Nightmare at the Gala!

The day is now October 31, Halloween has come, and everypony is excited for the Gala, except for Twilight, who lies in her house, out of accusations to make. "Why must i run out of notes, Why? WHY?!" She starts shoving all of her notes off her desk and flings them across the living room. Spike stops Twilight from flinging any more. "Twilight, you need to let this go, it's no use. None of your friends wanna see you like this at the Gala, there is no murderer." Twilight drops her book and helps Spike pick up her papers. "Spike, you don't understand. I vowed to stop the murderer at all costs, and that's what I'm gonna do. These aren't just unfortunate events!" Fluttershy is about to knock on Twilight's door, asking to help her, but lowers her hoof and listens to Twilight outside. "This murderer obviously has a reason to go after all of us, but the thing is, who is it and what is their reason? The Gala is TONIGHT, and I haven't fit all the pieces together. Death is going to strike, and nopony will believe me! The Gala begins at 9:00, that's not enough time for more accusations." Twilight starts to get a throbbing headache. "I have a bad feeling about tonight, but I'm just gonna let it go and be confident that things go well." Fluttershy raises her hoof again, but lowers it and trots away.

Less than eight hours until the Gala, Twilight takes the afternoon train to Canterlot and tries to give Princess Celestia a last warning about the murderer, but she went at the wrong time. Celestia is too distracted by putting up decorations and making sure everything is stable. As Twilight tries to give her warnings, Celestia, without even looking at Twilight, calmly tells her to go rest at home and she'll see her tonight. Twilight leaves Celestia's castle and spends the train back to Ponyville in a sense of defeat. "Maybe if I gave her visual evidence, she'd believe me, but there's not enough time for that kind of information."

The Gala starts in seven hours. Spike, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are making finishing touches to their costumes inside Carousel Boutique when Spike stops working and speaks up. "I honestly feel awful for you girls, I'm not really sure what it feels like to lose somepony close to you." Rarity trots over to Spike to hug him. "Awwh Spike, there's not a thing to worry about." says Rarity, following by kissing Spike on the cheek, causing him to go speechless. (You knew he was gonna react like that!) Spike pulls himself together. "I especially feel bad for Scootaloo, losing her two best friends like that." Rainbow Dash stops working, and gets concerned. "Wait, where is Scootaloo?!" Rarity gets a flashback of the blueprints in Scootaloo's backpack and drops her needles in a sense of panic. "Oh dear..." The three turn towards her. "I believe I may know where Scootaloo is.... We need to go right now!" The four leave Carousel Boutique and head across Ponyville. "Applejack, you need to show me where the Cutie Mark Crusaders fort is." says Rarity. Applejack takes the lead. "Ah know just where it is. Just follow me." They all set onto a trail near Sweet Apple Acres as they reach the fort where Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, think of ideas and/or good deeds to get their cutie marks. The four find Scootaloo alive, but she is building a memorial, a memorial to recognize her two best friends.

"Oh my, Scootaloo, thank goodness you're okay!" says Rarity. "We thought you weren't exactly okay.. if you know what were saying." says Rainbow Dash. "Ah'm just glad we didn't lose the third Cutie Mark Crusader." says Applejack. Scootaloo stops building. "I'm not sure why I'd be dead, but I was here the whole time, except for taking breaks and all that." Rarity looks embarrassed. "B... But the blueprint, it looked suspicious." Scootaloo knows what Rarity is trying to point out and tosses it to her. "What you saw was just this addition to the clubhouse, I can understand why you thought it looked suspicious solely because I took it away immediately, but there's nothing suspicious here. I'm just happy my friends are in a better place, and that they got their cutie marks. When I get mine, I'll think of them, and remember that we never gave up and we pushed ourselves to reach our goal, and I couldn't ask for better best friends. I'll see you girls at the Gala tonight, I wanna get some more work done." "Bye Scootaloo!" says the four simultaneously as they run back to Ponyville. Scootaloo slowly stops building again and realizes that she doesn't have the best friends she could ask for, and starts to tear up. "Now I really want my friends here, why wasn't it me?" There's a long silence. "WHY WASN'T IT ME MURDERER?! HUH? You couldn't have been any more stupid as to killing my bestest friends in all of Equestria! You have no idea what kind of impact you've set on all of us!" She starts breathing heavily through the pain, and breaks into tears. "Stupid murderer!" Just then, a shadow approaches Scootaloo from behind and puts a pressure point on her neck, silently taking her unconscious body away from the fort.

The Gala starts in four hours. Fluttershy is in Ponyville watching the Halloween sunset when she hears screaming in the distance. It's Twilight, going completely insane, like Applejack said. "Maybe I should go see if shes oka-"says Fluttershy upon seeing Rainbow Dash flying down to Twilight, furiously. "Twilight, YOU NEED to stop this right now! This mystery is taking over your life! Let it go! There's no need to dedicate your life to this!" Twilight starts pacing back and forth and then approaches Rainbow Dash slowly. "I will make a positive influence on everypony tonight, and there is nothing you can do about it! You can't tell me how to live my life!" Fluttershy starts approaching the two slowly when Twilight slaps Rainbow Dash across the face, throwing her to the ground. Fluttershy sits back down. "I'm sure Rainbow Dash will calm her dow-" Pinkie Pie sees the fight and starts pushing Twilight. "Who are you to slap my best friend?! You have no right to do that! Rainbow Dash is right! You need to let it go!" Twilight approaches Pinkie Pie and slaps her but harder. She and Rainbow Dash leave Twilight alone when Flutershy has seen enough. "That's it. I'm helping Twilight. Whether she likes it or not, I'm helping her. I'm not even going to tell her." Fluttershy runs to her cottage and wakes up her rabbit, Angel. "I've made up my mind Angel, I'm solving this murderer with Twilight." she grabs a pile of papers and gives half to Angel. "I'm going to give you a list of the victims over the past 18 days, you analyze them and try to come up with ideas." She gives the list to Angel. "According to Twilight, this murderer impacted all six of us by killing the one thing that meant the most to us, but Twilight isn't going deeper into detail. There HAS to be a reason this is happening."