Sherlock Hooves and the Case of the Missing Scooter

by elbj

In the Dark

The afternoon crowd was starting to thin out as we entered the town. Vendor carts lined the streets. Most were closed, a few were still trying to sell their goods, but they were having a hard time since the stores had opened up their doors for business. This was lucky for us, picking a little filly like Diamond Tiara, or Silver Spoon, out of a crowd could have proved difficult.

"Ok, here's the plan," I stopped and began explaining to the fillies that were following me, "They're likely done with lunch, so we won't search any of the restaurants. My guess is that she's shopping. We'll check out Rarity's Boutique first and then go from there."

"Sherlock you're a genius!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. Well I am smarter than the average foal, but genius may be a bit over the top. No. she was right, I have almost single-hoofedly tracked down a thief with barely anything to go on. Only a true genius could do such a thing. I understood her awe now, she was witnessing greatness with her own eyes. Just remember Sherlock, play it cool.

"Well it's all in a day’s work. I just simply used logic to deduce that little fact as well as many others along the way," I closed my eyes and sat there and waited for the fawning over my impressive intellect to begin. Surely, if the other two had been as impressed as Apple Bloom was they would be all over me any minute.

Any minute.

Any minute, now.

I sat there for what seemed like an eternity. I had become so enraptured in my own genius, I had forgotten about the others feelings. How could I be so inconsiderate?

"Oh, of course my dearest apologies, I should have known you'd be too enthralled..." I didn't finish the sentence. As I opened my eyes, I saw there was no reason to. They had left. I knew where they were, but it still hurt. After briefly soaring up to the heavens, my ego had just come crashing back to down to earth. I really need to work on my charisma. Or maybe it was something I ate. Either way, I was now left alone to wallow in my own self-pity, stupidity, and possibly foul breath.

"Why the long face?" giggled a voice behind me. Oh Celestia. Who was the clever pony? Who could come up with a joke that even foals younger than I think is groan-inducingly awful? I was not in the mood for this right now. I turned around, ready to give them my two bits, and I was met with the biggest smile I had ever seen. It literally went from the base of one ear to the other. I was absolutely terrified, for a second, I thought I was going to be eaten; such a large mouth could easily fit my small body into it and possibly swallow me whole. A sickeningly sweet aroma radiated off of this bubbly pink mare. If I had not known better I would have run away as fast as my hooves could take me, but instead I answered back.

"Oh, hey Pinkie," I grumbled.

"Well hey Sherlock you seem awfully down today. Should I sing you a song to cheer you up?" She inhaled, preparing to sing. NO. NO.NO. I had to stop her, whenever Pinkie starts to sing a song the rest of the town likes to get involved. I did not need to make a scene and draw attention to myself when I'm trying to tail Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara! UGH! I'm supposed to be tailing her looking for Scootaloo's Scooter. Staying on task in an investigation is a lot harder than I thought it would be. At least this gave me a way to avoid Pinkie's infernal singing.

"Wait! Pinkie, please, wait, please, don't sing," I pleaded, "I need to talk to you about something."

"Hmm..." She looked me over once, I wasn't sure what she was looking for, but I guess she found it. "Okey Dokey Lokey, what kind of something are we talking about?" she asked as she tossed aside a pair of ice skates, a harmonica, and a white top hat. I had no idea where she had gotten those. My father always told me to avoid Pinkie Pie because there was something 'different' about her. He never specified if it was a good or bad kind of 'different'. He only told me that if anything unexplainable were to happen while I was with her, I was never allowed to question it in front of her. Something about time, space or the fabric of reality, I wasn't really paying attention because I never had to worry about it much. I avoided Pinkie for another reason. She’s annoying.

"Well Pinkie, it’s a very important something, but if you don't mind I'd like to talk to you in private." I said quietly.

"Ooooooo, that does sound important." I couldn't tell if she was mocking me or just being stupid.

"Can we go into your shop and talk there?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Why do you want to go there, when we can just talk in here?" She laughed as she grabbed me and jumped. It went black after that.

When I woke up it was completely dark. I couldn't tell where I was, but judging by the pounding in my head, I was upside down. I checked my body, everything seemed fine. I had free range of motion, which I thought was odd considering I had been foalnapped. I had been foalnapped. The shock of realizing this statement paralyzed me. I began to breathe heavily. Had Pinkie really foalnapped me? I thought she was annoying, but I never saw her as a criminal. But what if she was? Was it because she had stolen the scooter? Was she so afraid of us catching her that she foalnapped to me stop the investigation? I had no doubt a missing colt would draw all of the attention away from our missing scooter case. I gathered myself, Calm down and get it together, Sherlock. I have to get out of here. I can't let Pinkie win this way. I felt the walls of the room I had been locked in. They were wooden and the room was round and not very big at all. I could touch every part of the room by standing in the center. However, the room wasn't big enough for me to get on all fours, very smart. I could move comfortably enough, by leaning on two legs, but I didn't have enough room on four to try to kick the walls out.

"Whoever foalnapped me definitely knew what they were doing." I mumbled just trying stifle my own thoughts. Then I heard something I wasn't expecting: Another voice. And it was above me.

"Foalnapped? Silly you weren't foalnapped." The voice giggled a giggle that could have belonged to only one pony, Pinkie Pie. She dropped down from the ceiling of the room and landed right on top of me.

“Wooo!” She cheered gleefully, “That was quite a trip!”

"Ahh! Ow! Pinkie! What's going on!?" I yelled in a mixture of pain and anger.

"Shh!" she hushed, "If you keep making all that noise somepony's going to find us." I was dumbfounded.

"Yeah that's the point," I shot back at her.

"I thought you said you wanted to talk privately," She began to whisper obnoxiously loud.

"Yeah, at the Bakery would have been fine." I was content with using my normal speaking voice.

She laughed again, as if this was all a big joke, "But then we wouldn't be having this much fun." I couldn't believe it. This was fun for her.

"Pinkie, I don't like this. This isn't funny. Where are we? Please let me go." I pleaded with her. She just laughed again.

"Oh Sherlock, you're so funny. We're in a tree silly," I didn't know how to respond to that statement. She said it like it was obvious. I was terrified of what else I'd find out by questioning the current situation. I needed to get out of here as soon as possible, this pony was clearly unstable, and I didn't know how to handle this. The only thing she was interested in was having our private conversation. I decided to give her what she wanted.

"So, uh, Pinkie," I stammered, "W-what were you doing t-today during lunch time?"

"Hmm..." She pondered. It was still pitch black in this tree. There was no way to read her body language to see if she was lying. This is the absolute worst place to question somepony.

"Today, during lunch, I took Gummy to the spa." She said. I was amazed she had given such a clear-cut answer. I could easily clear this with the spa workers.

"Wow, thanks Pinkie this really helps a lot," I said. I started to think about it and even though she had seriously scarred me for life because of this, she was just trying to help in her own way.

"No problem, Sherlock, I'm glad to help you find Scootaloo's Scooter." she replied cheerfully. I felt her foreleg wrap around my midsection. I closed my eyes and she jumped. There was pulling sensation coming from every area on my body I didn't know what was happening, but I was too afraid to look. When the sensation stopped I opened my eyes again and we were back outside. The sun hung low in the sky. The street was just as empty as when we left it. Everything seemed normal. I looked at Pinkie and she just smiled and giggled her annoying giggle.

"Well I guess you better be leaf-ing now, Sherlock," She winked at me and gestured over my shoulder. I shuddered at the pun. Not only was the lack of quality in it terrible, but I was pretty sure I had just developed a very real fear of trees.

"Hey, Sherlock where have you been?" a voice behind me spoke up. It was Scootaloo. Oh thank goodness, they had not left me after all! Sure it took them a few hours to come looking for me, but better late than never.

"We've been waiting for you at the Boutique. It was starting to get dark, we got worried and came looking for you," Apple Bloom was clearly concerned. I turned to face them and apologize.

"I'm so sorry, you guys, I ran into Pinkie Pie and well," I struggled with how to explain what exactly had happened, so I decided to change topics. "Did you guys see Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon at the Boutique?"

"Oh yea they were there," Sweetie Belle said.

"Well did you find out anything?" I was getting anxious.

"They've been at Rarity's since school let out. Rarity's been there the whole time, too," she said dragging her hoof in the dirt. The look of exasperation must have been apparent on my face because as I sat down and looked at the others they refused to meet my eyes. All except for Scootaloo, but I couldn't even look in her general direction. We were all on the verge of tears. Our main leads had gone and nopony else was likely to have taken the scooter.

The sun was beginning to set. We all had to go home. The four of us exchanged glances one last time and departed. I looked back at Scootaloo. There was so much I wanted to say to her. I wanted to apologize for not being able to find her scooter, for not handling this investigation the right way. I wanted to properly thank her for reaching out to me and being a friend.

I watched her disappear behind the Cake's Bakery. I never even opened my mouth. I turned and started to walk home. I have never felt so useless in my life. She had depended on me and I let her down. I failed at every turn. Every lead was wrong, any clues were useless. I prayed for a miracle

"Please," I choked, "something, anything that could help, please Celestia! I'm only a colt. I don't think I can do this on my own." The sun had set and the moon took its place. I looked up as Luna painted the night with stars; it was one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. It would have been nice to relax this time and just stare at the night sky, and lose myself in it, but I still had work to do.

I finished my walk home in the dark.

Comments

[elbj]

2657037
I'm glad you like it and you would make a great detective. However, I never said there weren't hoof prints at the scene. They just weren't mentioned because almost all the ponies in Ponyville have the same style of hooves making identifying one set from another nearly impossible. I heavily considered having a pegasus use this as a technique to steal the scooter, but decided against it.

[Nolongerposting]

2663780
Another good chapter. Pinkie Pie is being as Pinkie Pie as ever. Now on your thing about hoofprints. If there were hoofprints at the scene they could have followed them and that would have lead them right to whoever stole the scooter. Either way Im looking forward to the next chapter. Hope it comes soon.

[elbj]

2663881
I really enjoyed writing Pinkie Pie just because she is the complete opposite of Sherlock.
As for the hoofprints thing, I see the path to and from the clubhouse as a dry dirt path so, unless it rains, it would be impossible to whose hoofprints are whose and where they were going. I probably could have mentioned it better in the second chapter, but I was torn between making the observation and breaking character. If he makes the observation the reader gets it, but at the same time he would be noticing something that every other pony wouldn't think twice about because they just know all their hooves are the same size.

Note: I hope this doesn't sound like arguing, I'm just trying to show why it didn't happen. If there are flaws in my logic please point them out because if Sherlock makes to many illogical decisions the story won't work.

[FireBlastThePony]

Well, Pinkie Pie pretty much wasted all of his valuable time. Anyway, great chapter! Excited to see where this goes from here.

[Nolongerposting]

2664022
Fair point. I had hoped that I wasn't sounding like I was arguing. When I write I fuss over every little detail (or so it seams) and if I were writing a Sherlock Fanfiction I would have hoofprinet (or footprints) as a clue but this isn't my Fanfiction so I'm just going to sit back and read what ever you come up with next.

[elbj]

2664091
It didn't really sound like an argument I just wanted to make sure it didn't escalate into a flamewar. I appreciate the feedback. Keep leaving awesome comments it could really me with the developing the story.
2664085
She sure did. I felt like it was good time for her to be a wrench into the process and completely throw off Sherlock, so I did I would love to see Sherlock become a good enough detective to solve the mystery that is Pinkie Pie. But that's along way off.

[Nolongerposting]

2664411
Will do. Hope you update soon.