Flurry softly let Sunlight go as she walked around Applejack's body. "Do you think Apple Bloom got anypony to come?" Sunlight asked as she sniffled. Flurry nodded. "I'm sure she did," she said, "with the way she was screaming and hollering, somepony's sure to come soon."

So the two fillies waited. While they did so, they began investigating that scene for anything that might tie the killing back to the cloaked pony mentioned in Pinkie's diary. They searched around the base of the trees and all throughout the barn, but they found nothing. Not one clue made itself known to them, and they regrouped around Applejack's body.

Sunlight sighed. "Nothing. Not a single clue. I fear that we're running around in circles with this. But now that Applejack's dead, I want to catch this evil pony more than anything! Oh, Flurry, we've just gotta find something!"

Flurry looked deep in thought. "You're right, Sunlight. We have to find something. A criminal always leaves clues, no matter how masterful they may be. A slightly cracked window, a piece of paper, even a small string. They all could play huge roles in who the perp might be." Suddenly, the filly got a very determined look. "And we're going to find them," she said.

The strength in her tone of voice surprised Sunlight, who jumped a bit. "Wow, Flurry," she said, "I wish I knew how to speak like that." Flurry chuckled and pulled her cousin close in a hug. "I don't know where that came from," she said, "but I do know this. I have faith that we'll find whoever did these horrible things and bring them to justice."

"So do I!" Sunlight suddenly squeaked. The two fillies looked at each other and then at Applejack. "For Applejack," Sunlight said determinedly. "For Pinkie," Flurry added in the same tone. "FOR EQUESTRIA!" They both suddenly shouted.

"What's all the commotion about?" A voice asked. The fillies jumped a bit and turned to see Flash, Starlight, and Twilight standing there with Apple Bloom. They all gasped when they saw Applejack's dead body behind Flurry and Sunlight. "No…" Twilight said, "…not Applejack! Not her!"

Apple Bloom ran over and threw herself on her sister, weeping and wailing as she did so. Flash stepped over to his daughter and niece. "What happened?" He asked calmly. He didn't want to believe that these two could be the ones responsible for such a heinous crime, but they were the only two ponies there.

"We don't know, Uncle Flash," Flurry said, "that's what we're trying to deduce."

"We're investigating!" Sunlight said in excitement. She couldn't help but have a little bit of fun investigating with Flurry. "We investigated Pinkie's death, too!"

Her father looked at them both sternly. "Sunlight, this isn't a fun matter. This is a serious one, and I think you should leave it to the Ponyville Police. Now, both of you, come home."

"But, Daddy, I…"

"NOW, young filly…"

Sunlight knew when her father meant business, and this was one of those times. So she and Flurry, tails drooping, turned and made their way towards the Castle of Friendship. But before they left, Sunlight ran over and gave Apple Bloom a friendly hug. "I'm so sorry, Apple Bloom," she whispered, "Applejack was an amazing pony and you were so lucky to have her as a sister!"

Apple Bloom sniffed, nodded, and graciously returned the embrace. She was happy to have Sunlight there with her. The two of them had become good friends over the years, and this was a time for that kind of support. They stayed in the embrace for a couple of minutes before Sunlight let go and began following her cousin back to the castle.

"Darn that father of yours!" Flurry said when they were out of earshot of the older ponies.

"What do you mean, Flurry? Daddy just wants us to be safe. What if the murderer comes after us?!"

"But I feel like we can solve this mystery, and Uncle Flash is just squelching us!"

"He is not squelching!" Sunlight squeaked in defense of her father, "he's protecting! That's his job, not only as a prince, but as my Daddy and your uncle! He loves us, that's why he asked us to leave."

Flurry scoffed and gave her cousin an angered look. She wanted to keep right on investigating and find the culprit. She loved mysteries and mystery books and anything having to do with piecing together a puzzle, and this was the biggest puzzle she had ever seen. But it seemed that Flash had other ideas.

But she also realized that Sunlight made a point. Flash had acted the same way her own father acted whenever he wanted his daughter to get away from something potentially dangerous. Flash hadn't been mean with them, he'd just been very firm. Maybe she was selling him short. Maybe she had misjudged his tone.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sunlight," she said, "you're right. Uncle Flash is just trying to keep us from harm. Still, though, don't you wanna keep investigating and find whoever did this?"

"Of course I do!" Sunlight said, "but Daddy said we can't."

"So we do it behind his back…"

"You mean…lie? Right after we just said 'goodbye' to the most honest pony in Equestrian history? I don't think so, Flurry."

"Look, if we find the perp, then we'll be hailed as heroes."

"But if we don't find them and Mommy and Daddy find out we've been lying to them, then we'll both get punished severely."

"Then that's a risk we'll have to take. We have to find this pony. If we don't, then they could end up killing all of our friends!"

Flurry made a terrific point. Maybe sometimes a little dishonesty in order to catch somepony this evil made sense. Still, though, Sunlight hated the very notion of lying to her parents. She tried her hardest to be a good filly, and good fillies didn't lie. But the thought of continuing their investigation made her small heart quiver with excitement. She wanted desperately to keep the adventure going.

"Alright, let's check the trees again," Sunlight said. Her cousin lit up and they both turned tail and dashed into the orchard. They maneuvered from tree to tree, keeping strictly out of sight. They noticed the Ponyville Police Department show up, dressed from head to hoof in their sparkling blue uniforms. Flash and Twilight explained to them what had happened and then trotted away.

"Sunlight," Flurry whispered, "I just had an idea! We only checked the base of the trees, right?"

"Yeah," Sunlight whispered back, "but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, one of us should check the branches of the trees for clues."

"Flurry, there's hundreds of trees! We'd have to check each one of them!"

"Not necessarily. I managed to get a look at Applejack's wounds before Uncle Flash and Auntie Twily showed up. They entered from the north side of Applejack's neck and exited on the south side, and unlike Pinkie's injuries, they were only to the neck."

"Which means the culprit missed a shot on Pinkie, but was dead on with Applejack," Sunlight finished and Flurry nodded. "So we need to check the trees that are on the far side of the northern part of the orchard."

"Why so far away?" Sunlight asked.

"Because we're dealing with a sniping pony, and sniping ponies always set up from very far away so they can make a quick getaway while everypony else is searching the areas closest to the body."

"You sure know a lot about sniping…" Sunlight said.

"I read mystery books 98% of the time," Flurry said, "and a lot of them involve this type of crime."

"Oh, I see," Sunlight said. "OK, I'll teleport both of us to that tree over there." She pointed to a rather large tree at the far northern end of the orchard. "We can start our search there."

Flurry nodded and Sunlight wrapped one of her small wings around Flurry's leg. She knew that only a single part of her had to be touching Flurry for the teleportation spell to work. So she fired up her horn and quickly zapped them over into the tree branches. Flurry crept forward on a limb and looked out.

"Flurry!" Sunlight suddenly said, "I found something!"

The white filly quickly raced over to where her purple cousin was beckoning her urgently. They both softly moved forward and Sunlight used her magic to untangle something from the tree limb. "It's a piece of string!" Flurry said.

"But what does it go to?" Sunlight asked.

"I don't know, but one thing's for sure. Strings don't just end up in trees. Come on. Let's head back to the castle and see if we can deduce what this is! Maybe it's from the cloaked pony in Pinkie's diary!"

Quickly, Flurry used her own teleportation spell to zap them back down to the ground. They raced from the orchard and back towards the castle as fast as their hooves could carry them. The sun was setting and the dust created a musky haze in the dusk. They galloped over the hill and across the bridge to the castle. They knew they had to solve this mystery as quickly as they could.