The Vanishing of Twilight Sparkle

The Vanishing of Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle’s house/library was on fire.

Greedy flames licked the wood, leaves and the books inside and cast flickering shadows on the ground. The crackling of popping wood sounded loud against the quite backdrop of the dead of night. Ponies from all over Ponyville had gathered around to try and help put out the blaze, Unicorn magic trying to stop the fire from spreading while Pegasi drained rainclouds for every last drop of water they had. After about an hour, all that was left were a few flickering embers. Ashen-faced and exhausted, and sure the fire wasn’t about to start again, the ponies started to go back home, leaving five staring at the remains.

“Ya’ll reckon we should go check?” asked Applejack.

“I can’t see the harm. We might find something that will show us what happened.” replied Rarity. Although she didn’t like the idea of walking through the sodden mess of water mixed with ash, her friend’s well-being may be at stake.

The five friends traipsed though what was left of the ruined building, seeing only the black mess of burned wood and books. However, one thing did strike them as odd.

In the far corner, under a few beams and a pile of ash, Twilight’s desk was still in one piece.

“How do you suppose the desk is still ok?”

Today set out to be like any other day, if just a little bit special. It was Twilight’s birthday. Pinkie Pie was planning the party, Rarity was creating a most spectacular dress (she just couldn’t forgive herself for the plain old rag she threw together for her last party), Applejack was bucking trees ready to make tasty snacks, Fluttershy was taking care of some animals and Rainbow Dash had just finished her weather duties for the day, and was napping on a cloud.

The sound of clopping hooves woke Rainbow Dash up. She peered from her fluffy perch to see Twilight walking by.

“Hey there Twi, Happy Birthday! How’s it hanging?”

Twilight looked up, and Rainbow Dash was quite shocked by her appearance. Her eyes were unfocused and had bags under them from what seemed to be a lack of sleep. Her hair was dishevelled and she looked like she could collapse at any moment under the pile of books she had in her saddle bags. To put it simply, she looked exhausted, stressed even.

“Oh, you know, same old. I’m really busy at the moment, so I’ll catch you at the party later.”, she responded, giving Rainbow Dash a quick but weary smile. She hung her head and started traipsing in the direction of her home.

The five ponies headed towards the desk. Rarity used her magic to move some of the heavier debris, while Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to blow most of the detritus off.

The desk was in pristine condition. There wasn’t a single dent or mark in the wood, save the few splodges of ink from a dripping quill or spilt inkpot.

“How do you suppose the desk is still ok?” asked Fluttershy. Fluttershy, being the most nervous of the five, was a bit unnerved by the immaculate desk. There was silence while everypony thought about it. Finally, Rarity spoke up.

“Twilight used to experiment a lot. Maybe she used a spell on her desk in case something went wrong?”

Even as Rarity said it, she knew this made little sense. If she was going to protect her desk, surely she’d protect her home too? She’d seen Twilight quite easily conjure up a force field to keep ‘Gabbygums’ out.

“Ah spose there’s not much point pondering too much. We’ll never know. But more important is that we find Twi” said Applejack.

After a quick look at the desk, the five set off to look for more clues.

It was starting to get dark when Twilight’s party should have started. They decided to use the Apple’s barn, since there was more room, and they were less likely to keep the old folk up with the noise and music. Over one side of the barn was a giant buffet with cake and sweets that Applejack and Pinkie Pie cooked up, while the other housed many of the party games Pinkie liked to put out. Fluttershy was chatting to Rainbow Dash, and Rarity had already headed over to Twilight’s house to take her dress over.

“Oooooo, where is she?!” Pinkie Pie asked restlessly. She’d been bouncing around since early afternoon, eager to get the celebrations under way.

“Calm down, sugarcube. She’ll be here soon I’m s-“

CRASH!

The barn doors just blew inwards, followed by a heavily breathing Rarity.

“Quick! Come quick! Twi’s house in on fire!” Rarity gasped out, before turning and running back out.

The other four looked at each other and followed.

After an hour of searching, with the only light coming from Rarity’s horn and the Moon, the five friends decided to call it a night. Walking past the desk, Rainbow Dash stopped them.

“Maybe we should have a look in there” she said, “I saw Twi earlier, and she looked pretty out of it. There might be a diary or something that’ll let us know what she’s been up to.”

Rarity only mumbled something about privacy then trotted over to the desk. A faint aura covered her horn and she opened the draws of the desk. In the bottom draw was a book and a folder of some sort. Both covers were blank, and didn’t give any clue to their contents.

“What do you suppose is in there?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I don’t know, but I think we should leave it until tomorrow. Even if they do contain a clue, if we’re completely exhausted we’re going to miss it, or be too tired to follow the clue up.” Rarity reasoned.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie started to argue, saying that Twilight might be in danger, but Fluttershy said “I think Rarity’s right. Besides, if we wait until tomorrow, I can ask my animal friends”.

Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash quietened, but still had a look on their faces that they didn’t like the idea.
The five friends said goodnight and went their separate ways for the night.

The next day, the five friends met after doing their respective duties: Applejack had apple-bucking to do, Rainbow Dash had to clear the sky and Rarity had a small order to finish. It was still a ways before noon when they finished, so they all met up at Pinkie Pie’s where they agreed the previous night. Fluttershy was the only one that hadn’t turned up.

Rarity pulled the book and the folder out of her saddlebags and placed them on the desk. They all agreed that it was unlikely that they would find anything else at Twilight’s house, since everything bar that desk was burnt to ash. Besides, the clean-up ponies were probably there right now cleaning up, and checking the other buildings for damage.

Rarity’s horn glowed with magic; they decided to open it as gently as possible, in case it was damaged somehow. On the very first page, it simply said: Journal; A Record of the Past Weeks Events.

Rarity’s horn glowed briefly to the next page, which seemed to be some sort of introduction:

This journal is a record of events that have and will eventually happen.

Since studying an area of mythical beasts and creatures, I’ve found myself waking up in the middle of the night, flickering shadows in the corner of the room when there’s no light, and flashes of movement in the corner of my eye as I go about the day. This could be just my imagination after reading about some pretty…disturbing things.

Again, it could be my imagination. But it could be something more. This is why I’m keeping this journal.

Some entries may refer to a page of notes, an image or piece of research in the research folder.

The five looked briefly at the overflowing, bound folder next to the journal, and then back to the journal. A bit more magic turned the page to the first entry.