Has Anybody Seen my Lamp?
When somebody phones you at seven in the morning, it's never good news.
At least, this is what Zipp always thought. She normally got up early in the morning (unlike her sister) as she found she worked best at that time. Her alarm was always set to go off at precisely seven in the morning.
So, imagine her surprise when both her phone and alarm went off at the same time. "That funny," she said. "I don't usually get calls at this time of day."
She picked up the device to see who was calling. And to her surprise, it was Sunny. "That's weird. She's not usually up until seven thirty." She flicked the green button to one side and raised the earpiece to her ear. "Hello?"
"Zipp, have you seen my lantern anywhere?" Sunny asked.
"The one Izzy made you?" Zipp replied.
"Yes! That one! I normally keep it on my bedside table so I can easily turn it on if I need to go to the bathroom at night. But it was there last night and it isn't there now!"
A sneaking suspicion was starting to move in Zipp's mind. "It wasn't there last night, you say," she said to herself. "Certain your parents didn't move it?"
"I've already asked them, and they say they haven't. They were asleep all night."
"Watertight alibis," Zipp said, producing her clipboard and scribbling something down. "This means that the lantern has been taken... stolen... and somebody is responsible!"
"Isn't that rather obvious? Objects don't normally steal themselves."
"Doesn't matter. The first few hours after a crime are critical for finding clues. Make sure nothing is moved inside your house until I arrive. I'll be bringing some equipment to help with this case."
"Got it. Good luck!"
Zipp hit the red button and ended the call. "Time for me to do some sleuthing," she said. "But after I've had a shower."
She hit a button on the wall and switched off the light, and after a few minutes emerged clad in a black bodysuit with an array of gadgets mounted on the arms. She walked over to a table and pulled a pair of white goggles off a model and mounted them over her head.
"No time to wait! Duty calls!" She dashed out of the door, and down the stairs.
Pipp stuck her head out of the door and groaned. "Seriously, who plays the Mission Impossible theme at this time in the day?"
Being super sneaky, and making use of a grappling hook to try and avoid detection, Zipp arrived at Sunny's home in next to no time. Or what felt like next to no time.
She quickly opened the door and stepped through to reveal Sunny on the other side. "The place has been left untouched as you asked."
"Thanks," Zipp said, and clicked a button on her arm. A small drone hovered into the air and began to fly about, scanning the terrain. "Right, I'll need to go and take some samples, then analyse the floor and surfaces for DNA, and hopefully we shall then have found our culprit."
"If you say so," Sunny said, and stepped out of the way. No sooner had she stepped out of the door then Pipp arrived. "Oh, hey Pipp! What are you doing up so early?"
"Well, I had to end Zipp's reckless use of diagetic music," Pipp said. "No way we were going to sleep with that racket on. But what I really want to know is why Zipp rushed off so early in the morning."
"My lantern has gone missing and Zipp suspects it's been stolen."
"She's been watching too many spy movies recently," Pipp sighed, and began to walk towards the door.
"Don't come in!" Zipp called. "If you enter, you could contaminate the crime scene with your DNA!"
"An actual mystery?" Pipp asked. "Interesting. Can I help?"
"No need, this is all under control," Zipp replied as she peered at the door. "No sign of forced entry to either doors or windows, and the shutters are secure."
Pipp nodded. "Well, I should probably leave this to you. After all, you have it all under control. Have fun!"
Zipp rolled her eyes. "That sing song thing she does is super annoying."
Pipp strolled down the path away from the lighthouse, humming to herself before spotting the perfect chance to take a selfie with the cliffs in the background. She then walked onwards, and shortly before reaching the shed-
"Look out!"
Pipp tripped over something and smacked face first into the ground. "Ouch! What in the-"
She rolled over and noticed a paving stone seemed to have been disturbed. "Ooh. What happened to the pathway?"
"I don't know," Porter said. "It was like that this morning. I can only assume the council don't have the money to fix the issue."
"Typical local authority," Charles grumbled. "No doubt they did it to prevent us from going about our business at speeds we want to travel at."
"In a dockyard with tight curves? Fast?" Salty chuckled. "You're pullin' my leg, matey."
Pipp brushed some dust off her dress, then walked back over to the stone and lifted it out. Her eyes widened when she saw it. "It's Sunny's lantern!"
"How did it get there?" Ray asked.
"Beats me," Sophie added. "Who was on night watch?"
Pipp smiled. "Well, that solves that one. I can return it to Sunny and this will be over." Then she frowned. She remembered that Zipp seemed to be having the time of her life being a detective or spy or whatever it was, and her fun would end if she just returned it.
A smile crept once more across her face. "Of course! I'll hide it somewhere else and leave some clues for Zipp to find it! There's no way this can go wrong!"
As she sprinted off, Porter glanced over to Ray. "Have you seen Izzy anywhere? She's normally here by now."
Izzy suddenly had a very bright light shone into her face. "Hey! That's not good on a person's eyes. Where are we, anyway?"
"Doesn't matter," said her interrogator, whom she quickly figured out was Zipp. "I found traces of your fingerprints inside Sunny's house, and as you probably know she had a lantern stolen last night. As a result, I need to consider you as a suspect. Where were you last night?"
Izzy nodded. "Oh, I can explain. Let me just go into flashback mode..."
Izzy couldn't sleep. No matter what she tried, she couldn't nod off. "This sucks," she said. "Normally I sleep like a log. It's my cousin who's the light sleeper."
Just then she had an idea. "Time for some fruit tea," she said. "It can lure even the most awake of people to the gentle shores of the snoozy ocean."
She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where she switched on the kettle whilst trying to avoid making noise. She selected her favourite flavour and popped the tea bag into the mug whilst waiting for the water to boil.
Suddenly, a bright light shone across the street. "Huh?"
Izzy walked over to the window and looked out, suddenly spotting an engine stopping on the level crossing that controlled access to and from the coast road. A person suddenly jumped off the footplate and took something with them.
"That is seriously weird," Izzy said to herself, who then heard the familiar ding of the kettle boiling. She walked back over and poured it into the mug.
"Izzy?" a voiced suddenly asked.
Izzy jumped and swung round. "Err, yes dad?"
"What are you doing up in the middle of the night?"
"I couldn't sleep," Izzy explained, "so I decided to make some fruit tea but then this bright light and an engine appeared at the window!"
Isaac shook his head. "You probably just saw something. Drink that, then get back to bed."
Zipp nodded. "Well, that alibi seems watertight. But what about the engine?"
"You could check the roster of who was running during the night. Normally it's Bellerophon and Misty."
Zipp nodded. "Hmmm. I'm closing in."
Misty was acting weird. Well, weirder than normal. She seemed jittery as she wandered around the engine shed and looked for a path to take. Eventually, she stopped bumbling about and began to head for the exit.
Only for Zipp to suddenly jump in her way. "I know everything, Misty!"
"Know everything about what?" Misty replied.
"Don't play dumb with me, criminal scum," Zipp answered. "You violated the law when you took that lantern. Ever since that sleepover you've been behaving really weirdly. The odd questions, the strange reactions to normal food items, not knowing anything about basic pop culture. At first I brushed it off as nerves, but the evidence fits togther. You were out there last night at work, which gave you ample time to take it. Now where. Is. The. Lantern?"
Pipp suddenly ran in and separated the two. "Zipp, stop!"
"In the name of love?" Misty asked.
"So, you don't know several great songs, but you know that piece of rubbish. That makes perfect sense," Zipp sighed. "Out of my way, Pipp, I have a crook to apprehend." She produced a pair of handcuffs to make the point.
"I took it. I'm the lantern thief!" Pipp said.
Zipp went slack jawed. "What?"
"Well, I'm not a thief per se, but I've had it with me the whole day." Pipp produced it as evidence.
"That still doesn't explain anything about last night."
"Well," Pipp explained, "I found it underneath a paving stone when on my way to the shed, and was going to bring it to you and show it. But you were having so much fun with your detective work that I decided to create a little mystery for you. But it seems to have backfired somewhat."
Zipp rolled her eyes. "So I basically spent the entire day looking an idiot and accusing people of stuff they didn't do?"
"Err, yeah," Pipp admitted. "I definitely owe you an apology over that. But on the other hand you got to try out all that spygear I got you for your birthday! You got to be a real life Tom Cruise!"
"Ethan Hunt. The character's name is Ethan Hunt."
"Him too."
Zipp sighed. "Even considering all of this, I did have fun. So there's that. I think I can forgive you for sending me on a wild goose chase across Falmouth."
"Why not have a Snickers? You're not you when you're hungry."
The two siblings were so wrapped up in their conversation that neither of them noticed that Misty had snuck off in the confusion.
Misty activated her radio. "Agent ready to report."
"Well? Opaline asked. "Do you have the lantern?"
"No, it got mo-"
"YOU IMBECILE!" Opaline roared. "Can't you do anything right?"
"I- I buried it in a place I could easily find it again, but it got moved and-"
"I've had enough of your excuses. You have messed up one too many times. You are on your last chance, Misty. If you fail me again, there's an orphanage with your name on it."
Misty shook at the venom in Opaline's voice. "U- understood." As she switched the set off, she looked down at the floor. "For a woman who considers herself a fiery personality, she has the coldest heart of anybody in the world." And the world paid no heed as she quietly sobbed.
This chapter is loosely based on the MLP Episode 'Hoof Done It?', with elements added from various spy movie genres.
Zipp's spy gear is loosely inspired by equipment used by Ethan Hunt, the protagonist of the Mission Impossible film series. Her visor has been redesigned to fit onto a human face, inspired by this edit:
Pipp offering Zipp a Snickers is a nod to the 'Zipp after Chocolate' meme which did the rounds shortly before the movie came out:
https://twitter.com/g5mlp/status/1569604295137415170
Unfortunately, Fimfiction won't let me embed the image for some reason.
Lastly, I can't be the only one who find Opaline's treatment of Misty a little close to abuse, right?
Stats
Page generated in 0.015 seconds
Total duration
852 users online
601,940 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
nice chapter mate i when have trouble sleeping hot chocolate or chamomile tea put me to sleep
Talk about an odd way to start your morning.
I feel like she's taking this a bit too much, but I'm interested to see how this goes.
Where did she get a grappling hook!?!?
You don't have legs Salty.
Doesn't she mean people?
looking like an idiot*
Lol!
Ikr.
This was a fun story.
And yes, Opaline was just plain abuse.
But, Zipp honestly was on the right track, Pipp interference or not.
And just for a funny comment, maybe Izzy should ask Wallace to build her his snoozeatron to help her sleep at nights she can't get any sleep.
11501965
Interesting.
11502012
1. The opening line is a reference to Stormbreaker, the first of the Alex Rider novels (a series by author Anthony Horowitz that attempts to be a more realistic take on Bond).
2. She is quite dedicated.
3. This shall be answered later.
4. Figure of speech...
5 and 6. This is why trying to edit when tired is a bad idea.
7. Great advert.
8. Mistybuse could almost be a subgenre on Fimfiction, much like Scootabuse was back in the early days of the fandom.
11502178
Opaline brings healthy doeses of realism-induced horror to G5, as apparently her behaviour is a scarily accurate depiction of an abusive parent.
One of Wallace's few inventions that didn't go catastrophically wrong.
11502195
It's a good thing thar shank doesn't drink, that would've made things worse.
Aye. Nor have any minor thing go wrong for that matter.
But another thing to quickly say, doesn't Pipp normally wear a sleeping mask when she's sleeping?
11502207
Indeed. But some people can be pretty frightening even when sober.
Fun fact: assuming Gromit completed the full sequence of sheep, he was bouncing for just over half an hour.
True. I'm no user of sleeping masks myself, but I don't believe they block out sound.
11502351
True.
Wow. I always wondered how long he was bouncing for.
I knew that, but I didn't comment about cause I figured it'd block sound. Typically when I've seen characters that wear sleeping masks get woken up suddenly they either slowly lift it off their eyes or fall out of bed race out then pull it off hastedly.
Yeah I hated Opaline so much.
11502355
Oh. I'd rather misunderstood your enquiry.
11502508
She is the definition of hate sync.