Cutie Mark Crusader Investigators

by Mod On Death

The Parlor Room Scene

The Parlor Room Scene

Everypony in the room was shocked by the accusation that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had made. The first minute was shock and silence, followed by a minute of mumbling, and then finished with Diamond Tiara bursting out into laughter.

“Is anypony here seeing the obvious flaw in this accusation?” Diamond Tiara pointed to her forehead, no horn on it. “Obviously Sweetie Belle just can’t handle the fact that she’s awful with her magic and has no control and needs to blame anypony. Too bad she couldn’t even choose a unicorn.”

“Girls, what is the meaning of this?” Miss Cheerilee asked them.

“We know it’s very difficult to understand and we share in your confusion, but the facts lead up to this conclusion.” Apple Bloom started narrating their investigation. “The first thing we did when we discovered that it was a magic based crime was establish that the culprit had to be a unicorn, so we limited our selection to the other four in our classroom: Snips, Snails, Sun Glimmer, and Tootsie Flute. Working with Spike, we were able to obtain a motive for several of the suspects in the form of a fifty bit gift card for Sugarcube Corner. Using this information we had concluded that Truffle Shuffle had convinced either Snips or Snails to use their magic to destroy the diorama and insure that Truffle’s diorama won. The flaw in this theory however was the fact that Truffle wouldn’t have won the gift card, but a dieting book instead. He knew that as well, so there was no motive for him to commit the deed.”

“Yeah, and it turns out that dieting is awesome! I’ve lost two pounds since I’ve now started and feel great about it!” Truffle Shuffle interjected. His statement of triumph was met with the clopping of hooves from supportive classmates.

“Alright, my turn,” Scoots said, taking the front of the group. “After we found out that Truffle Shuffle wasn’t a ring leader for conspiracy, we decided to focus on Snips and Snails working alone. We thought that they could’ve imagined themselves being close runners to the grand prize, even if that wasn’t the case.”

“Hey!” the two colts responded.

“We still thought that way until we heard that teacher was working with the two of them on redoing their dioramas during the nights where the suspicious pony had done their work. They couldn’t have done it while under out teacher’s supervision. With those two eliminated the only ones left were Sun Glimmer and Tootsie Flute. The motive they had was being angry at Archer and wanting to destroy her work out of anger. Further investigation proved however that these ponies were busy doing things to apologize to Archer and help her feel better. Not only a lack of motive, but also witnesses as well at the shop.”

“So, it just sounds like you ran into a dead end. You can’t just blame me because you couldn’t think of anything else.” Diamond Tiara still kept her composure. She definitely was not about to let herself get blamed for something a unicorn did.

“Except,” Sweetie Belle was now up front, “we had some evidence to help us determine who the culprit might be. A couple of nights ago we actually saw the cloaked figure of the pony who had cast the spell that destroyed the diorama. We realized it was the same pony after they shot off the same type of spell that produced the exact same type of remains when it hit the mailbox. Spells often leave a unique marker on the object when cast upon. The marker for this unicorn was the red embers present in the dust, just like the ones in the diorama that indicated that it was magic. Anyway, when we chased the suspect, a vial from their sack with the initials “R.T” fell out. At first we thought that the initials were for the name of whatever the business sold it and had Spike look into businesses with those initials. Thanks to Mr. Study however,” they motioned over to the large unicorn who was blushing a little, “we found out about an alchemist by the name of Red Tet. This was our big break as we finally figured out where the bottle was from. We went to his shop with the bottle in hoof and asked him about the serum that was left inside it. What he told us was very interesting; the serum in the bottle was actually the leftover of a potion called “Silence”. This kind of potion is one the most advanced of its kind and would require extreme alchemic talent. Brewed correctly, just a drop or two of this potent potion could cause a unicorn to lose their magic for days. Ingest enough of it and you can lose your magic permanently. The amount needed to get rid of your powers though rested on not only how refined the potion was, but how powerful the caster’s magic is.” Sweetie Belle went through her sack and pulled out a copy of Alchemy for Beginners. “Something interesting we found while investigating alchemy. When you set up an alchemic lab, you need certain supplies: Mortar and Pestle, Calcinator, Retort, Silver Knife, and,” Sweetie Belle paused a second for dramatic effect, saying, “Silver Spoon. Of course, you already know all of this, don’t you?” she said while looking at the pony whose name bore the alchemic instrument. “I mean, it’d make sense for you to know your family’s profession, wouldn’t it?” The classroom gasped at this statement, surprised at what they just heard. Cheerilee wasn’t surprised in the least however. She was a teacher and she already knew that Silver Spoon was Red Tet’s daughter because of Parent-Teacher Conferences. Maybe she should finally get around to making that Directory for students to use so they can contact each other and actually know this sort of stuff without needing to investigate for several days. Actually, that was something she could have her Aide do for her.

“Congratulations. You just found out that I’m related to my father,” responded Silver Spoon, mocking their discovery. “I don’t see how this has anything to do with me.”

“It does,” Sweetie Belle continued. “See, Red Tet never actually sold Silence. He only sold low level magic inhibiting potions for unicorns that couldn’t control their magic yet. The thing we brought in was much more extreme in its purpose than his concoctions that would only last for a day and were mild. However, the bottle containing the potion still bore the initials from his store. Isn’t it true, Silver Spoon, that you sometimes help out your father in making the potions?”

Silver Spoon was starting to get more agitated. “Yeah, but only beginner things such as potions for bruises or cuts. The biggest thing I’ve helped my dad with was a potion to help somepony sleep better. Never anything like creating Silence.”

“Really?” Sweetie Belle remarked in that tone you have when you don’t believe somepony. “Miss Cheerilee, whatever happened to those really advanced alchemy books you found a couple of days ago?”

“Somepony must have taken them home since I couldn’t find them anywhere. Nopony complained about missing books either, so they weren’t stolen.”

“Using your powers as teacher, I believe that if you searched Silver Spoon’s sack that you would find those books.” Under any other circumstances Cheerilee wouldn’t be searching another pony’s bags without permission, but as a teacher she was allowed to if there was a good reason to. She also wanted to see where these fillies were headed. Just as Sweetie Belle said, those books were present in her sack, along with what appeared to be a bag containing a variety of plants from the school garden.

“Silver Spoon, what are these plants doing in your bag? Wait, these are some of the plants from our school garden!” The teacher brought the bag over and poured the contents of the bag on her desk. Silver Spoon was getting visibly nervous.

“According to Supernaturals, these plants from our school garden are high level alchemic ingredients. Remember when about a year ago we started the garden and Silver Spoon volunteered to help set it up? The entire purpose of that garden was for her to help plant extremely rare alchemic materials in our own yard for you to harvest for yourself.” Everypony, including Miss Cheerilee, gasped at this new information. Silver Spoon was starting to shake now.

“Alright! Fine! I’m good at alchemy. Like, really REALLY good at it. I’m probably one of the best potion brewers in the entire world at this point. I also admit that I used our garden idea to help plant alchemic plants, but there wasn’t any harm! This is really rare stuff and our school garden was somehow the best natural environment for the stuff to grow. It can’t be grown artificially, which is why they’re so rare. What about it?” Silver Spoon was desperate to defend herself and her secret.

“The things about it,” continued Sweetie Belle as she was coming to her conclusion as she built up dramatic tension before continuing with, “is that each of these plants is a component in making the Silence potion. Silver Spoon, you were the one to create the Silence potion using the plants from our garden and supplies from your dad’s shop, correct?”

Silver Spoon was cornered. She had no way out. She was found out. “ALRIGHT! I admit it! I’ve been using the ingredients to make Silence potions! You know why? Because I bucking can! I’m the best alchemist EVER! I’ve actually CREATED potions, you know that? I made a potion that can make you not only breathe in water, but actually talk with fish! I know a potion that can actually remove cutie marks from a pony! I can even make a potion that allows transforming into any animal you know of in an hour!” The grey haired earth pony was breathing heavily from this outburst. She started to calm down though and spoke directly to Silent Study. “I’m sorry Mr. Study, but I still haven’t been able to find a way to help you with your condition. If it makes you feel any better I’ll return the remaining money you gave us as a refund. I was sure that it would work by now, but it doesn’t seem that way. Don’t ask my dad about it though; he doesn’t know about those experimental potions you’ve bought on the side.” Silent Study was pretty blank in his expression. In his mind he made a mental note of not to bother the pony who made his potions in the future. The last thing he needed was to drink something that’d possibly make him ill. His train of thought was interrupted though by reality and soon refocused.

“How does this relate to anything with me? All you girls have found is that Silver Spoon’s really good at making potions.” Apple Bloom was the next one to step up and respond to Diamond Tiara, letting Sweetie Belle get a drink while Scootaloo waited anxiously.

“It all comes back to one little piece of evidence; the hair. See, when Archer originally found the hair near her diorama, it seemed clear that it belonged to Sweetie Belle. After all, she was the only unicorn who fit the profile with that hair color. There was just one flaw in that logic though, and I’m about to show you what it is. Take a look at Sweetie Belle.” The classroom’s eyes turned over to Sweetie Belle, who had actually forgotten this part of their big reveal. She felt everypony’s eyes on her and blushed. “The piece of hair that was found at the scene of the crime was colored purple and white. While Sweetie Belle does have those colors in her hair, they’re from two different parts of her body; the mane and her coat. What are the chances that there would be hair from two different parts of her body and not a strand of pink hair from her mane? After all, it seems more likely that it’d come from up top and not just random places on her body. After you, Scoots.”

“Alright!” the enthusiastic pegasus announced, glad to finally be up again. “There was one other pony who had both those types of hair color though in her mane, and that mare is Diamond Tiara!” The class was whispering among themselves. What sounded absurd at first started to make sense. Diamond Tiara wasn’t letting any of this affect her though. The most emotion she expressed was rolling her eyes back at these outlandish claims. “You see, everything here adds up when you take the two ponies and put them together. The reason why you all thought Diamond Tiara was an earth pony is because that’s what she’s told you all these years. She’s been hiding it and, thanks to her alchemist friend, has been suppressing magic surges all these years with her potions. When we began to investigate she even pointed us over to Truffle Shuffle and gave us a good motive he may have had. She could have suspected that we’d try to find evidence linking him and run out of time, but she never expected us just confront him and learn the truth. The diorama’s destruction was because of one of her magic surges that she couldn’t control. We figured this out because even before the idea of Sweetie Belle’s destruction of the diorama being a result of a magic surge was presented, Diamond Tiara had said the same thing. It’s actually not very common for most non-unicorns to know about magic surges and yet she was the one who said it before anypony. So, what do have to say, Diamond Tiara?”

Everypony’s eyes were on the suspected mare now. They were all waiting for her response.

“I…I can’t believe,” she started with a frown on her face, “that you guys are listening to such stupidly hilarious stuff!” Her frown had become laughter, and she just couldn’t stop. She regained herself, saying, “Are any of you for real? Look at my head! I don’t have a horn. I am not a unicorn. I cannot cast magic. This is simple stuff! You really think that just because there was hair like mine at the scene of the crime that I did it? You assume that just because some other pony had my friend’s potion that it must be me? Do any of you have anything that definitively says I was there? I think not, and now this has gone from being hilarious to just being really annoying. Just accept that you can’t control your magic, Sweetie Belle, and let’s actually start class.”

“NOT SO FAST!” a voice roared out. Everypony turned to the entrance of the school barn to see that Spike was standing there victoriously, wearing his inspecting cap, ready for his big moment. “I’ve decided to make my presence known in this investigation. I’ve been helping those three out from the start and now I’m gonna finish this investigation once and for all!” Spike put down the bag he was carrying on the floor and pulled out three items: the hair found at the crime scene which he had gained from Cheerilee in a very awkward conversation, the nearly empty bottle with Silence in it, and the grey crystal gem they had gained from Archer. “This evidence for the case actually has something unique in common. That similarity is that each of the items has come in direct contact with the culprit in some physical sense that left their physical mark! The hair is obviously from the mane, while the bottle was obviously on their person and most likely drunk by them as well. The most unique item here, however, is the crystal. As a dragon I’m fairly knowledgeable about this sort of stuff and realized what this gem actually was. This gem is actually called a Tuning Gem, a magic device that’s used to track items. How it works is that if you have something like a small gem from a ruby and press it against the crystal and apply heat, it’ll start to glow when near a another ruby. Marine biologists would actually use this gem to see if there were any old ships in the water by seeing if any wood could be detected.”

“Can the gem be used to track ponies?” Silent Study questioned.

“Under normal circumstances it wouldn’t. This, however, is not a normal situation. One of the unique features of the gem is that the gem can actually work in reverse!” Spike grabbed the other items and starting pressing the items all together onto the gem. The gem started fluxing in colors, changing from grey to blue and back. “The reason it had turned grey is that the gem was actually charged by the magic of the unicorn who cast the spell on it, this spell being the one that destroyed the diorama. Once this gem has a specific unicorn’s magic charging it, using any other items that belonged to that unicorn will activate the gem and allow it to track the original caster. Using the gem and the other items that were from the culprit, we’ll be able to clearly locate them.” Spike blew a little flame, heating up the gem that would finally end this investigation once and for all. At first it simply started glowing, but it got more and more intense with vibrations and actually jumped out of Spike’s hands.

“Uh, is that supposed to happen?” inquired Silent Study. Just then the gem flew up to the ceiling and just zoomed by his head, scratching his face.

“Oh boy.” Spike realized that he had no idea how the gem would react to returning to the caster. Apparently it didn’t just glow to let the pony know where the unicorn was, but it actually would fly to the target. His realization was soon met with a hit to his gut as the gem sped right into it, causing him to roll over in pain. It soon went up to the ceiling again, as if looking for its next target.

“Everypony hit the deck!” Cheerilee advised her students. Panic soon took hold of the class as they soon started to run around and attempt to leave. The gem seemed to bounce right in front of the exit as they tried to leave and started bouncing all through the classroom. Everypony was running around, just dodging it in time. Spike got hit three more times, twice in the face and once in the tail. Things had clearly escalated here. Eventually the gem went straight for one of the students. She tried to run from it but it now had her scent and caught up to her. The mare fell on the ground, her tiara flying off as hit her right on the forehead.

“Is everypony alright?” Cheerilee yelled out. She was glad to hear her students reply that weren’t hurt by the gem. Too bad the same couldn’t be said of Spike, lying on the ground in agony. The gem had stopped moving and seemed to be stuck on a certain pony. As the smoke cleared, the classmates came out of hiding and saw something unbelievable. Everypony looked in awe and shock at what they were seeing; the gem was stuck right on the horn of Diamond Tiara. Nopony, not even Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, or Spike knew how to react to this scene, even though it was the one they had hoped for.

“But, what, how, wait, where’d that horn come from?” the baffled teacher asked, hoping somepony could fill her in on what was going on.

“So THAT’S how she hid it!” remarked Scootaloo. “See, the tiara we always saw her wearing must have been enchanted so nopony could see or even feel her horn! I just wonder who made her wear a tiara specifically to hide her horn though.”

“I did!” yelled out Diamond Tiara, trying to get the gem unstuck from her horn. “I made that enchantment for the tiara! I don’t want to be a unicorn! I wanna be an earth pony! Nonononononono!” she cried out. “Unicorns and magic are awful! There’s nothing good with them! Only pain and sadness and destruction! I can’t stand being one!” She fell to the floor and started to cry. She had given up on removing the gem from her head as it just sat there and glowed.

“Diamond Tiara, what are you talking about? All unicorns aren’t bad, and neither is magic.” Cheerilee was wondering what had happened to this small foal to make her feel this way about magic, along with the rest of the class.

“When I was younger,” the newly revealed unicorn started, “I had really bad magic surges. I would end up doing a lot of damage and it cost a good amount to repair them. We’re rich though, so that wasn’t too much of an issue. The doctors said that I’d calm down over time, but that never happened. It turns out that I’m this really powerful unicorn and that these surges were just a small bit of my power that would sometimes leak out and just destroy things. One day, when I was a little filly, I got this really bad surge and my mom tried to calm me down.” She choked up for a moment, tears making what she had to say next difficult to hear. “You shouldn’t try to get near a unicorn when she’s having a magic surge. You never know when she’ll suddenly have a charged magic missile launch point blank and…” Diamond Tiara just stopped and just wept. “It was just like that diorama, except right in front of me, right in my arms.” Silent Study felt sick as he heard this, but he knew he had to keep his composure in front of the other students. “The reports marked the entire thing up as a complete accident. My dad somehow managed to keep the event quiet and make it seem like she just passed away suddenly. I was too young to remember it, but one day I heard him talk to a doctor about what I had done and the memories came back. I swore from that day to do whatever I could to stop my magic. I first tried getting rid of my horn by sawing it off right after hearing it, but my magic was just too strong and would stop anything from touching it. I did the next best thing I could at the time and found a tiara I could wear and enchanted it so it would somehow hide my horn. When daddy saw me again with the tiara and no horn, he just seemed so much happier. He didn’t know what I did and never bothered to ask. I guess he didn’t want to ruin something good.”

“My goodness,” Cheerilee had to say. It was an understatement to say the least.

“For a while it seemed like I could hide my identity as a unicorn with my tiara, but soon the surges returned. I kept them a secret from everypony, especially my dad, and found out about these potions that could help control the magic. I tried a couple of them, but they were too weak to contain my power. It was about that time when I met Silver Spoon. We managed to hit it off and become close friends and for a while the magic seemed to have disappeared. One day while we were playing though I had a surge and ended up boiling up an entire lake to the point it dried up. She was surprised and I told her my awful secret and how I wished I could get rid of my magic. It was lucky that she was the daughter of an alchemist and she promised me that she’d learn how to make potions so strong that my magic would never return. She studied all these books for a really long time and I sometimes even helped her out with her studying. Eventually she had learnt all there was to alchemy and, using some of the ingredients from her father’s shop, created her first successful Silence potion. That was the day she got her cutie mark, actually. I drank the potion up and for the first time in a while felt free to live without that horrible curse. It didn’t last long though and my magic somehow returned. The amount that would normally cause a unicorn to lose their magic forever wasn’t even enough for me to lose it for just less than five months. She managed to make another of the potions again, making certain it was even more potent than the last one, and all seemed well, until it came back again. This cycle kept on happening more and more frequently until she couldn’t sneak the supplies she needed away anymore. It was at this point where she came up with the school garden idea and planted the stuff she’d need for the potions. With all of us taking care of the plants she’d need, the potions would keep on coming as long as the garden stayed up. It seems that the potion isn’t enough now, as my magic will always keep getting stronger and overpower it.” Diamond Tiara stopped for a moment to catch her breath. This was obviously heavy stuff for her to admit.

“Whoa,” was Spike’s reaction to this story. He had remembered on one occasion when Twilight was working with a low-level magic inhibiting potion and had somehow gotten the bottle switched with her orange juice. She couldn’t cast any spells for the rest of the day. This pony here was chugging down potions that were intended to permanently get rid of a unicorn’s magic and yet she still kept on having it return. If a pony with enough magic power as Twilight could be affected by such a weak inhibiting potion, imagine the power that Diamond Tiara must have had to resist repeated treatments of the strongest inhibiting potion in existence.

“Several days ago I was having the surges return and told Silver Spoon about it. She sent me a note in class telling me that the potion would be ready at about six in the morning the next day. It turns out that I read the note too quickly as Mr. Study passed by and I got rid of the note. Turns out it was to be six in the evening. I went the next morning to the school barn and waited for Silver Spoon to come when I suddenly felt a magic surge come on. I tried to control it, but I ended up blasting Archer’s diorama. Embarrassed and ashamed, I ran out as quickly as possible.”

“So it really was you,” Snails stated, living up to his name.

“Yes, Snails, I was the one to destroy the diorama with my magic. I’m not certain how the rest of my diatribe didn’t seem to give that away.” Diamond Tiara’s expression was that of contempt to the other unicorn for making her say that awful fact out loud. “As for YOU three,” she was now pointing at the ponies that had just blown her cover, “you just had to let everypony know, didn’t you? It’s not like I actually tried to use magic on you guys when you were chasing me. I had a surge and you saw me, so I ran. The magic I cast just happened to occur since I was so scared of being found. I’m more embarrassed by how just one day after drinking an entire Silence potion that I still had magic surges.”

“Why didn’t you ever let anypony else know?” Cheerilee asked her student.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to know that you’re the reason you don’t have a mother anymore?! Do you know that pain of being something terrible? That knowledge that you’ve lost somepony that you loved dearly and will never be able to love again?” The tears started to come out again.

“I can’t say I know exactly what you’re feeling,” said Apple Bloom as she approached the broken unicorn, “but I can say that I know what it’s like to never really get to love somepony and wonder what life would have been like with them.” The earth filly put her arms around her former enemy, letting her know that she wasn’t alone.

“The same goes for me,” added Archer. “I’ll never know what could have been if my mom were still here, but I know the pain of losing someone you love so much and you were so close to. I don’t want you to end up always wondering ‘what if’, but rather move on. Think about those precious bits of time you remember. Know that it wasn’t your fault and that you’ll only hurt the rest of those you love if you continue this way.” She joined in with those two ponies, knowing the pain of losing someone that close.

“I don’t really know the pain, and, Celestia willing, I hope I never do, but I know that I’d never want to feel that way because of something that happened to you, Diamond Tiara,” Silver Spoon expressed. “I’m just so sorry that I failed you. I’m supposed to be this genius alchemist and yet my potions aren’t working with you. I’m a failure.”

“Shut up!” Diamond Tiara bellowed out. “You are NOT a failure! You’re absolutely brilliant in every possible way! I’m the luckiest mare in the world to have you as my friend. I’m the one who sucks with magic and somehow manages to break a Silence potion. THAT’S failing.” The two of them chuckled at this sentiment as the grey mare joined the hug.

“Teacher, I know you said about there being a punishment,” started Sweetie Belle, “but don’t you think that’d be, well, mean?”

“You’re right,” she responded. “Right now she needs help, not discipline. I just wish I knew somepony who’d be able to help out with that sort of magic stuff.”

“I may know a solution.” The purple dragon finally spoke up after getting hit several times by the jewel. Cheerilee was glad about that since there was no way their insurance would cover somepony who wasn’t a student. “From what I see, Diamond Tiara’s magic surges seem to come from a good amount of magic suppression. She has all this awesome power and never uses any of it to the point that is comes out at the worst times. If she were to get some sort of training from a special pony whose talent dealt directly with magic, I’m sure she could start to improve.”

“Spike, are you suggesting that Twilight would accept Diamond Tiara as her student?” Cheerilee was surprised by what Spike suggested.

“Sure! It’d be great experience for her and she’d also be using all her knowledge to help somepony out. Diamond Tiara is definitely a gifted pony, that’s for sure.” The pink unicorn smiled at what Spike had said. It was the first time her magic had ever been referred to as a gift and not something horrible. She felt as if things could actually work out for her.

---

Class was cancelled for the day thanks to the gem’s rampage around the classroom. Cheerilee contacted Mr. Rich about his daughter and let him know about what she had been going through. He was absolutely horrified by the fact that he made his own daughter feel ashamed of herself and pledged to accept her, magic and all. He actually liked the idea of her getting magic lessons as well and was even impressed by what he had heard of some of her abilities. Spike managed to contact Twilight through letter about the possibility of accepting a talented and powerful unicorn such as Diamond Tiara as her very own apprentice. The amount of “YES”s on her return letter made Spike wonder if she had run out of ink writing it and if he should pick some up on the way back. Diamond attempted to make things right again with Archer and tried out some magic on the remains of her work. To everypony’s surprise the diorama was restored to its original condition. The new unicorn finally felt pride in her magic and didn’t try to hide it either as she did before. Silent Study actually suggested an idea to Cheerilee about Silver Spoon and wanted to try and get her to test for receiving a Master Alchemist title from the Princess herself. After all, if somepony her age could produce potions like the one she had made for her friend then she definitely deserved to have her name and work out there. Red Triangle heard about the incident as he went over to pick up his daughter and was met with a mix of emotions. On one hand, he was angry that she had been taking valuable materials from him while not looking, but that anger disappeared as he had learnt about his very own daughter creating such impressive potions at such a young age. The only ponies left to receive their happy ending were the three Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Alright girls! We’ve solved the case of the destroyed diorama! You ready to get your cutie marks?” Apple Bloom announced to her friends.

“YEAH!” the two of them announced, looking at their flanks. After spending a minute of waiting for something to happen they just accepted that they weren’t going to get it.

“I can’t believe that after all the work we did that we still didn’t get a cutie mark,” exasperated Scootaloo.

“Yeah, but at least we proved my innocence!” beamed Sweetie Belle. “I’m just glad it’s over. I need a milkshake.”

“Me too,” announced Scoots. Just as they were walking away to Sugarcube Corner, they heard a cry go out from another one of their classmates.

“Oh no!” Twist yelled. “I can’t find my glasses, and they were just on my table!”

“You girls thinking what I’m thinking?” Scootaloo put out to her friends. Their expressions were all she needed to see to know that they’d do next. They all put their hooves together and started to cheer.

“One…two…three! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER INVESTIGATORS!”

Author's Note:

This scene is named after the term used in "Fables" to describe this kind of ending for a mystery story. Hope you enjoyed it!

Comments

[Shadow_Wolf]

I had suspected Diamond Tiara from the minute the hairs were found... but gotta say, didn't see that one coming. Nicely played that!

[Mod On Death]

2208332
Thanks. Also, "What a twist!"

[Mod On Death]

2213653
Sweetie Belle's a Bard, so she has high charisma.

[Ellington]

Wowsers!