Remi returned to the desk where it all started, snuffing around. "There are none left," assured Izzy. "Not a single one." She grabbed the little drawer and pulled it free from the rest. "See?"
Remi arched a furry brow. "Did it always have a hole in it?"
"Wha?" Remi turned her hoof and the drawer with it, allowing her to see there was a round hole in the back. "I didn't put that there! The mystery, it deepens..."
Zipp snatched the little drawer, her fancy goggles ready to scan it. "Let's take another look where this whole thing began! Hm. The nibbles are small, like something eency was doing it, rather than something bigger taking one big chomp." She wobbled the drawer as if that'd make it easier to see what she was seeing.
Izzy took the drawer between her hooves and brought it close enough that her eye was practically touching it. "Very interesting... You're good at this." She put the drawer down and pointed into the space it came from. "But whatever did that had to come from somewhere!"
"Good point." Zipp adjusted the side of her goggle, changing what it was seeing with loud clicks. "No, no... there we are." She began to scan the collection of drawers filled with artistic bits and bobs and the empty one that didn't have the chewed drawer in it anymore. "Hm..."
Remi rolled a hoof. "See anything?"
"I'm looking." Zipp hopped up onto the desk to get closer, peering into each hole one at a time. "I could be wrong, but I'm suspecting a rodent."
Izzy gasped with amazement. "Alright, well... At least that counts out any ponies, phew." She wiped off her brow. "I'd hate to think any of you would take it."
Remi raised a brow at the mystery. "That doesn't get your shavings back."
"No," sighed out Izzy miserably. "How big is this rodent thief?" She held up her hooves close together and slowly moved them apart. "Here? Here? Or here?" She was holding them far apart.
Zipp laughed at the idea. "If they were that big, they'd knock the whole thing over just trying to get to it. Let's be glad they're not that big." She set her hooves on Izzy's hooves and moved them far closer together. "Still guessing, but more like this." A few inches long at most. "A little thing, and I see how it got in."
She twirled away from Izzy and pointed into the back of the display. "See, another hole."
Izzy hopped up to join Zipp, gasping at the new damage. "I'm gonna have to fix that... But there's no point until after I have my shavings back! Still, if they're that small, it isn't the racoonicorns either, which is good. I'd feel super awful if it was them after that."
Remi grinned. "Now we're getting somewhere." She looped around the desk and pulled it away from the wall, making the ponies on it yelp with their surface moving under them. "Let's take a peek at where the problem came from." She wriggled into the new space, sniffing as she went.
Zipp hopped to the ground with a flap. "Hey, uh, your friend's eager, but also, who are they?"
"Their name is Remi," began Izzy, bouncing in place with a joyful grin. "Their color is interesting and I can't quite place why. I don't think she's from around here."
"You sure?" Zipp watched Remi search around behind the desk. "Looks like an earth pony to me." They were in an earth pony city, so that checked out. "Interesting tail cut. Sis would love it."
"Thanks." Remi shoved against the desk, forcing more room for her exploring. "Ah ha." She vanished from sight, except for that tail that wagged eagerly from around the corner.
Izzy bounced over for a better look. "What'd you find?!"
Zipp zoomed to Izzy's side. "Don't keep us in suspense. Did you find the filings?"
"One." Remi popped up, one bit of metal stuck to her hoof. "But, more importantly, there's another hole back here, and I'm gonna guess our perp came in through it."
Izzy gasped with amazement. "That fiend! But did they go back out through it?" She pointed to the middle of the room. "Why did the trail go there?"
Remi dropped the lone metal shard and wriggled free. "That I couldn't tell you. Zipp was it? Ideas?"
"Hm." She adjusted her goggle's vision. "Yeah, the same stuff..." She slowly craned her head around, examining the wall behind the desk and the room as a whole in a slow survey. "If I had to guess... which I do..." She slowly walked towards where the trail ended. "There has to be..." She drove a hoof down on a tile, forcing it to pop up in the rebound, revealing a third hole beneath it. "Another exit right here."
Izzy clapped with joy. "I knew you'd be a pro detective." She shoved her eye against the hole without delay, peering into the dark depths. "Anyone got a flashlight?"
Zipp clicked her goggles a few times until it glowed brightly. "You made this," she reminded with a little laugh, replacing Izzy at the hole to peek inside. "Huh, wow... goes kinda far... Don't see where it... It turns." She pointed, but it was all she could do. "Not idea where it goes after that."
Remi crossed her arms, hoof bobbing just under the opposing arm. "That hole is way too small for me to fit into." A glance verified the others were about the same size, making that... "Ideas?"
Zipp laughed. "That's the second time you asked that. Good question... How do we...?" She popped her goggles off, still glowing. "Get down there..."
"I got this!" Izzy casually hopped into the hole, her horn glowing brightly. Being the talented unicorn she was, she fell, plummeting through the pipe and into the darkness beyond, until she smacked into the bottom with a loud, "Ow! I'm alright," she called back up into the tunnel she couldn't see more of than the circle of light at the top.
"You sure?" Zipp lowered her goggles to shine its light into the hole and the tiny Izzy within. "You're so small, it could chomp you to bits."
"They wouldn't do that." Izzy waved away the idea. "If they aren't a racoonicorn, maybe I just haven't met them yet. A little talk and we should be settled." She bounced out of sight of the bright light, exploring further down the pipe.
Remi raised a brow at where once there was a unicorn. "Can she talk to animals?" She hesitated a moment. "Um... Is that a thing ponies do often?"
Zipp shook her head quickly, leaving the goggles on the ground near the hole. "No way. Only pony I know of that does that kind of thing is Hitch, Which she is not. She's just a nutty unicorn and we love her and hopefully she isn't getting into trouble down there..."
"Yeah..."
"Yes," barked a voice in Remi's ear. "If she's the one who needs to make a thing, her becoming seriously harmed, or worse, will ensure that she will not make the thing. Can't you follow her?"
"If only we could get smaller," Remi sighed out, replying to the voice in her ear in a way she hoped wouldn't arouse suspicion.
Zipp grabbed her headware and stuffed it away. "I wish! I didn't even know she could do that! Unicorns are wild, am I right?" She flapped her wings with a little laugh. "At least what I can do is written right on the tin. I'm a pegasus, I fly. You're an earth pony... You can grow plants and stuff, right?"
Remi shrank back at that. Growing plants was not one of her skills! "My... earth pony magic is right here." She pointed to her snout. "I'm a really good sniffer."
"Neat!" Zipp did not seem at all offended at the idea. "That's really cool, like my visor, but for your nose. You can 'see' things other ponies can't. I'd love to try it. I bet a super sniffer would be really helpful for investigating things."
"It is!" Remi snuffed softly. "Definitely some kind of rodent, I think... Like a mouse maybe? Or a rat, never was good at telling those two apart."
"So..." Zipp inclined her head at her new friend. "Remi, right? Nice to meet you and all... But what are you?"
Remi went rigid a precious moment. "What? I'm just an earth pony! Like all the other ponies in this city." She laughed a little hysterically. "Like you, without the wings."
"Now, I'm not an expert..." Zipp pointed at Remi's black hooves. "But earth pony magic is usually related to that. Don't get me wrong, Hitch has a thing with animals, and that's not hoof related at all! We're still new at this, but... Izzy said your color is off. I don't get what her colors mean, but she can see them, whatever they are, and I trust her."
"She's a curious pony... Is she safe down there?" Remi peeked down the hole that seemed less concerning than the curious pegasus.
"Nice deflection." Zipp slid a hoof in the way. "She's fine, I trust her. She'll be back with a wild tale, probably. So, let's hear yours. Remi, what are you?"
"You sure do like investigating things..." Remi sat on her haunches, shuffling in place. "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me anyway."
"I don't believe you right now, so what's the harm? You seem nice enough, but I can't be friends with some...thing... that is lying to me, so it's time for the truth."
"Right..." Remi rubbed her hooves together slowly. "Well, you asked... I'm actually--"
"Don't tell her!" barked the voice in her ear.
Remi rolled her eyes, proceeding without pause, "from far away."
Zipp blinked with amazement. "Wow... Another tribe?! Woah... Cool! So, what do you call yourself?"
"Kitsune."
"She did not need to know that," shouted the ear loudly enough for Remi to flip an ear back. "What are you thinking?!"
"Wow." Zipp circled the new kind of pony curious. "Never heard of that. Well, um, we greet you." She made a, perhaps overly so, dramatic bow towards Remi. "So how did you get involved in all this? A diplomat probably should not be chasing someone's missing craft supplies."
"I had a good feeling." Remi pointed to the hole. "About her, and what she's making. I'm following that urge to help her. That's all there is to it."
"Huh... Alright." She accepted it with a little nod. "Well... not sure how we can help now. Zipp's gone to a very small place, and we're both kinda big..." She worried her hooves, looking at the hole. "I hope she comes out alright..."
"You already said she would." Remi patted Zipp on the back. "Don't doubt yourself, or her, now. We can cheer her on."
"Yeah! If that'll help... Go Izzy! Show us your colors!"
Down below, Izzy heard the faint echo, "colors..."
"I'm not seeing a lot of colors. Oh!" She concentrated on her horn, casting light over the area. "Bumping into the walls was getting silly." She laughed at her own folly and trotted forward with increased confidence. "Here, mousey mousey mousey! If you give back my filings, I won't even be mad, promise!" The whole thing had gotten her a chance to see a whole new world. Being mad was not really a high priority in comparison. "You have a really nice home here. Love what you've done with it." The bits of gunk clinging to the walls really drew attention to the color scheme of the place.
"But where are you hiding?" She ran into a new intersection. She could go left, or right, or right down further. "Oh no..." She couldn't sniff the mouse out, like Remi, or spot whatever Zipp could see. How was she going to find that little mouse! Which probably wasn't that little compared to how small Izzy had gotten.
"Hm.. Hm..." She had to pick a direction!