselves and figure it out." "Now hold on a second." Johnson rumbled, stopping the purple mare's advance to the door. "How can we trust you?" "How can we trust you?" She shot back. "Both of you stop it." Came Verglas' voice. "I could use some air myself, if we all pair up, anybody who..." She side eyed Bullseye, "Slips away or gets hurt? We'll know who the poisoner is. It's that simple." "Safety in numbers." Bullseye agreed. "Yeah sure." Telephone Wire pushed himself away from the table and got up, moving towards the kitchen. "I'm going to stay here. All of you's can wander about to your content. I don't care about going to prison." "What?" Snow Cone asked, genuinely confused, and still worked up. Telephone wire kept talking as he walked to the kitchen, "It's not like it would've been my first go." Then he stepped inside, and it was just the six of them left. They looked at each other. Verglas was the first to break the silence again. "Me and Terri, we'll go see if we can find Origami, talk to him, see if we can sort this out. He can't have left yet." She turned to Snow, "Where would we find him?" "Oh-uhm" Snow turned away from Ley's gaze. "I don't know if I should say..." "That's okay." Bullseye interrupted Ley's opening beak. "We'll go looking for him ourselves." "I could stretch my legs." Johnson said, standing up, he looked to Immersion, who matched his look and stood up too. Verglas clarified for them all, counting up to two on her talon for each pair. "Then it's me and Terri, Immersion and John, is it okay if I call you John?" He nodded, "Immersion and John, and Ms. Wave and Snow Cone." "And Telephone Wire is going to stay in the kitchens." Snow Cone added, as Immersion and Johnson were already heading for the far door, opposite the one Origami had left from. Violaceous was already dragging Snow Cone by the hoof towards the door Origami had left out of as Bullseye and Verglas Ley locked eyes. There was silence between the two as all the doors closed, and the hoof steps faded out under the sounds of rain hitting the windows and wind jiggling the shutters. Both of them sighed at the same time. Bullseye managed a small smile, "This is gonna be a long night, isn't it?" Verglas just shook her head while matching, maybe unwillingly, Terri's tiny-tired smile. "Let's get moving on. We've got to catch him before he leaves the grounds." "And just like that, the chase was on again." "That's... too lucky. Something's up wi- What are you smiling about?" "Ya know, I am having a bit too much fun with this." "If you could take this seriously-" "Nah, that's what happens you know? When you tempt a mare with a good time." "Miss Bullseye, please." "..." "Whatever... You're right, by the way. Something was going on. You gotta remember, magical crime fell outta fashion ages ago because of all them magi-teck-dodads y'all tote 'round." "You're saying there was foul magic at play?" "Well... yeah? I mean, I was already disguised as someone I wasn't. Stealing a face isn't exactly smiled upon." "I think we're getting off track again." "Yeah, yeah. So me and Ley, right? We head out the doors and we're wandering around for a bit. Nothin' between us. Not that I minded. Just the rain and some walking. That is, until..." Both Verglas and Bullseye, in disguise, were walking along quietly through the cookie cutter halls of the mansion. It was the same table, with the same similarly looking plant every corner, and Bullseye would have sworn they were going in circles if it weren't for the occasional window marking their progress. They'd found a flight of stairs leading up, but elected to ignore it. If Origami was leaving, he wouldn't bother doing it from anywhere other than the ground floor. "So did you do it?" Verglas asked out of the blue. "What?" Bullseye mentally recoiled for a second, "No. Of course not." Verglas sent her a look that said 'I'm unconvinced.' "Look." Bullseye tried, clasping her paws in front of herself. It was strange, being able to articulate both your front limbs while walking. Though she couldn't say she hated it. "What do I stand to gain from killing him? I wanna catch whomever just as much as you do. Origami was my ticket out of this waste bin of a world." She finished off, sullenly, selling the look by folding her ears down over her head. If puppies could do it, so could she. "Yeah... well..." Verglas was still clearly unconvinced. "I can't prove it to you, okay?" Time to try a different method. "But at the very least, you can trust me not to pull something now." Verglas half rolled her eyes and inclined her head. "I guess that's fair." "Here's my reverse ask-" Bullseye turned down to the griffon, "Did you do it?" "Heh, when would I have?" She asked back "I wasn't paying attention, could have been any time." Bullseye raised her eyebrow, "That, and there was a distinct lack of people talking about you when it all kicked off. You were doing most of the talking, if I remember correctly." She pursed her beak, and raised an eyebrow in a mix of pride and amusement. Something Bullseye didn't catch properly. "I'll admit to doing that on purpose, however suspicious that sounds-" She waved a claw, "But I didn't want to risk all the hooves suddenly pointing at the griffon, if you know what I mean." "Yeah. I do. And hey, seriously Ley, I've got your back." And that wasn't a lie. The griffon wasn't a bad bird, none of those ponies were. Despite Bullseye's intent to violently break the law, and the willingness to try again after failing the first time. Despite Bullseye's general disregard for the law when figured there was something she wanted, or something she had to do for the job... The only one she wanted to see hurt was Origami, no one else. Verglas lifted up a claw for a bump as a bolt of lightning struck somewhere outside, letting out a burst of light from a window around the corner. Both of them waited for the thunder to stop reverberating, and Bullseye met the fist bump with her own clenched paw. "I'll keep that in mind, and I'll make sure none of those ponies try to take you out either." "You really think..." Bullseye cut herself off, pretending to stumble over her words, "You think one of those ponies is the killing type?" "I had my eyes on Johnson." She ruffled her wings, "I know a bit about musculature, being an artist and all. He's no body builder. He's built for combat, weight, leverage, strength. I wouldn't be surprised if he could pop my wings off, the point is, why would someone like him be here. Of everyone at that table, he stuck out the most." She started counting off on her talon, "I can understand: an artist, a crooked cop, an information rat, a whore-no offense, and a noble mare, but what is... what is he here for?" Bullseye's brow furrowed. What is he here for? It was a strikingly good point. More and more... This was starting to make less sense. Call her paranoid, say it was just the stress, but beneath her disguise, she could feel her cutie mark tingling. She was missing something. "And that's when the lights went out. You don't expect them to, because of how the magical mix of electrical flame kept everything eerie, but lit well, but all at once, every little flame, every recessed glow gem went out." Pitch black. There was the sound of an electrical hum revving down, just after. Bullseye struggled to maintain her balance without any visibility, and there was truly no visibility. The disguise was just a disguise. It only affected her senses to the point where she could move and function properly, it didn't give her the skilled nose of a dog, or the vague night vision that some of them have. She still had earth pony eyes, and she couldn't see fuck-all with them. "Shit. Ley, you good?" "What just happened?" "The lights went out?" Bullseye asked back, confused, as what happened was obvious. There was a grumble, "No. I mean, why did they go out?" "Lightning must of hit something important." There was a click, and the hallway was barely illuminated by the beam of a flashlight. Now with minimal light reaching her eyes, she could make out the shape of Ley from behind the flashlight. The talon was clearly visible, with the red glow coming around from the back of the flashlight lens. "Where'd you get that?" Bullseye asked, seriously surprised. Verglas wasn't wearing anything, and she didn't have a mane like a pony. Where the hell did a whole flashlight come from? When no response came, Bullseye asked again, scooching slowly close to Ley so as to not spook her in the dark. "Ley? You good?" "Shut up Terri." "He-" "Shut the fuck up right now." Bullseye shut up, and felt a talon wrap around her paw. She leaned down as it tugged her closer to the floor. The flashlight pointed down the hallway, illuminating just far enough to see the far wall. Without the signal masking from the electric hum, the rain was far more audible, as was the rolling thunder from lightning too far off in the distance for them to see the flash. "Listen." Ley whispered. Bullseye strained her ears. She heard it. Thumping. Hoof steps. Aggressive thumping. Trotting or galloping, heavy hoof steps. Heavy hoof steps that were steadily, quickly getting louder. Bullseye's adrenaline was already pumping, her hackles had risen as soon as the lights had gone off. Ley's warning had flipped on her honed survival instincts, and now? Fight or flight had just triggered. Bullseye may not be a predator like Ley, but she knew. Whomever those hoof falls belonged to, they were coming to hurt them. She felt it in her bones. "Time to go." Bullseye whispered back. She leaned up again, and pulled on Verglas' opposite talon. She was already moving, tugging and pulling on Verglas to match her deeper stride. Verglas hissed back while trying to keep pace, "Where?" Bullseye spoke quickly, just as quickly as she was trying to move. She spoke quietly, but it was still nearly a shout reaching up to a normal indoor voice. Those hoof falls were getting louder fast. "Back towards the others, we'll-" Verglas gasped. "RUN!" The talon slipped free from Bullseye's paw, and the gust of feathers scooping up the air caught along with the flash of light from the hand-held lamp in her eyes as Bullseye spun around to see what Verglas had suddenly decided to fly away from. She caught the glimpse of a mask holding back a mane. A pony face, a heavy coat, and a wooden bludgeon tinted a deeper brown with blood. She'd never run in this body before, much less sprinted. The lack of experience didn't stop her, not after the thing screeched. She ran as hard as she could. On two legs, there wasn't any kind of high speed she could pull off, it was all about bouncing forwards after falling. What it did mean is she had far more mobility, there was a corner coming up, she could tell from the vague flashing outline provided by Ley's retreating form. She went straight, Bullseye waited until the last possible second to twist on her legs and dip to the side. She crashed into the wall, stumbling onto her stomach and scrambling her paws across the surface of the wooden floor for purchase. For a split second, she was a pony again, running on all fours from something bigger and scarier than she was, running for her life. Then she was back onto her back legs again, lumbering at a dead sprint as fast as she could. She still couldn't see anything, not without Ley. She was simply hoping that the hallway went on straight forwards long enough for her to get away. Eventually, she stopped dead and held her breath. Her bottom paws slid, and she had to reach out into the dark for a wall to stabilize herself. She kept holding her breath, even as her brain screamed for air, and her lungs tried to claw up out of her mouth. She listened over the rain. No hoof falls. No steps. Just rain. She gasped, and let the air flow into her. "What the fuck-" She panted, "-the fuck was that. What the fuck." She slid down the corner she had grabbed onto, sitting down and letting her dress fold up on her. Her scarf was long gone. Lost in the scramble to get away, probably when she ran into the wall. She could already feel the nasty bruise forming on her breast and face from where she clipped it. "I just sat there. Catching my breath. I'ma be honest with you bossmare, I lost my cool, you don't get chased in a pitch black hallway by a masked pony with a bloody cudgel and keep your cool." "That... Must have been..." "You can say it. Big mares talk about their boo-boos." "Traumatic." "You see stuff like that... down here, doesn't make it better that I'm used to it though." "This is probably going to sound insensitive, but I have to ask the glaring question." "Go ahead birdbrain." "...Did you kill Origami?" "..." "You've been talking about it like it was a sure thing. Except... Your attempt to poison him failed, and now... if you're not lying, that is, your story is that a pony chased you through the halls, with the intent to kill. Did they get to Origami? Is that why you couldn't find him?" "..." "You're right." "I am?" "Yeah, that was completely insensitive." "Miss Bullseye, we're here to solve the case, an-" "And if you wanna know wh- Sorry. If you want to know what happened, you're gonna have to hear the full story. It won't make sense otherwise, and... it ain't right to leave out certain bits. Those bits need context, so I might as well tell the whole thing." "We're not against that." "And I'm not against you asking questions." "..." "..." "Well, I'm glad we could come to an agreement... could you-" "Yeah, so... where was I-? Yeah, I had just slumped down like a sack of potatoes..." "Fuck it All." She whispered to herself. Still in the midst of catching her breath. She had to get up. She had to find Ley. I just fucking left her, I left her to get killed. Was Ley going to die? Unlikely, catching a griffon, even indoors, while in flight? And while you were on hoof? It was likely to be impossible. Though... They could have been a pegasus. Bullseye only caught a glimpse, enough to be sure they were a pony, but nothing else. I still left her. I told her I had her back an- It wasn't Bullseye's fault. The instinct to dodge just came to her. It was a snap decision in an emergency that worked. "Okay Bulls-" She cut herself off. "Terri. You can do this Terri. Get up." A beat passed. "Get. Up." She hauled herself up. Standing was different as a Diamond Dog. She didn't pay a lot of attention to it, she just strained her eyes to search through the darkness. Still pitch black. She had no idea where she was, no idea where to go. More importantly, she was alone. I need to find a window. "I'll spare you the details of me stumbling around in the dark and jumping at every noise until some of that lightning led me to a window. Honestly, I-" "Miss Bullseye..." "...Yeah?" "Do you need a break? We can stop... If you'd like?" "Pfft, what'd make you figu-" "Your hooves are shaking." "..." "..." "It's okay." "Nah-yeah, I know tha- I mean- I jus-" "Mi-" "Shut up for a second. I'm sorry, just... thinking about Ley... I guess I'm still a bit shaken up." "..." "I know I'm saying this to a criminal, and geez, who thought I'd be in this position? But it's okay. You're... safe now?" "..." "..." "Wow." "..." "I know." "I don't think I've ever seen someone fail so drastically to comfort somebody else." "I know! Like, what was that shit?" "Ugh- Fine, I get it, I'll just shut my beak." "Uh-huh. Anyways-" "You were at a window?" "Ah yeah- So I went stumbling around until the lightning led me to one of the inside walls..." Bullseye found herself staring at an open air garden. Outside. The mansion was apparently a large ring, with trees, shrubbery, and what looked like a small shack sitting in the middle. Probably a tool shack... From the ground floor, she had a path around, but she didn't know exactly which side she had come from. So it was back to wandering. There were no landmarks inside the structure, and Bullseye wasn't about to call out to anyone who may be nearby. That's when the screaming started. It started off pitched, surprised. Then it mixed into pain, and got louder. Bullseye was an older mare, she had the experience to recognize the age of the scream. It was Telephone Wire. There was no doubt in her mind, nopony else would have been able to scream like that. She ran, shortly bouncing off a wall as she picked a direction. Both because something had to be done, and because now, she suddenly had a heading. If Wire was near the kitchen, then they were near the door. She could hear his voice echoing from close by. Please-please-please-please She just hoped it was close enough. There was still barely enough light to tell when she passed through another junction. It was the sound of the scream that let her know she'd just passed it. The sudden oscillation meant she'd gotten closer, then farther, so she spun around for the edge of the wall, slamming a paw against it and quickly tracing it to the corner. Then the screaming stopped. "No!" Bullseye started running again. Her heart resisted, like if you were sticking your hoof into the garbage disposal. Her adrenaline filled muscles saw the dark, in the direction of screaming and said 'danger.' but she kept running. "Kid!" She kept her paw on the wall, hoping to find an indent. A door. Anything. "Kid! Talk to me!" Her paw brushed over an indent. She slammed down on it, and it gave slightly. The next second, she found a door handle and threw it open. "Wire!" Nothing. Empty room. Or he was already dead. She kept down the hallway, moving slow enough to feel the doors as she came up to them. Each door she passed yielded another series of bangs, and- "EAE-A-A-H-" Bullseye's entire body twisted on reflex, nearly painfully, and she leapt across the hallway and bodily slammed into the wall. She heard him. He was right here. Less than fifty meters away. She had a chance. There was a door. She hit it. "KID!?" Choking. The sounds of somepony dying. This was it. The door was locked, of course. Her limbs came down on the knob, but it was made out of metal. So she threw her shoulder into the door, but it didn't budge. She kicked at it, but her legs weren't designed for bucking at the moment. "HOLD ON KID!" She threw herself into the door again. There may have been blood, it sure felt like it, the bruising and slamming could hurt hurt all they liked. He was dying. She could hear him dying. "DAMNIT" Two more punches, two more reverberating shocks up the arms and into her back. "FUCK YOU! YOU BASTARD, LET HIM GO!" Two more kicks, more like pawing at the door uselessly. She took four rough steps backwards, nearly swaying, then screamed a battle cry as she sprinted across the tiny distance, lowered herself down, and launched herself into the door. Something gave. A bolt, a board, a hinge. The force knocked something loose, she felt it in the reverberating impact. The door was still in place, but it was working. She still had a chance. Three more backwards steps, and she threw herself into the door again with just as much force. It rattled in its hinges, the wood frame creaked, and then Bullseye caught the orange horn glow of Immersion as he turned the corner. "MOVE." He yelled, deeper than Bullseye expected. Normally, Bullseye would have fucking not done that, but the only other illuminated object, besides his horn, was a solid black-cast iron six shooter. Bullseye, already stumbling back from the door, made space for Immersion to come skidding to a stop in front of the door. He pressed the barrel of the gun nearly into the crevice where the knob met the wall and fired off two shots before kicking with his leg in a practiced breaching sequence. Bullseye was only an instant, behind him as they both shoved their way into the room. "Telephone Wire!" - "Kid!" "..." "..." "..." Telephone Wire was near one of the walls. It was a bedroom, of some sort. Filled with the same kind of unnoticeable furniture as the rest of the building. Behind him was what looked like a load bearing wooden pillar, running up the wall. Illuminated by the orange glow of Immersion's horn. The colt's two front hooves were nailed into the ground. There was flesh and bone open to the air. His head was stretched upwards, suspended by the thick corded telephone wire wound around one of the beams in the ceiling. He had been nailed to the ground, and then hung.
Chapter Three: Losing Life "I vomited. After I saw... I..." "... I'm not surprised." "I feel like vomiting right now." "I wish I had the... I wish I could vomit right now. Not hungry... I guess." "..." "I don't...?" "..." "What? What were you gonna say?" "Nothing. I'm just gonna shut up and let you tell your story." "..." "... Thank you... Uh... what was your name again?" "Gerald." "Thank you, Gerald." Bullseye was catching her breath outside the door. She'd just puked a stream somewhere on the floor behind her, and was barely standing, a paw gripping the door frame as she fought off the spontaneous shivering fit she had tearing up her shoulders. She was cold when she definitely shouldn't've been. Open mouth breathing, even through the stomach acid still staining her face and mouth. She was just blankly staring out into the hallway, barely orange from Immersion. He was still in the room. She could hear him shuffling about. Aside from the rain, that was the only thing she could hear. Why can I hear rain, two floors down, from the center of the structure? She continued huffing, but looked up, where she could barely see the ceiling. The shadows danced along the beams, now with some light to dance to. Bullseye stood up a bit straighter and used her opposite limb to wipe her mouth. She turned, and saw Immersion had taken down the wire, and pulled up the nails. Telephone was laying on his side. Immersion stood over him, a stray hoof inspecting the fur on his neck. Bullseye took a step into the room, intent on getting either an answer, or Immersion to respect the dead. "What are you-" "Hello! Help!" Immersion's ears perked, having heard the same thing she did. "Help! She's hurt!" Immersion looked at Bullseye, "Is that Snow Cone?" "Sure sounds like it." Bullseye looked at Telephone Wire as Immersion stepped away. "He's dead." He said, filling the phrase with finality intentionally. "We can't do anything for him. Let's go." Immersion pushed through the doorway, leaving Bullseye to step backwards into the hall and watch him turn to leave towards the sound of Snow's voice. Bullseye took a shaky breath and quietly closed the door as she followed after him. The hallway was measurably easier to traverse with horn light, even if it tinted everything around it. Finally being able to see would have calmed Bullseye's racing heart, steadied her rough breathing if she couldn't hear Snow Cone calling for help. Immersion wasn't running. Sure, he was moving, but trotting steps were measured and specific. At each turn, he pointed the light from his horn down each hallway before continuing on. He's a professional... That comment about him being a cop? Seemed more like detective at this point. "Somebody help!" Immersion sped up. Bullseye kept the pace until they rounded a corner towards what Bullseye recognized again as the dining room, with white light coming from underneath the door. Both of them entered without waiting. Floating boules of white magic floated around in the air around Snow Cone, casting the room in a static tint that mixed with Immersion's orange. It would have been pretty if not for the body Snow was cradling in her hooves. Immersion responded first, totting around the table. "What happened?" Bullseye seemed fit to let him have this one. She was far more shaken than he was, apparently. Just... take the backseat and calm down. Snow Cone looked ragged, she still had a few tears on her muzzle, but she let Violaceus go and stepped away. "She-something came out of the dark. She's-she's hurt really bad." The poor mare was taking it far worse than Bullseye was, and she hadn't seen a pony get nailed to the floor. Wave was dead from an impact wound to the back of her head. At a glance, Bullseye could just tell. You don't get very far in her line of work without picking up a few simple skills like that. Immersion apparently did too, after a simple inspection under the part of her mane where the blood was seeping out. "She's dead." He said simply, looking up and quickly glancing around the room. "W-wh-" Snow Cone stuttered. "What? No! She-" Immersion shook his head. "She's older than she looks. Some kind of treatment probably. It was probably half the impact, half the fall, but she's definitely dead." Snow Cone dropped onto her flanks and the tears started flowing again. "No..." She said quietly. "I-" A shake wracked her body. "She can't be..." Bullseye took a few steps over and sat down with the mare. She didn't lean into any contact, but Bullseye still felt the need to be there. Immersion turned back towards the body. "There's good news though." His horn lit, and Wave's mane lifted in his aura. "With a blooded impact wound, I can trace the murder weapon. We can find this bastard." Snow Cone's shaking increased, but the tears stopped. Bullseye's brow furrowed. Immersion did some magic, a flash and a twirl from his horn, and then a lamp shone orange like it was made of one of those glowy drinks. Immersion didn't waste any time lifting it off from the inconspicuous counter it was on, to find the blood underneath it. Bullseye stood again, and took a single step away from Snow Cone. "Who puts the murder weapon back on the table?" "Somepony who had the time to." Immersion said in subtle agreement as his face creased with focus and his horn exploded with light again. Waves of magic flowed like nearly invisible waves around the lamp stick, before spontaneously cutting back to simple levitation. He's not just a detective, he's a proper mage. He drew his pistol and pointed it at Snow Cone. "Do you want to explain why this is covered in your aura?" "WHAT?" "The submissive maid? Are you kidding me?" "Shut up for a second, there's more." "I-" Snow Cone shook again, and whatever she tried to say was cut off by a choked sob. "Something came out of the dark? In far reaching light like this? Something? Snow Cone?" The pistol levitated forwards, and Immersion intelligently kept his distance. Bullseye stepped in-between the pistol and Snow Cone. Immersion sent her a look, but she just lifted her paw. She still couldn't believe it. It still didn't make sense. Her cutie mark was itching something fierce. She was till missing something. She turned toward the maid and offered a paw. "Snow Cone." The maid looked up at her, still cringing and shying away. She thinks... Bullseye knelt down. "Snow, I'm not gonna hurt you. At worst, you're gonna go to prison." That got the blubbering started again. Damnit Bullseye, prison? That's the best you can come up with? "I-I-I-di-" A hiccup. "Didn't mean- She just... I-" More tears. "It-it- Accident. I didn't-" A huff and more tears. Bullseye reached out for Snow Cone's mane and gave it a gentle pat. It seemed to help. "She found out." Snow choked. "I didn't mean to hit her so hard." Her hooves came up to Bullseye's paw and gripped it like a life line. "You have to belie-" another hiccup "-eve me. I'm sorry-I didn't mean to." Bullseye inched forwards in her kneel and hugged the mare. Fuck. That was an admittance. Snow Cone had murdered Violaceus Wave. This whole situation is fucked. "I'm-I'm so-rry!" Once Bullseye had initiated the hug, Snow had reciprocated like it was the last thing she was ever going to do. "I just wanna go home!" She continued to cry, "I wanna see my filly again!" Immersion snorted, "Then you shou-" Hoof steps. Multiple, and incoming. "That's when I figured out the first part of the puzzle. Snow Cone wasn't the killer." "She... she wasn't?" "She did literally kill someone." "She did, but she said it was an accident, and I was inclined to believe her. That, and if she was the cudgel wielding maniac from before, why use a lamp to kill Wave? And why stick around after the fact? Wave's death was just that, an accident, and as soon as I heard those approaching hooves, I was reminded of the actual danger." "... If that's true, it still begs the question of why Wave was killed." "..." "..." "What's that look?" "Yeah-uh- I may have forgotten about that part? In the moment?" "What?" "How coul-" "The oncoming ponies! There were things happening and I got distracted!" Bullseye let go of Snow Cone and stood up. "Stay behind me." Then she turned to Immersion. "How many left?" His eyes remained narrowed, but he got the message and turned with her to face the sound of incoming hooves. His pistol raised up in front of him, close enough for him to see down the sights of the tiny thing. "Four." Was all he said. Then they waited. The hoof steps got louder. Bullseye tensed, strained her ears. Prepared for a fight. If a pony with a cudgel came through that door? They were going to die. The moment dragged on, and a different noise resolved through the heavy hoof steps. Talons. Bullseye held out a paw to Immersion, who raised an eyebrow and lowered his pistol. Verglas and Johnson entered through the door, slowly revealing themselves in the light. Bullseye let out a sigh of relief, and Immersion holstered his pistol again, somewhere underneath his duster. Verglas matched Bullseye's happy look that they were both still alive after getting chased. She didn't mention it though, cutting right to the chase. "The hell is going on." Ley summed up everyone's thoughts. Bullseye opened her mouth but Immersion beat her to it. "Telephone Wire is dead-" Snow Cone gasped and interrupted, "No! That- I didn'-" Bullseye hushed her, "It's okay Snow, we know. You couldn't've." "Wave's dead then." Johnson said calmly. Inspecting the mare, who had yet to be moved. She was still just laying sprawled out on the floor. "Snow Cone killed her." Immersion answered, seemingly trying to match Johnson's grace. Ley's eyebrows shot up, "whAT?!" Bullseye continued standing in front of Snow Cone. "It's not what you think." "Oh?" Verglas stepped up, "Please explain then!" "Just relax!" Bullseye looked back towards Snow for a second, which was apparently the wrong move. "We're in a labyrinth." Johnson stated. "Where did you go when we all broke up, Johnson?" Immersion accused. Bullseye tried to calm the group. "Wait! Stop!" It didn't work. "Um... ?" "I followed after you." Johnson answered, still low and steady. "Where did you go?" "I was with-" Just as he turned to Bullseye, she shouted. "EVERYONE SHUT UP." A beat passed. "Something bigger is going on here-" "Hey, yo-" Bullseye continued, "We can't be bickering. What do we know?" Verglas was the first to talk. "That pony that chased us? They were a pony. Definitely." That rules out her and Terri. Immersion nodded with Ley "Telephone Wire was strangled by hooves. So that checks out." Wait "Guys?" Bullseye turned fully to Immersion, "What do you mean strangled? He was choked, wasn't he?" Immersion shook his head, "That was what the killer was originally going for. They must have given up when you got there and gone for a quicker kill." "Are you sure?" Bullseye took a step closer. "There was blood in the eyes, and bruises around the neck." Immersion grumbled. "Yes I'm sure." "So they were in a hurry." Johnson questioningly added. Verglas narrowed her eyes, "A hurry to get down here, and kill another, perhaps?" As soon as all eyes pointed to Snow, she pointed at the walls. "LOOK!" Near the corners, blocked from vision by the paneling in the ceiling and seeping through the cracks in the wood was white smoke. It was already filling the air, and collecting on the ground. "GAS!" Bullseye screamed, "EVERYONE OUT!" There was a tumble of limbs towards the door. Ley got there first after leaping over the table. The doors jangled, but they stayed closed. "Locked!" She shouted, followed by a viscous cough. "Immersion!" His pistol drew with a flash of orange, and it hovered in front of the door for a moment. Everyone held their breath while nothing happened. "What are you waiting for?!" Ley shouted at him. Immersion's eyes were jumping to points on the door, "I can't find the bolts! It might be magically sealed!" "The kitche-" Snow's exclamation was cut off by a cough. Bullseye was starting to feel it too, the itching in her throat, the burning in her lungs and nose. They were running out of time. Snow was already stumbling her way towards the hidden doors. "There's a way out though the other side of the kitchen!" Bullseye's cutie mark itched. "Snow Cone! Wait!" She went stumbling away from the door too, coughing, and woozily twisting as her legs tried and failed to respond to her instructions properly. She nearly stumbled, but Johnson suddenly jumped to her side and started leading her forwards. Ley had jumped up onto the table, scattering materials and taking a deep breath before catching up with the rest of them. Snow Cone passed through the hidden doors and screamed, the yelp was cut off in the middle. No... "Snow!" The path through the smog lasted agonizingly long, Bullseye couldn't move any faster. She had to move faster. Eventually, she took a quick breath as soon as they barreled through the doors. Everything in her body jumped into action, expecting the cudgel or a gun or something. It was just an empty kitchen. The rest came in, and Ley shut the doors behind them. "Where's Snow?!" Immersion shouted, coughing and stepping away from the door. "Leave her! She killed Wave!" Ley argued Johnson looked like he was about to punch her in the face, "She's the only one of us that knows how to get the hell outta here you idiot!" With that settled, Bullseye was already shouting and coughing in tandem. "SNOW!" Not again "SNOW, TALK TO ME! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Bullseye didn't realize how loud she was until she turned to see both Immersion's and Johnson's ears folded down. "Help me! I'm trapped!" Bullseye spun around. Desperately trying to find where the voice came from. "KEEP TALKING SNOW! WHERE ARE YOU?!" "I fell! There's-" The rest was cut off by Ley flapping her wings at the door. The gas was seeping in, she was pushing it back with her wings. They were running out of time. THINK BULLSEYE. Everything went quiet. The flapping slowed, the metal in the kitchen glimmered from Immersion's horn light. She passed through the door and whatever got her, it happened immediately. No where in line of sight. She fell. The yell cut half way through. She's still alive, close by, trapped, fell, cut-off, nearby, audible, cut-off, fell, close by- Everything came back into focus, and Bullseye knelt down. "SNOW!" Her paw came down in a fist on the tiles. The other was feeling along the grooves in the grout, the mixture of banging and feeling led her to something that didn't feel quite right. "SNOW! SNOW ARE YOU DOWN THERE!" "The hell are you doing back there!?" Ley shouted over her shoulder. "YES! HELP! IT'S FILLING WITH WATER!" It was some flat thing, the grout lines disappeared, even though they were there visibly, and the impact of her paw on the fake tiles made it clear that there was an illusion. Immersion stepped up, having apparently figured out the same thing. "Move!" Bullseye rolled, instead of standing up. A flash of light, and a pane of glass embedded into the floor revealed itself. "Help me!" Snow cried. Really cried, the tears were audible. Bullseye rolled back and got a good look. It was a small chamber made of metal, just barely big enough to fit a pony, it wouldn't've fit Johnson. Snow was stuck at the bottom, and water was flowing up from the grate at the bottom that made up the floor. There was no way out, and the water was already up to her fetlocks. Immersion's pistol flipped out with zero hesitation, and a bullet went straight into the glass. Bullseye flinched from the volume, but watched the ping as the glass resisted with nary but a scratch to its surface. "Shit!" Immersion shouted "What's going on back there!?" Ley yelled back, still trying to keep the gas at bay. She'd taken several steps back, and Bullseye could tell from the exertion that they didn't have much time left. The doors were practically invisible at this point, covered in gas. "Move." Johnson stepped up to the glass pane, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Bullseye wisely moved out of the way. "That's when Johnson proved his innocence in all of this." "He saved her?" "Oh, yeah. It wasn't saving her that proved him innocent though, it was the way he did it." "Explain?" "He proved that if he really wanted to kill us all? He could have just done it. You'd expect somepony that size to be slow right? You know, lumbering, but back breaking punches, right?" "..." "His hoof came down on that glass four times before I could even blink. Not to mention the roar. He screamed like a dragon who just had their hoard stolen. You ever see someone punch through glass designed to stop a bullet?" Bullseye recoiled with eyes wide. She felt the impacts as they happened. On the fourth, the one where she recognized what was actually happening, Johnson's hoof split open and covered the pane with blood on the fifth. Every strike involved raising his entire body up, making his torso jump back up, nearly getting air, every time the hoof came down. On the seventh strike, the glass cracked, on the tenth, his hoof went through. What was left of his crumpled leg reached around the inside of the shattered glass, and in a blur of brown fur stained red, he peeled the glass back until something broke on the edges. The broken glass cover got to enjoy a short flight as it flew across the room and exploded on the wall. The entire series of events took three whole seconds to happen. Bullseye shoved a paw into the hole and grabbed Snow just as Ley screamed in pain. Immersion bodily shoved Snow out of the hole and into Bullseye's arms with his magic. "Mage rifle! Get down!" Ley stumbled away from the door, the gas pouring in as another hole got punched through the door and the floating gas like a viper moving so quick, that only the backlash was visible. Bullseye bodily hefted herself and Snow up. She was still blubbering, Bullseye practically dragged her along as Johnson and Immersion both dove for cover. How the fuck can he even move still. Even with his leg broken all the way up to the shoulder, Johnson was still the fastest to find cover of any of them. Bullseye got Snow around the corner of a pillar, and then sunk down, whipping Snow around with her. "Snow!" More crying. Bullseye lightly shook her, "Snow! Focus! You have to tell us how to get out of here!" Another crash, the sound of a mage rifle round passing through tiles and metal like butter. Snow nodded and sucked in a breath, already moving. Bullseye leaned out from cover to get a look. It was a monster. Near chest height to her, and not proportional either. The limbs were extended, the fur was missing in those particular regions. The pony in question, even under the mask, had fluid spewing and foaming at their mouth glittering with alchemical magics. Their steps were jittery, shaking with barely contained energy that simply didn't belong in their body. Muscles rippled and strained against the flesh underneath, tearing in certain places, weeping crimson blood down their coat and onto the floor. The mage rifle in their front hoof leveled in her direction in the split second she stuck her head out of cover. A crack sounded off, gunpowder, and Bullseye watched in stunned flight or fight as one of Immersion's shots glanced off the pony's coat. Sending them stumbling and squealing in rage like a pig. "This way!" Snapped Bullseye out of her trance, and she turned to see Snow hefting open a heavy metal door. A freezer. Bullseye didn't hesitate, half jumping from four limbs to two. Her and Johnson reached the door first, and she watched him slide past on three legs as Bullseye roughly shoved Snow past the door with him and held it open herself. Immersion was next, he ran in trailing his gun in his aura and Ley over his shoulder. Her right wing had been nearly shot off. Bullseye began to slam the door closed just as stallion, she was sure it was a stallion now, turned the corner and spoke. "I wouldn't call it speaking. Really." "How would you describe it? He was on something, I take it?" "Like if you could still talk while you were drowning. It was loud, guttural, and it scraped at my insides." "RUN-RUN-RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!" They gagged in a yell, advancing on the door. Bullseye slammed it shut and stepped backwards into the frigid air of the freezer. Her ears picked up the rest of the pony's terrifying proclamation. "I'LL CATCH YOU." She turned and dashed. Not really sure why anymore. She just had to get away. There was a hallway, there were ponies at the end of it. Go. Was all her mind told her. As she ran, holes opened up in the wall as Mage rounds passed through the walls, food and shrapnel of ceramic tiles flew in almost complete silence to her mind as she sprinted across the freezer to the opposite door. She stepped through as the other one opened, and Johnson slammed the portal behind her closed with a well placed buck that sent it rattling in its hinges. Ley and Immersion were already running ahead, Snow had waited to start moving, and Johnson had already pulled ahead. So she kept running, ducking down instinctively as more destroyed ceramic shards flew from the wall. She heard the monster of a pony cackling as they fired round after round. Then they were out of the opposing kitchen, and into more hallway. The cackling went quiet as Bullseye stumbled through the doors, but the rain didn't. She could hear the lightning, and she sprinted off, overtaking Johnson, who nodded to her as she passed. "They're going the wrong way!" Snow yelled. "Immersion!" Bullseye yelled up, but a peal of thunder silenced the sound. They turned a corner, and it was the only thing they could do to follow. Snow gasped and stumbled just ahead of Bullseye. Her eyes snapped to Snow's form as she half stumbled, and as she was moving, she knelt down and grabbed Snow by the hoof. Snow tried to keep up with the dragging, but she was gasping and retching and whimpering every time Bullseye had to tug her forwards to keep pace. Fuck this! A twist, and a random application of force with limbs that she didn't know how to use properly led to Snow getting scooped up in her arms. "It was sheer luck on my part, that I didn't fall. I don't even know how to describe what I did, I just did it." "Why was..." "I'm sure you figured it out already." "..." "Mage rifles are illegal for a reason. As far as they've been tested, infinite penetration, and completely silent. There are just some things that you shouldn't use on a fellow." Bullseye's chest felt wet. The blood running down Snow's coat had found hers. Snow continued to gasp, and lightly paw at Bullseye, staring off into the middle distance. "Hold on Snow!" Bullseye and Johnson turned the corner. Immersion was at a door with windows, rain was pouring in from the side. It was the center of the structure, the garden. "Move it! This way!" Snow's words struck again, "WAIT!" That's the wrong fucking way idiot! There's no way out! Despite that, Bullseye kept running towards the door. There was too much going on for her to suddenly turn around. A hoof wrapped around her paw. "I'm sorry." Snow said softly. "It's okay Snow-" "Beanie-I love you so much." Snow's words were strangled, from her position upside down in Bullseye's arms, stomach up, the blood was flowing from her face, strangling her words. The quarter sized hollow tube now running from her flanks to her chest was pressurized now. Bullseye could feel the heartbeat in the hoof grasping her paw slowing down. Bullseye followed Johnson out the door, and into the gardens. It was too much. She was just moving. Snow continued to whisper. "I'm sorry." Talking to something or someone unseen. The rain and the sudden smells of being outdoors only amplified the confusion. A flash of lightning and the three seconds delayed peal of thunder covered the time it took for her to catch up to Immersion and Ley. They were struggling with the shed, it was locked of course. Snow started to convulse, shivering as the cold and rain water filled her fur and her wounds. Bullseye tried to shield her from the worst of it. Immersion fired a shot at the door. Ley still couldn't get it open. There was a crash of glass as the monster simply went through one of the windows, laughing all the while. Bullseye snatched Immersion's pistol from the air as he tried futilely to slam it into the lock. She had better leverage, and shook her whole body with the force of desperately trying to break in. Snow leaned over as Bullseye struck down again. She reached a hoof out, and there was the vibrant sensation from Bullseye's inner core of something happening as the lock picked itself off the door and fell to the mud. Then Snow's heart stopped. "IN. NOW!" Bullseye wasn't sure who said it, but they all piled inside in a flurry of limbs, shoving past each other to get inside. Immersion's magical glow slammed the door shut behind them then snuffed out. Submerging the group in darkness, and the wet sounds of rain.
Chapter Four: Perilous Profundity "I swear I blacked out... or something. I didn't even realize how hard my heart was beating until the moment passed." "Passed? You mean, whoever they were-" "They left. Yeah. Just like that." "I don't understand." "Neither did we, but that didn't stop us all from mindlessly holding our breaths for nearly a minute before somebody said something." "Is-are they gone?" Ley grunted, a talon still trying to stem the blood flow from her wing. That snapped Bullseye out of her terrified, adrenaline fueled haze. She nearly dropped the dead mare in her arms, instead, setting her down as quickly and smoothly as physically possible. The rain was deafening on the wooden shack. Yet, oddly, Bullseye felt metal between her back paws, and her limbs as she set down the maid. She only noticed after the weight was out of her arms that she still had Immersion's pistol in her hand. She stuffed it into her dress, if he wanted it back, he'd ask. It made her feel better to have it. Immersion responded with. "That doesn't make any sense. They could have killed us all, just put every round through the wall until we're all dead." "But they didn't." Johnson added "Not that I'm opposed-ow-fuck" Ley twitched her claw away from her still destroyed wing joint. "Snow's dead." Bullseye said quietly. The lack of anything else to focus on letting her catch up to the moment. "Will somebody help me?" Bullseye heard the snarl from Ley. Her eyes caught through the barely visible orange glow, Ley wrapping her wing with white cloth she had produced from somewhere. "Snow is dead." Bullseye said louder, cutting through the sound of the rain. Silence passed for a few moments. "She died opening the door for us." The rain fell. This wasn't going at all like what Bullseye expected. Every step something changed, or someone died. She was barely afloat. "Fuck..." Ley breathed after another few seconds passed in silence. "Fucking-what the fuck. What is going on?!" "I'd like to know that myself." Immersion said, stepping forwards and lighting his horn with a spell. Snow's body began to glow orange, and her dress ruffled from the telekinetics. It took a moment for Bullseye's brain to catch up with what she was seeing. "The fuck are you doing!" She stepped forwards, intent on punching his lights out. Johnson stepped between them and held her back with a hoof that said, 'if you make me actually hold you back, I'll just break your pelvis.' She stopped of her own will but still snarled at Immersion. "Copping a feel you cold-sick-fuck!?" Something removed itself from Snow's dress. An empty vial, clearly shown in Immersion's aura. "I'm sorry, what?" "You heard me." "Now I know this is a lie, you poisoned the wine. Not Snow Cone." "Hold on for a second Gerald..." "...Bossmare sees it now... You've got a cute thinking face, ya know that?" "...Continue with your testimony, please, Miss Bullseye." "Yes ma'am." "What the fuck is that." Ley asked, even though they all knew . Johnson turned, no longer needing to hold back Bullseye. "Are ya saying that..." "She poisoned the wine? Yes." Immersion said simply, "Which is odd." He continued. "Because I distinctly remember poisoning the wine myself." Holy shit... Bullseye's mind itched in satisfaction as all the pieces came together. "It's a trap." "What?" Immersion answered Ley's question. "We're all here for the same reason; to kill Origami." Another beat of silence passed. Bullseye was staring off into the middle distance, still trying to put her thoughts to words. The rain kept pouring, peals of thunder shook the shack. "That doesn't make any sense. What about Wave and Wire?" Ley asked Immersion responded flippantly, "Why do you think the information broker was killed first?" Silence from Ley as another moment passed with rippling thunder. "Alright." She sat up a little straighter, "I'll admit it. I poisoned the wine too." All of them sat there. Their images flickering in the orange horn light of Immersion. There were shared glances of creatures that no longer wanted to be here. Creatures that were scared and hurt. Deep breaths Bullseye, hold it together. She took a step away from the growing blood puddle on the ground. "Why." Immersion stressed, "All of us. Any clue could get us out of here. I'm a double agent, been working the bad side for years to get close enough for a shot at taking him out. Ley; You next." She sighed, "I'm an assassin. Money. That's it." "You don't look it." Johnson commented. Ley snarled back in his direction. "I'm not a movie assassin. I get paid to kill things quietly, not fight monsters." Immersion grunted, "Shut up. Johnson, you next." Johnson's destroyed limb came to his chest, cradling itself against the fur, already tinted red. "Origami wanted my brother to throw a fight. He didn't, whacked him in an alleyway, this is justice, for me." Bullseye's eyes narrowed and she looked at Johnson in confusion. "Terri. You next." Immersion stated, breaking her reverie. "My..." She started, catching Johnson's eyes as she stuttered, "My daddy was killed... for the same reason." Her cutie mark itched. "Deadeye." She said, the name she hadn't spoken in years rising from her throat with passion she wasn't expecting. Recognition lit up in Johnson's eyes. "Little Iris?" He asked in awe. He looked her up and down, "Why are yo-" "The fuck is happening right now?" Ley asked in equal confusion. "That's impossible. My daddy didn't have a brother." Bullseye affirmed. Johnson staggered a step closer, "We went into boxing together. He used to say, 'pick up your hooves-" "-and fight something bad'." ~ "-and fight somethin' bad'." They finished together. The rain fell, the thunder rumbled, they were all probably going to die here. Probably. But they were together. They stared at each other in silence as Immersion continued, "We all know why Snow wanted out. So that leaves the question of who is trying to kill us." Bullseye opened her mouth. "No. I don't- What? Are you serious?" "Terri was dead for a reason. Snow was forced to be there, alone. The only staff for the whole mansion, built specifically for one thing: to be a trap. We were all invited, lied to about the details by who? The same pony who wasn't at all surprised that there was poison in his wine. He had a plan before he tasted it, he was already leaving by the time any of us figured out we'd been caught." "Origami..." "It was a trap the whole time." "A trap for his would be killers." "So he could have a go at us like a hunter letting out a bunch of foxes into secluded woods, just to track us down." "..." "Fuck." "Fuck is right, birdy boy." "Sonuva-" Ley began Immersion's horn shone brighter. The interior of the shack was revealed. The walls and ceilings were wood, but that's where the features of the shack ended. The metal floor reflected the orange light, and the shack was shown to be empty. It was just a topper to a very slim staircase at the back, surrounded by more metal grating. "Where is this?" Johnson asked as he took a slow step towards the stairs. "Our way out of here." Ley answered, standing up and moving towards the stairs. "Wait." Bullseye said, heavily. This isn't over. The motley crew of damaged survivors turned to face her. She stood as tall as she could. "We're not leaving yet. Not without dealing with Origami." Immersion inclined his head. "I'm not sure you noticed Terri, but he took a bullet and barely cared. I've only got one left. You willing to bet all of our lives I can put one through his eyes? To bet that it'd even work?" "Then let's lay a trap." She argued. Ley snorted, "Fuck that. I'm out. No money is worth this." Immersion slowly acquiesced, following Ley to the stairs. It was clear he wanted to argue the point more too. "I'm sorry but she's right." Johnson's unbroken hoof patted her side. "Sometimes, ya just gotta know when to bail." Hoof steps on metal. Like hell I'm... Bullseye looked towards Snow Cone, and the blood pooling around her, staining her disgusting dress and what should have been her pristine white fur. I'm going to kill him. She wanted to take Snow with her. She couldn't lug a body around like that. She wanted to. "..." "..." "Your goons busted up my place already, yeah?" "They did." "Didja find my money stash?" "..." "...No they didn't." "Gerald." "It's her money anyways." "Give it to... whoever the-just. Find out who Snow Cone's filly was. The stash is under the door. You've gotta remove the frame on the inside to get at the floor panel it's hidden under. Tell 'em I'm sorry I couldn't do better by her momma, and that she died doing real good." "...There's no telling when we'd be able to, or-" "You know, it's funny." "What?" "I totally forgot to write down anything that just happened in the last minute or so, and I'm struggling to remember. Did you say anything important that I should take to the law just now?" "Gerald." "Nope." "Well that's good enough for me." "Thanks." "..." "..." "...Fine..." The sounds of steps on metal were mixed with the wet, echoing dripping noise of water getting into the concrete tunnels beneath the manor. Down the stairs, there was a three way intersection, with pipes and lines of arcane ducts up at the top corner of the wall. It was pitch black in any direction not lit by Immersion's horn light. "Well what now?" Ley questioned, as they Immersion and Johnson both stared off into the subsuming darkness Bullseye, meanwhile, had her thinking cap on. The pipes. "This whole place is rigged to the nines." She was, at the moment, tall enough to reach her limb up to the thickest pipe. Not only could she feel the water rushing through, but she could hear it, from this close. "Pressure. For hydraulics." Immersion joined her, looking up at the equipment, "You mean, something that could lock a door?" "Exactly what I'm thinking." There were other pipes in there too, nothing for hot water though. Bullseye smiled when she came across one that said: 'Warning: Flammable'. "Think you can get those bolts loose?" She asked. Ley immediately interjected herself into the conversation with an accusatory "I'm not sure I like where this is going." Immersion creased his brow, "It'd be easier to just cut the pipe open, but why?" Bullseye smiled, "Not open. Loose." She pointed down the hallway. "The water's coming from that direction, it's pressurized, which means there's a pump. We loosen these until we find the source, and then we blow it to Tartarus." Verglas nodded "Then all the pipes down this way will rupture, sure, but we don't have the time. That... thing isn't just gonna leave us down here." "We burn the fucker out." Johnson decided. "Let's get to work." Immersion agreed. Ley hung her head and sighed. "I thought they were against setting a trap?" "I think it was more that they were against fighting Origami, or coming up with another plan. This one was easy, and readily accessible, despite it taking longer to get out. If there was a way out down where we were going." "I just... why the change of heart?" "None of them wanted to leave the bastard alive bossmare, that's what you're forgetting. I just needed a solution, options; rather than what I had, which was only loose hope that we could take him out." "How long did it take? Before you got to where you were going?" "Well, we ended up only mussing up the bottom halves of each pipe. Four bolts per, loosen all of 'em, take out the bottom so it'd drip. It was smelly, gas, something-I dunno, but Immersion was getting his hackles up about how long it was taking, so we had to cut corners." "Alright, this one's done." Immersion ducked away from the pipework and trotted forwards. Bullseye slammed her fist against the pipe at the seam where they connected. It shook, and started to drip. As they loosened more pipes, the fumes were starting to fill the hall. Ley was still against the whole process, but was at least willing to go along with the group. "Can we hurry this up?" "Seconded." Immersion kept the pace, but skipped the next seam. Bullseye and Immersion kept working until they came to another junction. Immersion was the first to stick his head around the corner, he had the horn after all. "Which way do you think?" Bullseye looked down each path before letting out a soft hum. "We're under the mansion now. I can't hear the rain." Bullseye noted. Immersion nodded, but didn't say anything. "Whatever we're doing, can we do it now? Please?" Immersion took a few steps forwards, "Right it is then." Ley followed after, and Immersion started on the next seam when Johnson pulled on Bullseye's dress. She turned, of course. "Bullseye." He said. Bullseye waited for a second, mulling over answering to her name right now. "Yeah?" She eventually settled. "I..." Johnson seemingly also had no clue what to do. "Ahm not very good with words." Bullseye turned the corner, Johnson tailed after, "Later then, when we get out of here." Johnson fell silent. Guess that's the end of that. "Hey, look alive back there, there's light's ahead." Ley called back. Bullseye and Johnson quickened their pace, meeting with Ley and Immersion as the group passed through a door-less opening into a two story room full of screens and more exits. The catwalk along the sides of the walls had no clear way of getting up besides just having wings, and all of the screens were dark. There were no pipes in here, they had converged into the wall and seemingly gone around. Overall, it was a bland, empty room, and put them no further to escape than another hallway would have. Ley walked up to the railing and looked down into the room. "Where do we go now?" "We-" "DUCK!" "I honestly have no clue who said it. It could have been me, and in hindsight, it probably was." "Duck? Did-" "Yeah, the fucker turned the corner. I drew Immersion's pistol, it was a messed up draw, what with the fingers and all for a unicorn pistol, but I did get it out." BANG Bullseye inhaled quickly after she pulled the pistol. She was not ready for that kick. The split second it took her to aim and fire was enough though. Origami, looking notably less monstrous, flinched back, and there was a spark of arcane energy that popped and sizzled from his rifle. In the next moment, he pulled the trigger, and another spark and a zap signaled the weapon's death by Bullseye's aim. There was a standoff as everyone in that basement realized who was outnumbered and suddenly unarmed. "Get him!" Immersion shouted, just as Origami spun into a gallop down the opening he came from with a wet laugh. There was a tangle of limbs. Bullseye roughly stuffed the pistol back into her dress. Somehow, Johnson overtook all of them, running on three legs. He was the first to catch up with Origami, Bullseye watched him grab the bastard's tail from behind, silhouetted by Immersion's horn light against the dark. She watched him nearly take Origami's back hoof to the face too but he turned and rolled it into his shoulder. Immersion tried to flip Origami over as Bullseye just threw her weight onto him from above. Origami didn't care. He kept laughing and laughing. While less viscous looking, and still hidden behind the mask, he ignored Immersion's telekinetic shunt and reared up, slamming both hooves into Bullseye just as she got close. Bullseye came-to with her lungs telling her they still weren't full even after she sucked in another breath from her spot collapsed against the wall. Shadows flashed in her blurred vision as Immersion and Johnson continued to tussle with their tormenter. Bullseye could smell the gas as she sucked in breath after breath. Ley came to her side as Bullseye was getting up. "Are you okay?!" "I'm go-" Bullseye coughed up blood "He's getting away!" Bullseye pushed Ley, "Go! Go-" Another cough, "A-after him!" Ley ran, Bullseye chased after the fleeting horn light of Immersion as they turned a corner. The adrenaline in her system let her ignore the bruising in her back, and the stinging in her chest. Another corner, and Bullseye heard a strange noise as she was plunged into pitch black. "..." "... Is this whe-" "No. Sorry. I knew this part was gonna be hard." "What happened?" "..." "We can take a moment? If you'd like?" "...No. No I'm okay." Bullseye collapsed against a wall as another cough took her. Fuck, broken ri- Her thought was cut off as blaring white flood lights blinked on and forced her eyes shut. The wall she was leaning on was a door, a door that had been shut. Bullseye stepped back and looked around. She was still in the hallway portion, but it opened up. There was glass that showed the other side of the room. Verglas Ley was trapped inside; on the other side of the opposite wall, also looking through the glass was Johnson and Immersion. Clunk. The ceiling came down a hoof. Heavy gears shifted loud enough for Bullseye to hear through the wall, and the whole thing dropped like a stone. It was stone, which made plenty of sense. Ley was trying to force the door open with her talons. Clunk. Another hoof. Bullseye realized through her haze what was happening. There were marks in the wall where a rail or gears or something could slide down it. It was a crusher. Clunk Bullseye coughed again as she inhaled more acrid gas. There must be some hydraulics in the door, something malfunctioning. If I can find it and break it more- Bullseye looked up as Ley started banging on the glass on her side. Her mouth moved but Bullseye couldn't hear her. She pointed at the door and then dove for it. Bullseye tried to find an edge to stick her paws into, and barely found one. Clunk It was head height with her now, and there was no moving the door. Bullseye stumbled to the side and ran her fingers along the seam of the glass and metal the wall was made up of. Right where it came into the stone near the edge of her hallway, there was some sort of fluid sealer leaking the fumes. Clunk Ley started banging her talons on the glass while Bullseye used her nails and claws to desperately try and dig into the stone. Using a shaping charm made her look like a diamond dog. It didn't make her claws as sharp as steel, it didn't give her their strength. She was still just an earth pony underneath, and she'd yet to meet anyone who could dig through solid concrete at will. Clunk Ley shrunk away from the window and pressed her talons against the ceiling Bullseye stepped back with her eyes wide. Clunk The albino griffon's arms crumpled under the weight. Bullseye watched a bone in Ley's forelimb snap as the weight of the ceiling simply moved her arms out of the way. Ley was crying now, she had stumbled up the glass again, and was beating at it with her good leg. Clunk She screamed obscenities' and pleas and blame Clunk Then her head disappeared below the glass as she was forced onto her stomach. Clunk Bullseye could barely hear the scream. But she heard it. The gargling, jagged scream of someone who had been halfway crushed. Clunk Then nothing. Nothing but Bullseye's heavy breathing, and the near silent white noise that was pervading the back of her mind as she tried to rationalize what she just saw. She was mindlessly clutching at her stomach, the weight of her broken ribs on the rest of her body. Then she heard the laughing. She spun around, and there he was. Still weeping blood from tears under his fur, still disgusting, still a monster. He revealed himself, stepping into the light fully, and Bullseye could finally make out the relative shape. He walked towards her idly, like he'd already gotten the kill. "I'm going to fucking kill you." Bullseye said. "HA" Was his crazed response. She lunged, but he was faster. A hoof came to her face as soon as she was in range to claw at him. She went stumbling, but caught herself. He kept closing, but slowly. "Origami, right?" Her cutie mark itched as she inhaled again. He laughed again, "You think you're such a clever bitch don't you?" Was his wet rebuttal. His voice was twisted like his body, completely unrecognizable to the snotty and slightly refined voice from before. She lunged again. He back hooved her again. She let herself fall this time, towards the glass, towards the wall. "You're so pitifully weak." He continued to advance, and Bullseye could hear the smile from under the mask. "I'm going to pull your ovaries out through your nose with my bare hooves." He chuckled. She kept sliding herself away with her paws, scooting away from him on her butt. Bullseye pulled out the pistol. He stopped for a second. "That can't hurt me." He took another step forward, "Give up. You can't win." "That's the thing about ponies like you." Bullseye smiled. "You think I can't kill you and live to tell about it." Origami snarled, something between a mix of a growl and slavering beast grunting in rage. He tried to slam a hoof down on her leg, she scrambled backwards until her back was to the wall. "And you're right." Bullseye quipped, still leveling the pistol at the monster. It was out of bullets, but that didn't matter. He stopped to consider what she said, she saw his brow furrow. "I don't mind throwing this fight!" She stuck the pistol into the leaking gas-click
