A faint gasp escaped from Twilight’s mouth; the book she was flipping through containing images and information unlike any she’d seen before. It wasn’t about ancient history, foreboding prophecies, or even the study of magic. Instead, the knowledge it had within it’s binding was more attuned to theory and experimentation on how to create pleasure through unconventional methods. A few examples within the tome involved applying controlled amounts of pain and the use of restraining devices to enhance a sexual experience. It was all a bit much for the alicorn.

Not that she was sheltered when it came to sex. Despite being a virgin, Twilight knew plenty about equine anatomy and pony mating rituals, and while she would never openly admit it she’d spent plenty of nights softly rubbing herself into orgasm as she delved into the pages of a good romance novel. But this wasn’t like anything she had encountered before.

Thinking that she understood enough of what the book had to tell her, Twilight brought her head up from it and looked across the table to her mentor, Princess Celestia. The older alicorn was waiting patiently as her pupil brought herself up to speed.

“So this is what you and Fleetfoot were talking about at the track?” Twilight asked Celestia, receiving a nod in return. “Well… I suppose it’s good to know, but why did you want me to read this?”

From the moment Celestia had returned to the castle with Twilight, she seemed intent on making sure that her student saw what the book had in it, passing by guards with hardly a hello as she guided the younger alicorn to her private study.

“I needed you to know so I could put what I’m about to say into context.” Celestia rose from her seat, going over to one of her many bookshelves to grab a rather sizable scroll from it. “It has come to my attention that quite a few ponies in Equestria have been going missing from their homes for months on end.” Celestia, walking over to Twilight, handed her the scroll and watched her unfurl it.

Once it was fully opened, Twilight saw that written on the piece of parchment were the names of dozens of ponies, along with sets of numbers and dashes next to them that the purple mare recognized as dates. Some of the names had two separate dates next to them while others only had one. Seeing Fleetfoot’s name amongst the ones with just one date next to it, Twilight could tell that they showed the times the ponies had vanished and the times they reappeared, if they had reappeared at all, and the absent Wonderbolt’s entry hadn’t been updated from that evening when she had shown up with Soarin.

“All of these ponies have been reported missing?” Twilight asked, both concerned and skeptical that so many could disappear without causing a panic. “That seems like an awful lot… Are you sure there isn't some reasonable explanation to this?” Twilight didn’t like second guessing the princess, but it wasn’t unheard of for ponies to go other places for a number of reasons. There was rarely a month that went by that she and her friends didn’t leave Ponyville for some reason or another, and it was amazing how many times she would see someone she knew from the small town when she did.

"That is the problem." Celestia replied. "I'm not sure at all of what this is. Many of the ponies that were thought to be missing returned over time and have given alibis for the time they were gone, ones that have been confirmed by several ponies of high standing. Still, there are ponies like Fleetfoot that only give the vaguest of reasons and choose not to tell anypony where they have been."

"Is there something more to this? I don't mean to dismiss your concerns, but it seems to me as long as they are safe, then the only problems are the ones that that are actually missing on this list," Twilight said as she re-read the scroll. She noticed that some of the ponies on it had been gone for a substantial amount of time, which didn't bode well. She knew quite well that there were quite a few dangerous creatures that resided in Equestria that could easily attack and overpower ponies.

"Yes, this is where what you read comes into this situation," Celestia said, going behind Twilight so she could look over her shoulder. "Of those who have come back, these ones here, upon investigation, were found to have come back with a new found enthusiasm to practice the kind of things depicted in the book I shown you."

"What do you think that means?" asked Twilight, still not really sure why ponies would want to try something so strange and demeaning as bondage.

"It could mean many things," said Celestia. "This... fetish, first appeared in Equestria over a hundred years ago. When I first stumbled across it, I had thought it was some kind of activity from remnants of the cult of Nightmare Moon, coming back into existence in the last century before my sister's return. Later I found out that it was just an odd expression of love and allowed it to continue, despite my reservations, just so long as the ponies being bound and hurt, the submissives, were allowed to be checked for enchantments to confirm that they were doing this of their own free will. At the time, everything was fine."

Twilight rolled the scroll back up and set it down. "And now I take it you've found some on these ponies." she said, seeing where this conversation was going.

Celestia shook her head. "While I have speculations about this, I haven't instituted the enchantment checks in decades, never finding evidence of it before, and it isn't the place of the kingdom to pry into the private lives of ponies if they aren't doing harm to themselves or others."

"But... then why are we here talking about this if nothing is going to be done about it?" Twilight asked, a bit confused at this point.

"I never said that we weren't going to do anything, just that we wouldn't be invading anypony's privacy." Celestia put a hand on Twilight's shoulder. "But if a certain inquisitive young alicorn were to look around on her own for signs of trouble..."

Twilight caught on instantly what Celestia meant and gave the princess a serious look. "I understand Princess."

"I knew you would." Celestia said back with a pleasant smile.

Now that Twilight knew what was being asked of her she had plenty of questions. "Where do I start? Will I be getting any official help? What about-" she trailed off when Celestia placed something in front of her, something that she recognized, a simple black crystal.

"This was dropped from one of the missing ponies when they were returning to their home," Celestia explained, "A friend of theirs gave it to one of the royal guards and it is one of the few reasons I feel there is something more to all this. I assume you know why."

Indeed Twilight did, she had only seen this kind of crystal in one other place before. "Sombra... You think he's involved?"

"While not likely, it is possible that he survived getting hit by the Crystal Heart somehow," Said Celestia. "Of course, I had the pony who supposedly dropped this, as well as the crystal itself, checked out since this brought up something more alarming than just a personal kink, but we still found nothing. It's possible that they just found this somewhere and felt like holding onto it, since black crystal is rare, but I still I can't shake the feeling that he's involved. At its core, bondage and S&M is about one pony asserting their dominance over another, something that Sombra could easily adapt to his own ideals and ambitions."

Thinking back to the dark stallion she had encountered in the Crystal Empire, Twilight recalled his desire to enslave the crystal ponies and force them into a lifetime of servitude. With the Crystal Heart generating a constant barrier around it to ward off, and possibly destroy, any evil entity foolish enough to enter the kingdom. Because of that he might be setting his sights a little lower.

"As for help," Celestia continued, "While I must stay here to take care of the matters kingdom, I've prepared for somepony to join with you once you reach the Crystal Empire."

"The Crystal Empire?" Twilight questioned, taking a moment to figure out why she would need to be go there. "Oh, I get it. Since this crystal suggests Sombra's involvement somehow, I should check there for clues first." If the dark lord had survived in any way she figured that there would be signs of it near the city. "Who is going to be there to help? Shining Armor? Cadence? Luna?"

Celestia shook her head once more. "Cadence and Shining Armor need to stay in the Crystal Empire to run things just as I'm needed here. As for Luna, while she has been informed of the situation, her duties to Equestria on the whole will keep her from joining you as well. It is also imperative that this investigation be kept at a low profile. Being that you are a newly appointed princess of Equestria, having no direct responsibilities as of yet it will make it easier for you to go around unnoticed, but if two or more royal dignitaries go, it might make our enemies, if this is indeed some dark scheme, aware of what we are doing."

"I see, we need to keep it so nopony knows that this is being looked into," Said Twilight, "If the wrong pony found out they could try to hide clues that would help us get to the bottom of this."

"Correct," Celestia confirmed, "And that is the reason why I feel it best that you be accompanied in this endeavor by one of Equestria's loyal guard ponies."

Hearing who her mentor had in mind for this operation, her mind turned to those she thought would be more fitting for something like this; her friends. There had been plenty of times that she and her five friends had saved Equestria from some great evil. Then again that was perhaps the point Celestia was trying to make. The group was so well know by this point for their deeds and ability to stop those that wanted to do Equestria and its people harm that the group of them together would draw just as much attention as if Celestia herself was snooping around.

"Now, I know this is going to distract you from figuring out how to open the chest at the Tree of Harmony, but the duty of a Princess is to the ponies of Equestria first and their own goals second." Said Celestia, finishing up her thoughts.

"Not a problem, Princess, I understand that as things are, I'm the only one who can find out exactly what is going on." Twilight rose from her seat and rushed over to the door, more than ready to start her new assignment. "Don't worry, I won't let you down."

Celestia smiled. "I know you won't."

Twilight left the castle in a hurry, excited to get to the bottom of this task her mentor had given her. If it was some evil plot brought about by Sombra, or anybody else for that matter, she would take care of it. If it was just a fetish that had suddenly gained popularity amongst ponies, then she would at least be able to put Celestia's mind at ease. Either way this would be resolved.

As she stepped out into the courtyard, she saw Spike, her faithful dragon assistant, coming towards her from the castle gates. She had told him to go and have some fun while she and Celestia took care of the official matters, thinking it would be something boring for the dragon, and to met her back at the castle after a while. As usual he seemed to come back just when she needed him.

Running up to the alicorn, Spike seemed eager to know what he missed. "So what did Princess Celestia have to say?"

"I'll explain what we have to do on the way." Twilight said as she picked the dragon up in her arms and flapped her wings, giggling to herself when she realized she would have to leave out some of the more colorful details.

"On the way?" Spike asked, hearing in the tone of Twilight's voice that whatever the princess had to say must've been very important. "You mean back to Ponyville?"

"No Spike, we've got other plans," Twilight replied, flying towards the train station as fast as her wings would take her. "We've got an appointment in the Crystal Empire to keep."

Author's Note

Incredibly short chapter this week, but let me introduce you to the first of many chapters featuring Twilight Sparkle as the main protagonist of this story.

For a while now fans have been wondering if there was someone that was trying to figure out exactly what was going on in with the Society and the missing ponies and this will be where we view that side of the story. How this will work is that from this point on there will be chapters in between arcs that feature those trying to discover the secrets of the Society, finding hints about them and perhaps confronting certain members directly, until near the end of this story leading into the sequel story I have planned. Hopefully there will be much more for following chapters like this, but since this is the introduction to the concept I hope you will forgive that this is little more than exposition to who will be part of this faction and why there isn't a full scale investigation.

Oh, and don't think Twilight is the only one looking into things. As we progress we will see the actions of at least one other pony curious to what is happening all across Equestria.