Chapter Thirteen: The Spy

The lavender pony slowly made her way to the library, concerned and confused about Pinkie’s strange behaviour. The more she pondered it, the stronger her unease grew. Eventually she decided to double back and see if any pony else had noticed something funny. “Just to quell my paranoia” she figured.

The unicorn knocked on the door of one of the houses across the street from Sugar Cube Corner. She was greeted by a brown earth pony she hadn’t met, so she introduced herself.

“Hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if Mr and Mrs Cake mentioned anything about going on vacation to you?”

“Um, nope. They’re not really the type to do something spontaneous like that, either.”

Twilight visited a dozen or so neighbours and got a similar answer from each of them. Sweat started prickling on her brow. It was becoming increasingly difficult to shrug off her concerns. She decided that if she vocalised her thoughts she might suddenly realise how ridiculous they were. With this in mind she headed back to her library home.

***

Walking through the door, Twilight immediately called out to Rainbow Dash and Spike.

“Rainbow Dash isn’t here,” said Spike, “She told me to tell you she’s sorry. Didn’t say what she’s sorry for, but it seemed pretty sincere. Anyway, she went out again. Said she needs to see someone.”

“That’s odd, she’s been avoiding talking to any of us. It didn’t look like she was in much of a state to do anything either, and she had plenty of meds when I left so she’s not out doctor shopping. Did she say where she was going?”

“Not that I can remember.”

“So she just left?”

“Yea. Well, she was going to talk to me about this whole thing, but when I mentioned that I lost the mare I love she just repeated me, and then left. I was really hoping she would-”

“Lost the mare she loves...”

Waves of understanding flowed over Twilight as she interrupted. The wave quickly mounted into a tsunami of realisation that crashed down on the unicorn as her mind drew the full picture.

“...and she wants all six of us to get together. Spike, I need to head out. It’s probably nothing, but get ready to send a letter. I might need to contact Celestia when I get back. If I’m not back by morning, send a note to Celestia yourself. I’m sure she’ll figure out that something’s wrong.”

Without waiting for her dragon to respond, Twilight ran out the door.

“Like I was saying, no pony cares about me,” Spike muttered to himself once he was on his own again.

Twilight returned less than half an hour later. Her mane was frazzled and she was breathing heavily. The bright purple eyes seemed glazed over and unable to focus on one object for more than a second.

“Spike!” she demanded as soon as she entered, “Send this note to Celestia, this note to Shining Armour, and this one to Applejack. DO NOT read them yourself. This is an absolute, life or death emergency!”

Without offering an explanation, the pony ran off once again. Naturally, the first thing the dragon did once the lavender pony bolted off was disobey her. He opened one of the scrolls and read it. His eyes widened in shock as his heart sank.

“An absolute life or death emergency,” he repeated as he made another copy of the note. After sending the letters to Celestia’s palace, Sweet Apple Acres and The Starving Artist, he glanced at the newspaper resting on the table. The headline read “Equestrian High Command to Far North after Embarrassing Bureaucratic Blunder”. Uttering the strongest swear in his vocabulary, the baby dragon rushed to the door to warn Twilight. She was long gone. He wanted to help, but what could he do? There’s no way he could catch up with the unicorn to deliver this information, and a baby dragon isn’t much help in a fight. Hopefully the few magic mail workers Celestia left in Canterlot would forward the vital letter quickly. Otherwise, it could take up to a day for Celestia to come down and confront Pinkie Pie.