Fragile

Chapters

Chapter 1: Overnighting
Chapter 2: Priority Mail
Chapter 3: Concealed Damage
Chapter 4: Displacement
Chapter 5: Acquiescence
Chapter 6: Rush Delivery
Chapter 7: Keep Upright

Chapter 1: Overnighting

As the moon was pushed out of sight into the distance, a light breeze blew through the leaves in the trees. The formerly night sky brightened slowly, stars vanishing from view one by one, while the moon submerged fully beneath the horizon. The clouds sat in wait for a minute or two, and the sun began to poke its head over the edge. Light quickly began to fill the spaces darkness had just occupied, and, before long, the entire west side of Ponyville was bathing in the warm sunlight.

The east side, where the library sat, continued to be blocked off from the sun by the rolling hills just outside of town. The tree wasn't aware of this; it reached just as tall as ever towards the sky, grabbing for the sun.

Light was just beginning to creep through the spaces in between branches and the windows when the library’s resident bookkeeper/ woke up. Twilight Sparkle was nothing if not meticulous, and despite the miniscule amount of sleep she and her guest had gotten last night, it seemed Twilight’s internal alarm clock refused to let her sleep in for a day, even though her actual alarm clock hadn’t even gone off yet.

It would go off soon, though, and stopping it was the main goal she set for herself when she stood shakily out of her bed, being careful not to wake the other two occupants of her bedroom. Spike was a heavy sleeper, but he’d been asleep since he passed out around 11 the previous night. Not to mention Twilight knew exactly how her bedroom’s other guest would respond to a rude awakening.

Silently cursing her miserable sense of interior design, she walked all the way across the room to where she’d placed her alarm clock. She stood at her dresser, eyes forced shut with sleep, trying and failing to magically feel around, a cloud of purple flying over the dresser’s top from one direction to another. Her horn’s glow twitched in and out as she swooped around the table, unseeing face inches from the surface, brow furrowed, blood pressure slowly rising as it became more and more likely that the alarm clock would-

BRRING BRRING BRRI-

The alarm snapped Twilight out of her daze and opened her eyes wide, and, with pinpoint accuracy, she quickly switched off the noise. Still feeling the effects of the short adrenaline flow, her head whipped back around to stare unblinkingly at the lump in the covers next to where she’d gotten up. A slight movement. Quickened breathing. The lump rolled over, and a barely-interrupted snore signified the end of the concern. Twilight mentally congratulated herself for her excellent reflexes and sighed contentedly, bringing a loud groan from the lump. Mumbling to no one in particular, “Of course,” she abandoned her stealth attempt and trotted to the other side of the room, turned her attention to the brush on her nightstand, and began correcting the horrible mess that her mane had somehow entangled itself into during what little sleep she’d gotten.

More groans from the lump followed. “Rrrruuuhhhhmmffrrrr,” the lump under Twilight’s covers mumbled out.

Twilight continued arranging her hair. As her brush swung lazily through the area around her hair, she spent a second trying and failing to force her eyes completely open before focusing on her reflection in the mirror. “I’m sorry, it’s a little hard to understand you when you’re chewing on my covers like that.” One of Twilight’s hooves droopily pawed at the sleep that had crusted around her eyes. The adrenaline rush that came with the alarm clock's rude awakening had clearly left the building. To a continued chorus of groans from the bed lump, another hoof swiped at the dresser, bumping against the drawers, trying to open the top drawer and moving higher and higher in inverse proportion to Twilight’s patience.

After a few choice made-up swear words, she eventually succeeded and retrieved her prize in the form of her unopened copy of Mane Taming for Dummies. The magical purple glow around the brush lowered it back to the table and dropped it. She turned her horn’s attention to the book, lifting it up and hurling it at the bed lump. Rarity’s birthday present to Twilight landed on the bed lump with an audible, hollow, and loud thunk. Something important and painful had been hit by that book.

This friendly, playful toss was supposed to gently coax her friend out of bed. It instead caused the moving sack of covers to leap out of bed with a near-deafening screech. Out from under the bedsheet dashed a rainbow-colored streak, who flung herself toward the edge of the floor and lay at the head of the stairs clutching her leg and screaming. Twilight immediately saw past the ruse, rolled her eyes, and pushed aside Rainbow Dash, aiming for the stairs to the library’s second floor.

Dash remained at the top of the stairs near Spike, who was now painfully awake and doing some complaining of his own, until it became clear Twilight hadn’t fallen for it. “Uh, Twilight? A little help here? I think you broke my... my, uh,” Dash’s efforts were met by a bemused glance from Twilight, and she continued, “my vertabra? Is that it?”

Twilight shook her head, and stopped moving entirely so she watch Dash struggle through pony anatomy.

“You... broke... my...” Dash furrowed her brow, lost in serious thought, “my scapula?”

Twilight laughed. “Well, that one was at least actually a bone, but it’s in the complete opposite part of your body. The bone you’re looking for is the ‘patella.’”

Dash puffed her chest out. “Yeah, that’s the one I meant. You broke my patel-”

“Unfortunately, as a pony, you don’t actually have that bone. Neither of us do. If you were a monkey, you might. But you aren’t, so you don’t.”

Dash waved her off. “Well, how do you know? Maybe- maybe I do have a petalla! Maybe I’m part monkey, how do you know I’m not?”

Twilight snorted. “Okay, I’ll concede that to you; you actually might be part monkey.” Twilight turned back and continued, scaling the stairs to the ground floor, remembering at once all the cleaning she (or more likely Spike) would have to do. It seemed ever since she and Dash had started hanging out more, Spike got more and more tired every day, and the library got more and more messy and unkempt. Today was no exception. Everywhere she turned, she saw something she had to mentally add to Spike’s Official To-Do ListTM.

Two floors back up, Dash could be heard congratulating herself on her awesome bed hair for a minute or two, before zipping down the stairs after Twilight.

Dash’s philosophy had always been: “If I have to use more than my hoof to look awesome before I leave the house for the day, I failed at sleep last night.” And even though she and Twilight had only gotten somewhere around 2 hours of sleep last night, her classic “bed hair” looked better today than it ever had before. And even with this new tangled style, Dash’s hair colors refused to mix.

Out of curiosity, she’d once taken a fine-tooth comb to her hair and intentionally tried to tangle her red hair and her yellow hair, just to see what’d happen. As if each color was horribly terrified of the others, each hair would instantly self-segregate as soon as the comb left her hair, into cleanly organized colors. She’d eventually given up when she realized it simply wasn’t possible to mix her hair’s colors.

Twilight was standing by the door, still surveying the mess the two of them had left. “You know, Dashie, you’re helping Spike clean some of this up.”

Slightly taken aback by the unexpected cutesy nickname, Dash pushed past her out the door, clearing her throat loudly to cover up the last half of Twilight’s sentence. “AHCCC-GGHH- AAAAM MMMAAACHHHH sorry I can’t hear you there you’re kind of talking a little quiet acchraagghaa rrhaahagggghahrrarhmmmmm.”

Twilight sighed and made a mental note to trick Dash into helping Spike clean somehow, following her out into Ponyville’s streets.

The two of them walked towards the center of town alongside each other, headed towards Sugarcube Corner. After a minute or two of sleep-deprived silence, Twilight yawned and realized neither of them had spoken.

She turned to Dash and opened her mouth to speak, when Dash blurted out: “Why has no one ever made a movie out of a Daring Do book?”

Expecting anything but that, Twilight slowed slightly to scratch her head, wondering how Dash didn’t know. “Well, they did. They made four of them. Well, three of them. We don’t really talk about the fourth one.”

Dash whipped her head towards Twilight. “Then why haven’t I ever seen any of them?”

Twilight shrugged. “Probably because there's only one movie theater anywhere in this whole town, and it only has one screen. Come to think of it, there isn’t one in Canterlot either. I’m actually not sure there’s more than a single movie theater in this entire kingdom, unless you count the projector in the library. Maybe Manehattan has one.”

Dash held up a hoof and shook a head. “Wait, go back a second. Why did you say no one talks about the fourth movie?”

Twilight sighed. “Probably because the first three were part of so many fillyhoods, that when another was made, it was destined to be hated by everyone either way. Why are you even bringing this up?”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Well, since I finished the last Daring Do book last night, I’m kind of itching for more.”

“You could always read the books again.”

“I don’t get it, is that a joke?”

“No, it’s just- that’s... Just go inside.” The two had reached Sugarcube Corner, and Twilight waved Dash to go in first. Inside, the Cakes were sprinting from room to room, gathering ingredients and yelling incoherently at each other. Twilight approached the counter and asked, to neither of them in particular, “What’s going on here? What’s the big rush?”

The two of them kept running from place to place, while Mr. Cake answered, “We just got a huge order on the other side of Ponyville, and we can’t find Pinkie anywhere to help us! If you happen to see her, let her know we need her help back here, okay?!”

Twilight looked at Dash, and back at the blurred moving mess that seemed to vaguely resemble Mrs. Cake. “Oh, we were hoping she was here. You don’t know where she could be?” The blur continued grabbing what looked to be bigger and bigger and sharper and sharper kitchen implements.

“No, we have no idea where she is, but if you or Rainbow Dash find her, please tell her to come to Sugarcube Corner immediately! We need her help desperately!” The blurs collided with each other, sending kitchen tools and various ingredients flying against both walls. “Now if you don’t mind taking your girlfriend and leaving us to work?!”

Twilight nodded sleepily and turned to leave. She pushed past the door and stared into space in one direction, and then another, wondering where Pinkie Pie would be. She twisted her head around to ask Dash where they’d start looking, but found no trace of her. Heading back into Sugarcube Corner, she found Dash glaring at one of the blurs. “Uh, Dash? You coming?”

Dash didn’t look at Twilight, continuing to stare at the moving smudge that looked to be Mrs. Cake. “What do you mean, ‘girlfriend?’”

Twilight shook her head and went to drag Rainbow out, back onto the street: “Come on, they’re busy, and she didn’t mean anything by it anyway. Let’s just go.”

Reluctantly, Dash went to follow her friend outside. “Sure she didn’t mean anything by it. Sure.”

Twilight replied, “Just forget about it. We need to find Pinkie Pie. How can you even have enough energy to be upset? You got even less sleep than I did!”

Dash puffed out her chest. “Well, you might need twelve hours of sleep, but I can run on way less than that.”

“But you spent fifteen minutes just groaning when you woke up!”

“Hey, just because I don’t need that much sleep doesn’t mean I don’t want it.”

Twilight gave another yawn. “Okay then, Rainb- no, Rest... bow... N-n... Restbow... Naps, where should we look for Pinkie then?”

After a solid six seconds of cringing at Twilight's horrible "joke," Dash put a hoof to her chin, jumped into the air and began slowly flying upwards. Clearing the roofs of the nearby buildings, she scanned around Ponyville in a circle, looked back down towards Twilight, and shrugged. She returned to the ground. “I’unno, let’s check Fluttershy’s pla-”

Chapter 2: Priority Mail

Certain noises just aren’t good to wake up to. She was used to loud noises, living smack dab in the middle of Ponyville. Even if it hadn’t been a populous city with a pretty big marketplace, the imminent danger she was used to experiencing (strangely, rather predictably once a week) provided plenty of loud noises to damage her eardrums.

Not to mention her friends. Her friends all had the tendency of being absurdly loud and creating loud situations, but she had to admit, she took the cake - mmm, cake - on that one. She practically couldn’t even say a single sentence without yelling it, she had a tendency to panic loudly, and to top it off, she brought around with her a huge confetti-exploding cannon which she constantly set off in her friends’ ears. She wasn’t exactly quiet.

But no one deserves to wake up like that.

“PINKIE PIE!!!” Mrs. Cake’s voice rang through her door, wall, and brain for the third time, this time forcing her out of her comfortable bed. She wasn’t unfamiliar with waking up to people screaming her name, but Mrs. Cake was the worst yelling voice to start a day to. It meant work, and it meant a lot of work. And for once, she was pretty sure she actually had more important things than just making baked goods all day. If there is such a thing.

From experience, she knew that if Mrs. Cake had to call her name five times, Mr. Cake would come up and drag her out of bed to go do whatever work required doing. Once that happened, she wouldn’t be unsupervised for any amount of time until the work was done. Any other day, she’d suck it up and go do her job, but as a look at her calendar reminded her again, today was different. Twilight was counting on her.

So she quickly made her bed up to give the impression she hadn’t just been sleeping there, threw a hastily-drawn note on the dresser facing the door, and, as Mrs. Cake finished yelling for the fifth time, she ran and leapt into the closet, burying herself behind layers of clothes and closing the door to a slit she could peer through.

After a half-minute of unsettling silence, Mr. Cake pushed open the door to Pinkie’s room. “Pinkie Pie, get up! We need you to-” Through the slitted opening in the closet door, Pinkie watched as Mr. Cake noticed the note on her dresser, went over to read it, gritted his teeth and groaned, and ran back out of the room.

Pinkie gave out a little sigh of relief, and began to slowly re-enter her room, when she heard a thunderous “WHAT?!” come from Mrs. Cake downstairs, followed by rapid thumping. She dove back behind her clothes in the closet and held her breath while Mrs. Cake burst through the door, headed straight for the note on her dresser. After skimming the short sticky-note, she let out an exasperated yell, scanned the room, and stomped back out the door and down the stairs.

Waiting an extra second for her heart rate to return to non-cardiac-arrest levels, Pinkie Pie came out of the closet again. She heard Mr. And Mrs. Cake running through the kitchen frantically working on whatever it was she was supposed to be helping with. She began to pack her saddlebags with the stuff she needed to bring to Twilight, hearing some random customers come in and get snapped at by the Cakes. As the customers left, so did she.

She slipped out of the window facing Twilight’s library, edged along the rim of the building, and jumped to the ground.

“I’unno, let’s check Fluttershy’s pla-” Dash didn’t quite get to finish her sentence, as she was pounded by a pink plunging non-pegasus pony. Pinkie landed and, shaking herself off, looked up to see Twilight, bags under her wide-open eyes, staring at her.

Pinkie, as usual, was first to speak. “Oh good! There you are. I’ve almost got everything, but I need to get one last thing from Fluttershy first, and then I’ll see you at the library, also make sure you find Dashie, this won’t work without her - obviously!; okay I’ll see you there!” With that, she sped off.

Twilight just stood there, mouth wide open, staring at where Pinkie Pie had just fallen from the sky. Dash eventually struggled back to her feet. “Well, I think we found Pinkie Pie.”

Twilight shut her mouth and snapped her eyes to meet Dash’s. “Sorry, what? I kinda dozed off.”

Dash rubbed her head where Pinkie’s hoof had solidly connected with her skull. “Oh, never mind. Let’s just get back to your stupid treehouse... library... thing.” She began walking off.

Twilight trotted along to catch up. "No, seriously, what did you say? You can't just say 'never mind,' that just makes me want to know what you said even more."

Dash smirked. "Then never mind."

Twilight groaned in irritation. "Oh come on, would you please just tell me already? I won't be able to focus all day if you don't tell me what you said."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and gave in, "Okay, fine. All I said was that we found Pinkie Pie."

Twilight twisted her head around to look. "We did? Where was she? Why are we not still with her?"

Dash was confused, and slowed down to look at Twilight. "What do you mean, 'where was she?' She literally fell directly in front of you! You were staring right at her!"

"Oh, is that what happened? I was wondering why you were lying on the ground."

"Are you messing with me right now? You're seriously telling me you didn't see any of that?"

"Like I told you, I kinda dozed off." By now, the two of them had made it halfway out of the town center. The bickering continued for a while, but it gradually came to a halt, as did the pair's pace, as Dash and (to a much lesser degree) Twilight began noticing odd looks.

It seemed like they were in their own little bubble. As they walked down the street, a barely noticeable circle formed around them; some (but not all) ponies would move away from them to either side and give them a little too much space. Some who looked their way laughed, some who looked their way just stared for a few seconds too long, but quite a few of the ones who looked... almost looked... angry? Well, "angry" wasn't exactly the right term for it. "Accusing" probably fit better. Nearly every citizen of Ponyville, as Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash passed through, gave one or both of them an accusatory glare.

The effect struck Rainbow Dash far more than her unicorn companion, since she was more awake. A significant part of Twilight's brain convinced the other parts that it was just a symptom of her sleep deprivation: hallucinating an angry - scratch that - slightly perturbed mob.

As the two friends slowed to a stop, so did the crowd, on all sides. Dozens and dozens of ponies forgot about their destinations; Dash - and especially Twilight - had grabbed a spotlight.

Dash started to become worried. She noticed Twilight's eyes were still half forced shut with sleep, so she decided to figure out what was causing everyone to stare. A cursory self-check glance showed nothing out of the ordinary, but a single look at Twilight caused Dash's blood to freeze in her veins.

Twilight was still pondering the crowd's strange behavior when she noticed her friend's expression. Dash was staring at her in absolute unblinking shock. Blinking a few times, she quickly worked to try and clear the last of her sleeplessness out of her head and turned to look where Dash's eyes were. Seeing what she figured Dash was, she gave a small chuckle and a shrug, turning back to Dash. "Well, looks like we didn’t get everything."

Dash was not amused. Flapping her wings once, she rose into the air, and rearing back, she snatched Twilight and sped towards the treehouse, shaking a single sky-blue feather from Twilight's flank.

Chapter 3: Concealed Damage

The uninterrupted stream of knocking was starting to bother just about everyone, but for whatever reason, Fluttershy refused to answer the door. Regardless of the complaints of all of her animal friends, who had been panicking a few minutes ago but had long since calmed down, she simply would not leave the room.

On the other side of the door, any other pony would have stopped long ago (their hoof would have gotten sore past the point of bearing it), but then, Pinkie wasn't known for being like everyone else. Ten minutes passed, and she decided to just go in and look for her friend. After all, even when Fluttershy didn't answer her door, guests could usually hear her terrified squeaking through the door.

So Pinkie headed off to the tree facing the pond outside Fluttershy's house. Digging a small hole beside it, she found one of many spare keys she had hidden around the property (for breaking and entering emergencies). Unlocking the door and pulling it open, she was greeted by the sight of a wall of plywood. On any ordinary day, she would have just inexplicably appeared inside the cottage, but seeing as no one was around to be confused, she decided to go about it the normal way.

With a turn, a snort, and a kick, Pinkie heard the plywood... fall off. As she walked through the doorway, Pinkie realized it wasn't actually nailed down to anything. The next thing she noticed was that there were no animals wandering the inside of the house, an astronomically rare event in the cottage. The lights were all out, and the windows were covered. Aside from the light coming from outside, it was pitch black.

Slowly walking through the cottage, Pinkie gave a very tentative "Hello?" She was answered with the sound of a hinge creaking open, followed by swarms of dozens and dozens of adorable forest creatures, followed eventually by Fluttershy.

Pinkie gave a wave and went to her. "Oh, hey! You don't usually hide in that spot, what's up?"

Fluttershy pointed towards her regular hiding spot on the other side of the house, "The door is jammed after last time."

Pinkie gestured towards the animals, recently freed from their shelter. "And why were they with you? The animals don't normally hide with you, do they?"

Fluttershy looked around at them. "It's the strangest thing - they were all so terrified a few minutes ago, but once I closed the door, they all calmed down. I have no idea why, but I had never seen them that scared before."

Pinkie shrugged. "Ah, well. We're all fine. No giant monsters in Ponyville today. Anyway, I came to ask you something."

Fluttershy looked back at Pinkie. "Oh? What is it?"

Pinkie avoided direct eye contact. "Well... I kinda need a... hawk feather. Do you have one I can borrow? Well, not borrow, because I probably won't be able to give it back. One I can have? Actually, that doesn't work, because it's not for me. Can you give a hawk feather to me such that I can regift it to someone else?" Upon hearing this, a hawk landed between the two of them and started to walk towards Pinkie, offering a wing.

Fluttershy recoiled in horror. "No! You can't just pluck a feather from a bird like that! That's so painful to go through, I can't even imagine-" The hawk chomped down on one of his own feathers and yanked it out, giving it to Pinkie.

Pinkie grabbed it and put it in her saddlebag. "Thanks a bunch, Ethan!"

Fluttershy loosened up. "Oh. Well, okay. Wait, I don't remember introducing you to Pinkie. Pinkie, how do you know his name?"

Pinkie shrugged again. "Lucky guess?"
______________________________________________________________________

This wasn't the first time Twilight had played therapist to Dash, although it was the first time it was genuine. Dash was trying to bury herself in Twilight's pillow. Twilight had relegated herself to Spike's bed. Spike was nowhere to be seen. Twilight figured he was probably in Ponyville somewhere, looking for the two of them.

Dash's cool and collected attitude was gone. Twilight knew when she was just acting out for attention. This was different. Dash was worried. Panicked, even. In between bouts of terror and paranoia, she was gripped by a wailing sob. Twilight didn't share her worries.

"Dash, I'm telling you, they don't know anything! How could they? You honestly think that a blue feather is all they need to figure this out? I never like saying this, but the ponies here aren't smart enough to-" Twilight stopped herself. "Okay, that was too much. But how could any of them know? You pegasi are always losing feathers. I can't think of a single week where I haven't seen a feather fall from the sky around me."

Dash didn't give much of an answer, other than a muffled sob into Twilight's pillow. It was tearing Twilight apart to see this.

She stood up and crossed her bedroom to appear by Dash's side. Dash turned over to face away and sat perfectly still. "Come on, let's go back into Ponyville, and I'll show you that they don't know anything about us." Dash stayed motionless. "Please?" Twilight walked over to the stairs and turned, looking at Dash pleadingly.

The apprehension in the air was finally broken when Dash slowly spun around to face her friend. Without ever making eye contact, she took two shaky legs off the bed and placed both hooves on the ground. Her back legs remained tangled in the covers. She attempted to take a step forward to join Twilight, but the tangle caught her off guard. The clutter was to her right, and pulled her right side first.

It happened too fast for Twilight to do anything, especially as tired as she still was. Dash's right leg gave in to the sudden resistance, and her left leg was forced in the opposite direction. Her jaw connected with the floor with a loud thump. A second sound came shortly after, as Dash's open mouth was forced closed quickly. Her teeth gritted against each other as a crack sounded off.

Twilight ran to Dash's side; her horn glowed as she corrected the tangled covers, while she used her front hooves to prop up Dash and allow her to get her own hooves underneath her. Their eyes connected, and Twilight saw tears. Dash got her back legs on the ground to follow her front legs, and as she got a stable footing, Twilight went in for a hug. In a hush, she managed, "I'm so, so sorry, Dash..."

Dash broke off the hug and headed for the door. "W-well, let's go back out and make sure they don't know anything." She attempted her normal affectation, but she wasn't fooling anyone in the room. Her voice broke a few times.

Twilight, for what already felt like the fifth or sixth time that day, had to break into a slow trot to keep up with Dash. Slowly and quietly, she said, "You know, Dash, loyalty doesn't mean never having problems."

Dash, her eyes still tearing up, turned back towards Twilight. She opened her mouth to speak when a loud tearing sound was heard from outside of the library.

The noise seemed to make Dash completely forget she'd been crying literally seconds ago. With a snort, she shrugged Twilight off. "Aw, don't give me that. I'm fine. Let's just go." Her demeanor had already returned to exactly how it was that morning. She wasn't pretending this time, either. Twilight could tell. She couldn't understand it. She also couldn’t understand the noises she kept hearing from just outside her door.

Chapter 4: Displacement

Looking at Fluttershy’s clock, Pinkie realized she was way behind schedule already. The task of finding Fluttershy had taken up too much time. She gave a quick thanks and ran off, leaving a baffled pegasus in her wake. As she ran back into Ponyville, she bumped into Applejack, deep in conversation with Rarity about a book the former had recommended the latter.

Applejack turned to face Pinkie. “Oh, hiya there Pinkie. What’re you in such a hurry for?” Pinkie continued to run on the spot, and began to give an answer, but AJ stopped her and said, “Never mind, if it’s that important, you’d better get going.” With an appreciative look, she sprinted off again.

Rarity, who’d simply watched the exchange, looked to Applejack. “Well, I wonder what that was all about.”

AJ brushed it off. “Aw, I ain’t worried. That’s just what she does. You know well as I do that it’s weirder when Pinkie actually makes it all the way through a conversation without runnin’ off to do something else.”

Rarity wasn’t convinced. “Of course. But you can’t tell me you didn’t see anything about her that seemed strange to you? Nothing off?”

Applejack thought it over. “Well, she’s always off.”

“I mean off in relation to how she normally acts.”

“So, off of off? Wouldn’t that be on?”

The two of them pondered it for a second before they were joined by Fluttershy, who interjected, “Are you two talking about what’s weird with Pinkie Pie?” She was answered with a nod from Rarity and a head-shake from Applejack. “Well, I’d like to know too. She showed up at my house, forced one of my poor little hawks to yank off one of his own feathers, and ran off!”

Applejack cocked an eyebrow at Fluttershy. “You sure? That definitely don’t sound like Pinkie.”

Fluttershy hoofed at the ground. “Well, she didn’t exactly force him. But she did say she needed a hawk feather, and never told me why, only that it wasn’t for her.”

“Well, it looks like Pinkie’s got a secret of her very own this time,” said Rarity, as she began walking in the direction Pinkie had sprinted off, followed quickly by the other two. Pinkie had long since slipped out of sight, so all they had to go on was that she had went vaguely in this direction. As they walked, Applejack continued to insist that she didn’t notice anything wrong with her friend.

Fluttershy pointed out that the only thing this direction that made any sense for Pinkie to be in a rush to visit was Twilight’s library, and they all agreed.

As the group neared the library, AJ heard it first. Behind them was the general commotion that would be heard in Ponyville any day, but in front of them, where the library stood still hidden from their view, the noise was elevated. Not loud enough to turn heads, but loud enough that anyone who noticed it was going to have some questions.

A crowd had formed in front of the library in a semi-circle. Rarity found Pinkie Pie towards the front of the crowd and pointed her out to the other two. They slowly made their way through the crowd and to Pinkie, where AJ began talking over the crowd to her. “What’s goin’ on, Pinkie? Why is everyone stood out here?”

Pinkie turned to her. “I wish I could say, AJ, but I’m not really sure myself.” As they all stood looking on, the door to the library swung open, and Dash appeared for a split second. Her eyes widened, a look of panic settled on her face, and she attempted to run back inside. She appeared again, this time pushed by Twilight. Both of them appeared to have forgotten they had wings.

The two of them stood, the former nervous, the latter exhausted, in the center of the semi-circle. Twilight saw Pinkie, who made pleading eye contact with her. Twilight shook her head, and Pinkie deflated slightly. Facing the ground with a crushed look on her face, Pinkie crossed her heart and covered one eye.

AJ was busy eying Rainbow Dash, whose demeanor just kept looking worse and worse; Rarity, however, saw everything, and moved to AJ’s other side to question Pinkie about this, when a huge path began clearing through the crowd. A unicorn messenger for the mayor moved through, holding a letter in front of him. Twilight’s eyes became wider than Dash’s had ever been.

Once through the crowd, the messenger stopped in front of the shaking purple alicorn. With a deep frown on his face, he asked her, “Princess Twilight Sparkle?”

A loud gulp came in response. “Y-yes?”  
He moved the envelope to a few inches in front of her face. “You’ve been served.”

Twilight looked at it for a few seconds. It certainly looked official, and was sealed, so she had no way of knowing what the charges were. She didn’t give her brain enough time to think before she decided to act. In one swift motion, she took the whole envelope in her mouth, swallowed it, and turned to Dash. Her horn began to glow, and both of them vanished.

The messenger stood there where there had once been a pony, and called out: “I don’t know if you’re close enough to hear me, but eating the papers doesn’t negate the charges.” He gave a few second grace period and shrugged, turning to leave.

The crowd dispersed in short order, no longer having anything to stare at. All who remained were the four friends, all but one of them still very confused about what had happened. The three who weren’t in on the story turned to the one who clearly was, but Pinkie Pie had began sprinting off, passing the library and running towards the forest behind it. Without a word, AJ and Rarity sprinted after her. Fluttershy took to the air for the first time that day, and they all chased after Pinkie Pie.

Chapter 5: Acquiescence

Spike didn’t see much of the commotion, but he could tell there had clearly been a large crowd outside the library just moments before he got there. Hoofprints were arranged in a circle around the door, and there were still stragglers staring at him as he made his way to the door. Pushing it open, he was met with near-pitch-blackness. He called once for Twilight, sighed in frustration, and closed the door.

A few steps in, the lights came on without his input, and he saw Twilight looking down at him. He recoiled slightly, and walked around her. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you all day. Was there a crowd outside? What’s going on?” He walked up to the last unclean spot in the library left, and swept up a handful of blue feathers into a dustbin.

Twilight didn’t answer. Spike turned to her to repeat his questions, when he noticed her saddlebags were packed. He put down the dustbin and dropped the broom, and slowly walked over to her. “Twilight? What’s going on?”

She sat on the floor and put a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “Spike, I have to leave for a while.” Spike brushed the hoof off and backed away.

“What do you mean? What’s ‘a while?’” Twilight shook her head. “Okay, well, where are you going?”

She shook her head again. “Spike, you know as well as I do that if I tell you that, you’ll just try to find me. And I need you to look at me when I say this.” She put her eyes level with Spike’s. “You can not try to find me.”

Spike was getting irritated. “What? Why not? Twilight, what is going on? Why won’t you tell me? You’ve been acting weird for weeks with all of this Rainbow Dash stuff, then you completely vanish this morning, then when you do show up it’s just to tell me I might not ever see you again? What the heck is going on, Twilight?”

Twilight bit her lip, fighting every urge to just tell him what was going on. She wanted more than anything to tell him exactly where she was going, but she didn’t exactly know herself. She wanted to tell him how long she’d be gone, but she wasn’t even sure she’d return.

She wanted to tell him what was going on, but he was too young to get involved with her mistakes. Tearfully, Twilight opened her mouth again to stammer out a weak explanation, when she was interrupted by the rapid entrance of Rainbow Dash, with her own saddlebags in tow. Dash looked both of them over and joined Twilight in the center of the room.

Twilight gave Spike a hug, which he reluctantly accepted. He relegated himself to the edge of the room and sat on the bottom stair facing the wall, arms crossed. Twilight began preparing another teleportation spell, this one much more powerful than any she’d ever had to use before.

Before using it, she saw Spike crossing his arms, obviously furious with her. She couldn’t allow that to be the potentially last thing she’d see of Spike. She called out to him. “Spike! I’m sorry, Spike! But you can’t look for me! Please promise me you won’t look for me!”

Spike stood up and turned to Twilight, uncrossed his arms, and yelled back, “Who says I even want to find you?”   Twilight’s heart was pierced again, and the spell popped, giving a loud tearing sound. The two of them disappeared, leaving a slight mark on the ground where they’d been.

The instant the spell popped off, Spike's eyes widened at the realization that he might not see Twilight again. He ran as fast as he could to Twilight's bedside table, where she'd been keeping a record of what she and Dash were doing. Searching the bottom drawer, Spike threw aside clothes and boots to find... the book had been taken as well. Spike sat down on the bed, his head in his hands. "What am I gonna do? I've got to find out where she went."

He wondered if the crowd that had gathered outside the library earlier that day was related to what was going on here. He decided to go ask his friends if any of them knew what was going on.

Chapter 6: Rush Delivery

Rarity was the first to give up. A handful of yards past the treeline, she realized the thorns were just refusing to part for her, and skidded to a halt. Fluttershy only continued until she realized Rarity was too far behind her, and Applejack too far ahead. With no one around her to give her some confidence, she remembered how terrified of the Everfree she was, and turned around, spotting Rarity on the other side of the treeline. She came to a landing, and looked over Rarity's "injuries."

Among said injuries were various scrapes and bruises from the assorted weeds that had smacked Rarity around for the twelve seconds she had ran through the Forest. Fluttershy had gotten out relatively unscathed, having flown above the bulk of the foliage. Their casualties aside, they had both given up on trying to catch Pinkie; she was just too fast for either of them.

Once Applejack had quickly slipped out of their sight, they decided there was nothing they could do to catch up. They returned to the treehouse to see if Spike knew about what was going on.

Applejack, technically, was the last to stop, but only because she didn't stop. She hadn't noticed that Fluttershy or Rarity had slowed down; all she noticed was Pinkie's tail, very slowly growing as Applejack caught up.

After running for what seemed like thirty or forty minutes, Pinkie finally broke into a clearing, Applejack right behind. This was the opportunity Applejack was hoping for. Pinkie turned back to see if she was still being followed, and was greeted by the sight of Applejack soaring through the air. She was dragged to the ground in the center of the clearing, and just like that AJ had successfully pinned her down.

There was silence between the two of them for a few seconds; Pinkie didn't try to break free, but AJ didn't dare let go. Eventually, Pinkie spoke first, as she typically does. "Hi!"

Applejack squinted. "Hi."

There was more silence.

"Well?"

Pinkie looked around. "Well what?"

Applejack sighed. "Do you mind tellin' me what's goin' on with you? Maybe while you're at it, you could tell me where'n Twi and Dash went off to? What that letter Twilight got was? Why you decided to run off to th'Everfree Forest, of all places?"  Pinkie laughed. "I can't tell you everything, silly! That would ruin the fun! Pick one of those questions, and I'll answer that one!" 
Applejack gave it some thought. "Alrighty then. What was that letter Twilight just got served with?"  Pinkie shrugged. "I'unno. My turn to ask a question now!"

Applejack sighed again. "Go on, then."

Pinkie squirmed, "Can you please get off of me?"  AJ eyed Pinkie down. "Are ya gonna run away?"

"Why would I run away? I'm already where I'm going."

Applejack mulled it over some more. "Alright, then. Pinkie Promise me that you ain't gonna run away from me if I let you go."

Pinkie chuckled. "Well, I would, but..."  Applejack shook her head. "I knew I couldn't trust you."

"No, it's just that... I kinda need my legs free to Pinkie Promise."

Applejack eased up. Pinkie retrieved her legs, crossed her heart, hoped to fly, and stuck a metaphorical cupcake in her eye. At that, Applejack hopped off and went to retrieve her hat, which had flown off during the short struggle. Pinkie parked herself at the side of the clearing and began whistling.

Her hat recovered, Applejack returned to Pinkie, staring off into space and whistling an incomprehensible tune. She began again with the questioning. "So, why are you here? Can you at least tell me that?"

Pinkie nodded, still whistling. "Waiting."  "Waiting for wh-" There was a loud crack and a flash of light, as Twilight and Rainbow Dash appeared in the clearing. Facing the opposite direction. Pinkie bolted at them and leapt at Twilight for a surprise hug. Dash turned around in time. Twilight didn't. Still exhausted from the previous night's events, Twilight's front legs gave out under Pinkie's added weight, and she landed flat on her stomach.   She stood back up quick, but she clearly wasn't all there. Applejack, having processed the situation somewhat, approached the three of them. "Twilight? What in tarnation are you doing all the way out here? Did you know Pinkie would be here too?"

Twilight, serious nausea spreading across her face, opened her mouth to give a response, but failed miserably, instead dry heaving towards the ground repeatedly. Dash moved to her to see if she was okay, but was waved off violently. After several attempts, the remains of the letter she'd been served were recovered with a sickening squishy sound. With a face that suggested she would really rather not, Pinkie quickly picked up the letter and dunked it in a nearby puddle of water to clean it up. Twilight would have protested this, but she was... occupied.

No one was sure how to proceed, least of all AJ, who just kept growing additional questions that demanded to be picked. Rainbow, once she was sure Twilight wasn't going to dry heave her internal organs out, realized that Applejack had been there the whole time. She let out a very audible gasp, and shot Pinkie an accusing look. "Pinkie..."

Pinkie began explaining herself. "Wait wait wait Dashie, it was an accident, I swear! I thought I lost her back in the Forest somewhere, but she caught up with me! She tackled me, too, see?" She pointed a hoof at the indentation in the ground where Applejack had managed to trap her.

Applejack, still deciding on which question to open with, watched the two of them talk.

"Well, what did you tell her?"

"Nothing, honest! She asked the wrong question, so I couldn't answer her anyway."

Dash turned to Applejack. "Is she lying to me? Do you know anything?"

AJ burst out. "No! I ain't learned a darn thing! I don't know why you're here, you're here, she's here, or I'm here. I don't know why there was a mob gathered 'round y'all, I don't know why Pinkie ran into the Everfree Forest, I don't know a single darned thing!"  Rainbow gave a small sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia for that."  Pinkie, standing beside Dash, gave her a small nudge. "You know, I bet she could help us!"  Applejack was beyond frustrated. She individually punctuated each word. "Help. Y'all. With. Wh-"   "WHAT?!" The three of them jumped as a shriek came from Twilight, who had opened the soggy letter and was reading its contents. They walked over to see what had shocked her so much.

Of the four of them, Applejack was the only one to have ever seen a court summons in person before. She could tell immediately that it was definitely official. Her mouth, and the mouths of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, fell agape as she read the letter.

The City of Ponyville v. Twilight Sparkle

Court of Trial: Greater Ponyville Circuit Court at Town Hall

Date: 45th Octvembuary 1077

CHARGE

Her Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle is charged with the following offense

FIRST COUNT  STATEMENT OF OFFENSE
Immoral behavior with regards to illicit interactions with those of the same gender as the offender, contrary to section 22 of the Morality Act (Midwestern Equestrian Province) 1076

PARTICULARS OF OFFENSE
Her Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle, between the 32nd day of Jantober and the 40th day of Octvembuary 1077, in the Court Division of Ponyville County, engaged in illicit behavior with a pegasus of the same gender with the intention of sexual interaction between the former and latter parties, an activity expressly forbidden by the 22nd section of Title XII of the Morality Act of 1076, whose jurisdiction claims the Midwestern Equestrian Province, which includes the aforementioned Court Division of Ponyville County.

You are hereby summoned to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer on the plaintiff's attorney within 7 days of this summons, exclusive of the day of service of this summons, or within 14 days after service of this summons is complete if this summons is not personally delivered to you within the Midwestern Equestrian Province.

In case of your failure to answer this summons, a judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the complaint, together with the fines and costs of this action, as well as any additional repercussion this action brings.

"They... They think y'all did what?"

Chapter 7: Keep Upright

Twilight, still reeling from the nausea and now hit with this new revelation of what exactly had been their crime, hit the ground in a daze. Her horn's glow flickered out and the letter swayed to the dirt. Dash and Pinkie stepped forward to get a better look at it, neither of them wanting to touch it; not only because of the ordeal it had seen that day, but out of some fear that touching it would instantly incarcerate all of them somehow.

Dash stuttered out her thoughts as her voice cracked. "Wh... H... But... How in the world did they get... This idea?"

Pinkie read it over again, and replied, "Well, you've gotta admit, Dashie, you and Twilight were being pretty secretive. The ponies around town were starting to wonder."

Rainbow backed up. "Yeah, but... this? Is this even a real law? Why have I never heard of this before?" Her mind reeled with questions, but it wasn't anywhere close to as confused as Applejack, who hadn't heard any of this before about an hour ago.

"Y'all, this is the first I'm hearin'a this. Any of it. Do you two - or three, what-the-hay-ever - mind explaining what exactly is going on? Why'd you get a summons accusing you two of... That?" Applejack's head swiveled between the three of them, desperately hoping one of the three would let her in on the joke.

To her great relief, Rainbow Dash stepped forward. "AJ, you mean you don't believe it?"

AJ gave it a millisecond of thought. "'Course not. Nothing neither you nor Twilight's ever done has ever even made me consider it. Not one time."

Rainbow put a hoof to her chin. "Yeah, you've got a point there. This really comes out of nowhere."

Pinkie attempted to speak up. "Well, there was that time when- no, wait, that's not really the same thing. What about when- no, that was somepony else. Yeah, AJ, you're right! Where did they get this idea, anyway?"

Applejack held a hoof into the air to raise another, more important question. "Great. Now that we've made it clear that that's absolutely not what's goin' on here... What is goin' on here? What've you two been doing all this time, anyway?"

Dash gave a cursory glance around to make sure no one had suddenly appeared within the miles of empty forest in the last fifteen minutes. She looked at Pinkie with an eyebrow cocked. "Whattaya think, should we tell her?"

Pinkie gave a snort. "Oh, I see. Make me promise to not tell anypony, but the instant you want to tell AJ, it's open season! Fine, then! Tell whoever you want!" With that, she turned and walked over to check on Twilight. Dash moved slightly closer to Applejack, still worried that someone would somehow hear her confession, miles away from civilization.

Her mouth inches away from AJ's ear, Dash was just about to speak when Applejack backed up. "Uh, what are you doing? Can't you tell me without gettin' in my personal space?"

Dash stepped back about a half an inch and looked around again, this time much more thoroughly. Applejack sighly loudly out of frustration. "For Celestia's sake, Rainbow, what the hay is wrong with you? What's goin' on here?"

Rainbow turned to look at Twilight, seeing if she'd give a sign that it was alright to tell Applejack. Twilight was still unconscious. No answer there. She gave up and looked at Applejack one more time for good measure. "We've kinda, sorta, a little bit, maybe been... Actually, what do I call it?" She put a hoof to her chin. "What should I-" 
"Out with it!" Applejack had had enough.

Dash was startled into answering. "Twilight'sbeenillegallymagicallysecretlyupgradingmywings"

AJ scratched her ear. "Care to run that by me again?"

RD took a deep breath. "I asked Twilight, for the last few months, to use some magic thing she found to upgrade my wings."

Applejack was getting it now. A little bit. Kind of. "And... that's illegal? Really? What isn't illegal 'round here?"

Rainbow shrugged. "I didn't know either. Twilight found this spell or whatever that sounded like it would be able to make a pegasus permanently faster. I asked her to use it on me, but she insisted that there was some obscure law against it written millenia ago or something. Luckily, she's still not immune to guilt trips."

"So, what, this thing takes months to work?"  Rainbow pointed at the still-sleeping Twilight. "Well, according to her, it would take days of constant magic…ing…ness to cast this thing, but if she did it just a few hours at a time, it could be spread out over months. We didn't really feel like standing perfectly still for like four days or something, so we picked number 2."

Applejack scoured her mind for a question left unanswered, and found the last one left. "Why're you even tryin'ta upgrade your wings? Pete's sake, you're already the fastest pegasus in most of Equestria."  Dash looked agitated. She mumbled, "Well, clearly, being the fastest in most of Equestria isn't enough yet."  "Enough for what?"  Rainbow eyed her friend. "Uh, duh? To get into the Wonderbolts!"

Applejack rolled her eyes. "You still on about that? Ain't you met Spitfire four times or somethin' now, and she's been nothin' but a jerk every time?"

Dash ignored her, or at least pretended to. "Anyway, that's what's goin' on here. So now we're hiding out until we get this thing done."  Applejack nodded, but another important question bubbled up. "What's y'all's plan here?"

Dash gestured at herself, Pinkie, and Twilight. "We're gonna hide out here until the spell's finally done, then we'll head back into Ponyville and try and get this... other thing sorted out."

"How do y'all intend on doin' that? Far as I'm concerned, they ain't got any evidence anyway, and it hasn't seemed to stop them serving Twilight with the summons."

Pinkie rejoined the conversation. "Ooh! Ooh! I know, I know! Pick me!" Dash would've picked her, but she hadn't even put her hoof up yet. She continued anyway. "AJ, since you're the only one besides us three that knows all this-"  "Wait, Spike doesn't even know?!"

Pinkie waved her off with annoyance. "Shh! Since you're the only one besides us three that knows all this, you should go back into Ponyville and snoop around to see what kinda dirt they got on Twilight and Dashie!"

Applejack gave it some thought. "That actually ain't a bad idea. Not like I'll be able to help with... whatever it is Twilight's doin', which... Well, right now she's passed out, so not much. I guess it'd be best if y'all had someone back in Ponyville who knew what was goin' on.”

The three of them stood there for a while silently soaking in the brilliance of their plan. A few feet away, Twilight slowly struggled to her feet. Another question popped into Applejack’s head. Dash recognized the face and groaned before Applejack managed to ask, “Actually, I do have one more question. Why was Pinkie the one you two confided in? No offense, Pinkie, but I ain’t never known you to take anything serious in your whole life.”

Pinkie shrugged it off. “None taken, silly! The only reason I’m here is because I walked into the library without knocking one day and saw Twilight shooting some glowy blue lasers at Dashie’s wing, and they wouldn’t let me leave until I Pinkie Promised both to not tell anyone and to help out if they ever got caught.”  Applejack nodded. “Well, I think that’s all the questions I’ve got. I better head back to Ponyville, assuming I still know which direction it’s in.” Twilight walked over to the group and offered to give Applejack a teleport back to town. AJ cocked an eyebrow and replied, “You sure, Twilight? Weren't you just out cold? I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”

Twilight yawned and waved her off. “Oh, come on, Applejack. I’ve done this one so many times, I could’ve done it while I was still asleep.” Without waiting for Applejack to give her approval, Twilight’s horn began glowing purple, and a ball of light appeared around AJ. A loud crack sounded, and AJ disappeared.
 
Dash moved to where Applejack had just been, looked at the dark spot on the ground where she'd been, and turned to Twilight. “And you’re sure you sent her back to Ponyville?”  Twilight yawned again. “Probably.”