Mare, formerly known as "Mayor Mare" sipped on her tea to make a pause mid sentence. The ponies at her table watched her in silent antecipation.
"...and that's why I suspect that the new mayor is up to something terrible," she said.
"But what could that be?" an aquamarine unicorn asked.
"That, my dear Lyra, is something we can only speculate about. It could be a dire crime... like arson, robbery, counterfeiting, conspiracy..."
"Or maybe corruption?" a pony with two-coloured mane suggested.
Mare gave her a chilly look. The pony smiled awkwardly and looked away.
"Let's not guess blindly..." the former mayor said. "Does anypony have any serious theories?"
"Oh! I saw Rarity throw away top secret content into the river!" said Lyra.
"That's it! It must be the lost evidence of Fluttershy's crimes! She said that no evidence was pointing to her... Maybe because she had ordered her political toadies to destroy it?" Mare exclaimed and nearly spilled her tea over the table. "Gather your families! We must go and search the riverbanks!"
Meanwhile, a nervous Fluttershy and a tired Rarity were cleaning the Town Hall. It was already late in the afternoon and miss Hooves had not yet returned from the spa. What took her so long? When everything was absolutely spotless Fluttershy sat down in a sofa and let Rarity brush her mane. She could almost fall asleep.
Suddenly they heard a knock on the door.
"Princess Luna!" Fluttershy yelled and leapt from the sofa.
She ran to the door and opened it.
"Welcome to my humble... um... Town Hall, princess," she said and kneeled.
"Thank you, dear Fluttershy," a voice said.
She looked up and saw princess Luna, Twilight and Spike. They carried a big bouquet of flowers as a gift to her. Flutterhy showed them to the mayor's elegant dining room. Rarity had set the table with the most beautiful plates and silverware she could find and the only thing missing was Miss Hooves who still was nowhere to be found, probably aimlessly wandering around in Ponyville. Now the sun was setting behind the pine trees in the west and the shadows were getting longer. Soon the day would change to into dusk.
"May I have another cup of coffee? I'm a bit tired" Twilight asked.
"Off course!" Rarity said and filled her cup with the blackest of coffee.
"Thank you Rar... *yawn*... ity."
"This night will be sooo beautiful! We must truly stay awake!" Luna said. "The stars will be visible tonight!"
"With pleasure," Fluttershy assured and took a small bite of her sandwich.
"But I would like to go to bed ea..." Spike began to say before Twilight interrupted him with a kick to the shin.
"We'll be very delighted to en...*yawn* the night..." the unicorn said, rubbing her eyes.
After a while the sun had gone down and it was nearly dark outside. They could se small dots of light flickering on the riverbanks just outside Ponyville. It reminded Fluttershy of a swarm of fireflies.
The lights didn't come from a swarm of fireflies, but from a swarm of ponies. The citizens of Ponyville had lit torches and were searching the riverbanks for evidence against Fluttershy and her friends. Mare carefully climbed on the river stones while looking into the water, her torch flickering in the chilly breeze. Suddenly she heard a voice.
"Mayor Mare! Mayor Mare! We have found something!"
She jumped into the water and ran towards the voice.
"What? What have you found?!" she exclaimed, almost jumping up and down with anticipation.
A proud Bon Bon held a soggy piece of cardboard in her snout.
"Is that all?"
"Yes! Absolutely binding proof!" Lyra said and patted Bon Bon on the shoulder.
"Binding proof about WHAT?"
"Um... binding proof that there was a cardboard box...?"
"I already knew that! Now get back to your search! We must find documents, a weapon or anything that can be used as evidence in a legal court..."
A loud scream was heard further downstream. They all ran to the spot from were they had heard the scream, and when they arrived they saw an absolutely terrified pony crying and shaking with fear. It was Lily Valley and she pointed at a strange object in the sand.
"Ske.... sk... ske... skel.. skel..." she stuttered, almost too afraid to watch.
The ponies moved closer to the object and they saw that it was the skull of a dead badger. It must have washed up on the shore.
"Aha!" said Mare and poked the skull with a stick. "This must be the evidence that we are looking for! If we take the piece of cardboard and this skull and combine them... it would almost count as proof of murder!"
"Murder?!" all the ponies shouted in fear.
"Yes. An unspeakable act that might have been committed by none other than that bad, bad pony Fluttershy! She pretends to take care of animals... WHEN INSTEAD SHE MURDERS THEM!"
And all the ponies shivered.
"We must act quickly! This evil must be stopped!"
"We must drive her from the town before she does more horrific things!"
"Arm yourselves! Destroy the mad beast!"
"Reinstate Mayor Mare!" Mare shouted, covering her mouth with a hoof.
The same time, over at the Town Hall, Twilight had fallen asleep and was now snoring on the sofa. Princess Luna had used her magic powers to quietly remove the sleeping unicorn from the table and to put her in a place where she was less in the way of things. Spike, Rarity and Fluttershy had just finished their meal while Luna took a bite from her apple. (She did in fact enjoy apples very much)
"Shall we go and look at the stars?" Luna asked.
"With all respect, princess, I must go home and rest," Rarity said.
"Off course, dear Rarity. You way leave, so you don't fall asleep on the table like poor Twilight Sparkle."
And Rarity left the Town Hall. On her way home trough the starlit night she noticed that the fireflies were gone.