There was a click from the door. It swung open and, one by one, the rest of the girls entered. I was very relieved to see them. Judging by the expressions on their faces, the same could be said for them.

Rainbow Dash was the first to step up to my bedside. “Hey girl, how’s it hanging?” she asked, shifting her posture so as to stand in a more relaxed (and unmistakably cool) way.

I looked to my suspended legs. “Well, I am hanging, so I guess, uh, not too bad?”

Applejack trotted up to my bedside next, and looked me over with a critical eye, fixing me with a concerned glance. “Gee, Twi’ wasn’t kiddin’ when she said you tore yourself up somethin’ awful. You sure you’re okay, Prism?”

I covered a small laugh with my left foreleg. “Yes, Applejack. I’ll be just fine once everything heals up.”

I think I’ll leave the right foreleg out of this for now, I don’t want them to worry about me any more than they already are.

Applejack gave gave me a stubborn, skeptical glare. “Well, if you say so...”

“Oh! And once she gets back, we’ll have to throw her a big party!” Pinkie suddenly exclaimed, bouncing over to my bedside. “It’ll be a ‘Prism’s-all-healed-up-and-was-totally-rescued-from-being-foalnapped’ party! I’ll make sure there’ll be lots and lots of tea for you, Prism!” The pink mare said as she continued bouncing. “So don’t you frown and let this get you down!”

The thought of having some tea was beyond wonderful at the moment; it had been far too long since I last had a cup, and I was beginning to feel it, too. “I could really go for a cup of lavender and rose right about now,” I admitted, hesitantly looking over to Pinkie. “But, uh... let’s hold off on that party for now.”

Pinkie visibly deflated and landed on her haunches with a small, defeated sigh. “Okay, well, maybe another time then?”

I nodded. “Yes, of course, Pinkie. I just don’t think I’m really ready for a party just yet. I promise I will be soon; I just need time to prepare myself.”

A large part of me felt really bad, declining Pinkie’s party suggestions like that, but I still just didn’t like the idea of being around lots of other ponies. Attending an actual party would be a social hurdle I’d have to tackle another day.

I looked about the room, taking notice of the fact that my housemate was missing. “Where is Rarity?” I asked, scanning the faces of the others.

“I’m here, darling!” replied Rarity as she trotted through the entrance to the room. “I was just catching up with an old acquaintance over here.” Rarity gestured a forehoof to the door as a another pony entered.

My eyes widened in shock at the yellow stallion who entered the room.

He brushed a hoof over his elegantly-groomed, white mane before adjusting the collar of his well-tailored black vest, and addressed me with a large smile. “Ah, so good to see you awake, my dear!” he replied in a posh tone as he repositioned the small pair of reading glasses perched atop his muzzle. “You gave us quite the scare the other night; your pegasus friend and I weren't sure you were going to make it.”

My surprise was quickly replaced by a flash of anger. “Get out now!” I said in a venomous tone, my face contorting into a furious sneer.

Snooty took a step back in mock-surprise, before raising a forehoof defensively. “It was all just a misunderstan—”

“NOW!” I boomed threateningly, my horn lighting with prismatic magic to punctuate my message.

Unfortunately, my anger was quickly quelled by a spike of excruciating pain which flared up at the base of my horn, causing me to reel back. Doctor Ruby Heart had been wrong about my magic: simply using it at all was actually extremely painful.

Derpy and Rainbow Dash rushed to my side to make sure I was all right, while Rarity and the rest of the girls were utterly taken aback by my sudden outburst.

The Fashionista visibly shook herself. “Prism! That was extremely rude! And to the pony who saved you, no less... You should be—”

“No, it’s not her fault, Ms. Rarity,” Snooty quickly interjected, holding a forehoof out to her. “She clearly doesn’t remember what happened. As I mentioned before, Rohoofnol can affect a pony’s psyche and memory, remember?”

Rarity opened her mouth to retort, but instead let out a soft sigh and nodded.

Snooty nodded back. “It’s like I said before, ladies... When Prism saw I was with Fluttershy, she must have mistaken me for one of her captors and attacked me. Under the influence of the drug, it would seem she had forgotten our prior meeting. Had it not been for Prism, I wouldn’t even have known to seek out her friend in the first place,” he noted, giving me a concerned look. “Unfortunately, she obviously didn’t know any better, and couldn’t control—”

“Liar!” I managed to force out. That accusation was quickly followed by a hard wince. “You are the one—”

“Don’t you think you’re being a mite bit rude, Prism?” Applejack interjected with a clear look of disapproval. “If you would just let him say his piece, you would see he’s tryin’ to help you.”

Snooty turned to her with a hum and a nod before facing me again. “Yes, I spoke with your doctor earlier this morning and heard the news of the accusations. Needless to say, I was absolutely appalled!” he spat out his last words. “A brave mare such as yourself, who sought not help for herself but thought only of her friend, being charged with murder? In an example which anypony in their right mind could clearly see was justified self-defense?” Snooty punctuated his unnervingly convincing act of of concern with a stomp of his forehoof. “I will not stand for it! Not so long as I can do something about it”

Applejack gave a nod of approval to the unknown con artist. “Ya see? He’s here to help y'all with this here heap’o’trouble you’re in.”

Rarity walked up to my bedside. “Snooty here is an exemplary gentlecolt. Why, he has held many charity auctions in benefit of foal hospitals and the like, and those are just the events that I know of,” she informed me, gesturing a hoof back to him. “Now he wishes to aid you with the best lawyers Equestria has to offer.”

Snooty joined Rarity at my bedside. “Indeed, it’s true,” he added enthusiastically. “After all, don’t you find this all a bit suspicious, my dear? The swiftness with which the evidence was unearthed? The speed with which these crimes were pinned on you? I call foul play, and intend to get to the bottom of this.”

I could not believe the magnitude of the manipulation and deception Snooty was weaving right before my very eyes. The worst part of it, it was working, and he knew it. I could just see that insufferably smug face hidden behind the veil of lies; it made me absolutely furious!

“Enough!” I shouted, disregarding a flash of pain that spiked up with my sheer anger. “This stallion—” I pointed my left forehoof directly at Snooty as I looked to Rarity “—is the pony behind everything! The foalnapping, the ransom, the rescue—everything!”

Rarity looked quite flustered, confusion and frustration evident on her face. “W-what?!” she finally managed, taking a step back. “Darling? W-why, that’s... that’s absolutely absurd!”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, looking between Snooty and I. “Wait, what?” The cyan mare pointed a forehoof to Snooty. “You mean to say that the pony who rescued you is also the one behind it all? No offense... but doesn’t that sound a little crazy, Prism?”

Pinkie Pie cut in front of Rainbow Dash, her worried face taking up most of my field of view. “Yeah, wouldn’t that, like, make him the bad guy?” she said with an unsure shrug.

I narrowed my eyes at the pink pony in front of me. “That’s because he is the bad guy! Why would I lie about something like this? He’s the one behind everything! He...”

I trailed off as everypony suddenly looked over to Snooty, who had let out a small chuckle. “Pardon me, my dear, but nopony here thinks that you are lying. Like you said, why would you lie about something this important? Unfortunately, you simply have it all wrong; I don’t think you remember just what happened that night, do you?” he asked, his voice calm and collected and full of false concern. “The hospital staff said that you almost died from a Rohoofnol overdose. The effects of the drug have clouded your mind and memories. Try hard to think back: what is the last thing you remember clearly, my dear?”

I suddenly realized what card he was trying to play.

He’s trying to make it look like I don’t know what I am talking about...

This sudden realization only added fuel to the fire of my anger and hatred for this pony. Fueled by my aggression, I summoned up all my strength and willpower and lunged at Snooty with my left forehoof. The satisfying feeling of my hoof connecting with Snooty’s snout recoiled up my foreleg.

Unfortunately, my momentum worked against me, as my body now screamed out in pain from the sudden, jarring movements. The pain was almost indescribable, as if my upper body had been fed through a woodchipper and then sewn back together again.

But my body’s sacrifice had not been in vain: Snooty fell backwards to the ground from the impact of the sudden blow, landing with a hard thud. Despite the agonizing pain I was in, I felt a large feeling of satisfaction about having shown him that I was not about to play his little game.

However, the rest of the girls did not share that same sense of satisfaction and all spoke up at once.

“Now why in the hay you do that for, Prism?”

“My goodness! Are you alright, Snooty?”

“Hey! That wasn’t very nice!”

“What the hay?”

“Oh wow, what was that for?”

As much as I wanted to explain myself, all I could do was let out a feeble groan in the wake of the pain; I definitely hadn’t thought this one through very well.

Rarity turned from Snooty and cast me a sharp glare. “Why I never! Such disrespect!” she spouted, her glare intensifying. “After everything he has done for you—all he has offered to do for you! For you to so casually throw it back in his face and strike him!”

Snooty visibly shook himself, before picking himself off the floor and dusting off his vest. “No, it’s quite all right Ms. Rarity, she just needs time to—”

“No, it is not all right!” she quickly interjected, spinning to face him with a stomp of her forehoof, before looking back to me. “You were right, I think our dear friend needs some time to cool off and think about what she has done.” Rarity turned back and headed for the door with her snout raised high. “I’m going to go see Fluttershy now. Come along, girls.”

The others, with the exception of Derpy, all paused for a moment, but then slowly followed the fashionista. Rainbow Dash, however, stopped midway across the room, biting her lower lip as she looked back and forth between Rarity and I.

After a moment, her expression eased, and she turned to face me. “Uh, you girls go on ahead. There is something I need to talk to Prism about; I’ll catch up.”

Rarity scrunched up her muzzle, raising an eyebrow for a moment. “Very well then, if that is what you wish, Rainbow Dash,” she said, before opening the door with her cyan magic and making her way out.

The other girls and Snooty also made their way out, leaving only myself, Derpy, and Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow quickly looked back to me with a perplexed look. “What was that all about, Prism?! Isn’t he the stallion who saved you? Why did you hit him?” she asked, approaching my bed and tilting her head as she stared at me.

Derpy hummed to herself as she flew over to join the cyan mare at my side. “So that’s who that was?” she asked, looking to me curiously. “If he was, then why did Prism get so angry and hit him?”

Rainbow scratched her chin with a forehoof before shrugging at the mailmare.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down some. “Don’t trust a word that comes out of that stallion’s mouth,” I said, looking between the two. “He’s an unnervingly skillful liar and actor. He’s also the pony who did this to me.” I pointed to my injuries for emphasis.

Rainbow eyed me skeptically for a moment. “Snooty warned us that you might not remember much about the rescue because of the Rohoofnol, and that you would probably be angry at him, given that you’d attacked him before,” she pointed out. “I mean, everypony knows the effects of Rohoofnol overdoses; the memory loss he mentioned made sense.” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes at me. “However, I’m not about to take the word of some stranger over that of a friend, not matter how noble he (or anypony else) says he is.”

Derpy looked to her with an affirmative nod. “Right! I mean, I didn’t even hear anything he said to you girls, so I have no idea what happened.”

I looked to Rainbow Dash curiously at Derpy’s mention of Snooty’s lies. “So, just what did he tell you girls before you came in here? What happened?”

“Well, when we first got to the hospital we were pretty early, so we had to wait a little while before visiting hours began and we would be allowed see you. Not too long after we came inside a stallion came up to us,” Rainbow Dash informed me. “He greeted us and seemed to know Rarity from one of those classy parties, or something like that. She was quite happy to see him, so Rarity obviously recognized him as well.”

I furrowed my brow at her words. “Snooty was already here when you arrived?”

She nodded. “Yeah, he said he was waiting to see you.”

He wasn’t waiting to see me, he was waiting for them!

I let out a small growl in annoyance. “What did he say about me? Give me all the details, if you wouldn’t mind,” I asked in a rather serious tone.

“Sure, no problem,” Rainbow replied with a nod, before staring off into nowhere for a moment. “Well, Snooty explained to us how he had just been delivering fabrics to the warehouse next door when you came bursting out the back of the building you were being held in.”

I listened with an obvious look of anger and a frown I made no effort to hide. The girls seemed to pick up on this, as they glanced at each other uneasily before Rainbow Dash continued.

“He said you ran towards him but fell down mid-way, so he quickly closed the distance to see if you were all right. He was shocked at what he found: a white mare who was obviously hysterical and who seemed to have been roughed up pretty good,” she informed me, sitting down on her haunches and getting comfortable before continuing. “He offered to take you to a hospital, but you quickly rejected his aid and instead told him that you and your friend had been foalnapped, and that she was still being held inside.”

At this point I was getting very, very angry. And judging by the looks on the girls’ faces, it showed. Although I was trying, with all my might, to bite my tongue and at least let Rainbow Dash finish before I commented, it was getting very difficult to hold back.

Rainbow Dash let out an uneasy laugh with a forced smile as she continued. “He told you he was going to go get the police, but you objected, saying that there was no time. Your words were becoming difficult to make out and—”

I snapped, despite the great deal of pain caused by my outburst.

“LIES!” I boomed, my face contorting into a furious sneer.

Both girls hopped to their hooves and took a step back from me instinctively, wide-eyed in surprise.

“That’s all a bunch of lies! I never met him outside the building, I never told him anything of the sort, I never—”

A sudden knock at the door of the room distracted me from my angry rant, as the familiar sound of clicking metal followed. The girls and I looked to the door to face the new arrival.

An unfamiliar earth pony mare, with a pale brown coat and long, curly, sandy-blonde mane, entered. She was definitely young, just barely at the age where she would no longer be considered a filly. I got a clear look at her cutie mark as she spun around to close the door behind her: a magnifying glass, with a judge’s gavel in the center of the lens. She paused as she looked us over, noticing the tension and unease in the room.

I regarded her with a sense of irritation; I wasn’t in the mood to deal with anypony new. “Can I help you?” I asked, silently wishing she would just go away.

The mare cleared her throat. “Terribly sorry to bother you, Prism. I’m Detective Surefire,” she informed me, speaking with a strong Manehattan accent. “If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to ask you a few questions.” She revealed a badge to punctuate her request.

Great, more police. This is the last thing I want to deal with.

I narrowed my eyes at the detective. “It would seem to me that you already know everything you need to know,” I stated snarkily, looking away and shooing her with my free forehoof. “Now if you wouldn’t mind, please leave.”

The young mare walked around my bed persistently to face me. “I would like to talk to you about what happened during the kidnapping, and—”

Rainbow Dash flew in front of the detective, causing her to backpedal several steps. “Look missy, she said she doesn’t want to talk to you, so beat it!” she demanded, gesturing a forehoof back to the door behind her.

“About what really happened,” the young detective added just as Rainbow Dash landed and took a step closer to her.

Derpy narrowed her eyes at her, before turning and heading for the door. “I’ll go get security.”

I processed the detective’s words for a moment.

About what really happened... She wants to know the truth?

“Derpy, wait!” I quickly called out, extending my left forehoof after her.

Derpy and Rainbow Dash both stopped what they were doing and turned to me curiously.

I looked to the detective, regarding her curiously yet skeptically. “Just who are you exactly?”

“To be honest, I’m actually just a junior detective for the Manehattan Metro Police department,” she said, before sheepishly admitting, “and I’m, uh, actually kind of off duty right now.”

“Why are you here if you are off duty?” I asked, curious as to why she would come here in her own free time.

Surefire scratched the back of her neck with an uneasy smile. “You see, I’m not officially assigned to your case, so I had to take some time off to approach you outside of my work hours,” she admitted. “It’s kind of, sort of... well, strictly against department policy to interfere with another detective’s case,” she hesitantly continued. ”Honestly... I could, uh, kind of lose my job for doing this.” She let out a nervous laugh, sitting to her haunches and fidgeting her forelegs together.

I watched her closely for a moment, concerned and confused. “I don’t understand; if it’s such a great risk for you to talk to me, then why are you doing it?”

“Murder is a really big deal here in Equestria, so I decided to take a peek at the case file,” she said, before narrowing his eyes. “Something seemed very... off. This whole case against you... It was just too convenient for Detectives Nitpick and Hawkeye to have already solved everything.”

To my surprise, Derpy spoke up. “Wait, so first you cops accuse her of murder, now you are saying that something is wrong?” the mailmare asked, looking just as confused as I was. “So which is it then?”

Surefire quickly shook her head. “Uh, what I meant was, those two have made a name for themselves as the best Manehattan has to offer, in terms of investigation. They are actually the ponies who inspired me to begin investigating when I was a still a filly,” she stated, glancing back to her cutie mark for a moment before continuing. “However, after I’d gotten a position as an intern and got promoted to junior detective, I started reading up on their cases, to see if I could pick up any tips for myself. It seemed to me that the work they did was really good—too good.”

Rainbow cast her a curious look. “Wait... so what you’re basically trying to say is: you think those two are up to something?”

Surefire gave a long, uneasy pause. “I’ve had a strong suspicion about those two ever since then, and secretly asked Internal Affairs to look into them, after I’d brought what I’d found to their attention,” she said, her tone suddenly turning quite serious. “However, the agent investigating was involved in an unfortunate and unrelated carriage crash.”

“Sounds kinda fishy to me,” Derpy commented, rubbing her chin with the tips of her right wing.

Rainbow Dash looked to her and nodded. “Yeah, isn’t that a little suspicious that something bad happened to the pony investigating them?”

Surefire gave an affirmative nod. “Right. Because of that, the department had a few senior teams assigned to the case, and they thoroughly combed through the site of the crash, but nopony found anything linking it to the two of them, so It was written off as just an unfortunate accident.” She shook her head with a frustrated groan. “Now, not even a month later, this happens!” she exclaimed, pointing a forehoof to me.

My ears folded back. I cast her a hard glare, a bit upset by the fact that she was insinuating that I was a bad thing.

The young mare paused for a moment before sinking down a little and letting out a sheepish laugh. “Sorry, I, uh... I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. What I meant by ‘this’ was: this whole case involving you and the homicides,” she reiterated. “Like I said before, murder in equestria is big. For those two to have procured such an extent of evidence and practically claim they’d solved the entire case in... What? Less than twenty-four hours? I’d say that sounds like a load of horse apples, and I intend to get to the bottom of it, even if I have to risk my job to do it.”

Derpy rubbed her chin with her wing tip. “You know... that Snooty guy did say something like that, if I remember correctly.”

Rainbow Dash looked to Derpy with a nod of confirmation. “Yeah, that’s right!” she commented, turning to face me. “You never did tell us just who this Snooty guy is, Prism.”

“Snooty? As in ‘Snooty’s Finer Fashion’ Snooty?” Detective Surefire suddenly asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Yes, that’s him. Why do you ask? Do you know him?” I asked, curious as to why she brought it up.

“Of course! He has tipped the department off to a few major criminals hiding behind fronts in the fashion industry,” she said matter-of-factly. “That stallion knows his materials and fabrics, that’s for sure.”

The irony in Surefire's statement was so strong that I couldn’t help but burst into sudden laughter at the ridiculousness of her words, earning me confused looks from the others in the room.

I took a deep breath as I tried compose myself. “Oh, I’m sorry. But that was just so funny, because that is exactly what he is doing, himself,” I said, beaming the detective a quasi-humorous smile.

Surefire cocked her neck back in surprise. “That’s a serious accusation, Prism,” she pointed out, before pausing a moment. “...Isn’t he the pony who rescued you and your friend?”

I was getting sick and tired of hearing about Snooty’s reputation, and all the other lies he had woven. My anger was short-lived though, as the sound of a chime of magic, and the room’s door opening, caused everypony to face the entryway. An all-too-familiar lavender mare, toting a pair of saddlebags, entered.

Twilight regarded us all with a smile as she closed the door behind her. “Hey girls,” she greeted, before glancing to the junior detective with a look of curiosity. “Who’s your guest, Prism?”

“This is Junior Detective Surefire,” I informed her, gesturing my left forehoof to the pony in question.

Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously. “Another detective?” she asked, before turning to the young mare with a stern glare. “Look, I already told those last two gentlecolts that if they wanted to speak to Prism, they would have to do so through—”

“No, it’s okay Twilight, she’s different,” I interjected, waving my left forehoof at her dismissively. “Surefire isn’t here for anything like that.”

“Quite the opposite, actually,” Surefire added with a casual gesture of her forehoof. “As I was just explaining to Prism here, I’m are actually investigating the case itself.”

Twilight blinked idly for a moment, before looking between myself and the detective. “Yesterday, two detectives came in here and accused Prism of murder. Now we have you investigating the case itself? Care to explain what exactly is going on here?”

I let out a sudden, frustrated sigh, tired of having everypony repeating themselves again and again. “Look, there is a lot to discuss... How about we just get Twilight up to speed before anypony asks anymore questions?” Irritation was evident in my tone as I looked to Surefire. “Would you mind helping Twilight catch up first?”

She nodded. “All right”

* * * * * * * * * *

After a few minutes of summarizing what Surefire had just discussed with us to Twilight, the junior detective continued to go into great detail about some of the more questionable cases Nitpick and Hawkeye had been involved in.

To my surprise, Twilight didn’t seem all that surprised.

“I knew it,” Twilight said, opening her saddlebags with her magic and retrieving a clipboard and pencil, to scribble down some quick notes. “Given the facts Surefire has presented, it seems extremely likely that they’ve had outside sources aiding them with their ‘investigations.’” Twilight glanced to me as she continued. “From what Prism has told me about the foalnapping, I have strong cause to believe that one of these sources is, most likely, none other than Snooty himself.”

It was a great relief to hear that Twilight was on the same page as I was in all of this. It would seem that all we had to do was convince Surefire as well.

Surefire tapped her chin with a forehoof, looking deep in thought for a few moments. “Hmm, the official report clearly provides Snooty’s testimony about helping the two of you escape,” she stated matter-of-factly, before holding out her forehoof abruptly. “Although... Given what you two have mentioned, it would seem the current report is a clearly a load of horse apples. Mind shedding some light on the truth, Prism?”

“Well, I can tell you this much already...” I informed her. ”Your suspicions about the case are correct; I’m being framed for those murders. During my escape, I only tossed those three stallions around a little. They should have only gotten some nasty bruises, or maybe a few broken bones, at worst.”

Surefire scratched her head as she processed my words. “Well, normally I would be inclined to question your words. However, given the circumstances, I’m willing to believe that you are telling the truth about all of this.”

Her words were a huge relief to me. Somepony was finally willing to not just listen to me, but to actually believe what I had said. This young mare was proving very reasonable, which was just the thing I needed right now. A reasonable pony in a position of power, who could make good use of not just my knowledge of the true story behind the foalnapping, but of all of the other dirt I had on Snooty as well.

The detective looked to Twilight. “Ms. Sparkle, right? Would you be so kind as to take notes of Prism’s testimony, for future reference?”

“One step ahead of you,” the lavender mare replied, furiously scribbling away on her clipboard.

“Wonderful,” Surefire lightly exclaimed, before turning back to me. “Now, tell me, what really happened that night?”

* * * * * * * * * *

Time simply slipped away as I explained the truth behind the foalnapping in great detail. Considering who I was speaking to, I decided not to leave anything out. This looked to be the one chance to help myself, so I was going to make sure she knew everything I did.

“Sweet Celestia...” Derpy murmured silently after I’d concluded my tale. “You really went through all of that, Prism?” She glanced to my injuries with an uneasy frown. “And that stallion, he almost...” She covered her muzzle with a forehoof.

I looked to the mailmare with a grim nod.

A loud, frustrated growl from Rainbow Dash rang out as she leapt up to her hooves from a sitting position. “That’s it!” she began, taking flight and heading for the door. “I’m going to find that mule Snooty, and when I do, I’m going to... to...” She trailed off when she realized she was actually going nowhere, being trapped in Twilight’s magic.

The lavender mare promptly shook her head. “We can’t just go and confront him like that, Rainbow,” she declared, walking up to the cyan mare caught in her magical grasp. “Look, I don’t like this any more than you do, but we have to play by the rules. If we don’t, we’re no better than he is.”

“Yes we are!” she objected, throwing out her forelegs. “This guy’s done awful things to countless ponies! He deserves just as bad—if not worse!”

Twilight let out a hard sigh. “That may very well be true, but it’s not our job to decide.”

Unfortunately, as much as I agreed with Rainbow Dash and wanted to take immediate action, I knew that Twilight was right. This was now a chess match between Snooty and I. All the pieces seemed to be on the board... The question now was how to play them, and what piece to move first.

Unfortunately, I was never very good at chess, and had already fallen for Snooty’s gambit.

He showed his face just to antagonize me; he wanted me to get angry at him in front of the girls. I played right into his hoof...

I was extremely upset at myself for letting him manipulate me like that. Because of my angry and aggressive reactions, my friends now stood divided in their belief of the truth. I silently cursed myself for having such a bad temper; Snooty had simply used it against me.

“What do you think?” I asked, turning to face Twilight. “Where do we start?”

She brought a hoof to her chin, looking deep in thought for a moment. “Well, we should probably pay Snooty a visit first, to see if we can find any inconsistencies in his answers when we reveal what we know about him, Nitpick and Hawkeye,” she said, before pointing a hoof directly at me. “You, on the other hoof, are going to stay in bed and heal up.”

Surefire looked to her with a nod. “The longer you remain here, the longer the department has to wait to take you into custody. Which means we’ll have more time to investigate.” She glanced over my injuries. “Thankfully for you, your injuries are severe enough that it will take some time for them to heal sufficiently. It’ll be a while before you’ll be medically declared fit enough to leave.”

As bad as that sounded, she did have a point. Hopefully, my injuries would buy enough time for Twilight and Surefire to find something they could use in my defense.

I let out a defeated sigh. “All right, all right... I just wish there was something I could do to help.”

Surefire covered a small laugh. “You already have. We wouldn’t know the entire truth, or where to even start looking for it, without the information you provided, Prism,” she pointed out with a casual gesture of her hoof. “You have done your part; leave the rest to us, for now.” She gave me a quick wink as she turned for the door. “Well, I should probably get going and start looking into Snooty. See if he has any dirt on him I could possibly make use of.”

Twilight nodded. “Right, and I’ll go pay Snooty a visit and ‘thank’ him for saving my friend,” she informed us. “Maybe I can coax something out of him.”

Rainbow Dash extended a forehoof towards the lavender mare. “Um, Twilight? He might not be home right now. He was with the rest of us here just a few hours ago.”

“WHAT?!” Twilight shouted, turning to face Rainbow Dash. “Why didn’t anypony tell me about this sooner? They could be in trouble!” She made a break for the door. “I’m going to look for the rest of the girls!”

Without hesitation, Twilight flung open the door with her magic and ran out. Rainbow Dash quickly flew out after her.

“Hey, wait for me, Twilight!” I heard her calling out from the hallway.

Everypony else remained staring at the open doorway for a few seconds. Then Surefire turned back to face me.

“Well, I guess that’s my cue to get back to work, too,” she said, beaming me a warm smile. “It was nice to meet you Prism. I’m sorry about everything you’ve had to go through.” Her expression hardened and her tone became serious. “We will get to the bottom of this, and prove your innocence. I’d bet my badge on it.”

I returned her smile. “Thank you so much... Really, thank you. You didn’t have to do any of this, yet you are choosing to help. That means a lot to me.”

Surefire shook her head with a small laugh. “I’m just doing what I think is right,” she began, shooting me another wink before she started for the door. “I’ll get back to you soon with an update. You have a good one, Prism.”

“You too, Surefire.”

With that, the junior detective made her way out. I turned to face my remaining company. I took notice of the fact that Derpy had been surprisingly quiet throughout all of this.

“Are you alright, Derpy?” I asked her, concerned about her uncharacteristic behavior. “You have been really quiet.”

She quickly and dismissively waved a hoof at me. “Oh, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” she reassured me, crossing the room to take a seat in one of the green chairs along the wall. “This is all just so high above me, ya know?” she continued as she settled into her seat and relaxed. “I mean, I’m just a single mom and a mailmare... Twilight and the rest of these girls are the Elements of Harmony. What could I do to help?”

I brought my hoof to my chin in thought for a moment, before an important task came to me. “Actually, there is something extremely important that you could do to help me,” I informed her. “So important, in fact, that I think it takes precedence over anything else at the moment.”

Derpy sprang to her hooves with a serious expression, saluting me with her right hoof and wing. “Name it and it shall be done!”

“For the love of Celestia, find me some tea.”