Author's Note

It's Friday, which means it's time for more hamster goodness and get your weekend started on a high note.

And on a side note, since you now know to look for it, see if you can spot Penolope's uncovered form during the sleep scene from the intro. You can also see Penolope taking off her covering during the train scene in the intro too so see if you can spot both instances.

Season 3: Episode 3 - Ponyville Musicians Part 1

In Ponyville, the CMC were at their clubhouse as per usual.

"So, any ideas for cutie marks?" Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to answer, when they started hearing music. "What's that?"

Sparkle listened closely. "Hey, that sounds like..." She said before she scurried towards it.

"Hey wait up!" Sweetie Belle said as the three fillies followed Sparkle. Sparkle ended up stopping as she looked over at some other hamsters.

"Oh my gosh; IT'S HAMPTON AND THE HAMSTERS!" Sparkle Squeed.

"...Hampton who?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Hampton and the Hamsters; they are like, the most well liked hamster band in history!" Sparkle said.

"A hamster band?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Whoa, hey there, what's three ponies doing here?" The white female hamster asked.

"I'm pretty sure these are fillies, Hado." The only other female hamster currently in front of them said.

"Isn't that Sparkle with them, Dixie?" The very yellow furred male hamster said.

"Most likely it is; hard to miss that hamster a mile away." The male hamster wearing a bow-tie said.

"Sorry for intruding, we were just hearing some music from our treehouse. Which is right above us." Sweetie Belle said.

"Sorry about that, we were doing some practicing is all." Dixie said.

"Guess we'd better introduce everyone." The bow-tie hamster said.

"I know all four of you already, but feel free to introduce yourselves all the same."

"I'm Hado; I know my name is very masculine sounding, but people always forget that I'm really female~" Hado introduced herself.

"Name's Fuzzy; I'm the lead drummer of the band." The very yellow hamster said.

"Name's Dixie." Dixie said. "I'm from the country."

"We all are. And as for me, I'm not only the head vocolist, I'm also part of the namesake; the one and only Hampton." The bow-tie hamster said.

"Since their here, they should get a load of one of our songs." Dixie pointed out.

"Oh yeah, I agree." Hado said.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Hampton asked as the group began to hit off a song.

"Th-that was just...woof..." Sweetie Void said.

"Dang, I've heard some of DJ-PON3's music, but dang this has it's own kind of vibe to it." Apple Bloom said.

"Yeah, even I'm into this sort of thing; seems Sparkle wasn't lying about how good you guys are." Scootaloo said.

"Thank ye kindly." Hampton said.

"Speaking of which, from what I remember, doesn't Octavia do music herself?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah. Speaking of, I haven't seen hide nor hair of her or that unicorn she roomates with for a few weeks now." Scootaloo said.

"Maybe we should go check their home." Sparkle said.

"Good idea, we'll come with." Hampton said.

It didn't take long for the fillies to find the house, and once inside, the group found Octavia and her roommate tied up in the back of the house. Once they were untied, the mayor had some police ponies taking their statements.

"Seems they were being well fed, but any longer and they probably would've started loosing muscle mass." Mayor Mare said.

"I can't believe it; all this time Octavia was being tied up." Apple Bloom said.

"But the question is, who did it?" Sparkle asked. Couldn't have been that Cozy Glow though; she only got here two days ago.

"What's going--what's with the police here?!" It was Spoiled Rich.

"Three fillies managed to find Octavia and Vinyl Scratch tied up in their own house; evidence suggests it's been three whole weeks." Mayor Mare said.

"And how do we know it wasn't those same three fillies, hm?" Spoiled Rich asked.

"None of them are green." Vinyl said.

"Pardon?" A police officer asked.

"The stallion who attacked us was green colored. I couldn't make out any specific facial features, but I do remember he was green." Vinyl said.

"...A green stallion? But there's no one like that in Ponyville. Obviously, these two are covering--" Spoiled Rich began.

"Actually Ms. Rich, this isn't the only time we've had a situaiton about a green stallion being spotted. Manehatten saw several reports of a green stallion running away from appartments where ponies had been killed." A second police officer said.

"Odds are it's the same stallion then. I mean, how many green stallions could their possibly be in all of equestria?" Sparkle asked.

"Well, there's only three that the police know of by name. All three have solid alibis though." A third officer said. "We know, we looked."

"A green stallion whose most likely a murderer kidnaps a musician pony and her roommate for very little reason? Sounds very odd to me." Spoiled Rich said.

"Hey, what's this all about?" Suddenly, now it was Slade.

"Hey, that's him! That's the Stallion. I'm sure of it." Vinyl suddenly said.

"Huh. He's green. How about that?" Sparkle asked.

"...Tch. So much for the long-game." Slade said before he suddenly morphed into a different creature. "Guess the facade of being a pony is over now~"

"What the-what is he?!" Spoiled Rich asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Sorry to run off on you, but I have to get going now. But rest assured, Spoiled Rich; I'll be back for you shortly. And then, all of Equestria will be plunged into darkness and despair." Slade said before he used some kind of dark magic to vanish in front of every pony.

"Can't believe he fooled me like that. I feel like an idiot..." Spoiled Rich said.

"But what do you think he meant by what he said?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Which part exactly? The part about him being back? Is-is my mom in trouble?" Diamond Tiara asked.

"No, I mean by the darkness and despair thing." Apple Bloom said.

"...Yeah, that's got me worried as well now, thanks." Diamond Tiara said sarcastically, but part of her was shivering in pure fear from the very fact that something just admitted that they were after some pony specific.

I guess Cozy Glow can't be secretly evil; not if someone like that exists. Sparkle thought. Maybe I misjudged her...

To Be Continued...