Back downstairs, Sweetie Belle and Button's mom had finished cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. The small unicorn was sitting on the counter with a damp rag in her mouth while the cream mare pointed to a jug three-quarters full of clear liquid. Next to it was a box of white power.

“Okay, so I figured out what happened. What I want to know is why.” Looking at Sweetie Belle, Love Tap frowned. “Please spit that out.”

Glancing around, Sweetie Bell decided that the best spot to drop it was in the sink. “Mmpth. Pleh.” It landed in the middle, covering the drain.

“Okay, so when you got your glass of 'water,' you didn't get it from the sink. You poured it from that jug, didn't you?”

“Uh-huh.” Sweetie Belle nodded.

Reaching up, Love Tap swiveled the jar around to show the labeled side. It was clearly marked 'Vinegar.'

“Oh. I guess it's not water, heh-heh.” Forcing a quick laugh, Sweetie Grinned sheepishly with her ears drooped.

Love Tap took a deep breath, as adults often do when little kids try their patience. “What I don't understand is how you could possibly mistake vinegar for water. It has a very distinct and pungent odor.”

Rolling her eyes up, Sweetie Belle tapped on her chin. “Well... Rarity's always bringing home these tiny vials of scented water. I thought this was a big one.”

“Tiny vials of... Please tell me you haven't been drinking perfume.”

“Is that what those are? No wonder she's always taking them away from me.”

Love Tap groaned and shook her head. “So after you poured yourself a glass of vinegar, then what did you do?”

“Well, it tasted really bad—”

“I can imagine.”

“—so I decided to sweeten it. And I found this box bog of baking sugar—”

“Soda.”

“Huh?”

Love Tap pointed at the box. “It's baking soda. Not sugar. It's completely different.”

“Soda is sweet, right?”

“Not baking soda.” Love Tap shook her head. “In fact, it's actually a salt.”

“It is?” Sweetie Belle cocked her head and raised an eyebrow.

“Yep. Sodium bicarbonate, actually. It forms a base when dissolved in water, and reacts very strongly to vinegar which is an acid. I can't remember the specific reaction off the top of my head, but one of the products is carbon dioxide, which comes out as a gas. That's why it foams so much when you mix them.”

“Really?” Sweetie Belle's eyes widened and her ears perked up. She stared at the box of baking soda and the jar of vinegar with renewed interest. “Neat!”

Despite herself, Love Tap couldn't help but grin. It was hard not to be drawn in by the sweet and innocent gaze of a child who'd just learned something new. Of course, given that this was Sweetie Belle, it was also the look of somepony who'd learned just enough to be dangerous.

A faint thumping noise caught the mare's attention and she swiveled her ears around before turning her head. It sounded like somepony was trying to sneak down the stairs and not doing a good job of it. “Button, is that you?”

There was a brief silence before Scootaloo responded in that deep voice she used to impersonate Button, “Yeah. Mom, I've finished brushing my teeth. Can I go out to play now?”

“If he's not going to keep that vow of silence, then why is he still trying to stay in character?” Love Tap muttered under her breath. More loudly, she yelled, “Button, you don't have to keep making that horrible voice. Can't you talk normally for once?”

A tearing noise from back on the kitchen counter caught her attention, and she was about to see what that was when Scootaloo replied, “I'm Lord Lazy-oaf-atron, and I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Button! You know exactly what I'm talking about. Now st—”

“Mom, can I play outside or not?”

A soft poomf from behind her caused her ear to twitch, but Love Tap ignored it and poked her head out of the kitchen door. Oddly, nopony was in sight. She pressed her lips together in a tight frown. “Button, did you really brush your teeth like I asked?”

“Yes, mom. My teeth are so well brushed that I'll never have to brush them ever again.”

The voice was coming from inside the stairwell. For whatever reason, he'd stopped just out of sight. And where where the other two? She raised an eyebrow. “Okay, you can go out—”

“Yes!”

“—but only on one condition! Mommy wants to kiss you first.”

Behind her, Sweetie Belle gave a dainty little sneeze.

“Ack, mom, please don't,” Scootaloo replied.

“Oh? And why not?”

“It's really embarrassing.”

“You don't mind when I do it before school.”

“Not in front of my friends! They'll make fun of me.”

“You never cared about that either. Button, if you haven't brushed your teeth like I asked...” Love Tap let her voice trail off.

Unbeknownst to her, Button Mash was currently hanging limp between two hyperventilating fillies. The black mask covering his face had been shattered by the impact with that shampoo bottle. Half of it had fallen off completely, leaving one dead eye staring out. His mouth continued to pour out a continuous stream of frothing foam.

Scootaloo gulped and yelled in reply, “Mom, just trust me, okay? You really, really, really don't want to kiss me right now.”

Love Tap flattened her ears. The scent of mint caught in her nostrils, and she sniffed at the air. “Button Mash,” she said in an admonishing parental voice, “you get down here right this instant. I don't know why you're insisting on using that awful voice or hiding from me, but if something happened, you know you can always tell—”

The distinctive pop of a cork being pulled from a bottle gave her pause. She swiveled her head, and her jaw dropped. “Sweetie Belle, no!”

The little white unicorn was balanced on her hind legs, about ready to pour the jug of vinegar into the sink, on top of a mound of white powder. The box of baking soda had been torn open, and was lying on its side, completely empty. A thin trail of powder was strung along the counter and fell over the edge into the sink. The cork floated in the air, held up by a magical aura.

“Eek!” Jerking, Sweetie Belle slipped on the counter. She lost her grip, and time seemed to slow down as the fragile glass container went tumbling down towards the rigid sink counter.

Back on the stairs, “Ya can always tell Sweetie Belle no?” Apple Bloom whispered to Scootaloo.

Both of them winced when they heard a crash, punctuated by a loud, frustrated scream. “Sounds like good advice to me,” Scootaloo replied.

The scream gave way to angry shouting, and they covered their ears. “Should we help her?” Apple Bloom asked.

Shaking her head, Scootaloo frowned. “The best way we can help her is by sneaking him out while his mom's distracted.”

Back in the kitchen, Sweetie Belle had gotten back on her hooves and quickly scrambled into a dark corner on the counter. She wedged herself between a breadbox and a toaster while Love Tap screamed at her. That was one peeved mare. “I'm sorry! I didn't think it would make such a mess.”

“Didn't think? Of course you didn't think!” Love Tap waved a hoof at the sink, which was overflowing in sheets like some sort of unholy mix between a geyser and a waterfall. “How could you possibly think this was a good idea? We just spent half an hour cleaning up this mess and now you had to go and make an even bigger one!”

“I thought it would go down the drain,” Sweetie Belle said meekly.

Love Tap smacked herself in the face. Even if the drain hadn't been plugged with a dirty cloth, the mountain of baking soda would have done it. Plus, it's never a good idea to pour frothing liquid down the drain, as pressure build-up from the expanding gases can damage the pipes. In this brief silence, a scampering in the living room didn't escape her attention. “Button! Where do you think you're going?”

There was a quick scrambling before Scootaloo replied in her bad imitation of Button, “Mom, I really wanna play outside. Can I? Please?”

“I promise we won't get 'im in trouble,” Apple Bloom added.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said, in her own voice this time.

Snorting, Love Tap started stomping towards the living room. “You can't just walk out on me, my little pony! When I tell you to come see me, that means—”

A loud splash and the feel of cold water sloshing against her hooves caused her words to die on her lips. Slowly, she turned around and her jaw dropped. An eye twitched. Sweetie Belle had gotten her hooves on the bucket of soapy, grimy water they'd been using to clean the counter and dumped the entire thing on the floor.

The little unicorn blinked. “What? We have to make the floor wet before we can mop it.”

“But... But... Not that much water.”

“But it's a big mess,” Sweetie Belle said. She carefully set the empty bucket back upright on the counter and hopped down, making an impact crater in the sea of foam that was slowly rising.

“Now it's an even bigger one,” Love Tap groaned. She winced and shook her head.

“So can I play outside or not?” Scootaloo asked, once again impersonating Button.

Throwing her hooves in the air, Love tap put on a dramatic display of pure frustration. “Fine! Go ahead! See if I care! But I want you back promptly for dinner, young pony, and don't you dare let those miscreants pressure you into doing anything stupid. Do you promise me that you'll behave?”

“I promise.”

“Good. Now go.” Sighing deeply, Love Tap rubbed her throbbing temple and turned her attention back to the overflowing ocean of foam that had once been her nice, clean kitchen.

Sweetie Belle had grabbed a mop, and after a half-swipe, it was completely soaked. She blinked and looked around. The bucket sitting up on the counter was too high for her to reach, so she opted to wring it out in the trash can, eliciting yet another groan from Button's mom.

“You too! Scram!” The vitriol in Love Tap's voice was practically spitting from her face.

Sweetie jumped, and dashed as fast as her little hooves could take her across the slippery, wet floor. Stumbling, she slid against the wall, but one look at the fiery glare on Love Tap's face was all the incentive she needed to scramble back up and gallop out of the house as quickly as possible. Her soaking wet tail dragged behind her, leaving a thin trail of foam.

Following a similar trail of minty foam headed in the same direction, she leapt through the hole in the wall. Scampering off down the dirt road, she left Button's house and scary mom far behind. The other two weren't far away. With Button's corpse slowing them down, they were easy to catch up to.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Sweetie Belle yelled as she galloped up to them.

Apple Bloom turned around and raised her head. “Ya made it!”

“We sure are glad to see you,” Scootaloo said. “You were right. His mom really is super scary. We were lucky to make it out of there alive.”

“Yeah, unlike him,” Apple said, pointing at the corpse.

“Um, excuse me—” A voice from behind them caused their hairs to stand on end. Slowly, they turned around. Several townsponies gathered around with raised eyebrows and cocked heads. Apparently, stopping to chat in the middle of a busy street wasn't such a great idea. A frowning butterscotch pony with a mane full of lively orange curls pointed at the corpse. “—but did you just say that he's dead?”

Apple Bloom fervently shook her head. “No! We didn't say that at all. He's just, uh...”

“Playing dead,” Scootaloo said. She nodded.

“Yeah. He's, um, really good at it,” Sweetie Belle added.

“He's gonna get his cutie mark for sure!” Apple Bloom hopped in place and put on a mad grin. The other two joined her as well.

At the mention of a cutie mark, many of the townsponies rolled their eyes. Several shook their heads and walked off, but a few, including the pony who asked, remained staring.

“Yeah! I bet he already has it!” Sweating, Scootaloo nodded even harder.

“Ooh. Ooh-ooh!” Sweetie Belle clapped her hooves together. “We should plan his cute-canera.”

“Yeah! Let's all go back to the clubhouse to celebrate!” Apple Bloom quickly darted to his side and the three of them joined together in a big group hug, with Button mashed between them. His half-masked face stared vacantly at nothing while foam continued to ooze from his mouth. Before the townsponies could get a good look, they scrambled back, dragging him into a bush. They would have gone further, but they all kinda tripped over each other and would up in a heap underneath the foliage.

Soon, hoofsteps walked away and they let out the breaths they'd been holding in.

“Great. Now the whole town's going to think we killed him,” Sweetie Belle moaned.

“Now what are we going to do?” Scootaloo asked, staring up the leaves.

Apple Bloom shifted Button's weight and started peeling the soggy, black costume off of his hide.

“What are you doing?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I'm checkin' to see if he got his cutie mark.”

Scootaloo promptly facehoofed. “He's dead.”

“So? If he doesn't have one, he can still get one, right?”

“What would he even get his cutie mark for?” Sweetie Belle asked. She scrunched up her face and snorted. “Dying?”

“Uh, well...” Hesitating, Apple Bloom let the soggy fabric snap back into place.

“That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard.” Scootaloo slapped her hoof back on the ground. “We've come up with some pretty dumb ideas, but that really takes the cake.”

“Okay, okay. Y'all don't have to keep hasslin' me about it. I'll admit it was dumb. He didn't have one, anyway.”

Sweetie Belle took a deep sigh. “As stupid as it was, if he had a cutie mark like that it would kinda explain how he died, in a disturbing, morbid way.”

Clenching her jaw, Scootaloo winced. “I really wish we knew how he died. If we could find that out, then nopony could blame us for it.”

While they were chatting, traffic along the road had gradually picked up, but the squeaking of poorly-maintained wagon wheels caught their attention. Cautiously, they poked their noses out of the bush to see what was going on.

A large, wedge-shaped wagon was precariously teetering down the road. Other ponies gave it a wide berth. The top half was about twice as wide as the bottom, and it was being pulled by a lanky tan stallion with a jester cap and matching cutie mark. On its side were depictions of puppets being controlled by strings and the wagon looked as if it could unfold to triple its size.

“Puppets?” Sweetie Belle's eyes widened. “Wait a minute. Didn't Button have a bunch of string tied around his legs when we found him? Kind of like a puppet.”

“Ya think the puppeteer had somethin' to do with his death?” Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes. “There's only one way to find out.” Next Chapter: Deadly Accusation Estimated time remaining: 13 Minutes