Equestria

Celestia lay awake in her bedroom. The day had been long and taxing, and she was tired beyond belief. But her mind simply wouldn’t rest.

It had been three days since Twilight’s disappearance. Her family was becoming more and more stressed as each day passed, if Shining Armor was any indication. The captain looked as though he hadn’t slept properly since his little sister had disappeared. Celestia would have loved to send him on a leave of absence, but neither he nor his position would allow it.

Moondancer and Velvet had been sifting through Twilight’s notes since her disappearance. Celestia hoped that they were taking breaks to eat and sleep, because she hadn’t seen them at all since the incident. She also suspected that they’d abandoned the shift schedule and had begun sifting through the notes together nonstop. While their dedication was admirable, they could only go so long without sleep.

Celestia finally gave up on sleep and got up, stretching her wings. She then slipped on her royal attire and left her bedroom for the study. They’re going to take a break, Celestia thought to herself, even if I have to make them do so. With that thought in mind, she made her way through the halls as quickly as she could without making too much noise.

She spent ten minutes walking through the quiet stone hallways of Canterlot Castle. Except for the occasional nighttime patrol, the halls looked completely deserted. Occasionally, one of the torches on the wall would flicker gently, sending her shadow dancing across the opposite wall.

She looked up as she stepped into the pale moonlit courtyard, staring at the silhouette of Nightmare Moon above her.

Just a few more weeks, Luna. she thought somberly. We’ll be together again soon.

It had been nearly a thousand years since Luna’s banishment, but it felt like much longer than that. Every day Celestia had spent without her sister had been spent feeling as though a piece of her was missing. It had been utter torture, wrought on her by her own thoughtlessness.

But it was almost over.

She suddenly stopped and glanced backwards. Lost in her thoughts as she was, she had almost walked straight past the entrance to Twilight’s study. She shook her head to clear it, then opened the door with her magic and walked inside.

The study was dark except for a few candles sitting atop the writing desk. Also on the writing desk were several stacks of notes and the heads of an exhausted-looking Moondancer and Twilight Velvet. Celestia shook her head in sympathy, then picked the sleeping mares up with her magic and carried them outside. She looked around and spotted an incoming patrol down the road.

“Guards!” she called.

The four stallions quickly trotted over and stood at attention. “Your majesty?”

“Please take Moondancer back to her room, and Twilight Velvet back to her home.” Celestia ordered. “Instruct your reliefs to bring Moondancer a very large breakfast in the morning and make sure that she eats it. Nightlight will take care of Velvet.”

“Yes, your majesty.” They chorused, taking the exhausted mares in their magic before setting off.

“Thank you.” Celestia said, before shutting the door and returning to the writing desk to look over their progress.

They’d taken all of the binders with information pertaining specifically to opening the Breach and stacked them to the left of the desk, while everything pertaining to other topics such as its origins was stacked to the right. Most of the binders on the left were covered in sticky notes which highlighted information of high importance. Judging by the number of sticky notes, she judged they were coming along nicely.

Celestia smiled. Hold on just a little longer, Twilight.

Just then, she heard the door open again. She turned and saw Shining Armor enter the study, stopping in his surprise at seeing her there.

“Captain, shouldn’t you be asleep?” she asked sternly.

Shining cocked an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you?”

Celestia stared at him for a moment, then sat down and began looking through the information highlighted by the sticky notes. Shining took a seat on the opposite side and did the same.

They worked in silence for the most part of an hour before Shining spoke up.

“So how’s Spike doing?”

“He seems to have as much trouble sleeping as you and I. He says the emptiness of their room scares him, and asked if he could stay in my room until she comes back.”

“What were you expecting?” Shining asked out of curiosity.

“I was expecting him to burst into fit of hyperventilation every few hours when he’d think of something terrible happening to her.” she replied. “Either he doesn’t believe those things will happen, or he’s trying not to think about it. Either way, he isn’t doing well.”

Shining grunted in response and continued sifting through his binder. Another few minutes passed before Celestia spoke again. “How’s Cadence?”

“She was devastated when I told her what happened. You know she feels like Twily’s her little sister. She hasn’t been eating, and no matter what I say to her she always replies with ‘I’m not hungry right now’.”

“Mm. What about your father? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“Calm. He keeps telling us not to worry about him and that he’s doing fine, but I’m not stupid. I’ve seen him pouring himself a drink more than once every day since Twily’s disappearance, and Dad never drinks.”

“We’re all finding different ways of coping.” said Celestia. “Twilight means a lot to all of us. That’s why we have to hold out hope that she’s alright. At least until we can find out for certain what happened.”

“Do you think something’s happened to her?” asked Shining.

“I have no idea. What I do know is that we have to believe that there’s at least a slim chance that she’s alright. If we don’t, we may never see her again.”

“Agreed.” Shining replied before returning his full attention to his binder. Celestia did the same, and not another word was spoken for the rest of the night.

((((((*******))))))

Las Vegas

“You did WHAT?!” bellowed Simmons.

Jeff stood in the middle of a portable base of operations, confused as to what he’d said to upset his boss. “I showed him my badge so that we could get blockades set up to catch the suspect, sir.”

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! MOST OF THE GANGS IN THIS CITY HAVE MADE DEALS WITH THE FUCKING COPS! YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS BACK OUT THERE AND MAKE SURE THOSE COPS DON’T TELL ANYONE WE’RE HERE!” Everyone in the base noticeably cringed at Simmons’ shouting.

“I already did, sir.” Simmons stared at the agent for a moment. “The story we gave everyone is that we were detectives in pursuit of a murder suspect. We also threatened the officers we spoke to with treason charges if they talked about us. No one’s going to look twice at us.”

Simmons took a minute to calm down. That story gave enough excuse for the two agents to be speeding down the freeway like they had been, and God knows this city wasn’t short on murder. Jeffrey obviously had all bases covered with this little mishap, so Simmons figured he could afford to go easy on him.

“Alright, fine. But you still don’t go flashing your badge to every Tom, Dick, and whoever in the city. This is supposed to be a covert operation, understand?”

“Understood, sir. Won’t happen again.” replied Jeff.

Simmons nodded. “Dismissed.” Jeff gave a salute and then exited the trailer.

Simmons went to a desk with a computer at the back of the trailer and sat down. He leaned back and closed his eyes for a second.

Trying to hide three covert government units in a city like Vegas was like trying to hide an elephant in a convenience store. The soldiers and scientists under his command simply did not fit in with the folks in Vegas. He’d been up for a majority of their time here trying to keep his agents from screwing up and blowing their cover. He’d been successful so far, but it was only a matter of time.

I need to find that sneaky bastard now. he thought. I need a miracle.

Simmons sat up when he felt his phone vibrate. He smiled as he slid his phone out of his pocket and saw it was Myles.

Speak of the devil. he thought as he answered.

“Hey, what do you got for me?”

“Good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”

Simmons sighed. “I think-“

“Alright, bad news it is.” Myles said, deliberately cutting off Simmons.

Simmons gave a small chuckle despite himself. “You little shit.”

“Naturally. Anyways, the bad news is that our guy had a jammer going during the chase. It rendered all the street cameras he passed utterly useless.”

Simmons groaned. “Are you telling me that we still have no idea where to find him?” he asked miserably.

“Nope, and that’s the good news.” replied Myles. “I followed all of those downed cameras back to where the chase originally started. Before that, I can see him leaving from behind the Palazzo hotel.”

“The Palazzo Hotel? Any idea why?”

“Uhh…no. Isn’t that your department Mr. Detective?”

“Smartass.” Simmons thought for a moment. “The Ghost is a sniper, so he needs a decent vantage point to work.”

“So you think we’ll be finding him on the roof in the near future?”

“Unless you have another theory?”

“I hear they have a killer breakfast buffet.” Myles said seriously.

“Again: smartass.”

“But of course. Can you imagine me without my sparkling sense of humor?”

“I can, and I can honestly say it fills me with fear.”

“No joke?”

“Myles, I see myself at some boring desk job.”

“God, that is a scary thought!” Myles replied with exaggerated fear in his voice.

There was a moment of silence between the two.

“Hey Myles?”

“Sup?”

“Don’t ever change.” Simmons said with a smile.

“You got it boss!” Myles replied cheerfully. “Give me a call and let me know when you nab the guy.”

“Sure thing pal. Thanks.”

“Good luck.” He hung up.

As soon as the call ended, Simmons dialed another three numbers. All three lines were answered almost instantly. “Sir?” the officers asked in unison.

“Gentlemen, I want squads to stake out the Palazzo hotel. Jones’ squad will take first shift, Oxley’s second, and Brody’s third. I want eyes on all areas at all times and I want you to-”

Suddenly his phone rang again. He checked and saw, to his surprise, Myles’ name in the caller I.D. He added him to the call.

“Yes Myles?”

“Hey, just saw this on the news. Mayor Goodman’s giving a big speech at city hall on Saturday.”

“So?”

“So, city hall’s in plain view of the top of the Palazzo. I think our guy’s about to be involved in some bad politics.”

“Mr. Avalon, you are on fire tonight.” Simmons said with a grin.

“I aim to please, sir. If I may make a suggestion, though? Wait until after the Ghost kills the mayor to arrest him.”

“Why’s that?” asked Simmons, confused.

“There’s no two ways about it: that mayor is one fucked up piece of work. This city will be better off without him.”

“Understood. Thanks for the intel.”

“My pleasure.” Myles said before hanging up.

“Gentlemen, I’ll call you as soon as Goodman takes the stage. When I tell you to, I want you to rush in and arrest the Ghost before he can get away, understood?”

“Yes, sir.” The officers chorused.

“Good. Dismissed.” He ended the call.

He leaned back in his chair once again and smiled, sighing contentedly.

“Checkmate, sir.”

Author's Note

Kind of a short chapter compared to my other ones, but this one's mainly to keep the flow together if you know what I mean. So don't expect to see too many chapters this short.
I would also like to thank you guys for the awesome feedback I've been getting on this story. You're all too kind to little ol' me.
As usual, be sure to leave a comment letting me know what you thought about the chapter and hit the like button if you really enjoyed. Thanks guys!