Ponyville may be a small town, but it doesn't mean that it's a humdrum life. Follow Twilight Sparkle on her mystery cases all over town, in pursuit of the truth!
Ponyville may be a small town, but it doesn't mean that it's a humdrum life. Follow Twilight Sparkle on her mystery cases all over town, in pursuit of the truth!
Based on My Little Investigations, by GabuEx. I have nothing to do with the guy, and neither does this fic; it's just a fanwork of a fanwork.
I don't own MLP:FIM. I also have nothing to do with GabuEx, or My Little Investigations. Go support him and his project, though. That would be awesome.
Twilight Sparkle looked around the hall. She always enjoyed coming to one of Pinkie’s parties, but looking around, she could see that Pinkie really went out of her way to make this one as fun as it could be.
It was Hearth’s Warming Eve, and ponies all over Ponyville had been invited to Pinkie’s ‘Hearth’s Warming Eve Super Snowy Party’. Twilight had heard talk about it, but had never attended one until today; the last Hearth’s Warming Eve she spent with her friends was in Canterlot performing a play. Right now, she was at the back room of Sugarcube Corner, looking around and watching the other guests. Twilight knew that Sugarcube Corner was a famous bakery, not just in Ponyville, and it showed; the party looked anything but modest, exactly how Pinkie wanted.
Twilight could see most of the guests were ponies she recognised; there was a unicorn with wild blue hair and purple shades messing around with a mixing board, while a grey earth pony with black hair sort of stared disapprovingly, a pink pony with a grape coloured mane passed out on the floor, and a grey Pegasus with a blond mane, who Twilight remembered always seemed to be wherever there was something interesting happening. All of them were wearing some sort of costume like a simple dress or suit (except for the DJ who hadn’t bothered and just come as herself and the grey mare in the paper bags).
“Hey Twilight? Enjoying the party?”
Twilight jumped, before turning around. The voice belonged to Pinkie Pie, one of Twilight’s friends and the host of the party.
“Oh yeah. So this is your annual party?”
“Yuh huh! You think this is fun? But you haven’t seen anything yet! We’ve got all sorts of other things to do and…oh my gosh I’m not supposed to say because it’s all meant to be a surprise…”
“Pinkie…”
“But I guess it would be still a surprise if it still happened when you least expect since to be a surprise it has to still actually surprise you independent of whether you’re expecting it or not…”
“PINKIE! There’s somepony at the door.”
“Oh. OH! Sorry, Twilight! Be right back!” And with that, Pinkie ran off towards the door. Twilight followed her towards the entrance of Sugarcube Corner and saw Pinkie disengage a security crystal that Twilight gave to Pinkie last year, and open the door. She was greeted by a sky blue earth pony with not much mane, wearing a neat black suit. He was rather damp, considering he seemed to have been walking in the snow outside to get there.
“Oh hi, Track Maker!” said Pinkie, cheerful as ever. “Sheesh, you poor thing, your hair’s soaked! I could wring it out for you if you wanna…”
“No, it’s all right,” muttered Track. He wiped his hooves on the mat and walked inside. “What’d I miss?”
“Not much! We’ll have the main event starting real soon! So you’re right on time!”
Track smiled, and mingled with the rest of the guests in the back room. Twilight walked up to Pinkie Pie. “Who’s he?”
“Oh, him?” said Pinkie. “He’s Track Maker, Mr and Mrs Cake’s old friend from Maresenal! He’s our ingredient supplier at Sugarcube Corner! Oh, and Mrs Cake’s old school friend.”
“And did you really offer to wring out his hair?” Twilight knew that Pinkie tried to be friendly and hospitable to everypony, but…
“Well, yeah! His toupee must have been totally wet from walking out in the snow with no hat on!”
“Oh. Well, he can dry it off himself, can’t he?”
“It was a joke.”
“Oh.” Twilight was a pretty literal mare, being a magic scholar, and wasn’t that quick to pick up on jokes. Or make good ones.
“Sheesh, egghead. You’re so literal.”
Twilight swivelled round, and saw some more of her friends; Rainbow Dash, hovering a few centimetres of the ground, wing beating, and Applejack, in her trademark Stetson hat. Rainbow spoke up again. “So, apparently something’s about to happen in a couple of hours?”
Pinkie gasped. “Oh my gosh, you’re going to find it so FUN! But I can’t say what it is, yet.”
The four of them talked for a good while, with talk topics ranging from Pinkie’s new security system to Twilight chiding Rainbow for the sudden outbreak of snow leaving Pinkie’s last guest with a soaked toupee. Twilight’s attention wandered occasionally, at one point spotting Mr and Mrs Cake (Pinkie’s employers) talking with Track about the new kind of barley sugar they were using. Suddenly, Pinkie looked at her watch, and gasped. “Oh my gosh, it’s nearly time! Stay here everypony, I’ll be back to get our SPECIAL guest!”
And with that, Pinkie disappeared in a flash of pink absurdity upstairs to her room. “Special guest?” repeated Applejack. She was briefly wondering where Pinkie’s watch came from. Especially since it didn’t seem like she was wearing one just now.
Exactly 23.34 seconds later, Pinkie returned. She was now wearing a red woolly hat and a rather luxuriant beard. “Ho ho ho!”
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight stared at her. “Pinkie?” said Rainbow Dash.
“No, silly! I’m St. Pink, I deliver presents to good fillies and colts!”
“But it’s so obviously you,” Applejack remarked, with a level of deadpan that would have impressed even the most dead pony.
“Yeah, I get that a lot. But the truth is we are two completely different ponies altogether.”
“Right,” Twilight said. “And where are the presents you’re meant to deliver?”
This was met with a brief pause of absolutely no conversation between the four at all. Just then, Mr Cake walked up to them. “I’ll take you to the kitchen. The presents are there.”
“Did you ask Pinkie to play Santa Trots for the party?” Twilight asked him.
“Well, yes,” Mr Cake smiled. “My idea. Pinkie wanted to give presents to everypony she invited, and, well, I had some things to give to my old friends myself, so I thought I could give everypony everything together this way.”
“And it’s not Santa Trots, it’s St Pink,” ‘St Pink’ corrected him. “And I’m not being played by Pinkie, silly.”
“Gotta admit, that’s real dedication there,” Applejack remarked, as Pinkie and Mr Cake walked towards the kitchen.
2 minutes later, Pinkie came back into the room with Mr Cake, with a rather full looking brown sack in tow. “Ho ho ho! Happy Heath’s Warmin Eve, everypony!”
Pinkie made quite the show handing out the presents to the other guests. However, when Pinkie handed out the last present to a green unicorn (it was a collection of classical pieces for the lyre), Mr Cake frowned. He walked out towards the kitchen, and then came back a few minutes later. He whispered something to Mrs Cake, and announced to everypony in the room:
“I’m sorry, but a ruby necklace intended for Marble has gone missing. I’d like everypony to stay where they are while I inform the Royal Guard.”
All the guests in the room gasped. Mrs Cake was looking at Mr Cake in shock. “Mrs Cake’s present’s gone?” Pinkie whispered.
Twilight looked up. She was still new to the idea of being an investigative pony, but she was growing more confident that she could help. After all, she recently solved a case involving a rare jewel stolen from her friend’s house (and her cat, bizarrely), and came out mostly in one piece.
“Mr Cake, perhaps I can help?”
Mr and Mrs Cake looked at her. “Twilight? I’d be uneasy with just you,” Mrs Cake said quietly.
“Please, Mrs Cake?” Pinkie pleaded. “Twilight’s super smart, I’m sure she’ll figure out where it went! She’ll get it all over before the Royal Guard needs to come in!”
“Mr Cake, this isn’t my first case I’ve investigated,” Twilight added. “I can help.”
Mr and Mrs Cake paused, before Mrs Cake said, “Dear, if Pinkie thinks Twilight can do it, then…”
“Well…” sighed Mr Cake. “Okay. I’m counting on you, Twilight and Pinkie.”
“Excellent,” Twilight nodded. The game was afoot. “Pinkie, come with me.”
“Ooh, so I get to play the lowly assistant this time?” Pinkie asked. The first time Pinkie was involved in a case she had been the detective, but didn’t get far before Twilight had to step in.
“Be serious, Pinkie,” Twilight sighed. Just then, she saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack trot towards the two of them. “Hey Twi,” Applejack said. “So Mrs Cake’s present took a walk, huh?”
“Seems so,” Twilight said. “Actually, Rainbow, Applejack, there’s something you two could do for me.”
“Sure. What is it?” Rainbow asked. Twilight knew that Rainbow would never turn a friend down (as long as her attention could be held to the job).
“I’d like you to stay here with the other guests and search them. You know, just in case one of them stole it.” “Gotcha,” Applejack grinned.
“If they’ve got it, we’ll sniff it out,” Rainbow said with confidence.
“Alright, folks, we got ourselves an incident here, as y’all know, so Twilight wants everypony to stay here and get themselves searched,” Applejack told the other guests. “Now if y’all wanna go home tonight, you’d best do as we say.”
While Applejack and Rainbow looked around, Twilight and Pinkie made their way back to talk with Mr and Mrs Cake. They were in the kitchen, looking rather sullen.
“Mr Cake, I’ve got Applejack and Rainbow investigating the guests. So, let’s go over what happened…”
“Hey!” Pinkie said. She had wandered off during this time to poke around, remembering how Twilight looked for clues before coming to a conclusion; something Pinkie didn’t do last time. She had her hoof in the waste paper basket in the kitchen. “There’s some present wrapping in here!”
She fished it out CAREFULLY (As Twilight had then yelled at her for potentially damaging evidence), before Twilight carefully straightened out the crumpled paper with magic. It was rather festively decorated, as one would expect from a Hearth’s Warming Eve present, with the label on the front reading, “To Rolly, from Santa Trots.”
“Who the heck’s Rolly?” Pinkie asked. “I don’t know anypony with a name like that…Ooh, maybe it’s a nickname!”
“You’re right,” Mrs Cake said. “It’s mine.”
“Huh?” Pinkie stared at Mrs Cake.
“My wife’s nickname when she was a filly,” Mr Cake explained. “Her first name’s Marble, so I nicknamed her that since marbles are to be rolled, so…”
“So, this wrapping must be what held the necklace,” Twilight ventured. “It’s been opened, so it must have been stolen.”
“Oh sweet Celestia…small wonder,” murmured Mr Cake. “It WAS probably the most expensive present in the sack…”
“When did you last see it?” Twilight asked him.
“I kept in in the safe, in the kitchen. It was the last gift to go in with all the others Pinkie wanted to keep safe. I put it in the sack along with all the other presents and hid it underneath the kitchen sink. And there it stayed until Pinkie needed it.”
“Pinkie,” Twilight said.
Pinkie snapped alert, who was pondering what it would be like to have a nickname like Rolly, and looked at Twilight. “Who, me?”
“It was just you, Mr and Mrs Cake, and the party guests at the time, right?”
“Yup,” said Pinkie. “No-one could sneak in, that crystal you installed at our house would have gone off like fireworks if anypony tried!”
“You’re the host, do you remember anypony leaving the party at any point?”
“Umm…” Pinkie racked her memory. “Lyra (that street busker) went to the bathroom at the side. I gave her present last. Track Maker, remember him? He left for the bathroom too. And there was Carrot Top and Ditzy the mail mare; they needed the little fillies’ room, too.”
“Oh yeah, Carrot’s that pony who hangs around with Ditzy. How long were they gone?” Twilight asked.
“Um, Lyra and Track only left for about five minutes each. Carrot was gone for about two; she came back saying there was a spider in the bathroom. Ditzy went to get her, but apparently it had gone. It only took a minute for her.”
“So they’re the most suspicious ones…” Twilight murmured. “Oh hang on, before I go, just one thing…do you usually get Santa Trots as a party event?”
“No,” Mrs Cake answered. “It was the first time.”
“I told you that I wanted to mix it with the fact Pinkie would have brought everypony else presents,” Mr Cake reminded her. “Okay, thanks, Mr and Mrs Cake. We’ll be back.” The two of them nodded.
Twilight walked back to the back room with Pinkie. She was going over the four ponies Pinkie mentioned, but was struggling to think about a possible opportunity that seemed more…opportunistic, so to speak, than the others. But before she could gather her thoughts again, Rainbow Dash and Applejack approached her. They both looked disappointed.
“Checked ‘em all out, like you asked,” Applejack sighed. Nopony was hiding anythin’ in their suits or dresses.”
“And nopony would admit to stealing it anyway,” Rainbow remarked. But then she picked herself up. “Oh well, we’ll get there!”
“Just gotta pace yerselves,” Applejack agreed. “One step at a time. ‘He who is last shall be first’ and all that…you’ll get to the bottom of this eventually.”
Twilight paused. “Last…shall be first…”
Just then, a flood of Logic came pouring into Twilight’s thoughts. She remembered Mr Cake’s words. She then grinned.
“Got it!”
“What?” asked Applejack.
“I've figured out who’s got the necklace!”
“No way!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Then she grinned. “Amazing as always, egghead.”
“Pinkie, get Mr and Mrs Cake. I don’t want them to miss this!”
“Everypony, can I have your attention please!” Twilight announced, to everypony present in the room. “I now know where the necklace intended for Mrs Cake is, and…who’s got it.”
All the guests save for Applejack and Rainbow turned to each other, murmuring quietly among themselves. Rainbow muttered about how they should probably get on with it and just frisk who had the necklace, but Twilight wasn’t about to be interrupted.
“Let’s not dally,” Twilight smirked. This was it, the part she read about in her detective stories. The part where she announces her findings to an audience of suspects while she gradually revealed the puzzle.
“Somepony went into the kitchen, and found the sack containing the present inside. They then unwrapped it and threw the wrapping in the garbage, taking the necklace for themselves.” Twilight then showed the wrapping in plain view to the guests. Everypony could see the label in front.
“Now, going over what Pinkie told me, only 4 guests in this room ever left the party. Only they could have taken it from the sack.” Twilight pointed her hoof at the ones Pinkie mentioned. “Ditzy, Carrot Top, Track Maker and Lyra. One of you four.”
“What?” Carrot Top exclaimed. “That’s crazy talk! I didn’t do it. Ditzy didn’t do it…”
“Not so crazy when you think about it logically,” Twilight remarked. “Pinkie had a special crystal in place that would have shone towards intruders, so nopony outside could have taken it. It was also stolen at around the same time Pinkie…” “St Pink!”
Twilight stared at Pinkie. It seemed she was still determined to hide her identity. “St Pink then…was about to deliver everypony’s presents.”
“But St Pink went to the kitchen to get the sack too!” Lyra pointed out.
“But Mr Cake went to the kitchen with her. She couldn't have taken it without being seen, and she couldn't have gotten rid of the wrapping there either.”
Twilight paused. Dramatic effect. “Mr Cake said that he kept that necklace in the safe along with the other presents before putting it in the sack. It was apparently the last thing to go in the safe.
“Truth be told, I didn't make the connection at first, until Applejack said ‘He who is last shall be first’. Last is first…that’s the key. Since the necklace was the last thing to be put in the safe, it would have been the FIRST present to go into the sack with the others!”
“So?” asked Ditzy. Her good eye stared at Twilight intently.
“Think about what that entails,” Twilight said. “To get that necklace specifically, you’d have to wade through twenty or so other presents in the sack just to get it, straight after looking for the sack. Pretty time consuming stuff, right, probably taking several minutes? So that means neither Ditzy nor Carrot Top can be the thieves; they weren’t gone long enough.”
Ditzy and Carrot Top breathed a sigh of relief. “But Twilight,” Carrot Top said, “How’d the thief know WHAT to look for? I mean, they couldn’t have known that there was even a necklace in there at the start right? All the other presents looked fine when St Pink handed them out to everypony!”
“Well, even if you’d never been to a big party at Sugarcube Corner like this one, with Sugarcube Corner and its owners being so well-known, it’s not hard to imagine Mr Cake’s present to Mrs Cake, or vice versa, would be the most expensive one. But you’re right; clearly the thief was looking for THAT present specifically. But what gives it away?”
Twilight held up the wrapping again for all to see. “’To Rolly, from Santa Trots’.”
“Who?” asked Lyra.
“Only a nickname on the wrapping. So how would the thief know this was meant for Mrs Cake, unless they knew that was her nickname? Clearly impossible for somepony who only talks to the Cakes as customer and baker, especially since Mrs Cake isn’t called by that nickname in public…”
Twilight then turned to Track Maker. “But Mrs Cake’s old school friend, on the other hoof…”
Track Maker spluttered. “You…you can’t mean…”
“I do mean,” Twilight said sternly. “Track Maker, the culprit is you. You’re the only one who had both the time to look and the knowledge of what to look for.
“You most likely heard from Mr and Mrs Cake about the use of their new barely sugar they got from you and you went to the kitchen, curious about what they were using it for. It was then you saw the sack underneath the kitchen sink…”
“But Twilight,” protested Applejack, “We searched Track’s suit and we didn’t find the necklace!”
“Did you try his toupee?” asked Twilight.
“Wait, that’s a WIG?” Rainbow asked.
“That’s the only place he could hide it. He knew his suit would have gotten searched once news got round the necklace was missing.”
Twilight turned to Track Maker. “So, Track, could you please take your toupee off?”
Right on cue, Rainbow Dash hovered over him, her wings beating in earnest, and she suddenly lifted the toupee off his head. There it was; the necklace with a single polished ruby hanging in the middle.
Track dropped to the floor.
“I was…in need of that necklace…” Track groaned. “I gave money to somepony I know as a loan, but she never paid it back. I had a lot of payments to make and I was falling behind, fast. So I needed the money immediately, and so I thought…the party would be…”
Twilight stepped out of Sugarcube Corner, in time to see the local Royal Guard give Track a stern dressing down. She felt awfully pleased with herself.
“Still, I feel awful sorry for Mr and Mrs Cake,” Applejack said sadly to Twilight, snapping her out of her smug mood. “What’s gonna happen to the three of them, you think?”
“Oh it’ll be fine!” Pinkie said, bouncing happily. “I mean stealing was wrong and everything, but he was desperate! And he did give it back afterwards!”
“Rainbow sighed. “Only you could be that optimistic, Pinkie…”
“Well, to be fair, everypony was pretty easily forgiven after that whole incident with the cake,” Twilight reminded them. “Not much of a stretch to think that.”
Pinkie smiled. “I think we should just stop thinking about that now and think about something fun instead!”
“But everypony else’s gone home,” Applejack said.
“Oh. But we COULD still have a ‘Twilight-Solved-The-Mystery Party’ at Twilight’s place. Right?”
Twilight sighed. “Boy, am I going to regret this in the morning…but what the hay, why not.”
And with that, the four friends walked towards the Golden Oaks Library, with Pinkie chattering away about what they could do when they got there. Twilight decided to just mentally prepare herself for the unscheduled day off she’d have to have the next day afterwards…
Twilight never thought much about her appearance. After all, how one interprets looks is subjective, and there was no point taking much time in thinking about looks. As long as she didn't smell, who cares?
One pony who held the complete opposite view was Rarity, the owner of the Carousel Boutique, a shop specializing in fashion, and one of Twilight’s friends. For her, every pony had the right to look fabulous, and letting a chance to look your best slip by was the greatest sin a pony could commit.
So of course, that was the topic of conversation at the time.
“You must admit though darling, I thought that her choice of dye was absolutely ghastly.”
Twilight sighed. She never got why ponies would want to make an effort to try and change the colour of their mane or coat. SHE never went through all that trouble. After all, what’s the point in hiding what you really look like from the world? Why not show off your natural beauty instead?
“Still,” Twilight told Rarity, “It was Minty’s choice to try out that colour. And besides, you did say that she bought dye to turn her back in case it didn’t work out for her.”
“Oh, yes. And apparently it didn’t take to her. Look.”
Twilight looked to where Rarity was pointing, and saw a blue Pegasus pony with a blond mane walking across the street. Rarity trotted up to her, eager to introduce her to Twilight.
“Minty Fresh! I DID tell you darling, that colour would never work out for you!”
“Eh, it was just an experiment, is all,” Minty said sheepishly.
“She came to my boutique yesterday at 11:45 looking for a new look for her that didn’t involve new clothes,” Rarity explained. “I did advice against her choice, but well, at least she took precautions. And it only takes half an hour to set in.”
“Yeah, I decided that the look didn’t suit me. Should have paid more attention,” Minty said. Then she gasped. “Ack! I’ve got other places to be! Sorry Rarity, take care. See ya round!” And with that, Minty ran off.
“So who’s Minty?” Twilight asked Rarity.
“Oh, you haven’t seen her around? She’s Colgate’s friend, the dentist. She regularly visits the clinic to hang out…”
Rarity and Twilight had a good time talking with each other until it got quite late. 8:00, actually, but Rarity considered that to be quite late for her. As Twilight made her way back to Golden Oaks Library to turn in for the night, she never realised that the next day would bring some unexpected surprises…
-
Twilight woke up the next, morning, feeling rather good about today. She was going to go see Fluttershy and Rarity to head off to the spa together.
Rarity picked up Twilight, and then Fluttershy (for Fluttershy wasn’t adventurous enough to arrange to meet somepony beforehand) and off they went to the spa. On the way, they passed a house, with several soup and dog food cans littering the outside. Twilight kicked one by accident walking. She looked down, while Fluttershy could only shake her head.
“Oh, it must have been the raccoons,” sighed Fluttershy. “I keep telling them living off garbage isn’t the healthiest thing for them, but they keep sneaking into Ponyville…”
Fluttershy took care of animals as a job, and lived with several animals back home. As she pawed at the can, checking for certain it was raccoons, Rarity could only eye the cans in disdain.
“Oh for heaven’s sake, I would think somepony would have cleaned them up by now!” said Rarity in disgust. It was usually a well-kept part of the street; it was unusual to find garbage lying directly outside. Then again, she and Twilight did pass the house yesterday, and the cans were there; they hadn’t been cleaned up then. But before she could get an agreement off one of her friends, she saw that Twilight was looking towards the house, in disappointed shock.
Twilight saw that there were a bunch of Royal Guards from Canterlot surrounding that house. Just then, Twilight recognised the armour they were wearing, and was immediately filled with a sense of dread. This was one of the Investigative Teams from Canterlot, and, for want of a nicer phrase, a small filly ended up solving the last case they were called into Ponyville for, but not without them accusing several ponies left and right for the most absurd-sounding crimes. Twilight knew today wouldn’t be a good day with them around. Hoping that she could stop them from making a big mistake, she walked towards the house.
“Um…” Twilight tentatively got one of the guards’ attention. “What happened here?”
“Burglary,” was the reply. “Somepony broke into this pony’s house and made off with all her valuables, somehow getting past her security crystals and her dog. We’re here to check it out. Oh, but don’t worry, we already have our culprit.”
“Who?” asked Twilight. Just then, she was answered by a series of protests coming from her right. They were coming from a green stallion with a blue mane, being restrained by another guard.
“Hey, pal, I wasn’t doing anything, I was just right outside here when you guys showed up! I don’t know anything about this place, I just got here!”
“Who are you?” asked Twilight.
“Me? I’m Stick-Up, journalist. I came from Trottingham to check out the everyday life here. Now will you tell these guys to lay off me?”
“Enough!” came another, rather upper-class sounding voice. “The Great Officer Clue has no time for your lies!” Twilight looked towards the house, and saw a rather smug looking pony in Royal Guard armour, white, like all the others.
“Uh…” Twilight was taken aback by this show boater. It put her in mind of somepony she knew. “Who…are you?”
“Ah, yes,” the officer said. “I am Officer Clue Lesdork. But to you I am the Great Officer Clue, investigative genius!”
“Genius,” Twilight repeated. She wasn’t fond of showing off just for kicks, but had no problems with Rainbow Dash since she could at least back up her big mouth with her flying skills. Twilight was hoping he could too.
“Right,” Rarity eventually said, trying to break up the tension. “So, Officer Clue, what makes you think this pony, Stick-Up, has any connection to this burglary?”
“Because he’s ultra-suspicious!” Officer Clue said with confidence. “Nopony in town recognised him, and he was also seen hanging around the house by the time we arrived!”
“Um…but so were we,” Fluttershy murmured. “Are we suspicious?”
“Hmmm…maybe so!” Clue shouted, resulting in an “Eep!” from Fluttershy. “Maybe YOU’RE the thief we’re looking for!”
“If we were,” Twilight said patiently, “we wouldn’t admit to it, would we?”
This was met with a brief pause. Officer Clue then cleared his throat and said, “Anyway, don’t you worry your pretty little heads! I’ll find the evidence to put Stick-Up away, and this case will be closed!”
“Aw, c’mon, pal!” Stick-Up said, exasperated. “I told ya, I was just passing by! I don’t know this pony! And she doesn’t know me!”
“You stay where you are! I’m going to prove you did it and then go home, job well done!” And with that, Officer Clue waltzed off.
“…that does it.”
“Huh?” Fluttershy turned to Twilight.
“I hoped for a relaxing day, but I guess I’m picking up after these ponies. Great.”
“But…” Fluttershy said timidly. “I’m sure that these professionals can do it…”
“Fluttershy, I’d trust the Investigative Team from Canterlot as far as I could buck them. Which, as Applejack would like to remind me, isn’t that far; my back leg strength is terrible.”
“Oh, I’m sure they can’t be all that bad…”
“Fluttershy, do you not remember last time they were here?”
“…They accused Lyra of being a mastermind behind a large-scale smuggling ring specialising in musical instruments called ‘Strings McGee’?”
“Exactly. So I’m trusting nopony but myself to set things straight.”
Twilight’s was then immediately interrupted by the sound of Officer Clue falling face first into the dirt. She turned around, and saw that he had tripped over one of Colgate’s security crystals.
“Oh by Celestia’s BEARD!” exclaimed Twilight. “You CANNOT be this clumsy!”
“H-hey!” protested Clue. “Even a genius has his off days!”
“Twilight,” Fluttershy said. “He might not be the best officer so far, but he’s doing what he can. He did say he was a genius.”
Twilight was about to make a snide remark about how he was the only one asserting that, but then a thought occurred to her.
“So this is how our burglar bypassed security,” mused Twilight, inspecting the crystal. Even though Clue had knocked it right over, it hadn’t starting shining directly into Clue’s eyes. He must not be in its line of sight, then, Twilight thought to herself.
Then she paused. Surely that crystal wasn’t always in that position? It clearly was rearranged by the culprit to get past.
“But then how’d they know it was there…?”
Just then, another officer came up to Clue, and watched him pick himself up. “Sir, we investigated the house, and we found this on the floor.”
The officer took out from his satchel a small mantelpiece clock, which had broken; the glass had cracked and it was making no movement at all.
Twilight looked at the clock. 1:30. Must be the time it broke, Twilight thought. Did our burglar do that?
“We think the burglar broke this when they entered the house,” the officer went on.
“I see,” said Officer Clue. He then turned on Stick-Up. “So, mister, where were you at 1:30?”
“Not in town!” Stick-Up said. “I never went near that place!”
“This is your first time in Ponyville?” Fluttershy asked him.
“Of course it is!” said Stick-Up. “I’ve never been here before! I was told to investigate the quiet country life here for an article, and here I am!”
“So he has no reason to try and rob anything here,” Twilight told Officer Clue. A quick “Hmph!” was the only response she got.
“Oh, Twilight!” came another voice, belonging to a filly this time. Twilight looked up, and saw a blue pony with a striped blue and white mane walking towards her, with a large brown dog walking alongside her. Twilight recognised her as Colgate, Ponyville’s local dentist. She seemed to be in tears.
“Colgate…oh no, it was your house that got burgled, wasn’t it?”
“I’m afraid so,” Colgate nodded sadly. She looked as though she was about to break down. “All my things…”
“Well, not to worry!” Twilight said, in a cheerful voice, hoping it would make Colgate a little happier. “I’m all over this. Trust me, and I’ll get this solved.”
“Well, I guess the Investigative Team isn’t anything to write home about…” Colgate remarked, looking a little more confident, but still sad. “…okay. If you think you can do it…”
“Thanks. I won’t let you down. So, run me through? What happened?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, it was awful, I woke up this morning, and I found that all of my things had been taken. Ransacked! So I called the Royal Guard, and asked to send somepony over. Unfortunately, I got the Investigative Team instead.”
“Was it secure?”
“I should think so,” Colgate sighed. “Or so I thought. My dog didn’t alert me at all and the security crystals I installed didn’t go off…” The dog looked down, his ears drooping.
“Um…Mr Dog…” Fluttershy asked him. “Could you tell us why you didn’t bark at the burglar?”
This was met by a series of barks. Afterwards, Fluttershy said, “He apparently slept through the whole thing too.”
Colgate’s face fell. So both she and the dog fell asleep and let a burglar steal her things…Fluttershy saw that this wasn’t helping the mood any and so decided to change the subject. “Um…how do security crystals work?” Fluttershy asked.
Rarity, being a foremost expert on gems, explained to Fluttershy. “Security crystals are gems charged with a pony’s magic to keep them safe. They emit a stream of magic, invisible to all except the one who charged it, and if a living thing crosses its path, it shines light on the intruder even when they try to run away until the user drains its magic again, so they can’t get away. So it’s recommended to have a quite complex network of them for best results.”
“Still,” remarked Twilight, “I find it hard to believe you could have just missed it all.” Maybe something happened the previous day to distract her, or cause her to miss it, she thought. "What were you doing yesterday?”
“Oh, the usual,” replied Colgate. “I got ready for the day, and opened up my clinic at 9 sharp. I saw my patients all through the day; I never left my clinic once. After that I closed up at 6 and went straight home, where I had supper and listened to some music until 9. I woke up the next morning and found I’d been burgled!”
“Is that all? So you’re saying you slept through the whole thing?” Rarity said sceptically. “You honestly didn’t hear anything suspicious? Not even your own dog barking?”
“I’m usually a very light sleeper, so I really don’t know how it happened. I mean, I don’t take medication for sleeping problems or anything.”
“Um…” Fluttershy spoke up again. “Maybe she and the dog were slipped some medicine, somehow…”
Twilight paused. “Possible. But there has to be OPPORTUNITY for it to happen first. Miss Colgate, do you have any regular daily habits?”
“Well, at around 12:15 in the day, I always have a cup of herbal tea; it helps to keep me refreshed. I always open my clinic and close it at the same time I’ve always done, and go to bed the same time I’ve always done.”
“Oh, I know what that’s like,” mused Fluttershy. “Angel gets rather cross if I don’t do everything I should do every day. Like feed him, for example…”
Twilight reflected on what was said. So Colgate went to the clinic and never left for the whole of the day. So if anypony would try and slip something to make her sleep, it would have to be at the clinic…
“You went straight home. You didn’t talk with anypony on the way?”
“Nopony,” said Colgate.
Twilight made a small smile. Rarity turned to her. “Um, Twilight, darling, are you alright?”
“Just a thought,” Twilight said. “Let’s go. I think I know the first go-to place for sleeping stuff.”
“But we can’t leave Stick-Up and Colgate all alone…what if he gets put away by mistake?” Fluttershy said.
“Relax,” Twilight said. “If he’s looking for evidence against Stick-Up, he’s going to be kept busy looking for what probably doesn’t exist. Besides, I’ll be here to keep him straight.”
Twilight turned to Rarity and Fluttershy. “Listen, there’s something I need you two to do for me.”
“Anything, darling,” Rarity nodded.
“Of course,” Fluttershy agreed.
“I’m sticking around to look for clues. If I’m right, and this crime wasn’t planned out in as much detail as the culprit would have liked, then I think we may get somewhere. While I’m doing that, I want you to go to…”
-
Rarity and Fluttershy walked away from Colgate’s house, towards wherever Twilight had planned for them to go. It was when they were about in the centre of town that they bumped into Minty Fresh. “Minty!” called Rarity.
“Oh, hello,” Minty said, politely. She looked rather frazzled; her mane was untidy and she looked like she could do with a wash.
“Did you hear about the burglary?”
“By word of mouth,” Minty replied. “It’s a small town, after all. News travels quickly. It’s…awful, I know. I can’t think of a reason for poor Colgate to be the one to get burgled. Can you?”
“I’m afraid not, but apparently the gentlecolts from Canterlot don’t seem to need one,” Rarity said snidely.
“You don’t mean…”
“Yes, I’m afraid it’s the same team, darling.”
“Oh,” Minty looked rather nervous. “Well, I hope that they don’t mess this one up too badly this time…”
“Oh, they won’t,” Rarity said firmly. “Not if we can help it. Oh, look at me ramble on, there’s something else we needed to do. See you, Minty!”
Before Fluttershy made to follow after her, she said, “Minty, maybe you should go see Colgate. She could do with a good friend right now.”
Minty looked guilty. “Yeah, I probably should. See you around.” She then started trotting towards Colgate’s house.
-
Twilight was at her wit’s end with Officer Clue. He was turning over every nook and cranny hoping to find something; a hoofprint, some hair, anything, but was having no luck. Annoyed by his lack of progress, Twilight decided that she should probably discreetly look around before somepony saw her and kicked her off the crime scene. Satisfied that her initial investigation of the front yard had nothing except a pathway, a lawn and a bowl of water for the dog, she decided to get a little more proactive.
Twilight quietly made her way into the living room, and saw that the window had apparently been opened. The room was a mess. Everything had been upturned, and just about every drawer had been opened. Twilight scanned the room. Among the clutter, she couldn’t see anything remotely valuable, just as Colgate said. Apart from that, there didn’t seem to be anything unusual, save for the mess. Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something long and thin in between the very small gap in the window pane and the house. Twilight gently lifted it from the gap with magic, conjured up a small plastic bag, and put it inside. Upon closer inspection, it looked like some sort of hair.
Twilight then thought back to the security crystals. More specifically, how they could have been disarmed. The more she thought about it, the more her original theory began to make sense…but before she could complete her thoughts, she saw Minty Fresh walk up the pathway through the window. Deciding she had probably make herself scarce before Officer Clue spotted her, she made her way outside.
“Hey, Minty. I guess you heard?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, you know how news travels,” Minty said. “I bumped into Rarity and a friend of hers. She said I should be there for Colgate.”
“Agreed,” said Twilight. “She does need some support right now…”
“And what have we HERE?” said a familiar smug voice. Oh Sweet Celestia, Twilight thought.
Sure enough, it was Officer Clue, and she was eyeing Minty with great suspicion.
“This is Minty,” Twilight said. “She’s a friend of Colgate.”
“Hmm…” said Clue. “Tell me, what were you doing at 1:30 last night?”
“Wha…what’s that got to do with…?” Minty gasped.
“Apparently that’s when the burglary happened,” Twilight explained.
“I was at DJ Pon3’s Night Club from 10 ‘til 5!” exclaimed Minty. “Have you even got ANYTHING connecting me to this place?”
“Well, not yet, but…”
“Well, don’t go labelling everypony you see as a suspect then!”
“Yeah!” shouted Stick-Up, somewhere in the distance.
“Don’t worry, I don’t think it’s just him,” Twilight remarked. Although that was like saying “at least Cutie Pox isn’t the only disease”. She sighed. “I hope Fluttershy and Rarity find out what I’m looking for…”
-
Soon, Rarity and Fluttershy found themselves outside Nurse Redheart’s Medicine Emporium, just next to Ponyville General Hospital. Everypony knew that apart from Zecora, this was the place to go for potions (it was grounds for being the NUMBER ONE spot, since it was the only one in Ponyville). Eager to find out what Twilight thought, Rarity and Fluttershy went inside.
Inside, Nurse Redheart greeted them. “Hi, welcome to the Medicine Emporium…oh, hello Rarity! Hello, Fluttershy!”
“Nurse Redheart,” Rarity responded. “Good to see you. I was wondering if you could help us with something…”
“Fire away. I’d be glad to help.”
“Do you have a record of everypony who visited here yesterday looking for sleeping medicine?”
“Um, yes. What for?”
“The Investigative Team from Canterlot wants to know. It’s for the investigation.” Ours, Rarity thought to herself.
“But Rarity,” Fluttershy pointed out. “The medicine could have been bought earlier than yesterday, such as last week or…” Then she stopped. “But um…if Twilight thinks so…”
“Good point,” Rarity conceded. “But Twilight seems fairly confident that the crime was not very long in the works. For now, let’s trust her and see where this leads.”
“Um…” Nurse Redheart said. “Yes, one pony came in looking for a good strong potion. Red Pegasus pony with a white mane. Just her, looking for a good insomnia cure.”
“Which potion did she get?” Fluttershy asked.
“She browsed around for a bit, and then decided on this one.” Nurse Redheart pointed to a small bottle with a brown liquid inside. Rarity read the label.
“Please allow for about 9 hours for effects to take place (3 for other animals). Take once during day for best effects. Keep out of reach of fillies. Sethisto is best pony.”
“Interesting…a potion like this one, Colgate could take it at 9 in the evening, but not feel its effects until 6 next morning…” Rarity muttered to herself.
“I don’t see why you’d make a potion like this, though,” Fluttershy remarked. “I’d prefer taking something like this before going to bed.”
“Well, some ponies prefer taking their medicine during the day, in accordance to their lifestyle,” Redheart explained. “That’s why we have delayed-effects medicine like this one…”
“Hmm,” Rarity said to herself. The she said, “Well, darling, I think we’ve uncovered what Twilight wanted us to find out. We should be getting back.”
-
“…and that’s what happened,” Rarity concluded, after she and Fluttershy explained everything to Twilight.
“So, Nurse Redheart said a red pony with a white mane bought a sleeping potion that doesn’t kick in for 9 hours?”
Twilight frowned. 9 o’clock is precisely when Nurse Redheart usually goes to bed. It’s also when she fell asleep. That smashed clock read 1:30, so…
Then Twilight smiled. “Oh. Now I see.”
“What?” asked Fluttershy.
“I think I might have an answer, but I need to know something first.”
“You have?”
“Come on. Let’s go before Clue messes it up again.”
-
“Oh, Twilight,” said Colgate. “You’re back so soon?”
“Hey. There’s just something I need to know. At 12:00, the night before the crime, was there anything unusual that happened?”
“I…don’t think so,” Colgate said slowly. “All that happened was a green pony came to see me while I was just finishing with another patient, some red pony with a white mane, called Smiles. I said I had to talk with her, and Smiles just said that she would see herself out. Thoughtful of her.”
Twilight processed what she just said. Then, she slammed her hoof down. That’s it. That was the chance to…
“Got it. I know who the culprit is.”
Just then, before Twilight could go any further, she was interrupted by a frustrated cry. Twilight turned, and saw the voice belonged to Officer Clue.
“How. Is. This. Possible?” he was seething. “NOTHING points towards Stick-Up as the culprit! But if it’s not him…”
“I think I can help,” Twilight said, as coolly as she could muster, given how she had pretty much had it with him at this point. “Could you get everypony here, and I’ll tell you all EXACTLY what happened.”
-
“Twilight,” said Officer Clue crossly, “are you saying you found out how Stick-Up managed to burgle Colgate’s house without leaving anything behind? Get real!”
“No, idiot,” Twilight said. “YOU assumed Stick-Up was the culprit and so went to look for evidence pointing to him. Whereas I got started on the how rather than the who. And that, everypony, is how I managed to find the truth.
“I couldn’t shake it. There was seemingly no reason for Stick-Up to rob that house. He had only been in Ponyville once today, so he couldn’t have known which house would be the best one to rob. Assuming he was out to steal anything at all. Even if he did, this definitely wasn’t the best house to pick.
“When I saw Colgate’s house, I noticed that there were several cans of dog food strewn around among the garbage. Raccoons, according to Fluttershy. Do you think that a total stranger out to rob her house would ignore the fact that she had a dog?”
“W-well, no, I guess not…” Clue pawed at the ground in embarrassment.
“Not just that. The defence was pretty airtight, no matter how you cut it. The dog would have woken Colgate up, barking like that, especially given she’s usually a light sleeper. She wouldn’t have just ignored it as a nuisance, considering she had several security crystals all over her house.
“The dog alone is enough to warrant second thought,” continued Twilight, “but you can get a lot of info based on the security crystals themselves. They work by setting up magic lines, invisible to all but their users, around the house and they shine if one of their flow lines is interrupted. It is possible to move the crystals, but you’d have to know where they were being kept and where the lines are first. A stranger coming to the house for the first time wouldn’t know this.”
“So,” Colgate surmised, “that means Stick-Up was either totally innocent, or not a stranger to this place at all.”
“Exactly what I thought,” said Twilight. “The fact that the burglary still happened regardless tells us something vitally important. The culprit must have taken Colgate’s security system and dog into account. Stick-Up and Colgate aren’t related to each other and no nothing about each other; both said that much. Stick-Up could have planned for the dog, but not the security system. So the only possibility left is that the culprit is somepony who knows her, and quite well.”
Twilight turned to Minty Fresh. “Well, Minty?”
Minty could only stare at Twilight. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not good at it, unfortunately,” said Twilight. “Minty Fresh, the culprit is you.”
Twilight turned to address the others. “This is what I think happened.
“First, Minty went to Nurse Redheart looking for a good sleeping potion, claiming to have insomnia. You made sure to get the special kind that was to be taken during the day, something that was anything but instantaneous. You went around to Colgate’s house, flew over to where the dog’s water bowl was, and poured some of the potion into the bowl. She then met up at Colgate’s clinic at 12:30 in disguise, dying her mane and coat, taking the opportunity to slip the potion into Colgate’s tea while she was off talking with another patient.”
Twilight turned to Rarity. “Rarity, I remember you said that Minty came into the Carousel Boutique yesterday looking to buy 2 sets of hair and mane dye, yes?” Rarity nodded. “What colour was she planning to dye herself?”
“Um, it was a red coat with a white mane…Ah!”
“Exactly. The same type of pony that visited Colgate’s clinic at 12:30. The dye job was done at 12:00. It apparently takes about half an hour to fully set in, so by the time you went to Colgate’s clinic, it should have completely covered you up.”
“I just wanted to try a new look!” protested Minty. “It’s got nothing to do with anything!”
“Once the potion began to kick in at 9:00,” Twilight continued, “you knew that would be Colgate’s bedtime. As her friend, you knew her habits. The potion ensured Colgate was out like a light, and thanks to the potion being squirted in the dog’s outside water bowl beforehand, he was fast asleep too. You also knew where the security crystals were as well as their line of sight; you knew Colgate always used the same security settings as a filly, her being a mare of habit to a fault. Once you were sure she’d be asleep, you broke in and burgled the place.
“You set the clock in her living room forward to 1:30, and then smashed it, so that somepony would find it and assume that was when the burglar came to rob Colgate’s house. After that, all you had to do was use the other set of dye to restore you to your original colour, and then be at DJ Pon3’s late night club from 10 until 5 in the morning and you’d have your alibi.”
“But Minty could just as easily have robbed the house during the day,” Rarity pointed out. “Colgate was at the clinic all day, after all.”
“She WAS probably planning on robbing it in the day, but she saw the dog food cans and thought that maybe Colgate had recently gotten a dog. So she had to adjust her plan not just for the security gems, but for her new dog too. Remember, Rarity, those cans weren’t outside her house until yesterday.”
“T-that’s…” Minty stammered. “Ridiculous! Where’s your proof it was me?”
“As for proof…” Twilight said, “It’s this.” Twilight then showed everypony the hair that she recovered from the windowsill. “When you climbed through the window, your tail briefly got stuck between the gap. You pulled it free, but one of your hairs got yanked out in the process. If this tail hair is examined, and it’s yours…that’ll be all we need.”
“Minty…” Colgate said quietly.
Minty hung her head. “I was scared…” she confessed. “Two days before, Colgate picked up an illegally exported diamond by mistake, when we left that café. My diamond. I had to get it back. I’d be ruined if she found it and it was traced back to me…
I saw the dog food cans and thought about how Colgate had a dog and never told me. I was sunk…but then I thought of a way to get it back by getting her to ignore the dog…it was the plan, exactly as you guessed.”
“You turned the whole place upside down trying to find it,” Twilight said. “Problem was you couldn’t put it all back neatly, so to make the crime look indiscriminate, you had to make off with several more of Colgate’s valuables.”
“Right…” Minty wailed. “I destroyed them, so that they wouldn’t be found and traced back…I freaked when I bumped into Rarity…it was just pure luck that she didn’t mention the colour dye I got…I was…so stupid…so stupid…”
“I’ll say,” said Rarity. “Darling, even if you did add potion to the water bowl, there was no guarantee the dog would drink from it, unlike Colgate’s tea. It was just a desperate gamble…”
Minty’s cries of despair were the only things that answered in reply.
-
Stick-Up was let off with no charges made, with Officer Clue having to make frantic apologies after Stick-Up claimed he would sue. Twilight saw Minty being led into a carriage, before re-joining Rarity and Fluttershy.
“My goodness, I never realised that Minty had an agenda in mind when she asked me for a hair and coat job.” Rarity grimaced. “I should have known. Anypony who deliberately sets out to make herself as unfabulous as possible cannot be a decent pony.”
“It’s so sad,” Fluttershy said quietly. “And it was all so easy – Minty knew Colgate inside and out. Her habits allowed her house to be robbed.”
She then turned to Twilight. Twilight looked back. “What?” she asked.
“Um…well…I was just thinking how you’re a mare of habit yourself…and…”
Twilight was taken aback. “Wait, what? Are you suggesting…?”
“Oh, no! Not like that,” Fluttershy panicked. “I’m sure nopony - WE would ever…”
“I could have been burgled while I was gone! Spike can’t take on a fully grown pony by himself!”
“Twilight, I’m sure it’s fine…”
“Oh gosh, I have to make changes to my security crystals. In secret. Double them. No, TRIPLE them!”
“And there goes Twilight’s rampant paranoia,” Rarity sighed. Twilight was always the sort to worry too much.
“It’s not paranoia if it’s true! Sorry, girls, gotta get going! See you!” And with that, Twilight teleported away, back to the Golden Oaks Library, leaving Rarity and Fluttershy to stare of in bewilderment into the distance.
Ponyville was for the most part a quiet town. All of its residents could agree to that much. Of course, it had seen its fair share of incidents, some of which highly uncommon (such as the rise of several mad deities, odd animal invasions, and if one were to get technical, Pinkie Pie), but otherwise, everypony in town could enjoy a simple life.
So, of course, an ear-splitting explosion from the outskirts of town was certainly not the first thing anypony expected. It was just any other normal day in Ponyville, with everypony going about their daily business. It was round about 10 in the morning when the explosion happened.
The resulting cloud of smoke rising could be seen all over town. Those who saw it ran straight to the source, while others sort of panicked (the default reaction for most living here). The sky was immediately filled with several pegasi, working together to fly back and forth calling for the local fire department. Within minutes, several ponies from the local Royal Guard were rushing to the scene of the explosion, two of which were in the square, barking out orders.
Any sense of normality had seemingly disappeared.
-
Twilight Sparkle was in the Golden Oaks Library when it happened. Her morning started fairly normally, like everypony else’s morning. She woke herself up, then roused Spike (he couldn’t wake himself up due to his age). She had breakfast which Spike made for her, before opting for a simple scourging spell in lieu of a shower, before getting to work, according to her triple-checked schedule.
First thing first, comb the library for books put back on the wrong shelves. Both Twilight and Spike took a shelf each, and began working in a clockwise direction, sorting the books. They had done about 3 shelves each when the explosion happened. The sudden sound of the blast caused Spike to fall of the stepladder he was on, and several books to come toppling off the shelf directly onto him.
Twilight gasped. “Oh my gosh! Spike, you okay?” Twilight began gingerly lifting the books off him via magic until Spike was visible again.
“Twilight…I don’t wanna eat my greens…” Spike burbled out, before finally snapping out of his dazed state. “Huh?”
“What was that all about?” Twilight asked, trotting up to the window. She saw the sight outside, and gasped again. Ponies in the square were panicking, and Royal Guards were flying towards a large cloud of smoke coming from across town, while several pegasi were trying to keep everypony else calm.
Twilight then saw a rainbow coloured blitz making a beeline for the window. Twilight squeaked out a frightened noise before ducking and covering, as Rainbow Dash came crashing straight through the window with a resounding sound of glass shattering.
“Um…we have a useable door, remember?” Spike muttered sarcastically, as he started to pick the shards off the floor.
“Well…” Rainbow breathed. “There was this explosion across the other side of town; it shook me off the cloud I was napping on! So I flew towards where it was to check it out, and I saw this house. It got totally demolished, and there were fires everywhere! So I flew here to tell you about it!”
“A house was destroyed?” Twilight was filled with dread. What if it was another threat to Ponyville, like the Changeling Queen Chrysalis, or a dragon, or worse? Twilight did tend to panic if things happened that she didn’t expect. “How?”
“No idea. Just saw the demolished house and flew straight here. Royal Guard’s all over it, though.”
“Which one? Our local one?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah. Come to think of it, there was one pony I didn’t recognise. Some guy who looked a little too smug for his own good. I mean, I can be a little sure of myself too, but this guy was as obnoxious as Trixie!”
Twilight paused. An obnoxiously smug and arrogant Royal Investigator? Surely not?
“Rainbow,” Twilight said. “Could you take me to where the explosion happened?”
“What?” Rainbow asked. “You’re not trying to stick your nose into what’s going on, are you?”
“No, but I want to keep that obnoxious pony you saw from sticking HIS nose into it, if possible.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll fly you there in 10 seconds flat, no problem. Quick question. Have you seen that guy before?”
“Once or twice,” said Twilight. “Now let’s get going.”
-
Twilight decided that it would probably be best to study up on spells to aid motion sickness by the time she got back home, after Rainbow Dash’s quick, but very uncomfortable trip to where the explosion happened. It took a little while for Twilight to get steady on her hooves again, but once she adjusted to the level ground again, she looked around the scene.
The sight she saw looked like a wreck. The house straight in her line of sight had been completely levelled; the roof was in several hundred pieces and there were blackened fragments all over the place. The front door had totally shattered, with three glass fragments still clinging on. Two were still attached to the left frame of the wooden door, but the third was attached to the other frame.
Judging by what Twilight could see, the blast seemed quite small, based on how the blast had only taken out the front half of the house. Even so, it was apparently powerful enough to level the living room and most of the garage outside.
“Horizontal explosion,” Twilight concluded.
“How’d you figure that?” Rainbow asked.
“The lower parts of the house as well as the garage on the side are the most badly damaged. A vertical blast would have taken the upper floor, too.”
Rainbow whistled. “Seriously, I don’t know how you do that but you’re seriously good at spotting these things.”
“Imagination. That’s all,” Twilight smiled. “You just need to imagine how it happened, based on what you can see.”
Twilight then looked around, this time not for an initial assessment, but for the Royal Guard that Rainbow described. Sure enough, a familiar arrogant laugh came from the side of the house. Trotting quickly to the source, Twilight came across who she expected to find; Officer Clue Lesdork.
“Oh. Hello,” Twilight let out a sigh.
Officer Clue turned, and saw Twilight. “Ah, it’s the wannabe detective pony! And what are YOU doing here?”
“Right back at you,” Twilight shot back. “Our local Guard should be investigating, so what’s a Canterlot Guard doing here?”
“I asked to be transferred!” Clue announced proudly. “After the several incidents involving this town, I thought that I’d have much more to do investigating in this town than in Canterlot. My talents are being wasted settling petty arguments among the classy folks, after all!”
Actually, I think their brain activity synchronises perfectly with yours, Twilight thought to herself.
“So you met?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering towards Twilight.
“You know that incident at Colgate’s house? Saw him there,” Twilight said, deciding not to bite her tongue about what she really thought of him.
“Really? You didn’t mention him when you talked to me about it.”
He’s not much to talk about to be fair, Twilight thought, but she said, “I figured you’d be more interested in the case.”
“Twilight!” called a voice behind Twilight. She and Rainbow turned around, and saw Nurse Redheart, with a first-aid kit with her, bandaging up a red pony with a blue mane. Her patient had several bandages applied all over her body, as well as several plasters. She was also badly blackened.
“Hello! So you’re here to investigate, are you?” Nurse Redheart asked.
“Yeah. Who’s your patient?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, this is Garnet Flash. She’s the owner of this house. She got caught in the explosion just as she was leaving the house. By Celestia, she’s lucky she knew a shield charm, or a bad scorching would be the least of her worries.” Nurse Redheart then opened up a bottle, and poured several drops onto one of Garnet’s badly burned areas on her left front leg. She winced visibly and drew her leg back slightly.
“What happened?” asked Twilight. “How’d your house get blown up?”
“I’m not sure,” Garnet moaned. “I was just about to leave house for the day and do some odd jobs around town, when I saw that somepony was painting a Luna Republic symbol on the outside of my door. I went up for a closer look and to chase them away, and heard a hissing sound coming from a Gumhoof chemical solution from outside. I barely had time to erect a shield before the blast knocked me off my feet.”
“Huh,” Twilight said. “And the whole Luna Republic thing…”
“Oh, you know how some idiots think that Nightmare Moon could have made a better world for us,” Garnet said bitterly. “I’ve seen some ponies around town giving me some shifty looks, staring at me, just the other day, wearing navy blue scarves. It made me nervous.”
“Neo Luna Republic fanatics?” Rainbow said angrily. “Those jerks! Maybe they were the ones who…”
“Woah, Rainbow, easy,” Twilight warned. “You’ve got to keep a cool head.” She then remembered her freak out at the library only moments before, but decided not to bring that up now. So she sheepishly kept quiet about it, and got back to business.
“Well, you’re lucky it was a Gumhoof,” Twilight explained. “You wouldn’t have had time to cover yourself if it was any more instantaneous in its effects.”
“What IS a Gumhoof bomb, exactly?” Rainbow asked Twilight.
Garnet spoke up. “Um, while I was a Fillydelphia University student, I was told that it was a type of explosive made by mixing the Gumhoof plant with a compound of other potions. The moment the plant comes into contact with the mixture you have several seconds before it blows up in your face.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Twilight nodded. “It’s preferred since it at least gives its users time to make themselves scarce.”
“Are you finished asking questions?” Nurse Redheart asked. “I’ve really got to attend to Garnet now. She’s gone through a lot.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, I guess we should start our investigation. See you later,” Twilight said quickly. She motioned to Rainbow Dash to follow.
The first thing that Twilight decided to do was to survey the wreckage. Making her way towards what remained of the front door, she conjured up several plastic bags and made to inspect the pieces.
Twilight could see that one of the pieces of glass did indeed have a Luna Republic symbol painted on, as Garnet said. It was easy enough to identify; the circle, representing the moon, that was littered with several black rings. They were concentrated mostly on the left. It was about the size of Twilight’s head, and had painted on rather hastily. Freehoof. Twilight ran her hoof over the symbol, feeling the paint.
Twilight then shot a glance towards another piece of glass. On it was a rather badly smudged picture. Twilight couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be, but it appeared to be made of the same stuff as the symbol.
“You’re wasting your time,” Officer Clue said, as he trotted up to Twilight and Rainbow. “There’s nowhere where you can look that we haven’t already looked at.”
“So you can tell me what this smudged picture is?” Twilight asked.
“Of course. It’s obviously another of those Luna Republic symbols that got ruined by the sprinklers inside the house!”
“Sprinklers?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, sprinklers. You DO know what sprinklers are, don’t you…?”
“Yes,” Twilight said patiently, “I know what they are.”
“So when the explosion happened, the sprinklers in the house turned on and smeared this symbol,” Rainbow concluded.
“If that’s what it is,” Twilight said. She looked around the surrounding rubble, the sprinklers fresh in her mind. She turned her attention to the other pieces of glass, and found Rainbow staring at the symbol intently.
Rainbow frowned, as she stared at the visible symbol. “Twilight, this doesn’t look right.”
“Meaning?” asked Twilight.
“Aren’t Luna Republic symbols supposed to have their rings mostly on the right? This one’s got its rings on the left.”
Twilight looked at the symbol, and then looked up at Rainbow Dash. “What would it look like if you turned it on its side?”
Rainbow went slightly red. “I knew that.”
Twilight explained, “But you are right, at first it did look the wrong way. That symbol is actually found in several countries all over the world, facing both directions. Princess Luna chose to have the symbol facing the right for her flag.”
“Twilight, I don’t have the attention span for a history lesson…” Rainbow groaned.
“The Luna symbol is found all over the world,” Twilight continued, not paying attention. Once she started a lecture, there really was no stopping her. “The Zebricans adopted this as a symbol of their religion, and it’s also been found on several Ancient Stirrupian documents…”
While Twilight was droning on, Rainbow found the opportunity to slip away. She was considering going home, but then decided Twilight would prefer her to stay and investigate. So she decided for Twilight’s sake to do something productive, and began to look among the rubble for clues.
She didn’t have long to look. She suddenly spotted among the clutter a small plant stalk, with spiny green needles. At the bottom of the stalk were some small shiny looking red marking. She was about to pick it up, when she heard a familiar smug voice.
“Well, well, so you have no intention of leaving quietly, I see.”
Rainbow looked up. It was Officer Clue, and one of his eyebrows was raised.
“Hey, officer,” Rainbow said. “I don’t suppose you know what this is, do you?”
Officer Clue carefully handled the plant, ‘hmm’ing and ‘hah’ing for several minutes. Rainbow felt her small patience being worn out every second. Eventually, Officer Clue said, “Nope. No idea what this is!”
“You could have told me that from the start without wasting several minutes over it!” Rainbow yelled.
“Ha ha! Well, knowing that you don’t know is a crucial step, do you not think?” Officer Clue said.
“You’re right. I DON’T think,” Rainbow said hotly.
“Rainbow! You walked away when I was talking!” Rainbow heard Twilight say, rather crossly. She saw Twilight trotting toward the two of them, clearly not pleased at being walked out on.
“Uh…” Rainbow said nervously. “I…just spotted something interesting while you were talking, and I decided to check it out, that’s all. The plant. This plant here.”
Twilight looked at the plant in Officer Clue’s hooves. “Hey, isn’t that a Gumhoof plant?”
“Seriously? So this is what caused the explosion?” Rainbow asked, astonished. “This little twig?”
Twilight then spotted the shiny red rings at the bottom. “Are they usually this shiny…?” She used magic to take the plant off Clue (“Hey!” he protested), and then conjured a small white napkin, and rubbed very gently on the red rings. She looked at the napkin, and saw the red markings had chipped off.
“It’s varnish.” Twilight frowned. This, therefore, was not actually a Gumhoof plant. “It’s a lookalike, a Spring-In-Step plant.”
“What’s the difference?” Clue asked. “And what’s it got to do with anything?”
“Not much difference, except Gumhoof has red rings at the bottom,” Twilight said. “But in terms of behaviour in chemistry, this plant has a much more instantaneous result in bombs when introduced to the same compound compared to Gumhoof…”
On those words, Twilight paused. She then remembered the explosion, and the strange Luna Republic symbols, and this Spring-In-Step plant, and then…
Twilight cracked a smile. “I see. So THAT’S how it is…”
Rainbow hadn’t heard her. She was reflecting on what a crazy day it was. “Man, this wasn’t as funny as this other story I heard about Luna symbols.”
“What story?” Clue asked. “We don’t have time for flights of fancy in an investigation!”
“It’s still funny!” protested Rainbow. “In Daring Do and the Flight of the Dark Raven, there was this bit where this army was attacking a fortress, and just to show how much the defenders gave a flying feather about the army, they painted Luna symbols over their cutie marks and mooned the attackers.”
Rainbow paused. “It’s based on this myth that happened in real history, it said in the footnotes.”
“Wow,” Clue said. It seemed that he believed Rainbow’s story.
“Unbelievable,” Twilight shook her head, not impressed by Rainbow’s story. “Honestly, anypony who believes in that story doesn’t keep an open enough mind. To a point where they would probably believe Garnet Waltz’s house got hit by Luna Republic fanatics out to get Garnet Waltz here.”
“But it was!” protested Clue. “The symbol’s plastered all over the door!”
“If you invited a friend over for dinner and they ate what you made, can you assume they liked what you cook, even when they don’t say?” Twilight shot back. “Come on. There’s a lot of explaining to do.”
-
Twilight, Rainbow and Officer Clue made their way back to the front of the house. Twilight saw that Nurse Redheart had mostly finished treating Garnet, and was about to give the go-ahead to have the Royal Guard transfer her to Ponyville General Hospital.
“Twilight,” Nurse Redheart said when she saw her. “You doing alright? I was about to have Garnet get a more thorough looking at in hospital…”
“I know,” Twilight nodded. “But before you do, I thought that Garnet would probably want to know what happened here. It does concern her, after all.”
Nurse Redheart paused, before saying, “Fine. Just make it quick, I’d like to get her looked at as soon as possible.”
“Hah!” Clue scoffed at Twilight. “If you think there’s any alternative villain other than Luna fanatics, I’d like to see you try!”
“Sure thing,” Twilight said coolly. She turned to all the ponies who were listening, and Twilight got started.
“Pretty strange case, I would say,” Twilight began. “A massive explosion tears this house apart, with the only clue as to who did it being…” Twilight pointed to the Lunar Republic Symbol. “These. At first glance, it looks like the work of a bunch of Luna fanatics trying to make a statement. Easy enough to believe. But if you think that, then we encounter a problem.
“A problem?” Clue asked. “I don’t see how there could possibly be a problem…”
“The rings,” Twilight stated, pointing to the non-smudged symbol. “They’re in the reverse order. Most of the rings on a normal Luna symbol are concentrated on the right, but the symbol on the glass here has its rings mostly on the left. This symbol is in fact reversed.”
“Reversed?”
“This symbol was drawn with the rings on the other side. I checked the paintwork; the symbol only looks the right way round when the paint’s on the other side of the glass. But why somepony would do that on purpose doesn’t become clear…”
Twilight motioned towards the other, water stained Luna symbol. “…until we understand what this is.”
“What’s the point?” Clue argued. “It’s another symbol covered in water. So what?”
“Don’t you get it?” said Twilight impatiently. “Everypony here came to the conclusion that the symbol got smudged because the sprinklers inside the house stained it. Think about what that means. Picture it! The sprinklers would surely have turned on AFTER the blast, right? So if water was able to smudge the second Luna symbol…”
Rainbow closed her eyes. Remembering Twilight’s words, “You just need to imagine how it happened,” she thought about the symbol, then the blast, then how the symbol got soaked by the sprinklers…
Her eyes shot open. “Oh. You’re KIDDING…”
“So you got it,” Twilight smiled. “That’s right. To set the sprinklers off and stain this symbol, the explosion must have come from the INSIDE of the house, not outside!”
“W…WHAT!?” Clue shouted in astonishment.
“And if we think about it that way…” Twilight continued, pressing on, “then we can imagine why the first symbol is reversed! The culprit painted the symbol on the inside of the glass door, so that from the outside, it would look the right way round.”
“Wow,” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Hard to imagine that something like that would be missed…” She then saw Officer Clue in the corner of her eye. “…or not.”
“Granted, a good thorough look would have told us it was done reversed on the other side of the glass, but first impressions must have been what the culprit was banking on. At first glance, it would look like a bunch of Luna fanatics were involved. Besides, if the glass got sufficiently blown to pieces by the blast, it would have covered up that fact if the investigation was anything but careful.”
“Wait…but…” Rainbow said slowly. “The only pony who could easily get inside the house…”
Twilight and Rainbow turned to Garnet Waltz. Officer Clue, not getting why but deciding it would be best to follow suit, turned his head too.
Garnet Waltz hung her head. “Oh.”
“Garnet…” Twilight said to her, “You blew up your own house, didn’t you?”
“I…” Garnet muttered.
“It wasn’t hard, was it? You once worked as a chemistry student in the lab at Fillydelphia University, so you would know which combination of ingredients could have given the bang you needed.”
“But that’s crazy!” protested Rainbow Dash. ”She got caught in the blast too! It was pretty big, she could have…”
“I don’t think she intended for the explosion to be that damaging,” Twilight said. “I think one of the ingredients she used was actually different to what she thought it was. That plant you found, traces of Spring-in-Step amongst the rubble, remember that?” Twilight then produced the plant.
“It’s a plant that looks similar to Gumhoof; the only difference is the red rings at the bottom of the Gumhoof stalk. Both can be used in blasting solutions, but Gumhoof isn’t as instantaneous in terms of reaction. As you can see, the red marks on this plant turned out to be dried varnish. But it was that which caused you to think it was actually the less dangerous Gumhoof.”
As Garnet grimaced through the bandages on her face, Twilight continued, “You barely had enough time to set up a full shielding spell before it happened. That’s why it didn’t protect you fully; there wasn’t enough time to complete the spell. The danger turned out to be very real, which certainly helped to make your story of somepony being out to get you more believable.”
Twilight wore a sad look. “But, Garnet, no matter what, insurance fraud is a crime. That’s why you did it, right?”
Garnet paused, before letting out a sigh. “You’re right. I needed the money…so badly. No matter what jobs I tried to do around town, it didn’t pay enough. I had insurance, so I thought that if I could make it look like I was attacked, the insurance of 400,000 would get me what I needed…”
“What would you need 400,000 bits for, though?” asked Rainbow.
“…My dad’s in a lot of debt to a pair of saleponies,” Garnet explained. “They wouldn’t leave him alone, no matter what. So I came up with this idea myself, so I could pay in his place…”
Twilight could only stare, before a firm grimace spread across her face. “Garnet, no matter what, it was still wrong of you. But…I can’t say I don’t understand you…” She briefly thought about how she worked along with her friends during last Cider Season at Sweet Apple Acres, and despite all their hard work, Applejack and her family almost ended up losing the farm.
Twilight felt a pang of pity as Garnet was led away by the Royal Guard. “Garnet!” Twilight called out. She turned around. Twilight then said, “Don’t worry. Nothing’s been paid out yet, so it’s technically not fraud. So don’t give up! I’m sure it’ll work out as long as you don’t forget the ones important to you!”
As Garnet disappeared inside the Royal Guard’s carriage, to be taken to Ponyville General Hospital, Twilight thought she saw her nod her head.
-
The next day, Twilight was shelving the library by herself (as an apology to Spike for leaving him to do all the work yesterday, when suddenly, she heard a knock at the door. She opened it up to find Ditzy, the local mail mare, who handed her two letters before flying off to make the rest of her rounds. Twilight opened it up, and gasped. “It’s from Garnet!”
Dear Twilight,
I’m sorry about all the trouble I caused everypony. I remembered what you said; I can get by as long as I don’t forget what’s important. That’s why I’ve decided to go back and apply to work at the Canterlot Castle Labs, where my friends went to work, as soon as I recover from my own injuries. I’ve heard that the research they’re doing pays a lot, and I’m confident that I can get all my problems sorted out that way.
I thought your logic was brilliant. To be honest, it was eating away at me thinking that I had to cheat honest ponies to make quick money. I’m glad that you were there before things got out of hoof.
Thank you for everything, and take care of yourself.
Sincerely,
Garnet Waltz
Smiling to herself, Twilight made to open up the other letter. This one was from Officer Clue. The letter inside contained only the local Royal Guard coat of arms, as well as one simple phrase and a signature.
You still have some work to do!
The Great Clue Lesdork
“What the…?” Twilight said to herself, as she tossed the letter into the fireplace.
When this story happened, Ponyville was in the middle of one of the hottest days this summer yet. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the sun was really beating down on the town. The perfect day to be outdoors, taking in the local scene.
And funnily enough, a stranger to the town decided to do exactly that, and more.
The stranger in question was a grey, rather sharp looking stallion, with a rubber band tied in knots as a cutie mark. He had a jet black mane and rather twinkly eyes, and he was in the middle of the town, setting up what appeared to be a large podium. He hummed to himself as he worked, smirking all the while.
-
Twilight was in Golden Oaks Library, up in her room, when it happened. She was busy writing up on theories as to why magic could only exist in proximity to other magic, and was about to conclude it when she heard a series of excited voices outside.
“Oh, come on!” she groaned. “How am I supposed to concentrate with all this noise?”
She stuck her head out of the window, and saw a crowd of ponies in the distance, all of them staring at a grey pony at a podium, giving an address. Twilight couldn’t see the pony or hear what he (she?) was saying, but she could see whatever it was, the subject was interesting, for Twilight saw several ponies heading straight towards the crowd. And Applejack and Rainbow Dash heading straight toward the library. She saw them knock on the door.
“Hey, Applejack. Hey, Rainbow,” Twilight called out.
The two ponies below looked up. “Hey Twilight!” called Applejack. “C’mon out, there’s something ya gotta see!”
“Yeah!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “It’s…” Then she paused. She then proceeded to fly straight up to Twilight’s window, hovering just outside. “You gotta get out here,” Rainbow said, now in her normal speaking voice. “It’s something an egghead like you would really dig.”
“What is it?” asked Twilight.
“Apparently this guy found a long forgotten race of super old creatures in Saddlebrook! Still living! Skylings, I think he was calling them.”
“Skylings?” Twilight repeated. “As in the hundreds of thousands of years old race of creatures Skylings?” Twilight had only ever read about Skylings in books. She knew they were an ancient species predating ponies, and were called Skylings due to their colour, sky blue.
“Maybe,” Rainbow shrugged. “Now, c’mon, you’re gonna miss it!”
Twilight looked around. It WAS a nice day outside, and it did seem a bit of a shame to spend it indoors. She smiled. “Alright, I’m going.”
-
The three of them trotted up to the crowd, before proceeding to squeeze their way past to the front. “S’cuse us,” said Applejack.
“Comin’ through.”
“Excuse us, thanks.”
Twilight saw the grey pony begin to speak. “Ladies and gentlecolts. I, amateur archaeologist Granite Lump, come to you today with news of an incredible discovery. Only last week, I was scaling the great Mt. Drakemore, the tallest mountain in Saddlebrook, as a challenge, when guess what I discovered before me! It was an ancient race, forgotten by time; the Old Skylings, living on the mountain!”
The crowd murmured. It was an impressive feat; mostly because this pony had apparently discovered a long forgotten civilisation, but also because they were in one of the most hostile places to be on the planet.
“Pretty impressive stuff,” muttered Rainbow to Twilight. “He’d have to go through all those storms; we pegasi couldn’t get the weather in Saddlebrook under wraps. It’s like Everfree, ‘cept with less animals and trees.”
Twilight could only groan. “Oh no. No. It can’t be him…”
“Who? asked Applejack. “You’ve seen him before?”
“That’s Granite Lump,” Twilight said, pressing a hoof against her head. “I knew him at school before Princess Celestia took me in. As a colt, he was always looking into get-rich-quick schemes. For crying out loud, what’s he up to now?”
Twilight then turned back to Granite, who was continuing his lecture. “…on a diet of meat, from the local wildlife. Yes, I know it sounds grisly,” Granite noted the looks of disgust from several ponies in the crowd. “But that’s how they live. Their bodies changed to cope with the conditions.”
“Have you got any proof of this?” asked somepony in the audience. Twilight recognised the mare that raised her hoof as Cloud Kicker, one of the weatherponies under Rainbow’s care (she worked as weather manager, when not practicing her flying tricks).
“But of course! I just so happened to bring back some of their tools back with me! And I took several photographs to be sure!” And with that, Granite produced what appeared to a rock, carved in the shape of a spearhead. “This was the most effective hunting tool of the skyling; this spear shows sophistication among these apparently savage creatures. And here!” Granite fished out a flint necklace. “I was able to collect some of their jewellery just before I left!”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Boy, that does look mighty impressive.” Twilight could only scowl.
“I will be back here, tomorrow at 10, to allow my findings to be available to the public,” Granite then said. “So do be sure to gather back here tomorrow if you are all still interested. Until then, bye bye!”
The crowd began to disperse, chatting excitedly about what they just saw. Twilight sighed, and turned around, when suddenly, she caught Granite talking to two ponies carrying a camera each around their necks. The press, Twilight thought.
“Oh, I’m not asking for much for the original photos, of course,” Granite told the pair. "100,000 bits total for all of them. No hidden charges.”
Twilight knew that whatever Granite was going to do, it wouldn’t be good. She marched up to the grey stallion quickly, which certainly didn’t go unnoticed by him. “Oh, Twilight. Good to see you again. What are you here to catch up for old time’s sake?”
“Granite,” Twilight said without emotion. “I want to take a look at those photographs. I’ve got my doubts about them.”
“Aw, c’mon, Twilight,” said Granite, raising his hooves up. “I, amateur archaeologist Granite Lump, discovered a long forgotten tribe of Old Skylings, and I even brought back these photos and some tasty souvenirs! All very cheap if you want them, by the way. What more do you want from me?”
“I’d still like to have a look at the photographs, if possible,” Twilight said, keeping her voice as steady as possible.
“Here, you can look at the photographs if you want!” said Granite confidently, shifting through his case, and giving some copies of the photos over. “You can’t argue with these babies!”
Twilight inspected the photographs carefully. The first of the shots seemed to depict the skyling. They seemed to appear as the history records showed skylings; they appeared quite short and stocky. All of them were completely sky blue in colour, and all of them looked incredibly unnerved. Granite explained that they had never seen a camera before, and were very nervous.
The next few photos showed their living conditions, all taken with different lenses. Twilight found herself especially interested in the shot which showed a cave; the one these skylings lived in presumably. It had quite a wide mouth, but the cave itself looked rather shallow. The shot was at a 45 degree angle; it was taken on the north side of the mountain, Twilight concluded. The ground outside the cave was level and well swept. A wider shot showed some skyling children playing chase with each other.
Twilight moved to the next shot, which was an interior photograph. She could see several pieces of meat skewered on stalactites; out of reach of children and animals. There were certainly lots of it; these skylings were apparently successful hunters.
The floor was remarkably clean. Twilight could see several piles of what appeared to be fur coats pressed against the walls. Beds, Twilight guessed. She could also see a small stream run through the cave, seemingly from a hole in the wall. Clearly the access to fresh water was what made the skylings choose this cave. Twilight noticed that the shots of the cave interior were taken with a strong flash; the cave had no exit or entrance to provide any light.
The final sets of photographs depicted the cave’s residents in their entirety. Most of them were transfixed towards the camera, while some had their attentions wander, looking up at the sky. Twilight could see that the surface was flat and level, and as far as the photo showed, the same went for the front too. One of the photos was an aerial shot, which certainly confirmed that much.
Twilight spent a good 5 minutes pouring over each one. She had a niggling doubt at the back of her head, which was rather swiftly interrupted by Granite saying, “Yoo-hoo! Equestria to Twilight! You do realise it’s a bit for each photograph, right?”
Twilight seethed at the thought of giving money to Granite, but seeing no other way to take the photos home, she conjured up her pouch and handed over enough bits to cover one of each photograph, grumbling.
“You got a sweet deal!” Granite called. “It’s usually two bits each!”
Twilight growled. “Oh, you’ll get yours, Granite, see if I don’t.”
Twilight then spotted Applejack and Rainbow Dash as she made to walk back home. They noted the cross expression on her face. “Is that Granite fella honestly that bad?” Applejack asked.
“You have no idea,” Twilight sighed. “He’s the king of finding shortcuts. The only thing he needs to brush up on is covering his tracks. I was usually the one to rat him out.”
“I dunno, Twilight,” Rainbow shrugged. “He’s really gone out of his way this time. I mean, he’d have to really shift his lazy flank to get tools and photos as good as these.” She held up a necklace of flint. “Got this baby for cheap. And it’s rare!”
“It’s a farce designed to make quick bits and I’ll prove it,” Twilight snapped.
Remembering how the last time nopony believed Twilight, it almost got Equestria taken over by the Changeling Queen and her minions, Applejack opted to try and reason with her, while deciding to be a little more open-minded. “Even so, it’s still gonna be you vs. the rest of Ponyville. Everypony else seems ta have bought it.”
“You believe me?” Twilight asked.
“Sure as shootin’. If ya think it stinks of a fix, who am ah to argue?” said Applejack.
“Um…yeah. Skyling shmyling,” Rainbow said, uncertainly. Then she quickly added, “But I’m still keeping this necklace. It’s cool.”
“Thanks.” Twilight clutched the photographs. Then she said, “I’m just going inside. I may be some time.”
Rainbow and Applejack each felt a sense of foreboding, but nodded. “Just make sure to go outside sometime, okay Twi?” Applejack said. “Fresh air would do ya some good.”
“Of course you won’t,” Rainbow noted, “but seriously, do it.”
Twilight nodded. “Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.” She meant those words. She would note them, and then proceed to carefully ignore them.
-
Twilight locked the door to her room, turned on the lamp, and got down to business. Of course, she had Spike bring up various books all about Skylings and the geography regarding where they were found. Twilight opened up the page of Fantastic Places to Have an Awful Time, and went straight to the page called ‘Saddlebrook’. She found that Rainbow was right; the pegasi found it impossible to tame the wild weather there, so anything living there had to be very hardy indeed. Twilight had her first doubt. But she knew it wasn’t enough. What if they just found a way to put up with it?
She had a niggling feeling that she was going to spend a very long time up here. Hopefully no longer than she had to previously.
-
“She is taking this quite seriously,” Rarity noted, standing outside the door of Golden Oaks Library.
“Sorry, Rarity,” said Spike, “but once something odd’s gotten Twilight’s attention, literally the only thing that would budge her was a sudden visit from Princess Celestia.”
“Well, whatever it is that she’s working on, I hope something comes of it,” Rarity sighed. “Being cooped up inside all day does terrible things to the looks.”
“Don’t worry!” Spike gave a salute. “As Twilight’s number one assistant, it is my duty to preserve Twilight’s looks! And if need be, her sanity.”
“Well, I do hope she’ll find what she’s looking for. Alright, see you again, Spikey.”
Rarity watched as Spike closed the door. “She still ain’t coming out?”
The white unicorn recognised the southern twang anywhere. “I’m afraid not, Applejack. We’ll just have to wait for Twilight to decide whether this whole thing really is an elaborate hoax or not.”
“Welp, we can still stage an intervention, right? If it gets a bit much?” Applejack grinned. “Ah gotta admit, Ah like the thought of bustin’ down Twilight’s door, and saying, all stern like, ‘Ya gotta get outside, Twi.’ Then she’d say ‘But ah’m workin’!’ And then we’d drag her out, protestin’. It’s be a hoot.”
“Only if she keeps herself in her room for as long as we all think is physically healthy,” Rarity said firmly.
-
Twilight poured over the photographs constantly over the space of several hours, and was now getting quite dark outside. Already half-formed thoughts were swimming around in her head, but there was absolutely nothing that she could see that would give her the answer she was looking for.
Twilight nearly threw the photographs to the floor in frustration. “GAH! I can see so many things that are wrong here, but I don’t have anything CONCLUSIVE! Come on, there MUST be something here that proves once and for all it’s a sham!”
“Twilight?” Spike knocked on the door. “You’ve been up there for hours, you’re gonna miss dinner.”
“Bring it up here!” Twilight called instantly.
“Nuh uh!” Spike said firmly. “You’re coming down to eat whether you like it or not. It’s going in the garbage otherwise! I’m not letting you dig it out again if you change your mind!”
Twilight froze up at Spike’s words. She cracked a small smile, and then a big one. She spread out the photos on the desk, and examined each one again. Then she saw it. The one thing she had overlooked when she was spending all those hours looking over the photographs.
THAT’S IT! Twilight thought excitedly. I have the proof I need to bring this to a close!
Then, remembering Spike was just outside the door, she opened it up. “Sorry, Spike,” Twilight giggled. “Guess you’re right, I should get something in my stomach.”
“You have that look on your face,” Spike noted. “The ‘I have made a revolutionary discovery that will shake the foundations of ponykind’ look.”
Twilight paused. “What kind of look is that?” she asked slowly.
“It’s a bit hard to explain,” Spike decided to leave it at that.
“But yeah, you’re right. I HAVE found out something incredible.”
“What, about Granite and his supposedly ‘fake’ discovery of Old Skylings? You do realise that whatever you’ve got, it’s got to be pretty conclusive, or else you’re going to be a laughingstock.”
“Don’t worry,” Twilight assured Spike. “As long as it hinges on logic, which it is, I’ve got a leg to stand on.”
“Well, if it’s going to get you to eat, go for it,” Spike shrugged, as he led Twilight down into the kitchen.
As Twilight munched on her daisy and watercress stew, she found it hard to suppress her excitement. Granite, you are going down.
-
A lot of ponies had gathered in Ponyville town square the very next morning, at 10 o’clock sharp, just as Granite had announced. All of them were transfixed on the grey pony, as he began to talk about the Old Skylings.
“Yes, it was an incredible find,” said Granite. “I did have my doubts at first, and I’m sure that all of you would have too, but of course, that’s why I brought my trusty camera along!”
Twilight was in the audience, waiting for the right moment. She was wearing a cloak, to hide her cutie mark, as well as a brown wig, and had borrowed Rainbow Dash’s shades, to disguise herself. Finally, she decided that it would be a good time to act. She raised her hoof, and asked, “Will you be allowing members of the audience to look at the finds for themselves?”
“But of course!” smiled Granite. “Take a good look for yourselves if you want!”
Twilight obliged, and made her way up towards the stage. When she got on, she took one of the stone spearheads on display and held it in her hoof, pretending to examine it. “But Granite, sir, there’s still one thing I don’t get?”
“Oh?” said Granite. “And that would be?”
Twilight then threw off the shades, the cloak and the wig (Rainbow quickly catching it before it broke on the floor). “What’s the point in keeping this façade up any longer?”
The crowd and Granite gasped. “Twilight,” Granite mouthed to himself.
“Oh my stars, she actually came outside,” Rarity breathed. She was in the audience with Applejack, who was looking equally relieved, but also a little confused. Had Twilight found the chink in Granite’s armour?
“The whole thing was a hoax, wasn’t it?” Twilight remarked to Granite Lump. “Just like all the others. I’ve got to say, it was kinda disappointing. But I guess I get to expose a great big fraud in public with what I enjoy best; a big lecture, so it’s not a total waste of a day.”
“A fraud?” Granite repeated angrily. “On what grounds do you say such a thing!? I told you…”
Twilight then fiddled with the stone spearhead as she explained. “An ancient Old Skyling settlement on top of Mt Drakemore? It would be the discovery of the century, enough to make anypony rich and famous. However, there were too many contradictions for that claim to hold together.
“Mt Drakemore is on the eastern tip of Saddlebrook, which means that any civilization pony or no aren’t likely to settle there; it’s in the middle of nowhere and the weather’s awful. On top of which, it’s one of the few places on the planet where the weather isn’t controlled by pegasi.”
“That hadn’t stopped ponies from settling in the most northern areas!” argued Granite Lump. “That tribe simply settled on the mountain’s northern face, away from the wind!”
“Even if you explain that one away,” Twilight pressed on, “there are still other contradictions that arise. You said these skylings evolved to eat meat, which is what their diet mostly comprised of?”
“Of course! They couldn’t eat much else given the climate!” argued Granite.
“But that still is quite suspicious, the fact that there was so much of it in your photographs. The sheer amount of meat depicted seems unrealistic to me.”
“Please! You’re just inventing the possibility of a hoax in your head! Those ancient ancestors were as real as you and I!”
“Horseapples!” Twilight shot back, before covering her mouth at the display of language. However, she shook it off and continued. “That cave in the photos. Don’t you all think it’s strange that it has no rear entrance or exit? Supposing a fire got out of hand and smoke flooded the cave? They would have been in trouble!”
“So? The smoke problem was found in all sorts of caves where Old Skylings lived! And the fire was only at the entrance!”
“True enough, all the points I brought up are suspicious, but each one could have their own valid reasons,” Twilight said. “However, I’m afraid there is one, decisive contradiction that I don’t think that you’ll be able to explain away.”
“As if!” shouted Granite. “What is it then?”
“The seeming absence of any litter,” Twilight said proudly. “Why aren’t there any traces of garbage in any of the photographs? All of the shots showed that the cave and all areas surrounding it were totally clean. Any archaeologist worth their salt would poke around in the garbage; it tells volumes on how an ancient civilization once lived! And if these skylings have lived for as long as you said, I’m pretty sure that the amount of waste would have built up by A LOT, and that you, a supposed amateur archaeologist, would have photographed it for sure! You’d have brought it up!”
“I…I…” Granite was now starting to falter here.
Twilight brought her hoof down. “So, Granite Lump. Care to explain? Because you know how much I like things being explained to me!”
Granite was starting to sweat. Everypony in the audience was staring at him accusingly. ”I…Gah! Twilight! You always did this! I find my ticket to riches and fame and you always messed it up for me!”
“Because it wasn’t RIGHT,” Twilight shot back. “Every discovery takes time and effort! You have to take a leap of faith sometimes and persevere! It’s what I did, and that’s how I found the evidence I needed to prove you a fraud!”
Granite wrung his hooves. “Oh, this is not good…what am I going to tell those ponies whom I photographed…they’ll be expecting their pay for agreeing…”
“Get him!” shouted a voice somewhere in the audience.
Granite gulped, and very quickly hightailed out of Ponyville, heading toward the next town over. Or at least he tried. Rainbow Dash swiftly caught up to him, grabbed his case of money, and flung him across the road. Everypony watched as he fled, with not a bit to show for his scam.
Twilight smirked. Applejack trotted up towards Twilight. Watching Granite vanish into the distance, she remarked, “Ya know, this all seems mighty familiar.”
“Yeah,” Twilight said. “Only thing missing is a big machine on wheels and it would be real déjà vu.”
“But still, that was amazing!” Rainbow said, as she patted Twilight on the back. “Of course, I thought something was fishy too, but I couldn’t put my hoof on what it was until you showed me.”
“Is that so?” Twilight remarked, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“Eheheheh…” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. “Okay, it sounded pretty believable. But still, you were amazing as always, Twilight!”
“Why thank you, I’ll be here all day,” Twilight said proudly.
“But still,” said Applejack. “Ah would have liked to be the one to drag ya outside kickin’ and screamin’ all wrapped up in yer work. It’d be the funniest sight ah ever saw.”
“Wait, you were actually going to do that?” Twilight exclaimed. “You’re as bad as those ponies that raided that brilliant artist, Maurice Utrotto's atelier! They disrupted a genius at work and interrupted his dialogue with the Goddess of—“
“Twilight,” Rainbow stepped in. “For Celestia’s sake, take a breath.”
But it was too late. There was no stopping Twilight from raving at Applejack. The farm pony lowered her Stetson hat over her eyes. Oh well. She was sure it would have indeed been funny.
“I was until you woke me up,” Spike grumbled. “It was a great dream too; I was rescuing Rarity from the evil clutches of a giant plate of orange jelly. Carnivorous orange jelly.”
“That’s…great?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“It’s me rescuing Rarity from evil. Of course it’s great!” Spike argued. Twilight giggled. Spike was smitten with Rarity, and as much as he tried to hide it, he really wasn’t doing a good job of hiding it.
Just then Spike paused, clutched his mouth, and then, in a jet of green flame, burped. From the smoke, a letter drooped out, straight into Twilight’s hooves.
“It’s from Princess Celestia!” Spike exclaimed. He recognised the familiar taste of the Royal Seal in his mouth anywhere.
“WHAT? No way! What does it say?” Twilight carefully opened the envelope (she felt that just tearing it open would show a great deal of disrespect to the princess) and read the contents.
My faithful student,
News of your recent exploits has not gone unnoticed by me. I find it gladdening that you are being so active in helping the lives of others, as well as applying your studies so thoroughly.
It is because of these qualities that I have written to you. Recently, the Royal Guard squad in Ponyville recently received word that on the outskirts of Ponyville, in a small village known as Oatswich, there have been rumours of a counterfeit appliance gem counterfeiting operation currently active. One of the Guards, so I am told, has been complaining of an ‘upstart purple mare stealing his thunder’. After inquiry into the pony he mentioned, the head of investigations for the Ponyville Royal Guard would like you to lend a hoof in the investigation, as a ‘special expert witness’, due to your recent successes.
I would like you to cooperate with the head of investigations and assist him in any way possible. He should be arriving to pick you up at the Golden Oaks Library shortly by carriage.
I apologise if this letter seems quite sudden, but the Guard seem understaffed to investigate this in addition to the other incidents they are currently investigating.
I hope that you will do what you can to assist them. You may of course decline if you feel it is inconvenient, but it would be a tremendous help if you agree.
Good luck, whatever your decision may be.
Your teacher,
Princess Celestia
Twilight felt a sense of panic sweep over her. A big chance to do Princess Celestia proud. A massive project, quite possibly her biggest, next to making friends (which was certainly one of the most difficult). All at 8 in the morning. It seemed too much for Twilight to take in.
She needed coffee.
Alas, it was not to be, and five minutes later, the expected carriage drew up outside the library, and a sharp knock on the door was heard.
Twilight answered the door, shaking, and outside were two stallions in Royal Guard armour, with the two of them drawing a very stark contrast to each other when placed side by side. One was an elderly grey pony who looked as though he had seen his fair share of cases. The other was a smaller black pony with a white mane, who looked more eager than his partner.
“Twilight Sparkle?” the grey stallion asked. His voice sounded quite gruff and stern.
“Um, yes?” Twilight said uncertainly.
“I’m Officer Teeth Kicker. This is my partner, Officer Tough Cheese.”
“I prefer Officer Tough,” said the black pony, rather miffed by his rather unflattering name. “It just sounds…”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Twilight apologised.
“Did you get the letter?” Teeth Kicker asked, cutting to the point. Twilight nodded. “Good. And will you agree to aid us in our investigation?”
“Um, certainly, if you think I can,” Twilight replied a little too quickly. She instantly regretted having said that. She said yes so as not to disappoint Princess Celestia, but was still feeling a rather uneasy sensation in her stomach.
“Oh, I do think,” Teeth Kicker said. “Come on. Our carriage is waiting.”
The three of them made their way inside the carriage parked outside the library. Once they were inside, the white Pegasus pulling the carriage took off.
“Um,” said Twilight, trying to find a conversation topic as they travelled. “The letter said we were heading to Oatswich, didn’t it?”
“Right,” Officer Tough nodded. “We got a tip off from one of the locals that one of the houses was, or is, hiding a counterfeiting gem operation. We’re here to see whether if it’s true.”
“But why bring me along?” asked Twilight. “I don’t see how I could…”
“Word got around in Ponyville about you recently,” said Teeth Kicker. “Especially down at the station. We’ve had one of the officers complaining about you, apparently showing him up. And the Royal Guard in general, but mostly him.”
He paused. “But the fact is, you went and solved all those cases where professionals couldn’t, and I’m starting to think that we could stand to learn a few things.”
Twilight blushed. “I just happened to be there, that’s all.”
Then Twilight paused. “Wait. This pony you mentioned who complained about me…He wouldn’t happen to be…”
-
“YOU!” Officer Clue shouted, pointing a hoof at Twilight Sparkle, as she stepped out of the carriage after Officers Teeth Kicker and Tough. “Why are you here!?”
“Yup, thought so. Couldn’t be anypony else,” Twilight sighed, flexing her legs after the trip.
“She’s here as an expert witness in our investigation,” Officer Teeth Kicker said, firmly and gruffly. “And I expect you to play it civil with her.”
“Hmph. Civil indeed,” muttered Clue. “Well, as long as you don’t get in the way, I suppose I can tolerate you for the length of the investigation.”
Right back at you, Twilight thought.
“After all,” continued Officer Clue, “The Royal Guard thought I was the pony for the job, if I’m out here.”
“You were the ONLY pony for the job,” Officer Teeth shot back at Clue.
“Oh yeah, the letter did say you guys were understaffed…” Twilight muttered.
If Teeth Kicker heard what Twilight said, he didn’t show it. “Come on,” he said. “We’ve only got so much daylight today. Follow me.”
The village of Oatswich was certainly quite the spectacle. On each side of the street Twilight was standing in, she could see several houses, all very similar in size and colour, each facing its neighbour on the other side, like they were staring in a mirror. The group walked along the street, each one taking in the sights of the quaint little village.
Eventually, Teeth Kicker walked up to a house on the right of the street, close to the end, and knocked sharply on the door. It was answered by two ponies; one was a mare with a dirty brown coat and a black mane, the other was a stallion with a yellow coat and hair as black as the other.
“You Bottom Dollar and Dirt Cheap?” Teeth Kicker asked.
“Yes,” said the stallion. “Is there anything we can help you with?” He sounded rather quiet, almost as though he was tired, although he clearly looked wide awake.
“I’m here from the Ponyville Royal Guard. We have a warrant to investigate your house regarding allegations of a counterfeiting operation going on?” He held out a document which he retrieved from his pouch, and showed it to the pair.
“Counterfeiting?” replied the mare. “What, we don’t know anything about that, do we, Dollar?”
“Um, no,” said Bottom Dollar.
“So may we investigate?” asked Officer Tough.
“If ya want,” said Dirt Cheap. She sounded quite confident. “But I don’t think you’ll find anything here.”
The house that Twilight and the others were investigating certainly didn’t look like a hiding place to cover up a crook’s operations. It was for all intent and purposes a rather lovely looking country home. It was a stone house with ivy growing outside on the walls. Something else stuck to the walls was a small flight of six steps made from metal mesh on the side of the house that led from the ground floor to the upper storey. Just by the doorway, there was a large wooden waterwheel turning rather steadily anti-clockwise, relative to where Twilight was standing. There was something almost hypnotic about the way it turned, as well as the clunking sound it made as it moved.
“I’ll go in and give it a good once over,” Officer Teeth Kicker said to Twilight and Officer Tough. The two of them nodded, and Teeth Kicker disappeared inside.
“Um, will you be taking long?” asked Bottom Dollar. “I just don’t think you’ll uncover anything. We don’t know anything about a counterfeiting operation…”
“Relax, dude,” said Dirt Cheap. She flashed a cocky smile. “It’s probably a big mistake. They’ll let us go once they admit defeat.”
“You seem sure of yourself,” Twilight remarked.
“And why not?” asked Dirt Cheap. “We ain’t got nothing to hide, so we’ve got nothing to be frightened of.”
Just then, Teeth Kicker appeared from the front door again. “Just scanned for hazards. Seems to be clear, you can come in.”
“Alright!” said Officer Clue, swaggering towards the house. “There’s no time to lose. The crime scene awaits!”
“Not you, them,” said Teeth Kicker impatiently. “Twilight and Tough are coming with me. You stay with the other guards and make sure that those two don’t walk off anywhere.”
“WHAT!?” Clue shouted at the top of his voice. “That’s absurd! You’ll need my genius to investigate this place…”
“Can it,” Teeth Kicker warned. He gave an almost withering look towards Clue, who grudgingly said, “Fine, but I think you’re making a big mistake.”
“We’ll see,” Twilight said.
“Alright, see if I care! I’ll just wait for you to give up so I can point and laugh at you instead!”
“Sour grapes,” muttered Twilight, as they entered the house. The sight that greeted the three of them seemed quite ordinary at first glance. Twilight could see all around the room. On the other side of the room (the wall facing north) she could see that there were several small tables, each one with a small pot of geraniums. Each one had the same flowery pattern and white colour. The west wall had two black massage chairs next to one another, straight between a green cloth sofa and the wall next to it. Straight in the middle of the room was a round table, with three chairs surrounding it, dividing each section of the table into perfect thirds.
Twilight looked around. Teeth Kicker was right; there was certainly nothing that would suggest a counterfeit gem operation at first glance. Everything looked perfectly ordinary.
“Come on, I’ll show you upstairs,” Teeth Kicker said, motioning the two of them to follow as he went out onto the landing. He looked as though there was something very interesting he spotted at the top. Twilight wondered if Teeth Kicker noticed anything unusual on his first visit inside. The two complied, making their way up the six steps that led straight to the upper floor. Teeth Kicker pressed down on the handle, opening the door. And boy, did Twilight receive quite the shock.
“What the…?” Twilight gasped. This was certainly unlike anything she’d seen so far. The room she was now in looked exactly the same as the floor below. The wallpaper and the paintjob was the same. The furniture as well as the arrangement was also all too eerily similar. Even the lamps in the room were of the same make, and were positioned in exactly the same place on the small tables. In fact, the only real difference was the window on the eastern side of the room, and the white curtains that accompanied it. Twilight found it all hard to take in.
“I know,” Teeth Kicker said, recognising Twilight’s amazement. “It’s not just this particular house, either. All the locals who live here apparently have their houses arranged exactly this way. Part of some funny tradition that they have going on here.”
“Tradition?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, apparently the entire town moved all their things on wagons, all of them packed into little boxes stacked on top of one another. It was a sea of boxes all over the convoy. So to remember that journey, each resident has their house look like a box stacked on top of one another.”
“Incredible,” Twilight breathed. “Everything, the same.”
“Yup,” Officer Teeth Kicker said, smirking. “Blew my mind when I first came here, too. Heard all about it, but didn’t think it was actually true.”
“Wow!” Officer Tough’s voice came from the eastern side. He was staring straight outside the window. “The view here is incredible! Check this out!”
“Tough, come away from the window and concentrate,” barked Teeth Kicker. Officer Tough walked sadly away from the view and rejoined him. Twilight shook her head. The future of crime investigation in Equestria had never looked bleaker that what she saw during the last few weeks.
Teeth Kicker nodded, his face now looking a little more serious. “But let’s not waste any more time. We have to see whether if we were right, after all.”
-
“What’s taking them so long?” Dirt Cheap began to complain. She was feeling extremely restless.
“Probably wanting to give a thorough look?” Bottom Dollar ventured quietly. "But I think they should take as long as they need."
“Bah!” Officer Clue’s outburst was a very sharp contrast to Bottom Dollar’s reserved tone. “Those imbeciles would have their precious investigation done much more quickly if they brought ME along. Yet here I am, having to play babysitter to you two!”
“Babysitter?” Dirt Cheap sounded insulted. “Who do you think we are, chowderhead?”
“W…WHAT!?” Officer Clue sounded livid. “The Great Clue Lesdork is no chowderhead! I am a genius!”
The two of them exchanged all sorts of colourful insults, with Bottom Dollar looking rather disapprovingly at the two of them, apparently deciding not to get involved.
-
Teeth Kicker paused. The three of them were combing each piece of furniture in the room from top to bottom, with Teeth Kicker inspecting the plant pots, when the three of them heard a commotion coming from outside. Teeth Kicker instantly recognised the sound. “Oh Sweet Celestia,” he groaned, as he listened to the angry shouts from the window. “Clue got his buttons pressed again?” He got up, and headed towards the door.
“Um, Officer Teeth Kicker?” Twilight asked. “Where are you going?”
“Calm that idiot ‘genius’ and the two suspects down before they start a brawl,” he sighed. “Tough. Miss Sparkle. You poke around this place while I’m gone, alright?” And with that, he left the two of them alone in the strange room, rubbing his forehead.
“Well, I suppose it’s just us, then,” Twilight said, hoping to make a thorough job of it, despite being a pony down. “Let’s get on with it.”
But to be honest, Twilight really wasn’t sure WHERE to start to ‘get on with it’. She didn’t know enough about this place to begin to know where would be the most likely place to look. As far as she could see, there was certainly nowhere that immediately stuck out to her. Of course, she knew about the pitfalls regarding first impressions, but Twilight wasn’t in the mood to waste unnecessary energy. Of course, there was nothing else, so Twilight began to inspect all the pieces of furniture in the room, just like she did on the first floor.
Officer Tough clearly had some energy problems of his own. The heat of the day was starting to get to him, and so he made a beeline straight for the two massage chairs against the west wall. They seemed to be squeezed rather tightly between the sofa and the wall. As Tough sat down, he moved his hoof towards the button to get the chair to vibrate. Shortly after this, he found that due to the chair’s awkward positioning, he couldn’t reach it. He could however still see the button in between the folds. He began to shake the chair, hoping that it would come loose so that he could get to it, but the chair remained resolutely in place.
Of course, all the rattling that Officer Tough was making certainly didn’t get missed by Twilight. She lifted her head away from a lamp she was investigating.
“Officer Tough, I don’t think you should mess around with those…” Twilight said disapprovingly. “What am I going to tell Officer Teeth Kicker? Or your boss?” That got Officer Tough leaping out of the chair instantly. But even this hurried action did nothing to move the massage chair he was sitting in from where it was.
Tough sighed. “Sheesh, these chairs made it hard for me to reach the switch. They were so close together. What were these ponies thinking, squeezing them in a corner like this?”
Twilight looked around the room. “I don’t see anything that would suggest forgery here. Not in one glance, anyway. Come on, why don’t we try downstairs?”
-
Down on the lower level, Twilight began to pace around the room, looking for anything that might stick out. Officer Tough took the opportunity to make his way secretly towards the massage chairs he was so fond off. When he got to them, he began to gently stroke the arms of one of them. He paused. He gave the chair a little tug. The chair then moved slightly forward. Tough smiled. This chair was a sitting chair. No doubt about it. It had enough room for some real vibrations here.
“Tough? What are you doing?” Twilight’s voice. Officer Tough jumped, quickly shoving the chair back to its original place. Twilight saw him, which caused a raised eyebrow. “Nothing.”
“Technically, it’s impossible to do ‘nothing’,” Twilight noted rather drolly. “We’re both breathing, you and I for example.”
“…Find anything?” Tough said, deciding to change the subject.
“…nothing major. Not yet anyway,” Twilight said, continuing to stare at the chairs. She didn’t sound like she found nothing. “I need time to think. Didn’t you say that the view upstairs was really good?”
“Uh, I guess I did,” Tough admitted. “Why?”
“Just clearing my head.”
Back upstairs, Twilight told Tough to inspect the room from top to bottom for anything that would scream ‘forgery’ to him in one look. And to leave the massage chairs alone unless they were proven to have a connection, to Tough’s disappointment.
As Twilight stared out of the window, she found that Officer Tough was certainly right about the view. She could see a gently flowing stream flowing merrily straight into the house from the cleft. There were also several hills spread across the horizon, upon which Twilight could see much of Ponyville. Twilight felt that she could stare at the lovely view all day if she had to. It seemed to be so alien.
Twilight’s eyes suddenly widened. “Hang on. That can’t be right. Unless…”
With this sudden burst of inspiration, Twilight suddenly raced back downstairs and galloped straight towards the waterwheel. “Where ARE you going?” Tough protested, followed after Twilight. Being considerably fitter than the scholarly Twilight, he caught up to her in no time, just as she made the last few steps toward the waterwheel, staring intently at the floor. It was exactly as they left, still turning resolutely counter-clockwise, never changing in its pace.
Twilight then began to frantically dig at the dirt beside the waterwheel with her hooves. “Wh…Hey! What are you doing?” Officer Tough looked on in confusion, but even this protest didn’t stop Twilight from her feverish digging.
Eventually, she managed to unearth what appeared to be a purple glowing gem. It was about the size of her hoof, and was glowing rather eerily. Twilight carefully picked up the gem with magic. The moment it left the dirt, the waterwheel suddenly slowed before it completely stopped turning. Twilight recognised it immediately. She had seen it all too many times in her research. She even handled gems exactly like this one during her studies.
“The heck is that?” Officer Tough peered carefully at the glowing purple gem. “I’ve never seen this before. What the heck was it doing underneath the waterwheel? And why’d the wheel stop, anyway?”
Twilight didn’t hear him. She continued to stare at the gem, now suddenly linking all of the strange points to form one whole.
So that’s it, Twilight thought triumphantly. That explains EVERYTHING.
Officer Tough could see the grin on Twilight’s face slowly get bigger. “You okay? …Wait, don’t tell me you…”
“Get Officer Teeth Kicker. It’s urgent.” Twilight’s firmness certainly couldn’t get any clearer than that. Tough nodded, and left.
It didn’t take long to get him. However, the effort of today was taking its toll on the elderly grey stallion. He looked like he was about to fall over from exhaustion at any second. It seemed keeping the two ponies as well as Officer Clue under control was a tiring task indeed.
“I think I have it, Officer Teeth,” Twilight said proudly. “The proof you’re looking for.”
“No fooling?” That turned Teeth’s attention to Twilight quickly enough, and any tiredness was promptly forgotten. “What? What was it?”
The explanation was fairly quick (Officer Tough said there wasn’t too much time for one of Twilight’s ‘summations’) but Twilight made sure not to leave anything important out. When she had finished, Twilight was fairly restless, as was Officer Teeth Kicker. Finally, he said, “Tough, you go and take Twilight. You should know.”
Tough nodded. Twilight didn’t need to ask why. It was finally time to seal the nail in Bottom Dollar and Dirt Cheap’s coffin.
-
As it happened, the pair of suspects was being kept inside a long abandoned building just on the other side of the street. Officer Clue was still with them, with Clue’s sullen expression seemingly unchanged.
“Well, well, look who it is,” The Chief said, as Twilight and Officer Tough entered the door. “How are you getting on?”
“Um…” Bottom Dollar asked. “How long are we going to stay here? You’re not going to find anything. Because there isn’t anything to find.”
“Yeah,” added Dirt Cheap. She sounded as though she was trying to act tough. “If you can’t find what you were looking for in our place, then neither can we. We’ve got nothing to hide, like we told you!”
Twilight then cast a magic blade spell. Instantly, a long thin rod of pure magic extended from her horn. She pointed the sword at the couple, causing them to flinch.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say so,” Twilight said rather serenely. “It’s just that nopony would initially look in the right place first time round. But we did. It’s over.”
Officer Tough nodded. He felt that it would be all he’d be allowed to contribute, given that this was now Twilight’s show.
“It was quite the trick,” Twilight remarked calmly, as she kept her horn pointed towards the couple. “All those houses in the district are all the same shape and size, according to a tradition in this villiage, so I’m told. Heck, they even have the same furniture in the same place with the same amount of them on each of the two floors. Except for yours, apparently.
“I don’t know whether it’s unique to your house or not, but it has a false wall, doesn’t it? I did think it was weird that the massage chairs propped up against the west wall below wouldn’t budge from their spot no matter how much Officer Tough messed around on them, yet the massage chairs by the same wall on the ground floor were obviously looser. The reason for this is because the west wall on the first floor isn’t the same size as the ground floor west wall; it’s slightly wider, to accommodate a secret passage, leading to your lab. So of course, you’d have to be able to move the chairs out the way to get in.”
Bottom Dollar and Dirt Cheap seethed. “Yes, I know there’s a lab down there,” Twilight said, not keeping her horn or her eyes off the pair. “It’s the only explanation for that odd waterwheel by this house. I noticed it always turns counter clockwise; from right to left. Yet the stream just outside flows TOWARDS the house. So the waterwheel on the opposite side should have been turning in the other direction if it was truly connected to the stream. Clearly the stream wasn’t what was causing it to move. That’s why…” Twilight fished out the kinesis gem. It was still glowing resolute purple, as though it was glad to be out in the open for a change. “…I dug up the ground underneath, and found this thing. A kinesis gem, a special kind of gem that housed magic that leaked out to cause any object to start moving in one direction according to its shape. The wheel’s actually part of the equipment downstairs, isn’t it? A moving piece in your machine that creates fake gems?”
“So these guys really were creating fake pieces all along! Just as the Royal Guard thought!” Officer Tough declared.
Bottom Dollar chuckled, a rather cocky chuckle that completely went against his initial meek demeanor. “Amazing. You’re totally different from all those Canterlot dorks.”
“So it’s true,” Twilight said, satisfied.
“Right,” Dirt Cheap said, never losing that cocky look on her face. “It was perfect. We would go sell these counterfeits in secret from town to town, and we’d both be rolling in the money. Well, until you totally spoilt everything.
“But…” said Bottom Dollar, “we can always start again. Just you wait. Now…”
He then pulled a null-gem from his long mane, and tapped onto Twilight’s magic blade. It instantly dispelled the blade, causing it to evaporate. Twilight felt a sharp pain to her horn, causing her to screw her eyes shut for a second. When she opened them up again, she saw the pair run straight through an opening, with Clue rugby-diving towards them, trying and failing to grab hold. All this gave Bottom Dollar and Dirt Cheap just enough time to leap out of the window…
…and were promptly bucked straight into the wall by two powerful grey back legs.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. Trust Officer Teeth Kicker to pull through when it mattered.
“Twilight,” Teeth Kicker acknowledged, as Twilight teleported down with Officer Tough. “It was exactly as you thought. All sorts of uncharged rocks all over the place, as well as the standard equipment you’d expect to see. You were right; the water wheel was acting as the power generator for their big machine.”
“How…” groaned Dirt Cheap, trying to recover from the impact to the face. “How’d you get in?”
“Well, I’ll just say you folks are gonna need to pay for a new wall.” Teeth Kicker scraped his back legs rather proudly. “I’d normally foot the bill, but I don’t think I’ll need to this time round.”
“Got that right,” said Officer Tough. “Good job, Miss Sparkle. I think the folks back home will rest easy tonight.” And he whipped out two pairs of hoofcuffs, shackled the crime duo up, and led them to a Royal Guard carriage, together with Teeth Kicker.
-
Everything went as well as could be reasonably expected. Thanks to the senior guard bucking the doorway to the lab off, the Guards found it easy to obtain the evidence to put Bottom Dollar and Dirt Cheap away for good. And so the case closed the way everypony felt was best. All in all, Officer Teeth Kicker felt rather good.
He could have felt better of course, but he had something that needed dealing with. Quietly.
“I don’t BELIEVE IT!”
Teeth Kicker chugged down his Cola, desperate to nurse his readily growing headache.
“Miss Twilight Sparkle solved the mystery and got the proof needed to finally put the gem forgery case to bed. Before you. Again. Deal with it,” Teeth Kicker told Officer Clue.
“I could have solved it!” argued Clue. “You wouldn’t even let me look around the crime scene so…”
“I know. That was the point,” Officer Teeth got out of his chair, deciding to keep himself busy with paperwork instead. It wasn’t as though anypony on the Guard cared what Officer Clue thought anyway.
“HEY! I was talking to you, Gruff!” Clue shouted after him. Just then, he heard a stern voice coming from the room over. “Clue! My coffee’s going to get cold! Celestia forbid, do I have to dock your pay again?”
“Ack! Coming sir!” Clue hastily left the room before Teeth Kicker.
He raised an eyebrow. The Chief already had his coffee today, so…?
Then he smiled. Just another reason the boss was such an awesome guy to work for.
-
“Sounds like you had quite the ordeal,” Rarity said, as she handed Twilight her towel.
Twilight put it carefully outside the tub, as she made to relax in the hot water. “No kidding. Still, it shouldn’t be anything too regular; I told them that I didn’t want to work for them. Wouldn’t want to be kept away from here. I have all my friends, after all.”
Twilight closed her eyes in contentment. “And this spa’s just too good to miss.”
Twilight was quickly met by a stream of warm water being squirted at her in the face. Spluttering, Twilight saw that Rainbow Dash had a large water cannon in her hooves, and was draining the tub water for another shot.
“RAINBOW DASH!” Rarity shouted. “I am appalled, is that any way to behave at a relaxation spa?”
“Ah, lighten up,” Rainbow scoffed. “A pony’s entitled to have a blast, right?”
She then aimed her cannon towards Twilight. Prepared this time, Twilight’s horn glowed a light shade of purple, and she clicked the settings on it to ‘Reverse’. Rainbow was promptly met by water streaming into her face from the back of the cannon.
Twilight sank herself back into the warm water, leaving a shocked Rainbow to process what had just happened. “Magic. Best thing ever.”
-
“I see,” Princess Celestia said, as Officer Tough gave the report on what happened in Oatswich. “Thank you. That will be all.”
Tough nodded, and saw himself out of the throne room.
The white alicorn stared at the ceiling, smiling to herself. “You’ve come such a long way, Twilight, my faithful student,” she said quietly to herself. “Perhaps you could even finish that one mystery that has gone unsolved for hundreds of years…and if you do, then…”
It was a very stormy night, nopony would disagree with that. Frankly, all the pegasi who were working the night shift were rather miffed at the thought of a storm being scheduled for so late, but a job was a job. If it paid…
It was worse for ponies on the ground, however.
“Stop her!”
A loud male voice rang out in the middle of the thundering rain and wind on the outskirts of Ponyville. It was hard to make out in the awful weather, but it appeared to be a group of Royal Guard ponies chasing after what looked like a pony wearing a black outfit, clutching an emerald. Both this pony and her chasers were having a difficult time running against the wind.
The streets were winding, and so as soon as the chased pony was able to run down a street where the wind was no longer against her, she picked up speed, and opened a gap between her and her pursuers. But it didn’t last. Before she knew they were about to catch up with her, she found herself outside Ponyville’s famous apple farm, Sweet Apple Acres. The pony quickly ducked straight into the mass of apple trees.
It wasn’t long before Officer Clue and the rest of the other guards arrived.
“Where’d she go?” Officer Clue had to shout to the others over the rain. “She can’t have gotten far!”
“Maybe she ducked into those trees there,” one of the officers pointed towards the apple trees.
Clue looked around. Certainly, apart from that path, it looked very much like a dead end. “I know that!” he eventually said. “Fine, let’s go search. Follow me!”
He then pulled out a luminous white gem, and shined it into the darkness of the orchard before stepping into the trees. Nervously, the other guards followed Officer Clue.
Only Luna’s moon was providing any light, apart from the light stone Officer Clue was carrying, and even that was swiftly being blanketed by the masses of leaves from above. At the very least, however, the wind and the rain were beginning to become slightly less tolerable. The chase continued until the group found themselves straight on another side of the orchard, right on the edge. Right back into the worst of the storm.
“Sir, this is insane!” said one of the officers. “We’ve totally lost her, and I’m not going any further in this weather!”
“And that…” Clue said, pride carrying in his voice despite conditions, “…is why I am a Royal Guard! I never give up! Ever! Even now I…wait, who’s that over there?”
He seemed to have spotted somepony in the rain. He held his light stone up against the face of the new pony. The light revealed the pony to be orange, with a blue mane. She was soaking wet, as were the Royal Guards. Seems she got caught up in the awful weather, too.
“Hey!” Officer Clue asked. “Have you seen a suspicious looking pony come by here?”
“Uh, would you class somepony in a black outfit, running like crazy as suspicious?” the orange pony asked uncertainly.
“That’s the one!”
“Uh, straight past me,” she replied. She pointed towards the distance, away from Sweet Apple Acres.
“Thanks! Come on, everypony, we have a thief to catch!”
“…Shouldn’t we ask her for more details, or…?” yet another officer pointed out.
“In this weather? When the thief is escaping? Fat chance!” barked Clue. “Come ON! I’ll talk to you later, miss!”
And with that, the group vanished in the direction where the orange pony pointed. She sneezed. “Guess I should probably get out of this, too.”
-
“I did it! I think this actually works now!”
“Great, Twilight,” said Spike, as he got plates out for today’s breakfast. “Does that mean you’ll come down now? You pulled an all-nighter again.”
Twilight stumbled downstairs. Sure enough, there were quite the bags under her eyes. Despite this, she looked considerably content, and very excited. She was clutching what appeared to be a small black machine on wheels, with a small camera mounted on the top with nuts and bolts.
“…What is that?” Spike asked Twilight. “The thing you were working on?”
“Correct,” Twilight said happily. “I, Twilight Sparkle, have invented the very first portable investigative research machine! With this baby, anypony will be able to observe any investigative spot without needing to be physically there for themselves! No more wandering into dangerous territory or go somewhere far away when you have this!”
Twilight then conjured up a small remote control out of the ether, and started to press some buttons. She then set the “portable investigative research machine” onto the floor, before pressing a small green button that said ‘Go’ in black ink. The machine began to move underneath the breakfast table, rather slowly, but surely. It then turned around the legs of the table, before trundling back to where Twilight was standing.
While all this was going on, Twilight had summoned another machine; a very small television-looking object, with a monitor about the size of Twilight’s head. On the monitor, Twilight could see the table and the floor in detail, and was observing with barely-concealed delight.
“Isn’t this fantastic?” Twilight then turned to Spike, who was looking rather impressed, despite not knowing too much about magi-tech.
“How can you see what’s going on with that?” Spike asked.
“Nothing hard. I just rearranged the magic signature in two very similar gems so that one would receive the waves from the other, and vice versa. So the…I can’t think of a good snappy name so I’m calling it the ‘probe’…recognises the signals and acts according to what sort of magic waves it picks up!”
“Can it come back to you?” Spike asked, trying to find anything wrong with it before Twilight did anything foolish in her quest for science.
“Of course it does. It’s hardly convenient if you have to go out to where it is to retrieve it again. Don’t worry, it does that automatically.”
“Well, you can play with that a little later,” Spike said firmly. “Right now you really could do with some breakfast.”
Twilight then remembered just how hungry (and caffeine deprived) she was, so she sat down at the table, used magic to pour herself a coffee, and picked up the morning newspaper as she ate her toast.
The headline directly at the front of the page was quite the attention grabber. Unique Antiques Plundered in Dead of Night, it said. Twilight skim-read the article; she hardly seemed to be paying attention, but she did pick out some key excerpts, such as how the store was broken into late last night (the same night Twilight was putting the last touches to the probe), and how the thief apparently lost them outside Sweet Apple Acres. The thief had apparently stolen a rather pricy emerald from the store, worth hundreds of thousands of bits.
Spike found the news boring, so he decided to find a different topic to talk about. “Did you hear the storm last night? Seriously, I thought this library was about to come down!”
“Relax,” Twilight said, munching on the last of her toast. “Golden Oaks Library has had worse storms than that, and it’s still standing. Besides, it wasn’t THAT bad. I managed to not get distracted by simply closing the curtains.”
“You wouldn’t think so if you opened them up again and you found your room was staring at the ground,” Spike said.
“Well, it didn’t,” Twilight said, reaching for an apple from the fruit bowl. She was just about to bite into it, when she paused. She stared at the apple for a while.
“What’s wrong?” Spike asked.
“Oh, just thinking about Applejack,” Twilight said. “That storm must have been bad news for the trees at Sweet Apple Acres; she must have a tough day ahead of her today.”
“Oh yeah,” Spike agreed. “That was really rough.”
“I should probably visit her today, see if there is anything I can do to help,” Twilight said, as she got up from the table. “Come to think of it, I was hoping to ask about whether I could use the place to test my probe today.”
She then turned to Spike. “You’ve got the to-do list for today, don’t you?”
“Right here,” Spike said, holding it up. “And yes, I have ticked everything that has been done today. I thought you were doing something odd; you usually leave the list for the next morning, not last night, like this time.”
“Had to be done,” Twilight said. “Wanted to work on this little baby.” She stroked the probe affectionately. “Alright Spike, I’m counting on you to keep everything under control while I’m gone, alright?”
“Of course,” Spike had resigned himself to doing a lot of the chores while Twilight was gone. However, he found that he didn’t mind too much; Twilight always made sure to properly thank him, as well as treat him to a nice big gem according to his mood for the day. “Just don’t go over the top this time.”
“It’s INVESTIGATIVE SCIENCE,” Twilight said excitedly. “No boundaries are set when it comes to discovery! See you later, Spike!” And with that, Twilight carefully put the probe and its controllers into her satchel, and was out of the door.
Spike stared after her. “She forgot to do that scourging spell. It MUST be good.”
-
As Spike noted, Twilight had indeed forgotten to freshen up in her excitement. She remembered to clean herself (after several ponies had stared at her unkempt appearance) as she trotted straight towards Sweet Apple Acres.
The ground underneath her was still rather damp, but had dried up after the storm, for the most part. Twilight could see ponies all over town, either patching up some of their homes after the rain, or others complaining to their Pegasus friends about the misery, with them nodding and agreeing with how they thought it would be a hassle.
Twilight didn’t pay it too much thought though. Before she knew it, she had arrived at the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. She recognised it instantly by the straight path that led straight to Applejack’s house, and the big red barn just next to it (which had all things considered done well; its structure had barely changed even after the storm).
Twilight trotted up to the door, and knocked. Shortly, the door was answered by a big red stallion; Big Macintosh, Applejack’s older brother.
“Eeyup?” he asked.
“Hi, Mac. Is Applejack in?”
“Eeyup,” Macintosh nodded. He turned his head upstairs. “Applejack! Twilight Sparkle’s here.”
“Hold yer horses, Mac, ah’m comin’,” came the voice from upstairs. Applejack trotted down, readjusting her Stetson hat along the way.
“Hey, Twi.” Applejack smiled at Twilight.
“Applejack,” Twilight waved. “You know the storm from last night?”
“Do ah?” Applejack let out a loud breath. “Boy, was it strong. It couldn’t have done the littler trees any good.”
“As I thought,” Twilight nodded. “That’s why I came. I was wondering if you needed any help?”
“Mighty nice of ya to offer,” Applejack nodded. “But ya any good with sawin’ wood or pulling? ‘Cos that’s what today’s gonna be, mostly. Have to prop trees back up, or cut the ones we can’t patch up, poor things.”
“Um…” Twilight thought of how she could help. She wasn’t a physically strong pony (magic does little to muscle tone), and she wasn’t sure how much magic she’d be permitted to use in front of a traditional earth pony family’s place. Then she remembered the probe.
“Actually, I could help to look for the damaged trees,” Twilight said. “It’s a big place, after all.”
“If ya say so. But ya do have a lot of orchard to cover, ya know.”
“That’s why I brought this along,” Twilight smirked, fishing the probe out of her bag. She placed it on the ground, staring at it proudly.
“What the heck is that?” Applejack asked.
“A probe. I made it so that it could investigate places without needing anypony to be there themselves. I could use it to sweep the orchard.”
Applejack stared at the machine. “Well, ah don’t rightly understand it mahself, but it sounds real useful. If ya think ya know what you’re doin’ with it…”
“I’m fine,” Twilight assured her. “I can show you how it works, if you like.”
“Well, ah am mighty curious, ah guess,” Applejack said, stroking her chin. “But just for a little while. “Ah’ve got work to be doin’.”
Twilight nodded. “Okay. Can I use your barn, by the way?”
-
The inside of the barn was as Twilight remembered it. The bales of hay on both sides, and a large open space directly in the middle. Twilight set up the probe, as well as the monitor, and sat down on the floor. She then pressed a series of buttons before getting it to go, and the next thing she knew, the probe was trundling out of the barn.
On the monitor, Twilight could see everything that the probe’s camera could see. Twilight had directed the probe to travel towards the edge of the orchard, and she could see that was exactly what it was doing.
Twilight and Applejack watched the monitor for several minutes. Before long, an interesting sight came into view; a tree that was almost on its side, with only a few of its roots on its left side keeping it fixed in the ground. Right beside the tree was a rather large hole, which was rather shallow, as far as Twilight could see, but quite wide.
“Aw, no,” Applejack groaned. “Looks like the storm tore this one right out. I wonder if it can still be saved…”
Just then, Twilight noticed that there was another pony; an earth pony, doing something on the top branches of the tree. She couldn’t make out the pony clearly, for the monitor was showing it in black and white, but Twilight could see that the pony was wearing a cap, which looked rather dirty. She was clutching a chainsaw in her hooves.
“Who’s she?” Twilight asked.
Applejack stared at the monitor. “Oh, her? That’s Buzzer, she’s a part-timer we recently hired. Real nice gal. She works as a woodcutter, and she comes around often to tend to all our trees when we don’t have enough hooves on us. Quite the worker. She even asked me early this mornin' if she could start work early. Probably wanted to check the orchard for damage, I reckon.”
“I’ve never seen her before,” Twilight remarked.
“We just hired her recently. She’s been workin’ for us for about two weeks now,” Applejack explained. “She came askin’ for a job, and said she was good with takin’ care of trees. And, well, we couldn’t rightly say no, so here she is.”
“It’s right on the edge of the orchard…” Twilight said. “Looks like there were no other trees to take the brunt for it, and it collapsed.”
Applejack sighed. Twilight, eager to find out a little more, brought the remote out again, and programmed the probe to move into the whole where the tree had been planted. The probe obeyed, and it trundled right in the middle. Twilight took extra care to avoid the small pond just near the tree, making sure it didn’t fall in by accident. Twilight had a manual override for such occasions.
Twilight swivelled the camera around for about 30 seconds, inspecting the hole. “Applejack, how old was this tree?” she asked.
“Not that old, ah don’t think,” said Applejack. “Didn’t have time to really get a good grip for times like these. It’s sad…”
“Well, I suppose I should probably move this out,” Twilight remarked, and bring it back here…”
But before Twilight could say anymore, she caught the camera staring at the tree. It was moving.
Towards the probe.
Twilight had no time to react. In a matter of seconds, the tree had fallen straight back into the whole, collapsing onto its other side onto the probe. Twilight saw the camera go completely black, and the gem installed in the remote blinking, indicating it could not pick up the gem from the probe anymore.
There were several uncomfortable seconds. It wasn’t long before the two of broke the silence.
“Oh, Sweet Celestia, is Barry okay!?” Applejack made sure to name each tree individually. They were as much a part of the family as the rest.
“MY PROBE!” screamed Twilight. “My probe…I spent a good month’s worth of all-nighters on it! Oh, I hope it’s not too badly ruined…”
“…we headin’ to the edge, ya reckon?” Applejack asked uncertainly.
“Yes!” Twilight answered instantly.
“Well, can’t say fairer than that,” Applejack and Twilight sprinted out of the barn, and made straight for where Twilight saw the incident.
-
Twilight was mostly following Applejack, since she knew her way around the orchard better than Twilight. In about 30 seconds, they found themselves beside the tree that had fallen over, and an orange pony in a grey cap; Buzzer, the pony Twilight saw on the monitor, who Twilight could now see was sporting an orange coat with a blue mane. By the tree, Twilight could see some of the branches had been cut off, and were lying just outside the hole. Buzzer was next to them, as was the chainsaw, and she was wringing her hooves.
“Oh, Applejack!” Buzzer sounded frantic. “Aw, geez, I am so sorry, I didn’t think the tree would fall over like that. I was trying to cut it up, I saw that it was beyond saving, this one, and…I swear, I didn’t mean to…”
Twilight wasn’t listening. She was in the middle of the hole, inspecting the part of the tree that had crushed the probe. Twilight could see several pieces of the probe had come off, and that the little machine had been mostly flattened. Twilight gently moved the tree up slightly with magic, to retrieve the pieces. She looked like she was about to cry.
Buzzer saw Twilight. “Oh, was that thing yours? I’m sorry, I saw it, but I decided to leave it alone. I didn’t see it go straight into the hole…”
“My. Greatest. Invention. Ruined,” Twilight said jerkily. She turned to Buzzer. “RUINED!”
“I’m sorry!” Buzzer said again. “If there’s any way I could make up for it, anything at all…”
“No need,” said Applejack, stepping in. “It was all an accident, that’s all. Now Twi…” she turned to Twilight, who was still staring numbly at the wrecked probe. “…it’s a mighty big shame that your li’l do-hicky got smashed, but Buzzer said it was an accident. An’ she’s awful sorry. So ya should do the honest thing and accept it, okay?”
Twilight summoned up a bag, and scooped the ruined pieces in. “Of course…” she said quietly. “I’m sorry, Buzzer. I know you didn’t mean it.”
“Huh?” Buzzer looked puzzled. “You know my name?”
“Ah introduced ya to Twilight,” Applejack told her. “She caught ya on camera thanks that machine, and I told her who ya were.”
“Ah, that makes sense, I guess,” Buzzer said, nodding.
“Still…” Twilight muttered.
“Still nuthin’. Now Buzzer, you and ah should probably give the trees over here a good look. This un’s had it rough, and it might be the same story with some of the others.”
“No, it’s fine,” said Buzzer, “I’m fine with searching this part by myself…”
“Mac and Granny Smith are coverin’ the other parts,” said Applejack. “So it just leaves you an’ me. So that’s how it is. Besides, I’d rather have somepony with me; somepony was trespassin’ on our property last night. I think I’ll feel safer if there’s two of us...”
“There was a trespasser?” Twilight asked. She thought she heard that phrase somewhere before.
“Yup,” Applejack said. “Wasn’t there when I got there though…”
Applejack rose from her bed. The rain just wasn’t doing her any favours when it came to getting any sleep. She sighed. It was going to be a long day tomorrow, and she needed to preserve her strength and rest. But it was impossible.
Just then, she thought she heard voices. She tried to look out of the window, but it was no good; she couldn’t see through the rain and the dark.
“Burglars?” Applejack thought. She grabbed her waterproof coat and her light stone, and shone it towards where she thought she heard the voices. By then, though, the voices had seemingly stopped. Still uncertain, Applejack went outside through the front door, out to where she heard the noise. By the time she got there, she didn’t find anypony.
“Nuthin’.” Disappointed, Applejack trudged back towards the house. And not too soon; by the time she got back home, the wind and rain were really starting to pick up now.
She had half a mind to complain to Ponyville’s weather team the next morning.
“…an’ that’s what happened. So Buzzer, you understand? You’re comin’ with me.”
“Um…alright,” said Buzzer.
“You go ahead,” Twilight sighed. “I’d like to be alone for a little while…”
Applejack nodded. “C’mon, Buzzer.” And with that, the two of them left, leaving a dejected Twilight by the base of the tree.
-
Despite being told the whole thing was an accident, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a nagging at the back of her head. She chose to ignore it, however. Right now, the more pressing matter was the destroyed probe, and she was thinking about how much time she’d need to repair it.
Certainly, she did remember how she built it first time round, and what spells were required, so making it again shouldn’t be much of a problem, but…
Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted by a small yellow pony, with a red mane sporting a matching ribbon, trotting to her side. This was Applebloom, Applejack’s younger sister. She hadn’t earned her cutie mark yet, and Twilight knew her as somepony who was going to great lengths to find it.
“Hey, Twilight,” she said softly. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Twilight said softly. She was about to ask why Applebloom wasn’t at school, but then she remembered that it was a Saturday. “I’m fine. This can be fixed…”
“Your li’l gadget?” Applebloom asked. “Ah was watchin’. Buzzer was cuttin’ Barry, Barry just fell over, an’ then you an’ sis arrived. I saw you, sis an’ Buzzer makin’ a lotta noise, and so ah decided not to get involved. Poor Buzzer, she probably didn’t mean nothin’, doin’ that.”
“You saw the tree fall on it?” Twilight perked up a little after hearing this.
“Sure,” Applebloom nodded.
Twilight paused for a bit. The nagging feeling hadn’t gone away. It was then she remembered that the camera didn’t pick up Buzzer that much, and so deciding that the best way to keep herself occupied was probably to indulge it, she decided to talk. About the important things.
“What did Buzzer do?” asked Twilight. “How was she cutting the tree?”
“Gosh,” Applebloom asked, thinking hard, trying to remember. “Well, ah think she started on the top. Usin’ that chainsaw to start cuttin’ the branches off. Then she got started on the bits underneath, but while she was doin’ that, the tree started to lean towards the other side. A li’l bit, then it just fell straight back in the hole. An’ that’s what happened.”
Twilight processed what Applebloom had just said. She suddenly got up, any weariness having disappeared completely. “Where ya goin’?” Applebloom asked.
“Just for a walk,” Twilight replied. “Just need to clear my head. Don’t worry, I’ll be right back.”
-
Twilight spent a good few minutes walking alongside the edge of Sweet Apple Acres. No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t stop thinking about the tree and the probe. The nagging feeling at the back of her mind was growing stronger than ever, and showed no signs of going away.
Just then, out the corner of her eye, Twilight saw a group of ponies in what appeared to be Royal Guard armour heading towards her.
She heard voices. “Now, then, you know what we’re back here for. To pick up where we left off. So I don’t want anypony slacking while I’m here!”
Twilight sighed. She recognised Officer Clue’s voice anywhere. She was just about to duck away back into the trees, hoping that she wouldn’t be spotted, but it was too late. Clue had seen her.
“You!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “So you’re the thief from last night!”
“Wait, what?” Twilight looked confused.
“Don’t play dumb!” barked Clue. “Culprits always return to the scene of the crime! You were the one who broke into Unique Antiques last night!”
Twilight remembered the robbery vaguely from the papers, but hadn’t paid as much attention to it as she should have. She sighed. “Wouldn’t that make the scene of the crime Unique Antiques…?”
“Don’t be pedantic!” snapped Clue. “You’re the pony in this photograph, aren’t you?”
Clue then whipped out a photo of what appeared to be an intruder breaking the glass of the Unique Antiques shop. S/he was wearing a black disguise which covered the entirity of the body, save for the eyes, and was clutching a brick in her hooves, which were covered in hoof-gloves.
Twilight stared blankly at the photograph. “This pony doesn’t have a horn,” she said with condensing scorn, pointing at the pony’s head. Or wings, Twilight noted.
Clue stared at the photo, and then at Twilight, before nervously laughing. “Sorry, even a genius makes mistakes! Laugh it off and forgive me, yeah?”
Twilight her eyebrow. “…Bah.” She decided to set the conversation somewhere meaningful, if only out of pity for Clue. “So you’re looking for the thief?” Twilight remembered reading it was just outside here that the thief lost them.
“Yeah, just lost them. Saw them duck straight inside these trees here,” Clue grumbled. “Lost them after that.”
“Ducked inside…?” Twilight said. The newspaper certainly hadn’t mentioned that in the article. Or maybe they did, and Twilight wasn’t paying attention. It was one or the other.
“Then we asked this orange pony, and she points us away, since she said she saw the thief run away there. So we’re lookin…” Clue paused. Just then, an angry expression fell over his face. “Hey! You’re trying to get information out of me so that you can show me up again!”
“What?” Twilight sighed. “I didn’t say I was.”
“I know you!” Clue said warily. “You picking up the clues, trying to solve it before me! Well, this is MY case. MINE, okay? I don’t want you poking around this time, alright?”
“I wasn’t trying to,” Twilight said, honestly. “Duly noted. I was investigating something else, anyway.”
Officer Clue nodded. “Good. Now spread out! Search around the borders here for any clues. Anything!” The officers quickly complied.
-
Twilight the group, and headed back to where the tree had collapsed. She was briefly thinking about the breaking and entering, even though she promised Clue not to investigate. She quickly put the thought out of her head, turning her attention back to the strange incident that she picked up.
It was then that THAT thought quickly left her, when Twilight thoughtlessly approached the pond. As she peered into the water, she saw something fine and black clinging onto the side. Twilight picked it up into her hooves. It was apparently black nylon.
“Hmmm, wasn’t that thief wearing a black outfit?” Twilight said to herself.
Then she paused. She sat in silence for a good few seconds, processing what she just found, along with goodness knows what else.
Then suddenly, for the first time since this morning, she was alight with enthusiasm. She was awake now, and was grinning from ear to ear.
She had solved everything.
-
“Ah still don’t get why we have to be here,” Granny Smith grumbled, as she saw Buzzer and the rest of the Apple family gather together. Twilight had entered the house in a frenzy, urging Applejack to get everypony together and meet her outside, raving about how she figured out the truth and more. “It’s a real strain on these old bones, see.”
“Twilight, are ya gonna do that whole explanation thing?” asked Applebloom. “The best part of being a detective?”
“Exactly! I’ve been racking my brain all day, trying to make sense of what’s been going on today,” Twilight said excitedly. “But now I think that I’ve figured out exactly what happened.”
“This seems a little much for a small accident,” Granny Smith whispered to Big Macintosh.
“Eeyup,” Macintosh agreed.
“Um, Twilight?” Applejack said with considerable deadpan. “Ah think ya might be thinkin’ about this one a little too hard. Ah mean, it was just bad luck that tree crushed your little do-hicky.”
“Under the care of a professional like Buzzer? It doesn’t sit right with me,” Twilight said, readying herself for the usual summation. “Allow me to explain. It is my belief that we have all made a big misunderstanding about the whole incident. Buzzer goes to cut up one of the apple trees that had been blown down by the storm last night, and while cutting she accidentally sends the tree toppling on my probe,” Twilight’s left eye began to twitch, but seeing the Apple family’s curious looks on their faces, she carried on. “But that was all a big mistake.”
“I don’t see how it could be a mistake,” Applejack remarked.
“Nnnope,” Big Macintosh replied, succinct as ever.
“Because Buzzer didn’t cause the tree to fall like that by accident,” Twilight replied smugly. “She did it on purpose.”
“What?” Buzzer said rather flatly.
Applejack’s eyes widened. “You’re kiddin’. What makes ya think that?”
“Because of the way Applebloom described how Buzzer went about cutting the tree down,” Twilight said, turning and nodding to Applebloom. She then looked sternly at Buzzer. “She said that you, Buzzer, cut the branches off first before you got started sawing away at the parts just underneath. A professional woodcutter like you wouldn’t start cutting away at the upper half of the tree unless the aim was to get the tree to fall back into the hole. Without them, the tree would lose the counterweight that would prevent the root system and the stump from falling back into the hole. There is no other explanation except that it was intentional.”
Buzzer could only grimace. There was a pause, before Applebloom spoke up.
“So…you’re sayin’ she tried to crush that lil’ bot?” she asked. “What for?”
“It’s a bit of a stretch, but I can only assume…” Twilight said thoughtfully, “…that she wanted to draw our attention to the ruined probe. It got too close to the tree for her liking.”
Buzzer grimaced. “That’s right, isn’t it?” Twilight said to her. “You were keeping a huge secret hidden in or by this tree, weren’t you? You didn’t just break my experiment.
“The Royal Guard caught up to me, asking about somepony who had fled into Sweet Apple Acres to try and escape them after stealing from an old shop, Unique Antiques, last night. Applejack, you said you went outside during the night to deal with the intruder, right? And by the time you arrived, they had gone.”
“Yeah, but…” Applejack said.
“If I’m right, you were that intruder, weren’t you, Buzzer?”
“Wait, you’re sayin’ Buzzer was the one who robbed that store?” Applejack gasped.
“That’s CRAZY!” shouted Buzzer. “Ya can’t pin that robbery on me? What are you talking about, and what’s it got to do with me accidentally breaking your little toy?”
Twilight nodded at Applejack, selectively ignoring Buzzer. “This is what I think happened.
“Buzzer, you broke into that antique shop and stole the emerald. However, you got caught by a patrol led by Officer Clue, and ducked into Sweet Apple Acres to lose them. You tore up the disguise that you were wearing while robbing the store and sunk them in the pond, just before Clue and his entourage caught up with you. You also took the opportunity to hide the gem inside the tree hollow you were hiding behind. This one, the one you cut down.
“Taking advantage of his gullibility, you misdirected him away from the place, giving you more breathing room. But that was when you hit a snag. Applejack heard intruders in the orchard, and went to investigate. To get out of there, you had to leave the gem behind. So you were intending to retrieve it the next morning as early as possible, even asking Applejack to let you start work in this part of the orchard earlier than usual. Unfortunately, to your horror, when you returned, you saw the storm from last night had ripped the tree out, which risked exposing the gem. To make matters worse, I had come visiting today too, wanting to test my probe, and the tree was the first place I sent it.
“You saw that it had a camera mounted on and thought it might have spotted the jewel. So you had no choice but to cut the tree stump and crush it while it was still in the hole, getting rid of the potential evidence against you. You couldn’t destroy it yourself with your bare hooves, otherwise I’d have seen you do it. So the only thing you could do was hope for an opportunity to make it look like an accident. Lo and behold, I directed it into the hole, where you seized your chance.”
Twilight scowled. “That little probe was a whole month’s work, and you brought a great big tree crashing down on it!? I mean, stealing a gem from that old shop was bad, but INTERRUPTING SCIENCE IN PROGRESS is just deplorable!”
“Uh, Twi,” hissed Applejack. “Priorities, girl. Get ‘em straight.”
“You’re just making it up!” Buzzer said desperately. “You don’t have a shred of proof it was me!”
“As for proof,” Twilight said, “you’re still carrying it, right now. Applejack and the rest of the Apple family have been keeping a good eye on you since the incident with the tree, so you haven’t had time to hide that emerald anywhere. Chances are you’ve got it hidden. Underneath your hat, most likely, when you came back to the tree this morning.”
Buzzer began to sweat. “That’s not all,” Twilight went on, conjuring up the plastic bag with the nylon thread inside. “I found this small piece of black thread hanging over the edge of the pond, proving you dumped the disguise there. Chances are, we can fish the costume out and give it a thorough dusting for hoofprints, which would prove you wore this costume.”
Buzzer sank to her knees. She had gotten caught.
“How?” she whispered. “How did you know it was me? Anypony could have stolen that gem and broken in…”
“I saw a photo showing the thief,” Twilight explained. “Clue showed it to me. I saw that the thief didn’t have a horn or wings, so the thief must have been an earth pony, like you. But the biggest clue lay in the fact that the thief ducked into the orchard and hid the gem. You’ve worked there in that one orchard long enough, so assuming nopony in the Apple Family is the culprit, only you knew that there was tree with a hollow that would make a good hiding place. A stranger wouldn’t know, they’re not usually allowed to go that far in. With knowledge only somepony who worked at Sweet Apple Acres would have, the culprit couldn’t be anypony else.”
Buzzer sighed. “Sorry, Applejack. Sorry I had to do that to your tree…”
“Buzzer…” Applejack said sadly.
“Why?” asked Macintosh.
“…because being a part-time lumberjack wasn’t making enough bits,” Buzzer admitted. “I…lost most of my cash gambling at the watering hole. The bills started to catch up to me…and I couldn’t pay it back. Nothing I did was enough. I was desperate. I…panicked when the Royal Guard caught me. I ditched the disguise and managed to throw them off my trail, but even then…the rest was exactly like you said.”
-
“And done!”
Twilight was putting the finished touches on the newly mended probe back at the library straight after breakfast.
“I swear I’ve seen this somewhere before,” Spike muttered to himself, as he bit into his sapphire. “Let’s just hope it doesn't break again, huh, Twilight?”
“Oh, don’t worry,” said Twilight. “I’ve decided not to take it back to Sweet Apple Acres this time. Too much going on at once, I discovered. No, I think there will be fewer things to get in the way at Rarity’s.”
“Rarity?” Spike perked up at the name. “Um…can I come? You know, just in case it…”
Twilight knew it was only an excuse to come and visit her, but she decided to play along. “Sure, the more eyes to keep on it, the better.”
Rarity found herself enthralled at Twilight’s newest invention. “I must say, Twilight, this is quite the machine. I do believe this would have quite the niche.” She watched the probe walk around in circles before trundling underneath Rarity’s work desk.
“You’d buy it?” Spike asked.
“Of course, darling. This machine could be used to see whether if the really are a slew of gems down any shaft I see, without me having to get my beautiful hooves dirty!”
Twilight smiled. “See, this is exactly what I was hoping it would do for ponies. I just need to patent this so…”
Just then, Twilight heard a rather frantic squeaking coming from the next room, followed by a rather furious growling. A mouse suddenly ran from the next room, scrambling over the probe. It soon became apparent why, for a large Persian cat (Opalescence, Rarity’s cat) came tumbling into the next room.
“Oh no, Opal, don’t you go…” Rarity began to say, but the cat wasn’t listening. Opalescence spotted the mouse climb over the probe and made a beeline straight towards it. And the probe.
