Sherlock: The Magical Murders

Chapters

A Boring Day..... Not
Explanations
Examinations
Reassurance
Preparations
Welcomes
Introductions
Discussions
Clues
The Race
Information Uncovered
Sudden Trips
Mechanical Finds
Saving and Losing
A Slight Delay

A Boring Day..... Not

In a country called Equestria, trouble had risen. Usually, the land was peaceful, but there are a few times when the peace is broken by violence in forms such as wars, murders, and more. This was one of those times.

In a city called Canterlot, a blue unicorn was getting ready for a meeting. He wore a tie on his neck for the occasion, and his mane was specially coiffed for it as well. This is Speech Speaker, and he was on his way to go to a meeting of great importance. He was going to pitch in his ideas on how to help Equestrians everywhere, and the Princess herself was going to be in the audience! He closed his bedroom drawer, went out of the room, and headed towards the front door. He was almost there when his body was enclosed in a glow colored with all known colors in the spectrum and many more. It was almost certainly a unicorn's magic, but tremendously powerful. Speech Speaker knew this because it was killing him.

He grunted and struggled as the magic made waves of pain course through his body, strangling and torturing him. He tried counter-attacking with his own magic, but it was powerless against the strong force. Then, he went limp. The magic glow disappeared and he fell on the floor, dead.

~~~~~

Princess Celestia stood over the dead unicorn with three police colts and her student Twilight Sparkle. Her face was full of worry and misery. Her motherly voice broke the somber silence. "This has been the third murder this week. Is it the same, my student?"

Twilight Sparkle cast a spell on the corpse, enveloping him in a purple glow. Then, she stopped. "Yes it is. It shows a unicorn's magic must have done it from magic residue, but it doesn't have an identity. It's like many ponies did this, but it says it was done with one magic force. I can't make heads or tails of it!" Her striped mane was messy, probably due to trying to help the Princess solve an impossible murder. Her eyes tired from research, she looked up sadly at the Princess.

In response, she sighed. "This has been the eleventh murder this month! We need help. It looks like I'll need to use Plan B." She noticed Twilight look up in despair.

"Princess, it won't work. Nopony in Equestria was willing to help us."

"Well, we have to at least try." The Princess teleported the weary purple unicorn and herself to the top of Canterlot Castle with a flash of her horn. It was a small balcony on the very top of the tall tower, which showed a view of the whole city of Canterlot. It was a dark night, the moon and stars all out. The Princess started to concentrate all of her magic energy. Her horn glowed a bit dully at first, but then the golden glow grew brighter and brighter. She aimed her horn at the sky, and was about to cast the spell, when she got an interruption.

Twilight Sparkle accidently leaned a bit too much on the safety bars surrounding the balcony. She was about to fall off when she quickly pulled herself up and leaped on her teacher in panic. The sudden shock of this surprised the Princess, and the spell's beam shot into the sky. Except this time, much, much stronger than it was supposed to. The two ponies simply stared at the sky in suprisement before the Princess shrugged. "Well, let's see if we have results." She teleported them into the grand sitting room. It was elegantly decorated with fancy wallpaper, a fireplace, and two sofas. The two ponies sat down on a sofa, Twilight looking doubtful and miserable and the Princess not showing any emotion. They sat and began to wait.

It was a quiet day in London, England. People bustled about, doing their jobs, going to work, and other normal things. In a flat in a building, called 221B Baker Street, lived John Watson and Sherlock Holmes. The former walked out of the kitchen with a tea tray in his hands, and the latter, sat in a chair near the window, looking at the calmness outside. The pair was roughly in their 30s, and they were very popular due to solving crimes that baffled the police.

John set the tray down on the table and looked over at Sherlock. He often wondered about the man he shared a flat with. Sherlock never really seemed human sometimes, noticing every detail and telling the life story about any person with just one glance. His eyes and mouth usually formed a serious, brooding look and he always talked with a tone that screamed "I know more than you, so shut up and listen to me." This and the fact that he was very anti-social was the main fact that he didn't have many friends. But he was brilliant all the same. John was nothing compared to him, just an army doctor that helped him in the process of solving crimes.

Sherlock sat in his chair, with an emotionless expression on his face as as stared at the nice day outside. "Oh John, look at it. The sun is shining, everybody's calm, nothing unusual is going on, just a quiet day." He scowled. "It's so boring!"

John rolled his eyes as he put a hand on his blonde hair. "Yes, not running for my life or getting threatened to be blown up is so very dull."

"Oh good, you agree with me." Sherlock stands up, dressed in his usual gray trenchcoat.

"I don't see why you're wearing that. It's warm out."

Sherlock shrugs, putting a had through his curly, dark-brown hair. "It's my style. People have styles, don't they? Well, you have that style of not agreeing with anything I want to do." He takes a cup of tea from the table. After taking a sip, he asks "Where'd you hide my gun?"

"I don't want you shooting the walls again just because you're bored, Sherlock!"

"What else am I supposed to do?" He puts down the teacup and raises his arms. "Play a board game? Go to the park? Just sit around and watch telly?" He walks over to John and puts a hand on his shoulder. "John, I need excitement. I need something unusual. I need something completely surprising and great to make me get out of boredom, and nothing so far has come up like that!"

John looked like he was going to say something, but a glow surrounded them on the floor. It made a circle below them and glowed brighter and brighter until they had to shield their eyes from the burning light. Then, the light swallowed them whole and disappeared from the flat taking Sherlock and John with it.

Back in the sitting room, only a minute passed before the light filled the entire room. Princess Celestia looked hopeful and excited while Twilight's jaw opened in shock. The glow vanished after a second or two leaving a pile of large clothes behind. There were two piles of the abnormaly large clothes, and in each was a pony. The first was a tall, gray stallion with a curly, dark-brown mane and a cutie mark of a brain. The second was a slightly shorter orange pegasus with a short blonde mane. His cutie mark was a red cross.

The first pony lifted his head up and opened his eyes. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw his clothes had gotten much bigger. Then, they widened slightly more when he saw he, John, and two other creatures in the room were some kind of equine, brightly colored, and looked like somebody cut them out of a coloring book. And the owner went crazy with their crayons. Then, after taking all the information in he could, his look of surprise vanished a bit and he broke the shocked silence.

"Well, this day just might not be boring after all."

Explanations

Sherlock's mind is a supercomputer. It's always frequently trying to solve problems, figure out plans, and make sense of any situation. But, the problem was, it often got bored. Turning into a brightly colored equine that had the intelligence of a human and was capable of speech was a nice new thing to try and solve. For now.

He lay there on the floor and looked around the room before turning his head to the biggest horse-thing, with both wings and horn. "This room is decorated horribly."

The two horses stood there in shock before the smaller, purple horse said, "You just teleported in front of the most important pony in Equestria and you complain about how the room was decorated?!" She sounded very cross.

Sherlock only shrugged. "Well, it is." He decided to try and stand up. His legs were a bit wobbly at first, but he managed to stand on his four new legs. Then, he noticed his clothes were weighing him down. Being a pony, he was smaller than normal, and he looked like a seven-year-old trying on his dad's clothes. He walked out of them and looked over his body.

The biggest horse cleared her throat. "Excuse me sir, but why are your clothes so large?"

He looked up and answered, "Excuse me, but why do you have strange marks on your rump?" He instantly looked at his own, which showed a brain. "Huh, weird. Well, my clothes were large because I was human before coming here."

Ignoring the annoyed looks from the ponies, he focused on the now-stirring John Watson. He recognized him by his golden mane, and logically, it was the only possible person to be there. His eyes fluttered open. "Hmm... W-w-WHAT?!" A look of shock spread on his face as he stood up. Then, he noticed he was a pony. "WHAT?!" He shook his clothes off and saw he had wings. "WHAT?!?!?!" He turned around and started to run in panic..... before running straight into a wall. After smacking into it, he fell on the floor unconscious.

Sherlock snickered. "Heh! This day's becoming fun!" Then, he saw the smaller pony flick through a book. She walked over to him, using her horn to move the book to him. It was open on a page with a monstrous creature, looking like a human, but with no clothes on and the fingers were large claws. It looked more animal then human.

With fear, the purple pony stuttered, "Y-y-you were t-t-this?"

He scoffed. "What is this? I said I was human."

"That is a human," she replied, her fear turning back into annoyance.

The bigger pony spoke up. "Well, Twilight, remember that humans are myths here. We don't know much about them. Where he lives, humans might look different." She turned to him. "My name is Princess Celestia. Who are you?"

"Sherlock Holmes. Now, if I may ask, how did we get here?"

"Well, there's been horrible things happening. A murderer is on the loose, and nopony was going to answer the case. Many of my citizens are being killed, and whenever somepony took the case, they were murdered too. Out of bafflement and fear, nopony would help us. So, I decided to send out a transportation spell to transport to us anypony from the whole world who had the courage, and the knowledge to help us. But, I accidentally made the spell too strong. I made it search the galaxies, maybe even other dimensions. Do you have any questions?"

Sherlock thought for a minute. "Hmm... one. Do you have any tea? I'd really like some right now."

Before a very surprised Princess Celestia could answer, John was stirring again. He opened his eyes to find Sherlock looming over him. "John! We have a case!" The sight of a talking pony and Sherlock smiling combined made John faint again.

Sherlock sat down on the sofa across from the Princess and Twilight. John was next to him, still unconscious. In front of them was a table with a tea tray on it. The Princess decided to speak up. "Now, before we talk, can you wake your friend?"

Sherlock reached out a gray hoof and felt the teapot. "Hmm... probably." He picked up the teapot and poured some of it's hot contents on Mr. Watson's face.

"Gaaah!" He sat up and looked angrily at Sherlock before realising they were in a room full of ponies. A gray hoof grabbed his mane.

"Don't you dare faint again, or I'll pour the whole pot of tea on you and if that doesn't work, I'll find another way more painful than simply hot liquid."

The nervous orange pegasus stared shocked as the hoof moved away from him. He looked at his own hooves, then looked at all the ponies in the room. "W-w-what the hell happened?"

The Princess explained it all to him. Now, he was calmer and sipping a cup of tea. "Wow. I can't believe we're in a whole other dimension."

Sherlock yawned. "Meh, it's not much different from visiting another country. New customs, new manners, new clothes. Or lack of them."

"Not a new body! I mean, look!" John focused and slowly unfolded a wing. "I've got wings!"

"Well, lucky you John. Hip hip hooray. What do want us to do again?"

Twilight spoke up this time. "A murderer is on the loose, and is killing ponies with incredible magic forces. It's not like a single unicorn's magic, but like many at once, coming from a single thing. No trace of a pony near the crime scene, so it has to be very powerful, and we can't determine what can possibly make that much power. Now, I don't believe you two are up to the task."

John put down his tea. "Now, just why do you think that?"

Twilight's face was painted with annoyance. "You two have been around ponies for fifteen minutes. You don't have any experience in magic, so how are you going to solve magic murder? You, well just you, can not possibly believe he's surrounded by ponies and is too amazed to think right. And, this case has baffled the police all over Equestria, so how the heck are you gonna solve it?!"

"Because I know a lot about you, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight turned in disbelief to Sherlock, who still had an emotionless look on his face. "What? You just met me! How can you know a lot about me?"

"Simple. You are a very powerful unicorn, gifted in strong magic. How can I know that? Your horn, it looks almost like the Princesses, but less used and experienced. I assume the magic coursing through a unicorn's horn wears it down and sharpens it slowly over time. Now, I also assume the Princess is very powerful, that's why she's leader, and her horn looks like it's been used many times with many experiences. Yours looks less used, but still a lot stronger than the one on the maid who brought in our tea, and the mark on your rump is magic sparkles. I assume that means what you're good at because John's is a medical cross, and mine is a brain. You're very studious and a bit of a nerd. How? When I said I was a human, what did you do? Go to look in a book. You knew where the book was on the shelf the moment you got to it and went to the page very quickly. That means you've read the book before and partly memorized it, but you like to double-check. Your mane looks very messy, meaning you study long into the night, and not styled in any way, meaning you don't really care much about your appearance. And your eyes. They look everywhere, scan everything, they try to take in as much information as possible and analyze it. You're a scholar, and a very keen one at that. Anything else? Well, one last thing. You are a student of the Princess. You're very close to, and not so intimidated by her and she acts a bit like a mother toward you. You obviously have been around each other a long time. You're a very strong unicorn, so the Princess would obviously put a nerdy, strong unicorn in some sort of school. And when there's a super serious murder going on, why would a Princess invite a mere regular unicorn to help solve it?"

The Princess and Twilight sat there, mouths open in awe. John was just like them, but his mouth was smiling as well as gaping in awe. Sherlock simply sat there, an undetermined look on his muzzle. He took a sip of his tea and then said with a smirk, "Well, do you think we're up to the task?"

Examinations

Even though it was mid-morning where Sherlock and John came from, it was still night time for the ponies of Equestria. Princess Celestia and Twilight agreed to let the two examine the body of Speech Speaker while they rest. The body was placed in the castle hospital, and Sherlock and John stood over the operating table where it lay under their examining eyes.

John looked it over and even took a few X-Rays. "Well, from what I can see, he died because of a force affecting his insides. Like if something was almost strangling and choking him on the inside."

"Yes, that's how the Princess said the murders worked. Try not to be so repetitive, John!" Sherlock had his head in his hooves thinking.

John sighed and looked up, his face painted in disbelief. "Look Sherlock, maybe we shouldn't do this case."

He looked up. "Why not?"

"Well, one, we're in a land full of talking ponies!"

"So what? Parrots talk, and you don't freak out about that."

"Well, we were transported, unknowingly, to a weird freaky world where colorful horses are smart enough to talk and build and cook and fly and, well," John used his hooves to exaggerate his little speech, his voice tainted with anger, "doesn't that bother you at all?!"

"Well, a bit." Sherlock looked over the body, his investigating eyes examining every detail. "I forgot to throw out the trash."

"The-! Ugh! Second, this murderer is killing ponies with magic! How are we supposed to investigate magic?!"

Sherlock held out a weird device that looked round and had a small screen and buttons on it. "We have the magic detector, remember?"

John face-hooved. "Well, third, doesn't it bother you in the slightest that we're ponies ourselves?! I mean, look at me!" He stretched out his wings.

Sherlock clapped his hooves in applause with a fake smile. "Great for you John! Very, very good!" Then, he dropped the smile and put down his hooves. "John, unless you want to go back to a boring, old, Saturday, with no murders, no cases, and peace, I suggest we stay here. At least something interesting is happening here."

John frowned and sighed. "I swear I will never get you, Sherlock, but alright. Let's get on with this." Suddenly, he couldn't get a nagging feeling out of his head that the gray detective might've looked a bit..... anxious? Nervous? He took the thought out of his head. "Right, other than what I previously found, I have got nothing."

Just as Sherlock was about to open his mouth, the door burst open. The Princess stood in the doorway, showing fatigue in her face and slightly-ruffled, still-majestic mane. "Another murder has taken place!"

In the sitting room, a file of all the recorded murders lay on the table. The Princess pulled the newest made one out. "Dazzling Show, the magician, dead. She was a performer for foals, and found murdered tonight."

John looked at the file. "And same results? Magic residue of many forces but can only be one? No pony near the scene of the crime?"

She nodded. "Yes. And we have no idea how it happened. Sherlock, your opinions?"

Sherlock's intelligent eyes were examining the other files. "Well, at least we know how the murders were connected."

Celestia looked at him, surprised. "You know how they were connected? Tell us, please."

Sherlock looked at the Princess. "You didn't know? It's quite obvious."

"Sherlock, please, just tell us."

"Alright John! Don't be so impatient. This is how they're connected," Sherlock put a gray hoof on all the files. "They're all magically talented."

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. "Not all of them are unicorns,-"

"No, no not that! They were all very experienced in magic, and not just because they were unicorns."

The Princess looked closer at the files. "Mr. Holmes, could you please explain?"

He flashed a disapproving look. "Wow, and you'd think the Princess would be smart enough to figure out the obvious." Ignoring the annoyed glance from Celestia, he continued. "Look, Dazzling Show, the magician, known for entertaining foals with her impressive magical abilities. Speech Speaker, the orator, said himself he had great ideas for Equestria with more help from the unicorns. Green Greatness, the gardener, doing studies on how plants could grow better."

"Um, what does that have to with magic?", John asked, a bit confused.

"One of the notes found in her drawers at home was how magic could speed plant growth!" Sherlock leapt off the sofa. "And there are plenty more examples where that came from." A smile formed on the corners of his mouth, and a glimmer appeared in his eyes.

John smiled. "Oh, he has the look."

Sherlock feigned confusion with a smirk. "What look?"

"The 'I know so much more than you look', which means you have even more information on how to solve this case."

"Yes I do!" His grin grew. "Now, Princess, answer me a hunch I have. When a unicorn dies, what happens to its magic?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, it naturally goes away into the world around us, absorbing itself into the air, until its nothing more but-"

"Yeah, yeah, save the speech, Queenie." Sherlock said, holding up a hoof. "Well, when I checked the body with the magic scanner, it had magic residue from the attacker, but...?"

John resumed his sentence, getting at what he was saying. "...But no magic inside the unicorn itself!"

"So apparently, the attacker means to gain their magic. Take it all before it 'absorbs itself into the air'." He added a joking tone as he quoted the Princess's words.

Celestia's look of anger at Sherlock quickly turned into a look of awe. "Why, we've never thought of that!"

Sherlock flashed a smile in John's direction. "See John? Looks like the ponies aren't as super-intelligent as they seem."

The Princess growled under her breath, looking like she was going to yell. "Mr. Holmes," she said as calmly as possible, "does anypony ever tell you that you show off, and a lot of the time?"

He gave a smug smile in response. "They never really stop."

"Uh, Sherlock? I think I might've found a flaw in your discovery." John raises a hoof, like a kid in a classroom. "If the murderer wanted to kill ponies to absorb magic, why are the victims not all unicorns?"

The gray stallion took out several photos from the files, all x-rays of the victim's heads. "Alright. John, you're a doctor. Spot the difference."

The orange pegasus looked over the papers. "I don't see- wait." He furrowed his brow. "These pictures of the brains look peculiar. Different from any I've seen."

"Well, you've only seen human brains until now, Mr. Watson," Celestia said. "They probably just look different because of that."

Sherlock facehooved. "Ugh, it's like talking to five-year-olds! The cerebral matter looks different because it's been probed. Not just the magic was taken out of the bodies, but all information on it."

John raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Did we just.... solve the case in the first hour we were on it?"

Celestia and Sherlock shook their heads and spoke in unison. "No."

The annoyed Princess glared at the consultive detective. "Oh, so you know how this can affect my kingdom? Okay, Mr. Consultive Detective Holmes, you explain!"

"Why thank you Princess!," Sherlock said with a smile. "I was going to ask, but now I don't have to." He dropped the smile. "We have the reason how the crime happened, but we still need the why. But more important is this. Many people have had the magic drained out of them, all knowledge on the subject removed from their heads. A little information is dangerous. So how dangerous would a lot be?"

The weight of the situation fell upon the ponies in the room like dumbbells. "So, if the murderer used the magic against us......?"

Sherlock grimly continued the sentence. "..he'd probably win."

Suddenly, the alabaster princess looked very worried. "Mr. Holmes, if this pony is looking for magic, then my student will probably be the next victim!"

"If her magic levels are as high as you said, then she would become a future victim. Bravo for figuring it out."

John was next to look very worried. "Wait Princess, earlier, didn't you say anypony who took the case was murdered too?"

Before she could answer, Sherlock interrupted. "Yes, she did, John. Weren't you paying attention?"

"Excuse me, but I was too busy trying to adjust to the fact that-"

"YOU HAVE WINGS! We get it Mr. Obvious!", Sherlock yelled out, obviously irritated.

"SILENCE!!!!!!"

The power of the Royal Canterlot voice made the two arguing ponies close their mouths and look up at the Princess, who was now a teense close to bursting into flames. Which was true, seeing how the edges of her majestic mane started to glow and spark. Then, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. "Now, I just want explanations from here on out. No showing off, no arguing, just talking and listening. SO TALK!"

Sherlock took an instinctive step back from the furious alicorn, and then proceeded to talk. "Considering how many people- er, ponies, have already been killed and magically drained, Twilight will be next or will be targeted very soon."

The Princess nodded. "Okay. I have a plan. You two will temporarily move to Ponyville, Twilight's home, and one of you will have to be around her at all times. To protect yourselves, my sister Luna and I will lend you some magic to form small magic barriers around you two to protect yourselves from strong magical forces. That way, you can investigate."

A frown appeared on Sherlock's face. "Princess, we aren't going to become anybody's bodyguard just because-"

Celestia closed her eyes and made her mane become pure flames. Her eyes glowed deep red and the Royal Canterlot voice boomed once more through out the room.

"YOU TWO WILL DO AS I SAY OR PERISH BY THE FIRES OF THE SUN!"

She quickly de-flamed herself and her eyes returned to normal. Sherlock and John's manes were whipped backward by the sound waves of her voice. After shaking his mane back to proper order, Sherlock turned to John and said, "Well John, we better get some rest if we want to get to Ponyville on time."

Reassurance

Sherlock and John were escorted in a large, grand room, elegantly decorated and had two very well-made beds in it as well. They were both tired from spending the earlier part of the night practicing "pony manners and behaviors". Well, John was. Sherlock showed no signs of drowsiness, his face still in an emotionless state.

The room that they entered was their bedroom, and they were going sleep until the next afternoon so they could be fully rested. John gave a yawn and stretched. "Well, I sure am tired. Learning to fly is more tiresome than you think." He had more practice on Pegasus manners considering he was one himself. His flying practice lead to his body becoming covered in bruises and scrapes.

Sherlock nodded. "Yes, I think I shall get into bed too." He looked over John. You know, you should wash your scrapes, keep them from getting infected."

This confused the orange army doctor. "Um, okay. I guess I will." John walked outside the door but didn't go any farther. He walked in place for a bit, making his steps softer and softer to make anybody hearing think he was walking away. He peeked in the room. Sherlock worrying about his scrapes getting infected? That would never happen. That needed investigation.

Once the gray pony felt he was alone, he got up and looked in a nearby mirror. He stared at his reflection for quite a bit. He reached a hoof to his mane, moved it around and felt his muzzle, and then examined the hoof itself. He looked around at his own body, from his neck to his tail. John couldn't exactly figure out of anything was wrong with this until he noticed the odd thing out.

Sherlock was shaking slightly. Just slightly, but his eyes glimmered with doubt. Disbelief. These emotions never showed on his face; no emotions at all rarely showed unless you counted the times he was annoyed or acting annoying. But this was different altogether. He almost looked like he did on one of his previous cases that surprised John quite a lot.

Afraid. He looked, and, scarily, probably is afraid.

"Come in, John, I know you're out there."

His voice surprised him a bit, but John walked in and sat on a bed. "Sherlock, something's wrong with you. I haven't seen you like this-"

"You have John, and you know what I'm talking about." The consultive detective was correct. In one case, the duo had to solve a mystery about a giant, black hound, as big as a horse, with glowing, red eyes. Sherlock didn't believe in the 'dog'. But then, he saw him, or thought he saw him, with his own eyes, 'heard' it with his own ears. The detective usually trusted his senses, he relied on them to tell him the truth about what happened with anything.

But seeing the hound like that shook him up, made him afraid. It frightened him to experience his senses betraying him. And John could tell that was happening, only slightly, right now.

"Sherlock, listen, to me, it sounds like you're surprised by the current situation we're in. I am too, I've been complaining about it for all that we've been here, and-"

"Why them?"

The sudden response caught him off guard. "Why, what?"

"Why ponies? Not just that." He looked at John with a doubtful look on his face. "Why..... 'ponies'? I mean, changing into another creature would surprise anybody, but seriously? This looks like a 5-year old went crazy with crayons in a coloring book."

John tried to laugh at his joke, but he was being serious. "I keep believing that at any moment I might wake up from a dream, but I never, ever have dreams like this. I.... I sometimes believe, maybe I'm going..... crazy."

The detective felt an arm around his shoulder and saw John next to him on the bed. "Hey. Don't be like me, freaking out about this. Think about what's happening. You're in a weird place in a weird body, but you're with somebody you know, yours truly, you're still an annoying know-it-all," this earned a smile from Sherlock, "and, there's murders going on! You love it when that happens."

He gave a snicker. "Yeah, I do." The two laughed quietly a bit and that seemed to settle the mood. John went to the other bed and laid down.

"See? Things aren't as bad as they seem. How about, I won't freak out about it if you won't? Okay?"

"Good night." He turned over facing away from John.

"Good night." John closed his eyes and let sleep overcome him.

Before Sherlock drifted off, he smiled. A small smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. John was his only friend. His only true friend. And he was grateful that he had such a great friend.

Preparations

"No."

A pink shirt was thrown from the inside of the bedroom closet.

"No."

A monocle was next to fly out of it.

"Hell, no!"

A deerstalker hat flew out of the closet.

The two detectives were still in the castle bedroom they stayed in. It was close to the afternoon and they were almost ready to get out of Canterlot and get to Ponyville. But a certain gray pony wanted to get some clothes to wear. In fact, he was the one throwing clothes from the closet.

"No."

This time, the clothing, which happened to be a blue shirt, was thrown on John's face. The pegasus quickly shook it off. "Come on Sherlock! Choose something already! You don't have to wear clothing, you know."

A voice came out of the closet, which was as big as a regular bedroom. "Just because I have to look and act like a pony doesn't mean I need to completely look and act like one. Besides, you're wearing clothing!"

This was true. He was wearing a red collared shirt, but not anything else. John's patience was about to run out when he heard a cry from the closet. "I've found it!" A few minutes later, Sherlock walked out wearing a black shirt under a light black trench coat and wearing a grayish-blue scarf. Basically, what he wore usually everyday, but fitted to pony form.

John just stared at him. "Seriously? It took you a half hour to decide to wear that?"

"Hey, only I can rock these clothes."Sherlock headed towards the door. "Well John, we better get a move on." He opened the door to find Celestia infront of it.

"Hello Mr. Holmes. Good morning, Dr. Watson, or good afternoon. I hope you're ready for the trip to Ponyville."

John got up and walked over to the Princess. "Good morning Princess, and yes, we are ready."

"Wonderful. Now, remember that even though your barriers will protect you from magical forces, they won't protect you from physical hits. And don't give my student any trouble while you stay with her."

Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Wow, Princess, I didn't think you'd have to remind us not to harm the pony you're making us the bodyguards of."

"Mr. Holmes, you are not being a bodyguard, you are merely protecting my student from becoming assassinated and being around her to ensure that." Celestia said, annoyed.

John cleared his throat. "Ahem, um Princess? That's kinda the definition of a bodyguard."

"Told you!" The sociopath said, smirking.

She scowled at him before continuing. "Now, John, how are your wings feeling from flying practice last night?"

"They kind of ache, but I think I've gotten the hang of flying. I'll probably be able to use them without trouble."

All three ponies heard hoof steps from the hall. Twilight Sparkle was walking toward the doorway, mane brushed and ready for the trip, but her demeanor looked anything but pleased. "You two ready yet? If you want to get to Ponyville on time, we better leave now." She looked at the Princess sadly. "Do they have to be around me all the time?"

"My student, remember that this is for your and many other ponies' safety. Now, you better get going. And tell no one of your jobs as detectives."

Sherlock turned to the exit. "All right! You've told us a thousand times. Let's just get to Ponyville already."

Twilight walked down the hall with Sherlock and John with annoyance. "Is he always like this?"

John sighed. "Sadly, yes."

The three were on the train to Ponyville, as it went along the tracks. They passed through the mountain tunnel, getting closer to reaching the home of Twilight Sparkle, who was this close to smacking Sherlock's head hard.

"Sherlock, why do you have to be such a show off?!"

"Because I am a show off, and a good one at that."

"Well, it's really annoying!"

The annoyed yelling of the purple unicorn gained equally annoyed scowls from the other passengers. After saying sorry for the tenth time, Twilight sighed. "Look Sherlock, the point of 20 questions is that you ask 20 questions. You can't get it on the first one all the time."

"Well, I can because I have gotten it with only one question all the time." After seeing Twilight's death glare, he sighed. "Fine, I'll try not to say it."

Twilight glared at him suspiciously before nodding. "Okay. I've chosen what it is."

"Is it smaller than a rabbit?"

"Yes."

"It's the handle on the door behind me."

"AARRGGH!"

Sherlock raised a hoof defensively. "I'm sorry, it was just so obvious!"

Before Twilight could yell some more at him, John, who was just sitting next to Twilight quietly, raised his voice. "Guys? I think we're here." They all looked out the window and saw that they did arrive at Ponyville Station.

After the three got off the train, they walked a bit before arriving at the outskirts of a small town. It looked peaceful and calm, with ponies going around doing their daily routines. Everypony wore a smile on their face as mares, stallions, and foals walked around happily. It looked like hardly anything bad would ever happen here. Twilight smiled.

"Welcome to Ponyville."

Sherlock grimaced. "Oh no."

"'Oh no'? What's wrong?"

"It looks boring."

Before Twilight could angrily respond, loud greetings were heard from a group of ponies ahead of them. It turned out to be five ponies, one pink, one blue, one orange, one white, and one yellow. The purple unicorn waved to them happily. "Hey guys!"

Then, the pink pony, who turned out to be an earth pony, bounced up to the two detectives. She stuck her head in Sherlock's face.

"Hey there!"

Welcomes

The bright pink pony's sudden appearance made John and Sherlock stumble back a few steps; and made the former give out a shriek.

Twilight giggled. "Oh, don't mind Pinkie Pie. She loves meeting new ponies. Anyway," she pointed at each friend with a hoof as she introduced them, "this is Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and you've already encountered-"

"ME!" Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in glee. "I'm the Pinkalicious party pony Pinkie!" Her voice exploded with girlish happiness and glee.

"Well, nice to meet you, Pinkie," said John, catching his breath. "You almost gave me a heart attack there." He chuckled and pointed to him and the gray detective. "I'm John Watson, and this is Sherlock Holmes."

Sherlock glanced at Pinkie. "Charmed," he said emotionlessly, before glancing at the other ponies. Pinkie looked a bit disappointed at this, but then continued to bounce in place.

Rainbow flew up to the two with a look of confusion. "John Waston? Sherlock Holmes? You guys have some pretty weird names."

John had to summon all his self control to not say, This is coming from somebody named Rainbow Dash.

The elegant white unicorn, told to be named Rarity, gasped. "Rainbow! You do not treat new ponies like this. Especially when they have a great taste in fashion." She glanced at John's shirt. "Simple, casual, yet stylishly fitting." Then, she walked over to Sherlock and smiled. "And you have a simply marvelous style that looks mysterious, yet elegant."

Sherlock forced himself to give a small smile. "Thank you. I'm glad to hear this from an experienced designer."

Twilight mumbled, "oy, not this again."

"Wow, you've heard of me?" Rarity asked, her face brightening up.

"No, I haven't. It's very obvious." Sherlock took a breath and began to say what he had deduced. "The most obvious thing that showed you were a designer was that you commented on our taste in clothes, and ponies don't wear clothes often, hence you must be experienced in that area. When you examined them, your eyes scanned everything to the last detail, the stitches, the patterns, and even that red buttonhole on my left collar. I bet you can even tell me what collection it's from, but I don't want to hear it, so don't tell me. I can also tell that you are a designer dress maker just by the way that you look and act. You obviously always want to stay in style judging from your mane and hooves. And one more thing to impress you with is that you wear false eyelashes."

He smirked seeing everypony's impressed looks, save for a Twilight Sparkle. Everypony else's jaws were open in awe, except for John's, which was smiling proudly. A timid and surprised Fluttershy spoke up. "T-that was... amazing."

"Yes, I know. I love it when I do that."

Rainbow walked up to John. "Can you do that too?"

"Nope. I'm a retired army doctor, if it's any interest."

Applejack stepped forward. "Wow, that's mighty interestin', John. Maybe we'll talk more about that later."

Pinkie bounced up. "Right now, I have to set these two a PARTY!" She sped off.

Sherlock looked at the dust cloud she left behind. "Hyper much? Well, I expect that it will be a welcome party."

Applejack turned to Twilight. "So sugarcube, why did you bring them here? Is it about the situation?" Twilight had already informed the two detectives about the case being called 'the situation'.

"Yes, it is. They're going to help us. Even if one of them is a big show-off." She glared at Sherlock with menacing eyes.

Fluttershy walked up to the consultive detective. "Pinkie's party will start at five. That leaves an hour to show you around the town, oh, if you wouldn't mind that is." She hid behind her mane.

"That's a mighty fine idea!" Applejack said. "We should start now."

"It would be useful to learn how to navigate the town. I'm alright with it." Sherlock forced a smile again and walked over to John. He whispered, "how much longer to I have to be friendly?"

"just a bit longer. Soon, it'll be okay to be your show-off-y self."

"Can't come too soon."

"What're you whispering about?"

The two glanced in surprise at the cyan pegasus who barged into the conversation. "What? I was curious. Also, I overheard and saw that one of you is show-off. Don't do it much." She glared at Sherlock. "That's my job."

His face showed only mirth. "Okay. I would expect it from an advanced athlete training to enter the Wonderbolts." Seeing Rainbow's surprised look, he added, "And yes, I knew just by looking at you."

"Uh.... Wonderbolts?" John asked, slightly confused.

"The best flying team in Equestria, John. Saw a poster for them on the train."

Rainbow scowled at the consultive detective. "You're good. Catch. You. Later." She menacingly flew into the air and away towards a giant cloud house in the sky, probably her home.

"I still got it." Sherlock walked over to the other ponies, who were busy talking. "Well, let's get started, shall we?"

The seven ponies were walking over to Sugarcube Corner about an hour later. Previously, they had walked all over Ponyville, seeing everyplace there was. Sherlock forced himself to look interested and John made sure to give him a warning glare anytime he looked like he was going to complain about boredom.

Rarity spoke up. "Here we are, darling. Sugarcube Corner, the best sweet shop ever! I bet you'll love it."

The gray detective's face showed no expression. "I bet I will like it, considering there's a surprise party in there waiting for me."

"Wha- how'd you figure that out?", asked a surprised Fluttershy.

"Oh, come on! It was so obvious even John could figure it out." He pointed a hoof at the orange pegasus. "Explain how."

"Well, okay. For one-"

"No, it doesn't sound good when you explain it. I'll do it."

Twilight grabbed Sherlock by the shoulders. "How about you stop showing off and get in there?!" She crossly tossed him in through the door, making him land on his face in the middle of the floor.

Wincing in slight pain, he rubbed some dust off of his face and opened his eyes to see a big, pink, smiling face.

"SURPRISE!"

Introductions

Sherlock stumbles back a bit from surprise before regaining his posture. "Oh, hello. Pinkie Pie, was it?" He looked around at the decorations and noticed many ponies were there, probably the whole town. "Nice decorations, but arranged in a way like they were blasted, as if from a cannon. Because I'm in a world of flying, talking ponies, I'll assume that you set up all this by blasting the party supplies from a cannon."

Pinkie stood there blinking in surprise for a few seconds. ".... woah. You're the first one ever to guess that right!"

"How did you do that?", said a white pegasus with a curly blue mane.

"He's always been able to do that." John walked in next to his partner. "Deduction's his special talent, apparently."

Remembering the 'pony lesson' about cutie marks and special talents, Sherlock turned to show his cutie mark.

Pinkie popped up. "Enough about that! Let's start welcoming John and Sherlock to Ponyville, everypony!"

Everypony in the room cheered and introduced themselves to the two detectives. They found out that the pegasus that talked to them earlier was named 'Lightning Bolt', and Sherlock whispered to John, "Of course that's her name, that's what her cutie mark is." He shushed him before he went into 'super show-off' mode.

The party was fun for everypony there, mostly because of the lively music, the food, and the friendliness of all the ponies there. John occasionally joined in the dancing a few times, but Sherlock never did. He simply watched John, not in embarrament, but in confusion. He didn't understand the purpose of joining in because, as he said himself, 'he was a high-functioning sociopath'.

Thankfully, to John and Twilight's relief, Sherlock didn't offend anybody with his brilliant deductions. In fact, all the foals in Ponyville walked up to him to ask him what did they have for lunch, or who were their parents, and other things he had to find out only through deduction. And of course, he got them all correct.

Later, when John finished dancing to Pinkie's favorite song, he walked over to Sherlock who was drinking some punch. "Well, this is going much better then I expected. I mean, nothing's gone wrong yet, nopony hates you, and-"

"Nopony."

The orange pegasus blinked in confusion. "Uh, sorry, what?"

"You said nopony." The gray detective turned to his partner. "Up until now, you have never said 'nopony' or 'everypony' or 'anypony' but right now, you did. This place is changing you and will change both of us very soon."

He shrugged. "Well, what's so bad about changing? How are we changing exactly?"

"John, listen." Sherlock's expression was anything but optimistic. "Now, it's only speech. Next, it'll be eating habits. After that, it's your point of view. This place will make us forget, maybe even want to give up, our human lives."

"Hey, take it easy." John looked around to make sure nopony was listening. "Our human lives are still there waiting for us. We won't forget it, and I want to get back as much as you do."

Before the consultive detective could reply, Vinyl Scratch came up to them. "Dudes! This is a party! Stop talking and have some fun!"

John sighed. "You know, Vinyl, you're right. Hey look! Pinkie's setting up 'Pin the Tail on the Pony' again." He started to walk over. "You coming, Sherlock?"

He glared at him. "I'm not going to be joining in a childish game. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some more punch." He got up, and with his cup in his teeth, he headed towards the punch bowl.

Vinyl seemed to roll her eyes through her glasses. "What's his deal?"

"I dunno. Well, I'm going to go over to that game." John waved Vinyl good bye as she walked away. He started to head towards the game when he stopped and thought about what Sherlock said. This party was like a kid's party. I'm fact, this whole world seemed to belong in a TV show for 5-year-olds. His thoughts were interrupted by a cyan pegasus.

"Hey! John, right? I need to ask you something."

"Okay. Go ahead, Rainbow Dash."

The rainbow-maned pegasus looked at John with a glimmer in her eye. "Well, Pinkie just gave her Pinkie Pie Welcome Party, but because you're a pegasus, I want to give you the official Rainbow Dash welcome. So, how about tomorrow we have a race after lunch?"

John hesitated, remembering that his flying experience was only from last night to right now. "I don't know. You'd definetly beat me. But, what the heck? I'll do it."

Rainbow gave a cocky grin. "Thanks, John! See ya tomorrow!"

Meanwhile, Sherlock arrived at the punch bowl, and was about to pour himself some more punch. Before he could, he felt a hoof on his shoulder. Not looking at who it was, he answered, "What do you want, Twilight?"

The purple unicorn frowned. "Okay, I'm not going to ask you how you figured out it was me. Instead, I want to ask you something else. I'm noticing that you're not acting very social with the ponies here, and have not acted social at all since I met you."

"Twilight, this is as social as I get." He sipped his punch before talking again. "You have a problem with that?"

"No, but I will tell you this. I used to be very anti-social before coming to Ponyville and meeting my friends. Maybe you'd want to see my friendship reports to the Princess that I learned by studying the magic of friendship!"

Hearing this, Sherlock turned his head and did a spit-take..... at John, who was walking up to Sherlock to tell him about the race.

"Ugggh... what the hell was that for?!" John yelled, angrily shaking punch from his hair.

"Twilight was just saying something ridiculous. Something about me learning 'the magic of friendship'!" Sherlock used his hooves to accentuate the quoted part of the sentence.

"Hey! Learning that really helped me, and it would really help you!" yelled the irritated unicorn.

"No way!" retorted Sherlock, grimacing like if friendship was a disease. "Friendship has never been useful to me, and it never will. I don't have friends."

"What?!" Twilight sounded as if the gray detective sprouted a second head.

At this moment, somepony bumped into the record player, stopping the loud music just before Sherlock yelled out a statement everypony would hear.

"I DON'T HAVE FRIENDS!"

Sherlock didn't seem to be bothered that all eyes were on him. Then, Pinkie stepped up to him with a sad frown on her normally perky face. "No friends? Not even me?"

"Of course not. Sentiment is a chemical feeling found on the losing side." He turned to all the ponies in the sweetshop. "Afternoon." Then, he walked out of Sugarcube Corner, out of the party, with all sets of eyes following him, including John's. The army doctor had one thought in his head before trotting out to follow him.

And this was going so well.

Discussions

"Sherlock!" The calm streets were empty and quiet as John trotted after the consultive detective who had just stormed out of the party. "Sherlock!" Once he had caught up to him, and had caught his breath, the orange pegasus glared at him with anger. "What was all that about?!"

"John, you know that you're my friend, I simply meant in general-"

"No, I don't mean that! I mean how you answered Twilight's suggestion! It wasn't bad enough for you to have to do a spit-take!" After saying that, he shook some more punch out of his mane for emphasis.

"Wasn't that bad? Wasn't that bad?!" Sherlock stopped walking and turned to face John with an expression of slight anger. "John, she asked if I wanted to find out more about 'the magic of friendship'. The magic of friendship! Doesn't that just.... disgust you?" he asked, grimacing.

"Disgust me? No! Well, it weirds me out a bit, but still, you could've just said no. Politely." The pegasus put a hoof on his friend's shoulder and smiled. "Plus, it might've not been a bad idea. Sure, the whole thing's a bit girly, but it could teach you how to respect other people's feelings. Wouldn't that be nice?"

The gray detective simply stared at John in surprise. "Did you just hear what you just said? And to whom you said it to?"

"... oh, you're right." He put his hoof back on the ground. "It's impossible for you to understand any emotion, I forgot about that."

Sherlock looked at John, and John looked back at him. A second later, they burst into quiet laughter.

After he stopped giggling, Sherlock sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have have acted like that."

"No, it's alright. I should've known not to expect kindness from Sherlock Holmes: the crime-solving automaton." This made the duo burst into giggles once more.

"What are you two laughing about?!"

The harsh voice made the two stop and look at the angry purple unicorn who was heading towards them. Twilight looked like she was going to pummel somepony into dust, and her eyes burned with pure annoyance. "I can't believe that you did that! Not only did you storm out of there after acting like that," she pointed a hoof at Sherlock, "but you," she pointed at John, "left me there after the Princess told you in words succinct that one of you has to be around me at all times. What do you have to say for yourselves?!"

Sherlock simply grinned with a childish gleam in his eyes. "How about....... Race you back to the library!" He sped off, galloping as fast as he could towards the huge tree-library. Only a split-second behind, John joined him.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Twilight stood there blinking in surprise for a moment before running after them. She looked super-charged now as her hooves pounded on the cobblestone streets. "When I get my hooves on you..!"

The orange pegasus laughed while he galloped alongside his partner. "Do you think she wants to kill us?"

"Definitely! Just keep running!"

The two ran and laughed in childish glee as they got nearer and nearer to the library.

Twilight decided that Sherlock and John would share the extra bed she had up in the library's upper floor. It sat across from her own bed and was reserved for guests.

Sherlock enjoyed the library's many books, and had started to read a few. When he did this, he put them into two piles; The 'Boring' pile, and the 'Interesting' pile. The former grew much faster then the latter. Soon, he was up-to-date on information that ponies knew and were expected to know, so he would not be caught off guard in conversations with ponies.

Now, it was later in the night, and Sherlock lay on the bed, staring at the moon, which was high in the sky. He had taken a shower and his coat and scarf had been put lazily on a drawer for the next day. His face showed utter concentration as he let his brain wander into deep thought. He was contemplating his situation here, trying to figure out how magical fonts worked, and how pegasus's wings could lift the said pegasus in flight.

As he was in his thinking state, Spike the dragon was watching from the lower floor. When John passed by, his head in a towel because he had returned from the shower, the baby dragon asked him, "Um, how long is he gonna be doing that?"

"Probably a while. His brain can work so hard you're surprised you can't hear the gears in his head turning." The pegasus chuckled a bit, as this was proven true many times.

This also earned a laugh from Spike. "Man, that's just like Twilight! When you get her into some experiment or report, you can't get her out! She goes into 'crazy scientist mode'."

John raised an eyebrow. "Hey, that's probably nothing compared to Sherlock's experiments! He once-, wait, do you have fridges here?"

Spike, being told that they came from another dimension, nodded.

"Well, once he kept a severed head in the fridge!"

The purple dragon's eyes widened in surprise. "Woah! He didn't!"

"Yeah, he did!" John laughed. "And he scared the heck out of our landlady by keeping a bag of thumbs in there!"

"Gross!" The dragon and the pony erupted into laughter.

"Will you please be quiet?!"

Again, the angry complaining came from Twilight, who was getting a plate of daisy sandwiches from the kitchen. "We're going to eat right now, so stop talking about severed body parts!"

She magically carried the plate to Spike, who put it on the table and passed a sandwich to John. "Hey Twi, what's wrong? You're being even more bossy and annoyed then usual."

"There's a time when she's less bossy then that?"

All three heads turned up to see Sherlock looking down at them. Twilight frowned. "Ha ha, very funny. Stop acting so irritating or I won't let you have dinner."

"I'm not hungry, and you're not my mother."

"Well, you're not my son!"

The detective scoffed. "Wow, great comeback, Ms. Sparkle."

John cleared his throat before any madness could ensue. "Well, I believe we should be getting to bed now. I have a race to attend tomorrow."

As he walked up to the bed, Sherlock looked at him. "A race?"

"Rainbow Dash asked me to race her tomorrow after lunch. I'm going to meet her at her house." John put the towel on a drying rack and laid down on the opposite side of the bed.

Sherlock moved from his position on the bed to give the orange pegasus room. "Well, if Ms. Grumpy-pony lets me, I'll watch you race."

"Wow, you mean you'll be there to cheer me on?"

"No, I'll be there so I can see you fail miserably."

"Ha ha, very funny."

Spike had gone up to his bed, which looked like a cat basket, and curled up. "Good night. you guys!"

"Good night," both of them said in unison.

Twilight had also gotten in her bed and turned off all the lights. "See you in the morning, you two."

Sherlock closed his eyes and prepared to let sleep overtake him, when suddenly, a tremendous glow surrounded him and John. They both sat up and saw that the round barriers that Celestia had given them were glowing and flashing every known color they had ever seen. They also saw that Twilight's barrier had done the same. Then, the glowing intensified and each pony felt tremendous pain burning up inside of them, searing the insides of their bodies.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Clues

The ever-changing colors that flashed around the barriers blindingly glowed as the pain filled up each of the three ponies like a fire inside of them. It seemed to twist and burn their insides, a complex and well-made torture. They all let out a blood-curdling cry as it coursed through them, growing greater every second.

Sherlock was starting to think that they were about to be done for, when suddenly the pain focused deep inside his head. More accurately, right on his brain. His cries grew louder as he felt a burning deep down inside his skull. But then, in his tortured trance, his subconscious and intellect started to fight against the mysterious force, almost like a battle of wits. It tried to push the force out, more mentally than physically.

Then, it stopped. It simply stopped. The glowing colors stopped flashing against the three's magical barriers, and the pain simply went away, leaving the victims feeling slightly drowsy and achy.

John slowly tried to open his eyes. He and the others felt weak from the inside-out, and simply opening his eyes took a lot of work. When they opened widely enough to gaze at his partner and Twilight, he saw that their manes were sticking straight up, as if they stuck their hooves in an electric socket. If the experience they had just been through wasn't painful and maybe life-threatening, he would've chuckled. Then, putting a hoof to his sandy-blonde mane, he felt that his was the same.

Once Sherlock opened his eyes, he immediately tried racing out of bed, but only ended up tripping over his own hooves and falling face first on the floor. He used all of his might to get up on his half-numb hooves, straining from the effort.

"Gah! John! Get the magic detector!"

John groaned, but did as the detective said, and got the small device from his coat pocket. Fumbling, he hooved it over to Sherlock. The consultive detective was now standing tall on the floor and focused on turning the device on. Suddenly, many beeps and buzzes were heard from it as numbers flashed upon its screen.

"It says there's a strong magical trail heading from here to an open field near here! Let's move!"

Before John could answer, his partner pulled him out of the sheets on the bed and started to gallop away. He watched him go in astonishment. "How does he recover like that so easily?" Glancing over at Twilight and seeing she was safely unconscious, John started to slowly gallop after Sherlock.

He made it out of the tree library and onto the moonlit streets. It was still late at night, and nopony was up. John tried to catch up to Sherlock, who was very far ahead of him, but his numb hooves wouldn't let him. Then, he noticed his wings weren't as numb as his legs and started to fly after the gray detective.

The houses and cobblestone streets turned to trees and dirt roads as they galloped and flew over to Whitetail Wood, which was purely dominated by lots of trees and wildlife. The green leaves moved silently in the night breeze, as bushes and ferns laid peacefully on the forest floor. John was only a foot behind Sherlock now, having caught up during the journey. The two stopped at an open patch of the forest, where there were less trees and a bare piece of ground that only had grass on it. The consultive detective glanced at the magic detector with a scowl.

"It just stops here. Our little 'attacker' must've done his attack from here."

The gray pony immediatly started to check out the scene, the moon's light glinting off the ebony curls of his mane. As Sherlock examined the space of woodland area, John closed his eyes and yawned.

"God, am I tired." He blindly walked around before his hoof stepped on something pointy. "Ow!" He opened his eyes to see a small piece of paper. He picked it up and looked it over. "Hey, Sherlock? Look at this."

His partner glanced over at the piece of paper before diverting his gaze back to the grass of the woods. "Litter."

"No. Buisness card."

He turned his head back to John with an expression of surprisment, and then walked over to him. After yanking the card from his grasp, he read the name on it, which was laid between the shadows of two pony heads.

Flim Flam Brothers

Mechanical and Magical Needs!

The address was conveniently under the name of the business. The two detectives looked it over before John spoke up.

"So, do you think it's a clue?"

"It might be, and it might not. But it's the only one we have so far."

The orange pegasus silently poked his head through the front door of the tree library and looked around, only seeing the darkened room. "okay," he whispered, "it looks like she might still be asleep. let's get moving."

Sherlock and John silently crept through the door and tip-hooved to the stair-case, trying not to wake anypony. Suddenly, the lamps magically flickered on and flooded the room with light, showing a groggy-looking Twilight Sparkle at the top of the stairs, and she wasn't looking too happy. The two braced themselves for any harsh words she was going to say.

The purple unicorn only sighed and shook her head.

"Thank you."

Sherlock put a confused expression on his face and rubbed his ear with a hoof.

"John, I seem to be not hearing well. I think I just heard Twilight Sparkle thank us for something."

"No!" Twilight sighed sadly. "I mean, thank you. I haven't been treating you two very well lately. It might be because you truly get on my nerves, or I'm just a bit nervous that a killer's on the loose, but you guys are trying to protect me and I should be grateful for that." She walked down the stairs and worriedly held out a hoof. "I'm sorry. Can you accept my apology?"

Sherlock stared at the hoof in confusion, while John took it and shook it. "Apology accepted, Ms. Sparkle. We know you didn't mean any harm."

Sherlock decided to do the same as John. "Yes, we knew."

Twilight gave a smile and yawned. "Well, there's still some time to get some sleep. Spike is still hiding in the closet after what happened. I'm going to get him out, and then send a letter to the Princess. You two should get in bed."

"Oh, Twilight, in the letter, could you include that the Princess should make the barriers a bit stronger for us? If she can."

She nodded at the detective and started to walk over to the broom closet. John and Sherlock walked up the stairs and started to get to sleep again.

Once the gray detective got into bed, he turned his head to John. "That apology thing that Twilight did, that's sympathy, right? Or another emotion?"

"Probably another." John decided to comtemplate how Sherlock couldn't understand feelings later, when he was well rested. "Do you think we should investigate that card after the race tomorrow?"

"We should. I think you'll do good, John, seeing how you flew today."

The orange pegasus finally realized he had flown that day. "Oh yeah, I did. I guess it just came naturally to me."

He realized his partner was staring at him with something that looked like...... worry? But when he noticed he saw that, the consultive detective turned away.

"Well, let's be getting to sleep. Good night, John."

"..... Good night, Sherlock."

But as his partner eased into sleep, Sherlock stayed up, his thoughts processing at a million miles a minute, trying to figure out what this case was all about. He also thought about how they had dimension-jumped, how far away from home they were, how different this all was. He could only wonder how the next day would turn out.

The Race

John was in the middle of a room. He looked around and couldn't see much at first. It was dark and black, and dome-like in structure. Suddenly, words swept by. Literal words flew across the room, about as big as his arm. They were all colored white and were whizzing about the room like a storm. More and more came in and flew around, but they weren't attacking John. He could only catch glimpses of what they said.

Tea

Prepare

Sherlock

Wings

Ponies

Attack

Why

Then, all of the words stopped in mid-air and glowed dark crimson as red lightning bolts shot them. John felt the electricity inside his own head, and screamed. Suddenly, the pain stopped, the whole room became dark and two words appeared, not red like the others, but a golden hue. They flew directly in front of John's face.

Wake up

Then, the words turned bold and louder.

Wake up!

The words grew and seemed to scream at him in a familiar baritone voice.

WAKE UP!!!

"What do you want from me?!" John screamed back, scared and confused.

"Stop laying there and wake up!"

Sherlock had been trying everything to try and wake up his sleeping partner. His first plan was to poke his face repetitively, which only made the still-dreaming John sneeze all over his gray hoof. Ew.

After cleaning his hoof, courtesy of some hoof sanitizer from Twilight's bedroom table, Sherlock tried tugging on his mane, which didn't prove any results. Not wanting to quit, Sherlock put his muzzle close to John's ear and tried to wake him through speaking.

"Wake up."

He moaned and shifted slightly in his sleeping position. Well, that was a start. Sherlock tried speaking louder.

"Wake up!"

John started to look confused, and the gray detective decided that one more increase of volume would finish the job.

"WAKE UP!!!"

"what do... you want....?"

"Stop laying there and wake up!"

John sat up on the bed with a start and immediately started to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight flooding the room. After letting his eyes adjust, he turned his head and was face-to-face with a weird zombie-pony face. That woke him up. And made him yelp and tumble off the bed in surprise. Standing up, he saw Sherlock take off the zombie-pony mask he saw him wear.

"I don't know why Twilight would have one of these, but, at least it got you wide awake." The consultive detective threw it in a nearby closet with a smirk.

John marched up to him furiously. "Why did you do that? You could have given me a bloody heart attack!"

"It was important." Sherlock walked over to his coat and scarf and started to put them on. John's death glare didn't waver.

"Scaring me was important?"

"Waking you was important."

"With a Halloween mask?!"

The gray detective had put on his clothes and tossed John his shirt. "I needed you wide awake for what I need to discuss with you. I had a weird dream last night."

"So did I. Now, let's go have breakfast," said John, slipping his head through his shirt.

"Was it a large place filled with millions of words buzzing about and then something interrupts it?"

The orange pegasus stopped trying to tidy his sandy-blonde mane with a comb he had found on the bed-side table and stared at Sherlock in surprise. "...Yes, I did. You had the same one?"

"Yes, and Twilight's had it too. Before you ask, she's downstairs making breakfast, and before you ask, it's 10:30 AM." Sherlock pointed at a stack of books near the bed. "After thinking and reading up, I've determined the dreams represent what happened to us. The room was our brains and the words were our thoughts."

"And was the lightning the thing that attacked us?"

"Correct, John, our subconscious trying to tell us something. But what?" Sherlock put his head in a hoof and furrowed his brow in concentration.

His partner rolled his eyes. "Well, you think your brain out, I'll go and eat. It smells like pancakes." He walked down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen.

He didn't notice Sherlock raising his head and smiling. "'Think your brain out'. Another piece of the puzzle connected."

Twilight, Sherlock, and John hit the road to Rainbow Dash's house at noon. The trip there was pretty peaceful. The three ponies didn't encounter many others on the way there, making the trip pretty silent. The sun lazily hung in the clear, blue sky and their ears were graced by the sound of birds chirping. Their eyes were allowed to see the dazzling greens of the grass, and the leaves of the bushes and trees. It was a gorgeous setting to view as they walked along the dirt path.

"Nice," said John.

"Beautiful," said Twilight.

"Dull," said Sherlock.

Twilight was about to respond to the gray detective's opinions when they heard the faint sound of many pony voices. They quickened their pace and found a lot of ponies gathered in a crowd around Rainbow Dash's house, answering why didn't see that many ponies on the way there.

It looked like around half the town was there, and most of them were wearing hats that looked like Rainbow's mane. The said pegasus was sitting on a cloud in front of the crowd, giving a speech. The three new visitors quietly went to the back of the crowd unnoticed.

"Thank you all for being here, folks!" the cyan mare said. "As you all know, you're here to witness a race between the newest pegasus in Ponyville, and...." she flew up and struck a pose, "me!"

The crowd erupted into cheers, especially the ones in the Rainbow Dash hats.

"Alright, settle down." The crowd started to slowly quiet down as Rainbow flew back down to her cloud. "Now, I'm sure you probably already knew this, especially the ponies in my fan club who informed the rest of you about the race," she waved to the ponies with hats, "but I challenged this pony to a race to train my wing power so I could enter the Wonderbolts. But, there's something about this race you didn't know."

Murmurs spread through the crowd, while John whispered to Sherlock, "She's got a fan club?"

Rainbow didn't seem to notice him, for she continued. "I also set up this race because the first day I met the new pony, he told me he was an army doctor." Excited whisperings spread though the throng. "As you know, ponies from the army, even doctors, have to be physically trained, especially in flight. It was apparent to me, that he was going to be a challenge. So, if I beat him, it will be a huge accomplishment!"

"You really think I'll be a challenge?"

The crowd split up to show John walking up to Rainbow's cloud. Once he got through, he stopped under the cloud and simply grinned at the prismatic pegasus. "Well, we won't know until we race. Let's do it."

Rainbow's surprised look turned into a coy grin. "You're on!" She pointed way up into the sky and revealed a large ring in the sky made out of clouds. "That's the race track. We have to fly five laps the whole way around. Fluttershy is going to be our referee."

The yellow pegasus flew up from her place in the crowd and landed next to Rainbow and John. "A-are you ready to race, John?"

"Um, I'm a bit nervous, but, yeah, I guess I am."

The cyan mare grinned and flew up toward the cloud race track. John and Fluttershy flew up together, slightly behind. When all three of them got up to the track, the timid pegasus landed on a cloud in the middle of the track and seemed to be strapping her hooves in.

John saw how big the track really was. It was huge, and he couldn't believe he had to fly five whole laps around it. Slightly shaking in fear, he landed on the starting line next to Rainbow.

The coy pegasus scoffed. "What? Are you getting stage fright or something?"

Fluttershy held up a checkered flag. "o-on your mark, g-get set,"

Both pegasi prepared themselves for the beginning of the race.

Twilight and Sherlock were at the front of the crowd, waiting for the race to start. The latter was angrily muttering at his hooves. "I should be working on this case, I should be researching clues! Why am I here?"

"Um, because he's your friend?" Twilight asked.

"What does that have to do with it?"

"Oh, nevermind." The purple unicorn magically levitated a megaphone to him. "Here."

Sherlock looked at it in confusion before understanding what it was used for.

"No, I'm not the cheering type."

"But he's your friend! You have to-"

"He's lucky I'm even here! I want to solve the case, not watch a silly race." He frowned and went back to staring at his hooves.

"Go!"

Once the timid, yellow pegasus waved the flag and said 'go', the two were off. John realized what the straps on her cloud were for as Fluttershy nearly fell off it from the speed of the two pegasi.

John flew as fast as his wings could take him, but Rainbow was super speedy. She left a rainbow streak behind her as she raced through the wind, her mane flying back, and as the first lap was done, she was a good few feet ahead of John.

The air was whipping past his face hard and fast, his wings straining to keep up with the cyan mare. John had to keep blinking from his eyes tearing up from the force of the wind. He tried his best, but to no avail. Rainbow Dash was ahead and didn't even look tired. After three laps, John was exhausted and thought he didn't have any chance at all of beating his opponent. Suddenly, through the air rushing past his ears, he heard one voice above all the others from the crowd.

Sherlock watched the race as it went on. Everypony in the crowd was cheering and going wild, but he stayed sitting down calmly, and concentrated on watching his friend. He noticed that John was lagging behind ever since lap 1, and he looked very tired now. His mind racing, he calculated that Rainbow Dash would definetly win unless John got a new source of energy to power his flight, which was impossible. Sherlock was about to go back to thinking about the case, when he felt something..... weird. All of a sudden, he wanted to do anything to help John win, no matter how impossible it was. Before he could stop himself, Sherlock found his hoof reaching for the megaphone next to him. He raised it to his mouth and yelled so loud into it, his baritone voice reached beyond the frantic screams and cheers of the crowd.

"COME ON, JOHN!!!"

John thought he had no hope of beating Rainbow Dash as the fourth lap started. He thought it might've been a good idea to just stop flying and fall from the sky. His wings were at their limit, and he was sure he couldn't take any more of this. But as he heard his friend's voice ring out from the crowd below, cheering him on, something sparked inside of him. It was a newfound energy, full of hope and confidence. It gave him a boost, and his wings pushed him on, working up to 110% percent. He flew through the wind and caught up to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow saw John flying next to her and opened her mouth in shock. That shock caused her speed to decrease by just a little bit. That one tiny bit of speed that was taken away, and the boost that John was given from Sherlock, made the outcome of the race all that different. As they both crossed the starting line again, and panted for breath, Fluttershy came over and raised up John's hoof.

"And the w-winner is, surprisingly, John!"

The whole crowd immediately erupted into cheer. Everypony went wild, except for Sherlock, who only had a small grin on his face. But that was enough. As Fluttershy helped John down from the race track because of his tired wings, the consultive detective walked over to John and smiled.

"Good job, John."

He gave a shaky laugh as he caught his breath. "Wow....Sherlock.... I never..... expected you to..... cheer like that......"

The smile went off Sherlock's face and was replaced with a confused look. "Yes, why did I cheer? I honestly have no idea why I did something as trivial as that."

Twilight only gave a sly smile. "Sherlock, I think today you learned a very important lesson about friendship. It's to always support your friends."

The gray detective stood there in shock for a bit, learning that he did that out of pure kindness, before scowling and walking off. "I'm going to find clues."

Once he was gone, John looked at Twilight. "Okay, what did you do?"

"Oh, I only hit him with a small spell that makes your feelings for something grow stronger," she replied, making her horn glow for emphasis. "That was fun! Did you see the look on his face when he thought he did it by himself?"

Both ponies broke down in giggles for a few seconds, laughing at their prank. When they stopped, John started to head towards Sherlock, a smile still on his face. "Well, come on. Let's see what Sherlock's found. Can't let him do all the detective work by himself."

They walked through the crowd of departing ponies, and headed towards the gray consulting detective.

Information Uncovered

John and Twilight walked through the crowd of ponies, who were slowly, but surely, leaving. When they finally found Sherlock, there were only a dozen or so left. The gray detective was conversing with Applejack.

"And that's all you know?"

"That's all I can remember from when they came 'round here."

John cleared his throat. "Um, hi there, Applejack. What are you two talking about?"

She turned to him with a friendly grin. "Well, there's the lucky winner! Congratulations, John! Well, I was just tellin' Sherlock 'bout two swindlin' business ponies that came 'round these parts, named Flim and Flam."

"And it was especially interesting when you told me about their cider-making contraption," said Sherlock. "She said it ran on magic as a source of energy, and was very mechanical."

Remembering what the business card said, John realized that this was important information. Just as he was about to ask a question about Flim and Flam, they all heard a familiar voice from a few feet away.

"John, I must say that was a marvelous race! It was simply thrilling!"

Everypony except Sherlock turned their heads to see Rarity coming up to the group, looking as perfectly groomed as usual.

"Oh, hey Rarity," said Twilight. "I was actually hoping you would be in the crowd."

"Of course! I wouldn't miss this for- GAH!" The fashionista shrieked in surprise. "Sherlock, what in the world had happened to your mane?!"

Sherlock finally lifted his head up to look at Rarity. His mane resembled something close to a small bird nest. The attack from the night before had already messed it up, add that with galloping through a dark forest and not combing it after sleeping, it wasn't surprising. The ebony curls were sticking up in every direction and some dried bits of leaves were in there also, left over from the investigation in the forest.

John was too tired and nervous to notice the messed up mane, and Applejack thought Sherlock might've been trying out a crazy, new hairstyle. Only Twilight noticed and she had another little trick up her sleeve for the gray detective.

Sherlock shrugged, an indifferent expression still on his face. "I was too busy to comb it. Anyway, John, I think we-"

"Oh, we can't let you go around looking like that, darling!" Rarity walked over to a nearby tree and reached inside of a hole in the trunk. She took out a hairbrush. "Pinkie Pie helped me keep hairbrushes in a few locations around Ponyville, in case of mane emergencies," she said, eyeing the consultive detectives messed up do. She held out the brush for him, but he shook his head.

"I'll do it later, right now I have to discuss something with Twilight and-"

"Do I have to take matters into my own hooves?" The alabaster unicorn sighed, and then started to look like she was getting into a position of some sort.

The gray detective figured out what she was going to do and turned to run, but was stopped by Twilight, who was slyly smiling. A second later, Rarity lunged, and the detective was pinned to the ground with two white hooves on his shoulders, with Rarity fiercely running the brush through his mane with her mouth.

Applejack and John tried hard not to snicker at the scene before them, while Twilight was silently giggling. Sherlock was shaking his head and struggling against Rarity's surisingly strong hold on him.

"OW! Get off me-! Ow! That really-! OW! You're going to pull my hair ou-! Gah! What is wrong with-! OW!"

Soon, his cries stopped as the fashionista stepped off of him and he got to his hooves. He stood up straight, his mane now tamed, and brushed some dirt off of his coat. He glared at Rarity with intense anger, but she seemed oblivious to it.

"There darling, now it's fixed! No need to thank me."

Sherlock still glared at her before turning around and walking off. "Come on, John, let's go. We have things to do." He kept walking off towards Ponyville.

"Well, we better follow him," said Twilight, turning to Rarity and Applejack, "but I hope we can see you later!"

John and Twilight said their good byes to the two before they left and caught up with Sherlock. He was half-way back to town already, his expression showing both deep thought and annoyance. When the two had reached him, he turned his head to Twilight.

"You planned for that to happen."

The smile on the purple unicorn's face said all that was needed. Sherlock groaned and complained to no one in particular.

"Why does this place want to get on my nerves? I just want to find a mysterious, impossible murderer. Is that too much to ask?"

"To some ponies, yes," answered John. "Speaking of which, should we investigate these Flim and Flam ponies?"

"Obviously. They're clearly connected to the case."

"Now, hang on," interrupted Twilight, "I know that Flim and Flam aren't the greatest ponies ever, but I don't think they would do something as horrible as killing somepony."

"They're not the murderers," Sherlock said, annoyed that they couldn't see the obvious. "Of course not. We're going to investigate them because they have a business. And what do buisness people do?"

"... Sell stuff?" guessed John, after a few seconds of silence.

"Exactly! And to sell machinery, they have to..."

"... Make stuff."

"Very good, John. If they built our murderer's weapon, they must have information on how it works and how to de-activate it."

"Hold up, I'm lost," Twilight complained. "How do you know that the killer bought a weapon from them? It's only a business card you guys found lying in the woods. It might be a dead end!"

The dirt road they were walking on soon turned to cobblestones as they reached the outskirts of town. As they walked to the library, a feminine cry pierced the air.

John was the first to run. "Somepony's in trouble!" he yelled, before galloping off. Twilight and Sherlock were close behind. They slowed down a few feet away from Sugarcube Corner, where a small crowd of ponies had formed around someone laying on the ground. John pushed them out of the way to make a path for him and his friends.

"I'm a doctor, let me through."

A few seconds later, he was standing in front of a bright yellow unicorn lying dead on the ground. She had a blue, curly mane and blue hearts for a cutie mark, and her features were twisted in agony. Twilight gasped as she recognized the cadaver, a sad frown forming on her face.

"Lemon Hearts.... who could have done this to you?"

"I think you know who," said Sherlock. He didn't look affected at all from seeing the dead body, and was searching through one of his pockets. He tossed the magic detector to John, who was examining the body. "What are the readings?"

The army doctor caught the detector in one hoof and started to scan the body. "The same as the others. All magic gone." He lowered the device and it started to show more readings. "Wait, it says there's some detected on the other side of her body."

Lemon Heart was lying on her left side, leaving her right exposed. Sherlock walked over to John and helped him roll her over. When they saw the left side of her body, their eyes widened in surprise. Parts of her coat were burned neatly, and were precise enough to form words. The scarred fur and flesh read:

Just a little

warning, S&J

Sudden Trips

"Just a little warning?" said John. "You call killing someone 'just a little warning'?"

Pinkie Pie was in the crowd of ponies, and she was starting to bawl her eyes out. She sobbed loudly, rivers of tears running from her eyes.

"Why?! Why did you have to go, Lemon Hearts?! WHY?!"

She continued to cry for two seconds before she stopped suddenly, and started marching up to Lemon's body. She turned to face everypony. "Alright, everypony, listen up!" she said, an unexpected seriousness in her voice. "A very good friend of ours has just been killed by an assasin! I have no idea why anypony would do this, and I'm as sad as all of you, but we have to take matters into our own hooves. We have to have Lemon Heart's body taken care of, so make sure we have a pony or two on that job! But for now, we focus on this message!"

She pointed a hoof at the burnt flesh and fur. "It says, 'Just a little warning, S&J'. Whoever did this must be warning two ponies whose names begin with S and J."

"Brilliant deduction," murmered Sherlock sarcastically, before being shushed by his pegasus partner.

"Now, let's find out who these ponies are. Maybe they're connected with the message-maker. They're probably dangerous if they are, though. So we gotta show them no mercy!" yelled Pinkie, rising a hoof in the air. "We gotta make 'em talk, no matter what it takes! Let's start our search immediately!"

The rest of the crowd, save for three, voiced their approval. John gulped nervously, trying to get rid of a lump that formed in his throat. Twilight took a few nervous steps away from the two detectives. Sherlock was too deep in thought to show much emotion.

Pinkie pulled out two long pieces of paper from her mane. "Alright, I have a list of everypony in town whose names begin with S and another for J. We'll have to have a little talk with everypony on these lists." She pointed a hoof at Sherlock. "Sherlock!"

The gray detective raised his head in surprise.

"... Can you get me my pencil? It's under that trash can nearby for emergencies."

Sherlock walked over to the trash can, lifted it up, and found a number two pencil underneath it. He grabbed it and hoofed it over to Pinkie.

"Thanks." She looked at her list. "Okay, first up... Silver Spoon and Junebug! Let's have a little chat..."

As Pinkie's vengeful eyes scanned the crowd for the two ponies she called out, Sherlock tugged on John's shirt collar.

"Come on," he whispered, "let's get to the library."

"I'm on it," Twilight whispered back. Her horn glowed and the three disappeared in a flash. Luckily, the crowd was too focused on Pinkie interrogating Silver Spoon and Junebug to notice. The party pony was surprisingly intimidating and scary as she stood over Junebug.

"So, where were you on the day of today?"

Sherlock, John, and Twilight appeared in a flash in the center of the library. The purple unicorn trotted over to Spike while John blinked his eyes in surprise.

"...That was... amazing!" he finally said, smiling, "The teleportation thing you did was amazing! It was like-"

"Spare me your amazing tales for now, John," interrupted Sherlock, "we have more important matters to discuss."

Spike and Twilight walked over to the two, the former looking very confused. "Why did you guys get here in such a hurry?"

"To pack," Sherlock stated, before heading up to the bedroom. Once he got upstairs, he grabbed a spare saddlebag. It was a light gray color, like his fur.

"...Wait, why do we need to pack?" asked Twilight.

The consulting detective looked down at them from above. "We're going to leave right now to go to Hoofington, where Flim and Flam are. It'll be night once we get there, so we'll have to spend a night in a hotel. We'll have to pack a few things, won't we?" He started to go back down the stairs, grabbing a telescope on the way down.

"Well, why now? Can't we do it tommorow?"

Sherlock held the telescope in front of Twilight's confused face. "Thought you might ask that. Look at where we were a few minutes ago. We can't stay around for long with Detective Inspector Pinkie Pie around."

She magically grabbed the telescope and looked out the window with it. She saw a serious, threatening-looking Pinkie Pie looming over a frightened Silver Spoon. The young filly was trembling as the party pony interrogated her.

Woah, as much as I hate to say it, Sherlock's right. She's gonna get to him and John soon. I wonder what she's saying to her?

Back at the Town Square...

"You heard me, school filly! I saw you play sick to skip school three months ago! Did you see anypony new? Anypony evil? Anypony who could've murdered innocent, little Lemon Hearts?!"

"... p-p-please let me g-go home..."

Back at the library...

Twilight magically placed the telescope back where it belonged and saw John exiting the bathroom, putting a toothbrush in another spare saddlebag. This one matched his fur as well, being a light orange color.

"Well, I guess there's no stopping you two. I'll start packing as well." She turned to her worried assistant. "Spike, you stay and watch the library for me. We might be gone a while. Will you be all right?"

"I should be asking you that, Twi," the dragon replied. "I'll miss you, but you go. The safety of pony lives are in your hooves."

Twilight smiled and started walking up to her room to fill up her bags. Half-way up the stairs, she looked back to see Sherlock laying on the couch in a state of deep thought. This gray pony was a complete mystery to her. He claimed that he came from another dimension, knows how to read a pony's life with one glance, and was not afraid to rush into danger, no matter how intense.

She knew that she should be worried, considering her life was on the line as well, but somehow, she couldn't help feeling a sense of excitement. She felt nervous, but thrilled to hear that they were going to investigate a murder. Was she going nuts or is this supposed to be normal?

... Yeah, I'm going nuts.

"Come on, you two! We only have to walk one more mile!"

Sherlock, Twilight, and John were on a dirt road walking to Hoofington, surrounded by grass and flat land. Moonlight and star shine lit their path because of the late hour. Originally, the trio had planned to take the train to Hoofington, but they found it had broken down. Twilight's hot air balloon was busy being repaired, and they had to leave quickly. So, she agreed to teleport them all half-way there and walk the rest of the way.

They had been walking all day, and now all of them were weary and exhaused, except, surprisingly, the gray consulting detective. The other two were lagging behind him, their saddlebags feeling heavier with every other step. John wearily lifted his head at Sherlock.

"How the hell do you have so much energy? You hardly ever sleep and we've been walking for hours!"

"Can't we stop for the night?" asked Twilight.

"If you two pick up the pace, we'll be there in about twenty minutes," Sherlock replied. "We can find a hotel then."

"Twenty minutes? Can't we stop now?" asked the annoyed purple unicorn.

"Maybe we can," answered John, pointing a hoof ahead of them. "Look over there."

He was pointing at a small log cabin around twenty feet away from them. Light shone from the windows, showing that somepony was inside.

"Maybe we can ask to spend the night."

The consulting detective groaned and rolled his eyes. "Why do normal people need rest so often? Fine, we'll ask to stay the night if you two feel like you're going to faint from exhaustion."

John and Twilight's faces lit up hearing that they had a chance of resting in a bed for a bit. The three walked over to the cabin, and saw that it was a bit unusual. Wires and metal parts were scattered on the outside walls, almost as if it was part house, part machine. John raised his hoof and knocked on the door.

A few seconds later, it opened to reveal two smiling unicorn stallions. They were tall and cream-colored, with red manes, and wore blue and white striped shirts. One of them had a mustache, and spoke first, alternating with his partner.

"Hey there, what can we..."

"... do for you?"

Their eyes opened wide when they saw Twilight, and her eyes opened wide when she saw them.

"You!" they both said, simultaneously.

"You know these two?" asked John.

"Yes, she does," answered Sherlock. "John, meet Flim and Flam."

Mechanical Finds

The smiles returned on the two buisness ponies' faces.

"Oh, so you've heard of us?" asked Flim.

"I bet their friend told them about us," said Flam, gesturing to Twilight. "We've met before. It's... Nightlight Sparkle, right?"

"Twilight," she replied, flatly. "My name's Twilight Sparkle."

"You're Flim and Flam?" asked John. "I thought you guys were in Hoofington."

"We usually are," started Flim, his businessman grin starting to creep John out. "But sometimes we-"

"-go on breaks," continued Flam, "and vacation in our cabin, but we still-"

"-sell some of our wares here for any passersby that might-"

"-pass by!"

Flim held a hoof to his face, looking astonished. "Gee, Flam, we forgot to welcome in our guests!"

"Oh, I can't believe we could've forgotten that, Flim! Come in, come in. Make yourselves at home," the cream pony said, moving aside to let them through.

Sherlock stepped in first. "Thank you, and stop acting all pretend-friendly. It's annoying, stupid, and frankly, dull," he commented in his usual blasé tone.

The buisness brothers simply stood there beside the doorway in slight surprisement at the rude comment, while Sherlock walked in.

"Yeah, he's always like that," said John, as he walked past them. Twilight gave them a weak glare.

The three travelers walked into the living room of the log cabin and found that the inside was part machine, just like the outside. The large sitting room had wires covering and snaking through the walls, gears and screws on the tables next to half-finished machinery, and almost everything looked modified by some kind of motor or battery. If you took out all that, it would look like the kind of normal sitting room you'd expect from a log cabin.

"Sorry if it might be a bit cluttered," said Flim, "but we were busy working on our products and projects."

"We absolutely love crafting mechanics," added Flam, levitating springs and screws from the couch to let their guests sit, "as you can see. We hope you won't mind."

John sat down on the old, cream colored couch and smiled. "Oh no, it's okay. I mean, I'm used to clutter," he said, silently glaring at Sherlock, who had taken the seat next to him. "Oh, I almost forgot. My name is John Watson, and he's Sherlock Holmes."

"Flim, Flam, if I've heard correctly, you sell items to make ponies' lives easier, right?" asked Sherlock, straying from the present conversation.

Flam started to power a lamp with his magic and beamed at the gray pony's words. "Oh yes, we do! We sell many, many things to help others! As I'm sure Twilight has seen."

The purple unicorn's death glare weakened Flam's smile. "The only way your machine helped anyone," Twilight replied angrily, "is because it tried to help you guys take away my best friend's farm! That was her home, for Pete's sake!"

This story was new to John, so he frowned a bit in confusion. "Wait, they tried to take away somepony's farm? Whose?"

"Bon Bon's," Sherlock replied sarcastically.

"Really?"

"No! Of course not," the detective complained, sounding throughly disappointed in John. "Who else in Ponyville has a farm to try and take?"

"Carrot Top does," Twilight pointed out.

He rolled his eyes in response. "Puh-lease, you just said 'best friend'. Carrot Top isn't your friend, hardly a best friend. She never even liked you anyway. She's been trying to avoid you ever since you accidentally fired a messed up magic spell into her garden."

"Wait, how did you-?!"

"Another explanation for another time, but I believe I was going to ask Flim or Flam something." He turned back to the buisness ponies, who had awkwardly been standing in front of them the whole time. "Now, I would like to ask if you can make things on specific requests from customers."

"Actually, yes we can," said Flim, his smile returning. "Do you want us to make anything for you?"

"You'll find our prices very reasonable," said Flam.

"Actually, I'd like to see the orders you have done for other customers. Do you have any files or blueprints?"

Flim nodded and walked over to the other side of the room, where a file cabinet stood, connected to a small motor and almost completely tied up with bundles of wires. He pressed a few buttons on the side of the cabinet with his hoof, and, using his magic, started the machine up. With a whir and a few buzzes, the drawer opened and a small section of papers were lifted up out of it by a mechanical arm.

Taking the papers in his magical grasp, the cream unicorn walked over to the detectives and laid the papers down on the table in front of them.

"Here they are. These papers contain information on what our customers asked us to make."

"Thank you," said Sherlock, and instantly began to pore over the papers, taking in any detail that proved to be important or useful.

John cleared his throat nervously. "Well, thank you very much for letting us in. Do you mind if we stay the night? We've been traveling for quite some time."

"Of course!" replied Flam. "If there's anything we're skilled in more than buisness, it's hospitality!" After saying this, he headed towards the back door. "Come on, Flim. Let's get back to our invention."

"Oh yes, we have to get back to that!" Flim started to trot towards his brother. They were nearly out the door when Flim poked his head in again. "If you want, you can have either water or tea from the kitchen, but don't make any food yet, okay?"

John nodded in response, and soon they were out. The army doctor looked over at Twilight, who looked the most annoyed she had ever been since Sherlock and John first met her. She poked the consulting detective on the shoulder.

"Look, if you don't have anything nice to deduce, don't deduce anything at all."

When she didn't get a response, she started tapping Sherlock's head repetitively.

"Hello? Hello?! Anyone in there?"

"Just forget it," groaned John, getting up from the couch, "he's not gonna be talking for a while. You wanna have some tea?"

"Yeah, okay." The purple unicorn got off the couch as well and started to head towards the kitchen with John. Half-way there, they were stopped by hearing some startling noises.

Specifically, the terrified, blood-curdling screams of Flim and Flam.

It was like if somebody flipped Sherlock's 'hyper-drive' button to On. The sociopath excitingly jumped out of the couch and joined his friends to galloping out the automatically-opening back door. They galloped to a large, red barn which looked partly mechanical like the cabin did. They stepped inside and were shocked at what they saw.

Flim and Flam were in the middle of the warehouse, screaming in utter pain as they were enveloped in the multi-colored aura that the three investigators were now well-acquainted with. They spasmed and writhed in agony as the green aura of their magic slowly started to be added to the multi-colored murdering aura. But that wasn't the only thing that shocked Sherlock, John, and Twilight.

The gears and machinery in the cluttered warehouse were starting to float magically out the window as well, adding burglary to the list of crimes that the murderer was doing. Then, some machinery parts came to life. Broken wires shooting electric sparks, hammers and saws wanting to pound and cut, blowtorches shooting too hot flames, and more were all being powered by murderous magic.

And they were heading straight towards our investigative trio.

Saving and Losing

John's medical instincts made him the first to go into action. Seeing Flim and Flam writhe in agony fueled his legs to immediately make him start running across the warehouse towards them. On his way, he ducked his head and made sharp turns to avoid the deadly floating tools, such as a crowbar that aimed to hit his head, or a screwdriver that almost pierced his chest.

Twilight was too busy fending off the tools attacking her and Sherlock near the doorway to notice the army doctor's actions. She constantly had to drive away blowtorches, wrenches, gears, and more that came near.

Sherlock, however, had been standing completely still, closing his eyes and thinking. Hundreds of thoughts raced through his mind per millisecond, like a supercomputer. Something was off, something was wrong, but what was it?! What's wrong with this picture?!

The murderer is taking Flim and Flam's lives, but why now?

Why were they so quick to show us the files?

Wouldn't they get suspicious about being asked to build a machine that could murder?

How could this work?

How did the attacker make intricate lies to cover up his intentions?

Could he have done this without lying?

Could he have-

Oh!

Uh-oh

Sherlock opened his eyes, his face deeply etched with worry as he saw that John was only half-way to Flim and Flam.

"John, no!"

The army doctor, unfortunately, didn't listen and kept running towards the business ponies that were being tortured.

The consulting detective cursed under his breath and worriedly looked around for a way to get his friend's attention. His eyes rested on a hammer that was magically floating towards him, and after making some calculations, he got an idea. Sherlock quickly did a full 180-degree turn, and, with a kick that would've made Applejack proud, hit the hammer with his back legs and sent it flying across the room.

John stopped running about five feet away from the two business ponies, and tried to figure out what to do to help, when the hammer Sherlock kicked flew towards Flim and went right through him. John gasped in shock when he saw the hammer go through the cream pony's body, almost like it was smoke. It was just an intricate illusion.

Then, Flim's head stopped grimacing in pain and turned to John, frowning menacingly. Flam's head did the same. They both turned to the orange pegasus with malice in their eyes; and at the same time, all of the attacking warehouse tools stopped moving and floated in mid-air. Twilight and Sherlock both said the words that went through John's mind at that moment.

"This was a trap!"

"Correct, Mr. Holmes, and Ms. Sparkle," said 'Flim' with a sneer, looking over at the other two ponies.

"H-h-h-how?" John stuttered.

'Flam''s mouth opened to answer him, but he was cut off by Sherlock.

"We were too tired and too focused on the case to notice. The murderer did need a machine to get ponies' magic by force and he did get it from here. But he couldn't have just gone up to Flim and Flam and said, 'Hey, can you guys build me a machine so I can steal ponies' magic and information from their brains? I know they're killed in the process, but I'll give you a big tip!'"

The detective said this with a silly smile and tone that made Twilight giggle a little after he said it.

"Of course he couldn't," Sherlock continued, going back to his normal voice. "He's probably a unicorn with some magic of his own, so he must have put a hypnotizing spell on Flim and Flam so that they could make the machine and-"

"Wait," said John. "There's a hypnotizing spell?"

"There's a spell for almost everything, John, and stop interrupting!" he replied, annoyed.

Twilight nodded, confirming what Sherlock said.

"Anyway, Flim and Flam unknowingly made the machine under his spell and that's when our murderer decided to have a little test drive with it. He killed them right after they were done building it, discarded the bodies, and continued to collect more magic and information secretly until he was powerful enough to collect over a larger range and his magic aura was unrecognizable. Am I wrong?"

The gray detective smirked at the impressed looks on 'Flim' and 'Flam''s faces before they turned back into evil smiles.

"Why, you're absolutely correct, Mr. Holmes," said the latter. "We could definetly use that magnificent intelligence of yours."

"Why, thank you."

"I didn't mean that as a compliment," said 'Flam', his smile growing wider and wider.

Suddenly, the aura that surrounded the warehouse tools disappeared; making the said tools fall to the floor with a loud clatter. Sherlock inquisitively raised an eyebrow at this before the aura that vanished came back again. Except this time, all of it gathered at near full force on Sherlock's magical barrier.

The colorful light surrounded the entire barrier, crackling with large amounts of magical power. It was powerful enough to seep through the force field, making the consulting detective fall to the floor, clutching his head in his hooves in pain.

Slowly, small cracks began to form on the outer shell of his force field, each one making Sherlock's pained cries louder and racking his head with another wave of pain.

John gasped at seeing his best friend in agony, filling up with a tremendous rage. He was not going to watch Sherlock Holmes die today. Not exactly sure of what he was doing, he leaped next to his comrade, and his barrier combined with Sherlock's.

The two dome barriers merged, almost like a Venn diagram, distributing the protection they gave. Sherlock opened an eye he had closed in his tortured state and looked up gratefully at John, who gave a forced smile in reply. They both felt half of the pain that Sherlock had been going through before, but they stood tall, enduring it.

'Flim and Flam' growled in annoyance and the murderous aura grew brighter than ever. The cracks on the barriers started forming again, this time on John's as well. The two friends grimaced and yelled as the unrelenting agony throbbed throughout their body, mostly deep in their skulls.

"No!"

Suddenly, Twilight leaped in between the two detectives, merging her barrier with theirs as well.

Flam frowned and cried out in utter irritation. "Ugh! Why do you have to be so hard to kill?! I've got plenty more magic where that came from!"

The aura glowed impossibly bright for one split second, the looks on the fake business ponies faces curling into malevolent smiles once more, before it disappeared all together. The aura and the impostors vanished into thin air.

John, Twilight, and Sherlock were shakily standing on the wooden floor, panting in exhaustion, confusion, and relief. The purple mare decided to break the silence.

"Sh-sherlock? Wh-what happened?"

"... Power outage."

"What?" said a very confused John, before ungracefully falling onto the floor.

"He overestimated his magic," said Sherlock, ignoring the army doctor's fall. "He took it over the limit, and something in his machine must have blown. But that doesn't mean we're safe."

Twilight soon caught onto what he was saying, a look of dread on her face.

"Because he can fix it," she continued.

"That's why he was stealing tools as well." The gray detective galloped towards the door, stumbling slightly on his way. "I have to find the murderer!"

"No way!" Twilight wearily walked over to Sherlock, determination gleaming in her eyes. "You're not fit to go out there. You may be an arrogant show-off, but I don't want you to die."

"But I may never get this chance again!" he yelled back. "And then the murderer will just keep killing and killing and we won't be able to stop him. I have to do this."

The orange pegasus a few feet away from them started to get up onto his hooves.

"T-then we're coming with you."

Sherlock rolled his eyes, but a smile almost graced his lips at seeing these two ponies want to help him.

"Fine. Now let's move!"

The trio ran out of the warehouse, finding new sources of energy from the thrill of the situation they were in. They stopped and looked up at the sky, seeing that it was still late night, with many stars dotting the pitch black sky. The consulting detective took the magic detector out of his pocket and threw it to John, who clumsily caught it.

"John, you'll have to fly so you can move along with us and track down the killer at the same time."

He nodded in response and turned the small machine on. He flew into the air holding it, and pointed in a direction near Ponyville with his other hoof.

"It's coming from over there!"

All three of them started running in the direction John pointed in. They galloped and flew side by side on the dirt road, determined to get to the dangerous killer and bring him to justice.

This lasted for around 5 minutes before a loud rustling happened in some nearby woods on the side of the road. They would've dismissed it as nothing important, if they didn't suddenly hear voices coming from the trees as well.

"STOP!"

All eight hooves and two wings skidded to a halt as Twilight yelled out her command. Sherlock threw her an angry glare, yelling, We don't have time for this now!

She glared back in response and started to walk over to the trees. She noticed that one bush in particular was shaking a lot. Using a hoof, she pushed it out of the way, revealing the small figures hiding behind it.

"You three?!"

A Slight Delay

Nervously trembling in the spot where the bush once stood were three fillies, each one carrying a saddlebag: Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. All three of them were scared stiff because they knew how Twilight got when she was angry, and it was not pretty.

"What the hay are you three doing here?!" snarled Twilight, barely stopping herself from shouting her lungs out. Barely.

The fillies answered her with some more trembling and nervous whimpering. Sweetie Belle was close to tears. Seeing this, John calmly walked between Twilight and the girls.

"Twilight, calm down," said the doctor, keeping his voice in a placid tone. "Yelling at them won't solve anything."

"Calm down? Calm down?!" The force of the mare's voice made John's ears flatten in surprise. "They are risking their lives just standing here, and you are asking me to calm do-?!"

At that point, Sherlock, who was interested in the contents of a bush five feet away during the past 12 seconds, came back and held a purple-dotted leaf under Twilight's nose. A millisecond after breathing in its aroma, she promptly fainted and landed limply on the ground.

John stared at the unconscious librarian in shock. "Sh-Sherlock, what did you do?"

"I calmed her down," he replied, blatantly. "Don't worry, she'll be all right in about three minutes, which will leave us enough time for me to explain why they," he gestured to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, "are all the way out here."

Scootaloo started to open and close her mouth a few times, not finding the courage to actually speak. Once she found it, she managed to squeak out, "....T-th-that... was... AWESOME!"

A smile adorned the child's face as youthful excitement returned to her. "I mean, you only held the leaf under her nose for a second and WHAM! Instant KO!"

"How did ya know 'bout the Fainting Leaf, anyway?" asked Applebloom, encouraged by her hyper friend to speak. "Only experienced botanists know how ta properly use it."

"If you didn't notice, young filly, John and I were staying in a library," Sherlock replied, "and I did a fair share of reading."

"Don't call me 'young filly'," said Applebloom, slightly annoyed. "You know mah name. We jus' met yesterday!"

"He probably deleted it," said John, interrupting the conversation. "Anyway, why are you guys out here at this time of night? It's dangerous out here-"

"The Cutie Mark Crusaders aren't afraid of danger!" squeaked Sweetie Belle.

"Well, this is different. There's-"

"We can handle anythin' together!'" added Applebloom.

"Not this, because-"

"And we'll always stay together!" said Scootaloo.

"Are you even listening to-"

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS-"

"HEY!"

All three of them stopped shouting, shut their mouths, and turned to look at Sherlock.

"SIT!"

The trio obeyed, immediately setting their rumps on the ground. The consulting detective changed his angry, demanding expression to his normal blank one.

"There we go, just like dogs. Now, John, to answer your-"

Sherlock turned to his partner and saw that John had obeyed his orders as well, making the detective burst out in quiet laughter. John, clearly embarrassed, got up from his sitting position on the ground and glared at Sherlock.

"Continue."

The gray stallion stopped chuckling and sighed. "Okay, now let's start with why are they're here. I deleted their names, but I can tell that the white one and the orange one have names that begin with an S. They're on the run from the same thing we were sort of on the run from."

"Pinkie Pie," continued John. "But what doesn't make sense to me is that Pinkie's their friend. I know they've known her for a long time, so why couldn't they trust her?"

"John, isn't it obvious? Be you a human or a brightly colored horse, you still can't solve the apparent-"

"Yeah, I get it," said his companion, deadpanning, "I'm an idiot, now, say why."

"Why are you guys talking about humans?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"What're humans?" asked Apple Bloom.

"You know, those creatures Lyra always talks about."

"Those? I jus' thought she was spoutin' nonsense."

"Sherlock, make them stop again," complained John, as Scootaloo also joined in the conversation.

"I can't, it only works once, and only with life forms with underdeveloped brains. But don't worry, I have an idea."

"Are you sure it can't work again-"

"Quiet."

John shut up, and Sherlock started to get something from his saddlebag. Once the doctor realized what his partner just did, he turned to face him and saw that he had moved towards the trio of fillies. The consulting detective backed away from his handiwork.

"Sherlock! I didn't mean 'make them stop' like that!"

John trotted towards the fillies, whose mouths had been duct-taped shut.

"They're quiet now," he replied, placing the tape back in his bag. "Back to the explanation. They didn't think Pinkie Pie would do any harm to them at first, so they didn't have a reason to run away. But then they saw something that changed their minds. Three grown-ups running away from, what they assumed, a pony out to get them."

"Now this will hurt just a bit." John was only half-listening as he put a hoof on one end of Scootaloo's duct tape. He quickly pulled, making the tape rip off with a painful tearing sound.

"YEOW!"

"I lied."

The orange filly scowled at the ex-army doctor before switching her gaze to Sherlock. "Yeah, you're right! We saw you, Twilight, and your friend sneak out of town with a magic spell. We thought it was pretty suspicious, so we pulled an elaborate espionage mission to see why you escaped."

"OUCH!"

Sweetie Belle rubbed her sore mouth with a hoof before adding, "No, we didn't. We got nervous at seeing grown-ups run away from Pinkie, so we thought that anything she could do to scare them away was definitely bad news to us. So, we made an escape mission and just happened to bump into you guys."

"Well, I treated it like a spy mission," scoffed Scootaloo.

"OW! An' I came along with Sweetie and Scoots to help 'em run away because we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and we always stick together."

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo smiled brightly at Applebloom's words and leaned in for a group hug. The trio stood embracing each other, smiling despite the fact that they were lost, while the two detectives provided different responses to this.

"Awww."

"Ughhh."

I'll leave you to guess who said what.

Sherlock rolled his eyes, then walked up to the three filies with a calm, yet obviously fake smile.

"Now, girls, Mr. Watson, Twilight, and I have some very important business to attend to, and we simply can't have you three in the mess as well. And that's not even including the issue that we have a limited time," the detective spoke the two words through clenched teeth, showing how impatient he was, " to do it as well. So, why don't you get lost or find your way back home or whatever so we can finish what we have to do."

He was answered with bewildered stares and silence. It was soon broken by Sweetie Belle voicing her opinion on the matter.

"....You're kidding. You're kidding, right?"

"My point exactly," said John, walking over to the fillies. "Look, Sherlock, I know you're not the best person with children, and I wouldn't ever trust you to handle one kid, but this is ridiculous. You can't expect them to walk all the way home alone by themselves. Especially not with a murderer around."

"Murderer?" asked Applebloom, before being cut off by the army doctor's hoof ruffling her mane.

"They're too young, and Twilight can't afford to teleport them all the way to Ponyville, so," John stopped and looked like he was considering something, "oh, I know I'm going to regret this-"

Twilight wearily opened her eyes and slowly started to come to.

"...wh-wh-wha-?"

"-but I think they should come with us."

Twilight and Sherlock's eyes opened wide in disbelief, and the former immediately got to her hooves so she could join the consulting detective in running up to John and voicing the thought on both of their minds.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"

"Those kids will get killed!"

"They're just going to get in the way!"

"I don't want to have to deal with Rarity or Applejack if anything happens to them!"

"They'll only slow us down!"

"They're horrible at behaving!"

"They-"

Two hooves, one yellow and the other orange, stopped the two adults from voicing anymore complaints.

"Thanks, Appleboom and Scootaloo," said John, and turned back to Sherlock and Twilight. "I know that bringing them with us isn't the smartest thing to do, but does anybody else have any ideas?"

A gray hoof shot up into the air, like a student with a question.

"Excluding Sherlock."

The hoof lowered back to the ground, its owner scowling.

"That's what I thought. Now, I think it's best we get a move on. Our villian can't repair his machine forever."

"Wait!" said Sweetie Belle. "You mentioned a murderer earlier, Mr. John. What's that about?"

"We'll tell you everything on the way to the pony we want to meet," said Twilight, while John activated their magic detector again. "We have to leave right now, and we're not far off from our destination. Let's move!"

Each adult got a child to carry on their back; Twilight got Sweetie Belle, John got Applebloom, and Sherlock got Scootaloo. The consulting detective glared at the filly he got, while the young pegasus returned the stares full force. Soon, they were running and flying back on the trail, and Twilight began their story.

"It all started with the mysterious deaths happening around Equestria..."