The MMMystery of the Headless Horse

by Matthais Unidostres

Part 3

Happy Halloween/Nightmare Night! Thank you for staying with me for this story. Your patience will be well rewarded! Please enjoy the conclusion of this mystery! Also, congratulations to everyone who solved it!

Twilight used her magic to gently lower the Headless Horse to the ground and remove the net from his pumpkin head.

"I can see your eyes through that jack-o-lantern," Twilight declared strongly, "And it's about time we all got to see your face!"

Twilight used her magic to remove the pumpkin from the pony's head.

Everypony gasped even louder than before as they saw who the Headless Horse really was.

"Princess Luna!?"

The Princess pulled herself out of then net and smiled, "Citizens of Ponyville! Wasn't that fun!"

"NO!" came a loud reply from the citizens of the town.

Luna blinked, looking very confused, "But. . .I thought. . .that thou likest me to scare you?"

Twilight was at a loss for words as she just stared at the Princess of the Night, "But. . but. . .this can't be! I was sure it was Trixie!"

"I thought it was Rainbow Dash!" Applejack said.

"We thought it was Diamond Tiara," Applebloom said as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded.

"I thought it was Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash working together," Spike said, "Well, that was what I thought before the first one turned out to be Pipsqueak, but-."

"I knew it was Princess Luna and Pipsqueak all along!" Pinkie Pie boasted with a smile.

"What! No way!" Twilight objected.

"Yes way!" Pinkie said with a wink.

"Alright then, prove it! How did you solve the mystery?" Twilight challenged.

"Okay, Sherlock!" Pinkie said, she then snatched Twilight's pipe, wiped it clean with a sanitary wipe, and blew a few bubble. "Alright," she began, "First of all, whenever the Headless Horse showed up, storm clouds would appear, and Luna has the power to summon storm clouds. Also, When the Headless Horse showed up literally with no head, either whoever it was was small enough to pull their head down into the costume, or could use magic to make their head invisible. Another clue was how the Headless Horse ran across the mud puddle without sinking in. He had to be small and light, and Pipsqueak's tiny body and lightweight wooden frame were light enough to do that. Also, Luna mentioned that Pip went to Fluttershy's house, but we didn't see him, because he was dressed up as the Headless Horse. Also, when Pip mentioned that Spike has been sending letters between him and Luna, that was the perfect way to put together this brilliant plan!"

And there's that bell the Headless Horse dropped. Twilight, you thought it came from Trixie's Starswirl the Bearded costume, but remember, the spider toss game gave out prizes, and among the prizes were bells with ribbons tied to them. Luna's really good at that game, so I'll bet she won a bell, but it somehow came untied from the ribbon and fell off. Also, a big huge clue was when the Headless Horse took off with Pip. Luna was afraid! Why would the big, powerful, Princess of the Night be afraid? The answer. . .she wouldn't! She had to have known what was going on, and did a little acting to make it look good. Too good! It backfired big time!"

"Hold on!" Applejack said, "If Pip and Luna were there at the same time, then who was that Headless Horse?"

Pinkie smiled, "Simple! Only one Royal Guard came to compare himself to Pip's costume, but we know that there were two guards pulling Luna's chariot. At the time, I knew it had to be Pip and Luna working together, so I figured Luna ordered one of the guards to dress up as the Headless Horse and carry away Pip for the final part of their plan."

Twilight looked very impressed. "Wow Pinkie. That's all very good reasoning. But you're forgetting one thing. The motive!"

"Revenge!" Pinkie Pie shouted dramatically.

Everypony gasped yet again.

"What! Revenge? Why?" Twilight said, clearly baffled.

Pinkie explained, "Well, first of all, Pip was the master mind of it all. Luna didn't want any revenge, she just wanted to have fun. Anyway, I heard Pipsqueak say that Luna was his favorite Princess ever. Also, just this night, he said 'anyone who has ever wronged or hurt my most favorite Princess ever will pay dearly.' And when I heard him thank Luna for saving him from drowning in the tub of water, it all clicked into place! The Headless Horse would usually make his target. The time he went after other ponies, or ran right by me, had to have been when Luna was the Headless Horse, but Pipsqueak was the other times."

Twilight groaned, "Pinkie! You're not making any sense! Why would Pipsqueak want revenge on you?"

Pinkie gave Twilight a serious look, "Twilight, remember how frustrated you got with me last Nightmare Night?"

Twilight nodded, "Yeah, sure. . ."

Pinkie nodded, and she explained, "Sometimes, one of my parties will be so much fun and fantastically awesome exciting super duper great, I'll actually not realize what went on until after it's over. It's kinds weird actually. Anyway, I think this might have happened to Pipsqueak. Maybe a few days later, he thought back to what happened on the Nightmare Night. He would have remembered me screaming and telling them to run away from Luna whenever he showed up, which, when you think about, actually sound kind of mean. He then would have thought of how nice Luna was when he got a better chance to really talked to her. He would have felt bad for running away from her all of those times. And then, the piece de resistance! Luna saving him from drowning in the apple bobbing tub. But did he ever get the chance to thank Luna for saving him? No! Why? Because mean old Pinkie Meanie-pants Pie came along and yelled that Luna was trying to eat him. He was so caught up in the excitement, that he actually ran away from his rescuer! And then everything literally came crashing down in a panic!"

Pinkie Pie shuffled nervously and said, "Like I explained, I didn't really notice the crying and broken stuff at the time, er, but I did afterwards. And so did Pip, and I'll bet ya a million corn cakes that he blamed for everything that went wrong."

"You bet I did!" Pipsqueak suddenly shouted at Pinkie Pie, suddenly becoming angry, "You nearly ruined Nightmare Night forever! Princess Luna almost canceled it because of you! So i decided to get back at you by making you scared for real! Not fake scared you used to hurt Luna's feelings and hog all the candy for yourself, but real big time super run through walls scared, you big, stupid, mean. . .stupid!"

"Pipsqueak!" Twilight shouted in shock, she then turned to Luna, "Princess! Why the Tartarus did you ever agree to this?"

Luna opened her mouth to speak, but Pinkie Pie spoke up first, "Don't you remember what we quote-unquote 'taught' Luna last time. That it's fun to be scared and that we all like it. Remember what Pip said: 'scary but fun!' So, Pip said that it would be 'fun' to really scare Ponyville next time. And Luna agreed, thinking 'scary=fun, so more scary=more fun'! And so they planed everything through their letters. Of course, Luna didn't know about the revenge plan, so the Headless Horse only went after me when Pip was wearing the costume."

"And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling grown-ups! And your dragon!" Pipsqueak said angrily.

"Actually, you kinda did!" Pinkie replied.

"Huh?" Pip said.

Pinkie bowed her head sadly, "You were right, I was being mean. I just wanted to have fun and get as much candy as I could. I should've known that after being Nightmare Moon for so long, with nopony caring about her or her nights, that she would want to be friends with everypony now that she's herself again. But I only thought of making Nightmare Night full of scary fun, at Luna's expense. So instead of making her smile, I made her sad and glum. And what's worse, is that I never even apologized for it."

Pinkie approached Princess Luna and bowed, "I'm really really really really really really really sorry you Highness. I won't ever be mean like that ever ever ever ever again."

Luna smiled and nodded, "Apology accepted, my little pony."

Pip's eyes widened as Luna walked over to him. Luna sat down so she was eye level with Pip. "There, now do you see the proper way to interact with someone you're upset with? Let them understand what they did wrong, and give them a chance to apologize. Wasn't all of that scheming too much, and didn't it do more harm than good? Do you understand?"

Pip nodded, "Yes, I see." Pip then looked over at the crowd around them, "I'm very sorry everypony. It was silly of me to get so worked up and do a crazy revenge plan. But Nightmare Night is still going on. Can we go back to having fun together?"

The crowd all nodded and said various forms of yes as smiles began to form on their faces.

Luna jumped into the air and hovered there, her wings flapping, and announced, "Very good! Now! Let us continued our celebration of our most wonderful of nights!"

---

As the party really took off in full swing, Twilight and Pinkie Pie took turns in spider launching.

"Wow Pinkie Pie. You really should have been Sherlock," Twilight said.

Pinkie shrugged, "What can I say? I'm a master detective!"

Applejack scratched her chin, "Ya know, there's still something bothering me. What the hay was Rainbow up to?"

As Luna hit the target with a pumpkin once again, Pipsqueak asked, "Hey! I bet you're not afraid of anything, right!"

Luna smiled and winked, "Of course, young Pip! The Princess of the Night is absolutely fearless!"

Suddenly, a huge hulking beast fell from the sky and landed right in front of Luna. It was a huge centaur, and it roared loudly in Luna's face.

"LORD TIREK! RUN FOR YOU LIVES!" Luna roared in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Her eyes were filled with terror as she ran over to the apple bobbing tub, knocked it over, and hid underneath it.

The centaur pulled off its head, revealing none other than Rainbow Dash.

"Ha-ha! I pranked the Princess! I pranked the Princess!" she cheered in a sing song voice.

A zipped opened up in the centaur's belly, and Scootaloo stuck her head out, "Don't you mean we pranked the Princess?"

"Scootaloo! Get back in! You're throwing off the bal-," Rainbow shouted urgently, but she was too late, and the whole thing; the costume, the two pegasi, and all; fell with a resounding crash to the ground.

Everyone couldn't help but laugh at the hilarious scene.

THE END

Comments

[Yukito]

""Ha-ha! I pranked the Princess! I pranked the Princess!" he cheered in a sing song voice." - And then Rainbow Dash was male

Also, Pinkie Pie's a pretty awesome detective... But then, when you have the power to bend the laws of reality to your will, you kinda have an unfair advantage

[Elzipper7]

1545166
th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/115/1/4/profile_rainbowblitz_by_trotsworth-d3eubmw.png

[Luckysweep]

Wow. You thought up of the Headless Horse before it ever became canon. Cool!

[MemeticHazard]

Called it. Who else would be the one to team up with Pipsqueak?

Also, for the purposes of this story Trixie's new name is Red Herring.

[FallenSummer]

I see someone is a Sherlock fan....