Chapter 21: World’s Greatest Detective
“… police has as of yet been unable to ascertain how the unknown individual was able to gain access to the Canterlot University science laboratory building without being caught on security cameras or tripping the alarm. Thankfully, nobody seems to have been hurt during the break-in late last night. According to Captain Shining Armor of the 5th Precinct, no hazardous substances that could pose a threat to public safety have been stolen. Asked what the ultimate goal of the robber might have been, the captain declined to speculate, citing the ongoing investigation. We will update you on this story as more information becomes available. For Canterlot News Radio, this is Wallflower Blush.”
Sunset turned off her car radio and pulled out her phone to shoot off a quick text message. “Hey, Sparky. Heard about the break-in at CU. U okay?” Grabbing her shoulder bag, she got out of her car and walked up to the house she’d just arrived at, marveling at the colonial-style mansion.
As she stepped closer, the front door opened and two of her students stepped out to greet her. “Hi, Ms. Sunset!” Pipp said brightly.
“Hey,” Sunset replied, “I wasn’t sure I had the right address. This feels like it should have its own zip code.” She turned to look back at the gravel path she’d driven up on and realized that she couldn’t even see the iron fence that denoted the property entrance from here.
“It’s a major hassle sometimes, living out here in Zephyr Heights,” Zipp said, “but it’s nice when you want to go out jogging without being bothered.”
Sunset nodded. “I bet. You look … different. It’s a good look on you.” Pipp was wearing a less colorful dress than she usually did in school, but Zipp proved to be the more surprising sight, considering she didn’t usually wear dresses at all, much less all the frill that went with this one.
Zipp answered with a dead-pan stare. “Our mother made us wear these for your visit. If you tell anyone at school that you saw me wearing this, I will deny it.”
The trio entered the wide entrance hallway, and Sunset couldn’t help but keep her head on a swivel, considering all the decorations and plush carpeting on display. Her eyes lingered on a set of large oil portraits, all looking very similar in style and features.
Noticing the look, Pipp said: “Pretty amazing, right? Hey, this should interest you as a history teacher. Allow me to give you the overview.” She positioned herself next to the first portrait and held out her arm like a tour guide.
Zipp groaned and rolled her eyes. “Must you, sis?”
Pipp frowned back. “Mom made me memorize these lines, you’re the one who researched the family tree. When else am I gonna get to show this off to someone who might actually be interested? Besides, Mom’s still on the phone. We got a couple minutes.” She cleared her throat and began while Sunset listened politely to the family history lesson. “This is our great-great-grandmother who was the founder and editor of the Canterlot Herald, the first town newspaper when Canterlot City was barely a railway stopover back in the 1890s.
“Next up we have our great-grandmother who established the first commercial radio station in the state in 1923, followed by our grandmother who added Canterlot’s first local TV station to the family business in the 50s. And finally, of course, here’s a picture of our mother who took over as CEO of Haven Media twenty years ago and launched us into the digital age with our own streaming service, thus earning her the title ‘Queen of Canterlot Media.’”
Sunset nodded and spoke after Pipp had apparently finished. “They all look very … imposing.”
Zipp suppressed a chuckle. “Told you.”
While wobbling her head back and forth, Pipp replied: “The artist who painted these was very insistent that he wanted to convey the gravitas of a line of successful businesswomen.”
“Our great-great-grandmother looked nothing like this stoic Victorian image,” Zipp explained. “I actually found an old photograph of her covered in mud and wrestling a bull to the ground with her bare hands at the state fair. I was lobbying really hard to have that digitally restored and hung on the wall instead.”
Sunset couldn’t help but chuckle. “That makes much more sense when I look at the two of you.”
Pipp shrugged her shoulders and began walking again. “Come on, our mom should be ready by now.” She led the way into a lushly decorated sitting room with a coffee table and comfy sofas and chairs. On the other side of the room was a door, slightly ajar, that seemed to lead to a much more modern-looking home office. “Mom? Our teacher is here!”
The door opened a little more and a middle-aged woman with purple-gray hair and a matching business blazer stepped halfway out while holding up a finger and a cordless phone in the other hand. “Can you get me anything else for the 6 o’clock? … Of course it helps if he’s cute, but we can’t run a segment on just the police captain stonewalling press questions. We’re a news station, not a model agency. … Alright, just pull some archival footage of the lab and the university for a voice-over. Also, see if you can’t get some retired professor to agree to an interview on short notice. Those old academics love to appear on TV as experts. I gotta go.
“I’m so sorry, Miss Shimmer,” she said, hanging up the phone and shaking Sunset’s hand with a pleasant smile. “Of course, the one day I take off from work, the biggest local crime story of the year breaks. Please,” she added, gesturing towards the comfortable sofa, and they all sat down.
“It’s not a problem, Mrs. Haven. I know you’re a busy woman.”
“Please.” She waved that off. “Mrs. Haven is my mother. Just call me Haven, dear.”
“Alright then.” Sunset reached into her bag and brought out several papers. “First things first, I’m supposed to give these to you. They’re mostly information leaflets about the Camp Everfree trip at the end of this school year and the list of books and materials for the coming school year for you to look over, since you missed the last few PTA meetings.”
“Yes, I’m terribly sorry that you had to come down here and do this in person,” Haven replied as she began glancing through the stack. “It’s so hard to find the time. Oh, what’s this? A play? And you’re both in it? Why is this the first time I’m hearing about it?” She picked out the poster for Der Shimmelreiter and held it up.
“Well,” Zipp began, “we didn’t know if you would be able to make it, so we wanted to make sure the date was final before telling you.”
“Nonsense! I will move heaven and earth if I have to to come and watch the premiere.”
Sunset couldn’t help but notice the look that passed between the sisters, as if they’d heard that one before and nothing had come of it.
Showing that she at least wasn’t totally oblivious to her daughters’ school lives, she looked at Sunset and said: “I understand we have you to thank for the fact that CHS still has a drama club to begin with.”
“Oh, well. Maybe a little. There were some issues at the beginning of the year, since the regular advisor is absent, but we worked it out.” Remembering the monetary issues and Celestia’s remarks, Sunset couldn’t help but wonder as she sat here in this literal mansion. “If I may ask, why aren’t Zipp and Pipp attending Crystal Prep? From the outside, it certainly looks like you could afford it.”
Far from being offended, Haven leaned back with a smile. “Tell me, Miss Shimmer, did you go to a public school?”
Sunset nodded. “Yes, I’m a CHS graduate as a matter of fact.”
“As am I,” Haven answered. “Our family has reported the news in this community for generations now. And yes, we’ve done well for ourselves in doing so. But it doesn’t do to lose touch with the common folk in this business. Oh, I’ll splurge money on my girls when they’re at home or we’re taking a spa trip, but I want them to grow up in the real world, not some gated community, so they’ll be ready for it when they graduate.”
Sunset couldn’t argue with that logic, though a voice in the back of her head that sounded remarkably like Celestia put in: A bit of that money certainly wouldn’t go amiss in keeping the lights on in the classroom, though.
“Alright, is there anything else I should be aware of, Miss Shimmer? I hope my girls are doing well.”
Sunset nodded carefully. “They’re both doing fine, but there’s always room for improvement. Pipp can be a little … distracted at times, for obvious reasons.”
Haven gave her a look that said what she was getting at was anything but obvious, until Sunset indicated with her head and Haven looked at her daughter who was in turn looking at the phone screen. Only after the silence became noticeable, did Pipp look up with a questioning glance. “Huh?”
“Personally,” Sunset began diplomatically, “I’ve found it helpful to have something like a digital cleanse every once in a while. Just select a day of the month and turn off all electronic devices to reconnect with the real world.”
“I can stop whenever I want,” Pipp said petulantly and put her phone on the coffee table. When it made a notification sound, she mounted the will to keep still on her seat for a whole two seconds before she reached for it. “I haven’t technically started yet.”
Haven had a slight frown on her face. “Noted, Miss Shimmer. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. What about Zipp? I’ve noticed her grades are vastly better in the classes you teach in comparison to the others.”
Sunset scratched her head. “I’m not sure I can take all the credit. Ms. Cheerilee is very complimentary of Zipp’s skills in English, especially when it comes to writing essays. But she could put a little more effort into the sciences.”
Getting a look from her mother, Zipp simply shrugged. “Sciences are boring. You’ll always come to the same conclusion if you use the right formula. All that changes is the numbers on the questions. It’s much more fun to arrive at a unique answer through figuring things out.”
“I feel like Zipp needs to be challenged,” Sunset pointed out. “That’s what makes her so good as a member of the track and field team. She’s way smarter than she lets on, but it takes a little incentive. Speaking of,” she continued while turning to her student, “is there anything you’re really striving for right now?”
Zipp sat up a little straighter. “That’s a heavy question out of the blue, Miss S.” She glanced over at her mother who was watching expectantly to hear the answer. “There is one thing. I think I wanna be a reporter.”
Haven smiled. “Oh, that’s wonderful, Zipp! Why haven’t you said anything before? You should come to the office with me next time I …”
“No, Mom,” Zipp interrupted, holding out her hand as a look of hurt crossed her mother’s face. “This is exactly why I never brought this up.” Sunset hadn’t expected her question to get that kind of reaction, but she had obviously struck a nerve and was curious where Zipp was going with this. “I don’t … wanna work with you at Haven Media.”
Haven looked simply crestfallen after a genuine happiness had risen in her just a minute ago. “But why, Zephyrina? This is your legacy. The door’s wide open for you. Nothing would make me more happy.”
“Because,” Zipp began, slowly gathering her thoughts, “you’re my mom. Everyone there knows who I am, and I don’t want to sit in a newsroom at the top floor of a downtown high-rise, writing fluff pieces for the website. I’m talking real, investigative journalism. … I learned something about myself this year. I realized that I like wrapping my head around a mystery, and I’m really good at it. I even considered joining the school newspaper, but I really wanna learn at the Herald.”
“The Canterlot Herald?” Haven asked with a raised eyebrow. “You do realize that the Herald is still part of Haven Media, right?”
“Yeah, but you barely show your face around there. The only person there who really knows you is Final Approval, the editor-in-chief, and they have their own independent newsroom. I wanna be out on the street, covering news from the ground floor, and not just be handed something cause my mom is the queen of all media. You said it yourself: Can’t lose touch with the common folk if you want to be taken seriously as a reporter.”
Haven let that sink in, looking back at Sunset for a moment who simply gave an encouraging smile. Then something seemed to click in her head as she sighed to herself. “You and your sister are growing up so fast. Every time I blink, I feel like I’ve missed something.” She turned back to Zipp with a smile. “Alright,” she began while shifting from mother straight to businesswoman. “Here’s the deal: If you bring up your grade point average by, let’s say, half a point by the end of the school year, I’ll talk to Final Approval about getting you an internship at the Herald next summer. And I’ll make sure he won’t give you any special treatment on account of me.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Alright,” Zipp replied with a grin. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Of course.” Haven turned back to Sunset and began to smirk. “What did I tell you? I doubt Crystal Prep would have been conducive to this kind of revelation, wouldn’t you agree? Wondercolts Forever.”
“Wondercolts Forever,” Sunset replied.
“Was there anything else you had to discuss?”
Sunset shook her head and stood up. “No, I think that about covers it.”
“Very well. Thank you for your time, Miss Shimmer. Zipp, why don’t you show your teacher out? In the meantime,” Haven said, taking the cellphone out of a startled Pipp’s hands who hadn’t paid any attention to the latter half of the conversation, “you and I are going to have a discussion about your social media habits.”
Zipp and Sunset picked up on the cue and beat a hasty retreat. As they made their way to the front door in a comfortable silence, Sunset stopped at the three large pictures of previous family matrons and put a hand over her bag as something occurred to her. “Hey, Zipp. Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“Your sister said that you did genealogical research of your family tree earlier?”
“Yeah, it was actually a pretty fun project. Why do you ask?”
Sunset pursed her lips. “Hypothetically, if I was trying to find any living relative of a certain person, how would I go about it?”
Zipp gave her an odd look. “Aren’t you a history teacher?”
“That’s exactly my problem,” Sunset admitted. “I’m used to finding stuff out about long dead people, not living ones.”
“That’s fair, I guess,” Zipp mused. “I suppose you’d have to set some time aside, get familiar with the resources that are available online, maybe even visit some archives, depending on how deep you wanted to dig.”
“What if I needed to know the answer by the end of this week?”
“Then I suppose you’d have to find someone who already has all the resources and knows how to use ‘em. Someone like me.” When Sunset didn’t respond right away, Zipp crossed her arms, cocked her head and added: “This isn’t a hypothetical question, is it?”
“Could you do it?”
Zipp considered the question for a moment and then nodded. “I could give it a shot. Archival research is probably out. But since you’re asking about living relatives, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll have an online footprint somewhere. Come with me.”
Sunset followed her student through several hallways until they arrived at what seemed to be Zipp’s room. It looked nothing like what one would expect a teenage girl’s room to look like. One side of the room was taken up with sports posters and exercise equipment, while the other contained a truly epic PC set-up with several monitors that Sunset would have salivated over during her short-lived hobby as a games streamer.
“Cloudpuff, wake up,” Zipp said with a clap of her hands as she sat down in her comfy gaming chair. Fans whirred, CPUs sprang to life and the monitors lit up obediently at her command while the sound effect of a small dog barking played.
“I am feeling so old right now,” Sunset muttered to herself as she watched the spectacle.
Zipp’s fingers flew across the keyboard as she pulled up several files and websites all at once. “I still have accounts with all the genealogy sites I used. Social media also helps. It’s crazy what people post about their lives these days. So, whose family are we looking for? Also, I hope you have more than just a name to go on.”
“I’ve got a copy of a birth certificate and some old research notes on a family business.”
“That’s a good starting point.”
Sunset opened her bag and reached for some papers before hesitating. “I’m not supposed to show this to you, so you can’t tell anyone about this.”
“Please, Ms. Sunset, keeping their sources confidential is the lifeblood of a good reporter,” Zipp replied and held out her hand.
Sighing, Sunset handed over the stack of papers.
Zipp’s eyebrows rose after scanning the first page and landing on a name. “I can see how that might land you in hot water in several ways if it got out you asked me to look into this.” She pursed her lips and thought for a minute before looking at her teacher again. “This is connected to what you talked to Sunny about the other day, isn’t it?”
“She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about that,” Sunset replied with a frown.
“She didn’t, only that you were trying to help. Tell me something, Ms. Sunset, have you ever been diagnosed with something called a savior complex?”
“If you’re feeling uncomfortable with this, say it now, and I’ll find another way. But I’ve only got two days left.”
Zipp drummed her fingers on the desktop for a bit before shaking her head. “Nah, I’ll help you out. Feels like I owe you for back in there. It’s tough to have a serious chat with my mom. Knowing there was someone there who gets me like you do helped. Besides, you know me,” she said as a broad grin made its way onto her face, “I like a challenge. Cloudpuff, connect the VPN and set my online activity to Detective Mode. Set IP to randomize every ten minutes.”
As Zipp cracked her knuckles and the smart lights dimmed in response to her voice command, Sunset couldn’t help but stand there and think: And you think I have a savior complex, Batmare?
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REALLY appreciated the work going into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Definitely appreciated Sunset checking in on Twilight to see if she knows anything about the Canterlot University heist, before meeting and chatting with Haven. And yeah, Haven being the head of a multimedia company makes a lot of sense. Also appreciated Pipp's addiction references (i.e. "I can stop any time I want, I just don't want to.") concerning social media devices as well as Zipp wanting to be an actual investigative reporter. That all definitely made a considerable amount of sense.
REALLY looking forward to more of this.
...Zipp, are you going to become a superhero? You're rich, AND you want a job at a newspaper...
Twilight will be so jealous when she finds out about this computer!!
The central mystery of this story has more twists and turns than an Alpine road. It's riveting.
The fact you can blend both a satisfying mystery and superbly written slice of life is testament to your skill as a writer. The places Sunset visits in this story come over as living, breathing worlds, and I have no difficulty picturing them in my mind's eye.
Funnily enough, there is a real Zephyr Heights in the United States; it's about half an hours' drive from Tampa, FL.
Kind of makes me wonder if there’s a Mr. Haven. Or really any complete family unit in G5. Sorry, just a very minor nitpick opinion on the series. Love the story
Didn't expect to see her as a news reporter.
see if you can get some retired*
Right...
Thx Haven.
She gave it that name of all things?!