//------------------------------// // Prompt #13 - The Case of the Abducted Scootaloo (CMC, Twist, Diamond Tiara) [Comedy, Random, Mystery] // Story: Writer's Training Grounds Entries // by Yukito //------------------------------// Prompt: Fed up of being overshadowed by others, one pony takes matters a little too far. “Role call!” Sweetie Belle declared as she prepared her clipboard and waited for Apple Bloom to be seated in the clubhouse. “Apple Bloom?” “Here!” Sweetie Belle ticked the name off. “Sweetie Belle? Here!” She ticked her own name off with a giggle. “Scootaloo?” … “Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle asked again, raising her head to look around the clubhouse. “Where is she?” “Didn’t ya notice we’re the only two here?” Apple Bloom asked. “I hadn’t done role call yet,” Sweetie Belle answered. “Scootaloo, if this is a joke you’d better stop now! I need to know if you’re here in case there’s a fire or something!” “Ah don’t think it’s a joke,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah think she really isn’t here.” “Then she leaves me no choice!” Sweetie Belle placed the lid back onto her pen, placed the pen down, reached down into the box beside her and pulled out a sticky in the shape of a frowning face. “Frowny face for those who don’t show up on time!” “It’s not like Scootaloo ta be late like this,” Apple Bloom pointed out. “Maybe she’s sick?” “Or she hurt herself?” Sweetie Belle suggested. “Or she got her cutie mark and joined Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon an’ is gonna start makin’ fun of us blank flanks too?” “… Nah, I don’t think that’s very likely,” Sweetie Belle said. “She wouldn’t hang out with those two. They both have cats and Scootaloo has allergies.” “Oh yeah… Well ah feel like a right pleb for even thinkin’ such a thing.” “A what now?” Apple Bloom groaned. “Pip keeps talkin’ ta me at school an’ ah think it’s rubbin’ off on me.” “Well, let’s just move on and check our Cutie Mark Crusader Detectives inbox while we wait for Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle suggested, picking up the cardboard box to her left and tipping it upside-down in front of her. A single piece of paper fluttered out. “… Holy cow, we actually got one?” “Blimey,” Apple Bloom said as she picked up the letter. “Ah mean, wow! An actual case! That’s right top that is!” “Who’s it from?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Let’s see here…” Dear Cutie Mark Crusaders, By now you’ve probably noticed that your friend Scootaloo is missing. I am the one behind that. I have foalnapped your friend and will soon strike again, unless you apologise and atone for your wrong-doings Apple Bloom! I would reveal who I am, but since you guys are doing this whole detective thing, I’ll add an extra challenge: you must find out my identity for yourselves! Here’s a hint: what has four eyes, a sweet necklace, and is associated with cotton candy? You have until curfew tonight! Good luck. Apple Bloom gasped as she finished reading the note. “Mash an’ gravy, that’s terrible!” “Time for food later! We have to save Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle said. “Now we have to think here… who could our culprit be?” “Apparently somepony with four eyes,” Apple Bloom said. “You know anypony with four eyes?” Sweetie Belle tapped her chin as she hummed in thought. “Not really, but I do know about ten ponies who wear necklaces.” “The hoofwritin’ on this is pretty neat, but it’s written in crayon. Do we have any classmates that write this well?” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “I don’t know. Ugh, this is hard! Who do we know who has four eyes, a necklace, neat hoofwriting and likes cotton candy?” “… By Jove, ah’ve got it!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “The cotton candy doesn’t refer to a snack! It refers to the mane of our culprits closest friend!” “Cotton candy mane?” Sweetie Belle asked, backing away with a worried look. “I-I swear I’m innocent!” “Not you,” Apple Bloom deadpanned. “Ah’m talkin’ about Diamond Tiara.” “… Ooooooh! Wait, then that means that-” “That’s right! ‘Four eyes’ is a name used fer somepony with glasses, right? An’ Silver Spoon’s hoofwriting is always neat!” “How d’you know that?” “Because ah always have ta pass notes between those two,” Apple Bloom explained. “You don’t have to.” “But then ah’d be a dork.” “… If you say so.” “Anyway, Silver Spoon wears glasses, wears a necklace, and her best mate has a cotton candy mane!” “And they have a motive!” Sweetie Belle added. “They’re mean and they… are really mean!” Apple Bloom chuckled under her breath as she looked over the note. “Well, well, looks like the case is closed.” Silence passed over the two for a few seconds. “What do we do now?” “Um… maybe we could go confront them?” “Capital idea! Let’s go learn them two a lesson!” “What now?” Silver Spoon asked as she stood at attention, waiting for instructions from her friend. Diamond Tiara giggled as she held Silver Spoon’s glasses in her hoof, watching her friend standing just a few steps away from the edge of her pool. “Oh, turn left just a little bit,” she said, trying to hold back her laughter as she watched Silver Spoon turn away from the target area. “That’s it. Now-” “Diamond Tiara!” Diamond jumped and turned around to find two fillies approaching her. She took a breath to calm down and then glared at the two intruders. “The jig is up!” Apple Bloom declared. “We’ve caught ya!” “What’s going on?” Silver Spoon asked, looking around in every direction. “Di?” “Uh, Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle said as she poked her friend. “Wrong pony.” Apple Bloom recalled that their culprit was Silver Spoon and blushed. “Oh. Yeah.” She narrowed her eyes at Diamond Tiara and jabbed a hoof into her chest. “But you jus’ watch yerself. Ah’ve got mah eye on you.” Diamond Tiara batted the hood away. “What are the two of you doing in my yard?!” “Yer butler let us in,” Apple Bloom said, waving a hoof to the butler washing dishes through a nearby window. “Oh, he is so getting a pay cut,” Diamond Tiara muttered angrily. “As for you two, get out of here! We’re busy!” “Yeah, you two- Wait, two?” Silver Spoon asked. “Which two are we dealing with?” “The marshmallow-head and the country bumpkin,” Diamond said. “… Wait, where’s your flightless pigeon? She stuck in some tree sap or something?” “Don’t play innocent,” Sweetie Belle said. “We know that the two of you kidnapped her, now fess up!” There was a moment of silence before the two accused fillies erupted with laughter, confusing the young detectives before them. “Oh wow, that’s rich!” Diamond Tiara said as she wiped a tear from her eye. “Tell me: does it look like we’re holding somepony against their will?” Apple Bloom looked around. “But… the note said-” “Furthermore, what would we gain from doing that?” “You, uh, don’t like us and… stuff,” Sweetie Belle said. “Uh, yeah, but we can pick on you dweebs anytime we want, any way we want. And if we were going to foalnap one of you it wouldn’t be the one who could fight back or the one with freaky magic. We’d go for the one who’s easily fooled.” “… Hey!” Apple Bloom cried after processing what was just said. “So you really have nothing to do with this?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Like Di said, we’re innocent this time!” Silver Spoon answered. “Unless you opened your ninja inbox already.” “Uh, not yet.” “Then we’re still innocent for now.” “Make a note ta take measures while opening that box later,” Apple Bloom whispered to Sweetie Belle. “Well, ah guess we’ll be goin’ now…” The two fillies walked away from their two cleared suspects, with Sweetie Belle stopping for a moment to say, “By the way, Silver Spoon, playing close to the pool like that is dangerous.” “Wait, what?” Silver Spoon slowly lifted her hoof and felt the area in front of her. Her hoof felt the edge of the pool and she turned to where Diamond’s voice was coming from. “DIAMOOOOOOND!” As the fillies left the manor with sounds of rage and wails of apology behind them, they sighed and trotted dejectedly down the dirt path before them. “What now?” Apple Bloom asked. “We’re outta suspects.” “There has to be somepony out there who matches the description.” “Even if there was, what grudge could somepony possibly hold against us?” “Besides property damage, petty theft, public disturbance, endangering Ponyville on no less than three, four, five occasions, disturbing the classroom, stealing first place in the flag-bearing competition, being unbearably cute-” “Okay, ah get it,” Apple Bloom said. “Bugger it all though, ah can’t think of anythin’.” Apple Bloom looked up to the sky, as if the clouds would hold any answers. “Glasses, a necklace, cotton candy, neat hoofwriting, crayon… UGH! Ah feel like ah know the answer, but ah just can’t picture it in mah head!” Apple Bloom took a few steps forward before realising that her friend wasn’t following. She turned around to find that Sweetie Belle was no longer there, and in her place was a piece of paper. Yeah, I’ve got to cut this short. My parents are having friends round so we have to wrap this up in about an hour or two. I took your other friend, and they shall both suffer a fate worse than death at my hooves! If you wish to stop me, come to Sweet Delights at once! You have fifteen minutes. Come alone. Apple Bloom crumpled the paper in her hooves and shook her hoof. “Sweet Delights… It can’t be.” “It is…” Apple Bloom said in disbelief as she entered the culprit’s layer. It looked like an ordinary bedroom at first, only with a heavy emphasis on red-and-white-striped patterns. But inside, Apple Bloom found her two friends strapped to chairs, licking at lollipops in their free hooves, and the mastermind behind this whole case guarding the two fillies as she unleashed her maniacal laugh. “Yeth. It ith I, Twist the Candy Crusher!” “What a Twist!” Apple Bloom shouted. “It was you all along! Wait, you don’t wear a necklace.” “I wore a candy necklace at school yesterday. I wore it all day just for that hint.” “Oh… Wow, that’s dedication. But… why?” “Don’t act you don’t know, Apple Bloom!” Twist said as she held her red cape up to cover the lower half of her face. “You and I, we were the bethest of friends, onthe upon a time. But that all changed when these two entered your life!” “Twist, ah-” “You forgot about me. You wanted nothing to do with me. You thpent all your time playing with these two and wouldn’t tho much as talk to me at school! I wath replaced, and the worst part of it, wath that I’m the one who convinced them to go to Diamond Tiara’s cute ceañera!” The three fillies all gasped in unison. “Double twist!” Sweetie Belle cried. “And a topping of delicious irony!” Scootaloo added. “… I’m using that word right, aren’t I?” Sweetie Belle nodded, earning a proud smile from the pegasus filly. “That’s right!” Twist shouted. “It wath me who brought you three together, but in doing tho it seems I removed any thoughts of friendship towards me from your mind!” Apple Bloom’s ears fell as she cast her gaze down at the floor. “A-Ah’m sorry, Twist. Ah didn’t mean ta-” “The time for apologies hath patht.” Twist turned and approached the two fillies. “No longer will I stand in the shadowth of your new friendth. No longer will I be just the filly you only hung out with when there wath nopony else.” “What are ya gonna go?” Apple Bloom asked. “I will reverse the damage I have done.” Twist pulled out a big, plastic tub from behind Scootaloo. She opened it up to reveal a lot of ice-cream, and pulled a scooper from inside her cape. “My plan ith brilliant. I will give them such severe cathes of brain freeze that they forget who you once were! MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” “Y-You can’t!” Apple Bloom pleaded. “You’ll know what it’th like to be abandoned by your friendth, and then I’ll be all you have left!” “It won’t work!” Scootaloo shouted. “I refuse to eat!” “Me, too!” Sweetie Belle chimed in. “I accounted for that,” Twist said, scooping up some of the ice-cream and holding it in front of Scootaloo’s mouth. Scootaloo’s nose twitched as she caught a familiar scent. “That’th why I went to the trouble of learning your favourite flavours.” “C-Chocolate?” Scootaloo’s mouth began to drool and opened up a little. “Scootaloo, be strong!” Sweetie Belle souted. “I… I don’t think I can…” “Twist, stop!” Apple Bloom ran to her former friend and batted the scooper out of her hoof. She grabbed Twist’s shoulders and shook the filly back-and-forth. “This isn’t you! Ye’re not a bad filly, Twist! Ye’re always so nice, so sweet – no pun intended – an’ you would never try ta harm somepony like this!” “That was the old me! The new me will go to any lengthth to reclaim what was thtolen from her!” “If it’s mah friendship ya want, the ya just had ta ask!” Apple Bloom shouted. “Heck, we could go play in the park right now if ya wanna!” “… We can?” Twist asked, receiving a nod from Apple Bloom. “Oh, well in that case, let’th go!” Twist removed her cape and threw it the side. Apple Bloom sighed. “That’s great, you guys,” Scootaloo said. “NOW GET US OUT OF HERE!” “Oh, right,” Twist said, approaching the knot behind Scootaloo’s chair and tugging at it. “… Uh… Oops.” “Oops? I don’t like ‘oops’!” Scootaloo said in a panicking tone. “Please tell me you can untie us,” Sweetie Belle sighed as she gave Twist a flat stare. “Uh… Okay, just thtay put! I’m gonna go get my mum!” “Hold on a few, love,” Apple Bloom said as she circled Sweetie Belle’s chair with a grin. “Ah do believe this is a chance ta earn ma cutie mark in hostage-rescuin’!” “Ooh, thounds fun! What do you need?” Twist asked. “Could you loan me a buzzsaw, or one of those fire-thingies ya use a facemask with?” “A welding torch?” “That’s the one. An’ the mask itself too would be top.” Twist nodded. “I’ll be right back!” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle simply sat as pale as ghosts as sweat ran down their bodies. “Scootaloo, you finished our Cutie Mark Crusaders will, right?” Scootaloo gulped. “Yep. Nice knowin’ ya, Sweetie Belle.” “Nice knowing you too, Scootaloo.” “An’ with that, the case is closed,” Apple Bloom declared to nopony in particular as she stood tall with pride. “Insert closin’ credits ‘ere.”