Cheerilee looked at the crowd gathering around a group of lockers and pushed her way through it. When she finally got to the front of the gathered ponies she saw Silver Spoon crying on the ground. The pink earth pony looked at the stuffed animal heads next to Silver Spoon and stifled a gasp when she saw the cutie mark drawn on each one.

"All of you get to your classes," Cheerilee said sharply, looking at the severed plush heads all over the floor. "There's nothing to see here."

The crowd slowly started to disperse as ponies went from the hall to their classes, but it didn't move nearly fast enough for Miss Cheerilee, so she decided to try and help them on their way.

"Move!" she shouted. In about thirty seconds the entire hallway was cleared of ponies.

The teacher sat down beside Silver Spoon and gave her a hug. Silver Spoon continued to cry so hard she started coughing.

"It's all right," Cheerilee said softly. "Let it out. Take all the time you need."

It took about ten minutes before Silver Spoon managed to regain enough of her composure to stop crying and look up at her teacher. Silver Spoon hugged her teacher back for a few moments, then the two ponies released the other from their hug.

"Do you have any idea how this happened? Who would do this?"

"I.." Silver Spoon said, coughing and gasping for air as she tried to talk, "It started when I got home last night. I went into my bedroom and found all my stuffed animals.... without their heads..."

"What did your parents do when you told them?"

"They went and got the police. They were so worried for my safety that we stayed in a hotel last night."

"We've got to get this mess cleaned up. Come on, we'll put everything back in your locker for the time being."

"In my locker?" Silver Spoon asked, confused.

"We can't leave the hallway like this, and we can't stay here all day. We'll put all these heads back in your locker, close the door, and go to the principal’s office. You'll stay there while he goes and gets the police. Unless you want to go back to class."

"I....I don't know..." Silver Spoon said softly.

"That's what I figured," Miss Cheerilee replied.

It took the two ponies a few minutes but they managed to get all the stuffed animal heads off the ground and back into Silver Spoon’s locker. Cheerilee escorted the filly to the principal’s office and informed him of what was going on.

"What?!" Icepick asked, horrified.

"It gets worse. The stuffed animal heads were put in her locker" Miss Cheerilee said. "When she opened the locker this morning, they came pouring out of it."

"What did you do with them?" Icepick asked.

"Put them back in her locker," Cheerilee replied.

"Okay, I'm going to go get the police right now. Silver Spoon, you're welcome to stay here until they arrive. Miss Cheerilee, you might want to stay here with Silver Spoon, but first you should check on your class."

"I was thinking the same thing," Cheerilee replied, looking over at the frightened filly. "Will you be alright until I get back?"

"I think so." Silver Spoon replied, looking down at the floor.

"We'll be right back," Miss Cheerilee said.

She and Icepick ran out of the room. Cheerilee went back to her class and the principal ran out of the school and toward the center of town. He ran into the police station, and a few moments he came back out followed by a pony wearing a police uniform. The mare harnessed herself to a wagon marked with "Ponyville Police Department" lettering on the sides. The two ponies then ran back to the school.

"Class," Cheerilee said as she entered the room, "I'm going to be occupied for awhile. I want all of you to work on your art presentations. I'll check back every fifteen minutes to see how you're doing. Oh, one more thing. Nopony is allowed outside the classroom for any reason until I return."

When Cheerilee turned and left the room, her class moved out of their normal seating assignments and ponies all across the room rejoined their friends. The Cutie Mark Crusaders gathered in the back of the room and helped Babs get started on her presentation. When they looked up they saw Diamond Tiara sitting alone, working on hers.

"Do you think we went too far?" Sweetie Belle whispered.

"We tried every other option we could," Apple Bloom said quietly, her voice reflecting her own nervousness.

"Except punching Diamond Tiara in the face," Scootaloo whispered back.

"That wouldn't have stopped her. You would have gotten thrown out of school. Nothing more," Babs whispered, glancing at Diamond Tiara.

"You realize this isn't over, right? The police were at Silver Spoon’s home," Apple Bloom whispered.

"Now they're here," Scootaloo whispered nervously, looking out the window.

Their classroom faced Ponyville and when the Crusaders saw their principal running toward the school, they saw a police pony following him. They watched as the light green pony stopped right outside the school and unhooked herself from the police wagon.

She and the principal walked inside the school side by side and headed straight for Icepick’s office. Ten minutes passed and the door to the class opened. Cheerilee walked in and sat down at her desk.

"Is Silver Spoon okay?" Snips asked.

"She's talking to the police right now. I'm sure she'll be fine," Cheerilee answered. "Does anypony need a hoof with their presentations?"

Miss Cheerilee went around and looked at each pony’s presentation. She was about to check the Crusaders’ presentations when her classroom door opened and the mint green police pony walked in, followed by Principal Icepick.

"Children, I'd like your attention please," Icepick said. "I'd like to introduce you all to Detective Minty. She's going to be working here until we find out what happened this morning."

"Thank you, Principal Icepick. I'll take it from here," Minty said, as she turned to address the class. "My name is Officer Minty. Can anypony tell me why I'm here this morning?"

"To investigate what happened to Silver Spoon," Featherweight said.

"That's why I'm here?" Minty asked, surprised. "I thought I was here to sew those animals back together again. Rats, now I've got a lot more work to do!"

"Perhaps you should start by asking the children if they know anything about it," Cheerilee suggested.

"That's an idea," Minty said. "Does anypony know how this happened?"

"Somepony cut the heads off the stuffed animals and put them in Silver Spoon’s locker," Diamond Tiara said.

"I guess that about sums it up. Case closed," Minty said, turning and heading toward the door.

"That's it? Case closed? You're not even going to investigate?" Cheerilee asked, stunned.

"But...investigating means I have to look for clues. That's really more of a Twilight Sparkle kind of thing. It'll also make me have to ask questions....boring! I've got a better idea. I'm going to go look at the evidence I've already got and that will tell me who did this."

"What evidence do you have?" Apple Bloom asked.

"A locker full of stuffed animal heads that have a symbol drawn on them. When I match that symbol to something, that'll tell me who's responsible for this."

"That's Silver Spoon’s cutie mark," Cheerilee replied. She rolled her eyes at the imcompetent policemare, but Minty failed to notice that, also.

"So she's the culprit," Minty said. "Case closed."

"She didn't do this to herself," Cheerilee said, voice rising with her frustration level.

"But I said case closed."

"I think you might want to dig a little deeper into this case," Miss Cheerilee said.

"Fine," Minty said, turning and looking at Snails who was closest to her, "Teachers. Never happy, huh?"

The whole room burst into laughter as Minty turned and walked outside. Cheerilee looked rather annoyed and the class quickly stopped laughing and got back to their assignment. The pink earth pony sighed and closed the door behind Minty.

The rest of the morning went without incident. When the class was let out for morning recess, the four Crusaders walked away from the rest of the class to the far end of the playground.

"If that's the pony investigating what happened, we've got nothing to worry about," Apple Bloom said, a grin appearing on her face.

"Don't get over-confident," Babs warned. "We were very careful and we've been lucky so far, but this can't go beyond us. If anypony ever hears one word about this, we're all in big trouble."

"I sincerely hope Diamond Tiara learns something from this," Scootaloo replied, glancing over at Diamond Tiara who was sitting on a swing.

"So far she's kept to herself," Sweetie Belle said. "But that might not last long."

"Has anypony seen Silver Spoon?" Scootaloo asked.

"The last time I saw her was in the hall this morning," Babs replied.

"She's probably still in the principal's office. Or maybe they let her go home for the day," Sweetie Belle added.

"I have one question. I'm sure it's on everypony’s mind right now," Apple Bloom said.

"What if Diamond Tiara keeps pushing us around?" Babs asked.

"Are we really going to do something like this to her if she does?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Do we have any other choice?" Scootaloo asked.

"It's not like we're throwing the first punch here," Apple Bloom said. "If she stops we won't have any reason to go after her."

"And if she doesn't?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"If she doesn't then we do to her what we did to Silver Spoon," Babs said.

"I'm going to go over to Diamond Tiara," Apple Bloom said.

"What?!" Scootaloo shouted.

"Why?" Babs asked.

"Look at her," Apple Bloom said. "She looks so lonely. If we can make friends with her now, maybe we won't have to worry about having to go through all this again. We can end it right here, right now."

"I agree with Apple Bloom. I think we should all go over to her," Sweetie Belle said. "That way we can show her that we're sincere about wanting to be her friend."

"I can see why we should, but this is a bad idea," Scootaloo replied. "I want this to be over as much as the rest of you, but she's leaving us alone right now. Why risk being ridiculed by her?"

"If we can end this right now, we're free. If not at least we know," Babs said.

The Crusaders turned around and slowly walked toward Diamond Tiara. She was sitting on the swing, not moving. She was so lost in thought she didn't even notice the four fillies until they stopped in front of her.

"Diamond Tiara?" Apple Bloom said softly. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Diamond Tiara snapped at her.

"We just thought because you were sitting alone, you might enjoy some company," Sweetie Belle said.

"From you blank flanks?! Please, don't make me laugh," Diamond Tiara said. "Don't you have some harebrained scheme to hatch and fail at to try and earn your cutie marks?"

"We just thought you were lonely, and could use a friend," Babs said.

"Well you thought wrong. Once again. If you had half the sense you pretend to have you would see I'm not lonely and you would go away. The fact you're all still standing here says more about your lack of intelligence than my words ever could. Think you can go away now?" Diamond Tiara asked angrily.

"For once, I agree with you," Apple Bloom said.

"Trying to be your friend is a complete waste of time. All we wanted was to be your friend, Diamond Tiara," Sweetie Belle said sadly.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders walked away from the swing set. When they were well away from it they stopped and looked around.

"Well, it was worth a try. But she hasn't learned anything," Apple Bloom said.

"Any thoughts on what we should do to her?" Scootaloo asked.

"Whatever we do we can't do it now," Babs said. "That cop is still around. It's too hot to try anything."

"That cop? Please. She couldn't catch a cold," Apple Bloom laughed.

"Be that as it may, we still shouldn't do anything right now. It's too soon," Babs cautioned.

"It's almost time to go back," Scootaloo replied.

The rest of recess went by without incident. When the Crusaders returned to class, they found Miss Cheerilee, Silver Spoon, and Minty waiting in the classroom.

"Silver Spoon, are you okay?" Apple Bloom asked.

"I will be," Silver Spoon replied.

"If there's anything we can do, please let us know," Sweetie Belle said.

"I just need to be left alone," Silver Spoon said.

"I'll leave you to your students and go get some cafeteria food. School food is awesome! Then I'm going to go to recess," Minty said, smiling.

"You don't get a recess. You're here to work," Miss Cheerilee said.

"But...aww come on, those swings look soo fun! I know that slide is, I've gone down it like a million times!" Minty said.

"Oh all right, just wait till the students come inside first. But don't spend all day out there. You've got a mystery to solve," Cheerilee said.

"Oh right. That," Minty replied. "It's already solved, so I'm gonna spend the rest of the day on the swings!"

"You already solved it?" Scootaloo asked.

"Who did it?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Trottingham drug runners. They hid the drugs in the dolls. Then they snuck into Silver Spoon’s room, cut the heads off and removed the drugs. They drew her cutie mark on the heads and shoved them in her locker as a warning to keep quiet about it. But I'm too smart for them. They won't get away!" Minty replied, shaking her hoof towards the invisible enemy.

"I don't think that's likely," Cheerilee said, shaking her head.

"Then how do you explain the white stuff I found all over her bed and bedroom, and the same white stuff I found in her locker?" Minty asked.

"The stuffing inside the plush animals," Miss Cheerilee said, annoyed.

"That's what they want us to believe. But I've taken samples and am going to give them to the techies at the station. Let them tell us what that stuff is," Minty said.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Cheerilee said. "In the meantime its almost time for class to start. You're welcome to stick around if you want, or you can go get lunch while they're still serving it."

"I think we both know the answer to that. Viva La FOOD!" Minty shouted, and darted out of the room.

The Crusaders and Silver Spoon took their seats as the rest of the class filed back into the room. Miss Cheerilee taught them about math and geography for the next few hours. The afternoon recess came and when the class was dismissed for recess, most of the students gathered around Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. The crusaders kept their distance and walked along the edge of the fence as they always did.

"I've got a proposition for you guys I wanna discuss after school today," Babs said.

"Proposition?" Scootaloo asked.

"I wanna ask you how far you're willing to go. Depending on what you're all comfortable with, there might be some ways to make money by doing work," Babs said.

"What kind of work?" Apple Bloom asked.

"The under the table kind. The kind we'd be well paid for doing."

"I don't know about that," Scootaloo replied.

"We'd have to know exactly what kind of work this is before we agree to anything," Sweetie Belle said.

"I'll go over all the details at today’s meeting," Babs replied, grinning mischievously.

After the final recess was over and the students returned to class, the last thing Cheerilee taught her students was science. This day's lesson found her covering how plants need both sunlight and water to grow. Because of all of the earlier excitement she assigned less homework than usual and dismissed class ten minutes early.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders went on their way to Sweet Apple Acres. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon met up in Diamond Tiara’s home and went straight for her bedroom.

"That was a low blow those Crusaders pulled on you," Diamond Tiara said.

"You really think they did that?" Silver Spoon asked.

"Who else would?" Diamond Tiara asked. "Even if they didn't, it does give a grand opportunity for us. Let's say they're innocent. Why wait for whoever did this to strike again? We can help them out and get rid of those blank flanks at the same time."

"Are you suggesting we frame them?" Silver Spoon asked.

"Why not? Let that cop find proof they're involved. At the least it'll get them in trouble and give us some laughs," Diamond Tiara said.

"I don't know who did this to me. I don't much care. I'm done helping you with your schemes," Silver Spoon said.

"Why?" Diamond Tiara asked, genuinely surprised.

"Whoever did this was very angry. They went to a great deal of trouble, Diamond Tiara. I don't know that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were involved. I don't know that they weren't. What I do know is I'm not making anypony angry again. If they were willing to go to this length to get me, I don't want to find out what would happen if I anger them again. I think this was a warning, and I'm taking it as such."

"You can't just give up now. If you do you'll let the Crusaders win."

"I don't care. I'm not going to help you with your scheming anymore. I know you won't take it, but I'm going to give you a piece of advice anyway. Quit while you're ahead. If you haven't angered whoever did this, then you're safe and you should stop now before you do. I'm still your friend, Diamond Tiara. I just won't help you mess with ponies anymore. This opened my eyes."

"Mine too," Diamond Tiara said, sounding annoyed. "I never knew you were a coward."

"I'm going to leave now. Before either of us say something we can't take back. I won't stop you from doing whatever you're going to do. Just know I won't help you either. I'm out of it," Silver Spoon said.

She stood up and left Diamond Tiara’s home, feeling just as bad as she had when she opened her locker. Silver Spoon had been under a huge amount of stress over the last twenty-four hours. First, there was what happened in her bedroom, then what happened at school, and finally what had just happened with the only pony she had ever considered a friend. She walked home slowly, each step feeling like the weight of the world was on her back. Each step she took going home became harder and harder for her, until she finally sat down on the sidewalk and burst into tears.

When the Cutie Mark Crusaders got to the spot on Sweet Apple Acres they were using for their meetings, they gathered around Babs Seed. The clubhouse was deemed too dangerous to use until Diamond Tiara had been dealt with, so they continued to meet in a remote spot in the orchards.

"Ok, this meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders is called to order. The first piece of business is what Babs was talking about. Babs, the floor is yours," Apple Bloom said.

"I'm sure all of you know there are ponies out there who sell things for money. Some sell tools, some sell food. Others sell clothes, or scrolls or potions. That is the bright glowing side of Ponyville. However, there is a darker side of Ponyville just below the surface. While I was in Manehattan I was working for my group doing runs. We would get items in boxes from one pony and deliver it to another."

"What exactly was in the boxes?" Scootaloo asked.

"I don't know and they didn't tell me. It was in my best interests not to ask questions. I was told simply to take a box and deliver it to a pony at a specific place and time. I showed up, gave them the box unopened. They paid me, I gave my group the money. They gave me my cut. Everypony got what they wanted."

"You make it sound easy doing courier work," Sweetie Belle said.

"It really was easy money. There were other ways to make considerably more money, but that was the safest one. Just make sure you never ever open the box. It stays closed, you stay safe."

"How would we get involved in that?" Apple Bloom asked.

"I'll start making inquiries around town, see what I can find out," Babs said. "If you're interested."

"All those in favor of making some money," Apple Bloom asked, and all four ponies raised their hooves.

"It's unanimous," Apple Bloom said. "Motion carries."

"Now onto other business. Anypony have any ideas what we should try today to earn our cutie marks?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"We could try gymnastics. I can do a cartwheel," Scootaloo said.

"I can do a forward roll," Apple Bloom said.

"I'd be willing to try and walk on a beam and to do twirls and stuff," Babs said.

"So its unanimous," Sweetie Belle said. "Let's go earn those cutie marks, girls!"

While the Cutie Mark Crusaders were out building their own gymnastics equipment, Diamond Tiara thought of a plan. She was going to teach those blank flanks a lesson they would never forget. It took her about fifteen minutes before she was satisfied everything was ready.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were out until late in the evening working on their gymnastics equipment. By the time they were ready to start practicing it was getting late and the sun had set. They agreed to part ways for the evening, and the shortest way off of Sweet Apple Acres was to pass near the farmhouse. The four fillies walked as a group and emerged from the apple orchards only to find Applejack, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Minty waiting for them.

"Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you. Thank Celestia you're here," Rarity said. "I've been looking for you for hours."

"Rainbow Dash? Why are you here?" Scootaloo asked.

"I was at Rarity’s when they came looking for you. I told them their best bet was to come here, so when Rarity came here, I did too," Rainbow Dash replied.

"Applejack, what's going on?" Apple Bloom asked.

Minty stepped forward. "Apple Bloom, Babs Seed, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle," Minty said formally. "By the authority granted to me by the Mayor of Ponyville and the Captain of the Royal Guard, I am placing the four of you under arrest for foalnapping Diamond Tiara. You will come with me now."