Death Comes to Those Who Wait

The five worried mares met up with a private investigator later on. Surprisingly enough, she was an alicorn. The five sat in a booth staring down at their coffee.

"Twilight Sparkle and friends?" A deep, soothing, feminine voice cooed.

"Uh, yes." Twilight responded to the alicorn.

"Hello, I am Princess Case File, just call me Case though," She was a pink alicorn, who was as tall as Cadence. Her flowing hair was violet and blue, as well as hot pink. She wore a trench coat that covered her wings, and a fedora that covered her rather long horn poorly.

After some discussion and looking over clues, the princess pulled out a new kind of electronic. After some questioning and explaining, they just watched the princess in work.

"I knew it,"

"What?!" Rainbow shouted, which drew unwanted attention.

"The hoof prints are fakes. The stallion made a mold of a now deceased young stallion, thinking it'd cover him up. Obviously, I am just the right detective. If I just calculate how much pressure he applied to each hoof step, I can see how much he weighed, and essentially-"

"Who he is?!" Rainbow Dash shouted.... again.

"Shh!" Rarity hushed her friend.

"I can essentially calculate how big he is and his stature."

After whirring noises whipped out of the machine, the princess smiled.

"He should be a rather large and strong stallion, like Big Mac, but a bit older than even Granny Smith. But... he's over 90 years old... this- this cannot be correct!"

"What?! What?!" Applejack yelled this time.

"If these calculations are actually correct, then the strength needed to produce the depth, he would have to be your age, equal or slightly greater than! This can't be! It... I... This'll be harder than I thought... Wait a minute, I just got an email. From a pony called MasterMind. It says:

You will not find me,

I am simply better than thee,

If you give me what I desire,

Fluttershy just might not expire."

The six sat in silence. It seemed like they sat for only a second, but when a worker snapped them out of it, it was already 5 PM. They had come at 10 am, so they'd been there quite a while thinking.

"What does he want, money?"

"A mare?"

"I know."

"What?"

"What they all want. Either revenge, or most likely: attention."

The six ponies trotted out of the Ponyville Coffee House and down the street. They stopped at an elegant and tall house, one that was more like a manor. It was very far, and faced the ocean. The ponies walked up to it and opened the door. They followed the alicorn inside and sat on the sofa.

"So, what're we doin' here?" Applejack asked.

"You are all now helping me with a case and an experiment. Okay, who's the heaviest here?"

When no pony spoke up, Case decided to rephrase it. "Who is the strongest? I would prefer to use both Applejack and Rainbow Dash for the experiments."

The two ponies stood up, and waited orders. Case left the room for a minute, then came back carrying a big bag in her magic. She laid out a large tarp, and put a bunch of dirt on it. She used her magic to pat it down to the right size, then got out eight hoof prints. She put one on each hoof of the mares and smiled.

"Now, I want both of you to stand on the dirt, side by side, little to no pressure on the dirt."

The ponies stood on the dirt as instructed and stepped off. Case examined and measured the imprints, then scribbled down some numbers. She put them in her new computer and it whirred, then printed out results. It ruled out some ponies, and highlighted others.

"Now," Case said as she made the dirt the right size again. "push as hard as you can against it."

The two ponies obeyed and pushed, stamping their hooves a bit in the process. They stepped off after a few seconds of pushing very hard. She then measured again and entered numbers, then she looked at the results.

"Well, you two are exactly at the same strength level, and the suspects that match this description are stronger than you, so it ruled out a lot of suspects. The remaining are: Big Mac, Fancy Pants, Flim, Prince Blueblood, Trixie, and Shining Armor."

"What?! Don't accuse my brother! He's been in the Crystal Empire since five months ago! Call and ask any pony there!"

"I'm sorry, but it is just a precaution. I'll call right now." Case walked away and came back with a phone.

"What is that?" Rainbow asked.

"It's new. It's called a cell phone. You can talk to people really far away on it through magic."

"Yes, I'd like to hear from at least 5 ponies that they saw some pony in particular two days ago. Yes, okay, I'll wait." Case stood with the phone next to her ear, covered in pink magic. She tapped her hoof on the ground impatiently. She also had a recorder up to the phone. It was recording. "Yes, okay, next. Okay... mmhmm, okay, next. Uh huh. Uh huh, uh huh, okay next. Yes, uh huh. Uh huh. Next. Okay. Okay, uh huh, uh huh. Thank you, good-bye."

"So? Did he do it?!" Twilight yelled angrily.