crystal brighthouse Mystery Pony Theater 3000

[Hippo]

 

At the Crystal Brighthouse, the ponies had been having an issue with one of their bathroom sinks not draining properly. Instead of hiring over a plumber to check it out, Zipp took it upon herself to attempt to fix it. With her small bag of tools, she was underneath the sink with the sink cupboard door open, lying on her back looking up at the various parts of the sink. She was only a novice on what to look for or how to fix it, but she enjoyed investigating the issue of the clog. And, she wasn't alone. Sunny had agreed to help in anyway she could, which for the time being was giving Zipp tools she requested. "Hoof me those pliers, I almost got the p-trap off."

[SteelEagle]

Sunny was knew for a fact that she had problems with the Brighthouse. Ever since Sprout crashed into it, there were so many plumbing and structural issues that she was surprised there hadn't been more problems. Yeah, the town pitched in for a restoration that made it secure but that didn't mean all the problems were fixed. Now four young mares lived in her house and while she enjoyed that a lot, it also meant the plumbing had taken a turn for the worse. She should have just hired somepony and was about to when Zipp chimed in. Zipp wanted to fix it, so now Zipp was fixing it and Sunny was helping her. Well, if by help you meant she handed tools that she mostly knew to a mare who knew them much better, then she was helping.

 

She hoofed over some pliers and went back to leaning on the counter, tapping her hooves lightly as she spent half her time looking at her face. Did she have zits? No, she didn't. She checked her teeth- yep, looking good. Okay, she was bored, but being bored with a friend trumped excitement without one. "Thanks for this, Zipp. Certainly saving us some bits on professional help," Sunny said as she looked around. She was thirsty and if she was thirsty doing little, then Zipp had to be thirsty as the working mare.

She probably needed to get Zipp something to drink, and she trotted out of the bathroom momentarily to get some juice. "Want some orange juice?" Sunny asked as she opened the fridge and ignored a slight drip in the back, investigating its too barren contents. She lived with two Princesses, why wasn't there more food? There should be more food. Sunny brought out the juice and poured herself a glass and Zipp a glass, if she wanted. "Made fresh from Aunty Orange's All Natural Hoof-Grown Oranges!" She asked as she trotted back in and sat on the counter. "The pipe isn't about to burst and send me flying, is it?"
 

[Hippo]

Zipp successfully removed the pipes in question and immediately saw the issue. After resolving the issues underneath the sink, she then fastened the pipe back to it's proper operating position, getting minor splashes of drained water on her. "I think I figured it out!" Zipp stood up, turned the faucet on, and the water drained instantly. "Sunny, I figured out the great mystery of why our sink wasn't draining." Zipp pulled out from under the sink a wad of purple hair and set it on the counter. It wasn't pleasant, but it was about as clean of hair as one could find in a clogged pipe. "Now for the next mystery. Who's hair is this?" Zipp slowly turns to Sunny dramatically, before smirking and chuckling.

[SteelEagle]

Sunny wasn't shocked in the slightest that Zipp figured it out. First off, she was a pretty smart pony on her own account and she never seemed to be caught off-hoof. Or if she was, she was good at keeping her balance! Must be a pegasus thing. Secondly, well, it could only be a few things. She would have been shocked if the culprit was some half-sentient ooze instead of something domestic. So when a disgusting but not very unusual clump of purple mane hair was pulled out and revealed as the cause of their misfortune, all she could do was act a little mebarassed. "Oh, huh. I guess that does explain it, then. Sorry, I guess the new manecare products I'm using were a little more effective than I thought," she said as she found a wastebasket and started to clean up the mess, never really considering the fact that there were now two mares with purple manes in the house! "Fast and efficient as always, Zipp! Thank you so much."

[Hippo]

Zipp widened her smirk, leaned over to sunny, and patted her on the head a few times. "Sunny, Sunny, Sunny. You don't have to do this. You might think you're helping, but it only makes it worse if she continues to do this without consequences. She doesn't need you to cover for her." Zipp untangled the wad of hair and held it up and gave it a soft whiff. "This hair doesn't have the scent of your shampoo, it has a hint of coconut and jasmine. The texture of it is more wavey and less frizzy like yours is. And Sunny, since when do you put glitter in your mane?" Zipp rotated the hair slightly to show bits of reflecting glitter particles on the strands. "Besides." Holding the hair sample up to Sunny's mane, she compares the colors. "You don't have this color in your mane at all."

 

Zipp gathers all the loose hair and throws them in the bathroom waste basket. "I don't know how much she is paying you to take the heat on this one, but Pipp cannot afford to get away from the justice that will be served, and she will get what's coming to her." Zipp pulled herself out of her moment. "You know, if I remember to next time I see her."

[SteelEagle]

Sunny started off very confused when Zipp started hovering about, acting as if there was a grand conspiracy that Sunny was part of. She saw purple mane hair and just assumed it was her! Of course, Zipp started dismantling that reality piece by piece above her. The scent was different- Sunny gave a sniff and couldn't really detect anything. Maybe something, but...well, she'd have to trust Zipp on that. But when she examined the hair visually, she could see that Zipp was right. It certainly looked a bit more sparkly and glow-uppity than what she would normally do, and the shade of purple was different. And it was certainly more wavey (she guessed) than her curlier texture (she guessed)...okay, that one was beyond her. She couldn't feel that much of a difference...but maybe the water just dulled it down enough, and only Zipp's crazy good eye for detail won out.

 

She smiled as she watched Zipp take care of the mess. "Oooh, you got me, Detective Zipp," Sunny said with a smile as she approached with a coy smile. "Our evil mane-hair clogging operation was as tight a ship as this criminal mare has ever seen, but your-" she said as she put her hoof on the detective's chest, "-persistence saw through our plan. Darn you, Detective Zipp!" She said with an impish laugh as she fell back. "But really, that was pretty impressive. I can't even tell the color difference all that well when the manehair is like this, not until I get really close. You have such great attention to details, Zipp!"

[Hippo]

"Yeah, well, I know my sister's mane a lot more than I care to tell. And even if I didn't know the difference, my spy goggles would probably help me, anyway. Speaking of which, I should examine the hair more closely with the goggles on to see what else I can see, sometimes the goggles can give me more information than I ever thought possible. It might even be able to tell me what Pipp was eating the day that the strand of hair fell out of her mane. I wonder how Izzy engineered the goggles to do that, huh." Zipp pulled out the strand of hair from the trash and put it on the counter. "Let me go get my goggles."

 

Zipp flew quickly out of the bathroom to get her goggles. Several second passed before Zipp yelled out to Sunny from the downstairs closet. "Sunny! Come quick!" Zipp was searching through the closet frantically when she noticed something was wrong.

[SteelEagle]

Sunny spared a few thoughts for the goggles. How were they made? How did they work? She hadn't seen anything quite like them before, but to be honest she hadn't looked into it very hard. She just chalked it up to a mix of unicorn magic and her unique unicycling abilities. And so the real question is less how did she make it, and more so did they really want to learn how she had done it? Some mysteries are best left unsolved, Detective Zipp, but far be it from her to dissuade the detective from detectin'. 

"I bet it involves crystal. What does it feel like when it starts to do its work?" She asked as she followed the good detective, though it wasn't long before Zipp was far ahead of her.
Keeping up with a pegasus was hard work! Still, she didn't think it was going to be a problem until Zipp yelled out for her. Sunny didn't know whether to be excited or worried, but she followed all the same. "Oh, coming! What is it? Something wrong?" Sunny asked as she wheeled down the stairs towards the Zippster.

[Hippo]

"They're missing!" Zipp paused, seemingly for dramatic effect. She held up out of her wing her goggles. "My spy goggles were where I left them, but I noticed the batteries in them were dead, so I went to go get some new ones in the closet." Zipp holds up an empty box. "But they're gone! I just got this box of batteries from the store two days ago! Someone is using the batteries, and all of them, too. But who? And for what?" Zipp looked to her side at nothing as she pondered about her lack of clues.

[SteelEagle]

For a moment, Sunny's heart was in her throat as she imagined the wondrous goggles that had been gifted to Zipp being stolen. Then she realized that it was just the batteries and her relief was palpable. Too palpable. However, she still knew that Zipp would need help to discover the horrifying truth. The truth...of what happened to the batteries. Well, not every mystery was all that interesting, so she hoped that Zipp wouldn't freak out too much. Zipp was an amazing mare but at times she could be a bit...extra.
"Well...it was a twelve-pack, right? I used two of them on the TV remote. So now we're down to ten!"

[Hippo]

"And I used one for the flashlight I keep in the Marestream glovebox in case of emergencies. Nine left. Hmmm..." Zipp pondered about as much as one could about something of this nature for only a few seconds until she concluded what the next step would be. "Well, I guess we could look for extra clues, maybe using my goggles. But in order to do so, we need more batteries. Sunny. Trip to the store?"

[SteelEagle]

Sunny was excited when Zipp mentioned a shopping trip. She wasn't Pipp with her love of shopping but she couldn't deny that essentially any public outing with her friends was a thrill in and of itself. That and she had been lazy enough recently, ordering a lot of DoorTrot and such instead of taking the time to go grocery shopping. Might as well kill a few birds with one stone- wait, was that phrase offensive to pegasi? She didn't think so, but she would err on the side of sensitivity and not say it out loud. Still, her eyes did sparkle a bit as she thought about everything they would get done together, even if it was partially under the auspice of solving what had to be the very worst crime ever committed against goggle-kind.

"Oh, well that sounds like a solution to me. Let me get my saddlebag and we can get going!" She said as she trotted joyfully over to where it lay over a door handle. As she pulled it off and tossed it over her barrel, the door tilted open slightly and allowed the outside air to slowly send a cool chill about the room. It wasn't the warmest of days out there, though Sunny didn't mind a bit of chill. "Besides new batteries and probably new hoofcuffs so you can arrest the evildoer behind this most egregious of all thefts," she giggled, "anything else you need out there? Or am I going to be the only one taking advantage of somepony else's malfeasance?"

[Hippo]

"Hitch told me a couple days ago that we ran out of treats for Sparky, you know the ones we give him for good behavior. It's probably the reason why he was so rambunctious yesterday, and also why we ran out of cereal because Sparky was snacking on it. Oh, we need cereal too." Zipp helped herself out of the door and started walking towards town. Normally she would take off flying, but she would enjoy the chance to walk with her earth pony friend, even if this particular earth pony did have magical wings she could control sometimes. "We should go to that new corner store off of Mane, the one where that pegasus from Zephyr Heights sells electronics."

[SteelEagle]

"That would explain it. Ya know, it doesn't feel like we ever have enough of those. Always one short and a dragonfire less. That should be the real mystery: How good can a dragon be to run out of his treats as often as Sparky is, and does that match with what we know?" Sunny said in her own faux detective manner before turning to her at the moment not too flighty friend. "Is Hitch secretly selling the treats on the pastel market? Dun dun dun, detective Zipp," she said with a laugh as she trotted happily along. Cereal, snacks, batteries. New socks, too. There were holes in some of her socks. She wasn't sure why they were there, but they were. And a bunch of household staples- maybe some milk, gotta have the milk with the cereal after all. "Oh, yeah. That is a good plac to go. While we're there- think they sell those efficient bulbs? I was thinking of moving the crystal brighthouse to the ones with the different bridlewood lumens. I heard they were better for the environment, and that would help us with the light pollution problem we're having in Maretime Bay. Well, a little."

[Hippo]

Zipp rolled her eyes at Sunny as she grabbed her bag. She opened the door, let Sunny walk out, and then shut the door behind them, ready to briskly walk to town. By the time the two fillies had gotten to their destination, the shopping list seemed to continue to grow. "Ok, so batteries, treats, cereal, milk, socks, light bulbs, bandaids, two reems of construction paper that you owe Izzy, toothpaste, floss, sunglasses for both of us because we realized how sunny it is out here." (Zipp realized the opportunity for a pun on Sunny's name and chose to ignore it.) "We also need a new pacifier for Sparky, bath soap, three picture frames, two cans of lima beans, a kite, grape and strawberry jelly, since we can't decided between the two, an extension cord for Pipp's mic, a box of nails, and an empty spray bottle for watering our indoor plants." Zipp took a breath. "Wait, why do we need the kite again?"

 

[SteelEagle]

Sunny rolled her eyes happily at the pun, but didn't mind sharing a wink in reply as well. Zipp may try to hide it with her at times self-serious demeanor, especially when she was focused on something larger than herself, but she had a killer sense of humor. "Yeah, I guess we have quite the list. I didn't think we had had gone for as long as we have without going...I could swear Izzy went just last week for some of that. Huh. Anyway," she said as she trotted faster and faster. She kind of felt bad that she wasn't an alicorn full time who could allow Zipp to fly as fast as she knew Zipp wanted to, a limitation of her normal form that she was just happy Zipp wasn't pressing. "I don't know why we need a kit- OH! Zipp!" Sunny said as she pronked in place. "Do they sell spy goggles? Maybe I can be your...what do they call an assistant to the private detective in noir stories?"

[Hippo]

Zipp smirked and tilted her head at Sunny. "Um, sure. I don't see why not. You can be my assistant." She let the earth pony entertain the thought but had to stop immediately at the thought of her one of a kind headwear would just be a hoofheld appliance anypony could buy at a general store. "But, I don't think they have spy goggles here, or anywhere. Remember, Izzy made those for me. She worked some kind of genius to make a state of the art device that can see through things, but she did it, and I don't think she made any others."

 

Zipp opened the door to the store and walked inside. Once inside, Zipp grabbed a basket with her hoof. "Ok let's go down the hardware isle first."

[SteelEagle]

"Yeah, but come on. If I'm gonna be your assistance private eye I should get something. Okay, you have the goggles...I get to have a magnifying glass and a pipe. Deal?" She said as she trotted alongside Zipp into the hardware store. Hardhat's Hardware was one of the most well-stocked hardware stores in town but the owner had not done the best job of adapting to all the unicorns and pegasi coming to town. That had left ample room for a new store in town and while Fly Filly's Fetchings was absurdly named, it was one of the few places in town to find a few items. For Sunny, that would mean bridlewood lumen lightbulbs. "Sounds good. Oh, look at these!" She said, as she trotted towards the selection. "They have the 20-BLs! Ohh, they are forty percent more efficient. But the 35-BLs are only thirty...but Pipp really likes it bright. Whatcha think Zipp? I don't want to, err, crimp on your sister's style but I think moving the Crystal Brighthouse in a more energy efficient direction would be good for both light pollution and the environment. Think she'll mind?"
 

[Hippo]

Zipp pondered Sunny's query for a second or two. "Would she mind?" She knew her sister. "Oh, yeah, she would mind." She knew her sister well. "But if you tell her everything you just told me, I think she could get behind it." Zipp knew Pipp was higher maintenance than most other ponies, but for the few that dare to approach her, Pipp could be talked down pretty easily. Zipp on the other hoof, was much more stubborn and picky about her preferences. "Ugh I hate this. I wanted a medium length extension cord, but all they have is the small and large. Sunny, do you think the small one will be long enough for Pipp's microphone?"

[SteelEagle]

Sunny beamed brightly, almost as brightly as the Bridlewood Lumens she was planning on bringing to the Brighthouse, and almost as energy conscious as well. She did like to believe that given the opportunity she could make other ponies come to see the benefits of socially conscious choices, but she would admit it felt good to know Zipp thought that Pipp would see the 'light'. "Good! Maybe she can write a song about protecting the environment, featuring...20-BLs," she said, putting the package in the cart. Speaking of Pipp, Zipp learned the one truth of shopping: Every size but yours was available in almost every price but the one you wanted to pay. "Hmm...she would probably like the longer one, since she likes to move as she performs. Or she can perform like the ponies of yesteryear," she said, pantomiming a microphone stand and gently sidling from side to side as she sang. After a few moments, she giggled. "Or, maybe that would be a little more relaxing for her."

[Hippo]

Zipp flatlined at Sunny's impossible suggestion. "Yeah, that would be a no. Besides, I don't even know why she needs an extension cord for her microphone. Aren't they all wireless?" Zipp stared at Sunny for a solid second or two before shrugging and putting the extension cord in there shopping basket. "Whatever. Okay, what's next. Box of nails. Izzy needs them for her crafts, I guess." She browsed the hardware isle a little more before finding all the festeners and tools, and saw a box of 200 nails, and put it in the basket. "Here we go, one box of nails. What's next? Oh, the food we need is in the next isle. Sunny, do you know what brand of jelly we usually get?"

[SteelEagle]

Sunny couldn't remember the name off the top of her head, though she could feel it clipping the edge of her mane. Probably because as they wandered the aisles, her mane brushed against what seemed like ten different jam brands. How was that even possible? She wasn't even aware there were ten food corporations in Equestria, let alone ten different specific jam brands. And the colors- red, blue, black. Easy enough she guessed with the different berries, but then there were seedless this and that and smooth and she couldn't even tell you what else. Jam was jam to her. Her hooves glided over the selection until she found one she thought was right. 

"I think this is it- seedless strawberry jam?" She asked as she picked it out and plopped it gently in the cart, She got the jar- jarred products were almost always better than their plastic counterparts. She did this while ignoring Zip's no-selling of her singing pantomime. She could be such royal pain in the flank sometimes! "Unless you think Izzy wants the seeds for texture."