//------------------------------//
// Applejack, Private Investigator 
// Story: Love Conquers All 
// by Saatchi 
//------------------------------//

The five ponies sat there in silence, while Big Macintosh headed into the kitchen. Minutes past and Applejack still retained her mouth open stance. Big Macintosh returned with a glass of water clamped tightly in his jaw. The other ponies just sat there, their attention focused on the glass. Each of them took a varying amount of time, but they all realised what was coming next. This new revelation prompted them to take a step backwards, or as best they could do in the cramped hallway. Big Macintosh proceeded to take centre stage and poised himself. In one quick swoop, he swung his head back and forth. He kept the glass steady, allowing the water to complete the energy change from potential energy to kinetic. This new burst of kinetic energy propelled the water forward, setting it on a direct course for Applejack's face. For the orange pony, the water was the least of her worries. Rainbow Dash was gone, all Applejack could think about was what she might be going through. Luckily there was a small amount of water flying towards her that would ease her mind. 

The cold tap water made contact with Applejack's face, causing her to gasp in surprise.
"What'd ya do that for!?"
Applejack was practically seething; all that was missing was some steam billowing out of her ears. Her brother slipped back into the kitchen, before heading outside. His aim was to put a bit of distance between himself and his sister. He wasn't being cowardly; he just knew when it was time to get out of his sister's line of fire. The older pony took refuge in the barn, settling down in a pile of hay. Meanwhile back inside the house, Applejack was starting to calm down. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and suddenly the normal Applejack resurfaced.
"Sorry about that y'all ah need to get mah emotions in check."
Her friends looked at each other and then back to Applejack.
"Yes, you do."
Applejack rubbed a hoof against the back of her head, and then clapped her hooves together as she remembered something.
"Ah can't believe ah let mahself get distracted, please, continue with yer news."
Twilight assumed the role of pony newscaster, to inform Applejack of Rainbow Dash's disappearance. Applejack and the other ponies sat on their haunches, as Twilight began to narrate the story, throwing in a bit of acting where appropriate.

Around the time Pinkie Pie's celebratory party had finished, which was approximately 7:30pm. Rainbow Dash and her new girlfriend (who had been named as Volo) had left for Volo's house. Contradictory to her Pegasus roots and nature, Volo had a house on the ground. There was nothing to go against this, as Fluttershy had done the exact same thing. Everypony else went straight home, or at least that's what the witnesses were claiming. Other witness's namely neighbours of Volo claimed that they heard shouting and breaking objects. Naturally they were attributed to an argument, but in a case such as this, they were being treated as suspicious. Twilight told of how several groups of ponies had been dispatched to search the area for Rainbow Dash, as soon as she was found to be missing. Everypony had been told to report suspicious behavior to them, and they would follow it up. By this point Applejack was close to tears again, but was soon comforted by Twilight.
"It's ok AJ, let it all out. We've all done our fair share of crying today."
Applejack sniffed back the tears, drying her eyes in the process.
"No. No more cryin'. Ahm gonna go find Rainbow Dash and bring her back safe!"
Applejack trotted towards the door, but a voice from behind stopped her.

The voice belonged to Rarity, and she didn't sound pleased.
"I think you mean WE'RE going to get her back safely!" she bellowed.
Applejack craned her neck round so that she could face the disgruntled pony.
"Ah'm mighty sorry Rarity, ah got a lil headstrong there. Of course ah meant t' say we're gonna go get her."
Rarity smiled, a little embarrassed by her sudden outburst.
"Well come on everypony! We've got ourselves a friend t' find!"
Applejack and her friends galloped outside. The sound of hooves against the dirt covered ground outside, reminded Applejack of a stampede. The stampede of friends made its way into town, Everypony that saw them charging through made sure to keep well out of the way. The small group came to a stop just outside the town centre. They took this pause as a chance to rest and think of a place to search first. Each of the ponies had their own ideas about where to start. So each idea was taken into account and a vote was held.

The location that received the most votes was Volo's home. The location that received the least votes was Sugar cube corner. The owner of this idea was Pinkie Pie, who, when quizzed about why she picked it replied with 'I'm hungry' almost as if she was oblivious to anything outside her own thoughts. Now that the band of friends had decided on their location, they were stuck trying to pick what sort of interrogative method to use. They were torn between using the good cop method, the bad cop method, or just simply winging it. They were about to take another vote, when a strange suggestion arose from an unlikely source.
"I say we let her have it!" growled Fluttershy.
The other ponies slowly turned their heads towards her, their eyes wide with shock and surprise. Had Fluttershy really just suggested they use violence against Volo? The piercing stares of her peers were enough to turn Fluttershy back to her timid self.
"Uhm, y'know, if you want to..."
The ponies shook their heads, they must have misheard her, and there was no way someone like Fluttershy would suggest violence. Of course Fluttershy did have her out of character moments, but this certainly seemed a little to far beyond even something like that. The girls eventually settled on winging it, and doing just what the situation called for. Now that they had their game plan ready, they set a course for Volo's residence, making a little stop at Sugar cube Corner for Pinkie. Applejack made use of this little stop to grab a bite to eat; after all, she had skipped breakfast.

The Friendship Detectives (a name coined by Pinkie) soon arrived at their first destination. They left Pinkie Pie outside to scout around for any suspicious behavior. Although she infused this task with another: making the groups' theme song. The rest of the group went inside the house and were promptly shown around by Volo.
"This is the living room. It doubles as Rainbow's room, at least until her bed arrives."
Applejack wasn't entirely focused on Volo's speech; she was too busy scouring the room. Cabinets lined the walls of this room, each one filled with trophies and medals. It appeared the Volo had competed in many a competition and appeared to be quite the athlete, no wonder Dash had taken a fancy to her. The room also contained a three-seater couch, which Applejack promptly sat upon. The couch itself seemed to be covered in a silky smooth fabric, which made it feel simply divine. The couch was placed in front of a large marble fireplace, which had a decorated mantelpiece on top of it. The mantelpiece was also decorated with trophies and other racing trinkets. The fireplace itself had been used recently, as there was a collection of ash underneath the grating. Acting like a true detective, Applejack treated this as something suspicious and moved in for a closer look. Applejack lowered herself to the ground and inhaled deeply, before exhaling slowly. Her warm breath assaulted the ash, sending a large black plume into the air. Applejack spluttered a little as she inhaled tiny particles of burnt material. She held her breath and batted away the remaining ash.

Once the ash was gone, she peered into the fireplace. This was where something caught her eye, this happened to be a partially combusted photograph. Applejack nipped the edges of the photo with her teeth and liberated it from the fireplace. She dropped the photo into her hooves and stared at it. There wasn't a lot to see, but Applejack managed to make out something useful. The photo was of Rainbow Dash, looking absolutely terrified. Applejack shed a single tear at the sight of her, realising just how much she missed her. Regaining her composure, Applejack scoured the tiny fragment for anything else that might be useful. In the background there was another pony peeking in through the window. Their features were a little charred but Applejack managed to make out a few details. He had a brown mane, possibly black, his coat was a sandy coffee colour and he was wearing square framed glasses. Applejack picked up the fragment in her teeth again and rushed off to tell her friends of her discovery. Applejack burst into the kitchen, where her friends where comforting Volo, who appeared to have suffered an emotional breakdown. Everypony turned to face Applejack, who trotted over to them and dropped the photo fragment onto the table. Everypony looked at the scrap and back at Applejack, waiting for her to explain how this was important. Applejack was about to do just that, but Volo intervened.
"Before you start accusing me of anything, you should see the other photos that go with that one."

Applejack hadn't been planning on accusing Volo of anything, but she noticed that the photo did make her look like a suspect. Volo left the group, went upstairs, and then came back with more photos. She flicked them onto the table, sending them in every possible direction. Applejack stared at the photos; she now understood a little bit more about where they had come from. Rainbow Dash and Volo had been hosting some sort of ridiculous photo shoot for themselves. The object of this had clearly been to see who could pull the best faces of a certain category. For example, in the photo that Applejack had found, Rainbow had probably been told to look terrified. Applejack checked over each of the photos in turn, and came to the shocking conclusion that they all had one striking feature, the mysterious background pony.
"Hey, ah think y'all should see this."
Applejack pointed her hoof at a specific spot in each of the pictures. There, at the window, was the mystery pony, staring inwards. Each of the ponies gasped at looked at each other. No matter which picture they looked at, the results were always the same. A sudden knock at the door caught them all off guard, with Fluttershy actually ducking for cover. The ponies casually walked through to the next room, then onwards to the front door. Volo picked up some books from the shelf and pushed to the front of the group. She opened the door to reveal a pony, similar in looks barring a lack of squares framed glasses stood there. Volo handed over the books and slammed the door shut. Twilight had managed to read the spines of the books and felt a question forming in her mind.
"Volo?"
"Yes?"
Twilight had now formed the question and decided to ask it.
"Why do you have spell books? Powerful spell books at that."
"I like to read them. I enjoy a bit of heavy reading now and again."
Twilight wasn't satisfied, there was something strange here, but she wasn't sure what. Applejack took her turn to ask a question.
"Volo?"
"Yes, is there something I can help you with?"
"Why was that there photograph on the fire?"
Volo took a seat on the couch and began a story.
"Rainbow Dash and I had an argument."

The ponies circled around Volo and listened to her short story.
"We got into a little fight over a trivial thing. We both lost out tempers and started throwing things, and hurling abuse at one another. Some of the photos were burned by Dash, as she claimed that I didn't care about her. However, we managed to make up at some point during the night, but it was too late for the pictures."
The group of ponies decided to stay around to hear more stories, some of which filled them in on how the two had come together. Hours passed and by the end, the event was more like a social get together than an investigation. Time started to wane and the ponies all agreed that it seemed like a suitable time to finish for the day. They bid farewell to Volo, and split up, each pony heading to their respective homes. Applejack made her way to the path leading to Sweet Apple Acres. As she ventured along the path, she started to feel a strange sensation in her stomach. It felt like she was nervous, yet she just couldn't think why she would feel like that. She did a full sweep around her, and noted two things. Fluttershy was hovering over her head, and somepony was following behind Applejack, making sure to keep their distance. She didn't know why Fluttershy was watching from above, but she was friends with Applejack so it wasn't too strange. She was probably just checking to make sure each of the ponies got home safely, after all she was the type for such thing. It was the pony behind her that was making her feel uneasy. Applejack pretended that she hadn't noticed her follower and continued walking. Suddenly a bright flash winked behind her, causing Applejack to spin round. There she caught the mystery pony, clutching a camera. The pony straightened his square framed glasses and maintained a stare down.
"Hey! Ah wanna word with you!"
The unnamed pony turned away and sprinted away from Applejack.
"Hey!" screamed Applejack as she raced after him. Applejack admired this pony's speed and stamina. She assumed her follower to be a colt, as his stamina seemed well above any filly she knew, not to mention Applejack was quite the athlete. The colt realised that he couldn't outrun Applejack, but he was certain he could outwit her.

He realised that his first priority was to increase the distance between Applejack and himself. He checked both sides, seeing that the fence that ran alongside the path opened up as a gate. He glanced behind him, to see Applejack sneaking up just next to his rump. She didn't seem to have noticed the gate, but the colt was no mind reader, he just had to hope that she wasn't wise to his plan. The colt readying himself, and without warning swung himself to the left, giving Applejack a face full on pony backside, causing her to stagger. The gap between the two ponies widened considerably, bringing the colt closer to escape. Once more the colt took note of his surroundings, and formulated a plan that would secure his escape. In the distance there were two sales ponies dragging along their carts. Just a little past them he could see a gap leading into a side street of Ponyville. If he picked up the pace, he could make it past the ponies, leaving no room for Applejack, which should make her stop in her tracks. He pushed himself to the absolute max, pushing his limbs to their utmost limits. Applejack was more determined than ever, she closed the gap within a matter of seconds, now standing just behind his tail.

The colt looked back, and then forward again. He appeared to have misjudged the initial distance, and now the carts were beginning to pass each other. They came closer exceptionally fast; his mind became all of a flutter. Thinking on his feet, he leapt into the air, hoping for a miracle. Applejack dug her hooves into the ground, causing her to skid to a halt. The colt soared over the sales carts, drawing a gasp of awe from the sales ponies. She was only able to watch as the colt got away, becoming harder and harder to see. She stomped her hoof into the ground as a sign of her frustration. Their biggest lead in the search for Rainbow Dash had gotten away, and it was all her fault. This was not acceptable for someone who had once been called the most dependable of ponies, albeit, she was the one who called her that. She was saddened a little, but unfortunately that was life, you win some, you lose some. Except recently, she felt like she was just losing, more and more. Applejack turned away and continued back to her original destination. It took her longer than normal, mostly in part to her slightly sour mood, but she made it their nonetheless. She entered her home through the kitchen, and was surprised to find Twilight sat at the table.
"Applejack! You're finally here!"
"What're ya doin' here Twi?"

The purple pony cleared her throat, and Applejack knew she was in for a lecture. So Applejack made herself comfy at the kitchen table and let her begin her speech.
"Well when I got back to library, I started to do some research based on what we learnt from today's sleuthing."
Applejack didn't want to cause offense to Twilight, but she really wasn't in the mood to listen to a speech. Applejack just stared at Twilight's mouth as she continued to speak, her words lulling Applejack dull stupor.
"Applejack? Are you listening to me?"
"Ah'm sorry Twilight, ah'm just a lil bit tired. Ah can't keep on listenin' to you, or else ah'm gonna fall asleep."
"Oh. Well that's ok Applejack; I'll speak with you tomorrow."
"Oh don't leave Twilight, I'll try t' stay awake!"
"No. This is important stuff, and I'd prefer it if you were perfectly rested to hear it."
"Ya sure?"
"Of course! See you in the morning, bright and early!"
Twilight made her way past Applejack and left for home, making sure to say goodbye to her friend. Applejack retreated upstairs and got into bed. She was still suffering the effects of her little chase earlier (mainly the adrenaline rush) which would probably keep her awake until a more suited time for sleep. She too began to think about the days events, although it didn't make her feel any closer to Rainbow Dash.

Tomorrow came quickly for Applejack, almost too quickly. She couldn't remember trying to go to sleep, but evidently she had drifted off at some point. She hadn't forgotten about her promise to meet Twilight at the library. She decided to make haste and sped up her routine, allowing her more time to spend at the library. Applejack soon arrived at the library within a suitable time and knocked on the door. The door swung open to reveal a very downtrodden looking Spike.
"Spike! Is Twilight in?"
"Did you hit your head or something Applejack?"
Applejack was visibly confused.
"What're you talkin' about?"
Spike lead Applejack into the library, shutting the door behind them, but Applejack kept her gaze fixated on Spike.
"You mind tellin' me what you're talkin' about, sugar cube?"
"Applejack, Twilight's gone missing as well."
Applejack gasped and reared back. As she broke her fixated gaze with the baby dragon, she saw, for the first time, the state of the library.

There was paper strewn everywhere, books lay in ruins on the floor. Black patches covered the walls, obviously evidence of Twilight trying to defend herself. Parchment had been torn and sprinkled across the floor like confetti. Ink wells had been knocked to the floor, causing some of the books to be illegible. This was a scene of complete chaos.
Applejack turned back to Spike.
Spike, ah need you t' tell me, everything that happened after Twilight left mah home."
Spike sat on the floor and scratched his chin.
"Well…"
He went on to tell Applejack about the events of the previous afternoon. Apparently Twilight had come back from Volo's house with her mind working overtime. She had settled down and tried to work out some sort of correlation between the evidence they had collected. She had sifted through books on ancient languages, different types of spells, and ancient history, and had made tons of notes in the process. Applejack looked around at the tiny remnants of paper scattered about the room. These were all that remained of Twilights hard work. Applejack turned her attention back to Spike and he continued with his story. Twilight had eventually made the breakthrough that she was hoping for. Finishing up a few more trivial links, she rushed off to tell Applejack. Applejack of course, wasn't in the mood to hear such breakthroughs, and had turned her away. Upon returning to library, Twilight had made it clear to Spike that she felt like she was being watched. As a precaution she wrote down a clue to the mystery and put aside a book to help with the decoding. She had entrusted them to Spike, her number one assistant, for safe keeping. Obviously Twilight's suspicions about being followed were true, and the resulting battle for freedom had left the library in the state it was currently in.

Once he had finished his story he handed Applejack the book and note. 
She saw a small spark in the corner of Spike's eye. Something that was amazingly unlike him. Spike was never one for a show of emotion, unless he was trying to make Rarity fall for him. Yet Applejack saw his true feelings, he was worried, worried for Twilight, most likely. Applejack took them both and turned to leave. Before she left, she asked Spike how he could possibly have slept, with all this action going on. His response was simple,
"I'm a heavy sleeper."
Applejack left the library, heading for a secluded place, making sure not to lose anything on the journey there. She arrived at her house, and headed upstairs. Around her the sun was setting, making way for the cold night air to blow in. This didn't bother Applejack; she was too fixated on the task at hand. The lights from the ceiling light would illuminate her enough, so she could read what Twilight had left her. First she picked up the note, storing its information in her brain. The note read 'Speed is the key'. Apart from sounding like an obvious statement, this was also the solution to the case. Applejack turned her attention to the book, which happened to be entitled 'The Language Dictionary: A guide to every word ever spoken in the land of Equestria'. 


She opened the book and started to flick through the columns and columns of words. She was looking for something in particular, and that something resided in the section marked 'S'. She flipped the pages all the way through to the 'S' chapter, and looked up the word speed. Listed below the word speed were all the old language ways of saying speed. None of them were particularly interesting, and none of them made the clue any easier. Applejack soon got frustrated, tossing the book over her head. The book sailed past her, slamming into her shelf, knocking other books to the floor. Applejack went to pick them all up, but stopped at the first book that entered her gaze. There, printed in one of the books was a photo of a pony, with square framed glasses. Underneath the photo was a caption, which read, 
The nickname 'Accelero' was given to this young colt because of his superior speed and stamina.
Applejack referred back to the language book and checked the words for speed. Sure enough, right at the top of the list was 'Accelero'. Applejack whooped, she now had enough evidence to confront the colt. Well she had a reason to confront him, not much to hold past that point. She just needed Twilight to explain the rest of the story to the authorities. She tidied up, and got ready for her confrontation. However little did she know that the colt she was looking for was closer than expected…