That night, Apple Bloom couldn't sleep.
She got up and headed over to the window of the clubhouse and stared out into the sky. The moon was nice and bright in the sky tonight, illuminating the clubhouse well. Will we ever get my hearing back? What about the others? She was so deep in thought that she hadn't noticed a certain other pony had come over to join her. She looked over to see Sweetie Belle who was also staring out of the window.
"You can't sleep either, huh?" Apple Bloom whispered. Sweetie Belle nodded and turned her head back towards the window. "Maybe we should try working on that riddle." Apple Bloom said. Sweetie Belle nodded again and headed over to where they had placed the paper. Pretty soon they were sitting on the floor under the moonlight, examining it intently.
"A question mark for a non-public eye? What in the hay does that mean?" Apple Bloom said. "Well... Non-public means the same thing as private, so we can cross non-public out and change it to private." Apple Bloom found it was a lot easier to think when it was quiet. Sweetie Belle grabbed a pencil, crossed out non-public, and wrote private above it. The note now looked like this:
Solve this riddle (If you can):
Private
A question mark for a non-public eye,
The way the bat turns,
South When it's North,
Written in,
A can top.
Sweetie Belle eyes lit up when she read the first line again, she quickly wrote 'a clue' next to the first line and smiled, she had solved it. "Oh...a private eye is a detective... question mark is a clue..." Apple Bloom mumbled under her breath. She was a little upset she hadn't solved it but she wasn't going to hold a grudge. Plus she needed to help solve the riddle, so she didn't have time to stand around and be angry. "The way the bat turns?" Like a tennis bat?" Apple Bloom said, hoping to get something right.But Sweetie Belle shook her head and wrote the word 'racquet' on the back of the paper. "Oh yeah! It's a tennis racquet, not a tennis bat." Apple Bloom said, feeling a little upset that she'd failed to help again.
"Will you keep it down!" Scootaloo shouted. "I'm trying to get some sleep over here! Sheesh!"
"Sorry..." Apple Bloom said, frowning as she spoke.
"What are you even doing anyway?" Scootaloo asked.
"We're trying to solve the riddle Curiosity gave us. We're stuck on the line that goes 'the way the bat turns'. Could you help us?" Apple Bloom answered.
Bats are cool! Once I helped Fluttershy look after them. They have rubbery-like wings and they're completely black! I bet you didn't know that they always turn left when they exit their caves!" Scootaloo rolled over, and pretty soon, soft snores could be heard from her.
Sweetie Belle looked for a good place to write on the back of the note (it was becoming extremely cluttered) and wrote the word 'useless' on the back. All the while, thoughts were swirling around in Apple Bloom's head. She began to piece them together, in hopes they would lead to a conclusion. Finally they all added up and she grabbed the pencil right out of Sweetie Belle's hooves and wrote 'left' next to the second line. Score 1 for Apple Bloom! she thought, feeling proud that she'd finally helped out.
"Clue, left, something, something, something." Apple Bloom said. "Well the next one is pretty obvious! If you're north, Where's south? Behind you!" She wrote the word 'behind' on the page. "Alright! Next line! Written...in?" The filly was getting tired and had almost fallen asleep after 'written'. "That's a...fancy way...of saying...en...g..."
Finally, the filly fell asleep and collapsed into a heap onto the floor. Finally! thought Sweetie Belle I couldn't even hear myself think with her going on and on and on! Now lets see... Written in? What could that mean? Maybe it means writing in a certain way. Cursive? No, that doesn't make sense! Wait, maybe written in is being literal! That would mean it would be written in to the object! It would be engraved! She grabbed the pencil out of the now sleeping Apple Bloom's hooves and wrote 'engraved' next to the fourth line. Okay! One more line and I'm done! Let's see...It...must....be...th....I...really should open the window! The cold air might help keep me awake long enough to solve this. She tried to open the window but it got jammed a quarter of the way. Darn it! I guess that will have to do for now. A can top...that sounds funny...Come on, stay awake! So...any...way.....I really shou.......ld.......
Finally, the young unicorn fell asleep. That night, it was windy, with the occasional gust of wind blowing through the window, having no effect on the sleeping Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom or Scootaloo. At around 1:03, a particularly strong gust of wind blew through the window, snatching the note out of the sleeping Sweetie Belle's hooves. That same gust of wind took the note out of the window with it, leaving the three sleeping fillies blissfully unaware that the only clue they had so far was getting blown away.