• Published 2nd Sep 2013
  • 2,753 Views, 116 Comments

Not Quite Romeo & Juliet [NaPoWriMo 2013] - Yukito



Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom hate each other. They hate each other so much, and they don't care what their families think. They will go to any lengths to ensure they never be together.

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5 - Gumshoe's Investigation

It had been over one full day since Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara ran away from their homes in Ponyville. Over twenty-four hours, and neither Applejack nor Filthy Rich were faring too well. Whilst Applejack was still able to function just fine and help out around the farmhouse, she was in no state-of-mind for strenuous farm work, and Filthy Rich had to file for vacation time until Diamond Tiara was found. He couldn’t even think about paperwork while his daughter’s safety whereabouts were unknown.

Gumshoe had questioned the ponies working at the train station and had discovered that they had boarded a train bound for Manehatten together. However, the train had several stops along the way. Eight towns and twelve tourist attractions. Counting Manehatten, that was twenty-one locations that they could have departed the train from.

For the time being, Gumshoe had sent a request for every precinct along the line to spread the posters of the missing ponies, and to question the train station employees in their towns. He had also sent requests for anypony working at the twelve tourist attractions to send whatever information they may have had about the two fillies.

Whilst he was waiting for that, he decided to gather whatever information about the fillies he could in order to determine where they might head to. “Filthy Rich is in no mindset for answerin’ questions. That big red fellow at the farm isn’t easy to talk to, and neither is the old windbag.”

“Applejack seemed calm enough ta talk,” Mr. Doyle said to his partner.

“Yes, but I’d rather start here,” Gumshoe said as he looked up at the schoolhouse standing before him. “You’d be surprised at how much more kids tell their friends before tellin’ their families, and school teachers tend to be sharp when it comes to readin’ kids’ minds.”

“But y’know it’s the weekend now, right? School’s out today!”

“I know the teacher who works here,” Gumshoe said. “She likes to grade papers inside the classroom.”

“Really? School on a weekend? I guess it’s no wonder she’s a virgi- OW!” Doyle glared at Gumshoe, who had just smacked him with his left forehoof. “What was that for?!”

“Please try to watch that mouth of yours when we’re questioning her. It’s because of you I can’t find a marefriend.”

“Hey, I’m just tellin’ it like it is.”

“Just leave the talking to me,” Gumshoe said as he approached the schoolhouse.


Cheerilee hummed a happy tune to herself as she looked through Silver Spoon’s paper beneath her with a red pen in her hoof. “Correct, correct… Close, but you forgot to carry the three…”

A knock at her door startled Cheerilee. She wasn’t expecting any visitors today. “Excuse me, Miss Cheerilee?”

Cheerilee turned to the classroom door to find a tall, scruffy-looking brown stallion in a grey trenchcoat standing at her door. His mane was a darker shade of brown than his coat, and he stared at her with his right eye closed the entire time. “Y-Yes? Can I help you?”

“Possibly,” the stallion said as he entered uninvited. “Detective Gumshoe, from the Ponyville Precinct.” Gumshoe raised his right forehoof to introduce the sock covering it. “And my partner, Mr. Doyle.”

“Yo!” Doyle said with a bow. “Alright missy, spill the beans!”

Cheerilee seemed taken aback by the sock puppet’s sudden demand. Gumshoe smacked his partner once more. “I said to watch what you say.” Gumshoe turned back to Cheerilee. “Apologies ma’am. Please don’t mind him.”

“I-It’s quite alright,” Cheerilee said, scooting backwards a little bit in her chair as the stallion approached her further.

“I would like to ask you some questions regarding two missing fillies from your class.”

Cheerilee’s fear was replaced with concern in an instant and she shot out of her chair, towards the detective. “M-Missing fillies? You wouldn’t happen to mean Apple Bloom and-”

“Diamond Tiara, yes,” Gumshoe said, slowly gesturing with his hooves for Cheerilee to step back a bit. “I take it you noticed their absence yesterday.”

Cheerilee nodded. “I simply assumed that they were trying to avoid their detentions and was going to visit their houses today. I had no idea that they were missing! What happened?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Gumshoe said, pulling out his notebook and jotting down the new information that he had just received. ‘Applejack stated that the motive for leaving written in Apple Bloom’s note was to avoid her arranged marriage with Diamond Tiara, but Diamond herself never left anything to suggest the same.’ “What were the two serving detention for?”

“Oh, they’re usually such sweet fillies,” Cheerilee said as she sat back down in chair. “When they’re separated, that is.”

“Kids are usually a hassle when they’re together,” Gumshoe said.

“No, not like that,” Cheerilee saved with a wave of her hoof. “They can’t stand each other, and they always get into arguments when they’re together. Sometimes they even fight.”

“Oh. I see,” Gumshoe said, writing this new information into his notebook. “I was under the impression that they were close friends since their families are.”

Cheerilee sighed. “Unfortunately not. But I guess you can’t pick your enemies. It must be though for their families, being so close to each other when those two fillies are constantly at war.”

“Makes me wonder why they tried to marry ‘em together,” Gumshoe said. “I guess now I see why the marriage was the reason that Apple Bloom left.”

“Marriage?” Cheerilee asked.

“Oh, apparently the two families had arranged a marriage between the two fillies,” Gumshoe told Cheerilee, whose eyes widened at the news. “Not exactly modern-day practice ‘round these parts, but apparently both families are big fans of the old school traditions.”

“A-Are they mad?!” Cheerilee shouted as she once again shot out of her seat and invaded the detective’s personal space. “You can’t force two fillies who hate each other so much like that together!”

“H-Hey-”

“I don’t care how close their families may be, there’s no reason the children should be a part of it if they don’t want to be!”

“Miss, please-”

“And it doesn’t matter what you try with fillies who hate each other that much, they will find a way to stay apart!”

“Miss!” Gumshoe shouted, snapping Cheerilee out of her state.

“S-Sorry. I just-”

“It’s okay,” Gumshoe lied as he pushed Cheerilee away from him. “Thank you. I think I now have a better understanding of their motives for leaving, though I can’t understand why they would leave together given this new information.”

“They left together?” Cheerilee asked, receiving a nod from Gumshoe. “… I… I don’t know. I tried to partner the two up in Art class once, but that proved to be a mistake. The two just can’t work together at all.”

“Perhaps their friends might know something,” Gumshoe muttered to himself. “I’ll go and gather more information. In the meantime, I suggest you think up some kind of explanation to tell your students on Monday. We don’t want them panicking over their classmates’ safety.”

Cheerilee nodded. “Please, find them soon.”

“I will,” Gumshoe said as he turned to leave, striking a cool pose at the door. “That’s my job.”

“… Laaaaaaame,” Doyle said, before receiving a smack from Gumshoe’s hoof.


Gumshoe had to admit that he was jealous. He was a jealous of a filly, who seemed to have more in value in her bedroom than he had in his entire house. Her was no expert on perfume and jewellery, but what he could see on the filly’s vanity looked like it would cost more than his paycheck if he broke any of it. The carpet was incredibly soft under his hooves, and as if the sheer number of dresses in the filly’s closet wasn’t enough, many of them were encrusted with jewels, too.

Her room is bigger than mine, too,’ Gumshoe thought to himself as he sighed. ‘Some ponies really have it great.

“Tea?” Silver Spoon asked as she sat down opposite to the detective, having finished sitting her stuffed animals around the table.

“Uh, sure,” Gumshoe said, not really paying much attention as his mind was more focussed on whether her bed was softer than his own. It certainly looked it.

“Here,” Silver Spoon said as she offered a small cup of tea to the stallion.

Gumshoe looked at the cup and picked it up. “Thanks.” He took a sip and had to repress the urge to gag. ‘GAH! Too rich for me!’ Swallowing what was in his mouth, Gumshoe lay the cup down and pulled out a small picture of Diamond Tiara. “Am I correct in assuming you are the Silver Spoon who is best friends with one Diamond Tiara?”

Silver Spoon nodded, a worried look on her face. “What’s wrong? Is Diamond in trouble? I’m sure whatever she did, she didn’t mean it! She just likes to prank ponies and sometimes goes a little far, but she’s a good pony at heart!”

“N-No. That’s not what this is about,” Gumshoe assured her. “… Right, well, there’s no easy way to say this… I’m afraid that Diamond Tiara is… missing.”

Silver Spoon gasped. “Missing?” Gumshoe nodded. “W-What do you-”

“On Thursday night,” Gumshoe began, “She seems to have snuck out of her home and boarded a train bound for Manehatten with another filly, Apple Bloom.”

Silver Spoon tilted her head to the side. “With Apple Bloom?”

“That’s correct.”

“That’s impossible,” Silver Spoon said. “She hates Apple Bloom.”

“So I’ve heard,” Gumshoe said. “The reason for her leaving seems to be that her father had arranged for her and Apple Bloom to marry each other.”

“Diamond’s getting married?!” Silver Spoon gasped. “Oh my gosh! Do you think she’d let me be her bridesmaid?!”

Gumshoe raised an eyebrow at the fill with stars in her eyes. “Uh, I don’t think-”

“Oh, I’ve got to find the perfect wedding gift for her! And a dress! I’d better have father make a call to Ms. Fleur’s Emporium!”

“They have no intention of marrying each other,” Gumshoe said, snapping the filly out of her dreamy state and bringing her back to reality. “I believe that they ran away to avoid the marriage.”

Silver Spoon’s face fell and her ears drooped. “Oh, right… I guess that makes sense. Still, why wouldn’t Diamond tell me anything?”

Gumshoe shrugged. “Perhaps she was in a hurry. Or else she had a reason not to. That’s why I’m here. I would like to ask you, her best friend, for your opinion on what she may be thinking.”

“What she may be thinking?” Silver Spoon asked with a puzzled look on her face.

“If we’re to believe that her motive for running away was indeed to avoid the marriage, then the obvious contradiction is that she fled with Apple Bloom. Why do you think that is?”

Silver Spoon lowered her head, placed a hoof to her chin, and closed her eyes. “… If she didn’t tell me… then she likely thought that she’d be getting me into trouble and wanted to avoid that.”

“That’s mighty considerate of her.”

Silver Spoon nodded. “She knows I’m aiming for a scholarship at Canterlot University, so despite the pranks we pull around town, she always pulls the really big pranks by herself. She probably left me in the dark about this because she didn’t want me to miss my important schoolwork.”

She’s thinking about her future at such a young age? Sheesh, what a little bookworm.’ Gumshoe scratched the back of his head in thought. “Okay, so that explains that, but why run away with Apple Bloom?”

“Well, I guess she needed somepony to escort her,” Silver Spoon said. “Despite the way she always acts tough around other, Diamond’s actually kind of a coward.”

“And going to an unfamiliar location would be pretty scary for a filly her age,” Gumshoe muttered. “She probably asked Apple Bloom because she was her best bet, since they were both in the same mess together… Any ideas where Diamond Tiara would go?”

Silver Spoon shook her head. “If she went to Manehatten, then all I can say is that she’d avoid her father’s business branches if she doesn’t want to be caught.”

Gumshoe sighed. Not much help, but it was better than nothing. “I see. Thanks… Can I ask you to keep quiet about the fact that Diamond Tiara is missing for now? At least to your classmates.”

“Why? Shouldn’t they know that their classmate is in trouble?” Silver Spoon asked.

“I would just like to avoid unnecessary panic for now,” Gumshoe explained. “Don’t worry. I will find her, and soon.”

Silver Spoon offered an uneasy smile and a nod. “Y-Yeah… Please do…”

Ignoring the tea still sitting on his desk, Gumshoe rose to his hooves and turned to leave the room. ‘Right, next stop, Apple Bloom’s friends.


After an entire hour walking around all over Ponyville and asking questions, Detective Gumshoe finally managed to find the two fillies that he had been searching for. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom’s two closest friends. The three of them together were part of some kind of club called the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’, whose primary objective seemed to be ‘cause terror and spread chaos all across Ponyville’.

Thankfully, only two were present, so it would probably be easier to speak with them. “Well, I can always hope so, right?” Gumshoe asked himself as he approached the two fillies playing cards in the park.

“You got any threes?” Scootaloo asked.

“Go fish!” Sweetie Belle cheered with a big smile on her face. “I like this game!”

“Only ‘cause you’re winning…” Scootaloo muttered as she picked up a card from the deck. She noticed the shadow spreading over the cards and turned to her right to see a strange-looking stallion approaching them. “Uh… hi?”

“Hello there,” Gumshoe said as she crouched down to speak with the two fillies. “My name is Gumshoe. I’m a detective over at the Ponyville Precinct.”

“Oh yeah!” Sweetie Belle said. “You were the one who helped Rarity find her missing ribbon a few weeks ago, weren’t you?”

“… Oh. You’re Rarity’s sister?” ‘Celestia give me strength.

“Yep! What’s up? Did something happen with Rarity again?”

“Are we in trouble?” Scootaloo asked, backing up a little bit and placing her cards down onto the ground. “I swear I had nothing to do with the broken water fountain! It was already like that when I-”

“Calm down,” Gumshoe said, reaching into his coat for the picture of Apple Bloom that he had brought along. ‘Actually, I’m the one who broke that water fountain.’ The detective pulled out the picture and showed it to the two fillies. “You are acquainted with this filly, are you not?”

The two fillies nodded. “Apple Bloom’s sick today, though,” Sweetie Belle said. “Granny Smith said she has a bad case of the chicken pox, which is strange ‘cause I thought you could only get that once?”

Gumshoe put the picture back into his coat and shook his head. “I’m afraid the situation is a bit more serious than that.”

Both fillies gasped at once. “More serious? Like what? Does she have some kind of new, unknown, incurable, deadly super-virus from playing around in the Everfree Forest too much?!” Sweetie Belle asked.

“No,” Gumshoe said in a flat tone.

“Was she kidnap by a dangerous mob boss who’s demanding the Apples hoof over their land if they ever want to see Apple Bloom safely returned ever again?!”

“N-” Gumshoe paused to think that over for a moment. A cold sweat dripped down his face. ‘Let’s just hope that isn’t the case.’ “No.”

“Then what is it?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“… Well, on Thursday night, it appears that Apple Bloom, along with another filly, ran away together.”

Sweetie Belle gasped. “She’s eloping?!”

“E-whating?” Scootaloo asked.

“That’s not likely to be the case,” Gumshoe said. “The pony that she ran away with was Diamond Tiara.”

“Diamond Tiara?!” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Guys, what’s eloping?”

Gumshoe nodded. “It would seem that the two ran away together to avoid some sort of arranged marriage imposed upon them by their families.”

“But… that doesn’t make any sense!” Sweetie Belle said.

“What’s eloping?!”

“Apple Bloom hates Diamond Tiar-”

“Yeah, I’ve heard,” Gumshoe told her. “It is my belief that Diamond Tiara convinced her to run away with her for protection, and my current theory is that Apple Bloom agreed because Diamond Tiara has her father’s money, making running away much easier.”

“Guys-”

“Where did she go?” Sweetie Belle asked, a concerned look on her face. “Is she safe?”

Gumshoe shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s what I’m investigating now. I know that she boarded a train bound for Manehatten, but where she got off is still a mystery. I don’t suppose that you, as her close friend, might know where she would go to after running away?”

Sweetie Belle put a hoof to her chin and closed her eyes. “Manehatten… Wait, isn’t that where Babs lives?” she asked Scootaloo, who nodded in confirmation.

“Babs?” Gumshoe asked, taking out his notebook and jotting the name down.

“Apple Bloom’s cousin,” Sweetie Belle explained, “And fellow Cutie Mark Crusader!”

“And what is her relationship with Apple Bloom like?” Gumshoe asked. “Are they close?”

“Welllll… it started out kinda rough, but after working some things out, she’s been a really good friend to us, and she keeps in touch with Apple Bloom with letters.”

“They’re penpals,” Gumshoe summarised, receiving a nod from Sweetie Belle. “Interesting…” ‘I’ll ask the Manehatten Precinct to look into this filly for me.

“Hey,” Scootaloo said, gathering Gumshoe’s attention. “You’re gonna find her, right? And bring her back safe?”

Gumshoe nodded. “Of course,” he said as he rose to his hooves. “Thank you for your co-operation. I’d like to ask you don’t tell any of your classmates about the missing fillies. Just so that they don’t start to panic or freak out.”

The two fillies nodded. “Hey!” Sweetie Belle shouted suddenly. “Maybe we can help! We might find our Cutie Marks in finding missing ponies!”

“Good idea!” Scootaloo said excitedly.

Oh no,’ Gumshoe thought as he quickly turned around to leave. Unfortunately, the two fillies were already in front of him, blocking his path and staring at him with big, wide eyes and wide, innocent smiles on their faces. “E-Er… W-Well then, how about you start by, um… l-looking for clues? Like, away from here?”

The two fillies saluted. “Yes, sir!” they shouted in unison before running off into the town together.

“… Maybe some of those reports have come in. I should check back at the precinct.”


“Nothing,” Gumshoe muttered as he dropped the document onto the table and picked up the next one. “Five stations in, and not a single sighting. And I’ve only received ten reports so far. At this rate, they might not even be at any of the twenty-one locations by the time an eyewitness account turns up.”

“Why the hay hasn’t anything turned up yet?” Doyle asked. “That Filthy Rich guy’s offering a ten thousand bit reward for anypony who finds his daughter!”

“That’s something I could have done without,” Gumshoe said. “That’s just going to cause an abundance of reported sightings to start coming in, and it’ll be even harder to find the real ones buried among the fake or mistaken ones.”

“Still, the guy must be stinkin’ rich ta just be throwin’ ‘round money like that!”

“That’s his father,” Gumshoe corrected. “This is Filthy Rich.”

“No, I mean- Ah, forget it!”

Gumshoe read over the sixth document on his pile. “… Nothing.”

“By the way, when was the credit card used?” Doyle asked. “If we can determine the time, maybe we can cut down on the number of potential stations they got off at.”

“Unfortunately, this new credit card system is still a bit finicky. It’s quick to alert a pony when their card was used, but it’ll take some time to gather more detailed information, such as time and exact location.”

“Man, if only we had just one witness who could narrow down the number of places to search.”

“Hey Detective Gumshoe!” a cheerful young voice cried as the precinct’s door slammed open.

I need to put a sign on that thing, telling ponies not to slam it when they enter.’ Gumshoe looked over towards the door to find Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle running inside, followed by a nervous-looking stallion in a brown fedora hat and a grey sweater vest. “What is it, girls? I’m very busy at the moment.”

“We got a witness!” Scootaloo said.

“We found somepony who saw them!” Sweetie Belle added.

“… What?” Gumshoe asked, the disbelief clear in his voice and his face as he turned to face the stallion.

“Go on, tell him!” Scootaloo demanded.

The stallion nodded and stepped forward. “U-Um, the two fillies… They were only described to me, but they sound an awful lot like two fillies I saw departing the train at the Manehatten station yesterday morning.”

Gumshoe raised an eyebrow and placed the documents in his hooves down onto his table. “And how can you be sure?” he asked. “You interacted with them?”

“N-No…”

“Then what made them stick out so much that you remembered them so clearly?”

The stallion looked down at the floor and fiddled his forehooves together. “W-Well, they were an… interesting duo,” he said. “One was dressed like a Canterlot noble, and the other was carrying so many bags on her back, like a bellboy. And… I remember being startled by their raised voices as they started to argue with each other…”

Gumshoe put a hoof to his chin in thought. ‘It certainly sounds like them, but…

“We did it! We found them!” Scootaloo cheered as she and Sweetie Belle bounced up-and-down behind the stallion.

Gumshoe reached into his coat and pulled out two photographs, placing them onto his desk for the stallion to look at.

“Oh, yes. That’s them alright,” the stallion said. “I remember thinking they were an usual couple of ponies to be travelling together. Like night and day, or something like that.”

Gumshoe nodded and reached into his desk drawer for a form. He scribbled something down onto it and then signed it at the bottom. “Here,” he said as he handed both the form and a note to the stallion. “Go to the address on there and show the form to Mr. Filthy Rich. This is proof of the information you have given me, and will ensure he offers you a reward for helping our investigation.”

The stallion read over the form. “A reward?”

“Not the full amount, I’m afraid, but if your information proves accurate then a sum of three thousand bits.”

“T-THREE THOUS-” the stallion seemed to choke for a few seconds, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed onto the floor. “Three thousand…” he muttered as his legs twitched.

Gumshoe rose out of his chair and grabbed his trenchcoat. “Well then, I guess I’d better ask Applejack to tell me more about this ‘Babs’ pony.”

Author's Note:

Well, seems the investigation's going well. Don't worry folks! Seems good ol' Detective Gumshoe will have our two favourite fillies back in our town before you can say "Dat Tsundere" ^_^

Diamond Tiara: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M NOT IN THIS CHAPTER?!"

Aaaaaaand that's my cue to leave! *Yukito uses Flee*