When the group arrived back at the library, Heavyhoof was still immobilized on the floor, glaring up at his captors. Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy looked up at the others entry. Phillip immediately stormed in and marched over to the thief, his face a mask of contempt.

"You threaten the life of a defenseless youngling," he said, his voice a low snarl. "Your partner endangers civilian lives and almost kills a foal. You just ran out of chances for me to go easy on you."

A change had come over him. Gone was the emptiness, the stoic lack of emotion. Now, the gray eyes were hard as ice and his voice rumbled. But it was the feeling that he cast over the room that was the real difference: the feeling of dread, the sensation of facing a force that could not be resisted or fought, only yielded to. The effect that this cold fury had was terrifying. Everypony backed away from him, and Heavyhoof visibly cowered.

"Now here's what gonna happen," Phillip whispered, glaring right into his eyes. Heavyhoof stared back up, seemingly unable to look away or blink. "You're gonna tell me where your partner is before anypony gets hurt."

Heavyhoof shook a little, but managed to glare back defiantly. "No way, flathoof."

Phil was silent, his gray eyes slowly panning over Heavyhoof. "You stayed at Graymane's Inn, didn't you?" Heavyhoof's eyes flashed in shock and his jaw dropped open. "No need to answer that verbally." Phil turned and headed back out the door at full speed.

"Come on!" Twilight said. "The spell will keep him there for a couple hours!"

The six ponies chased after Phillip, who was already hurrying down the street. "Wait! How did you know?" Rainbow shouted, flying alongside Phillip.

"Simple," Phil said, hardly even breathing hard as he dashed through the town, cutting corners and speeding down alleys. "It was obvious that they were staying at an inn, as indicated by their well-taken-care-off appearance, not something you'd get from living on the street. He had crumbs from a hayseed pie and his breath had cinnamon oat coffee on it—that narrowed down the list to just five inns. The real clue was the red-brown hairs from Graymane's dog on his legs."

The group followed Phillip as they cut across Ponyville. Graymane's Inn was up ahead, a two-story giant cottage with a large wooden sign hanging over the bright blue doors. A shaggy brown-coated sheepdog was sitting in front of the doors, panting happily and wagging his tail at the sight of the incoming ponies.

But a distinctive pony with a blonde mustache and a sunburned back, wearing a pair of saddlebags, was heading out a side door, furtively glancing around.

Phillip turned to the group, giving them an icy glare. "Let me handle this," he warned them sternly, jogging forward.

Rainbow started after him, but Twilight stopped her. "He's got this," she reassured her with a smile. There was a crunching sound and the others turned to see that Pinkie had somehow produced a bag of popcorn and was now munching on it.

"Shady Mane!" Phillip shouted in a voice so authoritative that everypony stopped where they were. Shady's icy blue eyes widened in shock when he saw Phillip approaching.

"Stay back!" Shady shouted, pulling a switchblade knife out of his saddlebag and flicking it open. The blade shone threateningly in the sunlight, but Phillip continued forward. "I'm warning you!" Shady shouted.

"I wouldn't listen, even if you didn't have the knife," Phillip said coolly. "Now how about you just give up?"

Instead, Shady dropped the knife, reached into his saddlebag and extracted a round metal object. Yanking out the attached pin, he held up the object so that everypony could clearly see what it was.

"Grenade! Everypony back!" Phillip shouted, immediately stopping. The surrounding crowd of ponies ran for cover, screaming in terror.

"You know what happens if I drop this!" Shady declared.

"Don't be a fool, mate," Phillip said calmly. "You do this, there's no turning back."

"There was no turning back anyway," Shady snapped back. "You shouldn't have stuck your nose into our business, old stallion."

Phillip was silent for a moment, considering the other pony before him. "So this was the plan? Grab the pearls and make a dash to safety? Seems you've reached the end of the rainbow, mate. Backed yourself into the corner and grabbed the grenade, hoping that we'd let you go..."

Rainbow's ears perked up when she picked up on the subtle emphasis in Phillip's words. And it only took a moment to catch his meaning.

A rainbow blur shot through the air towards Shady; he saw it too late to react. Rainbow seized his hoof, preventing him from throwing the grenade. Immediately, Phillip leapt forward, and the last thing that Shady saw was a pair of gray eyes glaring down at him before the flying punch connected with his jaw, knocking him out. Rainbow maintained her hold on the grenade as he fell. Grabbing the pin from the ground, Phillip carefully placed it back into the explosive, rendering it safe. Only then did Rainbow Dash let go.

"All clear," Phillip called. "Thanks for the help, Dash."

"All in a day's work," Rainbow grinned as the crowd burst into applause.

At that moment, there was a great shout and everypony looked up as a detachment of ponies in sky chariots, each of them adorned in the golden armor of Canterlot City Guards, descended from the sky. They landed in the midst of the crowd, the armored carriage they had brought with them rattling as it hit the ground.

"It's about time," Phillip said, returning to his stoic state. "Here's one of them. You'll find the other at the Golden Oaks Library. Here's the bracelet they were looking for." He reached into a pocket in his vest and handed the commanding sergeant the pearl bracelet. "That belongs back in Canterlot."

"Thank you, Mr. Finder," the Guard said, pocketing the pearls as the other Guards placed shackles on the unconscious Shady Mane's legs and dragged him into the armored prisoner transport. A group of Guards hurried over to the library to retrieve his partner.

"Here's the reward for these two thieves' capture." The sergeant handed Phillip a generously-sized bag of bits. Phillip took a small amount for himself—less than a third—and tossed the bag to Twilight.

"You sheilas can have the rest of that," he said. "You helped, after all." He touched the brim of his trilby. "Hoo roo, all." And with that, he started to walk away.

"Yay! Now it's time to party!" Pinkie declared, bouncing up and blocking his path. "Come on! I can introduce you to everypony in Ponyville, and we all can thank you for—"

Phil simply walked around her and continued on his way. Pinkie stopped bouncing, looking confused.

"Wait a minute!" Twilight called. "You can have the reward! You deserve more than that!"

"I don't want it," Phil said without turning around. "You all need it more than me."

"Just...can't you at least accept our thanks for stopping two dangerous criminals?" Twilight asked.

"I don't need thanks. I was just doing my job," Phil replied, his voice becoming impatient.

"But—"

Suddenly, Phillip turned around and snapped at Twilight, his gray eyes flashing with anger. "Why don't you all bugger off and leave me alone?"

The tone of his voice shocked the group into silence. With a final grunt, Phillip walked away, alone.

"But what about that special cake I made for you?" Pinkie called. Her only answer was silence as the detective disappeared around the corner.

Author's Notes:

So the thieves have been put away, and Phillip is the hero...but the story's not finished.