Whodiddundoit? [Crossover, TAoPaM Universe]
Author's Note
Description: In which Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Olive, Otto and Peaches attempt to solve the mystery of what happened to the precious cake of fellow eccentric Odd Squad Food and Beverage worker Olly. A TAoPaM story.
Genres: Crossover, Slice of Life.
Why it was scrapped: Was supposed to be at least 15k+ words. Did not achieve that. Also because it's proof that I can't write mysteries of any kind to save my life.
Additional notes: Presented in an unedited state.
Whodiddundoit? [Crossover, TAoPaM Universe]
Spring cleaning was a rather particular time for Precinct 13579. It didn't just apply to the dirt and dust that littered the floor -- no, everyone had to be clean as well. It was a side of Oprah not many agents had seen, a side they had expected out of Olive but not out of her.
So, with clean bodies and clean brooms, Twilight and Rainbow Dash, along with Peaches, Olive and Otto, tackled the North Control Room, cleaning and soaking and sweeping every surface they could find. It was hard work for any agent who was doing it on their own, but with a team of five the work was getting done much faster.
"Hey partner, where should this go?" Rainbow asked, holding a dirty and torn alligator puppet.
"Just toss it out."
As Rainbow was about to take off for the nearest trash bin, a scream put the cleaning on hold.
"What was that?" Olive asked.
"It sounded like Olly!" Rainbow responded. "Let's go!"
It didn't take the group long to get to Olly, of course, as she was just across the way. However, they were quick to notice her terrified and upset expression as well as what appeared to be the remnants of a spilled-over cake that went splat onto the floor -- particularly, a few smears of pink frosting.
Twilight took the helm. "Olly, what's going on?"
"Someone spilled my cake!"
Otto tilted his head. "O...kay, and?"
"It was a special cake, one of the best ones I’ve ever made. I was going to cut it up so other agents could have a piece. And now...it’s gone!" Olly leaned in close, her next words nothing but a mere whisper on her lips. "It must have been a ghost."
Accustomed to the Food and Beverage worker they were, but no one could ever get accustomed to her eccentricity. It surpassed Mandy's by a complete and utter landslide, and that was saying quite a lot for someone who wasn't named the same way ponies were named so that their destinies were practically written in stone.
"I...don't think it's a ghost." Peaches assured. "At most, some..." She trailed off as her nose caught the scent of something sweet, walking around the Breakroom. "Why does the cake smell close by?"
A soft squish sound caught her attention, and she jerked her shoe back to find that she had stepped in what appeared to be cake frosting, as well as pretty much every other bit of the cake. And then she raised her head. "Cake footprints?"
"And they lead into the hallway!" Otto pointed out. "Whoever spilled the cake must have walked in it!" Rubbing his hands together, he went over to the next footprint, kneeling down and eating a fingerful of its contents. He ignored the collective disgusted reactions of the others, Olly included. "And they're still fresh!"
"Let's follow them!" Olive declared, leading the charge and heading down the hallway.
The others followed, sans Twilight, who hung back to give Olly some comforting words. "We'll solve this mystery, Olly. You can count on us."
"No need. I still think it's a ghost."
Not wanting to reason with her, Twilight simply gave a groan and galloped after the rest of the group.
With each step, it seemed the cake footsteps were getting fainter and fainter. One thing was for sure, though -- the footsteps were just that. They belonged to someone or something that was distinctly human, or at least had a human-shaped foot.
"The trail's disappearing." Twilight noted, before she looked up to the room where the trail was leading to. "And they lead to...the Bathroom?"
The glorious sound of muffled humming, brimming with grace and elegance, made the group stop.
"Wait, that sounds like Agent Rarity!" Olive realized, moving her way past Twilight while avoiding the footprints and giving three knocks on the door.
"Oh! Yes?"
"Rarity, are you in here?"
"Um, y-yes, I am! Is something the matter?"
"Can you open the door, please?"
"Yes, in just a minute!"
A pause.
"Eep! What is this? It looks like...and smells like...cake?"
Rainbow began rubbing her temples at yet another room she, and everyone else, would have to clean top to bottom -- particularly since they had already done that room.
The hum of magic marked the door opening, revealing none other than a rather upset Rarity, holding her cake-stained right hoof up. "Honestly, you all need to learn some privacy! A lady needs to get clean when she has some alone time, you know."
Ignoring her comment, Olive pointed to her hoof. "Did you step in cake?"
Rarity examined her hoof. "I suppose so. It does smell like cake."
"Look!" Otto pointed to the room's interior. "There are cake footprints all over the Bathroom!"
Whoever the culprit was, it was easy to see that they had made a complete beeline for the sink, and then had walked right back out. Rarity outwardly cringed as she stayed put to make sure her hooves wouldn't touch more cake prints.
"Rarity, do you have any idea who made these footprints?" Peaches asked.
"Unfortunately I don't." Rarity squeezed her eyes shit. "But must they be left for me to step in?! I just cleaned my hooves after hours of cleaning!"
"Sorry." Twilight gave a smile. "We'll have to clean this room again when we're done, if no one else gets around to it."
"Well see to it that someone does! Hmph!" Tossing her head and holding it high, Rarity walked out, conveniently avoiding the prints in spite of her not seeing where she was going.
Olive kept her eye on the departing prints. "The prints lead out of the Bathroom and down the hallway."
Twilight nodded. "Let's follow them."
As Pinkie and Fluttershy roamed the hallways, the former told the latter the punchline of her story.
"So I told them, 'Maybe I should stop?' And they said, 'No, no, you're satisfactory!' So I was all, 'Who's Sati? Why am I their factory?'"
Fluttershy giggled, and was about to say something regarding her friend's good jokes when she noticed said friend's front hoof colliding with a rather gross-looking footprint.
"Whoa!" Pinkie bent down and sniffed the contents of the print. "This is...cake!"
Fluttershy bent down and sniffed as well, in order to confirm. "It is!"
"Look, there's a whole trail of 'em!" Pinkie zipped from print to print as she followed the trail.
"I feel just awful for whoever has to clean this up..." Fluttershy remarked, silently hoping that it wouldn't be her. She had already cleaned up quite a few rooms, after all, including the Creature Room, which had been a complete hassle with Ocean out sick.
Pinkie bounced back over to the butter-yellow Pegasus. "Well, be grateful it’s not us! Seriously, do you know how hard it is to clean cake off of floors like this? I made a cake in the Breakroom once, and it went splat, onto the floor! It took me forever just to clean it up!"
The sound of approaching hoofsteps and footsteps brought Fluttershy's attention away from the prints. "It looks like we're not the only ones who noticed."
"Agent Pinkie Pie, Agent Fluttershy." Olive took the lead this time, standing over the two ponies and slightly narrowing her eyes. "Do either of you know who made this mess?"
"Nope!"
"B-b-but it's not us!" Fluttershy added, shrinking back from Olive's authoritative body language. "These are human footprints."
Olive relaxed and began examining one of the prints, a soft hum rattling in her throat.
"What is it, partner?"
Before Olive could answer Otto, she stiffened. A realization began taking place in her mind, and she couldn't help but snicker.
"Hey, what's so funny?" Rainbow crossed her front legs.
Olive stood up. "The person who did this..." She grinned. "They've been under our noses all along."
All that revelation got was a round of confused stares, including one from Fluttershy. Pinkie was the only one who understood fully what her coworker was saying, and simply kept an innocent smile on her features.
"So you solved the mystery?" Twilight asked, with flecks of hope shimmering in her eyes.
"I did." Olive polished her fist on her jacket. "Whoever left these footprints...I know who it was. All we need to do is find them."
She turned around and looked back towards where Pinkie and Fluttershy had come from, noticing a set of fresh footprints that she had to assume the mares had missed. "Come on!" she beckoned, as she began following the trail.
After a few minutes of walking (and flying, in Rainbow's case), Olive picked up on the sound of a raspy voice. It wasn't speaking, but rather, it appeared to be snoring. It only served to prove her hunch more and more correct, especially when she took into consideration the footprints leading into the room.
"Stop." She glanced at Peaches. "Peaches, can you sniff?"
"...Can I what?"
"Sniff. Sniff this area and tell me what you smell."
Peaches blinked. "I, uh...o...kay..." She knelt down to the ground and began sniffing the air, then slowly got into a standing position. The scent of someone familiar began flooding her nose, and her eyes widened. She knew this person -- they had a scent that she just couldn't put into words.
She gave a snort. And then, she laughed.
"What is it?" Twilight asked, stepping forward.
"We should've known!"
"Should've known what?" Otto spoke with exasperation as his gaze moved to Olive, who simply wore a knowing smile on her face.
Peaches grasped the door handle and opened the door. What met everyone's visions was a room of near-complete darkness. A tall pair of arched windows sat on the left, illuminated by the dark night sky that provided very little light, but certainly not enough for anyone who didn't have stellar vision to see that well. The noises, as well, had stopped.
"There's no one here." Twilight observed.
Peaches' knowing attitude fell away as she wore a look of shock. "Impossible! The scent leads to this room! Th-the prints lead to this room!"
"What is this room, anyway?"
"The Toy Room." Olive explained to her partner. "I hear this is where the precinct gets all its toys for Orson."
A loud snore startled everyone in the group, causing them to give yelps of alarm.
"S-someone's in there!" Rainbow remarked. "I'm goin' in!"
"Rainbow, no!" Olive tried to make a mad dash for the Pegasus, but missed by a long shot.
Twilight sprung into action to help her partner, lighting up her horn so that a ball of purple light sat on the end of it and spreading her wings before soaring in.
Another snore led to the two ponies looking up.
"Oh my Celestia!"
"What? What?!"
"It's..." Twilight flew up. "It's Mandy!"
Rainbow took to the air as well. "Well, whaddya know?"
Seemingly trapped in a host of thick ribbons that hung down from the ceiling and looked about close to breaking from her weight was none other than Mandy. She appeared to be in deep slumber, with drool spilling from her mouth and two very noticeable dark bags under her eyes. Her curly hair and tail both looked like something more akin to rat's nests, and she wore a shirt with spaghetti straps and denim shorts instead of her usual suit. Perhaps one of the most alarming things about her, however -- aside from the fact that she was tied up in ribbons -- was the cake that was smeared all over her cheeks and mouth.
"We need to get her down from here." Twilight glanced at the ground. While she knew Mandy would probably bounce back from a fall even of such a tall height, being ensnared in ribbons couldn't be comfortable. As she conjured up a pair of scissors, her gaze became fixed on Rainbow. "Can you help me catch her?"
"Sure. Cut away."
Twilight moved the scissors through the ribbons with ease, while also positioning her hooves so that she could assist Rainbow with bringing Mandy back down to Earth. It only took about ten ribbons being cut for the hybrid's body to slide out, and both alicorn and Pegasus clutched her torso as they slowly descended.
"All right!" Otto cheered.
Peaches, after scanning the room for more threats just to be sure, made her way into the room and turned on the lights, adjusting the dimmer so that it wouldn't be too blinding for anyone. "Ah, of course it's you, cuz."
"It's always in one of the last places you look, as they say." Olive shrugged. "Only in this case, she was in one of the first places we looked!"
Twilight and Rainbow laid Mandy down on the ground. "Is that...cake smeared on her face?" Twilight asked, moving close to the hybrid's face to examine it. "Huh. It is."
"So she ate the cake and then knocked it onto the floor!"
Olive rolled her eyes. "That doesn't make sense, Otto. Olly’s cake looked mostly intact, at least from what I could tell by looking at the spillage. If Mandy spotted that cake she would have eaten it all, no spilling necessary." She raised an index finger. "This mystery isn’t entirely solved."
"But we do know that the footprints are hers, at least." Peaches assured.
"Perhaps. But it’s always possible that they could be fabricated, or they could have been made by someone else with a similar shoe shape."
"What person is going to have her exact shoes?" Peaches asked. "In case you don't know, Olive, Mandy doesn't have her red shoes on. She has flats."
Olive's gaze moved to Mandy's shoes. Sure enough, she donned a pair of flats that sparkled dully in a wide array of colors. "Huh. So she does." The Director sighed. "I wish we could just ask Mandy directly what happened. If only she wasn't asleep..."
"But she is." Rainbow pointed out. "And she's out deep. Really deep."
As Mandy continued to give thunderous snores, her leg began to twitch every few seconds, coupled with her giving soft moans as she perched herself on her left side instead of on her stomach. Once she was settled, it was back to the same deal of snoring and muttering gibberish that would make any wizard begin panicking.
"Is it possible that Mandy was framed?" Twilight asked. "I mean, if she did spill the cake, it doesn’t seem like her to just leave it on the floor."
Olive fixed her with a half-lidded stare. "Twilight Sparkle." She took a deep breath. "Did you forget about last week when she showered you and I with mud and pig slop by shaking her body out? Do you know how often she does that? It's more times than there are ponies in Equestria!"
"I don't think she's done it that much..." Twilight raised a hoof, not so sure about the validity of Olive's comparison. "But you're right. It completely slipped my mind."
Otto crossed his arms. "So what do we do now?"
"Hey, why don't we check the Security cameras?" Peaches suggested. "Maybe they caught something!"
Olive's face lit up. "That's a great idea, Peaches! There are cameras in the Toy Room so we should be able to get a good view of what happened!" She began booking it down the hallway. "C'mon, let's go!"
Peaches, Otto and Rainbow all followed suit, while Twilight paused at the doorway to wish Mandy a good sleep before turning off the lights and closing the door behind her.
Mandy awoke with a start. "Whzuh?!" was the first thing that slipped from her mouth as her eyes drooped down. "Felt like..." A mighty yawn. "...summun w'z here..." Her head slowly moved to the left, where a mountain of stuffed toys sat. Slowly but surely, like a newly-hatched turtle making its way to the ocean, she began to inch her way there. "Gotta get more zzleep..." she murmured, only seconds before her body finished its perfunctory ascent so that its lower half was on the floor and its upper half was leaning against the toys. With a much better and warmer sleeping place acquired, her eyes closed again and she made her way into dreamland.
Olive led the group to the North Control Room, which was still littered with cleaning supplies from earlier. She would have taken the time to clean it up and encourage everyone to pitch in if there wasn't a mystery that needed to be solved -- and this time, there was no Oscar there to don his ridiculous-looking detective hat.
She looked around and heaved a sigh. "Oh thank odd, Owen's not around. He probably would never let us use these cameras."
As she sat in one of the swivel chairs that sat behind the control panel, she grabbed the joystick in front of her and got to moving it to the left, where still images of the Breakroom came up. "No, no, no, definitely no..."
"Wait!" Otto reached out a hand, then pointed with his finger at the image Olive was currently on. "The cake is missing in this shot. Move it to the left."
The clicking sound of a projector slide being changed.
"And now it's gone!"
Click.
"...And now it's up again?"
Click.
"And now it's on the floor."
Olive wore a disgruntled expression. "Well that told us absolutely nothing."
Sighs of defeat followed her statement.
"Now what?" Rainbow asked. "Mandy's still asleep and there's no Security footage of what happened!"
"Maybe there's an agent or two who saw what happened." Twilight stomped a hoof onto the ground in determination. "Everyone, split up and ask around. The more stories we get, the closer we'll be to solving this mystery."
The rest of the group was in agreement with the idea, and everyone went in different directions to begin asking every agent they could find about what had happened to Olly's cake.
"Now, I'm sure you're aware of why I gathered you all here."
Applejack stared at Twilight with confusion. "Actually, sugarcube, we haven't the faintest idea why ya called us."
"Ohhh, I do hope it's important." Rarity glanced down the hallway. "I was in the middle of sewing a very important dress!"
Twilight, largely ignoring Rarity's concerns aside from shooting her an assuring smile, jumped right into it, conjuring up an Odd Squad Investigation notepad and a pencil. "Do any of you know about Olly's cake?"
"Oh oh oh!" Pinkie's leg was shot straight up into the air, her hoof waving furiously like she was a filly who wanted to answer a teacher's question. "You mean the one she made juuuuuuust right?"
"Yes, that one. Do you know what happened to the cake that caused it to spill onto the floor, Pinkie?"
The bubbly party pony hesitated. "Um...well..."
"We suspect Mandy is involved somehow." Twilight explained. "The cake footprints we followed led to the Toy Room, and we found her sleeping in there with cake smeared all over her face."
"And y'all're sure she didn't eat th' entire thing?"
"She ate some of it. Or she could have been framed." Twilight threw her hooves into the air. "That's just it, I don't know!"
The interrogation was interrupted by Pinkie giving a long dramatic gasp. "Oh oh, now I remember! Allow Pinkie Pie to tell all..."
See, I was coming back from Equestria when I saw Mandy making something in the Breakroom! So of course I had to go say hello to her.
"Hiya, partner!" I greeted, watching as Mandy yawned. She didn't recognize me, though, and just kept on mixing whatever she was fixing. (Hee-hee, that rhymed!) Anyway, when I saw she didn't answer me, I frowned. Having Mandy not answer any of my hellos was so unlike her! "Mandy! It's me, Pinkie Pie! Your partner! Your friend!"
Finally, she stopped the mixer and looked up at me. And boy, did she look like a wreck! Her crazy hair and tail were even crazier than mine, and that's sayin' something!
"Hm?" She tilted her head. "Oh, it's you."
(Now that I think about it, she did slur her words just a little bit...) My ears drooped. "Whaddya mean, 'it's you'? Don't you recognize me?!"
"'Cooourse! You're..."
She paused and made these weird head movements before she finished with, "...nice and piiiink."
I am nice and pink! But that was besides the point, because I realized something. "Fine, I guess I’ll excuse your behavior this time. But only ‘cause you’re not lookin’ too good!"
Mandy took the mixer out and set it down on the counter, then she kinda stared at the mix like she was expecting something to come out of it. It was kinda funny, but also a little concerning.
"Gotta...get this cake done..."
I gasped. "You're making a cake?! Ooh ooh, let me help you! What kind of cake is it? Who’s it for? Is it someone’s birthday? Are you fighting a super-huge cake monster?!"
But it wasn't either of those. Mandy shook her head, and then she showed me a picture of the one person who's more crazy than I am, and that's sayin' something too!
"It's for Olly?" Mandy nodded, and I wrinkled my nose just a little bit. "Gotta say, that girl’s weird. Even to me. But you’re lookin’ really tired, partner. Why don’t I help ya out? We can be baking buddies!"
"Uh-huh..."
"Yay!" I leaped into the air with excitement and then hopped up onto the table, eyeing the mixture in the bowl. "Looks like you’ve already made the batter. I’ll pour it in the pan and put it into the oven!"
Quickly, I did my thing, getting the cake pan, pouring the batter in, opening the door, and sliding the cake in. I could practically smell how good it was gonna be!
"Ahh, there we go! Now to set the timer..."
As I sat and opened up the smartwatch on my wrist, I heard a moan from Mandy, but I figured she would be okay. She always turns out okay in the end! It's like the girl's invincible! Hee-hee, like partner like partner!
"There we go! Now when that timer goes off, be sure to take it out of the oven, ‘kay? We don’t want another fire! I still get the heebly-jeeblies from the last one…"
And that was when I landed, told Mandy I would see her later, and left the cake in her capable hands!
Twilight finished writing her notes. "Then what happened?"
"Weeeeeell, I got super-busy so I couldn’t check up on the cake, but when I passed the Breakroom the next time I went into the bullpen, I didn’t see it."
"And the cake was still on the floor?"
"Yeah!"
Twilight fell silent, taking a minute to think. "Hmm...maybe Mandy was making another cake to replace the one that she knocked onto the floor. But that doesn’t explain why she was completely drained of energy." She glanced at Pinkie again. "Did you ask her about that?"
"Nope."
"Applejack, Rarity? Do you two know anything?"
"'Fraid not."
"Me neither." Rarity shook her head. "But perhaps you should check her room? There might be something in there that will help you."
Twilight almost wanted to slap herself for missing what had been such an obvious idea. There was a reason why she considered Rarity to be a better detective than her in numerous aspects, and she would have invited the unicorn to join her in solving the case if she wasn't so busy. "Good idea. Thanks, Rarity."
"Not a problem. Ta-ta!"
As Rarity left, so too did Applejack and Pinkie, leaving Twilight with her next lead.
The door to Mandy's room creaked open, and Twilight quickly made her way inside. She began examining the room for any signs that might serve as potential clues, but found nothing -- Mandy's bed was as messy as it usually was, and everything else was spick and span.
With the main area covered, Twilight decided to check the nooks and crannies. She opened drawer after drawer, finding clothes and magazines and a few costumes that showed her anomaly of a friend was gearing up for Halloween despite it being nowhere close to the holiday, but found nothing.
That is, until she got to the nightstand.
The first drawer didn't prove to be any help. The second drawer, on the other hoof, provided something rather interesting.
"Are these...glow sticks?"
They weren't as large as she had expected them to be, instead being about the size and diameter of a filly's leg. They flashed a wide variety of colors, cycling through one color every few seconds, going from green to pink to blue and every other color across the spectrum.
"Were these in her drawer before?" Twilight asked aloud. "Maybe she went to a party recently!" Producing a large envelope and sliding the pair into them, a frown danced on her features. "But what does that have to do with the cake being spilled? I need more information."
She turned on her heel and strode out the door, closing the door behind her.
"Oh, goodness! Olly's cake got destroyed?"
"Yeah, by Mandy." Peaches explained. "So far, all we know is that she ate some of the cake and must have spilled it somehow. Do you have any idea how it landed on the floor?"
Fluttershy was hesitant. She listened to the sounds of the creatures in the Creature Room, many of whom were snoring away or making other odd sleep sounds. "Umm...well..." She rubbed her leg. "I was heading to the Creature Room with an injured odd creature I had found…"
We were going upstairs when we heard a sliding noise, and then a splat as a rectangular cake fell onto the floor. I glanced at Mandy, who looked to be in such a state of disarray. I wondered how she was able to keep the pots and pans and utensils she had in her magic afloat.
"Oops..." she muttered, before giving a yawn.
And then, as she fell asleep and began to snore, her magic began to flicker, sending everything crashing down. Oh, it nearly scared Benjamin out of his feathers, and I can't deny that it nearly scared me out of my feathers too. Still, I took a few steps forward. "Um...Mandy?"
The way she woke up with a snort nearly scared us too. "Whuh-huh?! I-I'm awake, I'm awake..."
"W-what's going on?"
"Cake...Imma...make a new one..."
You know how Rainbow Dash tends to get really drunk when she has too much juice, and her words sound garbled? That was how Mandy spoke. I could barely understand her, but I knew what her answer was in response to my question and worry began to fill my chest. "But you're in no condition to do that! Oh, look at you, you're so tired! What happened to you?"
"Party..."
"A party?" It was then I noticed the flashing glow stick she had around her neck. "Well, that would explain the glow stick."
"Mhm..."
As much as I had wanted to help Mandy, Benjamin's impatient cry forced me to take him up to the Creature Room first. And I still had work to do up there, too, especially with Ocean absent. "All right, let's get you all better, okay?" I assured him, just as I turned and began heading towards the stairs. "I'm sorry, Mandy, but I have to go. See you later! A-and take care of yourself!"
The poor thing looked like she was going to fall over any second! But I couldn't help her...
Fluttershy buried her face with her hooves. "Oh, I feel just awful!"
"Don't be." Peaches knelt down and placed a hand on the Pegasus's shoulder. "Helping your friend is important, but so are your duties. Mandy’s getting some rest in the Toy Room. She’ll be back to her normal self in no time!"
That made Fluttershy feel a little better. She pulled her hooves away and gave a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness."
"So she was wearing a glow stick around her neck and mentioned something about a party. But I didn’t see a glow stick around her neck in the Toy Room...so where did it go?" Peaches' tail-tip flicked as she began running through the clues and discoveries in her mind. "Well, I've got some answers, at least. Thanks a lot, Fluttershy."
"It's no problem!" Fluttershy rose to her hooves. "I wish I could help you but I have to stay here and take care of the creatures."
"That's understandable. Keep working hard!"
The agents (and Peaches) regrouped in the bullpen to share their findings.
"So, did all of you manage to get answers?" Twilight asked.
"I did!" Peaches raised a hand.
Olive and Otto, however, shook their heads. "We didn't."
Twilight fixed her gaze on them as she took out her envelope of evidence. "You didn't?"
"We asked all sorts of agents, but none of them knew what happened." Otto explained.
"I see. Well, why don't I share my findings, then?" Twilight cleared her throat. "I talked to Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity. Applejack and Rarity didn’t know a thing, but Pinkie recalled a time when she came across Mandy making another cake for Olly. Mandy was tired, so Pinkie decided to help her in making it, but left when the cake was in the oven. Pinkie told me that the next time she passed the Breakroom, the cake was missing."
Otto's eyes widened. "Missing? How could it be missing? Why is it missing?"
"If it were still in the oven then there would have been a fire...one that we probably would have noticed." Peaches mused.
"But that's not all." continued Twilight, an edge of excitement to her voice. "Rarity suggested I check Mandy's room, so I took her up on that suggestion and rummaged through her drawers. And what I found…"
She wrapped the envelope in her corona and began taking out the evidence.
"...was this!"
Gasps rung out throughout the circle. Clearly, the last thing any of them would have expected was for glow sticks to be used as a clue.
"Glow sticks?!" Olive groaned. "I told her she couldn't have those anymore after she tried to eat one!"
Peaches examined the items. "Hey, those kind of look like the ones Fluttershy described. She said that Mandy was wearing them around her neck, and when Fluttershy asked her why she looked so tired, she said one word…"
She paused, just for dramatic effect.
"'Party'."
Twilight nodded. "That makes sense. So the reason that Mandy was so tired is because she went to a party last night."
"That had to have been one heck of a party. One of those late-night ones that the adults talk about when they mention...uh…" Otto faltered. "'Party all night and sleep all day'? Something like that."
"And Mandy did spill the cake. Then she made a new cake for Olly. But..." Olive shook her head. "That doesn’t answer where the second cake went. And it doesn’t definitively explain why she had cake all over her face."
"But we're making progress." Twilight pointed out, with a smile and a confident nod.
The sound of fingers snapping, followed by a sharp "Aha!", made everyone look towards Peaches.
"What is it?" Otto asked.
"I want to go back to the Toy Room and study Mandy."
Olive fixed the catgirl with a weird look. "You want to watch her sleep?"
"What- no! Just..." Peaches sighed. "Trust me. This catgirl never lies."
The statement was met with incredulous looks.
"...This catgirl sometimes lies!"
Watching the cat form of Peaches slink out of the room, the rest of the group waited to see what the catgirl had up her sleeve.
"Do any of you know how Mandy's tail works?"
Looks were shared among the group, and almost all of them were expressing the same thing, which Olive was more than happy to provide. "And what makes you think we know?"
"Eh, worth a shot." Peaches rolled her front haunches in a shrugging motion. "Anyway, I have reason to believe the new cake is hidden in that tail. You all know how Mandy keeps all sorts of stuff in there." She blinked. "Up to and including ponies...I still haven’t forgotten Scootaloo somehow building a swimming pool in there."
Otto in particular looked rather bitter at that statement. He had wanted to go in and see the pool for himself, but as one of the tallest agents, he wasn't allowed in Mandy's tail. Something about "disturbing the space-time continuity", she had said once.
"But how are we going to get it out?" Twilight posed.
"I think her tail works in the same manner as our backs." Olive said, an unsure waver to her voice. "You know, how we can take anything we need out of there in an instant?"
"But it's not a skill that's learned in an instant. They teach it to agents at the Academy." Otto pointed out, not wanting to get into the issue of how adults had the same skill.
"So how does it work?" Peaches asked.
"Maybe if Mandy thinks of the cake, we can take it out!"
"Okay." Rainbow nodded. "So all we have to do is get Mandy to think of the cake."
Four pairs of eager eyes all landed on one human child.
"...Why are you all looking at me like that?"
That was the last question she had posed before she was forcefully thrust into the room by one alicorn with a horn and one Pegasus with speed and a set of wings.
"You know, I hope you take my hatred of you to your graves."
"Just do it, Olive!" Peaches whispered, shooing the girl with her paw.
Olive, realizing she had no choice in the matter, gave a groan and began slowly stalking her way over to Mandy. The hybrid's upper body was still elevated by the mysterious mountain of toys that sat in the middle of her room, her leg and foot twitching for a few moments before it fell still. She still had drool pouring from her mouth that landed directly on a stuffed Cocker Spaniel toy, and the snores she gave were as blaring as ever.
A snort. A long squeaky yawn. Then production resumed. Olive tried not to find the act adorable.
"Mandy? It's me, Olive!" she murmured, kneeling down and getting as close to Mandy's human ear as she could. "Um...I happened to hear from a little birdie that you were baking a cake for Olly to replace one that you spilled on the floor. Is this true?"
All she got were, of course, snores and gibberish.
"I'll take that as a yes." She cleared her throat as her plan slowly began to form in her mind. "Let’s do a fun thinking exercise, right now! Work that imaginative brain while you’re sleeping!" She clasped her hands together. "I want you to imagine that cake you made. Nice rectangular shape, blue frosting, white-laced trim…"
The snoring ceased. A happy "mmmmm!" rattled about in Mandy's throat as her mouth turned upward. Although Olive couldn't see it, she was actually imagining several layers of the same cake, all stacked on top of each other. And by "several", it was actually "hundreds". Of course, she was devouring every single layer in one go, her stomach a purely infinite cosmos that never seemed to get full.
"It tastes delicious, right? I know, I'm starting to get hungry just talking about it! Now keep thinking..."
With a smile, Olive waved at the group, a gesture for them to come in. They all did so, making sure to be quiet as they crept their way over to Mandy's tail. Lucky for them that it wasn't wagging as a result of the good dreams that Olive had planted into her brain.
"I volunteer to dig through the tail!"
Peaches shot Otto a pointed look. "Good. None of us were offering."
The Director rubbed his hands together excitedly and dipped his hands in. He could feel them brushing up against all sorts of stuff, though what stuff he was touching remained unknown to him. "Wait, no- ow!"
Twilight immediately went on alert. "Otto, are you all right?"
"I felt something sharp!" Otto shook his head. "Ugh, whatever. Hold on." A few more seconds of rustling and he was able to grip the item he needed -- a large silver tray. "Got it! I-I think! Twilight, help me!"
"What about me?!" chimed Peaches and Rainbow in unison, watching as Twilight lit up her horn and Otto tugged on the item that seemed to be embedded in Mandy's tail like a splinter in a finger. Twilight's magic was, perhaps, the only thing that saved the cake from being flung up into the air, as it kept it steady while Otto pulled.
When the deed was done, Otto panted and held up the culinary delight, which was still intact. "One...cake..."
"Good job, partner! Lucky pull!" Olive praised. She gave a chuckle. "And you were none the wiser, were you, Ma- hey!"
With Olive's attention focused on the rest of the group, she had failed to notice Mandy had begun chewing on her jacket sleeve, getting drool all over it. She could start to feel it soaking into her undershirt, which would then go to her skin...and that was something she didn't want to think about.
"Stop chewing on my sleeve! It's not cake!" She desperately tried to move her arm around, but Mandy's head followed suit no matter which direction she pulled it in.
"You need help?" Peaches dropped a toy in front of the pair. "Here's a stuffed bunny. It smells like...uh..." She sniffed it. "Is that what you guys call 'cinnamon'?"
"It could smell like rotten eggs at the dump and I'd still give it to her if it meant not eating my jacket!" Olive hissed at the catgirl, grabbing the toy and thrusting it in front of Mandy.
The hybrid gave a few tentative sniffs, slowly let go of Olive's sleeve, and clutched her teeth and lips around the leg of the toy.
"There you go. You can chew on that." Olive waved her arm around in a vain attempt to get rid of the drool.
"You were the one who made the suggestion to have Mandy think of the cake!"
"Otto, that was Rainbow Dash." Olive pointed. "Blame her."
"Hey!"
"Anyway, whatever, point is, we have the cake now." Olive stood up. "Let's go to the Breakroom."
The group left the room once again, leaving Mandy to it as she continued through her glorious cake-eating dreams.
That is, until she woke up with a furious flurry of snorts. "Wah-huh?!" She let go of the toy, letting it fall to the floor. Her eyes drooped, and she yawned. "Can people quit buggin' me when I'm tryna...zzleep..."
Like someone had pulled the plug on her brain enough to pop it out of the outlet, she was back to sleeping again, her snores seeming just a tad few decibels louder this time.
In the Breakroom, Peaches moved around the table, eyeing the cake intently.
"So what are you finding out, detective?" Twilight asked.
"This is the second cake, for sure. And it looks intact." Peaches glanced at Olive and Otto. "Is there a gadget that can scan a cake and put up some sort of...picture of how it looks whole?"
Both Directors exchanged glances. Otto shook his head. "I don't think so."
"Darn."
"Why are you asking?"
"I think I can figure out why there's cake on Mandy's face. But I want to be sure." The sound of pencil meeting paper and the corona of a unicorn -- or in this case, an alicorn -- brought Peaches' attention away from her thoughts, and her gaze moved to Twilight, who had her notepad and a pencil wrapped up in magic. "What are you writing?"
"I've been writing down clues. That way, we can piece the clues of this mystery together."
"Good idea!" Olive nodded. "You're one smart cookie, Twilight."
"Thank you." Twilight chose to ignore the vacant stare that Otto had going on, which she deduced was due to Olive mentioning cookies. "So the story goes as follows. Mandy, who had exhausted all of her energy at a party last night, spilled the first cake that Olly made, and decided to make a new one. When the cake was completed, Mandy hid it in her tail for an undisclosed reason." She tapped the pencil against the paper. "So we need to know two things. Why Mandy went to the Breakroom to begin with, and how she wound up falling asleep in the Toy Room."
Olive tapped her chin. "I wonder if Oprah sent her to the Toy Room on an order, or maybe a case...but if she did, then she would probably be looking for her."
"We’ve asked almost everyone in Headquarters, though." Otto gave a soft exhale. "At this point we’ll have to ask Mandy herself."
The minute-long silence that hung in the air was almost deafening. Key word "almost", because the sounds of other agents going about their business slightly mitigated it.
"Aha!"
Olive blinked in surprise. "W-what? What is it, partner?"
"I don't wanna call myself a hero...but I got this."
"Oh no." The response was almost instinctual. Olive clearly remembered the last time Otto had used that phrase, when he had tried to put the Dream-inator helmet on Mandy while she was sleeping only for it to break upon impact with the floor because she had shifted in bed.
He held so much confidence and it had all gone to pot. She didn't expect this time to go any differently.
She and the others watched Otto leave, and then return several seconds later with a helmet in his hand. It looked nothing like the Dream-inator, instead looking more like someone bought a colander and haphazardly slapped some wires and a small pneumatic tube system on top of it.
"Okay. So this is the Memory-inator. It allows someone to see the memories of another person, or another pony, and it just might be able to-"
"Oh my odd, why didn't we think of that before?!" Olive exclaimed. "We can use this gadget to search through Mandy's memories!" She placed a hand on Otto's shoulder. "Otto, you're a genius."
"Learned from the best!"
A few minutes later, the group was back in the doorway of the Toy Room, where Mandy's snores hadn't just decreased in volume, they were broken up at a few points in her slumber. She hadn't changed position, though, which wasn't good considering how many stuffed animals could knock the helmet off, but it didn't stop Rainbow and Peaches from working together to gently shift Mandy to the floor without her stirring. As the helmet didn't have range, she and the others resolved to keep their voices hushed to as not to wake Mandy up.
"All right, let's start this baby up!" Peaches said, adjusting the helmet so it fit perfectly on Mandy's head.
Otto took the bulky cube-shaped remote in his hands and pressed the green button in the middle.
"Please enter a set date and timeframe."
Otto punched in the date.
"Date entered. Timeframe required for activation. Please enter a timeframe."
A bitten lip marked Otto's hesitance. Luckily, Peaches was there to pick up the slack. "Knowing my cousin, she probably came back from the party pretty late. Maybe 5AM?"
Olive choked on the water she had sipped, the bottle in her hand nearly being crushed in her shock as she whipped her head towards Peaches. "F-five?! In the morning?!"
"Hey, when you're partying hard, time flies!" Peaches shrugged. "Or, well...that's what Pinkie Pie says."
"Okay, 5AM it is." Otto entered the time into the machine using the up and down arrows situated on the left and right of the remote.
"Are you sure this is correct?" the automated voice responded, before an image of the date and timeframe that Otto had inputted appeared in front of the group.
Otto, of course, pushed the green button.
"Initiating memory sequence. Please use the left and right buttons on your remote for navigation."
The screen flickered with snow for a few brief moments before an image came into view -- one that started moving through a first-person point of view. It didn't take much thought for anyone to come to the conclusion that they were now seeing the world through the eyes of Mandy, specifically one that had entered a nearly-darkened bullpen.
Glancing at her hand and then holding it up to her head, the hybrid yawned. "Ugh, my head's poundin'..." she muttered. "That was too much of a party...so tired...never gonna..." Another yawn. "...convince Pinkie to make me do 'n all-night party again..."
That made both Rainbow's and Twilight's eyes widen. Rainbow in particular knew Pinkie had a tendency for partying a lot, and she herself had attended many of her all-night ones -- but to drag Mandy into one didn't seem possible. It was a similar story for Twilight, who hadn't attended as many of those kinds of parties but knew that Mandy going to one wouldn't do much wonders for her physical, mental and emotional states.
The sound of sniffing could be heard, followed by a sleepy "Zzo hungry..."
"It's Olly's cake!" Peaches pointed out, as Mandy's head tilted downwards.
"Can't even..." Slowly, Mandy's magic encased the cake and tore off about as big of a piece as she could muster before bringing it to her mouth and eating it. However, her other hand was largely on the silver tray that held the cake, and before she could finish her piece, her body leaned forward, causing her hand to slip and the tray to collapse to the floor.
In response to her mistake, another yawn escaped Mandy's mouth. Ambling her way to the other side of the table, she ate the rest of her piece, then grabbed a whole slew of pots, pans and utensils with her magic. A small "Oops..." left her mouth. Her view went dark as her eyes slowly closed and she began to fall asleep, the image flickering as though it was actively glitching.
"Um...partner?"
From there, the conversation with Fluttershy played out exactly as the Pegasus had told Peaches it did, right down to the word. One thing that everyone in the group noted was that Mandy's eyes kept drooping closed, but something within her always made them snap back open. It was clear that she was trying to fight a war of attrition, but was slowly and surely beginning to lose.
"Otto, fast-forward until she starts mixing the batter." Twilight instructed.
The Director nodded, pressed the right arrow button on the remote, and watched as the video moved forward. When he could make out the shape of Mandy holding a mixer in a bowl, he pressed the Play button.
Sure enough, Twilight and the others began to understand. As they watched the conversation with Pinkie Pie play out -- also down to the word -- they noted that Mandy's drooping eyes became more and more prominent.
"Fast-forward again."
Otto did as Twilight instructed, pressing the right arrow button and letting the video fast-forward. He stopped when he saw Mandy staring at a fully-baked cake, with a thick wisp of steam rising from it.
"Okay, so the cake's out of the oven now." Peaches mused.
A loud yawn that ended in a squeak came out of Mandy. "Not gonna lazzt much longer..." She groaned in pain, which was predicted to have come from the headache she was suffering from. Lighting up her horn again, she grabbed the piping bag and slowly began to frost her masterpiece.
Rainbow's eyes widened. "Wow, she's good with the frosting. Even when she's tired!"
Indeed, Mandy's aim was quite accurate in spite of her fatigue. By the time she was done, it looked like a cake she could present at a baking competition.
"Yeah. If she doesn't eat the entire tube first." Olive responded with a roll of her eyes. "And that includes the piping bag itself, mind you."
"N' izz done!" declared Mandy, shortly before a yawn came out of her. "All right, all right, I'm goin'..."
Now it was the moment of truth. As her magic encased the cake, the group heard the sound of rustling that they didn't need to question. From there, she ambled away from the Breakroom, taking slow footsteps towards the hallway.
"She's on the move again." Twilight observed, conjuring up her notepad and pencil and writing down notes, having neglected to do so as she became absorbed in viewing Mandy's memories.
Olive buried her face in her hands. "She's going at about the same speed as rush-hour traffic." she complained. "Otto, for the love of odd, fast-forward."
Giving a playful roll of his eyes, Otto fast-forwarded the video again until the view was that of a door -- one that was very familiar.
"Ah, finally...I can get some..." Another yawn. Rainbow, who had been turning the yawns into a fake drinking game, mimed taking a shot of cider. "...zzleep..."
"That's not her room." Olive's eyes widened. "That's the Toy Room!"
The door opened and closed, and Mandy began walking around the room. Where she was, exactly, no one knew, as she didn't have her horn providing any illumination nor did she have any lights turned on. The natural light from the window didn't help all that much, either. Her energy completely spent, she collapsed on her knees, and then on her stomach as she quickly fell asleep.
Otto pressed the red button.
"Turning off Memory-inator..." the automated voice chimed, before the image went away.
Olive took the liberty of removing the helmet from Mandy's head before she could break it. "So that's what happened!" The Director stopped for a moment. "W-well, it doesn't really explain how Mandy got trapped in those ribbons...but anyway." She smiled. "Did you get all of that, Twilight?"
"Yes I did. We finally have all the pieces to the puzzle!" The alicorn gave an exhale, and began her summation. "The reason why Mandy spilled the cake was because she was tired. The reason why she fell asleep in the Toy Room was because she was so tired that she thought the Toy Room was the Bedroom. And the reason why she hid the second cake in her tail…" She faltered. "Well...there's...no definitive answer for that. Either it was also due to her exhaustion, or it's just Mandy being Mandy."
"How did the cake not have any of her tail hairs on it?" Rainbow asked, mostly voicing her own thoughts aloud, which only earned her collective shrugs.
Mid-snore, Mandy stretched out her body and rolled over onto her left side, muttering something that Olive and Otto heard as "cheese dishes", Twilight and Rainbow heard as "meese and fishes", and Peaches heard as "I'm not translating that to save my sanity".
"Jeez, Mandy, there's a reason why parents set curfews for their kids." Olive shook her head before checking her watch. "It's 2 o' clock in the afternoon and you're still out like a light."
"Do you think she'll wake up by tonight?"
Otto's question got a hearty laugh from Peaches. "Nonsense, Otto! Knowing her, she’ll wake up the next morning. When she parties, she parties hard. Even at ones that last all night!"
"Well, anyway...mystery solved!" Twilight declared, tucking her notepad and pencil away behind her back with a sigh. "If no other agent's gotten to it yet, we should clean up the cake that’s on the floor, at least. And then we’ll get back to spring cleaning!"
Everyone gave their own murmurs of agreement to that plan.
Olive stood up, then bent down to grab Mandy. "C'mere, you...hnngh!"
Silence. Olive's eye twitched.
"Has it finally happened?" Otto's eyes gained little shimmers within them. "Have you finally thrown out your back?!"
"No..." Olive groaned. "Mandy's heavy. Really heavy." She gave a few more grunts of effort. "Unusually heavy. Was that first cake made out of dumbbeeeeeeeee- waaaaah!"
Like giving a sacrifice to the gods of the Volcano Room, Olive held Mandy high up into the air, the hybrid's weight having shifted so that the Director was nearly sent flying.
Otto snickered. "How long has it been since you last went to the gym?"
"If I wasn't holding a hundred-and-fifteen-pound hybrid I'd give you such a sock in the face your nose would be panicking."
"Panicking about what?"
"Just forget it. I'm taking Mandy to bed." Lowering the hybrid so that she was in the bridal-carry position, Olive stomped out of the room, muttering swear words under her breath.
"Ooh, I think I heard a..." Peaches paled. "I'm...oh...I'm not repeating that."
Otto snapped his fingers. "Darn it."
As soon as Olive put Mandy to bed in her room, tucking her in with the stuffed bunny she had been chewing on and fetching her a glass of water for when she would eventually wake up with a dry mouth, it was off to the Bedroom to find the one who had made Mandy so tired to begin with. She didn't know exactly where Pinkie is at the moment, but figured that, since the Bedroom was so close by, it was as good of a place to look as any.
Sure enough, when she threw open the door, there was the pink party pony in question, scribbling excitedly in a notebook as she sat on her bed. Upon hearing the noise, she became startled as the pencil flew out of her mouth.
"Agent Pinkamena Diane Pie."
"Olive?" Pinkie smiled. "Hiya! What's up? What's down? What's with the smile turned upside down?"
Clearly, the full-name ultimatum tactic had failed. It didn't deter Olive any, however. "Don't play innocent with me."
"W-what? I didn't do anything, I swear!"
"You sure did." Olive crossed her arms and shook her head in disapproval. "Letting Mandy convince you to attend an all-night party with her, how could you? You know she always needs her sleep!"
Pinkie shot up to her hooves. "But, but you don’t understand! She told me I would get a huuuuge plate of cookies if she let me go! And you know I can’t say no to a huuuuuge plate of cookies!"
Olive blinked. "She bribed you?"
"Yeah!"
"And did she give you the cookies?"
"Nope!" Pinkie shrugged. "I forgot to ask her about it, but she was so tired from making that second cake I didn't want her to strain herself further by making a batch of cookies for me!"
Olive gripped her pant leg. "My daughter...resorted to bribery...so she could go to an all-nighter party." Her body relaxed, and she heaved a sigh. "Well, manipulation is one of her many skills...but Pinkie, really, don't you have any willpower? Any self-control?"
"Clearly not!"
Taking a deep breath, she made her way over to Pinkie's bed. "Listen. I shouldn't need to reiterate this to you, but I can and I will." She leaned close to the mare's face. "A person like Mandy cannot handle an all-nighter. I still remember the last one she pulled. It was horrific."
"Yeah! You were stranded on top of a Ferris wheel!" Pinkie giggled. "It was hilarious!" As her brain registered Olive's unamused look, she gave a sheepish smile. "I'll, uh...stop talking now."
"Anyway..." Olive pulled back. "You should hopefully learn your lesson for next time. If Mandy tries to convince you to do a fun thing, try and use your common sense and determine whether it’ll kill you or not."
"Will do!"
Eking out a relieved sigh, Olive's head moved towards the doorway. "In the meantime, you should let her rest. Knowing her, she won’t wake up until tomorrow."
Pinkie's eyes began to shimmer. "Ooh, ooh, you know what that means?"
"Lots and lots of food."
The answer was unisonant. Olive rolled her eyes. "I know. I plan on making her a feast as soon as the Breakroom is cleaned up."
"You want some help?"
"No, no, I've got it."
"Aww, why not?"
Olive bit her lip. "This is...uh, w-well...it's something I have to do alone." She went for the doorway. "Uh...s-see you later."
As the Director hastily shuffled out and closed the door behind her, she buried her face in her hands. Secretly she wanted Pinkie to help, and had no idea why she had said she wanted to cook everything on her own. Maybe the "being the absolute perfect parent" idea was wearing her thin. Or maybe it was just a slip-up. Who was to say.
Steeling herself, she left to join up with the rest of the group, hoping to get back to cleaning now that the mystery had been solved.
By the time the day came to a close, most of Headquarters had been cleaned up. There were still a few areas that needed a deep clean, but Oprah had resolved to focus on that tomorrow. Cleaning up Headquarters, however, included the cake that was spilled, meaning that the ragtag group of detectives had to go and give it back to Olly and deal with more of her insane antics.
"Again, I can’t thank you all enough for finding my cake. One of these days I’ll expose Mandy’s true identity as a cafeteria person ally…" An ominous music sting sounded off from somewhere. Olly narrowed her eyes. "One day."
Murmurs of "you're welcome" and similar phrases came in response.
"Please don’t be too upset at Mandy, Olly." Olive begged. "She was tired and hungry and the cake was the first thing she saw."
Olly, knowing Mandy pretty well, gave a lighthearted laugh. "Noooo, of course not!" Her laughter suddenly turned stilted. "Noooooo. I would never."
The group met this outburst of craziness with pure apathy.
"Anyway, see you around!"
As Olly left, Peaches' nose wrinkled. "I’ve seen some odd stuff during my time here, but she just might take the cake for the most odd person. Ahem. Pun unintended."
The sound of slow approaching footsteps made everyone turn towards the right-side hallway, where "I just got dragged through a meat grinder at least five times and lived" Mandy was stumbling towards them. She winced in pain as she clutched her head, her left eye creaking open to eye the agents who were passing her through.
"Oh! Mandy, you're awake!"
"Oww!" Mandy shook her head. "Please, Twilight..." She yawned. "...be a little more quiet. In fact, if all of ya could be more quiet, that would be great."
"Something wrong with your head?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes. I got it run over by a car. One hundred times. Give or take a couple." Mandy winced again. "None of ya would happen to have any painkillers on ya, wouldja?"
Olive reached behind her back and took a bottle of aspirin out. "Always." She opened the cap and dropped two pills into her hand, then held them out to Mandy. "Here."
Eagerly, Mandy took the pills, popping them in her mouth and dry-swallowing them. "How long do these take to work?"
"A minute or two."
Grateful that it wouldn't take hours, Mandy smiled. "All righty then. On to my next piece of business." She reached behind her back, pulled out a piece of paper and some glasses, and got to reading. "You five wakin' me up way too many times to count."
Otto blinked. "You woke up? And you didn't think to ask us about the cake?"
"The huh?"
Olive shoved Otto aside. "Mandy, are you aware that you ate part of Olly's special cake? And you ruined it by knocking it to the floor?"
Mandy tilted her head. "I did?"
Now it was Peaches' turn to chime in "You were so tired from that all-night party you went to last night that you were barely functional by the time you got back at 5 in the morning!"
Slowly but surely, the events that had transpired began to click in Mandy's head. "I did?!" She recoiled. "Oh jeez, I-I'm so sorry! It was an accident, honestly! I-I wasn't in control of myself, my head was hurting so badly but I felt so tired and ouchy and I just wanted to sleep things off and- and-" She shook her head. "I gotta make her ano-" Moving her neck about, she spotted a perfect replica of the cake sitting on the counter. "Okay, but what about the-" And then, her gaze moved to the floor, where the ruined cake had been all cleaned up. "I...huh."
"For the record, Mandy, you made this cake." Twilight pointed at the dessert delight. "Other agents cleaned up the cake that spilled. It was spring cleaning the other day."
Mandy's body deflated slightly. Her mouth was slightly open, her pupils shrunk to convey the feeling of horror that had washed throughout her entire body. "S-s-spring...spring cleaning..."
Rainbow hovered over to Mandy and rapped her skull a few times. Like everyone else, she wasn't surprised that it sounded hollow. "Uhh, Mandy? You alive in there? That aspirin didn't do anything bad to you, did it?"
The Pegasus had turned on a switch in Mandy's brain. With a quick "Ihaftago!", the hybrid sped off, sending two agents spinning like tops and colliding with each other before falling to the floor.
"Wow, she didn't even touch any of the fo-"
A whoosh sound billowed the hair of the five detectives. When they looked back at the table, they found every last scrap of food gone, barring the cake.
"Yeah okay, I should've seen that coming."
"Soooooo..." Otto twiddled his fingers. "What just happened?"
"Ah, same thing that happens every year." Olive smirked. "Mandy misses spring cleaning because she's either sleeping for the entire day or something comes up where she has to be away. So she wakes up the next day in a complete panic and proceeds to scrub the entire Headquarters top to bottom even when numerous agents tell her they did it already." She gave a soft sigh. "All under the pretense that Oprah will kill her if she doesn't pitch in."
"So that's why. I don't blame her, really. Oprah probably would kill her if all she did was sit on her tail all day." Otto glanced up towards Oprah's office. "But...all that's really left to do is a few rooms. She could probably clean all those in an instant! Ten seconds flat, even!"
"Hey!"
Ignoring Rainbow's cry of protest, Olive placed her hands on Otto's shoulders. "Aww, partner, do we have to?" she asked, her voice just slightly edging into a whine. "I kind of enjoy the random breezes I get! This Headquarters gets really hot sometimes."
"Don't be sadistic." Otto chided, before his ears picked up on the sound of whooshing coming his way. Smiling, he stuck out an arm, whereupon Mandy proceeded to run right into it, the broom in her grasp clattering to the floor as she made a loud choking noise from where her neck had collided with Otto's lower arm. "Mandy, stop this. You can't clean the entirety of Headquarters. You're only one person."
Rubbing her neck, Mandy glanced at the broom, then at Otto. "But-"
"No buts." Otto turned to Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "Do you two know what rooms still have to be cleaned?"
Rainbow nodded. "Sure do. Ms. O gave us a list."
"Just give me one room."
"The Games Room badly needs a cleaning, if Mandy doesn't play all the ga- aaaaand she's gone."
Otto whirled back around.
A bout of high-pitched maniacal laughter echoed through the halls that coalesced into a panicked scream.
Olive immediately began passing around the aspirin like they were gumballs from a machine.
"And in the future..." Olive pressed her finger hard against Mandy's nose. "Don't bribe people...er, or ponies...to let you do something that's bad for your health! You know you can't pull all-nighters!"
Mandy rocked back and forth in her desk chair. "Aw c’mon, Momma! You know I can’t resist a good party! And this one was just screaming for me to go to it!" She futilely reached her hands out and put on a pleading expression. "'Mandy, Mandy...come to meeeee! Rock n' roll all night and party every daaaaay!'"
"You didn't even uphold your end of the bribe!"
"I thought I did..." Mandy thought for a moment. "Huh. Guess I didn't. Well, I've got about two hours 'til naptime, so I'm sure I can crank out Pinkie's favorite cookies!"
As the hybrid cracked her knuckles and began walking towards the Breakroom, Twilight followed her. "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask you, Mandy. Don't you want to hear how we solved The Mystery of the Missing Cake?"
Mandy gave a dramatic gasp. "You guys solved a mystery?! Without me?! Awwwww, c'mon! You guys always leave me outta the good stuff! It's not fair!" She stuck out her bottom lip. "Okay, fine. Tell the story while I bake."
By the time Twilight got done reiterating what had happened, the cookies were in the oven, and she and Mandy were sitting around the table waiting for them to finish baking.
"So that's how I found myself in my room!" Mandy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. I was wondering why I had a stuffed rabbit in my mouth, and I really really hoped it wasn't 'cuz I decided to go sleepwalking again!"
"I do have to wonder, though...how did you get tangled in all those ribbons?"
Mandy simply gave a shrug. "I dunno. By the time I had finished baking the second cake I was pretty close to losing it."
Twilight exhaled. "Well, anyway, I'm glad I can mark this case solved. And, I've re-learned a lesson."
"You have?"
"A Mandy who is sleep-deprived is a bad Mandy to mess with. So, we really should let you get some sleep and not disturb you."
"And how many times have you learned this lesson?"
Twilight faltered. "I..." She bit her lip and closed her eyes in resignation. "Too many times."
"My point exactly." Mandy got up and began heading for the pantry of cooking supplies. "Long since my transformation came about have I been debating the usage of heavy-duty earplugs to stop you guys from yappin' about when I'm tryna get some beauty sleep. I guess now I have a reason to actually go and buy some."
"After all this time?"
Mandy, gripping a colander in her corona, slowly turned her upper body around to face Twilight. "Don't make me hurl this at your head, Sparkle." She grabbed the rest of her supplies without looking and slammed them down onto the table. "But yes. I'm not rich. I forget things." Pausing her rant, she turned towards the automatic doors, as though hearing something come in. But nothing had presented itself. She quickly composed herself and went back to her cooking supplies. "Momma nearly sliced my arm off the last time I stole hers...so here I am, with no earplugs, being bothered by people whining and screaming and talking while I'm just trying to eat waffle fountains and find a good brand of gummy bears that won't break my jaw and doesn't cost more than five dollars!"
In response to the nonsensical tangent her friend had gotten into, Twilight heaved a sigh.
A ding brought Mandy out of her frustrated reverie. She immediately flung herself at the oven, opening it and using a mitt to grab ahold of the tray that held the cookies before she put it down. A second ding could be heard, and she repeated the process, this time with a large vanilla cake.
Twilight tilted her head. "Another cake?"
"Yup yup!" Mandy's tail twitched with excitement. "I figure I'd make one that we could all share, since the first cake got ruined and the second one...uh..." She blinked. "Well, it's somewhere. I think."
Reaching behind her, she grabbed ahold of her tail and yanked it so it was in front of her. "Eh...ah, where'd I put the frosting..." She thrust her hand in the tail's interior and began digging around. "Wow, I have a lotta stuff...no wonder I've been feelin' so bottom-heavy lately..."
A loud snap resonated throughout the room, making the other members of the mystery-solving group, who had been conversing among themselves, turn their attentions towards Mandy.
"Oww!" As the hybrid pulled her hand out, she saw a small alligator with its sharp teeth clamped down hard on her hand. It looked like Pinkie's pet in almost every aspect bar the murderous look it had, and, of course, its teeth. Mandy frantically and quickly waved her arm up and down in an attempt to get it off. "Get outta here, ya finituckin' freeloader! Ugh, gators these days!"
The small animal went soaring up into the air and landed on all four feet on Mandy's desk. It stared at the group inquisitively before it bared its teeth in a snarl.
Peaches was the first to react, giving a sharp yowl. "W-what is that thing?! Get it away from me!"
Olive fixed the catgirl with an odd look. "That's called an alligator, Peaches."
"Well can you...oh, I dunno...get rid of it?!" Peaches thrust an index finger at it. "That thing is going to shred my face!"
Rainbow swooped up the gator in her hooves, zoomed to the Creature Room with it, then zoomed back, all within the span of a few seconds. "There. Problem solved."
"Ye-e-eeeeees!" Mandy grinned. "It's complete! The Mega-Master Mo' Mocha Cake! And I'm not sleep-deprived this time! I proved them wrong, all of them, wrong!!"
The group watched Mandy ramble with disinterested looks on their faces.
"She's been hanging around Oona too much." Olive deadpanned.
Peaches and Otto echoed the sentiment with a nod and a "Clearly."
"And now..." Mandy reached behind her back and took out a knife. "...we cut!"
Within seconds, and with chops smoother than that of a ninja's, the cake was cut into perfectly even slices.
"Et voila!" Mandy smiled at her handiwork before she turned and spotted the group. "And now lookie what we have here!" She slid over to them. "Buddies, tomodachis, amigos! Would you care for a lovely slice..." An eyebrow raise. "...of cake?"
Olive eyed the culinary creation curiously. "I would...but is it poison?"
Mandy blinked for one second, then two. Then came the snort, followed by a round of laughter. "Aww, Momma, you should quit workin' for Odd Squad and become a comedian instead!" She gave a sigh. "But the answer is no. No, it's not poison. Why would I be givin' it to Olly if it were poison?"
"But I thought you already gave a cake to Olly." Otto remarked.
"Yeah. But this one I made without sleep deprivation! And it's delish!"
"Were you planning on giving out a piece to the entire precinct?"
"Well, I was...but there are a loooooootta agents here." Mandy looked around. "So I limited it to a medium-size."
"Uh-huh." Olive conjured up two movie tickets. "Anyway, if you're not busy, you can come to the Mystia Theater with me. I hear Defenders of the Stars is finally out!"
Mandy gasped. "I've wanted to see that movie for a year and a half! I'm in!"
As Olive and Mandy left the bullpen, everyone else parted ways as well, unaware that Olly was passing by and staring at the cake.
A squint, and then a furious cry.
"Ohh, stupid cafeteria ally!"
