//------------------------------//
// And Then There Were Some 
// Story: Cutie Mark Crusader Investigators 
// by Mod On Death 
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And Then There Were Some


The next day greeted the three investigators with aches and bruises from last night. Obviously, crashing into walls at high speeds didn’t do anypony any real good. Scootaloo got the worst of it though, dealing with the wagon hitting her in the rear as well as hitting the wall face first. She apparently lost a tooth from that and now had a black eye. She didn’t even want to describe the pain her wings were feeling. The other two were bruised as well, but nowhere near her level.

“Ugh, I can’t believe we were so close and lost the crook,” Scootaloo complained, feeling the worst about the situation.

“Don’t worry, Scoots. At least we found another piece of evidence. I’m sure that’ll help us confirm who it was last night.” Apple Bloom tried to calm the despondent pegasus down with this fact. After their chase last night they went back to Spike and told him what had just happened. He was just as surprised as they were and they gave him the bottle to analyze. If there was anypony in town with enough time and resources to find where it had come from, it had to be him.

“Uh, hey girls,” Silent Study said as he approached the three of them. “Listen, I owe you all, especially Sweetie Belle, an apology. I was home yesterday and was cleaning up my desk when I found that the spare key under some papers. I’m really sorry about blaming you and hope you can forgive me?”

“Sure, Mr. Study” replied Sweetie Belle. A smile returned to Silent’s face as he walked away to check out anything that needs to be done, leaving the group to discuss things.

“So, the key was with Mr. Study the entire time then? I guess that means the door really was open to anypony,” deduced Apple Bloom.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t help us out at all,” responded Scootaloo, trying to speak in a way she wouldn’t end up whistling with a missing tooth. “Sweetie Belle already told us that information, so it’s nothing new.” The ponies solemnly agreed with each other about the key. While they did gain some new evidence, it really wasn’t helpful that they had no idea what it even meant. For now they’d just have to hope for more information to reveal itself.

Class started once again, this time the focus being Biology, specifically the digestive system. Truffle Shuffle actually got up to the front and used his project to help explain the lessons to everypony, leaving them all impressed. For first time in several days the three friends could focus on the lesson without worrying too much about the case. After that class was Grammar, leading into lunch afterward. At lunchtime, Apple Bloom overheard an interesting conversation between Snips, Snails, and Miss Cheerilee.

“Hello boys!” the teacher started. “Did you do some additional work last night when you went home?”

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” they both responded.

“Thanks for working with us last night on our diorama redoes,” Snips said.

“Yeah! Thanks for not failing us!” Snails yelled. 

“No problem boys! I knew you had some difficulty getting reliable information for your project thanks to the subject matter, Snips. Snails, your project was actually very…detailed and informative. It just wasn’t age appropriate. You boys are actually quite smart. You all just need somepony to help you out.  Oh, and thanks for helping me move some of my furniture around the day before that as well. I never got to properly thank you boys. Well, I’ll see you again tonight. Be sure to bring some glue tonight to finish the construction.” As Cheerilee walked away, the two colts looked at each other, as if in competition for the mare. As Apple Bloom heard this, she went over to her friends. 

“Girls! I just overheard teacher talking with Snips and Snails. She was with them all of the last two nights. It couldn’t have been either of them!” Apple Bloom’s shock transferred over to her friends as they both dropped their sandwiches. Sweetie Belle pulled her head back and let out a low-pitched moan and Scootaloo let her face hit the desk. They were back to square one, and they didn’t know who to investigate next. 

“Wait, shouldn’t we check out the project?” Sweetie Belle reminded her friends. It had passed over their heads to check out the project that would contain Sweetie Belle’s hair. It might not seem like much now that the two colt unicorns were eliminated as suspects, but they had to go wherever the info led. They walked over to the project in the back of the classroom and looked it over. To their surprise and disappointment they saw Sweetie Belle’s hair, still attached to the color wheel. She looked saddened at this; more evidence that it was her hair.

“This doesn’t mean that it was you still,” Apple Bloom consoled Sweetie Belle. The more she looked at the facts, the less she liked the outcome for her and her friends. “I mean, there could be some sort of explanation for how some hair that looks like yours was at the scene of the crime.” As if to answer her prayers, a green flame came across the room, transfiguring into a letter right before them.

Hey girls!

I just read about a spell that could change the hair color of any pony that it was cast on. It’s a little advanced, but from what you told me it definitely sounds likes it wouldn’t be too difficult for them. Once again, don’t worry too much about the hair. Also, I’m still checking any businesses that would put their names on bottles. Don’t want to test the potion since there’s so little of it yet and we don’t know what it does. Good luck!

That information helped them regain their sense and composure. They knew now that the only thing they needed to was reevaluate their M.O. on who could commit the crime.

“Well, now we at least know that it could have been any unicorn that did it. Now that Snips and Snails are out of the picture, there are only two unicorns left: Sun Glimmer and Tootsie Flute.” Scootaloo was right, and now they needed to find some evidence that proved either of them committing the crime.

“Well, I think I know what we should do now,” Sweetie Belle announced. “We should talk to Archer about her relationship with those two. After all, we don’t know what their motives could be and we haven’t gotten her take on the situation yet. I say we should talk with her.” As Sweetie Belle started to trot over to Archer’s desk, her two friends grabbed her and held her back.

“Not so fast, Sweetie Belle. Remember that you’re the most likely suspect for this case and she probably won’t wanna talk with you about it. Let me or Scoots handle this,” Apple Bloom explained. Sweetie Belle seemed to agree to this and Scootaloo went over to talk with Archer.

“Hey, Archer! How’s it going?” the pegasus asked.

“It’s been pretty rough,” admitted Archer. A moment ago she had a smile on her face as she was eating her sandwich, but now it seemed to disappear. “You mind if I spend a while talking about it all? I really need to get this stuff off my chest.”

“Uh, sure,” Scootaloo replied.

All throughout the entire day, Archer kept on talking with Scootaloo. She talked all the way through recess, talked all the way through class, somehow avoiding the patrolling gaze of Silent Study, and even talked through the final bell. Eventually she finished talking, and Scootaloo was able to inform her friends about the situation.

“So, what’d she say?” Apple Bloom asked, not realizing the full impact of what she was asking. Scootaloo looked gloomy as she tried to find where to begin.

“Well, it’s a pretty long story, but I’m sure I can get to the key points if I cut out the really emotional reveals and all. Actually, I’ll include some of them because of their relevance. See, Archer’s mom recently passed away and she and her dad have been having a really rough time getting over it. Her mom was a marine biologist and Archer wanted to do something related to that as a tribute to her mom and hopefully cheer up her dad who’d recently been put on some sorta watch list for really sad people. She spent all this time on it and was really hoping that it’d win and makes things better, but that doesn’t look like the case. Anyway, she was friends with both Tootsie Flute and Sun Glimmer, but she recently had a really big fight and she said things she didn’t want to say. Apparently they were so bad that she couldn’t even repeat them. They still don’t know about her mom passing since she hasn’t been able to really accept it yet and tell them and that’s one of the big reasons for her being angry at them. So, yeah, it’s possible that one or both of them destroyed the project and planted fake hair there to blame Sweetie Belle.” Scoots finished her story with a sigh and looked to her friends. Sweetie Belle had a saddened expression on her, but that was nothing next to Apple Bloom. She was definitely crying a little at that story and looked really, really mad.

“NO! NO! THAT’S TERRIBLE! THAT’S AWFUL! HOW COULD THEY DO THAT! THEY WERE HER FRIENDS!” the red mane earth filly yelled out, anger and sadness in her voice. Tears were definitely pouring out now. This managed to catch the attention of Cheerilee and her Aide.

“Is something wrong, Apple Bloom?” asked the attentive teacher.

“No,” she lied to them. “I…I just got something in my eye and it really hurt. That’s all. I need to go now,” and she galloped out of the school barn with the greatest speed. Her two friends followed behind her, trying to catch up. They found her in a bush, crying.

“Apple Bloom, I-“ begun Scootaloo before getting cut off by Apple Bloom’s anger.

“We’ve gotta find out if this is true,” she croaked out with the voice you hear after somepony has just cried. “Right now we need to follow those two and find out where they were. If they did this, well, Celestia help them. That’s all I can say about that. The two silently agreed and went back to the school barn, hoping to find and follow the two new suspects.

Following the two unicorns seemed to be a fairly easy task. They both trotted together and didn’t seem to notice the three of them as they stalked throughout the town. The first place they seemed to visit was a house. Upon further investigation it appeared to be Sun Glimmer’s house. Using all the stealth at their disposal, they attempted to find out what was going on inside.

“Oh! Hello there girls!” greeted Mrs. Glimmer as they attempted to sneak around. Obviously their stealth check had failed. “You must be some of Sun’s classmates! Would any of you like to have some cookies? They were just made last night, so not only are they fresh, but they’re just cool enough to have without even needing milk!” Accepting her invitation, the three fillies entered the house, hoping that neither Tootsie Flute nor Sun glimmer knew that they were there. The three girls were given some of the promised cookies, enjoying them and temporarily forgetting about their investigation.

“YUM!” Sweetie Belle echoed out with satisfaction. “These are really good cookies. How’d you make them?”

“Oh, it wasn’t me. It was Tootsie Flute. She saw me wanting to make cookies last night and told me about this really good recipe and worked with me all night to make them from scratch!” Assuming that the mom wasn’t somehow involved in the destruction of a young pony’s diorama, her testimony meant that Tootsie Flute wasn’t the pony that they had seen last night. All of their evidence and hopes rested on finding out which unicorn didn’t have any witnesses last night. With another pony off their list, the only other one left was Sun Glimmer. They all hoped that they wouldn’t suddenly be left with another dead end.

“Really?” asked Apple Bloom. “Did Sun Glimmer help you out as well?”

“She never had a thing for baking things. Actually, she and Tootsie have been working on a project together upstairs. She actually went out last night to get some more supplies. It must have been cold out last night, because she even took her large cloak as well. She also took longer than she said she would.”

That was it. Sun Glimmer was the culprit. They didn’t know if Tootsie Flute was involved in the destruction of the diorama, but that would come later. Right now they could confirm that Sun was definitely the one to cast the magic to destroy it.

Right as they had that sudden realization, the sound of hooves descending a staircase started, causing the three girls to panic.

“Hey, Mrs. Glimmer,” Sweetie Belle thought quickly. “Please don’t let Tootsie or Sun know that we were here. We’re playing this game called Extreme Hide and Seek and what we have to do is follow the other pony and not be seen.”

“Oh my, that sounds like fun,” the mother replied, falling for the bluff. The three ponies immediately hid in the nearest cabinet, just in time to see Sun Glimmer come down.

“Hey mom, I’ll need to go out again. Need to pick up some stuff. I’ll probably be back sooner than last night. Had something weird happen that kept me from coming back my usual route.” Sun Glimmer went out the front door, and the CMC immediately looked out the window to see the direction she was headed. The moment she was away far enough they burst out the front door and started following her.

They had followed her for about fifteen minutes, hiding in anyplace that would give them cover, whether it was a hay pile or a trash can. It seemed luck was with them as Sun Glimmer didn’t suspect a thing. One major thing they noticed was that they passed the buildings that had during the night become pushed together. Ponies were standing around, wondering what had happened during the night to cause this. They now had a clear understanding of why the mystery pony last night had come through this area; she was on her way home. It took about thirty more minutes before Sun Glimmer stopped at a shop. Throughout the time it took her to get there it appeared that she had somehow gotten lost. The investigative ponies soon entered the shop, seeing what Sun could be doing inside there.

“That’ll be thirteen bits, Miss Glimmer,” the shop owner stated. Sun handed over the coins and was soon on her way out with her bag. The three girls used this opportunity to check out the store and see if the owner knew anything.

“Excuse me sir? I was just wondering what you sold that mare over there.”

“I’m sorry mam, but I, I, I can’t say no to an adorable face like that.” It appears that Sweetie Belle had activated her puppy dog eyes and was using all her adorable powers to convince the shop owner to spill the beans. “She recently bought some construction paper, pipe cleaners, a bit of paint, and interestingly enough, some clockwork parts. She must be building something for school. She actually came in last night to purchase some of those items as well last night, right about five in the evening. I’m guessing that wasn’t enough for her.”

“Thank you!” the adorable white unicorn replied, making the shop owner’s heart skip a beat for a moment. If she were there at about five last night, then it really was possible for her to be the one that they were after. They had found and started chasing her at around seven last night, when Ponyville was quieter. The only difference between last night and tonight though was the time of day, route traveled, and knowledge of who they were after. Actually, there were some pretty big differences between the two nights. The only thing that they now needed to know was the purpose of the items she had bought. They weren’t items you just casually bought unless you were working on something. It must have had relevance to the case.

The trip back to her place was a long one, once again having them pass by the magically maneuvered structures. This time it seemed like a faster trip back as Sun Glimmer didn’t seem to get lost this time. Back at the house, the three friends witnessed as their suspect had entered through the door. They peered through the window just in time to see her greet the mother and then head upstairs with the bag. Once again they entered through the door, the mother welcoming them in.

“Wow! You girls must be really good at this game. She didn’t seem to notice you at all,” the mother commented. They gave her a smile and made a ‘hush’ motion to her as they slowly ascended the stairs. If anything they could listen in to hear what the two of them were doing in that room. Hopefully they’d find some condemning evidence to finally convict them. What happened next though was something they didn’t plan for.

“Hello Archer! It feels like it’s been so long. So sorry to hear about your mother. I hope things are well at home.” The mom’s words made the hair on each of the sneaking crusaders’ backs stand up. Archer had suddenly visited at the worst possible time and now it sounded like she was heading upstairs.

“What can we do?” the three of them asked each other. The hooves were getting closer and closer as she moved up the steps. Time was running out and the other doors besides the one to Sun’s room were locked. It looked like it was time for them to be found.

“Hold on to me,” Apple Bloom commanded her friends to do. She thought she had a plan to escape. She was about to use her karate to perform a high jump on the ceiling and hold herself and her friends in place using the strength in her hooves against the walls. Her friends held on tightly as Apple Bloom used all her strength and training to gain enough strength to lift them all up. She began to jump up, and just as she got a foot in the air, she plummeted down to the floor again, causing her friends to fall down on her. The pain from last night hadn’t calmed down and this was like getting hit with a brick for the earth filly. Archer saw the three of them lying on the floor and just walked past. She opened up the door to where Sun Glimmer and Tootsie Flute were with rage on her face.

“I guess you guys thought you could hide it, didn’t you?” the offended earth pony said to her ‘friends’. “I found out what you guys did as soon as those three outside started following you. I thought that it was you guys at first, but I purposely looked away from it and decided to accept that Sweetie Belle did it by accident.” The three fillies outside tried to find a way out until they realized that they were found and there wasn’t any way to just get out. 

“Archer, you’ve got it all wrong!” yelled Sun Glimmer.

“Yeah, that’s not what we did,” added Tootsie Flue. 

“Really?” Archer asked, her voice getting raspier as she tried to talk through her emotions. “Then what were you doing several nights ago, the night my project got destroyed? I came here and none of you were around. I wanted to apologize to both of you for being angry, but I guess I was justified.” Archer started to trot away until Sun Glimmer said something.

“Archer, don’t go! It was a bit embarrassing at first, but I guess we should let you know what we were doing now.” Sun Glimmer went under her bed and pulled out a home-made card. It was glued together with construction paper and macaroni in it. There was a bunch of other things on the card that showed that it was home-made, but that wasn’t the important thing. “We were out at the crafts shop getting all the stuff to put that card together. We didn’t let my mom know since she can be a blabbermouth.” That surprised the investigative ponies who assumed the mom was good at being silent, especially with them sneaking around.

“That’s not the only thing we’ve been doing,” Tootsie Flute added. “Take a look at this.” Archer got closer to what looked like a pile of paper mache, glue, paint, and gears. It took her a while to understand what she was looking at, but then she finally realized. 

“You guys. Were you trying to rebuild my project?” Archer asked her friends.

“We learned about what happened to your mom right after we had fought and were trying to come up with a really good way to tell you we were sorry, but all we could think of was making our own card. When we saw that your diorama had gotten destroyed we knew what we had to do. We actually got a copy of your written section of your diorama from teacher and used that to try and recreate what you made. We knew how much this diorama meant for you since it was all based on your mom’s research before she passed away. This was essentially your tribute to her work and we wanted to help you remake it and let you see it. We avoided you until then because we didn’t how else to talk to you until then. I guess we didn’t do too well though.” Tootsie Flute finished her explanation and was grabbed along with Sun Glimmer by Archer in a massive hug. She squeezed tightly, tears coming from her face at what her friends had done for her.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” Archer cried to her friends.

“We’re sorry also. We didn’t know what you were going through and ended up making you even more upset,” Sun Glimmer apologized.

“I worked so hard on this for daddy. He’s been so sad without mommy. I just wanted to make him happy again. I wanted to show him I could be like mommy.” Archer’s tears were now spreading to her friends, causing them to develop their own. “I miss mommy! I want her back! Why is she gone now?! Why’d she leave?” Apple Bloom couldn’t hold it in any long and joined their hug, tears streaming down her face. She never knew that pain of knowing what it was like to lose a parent. She only knew what it was like to never really know them. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle joined in as well, making everypony share the pain and sadness in a safe place among friends.


		

An hour passed until everypony had calmed back down. Ponies had gotten things off their chests and everything seemed back to normal. Archer was with her friends again and everything with them had been explained. The only thing that was bumming the CMC out was the fact that they had officially run out of leads in their investigation. All the unicorns in their class had been investigated and found innocent of committing the crime. Truffle Shuffle wouldn’t have been able to win the gift card and he knew it, Snips & Snails had been working with Cheerilee the nights in question, and Sun Glimmer and Tootsie Flute were working on cheering up Archer by actually remaking her entire project for her. No motives or explanations were left. It seemed as if all they had was the evidence of a glass bottle with initials on it along with a very questionable piece of hair. 

“Well girls, I don’t think I know of any other things we could do now. I guess I’ll have to face the music and accept my punishment tomorrow when the time is up.” Sweetie Belle sighed in acceptance of her sad fate and left the house. It was about eight in the evening now and she was out of ideas.

“Sweetie Belle, wait up!” her friends called. “We got another piece of evidence!”

“Really? What?” she inquired.

Apple Bloom decided to tell her despondent friend. “Yeah. Archer just decided to help us as soon as you left. It’s the crystal that was used in the diorama as a model! The crystal’s original color when put in the diorama was blue.” She pulled out what looked like a completely different crystal from her sack. “The color of the gem is now grey! It somehow changed colors after being touched by magic. Archer gave it to us so we could figure out who really did it. She now thinks that you’re innocent. She also told us to be extra careful with it though since it was her mother’s and that she apparently used it in her deep sea expeditions somehow. Her mom never really explained what it did though. We have something really good to go on now!” The exciting news was met by an unenthusiastic response from Sweetie Belle. 

“Thanks girls, but I don’t think even that will help us. We don’t have any more leads and we’re just about out of time. Also, what was the deal with the large black cloak we heard about anyway?”

“Oh. That’s simple: Sun Glimmer had a large black cloak she wore, and last night she was cold when getting supplies and needed something thick on her. Interesting little fact is that there is more than just one large black coat in the world. She also let us know that the reason she was getting lost during her outing was that the alley that she took her shortcuts through had disappeared when the two buildings came together last night.” Scootaloo had gained a love of explaining things to other ponies.

“I just can’t take this anymore. I can’t stand the actual possibility that I can’t control my magic. Maybe ALL the evidence is coincidental. Maybe that pony we chased we some random colt who was scared by several ponies who just started to chase him. Maybe I am the culprit. The evidence still leads to me.” The small unicorn didn’t want to deal with this stuff anymore. “Let’s go to Sugarcube Corner. I could use a milkshake right about now.”

The three fillies had gotten to the confectionary right at its busiest hour. Ponies had come here on dates, parties, and many other events around the time they arrived. It was lucky for them though that Sweetie Belle had once won a raffle for permanent seats in the establishment. Mr. Cake had come over to them to take their orders.

“Hey girls! What can I get you?” he asked.

“One vanilla, one strawberry, and one chocolate. Double on the chocolate,” Sweetie Belle ordered.

“Wow, somepony must be having a rough time. Is something wrong?” he inquired.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle started to explain. “Recently a diorama in our classroom was destroyed by magic and everypony thought it was me who might have done it with a magic surge. My friends and I investigated every other unicorn in our class that could have done it, but they all turned out to be innocent. Tomorrow’s the last day before we get punished and we don’t have any more suspects.”

“Sounds like you got yourselves a real pickle. You know what, I’m gonna ask Silent Study right now if he could convince Miss Cheerilee to give you girls more time. HEY SILENT! OVER HERE!” the cake serving pony yelled out to another table. It seems that Silent Study was out here tonight with several of his pegasus friends.

“What is it, Mr. Cake?” the Aide asked.

“I just heard about these little fillies and their dilemma and was wondering if you could somehow convince Cheerilee to give them just a bit more time,” the caring baker asked.

“I’m sorry, but Miss Cheerilee already bent the rules for them so they could go out and try to prove their innocence. She couldn’t do it anymore.” Silent Study seemed to rub his chin in thought before finally coming up with something. “You know, I can actually help you out with your magic surge problem. I know this one alchemy place, “The Philosopher’s Stone” that has the single greatest variety of potions, ingredients, and other things I couldn’t ever figure out what their uses are. I’ve never seen another shop with such impressive concoctions in my entire life! I even think they have a potion that can be used to stop magic surges on a unicorn.”

“REALLY?” Mr. Cake asked excitedly. “I could really use something like that with Pumpkin. Just this afternoon she had a magic surge that turned all the knobs on the ovens from 400 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Almost ruined all the baked goods.”

“Alright! If you do end up going there, please let Red Tet know that I sent you. He gives me a discount for any business I bring to him.” Silent Study’s words suddenly sparked life into the gloomy girls as they heard something in that statement.

“Wait; did you say ‘Red Tet’? Is that the owner of the shop?” Apple Bloom asked the Aide, feeling like they may finally have something.

“Yeah. Why do you ask?”

“Girls!” she yelled out. “We’ve gotta see Spike immediately! I think we’ve just found our final lead!” The three investigators soon leaped from their desks and ran to the library to meet their draconic helper. They didn’t have milkshakes that night, but they managed to taste something sweeter; victory.


	

It was the third and final day for the girls, and everything rested upon what they had found out last night. It was risky, but it was worth a shot. They went to school and prepared for the worst.

“Hello girls,” greeted Cheerilee. “I’m terribly sorry to tell you that your time for investigating the diorama’s doom is up. Do any of you have evidence of who did the deed?”

“Yes we do!” they all cheered together. “Come on everypony! We know who destroyed the diorama!” the entire classroom was gathered around the fillies at this moment. Cheerilee thought of telling them all to return to their seats until she realized that this had become a real-life parlor room scene. She’d always wanted to be in one of those and knew that this was her best chance of that ever happening.

“Do you know who did it?” a random voice called out.

“Yes we do,” Scootaloo pronounced boldly. “It took a lot of time and effort, but we finally found the pony responsible for all of this. It seemed improbable, almost impossible, but when you've eliminated all other possibilities, the improbable becomes the truth.”

“That’s right,” added Sweetie Belle. “This now seems to be the best solution to the case.”

“AND THE PONY WHO DID IT IS-“ they all yelled together, pointing their hooves at the target, “DIAMOND TIARA!”