//------------------------------//
// A sweet investigation 
// Story: FireFlare: an origin 
// by Piggynator 
//------------------------------//

As Flare and Applebloom passed a gate, they headed to an apple tree and went past it. Flare could just about make out a tree house and he assumed that they were headed there and soon enough, they were standing underneath it. They headed up the stairwell and inside were 2 other ponies: a unicorn and a pegasus. Flare thought these were the friends Applebloom was talking about earlier. She led him in and they sat down.

"hear ye hear ye! we have somepony to help us!" Applebloom shouted. She pointed at Flare and he gave an awkward wave.

"Why am I doing this? what have i gotten myself into?" Flare asked himself with a lot of worried thoughts. He composed himself and waited for Applebloom to finish. The two other ponies looked at him with a happy smile.

"Hi there! my name is Scootaloo and the unicorn over there is called Sweetiebelle" The pegasus explained. Flare gave another awkward wave before standing up

"I was told by Applebloom that there was something you needed help with. Can any of you explain what is it you need help with?" Flare asked. Scootaloo nodded gave Flare a ridiculous looking hat

"Wear this! you will look so cool while your investigating!" Scootaloo shouted. Flare gave a worried 'Oh no' face as he inspected the hat. It was almost every colour you could imagine and surprisingly, the stitching was ok. Sweetie belle looked at him

"I made it. do you like it?" she asked. Flare awkwardly nodded as he slowly put on the hat.  He wanted to know what they were doing when the incident happened. He first went and talked to Applebloom.

"Applebloom, what were you doing at the time of the incident?" Flare asked "If you didn't know, all 3 of you are suspects." he also added. Applebloom showed little to no fear when she sat down with Flare the first time but when he was investigating, Applebloom shook ever so slightly. Flare reminded himself to not press her with questions too much.

Suspect explanation
I woke up and had some breakfast before headin out. While I was on my way here when I noticed the door open. I hurried on over here as fast as I could and saw that our bag of sweets was empty. I then waited for Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle.

Flare's thoughts began to emerge into spirals. He needed more info. 

"Do you mind repeating that and allowing me to ask you a few questions?" he asked.  Applebloom nodded and prepared herself a bit

Suspect Interrogation

"I woke up and had breakfast before headin out" She started

"HOLD IT! what time did you head out?" Flare asked

"hm... well" Applebloom thought for a while "i'm thinkin around 11:30 because we always meet up at 12"

"ok. Anything else?" Flare asked hopefully

"hm... well... While I was on my way here when i noticed the door open and so i hurried over as fast as i could." she continued

"HOLD IT! what made you want to hurry? " Flare asked "it could have been either sweetie belle or scootaloo." Applebloom thought about it for a little bit and replied

"I didn't think they would be here so soon. I'm always the first here." Applebloom replied. While she said this, flare could feel a pressing feeling on his left hoof. He quickly looked at it to see the flare changer twitching. He looked puzzled and worried. It had never done that before. He discreetly pressed it and suddenly, his vision turned black for split second. He started to worry what would happen if these 3 random fillies were to uncover his secret identity but as he looked up, there was no circle coming down on him. 

"um... mister? whatcha doin'?" Applebloom said with a confused tone. Flare snapped out of his confusion with a sudden jolt. He looked forward and looked puzzled. his vision was swirling around him. All he could think about was what he saw. Heat signatures. She started to glow red and was puzzled.

"maybe the flare changer is trying to help. This must be my way of telling the truth from the lies. I think when a pony starts to lie, they start to glow red" Flare thought. "Lets try it out!" Flare shifted his focus back onto Applebloom, who was looking quite puzzled.

"How come its always you first? wouldn't you have been late at least once?" Flare asked. Applebloom was struggling to get her thoughts straight.

"erm... uh.... well I live closest to the tree house. Im always first" Applebloom replied with confidence. As she said this, she started to lose the red glow slightly. Maybe the truth was starting to get out. But Flare wanted to just get out and look in a library. And anyway, Applebloom was a stubborn one to say the least. Flare pressed the button again and soon applebloom's colours were normal again. As he stood up, he said

"I dont even need to question anypony else. I have found evidence to pin this on somepony." he presented the sweet. "TAKE THAT!" the three fillies looked at each other and soon the culprit was found. Scootaloo started to look shifty.

"Fine you got me. I took them. BUT, I didn't eat them. i was saving them for later" as she said this, she trotted over to a chest of drawers and moved them slightly to reveal the bag of sweets behind them. She took them and put them on the table. Flare was kind of annoyed. He reminded himself to check everywhere next time. But as he turned to leave, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Applebloom was standing behind him.

"Thank ya for finding who took them Here!" Applebloom presented him with a few of the sweets. He took them and popped them in his mouth. They were really good. Like an Apple but that was to be expected as they were given to him by applebloom. He smiled and wave goodbye. He headed down the stairs and headed to the fountain he had put the coin in. As he did, he noticed a tree with a balcony. He made his way over and soon found out that it was a library. He headed inside and started to browse around the books. After about 3 hours, he found nothing. He sleepily headed out and went slowly home. He entered his home and flopped onto his bed and was about to fall asleep but then remembered that he still had the ridiculous hat on. He slowly took it off and threw it onto the hat rack. It flew across the room and landed bang on target. He knew he hadn't lost amazing aim. He soon took off his jacket and scarf. He put them on the end of the bed and soon fell fast asleep.