Quashed

Rainbow Dash flew over the houses of the Crystal Empire. The chill wind kept her from flying too high, as she hadn't taken the time to dress for the occasion. She was going to see royalty, yes, but this was not a social call. She arrived at the entrance to the palace only to be stopped by the guards at the door.

"Halt!" one of them said, showing off his sword. "With the current crisis, the palace is not accepting visitors. You can come back another time."

"Let me through." growled Rainbow. "I have news for the princess regarding her sister-in-law. Prince Shining Armor's younger sister is in need of aid."

The guards looked at each other, then back to Rainbow. "Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I'm sure! Look at this!" Rainbow reached into her satchel and pulled out a scrap of paper. The paper had six lines of library call numbers. "These are the six books she asked Spike to prepare for pick up. That's proof that she needs aid!"

One of the guards raised an eyebrow. "Is it, though?"

Rainbow was starting to become frustrated. "Just show this list to Shining Armor! He'll believe me!"

The guard sighed. "This is a waste of time... Fine, I'll see if he has the time to deal with you." The guard took the scrap of paper and entered the palace. Rainbow stood outside the doors, tapping her foot impatiently.

The remaining door guard was growing annoyed by the tapping. "You know, it's unlikely you'll be allowed into the palace, even with this 'evidence' you brought. Why don't you find a place to rest? I'm sure we have a cot available in one of the longhouses."

"Not necessary," Rainbow huffed. "Shining Armor will listen to me."

"I don't think he will. You'll be lucky if he doesn't have you hauled off for harassing his guards."

Suddenly, the door swung open. Prince Shining Armor himself was standing there. The remaining door guard smirked and prepared to have Rainbow escorted away, but that's not what Shining Armor ordered.

"I need more information, Rainbow Dash. Come with me."

Blowing a raspberry at the guards, she followed Shining Armor to a large rotunda with a round table in the middle. Cadance was already there, staring at the scrap of paper. "It's very odd that she'd pick this order to ask for these six books," she puzzled. "She would have reordered these to be alphabetical before sending this note."

"Or reverse order," added Shining. "That way Spike would go from one end of the library to the other, rather than having to rush back and forth. That's very odd of her to do."

"Spike thought it was weird, too. But he gathered the books anyway. In proper shelving order, of course. The books were all picked up and taken to Canterlot." Rainbow reached back into her satchel and pulled out another sheet of paper. "These are the names of the books."

Cadance read each of the books names aloud. "Pressed into Service, a romance novel. Levels of Saturation in Soil in Regards to Growing Tomato Plants. That's a farming reference guide. Herbs of Southern Course, more farming. Simple Recipes for Young Mares, a cook book. Universally Accepted Mathematics, a treatise on maths. Encyclopedia of Eggs. That's a very odd selection of books."

"That's just the order Spike shipped them in. The order Twilight asked for them was this." Rainbow rearranged the list so that the call numbers aligned with their books. She then pointed to the first letter in every title. The new order read "HELPUS." Cadance and Shining Armor looked at each other. "Twilight's a smart mare. If she were being held captive, and that was kept under wraps, she'd have to be very careful to send out her plea without being noticed. She made a string of odd decisions when asking for her books, and the order she chose was her way of making sure we found her message. She's in terrible danger! We have to save her!"

Shining Armor slammed his fist on the table. "We couldn't agree more. Twily needs us. We can't just leave her there."

"Hold," Cadance called, raising her hand. "While I agree that it would be a good idea to go save our dearest Twilight, I don't know if we can. Many of the Crystal Empire's guards are overworked as it is, as we've more than doubled our population in the past two months. On top of that, we've received reports that Canterlot has been fortified significantly, and its soldiers better trained. We don't have the forces necessary to storm the castle."

"Twily is trapped in the castle, Cadance!" shouted Shining Armor. "We can't just leave her locked in the dungeon!"

"And I don't plan to!" retorted Cadance. "She's my family, too, Shiny! I'm not saying we leave her there, I'm saying a frontal assault would be suicide. I'm reluctant to go in and bring her out myself, as well. Whatever they did to capture Twilight, it must have been very clever. Twilight may be naïve, but she's also very smart. If I go to Canterlot castle to negotiate for her return, I may fall victim to the same trick that captured her. I am Equestria's final princess not under duress. I owe it to the crystal ponies, as well as all the Equestrian refugees, to stay here in the crystal palace, safe from this minotaur regent."

A tear ran down Rainbow's cheek. "So that's it then?" Her voice was starting to crack. "Twilight stays a captive, and we do nothing about it?"

Shining Armor scowled. "No. I'm sending out missives. All guard posts in the Crystal Empire will begin recruiting at twice the rate. We may not have the numbers to march on Canterlot, but we will soon." He pulled out a fresh scrap of paper, beginning his order.

"I'll send out orders to the current guards," nodded Cadance. We'll have the refugees begin working straight away. Armor, munitions, food... We'll need it all to feed our new army."

Rainbow pumped her fist in victory.

"Don't go celebrating just yet," warned Cadance. "Even if we manage to quadruple our army, we're going to have a hard time making it to Canterlot, and an even harder time breaking through the gates. Plus, if the ponies of Equestria don't adhere to our cause, we'll have many more soldiers to contend with. Until we have a better plan, this is only to bolster our defenses against the minotaurs. We cannot yet take them on."

Rainbow slumped down into her seat. "That sounds suspiciously like giving up."

"It's more akin to playing defensively. We have no idea what's going on in Canterlot Castle. We need to wait and see. Go and rest, now, Rainbow. If you think of anything that might help us speed up this plan, or can help with our survival rate, we'll be here."

"I'll issue an order to the guards that you, Rarity and Pinkie are allowed access to the palace as consultants," added Shining Armor. "You'll be allowed to come and go as you need."

Rainbow stood up and saluted. "If I think of anything, you'll be the first to know." She turned and exited the palace. She was quite upset. She hadn't been able to quiet her mind since Spike called for her help. She needed some time to come up with something. She needed advice, too. Perhaps...

She took off for the Zebrican Kingdom. There was somepony she needed to talk to. Somepony who would, when asked what she should do, would give an honest answer.