Chapters Twinkle had been out gathering fruit for the past three hours, and was now on her way home. The small town she lived in was secluded away in the Everfree Forest, allowing its inhabitants to be more than just ponies. She enjoyed the company of her friends whenever she could, but they had been busy today. As she trotted towards her home, a sense of dread began to fill her, and that confused her. Soon she would know why.
"Nothing could have prepared me for this..." she stated to herself as she looked over the scene she had discovered upon her arrival. Every building was destroyed, and everyone was gone. Not even Karl, her best friend and a very strong manticore, remained. "Why did this have to happen?" she asked herself. "Who could do such a thing?" Then, Twinkle heard voices. "Hey! There's one left! Get it!" Twinkle, who had been looking at the ground as tears streamed down her face, jerked her head up. Three unicorns in armor were galloping towards her. Taking to the sky, the pegasus filly flew crying away from her home. Why had these armored ponies attacked her home? Who did they think they were, destroying her life? Someday, Twinkle vowed, she would destroy Theirs .
* * *
"Princess Celestia, the rebel colony in the Everfree Forest has been destroyed. We captured all but one of its inhabitants and have put them to work. They had manticores there as equals!" The guard reported.
"What of this last one, that you were unable to capture?" Celestia asked the guard in a solemn tone. She stared at him in a manner that suggested that the reason for this failure had better
"All the pegasi had returned with the prisoners. A pegasus filly from the rebel colony arrived and took off when we attempted to capture her."
"Mmm-hmm... Very well. We must be careful not to let Twilight Sparkle hear of this. She will NOT be pleased." Celestia was looking very stern now.
"Of course, your highness."
Twilight Sparkle, meanwhile, was in Zecoras home. "Thanks for your help." The purple alicorn told her zebra friend. "Now the Princess is sure to be impressed with my findings."
"Any time, my friend, help will be yours. But as with any boat, always look for the oars." Zecora was impressed with Twilights findings, but was worried that her friends mentor would be skeptical about the possibility of pony life in the deeper parts of the Everfree Forest. She knew of the cluster of villages already, but the evidence Twilight presented, as well as the strength of belief she held without actually finding the villages was astounding. The last time Zecora herself had been to one of the villages had been to help a new mother give birth to her foal. The pegaus filly born that day had been a strong one, and Zecora hadn't seen her since the day she was born. That meant the nopony there had been ill, but it also meant she was the youngest pony in the little community. I wonder what's happening there now... The zebra thought to herself.
The ponies of the forest used to come to Zecora all the time. They stopped the the ponies of Ponyville started coming, but she still remembered them. She missed them, too, as they had known something the ponies outside the forest never learned; manticores and every other creature in the forest were just as smart as, if not smarter than, ponies. As she filled her tea cup, she heard a knock at the door. Setting her tea down, she went to the door.
The pegasus filly on the other side was a dark blue, with a long yellow mane and several yellow stars for her cutie mark. She was terribly distraught and wore a necklace that was familiar to Zecora. "That necklace belonged to Starlight Heartshine! She was researching a cure for this rhyme!" the zebra burst out.
That only caused the filly to cry even more. "They..." She was sniffling so hard she was barely understandable. "Unicorns in armor attacked and destroyed everything! They tried to 'get' me, too, but I escaped by flying." The filly sat on the ground, her tears streaming anew. "My mother gave me this necklace. She said I would know what to do with it when it was 'time'. If that pony that just left knew what was going on, would she help?"
"The chance of that is very high, but now the time of the moon draws nigh. When it rises, your training must begin. Telling Twilight must wait until morning, to my chagrin. She was hoping to prove of your existence, but I think her master knew of your home, Kiance ." She used the old word for student, to emphasize the fact that she would train the filly.
* * *
"Spike, wake up! I need to write to the princess immediately!" What now? "I just sent her a letter this morning. Did you learn a friendship lesson or something? Oh, wait. You couldn't have. You were out in the Everfree Forest alone all day." Spike, a bit grumpy from having his nap interrupted, didn't realize that Twilight had been a bit hurt by his remark. "Spike, this is important. I've discovered evidence of ponies living in the deep woods of the Everfree Forest, and I need to tell princess Celestia immediately!"
"Fine, fine." Spike sleepily began to search for the quill and parchment he would be using. After missing it several times, he finally found what he was looking for.
"Dear Princess Celestia, I have discovered evidence of pony life in the deepest parts of the Everfree Forest. So far, I've discovered an eyeglass, a flower pot, a fruit basket, and a small vial half full of horseshoe polish. I feel that multiple teams of researchers would be able to discover more evidence, as well as possibly find the ponies themselves. I feel these ponies would be a valuable part of Equestria. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
"There. Sent. I'm going back to bed now." Spike went back to bed, but Twilight stayed up a bit. Before he fell asleep, Spike wondered what she was doing, but then he drifted off into dreams of jewels.
Twilight packed her saddlebags. I need to speak to Zecora about one more thing... she thought as she trotted quietly out the door.
Chapter Three: Communication
As Twilight Sparkle sat eating lunch with her friends, she was surprised to receive a letter from her brother. Not that it wasn't a pleasant surprise, until she actually read the letter, but her brother had been extremely busy. He had been doing royal guard duties for Celestia, as well as helping Cadence rule the Crystal Empire. Because of that, the purple alicorn hadn't heard fro her brother in over a month.
"Well, Twilight, what is it?" Twilights friend Rarity asked. "Or is it private? I can respect if it is, but..." The white unicorn really did want to hear the contents of the letter.
"Well..." Twilight started. "Shining Armor still has a lot of duties to the Crystal Empire, but Princess Celestia has assigned him something else to do to; hunt down a little filly who escaped a mass imprisonment spanning over a small colony inside the boarders of Equestria, but outside its rule. He says the villagers were told to move to the surrounding towns, but refused. Girls, I think we should move this conversation to my house. Who knows what will happen out here."
The ponies trotted over to Twilights house, where they talked in whispers about her encounter the night before. "Zecora told me what happened, too. I was going to tell you about it over lunch, but then the letter came. From what I can tell, the filly had no way of knowing it was the royal guards, and simply described them as 'unicorns in armor'. I guess the pegasi were transporting prisoners."
* * *
Twinkle was in the basement when the guards arrived. Zecora told them over and over she hadn't seen anyone like their picture, but they kept asking. Then, the little filly saw something else that interested her. A rat scuttled across the floor. Suddenly, Twinkle had an idea. Using the illusion magic she had learned the night before, she made herself seem like a bigger rat, and stood in front of the skinny one heading towards Zecoras grain supply. Squeaking, the real rat ran off, and Twinkle ceased casting the illusion with a look of smug satisfaction on her face. She didn't have to restrict herself to ponies. Heck, she could probably become Karl if she wanted to.
* * *
"Nopony? Are you sure you asked everypony?" The squad leader asked frantically. "There is a dangerous criminal out there that could strike at any moment! We can't report this to Princess Celestia? What will she say about your failure?"
"His failure in what?" This stopped the squad leader dead as he turned around to face the princess of the night. She didn't look very happy.
"Oh, uh, Princess Luna! Didn't expect to see you around here!" He said, looking back at the guards who had failed him as if to say Hey! A little help here? and getting angry looks from them.
"Stop stalling, Iron Shield. Failure in what?" Princess Luna was definitely angery with the squad leader now. Her glared caused him to shrink back a lot.
"Your sister has sent us out to round up a criminal with illusion magic. We haven't found them yet. Our intelligence states that they are under the guise of a dark blue pegasus filly with a yellow mane. We are unsure if they have a cutie mark, but it is likely. Flight speed is--" He never got the chance to finish.
"Would this filly happen to be from one of the 'Rebel Colonies' nopony told me about? It was purely a slip of the tongue on the part of Twilight Sparkle that I heard about them at all! Have you been involving her in these villainous crusades?" The princess of the night was using the royal Canterlot voice now, which she rarely ever did anymore.
"We were told not to tell her, either." The guard admitted fearfully. "Your sister told us she wasn't to know! We don't like it but we have to!" The squad leader known as Iron Shield was nearly crying by now. "I went to her how myself and had to constantly remind myself not to tell her, and this whole time she was just glaring at me and I had no idea she knew and I wanted to tell--"
"I understand that this is not your fault. I will be speaking to Celestia myself about this. Particularly about nopony telling me beforehoof. You are dismissed... To your quarters." She added that last part over her wing before taking off.
"You know," Said one of the pegasus guards. "Rainbow Dash said she already knew what was happening before I even said anything. I was going to tell you, but Luna arrived. If she and Twilight both know than the rest of the element bearers probably know, too.
"So far, you've told me this necklace can cast powerful illusions, use the powers of any form of any pony, and harness the power of shooting stars. Is there anything else it can do?" Twinkle asked, wanting to know about the powers she hadn't heard of until today.
"Unless another necklace you have found, your powers past this point are bound." Zecora told her pupil. "A search is needed to do more, but learning is another door. I will teach you what I can, but also learn yourself, by your own hand."
"Zecora, where are you?" came a voice unfamiliar to Twinkle. The zebra motioned for Twinkle to hide, before entering a meditative stance. Then a pony, presumably the one who had called out, came out of the underbrush opposite the pegasus filly. "There you are! Oh, sorry for disturbing your meditating. I'll just wait here."
"Twilight Sparkle, what is so important as to come at this hour. I thought you wouldn't come on a night this dour." Zecora stated to the alicorn.
"I thought there might be some clues that appeared only in moonlight or something. I came to ask if you wanted to help me look." Twilight said. "But I guess you're busy."
Twinkle couldn't help it. The bush was tickling her nose and it made her sneeze. She immediately held completely still, not event daring to breath in hope of the pony not seeing her and dismissing it as a trick of her head. But her luck wouldn't allow that, so she stayed in the bush while Twilight Sparkle tried to coax her out of it.
* * *
Celestia was sorting through paperwork when the guard arrived. "Well?" she asked as his fellow g[uards backed away from her.
"We are still unable to locate the escapee. We have searched everywhere we can think of there's still no sign of her." The guard gulped bowed as low as he could.
"Find Prince Shining Armor. He'll be heading this operation from now on. Tell him that we're looking for a criminal that escaped justice. It's close enough to the truth and he'll go after her, no questions asked. You will then tell the public that same story, and get them on the lookout as well. Remember not to mention the rebel colonies.
"What rebel colonies?" The guard asked, understanding completely, but making it perfectly clear he wouldn't say anything.
"Good. Now go and do as I told you!" The princess ordered, causing all the guards to scuttle from the chamber. Including the one that will tell Prince Shining Armor the truth.