One Wrong Turn

Sugarcube Corner 2:00 P.M Monday June 26th

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy , Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were sitting at Sugarcube Corner, trying to figure out what was wrong with Twilight. " I just don't get it! Why would Twi coop herself up in er house fer three days? It just ain't like her. I mean sure sometimes she gets into a study frenzy or sometin like that, but she never stays away from us this long!" said Applejack, bewildered at her friends behavior.

"Yeah, AJ's right girls!". Rainbow." Twilight never gets like this, especially so close to the summer sun celebration!"

" Yeah, I heard that it was going to be in ponyville again." said Applejack. " I reckon' we should ask somepony for help, maybe a psychia-whatchamacallit?"

"Now that's crazy! All twiligh needs is a good old fashioned, stress relieving Party! yelled Pinkie. Pinkie, who had returned to her bubbly personality after a talk with Applejack took out her party cannon from and fired conffetti everywhere.

"Umm... Pinkie, I agree with AJ, it might be best if Twilight sees a psychiatrist, um if you don't mind that is... I mean she might have over stressed herself and may need relaxation to clear her mind." Said fluttershy.

Rarity remained silent while they were all talking. "Oh Spikey-Wikey, I can't believe you're really gone. All because of that damn deal I made with that stallion. If only I had been more careful, more alert, or caucious, but instead, I fell to greed. I don't deserve to be the element of generosity, my greed killed Spike." As she thought to herself tears began forming in her eyes. Her friends noticed this and asked her what was wrong.

" Oh, nothing, nothing *sniff* at all, I am just worried about Twilight, that's it." She lied. Applejack could tell something was off, but decided to drop it for now.

"It's settled then, were gonna go an git the best psy-whatsit we can, and help out Twi." said Applejack.

"YEAH!". They all said, save for Rarity. "Girls, I am afraid I must... decline, for now that is"

" What in tarnation da ya'll mean by decline?!"

"Well, I have a very important client I must talk to in Canterlot"She said as she began to sweat nervously.

"Alright that does it!" Applejack yelled, startling everypony there." Rarity , ya'll been tryin mighty hard to lie to us for quite awhile! Now can ya please tell us what this is really about? and be honest, I'll know if ya aren't" said Applejack.

"Girls, I, I... I'm sorry!" Rarity said as she got up and sped away, tears in her eyes. She hated having to lie to her friends, but if she told them the truth, they would surely think she had snapped as well. She needed to fix this, somehow. All she had to do was find that stallion and somehow force him into reversing the spell, and hope that that would bring Spike back. The stallion said he was Twilight's friend but that was impossible if he did that to Spike, but still it was her only lead. She couldn't ask Twilight of course, if she found out she caused this... She had to go to canterlot then. With her mind made up, Rarity packed her saddlebags and trotted of towards Ponyville station, where she would get a ticket and head off to interrogate the two ponies that were close enough to Twilight to know about the stallion: Shining Armour and Princess Cadance.

" Oh the poor dear, she must be very stressed." said Fluttershy, her voice full of worry for her friend. "We have to help Twilight as fast as we can, then Rarity will feel better."

" Ah reckon ya'll are right sugarcube. Let's go get that whatchamacalzit"

"Oooooooh oh oh oh oh! girls I know just who we can get!" Anounced Pinky Pie. " Follow me!" and with that, she was off. The three had no choice but to follow her and shortly arrived at a big white building. It had no windows, save for two small ones on the first floor and had a regular wooden  door. On the building itself there was a sign that read "Proffesor wackjob's mental clinic". "Pinkie Pie, how the heck do you know about this place?" asked Dash.

"Oh, that's easy! I know every pony in ponyville silly! Plus, I used to be a patient of his!" With that she bounced off towards the building, oblivious to the looks of puzzlement she received from her friends. Dash was the first to recover. "Wait, did Pinky just say she used to be a mental patient?"

"Ya know, a am not surprised in the slightest" AJ stated as she began to follow Pinkie.

"Same here". responded Fluttershy, who had not spoken since their departure and began to follow AJ. Both mares leaving a confused mare slowly hovering after them.

The inside of the building was mostly white, white furnature, white walls, white pony even! The building had a waiting room with three large sofas and a glass toped cofee table. There were some potted ferns in the corner, but they paid them no mind. The table was covered in stacks of magazines from a magazine  that told you how to get a mare, to the Equestrian Inquirer. There was no secretary at the front desk, only a stallion whith his back turned.His coat was, surprise, white, while his mane was a dark brown. He was a unicorn and was using his magic to scribble notes into a clipboard. He appeared to have been talking to someone, a strange earth pony mare with a pink coat and a purple and white swirly mane that seemed to move on his own. She wore a white and yellow propeller hat with a green propeller amd her eyes were swirly and colored just like her mane. Her cutie mark was a screw and a baseball.

"Now Screwball, what did we learn today?" The stallion asked. The mare , apparently named Screwball, replied." Daddy Discord is not my daddy". The stallion sighed. "Close enough, I will see you next week screwball." he said. Screwball then started walking out the door and looked at the main six." yddad drocsid lliw evah sih ecnaegnev no lla uoy" she said as she glared at them.

Meanwhile in the canterlot statue garden

Discord's spirit floated around his stone prison smiling in the direction of ponyville. "That's my girl!" he said.

They just stared at her as she left the building and deicided not to worry about a possible death threat from a mental patient. The stallion took notice of them and turned around. "Pinkie Pie!" he said with a smile on his face. " How's it going? Still having those nightmares?" he asked her. "Nope! Thanks to you, I can even make zap apple cucpcakes without fainting or throwing up again!" replied Pinkie Pie. "Good to hear!, now, what can I do for you?"

" Our friend twilight went cookoo and we need you to go and help her!"

"Hmm... very well but might I ask what is making her 'cookoo'?"

"Oh thats easy!... ok maybe not that easy"

"Pinkie, I think its best if ya'll let me explain this here situation." said Applejack. " Look here mister Wackjob"

"Please! Mr. Wackjob was my father, call me Wacko"

"Umm... alright. Anywho, we think our friend twilight has been overworkin' herself too much on her studies lately. Now thinks that she has a pet dragon named Spike who died in a freak timberwolf attack and now she won't come of the library, its been three days already! Plus she set up some magical barrier thingy! We're mighty worried 'bout her." She finished. Wacko just nodded." I believe I know what is going on here, your friend has clearly been so overstressed with her studies that she created an imaginary friend or assistant. She gave it a name, gender, race, the whole enchilada" he said as he began pacing. "Tell me, has she recently gotten into an encounter with timberwolves?" he asked them. Everyone but Pinkie shook their heads.

"Yeah! she did! Three days ago my Pinkie sense told me a friend was in danger so I went to look all around Ponyville fro you guys! Then, when I was gonna look for Twilight This big blue wave thingy came and I fell asleep! Then when I woke up my ears flopped, my eyes popped, and my legs locked, which means everything was ok!"

"I believe I have enough information. Your friend simply created this 'Spike' because of stress and with the traumatizing timberwolf attack, she must have imagined it perish. Yes, I have seen many cases like this before. Direct me to her." said Wacko.

They all nodded, agreeing with his logic, before walking off in the direction of the tree house. Little did they know, that the hooded stallion had been watching them from an alley." All according to plan" he thought. "Now to make sure that no one else remembers that pesky dragon, none of his friend do. good. Now for that captain of the royal guard and that alicorn." The stallion began a slow walk towards the train station, removing his cloak. " Can't have any suspicious namby- pamby ponies after all".

Canterlot Castle Saturday June 24rd 6:00 P.M

Princess Luna walked towards her sister's study. She had called her there, talking about a journal entry. " What could tia possibly want with a journal entry? and why would she call me for it?". She thought. As she arrived at her sister's study she began to hear light pacing. Luna's eyes widdened. " Oh no, please dont let it be *THAT** journal entry. I was young and drunk! it wasn't my fault, besides Star Swirled only lost half of his ear, and his coat grew back."* She hesitated when opening the door. "Tia would'nt be mad at me after all this time would she?" Luna asked herself. She decided everything would be fine and went inside.

She had been in her sister's study before, it had rows upon rows of books on rows upon rows of bookshelves. They were organized in alphabetical order and dusted every week. The only other thing there was Celestia's desk. It had only one piece of paper on it, pressumably the journal entry. Celestia took notice of Luna and spoke.

"Ah, Luna, thank you for coming" said Celestia. " I suppose you know why I called you here".

"Sort of, the guard you sent mentioned a 'journal entry'. What is going on Tia?"

"You see Luna, last night at around seven, this appeared in front of me in a puff of smoke." said Celestia as she stopped pacing and levitated a parchment towards Luna. "The hoof writing does not seem to be magical, nor hoof drawn. I am led to believe that it was written by a being with a hand, much like a griffin or a dragon. Even a Diamond Dog could have written it, although most are illiterate." She explained. "I am very puzzled on who sent the entry and why, and I was wondering if you knew who sent it."

"Let me see that" aid Luna as she used her own magic to take the entry and began to read it.

Dear Spark

Well, I found ou that I got really hurt and now my memories are all fuzzy, I can't remember anything about my past, but everything else in my head is fine though, math ,history, grammar, all that kinda stuff, even my favourite foods!. I'm not even sure if Spark is your real name, but it's as close as I can remember so I'm sticking to it. I found this journal, so I'm gonna be writing you letters for when I find you Spark. Right now a really nice dragon called Zol, well Master Zol for me cuz I'm his new page. (that means student!) Isn't it great? I'm gonna be taught by the Dragon Father! I'm getting off topic though. Anyways, he found me after the accident, which I can remember, except for what you look like. So, before you go blaming Barky, (the timberwolf) just know he didn't mean it. He's Master Zol's pet and he was just really hungry, I happened to look like lunch so... anyway, he found me and Barky on the bottom of the cliff and took care of me. Now he's gonna help me get my memory back and train me on how to be a dragon. I know I'll find you so don't worry about me. I love you Spark and I miss you, I think, yeah I do.

-Ladon

P.S it's my secret name so don't tell anyone. Zol gave it to me!

"strange" Luna thought to herself."From the many friendship reports I have read, this appears to be Twilight Sparkle's assistant's hoof- err claw writing. How could Tia not recognize it?" She wondered. Luna's eyes shot open."Could it be?".

Outskirts of Canterlot Friday June 23rd 8:00 P.M

Luna had raised the moon a few hours ago. She had resumed her royal duty of raising and setting the moon once she had adjusted to modern equestria. She liked the old tradition of raising the moon, when she would fly out into the night sky and instruct the moon to follow her, like the mighty apollo and his flaming chariot, except with the moon and without the chariot. Often times she would find herself flying for hours, feeling the wind against her face, the speed, and the quiet. This night, however, was different. She felt a magical disturbance coming from ponyville. As she turned to inspect the town, she noticed an azure wave stretching out from the town. Seeing it she cast a protective magical barrier around herself and felt the wave wash over it."Dark magic". She thought. As the wave passed her, she watched it flow through canterlot and many miles before she could see it no more. She hurridly flew towards canterlot, hoping that Celestia was not yet asleep. Unfortunetly, she was. Luna decided not to wake her, for she needed her energy to raise the sun. As she trotted over to her bedroom she told herself she would tell her tomorrow.

Canterlot Castle 6:30 P.M

"How could I have forgotten?!" Luna screamed at herself, her sudden outburst startling Celestia.

" Forgotten what, dear sister? Do you know who wrote this?" asked Celestia.

"Yes, maybe, I need to send a letter to your student, please do not disturb me." said Luna as she rotted away with the letter. Luna arrived at her room and placed the letter on her desk, she then began to write on the back of the letter.

Dear Twilight Sparkle

It is I Princess Luna, I have written to you for two things, one is that I happen to have in my possesion a journal entry with your assistant's claw writing, it arrived here on the 23rd, at around seven at night. It is the one on the back of this letter. I would like you to please ask him if he sent this and what was its purpose. The second is because I sensed Dark magic coming from Ponyville, I was able to identify the kind of spell and found the need to notify you. The spell was a-

Luna's letter was cut short by a knocking on her door. Being a princess, she answered in the most pricess like way she could. "What do you want? Didn't I say I did not want to be disturbed?" She asked the cowering guard, annoyed. "F-forgive me, P-princess Luna, b-but I was told to remind you that you have a moon to raise. Luna sighed and aplogized to the guard. As she flew off to raise the moon, the guard regained his composture and smiled evily. He walked towards the letter and read it.

"Ah, ah, ah. Can't have you finding out just yet" He said." I need your stupid little friendship broken first." The guard then grabbed the letter, crumpled it up and threw it out the window."There, that will ensure my plan's fruition" The guard walked down the hall and turned a corner, he then took off his armor and placed it on the unconcious guard that lay proped against the wall." Now, where was I, oh yes the Royal couple." With that, he doned his cloak and snuck his way towards Shining Armour and Princess Cadence's room in the palace.

Canterlot Catle Front Gate Monday June 26th 6:00 P.M

"But, I need to speak with them right now! It is of great importance!" Rarity yelled at the guard. "Sorry ma'am,but captain Armour and Princess Cadence specifically said they did not want to be disturbed."  The guard stated. Rarity had been trying to gain acces to Canterlot Castle for hours now. She had told the guard it was a matter of life and death, unfourtunately for her, a canterlot guard is trained to obey any and all duties given to them by the princesses and their captain. "Fine! I'll come back later." She had no intention of giving up that easily though. Rarity said her farewells and trotted off, minutes later she managed to teleport herself into the Canterlot Statue Gardens, home to many beautiful statues, a hedge maze, and a mischeveous draconequus. It also happened to be the scenery for the new married couple's room.

Rarity silently drifted through the castle corridors, avoiding guard patrols and servants. She finally arrived at her destination. A large white double door with golden trimings... guarded by two royal guards. She couldn't get in without being spotted, or so it appeared. A small smirk appeared on Rarity's face as she began her brilliant plan. She crawled out the window. Rarity was now hanging on to the edge of the window ledge, slowly inching her way towards her target. After a few minutes, she made it, just in time to see Shining Armour and Cadance.................................. Rarity spent the next few minutes attemting to erase that image from her mind as the couple finished.

Rarity watched as they got out of bed and were preparing to leave. She was running out of time and decided it was a good a time as ever and tapped on the glass with her hoof, startling the couple. Their bedroom was amazing, it looked just like the one she had when she had gone to Canterlot and Celestia had generously given her a room at the Castle, only bigger and fancier. "Rarity?! What are you doing here.?!" Shining asked.

"It's a long story, but I need to ask you something"

"Umm... okay? I guess"

"Do you know if Twilight or Spike had a friend that works in Canterlot? A stallion, a very close friend?"

"No, not really, I'm pretty sure i'd have known if she did."

Rarity sighed. Her ownly hope of finding this mystery stallion had been dashed. "Sorry for bothering you". Rarity said saddly as she left for Ponyville, dissapointed.

Shining Armour was just confused as he watched Rarity leave through the window." Why would she be wondering about Twily or Spike's friends from Canterlot?" Shining asked his wife. She shrugged.

"Tsk tsk tsk". A menacing and moking voice echoed throughout the room.

"Who's there?" asked Shining as he took up a fighting stance.Out of nowhere, a stallion appeared and quickly jabbed Cadence's neck and dissapeared. Cadance's eyes grew wide from the shock of the blow, until the closed and she slipped into uncounciousness. "CADANCE!" He bellowed. "You bastard! Show yourself coward!". A hooded stallion came up from behind Shining Armour and jabbed him as well. The stallion dissapeared as Shining slowly fell to the ground, his vision growing black.

Ponyville Monday June 26th 11:00 P.M

Rarity was trotting through Ponyville, a hundred thoughts running through her head. How she was a dissapointment, a horrible friend, a... murderer. She shivered. She still couldn't believe she had done that to poor little Spikey Wikey. Her train of thought was abrouptly stopped when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. When she looked she gasped as her eyes went huge. Standing, in an alley, was the hooded stallion. Without so much as a thought she charged at him. He had been expecting this and simply retreated deeper into the alley where Rarity followed."YOU!" She screamed, her nostrild flaring.

"Me". He said nonchelantly, as if the meeting was boring.

"You made me cast that spell and kill Spikey Wikey! Whats more, none of my friends remember him!Tell me how to reverse it!" Rarity's face was now red with anger.

The stallion stood there for a moment until he fell to the floor and burst out laughing,"BWAHAHAHA!"

Saying that Rarity was beyond mad was an understatement. How dare he laugh at Spikey's death and of her friend's misfortune! The nerve!

The stallion stopped clutching his sides and wiped away a tear." Oh that is rich! Spikey Wikey? Ha! I knew he wasn't a real dragon."

Rarity had enough."How dare you?! Spike is the nicest most generous dragon I have ever had the pleasure of meeting! what would you know about dragons anyways?!"

He just laughed again." That's why he's not a real dragon. Real dragons are feroucious, strong, and most of all, don't live with namby-pamby ponies!" The stallion snorted.

"Who do I know that talks like that?". Before Rarity could ask if they had meet before, the stallion continued.

"And another thing, you really think I would kill him?... yet. He's a part of my plan and I won't let anyone stop me, so I have to eliminate a slight nuisance." He said, snarling as he said the last part, although Rarity failed to notice this.

"Alive?! he's alive?!". Rarity's expression was that of pure happiness, not only was Spike alive, but he was safe. "Where is he? TELL ME!". She demanded.

"He's in a magically concealed cave in the EverFree, not that you'll remember.". As he said those words he leaped and jabbed her many times in the neck and head."Good luck finding your precious little Spike now". Then he dissapeared.

As Rarity fell, she had only one thought on her minds as she felt a buzzing in her mind.

"Who's Spike?"