Mistress Do Well: Extradition

Mistress Do Well: Extradition
by milesprower06

November

The last time Celestia remembered her heart being this heavy was a millennium ago, when she was forced to imprison her sister in the moon, and she was having a hard time discerning how similar or different this situation was.

The Princess of the Sun sat in her personal quarters, with six file folders splayed out in front of her; the primary investigation folder, and one each for the primary suspects; the remaining Elements of Harmony. It had been five weeks since the investigation began, and she read over the reports again and again and again, and she was no closer to even imagining why something like this would happen.

"Sister?" A gentle voice asked from the door. She turned to see her sister, Luna.

"Any news?"

"Not the kind you want to hear, I'm afraid. I have lost Rainbow Dash in the dream realm."

"Lost?"

"She has simply disappeared."

Celestia's heart ached further.

"Do you think she..."

"I sincerely doubt it. You approved my Suicide Solutions program because of how efficient I was at predicting ponies taking their own lives. None of the signs were there. I simply cannot find her. I suspect something else is to blame. Whatever it is, I'm afraid I may be partially responsible."

"What do you mean?"

"While the dreams didn't allow me to pinpoint her location in the waking world, I placed seeds of hope in her mind, urging her to return home. I tried to ensure her dreams were of good memories with her friends, and I had endeavored to keep her nightmares as short as possible.

"Do you think you can do anything? Can you find her again?"

"That depends entirely on how she is hiding from me. If it's a finite source of magic, she just has to run out of that source. But if she has something like an enchanted item, then I'm afraid not. It's as if I'm afloat on the ocean, in the pitch black of night, with nothing but a flashlight to search for something that may be miles and miles away. Do not worry. I will search each and every night, and during the day as well." Luna reassured her sister.

"I can't even imagine how she feels... How scared out of her mind she must be..."

She glanced down at the folders in front of her, each with pictures of Twilight and the others paperclipped onto the reports.

"You think you know some ponies..." She said just above a whisper, her eyes starting to tear up.

"They are remorseful, although I can't imagine that being any kind of consolation to you. Their nightmares have tormented them nearly every night since Rainbow ran away." Luna offered.

"I don't even know if we have a case here, Luna. Every single instrument in the basement was expertly sanitized. Twilight's notes don't have any specific dates or names. The main perpetrator is comatose, and doctors have no idea when she'll wake up. Rainbow took the only piece of hard evidence."

"Perhaps she did so for a reason, sister. Maybe she did not want them prosecuted."

Celestia looked over at her incredulously.

"As one last gesture of loyalty. Of friendship."

Tears fell from Celestia's eyes.

"Y-You honestly think she would want us to just let them go?"

"What punishment could we give to augment their guilt, when it is tearing them asunder already? Their consciences will remind them during the day, and their dreams will haunt them at night until they find a way to deal with that guilt. If Rainbow doesn't return, I do not believe they will be able to do so."

Celestia was silent for a few moments, looking back down at the reports. She then looked back up to Luna, with sorrowful resolve.

"Inform the Guard down in Ponyville."

"At once, sister."

Fluttershy was awoken from her restless slumber by a loud pounding on the door. Opal whined as she too was disturbed. The pegasus glanced at the clock, saw it was 2 AM, got up and walked unsteadily down the stairs. She unlocked the front door and opened it to a pair of Royal Guards.

She couldn't say anything to them at first, assuming they had come for her.

"If I have to go with you, can you make sure Opal stays fed?" Fluttershy asked, glancing down at the cat at her hooves.

Saying nothing, the unicorn guard on the left channeled magic through his horn, and shot a glowing beam down at Fluttershy's front hoof.

"You'll be able to look after your cat. House arrests were rescinded an hour ago. You're free to go, ma'am."

Fluttershy was absolutely stunned.

"What? Did you find Rainbow Dash?"

"I'm afraid not, ma'am. We're just following orders. That'll be all."

With that, the pair of guards left without another word, leaving the dumbfounded pegasus along on her doorstep with her cat.

Fluttershy stepped back inside, and closed the door. She lifted her front left hoof that had kept her in her house for five weeks. She walked to the small bookshelf next to her couch. She pulled out a leather-bound three-ring binder, a scrapbook, and sat down on the couch. She opened the cover, and flipped to the fifth page, where there was a picture of her as a filly, with Rainbow Dash, at flight camp in Cloudsdale.

Seeing Rainbow's smug face made her break into tears.

"I'm so sorry..." She wept, softly pressing her forehead against the photo as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Please be okay out there..."