Starlight's investigation next lead her to the Apple families farm; Her cordial visit with Rarity had set her mind somewhat at ease, and between the whole apple family there was a decent chance that at least one of them had seen one of the castles inhabitants over the previous day. After all, it was one of only a handful of places to get food in the whole village, and food was something everypony needed, no exceptions.
Starlight blinks into existence a little ways up the road from the apple family house, but she doesn't make it to the door before a startled voice calls out to her.
"Starshine? What're you doin' on ma farm?" Applebloom asks. She had already been outside helping with apple harvesting, together with her two siblings which were a bit more distant. Starlight blinks- Who would have thought that her name would be misremembered twice in one day? But that didn't bug her too much.
"Hey, Applebloom! Actually, I'm here on Twilight's behalf. We need to know if you remember anything about yesterday, and especially if you have any recollection about what Twilight and Spike were up to." Starlight explains, getting straight to the point.
"Huh? I mean-" Applebloom started, before being interrupted by her older sister strutting over to the conversation, glaring at Starlight suspiciously.
"Hold on there, Starlight. Why would you need t'be knowing something like that? If Twilight sent you like you says, surely you could just go and ask her yourself." Applejack inquires skeptically.
Starlight turns to address the new arrival, quickly bobbing her head in acknowledgement of her presence. "Well, we had some kind of magic incident last evening, and nopony seems to be able to remember anything. I just came from Rarities, and was relieved to discover that it doesn't seem like the whole village has forgotten, but she didn't know anything about what we- Spike, Twilight, and I- were up to." Starlight elaborates, doing her best to ignore the distrusting glares.
"Magic incident? What kind of magic incident?" Applejack asks. "How do y'all know you didn't just bump your 'ead?"
"Well, for starters, all three of us don't remember anything about yesterday, and I haven't noticed any welts on my head." Starlight starts, raising a brow. "But more importantly, Spike seems to have undergone a bit of a 'Spontaneous species change' for no apparent reason. Or is that something that normally happens when you bump your head?" Starlight can't help but let a sarcastic tone seep into her voice.
"Well, there's no calling for bein' rude." Applejack retorts, before her gaze softens. "So just what exactly has happened with Spike?" Applejack asks. "Should ah assume that's why Twilight isn't here in the flesh?"
Starlight hesitates, before sighing. "Yes, that's pretty much it. When we woke up this morning, he seemed to have somehow become... An Alicorn." Starlight winces at the obvious unbelievability of that claim.
Applejack's jaw just drops, but before she can say anything, the little filly by her side starts prancing from leg to leg in place excitedly. "An Alicorn!? There's another Alicorn in our town!?" Applebloom shouts excitedly, attracting the attention of Big Mac, who saunters over as well to join the conversation.
Starlight sighs. This really didn't seem to be going anywhere. "Look, Twilight's looking after him, and I need to get back to her as soon as I collect any information I can around town. So can somepony please tell me if they saw any of us yesterday or had any clue what we were up to that might have caused this?"
"Nnope." Big mac simply responds, shaking his head.
"Ugh..." Starlight grumbles. Another dead end, seemingly. But just as she was preparing to teleport out, she was interrupted.
"Wait a minute! Ah saw Twilight the other day!" Applebloom announces. "When Scoots, Sweetie, and ah were goin' t'see that traveling blacksmith from Appleloosa, we passed by her going up towards Fluttershy's cottage!"
"Finally!" Starlight shouts with relief. She had been starting to wonder if anypony would have seen her at all, yesterday. "Did she say what she was doing up there?"
"Eyup!" Applebloom announces, cheerfully. "Or, um, ah think she did. Somethin' about ingredients, ah think?" Applebloom's eyes light up. "Hey, sis, can ah call in early today? Maybe ah could go an' fetch Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle and we could be CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MAGICAL INVESTIGATORS!" Everypony in the vicinity covers their ears with their hooves at the loud outburst.
"No can do, sugarcube, we need 'ta finish up the chores on the farm so ah can go check in with Twilight an' see how Spike is holdin' up." Applejack announces, pulling Applebloom in close. "And ah'll be watchin' you, Starlight. You had best be telling the truth about Spike now, y'hear?" Applejack makes a motion from her glaring eyes to Starlight communicating an implicit threat.
Starlight sighs heavily and droops her muzzle. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, save the lecture for if I'm actually wrong somehow." Starlight says before teleporting out of there. Hopefully once Applejack saw she was telling the truth, she would get more trust from her... Until then, it was probably better to just leave and let the situation speak for itself.
"Aww...." Applebloom pouts, after Starlight had disappeared from the scene. "Big Mac, are you sure I can't go?" Applebloom asks with pleading eyes up to her older brother; Sure, Applejack had said no, but if Big Mac said yes she could still get away with it!
But much to her disappointment all she got was the red stallion shaking his head. "Nnope."
Before Starlight's eyes can adjust to the routine flash of light that accompanies teleportation, she is startled by a panicked squeal that makes her jump. As her eyes adjust, she finds herself looking at Fluttershy hiding behind a bush, quaking in fear. After a moment, Starlight clears her throat. "Um, hello."
Fluttershy slowly stands up. "S-sorry, you startled me." She murmurs at an almost inaudible pitch, still hiding her face. Starlight sighs, sitting down on her haunches and waiting for Fluttershy to relax somewhat. "I-Is there something you need?" Fluttershy eventually asks, her voice still quaking a bit. Seemingly, Starlight had interrupted her on the path home, and as she looks around she can see that what Fluttershy had been carrying- A box of kibble, seemingly- was laying on the path.
"Um, there is.." Starlight starts. "But why don't we head inside first? Er... Assuming that's ok, that is." Starlight hastily tacks on the last bit as she remembers that Fluttershy hadn't invited her in. Not that it wasn't a fair assumption that she would be, but it did seem a bit rude to just assume.
Fluttershy nods and seems to come out of her shell a bit. "Oh, of course! You're welcome anytime. Just, maybe teleport a little further away next time..." Fluttershy adds on meekly.
Starlight looks self conscious and rubs the back of her neck. "Eheh... Sorry. I didn't know you would be right here. I'll try to remember that for later." She quickly lifts up the kibble Fluttershy was carrying in her magic- It seemed actually rather heavy, Fluttershy must have been struggling to carry it back- and lets Fluttershy lead the way inside, sitting down on the chair across from her and setting the kibble down on the table.
Starlight looks around inside; It was quite the cozy little abode, the perfect fit for the resident pegasus. Even though she knows she should get straight to business, it just felt... Wrong to jump straight into questions with Fluttershy, somehow. So instead she just casually asks "Whose the kibble for?"
Fluttershy's face lights up instantly, as soon as she is given an excuse to talk about her animals, clapping her hooves together in excitement. "Oh, there's this adorable group of wolf pups who got separated from their mother!" Even though that seemed like an exclamation coming from Fluttershy, it was barely above speaking volume. "They're still young and have limited diets, right now. But of course I can't let them eat any of my other animal friends..." Fluttershy seems to shudder a little at the idea before continuing. "So, I have a kibble specially made, just like for every carnivore who needs help. It has all the nutrition a growing pup needs to be healthy, and grow up big and strong!"
Starlight looks around the room, wondering where the wolf pups in question were. Fluttershy seems to follow her curious gaze, and smiles lightly. "Come on out, you two. It's ok, Starlight won't hurt you." Fluttershy suddenly shoots Starlight an uncertain glance, as if doubting the statement she had just said, and Starlight just does her best to put on the most innocent face she can.
Slowly, a pair of small, wobbly-legged canines emerge from their hiding place underneath some of Fluttershy's furniture, and Starlight does her best to suppress a squeal of excitement- Fluttershy had not been kidding about them being adorable, and she can't help but be distracted for several minutes playing with them.
Eventually, however, Fluttershy returns- Starlight hadn't actually noticed her leaving, she was so quiet- with two cups of tea, which she sets on the table. "So, um, what brings you around? I'm sure you're not here just to say hi?" Fluttershy asks, cautiously. Starlight blinks- the task at hand had completely slipped her mind. Pulling herself away from her two playmates with some difficulty, she laughs a little awkwardly while she sits down in the chair opposite from Fluttershy.
"Oh, eheh. Right." Starlight starts, rubbing the back of her head self consciously. "So, there seems to have been a bit of a problem yesterday, and neither Twilight, Spike, nor I can remember anything that happened. And then, on top of that... Spike seems to have undergone a spontaneous species shift to an Alicorn this morning." Starlight says in the most casual tone she can muster, in the hopes that she can avoid the whole shocked reaction routine.
At least, Fluttershy's reaction was more muted than most of the others. Both of her hooves reached up to her mouth as she blinks in surprise, taking a long moment to process, before finally breathing out a quiet "Oh, my."
Starlight breathes a sigh of relief- it seemed she would be able to continue without too much interruption. "Anyways, Twilight asked me to investigate with everypony if anypony else had noticed anything off. Rarity and Applejack have confirmed that their memories of yesterday were fine, already, so it does seem like the incident was probably localized to just the castle of friendship... While I was at Applejack's, though, Applebloom mentioned that she had seen Twilight yesterday, coming out to your cottage." Starlight explains. "I was hoping you could provide some insight into what we were up to yesterday, to see if maybe we could determine why this whole thing happened."
Fluttershy blinks at Starlight again, her mind seemingly trying to catch up with all that had just been explained. "O-oh, um." She stammers. "W-well, I did see Twilight yesterday. She seemed like she was in really good spirits. She said she needed some ingredients for a spell she was going to cast, and some of them came from animals I have around. Um, if I remember right, she needed a phoenix feather, and I just so happened to be looking after Philomena the other day, so I was able to help." Fluttershy offers.
Now it was Starlight's turn to be surprised. Fluttershy just happened to have a phoenix around..? Never-mind that, this was a fantastic lead! This would certainly seem to suggest that whatever had happened was probably related to that spell Twilight had cast, or been preparing to cast! And here I was thinking this whole investigation was going to be pointless! Starlight thinks to herself with a sigh of relief.
"That's a great help, Fluttershy!" Starlight announces- maybe a tad too loud, as Fluttershy sinks down in response to the noise. "Do you know anything else? Did she say what the spell was for? Mention any more ingredients?"
"O-oh, um, I don't know..." Fluttershy paws the ground nervously. "I-I don't really remember anything else, I didn't think much of it... She comes by with some kind of research project pretty often whenever I have more exotic animals around... I always do my best to help, but I don't necessarily understand what she's actually trying to do..."
Starlight shrugs. That was a little annoying maybe, but she was still riding the high from actually making some headway in the investigation in the first place, and was perfectly motivated to continue now. "Well, that's just fine, Fluttershy. Thankyou for the help." Starlight announces. "It sounds like you're a great friend to Twilight. I, um..." She pauses, unsure of how to continue, before taking a deep breathe. "I hope I can become your friend, too. And this tea is perfect." She announces, taking a final sip from the tea in front of her. "But I'd best be off to continue my investigation. Thank you for the help."
"O-oh, its no trouble at all!" Before Fluttershy had even finished that sentence, Starlight had teleported away to parts unknown once again.