"Are you sure that this is ah good idea?" Apple Bloom asked.

"If you want to pass your entrance exam, you're gonna have to, regardless of whether it's a good idea or not." Starbeam said. "Now hurry up, we don't have all day."

"Aaaaaaaaaahh!!!!" Scootaloo yelled as she tried to dodge twelve swinging sandbags on a tightrope, two of which were secretly filled with nails. Or maybe they weren't. Apple Bloom wasn't sure. She looked at her own personalized challenge, which consisted of several large boulders and one iron ball that was easily the size of Fluttershy's cottage. Thankfully, the ball wasn't spiked, but that wouldn't really matter if it hit her. Her only goal was to get to the other side of the arena alive.

"Is there something less lethal I could do?" Apple Bloom asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid not. If you were in this kind of situation in the field, there wouldn't be a chance to choose "Something less lethal". Better get used to facing death in a safe environment before you face it for real."

"You call this safe?"

"Well, you wouldn't exactly be facing death if you were completely safe."

"Come on, AB!!" Sweetie Belle yelled from the other side of the room. She'd already beaten her challenge, which had consisted of a glass maze filled with lasers. Sweetie had shattered it with a single high-pitched note and had happily bounced across the broken glass without getting a single cut. The judges were still trying to figure out how she'd broken the seemingly unbreakable security glass.

"Easy for you to say. Your challenge wasn't even lethal." Apple Bloom muttered. She jumped down into the arena and saw the boulders start rolling immediately. The metal orb didn't move yet but probably would soon. She dodged a giant rock and watched it smash into another giant rock. Splinters flew everywhere. Ignoring the rain of shards, Apple Bloom jumped over another boulder and ran in front of another one which missed her by a heartbeat. A loud groan announced the fact that the giant metal ball was rolling her way. The ball crushed a boulder underneath its bulk as it, with very un-rocklike intelligence, rumbled towards her.

"3 down, 5 to go, plus that steel behemoth." Apple Bloom thought. Sprinting over to another boulder, she used the monolithic stone as a springboard, using its rotation to launch herself over the iron orb. The gargantuan metal sphere couldn't change direction fast enough and flattened the already slightly flat rock. She ran up the side of the arena and flopped over the edge.

"Wohoo!!" Sweetie Belle cheered. "That was awesome!!"

"Was it? I didn't think to check." Apple Bloom said dryly.

"It sure was, at least the bits that I saw." Scootaloo said, panting.

"Well done, all of you." One of the judges, a copper earth pony by the name of Tea Kettle said. "I'm pretty sure all of you passed, but we'll know for certain tomorrow. Until then, rest up, recover your strength. This was only your entrance exam, after all. If you passed, training begins immediately. If you failed, you'll get some remedial tutelage, then try again in two weeks. You'll pass then, I guarantee it. Nobody in recent history has been accepted and failed the exam more than once. Don't worry, you'll get it soon."

"Thanks mister Kettle!" The three said in unison.

"Please, just call me Tea." Tea Kettle said.

"Come on, let's get you to your dorms. It's almost 20:00 hours and you should be eating dinner by now." Starbeam said. The orange pegasus had flown over the remnants of the challenges rather than walk on the rather hazardous arena floor. She landed next to the three and gestured towards a nearby door with a wing.

"This is it?" Sweetie Belle asked. The it in question was a plain room with three beds and table in the centre.

"Yep. This is your dormitory, where you'll be sleeping while you're here. Please try not to ruin it during your first night. I'll leave you to decide who gets which bed. The bathroom is behind that door over there." Starbeam gestured towards a plain wooden door across from the entrance. A label helpfully proclaimed "Bathroom".

"Wait, we'll be sleeping here?" Scootaloo asked, climbing onto a bed. "I thought that we'd be able to return home, at least to visit. I don't mind sleeping somewhere else, but when will we be able to go home?"

"I'm afraid that you'll be staying here for a while. You'll be able to return home eventually, just not now. For now, stay here and rest. You'll need your rest for tomorrow." Starbeam said. "Sweet dreams."

"I'm sure that Applejack and the girls haven't even noticed that we're gone yet." Sweetie Belle said sleepily.

"Where in Equestria are they!!!" Applejack frantically asked, running around the room in circles.

"I'm sure that they're somewhere that has indoor plumbing and electric lights and patterned wallpaper and orange scones and... AH!! what if they're somewhere that doesn't have air conditioning!! They could get all sweaty and not be able to cool off in time!! That would be the WORST POSSIBLE THING!!!!"

"Rarity, Ah'm pretty sure that they'll be fine if they go without air conditioning for a while. What Ah'm worried about is the fact that they've been gone for three days and they haven't arrived in Appleoosa yet!! Braeburn shoulda written back by now, and Dash shoulda seen them on the road at least!! They've just vanished!!"

"I have to agree with you, AJ. I can't find them anywhere, and I should have seen something that says they were there by now. Don't worry, I'll probably find something tomorrow." Rainbow Dash said, leaning against the wall of Applejack's living room as if she was unconcerned. However, those that knew her well would see that she was on the brink of panicking and trying her hardest to not show it.

"Applejack!! Rarity!! Rainbow Dash!! I found something!!" Twilight Sparkle announced, bursting into the room.

"Show us." Applejack ordered.

Two royal guards and six civilians crowded around the bodies of four ponies. The bodies were of a massive earth pony stallion, a pegasus mare, and two unicorns, one male and one female. All four had a single, lethal wound that had been made by a wide bladed knife.

"Poor ponies. What kind of pony would kill four ponies in cold blood like this?" Fluttershy said, crying into her mane.

"Ah don't know, but if I catch the varmints that done this ah'm gonna buck them into next January!" Applejack growled.

"I think that the 'poor ponies' are actually the varmints here, Applejack." Twilight pointed to one of the corpses. "You see his curved horn? That's a sure sign of dark magic corruption. From his cutie mark I'd say he was a psychological manipulation specialist. And this one here," She continued, "She's clearly been trained for battle. You see how strong her feathers are? That's a surefire sign of wingblade training. I'll bet that we'll find one on her if we look long enough. All these ponies know how to hurt and kill, and I'm glad that they can't use their talents anymore, even if I'm horrified and disgusted that somepony killed them."

"Twilight's right. Ponies like this are the reason I want to join the Wonderbolts, among other things." Rainbow Dash agreed.

"I'm going to need at least one of the bodies brought back to my lab. I want to ask a few questions I can't have answered here." Twilight said to one of the guards, a brown coated unicorn with eyes the same colour of her coat.

"Yes ma'am." The guard said, saluting.

As Twilight and her friends began to make their way back to Ponyville, Applejack turned to Twilight and asked "Twi, what are you talking about? You can't ask dead ponies questions after all."

"Ah can't believe it. Ya actually can ask dead ponies questions." Applejack said in disbelief.

"I'm honestly not surprised that you thought it was impossible. Princess Celestia severely restricts access to anything related to dark magic, and the particular spell I'm going to use is considered dark magic. I only learned of it after I became a princess myself, and Celestia was still reluctant to let me study it. This spell was originally a necromantic ritual designed to return spirits to the world of the living, but with some modification I can use it to temporarily reanimate a dead pony with their memories intact. Then all I need to do is use a truthtelling spell and suddenly you can interrogate murder victims." Twilight explained.

"I don't usually geek out over stuff like this, but I've gotta admit, that's pretty awesome, Twi. Say, after this, can I ask a favour? It's a personal thing." Rainbow Dash asked.

"Sure. Now, I need to concentrate." Twilight ignited her horn with the distinctive black, green and purple aura of dark magic. She shot a beam of corrupted power at the corpse lying on the table in the middle of her lab. The corpse's eyes snapped open, glowing with dark magic for a second before fading to their natural colour, purple.

"Where... am I?" The former corpse asked, blinking out of sequence.

"You are currently in my lab, where I am questioning you. Now, do you know who I am?"

"Princess... Twilight Sparkle."

"Yes. Now what is the last thing you remember?"

"I... remember... arguing with my friends, then being hit in the back. I... fell down and saw a black coated pony standing in the clearing. I... think I blacked out after that. I... just remember waking up here. Why... am I here?"

"You are being questioned in regards to a police investigation."

"What... kind of investigation?"

"Murder." Twilight said simply.

"Murder? But... my friends didn't kill anypony recently. Were... my friends murdered?"

"Yes, they were. We're investigating their murder."

"It... can't just be murder if the Princess of Friendship is involved. This... is personal, isn't it?"

"Yes. The sisters of some of my friends have gone missing, and we believe that this case is connected in some way."

"Are... the missing ponies three blank flanks, one from each pony race? Does... one have a hair bow?"

"How do you know that?" Twilight asked very calmly.

"We... found them. Wandering... alone in the woods. We... were going to try to get a ransom, but then the black pony attacked. I... guess that your missing fillies are either with him or dead. Given... how good he is with those knives of his, I think it's the latt-" The corpse was abruptly cut off as Twilight cancelled the spell, then proceeded to twist his neck around 360 degrees.

"There was nothing more we could learn from him." Twilight said in a dangerously calm tone of voice before leaving the lab.

To be continued...

Author's Note

Wow. I'm not sure where the ending came from, I just recently got my inspiration back for this story and this was the result. Next chapter is already underway, with a couple hundred words done as I speak. And no, I'm not going to give the bandits names. The next chapter will finally see the Crusaders become assassins, which is basically the entire point of this story. Hope that you all enjoy this chapter and the rest of the story!