Suddenly, a noise of galloping hooves was heard. Flurry and Sunlight quickly raced into the back room of the store and hid among a group of flour sacks. They peeked out, trying to see who could have been galloping so hard. They waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened. Sunlight turned to her cousin. "Maybe they were just running past the store," she said. Flurry shook her head and pointed with a hoof. Sunlight looked and saw her mother, father, aunt, and the Cakes enter the store.

They walked around the counter and saw Pinkie's dead body. Her blood quickly dried around the wounds that had been inflicted. It looked as if she had been shot with something. She didn't appear to have known what hit her. The way her body was sprawled out was exactly the way it would have been if she had been standing at the counter, helping a customer.

Twilight quickly burst into tears and buried her face in her husband's shoulder. "Why?" She sobbed, "why Pinkie? Why her? Who could want to hurt somepony so innocent? Why?!"

Starlight offered a comforting hoof to her sister's mane. "I don't know," she answered honestly. She was at a complete loss. Her mind was filled with questions. Was this the job of the writer of that hit list? Was it the same pony she had known back in Sire's Hollow? Her mind became entangled in a mess of flashes to her vision of the lake of blood. This time, she saw Pinkie's body floating there and an ominous voice spoke. "One down, five to go," it said.

"We have to get Twi back to the castle," Flash said, "and can somepony please find Flurry and Sunlight? Those two wander more than a lost cow." So he helped Twilight from the store and Starlight went to search Ponyville for the princess and her cousin. The Cakes searched all over their store for the two of them, but to no avail. The fillies hid themselves very well within the sacks and the Cakes soon gave up and left to help Starlight.

Among the sacks, the two fillies chuckled at Flash's comparison. "A lost cow? Really, Daddy?" Sunlight asked sarcastically, "I've heard better comparisons in my sleep." Their jovial mood turned sad as they remembered just how serious of a situation this was. "Maybe now isn't a good time for laughing," Flurry remarked. Sunlight nodded in response.

"But it is a good time for an investigation!" Flurry said. Sunlight lit up. She loved to investigate things. Her mind was a factory of curiosity and she wanted to employ every bit of her knowledge to find the culprit behind this particular crime. "Yeah," she exclaimed softly, "let's find the perp and bring them to justice!"

So they quietly crept from their hiding place and walked over to the dead pony. Sunlight felt like crying, but she kept a stiff upper lip. After all, Flurry wasn't crying. She was dead serious as she examined the body, looking for any kind of clue that might lead them to the perpetrator. Flurry looked at the two wounds Pinkie had incurred. One was in her abdomen and the other was right on the jugular vein in her neck.

"Hm…" she said thoughtfully, "hey, Sunlight. Come here and look at this." So the young princess trotted back around and stood next to her cousin. "Look at the shape of these wounds," Flurry said. So Sunlight did. They were absolutely perfect circles. "OK, so they're circles. What's so big about that?" Sunlight asked.

"That means Pinkie didn't put up a fight," Flurry said, "nopony could have inflicted these so easily if they were in a struggle with her."

"But it's Pinkie," Sunlight said, "I'm not even sure she knows how to fight!"

Flurry realized Sunlight was right. She had been visiting Ponyville for quite some time now and had come to know her aunt's friends as her own. Pinkie was a pony who was built for two things: laughter and parties. She performed her role in Ponyville very well. She was always there to make somepony smile who was feeling down. Heck, she even had her own song about it! But fighting was a bit of a stretch for her.

"You make a good point, Sunlight," Flurry said, "but…"

"But what?"

"Don't you think that Pinkie would have at least struggled if she knew her life was in danger?"

Sunlight thought that proposition over for a minute. Yes, it was true that even a pony as physically inferior as Pinkie Pie would have put up some kind of a fight if they knew their life was at stake. But what she couldn't come to terms with was the concept of Pinkie Pie being violent. Pinkie just wasn't like that!

"Yeah, she might have at least flailed a bit or thrashed about and tried to get away from her attacker."

"So we can say with confidence that Pinkie did not put up any kind of fight here, right?"

"Right"

"OK, now we need to search the surrounding area for clues."

So the two fillies began looking throughout the store for anything that might help them. They searched throughout the aisles filled with baked goods and sweet smelling treats, but nothing came to them. They went upstairs and searched Pinkie's room. Flurry went through the drawers and Sunlight peered under the bed. "Ah-ha!" Sunlight suddenly squeaked, "I found something!"

She pulled out a locked book and threw it up on the bed. Flurry trotted over and read the title. "The Diary of Pinkamena Diane Pie?" The two fillies looked at each other oddly. "I never realized that Pinkie had such a long name!" Sunlight exclaimed. "Me neither, but we don't have time to discuss that now," Flurry remarked. Sunlight nodded and quickly used her magic to break the lock. They flipped through the pages. "Look for the most recent entries," Flurry said, "that might give us some kind of clue."

They continued flipping until they got to the entry from the day before. "Here we go!" Sunlight said as she began reading, "Saturday, June 8th. Dear Diary, today I had the yummiest cake the Cakes have ever baked! Oh! That kinda rhymes! I LOVE RHYMING! RHYMING PARTY! OK, that's enough of that. But I also wanted to say that a strange pony followed me around town today. She was wearing a cloak, so I couldn't make out her face, but she was definitely following me. One time, she got so close that I could hear her muttering something about the Summer Sun Celebration."

"Stop!" Flurry suddenly said, "Sunlight, didn't you tell me that Zecora gave your mother a new prophecy when you were born?"

Sunlight's mouth fell open. "That's right! She said 'beware the Summer Sun in three summers,' or something like that. But I'm three years old! That's this year!"

The two fillies looked at each other with their mouths agape as they realized that a prophecy could be unfolding before their very eyes. They wondered if Pinkie's sudden demise had something to do with it. Whoever was behind this was either very coincidental or they had a deathly knowledge of the prophecy. What was worse, they could be after the two of them!

"Sunlight," Flurry said, "we have to find this cloaked pony." Sunlight nodded and the two of them raced downstairs and out the front door. They were turning to head back for the castle when Apple Bloom suddenly raced by them. "HELP! HELP! MY SISTER'S BEEN MAGICALLY SHOT!" She exclaimed.