Floret opens the door to her dorm room and shuts it behind her, leaning against it for a moment before moving away. She has a lime green coat and bright pink hair such that she could be seen from a good distance. She's only a little filly, maybe eight or nine and she trots over to pour water on a flowerbud and sit down in the chair next to it, propping her front hooves on her cheeks so she can look at it.
"Dear Camellia. You'd think studying at the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns would open some kind of avenue of excitement, wouldn't you? Because every single unicorn in the entire school is magically gifted, shouldn't there be something interesting going on? In case you're wondering, nothing interesting has happened. By some random chance I made friends with a unicorn talented in trick shooting fire spells and another one that used magic to make music. The trick shooter's name is Firecracker and the musician's is Vinyl Scratch. I'm honestly not sure how long Vinyl's going to be here, though. Last I talked to her, she was thinking about transferring to the Canterlot Music Academy, maybe get back in touch with one of her childhood friends. I'm just not sure about this place, Camellia. I didn't really expect to be the most popular filly in the school on my first day, but I thought I'd at least have joined a club or made some more friends by now. On top of that, there's another filly named Viper Tongue and she's just mean. She calls me Flo-wet instead of Floret and she told everypony that the faculty had to get a cleaning crew up here because I was so nervous on the first night I wet the bed. I don't know, Camellia. I miss my friends. I thought coming here would be fun but so far it's just been really tiring. At least one good thing came out of my applying, though. If I hadn't applied, I wouldn't have you. What an odd test, though: grow a Camellia flower from a seed. Between you and me, I don't think they would've let me keep you if I hadn't begged to. So that makes you, me, Vinyl, and Firecracker against Viper Tongue. That could definitely be worse, I guess. I don't know. I just wish Viper Tongue didn't bother me anymore. Well, that's all I got today, Camellia. Sleep well. Goodnight."
Floret moves over to her bed and lies down, falling swiftly to sleep.
%
Floret runs into the room and shuts the door behind her, a grin painting her face. She trots over to the camellia flower on the table beside her bed waters it.
"Dear Camellia. You would never guess what happened last night. Give up? Last night, Viper Tongue fell down some stairs and broke her leg. She's in the hospital now and some ponies say she'll be out of class for at least a few days. I don't know if I believe many rumors, though. Because some ponies also say she was actually pushed down the stairs. Isn't that crazy? What kind of pony would push her down the stairs? I don't like her that much but I wouldn't go that far. My classes are going pretty well. My practical magic class just started casting levitation spells, so that's exciting. I'm so bad at it, though. It's like trying to pump molasses through a pipe by blowing on it with a straw, it's that hard. I can't really complain though because at least we started doing something. My favorite class right now, though, is my organic magic class. We just started using magic to prune bushes and I'm great at that. The only class I really don't like is my obscure animals class; the teacher's mean and only reads part of the textbook aloud. He doesn't even talk about his opinions with the material, he just stands and talks. But the assignments he hands out are even worse. They don't have anything to do with what we've learned so far and he'll take a whole point off every time you misspell a word. Well at least my other classes are going pretty well and apparently Vinyl isn't leaving yet. But I'm dead tired. I'm going to bed. Goodnight, Camellia."
Floret falls with a thump on her bed and throws a blanket over herself, turning over a few times before going to sleep.
%
Floret and a red coated unicorn filly with a yellow mane enter the room. Floret waters the Camellia flower and leans over it.
"Dear Camellia. This is Firecracker, the one I told you about earlier. You're probably wondering why we're not in class right now."
Firecracker interrupts. "I hope you know that's a plant. It can't really understand you."
Floret turns and glares at Firecracker. "Do you want to hear this or not?"
Firecracker rolls her eyes. "Technically, I wanted to do something else while we have a class free. You insisted we come here so you could talk to your plant."
Floret turns back to the Camellia flower. "Don't mind her, she's just a little impatient. The reason we're out of class is because that teacher I was talking to you about yesterday got really sick. He's in the hospital now along with Viper Tongue who should be back in class in a few days. I don't know about the teacher, though. Nopony's been able to tell how he got sick so far or what it is. I'm a bit nervous about Viper Tongue coming back from the hospital, but at least when she does we'll know what happened."
Firecracker's ears perk up. "Correction: we'll know who pushed her down the stairs."
Floret ignores her. "Anyway, we're heading to the lower dorms so we can pick up Vinyl and do something while we have the class off. I'll see you later, Camellia."
Floret and Firecracker trot out, closing the door behind them.
%
Floret enters the room slowly, almost sleepwalking. She collapses on her bed, staring at the flower on her bedside.
"Dear Camellia. Class is cancelled, today."
The camellia flower shakes slightly in the wind from an open window.
"Do you know why class is cancelled?"
The leaves rustle in an almost laughing sound.
"Viper Tongue died, last night. Somepony strangled her to death in her sleep."
A leaf falls from the plant.
"The guard hasn't caught who did it yet but I hear Princess Celestia herself is very concerned. Vinyl says a friend of hers' father is leading the investigation. His name is Inspector Hoofprint or something like that. I know I should feel sad or scared that they still haven't caught the pony who did it yet, but I don't. I just feel numb. Who would do that? Why? To make it worse, it turns out somepony poisoned my teacher. What am I going to do, Camellia? I can't live in here while there's a killer around."
She turns over on her bed.
"I don't know. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to sleep again."
After a few minutes of lying still, Floret enters a dreamless sleep while the camellia flower sits and waits.
%
Floret enters the room slowly but shuts the door behind her with a bang.
"Dear Camellia. Classes are going on as usual today, though nopony seems like they can concentrate that well and Vinyl had a crazy idea: if the pony who killed Viper Tongue and poisoned my teacher is still out there, maybe we can catch him. Vinyl knows all about being a detective from a book series she read and Firecracker's been practicing defensive spells. If anypony can catch this crook, we can. I'm going to pick up a few things in here, but then I've gotta go and start our detecting. My room is huge, I don't think I've opened half of the drawers in here. How am I going to find a magnifying glass and a little grey cell? Anyway, I'll see you later, Camellia."
Floret rifles through her drawers for a few minutes and trots off with a magnifying glass clutched in her teeth.
%
Firecracker, Floret, and a white-maned and coated mare with red eyes enter the room. Floret waters the camellia flower and the trio sit on Floret's bed.
"Dear Camellia. The investigation is going really well. We already found some dirt where somepony pushed Viper Tongue down the stairs and we rooted through the garbage to find the food my teacher ate the day he was poisoned. Tomorrow, we're going to get Vinyl's chemistry teacher to analyze the food and find what the poison is. Then, we need to find a dirty pony with access to the poison and catch them. Oh! This is Vinyl Scratch, I talked to you about her earlier."
Floret gestures to the white coated and maned pony standing behind her, shaking her head to music nopony else hears and appearing to count the light fixtures in the room.
"Once we've caught the pony responsible, we're going to turn our findings in to Inspector Hoofprint. I don't know where we're going to find him, though. He's investigating all around the school and the hospital and I don't know where he is now. Vinyl's been doing a great job with the detecting and Firecracker's getting really good at her defense spells. She can shoot embers five feet now and she's only getting better. We're going to see if we can inspect the hospital for clues and besides that, I think they're having a rock skipping contest outside. We can practice our telekinesis there."
Vinyl looks closely at the plant, more interested in the current events once she heard a compliment about herself, and narrows her eyebrows. "Hey, Floret. Do you know what the rumors are about your plant, here?"
Floret tilts her head to the side. "Rumors? About Camellia?"
Vinyl nods, gravely. "I heard, the pony who was supposed to get your camellia flower seed to grow with your magic, messed up and got a different seed instead. But you still grew a camellia flower because that's what you were told was supposed to happen."
Floret scrunches up her face, skeptically. "What would that make Camellia, then? What seed did he get?"
Vinyl shrugs. "Beats me. I wouldn't pay too much attention to rumors, though. I heard the targets Firecracker shot at for her exam actually had the bodies of some of Celestia's enemies inside and she got Firecracker to do away with them."
"Where did you hear that?" Firecracker asks.
"From you; you said you heard it from somepony the other day."
Firecracker shrugs. "Yep, that sounds like me."
Floret rolls her eyes. "Are we going to investigate the hospital or what?"
Floret leaves, Vinyl and Firecracker following. Vinyl goes out last and slams the door behind her, knocking open one of the cabinets strewn almost randomly about the room. A box of parasprite poison falls out of the cabinet and lands on the floor.
Another leaf falls from the camellia flower.
%
Floret storms into the room, slamming the door behind her and sitting down with her forelegs crossed.
"Do you know what they did, Camellia? They kicked me out. All I did was open the window for one second. It's not my fault the leaf blew out. I don't even think it's a good clue. Anypony could have brought Viper Tongue a camellia flower. I wonder if they knew it was a camellia flower? It doesn't matter. It was a terrible clue. Apparently Inspector Hoofprint wasn't at the hospital. I don't know where he is, probably following another lead, but I bet he doesn't have the problems with his team that I do with mine. I'll do some detecting on my own. I'll find out stuff, then they've got to let me back in. Bye, Camellia."
Floret bounds out of the room, leaving the door open behind her.
%
The guards found Inspector Hoofprint floating in a river a short trot from Canterlot the next day, dead from loss of blood resulting from a torn off limb. Firecracker was found a day later in her dorm room, a gaping hole in her chest where her heart should have been. Vinyl Scratch dyed her mane and transferred to the Manehatten Music Institute on the same day. These mysteries, according to the Canterlot guards, remain unsolved. However, when Floret returned from her uneventful search nearby Viper Tongue's room, the leaves and petals her camellia flower dropped were in an unmistakable pattern: two eyes, two ears, and a happy, smiling, face.
