"What do you mean, 'this matters to me'?" My friends had all gathered around town square, and had hired me to help them find something. "I already told you that the Gala doesn't concern me."

"But Spike's not awake yet," Twilight explained, "and I didn't want to disturb him with the search. So, I thought that you could help."

"Okay, so what's the problem?"

"We all lost are tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala," Fluttershy chimed in. "We don't have a clue about where they are."

"Unless," Pinkie Pie thought out loud, "you stole our tickets because you didn't want us to leave you alone for a few days!" The pink mare tried to grab me, but her friends kept her back. Rainbow Dash exclaimed, "Pinkie! Remember what happened the last time you jumped to unnecessary conclusions?" With that said, the party pony stopped struggling and simply sat down.

"Okay, I'll help," I agreed, though quite reluctantly. "Which one of you lost your ticket first?" Fluttershy raised a nervous hoof, and once I saw it, I said, "Okay, we're going to your cottage first." We did so, leaving the rest of the group behind. Once there, I told the yellow Pegasus, "Tell me everything you did today from the time you had the ticket until you lost it."

"Well, the first thing I did when I got home was feed Angel." We inspected his food bowl, but found nothing. I then asked, a bit nervous, "You don't think he…ate the ticket, did he?"

"Oh, heavens, no! I think that Angel would tell me of that, right, sweetie?" The snow-white bunny gave a nod, and the Pegasus continued on a list of what she did. "I was taking care of a dog Bon-bon wanted to adopt. When she came by to pick it up, I realized the ticket was missing!" Able to put the two events together, and so I asked, "Did this dog wear a collar by any chance?"

"Yes, yes he did."

"Fluttershy, I think I may know where your ticket is." We then headed off to where Bon-bon lived, a simple house that I know she shared with Lyra Heartstrings. We knocked on the door, and the yellow earth pony came to the door and asked, "This is about the dog I bought from you, isn't it?" We both nodded, and she responded by telling us, "Come in."

I noticed Lyra sitting on the couch, reading a book called Using Hooves as Hands: How to Use it to Your Best Benefit as we came into Bon-bon's room. It was neat, and dare I say it, girly. The only thing out of place with the theme of the room was a beagle, which was sleeping soundly in a pink dog-bed. The owner of the dog explained, "I found the ticket in her collar, and wondered if it was yours, and now that you're here…"

Fluttershy grabbed the ticket out from the dog's collar, trying not to wake her up. Bon-bon giggled, continuing her sentence, "I know it belongs to you." I then moved onto the next pony who required me to find their ticket, Rainbow Dash.

The blue Pegasus took me up to her home in the skies, and explained to me, "I was addressing envelopes for some stuff I needed to send out. I didn't realize the ticket was missing until I mailed everything off."

"Well, I think I see where your ticket went," I explained, seeing the writing on the wall.

"Where is it?!"

"You shipped it off with the rest of your mail!" The pegasus facehoofed as she realized what she had done, exclaiming, "Stupid! I'll probably never see it again, considering who's in charge of the mail service!" Suddenly, we heard somepony come in. We saw that it was Spike, who explained, "Twilight sent me up here in her hot air balloon to see if you needed any help solving the case."

"Well, we just solved it," RD stated grumpily. "It was my own stupidity that did it! I'll never get a new ticket now!"

"Actually, I still have my ticket," the dragon chimed in. "I don't really need to go. All I did last time was eat donuts out of misery…" the Pegasus flew down to where Spike was and replied, "Sure! There's no hope in getting my ticket back now! And if you're going to have a miserable time…why not?" We then went down from Rainbow Dash's cloud home and I went onto the next pony that lost her ticket: Applejack.

"I took the ticket home," AJ explained as we walked to Sweet Apple Acres, "and Apple Bloom needed help with one of her homework assignments. I'm no good at those fancy mathematics, but I did my best. It wasn't until I got to bed last night until I realized the ticket was missing. I searched everywhere, but couldn't find a thing!"

"Are you positive that you've searched everywhere?" I asked, a bit skeptical. The orange cowpony stuttered, "O-okay, maybe not everywhere. My sister has become very protective of her room and privacy since she's a teenager now. I can't blame her though. I was the same!"

Both realizing this fact, we searched carefully through her room, making sure not to make it look like it'd been touched. Finally, after about a half-hour of thorough searching, I asked, "Wait, did you use a textbook to help her with her math homework?" The orange mare nodded her head, and she quickly gasped, putting two and two together, "That's it! The ticket's bookmarked in her math book!"

We both headed to the schoolhouse, but Applejack stopped us once we got there. She explained, "We can't interrupt my sister's classes."

"Well, when does school let out?"

"Hmm, around 2 o'clock, so we got 15 minutes of waiting to do." After the bell for school to let out had rung, AJ came to see her sister come out of the schoolhouse and gave her a big hug. The teen asked, "Wh-what's this about?"

"Did you happen to find a ticket to the Gala in your backpack this mornin'?" The older, orange sister asked also. The yellow teen mare nodded, answering, "I did. I thought they belonged to you!" She pulled out the Gala ticket from her book bag, and gave to her sister, who gave her another big hug as a thank-you.

I moved onto my next case, which was Pinkie Pie, over at Sugarcube Corner. She started to tell me everything that had happened, "It was last night. I had gotten home from this wild party, and promised the kids, Pumpkin and Pound, I'd have a tea party with them. I knew I had the ticket then because I checked. We decided to make cookies, but I told them that the cookie dough tastes better refrigerated."

"I can totally agree with that," I said, agreeing with her cookie dough comment, "and from that, I think I know where your ticket is." Pinkie nodded, also understanding the situation. We both went downstairs and opened the refrigerator, but to our surprise, the batter bowl was gone!

"Alright, I've got the batter from last night out to make these," we heard Pumpkin Cake say from the other room. The pink mare was the first to respond, and opened the door to the bakeshop to see the yellow unicorn about to serve the cookies to her brother. Not only that, but the earth mare could spot a small piece of gold sticking out of the cookie.

"Put. The cookie. DOWN." Pinkie said before she sped towards the cookie on the plate before Pound Cake could grab it. Pumpkin shouted, "Aunt Pinkie! You could've just taken one from off the plate! They're plenty more!"

"Oh, but you don't understand, Pumpkin," the pink earth mare tried to explain in her defense. "This has a prize in it!" She then devoured the cookie down, revealing a Grand Galloping Gala ticket, although it was covered in cookie crumbs and slightly burnt.

My last reported case was my best friend, Twilight Sparkle. She explained to me as soon as I got to the library, "Spike and I have searched every book I've read last night and this morning. We figured the ticket would be in there, but it's not."

"Did anypony check any books out?" I asked. "After all, this is a library." She thought about it for a moment, and then gasped, "Yes! Somepony did! Lyra checked out a book on using magic to work for you!"

After that was said, we both headed to Bon-bon and Lyra's house once again, and Bon-bon answered the door again. She said upon answering, "Huh, I didn't expect to see you here twice today. So what are you here for this time?" We didn't answer as we found Lyra still on the couch, reading Using Hooves as Hands: How to Use it to Your Best Benefit. I told her, "Lyra, I'm sorry to disturb you while you're reading, but there's a Gala ticket in that book and we need it!"

"You mean this one?" she asked, magically taking a golden ticket from off a nearby coffee table. Twilight grabbed it with her magic and let out a stream of "thank-you"s. I headed home that night exhausted from the case of the missing tickets, but caught my second wind, and was able to write a letter.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Today I learned that you should help your friends with situations, even if they don't matter to you. They may mean a lot to the friend and they may loose something important if not helped. And sometimes, the situation may affect you, even if you don't know it.

Your loving daughter,

Doodledraw