Watson had no idea what else was in the room. Beakers were full of colorful liquids. Papers had random equations with some of them being highlighted. The two stallions were just having a hard time finding things that they understood. Justin found something called ‘The Periodic Table of the Elements’ In one of Greg’s folders. On that paper, about a hundred little squares were placed next to each other in a random pattern. And inside each square there were one or two random letters.
“I’ve seen some of these letters on Greg’s papers before.” Justin was talking about the one or two letters in each box. “Look, each box has a name. Here's oxygen.” Watson pointed at the paper.
Watson took a look at it. It was a strange piece of work, he had to admit. He had no idea what it meant though. Justin took it from Watson and put it in the pocket of his uniform. “I’ll ask Sherlock when we get back.”
Watson looked for more clues. He saw a calendar posted on the wall. Watson walked towards it. Hopefully that won’t have any crazy math on it. The calendar was actually all blank except for one date. It was today’s date and it said, ‘KAP Meeting w/ Razorclaw @ 23:00 Horseshoe street.’
“Justin come look at this.” Watson waved to Justin. “Looks like Greg had a meeting with the King.”
“What?” Justin asked and started heading toward Watson. “When?”
“Today actually, at eleven p.m. That hasn't happened yet, has it?”
“Greg still could still make it if he was alive.”
“And look,” Watson pointed at the calendar, “this meeting is on Horseshoe Street. Do you know how close that it to Ponyville? Just a couple of kilometers away.”
“Kilometers are smaller than miles right?”
Watson rolled his eyes. He forgot ponies here don't use the metric system. “Yes Justin, they are.”
Watson looked at the calendar again. “I wonder what he meant by a ‘KAP’ meeting.”
***********************
“This next interrogation is going to have to be extremely short.” Sherlock thought. “It's not about the fastest case solving record; it's about bringing justice as soon as I can. I have till like what, eleven-twenty to solve this case?”
Just then a bright yellow pegasus poked her head through the door in the interrogation room. She looked very sad.
“Have a seat, Fluttershy.” Sherlock gestured to the chair.
Fluttershy walked in the room with her head down and wings almost touching the floor. Celestia, she was so depressed. Sherlock didn't want to ask her to close the door behind her, so he got up and shut it quietly. When Sherlock came back Fluttershy had not moved.
Sherlock started, “You know, when I was your age a friend of mine died to.” Sherlock spoke quietly. He was lying of course, but he still sounded sincere. “And it's sad because the last words I had ever said to him were, ‘I never want to see you again’ and I never did.” That wasn't so much of a lie. Those were Sherlock’s last words to his brother before he ran away and Sherlock never saw him again.
“That's sad.” Fluttershy said while staring into space. “It's because I killed a fish. I killed something so something got killed in my life.”
“No,”Sherlock said, “Don’t blame yourself. You actually did the right thing. You probably made Greg feel special. And the real murderer should be the one punished.”
Fluttershy didn't say anything.
Time to use old reliable, “You know Fluttershy, you remind me so much of myself when I was your age.”
Fluttershy looked at Sherlock with her mildly sad expression.
“I cherish life. I love animals. I love my friends and I would do anything for them if something was hurting them. And I mean it when I say anything.”
Fluttershy quietly said, “Me too.”
An awkward moment of silence followed.
Sherlock cleared his throat, “Now since we're so behind and you don’t really seem to be in the mood to talk, I'm going to speed things up. Since you were with a lot of ponies today I already know how a lot of your day went.”
Fluttershy didn't say anything. She could've said something actually, but Sherlock didn't hear anything.
“Let’s see, you woke up and cared for your animals. Then you set up your bird house. You saw Applejack and you told her about the screws in your birdhouse. Then Pinkie told you about Greg, but you said you already talked to him. So you talked to Greg in between your experience with Applejack and Pinkie.”
Fluttershy nodded.
“How did that go?”
Fluttershy sighed, remembering Greg again. “I told Applejack good bye and flew to my other bird houses so I could fill up those ones.
******************
But then Fluttershy heard a loud scream that sounded a lot like Spike. It came from the old empty house so Fluttershy wanted to investigate. She landed on the ground and walked around the house to see if Spike was nearby. When she turned the corner of the house she gasped when she saw Spike on the back of a gryphon. Spike’s back was cut up and his blood was dripping.
Fluttershy didn't ask who the gryphon was. She was more worried about Spike.
“What happened?!” She asked.
The gryphon spoke up. “He fell out of a tree. I just saw him fall. Do you know him?”
“Yes that's Spike. And he needs to get to a hospital.” Fluttershy walked towards the gryphon and the bloody Spike.
“I can do it.” the gryphon offered.
“Oh, alright, If that's alright with you.” Fluttershy decided that today wasn't a good day to argue with a gryphon.
Spike woke up. “No, I think I can make it.” Spike pushed himself off the gryphon and he stumbled to the ground.”
Fluttershy asked, “Are you sure?”
The gryphon cut in, “Yeah, Spike. Let me take you.”
Spike got balanced and said, “No, I can make it. It's not too far away.” And without letting anyone else talk, he ran off.
That left Fluttershy all alone with a gryphon. And Fluttershy was terrible at meeting new ponies. And even more terrible at meeting gryphons.
“I hope that little dude can make it all the way.” The gryphon watched Spike try to run away. He turned to Fluttershy and said, “My name’s Greg.” Greg held out a claw to shake Fluttershy’s hoof.
Fluttershy backed away and squeaked a little.
Greg saw that Fluttershy was acting scared. “What's wrong?” He asked.
“Please don't roar in my face.” Fluttershy pleaded.
Greg suddenly realized something, “Oh, you're the one my sis roared at.”
“You know Gilda?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yeah, she’s kind of my sister. She says she feels awful though, the way she treated you. She's wants to apologize.”
“I don't know if I'm ever going to see her again.” Fluttershy said.
“Oh, you probably will. Me and her just moved in.”
Fluttershy gasped from shook. “I-I got to go,” Fluttershy said. She started to fly away without looking back.
Greg called back to her and asked her to wait, but Fluttershy didn't dare to return.
**********************
“I didn't want her or her brother moving back. That's how upset I was.”
“But Greg helped Spike when he fell out of a tree.” Sherlock defended.
“I didn't see any trees around.” Fluttershy said.
Sherlock took a moment to remember the sides of Greg’s house. “You're right. That is strange isn't it. Carry on.”
“That's about it Sherlock. You probably know the rest. I borrowed some books from Twilight, read them and was going to go return them. That's when Pinkie jumped at me.”
“Did you ever find the book you dropped?” Sherlock remembered that Rarity took the book out of the bushes.
“No. I actually didn't have time to look for it. When I got to the spot where I dropped my books, Spike was there and he asked me if I had the book.”
“That's right. Spike wanted the ‘Gryphons’ book.”
“Right before the birdhouse fell on Rainbow Dash Spike asked me if a heard something. He said it sounded like something heavy fell.”
“The mail cupboard!” Sherlock whispered. “When Rarity heard it fall she left the apple cart with the breaks off. Then Spike came to the mail house later. The apple cart rolled down the hill and knocked Fluttershy’s bird house down. The cutie mark crusaders took the screws out and made it for their bear trap. The one Rainbow flew into! That's why Greg couldn't unscrew Rainbow from the trap! They were the screws that were supposed to be in Fluttershy’s birdhouse.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Sherlock said, “It wasn't important. So Spike asked you where the ‘Gryphons’ book was while Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were yelling at each other.”
Fluttershy nodded.
“Then Spike said he heard something, something that fell and then your birdhouse dropped onto Rainbow. She started getting nervous and she flew into the Everfree forest.”
Fluttershy nodded again.
“Then you were chasing after Rainbow, but she got away. You were searching for her, then you heard a fully scream and you went towards it.”
“How did you know? I was all alone that time.” Fluttershy asked.
Sherlock lightly smiled. He realized he hadn't done that in a while. “I deduced Fluttershy.” He paused. “So then you saw Greg push a bear off a cliff. The bear that almost hit Pinkie,”
Fluttershy cut in, “WHAT?!”
“That's a different story. So then you decided to give Greg a chance, seeing that he just saved three little fillies. You told him that his wing needed to be mended. You took him to your cottage, you told Rainbow to get the fillies home and then,” Sherlock stopped because he realized that he didn't know the rest. “When you were bandaging Greg something made you like him.”
Fluttershy blushed and explained, “He was calm. He told me about the King and how his mom never would have bandaged him up like me. And we just…talked.”
Fluttershy actually seemed to be handling the situation rather well. She was talking about somegryphon that she actually had affection for that died and she didn't seem to be crying.
“He talked about how he was a carnivore and how we take life for granted. He also said he hated his job and wished he could do what I did. I decided to show him some of my animals and when we were all done…he hugged me.”
“Then did Rainbow come back with Rarity?” Sherlock asked.
“She did. Greg said he had to work and he wished he could talk to me some more.”
“So that gave you an idea to throw him a dinner.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't want Gilda to come. Only Greg, but you invited Gilda to be nice.”
Fluttershy frowned. “Yes.”
“And you made fish to show Greg that you cared for him too.”
Fluttershy closed her eyes. This time she spoke in a teary voice, “Y-yes.”
Sherlock knew he had to finish soon. “And then Greg left in the middle of dinner. Eventually you went after him. You saw police tape around his house and you asked Officer Johnson what happened to him. They told you he committed suicide.”
A tear ran down Fluttershy’s cheek. Still with her eyes closed she managed to say, “Y-yes.”
Sherlock sighed. He was right. This was a sad interrogation. It was the shortest, yet it was the saddest. “Thank you, Fluttershy.” Sherlock said. “You can go back into the waiting room. Send out Twilight Sparkle.”
“Fluttershy nodded and got up from her chair. Before she left the room Sherlock called out, We’re almost done Fluttershy. We only have one more mare before the murderer gets caught. I'm not going say any names, but I think I know who it was.”
Fluttershy smiled at Sherlock and left the room.
“It’s Twilight,” Sherlock thought. “All I the mares day were crazy, yes, but they all seem to go along with each other.”
Sherlock also noted, “When the mares showed compassion to one of the gryphons they both had to do something real quick."
“Don't worry about that now Sherlock. Find out what Twilight was doing while the others were at dinner. And why she confessed.”
Sherlock stopped thinking as he waited for the next mare to come in. “Where's Watson? Pinkie said she saw Greg moving in boxes so what’s the holdup?”
*********************
“You think we should head back now?” Watson asked, “Sherlock should be done interrogating. That is, if he didn’t get carried away, of course.”
“In a little bit.” Justin said. He was still studying the Periodic Table. “There has to be a pattern to all this.”
In an effort to kill time while Justin was studying, Watson looked through one more box of science equipment.
It was the same old junk. Beakers and notes. But wait, what was that behind the box? Watson bent down to the floor and saw clearly, a dark purple basket. Watson picked it up. It was empty, but it did hold something once.
Watson set it on the table.
Justin called out, “Watson, tell me if you can hear a pattern. Hydrogen, Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Cesium, Francium. I’m seeing a lot of -um’s. I wonder if that has to do with anything.”
Watson wasn't listening. He was staring at the discovered basket. Something caught his eye. It was in black ink and was written on the outside of the basket. It said ‘T.W.S.’
“T.W.S, T.W.S.” Watson repeated to himself. He gasped when he said, “Twilight Sparkle! She’s one of the mares that's being interrogated.What’s her basket doing in here?
“I’m going to start the next column. Beryllium, Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium, Barium, and Radium”
“Where have I seen that signature before?” Watson wondered. It looked so painfully familiar.
Watson took the basket and flipped it upside-down. He almost screamed from shock. Facing down the signature read, 5.M.L. The exact same signature on the bottle of poison. “JUSTIN!” Watson interrupted Justin as he was reading Scandium. “The signature on the poison wasn’t 5.M.L. It was facing down! It was supposed to be T.W.S!”
Justin pondered for a moment. “Twilight Sparkle.” he whispered.
“That’s right! That was her bottle of poison back there! And she’s a unicorn! It must be her!”
Watson almost walked out, but it was Justin’s turn to say, “Wait. That doesn’t add up.”
Watson looked at Justin. Justin continued, “Twilight was the one who told me she talked to Greg. If she was the murderer then why did she confess?”
“Maybe to throw us off. If Sherlock finds her out then he could get killed. I’m going back to stop them. You can come with me or you can stay.”
“I’ll stay.” Justin looked back to his Periodic Table.
Watson didn’t argue. He awkwardly jumped through the hole in the wall and went out the front door. It was night time. Everypony was asleep except for him, Sherlock, Justin, five other mares and a psychopathic murderer.
That last part made Watson start to run.