//------------------------------//
// 5 - The One With The Witnesses 
// Story: "It's A Mystery!" 
// by lunabrony 
//------------------------------//

	The following morning, the group emerged from their rooms with renewed energy and vigor. Twilight and Spike were the first ones up, with Rarity following shortly after. Rainbow Dash needed just a bit of persuasion to wake up before noon, but after a bit of reminding that she'd be ever so much cooler by solving a mystery, the mare was awake and ready to go.
Rarity pounded on Fluttershy's door with the group gathered around, the latter having not emerged yet. "Fluttershy, darling, are you alright? We must be going!"
"That's okay! I can solve the mystery from my bed! The Headless Horse can't get me here!"
Twilight sighed, and looked down at her gleaming yellow talons. "I knew I'd find a use for these things eventually," she said, moving towards the door and fiddling her claw in the lock.
There was a faint click, and the door swung open. The room was perfectly clean and untouched, save for the trembling figure underneath the blankets.
Rainbow Dash pulled Fluttershy from beneath the blankets, and the protesting pegasus was dragged out through the door.
"That horse must have really gotten to her," Spike said.
Rainbow kept moving backwards, before bumping into what felt like a fairly solid object. She turned around, her face turning red as she realized she'd backed right into a mare and a stallion, a couple she'd never seen before.
"Did I hear you guys say you're going after the Headless Horse?" The stallion asked.
"It's a terrifying thing," the mare added.
Fluttershy slowly rose to her hooves, looking as if she'd rather be anywhere else. Twilight pressed in closer. 
"Wait a moment, so you've seen it, too? That's fantastic! Who are you? What happened? Tell me everything!"
"I'm Comet, and this is Star," the stallion said. "It was horrific. We were just out at the lake the other night, and-"
"Wait, at night?" Twilight frowned, or at least attempted to. It was more difficult with a beak. "I thought the public parks closed after dark."
Rainbow Dash facehooved.
"We snuck in," Star said, annoyed.
"What?! You could have been hurt! That's-"
"Twi- I mean... Thesaurus! Knock it off!"
Twilight sighed. "Continue. I'll lecture you on safety procedure later."
"We snuck in, wanting some  alone time," Comet continued. "Nothing extreme, we just wanted to see the lake by moonlight under all the stars. It's romantic."
Spike made a chirping noise. "Uh-huh." 
"So we were just minding our own business, and this THING attacked us, right by the lakefront! It was big and green, and-"
"And headless?" Rarity asked.
"Yes!" Star confirmed. "Oh, it was grotesque."
"I can imagine," Fluttershy added. "It chased us all the way out here."
"It attacked you guys too?" Comet asked. "Excellent!"
"Hey!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Well I mean, excellent, we're not crazy, somepony else totally saw it. In which case we're getting the hay out of here before it scares us... I mean Star... any further."
"You were screaming louder than I was!" Star protested.
"See? She's in shock, hearing things."
He put his hoof around Stardust, and carefully led the mare away from the group.
Heading back downstairs, Twilight was hoping that Discord was still available, as she had a few questions she wanted to ask him. She was not disappointed, as the desk clerk was still manning the same station he had been guarding the night before. While suspicious, she didn't see occasion to accuse him outright... yet.
"We need to do some investigating," Twilight announced, approaching the desk.
"Alright?" Discord asked.
"So we need to know what's around here. Anything of interest?"
"There's a barn in back, more of a storage shed really. If you keep following the road away from the lake there's a few houses, a small store, a diner, not much," Discord rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "And down the road on the other side of the lake is Auntie Dixon's ranch. She's a sweet mare, comes into town every week for vegetables."
"Alright! Thanks, Discord!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"It's Hilton," he corrected.
"Whatever, whoever you are," Rainbow Dash shook her head. "It's time to split up, gang! Twilight, you take Spike and Fluttershy and go investigate the ranch. I'll go with Rarity and take a look at the town. We meet back here tonight around dusk. Sound good?"
"Fair enough," Twilight agreed. "Everypony keep your eyes open, and don't do anything dangerous. That headless horse has to have a motive, and I want to know what it is." The group gave a nod of approval, and parted ways, with Rainbow Dash and Rarity heading into town.
Discord snorted once they'd all left. "What a bunch of weirdos."
The road towards Aunt Dixon's ranch was long, but straightforward. The trio had to go nearly halfway around the lake before the road branched off again, and continued following it. The ranch they found was fairly worn down and in decent need of repairs, but it was not difficult to find. Twilight carefully ascended the rickety stairs and knocked on the door, and was absolutely astonished when Applejack answered the door.
"...Aunt Dixon?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yes ma'am!" The orange pony said. "Ah'm everypony's aunt 'round these parts, come far'n wide. We don't got much, but our door's always open!"
"But your door was closed," Twilight pointed out.
"Bah! Don't take it literal, s'one of of them meta...pod things. Either way, y'all just come right in!" She turned around at this point and hollered back into the ranch.
"Ed! We got guests! Put some grub on!"
"Ee-yup," came the distant reply.
Twilight sighed.