It was almost half past ten when Private Eye sat at his desk. He just finished speaking with Mayor Mare not twenty minutes ago about the recent string of murders, including reminding her of what happened to the former Elements. He considered himself fortunate that she was willing to sit down with him as soon as Town Hall opened for work, but ultimately it wasn't surprising.

Her citizens were dying left and right lately, something that just didn't happen in Ponyville. If there was some way to stop whoever was behind it, she was all ears. After their long talk, she – or at least her associates – were going to be all hooves too.

Almost as soon as her door closed and Private Eye headed to his office for the first time that morning, the mayor instructed her many assistants to quickly get started writing up a few dozen fliers and spreading them around town. The detective wanted to call an emergency, mandatory meeting for everypony in town.

They were to meet outside Town Hall at five o'clock sharp regardless of whatever plans they may have. If they were unable to attend for whatever reason, what Private Eye was to tell them must reach them one way or another by the end of the day.

As he got comfortable in his chair and Spike in his, the dragon snatched up some papers and a quill. No doubt his caretaker would want his instructions and responses to any possible questions the media would inevitably have written down.

The two had barely gotten anywhere when the door creaked open, eliciting a sigh of annoyance from both the detective and from Spike.

"Hey, partner," Gumshoe said as he leaned against the door frame. "Where've you been this morning?"

"Hey. Had to stop by the mayor's office about something. Was pretty important." He could see in Gumshoe's eyes the same look of irritation and gloom that he'd seen on an almost daily basis. Something must have happened again. "Let me guess..."

His fellow officer nodded.

"Who was it now?"

Gumshoe went to speak, paused in doubt, and started again. "Well, it's a donkey, goes by the name of Doodle. Wife found him this morning motionless in bed. Here's the thing though..."

Private Eye raised an eyebrow.

"...there doesn't seem to be any foul play involved. No forced entry, no signs of a struggle, no visible signs of injury, nothing. We're ruling it as it appears to be so far: a simple heart attack. He was older, so it's entirely possible we're not really needed in this case."

The detective tapped his hoof on his desk and glanced away, deep in thought. It sounded too good to be true, and knowing what Pinkie said she was going to do made it that much more difficult for Private Eye to believe this was just an unfortunate, albeit natural, occurrence.

"Sir?"

After another moment, Private Eye turned to his partner, his mind having been made up. "Do me a favor. Find whatever you can about the deceased's health. Check with hospitals, see if you can get in touch with any family of his, get their medical history, anything. Considering what's been going on lately, I want to make absolutely sure that's all this is."

"That's going to take some time."

"I know. Do whatever you can as quick as you can. Until I see Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle again, time is a luxury we don't have. If we can make heads or tails as to his cause of death by the time they return from their expedition, then great. If not, well..." He finished with a shrug.

"Understood. Anything else you need, P.E.?"

"Just some peace. I called for a press conference at five in front of Town Hall and I've got to write up what I'm going to say. I need you and everypony else to be there. Can you let the rest of the precinct know while I work on this?"

"Uh, sure. What's it about? The recent murders?"

"Mhm."

"Alright, I'll let the others know then. I'll see you later."

"Thanks," Private Eye said as his partner closed the door. He turned to the patient little dragon sitting across from him and sighed. "Now, where to begin?"

The large crowd in front of the podium murmured curiously as five o'clock quickly approached. Various newspaper reporters and cameraponies sat in the front rows, whispering between each other about what could be so important as to call a meeting the same day you post fliers about it. The fliers themselves certainly left enough up to the imagination.

The mayor and the detective shared a few quiet words before the meeting officially began, going over some information before things got started. Though she wasn't aware, he would never tell her that what he had written down were only half-truths and distractions. While they chatted, Spike sat on a small chair behind them. He wished he didn't need to be there, but it was part of Private Eye's plan. Plus, if Celestia or Twilight happened to send a message during the press conference, it couldn't hurt to hoof it over to his caregiver as quickly as possible.

Private Eye and Mayor Mare looked out at the large gathering and were overall pleased with the turn-out. Whether or not it was everypony they obviously had no idea. Hopefully the message would be relayed the way Private Eye intended, if it had to be at all.

After what felt like forever, the clock tower rang in the distance, signaling the turn of the hour. The mayor cut their discussion short and approached the stand. With a quick clear of her throat, she began.

"Good evening, fillies and gentlecolts, and thank you for coming on such short notice. As I'm sure you're all aware of, recently there has been a string of – I'm not going to sugarcoat it – murders in town, the first several of which were most of the Elements of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle being the only surviving member. Since then, others have occurred and, up until recently, the Ponyville Police Department was at a loss as to how they were happening.

"Fortunately, the stallion who's been investigating the deaths since they began informed me late last night that he had a breakthrough in the cases and wanted to let us all know what was going on as soon as possible. Together, we set up this meeting for just that. I ask that you hold all questions until the end. Now, Mr. Private Eye?"

Taking in a breath, he stepped up to the podium as the mayor moved to the side. Hopefully, everypony would buy what he was about to tell them. It sounded plausible enough when he and Spike reviewed it earlier. He set the few sheets of paper on the stand and greeted the crowd.

"Thank you, Mayor Mare, and thank you all again for coming. I'll start off by saying that if you happen to know anypony who couldn't attend, I urge you to speak to them about what we're going to discuss before the day is done. As the mayor said, several of the Element bearers were indeed taken from us not long ago and since then, a few others were found dead the next morning since and in just-as-horrific ways.

"For a while, we did not have any solid leads as their deaths also seemed to happen in very mysterious ways. We had always assumed that the Element bearers probably had enemies, given what they've done for Equestria, and that the killer had a pattern. Unfortunately, once others were found murdered in similarly gruesome ways, we had to throw that idea out the window. Either way, it was nearly impossible to come up with any suspects.

"But just the other night, the killer slipped up. Spike, would you come up here please?"

The little dragon walked up and stood next to the stand, clutching his tail nervously. While he didn't mind being the center of attention, he wished the circumstances could be different.

"Some of you may recognize Spike here as Twilight Sparkle's assistant. For those of you who are unaware, Twilight is the last of the Element bearers to still be alive as well as Ponyville's librarian. She is also Princess Celestia's star student."

Private Eye glanced down at the miserable drake. He wish there was another way, but despite staying up half the night previous, they couldn't seem to think of anything that would sound good. They did agree, however, that if they could convince the populace that even Celestia's pupil and assistant were in danger, the Ponyvillians would be more inclined to believe the seemingly outlandish tale he was about to tell.

"Princess Celestia and Twilight have been away for several days, having agreed to assist us with the investigation. The Princess claimed that she had a few ideas that she needed to research further which may be able to help us but that the sources of information were not in Ponyville or Canterlot. Since the two departed, I have been looking after Spike for them.

A couple nights ago, while Spike was asleep, he began to panic and no matter what I did, I couldn't wake him. When he eventually did wake, I thought it was nothing more than a simple nightmare. But, he told me he had an encounter with a mare who claimed to be his friends' killer. Many of the details he claims to have been given matched what appeared to have happened to the other Element bearers."

As he told his lie, he noticed several ponies sharing disbelieving looks or outright trying to hold in giggling. He suspected this may happened, but he wasn't about to stop at this point. He raised a hoof to quiet the increasing hum from the crowd.

"Like I said, at first, I thought it was just his grief. I didn't think anything of it. Then, later that night, I too fell into a sleep that I was unable to wake from. Spike finally snapped me awake when he took a chance and hit me with a small blast of his fire. Though the little guy here couldn't put together a complete description of who he claims visited him, I wrote down what I could recall and...it seemed that we both had an encounter with whoever's behind all this.

"We contacted Celestia and asked if there was any kind of magic that she could think of that would allow somepony to be able to manipulate another in such a way. Turns out that...yes, there is. It's rare but exceptionally powerful.

"I can understand that some of you may be skeptical, and until recently, I would have been in the same boat as you. However, I have further reason to believe that myself and Spike did indeed come into contact with the murderer. About a week and a half ago, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, the last of the Element bearers to have died, were under heavy guard at the Ponyville library. Several troops, including royal guards, were positioned at every possible entrance and those entrances were all locked. Those who could see the two all claimed the same thing: that Rainbow Dash, while still asleep, appeared to be attacked by magical means.

"I don't see these events as mere coincidences nor is it in my job description to blow off things that seem outlandish, especially when magic is potentially involved. I also don't see it as a coincidence when the Princess herself confirms the existence of such magic."

As he scanned across the masses, he noticed that many of the unbelievers from before displayed a touch of worry in their eyes. Seemed he was able to convert a good portion of them. Though, why would anypony doubt the word of the Princess, directly or not?

"While I have been able to draw up a short list of suspects, based on who Spike and I met, I do not wish just yet to reveal any specifics. I don't want a mob running around dispensing their own form of justice based on minimal detail," Private Eye said with a firm tap of his hoof on the pedestal.

"However, I can tell you what you can do to help prevent anymore tragedy from befalling Ponyville. Until further notice, it's highly recommended that you bunk with at least one other pony in the same room. Even if they're only taking a short nap, never leave that pony unattended. If that friend or family member appears to be struggling as they sleep and you're unable to wake them, holding the flame of a candle against them should be enough to snap them out of it. Since a sharp burst of pain was able to wake me during my encounter, I could also recommend using something with a sharp end such as a letter opener or a quill or something of that nature.

"Once we've tracked down the culprit and have dealt with them in full accordance with the law, you will be able to resume your lives to the way they were before. Until that time, I implore you to heed this advice and make sure you don't end up as just another statistic. I'll now be taking any questions you may have." In an instant, nearly half of the reporters hooves shot into the air. Private Eye picked one at random and its owner stood up.

"Why didn't you reveal any of this information before?" a chocolate-colored pegasus asked.

"Like I said, we had very little to go on until Spike and I ran into the killer. With Spike forcing me awake, we were able to determine how to handle such a situation but I was still unsure exactly what was going on. I had my theories but that simply wasn't enough. Once Celestia informed me that such forms of magic did indeed exist, then...well, here we are. I seriously doubt any of you would have had any reason to believe me if I came to you before I spoke to the Princess," he replied. "Next question?"

Barely a third of the hooves went into the air this time. Maybe this would be a shorter second half than he thought. Private Eye selected a yellow earth pony.

"You mentioned that the Princess and Twilight Sparkle were away. How long have they been absent and where exactly did they go?"

"I'm not at liberty to say, but we did speak to them only a couple nights ago and they said they were on their way back."

A grey earth pony was the detective's next choice. There were only a few less hooves than the last time.

"You'll forgive me, Mr. Private Eye, but do you really expect us to honestly believe that somepony is capable of murdering somepony else in their sleep seemingly without them being aware of it? How in Equestria are they capable of doing this? Where could they have found this magic?"

"You can believe whatever you want. I'm telling you what I and others have experienced and you can take away from that what you will," the officer snapped back. "As far as the magic goes, I didn't bother to ask where it may have come from because it ultimately doesn't matter, but if you'd like to question Celestia when she returns, be my guest. It's only cost her the lives of her student's closest friends as well as several others. Okay, I have time for one last question." He pointed to a blue forelimb belonging to a unicorn. "Yes, you, go ahead."

"Thank you. Assuming everything you've told us turns out to be true, could you give us a description of who you saw in case they were to come to one of us at some point?"

Ah, one of the potential questions he and Spike had imagined.

"Even though we both remember vague bits and pieces about the mare, unfortunately, I'm not one hundred percent sure if what I could tell you would be accurate."

"Why's that?"

"If this mare is capable of literally messing with our minds as we slumber, it's within the realm of possibility that who we saw may be masking what they really look like. The only thing I can really say is that your friend or family member be swift in waking you up if something looks amiss."

Several hooves still waved in the air and questions were thrown at the detective. He raised his own hooves to try and quiet the unrest as he left. "Fillies and gentlecolts, Mayor Mare, I again thank you for coming to this press conference tonight. Once I have more information, I'll let you all know. Goodnight."

Spike and Private Eye shared a nod and quietly walked off the stage as the mayor tried to further calm the crowd and send them on their way. They did their best but still ended up having to dodge a few reporters on the way back home. The earth pony happened to spot Gumshoe as he crept from the crowd. They too nodded to each other, both hoping this gambit was going to work.

Nearly a half hour later, they were opening the door to their residence. The first scents of dinner being prepared wafted through the air. Smelled like itailian. Haven't had that in a while.

"Hey honey!" the wife called out. "Come on inside, we have guests!"

Guests? He wasn't expecting anypony. He looked quizzically at the dragon, who only shrugged in response. Any question of who was visiting quickly disappeared when a large, white alicorn and a smaller purple unicorn turned and smiled at the pair as they entered the kitchen.