Chapter one: The crime scene

Chapter one: The Crime Scene

It was a sunny day in ponyville, the trees were starting to blossom and the crops were beginning to sprout in the early spring air. In fact, it was perfect weather for something bad to happen. Could this “bad thing” been a scooter crash or a filly dropping her ice-cream on the dirty ground? The answer is no. This “bad thing” is much, much worse.

“So, what happened to the Griffon?” officer Johnson, a local police chief in ponyville, asked his partner, officer Dirk, as he looked down at the dead griffon corps.

That’s right, a dead corpse. Lying in front of the two officers was a dead griffon.

“His name was Greg, sir, he had no last name. He died about one hour ago. So that would make his time of death around seven thirty,” Officer Dirk read from his clipboard.

“What’s a griffon doing in ponyville? I’ve never seen him around town.”

“Um, actually, sir, he and his sister, Gilda, had apparently just moved to ponyville about twelve hours ago.”

“So much for a welcoming party,” The two cops didn’t laugh at the joke officer Johnson just made. How could they? They both had never seen a griffon before, and now a dead one was sprawled before them in a local ponyville house. The house had been up for rent for a couple of years now, but still, Greg died in ponyville, which wasn’t going to look good for the Equestrian Kingdom.

“Apparently Greg drank that poison right over there.” officer Dirk pointed to his left and there laying on the counter was a half filled bottle of green liquid. “By doing so he ended up killing himself, why he drank enough poison to kill at least seven griffons, sir.”

“You sure Greg drank the poison?”

“Positive, sir. We’ve taken samples of his blood and took it back to the lab to see if it had traces of poison. Unfortunately, Greg’s blood was full of the stuff.” Officer Dirk spoke quietly, trying to show respect for what had happened.

“Well” officer Johnson sighed. Ending the day with a suicide case always made it hard for him to sleep at night. The whole idea of suicide and that ponies, or griffons, would take their own life away creped the officer out. “I’d say we’ve done all we could. Notify the Coroners office and Greg’s family immediately.”

“Sir, yes, s-” officer dirk was interrupted by a new voice coming from behind him.

“Perhaps I can be of assistance to solve this murder.” The two officers turned to see a bright grey, black haired, British accented stallion standing in the houses doorway. He wore a Deerstalker hat and a grey, plaid patterned coat. His cutie mark was a black silhouette of a mare that also seemed to be wearing a Deer stalker hat and had a pipe in his mouth. Behind the stranger was a younger looking stallion that was holding a silver brief case in his mouth. The younger stallion had tan fur and brown hair, his cutie mark was a single magnifying glass. The house was now filled with four earth ponies and one dead griffon.

“Pardon me asking,” Officer Johnson said in a low, rude voice. “But who exactly are you?” Officer Johnson pointed a hoof at the new visitor.

The grey stallion, wearing the idiotic looking hat, smiled lightly and calmly said “You’re right, sir, I suppose introductions are necessary if by any chance we decide to work on this case together. My name is Sherlock Hooves” Sherlock gestured toward himself “Detective in homicide cases. I’m Sorry that I just walked in here uninvited, but I was out for my regular walk and I just so happened to see the police tape around this house and I thought it would be most beneficial if you let us two” Sherlock pointed to himself and the tan stallion behind him, “help you two,” Sherlock pointed at the officers, “on this case.”

“Two things Sherlock” Officer Johnson said Sherlock like it was some kind of insult. “You’re telling me that you saw the do-not-enter tape that we so laboriously put around the entire house and you thought” Officer Johnson imitated a British accent “Oh my! Police tape! It says do not enter on it, but I think I’ll fancy a peek inside!”

“I was only-” Sherlock started to speak, but he was cut off by Officer Johnson, who started speaking normally again.

“And another thing!” Officer Johnson held up a hoof to get Sherlock from completing his sentence. “Even if you are a detective in murder cases, I’m sorry to inform you, but Greg here committed suicide” he pointed his outstretched hand to Greg, who still was lying dead on the floor. “So you and your…mate-”

“M’ names Watson!” the younger stallion, still holding a brief case in his mouth, finally said something since Sherlock’s arrival.

“Whatever.” Officer Johnson did not care what his name was “You two are still out of luck. This griffon killed himself! No one killed him, end of story, case closed, you two need to get lost, I’m getting a doughnut.” Officer Johnson started to walk off.

“Hold on.” It was Sherlock’s turn to speak. “You’re telling me that you think Greg drank the poison? Well I can deduce just by looking at this scene that Greg did not drink that poison.” Sherlock pointed to the half filled bottle of poison.

“Actually,” Dirk spoke up “we’ve taken blood samples of Greg and found traces of poison in it so-”

“Well of course Greg died because of the poison!” Sherlock interrupted loudly, “I’m saying he did not drink the poison.”

The two officers looked at Sherlock with dumfounded expressions. “Believe me officer; I know it’s a lot to take in.” The officers were not taking in anything though. They were, in fact, thinking that this stranger was a mad pony and that if he said one more crazy thing they were going to have to arrest him. “But me and my sidekick have dealt with-”

Watson set down his brief case down and spoke in a low voice to Sherlock “I told you to call me your partner.”

Sherlock, who was still looking at Officer Johnson with a blank expression, returned “And I said that there’s nothing wrong with being called my side kick.” Sherlock spoke in a low voice too.

“Yes there is!” Watson countered, “Side kicks don’t do anything! They’re the ones that ask stupid questions to make you sound like a genius! And let me tell you, I am not going to pretend that I have no clue what’s going on anymore. I want ponies to start recognizing me as a genius too. I deserve to be called your partner! Partners do loads of work and are as equal as the other partner!”

Sherlock was still staring at officer Johnson’s beating eyes, tying to remain calm after his sidekick had just had a meltdown, “Who said you do anything?”

“OK! That one crossed the line! You wouldn’t have solved half your cases if it wasn’t for me!”

By this point the two officers did not know what followed. Both stallions started talking at the same time and they seemed to be referencing cases the two police ponies never even heard about. Sherlock finally stopped staring at Officer Johnson and looked at his “side kick,” angrily. Watson said some things like “You’re the smeller and I’m the one with the good eyes! If anything YOU should be called the side kick” and “OH, you can use logic! That’s something ANYPONY can use. Sherlock said some harsh words too. His words went along the lines of “You just had to ruin the scene didn’t you? It was going along so smoothly!” and “Why do you even keep talking?” The officers finally had enough of this nonsense. Officer Johnson, with as much force he could muster, stomped his front hoof on to the floor and screamed,

“ENOUGH!” Sherlock and Watson went silent, but were still starring at each other with angry expressions. “Now are you going to tell me how you made up such a ridicules claim or are you going to continue bickering like a bunch of school fillies?”

If there is something you should know about Officer Johnson it’s that he did not like being told he is wrong. Especially when he knew he was right and especially when the pony who was saying he was wrong, was a complete stranger.

Sherlock returned his gaze back to officer Johnson and gave his signature light smile. He loved telling ponies they were wrong, especially ponies like Officer Johnson, “Because Officer,” Sherlock spoke slowly, “If Greg did drink the poison, which by the looks of how empty that poison bottle is, I’m going to estimate that he drank enough to kill at least seven griffons. Now Officer,” Sherlock tried to say Officer like it was an insult, “how could Greg drink that much poison and still have enough life in him to walk four meters away and die?”

Officer Johnson’s expression changed from “angry” to “horribly shocked” as he realized that he overlooked the obvious. He wanted to say “That’s the most stupidest theory I’ve ever heard.” But somewhere deep in his mind he knew Sherlock was right. Even if Greg had a cup or something to hold poison then he would have died beside the container. Instead, Officer Johnson was silent, that is until Officer Dirk spoke up.

“He’s right, sir,” Officer Dirk started saying slowly, “The scene doesn't add up. If Greg did drink the poison then he-”

Officer Johnson interrupted, loudly, “I know he’s right!” He snapped at his partner. “Ok, Sherlock” Again, he said Sherlock like it was an insult. But to be fair, Officer Johnson did just get told up by some complete stranger. “If you’re so smart then how exactly did Greg die?”

“Oh I don’t know,” Sherlock said with a chuckle in his British voice. “How am I supposed to know? I just got here! But you see, chap, that’s the thing we detectives do, we find out whodunit.” Sherlock spoke to the officer like he was a five year old filly.”

“I know what detectives do!” Officer Johnson tried to protect his intelligence, “But do you have any ideas?”

“Oh yes.” Sherlock still spoke in that uplifting voice, the same voice that a mother would use she was praising her filly. “I’ve got hundreds of ideas” Sherlock said proudly.

Officer Johnson face-hooved and gave a long, annoyed sigh.

“However,” Sherlock spoke in his normal British accent, “you did say that Greg’s blood had poison in it right?”

“Sir, yes, sir,” Officer Dirk said. Officer Dirk didn’t mean to call Sherlock “sir” but he was so used to calling everyone with a higher rank then him “sir”. And, not to be mean, there were a lot of police pony’s that had a higher rank than Dirk, so the words just slipped out of his mouth involuntarily.

“Well then, the most logical explanation I can think of,” Sherlock began, “would be that Greg’s murderer injected him with poison through a syringe needle.”

“What?” Officer Johnson questioned. “There’s no way you can prove he died by that.”

Officer Johnson was about to be tolled he was wrong, again. Sherlock lightly smiled, like he would usually do when he was going to do something important. “You know Officer” He spoke slowly, “You really underestimate me don’t you? Watson,” Sherlock turned to his partner, “Do you have your magnifying glass?”

Watson smiled. It had been a while since he used eagle eye, which was the name he gave to his magnifying glass, on a case. “Does the sun set in the west?” Watson was expecting Sherlock to say yes.

“Actually right now sun sets exactly nine point seven three degrees from the west. Well, really it depends what mood Celestia is in. Why did you start talking about suns, boy?” Sherlock did not get Watsons rhetorical question.

Watson sighed. “Yeah, I got my magnifying glass.” Officer Dirk tried to cover up a small laugh. He could relate to Watson. Having to work for older stallions that never got any of the references you made can be a tedious job. Watson picked up the brief case that was still sitting on the ground since he argued with Sherlock.

“Come on, Watson; let’s search the body for clues.” As Sherlock and Watson trotted their way toward the griffon corpse, Officer Johnson and Officer Dirk slowly backed away. Sherlock was now standing over Greg’s body. It looked so, so, peaceful, so noble, even for a dead thing. Sherlock didn’t understand why anyone would want to kill him. As far as Sherlock knew he posed no threat to anypony and he could have been the most friendly griffon in Equestria, no, the world. Greg looked to be about twenty years old in griffon years. Sherlock silently vowed that he would avenge Greg’s death. He was committed to solve this case no matter what. “You haven’t touched the body since he died, correct?” Sherlock wanted the police pony to confirm.

“Yes.” Officer Dirk made sure he didn’t call Sherlock “sir.”

“Ok, so the way Greg’s body is aligned, the injection would most probably be around here,” Sherlock hovered his hoof, making sure he didn’t touch the body, in a circular motion over Greg’s knee all the way to his hip. “That is, of course, if the murderer didn’t touch him”

“Right,” Watson agreed. He opened the brief case with the sound of two clicks. Inside the brief case was a single magnifying glass a cocoon of foam. The magnifying glass had its own crevice cut into the foam so it would always be stable while the brief case was closed. There was nothing else in the brief case. Just a very clean magnifying glass with the words “Eagle Eye” inscripted on it. Watson took the magnifying glass in his mouth, making sure he had a good enough grip on it, but not too hard a grip to get bite marks on his favorite tool. Officer Dirk wondered if Watson carried that thing everywhere. It seemed that he did because “Eagle Eye” looked like the exact same magnifying glass on Watson’s flank.

Watson felt a little uncomfortable being about one inch away from a dead griffon searching for any clue he could find with his “Eagle Eye”. Watson had done grosser things in the past though. He once had to floss dragon’s teeth to calm it down. Sherlock was holding one end of the floss and got to be on the outside of the dragon, while Watson had to stand inside of its mouth. Now that Watson thought about it he always had to do the dirty work in cases, literally. Watson was about to give up on the search and make Sherlock have a turn, that is until he found something. “MMPPPHHH!” he tried to say, “I found something, Sherlock, you should come take a look at it,” but the magnifying glass that was still in his mouth muffled his words.

“What is it, boy?” Sherlock sounded exited. He knew that the way Watson said “MMPPPHHH!” only had to be a good thing.
Watson could have started another argument with Sherlock for calling him “boy,” but he let it slide. He wanted Sherlock to see this. Sherlock leaned his head in closer to the magnifying glass and Watson pointed out the spot in Greg’s fur that had been injected. It was a tiny almost microscopic hole and it was covered by a little bit of fur, making it was almost impossible to see with a naked eye. Neither Sherlock nor Watson wanted to touch Greg’s dead body and get the fur out of the way to see the minor laceration, but they didn’t need too; Sherlock was certain that’s was where Greg was injected.

“Great Scott!” Sherlock said loudly and with enthusiasm

“What?” Officer Johnson asked.

“Gentlecolts.” Sherlock spoke loudly to his one-stallion audience. Meanwhile, Watson backed his face away from the Greg’s body and gently set Eagle eye in its case. Emphasis on the gently part. “From my discovery-”

“MY discovery” Watson corrected as he closed the brief case that held his only true friend.

“My sidekick’s discovery,” Watson Grunted, “We have confirmed that the theory of Greg’s murder is true!”

Officer Johnson was Flabbergasted. Ten minutes ago he thought that his day was going to end with a Suicide case, but now things have become completely different. He let his mouth hang open in silence for a little bit.

“Dirk!” Sherlock called out.

“Y-Yes…sir?” Dirk thought that Sherlock deserved to be called “sir” now. Sherlock had just opened up an entire case he was about to look over.

“You said that Greg was only here in Ponyville for twelve hours?”

“Y-” Before Officer Dirk could even say “Yes, sir” Sherlock started talking again.

“That means that somepony must have had a feud to pick with Greg.” Sherlock paused, thinking of what to do next. “We need background information on this griffon; we need a close relative.” Then Sherlock’s brain clicked with an epiphany. “THAT’S RIGHT his sister is here!” The two officers realized that they had never talked about Greg’s sister around Sherlock. This made them wonder if Sherlock was eavesdropping on them when they were talking about Greg, using classified information. “Watson, bring Gilda back to my office for interrogation! Maybe she can tell us something about her brother.”

“I don’t know where she is.” Watson said.

Officer Dirk spoke up normally, without the “sir” he would usually say every other word. “The last time somepony reported seeing her was when she was flying over the Everfree forest, but that was a couple of hours ago. She’s probably not there anymore.” Officer Dirk concluded.

“That’s alright! We might not need her!” Both Officer Johnson and Officer Dirk were used to Sherlock saying random, stupid ideas that would end up proving to have a lot more sense later, so they were not about to question this stupid idea. “Dirk, I want you to ask everypony in ponyville if they ‘ave ever talked to Greg from the time when he moved into our village till he died. If they ‘ave, tell them to meet me back at my office for questioning. It’s the third building down north of the town’s well.

“I don’t think the murderer is just going to admit killing Greg in front of everypony, Sherlock.” Of course, Officer Johnson had to question this stupid idea of Sherlock’s.

“I don’t expect him too.” Sherlock said seriously “But if we can find out exactly what Greg has done from his arrival to his death it will no doubt give us a profusely amount of clues.” Officer Johnson didn’t argue. “Now, Dirk, if you will” Sherlock nudged his head toward the door.

Officer Dirk remembered what Sherlock had asked him to do. “Oh, yes, right away, sir” Officer Dirk galloped out of the house, but before got five feet through the front yard Dirk turned around and shouted so that the ponies in the house could hear, “Should I notify the Coroners office too, Sherlock…s-sir” The “sir” was a lot more quieter than the rest of the sentence, but was still audible to all the ponies inside the house. “That’s it, Justine” Officer Dirk thought to himself. Officer Dirk’s full name was Justice Dirk, but all of his friends gave him the nickname of Justine. Everyone that he worked with called him “Officer Dirk” or “new guy.” You can probably guess why he would be called the second one. “From now on you are only going to call Johnson sir.”

“Yes, I’m sure that would be nice if someone can take the body away.” Sherlock answered.

“Yes, sir!” “DANG IT!” Officer Dirk galloped as fast as he could away from the house feeling like he just made an ass of himself. Ass meaning donkey, of course, not the other term. I mean, no offence to the ass kingdom or anything, but asses usually are an awkward group of quadrupeds.

“He’s only supposed to take orders from me” Officer Johnson spoke quietly realizing what his partner just did. He’s decided he was going to make Dirk do something for listening to Sherlock. He didn’t know what yet, but it was going to make Dirk miserable.

“Well it’s a good thing the boys got his morals strait. Don’t want his listening to some old berk now do we?” Officer Johnson didn’t know what “berk” meant. It was probably some British insult that only Sherlock and Watson would know. He had suspicions the word was an insult because Watson slightly snorted and Sherlock lightly smiled. This made Officer Johnson dislike Sherlock even more. “But while the lad is doing that,” Sherlock continued, “let’s look for some more clues in Greg’s house”

“I’m thinking we should start by observing the bottle of poison” Watson considered.

“My thoughts exactly” The two detectives and one officer started walking toward the counter where the poison stood. It was amazing that something so tiny could cause something so devastating. “If we can find out who owns the murder weapon we can find out who the murderer is.” As the trio stared at the bottle for a good five seconds Watson spoke up.

“It doesn’t have a lid,” he noted.

“Excellent observation, Watson, but I’m more intrigued by the writing down there.” Sherlock pointed at the base of the bottle.
Watson leaned in closer. Sherlock wasn’t wearing his monocle, so Watson knew Sherlock wouldn’t be able to read the tiny writing inscripted on the bottle. As Watson got a closer look he realized that the “writing” was only three letters long. No, it was one number and two letters long.
“It says 5, M, L. It’s in really fancy hoof-writing too.”

Sherlock was really hoping for something better. Like a name or and address or for some better clue at least. “It’s acronym for something isn’t it? Well, that leaves me with about a million options!”

“Really?" Officer Johnson didn't believe Sherlock's claim. "What sort of acronym starts with a five?” Officer Johnson asked.

“FIVE my life!” Sherlock suggested, “It’s really close to F my life but instead the F-word it’s replaced by a five.” Sherlock sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

“That makes no sense.” This time Officer Johnson was sure Sherlock was speaking nonsense”

“Five Moose Lake?” Sherlock said.

“What the heck is a moose?”

“Five mice lunge?”

“Now, how do mice Lunge? And what does that have to do with anything?”

“Five my lungs?”

“That’s not even a sentence!”

As Sherlock continued to say sentences or by now, it was more like random words that made no sense, Watson decided to look for something else. He thought the next best place to look for something would be in the closet.

“Five moopy loopy?”

“Not only is that not sentence, moopy isn’t even a word!”

Watson opened the closet doors. To the average untrained eye, they would have seen an empty closet with an empty hanging rack without a single hanger hanged on it. To Watson, however, he saw clues. On the right wall there was a tiny smudge of white, what was that, goop. As Watson looked at it he could tell, even without eagle eye, that it was frosting. Frosting? Was Greg keeping a cake in his closet? No, that’s just too strange. Maybe the frosting was there when Greg moved in. But the house had been empty for a year if the frosting had been there for that long it would of hardened. Watson touched the frosting. It was soft. It had to of been put there today! “SHERLOCK!” Watson yelled.

“Fred makes sweet lemonade?”

“Just admit it! You, the all knowledgeable stallion, has no clue what this means!”

“SHERLOCK!!” Watson yelled again.

“WHAT?” Sherlock replied with the same volume that Watson spoke.

“Looky here!”

Officer Johnson was closer to the closet so he made it before Sherlock did. “What is it? All I see is an empty closet.”

As Sherlock walked in he smelled the air loud enough for the other two stallions to hear. “I smell dragon scales”

“You do?” Watson asked. “Well, look what I found.” Watson pointed to the wall, but Sherlock didn’t acknowledge what his side kick said.

“And” Sherlock sniffed again. Was that what he thought it was? The last time he smelt anything like that was ten years ago. “It can’t be,” he said softly.

“What?” Officer Johnson had no idea what was going on.

“Laughing powder.” Laughing powder is a type of flower that, if eaten, will cause its consumer to uncontrollably laugh. And although the side effect is hilarious, the laughing powder is very dangerous. “Dangerous” is actually a huge understatement. The eater of the laughing powder could actually laugh themselves to death of they don’t medical attention within fifteen minutes. Yep, Fifteen minutes was all it took to kill you. That’s why Celestia destroyed all of them in Equestria.

“I thought Celastia destroyed all of the laughing powder in Equestria” Watson said.

“Perhaps the griffon kingdom spared some.”

“Wait, wait, wait and wait!” Officer Johnson sounded confused “I don’t smell anything!”

Sherlock and Watson looked each other and they both lightly smiled. Watson began “My friend, I say, has the nose of a great hound” Then Sherlock said “and my friend, I say, has the eyes of an eagle” What they said sounded rehearsed. They have obviously had to say that a lot of times.

“Now, Officer, you may not smell the things I smell, but you’ll have to trust me; this closet had dragon scales and laughing powder in it.”

“And frosting!” Watson pointed his hoof at the wall.

“Frosting? You found frosting? What was Greg doing in this closet?”

It took some thinking on Officer Johnson’s part. Johnson did believe someponies could be extremely observant, but good at smelling? He never heard of that one before. On one hoof Sherlock hasn’t been wrong this far, except for the acronym part, but on the other hoof how could you smell something ten years ago when it wasn’t destroyed and still remember it much later? But something tugged in his brain, if he was going to solve this case and stop a murderer he was going to have to believe in Sherlock. And as much as he disliked the stallion, he said “I believe you Sherlock.” Officer Johnson looked down on the floor. Right next to has left hoof was, what seemed to be, a leaf. It couldn’t have been at least half a centimeter big. It was dark brown almost black. “What’s this?” Officer Johnson pointed at the leaf.

“What’s what?” Watson looked down where the police pony was pointing. The leaf was tiny, but not small enough for him to get out eagle eye. Now that he thought about it he remembered that he left eagle eye over where Greg’s body lay. “If I remember my botany class correctly, then I believe that’s a leaf that belongs to the West-Bolio pine tree. Bolio is a town in the griffon kingdom.” Watson informed. “The leaf is harmless actually, very bitter taste though.”

“Great Find, Johnson!” Sherlock said like a mom to its filly, “Now the mystery is why Greg used such miscellaneous items.”

“Who says that’s all he used?” Watson inquired “Perhaps Greg had some material, something odorless that you couldn’t smell or something so tiny I can't see.”

There was a long silence. Sherlock was thinking “Now what do these materials have in common?” Watson was thinking “Why did Greg keep such materials?” Officer Johnson, however, was not thinking deeply on the subject; instead he just said the most logical thing that came to his head, which sometimes isn't a bad thing. Sherlock and Watson were over thinking the scene and they were forgetting on major fact. “Well, whatever was in here,” Officer Johnson broke the silence “It’s gone now.”

Sherlock and Watson both realized what had just been said. “You’re right.” Sherlock pointed out. “Do you thing the murderer stole what was in here?”

“Possibly” Officer Johnson said. He never felt so smart stating the obvious. “Greg must have found it important enough to hide it in the closet, that’s for sure.”

“Great!” Sherlock was exited. “Now, we have a motive! The murderer wanted whatever Greg was hiding.”

“Why would anypony want Icing, Laughing powder, dragon scales and useless pine leaves?” Officer Johnson asked.

"I don’t know” Sherlock said, still very excited. “How would I know? But you see, chap, that’s the thing we detectives do! We find out-”

“You already said that!” Officer Johnson snapped at Sherlock. He was pretty sure Sherlock thought of him as an idiot.

“Did I? Oh sorry, chap, I’m just too excited!” Sherlock gasped as if he had a sudden realization, “I know! We’ll see what the items have to do with each other back at my office. While we are there we can interrogate all the ponies Dirk has rounded up. By George, if we can do this quick enough I can beat my fastest case solving record!” Sherlock once read somewhere that a detective in Manehattan solved a case in only two hours and fifty-two minutes. Although Sherlock has solved more cases than anypony, his fastest time was three hours and ten minutes. “If I can pull this off not only will I bring justice to the world, but also I’ll show everypony how talented I am,” Sherlock thought.

“Solving cases isn’t about how fast you can solve them, Sherlock. You know that right?”

“Of course,” Sherlock suddenly felt bad for feeling the need to compete. “Gentlecotes, to my office!”

***********************************

The trio of crime fighters walked in silence for a good ten minutes. Watson has glad he was holding eagle eye’s brief case. That way he had an excuse to be silent this whole time.

The silence was finally broken when Officer Johnson informed the others saying, “I’m going to go back to the police station and find any more background information on Greg.”

The three earth ponies were now standing next to the towns well. “Sounds great, chap. If you find anything about the victim you can tell us at my office. The police station isn’t too far away from here is it?”

“No.” Officer Johnson said calmly after giving it a little though, but not too much thought. “It’s on the north perimeter of Ponyville.” Officer Johnson pointed in the direction of Sherlock’s office, which was also north as well.”

“Well I hope I get to continue working on more cases with you.” Sherlock hugged Officer Johnson. Officer Johnson’s instinct almost kicked in and he was about to punch Sherlock in the face. You can’t blame him though, after ten years in the force if somepony comes after you with outstretched hands they usually want to hurt you. Thankfully, Officer Johnson didn’t punch Sherlock. Although, Officer Johnson thought about it, if Sherlock had hugged him in front of any of the officers, he would have defiantly punched Sherlock sorry British face.

“Yeah, I really hope we can work on more cases together too,” Officer Johnson lied. If he had to work with Sherlock he would have ended up killing himself. No he wouldn’t, he decided, because if he did then it would be Sherlock solving his suicide case. Instead of killing himself, he would run away. No he couldn’t do that either, Sherlock would have been bound to find him eventually. He silently hoped he would never have to work with Sherlock ever again. “Ok then I’ll see you around.”

“Ok. Make sure you get me whenever you need help solving one of your cases” Sherlock said.

“Ok.” Officer Johnson lied, again. He was never going to let Sherlock in on one of his cases, let alone any more interaction with him. “Goodbye, Sherlock.”

“Goodbye, Officer,” Sherlock waved. Then the three stallions started walking in the same direction. Then Sherlock remembered both he and Officer Johnson still had to walk north. “Well,” Sherlock wasn’t looking at Officer Johnson or Watson in the eye; instead he was talking to the air in front of him. “This is awkward.”

***********************************

Sherlock walked into his office to see Alexandra Bell, his receptionist, typing something on a typewriter. He also saw Officer Dirk, who smiled when he saw Sherlock and Watson enter the building.

“Hello Alexandra,” Sherlock spoke smoothly while trotting his way to his receptionist’s desk, “are you still free for dinner tomorrow?” Sherlock flirted with her.

Without looking up from the type writer, Alexandra answered, “No, I’m still happily married and have one son.”

“Can you please stop flirting with my mom, Sherlock?” Watson asked. Yep, Alexandra was Watson’s mom. And ever since she’s gotten a job here Sherlock continued to hit on her every chance he’s gotten. “I think my dad is going to get a restraining order for her if you don’t stop!”

“Aren’t those machines wonderful?” Sherlock ignored Watson’s threat. “Typewriters, I mean. They can write down the exact words I feel for you” Sherlock was leaning on the receptionist’s desk while Alexandra still did not look up from her typing.

“SHERLOCK!” Watson was frustrated at his partner’s futile attempts to hook up with his mom.

“Fine, I’ll stop, are you happy? Sheesh kids these days” Sherlock still spoke in his “sexy” voice.

“That’s my son, you know?” Mrs. Bell still did not look up.

“
I know, and can I note how handsome his manecut looks? Did you cut it or did someone else make that lump of coal look like a diamond?” Mrs. Bell didn’t know if she should feel complimented or insulted.

This was getting nowhere. Watson spoke up, “Mom, we need books about Laughing powder, dragon scales and West-Bolio pine tree leaves” Watson decided to leave out a book about frosting. What else is there to know about Icing?

“Ok sweetie,” Alexandra stopped typing and looked up at her only son. “Did you like your lunch?”

“It was nice,” Watson said, felling a little embarrassed.

“Did you see how I placed your baby carrots in the shape of a heart on your salad, sweetie?” While Mrs. Bell was saying this she made the shape of a heart with her forelegs.

Sherlock was surprised how quickly this woman’s attitude could change from shrew to nurturing mother in a matter of seconds.

“Yes, I did see the carrots, mum, they were lovely.” Mrs. Bell slightly applauded and lightly giggled. Watson felt even more embarrassed now because of what his mom just did. He decided to cut to the chase, “Do you have the books or not?”

“Ok, sweetie, let me check in the back entrepot.” Entrepot seemed like a strange word to use. Especially since the storage they had was filled with miscellaneous books and objects. Mrs. Bell got up from her desk and went through the door behind her, leaving in the room Sherlock, Watson and Officer Dirk who remained quiet this entire time.

“Officer Dirk, how was the search to find everypony who has talked to Greg?” Sherlock asked.

“It went great, sir.” Officer Dirk decided it was ok to call Sherlock “sir” because his partner, Officer Johnson, was not around. “I stood up on top of the village’s fountain to get everyponies attention.”

“Ok.” Sherlock was wondering why Officer Dirk told him this. “Did anypony say they talked to Greg?”

“Yes, but let me complete my story. I was up standing on the fountain and everpony started staring at me. I’m not good at public speaking you see, so I was just standing on top the fountain, not saying a word and I was extremely nervous. But THEN I thought: what would Officer Johnson say if he was standing next to me.”

“Go on.” Sherlock sounded irked, but Officer Dirk didn’t pick up the fact that he didn’t care for any back story.

“He would say” Officer Dirk tried to imitate his partner’s voice. “Stop being such a filly!” Sherlock was getting annoyed. “And so,” Officer Dirk continued, “I didn’t want to be thought of as a baby when I told that I was too shy to ask anypony if they’ve ever talked to Greg so I screamed out: HAS ANYPONIE HERE EVER TALKED TO GREG!?” Sherlock covered his ears for the last part of Dirk’s story because he screamed that as loud as he could. “Sorry,” Dirk apologized, realizing he just startled everypony with his outburst. “I’ve never spoken to that many ponies before! My adrenalin is still kicking from it!” Dirk sounded as if he had just accomplished something life changing.

“Did anypony say they ‘ave talked to Greg?” Sherlock was about to rip of Dirks head if he didn’t start saying names.

“Yes! One of them did! And she also said she knew five other ponies that talked to him!”

“Great!” Sherlock finally got the information he only cared for. “Where are they?”

“In the back! I think Alex put them in Interrogation room C” Officer Dirk answered; pointing to only door in the room that wasn’t an exit.

“Excellent, we can begin questioning right away then. Do you perhaps have any of the pony’s names?” Sherlock asked, now it was his turn to be excited.

“Yes, they’re all mares actually.” Officer Dirk pulled out a notebook from one of his uniform pockets. “Their names are,” Dirk began to read, “Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.”

Chapter two: Rainbow Dash's Story

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Chapter Two: Rainbow Dash’s Story.

As Sherlock was walking adjacent to a one way mirror installed in interrogation room B, he saw just how idiotic his dearstalker hat made him look. He tried adjusting it on his black and silver mane, but no matter how he arranged it, it still made him look like an idiot detective from the sixties. He peered over at his side kick that was walking down the hallway, looking serious and, may I also add, absolutely smashing in his groomed tan fur and bowler hat atop his head. Sherlock decided his fashion had to change.

“Watson do you perhaps have any extra bowler hats with you?” Sherlock was still staring at himself through the one way mirror. He was on the window side of the mirror though, but he could still recognize himself in the small reflection the window gave.

“Yea, I’m pretty sure my mom keeps some more in the back. Why?”

“Well I was thinking,” That was something Sherlock did a lot of, “If we want to get the most information from the mares in the next interrogation room, then I should probably look my best.” Sherlock lied. The real reason was because he just realized how much he hated his old hat.

“Um, Ok” Watson didn’t believe Sherlock. “You can probably ask my mom about it when she gets back with the books. I’m going to start interrogating our visitors.” Watson started to walk past Sherlock to Interrogation room C, but Sherlock stretched out his right forehoof, indicating Watson to stop walking and he drew in a breath making an “sssshhhhhhh” sound.

“What?” Watson sounded like he was just insulted.

“Well, you see, Watson, the thing is,” Sherlock began thinking of the right way to word his next sentence so it wouldn’t sound like he was insulting Watson. “I was kind of hoping that, maybe, you can go back to Greg’s house and find more clues. When you're all done you can come back here and we’ll both discuses what we found.

“What more clues do we need?” Watson really wanted to interrogate. It was fun, easy and you actually had pony to pony interaction. You don’t really talk to a lot of ponies when you’re on the field, so interrogation was what kept Watson sane. “And besides, the coroner’s office had probably taken Greg’s body and the bottle of poison away by now.” Watson walked past Sherlock, not looking back, and totally ignored his request. That is until Sherlock jumped in front of Watson path, forcing him to stop.

“Well, we got clues from the closet, remember. The coroners haven’t taken that away.” Sherlock tried to persuade his side kick. “Please, partner.” Sherlock put a lot of emphasis on the word “partner.” Watson could tell Sherlock called him his partner in order to do what he asked.

Watson sighed. “Sherlock, if I did search for more clues, then I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking! I don’t think it would be beneficial if I’m the one searching for clues. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to begin interrogation.” Watson walked past his partner, again and did not look back at him, again. “If this is about Sherlock breaking his fastest case solving record,” Watson thought to himself, “then he shouldn’t expect any help from me.”

Watson was a good ten feet away from his partner. Sherlock and Watson both had their backs tuned towards each other. Sherlock spoke up quietly, but loud enough for Watson to hear, “If I can tell you where to start looking,” He paused, “would you?”

Watson stopped walking. His back was turned to Sherlock and he let out a sigh of sympathy. He should have just darted for the interrogation room and completely ignored Sherlock, but instead he said, “Where do I possibly start looking for clues, Sherlock?”

Sherlock lightly smiled even though no one was there to see it. “Boxes,” was all he said.

“What?” Watson sounded confused and a little annoyed that Sherlock was wasting his time.

“Remember when we moved here from Manehattan?” Sherlock turned, facing the back of Watson.
“We’ve been in Ponyville exactly one week and six days.”

“So?” Watson turned as well, facing Sherlock who was lightly smiling.

“How many boxes did we use when we moved?” Sherlock started walking very, very slowly to Watson.

“I don’t know. Like, 40” Watson guessed.

“Close.” Sherlock was still walking slower than a snail’s pace toward his partner. “To hold all of our supplies we needed exactly 44 boxes.” Watson knew Sherlock was great at remembering things, so he believed that they used 44 boxes.

“So?” Watson didn’t know where Sherlock was going with the subject, but he realized that agreeing to investigate the house if Sherlock gave him a place to look was probably a bad idea.

“Now let me ask you this.” Sherlock was close enough to Watson now to speak in a loud whisper. “How many boxes did you see at Greg’s house?”

Watson tried to look back at the houses interior in his mind. He’s usually extremely observant about these types of things so he should have known if he saw any boxes. He thought as hard as he could, but didn’t remembered seeing any boxes at the house. He didn’t want to say, “There were no boxes in the house,” because he would have sounded like an idiot if there was. So instead, he said “I don’t recall seeing any boxes, Sherlock”

“That’s right!” Sherlock was standing next to Watson by now. “Why would someone move to Ponyville and not bring anything with them?”

“What if there were boxes in the bedrooms? We didn’t check in there.” Watson tried to reason. He really didn’t want to walk all the way back to Greg’s creepy house just to see if he had boxes in his bedroom.

“That’s the thing Watson, we didn’t check.” Watson groaned, loudly. Probably loud enough for all the mares in the interrogation room to hear. “So, if you can check the house for any boxes lying around then I can put that theory away and then you can come back and help me interrogate!” Sherlock had a forehoof around his aggravated side kick. “You did agree to check the house if I gave you a place to start, remember?”

Watson realized he was doomed. “I don’t want to.” Watson complained, but he knew his attempt where futile.

“Now listen here Watson,” Sherlock said loudly and seriously, “All I want you to do is check the bedrooms for boxes so we can put this theory to bed and to stop a mass murderer on the loose. I seriously doubt that any of those mares in there are the murderer so we need to work extremely hard to stop the perpetrator before he or she strikes again!”

Watson could have argued that the murderer only killed one griffin which doesn’t really qualify him or her to be titled mass murderer. Watson decided not to argue though, because that’s still one too many griffins to murder and justice still needed to be brought to him or her; Mass murderer or not. If justice was going to be brought, then the two detectives were going to need every clue they could find. Watson sighed knowing he was going to miss interrogation. “For Greg,” Watson paused, “I’ll do it.” Watson stopped looking at the floor and started looking at Sherlock, “But don’t expect a clue like the closet. We got lucky we found the stuff in there.

“That’s my boy!” Sherlock patted Watson on the back.

“Don’t ever call me that again.” Watson returned rapidly. Sherlock stopped patting Watson when he said that and removed his forehoof around his shoulder. Watson sighed, “Good bye, Sherlock, let’s meet back here say nine p.m.”

“That sounds good. That leaves me with about ten minutes of interrogation for each mare.”
“And it’s a twenty minute walk to Greg’s house and a twenty minute walk back so that leaves me exactly twenty minutes to look for boxes.”

“Not if you trot there, boy.” Watson rolled his eyes; So much for the not-calling-Watson-a-boy thing. He sighed one more time just because he was so upset about it all.

Without saying anything else Watson started to walk down the hallway.

“Trot, boy, trot!” Sherlock yelled out, “If you do find boxes maybe you can make it back before interrogation is over and help me finish!”

That motivated Watson enough. And he galloped away.

***************

Sherlock found a good sized bowler hat in Watson’s wardrobe and was currently staring at the new looking him in the wardrobes built in mirror. Everything was going perfect, except that he remembered he had to tell Alex something too. He made his way to the building’s lobby to see his receptionist typing at her typewriter and three books were lying stacked next to her on her desk. One book was considerably larger than the other two at the bottom o the stack. Sherlock looked at the books. Their titles were, Pine Trees From the Griffon's Land, Banished Plants of Equestria and the book at the bottom of the stack, The one that was about four inches thick was, Uses for Dragon Scales.

“You should check this one first.” Sherlock tapped the thick Dragon scale book. “It’s thicker and it’s full of the information we need.

Alexandra stopped typing and looked at Sherlock. “Me?” She wanted to know if she heard Sherlock correctly.

“Yes.”

“I can’t Sherlock I’m working.” She gestured to her typewriter. “I’m actually writing a newspaper article about you saying how many cases you’ve solved and you’re lucky I’m not mentioning all the times you hit on me.”

“Alex,” Sherlock spoke calmly, “Your son is looking for more clues and I’m going to be interrogating.” There was a long awkward silence in the room. “So,” Sherlock slid the colossal book across Alex’s desk toward his annoyed receptionist, “This is your new work.” Sherlock tapped loudly on the book twice, “You’re going to find out what Greg was doing with all the material we found in the closet."

Alexandra, just like her son, did not want to do what Sherlock said. She folded her fore hooves an looked at Sherlock with an “are you serious” expression. She was not about to read an entire book about dragon scales in one night.

“Now listen here Alex,” Sherlock said loudly and seriously, “All I want you to do is find what you can do with dragon scales, Laughing powder, West-Bolio pine tree leafs and frosting so we can find out what Greg was doing and stop a mass murderer on the loose. I seriously doubt that any of those mares in there are the murderer so we need to work extremely hard to stop the perpetrator before he or she strikes again!”

Alexandra rolled her eyes and took the book in her forehooves and cracked it open. Sherlock smiled. Apparently that speech works on all the Bells. “Don’t expect to have a smashing column in the newspaper though.” Alexandra said facing the book.

“Oh, and another thing!” Sherlock said, “I need you to get one of the mares in interrogation room C to meet me in interrogation room A. It’s more mysterious if they don’t see me all at once.”

Alexandra looked up from the book and said, “Interrogation room A? Why would you want to use that one?”

Sherlock remembered that about five days ago he used interrogation room A for a stallion that was a mud farmer. The mud farmer was very nervous and felt the need to attack Sherlock with his produce. Needless to say, the room got very messy and Sherlock decided he was never going to buy mud from that stallion, every. Not that Sherlock buys mud or anything it just brought him joy to say he was going to boycott the stallions company. “It’s not still all muddy is?” Sherlock was anxious. If interrogation room A was dirty then that would mean he would have use interrogation room B.

“I didn’t clean it.” Alexandra stated like Sherlock already knew that.

“I thought you stayed in after work to clean it!”

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know, but I left you a fifty bit bonus on your desk.”

“Sherlock, I didn’t know you gave me those bits for cleaning the room. I thought you were just hitting on me.”

“I don’t love you that much!” Sherlock realized what he said. Not only was it rude it was also a lie. “Ok, maybe I do, but that’s not the point!”

“Why don’t you just use interrogation room B?” Alexandra suggested.

“That the point! Interrogation room B was made for children.”

“Those mares looked pretty young.”

“No, filly children! The table is too small, the lighting is perfect and the walls are painted with flowers and rainbows.”

“Did you say the lighting was perfect? What’s bad about that?” Alexandria tried making the idea of using interrogation room B not that bad.

“Interrogations are supposed to be ominous and scary for the pony of interest. Imperfect lighting really gets them creeped out, you know?"

Alexandra smiled lightly and rapped her foreleg around Sherlock, “Now listen here Sherlock,” Alexandra said loudly and seriously, “All I want you to do is use interrogation room B so we can find out what has happened to Greg and stop a mass murderer on the loose.”

Sherlock blushed. I little of it was because Alexandra was touching him and the other little bit was because he realized Alex must of heard him saying that speech to Watson.

Alexandra spoke in a very cheesy, serious voice, “I seriously doubt that any of those mares in there are the murderer so we need to work extremely hard to stop the perpetrator before he or she strikes again!” Alexandra smiled knowing that she caught Sherlock trying to use the same speech twice.

Sherlock looked down. Everypony he worked with made sacrifices and now it was his turn. He sighed. “I’ll be waiting in interrogation room B. Send in one of the mares soon.” Sherlock made his way to the door that lead to the back room.

“Anypony in particular you want to speak to first?” Alexandra called out now looking down at her book.

“No.” Sherlock said as he walked through the door.

************

Sherlock shuddered as he walked in the room. The flowers and rainbows that were painted on the walls had smiley faces on them. Humongous, smiley faces. Instead of the room having one dull pendant lamp hanging from the ceiling over the table; small little lamps with their own tiny desk where placed everywhere. At least the chair wasn’t colorful. Sherlock sat on the grey chair, but had to rearrange himself to feel comfortable. Curse this room. Hopefully the pony of interest won’t think Sherlock as a joke and laugh at him instead of giving him information. Sherlock heard the door from interrogation room C open. Things were about to begin, Sherlock sat up strait in his chair took a deep breath, looked straight at the door in front of him an braced himself for the interrogation to begin.

Alexandra opened the door and gestured to a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, to sit in the chair across from Sherlock. As the rainbow manned mare stepped into the room, Alexandra closed the door behind her. She sat in the chair in front of Sherlock examining the painted walls.

Sherlock wished Watson was here. If he was, he would have used his super observant skills to get a ton of information from the mare just by looking at her. “You must be Rainbow Dash,” Sherlock estimated. It wasn’t that hard of an estimate though. There was one mare in the group called Rainbow dash and her rainbow mane probably had something to do with the word “rainbow” in her name.

“Yeah.” She spoke in a deep voice for a mare.

Sherlock noted in his mind that Rainbow Dash's rainbow mane clashed with the painted walls. He wished his mane looked that cool. Not rainbow colored or anything, just cooler than what he had.

“I swear, I didn’t murder Greg!” Rainbow dash pleaded, “I didn’t even know he was murdered until-”

“It’s ok,” Sherlock cut in. “I don’t believe any of you did. I just want to know if Greg told you anything or if you saw Greg do anything.”

Rainbow Dash Blinked. She didn't know what to say next

“Tell me about yourself, Rainbow Dash.” Sherlock wanted to get her to start talking and to feel more comfortable. Some ponies don't handle death well, even if they had nothing to do with the death. If she felt more comfortable then Sherlock would get more information from her and right now he needed all the information he could get his hooves on.

“Um, well, I really like to fly.” Sherlock showed fake interest in Rainbow Dash statement.

“Do you like to fly fast or try new tricks?”

“Both. A lot of my tricks come from my speed.”

At least now Rainbow Dashes mind wasn’t set on the whole creepiness of the situation. “Really?” Sherlock showed interest in his voice, “Ever since I was a filly I wished I was a pegasus.”

“Oh it’s so awesome flying through clouds and looking at all view below. Especially when you’re as fast as me!”

Sherlock chuckled at Rainbows boast. She smiled a little too. This was good, you want to be friends with the pony of interest when they have information you want. “You know Rainbow, you remind me so much of myself when I was your age.” Oh, that one was a good line, excellent in this situation.

“Really? I didn’t think of you as a competitive pony, Dr. Hooves.”

“Please, call me Sherlock.” Sherlock said cheerfully. The beginning introductions were going great. Now it was time to get what he wanted. Sherlock cleared his throat and stopped smiling to show the seriousness of the mood. “Now, Rainbow,” Sherlock paused for effect, “ What did you see Greg do?”
Rainbow stopped smiling too. She knew she was going to have to talk about Greg sooner or later and quite frankly, she missed him already. “Me and Fluttershy had him over for dinner.”

“That’s all?”

“No, he also helped me get out of a bear trap.” Rainbow remembered all the adventures he had with Greg earlier that day and wished the horrible misfortune didn’t happen to him.

“What?” Sherlock said more rudely than he expected to, “Wouldn't your hoof come clean off if you were in a bear trap?"

“No it was more of a net that would tie you up if you stepped on it. It was meant for bears, but I accidental flew into it because I had a bird house on my head.” Rainbow said seriously.

Sherlock blinked. He thought he would ask something, but then he didn’t. He didn’t know where to begin asking Rainbow Dash about her crazy day. “Why was there a bear trap...how did a bird house...what?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Sherlock sighed. “Ok, it would seem we have a tad bit of miscommunication here.” Sherlock had an idea, “I know, why don’t you tell me exactly everything that has happened in your day.”

“From when the time I first saw Greg?”

“No, Sooner than that. Start from when you woke up in the morning all the way to when you were asked to be interrogated.

Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath. “Ok, but you’re going to have to believe everything I tell you. No matter how crazy it sounds."

“Only if you speak the truth.” Sherlock lightly smiled, which was probably something Rainbow Dash had never seen before.

Rainbow Dash straitened up in her chair, rested her forelegs on the table and began to tell Sherlock everything that had happened today.

***************************

Rainbow Dash liked to sleep in. Especially when she didn’t have work. She felt bad for all the ponies that had to work on such a beautiful day while she was out enjoying it. She would of slept in longer, no doubt, if she didn’t have a doctor’s appointment to go to. The doctor wanted to be absolutely, one hundred percent sure Rainbows wing had healed properly. It had been almost a month since she was hospitalized from the crash and she felt that her wing was fine. However, the doctor insisted to make sure everything was all right.

So Rainbow flew down to the hospital.

***************************

“No, Rainbow Dash, I need your story to be more detailed.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t just say: I flew down to the hospital. I need clues. And something that might not seem like a clue to you could be a clue to me. So I need you to tell me,” Sherlock started thinking of examples, “Who and what you saw. What you smelled. How you felt.” Sherlock had paused after each sentence to think of a new example, “You know things like that.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and started her story again from where she left off.

***************************

Cold, bitter wind threw itself against the helpless pegasus. She didn’t mind the cold though. She was used to it by now. The air was thinner and the water evaporated quicker than usual at such a high altitude, making the poor creature thirst for a liquid to drink. As much as Rainbow didn’t want to make the endeavor down to the hospital, she knew she was going to have to. She spread out her wings and let the cold air rush through them, giving Rainbow the shivers. She dived from her cloudy home and flapped her wings to stay afloat. When she felt that she flapped enough, she held her wings horizontally letting her glide down to the ground. The air smelt so clean and so pure. Rainbow watched as she flew over the tops of trees and buildings. She saw all the ponies below her that already started their day long before Rainbow woke up. Rainbow thought to herself “I wonder how fast I can make it to the hospital.” So she lifted her wings and pushed backwards with a very hard force, thrusting herself forward at a high velocity. As she came closer to the hospital, she made her wings face up, causing her to slow down. As her hooves made contact on the grassy earth right outside the hospitals entrance, she smiled.

***************************

“Is that detailed enough for you, Sherlock?”

What was it with ponies saying Sherlock like it was an insult? “Um, actually, what you were doing before was just fine.” Sherlock needed Rainbow Dash to like him again if they were going to cooperate.

Rainbow Dash rolled her ruby colored eyes and continued her story.

***************************

When Rainbow opened the door she was surprised to see two familiar faces there. The first face was Spike. Spike is Twilight Sparkle’s baby brother; who is a one foot tall, light purple dragon, for all of those ponies who don’t know that already. Spike had bandages tied around his waist and back. The second familiar face was tying those bandages around Spike. It was Gilda, the griffin. Rainbow Dash used to be good friends with Gilda. That is until their fight they had about a year ago. Many harsh names were said and Gilda left the village and Rainbow never heard from here since. Until, today of course.

“Gilda?” Rainbow wanted to make sure he was remembering her old friend right.

Gilda finished tightening Spike’s bandages and turned to face the doorway Rainbow was standing in. “Rainbow Dash!” She cried out. It was hard to forget a pony with a rainbow mane like Rainbow Dash's.

“What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked, still stunned to see Gilda there.

“I’m here in the hospital to volunteer. Twilight told me it was a great place to help ponies out.” Gilda turned to Spike and asked, “Is that bandage on good enough?” She asked the dragon.

“Yea, it’s...fine.” Without saying anything else Spike walked past Rainbow Dash and out the doors to the outside.

“What...What happened to him?” Rainbow was still in shock seeing her old friend again.

“Oh, I think he fell out of a tree or something.” There was a long awkward silence after Gilda said that. She cleared her throat and spoke sincerely, “Listen, Dash, about what happened last time we talked...” Gilda sighed. “I...I really acted like a jerk.”

“Oh, you were worse than that!” Rainbow joked. Gilda cheeks blushed.

“You’re totally right Dash. I was worse than a jerk.” Gilda looked down from shame. “Do...do you forgive my worse than jerkiness?”

“YES!” Rainbow was glad to have Gilda back as a friend. The pegasus and griffin took a step closer to each other and hugged it out. “Hey!” Rainbow Dash suddenly had a great idea. She pulled away from the hug ad said, “Do you want to go flying and racing and pulling pranks and-"

“Slow down there Dash.” Gilda cut in and chuckled. “Man, you want to do everything fast don’t you.” Rainbow gave a confused look to her friend. “Don’t you think we should do those things after your checkup?”

Rainbow chuckled to from her own stupidity. “Right. Ok then I’ll see you when I’m all done!”

Thankfully the checkup didn’t take too long. Although, it didn’t help that Rainbow kept asking the doctor “Are we done now?” literally every five seconds. When the doctor confirmed that everything was fine with Rainbow she bolted out the door and met with Gilda. Gilda told a nurse that she was going to take her break and the two fliers were off.

***************************

“But something didn’t feel right.” Rainbow stopped talking after she said that.

“What do you mean.” Sherlock had to ask. You want to be cautious of the pony of interest’s feelings. If they get angry or sad then they could stop talking.

“It didn’t seem like the Gilda I knew. She let me win races, she complimented my moves and once when I asked her to, Top that! She just said, I can’t Rainbow, you’re a way better flier than me.”

“And this bothered you?” Sherlock spoke in his soothing psychiatrist voice.

“Yes! Gilda is always competitive and always thinks she’s the best.”

“Well, it seems that she might of changed.”

“But I don’t like the changed Gilda. I guess I secretly liked the old one.”

“But did everypony else like the old Gilda?”

“No, actually they all hated her. And she hated everypony too.” Rainbow sighed. “It’s not like her to change.”

Sherlock felt somewhat sad for Rainbow, but things were getting off track. This was turning into psychology time and not interrogation time. “So how long did you two fly for?”

“Hours.” Rainbow sounded nostalgic remembering the good time.

“So, you stopped flying after you couldn’t take anymore of Gilda’s niceness?”

Rainbow sighed. “No, Gilda’s Brother had to borrow her for a little bit.”

Sherlock got excited for the first time since interrogation started. Greg was just mentioned. Sherlock pulled out his note pad and began taking notes of the future victim.

***************************

“Hey, Gilda!” Greg called out from the ground. “I need to talk to you!”

“What’s up?” Gilda yelled back from the cloud she was resting on.

Rainbow was just about to attempt a sonic rainboom, but was rudely interrupted by what looked like another griffin. “Who’s that?” Rainbow said loud enough for Gilda to hear, but not loud enough for the stranger on the ground to hear.

“Oh! You must’ve never met my brother. Come on down and I’ll introduce ya!” Gilda leaped off her cloud and started falling to the ground.

Rainbow did the same. Her brother? In all the years Rainbow Dash had known Gilda she never knew that she had a brother. Heck, Gilda never even mentioned him so how should the pegasus know? As the two landed on the ground Rainbow noticed that the new griffin did show some resemblance to Gilda. She also noticed that besides Greg was an empty, dark purple basket.

“Greg, this is Dash.” Rainbow Dash silently waved at Greg, “Dash, this is my brother, Greg.”

“Oh, so you’re Rainbow Dash. Gilda has said a lot about you.”

“Yep, that’s me. The best flyer in all of Equestria!” Rainbow put her hoof on her chest.

Greg chuckled, “You might have some competition though, have you seen Gilda fly.”

Rainbow wanted to say, “NO! She’s been letting my fly while she just sat on her butt and watched from a cloud!” But instead she said “Yea, she’s pretty good.”

Greg felt that now was a good time to stop the conversation he was currently having and start a new one. Greg smiled at Rainbow and turned to his sister. “Gilda we need to talk.”

“Ok, what’s up?” Gilda asked Greg again.

“Come here” Greg grabbed Gilda by her wing and pulled her aside so he could whisper to her.

Unfortunately, Rainbow could not hear the conversation between the brother and sister. She did hear Gilda say in a loud whisper, “Ah, come on! Don't be such a baby!” Rainbow felt left out as the almost silent conversation continued for about two minutes. It ended when Gilda annoyingly sighed and said,

“I’m sorry Dash, but my brother wants to go into the Everfree forest to collect some plant sample for a project and he's too big of a wuss to go alone.” Gilda paused, not sure if Rainbow got what she was saying. “So I'm going to go into the forest with him.”

Rainbow frowned. “Can I come with you?” She asked hopefully.

“Trust me Dash, It’s going to be extremely boring in there. Why do you think I don't want to go?” Gilda put a taloned claw on Rainbow's shoulder, “Stay here and I'll be back in a few.”

Rainbow was a bit disappointed Gilda rejected her like that, but she was becoming more and more tired of the new Gilda so instead she said, “Alright, I guess I’ll see you later, but I'm probably going to be napping on a cloud, instead of being here.”
Gilda chuckled at Rainbow and put her talon on her shoulder again. “Dash you haven't changed at all.” Gilda tapped Rainbows shoulder a couple of times, took a few paces backwards and she and her brother flew off the ground and into the direction of the forest.

Although no pony was around to hear Rainbow, she said, “And you’re an entirely new griffin.”

Whenever Rainbow Dash is sad, she would walk for a bit instead of fly. She didn't walk fast and, depending on how depressed she was, never spoke a word. She had done her “walk of despair” for a long sixty minutes until something interesting happened. While she was strolling down the street she saw, lying in the middle of the dirt road, a cupcake. The cupcake had green icing with a cherry on its tip. It was an odd combination having a cherry on top of a green cupcake. Who was the owner of this colorful pastry? Rainbow looked around her surroundings and saw noppony in sight. Since nopony was there she started talking to the cupcake.

“Well whoever lost ya couldn’t be missing ya!” Rainbow picked up the cupcake in her hoof and took a large, satisfying bite.

Immediately after the cupcake touched Rainbow’s taste buds, she violently spate out the pastry that was in her mouth and dropped the rest of the cupcake on the ground. It tasted horrible. No, worse than that. It was more along the lines of horrendous, appalling and abhorrent. Rainbow coughed and made very loud gagging sounds. She could still taste the wretched thing in her mouth and unfortunately had nothing to get the taste out. At least now her mind wasn't on Gilda.

Rainbow heard loud hoof steppes coming from down the road. Rainbow looked up to see who had arrived and she saw a distraught looking Pinkie Pie accompanied with Fluttershy. Pinkie saw the half eaten cupcake on the ground and yelled in horror, “YOU ATE MY CUPCAKE!”

“That was yours!?” Rainbow could hardly believe why Pinkie Pie would ever get a cupcake so fowl tasting.

“Yeah, it was mine! I dropped it here and when I realized it was gone, I followed my hoof steps backwards to find MY BEST FRIEND munching on my desert!” Pinkie pie started breathing heavily when she was done screaming.

“Pinkie, that cupcake was awful!” Rainbow tried to point out. “Why would you get it?”

Pinkie gasped. “You didn't even enjoy it! Well there goes a perfectly good watermelon cupcake down the drain!”

“Watermelon!? Pinkie that tasted NOTHING like watermelon!”

“Yes it did! You obviously don't like watermelon!”

“Pinkie I beat you in a watermelon eating contest last week remember?”

Pinkie went silent when she remembered seeing Rainbow Dash win first place in the watermelon eating contest. Then she yelled, “YOU ATE MY CUPCAKE!!”

“I'm sorry ok! Listen, I'll bake you a new cupcake that's a million times better, alright?” Rainbow held out a hoof so she and Pinkie could have shook on it, but instead Pinkie made a jittering sound. Still holding a hoof up, Rainbow asked, “What was that?”

Pinkie looked at her tail. “Hmm, twitchy tail. So that means,” Pinkie pie looked up and screamed, “LOOK OUT!!”

Rainbow Dash had no idea what was going on. Before she could look up in the direction Pinkie was pointing, something landed on her and her entire world went black. She didn't know what that “something” was, but the fact that it hurt when it landed on Rainbow and also covered up her eyes, probably wasn’t a good thing.

Fluttershy yelled, “My birdhouse!” giving Rainbow a hint that a bird house had fell on her.

Apparently, the little hole carved on the side of the birdhouse to let birds in, had made its way on Rainbow's neck so she couldn't see a thing.

With the fallen bird house around Rainbow's neck, she panicked and started to kick and buck. She could hear Pinkie and Flutershy talking, but Rainbow couldn't make it out. In a panic, Rainbow dash tried to smash the bird house on the ground by hitting her head on it. Then she remembered that there was a mountain side to the left of her. If Rainbow could fly into the cliff hard enough, maybe the birdhouse would break.

Rainbow leaped up into the air and started flying quickly to her left. Rainbow was expecting to crash into a hillside by now, but the crash didn’t come. This didn't make any sense. Unless Rainbow was flying in the opposite direction a hill should have come up. If she was flying the wrong way, that would mean she was headed into the Everfree forest.

Rainbow knew she was flying the wrong way when her right wing hit the tip of a tree and caused her to spin and fall very, very quickly.

Rainbow Dash was lost in sense of direction because the bird house was still clung to her neck. Rainbow Dash started to spin uncontrollably and then her back hooves made contact to a tree branch, causing her to spin more. When Rainbow hit the ground, it was very unpleasant. She bounced and slid from all the momentum she built up flying. Somehow, the birdhouse was still around Rainbows neck. Right when Rainbow thought that her crash landing was going to be over, she felt something new. She heard a snap and then something that felt like a net, wrapped itself around Rainbow and carried her a few feet off the ground. Rainbow felt around her and she found out that a net was definitely around her.

Rainbow had no clue what just happened, but then she heard a familiar voice say, “Rainbow Dash! Is that you?”

“...yeah. Who are you?” The birdhouse that surrounded Rainbows head altered her voice a
little bit.

“It's me, Greg. How did you get trapped up there and why is there a birdhouse around your head?”

“To be honest Greg, I have absolutely no idea how this happened.”

Greg chuckled. “Ok, let me untie that net that has you trapped first, then I'll see what I can do about the bird house.” Rainbow heard the flaps of wings come closer to her and then heard Greg’s voice right next to herself say, “Man, these are gnarly screws.” Rainbow didn't move. She heard Greg struggling with something. “I can’t get these blasted screwes holding the net up loose. Do you think the hunter would mind if I just cut his net up with my talon?”

“Whatever gets me out.”

Greg chuckled again. “Ok, here goes nothing.” As Rainbow heard the snap of each strand being broken, the net's grip got looser and looser. Pretty soon she felt Greg's talons grab hold of her and pulled her out. Greg slowly descended toward the ground holding Rainbow in his claws. When the two got close enough to the ground, Greg let go of Rainbow.

Rainbow then heard the sound of wood being cut. She guessed that Greg was also cutting the birdhouse with his talon so she remained still. Then a few seconds later she saw a crack of light open up giving her a full view of the world around her. She could see again. Greg was standing awkwardly close to Rainbow and was holding in each claw half of the broken birdhouse. Greg threw the wood pieces aside and said, “Hey, Rainbow Dash, want to walk with me through the forest? Gilda and I kind of got separated.”

Without thinking about it, Rainbow said, “Uh, Yeah sure.” Greg smiled and picked up the dark purple basked Rainbow saw him with just a couple of hours ago. Greg put the basket around his neck like it was a necklace. Rainbow presumed that Greg put the basket around his neck so he could carry it around and also talk at the same time. “What’s in the basket?” Rainbow asked, trying to start up a conversation. There was a matching dark purple cloth hanging over the basket so Rainbow couldn’t see what was inside.

“Oh, this?” Greg looked down at the basket. “Science stuff. You wouldn’t like it. Hey, I saw this great cliff with an amazing view and I think it would be perfect for gliding.”

Greg started walking and Rainbow Dash followed. She felt there was going to be an awkward silence while walking with this mutual friend, so she tried to start up another conversation. “So......do you like science?”

Without looking back Greg answered, “Yeah, its pretty fun. The griffin king has actually wants me to do little projects for him because I have such a vast knowledge of everything.”

Now things were getting somewhere. “You’ve talked to the griffin king? What’s he like?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve talked PLENTY of times to him. In fact, I shudder whenever I have to speak to him. He always wants me working and finishing deadlines...”

“You should definitely meet Twilight Sparkle. She’s into science and stuff too.”

“I’ve already met her.”

“Oh.” There was an awkward silence. “What’s the griffin king like?” Rainbow asked again.

“Don’t ever meet him! That’s what I have to say. He hates a lot of things. And if he does like you then he’s a jerk to you.”

“That reminds me of somepony I know.” Rainbow didn’t want to tell Greg that, that “somepony” was actually Gilda.

“Do you smell that?” Greg stopped walking and looked puzzled. Rainbow didn’t want to ruin his concentration so she remind silent. “I want to say, it smells like...bear.”

As soon as Greg finished saying “bear” a loud filly sounded scream was heard. Greg quickly looked at Rainbow to see if she heard it to. When Rainbow and Greg went eye-locked Greg removed the basket from his neck and ran at a full sprint towards the scream. Rainbow tried to keep up with Greg, dodging tree branches and maneuvering her body around trees, but Greg was an incredibly fast runner.

The trees suddenly thinned out and Rainbow saw Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle standing on the edge of a cliff being surrounded by a big. Black. Bear. The bear had an outstretched paw ready to swipe at the three at any second. But before the beast could, Greg, who was running like a bullet, tackled the bear and started struggling with it on the ground.

Rainbow watched in awe as she just witnessed Greg save the cutie mark crusaders. Greg had a tight grip on the bear, but the beast was still able to get blows on the much smaller griffin.

“Go save them!” Greg managed to yell while still holding on the bear. The two predators were fighting awfully close to the edge of the cliff and the three fillies couldn’t get around them.

Rainbow flew into the sky, over Greg and the bear and grabbed the three nervous looking fillies in her hoof and carried them to a safer spot. Once Greg saw the four ponies were safe the fight got more interesting. Greg flailed and struggled more with the bear. Then Greg gave a mighty roar that sounded just like a lions and pushed off the ground. The push had direct contact with the bear and it was enough force to send him falling off the cliff.

Greg breathed heavily and stared down the cliff watching the bear fall. He turned around, clutched his shoulder and started walking toward Rainbow with a limp. “Is everypony alright?”

“We are, but what about you?” Rainbow asked.

“I’ll be fine, just some scrapes.”

“Oh, no you won't!” A new soothing female voice said. “Not without my help!” It was Flutershy. She flew over Rainbow and landed next to Greg. “Let me see your shoulder.” Greg moved his talon off of his injured shoulder and Flutershy gasped when she saw the damage. “You’re coming with me right away!”

“Where’s that?” Greg asked.

“In my cottage. We’re going to get that looked at pronto!” Fluttershy softly, but spoke with assertion.

Greg weighed his options. “Alright, Flutershy as long as you don’t treat me like one of your injured animals.” Greg started to fly. “But wait, I have to get my basket.” Greg flew to the trees to get his basket where he dropped it. Moments later all the ponies could see Greg fly above the trees with the dark purple basket around his neck saying, “Ok Fluttershy, lead the way!”

Fluttershy looked over at Rainbow and said, “Um, could you carry the girls, if that's alright with you…”

“Sure.” Rainbow said cheerfully. Fluttershy flew up in the air to show Greg where to go while Rainbow scooped up the girls and followed after the two a few feet behind.

The flight wasn’t too long, fortunately. As they all landed in Fluttershy’s front yard, Fluttershy said to Rainbow, “Could you take the girls home to their families,” Fluttershy stared at the cutie mark crusaders, “and make sure they found out what they were up too.”

“Ok.” Rainbow answered. Without saying anything else, Rainbow flew up carrying one filly in each hoof and had another filly riding on her back. Rainbow decided to only fly five feet off the ground just in case she dropped somepony. “You know,” Rainbow started to say, “You guys really shouldn’t go in the forest alone. You would have been toast if Greg wasn’t there.”

“You’re right Dash we won’t ever go alone again! Please don’t tell anypony!” Scootaloo pleaded while riding on Rainbows back.

“Trust me scoot,” Rainbow just made up that nickname, “If you get punished then you’ll think twice before waltzing alone into the forest.”

Scootaloo slouched, knowing a harsh punishment was coming. Rainbow saw Apple Jack walking alone down the road, looking agitated. Rainbow decided that she would start by telling her friend what the fillies had done. “Hey, A.J!” Rainbow called out to get her attention. Apple Jack turned. “I just think you should know that someponies were out in the forest and almost got mauled by a bear!” Rainbow could tell the news didn’t help A.J’s already rotten looking mood.

“What in tarnation!? Is everypony alright?” She said in her heavy southern accent.

“Yeah, everpony is fine, thanks to Greg.”

Apple Jack looked at her younger sister. “I thought I told ya girls not to go tah the forests!” The Girls looked at the orange mare with an “I’m sorry” face. Apple Jack gave an aggravated sigh, trying her best not to scream. “Come here apple bloom.” Apple Jack thought it would be awkward for Scootaloo not having to talk to any parents; being an orphan and all, so she added, “An’ you to Scootaloo! Come ‘ere” Scootaloo jumped from Rainbow’s back and followed Apple Jack and Apple Bloom to their House.

Since Rainbow only had to carry one other filly, Sweetie Belle, she was able to fly much faster to Rarity’s house, the Carousel Boutique. After about fifteen seconds of flying, the two made it to the house/shop. “Rarity, I have to tell you something. A certain somepony has been naughty!” Rainbow said while knocking on the front door. Rarity came out with a confused look on face at first, but her expression quickly changed to anger when she saw Rainbow holding her little sister.

“Please tell me you didn’t go in the forest.”

“Uh...well...we knew Greg would save us.” Sweetie Belle tried to reason.

“What?”

“Greg saved them from a bear attack by pushing it off a cliff.” Rainbow informed.

Rarity gasped from shock. “That’s two ponies that almost died today! Sweetie Belle go to your room this instant!”

Sweetie Belle trudged herself inside. Rainbow was about to question what Rarity meant when she said “That’s two ponies that almost died today!” but before she could speak Rarity spoke up. “So you’ve actually talked to Greg?”

“Yeah, we were talking for a bit.”

“Where is he? I feel that we didn’t have a proper introduction.”

“He’s over at Fluttershy’s cottage right now. You can walk there with me if you want.”

“That would be lovely.” Rarity closed and locked the door to make sure nopony tried to escape and started to walk with Rainbow. The two didn’t talk much during the walk. When they got to Fluttershy’s cottage they saw Greg walk out the front door with a bandage on his shoulder and the dark purple basket with the dark purple cloth around his neck.

“You’re leaving?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, I have a lot of science stuff to catch up on.” Rainbow noted that Greg looked pretty upset that he had to work now. “Goodbye.” And with that Greg flew off.

“Well...Some other time then.” Rarity said while watched the griffin fly out of sight. “He’ll be here tomorrow I suppose. I guess I’ll introduce myself then.”

“No. No.” Fluttershy said softly, “How about we make Greg some dinner and invite him and Gilda to it.”

Rainbow pondered the idea for a little bit and said, “That’s a great idea.”

***************

“So for the next two hours we all helped make dinner. I made the corn salad, Rarity made a chocolate cake and Fluttershy tried to cook up fish.”

Sherlock was a bit stunned that Fluttershy prepared a food with meat.

“Fluttershy said Greg was a carnivore or something and that he only ate meat. It was really hard for Fluttershy to bake and we had to help Fluttershy not pass out.

“Who’s we?” Sherlock asked.

“Oh, while Fluttershy was in town she got Applejack to come to dinner too. Me and A.J finished our dishes early and helped out Fluttershy.”

“What time would say dinner started?”

“Around six thirty, six forty-fiveish”

Sherlock remembered that Greg was murdered around seven thirty and he silently wished that, that time would never come in the story.

Rainbow sighed. “So at dinner, Greg started talking about protons and neutrons and how the sun will blow up in a billion years. Greg tried my corn salad and said it was good ant that he might switch to being an omnivore.” Rainbow sighed again, louder than the first sigh. “Then Greg had such concerned face after we told him he was all of our friends. He got up from the table and said that he had something to do.”

“What time was it?

“Seven twenty five.” Rainbow was struggling to hold tears back and Sherlock winced when Rainbow said what time it was in the story. “And he...he never came back.”

Sherlock closed his eyes in despair because he knew what must have happened.

“We waited for a little bit at the cottage,” Rainbow continued, “and after a while we all decided to check on him. But when we all got to his house,” Rainbow started to cry, “We saw police tape all over the place,” Rainbow sniffed because she was crying more, “and police officers were taking blood from a body.” Rainbow cried more heavily, “Then Fluttershy asked the officers what had happened. And they said Greg committed suicide.” Rainbow focused on her breathing and that calmed her down a bit. “Me and Fluttershy cried, A.J and Rarity were also very sad. We all sat down at a park bench and talked for a few minutes. A.J and Rarity were trying to calm us down and after a while Twilight came a got us and said someone wanted to interrogate us. She said that the police believed he was murdered.”

“And so now you’re here.” Sherlock finished. Rainbow shook her head as a tear ran across her face.

Sherlock looked down at his empty notepad. He was too engaged in the story that he forget to take notes. “Thank you, Ms. Dash you are free to go now.” Rainbow got up from her chair and wiped her eyes. “And if you could send in one of your friends I’d appreciate it.”

“Ok.” Rainbow said in a teary voice and left the room.

He thought that towards the end of the story Rainbow got a little vague. He hopped that the other mares would go into more detail about the dinner they had. Sherlock still had a few questions he wanted to ask Rainbow, but he decided not to because he would have other chances to ask the other mares the same question. He also noted Rainbow looked too upset to talk anymore so she probably didn’t want to answer Sherlock’s questions. The question that was on his mind was, “Why wasn’t Gilda at the dinner? Rainbow never mentioned her being there, but she could have been,” Sherlock supposed. What did Gilda do today and where is she now? Sherlock had reason to believe that she could be a suspect, if only he had more information about her. Hopefully one of the mares talked to her as well as Greg. That way Sherlock could know where Gilda had been and what she was doing. The way she just changed her personalities like that also seemed sketchy.

Chapter three: Applejack's Story

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Chapter three: Applejack’s Story.

It took Watson exactly thirteen minutes and forty-three seconds to get to Greg’s house. He knew this because he was counting up the seconds the entire time he ran. “Great,” Watson thought, “the first interrogation is probably over.” He thought it was stupid that he was missing interrogation just to check for boxes. As Watson walked through the front door he saw that his theory was correct. The Coroner's office had already taken Greg’s body and the bottle poison away. Although no corpse was on the floor, Watson still walked around the spot where Greg’s body was. When he got to the other end of the main room he saw a short hallway with a door at the end of it. All Watson had to do now was open the door, see boxes and leave.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if there weren't any boxes in the bedroom.” Watson thought. Watson walked down the hallway very calmly even though it was a very dim lighted and something was murdered here. When he opened the door Watson mouth dropped open.

It was empty. There wasn’t even a bed. Now that Watson thought about it, this WASN’T funny at all! Watson figured he should’ve been happy that he found a clue, but he was also very mad that he was going to miss more interrogation searching the house.

“What kind of griffin moves somewhere and doesn’t bring anything with him!?” Watson said out loud, to himself. “Maybe there are boxes elsewhere!” Watson desperately hoped. He ran out of the room and looked in the kitchen, the bathroom and even the empty closet with the frosting on the wall. The house was empty. No furniture, no dishes and no food, except for the rolls and apples he found in the cupboard. “Aren’t griffins carnivores though? Why are these here?”

Greg was definitely doing something fishy in the house and now Watson was going to have to search for what it was. Watson sighed heavily, knowing he was going to miss more interrogation.

*********************

Back at the police station, Officer Johnson and Officer Dirk we’re having terrible luck finding information about Greg. They didn’t have a lot of files about griffins and the fact that Greg didn’t have a last name made the search even harder.

“I’m not finding anything. Are you having any luck, boy?” Officer Johnson called out to his partner while putting away a file about “George the penguin.”

“Actually I think I found something.” Officer Dirk called out while looking at a single piece of paper.

“What?” Officer Johnson was a tad excited and walked up to his partner.

“It’s about the house that Greg moved into. In this report it says it’s a two bedroom house.” Officer Dirk pointed at a bullet pointed information on the flier.

“So?”
“Well, I only saw one bedroom, sir. Not two, sir.”

“That’s not something, boy! That’s just poor observation skills on your part!”

“So you saw the second bedroom, sir? Where was it?”

“Why, it was in that hallway of course.”

Officer Dirk looked up at his partner, not believing anything that he said, and stated, “I’m going to check it out. I could be wrong, but I just want to be sure.” Officer Dirk left the flier on his desk, got up from his chair and headed to the door.

Before the Officer could make it outside Officer Johnson called out from Officer Dirk's desk. “You know you’re sounding like those crazy detectives with all your theory’s you have.”

Given the fact that Sherlock has solved thousands of cases, Officer Dirk took that as a compliment. “Thank you, sir.” And with that Officer Dirk closed the door behind him and entered the cold, bitter night.

**************

“Whatever Greg was making in the closet, one of its ingredients had to have come from the Everfree forest.” Sherlock deduced out loud, “Why else would he go into the horrible place?” Sherlock thought about telling Alex this, but before he could the next mare walked in.

She had light orange fur and a blond mane. Her cutie mark was three apples places in a triangle shape. “Whoa.” was what she said when she saw the colorful painted walls in the room. She also had a heavy southern accent with one of those cowboy hats atop her head. It didn’t take an expert detective to tell that she was a farm pony.

“Judging by the apples on your flank, you must be the one called Applejack.” Applejack stopped looking at the walls and fixed her eyes at the stallion that was talking to her. “Have a seat.” Sherlock gestures to the chair across from him. “My name is Sherlock Hooves.”

Applejack sat I the chair, never loosing focus on Sherlock. “Rainbow told me that you think none of us killed him.”

“That’s right. I just need information and back story, is all. Speaking of back story, why don’t you tell me about yourself, Applejack.” Sherlock kept in mind that he had to be nice to the pony of interest.

“Um, well ah grow apples.”

“So you work on a farm? I used to work on a farm when I was a filly too.” Sherlock lied. He had never worked at a farm, let alone even been to one. “It’s really hard work for us earth ponies, am I right?”

“Yeah, I have to agree. Unicorns and peguseses,” Sherlock lightly hesitated when Applejack said “peguseses” instead of “Pegasi” like it should have been, “DEFINITELY have more job opportunities than we do, but I wouldn’t change form fer the world.

“Me neither.” Sherlock had to let his grammar Nazi side of him go if Applejack was going to like him.

“It’s even harder work when you have little sister ter look after.”

“No way, I had to look after my little brother on the farm, too!” Sherlock faked enthusiasm. “You know Applejack, you remind me so much of myself when I was your age.” There was that line again. Sherlock liked it so much that he used it twice for two ponies.

Applejack smiled and there was a silence in the room. “So, do you want me to tell you what I said to Greg?”

“Actually what we’re doing now is you’re going to tell me how your day went.”

“Um, ok” Applejack was confused. “My day has actually been a little crazy.”

“No, no. Tell me in exact detail how your day went from when you woke up to when you were asked to be interrogated.” Applejack opened her mouth to say something, but Sherlock cut her off, “No matter how crazy it was. As long as you speak the truth, everything will be fine.”

“Alright, you’re the detective.” Applejack cleared her throat, “When ah woke up this morning I was mighty excited.”

**************

The reason today was a “mighty exiting” day was because it was Saturday. And Saturday was apple cart day. You see, during the week days, Applejack would slave away picking apples, watering apple trees or growing new ones, but on Saturday Applejack would take her ripe produce, load it up in the apple cart and bring it into town for business. It was her kind of relaxing. Not doing any manual work and watching her crops turn themselves into precious bits.

The apple cart had more than just apples though. Thanks to Applebloom and Granny Smith, the cart was full of apple pies, apples on a stick, apple juice, apples on a stick with Carmel, apple cider, apple jam, apple lemonade (yes that is a thing) and even apple makeup.

As Applejack filled up the cart with the large assortment apple flavored goods, a loud, heavy knock came from the front door. Applejack got to the door quickly because whoever it was, sounded anxious. Applejack opened the door to see her pink, party pony friend still making a knocking motion with her hoof as if the door was still there.

“Guess what A.J!!” Pinkie Pie said in her usual cheery voice. Before Applejack could answer pinkie started talking again, “You'll never guess who's moving into the empty house by the hill!” Pinkie Pie jumped a little bit from pure excitement.

“Uh, is it somepony I know?” Applejack guessed.

“Not somepony you know; somegriffin you know!” Pinkie jumped even higher now.

Applejack’s heart almost stopped when Pinkie said the news. The only griffin she knew was Gilda. Although Applejack never really talked to Gilda before, she heard that, that griffin was nothing but a jerk.

“It's not Gilda, is it?” Applejack hopped that Pinkie was talking about somegriffin else.

“Yep! That’s the one!” Applejack sighed. Now this Saturday was going to be ruined. Heck, since she’s moving here then every Saturday will be ruined.

“We’re talkin ’bout Gilda, the one who was a jerk to ya?” Applejack was confused of Pinkies happiness of the news. Especially since Gilda was the most jerky to her.

“That’s what I said silly goose! But she's not a meanie pants anymore! She said that she changed and want to help out everypony she meets!”

“Sounds suspicious if you ask me.”

“Come on A.J just give them a chance!”

“Did you say: them?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you! Gilda’s brother is also moving here too! Isn’t that great!”

Applejack did not think that was great at all. Instead of one annoying griffin bothering everypony now there were going to be two annoying griffins. “That’s great Pinkie, but ah got to finish loading the apple cart. And also ah need to finish crying...”

Pinkie gasped with excitement, “That reminds me A.J! Do you think you can sell these in your apple cart?” From nowhere Pinkie pulled out a cupcake with green frosting. “It’s a watermelon cupcake! I made it myself!”

“Uh, I'd love to Pinkie, but in this here apple cart we sell apples not watermelons.”

“Suite yourself.” Pinkie seemed to have taken the news very lightly and she also put her cupcake away. “The customers probably want more choices. And this cupcake is delicious!”

“So you’ve baked them before?” Applejack asked.

“Nope! This is actually my first watermelon cupcake ever! I just know they have to be good! Hey that gives me an idea!”

Applejack was afraid to ask what it was. Hopefully, it didn’t have to do with Gilda or her brother.”

“I’m going to tell Rarity about Greg and Gilda! Bye A.J!” Pinkie darted of leaving a cloud of dust where she was only moments before.

Applejack coughed up some of the dust that was kicked in her face and said to herself, “So his name is Greg.”

**************

“So ah took the apple cart to town.” Applejack continued.

Sherlock was thinking about stopping Applejack and telling her to be more detailed, but he remembered that last time he did that, Rainbow Dash didn’t take it seriously and it only wasted both of the ponies’ time. So he decided to let this vagueness in the story slide because it probably wasn’t important anyway.

“I set my apple cart up near the edge of Golden hill.

**************

The top of Golden hill starts of in a small fifteen degree slant. And then after a couple of feet of the small incline the hill drops strait down. Applejack’s cart was at the edge of the slant and she kicked a leaver on the wheel of the cart. The leaver activated the carts brakes so it wouldn’t go sliding of the edge of the insanely steep hill. The cart hadn’t even officially opened when Applejack say her friend Fluttershy flinging near the drop-off of the cliff.

“Hey, Fluttershy. Watcha doin?” Applejack asked as she took an apple pie from one of the carts bottom shelves and placed it on top of the cart showing it was for sale.

“Oh, Hi Applejack.” Fluttershy said in the quite, shy voice. “I’m just installing a birdhouse here for all the birds to have a home.”

“Don’t you think it’s dangerous to have a bird house at the drop off? I mean, what if it falls down on somepony?”

“That will never happen. I’m using these.” Fluttershy held up a small bag of screws. “These are L-9 version four titanium screws. There the most powerful screws available.” Fluttershy lightly kicked the bird house. She was meaning to test out the sturdiness of the screws, but the kick was so light that it wasn't really a valid test of durability. “See? Sturdy as a rock. The real question should be why you have a cart with wheels near the ledge of the hill.”

“This carts not going anywhere. See this lever here;” Applejack pointed to the lever aside from one of the carts wheel, “When this baby’s pulled, the wheels won't budge.”

“Well it’s good to see that we're both cautions about other ponies’ safety. I’ll see you around Applejack; I have to feed some new birds that flew into town.” Fluttershy waved goodbye to Applejack and left her alone with her apple cart.

Applejack was happy to have a friend like Fluttershy. She was always shy around others, but when she was with her friends she had no problem speaking her mind. “When she said, new birds that flew into town, she didn't mean Gilda and Greg, did she? No that's just too weird. She probably has some other bird friends to feed.” Applejack thought to herself.

Applejack saw Rainbow Dash fly above her. “Did she just wake up?” Applejack thought to herself, again. “Ah guess someponies other than Rarity really need their beauty sleep.”

Business was going slow, like it usually did in the afternoon. The time just before dinner was when sales would go up. Applejack didn’t mind it though. At this rate she might even fit a nap into her busy day.

That's about when she saw Greg. The hill Applejack’s cart was placed gave her a full view of his house through the trees. All Applejack could think have now was when Pinkie said, “Oh, come on give them a chance!” Since the day was still young and no sales had been made Applejack put away all the products into the bottom selves of the cart and hung out a “Closed” sign.

She grabbed a few apples (apples on a stick without the stick) from the cart and decided she would give them to Greg as a courtesy gift.

The walk wasn't long, but it was very boring. When Applejack got to the front yard, she felt like turning around and hopefully never have to deal with Greg again. “No.” She thought out loud in a quite whisper. “You’re gonna give him a chance to prove he’s not like Gilda.” Applejack took a deep breath and started walking for the door. She became more and more nervous with each step she took. When she got to the door she knocked quieter than she expected. Hopefully Gilda won't answer the door. Hopefully.

Nothing happened for a while and Applejack was ready to leave, but before she could turn around the door slightly opened and a griffin head could be seen from inside. It wasn’t Gilda though; it looked male so it was probably Greg. Greg looked down at the mare in front of him and said,

“Can I help you?”

“Ok this is your chance A.J,” Applejack thought, “Now it’s time to prove yourself.” “Yes, ah mean, no. Ah don’t need any helpin.” Applejack started to get more nervous. So much for first impressions. “Uh, my names A.J, but you can call me Applejack fer short.” Celestia, she was messing this up. “Ah mean, uh, switch those around.” Applejack helplessly smiled, trying to cover up the awkwardness. “You, you must be new to Ponyville.”

“Yeah, me and my sis just moved here.”

“Oh, you’re Gilda’s brother.” Applejack said like she didn’t know that already. “I can show you around town if ya want.”

“I'm fine, thanks. Speak to you later.” Greg started to close the door but Applejack called out to him before he could.

“Wait, um, do you want these apples?” Applejack took the apples that were balancing on her back and showed them to Greg.

“I really shouldn't.”

“I insist! They're my gift to you. Welcoming ya and ya family to town.” Applejack was caring a total of four apples in her hooves.

Without arguing Greg grabbed the apples in his claws. “Man, you ponies. Thanks for the welcome gift A.J. I got to get back to work so I'll speak to you later.”

“That works for me!” Applejack said cheerfully. Greg closed the door and left Applejack alone in his front yard.

“I jist need to prove myself to him is all.” Applejack spoke to herself as she walked out of the yard. “Wait. He was supposed to be the one proving himself! Not me!” Applejack walked past Greg’s front gate and she decided to take a little detour back to the apple cart while she was thinking. Walking always helped A.J focus and since nopony was at the apple cart she figure it wouldn't do anypony any harm.

The extra walk wouldn't take too long. She would just walk around the base of the Golden Hill and be back at the cart in five minutes.

“You're going to have to talk to him some time or another and you don't want him thinking that you're the pony that can't speak right.” Applejack was in her own little world pondering the problem she currently had when she felt something get smashed under her hoof. She first noted that it was very gooy and cold. Applejack quickly looked at what she stepped on and saw her hoof covered in green goop. As A.J got a closer look at it, she saw “the green goop” was no doughtily, Pinkie's watermelon cupcake.

How and why was that thing there? Applejack panicked when she remembered Pinkie really, really wanted to eat her cupcake, but now it was just a squished mess. What could Applejack do? If she told Pinkie then she would never forgive her.

“Ah know!” Applejack said to herself, which was something she did quite often. “I'll just go back home and make her another one and give it to her before she ever misses it!” Applejack took the goop up in her hooves to get rid of any evidence that it was ever smashed and galloped back to her barn.

Applejack caught a glimpse of her apple cart that was atop the hill next to her and felt a little ashamed that she was going to leave it abandoned for such a long time. But she had to make a new cupcake for Pinkie, she just had to. Hopefully this Vacation day won’t get any worse.

When Applejack came into her house she was greeted by three young fillies.

“Hi sis! Watcha got there?” Applebloom pointed at the green goop her sister was holding.

“That’s none of your business. It’s very important. ” Applejack threw the used-to-be cupcake away and got out some pots and pans for cooking.

“If it’s so important, why did ya throw it away?”

Applejack got annoyed at her sister and changed the subject, “Don’t ya have better things to do than to stay at home?”

“Well, the girls and I wanted to try cutie mark crusaders bear hunter, but Rarity wouldn’t let us.”

“I’m glad she did! You’re not going to go NEAR that forest looking for bears, you hear?” Applejack got the apple cookbook out while she was talking.

“We weren’t going to go lookin fer bears.” The way Applebloom said ‘looking’ sounded suspicious. It sounded more suspicious when Scootalloo and Sweetie Bell exchanged smiles, like they knew something Applejack didn’t.

Applejack looked at the girls with a quizzical expression, thinking how to word her next sentence. “Oh…kay…” yep, that was perfect.

“Hey A.J,” Scootaloo called from couch she was sitting on, “random question, but do you have any screws? Preferably L-9 version four titanium screws.”

“Actually, I know Fluttershy’s bird house on top of Golden Hill has ’em. Why?” Applejack poured in two cups of dandy lions into the mixing bowl. It’s what the recipe called for; two cups of flower. Applejack thought she finally found the use for flowers. Apparently they’re good for cooking with. Maybe she’d try one...No she had to focus. Make cupcake and get back to applecart. What did Scootaloo say again? Oh, that’s right, screws.

“Oh nothing.” Scootaloo said quickly.

“You’re not planin to take her screws are ya?” Applejack took a spoon that she would use at the table, a table spoon, and poured baking powder into the mixing bowl with it.

“Uh, No. We were planning on being cutie mark crusaders pony inventors so we wanted to see what the best screw ever looked like and we would try to make it better.”

“Uh, huh.” Applejack was having a hard time believing the fillies. She threw the egg yolk down the sink and put the empty egg shell in the bowl. The recipe called for egg whites and the only white on the egg was its shell, so it went in the bowl. “I want Big Mac watchin after ya so ya don’t anything....” Applejack thought for a good word, “Stewpid. BIG MAC!” Applejack called out. It was time to add the watermelon, but she realized that she didn’t have any. Apples were probably a good substitute. Apples are good for everything.

“BIG MAC!” Applejack called out again, this time with more annoyance in her voice. There was no response.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get him.” Applebloom said and walked into Big Macs room with her friends following behind her.

Now are you supposed to cut the apples in a specific way? Aw, what the hay, an apple’s an apple no matter where you cut it, so Applejack put an entire apple in the bowl. She stirred the mix the best she could with the spoon in her mouth and once ever thing looked right (Whatever “right” was supposed to look like was beyond Applejack) she placed it in a cup cake holder. There was a lot of mix left, so Applejack decided she would leave it for Applebloom to have. She then put the mix in the oven and waited for it to cook.

**************

“Once everything was cooked, ah put my homemade green frosting on it.”

“I see.” Sherlock said. So that’s way the cupcake Rainbow Dash found tasted horrible. “Did you taste what you baked?”

“Uh, yeah I did. You see, I didn’t know if it was supposed to smell that bad or not so I took one little nibble from the icing to make sure everything was alright.”

“And it tasted....”

“Horrible. I never really liked watermelon to begin with so ah figured it must of tasted fine.” Sherlock nodded when he heard Applejack confirm the cupcake was horrible. “It looked real nice, though. And since a little tip of frosting was missin, Ah put a cherry on top to cover it up.”

“Ohhhhhhhh. THAT’S where the cherry came from.” Applejack was confused at Sherlock. “Go on,” He said.

“Well I went back ta town and put the cupcake in the exact same spot I found it. And while ah was there I saw my friend Rarity walkin down the road.”

**************

“Hello Applejack, What are you up to?” Rarity asked Applejack.

“Um, nothin much.” Applejack dropped the cupcake on the floor where she found it.

“What was that?” Rarity pointed at the pastry on the ground.

“It was a cupcake a found ‘ere. I was just lookin at it.” Applejack lied. “I wonder who it could belong too.” Applejack lied again. She knew it was Pinkies, but she wanted to sound like she had nothing to do with Pinkie or her cupcake.

“That’s rather odd because look I found in the bushes over there.” Rarity held up a book titled: Griffins. “I’m wondering if it belongs to Greg.”

“Oh, you’ve met Greg?”

“Not really! I had the most absolutely horrible introduction with him.”

Applejack chuckled, “Yeah, me too. We’ll hopefully you can talk to him when you give him his book back.”

“Yes, hopefully. Pardon me asking Applejack, but is you Applecart open today?”

“Yeah. I closed it down fer a bit to go out fer a walk. If ya wanna buy something I’ll open it fer ya.”

“That would be lovely.” The two mares walked down the trail toward the applecart. “You still have apple make-up correct? I think they’ll be perfect for my spring line.”

“Yep, Rarity we’ll always have apple make-up. Even if you’re the only one buyin um.” Rarity smiled at Applejacks remark.

“So Applejack, isn't it dangerous to have your cart so close to a slanted ledge?”

“Nope, the carts break system is top notch. When the lever is facing left the brakes are on. When they’re right then the wheels move where you push them!”

“Oh, I see.”

Applejack was glad to see that everything was still in the cart when she arrived. She took out a case of Apple Flavored Lip-stick and said, “That’ll be three bits.”

Rarity placed three golden coins on the counter of the apple cart. When she got close to Rarity she spat out, “What is that horrid smell?” Rarity moved her head away from Applejack and covered her nose.

“What? It’s not a rotten apple is it?”

“No dear, I think it's you.” Rarity got a closer whiff of Applejack. “Oh my. Yes it's definitely you. It smells like burning. We're you cooking anything?”

“Um, yeah I was. Do you think I burned it?”

“Definitely. You need to go home and take a bath right now!”

Applejack didn't want to take a bath ‘right now.’ She wanted to spend her day relaxing and so far she hadn't done a single minute of that. It was around lunch time so a couple of customers were bond to come. But Applejack didn't want to scare them away with her awful smell, did she? So what was she going to do? She couldn't just leave the apple cart again. Before Applejack could think of an answer to her problem, Rarity said,

“I'll watch the cart while you're gone, okay. Just please do something about that smell.”

Applejack thought about it for a small moment. If she could go quick enough then she'll only be gone for like fifteen minutes. “Ok Rarity. If anypony come you know what to do, right?”

“Please Applejack I'm not an idiot. Go, just go.” Applejack ran down the trail and tried to make it to her house as quickly as she could.

Maybe her Saturday wasn’t going to be the ‘day off’ she was hopping for after all. Applejack got to the edge of town and there she decided something. Who says today can’t be a ‘day off’ day? Applejack should spend it however she wanted and what SHE wanted was to relax. So she was going to take her very sweet time getting back to her house.

Well, why does it have to stop there? Why not spend the day at the spa? No, that’s a stupid idea. Applejack hates spas. Then she remembered the lake just a half mile in the Everfree forest that she and her brother would go to in their free time. The lake was a relaxing; quite place and she would be washing herself too.

Applejack made up her mind. She was going to the lake to wash up.

Not only was the walk there beautiful, it was also quite and that left Applejack with her thoughts. She realized she was pretty hungry, considering she had only eaten breakfast. She should of brought some apples, but oh well, it's too late now.

The lake was well hidden. But once you go between two boulders and under a small crevice of trees, it was unmissable. The lake was as pure and clean as she remembered it. Applejack took off her cowboy hat and hung her rope on a tree branch. Applejack always carried rope under her hat, just in case. And you wouldn't believe how handy it's been.

Applejack dipped a hoof in the lake and smiled as the water surrounded it. It wasn't warm or anything, although that would be nice. It was cold, but not cold enough for Applejack to mind. She then placed her lower body into the water and sighed, happily.

She didn’t want to get her hair wet so swimming was out of the question. Instead, she would relax. She’d listen to the wind or the sound of the waterfall a few yards away. The lake and the waterfall weren’t connected, but the waterfall was connected to a river not too far from where she was. The river was pony made and it was used for supplying Ponyville with running water.

Everything was going smoothly. Applejack was more relaxed than she ever was in her entire life. The water was perfect. The sounds were perfect. The feeling was perfect. The way Pinkie was screaming at the top of her lungs was perfe-wait, what? Pinkie?

Applejack opened her eyes when she thought she heard pinkie scream. There it was again! Applejack wasn’t imagining it, Pinkie was actually screaming. And it sounded like it was coming from the river...

The sounds became more audible. Applejack heard, “There’s kinda a waterfall coming up so you have to swim!” Applejack jumped out of the lake to see what Pinkie was screaming about.

“I’m trying; you’re the one not swimming!” That was a new voice Applejack didn’t recognize.

“Somepony HELP!” Pinkie screamed. It didn’t take Applejack long to realize Pinkie and somepony else were in trouble. Applejack darted toward the sound of the scream and picked up her rope hanging on a tree branch. She might need it.

Applejack got to the river’s edge. The river had twenty foot canyon walls on its edge making escape from the river impossible, unless you could climb a vertical canyon. Applejack spotted her pink mare friend and, was that Gilda, a couple of yards downstream. The pony and griffin were struggling to keep afloat. Pinkie hung her hooves around Gilda and was staring at the waterfall that was soon to come.

Applejack ran like her life depended on it or somepony else's life depended on it for that matter. She ran on the canyons edge and made sure not to fall down. Now that would be incredibly stupid if she did. She took the rope in her mouth and started twirling it above her head like a lasso. Pinkie and Gilda were heading dangerously close to the waterfall's edge. Why wasn’t Gilda flying? Oh well, no time to question. Should she throw the rope now? No, she was too far away, she might miss. If she wanted to be absolutely positive she could lasso them, then she had to wait for the. Last. Possible. Moment.

The lasso made it around Gilda left claw and she was inches from falling to her death. Gilda thankfully had a tight grip on Pinkie with her right claw. Pinkie was even closer to the edge, with her back legs hanging off the side of the cliff.

Applejack held the rope in her mouth as best she could and started to back up, pulling Pinkie and Gilda away from the horrible drop.

“Wh-What happened?” Pinkie sounded shaken from all the fear in the situation. Applejack didn’t say anything. One, because the rope saving her friends lives was in her mouth and two, because she too focused pulling them out.

“I think your friend saved us.” Gilda said.

“Applejack!” Pinkie screamed joyfully as she saw her orange-coated friend.

Applejack didn’t know how much further she had to pull, but she did know that it hurt, a lot. Pulling two heavy objects while rushing water is pushing the opposite way, was never easy.

“I think we got it from here. Hang on Pinkie.” Gilda said. Applejack saw the griffin starting to climb the dirt canyon walls with Pinkie hanging off her back.

Applejack did not let go of the rope though. She tried to keep as much tension as she could on the rope just in case Gilda fell while she was climbing.

Eventually Gilda and Pinkie reached the edge of the canyon and struggled to climb
up it. Applejack let go of the rope and went to Gilda and Pinkie's side to help them up.

“What were you two doin in the river?” Applejack asked.

Gilda was breathing heavily. “It’s a very long story.”

“Applejack it was crazy! We were running and Gilda tried to pick me up! And then she attacked it!” Pinkie, who was still obviously shaken from the whole ordeal, tried to explain.

“Um, what?”

“Like I said, it’s a long story.” Gilda calmly said.

************

“So everypony went back ta town. Gilda said she had to tell Greg something and Pinkie had to finish Greg's welcome party.”

“Pinkie made Greg a welcome party? Did he ever go to it?” Sherlock asked.

Applejack sighed heavily, “No, he…he kicked the bucket before he could make it.”

Sherlock closed his eyes. Such a shame somepony had to murder Greg. He would of been great.

Applejack tried to shake off the sad feeling she was having and continued the story. “When ah got back to Golden hill I saw Rarity standing where my apple cart should of been.”

************

“Rarity, where’s the apple cart?” Applejack knew she wasn't going to like the answer.

“Um…well, while you were gone I had to go check on something…”

“What! You said you would look after it!”

“Let me explain dear, Twilight could have died if I didn't go help her.”

Ya, right. Rarity always over exaggerates EVERYTHING. Applejack didn't want to argue though. She was more worried about the fate of her apple cart. “So where is it?”

Rarity looked worried and pointed down the ledge. Applejack went to Rarity's side to get a better view at what she was pointing. When Applejack saw it she almost screamed.

Right on the edge of the drop off was the apple cart. Thankfully, the post that held of Fluttershy's Birdhouse was keeping the cart from rolling off the drop off. The actual house to the birdhouse was mysteriously gone.

“I guess I took the breaks off. Sorry.” Rarity spoke quietly to show she was really sorry.

At least the apple cart wasn't stolen or fell off the drop off. “I'm gonna go get it.” Applejack told Rarity.

“No, please don't.” Rarity put a hoof on Applejack. “Why not get a pegasus to help you.”

“Ah can get it myself. If things go wrong, you can grab me with your magic right?”

“Well, yes I suppose I could. But I-”

“Great.” Applejack cut in. She started to walk slowly down the slant.

“Applejack, please-”

“I'll be fine. Just stick to the plan!” Applejack was getting irritated that she had spent almost her entire Saturday not working at the apple cart. Even the time she had to herself to relax, wasn't very relaxing.

Applejack got to her apple cart and was surprised to see how it managed to stay balanced on the small wooden board. One nudge in the wrong direction would cause the whole thing to topple down the drop off. She had to be careful. One bad move would make the cart fall to its death. Applejack also noticed that the breaks were off.

Ok, be careful. Extremely careful. Applejack grabbed the wooden pole attached to the cart that she would normally push to make it go forward, but now she was going to pull. Don't want to mess anything up-

“Look out Applejack!” was all Applejack heard when she saw a light blue aura engulf around her and took her back a few feet uncontrollably.

Some part of Applejack's body must have touched the cart because when she got carried away by Rarity's telekinesis, the apple cart fell down the drop off. Applejack has a few inches off the ground and she saw her cart fall down the cliff. She managed to yell out, “NO!” before the cart crashed on the ground and all the assortment of apple products exploded everywhere.

Applejack wanted to cry, but before she could Rarity's telekinesis pulled her away from the slanted hill. “I-I'm really sorry!”

As much as Applejack wanted to buck Rarity in the face, she decided not to because that would only make everypony mad. Rarity was only looking after her safety and she did recommend getting a pegasus's help. “It's alright, sugarcube. Ah shoulda listened when you said to get a pegasus. We're still friends.”

“But I have to make it up to you somehow! I feel awful.”

“You can start by puttin me down.” The joke did not help Applejack's mood, but she had to try it.

Rarity smiled, put Applejack down and went in to hug her. She had to stop herself when she got close to Applejack though. “You did take a shower, right.”

“Not really. I guess I have a lot of free time to do that now.”

Applejack was in a rotten mood. Her entire Saturday was now ruined. She didn't talk to anypony walking home because she didn't feel like talking. You might say Applejack looked agitated. Her angry silence was soon interrupted when she saw Rainbow Dash called out to her.

“Hey A.J!” Rainbow Dash called from behind her. She turned and saw the crayn pegasus holding the cutie mark crusaders in her hooves and let Scootaloo ride on her back. This couldn't be good. “I just think you should know that some ponies were out in the forest and almost got mauled by a bear!” This didn’t help Applejack's already rotten mood at all.

“What in tarnation? Is everypony alright?”

“Yea, everypony is fine, thanks to Greg.”

Applejack looked at her sister and her friends, “I thought I told ya girls not tah go into the Forrest!” Apple bloom looked at her older sister with ‘that’ face. Applejack had seen it before and she wasn't going to get fooled. She wanted to scream, but instead let out an aggravated sigh. “Come 'ere Applebloom!” Applejack was going to let the other girls parents talk to them, but then she remembered Scotaloo didn't have any parents to punish her. So Applejack decided Scootaloo would come along too. “And you too Scootaloo!” Scootaloo hoped of Rainbow back and went to Applejack's side.

In an instant Rainbow Dash flew away with only Sweetie Bell in her Hooves.

Applejack made it inside the house and had just about enough of this crappy day. “Applebloom, go to your room. Scootaloo, you're in my room. I don't want anypony sneaking out talking to the other, you hear.”

“Yes, sis.” Applebloom said depressingly. She didn't want to argue because she knew she wouldn't win. She and Scootaloo slowly made their way up the stairs and into their assigned rooms.

The only thing Applejack could see herself do now was to follow Rarity's request and take a shower. It wouldn't be like the lake, but it would get her clean.

Applejack went into the bathroom and turned the shower faucet on. But when she did, no water came out. Great, now another thing to make this day even worse. The water wasn't working!

“Don't worry.” She said to her reflection in the mirror. It's not the end of-” Applejack stared at her reflection and noticed something looked different about her. What was it? She stared more and face-hooved when she realized she overlooked the obvious. She wasn't wearing her signature cowboy hat. She must have left it at the lake!

“Don't get mad!” She said to her reflection. You can just go back to the lake, get your hat and take a bath there. The idea calmed her down a lot, but she decided to eat something before she left to the lake.

After her snack, Applejack made the journey to the lake and was surprised to see a familiar face already at the lake fishing. It was Fluttershy and she was just as surprised to see Applejack there.

“What are you doin?” Applejack had to question Fluttershy.

“Um, fishing.” Fluttershy did not make eye contact with Applejack because she was ashamed of what she was doing.

“But once you catch a fish, you're going to put in back right?”

“No. I'm going to snatch it up from its home and separate it from his family and I'm going to kill it like a monster.” Fluttershy said.

“That doesn't sound like you Fluttershy. Why do you all of a sudden want to eat meat?”

“It's not for me, it's for Greg. I invited him over to dinner and he said he was a carnivore. So I'm going to cook up an innocent fish.”

“You don't have to kill if you don't want to, sugar cube. Let Greg eat what he wants to eat.”

“No, you don't understand. I have to do this for Greg to show him I can respect his diet because, I…sorta like him.”

Applejack's mouth dropped. Fluttershy liked a griffin? Was that legal? “Um, well I can see why you want to cook for Greg, but I think he'll understand if there's no meat.”

As soon as Applejack finished speaking, Fluttershy's fishing line tightened. A fish was caught. Fluttershy had to choose. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “Animals die every day. What's going to be different about this one?” And she reeled in the fish out from its watery home it started flopping around, thirsting to go back. Applejack was a little surprised Fluttershy could handle watching a fish die in front of her.

Fluttershy looked on the verge of crying. Applejack decided something had to be done. Something that would cheer her up. “Hey do you think I can come to dinner and meet Greg?”

The question seemed to help Fluttershy's mood a tad bit with her mind not on the dead animal and all. “Sure, you can come. You know how to cook fish, right?”

“No, I'm terrible at cooking. I'll help diner by bringing some apple goods. VEGETARIAN apple goods.” Applejack clarified.

“Sounds like a plan. Bring the food over at my place. That's were diner is going to be.”

“Great I'll see you soon.” Applejack almost left without taking her hat. When she got to her house she checked on Applebloom and Scootaloo, making sure they didn't escape. She then took one of the many apple pies that were already backed off a shelf and took it over to Fluttershy's house.

Fluttershy had cut up the fish and was putting various seasons on it. Applejack had to help Flutershy put the fish in the oven because she was starting to feel bad for the dead creature. Applejack didn't ask any questions about Fluttershy's crush will the fish was cooking.

Moments later, Rainbow Dash arrived with Rarity and asked if she could also join dinner. “The more the merrier.” was what Fluttershy said. They all agreed Rarity would make desert and Rainbow Dash would make a side dish.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity left to make their dishes and Applejack stayed along to help Fluttershy. When the Fish was all done Fluttershy could hardly look at it. Rainbow Dash arrived at the house before Rarity with corn salad. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had to speak soothing words to Fluttershy in the bathroom because she felt like she was going to throw up.

When Rarity arrived with chocolate cake everything was ready. “Now all we need to do is tell Greg we made him dinner.” Fluttershy said.

“You didn't tell him we made him dinner!” Rainbow said, sounding concerned.

“Well I'm assuming he won't turn us down.” Fluttershy flew at of the house and towards Greg's house. Rainbow Dash followed with her in the air and Applejack and Rarity had to run at a fast trot to keep up. When the four arrived at his house Fluttershy knocked on the door.

The door opened a crack and Greg's head popped out.

“Um, Greg we made you and your sister dinner ad we were kind of hoping you would come, if, um, that's alright with you.” Fluttershy spoke like she usually would when talking to new ponies, quite and unconfident.

“Gilda's not here exactly and I told you Fluttershy I'm a carnivore.” Greg sounded tired. Whatever he was working on, he was working hard on it.

“Oh, you don't have to worry, I made you fish.” Fluttershy sounded excited that she actually prepared meat.

Greg raises an eyebrow. “Man, you ponies. I guess I can take a break from work. Is it at your house?” Greg pointed at Fluttershy.

“Yes.” Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Greg started flying and Applejack and Rarity started running.

When they all came to the house Rainbow Dash asked, “Where exactly is Gilda?”

“Oh, um, she had to deliver something to the king.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and didn't question it anymore. The five made it inside and sat at the table. Applejack noticed Fluttershy sat next to Greg.

“Tell me what you think of the fish, Greg.” Fluttershy said.

Greg reached his claw to the dish and picked up one of the fish's pieces. He put the meat on his plate and then picked it up with his fork. Fluttershy had to hold a gag back when she saw the fish again. Greg put the meat in his mouth and tasted it.

“For a pony that's never cooked meat before, it's not that bad. It's better than raw, that's for sure.” Fluttershy smiled like she didn't care about the fish anymore.

The dinner continued with small talk. “So Greg, what are you studying in science?” Rarity asked.

“Well I like studying atoms in my free time.” All the ponies at the table were confused. What was an atom? Greg knew he had to clarify. “Everything we see and touch is made of tiny microscopic things called atoms. There are different kinds of atoms like oxygen atoms and carbon atoms.” This didn't clarify a thin at all. Greg tried another approach, “Inside an atom we have neutrons and protons in the middle and electrons orbiting around them.” Still, all the table was confused. “Aw, you don't have to worry about it. It's probably not important anyway. But I think my greatest discovery was finding Celestia to be a fraud.

All the ponies mouth's dropped. Applejack spoke up first, “Now what in tarnation makes you think our princess insn't a princess?!”

“No, I didn't say she wasn't a princess. She has to have some royal blood to be an alicorn. What I'm saying is that Celestia doesn't raise and set the sun.”

“So you think the sun raises and sets on its own?” Applejack questioned.

“Exactly! Well not exactly, exactly. The sun doesn't move at all you see. Pretend this tomato is the sun.” Greg grabbed a tomato that was on his plate from Rainbows corn salad. “And this piece of corn is the earth. The earth actually spins around the sun like this.” Greg moved the corn in a circle around the tomato.

“So does Celestia actually move the earth?”

“No it does that in its own too.” All the ponies right now thought Greg was crazy. “I can't just explain science to you. It's very complicated.”

“Well whatever you believe,” Fluttershy said, “I'm glad that we can all get along as friends.”

Greg looked down. “I-I'm glad too.” He looked back up. “Listen I remembered I got to do something real quick. What's the name of the mail mare around here?”

“Derpy Hooves.” Fluttershy answered.

“Great. You guys stay here I'll be right back.”

*****************

“Thank you Applejack. I think I know the rest of the story.” Sherlock cut in for two reasons. First, because he was already five minutes over his ten minuet per mare system and second, because he didn't want to hear the sad part again.

“Alright. I'm free to go?”

“Yes. Could you send in another one of your mare friends? Pick whoever you want, I don't care which one goes next.”

“Kay.” Applejack got up from her chair and out the door.

”So Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy were all at dinner when Greg was murdered. Pinkie Pie was preparing a welcome party for him, but what was Twilight Sparkle doing?” Sherlock thought.

***************

“Greg obviously wasn't planning on staying in town.” Watson deduced. “So why did he even bother to move here?”

The whole situation of everything was indeed very sketchy. “Whoever it was, must of had access to a syringe needle. Oh! And they must have been able to use it! How could earth ponies of pegusi use a syringe needle? The murderer had to be a unicorn!”

Watson got out his note book and wrote “is a unicorn” on the clues section. Watson then looked at the rest of the clues section and saw it was blank except for what he just wrote. Watson sighed, “This is going nowhere.”

Chapter four: Rarity's story

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Chapter four: Rarity’s story.

Another thing bothered Watson. On one of the walls a painting of a sail boat was hung up. Why would you bring a picture of a boat to your new house and not bother bringing anything else? Watson didn't get a long time to ponder the fishiness of the situation when he heard a new voice directly behind him say,

“Hey!”

Watson almost yelled when he heard the voice, but instead, in a panic, he turned around very quickly and stumbled to the ground. When he looked up he saw that it was just Officer Dirk, smiling a little because he just scared Watson so easily.

“Officer Dirk?” Watson got up to his hooves, “What are you doing here?”

“Please,” The Officer said calmly, “Call me Justin.”

Watson was still breathing heavily from when he was spooked. “Justin?” Watson wanted to make sure he heard right. “That's such a weird name.”

“My first name is actually Justice,” he clarified, “but my friends call me Justin.”

“I see.” Watson wondered if Justin was considering him as one of his friends. “Like I asked earlier, what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question.” Justin said cheerfully.

“Boxes.” Watson answered in one breath. “Why would somegryphon move to a new house and not pack anything with him? I don't see any furniture or food or ANYTHING!”

“Oh!” Justin said with interest, “I would have never thought about that. Good deducing Watson.”

“Thanks.” Watson decided to take the credit for Sherlock’s box theory. “So, now's the third time I'm asking, what are you doing here?”

“Well, on an advertisement, it said this place was a two bedroom house and I only see-”

“One bedroom.” Watson finished Justin's thought. “That's strange isn't it.” The two tapped their chins thinking for an answer. “Do you think the ad-vur-tis-muhnt was up to date?”

“Ad-vur-tis-muhnt?” Justin questioned, “Do you mean ad-ver-tahyz-muhnt?”

“That's what I said. ad-vur-tis-muhnt.”

“No, you're saying Ad-vur-tis-muhnt like some British hobo.”

“I am British, thank you very much.” Watson grew tired of the subject and wanted to move on. “Let's just look for clues and solve this as quickly as we can.” Watson returned his gaze to the painting and Justin just stood there being awkward.

“Well, what were you looking at before I got here?” Justin finally broke the silence.

“I was wondering why Greg would not bring a single thing to his house except for a painting of a boat. There doesn't seem to be anything special about it either. Heck, I think there are ponies running the ship, not gryphons.” Watson got another closer look at the painting. It looked exactly the same from when he first saw it.

“Perhaps he's the painter of it?” Justin brought up.

“Already checked. There's no signature anywhere on the painting.” Watson kept looking. He would have been the first pony to spot anything suspicious on it, but he saw nothing that looked even remotely suspicious.

“Maybe it's on the back. Did you check there?”

“Um, no.” The truth was Watson was scared to touch it. He thought something bad would happen if he did, like a booby trap or an alarm would go off.

“Ok then, let's check.” Justin reached past Watson who was staring deeply at the painting and took it from its spot on the wall.

Watson tensed up a bit when the painting was moved. Thankfully nothing exploded when Justin touched it.

Justin was looking at the back of the painting and Watson stared at the spot the painting was moments before. Watson's mouth fell when he saw what was behind the painting. It was a square hole in the wall that could not be seen with the painting over it. “What's that?” Watson asked.

Justin looked up from the back of the painting and over at Watson. He then saw the unmissable large hole in the wall Watson was pointing at. “What IS that?”

“I don't know that's why I asked.”

Justin didn't take heed of what Watson said and moved closer to the hole.

He stuck his head in the hole to see what was inside.

“Whoa,” Justin said with his head in the wall. “I think,” He took his head out and faced Watson, “I think I found the second bedroom.”

*************

“How's the search going?” Sherlock said while standing in the lobby's doorway.

“Terrible.” Alex said while facing the 'Uses for Dragon Scales' book and not Sherlock. “I can't find anything that uses laughing powder and dragon scales in this gigantic book. You wouldn't happen to know what type of dragon scales were used, would you?”

“Um, no. All dragons smell the same.” Sherlock said. Alex sighed from her desk. “But listen dear,” Alex quickly glared at Sherlock with a mad expression. Sherlock knew he shouldn't have called her, ‘dear.’ “I mean, Alex. I think I know another ingredient.”

Alex sighed again, “What is it?”

“I not exactly sure.” Alex rolled her eyes. This wild goose chase just went from ‘going nowhere’ to ‘officially lost.’ “But I know it's something that can be found in the Everfree forest.”

“Thanks Sherlock, but that doesn't really help.” Alex said sarcastically.

“You're welcome.” Sherlock Smiled. He heard the door to interrogation room C open and a white unicorn stepped out. Sherlock turned to Alex and said, “I got to go. The next interrogation is going to start and I'm already behind schedule as it is. Is Watson back yet?”

Alex answered in a cold, annoyed voice, “No.”

“Huh. I guess he wasn't able to run to and from Greg's house. Tell him to come in interrogation room B when he gets back. I have to start the next interrogation.”

Sherlock decided to meet the unicorn in the hallway. If he quickly ran back into interrogation room B, then that would just make things awkward. “Hello!” Sherlock said while walking toward the unicorn. “I'm Sherlock Hooves world famous detective. And you are?” Sherlock pretended that he already didn't know the mare’s name. Sherlock could smell a very tiny scent of an apple make up vibe coming from her. It was a very weak smell, but it was still there. And according to Applejack's story a mare that goes by the name of Rarity was the only pony that buys apple make up.

“Rarity.” She answered with her accented voice that Sherlock didn't know where it was from.

“Ah, Pleasure to meet you.” Sherlock was close enough to shake the mares hoof. “Such a shame that's happened today.” Sherlock spoke quietly and sincerely to show respect.

Rarity sighed very deeply, “Yes. Do you have any clues to who the murderer might be?”

Sherlock took note that this unicorn could be a suspect. Although Applejack and Rainbow Dash said she was at dinner, she could have slipped out without them knowing and had just enough time to murder Greg. If she wasn't that detailed about dinner in her story then she probably wasn’t there. The way she was worried about Sherlock having any leads to who the murderer might be seemed sketchy.

“Um, no, unfortunately I have no suspects.” Sherlock lied. He wanted this unicorn to think Sherlock wasn't on to her. If she was the murderer, that is. “You can help me though. How ’bout we talk more in the interrogation room.”

***************

“What's in there?” Watson asked.

“I don't even know!” Justin said excitedly because of the discovery that was just made. “But whatever it is Greg must've wanted to keep it a secret.”

Watson decided to have a turn to look. He stuck his head in the hole and saw an entire room filled with tables full of science equipment and chalkboards that had boatloads of information on them. The chalkboards just looked like scribbles from Watson's perspective, but it was probably important to Greg.

“So, I take it that Greg is a scientist.” Watson said with his head still in the hole. “What’s all this information and math about on the chalkboard over here? And whys it all in here?” Watson thought out loud.

“I guess there's only one way to find out! We're going to have to check it out ourselves!” Justin sounded excited from the idea.

“I don't think any of us can fit in this tiny hole, can w-”

Before Watson could finish his sentence, Justin pushed him through the tiny opening in the wall.

Watson fell to the floor on the other side and said with a groan, “I think we fit.”

**************

“You know Rarity, you remind me so much of myself when I was your age!” There was that line again. Sherlock found that he really liked to use that line when getting ponies of interest on his side. Suspect or not.

“Really?” Rarity had a hard time believing. “I didn't know somepony like you could be so interested in fashion.”

Sherlock didn't know if he should take that as a compliment or an insult. He decided to take it as a compliment.

“Yes, I always loved to dress up my eight little brothers and sisters.” Sherlock lied. He actually only has one little brother. And he ran away from home and changed his last name to wooves, but that's another story.

“Oh, you're lucky. I only have one little sister, but she's so rowdy she acts like twelve little sisters.”

Sherlock forced a laugh. “Great, now she's on my side. Time to get down to business.” “So…Rarity”

“To be honest Sherlock I didn't really talk much to Greg.” Rarity said.

“That’ fine. What I'm doing is getting more than just clues from you. I want to connect the pieces of this murder crime together starting from this morning.” Not the best wording Sherlock's done. Rarity looked confused at him and Sherlock knew he had to explain. “I want you to tell me how your day was from when you woke up to when you were asked to be interrogated. I know your day was probably a little crazier than most days, but as long as everything checks out, then we're good.”

Rarity was about to begin, but Sherlock remembered something and added, “You don't have to be a hundred percent detailed in your story. Just go over important things that happened from the moment you woke up.”

“Alright.” Rarity drew in a breath and tried her best to remember what she had done earlier that day. “When I woke up this morning I was incredibly happy.”

*************

It was Saturday. And that meant Rarity could do whatever she wanted. She didn't have to take any orders for dresses to be made, she didn't have to finish any deadlines and she didn't have to look after her little sister. Thank Celestia she didn't have to do the last one.

She went downstairs to make herself some breakfast when she saw her sister and her two other friends already awake downstairs.

“You are spending the day at Applebloom's house, correct?” Rarity wanted to make sure that she didn't have to look after three fillies. Now that would be a horrible way to start the day.

“Yeah,” her sister, Sweetie Belle, answered, “We're just making some plans for our crusading before we go over.”

“Oh,” Rarity said with a lot of relief. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and starting listening in on the foals’ conversation.

“All we need to make this trap work now are L-9 version four titanium screws.” Scootaloo pointed at a blueprint of something. “If we put them at the top here, then it will be impossible for it to escape!” Scootaloo sounded excited. And that worried Rarity. A lot.

“What exactly are you crusading for this time?” She asked then took a sip of her orange juice.

Scootaloo was the first to yell out, “We're goin cutie mark crusader bear hunter!”

Rarity choked on a little of her orange juice in her throat. She set the glass down and said, “Absolutely not.”

All the girls whined, “Aaaaawwwww…”

“I don't want you going into the forest looking for trouble.”

Sweetie Bell broke in. She was the only foal that was brave enough stand up to Rarity. “But we're not actually going to go looking for bears! We're going to set up a trap and see if it catche-”

“No buts!” Rarity cut in. “I don't want to see any of you set a single hoof into that forest, understand?”

Sweetie Bell sighed, “Yes, sister.”

Well that argument didn't go the way Rarity was planning on. She and her sister could fight literally for days. Sweetie Belle seemed to have given up quicker than Rarity was expecting. “Alright then, why don't you see if you can do anything fun and safe over at Applebloom's house.” Rarity put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘safe’

Applebloom said for the first time in front of Rarity, “Kay girls, let's see what we can do over at my place.”

The three girls all agreed and headed out the door, leaving Rarity alone in her house. “So what does today's agenda look like?” Rarity thought to herself. “I should probably go to the spa again.” Rarity smiled at the idea and started to cook herself up an omelet. She was going to have to eat it quickly if wanted to spend most of her day at the glorious spa.

This is going to be a good day.

*************

“But it wasn't a good day at all!” Rarity said.

“Aw, things always take a turn for the worst.” Sherlock sympathized.

“I finished my breakfast and took a bath. I was all set to go to the spa, but then my friend Pinkie Pie knocked on my door.”

**************

“Rarity! I got a surprise for you! Well it's not really a surprise it's actually some interesting news that's very surprising!”

It was hard to keep up with Pinkie’s motor mouth, but Rarity got the gist of what the party pony was saying. “What's the news?” Rarity was excited because Pinkies Pie seemed to be very excited about the news.

“Gilda's moving to Ponyville! They took that old house that's near the hill!” Pinkie said while jumping ten feet in the air.

The smile that was on Rarity's face slowly turned into a frown. “But Pinkie, dear, I thought you disliked that gryphon.”

“Not anymore! She said she’s an entirely new gryphon! Her brother said he's really seen the difference!”

“Gilda has a brother? How did you talk to him?” Once Rarity questioned Pinkie she realized she would dread the answer she was thinking of. “Please don't tell me Gilda's brother moved here too.”

“Yep! Gilda and Greg are official members of Ponyville!” Pinkie stopped jumping and tapped her chin. “Hhhhmmmm…Gilda and Greg…Hey that gives me an idea for a song to sing at his party!”

“Pinkie are you sure you want to throw a party, I mean do you remember how the last party with Gilda went?”

“Oh come on Rarity! Stop hesitating! Just give Gilda and Greg a chance. Once you get to know the new them, you might actually like them!”

Rarity sighed, “Alright Pinkie, if you say they're nice then I believe you.”

“That's great! Hey that gives me two ideas! I'm going to tell Fluttershy about the new citizens of Ponyville!” Pinkie left in a dash.

“I don't think it's a good idea to tell Fluttershy!” Rarity tried to call out to Pinkie, but Pinkie was long gone so Rarity knew it was hopeless.

Well this sucked. This is probably the. Worst. Possible. Thing. That could happen. Rarity sighed and headed to the spa trying to block out the news she had just heard.

But something bugged her. Gilda was the meanest to Pinkie Pie and she seemed very excited that Gilda was moving in. How much did that gryphon change for Pinkie to like her again? Maybe Gilda really did change. How else would Pinkie be that excited? Well actually Pinkie is excited all the time, but that's not the point.

Perhaps Rarity would give them a chance. If Gilda isn’t the same gryphon then what if she and Rarity could actually become friends?

Although the walk to Gilda's house was far from Rarity's house, she would take the extra time from her day to meet with them.

The walk was very heart pounding. Rarity was thinking of negative possibilities that could happen now that Gilda was in town the entire way there. When she eventually got to the front gate of the house she wanted to immediately turn around. The house looked the exact same when it was empty. Rarity was surprised anypony could live there.

“Just give them a chance.” Those words were stuck in Rarity’s head. She took a deep breath and slowly started walking through the front yard and towards the door. She soon came face to face with the dreaded door and knocked.

An immediate response came from inside, “Look dragon stop asking me questions! I told ya to beat it!” It sounded like a male voice so it was probably Greg.

Did he say dragon? “I’m not a dragon!” Rarity yelled back. The only dragon she knew was Spike.

A few moments later the door opened and Rarity was confronted with a confused looking gryphon. He said, “Oh, It’s not a dragon. It’s another pony welcoming me to town,” he sighed, “What do you want to give me?”

Rarity was at a loss for words. What just happened? She was very nervous and said, “I, um, don’t have anything to give you, but if you want I could go back-”

“No thank you!” He said rapidly. “All the gifts I’ve been given are ones can’t use. You don’t have to give me anything. It’s just everypony I’ve met so far has given me something.” He cleared his throat, “My name’s Greg.”

“Rarity.” Rarity pointed to herself. That was awkward. “Do you know where Gilda is?”

“I think she’s at the hospital volunteering. Why don’t you tell her I said hi, ok? I got a lot of science stuff I need to catch up on so I’ll see you later.” Greg closed the door before Rarity could say anything else.

That was a horrible introduction. Rarity started walking down the road that would eventually lead to the spa house. Well at least she took the extra time to walk down here to tell a gryphon what her name was. But did he say Gilda was volunteering? That’s definitely new. Rarity kept walking feeling a little angry at herself when she saw something glow from the corner of her eye.

She didn’t make it far from Greg’s house when she saw the glowing object. It was hidden in the bushes and looked rather large. She moved the shrubs covering the object with her magic and got a better look at it. It looked like a green book with gold lettering. What did it say?

Just then Rarity heard the presence of another pony. She quickly looked up and saw that it was Applejack. It was just the pony she needed to talk to actually.

“Hello Applejack, what are you up to?” She asked.

“Um, nothin much.” Applejack dropped something on the ground. It was also green and it looked like it had a cherry on top.

“What was that?” Rarity pointed at the green object that Applejack just dropped.

“It was a cupcake ah found ‘ere. I was just lookin at it.” Applejack said nervously. She was obviously lieing. Applejack was always a terrible liar and Rarity knew it. “I wonder who it could belong to.” She was obviously lying again.

“That's rather odd because look what I found in the bushes over there.” Rarity took the book with her telekinesis and held it up for the two ponies to see. It was titled: gryphons. “I'm wondering if it belongs to Greg.”

“Oh, you’ve met Greg?” Applejack asked.

“Not really! I had the most absolutely horrible introduction with him.” Rarity whined.

Applejack chuckled, “Yeah, me too. We’ll hopefully you can talk to him when you give him his book back.”

Rarity put the book in her saddle bag with her magic. “Yes, hopefully.” Rarity remembered what she wanted to ask Applejack. “Pardon me asking Applejack, but is your Applecart open today?”

“Yeah. I closed it down fer a bit to go out fer a walk. If ya wanna buy something I’ll open it fer ya.”

“That would be lovely.” The two mares walked down the trail and up the hill toward the apple cart. “You still have apple make-up correct? I think they’ll be perfect for my spring line.”

“Yep, Rarity we’ll always have apple make-up. Even if you’re the only pony buyin um.” Rarity smiled at Applejacks remark. She was right. Rarity loved the smell and how the color blended perfectly.

Rarity saw that the apple cart was next to a slanted hill and wondered if that was the safest place to put it. “So Applejack, isn't it dangerous to have your cart so close to a slanted ledge?”

“Nope, the carts break system is top notch. When the lever is facing left the brakes are on. When they’re right then the wheels move where you push them!”

“Oh, I see.”

Applejack went behind the apple cart to where all the products were and Rarity stood in front of the cart, waiting for Applejack to take out a case of apple lip-stick. Applejack took out a case of Apple Flavored Lip-stick and said, “That’ll be three bits.”

Rarity leaned in close to place the three golden coins on the counter of the apple cart when she smelt something horrible. “What is that horrid smell?” Rarity backed her head away and covered her nose in an effort to block out the smell.

“What? It’s not a rotten apple is it?”

“No dear, I think it's you.” Rarity got a closer whiff of Applejack. “Oh my. Yes it's definitely you. It smells like burning. We're you cooking anything?”

“Um, yeah I was. Do you think I burned it?”

“Definitely. You need to go home and take a bath right now!”

Applejack looked contemplated at whether or not she should leave her apple cart again. Rarity knew Applejack probably wanted to look after the cart and not worry about hygiene so she cut in,

“I'll watch the cart while you're gone, okay. Just please do something about that smell.”

“Ok Rarity. If anypony comes you know what to do, right?”

“Please Applejack I'm not an idiot. Go, just go.” Rarity watched her friend run down the road and toward her house. So all she had to do now was watch over an apple cart. That should be simple.

Rarity sat there for a good seven minutes and nopony came. Was this what Applejack was planning on doing all day? Rarity got very bored doing nothing. She saw Rainbow Dash and Gilda fly over her. They were obviously racing and Rainbow Dash was winning. She wanted to call out to Gilda, but she decided introducing herself to one gryphon was enough for today.

Rarity decided that she would practice her magic. She was always so busy working on her latest dress that she never practiced what made her special. She picked up one of the apples-on-a-stick-without-a-stick with her magic and tossed it in the air. She always had trouble grabbing moving object with her magic so now would be a good time to practice. As the stick-less apple came down Rarity tried to grab it, but it ended up hitting her head. That didn't work.

She threw another apple, but had the same affect. How could she not do this? Twilight could probably catch barrels of falling apples. “Why can’t I do this?!” In Rarity’s anger she threw an apple very high into the air. It was higher than she had thrown the others and she soon realized her mistake when she saw a tiny speck that was an apple falling down toward her. “Focus Rarity. All you have to do is push up!” She closed her eyes and with all the focus she could muster enchanted the apple. She pushed up as hard as she could which slowed down the apples fall tremendously. She focused even more and soon the apple came to a complete stop just inches above her head. She only had a few moments of joy until she heard a loud clunk coming from the apple cart. She set the apple down and looked at the cart to see what caused the noise. She drew in a breath of shock when she saw that the lever holding the carts break was facing up. Apparently when Rarity was pushing up with her outburst of magic, she must have gotten a hold of the cart’s breaks too.

What did Applejack say about the breaks? Did left mean it was on or did was it right? Rarity clenched her head thinking of what her friend had said. She wanted to say the left meant the breaks were on, but then she remembered a rhyme that she heard in elementary school. It went like, ‘Lefty loosey, righty tighty.’ Left meant that the brakes would be loosened and right meant the brakes would be tightened.

Feeling a little accomplished that she remembered such a useless rhyme from so long ago; Rarity pushed the lever to the right. “Perfect,” she said looking at the cart.

Before Rarity had time to do anything else she heard a loud crash that came from a nearby house. It sounded like something heavy must have fallen. It also didn’t take long for Rarity to hear Derpy’s voice yell from the mail house she worked at say, “Help! Help! Somepony help!”

Rarity immediately ran to where the grey Pegasus was. When Rarity got to her side she saw that Derpy was crying very heavily. “What’s the matter dear?”

Derpy tried to talk through her teary voice, “I-I thought I lost Greg’s letter and I-I broke the shelf,” Derpy sniffed back some tears, “And it hit Twilight.”

“What are you talking about, dear?”

Derpy sunk to the ground trying to be as small as possible. She pointed into the mail house and quietly said, “I’m sorry.”

Rarity knew that her questions would probably be answered if she went inside the mail house. She burst through the door and gasped when she saw the scene. There was an at least a three hundred pound mail cupboard that fell on top of Twilight Sparkle. Rarity could see the purple unicorn under the cupboard and she called out, frantically, “Twilight are you okay?”

No response.

Rarity tried to lift the cupboard off her friend with her telekinesis, but it was no use. Rarity could hardly budge the thing.

“Derpy get in here!” Rarity said while trying to keep hold of the cupboard.

Derpy appeared in the front door and she whipped a tear off her cheek.

“Try...to lift this thing off...Twilight.” Rarity said while struggling to hold the cupboard up with her magic and her bare strength. She didn’t dare set the thing down on top of her friend. Derpy came to Rarity’s side and lifted the cupboard up a little more. It was just lifted up enough for twilight to be able to crawl out, but she was unconscious. Rarity couldn’t get her because her magic was being used to hold up the cupboard. So Rarity and Derpy were in a tough situation and their hooves were getting tired really fast.

“Do you...think...you can hold it up...while I grab her?” Rarity said with breath breaks. She was getting very, very tired.

“No.” Derpy said in a teary, tired voice.

“I...think I can,” Rarity tried to say, but it was just too much for her to hold up. Her grip was slipping.

Thankfully a new voice came from behind them saying, “Holy guacamole!” It was Spike.

“SPIKE!” Rarity said with deep breaths. “Can you crawl in and get Twilight from under here?”

It didn’t take long for the dragon to respond. He got next to Rarity and Derpy and gasp when he saw his sister unconscious. He got on all fours and crawled under the cupboard.

Now would be a horrible time for Rarity to drop the cupboard. She forced herself to hang on for just a tad bit longer, knowing that help was coming.

A purple unicorn was pushed out from under the cupboard and was followed by a smaller purple dragon. Rarity and Derpy dropped the cupboard on the ground once they saw Twilight and Spike make it from under the cupboard. This time the cupboard fell flat on the ground since nothing was under it.

Rarity wasn’t glad she didn’t have to hold up a heavy cupboard though. She was worried about her friend. Rarity, Derpy and Spike went to Twilight’s side.

“She’s breathing,” Rarity noted. “We need to get her to a hospital right away.”

Spike rapidly cut in, “NO! We don’t have the time! We’re losing her too quickly! I know what we need. Don’t move her!” Spike said loudly and ran out the door.

Rarity didn’t know what to do. She decided that she would listen to Spike. He seemed to actually have a plan. A tear came to Rarity’s eye when she stared at her unconscious friend. Derpy cried more. Rarity knew she had to calm her down. “Shhhh,” Rarity put a hoof around the crying grey pegasus, “It’s going to be okay. It’s not your fault.”

Derpy said without making any eye contact, “Yes it is! I-I tipped the cupboard on her. She was trying to calm me down and I screwed up!”

“It was only an accident, dear. It’s all going to be okay.” Rarity repeated herself, although she started to doubt herself a little.

“I’m back!” Spike said with heavy breathing. He must have obviously been running really fast. He held up bottle of light blue liquid. “This potion’s going to make it all better!” Spike quickly ran to Twilight’s side and poured the potion into his sister’s mouth. Rarity gave a sigh of relief.

But that relief was soon lost when Spike stopped pouring the potion when it was half full. “Uh-oh.” He said.

“What?” Derpy managed to say.

“The potions not strong enough! We need to add water to make it stronger!”

Rarity thought that was weird. Usually water makes liquids weaker. But I guess anything goes in the world of magic. “We can use the bathroom sinks.” Rarity headed to the back door and grabbed the potion out of Spikes claws with her telekinesis.

“Not too much!” Spike yelled out.

She made it to the bathroom and turned on a sink to a small water stream. Rarity took the potion and was about to put it under the sink’s water stream, but as soon as she did the water stopped flowing out of the sink.

Well this was bad. Rarity tried all the sinks, but none of them worked. It was like somepony stopped the water from coming into town.

Rarity quickly ran back into the other room where everypony else was. “The sinks aren't working!” She informed.

Derpy started crying again and Spike started thinking of what to do next. He looked over at Derpy and that gave him an idea.

“We can use Derpy’s tear! I think it will work, we only need just a drop of water anyway!” Spiked grabbed the bottle that was floating in air via magic and brought it over to Derpy.

Derpy moved her hooves that were covering her eyes and looked at Spike who placed the bottle on her cheek to collect her tear. When a teardrop found its way into the opening of the bottle Spike yelled, “Perfect!” and he ran over to his dieing sister. “Hang in there Twilight,” Spike said to the unconscious pony, “Derpy is VERY sorry.” And he poured the potion in a second time.

This time color rushed into Twilight's face and she started groaning. This was probably the happiest Rarity was to hear somepony groan. Twilight’s joints started to move and she even opened her eyes into tiny slits. She mumbled, but Rarity could still make out what she was trying to say, “Wh-what happened?” Twilight said while still lying on the ground.

“A big accident that's what.” Spike said so Derpy didn't have to admit herself, but she did anyway.

“It was my fault Twilight. I got angry and worried and I started bucking things around and the mail cupboard tipped over on you. I'm sorry.” Derpy looked down from shame.

“But she’s very sorry!” Spike defended. “I even have proof!” Spike held up an almost empty bottle that held the potion.

“Is that my regret potion?” Twilight asked still on the floor and still mumbling.

“Yep!”
“What's a regret potion?” Rarity asked.

“Oh they're the most dandy little things. When one pony hurts another pony and the pony who hurt the other pony feels bad about it then the hurt pony could drink the regret potion and whatever hurt him goes away! In our case Derpy hurt Twilight and Derpy felt bad about it so Twilight drank the potion and she got better.” Spike looked at his sister still lying on the floor and was now creating a pool of drool. “Or I should say, is getting better.”

Rarity chuckled, knowing that everypony was ok.

“The potions really strong too!” Spike added. “If one pony feels bad enough then it can actually bring some ponies back from the dead!”

Rarity was surprised to hear that fact.

The two healthy mares and one dragon stayed by Twilight's side until she felt better.

“If you don't mind me asking, but what were you angry about anyway Derpy?” Rarity asked.

Derpy sighed thinking back to the horrible memory, “I was just upset because I lost Greg's letter to the gryphon king and I also lost the mail room key.”

Spike's green eyes lit up. “Oh that's what this is about? I think I saw them over here.” Spike went on the other side of the cupboard and picked up something off the ground. “Yeah, here's the key and Greg's letter. They're right here.” Spike held up a key and an envelope.

Derpy started to cry again. She almost killed another pony because she wasn’t looking hard enough for what she lost. Rarity wrapped her hooves around depressed pegasus. Spike was sad that he made Derpy cry.

A few moments later Twilight managed to sit up. Derpy, with watery eyes, quickly hugged the unicorn and almost knocked her over from the force. Derpy whispered, “I'm so, so sorry.” Twilight patted Derpy on the back.

Twilight yawned and that made everypony else in the room yawn too. “How are you feeling dear?” Rarity asked.

“Well, when I first woke up it felt like a train ran over me. Now it only feels like a bus has ran over me.”

“See, you're getting better!” Spike said cheerfully. Twilight Smiled and Derpy added,

“I'm sorry.”

“I know you are and I forgive you, but I think I've had enough for today's lesson.” Twilight's smile widened.

“Alright then,” Rarity said. “I'd really love to stay and make sure you make a full recovery Twilight, but I promised Applejack that I'd watch over her cart and I haven't really been doing that. I also have to return Greg’s book back,” Rarity held up the green book and showed it to everpony inside, “So I’m going to be-”

Spike cut in when he saw the book. “YOU FOUND IT!”

Rarity stopped walking and Spike ran up to the unicorn. “I’ve been looking everywhere for this. Where did you find it?”

“In the bushes,” Rarity answered. “Why do you want Greg’s book?” She asked.

“It’s not Greg’s. It’s Twilight’s. Fluttershy borrowed it before I could get a hold it.” Spike took the book out from the air and Rarity just stared. Spike opened the book’s cover and said, “See? It’s Twilight's.” Spike held up the book and showed Rarity the front flap that had a signature on it. “Twilight always labels everything that’s hers.”

“Oh I see.” Rarity said when she saw the T.W.S signed on the book. “Well I guess it’s fine if I leave it with you.”

“I’ll set it back in the library,” Spike said. “You can check on the apple cart now.”

“That’s a great idea,” Rarity said and she looked over at the recovering Twilight. “Are you feeling better dear?”

Twilight let out a weak, scratchy, “Yes. Thanks for saving Rarity I’ll see you at Pinkie’s party tonight, right?”

Rarity opened the door and answered, “Definitely.”

*******************

“That's sad.” Sherlock thought to himself. “All the ponies never made it to Greg's party.”

Rarity sighed, “But you can probably guess the nopony made it to Greg's party.”

“Guess? I don't guess I deduce.”

That made Rarity smile a bit and she fiddled with her mane. “So I went back to Applejack's apple cart, but things sorta went downhill.” Rarity paused and took her hoof out from her mane and said, “Literally.”

************

Rarity was at the spot on the hill where the apple cart was, but the apple cart wasn't there. Oh no. What if she turned off the brakes instead of turning them on? If that was the case then the apple cart would have rolled down the hill and off the cliff…

Rarity looked down the slant and thankfully saw that the apple cart was just inches away from the drop off. It seemed that the apple cart was remaining motionless by a wooden board sticking out of the ground. So the breaks were apparently off. “Okay,” she thought, “all you have to do is pull the apple cart up before Applejack gets back. Where Is Applejack? I was expecting her to be back by now, but that's not the point! Just focus and push.”

Rarity's magic was still sore from holding up the heavy cupboard. Yes, magic can get sore.

She tried in vain to push the apple cart up, but it hardly budged. Instead the apple cart was drifting more to the side so Rarity quickly let go of the cart before she pushed it off on accident.

Great. Now what was she going to do? She could get a pegasus to help. All she had to do was find one before-

“Rarity, where’s the apple cart?” Applejack returned.

This was bad. At least the apple cart was still intact and could be retrieved somehow. “Um…well, while you were gone I had to go check on something…”

“What! You said you would look after it!”

“Let me explain dear, Twilight could of died if I didn't go help her.”

Applejack looked like she didn't believe Rarity. Rarity had a reputation of stretching the truth so she didn't blame her. Applejack asked, “So where is it?”

Rarity pointed down the dreaded ledge where the apple cart was. Applejack looked worried that her apple cart might have fallen of the edge and she went to Rarity's side.

She saw the cart just inches away from the drop off, but was being held in place by a wooden board.

“I guess I took the breaks off. Sorry.” Rarity spoke quietly to show she was really sorry.

Applejack looked to be forming a plan in her head and she said, “I'm gonna go get it.”

“No, please don't.” Rarity put a hoof on Applejack. “Why not get a pegasus to help you.”

“Ah can get it myself. If things go wrong, you can grab me with your magic right?”

“Well, yes I suppose I could. But I-”
“Great.” Applejack cut in. She started to walk slowly down the slant. Rarity wanted to tell Applejack that she couldn't catch falling objects so if Applejack fell then she would be doomed.

“Applejack, please-”

“I'll be fine. Just stick to the plan.” Except the plan is flawed if Applejack stumbles over the edge.

Applejack made it to the cart and Rarity decided to remain quite to not lose her friends focus.

Rarity saw Applejack grab an edge of the cart with her mouth and started to pull. The suspense was killing Rarity and she couldn't watch her friend think she was safe when she actually wasn’t. Rarity’s tipping point came when Applejack stumbled a little. If she started falling then Rarity wouldn't be able to save her.

“Look out Applejack!” Rarity screamed and grabbed her friend with her magic. She couldn't take it anymore. She had to do something.

Some part of Applejack's body must have touched the cart because when she got carried away by Rarity's telekinesis, the apple cart fell down the drop off. Applejack was a few inches off the ground so she couldn't move. She yelled out, “NO!” before Rarity heard the cart crash onto the ground below. At least Applejack was safe.

Rarity pulled Applejack back to the safety away from the drop off. Applejack looked like she wanted to cry. Rarity knew an apology was in order. Too bad the potion of regret won't help the situation. “I-I'm really sorry!”

Applejack looked angry at Rarity and she kept the orange mare away with her magic. Then after Applejack saw it was no use she sighed and looked at the ground. “It's alright, sugarcube. Ah shoulda listened when you said to get a pegasus. We're still friends.”

Rarity, still holding up Applejack, felt bad that she didn't warn Applejack she couldn't of caught her if she fell. “But I have to make it up to you somehow! I feel awful.”

“You can start by puttin me down.” The joke didn't seem to brighten Applejack's mood.

Rarity smiled, put Applejack down and went in to hug her. She had to stop herself when she got close to Applejack though. “You did take a shower, right?”

“Not really. I guess I have a lot of free time to do that now.”

Without saying anything else Applejack left Rarity and headed to her house.

“I know how to make it up!” Rarity said to herself. “I'm sure Applejack would love a brand new dress.”

Since Rarity loved to make dresses in her free time it only took her about an hour to complete her masterpiece.

Now what? Should she go to the spa? No it was close to dinner time. If she left now she would have to leave early to eat or just go through the spa hungry. She wished that something better to do would just knock on her door.

Suddenly a knock did come from the door. Rarity heard Rainbow Dash's voice from the outside say, “Rarity, I have to tell you something. A certain somepony has been naughty!” Well that didn't sound like better thing for Rarity to do.

Rarity didn't know what Rainbow Dash meant. She opened the door and she quickly understood exactly what was going on. Rainbow Dash was holding Sweetie Bell and the tiny filly had dirt on her face and leaves in her hair.

Rarity new that her little sister had to of gone into the forest, but she asked anyway.
“Please tell me you didn't go into the forest!” Rarity looked at her sister already knowing the answer.

“Uh...well...we knew Greg would save us.” Sweetie Belle tried to reason.

“What?” Rarity questioned.

“Greg saved them from a bear attack by pushing it off a cliff.” Rainbow informed.

Rarity gasped from shock. She had just about had it with all these near death experiences that her friends were having. “That’s two ponies that almost died today! Sweetie Belle go to your room this instant!”

Sweetie Belle jumped out of Rainbow’s hooves and trudged herself inside.

So Rainbow Dash had talked to Greg. Rarity decided that she would ask the pegasus a few questions about the gryphon that just moved in. “So you’ve actually talked to Greg?”

“Yeah, we were talking for a bit.”

“Where is he? I feel that we didn’t have a proper introduction.”

“He’s over at Fluttershy’s cottage right now. You can walk there with me, if you want.”

“That would be lovely.” Rarity closed and locked the door to make sure her sister didn’t try to escape. She started walking with her friend and Rarity started contemplating life. When the two got to Fluttershy’s front yard they saw Greg walk out of the cottage with a bandage on his shoulder and was carrying a dark purple basket around his neck that had a matching dark purple cloth over it.

“You’re leaving?” Rainbow asked with disappointment in her voice.

“Yeah, I have a lot of science stuff to catch up on.” Rarity noted that Greg looked pretty upset that he had to work now. He said, “Goodbye.” and flew off.

“Well...Some other time then.” Rarity said while she watched the gryphon fly out of sight. “He’ll be here tomorrow I suppose. I guess I’ll introduce myself then.”

“No. No.” Fluttershy said softly, “How about we make Greg some dinner and invite him and Gilda to it.”

Rainbow said after a few moments, “That’s a great idea.”

“Um, Okay.” Fluttershy said with a little bit of excitement in her voice, which wasn’t that much. “Rainbow you make a side dish, Rarity you make desert and I will make...fish.” Fluttershy said ‘fish’ very quietly.

“Fish?” Rainbow said with a surprised tone. “You mean 'make fish' as in killing it?”

“Yes.” Fluttershy sighed. “Greg is a carnivore which means he only eats other things.” Fluttershy hid her face behind her pink mane.

“Like what other things?” Rainbow asked.

“Like other living things!” Fluttershy said in her quite, stern voice. “It's going to be for Greg not for us.”

“And Gilda.” Rarity added.

“Oh yeah. Her too.” It seemed Fluttershy had forgotten entirely about her. “But just let me do this okay. Don't try to stop me. No matter what you say I'm-”

“Okay.” Rainbow cut in.

“What?” Fluttershy asked.

“I mean, animals die every day. How's this one time going to be any different?”

Fluttershy looked confused. She first wanted to make fish no matter what, but now it seemed that she didn't want to. “Oh. Okay. If everything is alright with you then I guess we can begin cooking.

“Great!” Rainbow Dash said. “I have this great idea for a salad and I'm wondering if it will be any good.”

“Great,” said Fluttershy. “Let’s all meet back here when we're ready.”

****************

“So I went back to my house and started making desert. I looked in the cook book and wondered if I should make pie or cake. Sweetie was still crying in her room and was begging me to let her out.”

Sherlock looked over at the clock that hung on his wall. Technically this mare should have been done five minutes ago and he should be on his fourth pony of interest.

“I told her: You're not coming out Missy! You still have to pay for not following my orders!”

Sherlock wondered where Watson was. If it was taking him a long time to get back then he must have not seen any boxes.

“So I got out all the ingredients to the pie, but then I realized that I didn't have any pie tins. So I-”

“Excuses me Ms. Rarity,” Sherlock cut in, “but we're kinda running short on time, so if you can skip this part in your story then that would be lovely.”

Rarity looked at Sherlock with a blank expression. She didn't know that she was rambling. “Oh. Um, okay.” She cleared her throat. “So I ended up making chocolate cake for tonight's dinner.”

*****************

Rarity opened Fluttershy's front door and saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack lifting Fluttershy up so she wouldn't hit the floor hard when she passed out from looking at the fish being cooked. On the table was corn salad and Apple pie. Rarity was glad that she didn't make a pie.

“Come on Fluttershy!” Rainbow said encouragingly. Fluttershy was getting dizzy from staring at the fish in the oven. Rarity went to her friend’s side and also helped Fluttershy from tumbling over. “There's only two more minutes.”

But it was no use. Saying two more minutes were left didn't help Fluttershy at all. Her hooves wrapped around her stomach and her cheeks expanded.

Oh, that was not good.

Fluttershy quickly ran into her bathroom, slammed the door shut and threw up.

Rainbow was the first to make it next to Fluttershy's bathroom door. She asked “Are you alright in there?”

This gave Rarity a chance to tell Applejack about her apology gift. “Hey Applejack.” Applejack looked at Rarity with eyes that did not look forgiving. “Uh, I wanted to tell you that I made you a dress because of our recent ordeal.”

Applejack lost the hateful glare and actually blushed. “Only you sugarcube. Only you.”

Rainbow was continuing to knock on Fluttershy's door. “You don't have to do this! I'm sure Greg would understand!”

The timer next to the stove went off with a loud ‘DING’ and Fluttershy opened the bathroom door with a calm expression like she had never thrown up.

“No.” she spoke sternly for a Fluttershy. “This is for Greg and I'm going to cook him whatever I feel like cooking him.”

“And Gilda.” Rarity added again. Did Fluttershy forget entirely about that female gryphon or did she not want to bring her to dinner.

Fluttershy took out the fish and almost cried when she saw the dead animal.

“It’s alright Fluttershy,” Applejack spoke up. “I’m sure the fish is much happier in...fish...heaven.” It was very cliché, but that actually seemed to calm Fluttershy down.

“You’re right,” She said with her eyes closed. “I’ll finish preparing and you three set the table with five plates.”

“Six plates,” Rarity corrected.

“Six plates,” Fluttershy said rapidly. “I’m going to...” Fluttershy paused. “to....” Fluttershy squeaked. “Throw up!”

In literally one tenth of a second, Rainbow Dash quickly flew leaving a rainbow trail behind her when she did fly at a high velocity, grabbed the bright yellow pegasus and took her to the bathroom. Unfortunately the door to the bathroom was closed so Rainbow had to do the quickest thing possible and fly strait threw it, leaving a considerably large hole. The sound of Fluttershy vomiting could be heard throughout the cottage.

After many moments and many encouraging words to Fluttershy, who was leaning her head over her toilet, she finally got enough energy to finish preparing her meal. She cut the fish into pieces, which took twenty minutes. Then seasoned it, which she took ten minutes and finally moved her dish to her table, which to a long, tiring forty minutes.

As soon as Fluttershy’s dish was set she quickly jumped up and was actually excited everything was ready. “Now all we need to do is tell Greg we made him dinner.”

“You didn't tell him we made him dinner!” Rainbow said, sounding concerned.

While Rarity and Applejack were running Rarity decided to spark up a conversation because Applejack looked like she was giving Rarity the silent treatment.

“You’re not still mad about the apple cart are you?” Rarity said loudly to speak over the sound of the hoof beats stomping on the ground.

Applejack gave an annoying sigh. “Look Rarity, will you drop it already? I’m going to get Big Mac to make me a new one. And you don’t have to make me a dress because I'd probably never wear it!”

Rarity remained quite for the rest of the run.

When the four arrived at Greg’s house Fluttershy knocked on the door. The door opened a crack and Greg's head popped out.

“Um, Greg,” Fluttershy began, “we made you and your sister dinner and we were kind of hoping you would come, if, um, that's alright with you.” Fluttershy spoke like she usually would when talking to new ponies, quite and unconfident.

“Gilda's not here exactly and I told you Fluttershy, I'm a carnivore.” Greg sounded tired. Whatever he was working on, he was working hard on it.

“Oh, you don't have to worry, I made you fish.” Fluttershy sounded excited that she actually prepared meat.

Greg raises an eyebrow. “Man, you ponies. I guess I can take a break from work. I actually just finished the project I was working on. Is it at your house?” Greg pointed at Fluttershy.

“Yes.” Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Greg started flying and Applejack and Rarity started running.

Applejack sighed. “I’m sorry I yelled at you sugarcube. I’ve just had a stressful day is all. First the apple cart thing happened then the shower stopped working.”

“You didn’t have water at your house either? That’s strange. Derpy’s mail house didn’t have running water too.”

“Huh. That is strange. I guess the town is havin water problems.”

The two continued to run and didn’t say anything else.

When they all came to the house Rainbow Dash asked, “Where exactly is Gilda?”

“Oh, um, she had to deliver something to the king.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and didn't question it anymore. The five made it inside and sat at the table. There was one extra plate so Fluttershy put it back in her cupboard.

They all started to eat and Greg just silently watched. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up. “Hey, Greg, Try some salad. I made it myself!”

“Uh, no I really shouldn’t.”

“Aw, come on! Just try it!”

“I think I’m good. Thanks though.”

“Try it!” Rainbow poured some of her salad on Greg’s plate. Rarity glared at Rainbow for doing such an impolite thing, but Rainbow didn’t see her. “It tastes good, I promise!”

“If I try it will you stop bugging me to eat vegetables?”

“Once you eat this you’ll probably never want to go back to meat.”

Greg laughed like that was a joke. “Yeah I’d probably die if that happened, but I guess my body will be fine if I just had a little bit.”

Greg took a fork that was next to his plate in his claw and stabbed the lettuce with it. He brought the vegetable up to his face and stared at it closely. Once he decided everything looked fine he took a small bite of it with his beak.

A smile crossed his face and he said, “For a leaf this is actually pretty good!” Greg took another bite that was bigger than the first.

“See, I told you! Didn’t I tell you!”

“You did and you were right Dash! Are these red things tomatoes?” Greg pointed to a tomato on his plate. Rainbow nodded and Greg swallowed the whole thing in one bite.

He let out a “MMMMMmmmmm...” and smiled. “This is really good Dash. I might train my body to be an omnivore so I can eat more of this. But right now, I don’t think I can finish it. Sorry.”

“What’s an omnivore?” Rainbow asked. Man, Greg sure did know a lot of vocabulary.

“Something that eats meat and vegetables,” Greg answered.

“You can do that?”

“Yeah. I know ravens are omnivores. So are dogs and some bears are too.”

“Was the bear you beat up an Omnivore?”

“I have no idea. I was to busy attacking the thing.” Greg said.

“Thank you by the way,” Rarity said seriously. “I'm really grateful that you risked your life to save my sister.”

“Oh yeah, I never thanked you either. Thank you.” Applejack said.

Greg blushed a little. “Ah, don't worry about it. I was only doing something anygryphon would have done.”

There was an awkward five second silence that followed.

Rarity saw Fluttershy swallow the mouth full of salad she was eating and say, “Tell me what you think of the fish, Greg.”

Greg didn’t argue. He reached his claw over to the dish and picked up one of the fish's pieces. He put the meat on his plate and then picked it up with his fork and cut it into a smaller piece. Fluttershy had to hold a gag back when she saw the fish again. Greg put the meat in his mouth and tasted it.

All the ponies watched Greg to hear what he had to say. “For a pony that's never cooked meat before, it's not that bad. It's better than raw, that's for sure.” Fluttershy smiled like she didn't care about the fish anymore.

“So Greg who’s the better flier? You or Gilda?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Greg smiled with the fish in his mouth. “Gilda for sure. While my mom sent her away to flight school I got to go to a private school.”

“A private school? So are you like really smart and stuff?” Rainbow asked. Rainbow seemed to be really eager to talk to Greg.

“I wouldn’t say really smart.” Greg paused. “Actually, no. I would say that. You all should see the gryphon king. Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s the biggest idiot alive.”

All the ponies gasped. Rarity asked, “Really?”

“Oh, yeah!” Greg said while taking another bite of fish. Fluttershy didn’t seem to mind it anymore. “He’s always expecting me to do the imposable because I’m the smartest gryphon around. He wants me to unleash Discord and make him fight for the gryphons and I’m like: I can’t brain wash the lord of brain washers are you crazy?”

The ponies all laughed at the gryphon king’s stupidity. “So Greg, what are you studying in science?” Rarity asked.

“Well I like studying atoms in my free time.” All the ponies at the table were confused. What was an atom? Greg knew he had to clarify. He set his food down. “Everything we see and touch is made of tiny microscopic things called atoms.” More confusion came on the ponies faces. “There are different kinds of atoms like oxygen atoms and carbon atoms.” This didn't clarify things at all. Greg tried another approach, “Inside an atom we have neutrons and protons in the middle and electrons orbiting around them.” Still, the entire table was confused. “Aw, you don't have to worry about it. It's probably not important anyway. But I think my greatest discovery was finding Celestia to be a fraud.

All the ponies’ mouths dropped. Applejack spoke up first, “Now what in tarnation makes you think our princess isn’t a princess?!”

“No, I didn't say she wasn't a princess. She has to have some royal blood to be an alicorn. What I'm saying is that Celestia doesn't raise and set the sun.”

“So you think the sun raises and sets on its own?” Applejack questioned Greg like he was the idiot.

“Exactly! Well not exactly, exactly. The sun doesn't move at all you see.” Greg was getting nervous, knowing he just insulted everypony at the dinner table. “Pretend this tomato is the sun.” Greg grabbed a tomato that was on his plate from Rainbow’s corn salad. “And this piece of corn is the earth. The earth actually spins around the sun like this.” Greg moved the corn in a circle around the tomato.

“So does Celestia actually move the earth?”

“No it does that in its own too.” All the ponies right now thought Greg was crazy. “I can't just explain science to you. It's very complicated.”

All the ponies were silent. Fluttershy spoke up, “Well whatever you believe,” Fluttershy said, “I'm glad that we can all get along as friends.” Fluttershy put her hoof around Greg and Rarity who she was sitting next to.

There was such a look on Greg’s face after Fluttershy stated that. It was hard for Rarity to explain. It was just a ‘look’ of realization mixed with deep thought. Greg looked at his tomato and corn module still looking with that look.

“I-I'm glad too.” He looked back up. “Listen I remembered I got to do something real quick. What's the name of the mail mare around here?”

“Derpy Hooves.” Fluttershy answered.

“Great. You guys stay here I'll be right back.” Greg got up from his chair and headed for the door. Before he made it outside he turned to the table and said, “I’m sorry. I just have to do this. I’ll explain later.”

Greg flew away really, really fast.

Rarity spoke in a loud whisper for some reason, “What do you think that was about?”

Applejack answered in normal volume with her heavy southern voice, “Must have been really important if he flew away like that. Can you believe what he's saying about our princess? Saying the sun moves on its own. What a bunch of rotten apples.”

All the ponies finished their salads pretty quickly and they all waited for Greg to get back to start desert.

**************

“Except, Greg never did come back.” Sherlock finished the sentence so Rarity wouldn't have to. Her voice started to crack and she was on the verge of crying.

“That is correct. We all waited and waited and eventually we all decided to go looking after him.”

“And you heard he committed suicide.”

Rarity closed her eyes in shame. “Yes and we all sat on a park bench. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were crying.”

“And afterward Twilight came and told you I wanted to interrogate you.”

“Correct.” Rarity opened her eyes and they were red from the tears she was holding in.

“Thank you Ms. Rarity. You are free to go back into interrogation room C.” Rarity got up from her seat and wiped her eyes. “And if you would, could you send in somepony that's talked to Gilda.”

Rarity said, “Alright,” and without any more questions she left the room.

Well it wasn’t Rarity. She was at the dinner and actually remembered more about it than Applejack or Rainbow Dash.

That left three suspects. Twilight and Pinkie, who weren’t at the dinner, and Gilda who mysteriously vanishes in the middle of the story.

Pinkie and Twilight aren't going anywhere so they could wait. Gilda is on the loose doing Celestia knows what. Sherlock wanted to find out what Gilda was doing earlier that day and Maybe get some dirt on her.

******************

“What is all this?” Justin asked while looking at the assortment of science stuff.

“I really wish I knew.” Watson headed to the west side of the room with the chalkboard full of random equations.

He studied the board and tried to find something on it. Maybe a note or a clue.

On the bottom right hand corner a single equation was circled.

r = 2739ft.

The equation was circled a lot. “Well Greg must of really wanted to find this 'r'. It has to have some importance.” Watson said aloud so Justin could hear.

Justin didn't seem to care what Watson said. Instead he found something on the other side if the room that was much more interesting. “Oh my Celestia. Watson you have to come see this!” it sounded very important.

“What?” Watson asked and headed to where Justin was standing.

Chapter five: Pinkie Pie's Story

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“What?” Watson asked and headed to where Justin was standing.

“It looks like a note.”

“A note?” Now that had to have some clue. Justin held up a piece of paper and handed it to Watson.

“The ink is still wet!” Watson noted just by looking at the paper.

“Yeah and the quill is still in the inkwell.” Justin pointed at an inkwell on the table, but Watson was still busy looking at the discovered note. “Do you think he died right after he wrote this?”

“I don't know. You should read it.” Justin suggested.

Watson started to read out loud, “To your Royal Highness King Razorclaw the Third. I’m guessing Razorclaw is their king.”

“Keep reading,” Justin said eagerly.

Watson cleared his throat and began to read again. “I regret to inform you, but I have to say that I cannot follow through with the endeavor you assigned to me. I do not believe you told me the truth when you were describing ponies. They have all been kind to me and they have even fed me despite our diets being completely different. Those ponies are more compassionate and kind than you or any of your fathers will ever be. You should feel ashamed that you even thought of-” Watson stopped reading because that was all that was written.

“Thought of what?” Justin asked after he realized Watson stopped reading.

“That's where it ends. You should feel ashamed that you even thought of.” Watson read again.

“That can't be the end!” Justin took the paper from Watson's hooves and read. Once he saw that nothing else was written he whispered, “That can't be all to the clue.” Justin looked up at Watson and said, “There’s no signature at the bottom. Do you think he could've died while writing this?”

“His body would have been in here and not in the main room.”

“The murderer could have dragged him out so the cops wouldn't find this room! The only other thing that would know about the secret room would be…” Justin’s eyes lit up. “His sister. We have to tell Sherlock.” Justin started to walk off.

“Wait.” Watson held out a hoof to stop Justin from walking away. Watson wanted to say that it wasn't her for some reason, but he didn't have any proof. “I don't think it was her.”

“Why not? Greg was obviously writing this and then something happened.”

“It just,” Watson exhaled, “doesn't add up. I mean, what’s the motive? There’s that thing in the closet but we still don’t know what it was.”

Justin didn't say anything. Watson began to talk again, “Let's just look around some more and let Sherlock find what Gilda was doing today. We want to find out as much as we can before leaving.”

Justin sighed, “Alright, you're the famous detective. Just be expecting me to say ‘I told ya so’ when Gilda comes back to her house to cover up evidence.”

Watson smiled. “Alright, let’s just go over what we know.”

“Greg obviously wasn’t planning on staying in town for a while.” Justin said.

“The King assigned him to make something. It was probably the thing he hid in his closet. He changed his mind at the last minute before he got murdered.” Watson also added, “The murderer had to have access to syringe needles and had to be a unicorn to work it.”

“Or it was a gryphon and she used her claws!” Justin added.

“And whatever the King wanted him to make is now gone.”

“Celestia, this is so much fun!”

“And r = 2,739 feet.”

************************

The pink pony could not stop laughing at the painted walls.

“Pinkie Pie I need you to calm down.” Sherlock said while looking at the clock. He was fifteen minutes behind schedule. Sherlock was glad to know that one of his suspects had talked to another one of his suspects. It was killing two birds with one stone. But actually under the circumstances, Sherlock didn't want any more dead birds.

“I’m sorry!” Pinkie was on the floor laughing, “Just look at it!” Pinkie pointed at the walls and clenched her stomach.

“I have been unfortunately and it’s been killing me every second.” Sherlock spoke so seriously that Pinkie took it as a joke and laughed even harder. She started rolling on the floor and even snorted a few times.

Time for a different approach. “Pinkie Pie, You remind me so much of myself when I was your age.” Sherlock really had to stop depending on that line. Eventually the ponies of interest would figure him out.

The line really did calm her down though. “Really?” She said from the floor. “Well I guess you really shouldn't judge a pony by their appearance.”

Sherlock mentally took that as an insult, but kept a cheery face on the outside. “Yes. I love to party with siblings. I actually just moved here so me and you should throw some party together some time.” Oh, Celestia no. What did he just commit himself to do?

“Um, okay.” Pinkie Pie didn't seem too keen on the idea.

Sherlock felt insulted again. Why couldn't he throw a party with her? He silently wished that Pinkie pie was the murderer so he could tackle her and have a reason. “So. Time to get to work. Pinkie please sit in your designated chair.”

Sherlock grew tired of having to do all this work. Hopefully it will be over quickly.

Pinkie seemed to notice Sherlock's depressed mood and she tried to cheer him up. “Oh come on Shirley!” Shirley? “You're going to have to be on your party mood if you want to get anything done!”

Was Pinkie teasing him that he hadn't figured her out yet? “That's a great idea Ms. Pie. As soon as you have a seat we can begin.” Sherlock gestured at the empty chair.

Pinkie finally sat down. Was that cotton candy Sherlock smelled coming from Pinkie Pie? Sherlock took a loud whiff to support his theory. Yep. Definitely cotton candy. “I know what's happened today has been heart shattering.”

Pinkie didn't say anything.

“And I'm here to help mend the cracks. All I need from you is back-story. So you're going to tell me everything that has happened to you today. Start from when you woke up and mention places you've been, ponies you've talked to and things you've seen. I know today was probably a little crazy, but I'll believe every word you say as long as it's true. And believe me, I know when you're lying, I can see straight through your soul.”

Pinkie still kept a straight face. Even when Sherlock glared at her when he mentioned seeing through her soul.

Then Pinkie's hair deflated like it was a balloon and blew into Sherlock's face, knocking his bowler hat on the ground. The air that was blown in Sherlock's face smelled like cotton candy too. Sherlock picked up his hat off the floor, put it atop his head and stared at the pony across from him.

Her hair was now straight and she even looked to have a grey tint all over her body. She looked sad and Sherlock almost felt bad for her. That is until he remembered she could be a psychopathic murderer. “You may now begin.”

Pinkie sighed, “I woke up early because I had a great idea and if I went back to bed I would have forgot about it so I woke up early.”

Sherlock prepared himself for a story told by a mare that was terrible at telling stories.

************************

Pinkie’s great idea was to add watermelon into her cupcakes instead of sugar. No, she would keep the sugar and just add the watermelon without replacing anything.

Once the batter was all made she had to spark up a fire. Cupcakes always taste better if you cook them over a fire and not in a stove. You wouldn't understand.

Except Pinkie was faced with one problem. She had no means to start a fire. She pondered for an answer and finally came up with an idea. She could get Spike to start a fire. He could start fires right?

It would be perfect. Once the cupcakes were done she could share them with her dragon friend.

Pinkie went to Twilight's library where Spike lived and technically broke into the house. There lying peacefully on his bed was an asleep Spike who looked peaceful.

************************

“Don’t use the same adjective in same sentence,” Sherlock mumbled. His Grammar Nazi side couldn’t take the mare’s way of storytelling anymore.

“What?” Pinkie asked when she heard Sherlock mumble.

“Nothing,” Sherlock said clearly, “Carry on.”

************************

“Spike.” Pinkie whispered.

Spike was still in a deep sleep.

Pinkie repeated herself, “SpiiiIiiIke…” This time Pinkie shook Spike’s bed.

He was still asleep.

“Spike wake up!” Pinkie slapped the defenseless dragon and he woke up in a jolt.

“Huh? He sat up in his bed and looked over at Pinkie. “How did you get in here?” Spike asked as he rubbed the side of his cheek Pinkie slapped.

Pinkie didn't answer. Instead she just pointed to an open window on the second story.

“Did you climb up the side of my house?”

Pinkie giggled, “Yes, silly! I came here because I need you to do a special job.”

Spike looked interested. “What?”

“I need yooooooou,” Pinkie poked Spike, “to light a fire so I can make cupcakes.”

Spike suddenly lost interest. “I'm going back to bed,” and he covered himself with his blanket.

“No Spike! I need you. Please!” Pinkie ripped Spike's blanket from his bed, uncovering a cold, tired baby dragon.

“I only have thirty more minutes before I would normally wake up. But since you woke me up now, I'm never going to fall back asleep.” Spike said, sounding annoyed.

“That’s great! That means you can help me!” Pinkie scooped the dragon up in her hooves and carried him out the front door that was locked on the inside.

Spike groaned knowing there was nothing he could do. When Pinkie finally made it back to her house, Spike had fallen asleep on her back. Pinkie bent her forelegs so her back was at a slant. Spike slid down her back unconscious and fell face first on the ground. “Wake up Spike I need your fire.”

Spike pulled himself off Pinkie’s floor and with a tired voice said, “I can only use fire if I'm sending letters.”

Pinkie only thought for a moment. Alright I'll make a letter for you to send!”

Spike groaned, “Do you have to? I don't think you realize how bad letters taste!”

Pinkie didn't care. She scribbled something down on a blank sheet of paper, folded it and handed it to Spike. Spike walked over to Pinkie’s fireplace and held the note up so when he sended it would light the fireplace.

************************

“Sended isn't a word. It's sent!”

Pinkie rolled her eyes.

************************

Spike let out a dragon burp. The note was engulfed in a green flame and the fireplace was lit in a similar green flame.

Spike turned to Pinkie. He asked, “Are you happy now?”

Pinkie took her cupcake holder full of wet cupcake batter and placed it on a metal camping grate over the fire. Pinkie answered Spike’s question cheerfully, “Nope!”

Spike sighed. “What do you want now?” Before Pinkie could answer Spike’s question, Spike clenched his stomach and burped a bright, fiery note.

“It's my note!” Pinkie said. “I sent the letter to myself! See!” Pinkie held up her note and Spike saw that ‘Hi future Pinkie Pie’ was written on it.

“Oh, past Pinkie Pie, you know exactly what to say!” Pinkie hugged the note and smiled.

Spike was ready to leave. He rolled his eyes and started to walk out the door.

Pinkie Pie cut him off, “Wait! Aren't you going to stay for a cupcake?”

Spike really didn't want to stay, but he decided since he had nothing better to do that he would. Spike agreed, sat down and watched the green fire cooking the pastries. “How long is this going to take?” Spike asked.

Pinkie answered in her normal cheerful voice, “Fifteen to twenty minutes.” Pinkie was whipping up some frosting. She stirred her bowl of frosting and looked over at Spike staring at the fire. The green glow in the entire room gave Pinkie an idea. She would put green dye on the frosting to make it green. It would definitely look good with the green tint already on the cupcake and it would go good with its title.

“So Spike,” Pinkie tried to come up with an icebreaker question, but nothing came to mind, “do you like whales?”

Thankfully Spike had already fallen asleep so he didn't hear Pinkie.

Pinkie finished stirring her icing and looked over her cupcakes. When they looked ready Pinkie woke up Spike.

Spike looked up at the camping grate and said, “Do you want me to take the cupcake holder off the grate?”

Pinkie answered, “Yes, please.”

Being immune to fire had its perks, but it also meant that you had to do special jobs. Spike started to take out the cupcake out of the cupcake holder with a fork, but Pinkie yelled out, “No! Only two of them are good.”

“Only two? Why didn't you cook them in a stove and have all the cupcakes good?”

“Because the two that ARE good are the best cupcakes ever made!”

Spike was surprised to see Pinkie was right. Ten cupcakes were burnt and two were baked perfectly to a golden brown (and a tint of green.)

Pinkie set two cupcakes on her counter and dumped the ten burnt ones in the trash. She got a large amount of frosting on her rubber spoon and started to frost. Spike watched. When Pinkie was all done with one, she handed it to Spike. “Thanks for being so helpful. Tell me what you think of it.”

Spike sunk his teeth into the warm pastry. He smiled. “It's really good Pinkie. Thanks.” Spike took another bite and Pinkie finished frosting the other one.

“Nothing better than waking up extra early to make cupcakes, am I right?”

“You said it!” Spike said and took another bite.

Pinkie was about to eat her creation when she heard the flaps of wings outside. They were much louder than pegasus’ wings so Pinkie looked outside to get a better view. Pinkie almost died when she saw two gryphons fly over her house. And she almost died again when she thought she recognized one of the gryphons. “Is that,” Pinkie paused, “Gilda?”

Spike ran to Pinkie’s side and looked out the window. Spike only got a short glimpse it the two flyers, but he could still recognize one of them. “It is!”

Pinkie hopped through the window and gestured for Spike to come next to her. “Come on!” she said in a loud whisper, “Let’s follow them. In stealth mode!”

Spike jumped out of the window and said, “Are you nuts? Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

“I do. That’s why I'm wondering why she's back.”

Pinkie started to tip-toe her way across the street. She managed to hide herself behind two-inch thin lamp posts. She stuck her head out checking if the coast was clear. When she saw nopony in sight she darted for bushes nearby.

Pinkie’s stealth mode continued for a while until she came to the empty house next to Golden hill. Gilda and some other gryphon were moving boxes that were in a carriage into the house.

************************

“Did you say Boxes?”

The grayish pink pony only nodded and asked, “Why?”

“I'm just expecting somepony to come back.” That was strange. If Watson found boxes in the house then he should definitely be back by now. Unless he saw something interesting in the boxes.

Pinkie sighed and continued, “Gilda soon spotted me, but I wasn't expecting her to do the next thing that she did.”

************************

“Pinkie is that you?” Gilda said and pointed to Pinkie who was holding a twig over her face. It wasn’t the best disguise the pony could come up with.

She set the twig down and nervously laughed, “Y-yep it’s me!” Pinkie slowly started to back away. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”

Gilda dropped the box she was holding and headed toward Pinkie. The other gryphon watched from a distance. Pinkie turned around and almost sprinted away, but Gilda called out before she could. “NO Pinkie! I want to talk! I’m here to apologize.”

That was something she wasn’t expecting. Gilda wanted to apologize? Pinkie turned around and came face to face with Gilda.

“About what happened last time I was here,” Gilda said, “I was a total jerk. I’m sorry.” Gilda actually sounded sincere though. “Can we start over and pretend like none of that ever happened?”

“So you want me to pretend I’ve never met you?” Pinkie clarified.

“Yes.”

That made Pinkie jump in the air from pure joy. She grabbed Gilda’s claw and shook it vigorously. She said in her normal, cheery self, “Hi-ya stranger! Welcome to town! What’s your name?”

Gilda obviously wasn’t expecting to win Pinkie’s forgiveness back so easily. “Uh, Gilda,” she answered.

Pinkie immediately responded, “Pleasure to meet you Gilda! My name’s Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie finally stopped shaking Gilda’s claw. “Who’s that over there?” Pinkie pointed at Greg who was still taking in boxes.

“That’s my brother. You should come and meet him.” Gilda and Pinkie walked over to the front of the house where Greg was.

Gilda started the introduction, “Greg, This is Pinkie Pie.” Pinkie waved at Greg.

Greg held out a claw to shake Pinkie’s hoof. Pinkie shook his claw and Greg smiled and said, “Hi Pinkie. So you're the one that has inspired my sister to be kinder. Good job. I can really see a difference.”

“Thanks.”

An awkward silence followed. Pinkie finally asked, “So, do you need any help moving in?”

Greg suddenly looked worried and said, “Uh, no we got it.”

“No, come on. I can help.”

“I actually packed a lot of science equipment and I’d hate it if anything broke…”

“I’ll be careful.” Pinkie said.

“You don’t have to help. We’re almost done unpacking.”

“I insist that I help out every stranger I meet.”

Greg turned to Gilda and whispered, “I thought you said you knew this pony.”

“I do.”

Greg looked confused.

Pinkie jumped in, “I want to help!”

Greg was about say something, but Gilda cut it, “She can bring in the wooden beams and the drywall, Greg.”

“Drywall? Like the things the walls are made of?”

Gilda spoke again, “Ya, we’re putting some touch-ups on the walls and stuff.” Gilda turned and pointed to the carriage parked next to her house full of boxes. “They should be in there.”

“Okey dokey!” Pinkie jumped/skipped to the carriage full of stuff. Greg quickly went to her side.

He nervously said, “Careful!”

Pinkie spotted a wooden beam in all the mess and was about to pick it up when something else caught her eye. It was a metal dolly holding up something covered by a sheet of cloth. Something about it appealed to Pinkie. Whatever was under the cloth was about three inches thick and was in a rectangle shape. Pinkie was about to lift the cloth of the mysterious object, but Greg quickly appeared to her side screaming,

“Don't!” Greg grabbed Pinkie’s hoof and she stopped. “This is my main project! This is everything I've lived for. If it breaks then all my science stuff will be useless.” Greg took a bottle of vanilla frosting and a jar of black leaves. “If you want, you can take these inside.

******************

Sherlock whispered in realization, “The West-Bolio pine leaves!”

Pinkie asked, “What?”

Sherlock stopped gazing into space and looked at Pinkie.“Did you ever look at it? What was under the sheet?” Sherlock asked.

“No. Greg stopped me. Why?”

“Because I think that’s why Greg died. The murderer wanted whatever that was.”

Pinkie suddenly became interested.

“Continue.”

**************

Pinkie set the items inside and then helped Gilda roll in a chalkboard. Greg continued to put boxes of glass beakers in his room.

Once everything looked completed Greg went back into town to return the carriage and Pinkie and Gilda talked.

“So why are you coming back to Ponyville?” Pinkie asked.

“Um, Greg had more job opportunities as a scientist here.”

“Greg's a scientist?”

“Pinkie, didn't you see the beakers and chemicals we moved inside?”

“Yeah I did. I was wondering why you had all those. Now it makes so much sense.”

Gilda facehooved, or faceclawed in her case.

“Hey, I should throw a party for you guys! Welcoming you a second time into Ponyville.”

Gulda blushed remembering how awful she was at the last party that was thrown for her. “I guess that would be nice.”

Pinkie started on an entirely new topic, “Hey, I know the perfect pony for Greg to talk to. She's a scientist to!”

“Why don't you go get her?” Gilda sounded like she had enough of the pony’s company.

“I will!” Pinkie said cheerfully and started to trot away from Gilda’s house.

Spike eventually started running next to Pinkie and he asked, “What was that all about?”

“Spike!? Where were you?” Pinkie totally forgot about Spike.

“I was watching you. Why were you so nice to Gilda?”

“Spike, you'll go nowhere in life always seeing the worst in ponies. Gilda sounded like she wanted to change and she did doggone it. That was my Applejack impression. Did you like it?”

“Um. Sure.”

Spike and Pinkie made it to Twilight's house. Pinkie stopped in front of the door and waited for Spike to catch up.

The door was still unlocked so Pinkie opened it. Twilight was inside reading. Spike went upstairs.

“Spike, where have you been?” Twilight asked.

Spike started looking through books. “Oh, me and Pinkie went on an adventure.”

“What?”

Pinkie broke in, “Guess who we saw!”

Twilight looked away from her brother who was searching through books and over at Pinkie Pie standing in the doorway. “Who?” she asked.

“I did say guess, but you're probably never going to guess so I'll just tell you. We saw GILDAAAA!” Pinkie smiled.

Twilight’s face instantly showed depression. “What kind of adventure was that?”

“A fan-freaking-tastic one, that's what!”

“We’re talking about Gilda the gryphon, right? The one who called you a dweeb and such.”

Pinkie thought for a second. “Yes and no. Yes it’s Gilda the gryphon, no it’s not the Gilda who called me a dweeb. Shes actually changed. She's an entirely new gryphon her brother even notices the difference.”

“Brother?” Twilight questioned.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you! Gilda’s brother is moving in to. He's a scientist!”

Twilight was still hesitant about Gilda moving back to town.

“Gilda thinks you and he should meet up and talk about science stuff!”

“What's he study?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie rose her elbows to show that she didn't know.

“I doubt he’s studying magic. He's a gryphon. We’ll have nothing in common.”

“Aw come on Twi. You really should meet them. Gilda is totally different. She didn’t call me a dweeb once.”

Twilight still looked hesitant. Pinkie decided to do everything she could to persuade her.

“PleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasePLEASE!!” Pinkie was on her knees begging her unicorn friend.

Twilight finally gave in. “Alright. I’ll bring over a basket of something and maybe start up a conversation.”

“Wow, that was easy.” Pinkie got up from the floor. “You know, I should go tell Applejack about Gilda. And I should also show her,” Pinkie grabbed her watermelon cupcake, “this.”

************************

“Okay so first you told Twilight about Greg,” Sherlock paused and waited for Pinkie to nod, which she eventually did, “Then you told Applejack, then you told Rarity and then you left to tell Fluttershy.”

“How did you know that?” Pinkie asked.

“I've already talked to Applejack and Rarity. We’re running out of time so you're going to have skip those parts. So tell me, what did you and Fluttershy talk about?”

“Um okay. I saw Fluttershy walking down the road and I thought it would be funny if I scared her because I thought it would be funny.”

************************

“BOOM!” Pinkie yelled as she jumped out of the bushes.

Fluttershy gave a weak ‘Eep!’ sound and fell to the ground causing her to drop all the books she was carrying.

Pinkie laughed, “Did I scare ya? I didn’t want to yell ‘BOO’ because I thought that would be too scary so yelled ‘BOOM’ instead.”

“Oh Pinkie, thanks for thinking about my feelings,” Fluttershy said from the ground. “I wasn't scared that bad. Just a little frightened is all.”

Pinkie helped her friend up. Fluttershy started to pick up her books from the ground and Pinkie started to tell her friend about the news.

“Pinkie you'll never guess who I saw moving into Ponyville.”

Fluttershy picked up a book and answered, “Was it that weird gryphon?”

Pinkie was shocked. “Wow. You did guess. Have you met him?”

“You could say that.”

“Does he know your name?”

Fluttershy picked up another book before answering. “No I just saw him. And I'm not happy they’re moving in.” Fluttershy sounded a little annoyed. That was new.

“That's because you think the old ones are moving in!” Pinkie said like it was obvious.

“As opposed to the young ones?”

Pinkie Pie laughed, but Fluttershy still kept her angry mood. “No, silly! Gilda’s an entirely new gryphon. She feels bad about what she's done.”

“That still doesn’t mean it was okay for her to roar in my face!” Fluttershy crossed her forelegs.

“So you should give her the chance to apologize. Come on I'll take you to their house.” Pinkie started to push Fluttershy’s rump with her head and Fluttershy dug her legs in the ground to try and stop herself from moving.

“I don't want to see them ever again!”

--ten minutes later--

“I can't believe I'm doing this.” Fluttershy said as she walked aside Pinkie.

“Don't worry, it will be fun!”

“What if one of them is on their shedding season?” Fluttershy asked.

“Huh?” Did Fluttershy say, ‘shedding season?’

Fluttershy knew she had to explain. “It's when a gryphon’s old feathers are too, well, old. And so they shed those ones off and get new ones.”

“So what if one of them is shedding? Are you afraid to get feathers on you?”

“No. When a gryphon is on their shedding season they're very moody and are hard to get along with. I read all about it in my ‘gryphons’ book.” Fluttershy started searching through her saddle bag for the book. After a couple seconds of searching Fluttershy started to look worried. “Where is it? I swear I had it in here. I was going to return it to Twilight. Do you think it's back where you scared me?”

“Hopefully. At least we'd know where it was if that's the case. Thank goodness I didn’t drop anything. I would have died if I didn't have this.” Pinkie reached in the spot where all earth ponies carry things, but she didn't feel anything there. Pinkie gasped, “MY CUPCAKE!!” and darted away in hopes that her cupcake was near Fluttershy’s book.

Fluttershy followed behind her. Thankfully, they didn’t get too much distance away from the spot Fluttershy dropped her books.

When the two finally came near the spot Pinkie saw that she was too late. There was a half eaten cupcake on the ground and a sick looking Rainbow Dash next to it. Pinkie yelled out, “YOU ATE MY CUPCAKE!”

Rainbow returned, “That was yours!?”

“Pinkie, that cupcake was awful!” Rainbow tried to point out. “Why would you get it?”

Pinkie gasped. “You didn't even enjoy it! Well there goes a perfectly good watermelon cupcake down the drain!”

“Watermelon!? Pinkie that tasted NOTHING like watermelon!”

“Yes it did! You obviously don't like watermelon!” Pinkie remembered that Rainbow Dash didn’t eat a single watermelon at last week’s watermelon eating contest.

“Pinkie I beat you in a watermelon eating contest last week, remember?”

Oh wait. She did eat watermelons. But that still doesn’t mean Rainbow had the right to eat whatever she found on the ground, does it? Pinkie yelled, “YOU ATE MY CUPCAKE!!”

“I'm sorry okay! Listen, I'll bake you a new cupcake that's a million times better, alright?” Rainbow held out a hoof so she and Pinkie could have shook on it. But Pinkie didn’t want Rainbow’s cooking. She wanted her own, so she was probably going to end up making a whole new batch.

Pinkie was about to yell at her friend some more, but then something jittered in her body. It was her Pinkie sense.

Still holding a hoof up, Rainbow asked, “What was that?”

Pinkie looked at her tail. “Hmm, twitchy tail. So that means,” Pinkie didn’t finish her thought. When she remembered that it meant something was going to fall, she immediately looked up.

She saw what seemed to be a birdhouse and she pointed up and yelled, “LOOK OUT!!”

Before Rainbow could look up in the direction Pinkie was pointing, The Birdhouse fell on Rainbow’s head. The little hole made for the birds to get inside the house, had somehow made its way around Rainbow’s neck.

Fluttershy yelled, “My birdhouse!”

Rainbow started to kick and buck aimlessly and would’ve hit Pinkie is she hadn’t ducked out of the way.

Pinkie asked, “What’s your birdhouse doing on top of Rainbow Dash?”

“I didn’t think it would fall on her! I had the best screws installed!”

Rainbow started smashing the birdhouse on the ground, but the birdhouse didn’t seem to loosen. Then she did something unexpected. She flew up in the air and then headed towards the Everfree forest.

Fluttershy looked worried. She called out, “Where are you going, Rainbow?” and she flew into the air to catch her.

However, that left Pinkie all alone. She tried to call out to Fluttershy to ‘wait up,’ but the pegasus had already flown out of earshot. Pinkie tried to follow her friends on hoof and she started to run into the forest.

The forest was very thick. It was hard for Pinkie to maneuver her body and keep track of her friends flying above her at the same time. So eventually, she lost them. She was all alone, in the middle of the forest and didn’t know where her friends flew off to. She tried to call out to them by screaming, but she got no response.

This was just great. Pinkie decided to walk forward in a straight line for a little bit instead of run. When Pinkie decided to give up and just turn around, she heard a loud scream. It sounded like a fillies. Pinkie started to trot in the direction of the scream, which was forward. However, she didn’t see anypony further in the forest. Was her mind playing tricks on her? It seemed to do that a lot.

After walking forward in search of the source of the scream for a little while Pinkie grew tired. She leaned her body on the base of a steep cliff and started thinking which way was home. She remembered having the sun in her eyes when she was looking up at Fluttershy, so the way back would have the sun shining on her back. Feeling a little smart, Pinkie got up and something extraordinary happened. Her tail twitched. “That’s odd. Two things falling in one day? I wonder what it could be this time.”

************************

“AND THEN A BEAR FELL FROM THE SKY!!!” Pinkie’s hair and face went back to normal. That pleased Sherlock, since now he didn’t have to talk to a depressed mare. “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!”

Sherlock remembered that Greg had pushed a bear off a cliff in Rainbow’s story. So that must have been where it landed. “Actually Pinkie, I can believe it. And I believe you.” Sherlock smiled.

“So at first, I poked it to ask it if it was good bear. Then it roared at me and tried to attack me and I started booking it!”

************************

Pinkie could hear the bear chasing her. She would jump over logs and duck under branches while the bear would just plow its way through it all. Pinkie made a sharp right turn and the bear continued to go strait. Breathing heavily, Pinkie still kept running. Then she heard the bear roar. He was still very close.

Then Pinkie came to a clearing in the forest. And there standing in the middle of it, was Gilda. Gilda quickly recognized the mare and looked at her with a ‘what are you doing here?’ look. Pinkie breathed heavily and Gilda walked toward her.

“Pinkie, what are you doing here?” Gilda asked.

Pinkie tried to catch her breath. “Gilda, I…”

“Pinkie listen. I just want to say that I'm really sorry about my behavior last time I visited.”

Pinkie was still breathing heavily. “Gilda…I'm,”

Gilda cut in, “You don't have to forgive me, but just let me show you that I changed and-”

Pinkie cut in, “Gilda…listen…”

Gilda cut in, “No, you listen. The way I acted was unacceptable and I don't want you thinking that all gryphons are like me-”

Pinkie grabbed Gilda’s shoulders with her forelegs, shook them around and screamed, “GILDA I’M BEING CHASED BY A BEAR!!”

Instantly, a bear burst its way through the trees and casted its big, dark shadow over the two females. Gilda didn’t have much time to yell out, “RUN!” before the bear attacked them.

The two got away, thankfully, and they started to run through the thick forest. Gilda was in the lead and Pinkie followed her, not daring to get separated. Gilda suddenly slowed down, grabbed Pinkie, and tried to fly away. Gilda, only flew a couple of feet in the air and said, “How much do you weigh, Pinkie?” Gilda said that like Pinkie weighed a lot.

Pinkie was too busy enjoying herself to hear. She had never flown before. (Except for that one time, but it didn’t really count.) Flying was like jumping without the falling down part.

Gilda couldn’t keep flying with all the extra weight. She tried to be airborne, but she just couldn’t manage to hold Pinkie Pie.

The crash to the ground didn’t cause any serious injuries. The two skidded on the forest ground and eventually came to a complete stop. Gilda jumped up. The bear was not far behind. The gryphon grabbed Pinkie again and this time carried her to some nearby bushes. She whispered, “Get down.”

The bear came near and started to smell the air. He turned his back to the girls, but if they tried to escape now the bear would definitely hear them. It was so close. Pinkie didn’t move a muscle. She hopped that the bear would just walk away and look for lunch somewhere else.

Gilda quietly whispered, “I can't believe I’m doing this. I am a bird of prey! I shouldn't be hiding. I should be fighting.”

Before Pinkie had time to ask what ‘prey’ meant Gilda had jumped from her hiding spot and thrusted herself on the bears shoulder. Her claws dug into the bear's flesh to keep herself on the bear. Pinkie only helplessly watched from the bush as her “friend” attacked the bear.

Things were actually going pretty well. Until the bear grabbed Gilda with his clawed forearm and threw her on the ground in front of him. Which was about five seconds into the fight. Gilda screamed again as the bear took another blow on the gryphon.

Pinkie had to do something. She picked a rock up off of the ground and as hard as she could, threw it at the bear. It was a perfect shot. Right in the back of the noggin. It was so perfect, in fact, that the bear stopped attacking Gilda and decided his new target would be Pinkie. The bear glared at the uncamouflaged pink pony in the green bush and he started to run toward her. That gave Pinkie a good intention that she should run. So she did.

She ran past the bear somehow and came next to Gilda’s side. Pinkie helped her up and asked, “Are you okay?”

Gilda clenched her left wing and it was all bloody. “My wing hurts,” she said as she was getting up. “I can’t fly with it.”

“That's great. Let's hope your hooves are fine.”

The two started to run away. This was going nowhere if not getting worse.

That's about when Pinkie had an idea. She remembered a ponymade river somewhere not far from here.

This time Pinkie was in the lead and she yelled back, “Follow me!” Pinkie led the way and was actually gaining distance from the bear. After a couple of minutes Pinkie finally found it. There was about a twenty foot drop to the river and on the other side there was flatland. That is until you go further downstream. Then both sides of the river are twenty foot dirt walls.

Pinkie informed Gilda, “Get to the other side as soon as you can when you jump,” and she jumped.

The water was cold and the jump put her very deep into the water. Pinkie swam up to the surface and used all her energy to make it to the other side. Once she finally did, she shook her entire body to get the water out of her fur. Then she remembered that she was forgetting somegryphon. She looked back up the twenty foot dirt wall on the other side of the river and she saw Gilda, just standing on the ledge.

“You should probably jump now!” Pinkie yelle out.

“I don’t know Pinkie, I...” Gilda whispered something and Pinkie didn’t hear.

“What? You need to jump now if you want to escape a hungry bear!”

“No, Pinkie. I can’t...”

Still Pinkie couldn’t hear. “Can’t what?”

Gilda looked back and saw the bear appear from the trees and was charging at her. Gilda jumped and in the middle of her fall yelled, “SWIM!”

Uh oh. Pinkie watched as the gryphon splashed into the water and eventually surfaced, thankfully. Gilda struggled to keep afloat as she was gasping for air at every possibility she had.

“Gilda swim to me! Quickly before the side become too steep.” But it was no use. Gilda was getting pushed downstream. Pinkie followed her on the edge of the river and yelled advice to her. “Gilda push with your back hooves! Come on, you can do it!”

But eventually the side Pinkie was on became steep too. Gilda was stuck in a river where both sides were twenty foot dirt walls. Pinkie couldn’t take it anymore. She jumped back into the river to save her friend.

The water was just as cold as Pinkie remembered it. She wrapped her hooves around the struggling gryphon and brought her to the surface. Gilda took that moment to breathe the fresh air. Pinkie was still holding her up. Gilda finally got the air to ask, “Do you know where this river leads?”

“I remember that there's a lake nearby. I think it might dump us there.”

“Okay, so I shouldn’t be worrying about the waterfall over there.”

Pinkie couldn't see any waterfall in the distance. Pinkie squinted down the river but still saw nothing. “I don't see anything.”

“I have incredible vision, Pinkie. I'm telling you, there's a freakin waterfall!!”

Pinkie started to see what Gilda was talking about. “Okay we’ll just swim away!” Pinkie said nervously.

Pinkie tried her best to swim against the current and hold on to Gilda at the same time, but nothing seemed to be helping.

“I see something!”Gilda yelled. Pinkie looked to see where Gilda was pointing and saw a big, plastic pipe. It came out of one of the dirt canyon wall and into the water.

“That's right,” Pinkie said, suddenly realizing something, “Ponyville uses this river to get water to their houses! That pipe supplies everypony with water.” Still holding Gilda, Pinkie swam to an edge of the canyon and grabbed onto the pipe.

The waterfall was in plain sight now. The two girls hung onto the pipe as if their life depended on it, because it kind of did.

“So now what?” Gilda asked.

“We can just hang here until somepony finds us.”

“Or until one of us dies from hypothermia.”

“What's hippothermia?” Pinkie asked.

“What do they teach you in those pony schools?”

Almost instantly after Gilda said that a loud ‘crack’ sound came from the pipe and it fell a few inches. Gilda looked worried.

“Don't worry, The pipes not going to break.” Pinkie said. “This pipe has to deliver a ton of water to everywhere. I'm sure it can support a few extra pounds!”

The pipe snapped off. Well that was just great. The two girls fell into the water again. Pinkie grabbed Gilda and started screaming. They were getting closer and closer to the waterfall and there was nothing they could do to get away from it.

“There's kinda a waterfall coming up, so you're going to have to swim!” Pinkie yelled at Gilda. Pinkie was trying her best to swim away from the horrible waterfall.

“I'm trying!” Gilda yelled back, “You're the one not swimming!”

Gilda was starting to sound like her old self. Pinkie knew she wasn't going to get any help from Gilda, so she yelled, “Somepony HELP!” maybe somepony would hear her screams and save them in ten seconds. Hopefully.

Pinkie kept swimming, not taking her eyes off of the waterfall. Yep, it would definitely kill you if you fell of this one. It was no use. The waterfall was only ten feet away. Pinkie kicked even harder, but was still going towards it. Five feet away. Pinkie held on to Gilda tightly and closed her eyes shut. Only two feet away. Any secrets Pinkie confessed right now wouldn’t be heard from the roar of the waterfall that was soon going to kill her. Pinkie could feel the water starting to fall. This was it.

Except ‘it’ didn’t happen. Pinkie and Gilda had stopped moving. “Wh-What happened?” Pinkie asked still closing her eyes.

“I think your friend saved us.” Gilda said.

Pinkie opened her eyes and saw a rope tied around Gilda’s claw and was being held by Applejack. Applejack was on the top of the canyon and was trying her best not to let go of the rope.

“Applejack!” Pinkie screamed joyfully as she saw her orange-coated friend.

Applejack started to pull the two towards one of the canyon walls. When they were at the base Gilda said, “I think we got it from here.” She turned to Pinkie, “Hang on Pinkie,” and she started to climb the dirt walls with her claws while giving Pinkie a piggyback ride.

Pinkie Held on to Gilda very awkwardly so she wouldn’t fall.

Eventually Gilda and Pinkie reached the edge of the canyon and struggled to climb up it. Applejack let go of the rope and went to Gilda and Pinkie's side to help them up.

“What were you two doin in the river?” Applejack asked.

Gilda was breathing heavily. “It’s a very long story.”

“Applejack it was crazy!” We were running and Gilda tried to pick me up! And then she attacked it!” Pinkie, who was still obviously shaken from the whole ordeal, tried to explain.

“Um, what?” Applejack asked.

“Like I said, it’s a long story.” Gilda calmly said.

“Oh, Uh, Alright.” Applejack didn’t question any further. She cleared her throat. “Howdy Gilda.”

“Thank you so much Applejack. I could of...” Gilda started to get teary eyed. “I could’ve died. And you saved me. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I guess.” Applejack returned.

“Listen. I got to go do something. It’ll be really quick. I’ll see you at tonight's party.” And Gilda ran off, not even looking back once.

Applejack turned to Pinkie. “Who was that?”

“It was Gilda.”

“No. Gilda wouldn’t have thanked me like that and she certainly wouldn’t have almost cried like that.”

Pinkie smiled. “I guess somegryphons really change.” Pinkie put a wet hoof around her friend. Applejack actually didn’t seem to mind. “I think I’m going to take a bath before I prepare for the party.”

“Yeah...me too.” Applejack agreed.

************************

“So she's the reason the water wouldn't work for Rarity,” Sherlock thought.

“But my bath wouldn’t work and I was wondering why, but then I remembered me and Gilda broke that one pipe so I just went straight to setting up Greg’s party.”

Sherlock kind of wanted Pinkie to go into more detail, but seeing that he was so much behind schedule, he let it slide.

Pinkie sighed and remembered what had happened next. “Then, right when I had finished everything, A policepony knocked on my door and asked if I'd ever talked to Greg. I said I did and now I’m here.”

“Interesting.” Sherlock said. “Is there anypony I could ask to confirm that you were preparing a party and not preparing a murder?”

Pinkie said in an angry voice, “You think I did it?”

Sherlock quickly recovered, “No. I just want to make sure you are telling the truth.”

“I thought you could tell when I’m lying.”

Since Sherlock was almost done interrogating this mare he said, “I lied. Who's the pony that can confirm?”

“Derpy Hooves.” Pinkie answered. “She saw me setting up.”

“Interesting. You are free to go. Wait in the other room until I have interrogated everypony. Bring in Fluttershy for me.”

Pinkie said, “Okey dokey,” very cheerfully and walked out the door.

“It wasn’t her.” Sherlock thought. “She doesn't have a motive. Heck, who does have a motive? Maybe Twilight was trying to find out what Greg was working on and the only way to get to his work was over his dead body. But that doesn’t add up. Officer Dirk told Pinkie she needed to be interrogated and Twilight told the other group of girls. When Officer Dirk asked who talked to Greg Twilight must have been the pony to confess. If she was the murderer then why even confess? Was it to throw me of? Oh well, She’s not going anywhere. You can get answers when you talk to her. Right now, I need to start interrogating a new mare. The one who said that she liked Greg. This is going to be a depressing interrogation.”

Chapter six: Fluttershy's short, sad story

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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.

Chapter seven: Twilight's Story

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“You wanted to see me, Sherlock?” Twilight said, sticking her head inside the interrogation room.

There she is. The murderer who caused all this mess. Sherlock spoke sternly, “Yes, I do.”

Twilight walked to the table and pushed the chair out with her magic.

“She’s good at magic.” Sherlock mentally noted. “This will be interesting if she fights back.”

“Such a shame, isn't it,” Twilight said.

Sherlock mentally laughed. Was she trying to make it seem like she didn't do it? Sherlock agreed, “Yes, it is.”

Sherlock spoke seriously, “Tell me Twilight, what do you study?”

“Magic and friendship.” She answered calmly.

“I see. And what does Greg study?”

Twilight's face froze. “I don't know. I only knew he was a scientist.”

Sherlock knew she was lying. Twilight wanted whatever Greg was working on and she would have done anything to get it. “Funny.” Sherlock said sounding annoyed. Twilight was just digging herself a grave of lies.

“Twilight,” Sherlock was thinking of a good question to ask her, “Tell me how your day was.”

“It was crazy. I almost died.”

“Yes, I know that.” Sherlock grew tired of explaining how he was doing things to each pony of interest. “Start from when you woke up to when you saw Officer Dirk climb the fountain and ask if you'd talk to Greg.”

Twilight gulped, “Alright.”

This was it. Sherlock could finally prove this unicorn was a murderer.

Twilight took in a breath thinking of how she should start. “When I woke up I saw that Spike was gone. I wondered where he was, but I figured he probably had something better to do.”

******************

So Twilight decided to use her morning to study. After about thirty minutes into her day, Pinkie Pie and Spike opened the front door. That was strange to Twilight because she could've sworn she locked her front door.

“Spike, where have you been?” Twilight asked.

Spike went upstairs and started looking through books. “Oh, me and Pinkie went on an adventure.”

That was something you don’t hear you brother do every day. Especially in this early hour. Twilight asked, “What?”

Pinkie, who was standing in the doorway yelled out, “Guess who we saw!”

Twilight looked away from Spike and over at Pinkie Pie. She asked, “Who?”

“I did say guess, but you're probably never going to guess so I'll just tell you. We saw GILDAAAA!” Pinkie smiled.

Twilight’s face instantly showed depression. Not Gilda. Anything, but Gilda. “What kind of adventure was that?”

“A fan-freaking-tastic one, that's what!”

“We’re talking about Gilda the gryphon, right?” Twilight desperately hoped that it wasn’t her. “The one who called you a dweeb and such.”

Pinkie thought for a second. “Yes and no.” Pinkie said confidently. “Yes, it’s Gilda the gryphon, no it’s not the Gilda who called me a dweeb. She’s actually changed. She's an entirely new gryphon, her brother even notices the difference.”

“Brother?” Twilight questioned. Please not another gryphon.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you! Gilda’s brother is moving in too. He's a scientist!”

Twilight was still upset Gilda was moving in to care.

“Gilda thinks you and he should meet up and talk about science stuff!”

“What's he study?” Twilight asked, giving the other gryphon a chance.

Pinkie rose her elbows to show that she didn't know.

“I doubt he’s studying magic. He's a gryphon. We’ll have nothing in common.”

“Aw come on Twi. You really should meet them. Gilda is totally different. She didn’t call me a dweeb once.”

Twilight was still hesitant.

Then Pinkie went on her knees and started to beg, “PleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasePLEASE!!”

If Gilda was the meanest to Pinkie, then she must’ve made some major changes in her attitude for Pinkie to like her again. Twilight finally gave in, “Alright. I’ll bring over a basket of something and maybe start up a conversation.”

“Wow that was easy.” Pinkie got up from the floor. “You know, I should go tell Applejack about Gilda. And I should also show her,” Pinkie grabbed something and continued, “this.”

Twilight learned to never ask Pinkie what ‘that’ was. It never ended well if you did. NEVER.

Unfortunately Twilight completely forgot about that rule. “What is that?”

“I’m so glad you asked! I wrote a song about it!” Pinkie drew in a breath and almost started to sing.

Thankfully, Twilight had enough time to react and she shut Pinkie’s mouth with her magic.

Pinkie managed to slip out, “Matermelon mupmake.”

Twilight loosened her magical grip. “See, that wasn’t so hard. You just had to tell me what that was and then we can continue our day.”

Pinkie blinked a few times, looked at her hooves and then said, “AlrightI’mgoingtotellApplejackbye!” and she darted out the door.

Twilight decided that she would give Gilda and her brother a welcoming present. She walked into her kitchen and started looking for ideas.

When her eyes landed on a plate of rolls, she decided it was the perfect gift. She took all of her rolls and placed them all in her dark purple basket. She then put a matching dark purple cloth over it and started to walk towards Gilda’s house. Which was actually the only house that was empty and somegryphon could move into. The walk wasn’t too long. Some company would be nice, but Twilight didn’t get any so she had to be alone with her thoughts. When she finally made it to the house, Twilight went straight to knocking on the door. She could be civil about this. And hopefully, if Gilda has changed, she could be to.

Gilda answered the door. She was surprised. “Oh, it’s you. Pinkie told me she was going to talk to you.”

“Yep, she did.” Twilight answered, “She also said that you changed.”

Gilda blushed, “Well, I have been working harder to get along with others.”

Then the other gryphon came to Twilight’s side. It looked like he had white paint in his fur. He spoke up, “Gilda, is this one of your pony friends?”

Twilight answered, “Yep. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

The other gryphon stuck out a claw and said, “Greg, nice to meet you.” Greg and Twilight shook.

Twilight smiled. This was going along just swimmingly. “I baked you some rolls, welcoming your family to town.” Twilight handed Greg her dark purple basket.

He removed the cloth and said, “Thank you, Twilight. This is a really nice basket.”

“You can keep it,” Twilight offered.

“Hey Twilight,” Gilda spoke, “Do you know any places where I can volunteer? I want to show Ponyville the new me.”

Twilight thought for a bit. “I know the hospital’s a good place. I sometimes volunteer there.”

***************************

“You volunteer at hospitals?” Sherlock asked.

“Yeah, I have gone a few times on the weekends.”

“So that means you have access to hospital equipment, like stethoscopes or x-rays or maybe even syringe needles?”

Twilight seemed surprised at what Sherlock asked. Her reaction was perfect when he said syringe needle. “Um, yeah I know how to work those things, but I can’t just walk out of the hospital with them,” Twilight defended.

“I see.” Sherlock had Twilight exactly where he wanted. She knew he was on to her. All Sherlock needed now was wait for her to lie about something. Then Sherlock could say she was lying and juice out the truth. “Continue.”

“Well, while I was walking home, I talked to Big Mac-”

“Big Mac?” Sherlock thought Twilight could be lying but then he remembered, “Big Mac must have not been at Applejack’s house.” Sherlock’s eyes lit up. “No one was there to watch the cutie mark crusaders so they just left and stole the screw out of Fluttershy’s birdhouse.”

“What?”

“You just added another piece to the puzzle, Twilight. Thank you. Now you can continue.”

“Um, okay. So I talked to Big Mac about apples. Then I went back to my house and Fluttershy knocked on my door.”

**************************

“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy said from behind the door. “Can I borrow some books? If that’s alright with you.”

Twilight opened her door and answered, “Sure. What do you need?”

Fluttershy looked, well, shy. “I was hoping that I could read about gryphons. Do you have a book about that?”

“Of course! Is it because Gilda is moving in?”

Fluttershy silently nodded.

“I have tons of books about gryphons.” Twilight became excited. Books always excited Twilight. She went upstairs and started looking through her books. “Here’s the gryphon books.” Twilight said looking at a shelf. Fluttershy went upstairs next to Twilight.

Twilight started reading the book’s title from the shelf going left to right. “Pegasus and gryphon similarities. You probably don't want that.” Twilight smiled and read again, “Pie recipes for gryphons. Pinkie Pie might want this.” Twilight set the book aside so she could give it to her friend later. “Planning a gryphon family. Okay definitely not that one.”

“How about this one?” Fluttershy pointed at a green book titled ‘gryphons.’

“It's perfect Fluttershy, but don't you think it's kind of big?”

“I'm a very fast reader. I’ll return it when I'm done. That should be in a couple of hours. I can return all of your other books I borrowed, if you like.”

“That would be great.” Twilight said.

“Alright, I'm going to begin reading. Bye Twilight.” Fluttershy started to fly out the door.

Twilight happily waved goodbye to her friend leaving the house.

Twilight decided to throw in a few extra minutes of studying before she began Derpy’s speech therapy. Every Saturday
Derpy would come over to Twilight's house and the two would work on improving Derpy’s speech. Twilight noted that Derpy was making incredible progress.

Twilight heard a knock on the door and a voice say, “Are you…home, Twilight?”

“Try not to have so much pausing when you talk Derpy. Remember when we talked about pacing ourselves?”

Twilight heard Derpy clear her throat from behind the door and say again, “Are you home, Twilight?”

The pacing was good, yes. But something was still off. “Actually Derpy, go back to your old voice, please.”

Derpy finally just opened the door. Twilight smiled when she saw the grey pegasus and her unforgettable cross eyes. Derpy said in her normal, un-paced voice, “Hi, Twilight. Twilight why…can't I sound…normal?”

“Actually, Derpy, it has been scientifically proven that everypony’s voice is different, so there's no such thing as a ‘normal’ voice.”

That explanation didn't seem to cheer Derpy up at all. Twilight put a hoof on her friend and said, “Derpy, your voice is normal. Your voice is adorable and cute and makes you, you. You don't have to change.”

“But I want to…change. I want to sound like… everypony else.”

“But your old voice is better than your new voice, trust me!”

Derpy sighed the most lovable-I-just-want-to-hug-you sounding sigh ever.

Twilight knew she wasn't helping. “Alright Derpy, let's pretend we're having tea and we’ll just talk.”

“Does it have to be pretend tea?” Derpy looked up at Twilight, “Can it be real?”

Twilight giggled, “Sure. I'll go brew some up.”

Twilight got up and made tea. She eventually returned with it back to the main room. Derpy took a cup and the two mares just talked.

“So what are you studying, Twilight?” Derpy said in her new voice.

“Try not to go so high pitched. And flow your words better.”

Derpy talked in a very low voice, “What are you studying, Twilight?”

Twilight laughed, “Not that low.”

Derpy spoke slowly, but with perfect pitch, “What. Are. You. Studying. Twilight.”

Twilight put her cup of tea down, “Your pronunciation is fine. It's your pacing. You sound like a robot.”

Derpy closed her eyes and focused. “What are you studying, Twilight?”

It sounded exactly like her old voice. “That was perfect Derpy. Um, Right now I'm studying potions. Like what makes them work or how to tell what it does. How has your job been going?”

Just after Twilight asked, Spike came into the house. He had a bandage around his chest stained with his green blood. Twilight asked, “What happened to you?”

“Twilight, I need to talk.” said the baby dragon.

“I’m kind of busy. Can we talk when I’m all done?”

“It’s important!” Spike whined.

“It can wait.” Twilight said.

Spike groaned, “Fine, you won’t listen to me. I’ll just tell somepony else.” and Spike trudged himself upstairs.

“Now where were we?” Twilight asked, “Oh, yeah, how are things going being a mailmare?”

“It’s nice.” Derpy said normally. “I get to travel a lot.”

Spike yelled from the second story, “Twilight where is the green ‘gryphon’ book?”

Twilight gave an annoyed sigh, “I lent it to Fluttershy.”

“But I need it!” exclaimed Spike.

“You can ask Fluttershy your question about gryphons. She probably has already read the entire book.”

Spike grunted and came downstairs. He never made eye contact with his sister as he walked outside.

Derpy didn’t miss a beat, “Did you know that Greg has sent a letter to the gryphon king? I get to meet him soon when I'm delivering his letter!” Derpy said excitingly. “Since the letter is so important, I put it in the most secure mail room. All you need is a special key to get inside.”

“Aren’t all the mailrooms supposed to have locks?” Twilight asked.

“Yeap, they do. But the door to our secure mail room is huge!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. She didn’t think bigger doors meant more secure.

“And,” Derpy said, “The key is made of gold. I have it on me at all times.”

Twilight decided to change the subject. She smiled at Derpy and said, “Derpy your speech is great. Keep practicing on the flow of your words.”

Derpy didn’t want to talk about her speech though. She said, “You wanna see it? Greg’s letter?”

“I don’t think Greg would like it if we go through his stuff.” Twilight said.

“We won't read it! We’ll just look at it.”

Twilight wasn’t too keen on the idea. “It’s just an envelope, Derpy.”

“With the King's address on it. Did you know that he lives on horseshoe street?”

Twilight choked on her tea. “No he doesn't. That’s really close to Ponyville. He lives somewhere in the gryphons land, not in Equestria.”

“Well that’s what the address says.”

“Strange.” Twilight agreed.

The two mares talked for a bit more. Derpy was very good at asking Twilight questions and keeping a conversation. After a few minutes an awkward silence slipped into the mares conversation.

Derpy said again, “Are you sure you don't want to see it?”

Twilight sighed, “Alright Derpy, if you seem so excited about showing me an envelope, then I’ll see it.”

Derpy clapped her hooves and set her empty teacup down. “I can get in the mail room with this key!” Derpy reached in the place where she always carried her keys. (How ponies manage to carry things without saddlebags is beyond me.) She became worried when she didn't feel anything. She checked her other spot, but nothing was there. She then got out a blue bag and zipped it open. Inside were dozens of keys. Derpy was breathing heavily now. The bag held a bunch of bronze keys and even a few silver keys. Twilight even saw a black key, but none of them were gold.

“Where is it? I couldn’t of lost it! It was strapped to me!” Derpy held out a string. “The key is supposed to be on here!” Derpy was getting teary voiced.

Twilight gave out a calming, “Ssshhhhh… It's okay Derpy. You probably had lost it at the mail house. You don’t carry that key EVERYWHERE, do you?”

Derpy sniffed. “N-no I re-return it every night before I go ho-home.”

Twilight decided now wasn't the best time to critic Derpy’s speech. “See? You probably forgot to take it when you started the day. It's probably back at the mail room. When we find it there you can show me Greg’s letter, alright?”

Derpy calmed down. “Okay, Twilight. Follow me.” Derpy got up from her chair and went outside. Twilight followed.

When the two mares finally got to the mailroom Derpy went straight to her cubby. Each mailmare got there own cubby to put their materials they needed in. Derpy became frantic again when she saw that her key wasn't in her cubby.

Derpy curled up in a ball and covered her eyes. “What am I going to do? Greg is going to kill me.”

“Greg's too nice to kill anypony. Can't you just get a spare key?”

Derpy sniffed. “Yeah, but I've already replaced three keys this week and if I replace another everypony will make fun of me.” Derpy covered her eyes with her hooves to hide the fact that she was crying.

“No they won't Derpy. They are all adults and should take part in teasing another mare.”

Derpy curled up into an even tighter ball. Twilight had enough of this. Maybe if Derpy could explain what the key looked like, then Twilight could make her own replacement. Heck, why even need a key? If Twilight saw the lock then she could pick it with her magic.

Twilight left Derpy alone on the floor and headed to the mailroom with the biggest door. “Is this the most secure mail room?” Twilight asked while standing next to the biggest mail room door she could find.

Derpy lifted up her head to see where Twilight was. When she saw Twilight next to the most secure mail room she nodded and asked, “Why?”

“Well it’s not really secure if it isn't locked.” Twilight swung the unlocked door open.

Derpy saw the most secure mail room open. “How did you?”

“It was unlocked Derpy.” Twilight stepped inside the mail room and Derpy got up off the floor.

Inside, a humungous mail cupboard covered one of the walls. On the cupboard there were hundreds of small individual cubbies. Inside each cubby there were envelopes. Some were empty and some were overflowing. Derpy smiled when she stepped in the room. “I can send Greg's letter! Phew!” Derpy flew up to an empty mail slot. “Except Greg's letter ISN'T HERE!!”

Twilight didn't have time to respond. Derpy dropped to the ground with a loud thump and started to cry. “I lost Greg's letter. He's going to kill meeeEeeeEee…”

“No he's not Derpy. Whatever gave you an idea like that?”

“Because he told me he would if I lost it!”

Twilight was socked. “W-what? That doesn't sound like Greg.”

“He said it was super important and to make sure I got it on time.”

Twilight was at a loss of words. She went with, “It's going to be okay.”

That's when Derpy snapped. “IT'S NOT GOING TO BE OKAY!” Derpy got off the ground and flew in the air. “EVEPYPONY WILL BE MAD I LOST THE KEY!” Derpy started hitting the ground. Twilight backed up into the mail cupboard. “I HAVE TO TELL GREG I LOST HIS LETTER!” Now Derpy started to hit the walls. “WHY DO I KEEP MESSING UP!?”Derpy then flew head first into the mail cupboard.

It shook a little. Derpy was lying on the ground looking at the floor. Twilight was looking at the cupboard which unfortunately, started to fall.

Twilight used the first spell that came to her mind. She grabbed Derpy with her telekinesis and threw her to the other side of the room. Just in time for Derpy to see the cupboard fall on Twilight.

Twilight was immediately pinned to the ground. Pain engulfed her entire body. She could feel the cupboard on top of her move a little. Derpy was trying to push it off. After Derpy saw it was no use, Twilight heard Derpy scream, “Help!” But Twilight's hearing was fading. She could barely hear Derpy’s screams. Twilight's vision was beginning to go from blurred to dark. It hurt to breath so she stopped doing it. Everything was going black, then Twilight thought she heard her friend Rarity say, “Twilight are you okay?” and she was out.

When she woke up, Twilight still felt tremendous pain in her chest. Her vision was coming back and she could breathe again. Well, breathing still hurt, but it didn't hurt as bad when she was under the cupboard. She was lying on the floor and it seemed she was still in the mail room. She saw Derpy, Spike, and Rarity all sitting over her. Derpy was obviously crying really hard.

Twilight managed to ask, “Wh-what happened.”

Spike spoke up, “A big accident that's what!”

Derpy spoke up, looking very sad, “It was my fault Twilight. I got angry and worried and I started bucking things around and the mail cupboard tipped over on you. I'm sorry.” Derpy looked down from shame.

“But she’s very sorry!” Spike defended. “I even have proof!” Spike held up an empty bottle with a little bit of blue liquid in it.

“Is that my regret potion?” Twilight asked still on the floor and still mumbling.

“Yep!”

“What's a regret potion?” Rarity asked.

Rarity chuckled.

“The potions really strong too!” Spike added. “If one pony feels bad enough then it can actually bring some ponies back from the dead!”

From where Twilight was laying, Rarity looked surprised. But what did Twilight know? She could hardly sit up straight.

The two healthy mares and one dragon stayed by Twilight's side until she felt better.

“If you don't mind me asking, but what were you angry about anyway Derpy?” Rarity asked.

Derpy sighed thinking back to the horrible memory, “I was just upset because I lost Greg's letter to the gryphon king and I also lost the mail room key.”

Twilight yawned and that made everypony else in the room yawn too. “How are you feeling dear?” Rarity asked.

Twilight thought of a clever thing to say. She came up with, “Well, when I first woke up it felt like a train ran over me. Now it only feels like a bus has ran over me.”

“See, you're getting better!” Spike said cheerfully. Twilight Smiled and Derpy added,

“I'm sorry.”

“I know you are and I forgive you, but I think I've had enough for today's lesson.” Twilight's smile widened.

Spike cut in when he saw the book. “YOU FOUND IT!”

Rarity stopped walking and Spike ran up to the unicorn. “I’ve been looking everywhere for this. Where did you find it?”

“In the bushes,” Rarity answered. “Why do you want Greg’s book?” She asked.

“Oh I see.” Rarity said when she saw the T.W.S signed on the book. “Well I guess it’s fine if I leave it with you.”

“I’ll set it back in the library,” Spike said. “You can check on the apple cart now.”

“That’s a great idea,” Rarity said and she looked over at the recovering Twilight. “Are you feeling better dear?”

Twilight let out a weak, scratchy, “Yes. Thanks for saving me, Rarity. I’ll see you at Pinkie’s party tonight, right?”

Rarity opened the door and answered, “Definitely.”

Once Rarity was gone Twilight tried to stand up on her hooves. Derpy steadied Twilight when she started to wobble. “I got it,” said Twilight.

Derpy backed away slowly.

Twilight took some deep breaths and said, “See Derpy? I’m alright now. Everything is ok.” Twilight smiled and Derpy hugged her.

*****************************

“Okay, so then I went home, ate a late lunch, then I took a shower-”

“You took a shower?” Sherlock asked. The water still should have been down. It would've been impossible for Twilight to take one.

“Yeah.” Twilight didn't know why she had to clarify that she was taking a shower.

“Shower, meaning from your bathroom. Not like from a lake or a waterfall?”

“Yeah. I took a shower in my bathroom. I wouldn't bathe in a lake.”

Sherlock lightly smiled. The perpetrator was now caught. All Sherlock had to do now was watch Twilight dig a bigger hole for herself.

“So after my shower I studied some more. Then Rainbow Dash came over and asked if I had any muffins. I told her no, but she really wanted muffins. She said, “I NEED MUFFINS!!” and I said, “Alright I'll make you some muffins.”

“Why are you lying Twilight?” Sherlock broke in.

“I'm not lying, I'm telling you the truth,” Twilight said honestly.

“That's funny because I know four ponies that will say Rainbow Dash never asked you for muffins.”

Twilight looked at Sherlock like he didn't know what he was talking about.

“I know how to solve this. Let's ask Rainbow.” Sherlock was having fun proving Twilight wrong.

Sherlock didn't want to send Twilight to go get Rainbow because she could try to make a run for it. So Sherlock went out of the room and locked the door behind him.

He went down the hallway and into interrogation room C. He saw all the other five mares he just recently talkedto still in the room. He asked, “Rainbow can I borrow you for a quick second?”

Rainbow said, “sure,” got up and headed out the door and into the hallway with Sherlock. “Do you know who it is?” Rainbow asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. But you'll probably not like who it is though.”

Rainbow Dash gulped and headed into the next room. Sherlock and Rainbow stood near the doorway and Twilight turned to face them.

“You don't think it was Twilight, do you?” Rainbow asked.

“You tell me.” Sherlock turned to Twilight. Both mares were scared. “Twilight, tell Rainbow what you think she did.”

“You came to my house and demanded that I make you muffins.”

Rainbows mouth dropped and she shook her head. “No, Twilight. I was at dinner with Greg.” She turned to Sherlock, “I swear.”

“I believe you Ms. Dash. However, I'm having trouble believing Twilight.”

Twilight was breathing heavily. “I wouldn't murder Greg! I never even talked to him except for this morning!”

“Actually, Twilight,” Rainbow spoke up, “When I was in town getting corn, I saw you and Greg arguing.”

Twilight started sweating and breathing heavier, “What…I don't remember doing that.”

“I saw you.” Rainbow said. “You were yelling at Greg and you wanted him to tell you something, but he said it was his secret discovery.”

Twilight didn't know what to say.

Sherlock didn't lightly smile. He had a theory to why Twilight was doing what she was doing. “Thank you Ms. Dash. You can go back now, that was all I needed.”

“Sorry for not telling you I saw Twilight, Sherlock,” Said Rainbow.

“It's alright. At least you're telling me now.”

Rainbow turned to Twilight, “I'm sorry Twilight.” and without saying anything else she walked out.

Sherlock shut the door behind her. It was an awkward walk back to his chair. Twilight was looking down, breathing heavily from shock.

“Twilight, I think the reason you're not telling me that you yelled at Greg is because you don't remember talking to him.”

Sherlock explained, “The potion Spike and Rarity used on you wasn't strong enough at first. They knew water had to be added. The bathroom sinks weren't working so they substituted Derpy’s tears in for water.” He paused. “I think when you drank some of the potion you adopted some of Derpy’s aggressive behavior and it also led you to go, well, insane. You, Twilight, are insane.”

Twilight stomped a hoof on the table and yelled, “NO!”

“See, you are turning into Derpy. A more psychotic, murderer Derpy.”

Twilight started crying, knowing Sherlock was right. She yelled out, “I DIDN'T MURDER GREG!”

Sherlock wasn't expecting the next thing to happen. Twilight pushed Sherlock with her magic out of his chair and pinned him on the wall. She yelled again, “I DIDN'T MURDER GREG!”

Sherlock could move all his hooves. He decided to try to talk Twilight out of it. He yelled out,

“What happened to Greg is a tragedy, but it wasn't your fault!”

Twilight pushed harder in Sherlock. He groaned a bit from the pressure.

“We can get you help! We’ll take you to a hospital; we can fix your brain. I'm sure the policeponies will understand!”

It wasn't helping. Twilight pushed harder on Sherlock and yelled louder than she ever had, “I DIDN’T MURDER GREG!” It was time for action.

“First, throw nearby lamp at opponent.” Sherlock was thinking of how he was going to attack. “Opponent blocks, freeing me.” Sherlock saw Twilight using her magic on the lamp and not Sherlock. He started running to Twilight and she noticed too. “Block second attempt to pin me with table.” Sherlock turned the table sideways and it covered him. When Twilight would get a hold of the table and not Sherlock she would push it forward to try to hit Sherlock. “Jump over moving table.” Sherlock was right next to Twilight at this point. “Opponent tries a Third attempt to pin,” Sherlock hit Twilight's horn so it wasn't pointed at him, “Redirect. Follow with a chest punch. A kick in the knee,” now she couldn't walk, “and finally, bring hooves down at opponents head. Conclusion, Broken leg, pain in chest and head and I'll be free.”

Sherlock started following his plan. He threw the lamp that was next to him and Twilight barely caught it. Sherlock wasn't pinned anymore. He ran to the table and, just like he planned, tipped it sideways. Twilight missed Sherlock and got a hold of the table instead. She pushed the table to try to hit Sherlock, but he jumped right over it. Then when Sherlock was right next to Twilight, she tried to grab him again, but he hit her horn in a different direction.

Then something unexpected happened. Something that wasn't in Sherlock’s plan. Just before Sherlock could punch
Twilight’s chest and finish his job, an eruption of white light came from Twilight's horn and filled the room. The brightness blinded Sherlock. He covered his eyes and screamed a little. (A very manly scream, of course.) The brightness didn't last long, but it was enough for Twilight to get a lot of distance between Sherlock. When the pony’s vision was coming back Sherlock was thrown across the room and pinned against the wall again. This time Sherlock couldn't move a single hoof. The pressure was building and all he could do was yell.

“You're just proving that you are crazy, Twilight! Stop this nonsense now!”

Twilight was breathing heavily and she screamed, “I DIDN'T MURDER GREG!!!”

When Twilight screamed she pushed harder than she ever had on Sherlock. Cracks were beginning to form in the wall around him. Hopefully he’d break through the wall before Twilight broke all of his ribs.

This was not looking good. Not good at all. There was nothing Sherlock could do. He just had to sit there and accept his fate.

But fortunately, the door swung open. Sherlock saw Watson jump in the room. Watson didn't examine the situation for a second. He immediately ran towards Twilight.

Watson hit Twilights horn down and Sherlock dropped to the ground. Twilight's head was facing down. Then Watson kneed
Twilight’s head and it shot up. Watson followed by bringing his two front hooves down on Twilight's back.

Twilight managed to face Watson. She had a bloody nose and was about to use her magic on him. But before she could Watson jumped in air spinning around and did a roundhouse kick right between Twilight’s eyes. When Watson made contact the unicorn flew backwards and hit the wall behind her.

Twilight didn't get up. Watson walked next to her and checked her pulse. Watson was breathing heavily from his attack and the fact that he ran all the way back. “She’s fine. A broken nose maybe, but she'll live.”

Watson saw that Sherlock was still on the ground not responding. He went over to his partner’s side and said, “Sherlock? Are you alright?”

Sherlock coughed and clenched his stomach. “You-” he coughed more and was breathing hard. “You couldn't have saved sooner, boy?”

“Wow.” Watson took in a few breaths. “You're really moody when you're on the brink of death.” Watson helped up his partner to his hooves. “I take it that you didn't even need my help, did you?”

Sherlock just breathed a lot.

“So, do you know why Twilight confessed even though she was the murderer?” Watson asked.

Sherlock managed to say between coughs, “El-elementary, dear Watson.”

“Ok, it was cute the first time you said that, but now, after solving every case, it just gets annoying.”

Sherlock laughed, which made him start to cough again. He started, “Twilight drank a potion that she thought would make her better, but it made her crazy.”

“So, she was drunk.”

Sherlock laughed. He was happy that this case was finally over. “No. Twilight was passed out and her friends wanted to give her a potion. Her friends substituted in their own ingredient and that lead Twilight to go insane.”

“So it was her friend's fault?”

“No. I'll explain later. Let's get-”

Just then, Twilight got up. Both Watson and Sherlock saw her and barely had time to react before both of them were pinned against the wall.

The pain came back to Sherlock. Watson was screaming. The magic was making so much noise.

Sherlock screamed to his partner next to him, “I thought you said she was out!”

“She was!” Watson screamed back, “Have you ever walked away when I roundhouse kicked you?!”

“I DIDN'T MURDER GREG!!!” screamed Twilight.

Both stallions did nothing. There wasn't anything they could do, except feel their bodies being squished to a pulp.

Sherlock caught a glimpse of Twilight. A glowing white light was in place of her eyes. That was strange. Twilight was focusing all her energy on killing Watson and Sherlock.

Sherlock could feel pain all through his body. Twilight was putting more and more pressure on the two until…

The door swung open again. This time it was Officer Dirk. He sprinted towards the purple unicorn and tackled her. Sherlock and Watson fell to the ground. They were both alive. Officer Dirk was on top of Twilight. She tried to push him off, but something was covering her horn. They were horncuffs. Very similar to hoofcuffs (Or handcuffs for any non-ponies reading this.) but they were made directly for unicorns so they couldn't use magic with it on. Officer Dirk must have managed to slip that on when he tackled Twilight.

Officer Dirk said in a very serious policepony voice, “And stay down!!”

Twilight just lied on the floor crying for a little. She had given up. Officer Dirk put hoofcuffs on Twilight’s front hooves and rose her up so she could stand. Twilight didn't fight back. Officer Dirk called out to Sherlock and Watson, “Is everypony okay?”

Watson made it to his hooves first. “Got the air knocked out of us, but I think we’ll be alright. Thank you so, so much.”

Officer Dirk said, “You're welcome.” He turned to Twilight and said, “Let's go,” and they walked out the door and into the hallway.

Watson helped Sherlock up and the two followed Officer Dirk out the door.

Twilight’s friends came out of the next room and saw a cuffed up Twilight. Applejack asked, “What-what happened?”

Twilight answered, “I-I'm so sorry girls, but I-I murdered Greg.”

All the mares gasped. Sherlock answered, “It wasn't her fault. Rarity, the potion you gave to Twilight made her go insane.”

Rarity said, “Wh-what? I didn't know-”

“I know it was an accident. Everything that has happened was a big accident. We can take Twilight to the hospital and make her sane again.”

Twilight looked down in shame. Officer Dirk led her into the main room and everypony followed.

Fluttershy flew over Officer Dirk and landed in front of Twilight.

Sherlock didn't know if Fluttershy was angry at Twilight for killing her crush or not. Strangely, Fluttershy hugged Twilight. Twilight dug her face into Fluttershy's shoulder and she whispered, “I'm so, so sorry.”

Officer Dirk loosened his grip on Twilight back, leaving her and Fluttershy hugging. Rarity ran up next to the two. She was fighting to hold back tears. “I'm sorry too, dear! I never should have given you that potion.”

Soon all of Twilight’s friends walked up next to her and surrounded her in a big group hug.

Officer Dirk, Watson, Sherlock and Alex just
watched. Sherlock turned to Alex and asked, “Did you ever find what Greg was
making?”

Alex said, “If he had bamboo then he might have been construction a dragon scaled flute. I don't know what he could have used the frosting for. And I couldn't find anything in here that uses laughing powder.”

“So that's a no?” Sherlock asked and Alex shook her head in agreement. “I bet if we searched Twilight’s house we would find whatever Greg was hiding in his closet.”

Officer Dirk said, “Wait. Did you say laughing powder?” Officer Dirk started looking blankly into space, thinking. “Hold on.” Officer Dirk reached through his uniform pockets and found the Periodic Table of the Elements. “When you left, Watson, I found something.” He turned the paper over. On the other side there was writing. It was a list titled ‘ingredients’ and Sherlock started to read out loud.

“Frosting, Laughing Powder, West Bolio Pine Leaves and Poison Joke. That's what Greg was collecting! It was Poison Joke. A type of flower only found in the Everfree forest.”

“Wait a minute,” Watson said. “Sherlock, dragon scales isn't an ingredient.”

Alex moaned, “AW! That's why I can't find anything! The book only covers things that use dragon scales!” Alex slammed the book shut and threw it on her desk.

“But then…” said Sherlock, “What did I smell…”

Sherlock thought for a bit. Then his eyes lit up when he came to a conclusion. “It wasn’t Twilight.” he said.

“So she's not crazy?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“No, she still is.” Sherlock didn't look at Pinkie. “It wasn't her!”

All the ponies looked at Sherlock and waited for him to talk again.

“It was Spike.” Sherlock whispered.

All the ponies gasped and waited for him to explain. Sherlock went up to Alex’s desk and said, “Twilight, you own a library, right? Do you have this book?” Sherlock held up a copy of ‘Pine Trees from the Gryphon’s Land.’

Twilight sniffed. “Yeah, I remember that book. I have it.”

“Alex, turn to the part about West-Bolio pine leaves.” Sherlock tossed the book to her receptionist.

Alex caught it and started flipping through the pages. The book was only about thirty pages big. It was a kid’s book. When Alex got to page fourteen she started skimming for information. She gasped and
started reading out loud. She was a terrible reader, by the way. Absolutely no voice inflection.

“Hey kids! Did you know that West-Bolio pine leaves have high levels of a dangerous chemical called uranium? Scientists say if they can manipulate the chemicals just right then they could make a catastrophic nuclear bomb. Celestia says that she knows how to make the leaves explosive, but she also says she’s gotten rid of all the things that do that. Making the leaves useless.”

“Laughing powder.” Sherlock whispered. “Celestia banished that plant, remember? Greg’s found a way to make the bomb! And now Spike has it.” Sherlock paused, taking in the new discovery, “Does anypony know where Spike is?”

“Um,” Fluttershy stepped out of her group hug. “He actually asked me where a Horseshoe street was. He might be there.”

Sherlock and Watson gasped. The both said, “The King!” then they turned to each other and they both simultaneously said, “How do you know?”

Sherlock said, “Spike is going to try to blow up the King!”

Watson said, “Greg had a meeting with the King there! It was going to happen at eleven. What time is it now?”

Officer Dirk answered, “Ten-forty.”

Watson and Sherlock looked at each other. Sherlock said, “We have to hurry.”

Watson nodded in agreement and they both darted out the front door.

Chapter eight: Plot twist!

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“So, why do you think it's Spike again?” Watson asked while trying to keep up with Sherlock. He frankly had done enough running for today and was falling behind.

If you don't already know, it's quite hard to run at night, but Watson knew that if he didn't run fast enough, then the King of the gryphons would probably die in a horrible explosion. This gave Watson the motivation he needed.

The two stallions were running alone. Justin had gone to the police station to get backup just in case. Thankfully, it wasn't too far away from the trail to Horseshoe Street.

Sherlock answered back as best he could whilst sprinting, “It's all because Twilight owns Pine Trees from Gryphon’s Land.”

That didn't clarify anything for Watson.

Sherlock kept talking, “Remember when Twilight was reading the books off the shelf for Fluttershy?”

Watson answered, “NO!”

Sherlock didn't explain. He just ran the scene through his head again.

**********************

Twilight started reading the book’s title from the shelf going left to right. “Pegasus and Gryphon Similarities, you probably don't want that.” Twilight smiled and read again, “Pie Recipes for Gryphons. Pinkie Pie might like this.” Twilight sat the book aside so she could give it to her pink friend later. “Planning a Gryphon Family, definitely not that one.”

**********************

“Pine Trees from Gryphon’s Land should’ve been there! Right between Pie recipes and planning a family!”

Watson asked while taking in deep breaths and trying his best to stay on the dirt trail, “What?! I don’t remember that.”

Sherlock didn't pay attention to his sidekick. He kept talking, “But it wasn't there.” He started to think. “When Spike came home with Pinkie he went upstairs. That's where Pine Trees from Gryphon’s Land book was.”

*********************

Spike, where have you been?” Twilight asked.

Spike went upstairs and started looking through books. “Oh, me and Pinkie went on an adventure.”

That was something you don’t hear your brother do every day. Especially in this early hour. Twilight asked, “What?”

Pinkie, suddenly appearing in the doorway, spoke. “Guess who we saw!”

Twilight looked away from Spike and over at Pinkie Pie. She asked, “Who?”

*********************

“He must’ve got a look at Greg's bomb when Pinkie was distracting Greg and Gilda in the morning. I mean, he was watching them the entire time.”

*********************

Spike eventually started running next to Pinkie and he asked, “What was that all about?”

“Spike!? Where were you?” Pinkie totally forgot about Spike.

“I was watching you. Why were you so nice to Gilda?”

*********************

“You should explain, Sherlock! I wasn't at the interrogation.” Watson complained.

Without missing a beat, Sherlock continued, “So Spike found out that Greg was using West-Bolio pine leaves. He used Pine Trees from Gryphon’s Land to find out that it was a bomb! Now where did the little critter appear next?” Sherlock paused thinking. “When he was injured on Greg’s back.”

Watson became too tired to care anymore.

“He went over to Greg's house. That's why Spike was so close to it.

*********************
A loud scream pierced the night, startling Fluttershy. She looked down in its general direction, and spotting a small shack, landed nearby to investigate. Circling the house, she came upon none other than Spike, mounted on the back of a gryphon, his back scraped up and bloody.

*********************

“So, when Spike talked to Greg, something happened. Something that wasn't a tree related accident and something that made Spike not want to get a ride to the hospital.

******************
Fluttershy panicked at the sight of her baby dragon friend. “Oh my, is he hurt? What happened? He needs to get to a hospital...”

“I can do it.” the gryphon said quickly. Too quickly.

“Oh, alright, If that's ok with you...” Fluttershy decided that today wasn't a good day to argue with a gryphon.

Spike moaned as he rolled over on the gryphon’s back. “No... I’ll walk, I think I can make it.” He pushed himself off the gryphon, only to stumble as he hit the ground.

Fluttershy asked, “Are you sure?”

The gryphon cut in, “Yeah, Spike. Let me take you.”

Spike found his balanced and said, “No, I can make it. It's not too far away.” And without letting anyone else talk, he ran off.

******************

“Do you think that, maybe, Greg attacked Spike? That's how he got cut marks on his back. And that's why he didn't want a ride to the hospital. Greg would have attacked him more if they were alone.” Sherlock suddenly realized something else.

********************

A rough voice responded immediately, “Look dragon, stop asking me questions! I told ya ta beat it!”

********************

“That's why when Rarity went to meet Greg, he thought it was Spike asking him more questions, and it might explain why Greg’s been in such a bad mood.”

Watson wasn't even listening now. He was focusing on mustering up enough energy to keep running.

“Where did we see the purple dragon next?” Sherlock kept talking when he remembered, “At the hospital!”

*********************

When Rainbow opened the door she was surprised to see two familiar faces there. The first face was Spike.

*********************

“Okay, so nothing really happened there. He just went to the hospital and left in a hurry. He probably didn't feel comfortable having a gryphon bandage him up. Then, he wanted to talk to Twilight. He wanted to tell her that Greg attacked him.”

**********************

Just after Twilight asked, Spike came into the house. He had a bandage around his chest stained with his green blood. Twilight asked, “What happened to you?”

“Twilight, we need to talk.” said the baby dragon.

“I’m kind of busy. Can we talk when I’m all done?”

“It’s important!” Spike whined.

“It can wait.” Twilight said.

Spike groaned, “Fine, you won’t listen to me. I’ll just tell somepony else.” Spike huffed, then trudged upstairs.

**********************

"But she didn't listen. Spike said he was going to tell somepony else. But he didn't. Why wouldn't he?”

Sherlock thought back to the scene.

********************

Spike grunted and came downstairs. He never made eye contact with his sister as he walked outside.

Derpy didn’t miss a beat, “Did you know that Greg has sent a letter to the gryphon King? I get to meet him when I deliver his letter!” Derpy said excitingly. “Since the letter is so important, I put it in the most secure mail room. All you need is a special key to get inside.”

********************

“As soon as Spike left, Derpy started talking about Greg! Do you think…no.”

“Wh-what?” Watson managed to say.

“Spike overheard Derpy and he…he stole her key!”

Of course that meant nothing to Watson.

“That's why the most secure mail room was already unlocked! And that’s why Spike knew where the letter and key was. It was with him! Spike snuck into the mailroom and he took Greg’s letter. Whatever was on that letter must’ve been important. It also had to have the King’s location too. That's how Spike knew where he was.”

The two ran in silence for a while.

“Then…Spike talked to Fluttershy. He wanted the big ‘gryphons’ book from her. But Fluttershy had read that entire book. If Spike had a question he would just ask her.” Sherlock pondered the situation for a bit. “…unless Spike didn't want Fluttershy to know his question…”

Sherlock's eyes lit up as he said, “His question was, what poison kills a gryphon? He couldn't ask Fluttershy that would seem too suspicious. When he finally got his claws on the book, he made the poison, using a syringe needle because he could grab one when he was in the hospital.”

Watson finally contributed, “He also used his sister’s bottle to put the poison in. It didn’t say 5.M.L on the bottle. It was T.W.S. The 'T' was written so fancy that it looked like an ‘L’ when it was upside-down.”

“That's right! Twilight always labels everything that's hers!” Sherlock realized. “So after Spike killed Greg, he found the bomb in the closet and is now taking it to the King. That's why I had smelled dragon scales.”

“But wait…” Watson spoke up. “Why would Spike want Greg dead for making a bomb? Why use the bomb to kill the King?”

Sherlock thought for a while. He was getting tired from running to and was trotting next to Watson now. “Perhaps Spike thought Greg was using the bomb for bad and not for science.”

“Wait a minute.” said Watson. “At the house I found a letter that Greg never finished writing.”

“Where did you find that?” Sherlock asked.

“In a secret room,” Watson answered.

“Aaaahhhhhh. That's where Greg put all of his boxes! And that's why he said he was doing work on the drywall.”

“Anyways,” Watson continued, “The letter was to the King and he said that he was backing out from his project that the King assigned to him. Greg stated that ponies were too nice. Why would Greg back out if the bomb wasn't made for evil? And why didn't Spike tell anypony and what was on that letter Derpy thought she lost?”

Sherlock and Watson saw Horseshoe Street and a tall wooden house near it. The lights were turned on and there was a sign in the front yard that read, ‘K.A.P meeting today W/King RZC. Greg has finished.’

“What time is it?” Sherlock asked.

Watson successfully pulled out his pocket watch and said, “Eleven p.m. The meeting has just started.”

“Hopefully our questions will be answered in there!” said Sherlock while running faster than he ever had. Hopefully the bomb wouldn't explode while they were still outside.

Watson agreed and they both darted inside. In the house, Sherlock saw a number of things. The first thing that caught his eye was the room was filled with gryphons of all colors and one red, teenage dragon with his teeth hanging out of his mouth. On the other end of the room there was a stage and a gryphon was standing on the stage behind a podium. That must have been the gryphon King, Razorclaw. All the gryphons were facing their king until Sherlock and Watson burst through, causing all eyes to fall on them.

Sherlock and Watson were still running at a full sprint inside the house. That’s because, straight ahead of them, they saw him next to it. They saw Spike next to a dolly with a cake on top of it. Or it would have looked like cake if it didn’t have a lit fuse on it. The fuse only had a few more inches left.

Sherlock ran towards Spike. When Spike saw him he started running too. Spike screamed, “Nononononononono!” just before Sherlock tackled him.

Watson ran up to the cake bomb. The fuse was getting closer and closer to the insides of the cake. Watson tried to pull out the fuse with his mouth, but it wouldn’t come out. Since the fuse was already in his mouth, Watson started to chew on it. Hopefully he could cut it before the fire on the fuse reached him.

Watson could feel the fire getting closer to the side of his face. He managed to break the fuse just in the nick of time. He spit out the fuse on the ground so the fire would get away from him. Watson watched the fuse burn up to nothing on the ground.

The gryphon on the stage yelled out, “What is the meaning of this?!” He sounded very annoyed.

“Your majesty,” Sherlock said while looking at Spike. He put a hoof on the Spike so he could stand up and make sure Spike didn’t get away. When he did stand up, he saw a bad thing. A banner over the King read, ‘Kill All Ponies.’

So, that’s what K.A.P stood for.

“Um.” Sherlock suddenly became unsure of his plan. He didn’t know what to say next, so he just explained, “Spike was going to kill all of you with this bomb!” He pointed at the cake next to Watson.

The gryphon King laughed. And soon the rest of the audience followed. That really scared the crap out Sherlock.

The King continued, “Well it’s a good thing you stopped him, Sherlock.” The King said ‘Sherlock’ like an insult. Sherlock was to scared wondering how the King knew his name to care. “So it seems that the nerd had finished the bomb before he died everygryphon.” The group of about fifty gryphons started to cheer. Did he just call Greg a ‘nerd?’ When everygryphon calmed down the King said, “Thanks for stopping him Sherlock. I was wondering why he brought a refreshment. If you hadn’t stopped him, then this little secret agent of ours could have killed me along with other trained warriors.”

Sherlock was too scared to say anything. The King kept laughing. When he finally calmed down he said, “Well, thank you so much for saving all of our lives, but since you know about our little club, I’m afraid we’re going to have to kill you.”

All the gryphons turned and smiled like they were going to eat Sherlock. Probably because they were.

Instantly, four policeponies came in the house. Officer Johnson was one of them and he yelled, “FREEZE!” The door was already open so they all just ran in. One of them was Justin, and the others were a pegasus and a unicorn. They all held police batons and were immediately shocked when they saw all the gryphons in the room.

The king laughed again. “Four? You brought four ponies? That's adorable! I can see why my father’s wanted to get rid of this race of creatures. Alright men, kill them all.”

The gryphons and one dragon army started to walk closer.

That gave Sherlock an idea. A very, very crazy idea.

He picked up Spike, one hoof on his waist and the other hoof on top of Spike’s head. Sherlock ran next to the bomb and yelled, “DON’T MOVE OR ALL BLOW YOU ALL TO BITS AND I DON’T MEAN MONEY!”

The gryphon army stopped walking and the King asked, “What are you doing?”

Sherlock answered, “This bomb is still hot and all I need is a fire breathing dragon to light it again!”

The gryphon king thought for a second. “...How big will the blast be?”

Watson whispered something, “r = 2,739 feet.” Sherlock turned to Watson. He continued, “R stands for radius…” He started talking louder so Razorclaw could hear, “It can blow up over a mile of stuff!” Watson used ‘mile’ so everygryphon could understand him.

The king was not happy at all to hear that fact. Sherlock said as best he could to sound tough and not scared, “You can surrender now or you'll all get blown up!”

The King raised an eyebrow, “You would kill yourselves just so you could kill me?”

“You're not leaving me with a lot of options your highness.” Sherlock said ‘highness’ like an insult. “I can let you kill all of us, then you'll follow through with your 'kill all ponies' plan, which I'm not going to let happen. Or you can surrender now, and maybe only get banished to the moon. Or you can make me kill everything here. Don't think that I'm bluffing. One squeeze on this dragon's stomach and we’ll all go bye-bye.”

Sherlock honestly didn't know what was going to happen next. He also added, “And don't try to escape! Yeah, I'm looking at you gryphons.” Sherlock pointed at the group of gryphons in front of him. “If I see so much as one claw step out of this house then you die.”

Sherlock really, truly, honestly, hoped the King would surrender. Especially since Sherlock was bluffing.

********************

Spike pulled himself off Pinkie’s floor and with a tired voice said, “I can only use fire if I'm sending letters.”

********************

Maybe the King wouldn't ask for any proof that Spike could breathe fire.

The King closed his eyes and sighed. He calmly said, “Alright, you leave me no choice.” The King looked up and loudly said, “Gryphons!”

This was it. Sherlock tightened his grip on Spike. If the group started to attack then there was nothing Sherlock could do.

The King continued, “Surrender now. I can't lose any more of you.”

It was funny, really. The King actually sounded sad that Greg had died. He probably didn't know that Greg was not going to give him the bomb though.

Officer Johnson yelled, “You heard the gryphon! Get down! All of you! NOW!!”

The gryphons slowly followed. One after another they fell to the ground. The King put his claws up showing the universal sign for, 'I surrender.’

Officer Johnson pointed to the pegasus cop and said, “We’re going to need more wingcuffs.”

The pegasus said, “Yes, sir,” saluted to Officer Johnson and flew out of the house very quickly.

After a very painfully long and awkward twenty-five minutes, six pegasi, in uniform, came back holding a dozen of wingcuffs. Just like horncuffs, wingcuffs are made only for pegasi. They latch around the entire body so whoever is wearing them can't fly. Needless to say, wingcuffs are actually pretty big. But they were made for pegasi, not gryphons. So they were going to be very tight on the gryphons.

One by one the Officers put wingcuffs on surrendering gryphons. One gryphon tried to bite Justin, but he whacked its head with his baton. Sherlock commented, “Nice one.” And Justin thanked him.

Once the gryphons were cuffed with wingcuffs and hoofcuffs around their claws, they were put outside and then they were cuffed together. If any of them tried to make a run for it then one of the six pegasi would stop them.

The last gryphon to be cuffed was the King. Officer Johnson held up his baton next to him while Justin was cuffing him. Just in case if he tried to do anything stupid. Justin managed to put cuffs on him.

But King Razorclaw wasn't named Razorclaw for no reason. If you can guess, Razorclaw has a, well, razor sharp claw. So for him to break out of his cuffs was very easy.

When Officer Johnson saw him doing this, he swung his baton down.

But the King was too quick for that. He grabbed Officer Johnson’s swinging hoof before the baton hit him. Then the King Headbutted Officer Johnson and he fell, but he didn't take the baton with him. The King had it.

It all happened so fast. Justin came at the King, but the gryphon turned around so quickly and smashed Justin’s head with Officer Johnson’s baton. Justin fell from the force.

With both Officers down, the King jumped at Sherlock. The King used his wings to glide across the room.

The King would have hit Sherlock too if Watson didn't intervene. Watson was in the middle of the room so the King flew over him. Watson grabbed the King by his tail and pulled him down. The King swung the baton at Watson, but he ducked and countered with a punch in the face.

Razorclaw got angry. He swung down on Watson, but the stallion jumped out of the way, stepped on the baton and punched the King again. Since Watson was standing on the baton, the King did not take it with him when he stepped back.

Razorclaw roared just like a lion and charged at Watson.

Watson stayed calm, remembered his training, and fought back. The King made a side punch; Watson blocked with his hoof and punched the King’s stomach with his other. But that didn't stop the King. He got so close Watson and he was so fast, too. Razorclaw tackled Watson and he held him down.

The King’s claws dug into Watson’s front hooves. Watson struggled to push away the King, but his attempts were useless.

Then Watson saw Officer Johnson get up. The Officer started charging at the King from behind.

Watson kicked the baton on the floor through the King’s tiger paws.

Officer Johnson picked up the sliding baton while he was running and swung down on the King’s head.

Officer Johnson's hit was hard and loud. He hit Razorclaw right in the back of the head and that made him fall over unconscious. The other policeponies came inside the house when they heard all the commotion. Officer Johnson told them that Razorclaw tried to escape.

The policeponies picked up the unconscious King and cuffed him extra tight. It took four pegusi to carry him. The other two lead the gryphon group back to town. They would be placed in the Ponyville jail for now and then they would turn them over to the Princess later.

When Sherlock saw the policeponies leaving, he set Spike down and went to Officer Dirk’s side. Watson and Officer Johnson followed. All three stallions gasped when they saw a big, bloody gash on the side of Officer Dirk’s head where the King had hit him. Watson became worried for Justin and checked his pulse.

Watson gave a sigh of relief and said, “He's alive. Probably want to get him to a hospital though. Getting hit in the head like that is never good.”

The unicorn that was still there took out a first aid kit that was on his uniform and wrapped a bandage around Justin.

Justin opened his eyes a little and managed to say, “W…Watson?”

Watson responded, “Yeah?”

Justin said, “Give this to the Razorclaw.” He held out Greg’s unfinished letter talking about how he was going to back out from making the bomb.

“I don't think he'll like seeing this. He really depended on Greg.”

Justin smiled and said, “I know.”

The unicorn made a makeshift stretcher. There were two decent sized logs from outside on each edge with a tarp in the middle to carry Justin in. The unicorn carried Justin away with his magic and left the house. Watson watched from the doorway his new friend being carried off.

"I hope he’s alright,” Watson said while looking at Justin now in the distance.

Watson started to inspect the cuts on his front hooves from when the King tackled him. They didn't seem too serious and it looked like none of them needed any stitching.

Sherlock put a hoof around his partners shoulder. “Well, I think that this case was a huge success. Spike?” Sherlock turned to Spike who was sitting on the floor in the fetal position. “Walk with us.”

Sherlock, Watson and Spike started to walk back to town. It was very dark and hard to see anything.

Sherlock spoke up, “So Spike, what was on Greg’s letter that you stole from Derpy's most secure mail room?”

Spike was dragging his tail on the ground from depression. “How did you know about that?”

“I'm a world famous detective.” Sherlock answered.

“Oh,” said Spike. “Well, I saw that Greg was part of a ‘Kill All Ponies’ group and he was going to use his bomb to destroy Ponyville."

“Why did the King want to destroy Ponyville?” Watson asked.

“Beats me.” said Spike. “I knew since I was a dragon I could slip in the house undetected.”

“But how did you expect to escape the bomb’s blast?” Watson asked again.

“I didn't.” Spike answered.

“You were willing to kill yourself to stop an evil King?” Watson said. He seemed to be very eager to talk with Spike.

“Yeah, That King was going to kill everypony I loved. If I didn't stop him he would have killed me.”

“Why didn't you tell anypony?” Watson asked.

“I did.” replied Spike. “I told Twilight, but she didn't believe me. She even sent me to my room.”

“That's because Twilight’s crazy.” Sherlock said. “The potion with Derpy’s tear in it made her go insane. She thought she was talking to Rainbow Dash when she really wasn't there.”

“Really? Spike asked who sounded concerned for his sister. “I didn't know it could do that.”

“Yeah,” Watson spoke up. “We thought she was the murderer. It was her bottle of poison and she was a unicorn so she could use a syringe needle.”

“How did you-”

Before Spike could finish asking, Sherlock pointed to himself and said, “World famous detective. Right here.”

Spike sighed and said, “Oh…”

The trio walked in silence for a few moments. Then Spike asked, “Am I going to go to jail?”

Sherlock and Watson both laughed. Then at the same time Watson said, “Yes,” and Sherlock said, “No.” Then the two looked at each other with confused expressions.

Watson spoken up, “Sherlock, he still killed somegryphon. Even if he thought Greg was bad.”

“Hey, Greg attacked me when I figured him out and he was making a bomb to destroy us all!”

Watson instantly said back, “No he wasn't! Read this!” Watson handed Greg’s second letter to Spike that he never finished.

Spike snapped the paper out of Watson’s hooves and began reading. When Spike was finished, his face showed depression.

Watson said, “You killed him right before he finished writing too.”

“I…didn't know.” Spike handed Watson back the letter and looked at the ground in shame.

Watson pocketed the letter and looked scornfully at Spike.

Sherlock decided to talk now. “Well, I think this case was a huge success.”

That didn't seem to cheer up either of Spike’s or Watson’s moods.

Sherlock continued, “We stopped a group of murderous villains. We helped out an insane unicorn by telling her that she was insane before she did anything insane.” Sherlock spoke quickly, “The victim is alive and has forgiving the murderer.”

Watson stared at Sherlock and said, “What? The victim is still dead. What makes you think-”

“Because Watson.” Sherlock lightly smiled. “I have a plan.”

Watson looked at Sherlock like he was stupid.

Sherlock turned to Spike and said, “Spike, do you still have some regret potion?”

Spike smiled. “I know what you're trying to do. Yes, I still have some. But I think you should know that the potion only works if the hurt pony drinks it on the same day he got hurt.”

Sherlock froze. He said, “What time is it now?”

Watson answered after getting out his pocket watch, “eleven thirty-six.”

“Well then,” said Sherlock, calmly, “We better hurry.”

*******************

Sherlock, Watson and Spike ran all the way back to town. Every two minutes of running Sherlock would ask, “What time is it now?” Watson would always have to slow down to get his watch out whenever Sherlock asked, so he eventually stopped answering.

The three made it back to town with three minutes to midnight.

Watson and Spike went to the coroner’s office to get Greg's body ready and Sherlock went to ask Twilight about using her potion.

Sherlock ran to the library. There, he saw all the six ponies that he interrogated.

Rainbow Dash spoke up with a smile on her face when she saw Sherlock, “You were right Sherlock. Twilight is crazy. She baked up so many muffins they're touching her ceiling!”

“There's no time for that!” Sherlock said with deep breaths. “Twilight,” Twilight turned to face Sherlock, “I need you to make the strongest regret potion ever.”

“Where’s Spike?” She asked.

Sherlock put his front hooves on Twilight’s shoulders and looked at her with sincerity. “No time for that! We need to get that potion to Greg's body before midnight!”

Twilight said, “Um, alright. I'll do it.”

Sherlock released his grip and said, “Good. Meet me at the coroner’s office. And hurry!” Sherlock sprinted to the direction of the coroners.

He met up with Spike and Watson. Only a minute and a half left. He asked, “Do you have Greg's body?”

“They’re getting it,” answered Watson. “Where's the potion.”

“On its way.”

A minty green coated mare came out of the back doors and wheeled in a big dolly. On the dolly, a black body bag was filled with, supposedly, Greg's dead body. She wheeled it in close to the trio.

“You wanted to see him?” She asked.

“Yes,” Watson answered.

The bright green mare took hold of a zipper and zipped the body bag open revealing a very pale looking dead Greg.

Twilight came in the room along with her five other mare friends. She held a bottle that was similar looking to the bottle that held the poison that killed Greg, full of water. And she also held a small vial full of light blue liquid.”

Only a minute left.

“Hurry!” Sherlock exclaimed.

Twilight opened the small vial and poured one drop into the bottle of water. A small, light blue cloud erupted out of the bottle.

“Here!” She said and held to bottle of mostly water out.

Sherlock pointed to Greg on the big dolly.

Twilight came closer to Greg and opened his mouth. She then poured the regret potion into the dead gryphon. Sherlock sighed knowing that he made it in time. Twilight saw the paleness on Greg not fading. Then Twilight yelled, “It's not working!”

Sherlock moaned, “Oh, it NEVER works.”

“Spike needs to be sorrier.” Twilight informed.

Everypony in the room turned to Spike. Even the Coroner worker.

“Eighteen seconds left.” Watson informed.

Spike knew what he had to do. He immediately went to Greg's side and started talking to Greg like he was still alive. “Greg I'm so, so sorry. I didn't know that you were backing out at the last minute. I thought you were going to kill us all.”

“More deep, Spike.” Twilight said.

Spike became a little frantic and started again, “If I could, I would travel back in time to stop myself. I should of never taken things into my own claws.” Spike became teary, “And I’d never forgive myself if you don't come back, I guess what I'm trying to say is-”

Spike was cut off by the sound of the Ponyville clock striking twelve. Saturday was over.

Tears fell on Spike’s cheek and he finished his thought, “I'm sorry. From the deepest part of my heart.”

Greg was still pale. He had not changed at all since he first came out. The day was over too. Twilight put her vile away and sighed. All the ponies looked at the ground in shame because it didn't work.

Spike buried his head in his claws while leaning in Greg's dolly. He was obviously crying.

Watson put his pocket watch away while feeling sad.

Sherlock said, “I was…so sure that it would work."

The ponies backed away from the dolly. Twilight hugged her little brother who was still crying.

The Coroner worker took hold of the zipper near the bottom of Greg's body.

Then, something amazingly and extraordinary happened. The Coroner worker gasped and yelled, “LOOK!” Everypony turned and walked back to Greg's side. The worker continued, “I saw his eye twitch.” Sherlock leaned in closer and stared at Greg's face. The worker said, “I swear I saw it.”

Watson leaned in close next to Sherlock and felt Greg's neck for a pulse. He shook his head and quietly said, “I…don't…feel anything-”

Then Watson gasped.

Sherlock looked at his partner and he looked confused. Sherlock returned his gaze to Greg's face. Then it felt like all time had stopped and Greg’s yellow eye shot open.

“Does this mean my party’s not canceled?” Pinkie asked.

******************

Of course, Pinkie’s party was not canceled. When Greg finally found the energy to talk he said, “What happened?” Spike patted his back and said he would explain later.

Sherlock introduced himself to Greg as the stallion that cleared everything up. He also said that he was the one that came up with the idea to bring Greg back to life.

Greg said, “That's cool,” and he laid his head back on the dolly.

When Greg got enough energy to stand up, everypony helped him to walk outside.

The party was at Pinkie’s house. There were many refreshments, but hardly anypony came. That was because everypony else was asleep. Sherlock thought it would be best if the party was held tomorrow morning, but Pinkie insisted it be tonight.

The only ponies that were there were Sherlock, Watson, Greg, Alex, the mare who worked at the coroner’s office and the six other mares. Officer Johnson was invited, but instead, he laughed hysterically and said he was going to bed.

Greg said that he felt like crap and eventually threw up. He made it to a trash can, thankfully, and Twilight said that was the body’s way to get rid of the poison.

“Poison?” Greg asked. “What happened? Did I like, die or something?”

“What do you remember?” Twilight asked out of curiosity. Sherlock was listening.

“I was writing a letter.” Greg said while leaning over the trash can. “Then I heard a knock on the door. I stopped writing and answered it. I saw it was Spike. I actually wanted to apologize to Spike, but then…things went dark. My leg really hurt and I felt myself hitting the floor. Then I woke up in the coroner’s office.”

Sherlock lightly smiled. “Yes, Greg. You did die. And we know that you were making a bomb for the King and we know he was going to use to destroy Ponyville.”

Greg reminded silent.

Watson spoke up, “We had a little chat with your King,” Watson held up his injured hooves where the King attacked him, “And now he's in jail. Princess Celectia going to see him tomorrow.”

Greg looked down in the trash can. “I didn't know ponies were like this. The King told me they were all lying, stealing, killing, scumbags. But now, I see that he was wrong.”

The six mares all came in for a big group hug around Greg, but they all backed away immediately when he threw up again.

“Let's all go inside.” Pinkie suggested. It was weird suggestion, really. Especially since Greg had just thrown up.

Pinkie finally convinced everypony to come inside and she started her games. Greg said he felt too sick to participate. So Pinkie continued her games without him.

Spike, Sherlock, Watson and Greg all watched the woman play from the sidelines. Greg held a bucket in front of him just in case he threw up again.

Spike said, “I’m very sorry, Greg.”

“Hey, I attacked you when you found out I was making a bomb and you…successfully killed me. I think we're even now.”

Sherlock and Watson laughed a little bit and Greg even smiled.

“Um, Greg,” Watson said between sips of his apple cider, “Where are you going to live now?”

Greg realized he never even thought about his house full of nothing. “I guess here. I’ll have to get some new furniture, maybe a nice refrigerator. I'll turn my secret science room into Gilda’s bedroom.”

“Where is Gilda?” Sherlock asked.

“Oh, yeah. I need to go find her.”

The others waited for Greg to explain. “When she moved in, she said she was going to put on a fake, nice personality. She said she was going to volunteer, treat ponies nicely, anything that would get her on your side. That way everypony would be her friend and she wouldn't bring up any suspicion. She would be welcomed into town, then she was going to watch the King destroy it all.”

“That's evil,” Watson said.

Greg nodded and continued, “But then, she came home. She was dripping wet and she told me what I was doing was wrong. She said that ponies were too nice to be destroyed. I told her that we should listen to the King, but she said she wasn't going to listen to him.” Greg suddenly looked uneasy. It could have been because of what Gilda would do next in the story or it could be because Greg felt like he was going to throw up again.

Greg did throw up in his bucket and continued. “She said that our King was evil and she ran away.”

“Where?” Watson asked.

Greg raised his shoulders. “I don’t know. But she’ll probably come back if she knows Ponyville didn't get destroyed tonight.”

“Why did the King want to destroy Ponyville in the first place?” Sherlock asked.

Greg cleared his throat. “It's because the wielders of The Elements of Harmony live here. The King wanted to unleash Discord again, but he didn't want the wielders trapping him. So instead of killing each wielder one by one, he wanted me to make a bomb to destroy the entire town.”

“Really?” Sherlock asked. “The wielders live here?”

Greg nodded. “Apparently.”

“I thought they lived in Canterlot.” Watson said.

“Nope. The King told me they were here.”

“Huh,” Sherlock turned and stared at the mares in front of him. “Well, I hope I'll meet them someday. I'm sure that will be an interesting conversation.”

THE END.

Sherlock Hooves. Adventure one: Greg the griffon.

by 30bars

Chapter one: The crime scene

Chapter two: Rainbow Dash's Story

Chapter three: Applejack's Story

Chapter four: Rarity's story

Chapter five: Pinkie Pie's Story

Chapter six: Fluttershy's short, sad story

Chapter seven: Twilight's Story

Chapter eight: Plot twist!