My Little Pony (2022 comics) Issue 12

My Little Pony #12, titled The Case of the Missing Cupcake in trade paperback, is the twelfth issue of IDW Publishing's My Little Pony comic series, based on the Generation 5 film My Little Pony: A New Generation. In this issue, Hitch Trailblazer starts his own podcast while investigating a cold case about a missing pony.
==Summary==
Hitch Trailblazer has started a podcast about cold cases in Maretime Bay called "MareCRIME Bay", with Zipp Storm as his producer. The case he is currently investigating is about Pansy Silverbell, a baker who mysteriously disappeared shortly before she was expected to take part in a baking competition. His only clues are public-submitted photos of Pansy interacting with Jazz Hooves and Dahlia, taken on the day she disappeared.
Hitch goes to Mane Melody to speak with Jazz, and when he brings up Pansy, Jazz suddenly gets anxious and hostile. She claims she ran into Pansy on her way to the baking competition and helped her with her wagon. When Hitch draws attention to how upset Jazz and Pansy appear in their photo, Jazz insists she doesn't know anything else, only that Pansy was planning to open her own bakery with the competition's prize money.
Hitch then goes to speak with Dahlia, who also becomes instantly nervous when Hitch mentions Pansy. When Hitch brings up Dahlia's post on social media challenging Pansy for the baking competition prize, Dahlia explains that she has always been jealous of Pansy for always being charitable and winning the baking competition every year. The last time Dahlia and Pansy spoke, they had an argument, and Dahlia never got to apologize; she asks Hitch to convey her remorse in his podcast so that Pansy can hear it.
During the next episode of his podcast, Hitch hits a dead end in his investigation. After Zipp brings him a delicious chowder lunch, Hitch gets the idea to speak with the former competition judges, who inform him that Dahlia had won the baking competition and used the prize money to open her own bakery truck – a detail Dahlia never shared with him. Just then, Hitch receives an e-mail from an anonymous listener of his podcast who offers to tell him more about Pansy and asks him to meet them at the park the next day. The next day, Hitch goes to meet with the anonymous e-mail sender, and it turns out to be Pansy Silverbell herself. Dahlia soon joins them, having also been summoned by e-mail.
Pansy explains to Hitch and Dahlia that she never set out to be the best at everything; she only cared about creating delicious treats and making ponies happy. But when she realized her success and ambitions were causing a rift between herself and her friendships, she left Maretime Bay to think about what was really important to her, then came back quietly, even opening a food truck right next to Dahlia's bakery truck. Jazz was the only one who knew the truth about Pansy's "disappearance". Dahlia and Pansy reconcile their friendship, and Hitch closes the book on this case through his podcast, which Pansy now sponsors through her food truck.
==Quotes==
:Hitch Trailblazer: Some years ago, a case file crossed my desk and changed everything I thought I knew about Maretime Bay. It was from before my time as sheriff, but as I hoofed through the pages, I knew it was something I'd never forget. Mosey down this trail with me as we explore the coldest case in the history of Equestria.
:Hitch Trailblazer: I really think I might be able to solve this!
:Zipp Storm: We.
:Hitch Trailblazer: That's what I meant.
:Hitch Trailblazer: She was known to be kind, thoughtful...and really loved soup.
:Jazz Hooves: Tell me what you know, where you were, what you saw!
:Hitch Trailblazer: Is that what I sound like?
:Hitch Trailblazer: Sounds like you might have something to hide..
:Jazz Hooves: I have nothing to hide.
:Hitch Trailblazer: Tell me, Dahlia, were you mad when you threatened Pansy on PonyGram?
:Dahlia: Oh, I wasn't mad, just competitive! Wanted to open my own bakery! Y'know, lifelong dream and all.
:Hitch Trailblazer: Sounds like you wanted it pretty bad. Bad enough to make Pansy Silverbell disappear?!
:Dahlia: Celebrated baker, helper extraordinaire, she didn't need to win the grand prize, but she was going to!
:Hitch Trailblazer: And that made you mad?
:Dahlia: It made me invisible.
:Dahlia: I'd tell her I regret everything, that I've tried to make up for it. Can--Can you put that in the podcast?
:Zipp Storm: Can we nominate this chowder for some kind of award?
:Hitch Trailblazer: Can you hold down the fort? And maybe grab some more of that liquid gold for dinner?
:Zipp Storm: I make no promises that involve movement, but I'll do my best.
:Pansy Silverbell: Hello, Hitch. I'm Pansy Silverbell, and it's so nice to finally meet you.
:Pansy Silverbell: These are one of my most famous recipes: strawberry smashers. The trick to making them is the two sides need equal frosting or else... they'll crumble.
:Dahlia: Cookies and friendship have a lot in common, don't they?
:Pansy Silverbell: It's everypony's responsibility to be the best version of themselves they can be, but it seemed to me that some of them didn't think they could do that with me around.
:Pansy Silverbell: Dahlia, I wanted to come over and chat many times. But I never knew how to start.
:Dahlia: Let's start with hi.
:Hitch Trailblazer: And that, listeners, is how an ending turns into a new beginning.
Category:Generation 5