Smart Cookie's mentioned the Chancellor's wooden gavel

Twilight scoured her books furiously. "No, no, no!" she exclaimed as she slammed them closed, one by one.

Spike, wearing an apron and holding a feather duster, came around the corner. "What is it, Twilight?"

"I found one reference to something odd in the historical records of the Hearth's Warming Compact. One! Do you know how hard it is to corroborate something with only one reference?"

Spike scratched his head. "Literally impossible?"

Twilight flapped over to him and stuck her face against his. "Exactly! And it's not as if the detail isn't significant! Imagine if I could prove that every pageant has been costumed wrong since the commemorative pageantry began eight hundred years ago! I would be hailed as a righter of wrongs! A detail-finding master! A-"

"-dork beyond measure?" said Rainbow Dash.

Twilight's ears flattened. "Well-researched details are the foundation of academia."

"So, which of us had the bad costume?" asked Rainbow, flying down from the ceiling entrance. This castle had everything!

Twilight's face brightened. "Well, the writings of Smart Cookie mentioned the Chancellor's wooden gavel and how it 'wast used on a ftumpe then strappt on her ftumpe.' And then I remembered how a traditional earthpony gavel of council is a tall cylinder of wood, not a hammer, like those of other cultures. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Rainbow stopped hovering, and landed on the castle library's floor. "There were a bunch of stumps?"

Twilight smiled in that "I know more than you" way she had. "Back in the cave, only Pudding-Head was wounded by the Windigo's ice. Her hoof felt cold and it wouldn't warm up. I hypothesize she got frostbite and had to have her leg amputated and replaced with a wooden leg. A pegleg!"

Rainbow's eyes lit up. "Wait a minute! You mean, there's an artifact out there somewhere that nobody knows about but us? Could we get some kind of reward for finding it?"

"The Manehattan Metropolitan Museum would certainly feature such a unique historical find," said Twilight. "Grab your pith helmet, Daring Dash, we're going on an archaeological adventure!"

-- -

Rainbow, frowning, tossed down her pith helmet. "Thanks a lot, Twilight!"

Twilight gave a bittersweet smile. "How was I supposed to know that Pinkie was using it to prop up a table?"

"She's Pinkie. Oh, and when I tell you not to wake the Windigoes, don't wake them! They don't make peg-tails, y'know." She turned and wagged her rump at Twilight's face. The ragged, bandaged stump that was once her gorgeous rainbow tail wiggled, yet covered nothing.

Twilight wrapped her wing around her friend. "I really wish I'd listened to you, and I'm very sorry. Look, Rarity has connections in the design community, and I bet she knows somepony who can make an amazing new tail for you."

Rainbow grinned evilly. "Or tails. Ooh, ooh, think I of the pranks I can pull now!"

Twilight rolled her eyes.

--end-