Deduction is Magic- The Mysterious case of the Missing Magic

by Raot

Underhoof and Overhead

After the letter, Clopson decided to leave the princess and return to the library once more. There was nothing else for him in Canterlot, and he needed to find Sherlock. He returned to find no pony home, but he did find a letter sitting right inside the door with Sherlocks crude writing style all over it…

“Twilight, since you will probably find this first, I would like to ask you to ignore anything Clopson, or anyone, says about my mind. I am perfectly sane, for the time being at least, but I will need some materials. By Froggy Bottom Bog is a peculiar light blue plant by the name of “Brazzalberry.” It is a berry with a bitter, acquired taste, and the juice will easily stain, so do be careful not to get any on your coat. I will need about two buckets full.

Now then, Clopson, if you are reading this then you have disobeyed my orders. Good for you, your taking the initiative. I doubt I will be able to dissuade you from attempting to aid me so I have a job for you as well. I have a contact in the criminal underworld that I was about to meet later today, but under the circumstances, I am currently preoccupied. They were to meet me just south of Ponyville when the sun was at it’s highest, they don’t know what I look like, so you will have to impersonate me. The password is, “password”. They are not very intelligent criminals.

And if you are worried for my well being, rest assured, I have everything taken care of. I am currently on my way to an old friend and the one of the greatest and most knowledgeable scientists in Equestria. Good luck, if all goes well we will see each other soon. But I must cut this letter short, I am short of time, and truly do not feel well…”
And from there, there were no comprehensible words. It looked as if he had given up halfway through and simply scribbled a few words of goodbye in chicken scratch.

Clopson considered trying to track down his old friend, but finally reasoned to follow the directives. If it was true that Luna could disassemble his mind… he had to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.

Clopson arrived at the scene at the designated time. “Hello?” he asked. The rocky and dirt covered landscape was very different from what Clopson was used to, especially the holes that eerily littered the ground all around him.

“Password!?” Asked a hissing sound from the blackness of one of the holes. Clopson jumped and tried to look down.

“Password?” Clopson responded.

“Yes password!” A diamond dog jumped from the crevice, followed by two others from behind Clopson, surrounding the unicorn. He prepared for a fight, but continued to look at the diamond dog in front of him with the most diplomatic intention possible.

“You are Sherlock?” asked the one that Clopson supposed was the leader.

“Yes.” Clopson replied. “I heard you had information…”

“First, deal.” The leader hissed. “We want gems.” He said manically. One of the others started to drool. “Precious harmony gems! We give you information, you give us gems!”

“No deal.” Clopson replied. “Those are the princesses...”

“No No No!” The dog interrupted. “News travels fast, yes, we know Luna is the one. The one he called Gappy. She is who you want. Princess wants sister more then gems…”

“Gappy? Him?” Clospon asked.

One of the diamond dogs smacked the leader from the back of the head. “No! Why did you tell him that! Now the bull will stop giving us gems like said he would…”

“Stupid!” the third dog smacked both of them to silence them. “No talking about Gappy! No Bull talk till he promises Harmony gems…”

Clopson thought for a moment. “… I don’t think you know anything.” He started. “You could just be making it up…”

“We no lie about Gappy, Bull had paper with Gappy’s name. Said she gets the gems and not us!” the Dog said in a rage. “We no lie! We want gems, you want Gappy, we give you Gappy, you give us gems!” the dog reasoned. “No lies!”

“Really?” Clopson asked with a smile. “I don’t think you even know what the bulls name is.”

“Yes we do! He is…” on of the diamond dogs covered his mouth with a paw.

“Mooriaty said not to say his name!”

“Oh… right…” the other remembered.

“…Well, this has been very illuminating.” Clopson said. “but I am afraid I will have to decline to your deal…”

“NO! Wait! We have more…” said one.

“Yes! Yes! There is more!” spoke another. Clopson hesitated; he wondered how much more he could trick out of them…

“I don’t believe you. Besides, everything you’ve given me already is useless. I can’t deduce anything from it, nor can I find a trail to follow…”

“A cave!” said the leader.

“Where?”

“A cave in a mountain is where we met with a dragon. No one sees Mooriarty except the dragon. No one else knows…” the dog said. “Promise us the gems, and we will tell you where. But we will say nothing else till then!” he shrieked.

Clospon could tell that was all he could get without any promises. “… I’m sorry, I can’t promise anything. Because they are not mine to give…”

“What?!” the leader exclaimed.

“But I, and the rest of Equestria, thank you for your information…”

“No No No!” the leader shrieked again. “Pony give us gems, or we take pony and make you find gems!” the dogs stepped forward.

Clopson quickly knew what his odds here against three diamond dogs, and waited no time in turning tail and fleeing from the scene diamond dogs where known for digging, not running, he could easily escape them.
At least, that is what he thought before a dog in armor came up from a hole right in front of him. Clopson quickly dodged the fiends claws, just to find his path blocked by another. He zig zaged between the numerous holes in the ground, barely keeping out of the reach of the dogs, until he realized, to his utter horror, that he was already surrounded. They had herded him into a corner, with his back to a rocky stone wall, he turned to face his pursuers, who now numbered in the dozens, and tried to ward them off with a glow from his horn… he was not nearly talented enough to actually cast some sort of combat spell, but perhaps it would scare them off…

It didn’t and they closed in, their tall bodies started to block out the sky and cast his body in shadows. He soon lost sight of the sun, the clouds, and the sky.

He then suddenly heard a kind of cracking sound that shook the foundation of the earth he stood upon. He looked up and saw the huge rock wall he had his back to start to crunble and fall, forwards, onto him and the dogs. They all began to bark out wildly and Clospon knew that he had no chance to escape. It was chaos, everywhere, and he would not be able to weave through the crowd and save himself in time. He closed his eyes tightly, shutting out all color and light from his sight as he prepared himself for a crushing pain and an eternity of darkness.

But to his surprise, he felt no pain. In fact, he felt a sort of… weightlessness. And instead of darkness, he saw light. Bright light, in the form of every color of the rainbow, and, with no small amount of fear, he peaked open an eye to see what death looked like.

He was looking down upon the world from hundreds of feet up, traveling at a dizzying speed. He was flying. There was no pain, and no darkness, and no cold. He felt a strange, tight warmth in his chest and he found great wonder in simply staring down at the world as a spirit, like a god.

“Your welcome.” He heard Rainbow Dash say. Clopson felt great confusion and looked around, unable to see the Pegasus. Until he finally chose to look up, and saw her bright blue face looking down at his own. He then looked down and saw her hooves wrapped around his body.

“Oh… why yes, thank you.” Clopson said, still in shock.

“The diamond dogs sometimes don't look where they’re digging and make the mountains fall. Not very bright.” Dash said.

“Yes... quite.” Was all Clopson could muster. “You uh… thank you. Very much.” He let out a long sigh of relief as they began slowing down and gracefully falling lower to the ground. They touched down and Clopson returned to his shaking legs trying to regain his equilibrium.

“So.” He shook his head, turning towards Dash once more, with his senses slowly returning to him. “You… how did you know? How did you get there so fast…”

“Well, I saw the letter on Twilights door and I thought it could be dangerous around here so I decided to, you know… check up on you. ” She said with a smile.

“That’s very thoughtful, and dare I say, I owe my life to you because of it.” She blushed.

“It was nothing, really.” Clopson began to feel another warmth inside his chest when he saw her face, and cleared his throat, trying to keep his mind on the task at hand.

“So, er, they said something about a dragon. Do you know of any dragon caves nearby.” He asked.

“Yea, there’s actually only one close enough to reach in a day.” She said. “I’ll take you there.” Clopson smiled as she once again held him tightly and lifted him up into the air. Clopson truly felt that he was bonding with her now. He began to scoff at Sherlocks warnings now. What did he know of relationships.

“Thank you, I’m not sure what I would do without you.” He said with all the charm he could muster.

Rainbow Dash smiled and responded, “What are friends for?”

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