Detective Luna in

Case of the Cereal Snatchers

Written by

Anthony (Glaber)

One Tuesday within the Canterlot Public Library, a special visitor was busy flipping though page after page of every mystery novel she could get her hooves on. From Sherlock Holmes to select Doctor Whooves novels. From Dickson Hill to even The Boxcar Children. There was no mystery that would escape her.

“Excuse me, Miss Selene?” A librarian asked, but Selene didn't answer. She was too wrapped up in a mystery book involving six teens and their talking dog. “Ah-hem!”

The sudden throat clearing startled Selene, breaking her out of her story. “Huh, uhh, wha?”

“Ohh, okay.” Selene really didn't want to part with all the books she had yet to read, but seeing at how this was a public library and they didn't let anypony stay overnight, she had no choice.

Selene picked up the book she was reading alongside a stack of 20 other books she hadn't read yet and headed to the checkout counter. The Librarian behind the counter had an annoyed look on her face. “You do know we have a four book check out limit.” She stated.

“Really? Uhh, I guess I'll take these four.” Selene pulled out three books form the stack and put them with the book she didn't finish along with Sundance's Library card.

“They'll be due back in three weeks.” The Librarian said before turning to the pile of books she would have to put away. “I’m going to be here all night because of her.”

A little while later, Selene was at Sundance's house taking off her disguise and revealing herself to be Princess Luna. “I was beginning to wonder when you'd come back.” Sundance greeted Luna all the while giving her a look that said she expected this. “So what did you get this time?”

Sundance took a look at the books Luna had set down on the counter. Scooby Doo, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Colts, and a Sherlock Holmes book. “Looking to become a Detective, are we?” Sundance joked, but the joke flew over Luna's head.

Instead of laughing, Luna was seriously considering it. “Hmm, Detective Luna, that does have a nice ring to it.” Luna thought, a smile creeping across her face.

“What if I am? It sounds fun. Solving mysteries, meeting different ponies...”

“Getting chased and possibly harmed by the bad guy. You know how dangerous they can get!” Sundance interrupted, the concern growing in her face as they continued to discuss the subject.

“So? It's not like I can't take care of myself.” but just then, Luna caught Sundance's skeptical face, “Don't give me that look!”

The next morning, both Sundance and Luna were at Canterlot Castle. Sundance doing her job and Luna neck deep in books, as per usual. Normally, Luna would be trying to catch up on government functions, but today she was busy trying to figure out if there were any old unsolved mysteries she could tackle. “No. No. That one was solved last week. This one the week before!”

“AHH!” Startled, Luna turned around to find her sister Celestia, “Do you have to keep doing that?”

Chuckling at this, Celestia decided not to respond to her question, “I hear you're trying to become a detective.”

“Oh, nothing.” Celestia then noted the stacks of books Luna was going through, “Just that a good detective doesn't start her career off by trying to find a case in the records of solved mysteries.”

“You mean, they're all solved?” Luna was shocked, she never once thought that their mystery records would comprise of only already solved cases.

“Not all of them, just the ones we have on file.” at this, Luna became disappointed, “Cheer up Sis. Just because these are solved doesn't mean that there aren't plenty more mysteries out there just waiting for somepony like you to go solve them, and besides I have the perfect starter mystery for you.”

At that, Luna's ears perked up not liking the way her sister said, quote unquote, Starter Mystery. Giving her sister a look of confusion, “What kind of starter mystery?”

Celestia smiled “My faithful student has informed me that all of her friend's cereal has disappeared and that she has no clue what happened.”

Luna became even more confused at this. “Couldn't she have just eaten it all up and forgotten about it?”

“That's just it, according to the letter she only just got the cereal the other day. She had 12 boxes of Wonderbolts Cereal one day, then they're gone the next.”

It was then that the mystery started to make sense to Luna. No pony could possibly eat 12 boxes of cereal in 1 day. Grinning, Luna heard exactly what she needed to be convinced “I'll take the case! Now I just need to get my disguise and I’ll be on my way.”

“Hang on Sis,” Celestia said with a sly smile, “You wouldn't be Detective Luna, if you went as Selene.”

A little while later, Luna was flying towards Ponyville, unescorted. “Okay, let's see, I'm suppose to meet up with a pegasus named Rainbow Dash somewhere out near Sweet Apple Acres.” As Luna was reviewing this, she neglected to notice a rainbow streaking towards her.

“Lookout lookout LOOKOUT!!” WHAM, before anypony could react, Luna found herself sprawled out on the ground next to a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail. “Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh, I'm sooo sorry.”

“That's alright,” Luna turned her head to see who had crashed into her, “Miss Rainbow Dash?”

“That's good, for a moment there I thought my first client was going to need medical treatment.”

“Did she say client? A-a-ar-are you the royal detective Celestia was sending?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. Detective Luna, ready to solve anything!” Whipping out her magnifying glass and abacus, Luna struck a pose. Rainbow Dash could only face-hoof, having witnessed such an embarrassing act.

A little while later, the two were inside Rainbow Dash's home looking at the closet where she normally kept her cereal. “Okay, tell me what happened.”

“Well, do the boxes actually stay on top of the clouds or do they fall through?”

“Oh! I guess I never thought about that. Well if I remember right, The boxes have been enchanted so that they don't fall through, but the cereal itself is not and will fall through. I found that out when a bird randomly flew through the closet door and pecked a hole in one of my boxes.”

“And did you dispose of the open box?” Luna asked, jotting down another note.

“No. I figured I could still save the box top for the Wonderbolt Prize cup” Rainbow Dash then proceeded to show Luna the back of a box she saved. The outside part showed a picture of the prize Rainbow Dash was saving her tops for alongside a T-shirt. On the inside part was an order form for the prizes. The order form listed the prices of both the shirt and the cup with the cup requiring either 3 tops and 20 bits, or just 12 box tops.

“20 bits, for a cup? Well I guess that explains why you bought so many boxes. Though I have to wonder, did you have a chance to even start a box?”

“No, I just put the cereal away the exact same day as when the bird flew in.”

Luna jotted this information down and then took a close look at the closet floor. “Let's see here.” Pulling out he magnifying glass, she closely inspected the floor where the cereal should have been. “Some thing's not right here, the floor looks like it's been moved.”

“It looks like somepony tried to cover up the theft but failed to take into account how cloud packing works.” Luna commented. “Miss Dash, do you still have the box top from the box the bird pecked.”

Levitating the piece of cardboard towards her, Luna was about to preform a locator spell when a thought popped into her head. “Wait, what if she threw out the rest of the box? Uhh, by any chance you didn't throw out the rest of the box, did you?”

“No, I just tore off the top and left the box with the rest of them. Figure I'd deal with it later.” Rainbow Dash replied, a bit annoyed that she had to repeat herself.

“Good,” A sigh of relief coming from Luna, “because I'm going to attempt to use a locator spell to find out where the thief went.” Then Luna's horn began to glow.

The glow then extended to the piece of cardboard as if it were a dog getting the sent. Retracting back to Luna, the glow dissipated from the box top and her horn began to flash. Luna then started facing different directions. Facing south, her horn flickered at half speed. To the east it flashed at quarter speed. As Luna was three quarters into turning to face the west, her horn began to flash at full speed, blinking once every half-second.

Both Luna and Rainbow Dash went outside to get a better look at where the horn was pointing. “That can't be right!” Rainbow Dash was shocked to see that Luna's horn was pointed in the direction of Fluttershy's and was flashing so rapidly. “Fluttershy would never be able to do something like this!”

Luna pulled a frown of concentration, “Hmm, we should still question her. Even if she didn't do it she may have seen the pony that did.”

Fluttershy was busy out in the chicken coop tending to the chickens when Luna and Rainbow Dash arrived. Rainbow Dash called out “Hello! Fluttershy, we need to speak with you!”

Luna's ears perked at this quiet sounding shriek. “I think she might be around back.” Luna said.

The back yard was empty except for a shaky chicken coop with chickens coming out of it. Luna decided to call out for Fluttershy, “Excuse me, Miss Fluttershy?” the yellow pegasus poked her head out of the door.

“Yes?” Fluttershy said, still shaking, “Oh, Princess Luna, I wasn't aware you were coming.”

“Ohh, that's wonderful, I always wondered what it would be like to be a detective. What kind of case are you on?”

“We're on the trail of a Cereal Snatcher.” Rainbow Dash said, a bit of excitement in her voice.

“I-I-I don't know.” Fluttershy looked like she was on the verge of breaking down in fear.

Then a thought struck Luna, “I never actually found out when the theft occurred.” Face-hoofing at this, Luna turned to Rainbow Dash, “Miss Dash, Could you tell me when the theft occurred?”

“I don't think so, but the day I noticed my cereal missing was two days ago.” Rainbow Dash responded.

“Now we're getting somewhere. Now to narrow things down, you also said you just bought the cereal the day before, correct?” Luna was beginning to show signs of satisfaction.

“I think it was about seven in the evening when I got back. The bird didn't show up until maybe seven-thirty.”

“There was a bird involved?” Fluttershy couldn't believe what she was hearing. If there was a bird involved and the trail of cereal lead to her house, it would make her look like she was the thief. “I DIDN'T DO IT!”

At that outbreak, Luna and Rainbow Dash were startled. Both of them were silent for a bit, then Luna spoke up, “Miss Fluttershy, we never accused you of being the thief. Why would you think we would?”

Fluttershy shrunk, embarrassed at the outburst, “Oh, um Rainbow Dash said you were on the trail of a cereal snatcher, so I just assumed you followed a cereal trail here, and since there was a bird involved and you're here now, not to mention the way you first questioned me, ponies might think it was me who took the cereal, but I didn't do it.”

Luna was surprised at this, she had to set the record straight “Miss Fluttershy, please calm down. Neither of us said there was a cereal trail. All though I should had thought to check for one. Could you at least tell us where you were between seven-thirty at night on Saturday and dawn of Sunday?”

“O-ok.” Fluttershy was still shaken up, but proceeded to tell her story, “Around seven-thirty that day I was dropping off Apple Bloom at Sweet Apple Acres when I noticed somepony below Rainbow Dash's house with what looked like a tool box. I thought that maybe you were having some remodeling done.” She directed this part at Rainbow Dash, then continued, “From that point I headed home to take care of Angel's dinner. After that I was tired so I went to sleep and didn't wake up until dawn when I took care of the chickens.”

“Wait, you saw somepony under my house with a tool box?” Rainbow was enraged at this, remembering the messed up floor in her closet.

Luna jotted all of this down, then spoke up, “Did you see what race the pony was?”

“Was she wearing anything in particular?” Luna asked, trying to get a description of the pony.

“She had on a flight suit just like one of the Wonderbolts, only harder to see in the dark.” At this Luna was taken aback. She knew of only 3 ponies that could fit that description, and she thought she just made them up when she was Nightmare Moon. “Um, if it wouldn't bother you to answer, though it probably might, but I just have to know, why is your horn blinking?”

Luna had failed to notice that her locator spell was still active and was indicating that her destination was still ahead in the Everfree forest. “Oh my, thank you Miss Fluttershy for your time. Miss Dash I believe we may find our crook in there.” Luna spoke.

Upon seeing where Luna was pointing, Rainbow Dash became very scared “You can't be serious! In there?”

“I know how dangerous it can get in there, so I'm not going to make you come with me if you don't want to.”

“But Princess!” Rainbow tried to object, but it was no use. Luna started off into the forest anyway.

“Miss Dash, it is my duty as a Detective to see this case all the way through, even if it means putting myself in harms way.”

“Fine, if it means that much to you I should at least come along for protection.” Rainbow Dash said with a sense of duty in her voice.

“Um if it's alright with you,” Fluttershy started, but was cut off by Rainbow Dash.

“I think Luna will be fine with just me, besides I don't want you risking yourself just for cereal. Right your highness? Uhh, your highness?” but Luna wasn’t there. She was already at the edge of the forest about to head in, “WAIT FOR ME!” Rainbow Dash screamed flying after the princess.

Now as anypony would tell you, the Everfree forest was a strange place. Plants grew on their own, animals took care of themselves, and the weather happened at random. Such things would surely spook anypony that was use to how things were run in the civilized parts of Equestria, but for some reason, Luna wasn't disturbed by the forest at all. Luna continued to march forward in the direction her horn was indicating with Rainbow Dash at her side until they came upon a clearing and her horn flickered at thrice the normal speed.

Looking into the clearing, Luna dispelled her locator spell once she saw the suspect Fluttershy described. It was one of the Shadowbolts, and right next to her was a pile of Wonderbolt Cereal consisting of more than the 12 boxes.

“Mwahahahah, I still can believe that store bought it. Soon enough they really will stop making that Cereal!” the Shadowbolt sang with glee.

Rainbow Dash had heard enough, it was bad enough that her cereal was stolen, but this was outright sabotage! Without thinking, Rainbow Dash started flying right at the Shadowbolt. But before she could connect, the Shadowbolt ducked.

“Well lookie who we have. Aren't you that Wonderbolt megafan Rainbow Crash?” She mocked.

“Excuse me!” Luna burst out from behind a bush, “by the authority of Royal Family you are under arrest for Grand Theft Cereal and Fraud!”

“PWAHAHAHA! Me? Under arrest, by you?” The Shadowbolt was laughing up a storm. “Look, if it's the cereal you want you can just take it. Not like it would matter anyway.” The shadowbolt then began to leave.

“Wait just a minuet!” Rainbow Dash shouted “You mean to tell me that you're just going to leave like that?”

“What of it? It's not like I have time for the likes of you, by this time next week all shipments of Wonderbolt cereal will be no more!” And with that, the Shadowbolt bolted off, bouncing off the trees like a bolt of blue lightning.

Rainbow Dash was about to give chase when Luna called out “Let her go Miss Dash. I have a feeling I'll be meeting her again real soon.”

“What? You mean to tell me that Wonderbolt was a fake?” the store clerk asked in disbelief.

“Yes, I believe she is of a group of ponies called the Shadowbolts. I don't know what they're planning but I suspect it may have something to do with the Wonderbolts. If you should see another Shadowbolt let me or Celestia know alright.”

Meanwhile, in a remote corner of the Everfree Forest, the Shadowbolt was coming to a bouncing halt.

“Blueball, where have you been? You were due back here hours ago!” another Shadowbolt scolded

“Sorry, Strats, but one-hundred boxes of cereal really slows me down.” Blueball quickly responded, “I was thankful that the moon princess was there to take it all off my hooves.”

“YOU IDIOT!” Stratus furiously yelled, “Now we're sure to be discovered! Nightshade will be sure to hear about this blunder!” The two then started to fly away.

“Awww, why do we have to bring her into this?” Blueball questioned as they left the forest.

Back in Canterlot, Luna had just settled back into her room at Sundance's place.

“I have to admit, Luna, when I heard that you actually went off to Ponyville unescorted, I became worried for your safety. But seeing you back here in one piece, I still wonder why Princess Celestia allowed you to do that.”

Luna smiled, “That's just the way she can be sometimes. Now if you'd excuse me, I have to go raise the moon.”

“Wait until Celly hears about this.” Luna happily thought to herself as she raised the moon.

Hoofnote: the Character Sundance and the setting of her house are products of Andrew Joshua Talon's “Progress” series. Used without permission.

The Shadowbolts Nightshade, Stratus, and Blueball Blitz are a product of Poor Yorick. Used without permission.

Detective Luna

by glaber

Case of the Cereal Snatchers