//------------------------------//
// 3 - Investigation 
// Story: Cutie Mark Crusader Superheroes 
// by infernape612 
//------------------------------//

	The next day, everypony (plus dragon and draconequus) met at the gates to Twilight's castle. Twilight was making sure Spike's luggage was all set up. "Got your toothbrush?"

"Yeah."

"Got your rubies?"

"Yeah."

"Got your comic books?"

"Twilight, you're not my mom."

"I'm the closest thing you've got, Spike." Twilight turned to Discord, who was lounging around and for some reason wearing a lucha libre mask. "Take care of him, Discord. So help me, if anything happens to him while you're gone, you'll wish you were petrified again by the time I'm done with you."

Discord smirked, and his mask vanished. "Is that an implied death threat, Twilight Sparkle? You're the last pony I'd expect to hear that from... No, wait - fourth to last."

Twilight responded, "No - I wouldn't dream of killing someone. Rip out their powers, on the other hoof..." That sentence visibly disturbed him - having them taken by Tirek was an experience he never wanted to repeat. Twilight didn't quite trust him after what had happened, but then again, she had never quite trusted him. Perhaps that was part of the problem. She turned back to Spike. "Take care, old friend."

Spike nodded. "You too. C'mon, Discord, let's get to the train station." Discord laughed at that.

"Trains? Trains are for sissies." He snapped his fingers, and the two vanished in a flash of light. Once they were gone, Rainbow Dash approached Applejack.

"Listen, AJ, I'm... real sorry about accusing you the way I did yesterday. I... was under a lot of stress, and now that I've had some time to go over this, I figure..." She explained the logical reasoning she had done the previous night. When she was done, Applejack nodded.

"Don't you worry 'bout it, sugarcube. Water under the bridge." She smirked. "Although ah never thought you'd be the pony to make all those egghead connections..."

"WHATSHUTUPIMNOTANEGGHEADTWILIGHTISANEGGHEADNOTME!!!!!!" Everypony laughed.

Twilight asked, "So what's your plan, Dash? You can't just go blindly rushing into an investigation like you would a race."

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, and then answered, "I figure that as our resident egghead, you should be my partner. We'll go and look for clues at the scene of the crime! Once we (meaning you) figure out who stole the Mare Do Well costumes, we can confront 'em and BOOM! No more Mare Do Well."

Twilight said, "Oh... I'm sorry, Dash, but I can't... I have to oversee the setup for my new castle and try to restore the damage to the library... Ooh, I know! Biggs! Wedge!" The group had mostly forgotten their presence due to Wedge's stern, speak-only-when-spoken-to attitude and the fact that Biggs had fallen asleep under a nearby tree, but it was their duty to protect their new princess at all times. Twilight, seeing her sleeping bodyguard, growled, "Wedge, get a bucket of water. Ice cold." Wedge nodded and vanished before reappearing with the object in a telekinetic grip. "Wake him up."

Wedge smiled wickedly as he trotted over to Biggs. "With great pleasure, your highness." He dumped the contents of the bucket on Biggs, causing him to wake up screaming profanity.

Twilight said, "Welcome back to the land of the living, Biggs. As you have consistently failed in your duties as my bodyguard, you have been volunteered to help Rainbow Dash discover the identity of the new Mare Do Well. Dash'll be informing me of your assistance at regular intervals, and if I'm not satisfied..." She drew her hoof across her own throat, and Biggs nodded immediately. "Good luck, Dash... and try not to do anything too stupid." Twilight and Wedge re-entered the castle, and everypony except Dash and Biggs left for their various places of work.

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and took off. "Our first stop is Sweet Apple Acres! Last one there (meaning you) is a rotten egg!" She zoomed towards Sweet Apple Acres. Biggs grumbled to himself before taking off after her.



Rainbow Dash pranced around a bit to burn off some energy before Biggs finally showed up. "Too slow, rotten egg. You should probably eat less donuts."

Biggs shot back, "Hate to burst your bubble, but..." He gestured towards the approaching Applejack, who, lacking wings, had shown up after the two pegasi.

Rainbow Dash nodded. "You lucked out... this time. Hey, AJ! Mind if we take a look at... you know..." Applejack nodded, and the three entered her house. They found Applejack's younger sister Apple Bloom pouring herself a bowl of cereal. She turned as she noticed the three of them walking in.

"Hi, Sis. Hi, Rai- GAH! MR. SCOOTALOO'S DAD! WHATEVER IT WAS, WE DIDN'T DO IT!"

Biggs, the father in question, chuckled. "Nah, unless you've decided to become a superhero behind everypony's backs, you didn't do it. ...You haven't decided to become a superhero behind everypony's backs, have you?"

"Uh... no. Of course not. That's... that's just dumb. Well, I'ma gonna go play with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo now, seeya later, bye!" She dashed out the door, forgetting all about her cereal. Biggs and Rainbow Dash glanced at Applejack, who simply shrugged. They went upstairs to Applejack's room and pulled out the trunk again. Upon opening it, they discovered a note that had been previously hidden by the costume. Biggs and Rainbow Dash read it. Once they were done, Biggs turned to Applejack.

"Nice one, Applejack. Instead of destroying this like a professional and giving yourself the option of singlehoofedly taking the fall in case Rainbow Dash found out, you instead left it and made it obvious that the princess and by extension, your entire circle of friends was involved. Well, this opens up one possibility - the thieves wouldn't have had to know about Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and the princess beforehand. All they would have to do is find out about Applejack, open this trunk, and figure out the rest." He grabbed a blank scroll and, with Applejack's permission, began writing this down.

Rainbow Dash couldn't resist saying, "Huh. Didn't think such a lazybones would turn out to be this competent."

"HEY!!!"

"So, AJ. Has anypony unusual shown up at the farm lately?"

Applejack shook her head. "Nope. Me'n Big Mac have been plowin' the fields for the past week like we always do."

Biggs asked, "Is there any chance your family could have stumbled onto the costume?" Applejack shook her head again.

"Nah, they wouldn't have any reason to go snoopin' around in mah room. Besides, they couldn't be Mare Do Well. Apple Bloom's too small, Big Mac's too big, and Granny Smith's too old." Biggs nodded, and turned to Rainbow Dash.

"It seems like we've got everything we can find here. Let's get going."



The two flew to Sugarcube Corner. As they landed, an orange filly with a purple mane approached them. Scootaloo beamed. "Hi, Dad!"

Biggs said, "Hey, Scoot. I can't play with you right now, I'm busy doing work." Scootaloo barely suppressed a snort.

"Hey Dad, can I borrow a couple of bits? The new Mare Do Well capes and hats are all the rage right now!" Biggs grumbled, but he gave his daughter the money. "Thanks, Dad!" She ran off towards a nearby market stall and got on line with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Biggs sighed.

"C'mon, let's go before I get swindled outta all of my hard earned bits." They entered the bakery. Inside, Pinkie Pie was lounging at the counter. She beamed when she saw the two come in.

"Hiya, Dashie! Hiya, Biggs! What can I get you? We just added the new Super Triple Fudge Cake Deluxe to the menu and I'm really excited because I like cake and I like chocolatebutIespeciallylikefudgeandIwonderwhatwouldhappenif-"

Rainbow Dash interrupted her. "Pinkie, we need to see your room. Look for clues, you know?"

Pinkie nodded. "Hey, Mr. Cake! Can you do me a favor and work the counter for a moment? I need to help Dashie with something!" The three went upstairs to her room. "Like you saw yesterday, I hid the costume under my mattress. I know it's kinda obvious, but it worked for me, so..."

Biggs asked, "I know it might be a little hard to remember every single customer that comes in here, but has anypony unusual come in here?" Pinkie looked offended.

"Silly Biggs! I never forget a face! Never ever! It's been kind of a slow couple of days, though. Spike came in three days ago to order some emerald cookies for the trip to Wrestle-mane-ia, and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle came in two days ago asking for help planning a surprise birthday party for Scootaloo. That's about it."

Biggs frowned. "The hell? Scoot's birthday isn't for another six months!" Pinkie left the room, went into the bathroom, returned with a bar of soap, and shoved it into Biggs' potty mouth. Biggs was not amused.



As Rainbow Dash began to fly to Fluttershy's cottage, Biggs stopped her. "I need to ask you something."

"Shoot."

"Why are you doing this?" The question stopped her in her tracks and gave her pause.

"What do you mean?"

"There's no reason to believe at this point that the new Mare Do Well is looking to get you. Seems to me like she's just some superhero wannabe trying to cash in on the fame of an old legend. So why do you want to find her so badly?"

"...You don't know what it's like to have everypony adore you, then lose it all to some Batpony knockoff. That identity has a lot of bad memories for me. I need to find her... It's personal." Biggs nodded, and the two took off for Fluttershy's cottage. They landed there and knocked on the door. Angel Bunny, her personal butler/right hoof bunny, answered the door. "Hi, Angel. Fluttershy should be expecting us." Angel nodded and let the two in, leading them to Fluttershy's kitchen where she was feeding some of her pet birds.

Fluttershy immediately greeted her two guests. "Hello, Rainbow Dash. Hello, Mr. Biggs. You're here about Mare Do Well, right?" The two nodded, and Fluttershy led them to her bedroom. Upon investigating her closet, they found nothing of significance.

Rainbow Dash asked, "Has anything weird happened lately?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "I had tea with Rarity last Tuesday, and Friday Apple Bloom and Scootaloo asked me for help possibly buying a pet at some point for Sweetie Belle." Biggs promptly facehoofed.

"That kid is going to drive me insane. Please tell me you gave some nice, responsible advice." Rainbow Dash had a disturbing vision of herself getting mauled to death by two Opalescences.

"Oh, yes. First time pet owners should definitely consider something harmless and easy to maintain, like a goldfish or..." Biggs and Rainbow Dash quickly decided to excuse themselves and spare themselves the ramble.



Having completed their investigation for the day, Biggs and Dash decided to grab some dinner at a local restaurant. As they sat down to eat, they began to discuss their findings. Rainbow Dash asked, "Do we have any suspects?"

Biggs shook his head. "Our main problem is how Mare Do Well got her hooves on the costume. Until two days ago, the seven people who knew her identity hadn't squawked, and we can eliminate pretty much all of the ponies that could have potentially stumbled onto it. Unfortunately, the only explanation I can offer at this point is that Applejack really is Mare Do Well."

"...iggs..."

Rainbow Dash flatly stated, "I'm not accusing her again without solid proof."

Biggs said, "Well, that's your problem, not mine. I'm heading home - I've been waiting to go back to sleep all day!"

"Biggs..."

Rainbow Dash snorted. "That doesn't sound very correct."

"I'm not a very correct pony."

"BIGGS! There you are, I've been looking all over for you!" It was Wedge.

Biggs grumbled, "I have been working all day with Rainbow Dash, and she will vouch-"

"Not now, Biggs! You have to come back to the castle! It's Scootaloo!" Wedge looked excited, a stark contrast to his typical stoic demeanor.

"What did she do this time?"

"She earned her cutie mark!"

Biggs stared at Rainbow Dash before turning back to Wedge. "...Wait, what?"