It wasn't until the next morning when Twilight decided that her best option for investigating the pizzeria was her source for information on pizzas. Evidently, in the Griffon kingdom, there was at least one griffon with knowledge about these strange foods. Perhaps Twilight could send that griffon a sample of the pizza served there at the pizzeria, and that griffon could analyze it, and send her information back about what all was in it.

At around noontime, Twilight headed over to the Pegasa’s Pizzeria to order a pizza to go. And, as it turned out, she was the first one there. Not having that much experience with pizzerias, or for that matter with pizzas, she just told the pony at the cash register that she wanted a pizza, that she’d wait for it in the theater, and she’d be taking it home with her. But, before heading to the theater, Twilight did what she was required to do, and payed the two bits for the pizza at the cash register.

Having made and payed for her order, Twilight Sparkle made her way into the theater to wait, taking a seat at one of the tables closest to the doorway. As she turned to see the stage, she noticed a new prop next to the bear: an unusually large chicken. And, there was something familiar about that chicken. Maybe it was the size. Whatever it was, she figured that if the body was green instead of white, the wings were more like those of a bat or a dragon than those of a bird, and there were teeth in that beak; that prop would almost … look … like …

Before she could complete her thought, Twilight heard a voice next to her, just above a whisper, say, “Twilight, I was wondering when you’d get here.”

Twilight started, then turned to see her yellow pegasa friend next to her. She said, “Oh, Fluttershy, I didn’t see you there.”

Fluttershy worriedly said, “Oh, I hope I didn’t startle you.”

Twilight answered, “Ah, that’s alright.” Then, out of curiosity, she asked, “So, what are you doing here?”

Fluttershy turned away from the purple alicorn and said, “Oh, I know you told us not to come here anymore. But, I figured, as long as I didn’t eat any of the food, I’d be alright.” Then, she turned back to Twilight and asked, “Um, are you here to get a pizza to study?”

Twilight answered, “To get one to analyze, yes. I just ordered it, and I’m waiting for it to come so I can take it back to the library.”

Fluttershy said, “Oh, I’m sure the ones that make the pizzas here didn’t mean to poison anypony. It must’ve been a bad ingredient. If we just explain it to the pony in charge, I’m sure he or she will look into it, and there won’t be anymore problems.”

Twilight nodded and said, “Yeah, maybe you’re right, Fluttershy. If you want to go ahead and do that, you’re welcome to. But, I still want to make an analysis of a sample pizza, just to rule it out.”

Fluttershy was about to say something, but she was interrupted when a pony came with the pizza Twilight had ordered.

Twilight thanked the pony for the delivery, then turned to her yellow pegasa friend and said, “Well, I’ll be off then. As soon as I get the analysis back on the ingredients of this pizza, hopefully I’ll have an idea of what to do next. Until then, you’re welcome to tell the staff about the problems we had with the pizza the day before.” Then, she stood up, lifted the pizza with her magic, and headed for the front door, saying, “See you later, Fluttershy.” And, she walked out the door before her yellow pegasa friend had a chance to answer her.

Spike was putting books away when Twilight got back to the library with the sample pizza. He turned to her and, seeing the strange disc floating over the alicorn’s head, asked, “Is that the pizza you got from that pizza place?”

Twilight used her magic to close the door behind her, then more of her magic to clear a spot on the table in the middle of the room, then turned to her dragon assistant and said, “That’s right, Spike. Now, I don’t want you eating any of this. There’s no telling what it’ll do to you. And besides, I’m going to send it to the Griffon kingdom, to the source that sent me the information on pizzas. Once they send me information back on what all is in this pizza, I’ll have an idea of what to do next.”

Spike put away the book he’d been holding, then turned to Twilight and, descending the ladder, asked, “So, what do you want me to do?”

Twilight looked around for a moment, then turned to her assistant and asked, “Uh, do you know where that booklet with the information on pizzas went?”

From his perch on the ladder, before Twilight had come in with the pizza, Spike had seen the booklet with the picture of a circle, which bore a striking resemblance to the pizza which was now the only thing on the table. He’d also seen Twilight move the booklet, along with other reading materials, onto a stack not far from the table. So, once he was off of the ladder, he walked and pointed to the stack as he said, “Yeah, you put it on top of this stack when you moved the books away and put the pizza on the table.”

Twilight looked at the stack, then back at her assistant, and said, “Oh, that’s right. Thanks, Spike.” She then used her magic to take the booklet from the top of the newest stack of books and put it back on the table next to the pizza.

Spike answered, “You’re welcome,” then grabbed a nearby book and went back to the ladder, climbed it, and put the book away. Then he started sniffing, then pinched his nostrils closed with a hand. He expressed his disgust as much with his facial expression as with his groan before saying, “It smells like some creature just died in here.”

Twilight sniffed the air a couple of times, then responded the same way as Spike had done, except covering her nostrils with a front hoof, before saying, “You’re right.” Then a thought occurred to her, and she uncovered her nose and sniffed at the pizza, which she instantly regretted doing. She felt the color drain from her face. Covering her nostrils once more with the front hoof, she backed away a few steps from the strange food and said, “Spike, the smell’s coming from the pizza!”

Spike instantly turned around on the ladder and stared at the pizza. Then, as Twilight’s message started to sink in more fully, the normally purple parts of his face began to blend in color with his underside, and he covered his mouth in a vain attempt to keep the contents of his stomach from escaping. In a few seconds, a strangely colorful concrete was covering the hand he’d covered his mouth with, and had also covered a rung or two of the ladder just below him, and formed a puddle under it. When Spike was finished emptying his stomach, he, no longer able to maintain consciousness, collapsed forward off the ladder.

As nauseated as she was, Twilight couldn’t let Spike take such an evidently hard landing on the solid floor. So, she used her magic to catch him before letting him down so that he landed safely, and away from his puddle of vomit.

It was at that moment that Pinkie Pie opened the door and entered the library, saying, “Hi, Twily. Did you get that pizza yet?” Then she noticed Spike lying on his face on the floor, and Twilight covering her own face with a front hoof. She opened her mouth to speak when she noticed the smell. Then, much like Spike and Twilight had done, she covered her own nose with a front hoof and groaned, both vocally and with her facial expression, before asking, “Twilight, what died in here?”

All Twilight could do was point to the pizza, then leave her pink earth pony friend confused as she ran upstairs to her bathroom.

Pinkie Pie grunted in surprised confusion at her purple alicorn friend’s reaction, wondering how a food item could die. Then, she walked up to the pizza and sniffed at it. Then realizing that the smell of a dead animal was coming from the pizza, she had her own reaction. Not one of disgust or nausea, but of grief. Whatever that pizza was now, it had once been an animal of some kind, one she recognized.

Upstairs in the bathroom, when Twilight was finished emptying her stomach into the toilet, she pushed the lever to start it flushing, then went to the sink to lap up some water from the cold tap, rinsing the taste out of her mouth. Then, when she turned the tap off, she heard the sound of Pinkie Pie sobbing downstairs. She stumbled out of the bathroom, and indeed saw the pink party pony pointing her head upwards and bawling, a waterfall of tears coming from the outward corner of each eye. The sight snapped her out of her own feelings, and she started slowly marching to the stairs as she asked, “Pinkie, are you alright?”

The pink earth mare looked up at her alicorn friend and, sniffling, sobbed, “I, I, I-I-I—recognized—that—p-pizza.”

Confused and incredulous, Twilight descended the stairs as she asked, “What do you mean, you recognized the pizza?”

Pinkie Pie continued to sniffle as she sobbed again, “Th-the—m-m-meat!”

Twilight froze in place. She knew she’d smelled a dead creature coming from the pizza, but meat? Actual meat? Fearing what the answer might be, but still wanting to know, she asked, “Pinkie, what kind of meat?”

Pinkie Pie stammered, “I-I-I th-th-th …” before blurting out, “It was Fluttershy’s bear friend!” and bawling even louder.

Twilight had already emptied her stomach into the toilet, so there was nothing more to come out of her. But, that didn’t stop her body from rejecting the idea then and there, as though it had been something she’d eaten or drunk. When she was able to move again, she stumbled toward her earth pony friend and tried nuzzling her to try to calm her down. When the party pony did seem to relax a little, Twilight asked her, “H-how do you r-recognize it?”

Pinkie Pie squeaked, “I’ve b-been to—Fluttershy’s cottage—and, and s-seen her—taking care of him. A-a-and, this pizza—s-s-smells—j-just like him.”

The questions played themselves over and over in Twilight’s mind: ‘Who would do such a thing to a friend of Fluttershy? What kind of sick creature would murder a bear, then use its meat in a food like this?’ Then, the thought occurred to her, that humans were known for killing creatures and using their meat in various foods. But, weren’t those supposed to be herbivores like cows, and not carnivores like bears? And besides, humans don’t exist anymore. Not in Equestria, and most certainly not here in Ponyville. So, who would murder a bear, then use a human recipe to get rid of its remains?

Right now, there was another matter that concerned her, and that was Pinkie Pie. The purple alicorn approached her pink earth pony friend and started hugging her, stroking her back with a front hoof and promising to figure out who it was that had murdered Fluttershy’s bear friend, and was now making pizzas of his meat.

It was maybe a minute or two before the two separated, and Pinkie Pie was composed enough to thank Twilight and leave. After that, the purple alicorn packaged the pizza in layers of paper and parchment before putting it in a box and mailing it to the Griffon kingdom, with a letter requesting an analysis of the ingredients of the pizza. She’d learned to trust Pinkie’s instincts long ago, but it didn’t hurt to have confirmation of what Pinkie Pie had identified as one ingredient.

Sure enough, a week or so later, Twilight Sparkle got a list of the ingredients that had gone into the pizza. She wasn't surprised by the ingredients she recognized: carrots, apples, various edible flowers. But, sure enough, among the ingredients that Twilight had expected to be there, one of those, which she didn’t want to see, was bear meat. But, there was another ingredient, another meat, that she hadn’t expected to see: cockatrice meat. It was more puzzling to her than anything else. Who in the Griffon kingdom eats cockatrice? How would they kill such a creature without getting petrified by its stare? And then it dawned on her. The last time she was at the pizza place, hadn’t there been an unusually large chicken among the displays? And, before she’d been interrupted by Fluttershy, hadn’t she considered the possibility that such a large chicken, if colored differently, given bat-like wings and teeth, might’ve been a cockatrice?

The more evidence that mounted, the less Twilight liked it. It was pointing to somepony, some creature anyway, murdering friends, or at least creatures Fluttershy had met, using their meat in pizzas and serving them to ponies, and stuffing and mounting their skins and putting them on display in the pizzeria. Was it the pegasa that, based on the name, owned the pizzeria? Who would know so much about Fluttershy that he, or she, would attack the bearer of the element of kindness like that? All Twilight Sparkle knew was that she needed to find out, if for no other reason than to defend her yellow pegasa friend. And, the next step was obvious to her—investigate the pizzeria itself.