The next morning dawned late, Celestia's sun doing its best to warm the early fall morning air. But a few early risers had more to think about than the morning chill.

"Well, Mr. Finder?" Mayor Mare asked, hovering over the detective's shoulder.

Phillip Finder did not look up, continuing to examine the lock through his loupe magnifying glasses. The door of the safe in Ponyville Town Hall's basement stretched from floor to ceiling and was made of six inches of magic-resistant steel, secured with a five-number combination lock and a pair of locks, both of which had to be opened simultaneously to avoid setting off an alarm. Only Mayor Mare knew the full combination and the location of the two keys. The safe was supposed to be virtually impregnable.

So how had somepony managed to open it last night?

"I see no signs of picking," he said. "I'll need to talk to each of your assistants."

"Of course," Mayor Mare said, worriedly glancing into the open safe. The vault was filled with stacks of papers and records, paintings and photographs, and memorabilia of Ponyville's past, a number of it quite valuable. But there was something missing. A collection of ancient coins discovered in the area that dated back to Starswirl the Bearded's time was gone, stolen from the vault.

Phillip thoughtfully examined the contents of the safe. Nothing else out of place, no other valuables stolen. The thief knew what he was looking for.

"It had to have been two ponies," Mayor Mare suggested, looking at the two keyholes on either side of the door. "Right?"

"Possibly," Phillip said.

"Do you think it may be the same ponies who've been doing all those burglaries recently?"

Phillip subconsciously gritted his teeth. Mayor Mare was referring to a rash of break-in's around town recently. In the past week alone, the thieves had managed to steal some of Rarity's jewels from the Carousel Boutique, gold bars from the bank vault, money and clocks from Time Turner's shop, and had even successfully broken into Filthy Rich's house. Always the same: dead of night, no sign of forced entry, and little evidence. The burglar was proving to be a great frustration to him, and he feared that it might enter his small, but noteworthy list of unidentified criminals.

How did they get in? Phillip wondered. Exiting the building, he circled the outside of Town Hall to a back door. He knelt down on the ground outside, examining any tracks in the slightly wet mud from last night's rain. There. A pair of tracks, one on top of the other, leading up towards the door, partially washed out by rain. That does seem to indicate that there were two ponies. He glanced back at the door. No sign of forced entry, but it was locked from the inside. Hmmm...

He glanced back at the hoofprints and noticed something odd. Upon closer inspection, his suspicion was confirmed.

Putting his loupe back in his case and giving his promise to Mayor Mare that he would do his best to find whoever did this, he got up and started heading towards the Friendship Castle. He needed to talk to Twilight.

In the library of the Friendship Castle, Twilight was studying a tome on ancient Muleta, sipping the hot cocoa that Spike had provided her with. Flash was on guard duty nearby, dressed in full uniform, watching out the window over the snowy town. Twilight had spent much of yesterday giving him a tour of the town, which was now his home. He watched the ponies below, calmly making their way through the dirt roads, most with a smile on their face. Their slow pace and the quietness of the town served as a contrast to the quicker pace and constant bustle of Fillydelphia and Canterlot that he was used to.

I think I'm going to like this place, he thought to himself. I'm going to like being with Twi—hey, who's that?

He spotted a mint green unicorn heading towards the castle. Her quick step and her lowered head indicated urgency. A small bag flew after her, held in a golden magical aura.

Is that Lyra? he thought.

There was a knocking at the great doors. "I'll get it," he shouted, flying downstairs to the great hall. He opened the door to find that it was indeed Lyra standing outside, looking extremely worried.

"Is Twilight in?" she said quickly.

"Lyra?" Twilight called from the landing. "What's wrong?"

"Twilight, it's Bon Bon," Lyra said, pushing past Flash and hurrying up to Twilight. "It's something desperate. She got this letter yesterday, and it's got her really bothered."

"What did the letter say?" Twilight asked.

"I don't know! Before I could take a look, Bon Bon tore it up and threw it in the trash," Lyra cried. She opened up the bag and emptied the contents. Several scraps of paper fell out. "This is the letter."

"What do you mean, got her bothered?" Flash asked.

"She got really scared and angry," Lyra said. "I tried to talk to her about it, but she wouldn't tell me anything. She just said that it was her problem."

"Maybe it's hate mail?" Flash suggested.

Lyra scowled. "We've been taking flak from gobdaws for ages, and we've never let it bother us. This...this is something more." She looked up at Twilight. "Bon Bon's scared, and that means that I'm scared. I'm afraid that somepony's going to hurt her, but she's too stubborn to ask for help herself." She tilted her head up, allowing her lower lip to tremble. "Please help me, Twilight. Please?"

"Of course I will!" Twilight said.

"Yay!" Lyra instantly brightened, jumping up and down a few times and hugging Twilight. "Thank you, thank you! I knew I could count on you, you sound friend!"

"Of course, Lyra," Twilight said, gently pushing her off. "Now, let's take a look at this letter." She gathered up the scraps and sorted them out on the table, frowning in concentration. "It'll be a puzzle."

"Oh, it's nothing to get torn up about!" Lyra said with a grin. "Get it?"

Twilight and Flash both groaned as they set to work rearranging the letter, Lyra watching them. Within a few minutes, the letter had been reconstructed. The three ponies looked at the message typewritten on the paper.

"HELLO SWEETIE. I SAW YOU IN THE MARKET TODAY WITH YOUR KID. YOU'D BETTER KEEP AN EYE ON HER NOW THAT I'M BACK IN TOWN. AND YOUR QUEER WIFE. JUST REMEMBER: NONE OF YOU ARE SAFE. NOT WHEN I'M HERE."

"Oh, no," Twilight said softly, turning to Lyra. "Lyra, I think Bon Bon is being stalked."

"By somepony from her past, looks like," Flash said, examining the letter more closely. "Hmm...looks like the O key is slightly misaligned and the E and T are both a little faded. Lyra, do you have the envelope this came with?"

Lyra pulled the envelope out and gave it to Flash. "Sweetie Drops?" he asked upon examining the name.

"That was Bon Bon's old name before she moved here. She never told me why she changed it," Lyra explained. She bit her lip in worry as Flash looked over the envelope.

"Lyra, don't worry," Twilight reassured her. "We'll find whoever this is. We won't let anything happen to Bon Bon or Tootsie."

"Thank you, Twilight," Lyra said, giving her another hug. "I know you won't let me down." She gave Flash a hug as well, much to his surprise, and decided to head out. "I'll go talk to Bon Bon."

As she exited, Lyra passed by Phillip, who was coming in. The stallion nodded hello to Lyra, who cheerily waved back.

"What did she want?" Phillip asked as he entered.

Twilight quickly explained the situation. Phillip listened in silence, then looked down at the letter.

"Romano type 13. Fairly common. Do you need help?"

"We'd appreciate that," Flash said.

"Anyway, what brought you here? Aren't you working on the burglaries?" Twilight asked.

"I just had a theory," Phillip replied. "Twilight, is there a spell that you can use to detect if somepony had recently used magic on something?"

"Yes, why?" Twilight queried.

"Come with me, I want to test something," Phillip said, turning and heading towards Town Hall. Twilight and Flash followed.

Author's Notes:

Blame writer's block for the delay.

And now that everypony's on their way, let's see what happens.