The Flame Sister

   On the ceiling, the glimmering yellow chandelier gave off a cool and calm aura, which was a humongous contrast to what the overall mood of Twilight and Celestia was.

Twilight stepped a few small steps forward and inspected a lonesome and empty cage in front of her.

It contained nothing but a few colorful feathers, obviously that of Philomena. Just like the cage, they eerily laid there atop the small silver bars on the bottom of the cage. It was almost a reminder left by the Canterlot Knight, ‘Don’t mess with me or I will make you suffer worse than what I may do to this bird’.

Twilight gave Luna a worried look and then asked a question that was on her mind.

“Why couldn’t you stop the Canterlot Knight?”

Luna rolled her eyes, feeling that Twilight was going to be mad at her or she would put the blame on her.

“What do you think? That I stood there like sheep as he whisked Philomena away? No! I merely had a glimpse(!) of him taking Philomena away, I only saw him being lifted up by a rope he was holding as he took Philomena from her cage.”

Twilight looked up to see a hole in the ceiling. It was not a perfect circle, because the edges were rugged, bumpy, and looked as if it had been blown out. ‘What on Equestria could you get your hooves on to make a hole like that?’ thought Twilight.

“So why didn’t you fly out when he took Philomena? You have wings, and there is a giant hole in the ceiling,” said Twilight.

“Why, of course I did! When I flew out of it, I saw the Canterlot Knight hanging on a rope attached to some futuristic device with spinning blades on top, and I was so unfamiliar with it that I did not dare to go near it. As you say, sister, fear the unknown.”

‘Of course, a helicopter. What else could it be, my agency is full of them, looks like somepony got their hooves on it. Although, it may not be inspired by mine, unless the Canterlot Knight took a hard and long peek into my dozens and dozens of them. I think I am going to have to put the agency on lockdown,’ pondered Celestia, who was curious as to how the Canterlot Knight’s helicopter looked ‘exactly’ like.

“Okay, we’ve got to get moving and find that heli--- I mean, uh… flying thing,” said Celestia.

   Celestia and Luna had walked to a room titled ‘Tracking’ and waited for Twilight to follow.

When Twilight came in eagerly, she saw what looked like an array of faintly flashing lights, and the sounds of beeps and boops whirred throughout the room.

Twilight was overwhelmed. She had not anticipated in any way that she would walk in to what felt like a portal to the future. In fact, she was expecting a portal to the future hidden somewhere.

“This is amazing! Where’d you get all this?” asked Twilight.

“It’s… uh… we found it! Yeah, that’s it. I found it laying around somewhere in the far off Equestrian lands!” nervously responded Celestia.

“I have not known nor realized that thine sister was holding such things in her possession,” said Luna, looking at the machines and almost as bewildered as Twilight.

“Hey Luna, maybe you should rest your pretty little head. I think these flashy buttons are going to do a big number on you,” said Celestia in a motherly tone.

“I think thine sister is correct; I shall indeed rest my head.”

Luna went out of the room, leaving Twilight and Celestia alone with a giant screen that had an entire map of Canter--- scratch that, an entire map of Equestria.

“Okay, let me break it to you. This is all stuff from my agency, just things that I use in case of emergency. Don’t ever think about coming into these rooms without my permission. And especially try to stop Luna from coming in. I don’t want ‘curiosity killed the cat’ to become ‘curiosity killed the Shakespearian horse’.”

Twilight nodded awkwardly and proceeded to have her breath taken away by the vast majority of flashing buttons. She could have stayed here for hours.

“Okay, see that map?” Celestia held her hoof out to a red and blue dot near Yakyakistan, “That’s where they are. Blue for Philomena. Red for Canterlot Knight, or as I like to call it, red for dead.”

“Got it. Although, I have a question. What are we going to do about Sweetie Belle? If she’s in trouble, isn’t that number one priority for us?”

“I suppose so. But read and take a long hard look at the book you showed me back in the library. Starswirl? Nebula? StarBEND? I think you see my point. Nopony with the evilness of the Canterlot Knight can get a hold on that phoenix.”

“What’s that Phoenix even looking for?”

“A mate? A long lost brother? An ancient artifact? I have no idea, but whatever it is, she wants it. From what I can gather, she might kill the Canterlot Knight anyway if he can’t get her what she wants. Although, the Knight seems to have planned this all out, I see no reason he wouldn’t know how to deal with that.”

“Hmmn, I see your point. Just saying that I think Sweetie is in pretty deep. He nearly knocked us out of unconsciousness with the train incident. I think he is going to do something to Sweetie that won’t be pretty.”

“Hush! Don’t bring such talk. We will save her and she will be okay, whether that’s what the Canterlot Knight wants to even do anyway!”

“Okay, okay. I get it. I’m sorry, just worried.”

“I know, my little pony. I’m worried too.”

Eventually, the red and blue dot on the screen stopped moving. They were dead center in Yakyakistan.