'There has to be some other explanation. There has to be. Anything would make more sense than this.’
Twilight Sparkle’s attention was fixed on the notes levitating in front of her, narrowed eyes darting from one page to another as she did her best to find some shred of evidence, some hole in their story that disproved it. It was there, she knew it was. She just had to find it. A few steps behind her, Rarity cleared her throat.
'Princess, with all due respect we have been looking into the matter for going on a week now, and we’ve disproven every theory you’ve come up with. It wasn’t a fault in the mail system or a mistake by dear Derpy, it wasn’t any kind of memory alteration performed on the town at large, nor even an especially generous if ethically questionable visitor.’
Rainbow Dash snorted, and Twilight could almost hear her rolling her eyes. ‘Yeah, nopony new’s come to town to stay all week, and even if they had there’s no way they could’ve dragged all that with ‘em. I’d say you were stretching it with that but that doesn’t even come close to the changeling thing.’
Twilight felt her face turn red as she finally tore her face away from the notes, turning to pou – to glare at Rainbow Dash. ‘It could have been changelings! They’ve proven many times throughout history that they’re both willing and able to use both subtle kindness and emotional manipulation to increase the flow of - ‘
'Yeah, sure, whatever. Let's say the changeling thing wasn’t really stupid, it totally wasn’t even the worst idea you had! What was that last thing you suggested again?’
'Spontaneous gift manifestation, darling.'
'Yeah, that! Thanks, Rare. Presents just appearing out of nowhere in pony’s houses!? I mean, I know I’m not the great detective here, but even I know that’s impossible!’
'It's no less impossible than this! Sufficiently powerful magic could easily make it appear as though gifts had been left in ponies houses during the night, and to cover the entire area between here and Canterlot would only require a sufficiently powerful -'
'If this is the part where you try to tell us Discord did it again, let me save you the trouble – you and Rarity looked into that too, remember? He said it wasn’t him!’
'And you believed - ‘
'Princess Celestia did confirm that this is completely unlike anything Discord has caused before, and it would agree that it seems a tad… mundane. Not to mention harmless – why, these gifts are some of the most considerate I have ever received!'
Twilight opened her mouth to retort, then bit her tongue and sighed. They were right. Even if all of her ‘ridiculous’ explanations made more sense than… whatever this was, they’d all been proven incorrect. And that meant it had to be true.
Slowly, she turned fully to face the two ponies who had been aiding her investigation, and when she spoke she could barely keep the irritation out of her voice.
'So what you're telling me is that, in the week we've been trying to figure out who keeps somehow breaking into every house in Ponyville and Canterlot on Hearthswarming Eve every year, the best theory we’ve come up with is Pinkie Pie?’
‘And 'Shy,' Rainbow interjected, and Twilight let out another sigh.
'…Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.’
'That… would appear to be correct, yes. Fluttershy did confess, after all, and she was terribly apologetic. Not to mention Pinkie Pie breaking into the library and left you those ‘please forgive me’ gifts.’
'Yeah. 'Shy even signed the card.'
'I thought they were kidding! There’s no way a pegasus and an earth pony could ever pull off something like that in a single night! There’s far too much ground to cover and -‘
'Darling – Princess. I don't mean to be rude, but have you perhaps forgotten that we're discussing Pinkie Pie?’
Twilight blinked. She opened her mouth. Closed it again. Then she sighed and nodded her head. ‘Fine, fine. I suppose we’d better go talk to them. They should probably know that they’re considered a legend now, and that Celestia wants us to offer them funding for this… whatever it is they’re doing.’