Equestria Trainers' Society: Appraisal

The full moon hung high in the cool night sky, dimly illuminating all of Equestria in its glow. The enormous piece of the rock, while seen by many ponies as a poor substitute for the sun that would take its place during the day, was a very potent reminder that there was always something watching over those who lived in these peaceful lands. While for over a millennium it was always believed that this was Princess Celestia, and in part that was true, there was always another who kept a constant vigil over those she had considered her subjects, even when she was consumed with jealousy and misguided ambition during her long exile.

Now was no different, as she flew towards one of the many cities of Equestria under her watch, except that her reasons and methods had changed. No longer did she feel as great a need to demand the attention and admiration of the ponies she ruled over, instead seeing that sometimes there was benefit to being the ruler of the night, a time where most ponies laid down to rest. Celestia, having to be active during the daylight hours, was always being watched by someone or hassled with some matter, which could range from very important to completely inane. At the same time the night kept Luna concealed from the trivial responsibilities of royalty and gave her freedom that her sister would never have.

It was this liberty that allowed her to aid Equestria in other ways, such as making sure that the wild beasts of the Everfree Forest stayed far away from any of the inhabited cities, or entering the dreams of fillies and colts to assure that they grew up into upstanding mares and stallion. Tonight it would allow one other perk that her sister would never be able to take advantage of.

Making her way to the ground, Luna softly touched her hooves to the ground, making sure to be as quiet as possible. She had landed in the middle of Hoofington, a small township that reminded her a bit of Ponyville, except that it wasn't near any major landmarks nor was it the residence of anyone with as much notoriety as Twilight Sparkle or her friends. It was, for lack of better words, uninteresting and ignorable. A place for a pony to be able to settle down and have a family without worry of some dastardly creature coming in and wrecking the place, as it seemed that those who held great power always drew in opposition that likewise held great power.

Hoofington was so quiet comparatively that when something happened there it was something that brought up concern, so when one of the ponies living there suddenly left with nary a word roughly a week ago it was brought before Celestia immediately by the missing mare's friends and neighbors. This only compiled with a bunch of other strange disappearances that had occurred all over Equestria, many of which had been considered solved once the missing would simply return home after an extended period of time, but which still concerned Celestia as when asked where they had been they would usually give an answer that was never enough for the princess.

Eventually Luna was informed of the situation, as while it could've just been something as simple as ponies suddenly getting a sudden urge to travel, or in some cases exploring a bondage fetish in a manner that could only be described as strange, it was also very likely that there was some foul play in the mix. Celestia wanted to keep everything quiet until she had things figured out for sure, not wanting to repeat some embarrassing mistake she had made during Luna's long absence, and had asked Luna to wait and allow Twilight to return with some information on the topic, but this was not something the princess of the night could just allow to continue. If someone was taking advantage of the ponies under her protection, then she would find out who and make them pay.

And so the dark blue alicorn guided herself through the streets of Hoofington towards the home of the missing pony, an earth pony mare that went by the name "Lotsa Luv". Luna knew very little of the pony, save for the fact that she was a blonde haired, pink pony with green eyes, and that her friends said she was very cheerful and brought joy to everyone that knew her. The vague description reminded her of Pinkie Pie, which again brought question to whether or not there was something more to this since someone with villainous intent might have found more gain from kidnapping her instead. That was, if they could tolerate the hyperactive pony for more than five minutes.

After a couple of minutes, Luna made her way to Lotsa Luv's home, which was the last place any of the townsponies had seen her. It was not too different from any of the other houses there; quaint, simple, and having charm to it that even one of Luna's standing could find lovely. If under other circumstances she would've been pleased to no end to enter the humble home, but as it stood this could very well be a crime scene and she had to keep a serious attitude about her.

Getting into the residence was no hard feat for the Alicorn; a glow of her magnificent horn and a little concentration was all that was required to make the lock yield to her whim. The door gave her no resistance either as it succumbed to her will, opening widely as she entered, as if stepping out of her way. If Celestia had attempted to do such a thing everyone in town would've known about it within the hour, but Luna was a shadow and the night shielded her from prying eyes, all of which were covered by heavy eyelids this late. As long as she didn't do anything to bring attention to herself she would stay that way and none would be the wiser.

"Where to begin?" Luna said in a quieted voice, figuring there had to be something that would tell her whether or not Lotsa Luv had been abducted or not. Perhaps something the guard ponies overlooked, something that would give a hint to where she had gone and, with a little luck, might even bust this mystery wide open. While she had no formal education in the field of criminology or the background in sleuthing, she did have a perspective in this that the police didn't. She was once a creature of darkness, and thus if this really was a worst case scenario she might be able to find clues in places the others couldn't, at least that was what she hoped.

Looking around the house, the first place that came to mind was to inspect the bedroom, as the living room she was standing in seemed far too tidy to hold anything of interest. Making sure to close the front door behind her, she delved deeper inside, making her horn glow once more to not only guide her way, but to look for any remnants of evil magic or the like. She found plenty along the way to her destination, but it was all faint traces that could've been left by any unicorn that would've visited the mare that lived there. Lotsa Luv was supposed to be a very sociable mare and there were plenty of unicorns living in Hoofington so there was nothing odd here, just day to day activities that the ponies that investigated the home would've already looked into.

Upon entering the bedroom, however, she was met by something that was more eye catching to the alicorn. The entire room was a mess. Unlike the rest of the rooms she had passed through, which were clean and organized for the most part, this room had clutter all over it. Clothing tossed on dressers, the sheets and blankets on the bed a mess, and an assortment of papers and flowers piled over the top of a desk in one of the corners. It was enough to make Luna wonder if this was the scene of a struggle, and if it was how it could've been so easily overlooked.

"Seems that we picked correctly." She said entering the room without delay, scanning it like she had done all the others. Just as before, she only picked up small traces of magical residue, but this time there was a lot more of it, specifically on the bed. The ruffled sheets and blankets were simply covered, leaving practically no spot unsoiled. It was too old to determine what kind of magic had been used, but it was certainly an indication that something had happened there. The alicorn had to take a closer look.

Placing her hands on the edge of the mattress, Luna leaned over it to check it out for anything else out of the ordinary, wondering how something like this could be so easily ignored by law enforcement. The answer came to her in the form of a faint scent, one that she easily identified as she removed herself from the bed.

"Sex..." She stated, the smell of week old lust filling her sinuses. This explained the state of the bed, even the excess magical residue as it could just be the "magical ejaculate" of a unicorn reaching climax over and over. Surely anyone seeing this could mistake what happened here as an act of passion between Lotsa Luv and some unicorn lover, could've even been a female one, since uncontrollable dispersal of magical energies during intimate acts of desire were not limited to males only. Luna thought differently though, as to her there was just something that didn't add up.

It wasn't so much the bed's state as much as what it meant, that the missing mare had been with someone before she vanished, maybe even moments before. That meant that if this was just the matter of two ponies partaking in sexual activity then said pony should've known if she had plans to leave, as ponies close enough to have sex would surely share that kind of information with one another, if only to let their partner know that they would be gone for a while. If someone in town had simply said that she had left, for whatever reason, and would be back soon it would've lowered panic at the earth mare's disappearance.

There was also the possibility that Lotsa Luv and her romantic interest left together, but this raised new questions. First of all being, who was this mysterious pony? It couldn't be another one of the town's residents, as there had only been one pony reported missing. So it had to be a pony that didn't live there, which didn't support the theory that this was just some mysterious disappearance and instead made the situation seem more like the harmless travel that Celestia had hoped it would be.

"Unless..." Luna's mind wandered towards the darkest side of her being, drifting towards the ideas that she kept suppressed and locked tightly away. There was one way that this scene could've happened that would support both the absence of the mare along with a pony being with her shortly before she vanished. "This pony was kidnapped."

But as Luna let her mind wonder she contemplated what that would mean she stepped back from the dark thoughts and reconsidered the facts. As far as she knew, there had been no forced entry. Every window was locked and even the front door.... Luna paused. "The front door...." she groaned, noticing a mistake. In her haste to enter the domicile the alicorn had used her magic to unlock it, and if she could do that then any unicorn with the know how to pick a lock with their magic could do the same. She could've checked the door for magical residue, but now it was too late, as her own potent and recent magic would overlap anything that had been there before, if there had been anything there to begin with. There was a reason princesses didn't usually get involved with affairs more suited for working class ponies who had extensive training in how to handle these kind of matters.

"Luna, I swear that thou art a complete dunderhead sometimes." Rubbing her temples, Luna continued to search the room. What had been done was done and of her two choices, to continue her private investigation or to simply leave, the latter was the least acceptable to her. To go home now would only have brought about more questions and no answers, not getting anyone any closer to figuring out what happened here.

So instead of leaving this to the authorities the alicorn continued to look around, returning to her thoughts from before she was sidetracked by her mistake. As far as she knew there was no forced entry to the home, and no other missing ponies in Hoofington. The mare that lived here could've left of her own volition to some unknown location, but then why leave her room a mess in an otherwise tidy home? Why leave her bed in such a state when she would only have to face it later when she returned? There had to be more to this, but she didn't have enough to work on, not yet at least.

The alicorn's pacing lead her to the desk she spied when she had first entered the room, papers piled atop it in heaps. How anyone would be able to find anything in such a mess was beyond her, which was exactly why she felt it was the next place to look for something to explain all this.

Luna assumed that this had been left this way by Lotsa Luv, as she hoped that the police ponies wouldn't leave papers in a possible crime scene in such disarray. With another glow of her horn, this time taking the precaution to double check the papers for traces of magic, which there was gladly none, she floated the pages into the air and formed them out in front of her in a wall of text, allowing her to be able to read everything without having to flip each sheet manually.

To Luna's curiosity the pages all looked to be related to Lotsa Luv's occupation, which from what she could tell was a delivery service for sweets, flowers, poems and other things that could be seen as symbols of affection. It wasn't the most lucrative form of employment, but Luna was sure that the mare must've been in the business because she enjoyed it and not because she wanted to get rich off it. Ponies tended to know exactly where they belonged in Equestria, where they fit in order to make sure things went along as smoothly as possible, at least after they discovered their talents and received their cutie marks, so this disorganization was troublesome as it was clear to Luna that it wasn't the that way because the mare was frustrated with where fate had decided she should be.

Instead she went back to her original conclusion again, that this was an abduction and the papers where a sign that the kidnapper was looking for something that could link him or her to it. It could be a client, or maybe just someone who had gotten close to her by pretending to want to do business with her. If that were true there was little she could hope to accomplish looking through the documents, since the perpetrator probably found what he was after and left with it. It was a grim possibility, as it could mean that the few tracks that would lead her to the culprit were covered.

Still, she refused to give up hope, and begun reorganizing the papers by the order in which they had been written, Lotsa Luv having conveniently dated them all. She was looking for anything, a pattern or a break in one that would show point her in the right direction. With them now in place she could take the time to analyze each name, city and day each transaction happened in order to see if there was any variance that would be overlooked by the untrained eye, all that was needed was patience.

She took a deep breath and began her tedious inspection, skimming slow enough to take in all the information that she deemed relevant, but fast enough so it wouldn't take the whole night to finish. While she would never admit it as a flaw, Luna knew she had issues with taking her time and focusing on what it was she needed to achieve her goals. She always preferred instant results over those that would allow the problem to persist for longer to achieve a greater goal. It was something that was much more evident when she was Nightmare Moon, from when she directly confronted her sister to claim what she had thought was rightfully hers to when she tried to scare off or otherwise get rid of Twilight and her friends when they went to search for the Elements of Harmony, as if she had simply went straight for the relics, removed even a single one of them, and hid it away her attempt to usurp the throne might have succeeded.

That was where her sister was her counter balance. Where Luna would want to destroy a potential threat outright, such as when she suggested that she should go along with Twilight to stop Sombra from reclaiming the Crystal Empire, Celestia would play the long game, biding her time and preparing for events that would unfold later on down the road and only addressing a conflict directly when it was right in front of her and she had no other options. Sometimes it made Celestia look careless or inept, but in allowing her student to vanquish the dark lord without aid from either of the ancient alicorns it allowed for Twilight to learn the lessons she needed to know to fulfill her destiny as a princess in her own right. What she was the princess of was still to be determined, but the ascendence of another ally whose power might one day match that of her own was something Luna welcomed, even if the wait for that time to come sometimes bothered her.

"Nothing..." Luna said, getting to the final sheet. Everything seemed to be in order, not a thing was missing that Luna could see. It was dead end, making Luna angry with herself that she had spent so much time with it. The only thing that could be confirmed by this was that the abduction, if that was what this was, didn't involve any of her customers or business partners, or at least not any that were smart enough to realize that leaving behind something like this could be detrimental to their scheme.

It couldn't be that simple though, could it? That the culprit was just stupid or arrogant enough to think that taking a pony in the middle of the night from her own home would go unnoticed. Surely it wouldn't be the case, that is unless her sister's worries were true and all these strange disappearances were indeed connected. If they were then they might be getting too comfortable, getting sloppy and making mistakes that could lead right to them. It was not a firm lead, but it was all Luna had, so she took the last five sheets, as she felt they would be the most relevant, and stacked the rest back on the desk.

With what she believed was the only real evidence she could take with her, Luna took one last look around the room to take in what she had learned and see if she could make anything of this more than just an assumption that could just be something planted inside her head by her sister's fears. What she knew for a fact was that some time before Lotsa Luv left her home, of her own volition or by force, there was someone here that she had sex with. That person was probably not a resident of the town and might've left town with the mare, and when they had entered the home that night they had been let in. Anything else was just speculation, but in a case like this she would have to assume the worst.

Luna left the house troubled, not only because she had gotten very little accomplished, but that she was truly worried for the mare and the ponies that hadn't returned. She had hoped that more would come out of this, that some damning piece of evidence would show itself to her, but if there was such a thing the authorities would've came across it themselves. Using her magic to lock the door behind her, Luna looked up to the night's sky and spread her wings, catching a bit of movement that made her stop just before taking off.

At first she thought that it was a mare or a stallion that spotted her exiting the residence, which would've been bad since Celestia wanted to keep any involvement from Canterot a secret, as the more pressure the more likely they were to go into hiding and if that happened then they might never find the missing ponies if they were actually abducted. It would be even worse for her though as she wasn't even supposed to be doing her own investigation and while Celestia would understand her reasons it would still make her older sister disappointed in her that she did something that could potentially impede what she had asked Twilight to do.

To her relief the movement instead came from a small colt looking out his window, dressed in his pajamas as he rubbed his tired eyes. The foal must've heard her leave Lotsa Luv's home, despite her best efforts, and was doing his own looking it to his own mystery. The smile that grew on his face when he got his answers pleased Luna to no end.

"Sleep well little one," she said, flapping her wings and going over to his window, floating in front of it like some whimsical being, "Know that the princess of the night watches over you." Without another word she flew off into the sky, glad that it wasn't the child that had gone missing instead. Though if it had this whole thing would've been so much easier, as Luna could've located him within his dreams and solved this within a day's time. But even an Alicorn's magic had limits and something about growing into an adult disconnecting them from the dreamscape Luna could enter, as many dreamed less as they got older and some even lost the ability to dream altogether.

But that was how things were and Luna had to utilize what she was capable of instead of dwelling on what she wasn't. So for now she would return to Canterlot with her five sheets of paper, see if there was any connection to it and the other missing ponies, and if there was try to use it to return everyone back to where they belonged. She only hoped that she could do so soon, before something else terrible happened.