Peach went into the Swordfighter play, right as one of them caught Toadworth's attention. We went to the door and read the poster.
"This play is under NEW supervision!"
He entered. The path led to a museum, which he always has loved to visit. He happily walked to it, only to find it was closed and under guard. A Theet was trying to enter, but the museum guard demanded he stay outside.
"Hello," Toadsworth said. "Is something wrong here? What's going on?"
"Something's come up, we can't open the museum to the public until the problem has been resolved." The guard motioned towards the other Theet. "But he refuses to see reason, and demands to be let in."
"Hm...What happened?"
"Somebody left a note on one of the walls of the museum, threatening to steal the mural!" The Theet exclaimed. "And as a Junior Detective, I need to help them figure out who is planning against the museum!"
Toadsworth tapped his chin. "I do have a bit of knowledge of mysteries...I can help you find the culprit."
"Wait, you must be the Detective!" The guard moved from the door. "I guess you two can come in, then. Sorry for the misunderstanding."
"It's nothing," Toadsworth said happily. "I'm just happy to help."
The mural was large, taking up most of the wall. A sheet of paper was taped to the wall, telling the reader that they were to come and steal the mural.
"If they are going to steal it, why let them know? Unless these are amature thieves, or they just aren't that smart, I see no reason for the note..."
"Isn't it odd," asked the museum curator, "that they were to steal this mural? There seems nothing important on it, except it being a part of our history."
Before any action could be taken, the lights went black and there was a loud sound that sounded like the mural being dragged across the ground. The lights flickered back on, and the mural was gone. Another note stood in its place.
"The mural! It's gone! Swept up from right under our noses!"
Toadsworth took a look at the new note. "The Sour Gang is who snatched the mural. Based off the size alone, we can assume that the mural would be heavy, which is probably what that sound was. Junior, I'm going to ask around. Do you think you can try to find where they could have taken the mural?"
"Okay!" The Junior Detective hurried into the next room, and Toadsworth went to the entrance hall.
A man selling popcorn explained how somebody had stolen one of the popcorn buckets he was selling right before the lights went out, but said they passed too fast for him to catch what they looked like. Another one, standing near the stand, explained about the pair of Masks of Altering, which could disguise whoever wore it into anything or anyone they desired.
Another Theet explained about the statues in the room, which had shared a single bucket of popcorn through an entire play. Except, there were three of them, and one too many popcorn buckets. Another Theet nearby told Toadsworth that the one wearing sunglasses was an actual statue.
"I see...So the thief is disguised as one of these...Which means he is the central statue!" He pointed an accusing finger at the second popcorn-holding statue.
It was overtaken in smoke, and revealed to be a member of the Sour Bunch. The guards hurried to tie him up.
"Great job, Detective!" The guard dragged him to the room with the mural. "Now we just need to find the-Oh!"
Toadsworth looked the direction the guard was facing, and saw the Junior Detective running over holding a Sour Bunch member.
"I found one of the thieves!" He tripped.
The guards quickly tied up the other thief before he could run, and Toadsworth helped the Junior Detective to his feet. "You alright? That fall looked like it hurt."
"I'm okay."
"Where was he hiding, if I may ask?"
"He was dressed as one of the guards! He took out the guard and stole his clothes! He probably had a good idea there..."
"If it weren't for you, it would have been a bit before finding him. You're doing great, Junior."
"R-really?"
Toadsworth nodded, then told Junior where his thief was hidden.
"But this doesn't tell us where the mural is."
"Let me do the talking. Princess Peach has told me before that I'm great at getting people to talk." Toadsworth went to the thieves. "Where did you take the mural? I know that you couldn't have gotten far with it, based off the size."
"Heheh..." The thief laughed. "Like we'll tell you anything!"
The other one chuckled. "Yeah, it's not like we couldn't get it out the museum! Wait."
Toadsworth tapped his hand onto the top of his cane. "Aha! So I was right that you couldn't get the mural out the museum!"
"Uh oh..."
The other one smacked him. "Great job, idiot! You weren't supposed to say that! We've talked about this! This is why we've been doing bad lately! It's because you can't keep your big mouth shut!"
"So that only leaves one option," Toadsworth said, walking to the wall that used to hold the mural. "Based off the size and the material, the mural would be too big and heavy to take with you, at least right now. So that loud crash was likely you two dropping the mural on the ground after removing it from the wall. However, you still planned on stealing the mural, hench the reason for disguising yourselves and staying in the museum, as they will have to keep a nightwatch and they don't touch the statues unless to clean them. So, the only logical reason to take the mural was to wait until nightfall-where everyone will be gone-take out the guards, and summon your band members to help you steal it. Which means that the mural has, in fact, not moved at all!"
"Huh?!" The Theets gasped.
"So...they only covered it to make you think that the mural was stolen, as a way to distract you! Consider for a moment...if you cover something with a curtain, as long as it was not too close to the object, you could move the object from its place without notice, right?"
Junior finally caught on. "So, you're saying that this wall is in fact, a curtain?"
"Exactly!"
Toadsworth grabbed the curtain and tossed it aside. The Theets gasped, and the Sour Bunch members looked embarrassed for themselves. The guards cheered. There was the mural, still on the wall, untouched.
"And this is why you're our best detective!"
The head guard motioned towards the door. "Alright, take them away! They've got some time in the slammer to think about this embarrassing failure."
"This isn't the last you've heard of us, Detective!" The leader Sour Bunch member shouted as the two were dragged away.
"Yeah it is," said the other. "We're being taken to jail, remember?"
The first screamed and tried to kick the other.
"Thank you, Detective!" Junior hugged him. "You saved the museum!"
Toadsworth smiled warmly. "Of course, I thought I could spare some time to help."
Peach exited the Swordfighter play, Stella following. Toadsworth came to her.
"Oh, Toadsworth! You seem in a good mood."
"The good news, Princess, is that I found a way to help you. I found the most interesting play, about a detective. I hope you don't mind that I managed to clear that one..."
"Oh! Great! I was worried you would feel useless, so I'm actually glad you were able to help! And look, the play still counted as being cleared even without a transformation! We're going to take this seal down a lot faster with you helping."
"So..." Stella said. "Does anybody feel a sudden surge of power coming from the basement, or is that just me?"
"It might just be you," Peach said. "But didn't that Theet say they heard something coming from down there?"
Toadsworth thought for a minute. "Yes, I think I've figured it out. Madame Grape must have trapped the Sparklas down in the basement to keep them away from the plays, right? If they're the stars of the shows, then they would have put up quite the fight when it came to Madame Grape's invasion."
"Hey, your mushroom friend is pretty good at this detective stuff!" Stella admitted. "He's about as good as the Detective Sparkla himself, maybe even better!"
"Let's go check out the basement," Peach said. "If the Sparkla is down there, we have to help him as soon as possible before Grape decides to do something terrible to him!"
"I'll be here when you return," Toadsworth said. "I had fun, and I hope you don't forget to have fun as well, Princess."
"Of course, Toadsworth."