There was an odd sort of silence in the Sparkle household. It wasn’t tense, or fearful, or even excited. It was a confused sort of silence, as if the residents didn’t know quite what they were looking at. And that was saying something when said residents lived in a castle that was made entirely out of friendship and crystals.

“…Huh, so you weren’t just messing with me…” Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship herself, looked up from the surveillance crystal with a flabbergasted expression. “And you’re saying that this has been happening for the last couple of days?”

Rarity and James, both of whom were sitting on a pair of very tasteful beanbag chairs with coffee mugs in hand/hoof, nodded.

“Yep. It started on Monday,” James said, taking a sip of his coffee. “I just woke up and found myself lying in Rare-bear’s bed.”

“…Rare-bear?”

“It sounds better than Rare-robin or Rare-armadillo, and Rare won’t let me call her Snuggleity.”

As she took a sip of her coffee, the fashionista’s cheeks colored. “I thought that we agreed that you’d never say that word again, darling.”

“Well…” Scratching her head, Twilight looked back at the crystal. “That’s… peculiar.”

Rarity, with a ladylike hump, set her coffee mug down on the counter in front of her. “Twilight, darling, James and I have done everything in our power to discover what on earth’s going on—”

“Eh,” James grunted with a shrug.

“—But I fear our investigation as to what is happening isn’t getting us anywhere!” Pressing a hoof against her temple, she looked at her friend. “Though we loathe to do so—”

“Eh.”

“—Shush James. I’m afraid that we have to ask you for your assistance.”

Twilight’s brow furrowed slightly. “So... you want me to help you figure out why you—” She pointed at James. “—Are sleepwalking to Rarity’s house and why you—” She pointed at the fashionista. “—Are not only opening the door for him but leading him to your bedroom.”

Rarity’s blush darkened. “I wouldn’t have… phrased it in such a way, my dear Twilight, but I’m afraid that you are correct.”

Twilight hummed thoughtfully as she leaned back into the royal beanbag chair. Scratching her chin, she looked at the two with a critical eye. Her horn glowed, and with a spell her magic encased both the human and the unicorn.

“Hmmm. As far as I can tell there’s no magical residue on either of you,” she muttered after a moment or two, nose scrunching up slightly. “Which means that nopony has cast any spells on you recently” Tapping her chin with a hoof she stood up. “Tell me, did the two of you wake up in the same bed this morning?”

“Yeah, just like the last two days. Why?”

A smile came to Twilight’s face. It was an eager, overly excited, beaming smile. The kind of smile that one wore if they enjoyed mundane tasked far more than the average person, such as organizing books and collecting stamps.

“Well, since this isn’t the result of magic, at least as far as I can see, there’s only one way that we can solve this mystery!” the alicorn said with a flap of her wings.

“And how do we solve this mystery Velma?”

“James…”

“What? You’re already the Daphne and Twilight can’t be Shaggy or Fred. You might be able to make a case of her being Scooby Dooby Do but I figured—”

“Shush. Before your nonsense infects the rest of us.”

With a giggle, Twilight’s horn glowed, and with a pop a notepad and a quill appeared beside her. “We’re going to solve this mystery with science.” the princess chirped, looking at both the human and unicorn with barely contained excitement. “Oh, this is just like back when we were on the train going to the National Dessert Competition!”

Though she could feel a slightly headache coming on, Rarity smiled gently at her friend. “Now, Twilight dear, I believe that inductive reasoning might have been more at play in that little adventure than any science.”

“Forensic science is a very respected scientific field, Rarity,” the princess told the fashionista as she yanked both her and James to their feet/hooves. “And just like every other science I’m very well versed in it. Now, if the two of you could follow me we can begin.”

“So we’re not splitting up?” James asked, rubbing his hands together. “Fantastic. I’m getting sick of being chased by a guy in a goofy outfit.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. Though she tried her hardest to frown, a smile still wormed its way onto her face. “Whatever am I going to do with you, James my dear?” she asked, playfully bumping him with her rump.

James’s brow furrowed. “Well, if you need to you can make me sit in the back of the van with Scooby and Shaggy, but if you do that then who’s going to drive the van? I guess I could be—”

“Ah, ah, ah. What did I say about your nonsense, James?”

If Rarity had thought herself quite the private dick she looked positively amateurish compared to Twilight. While hers was a more laissez faire approach to this whole investigation business—if you could call doing nothing about the whole business but eating pancakes and laying on her diva laissez faire— Twilight wanted results immediately and without delay. She wanted questions answered, tests conducted and observations observed.

What have you been eating the last few days? Have you been feeling under the weather? Have you met anypony new that seemed just a bit suspicious? Were you wearing a new set of socks and underwear? Do you snore? Have either of you booped the other in the last one hundred and twenty hours? Do you have any knowledge of either of your homes being built on ancient deer burial grounds? These and many, many, many more questions bombarded James and Rarity as they followed Twilight to their doom wherever she was taking them.

The barrage of questions and magical poking made what would have been a relatively short walk a much longer one. But both James and Rarity eventually found themselves in one of Twilight’s guest rooms, standing in front of a bed.

“Alright, I’m going to need you two to get into that bed and cuddle,” Twilight said as she quickly scribbled something down onto her notepad.

Rarity blinked. “…Pardon?”

“I need you and James to get in that bed and cuddle, Rarity.”

A hint of pink could be seen on Rarity’s cheeks as she coughed into a hoof. “And why would you need us to do that, Twilight dear?”

“The two of you have been waking up in each other’s hooves every morning. Since we don’t know why you do this I wanted to see if I’d find anything interesting if the two of you were in the same bed,” Twilight immediately responded, looking up from her notes to flash her friend a smile. “Even though we might not get anything out of it I’d still like to explore every avenue.”

“I-If you must,” Rarity hesitantly said, looking over at James, who was already kicking his shoes off. The young man, feeling her gaze on him, looked up and smiled. Rarity, with a slightly nervous giggle, smiled back.

“Great! Now if the two of you can get into the bed I can start to observe and ask questions,” the princess said, prompting them forward with a wing.

Without saying a word, James walked over to the bed, pulling down the blue covers before he sat down. Rarity, her heart thumping just a little more wildly than it had been a moment before, trotted over and hopped right next to him.

“It’s not as nice as your bed, Rare,” James said, rubbing the cover in his hand with his thumb and pointer finger. “And these covers aren’t all that great either…”

Rarity giggled, leaning against him. “Well, I suppose we shall have to make the most of what we are provided with,” she said, giving his shoulder a nuzzle.

Twilight, looking up from her notes, watched as the fashionista crawled into the bed and under the covers. James, bouncing on the bed once or twice, quickly joined her. “The subjects still seem to be tense. Their movements are cautious and jerky. Suspect that this is not even close to how they interact while they’re asleep. Observing them in their preferred environment without their knowledge might have been a wiser option…”

“Twilight, if we are to do this I’d prefer it if you weren’t so vocal,” Rarity panned, her blush darkening. “And I’d very much appreciate it if you did not call us subjects. Please.”

“Oh, right… hehe,” Twilight muttered as she hid behind her notepad, a sheepish smile coming to her face. “Sorry.”

With a sigh, the fashionista rolled over as James laid down, scooching closer as he rolled onto his side. Arms and hooves found themselves wrapping around bodies as the two pressed their bodies against each other. Rarity’s muzzle found itself nestled in the crook of James’s neck, her horn lightly pressed against his cheek, while one of James’s hands found its way to her mane, scratching the unicorn’s scalp. A pair of sighs could be heard as they settled down, their bodies adjusting themselves slightly to find the cuddle sweet spot.

After getting himself comfortable, James blindly reached around for the cover, grabbing it and tossing over the two of them. Rarity, with a lazy smile on her face, began to nuzzle his throat.

As the two were doing this, Twilight was frantically writing, peeking over her notepad to stare at the two. “Though at first shy due to the fact that they have somepony watching them both of the subjects seem to have settled quite nicely,” she muttered under her breath. “Subject 1, being the bigger out of the two, has settled into the role of big spoon. He also appears to be using his hands to comfort and sooth Subject 2, something which she appears to very much enjoy. And on the topic of Subject 2—”

“You know we can still hear you, right Twilight?” James called, even as Rarity nuzzled deeper into the nape of his neck to hide her embarrassment. “You’re like five feet away from us.”

“Sorry, sorry!” the princess said as she began to blush. “I just like to think out loud when I’m doing an experiment and—”

“We are not an experiment!” Rarity protested, her voice muffled. “For goodness sake, Twilight!”

James couldn’t help but smile as Rarity squirmed against him. One of his hands reached up to scratch her ear. A coo escaped the unicorn’s throat. Her body, which had been tense just a moment ago, went limp as she nuzzled deeper into his neck.

“Don’t worry, Twi, we know how you get. Don’t worry about it.”

That seemed to snap Rarity out of it, because, with another huff, she lifted her head up. “I’d very much like to worry about it thank you! I am a lady; not some sort of lab—tgonfdnvlkdfndl…”

Whatever else she was about to say turned to babbling as James reached up with his other hand and started to scratch both of her ears. She let out a happy groan, rubbing her face against his neck like an affectionate cat, as his fingers did their magic. “Easy there, Rare, easy…”

Feeling her face heat up just a little bit more, Twilight looked back down at her notes. “N-Now that the two of you seem nice and settled I think I’d like to ask you a few questions if that’s alright.”

Remembering that she wasn’t in the privacy of her own home, Rarity quickly regained her senses. She grabbed James’s hands with her magic, pulling them away from her head. She gave him a very stern look, which he answered to with a smile, before she picked her head back up to look over at her purple friend.

“Very well, but first I’m going to have to insist that you don’t tell anypony what transpires in this bedroom,” she said with a huff. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

Twilight couldn’t help but smirk. “Now there’s nothing wrong with being a little overly affectionate, Rar—”

“Hush!” Rarity commanded. “And you hush as well, James.”

“…I didn’t even say anything.”

James’s perfectly reasonable response was countered with a boop to the nose. “You always have something ridiculous to say,” the unicorn said with a huff. “Now Twilight, if you would be so kind…”

There was a small smile on the alicorn’s face as she looked at her friend. “Alright, alright, I promise not to say anything to anypony,” she promised with a shake of her head. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye—Ow!”

It wasn’t until Twilight finished the Pinkie Promise by accidentally jabbing herself in the eye did Rarity relax. “Very well then,” she said, letting go of James’s hands. “You may begin with your questioning if you so desire, darling.” Almost instantly, James’s hands found their way to her neck and head, scratching and stroking. She smiled as she let her head rest against his shoulder. “But I might recommend that the questions be asked quickly.” She yawned. “Whenever this ruffian has his hands on me I can never seem to stay awake.”

James found himself also yawning as he hugged Rarity closer to him. “Yeah, Twilight. If you’d hurry up and ask your questions that’d be great.”

“Hurry it up?!” Twilight squawked. “You can’t just hurry something like this up! There’s no many factors to consider, so many variables as to why the hay this is even happening! I could ask questions until I was blue in the face and I might not even—”

Despite her best efforts, Rarity found that her eyelids were slowly closing. She just couldn’t help it; something just happened when she was with her human friend. Never in her life had she felt so safe, so… loved as she did now.

“Are you sure you’re not using some sort of special product for your mane or skin, James darling? Because if you are you simply must tell me so that I can acquire some for myself.”

James, his eyes already closed, laid an arm over her, causing her to smile. “Nope, I use the same soap that I always use,” he answered, yawning hugely once more. “And you smell gooderer too.”

“When we wake up remind me to help you brush up on your grammar, dear,” Rarity said with a giggle.

James’s grip tightened around her ever so slightly. “No thank you, I’ve had enough schooling to know that the practice is a load of nonsense.

“You’re a bunch of nonsense.”

“At least I’m not a gaggle of nonsense. You gotta watch out for those kind of people. They’re the troublemakers and scoundrels of the world.”