Alexander flops down onto the sofa with a deep sigh as he pulls the Sherlock style hat down over his face and aimlessly spits out the pipe he had in his mouth.

"I got nothing!" Alexander exclaims as he throws his arms up in mock defeat before laying them on his stomach.

Starlight sits on the arm of the sofa by Alexanders head, flicking through a book labelled 'The Magician's Complete Bestiary To All Things Magical'.

"He only lasted five days." Starlight comments as she turns the pages.

"Well, we have been searching non-stop and compiled most of what we could find out..." Edward states sitting in the armchair.

"Which amounted to just glimpses of eye witness accounts that say they saw something odd around campus, but don't know what exactly..." Twilight states rubbing the bridge of her nose as she closes a book and sets it on the coffee table.

"Is someone stealing magic?" Starlight asks stopping on the page detailing the Phoenix.

"Possibly, but there is no evidence of any shady... Well, no more shady than normal characters hanging around." Alexander comments from under his hat.

"So, by that, we can safely assume that it's some form of monster. However, there is nothing in the bestiary about such a creature that drains magic..." Twilight states as she stands up and stretches.

"There is no way it's new, we'd have heard about something like this on the news." Alexander states putting the pipe back into his mouth.

Edward raises his eyebrow as he stands up and heads to the kitchen to fix everyone something to drink.

"Dude, you don't smoke." Edward states bluntly as he passes the sofa.

"It's a show piece damn you, it's part of the look!" Alexander exclaims leaning up from the sofa to shout.

"Either way you look at it, sitting around here is getting us nowhere." Starlight throws the book to the side making it land on Alexander's stomach, causing him to grunt and slap her ass on impulse.

"I... That was an impulse, I wasn't really aiming there specifically..." Alexander coughs a little and tries to look innocent.

"Hmm was a lot softer than I expected it to be when I imagined you slapping my flank." Starlight comments looking disappointed as she walks to the kitchen.

"I don't need to hear any of this conversation..." Twilight sighs as she rubs the bridge of her nose sighing deeply.

Alexander also stands up and stretches before looking at the time on his phone.

"I would recommend a trip to the club but even after five days, Vivi isn't feeling one hundred percent. Forte is currently overseeing the club while she rests." Alexander sighs deeply.

"Why not just a walk then to canvas the Academy. It'll get us fresh air, potentially further the investigation and we can get ice cream~" Starlight states sipping on a soda through a straw as she walks back into the living room.

"I find it seriously difficult to argue with that plan of action." Alexander states grabbing his blazer off the rack.

"You wouldn't... I suppose a little fresh air wouldn't hurt anypony." Twilight comments as she is passed her own blazer.

"Sounds like a plan. Pray tell who is paying for said ice cream?" Edward asks as he slips on his blazer and joins the group at the door.

"Oh silly, you are~" Starlight states before leaving the room making Edward deadpan.

"You are a bad influence on that girl!" Edward exclaims to Alexander who simply shrugs as they all leave the dorm.

The group walk into a brightly decorated shop which had an image of an ice cream cone with eyes and a smile on the sign. The name next to the lively image reads 'Minty's Ice Cream Parlour' in cursive writing. The parlour itself is quite quaint with private booths along the edge of the walls from the door with a centre area filled with more tables and booths separated by walkways for the customers and servers to walk. The group walk up to the counter where a slightly tall man with a built upper body, tanned skin, flowing black shoulder length hair with hazel eyes. The man wears a blue top with a yellow collar, purple shorts and an odd dome hat with a bobble on the top of a flexible black bendy stick thing. As the group approach the counter they can see him pouring several cup ice cream cones with various flavours and toppings out of some pouring machines and tubs of toppings.

"Is this guy some sort of ice cream magician or something?" Starlight asks as he places the ice cream cups onto a tray before placing it on the counter for a serving girl to take.

"Actually ma'am I happen to be a third-year student with an advanced degree in magical food preparation." The man states as he cleans the area.

"Before you ask, yeah, that's a thing." Alexander states as Twilight opens her mouth.

"I didn't even think magic could be applied in such a manner." Twilight states perplexed.

"Magical energy can be applied to a lot more than just combat. Edward can agree with me there as he and his family use magic in their smithing craft. As such, it's not too far a stretch to be able to apply magical energy in the preparation and execution of food items. For example, one could use magic in order to enhance or dumb down specific attributes of a certain type of flavour thus, being able to control exactly what flavours are more prominent within the recipe you're making. This becomes especially helpful if you're combining powerful tasting items, but only want certain aspects to be mixed together and shine above the rest." The man explains as he mixes and combines various flavours of ice cream into a bowl with sprinkles and chopped strawberries before making light sparkles rain down onto the ice cream bowl.

"Kronk, I think you've frazzled her mind enough for now." Edward states looking a little confused.

"I get it." Twilight states with confidence.

"I don't get it..." Alexander comments blinking a few times.

"So... Who is this again?" Starlight asks as she looks over the menu of ice cream to the side of them.

"Oh, right. My name is Kronk Krape, yes much like the ice cream pastry, but with a k rather than a c." Kronk states as he begins making crepes of various flavours.

"Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, a pleasure to meet you." Twilight introduces the two mares to the strange man.

"So, what can I do you for today?" Kronk asks plating up the crepes and a serving girl takes them to a table.

"We're after some crepes if you don't mind. I'll take the mango special, what about you guys?" Edward asks as he gets out his wallet.

"Hmm, I like the look of the strawberry choco if you please." Twilight states with a cute smile.

"I'm not too overly fussed so long as it's not cookies & cream." Starlight comments looking over the menu some more.

"I like cookies & cream..." Alexander states seemingly disappointed.

"Well... I mean I never tried it properly... I'll just have the Nutella banana milk fresh cream crepe please." Starlight asks while avoiding looking at Alexander.

"Alexander?" Kronk asks as he prepares what he needs.

"Cookies & cream please..." Alexander states before walking off to find a table.

"He'll be fine, don't worry about it." Edward states as he looks over the drinks menu.

Alexander manages to find a seat with a large hand out menu on it in a two part booth which is parted by a low wall in the middle. Across from Alexander in the other part of the booth is a medium sized purple slime wearing a wig, top hat and sunglasses. Both of them have their menus up so neither can see the other. Alexander puts his menu down to look at the counter before putting it back up as the slime puts his down to do the same. They repeat this process a few times before both dropping their menus and looking at the counter. After several minutes the group walk over to Alexander with the tray of drinks and crepes. As they settle in, Alexander looks over the low wall to see the odd slime and blinks a few times before Edward blocks his view.

"What's up?" Edward asks as he raises an eyebrow at Alexander.

The man in question just leans out again to look past Edward and to his surprise the slime is gone.

"I think I'm losing my mind..." Alexander states as he sits back upright.

"What else is new?" Starlight states with a deadpan expression as she takes a rough bite out of her crepe.

Alexander sighs deeply as he takes his own crepe and begins silently eating it as he contemplates what he saw. Twilight takes a sizeable bite out of her crepe, humming in delight as she washes it down with some fizzy orange soda.

"He wasn't wrong, magic has tasty applications within food preparation." Twilight smiles as she takes another eager bite.

Twilight stops a moment as Edward cleans up some stray whipped cream that was on her cheek making her blush.

"Thank you..." Twilight states weakly.

"As nice as this outing is... We're still not any closer to figuring out the mystery." Alexander states as he lets Starlight take a bite of his crepe.

"Hmm~ I'm sure we'll find something before the day is out, it's only the afternoon." Starlight states with a slight hum.

"Well... We could try and narrow it down, starting with types of creatures that have a great affinity for magical energy." Twilight states taking a mouthful of her soda.

"If I had to say any type of creature, it'd be a slime as they often appear attuned to a specific element of magic." Edward states as he thinks for a second.

"However, I've never heard of a slime that absorbs magic like this and there is nothing in the bestiary about such slimes." Alexander states eating more of his crepe.

"Could it be a new variant? Or perhaps an extremely old variant?" Starlight asks leaning back in her seat.

"If it was a new variant we'd surely of heard about such a creature and if it was an old variant, how old exactly would it need to be and why is it not in the bestiary?" Alexander states gulping down his cherry soda.

"What if, bear with me here. What if, this variant was sealed away somewhere or in something because of this very ability to absorb magic like we've been having on the island." Edward proposes which gets him one or two odd looks.

"Fair theory, but why only now would it be showing up again if it was indeed sealed away?" Alexander poses in minor objection to Edward's theory.

"That could-" Edward is cut short by a scream from outside.

The group quickly finish their crepes and sodas before rushing out to see what the commotion is about.

"The horror. The horror!" A dramatic girl states as she has knelt beside another girl on the floor.

The girl in question has long straight blonde hair with a Lilly flower sitting behind her ear, matching blonde eyes and white skin. The girl on the floor has long flowing dark raspberry hair that has lighter streak within, light green eyes and the same white skin. They both wear the Valkyrie house uniform.

"What's happened?" Edward asks looking concerned.

"My sister went to pet some strange creature but then collapsed after a minute of doing so without warning. It then slithered off in the direction of the spa, this is just horrible!" The girl exclaims again.

The group, without thinking about it much decided to give chase in the direction pointed out to them by the dramatic girl.

Author's Notes:

This chapter was a little hard to write as I had no idea what I was going to do so we ended up with some cute filler before some action. I hope you all enjoy and continue to like the story as it progresses through this small arc.