Cutie Mark Crusader Investigators

Chapters

Big Trouble in Little Ponyville
Purple Dragon
A Morbid Taste for Sweets
And Then There Were Some
The Parlor Room Scene

Big Trouble in Little Ponyville

Archer had been happy with her project. She had created a great diorama for their school’s “Diorama Month”. It featured the migration movements of the jellyfish that lived off the coast of Baltimare and actually had little jellyfish figurines that would move around when a lever was wound. It was the best thing she had ever made for school and she held her chin high. She went in early today since this was the day judging would occur and she wanted to make sure everything was ready for her teacher and her new Aide. She’d make her parents so proud today.

She went to the school and found that the door had been suspiciously unlocked. Thinking that it was odd for the school barn to be open this early, she checked out the inside and noticed that everything was dark. She turned on the lights and found, to her horror, the remains of her diorama.

“Nooo!” she yelled, wondering how this could have happened. This was more than just a broken diorama; this thing had been pretty much eviscerated, with most of it actually turned into dust! There had been a crime committed in Ponyville, and the culprit would soon be caught.

“I can’t WAIT to show Cheerilee my diorama! I spent an entire week researching how Canterlot City was built to make this model!” an exuberant Sweetie Bell said, bouncing along while carrying her project in a wagon. Applebloom and Scootaloo were with her as well, bringing along their respective dioramas.

“I sure hope Ms. Cheerilee likes my Farming Diorama! Tells ponies about how we prepare the food and all for them to eat,” Applebloom said proudly.

“Oh yeah? I’m sure I’ll win with my awesome diorama of how Rainbow Dash is the most awesome pony! It has charts, data, lots of words, and a model of me and Rainbow Dash flying!” Scootaloo was excited as well. She didn’t have many times during the school year where they actually built things with their own two hooves. The three of them trotted peacefully along to the school when they saw the commotion that was outside.

“Hey! What’s going on?” Applebloom asked, seeing a bunch of their classmates outside. “Hey, Featherweight, you know what’s happening?”

“It’s a tragedy! I’ve been taking notes myself for the Foal Free Press with all the drama that’s been going on. There’s just too much information for one reporter!” the small pegasus said before heading off to gather interviews.

“Let’s check this out,” Sweetie Bell said as the three of them entered the school barn. They saw different ponies gathered around where the dioramas had been stored and a clearing where the diorama had once stood. They were surprised to see it in such a bad condition. It almost looked as if the entire thing had caught on fire, but there weren’t any scorch marks. Archer was sitting at her desk, her head tucked into her hooves, sad at how all her work had been destroyed.

“Anypony care to explain how this happened?” Cheerilee asked her class. Nopony responded.

“I can assure you that if this was an accident, you won’t be punished. However, if you don’t come forward I can assure you that we WILL investigate and find the pony responsible. Then you’ll be sorry.” She was not looking that happy today. At that moment, Silent Study, Cheerilee’s new Aide, entered the classroom with a box containing blue ribbons and small prizes, unaware of what had happened.

“Hello everypony! Are you all excited for today’s judging?” the unaware unicorn Aide asked.

“I’m sorry Silent, but we’ll have to postpone the competition. It appears one of the classmates messed with Archer’s diorama and ruined it,” the disappointed teacher explained.

“Oh. I’m so sorry to hear that, Archer. Let’s see what some glue can do, alright?” the Aide said, trying to cheer up the distraught earth pony.

“Is it magical glue, because that’s the only thing I could imagine working with it,” Archer said, pointing at the pile of dust that used to be her pride-and-joy.

“Oh,” he replied, realizing that that could’ve gone better.

“Was there any evidence?” asked Truffle Shuffle. He had just entered the schoolroom with his diorama that detailed the complex digestion and breakdown of a cookie after being eaten.

“I don’t think so,” Cheerilee replied, desperately hoping that whoever the pony who did this would come forward. She really didn’t want to have to investigate and find one of her students had done something so mean and awful to another’s hard work. “Whatever was the cause, I’ve deduced that her project was destroyed by magic. Silent, could you gather the other ponies outside and bring them in. I’m going to try and figure out who did this and, hopefully, have the culprit confess before I have to be severe with punishments.” Silent complied and went outside to gather the students inside.

Once inside, the students who were unicorns were lined up and looked over. Snips and Snails were the most nervous of the bunch, seeing that they were the most obvious ones to be blamed for doing something that resulted in stuff breaking. Sun Glimmer and Toostie Flute just stood there, wondering how a diorama could be that badly destroyed. Cheerilee was up there as well, hoping that whatever this was could be solved quickly so she could unveil her masterpiece and impress everypony. The teacher approached them, a stern look on her face.

“I know many of you might be scared about coming forward and facing what you’ve done, but be assured that coming forward will make things much easier for each of you. If you feel compelled to let me know which one of you it was, please tell me privately after class. I don’t want this to drag on and, more importantly, I want you to apologize to Archer for what you’ve done, even if it was an accident. She put in a lot of effort into her work and if any of you were in her position I’m sure that you’d be upset as well.” She walked away to her desk, all the students looking at the group of unicorns in their classroom. One of them was guilty. “Don’t worry Archer,” the teacher said as she passed her desk. “I was able to get a very good look at your project since you got it in early and I can easily say that it was an "A+" diorama. I’ll still even consider it for the grand prize!” Cheerilee said to the saddened mare.

“Thank you teacher,” she responded, a smile finally returning to her gloomy face. She was glad that she could still win the grand prize, something that hadn’t been revealed to the classroom yet. Everypony in the class had been excited at the idea of winning something for their hard work and really put in the effort for this. Silent Study had been writing down notes about Cheerilee’s teaching style quickly, obviously impressed at how she handled these situations.

The class day went on, with everypony now being taught math. Everything was going well until Diamond Tiara started whispering to Apple Bloom.

“I bet it was your friend, Sweetie Belle. After all, she can barely control her magic. I bet she had some sort of magic burst and that she’s too embarrassed to say anything,” the pink mare said. Apple Bloom was attempting not to pay any attention to any of the mean comments, but that didn’t stop her from going on. “I wonder why it’s embarrassing. Maybe losing control of your magic is like the unicorn equivalence of when you sleep in bed and lose control of your-“ Whatever the tiara wearing pony was about to say was suddenly cut short by Silent Study’s patrol through the class, using his presence to make sure that nopony was misbehaving while the teacher taught her lesson. Apple Bloom pretended not to notice the colt.

Recess had come and it was time for the ponies to finally relax outside. It’d been a stressful morning and getting outside to run around would certainly calm some nerves. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were outside already while Apple Bloom was cleaning up her stuff. When she was about to leave, she overheard Archer say something to Cheerilee.

“Um, teacher?” she started. “I don’t know it this is important, but I actually found some hair near my diorama’s remains. It was purple and white-colored.” Apple Bloom’s eyes rose at the blue mare’s statement.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Archer. After all, finding a piece of hair someplace is fairly common. In fact, an interesting piece of info is that at a crime scene, most investigators don’t focus much on hair or hoofprints too much since so many ponies lose hair and touch things that it’d be impossible to determine who was relevant to the case.” Cheerilee offered this bit of info to the student, but was soon interrupted by her Aide.

“Actually, Miss Cheerilee, that piece of info would probably be something big. I clean up this classroom for a good hour after everypony has left and I specifically went around the dioramas last night so they’d be ready for the judging tomorrow. If Archer managed to find some hair near the scene of the diorama’s doom, then it’s probably from somepony who came after I had left!” Silent told them this, causing them to inflect even further on the evidence. Apple Bloom, worried, went off to find her unicorn friend.

Outside, Sweetie Belle and Scoots were on the teeter totter when Apple Bloom came dashing towards them, eyes wide. “Sweetie Belle!” You need to do something! I dunno what, but anything!” Apple Bloom wasn’t very certain what her friend should do, but it didn’t help that she was too late, as Cheerilee approached the pair on the teeter totter and called out.

“Sweetie Belle, I need to see you right this instant,” the teacher said. Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure of what this was, but her teacher wasn’t too happy. Apple Bloom facehoofed as she was just too late for her warning to have any effect. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom followed behind them, trying not to be seen.

“Sweetie Belle, Archer found some of what looks like your hair near her project. What do you have to say?” the annoyed instructor asked.

“It wasn’t me! Honest! I wouldn’t have done something like that! I couldn’t!” Sweetie Belle protested. “Why would I want to do something like that in the first place?”

“Maybe because you thought you somehow had a chance of winning with your diorama.” Silver Spoon said this as the class walked in from recess.

“Silver Spoon, please go outside. We’re busy in here and recess isn’t over.” As if to correct Cheerilee, a large thunder clap was heard outside, prompting the rest of the classmates to come in early. She’d forgotten that the pegasi were doing rain today.

“Why would I worry about losing? Just look at how neat my project is!” Sweetie Belle removed the sheets, revealing her project to the entire class.

“Actually, that is a pretty good diorama of the Wasteland south of Equestria,” Silent Study remarked.

“Wasteland?! This is supposed to be an accurate model of Canterlot City!” Sweetie Belle yelled.

“Heh, diorama?” Diamond Tiara remarked. “Looks more like diarrhea.“

“Diamond Tiara, watch your language!” Cheerilee yelled, getting more and more frustrated as this situation wore on. “Look, Sweetie Belle, we’ve found evidence that it was you with the hair. Not only that, but Silent told me that he told only you how to get into the school in the event of emergency.”

Sweetie Belle thought back to that moment several weeks ago.

“Hey, Mr. Study!” the small, white filly said. “I need your help.” Silent was walking away from the school barn. Everything had been locked up and set for tomorrow’s class. Sweetie Belle was panting, trying to say something. “I accidentally left my Cutie Mark Crusader Cape inside the classroom and need it for tonight.” She kept on gasping, tired from all the running she had done to get to the classroom.

“I’m not sure, Sweetie Belle. I mean, I’m not supposed to open the school until the next day unless it’s an emergency.” Silent said this to the small filly, but soon started to change his mind as he saw her sweet face.

“Please sir! I really need to get in! I always wear my cape when we go crusading for my cutie mark! I wanna find out what I’m good at! We’re gonna try something with magic tonight. Maybe I’ll finally be able to cast a spell.” Something in that last sentence caused Silent Study to reflect upon his own time as a foal. When he was younger, Silent lived in Baltimare, a city that had lots of unicorns with practiced magic. He had never been able to practice magic, no matter how hard he had tried. That resulted in him being mocked for a large amount of his youth until he moved after receiving his AAT. Ponyville was a place where earth ponies lived, so he didn’t have to worry much about using magic daily. This young filly however was desperate to try and learn it, and he could sympathize with that pain so much.

“Alrighty then. Let’s head up there, OK?” Sweetie Belle bounced around at this news. They went up the road and went to the side of the school barn. Next to a pot with a sunflower was a small rock. Silent picked it up and opened the fake rock to reveal a key. Using that key, he opened up the front door to reveal the classroom, along with the red cape that the filly would adorn. She went in and grabbed it in a hurry.

“Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Study!” Silent was happy to hear that from Sweetie Belle’s lips.

“No problem. Just helping a lovely mare out,” Silent said. Sweetie Belle soon left the school barn, blushing at the fact she had just been called a “lovely mare”.

“Well, what do you have to say?” Sweetie Belle was returned to the present with Cheerilee’s words. She wishes she were back there in the past and not here in the present with the dread of her future.

“I-I didn’t do it! Believe me!” Sweetie Bell screamed out of anger, her voice squeaking. Several of her classmates started laughing from the cracks in her voice. “Stop laughing!” she said, her voice becoming more high-pitched and squeaky. Tears started rolling down her eyes as she couldn’t handle all of this. Her classmates were laughing, not even able to help it, her teacher was accusing her of doing something terrible, and her friends weren’t able to help her. “I didn’t do it,” she whispered to herself.

“Wait!” cried out her friends. They rushed over to Sweetie’s side, trying to protect her from the mocking of the class. Apple Bloom spoke first.

“Sweetie Belle couldn’t have done this. She doesn’t know any magic.”

“Yeah, and even if she could she wouldn’t have done this,” Scootaloo said in defense of her friend.

“It’s possible that she could’ve had a magic burst that she couldn’t control. The evidence would lead to that being the most likely outcome. Hey, it’s also fairly possible that she wouldn’t remember something like that with a powerful enough burst.” Silent Study’s analysis seemed to satisfy Cheerilee.

“That does seem like the most likely event. I remember that she was the last student to leave as well yesterday. It’s quite possible that the spell she cast without knowing had an effect later. As for the unlocked door, that could have been me simply being forgetful.” Cheerilee approached a teary eyed Sweetie Belle and knelt down to her. She had a tissue in her pouch and gave it to her student. The teacher had wanted to avoid something like this from happening in her classroom by doing this in private. No pony, even one who was guilty, should feel the shame she was experiencing at the moment in front of her peers. This was the sort of stuff that led to developmental issues and anxieties in the future. “Sweetie Belle, we understand if this was an accident. We won’t judge you.” Silent Study took notes as Cheerilee calmed down the student with ease.

“But teacher, I know I didn’t do something like that. I’m so sure about that I’m willing to bet an entire week’s detention for it.” Sweetie Belle didn’t know what she was getting herself involved with, but it certain she wouldn't accept blame for this.

“The same for us!” her two friends shouted out.

“Really? Oh girls, thank you!” Sweetie Belle gave her friends the biggest hug possible she could do with her tiny hooves.

“Of course! What we’ll do is find whoever really committed the crime and clear your name! It’ll be awesome!” Scootaloo was pumped to do some investigating.

The three of them put their hooves together and started chanting. “One…two…three! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER INVESTIGATORS!”

Purple Dragon

Class ended later that day, marking an end to what was one of the most awkward school days any of those students had ever experienced. They all walked out after the final bell rang, inspiring gossip among the classmates about what had happened. Some said it was Snips and Snails while others pointed fingers at Sweetie Belle. One student, Question Mark, was certain that it was a conspiracy set up by the Changelings in order to get access to precious chalk. Whatever was the case, a mystery was about, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders needed to clear their friend’s name.

“Alright girls,” started Apple Bloom. “We need to find some way to catch the criminal who messed up that diorama. Are you ready?” The three girls were strapped for time. They were given three days to find the culprit or face the music.

“Yeah!” the other two girls cheered, simply standing around as if something were to happen.

“So… now what?” asked Scootaloo, pointing out the obvious problem that they faced.

“Well, where do you go when you want to learn something specific?” They pondered this question for several moments before they all reached the same conclusion.

“The library!” they yelled. They soon ran off to the library, hoping to find some info that would help them in their investigation.

The three girls reached the library as fast as Scootaloo on her scooter could allow them. They were anxious to find something that would be able to help them out in their investigation. When they entered they were met by the familiar purple dragon.

“Hey girls! What brings you here?” Spike asked.

“We’re here to check out a book on how to investigate and stuff. You know any?” Scoots asked. Spike just stared at her for a moment, causing her to feel uncomfortable. “Uh, something wrong Spike?”

“I’ve just…I’ve never actually SEEN anypony take out a book from here. You must be the first people to do so. Wow, I really don’t know what to do.” Spike scratched his head, trying to figure out what to do. “Alright, so what book do you want to take out?”

“Something to help us investigate. I’ve been accused of destroying somepony’s diorama and need to prove my innocence. Any books that can help out quickly?” Sweetie Belle flashed her puppy eyes, hoping that that would help Spike pick something good.

“I do know of several good books that could help out. Hold on second.” Spike went through several shelves of the library, picking out several books and putting them into a pile. Within five minutes he had gathered about forty different mystery novels. “There you go, some of the finest mystery novels ever written. These should help you out.”

“What are these?” Apple Bloom asked. “I thought you’d be getting us a guide on how to investigate things.”

“We don’t actually have any guides on anything like investigating. I’ve definitely learned a lot from these about how to investigate stuff. You’ll be able to investigate things once you’ve read through these stories.” The purple dragon was confused to see the three foals facehoofing at this statement. “What’s wrong?”

“We only have three days to find the culprit! At the end of the third day, Sweetie Belle will have detention and so will we! We don’t have time to read through all these stories!” the small pegasus’ complaint made Spike rethink his strategy and try to find some other way to help them.

“Alright then, I guess what I can do is give you some cliff notes on the subject. Hopefully that can help you out. You guys accept?” The three little fillies nodded their heads eagerly, awaiting the secrets of how to investigate. “First, never believe that anything is merely a coincidence. There’s a good chance that whatever is found at a crime scene could be relevant. Even the smallest detail can lead to finding the true culprit. Second, be prepared for your evidence to be merely coincidental. While it’s important to take into account all the details, be sure to accept the possibility that what you just found isn’t actually related to the case. You find too many red herrings and you’ll try to connect everything together and get nothing.”

He was about to get to his third point when he saw the confusion on the three foals’ faces. He decided to explain his last statement. “A ‘red herring’ means that the evidence of fact that you found is misleading and doesn’t actually relate to the case. Anyway, the third important fact to include is that a motive is necessary for something to happen. The motive may be developed for committing the crime or hiding what you’ve done since you don’t want anypony to know what you’ve done. Fourth, research anything you find. If you don’t research your facts and evidence, you either end up with way too many misleading items or you can find out that that one small piece of evidence is actually the key to the entire case. The last major thing I can tell you, and this may be the most important fact, is to keep all options open and, when all other options have been exhausted, even the most improbable theory becomes the most likely. After all, if it could survive the elimination process while other more sensible theories have been thrown out, there must be some truth to it.” Spike drank a sip of water after that long speech, feeling pretty good about him. He didn’t have many opportunities to express his genius, but this was one of those moments. “Any questions?”

All three ponies raised their hooves. Spike sighed, pointing at them to let them know to ask him. “Can you help us?” all three of them asked.

“You know what? Sure! After all, I’ve completed all the other work I need to do around here for the next several days, so I can help get you any information you need while you’re at school. Plus,” he went over to a cabinet, pulling out a brown cap, “I can wear this neat cap while I investigate. Alright now,” he added, pulling out a notepad, “what info do you have already?”

“Well,” stared Sweetie Belle, “they found that the diorama had essentially been disintegrated, except for one model in it. The model was made of a crystal that’s resistant to magic. Since there weren’t any scorch marks and the model survived, they assume that it was destroyed magically. Also,” she said sadly, “they found purple and white colored hair there, just like mine.”

“Hmm,” Spike murmured. “It makes sense that you’d be targeted then for that, fitting the description. Did they say why you’d do that?”

“Well, they said that I had either done it so I could get rid of the competition so I could win the grand prize. That or it was because I had accidentally cast a spell with a magic surge and couldn’t remember it.” Sweetie Belle considered this possibility that she may have done that. Spike decided to dig into that info though.

“So, there’s a competition then? Not only that, but a prize. Anypony know what the prize was?”

“Nopony actually knew what it was, but there were some students that said that they had found out and weren’t telling.” Spike considered this new evidence, trying to figure out what could be done with that.

“Alright, I think I know what to do. We need to find out what that prize was. We could find out who did it by seeing who’d most likely do this sort of thing for a prize. With the proper motive, we could probably find who did it already! As for the hair, it might be possible that somepony found a sample of yours or a similar pony. You know any other ponies that have purple and/or white hair?”

“Well, there’s Scootaloo, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon, and none of them can use magic either. You think we can rule out the hair then?” the small unicorn asked.

“Definitely sounds like it. There wasn’t much hair found there, and remember that simply because there was hair near there, doesn’t mean it was related to the case. Remember to focus on the details of a story when considering the evidence you have and its relevance. Actually, an interesting fact is that hair is one of the most misleading items found at a crime scene. Hair falls off everybody, so it isn’t really special when you find it.” Spike then went over to the books and picked three of them out. “Here; try reading these tonight when you have the chance. They may just be mystery stories, but they give you a good idea of what you might find and do while investigating.”

“Thanks!” the three of them said, each going home for the night, taking their books with them. Scootaloo received a copy of “The Maltese Phoenix”, Apple Bloom got “Mystery of the Canterlot Express”, and Sweetie Belle got a copy of “The Mysterious Affair at Fillydelphia”. Each of them read their books diligently that night, taking in all they learned while reading and hoping to catch the real crook soon.

A Morbid Taste for Sweets

The next day came soon, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders felt ready to investigate the whole world if needed. They went to school early that morning, hoping to see if there was any evidence that had been overlooked. When they arrived there, they found Silent Study preparing the classroom by getting all the desks straightened and making sure there were enough supplies for the teacher to teach and not have to worry about resupplying in the middle of class.

“Hey there girls!” he asked. “What brings you here so early?”

“Hey Mr. Study. We have some questions to ask you. Please, have a seat.” Apple Bloom motioned to the nearest desk set up and Silent, pretty unaware of what was happening, decided to comply. The desk, designed for foals, was a bit small on him. “Mr. Study, when cleaning up the night before the incident with the diorama, how thoroughly did you clean?”

“Why, I did my usual cleanup of the classroom: washing the chalkboard, sweeping the floor, making sure there wasn’t gum underneath the desks, and dusting the books. I made certain however to clean around the dioramas as well. I wanted them to look really special for the judging.”

“Alright. Did you clean the dioramas themselves?” the earth filly asked the Aide.

“Of course not. If I did that, then I might have messed up the dioramas, and that would have been pretty bad for me to do.”

“So, is it a possibility that the hair found at the diorama’s destruction was merely hair that was already there, and not hair that points to Sweetie Belle not doing the deed?” Apple Bloom asked, hoping that if they couldn’t find out who the pony was at that moment that they could at least prove their friend innocent.

“Actually, the hair was found far outside the dioramas, so it actually seems more likely that it was something done after I had cleaned up, and the location of the hair itself I clearly remember, seeing as I had spent five minutes trying to get gum out of that exact spot and didn’t see any hair there originally. Most likely it was somepony who came in after I had left at 5PM.”

“Oh! So that’s why I didn’t see you there!” Sweetie Belle yelled, surprising everypony.

“Sweetie Belle, what do you mean ‘didn’t see me here’?” asked the perplexed unicorn.

“Oh, I came back here at about 6PM that night because I had forgotten to pick up a piece I worked on in class for my diorama.” As the little filly said this, silence fell over them. “What?”

“Sweetie Belle! That makes you even more of a suspect!” yelled Scootaloo, not able to believe her friend’s goof up.

“But it wasn’t me! I came in through the door because it was unlocked and thought somepony was still here! I just got my piece and then left. The diorama was still there when I left.” Nothing Sweetie Belle said was helping her out.

“Actually, that reminds me,” Silent Study said as he left the desk and went outside. In a minute, he came back, out of breath from galloping. “Sweetie Belle! Did you use that key I gave you?”

“No. Why?” she said, scared of her situation.

“It’s gone! You’re the only other pony who knows where the additional key is! Please, be honest with me about this. I need that key to go back where it is,” Silent said, almost as scared as Sweetie was about this missing key.

“I don’t know! Honest!” Sweetie’s voice was starting to crack again, annoyed and scared that all of this was happening to her. Silent didn’t say anything, but just stood there, a disappointed look in his eye.

“Alright. I believe you. I won’t ask for anything from any of you. However, if any of you do happen to spot the key, please put it on the front desk whenever you find it. Now, if you excuse me, I need to get some paper from the market. Please exit the school barn while I’m out.” The three ponies were about to exit when Cheerilee came along and entered the school barn. “Miss Cheerilee! I was just about to get some more paper for today’s class.”

“Oh don’t worry about that! I actually went to the market this morning and got some paper for today. Hey girls! If you want you can come inside now and help me set up for class. It’s Silent Study’s day off, so it’d be a pleasure if you helped out,” the pink mare said gleefully.

“Wait a moment,” Scootaloo interrupted. “Why is he here cleaning up the school if he has the day off?”

“Oh, I just do that to help out every morning. Get some experience in cleaning things up and all. Ever since Miss Cheerilee gave me my own key I’ve been able to help out every morning, so I do. Now that I think of it, that secret key probably isn’t needed anymore, seeing as I have a key as well. Oh well! See you later!” As Silent left the school barn, he gave the group an expression that seemed to beg for them not to tell the teacher about the missing key.

Five minutes before class had started, and everypony was ready for their lessons. While the three girls were getting set up, what looked like a flame came across the room. All of a sudden the flame turned into a letter. Luckily nopony in the room saw this, and the Cutie Mark Investigators read the letter in secret.

Hey girls!

Spike here, giving you a message with my fire breathe. Wanting to let you know that I did some investigating this morning while in the marketplace and came across Cheerilee. We chatted for a while, me not giving away the fact that I was helping you out in your investigation, and I found out what the grand prize was. It’s a Fifty bit gift card for Sugarcube Corner! Pretty big prize. Apparently she won it in a raffle and decided to include it as the prize. Hope that helps you narrow down the suspects.

The three fillies gasped at this new information, surprised that they had finally gotten some real evidence. Whoever this culprit was, they must have been desperate to get this gift card. Who would want to get sweets that badly?

“Mare, am I hungry or what.” Truffle Shuffle’s words became the answer to their prayers as the chubby colt ate a whole bagel in a bite. The three of them just looked at each other, as if to confirm their beliefs.

“But Truffle’s not even a unicorn. How could he have done it?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Hey Truffle! Wanna try out this new donut I got from Sugarcube Corner? Snips and I think it’s really good!” As Snips took out the donut and Truffle grabbed it, the Cutie Mark Investigators did another gasp, feeling as if they’d found their culprits.

“That’s it!” they yelled triumphantly, right before being hushed as class began.

It was recess time, and the three mares were gathered around the oak tree.

“Alright girls, I assume we’ve all got the same idea of what’s happening right now, am I right?” Apple Bloom started. Her two friends started nodding their heads, slowing down, and then started shaking their heads. “Really? I thought that you got it as well. Well, I guess I’ll need to explain it to you guys then. See, it appears that either Snips or Snails was the one to commit the crime. It’s possible that they both did it. They destroyed the diorama after everypony had left by using the key had picked up outside to enter the school barn. It appears one of them had forgotten to lock the door on the way out though.” Sweetie Belle raised her hoof to ask a question. “Yes, Sweetie Belle?”

“Why would they do it still?” she asked.

“That’s a simple answer,” Apple Bloom retorted. “The reason they destroyed Archer’s diorama was to help get rid of the competition and win the prize of the gift card for Sugarcube Corner. Yes, Scoots?” she said to Scootaloo now raising her hoof.

“But their dioramas were TERRIBLE. Snips tried to enter in his diorama about how foals are made and ended up including storks into it, and Snails was worse in that he actually showed the mating tactics of storks for his project. None of them would win.” Scoots pointed out.

“Exactly. Neither of them would have won the prize with those entries. However, there was one other entry that could win because of how detailed it was, and that diorama belonged to Truffle Shuffle. He spent weeks investigating how a cookie would be digested. He even did tests on himself to see how much weight he gained and lost during the time he had eaten the cookie. If any other pony was gonna win, it would be him. He had either or both of those colts use their magic to get rid of the competition and gain the prize. He probably would have then shared the gift card with them when he had won. Now, all we have to do is find out how he figured out the prize and we can tell the teacher what we’ve found out.” Apple Bloom was excited at the possibility that they had found the culprits, and she was prepared to help free Sweetie Belle from her conviction. “Now, let’s start investigating!”

The three of them cheered, and the first thing they did was to start investigating (or stalk, whichever is the more appropriate term) Truffle Shuffle around the playground. He was playing around on the teeter totter with five other ponies. Truffle Shuffle was always fun to play with on the teeter totter since it always took five other ponies to get their side of it down. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were using binoculars to view him, hoping that something would give him away. While they were looking at him, Silver Spoon popped up right in front of their vision, surprising the three of them.

“GAH!” they all yelled, falling back as they did.

“What are you doing?” Silver Spoon asked.

“We’re investigating right now, that’s what!” Apple Bloom replied. “We think that Truffle Shuffle is related to the case, so we’re seeing if our theory is correct. We need to know how he knew about what the secret grand prize was.”

“You mean you didn’t know that it was a gift card to Sugarcube Corner?” Silver Spoon’s words seemed to shock the investigators. “She was hinting to it pretty aggressively. She said how ‘sweet’ the prize was and how we’d like it ‘a bit, or maybe fifty’. At one point I think she just said that it was a gift card for the place. I don’t think teacher is very good at subtlety.”

“Oh, um, thanks Silver Spoon. Why would you help us?” Sweetie Belle asked. The small unicorn did not usually get along with Silver Spoon or her friend, so this was a surprise.

“I’m not a complete jerk, so if you are innocent I’d help. But yeah, I’m fairly certain that Snips or Snails had a role in this. After all, those guys wouldn’t mind doing something like that for sweets. I’d never understand how anypony could do that though. Personally, I hate sugary stuff, so I’d probably throw out that card even if I won it. Good luck.” The three fillies were surprised at Silver Spoon. She’d actually given them help, and didn’t even try to be rude about it. They were lucky though, as that was just the information they needed to confirm their suspicions of motive.

“So, now we just need some physical evidence on proving that it was him. Where do you think we should go for that?” Scoots asked the group.

“I’m really stumped on that one. I mean, if they did use magic, then there really isn’t any physical proof. I mean, what can we do to prove my innocence if we can’t actually find proof?” Sweetie Belle’s question was a good one. After all, what could they do other than speculate? They didn’t have any idea to this, and were left quiet.

“I’ve got it!” the pegasus of the group yelled out. “All we have to do is confront Truffle Shuffle with our theory in the most intimidating way possible and hope that he feels guilty about it enough that he confesses!” The two friends looked incredulously at her when she had said this. “Look, it’s all we’ve got, and if anything it would put us on the right track if we could manage to see his reactions to this. So, what do you say?” The two nodded their heads and went up to Truffle Shuffle, who had just gotten off of the teeter totter, causing the other ponies to plop down.

“Hey, Truffle, can we talk to you for a moment?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Sure!” he responded. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about,” the earth filly said, blushing and crossing her legs. She was trying to make Truffle interested in what she had to say, and she was certainly good at it.

“Uh, sure, Apple Bloom, go ahead and say it.” He was starting to blush now. He was emotionally vulnerable right at that moment. Right where they wanted him.

“WHY DID YOU DO IT?!” she yelled.

“YEAH, WHY?!” chimed in Scootaloo.

“HOW COULD YOU?!” added Sweetie Belle. The tri-force emotion attack obviously having an effect on Truffle Shuffle. It looked like he would break soon.

“Alright! I’ll admit it! It was me!” He started to cry and break down at this. This had worked better than expected.

“So you admit to working with Snips or Snails to destroy the diorama so you’d stand a better chance at winning the grand prize?” Sweetie Belle said excitedly, glad at the idea of this investigation being finished.

“What? No! Why’d I ever do something like that? That’s horrible! I was talking about the donut this morning.” The large colt’s statement was more confusing than, well, it’d been a rough time lately and they couldn’t figure out anything to compare this confusion to.

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Sweetie Belle asked. Her hopes had suddenly crashed his that statement.

“I’m supposed to be on a diet and my parents can’t know about that! They say I’ve gotten too big and it’s not healthy. I was just too hungry!” he started crying again, causing the accusing ponies to feel just a bit more awkward.

“So, you aren’t interested in the prize of a gift card to Sugarcube Corner then?” Scoots managed to say, trying to get past the awkwardness of the situation.

“BWAHAHA!” he started bawling at that statement. “My…my parents knew about the prize and…and were let known that if I won,” he stopped for a moment, blew her nose, and continued, “That I’d receive a HEALTHY EATING & NUTRITION BOOK!” He stopped, plopped on the ground, and stopped moving. It took a full moment, but the surrounding ponies started laughing at that fact. “Why are you laughing?” he managed to eke out.

“Well, you’re a pony who likes to eat and knows a lot about foods, and your project deals with cookies, which you can’t eat now. If you win the prize, instead of being able to eat cookies, you’ll have to eat foods you don’t like using that book. Kinda funny in a roundabout way,” Apple Bloom explained. Truffle chuckled at the coincidence at all of this (It wasn’t irony, since Truffle knew that the meaning of ‘irony’ was ‘incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result’ and since his fate was related to food, eating healthy would be related. True irony would be his prize being a book on engineering). Apple Bloom laughed, but then soon realized that they had just lost their leading suspect. He wasn’t going to get any card, so it looked like there was no motive for him to employ the two troublesome colts. She went away with her friends, trying to figure out what their next move was.

“Well, it doesn’t look like Truffle did it. He didn’t have any reason to do this, so looks like we won’t have him to worry about. Bad news though is that we don’t have any more suspects.” Apple Bloom looked at the two despondent faces before asking, “Does anypony have a clue of how we move on now?” The two other ponies looked at each other and tried to figure out what was going to happen now. They thought about it until the bell rang, forcing the two of them to go inside.

Class was going on, but nopony was focusing much on the reading lesson and thought more about how they’d be able to find their next suspect. The only other possible pony who was close to winning wasn’t responsible, and there didn’t look like many other who would do it. The lesson finished and the school day had ended, leaving the suspected ponies to feel the pressure. As they left the school, they noticed several books that were left behind by sompony and let Miss Cheerilee know.

“Hey, Miss Cheerilee!” called out Sweetie Belle. “Somepony left their books behind.”

“Thanks for letting me know, Sweetie Belle.”

She went over to the book pile and looked through the covers of them. There were three books there, none of which were school books. “Huh, never seen these before. ‘High Level Alchemy: Potions, Herbs, and Pestles’, ‘’Supernaturals’, and ‘Elemental Theories of the New Century’. Looks like somepony likes to read about potions and things that I’d probably never figure out. I can’t find any name in these books, so I guess we’ll just have to do the only other thing.”

“What other thing could you do to find whose book it is?” asked Scootaloo. “I mean, if the books don’t have a name in them, how else could you find out?”

“Simple; we ask everypony whose books these are tomorrow when they come in. That’s the simplest solution. Most ponies these days don’t realize that most problems can be solved simply and think that there must be some insane solution to their problems. Why, most problems could be solved if you thought of the problem in reverse. That’s a little life lesson for each of you.” Cheerilee’s words echoed into the mares’ minds as they thought of their situation and how her words related.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah!” her two friends yelled in agreement. They definitely had their motivation back now and knew what they’d have to do. With their new idea in mind, they went off to see Spike and reveal their new information.

The rush to meet Spike with their new theory was even faster with Scootaloo being powered not only by motivation but by the adrenaline of having an awesome idea. They reached the library and burst through the door.

“Hey Spike! We’ve got an awesome idea for who did it!” the excited pegasus yelled out. Her friends decided to let her do the talking since she was so pumped about being the one to come up with the idea in the first place.

“Great to hear, Scoots! What’s your big idea?” Spike was pretty excited to hear what she had to say.

“Well, it’s less of an idea and more of a realization. See, we used that info you got about the grand prize to come up with a suspect for who committed it. We thought that Truffle Shuffle would be the one who did it since he loved that food so much and also made a really good diorama. He’s not a unicorn and we thought that what he did was have Snips or Snails do the deed and would have split the gift card. We learned however that Truffle wouldn’t have been able to win the prize and he knew it as well, so there wasn’t any motivation for it. It took a while, but then we came across a big realization and now have our best suspects!” The orange filly couldn’t help but smile at her intelligence.

“Who’re your new suspects?” the inquisitive dragon asked.

“Snips or Snails!” she yelled triumphantly. “See, we realized that the entire case might not be as complex as we think and that one of them still tried to get rid of the competition, even though they didn’t make really good dioramas. The reason is simple: they aren’t that smart! They could have thought they’d stand a chance at winning if they got rid of everypony else’s projects, or at least the one they thought was better. They didn’t need a mastermind for them to do it if they thought they could win the prize on their own.”

“Wow, that’s some good thinking!” the dragon said enthusiastically. “But do any of you have physical evidence that’d help you out? It’s pretty much guessing if you don’t find anything to pin on them.”

“Actually,” Sweetie Belle interrupted, saying, “There is some evidence that one of them did it. See, about a month back we were working on a project dealing with colors and trying to find different objects that could cover the color spectrum. Snips and Snails were working together on their project and what they did is ask ponies around town for a bit of their hair for their project. Most ponies were a bit creeped out, but I lent them some of my hair. I think they could have used my hair from their project to make it seem like it was me!” This bit of info caused Spike to rub and chin and think this new revelation over.

“It seems plausible,” he stated. “However, what makes you sure he’d still have the project?”

“Snips actually told me a week back that he still has the project in the back of the classroom. Apparently the teacher really liked it a lot and wanted to display it later on to the parents.” This explanation by the unicorn was enough for Spike to consider it very possible that at least one of them was the culprit.

“Wow, you girls are doing pretty well then. By the way, did you finish the books I lent you last night? Twilight was actually hoping to read them and was surprised when she learned about ponies actually taking out books. I don’t wanna rush, but it’d be nice for you to finish them quickly.” The three ponies pulled the books out of their sacks and handed them over to Spike. He was surprised that they had finished each of their books in one night and didn’t know what to say.

The three of them left the library, confident in the knowledge they’ve learnt and the idea that they’d actually solve a case.

“I really hope we earn our investigation cutie marks after this,” Sweetie Belle said, echoing the thoughts of everypony in the group.

“Mare, I’d hope so. I mean, with all the pressure we’re dealing with, it’d better come,” added Scootaloo.

“I-“ started Apple Bloom, right before being cut off by a red gleam zooming right past them. It looked as is a laser had just been shot, or possibly a spell. They looked just in time to see the light hit the nearby mailbox, turning it into a pile of dust. The same sort of dust that had been at the scene of the crime. They saw what appeared to be a cloaked figure run by at that very moment.

“Catch him! He’s our guy!” Scoots said. The three of them soon got on Scoots’ scooter and proceeded to chase after the cloaked culprit. The culprit was fast, but not fast enough to outrun the scooter.

“Just a little more,” Apple Bloom whispered to herself as they were just within a yard of grabbing the cloak. All of a sudden a red light seemed to glow around the target’s hooves and his speed suddenly increased at least twice as fast as Scoots was going. “Drat,” she whispered again.

“He’s getting away!” cried out Sweetie Belle, scared that they might lose their target when they were so close.

“Not while I’m here!” roared Scootaloo. “I’ve still got my MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE!” and she started flapping like never before. Sweat rolled down her face as she put all her effort into flapping her tiny wings. They were starting to catch up to the hooded figure now.

Just as they were once again close to grabbing however, the nearby stacked crates started falling down, almost hitting the three fillies if not for Scootaloo’s skills. She swerved left and right, avoiding the crates as they came barreling down on them. One of them nearly flew straight into them. However, Scoots managed to pull up the scooter and wagon, making a jump that got them at least two feet in the air and just over the crate, the bottom of the scooter now riding on it. It was the most awesome thing the small pegasus felt she had done. Soon there were no more crates, and the target was just ahead.

“Alright girls! Looks like we’ve almost got him! We now just need to…uh,” Scoots droned out for a couple seconds before finished her though. “Panic?” The two were about to ask what she was talking about when they both noticed the same thing. The alley that the suspect had run through was getting smaller, as they noticed a red glow enveloping the two buildings, pushing them together to close his escape.

“STOP!” the two passenger ponies yelled, just in time for them to hit whatever brakes they could and to stop their speed. The alley closed, and the three fillies ended up still plowing into the wall. They were lucky they braked though, as one more second and they would have ended up being crushed by that alley.

“What the buck was that?!” Sweetie Belle yelled. They’d never seen anypony their age do magic like that before. Obviously somepony in their classroom was a skilled magic user.

“I have no idea,” Apple Bloom responded woozily, still feeling dizzy from that crash. “I never thought that anypony could pull off something like that.”

“Looks like they did though,” Scoots added, rubbing her sore wings. “Hey, what’s that?” On the ground where they had just chased the shadowy figure, a bottle lay on the ground. It looked like it was on the pony that they were chasing and had fallen off. She approached the bottle and picked it up. In it was what looked like several drops of a blue serum, and on the glass bottle itself was the initials “R.T”.

“Looks like a new piece of evidence,” responded Apple Bloom. “Do any of you know what those initials mean?” Both of the ponies shook their heads. “Huh. I guess this case just got a bit more interesting.”

And Then There Were Some

The next day greeted the three investigators with aches and bruises from last night. Obviously, crashing into walls at high speeds didn’t do anypony any real good. Scootaloo got the worst of it though, dealing with the wagon hitting her in the rear as well as hitting the wall face first. She apparently lost a tooth from that and now had a black eye. She didn’t even want to describe the pain her wings were feeling. The other two were bruised as well, but nowhere near her level.

“Ugh, I can’t believe we were so close and lost the crook,” Scootaloo complained, feeling the worst about the situation.

“Don’t worry, Scoots. At least we found another piece of evidence. I’m sure that’ll help us confirm who it was last night.” Apple Bloom tried to calm the despondent pegasus down with this fact. After their chase last night they went back to Spike and told him what had just happened. He was just as surprised as they were and they gave him the bottle to analyze. If there was anypony in town with enough time and resources to find where it had come from, it had to be him.

“Uh, hey girls,” Silent Study said as he approached the three of them. “Listen, I owe you all, especially Sweetie Belle, an apology. I was home yesterday and was cleaning up my desk when I found that the spare key under some papers. I’m really sorry about blaming you and hope you can forgive me?”

“Sure, Mr. Study” replied Sweetie Belle. A smile returned to Silent’s face as he walked away to check out anything that needs to be done, leaving the group to discuss things.

“So, the key was with Mr. Study the entire time then? I guess that means the door really was open to anypony,” deduced Apple Bloom.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t help us out at all,” responded Scootaloo, trying to speak in a way she wouldn’t end up whistling with a missing tooth. “Sweetie Belle already told us that information, so it’s nothing new.” The ponies solemnly agreed with each other about the key. While they did gain some new evidence, it really wasn’t helpful that they had no idea what it even meant. For now they’d just have to hope for more information to reveal itself.

Class started once again, this time the focus being Biology, specifically the digestive system. Truffle Shuffle actually got up to the front and used his project to help explain the lessons to everypony, leaving them all impressed. For first time in several days the three friends could focus on the lesson without worrying too much about the case. After that class was Grammar, leading into lunch afterward. At lunchtime, Apple Bloom overheard an interesting conversation between Snips, Snails, and Miss Cheerilee.

“Hello boys!” the teacher started. “Did you do some additional work last night when you went home?”

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” they both responded.

“Thanks for working with us last night on our diorama redoes,” Snips said.

“Yeah! Thanks for not failing us!” Snails yelled.

“No problem boys! I knew you had some difficulty getting reliable information for your project thanks to the subject matter, Snips. Snails, your project was actually very…detailed and informative. It just wasn’t age appropriate. You boys are actually quite smart. You all just need somepony to help you out. Oh, and thanks for helping me move some of my furniture around the day before that as well. I never got to properly thank you boys. Well, I’ll see you again tonight. Be sure to bring some glue tonight to finish the construction.” As Cheerilee walked away, the two colts looked at each other, as if in competition for the mare. As Apple Bloom heard this, she went over to her friends.

“Girls! I just overheard teacher talking with Snips and Snails. She was with them all of the last two nights. It couldn’t have been either of them!” Apple Bloom’s shock transferred over to her friends as they both dropped their sandwiches. Sweetie Belle pulled her head back and let out a low-pitched moan and Scootaloo let her face hit the desk. They were back to square one, and they didn’t know who to investigate next.

“Wait, shouldn’t we check out the project?” Sweetie Belle reminded her friends. It had passed over their heads to check out the project that would contain Sweetie Belle’s hair. It might not seem like much now that the two colt unicorns were eliminated as suspects, but they had to go wherever the info led. They walked over to the project in the back of the classroom and looked it over. To their surprise and disappointment they saw Sweetie Belle’s hair, still attached to the color wheel. She looked saddened at this; more evidence that it was her hair.

“This doesn’t mean that it was you still,” Apple Bloom consoled Sweetie Belle. The more she looked at the facts, the less she liked the outcome for her and her friends. “I mean, there could be some sort of explanation for how some hair that looks like yours was at the scene of the crime.” As if to answer her prayers, a green flame came across the room, transfiguring into a letter right before them.

Hey girls!

I just read about a spell that could change the hair color of any pony that it was cast on. It’s a little advanced, but from what you told me it definitely sounds likes it wouldn’t be too difficult for them. Once again, don’t worry too much about the hair. Also, I’m still checking any businesses that would put their names on bottles. Don’t want to test the potion since there’s so little of it yet and we don’t know what it does. Good luck!

That information helped them regain their sense and composure. They knew now that the only thing they needed to was reevaluate their M.O. on who could commit the crime.

“Well, now we at least know that it could have been any unicorn that did it. Now that Snips and Snails are out of the picture, there are only two unicorns left: Sun Glimmer and Tootsie Flute.” Scootaloo was right, and now they needed to find some evidence that proved either of them committing the crime.

“Well, I think I know what we should do now,” Sweetie Belle announced. “We should talk to Archer about her relationship with those two. After all, we don’t know what their motives could be and we haven’t gotten her take on the situation yet. I say we should talk with her.” As Sweetie Belle started to trot over to Archer’s desk, her two friends grabbed her and held her back.

“Not so fast, Sweetie Belle. Remember that you’re the most likely suspect for this case and she probably won’t wanna talk with you about it. Let me or Scoots handle this,” Apple Bloom explained. Sweetie Belle seemed to agree to this and Scootaloo went over to talk with Archer.

“Hey, Archer! How’s it going?” the pegasus asked.

“It’s been pretty rough,” admitted Archer. A moment ago she had a smile on her face as she was eating her sandwich, but now it seemed to disappear. “You mind if I spend a while talking about it all? I really need to get this stuff off my chest.”

“Uh, sure,” Scootaloo replied.

All throughout the entire day, Archer kept on talking with Scootaloo. She talked all the way through recess, talked all the way through class, somehow avoiding the patrolling gaze of Silent Study, and even talked through the final bell. Eventually she finished talking, and Scootaloo was able to inform her friends about the situation.

“So, what’d she say?” Apple Bloom asked, not realizing the full impact of what she was asking. Scootaloo looked gloomy as she tried to find where to begin.

“Well, it’s a pretty long story, but I’m sure I can get to the key points if I cut out the really emotional reveals and all. Actually, I’ll include some of them because of their relevance. See, Archer’s mom recently passed away and she and her dad have been having a really rough time getting over it. Her mom was a marine biologist and Archer wanted to do something related to that as a tribute to her mom and hopefully cheer up her dad who’d recently been put on some sorta watch list for really sad people. She spent all this time on it and was really hoping that it’d win and makes things better, but that doesn’t look like the case. Anyway, she was friends with both Tootsie Flute and Sun Glimmer, but she recently had a really big fight and she said things she didn’t want to say. Apparently they were so bad that she couldn’t even repeat them. They still don’t know about her mom passing since she hasn’t been able to really accept it yet and tell them and that’s one of the big reasons for her being angry at them. So, yeah, it’s possible that one or both of them destroyed the project and planted fake hair there to blame Sweetie Belle.” Scoots finished her story with a sigh and looked to her friends. Sweetie Belle had a saddened expression on her, but that was nothing next to Apple Bloom. She was definitely crying a little at that story and looked really, really mad.

“NO! NO! THAT’S TERRIBLE! THAT’S AWFUL! HOW COULD THEY DO THAT! THEY WERE HER FRIENDS!” the red mane earth filly yelled out, anger and sadness in her voice. Tears were definitely pouring out now. This managed to catch the attention of Cheerilee and her Aide.

“Is something wrong, Apple Bloom?” asked the attentive teacher.

“No,” she lied to them. “I…I just got something in my eye and it really hurt. That’s all. I need to go now,” and she galloped out of the school barn with the greatest speed. Her two friends followed behind her, trying to catch up. They found her in a bush, crying.

“Apple Bloom, I-“ begun Scootaloo before getting cut off by Apple Bloom’s anger.

“We’ve gotta find out if this is true,” she croaked out with the voice you hear after somepony has just cried. “Right now we need to follow those two and find out where they were. If they did this, well, Celestia help them. That’s all I can say about that. The two silently agreed and went back to the school barn, hoping to find and follow the two new suspects.

Following the two unicorns seemed to be a fairly easy task. They both trotted together and didn’t seem to notice the three of them as they stalked throughout the town. The first place they seemed to visit was a house. Upon further investigation it appeared to be Sun Glimmer’s house. Using all the stealth at their disposal, they attempted to find out what was going on inside.

“Oh! Hello there girls!” greeted Mrs. Glimmer as they attempted to sneak around. Obviously their stealth check had failed. “You must be some of Sun’s classmates! Would any of you like to have some cookies? They were just made last night, so not only are they fresh, but they’re just cool enough to have without even needing milk!” Accepting her invitation, the three fillies entered the house, hoping that neither Tootsie Flute nor Sun glimmer knew that they were there. The three girls were given some of the promised cookies, enjoying them and temporarily forgetting about their investigation.

“YUM!” Sweetie Belle echoed out with satisfaction. “These are really good cookies. How’d you make them?”

“Oh, it wasn’t me. It was Tootsie Flute. She saw me wanting to make cookies last night and told me about this really good recipe and worked with me all night to make them from scratch!” Assuming that the mom wasn’t somehow involved in the destruction of a young pony’s diorama, her testimony meant that Tootsie Flute wasn’t the pony that they had seen last night. All of their evidence and hopes rested on finding out which unicorn didn’t have any witnesses last night. With another pony off their list, the only other one left was Sun Glimmer. They all hoped that they wouldn’t suddenly be left with another dead end.

“Really?” asked Apple Bloom. “Did Sun Glimmer help you out as well?”

“She never had a thing for baking things. Actually, she and Tootsie have been working on a project together upstairs. She actually went out last night to get some more supplies. It must have been cold out last night, because she even took her large cloak as well. She also took longer than she said she would.”

That was it. Sun Glimmer was the culprit. They didn’t know if Tootsie Flute was involved in the destruction of the diorama, but that would come later. Right now they could confirm that Sun was definitely the one to cast the magic to destroy it.

Right as they had that sudden realization, the sound of hooves descending a staircase started, causing the three girls to panic.

“Hey, Mrs. Glimmer,” Sweetie Belle thought quickly. “Please don’t let Tootsie or Sun know that we were here. We’re playing this game called Extreme Hide and Seek and what we have to do is follow the other pony and not be seen.”

“Oh my, that sounds like fun,” the mother replied, falling for the bluff. The three ponies immediately hid in the nearest cabinet, just in time to see Sun Glimmer come down.

“Hey mom, I’ll need to go out again. Need to pick up some stuff. I’ll probably be back sooner than last night. Had something weird happen that kept me from coming back my usual route.” Sun Glimmer went out the front door, and the CMC immediately looked out the window to see the direction she was headed. The moment she was away far enough they burst out the front door and started following her.

They had followed her for about fifteen minutes, hiding in anyplace that would give them cover, whether it was a hay pile or a trash can. It seemed luck was with them as Sun Glimmer didn’t suspect a thing. One major thing they noticed was that they passed the buildings that had during the night become pushed together. Ponies were standing around, wondering what had happened during the night to cause this. They now had a clear understanding of why the mystery pony last night had come through this area; she was on her way home. It took about thirty more minutes before Sun Glimmer stopped at a shop. Throughout the time it took her to get there it appeared that she had somehow gotten lost. The investigative ponies soon entered the shop, seeing what Sun could be doing inside there.

“That’ll be thirteen bits, Miss Glimmer,” the shop owner stated. Sun handed over the coins and was soon on her way out with her bag. The three girls used this opportunity to check out the store and see if the owner knew anything.

“Excuse me sir? I was just wondering what you sold that mare over there.”

“I’m sorry mam, but I, I, I can’t say no to an adorable face like that.” It appears that Sweetie Belle had activated her puppy dog eyes and was using all her adorable powers to convince the shop owner to spill the beans. “She recently bought some construction paper, pipe cleaners, a bit of paint, and interestingly enough, some clockwork parts. She must be building something for school. She actually came in last night to purchase some of those items as well last night, right about five in the evening. I’m guessing that wasn’t enough for her.”

“Thank you!” the adorable white unicorn replied, making the shop owner’s heart skip a beat for a moment. If she were there at about five last night, then it really was possible for her to be the one that they were after. They had found and started chasing her at around seven last night, when Ponyville was quieter. The only difference between last night and tonight though was the time of day, route traveled, and knowledge of who they were after. Actually, there were some pretty big differences between the two nights. The only thing that they now needed to know was the purpose of the items she had bought. They weren’t items you just casually bought unless you were working on something. It must have had relevance to the case.

The trip back to her place was a long one, once again having them pass by the magically maneuvered structures. This time it seemed like a faster trip back as Sun Glimmer didn’t seem to get lost this time. Back at the house, the three friends witnessed as their suspect had entered through the door. They peered through the window just in time to see her greet the mother and then head upstairs with the bag. Once again they entered through the door, the mother welcoming them in.

“Wow! You girls must be really good at this game. She didn’t seem to notice you at all,” the mother commented. They gave her a smile and made a ‘hush’ motion to her as they slowly ascended the stairs. If anything they could listen in to hear what the two of them were doing in that room. Hopefully they’d find some condemning evidence to finally convict them. What happened next though was something they didn’t plan for.

“Hello Archer! It feels like it’s been so long. So sorry to hear about your mother. I hope things are well at home.” The mom’s words made the hair on each of the sneaking crusaders’ backs stand up. Archer had suddenly visited at the worst possible time and now it sounded like she was heading upstairs.

“What can we do?” the three of them asked each other. The hooves were getting closer and closer as she moved up the steps. Time was running out and the other doors besides the one to Sun’s room were locked. It looked like it was time for them to be found.

“Hold on to me,” Apple Bloom commanded her friends to do. She thought she had a plan to escape. She was about to use her karate to perform a high jump on the ceiling and hold herself and her friends in place using the strength in her hooves against the walls. Her friends held on tightly as Apple Bloom used all her strength and training to gain enough strength to lift them all up. She began to jump up, and just as she got a foot in the air, she plummeted down to the floor again, causing her friends to fall down on her. The pain from last night hadn’t calmed down and this was like getting hit with a brick for the earth filly. Archer saw the three of them lying on the floor and just walked past. She opened up the door to where Sun Glimmer and Tootsie Flute were with rage on her face.

“I guess you guys thought you could hide it, didn’t you?” the offended earth pony said to her ‘friends’. “I found out what you guys did as soon as those three outside started following you. I thought that it was you guys at first, but I purposely looked away from it and decided to accept that Sweetie Belle did it by accident.” The three fillies outside tried to find a way out until they realized that they were found and there wasn’t any way to just get out.

“Archer, you’ve got it all wrong!” yelled Sun Glimmer.

“Yeah, that’s not what we did,” added Tootsie Flue.

“Really?” Archer asked, her voice getting raspier as she tried to talk through her emotions. “Then what were you doing several nights ago, the night my project got destroyed? I came here and none of you were around. I wanted to apologize to both of you for being angry, but I guess I was justified.” Archer started to trot away until Sun Glimmer said something.

“Archer, don’t go! It was a bit embarrassing at first, but I guess we should let you know what we were doing now.” Sun Glimmer went under her bed and pulled out a home-made card. It was glued together with construction paper and macaroni in it. There was a bunch of other things on the card that showed that it was home-made, but that wasn’t the important thing. “We were out at the crafts shop getting all the stuff to put that card together. We didn’t let my mom know since she can be a blabbermouth.” That surprised the investigative ponies who assumed the mom was good at being silent, especially with them sneaking around.

“That’s not the only thing we’ve been doing,” Tootsie Flute added. “Take a look at this.” Archer got closer to what looked like a pile of paper mache, glue, paint, and gears. It took her a while to understand what she was looking at, but then she finally realized.

“You guys. Were you trying to rebuild my project?” Archer asked her friends.

“We learned about what happened to your mom right after we had fought and were trying to come up with a really good way to tell you we were sorry, but all we could think of was making our own card. When we saw that your diorama had gotten destroyed we knew what we had to do. We actually got a copy of your written section of your diorama from teacher and used that to try and recreate what you made. We knew how much this diorama meant for you since it was all based on your mom’s research before she passed away. This was essentially your tribute to her work and we wanted to help you remake it and let you see it. We avoided you until then because we didn’t how else to talk to you until then. I guess we didn’t do too well though.” Tootsie Flute finished her explanation and was grabbed along with Sun Glimmer by Archer in a massive hug. She squeezed tightly, tears coming from her face at what her friends had done for her.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” Archer cried to her friends.

“We’re sorry also. We didn’t know what you were going through and ended up making you even more upset,” Sun Glimmer apologized.

“I worked so hard on this for daddy. He’s been so sad without mommy. I just wanted to make him happy again. I wanted to show him I could be like mommy.” Archer’s tears were now spreading to her friends, causing them to develop their own. “I miss mommy! I want her back! Why is she gone now?! Why’d she leave?” Apple Bloom couldn’t hold it in any long and joined their hug, tears streaming down her face. She never knew that pain of knowing what it was like to lose a parent. She only knew what it was like to never really know them. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle joined in as well, making everypony share the pain and sadness in a safe place among friends.

An hour passed until everypony had calmed back down. Ponies had gotten things off their chests and everything seemed back to normal. Archer was with her friends again and everything with them had been explained. The only thing that was bumming the CMC out was the fact that they had officially run out of leads in their investigation. All the unicorns in their class had been investigated and found innocent of committing the crime. Truffle Shuffle wouldn’t have been able to win the gift card and he knew it, Snips & Snails had been working with Cheerilee the nights in question, and Sun Glimmer and Tootsie Flute were working on cheering up Archer by actually remaking her entire project for her. No motives or explanations were left. It seemed as if all they had was the evidence of a glass bottle with initials on it along with a very questionable piece of hair.

“Well girls, I don’t think I know of any other things we could do now. I guess I’ll have to face the music and accept my punishment tomorrow when the time is up.” Sweetie Belle sighed in acceptance of her sad fate and left the house. It was about eight in the evening now and she was out of ideas.

“Sweetie Belle, wait up!” her friends called. “We got another piece of evidence!”

“Really? What?” she inquired.

Apple Bloom decided to tell her despondent friend. “Yeah. Archer just decided to help us as soon as you left. It’s the crystal that was used in the diorama as a model! The crystal’s original color when put in the diorama was blue.” She pulled out what looked like a completely different crystal from her sack. “The color of the gem is now grey! It somehow changed colors after being touched by magic. Archer gave it to us so we could figure out who really did it. She now thinks that you’re innocent. She also told us to be extra careful with it though since it was her mother’s and that she apparently used it in her deep sea expeditions somehow. Her mom never really explained what it did though. We have something really good to go on now!” The exciting news was met by an unenthusiastic response from Sweetie Belle.

“Thanks girls, but I don’t think even that will help us. We don’t have any more leads and we’re just about out of time. Also, what was the deal with the large black cloak we heard about anyway?”

“Oh. That’s simple: Sun Glimmer had a large black cloak she wore, and last night she was cold when getting supplies and needed something thick on her. Interesting little fact is that there is more than just one large black coat in the world. She also let us know that the reason she was getting lost during her outing was that the alley that she took her shortcuts through had disappeared when the two buildings came together last night.” Scootaloo had gained a love of explaining things to other ponies.

“I just can’t take this anymore. I can’t stand the actual possibility that I can’t control my magic. Maybe ALL the evidence is coincidental. Maybe that pony we chased we some random colt who was scared by several ponies who just started to chase him. Maybe I am the culprit. The evidence still leads to me.” The small unicorn didn’t want to deal with this stuff anymore. “Let’s go to Sugarcube Corner. I could use a milkshake right about now.”

The three fillies had gotten to the confectionary right at its busiest hour. Ponies had come here on dates, parties, and many other events around the time they arrived. It was lucky for them though that Sweetie Belle had once won a raffle for permanent seats in the establishment. Mr. Cake had come over to them to take their orders.

“Hey girls! What can I get you?” he asked.

“One vanilla, one strawberry, and one chocolate. Double on the chocolate,” Sweetie Belle ordered.

“Wow, somepony must be having a rough time. Is something wrong?” he inquired.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle started to explain. “Recently a diorama in our classroom was destroyed by magic and everypony thought it was me who might have done it with a magic surge. My friends and I investigated every other unicorn in our class that could have done it, but they all turned out to be innocent. Tomorrow’s the last day before we get punished and we don’t have any more suspects.”

“Sounds like you got yourselves a real pickle. You know what, I’m gonna ask Silent Study right now if he could convince Miss Cheerilee to give you girls more time. HEY SILENT! OVER HERE!” the cake serving pony yelled out to another table. It seems that Silent Study was out here tonight with several of his pegasus friends.

“What is it, Mr. Cake?” the Aide asked.

“I just heard about these little fillies and their dilemma and was wondering if you could somehow convince Cheerilee to give them just a bit more time,” the caring baker asked.

“I’m sorry, but Miss Cheerilee already bent the rules for them so they could go out and try to prove their innocence. She couldn’t do it anymore.” Silent Study seemed to rub his chin in thought before finally coming up with something. “You know, I can actually help you out with your magic surge problem. I know this one alchemy place, “The Philosopher’s Stone” that has the single greatest variety of potions, ingredients, and other things I couldn’t ever figure out what their uses are. I’ve never seen another shop with such impressive concoctions in my entire life! I even think they have a potion that can be used to stop magic surges on a unicorn.”

“REALLY?” Mr. Cake asked excitedly. “I could really use something like that with Pumpkin. Just this afternoon she had a magic surge that turned all the knobs on the ovens from 400 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Almost ruined all the baked goods.”

“Alright! If you do end up going there, please let Red Triangle know that I sent you. He gives me a discount for any business I bring to him.” Silent Study’s words suddenly sparked life into the gloomy girls as they heard something in that statement.

“Wait; did you say ‘Red Triangle’? Is that the owner of the shop?” Apple Bloom asked the Aide, feeling like they may finally have something.

“Yeah. Why do you ask?”

“Girls!” she yelled out. “We’ve gotta see Spike immediately! I think we’ve just found our final lead!” The three investigators soon leaped from their desks and ran to the library to meet their draconic helper. They didn’t have milkshakes that night, but they managed to taste something sweeter; victory.

It was the third and final day for the girls, and everything rested upon what they had found out last night. It was risky, but it was worth a shot. They went to school and prepared for the worst.

“Hello girls,” greeted Cheerilee. “I’m terribly sorry to tell you that your time for investigating the diorama’s doom is up. Do any of you have evidence of who did the deed?”

“Yes we do!” they all cheered together. “Come on everypony! We know who destroyed the diorama!” the entire classroom was gathered around the fillies at this moment. Cheerilee thought of telling them all to return to their seats until she realized that this had become a real-life parlor room scene. She’d always wanted to be in one of those and knew that this was her best chance of that ever happening.

“Do you know who did it?” a random voice called out.

“Yes we do,” Scootaloo pronounced boldly. “It took a lot of time and effort, but we finally found the pony responsible for all of this. It seemed improbable, almost impossible, but when you've eliminated all other possibilities, the improbable becomes the truth.”

“That’s right,” added Sweetie Belle. “This now seems to be the best solution to the case.”

“AND THE PONY WHO DID IT IS-“ they all yelled together, pointing their hooves at the target, “DIAMOND TIARA!”

The Parlor Room Scene

Everypony in the room was shocked by the accusation that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had made. The first minute was shock and silence, followed by a minute of mumbling, and then finished with Diamond Tiara bursting out into laughter.

“Is anypony here seeing the obvious flaw in this accusation?” Diamond Tiara pointed to her forehead, no horn on it. “Obviously Sweetie Belle just can’t handle the fact that she’s awful with her magic and has no control and needs to blame anypony. Too bad she couldn’t even choose a unicorn.”

“Girls, what is the meaning of this?” Miss Cheerilee asked them.

“We know it’s very difficult to understand and we share in your confusion, but the facts lead up to this conclusion.” Apple Bloom started narrating their investigation. “The first thing we did when we discovered that it was a magic based crime was establish that the culprit had to be a unicorn, so we limited our selection to the other four in our classroom: Snips, Snails, Sun Glimmer, and Tootsie Flute. Working with Spike, we were able to obtain a motive for several of the suspects in the form of a fifty bit gift card for Sugarcube Corner. Using this information we had concluded that Truffle Shuffle had convinced either Snips or Snails to use their magic to destroy the diorama and insure that Truffle’s diorama won. The flaw in this theory however was the fact that Truffle wouldn’t have won the gift card, but a dieting book instead. He knew that as well, so there was no motive for him to commit the deed.”

“Yeah, and it turns out that dieting is awesome! I’ve lost two pounds since I’ve now started and feel great about it!” Truffle Shuffle interjected. His statement of triumph was met with the clopping of hooves from supportive classmates.

“Alright, my turn,” Scoots said, taking the front of the group. “After we found out that Truffle Shuffle wasn’t a ring leader for conspiracy, we decided to focus on Snips and Snails working alone. We thought that they could’ve imagined themselves being close runners to the grand prize, even if that wasn’t the case.”

“Hey!” the two colts responded.

“We still thought that way until we heard that teacher was working with the two of them on redoing their dioramas during the nights where the suspicious pony had done their work. They couldn’t have done it while under out teacher’s supervision. With those two eliminated the only ones left were Sun Glimmer and Tootsie Flute. The motive they had was being angry at Archer and wanting to destroy her work out of anger. Further investigation proved however that these ponies were busy doing things to apologize to Archer and help her feel better. Not only a lack of motive, but also witnesses as well at the shop.”

“So, it just sounds like you ran into a dead end. You can’t just blame me because you couldn’t think of anything else.” Diamond Tiara still kept her composure. She definitely was not about to let herself get blamed for something a unicorn did.

“Except,” Sweetie Belle was now up front, “we had some evidence to help us determine who the culprit might be. A couple of nights ago we actually saw the cloaked figure of the pony who had cast the spell that destroyed the diorama. We realized it was the same pony after they shot off the same type of spell that produced the exact same type of remains when it hit the mailbox. Spells often leave a unique marker on the object when cast upon. The marker for this unicorn was the red embers present in the dust, just like the ones in the diorama that indicated that it was magic. Anyway, when we chased the suspect, a vial from their sack with the initials “R.T” fell out. At first we thought that the initials were for the name of whatever the business sold it and had Spike look into businesses with those initials. Thanks to Mr. Study however,” they motioned over to the large unicorn who was blushing a little, “we found out about an alchemist by the name of Red Triangle. This was our big break as we finally figured out where the bottle was from. We went to his shop with the bottle in hoof and asked him about the serum that was left inside it. What he told us was very interesting; the serum in the bottle was actually the leftover of a potion called “Silence”. This kind of potion is one the most advanced of its kind and would require extreme alchemic talent. Brewed correctly, just a drop or two of this potent potion could cause a unicorn to lose their magic for days. Ingest enough of it and you can lose your magic permanently. The amount needed to get rid of your powers though rested on not only how refined the potion was, but how powerful the caster’s magic is.” Sweetie Belle went through her sack and pulled out a copy of Alchemy for Beginners. “Something interesting we found while investigating alchemy. When you set up an alchemic lab, you need certain supplies: Mortar and Pestle, Calcinator, Retort, Silver Knife, and,” Sweetie Belle paused a second for dramatic effect, saying, “Silver Spoon. Of course, you already know all of this, don’t you?” she said while looking at the pony whose name bore the alchemic instrument. “I mean, it’d make sense for you to know your family’s profession, wouldn’t it?” The classroom gasped at this statement, surprised at what they just heard. Cheerilee wasn’t surprised in the least however. She was a teacher and she already knew that Silver Spoon was Red Triangle’s daughter because of Parent-Teacher Conferences. Maybe she should finally get around to making that Directory for students to use so they can contact each other and actually know this sort of stuff without needing to investigate for several days. Actually, that was something she could have her Aide do for her.

“Congratulations. You just found out that I’m related to my father,” responded Silver Spoon, mocking their discovery. “I don’t see how this has anything to do with me.”

“It does,” Sweetie Belle continued. “See, Red Triangle never actually sold Silence. He only sold low level magic inhibiting potions for unicorns that couldn’t control their magic yet. The thing we brought in was much more extreme in its purpose than his concoctions that would only last for a day and were mild. However, the bottle containing the potion still bore the initials from his store. Isn’t it true, Silver Spoon, that you sometimes help out your father in making the potions?”

Silver Spoon was starting to get more agitated. “Yeah, but only beginner things such as potions for bruises or cuts. The biggest thing I’ve helped my dad with was a potion to help somepony sleep better. Never anything like creating Silence.”

“Really?” Sweetie Belle remarked in that tone you have when you don’t believe somepony. “Miss Cheerilee, whatever happened to those really advanced alchemy books you found a couple of days ago?”

“Somepony must have taken them home since I couldn’t find them anywhere. Nopony complained about missing books either, so they weren’t stolen.”

“Using your powers as teacher, I believe that if you searched Silver Spoon’s sack that you would find those books.” Under any other circumstances Cheerilee wouldn’t be searching another pony’s bags without permission, but as a teacher she was allowed to if there was a good reason to. She also wanted to see where these fillies were headed. Just as Sweetie Belle said, those books were present in her sack, along with what appeared to be a bag containing a variety of plants from the school garden.

“Silver Spoon, what are these plants doing in your bag? Wait, these are some of the plants from our school garden!” The teacher brought the bag over and poured the contents of the bag on her desk. Silver Spoon was getting visibly nervous.

“According to Supernaturals, these plants from our school garden are high level alchemic ingredients. Remember when about a year ago we started the garden and Silver Spoon volunteered to help set it up? The entire purpose of that garden was for her to help plant extremely rare alchemic materials in our own yard for you to harvest for yourself.” Everypony, including Miss Cheerilee, gasped at this new information. Silver Spoon was starting to shake now.

“Alright! Fine! I’m good at alchemy. Like, really REALLY good at it. I’m probably one of the best potion brewers in the entire world at this point. I also admit that I used our garden idea to help plant alchemic plants, but there wasn’t any harm! This is really rare stuff and our school garden was somehow the best natural environment for the stuff to grow. It can’t be grown artificially, which is why they’re so rare. What about it?” Silver Spoon was desperate to defend herself and her secret.

“The things about it,” continued Sweetie Belle as she was coming to her conclusion as she built up dramatic tension before continuing with, “is that each of these plants is a component in making the Silence potion. Silver Spoon, you were the one to create the Silence potion using the plants from our garden and supplies from your dad’s shop, correct?”

Silver Spoon was cornered. She had no way out. She was found out. “ALRIGHT! I admit it! I’ve been using the ingredients to make Silence potions! You know why? Because I bucking can! I’m the best alchemist EVER! I’ve actually CREATED potions, you know that? I made a potion that can make you not only breathe in water, but actually talk with fish! I know a potion that can actually remove cutie marks from a pony! I can even make a potion that allows transforming into any animal you know of in an hour!” The grey haired earth pony was breathing heavily from this outburst. She started to calm down though and spoke directly to Silent Study. “I’m sorry Mr. Study, but I still haven’t been able to find a way to help you with your condition. If it makes you feel any better I’ll return the remaining money you gave us as a refund. I was sure that it would work by now, but it doesn’t seem that way. Don’t ask my dad about it though; he doesn’t know about those experimental potions you’ve bought on the side.” Silent Study was pretty blank in his expression. In his mind he made a mental note of not to bother the pony who made his potions in the future. The last thing he needed was to drink something that’d possibly make him ill or, Celestia forbid, become a mare. Actually, he thought about that idea for a little bit and the longer he thought about it, the more appealing it appeared. His train of thought was interrupted though by reality and soon refocused.

“How does this relate to anything with me? All you girls have found is that Silver Spoon’s really good at making potions.” Apple Bloom was the next one to step up and respond to Diamond Tiara, letting Sweetie Belle get a drink while Scootaloo waited anxiously.

“It all comes back to one little piece of evidence; the hair. See, when Archer originally found the hair near her diorama, it seemed clear that it belonged to Sweetie Belle. After all, she was the only unicorn who fit the profile with that hair color. There was just one flaw in that logic though, and I’m about to show you what it is. Take a look at Sweetie Belle.” The classroom’s eyes turned over to Sweetie Belle, who had actually forgotten this part of their big reveal. She felt everypony’s eyes on her and blushed. “The piece of hair that was found at the scene of the crime was colored purple and white. While Sweetie Belle does have those colors in her hair, they’re from two different parts of her body; the mane and her coat. What are the chances that there would be hair from two different parts of her body and not a strand of pink hair from her mane? After all, it seems more likely that it’d come from up top and not just random places on her body. After you, Scoots.”

“Alright!” the enthusiastic pegasus announced, glad to finally be up again. “There was one other pony who had both those types of hair color though in her mane, and that mare is Diamond Tiara!” The class was whispering among themselves. What sounded absurd at first started to make sense. Diamond Tiara wasn’t letting any of this affect her though. The most emotion she expressed was rolling her eyes back at these outlandish claims. “You see, everything here adds up when you take the two ponies and put them together. The reason why you all thought Diamond Tiara was an earth pony is because that’s what she’s told you all these years. She’s been hiding it and, thanks to her alchemist friend, has been suppressing magic surges all these years with her potions. When we began to investigate she even pointed us over to Truffle Shuffle and gave us a good motive he may have had. She could have suspected that we’d try to find evidence linking him and run out of time, but she never expected us just confront him and learn the truth. The diorama’s destruction was because of one of her magic surges that she couldn’t control. We figured this out because even before the idea of Sweetie Belle’s destruction of the diorama being a result of a magic surge was presented, Diamond Tiara had said the same thing. It’s actually not very common for most non-unicorns to know about magic surges and yet she was the one who said it before anypony. So, what do have to say, Diamond Tiara?”

Everypony’s eyes were on the suspected mare now. They were all waiting for her response.

“I…I can’t believe,” she started with a frown on her face, “that you guys are listening to such stupidly hilarious stuff!” Her frown had become laughter, and she just couldn’t stop. She regained herself, saying, “Are any of you for real? Look at my head! I don’t have a horn. I am not a unicorn. I cannot cast magic. This is simple stuff! You really think that just because there was hair like mine at the scene of the crime that I did it? You assume that just because some other pony had my friend’s potion that it must be me? Do any of you have anything that definitively says I was there? I think not, and now this has gone from being hilarious to just being really annoying. Just accept that you can’t control your magic, Sweetie Belle, and let’s actually start class.”

“NOT SO FAST!” a voice roared out. Everypony turned to the entrance of the school barn to see that Spike was standing there victoriously, wearing his inspecting cap, ready for his big moment. “I’ve decided to make my presence known in this investigation. I’ve been helping those three out from the start and now I’m gonna finish this investigation once and for all!” Spike put down the bag he was carrying on the floor and pulled out three items: the hair found at the crime scene which he had gained from Cheerilee in a very awkward conversation, the nearly empty bottle with Silence in it, and the grey crystal gem they had gained from Archer. “This evidence for the case actually has something unique in common. That similarity is that each of the items has come in direct contact with the culprit in some physical sense that left their physical mark! The hair is obviously from the mane, while the bottle was obviously on their person and most likely drunk by them as well. The most unique item here, however, is the crystal. As a dragon I’m fairly knowledgeable about this sort of stuff and realized what this gem actually was. This gem is actually called a Tuning Gem, a magic device that’s used to track items. How it works is that if you have something like a small gem from a ruby and press it against the crystal and apply heat, it’ll start to glow when near a another ruby. Marine biologists would actually use this gem to see if there were any old ships in the water by seeing if any wood could be detected.”

“Can the gem be used to track ponies?” Silent Study questioned.

“Under normal circumstances it wouldn’t. This, however, is not a normal situation. One of the unique features of the gem is that the gem can actually work in reverse!” Spike grabbed the other items and starting pressing the items all together onto the gem. The gem started fluxing in colors, changing from grey to blue and back. “The reason it had turned grey is that the gem was actually charged by the magic of the unicorn who cast the spell on it, this spell being the one that destroyed the diorama. Once this gem has a specific unicorn’s magic charging it, using any other items that belonged to that unicorn will activate the gem and allow it to track the original caster. Using the gem and the other items that were from the culprit, we’ll be able to clearly locate them.” Spike blew a little flame, heating up the gem that would finally end this investigation once and for all. At first it simply started glowing, but it got more and more intense with vibrations and actually jumped out of Spike’s hands.

“Uh, is that supposed to happen?” inquired Silent Study. Just then the gem flew up to the ceiling and just zoomed by his head, scratching his face.

“Oh boy.” Spike realized that he had no idea how the gem would react to returning to the caster. Apparently it didn’t just glow to let the pony know where the unicorn was, but it actually would fly to the target. His realization was soon met with a hit to his gut as the gem sped right into it, causing him to roll over in pain. It soon went up to the ceiling again, as if looking for its next target.

“Everypony hit the deck!” Cheerilee advised her students. Panic soon took hold of the class as they soon started to run around and attempt leave. The gem seemed to bounce right in front of the exit as they tried to leave and started bouncing all through the classroom. Everypony was running around, just dodging it in time. Spike got hit three more times, twice in the face and once in the tail. Things had clearly escalated here. Eventually the gem went straight for one of the students. She tried to run from it but it now had her scent and caught up to her. The mare fell on the ground, her tiara flying off as hit her right on the forehead.

“Is everypony alright?” Cheerilee yelled out. She was glad to hear her students reply that weren’t hurt by the gem. Too bad the same couldn’t be said of Spike, lying on the ground in agony. The gem had stopped moving and seemed to be stuck on a certain pony. As the smoke cleared, the classmates came out of hiding and saw something unbelievable. Everypony looked in awe and shock at what they were seeing; the gem was stuck right on the horn of Diamond Tiara. Nopony, not even Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, or Spike knew how to react to this scene, even though it was the one they had hoped for.

“But, what, how, wait, where’d that horn come from?” the baffled teacher asked, hoping somepony could fill her in on what was going on.

“So THAT’S how she hid it!” remarked Scootaloo. “See, the tiara we always saw her wearing must have been enchanted so nopony could see or even feel her horn! I just wonder who made her wear a tiara specifically to hide her horn though.”

“I did!” yelled out Diamond Tiara, trying to get the gem unstuck from her horn. “I made that enchantment for the tiara! I don’t want to be a unicorn! I wanna be an earth pony! Nonononononono!” she cried out. “Unicorns and magic are awful! There’s nothing good with them! Only pain and sadness and destruction! I can’t stand being one!” She fell to the floor and started to cry. She had given up on removing the gem from her head as it just sat there and glowed.

“Diamond Tiara, what are you talking about? All unicorns aren’t bad, and neither is magic.” Cheerilee was wondering what had happened to this small foal to make her feel this way about magic, along with the rest of the class.

“When I was younger,” the newly revealed unicorn started, “I had really bad magic surges. I would end up doing a lot of damage and it cost a good amount to repair them. We’re rich though, so that wasn’t too much of an issue. The doctors said that I’d calm down over time, but that never happened. It turns out that I’m this really powerful unicorn and that these surges were just a small bit of my power that would sometimes leak out and just destroy things. One day, when I was a little filly, I got this really bad surge and my mom tried to calm me down.” She choked up for a moment, tears making what she had to say next difficult to hear. “You shouldn’t try to get near a unicorn when she’s having a magic surge. You never know when she’ll suddenly have a charged magic missile launch point blank and…” Diamond Tiara just stopped and just wept. “It was just like that diorama, except right in front of me, right in my arms.” Silent Study felt sick as he heard this, but he knew he had to keep his composure in front of the other students. “The reports marked the entire thing up as a complete accident. My dad somehow managed to keep the event quiet and make it seem like she just passed away suddenly. I was too young to remember it, but one day I heard him talk to a doctor about what I had done and the memories came back. I swore from that day to do whatever I could to stop my magic. I first tried getting rid of my horn by sawing it off right after hearing it, but my magic was just too strong and would stop anything from touching it. I did the next best thing I could at the time and found a tiara I could wear and enchanted it so it would somehow hide my horn. When daddy saw me again with the tiara and no horn, he just seemed so much happier. He didn’t know what I did and never bothered to ask. I guess he didn’t want to ruin something good.”

“My goodness,” Cheerilee had to say. It was an understatement to say the least.

“For a while it seemed like I could hide my identity as a unicorn with my tiara, but soon the surges returned. I kept them a secret from everypony, especially my dad, and found out about these potions that could help control the magic. I tried a couple of them, but they were too weak to contain my power. It was about that time when I met Silver Spoon. We managed to hit it off and become close friends and for a while the magic seemed to have disappeared. One day while we were playing though I had a surge and ended up boiling up an entire lake to the point it dried up. She was surprised and I told her my awful secret and how I wished I could get rid of my magic. It was lucky that she was the daughter of an alchemist and she promised me that she’d learn how to make potions so strong that my magic would never return. She studied all these books for a really long time and I sometimes even helped her out with her studying. Eventually she had learnt all there was to alchemy and, using some of the ingredients from her father’s shop, created her first successful Silence potion. That was the day she got her cutie mark, actually. I drank the potion up and for the first time in a while felt free to live without that horrible curse. It didn’t last long though and my magic somehow returned. The amount that would normally cause a unicorn to lose their magic forever wasn’t even enough for me to lose it for just less than five months. She managed to make another of the potions again, making certain it was even more potent than the last one, and all seemed well, until it came back again. This cycle kept on happening more and more frequently until she couldn’t sneak the supplies she needed away anymore. It was at this point where she came up with the school garden idea and planted the stuff she’d need for the potions. With all of us taking care of the plants she’d need, the potions would keep on coming as long as the garden stayed up. It seems that the potion isn’t enough now, as my magic will always keep getting stronger and overpower it.” Diamond Tiara stopped for a moment to catch her breath. This was obviously heavy stuff for her to admit.

“Whoa,” was Spike’s reaction to this story. He had remembered on one occasion when Twilight was working with a low-level magic inhibiting potion and had somehow gotten the bottle switched with her orange juice. She couldn’t cast any spells for the rest of the day. This pony here was chugging down potions that were intended to permanently get rid of a unicorn’s magic and yet she still kept on having it return. If a pony with enough magic power as Twilight could be affected by such a weak inhibiting potion, imagine the power that Diamond Tiara must have had to resist repeated treatments of the strongest inhibiting potion in existence.

“Several days ago I was having the surges return and told Silver Spoon about it. She sent me a note in class telling me that the potion would be ready at about six in the morning the next day. It turns out that I read the note too quickly as Mr. Study passed by and I got rid of the note. Turns out it was to be six in the evening. I went the next morning to the school barn and waited for Silver Spoon to come when I suddenly felt a magic surge come on. I tried to control it, but I ended up blasting Archer’s diorama. Embarrassed and ashamed, I ran out as quickly as possible.”

“So it really was you,” Snails stated, living up to his name.

“Yes, Snails, I was the one to destroy the diorama with my magic. I’m not certain how the rest of my diatribe didn’t seem to give that away.” Diamond Tiara’s expression was that of contempt to the other unicorn for making her say that awful fact out loud. “As for YOU three,” she was now pointing at the ponies that had just blown her cover, “you just had to let everypony know, didn’t you? It’s not like I actually tried to use magic on you guys when you were chasing me. I had a surge and you saw me, so I ran. The magic I cast just happened to occur since I was so scared of being found. I’m more embarrassed by how just one day after drinking an entire Silence potion that I still had magic surges.”

“Why didn’t you ever let anypony else know?” Cheerilee asked her student.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to know that you’re the reason you don’t have a mother anymore?! Do you know that pain of being something terrible? That knowledge that you’ve lost somepony that you loved dearly and will never be able to love again?” The tears started to come out again.

“I can’t say I know exactly what you’re feeling,” said Apple Bloom as she approached the broken unicorn, “but I can say that I know what it’s like to never really get to love somepony and wonder what life would have been like with them.” The earth filly put her arms around her former enemy, letting her know that she wasn’t alone.

“The same goes for me,” added Archer. “I’ll never know what could have been if my mom were still here, but I know the pain of losing someone you love so much and you were so close to. I don’t want you to end up always wondering ‘what if’, but rather move on. Think about those precious bits of time you remember. Know that it wasn’t your fault and that you’ll only hurt the rest of those you love if you continue this way.” She joined in with those two ponies, knowing the pain of losing someone that close.

“I don’t really know the pain, and, Celestia willing, I hope I never do, but I know that I’d never want to feel that way because of something that happened to you, Diamond Tiara,” Silver Spoon expressed. “I’m just so sorry that I failed you. I’m supposed to be this genius alchemist and yet my potions aren’t working with you. I’m a failure.”

“Shut up!” Diamond Tiara bellowed out. “You are NOT a failure! You’re absolutely brilliant in every possible way! I’m the luckiest mare in the world to have you as my friend. I’m the one who sucks with magic and somehow manages to break a Silence potion. THAT’S failing.” The two of them chuckled at this sentiment as the grey mare joined the hug.

“Teacher, I know you said about there being a punishment,” started Sweetie Belle, “but don’t you think that’d be, well, mean?”

“You’re right,” she responded. “Right now she needs help, not discipline. I just wish I knew somepony who’d be able to help out with that sort of magic stuff.”

“I may know a solution.” The purple dragon finally spoke up after getting hit several times by the jewel. Cheerilee was glad about that since there was no way their insurance would cover somepony who wasn’t a student. “From what I see, Diamond Tiara’s magic surges seem to come from a good amount of magic suppression. She has all this awesome power and never uses any of it to the point that is comes out at the worst times. If she were to get some sort of training from a special pony whose talent dealt directly with magic, I’m sure she could start to improve.”

“Spike, are you suggesting that Twilight would accept Diamond Tiara as her student?” Cheerilee was surprised by what Spike suggested.

“Sure! It’d be great experience for her and she’d also be using all her knowledge to help somepony out. Diamond Tiara is definitely a gifted pony, that’s for sure.” The pink unicorn smiled at what Spike had said. It was the first time her magic had ever been referred to as a gift and not something horrible. She felt as if things could actually work out for her.

Class was cancelled for the day thanks to the gem’s rampage around the classroom. Cheerilee contacted Mr. Rich about his daughter and let him know about what she had been going through. He was absolutely horrified by the fact that he made his own daughter feel ashamed of herself and pledged to accept her, magic and all. He actually liked the idea of her getting magic lessons as well and was even impressed by what he had heard of some of her abilities. Spike managed to contact Twilight through letter about the possibility of accepting a talented and powerful unicorn such as Diamond Tiara as her very own apprentice. The amount of “YES”s on her return letter made Spike wonder if she had run out of ink writing it and if he should pick some up on the way back. Diamond attempted to make things right again with Archer and tried out some magic on the remains of her work. To everypony’s surprise the diorama was restored to its original condition. The new unicorn finally felt pride in her magic and didn’t try to hide it either as she did before. Silent Study actually suggested an idea to Cheerilee about Silver Spoon and wanted to try and get her to test for receiving a Master Alchemist title from the Princess herself. After all, if somepony her age could produce potions like the one she had made for her friend then she definitely deserved to have her name and work out there. Red Triangle heard about the incident as he went over to pick up his daughter and was met with a mix of emotions. On one hand, he was angry that she had been taking valuable materials from him while not looking, but that anger disappeared as he had learnt about his very own daughter creating such impressive potions at such a young age. The only ponies left to receive their happy ending were the three Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Alright girls! We’ve solved the case of the destroyed diorama! You ready to get your cutie marks?” Apple Bloom announced to her friends.

“YEAH!” the two of them announced, looking at their flanks. After spending a minute of waiting for something to happen they just accepted that they weren’t going to get it.

“I can’t believe that after all the work we did that we still didn’t get a cutie mark,” exasperated Scootaloo.

“Yeah, but at least we proved my innocence!” beamed Sweetie Belle. “I’m just glad it’s over. I need a milkshake.”

“Me too,” announced Scoots. Just as they were walking away to Sugarcube Corner, they heard a cry go out from another one of their classmates.

“Oh no!” Twist yelled. “I can’t find my glasses, and they were just on my table!”

“You girls thinking what I’m thinking?” Scootaloo put out to her friends. Their expressions were all she needed to see to know that they’d do next. They all put their hooves together and started to cheer.

“One…two…three! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER INVESTIGATORS!”