Everdale

by SoloAcapello

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure
Length: 154872

When Twilight finds herself stumped by a series of mind-bending mysteries, she finds that being a detective isn't as easy as she thought. After all, fictional detectives never had to worry about saving their friends from being falsely accused.

(Please note: The comments for this story WILL contain major spoilers! You have been warned!)

When Twilight finds herself stumped by a series of mind-bending mysteries, she finds that being a detective isn't as easy as her favorite fictional characters make it look. After all, they never had to worry about whether or not they could protect their best friends from being falsely accused of foalnapping. Wherever the detective goes, trouble will always follow.

But once the truth comes to light, what happens then? Sometimes, the truth is unpleasant. And in some cases, it reveals much more than anyone could have ever expected.

As a reader, expect to be challenged. This is a good whodunnit style mystery with a new twist, so everything is solvable, but it is far from easy. Once you add in magic and wings, mysteries become much more difficult to solve! They'll also get more difficult as you go on. The first one is easy, but they get progressively harder until the final one, which will test your sleuthing skills to their limits.

Current status: Complete!

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-09-08 17:27:14 UTC

Chapter 2: Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It

Chapter 2

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It

Twilight, despite all of her knowledge on the subject of sleep, still found herself perplexed by the world of dreams. While she did not consider dreams to be the most useful area of study, there was a part of her that still longed for a crash course seminar from the Princess of the Night: Luna. Why had Celestia been so vague about Luna and her ability to speak through dreams? It didn't seem like the kind of thing that they would want to keep hidden, but Twilight wasn't going to question the princesses' judgment.

With a hefty sigh, Twilight sat on a little cushion in her imaginary library, waiting patiently for her guest to arrive. She knew that this was a dream, yet she had little to no control over where she was or what she was doing. The prospect of not being able to control the world around her was a frightening one, especially for a unicorn as powerful as herself, but she kept her discomfort from showing. This was a world of the subconscious, so she had to keep herself collected, just like the two princesses.

The instant that she thought of the them, Luna walked right through the front door of the library. Twilight had to blink a few times, trying to process the fact that Luna had walked through her front door. Literally. With a gulp, Twilight found herself resisting the urge to barrage Luna with questions about what she just did.

Luna, her tall, dark form out of place in the quaint library, took the opportunity to survey her surroundings, almost as if she were evaluating Twilight on the cleanliness of her home. Despite her slow pace, it didn't take long for the starry-maned Alicorn to find her seat at the other end of the wooden table.

“P-princess?” Twilight croaked, wincing at the sound of her own voice. Twilight had become comfortable in the presence of Princess Celestia, but Luna was still something of a mystery to her.

“Twilight,” Luna responded, her gaze homing in on the unicorn in front of her. “I take it that you have already arrived at Everdale.”

The atmosphere in the library was delicate, making Twilight hesitant to answer. “Yes, princess,” she whispered, shifting on her haunches. “We—”

“That is wonderful!” Luna suddenly shouted, raising herself up to her full height. “I have been waiting for weeks to finally see your dreams! It is exactly as I imagined, Twilight Sparkle. Your books are still alphabetized with clear titles, meaning that you know the contents of your library quite well! I must say, this is the most orderly dream I have ever visited!”

Still reeling from the onslaught of observations, Twilight raised herself off of her cushion in an attempt to match Luna's excitement. “Um... thanks?”

“Thanks are not required, dear Twilight Sparkle, for the pleasure is all mine!” The only time that Twilight had seen Luna this excited was when the princess had discovered all of the silly games at Nightmare Night. “As you may be able to deduce, Twilight, the sharpness of details in one's dreams indicates their familiarity with their surroundings. To provide an example: if you were to imagine yourself inside of Rarity's bedroom, you would be unable to read the books on her shelves, unlike here!”

Twilight was rendered speechless as the Princess rambled on about the theory of dreams and their relationship to the waking world. A thought crossed Twilight's mind as she tried to focus on the perplexing lecture. If dreams represent the subconscious of a pony, was he currently communicating with Luna's subconscious?

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle, one thousand apologies!” Luna exclaimed, breaking off Twilight's train of thought before she could go any further. The princess' tone became slightly worried. “I just wanted to tell you that I am impressed by your dream. That is all. May we get to the, um, 'knitting gritting' of the situation?”

It took Twilight a moment to realize what Luna meant. “Oh, it's actually 'nitty-gritty',” she corrected. “You know, now that I think about it, that phrase doesn't make any sense.”

Luna looked somewhat disheartened. “Make that one thousand and one apologies,” she replied, returning back to her cushion by the table. “I have been attempting to learn more modern colloquialisms, but most of them are entirely nonsensical.”

Twilight put on a reassuring smile and took a seat as well. At first, she had been intimidated by the Princess, but even in dreams, Luna had a filly-like wonder about her. “Actually, princess, you're doing pretty good.”

“Pretty well.”

“Oh, uh.... Pretty well. You've come a long way since Nightmare Night. I had no idea you could communicate through dreams, though! Why didn't you tell me earlier? We could have had study sessions even while I was sleeping, meaning my productivity level would skyrocket! If I can take sleep out of the equation, I'll be able to write twice as many papers and reports!”

Luna's cheery demeanor took an immediate dive, making Twilight wish that she could stuff the deluge of words right back in her mouth. The Princess' smile remained, but her eyes were drilling holes in the middle of the table. Whatever Twilight had said, it had immediately caused Luna's mood to spiral downwards.

“Twilight Sparkle, let us nit and grit,” the alicorn stated. “My sister has given you instructions on your mission, correct?”

Trying not to let her confusion show, Twilight nodded. "Well, not really. She just sent me a note and told me to to go to this little town called Everdale. But then she said something about you meeting me in my dreams! I was hoping that you could tell me a little more about what I'm supposed to be doing here, princess."

Princess Luna paused for a moment, as if collecting herself. “Twilight Sparkle, you are to investigate a series of disappearances in Everdale. My sister and I received a messenger pegasus, informing us of their plight. Based on what the pegasus told my sister, there have been nearly 30 consecutive disappearances over the past month.”

Twilight's breath caught in her throat. 30?! This town couldn't be home to more than 70 ponies from what she had seen so far! Why would anypony wait so long to inform the Princesses about something this urgent?

Ignoring Twilight's confusion, Luna continued. “That is only the beginning. What prompted the messenger to seek our aid was that they found some of the missing ponies. There were nine of them wandering around in the Everfree Forest. Our messenger described them as lethargic and lifeless, barely seeming to notice that they were lost. Even when brought back to town, they were indifferent to the plight of Everdale and refused to answer any questions.”

Something sounded awfully familiar about this situation. Twilight looked up at Luna, who returned her gaze. “It sounds exactly like—”

“The Crystal Empire,” Luna remarked, finishing the unicorn's sentence. “My sister and I fear that King Sombra is targeting Everdale for some reason, but we cannot be sure. At most, we are 'reaching for the hay' in this situation.”

“Grasping at straws, Princess.”

“One thousand and two apologies, Twilight Sparkle. If you would, please refer to me as Luna. I hope that we may avoid unnecessary pleasantries here.”

Twilight, hoping that she could brighten the mood again, gave Luna an enthusiastic grin. “You got it, Luna! Just as long as you stop using my full name. Princess Celestia only does that to scold me.”

Within moments, Luna's childish smile had returned. “Very well, Twilight. Please exercise caution. I expect another report from you tomorrow night.”

“Roger that, Luna!”

“Who is Roger?”

“Oh, nevermind that. See you tomorrow night!”

The alicorn turned to leave, but stopped. “Twilight… I would prefer that you not speak of this dream to anypony. Only a select few know that I can travel through dreams like this. I would like to keep it that way.”

“Don’t worry Princess, you can trust the six of us!” Twilight responded energetically, as if she were trying to offset the intense aura that Luna was radiating.

“No. Only you, Twilight. Nopony else.”

“But Princess—“

“Luna. Call me Luna. And please, I trust you to keep this secret.”

“Luna…” Twilight whispered, becoming rather worried. Did Luna not trust the other Elements of Harmony, even after they had become such good friends after Nightmare Night? Regardless, she was in no position to refuse a request from the Princess of the Night. “I-I promise.”

“Good. Thank you.”

Without another word, Luna phased through the front door like before, leaving a confused Twilight to worry about her mission for the few hours remaining until morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“King Sombrero is back?!”

Twilight buried her face in her hoof, wishing that Pinkie hadn't shouted so loudly. They were already attracting enough attention as it was, making a suspicious huddle in the middle of town square.

Considering that half of the population had disappeared over the past month, there were quite a few ponies still meandering around town. They hadn’t seen anypony except for the hotel clerk and the two watchponies when they had arrived the night before, but now it seemed like nothing was wrong.

Twilight, attempting to focus on the current situation, was about to correct Pinkie, but Rarity beat her to the punch. “Pinkie, it's Sombra.”

“But he went 'boooooom!' and exploded into, like, a million pieces! It was awesome! And anyway, Sombrero sounds better—”

“Pinkie, may I continue?” Twilight asked politely.

“Yep! Don't know what's stopping ya.”

Twilight groaned and looked around at her friends. “Okay, listen up. Now that we know what's going on, we're going to split up and find clues. Everypony, meet me here in one hour and we'll discuss the plan from there. Sound good?”

The other five ponies all answered at the same time, creating a jumbled mass of words. “I'll take that as a yes,” Twilight giggled as they all trotted off in different directions. Everdale was a small place, consisting of about twenty houses and a few stalls set up around town square, so it wouldn't take more than a few hours to question everypony.

Twilight trotted towards the wooden shack on the edge of town, hoping that the two watchponies that had helped them move into the hotel were still awake. Their testimony was probably the most important out of all of the ponies here.

The shack’s only window was facing away from Everdale, supposedly so that the pony on duty could look for any outside threats, but Twilight found herself wondering why they would arrange the outpost like that. If they were supposed to be watching the town, why weren't they facing it?

Stowing the question in the back of her mind for later, Twilight approached the wooden door in the back. As she reached out with her magic to pull it open, she overheard hushed voices on the other side. Twilight knew that it wasn't polite to eavesdrop on other ponies, but her curiosity was already piqued. She was in the middle of investigating a mystery, after all, and the detective needed to find as many clues as possible.

“You're bringing that up again?” a male voice sighed. “Look Page, that was nearly six years ago. This didn't start until the end of last month!”

“Just listen to me for once!” came another voice, this one female. “I know it sounds like a stretch, but think about it! There have only been two instances of missing ponies here in town: one six years ago and one right now. It just seems suspicious, that's all.”

“They're totally different, Page. The poor filly just wandered off into the Everfree Forest. When she came back, she was perfectly fine, not like....”

Twilight stood perfectly still behind the door, holding her breath. Now that she knew what was going on in this town, everything was starting to make sense. Deciding that it was best to interrupt their train of thought, Twilight lifted a hoof and knocked on the door.

There was a moment of silence before Twilight heard hoofsteps approaching the door. When it opened, Page was on the other side, eyeing her suspiciously. "Twilight, right?” she asked flatly. She didn't seem too happy to see Twilight, but Nightowl's expression brightened considerably when the unicorn made eye contact with him.

“And you're Page,” Twilight responded, flashing the pegasus a sincere smile. “I hope you don't mind, but I think I know what's going on here. Mind if I come in and ask you a few questions?”

Page glanced back at Nightowl, who was too busy staring at Twilight to notice. Grumbling something under her breath, she stepped out of the doorway and let Twilight in.

“Sure,” she Page grumbled. “We've been talking about it all night and seeing who could come up with the most outlandish theory behind these disappearances. I'm pretty sure Nightowl won.”

Nightowl pushed his chest out, nearly losing his guard's cap in the process. “Seems that it’s another victory for the esteemed author, Nightowl!”

“It also seems that the esteemed Nightowl doesn't realize that this is a competition to tell the worst story.”

Twilight and Page both giggled as Nightowl's posture slackened like a punctured balloon. Twilight was doing everything she could to lighten the somber mood in this town, but it seemed that these two still had a sense of humor.

Page, still in the spirit of the moment, plopped down on her rump and gave Twilight a challenging grin. “Well, we already have a victor for that last round, but I think some other awards are in order!” the pegasus announced, fluffing her wings out. “You said you knew what was going on, right Twilight? How about you give us your idea and we can see whose theory was the closest to yours?”

        Twilight gulped, looking back and forth between the two watchponies. The air in the room was electric with anticipation as both ponies stared expectantly at her. Twilight wondered how those two had enough energy to keep this up after spending a whole night on watch!

“U-um,” she stammered, wondering if telling them the truth was the best idea. She had come here to help these ponies, not start a mass panic!

“C'mon Twilight!” Nightowl urged, fidgeting around.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight quickly made her decision. Lying to these ponies, who were trusted enough to keep the night watch, would probably be a bad idea. “Alright, but let me make sure I have my facts straight.”

“Go ahead, shoot,” Page offered, her grin widening.

“Here's what I understand from my contact with the princesses. In the past month, nearly 30 ponies have gone missing. You recently found nine of them in the Everfree Forest, and from the way they were described, the nine ponies were emotionless and apathetic towards just about everything, refusing to answer any questions they were asked. Am I right so far?”

Page nodded, obviously trying not to appear worried. “31, actually. Close enough for government work.”

“Right. Based on the current evidence, it seems very similar to another case that me and my friends investigated not too long ago. Now, I don't want you to panic, so please, hear me out.”

The two ponies leaned in intently, eyes wide like fillies and colts at storytime.

“I believe that King Sombra has returned.”

The wooden shack fell deathly silent. Twilight, heart pounding in her chest, glanced back and forth between the two ponies. In a way, they didn't look afraid at all. They actually looked—

“Oh wow!” Page cackled, flopping over and rolling around on the wooden floor. Nightowl immediately followed suit, the two of them reduced to giggling heaps on the floor.

Twilight's face flushed a deep shade of red. She was being serious! Scowling, the unicorn stamped a hoof on the floor to try and prove her point. “It's not funny! Do you know what he nearly did to the Crystal Empire?!”

Nightowl, in between gasps, managed to roll over so that he was facing Twilight, his eyes brimming with tears of laughter. “Haha, I win again!” he managed to shout before doubling over once more. For a moment, Twilight was perplexed, but the realization dawned on her almost immediately.

Page spoke before Twilight had a chance to. “Ha, I can't believe it! You were right, Nightowl! It really was King Sombra!”

Twilight decided that she would come back later when the two of them were ready to listen to reason. Without even saying goodbye, she briskly turned around and made her way outside, slamming the door behind her with magic as she moved on to her next destination. Maybe those two would be more helpful after they had gotten some sleep. Trying to ignore the peals of laughter behind her, Twilight galloped off to the town square.

When she finally arrived, she found that she wasn't the only one who had come back a little bit early. Her friends were already there, along with what looked like the rest of the town. There had to be at least 20 ponies crowding around the small fountain in the center, and sadly, from what Twilight could imagine, these 20 were all that was left of Everdale, minus the two watchponies she had left behind.

As Twilight approached the crowd, she began to hear music. Lots of music. Most prominent among them was the banging of drums, which accompanied what sound like a small chamber ensemble.

When she got close enough to see what was going on, she had to do a double take to make sure she wasn't seeing things. In front of the crowd, there were three ponies around the edge of the fountain, none of which she recognized. One of them, a burnt orange pegasus, had taken flight and was up above the crowd with a megaphone similar to the one that the Apple family always used. Flying next to her was another pegasus, this one a deep green and wearing a puffy brown cap. He seemed to be mingling with the crowd a little bit more, making sure that everypony got the message.

What caught Twilight's attention the most was the mare behind them: a dirty white unicorn who was sitting on her haunches and swaying drunkenly. Her horn was surrounded by a teal aura, similar to Rarity's, that extended out to a number of different instruments. Twilight took a moment to count the number of instruments that she was playing, ranging from cellos to flutes. There had to be at least eight of them!

As Twilight reached the back of the crowd, she realized that she didn't see any drums in the ensemble, even though she was hearing them loud and clear. Then, as if to answer her question, Pinkie Pie came bounding around the fountain with her one mare band ensemble, banging and pounding in time with the other pony's energetic music. Behind Pinkie, Twilight could see a terrified Fluttershy running after her. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity were all there as well, watching the show with a mix of confusion and awe.

Twilight ran to greet her friends, but was met by the booming voice of the orange pegasus, amplified by the comically large megaphone that she held in her hoof. “Everypony! We can do this! That's right! There's nothing to fear, now that our princesses have sent help! That's right, the Elements of Harmony have arrived right here in Everdale!”

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, beginning to regret her earlier curiosity.

The pegasus continued in her obnoxiously loud voice. “For the first time in a month, we can all sleep comfortably, knowing that the heroes of Equestria are here to save us! Your friends will all come back! Our families will be whole again!”

The more that the pegasus talked, the more Twilight was reminded of the first time Trixie had shown up in Ponyville, but this time, they were bragging about her!

“That's right, everypony! They're even here in this crowd among us! They have already begun their work and will soon bring their harmony here to Everdale!”

The crowd began to part around Twilight Sparkle as more and more ponies noticed her presence. As she desperately looked for any way to avoid the spotlight, she saw that the same thing was happening to all of her friends. Poor Fluttershy was in the fetal position, covering her eyes with her hooves while Rarity and Rainbow Dash were already beginning to strike poses for the crowd.

Applejack, however, made it obvious that she wasn’t going to put up with this nonsense as she trotted up to the front of the crowd. The unicorn musician stopped her music, leaving Pinkie to continue drumming in the background.

“Now see here!” Applejack shouted, trying to match the pegasus in volume. “We haven't done anythin' yet! Quit making promises you ain't gonna keep yourself, ya hear?”

The pegasus, not even bothering to put away her megaphone, shouted right back. “As expected from the Element of Honesty, folks! So humble! So selfless! She's a model for all of us!”

Applejack, holding onto her hat to keep it from being blown off by the deafening volume, yelled even louder. “I'm telling ya! We! Haven't! Done! Anything!”

“Don't be so modest! This is a special occasion after all!”

Applejack huffed. “Oh yeah? And what's that?”

“It's the first time this month that nopony disappeared overnight!”

As the thunderous stamping of hooves sounded around her, Twilight began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The last time boasting had been an issue, it ended with an Ursa Minor rampaging through Ponyville. Twilight hoped that this would end differently.

        Either way, this wasn't going to be easy.

Chapter 4: Inviting Misfortune

Chapter 4

Inviting Misfortune

The inside of the Everdale Hotel was more colorful than anything that Twilight had ever seen before. When she and her friends had arrived the night before, the place looked like it had fired all of the staff except for the desk clerk, who had graciously allowed them to host their party in the lobby. Before, there were no decorations, no pictures on the wall, and not even a little bell to ring if the clerk was away, though the clerk had been there the entire time. After Pinkie Pie and Rarity had their way with the hotel, it was almost unrecognizable. Pinkie, if by some miracle she managed to focus for more than 30 seconds, knew quite a lot about interior decorating, so when that untamed creativity was merged with Rarity’s unmatched precision and direction, they could turn anything into a spectacle grand enough for the Grand Galloping Gala! Twilight had to marvel at their handiwork as she continued to mix the bowl of punch that Pinkie had brought along with her emergency party supply kit.

They had only been ready for approximately 45 minutes, but some of the townsfolk were already beginning to filter in through the hotel doors, eyes wide. Pinkie had been impossibly quick with the invitations, somehow managing to design and send out nearly 25 of them in 15 minutes. Preston, along with a few other ponies, had already arrived and were sitting down to watch Pinkie Pie do her signature standup comedy routine.

Her train of thought was interrupted when she felt something. There was a small flux in the barrier she had created around the hotel, indicating that somepony was either leaving or arriving. No, it was two ponies....

Right on cue, she heard the front door open, admitting yet another guest. As the unicorn turned to see who it was, she saw one of the two watchponies, Nightowl, trot excitedly through the front door. Page was draped over his back, snoring obnoxiously despite all the noise that Pinkie was making in the corner.

Rarity was there to meet him, acting as the maitre d’hotel. It seemed strange that Page would be asleep at this time of night, so Twilight wasted no time in trotting over to greet him as well.

Both Rarity and Nightowl jumped as Twilight approached, making her wonder if she had interrupted something important. “Oh, uh, sorry!” she quickly apologized, earning awkward looks from the two. “I just came over to see how Page was doing. She must be a pretty heavy sleeper, huh?”

Nightowl laughed. “Oh, her? It’s kind of funny, isn’t it? Usually I’m the one who falls asleep on the job. But as soon as Pinkie gave us the invitation and told us that we could take the night off, she just crashed! I guess she’s just really tired.” Nightowl’s tone became more subdued. “She’s been working herself to the bone out there, you know? I think she deserves a bit of rest.”

“We’ll try not to wake her,” Twilight assured, wanting to make sure that the two watchponies could relax for a night. It was impossible to imagine how difficult it must be for the two of them to be responsible for the safety of a town that was slowly falling apart. “Just relax tonight, alright? We’ve got guard duty covered! Pretty easy to take care of everypony if they’re in one place, right?”

“Absolutely!” Rarity agreed, nodding fervently. “Now, let’s get the poor thing upstairs so she can have a proper rest. After sleeping here last night, I can assure you that these beds are absolutely divine.”

“Thanks, guys,” Nightowl sighed. “You have no idea how much this means to us. But I have to say, this party is going to be legendary! A party thrown by the Element of Laughter herself! Oh man, Page is gonna miss out!” The earth pony’s energy shot through the roof as he started to trot towards the back of the lobby where the staircase was. Rarity was right behind him.

Before they could leave, Twilight shouted after them. “Hey, what room are you putting her in?”

“Oh, the room right above the lobby! It’s where I stayed last night!” Rarity shouted before disappearing into the stairwell with the stallion.

“Well then, this might be a problem,” Twilight grumbled, pursing her lips as she shut the front door. Thinking out loud, she began to pace back and forth. “Page won’t be with the rest of the party, leaving her vulnerable should our culprit try something risky. Let’s see, I was across the hall from Rarity, meaning that she was in room 201. Makes sense.”

Twilight stopped her pacing for a moment to focus on her magic. She just had to imagine the room above her and how it was designed. If it was anything like hers, it would have two doors, one leading to the room beside it and one leading to the hallway. Getting the image in her mind, Twilight readied herself to create yet another barrier around that room, one that would alert her anytime somepony entered or left.

One barrier spell later, there was an immediate disturbance, informing Twilight that three ponies had entered the room. After a few moments, two ponies left. Twilight grinned, proud of her accuracy.

Expecting the two ponies to come back down, Twilight looked impatiently at the stairwell. The two of them appeared to be taking their sweet time! Poor Rarity was probably being ambushed by Nightowl in an attempt to get her autograph.

After about a solid minute of trying to block out Pinkie’s oinking sounds from the corner, Twilight finally decided that she had waited long enough. She was trying to keep this town safe, but it was difficult to do so when she couldn’t keep an eye on everypony! Fully intent on giving Nightowl a lecture about personal space, she began to trot towards the stairwell.

Before she could trot a few steps, she was interrupted by a multitude of disturbances in the barrier. The sudden impact of it made her vision swim for a moment, but she recovered.

Grumbling under her breath, Twilight turned around and put on the most congenial smile she’d ever worn. Rarity wasn’t able to make it to the door, so her welcoming duties were passed on to Twilight. “Hello there, and welcome to—”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” Caesura whistled as she led a group of what appeared to be eleven ponies into the lobby. Once everypony was in, Caesura took it upon herself to shut the door behind her with a little magical push. “You’ve really got guts, you know? Red’s gonna flip when she finds out about this.”

Twilight watched as the eleven ponies immediately made their way over to Pinkie Pie’s comedy corner. Now that she had a bit of room, she pulled Caesura off to the side and gave her an uncomfortable frown. “Look, Caesura, I know that Red told us to leave, but this is too much for Red to handle on her own. Please understand. We just want to help.”

“Tell me about it,” Caesura mumbled. She sounded tired. “Why do you think I rounded everypony up myself? I went door to door to round up everypony but Red, just ‘cause I’m pretty sure she’d bite my head off if she found out about this little party here. The poor girl’s been in hysterics ever since you six left. Hey, did she even get an invitation?”

“Oh, she did,” Twilight giggled knowingly. “You can thank Pinkie for that. She insisted on two things. The first was that we invite Red, and the second was that we used those bright pink flyers over there, probably to see if our culprit has a sense of humor.”

“A sense of humor?”

“Absolutely!” Twilight responded energetically, eager to explain the little joke that she and Pinkie had come up with. “Our culprit delivered their ultimatum on the same flyer, after all! I asked the desk clerk to make sure that these flyers are only available at the hotel, just to make sure. But now we’re doing the same thing!”

Caesura didn’t seem to appreciate the irony of the situation. “So you’re throwing a party?”

“Of course! We’re delivering our own ultimatum on the same sheets of paper. We’re going to show the ponies of Everdale that we won’t abandon them!”

Twilight had expected some kind of response from Caesura, but the mare just stood there, looking a little taken back by how enthusiastic the other unicorn was.

“Wow.... Th-thanks,” Caesura finally stammered out, almost like she found it hard to believe that Twilight and her friends were still offering to help. After what Red had told them, Twilight could understand why. Red had been very clear that she didn’t want their help.

“Think nothing of it,” Twilight responded automatically. Twilight hadn’t given it a close look before, but Caesura’s cutie mark looked like two musical clefs with one flipped upside down. They almost made a heart shape.

Caesura made an uncomfortable sound as she realized that Twilight was staring at her flank. “Well,” the white unicorn chuckled awkwardly. “It may not mean that much to me, but I’m sure Red will appreciate it. She may seem like a jerk, but that’s just because....”

But before Twilight could press the issue any further, she felt another disturbance in the barrier. Right on cue, the front door burst open with a percussive thwack!, making everypony in the lobby turn to see what was going on. Even Pinkie stopped her nonsensical singing to take a look.

“What is the meaning of this?!”

Red stood in the open doorway, megaphone in hoof. A small piece of bright pink paper floated gently to the floor in front of front of her, carried by the growing wind.

Adjusting her mane and trying to get the ringing out of her ears, Twilight galloped over to try and keep Red under control. She had known that this was going to happen, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with. “Red, let me explain, I—”

“No explanations! Is this how the Elements of Harmony are supposed to behave?! Throwing parties at a time like this?!”

Twilight followed the pink paper as it came to a rest in front of her hoof. It was one Pinkie’s hoofwritten invitations, complete with pictures and an hour by hour schedule of how the party would work. Pinkie Pie’s comedy routine would last from 9-10, music and dancing from 10-11, campfire stories and s’mores from 11-12, and at midnight they would start up a game of blindfolded hide and seek.

“Blindfolded hide and seek?! Really?!” Red shouted nearly twenty times louder than she needed to. “Not only are you—”

“Red! Quiet down!” Twilight stuffed a hoof in the pegasus’ megaphone to make sure that she got the message.

While it worked, the pegasus’ temper was still at an all-time high. “You...! You!” she whispered behind clenched teeth, kicking the door shut behind her. Pinkie had already gone on with her routine in an attempt to distract everypony from the argument that was about to break out. “You numbskull! Not only are you undermining my authority, but you’re also putting everypony in grave danger! What’s that? Some jerk wants to make everypony disappear overnight? Oh hey, I’ve got a brilliant idea. Let’s put them all in one place and blindfold them!”

“Red, listen to me!” Twilight urged, fighting to keep her voice down despite her urgency. “That’s the point! We’re trying to lure the culprit here at midnight. I’ve got a barrier around the place that lets me know when anypony enters or leaves the premises. Caesura made sure that everypony is here, so if I feel any disturbance, we’ll catch our criminal red-hoofed. Now, think you can play along with this?”

It took a moment for the orange pegasus to finally lose her scowl, but she eventually gave in. Twilight could almost see some of the weight being lifted off of her stiff shoulders. “Okay, fine,” Red groaned with a little grimace. “I’m just a little peeved that you relieved the night watch. They’re our last line of defense.”

As Red forced out those last words, she looked back at the group of ponies that had gathered around Pinkie, who was now wearing a jester’s cap and some mismatched socks. She’d somehow managed to drag Fluttershy on stage, who looked more like a statue than a pony as she stared wide-eyed at the crowd. Rarity and Nightowl had apparently come back down, since they were sitting at the back. Twilight took stock of where everypony was and turned to face Red, but something didn’t seem right.

“Hey,” Twilight asked curiously, a hint of suspicion present in her voice. “How did you know that I invited the night watch as well?”

Red shrugged and tossed her megaphone over in the corner of the room. “I just saw Page in the window as I came in, and Nightowl’s over there. What, did you think I wouldn’t notice? You’re gonna have to do better than that to pull one over on me.”

“Wait... you saw Page in the window?”

“Yeah.” Red didn’t seem to see any problem with what she was saying. “She’s in the room right above us, isn’t she? The light was on when I walked by, so I looked up. What’s she doing up there anyway?”

Twilight had to pause and think for a moment. There had been no disturbances in the barrier around her room since Nightowl and Rarity had dropped her off. From ground level, Red shouldn’t have been able to see her on the bed. Just to be sure, Twilight had to ask something. “She was sleeping, but I guess she woke up. What was she doing?”

“Eh, she seemed like she was having an argument. But that’s Page for you. Girl just doesn’t know when to drop it.”

“She’s got plenty of energy, that’s for sure,” Twilight giggled, realizing that she had been worrying about nothing. Page was the kind of pony that would argue with a brick wall if it got in her way!

“I know, she seemed pretty upset!” the pegasus remarked with a smirk. The corners of her lips twitched the slightest bit as she locked eyes with Twilight. “You know, you’re still technically banished and all, but....” She broke eye contact, looking away as she trotted past. “Thanks. Thanks for coming back.”

The words warmed Twilight’s heart as she let out a sigh of relief. Everything was in order. All they had to do was relax for a few more hours and wait for the culprit to take the bait. If the culprit was somepony inside of the hotel, they were going to have a difficult time whisking everypony away without getting caught. But if the culprit was an outsider, which was more likely, they would immediately alert Twilight of their presence as soon as they got within a few feet of the building.

Wait. Wait a second. Twilight paused mid-trot, her heart pounding inside of her chest. No... something’s not right here. I’m not sure what, but I need to be sure. Okay. We have a grand total of 21 ponies from Everdale on top of our 6, making 27 ponies in this hotel. There’s 26 of us down here in the lobby and one upstairs. If Page was awake, then why hadn’t she left her room yet? According to Red, she was having an argument with somepony, so maybe....

“Having... an argument...?”

An argument?!

“Girls! Upstairs, now!”

The next few moments were a blur to Twilight. within seconds, she found herself trotting up the stairs with a few other ponies. Page was on the second floor, but what if the culprit had already been waiting inside the hotel? This was a four story hotel after all, so it would have been easy for somepony to hide in one of the rooms and wait until Page was isolated from the group!

“Okay, plan!” Twilight hurriedly huffed as she kicked open the door to the second floor. Her actions were miles ahead of her thoughts. “Nightowl, we’ll check on Page. Everypony else, split up and search the other floors! Stay with somepony else at all times!”

As Twilight turned to Nightowl and began to gallop towards room 201, she heard Applejack shouting behind her. “But what’re we gonna do ‘bout Rarity?! She, Red, and that pegasus with the funny accent stayed behind to watch everypony down there!”

Twilight looked back for a moment, doing a mental roll call. Sure enough, Preston, Rarity, and Red had stayed behind with the group.

“They’ll be fine!” Twilight called out as she closed the door to the stairwell with magic. As she approached the room in front of her, a terrifying thought occurred to her. There had been absolutely no disturbances in the barrier around Page’s room. If nopony had entered or left the room after she had been placed there... who had she been arguing with?

“Wait!” Nightowl whispered urgently as they arrived at the door, throwing out a hoof in front of her to keep the unicorn from going any further. He turned and locked eyes with Twilight, who was trying in vain to push him out of the way. “What’s going on? Is Page alright?”

Twilight huffed. “No time to explain. When she arrived, Red looked in the window and saw Page arguing with somepony! There’s somepony else in the hotel. And we need to find them now!”

The gray stallion’s eyes widened and he took a step backwards, fear beginning to show in his features. “W-wait, you mean—”

“I mean that Page is in Danger!” Twilight whispered, worried that the culprit might still be in the room. She didn’t have time to explain the barrier to Nightowl! “Now on the count of three, we bust in, okay?”

“Wait, wait!” the stallion insisted, blocking her path again. “We can’t both go through the front. There’s a side door that leads to the room next to it. You go through there, I’ll take the front.”

“Got it.”

With a curt nod, Twilight quietly dashed into the next room. It reminded Twilight of the room that she had stayed in the night before, meaning that all of the rooms had similar blueprints. Stowing the thought away for further scrutiny, the unicorn rushed past the bed towards the door that lead to room 201.

Just as soon as she reached it, she heard the deafening crack of splintering wood and felt a number of small disturbances in the barrier. Nightowl must have already broken down the front door. As quickly as she could, Twilight whipped around and bucked the door as hard as she could, not even thinking about property damage.

The door gave way, swinging open as the lock broke through the wood. “Page!” Twilight shouted as she scanned the room.

“Page...?”

There was no response. The dark room was entirely empty... except for a large stallion sitting at the foot of the bed.

As Twilight approached him, Nightowl fell back on his haunches and stared out of the window at the dark, cloudy sky. He opened his mouth to speak, but a peal of thunder cut him off, illuminating the room in a brilliant black and white flash.

“Nightowl,” Twilight gasped, her heart pounding heavy in her chest. No, this wasn’t possible! It didn’t make sense at all! There had to be some other explanation, there had to be! The more Twilight thought about it, the harder it became to explain.

Nightowl spoke the words she couldn’t bring herself to say.

“She’s... gone....”

Chapter 5: Picking Up the Pieces

Chapter 5

Picking Up the Pieces

There was nothing to say. Words, for once, had lost their meaning. Anything that Twilight could have said would have felt hollow. It was one thing to help somepony in need, but it was another thing entirely to lie to them.

For a few moments, the room was completely silent. A single drop of water splashed deafeningly on the window, immediately followed by a few more pinpricks of rain. Slowly, the world outside of the window became distorted by the sheet of water that clung to the glass, distorting the outside world into a senseless blur of dark colors.

There was a similar film over Nightowl’s eyes as he stared out the window. For the few seconds that he sat there, staring blindly at the blurry image of Everdale outside of the window, Twilight held her breath. Every passing second made her wonder if she could do something—anything—to help him.

Miraculously, Nightowl finally moved, turning to face Twilight with an unreadable expression. The darkness of the room around them seemed to settle over his stark features, but his eyes appeared to be glowing. There was a sadness in his stare, but it was accompanied by a grim determination. His bloodshot gaze preemptively refused all of the condolences that Twilight hadn’t been able to give.

“Search the room,” Nightowl spoke, his voice cracking despite his best efforts to put on a calm facade.

“But—”

“Just do it.” Nightowl’s heavy words slammed into Twilight like bricks. Without waiting for a response, he went to search the closet. As much as she wanted to protest, Twilight could only purse her lips as she watched him open the closet door and look inside, leaving her with no option than to start searching as well.

As Twilight began to slowly walk around the quiet room, the hiss of the rain snapped her out of her daze. Only then did she realize how cold it had become, but that bristling cold woke her up enough to realize something. Page had to be in this room. Three ponies had walked in, but only two had left! 3-2+2=3! Mathematically speaking, this was impossible.

As their search concluded, it became apparent that there were no other occupants in the room. Twilight had searched under the bed, behind the curtains, and even beneath the mattress, but she had found nothing but dust. Nightowl had covered the rest of the room, but there didn’t seem to be any spot large enough for a pony to hide.

“This... isn’t possible! This isn’t scientifically possible!” Twilight shouted in frustration, falling back on her rump in dismay. She had never been this confused, even during the time travel escapades that had nearly sent her off of the deep end. There had to be something she was missing!

Nightowl was still prowling around the room like a timberwolf, methodically checking every nook and cranny that he could find. “I don’t care,” he coldly responded. “You said that Red saw her in the window, right?”

A few moments passed before Twilight responded. Her thought process was in disarray. On her way upstairs, she had shouted instructions at everypony, but she couldn’t remember exactly what she had said to them. She did know that Red had seen Page in this room a few minutes ago. “Yeah. She saw Page in the window on the way in. Said she was arguing with somepony. I’m amazed you heard me over all that shouting.”

“I see.” There was something in his voice that made it sound like he was deep in thought.

As Twilight forced herself to focus her blurring vision, she caught Nightowl furrowing his brow and marching resolutely towards the door that he had broken down. Bits and pieces of wood crunched under his hooves. “Hey, where are you going?” Twilight asked, beginning to worry about the lifeless stallion.

“To find who is responsible for this. Maybe one of your friends found her on the other floor, but as it is, we’re just wasting our time here. We should go.”

Those words were spoken so coldly that Twilight found it difficult to refuse. Hesitantly, she stood up and trotted towards the broken door, feeling a disturbance in the barrier as Nightowl walked through it. The barrier was still working.

Before she could take a few steps outside of the doorway, she turned around and made one last sweep of the room and took a mental snapshot of how everything was arranged. It was difficult to see anything, considering how dark it was in there, but her eyes had already adjusted from being in the room for so long.

Once she had the image burned into her memory, Twilight sparked a small bit of her magic and let the barrier around room 201 dissolve. With their culprit on the loose, Twilight had the feeling that she would be needing her magic for other spells. As she turned away, the unicorn couldn’t help but notice how brightly the candles in the hallway shone. Their light didn’t seem to reach the darkness in room 201, but without those candles, she wouldn’t have been able to see anything in there.

As she neared the stairs, she felt something odd. There was another disturbance in the barrier. Just one. Whipping around, Twilight turned to the dark room, but it was still empty. It was then that she realized her mistake.

The barrier around room 201 was gone.

“No, not now! Why now?!” Twilight suddenly shouted, shoving a surprised Nightowl out of the way as she charged into the stairwell. The disturbance had come from the barrier around the hotel, meaning that somepony had entered or left the premises! Rarity wouldn’t have let anypony leave the hotel, which only left one option. Twilight had been waiting for this to happen, but it couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time.

Before Twilight could announce that the culprit had arrived, she felt another disturbance. And another. In a sudden flurry of sensory overload, Twilight lost her balance, causing the stairwell to suddenly spin around and send her careening down to the first floor. With every second, shocks of pain punctuated the disorienting fall.

The stairwell stopped moving. Or was it the other way around? Twilight groaned and slowly opened her eyes, trying to identify the dark colors and shapes that ran together as she tried to find the ground again. Even gravity itself defied her until she came to the slow realization that she was upside down.

Twilight’s thoughts began to return as she floated around in a topsy turvy daze. Her vision reminded her of how blurry the window was upstairs.

Her train of thought was interrupted by an insistent throbbing in her head, keeping her from forming any kind of coherent sentence. It was a good thing that it was so quiet, otherwise the pain would have been unbearable.

As soon as Twilight noticed the silence... she realized what it meant. The lobby shouldn’t be silent. There was a party. There should have been a party. She should be able to hear movement, conversation, and even laughter!

Where did everypony go?

Even with Twilight’s vision as blurred as it was, she still couldn’t see anything in the lobby. All of the candles had been blown out and everything was bathed in darkness, just like room 201. All of the colorful streamers and balloons, which had seemed lively before, now appeared lifeless as they blew lazily in the wind.

As if on cue, a bolt of lightning pierced the air, illuminating the lobby in intense monochromatic contrast. Twilight had to shut her eyes to keep the pain from overwhelming her senses, but it was too late to look away. She had already seen it. The front door was swinging open on its hinges, letting the wind and rain mercilessly pelt down on the wooden floor.

In front of the door laid three unmoving forms, scattered in different places throughout the lobby. Shock overrode the pain as Twilight forced herself up on her hooves, wobbling drunkenly. She somehow managed to put one hoof in front of the other, but each step was a trial. She had to figure out what had happened!

“Wh-what the hay...?” A startled voice from behind Twilight caught her off guard. She would have turned around, but doing so would have caused her head to explode from pressure. But even without looking, she could still pick out Applejack’s thick southern drawl. “R-Rarity!”

Twilight was vaguely aware of an orange blur dashing past her as her wobbling legs finally gave out. In the distorted world around her, she could still hear Applejack’s relieved voice. “They’re...! They’re okay! Fluttershy, I could use a hoof here!”

Twilight finally allowed herself to rest. Rarity was okay. The others too. At least something had gone right. That one success was enough to allow Twilight to finally surrender to unconsciousness and let the world finally slip away. At least she wasn’t a complete failure.

As the hotel lobby began to fade, Twilight was barely conscious of somepony shouting her name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I am sorely disappointed in you, Twilight Sparkle.”

Celestia’s firm, chiding voice resonated throughout the princess’s royal hall. She sounded like a teacher admonishing her student for not doing her homework. Twilight knew that tone all too well from her days back in Magic Kindergarten, especially when the princess used her full name like that.

“But princess, I—”

“No buts. I sent you on a mission to save those ponies, but what did you do? You put them in danger. Why, Twilight Sparkle?”

The princess never raised her voice, making Twilight even more terrified. She had always been afraid that the princess wouldn’t approve of her work, but she had gotten over that fear a long time ago. The catastrophe with the Want It Need It spell had shown her that, no matter how badly she messed up, Princess Celestia would still forgive her. She would be forgiven, right?

“Twilight sparkle, are you listening to me?”

“Y-yes, princess!”

Celestia’s flat tone never wavered. “Good. I cannot always be there for you to fix your mistakes for you. I thought you learned that lesson already, but it seems you are not ready to be sent off on your own yet.”

“But—”

“Twilight Sparkle, you shall not talk back to me. I am your teacher. Because of your poor decisions, you are to remain here and study with me until I feel you are ready. Is that clear?”

“But my friends—”

“You are to stay here, Twilight Sparkle. The other Elements of Harmony will return to Ponyville until further notice. Clearly, you are not ready to assist me.”

Twilight’s heart sank. She knew that she had messed up, but that didn’t mean she had to abandon her friends! Deep down, she knew that she deserved this punishment, but a part of her still wanted to stay in Ponyville. She couldn’t begin to imagine what life would be like without them! Those five ponies had been her entire life ever since she went to Ponyville, but now she was going to have to go back to the way she had done things before. For once in her life, Twilight dreaded the prospect of being left alone to read.

Before she could descend any further into her self-loathing, a piercing shout came from the other side of the royal hall.

“Sister, you may take your leave!” came Princess Luna’s royal voice as she began to regally stride down the carpet in the middle of the floor.

Twilight looked back and forth between the two princesses as they locked eyes. Luna had never ordered her sister around under any circumstances from what Twilight could remember. The Princess of the Night had been walking on eggshells around Celestia ever since she had been saved from Nightmare Moon, so this brazen attitude seemed remarkably out of character.

“As you wish, dear sister,” Celestia calmly acquiesced, bowing and turning to go, casting a disapproving glare at Twilight as she passed by.

“Twilight,” came Luna’s voice from behind. “Is that truly how you view my sister?”

“Huh?” the unicorn mumbled, not even bothering to turn around and face the majestic alicorn behind her. She had failed. She wasn’t worthy to even look at either of the princesses. “Are you here to punish me as well?”

“No, I am here for our nightly meeting. You are quite late.”

Twilight blinked. In an instant, she found herself sitting in her library back at Ponyville with Princess Luna, sharing two warm cups of tea. The princess gingerly levitated her cup and brought it to her lips, leaving Twilight to stare blankly at the scene in front of her. Wasn’t she back in Canterlot?

As Luna set the cup down again, she frowned. “Twilight, you never answered my question. Is that truly how you perceive my sister?”

Finally, a painfully obvious realization dawned on Twilight. “I was dreaming, wasn’t I?” she stated plainly to herself, almost as if she didn’t quite believe it.

“Indeed. And quite lucidly. You must have been quite ‘plum tucked in’ to sleep so soundly!”

The haze in Twilight’s mind immediately cleared when she heard Luna attempt to use one of Applejack’s incomprehensible sayings. Giggling, Twilight smiled and lifted her teacup as well. “Actually, that one is ‘plum tuckered out’, I believe. I wouldn’t recommend trying to talk like AJ, trust me on that one.”

“One thousand and three apologies, dear Twilight!”

The two ponies shared a few giggles as they sipped their tea. Everything was so peaceful, but Twilight knew that her good mood would not last much longer. This was nothing but an act to make Princess Luna feel like she was welcome. If she could just keep this up for a while longer, maybe she would forget about everything that had happened in the real world.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna stated plainly, making it clear that she was using the unicorn’s full name. “Please, do not feel that you need to hide anything from me. This is a dream. In truth, it is nothing but a reflection of your subconscious, meaning that I could force the information out of you if I truly desired it. As much as I enjoy spending time with you, Twilight, I must inquire about the status of your mission. From what I saw of your dream, I fear that you do not bear good news.”

The library’s ambient lighting darkened. There was no physical source to the light, but Twilight already knew that her state of mind would affect the appearance of her dream. The tea in their cups instantly became cold and odorless, making Luna cast a curious glance down at the table.

“Princess....”

“Luna, if you please. We have been over this.”

“Luna,” Twilight sighed heavily. She wished that her true emotions and feelings were not as visible as they were at the moment. It was like she was wearing all of her secrets on a tacky plaid sweater! “It’s bad. It’s very bad.”

Instead of the worried response that Twilight expected, Luna let out a foalish giggle. This was no laughing matter! How could the princess afford to be so leisurely if she knew how terribly things were going?

It wasn’t until the alicorn pointed at her chest that Twilight noticed the plaid sweater that had suddenly appeared on her. It was the kind of abomination that would make Rarity faint if she was within a ten mile radius of it, and emblazoned across the front were the words “I actually didn’t enjoy Old Mare and the Sea.”

“Gah!” Twilight shouted, and in an instant the terrible sweater had vanished into thin air. Luna was still laughing, apparently entertained that she knew one of Twilight’s biggest secrets. The unicorn’s face went bright red, which was enough to make Luna finally calm herself down.

“One thousand and four apologies, Twilight,” she managed to speak through a few stifled giggles. For a moment, Twilight missed the alicorn’s royal manners. “In dreams, your mind will speak for you, even if you do not say a single word.”

“So I noticed,” Twilight sighed, trying to keep a positive attitude so that Luna wouldn’t worry too much. “But I need your help, Prin—” Twilight paused, correcting herself. “Luna. I need your help, Luna.”

“I know. Please, tell me everything that has happened so far.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It was a dark and stormy night—”

“For Celestia’s sake, Nightowl, it is a dark and stormy night!”

“Rainbow, give that poor guy a break, would ya?!”

Nopony knew what to say. Anytime that any of them tried to say something to lighten the mood, the conversation would dissolve into awkward mumbles. It was difficult to pretend that everything was fine when there were four ponies lying unconscious on the cold floor.

Rainbow Dash, who had just been shushed by Applejack, stopped herself from saying anything else, but still stared daggers at Nightowl. She wasn’t about to let that suspicious pony out of her sight for a split second! Just to make sure that he knew that, the pegasus pointed her hoof at her eyes and then traced it over to where Nightowl was sitting. After mouthing a small threat, Rainbow crossed her hooves over her chest and leaned back against the front desk. The earth pony, instead of returning the gesture, simply turned away to face the front door.

To Rainbow Dash, it was Nightowl’s story that seemed the most suspicious. He claimed that he had gone upstairs with Twilight and investigated the room together, which lined up with everything they knew so far, but the fishy part of his story was his explanation about how Twilight had ended up unconscious in the lobby. According to him, she had pushed him out of the way and tumbled down the stairwell! Dash had the sneaking suspicion that he had clobbered Twilight in the back of the head to make sure that she couldn’t testify against him.

“Hey Dash!” came a hushed, excited voice from her left.

The pegasus already knew who it was, since it wasn’t hard to recognize that squeaky tone. “Hey Pinkie, what’s up?” she whispered back.

When Rainbow turned to look, she found that the pink pony had an uncharacteristically serious look on her face. Dash could have almost taken her seriously if it weren’t for the detective’s cap and bubble pipe she had.

Pinkie, with a completely straight face, blew a few bubbles. “Dashie, I shall require your assistance in this most confidential matter. Can you swear that you will speak of this to nopony?”

The colorful pegasus raised a skeptical eyebrow and leaned away. “Uh, yeah, about that. As much as I enjoy a laugh here and there, this isn’t the time.”

“Indubitably,” Pinkie mused as she playfully puffed from her pipe. “This is a serious matter, dear Dashie. Not only did all of the ponies at in the lobby disappear, but...!”

Dash waited for the inevitable explosion. Sure enough, the anger in Pinkie Pie’s eyes became red-hot and her mane poofed, sending the cap flying onto the front desk. “They ruined my party!” she exclaimed wildly, earning a few stares from the other ponies in the lobby. “Me and Rarity worked sooooo hard on it! And then they just left! We’re gonna make them pay, Dashie!”

As the pink pony let out a feral growl, Dash rolled her eyes and signaled for everypony else to go back about their business. “Look, Pinkie, here’s the deal. I think I’ve already got it, but we have to wait for everypony to wake up. I mean, what if one of them saw something? They could have seen the culprit in the act!”

"No way, silly!” Pinkie giggled quietly. “That would only work if the culprit was part of the crowd. I mean, duh! Everypony but Red, Preston, and Rarity had gone upstairs with a partner at the time! Not to mention the obvious fact that the culprit wouldn’t have left them here if they’d seen their face. It’s just totally elementary, my dear Dashie!”

The words grated on the pegasus as she frowned disapprovingly at the inappropriately energetic pony. Not only was Twilight making fun her, but now Pinkie too? “Pinkie, you realize what you’re saying right? It’s like, the most cliche thing ever.”

“Well, duh. Seriously, what kind of mystery would this be if the culprit wasn’t one of us?”

“Rainbow! Pinkie!” Applejack shouted irritably from the other side of the lobby. When Dash looked over to see what she was doing, she saw farm pony trying to cheer up Fluttershy, who was sniffling in the corner.

Just as Dash turned to make sure that Pinkie didn’t upset Fluttershy any more, she found that Pinkie had already trotted over to the stairwell, a stack of matching pink flyers clenched between her teeth.

The rain and thunder grew louder, filling the uncomfortable silence and drowning out Fluttershy’s silent sobs from the other side of the room. Nightowl was sitting like a statue in the doorway, staring out into the torrential storm, but Caesura was resting over by the four sleeping ponies with a forlorn look on her face. As Dash began to think harder about their situation, she began to notice just how suspicious Caesura was. In fact, she was even more suspicious than Nightowl was! That shifty unicorn had stayed nearly silent this entire time, not even bothering to do anything outside of staring at the four unconscious ponies. She was probably plotting her next move!

This was as good of a time as any to try and get her to confess. “Hey, Chess, wh—”

Rainbow Dash’s words caught in her throat as the unicorn leapt up to meet her gaze. What was with everypony giving her the evil eye recently?

As the shivers subsided, the pegasus continued. “Right. Uh, Caesura, got it. My bad.” The unicorn’s spiteful expression slowly melted back into how it had been before. “I, just wanted to ask you something. I mean, why did your weather team decide to schedule a storm like this?”

Despite Dash’s awkward stammering, Caesura slowly began to make her way towards the cyan pegasus. “They didn’t, actually,” she whispered hoarsely, like she was afraid that the other ponies might hear her. “Red was in charge of that. But recently, the weather has been acting strange.”

Genuinely curious, Dash whispered back. “Strange? What, with clouds not having enough rain and all that? Pretty sure they’ve got enough now.”

“No, I mean that the weather has been acting on its own. Nopony planned this storm.”

The thought of not being able to control the weather make Rainbow Dash flinch, but she tried to cover it up by yawning and leaning back against the front desk. “Meh, weather shmeather, doesn’t scare me. I was just curious, that’s all.”

"If you insist.” The infuriatingly calm unicorn took a seat next to Rainbow.

Caesura turned to face Nightowl, who still had his back to them. “These flash storms seem rather normal for this crazy town. Despite all of the pegasi here, the clouds keep sweeping over from the Everfree Forest.” She paused and began to loom over Rainbow Dash with a menacing glare, her scraggly black mane creating a tangled web for her wide eyes to hide behind. “It’s almost like it’s reaching out to get us. Don’t you think...?”

A few beads of sweat dropped down the pegasus’ cheek as she backed up further against the wall. “W-wait, are you serious?” Dash gasped, her heart beginning to pound in her chest.

“Of course not.”

As Caesura stifled a creepy giggle, Rainbow Dash sent a few coughs over her shoulder to try and recover from the scare she’d gotten. Who did this pony think she was?! Dash had a sudden desire to deck her, but she just didn’t have the energy anymore. There were more important things to worry about.

After Caesura had calmed herself, she relaxed against the desk again. “But really, these storms are unnatural. They happen all by themselves. Apparently it’s normal around here.”

A response began to form on the pegasus’ harsh tongue, but it never came out. It stalled out because of something curious that the mare had said. In the back of her mind, Rainbow Dash was already tossing around theories that involved Caesura as the perpetrator, but they would only work if she could get this pompous little musician to crack! Caesura had just made her first slip, and Dash wasn’t about to let it pass.

“Hey, Che—er, Caesura, you’re not from around here, are you?” Dash taunted, grinning from ear to ear. Just as she’d suspected, the mare jumped rather noticeably, giving away the answer before she actually said anything. “I’ve already figured you out, so don’t even try and weasel your way out of this one! You used your magic to put that note on the fountain back then, didn’t you? But you didn’t stop there. No, while you were on the third floor, you could have teleported Page out of her room from above!”

Not giving her victim any time to recover, Rainbow Dash shot up on her hooves, wings outstretched and nostrils flaring. She had it this time! Caesura’s speechless reaction proved it! Those eyes were the eyes of a foalnapper caught in the act! Heh, I don’t even need Twilight to solve this. She’ll wake up and everything will already be sorted out! I can’t wait to see the look on her face.

“So what do you have to say to that, Chess?” the cyan pegasus snarled, not even caring if she got the unicorn’s name wrong. In fact, the dishevelled mare was so stunned that she didn’t even try to defend herself. She looked absolutely terrified... and there was only one reason for that! “You’re absolutely, undeniably, 120%—”

“Innocent.”

The voice that cut her off hadn’t come from the paralyzed mare in front of her but from behind. Folding her wings so they were flush against her back again, Rainbow turned irritably towards the owner of that annoyingly squeaky voice. “Pinkie Pie!” she growled, screwing her face into a grimace. The pink killjoy returned the frown with a knowing smile.

“Nope, she’s totally innocent Dashie,” the pink detective giggled, having somehow gotten her hat back without anypony noticing. She was holding a pink slip of paper in her hoof that, in surprisingly neat hoofwriting, had various series of ordered lists and graphs regarding the different ponies and their  locations.

Pinkie wasn’t going to wait to let Rainbow Dash figure it out for herself. “Dashie, if I may draw your attention to figure 3.1, you’ll see the way we paired up when we went upstairs. You see, Preston, Red, and Rarity were down here on the first floor. Twilight and Nightowl were on the second, me and Chezzy were on the third, and you, AJ, and Fluttershy were on the fourth. So if you’re thinking that she teleported Page from the third floor, you’re assuming that I’m a culprit as well. And I don’t appreciate that! You can’t just go around blaming your friends, you know. It’s not very nice.”

It took Dash a moment to process the sudden, squeaky onslaught of deductions. She rubbed her head and groaned for a moment. “Pinkie, it’s magic. You can’t explain something crazy like that. That sneaky little mare could have teleported Page anywhere, even if you were looking right at her!”

The pink detective didn’t seem phased at all. “Chezzy, please levitate my hat.”

It took a few moments for the startled unicorn to respond, but she eventually snapped out of her stupor and quietly wrapped Pinkie’s hat in her sky-blue aura. The hat was gently plucked off of Pinkie’s head, resulting in a poof! sound as Pinkie’s hair molded itself back to its original shape. Rainbow, frowning, looked back to see that Caesura’s horn was glowing the same shade of blue, but it took her a few moments to realize what Pinkie was trying to demonstrate.

With a defeated sigh, Rainbow Dash lowered her head and gave a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, yeah, she couldn’t have done while you were around because of the glowing horn and blah blah blah, I get it. Aw, horsefeathers....”

Caesura finally spoke up, her worried frown still visible. “So I’m off the hook for now?” Her normally edgy voice had softened a little, but her tone was still dark.

Dash saw Pinkie nod sagely out of the corner of her vision before the levitating hat suddenly swooped over and forced itself onto her head and over her eyes. Even though she couldn’t see, Rainbow could still hear Pinkie Pie blow a few more bubbles out of her novelty pipe.

“Indubitably, my dear Dashie.”

As they laughed, Dash wished that she could join in with them. How could they act so calm? How could they still laugh? The only thing that kept Rainbow going at this point was the promise of catching the culprit and making them pay for this! They had foalnapped the entire town of Everdale, not counting Nightowl, Caesura, Preston, and Red. Dash had never gotten along with any of them, but it still hurt to know that she was partly responsible for everything that had happened. Everything that anypony did at this point was nothing more than an act.

Sadly, giggling at ghosts wasn’t going to make this situation go away.

Chapter 6: Tanagrams

Chapter 6

Tanagrams

“... and that’s when AJ ran by me to check on Rarity.”

Twilight finished her story with a sigh, beginning to wonder if Luna would be able to keep up. Twilight had been there in person, so the odds of Luna being able to help were astronomically low.

After a long pause, Luna finally spoke. “Twilight, do not feel guilty,” she soothed. “If I were in your horseshoes, I would not have acted differently. Your plans were crafty and sensible. If you want to blame somepony, I ask that you place the blame on me. I was the one who made the false assumption that King Sombra was somehow involved.”

“Luna, it’s fine! Really, there’s no way you could have known, so don’t worry about it. I just wish I’d been able to stay conscious when the barrier acted up like that!”

“Do not worry, Twilight. It is quite easy to create a strong barrier, but to make one that is selectively permeable is quite a feat. I am actually quite impressed that you managed to remain conscious when so many ponies went through it at once. Most unicorns would be out cold if only five ponies simultaneously ran side by side! But of course, running through and walking through are different, because sudden disturbances in these barriers create a much heavier impact due to simple dispersion of—”

Twilight took the opportunity to speak up, keeping Luna from rambling. “I actually didn’t notice that before,” she mused, a few ideas beginning to take root. “I handled Caesura and the latecomers with ease, and there were 12 of them, including her. So does that mean the ones that exited the lobby were running?”

“It does, Twilight!” Luna exclaimed, overjoyed at the prospect of being able to discuss magical theories with a peer. “As you have realized, these disturbances in the barrier are actually the processes of your mind creating a memory imprint of the shapes that go through it. objects that travel through at higher speeds must be created more quickly, requiring more brain power, which is why you were so disoriented when you reached the stairs. Your brain simply wasn’t able to process all of those shapes while you were running, so you instinctively tried to stop, which likely resulted in your fall. Am I correct?”

Speechless, the bookish mare could only nod in response. It had taken weeks to figure out how that spell worked, even with direct assistance from her big brother.

Not seeming to notice that she had paralyzed Twilight with her words, Luna continued unabated. “I worry that your mental overload may have caused the shapes to become blurry. While barriers like that cannot keep track of whether or not the subject is entering or leaving, an extremely gifted unicorn such as yourself would normally be able to recognize the shapes and apply them to real objects. Would you please recite to me the shapes that entered the barrier around Page’s room?”

Struggling to keep up, Twilight nodded fervently, beginning to focus on the imprints that the barrier spell had left. In the back of her mind, she could see a large number of blurry shadows splayed out across a two-dimensional space. There were 8 distinct objects that she could see, but it would be impossible to match them to a specific pony. After filtering out the small wooden parts from the two doors, Twilight began to match these 8 figures.

Let’s see. I can split this into 4 groups. One shape is seen 3 times, two of them are seen twice, and the last one doesn’t match with any. Oh wait, I think I get it! That last one looks almost like a pony with a hunchback, so that would be Nightowl carrying Page through at the beginning. Okay, I can see that now. Good. So Nightowl has 4 shapes, and the two others, with 2 each, would belong to me and Rarity. That would make 1 imprint for each entrance or exit, meaning that Nightowl came in and left two times while me and Rarity entered and left only once. But how is that possible?

“Twilight?” Luna was still sitting across from her, looking worried. “How clear are the imprints?”

“Very unclear, sadly. It was clear enough that I could match shapes to each other with certainty, but that’s all.” Twilight hung her head. “And what I learned was what I already knew. Rarity came in with Nightowl, who was carrying Page on his back, then they both left without her. Me and Nightowl both entered... and then left.”

The corners of Luna’s lips curled downwards. “That is quite troubling. You realize that the only option remaining, considering that your judgment is correct, is that Page was magically teleported out of the room.”

“Caesura?! She was one of the ones that ran up the stairs with us! But wait, she would never have the opportunity to cast the spell. Even if she did, the bed is a few feet away from the door, making the range too difficult to successfully pull off a pinpoint teleportation like that. She would also have to have a direct line of sight to the pony she was trying to teleport, meaning that she would have had to be on the second floor with me and Nightowl! Uuuugh, I don’t get it! I just don’t get it!”

Before Twilight could start pulling out her mane, Luna’s soothing voice calmed her down. “Remain calm, Twilight. Whatever happened was obviously possible, otherwise it would not have happened. Allow me ask you a simple question. What unicorn had close contact, a direct line of sight, and access to the room?”

“Don’t even think about it!” Twilight instinctively belted out, the entire library shaking from her outburst. In this world of the subconscious, actions were unfiltered, leaving Twilight to stare ashamedly at a shocked Luna. “Oh no, I’m sorry Luna! I’m really sorry! I didn’t....” As she trailed off, she realized that Luna’s question had been a valid one. “Whatever you say, I’m not going to suspect my friends. Ever.”

The silence grated on Twilight’s ears, but it was a necessary pain. She had to let Luna realize how much her friends meant to her. Why didn’t she understand? The alicorn was already forcing her to keep a secret about her dreamwalking, but now it was obvious that Luna did not trust the other Elements of Harmony as much as she trusted Twilight.

After letting the message sink in for a few moments, Luna sighed. “One thousand and five apologies. I should not have encouraged you to doubt your friends. What about the barrier around the entire hotel?”

Thinking out loud, Twilight began to arrange the shapes in her mind. They were much more blurred than the ones from the other barrier, which backed up the fact that the ponies had been running as they left. “At the start, when I put up the barrier, the 6 of us were in the hotel with the desk clerk, making 7. Preston arrived with 5 friends, bringing the total to 13. Nightowl came with Page next. Okay, that’s the same shape as the one that entered room 201. There is a total of 15 in the hotel, now. Those shapes must belong to Caesura and her 11 friends, making 27. Red’s entrance makes 28 ponies as the final count. Now, when I try and match them up.... Wait a second. Huh?”

“What is the problem?” Luna asked worriedly.

“They’re blurry, but I can still match them up! Hold on, let me try and count these. Okay, subtract Preston, Red, Caesura, and the Nightowl-Page combination, which have no match in the blurry section, and we have 17 clear images. Perfect! There were 17 ponies at the party that I didn’t recognize. Everything lines up. Now for blurry images, let me start pairing. Wait, there’s 18 of them? 18?!”

“Twilight, calm down! Let me confirm something. Would you be able to tell if one of the blurred shapes was carrying Page?”

“Yes... I am absolutely confident of it. There’s 17 matching pairs of clear and blurry... with one left over.”

“Then it is sensible that numbers do not match up!” Luna declared excitedly, raising a hoof in the air. “That 18th shape confirms that Page passed through the outer barrier! Huzzah!”

As much as Twilight appreciated the alicorn’s enthusiasm, she could not share it with her. How could Luna be treating this like a game? Those 17 shapes were not just shapes, they were real ponies! Ponies that had been abducted! As Twilight calmed herself again, she sighed and nodded. “Okay, I guess that makes sense.”

“Actually, no. It doesn’t,” Luna sighed, her posture slackening in disappointment. “Page should still be stuck in that room. But I believe that we should address other issues before tackling that one.”

Twilight agreed wholeheartedly. “Please Luna, we need your help here. If you and Princess Celestia would just fly over here we could have this sorted out in no time!”

“No,” came the alicorn’s firm response. “I had already considered the idea, but it will not work. Consider this, Twilight: if you were the culprit, how would you feel if my Sister and I arrived to punish you?”

The question caught Twilight off guard, but the answer was simple. “I would be afraid.”

“Correct. You would be cornered. I can guarantee you that your culprit fears us a great deal. Please, think back to the note that you recited to me.”

Doing as she was told, Twilight imagined the note in her head. In small flash, the pink note appeared on the table in front of the Luna, who gave an encouraging nod before reading over it one more time.

“I see my memory did not fail me,” Luna announced with a heavy sigh. With astounding precision, she levitated the ransom note and turned it around so Twilight could read it again.

“This is a ransom note. I make my demands clear. The Elements of Harmony must abandon their mission and report their success to the princess. The entire town of Everdale is my hostage, so if you do not comply, Everdale’s population will drop to zero when Celestia raises the sun again.”

Luna waited until Twilight had finished reading before she began to explain herself. “Not only does the culprit fear our involvement, but he or she also makes it plain that there will be severe consequences if the agreement were to be broken.”

Twilight swallowed air in order to keep herself from saying something stupid, but Luna already knew what the unicorn was going to say and recited it word for word like she was reading from a script. “But you have already incurred the consequences, have you not? Please, use that smart brain of yours, Twilight! Foalnapping is not the main threat in this note. It is only a consequence.”

“Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked, pursing her lips. “By definition, a threat is—”

“I know the definition, Twilight, it is in your dictionary over there.” Luna pointed to one of the many thick tomes in the library. For a moment, Twilight wondered how she had known where the dictionaries were, but she forced herself to focus again.

Luna continued after a small pause. “The real threat is what comes after.”

“You mean right now? I don’t get it!”

“Twilight, you are smarter than this,” Luna kindly pointed out, almost like she was talking to a foal. It was humiliating. “The culprit now has the entire population of Everdale, minus a few, as hostages. It was plainly stated in the note. So, if the foalnapper feels cornered or pressured, what would they do?”

“Oh,” Twilight gasped, shifting around on her cushion. There was no need to state the obvious.

“Now you understand my hesitation to provide you with direct aid. Our culprit is remarkably cunning. With four simple sentences, he or she managed to force your movements and restrict mine while simultaneously creating mistrust between the only ponies who had the ability to solve this mystery. But nopony, brilliant or not, can make a move as overt as this without giving away precious amounts of information! This goes to show how terrified our culprit is of our direct intervention.”

“Slow down, slow down!” Twilight groaned, rubbing her temples with her hooves and trying to digest everything that the princess was saying. “I get why the culprit put the note there, but we were never able to figure out who placed it!”

“Twilight, I will not give you the answers. You need to stop wallowing in self-pity and use that impressive mind of yours! You have proven your brilliance many times before, so prove it to me now. What has the note told us so far?”

A small spark of anger ignited in Twilight’s gut, but she quelled it before it could spread. She had no right to be angry at Luna, even if the alicorn was forcing her to keep a secret from her friends. “Well, it told us that the culprit is somepony in our group.”

“Correct.”

“And you already told me that it showed how afraid they are of you and Princess Celestia.”

“Also correct.”

Twilight paused and began sorting through the facts before she spoke again. “It showed how powerful the enemy is! If they wanted us out, they would have threatened me directly, but they know that they can't take us in direct confrontation!”

“Brava, Twilight. Brava. But you are wrong on that last point, I believe. Threatening you directly would have no effect at all. It is easy to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others, but to have others sacrificed for you is... frightening.”

The graceful alicorn trailed off, making Twilight feel uncomfortable. Thankfully, the silence only lasted a moment before Luna spoke again. “Now, you will need to wake up soon so you can help the remaining ponies in Everdale, but let us quickly discuss possibilities. I may not be able to directly intervene, but I have just arranged for somepony to assist you in my stead. In the time we have, we may still attempt to find the truth of the matter, so let us waste no more time.”

The abrupt change in subject reminded Twilight that Rarity, Red, and Preston had been attacked in some way. Whoever Luna had sent would probably arrive too late to be of any assistance, but Twilight appreciated the sentiment. Before they could begin finding the truth, however, Twilight had one last question. “Wait, how did you know to send somepony? I just now showed you the note.”

“Oh, simple!” Luna exclaimed, beaming. “I can split myself between dreams, you see, otherwise I would be unable to make sure that everypony slept well. It is like Santa Hooves, only he does not really exist, but it is possible for me to inspect up to five dreams at once. You see, while you were explaining your situation to me, I simply found the dream I was looking for and sent a small signal to them. Do not worry about my lack of comprehension, dear Twilight, for according to the first principle of—”

Twilight interrupted the princess with a polite cough, giving her an awkward smile.

“Oh, er, yes! Let us start with your arrival at Everdale, shall we?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Everdale Hotel’s lobby had been lit up again, but the festive atmosphere had never returned. Candles lined the walls, but their warmth failed to reach any of the ponies that needed it. Colorful decorations still hung from every conceivable spot on the ceiling and the balloons had deflated, leaving them to lazily rest on the ground with what little air they had left. Some of the ponies in the room acted similarly.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to give up so easily! One of the ponies in this lobby was guilty! All of the suspects were assembled in the same room, meaning that they were about to have the big reveal! That was how it always worked in the Sherclop Holmes books, so why was everypony moping around? Something big was about to go down!

In a way, Rainbow felt slightly guilty for not being able to help out. She had gone up to the fourth floor with Applejack and Fluttershy, but there hadn’t been a single pony in any of those rooms. Rainbow had to check all of them herself, since her two friends had left her up there by herself while they went to go check on Twilight. And what was I doing while everypony was checking on Rarity and the others? Prowling around empty rooms, looking for a culprit that didn’t exist. Brilliant, Rainbow. Brilliant. Well, at least we can be sure that there was nopony hiding on the fourth floor

The only pony that hadn’t woken up up yet was Twilight, but nopony felt like waking her. In a way, Dash was almost grateful that the unicorn was still asleep, since that meant she had extra time to solve this mystery before Twilight did. She still had to pay Twilight back for showing her up! With a confident spring in her step, Rainbow trotted over towards the pair of ponies that sat by the front door.

Red and Preston were exchanging hushed whispers, but immediately stopped as soon as they heard Rainbow Dash trot over to meet them. Their icy glares gave the pegasus the distinct impression that she wasn’t welcome into their little cabal, but that only fueled her determination.

“You know, you two never told us what happened in the lobby,” Rainbow teased, taking the opportunity to sit down right in between them so that they couldn’t scheme up any more nefarious plots. “It’d probably be in your best interest to tell the truth, because you’re both looking pretty suspicious right now.”

The two ponies grimaced in nearly perfect unison, but understood Rainbow Dash’s message quite clearly. In a normal court, ponies were innocent until proven guilty, but this lobby was going to go by different rules. If those two ponies didn’t give their account of what happened in the lobby, they were guilty.

“You expect me to start blabbin’?” Preston challenged, his thick accent hiding the anger that stirred in his eyes. The olive pegasus adjusted his cap and gave a confident nod to Red. “You ain’t gettin’ nothin’ outta me. No matter what I say, you’re just gonna turn it against me like ya did back in the square!”

Just as Rainbow was about to make a cocky response, she suddenly felt a sharp tug at her tail, forcing her to immediately fall flat on her face. A snobbish voice accompanied the sharp pain from behind. “Rainbow, dear, show some manners. That is no way to treat these poor ponies!”

Rarity trotted out of the corner of the room, practically oozing charm. Since her dress and mane had both been ruined by the storm, she didn’t carry her usual pompous presence, but the way she carried herself had not changed. What was more impressive was that strong levitation maneuver she had just pulled! When had she gotten strong enough with her magic to pull off a stunt like that?! Hadn’t Twilight herself said that using levitation on a pony was extremely difficult? “Please excuse her, ruffians like her have no sense of tact.”

Preston, immediately backpedaling, took off his cap and held it a bit over his cheeks to hide the blush that had appeared there. “Ah, sorry miss,” he apologized. Rainbow couldn’t believe this! Rarity was complaining that Rainbow didn’t have any tact, but this kind of flattery was the most heavy-hoofed form of manipulation she had ever seen! Poor Preston was acting like an absolute doofus right now thanks to the prissy unicorn’s attention.

“Now be a dear and think nothing of it. As you very well know, I was down there as well. One wonders why she didn’t just ask me, hm?” Rarity’s leading tone of voice manifested itself in a suspicious look at Rainbow Dash. “If she thinks you two are the culprits, that would mean she is accusing me as well. Friends don’t accuse friends after all.”

“Rarity, what the hay are you doing?” Rainbow shouted as she got back to her hooves, wings flaring. “That doesn’t even make sense! You were down there with them, meaning that they could have easily ganged up to knock you out cold!”

“Now now, Rainbow, don’t get ahead of yourself. It was my fault that this happened after all. Maybe you should start suspecting me instead of those two.”

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake, Rarity! Stop acting like you could have done it! We all know you wouldn’t want to get your hooves dirty by clobbering the both of them on the back of the head.”

“How dare you?! I will have you know that I have overcome my phobia of the uncouth. Getting dirty is nothing more than an inconvenience, after all.”

“Yeah, yeah, fancy shmancy and all that. I’ve got—”

“Hold on a tick, you two!” interrupted Preston, who gave a nod to Red before physically putting himself in between the arguing mares. “Your fighting is only making things easier for whoever’s behind this crazy caper. Why do you think I was framed for putting that nasty little note on good ‘ole Gemini?”

Rainbow blinked a few times, starting to feel really self conscious about her actions. All this time, she had been playing right into the culprit’s hooves. The thought angered her even more, but she bottled it up and tossed it aside. “Gah, you’re right,” Rainbow mumbled angrily. “Look, I’m sorry, Preston. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions back at.... Wait, Gemini? Is that what that statue’s called?”

For a moment, Preston looked like he was sweating under Rainbow and Rarity’s curious gaze. “Uh, that’s right. She was put up a few generations ago when Everdale was founded. Kind of like our town’s emblem, or something like that.”

There was something suspicious about the way he had answered, but Rainbow Dash decided not to push it this time. Man, I’m a terrible detective, aren’t I? Twilight’s probably just going to get up, point a hoof, and fix everything. Meanwhile I’m just making everything worse. Way to go, Dash.

Sighing, Rainbow nodded. As much as she hated to, she swallowed her pride and tried to be as genial as possible. “Cool, you’ll, uh, have to tell me more about it later, once we’ve got this all fixed up.”

Rarity, Red, and Preston all gave her the most skeptical of frowns. “Guys, I mean it,” Rainbow insisted, rolling her eyes. “Look, I’m sorry for being so pushy, but you know what, it’s no excuse for being a jerk. I know, I know, I’m usually not this sappy, but cut me some slack, okay? I want to solve this as much as everypony else.”

Just as Rainbow was about to turn away and hide her shame, she felt a hoof on her shoulder. “Ah, no problem, apology accepted,” Preston replied, pulling her back around to face him. “I’ll give ya the scoop on the statue later. But for now, I guess it’d be best if I tell ya what happened down in the lobby. And hey, if ya don’t believe me, Miss Rarity here can back me up.”

“Nah, I trust you,” the rainbow-maned pegasus sighed with relief, taking a seat. If she wanted to gain this pegasus’ trust, she was going to have to trust him first.

“Right then, I guess I should start with that spot where you and your chums all dashed upstairs. Twilight had said something about arguments and such, and—” He paused, flapping his wings anxiously as he looked back at Red, who was still sitting despondently in the corner with her megaphone. “Well, Nightowl already filled us in on what happened. Still, when you all started panicking like that, everypony in the lobby got real worried. We were all watching Pinkie’s bang-up comedy routine, but when she left, nopony knew what to do. Poor Miss Rarity over there was stuck in the spotlight, since she was the only Element of Harmony still down in the lobby, so she had to improvise a tad.

“So, of course, the first that comes to her mind is that big game of hide and seek ya mentioned on the invite. Everypony just assumed that you lot went upstairs to hide. So Rarity gets everypony to start blowing out the candles until it’s too dark to see clearly and gives out the instructions. A few of us close our eyes and start counting to 50, but then I get thwacked on the back of the head before I could count past 20!”

Before Preston finished, Dash had turned to face Rarity, who was refusing to look her in the eyes. “Well,” the cyan pegasus sighed, having to consciously keep herself from getting angry at her friend. Hide and seek in the dark had been an absolutely terrible idea, but there was no use in starting another argument with Rarity. “It was a nice coverup, at least. You were kinda put on the spot, so don’t worry about it, okay?”

Rarity seemed absolutely stunned by the response, but quickly recovered and attempted to put on a regal act. “Well, thank you. I told you it was my fault, after all.”

“But hey, all three of you are okay, right?” Dash asked optimistically, trying to change the subject and make up for all of the trouble she had caused recently.

Preston gave a chipper grin. “Absolutely. Just a little headache a bruise, nothing a little rest won’t fix. Same thing happened to Red, but she’ll be okay. She just needs some space right now.”

“Poor thing,” Rarity cooed sympathetically. “I shouldn’t have closed my eyes to count either, especially with my back to the door like that. I was assaulted as soon as I started to think something was wrong!”

Immediately, Rainbow began to feel suspicious of Red and Preston, since they could have easily taken advantage of a bunch of blind ponies if they worked together, but it didn’t make much sense. If it was only the two of them, they wouldn’t have been able to knock out Rarity so quickly, not to mention how long it would take for both of them to drag a whole cartload of unconscious ponies out the front door without being seen.

“Well, let’s wait on Twilight for this one.” Rainbow didn’t want to jump to any more conclusions before she had somepony like Twilight to share her ideas with. As much as Rainbow hated to back out of a competition, she and Twilight were going to have to work together on this mystery. “Preston, you keep doing what you’re doing. Rarity and I are gonna go check on Fluttershy.”

Preston gave a little bow of his head and tipped his cap before thanking Rainbow and trotting back over to his motionless friend. Rarity, however, stayed where she was and looked at the front door with an unreadable frown.

Rainbow was about to say something, but Rarity finally spoke. “Fluttershy is taking this pretty hard. Even worse than Red. At least, I think she is.” Her tone had become low and serious. “You see, she thinks this is all her fault. She got this silly idea in her head that she was the one who convinced Twilight to come back. In fact, she was even telling Applejack that she would never assert herself again!”

“Seriously?” the pegasus groaned, ruffling her wings. “Ugh, I mean, I feel sorry for her, but...! I guess she just doesn’t understand the difference between being assertive and speaking her mind. Heck, if she hadn’t spoken up, I was gonna give Twilight a piece of my mind about coming back here! I feel kinda bad, but Fluttershy’s got no reason to be moping around right now.”

No response came from Rarity, who was still staring intently at the front door. The storm was still raging outside, but as soon as Rarity was woken up, she had insisted that they shut the front door and light up all of the candles again to lighten the atmosphere. There was no way to tell what the unicorn was thinking when she got into one of her moods, but it probably had something to do with her weird concept of ‘Fang Shway’, or whatever that crazy thing was. Maybe she was trying to crack this crazy case like everypony else was.

Having given up on trying to talk with Rarity, Rainbow turned to make her way over to Fluttershy and Applejack, who had been lying in the same corner ever since they’d arrived in the lobby. Initially, Dash had been insistent on giving Fluttershy a piece of her mind about moping around so much, but now the idea seemed despicable. It’d be like kicking somepony while they were down, or ‘beating a dead horse’, as Caesura had tactlessly put it back in town square. No, Fluttershy needed some help, not somepony to tell her that she was wrong. Dash had always been terrible at having ‘girl talks’ with her friends, since she was so quick at solving their problems. After getting the cold shoulder a few times for being so insensitive, she began to realize that sometimes ponies just want somepony to listen to them.

Taking a deep breath, the pegasus began to trot over towards the pair, half expecting them to give her the evil eye as well. But Applejack just nodded understandingly as Dash approached and continued to pet Fluttershy’s long, pink mane with her hoof. If Rarity saw the farm pony getting Fluttershy’s mane dirty like that, she would have thrown a fit, but little things like that were beginning to feel trivial in comparison to their bigger problems.

Taking a deep breath, Rainbow Dash tried to be as conversational as she could. “Hey, Fluttershy. What’s up?” she asked gently, lying down next to her fellow pegasus and trying to make eye contact through Fluttershy’s pink mane. “You feeling okay?”

“Y-yes, I’m fine, don’t worry,” came her soft, choked voice. Fluttershy was officially the worst liar in Equestria.

“Well hey, you know what?” Dash asked, starting to realize that she had become the unofficial mediator of their ragtag group. “I heard that you convinced Twilight to come back here. Is that right?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she could feel Applejack’s disapproving eyes drilling into her. Fluttershy, however, simply gave a whimpered response. “Y-yes....”

“I’m glad,” Dash responded with a cheery grin, trying to move some of Fluttershy’s mane out from in front of her eyes with little success. “No, I’m not just glad you did it. I’m proud of you.”

At those words, even Applejack stopped moving, staring blankly in Dash’s direction. Fluttershy even seemed to stop breathing for a moment before she squeaked out a response. “B-but why? I shouldn’t have asserted myself like that! I forced Twilight to go back and made all these ponies disappear and, and, and—”

“Oh, really now?” Dash giggled lightly, finally getting a good glimpse of Fluttershy’s bloodshot eyes. The poor mare must have been crying her eyes out for a while now. “You know, me and AJ were actually betting on whether or not we’d go back. Sure, I bet against it, thinking that Twilight had made up her mind, but as I stopped and thought about it some more, I realized how stupid I was.”

“Dash... you’re not stupid, don’t say that!”

“Nah, I totally was. But you know what? Somepony was brave enough to stand up and do the right thing. Somepony was kind enough to help a bunch of ponies who had been mean to her. Somepony was smart enough to know that the citizens of Everdale really needed her help. Now, do you happen to know who that somepony is?”

Even though Dash wasn’t touching her, she could still see the way that Fluttershy was shivering. For a moment, Rainbow began to wonder if she had accidentally made things worse! But then—

Oof!

The cyan pegasus suddenly felt the air rush out of her lungs as she was trapped in a rib-crushing bear hug. Fluttershy was still shaking and sobbing, but she still managed to get out a quiet “Thank you!” before emptying her tears onto Dash’s shoulders, which were starting to get a little sore. Regardless, she still managed to wrap a wing around the weeping pegasus to return the hug since her hooves were trapped at her sides.

“I’m just, hehe, telling the truth. No need to thank me. Right, AJ?” Dash squeezed out a nervous chuckle between gasps for air as she looked desperately to the orange pony for help. Applejack just smiled back and a gave a humorous wink, obviously trying not to laugh too noticeably at the two of them.

Laughter aside, it seemed that Applejack felt like she had to say something. “That’s right, sugarcube,” she laughed, tilting her hat back. “Ya did the right thing, even when everypony else had given up. Gosh, if we hadn’t come back, I reckon the ponies here would’ve kept disappearing, one by one until there were none. It may not be the best, but at least we’ve saved four of them. Ya know what? Lemme rephrase that. You saved four of them, Fluttershy.”

“Okay, okay!” Dash choked out, trying to pry Fluttershy off of her so that she could breathe again. “Sappy moment over, we’re done! Fluttershy’s awesome, end of story. Now—”

“What's this? I don’t get to have a sappy moment? That’s not fair, Rainbow.” A voice from behind them interrupted their reverie, making the three ponies freeze in their tracks. Even Fluttershy had stopped crying to see who the voice belonged to.

Rainbow Dash didn’t even have to turn around. “Of course you do, Twilight!” she exclaimed, slipping out of Fluttershy’s bear hug while she was distracted and dusting herself off. “She’s all yours!”

Twilight Sparkle stood proudly with her chest slightly puffed out, drawing the attention of nearly everypony in the lobby. While she looked a little worse for wear, there was no denying the presence in her voice and in her stature. This was a purple unicorn that meant business.

“I’ll just have to make do with a simple ‘thanks’ this time around,” Twilight admitted, making sure that Fluttershy saw the proud smile she was wearing. “Because now that we’re all here, I think I’ve finally got a handle on his mystery. I guess I just needed a little time to sleep on it!”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped to the floor. “What?! You’ve gotta be kidding me! I even made a cheesy apology to Preston so I could help you out here and be your lame assistant! And you’re saying you don’t even need my help? Oh, come on!”

“Rainbow,” the unicorn sighed, rolling her eyes. “Of course I’m going to need your help. We would make a great team of detectives, you know! I haven’t solved everything myself, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few options, give or take a few details.”

“But how?” Dash didn’t understand how she could have solved something like this while sleeping. “And don’t even give me the whole ‘it came to me in a dream’ thing.”

“Well, a few clues are still missing, actually. I could use some other perspectives on this, after all. So how about I lay out the facts to my two loyal assistants?”

Dash blinked. “Two?”

“Oooh, ooh, am I the other assistant?” Pinkie shouted, popping up behind Twilight. “Pleeease, pick me! Pick me!”

“Of course,” the unicorn giggled, not even bothering to look behind her. “Now, it’d be best if we get everypony together so we can talk this over. Now—”

As Rainbow listened in, Twilight’s speech was interrupted by a gust of wind from the front door. Outside, the pouring rain and distant thunder became unbearably loud, framing the two dark silhouettes standing right in the threshold of the doorway. Dash couldn’t see who they were, but she was on her hooves in an instant, ready to fly over and tackle the both of them to the ground. Whoever they were, they were about to be in some serious trouble!

One of the figures stepped into the room, the light fading a little as some of the candles began to blow out from the blustering wind. “Hey,” the shrouded stallion spoke, grinning widely. His voice sounded awfully familiar. “You wouldn’t happen to have some room here for me and my wife, would you... Twily?”

Rainbow recognized the voice, but it was Twilight’s sudden reaction that made the pegasus realize who the two ponies were. “Cadance! Big brother!” the unicorn shouted joyously, bounding over towards the two drenched ponies as they made their way into the hotel and closed the door behind them. It was still hard to see them, because some of the candles had nearly gone out thanks to the wind.

But as Twilight ran up to them, she stopped dramatically and took a slow step backwards, making Dash jump a little bit. Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong with this situation. What were Shining Armor and Princess Cadance doing out here in the middle of nowhere?! Had Princess Celestia sent them as backup? That was an option, but how had they gotten here so quickly? The Friendship Express didn’t even stop at Everdale, not to mention that the town was too small to be listed on any map of Equestria.

“Yeah, looks like we showed up at a good time, too,” Shining remarked idly, only then starting to notice the incredulous stares that he was getting. “H-hey, no need to roll out the welcome wagon, but I was at least expecting a little ‘hello’.”

As the candles on the wall began to burn back to their original brightness, Dash noticed what had made Twilight stop dead in her tracks. There was an unconscious pony laying across Shining Armor’s back. A bright blue pegasus... with a white mane.

Twilight gasped. “Page?!”

Shining jumped a bit when her sister shouted, giving a confused look over his shoulder to Cadance, who was busy trying to shake herself dry. “I take it you know her?” he chuckled awkwardly, turning to give Twilight a look at the unconscious pegasus. “She’s pretty lucky, whoever she is. Through the rain, Cadance somehow managed to spot these two really shady ponies trying to drag her into the Everfree Forest. I gave a little battle cry and charged over, but the two of them vanished into the forest before I could get close enough to get a good look.”

Rainbow couldn’t believe it. In the midst of everything that had gone wrong recently, there was still a glimmer of hope. But there was something so inexplicably coincidental about their arrival. Something that Rainbow wasn’t going to ignore.

“Hey, hold it right there!” Rainbow Dash accusingly, flying over and skidding to a halt in front of the new arrivals. “What are you two even doing here, anyway?”

Cadance, her coat and mane an absolute mess, made her way up beside her husband. “Funny story,” she said sarcastically, giving Shining a playfully antagonistic glance. “Shining had this weird dream that he just wouldn’t shut up about.”

Chapter 7: Two Steps Backward

Chapter 7

Two Steps Backward

It took all of Twilight’s control to keep herself from giggling. Luna had said that she had sent somepony a small signal, but apparently it had been large enough to get Shining Armor’s attention almost immediately.The Princess of the Night was anything but subtle.

Even though Twilight was ecstatic to see her big brother and Cadance again, there was a more important issue to deal with. Page was sprawled out over Shining’s back, entire body limp and snoring as loud as the raging storm, but at least she was safe.

Before the two siblings could enjoy their reunion, Red's booming voice cut them off. “Put her down this instant!” shouted Red, clutching her megaphone. Preston, who had been over with her, was covering his ears and wincing. “You think this is funny? I thought we had an—”

“Red!” A decisive shout cut through the pegasus’ amplified voice, making everypony turn towards the front desk where Caesura was sitting. This was the first time that she had raised her voice in the time that Twilight had been around her. “Put that megaphone down and use your head! They’re on our side. Do you really think they would foalnap a pony and bring her right back through the front door?”

Nopony in the room could answer the unicorn’s question. In the dim light of the candles, Twilight could see the orange pegasus try to turn her eyes away to hide the glistening twinkle in her eyes.

“Um, I'm really sorry, but did we come at a bad time?” Cadance asked, beginning to feel the heavy atmosphere in the room. “If so, we can just—”

“I don’t think there would have been a good time,” Rarity quipped as she gracefully trotted over towards Cadance so that they could commiserate over the unfortunate condition of their ruined manes. “I cannot speak for anypony else, but I, for one, am so glad to see you two again!”

Caesura snorted rudely as she giggled at Rarity and Cadance, but the only other pony that joined in was Shining Armor. He snickered behind a hoof when he saw Rarity’s ruined mane, but a sly look from Cadance had him standing back at attention in an instant.

“C’mon Shining, set her down,” Twilight urged, itching to get to the heart of the matter. The large stallion did as he was told, kneeling down and gently levitating Page onto the wooden floor. In an instant, both Nightowl and Red rushed over to check on the sleeping pegasus. From what Twilight could see, she was perfectly fine aside from the fact that she was soaked to the bone.

The fact that Page had been rescued from two suspicious ponies confirmed a few hunches that Twilight had discussed with Luna. She had been tempted to state her theory out loud, but that would create an undue amount of tension in the group.

“So, uh,” Shining stammered, glancing around the dimly lit lobby. “What’s going on here? Anypony care to fill me in?”

“I got you covered,” Twilight assured, looking back and forth between Shining and Cadance with a grin of mock confidence. She had a few hunches, but none of them were solid enough to bring up yet without causing trouble. If she wanted to outwit the culprit, she would have to play her cards carefully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had only taken about half an hour for Twilight to explain their situation from start to finish, but she was already starting to feel exhausted. In the middle of her story, Rainbow had gotten everypony up to date with what had happened while Twilight was unconscious. Apparently Rarity had started their hide and seek game early, but there was no reason to blame her for that. Twilight imagined that she might have done the same thing is she was in the other unicorn’s situation.

“And that’s when you two showed up,” Twilight concluded.

Shining Armor, who had been listening intently, immediately began to ask questions. “Uh, Twily, there’s a few problems here,” he started. “Why are you freaking out so much? I feel kind of silly asking this, but couldn’t a pegasus just fly in through the window and snatch Page after Red saw her and before you and what’s-his-name arrived?”

“His name is Nightowl,” Twilight quickly responded. Upon hearing this, the gray watchpony snapped up to his hooves, looking alarmed. Much to Twilight’s surprise, he looked to be in good spirits. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you like that!”

“Don’t apologize,” the earth pony said, nodding to Red before making his way over towards the rest of the group. “I should have been listening, anyway. Page is going to be okay, so I should probably help out how I can over here. But first!” He paused and turned towards Shining and Cadance, who just stared blankly back. “I want to thank you two. You saved Page’s life. So thanks. I’m really glad you two showed up.”

“As am I!” Rarity echoed, giving Cadance a little nudge with her hoof.

“Hehe, me too,” Caesura snorted, still giggling to herself for some reason. Twilight didn't get what was so funny, aside from Rarity and Cadance's manes.

“Well, thanks,” Shining chuckled, apparently missing the joke as well. “We kind of had to rush down here. We got a chariot to take us most of the way here, but they couldn’t go on through this wicked storm. I guess we made it just in time, eh?”

“You did,” Nightowl replied contently. “And Twilight... I trust you. I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to help this little town. I mean, you are the Elements of Harmony after all!”

“Okay, seriously!” came Rainbow Dash’s frustrated call from the back row. “Can we get back to solving this? I swear, if everypony starts getting all mushy one more time, I’m gonna kick somepony!”

Twilight had to agree, so she ignored Rainbow’s interjection and focused on getting back to the topic at hoof. “I appreciate your trust, Nightowl. Now, Shining, what was your question again?”

Shining asked his question again, seeming a bit more confident this time. “Well, I was just saying that anypony could’ve just gone in through the window and taken Page.”

With a grin, Twilight waited patiently. Sure enough, somepony took the bait.

“What, didn’t she just explain it?” Nightowl asked, earning a few confused stares from most of the ponies in the room. “She put up a barrier around the room that would tell her when somepony entered or left, so if anypony went through the window, we’d have known immediately.”

Awestruck silence filled the room, making the watchpony begin to fidget under the spotlight he’d unwittingly placed on himself in. This wasn’t what Twilight had expected, but it was still a valuable clue.

“Funny that you should mention that,” Twilight giggled mysteriously, trying to play up her confidence as the detective. Nightowl had taken the bait. She just had to reel in her catch of the day. “But how did you know about the barrier, hm?”

“H-huh?” The large earth pony faltered. “I just—”

Twilight wasn’t going to let him finish. “Everypony, please raise your hooves if you knew about the barrier around room 201!”

There was no reason to look at everypony else. Twilight hadn’t spoken a single word about her barriers, meaning that she was the only pony who could know about it. She narrowed her eyes at Nightowl, who was beginning to inch his way backwards, but before she could push even further, a sudden movement caught Twilight’s attention.

Turning, she saw Rarity sitting beside Cadance with her hoof held high. Her sheepish grin turned to a guilty frown as she shriveled under Twilight’s incredulous stare.

“Wh-what?” the prim unicorn stammered, immediately lowering her hoof when she realized that the spotlight had been shifted in her direction.

A little off balance, Twilight attempted to make sense of the situation. “Wait, Rarity? How did you—” Immediately, she realized her mistake.

Rarity scoffed. “How did you expect me to not notice that barrier of yours? Any unicorn that walked through it would have immediately known about it! I may not be as learned as you, Twilight, but I am not dumb. I just thought that poor Nightowl would have felt a little better about leaving Page up there if he knew his friend was protected by not just one, but two barriers.”

Twilight instantly wished that she could put her earlier words back in her mouth. She had laid that trap in the hope that Caesura would unwittingly mention it, but the mare was either too clever or too innocent. While it would have been convenient if Caesura had known about the barrier, she had an alibi for nearly every moment that she had been in the hotel.

“I’m sorry!” Nightowl apologized, still looking unduly anxious. “I just thought everypony knew! Sorry, uh, Rarity.”

“Not a problem, dear.”

Feeling like she should say something, Twilight nodded to Nightowl. “Sorry,” she sighed as well, backtracking through her deductions. “If it’s any consolation, I’m fairly confident that you’re innocent right now.”

Twilight could hear a few ponies mumbling, but Nightowl was sighing with relief. Luna had been the one to convince Twilight of this hunch, but with all things considered it wouldn’t make sense if Nightowl was the culprit, given the current evidence. Regardless, she wasn't going to give away her deductions, just in case she sparked some unnecessary argument.

As she prepared to shift topics, since Twilight really wanted to move away from the subject of the barrier, Shining spoke up from the group with a proud shout. “Twily! That’s amazing! You managed two barriers at once? Guess you’ve really been practicing, eh?”

“Well,” the unicorn sighed, wishing that she didn’t have to deal with the subject of her colossal failure again. “I did, but I lost consciousness when all of the ponies in the lobby ran out.”

“Woah! They were sensor barriers? Twily, that’s awesome! I’ve never even tried to do two at once. How did you pull that off?”

“Shining!” Twilight groaned, forcing herself to take deep breaths. He had always underestimated her magical talent when they were little, but in truth, they were nearly equal. “Look, we need to stay on topic. I had one around the entire hotel and one around that room. Now, these barriers leave imprints of whatever enters or exits, so I’ve had a little time to sort them out and figure out who went where. Please pay close attention.”

The lobby was absolutely silent. One of the ponies that she was speaking to right now was probably starting to get anxious, especially if they hadn't known about the barrier. “For the barrier around room 201, the shapes matched what we already knew. The only ponies that entered the room were Nightowl, Rarity, Page, and myself. Page’s shape was never sensed again after she entered. This barrier was raised right before Page was taken up and lowered as soon as Nightowl and I finished searching the room.

"Okay, on to the barrier around the hotel. That was raised when the six of us arrived and informed the desk clerk that we would be throwing a party, but I kept it up until I passed out in the lobby. Even after I passed out, it should have remained for a short time. Either way, I’ve sorted the shapes out between entrances and exits, which told me the following: there were 4 entrances that did not match with an exit. These would belong to Red, Preston, Caesura, and Nightowl, who was carrying Page. Now, there were 17 other entrances that matched with 17 exits, which accounts for the 17 ponies that vanished. That would have made sense... but there was one more exit that had no corresponding entrance.”

Twilight let her last statement sink in for a moment, making sure that everypony understood the implications of her deductions. Curiously, she opened her eyes again to see everypony’s reactions... and immediately wished she hadn’t.

Rainbow Dash was sitting anxiously in the back, nearly going cross-eyed as she tried to count on her hooves, but Pinkie was scribbling madly on a few pink sheets of paper. Everypony else looked positively clueless, either mumbling quietly to their neighbors or staring blankly into thin air. Frustrated, Twilight began to wonder how any of them had passed elementary mathematics.

“Look, it’s simple!” she exclaimed, wishing that she had a chalkboard to draw examples on. “Who would that 18th shape belong to? It’s not any of the townsponies! Ergo, it must belong to somepony who had not left a distinct shape upon entering. Meaning that it would have to belong to—”

“Page.”

All eyes turned to Caesura, who was nodding contently to herself after interrupting Twilight. “It would have to belong to Page. She was on Nightowl’s back when she entered, right? If we go with that assumption, then.... Wow. I’m impressed.”

“What? What is it?” Rainbow Dash interjected, apparently too lazy to figure it out for herself. Most of the other ponies didn’t seem to get it either, but the cyan pegasus was the only one who felt like confronting Caesura about it. “Can you stop being all creepy and vague for once?! Just spit it out!”

The unkempt unicorn scowled, the animosity in her gaze clear. “You’d think the Element of Loyalty would have learned a little patience,” she spat, leaning back against the wall and crossing her hooves over her chest. “All the other Elements reflect who they are, but all you’ve done so far is cause trouble. You sure showed your loyalty when you nearly drowned Preston in the fountain.”

Like a bolt of lightning, Rainbow Dash swooped in front of Caesura, landing so that their faces were mere inches apart. Even from where Twilight was standing, she could see that Rainbow was ready to beat the unicorn to a pulp, but there was no trace of fear on Caesura’s confident smile. Her condescending aura wasn’t lost on her aggressor.

“Girls!” Twilight shouted, starting to trot over and break up the fight.

Caesura held up an uncaring hoof to stop her, not even bothering to break eye contact with Rainbow. “She’s not going to hit me,” the unicorn confidently stated. “She’s just scared.”

“Don’t tempt me!” Dash snarled, snapping her teeth and flaring her wings.

“To do what? Not only are you afraid, but you’re also jealous. You wanted to solve this mystery first, didn’t you? You wanted to be the detective. You wanted to decide who was guilty. Am I correct?”

The acid that dripped off of Caesura’s taunting words made Twilight wince. When she had been idly taunting Dash before, there had been nothing but a small sense of sadistic humor in her voice, but those last words were completely different.

“I-if you say another word!” Rainbow stammered, obviously a little taken aback by the unicorn’s sudden change of tone.

“Sorry, but you’re too late. I’ve already solved it.”

Caesura’s spiteful words drew the attention of the entire room. Even Red, who had been listening intently from where Page was resting, appeared absolutely baffled.

“Did I stutter? I said that the jig is up. The cat’s out of the bag. Need I go on?”

Twilight didn’t get it. Had Caesura seen something that she hadn’t? Was it possible that she had missed a vital clue? Twilight didn’t know how Caesura had arrived at the answer already, but there was no way in Equestria that she was going to let her pick on Rainbow Dash like that!

“Rainbow, let her go,” Twilight said firmly, wanting to stop this before it got out of control. Rainbow was easy to antagonize, but there was something about the way that Caesura was acting that seemed dangerous. While the brash pegasus was reluctant to step back, she did it with as much hostility as she could manage without losing her pride. With a huff, Rainbow slowly backed away from her target, never once breaking eye contact with her.

“And you, Caesura, had better start explaining yourself,” Twilight commanded. In situations like this, words had more power than magic ever would. “I don’t know what’s going through your head right now, but nopony talks to my friends like that.”

Caesura’s haughty attitude vanished, rendering her speechless for a few moments before she found her voice again. “Fine, but you all better be listening,” she sneered. The disheveled mare pushed herself up to her hooves and began to saunter lazily towards the center of the room. “Pinkie, may I borrow your diagrams for a moment?”

“Sure!”

Caesura’s horn lit up as a few sheets of pink paper floated lazily towards her. “Here we are,” she mused, expertly setting all but one slip of paper in a neat stack on the floor. “So we’re assuming that Page never left her room while the barrier was up, which means that there was a small window of time where she could have left the room in time to still make an imprint on Twilight’s outer barrier. Am I correct?”

Hesitantly, Twilight nodded, starting to get a bad feeling about this. That was the point that she had been trying to lead everypony to. Somehow, in the time that it took for Twilight to fall down the stairs, Page had vanished from the building. But what Twilight didn’t know was where everypony else had gone after she and Nightowl had gone to the second floor.

Caesura didn't waste any time. “Good. Why don’t we check alibis, then? I was with Pinkie on the third floor. We heard some noise in the stairwell and went down to investigate immediately. Am I correct, Pinkie?”

“Absolutely!” the pink pony responded, sounding way too enthusiastic. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder how Pinkie managed to keep smiling at a time like this.

“Perfect. Now, Pinkie’s diagram has the locations of everypony during the time in question.” Caesura calmly flipped the piece of paper around in the air, making sure that everypony could see it. “Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all went to the fourth floor. But according to Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy were the first ones down to find Twilight in the lobby. Nightowl was next, followed by Pinkie and myself. Twilight was unconscious by this point, but that does not mean that the barrier was down. An unconscious pony can still supply power to a barrier like that, but it won’t last for long. I would say 10 minutes, tops. Let me ask again. Am I correct?”

Twilight refused to answer, but Shining Armor stepped in and spoke for her. “That’s right,” he admitted, hesitant. “A barrier like that passively feeds off of magic until it runs dry. I know how they work, but if the pony is already out of energy when they collapse, the barrier will have nothing to draw on and fizzle out.”

“Good. And Applejack, you can confirm the order in which we came down?”

Applejack nodded. She was staring daggers at Caesura, but the Element of Honesty wasn’t going to lie, even to help her friends. “That’s right. Me and Fluttershy went back down to check on y’all on the second floor, but we heard Twi tumblin’ down the stairs. Then the rest of y’all showed up.”

“Thank you,” Caesura politely responded, “but not all of us. I distinctly remember spending about 7 minutes dragging Rarity out of the rainy doorway and making sure that everypony was okay before we had to go and fetch a certain pegasus from the fourth floor.”

The unicorn paused dramatically, her eyes aggressively boring into her target: Rainbow Dash. “So let me ask you this. What can you do with seven minutes? Why, you could bake some cupcakes. Maybe even curl up by the fire and read a chapter out of a nice book.

“Or you could throw an unconscious pony out of the window.”

What? What...?!

As the storm raged through the silence, Twilight began to desperately think of a way to counter Caesura’s wild theory. How was she supposed to know that Rainbow had stayed up on the fourth floor by herself for 7 minutes?!

Caesura, her scraggly black mane framing her confident grin, wasn’t going to wait for Twilight to think of a response. “The only time that Page could have left was while the inner barrier was down and the outer barrier was up. The only pony who doesn’t have an alibi for that time is Rainbow Dash. So let me ask you all one last time. Am. I.Correct?”

The words stung Twilight like a swarm of bees, sending shivers of dread through every fiber of her being. She had to stop this before it spiraled any further out of her control!

Quickly, Twilight began to mount whatever defense she could to protect her friend. “I’ll answer you,” she replied slowly, trying to buy as much time as she could. “But first, answer my question. Why?”

“That doesn’t matter,” came Caesura’s blunt reply. “Motives are only good for narrowing down the suspects. It doesn’t do you any good when there’s only one option.”

Twilight couldn’t believe her ears. She had hoped that she could make Caesura stop and think for a moment, but the unicorn had shot down her question before it could even spark a debate! In a panic, Twilight thought of another response. “But what about the body?” Twilight asked, her words going faster than her thoughts. “If Rainbow just threw her out of the window, shouldn’t she still be outside?”

“No.” Yet again, Caesura didn’t hesitate. “We already know she was taken into the forest.”

“But why?!”

“That doesn’t matter,” Caesura repeated, scowling. “The only thing that matters is that this supposed Element of Loyalty is the only one who could have forced Page through the outer barrier. Why she did it is irrelevant.”

Once again, Twilight was taken aback by the emotion in Caesura’s voice. It was only then that the unicorn noticed something that she should have noticed a while ago. Caesura was only focusing on Page's disappearance, meaning that she probably didn't have the time to think about the other mysteries as well.

“Well?” Caesura asked pointedly, tossing Pinkie’s sheet of paper off to the side. “I answered your questions, but you still haven’t answered mine. So let me ask you again. Am I correct?”

“Hold on!” Twilight insisted again, getting upset with how baseless the unicorn’s theory was. How could she justify all of this?! “You’re saying that Page was still in the room after me and Nightowl searched it? You can’t say that giant problem like that doesn’t matter!”

“Oh, it matters,” the vindictive mare mused. The way she spoke made Twilight wish that she hadn’t brought that up. “But I want to be absolutely sure. 100%. Twilight, detail your movements when you entered the room, and Nightowl will know if you’re lying.”

Lying? What reason would Twilight have to lie?! “Fine! Nightowl broke through the front door, I broke through the side. He checked the closet and I checked under the sheets and bed. Between the two of us, there’s no way that Page was in there. Happy?”

With a grin, Caesura turned towards Nightowl, who only nodded silently. “I’ll explain how it’s possible, but only if you answer my question. Rainbow Dash is the only pony who doesn’t have an alibi for the only time that Page was abducted. So answer me, Twilight Sparkle. Am I correct?”

Grinding her teeth together, Twilight found herself cornered by a simple repetition of those three infuriating words. There was no way she was going to win this battle if Caesura kept acting like a spoiled brat! Withholding vital information like that would be a crime if they were in Celestia’s court right now, but that was the problem. They weren’t in Celestia’s court. They were stranded in the middle of an unnaturally heavy storm with a criminal! For now, Twilight reasoned that she would have to be the better mare and step down, since they were going to have to work together to solve this, but she was going to make sure that she was in control of this situation. If she played along, Caesura would be forced to play all of her trump cards.

“Fine then,” Twilight sighed, nodding conclusively. This was the best solution. “For now, I’ll admit that only Rainbow could have done it. But—”

“Twilight?!”

A chorus of angry yells, one louder than the others, made Twilight suddenly realize what she had said. Before she could explain herself, the crowd of ponies parted between Rainbow Dash and herself, forcing Twilight to look her friend in the eyes. It would only take a second to explain herself, but the words stuck in her throat as she stared into the eyes of her terrified friend.

What... did I just do...?

Chapter 8: Epiphany

Chapter 8

Epiphany

Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe it. No, she refused to believe it! Only a few minutes ago, Dash had been appointed as Twilight's loyal assistant, but now the unicorn was calling her a foalnapper. Everything had started to spiral downwards once that mangy white unicorn with the hard to pronounce name had started talking! Everything! That liar was bullying everypony around and Twilight didn't even care! Friends were supposed to help each other... weren’t they?

As her confusion morphed into anger, Rainbow started grinding her teeth so hard that it hurt. “Twilight,” she seethed. Heart pounding in her chest, Rainbow pushed her wings violently outward. She couldn't handle this anymore. If Twilight wasn’t going to stick up for her, then she could say goodbye to her ‘loyal assistant’!

Rainbow tried to convince herself that she was angry as Twilight, but a more pressing emotion kept her from feeling anything else. Fear. Fear that the Everfree Forest was reaching out to take them. Fear that her friends had abandoned her. Fear that she would be alone for the rest of her life.

With indignation coursing through her body, Rainbow began to flap her wings. As her hooves left the ground, she steeled her heart. Rarity was right. Friends don’t accuse friends. If Twilight was going to admit that Rainbow was guilty, then maybe Rainbow didn’t need to be her friend anymore, much less her ‘loyal assistant’. How could she be loyal to somepony who betrayed her like that?

“Um, Rainbow?” came a soft voice from beside her.

“What?!” Rainbow snapped, her inner turmoil beginning to boil over. As she turned to face the source of the voice, she instantly wished that she could take everything back and put a lid on her explosive anger. Fluttershy stood beside her, eyes trembling and mouth agape with shock. “No, Fluttershy, I’m sorry, I-I didn’t—”

The yellow pegasus, instead of backing away like Rainbow had expected, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, the fear and hesitation had vanished. “Rainbow, it’s okay,” she stated. Her voice terrified, but her demeanor was calm. “I’m sure that Twilight has a good reason for this.”

Rainbow said nothing. What could she say? Fluttershy, who was still forcing herself to be brave, continued on, but the uncertain wobble in her voice was starting to get worse. “You just, um, have to trust her. Okay?” The mare took a shaky breath. “She trusted me about coming back here. I trust her. You should too, Rainbow.”

Without even thinking, Rainbow began to lower her wings, bringing them flush against her sides as her hooves touched the cold floor again. Seeing Fluttershy speak up like that was enough to make anypony stop and listen, but there was still a painful amount of truth in her words. Friends needed to trust each other, and they needed to know that a good friend would always have their friend’s best interests in mind. Rainbow saw the consequences of doubting that lesson when Pinkie had nearly lost her mind. Friendship wasn’t a one way street, so if one friend did something wrong to the other, only a true friend would forgive her.

Maybe that... was what loyalty was all about.

Rainbow, starting to feel her eyes water, blinked a few times to try and keep herself from crying. She had always known that she had a chronic fear of failure, which had always made it difficult for her to accept help, even from her friends, but Applejack had gone through something similar, hadn’t she? The cyan pegasus began to realize that these lessons in friendship that Twilight had always been writing about weren’t for Celestia's eyes only.

Chest heaving, Rainbow bit her tongue and forced the words out, regardless of whether or not she really meant them. “I trust you, Twilight,” she whispered hoarsely before turning away and facing the wall. She couldn’t let them see how close she was to crying. She was tougher than this. Tough ponies didn’t cry. “Just cut it with the s-sappy stuff already, okay? Show that mare who’s boss! I’m just gonna clean out my eyes over here. Y-you know, allergies and stuff.”

Over the sound of her own sniffling, Dash could still hear Twilight’s response.

“Thanks Rainbow. I know you didn’t do it. I trust you too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight could tell that Dash was about to cry, so she politely turned back to face Caesura. The off-white unicorn, who had been flaunting her power a few moments ago, now appeared flabbergasted. Silently, Twilight wondered if the mare in front of her had ever had somepony she could call a friend. The thought disheartened her a little bit.

“Caesura, with the evidence you’ve given, you’ve reached a logical conclusion,” Twilight began, trying to draw the unicorn’s attention back towards their debate. “But now you have to explain how Page was still in the room after Nightowl and I searched through it. Start talking.”

It took a moment for the speechless mare to collect herself, but Caesura didn’t have the same demeaning presence as before. It was almost like their roles had reversed. “W-well,” she stammered, beginning to sweat. It was as if she hadn’t expected Twilight to admit Rainbow Dash’s possible guilt, raising the question of whether or not she had actually thought about how Page had disappeared from the room. “There could have been a, um, spell! Of some sort! One that made Page invisible! What if—”

Caesura’s desperate attempt at explaining Page’s escape made Twilight’s suppressed anger come to a boil. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” she shouted, snorting like an enraged bull. “So you’re not satisfied with blaming one of my friends? Now you have to drag Rarity into this?!”

“What?!” came a shrill shriek from the other side of the room. The crowd instantly parted to reveal Rarity, her bedraggled appearance only making her look even more frightened than she already was. Her bewildered gaze swept back and forth between Caesura and Twilight, unable to settle on either of them for longer than a split second. “You can’t be serious! How could I have done something like that? I was down here in the lobby! And even before that, when I went to drop her off, I had Nightowl watching me the whole time!”

“Uh, actually,” the watchpony interrupted once he heard his name. “When we dropped Page off, Rarity went out the side door to make sure the other room was secure. So maybe she—”

“You’re kidding! You’ve got to be kidding!” the furious fashionista gasped, staring daggers at Nightowl. “Are you seriously proposing that I cast some invisibility spell on Page while you were right there in the next room?! That’s utterly mad! Twilight, tell them!”

Twilight, more than happy to steer attention away from her friends, jumped right into the conversational fray. “Caesura, I know where you’re going with this. I was going to ask how Rainbow would have managed to put the note on the statue, or even how she managed to make all the ponies disappear from the lobby, but now you’re saying that Rarity did all of that, aren’t you?”

Slowly, the dirty white mare in front of her brought her gaze back towards Twilight. None of the malice from earlier was still present in her once confident expression. “Yes. Yes I am."

“It's good that you’re so confident, but I’m sorry, that’s just not possible,” Twilight countered. “Even if Rarity managed to knock out Red and Preston with magic, she couldn’t have scared the 17 ponies in the lobby into stampeding out the front door. Not to mention the fact that Page was quite visible, even from outside! Or are you saying that Red lied about seeing her?”

As Twilight paused to collect her thoughts and make sure that her deductions were correct, she caught a quick glance of Caesura’s disheveled frown. In that moment, she looked vulnerable. Every time that Twilight had seen before, the unicorn had seemed completely aloof to the world around her. Had that just been an act?

Before Twilight could get a glimpse of who the real Caesura was, the mare became openly hostile again. “She could have been mistaken!” she responded icily. “As for Rarity in the lobby, It would be easy to scare the ponies here! We’ve all been on edge for a month!”

While it was true that the ponies of Everdale were probably at their wit’s end, it had no bearing on whether or not Rarity could have pulled off such an impressive vanishing act. “That’s not what I mean. I may have been dizzy at the time, but I still remember what I saw. Rarity was found near the front door, meaning that she was in between the 17 ponies and their only way out! If she had tried to scare them, they would have all run upstairs, not outside!”

With that last statement, Caesura’s scowl softened, but there was still a malicious aura around her. In the brief moment of silence, Twilight wondered what the mare in front of her was thinking. She didn’t appear to be upset. In fact, she didn’t even try to argue back.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight spotted Rarity glaring menacingly at the only other white unicorn in the room. There was hostility in her posture, all of it directed at Caesura, but her eyes betrayed how relieved she was to be off the hook.

Twilight was about to ask Caesura if she had a counter, but another voice cut her off.

“Chess, give it a rest, would ya?” The voice belonged to Preston, who had stepped out of the group as he admonished his speechless friend. “She’s right, ya know. Miss Rarity here had her back to the door the whole time we were down there. I know you want to find out who’s responsible for all this, but we still don’t know everything, Chess. We need to go over tonight’s events one last time before we start pointin’ our hooves all over the place.”

There were a few responses from the crowd of ponies, most of them in complete agreement. Caesura, who should have shot him down without a second thought, looked away. “You know, Preston?” she sighed, sounding like she was suppressing the anger in her voice. There was still energy in her posture. “You really are a nice guy. Maybe I was being a little hasty. I’m not sure if any new testimony will change anything, but I need to be absolutely certain about this. If I’m wrong, that means that whoever did this to Page is going to walk free. And I won’t let that happen.”

Preston nodded, but Twilight’s attention was drawn towards Red, who had had apparently decided to leave Page in the corner and join the group. The orange pegasus looked like an absolute wreck, thanks to the dark circles under her eyes and her frizzy blond mane. It was a miracle that this pegasus was still standing.

“I’ll go first,” Red volunteered, a sturdy sense of determination present in the way she spoke. “Page doesn’t look like she’ll be awake for a couple of hours. And hey, Chess?” The pegasus turned and gave a surprisingly sympathetic look towards Caesura. “I appreciate what you’re doing for Page. And from what I heard, you really made some good points, but please, I feel like you should stick to playing your instruments instead of playing the detective. We should leave that up to the professionals.”

Red's solemn voice came as a surprise to everypony who was watching. Considering how Red had acted in the past 24 hours, Twilight had expected her to jump to Caesura’s aide and start pointing hooves at everything that moved! For once, Red was the most levelheaded pony in the room.

“Red, you—” The unicorn started to say something, but bit harshly on her bottom lip before jerking her head to the side and staring at the floor. With visible tension in her trot, Caesura moved to the corner of the room to be with Page. “Fine, Red. Fine. I’ll trust you. I’ll even trust Preston and Nightowl, because that’s what friends do. But youcan’t expect me to trust those six. It’s their fault most of this town is gone, you know.”

Grinding her teeth, Twilight forced herself to keep her temper in check. While she was grateful that Red had managed to tame Caesura, she still had a lingering doubt about where this mystery was going to go. So far, she had tentatively cleared Rainbow and Rarity of suspicion, but any kind of new evidence could easily overturn that verdict. With a respectful nod, Twilight silently thanked Red.

Before she could give her testimony, Cadance made an inconspicuous cough. “Would it be best if we left?” she asked hesitantly. Twilight had nearly forgotten that she was there, thanks to the sudden onslaught of improbable theories. It seemed that the heavy atmosphere, which Twilight had grown accustomed to, was starting to take its toll on her.

Shining Armor quickly jumped to her rescue. “Yeah, I think we should go. Sorry Twily, but I really feel like we’re intruding on something here. How about me and Cadance go and keep an eye on Page?”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Twilight saw Red and Caesura both turn on him like wild animals. Thinking quickly, Twilight spoke up before things got any worse. “Well, I don’t see a problem with that! They did save her life, after all! Even if he wasn’t my big brother, I’d trust him.”

The lobby was filled with indistinct murmurs, but eventually Red and Caesura nodded in agreement. “Fine,” Red stated officially. “You have my permission. If you need to rest from your trip, one of you may sleep, but the other must remain on guard duty. As mayor of Everdale, or what’s left of it, I would be wrong to deny you accommodations like this.”

Red's indifferent tone of voice seemed out of place coming from the fiery pegasus, but it helped to remind Twilight that this mare was the mayor of Everdale. Cadance gave a respectful bow, subtly motioning for Shining to do the same, and once everything was set, the two began to walk slowly towards the stairwell with Page on their back. All eyes were on the weary couple as they disappeared onto the floor above.

“Trust me, nopony’s going to sneak up on my big brother,” Twilight giggled. “He held off a changeling invasion by himself for days, even after the queen had abducted Cadance! Page couldn’t be in better hooves.”

“Good,” Red responded flatly, closing her eyes. “I’m going to tell you everything that happened, so please do not interrupt me.” She turned around to face the crowd of 9 ponies. “Are we clear?”

Silence.

“Okay, I’ll start with who I am. My name is Red, and I’m the mayor of Everdale.” Twilight’s eyes were drawn to the mare’s cutie mark: three sharpened pencils in a neat row. What did that have to do with her name? “I’ve lived here my whole life, but Preston became my newly appointed secretary about a month ago. Caesura arrived about a month before that. She’s a traveling musician, so she wanted to settle down someplace rural. Page and Nightowl have both been on nightwatch for a long time, but I’ll let them tell you more about themselves. For now, I’ll move on to what happened after you six left.

“I took it upon myself to inform the nightwatch that you had left, so I paid a visit to the guardhouse and made sure that Nightowl and Page knew not to let you six back into Everdale. Obviously, they disregarded my advice, but I still had a backup plan. As a precaution, attempting to make sure that everypony would be safe the following night, I went around taping up all of the houses in Everdale, just in case our culprit decided to try again. If any of the seals were broken on the doors or windows, we would start to understand our foalnapper’s methods. But thanks to a few ponies, all of my work was for nothing.

“After sealing all but a few, I spotted Nightowl, Preston and a few others in the darkness, coming from the far side of town. Nightowl was carrying Page on his back. Of course, I stopped them and asked for some help and they quite happily agreed. After a few minutes, I asked what Nightowl was doing with Page on his back, since he was supposed to be on guard duty, and he handed me an invitation for th-this party. Of course I was upset, but I immediately ordered them to get to the hotel, since it would probably be safer with everypony else. Preston and his friends left, but Nightowl wanted to stay and help. Preston, being the gentlecolt that he is, offered to take Page in, but Nightowl refused, saying something about not wanting to wake her up. I told Nightowl to get going, and after a bit of convincing, I finally got him to take Page to the party. But before I could get started with my tape again, I saw Caesura leading a group of ponies to the hotel as well, not too far behind Nightowl.

“I finished the last house and made my way here. As I already told you, I saw Page in the window of room 201, arguing with somepony. I ignored her and came in to politely ask you what was going on.” Twilight wanted to interrupt the pegasus’ story, but it wasn’t worth antagonizing her over something as trivial as the word politely. “From there, everypony panicked and ran upstairs, leaving Preston, Rarity, and myself to deal with 17 terrified ponies. I wanted to go check on Page, but as mayor, I have my duties to protect everypony, not just my friends.” An accusing glare was thrown in Twilight’s direction. “Rarity took charge, suggesting hide and seek. She then turned out the lights, pretending that you had all gone upstairs to hide. Shortly after I started counting—I think I got to 10 but it’s a bit hazy—I was struck on the back of the head and knocked unconscious.”

Twilight showed her approval with a nod, satisfied with everything she had been told. The only new information was her testimony about sending Nightowl to the hotel, but that was crucial. While Red’s testimony didn’t prove anything yet, there were still 3 more ponies to go.

“My turn then,” Preston sighed, trading places with Red. The two of them shared a sympathetic glance as they passed each other. Twilight realized that she had never gotten a good look at the olive-green stallion’s cutie mark before, which was nothing but a simple image of a newspaper. “As ya already know, I’m Preston Paper. Moved here when I was young and my family started up a newspaper in the area.” His eyes glinted with nostalgia. “As Red already told ya, I became her secretary about a month ago, back when these disappearances started happening.”

Preston paused, looking worriedly around the room. “Now, after you lot were, uh, kicked out, I tried to talk to Red about it. But, for some odd reason, she just went off with a dozen rolls of tape and started tapin’ up everypony’s doors and windows. I admit I was feeling a little under the weather, so I went back to my flat and tried to think of a way to bring you six back. But hey, luck smiled down on me! There was an invitation on my doorstep inviting me to this crazy party at the hotel.

“Now, I may not be the brightest, but I picked up on what you all were doin’ right off the gun. So I figured I’d help ya out a bit by gathering up some of my friends... and bringing them here.” There was a noticeable dive in the pegasus’ mood as he mentioned his friends. Twilight hadn’t thought about it, but Preston and the others probably knew everypony that had been abducted so far. The thought made Twilight's chest tighten with guilt.

Barely missing a beat, Preston continued. “But while I was making the rounds to their places, I ran into Nightowl, who was comin’ out of the guard house with Page hoisted up on his back. Wanting to stick together and all, I called him over and had him help me get my friends over to the hotel. Once we were done, we ran into Red. Now, we were gonna help her out, but once she saw the invitation, she insisted that we go and join everypony else. As Red said, I offered to take Page in, since Nightowl said he wanted to stay and help, but he was worried about waking her up if he hoisted her onto me. So I told him that I’d better see him inside pretty soon, since Page was looking pretty bushed. Then me and my friends go inside just in time for Pinkie’s legendary comedy routine. Nightowl came in a little bit later.”

Twilight had to interrupt the story for a moment. There was one very important thing that she needed to ask everypony, just to be sure. “On your way in, did you see anypony in the window of room 201?”

“Of course not,” Preston laughed, his humor sounding painfully forced. “Sure, I couldn’t really see the room that well, but I definitely didn't see any movement in there. Anyway, you know the story after that. You dash upstairs, Rarity turns out the lights, I count to 10, and thwack!, I’m out cold. I think it was 10. Maybe. As Red said, my memory is kind of hazy about the whole thing.”

“Thank you, Preston,” Twilight sighed, going through the facts. A large amount of ponies had seen Nightowl and Page that night, and if both are to be believed, they were under constant watch the entire time from when they left the guard house to when they arrived at the party.

“You all keep mentioning me, so I guess I’ll go next.” Nightowl slowly traded places with Preston. He looked like he wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. Despite his somber smile, the gray earth pony had cheered up since Page had returned, but there was still a worry in his eyes. Refreshing her memory, Twilight got a good look at his cutie mark, which appeared to be a constellation that looked like an eye.

“You should know me already," Nightowl began, "but I’m Nightowl, part of the nightwatch here. I’ve lived and worked here my entire life. If you're wondering, I can confirm what they said. I was on nightwatch duty with Page. We started as soon as you left, but Red came over and told us about the whole banishment thing. She told us not to let you guys in, but—I’m sorry, Red—I wasn’t going to turn you away if you came back to help us.” Red didn’t look too pleased that her orders had been ignored, but Nightowl pretended that he didn’t see her. “So after Red left, Page and I just argued about what the plan was, since our only source of help had just left.”

With a wistful chuckle, Nightowl sat down and raised his hooves in front of him like he was reading a large billboard. “We kept joking around, saying things like ‘I can see the headlines now! Rainbow Dash files restraining order against crazed fan Nightowl!’, like we always did. But then we saw you coming back! I’m telling you, it was like watching a scene from a movie. The heroes were trotting back, framed by the sunset and determined to save the ponies that they pledged to protect!”

There was a theatrical aspect to the way Nightowl talked, but Twilight assumed that he was always like this. Getting back on track, the watchpony continued. “Almost immediately afterwards, Pinkie showed up at the door and gave us an invitation, and I may or may not have gotten her to sign it. Me and Page took a few minutes to talk it over, but I eventually convinced her to take the night off. And of course, being the big ham she is, she did the whole swoon and faint act, forcing me to carry her to the party. On my way out, I ran into Preston and helped him gather some ponies up, then immediately ran into Red, who asked if I could help her tape up the doors. While we were working, I told her about the party and gave her the invitation, which—Hey, Red, do you still have it?”

Red, who was still working hard to make sure that the stallion appreciated how livid she was, grimaced. “Nope, dropped it when I came in. Now get back to your—”

“Oh man!” Nightowl hung his head and pouted for a moment. “Well, maybe I could get another one when this is all over.”

Pinkie Pie, with her usual amount of energy, bounced up and down from the back row. “Got you covered!” she shouted. Most ponies would dismiss Pinkie’s attitude as unwarranted, but there was always a method to the pink pony’s madness. This time, Pinkie was trying to get Nightowl back on track with his testimony.

It worked. “Awesome! Now where was I? Oh yeah! I’m pretty sure Page actually fell asleep while I was carrying her. She hadn’t slept well after you six had arrived, so she was really beat. Anyway, I wanted to stay and help Red tape up the houses, but I probably would have woken up Page if I let him carry her, so I told him I’d be there in a minute. Red, being as stubborn as she usually is, finally convinced me give Page some proper rest.

“So I made my way to the hotel, where I met Rarity at the door. I mentioned putting her somewhere close, like 201, so we did. When we walked into the room, she looked a little confused. I asked her what was up and she told me about the barrier. After that I had Rarity light the candles in the room and set her down gently on the bed, but I was still a little anxious, so I had her check the adjoining room as well. You should know the rest of the story. Me and Twilight ran to room 201 and broke down the doors. We couldn’t find Page. Me and Twilight left the room, but then she panicked and shoved me out of the way to go downstairs. I was dazed for a second, but eventually heard some other ponies running down as well and followed them. That’s all.”

“Now, final question. Did you see any movement in 201 when you came in?”

“No, nothing at all. Somepony might have been in there, since it was hard to see, but I’m pretty sure the room was empty.”

Once again, Twilight was glad that she had taken the time to go through everypony’s explanations. It was extraordinarily helpful that Twilight could cross check everything that these ponies said about each other, making it harder for them to lie. If everything was to be believed so far, she nearly had this case solved.

“Am I, uh, done?” Nightowl asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Twilight responded with an appreciative smile. “Last but not least, Caesura, you're up. Tell us about yourself.”

The messy unicorn, who had calmed down, took her spot in front of the group of ponies. “Caesura, reporting for jury duty,” she announced sarcastically, giving a mock salute. “As Red’s already told you, I came here about 2 months ago. I’ve been a traveling musician all my life and was starting to get sick of life on the road. Finally ended up here and got a job as the official entertainer for all town functions, which apparently includes motivational pep rallies held in town square. So yeah. I’m not really from around here.”

“I knew it,” came Rainbow Dash’s hushed voice from behind.

Twilight paid Rainbow no heed and tried to be as supportive as possible. “Thank you. Now please, tell us what happened.”

“Gladly. I went back home like Preston did after you six turned tail. I must have gotten my invitation pretty late, since I went around gathering ponies and never caught a single glimpse of Preston. Once I was sure I’d gotten everypony, I saw Red taping up the houses and Nightowl heading into the hotel ahead of me. I walked in, and I’ll admit that I was a little hesitant about your plan at first, but when I felt the barrier around the hotel, I knew that you had it covered.” She breathed quietly before snarling in Twilight’s direction. “Guess I was wrong, eh?”

Caesura had no need to make her words so caustic, but Twilight let it slide. “Then let me ask you as well. Did you see Page in the room when you walked in?”

“Well, I noticed when the lights came on in her room. I didn’t really bother to look, since I was busy keeping track of a bunch of nervous ponies. Anyway, I went in, ran up with Pinkie, and came down. I haven’t even left the lobby since.”

Just like the other three, Caesura’s entire story was simple. In fact, it was infuriatingly simple. The only pony that could account for her actions before the party was Red, who had only seen her in passing as she and the other ponies entered the hotel. But still, there were enough clues to start forming a theory. If she could just get far enough, she could—

“Well, Twilight?” Caesura remained in the spotlight, her eyes shifting back and forth between Rainbow and Rarity. “Did you learn anything? If not, we’re right back where we started. And you know what that means.”

Twilight could hardly control herself anymore. Everypony was so impatient! But instead of acting on her anger, she took a deep breath and cooled herself down, just like Cadance had taught her to. “It doesn’t change the issue with the barrier, but it brings up a few other points as well.”

Instead of Caesura, Red stepped up and responded. “Rainbow Dash and Rarity working together to abduct Page still doesn’t make much sense. I saw Page in the window with my own two eyes. There was no invisibility spell.”

Blinking, Twilight tried to figure out what the fiery pegasus was trying to say. She hadn’t expected Red to defend them, especially after the way she had treated Twilight and her friends before!

But Red wasn’t done. “You know who is even more suspicious than the both of them?” she asked, gaze locking viciously onto Twilight. In that moment... the unicorn’s heart sunk into the floor.

“You.”

The room fell into silence. Twilight’s racing heart had begun to pound deafeningly in her chest, making the ambient sounds of the storm seem like they didn’t even exist. Even Caesura was speechless.

“You’re clever. Very clever.” Red began to stalk forward, narrowing her intense gaze on her prey. “You almost had me. But I won’t let you take Everdale, not even if Princess Celestia gave the order herself! Which is probably what happened, now that I think about it.”

All eyes were on Twilight. “No, no, no!” she blurted out, caught between the predatory stares of Red and Caesura. “That makes no sense at all! Why would Princess Celestia want to get rid of this place?! Okay, so I’ll admit I’d never heard of it before, but still! The princesses wouldn’t want something like this to happen!”

Red let the responses bounce off of her. The lifeless way that she had carried herself after Page had been abducted had apparently rebounded, creating a merciless, vengeful mare with eyes of fire. “You keep saying that everything is impossible, making this investigation even more difficult than it needs to be with your voodoo barriers and all that nonsense! All that you and your friends have done is cause trouble, pointing hooves in every possible direction! Every direction other than at yourselves, that is. You...! You almost had me.” The pegasus chuckled mirthlessly, sounding more like haggard breaths than laughter. “And I hate myself for believing you.”

“I—no, wait!” Twilight urged, beginning to shrink. Why had she suddenly flipped like this? Only moments ago she had been calmly giving her testimony! “Can’t we just remain calm? If—”

“No, you are not leading any more of these rigged trials!” the pegasus barked. “You’re the reason we can’t figure anything out. You can’t just waltz into town and start ordering everypony around like you’re the mayor! You may be smart, but you’re not smart enough. You did well with drawing attention to the letter and using it to create mistrust among your victims. You even used it as an excuse to wipe out the entire town in one night! You knew that you would be coming back, so you created some mystical third party to keep us all chasing our tails until it was too late. But no, it wasn’t just you. All six of you are in on this!”

The candles on the wall began to flicker, almost as if the oppressive atmosphere was affecting them as well. Twilight had been prepared to defend every single one of her friends from being wrongly accused, but she hadn’t expected to defend all of them at once! How was she supposed to argue back when she was being blamed as the culprit?! In a flash of humility, Twilight realized how helpless Rainbow Dash must have felt when Twilight had admitted that the pegasus could have thrown Page out of the window. Once more, her chest constricted around her heart.

Rarity, having apparently recovered from her earlier ordeal, was the first to object. “How dare you?” she hissed. “We come to help and this is the thanks we get? So, you want to accuse me? Fine, I can forgive a little mistake like that. But not only do you accuse me, but you accuse my friends as well? That is simply unforgivable!”

“Don’t play dumb, Rarity,” Red countered, completely unaffected by the prim unicorn’s indignation. “Isn’t it awfully convenient that you turned out the lights in the lobby, allowing for the culprit to knock everypony out without being seen? And how could one pony make 17 ponies disappear out of a room? Magic. That’s how. And did I see any other unicorns down there? No!”

“H-hey Red, hold on,” came a stammer from Caesura. Of all ponies, Twilight hadn’t expected her to object to this. Twilight almost thought that Caesura might start helping the six of them for a moment, but the mare's uneasy expression wasn’t one of doubt. It was one of fear. “If all 6 of them were in on it, then why...? Why are we still here? We’re in serious danger! They even called an alicorn for backup!”

“Yes... and they have Page as a hostage,” Red hissed. “How could I have been so stupid?! I never should have let her out of my sight!”

Twilight could hardly believe what was going on. This was crazy! Somehow, Red had managed to convince herself that she was in some kind of hostage negotiation!

The paranoid pegasus began to back away like a cornered animal. “So tell me! What does the princess have against us? Why are you doing this?! What did we do wrong?!”

The Elements of Harmony had no answer for that question. Twilight wished that she had some way of talking sense into the two ponies, but fear had already taken root, and where fear had taken root, there was nothing that they could do. If Twilight, in her situation, had believed that all 5 of them were involved, Page included, she wouldn’t even bother listening to their explanations. For some reason, Twilight didn’t feel afraid anymore. Instead, she only felt sad. Somehow, she had pushed this poor pony to the breaking point. The stress from having to deal with these disappearances for a whole month must have finally hit her.

As Twilight began to think of a way to douse the flames in Red’s eyes, a blur of gray shot across her vision.

“We haven’t done anything wrong!” Nightowl shouted, but his words weren’t directed at Twilight. “You two already said it yourself. If Princess Celestia wanted to wipe Everdale even further off of the map than it already is, we wouldn’t be sitting here arguing about it! Even if she, for some reason, insisted on using the Elements of Harmony instead of doing it herself, these six could have vaporized us before we even knew they were here!”

The stallion’s words had a startling effect on Red and Caesura, but he wasn’t going to stop there. His determination was stronger than that. “Don’t treat them like criminals. They risk their lives and reputations to try and save us... and you’re calling them murderers?!”

With a flurry of her wings, Red looked like she was about to charge the strong stallion, but instead of taking off, she began to mount a defense. “If they hadn’t shown up, We would still have 17 more ponies! Why would they come back if they knew that was going to happen?!”

“If they hadn’t shown up, we’d have been picked off one by one! They came back because they cared about us. And what do we do? We treat them like liars, thieves, and swindlers. Look, Red, if this is something that even the Elements of Harmony can’t handle, do you really think that a few little ponies like us could have done anything about it? They defeated Nightmare Moon, Discord, and saved Canterlot and the Crystal Empire from enemy invasion. If you think that you’re up to any of those tasks, feel free to let me know.”

Caesura opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself short and ground her teeth together, shooting a dark glare at Nightowl. While the unkempt unicorn was absolutely furious, Red appeared to understand what Nightowl was saying. Her fierce eyes began to lose their fire, bringing it down to a simmer.

Rarity, who still seemed to be recovering from shock, took a step out from among her friends. “Nightowl?” she asked, voice shaking.

She didn’t say anything else, but Nightowl still nodded and turned to face Twilight and her friends. “I’m glad you came back. Red is just a little on edge, that’s all. Caesura too. I mean, imagine what it’s like. Caesura finally finds herself a home, and even some friends. Some family, too! And then one by one, they start to disappear, some of them coming back like completely different ponies. Or imagine being in charge of helping all of them and being completely helpless. Please. Cut them some slack.”

Twilight swallowed air, the Nightowl’s heavy words still fresh in her thoughts. She imagined what it would be like if this had happened in Ponyville after she had first arrived. It would have been devastating. Not only that, but it would have been like losing the Crystal Empire to Sombra. She had been responsible for saving them all, but if she had failed, she would have lost not only the entire Crystal Empire, but her brother and Cadance as well. In that moment, Twilight silently forgave Red and Caesura for everything they had said.

Twilight could only nod in response. Her friends were all staring silently, but she could hear Dash beginning to cry again. Smiling warmly at the knowledge that she still had her friends on her side, Twilight nodded. They could still salvage what was left of this town.

Before she could apologize out loud, she felt a hoof on her shoulder, making her nearly jump out of her skin. When she turned, she saw that Fluttershy was gingerly trying to make her way towards Red, who was staring holes into the ground.

“Um... Red?” Fluttershy asked quietly, earning an intimidating stare. Twilight saw her friend nearly collapse under the weight of Red’s hostility, but there was a courage inside of Fluttershy that nopony could hope to match. “I just wanted to apologize. You see, well, I was...! I was the one who convinced Twilight to come back.”

Those words seemed to earn Fluttershy even more of Red’s loathing, but the shy pegasus didn’t back down. “So... I’m, um, sorry. I just thought that you reminded me of my bunny, Angel. He’s always the most rude whenever he’s lonely, so I just thought that you really needed our help. But... I guess I—”

Fluttershy’s speech was interrupted as Red raised a quivering hoof, but the orange pegasus never tore her eyes off of the floor. “I get it,” she whispered. There was an immeasurable warmth in those nondescript words. It was as if Fluttershy had somehow given her the strength to carry on, despite the burden that she had to carry.

Unable to look and maintain her composure, Twilight turned away, finding herself face to face to with Rarity, who was staring anxiously in her direction. “Oh, Rarity, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“I understand, Twilight” she interjected. “But I cannot think of any way that I could have been knocked unconscious in the lobby back there. I probably seem quite suspicious now, even to you. You see, I barely managed to count to 8 or so before, well, you know what happened. Red and Preston were both in the back of the room, by the stairwell, meaning that there were 17 innocent ponies between them and myself. If one, or even both of them had flown over to attack me, they would not be able to do it so quickly and quietly. Now, I had my eyes closed and the storm was making it difficult to hear, but surely one of the 17 would have noticed a pegasus flying at full speed over their heads!”

All of those facts were important, but they only served to make the situation even more confusing. The lobby was proving to be one of the toughest cases to crack, but the disappearance of Page was still the most perplexing puzzle of all! There had to be something that she was missing in both cases, but the answer wasn’t coming to her. Maybe if she followed through on her suspicions from the testimony she could—

Preston, from behind, gave a quick shout to get everypony’s attention. “Oy, listen up!” he called out, nodding to Fluttershy, giving her silent thanks for her sympathy towards Red. The olive pegasus was obviously trying to fight a few tears from his eyes, but his smile was as bright as ever. “Okay, so I admit that Red has a point about you all being suspicious, but I don’t care two bits about it. We’ve been fumblin’ ‘round in the dark here ever since the abductions started, but now that you six have arrived, we’re finally starting to see a little light! Uh, sorry. Pardon the terrible metaphor. I’m a journalist after all, it’s what I do.”

Twilight managed to giggle, despite the somber mood, but something that he had said made the gears in Twilight's head begin to turn.

See the light...? See the light?

Everything fell into place. All of the puzzle pieces began to align themselves, one by one, until the entire image was nearly complete. There was only one piece missing. Twilight’s epiphany didn’t last long, but it was enough to give her a clear picture of this tragic scenario. If she was right—

No. I don't even want to think about it. There was still that one missing piece, but she already knew its shape. Just like how puzzles were put together by finding the right pieces that matched the holes, Twilight already knew what the last clue would be. Part of her hoped that she was wrong.

“Everypony. We’re going upstairs.” Twilight spoke clearly and confidently, cutting through the white noise of the storm. There was a grim urgency in her voice that she couldn’t hide.

Murmurs of confusion began to rise from the other nine ponies in the lobby, but Twilight didn’t have long to explain herself. The four testimonies combined with her own experience had shown her the way to the truth, but in a way, she wished that she had never figured it out. “I’ll explain when we get there, but I have check on something. If I’m right, I can explain everything.” She was about to say that she could prove that her friends were innocent, but she remembered what Red had said. She was responsible for everypony... not just her friends.

Without waiting to see if everypony else was following, Twilight turned and bolted up the stairs as quickly as she could. There was a way that Page could have exited the outer barrier without going through the inner one. A way that didn’t involve Rainbow Dash.

It didn’t take long for Twilight to reach the second floor. A faint pink glow enveloped room 205 like a bubble, protecting the occupants. Through the glow, Twilight could see her brother sitting at attention in the doorway, protecting the two mares behind him who were fast asleep. While the strong stallion had dark circles under his steely eyes, his posture showed that he would not be resting anytime soon.

“Shining!” Twilight shouted as she ran over to him. “I have something to ask you!”

Shining Armor moved his mouth, pointing to his lips with a hoof, but no sound came from the other side of the barrier. Apparently the barrier had soundproof qualities as well.

Before Twilight could explain that she couldn’t hear anything, a cold breeze crept up on her from behind, sending chills down her spine. Deep down, she already knew what this meant. But just to be sure, she slowly turned around to look across the hall into the darkness of room 201. The other nine ponies were finally beginning to pour out of the stairwell behind her, looking bewildered. As if their heads were attached to strings, they all turned to follow Twilight’s gaze in perfect unison.

The window in room 201 was open, letting the pouring rain soak the carpet. The sight made Twilight’s heart pound heavily in her chest. Not only did this open window make Rainbow Dash much less suspicious, but it also confirmed Twilight’s fears. She could solve all of these cases without involving any of her friends, even Shining Armor and Cadance.

Inwardly, Twilight was conflicted. She had always loved solving puzzles and mysteries, but solving this one didn’t bring her any joy. In a way, she should have been happy that she had finally managed to crack this case without involving her friends, but one question still remained in the back of her thoughts.

Why?

Act I Intermission

“Hello everypony, and thank you for reading Everdale! You see, I’ve put a lot of effort into making this a truly solvable mystery, and—”

“Hey, stop hogging the spotlight, we’re the main characters here!”

“Rainbow, cut it out! He’s the author, don’t hit him like that!”

        “Ow, I think you broke something....”

“Cut him some slack, would ya?”

“Really? I think he deserves this. That horrible script makes makes Rainbow and I look awfully suspicious. And hey, why is my text this horrid green? It reminds me of Preston's drab coat, and I cannot say I'm too fond of it.”

“I, um, don't think there was an option for white text, and Twilight already had purple. But I think he did okay....”

"Fluttershy, would you be a darling and speak up? You're hard enough to understand normally, but it's even harder when your text is such a blindingly bright yellow! It makes it a nightmare to read on a white background!

“Girls! Do you even remember why we’re here?”

“Oh yeah, weren’t we supposed to just do a little review session or something?”

“Absolutely! We gotta make sure that all the rules are clear before Twilight makes her big reveal! I mean, come on, there’s only 3 endings of a mystery anyways.”

“Uh, beg your pardon?”

“Well, there’s the ending where the reader is like ‘Wow, I was right! Yes! Woohoo!’, and then there’s the ending where the reader goes all ‘Oh man, I was soooooo close, but I totally could have gotten that’, but there’s also the one with the reader’s all like ‘Oh no you didn’t, sister! That ending came out of left field, there’s nooooo way I coulda solved something like that!’. And c’mon, which one do you think is the best one?”

“Um, the first one...?”

 “No, you silly filly! What fun would it be if everypony got it right every time? I’m talking about the second, duh.”

“But wasn’t this supposed to be solvable?”

“Uh huh!”

        “Um, actually, I really was hoping for the first—”

“Don’t be silly, you don’t want to make it too easy, but you still want it to be a fair challenge. If the average reader gets it wrong, but still sees how they could have solved it, you found a good balance of difficulty, not to mention getting them hooked for more!”

“Well, I guess that makes sense. But still, we’re here to go go over the rules, right? I mean, I’ve already got my lines memorized for the next part, so I guess we can’t really discuss theories.”

“Speak for yourself, dear. I’ve been left in the dark about this next bit.”

“You too, Rarity?”

“I haven’t been told anything either, but that’s okay with—”

“Wait, you got scripts? I’ve just been improvising!”

“Ugh, whatever. Can we get to solving this then? I’m sick of always getting those stupidly emotional scenes.”

“Okay, okay! Fine, so I’ll lay out the rules. Let me get my checklist together.”

“Oh great, more checklists. Like that whole barrier and shapes thing wasn’t enough to give me a headache.”

“Ahem! Rainbow, pay attention. Got my quill and ink, check! Checklist? Check!”

“Would ya hurry it up?”

“Okay, here we go! So, first rule: the method for how each crime was committed has been mentioned in one way or another. So, there are no spells that haven’t already been used, no changelings, and no strange mechanisms.”

“Strange mechanisms? What, like Pinkie’s cannon?”

“No, not like that. I mean like some sort of trap. For instance, I couldn’t claim that somepony had set up something to fall on your head and knock you out back in the lobby, since there hasn’t been mention of any such mechanism yet.”

“Thank you ever so much for bringing that up again, Twilight. Hmph.”

“You’re welcome, Rarity! Now, onto rule number 2. For this mystery specifically, I have solved it without the knowing involvement of any of us here. Even though Shining and Cadance aren’t here, I can solve it without involving them either.”

        “What about me? I’m still here!”

“You don’t exist.”

        “Wait, wh—”

“So rule number 2 means that my future deductions can be reached without involving the 6 of us in any way. Now, this only counts for the mysteries up to this point. So, for example, I can’t claim that one of you is a knowing accomplice. Now, some of our actions may have unwittingly aided our culprit, but that does not count.”

“Go ahead, Twilight, twist the knife a little deeper.”

“Wait, there haven’t been any knives in this case, have there? I didn’t think so. Either way, on to rule number 3! This applies to the number of mysteries. There are 4 in total, which are as follows. Who is responsible for the previous disappearances? Who put the note on the fountain? How was Page foalnapped? And lastly, how did the 17 ponies in the lobby vanish? Rule number 3 states that the first mystery, regarding the previous disappearances, is not solvable right now, but the others are.”

“So you’re tellin’ me we shouldn’t worry about the disappearances before this?”

“Yep. There’s not enough evidence yet, so it will be addressed later. Now, lastly, rule number 4! This is more of a clarification, but it still needs to be said. The motive for these disappearances remains unknown, as well as what happened to the nine ponies that were found in the Everfree Forest, meaning that it is not possible to solve this mystery with motive alone. That doesn’t mean that common sense is out of the picture, though.”

“Wait, common sense?”

“Absolutely! If somepony is guilty, their actions have to be consistent. It wouldn’t make sense if the culprit had an easier way to do things, but deliberately made things more difficult for themselves in some way without a good reason.”

“Thank you for not using the lobby as an example again.”

“You’re welcome, Rarity! Let me summarize very quickly. So, my deduction does not implicate the six of us as culprits. It also uses simple logic and does not involve an unknown spell or changelings, neither of which have been directly mentioned as being involved. The mystery of the earlier disappearances does not have enough evidence to be conclusively solved, so I am only answering the question of the disappearances that have occurred since we arrived. And lastly, the motive cannot be concretely deduced at this point, but the culprit’s actions must be consistent.”

“That’s pretty specific, Twi. I think you’re making it too easy on them.”

“Well, these should be common sense for a mystery, Rainbow. The main thing that might not be common sense is stating that I have arrived at a plausible answer that does not implicate any of you.“

“Good... because I still think it’s pretty lame that Caesura tried to pin it on me without explaining anything. Seriously, talk about crazy.”

“Well, Rainbow, if you’re so sure that she’s wrong, who do you think is the most suspicious?”

“I think it’s all 5 of them! Page was probably just faking it and trying not to laugh as she totally duped us!”

“Um... I’d like to think that this is just a big misunderstanding. It’d be nice if nopony was guilty.”

“That ain’t how things work around here, sugarcube. I’ve got my suspicions.”

“And I suppose you won’t tell us? Honestly, I think it is better that way, so I will remain silent as well.”

“Oh, I know too! I got it right after everypony started doing their really dramatic testimonies.”

“Wait, you all figured it out? That’s not fair!”

“Actually... not really. I’ve got the first two all figured out, but I just can’t wrap my mind around what happened in the lobby.”

“Me neither! Sure, solving the mystery of the note was easy, and Page’s disappearance really had me thinking in circles... but I have absolutely no leads about the lobby!”

“I do, but let’s leave it there, shall we? I think it’s time we get back to the action. I’m pretty sure that saying anymore would make this a bit too easy.”

“Ugh... fine. This little review session was a waste of time anyway.”

“Alright girls, let’s do this!”

        “Hey, what about me? Hey, don’t ignore me! I wrote the script! Hey, come back! I didn't even get to explain the difficulty levels!”

        “....”

“Okay, fine. Here you go. The mystery of the note is easy, the mystery of room 201 is medium, and the mystery of the lobby is hard. Fine. Guess that’s it for the intermission. I’ll just leave a few things here. Thanks again for reading Everdale, I hope that this has been a good—”

“Huzzah, your Actress of the Night has arrived! Let us partake in this ‘inner mission’!”

        “....”

“Did I miss anything?”

Characters

(Note: This isn’t an exhaustive list of everything you need to know, it’s just a summary. Some details may be omitted, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important!)

Red

Species: pegasus

        Occupation: Mayor

        Cutie Mark: Three sharpened pencils in a row

Coat: Burnt orange

        Testimony: On the night of Page’s disappearance, she informed the nightwatch about the Elements of Harmony being banished and went and taped up houses. Preston, Nightowl, and his friends arrived to help, but Red sent them away. Nightowl stayed a minute after before going inside. She saw Caesura and the late group arrive a little bit after. Red, upon going in, saw Page in the window, apparently arguing with somepony. She goes in and stays in the lobby. Rarity turns out the lights, Red starts counting and gets somewhere around ten before she is knocked out.

Preston Paper

Species: pegasus

        Occupation: Red’s secretary, used to run a newspaper

        Cutie Mark: A newspaper

        Coat: Olive green

        Testimony: Got the invitation and went to pick up his friends. He saw Nightowl leaving the guardhouse with Page on his back, asked him to help gather up his friends. They did, then ran into Red and helped her tape up houses. Preston and his friends left for the hotel and asked Nightowl to follow, but he insisted on staying and helping for a minute. Once inside, he stayed downstairs. When Rarity turned out the lights, he counted to 20 before getting knocked out.

Caesura

Species: Unicorn

        Occupation: Ex-traveling musician

        Cutie Mark: Inverted treble clef and normal bass clef, makes a heart.

        Coat: Dirty white, almost gray

        Testimony: Got the invitation late, went to gather up everypony. Didn’t see Preston or Nightowl, but saw Red from a distance before going inside. She said she saw the lights come on in Page’s room, but didn’t really look. She arrived, went to the third floor with Pinkie, and came down.

Nightowl

Species: Earth pony

        Occupation: Nightwatch

        Cutie Mark: Constellation of an eye

        Coat: Dull gray

        Testimony: Red came and told them about the Elements of Harmony being banished. Pinkie gave him the invitation at the guardhouse and he convinced Page to take the night off. Page talked him into carrying her there. He saw Preston when he left and helped him gather his friends before running into Red and helping her as well. He stayed a minute after Preston and his friends left to help Red, but eventually went inside. He and Rarity took Page to room 201 to rest, where Rarity mentioned the inner barrier to him. They lit the candles, dropped Page off, and left. After coming back down, he ran back up with Twilight to the second floor. He burst through the front, then she came through the side. They searched the room and found nothing, then left. Twilight then pushed him out of the way and ran down the stairs, he followed after AJ and Fluttershy ran down.

Page Inkwell

Species: Pegasus

        Occupation: Nightwatch

        Cutie Mark: Quill and parchment

        Coat: Sky blue

        Testimony: None.

Chapter 9: Light and Truth

Chapter 9

Light and Truth

This was it. The moment of truth. Twilight knew that there would be no turning back once she started. Preston's enlightening comment in the lobby had provided her with the means and the opportunity, but there was still no motive. It was time to find out why the ponies of Everdale had been taken.

“Everypony, listen up,” Twilight commanded, her mane and tail whipping in the chilly wind that came from the inky darkness of room 201. “I know what happened. I know how Page was abducted. I know how the townsponies vanished. I know who posted the note on the fountain. I—”

“How?!” Red cried, forcibly shoving her way through the other ponies. “No, you know what? Don’t even answer. Don’t even. I was almost ready to trust you, but this is just way too much! You’re telling me that some light bulb randomly turned on in your head? What, does being Celestia’s personal student suddenly give you divine revelation or something? That window tells us nothing!”

Twilight shook her head and tried to ignore the chill pervading the second floor. She could understand Red’s frustration, considering everything that she had been through in the past month, but that just made it even harder to argue back. “That window tells us everything. It—”

“No it doesn’t!” Red stamped her hoof, her fiery demeanor ablaze. Twilight was about to say something, but she stopped when she saw Preston approach her from behind a put a hoof on her shoulder.

Red shoved him away, nearly knocking the pegasus to the floor as she continued to march towards Twilight. “Answer me! What are we supposed to get from that? All it means is that our culprit forgot to close the window after they threw Page out there in the storm!”

There it was, the first logical pitfall that everypony had fallen into. Twilight would have brought this up herself if Red hadn't mentioned it. “You know, ever since Caesura started making her deductions, everypony kept trying to find somepony without an alibi for the time that we were in the lobby. You know what? That makes sense... in a way. Somepony had to throw Page out of the window, right? Well, let me ask you something. Why are we assuming that Page was actually thrown out of the window?”

The question, albeit it an obvious one, was left unanswered.

Twilight took advantage of the silence and triumphantly marched towards room 201. “Because the way I see it, this open window says otherwise. If somepony was going to go through all the trouble of concocting an elaborate crime like this, I think they would have remembered to close the window afterwards. Wouldn’t that make sense? So far, our culprit has left almost no incriminating evidence, so why would they forget to close a window?”

Despite the solid deductions, Red refused to give up. “Because the culprit wanted us to find it! That still doesn’t—”

“Yes it does!” Twilight interjected forcefully, trying to keep Red from taking control of the situation. The last thing they needed right now was a bunch of paranoid ponies running around the crime scene! “Let’s talk this out, okay? The window was closed when Nightowl and I checked the room, and if you don’t believe me, you can ask him. This means that it was opened sometime after that, right?”

“Right,” came Nightowl’s affirmation from the stairwell. He was tall enough that he could still be seen over the crowd.

“Thank you, Nightowl. Now, the next question. Who could have opened it? Rainbow Dash?”

“That’s exactly what I was trying to tell you earlier,” Caesura grumbled from the crowd, not even bothering to step up and join Red. “She’s the only one who doesn’t have an alibi once you tripped your way downstairs. The way I see it, that open window shows that somepony was in that room after you left, and there’s only one of us that could have done it. Looks like you’re back to accusing your friend, eh?”

Caesura’s taunting made Twilight grind her teeth in disgust, but she quelled her sudden urge to levitate the pompous unicorn out into the storm. “Oh, really?” Twilight mused, imitating Caesura’s condescending tone. “No, I think we’re all forgetting something. You all seem to have forgotten something.”

Caesura, appearing a little bit unsure of herself, forced out a response. “And what’s that?”

“There’s actually another pony who doesn’t have an alibi for that time, and this pony wasn’t seen at all during the entire fiasco. I thought you would have noticed, but it looks like I was wrong. So, does anypony happen to know who that might be?”

“Oooh, oooh, pick me! Pick me, I know!” Pinkie began to bounce up and down from the back row, her detective’s hat nearly falling off.

With a grin, Twilight stopped just short of the broken door to room 201 and turned to face everypony. Pinkie must have solved quite a bit of this mystery already, considering how detailed her diagram had been, so there was nearly no risk in letting one of the detective's loyal assistants answer a few questions. “Yes, Pinkie? Who else doesn’t have an alibi for the time that Page could’ve escaped through the outer barrier?”

“Duh! It's Page!”

“Exactly,” Twilight giggled. Pinkie’s energy was infectious to the point that Twilight was beginning to enjoy her moment in the spotlight. “You see, nopony threw Page out of the window. In fact, she was never thrown at all, except maybe onto the bed. The most plausible option isn't that she was thrown outside, but that she flew outside of her own free will.”

“Hold it right there!” Caesura shouted, no longer content to sit in the back. She had been confidently sarcastic before, but it seemed that Twilight’s words had struck a soft spot. “Why would she go off by herself when she knew that everypony would be down in the lobby? She saw the invitation herself! If she flew off, why wouldn’t she have come back down through the front door to see everypony? I hope you realize what you’re saying here. If you’re saying that Page flew out the window, you’re saying that she's in cahoots with the culprit. And trust me, you don’t want to say that.”

Twilight took the mare's advice, making sure to tread carefully around the touchy subject of Page's abduction. Regardless, she couldn't deny the urge to be vague and mysterious, a habit that quite a few other detectives were guilty of. “You know, she actually did go down and see everypony. She just didn’t go into the lobby.”

While it would have been nice to milk her moment of victory for all it was worth, Twilight was interrupted by a multi-colored streak shot out of the crowd and landed right in front of Caesura.

“Aha! I’ve got it!” Rainbow shouted victoriously. “So how does it feel, huh? You want me to explain everything to you and then gloat over how right I am? Want me to start asking you ‘Am I correct, am I correct, myeh myeh myeh’?”

Caesura's eye twitched as she forced herself to smile. “Shut your trap, you little braggart,” she hissed. “You think you’re right? Because the last time you did something like this, you nearly drowned Preston and humiliated yourself. Somepony as dense as you should just sit in the back and let the rest of us do the thinking.”

“Why you little—”

“Rainbow, calm down,” Twilight ordered. “Rainbow Dash, as the detective’s loyal assistant, you’re supposed to make the detective look like the good guy. So please, my loyal assistant, why don’t you tell everypony why Page left the room?”

Thankfully, Rainbow took the hint. “Happily,” she announced dramatically, turning to face the crowd of ponies and striking a heroic pose. “Alright, everypony, listen up, because I’m about to knock your socks off!”

“Rainbow...” Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes and giving her friend a little nudge to get her back on track.

Rainbow didn’t even notice. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. So here’s the deal. Why would Page fly out the window without closing it? From what I remember, the storm had already kicked into gear by the time Twilight lowered the barrier around this room, meaning that Page must have been in a rush if she didn’t think to close the window to keep the rain from pouring in. So, during that short period of time when the outer barrier was still up, what was happening outside?”

Preston raised a hoof. “Well, I think—”

“Wrong!” Rainbow interjected, punctuating her victory with a dramatic laugh. “Aha! Everypony from the lobby was running outside like the whole place had just gone up in smoke! So come on, if Page saw this, why wouldn’t she fly out and see what was going on? If I saw my friends running around out there, I’d probably break the window to go see if they were okay! But I wouldn’t have been surprised if Page didn’t care about any of you enough that—”

“Thank you Rainbow, I can handle things from here,” Twilight sighed, hoping that Dash wouldn’t go too far with that assumption. While the brash pegasus was quite intelligent when she put her mind to it, she had a tendency to let her imagination run wild, just like her ego.

Thankfully, she heeded Twilight’s suggestion and took a deep breath, calming herself down. “You got it, Twi.” All of Dash’s bravado melted away from those words, leaving behind a warm confidence that reminded Twilight of how much her friends meant to her. “Knock ‘em dead. Now hurry up before everypony starts getting sappy again, otherwise I’m gonna have to kick ya.”

Unable to keep herself from smiling, Twilight gave her friend a playful push before continuing on with her explanation. There was no reason to draw this out any longer, and Dash’s theatrical explanation left her walking on thin ice, so there was no more room for error.

“Here we go. If she went out the window to go see why everypony was running, how did she end up getting knocked out and dragged into the Everfree Forest? The answer to that is quite simple. Earlier, I believe that Caesura mentioned how our culprit could not have worked alone, which is absolutely true. And Caesura, don’t even think about twisting my words again. Instead of implicating Rarity, this actually brings up another logical pitfall, one that I fell into as well."

Responses among the other 9 ponies in the room varied from outrage to confusion. Twilight had to quell the chaos before it had a chance to grow. “First off, my brother and Cadance saw two ponies dragging Page into the woods, meaning that there are at least two accomplices outside of the ponies gathered here. If our culprit had accomplices in the group of 17, it would have been easy for the ones in the front row to knock Rarity unconscious without anypony noticing, not to mention how easy it would be to scare everypony into charging headlong out of the front door!”

Before Twilight could develop her theory, Red stopped her. It was a good thing that she had left her megaphone down in the lobby, otherwise Twilight would have covered her ears in preparation for the aural onslaught. “So now you’re accusing the same ponies you came here to save? I can’t believe you! I know every single one of them by name! And—”

“Please, Red! Hear me out. I just—”

“Hey, Red ain’t the only one here who knew them.”

Twilight had been expecting Red to cut her off, but a stallion with a strong accent spoke up instead, making his way up to his fellow pegasus’ side. Preston’s eyes, usually bright and enthusiastic, were starting to lose their luster. He had been the only one to keep his cool through all of this, but it seemed that the immense pressure was finally starting to crack his emotional armor.

Ignoring the silence, Preston continued. “I can deal with everypony suspecting each other, but I thought that you, of all the ponies here, would understand. Twilight, your friends have already been under suspicion, but you wouldn't stand for it. So what about me? You’re gonna allow the last remaining friends that I had left in this Celestia-forsaken town to be accused even though they’re not here to defend themselves?”

Preston’s words were still restrained, but Twilight could still feel the intense emotion hidden behind his calm facade. There were cracks in his carefree mask, showing everypony just how much he had been through in the past day.

“Preston, you said that you trusted me,” Twilight sighed, biting her bottom lip anxiously. She couldn't help somepony that didn't want to be helped. “Please, just let me finish. Please.”

For any normal pony, a direct appeal to their emotions like thatwouldn’t have any effect, but Preston was far from normal. His tremendous inner strength was a force to be reckoned with. From what Twilight had seen so far, she could count on this strong stallion to not let his emotions get the best of him, even when—

“No. I won’t.” Preston’s cold words matched the icy breeze that swept through the room, sending shivers down Twilight’s spine. His Baltimare accent had vanished, catching everypony in the room off guard. “I say no. I’m done standing around. I’ve tried to stay out of your way so you could do your work, but not anymore. I appreciate everything you’ve done. Really, I do. But I refuse to let you bully my friends like this. I brought them all here because I thought you could save us, and you know, I can forgive you for making a mistake. You’re not omnipotent like everypony thinks you are. You’re not perfect. You did everything you could to help, and even if it didn’t work out in the end, I’m still grateful. Honestly, I couldn’t have done any better myself. But I am not gonna let you drag my friends through the mud like this! Memories of them are all that I’ve got left of them now... and I refuse to let you trample over what little I have to hold onto.”

Once again, Twilight found herself conflicted. If revealing the truth was going to cause nothing but strife, why was she bothering? “Preston, I know it’s hard to believe, but listen.” With a sigh, Twilight wished that she could directly show her empathy towards the shaking stallion in front of her. Instead, she had to rely on inefficient, subjective words to show her understanding, and words had long since lost their meaning. Words were helpless in the face of doubt. “No matter what, somepony you know is the culprit. So please, I only ask that you let me finish. And that you find the truth for yourself.”

There was no response, not even from the other ponies in the group. All of them could understand why Preston was so hesitant to let Twilight continue.

With authority in her step, Twilight backed into room 201, levitating the window shut and lighting the candles in the room with a small spark of magic. The warm glow made the room feel less foreboding by spreading the warmth of the flames to all that were inside. “Everypony, please step inside. I will stop wasting your time. All I’ve been doing is drawing out the inevitable, so I intend to tell you the truth before I make things any worse. So, everypony? Let’s end this. We all want this to be over. If you don’t trust me, then trust Princess Celestia. Trust the Elements of Harmony. That’s all I ask.”

        The first pony to move was Applejack, who had been remarkably silent this entire time. As the Element of Honesty, her words had remarkable authority behind them, but that was the very reason she had stayed silent. She was humble enough to realize that she didn’t know everything, so she had kept quiet in order to keep herself from accidentally saying something misleading. All of her confidence was summed up in her methodical trot as she entered and sat down next to the broken door to room 202.

One by one, the other ponies eventually began to filter in. Twilight wished that she could have been more ethical with her movements, but she had forced everypony's hoof. If any of them refused to enter the room, they would immediately become suspicious, meaning that their friends would be torn between sticking up for them or abandoning them. It was an unfortunate situation, but it was no different from the way it had been before.

Preston should have been the last one in, but a small figure still sat outside in the hallway, looking timidly at everypony inside with watery, half-closed eyes.

Twilight blinked. “Fluttershy?” she gasped. Sure enough, Fluttershy was waiting timidly by the stairwell. She had been getting so much better at speaking up recently, but Twilight could see the inner turmoil that came from choosing between being assertive and agreeing with her friend.

“Twilight... please stop.” Her voice was hardly audible. Twilight tried to make eye contact with her, but her pink mane was in the way. It was obvious that she was pouring every ounce of energy she had into standing up for herself like this. “You’re not being very nice. I-I really don’t want to know who did it.”

“But Fluttershy, I—”

“You know, we could just forgive them, right?” The timid pegasus had to pause and bite firmly on her lower lip before continuing. “I mean, as long as they promise not to do it again. W-we’re just making things worse here! If you go and prove that somepony is guilty, then...! Then...! What’s going to happen to them? Why can’t we just let it go?”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight whispered again. “I wish that I could see everything the way you do. You’re always so optimistic. But if we let the culprit go, then the ponies that have already disappeared might never come back. And maybe, when all of the other ponies come back, we really could forgive them. But right now, we need to know the truth. So please, Fluttershy...!”

Twilight heard somepony start to say something behind her, but when she turned, all she saw was Rainbow Dash giving Caesura a threatening glare. It wasn’t hard to imagine what the unkempt unicorn was thinking. If Fluttershy wasn’t coming inside, didn’t that mean she was guilty?

As if answering that question, Fluttershy stumbled lifelessly into the room, head held low and mane dragging on the floor in front of her like a mop. It broke Twilight’s heart to see her like this, but there was nothing they could do except push forward. The truth would set everypony free, both culprit and innocent alike.

Once everypony was inside, Fluttershy found a spot in the corner of the room and laid down despondently, not even making eye contact with any of her friends. Rainbow immediately flew over to her side, giving Caesura a little bit of room to breathe.

Once everypony was inside, Preston spoke up. “Whatever you say, I probably won’t believe you. I won’t believe anything you six say about my friends.”

Red jumped in with a vindictive shout, feeding off of Preston’s mistrust. “I knew it! You six can’t be the Elements of Harmony! You’ve only been trouble since you arrived! If you hadn’t shown up—”

“You asked for help,” Twilight interjected, “but we only made matters worse. I know. Trust me, I know.” She had already resigned herself to bearing the responsibility that had been thrust upon her. “We messed up. No, I messed up. I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I’m just asking for your trust.”

“And you expect us to trust you?" shouted Caesura. "You're the most suspicious out of this whole lot! If you're the one pulling the strings, then everything would make sense!"

"That's why I'm asking for your trust," Twilight replied, attempting to sound calm despite the churning in her gut. "I trust my friends. I know that all six of us are innocent. All of these incidents can be explained without our involvement."

"Fine, hurry up and explain it," Caesura growled. "We've already been over this. It still doesn't change the fact that you're responsible for well over half of what has happened here."

Red nodded slowly. “Explaining it won’t bring them back.”

“I know,” Twilight responded again, her voice still tinged with regret. “We’re not superheroes. We thought we could help, and believe me when I say that we tried as hard as we could, but now it’s time to fix the problems that we created. If you can’t give me your trust, then give me an ear. Hear me out.”

There were no objections.

“Think about everything that has happened so far,” Twilight spoke calmly, her voice slicing through the heavy atmosphere of the candlelit room. Sheets of rain pelted the windows loudly enough that Twilight had to project her voice to make sure that everypony heard her. “This theory will account for everything. The note, this room, and the lobby.... If I had known sooner, I might have been able to stop this. Now that I know, I'm going to make sure that this stops here. While I admit that I have no idea what happened to the ponies that have already disappeared, I know exactly who is behind this.”

With grim determination, Twilight readied herself. There was no room for hesitation, especially after she had made it so far and dragged all of these ponies along with her. “First, I want to apologize to everypony here. Yes, I even want to apologize to the guilty party. You must have worked hard to create this complicated crime. Now that I can see everything that happened, I have to say that I’m impressed. If this had been a duel between the two of us, I would have lost. I wouldn’t have been able to solve this without the help of all of my friends.”

Allowing herself a moment of weakness, Twilight hesitated. Was it wrong for the detective to sympathize with the culprit? All of the fictional detectives that she had imitated as a filly had a clear nemesis, a dastardly villain that wouldn’t hesitate to foalnap a pony in cold blood. In this mystery, Twilight felt empathetic towards every single one of the suspects, making it even more difficult to raise her hoof in the culprit’s direction.

Struggling to keep her resolve, Twilight began to think out loud. “There’s no motive here. Nothing. All that we have to go by is cold, hard facts. Those facts only leave room for one answer, an answer that I nearly overlooked. And it all starts with one pony.”

Twilight leveled her hoof at the culprit.

“It was you... Caesura.”

Twilight grinned as everypony's head turned to face Caesura. There was a familiar sense of vulnerability in her emerald eyes as they darted around, but Twilight couldn't let sympathy slow her down. It was time to take this haughty mare’s mask off.

Immediately, Red leapt between the two unicorns. “Have you lost it?! Caesura was with Pinkie the whole time! There’s no way—”

“I’m not talking about Page’s disappearance,” Twilight explained, doing her best to keep Red from frothing at the mouth. Keeping this group under control was like walking a tightrope over thin ice, but now she had to pull off a 10-point pirouette! “In fact, Caesura has all of her actions accounted for ever since she entered the hotel. I’m talking about the very first move our culprit made: setting that note on the fountain.”

Even though Twilight couldn't see Caesura, she could still hear her unsteady voice. “R-Red? I—”

“Don’t worry, Chess! I’m not going to let her do this to you." Red's wings flared as she glared at Twilight. "You’re my friend Caesura, and friends stick up for each other!”

Twilight, in  flash, tried to think of a way that she could make Red stand down. “Look, the easiest way to put the note on the fountain would have been with magic, meaning—”

"Then you put it there! It doesn’t matter anyway, since Caesura couldn’t have done anything. Everypony would have noticed if her horn had lit up for no reason!”

Twilight smirked. “You're right."

"What—"

"Let me finish. Caesura was the only one with the opportunity. Pinkie, would you mind telling us what happened when you went to check out Caesura's instrument cases?"

"Sure thing, Twilight!" Pinkie, with all the gusto she could manage, launched into her story. “You see, I went over to check out Caesura’s pile of instruments, and wow, she’s got a whole ton! I tried to get her to levitate me along with her instruments, and even though she tried, she couldn’t really get me into the air that easily, so we gave up and came back to join everypony!”

"That doesn't prove anything!" Red belted, baring her teeth. "Caesura would have been too distracted to place the note!"

"Really?" Twilight countered. "Because I recall a certain unicorn being able to levitate a multitude of fragile instruments at once... with her eyes closed."

"B-but that," Red stammered. "That's not decisive! She may have had the opportunity, but that doesn't count as proof!"

"It doesn't? Well then, allow me to continue. It may seem like there was no evidence for this mystery, but there's one more clue that everypony overlooked. Red, let me ask you something. Where was the culprit keeping the note before they posted it on the statue? Nopony here had any saddlebags... but one of us had quite the assortment of instrument cases.”

With one last cry, Red stamped her hoof in defiance. "But why?! Why would she place it when everypony else was around the fountain? There was no reason for her to to a risk like that!"

"That confused me as well, but then I thought back to my earlier point. If Caesura was carrying the note in her instrument cases, she would have to keep Pinkie away from them. In a desperate move, she had to place the note immediately before Pinkie could find it."

Red looked like she was about to contest the point, but she took a slow step backward, glancing over her shoulder at Caesura. The pegasus gasped a took a jumped away, revealing a grinning mare behind her. There was no trace of fear on Caesura's smug expression anymore.

        As thunder flashed, Red turned sideways, her eyes shooting back and forth between Twilight and Caesura. “No, this isn't right! Caesura, don’t worry, I can still save you! Just please, say something!”

Caesura chose to remain silent as she sat on the floor, her grin growing wider.

A few ponies in the room moved to approach her statue-esque form, but only one of them followed through, brusquely shoving Red out of the way. Rainbow Dash stood threateningly in front of the accused unicorn, eyes narrowed.

"So... did you really do it?” Rainbow asked, her voice restrained. “Is that why you tried to accuse me? So that you could get off the hook?”

“Yeah.”

Twilight’s hoof froze in the air as she prepared to interrogate Caesura further, but there was no need. Even Red, who had gotten back up to her hooves and was about to tackle Rainbow to the ground, froze where she stood. “Wh-what?" Red gasped. "Caesura, you didn’t!”

It was too late. Rainbow Dash had already pushed a confession out of her without even trying. Twilight had been prepared to break up a violent fight between the three of them, but everything had been resolved peacefully. The unnervingly calm unicorn sat quietly, not even bothering to open her eyes. Why wouldn’t she defend herself? What had happened to that passion back in the lobby?

Rainbow, her suppressed fury beginning to rise, leaned in closer until she was nose to nose with Caesura. Twilight could see electricity sparking between them. “That’s it?! No evil laugh? No theatrical confession?! Just a single word? You...! How can you be so calm about this?! What about the villain's dramatic last stand?!!”

Yet again, there was no answer. The accused unicorn wasn’t even going to bother putting up a fight, much to Rainbow’s chagrin.

“Caesura, don’t joke around,” Preston chuckled nervously, making his way up beside Rainbow and looking around the room at all of the shocked expressions. “What are you thinking? You’re just going to let these bullies push you around?!”

The air in the room was thick, even worse than it had been before. Nopony dared say a word. Over the pounding rain and howling wind, Twilight could still hear Preston’s irregular breathing and sniffling. She was glad that she couldn’t see the stallion’s desperate expression.

Finally, Caesura spoke, her grin fading into a deep frown. “Thanks, guys. Really. But she’s still right. Twilight’s not bullying anypony. In fact, she hit the nail right on the head. Pinkie would have seen the note in my case if I hadn't tried to levitate her like that. I just got unlucky, that’s all.”

Caesura’s nonchalant confession only made things worse for Preston. “Unlucky?! What’s wrong with you? Why would you do that, Caesura? You’ve been my friend ever since you came here, and the Caesura I know wouldn’t be working with a foalnapper!” There was a hint of nostalgia in Preston’s words, but it was hidden beneath his unsteady optimism. “Even if you did post that note, you would have had a good reason for it, right? Is somepony forcing you? Are you being blackmailed?”

Caesura ignored the emotion in her friend’s voice, remaining stoic to his pleas. “None of those. I simply wanted them out of here. These 6 really are like storybook detectives. No matter where they go, something bad happens. Their arrival was the nail in the coffin for Everdale.”

As much as Twilight wished that Caesura would explain herself further, pressing her further would probably shove Preston and Red past the breaking point. There had been enough trouble in Everdale recently, and Twilight wasn’t going to cause any more than she needed to.

It was then that Twilight realized what Caesura was doing. Despite admitting her guilt, she was still grinning confidently, almost as if she was taunting her friends and egging them on. I know your game, Caesura. You’re going to try and make me push them past the breaking point and use the ensuing chaos to your advantage, aren't you?

“Thank you, Caesura,” Twilight whispered, shooting a challenging glare at the guilty mare. “Preston? Red? I'll need you to bear with me. This won’t be easy.”

“What... what other choice do I have?” Preston laughed mirthlessly, a sparkling sheet of tears beginning to form a film over his downcast eyes. “We’re being held hostage by the 6 most powerful ponies in Equestria.”

Part of Twilight, the part that she had to suppress to keep her thoughts on track, wanted to comfort the desperate stallion in front of her. Even Rainbow, who was still standing beside him, had to look away.

Twilight frowned. “Caesura, you couldn’t have done it alone. You were under complete surveillance ever since you entered the hotel, meaning that you couldn’t be the culprit for this next crime. You delivered the threat, trying to get us to leave, but you were just an accomplice. Let's find out who you're working for.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” the guilty unicorn scolded, as if she was completely ignorant of the fact that she had just admitted her involvement. There was an unspoken challenge between the two unicorns, one that Twilight was more than willing to accept. “Say what you will, oh great detective, but say it clearly. It’d be a shame if you were wrong.”

“I will, thank you,” Twilight responded flatly. On the surface, it might have sounded like they were having a friendly conversation, but a battle of wits raged beneath the surface, signified by the intensity in their challenging stares. “Let’s continue off from where we left off.”

Before, Caesura hadn’t been able to actively criticize Twilight’s suspicions without appearing to be guilty herself, meaning that Caesura had admitted her guilt in order to go all out against her. Now that Caesura had admitted her guilt, there was nothing keeping her from blowing holes in Twilight's theory.

Once Twilight had everything ready, she began her explanation. “So, after we were banished, Nightowl and Page went out on duty. Then, Red goes over to fill them in on what happened, but we’ve already been through this. Now, for the longest time, I thought that Nightowl and Page were both innocent, meaning—"

“Oh?” Caesura interrupted, not letting a single opportunity go to waste. She leapt on Twilight’s vague statement like a starved animal. “And why would you mention that? I think that it would make quite a bit of sense if Page and Nightowl were my accomplices, you know."

That was a dirty trick, but Twilight was ready for it. Caesura was trying to blame Page, which would send Preston and Red into a frenzy, but Twilight wasn't going to allow that to happen. “You're wrong, Caesura, it wouldn’t make any sense at all. You see, when you think about it from their perspective, it wouldn’t have made sense for either of them to be involved in this. Why did Nightowl and Page show up to the hotel in the first place? If one of them was the culprit, or even both, there would be no reason for them to come to the party, which would put them in a tight spot. If I was the culprit, I wouldn't put myself in a difficult situation like that."

Keeping her expression unreadable, Twilight turned to face Nightowl. “Now, let’s assume that both you and Page are guilty for a moment. If your goal was to make all of the ponies vanish overnight, why would you willingly comply with a plan that would keep everypony holed up in the hotel? Sure, you would be able to get inside, but you two wouldn’t be able to do anything if we all stuck together. If you two mysteriously vanished before you arrived at the party, everypony would panic and split up to search for you, making us all easy targets. You would have foiled our plan before it even started! If we assume that one of you is guilty and the other isn’t, a similar question could be asked. Why the guilty one willingly bring their victim to a safe place, making it nearly impossible for them to carry out their threat?

“Ergo, I thought that you were both innocent, but everything changed when I heard your testimonies. Nightowl, you were forced to go to the party because you had somepony watching you at all times! Preston saw you coming out of the guardhouse with Page and asked for your help, so you had to oblige, otherwise your cover would have been blown. So you go help him, but before you can come up with an excuse to leave, Red sees you. Now, after Preston and his friends left, you remained with Red, and Preston specifically mentioned that he expected to see you at the party, which meant that even after he left and Red ordered you to leave, you had no choice but to go into the hotel after him."

“Watch your step,” warned Caesura, still not moving. There was a hint of venom in her voice. “If you’re accusing Page, you had better be ready for a swarm of angry ponies. I’m the culprit, right? I already know the truth.”

Twilight clenched her teeth. She’s taunting me. She knows that she could cause this group to riot at any given moment if my deductions don’t go the way that she wants them to. It may look like I'm in control right now, but it's only because she wants me to be.

“I’m watching my step, thank you very much,” Twilight giggled cordially. “I already know what happened too, you know. Nightowl, if you’re guilty, then Page is innocent. If you were both guilty, there’s no reason that you would come to the hotel in the first place. You both had a fair amount of time between when Pinkie delivered your invitation and when Preston showed up, meaning that if the two of you were guilty, you would have taken that time to disappear into the woods before Preston saw you.”

Caesura snorted derisively. “That’s a dirty trick, Twilight. Real dirty. Maybe you really are just bullying these ponies around.”

As soon as Caesura interjected, Twilight knew that she had just walked into a trap. “And how is that?” she asked cautiously.

“Stop with the games already. You know what you’re doing. By saying that only one of them is guilty, you’re forcing Nightowl to confess. Page isn’t here to defend herself. If Nightowl says that he’s innocent, you can twist his words to make it sound like he’s saying that Page is guilty. That’s awfully cruel, Twilight sparkle.”

Twilight grimaced. In truth, she hadn’t intended to put Nightowl in a position like that, but intentions had long since worn out their usefulness. Caesura had pushed her into a logical corner, twisting Twilight’s words to make it sound like she was twisting Nightowl’s. But there was an easy way out of this trap.

Gritting her teeth, Twilight nodded. If Caesura was going to play dirty, Twilight would too. “You're right. But what are going to do about it, Caesura?”

The blunt reply had caught Caesura off guard, giving Twilight the opportunity to leap out of her trap before she could spring it by changing the subject. “Caesura, if I say they’re both guilty, it doesn’t matter if you say they are innocent. You’re the culprit after all, so how can we trust that you aren’t covering for your accomplices?”

Immediately, Caesura responded, taking Twilight's bait. “Simple! Your premise that both can’t be guilty is completely faulty. Even if they were both in on it, they had no reason to act immediately! They probably spent that time arguing about their plan of attack, meaning they could both be guilty!”

“Thank you for proving my point.”

The off-white unicorn twisted her lips into a snarl as she backed down. "Your point?"

“My point is that both of them could be innocent as well. The testimonies show that Nightowl had no chance to slip off into the forest before the party started. This doesn't prove Page or Nightowl guilty. It only makes it possible."

Caesura gnawed on her lip. She had been trying to make Twilight say that Page was guilty, but her plan had failed. “Urgh, fine. You'd better tread carefully, Twilight.”

Caesura’s warning didn’t fall on deaf ears. Twilight understood the consequences of arriving at her answer prematurely. Right now, she was walking a tightrope between being theatrical and being blunt, and one wrong step on either side would send her plummeting.

All this time, Nightowl appeared to be listening intently, but he jumped at the opportunity to speak up. “I’m not going to lie. If my innocence implicates Page’s guilt, I’d plead guilty without a second thought.”

“And that’s admirable, Nightowl,” Twilight remarked quietly, avoiding giving Caesura more ammunition than she already had. “But let’s focus on the facts, shall we?”

The sturdy watchpony fidgeted, refusing to be silent. “Like the fact that Page somehow vanished from the room before we found her. And that she was shouting at somepony that doesn't exist.”

Twilight pounced on his last sentence. “That’s the funny thing about this case. We’re still assuming that she left the room. My barrier doesn't lie. I had initially wondered whether Page had managed to match up her shape with Rarity’s, but if that’s true, then when did Rarity leave? No matter what, the results of my barrier show that one pony would have remained in the room. My magic won’t lie to me, and my magic told me that Page never left once she entered!”

Once more, Caesura threw herself into the debate. “Oh, really?” she quipped. “I do believe our defective detective has made a blunder. You’re so quick to say that she never left, but you, of all ponies, should know the incredible feats that magic is capable of. You know, I think I might just make another confession.”

Cursing under her breath, Twilight wished that she could magically gag Caesura.

“You see, when I was approaching the door, I saw Nightowl and Rarity turn on the lights, just like I said. But I lied, you see? I actually teleported inside, grabbed Page, and teleported both of us back out before coming in. To think you’ve been running around in circles and never even considered that idea! Maybe I should have been the detective.”

“Sorry Caesura, but I won’t be resigning anytime soon,” Twilight countered. “If you’re going to confess, the burden of proof rests on you to show that you did it. So please, Caesura, would you be so kind as teleport the two of us outside for a moment?”

Twilight found a sick satisfaction in watching the frustrated mare squirm under everypony’s expectant gaze. Caesura was extremely dexterous with her levitation, rivaling Rarity, but in order to be that gifted with levitation, other spells would have to be neglected. Rarity couldn’t teleport, and it was becoming fairly obvious that Caesura couldn’t either.

Instead of a rebuttal, Caesura shook her head, never once letting her irritation show.

“I applaud you for your inventive theory, Caesura, and also for your bravery, but your confession isn’t going to save your accomplice.”

There was a small twitch in Caesura’s floppy ears, but it was enough to let Twilight know that she had been right.

"Now, back to the truth. I only noticed it recently, but when I went into room 201 with Nightowl, it was dark. Very dark. In your testimony, Nightow, you told me that you had Rarity light the candles, which was confirmed by Red when she said that she saw Page in the window. So who turned them off?”

Twilight had expected Caesura to butt in, but she remained suspiciously quiet.

Instead, Nightowl answered. “What if nopony turned them off?” he offered, pursing his lips. Caesura may have been a good liar, but this watchpony couldn’t hope to match her sprezzatura. “Page could have opened the window and let the breeze in. Right?”

With ruthless precision, Twilight turned to face him. “That's not a bad idea, but it doesn't make sense. Whenever anypony saw the window, it was closed, making me wonder when Page would have woken up and opened up. Despite all of that, there was another pony that could have blown out the candles without anypony noticing. It was quite a narrow window, I admit, but not impossibly so."

In the corner of her vision, Twilight saw Caesura wince. There was nothing that Caesura could do to protect her accomplice anymore.

"If you remember," Twilight stated, "Nightowl broke in through the front door before I could, giving him a few seconds where I couldn’t track his movements. During that time... you had just enough time to blow out all of the candles.”

In a flurry of confusion, Nightowl began to back away. “But why? Wh-why would I do turn off the lights?!”

“Let me ask you a better question. Why would you turn on the lights in the first place? Wasn’t Page supposed to be sleeping? It’s simple. You didn’t want me to be able to see very well. If the lights were on, I might have noticed that Page was, in fact, still in the room.”

“What?” Nightowl gasped as his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, reflecting the dancing flames of the candles on the wall. In that moment, Twilight knew that there was no escape for the trembling stallion. “We searched everywhere! Dark or not, you know that she wasn’t there!”

“Not everywhere, Nightowl,” Twilight objected. “I thought it was strange that you immediately started investigating the closet when we got there. You were being extremely level-headed for a pony who had just lost his best friend. You wasted no time in suggesting that we search the room... and immediately went and checked the closet. That left me to check everywhere else."

"B-but—"

“The only logical answer is that Page never left the room at all! She was stuffed in the closet, hidden by the darkness that you created! Afterwards, Page must have woken up, either from a crack of thunder or from the noise downstairs. As Rainbow already explained, she went to the window, saw everypony running for their lives, and flew out to see what was going on.”

“Close, Twilight Sparkle, but no cigar.” Caesura’s taunting voice rang out, reminding Twilight that she was still there, listening for any fatal error in her reasoning. It seemed she had waited long enough to get back on the offensive. “Nightowl couldn’t have done it. If he used those few precious seconds to turn out the lights, he wouldn’t have had time to stuff Page in the closet without you noticing. I’m sure that your dear friend, Rarity, can remind you that, when they left Page, she was resting on the bed. So how did she get into the closet, hm? Are you saying that she went there herself? The only way your theory works is if Page is working together with Nightowl... and are you sure you want to take that step?”

With a patronizing smirk, Twilight answered. “No, Page is entirely innocent, and I can show you the answer without involving her at all. Rarity, could you please tell us exactly what happened when you dropped Page off in room 201?”

There was a small motion from the corner of Twilight’s vision as Rarity shuffled to the center of the circle. She didn’t look too happy about it. “I already told you once, but I’ll repeat myself for your sake, Twilight. I will admit that I do not like this train of thought, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Nightowl has been nothing but polite to me since we arrived! In fact, he has been the only one to maintain his trust in us this entire time.”

“I realize this,” Twilight whispered, her words heavy. Being the detective wasn't as easy as she had thought. How was she supposed to live with herself after accusing the ponies that she was supposed to save? They trusted her, and she was going to have to betray them.

“If you insist," Rarity sighed. "The two of us went into room 201 and I levitated Page onto the bed. Nightowl then asked me to light the candles and check the adjacent room to make sure everything was secure, which seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea. I agreed, walked out the side door, then met him back in the hallway before returning downstairs.”

“Thank you, Rarity.” Twilight’s suspicions were already confirmed, but now she had to make sure that everypony saw the same thing that she did. “Now, one last question. When you met back up with him, had Nightowl already closed the door behind him?”

“Why, yes. But that doesn’t.... Oh my. You don't mean that—"

“That’s right, Rarity. While you were in the other room, Nightowl had the perfect opportunity to stow Page in the closet. I imagine that he would have thrown her out of the window for Caseura to pick up, but you had already informed him about the barrier, meaning that Page had to stay in the room until it was lowered.”

It seemed that Caesura had given up on defending her accomplice, so Twilight took the liberty of making the final statement on the matter. “So Nightowl, I have presented what I believe to be the truth about Page’s disappearance. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

The strong stallion began to back away from the circle, his eyes darting madly around the room. Twilight had seen many sides of Nightowl, ranging from excited fan to grieving friend, but she had never seen him look so afraid. “N-no, I didn’t do it! I don’t know what happened, you’ve gotta believe me!”

For a few panicked moments, Twilight realized that she had no way of proving that Nightowl was guilty. In this situation, the burden of proof rested on her, but even then, if Nightowl didn’t confess, she wouldn’t be able to convince everypony else that he was guilty! All that she did was present a plausible theory, but that couldn’t be counted as decisive evidence even in Princess Celestia's court! Taking a deep breath, Twilight tried to press further as doubt penetrated her sphere of confidence. “Nightowl, let me ask you something. I—”

“No, I-I didn’t do it!” the watchpony repeated, desperately meeting the suspicious stares of everypony else in the room. Finally, he settled on Rarity, the pony he had spent the most time with, and his disheveled expression seemed to lighten. “R-Rarity, you believe me, right? I was with you when we were upstairs! Come on!”

All eyes turned to Rarity. As Nightowl stepped forward in her direction, she stepped hesitantly backward, the fear in her eyes betraying what was going through her head. She had been alone with the culprit, one who could have easily overpowered her and made her vanish into the night as well. The realization made Rarity look like she was about to faint, but not in the usual dramatic way.

“Hey Nightowl... give it up already.”

The frustrated, yet placid voice came from the other side of the circle, where a guilty unicorn was resting.

Nightowl visibly jumped, turning to Caesura like she had started spouting gibberish. “Caesura?! But—”

“I said give it up, Nightowl. She’s got your number. You’re not going to be able to squirm away from her just by playing dumb. She’s Princess Celestia’s personal student after all.”

“But—”

“No! The jig is up. The cat’s out of the bag. Need I say more?”

This would have been the point where the detective continued on, but Twilight was too shocked to speak. She had been about to try and attack things from another angle in an attempt to make him accidentally confess something, but the sudden interruption from Caesura almost seemed a little bit too convenient.

Before Twilight could question her, Nightowl drooped his head in defeat and plopped down on the cold, hard floor. With tightly shut eyes, he turned to face the wall and opened his mouth to speak. “Fine. It’s true. I... put Page in the closet. I pretended that I didn’t see her. I’m sorry. I’m...! B-but I...!”

As Nightowl trailed off in an uncharacteristically shaky voice, Caesura shrugged. “Now that you’ve gotten this far, Twilight, I might as well just give you the whole confession. Yeah. I admit it. I posted the note. Nightowl put Page in the closet and she flew away. And I guess you already know how I pulled off the stunt in the lobby, considering what you’ve already told us.”

“Really?” Twilight challenged, once again fighting the urge to make this any more dramatic than it needed to be. “How convenient. There’s just one small problem with that little confession of yours. I appreciate you giving me the truth about the note and about Nightowl, but you really shouldn’t lie about the lobby.”

As lightning struck somewhere nearby, Twilight caught that vulnerable look in Caesura’s emerald eyes. “Nice try, Caesura, but you can’t hide the truth from me. I know what happened in the lobby. Would you mind if I told you what happened, instead of the other way around?”

The only answer that Twilight got was the ever-present noise of the storm.

“Fine. Let’s continue chronologically, shall we? So Page woke up, went to the window, and flew out to check on everypony. But that raises the question of how she was she foalnapped, since she went out to join up with 17 innocent ponies.

“This leads me to the mystery of the lobby. Caesura, there was no way that you and Nightowl could have planned all of this, thanks to this party and the barriers I created. You probably had a contingency plan that you could carry out to follow through on your threat, just in case my friends and I came back to Everdale after being banished. It had to be something brilliant, something foolproof that you could enact whenever you wanted. You see, the lobby was extremely difficult to figure out, but only because there was no solid evidence of who was responsible for it. The culprit of this last crime was the ringleader, a pony so clever that I nearly let them slip away."

Caesura, her jaw hanging open, swallowed air and tried to compose herself. The unicorn was really starting to sweat under the pressure, despite her nonchalant performance thus far. “Fine. Go for it, defective detective,” she spat, trying to use her bad attitude as a cover.

“Don't mind if I do! So, for the ringleader, the only options left are you two.” Twilight turned to face the two pegasi from Everdale, both of whom had been noticeably quiet for the past few minutes. “Preston and Red. It could only be one of you two. Page is almost certainly innocent, as we’ve already discussed.”

Neither of the two pegasi acknowledged that they heard her. By now, both of them had been reduced to lifeless, apathetic husks, almost like the 9 ponies that had been found in the forest.

Struggling to keep her momentum, Twilight continued with her deductions. “You see, I thought it was strange that Preston’s group of friends was so small, but what was even stranger was the fact that Caesura and her larger group never once ran into them that night! Between the two of them going door to door in a small town, you think they would have seen each other at least once. Caesura, you couldn’t have gotten the party invitation as late as you said, because if you had started rounding up ponies after Preston and his group had already gone into the hotel, how did Red see you only moments later with a group of 11? I don’t think it’s possible to gather up that many ponies in a matter of seconds, even with magic.

“This inconsistency made me realize what had happened in the lobby. Preston?” Twilight tried to make eye contact with the despondent pegasus, but he turned the other direction, refusing to make eye contact with her. Seeing him like this was starting to become physically painful, but Twilight had to stay strong. Everything would work out in the end, just like Fluttershy had hoped for.

“Preston, your friends are innocent. There’s no doubt about it.”

Upon hearing that, he suddenly snapped to attention, his misty eyes regaining some of the life that they had always held.

“And I can prove it!” Twilight’s pleading tone allowed some of her weakness to show, but Caesura didn’t take the chance to capitalize on it. “Somepony had to be responsible for what happened in the lobby, but it would have been impossible to pull off that stunt with only 6 ponies. Because Caesura has already admitted to placing the note on the fountain, we know that she is involved, making her group of 11 ponies seem awfully suspicious. If we assume that they were brought in with the express purpose of making the others disappear, it would have been easy for them to chase Preston’s friends out of the door while they knocked out Rarity, Preston, and Red.”

Thankfully, this seemed to have some effect on the downtrodden stallion, who once again raised his eyes. But instead of staring at Twilight, his stare immediately shot over towards Caesura, drilling into her. “You! Did you—”

“Yeah. Yeah I did. Those 11 ponies were all working for me. Guess there’s no denying it anymore.”

Twilight, while still unsatisfied with the explanations she had gotten, had to admit that Caesura was being remarkably cooperative. It was enough to make her hesitate before continuing, expecting some sort of trap.

“Thank you, Caesura. Assuming that these 11 ponies were in league with you, the disappearances from the lobby are possible, but it doesn’t make any sense. Why were the 11 ponies so coordinated in their attack? How had they known that the group would be split up between those in the lobby and those upstairs? It’s possible that they acted on instinct, but there was one last thing that didn’t make sense to me. And this one last thing is the most important question involving the incident!

“In the lobby, why did the culprit bother to knock out Red, Rarity, and Preston? If the culprit was truly intent on making all of the ponies of Everdale disappear, they wouldn't have forgotten to abduct the mayor and her secretary. You see, I understand why the culprit didn’t foalnap Rarity. If they had, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would have immediately been called down here and things would have gotten quite messy. As we can infer from the note, our culprits are afraid of ‘divine’ intervention, meaning that they absolutely did not want to incur our wrath by abducting Rarity. That is also why Nightowl didn’t attack her while he had the opportunity, not to mention that he would have blown his cover too early.”

Rarity, still looking slightly worried, breathed a sigh of relief.

“So that leaves us with the question of why Red and Preston were left behind. Just like Page’s disappearance, we cannot assume that both Red and Preston are guilty because, if they were both involved, they would have taken the opportunity to escape with the others. You see, even though Nightowl and Caesura were with us, they were in on this plan as well, meaning that, once they had taken all 17 ponies from the lobby, they would have succeeded in abducting every single pony that lived in Everdale. There was no reason for them to stay, especially because they could have easily shifted the suspicion over to Rarity, since she would have been the only one left behind.”

“Just a moment,” Caesura snarled, her animosity showing. “They could both be guilty! They signaled their accomplices to chase the others out of the lobby, but before they could leave, they could have heard you tumbling down the stairs! If they heard that, they would both have to play dead, so that their cover wasn’t blown!”

Twilight’s patience was wearing thin with this half-baked objections. “That’s highly unlikely. If they were both guilty, they would have been mixed in with the 17 ponies that ran out of the lobby. Why would they have waited behind?”

Just like before, Caesura had no answer.

Twilight grinned. “Now, we can assume that you two cannot both be in league with Caesura and Nightowl. Now, let’s try the opposite. If you two were both innocent, the 11 ponies would have abducted you as well, yet again resulting in Nightowl and Caesura’s victory. This leaves us with only two options."

Twilight had been expecting a turbulent response, but neither of the pegasi even blinked. What had happened to all of Red’s energy? Where was all of that sound and fury?

Shuddering, Twilight refocused herself, reminding herself that Caesura was watching. “The reason that both of you were left behind is because the culprit didn’t have time to drag the other pony out. Think about it. As we have already mentioned, there was an extremely short period of time between when I felt the disturbance in the barrier and when I arrived downstairs. The both of you were in the back by the stairwell, which would make it difficult for the guilty one to start a stampede without the other noticing.”

“Wrong!” shouted Caesura angrily, completely abandoning her calm facade. “Why wouldn’t the innocent one run forward to go help the other innocent ones?”

“The culprit couldn’t take that chance, Caesura. Let’s put ourselves in their hooves for a moment. The innocent townsponies were already mixed in with the group, making it easy to herd them out of the front door, but the last innocent one was in the back. If the innocent one saw that they were outnumbered, nothing would have stopped them from going upstairs to get help! The guilty one had no choice but to knock the innocent one out.”

“I...!” Caesura was too frustrated to finish her sentence.

“Now that we know that only one of the two is guilty, we can take the final steps. The reason that both Preston and Red were left in the lobby is most likely because the culprit heard me falling down the stairs and panicked, dropping the innocent pony and pretending to be unconscious too."

With a deep breath, Twilight embarked on the final stretch of her explanation. “We can’t solve that part just by looking at the lobby. We have to look back at the testimony. You see, Nightowl was observed from the time he left the guardhouse to the time that he arrived at the party, giving him no chance to run off into the forest with Page. Based on our earlier assumptions, we can believe that all of Preston’s friends are innocent. Now, before finding his friends, Preston was completely alone when he witnessed Nightowl and Page coming out of the guardhouse. You see, if Preston was guilty, then it would only make sense that Nightowl would have run off, leaving Preston to cover for him.”

As Twilight let the implications of her deductions sink in, her intense gaze swept over towards Red. The lifeless pegasus hadn’t moved an inch from where she had been. Why didn't she say anything?

Regardless, Twilight had to continue. “Red, you were alone with Nightowl as well, but Preston’s words bothered you, didn’t they? He said that he expected to see Nightowl in there soon, meaning that Nightowl couldn't escape without blowing Red's cover. Red, you probably considered running and hoping that Preston didn't suspect anything, but when you saw Caesura coming up with her 11 accomplices, you began to hatch a plan. In the time between Preston’s and Nightowl’s arrivals, all members of the guilty party were only accountable to each other, meaning that they had a surprisingly long amount of time to go over their plan.

“Red... you’re the ringleader here. You covered your tracks extremely well, so well that you didn’t leave a single incriminating clue behind. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

For what seemed like hours, the sound of the storm grated on Twilight’s expectant ears. It was almost as if Red hadn’t even heard her.

Finally, the once fiery pegasus opened her mouth to respond.

“.... No.”

Once again, Red’s lack of reaction made Twilight stumble over her deductions. “W-well fine, I’ll tell everypony what your plan was! Your plan was to take Page inside and put her in one of the upper floors. Once everything was in position, you would come in and drop a curiously specific hint that somepony else was in the room with Page, all while playing dumb about the situation. You told Nightowl to turn on the lights in the room that Page would be in, alerting you and Caesura of her location. Your goal was to make it seem like Page had disappeared out of thin air, so you told Nightowl to drop her off, distract Rarity, and toss her out of the window!

“This is where things went wrong. With my barrier in place, Nightowl couldn’t throw her out of the window like you had planned. You waited, but it never happened. Regardless, you still had to stick to your plan and split everypony up by lying about Page’s argument. Nightowl came along with me while you stayed down in the lobby to coordinate the attack, but you hadn’t counted on Rarity and Preston staying down in the lobby as well. Luckily for you, Rarity made things a little easier.

"While they were counting, you had one of your accomplices in the front row sneak up and knock her out. You and Preston were in the back, so you knocked him out next so that he couldn’t call for help or run the other way. With that done, you got your accomplices to cause a panic and herd the remaining townsponies out of the front door and into the forest. But before you could drag Preston out, you heard me come tumbling down the stairs. Your only option was to stick around and play dead for a while.”

That was it. That was the truth. There was no triumphant applause from the other ponies in the room. Twilight wasn’t sure what she had expected. It was like she had reached the end of a marathon to find that the finish line had disappeared. In detective novels, the big reveal was exciting, showing everypony how crafty the detective was, but instead of feeling crafty, Twilight felt... horrible. She felt like she had bullied all of the ponies in the room into giving confessions.

Trying to fight her unease, Twilight stepped hesitantly over towards Red, wishing that she could keep up her omnipotent detective act a little bit longer. Having Caesura’s constant animosity had been helpful with that, but ever since the unicorn had gone quiet, it had become difficult to keep her conviction.

“So Red... I’ll ask you this once. Tell me the truth. Did you do it?”

As if to highlight the finality of Twilight’s words, another crack of lightning resounded in the small hotel room.

“I...” Red began, but took a quivering breath before finally answering. “I guess this is a fitting end for me... isn’t it...?” Red raised her eyes to meet Twilight's intense gaze. A wise pony had once said that the eyes were the window to the soul. They were right. Red’s eyes were misty and wet, just like the only other window in the room, and both revealed nothing but an endless, bleak expanse behind them.

Beside her, Preston began to shake. Twilight had to look away to keep herself from trembling at the pitiful sight. “Red, are you really...?”

Even though the two ponies were side by side, they seemed so far away.

Red turned her back on him. “I’m sorry, Preston. I’m... sure that you’ll make a great mayor. You’re getting the job the same way I did, but I’m sure you’ll do a better job.”

Preston, despite his despondent stature, finally found the energy to move. Twilight could tell that he wasn’t going to let it end like this. As Preston turned to face his friend, Twilight saw the determination in his eyes. Even though Red had admitted to being the mastermind behind these insane disappearances, Preston wasn’t afraid of her. Those two... were truly friends.

The stallion’s cracking voice betrayed his uncertainty. “And.... And what am I supposed to be the mayor of? A town with only 5 ponies? Red, why?! Why did you do it? How did you do it? What did you do to my friends? No, not just my friends! What did you do to your friends?!”

When Twilight turned back to look at Red, she wished that she hadn’t. The mayor of Everdale was staring blindly out of the blurry window and into the endless storm as streams of tears cascaded down from her lifeless eyes. Twilight could sense a deep sorrow in the pegasus’ expression, but in a way, she almost looked... happy.

“Red?” Twilight whispered, finally letting the emotion of the room affect her. Fluttershy was right. There was no reason to punish somepony if they were willing to apologize. Red may have given up on herself, but there were others that still cared about her. “Red, please! Tell us what happened. Tell us what you did to those ponies!”

Without drawing her attention away from the blurry image of Everdale, Red’s smile grew. “You know I.... I became mayor by a fluke. I was never cut out for this job. My name... is Red. Red Tape. The only thing I’m good at is pushing pencils and being ordered around. I guess it’s kind of a lame special talent, isn’t it?”

The quaking, crying mare closed her eyes and lifted her heavy head to face the heavens. “I was a terrible mayor. Dotted Line was much more deserving of this post. He was the first to go, you know, making me the mayor in his stead a month ago. I hired Preston to do my job, but I kept him blind to the whole thing. He... was just so innocent. So nice. He had every reason to be suspicious of me, but he never even thought about it. Preston...."

There was no thunder to fill the silence this time, leaving nothing but the merciless pounding of rain on the window and ghastly howling of wind. As Red’s sniffles were drowned out, Twilight had to fight in order to keep herself from reaching over to comfort her. Preston, the only innocent pony from Everdale in the room, was the only one who could do that.

And he did.

With a heavy breath, Preston finally brought himself up to face her. “Red, it’s okay,” he whispered. There was warmth in his words. “Look, I don’t know why. I don’t know how, and frankly... I don’t need to.” He gently rested a wing on her trembling shoulder, trying to get her attention.

Red’s eyes remained closed. It was like she was completely disconnected from the world. “I-I’m glad,” she choked. Her hiccups sounded like dry laughter. "It's all over... isn't it?"

Twilight, finally finding her voice, spoke up. “Red, we’re the Elements of Harmony. We’re here to bring harmony... not judgment. You’ve already apologized. And we forgive you. Right girls?”

One by one, all of Twilight’s friends stood up and formed a small circle around Red and Preston. Rainbow, on her way over, stopped by Caesura’s side. The unkempt unicorn was still sitting perfectly still, forcing herself to look away from Red and the group in the middle. Twilight watched as Rainbow and Fluttershy both turned and put a hoof on Caesura’s shoulders, making the mare visibly wince. Rarity, as well, made her way over to where Nightowl was sitting, doing the same.

Twilight, with as kind of a smile as she could manage, looked around at all of her friends. All of them had grown up so much. She had been wrong to ever doubt them! Even though Twilight had only known the ponies of Everdale for a day, she knew that they would make fine friends as well.

“Red, we forgive you," Twilight repeated. "Caesura? Nightowl? You too. Just tell us the truth. We came to help... and we’re not leaving until everything is back to normal. No. Even better than normal. We came to help, after all."

Nods of assent came from 7 ponies in the room, including Preston. He slowly reached forward and lovingly wrapped his wings around Red, pulling her into a warm embrace and squeezing his twinkling eyes shut. “Red... it’s fine. Let’s go back to how it was. So please... let’s go get everypony else and bring them back. Okay? We’ll go back to how things were... and just live our lives. Together.”

Pinkie, who was standing over beside them, quickly turned away and pulled out a handkerchief. Twilight started to feel herself tear up as well, relieved that everything was turning out for the best. Heart fluttering for joy, Twilight reached forward to put a hoof on Red’s shoulder as well.

“No... we can’t.”

In an instant, a booming roll of thunder heralded the stark change in atmosphere of the room. Red had spoken.

Preston, still holding her tightly, froze. “R-Red...?”

“I said that we can’t go back. Put me in cuffs. March me up to the scaffold. What’s done is done... and you can’t pretend that this didn’t happen. All of those ponies won’t be coming back.”

Twilight’s heart plummeted. “B-but we forgive you! We—”

“No. This isn’t about forgiveness. This is how it has to happen."

Preston refused to let go, still holding tightly onto her. “But—”

In an sudden blur of orange movement, Red shoved Preston violently to the floor. Instead of trying to escape, she loomed quietly over Preston’s trembling form, wings folded complacently at her sides. “This is how it has to end.” She paused and closed her eyes. “Are you happy now?”

“Of course not!” Preston shouted desperately, scrambling up to his hooves again. He tried to get close, but Red held out a hoof to stop him. “R-Red, Please!”

“No. Mysteries don’t end with the villains walking free. Twilight, you should be proud of yourself. You caught me. You completed your mission. You solved the mystery of Everdale. So don’t feel bad about this... okay? Besides, it would be best if this place disappeared anyway.”

Red, her movements slow and painfully precise, lowered herself down to her haunches and raised her front hooves in the air. In desperation, Twilight turned to look at Caesura and Nightowl, but both of them followed suit, mimicking Red’s surrender.

Nopony said a word. There were no words to say. The culprits behind the mysterious disappearances in Everdale had finally been caught. Twilight had nearly driven herself insane trying to solve this mystery, but she had still succeeded. She may have succeeded in being the detective...

        … but she had failed at being a friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours passed. Celestia had begun to rise the sun again and the storm dissipated, fading far above the canopy of the Everfree Forest. For the first time in what felt like weeks, the sun’s warm rays fell on Twilight’s tired body like a much needed blanket, but not even the sun would keep Twilight’s thoughts from dwelling on the events that had recently come to pass.

The merciless sun revealed what remained of Everdale, forcing the few remaining ponies to bear witness to the empty husk of a town. The fountain in the middle of town square, Gemini, sparkled brilliantly in the reflection from the water at its base. The two pegasi it portrayed, side by side, stared stoically at the abandoned, taped up houses. Time had marched on.

“Hey, Twily?”

A voice beside Twilight made her look up, finding herself staring at the worried face of her older brother, Shining Armor.

“How are you holding up?” he asked.

“Not so well,” she admitted, letting her emotional fatigue catch up with her. She had been forced to play the detective, just so everypony else could find a strong figure to latch onto, but that had been nothing but an act. “Red won’t talk. She won’t say anything about the missing ponies. Nightowl and Caesura are just following her lead.”

“I see,” Shining whispered to himself, narrowing his eyes and taking a quick survey of the town around him.

“Is Page awake yet?” Twilight asked hesitantly. There had been unease among the group about what they were going to tell Page when she woke up, but nopony could arrive at an executive decision, meaning that Twilight was now responsible for making that choice. She had made enough bad choices already, but it seemed that she was destined to make even more. “Red did tell me something, actually. She told me to tell Page that she had been foalnapped... and that there was nothing we could do. She wanted me to lie.”

Shining nodded supportively, still looking tired despite his strong stature. “Actually, she just woke up. Cadance is with her, catching her up on everything that happened. Poor thing. She was scared out of her wits when she woke up and saw me.”

“Now you know how Cadance feels every morning,” Twilight giggled dryly, trying to force some humor into their conversation.

“Twilight! Seriously, what are you going to do about her? Maybe she can get Red to talk. Or Nightowl. We can’t give up yet!”

Twilight really did feel like giving up. How could she help somepony who insisted on carrying some invisible burden all by herself? “Page needs to know. She’ll talk to them, and maybe they’ll reach an agreement or something, I don’t know. I’m just tired. Tired of thinking so much.”

“C'mon, you were amazing back there,” Shining insisted. “I let down the barrier a little bit so I could hear what was going on and I was absolutely blown away. Even though you had figured everything out, you were still so tactful about it. You really tried to help, and you didn’t rub it in anypony’s face, not even that creepy unicorn."

“Look, Shining. If I had figured it out earlier, I could have stopped this. But—”

“Don't even start with that, sis. You did more than even Princess Celestia could have done, but you’re not done yet. Look, here they come.”

As Twilight turned to look, Page trotted energetically out of the hotel lobby with a harried Cadance trying to keep up with her. The bright shine in Page’s eyes make Twilight’s heart ache, reminding her of the short time they had spent in Everdale before things had gone so horribly wrong.

Page, her messy white mane sparkling in the early morning sun, glanced around at all of the taped up houses. “Hey, sorry for worrying you,” she laughed. There was an excitement in the way she carried herself, making Twilight wonder what Cadance had told her. “Princess Cadance here just gave me the rundown on everything. She told me that you absolutely nailed the culprits! So who was it, huh? Who did it?”

“Page,” Twilight whispered, not trying to put on a confident display anymore. She didn’t have the energy. “I’m glad you’re okay. But—”

“Oh, is this about earlier? Okay, I admit, I wasn’t too keen on you and your friends just kinda showing up, but I guess it all worked out in the end. So where’s our dastardly villain locked up? I mean, we’ve never actually put anypony in jail here before, but I’d imagine this would be a good time to start."

“Page, listen to me. I’m so sorry—”

“Nah, don’t worry about it! We’ve got our man, now let’s just torture the information out of him and get everypony back!” Page giggled and spread her hooves out in the air. “I can just see the headlines now: ‘Elements of Harmony solve the curious case of Everdale! Parade to be held in their honor immediately’. Or something like that.”

“Page, just listen! They’re over in the jailhouse, but—”

“I knew it! Haha, maybe I should be a sleuth myself. I’ll go rustle some information out of them, okay? I’ll give you a little break, since you look pretty bushed.”

Before Twilight could say anything to the contrary, Page had shot off into the air. Despite the beautiful day that was dawning, Twilight knew that things were only going to go downhill.

“Hey, Twilight?” Cadance asked gently, still looking goofy with her mane as disheveled as it was. Despite that, she still managed to appear dignified. “I know it doesn't seem like it, but everything will turn out okay in the end. It always does. Remember my nightmare of a wedding? Remember that mess with the games inspector at the Crystal Empire?"

Twilight, still unable to stop thinking about Page, had to agree with Cadance. Maybe she was just desperate to find a silver lining to this dark cloud, but she still had to have hope. "You’re right. We’ll go into the Everfree Forest ourselves if we have to! Really, thank you. I come and save your wedding, then you come and save Page. I guess we’re even, right?”

“Not really, Twily,” Shining teased, “unless you got engaged to that pegasus while I wasn’t looking.”

“Hey!”

After a bit of rough-housing and rolling around in the grass, Twilight finally let herself relax. Her big brother and Cadance always knew how to cheer her up, even when things seemed like they couldn’t get any worse.

“Oh, Twilight?” Cadance grinned as she leaned on her husband. “I just realized something. We never got to greet each other properly, did we?”

“Oh yeah!”

As the two ponies exchanged their nonsensical rhyme and dance, Twilight started to let her worries melt away. Motives were unclear and they had no idea where the disappearing ponies had gone, much less what had happened to the 9 they had found in the forest, but those problems seemed far away.

After collapsing into a fit of giggles with her old foalsitter, Twilight tried to quiet the last nagging doubt  she had. She couldn’t ignore the feeling that she had forgotten something. Something important. She would remember what it was eventually, but until then, there were more important things to worry about, like when she was going to take a nap and talk to Princess Luna again. Everything else could wait.

Everdale was safe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End of Act I

Chapter 10: A Broken Puzzle

Chapter 10

A Broken Puzzle

“Well done, Twilight Sparkle! Brava!”

The Princess of the Night’s enthusiastic cheer fell upon deaf ears. Twilight knew that she should have found some satisfaction in Luna’s admonishments, but she couldn’t rid herself of the nagging thought that she had done something wrong. Even though she had solved the mystery of Everdale and saved the two innocent ponies that remained, she couldn’t help but wonder what had Driven Red, Caesura, and Nightowl to foalnap so many innocent ponies. There was also the more important question of what they had done to the few ponies that had been wandering around the Everfree Forest!

“Twilight?” Luna asked, her leading tone drawing Twilight back into the dream, where they were sitting at a familiar wooden table in her library. “Your mind is wandering, is it not?  If you’d like, I could recommend you some literature in the reserved section of the Royal Library, assuming you are still interesting in learning about the world of dreams.”

That got Twilight’s attention immediately. “You mean there’s been studies?” she gasped, her curiosity piqued.

“Absolutely! I wrote many of them myself, but I have hidden them away in hopes that the knowledge may benefit somepony that has earned my trust.”

“You mean—”

“I do, Twilight Sparkle. As I have told you, very few know of my abilities, and even fewer and trusted with the knowledge of what I can do with them. You seem rather disheartened, so I thought that a small gift would convince you that you truly have done a marvelous job with your mission. So when you come back, I shall lend you my personal collection of dissertations on the world of dreams.”

Twilight, nearly forgetting about Everdale, had to resist the urge to leap over the table and give Luna the biggest hug she’d ever given. “Oh, thank you!” Twilight cried, beginning to clap her hooves together to release some of the nervous energy she’d been holding in. “Oh, what should I start with? Who should I start with? Are there other ponies who have studied dreams?”

Luna scrunched her lips and looked away. “There was only one other, but trust me, you do not want to know what he thought dreams signified.”

"Aw, c’mon,” Twilight teased. “It can’t be that bad!”

“Trust me, it is. Shetland Freud would have thought that your library would have represented a—”

“On second thought, I don’t want to know,” Twilight giggled. She had heard of that mad psychologist before, but had had read enough to know that she didn’t want to read any more. “However, I’d be more than happy to read your books!”

“Wondrous!” Luna shouted. “I have been waiting to share these journals ever since I returned. Now, I loathe to get back to the present, but I fear that you are thinking too hard about this case. Before, you were so distracted that—”

“I know,” Twilight grumbled, her mood shifting back to how it had been before. “And you’ve already told me what happens when I lose my focus.”

Twilight heard Luna giggle. “I do not need a blurry dream to tell me that you are distracted.”

In any other situation, Twilight would have found a witty retort for Luna’s remark, but she didn’t have the energy. Last night had been exhausting, and while it was currently midday, Twilight had chosen to take a nap to catch up on her much-needed rest.

Thankfully, Luna picked up the conversational slack. “Twilight, I shall leave you to your rest, but I must insist that you allow yourself a moment for celebration! I know that you are trying to act as if nothing is wrong, but this is the world of your subconscious. You cannot hide your worries from me.”

“I know,” Twilight repeated, “but how am I supposed to ignore the fact that Red’s hiding something? I was expecting her to start a monologue about her grand schemes to become mayor and rule with an iron hoof, but she has barely said a word since her imprisonment. She didn’t even seem angry when I accused her. She just looked... defeated.”

“Fear not,” Luna soothed, “she has admitted to the crime, meaning that we only need to venture into the Everfree Forest and find our missing ponies. My sister and I shall worry about the paperwork.”

“That’s not the problem,” Twilight explained, rolling her eyes. “I know that we can find her accomplices somewhere and get the truth out of them, but something tells me that won’t help. I know it sounds strange, but I just want to know why Red orchestrated all of this. You weren’t there when I accused her, Luna! You didn’t see her eyes when she shoved Preston to the ground!”

“Obviously, but what does that have to do with—”

“You didn’t see the way she reacted!” Twilight cried, her frustration building. How could Luna be so insistent on letting this go? “She’s still hiding something. I know she is. Any detective worth their horseshoes wouldn’t be satisfied without finding the motive!”

“But you are not a detective, Twilight Sparkle. You are the Element of Magic, and as such, you are responsible for assisting my Sister and I in maintaining harmony in Equestria. If Red truly regrets her actions, she will apologize in due time.”

“But we already forgave her!” Twilight’s desperation grew, her words racing ahead of her thoughts. “We offered to let everything go back to the way it was, but even then she—”

“You were going to let her go?” Luna scoffed. “She has to answer for her crimes, just like everypony else! Anypony who takes advantage of my night, using my art as cover for their heinous crimes, shall not be pardoned!”

“You weren’t there! All that I’ve done since I showed up at Everdale was spread misery and let everypony down! I’m not letting Red sacrifice herself for a cause I don’t even understand!”

“But Twilight, her victims may not forgive her as you have—”

“I don’t care! Just because Red is guilty doesn’t mean that she doesn’t need our help!”

“Please, Twilight, think about this objectively, we need to maintain harmony and justice—”

“No, you think about this! If I wanted to maintain harmony and justice I wouldn’t have saved you, Nightmare Moon!”

As soon as the words were out of Twilight’s mouth, she recoiled backwards. Where had that come from?! She hadn’t meant to say that!

It was too late. Twilight had never seen an alicorn look vulnerable before, but Luna’s shock showed more than just vulnerability. Instead of childish amusement, her sparkling eyes were starting to brim with tears.

“L-Luna, I’m so sorry! I don’t know what came over me, I just—”

The alicorn’s face hardened as she stared down at the table, hiding whatever emotion she had shown before. “You are forgiven,” she stated flatly. “I understand that this is a world of your subconscious, meaning that you would have normally filtered—”

“Princess, I—”

“Do not feel guilty, Twilight Sparkle. Guilt only exists to keep us from repeating our mistakes, but in abundance, it will keep you from fixing them.”

“Luna, I shouldn’t have—”

“You need your rest. I shall not bore you with the tedious facts about dreams. Farewell.”

Before Twilight could protest, Luna’s regal form dissipated into thin air, leaving Twilight reeling from the sudden chain of events.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The inside of the Everdale jailhouse was surprisingly comfortable. There were 5 dusty cells that had never been used before, meaning that the plush furnishings in each cell were still brand new. In essence, each cell was like a tiny, transparent hotel room with all of the accommodations anypony could ever need. It was the kind of jail that would have made a pony want to commit a crime.

Caesura hated it. Getting the thick layer of dust off of the bed and nightstand had been a royal pain, causing a dust storm any time that Caesura tried to clean something off. Regardless, it could have been much worse. She could have been in the Canterlot prison, which probably wouldn’t have the luxuries that she was enjoying right now.

There was also the fact that escaping would have been as easy as levitating the keys over to her cell and unlocking the door. The only thing stopping her was the orange earth pony, who was dutifully keeping watch over her, but even the Element of Honesty would have trouble keeping her for bolting outside. Even though Caesura’s only magical talent was levitation, she could easily knock Applejack’s lights out with a levitated bed frame.

In the end, there was no reason. Caesura wouldn’t be able to do anything if she ran away, even if she managed to convince Red and Nightowl to leave as well. Nightowl, who had been pacing around his cell since the moment he arrived, would have been easy to recruit, but Red was more statue than pony at this point. Despite the few ponies who had come by to question her, Red had remained silent, choosing to lie down on her bed and stare at the ceiling.

“Hey,” Nightowl whispered from the next cell over, interrupting Caesura’s train of thought. He had no concept of the word ‘subtle’. “Caesura, let’s get out of here! If you just levitate the keys over, we can—”

“Can it,” Caesura snapped, indifferent to the fact that she had spoken loud enough to draw Applejack’s attention. “You know this is how it has to be, you dolt. If you say a single word to them, I’ll suffocate you with your own pillow.”

The playful threat had little effect on Nightowl, who continued pacing. “I know, but I just want to go back to the way things were!”

“That won’t happen,” Caesura grumbled, making sure to censor her words so that applejack wouldn’t understand what she meant. “I won’t say anything else, but this is for the best. Heroes have to make sacrifices after all.”

The gray stallion finally stopped his pacing and sat down on the dirt floor. “Heroes?” he mused, eyes sparkling. “I wish. We’re the villains here, remember? I know that we’re just trying to—”

“Not another word,” Caesura hissed, making sure that Nightowl didn’t finish his sentence.

Sadly, the damage had already been done, and Caesura heard the sound of hoofsteps beginning to approach their cells. Grumbling, she forced herself up and turned to face her captor, already preparing a pitiful facade.

“What are y’all talking about?” Applejack asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. “And Caesura, you stay quiet. You’re one heck of a good liar, but your partner here couldn’t fool a filly if he tried.”

Immediately, Caesura gave the only stallion in the room a threatening glare, just to make sure that he kept silent. She wasn’t going to let one weak link in the chain ruin everything that she had worked for.

“Not gonna talk, eh?” the farm pony sighed, turning back towards the front door. “Fine. We’re trying to help y’all out, so anytime ya wanna come clean, just give us a holler.”

As the guard left, Caesura smiled. She had underestimated those 6 ponies, thinking that they would rely on force to solve all of their problems, but one of them in particular had proven to be more of a problem than she was worth. Twilight Sparkle. How could she be so disgustingly perfect at everything she did?

Animosity fading, Caesura began to envision what was going to happen next. All of her plans had ultimately failed, leaving her with no option but to wait in her dusty cell for somepony to pick her up and cart her off to Canterlot. She hated being helpless like this, but trying to escape would only make matters even worse.

With a an exasperated sigh, the dirty white unicorn collapsed onto her bed, raising a cloud of dust around her. The small specks sparkled in the brilliant light from the window, distracting Caesura from her troubles for a few brief moments. There was something mesmerizing about the way that they danced around as they descended back to the floor.

Her musings had distracted her so much that she didn’t hear the hoofsteps approaching one of the other cells in the room. It wasn’t until she heard the pony’s voice that she knew that somepony was there.

“Red...?”

Like a lightning bolt, Caesura shot up from her bed. “Page?” she gasped.

This drew the attention of the sky-blue pegasus, who was leaning up against the bars of Red’s cell, her eyes darting between the three prisoners. “Caesura? Nightowl?! What are you—”

Before Red could continue, Caesura took advantage of the opportunity to explain things. “What, they didn’t tell you?” she gasped, already forming a plan in her head. If Page hadn’t been told the truth, she would believe anything that Caesura said, giving her an opportunity that she couldn’t afford to pass up. Just to be sure, she turned to see if Applejack was still at the front door, but it appeared that the Element of Honesty had stepped outside to give Page some privacy. Perfect.

“No!” Page cried. “They just told me that they solved everything and that.... No, you can’t be serious. This is just—”

“They did,” Caesura sighed, trying to act as pitiful as she could. “They put all of the blame on the three of us and forced us to confess! It was like some kind of witch hunt!”

Caesura tried not to grin as she heard Page snarl under her breath. Deep down, Page was nothing but a kind and dependable friend, making Caesura hesitate before continuing. Page and Red were the only two ponies that Caesura had ever been able to call a friend, but she had already betrayed one of them. It was only a matter of time until she was forced to betray the other.

“I knew those six were trouble!” the pegasus shouted as she whipped around to face Red’s cell. “Red, are you really just going to sit back and let this happen? You can put an end to all this if you just tell them!”

This got Red’s attention, but it wasn’t enough to make the apathetic mare respond. It was painful for Caesura to watch Red writhe around like this, but it was a necessary evil.

“Answer me!” Page yelled, kicking one of the metal bars with enough force to make Caesura jump. “I can’t believe you! And you, Nightowl, I refuse to believe that you were involved in this! We’ve been friends for years, now!”

Just like before, nopony responded. Caesura wished that she could calm Page down somehow, but there was nothing that she could say to help the perplexed pegasus. After all, Caesura was partly responsible for what had happened to her.

“You’ve... gotta be kidding me!” Page cried as she slammed her hoof against the cell door. “If any of you think that you’re doing the right thing by sacrificing yourself like this, you’re wrong! I’m not going to stand around and let this happen. No, I’m going to go out and tell them myself. The Nightowl I know wouldn’t stand for this.”

Caesura flinched, leaping up to lean against the bars of her cell. This was bad. “Page, listen to me. If you—”

“I trust you, Caesura,” Page responded with a scowl. “I want to believe that you aren’t responsible for this. I want to believe that the two months you’ve spent here have changed you, Caesura. I want to believe you. That’s all.”

Gnawing on her tongue, Caesura tried to think of something to say. She had thought that Page would have enough common sense to not associate with the Elements of Harmony, but it seemed that she had been wrong. “Page, you know that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you!” she called out, resting her head against the cold bars of her cell. If only she could tell Page the truth! There were times that Caesura wished that she wasn’t so skilled at lying.

“Caesura, look me in the eyes,” Page whispered, placing herself right on the other side of the bars from Caesura. Her voice was firm, but trusting. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that you’re innocent. You’re my friend, Caesura, and if you say that you’re innocent... I’ll believe you.”

Swallowing air, Caesura felt her heart pound her her chest. She could tell a straight-faced lie to Princess Celestia herself without hesitation, but there was something in Page’s voice that made her worry. How could she lie to her best friend?

“Caesura,” Page repeated, her intense frown starting to soften. “Tell me the truth. Were you involved with my abduction?”

“No.”

Page’s worry melted away into a relieved smile. “Good,” she sighed, as if a heavy burden had been lifted off of her chest. “Just give me some time and I’ll get you three out of here. I’m going to find the truth for myself, so sit tight until I come back with the keys.”

As the spunky mare trotted out of the jailhouse, Caesura’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t lied, but she had manipulated her best friend into helping her. Two months ago, she would have despised herself for using Page like a tool, but a lot had changed since then.

Caesura could only hope that Page would be smart enough to keep her mouth shut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Page, her breaths coming is short gasps, broke into a gallop as soon as the jailhouse door closed behind her, dashing headlong towards the hotel and leaving two of the Elements of Harmony behind her. She didn’t want to talk to either of them, even if Nightowl seemed to think that they were the greatest heroes of all time. In the back of her mind, Page chastised herself for every having that stupid fantasy about joining them as their seventh element, even though that had been years ago.

There, in front of the hotel, stood a pink alicorn. If it had been anypony else, Page would have wasted no time in assaulting them with questions, but it was difficult to be angry at somepony when they had saved her life.

Instantly, Cadance turned to face her, eyes wide. “Page? Are you feeling okay?”

Anger welling up inside of her, Page took a deep breath. “I’m fine,” she lied. “Where is Twilight Sparkle?”

Taken aback by Page’s bluntness, Cadance blinked. “She went inside to take a nap after you left, but don’t worry, my husband’s watching after her. She’ll be fine.”

I’m not worried about how she’s doing, I’m worried about what she’s doing! Instead of voicing her frustrations, Page swallowed her pride and reminded herself that she was representing all of her friends. She had to make a good impression.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Cadance asked again when she didn’t get a response. “I might be able to use my magic to help you if you have a headache.”

“No thank you,” Page replied politely, making sure that she didn’t let her anger show. “If I can’t speak to Twilight, I’ll speak to you instead.”

“Me?” Cadance asked, surprised. “Well, I could pass a message on, but—”

“Fine, but tell Twilight Sparkle that she’s wrong. Red, Caesura, and Nightowl are all innocent.”

It was obvious that the alicorn was uncomfortable talking about this. Page could hardly blame her for being confused, seeing that her husband had apparently woken her up in the middle of night and dragged her into the middle of a terrible storm because he had seen something in a dream. Despite her confusion, she looked like she was pondering over a difficult decision, but Page couldn’t begin to imagine what was on her mind.

As the silence dragged on, her inner fury began to burn away. She still wanted to free her friends, but there was nothing she could do if the pony that she needed to talk to was already asleep. “Sorry, Princess,” Page sighed, hoping that the alicorn wouldn’t think badly of her for being so moody. “I mean, I’m grateful that you saved me—I wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t shown up—but Twilight must have made a mistake somewhere.”

Cadance’s lips formed a tired smile. “It’s good to hear that somepony’s glad that I’m here,” she giggled, her slouched postrue hardly appropriate for a Princess. “Shining didn’t want me to come along, telling me that I should stay behind and look after my subjects, but the Crystal Empire pretty much takes care of itself anyway, especially since they started electing officials to make all of my choices for me. Well, I guess that Rarity was glad to see me, but she probably just wanted to try and fix up my mane again. I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time.”

Blinking, Page tried to keep up with the conversation. She had expected all alicorns to be majestic and proper, but this Princess acted like she was still growing out of her rebellious phase. “Well, Princess, we still need to talk. From what you told me already, I’m guessing that Twilight never bothered to explain anything to you either. Heck, I have no idea what even happened after I fell asleep, outside of the fact that you two arrived and saved me from some shady ponies in the forest.”

“Actually, my husband filled me in,” Cadance remarked, starting to look anxious again. Page was amazed that she had the charisma to rule over the entire Crystal Empire. “He really should be resting right now, but he’s as stubborn as a mule when it comes to helping other ponies. You should have seen the pity party he threw for himself after our wedding, going on and on about how he was the worst husband and worst brother ever!”

Once again, Page had to steer the alicorn back on track. “That’s good and all, but could you fill me in too? I know I was in a little bit of a rush this morning to get out and see everypony, but....” She trailed off, her thoughts roaming back to her friends in the jailhouse. Where was Preston? Had he been taken as well? There were so many questions that Page had, but nopony had the decency to answer them for her. Instead, they all danced around the subject and treated her like she was made of glass.

“I wouldn’t mind, but—” Cadance stopped midsentence, craning her neck to look behind Page. “Oh, Rainbow, thank goodness! Would you be able to catch Page up to speed?”

        Spinning on her back hooves, Page found herself face to face with the Element of Loyalty. The colorful pegasus must have followed her back from the jailhouse after she had run off like that.

“I got you covered, Princess,” Rainbow assured, but her voice didn’t have the bravado that Page remembered from their first night in Everdale. “I’ve probably got some explaining to do myself.”

With an appreciative nod, Cadance disappeared into the hotel, leaving the two similarly colored pegasi at the front door.

“So, uh,” the Element of Loyalty mumbled, looking just as uncomfortable as Cadance had. “Sorry about your friends and all that. I came over here to apologize for not saying something when you went in, but I thought that you could get them to talk or something. I mean, that smelly unicorn is as evil as they come, but I really find it hard to believe that a doofus like Nightowl would have been involved with this. You know, sometimes.... Ugh, nevermind, I’m terrible at this.”

“It’s fine,” Page lied, not wanting to make this any more awkward than it had to be. While she didn’t appreciate somepony insulting her friends like that, it was obvious that it had been done in a vain effort to apologize. For national heroes, the Elements of Harmony were surprisingly normal.

“Good,” Rainbow sighed, wiping her brow. “I felt really bad when I saw you go in there, but—”

“Look,” Page interrupted, not wanting to waste her time with Rainbow’s fake pity. “Cadance said something about you being the detective’s assistant, so I guess you’ll have to do.”  Immediately, Page could see the other pegasus bristle at the perceived insult, but neither of them pushed the point any further. “Still, you’re the Element of Loyalty, so I guess you’re better than nothing. Look, I’m just here to get the full story and get my friends out of jail. So hurry up and give me the rundown.”

“Alright, alright, fine. Where should I start? Dunno how much the Princess told you, but I can start from the beginning. That sound good?”

“Cut to the chase already!” Page shouted, growing tired of everybody feeling sorry for her. The last thing she needed right now was the pity of the ponies that had just locked up her friends for crimes they didn’t commit.

“Jeez, alright!” sighed Rainbow as she rolled her eyes, launching into the elaborate tale of Red’s nefarious plot to take over Equestria with her army of mind controlled slaves.

Trying to ignore all of the extraneous flourishes that Rainbow added in, Page listened intently to every single detail of the story. As the explanation went on, she found herself unable to argue with Twilight’s flawless logic. The note on the fountain could have only been placed by Caesura, but that was only one crime! There were still two more to go, if Cadance was to be believed.

As Page listened to the mystery of her own disappearance, she tried everything she could to make it seem like Nightowl wasn’t the culprit. From what she could gather from the description of Nightowl’s route to the hotel, Preston must have been innocent, otherwise Nightowl would have taken her into the woods. Not that her fellow watchpony would actually do such a thing, but the possibility still existed. The only way that Nightowl could be innocent is if Page herself was guilty, and while the prospect of sacrificing herself to save her friend was appealing, she was more determined on finding the truth.

But when Rainbow got to the part about Red seeing her in the window, Page’s head began to ache. “So... Red must have lied,” Page groaned. It was possible that she could save Red by telling Rainbow that she really had been arguing with somepony, but that would end in disaster. Yet again, Page found herself desperate for any way that she could shatter Twilight’s daunting train of logic. How could a single pony figure all of this out by herself? This kind of genius was what Page expected from an alicorn, not a unicorn!

It seemed that the Element of Loyalty hadn’t heard Page’s groaning, since she continued to paint Red as a diabolical sadist with her dramatic retelling of the mystery of the lobby. From what Page could gather, sifting out all of Rainbow’s embellishments, this was the mystery with the fewest clues. For a moment, Page thought that the lobby was the weak link in Twilight’s proposed chain of events, but then she remembered something.

“Hey, hate to butt in,” Page inerjected, “but Twilight forgot a rather important detail when she solved the mystery of my disappearance.”

Rainbow, who had been interrupted in mid-pose, quickly regained her balance. “Uh, no she didn’t,” she replied with confidence. “Nightowl is the only one who could have done it. That trick with the closet even had me fooled!”

The temptation to tell Rainbow how easy it was to fool her was nearly too much for Page, but she held her tongue. “It all makes sense up to the end, but that’s where it falls apart. You say that Nightowl stuffed me in the closet? Okay, let’s assume that. But I think you know where I’m going with this.”

“Actually... no. I don’t.”

Grinding her teeth, Page prepared to strike. She should have been the detective all along, not Twilight Sparkle! “Rainbow, your detective made a fatal error in her reasoning when she assumed that I was in the closet. Can you see what Twilight missed?”

Flinching, Rainbow began to lose face. “Wait, you mean—”

“That’s right! Twilight overlooked something vital, something that you’ve realized as well! The question that I am about to ask you will blow this case wide open!”

“Wh-what?!”

“So let me ask you, Rainbow Dash! What happened to me once I was put in the closet? How did I get outside without somepony activating the barrier?!”

Page, adrenaline coursing through her veins, understood what Twilight must have felt when she had denounced the criminals. Rainbow Dash was absolutely speechless, her jaw hanging open in mid shout.

“Uh, actually, I left that part out because I assumed you knew it,” Rainbow chuckled. “I actually solved this part myself, you know. You see, you woke up and saw your friends stampeding out of the lobby once Twilight let her barrier down, then went to go join them, only to nearly get foalnapped as well!”

Page blinked. “No I didn’t.”

“Of course you did, it only makes... sense....”

As Rainbow’s expression began to transition from confidence to confusion, and from confusion to fear, Page began to realize what had happened. They had assumed that she had gone outside by herself, but they had never asked her in person. For a moment, Page wondered if her memory was blurry from being knocked unconscious, but there was no way she would have forgotten something as important as this.

“No. No, no, no, no!” The panicking pegasus in front of her began to trot in place, her eyes focused on one of the windows on the second floor. “Oh man, I gotta go tell Twilight! Wait right here, okay? You’d better not be pulling my leg!”

As Rainbow darted up to one of the windows, Page finally understood what she had done. She had successfully countered the detective’s theory, giving her friends a little bit of breathing room before they were carted off to Canterlot. Page was the type of pony that would lie to get her friends out of trouble, but this time, oddly enough, she had done it without even trying.

What was even more odd was the fact that she wasn’t lying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Twilight! Twilight! We’ve got a problem!”

Rainbow’s muted shouts were accompanied by raucous knocking on the window, jarring Twilight out of her dream with the force of the bulldozer. Disoriented, Twilight looked around the room in a panic, finding Shining Armor sitting in the doorway and Rainbow banging at the window.

As Twilight started to remember her brief time in the world of dreams, a sense of dread filled her. Does my subconscious really see her as Nightmare Moon? Better yet, which one is the real me, the conscious or subconscious? Either way, if I ever meet with Luna again, I need to make sure that —

“If you don’t let me in I’ll break the glass!” came Rainbow’s muted shout from the window, keeping Twilight from finishing her thought.

“Okay, okay!”  Twilight groaned as she turned around and opened the window with a simple spell. Her morning was already off to a horrible start, thanks to her confrontation with Luna, so she hoped that Rainbow was interrupting her nap with some good news.

Once the window was open, the colorful pegasus scrambled through, her eyes wide. “Twilight, we’ve got a problem!”

Shining immediately jumped to his hooves, surprisingly alert despite how exhausted her looked. “What, did Caesura escape? Is Page gone?”

“No, it’s worse than that! Twilight, Page is saying that she never woke up inside of the closet!”

Twilight tried to process the information through her sleep-deprived stupor. “W-wait,” she stammered, finding it difficult to speak clearly. “If Page never woke up, then—”

“I know!” Rainbow shouted as she slammed the window behind her. “Look, I’ve thought this over, but we’ve only got two options right now. Either Page is lying... or we’re wrong.”

Getting an early morning wakeup call was one thing, but being woken up in the middle of her nap to solve a mystery that she had already solved was something else entirely. “Hold on!” she groaned, taking a deep breath. “You’re saying that Page has no memory of waking up and leaving the room after I left?”

“What else would I be saying?” Rainbow asked, getting impatient.

“Okay, don’t panic,” Twilight soothed, talking to herself. “Let’s think of some alternatives. Somepony from the lobby could have flown up and taken her out of the room, but—No, that wouldn’t work. My barrier would have caught them coming back in! Okay, let’s think about the barrier. That extra imprint must belong to Page, meaning that nopony could have carried her out, or that she flew out of her own free will. Since she doesn’t remember flying out, she must have been thrown out. But who did it?”

As Twilight finished rambling to herself, she looked up to see Rainbow staring wide-eyed at her. “No, Rainbow,” she sighed, “I’m not saying you did it, okay? But still, this only leaves us with three possibilities!”

“Three?” she heard Shining ask. “I can only think of one.”

“And that’s why I’m the detective, big brother,” Twilight gloated, trying to convince herself that she was worthy of her assigned role. After everything that had happened so far, especially the confrontation with Luna, she had begun to doubt her abilities more than she was willing to admit. It seemed that she wasn’t done playing the detective yet. “First, it is possible that Page is lying to try and get her friends out of jail. She could also be one of the culprits, but if she was, that would raise the question of why she showed up at the hotel in the first place.”

“Okay, I remember that part from listening to your theory,” Shining mused, raising a hoof to his mouth. “But what other possibilities are there?”

“Let’s assume that Page is telling the truth, then. The least likely option is that Nightowl acted extremely quickly, running over to toss the body out of the window before going downstairs to the lobby. I had considered this a while ago, but it would have been too risky for him. He knew that Red was going to make the ponies stampede out of the lobby, which would give him an opportunity to throw Page to one of his accomplices, but he also knew that my friends and I were all running downstairs to see what happened. If we had decided to run outside and Chase the 17 ponies down, we would have seen him tossing Page out of the window, blowing his cover.”

“That’s still a possibility,” Rainbow scoffed. “I don’t think he’s smart enough to think that far ahead.”

“I think he is, actually. He managed to improvise a plan to hide Page right under our noses and nearly got away with it! Trust me, Rainbow, you don’t want to underestimate him. You, of all ponies, should know that the strongest ponies aren’t always the dumbest ones.”

“You know it!” Rainbow laughed, never having been one to deny a compliment. “But that nasty unicorn with the weird name is all bark and no bite. Red, though....”

None of the ponies in the room continued Rainbow’s train of thought. It was obvious that she was hiding something, but none of them could figure out what it was.

Getting back to the point, Twilight coughed. “So, the last option is that Page got hit in the back of the head so hard that she lost her memory. This is highly likely, considering that my theory involves her being knocked unconscious twice: once in the guard shack and once by Red’s 11 accomplices. So don’t worry, Rainbow, we’re on the right track!”

“I know, I know,” the pegasus mumbled, turning to leave through the window again. “Either way, you’re going to want to come down and talk to her about this. Sorry, Twilight, but it looks like you’ve got miles to go before you sleep.”

“Oh, you’ve been reading my poetry collection as well?”

“For goodness’ sake, I’ll be outside,” Rainbow groaned as she slipped out of the window and flew away.

It was difficult for Twilight to smile in a situation like this, but she found a small comfort in thinking back to the days before Rainbow had become such an avid reader. Everything had been simpler back then, when their biggest problems had involved trying to survive the boredom of daily life in Ponyville. Now, Twilight was trying to put together a puzzle that didn’t have the right pieces in the box, leaving her mind scrambling to try and force them together in ways that didn’t make sense. The only way that Page could be telling the truth was if she had been knocked unconscious with enough force to make her memory hazy, but there was no way to tell if that was the truth.

No matter what the solution to this broken puzzle was, Twilight had the feeling that this day was off to a bad start.

Chapter 11: Secrets and Lies

Chapter 11

Secrets and Lies

“I already told you! I’m absolutely positive that I didn’t wake up in that stupid closet!”

Twilight and Page had already gone back and forth countless times, neither side letting the other advance, but it was starting to devolve into a shouting match. Every time that Twilight brought up the possibility that Page could have forgotten about flying outside, the indignant pegasus would insist that she would remember something that important. With no end in sight, the two mares continued butting heads in front of the hotel.

“You could have been hit with some kind of a memory spell!” Twilight challenged, beginning to grow desperate. “One of the—”

“That’s not even possible! None of the 17 in the crowd were unicorns!”

With a guttural groan, Twilight began to march back and forth. “Ugh, this isn’t going anywhere! How am I even supposed to believe you? For all I know, you’re just lying to get your friends out of jail!”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t hesitate if I was.”

As they continued to argue, Twilight wished that she had gotten more sleep. Her head was pounding from using so much magic, making it difficult to come up with a sufficient theory that accounted for Page’s new testimony.

“Cut it out!” came a commanding voice from the hotel door, drawing the attention of the two arguing mares.

Twilight had forgotten that Shining and Cadance had been standing there the whole time, making her wonder how much the two of them had heard. They had remained silent, which was understandable considering how awkward they must have felt, but Twilight couldn’t help but wonder what had caused Shining to speak up.

Before the silence could settle in, Cadance leaned over and whispered something confidential in her husband’s ear, causing the stocky stallion to tense up and whisper something back. Once that was taken care of, Cadance took a hesitant step forward and eyed both of the mares in front of her with suspicion.

Twilight found herself speechless in front of her old foalsitter. In all of the time they had spent together, even during her brother’s wedding, she had never treated Cadance as anything more than a foalhood friend. Even though she had a pair of wings and a horn, Twilight had never allowed herself to see Cadance as a fully matured princess, one that was on par with Luna and Celestia. As Twilight stared up at the regal alicorn in front of her, she couldn’t deny the awe-inspiring presence that Cadance maintained.

“Thank you both,” Cadance announced, as if she were making a grand speech. This wasn’t how Cadance normally acted, even in front of her subjects in the Crystal Empire, which made Twilight wary of what she was about to say. “Twilight, I have known you my entire life, and because of that, I am willing to trust you with something I have only entrusted to my husband and few others. And Page, while I have not known you for very long, I must burden you with this as well. I apologize. All I ask in return is that you keep my secret.”

The alicorn’s tone of voice confirmed Twilight’s fears. There was something remarkably similar between this situation and Twilight’s first encounter with the world of dreams, one that couldn’t be ignored. Despite Twilight’s hesitation, she nodded to Cadance and let her continue.

“Thank you both,” Cadance sighed, an ounce of relief showing through her impassive royal facade. “So allow me to explain. Twilight, do you know what my special talent is?”

Becoming uncomfortable, the unicorn nodded. “You can help ponies get along, right?” Twilight answered, trying not to sound as hesitant as she felt.

“Actually, that’s more of a side effect,” the alicorn giggled, dropping her regal act for a moment. “And no, before you ask, my talents do not lie in making ponies fall in love, either. If I could do that, something tells me that Chrysalis would have only targeted me instead of the entire city of Canterlot.”

“Wait, who?” Twilight asked, quirking a brow. The name didn’t sound familiar at all. “For Celestia’s sake, did Canterlot get attacked again in the last month or so?”

“Oh, that’s right, you were never really told. Chrysalis was the name of the changeling queen who—”

“Wait, what?” Twilight blurted out, her lack of sleep affecting her judgment. “Did she tell you face to face or something? Oh no, don’t tell me she started monologuing about her master plan once she caught you. She did enough of that after she had us all trapped in the chapel.”

“Oh, you don’t even want to know how badly she monologues,” Cadance groaned playfully. “But anyway, back on topic. You’ve seen me cast some spell that makes other ponies stop fighting, right?”

“Er, yeah, I did.”

“And as you know, I use it very sparingly,” the alicorn continued, not letting Twilight interrupt her. “I am an alicorn, after all, and alicorns all have a special talent that sets them apart from any other pony in Equestria.”

“So it’s like—” Twilight cut herself off just in time before she said Luna’s name. “It’s like... a special spell or something?”

“Close,” Cadance giggled, winking. “Celestia is the Princess of the Day and Luna is the Princess of the Night. I am different from them, actually, but I have my own title as well. You see, I am the Princess of Truth.”

Blinking, Twilight tried to process the new information. The Princess of Truth? Did that mean she could tell when somepony was lying? Or maybe she couldn’t tell a lie!

“And as such,” the Princess continued, “I know a very special spell that lets me know if people are telling the truth. Now, before you begin asking, I—”

“Are you serious?!” Twilight exclaimed, narrowing her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? We could have solved this mystery without even trying!”

“Twilight, calm down. Don’t you understand why I would keep this a secret?”

“Of course not! That’d be like having the Elements of Harmony and never using them! No, it would be like never letting anypony know that we even have them! Why would you do that?”

With a frustrated sigh, Cadance closed her eyes and turned to look at Page. As Twilight followed her gaze, she was met eye to eye with a frightened pegasus Page’s anxious expression answered Twilight’s question better than any explanation she could have gotten from Cadance.

“You see?” Cadance whispered, doing her best to smile. “You had it easy when you were trying to make friends. Imagine how difficult it would be to get to know ponies when they see you as nothing more than a living lie detector.”

“Oh, I....” Twilight stumbled over her words, her eyes going back and forth between Shining and Cadance. “Wait, you have told my brother about this, right?”

“Twily,” Shining laughed in response, shaking his head. “That’s not how things work, you know. Just let Cadance explain everything before you interrupt her again, okay?”

“Thank you,” the alicorn whispered, her voice so soft that Twilight could barely hear it. “I guess I should start with an example. You remember that arguing couple we saw on the way to our picnic? You see, I made them stop arguing, but it was only because I allowed them to speak the truth that they hid in their hearts. Those two truly loved each other, but other things kept getting in the way of their relationship, so I helped them realize the truth that they already knew.”

“That’s amazing!” Twilight cried, already imagining outlines for a research paper on the topic of truth spells. “Does that mean you can get Red to spill the beans?”

“No, Twilight!” Cadance’s tone had gone from genial to furious in the blink of an eye. “This is why I won’t tell anypony about it! All anypony ever does is ask me ‘Oh, can you find out if this girl likes me?’ or ‘Hey, could you tell me what my wife wants for our anniversary?’, and they treat me like some kind of machine! I thought that you would be different, Twilight.”

“Cadance, cut her some slack,” Shining soothed, putting a hoof on his wife’s shoulder. “She’s just anxious to get this over with. It’s been a rough day so far, and I’ve only been here a few hours.”

Twilight wanted to speak up and apologize, but her brother had taken care of that for her. Inwardly, she realized that she had never thought about how difficult it would be to have a power like that and live a normal life. Cadance was a princess, which was far from normal, but she hadn’t acted like one when she had been Twilight’s foalsitter.

“I apologize,” Cadance sighed, her smile returning as she nuzzled up against her husband. “Having this power is not as bad as it seems, actually. The only reason that Shining actually asked me to marry him is because my spell will not work if the pony I’m casting it on doesn’t want to tell the truth.”

“Psh, as if,” Shining chuckled, wrapping an arm around her. “You know I still would have married you, even if you could read my mind. Besides, I know that she trusts me enough that she wouldn’t need to use it. I mean, we—”

“Okay you two,” Twilight interrupted, knowing that things would start to get awkward if the two of them kept talking like that. “I think I get it. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, could you explain things in a bit more detail?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Cadance answered. “You see, once I cast my spell on them, it’s up to them whether or not they want to tell the truth or not. Once they accept, I help the truth in their heart become more apparent, bringing those thoughts and memories to the surface. Once they know the truth, I can make one last change to the spell that allows them to speak it with confidence. If they try to tell a lie, their words will stick in their throat.”

“Then use it on me. Now.”

Before Twilight could say anything, Page spoke up and stepped forward, her eyes narrowed on the pastel alicorn in front of her. Twilight wanted to ask a few more questions about Cadance’s spell, but it seemed that Page wasn’t going to wait for an explanation.

Cadance shook her head dismissively. “Not yet, I want to make sure that you’re okay with it. You see—”

“I’m fine,” Page insisted, but her trepidation was given away by nervous twitch in her ear. “This will put all of our worries to bed. Even if I don’t remember waking up in the closet, my heart would remember, wouldn’t it?”

“Well, yes, it would, but—”

“Then use your spell on me! If what you’re saying is true, we can stop this stupid argument and start trying to find out what really happened back there. I’ve got nothing to hide, so fire away, Princess.”

Twilight, still trying to catch up with the conversation, had to admit that Page was right. If Cadance used her spell to find out the truth, there would be no doubt about what had happened to Page in room 201.

“Okay...” Cadance mumbled, glancing at Twilight to make sure that there were no objections. Once Twilight had nodded, the spell was set into motion.

“Here we go.”

The alicorn’s horn was immediately engulfed in a teal aura. As Twilight watched, a small heart appeared in between the two ponies, one similar to Cadance’s cutie mark. Page was staring at it with an unnatural mix of fear and determination, making it seemed like she was being hypnotized.

Now, Page,” Cadance whispered smoothly. “Your heart will tell you what it knows. If you are willing, you may tell us the truth.”

Even though Twilight knew Cadance was trustworthy, there was something that seemed dangerous about this spell. It was a good thing that it required the consent of the target, but there was something unsettling about magic that could be used to alter another pony’s thoughts.

“I am willing,” Page said flatly, her unblinking eyes beginning to haze over, making her appear blind.

“Thank you. Now, tell us the truth.”

With Cadance’s last word, Page’s eyes began to glow until there was nothing but a brilliant light where her eyes should have been. The sight was nothing short of spectacular, leaving Twilight awestruck in the face of such an impressive and powerful spell.

After a few moments of intense silence, the hypnotized pegasus finally spoke.

“I did not wake up in the closet of room 201.”

Page’s words were crystal clear. It had been as if she had stated that the sky was blue, giving Twilight an idea on how Cadance’s spell worked, but the fact that Page had not woken up in the closet was just that: a fact. An undeniable fact.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Twilight blurted out as Page’s eyes were restored to their usual hue and the iridescent heart phased out of existence. “Cadance, are you sure this works?”

Taking a deep breath, Cadance nodded, but her focus was still on Page, who appeared to be recovering from the spell. Her legs were shaking and her eyes still looked rather bleary, making it look like she was just waking up from a long night’s sleep.

“There! I knew it,” Page said victoriously, managing a confident grin despite her trembling posture. “That proves it, Twilight Sparkle. You’re wrong.”

Those two words were the two that Twilight had been dreading to hear. She had finally solved this insane mystery, but now one of her most important deductions had been snapped in half like a dry twig. Or had it?

“Hold on,” Twilight mumbled anxiously. “All that proves is that you didn’t wake up and fly out of your own accord. One of the ponies in the lobby could have come up and taken you out, meaning that—”

“No, Twilight,” she heard Shining say. “You would have seen somepony carrying her out in your barrier imprints.”

“But I...! Ugh!” Twilight groaned in frustration, fighting the urge to tear out her mane. Everything that she had worked for in the past 2 days was falling apart right in front of her, but she couldn’t do anything to stop it. Part of her wished that Cadance had never told Page about that truth spell. “It’s still possible though! Nightowl could have thrown you out of the window before going downstairs!”

“You already said that didn’t happen,” Page pointed out, “but I’d be happy to put your fears to bed. Princess, how would you like to go for a walk to the jailhouse?”

Out of the corner of Twilight’s eye, she saw Cadance bristle at the request. The alicorn had already insisted that she didn’t enjoy being treated like a walking lie detector, but Page seemed to have no qualm with using her as one. If this trip had taught her anything about friendship, it was that, sometimes, friends kept secrets for a reason. Twilight had already betrayed Luna’s trust, so she was tip-hoofing on thin ice around Cadance.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Page ordered. “While we’re there, you can get confessions out of the rest of my friends as well. We’ll have all of this cleared up in no time flat.”

Twilight was about to object, but Cadance put a hoof on her shoulder to stop her, giving her a sympathetic smile. “Page, you are not going to order me around like this. I allowed you to use this truth spell because Twilight refused to believe what you were so adamant about, otherwise I would have never told you about this.”

Sensing an argument brewing, Twilight stepped back and joined her older brother, who welcomed her with a tired chuckle. They both knew that Cadance wasn’t the kind of princess that always needed to be saved.

Page, however, barely seemed to realize that she was talking to royalty. “Well, why not? You’re the Princess of Truth, right? We’re going to the jailhouse to get the truth, you know! Why wouldn’t you want that?”

As calm as ever, Cadance shook her head. “That’s not how it works. It’s because I’m the Princess of Truth that I see the necessity of lies. You don’t want to know how many times I have seen friends turn on each other because I allowed them to speak the truth in their hearts.”

“Are you kidding?” Page hissed. “I’m not afraid of the truth! No matter what happens, they’re still my friends!”

“You say that, but—”

“I say it and I mean it! If I can’t find the truth here, I’m going to go into the forest and find it by myself.”

Twilight could hardly believe what she was hearing. The crazed pegasus was actually threatening that, unless Cadance used her truth spell on the three culprits, she was going to run off into the forest by herself. It was like she was holding herself as a  hostage!

As Shining and Twilight shared a sigh, Cadance nodded in their direction. It seemed that she understood Page’s insane gambit as well.

Without waiting for an answer, Page spun around and began to trot briskly towards the jailhouse. “Trust me,” she called out over her shoulder. “There’s no reason to shy away from the truth. Let’s go!”

Speechless, Twilight and Shining both stared at Cadance, who had her brow furrowed with worry. “I never should have brought it up,” she whispered, her voice so soft that Twilight could barely hear her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cadance focused her energy into her spire-like horn, eyes closed. While it wasn’t extremely difficult to perform her truth spell, she had to be careful not to push herself, or her target, too far with it. It took just the right amount of magical energy and in tandem with a suitable connection to a pony in order to make it work. Despite the happiness that everypony seemed to think that this spell would bring, it almost always ended in tears.

Thankfully, it appeared that Nightowl was going to consent to this, even though the other two prisoners had immediately refused and urged their accomplice to do the same. Cadance had been forced to sit there and listen while Page had all but bullied her fellow watchpony into allowing the alicorn to use her truth spell on him. This was another reason that she hated this spell: it could turn a petty argument into a full-blown court case. If anypony didn’t consent to use the truth spell, they were instantly assumed to be guilty, which made even the best of friends grow distant over time.

Cadance was so lost in thought that she barely noticed the link coming from Nightowl’s end of the spell. Sighing, she finalized the spell and allowed it to rest on Nightowl’s heart, where it would rustle up whatever truths he wanted to convey. While Cadance was not entirely sure how it worked, she knew that the energy would entice the pony she used it on to accept the truths that they kept hidden in their heart.

“I was...” she heard Nightowl whisper, a small stutter in his voice. Alarmed, Cadance opened her eyes and looked up, realizing that the watchpony had been about to tell a blatant lie while under the effects of her truth spell. This had only happened once before, when she had been playing around with it early on, but even then her friend had admitted that it had been difficult to even imagine a lie while the spell was in effect. Whatever Nightowl was about to say, it had been something extremely important to him, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to even try to say it.

“You were what?” Page insisted, drawing Nightowl’s emotionless gaze. Cadance had always been unnerved by the way ponies looked when they were under the effects of her spell, but she tried not to let it bother her. “Look, just tell the truth, it’s not that hard!”

Before Nightowl answered, Cadance considered deactivating the spell, but she had no idea what would happen if she did, since she’d never done it before. There was also the fact that Page would start to believe that Nightowl was guilty because he couldn’t answer her question immediately, forcing Cadance to let the spell continue.

While Cadance was lost in thought, Nightowl finally spoke, his diction immaculately precise. “I never threw Page out of the window to room 201.”

“Good start,” Page mused, but she didn’t appear to be satisfied. “Let’s clarify that a little bit. Twilight would probably say that you threw me out of another window, making all of this pointless. So how about this: did you throw me out of any of the windows in the hotel?”

“I didn’t throw Page out of any of the windows in the hotel.”

Wincing Cadance tried to imagine how Twilight would have reacted if she heard that. The little unicorn had stayed behind with Shining in an attempt to convince her as well, but there was nothing they could do, now that Page knew about the truth spell. Whenever anypony knew that they had access to this power, they saw her as nothing more than a tool in whatever personal crusade they happened to be going through. Shining Armor was the only pony who had accepted her for who she was, not what she could do, and she loved him dearly for it.

“Perfect! And now for the clincher,” Page said quietly, taking a deep breath. “Nightowl, were you involved with my disappearance in any way?”

“Page!” Cadance shouted, refusing to let this continue. In a panic, she hurriedly removed her spell, letting it dissolve before Nightowl could attempt to answer the question. Regardless of the consequences, she wasn’t going to let Page get any sort of response from a loaded question like that one. No matter what he said, he would appear guilty!

“Hey!” Page shouted when she realized that Nightowl’s eyes had returned to normal. “Turn it back on!”

“No,” Cadance huffed. “You got what you wanted. Do you really think that he would have answered you? My husband told me that he had already confessed.”

“But that wasn’t under the spell!”

“Exactly. So he’s not going to answer you. And you’re going to think he’s guilty because of it.”

“But he wouldn’t....”

“Now do you see why I didn’t want to do this? Now do you see why I keep this hidden?”

Cadance watched as Page’s posture slackened, but her unflagging determination remained in her hard eyes. This pegasus wasn’t going to be giving up anytime soon.

“Fine,” Page grunted, turning and trotting towards the door without a second thought. “I’ll just have to convince you all some other way. I hope you don’t mind if I give you a little history lesson about Everdale.”

Before Cadance could answer, something metallic sounded behind her. Startled, she turned to see a disheveled unicorn pounding against her cell door.

“Don’t you dare!” Caesura called out. Cadance had expected her voice to be calm and threatening, like Shining had described it, but the mare seemed more desperate than upset. “Page, listen to me, you have no idea—”

“Because none of you will tell me!” Page shouted back, whipping around to face the row of cells. “Why don’t any of you trust me? Red, Nightowl, I’ve known you two my entire life, so why aren’t you telling me anything?!”

As Page paused to take a breath, an orange pegasus, one that had remained notably silent, finally stirred from her mattress in the corner. That had to be Red.

“Page...” Red whispered, her voice cracking as she righted herself and turned to face them. “We just—”

“What’s wrong with all of you?! This is crazy! I wake up to find three of my friends locked up for foalnapping me and the rest of Everdale is gone! I can’t even find Preston anymore! I don’t care about any stupid ransom note, so I’m going to go find the truth for myself, even if it means telling everypony this precious little secret that you all think is so important. I’m sick of being left in the dark while I’m out risking my neck for you!”

Red scrambled quickly off of her bed and up to the bars of her cell. Apparently Preston’s name had rustled her feathers a little bit, but the pegasus was already disheveled enough. “Page, I’m so sorry, but I can’t—”

“Can’t tell me? That’s what I thought. Fine, I’m gone. I’ll be back to let you out once I find the truth. If you care enough to stop being so selfish, feel free to ask our beloved Princess here to use her truth spell. I’m out of here.”

Cadance could only watch as Page stormed out of the jailhouse, slamming the door behind her with a powerful kick. This was a painfully familiar scene for the alicorn, one that always seemed to happen after she used her truth spell on somepony. One pony would try to keep a secret, the other pony would get angry at them, and neither of them would compromise, resulting in a broken friendship.

Just as the dejected alicorn was about to leave as well, she heard a startled voice from behind. “Princess,” came Caesura’s quiet plea. Despite her earlier outburst, the off-white mare still managed to keep some of her calm facade. “I never got to tell you, but... thanks. Thanks for saving Page. And thank you for trying to talk some sense into her. She’s as stubborn as a mule.”

Smiling, Cadance tried to hide her confusion. “It’s not problem,” she said with a polite nod, trying to put her regal mask on again. Why would Caesura be thanking her for interrupting her own schemes? It didn’t make any sense. “I would urge you to tell us why you did what you did, but I have the feeling that it wouldn’t get me anywhere.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Caesura sneered, pushing herself away from the bars and back to her nightstand where she levitated a quill into a small inkwell. “I’d tell you the same thing that I told your husband. I just wanted Twilight and her friends to go back to Canterlot, that’s all. I’d say it under your truth spell, but I seem to be the only one who notices your distaste for it.”

Sighing, Cadance gave up and slipped out of the front door, not wanting to deal with the prisoners anymore. Despite how involved she had become since she arrived the night before, Cadance still felt that her presence in this deserted town was only causing trouble. Despite that, she couldn’t help but wonder why Luna had insisted that she accompany Shining Armor on this confusing quest. Calling in an alicorn to deal with a problem this small was like using a sonic rainboom to swat a parasprite.

“Twilight?” Cadance called out, glancing around the immediate area for any traces of her young friend.

“She’s still at the hotel,” came an answer from beside her. Rainbow Dash had been waiting outside of the door, since she had Applejack had been assigned to guard the prisoners. “Page just flew over to see her in a hurry, but she looked pretty spooked. Did that mangy unicorn try something on you two?”

“Rainbow,” Applejack chided, frowning. “Just leave this to Twilight. She’ll have this all figured out soon enough.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Trust me, being the detective isn’t as easy as it looks. I mean, she’s already throwing a little pow-wow over there to keep Page from flipping out. Her, Shining, and.... Wait second, who the hay is that?!”

As Cadance turned to find the hotel, she spotted Shining, Twilight, Page, and a gray mare standing out front. Before she could check to see if she recognized the mystery pony, Rainbow Dash zoomed off in their direction, leaving Applejack and Cadance in a cloud of grass and dust.

“This can’t be good,” Applejack muttered under her breath, spitting out a blade of grass and giving Cadance a sympathetic grin. “Sorry ya got dragged into this, princess, but I gotta say I feel a mite better with you around.”

At first, Cadance assumed that it was because of her spell, but then she remembered that only Twilight, Shining, Page, and the prisoners knew anything about it. It warmed her heart to know that somepony actually saw her as a pony instead of a tool. “Thank you, Applejack, but I should go check on my husband. I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this.”

“Feel free,” Applejack offered, leaning back as she sat against the side of the jailhouse. “I’m just here to help, so—”

“Hey!” came a raucous shout from inside of the jailhouse, followed by a few deafening clangs of metal. “What the hay is up with you?! C’mon!”

Cadance was stunned by the sudden noise, but Applejack wasted no time in bucking open the front door and charging inside. It took a second for the alicorn to follow, marvelling at how quickly the earth pony had reacted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Alright, start talking,” Twilight sparkle hissed, readying her magic.

The unfamiliar mare in front of her winced backwards, looking like she was going to bolt. “I-I’m talking! Oh, I shouldn’t be here, I knew it was dumb of me! I’m such a horrible pony and you’re—”

“Uh, what? I didn’t mean—”

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have started rambling like that! Maybe I should have just stayed quiet and—”

Before Twilight could cut the gray mare off again, her brother intervened. “Just start by telling us your name,” he ordered.

The startled earth pony jumped to attention in response. She seemed to be older than everypony here, more like Twilight’s mother, but the years hadn’t been kind to her. The mare’s mane was thrown together in a helter-skelter array of pins, reminding Twilight of Cadance’s disastrous mane from the Equstria Games visit, giving Twilight the impression that her nerves were just as frayed as her hair.

“S-sorry, I should have mentioned my name earlier!” she rambled. “Oh, this was such a bad idea, but I just couldn’t help but come back here after I couldn’t stop thinking about it and—”

Relaxing, Twilight began to think that this old mare wasn’t going to be a threat to them. After realizing that so many of the townsponies in the lobby had been accomplices, she had been ready to zap anypony she saw, but this earth pony didn’t look like any of the ones that Twilight remembered seeing in the lobby.

Before any introductions could be made, a whoosh of wind from behind announced the arrival a pegasus. Page immediately landed and placed herself in between Twilight and the gray mare, wings still outstretched. “Alright, start talking,” the watchpony hissed. “Who are you, what’s your name, and—”

“But I’ve been talking and they told me to stop, but I shouldn’t have—”

“Wait a second,” Page mused, her wings folding back against her sides. “You’re...?”

Utterly confused, Twilight tried to lean to the side so she could see around Page. The gray mare on the other side no longer looked afraid. Instead, she looked somewhat relieved.

“You!” the mystery mare exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. “You’re that watchpony! Oh, thank goodness you’re still here! I can’t believe it, the Princesses must be smiling down on me right now! What about your partner, is he okay? I feel so horrible about that whole mess and running away like that, but at least you’re still here!”

“Wait,” Page interjected, hesitation creeping into her voice. “So you are that mare from six years ago! I knew it! These cases are related!”

Twilight, getting sick and tired of being left in the dark, stomped her hoof on the ground and shouted out the one phrase that she had wanted shout ever since she had arrived. “Is anypony going to tell me what’s going on here?!”

Startled, Page stepped out from in between the other two mares, looking uncharacteristically frazzled. “Well,” she mumbled, looking askance, “I would have said something earlier, but I didn’t think that this was related to the current case. I never got her name, but she came here about six years ago during a storm and stopped by the guard shack.”

“Oh,” the earth pony interrupted. “I guess you’re right, I only saw you for a moment before you shot off into the forest, but then I was such a coward and—”

“Your name,” Twilight monotoned, getting tired of keeping this airhead of a pony on the same train of thought for more than five seconds.

“My name? It’s Mezza, but—”

“Well, good to finally meet you,” Page stated plainly. “But what are you even doing here? Or better yet, how’s your daughter doing?”

Page’s question must have touched on something important, because the gray mare’s face turned a ghostly shade of white. “Why... would you even ask me something like that? Didn’t your partner...?”

“Nightowl?” Page asked, starting to look uneasy as well. “Yeah, he told me that everything had turned out fine. Did your daughter get sick from the storm or something?”

“No...” Mezza whispered hoarsely, eyes widening in disbelief. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

“Then what?” Twilight asked, feeling that she was going to have to mediate this conversation. There was something going on here that nopony wanted to talk about, so Twilight was going to force it out into the open before it became even more awkward. “What’s the problem?”

“We... never found her.”

Chapter 12: Anacrusis

Chapter 12

Anacrusis

A lazy gust of wind blew through Page’s white mane, sending it floating in front of her wide eyes. She had hoped that there would be some new information about this mystery, information that might get her friends acquitted, but Mezza’s arrival had been more than she could have ever wished for. Not only was the middle-aged mare lying about her daughter, but she had unwittingly linked herself to the secret that Page had been about to reveal.

She watched as Twilight and her older brother shared bemused looks. There was something inside of her that wanted to make the reveal as dramatic as possible, but she wasn’t going to sink to Twilight’s level. After hearing Rainbow’s description of the detective’s grand reveal, it was obvious that Twilight’s authority was starting to go straight to her head.

“Twilight,” Page declared, eyeing her suspiciously, “get your friends and meet me here. I have a few things to share, some of which might shed some light about what’s been happening.”

The tired unicorn seemed to be holding back the frustration in her voice. “Is there a reason you’re telling me this now instead of earlier?”

“Actually, there is,” Page answered. Despite her contained animosity for Twilight, she was starting to empathize with her on some level. “I didn’t think it was related until now, but there’s no doubt about it.”

“I-is anypony going to fill me in on what’s going on?” Mezza stammered. “I just came here to visit the place where—”

“Actually,” Page interrupted, a red flag going up in her head. “What are you doing here? You couldn’t have picked a worse time to show up.”

“Me?” Mezza gasped. “I kept thinking back to this place and thought that I could finally get some closure. It’s been so long that—”

Page interrupted the quivering mare with a suspicious glare. Her arrival was timed too perfectly for it to be a coincidence, meaning that she must have been involved with them. As soon as Page began to suspect Mezza, her memory of that night six years ago became crystal clear.

“Uh,” Shining murmured, shifting around uneasily. “I’ll leave you two to tell her what happened. I’ll go wake up the others, since they’re gonna want to hear about this.”

“Please do,” Page stated, ignoring the fact that she was ordering a prince around.

Page watched as the stocky stallion gave an awkward salute before trotting into the hotel. She was also confused about Shining and Cadance’s coincidental arrival, but she wasn’t going to question the two that had saved her life, even though they had been acting suspicious this whole time.

“By the way,” Twilight groaned as Shining vanished into the lobby. “You can come out, Rainbow. I’m glad that you didn’t try to tackle her, but you don’t need to eavesdrop.”

Shocked, Page spun around, watching as a colorful pegasus appeared from around the corner of the hotel. When did she...?

“Fine,” Rainbow groaned as she flew over to Twilight’s side, her narrowed gaze still fixed on the new pony. “But do you know how hard it is to sneak around when you’re like a flying pack of Crayfoala crayons?”

Page stifled a giggle to cover her surprise. She could afford to laugh, now that she had the evidence to show that her friends were innocent, but there was no room to lower her guard yet. It was going to be all too easy to blow this mystery wide open, but there was no room for error.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once Cadance burst into the jailhouse behind Applejack, she had expected to see Caesura levitating some of the steel bars in an attempt to make an escape, but the scene that awaited her was something else entirely.

The alicorn gasped, seeing that Caesura’s cell door had been blown off of it’s hinges, along with Nightowl’s, but neither of the ponies looked like they were ready to make their grand escape. Instead of running for the exit, the off-white unicorn had darted across the way into Nightowl’s cell, but the gray earth pony was curled up in the corner, his eyes wide.

“No!” cried Nightowl, curling further into the fetal position. “I can’t! I-I just can’t take this anymore!”

Before Cadance could realize what had happened, Applejack positioned herself in the doorway where Nightowl’s cell door used to be. “What in tarnation are you two going on about, and what’s with him?” she barked. Surprisingly, she sounded more worried than alarmed.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out!” Caesura exclaimed, turning to face Applejack with a threatening leer. “That crazy princess of yours put some kind of hex on him!”

Eyes wide, Cadance began to realize what was going on. She had thought that by ending the truth spell in the middle of Page’s question, everything would go back to the way it was, but as she stared at the pitiful stallion in the corner, she started to get the impression that something had gone horribly wrong.

“I-I didn’t mean to! I can fix this!” Cadance blurted out in a hurry, galloping up behind Applejack to see what Nightowl was mumbling about. She had ended the spell rather forcefully, but there was no reason that it would be different from severing the link normally.

The link? Oh no... I must have stopped the spell while our link was still active!

As Cadance watched, the poor stallion’s blank expression remained fixed on some invisible object off in the distance. Based on the bravery he had shown earlier in allowing Cadance to perform the truth spell on him, this seemed entirely out of character.

“Princess?” Applejack asked accusingly, looking back over her shoulder with a scowl. “Did you try some crazy mumbo-jumbo magic while you were in here?”

“Of course she did!” Caesura shouted, looking like she was about to levitate one of the steel bars into somepony’s face. “She used some spell that made him tell the truth!”

“You what?!” Applejack yelped, whipping around to face Cadance. “Now wait just a minute here, you can’t just mosey in here and force—”

“I didn’t force him!” explained Cadance, desperately trying to keep control of the situation. “He agreed to let me use it so Page could confirm something! I didn’t mean to—”

“Like I’m going to believe that!” grunted Caesura. “You left your little spell going, didn’t you? As soon as you left, he started rambling nonsense about being selfish and apologizing to everypony!”

“But it’s true!” the terrified watchpony exclaimed, shaking his head before burying it in his hooves again. “I—”

“All y’all, cut it out this instant!” Applejack bellowed, kicking the cell bars with enough force to make the entire building shake. The force reverberated through the small jailhouse before silence fell. “Princess, I may not agree with your methods here, whatever they are, but you sure as sugar better fix this mess. Princess or not, there’s a little somethin’ I like to call responsibility. It’s somethin’ that a few ponies around here could stand to learn.”

In that moment, Cadance felt like she was being scolded by her older sister. Despite the terrible situation, Cadance was glad that somepony had enough respect for her to treat her like a normal pony. Putting on her royal mask, she tried to hide the fear and uncertainty in her eyes. “I shall, Applejack. I sincerely apologize for my behavior, but you can be assured that this will never happen again.”

“Thank ya kindly, Princess. And as for you, little miss unicorn....” The farm pony looked over her shoulder. “You need to stop flying off the handle like that. You’re part of the guilty party, so don’t you even think of playing the victim card on me. I ain’t got no pity for a lyin’ pony like you.”

After rendering nearly everypony in the room speechless, Applejack silently slipped past Cadance and sat down by the front door, lowering her hat over her head and grumbling something under her breath.

Frozen, Cadance found herself awestruck by the presence that the simple farm pony carried. Being the Element of Honesty meant that she had a way with words, but Cadance had never seen this side of her before. Regardless, she was going to have to figure out what had happened and fix it before anything catastrophic happened.

Guilt weighing heavily on her, she sulked into the cell with a lowered head, trying not to look directly at the suspicious frown that Caesura was giving her. Every time that she used her powers, everything ended in shambles, regardless of how noble her intentions were. If she had a choice, she would have thrown away her wings and horn and given them to somepony else. Somepony who deserved them more.

In the midst of her guilt, she noticed that one of the prisoners was still lying in her bed, completely apathetic to the fact that one of her cohorts had nearly been mind controlled into giving up all of their secrets. Red, who had shown little emotion thus far, was starting to make Cadance worried. How could anypony be this detached from her friends, even if they were accomplices?

Regardless, there was no time to waste. Her truth spell had never gone awry like this, even though she had spent years learning how to use it effectively, so she had no idea where to start. Maybe if she laid another one on top of it they would merge together, but—

“AJ, Cadance!” came a muffled shout from outside. Both mares jerked to attention, turning towards the door. “You in there?”

“Nopony’s here,” Applejack chuckled dryly as she reached over and opened the door, revealing Rainbow Dash with a letter held between her teeth.

“Very funny,” Rainbow grumbled as she spat the letter out. “Page wants everypony to meet in front of the hotel, she’s saying she’s got some kind of proof that these three are innocent.”

Cadance was about to respond, but Caesura beat her to it. “You know she’s lying,” the unicorn hissed. “She’s just doing this to get us out of here.”

“You know,” said Rainbow, “I really wish I could argue with you some more, but this is probably the first time I’ve ever agreed with you.”

“Right, so—”

“Caesura, what’d I just tell ya ‘bout lying?” Applejack warned from her spot by the door. “Your little fibbin’ act is gettin’ old. It’s obvious that you’re hidin’ something, something that Page knows. Sorry, but you’re not gonna stop us from hearin’ her out.”

“Fine, listen to her. Go off on your little adventure. The answer has been right under your nose this entire time, but you’re not satisfied with it, are you? Just give me that letter and get out of here.”

Cadance was surprised as how quickly Caesura had dropped her act, but it showed that the crafty unicorn knew when to back down from a fight. Cadance was going to have to be cautious around her.

“Don’t mind if we do,” Rainbow chuckled, kicking the envelope into Red’s cell. “And by the way, I’ve been told that it’s rude to read other ponies’ mail. Besides, I’m pretty sure Preston dropped this off, since it’s got his name written on the front as well. And unless you just got your name changed to Red Tape, you’re going back into your cell. ”

Caesura seemed surprised, but covered her reaction with sarcasm. “My cell? You mean the one without a door? This is the worst jail I’ve ever seen.”

“Don’t worry, the one in Canterlot’s better. C’mon AJ, let’s go. Cadance can stay here and keep watch over these buffoons.”

Ignoring her frustration, Cadance was grateful for the fact that she didn’t have to contrive an excuse to stay behind and help Nightowl. “I got it covered,” she mumbled as she turned her attention to the shaking stallion.

As the jailhouse door slammed shut, Cadance wished that she had never left her kingdom. She had never wanted to be a princess, after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taking a deep breath, Page looked out over the small audience she had assembled. All six Elements of Harmony were joined by Mezza, who was eyeing everypony around her with confusion. Shining Armor had gone to help his wife in whatever way he could, but none of them had been able to find Preston, who hadn’t been seen since he had flown back to his house the night before.

“Alright,” Page started, pacing back and forth. “I’ve brought you all here to tell you the truth about this town. A few of you may be wondering who the new mare is, but don’t worry, she’s the reason that I’ve decided to tell all of you about Everdale. Just bear with me on this.”

She had expected some kind of interruption, but all seven of them were listening intently, some more focused than others. “Let me start with the beginning. Six years ago, shortly after I had joined the nightwatch, the weather team scheduled a nasty storm over Everdale. That night, Mezza showed up at the front door, soaking wet and rambling about how she had lost her daughter.”

Page looked at Mezza, who shrunk back. “I did,” the gray mare insisted, as if everypony thought she was lying. “We were on vacation and saw that this place would be nice, but then this storm hit!”

“I’ll let you tell them,” Page stated, stepping back.

“W-well, we were walking along the edge of the Everfree Forest. The wind blew my saddlebags off, so I had to run to go get them, but when I came back... she was gone! I called for her, ran around in circles, but then I saw the light of that wooden shack in the distance.”

In an attempt to keep Mezza from getting off track, Page interrupted her. “That was where me and Nightowl were. As soon as I heard her daughter was missing, I went out to do a flyover of the Everfree Forest to see if I could find anything, so those two stayed in the shack. When I got back, Nightowl told me that the missing filly had come back and left with her mother... but it seems that he wasn’t telling the truth.”

She watched as Mezza looked away uneasily, gnawing on her bottom lip. “He must have lied,” the frazzled earth pony repeated. “Because after you left, I had him come out and look for her as well. He had been such a gentlepony, telling me to stay in the shack and warm up with a blanket, but there’s no way I could have just sat there and done nothing!”

“So you went out as well?” Page asked, pursing her lips. “Tell me what happened. Tell me everything.”

“R-right! We went into the forest to see if we could find her, but we didn’t want to go too far inside. We thought we saw her and ran further in, but ended up getting lost, but then we were attacked and—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoah, hold it!” Twilight stammered. “You got attacked in the Everfree Forest? Why wouldn’t you report something like that to Princess Celestia?”

“I was scared,” the mare responded, completely ignoring Twilight’s interruption. “I turned and ran, but we got separated! I’ve always been too afraid to come back, but last night, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I—”

“Thank you, Mezza,” Page said with a grin, interrupting her before she could make herself seem any more suspicious. “I know this probably seems irrelevant right now, but look at it this way. There have only been two incidents of crime in Everdale, both of them being disappearances. Something has to be connected here.”

“You mean like the ponies in the forest?” came an energetic squeak from a certain pink pony. “Ooooh, I think I’ve got it! Your daughter was taken in by savage natives in the Everfree Forest, only to be raised as their queen and goddess, giving her the power to do whatever she wants! And now she’s spreading her influence to the outside world and trying to bring modern society to the brink of destruction and—”

“Pinkie!” Rarity chided. “Would you please refrain from going off on bizarre tangents like that?”

“Actually,” Page giggled darkly, drawing everypony’s attention again. “She might be right. Well, partially right. You see, this is what I wanted to tell you about, something that I was informed about as a member of the nightwatch here.”

“Wait,” Twilight demanded, sounding apprehensive, “does this have something to do with why the guard shack is facing away from the town?”

“So you did notice. Looks like you’re not a terrible detective after all. When I signed up for the job, Dotted Line, the old mayor, told me the truth about this town.”

Pointing to the statue in the middle of town square, Page began her lecture. “That’s Gemini, the statue that was built a few generations ago when this town was first founded. The two pegasi flying side by side tells us a few things, one of them being that this town was mostly founded by pegasi, and the other... is to show our cooperation with our sister town.”

A few of the ponies in the audience looked confused, but Page didn’t stop to answer questions. “Our sister town isn’t on the map, either. In fact, according to our mayor, it’s nothing but a group of reclusive ponies that have made their home in the Everfree Forest.”

“I win, I win!” Pinkie declared, hopping a victory lap around the group of dumbstruck ponies. “Oooh, what did I win?”

“More exposition.”

“Cool!”

“Now, about this sister town. I’ve never seen it myself, but Dotted Line kept implying that we had some sort of mutual agreement with them, even though he never told me directly. The only thing he told me was the name that it was given: Eccondale.”

In the brief silence, Page saw Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie share some sort of conspiratorial smile. Did they know something? Were they actually involved in this after all? Maybe she had been wrong to trust them, even after everything they had done to help her.

Before Page could ask anything, the three mares burst into uncontrollable laughter, collapsing onto the grass and rolling around like little fillies. “Hey!” Page barked, “I’m not kidding! I know it sounds crazy, but—”

“Haha, oh, we believe you,” Twilight managed to giggle out, sitting up and wiping a tear from her eye. “I’m sorry, but that’s one of the silliest names I’ve ever heard of. Really? Eccondale?”

“What about it?” Page huffed, wishing that she could get these ponies to take her seriously.

“Wait,” Rainbow snorted, “You’re saying you knew about this for years and never realized it?”

“Realized what?!”

“Oh, c’mon! Everdale? Eccondale? Didn’t you ever play word games as a filly?”

As soon as Page realized what the three ponies found to be so gut-bustingly hilarious, her face turned bright red with embarrassment. How had she not noticed that for over six years? She wasn’t going to be able to look at Everdale the same way again..

“Dumb names aside,” Page continued, fighting the urge to giggle with the others, “this other town most likely exists. This statue is a sign of our cooperation with them, so we know that they’re somewhere close by.”

“Hold your horses,” Applejack grunted from the front row. “You’re tellin’ me that there’s some hidden town in the Everfree that nopony has ever seen before? Fluttershy knows that place like her own backyard!”

“Actually... it is my backyard, but—”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Page huffed, ignoring Fluttershy’s intrusion. “I was told that the entrance was hidden near the edge of the forest around here, but Dotted Line made sure to tell me that I should never, under any circumstances, go looking for it.”

Taking a breath, she ruffled her feathers and glanced in Twilight’s direction. “Now, back to the shack. You noticed that it was facing away, but did you ever figure out why?”

“Actually,” the unicorn admitted, “I did notice, but it slipped my mind as of late. I thought about it in the beginning, but I assumed that it was because you were suspicious of Canterlot’s involvement.”

Surprised that Twilight was admitting her fault, Page gave a respectful nod. “The reason that the windows faces outwards is to make sure that nopony accidentally goes adventuring into the forest, lest they find themselves in the middle of a hidden town. That’s the duty of the nightwatch here: to make sure that Eccondale stays hidden.”

“Would you stop calling it that?” Rarity requested. “It sounds remarkably silly. If you expect us to believe there’s a hidden city in the Everfree Forest, you could at least give it an interesting name.”

“Ooh, you should call it Neverdale!” Pinkie offered, only to be glared at by every single pony in a five foot radius.

“Whatever we’re calling it,” Page continued, “we’re going to find it. I knew that they were involved with these disappearances, but I’ve never had  the chance to tell any of you.”

“Are you kidding?” shouted Rainbow. “You had a whole month to come get help, but you just sat around and waited until nearly half of the town had vanished before you asked the Princesses to lend you a hoof!”

Gritting her teeth, Page tried not to show the regret she felt. “That wasn’t me, but I wish it had been. You remember that note on the fountain? Nightowl and I found a similar one on the door of the guard shack the night after Dotted Line disappeared. We threw it away, so I can’t show you, but from what I heard so far, the notes are nearly identical. Your note ordered you to return to Canterlot, but my note ordered Nightowl and I to stay in the guard shack every night and never set hoof outside until the sun was up. If either of us were seen outside, the note made it clear that Everdale would be gone within a week.”

“So that’s why...” Applejack mused. “I wasn’t gonna say anythin’, but I figured you two made for a lousy nightwatch since y’all sat around and told stories all night. Beg your pardon, I didn’t mean to assume.”

“It’s fine, I don’t blame you. The only way that Nightowl and I kept ourselves from going stir-crazy was by telling stories back and forth. But... let’s move on. There’s more.”

When nopony responded, Page took it upon herself to fill the silence. “As I already told you, the first victim to disappear was our mayor, Dotted Line. When he vanished, there was a note left in his office, telling us that he was being held hostage. The ransom note also said that one of us would be taken every night until the demands were met.”

“Demands?” Twilight echoed. “You never told us anything about that! What did the culprit want?”

“That’s the thing,” sighed Page. “We were never told. When Red found the note in the morning and showed it to me and Nightowl, we were just as baffled as she was. That’s when we decided to elect Red to take his place, since she had been his secretary, and then she hired Preston to help us out. Those two had been friends for quite a while, but Red knew that he would be able to keep everypony under control, thanks to the newspaper stand that he ran.”

As Page paused, she noticed the anxious faces in the crowd. None of them, except for Mezza, wanted to look her in the eyes. Had something happened to Preston while she had been out? Princess Cadance had told her that he was off moping by himself, but Page had to wonder if that was the truth.

“E-either way,” she stammered, getting back on track, “Nightowl and I got the threatening note the next night when we were about to go out and patrol to make sure that everypony was safe. After a month of doing everything we could to get to the bottom of things... you guys showed up.”

As Page surveyed the seven ponies to gauge their reactions, she noticed that Mezza had been remarkably quiet. Ever since Page had mentioned Eccondale, or whatever those six wanted to call it, the gray mare had been staring off into space. It was hard to blame her for being surprised, but it was starting to become suspicious. Simple logic dictated that if Nightowl was telling the truth about that night six years ago, Mezza was lying about it. Despite what everypony seemed to think, Page was willing to trust her friend more than a stranger.

“So, let me get this straight,” Twilight sighed, drawing Page’s attention. “You’re telling me that some third party we’ve never seen before is behind all of these disappearances? Look, I want to find the truth as much as you do, but let’s face the facts. My barrier around the hotel accounts for the 17 ponies who were taken, the entrances of Nightowl, Red, Caesura, and Preston, as well as your exit, Page. Nopony else could have entered or left during that time!”

“But what about those 11 accomplices Caesura had?” Page challenged, trying to establish reasonable doubt of Twilight’s theory. “They were already inside, weren’t they?”

“But none of them could have taken you out of the hotel or attacked Preston and Red in the lobby. Look, I understand what you’re going through, but there’s only one logical explanation! They even confessed!”

“It’s not logical anymore,” Page pointed out triumphantly, flicking her wavy tail. “I had Cadance use her truth spell on Nightowl. You can ask her yourself, but she’ll just tell you the same thing. Nightowl never threw me out of the window of room 201.”

“Then he threw you out of a different window!”

“I thought you’d say that, so I had him clarify his statement. He told me that he didn’t throw me out of any window in the hotel.”

As Page gloated over the stunned, slack-jawed expression of Twilight Sparkle, she realized that everypony was staring at them, except for Mezza, who was still off in her own world.

Applejack, in particular, appeared absolutely furious. “That’s it, ya little rustler,” she growled, “I ain’t gonna stand for this anymore! Princess Cadance saves your life, entrusts you with a this little secret of hers, and what do you do? You use her like some sort of machine, force her to work for your own selfish ends, and then you go and blab about it to everypony! I may have felt a mite of pity for ya before, but I ain’t gonna waste my worries on somepony as selfish as you!”

If it had been anypony else in the group, Page would have responded with a witty comeback, but there was something about Applejack’s tone that made the retort catch in her throat. Why didn’t they understand what she was trying to do? They were all experts on friendship, so why didn’t they show even a little bit of sympathy for her? She was just trying to do what any good friend would!

As Page was about to try and justify her actions, Twilight Sparkle reached over and held a hoof in front of Applejack. “Look,” the unicorn sighed, “we’ll let Cadance decide what she wants to do about this. Anyway... I want to verify that what Page said was true.”

Trying to hide her surprise at the fact that Twilight had stood up for her, Page coughed and spread her wings. She was amazed that the unicorn was taking so much of this in stride, believing what she was told without fighting back. “I-I’m sure she’ll be fine with it,” Page said dismissively, taking off into the air and trying to ignore the sudden onset of guilt in her chest. Once she could put all of this truth spell nonsense behind her, she planned on taking all of them into the forest and finding this hidden town herself.

Nothing was going to stop her from saving her friends, not even an alicorn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Twilight followed the pack of ponies on their way to the jailhouse to speak with Princess Cadance, she tried to wrap her mind around the most recent events. Page’s bombshell about this hidden town was one thing, but the sudden appearance of Mezza was something else entirely. It was hard to believe that she had been so confident in her deductions before all of this had happened.

“Pssst,” Applejack whispered from Twilight’s left, tilting her hat down over her eyes. “Why don’t ya let me go in there and talk to the Princess? Me and her had a little heart-to-heart about her powers, so she’d be fine if I let her know what’s going on.”

“You know, Applejack, you’d look a lot less suspicious if you weren’t trying to hide your face like that,” Twilight giggled. “But still, it’ll be fine. I’ll just go in there, have Page apologize for spilling the beans, and we’ll be—”

“No, no, no, that ain’t happenin’! Trust me, there’s some stuff goin’ down in there. If Page saw everything, we’d have ourselves a little situation on our hooves.”

Confused, Twilight grimaced. “It can’t be that bad. Cadance wouldn’t—”

“Look, Twilight, I’ll tell ya later, but right now, you gotta trust me on this. I’ll sum it up for ya real quick, but suffice it to say, the Princess had a little mishap with her magic. Apparently she left some spell of hers going inside of Nightowl, and he's having a mighty tough time keeping himself together. It ain't pretty. She’s in there right now trying to fix the mess she made, so let’s allow her, Shining, and the other prisoners a little bit of privacy. Sound good?”

Trying to ignore the worry in her gut, Twilight nodded. How could something go wrong with a truth spell? Whatever it was couldn’t have been catastrophic, otherwise Applejack never would have left the jail in the first place, so Twilight didn’t have a problem with letting Cadance sort out her own problems. But leaving the truth spell inside of somepony? Twilight could only imagine what Nightowl was going through.

“Sounds good to me,” Twilight whispered, “but be quick. Page looks like she’s about to fly off into the forest if we take too long.”

“Gotcha, I’ll be in and out before you can say apple fritter!”

Curious, Twilight watched as the farm pony ran up ahead and made her way towards the jailhouse, shouting something over her shoulder about being right back. It was difficult for Twilight to ignore Cadance’s spell for the moment, since she wanted to know what had happened, but Applejack always knew what to do in a pinch.

As they reached the jail, with Applejack already inside, Twilight noticed that Mezza was still following them. “Hey, Mezza?” she asked, approaching the jumpy mare. “I hate to sound rude, but this isn’t the safest place to be right now. I’m glad that you came, but—”

“No, I’m not leaving!” the gray mare blurted out, making Twilight jump. “I’ve been trying to forget about this for years, but now that I know what happened, I’m not just going to sit back and run away like I did before! My poor Dolce could still be in there!”

Twilight was about to ask who that was, but Page beat her to it. “Dolce’s your daughter, isn’t she?” the pegasus asked, trotting in between them. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s a long shot, so—”

“N-no, don’t try and talk me out of this,” Mezza stammered, obviously attempting to hide her anxiety. “This is the first thing that’s gone right for me in years, and all because of a few nightmares! I don’t care how dangerous that stupid forest is, or whether or not there’s a bunch of primal barbarians who have set up shop there! I’m going to go find my daughter.”

Twilight stopped herself from pointing out the distinct possibility that her daughter might not be around after wandering into the forest six years ago. Instead of trying to force Mezza to leave them, Twilight now had a good reason to keep her around. Everything was starting to make sense again.

“Nightmares, huh?” Twilight sighed. “I guess that’s what pushed you to come back here after all this time.”

“Right,” the earth pony mumbled, looking away.

With a grin, Twilight turned towards the jailhouse. It was painfully obvious than Luna must have sent her a signal through her nightmares about going back to Everdale, which would explain the coincidental timing, but when had Luna found the time to visit Mezza’s dreams? Had it been before or after Twilight had last spoken to her? Once again, Twilight wished that she had maintained better control of her subconscious during their last conversation.

Before Twilight could figure out when Luna had sent the sign, the door to the jailhouse opened. Applejack stood in the doorway, a folded sheet of paper hanging between her teeth.

“Hey, that’s Preston’s letter!” Rainbow Dash shouted from behind, flying in front of Twilight. “Didn’t I already tell you not to read another pony’s mail?”

“No, you told little miss Chezzy What’s-her-face,” the farm pony sighed, spitting out the letter onto the ground. “And before ya ask, yes, Red did allow me to read it. In fact, the letter outright says that she should show to her accomplices as well.”

“They’re not accomplices!” Page objected. “And—”

“Woah there, you two,” Twilight sighed, enveloping the letter in her aura and bringing it up to eye level. “If she doesn’t mind us reading it, let’s see what Preston had to say. Er, actually, Rainbow? When did this letter arrive?”

The brightly-colored pegasus, huffing in Page’s direction, shrugged her shoulders. “It must have been sometime between when I flew over to find Mezza and when I went to grab AJ. When I came back to grab her for Page’s little show, this letter was sitting right in front of the jail, so I brought it in.”

Twilight swallowed air, remembering the way Preston had acted once Red had shoved him away the night before. He’d gone completely silent, refusing to answer any questions that they asked him before flying off to lock himself in his house. It seemed that he’d finally gotten himself moving again, starting with a letter to Red.

“Alright, let’s see what we’ve got here. Applejack, you’re sure that she didn’t mind us reading it?”

“She didn’t say a word, Twi. Just sat there moping.”

Hesitating, Twilight finally gave in and let her curiosity get the best of her. “Okay, here we go.”

“Caesura and Nightowl should read this as well. Other than those two, I don’t care who reads this. My voice may falter, but my words won’t. Either way, I think you three should know what I’m about to do.

“Honestly, I don’t want to believe that you did this, Red. Other ponies might try to justify crimes like these, but I know you better than that. My question is why you feel like you need to keep this stupid secret of yours. Everypony else may have been fooled, but I’m an investigative journalist, so you know that you can’t keep the truth from me.

“Coward that I am, I should have seen some kind of clues in the past month. Anypony with half a brain would have noticed that their boss was making ponies disappear for some reason. Everypony trusted you, including myself, but I should have been able to do something about this. So if I had seen any hint that pointed to you as the guilty party, I would have stopped this before it spiraled out of control. Underneath that tough exterior, I know you want to be forgiven, so please, tell them the truth. Really, I’ve seen how much you care about the ponies of Everdale... but I care about you even more. After all, I know you’re a good pony deep down, so I’m going into the forest to find out what forced you to do what you did.

~Preston Paper”

Blinking, Twilight tried to imagine what was going through Preston’s mind when he had written this. It was hoof-written, making it seem more intimate that it already was, but it made Twilight feel like she was reading love letters between two ponies she had barely met. After all, his writing was rather awkward, but it was understandable considering everything he had been through recently.

“Lemme see that!” Page yelped as she tore the letter out of Twilight’s levitation, reading it for herself. “Preston, you moron! Gah, when did he hear about all of this?”

Twilight snatched the paper back with a spark of magic and folded it up before levitating it back to Applejack. “Page, please calm down, we—”

“No, I’m done being calm! We’re going into the Everfree Forest immediately! He just left this note here about a half hour ago, so he can’t be too far ahead of us! C’mon!”

“W-wait!” Twilight called out, but it was too late. Page had already zoomed off towards the forest at full speed, heedless of the seven ponies she had left in the dust.

Twilight was hesitant, but there was no more time to waste. They were going into the Everfree Forest, regardless of whether there was a hidden city or not.

Chapter 13: Into the Woods

Chapter 13

Into the Woods

The Everfree Forest was just as Twilight remembered it, but her memories of the place were bittersweet. Every time she that had ventured inside, she had been attacked either by a possessed alicorn princess, an ornery cockatrice, or a gang of vicious timberwolves, so she was starting to wonder what else this dumb forest had in store for her.

“Um, Twilight?” came a soft voice from beside her. Fluttershy had flown up to her side as they walked, getting uncomfortably close. “I-I think we should go back and, you know, let the royal sisters handle this. You see—”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight sighed, moving over to remind Fluttershy about the concept of personal space, “I know you’re scared, but—”

“I’m not scared!” the pegasus shrieked, drawing the attention of the whole group. “I-I mean, not that I n-need to say that, but....”

As she trailed off, Twilight motioned for everypony to get back to whatever private conversations they were having. Page was by herself at the front, Rarity was chatting it up with the new earth pony, Mezza, and the rest of Twilight’s friends had formed their own cabal as well.

“But Twilight,” Fluttershy insisted in a whisper. “What about those nine ponies back in Everdale? You’ve been forgetting about them this whole time, but they’re still ponies! They didn’t respond to anything Pinkie and I did, but I’m sure they just need a little bit of attention to get back to their normal selves.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that right now,” Twilight sighed, wishing that Fluttershy hadn’t brought that up. Those nine ponies had been a wild card ever since the beginning, especially now that they could be reasonably sure that King Sombra wasn’t involved. Had those nine ponies been accomplices, acting lethargic to throw them off the scent? It was possible, but there was no motive for an insane plot like that.

“B-but it could help us out somehow! What if it wasn’t S-S-Sombra? What if it was changelings with their whole love-eating creepiness?”

“I wondered about that too,” the unicorn admitted, slowing down her pace so that nopony else could listen in. She didn’t want to start a panic, after all. “But from what we know about them, that’s not how their feeding habits work. You see, they find their prey and leech off of their emotions so slowly that it would usually take weeks to notice, at least, according to that book in my library. If this was the work of changelings, those nine would have recovered within days, not to mention that somepony they had positive feelings for would have been replaced as well. I mean, Shining Armor recovered immediately after their queen had been feeding off of him for weeks, and even at the worst part of it, he was still surprisingly lucid.”

Twilight had expected Fluttershy to squeak and cower at the description of changeling behavior, but she just stared with an eerily eager smile. “Wow,” she mused, “that’s absolutely fascinating! Oh, maybe I was wrong about them! They may not be that cute, but I would love to meet one of them, assuming they weren’t trying to—”

“Okay, moving on now. Whatever those nine were up to, we’ve got to find Preston. I wish we could have gone back and told Cadance and the others about everything, but we would have lost Page if we had taken the time to step into the jail and explain everything. Maybe they’ll figure something out while we’re out here, since Shining has never been good at sitting around and doing nothing.”

“Well, okay, but—”

“Alright,” Page barked at the intrepid adventurers that she was leading. “Based on what I can tell, the entrance has to be around this general area. You see, the guard shack had the window facing this section of the forest, so based off of the angle of the shack and the perimeter of the forest, we can triangulate the position to be within a radius of nearly 300 feet from this spot here.”

“You can’t do that!” Twilight exclaimed, doing her best to distract herself from the fact that she was traipsing around the most dangerous forest in Equestria and looking for a town that probably didn’t exist. “That’s not even how something like that works, you know. First, you’d need to be able to accurately calculate the—”

“That’s it,” Rainbow groaned, hovering in between the two ponies, “I’m stopping this nerd-fest before it starts. Page, you’re saying it’s around here somewhere, right? That’s close enough for me, let’s split and start searching.”

Twilight had an entire lecture prepared for Page about how triangulating a position required at least some spatial knowledge from all positions, but it seemed that basic mathematical principles were going to have to take a backseat to practicality. “Rainbow, hold up,” she sighed, looking around the immediate area. They were on the outer fringe of the forest, meaning that they could still leave if they wanted to, but there was something she had to check. “Splitting would help us find it faster, meaning that we would be closer to finding Preston, but I’m pretty sure that if this mystery town really does exist, they’d have some kind of security around.”

“Security?” Rainbow asked. “Well, we could just take them out once we find them, couldn’t we?”

“No, Rainbow! I thought you read those tactical assault guidebooks that I lent you, but it looks like somepony is behind on their assigned reading. If you had read those, you would have known that you must always try to start a fight on your terms, not theirs. Since they’re probably watching out for us right now, assuming Preston is still ahead of us, splitting up would put us all in needless danger.”

“Eh, I can take ‘em on,” the pegasus grumbled in response, lowering herself to the ground.

“I’d rather not risk it, but I’ve still got a few spells that I saved up for a rainy day. And before you ask, yes, I know it’s not raining. My big brother taught me all about barrier spells, but there’s one in particular that would come in handy right now, one that I’m pretty sure he invented himself!”

“I didn’t know he had such a creative side to him,” Rarity remarked coyly.

“Well,” Twilight clarified, “it’s not so much about inventing a spell as using an existing one in a creative way. You see, the basic barrier spell will serve as a solid wall to living creatures, so most unicorns simply set it up and forget about it. What my brother discovered is that, while it is innately a defensive spell, we can also use it offensively. This is a simplified version of the spell he and Cadance improvised in order to give the changelings the boot back in Canterlot, but somehow he managed to make it separated by race, which still baffles me in regards to the sheer amount of power—”

“Get to the point,” Rainbow grumbled.

Indignant over being cut off in the middle of her lecture, Twilight huffed. “Fine, I’ll just show you then. We’re short on time anyway. Everypony, gather around me.”

The seven ponies followed her orders without questioning, allowing Twilight to focus her energy around them. She heard a few gasps as she molded her aura into solid matter, creating a tiny pink bubble around them. It was incredibly dense, making the shield nearly impossible to see through, but that was only because the spell wasn’t finished yet.

With a burst of magical energy, the shield exploded outwards, the size of the bubble multiplying exponentially as Twilight fueled its unyielding growth. Any living creature that wasn’t in the bubble would be sent flying because the equivalent of a giant pink wall of bricks would be flying straight at them. Sure enough, she could hear the shriek of a cockatrice and a manticore in the distance as they were pushed to the perimeter of her shield.

“Twilight!” shrieked Rarity, thankfully having waited until the spell was finished to yell in her ear and break her concentration. “That was absolutely spectacular! I may not have the raw potential that you do, but I know enough to appreciate a beautiful display when I see one.”

“Thank you, Rarity. I’m sure my brother wouldn’t mind telling you all about it if you find the time to ask him.”

Page didn’t let Rarity respond, jumping in between the two. “Well, either way, you just made life a whole lot easier. Everypony, split up and search the area. If you find the entrance, holler out, okay? C’mon, move it!”

Before anypony could object, Page darted off into the forest, leaving the remaining seven ponies behind. “We should have split into twos or something,” Twilight groaned, shaking her head and surveying her surroundings. “I mean, we can be reasonably sure that we’ll be safe in this bubble, but—”

“It’s okay Twilight, we’ll stick together!” Pinkie exclaimed, hopping over to Rarity and grinning.

“Well, you don’t have to, but it’s better safe than sorry, I guess,” Twilight sighed. “I’ll give us a half hour before we start meeting up again. Sound good?”

There were mixed murmurs of approval from the group, ranging from excitement to sheer terror. The first to leave was Rarity, with Pinkie hopping in tow, followed by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Applejack offered to go with Mezza, but the antsy mare politely refused, leaving the farm pony to go off by herself.

“Well, looks like we’re going together!” Twilight remarked, trying her best to act strong so that Mezza wouldn’t be afraid. For being the oldest pony in the group, she seemed to be the least mature.

“N-no, I’m fine,” she stammered, backing away. “The more we split up, the quicker we can find her.”

Before Twilight could object, she found herself alone in the Everfree Forest. While she was worried about Mezza, she was sure that there was a reason for the earth pony to go off by herself. The bubble should be sufficient to keep out everything dangerous, even a manticore, but that didn’t stop Twilight from being apprehensive.

Regardless, she was going to have to start searching.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Any better?”

“N-no, hurry, I don’t—”

“Okay, hold on, I’ll—”

“Stay away from my wife!”

As Red lay on dusty bed in her cell, the voices in the jailhouse devolved into nothing but a cacophony of confusing cries. She had stopped paying attention to them a long time ago, drowning them out in a vain attempt to focus on other things. The last thing she wanted to think about was poor Nightowl being mind controlled into telling them everything he knew. Though, it could be worse. He could be getting blackmailed.

Staring up at the bland, gray ceiling, she went through Preston’s note in her head. It had been difficult to read from start to finish without losing face, but she had gotten the message loud and clear. So had everypony else. She may have been a little bit confused at first, but now she knew exactly what was going on.

“You two realise that they’re going into the forest, don’t you?”

“They’re what?!”

“That letter was from Preston, saying that he was running off into the forest to find some clues, so of course they’re going to—”

“For Celestia’s sake, why can’t I have a normal sister?”

That was another thing Red didn’t want to think about. Why did those six ponies have to be so infuriatingly nice? It would have been infinitely easier if they had been the judgmental, opinionated heroes that she thought they would be, but then Preston had to go and say all of those embarrassing things too....

The thought of Preston made her bite her lip, forcing herself to keep quiet so that nopony would see the crack in her emotional armor. Every time she thought of that friendly pegasus, she forced herself to focus on something else.

“Shining, go after them, I’ll be fine here.”

“No, if we’re going after them, we’re going together.”

“Well, looks like I’m free then. Guess the justice system just isn’t what it used to be.”

“No, if we go, you’re all coming with us.”

It was becoming difficult to tune out their voices. So everypony had read that letter, huh? The wording had been careful, but the message had been understood, even if Red didn’t see why everypony wanted to read it. But wait, if they were going into the forest, they might....

Thinking about the possibilities made her heart sink. She had already resigned herself to the fact that she would remain a prisoner for the rest of her miserable life, but there had been a small glimmer of hope for some semblance of a fairy tale ending. Circumstances being what they were, there was no way that things would go back to the way they had been, not after Dotted Line had made the first move. As much as she hated her old boss, there was a part of her that still wished that he was around to tell her what to do, barking orders at her until her hearing was gone. She hated the fact that everything was so vague now.

“You may be a prisoner, but you could have escaped anytime that you wanted to.”

“With the way you’re talking, I’m starting to wish I had.”

“Too bad. We’re going once Nightowl is back to normal. How much longer?”

“Just give me a minute! I need to focus!”

They were planning on leaving? Red wasn’t sure whether to be happy or terrified. She had backed herself into a corner after Page had woken up, leaving her with no choice but to wait for the inevitable and pray that everything would turn out okay. The chances of that happening were akin to the the chances of being born an alicorn, but there was nothing that she could do about it.

Despite her helpless position, Red still had a few options. The possibilities were severely limited, but if she followed the only course of action available to her, there was a chance that nopony else had to become a victim. On the other side of the coin, if she followed through and everything turned sour, Everdale wouldn’t be the only town to disappear in the coming weeks.

“Th-there! I think I got it!”

“I... what am I...?”

“Nightowl! You useless lummox, you had me worried!”

“F-forget about me, we have to—”

“Say another word and I’ll smother ya.”

Right now, Red was going to have to play her cards carefully. It was likely that the Elements of Harmony wouldn’t believe Page about the hidden town, so there was still hope that they would give up their witch hunt. In the best case scenario, they would catch up to Preston and drag him back here, but Preston wouldn’t....

Red’s breath caught as her throat constricted. Forget about him. Even if the entirety of Equestria told him that his friends were guilty, he wouldn’t believe them. There was no way that anypony would be able to stop him from investigating these disappearances, especially considering his old job as a freelance reporter.

No, she wasn’t going to think about him anymore! Even though he could easily put himself into harm’s way with his foalhardy attitude out there, she wasn’t going to let herself spend any more time on the subject. His idyllic naivete and positive outlook had always been a ray of sunlight during these past few weeks, giving Red the courage to push onward. If only he had stayed behind and tried to cheer her up some some.... Preston always knew how to—

“Red, wake up!”

Jolting out of her self-loathing daydream, Red founding herself staring into the cold, tired face of a white unicorn. Shining Armor, the captain of the Royal Guard and prince of the Crystal Empire, was trying to get her attention. In any other situation, she would have been flattered.

“We’re going after the others. The Everfree Forest is extremely dangerous, even for the Elements of Harmony. And don’t even think about running away.”

Red nodded, unable to conjure up the energy to speak a single word in response. This was the worst possible scenario, but how was she supposed to do anything about it? Even if she tried to run away and stall them from venturing into the forest, she wouldn’t get very far with two of the most powerful ponies in Equestria hunting her down.

Heart pounding, Red heard the click of her cell door unlocking. She could give a vain attempt at convincing them that they were all walking into a trap, but nopony would believe her. She couldn’t blame them. The only evidence that she could have used was long gone by now, and even that would have been a stretch.

Resigned, Red accepted her helpless state. Any action she could take would most likely result in an even more depressing tragedy than what had already come to pass. She couldn’t afford to take a gamble like that, not when she wouldn’t be the one to pay the price if she failed.

After all, self-sacrifice is easy. Sacrificing others isn’t.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Everfree Forest was just as gloomy as Twilight remembered it to be, which wasn’t helped by the fact that she had gotten stuck wandering around by herself. She hadn’t seen hide nor hair or anypony else in her search, but at least she didn’t have to worry about a cockatrice sneaking up on her again. The thought sent shivers through her spine, but her barrier had ensured that no living creatures remained inside of the perimeter.

After a solid ten minutes of navigating treacherous slopes and hills, Twilight saw some movement in the brush ahead of her. Instinctively, she stepped back and readied a teleport spell, wondering if anything could have broken through the barrier without her knowing.

Thankfully, instead of some frightening beast, the creature that emerged from the undergrowth was nothing more than a rainbow-maned pegasus, one that was doing a terrible job at hiding.

“Horsefeathers,” Rainbow Dash spat as she leapt out of the bush, shaking like a dog to get the twigs out of her mane. “You haven’t seen a shifty-eyed, suspicious, and totally guilty earth pony run this way, have you?”

“Who, Mezza?”

“No, Fluttershy.”

“But—”

“Of course it’s Mezza!” Rainbow blurted, growling quietly. “She was acting all suspicious, so I started tailing her. But then this stupid mane of mine made me stand out like Luna in a snowstorm, so—”

“Hold up, Rainbow,” Twilight interjected, frowning. “Suspicious? What made her look suspicious?”

“She had the whole shifty-eye thing going on! She kept looking over her shoulder, like somepony was following her!”

“Uh, Rainbow, you were following her. And she was all alone. In the Everfree Forest.”

“But that was before she saw me! You’ve gotta believe me on this, Twilight!”

With a groan, Twilight realized that arguing with Rainbow wasn’t going to accomplish anything. “Fine, fine, we’ll look for Mezza, but we need to keep an eye out for that hidden entrance as well. Considering the fact that I didn’t accidentally send Preston flying with my barrier spell, he’s either way off course or he’s already found it.”

“Huh, I forgot about him,” Rainbow grumbled.

“He’s the reason that Page went flying out here so suddenly! Heck, he’s the reason we’re out here right now! If I had things my way, I would’ve waited until tomorrow so I could get at least some semblance of sleep!”

“Woah, sorry,” Rainbow apologized awkwardly, starting to back off. “I guess.... Okay, let’s get looking! Yeah!”

Sighing, Twilight chastised herself for letting her lack of sleep affect her demeanor. This was painfully similar to what had happened with Princess Luna, which was another reason that she wanted to take a nap, but it seemed that the real world wasn’t going to wait for the world of dreams, even if she just wanted to apologize.

“Er... I should go now,” Rainbow mumbled, obviously starting to feel uncomfortable. “You know, split up and cover more ground! Right! See ya!”

Twilight didn’t realize that she was making a scary face until Rainbow had already zipped off into the woods. She wanted to say something, but her thoughts were still stuck on Princess Luna and her involvement so far. She had directly intervened by sending Shining Armor and Cadance to help them out, but on top of that she somehow managed to single out Mezza and send her to Everdale as well. But how had she known about Mezza's connection to the town? What were the limits of her powers?

Heedless of the time that passed, Twilight continued to wander aimlessly. She knew that she was supposed to be looking for this hidden town with a silly anagram for a title, but they weren’t going to be able to catch up to Preston, even if she fell right into it at that very moment. The barrier she’d created around their section of the forest would be plainly visible from miles away, meaning that Preston would have already come to investigate it if he was still somewhere nearby.

A rustling sound off in the distance brought Twilight out of her sleep-deprived trance, startling her to attention. How long had she been spacing out? A half hour? An hour? She had no idea, since the sun didn’t shine through the canopy of the Everfree Forest very well, but it seemed that nopony had found the entrance yet, otherwise they would have called out and gathered them all together. In fact, she was about to do so herself.

Off in the distance, rather far away from where she was now, Twilight thought she heard somepony talking, followed by a soft thud. It wasn’t very loud, but over the eerie stillness of the  forest around her, it was nearly crystal clear. Once the voice got louder, Twilight began to make out a few words.

“... you? But I thought—”

The voice abruptly stopped. Twilight stayed perfectly still, even though she was pretty sure that nopony would hear her rustling around in the bushes. Who was...?

“N-no, Dolce, I didn’t...! Wait, stop! No! Please!”

The scream that followed spurred Twilight into action, galloping off towards the source of the sound before she could begin to process what was going on. Normally, she would have already hatched a plan before she even moved a hoof, but the recent stress had left her drained.

Okay, Twilight, focus! The voice sounded like Mezza, from what I remember about her. Dolce is the name of her daughter, the one that disappeared six years ago, meaning that—

In spite of her best efforts to focus, Twilight nearly tripped over a wayward root, barely avoiding a nasty tumble down a surprisingly steep slope. The only thing that she could think about was the fact that Mezza was in danger, or even worse, that Mezza had seen her daughter. From the way that conversation went, it didn’t sound like their reunion had been a happy one, but there was also the fact that Twilight was getting close to edge of her barrier, making her wonder if the altercation had somehow taken place outside.

“Alright, who’s there?!” came another shout, this time much closer, though it seemed to be further off to her left than before. “Come on out and put up your dukes, you little coward!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight cried, identifying the voice as she burst through another set of bushes and into a small clearing. Much to her surprise, the clearing was entirely empty, making Twilight wonder if she had lost her sense of direction. There was an indent in the grass by the edge of the barrier, like somepony had been standing there for a while, but then, Twilight remembered Rainbow’s voice from earlier, spinning to her left and dashing off into the thick brush once more in a desperate attempt to find out what was going on.

As Twilight emerged from the bushes, her eyes widened in disbelief. There, about five feet from the edge of the barrier, stood the statue of a pony up on her hind legs, a look of horror frozen on her face. It reminded Twilight of one her last misadventures into this forest, when Fluttershy had single-hoofedly saved her from a cockatrice, only this time... it wasn’t Twilight who had been petrified.

At a loss for words, Twilight looked pleadingly over to Rainbow Dash, who was hovering around the perimeter and diving into bushes at random. In a hurried, desperate attempt and making sense of the scene, Twilight quickly trotted over to investigate the statue up close, heart pounding.

Just as she had suspected, the stony form of Mezza stared lifelessly away, facing a full 180 degrees away from the barrier. The frozen mare was reared up on her hind legs, perfectly balanced, with her mouth frozen open in mid cry. From the small details that Twilight could remember about her encounter with a cockatrice, the process was nearly instant once one made eye contact with the creature. Because the petrification started at the hooves and worked its way upward, the cockatrice effectively had its target trapped from the moment they locked eyes with each other.

Had this been a spell? Twilight knew of certain spells that could mimic the effects of animals, but those were locked away in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot Archives, meaning that only relatively few ponies knew of their existence. Reversing the effects was still something that even Twilight couldn’t find any research on, which worried her even more. The only way to reverse the effects of petrification involved finding the cockatrice that had caused it and forcing it to stare at the victim again, which was how Fluttershy had managed to save her before.

It was only after thinking about the creatures that Twilight realised how absurd this situation was. She had created this barrier in the first place to make sure that none of the monsters would be able to attack them!

“What in tarnation?”

“Oh my stars!”

One by one, the rest of Twilight’s friends appeared from the bushes, eyes wide and mouths agape. Page was the last one to arrive, flying into the clearing at breakneck speed, but her reaction was no different from the others.

“You can’t be serious!” Page barked out as she landed, choosing to cover up her unease with aggression. “What happened to your barrier?!”

“It’s still up, just give me a moment!” Twilight snapped irritably, quickly thinking of a way to explain this. Without realising it, she began to think out loud. “Okay, the barrier’s up. No living creatures but us are inside, but somehow—”

“She still ended up like this,” Pinkie stated, finishing Twilight’s sentence. Even though she didn’t have her hat and pipe, her detective’s demeanor was on full display. “We’ve got ourselves a noggin’-knocker of a problem here, don’t we?”

“Could you be serious fortwo seconds?!” Page belted, catching Pinkie by surprise. “This isn’t funny! You all heard her shouting, right? She was talking to her daughter, Dolce, so there’s only one option here! Her daughter found her, decided that she knew too much, and had to shut her up!”

“But how does that even work?” Twilight asked, doing her best to remain calm. “There’s no known spell to cause something like this, much less fix it! Nopony has been brave enough to study a cockatrice for long enough to find a way to imitate their powers, much less cure them. The only way that Fluttershy managed to save me from one was by forcing it stare at me again!”

Page huffed, her righteous fury fading. “Fine, let’s go find one and undo this.”

“That’s not how it works! It has to be the same one that turned her to stone in the first place, but finding that one would take hours!”

“Hours?” Page huffed incredulously. “W-we don’t have hours. We’re going to have to leave her and fix her up later.”

“No, we’re not leaving her here. If we’re going to continue on, we’re taking her with us.”

“We’ll just have to take her back here to cure her once everything’s over!” Page exclaimed, her attempts at hiding her unease becoming more and more obvious by the second. “Look, we’re not going to find the cockatrice inside of Eccondale, okay?”

“We haven’t even found it yet!”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” the pegasus stated, looking like she was taking more joy in that statement than she had any right to. “I found the entrance right before I heard Mezza shouting something.”

In her frustration, Twilight wanted to lecture her about not telling them about this sooner, but even Twilight knew that there had been no time to bring it up. It didn’t help that Page was acting like a smug little filly, but Twilight was going to be the better mare and step down this time.

“Fine, let’s take her along,” she sighed, trying to remember the deep breathing exercises that Cadance had taught her. “We might not be able to find her again if we leave her out in the open.”

She watched as Page stumbled over her words for a moment, apparently finding it difficult to talk to somepony without arguing with them. Page shifted around as everypony stared at her. “I-I’ve got it covered, don’t worry. I was thinking the same thing about the entrance to Eccondale, so I left a little trail of sticks on my way here.”

Nopony replied. It was difficult to talk about somepony they had just met in a way that made it sound like she was dead, but Twilight knew that they didn’t have time to sit around and feel sorry for themselves. She’d learned that lesson back at the hotel.

“Lead the way,” Twilight sighed after weighing her options. “But either way, I’m bringing her with us. And don’t try to talk me out of it.”

Thankfully, Page didn’t press the issue, choosing instead to ignore it altogether and start making her way out of the clearing. Twilight couldn’t be sure whether the pegasus’ sudden exit was fueled by frustration or fear, but she had a feeling that it was the latter. Nopony felt comfortable discussing heavy topics like this out in the open.

Before Page could get too far ahead, Twilight glanced hesitantly at the statue behind her. Nopony had known Mezza at all, outside of a name and a face, but it still hurt to see her like this, even if there was a small possibility that she could be cured in the near future. Trying not to think too hard about Mezza’s unfortunate situation, Twilight enveloped the petrified mare in magic and levitated her off of the ground.

“Girls, let’s walk and talk,” Twilight called out, giving each one of her friends a forced smile before she followed after Page. Just like before, she had to act as the leader, otherwise their group might fall apart before they could fix this mess. “We’ll share information about who was with who the whole time, just in case one of us saw something important.”

“If we had,” Rainbow grumbled, “we would have said something already. But we already know who’s responsible for this, we just need to find them and knock their lights out before they try anything else!”

Gingerly stepping over an exposed tree root, Twilight tried to focus on walking, talking, thinking, and levitating a statue at the same time. It wasn’t easy. “First things first, girls. Rainbow, you’ve got some explaining to do for ditching Fluttershy, so tell me everything that happened after you left.”

Fluttershy, who was sticking a little too close to Applejack, looked away. “I-it’s fine, she didn’t mean to—”

“Fluttershy, it’s fine,” Rainbow interrupted, looking away. “You don’t have to cover for me on this one. It wasn’t cool of me to just leave you like that, but Mezza was just acting so suspicious!”

“B-but I thought I was getting better!” Fluttershy exclaimed, taking everypony, including Page, by surprise. “I’ve been working so hard at not being a scaredypony, but then I started thinking about dragons and all sorts of nasty meanies like that and—”

“Dragons?” Twilight asked, trying to keep Fluttershy from going on. “What made you think of that? Well, either way, don’t worry about it. Honestly, I’ve been scared silly since I woke up. I’m sure even Rainbow Dash gets scared every once in awhile.”

Twilight had a spell on standby to gag Rainbow Dash if she tried to deny it, but it seemed that she wouldn’t need it. Rainbow, seeing the threatening look from Twilight swallowed air before apologizing. “It doesn’t change the fact that I ditched you. And I didn’t even manage to stop—”

“Rainbow,” Twilight sighed, cutting her off anyway, “don’t even think about blaming yourself. We don’t have time for a pity party. You saw Mezza looking nervous, right?”

“Yeah, I tried to talk to her, but she took one look at me and bolted!”

In any other situation, Twilight would have joked about how that was everypony’s reaction, but she kept herself in check. “And you followed, left Fluttershy, and then lost track of Mezza?”

“Yeah. Thanks for rubbing it in.”

“Sorry, but I had to know. Did anypony else see anything strange?”

Pinkie managed to raise a hoof without breaking her stride. “Oh, I did! Rarity got some twigs in her mane and didn’t freak out!”

“W-wait, I have twigs in my—?!”

“Pinkie,” Twilight groaned, unable to muster up enough energy to yell at her. “Something important. Did any of you see Mezza besides Rainbow and Fluttershy?”

Applejack raised a hoof, looking conflicted. “I caught up with her after we started lookin’, but she just shrugged me off like I wasn’t even there. I tried to keep up with her, but she insisted that she was just as right as rain, telling me to head the other way. I... feel like I could’ve done somethin’ about this.”

Twilight, clenching her teeth, watched as Applejack lowered her hat a little bit. “Trust me,” the unicorn whispered, “we all share the blame here. Anypony else see her?”

“Pinkie and I did,” Rarity mused, looking pensive. “You see, there was some movement in the bushes, and, you see, I thought that it could be a monster, but Pinkie—”

“I jumped in and tackled her to the ground! Wham! But then it turned out it was just Mezza, so I—”

“Pinkie, let me tell the story. You see, she was spying on us for some reason, but when we asked her why she was sneaking around like that, she gave us your message, Twilight. You see—”

“Woah, hold on,” Twilight interrupted, raising an eyebrow. “What message?”

“Why... to split up, of course.”

“What?!” Twilight shrieked, nearly stopping their little parade in its tracks. “I never said that! That doesn’t even make any sense! Why in Equestria would Mezza lie about that?”

Pinkie, looking as serious as a poofy-maned pink pony could manage, pursed her lips and continued walking, dragging everypony along at her measured pace. “Well, there’s a couple options here. Either she wanted us to cover more ground more quickly, which I highly doubt, or she wanted to make sure that nopony was following her.”

Twilight was about to ask why, but Applejack jumped in first. “I think I know why,” she offered. “She probably knew where the entrance was and wanted to get there first.”

“That’s possible,” Pinkie posited, frowning, “but not likely. We’re on our way to the entrance right now, assuming Page got the right place, so why would Mezza have been way back there if she was trying to get here first? There's also the fact that this Dolce character purposefully left us some valuable information about her and—”

“We’ll answer those question later,” came an authoritative shout from the front of the pack. “We’re here.”

Twilight turned back around to see that Page stopped in front of a sheer cliff face with a path of sticks leading right into the middle of it. It wasn’t as large as some of the other cliffs in the Everfree Forest, but this one was overgrown with a combination of vines and bushes.

“I told you I wasn’t making things up,” Page announced dryly, pushing some of the vines aside and revealing what appeared to be the entrance to a small cave.

“It’s just a cave,” Rainbow called out, flying over to the entrance and taking a quick peek inside. Based on the lack of reaction, Twilight assumed that she didn't see anything. “I’d bet you bucks to bits that there’s at least one hundred caves in this forest, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“No, this is it,” Page argued haughtily, “you just haven’t gone far enough in. Take a look.”

It was obvious that Rainbow wasn’t as eager as she was pretending to be, but she swallowed her pride and dove in. “What am I supposed to be—Woah!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight shouted, joined by a chorus of her friends. Immediately assuming the worst, she lead the charge past the wall of vines, hooves clattering loudly behind her as they plunged into the darkness ahead. Almost as soon as they entered the cave, Twilight skidded to a stop, catching a small light out of the corner of her eye.

There, about five feet further into the cave, a hazy stream of light fell from above. Compared to the utter blackness of the area around them, the meager light that made it through the canopy of the Everfree Forest was dazzlingly brilliant, accentuated by the few flecks of dust that sparkled in it. From what Twilight could guess, there was a hole in the roof where a small amount of light somehow seeped in, illuminating the object below it in an otherworldly aura.

As soon as Twilight saw what it was, she knew why Page had been so confident. There was no doubt that this was the entrance to Eccondale, not after seeing this. There were only two places that had this familiar statue, one with two pegasi flying side by side in perfect symmetry. One was Everdale... and they had just found the other one.

There was only one problem: one of the pegasi's heads had been broken off, giving Twilight the distinct feeling that they weren’t going to get a very warm welcome in Eccondale.

Chapter 14: Arrival

Chapter 14

Arrival

Preston clung to one of the many rooftops in the area, his camera held up by the two mechanical arms that attached to the device on his neck. It was an old mechanism that he had devised so that he could take pictures while his hooves were occupied, a talent that had proved to be more than valuable on a few occassions. Part of him was excited to be back in the fray of his old job, but any excitement he had was immediately stifled.

Trying to keep his heart from racing, Preston surveyed the surrounding area. It had taken hours of searching, but he had finally found the entrance to this underground city through a mixture of dumb luck and expertise. At the moment, he was resting on the side of a tilted, thatch-roofed cottage on the very edge of the town, making as many observations as he could before he ventured further. From what Preston knew of this place, it was always referred to as a town, but this was one of the largest cities he had ever seen, almost as large as Canterlot.

Making sure that the flash was off, Preston, began to take a series of pictures of his immediate surroundings for future reference. He was going to need every detail he could dig up if he was going to convince everypony that this place existed. In truth, Preston didn’t know anything either, other than the fact that the city was supposed to be a secret that only the mayoral staff and nightwatch knew about.

Consoling himself in the fact that everypony else was safe at the moment, Preston put the camera down and cautiously peeked over the top of the roof. In spite of the fact that this entire city was underground, the sprawling suburbs in front of him were constructed out of some of the most brightly colored materials that he had ever seen. Everything was decorated with unique splashes of paint, making the whole city look like one of the ghastly modern art exhibitions that he had attended back in Baltimare.

One of the most interesting aspects was the way that everything was arranged. All of the colorful buildings were gathered around a dull, earthy spire that reached from the bottom of the cave to the very top, one that only appeared to be decorated by a few spartan windows. Everything was set up to face this spire, but it was so bland in comparison to the rest of the unique cityscape.

As quietly as he could, Preston snapped a few more pictures and began to rotate the lens of his homemade camera. The more that he focused on his work, the easier it would be to forget about Red, but his mind kept wandering back to her. Somepony here must be blackmailing her, forcing her to orchestrate these disappearances. Red wouldn’t do anything like that of her own volition, not even if the royal sisters themselves gave the order.

Through his lens, he could make out a few ponies in the streets, all of them gussied up in the most bizarre fashions that Preston had ever seen. There were only a few that he could spot walking down the street, but it was difficult to see anything clearly through the myriad of colorful houses.

Sighing, Preston began to wonder if he was doing the right thing. He’d run off by himself in the vain hope that he could clear Red’s name, but he had absolutely no leads outside of a hidden city that may or may not be involved somehow. If he jumped out into the open, they’d probably take him in the same way that they’d taken the rest of Everdale, but he wouldn’t be able to get any information if he crept around in the shadows.

I’ve come this far, haven’t I? No reason to go back. Let’s see if my old journalism skills are still up to par.

Steeling himself, Preston pushed himself away from the roof. “Hang on, Red,” he whispered, swallowing air. “I’ll clear things up for ya.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Page Inkwell stared at the six ponies in front of her as they swarmed around the statue. They wouldn’t find any clues unless they had been left behind by Preston, but Page had the sinking feeling that he wouldn’t be careless enough to leave any evidence behind. She hadn’t known him that well before the disappearances started happening, but after he had become Red’s secretary she saw just how cunning he could be when push came to shove. It made her wonder what kind of journalism he had practiced before he moved to Everdale.

Thinking about Preston reminded her that they needed to get moving, since he was probably miles ahead of them by now. With a sigh, Page trotted into the stream of light that surrounded the statue and gave it one last look. The fact that one of the heads had been knocked off was disconcerting, but Page forced herself not to think about its meaning, just like she forced herself not to think about Mezza. They would deal with her condition later.

“Alright,” Page called out in a harsh whisper, just in case there was any security around the entrance. “Let’s get going. Preston’s probably found the town itself by now, so we have no time to lose.”

None of them directly objected to her order, but she could still hear them whispering to each other. Something inside of Page was irked by the fact that none of them seemed to be taking this seriously, but she did her best to ignore it. Back when those six had become famous, Page had daydreamed about being one of them, but she had thankfully grown out of that foalish trend. The way Page saw them now, these heroes were nothing more than fillies playing pretend with super-powered toys.

Without waiting for a response, she continued on past the statue and into the darkness again, having to look away to avoid meeting Mezza’s frozen stare. She didn’t have time to deal with the guilt of dragging Mezza into this, not when other ponies were in danger as well. Those six were so—

“Ow!” Page cried out as she walked headfirst into something, recoiling back. Blinking, she let her eyes adjust to the light, only to find herself staring at a solid wall of rock.

“Uh, it’s kind of a dead end over there,” one of the six ponies behind her declared. “I thought you knew that when you brought us here.”

Page whipped around and glared at the rainbow-maned pegasus who had spoken, eyes narrowed. “Well pardon me if I have a little bit of trouble seeing in the dark!” she hissed.

As soon as the words left her mouth, something in her mind clicked on, giving her a strange sense of deja vu. Deep down, she felt like she was forgetting something important, but she couldn’t place her hoof on it. Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been important, since Cadance’s truth spell hadn’t brought it up. Page would never admit it, but some of her memories still felt slightly hazy.

“You okay?” Rarity asked, sounding concerned. “Twilight might know a healing spell, or—”

“I’m fine,” Page protested, glaring up at the Element of Generosity and trying to ignore the sudden headache. “If this is a dead end, we might have to start looking elsewhere.”

“Nope!” came a shout from the other side of the statue, where the obnoxious pink pony of the group was examining something. “Let’s see what this button does!”

Before Page could object, Pinkie slammed her hoof onto something. Instead of a cave-in of some kind, like Page had expected, a small shelf of rocks to her left swung open, letting some light seep into the dark cave.

“That... was awesome!” Rainbow declared, immediately flying over to the fake door and taking a look to see what was behind it.

“Hey, what is it?’ Page called out, galloping as quickly as she could to join the colorful pegasus.

There, behind the false door, was a small chamber with a lit torch on display, illuminating what appeared to a row of wooden minecarts in the back. Baffled, Page stepped inside to get a better look, only to find that there really was a bunch of carts on a well-worn track. The track led into a dark tunnel, and while Page couldn’t see the end of it, she had a feeling that they had just found their ticket into the hidden town.

“Oh my gosh!” Rainbow squeaked, pushing Page aside and darting into the small room. “This is just like when Daring Do was trying to find the ancient gems in the Amazon, but then Ahuizotl swooped in and—”

“Rainbow, focus!” Twilight called out from behind them. “This is probably how they get in and out, using a system of minecarts like this. As much as I’d like to take the time to study this and make a full equipological study of this city, we need to get moving.”

Page was glad that Twilight had jumped in, otherwise she might have started talking to Rainbow about the Daring Do series. It was one of her guilty pleasures, something to pass the time when she and Nightowl had run out of stories to tell, but she would never admit to anypony how much she actually knew about the books. Coughing, Page silently reminded herself of her mission, even though the prospect of a wild minecart ride was enough to distract her from the disastrous events of the past hour.

“Hm,” Twilight continued, making her way inside of the cramped room. “It’d be dangerous to fit more than two ponies on a cart at once, since they’re so small, but at least we’ll all have partners.”

Page was about to agree, but the memory of Mezza punched her in the gut before she could say anything. No, there used to be eight of them — an even number — but now there were only seven. Twilight, because she had insisted on carrying Mezza along, was going to have to go by herself.

It seemed that Twilight and the others realized it shortly after Page did, leading to an awkward stare shared between all seven of them.

Page was the first to break the silence. “Fine then, we’ll split up like we did before, but this time in pairs. I don’t care who goes with who, but this time, make sure that nopony gets separated, alright?”

There were murmurs of approval from the six of them as they slowly shifted around into pairs. The two pegasi, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, had decided to go together while the annoying pink one had thankfully chosen to go with Rarity, who didn’t look too pleased with the idea.

“Looks like that leaves the two of us,” the remaining pony, Applejack, called from outside of the chamber. “Hope that’s alright with ya.”

Page, squeezing her way out of the small room so that she could breathe, nodded. “It’s fine. If I had to pick a partner, you’d be on top of my list. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders from what I’ve seen.”

“Aw, shucks, don’t flatter me like that,” Applejack sighed, looking away. “If anything, I’ve just been useless this whole time. Twi’s been the one who solved everything, but all I could do was sit back and watch.”

“She didn’t solve it, you know,” Page insisted, not caring if anypony else heard her. “So hey, maybe sitting back and waiting for information was the best idea after all.”

Applejack winced, but remained as calm as ever. “I don’t mean to offend ya, but maybe you should listen to your own advice as well. We ain’t gonna figure anything out until we get to the end of this rail, after all.”

The words stung, but Page kept her frustration from boiling over. There was something about the way that the Element of Honesty spoke that made everypony listen to her, a trait that Page admired. Even though she knew that Applejack was right, and that she had been jumping to conclusions just as much as Twilight had, she wasn’t going to give up.

Silently, Page watched as Pinkie dragged Rarity into one of the carts, the prim unicorn looking more than hesitant to continue. “Please, Pinkie!” Rarity pleaded. “Maybe we should go alone! You see, we'd cover more ground, and—”

“C’mon, Rarity, put your hooves up!”

“Wait, wha—Aaaaaaaaaaah!”

The piercing scream faded away as Pinkie gave the minecart a mighty shove and hopped inside, sending them careening into the dark cave ahead. Page didn’t want to imagine what it would be like to be left alone with the hyperactive pink pony for more than a few minutes at a time, so she was glad that Rarity had taken one for the team.

“Hurry it up!” ordered Rainbow as she grabbed Fluttershy by the tail and forcefully tossed her into the next cart. “We’re gonna lose them if we don’t get our flanks in gear!”

“W-well, maybe we should take things slow! I mean, th-this track looks awfully old, so—”

“There’s no time! Hey AJ, could you give us a kickstart?”

“Don’t mind if I do!”

With a resounding crack!, Applejack sent the cart sailing down into the tunnels as another scream echoed through the chamber. Swallowing air, Page began to wonder if riding with the farm pony was such a good idea after all.

“Twi, you go next,” Applejack offered, stepping out of the way and motioning towards the next cart in line. “Me and Page can get ourselves a running start, so we can help ya out if ya want.”

“A-actually, I think we’ll take it slow,” Twilight stammered anxiously, gingerly climbing into the cart and levitating the statue in with her. Page had to look away to maintain her resolve. “But could you give me a second first? I’m going to lower the barrier so that it won’t drain my energy anymore.”

“If you insist, sugarcube. Just take care of yourself, ‘kay?”

“Can do. And just to be sure, I set up a sensor barrier in front of the minecarts, just in case somepony is tailing us. Rarity didn't mention it when she went through, but I figured I would let you know. See you at the bottom?”

“See you at the bottom.”

Page, eyes drilling into the floor, heard the squeaky wheels slowly fading off into the distance. Part of her was glad that she didn’t have to look at Mezza’s frightened face anymore, but the other part was worried that something might happen to her while they were separated. Page already felt responsible for what had happened to her, but she would never forgive herself if they couldn’t find a way to bring Mezza back to normal.

“Once we get down there, stay on guard,” Page ordered. “The real culprits are probably waiting for us. One of them’s already made their move.”

“Who, Mulchy?” Applejack asked, frowning. “We don’t know anything about her, so don’t get your hopes up for this mystery mare to prove your friends innocent. For one, we don’t even know what the hay she looks like!”

“It’s Dolce, but I’ve got a pretty good idea,” Page whispered to herself, running over the scene in her head one last time. “I’m pretty sure that she’s real, if only because she left a few subtle hints back in the forest. She was careless, so now I know exactly how she managed to petrify Mezza. I just... wish we could’ve stopped it somehow.”

“Hey, you feelin’ alright?” Applejack asked, catching Page by surprise. “If it’s about what I said earlier, you can—”

“No, you’re right. I’m being a little hasty. I know. I just hope I’m doing the right thing.”

“Are you still worried about that? C’mon, sugarcube, if you’re always worried about that, you ain’t gonna get anything done. Now, lemme ask ya this: why did you lead us out here in the first place?”

Page hesitated, wondering if it was a trick question. “Well, I want to prove that my friends are innocent.”

“Then you’re doing the right thing. Now, if you’re done mopin’, I believe we’ve got a train to catch.”

As Applejack leaned up against the next cart, Page felt a welling of admiration for the earth pony in front of her. Twilight Sparkle always seemed to make things more complicated than they really were, but Applejack was the kind of pony that got right to the heart of the matter. By themselves, the two would be impossible to put up with, but together, they started to seem more like the heroes that Page had imagined them to be. Their friendship was truly fascinating.

“Alright, here we go,” announced Page as she hopped into the minecart, making herself comfortable. Maybe her friends really were guilty. Maybe they weren’t. Either way, they were still her friends, and Page was going to help them. “All aboard the Dank, Dark Express! Next stop, Eccondale!”

“That’s the spirit!” Applejack called out, giving the cart a powerful push before hopping inside.

Heart pounding with an odd mix of excitement and fear, Page readied herself for what awaited her at the end of the dark, yawning tunnel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh man, this isn’t good....”

Red winced as she heard one of her captors, Shining Armor, echoed her thoughts. The barrier that they had been following had just vanished into thin air, leaving Red to imagine the worst possible reasons. Had Twilight been attacked? If so, it would have been at least 10 minutes since then, so she would be long gone at this point. Another victim.

“Pick up the pace, you three!” came a harsh bark from behind them, but Red didn’t respond. Shining could threaten them all he wanted, but there was nothing he could do to convince Red that they were going in the right direction.

No matter which way Red walked, the outcome would be the same. If she took a step to the left, all of the ponies around her would still meet the same fate as if she took a step to the right, reminding her of how powerless she was. No matter what she did, it was too late to save any of them, including herself.

Despite that, she continued walking forward, if only because there was nothing left to do. Sometimes, Red wished that she wasn’t as smart as she was, if only so that she could maintain some kind of naive optimism about the magic of friendship triumphing over everything. If she could only—

“Wait, what’s this?” Cadance asked, making Red jump. Had they somehow found the entrance already? No, based on their surroundings, they were going the wrong direction.

“What, all of these sticks?” Shining asked, turning back to face the group and giving the three prisoners a suspicious glare. “Well, now that you mention it, they’re all lined up. Did Twilight do this?”

“Probably,” the alicorn mused. “Back when I foalsat her, she left a trail of books leading outside to trick me into thinking she’d run away, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she put these here as well. That is, unless one of you knows which way we’re supposed to go.”

Red winced as Cadance and Shining eyed them warily. This was another pointless crossroad, a seemingly important decision that wouldn’t make a difference in the larger scheme of things. If she led them the wrong way, it would only delay the inevitable, so Red wasted no time in pointing off to her right, voluntarily leading them right to the entrance.

Expecting a thinly veiled threat from Caesura, Red turned to face the off-white unicorn. Much to her surprise, Red was only met with a silent, cautionary glare, which spoke volumes more than anything else Caesura could have done.

“Thanks,” came Cadance’s kind voice, making Red turn to face her. “I’m glad you’ve decided to cooperate. Now c’mon, let’s get moving.”

Red’s apathy faded and frustration took its place. At the root of Red’s frustration was a burning sense of jealousy; she was jealous of Cadance’s ability to be happy at a time like this, even after everything she had been through so far. Why couldn’t Red be so blindly optimistic like that?

As their trek continued in silence, Red could feel the acidic gaze from Caesura on her back. She tried to ignore it, focusing on the path ahead and reminding herself that they would arrive at any minute. I’m sorry Caesura, but there’s no reason to panic. There’s nothing I can do anyway.

After one of the longest minutes, the five ponies arrived at the vine-covered cliff face where the trail of sticks ended. The sight filled Red with a sense of impending disaster, but at least she could pretend that the Elements of Harmony hadn’t found the actual entrance. It was a slim chance, but it was better than the alternative.

Pulling back the curtain of greenery, Shining Armor took a quick look inside, apparently checking to make sure that it was safe. “Looks like a normal cave to me,” he called out, turning back to face the group. “This had better not be a trap.”

Caesura grinned. “Nope, it’s totally not a trap. It’s completely safe. Absolutely fine.”

“Right,” Shining groaned as he lit up his horn and hesitantly ventured inside. “But still, this seems like a normal cave, but — Woah, nevermind!”

Despite the urgency of the situation, Red didn’t have the energy to act worried. Instead, she just followed along with what everypony else did, running on autopilot. As they ran inside, she thought about Preston again, causing her mood to spiral even further downwards. Had he found this place as well? If only he had been smart enough to accept the truth and let things go....

Time continued to tick along, leaving Red in her own world. The first blow came to her when she noticed that one of the heads on the statue had been broken off, lying in pieces on the floor. She couldn’t be sure if the Elements of Harmony had done that, but Red had the feeling that this had been done to convey a message to anypony that found it.

As if that omen wasn’t bad enough, one last sight made her heart sink all of the way into her stomach. The hidden door to the right of the statue had been left wide open, confirming Red’s fears and sealing her fate. The Elements of Harmony had found Eccondale. She was too late.

The realization dawned on her with the force of a speeding chariot, launching her out of her daydreams and back into reality. Shining Armor was cautiously creeping up to the secret room while Cadance, Caesura, and Nightowl lagged behind.

Red’s first instinct was to try and stop him before he sent himself down the rails, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything. It was too late to stop them, even if she somehow managed to convince them that Twilight and her friends would be perfectly safe down there. There was nothing to gain by stalling them any longer.

But... then there’s nothing to lose.

As soon as Red realized her situation, she felt a peculiar lightness inside of her. Ever since she had stepped up to be the mayor, she had been shouldering an impossibly heavy burden, one that placed the fate of everypony she knew in her hooves. Now that her actions were completely inconsequential, she felt as light as a feather, since nothing in her power could prevent the inevitable. There was no way forward anymore, but that also meant there was no way back.

“Hey!” Red shouted, her throat sore from maintaining her silence for such a long time. Her exclamation caught the attention of everypony in the room, but a certain mangy unicorn was already staring daggers at her. Red, with her fears and inhibitions pounding in her chest, returned the threatening glare with a mocking grin. Caesura wouldn’t be able to stop her anymore. It was time to take action.

“Red?” Princess Cadance asked, turning around and motioning for her husband to step back from the room. “Are you feeling okay? I know it was rude of us to force you to come along with us, but—”

“I’m fine,” Red coughed, starting to make her way towards the once-hidden room and stopping just outside of the doorway. “This has gone on long enough. Before we go any further, I have something to say. Princess, I hope you don’t take this personally, but I hope that you have your truth spell ready for me.”

Red continued walking as the other four ponies stared at her, but she refused to look back at them. Even though she had nothing to lose, there was still a trace of hesitation left inside of her, a small trace that reminded her of why she had remained silent in the first place. Regardless, the worst case scenario had already come to pass, so there was nothing she could to make the situation any more abysmal than it already was. Part of her wondered if this half-baked plan was actually going to work, since she had no idea how Cadance’s truth spell worked, but either way, it was time to take a stand. Red Tape wasn’t going to be pushed around anymore.

Thinking of Preston, Red smiled warmly to herself. He was half of the reason that she was actually going through with this crazy scheme. The vain hope of his forgiveness was enough to keep her from giving up. Planting her hooves firmly in the ground, she stared Cadance directly in the eyes.

“I’m going to make a confession.”

The alicorn, eyes wide, glanced back at Nightowl, who winced at the mere mention of it. The watchpony took a step backwards, eyes wide. “B-but—”

“Don’t try and talk me out of it, Nightowl! I just... don’t care anymore. Princess, if you don’t mind, I would like to speak the truth.”

Cadance, faltering, looked back at her husband. “A-are you sure? Maybe we should—”

“Just do it!”

Praying that her nerves didn’t give out, Red watched as the alicorn’s horn lit up, creating an ethereal heart in the air between the two of them. In that instant... Red saw everything.

Her life flashed before her eyes in the most literal sense. All of her memories, both good and bad, began to float to the surface of her consciousness, drowning out her fear and replacing it with a constant wash of emotions. The excitement of being a filly, the pride of finding her cutie mark in student council, the anxiety of her first day on the job.... All of it crashed into her at once, leaving her momentarily stunned.

But then, her memories of the past month and a half began to surface, bringing the intense self-hatred and impotence that accompanied them. She saw her confrontation with Dotted Line, her desperate attempts to keep everypony under control, and her helplessness in the face of danger. Entire body shaking with unseen effort, she focused on those memories, letting them burrow deep into her thoughts so that she would never forget them.

Red let herself be overtaken by the powerful scenes, unable to think of anything else. This was the truth of what she felt. This was the truth of the last month and a half. With excruciating effort, Red drew and shaky breath and prepared the two words that she had been repeating to herself ever since Twilight had exposed her for the worthless mare that she was.

“I-I’m... guilty.”

As soon as the words parted with her lips, Red felt like she could breathe again. It had been such a struggle to say the words for some reason, but they had still come out. The swirl of memories around her finally slowed, allowing her to rest for a brief moment... but that moment didn’t last forever. In fact, it barely lasted more than a second.

“Red Tape,” echoed Cadance’s voice from all sides of her consciousness. The genuine concern in her voice was impossible to ignore, making Red’s breath catch in her throat again. “Tell us. What are you guilty of?”

The words struck deep in Red’s heart, stirring up even more memories and emotions for her to confront: Page’s friendship from when they were fillies, Nightowl’s pride when he joined the nightwatch and got his cutie mark, Caesura’s smile when she first arrived, and the first time that she had talked with Preston. They all assaulted her at once, laying her heart bare and branding it with the pain of failure as all of the memories played out, leading all of the way up to the present day.

All this time, Red had been trying to run away from the guilt that she had been hiding, but now that Cadance’s spell had forced her to accept it, the cracks in her emotional armor began to spread. No, armor wasn’t the right metaphor anymore. It was more like the walls of a dam that had been on the verge of breaking for months..

Words spilled out of her mouth uncontrollably. “I’m guilty of lying to my friends. I’m guilty of not being able to protect all the ponies I care about. I’m guilty of being the worst mayor of Everdale. I’m guilty of being unable to save Everdale. I’m guilty of betraying everypony I know. I’m guilty! I’m guilty!”

Amidst the maelstrom of repressed emotions, a soothing voice cut through the storm, one that wasn’t berating her for all of the mistakes she had made. It was a kind voice, one that miraculously quieted the violent winds around her.

“So you believe that you are guilty of those things. That is the truth, but something tells me that this isn’t the truth you wanted to reveal to us. So instead, I will ask you directly. Are you guilty of any crimes involving the disappearances in Everdale?”

The answer nearly slipped out, but Red violently bit her tongue. Originally, her plan had been to only say that she was guilty, bending the truth so that they would accept her as the villain and give up on trying to help her. There was no point in being anything but the villain anymore! The violent tempest of her thoughts roared louder than ever, begging her to let one, final truth be known. Initially, she fought it, refusing to admit all of the mistakes she had made, but one painful memory refused to be ignored.

Red was there... back in room 201 of the Everdale Hotel. Preston’s gentle hooves were wrapped around her shoulders, his soft wings shielding her from the rest of the world. They were willing to forgive her. He was willing to forgive her. That brief moment in time, that flicker of light, had been the only time she had felt safe in months.

The memory lingered, reminding her of the warm sensation she had the joy of experiencing. No, she couldn’t ignore that any longer. She had betrayed the only pony that cared for her more than anything else, sending him off to a dangerous city to try and save her from herself. Red couldn’t take it anymore. She was tired of having everything be decided for her, just like it had been for the rest of her life. It was time to take a stand. I may have nothing to lose... but now I have everything to gain, don’t I?

“I’m innocent.”

Silence. The rush of memories receded back into the recesses of Red’s consciousness, leaving her with nothing but an alien sense of weightlessness. She had done it. She had finally spoken the truth.

Holding her breath and opening her eyes, Red realized that she could barely see anything in front of her, since everything was covered in a sky-blue haze. Thinking that she had been crying, Red brought her hoof up to wipe her tears, only to find that her cheeks were dry. She hadn’t been crying at all.

As soon as Red realized what the blurry hue was, something jerked her backwards, punctuated by a blinding pain in the back of her head. As the world spun around her, Red was barely conscious of the fact that she was still moving. No, the floor was moving. It shook violently beneath her as the faint smudge of light in her vision began to fade away. Why?

Dazed and confused, Red’s eyelids began to feel heavy. Her head hurt. Her back hurt. Everything hurt... everything but her heart.

As consciousness left her, she smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caesura let out a sigh of both regret and relief. Her glowing horn slowly began to lose its hazy, sky-blue hue as she let her levitation spell fade away.

Before she could even draw another breath, she felt the constricting sensation of being wrapped in a levitation spell, one so powerful that it nearly suffocated her. She had known that this would happen, but she had to shut Red up somehow, otherwise she might have said too much.

“Cadance, go after her!” Shining Armor barked. “See if you can catch up to her before she gets too far, I’ll stay here!”

“Don’t bother,” Caesura stated coldly, struggling to even breathe from the pressure of the levitation spell around her. “That’s a whole system of rails down there. Even I don’t know where she’ll end up. She’s also unconscious, so she won’t be getting off of that cart until it reaches the end of the—”

“You!” the furious stallion bellowed, smashing his hoof into the ground and choking her words off mid-sentence. “Start talking! Tell us everything you know!”

“O-or what?” Caesura gasped, desperately trying to breathe. “You’re gonna send me off to the Canterlot dungeons? I-I’m pretty sure that I’m on my way there already.”

“Shining!” Cadance burst out. “You’re hurting her! Cut it out!”

Slowly, the crushing pressure on Caesura’s chest lightened, allowing her to gasp for air again. She had known that it was much easier to levitate a pegasus, which was the only way that she had been able to toss Red into the cart, but that stallion’s magic was immensely powerful. It was a miracle that she was still conscious.

“Talk to me,” Shining ordered, narrowing his intimidating gaze on her. “What’s down there? Where’s my sister? Why was Red pretending to be guilty this whole time?”

Still coughing, Caesura considered answering him just so that she didn’t incur his wrath again. There would be no stopping him from going into the tunnel and finding Eccondale, so Caesura had nothing to lose. “It’s Everdale’s sister city,” she explained, panting. “That’s where they all went.”

“But what about Red?” asked Cadance as she stepped in between her husband and his prisoner. “Why was she lying this whole time?”

The sudden concern that the alicorn showed caught Caesura off guard. “I... don’t know,” she admitted softly, looking away at the darkness of the cavern. “She wouldn’t say a word, not even to me. But honestly, do you think you would have believed her if she denied it?”

That shut the two of them up, giving Caesura a moment to regain her composure. Deep down, she felt a small amount of pity for Red, but she wouldn’t let it show. The poor pegasus had been jerked around her entire life by forces beyond her control, just like Caesura herself, but Red had rolled with the punches without even wincing. The only guess that Caesura had about why Red pretended to be guilty was that she seemed to have this innate desire to listen to what others tell her to do. When somepony else ordered her to do something, she instinctively complied, just like she had with the letter on the fountain.

But that doesn’t change the fact that she still betrayed me.

“Caesura?” came Nightowl’s voice from behind her, startling her. He had been surprisingly quiet since they had left the jail.

“Wh-what?” she stammered in response, putting on her thorny facade again to mask her emotions. She couldn’t turn around thanks to the levitation spell on her, but she could hear the quiver in his voice. “Don’t tell me you’re going soft on me too.”

“Just give it up already,” she heard him sigh. “Y-you didn’t have to do that to Red. It’s over. I know it sounds strange, but... I’m glad that Cadance used her truth spell on me. It reminded me of how wrong this is. Of how selfish I’ve been. I know I have no room to talk, but it’s time to do the right thing, Caesura. Let’s take them down there to meet her. Maybe we can reach some kind of understanding.”

“No!” Caesura shrieked, finally at her limit. She let her frustrations bubble to the surface, finally removing the mask that she had been wearing, letting her emotions flare in the open. Memories of her entire life flashed before her eyes, reminding her of everything she had put up with throughout the years. “That’s not how things work, you dimwit! You don’t get it! They’re just going to—”

Just as Caesura finally managed to turn herself around to face the watchpony, the levitation spell tightened around her again, cutting her off before she could finish.

Caesura wished that she had the energy to turn and face the two royal ponies behind her. They were the reason that everything had fallen apart! And what had caused them to arrive in Everdale at the critical moment? Dumb luck! And then that worthless princess and her truth spell...! What had that evil witch done to Nightowl?!

“Y-you!” she croaked, barely able to form a single syllable. It took every ounce of energy she had to draw a single breath.

“I’m taking them down to the city,” Nightowl stated firmly, “and you’re not stopping me. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done, but... this is just too much. Even if everything does fall apart, it’s for the best. This place shouldn’t exist. Dotted Line was right.”

Caesura’s fury blazed, but she could do nothing against her restraints. Nightowl and Red had both betrayed her, just like everypony else she knew. She could count the number of trustworthy ponies on her two hooves, but it was only a matter of time before one of them threw her away like the rest already had. The only one she could trust was now in grave danger, and Caesura couldn’t do anything to help her.

As her vision began to fade, she made one last effort at breaking free from the levitation spell. It was useless. She was trapped. Her thoughts became jumbled and her movement became sluggish, but with her last lucid moment, she could only think of one thing.

I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have doubted you. You were right... about everything....

Chapter 15: A Warm Welcome

Chapter 15

A Warm Welcome

Dreams. On the surface, they were beautiful creations of idle minds, but if anypony dared to delve deeper, they would quickly begin to see why most ponies forgot about them as soon as they woke up. In the world of dreams, the subconscious mind was allowed to run loose, expressing individuality without social restraints or censors, making it a double edged sword. The only reason that friendships could exist was due to the filter that ponies placed over their thoughts in order to establish a connection with others.

Luna, the Princess of the Night, had pondered over this social philosophy for thousands of years, but she always arrived at the same answer. Ponies were innately incompatible with other ponies, but their conscious thoughts allowed them to block out their confrontational tendencies. That sad truth was the only thing that Discord had to abuse in order to send the entirety of Equestria into chaos, since his primary method of ‘corrupting’ his victims involved negating the filter on their thoughts. Luna had been skeptical of his reform, but it seemed that the thought of a conscious mind had never occurred to him, so when Fluttershy had forced him to start questioning his actions, something clicked inside of him, bringing him to realize what he had been doing.

Shaking her head, Luna tried to forget about him and focus on her current situation. She had enough immortal enemies to deal with. Twilight Sparkle’s thoughts were an absolute wreck, which made Luna feel guilty about introducing her to the world of dreams, but there were other dreams to be visited too. Her last search for a dream involving the town of Everdale had proved to be successful, leading her to a rather depressed mare named Mezza, but there were bound to be others.

With a sigh, Luna tried her best not to think of her sister’s student anymore. When visiting dreams, she was used to being seen as Nightmare Moon, but after seeing the orderly nature of Twilight’s dream, she had allowed herself to hope that things could be different. In any other situation, Luna would have been able to shrug off such an insult, even if it was from somepony she knew, but since she had allowed herself to hope, the wound cut deep. Part of her wondered if using her power over dreams was worth her time anymore, now that nopony saw her as Princess Luna anymore.

Regardless, she would still aid Twilight Sparkle in her mission. Luna was no detective herself, but there was something strange about this mystery that kept her from accepting its finality. She felt that there was some small contradiction in facts that she had overlooked, but even after recreating some of the scenes described to her she could not put her worries to rest.

Luna, with renewed vigor, set out to see if there were any other dreams that were related to Everdale. It was remarkably odd that she had not been able to find the dreams of any of the ponies that were taken, but that meant one of two things: either they were not dreaming about Everdale, or something far worse had happened to them. Luna, even after seeing some less than pleasant dreams, did not want to imagine the latter.

After a short search, trying to sort out the dreams into topics, finally found one that was relevant. The dream appeared to be the same as the others, a small white speck that, when looked at, showed small visions of what was going through the pony’s mind, but this dreamer had the word Everdale present in his or her thoughts. Without hesitation, Luna focused on the dream and slipped into the dreamer’s subconscious.

As she entered, first thing she noticed was how hazy the dream was, like the dreamer had no concept of where they were. There, floating in space, was a single building, one that couldn’t seem to decide on its shape. There was nothing to set it apart as some kind of special place, which was common in most pony’s dreams, but the fact that the outside world didn’t exist here was alarming.

Luna, doing her best to remain silent, proceeded to slip in through the side of the building, doing her best to remain unnoticed in her observation. As soon as the dreamer was made conscious of her presence, they almost immediately changed their dream to something much more pleasant, masking their subconscious like they did in real life. While dreaming, most ponies thought of dreams as an escape from the real world, so when they realized that their private world was being invaded, their sleep suffered and their dreams grew more realistic.

“Go away, I’m busy.”

The harsh, female voice caught Luna off of her guard, making her aware of the fact that she was suddenly inside of a large office space, surrounded by mountains of papers. There had to be more paper here than in the entirety of Twilight’s library!

Looking around for the source of the voice, Luna tried to make sense of the dream. The dreamer had noticed her immediately, meaning that she was extremely observant, but even more surprising was the fact that she had been transported somewhere without knowing. Despite that, the dreamer still remained hidden amongst the jungle of paper stacks, making Luna wonder why this pony remained hidden among them.

“One thousand apologies!” Luna announced, not bothering to disguise herself. The dreamer must have known who she was, considering the fact that she had been transported instead of ejected, but it was surprising to be treated with dismissal instead of fear. Whenever she was recognized in a dream, that recognition tended to coincide with fear, especially with the events of Nightmare Moon fresh in memory.

“I may be busy, but that’s my job. If it is urgent, you may file for a meeting with—”

“No she may not!” came a male voice, overpowering the other with enough force to make even Luna wince. “What did I tell you about meetings? I hired you to be my in between and keep them from bothering me with their petty requests! Now get back to work!”

“Yes Mr. Line. Apologies, sir.”

Blinking, Luna ventured further through the maze of paper, trying to make sense of the situation. Did that other pony have some sort of megaphone? Whose dream was this?

In the blink of an eye, she suddenly found herself standing in front of a cluttered desk in the midst of the paper stacks. The pony behind the counter, a burnt-orange pegasus with a tidy blonde mane, neatly arranged into a bun, peered down her spectacles at the mounds of paper in front of her, desperately scribbling on them before tossing them off into one of the many piles.

“Pardon me,” Luna announced, but the mare didn’t look up. “I am here to file a request in regards to Everdale—”

The last word caused the mare to jerk up, her eyes widening when she saw who was standing on the other side of her desk. This was normal for Luna, who, to many ponies, appeared as Nightmare Moon whenever she was seen in a dream. Luna sighed, waiting for the inevitable cry of terror.

“P-Princess Luna!” the mare blurted out, immediately throwing her latest stack of finished papers aside. “I-I didn’t see you there! But as you can see, w-we’re very busy at the moment, so perhaps you could come back another time! Please, I beg of you!”

There were so many revealing things about what this mare was doing, but Luna already knew how to interpret signs like this. Based on Twilight’s descriptions, this must be Red, the mastermind behind the foalnappings, but she looked surprisingly collected for a culprit who had been captured. Apparently, much to Luna’s surprise, Red did not see her as Nightmare Moon. Twilight had said she was the mayor of Everdale, so there was also the question of why she was appearing as an overworked secretary.

“I am not here to intrude,” Luna soothed, doing her best to keep Red from panicking and closing her mind. “Instead, I merely wish to inquire about the recent disappearances.”

“What disappearances?” Red answered, her ear twitching. “You must be mistaken. Everything is absolutely pristine at the moment. Dotted Line is doing an excellent job as a mayor, much better than I could ever hope to be, but that’s why I’m his secretary. I can’t imagine how awful I would be if I were the one in charge!”

Frowning Luna began to realize what was going on. This mare was going through one of the many stages of denial and regression in order to preserve her sanity. In that case, all of the papers she had filed were most likely the thoughts that she was repressing, which could prove to be useful. By examining her subconscious output, there was a chance that Luna could find the motive behind these crimes.

Carefully, Luna eyed the stack of papers that Red had shoved off of the desk, quickly taking note of their contents. In the world of dreams, information was much more readily available, allowing Luna to read the entire contents of the stack in a single glance.

“If everything is pristine, then why all of the clutter? I do not see why you would need a pile of missing pony forms.”

“They’re not missing pony forms, they’re just apology letters, you see—”

“Apology letters?” Luna interrupted, trying to keep Red from realizing that she was answering without a conscious filter. It was surprising, but Red seemed to be answering all of her questions truthfully. It reminded Luna of Cadance’s powers, but surely her fellow alicorn would not be so reckless as to use it on a pony in their sleep. “To whom are they addressed?”

“All of the citizens of Everdale,” she answered hesitantly, beginning to realize that her delusion was crumbling. It was as if she had tried to tell a lie, but couldn’t. “You see, there was an incident in the past, but everything is back to normal. I just wanted to make sure that everypony knew how sorry I felt.”

“And what about the other forms?”

“Those? Those are actually part of my journal, but I haven’t had time to go back and read them, seeing as we are so busy at the moment.”

Luna, seeing her chance to dig further, tried to get more information on what Red had done to Everdale while her defenses were still down. “Busy? Either way, I must inquire about something. What are you apologizing about, miss Red?”

In a sudden gust of wind, the stacks of paper were whipped into a howling storm, blowing in every direction until, by some miracle, they all filtered into the file cabinets that lined the large room. Startled, Luna turned back to Red, only to find the pegasus standing further away, her desk and spectacles having vanished along with the daunting stacks of paper.

“Who are you?” Red asked suspiciously, wings flared. “You haven’t filled out the right paperwork to access government documents yet!”

Wincing, Luna realized that the mare’s guard had gone up. If she wasn’t careful, Red would start trying to force her out of the dream. “One thousand and one apologies, miss Red. I must have missed some paperwork along the way. Would you be so kind as to—”

“No, this isn’t right!” Red cried out, stamping a hoof as he mane began to slip out of its unruly bun. “How do you know my name? None of the authorization forms have my name on them!”

Cornered, Luna tried to backpedal, watching the mare unravel in front of her. “You see, I just—”

“No, this is my dream! You’re not part of this! Who are....”

Red trailed off, her eyes widening as she began to retreat backwards. “N-no, you’re...! Please! I did everything I could to keep them from finding it! I’m begging you, just let them go!”

In the world of dreams, emotions were subject to sudden changes, but this shift had been caused by something, something that drilled sheer terror into Red’s subconscious. Luna, making sure that she didn’t appear as Nightmare Moon, gently shook her head and held out a hoof. “No, I intend you no harm. I am as I appear to: Luna, the Princess of the Night. I am only here to help.”

Miraculously, those words seemed to keep Red from losing control of herself, but there was still strain in her voice. “I see,” she sighed. “So you’re here to invade my dreams and read my mind, aren’t you?”

The way that Red had accepted Luna’s presence was surprising, but Luna was grateful that she wouldn’t have to forcefully drag Red’s subconscious into the open. “I am here to do nothing of the sort. I only wish to speak to you about your motives regarding the disappearances.”

“So you already.... I see. That’s why ponies keep showing up when they do. I should have known. I should have known you’ve been involved from the very beginning.”

Luna had no idea what to make of this mare. How had she known the extent of Luna’s powers? Her word choice made it seem like she had known about Luna’s secret from the very beginning, making the alicorn cautious. A very select few knew about what she could do, but she knew that she could trust all of them to keep her secret safe. Had somepony told her?

“There’s nothing here for you, princess,” Red stated, her voice quivering in a pitiful attempt to cover up her desperation. “The Elements of Harmony have c-completed th-th-th-their...!”

As Red choked on her own words, Luna’s eyes widened. These symptoms were identical to those of a pony under Cadance’s truth spell, but certainly she wouldn’t.... “Red, breathe with me,” Luna ordered, remembering the breathing exercises that Cadance had taught everypony. “In and out. Good! You may relax around me, for I no longer require the formalities that my sister enjoys. All I ask is that you tell me what is happening in Everdale at the moment.”

“I-I...” the mare stammered, chomping down on her bottom lip to the point that looked painful. “Everything is f-f-fine! The Elements w-will be b-back... s-s—”

“Please, do not lie to me!” Luna commanded, growing desperate. “Instead, I shall ask you another question. Do the Elements of Harmony require my sister and I to intervene?”

The trembling mare, her eyes wide with fear, began to back away. “They are—”

“Red, my sister and I only wish to aid you and your town. Allow me to word it differently, then. Do you require my sister and I to intervene?”

There was a heavy pause, making Luna wonder if she had made the right decision in pushing Red like this. She hadn’t abused her powers in over one thousand years, but this was starting to cross the line. Thankfully, Red’s posture slackened, her wings returning to her sides and her disheveled mane starting to return to its normal state. In dreams, physical appearances were determined by mental states, showing that Red was beginning to organize her thoughts again.

“Princess Luna?’

“Yes, miss Red?”

“Please.... Save u—!”

A sea of stars twinkled in the dreamscape, each of them containing a beautiful dream. Luna had seen this sight many times before, but the abrupt transition was something that she would never become acclimated with. Her sudden ejection from Red’s dream, especially at a crucial point like that, could only mean one thing.

“She must have been woken up quite forcefully,” Luna mused to herself, gazing out among the expanse of stars in the metaphysical sky. From what Luna could tell, it was in the middle of the afternoon, which raised the question of why Red had been asleep in the first place, but Luna could only hope that she remained safe. The pegasus had a lot of explaining to do.

From what Luna knew so far, something dangerous was being hidden in Everdale, something that had remained even after Twilight had solved the mystery. The likelihood of having to directly intervene was growing, which made Luna wonder how she was going to deal with a whole town of hostages.

Making one last check of the dreamscape for anything involving the town of Everdale, Luna made sure that she had done everything she could from her remote position. She had only detected one when she entered Red’s dream, but she wanted to be sure that she hadn’t missed anything.

Much to her surprise, another one came forward, one that she had not seen in her last search. Worried, Luna reached out and embraced the dream, allowing herself to be wrapped up in it before she was drawn in.

This dream was much more complete than Red’s, with every aspect clearly and articulately defined, but the space was much larger. Luna found herself standing just outside of a small town, one that she assumed to be Everdale, but everything seemed unnaturally still. It was almost like she was staring at a painting of a town, albeit a very detailed one.

Then the heat hit her. In a sudden flash, the idyllic town in front of her burst into blinding flames, the sudden wash of smoke nearly overwhelming Luna as she stepped backwards. Taken aback by the sudden change in the dream’s mood, Luna attempted to hide herself, making her form invisible to the unaware dreamer. She rarely used this when she investigated dreams, so she did not breach the dreamer’s trust, but the overwhelming malice made her anxious.

Hesitantly, Luna spread her impressive wings and flew up into the air, surveying the burning town beneath. Everything was silent aside from the crackling of the flames and the rush of the wind, making the scene even more eerie to watch. If a dreamer had a violent dream directed at somepony, that pony was usually present, either trying to reason with the dreamer or fulfilling the stereotype that the dreamer saw them as. Here, there was nopony in the streets at all.

As Luna lowered herself into the center of town, she took notice of a statue that was placed in the middle of the fountain. The intricate carving depicted one pegasi flying straight forward, but there was also what Luna believed to be another identical pegasi in the water around it, lying on its back.

In the blink of an eye, the stone pegasus in the fountain was smashed to pieces, sending different parts of it flying in every direction. Luna winced as one of the wings flew through her body, but she did her best to remain incognito. It was a good thing, too, considering the fact that the dreamer now stood in the fountain where the broken pegasus used to be.

The dreamer this time was a scraggly-looking unicorn with an off-white coat and a dirty black mane and tail. Holding her breath, Luna remained perfectly still as the huffing mare released her hold on a large sledgehammer and let it splash into the fountain beside her. Based on the descriptions Twilight had given her, this was probably Caesura, but Twilight hadn’t painted this mare as a crazed lunatic. It was obvious that this unicorn had issues.

“I know you’re here,” Caesura hissed loudly, making sure her voice was audible over the raging fire.

Luna held her breath, her heart pounding. Had Caesura seen her when she first entered? How did she know? It was possible that Caesura was actually somewhere else, giving Luna the idea to take a quick look around the dream to see if somepony else was watching. As soon as she noticed a shape in the window of one of the burning buildings, Luna focused in, trying to see who it was.

She wished that she hadn’t. If anypony had a violent dream, the targets were usually hazy shapes, since most of the ponies she saw were too timid to actually hurt anypony in real life. Through the window, Luna could see at least three distinct ponies, all of them perfectly detailed from their wide eyes and trembling legs. Caesura’s mind knew exactly what it was doing and who it was doing it to, making Luna more than anxious to leave.

“Get out!” belted Caesura from the middle of town square, stamping a hoof on the broken head of the statue beneath her. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to know where Luna was. “I’ll give you to the count of five, princess! Five....”

Luna didn’t need to hear the number four before she ejected herself from the dream as quickly as she could. Finally allowing herself to breathe, Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath, doing everything in her power to remain calm. While in in other pony’s dreams, the dreamer had control over the world around themselves, meaning that Luna could be put in some dangerous positions if she wasn’t careful. It had happened before, after all.

After visiting the two dreams, Luna knew that she had seen enough. It was obvious that something dangerous was going on in Everdale, but Luna still had no idea what it could be. She could only do so much by pulling the strings in the background, especially now that Twilight had all but banned her from her dreams. Regardless of the situation, Luna knew that she would end up going to Everdale eventually.

Steeling herself, Luna readied herself to wake up and go back into the real world. She had her share of worries, including Twilight Sparkle’s well-being, but there was another question that bothered her more than anything else.

How had those two known about her powers?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight Sparkle laid face down on the hard, rocky ground. It was just like one of those painful mornings after staying up too late to study, but this time she didn’t have a bed to roll over onto.

Normally, Twilight would have been able to catch herself as she jumped out of a speeding minecart that was tilting off of the rails, but trying to do that while levitating a heavy statue and making sure that it didn’t get damaged had proved to be a bit too difficult for her. Apparently the railway had only been designed for a certain weight limit.

Grumbling to herself, the unicorn forced herself up off of the floor of the cave and took a quick look around. Mezza’s statue was standing perfectly upright, thanks to Twilight’s last minute magical intervention, but the minecart was off to the side in shambles. Silently, Twilight worried if her friends were okay. The track had split off into multiple directions, apparently determined by which way the occupant was leaning at the time. Based on that, Twilight had a feeling that her friends had all gotten separated again.

Twilight was tempted to wait by the side of the tracks and see if Page and Applejack happened to go the same way she did, but the chances were slim. Her only option was to continue forwards until she found one of the exits that led into the city, even though it would probably be a long trek. Wrapping the statue in a levitation spell, Twilight began the long walk forward.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long at all. By following the curve in the rail she had fallen off of, she could keep an eye out for signs, like the ones she had seen on the way down that identified where each route went. The fork in the rails that she had crashed on had a wooden post with the words “Art District” painted on the front with surprisingly intricate hoofwriting.

The more Twilight thought about this new town, the more excited she became at the prospect of studying it. She could be immortalized in the history books as the first pony to ever document the lives of ponies in a completely underground society!

Thankfully, as Twilight rounded the next corner, she saw the station at the end of the tracks. There appeared to be a braking mechanism in place that would slow down the cart once it arrived, but the track continued onwards, making Twilight wonder if that track led back up to the top.

Chastising herself for losing her focus, Twilight surveyed her immediate surroundings. There was a small wooden shack by the end of the tracks, but there was nothing else she could see. There didn’t seem to be anypony in the immediate area, which was fortunate, but it seemed suspicious that there was no security around.

Forcing herself to be careful, Twilight crept up towards the shack, her ears perked and listening for any kind of movement. She had expected that there were ponies around, but instead of the shuffling of hooves, she heard what sounded like a small orchestra playing. While it wasn’t what she expected, it confirmed her fears that there really were other ponies around.

Twilight began to form a plan of action, putting her hoof on the door. There were probably guards inside, listening to something on their phonograph while they sat around and waited. If she had the element of surprise on her side, she might be able to knock them out before they raised an alarm. She just had to be careful.

Doing her best Daring Do impression, Twilight kicked down the door and leapt through, levitating the statue of Mezza in case she needed to use it as a weapon.

But it looked like she wasn’t going to need it. Instead of a guard shack on the other side of the door, what awaited Twilight was one of the most gorgeous cityscapes she had ever seen in her life. The wooden shack had been nothing but a facade for the door, one that lead to the outskirts of the city proper. The city itself reminded Twilight of a paint by numbers book she had gotten as a filly, since all of the buildings and decorations looked like they had been thrown together at random. Despite the artistic sensibilities, the sheer amount of houses and shops that she could see ahead of her was absolutely staggering, especially for a city that was entirely underground.

In the street ahead of her, there were a few ponies quickly trotting through the streets, each of them looking like they were in a hurry to get somewhere. It was strange seeing ponies here, but what was even stranger was the way that they dressed themselves up. The few that she could see, three unicorns and a pegasus, all had the most outrageous colorings, with dyed patterns and marks all over their coats. Not only that, but nearly all of them had some kind of clothing, which was odd for everyday use.

Then there was the music again, this time much louder than it had been from outside. On the corner of the street in front of her was a phonograph, just like the one Twilight owned herself. The music it was playing sounded like somepony had deliberately scratched the record, making Twilight wince, but none of the ponies in the street seemed to notice it. In fact, none of them seemed to notice Twilight at all, even though she had jumped through the door with enough dramatic flair to make Rainbow Dash embarrassed.

“Okay, stay calm,” Twilight whispered to herself as she trotted forward, carrying Mezza along with her. Her friends had probably arrived as well, but depending on how extensive the rail system was, they could be scattered anywhere throughout the city. But before Twilight could make it any further, she felt a strange sensation in the back of her head.

“The barrier!” she gasped quietly, closing her eyes to try and focus on the shape that had just passed through it. From what she could tell, it was a pegasus, one flying at a remarkably fast speed. So far, outside of the seven of them that had passed through already, this was the eighth. Curious, Twilight tried to imagine how anypony would be able to stop before they collided with the rock wall behind it, considering that she had placed the barrier right in front of the carts.

Either way, somepony was tailing them. The only shapes on this barrier were those of Page, Applejack, and this new pegasus, but that pegasus had been moving awfully fast. Whoever it was, they were in a hurry.

Before Twilight could continue on, she felt a few more disturbances in the barrier, making her pause to catch her balance. These next shapes were not flying at abnormally fast speeds like the pegasus was, but Twilight once again checked to see how many had just passed through. There appeared to be three, but from what she could tell, one of them was carrying another on their back, so that made four in total. In fact, that shape looked remarkably familiar. Of the other two, one was a unicorn, but the other was—

“Cadance?!” Twilight gasped, looking around her to make sure that nopony was listening in. The wildly decorated ponies of Everdale were all either too busy or too distracted to pay attention, thankfully. “That has to be Shining, Cadance, and.... Wait, that shape is the exact same one from back at the hotel, when Nightowl was carrying Page. But if—”

“There you are!” cried a familiar voice from her left, causing Twilight to whip around and ready Mezza’s statue again.

“Applejack!” Twilight sighed with relief. Sure enough, the orange mare was standing with her head poking out of one of the doorways of a nearby building, motioning for Twilight to hurry inside. More than happy to oblige, Twilight galloped over and slipped inside. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you!”

“You? Glad to see me?” Applejack scoffed, frowning and closing the door once Twilight came in. “We’ve been worried sick about ya! We thought you might’ve missed the memo or something, and trust me, you don’t even wanna know what’ll happen to ya if you miss this.”

Confused, Twilight glanced around the large room she had walked into. It appeared to be some sort of storage area, rather dimly lit, but Applejack wasn’t the only one in there. The rest of her friends were there as well, excluding Page, and all staring anxiously at her. There were a numerous amount of empty cardboard boxes lying around, as well as a few mirrors hanging on the walls.

“Now scuttle on up here and get your tiara,” Applejack grumbled, trotting over to a small box in the corner and pulling out a familiar golden tiara with a gem in the center. “And lose the statue already! Goodness, Sparky, are feeling alright?”

Bewildered, Twilight looked around at the rest of her friends as Applejack placed the tiara on her head. “The Elements?” Twilight croaked, trying to figure out how they had gotten down here. They had been in such a hurry that they had left the Elements of Harmony in the hotel, so how had they gotten down here so quickly?

“Hurry up, clock’s ticking Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed as she dashed around the corner, followed by the rest of Twilight’s friends. They were all there, but where had Page gone to? And why were Cadance and Shining following them? What was going on?!

“Girls!” cried Twilight as she darted around the corner as well, dodging the array of empty boxes littering the floor. Without thinking, she set Mezza’s statue down on the ground so that she could keep up with the rest of them.

There, in what appeared to be an even larger and darker room, Twilight could see the outline of some large cart in the middle. No, cart wasn’t the right word, it was more like a parade float, but it was too dark to make out the details. The other five mares had already taken up positions on unevenly raised platforms, looking expectantly at Twilight. Even in the darkness, she could see that they were all wearing their Elements as well.

Before Twilight could speak up, Rarity huffed and gave a brusque motion with her hoof, looking rather impatient. Deciding that she could save the questions for later, Twilight did as she was told and hopped up on the float and took the only raised platform left, the one right in the middle.

As soon as she took her spot, the door in front of her began to swing open, reminding Twilight of the large doors on Applejack’s barn. Brilliant light from the other side flooded into the dark room, making Twilight squint in order to see what was going on around her.

Just as she had suspected, they were on some highly decorative parade float, adorned with flowers and what appeared to be a large painting on the back of it. The painting itself resembled one of Celestia’s many stained glass windows, but this one was much more intricately composed. It was in the shape of a diamond split up into four sections, all but one of them containing a portrait of one of the alicorn princesses of Equestria. Princess Celestia was in the top quadrant overlaid with the image of a radiant sun while Princess Luna was opposite her on the bottom, painted predictably with the image of the moon behind her. Princess Cadance, oddly enough, was included in the rightmost section, her serene expression complemented by the image of her cutie mark, a crystal heart, behind her. Twilight was already bemused as to why this painting existed, but what made it even worse was the fact that on the left, opposite of Princess Cadance, was painted entirely black, making the painting seem incomplete.

Sadly, Twilight had no time to admire the painting before the float jerked forward. Twilight hadn’t noticed it before, but the float was hooked up to what appeared to be six rows of Celestia’s royal guards, who were pulling the heavy float along. This was absolutely absurd! Royal guards? Down here?!

For a moment Twilight wondered if she was dreaming, or if Luna was playing some kind of trick on her, getting her revenge for what had happened earlier, but there was no mistaking this for a dream. Her short time with Luna had taught her how to identify a dream, and Twilight knew that this was as real as it got.

As soon as the float passed through the massive doorway, they were greeted by a thunderous wave of cheering and applause, completely catching Twilight off guard. Somewhere, amidst the din, some kind of fanfare was being played, reminding Twilight of her triumphant return after defeating Discord for the first time. Wildly decorated ponies lined the streets, the sheer number of unicorns and pegasi making Twilight wonder what kind of place this was. She’d never seen ponies with colorings like that before!

Desperately trying to make sense of the situation, Twilight glanced back at her friends, only to find them all striking various poses on the stage like living statues. Confused, Twilight simply played along, taking her own heroic stance.

Sadly, Twilight had no chance to stop and think about the situation. Within moments, the float began to swivel around on its base, continuing its forward path but slowly rotating to face the other way. The other Elements of Harmony all changed their poses almost immediately, moving to stand up on two legs and hold their front hooves out in the air like they were about to sneak up on somepony. Once again, Twilight imitated them for lack of a better idea.

Once the float had turned a full 180 degrees, Twilight realized that there was yet another float behind them, one that was being pulled along by what appeared to be heavy chains attached to the larger float. Trying to find some reason for all of the symbolism, Twilight studied the other float. It was entirely barren of decoration, but what caught her attention was not the cart itself, but the pony that was riding it.

“Cadance?” Twilight whispered to herself, starting to become worried. Cadance had passed through the barrier only moments ago, hadn’t she? If that was the case, how did she get down here so quickly?

Twilight got her answer almost immediately. The celebratory fanfare in the background swelled to a surprisingly dissonant climax, making Twilight’s heart pound as magical lights began to shine from behind her. Six different colors, each of them representing one of the Elements of Harmony, all focused on Princess Cadance until the alicorn was enveloped in a blindingly white shine.

Twilight had to bring a hoof up to cover her eyes from the brilliant display, but when she opened them again, the Princess on the cart behind her was a completely different kind of alicorn. In fact, Twilight wouldn’t even consider her an alicorn at all.

Chrysalis...?!

There was no mistaking it. There, standing proudly on the spartan cart, was the queen of the changelings herself, head held high and spidery teal mane whipping wildly in an unseen wind over her closed eyes. At her dramatic appearance, the music ceased, ending on a dissonant nonresolution, making Twilight cringe on the inside.

Reflexively, she winced and took a step backwards. The eerie silence grated against her, sending shivers from her spine to her ears. Why weren’t the ponies panicking? Why was everything so quiet? What the wide world of Equestria was going on?!

The changeling queen slowly opened her bug-like eyes. Immediately, the music began again, repeating the last painful chord even louder than the last time. Just like before, the magical lights burst forth from Twilight’s float, focusing in on Chrysalis and encasing her inside of another brilliant beam.

This time, once the light faded, the terrifying queen laid motionless on the cart as if she were taking a nap. Hooves trembling, Twilight’s eyes darted wildly around the crowd to see their reactions. The music, instead of the bombastic fanfare from before, had faded into what sounded like a gentle Kyrie from a requiem. After the silence, the effect of this musical shift was evident in the onlookers’ postures, which ranged from quaking in fear to bowing with respect. All of the ponies that had been wearing hats, which had been quite a few of them, all held them over their hearts and closed their eyes in somber regards.

Twilight was left to ponder over its meaning as the float turned around once again to face the front. The Kyrie continued amidst the silence, making things even more uncomfortable than they already were, but as soon as the cart had made its full rotation, the music began to swell once again, giving small hints about the fanfare from the beginning. After a single chord was left hanging in the background, silence followed again.

Unable to sit still, Twilight broke out of the formation on her float and darted around to the back, behind the large painting of the princesses. There, on the cart behind them, Chrysalis was starting to stir, her insect-like wings buzzing ever so slowly as the music began to crescendo again.

With one last flourish in the strings, the changeling queen finally roused herself weakly to her legs, unsteadily wobbling as the cart moved. Her rise was met with a deafening roar of celebration from the ponies that lined the streets, which culminated in a return from the fanfare at the beginning of the parade. Twilight had read about allegorical displays like this, but for once, she had no intention of writing a research paper on what she had just witnessed.

That was when Chrysalis and Twilight met each other’s gazes. Their eyes locked, both of them caught by surprise at the other’s presence. In the brief moment where they stared at each other, Twilight almost felt like the two of them were having a conversation. That one moment of surprise said more about the changeling queen than Twilight had ever known. Time, between the two, was static.

A sudden outcry of murmurs and uneasy questions from the crowd of ponies drew Twilight back to reality. The music had stopped and everypony was staring at her, some in fear and some in awe. Twilight, bewildered, swore that she heard the word “imposter” whispered several times.

As soon as Twilight realized what was going on, a bright green light from the corner of her vision drew her attention. “W-wait!” she called out as she saw Chrysalis’ jagged horn beginning to glow, reminding Twilight of the first time she had seen Chrysalis use her magic.

Just like that time, Twilight felt her eyes become heavy and tired, leaving her listing on her unsteady legs. This was... a sleep spell?

As Twilight fell unconscious, she felt a hint of relief hidden amongst her confusion. Not only was she finally able to get some rest, but she would also get the opportunity to apologize to Luna. Despite the the unceremonious addition of changelings to this mystery, Twilight found herself relieved.

After all, Chrysalis’ appearance just made the previous mysteries a whole lot easier.

Chapter 16: Complications

Chapter 16

Complications

“Nightowl... what did you just say?”

“Princess, I know it may seem hard to believe, but I can prove it! This entire city down here is—”

Cadance narrowed her eyes, trying to mask her anxiety. “This isn’t about what is down there,” she sighed. “This is about why they’re here.”

Nightowl, who had been hesitantly explaining everything as he led them down the cavern, wore a perplexed frown. According to him, the minecarts were nothing but a quicker mode of transportation for those who were brave enough or in a hurry, so they had opted to walk so that he had time to explain everything.

Hefting Caesura’s unconscious body up on his back again, the watchpony halted their march. “Really?” he asked, looking skeptical. “I figured that after we.... Nevermind. I’m more amazed that you’re actually listening to me, considering what you know.”

“It’s because of what I know that I believe you,” Cadance insisted. Nightowl, ever since Caesura had been knocked unconscious, had to be one of the kindest ponies she’d ever known, which surprised her more than she was willing to admit. “You couldn’t make up a lie like that, not when you know what I can do. Trust me, I.... I know a liar when I see one.”

The sudden pause in Cadance’s voice drew both stallions’ attention to her, stopping them before either could start walking again. Shining Armor had made sure that he was on guard, making sure that nopony snuck up on them, but the hesitation in Cadance’s voice distracted him. He knew what it meant.

Before Shining could try and calm Cadance down, Nightowl snapped up to attention. “Wait, then you know something about it?” he asked, his hesitance replaced with what Cadance interpreted as hope.

Cadance was hesitant to admit it, but she slowly nodded. She wished that she had more time to think things over, but with Twilight and her friends in danger, there was no time for caution. After all, they had felt Twilight’s barrier in front of the minecart when they passed through it. “Yes. But I would not get your hopes up,” she cautioned. “Somehow I doubt she’ll listen to reason.”

“The princess? Of course she will!” Nightowl exclaimed. This sudden burst of energy seemed to come out of nowhere, at least from what Cadance had seen of the stallion since she had arrived. That storm seemed like it had taken place months ago, but it had barely been a single day. “She’s more determined than anypony out there, so you can be sure that she’ll welcome you with open arms!”

“Princess?” Shining asked warily, making sure to keep himself positioned between Nightowl and Cadance. “Why would you call her a princess?”

“Same reason that you’re a prince and not a king,” Nightowl quipped without turning around, though Cadance could easily imagine the stallion grinning to himself. The thought had never occurred to her, but it was also the same reason that she was referred to as a princess.

“It’s just a title,” Cadance responded, but her mind was elsewhere. She remembered having an argument like this a long time ago, but the memory was still fresh in her head. Everything from back then was coming back to haunt her, from the similar arguments to the discovery of the—

“I can understand why you’d be nervous,” Nightowl sighed, picking up the pace. “It hasn’t even been that long since the whole fiasco at Canterlot, after all.”

“Don’t remind me,” Cadance groaned, trying to focus on more pressing events. If the situation really was as Nightowl claimed it to be, it was possible that they could strike a deal of some sort, one that could lead to the elusive truth she’d been trying to find for centuries.

As they continued, Shining drew closer to Cadance, looking anxious. “Hey,” he whispered quietly, making sure that they were out of earshot from Nightowl. “If something happens, we’ll use this code. The question will be ‘does it sound like it’s raining?’, and the response will be ‘I hope it is’. We’ll use that in case we get separated.”

Cadance, despite her melancholy, grinned. “Always the captain of the guard, hm? If we stick together, we won’t need it.”

“I was fooled before, but never again. I’m getting a hunch this is more than just changelings being changelings, after all. Especially if we can believe that the—”

“I know. You know what that means as much as I do. I’m sorry to drag you into this, especially after I vowed to leave everything behind and live a normal life with you, but we can’t let this opportunity slip by.”

“Here we are!” announced Nightowl ahead of them, apparently deciding to ignore the suspiciously whispering couple behind him. He stood in front of a small wooden door, one that looked jarringly out of place compared to the stone walls around it. “Before we go in, I ask that you remain as humble and respectful as possible. We’re going to draw a lot of attention, but just keep walking, okay?”

Cadance was surprised at how direct Nightowl was acting, finding some respect for his courage in the denizens of this city. Luna had been the first to encounter the changelings after that fateful day so many centuries ago, but could it be possible that they were wrong about these creatures? The thought was humbling, to imagine that she had been prejudiced for over one thousand years, but after their attack on Canterlot, their barbaric reputation was warranted twenty times over. If they were willing to listen to reason, why had they been so violent?

“Are you sure about this?” she heard her husband whisper. “We still have time to alert the princesses.”

Without another thought, Cadance shook her head. There was no time for that, not when Twilight and her friends were already in danger. “I’m positive. If she truly intends to be civil, I will do the same. I am a princess, as much as I wish otherwise, and it is my responsibility to be an ambassador to those who seek it.”

Shining appeared surprised at the proper tone that Cadance adopted, but he still gave a nod of assent. Deep in her heart, Cadance was reminded of why she had fallen head-over-hooves for him in the first place. Even when he didn’t agree with her actions, he always supported her for who she was instead of what she could do.

“I welcome you, Princess Cadance,” Nightowl announced politely, his tone immediately shifting to one of proper upbringing and careful diction. “I welcome you to Eccondale, the city of changelings.”

Despite the somber mood, Cadance couldn’t help but giggle at how silly the name was. Nightowl had explained the significance of it, but that didn’t make it any less ridiculous. Regardless, the city of Eccondale would not remain concealed after this.

As Nightowl opened the door, giving a nauseatingly polite bow, Cadance stared dumbly at what awaited her on the other side. She had imagined that there would be a lot of buildings, but she would have never expected them to be so wildly expressive. In fact, it reminded her of the Crystal Empire and.... Cadance had to stop herself from thinking further. There had been too many reminders of that place in the last few hours.

Just as Cadance crossed the threshold, she spotted a large wooden sign to her right that was painted with a nauseatingly happy landscape of a sunset behind a beautiful town. In fact, it looked like a professional rendition of something a foal might draw after they first discovered crayons.

In immaculate cursive, the words “Welcome to Eccondale!” were written across the top, but when Cadance looked closer, she saw that the name of the city, Eccondale, had been crossed out with what looked like permanent marker. Beneath it, written in filly-esque chicken scratch, was the name “Neverdale”.

Sighing, Cadance looked ahead at the spire in the center of the city. That sign was all the proof she needed that one of Twilight’s friends had come this way. Who else but Pinkie Pie would write graffiti like that on the welcome sign?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight Sparkle was back in her library again. It was just like the other nights where she had fallen asleep, but this time she had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity for her guest to show. It was no surprise that Luna was avoiding her, but Twilight had held a small glimmer of hope that the alicorn would at least accept her apology.

As time went on, as relative as time was in the world of dreams, Twilight became more and more frustrated. Her thoughts were muddled because of the sleep spell, leaving her unable to accurately articulate her thoughts and theories, which was frustrating considering that this would have been a perfect time to make a mental checklist of everything that had happened so far.

“Luna, where are you?” Twilight whispered to nopony in particular, but her words echoed like she had shouted them. “I just want to apologize. I really didn’t mean to—”

“Save your sympathies,” came an omnidirectional voice, making Twilight nearly jump out of her hooves.

“Luna!” the unicorn gasped excitedly, eyes twinkling with excitement. “You’re here! I’m so glad to see you again, you see we need to—”

“That is enough, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna’s disembodied voice commanded, making Twilight shrink back into her chair. “You have made it clear what needs to be done. One thousand and eight apologies, Twilight Sparkle, but I do not wish to go through this again.”

The voice definitely belonged to Princess Luna, unless there was another pony with the same voice that could manipulate the world of dreams, but the alicorn sounded uncharacteristically disheartened. Maybe Twilight’s sudden outburst had hurt Luna more than she had imagined, making Twilight feel even guiltier than before. But before she could try to apologize, the world of her library zapped out of sight, leaving her in darkness.

Twilight Sparkle was... somewhere. She wasn’t sure whether, but she was 95% sure that it was somewhere that she didn’t want to be. Despite her sleepy state, memories from before were still fresh in her mind, even those from her dream.

Okay, looks like I need to give Luna some space right now, but I’ve got plenty to worry about. Chrysalis. Changelings. Those weren’t my friends. But if everypony in this city is a changeling, why were they all in different forms, and if they weren’t changelings, why was there a parade celebrating both Chrysalis andthe Elements of Harmony? Actually, that’s a greatquestion! Why in the hay would a bunch of changelings be cheering for the Elements of Harmony?!

“She’s awake, so hold your tongue,” came a serpentine voice from somewhere in the area. Twilight hadn’t opened her eyes yet, but considering the fact that she was laying on cold hard stone, she could be reasonably sure that she had been thrown into some sort of dungeon.

Thankfully, it seemed that the disembodied voice was going to allow her some time to gather her thoughts. Taking advantage of the spare moments she had, Twilight tried to make a quick summary of the current situation.

Chrysalis must be involved in this somehow. If I can assume that changelings are involved in this, the possibilities are limitless, but I can also assume that ponies were being foalnapped for changeling feeding, which brings up the question of why the nine ponies did not recover from it. Very little is known about them, so maybe the queen feeds differently than the others, or maybe—

“Twilight Sparkle, I know you’re awake,” the voice hissed, keeping her from continuing her train of thought. “You cannot play dead forever, though I admit the prospect is one I find all too enticing.”

Finally acknowledging the voice, Twilight opened her eyes, taking in the scenery. Just as she had suspected, she was laying down in a small enclosure of rock with a standard cell door consisting of simple metal bars. She had never understood the purpose of standard cells when trying to imprison a unicorn, especially one as powerful as she was, but it seemed that Chrysalis didn’t realize how easy it was to escape.

The queen of the changelings herself stood on the other side of the iron bars, standing proudly with her head held high. Her insect-like frame stood out boldly against the earthy rock behind her, making her spidery teal mane all the more striking. If Twilight hadn’t been so confident in her magical abilities, she would have been terrified of the nightmarish creature.

“So we meet again, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis taunted, slithering forward towards the cell door. “I must say, I’m getting quite the sense of deja vu.”

“Me too,” Twilight snapped, scowling as she rose to her hooves. “I’m pretty sure you know how it ended last time, too.”

“Oh? I’m afraid I don’t, Twilight Sparkle. Would you be so kind as to refresh my memory?”

“I’d be happy to,” Twilight hissed as she pursed her lips and tried to focus all of her magic into her horn. She could feel a small amount undulating through her, but as soon as she tried to manipulate it, the ephemeral energy slipped away.

As Twilight ground her teeth and tried again, she saw Chrysalis burst into maniacal laughter, holding a hoof up to her forehead. “Oh, now I remember,” she cackled, “you just stood around and made ridiculous faces at me! Oh, thank you ever so much for the reminder, I’d nearly forgotten.”

At the peak of her frustration, Twilight managed to grab a small spark of magic, but it fizzled out as soon as it reached her horn, producing a small electric crackle. “Wh-what?” Twilight gasped as she panted, collapsing onto the stone floor. “What did you do to me?”

“Do you really think I’m going to answer that question?” Chrysalis huffed, balking at the idea. “What kind of cut-rate villain do you think I am?”

“The kind that monologues about how silly the power of love is right before she gets blasted to kingdom come.”

“Why, you!” the changeling queen hissed, stamping her hoof on the rocky ground. “Did you think that changelings could only feed on love? You are just as simple-minded as that atrocious excuse for a pretty pink princess! No, love only enhances it, but we feed on all varieties of emotional energy, including magic!”

Twilight had to stifle a laugh, but managed to remain calm. “Oh, thank you for telling me. You really do monologue a lot, which is a really bad habit for an acclaimed villain such as yourself.”

As Chrysalis’ smug grin soured, Twilight found a rather sick satisfaction in watching her squirm. She may have been the queen of the changelings, but she was far from omnipotent.

“Touché, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis grunted through her teeth. “But don’t think that wit alone will get you out of this one. Without your magic, you’ll just have to sit there and watch as you and all of your friends are replaced and sent back to Canterlot, something that should have happened from the very beginning.”

Yet again, Twilight was thankful that Chrysalis had a habit of talking too much. If Chrysalis had intended to replace her friends and infiltrate Canterlot, why hadn’t she done so already? That was only one of many questions that Twilight hoped to have answered once she got the changeling queen monologuing again.

“But where are my manners?” Chrysalis cackled, acting just as dramatically as she had during their first encounter. “Welcome to Eccondale, the city of changelings, but I’m sure you’ve figured that out already.”

Pursing her lips, Twilight put her other questions on hold and tried to learn what she could from the topic at hoof. “Thanks, I’m flattered,” she groaned, rolling her eyes. “I take it you came up with the name?”

Much to Twilight’s surprise, Chrysalis gave a genial smile. “I’m flattered to know that somepony finally appreciates my sense of humor.”

With that fact cleared up, Twilight could already begin making deductions. For one, it indicated that Chrysalis was involved with the founding and naming of Everdale as well, unless their names just happened to be a coincidence, which was unlikely. It also shed a lot of light on what the supposed ‘ransom demands’ were that Page had mentioned.

Making sure that Chrysalis didn’t catch on, Twilight shrugged and continued. “I guess that means that everypony living here is a changeling, then?”

“Pretty much,” Chrysalis responded in a surprisingly conversational tone. “My subjects and I have remained hidden here for centuries, and even though you have found us, I can assure you that you won’t get the opportunity to report it to the princesses.”

Twilight tried not to let her confidence show. Chrysalis wouldn’t be able to keep her from communicating with Luna, meaning the the royal sister would be razing this place to the ground within a week. “Trust me, Chrysalis, you may have been able to stay hidden for centuries, but your time is up.”

The changeling queen paused, regarding Twilight with a mix of uncertainty and scorn. “So she told you my name, did she?” Chrysalis said slowly, taking time to choose her words with care. “What else did she tell you about? Or maybe it would be more appropriate to ask what she lied to you about.”

Ignoring the creature’s taunts, Twilight smirked. “She told me that you liked to monologue a lot.”

“Would you expect any less?” Chrysalis responded uncaringly. “For somepony who survives by acting, being theatrical is a must. What I find to be quite intriguing is that, for somepony who calls herself the Princess of Truth, a certain alicorn has a horrible tendency to tell little white lies.”

“Cadance?” Twilight gasped reflexively, surprised that Chrysalis knew her title. The changeling queen seemed just as surprised, both of them staring at each other for a few awkward seconds.

“Oh, I see that the pretty pink princess has become a little more trusting,” Chrysalis finally muttered, scowling like she had a bitter taste in her mouth. “So she told you her title, did she? But did she tell you about her powers?”

Twilight could sense the anticipation in Chrysalis’ voice, like she had been waiting to make the dramatic reveal herself. Not letting her have it, Twilight nodded politely. “Of course she did. She is the Princess of Truth after all. I don’t think you’re giving her enough credit.”

It was refreshing to see Chrysalis’ eyes nearly turn red with fury, but thankfully, the changeling queen kept herself under control. Twilight didn’t want to push her captor too hard, considering that she was completely defenseless without her magic.

“I see the princesses have grown trusting in my absence,” the changeling queen murmured. “I’ll have to fix that later. But that does not concern you, since you will never see your princesses again. Celestia leaving the castle would cause a panic, and Luna will probably never speak to you again.”

At the mention of Luna, Twilight’s chest tightened. Did Chrysalis somehow know about her last encounter with the princess, and if so, did that mean Chrysalis knew about Luna’s powers too? It was understandable that she would know about Cadance’s, since Chrysalis had replaced her once before, but Luna, from what Twilight knew, had absolutely no contact with the changeling queen during the attack on Canterlot. That raised the question of whether or not changelings had attacked before, or even how long they had been around. It was at least a few centuries, from what Chrysalis had said, but their entire species was a mystery to even the most dedicated historians.

“Did I touch a nerve?” Chrysalis teased, pushing her lips into a mocking pout. “Poor little filly. Don’t worry, now you’ll be able to get some sleep, now that nasty old Nightmare Moon won’t be bothering you in your dreams anymore.”

“Wh-what?” gasped Twilight as she recoiled back. Questions began to pour out of her mouth before she knew what she was talking about. “What do you mean? How do you know about my dreams? What have you done to Luna?!”

“Oh my, I really have hit something, haven’t I?” the changeling queen mused, looking all too pleased with herself. “Trust me, your little midnight rendezvous with little Luna are a thing of the past. If you truly need a princess to talk to,I could always keep you company.”

“Princess? Ha!” Twilight tried to shift the conversation away from Luna, praying that Chrysalis was bluffing. But only moments ago, in her dream, Luna had shrugged her off in her dream. What did it mean? “You’re the queen of the changelings! Who do you think you are to go around calling yourself a princess?”

Oddly enough, the question seemed to hit home with the creature, but Twilight couldn’t understand why. It was just a title, after all. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were actually part of rather limited oligarchy, making the term princess entirely irrelevant, but Twilight had figured that they used their titles to portray a sense of youth. Why would a hideous creature like Chrysalis care about her appearance?

“You’re right, Twilight Sparkle. I am far better than those dull-witted alicorns you call ‘princess’. Those three wouldn’t even notice if you had been replaced. Not even if they had a millenium to notice.” There was an acidic bite in every word Chrysalis spoke, enough to make Twilight cringe. There was some weight to those words, enough to make Twilight consider the possibility. But more importantly, why was Cadance being included with Celestia and Luna? Cadance had never been noted as a ruler, not one on par with the royal sister, so what did she have to do with any of this?

Chrysalis, her sudden outburst withdrawn, returned to mocking Twilight with an amused smirk. “You know, they really wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, would they? You’re just a little bookworm, easily reduced to a simple stereotype, so it would be effortless to have any of my subjects play your role. Every single one of them would be honored to do so, after all, even though their job would only consist of prancing around and shouting ‘Oh my, how I love books, but not as much as I love friendship! Oh, friendship truly is the best thing ever, let me go and sing you a song about it! Friendship, friendship, friendship!’”

It was obvious that Chrysalis was trying to taunt her into saying something careless, but Twilight wasn’t going to fall for that trick. Instead, the unicorn decided to change the subject a little bit and pry more information out of her captor. “If you really wanted to replace me, you could have done so the first night we stayed at the hotel. You could have taken all of my friends as well.”

Nearly in a fit of hysterics from her mockery of Twilight’s nasal voice, Chrysalis calmed herself down. “My dear, you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. If I had truly wanted to replace any of you, I could have done so whenever I pleased, not just at the hotel! Back when you discovered me at the wedding, I considered your powers of deduction to be a threat, but now I see that you couldn’t deduce your way out of a wet paper bag.”

Yet again, Chrysalis was revealing more information about her involvement. She knew about the hotel and their arrival, after all. “Oh yeah? I’ll have you know that I managed to correctly solve every mystery so far on this trip without fail!”

“Ha! I know a liar when I see one, and I see one right on the other side of these bars.”

“So you say, but you can’t deny that I’m right!”

“Actually, I can, but only if you insist.”

Twilight grinned. “I insist, then.”

“You invite your own criticism? How virtuous. You see, not only have you left one of them unsolved, but you also managed to be completely wrong about the other three!”

Twilight calmly took a seat on the stone floor and flashed a condescending smirk at her captor. “Hook, line, and sinker,” she mused.

Chrysalis recoiled, slitted eyes narrowing in suspicion. “What are you bluffing about this time?” she hissed, her playfully sadistic tone vanishing. “I know my liars, and you can’t fool me!”

“I already did,” Twilight stated matter-of-factly, hardly able to maintain her calm facade. “You just admitted that you were directly involved with the disappearances in Everdale.”

Even though Twilight had caught Chrysalis by surprise before, seeing her rendered speechless was something else entirely. The changeling queen was stuck in mid shout, her fangs bared and her eyes wide.

Twilight, barely able to keep herself from gloating, simply presented the facts. “How’d you know that I hadn’t solved one yet? How did you know there were three before it? And even if you knew by proxy, why would you split the incidents into three different ones like I did? I can only think of one reason for that.”

“Why, you—”

“It’s because you were with me the whole time, weren’t you?”

The words appeared to have a physical impact on Chrysalis, who looked surprisingly vulnerable for the first time that Twilight had seen her. Her spidery mane, which had once enhanced her devilish appearance, instead reminded Twilight of a mare who hadn’t had a shower in months, and the holes in her legs, instead of making her appear like fantastical creature, made her look remarkably brittle.

This wasn’t the violent reaction that Twilight had expected, but she wasn’t going to lose the upper hoof in this situation. “You can’t hide the truth from me,” she announced, getting back up to her hooves. “You keep saying that you know a liar when you see one, but I guess you haven’t looked in a mirror lately.”

Something about Twilight’s statement snapped Chrysalis out of her daze, provoking the reaction that she had expected from the beginning. “Silence!” she barked, resuming her threatening posture from before. “I’ll not put up with your incessant prattling any longer! If you say another word, I will drain every ounce of energy from your body so that you shall never speak again!”

Wincing, Twilight ground her teeth together. She was powerless in this situation, which wasn’t helped by the fact that she had no magic to back up her accusations, but with Chryaslis’ slip-up, there was no doubt that Twilight had been going down the right trail. Chrysalis really had replaced somepony, but Twilight had the sinking feeling that she wouldn’t be getting any more information on the subject, so she meekly lowered her head and tried one last question.

“What about my friends?” the unicorn asked, trying to sound as pitiful as possible. Chrysalis could drain whatever she wanted from her, but she had to know if her friends were okay. “I’m alone here, so I take it you haven’t caught them yet.”

Thankfully, Chrysalis didn’t attack. She instead scoffed and turned away. “Honestly, do you think I would put the six Elements of Harmony in the same dungeon? The others may have been dumb enough to underestimate them, but I know how terrifying they can be. I’ll not give you the satisfaction of knowing your friends are safe.”

The others? Who all did that entail? There were so many questions that Twilight had, but most of them would remain unanswered.

With that, the haughty queen spun around and marched out of Twilight’s field of view. “Wait!” the unicorn called out, desperate for any more information she could get. “Tell me one thing before you go!”

The changeling queen paused, looking back over her insect-like wings. “Do not abuse my generosity.”

“Chrysalis, I just wanted to thank you,” Twilight offered, only partially antagonizing her captor. If she could keep the changeling queen’s temper flared, she might get more information.  “Now that I know changelings are involved, I don’t have to worry about blaming my friends anymore!”

Instead of angering her, like Twilight had expected, her taunting made Chrysalis smirk. It was one of the evil smiles that Twilight had become more than acquainted with in recent months. “Oh, you don’t have to worry anymore?” Chrysalis lilted, giving Twilight a patronizing chuckle. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. How can you be positive that I was involved? Do you know how many ponies were replaced, if any? Or better yet, what will your friends think when they realize that you couldn’t tell them apart from an imposter this entire time? I know that I would be quite angry if it happened to me, after all.”

Despite Twilight’s courage, she had to admit that Chrysalis was right. Instead of allowing her to suspect her friends, changeling involvement raised the stakes even further, putting her friendships on the line if she guessed wrong. There was also the issue of the barriers, which were a vital part of her deductions, but if the ponies inside of the hotel could change forms, there would be no way to tell which shapes matched up. Twilight’s enthusiasm from earlier quickly dwindled, leaving her sitting in shock on the cold, rocky floor.

Chrysalis, upon seeing Twilight’s defeated posture, beamed proudly. “That’s what I thought, Twilight Sparkle. Your friendship exists only to make you stronger. You leech power off of your friends just like a changeling, using them for your own devices and throwing them away as soon as they become inconvenient. To you, they’re nothing more than tools, reducing them down to simple stereotypes to the point that they could be easily replaced.”

Chrysalis silently slipped up to the front of Twilight’s cell, looming over her with an intense scowl. “It’s funny, isn’t it?” the changeling queen growled, eyes ablaze with righteous fury. “Friendship is magic after all, just like one of your spells. And what happens when a spell stops working? You toss it away, never to be used again! I don’t think your friends would think so highly of you if they knew you were only putting up with them for their magical uses!”

As if to punctuate her message, Chrysalis stormed out of the room, messy mane flowing behind her like a ragged cape. There was something about her exit that gave Twilight the impression that this wasn’t one of the changeling queen’s obligatory monologues. Something had to have set off that rant.

Unfortunately, Twilight wasn’t going to have any of her questions answered, seeing as Chrysalis’ departure was finalized by the deafening slam from what sounded like a metal door in the distance. There was still a torch in the dungeon to provide light, but all that Twilight could see was a wall of rocks on the other side of the room from her cell. If there were any other cells in the immediate area, Twilight couldn’t see them from where she was.

You can monologue all you want, Chrysalis, but I’ll find a way to stop you. Granted, I have no idea what you’re doing, but I’ll definitely keep you from doing it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next hour, or what felt like an hour, Twilight tried to gather her thoughts again. Chrysalis had already incriminated herself with inside knowledge of the disappearances from the hotel, meaning that she had likely been with them the whole time, but who had been replaced? It could have been any one of her friends, but Twilight didn’t want to believe that she would mistake that awful creature for somepony she knew. Then again, Shining Armor had been tricked as well, hadn’t he?

Kicking a loose rock around her empty cell, Twilight began to speculate about who would have had the opportunity to commit the crimes in the hotel. First off, if Chrysalis was involved, did that mean that Red, Nightowl, and Caesura were all accomplices to the changelings? Or did it mean that the three of them were changelings as well?

Better yet, one of them could be the one that Chrysalis replaced! If that was the case, Twilight wouldn’t have to worry about suspecting her friends again, just like before. If Red was actually Chrysalis in disguise, everything would be accounted for, including her ability to frighten the group of ponies in the lobby. Anypony, even if they didn’t know what a changeling looked like, would run for their life at the sight of that oversized bug.

A sound interrupted Twilight’s reverie, snapping her attention to the entrance. She couldn’t see the door, but she had heard it open and shut, followed by a few sets of hoofsteps that echoed around the small area. Gulping, she tried to convince herself that it wasn’t one of her friends, praying that they hadn’t gotten captured.

Thankfully, the figure that came into view was not one of her friends... at least, she hoped it wasn’t. The figures that rounded the corner were a changeling, in its bug-like state like she had seen in Canterlot, and two royal guards that were escorting it, one of Luna’s and one of Celestia’s. Because it was a changeling, Twilight was hit with the painful realization that it really could be one of her friends, but she tried to ignore the possibility. She would know if it was, wouldn’t she?

The changeling, eyes downcast and lifeless, was led off into what Twilight had to guess was the cell beside hers. The night and day guard, which, if they were real, would have started arguing about which princess was better, simply nodded, locked up the cell door, and turned to leave on their way out. One of them gave Twilight an awkwardly long stare, but he didn’t seem like he was afraid of her. In fact, it was reminiscent of how Nightowl had acted when the Elements of Harmony had first arrived.

As the two guards left, hinted by the closing metal door in the distance, Twilight perked her ears to see if she could hear anything from the prisoner in the next cell over. The cells were deathly silent.

“Hey,” Twilight whispered, seeing if she could get the changeling’s attention. Maybe she could get some information out of it about what was going on with this crazy town. “Are you okay over there?”

For a moment, there was no response, giving Twilight the impression that she had said something wrong. What, was it taboo for changelings to talk to normal ponies? If that was the case, then why—

“No,” came the answer, making Twilight jump backwards in her cell. The voice sounded unnatural and tinny, kind of like how Chrysalis sounded. Was this how changelings spoke? “Y-you shouldn’t even be talking to me.”

“Sorry,” Twilight quickly apologized, her mind racing. I’m actually talking to a living, breathing changeling! Oh my, I wonder if anypony has ever had knowing contact with one in its natural habitat before! If I make it out of this, I’m totally going to start a case study with these little guys! Her enthusiasm was almost enough to make her forget about her current plight.

“You see,” the unicorn continued, trying to keep things going, “I’m trying to get out of here. I need to go find my friends, after all. But could I ask you—”

“J-just stop it!” shouted the odd voice. “This is all my fault! You’re just here to rub it in, aren’t you? I’m not a hero like you guys! I’m just a coward, one who can’t even—”

“Woah, hold on!” Twilight interrupted, wondering where in Equestria that painfully personal outburst had come from. “Look, I don’t know what happened, but I’m just trying to escape. If you could somehow help me get my magic back, I could bust the both of us out. C’mon, I’m pretty sure I could even convince Princess Celestia to let you live under her protection if you did.”

Seconds passed, but there was no response from the other side. Twilight had been desperate to find a way out of here, but it also sounded like this poor creature was in need of help. Why wasn’t it saying anything?

“Y-you’re just taunting me now, aren’t you?” the creature finally hissed, its voice distorted, but still sounding like it was on the verge of tears. “I thought I could live a n-normal life! I tried! I should’ve known better than to think I could live with the rest of them....”

In the back of her head, Twilight was beginning to have second thoughts about talking to this changeling. What if it was a trap, one set up to make her sympathize with the creature so that it could steal all of her energy if she tried to escape? Cautious, Twilight tried to continue their conversation. “W-well, we could work it out if you helped me, but—”

“Nice try,” the voice chuckled mirthlessly, causing Twilight’s breath to catch in her throat. “You can’t fool me. You’re just here to guilt trip me, aren’t you? The real Twilight Sparkle would never get captured! The real one will come down here and blow you all to kingdom come before you even knew she was there! I’ve seen how smart she is, and not even Princess Chrysalis stands a chance against her! Yeah, that’s right, I said it!”

Twilight’s heartbeat quickened as she carefully approached the rocky wall between her and the other prisoner. This changeling had seen her before? “W-wait, who are you?” she asked, narrowing her brow.

Again, there was a lull in the conversation. Was this changeling the answer to the mystery that she’d been trying to solve for the past hour? Had this creature been among their group the entire time?

Finally, the tinny voice answered. “I-it is you, isn’t it? Twilight Sparkle? The Element of Magic?” Twilight heard a faint buzzing of wings before the creature spoke again. “You... called me Nightowl.”

“Wh-what?!” Twilight exclaimed, unable to control her surprise. “But...! Wait, why are they locking you up?! You were working with them the whole time!”

Again, the creature took a moment to respond. “I thought Princess Chrysalis would be reasonable,” he eventually whispered, his voice sounding hoarse despite its innately distorted timbre. “So... I brought the prince and princess down to try and talk things over and reach an agreement.”

“No...” Twilight gasped, biting her lip. “You don’t mean—”

“I-I’m so sorry! I thought... I just thought that....”

As the changeling’s mumbles drifted off into what sounded like quiet sobs, Twilight was left motionless in her cell. Cadance and Shining Armor must have been captured too. But why would Chrysalis imprison everypony that came down here? Surely she knew that doing so would only bring the royal sisters' wrath down on her and ruin any chance of negotiations! Was this a declaration of open war? What was going on in that crazy bug's head?

Regardless of what had happened to the prince and princess of the Crystal Empire, Twilight was going to have a nice long talk with the creature in the cell next to her.

Chapter 17: The Heart of the Matter

Chapter 17

The Heart of the Matter

Preston’s eyes widened as he watched the crowd from the parade begin to disseminate throughout the town. For hours upon hours, Preston had been studying their culture, but that wild display of pageantry had provided him with every answer he needed, as well as some that he didn’t. Not only did it explain everything, but it also alerted him that the Elements of Harmony had found this place as well. In any other situation, Preston would have made a heroic dive to save Twilight Sparkle, but after seeing what must have been the queen of these insect-like creatures, he couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t a cleverly designed trap. Had that been the real one, or was that display simply part of the parade?

It was only after the fact that he realized what was going on. Changelings. Every single pony in this town was a changeling! The epiphany still left him breathless, all the while trying to remain calm and blend in with the odd ponies around him, but his reporter instincts kept him from losing face. If he hadn’t been spotted yet, it meant that changelings did not have the innate ability to spot other changelings at sight, which could be useful information later.

Swallowing air, Preston weighed his options. The changelings had all panicked when they realized that the Twilight on the float was the real one, but none of them appeared to be afraid. It was strange, but considering the way that the parade had played out, they seemed to revere the Elements of Harmony instead of fear them.

Feeling a sudden rush of excitement, Preston smiled to himself. He’d never had any inclinations to be a storybook hero, not like Page or Nightowl, but he couldn’t deny the appeal of being famous. If the changelings were holding the Elements of Harmony captive, he could swoop in, free them, and expose this wretched place to the outside world, effectively saving Equestria and getting the world’s biggest scoop since the appearance of Nightmare Moon!

The parade had explained everything that Preston needed to know, putting a spring in his trot as he calmly slid through the crowd of imposters. He didn’t have to worry about standing out, since changelings could appear as anypony, so it made sense that he’d been able to move about the town undetected for such a long time. It also explained his most recent finding.

As Preston approached one of the houses lining the crowded street, he paused, momentarily losing his cool. The door to one of the houses was propped slightly open. On his way out to see the parade, Preston had been sure to close it after tying up his prisoner, but what if it had gotten loose?

Trying to contain his panic, the stallion slipped in through the door with his camera at the ready in case he needed to blind the creature. Surprisingly, his captive was still sitting quietly, tied up to one of the table legs with a length of rope.

“Let me go already!” Twilight Sparkle barked as she wiggled around in her ropes, glaring darkly in Preston’s direction. “The princess is going to kill me if I miss her welcoming ceremony!”

“Sorry,” Preston chuckled dryly, shutting the door behind him, “but the princess is a no-show. After all, you’re not really Twilight, are ya?”

“Of course not! Ugh, what is your problem? Playing pranks is one thing, but you’re taking an illegal form, you know! You’d better switch back before I have you arrested.”

Blinking, Preston debated playing along with the charade. The pony tied to the table wasn’t really Twilight Sparkle, which was a relief, but apparently it thought that he was a changeling as well. At this point, there was nothing to be gained from pretending to be one of those awful creatures, so Preston decided to make his move.

“Illegal form, eh?” he asked with a grin, closing the distance between them. Part of him still wished that he didn’t have to resort to using such barbaric tactics of getting information, but this was for Red’s sake, not his own. He could wallow in self-loathing later. “Sorry, bug-eyes, but I’m the real deal. And if you wouldn’t mind hanging tight for a bit, I’ve got a few questions to ask ya.”

The once fidgety changeling froze, eyes wide. It was disconcerting to see Twilight Sparkle look afraid, but Preston tried not to let it bother him.

“Now,” he continued, “I’d like you to start telling me about how—”

“H-help me!” Twilight’s imposter cried out, frantically kicking to try and free itself.

Amidst the din that the creature was making, Preston heard something else in the house. Preston heard a single hoofstep resound from one of the other rooms, so he instinctively readied his camera in the direction he heard the sound from. He had nearly forgotten about the open door. Somepony else must have come in during the parade and tried to free the changeling!

“Preston?! What the hay are you doing here?”

Lowering his guard, Preston peeked around his camera as the hoofsteps became louder. The voice that had called out matched the figure that stood in the doorway at the far end of the room.

“Page!” he exclaimed, both out of surprise and fear. If Page was here, assuming she was the real one, it meant that all of the other ponies had probably arrived as well.

“Preston, what in the name of Equestria do you think you’re doing?” she scolded, stomping towards the terrified imitation of Twilight. “We’re here to help the Elements, not—”

“Didn’t you hear that thing just now?” Preston shouted, interrupting Page before she could get any closer. “This this isn’t Twilight Sparkle! This is a changeling, just like all of the other ponies out there.”

“Okay, now I know you’ve lost it,” the sky-blue pegasus sighed, looking cross. “Look, I know we haven’t always gotten along, but I refuse to believe you’re working with them. You can’t expect me to believe that I’ve been guarding a city of changelings all these years!”

“That’s exactly what I expect,” Preston replied calmly. “I’ve got the pictures to prove it, but I don’t have the time to set up a room to develop them. I assume you’ve been listening in this whole time, right?”

Page stood speechless, her eyes darting between the only other ponies in the room. Preston had never understood what her problem had been, since the mare regarded him with caution and scorn most of the time. She was used to Preston the pushover, the stallion he had become since he left Baltimare, but now she had to deal with who he used to be: Preston, the ruthless reporter.

Thankfully, Preston’s captive creature decided to give up the act. In a sudden flash of blinding green flames, Twilight Sparkle had become a nauseatingly green unicorn mare, complete with a cutie mark that looked like a mask.

The sudden change must have caught Page by surprise, seeing as she immediately began hovering above the ground as soon as the emerald flames dissipated, but Preston had to admit that he was stunned as well. Why had this creature changed into another pony instead of reverting to how changelings were supposed to look?

“Y-you’ve gotta be kidding me!” Page cried, eyes wide. “This is what I’ve been guarding? This is what I’ve been I’ve been staying up all night to protect?!”

“Calm down,” Preston ordered, hoping that they wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention. “If you actually want to have those questions answered, then shut your trap. Time’s ticking, and we’ve got everything we need right here.”

Page stiffened, more out of surprise than irritation. She probably wasn’t used to hearing Preston talk like that, but he didn’t have time to deal with her at the moment. Twilight had been taken by the queen, so they didn’t have much time to figure things out before they made their move. Preston felt horrible for talking to her like that, but his determination to save Red kept him from losing his focus. He’d go to whatever lengths were necessary to save his friend, which was why he’d left everypony behind to search for Eccondale in the first place.

There was no more room for hesitation. This nasty creature was going to tell him everything it knew, whether it liked it or not.

“Alright, little miss Changeling, start talkin’.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight, still reeling from the realization that Cadance and her big brother had been captured, nearly overlooked the fact that she was talking to the one creature that could have all of the answers she’d been looking for. Snapping herself out of her daze, she knocked against the stone wall to try and get the changeling’s attention again.

“Hey,” Twilight whispered gently. The creature in the other cell still sounded like it was sobbing. “What’s done is done, okay? You seem like a nice, er, thing, so I’m pretty sure you didn’t do it on purpose. Right now, we need to focus on getting out of here.”

Thankfully, her soothing seemed to work, as the creature quieted down almost immediately. “We can’t,” it mumbled. Despite the odd sound to its voice, Twilight could still distinctly pick out emotions. “There’s nothing I can do anyway.”

“You’re a changeling!” Twilight insisted, failing to hide the urgency in her voice. “Can’t you just morph into something that can fit through the bars?”

“That’s not how it works!” the creature shouted, making Twilight wonder if she had offended it somehow. “Why can’t you be as smart as I thought you were? If we could do that, Canterlot would be in ashes by now.”

For some reason, it felt like the subject of the Canterlot invasion was a sore subject, so Twilight avoided mentioning it again. “S-sorry, I’ll admit I don’t know the first thing about changelings,” she stammered. If she could get it to start talking, there was a chance she would figure out a way to escape. “But you could start by telling me about yourself. Is that okay?”

There was a pause from the other cell before Twilight got her answer. “I guess you’re right,” it mumbled. “There’s nothing I can do to make things worse, after all.”

“Don’t talk like that!” Twilight urged, wondering what Pinkie would do in this situation. “Now, let’s turn that frown upside down and have ourselves a little storytime, just like you used to do with Page. How does that sound?”

After a few sniffles, the changeling quieted down. “S-sure. Just ask away and I’ll answer.”

Sighing with relief, Twilight began with the first thing that came to her mind. “Okay, first question. Why is everybody out there—”

“Everypony,” the creature interrupted politely.

“Wait, everypony? If we go by the Websaddle’s dictionary, everypony is a pronoun to be used if all parties involved are ponies, but if there is another race involved, like a gryphon, everybody becomes the correct pronoun. So why—”

“We’re ponies!” the creature blurted out, causing Twilight to jump back. “We’re just... different. That’s all.”

Already fascinated, Twilight continued, careful not to step on any more touchy subjects. “Okay, I apologize. So, why does everypony in town appear as a normal.... I mean, as a pony?”

“That form you saw in Canterlot? It’s shameful to be seen like that. We’re born like that, so being seen like that would be like being seen in Everdale wearing a foal’s bonnet and a pacifier. Then we grow up and choose who we want to be.”

Twilight almost asked why they had appeared like that when attacked Canterlot, but she stopped herself. If she brought up a difficult topic like that, she might lose her opportunity to learn more about these creatures. “I guess that makes sense,” she mused, trying to pick her questions carefully. “Okay, so adopting another form would be the equivalent of getting a cutie mark in our society, right?”

“Wow,” the changeling whispered quietly. “You catch on quick. Foals remain hidden away until they discover a talent or occupation they enjoy, and that’s when they choose a form. I guess it would be like choosing a costume for Nightmare Night, something to make you stand out, but this is for life. Once you adopt this new life, you choose a name to go along with it, and you are introduced to society. This takes the place of what you call birthdays, actually.”

Trying to control her sudden fascination with the subject, Twilight tried to establish a better connection with the creature to get it to open up even more. “Okay then, what about you? What name did you choose? Or actually, why aren’t you in that form right now?”

“That’s part of my punishment,” the changeling grumbled, sounding like it was fighting back tears again. Could changelings even cry? “I’m not allowed to take any other form for the rest of my life. It’s the worst punishment we can receive. It’s like invalidating our entire life, leaving us with nothing! I have no personality, no talent, nothing at all!”

“Don’t tell me you actually believe that!” Twilight countered, interrupting the creature before it could get any further. “Do you honestly think that you’re nothing but a made up character? Who came up with that character anyway? It was you, somepony who has a special talent and wants to show everypony how unique you are. You may not be able to show it, but you’re still yourself, right?”

Originally, Twilight had only intended to form a false bond with the changeling in order to get answers out of it, but she found herself caring more than she thought she would. After all, this was Nightowl, the pony that had fit in perfectly with the rest of Everdale. If this wasn’t a pony, Twilight didn’t know what was.

When the changeling didn’t respond, Twilight pushed further. “Fine then, tell me about yourself. You decided to be Nightowl, right? What made you choose that name?”

“That’s not me,” the creature whispered hoarsely. “I was assigned to replace him and make sure that Everdale didn’t break our agreement.”

“W-wait,” Twilight stammered, suddenly growing hesitant. “What about the real Nightowl? What happened to him?”

“He’s okay... but not for long.” The changeling sounded genuinely worried. “It’s all my fault! At least I managed to protect the other two....”

Nibbling at her lower lip, Twilight quickly put the pieces together. She knew exactly when Nightowl had been replaced, which answered quite a lot of questions, as well as who the “other two” were.

“I think I understand,” Twilight sighed. “So you helped her escape, right? But how did you convince them to only replace Nightowl?”

“You really do catch on quick,” the creature sighed softly. “You’re right. I convinced them not to replace Page, even though the agreement with Everdale involved assigning two changelings to the nightwatch as a safety precaution.”

“Wait, that means—”

“Yeah. Dotted Line, the old mayor, was the first to break the agreement with us. It all started when he appointed Nightowl to be the nightwatch, breaking the agreement and justifying himself by saying that he was only making sure that everypony was safe.”

Hesitant, Twilight tried to get some clarification. “Before you go any further, what was this agreement about? How did it come about?”

“It’s a long story,” the creature remarked quietly. “I’ll be brief about it. This city was originally founded just over one thousand years ago, according to Princess Chrysalis. We managed to remain hidden, since nopony dared venture into the Everfree Forest, but then little towns started popping up. Everdale was the closest, originally founded by pegasi in an attempt to make it possible to fly over the Everfree to deliver mail. The mailpony would fly from Everdale to Ponyville, providing stops on both ends of the forest in case of an emergency. But, you see, Everdale was much too close to our city.”

Trying to assimilate all of the information, Twilight nodded. “And when was this?”

“My grandfather was around for its founding, but I don’t know the exact year. Either way, Princess Chrysalis went with an embassy of changelings in order to keep our city a secret, and there was a big feast. The first mayor made a deal with us, made by the popular vote of the ponies in Everdale. They would establish a nightwatch of changelings to keep the secret safe, and in return, Everdale would allow a few willing ponies to provide food for us. With this agreement, we would no longer have to venture out and replace other ponies for feeding, which makes me nauseous just thinking about it.”

This was... amazing! Not only did this creature think that changeling feeding was sickening, but it explained why Twilight had never heard of a changeling attack until Canterlot. It was almost like a certain Equestrian holiday where the ponies and zebras shared a feast together in a show of goodwill, but that hadn’t ended well.

“So what happened to the agreement?” Twilight asked, even though she was almost positive of the answer.

“Dotted Line broke it with the nightwatch, so we planned to replace both by force. When we took Nightowl, all he cared about was whether or not Page would be safe. He was so strong that we had trouble keeping a hold on him, but he agreed to go along quietly if Page remained unharmed. I’d never thought that ponies could be so selfless before, since Dotted Line was the exact opposite, but it was kind of touching.... Either way, Dotted Line ordered that nopony in Everdale could tell their children about the changelings and stopped sending ponies over to feed us, cutting off our only source of food! I was there when Princess Chrysalis told us about it.... We were furious.”

Twilight almost asked where Nightowl was at the moment, but she tried to focus her questions on leading the conversation forward. “So Dotted Line was the most recent mayor, right?”

“Right,” the creature explained. “In the end, only he and Red knew that the changelings existed, since she was his secretary. Then....”

As the changeling trailed off, Twilight tried to finish his story for him. “Then you started replacing the townsponies one by one, starting with Dotted Line, right?”

“Actually... no. Because none of us had fed upon an unwilling pony for years, we were left with no way to get food. Princess Chrysalis tried to strike a deal with Dotted Line, leaving the nightwatch out of it, but after nearly 10 years of nearly starving, we were pushed to the breaking point. We were trying to remain peaceful, but in the end... even Princess Chrysalis gave in to the Heart.”

Twilight was already stunned from the realizations thus far, but there was no time for her to sit around and think. “The Heart? What’s that? Some kind of sickness?”

“Almost. Do you know why the Everfree Forest is the only place in Equestria that cannot be controlled? It all stems out from deep underground, beneath the spire in the middle of the city. I don’t know much about it, but Princess Chrysalis tells us that it flares the emotions of those around it, allowing us to feed our entire city without causing permanent damage to anypony. I’ve never seen it myself, but Princess Chrysalis calls it the Heart of Equestria, and that it’s responsible for the Everfree Forest being the way it is.”

This was all too much to take in. Changelings being peaceful? The Heart of Equestria? This was the discovery of a lifetime, but regrettably, there was no time to focus on a detailed interview. That would have to wait. It was strange, but Twilight suddenly became aware that her own emotions seemed unnaturally pronounced, everything from her empathy for the creature to her worry over her friends.

Shuddering at the thought of controlling a pony’s emotions, Twilight shook her head. “So, if the Heart of Equestria increases everypony’s emotions, does it affect you too?” she asked curiously, starting to become worried.

“Yeah,” the changeling responded softly. “After 10 years of starving, Princess Chrysalis finally gave in and told us that we had to find somewhere else to feed in order to survive. She hatched the plan to attack Canterlot and we all followed, thinking that all ponies out there were like Dotted Line. But in the end, we even failed at that. Many of us... lost our families once we got separated, since only a few of us found our way back home....”

Twilight could imagine how the rest of the story went, but she didn’t want to push this poor creature any further. It sounded like it was on the verge of having a mental breakdown, which was understandable considering what this city had gone through. After their defeat at Canterlot, they must have finally acted against Dotted Line, replacing him and demanding that their agreements be met.

Trying to change the subject, Twilight knocked on the wall again. “I’m sorry,” she whispered gently. “I’m sorry for what we did at Canterlot, but we had no choice. But why did you attack us in that bug-ish form like that? I saw your queen imitate an alicorn, so why didn’t the rest of you do that? If you were all alicorns, you could have easily taken over the entire city!”

“That’s not how it works!” the creature shouted again, growing upset. “Only Princess Chrysalis can become an alicorn. It’s blasphemy for any of us to imitate alicorns! Even then, we remained in our foal-like states to appear more threatening, but even if we change forms, we can’t exceed our natural limits. If I were to change into a unicorn, I wouldn’t be any more powerful than I am right now. Even if I were to imitate you, I would not gain your magical talents, only the potential for it. If you take the place of an existing pony, you can’t be stronger than they are. The only one who can do that is the princess, but she almost never changes her form.”

“Why not?” Twilight asked, trying to keep the conversation going. “Chrysalis must be extremely powerful, if she can imitate an alicorn’s power, so why wouldn’t she do that more often?”

“It’s a symbol of her eternal youth,” the changeling explained. “She has the appearance of our original, foal-like states, but she has more wisdom than all of us combined. For her to change form is a serious occasion.”

“Wait, but she took the form of Princess Cadance in the parade! Actually, tell me about that whole pageant thing. It happened when I first arrived here, showing something with the Elements of Harmony. I imagine you know something about it?”

“Of course! We revere you guys, you know. Friendship stirs up so many emotions, making them stronger, but instead of leeching off of them, you six turn them into magic! Every single one of us wants to be one of you, so it’s a huge honor to play you in Princess Chrysalis’ return ceremony.”

“Return ceremony?” Twilight echoed.

“Exactly,” the creature responded, sounding more and more energetic by the second. Talking about the Elements of Harmony had really cheered it up. “It’s celebrated in order to mark Princess Chrysalis’ return from the outside world! It’s a big deal to everypony here, but—”

“That settles it,” Twilight stated firmly, kicking the ground in frustration. If that parade was celebrating Chrysalis’ return to the city, it meant that Chrysalis had been one of the seven ponies in Twilight’s group. The thought was both encouraging and depressing, seeing as it narrowed down the possibilities, but it still proved that Twilight had been completely fooled by an imposter.

“Look, there’s one last thing I need to clear up,” she sighed heavily, hoping for some clarification. “How do Chrysalis’ powers differ from yours?”

The creature caught on to Twilight’s frustration and tried to offset it with its own enthusiasm. “The princess is extremely powerful with magic, even if she hasn’t drained it from anypony,” the creature began, sounding like he was bragging on her behalf. “But her ability to change forms is no different than mine. She can only transform into other ponies, but she can ignore the limits on magic or strength that they may have.”

With a sigh, Twilight lowered her head. That proved that Chrysalis could not have changed into a cockatrice, yet again forcing Twilight to accept that she hadn’t recognized that one of her friends had been replaced. “Thanks, Nightowl,” she mumbled apathetically, heart sinking into her stomach.

“My name... isn’t Nightowl. The name that I chose was Skylight Dreamer.”

Skylight Dreamer? Twilight hadn’t thought of changelings as having names, but the idea seemed like an obvious one after learning so much about them. “Why?” Twilight asked curiously. “What’s your talent?”

There was a hesitation from the other side of the rock wall. “It’s because I always dreamed about seeing the outside world. I wanted to live a normal life like a normal stallion, so I chose to be an earth pony, the most noble of all of them, but it doesn’t make a difference anymore. Skylight Dreamer doesn’t exist. That’s my punishment, after all. The worst punishment is to strip us of our names and forms, invalidating our entire lives. I deserve it anyway. I shouldn’t even exist.”

“Really? You don't exist anymore? Skylight Dreamer doesn’t exist anymore? Then who am I talking to right now?”

Skylight didn’t respond.

“I’m talking to Skylight Dreamer, a noble changeling, that’s who. You had the choice to become anything you wanted, but you still chose to become an earth pony. Instead of asking for magic or a pair of wings, you asked for neither. Skylight Dreamer doesn’t need any of these things. If I were in the same situation, I don’t think I would have been able to make that choice.”

“You...?” Skylight whispered. “Th-the Element of Magic herself? I don’t know what to—”

“I’m nothing special,” Twilight interjected. “I’m just a unicorn who’s lucky enough to have the best friends in the world. If there was an element for humility, you’d be the first in line for it.”

Twilight smiled warmly to herself as she heard the creature — no, Skylight — sob quietly in his cell. “Skylight, I can’t imagine you as an evil pony, so I have to know the truth. What happened back in Everdale? Why did you decide to take Page along with the others? I thought it was part of the deal that Page wouldn’t be replaced.”

The sobbing in the other cell only seemed to get louder. Twilight had spent this entire time asking about the changeling society, but now it was time to figure out the truth. If she could get Skylight to tell her who Chrysalis had taken the form of, there was a chance she could use it as a bargaining chip to escape.

“Sorry fillies, but it looks like storytime’s over.”

A familiar voice cut through Twilight’s thoughts, snapping her back to reality. There, on the other side of the room, stood one of the last ponies that she had expected to see.

“Caesura?!” Twilight gasped, turning to face the disheveled mare.

“Who else?” the unicorn lilted, smiling from ear to ear as she approached Twilight’s cell. “I hate to interrupt such a teary-eyed reunion, but I can’t have you learning too much from our loose-lipped friend.”

“So that’s how it is,” Twilight growled, scowling. “You’re a changeling too, aren’t you? And so is Red!”

Caesura’s smile faltered for a moment, but she burst into peals of laughter at Twilight’s accusation. “Changeling? If only!” she cackled, shaking her head. “Wouldn’t you love to be able to change forms at will? And besides, Red didn’t even help me with any of this!”

“Hold on!” Twilight hissed, narrowing her eyes. “Red admitted to being the ringleader! Why would she lie about that? And why should I trust you? You’re working with them!”

“So many assumptions, my defective detective! It’s no wonder you botched your—”

“Dear, would you kindly stop teasing our guests?” another voice interrupted.

Chrysalis quietly slipped into the room behind Caesura, giving the off-white unicorn a scolding glare. Did that mean that Red wasn’t involved at all? Was Red a changeling? And why did Chrysalis just call Twilight a guest?! Things were making less and less sense by the second.

“Fine,” Caesura scoffed, turning her nose up and making her way back to the door. “Just watch what you say around her. The foal in the other cell already told her more than he should have.”

Just as Caesura was leaving, Chyrsalis stepped aside and frowned, looking quite cross with the petulant unicorn. In fact, she looked exhausted, but still managed to call out to Caesura as she left. “I did not raise you to question your mother’s judgment!”

“What?!” Twilight shrieked, jaw left hanging open.

“Silence,” Chrysalis grumbled as she closed the door behind Caesura, her quiet voice holding significant authority despite her weary eyes. “I have not come here to bother you pointless details. I have come to tell you that Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor are sharing a romantic honeymoon suite in my dungeon.”

“No!” Twilight bleated, beating the cell bars with her front hooves. “What are you going to do to them?!”

“Nothing, actually,” teased Chrysalis, a smug grin spreading across her dark features, bearing a stark contrast to the tired expression she wore a few moments ago. “I’ll have you know that we have struck a deal. Imagine that, hm? The evil queen and the pretty pink princess have made negotiations! It almost makes me want to gag.”

Blinking, Twilight began to notice a few things. If Skylight was right, Chrysalis was supposed to be called a princess, not a queen. Was Skylight lying, or was Chrysalis putting on some sort of evil villain act in an attempt to appear threatening, just like the Canterlot invasion? Whichever was true, Twilight was relieved that some kind of deal had been made.

“The deal,” Chrysalis announced grandly, “is a challenge. A game of wits with a certain violet unicorn I happen to have rotting in my holding cells. If you win, you and your friends will be set free and returned to Canterlot, no strings attached. But if I win, you and your friends will remain my captives until you are all sufficiently drained of any life you have left. It’s funny how Cadance thought it would be acceptable to gamble with your life, isn’t it?”

It sounded too good to be true, even with the horrifying possibility of losing. In fact, it was too good to be true. Twilight had nothing to negotiate with, but somehow Cadance and Shining Armor had convinced her to set up this absolutely ludicrous competition. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

“Twilight Sparkle, I would completely understand if you wanted to decline, but believe me when I say that you have no choice in the matter. You should be grateful that I am proud enough to indulge in such whimsies as this!”

Cautiously, Twilight pulled herself away from the bars of her cell, knowing that Chrysalis was right. Whether it was a trap or not, she was going to have to play along.

“Fine,” Twilight huffed. “What’s this battle of wits all about, then?”

With a triumphant laugh, the changeling queen stalked closer to Twilight’s cell, giving a predatory smirk. “Why, it’s simple!” she sung, looking all too pleased with herself as she leaned down to look Twilight in the eyes. “All you have to do is finish what you started. Your challenge is to figure out what really happened that night in the hotel. That is all.”

“That’s... it?” Twilight gasped quietly. This had to be some sort of trap! “But that’s unfair! How are we supposed to know what the truth is? You could just lie and tell me....”

As Twilight trailed off, she began to realize how this game of theirs would play out. After all, the Princess of Truth was involved with this deal.

“I see you’ve finally caught on,” Chrysalis cackled, rearing back up to her full, impressive height. “And there’s more! Consider it a handicap for me, to show my generosity. You see, while draining that worthless excuse for a princess, I discovered that I gained something more than the power of her husband’s love.”

Twilight, as much as she hated to admit it, had absolutely no idea what Chrysalis was trying to say. Why would she handicap herself? What had she gotten from Cadance? Why didn’t anything make sense anymore?!

“Twilight Sparkle, you know of her truth spell, do you not? Well, I have discovered something nearly identical to it. Now I have a spell of my own, one that may prove useful to you. Out of the goodness of my heart, I shall allow you to make good use of it in our little competition.”

Wincing, Twilight watched as Chrysalis’ jagged horn began to glow a vibrant green, radiating magical energy that would rival any of the alicorn princesses’. She hadn’t felt force like this since Chrysalis had shown her true self at the wedding, and even then she had managed to defeat Princess Celestia in an outright battle of magic.

“You see,” Chrysalis teased, lowering her head to meet Twilight at eye level again. “While Cadance’s spell may compel somepony to tell the truth....”

As she trailed off, Chrysalis, turned her head to Twilight’s left, her eyes locking on the only other changeling in the room. All of the sickly green energy rose to the tip of her crooked horn, coming to a point in a dark, inky shape. Slowly, a black heart materialized, suspended in the air between her and the changeling in the other cell.

“My spell compels them to lie.”

Chapter 19: The Magic Words

Chapter 19

The Magic Words

Page shivered uncontrollably, keeping her eyes focused on the road ahead of her. She and Preston, after discussing their plans, quickly realized that they wouldn’t be able to save Twilight by themselves. There was only one option left: escape and inform Princess Celestia.

The thought of the royal sisters coming in and trashing this city was a comforting thought, but it was hard to remain calm while surrounded by what must have been hundreds of emotion-stealing monsters.

“Oi, calm down,” Preston urged, giving her a nudge with his wing. “They can’t read minds, alright?”

Wincing, Page thought back to the interrogation techniques that Preston had used. She had no idea that he could be so cruel, considering his generally aloof demeanor, but she couldn’t complain, even though it had ended with Preston clocking the creature on the back of the head. Did Red know about this darker side of him? Sighing, Page tossed the thought away, focusing on more important matters.

“I’m calm, alright?” she lied, bristling and trying to cover up her anxiety with anger, an instinctual response of hers. “It’s just the music. It creeps me out.”

Preston didn’t respond for a moment, making Page anxious. From what their captive changeling had told them, the music that played at every street corner held the emotions of pony inside of it, providing them with an endless supply of emotions to feed from. It made her feel sick. Whose emotions were these? Was it somepony she knew?

“I follow ya,” Preston mumbled. He looked unnaturally calm despite their present situation. “If that creature wasn’t lying about this Heart of Equestria, of whatever the hay it’s called, we have a battle plan. If the royal sisters can storm in here and shatter it, the changelings will eventually starve out.”

Page had to admit that she liked the sound of his plan, but there were too many loose ends. “What about the music?” Page asked, doing her best to keep a passive expression as a few other changelings passed her by.

“You haven’t caught on yet?” Preston sighed. “We just need to make ‘ole Chessy undo the spell. I’d bet anything that she’s the one behind it.”

“W-wait, Caesura?” Page whispered, nearly tripping over herself. “No, she wouldn’t do something like that! Why—”

“Calm down,” Preston seethed through his teeth, his placid expression refusing to budge. “And don’t take me for a foal, Page. I may not have grown up here like you, but I know more about this town than anypony. I’m a reporter. It’s my business to know these things. I knew that Dotted Line and Red were keeping secrets from me. I knew that you were covering for Caesura.”

Despite where they were, Page froze in the middle of the street, drawing a few wary looks from the suspicious ponies around them. In a panic, she recovered with a nervous chuckle, waving to the creatures and catching back up to Preston. From what Preston had told her, the changelings were all on the verge of a city-wide panic, seeing as the Elements of Harmony had found them.

“So you knew this whole time?!” Page whispered harshly as she trotted back up to Preston’s side.

“I was investigating why the nightwatch didn’t actually watch anything. I figured it had something to do with the secret Red and Dotted Line were keeping. Turns out I was right. I heard the whole conversation, Page, and you can’t tell me she’s not suspicious.”

Trembling, Page scrambled to offer some kind of explanation, but the facts all pointed irrefutably towards a certain disheveled unicorn. “But... she told me—”

“She lied, Page. You gave her the benefit of the doubt, and she abused it. It’s as simple as that.”

“But...” Page whispered, but didn’t her finish her thought.

“Look,” Preston sighed, “I never actually saw her arrival. I was bluffing. I only overheard you two talking at the shack one night, something about how grateful she was that you were covering for her. Now, listen to me. If you tell me the truth, we’ll have a better chance of wiping these creatures off the map. A pony like her isn’t worth protecting.”

Page was conflicted. There was no arguing with Preston’s line of reasoning, not when she knew that Caesura had strong ties to this city, but how could she betray one of the few friends she had made? Even now, as she listened to the music, she knew why it sounded so familiar. It was similar to how Caesura had always played in town square, right down to the instrumentation.

“Listen to me, Page!” Preston demanded, still keeping his voice subdued so they wouldn’t attract attention. “This isn’t about saving a friend, one who lied to you and betrayed your trust. This is about keeping Equestria safe from changelings. All I need to know is whether or not Caesura is somehow linked to this place.”

The demand was a reasonable one, but Page couldn’t answer immediately. Even if Caesura was responsible for the music she was hearing, Page wanted to know why the unicorn had done it. Sadly, there was no way of knowing that, since Caesura was still in jail.

“Fine,” Page grunted, masking her anxiety again. “Caesura isn’t a wandering musician at all. She’s actually a runaway. A runaway from Eccondale.”

Page noticed her friend wincing, momentarily losing his calm facade. “Wait,” he murmured, looking askance. “You’re saying that Caesura’s a changeling?”

Silently, Page nodded. “That’s the only answer. It was about two months ago that Nightowl and I found her in the Everfree Forest. One night, we heard some shouting inside of the Everfree, so we ran in to investigate. I found her first first, but she nearly attacked me with her instrument cases. I mean, she seemed really scared, but I finally talked her into relaxing. I knew that there was supposed to be some hidden city in the forest, but I had never met anypony from it. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t be curious about it! Caesura was hesitant to trust me, but I finally convinced her to tell me what was going on. She told me she was running away from home to escape her overbearing mother, or something like that.”

Preston nodded as he listened. “And how do you know she wasn’t lying?”

“Trust me, Preston. Caesura may be a good liar, but when I first saw her, she was terrified. I know it’s hard to imagine, but she was shaking like a little lost filly. So when Nightowl came up to see what was going on, I made a split-second decision. I wanted to know what this hidden city was like, so I told him that Caesura was a traveling musician who got lost in the woods. After that... well, you know the rest.”

“I do,” Preston responded quietly. “Red got her a house in Everdale without Dotted Line knowing. That’s what drew my attention in the first place. But, you have to admit, no matter how you look at it, Caesura is one of them. She abused your kindness and used it to orchestrate these disappearances.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Page whispered, voice trembling. Red Tape had been her best friend growing up, but when she became Dotted Line’s secretary, the boisterous pegasus became distant, letting their friendship fade. Caesura had been like an answer to prayer, becoming Page’s only friend outside of the guard shack. Had it all been an act?

“Either way, we know what to do,” Preston stated. “We get out, inform the princesses, and force Caesura to undo her musical hex. I already know the quickest route to Canterlot, so just follow my lead.”

“Wait a second,” Page murmured to herself. “Were you the one that flew to Canterlot for help?”

For a moment, Preston’s impassive expression faltered, his cheeks flushing. “Yeah,” he answered quietly, pursing his lips. “I knew about the ransom note, since I was the one in charge of keeping everypony calm, so I played along with with the ransom demands for the first few weeks. But after seeing the strain it was putting on Red... I had to do something. She’d been on the verge of a mental breakdown ever since Dotted Line disappeared. After seeing that, I had to do something, so I snuck out and informed the royal sisters. I know it was a risky move, but....”

As Preston trailed off, Page gave his shoulder a calming pat. “You did the right thing,” she sighed, trying to forget about Caesura for the moment. “Even now, I still think of Red as my friend. I know I haven’t been the nicest mare in town, but.... Okay, I guess I was just a little defensive about her. I was worried that you’d take her away from me completely. But hey, you seem like a nice enough stallion.”

Page took an unnecessary amount of delight from watching Preston’s face turn a bright shade of red, standing out against his olive-colored coat. “W-well, ya see,” he stammered, starting to sound like his old self again. “I haven’t really said anything to her yet, so it’s not really official, but that’s not important! She’s safe in the jailhouse right now, so let’s get going. We’re almost to the edge of town.”

Stifling a laugh, the sky-blue pegasus felt her spirits lifting. “Oh, you haven’t told her how you felt, hm? That letter of yours totally spilled the beans. I can’t believe you wrote something like that, Romeo!”

“Wh-what? I didn’t—”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” Page chuckled, shaking her head.

“W-well, what about the other Elements of Harmony?” Preston blurted out. She could tell that he was awkwardly attempting to change the subject.

“They’ll be fine,” Page mumbled, trying to convince herself of that. “We came down together, but got separated. We took the minecarts, but apparently they weren’t made for two ponies. I actually got to ride down with Applejack, but the cart crashed thanks to the weight. She managed to shove me out of the way just in time before it went off course. I came out fine, thanks to her quick thinking, so I flew over to the wreckage, but by the time I finally found it, she was gone.”

“Woah,” Preston gasped. “Think she’s okay?”

“Of course!” Page answered confidently. “I mean, c’mon, she’s one of the Elements of Harmony! She wouldn’t get taken down by something silly like that!”

Preston gave a forced laugh, probably just humoring her. Sadly, that tiny moment of happiness was cut short when Page noticed that one of the ponies in the sparse crowd didn’t fit in with the rest. All of the creatures here were wild mixes of colors, looking like they had run headlong into a paint shop, but this mare was a blindingly burnt orange with a dirty blond mane.

“Red!” Page exclaimed, ignoring the surprised creatures around her and taking off like a bullet.

As soon as the pegasus heard her name, the mare shot into the air like a bullet, swiftly diving into one of the houses by the edge of the city and slamming the door behind her. Page was right on her tail, landing in front of the door and preparing to buck it down. But before she could, her common sense caught up to her. There was no way that Red would be in a place like this, not when she was supposed to be in jail!

As Page opened her mouth to warn Preston, an olive-colored streak crashed into the door, shattering the wood off of its hinges. Page, recoiling from Preston’s unnecessary roughness, could only pray that they had enough time to escape before the entire city knew they were there.

“Red!” came Preston’s booming voice as the dust settled.

Page, taking a curt glance at the stunned creatures in the street, quickly jumped inside the house to drag Preston out. If they didn’t hurry, the changelings would alert the queen. If that happened, their only hope for telling the royal sisters would be lost.

“Page?” a familiar voice called out from inside the house. “Page!”

Her heart caught in her chest. Her ears may have been deceiving her, but her eyes were telling a similar story.

“Nightowl?!”

As much as Page tried to deny it, Nightowl was standing in the back of the entry room of the house, eyes wide and jaw agape. Red leaned weakly into his side with a weary expression, but her unreadable gaze was focused on Preston. It only took a moment for Page to realize what was going on.

“Preston, run!” she shouted, slowly backing off. “They’re changelings!”

“Wait!” Nightowl cried out, but neither Red or Preston were listening. “We’re not changelings! Look, I found Red passed out in one of the minecarts, so I woke her up, but now.... Page, listen to me, Red needs—”

“How can I believe you?!” Page cried, wings flared. “The Nightowl I know is in another city right now!”

Upon hearing that, the gray stallion’s eyes widened. “That means...” he whispered, crestfallen. “W-wait, I can prove it! Your name is Page Inkwell! Your special talent is writing! You joined the nightwatch with me seven years ago because—”

“Stop!” Page cried. “You can’t be him! He’s in jail right now, back in Everdale, along with Red and Caesura! But how do you know all of that about me? This doesn’t—”

“Because I am Nightowl! Look, I don’t have much time to explain, just listen to me! We need to get out of here and find Princess Cadance! Red is still under her spell!”

That was when Page finally noticed what Preston had been staring at the whole time. Red, who had been silently waiting at Nightowl’s side, wasn’t returning Preston’s gaze. In fact, she wasn’t gazing at anything. Her eyes were entirely white.

Wincing, the sky-blue pegasus tried to tear her aways away from the unnatural sight. Was that how she had looked when Cadance had used the spell on her? The memory of the truth spell sent shivers racing through Page’s spine, recalling the intense rush of emotions that erupted inside of her while she had been under its sway. It was impossible to imagine such intensity lasting for more than a single minute, much less however long Red had endured for. How was she still able to stand? As Page looked closer, she realized just how badly the burnt-orange pegasus was shaking. Her entire body appeared to be struggling at the mere concept of standing.

Before Page could ask for clarifications, her head began to ache again. Ever since Cadance had used that spell on her, certain memories had started causing headaches, possibly because of how blurry they were. The memories in question revolved around scenes from when she was asleep, which weren’t normal for a pony to have. She could remember being knocked out and carried around Everdale before ending up inside on some sort of bed, but she had been unconscious the entire time.

“Oi, could somepony kindly tell me what’s wrong with her?!” Preston shouted desperately, but Page was hardly paying attention. She was focusing on a certain memory that she had overlooked, one that had been brought up by Cadance’s truth spell. During her time under its effects, she had been so overwhelmed that she completely ignored one of the memories it brought up.

Page wished that she had a time spell so that she could go back and slap herself silly. If she hadn’t been so focused on proving Twilight Sparkle wrong, she would have noticed a vital clue, one that only she knew.

“H-hey, calm down,” she heard Nightowl plead. “Since when did Princess Cadance has a—”

“Preston!” Page barked, grinding her teeth together in frustration. “You need to hurry up and go fetch the princesses. I’m going to find Twilight Sparkle.”

“Are you crazy?!” Preston cried, forcibly tearing his gaze away from Red.

“Don’t try and stop me,” Page ordered, turning towards the doorway. “I’m probably too late, but there’s something I should have told her. If I had, we would’ve been able to avoid this mess. Preston, go find Princess Cadance and get Red fixed up, then alert the royal sisters about what’s going on here.”

As Page steeled herself to fly, she heard Preston calling out behind her. “Page!” he belted out. “This is ridiculous! Ludicrous, even! I don’t care what wacky epiphany you think you had, but you’re coming with us!”

“Hey, Preston? If you aren’t making out with Red the next time I see you, you’ll have some explaining to do.”

Laughing at her horribly inappropriate farewell, Page took off into the sky, making a beeline for the spire at the center of the city and praying that she made it in time. After all, Twilight Sparkle was already in the hooves of one of the most dangerous creatures in Equestria.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight had no idea where to begin. How was she supposed to come up with a plausible theory off of the top of her head? Her first problem was that, since Chrysalis was claiming to have replaced one of her friends, her earlier theory was almost certainly wrong.

“I’m waiting, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis teased. “Is our brilliant detective out of ideas already? We haven’t even started!”

Instead of responding with something snarky, Twilight closed her eyes and focused. Chrysalis’ taunts were difficult to ignore, thanks to the emotional manipulation from the Heart of Equestria. So far, the changeling queen had not given her any sort of limit on how many guesses were allowed, so there was no need to rush.

“Twilight Sp—”

“Let her think!” came an unexpected shout from behind, derailing Twilight’s train of thought. Cadance stood defiantly where she was, her posture fitting the role of an alicorn princess.

Twilight did her best to interrupt, silently praying that Chrysalis wouldn’t make good on her threats against Shining Armor. “Cadance, I—”

“It’s fine,” the brightly colored alicorn assured, giving Twilight a motherly smile. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t harass you, okay? Trust me on this one. I’m here to protectyou, not the other way around.”

Slightly confused, Twilight nodded. Cadance had never acted so regally in the time that Twilight had known her, but how could she be so calm at a time like this?

“Okay then,” Twilight sighed, nodding. If Chrysalis was going to force her into this ridiculous duel, Twilight was going to play by her own rules. “My first theory is as follows: none of my friends were ever replaced.”

“Oh?” Chrysalis mused. Twilight caught her making a covertly threatening glare in Cadance’s direction. “Well, my dear detective, let me tell you a little something.”

With that, Chrysalis’ jagged horn burst to life, but the sickeningly green glow was overshadowed by the azure light radiating from the massive gem in the chamber’s center. A small, ebony heart appeared, just like before, and the creature’s eyes faded into a deep shade of black.

“I didn’t replace anypony you know.”

Wincing, Twilight accepted the lie. She had been expecting that answer, but deep down, she’d been dreading it as well. That proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that one of her friends had been replaced. But what about the wording Chrysalis had chosen? Why didn’t she say she had replaced one of Twilight’s friends?

“Chrysalis, that didn’t prove me wrong. I said that you never replaced any of my friends, not somepony I knew. There’s a difference.”

For a moment, the creature’s expression faltered, but it was masked by her lifeless, ebony eyes. Bringing a hoof up to her chest, Chrysalis responded with a nauseatingly friendly tone. “I’m offended, Twilight! I didn’t replace one of your friends!”

Twilight thought that she had been onto something, but Chrysalis quickly denied the possibility that she had replaced somepony outside of the Elements of Harmony. During this duel, Twilight knew to be on guard for wordplay like that, just in case Chrysalis tried to slip in a few misleading answers. Either way, the detective had already formed a strategy to get as much information as possible. She wasn’t going to try and solve these mysteries right out of the gate, not when she could force Chrysalis to give her whatever lies and truths she wanted. After all, this wasn’t a whodunnit mystery anymore, since Chrysalis had already admitted to being the mastermind behind all of the disappearances.

“Okay then, Chrysalis. How about this? I say that everypony but me was replaced by changelings. How does that sound?”

Chrysalis’ eyes reverted back to their usual green color and the ebony heart vanished. “How heartless of you, Twilight,” Chrysalis huffed, mocking offense at the idea. “You truly have no faith in your friends, nor yourself. It’d be a shame if a certain five ponies heard you say that.”

Frowning, Twilight averted her gaze for a moment. She had gotten so caught up in this wild game of deductions that she had nearly forgotten about how her friends would feel. What if they were listening in? It seemed like the kind of trickery that Chrysalis would resort to.

“Fine,” Twilight grumbled, more upset with herself than anything else. Was she truly that terrible of a friend? “But my theory still stands. Your move.”

Wearing a genuinely disappointed frown, Chrysalis nodded, but she didn’t use her lying spell again. Instead, she turned to Cadance. “Fine. Now, Cadenza, would you be a dear and let me use that wonderfully handy truth spell of yours?”

Wordlessly, Cadance did as she was told, materializing a pink heart in between the two of them. The sight of Chrysalis with pale, white eyes was quite intimidating, but it proved that Cadance’s truth spell was working.

“I am thankful for your help, Cadenza. Twilight Sparkle, only one of your friends was replaced.”

Why would Chrysalis bother to thank Cadance? Ignoring the question, Twilight nodded. “I need clarification,” she demanded. “Who do you consider to be my friends?”

Without hesitation, Chrysalis answered, eyes still a milky white hue. “Your friends refer to Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Cadenza, and Shining Armor. I will also say this next sentence to avoid confusion. Changelings will be included as ponies if any changelings are involved.”

“Thanks,” Twilight responded, finding that last clarification quite helpful. That narrowed down the amount of possible wordplay involved. Despite that relief, Twilight found herself bothered at the inclusion of Cadance and her brother. Either way, it knocked out one possibility, but Twilight already had enough evidence to prove that Page had not been the one that Chrysalis replaced.

“Chrysalis, how many ponies had been replaced by changelings on the night that Page was taken?”

Chrysalis’ haunting, soulless eyes turned towards Cadance again. As the changeling queen nodded, the glow faded, returning Chrysalis to how she had been before. In a way, she looked refreshed, but also rather weary.

“That’s not a valid theory,” Chrysalis stated flatly. “You cannot simply ask me questions and have me answer them. If those were the rules, you would only have to ask me who I replaced. That wouldn’t be very much fun, would it?”

“You’re right,” Twilight grumbled, knowing that things wouldn’t be that easy. “But you’re not making this any fun, either. Everything’s so open-ended!”

“Really?” Chrysalis hummed, flashing Twilight a smug, toothy grin. Her horn lit up once more, creating a familiar black heart. “If you’re not going on the offensive, then allow me!”

With a blank, ebony gaze, Chrysalis recited her lies as if from a script. “Your barrier spell lied to you. I changed forms inside of the hotel and skewed the results!”

For a moment, Twilight almost took those words at face value, but quickly remembered Chrysalis’ spell. That meant that Twilight’s barrier spell was accurate, but it also limited Chrysalis from changing forms. Why would she give out free information like this?

“Okay, what about other changelings? Did any changelings take other forms inside of the hotel?”

With a cursory nod and a few flashes of magic, Chrysalis eyes turned white again, signifying Cadance’s truth spell. “Nopony inside of the hotel changed their forms.”

Wincing, Twilight gnawed on her bottom lip to help her focus. If nopony changed forms, she was back where she started, and she couldn’t rely on wordplay between the terms ‘changelings’ and ‘ponies’. The only difference was that Twilight didn’t have to worry about accusing her friends, which offered a surprisingly simple answer.

“Okay, Chrysalis, how about this. You replaced Rainbow Dash, who took the opportunity to throw Page out of the window while she was left alone on the upper floors. Nightowl stowed Page in the closet before that so I wouldn’t see her.”

“Nightowl did not put Page in the closet. I did not throw Page out of the window. I shall also confirm the accuracy of your barrier. Page passed through a magical barrier three times, and all such barriers were created by Twilight Sparkle.”

The suddenness of Chrysalis’ rebuttal was disheartening, but not crushing. However, it completely shattered Twilight’s only working theory about the mystery of room 201. Besides Nightowl not putting page in the closet, which hardly mattered, the fact that Chrysalis did not throw Page out of the window caused a few logical issues. Strangest of all was that, unprovoked, Chrysalis had revealed that Page had gone through the outer barrier, based on that number.

Trying to quiet her panic, which was bolstered by the Heart of Equestria, she shot back a response. “Define throw! And define yourself!”

“When I speak of myself, I refer to myself in any form. When I speak of throwing, the term constitutes picking something up and sending it through the air. I shall rephrase my earlier statement, but it still stands. I never forced Page to exit room 201 in any physical way.”

Dumbfounded, Twilight scrambled together a counter to Chrysalis’ truth. “Then you replaced Rarity and did it indirectly! With magic!”

“Magic counts as forcing Page to leave the room in a physical way. I did not use magic to remove Page from room 201.”

As soon as Twilight could come up with anything, it was immediately shot down by the white-eyed creature in front of her. It felt like she was trying to fight against a brick wall, one that made snarky comments every time she messed up.

“Then my earlier theory stands! Page left the room of her own volition!”

“Page did not leave the room intentionally.”

“Then maybe she sleepwalked out of the room!”

“Page does not sleepwalk. Page was unconscious when she left room 201.”

“Then...” Twilight gasped, beginning to back away from the unsettling creature in front of her. How was that possible? If she could trust Cadance’s truth spell, which had been active the entire time, how had Page gotten out of the room while the inner barrier was down and the outer barrier was still up? Regardless, there had to be an answer somewhere.

With a gentle sigh, Chrysalis’ eyes returned to their natural color, making it seem like letting the spell dissolve was painful. “What, are you done already?” she taunted, buzzing her wings and hovering to the stunned unicorn’s side. “Feel free to throw in the towel. After all, those spells are quite tiring to use for such an extended period of time. I may have good practice with it, but I’m far from perfect. I’m sure Cadenza wouldn’t mind, either.”

Baring her teeth, Twilight stood proud and defiant, refusing to let Chrysalis intimidate her. “Not a chance,” she hissed in response. “I’ll never give up. Time is on my side, after all. You won’t be able to keep the royal sisters from finding you. All I have to do is stall for long enough and they’ll eventually find their way here. After all, you can’t keep Cadance awake forever. Eventually, she’s going to have to sleep, and then she’ll tell Luna where you are.”

For a moment, it looked like Cadance was about to say something, but she was silenced when Chrysalis held up a dark hoof in her direction. “Cadenza will do no such thing when she is finally allowed to sleep. After all, I have her precious husband as a hostage. The instant that Celestia or Luna sets hoof in this city, Mi Amore Cadenza will be filing to be officially declared a widow.”

Twilight winced, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught Cadance’s reaction as well. The alicorn appeared shocked, like she hadn’t expected Chrysalis to carry through with her threat, which added more to the list of things that didn’t make sense. Twilight couldn’t begin to understand what was going on between the two mythical creatures.

“Now,” Chrysalis mused, “where were we? Ah, yes, that’s right. I was waiting for our detective’s brilliant explanation of how Page disappeared from room 201. If you would, detective?”

Huffing indignantly, Twilight remained as calm as she could. “Okay, how about this? You replaced Pinkie Pie! You and Caesura were together on the third floor, thus nullifying Caesura’s alibi! Besides Rainbow Dash, you two were the last ones down to the lobby, giving you plenty of time to stop by room 201 and toss Page out of the window!”

Blinking, Chrysalis appeared to ponder over the theory, giving Twilight the impression that she had gotten close to the truth. This was a theory she had only recently hatched, but it made a surprising amount of sense. By replacing Pinkie, who was with Caesura, Chrysalis would have free reign over the hotel for a precious few minutes. Sadly, those hopes were dashed as soon as Chrysalis fired up her lying spell again.

“Caesura and the pony with her stopped at the second floor on their way to the lobby.”

“Then how about this? Caesura teleported into the room before going down to the lobby!”

“Caesura can teleport.”

“Caesura teleported Page out of the room!”

“Caesura can teleport other ponies.”

“Then you teleported into the room!”

“Caesura and the pony with her separated on their way down to the lobby.”

“Then you teleported with her!”

“I can teleport while in the form of an earth pony.”

Grinding her teeth, Twilight took a step back so that she had some space to think. She was running herself in circles with this mystery. Before answering, she went over all of the facts again. Her barrier results had not been tampered with, so it seemed like a good place to start.

Okay, let’s try this again. For the outer barrier, there were 21 clear shapes and 18 blurry ones. Clear shapes indicate walking, and blurry shapes indicate running or higher speeds. Four of the clear shapes belonged to Preston, Red, Caesura, and Nightowl carrying Page, none of whom left the hotel. Subtracting those four, we have 17 clear and 18 blurry. If I assume that 17 clear shapes account for 17 blurry ones, there’s one left over. That leftover pony exited the hotel and didn’t come back while the barrier was still up, and there’s only one pony that could be: Page. The inner barrier is even simpler. One shape belongs to Nightowl carrying Page, three shapes belong to Nightowl himself, two shapes belong to Rarity, and I account for the last two. Everything seems conclusive. If only Chrysalis’ stupid memory ball worked!

“I’m waiting, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis sung, apparently having undone her spell in the meantime. “Dazzle me with your astounding deductions.”

Pensive, Twilight nodded. She may have been stumped with Page’s disappearance, but there were plenty of other mysteries that needed to be solved.

“Fine, let’s move on to another mystery. The lobby. I propose that the 11 ponies that Caesura brought in were all changelings. Skylight told me that nopony but Dotted Line and Red knew about your existence, so it wouldn’t make sense for the 11 of them to be your accomplices. I also propose that you replaced Rarity, and that you took control of the situation by pretending to play a game, knocking out Red and Preston with your levitation spell once the lights went out!”

Once again, Chrysalis paused to think before enacting her spell again. “The three ponies that were left behind in the lobby were conscious.”

“Ha, that doesn’t prove anything! You knocked yourself out with levitation as well!”

“I rendered myself unconscious.”

“Then you had one of your accomplices knock you out!”

“Somepony rendered me unconscious.”

“Then... you knocked yourself out on accident!”

“I accidentally knocked myself out.”

“O-okay, you didn’t replace Rarity! The 11 changelings worked by themselves!”

“Caesura did not attend the party. The 11 ponies that Caesura brought in were not changelings. The changelings caused the disappearances in the lobby without help from inside the hotel.”

Twilight Sparkle found herself absolutely flustered. First off, there was that completely irrelevant statement at the beginning, but that was the least of her worries. No matter what theory she put forth, Chrysalis was prepared to shoot it down without a second thought. For the first time since the entrance exam to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, Twilight felt like she was completely inadequate. Sure, she had doubted herself plenty of times before, but she’d never felt as utterly clueless as she was now.

But it wasn’t over yet. Twilight just had to find a hoofhold, something that she could latch onto and branch out from. If she could solve one of the other cases, she would know who was behind it, and if it happened to be one of her friends, she knew where to start for the other mysteries. This was only the beginning.

“Okay, next mystery!” Twilight announced, taking a deep breath and preparing herself for the worst. “The note on the fountain. I propose that Caesura placed it while trying to levitate Pinkie Pie!”

Much to Twilight’s surprise, her opponent’s eyes regained their verdant color, indicating that the lying spell had faded. “I have no response,” Chrysalis stated nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders.

Blinking, Twilight raised a hoof to object. “Wait, does that mean—”

“Absolutely. Congratulations, Twilight Sparkle, you solved the mystery of the note. Brava.”

Cautious, Twilight pursed her lips. “That’s it? You’re just giving up?”

“Of course not! I just can’t prove you wrong at the moment. And honestly, that one was so simple that it would be pointless for me to try and defend it.”

Now that she had found a small glimmer of hope, Twilight wasted no more time in moving on to the next mystery. “Alright, next! Mezza’s petrification! I propose that her statue was fake, and that you planted it out there before we all went to find Eccondale!”

Chrysalis gave a weary yawn as she turned to Cadance and nodded. Within moments, her eyes glowed an iridescent white. “Mezza’s statue is real. Mezza was petrified instantly.”

Nodding, Twilight tried to attack it from another angle. There was a very limited set of possibilities for this case, considering the barrier that she had created. “Then I propose that Mezza was a changeling! She was working with you and trying to confuse us!”

“The Mezza you saw was not a changeling.”

“Good to know. If Mezza was really the victim here, you must have teleported outside, found a cockatrice, then teleported it inside of the barrier so you could force her to stare at it!”

“No teleportation was involved.”

“What about a petrification spell?”

“I do not know a petrification spell.”

“Then you could levitate something on the other side of the barrier, meaning—”

Before Twilight could toss another wild theory out, Chrysalis rammed her hoof into the floor and nodded intensely to Cadance, who released the truth spell immediately. Now that her eyes were back to normal, Twilight saw the frustration that lay within them. The changeling queen looked rather upset, like a mother scolding her filly.

“Twilight Sparkle,” she chided, “do not take advantage of what I am offering you! I am allowing you to use Cadenza’s truth spell as well as my own, but I am starting to regret that decision! You should be using your intellect and knowledge of your friends to make at least somewhat educated guesses, not just lambasting the both of us with nonsense until you blindly stumble upon the right answer!”

The sudden tirade caught Twilight off guard, but she refused to back down. “Well, you never set any rules! I’m playing your game by your rules on your terms, so you don’t have any room to complain like a selfish little filly!”

“Selfish little filly?! This coming from the ungrateful foal who doesn’t understand a single thing about Equestria! You want to know so badly what—”

“I’d bet I know more than a monster like you! You’ve been cooped up in this cave the whole time, so don’t you lecture me about—”

“Girls!”

The sudden shout snapped Twilight out of her sudden fury, catching her completely off balance. Chrysalis appeared to be just as surprised, her once threatening eyes shifting to an unreadable glare. Twilight recognized the voice of her old foalsitter, letting its scolding tone sink in. It was the same one that had chided her as a filly when she stayed up too late to read.

“Cadenza, you would be wise to not interrupt us again,” the changeling queen hissed, but there didn’t seem to be any malice left in her unnaturally tinny voice. “I make no apologies for what I have said.”

Before Twilight could make a retort, her opponent spun around and returned to the Heart of Equestria, placing a dark hoof against it and drawing deep breaths. Watching the changeling queen brood would have normally warranted a lengthy session of gloating, but the look on Cadance’s face told Twilight that nothing of the sort would be allowed

Twilight, working to calm herself, tried to object. “Cadance, I just—”

“I know, Twilight,” the alicorn sighed, sounding as if she were lost in thought. There was something about the way she held herself that made her appear like she hadn’t slept in days. “Please, all I ask is that you play along. As you may have noticed, we don’t have much of a choice in the matter, not when... not when she has Shining Armor as a hostage. I know it’s difficult to control yourself around the Heart of Equestria like this, but there’s no other option.”

Frowning, Twilight glanced back and forth between the other occupants of the room before finally landing on Cadance. “So she told you about the Heart, didn’t she? Cheeselegs over there is being awfully generous with information. Also, I’ve got to ask you something. What’s up with the Crystal Heart? It’s like a miniature version of this thing here, not to mention your cutie mark, so what—”

“Cadenza!” came Chrysalis’ piercing voice. “You are not to speak unless I allow it! Do not forget our agreement!”

Twilight looked to the alicorn for some kind of answer, but Cadance merely nodded, stepping away from Twilight and lowering her head submissively. Once again, there was no reason for any kind of deal like this to exist, not when Chrysalis had Shining Armor locked up in the dungeon somewhere, so Twilight couldn’t understand why Cadance was acting so meek. She was an alicorn, and in Twilight’s experience, alicorns weren’t ones to give up without a fight.

The more that Twilight thought about her situation, the more questions popped up. The most glaring issue that Twilight noticed involved the rules of the duel itself. She couldn’t lose. If she stalled for a long enough time, the royal sisters would notice the lack of contact with the Elements of Harmony, even if Cadance stuck to her end of the bargain. It was only a matter of time before Chrysalis was found and ousted. What drove the changeling queen to agree to this? She had rigged the duel from the very start, but not in her own favor. No matter how Chrysalis chose to play, she would lose this duel by the very rules she had created.

“Allow me to get things back on track,” Chrysalis coughed, sounding like she was forcing herself to sound stoic. “In case you haven’t noticed, Twilight, the mystery of Mezza is not suited to simple truths and lies. I suggest that you think through the events you witnessed before you make another blind accusation.”

It was unnerving, hearing the villainous creature speak with such a professional attitude, but Twilight remembered Cadance’s warning. She had no choice but to play along at this point.

Silently, Twilight closed her eyes and reimagined the scene. It began with her extending the barrier, knocking a few monsters out of the way and leaving only eight ponies inside. They divided into groups, some going solo, but they all ended up together at Mezza’s statue. In the meantime, from what Twilight knew, Mezza had been actively trying to split the group up for an unknown reason. The earth pony had blatantly lied to Rarity and Pinkie, saying that Twilight had ordered them to split up and search, but she had also distracted Rainbow Dash and drew her away from Fluttershy. The most logical conclusion was that Mezza was an accomplice to her own petrification, but that made absolutely no sense. As for the rest, Twilight had heard Mezza scream about her daughter, another confusing event. Regardless, Twilight had gone to the barrier, found an imprint in the grass, and ran into Rainbow Dash at the scene of the crime.

Gathering her thoughts, Twilight decided that making an accusation based on what she knew would be ill advised. “I would like to ask for some clarification,” she announced. “Was Mezza truly looking for her lost daughter, Dolce?”

Chrysalis considered this for a moment, but she spoke without any enchantments. “You forget that I may only speak the truth that I know. How can I be sure what another pony’s motives are? After all, who is to say that she even exists?”

“Okay, let me rephrase this,” Twilight sighed, feeling silly for forgetting such a simple fact. “Does Dolce exist?”

After taking a moment to ponder over the question, Chrysalis enchanted herself once again with a lying spell. “Dolce is a character of fiction. She is dead. She does not exist in the real world.”

“Thank you. I think I know what’s going on, now. I believe that this crime was committed from outside of the barrier. One of your changelings took the form of Dolce after they heard the cockatrice’s cry, which sounded once my barrier pushed it to the perimeter. This changeling contacted Mezza and told her to split everypony up and meet her back by the barrier to talk in private. Once there, she tricked Mezza into staring at the cockatrice. How does that sound to you?”

The changeling queen grinned knowingly, the same kind of grin a filly would wear when she had a secret that everypony wanted to know. “The crime was committed by somepony you didn’t know. Somepony took the form of Dolce.”

That was odd. Why would Chrysalis give away such an important piece of information when she could have given away something more trivial? Twilight had been oddly specific with her theory on purpose, trying to bait Chrysalis into releasing more hints than she needed to, but she hadn’t expected it to succeed this well. Chrysalis could have attacked one of the less significant details, which would have been the smarter move, but she instead chose to add something more revealing. Did this mean that the rest of her theory was correct? Or was Chrysalis baiting her somehow?

Before Twilight could reply, Chrysalis let her spell fade, taking a deep breath and steadying herself. “I believe you’re starting to understand this one,” she remarked, regarding Twilight with a wary eye. “In fact, I feel that you can easily solve it with the information I’ve already given you. Though, of course, you would have to figure out who I was first.”

“One last question. Did you change your form inside of my barrier?”

“Come now, Twilight Sparkle. I believe you already know the answer to that question, but let me make things more difficult for you. Cadenza, if you would be so kind....”

Within moments, Chrysalis eyes were alight with magic. “While inside of the barrier, I took no more than three forms.”

“I figured as much,” Twilight snorted. There was something fishy about that statement, but it didn’t directly interfere with her current theory. In fact, it didn’t narrow things down at all. “Fine then, back to business. Let’s talk about Page’s disappearance.”

“Very good,” Chrysalis praised, her cynical attitude returning. “I’m delighted to see that I finally managed to talk some sense into you. I guess I should watch what I say, then!”

“Oh?” Twilight countered, imitating Chrysalis’ smug attitude. “It’s a bit too late for that. I’ve already figured out how you managed to petrify Mezza inside of my barrier. It’s time to put this mystery to rest.”

“Really? Oh, I must say, watching you steadily go insane is such a treat! What are you going to say next, that I replaced you? I’d be more than happy to rev up the old lying spell to counter that one!”

“Sorry, Chrysalis, but I’ve got a better theory than that. Let’s get back to Page’s disappearance from room 201. I propose that you had a changeling waiting in the hotel when we set the barrier up, one that hid on the second floor and waited for the perfect opportunity to throw Page out of the window!”

Upon hearing this, Chrysalis let out a satisfied cackle, rearing her head back in a theatrical gesture. “Brilliant!” she cried through her hysterics. “I never even considered that possibility! Congratulations, Twilight Sparkle, you have successfully outwitted me by concocting a theory too ludicrous to counter!”

“Joke’s on you, cheeselegs,” Twilight hissed, actively trying to keep her opponent’s jabs from phasing her. “If you can’t counter my theory, I win.”

Chrysalis sounded like she didn’t even hear Twilight, seeing as she was still in the middle of her villainous reverie. “If you insist!” she gasped in between cackles, turning her attention to Cadance. “I’d like to start this one off with a few truths, if you don’t mind.”

Nodding to Cadance, Twilight smiled. “Please do.”

With a tiny flash of light, Chrysalis’ eyes became pearly white, just like before. “You saw every single pony that was inside of the hotel that night. There were no ponies, changelings, or other creatures hiding in any other rooms.”

Grinding her teeth, Twilight tried another angle. She had been fairly confident with her earlier idea, but it seemed that Chrysalis wouldn’t allow her to continue down that road. “Okay, that still doesn’t prove me wrong! I probably saw this mysterious guest and mistakenly thought they were part of the 17 townsponies in the lobby!”

“No more than 28 different ponies were ever inside of the hotel on the night of the disappearances. Nopony passed through the outer barrier more than twice.”

Silently, Twilight counted the ponies that she had seen at the party. Sure enough, the number checked out. “W-wait a moment,” she stammered. “Does that mean 28 different ponies at the same time, or throughout the whole night? What about changelings taking different forms? What about Cadance and Shining Armor?”

“No more than 28 different ponies were ever inside of the hotel on the night of the disappearances. This does not mean 28 at the same time. Leaving and entering the hotel again would not change that number. Changelings, regardless of their form, only count as one. Cadenza and Shining Armor as excluded from that night, as it was technically morning when they arrived. I shall also add one more addendum. Between when the ponies in the lobby left and when the outer barrier fell, the number of ponies in the hotel never exceeded 11.”

Beginning to grow anxious, Twilight gnawed on her lower lip some more in the hopes of finding some wordplay in that statement. It was airtight. “Okay, that proves that it wasn’t some mysterious third party,” she mumbled to herself, taking a deep breath.

Chrysalis, upon hearing this, motioned for Cadance to release her spell. “And now, the icing on the cake. I hope you’re ready, because I’m feeling rather generous at the moment.”

Before Twilight could answer, she glanced up at the sudden green glow, realizing that Chrysalis had just readied her lying spell. With a sharp flick of her spidery mane, the villainous creature began to pace back and forth in front of the Heart of Equestria, unable to contain her bubbling excitement.

The lies she spouted were beyond anything that Twilight could have been prepared for.

“Rainbow Dash threw Page out of the window!

“Applejack threw Page out of the window!

“Fluttershy threw Page out of the window!

“Rarity threw Page out of the window!

“Pinkie Pie threw Page out of the window!

“Caesura threw Page out of the window!

“Nightowl threw Page out of the window!

“Red threw Page out of the window!

“Preston threw Page out of the window!”

Twilight, gasping for air, began to feel physically ill. Breathing became a chore. Each repeated sentence was like another stroke of a magical hammer, pounding in the nails that kept her from escaping this infinite loop of logic. This was impossible. Absolutely impossible!

Chrysalis had listed off everypony that could have possibly thrown Page out of the window. Page didn’t leave of her own volition, but she didn’t sleepwalk either. Chrysalis already said that she hadn’t done it herself. The ponies that were down in the lobby couldn’t have done it in the time allotted, either, not to mention how none of them went through the barrier more than twice. Even if one of them had flown out of the front door and up to the second floor to grab Page on the way out, they would have left extra shapes in the outer barrier, violating Chrysalis’ truth.

Desperate, Twilight’s mind worked at breakneck speed. There had to be some kind of wordplay involved, something that would render all of those statements moot.

“Wait a second!” she exclaimed, regaining her energy. “One of the ponies in the lobby, once they were outside, could have levitated Page out of the window without passing back through the barrier!”

“There were two unicorns in the lobby.”

“Wait, if you had replaced Rarity, would that count as a unicorn?”

“I do not count as whatever race I am disguised as.”

Wincing, Twilight combined that with the earlier facts. None of the changelings had changed forms in the lobby, meaning that Rarity had been the only unicorn. It would be impossible to accurately levitate Page out of the window without a decent line of sight, so unless Rarity had walked outside to do it and then walked back in, Rarity couldn’t have done it, once again ignoring the imprints on the outer barrier. There were only a few options left, but Twilight wasn’t going to give up so easily.

“You’ve made your point, but now it’s time for me to make another. You only said that none of the changelings changed forms inside of the hotel, but the keyword there is inside! Once outside, one of them changed into a unicorn and levitated Page out of room 201!”

“Page was levitated out of room 201.”

With that one sentence, all of Twilight’s theories crumbled beneath her, leaving her trapped in the endless loop of logic Chrysalis had caused. No, it’s not over yet! Think, Twilight Sparkle, think! There has to be something she’s left out!

“Aha!” Twilight shouted, standing defiantly before her ebony-eyed opponent. “It’s just semantics! Page wasn’t thrown out of the window, was she? She could have been pushed, or anything else! You only said that you didn’t force her out of the window, but you used throw for everypony else!”

Chrysalis’ toothy grin widen from ear to pointed ear as she watched her victim squirm. “Page wasn’t thrown out of the window.”

“That’s...” gasped Twilight as she took a step backwards, faltering yet again.

This wasn’t possible. There was an answer somewhere, otherwise this duel wouldn’t work. Her barrier had given her accurate results, which Chrysalis had confirmed, and those results told her that Page left room 201 in the small window of time between when the inner barrier was lowered and the outer barrier was up. In the outer barrier, only one shape indicated a pony carrying another pony, confirming Chrysalis’ insistence that Page had been thrown out of the window and not carried. But when levitation was impossible as well, the culprit must have done it from inside, but if that was true, nopony could have done it!

Huffing for breath, Twilight felt her fear and desperation begin to peak, aided by the insipid effects of the Heart of Equestria. This was a trap, one that Chrysalis had created to make Twilight panic. That must have been why she had taken their duel to this unnatural gem! There was no other reason!

Chrysalis’ statements were irrefutable. Page’s disappearance happened within these constraints, so it was still possible, but how? Twilight just had to find the hole in this claustrophobic logic trap, then she could finally earn some breathing room.

Sure enough, there it was: a small dot of light amidst the impenetrable darkness of Chrysalis’ black lies. With newfound resolve, Twilight took a step forward towards the sickeningly smug creature and returned her mocking glare. Chrysalis had left somepony out of her long list of possible culprits, and Twilight wasn’t going to let that fact slip by.

“Nice try,” Twilight laughed victoriously, peering down her nose at her opponent. “You won’t be able to corner me that easily. I’m onto your tricks! You’ve been choosing your words carefully, dodging my theories and refusing to give me a straight answer from the very beginning. You forgot somepony on that list, you know, and it’s time that I called you out on it. Lying is a bad habit, after all.”

Twilight found a strange satisfaction in watching the creature avert her inky, black eyes. With this one theory, all of Chrysalis’ lies would be blown away. It was time to break out of this logic trap and shine some light through the darkness of this impossible mystery.

“I propose that Skylight Dreamer threw Page out of the window!”

“Skylight Dreamer threw Page out of the window!”

Cackling echoed throughout the chamber. In that moment, Twilight’s heart sunk into her gut. The final nail pounded into place with that finishing hammerstroke, sealing room 201 inside of an unsolvable mystery. In the blink of an eye, the speck of light at the end of the tunnel was swallowed by Chrysalis’ lies, completing the logic trap. No matter where Twilight looked, she couldn’t find the light again.

None of this made any sense. This wasn’t scientifically possible! Once again, she counted through everypony that had been in the hotel that night. Twilight and her friends made six, then Red, Preston, Page, Nightowl, and Caesura made 11. After adding the desk clerk working the hotel that night, Caesura’s 11 accomplices, and Preston’s five friends, the total came up to 28. No other pony could have been inside of the hotel outside of the ones just named. 28. Not 27. That cursed number. 28. 28. 28!

Twilight felt like she was encased in ice, shivers racing down her spine. Despite how much she willed herself to move, she couldn’t, like her mind was caught in an infinite loop around this impossible mystery. Because her gaze was locked on the rocky floor, she didn’t even notice when Chrysalis lifted her spell and approached her. She was defenseless.

“Are you feeling alright, Twilight Sparkle?” Chrysalis hummed, voice dripping with mock pity as she sauntered towards her prey. “If you give up, I’ll gladly give you the answer. I’m sure your friends will forgive you for being the worst friend in Equestria! Though, I must say, I’m pretty sure you have some tough competition for that title. After all, you couldn’t even tell them apart from fakes! You don’t know the difference between friends and hideous monsters! Shallow relationships must run in your family, seeing as how I managed to steal away Shining Armor for weeks without him noticing!”

In her paralysis, Twilight heard Cadance’s hoofsteps ringing out, but she couldn’t react. How could she react? No matter what she tried to do, her thoughts couldn’t escape this infinite loop of contradictions. Over and over, she counted to 28, replaying memories in her head at blazing speed. No matter how many times she counted, there was no way to stop at 27. 6, 11, 12, 17, 28. Every single time. No deviance. There was no other data to work with. The 28 different ponies in the hotel was an irrefutable fact. None of those 28 could have committed the crime. Unless.... No, Twilight knew that she hadn’t done it herself. There was no reason to confirm her own innocence.

“This is going too far! Please, you don’t have to do this Ari—”

“Silence! Don’t you get it, Cadenza? This is my validation for all these years! You know exactly what I’m talking about, and don’t deny it!”

“I-I understand, but—”

“Then I respectfully ask that you remain silent and allow me to be happy for once! Is that too much to ask for?!”

“This.... This isn’t happiness! You’re just—”

“You have no room to lecture me on the subject of happiness, Cadenza! You have no right!”

Ignoring her foe’s cries, Twilight ran through the facts again, unable to move on until she’d cleared this up. Every ounce of brain power was feeded into this loop, draining her of her mental faculties.

21 clear shapes, 18 fuzzy shapes. Count the entrances. Count the exits. Count. Count. Count.

“Oh, Twilight, I’m sure that one of your friends hates you right now, if not all of them! The one I replaced can now be certain that you don’t care about her at all, at least, not enough to tell the difference between her and an evil queen! You may not be able to appreciate the irony of this moment, but rest assured, I am enjoying every delightful second of it!”

She’s lying. I care about my friends. I really do. This is insane. Insane, but possible. It happened. Something happened, and Chrysalis is trying to keep me from figuring it out. Think! But what if I can’t figure out who it was? I’ve already guessed wrong more times than I can count, but that doesn’t mean I’m a horrible friend... does it? How many times have I guessed wrong? 17? 18? 21? 28? No, not those numbers again. Anything but those.

“Now you know how it feels, Twilight Sparkle! The magic of friendship failed the very moment I replaced one of your friends! Imagine this pain for—”

“Enough! I command you to—”

“You command me? What do I owe you for all of these years?!”

“This isn’t about me. This is about Twilight Sparkle, one of my closest friends!”

Twilight, forcibly snapping herself out of her self-induced stupor, stomped her hoof on the ground to interrupt the two. Enough was enough. She had failed. There was no point in denying it anymore.

“Shut up!” Twilight cried, clenching her teeth together and forcing her quivering body to stay still. Behind her tightly closed eyes, she could feel a dampness leaking onto her cheek. “I admit it. I haven’t been as good of a friend as I should have been. You fooled me, Chrysalis. You fooled me.”

Her words echoed through the chamber, ringing back to her ears like a foreign language. Those were the words she had been dreading to say, but now that she had them out in the open, it didn’t feel as bad as she thought it would. In fact, it felt rather refreshing. Hearing them echo back at her only made her bleary eyes film over even more.

As Twilight raised her head, she saw the blank expressions of Chrysalis and Cadance. Twilight knew that she looked like a nervous wreck, with bloodshot eyes and a stream of tears running down her face, but that was who she was at the moment. She had failed. There was no reason to keep up the tiring facade of false strength.

With a heavy sigh, Twilight forced herself to stand proud, despite how painful it was to admit her own failure. Throughout her entire life, her greatest fear had been that she was inadequate, a flaw that had led on her on countless adventures. Each of those adventures had taught her something different, even if she hadn’t put down her thoughts in a letter to her mentor every time. If there was anything that Twilight had learned from her time in Ponyville, it was that failure was part of life, not something to be avoided at all costs. Thanks to all of her friends, she now knew that admitting her failures was the only way to overcome them.

Sometimes, it was okay to be weak. A detective needs to be strong... but Twilight Sparkle was no detective. She was nothing more than Twilight Sparkle, and Twilight Sparkle was far from perfect.

Finally, Chrysalis broke the silence, her caustic demeanor reduced to nothing but shock and confusion. There even appeared to be a hint of fear in her eyes as she took a step backwards. “Then you... surrender?” she choked out.

Cadance shook her head wildly, leaping to her side and trying to meet her downcast eyes. “No, Twilight—”

“Of course not,” Twilight stated plainly, raising her head to stare at the roof of the chamber and letting her tears flow free. Failure wasn’t the end. Failure was the beginning. It was time to learn another lesson.

“This is just an apology. From what you said, Chrysalis, my friends can probably hear all of this. Girls, if you can hear me, I’d just like to tell you how sorry I am. I should have noticed sooner. I’m not asking for you to forgive me, I just want you to know that I really do care about you. All I ask... is that you still call me your friend once this is all over. B-because... you’ll always be mine....”

Once again, Twilight’s quivering voice faded into the distance. Silence reigned.

Now that she finally had time to clear her thoughts, Twilight took advantage of the stillness and delved into her memory. There was something specific that she wanted to check, something that Chrysalis had inadvertently let slip before this pointless duel began. Without the stress of inadequacy and failure on her shoulders, Twilight’s thoughts became uncannily clear. Failure existed so that ponies could learn from their mistakes, after all. There was no reason that she couldn’t learn from this failure.

There it was. The key to solving these fantastical mysteries had been staring her in the face this entire time. Amidst the darkness of Chrysalis’ lies, another speck of light emerged, one that Twilight hadn’t noticed before. Once she realized that this small speck was there, other specks began to emerge, dotting the expanse of Chrysalis’ trap like brilliant stars in the sky.

With only a few simple deductions, the darkness began to wane, drowned out by the truth. Dawn had arrived. There, standing amidst the light, was the friend that she had ignored. The one that Chrysalis had replaced. Everything made sense again.

“I’ve solved it,” Twilight whispered. There was no need to make her voice any louder than it was inside of the reverberant chamber. “I know who you took, Chrysalis. I know who you replaced.”

The soft, firm statement seemed to have a physical impact on the creature, who was still stuck in stunned silence. “You have?” she gasped breathlessly. Slowly, her bewildered expression sank into an unreadable glare, masking whatever emotion she was feeling.

“You heard me. Go ahead, taunt me for being a horrible friend. Laugh at me for my failure. I accept it all. It doesn’t change the fact that I’ve seen through your lies... and your truths.”

Chrysalis gave a solemn nod, stepping backwards towards the Heart of Equestria and letting its azure glow envelope her in a brilliant blue aura. “Then we’ll end this here, Twilight Sparkle. If you are so confident about your answer, you shouldn’t need another chance. After all, in order to confirm the truth, I shall use either Cadance’s truth spell or my own to repeat what you say. If you guess wrong, you will surrender unconditionally and this duel will be over. Are these terms acceptable?”

Twilight turned to Cadance, who hesitantly gave a silent nod of approval.

“I accept.”

Chrysalis took a deep breath, as if trying to dispel the heavy atmosphere that hung in the daunting chamber. “Twilight Sparkle, I replaced one of your friends on the first night that you arrived in Everdale. All I ask is that you answer my simple question.

“Who was it?”

Act II intermission

Rules for Solving the Final Mystery

The rules will be the same as before. All magic spells used (and their properties) have been explicitly mentioned or used within the story. All methods and possibilities for the solution have been hinted at or presented earlier.

Also, below is a list of all of the truths and lies used. I would use these for reference, as a checklist for testing theories until you find one that works, seeing as some vital clues are not mentioned by truths or lies. They have been categorized into general (which apply to everything), and ones that were used in the context of each mystery. If there is any confusion about lies and truths, feel free to ask, and I'll answer to the best of my ability in the comments.

General

“I didn’t replace anypony you know.”

“I’m offended, Twilight! I didn’t replace one of your friends!”

“I am thankful for your help, Cadenza. Twilight Sparkle, only one of your friends was replaced.”

“Your friends refer to Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Cadenza, and Shining Armor. I will also say this next sentence to avoid confusion. Changelings will be included as ponies if any changelings are involved.”

“I do not count as whatever race I am disguised as.”

PAGE’S DISAPPEARANCE

“Your barrier spell lied to you. I changed forms inside of the hotel and skewed the results!”

“Nopony inside of the hotel changed their forms.”

“Nightowl did not put Page in the closet. I did not throw Page out of the window. I shall also confirm the accuracy of your barrier. Page passed through a magical barrier three times, and all such barriers were created by Twilight Sparkle.”

“When I speak of myself, I refer to myself in any form. When I speak of throwing, the term constitutes picking something up and sending it through the air. I shall rephrase my earlier statement, but it still stands. I never forced Page to exit room 201 in any physical way.”

“Magic counts as forcing Page to leave the room in a physical way. I did not use magic to remove Page from room 201.”

“Page did not leave the room intentionally.”

“Page does not sleepwalk. Page was unconscious when she left room 201.”

“Caesura and the pony with her stopped at the second floor on their way to the lobby.”

“Caesura can teleport.”

"Caesura can teleport other ponies."

“Caesura and the pony with her separated on their way down to the lobby.”

“I can teleport while in the form of an earth pony.”

“You saw every single pony that was inside of the hotel that night. There were no ponies, changelings, or other creatures hiding in any other rooms.”

“No more than 28 different ponies were ever inside of the hotel on the night of the disappearances. Nopony passed through the outer barrier more than twice.”

“No more than 28 different ponies were ever inside of the hotel on the night of the disappearances. This does not mean 28 at the same time. Leaving and entering the hotel again would not change that number. Changelings, regardless of their form, only count as one. Cadenza and Shining Armor as excluded from that night, as it was technically morning when they arrived. I shall also add one more addendum. Between when the ponies in the lobby left and when the outer barrier fell, the number of ponies in the hotel never exceeded 11.”

“Rainbow Dash threw Page out of the window!

“Applejack threw Page out of the window!

“Fluttershy threw Page out of the window!

“Rarity threw Page out of the window!

“Pinkie Pie threw Page out of the window!

“Caesura threw Page out of the window!

“Nightowl threw Page out of the window!

“Red threw Page out of the window!

“Preston threw Page out of the window!”

“There were two unicorns in the lobby.”

“I do not count as whatever race I am disguised as.”

“Page was levitated out of room 201.”

“Page wasn’t thrown out of the window.”

“Skylight Dreamer threw Page out of the window!”

LOBBY

“The three ponies that were left behind in the lobby were conscious.”

“I rendered myself unconscious.”

“I rendered myself unconscious.”

“Somepony rendered me unconscious.”

“I accidentally knocked myself out.”

“Caesura did not attend the party. The 11 ponies that Caesura brought in were not changelings. The changelings caused the disappearances in the lobby without help from inside the hotel.”

“There were two unicorns in the lobby.”

“I do not count as whatever race I am disguised as.”

MEZZA’S PETRIFICATION

“Mezza’s statue is real. She was petrified instantly.”

“The Mezza you saw was not a changeling.”

“No teleportation was involved.”

“I do not know a petrification spell.”

“Dolce is a character of fiction. She is dead. She does not exist in the real world.”

“The crime was committed by somepony you didn’t know. Somepony took the form of Dolce.”

“While inside of the barrier, I took no more than three forms.”

OTHERS

Chapter 11: Page: “I did not wake up in the closet of room 201.”

Chapter 11: Nightowl: “I never threw Page out of the window to room 201.”

Chapter 11: Nightowl:“I didn’t throw Page out of any of the windows in the hotel.”

Chapter 14: Red: “I-I’m... guilty.” (The truth of how she felt)

Chapter 14: Red: “I’m innocent.” (The truth of her involvement)

Chapter 18: Skylight Dreamer: “I’m Nightowl. My name is Nightowl. I’m a night guard. I’m a normal pony, living a normal life....”

Chapter 18: Chrysalis: “I will not remove my spell once we have walked 50 steps from this place.”

Chapter 20: Absolute Truth

Chapter 20

Absolute Truth

Chrysalis’ question hung in the air, as if it was taunting Twilight to answer it before it dissolved into the heavy silence. Even though the unicorn had every reason to answer that question as quickly as she could, she took a brief moment to take notice of everything she had looked over in the past few days. Now that she knew the answers, everything seemed so obvious.

“Well, Twilight Sparkle?” Chrysalis asked stoically. “I’m waiting for your answer. Don’t tell me you’re second guessing yourself again.”

“I’m not,” Twilight answered, taking a deep breath and steeling herself. There was no room for hesitation, not when the truth was right in front of her. “You asked me a simple question, so it would only be polite for me to give a simple answer. No pretense. No drama. After all, you’re a much better actor than I am.”

Chrysalis didn’t respond.

While Twilight had expected some kind of retort, she didn’t let the lack of one phase her. Purging whatever anxiety she had within her, she took a deep breath, locked eyes with her opponent, and gave her answer.

“The friend that you replaced... was Rarity.”

The name resounded clearly through the hall like the chime of a bell. If Twilight’s friends were listening in, they were probably smiling at her.

After letting the echo fade, Chrysalis nodded, her expression finally morphing back to the deriding sneer she always wore. “What a shame. You defaulted and picked the most obvious one, didn’t you? I can’t believe you fell for it!”

“Fool me once, shame on me, but you won’t have a chance to fool me twice.”

“Oh? Well then, why Rarity? Why the most obvious one? Did you think I picked her just so I would be able to use my magic without question? Or was it because you wanted an easy answer to the mystery of the lobby? I hope you realize that you’ve forgotten a rather blatant contradiction of facts.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” assured Twilight as she gave Chrysalis a knowing smile. “I’m not forgetting anything. For a while, I hardly considered Rarity an option, seeing as she wouldn’t give me any help when accounting for the shapes in my barrier. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I realized my mistake, and once I found what I had forgotten, Rarity became the only possible answer.”

For a brief moment, Twilight swore that Chrysalis let out a sigh of relief, but it was expertly covered with the villainous facade she always wore. “I’m not satisfied yet,” the changeling queen stated. “Before I humiliate you, I will thoroughly enjoy watching you humiliate yourself with your own defective reasoning. So please, Twilight Sparkle, why don’t you explain a few things to me. For instance, what happened inside of the Everfree Forest?”

“Oh, we’re starting there?” asked Twilight with a hint of mock confusion. “I guess that makes sense. After all, this one has nothing to do with who you replaced.”

“Good!” Chrysalis shouted, rearing her head back and sneering. “It seems you are at least on the right track! What gave it away, hm?”

“Your truths and lies weren’t much help for this one,” Twilight answered, feeling her competitive spirit return. “All it told me was that a cockatrice was involved, something I had already thought of. Every other option was ruled out. No teleportation, no petrification spell, and no other method for committing the crime. For a while, I’ve been pretty sure that the key to this mystery lies within the identity of our mystery mare, Dolce. When I look back on it, I’m amazed that I didn’t notice it before, not when she was right under my nose this whole time.

“Dolce, in fact, is none other than the unicorn named Caesura, the one who put the ransom note on the fountain.”

For a moment, Chrysalis stood there, still leering over Twilight. It was like she was trying to figure out how to respond, it was too late to hide the truth.

Smirking, Twilight continued. “You want to know how I figured that out? It’s obvious. Dolce, Mezza, and Caesura are all musical terms, and there was only one musical mare among us that fit the bill. Also, I believe that Mezza would have recognized her own daughter if she saw her, so assuming that she wasn’t some unrelated third party, I could easily narrow down the suspects to the only three ponies who didn’t know of her arrival: the three ponies in jail.

“Out of the three, only Caesura stood out, having an unknown past and being musically inclined. But could Dolce be some unknown party in Eccondale? I knew that Dolce was still alive, a fact that you made sure to tell me about, so I assumed that her identity was important. I also have to assume that Dolce was somepony we had met, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to know where we were, where Mezza was going to be, and quite a few other facts that made this crime possible.”

“Thus, Twilight, you’ve driven yourself into a corner,” Chrysalis sneered. “Caesura has a perfect alibi for Mezza’s petrification! She was with Cadenza, Shining Armor, and the other prisoners the entire time!”

“Chrysalis, you know better than I do that Caesura had no part in this. Did you think that I’ve forgotten that changelings can imitate forms and voices?”

When Chrysalis gave no answer, Twilight continued with confidence. “You also told me that Mezza was petrified instantly, so how did she have time to cry out? It’s simple. I have to assume that you took the form of Mezza and used her voice. At this point, you had to be very careful when telling me how many forms you used inside of the barrier. If you had answered correctly by telling me that you used only two, you would have given me the only answer I needed. Instead, you said it was no more than three. That was a nasty trick, you know.”

Slowly, Chrysalis’ caustic demeanor softened to a knowing smile. “Are you sure it was only two?”

“I only knew it after I solved the other mysteries. After all, Mezza was an earth pony. You needed to take the form of a unicorn in order to commit this crime, otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to levitate the cockatrice that was on the other side of the barrier. Levitation was the only reliable way that you could have done this. If you were in the form of Rarity, you would have only needed two forms, Mezza and Rarity, but if you were somepony else, you would have needed three. When you said you used no more than three, you were just making sure you didn’t give me the answer right away.”

Once again, the queen of the changelings remained quiet, allowing Twilight to continue her explanation. “It had to have been done with a cockatrice. There was no petrification spell, Mezza was petrified instantly, she wasn’t a changeling, and the statue of her was real. These four facts leave out any other options. The only possible weapon was a cockatrice, the cry of which was heard when I expanded my barrier. This made it possible for one to be outside. You heard that sound and knew that you absolutely had to take this opportunity to silence Mezza before she could tell us more about her daughter!”

“Did I? How did I know where she would be? How did I know where to find her?”

“Simple. You talked to her before we entered the forest, probably baiting her by saying that you knew where her daughter was. You got her to split everypony up and meet with you at a designated spot by the edge of the barrier. Once Mezza got you away from Pinkie, you tried to trace the cockatrice’s first cry and found it stunned out in the woods. As you waited for your prey to arrive, you must have levitated it inside of some kind of bush to hide it, but that’s hardly important. Then, once you were sure it was safe, you tricked Mezza into staring at it, whereupon she was instantly turned to stone.

“But what did you do then? Well, you had to make it seem like it had been done from the outside, drawing attention away from yourself. You couldn’t risk teleporting, thanks to the sound and flash of light, so your options were limited. I imagine that you carefully moved away from the statue, waiting by another spot in the barrier before taking Mezza’s form and crying out Dolce’s name, once again making it seem like it had been done by somepony outside of the barrier. When I heard her voice, I followed it and ended up finding an imprint in the grass, indicating that something, or somepony, had been standing there for a while. This imprint was where you stood when you made the cry in Mezza’s form before changing back to Rarity, whereupon you waited in the bushes for others to arrive so that you wouldn’t be the first one to appear at the crime scene.”

Twilight awaited a frustrated surrender, but Chrysalis remained impassive, her confident smile refusing to falter. “Mia, if you please, I would like to borrow your truth spell.”

Once her eyes were bathed in a familiar glow, Chrysalis spoke. “I tricked Mezza into meeting me by the barrier, where I levitated the cockatrice from outside and petrified her. I also imitated her voice to cry out and make it seem like the culprit was outside of the barrier.”

Heaving a sigh of relief, the unicorn let herself relax for a moment. That had been the easiest one, but she was confident that her reasoning for the other two mysteries was flawless.

“Then you just admitted that you were Rarity.”

The glow fading from her eyes, Chrysalis smirked. “Did I? The truth is quite a slippery quarry to catch. I have only admitted one more defeat, that’s all. You still have two more to prove.”

“You’re right,” Twilight conceded, “but the two of them should be linked together. They’re both confined by my barrier spell, after all. If you want an explanation, I’ll give the answer to both mysteries at once.

“Because you replaced Rarity, my earlier theory about the lobby still stands. You turned out the lights and levitated some objects in the lobby to knock both Red and Preston unconscious.You then signaled your changelings to start a stampede.”

“I thought you’d learned your lesson,” Chrysalis cackled excitedly, hiding behind her villainous facade again. “That raises far too many questions! First off, why were Red and Preston not taken with the rest if they were unconscious? Second, I used my spell to prove to you that all three ponies in the lobby were unconscious, therefore I could not have been Rarity! In case you have forgotten, I already told you that I had not been knocked unconscious in any way, shape, or form. How are you going to explain that, hm?”

“Easy. You never proved that all three of the ponies left in the lobby were unconscious. That was another nasty trick, by the way. When you lied and said that ‘The three ponies that were left behind in the lobby were conscious’, I immediately assumed that the opposite was true, that the three ponies left behind in the lobby were unconscious. There was a good reason you lied at that point, because if you had told the truth, it would have given you away.

“You see, I kept thinking of lies as opposite truths. That’s not right at all! All it means is that the statement is false, not that the opposite is true. You see, if only one of the three ponies left in the lobby was conscious, that statement still counts as a lie!”

Trying to keep her momentum, Twilight slammed a hoof on the ground, the resulting report echoing through the chamber. “That’s right! You were pretending to be unconscious in the lobby, still disguised as Rarity! You had planned on levitating Red and Preston, taking them out and disappearing with the group, but I came down more quickly than you thought I would. You heard me coming downstairs and had no choice but to give up and play dead for a while.”

Twilight’s string of accusations should have elicited at least some kind of response, but just like before, she was met with an unreadable smile. It was unnerving, making her wonder if she was being led into some sort of trap. Was it possible that Chrysalis had purposefully left out information in order to watch her flounder around?

“Twilight Sparkle, you said that you would solve both mysteries at once. I am still waiting for your answer to Page’s disappearance.”

In her excitement, Twilight had forgotten about her earlier statement. The answer to both was hidden within a single clue, one that she had overlooked from the very beginning of their fight. She had been saving it for last, hoping for some dramatic reveal, but Chrysalis seemed to have lost her antagonistic vigor.

“You’re right,” Twilight sighed, wondering where all of the energy in the room had gone. It was like the Heart of Equestria was now bolstering their confusion instead of their excitement. “I won’t waste your time, then. The answer to how Page left the room is quite simple. Based on the results I got from my spell, I couldn’t think of any explanation for how Page could have gone through the outer barrier. Thanks to your truths and lies, I came to an obvious conclusion.

“Page never left through the outer barrier at all.”

With a stoic frown, Chrysalis furrowed her brow. “Did you forget what I told you? Page passed through three barriers. One for when she entered the hotel, one for when she entered room 201, and one for when she exited through the outer barrier.”

“You’re wrong,” Twilight stated firmly, taking all too much pleasure in explaining away the fact that had troubled her from the very beginning. “You said she passed through three barriers, but I assumed it to be those three. I had completely forgotten about another barrier she had passed through, one that didn’t have anything to do with the hotel.

“The third barrier was the one I set up in front of the minecart.”

Upon hearing this the changeling queen closed her eyes, remaining still.

“You know what that means, don’t you? If that’s the third barrier, then that 18th blurry shape couldn’t belong to Page at all!

“You see, that leftover shape in the outer barrier troubled me this whole time. I thought that there was only one shape that couldn’t be accounted for, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. My math was incorrect. Once I realized that the last shape didn’t belong to Page, I knew that I must have forgotten to count somepony. The total number of shapes was right, but I was wrong about who they all belonged to. Because of my mistake, every single one of my deductions was thrown off. You see, I forgot about one of the ponies in the lobby, one that had been there from the very start. After realizing that the remaining shape didn’t belong to Page, I had to figure out who it belonged to.

“It was the desk clerk. She’d been there when I set up the outer barrier, and I originally counted her as such. The first time I counted the shapes, I stated that the desk clerk was in there when I set up the barrier, but when counting the exits, I accidentally included Preston in his group of friends, counting them as six instead of five. Because Luna hadn’t seen everything at the hotel, she didn’t notice my mistake when I explained the situation to her. I feel like such a foal! If it wasn’t for this grave miscalculation on my part, I could have solved this from the very beginning!”

“Twilight...” Cadance whispered unsteadily. Twilight had nearly forgotten that the alicorn was still there, standing quietly beside the heart with strong, shimmering eyes.

“Let her finish, Mia,” Chrysalis stated quietly, not even sparing a glance for Cadance.

Nodding to her old foalsitter, Twilight prepared herself to finish up her deductions. “Chrysalis, you used my own mistakes against me, but you didn’t plan to. When I explained about my barrier in the lobby, I imagine that you were starting to get worried.

“Obviously, the desk clerk ran away with the other ponies, leaving a blurry imprint, but because she began inside of the barrier with me and my friends, she didn’t leave a clear one. That extra shape that I was worrying so much about belonged to the desk clerk, not Page. But that’s not all! With the extra shape accounted for, we have an equal amount of shapes in the outer barrier: 17 of each. What does that mean? If we count the 11 changelings and Preston’s five friends, we only have 16, not 17.

“Here’s where your truth helped me, Chrysalis. You told me that, after the ponies in the lobby left and before my barrier fell, the number of ponies in the hotel never exceeded 11. If you include my friends and I, along with Red, Preston, Caesura, and Nightowl, you get 10. The reason that you didn’t say 10 was that the 11th was actually Page, who was still up in the closet of room 201. Herein lies the problem.

“We can only account for 17 blurry shapes and 16 clear shapes. Because of the tight restrictions on the number of ponies in the hotel, our options are limited. With 11 ponies already inside, nopony entered, meaning that the first of the two shapes would have belonged to somepony leaving. But if somepony left, we would have noticed their absence. We also can’t assume that the shape belongs to Page, thanks to the limit on the number of barriers she passed through. Therefore, we have to assume that somepony left the hotel for only a brief moment, only to come right back in while the barrier was still up! There’s no other explanation!”

Finally, Chrysalis reacted, giving a small wince. She knew that there was no escape, now that she didn’t have the results of the barrier to hide behind. Twilight found it rather ironic that Chrysalis had originally used the barrier to obscure the truth, only to have it trap her in the end. It was beautifully poetic.

“Chrysalis, you know what this means. On the night of the disappearances, there was a nasty storm outside, meaning that it was raining between when the ponies in the lobby left and when my barrier went down. Based on the missing shapes, we have to assume that somepony left the hotel and came back in, leaving only one option. Anypony that went outside would have gotten soaking wet, but when I woke up from my daze, only one of my friends looked like they had been out in the rain. Only one pony could have gone outside and come back in... and that mare is the one you replaced. The one who complained about having her mane ruined.

“Rarity.”

Just like before, the name bounced around the chamber. Chrysalis, with her statue-esque posture, didn’t appear to hear it. The only motion in the room came from Princess Cadance, whose eyes darted back and forth between the two with an expression bordering on hysteria.

Finally, the changeling queen spoke, sounding much more regal than she ever had before. “So, Twilight Sparkle... what gave me away? Why didn’t you pick one of your other friends?”

Twilight had never been more excited to hear Chrysalis speak.

Heart soaring, the unicorn barely managed to breathe. “Applejack was out from the start, actually. She and Page were the only ones who went behind me in the minecarts, and I didn’t see or hear them come in my direction after mine crashed. Based on how quickly I saw you in that parade, Applejack would have had to go to another entrance, split up with Page, and get in the parade before I even showed up. It’s just not possible.

“Since Applejack is in the clear, so is Fluttershy. During our panic about room 201, the two of them were together on the fourth floor, eliminating the possibility that one of them was involved. Applejack also said that she and Fluttershy went down together to check on me on the second floor, so the two of them create alibis for each other the whole time. So who do we have left?

“Rainbow Dash was extremely suspicious at first, but she didn’t provide any answer to the mystery of the lobby. I had wondered if, while on the fourth floor, she had flown outside to assist with the stampede in the lobby, but she would have gotten soaking wet in the process. She could have gone down to the second floor to do something with Page, but even then, your lies ruled that out.

“By the end, the second most suspicious was actually Pinkie Pie. She could have helped place the note, for one, but a bit of wordplay got me suspicious. All of your truths about Caesura and Pinkie on the third floor could have been easily nullified by claiming that her real name was Dolce. After all, you could probably prove that ‘Caesura’ doesn’t exist. This line of reasoning was cut off because one of your truths didn’t allow that. After all, you lied and said that Caesura didn’t attend the party, confirming that the name Caesura applies to her, assuming that none of the ponies in the lobby shared the same name. Outside of that, Pinkie had the opportunity to concoct a massive plan while she was out delivering invitations to everypony, so I was almost positive that it had been her. She also could have assisted in foalnapping and replacing the 11 accomplices for Caesura. The only things that kept her from being able to spirit Page out of room 201 and help with the stampede in the lobby were the truths and lies about Caesura.”

As Twilight paused to breathe, she tried to read Chrysalis’ blank expression. It was like staring at a wall and waiting for it to move.

“All this time, you kept mocking me about not noticing that one of my friends was acting weird, but there were quite a few things that I had ignored. When Cadance arrived, ‘Rarity’ kept joking about how happy she were that Cadance had had shown up, not to mentioning how Caesura laughed as well. Also, on the way here, Rarity could barely levitate Pinkie’s suitcase, but Rainbow Dash told me about how she had been levitated and dragged her across the floor while I was unconscious. ‘Rarity’ also spoke to Mezza on the way to the Everfree Forest, which must have been where you told her to split everypony up and meet you by the barrier. Not only that, but when ‘Rarity’ arrived at the mare’s statue, she had a stick in her mane, something that the real Rarity would have avoided at all costs.”

Lowering her head, Chrysalis let out a heavy sigh, her posture slackening. Without the pretense of villainy surrounding her, she appeared exhausted, like a heavy weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. “Twilight... you have good friends. And your friends are lucky to have you. Mia, if you’re not too tired yet, I’d like to make use of your spell one last time.”

The alicorn’s face brightened, her once anxious eyes brimming with a strange concoction of excitement and sorrow. Twilight couldn’t imagine what was going on in the princess’s head, but as a familiar pink heart appeared between the other two ponies, Twilight knew that this was the end. She had solved the most mind-bending mystery she’d ever encountered, either in fiction or in real life.

Chrysalis, eyes flashing white again, stared at Twilight with what could almost be described as a motherly smile. It was somewhat disconcerting, but the words she spoke dispelled all fear from the room.

“Twilight Sparkle, I replaced your friend, Rarity, on the first night that you arrived in Everdale. You have my sincerest gratitude for finding the truth.”

Whatever reverie Twilight had expected from the big reveal was quickly dwarfed by confusion. Gratitude? What did Chrysalis had to be grateful for? Twilight Sparkle had found her, ruined her schemes, and exposed her kingdom to the entirety of Equestria! Within days, Celestia, Luna, and their respective armies would be marching on this city to rid the world of changelings forever, so what did Chrysalis have to be thankful for?

“But, Aria!” Cadance gasped, breathing heavily as she released the spell. “How did Page get out? You already talked about the forest, the note, and even the lobby, but how in Equestria did you get Page out of that room?”

Chrysalis simply shook her head and let out yet another sigh. “I never intended to make things so complicated,” the queen laughed, but it was nothing like her maniacal cackling from before. It sounded... remorseful. “All I wanted to do was to make my way to Celestia and Luna. I should have known that a ridiculous ransom note wouldn’t be enough to convince the Elements of Harmony to leave. Believe me, I tried to convince you to give up once Red banished you, but I had no choice but to play along and come back. I had even released those nine ponies a few days ago as a warning, a desperate gambit to convince somepony to send for help so I could infiltrate their ranks and return to Canterlot.”

Breathless, Twilight did her best to put the pieces together. It made sense that Chrysalis would want to infiltrate the Elements of Harmony and go back to Canterlot, but how had she put together such a wild scheme so quickly? All things considered, her plan was absolutely brilliant, even if it fell short in a few places.

“Mia, I panicked, that’s all,” Chrysalis chuckled, expression brightening. “I had concocted a plan to carry through with my threat, the one about making the whole town disappear, and even had 11 ponies replaced before the Elements of Harmony had arrived. While you were arguing with Red all that time, I was speaking to Caesura about what to do in case you five snuck back in. Preston kept trying to butt in, but I shooed him away and pretended to be offended by his hat.

“But that ridiculously idea... that party! I was helpless, unable to contact anypony and formulate a plan once I was in the hotel. In fact, I only helped to enact the plan, improvising on the fly once a few complications arose. The one mainly responsible for the schemes at the hotel was Caesura, who conveyed everything to Skylight, who then quoted everything to me once he got inside.”

Cadance, flustered, shook her head, making her already disheveled mane even worse. “But how did Page—”

“Mia, can’t you allow me my theatrics for a while?” Chrysalis grumbled. “You see, once I felt the barrier around room 201, I knew we were in trouble. I alarmed Skylight of its presence and improvised a plan to leave her in there and hide her in the closet. But, of course, while we were discussing this, Page stirred, since Skylight had been hesitant to knock her out. In fact, I wish that we hadn’t had to take her in the first place. Caesura, she.... Well, it wasn’t the best option, but it was our only one.

“But because of that, Page woke up while we were talking. Red wasn’t lying when she said that she saw Page in the window, because she was arguing with us. She heard the two of us talk about hiding her in the closet, so she began to spout off a stream of questions, still disoriented from the blow. We both panicked, but eventually, I put her under a sleep spell, one deep enough that she wouldn’t wake for a long, long time. Luckily, Skylight’s blow had knocked her memory loose as well, and my sleep spell’s grogginess only made that worse.

“From there, I had Skylight place her in the closet. Then we both left and hurried downstairs, worried that something might be happening without us. Thankfully, we were quick enough, and almost immediately after we went down to the lobby, everypony ran back upstairs. We had planned on using the last game on the invitation to take the ponies in the lobby and vanish, but when I was left alone down there, I knew I had to act quickly. After all, if Skylight failed, my cover would have been blown. So I did as you proposed, Twilight: I turned out the lights, started the game, knocked out Red and Preston, and commanded my changelings to stampede out of the door. I had intended to take the two pegasi with me, since Red might have seen more than she thought. I was going to take them into the forest with the rest, but as I levitated their bodies and stepped outside, I felt the barrier.”

With a pitiful smirk, Chrysalis looked askance, quietly laughing at herself. “At that point, I thought for sure you had won. As soon as I heard you tumble down the stairs, I leapt back inside and dropped Red and Preston on the ground, pretending to be a victim as well. Since I was soaking wet, I had to stay in the doorway, where you found me, otherwise it would have been too suspicious. If Skylight had failed, and you had figured out that Rarity was replaced, I would have played along, pretending that I was the real Rarity and that Chrysalis had escaped with the others.

“After that, I simply played along with everything, doing my best to remain inconspicuous. I shared everything with Skylight and Caesura, hoping to frame Red and Preston, but Skylight knew that he was going to have to take the blame if Twilight figured out what happened in that room. I did feel rather guilty about giving him up like that, though. When you accused Caesura and Skylight, or Nightowl, as he was, they weren’t trying to cover for Red. They were trying to cover for me.”

Nodding, Twilight payed close attention. She had gotten everything correct so far, minus most of the tiny details, but that wasn’t the most interesting part of this. There was something going on between Cadance and Chrysalis, something that hopefully explained why this duel existed in the first place. How could a pair as powerful as Cadance and Shining Armor be threatened by Chrysalis? Hadn’t they defeated her before?

Without pause, Chrysalis continued. “But before that, I still had to get Page out of there. Thankfully, while turning out the lights in the lobby, I ordered one of my changelings to grab her out of the window once we gave the signal, since Page might have remembered our encounter. The barriers prevented us from doing anything drastic, but my changeling listened well, knowing he had plenty of time to act. He waited for the signal, which was why Skylight kept sitting in front of the open door while we waited for you to awaken. We couldn’t do anything risky, so I just had him sit there and nod to give the signal. Once the coast was clear, and the barrier was down, my subject, one of the changelings from the lobby, flew up, grabbed Page out of the closet, threw her out of the window to his accomplice, and escaped. Thankfully, my subject had also enlisted another changeling to help carry her off into the forest, where Mia and Shining Armor found her. It was as simple as that.”

Blinking, Twilight processed the new information. She hadn’t expected that Nightowl, or Skylight, had been the signal, sitting in front of the open doorway like Dash had said. The whole plan, even the improvised parts, ended up being remarkably effective.

“You know the rest,” Chrysalis sighed, hanging her head. For the first time since Twilight had seen her, Chrysalis lowered herself and sat down on the rocky floor, appearing remarkably similar to an actual pony once her hole-covered legs were hidden. “Mezza appeared, looking for her daughter, Caesura....” The name lingered in the air as Chrysalis closed her eyes, listening to her own echo.

The way she spoke begged some kind of response, since Twilight couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “And what is Caesura to you?” she asked, doing her best to sound confident. “A subject? A minion?”

“My daughter,” the queen responded heavily. “She was taken on that stormy night, all of those years ago, and we planned to feed on the love she had for her mother. I shall admit, it was one of the lower points in my reign, but we were already starting to worry about Dotted Line at this point. That was also the night when Nightowl was replaced. He went out to look for her and, once he saw what had happened, we knew he couldn’t escape, so we took the chance to replace him and also get a spy within the guard.

“But, even at such a young age, Caesura showed little fear of us, and, once she learned what we were, even encouraged us to feed from her. It was merely a filly’s curiosity at that point, but I was stunned. Back then, her name was Dolce, which means ‘sweet’. It was, and still is, quite fitting. She had wanted to stay with us, live among us, and start a new life. Her courage and kindness gave me pause, which was why I chose her current name. Caesura.”

“Caesura,” sighed Twilight, closing her eyes. Why did this have to be so complicated? Why couldn’t she despise the monstrous queen like she wanted to, even after all of this? “I remember that book I read before going to the Canterlot Symphony. A caesura is a grand pause, where the music suddenly stops. I think I get it. She made you pause. You gave her a new life and even allowed her to go to the outside world, where she lived in Everdale for a while. She’s the one that created that enchanted music, isn’t she?”

“It was my idea,” Chrysalis answered, earning a confused look from Cadance. “I wanted revenge, obviously. Who wouldn’t? If I could sacrifice ponies like Dotted Line and provide my remaining subjects with an endless supply of food, I would do it in a heartbeat. Caesura, once she was old enough to understand, agreed, so we combined my magic, her music, and the Heart of Equestria in order to create an endless supply of food. Just believe me when I say that Caesura isn’t as cold as you think, Twilight.”

While Twilight found that hard to believe, she withheld her skepticism, simply frowning at her defeated opponent. The way that Caesura had acted during the accusations in the hotel had been downright despicable.

“When we went to Canterlot, we used the underground mining caverns, the ones that you two were trapped in during the wedding. You’d be surprised how far those reach. I would have used that path to get to Celestia and Luna again, but ever since the invasion, the royal guard caved it in to prevent anything from happening again.”

It made sense, once Twilight thought about it. With the mineshafts, Chrysalis could sneak into Canterlot overnight, and, without that option, she couldn’t afford to leave her subjects alone for too long, especially considering the state of the city after the failed invasion. But how had this plan been any better? She would have been gone for days, but was it possible that she could convince the changelings to stay calm by telling them she was joining with the Elements of Harmony? Had Chrysalis set them up as heroes just so she could use them as an excuse to keep the city calm?

Before Chrysalis could continue monologuing, a trait of hers that even carried over into defeat, Twilight shook her head. “Look,” she mumbled, “whatever you planned, it didn’t work out, but you were close. A creature as smart as you wouldn’t set herself up to fail, not when she had a better option. Everything you’ve told me so far has impressed me, you know. You’re too smart to get caught like this.”

Chrysalis, raising her head to glare through her mess of a mane, didn’t answer.

“There’s something going on here, and I’m not going to ignore it. Chrysalis, there’s more holes in your story than in all four of your legs combined. First, why did you lie about the Canterlot invasion? You told me that, once Shining knew you were a fake, all of his power returned, but that’s not possible. After all, I know that the changelings imitating my parents are fakes, but I still can’t use any magic. So, unless you’re weaker than your subjects, that’s a blatant lie.”

“Chastising me for lying?” Chrysalis sighed, rolling her eyes. “Really, I enjoy sarcasm as much as anypony, but that’s just tasteless.”

Grimacing, Twilight got back to the point. “What happened back in Canterlot? You had complete control of the city once Celestia had been subdued, so how did you lose? How did the power of love hold any sway when you were the one manipulating it? And that lying spell, too! I was suspicious about how you could steal powers, but then you said that you had plenty of practice with it, which doesn’t make sense if you just recently stole it! Even your name raises questions! Cadance called you Aria, and you called her Mia! You’re both keeping something from me, and I don’t appreciate being left in the dark. I’ve had enough of that in the past few days.”

Tilting her head, the creature turned her gaze to rest on Cadance. The two powerful beings shared a meaningful silence.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Cadance said, her eyes shining in the radiant light from the gem behind her. “I’d like you to meet somepony. I know it sounds sudden... maybe even a little cliche, but I pray that you will lend us your ears.

“Twilight Sparkle, allow me to introduce you to Il Tuo Aria, the Princess of Lies.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Princess Luna gave a parting glance back towards Canterlot, she wondered whether or not she had made the right decision. For her sister, ruling was second nature, but Luna had been disconnected from society for too long to understand the way that modern Equestria worked.

“Sister,” Celestia urged, drawing Luna’s attention away from her musings as the two sliced through the clouds. “If what you said is true, we have little time to act. You said that Twilight’s dream was hazy, correct? Like something was wrong with it?”

Mustering whatever courage she could, Luna beat her wings faster to keep pace. “It is true. Twilight was not acting like herself at all. Indeed, even the books on her shelves had lost their clarity somehow. Either she had received a staggering blow to the head or that was not Twilight Sparkle. I think we already know which.”

“Chrysalis.” Celestia’s tone darkened. “She has done something similar countless times already. But, even if Twilight only suffered a nasty fall, we need to investigate. The reports of those other ponies’ dreams is quite alarming, too.”

“Yes,” Luna sighed, hiding her unease. With the setting sun behind them, the night would take care of itself. The noble classes could squabble for hours and hours about who would be in control until the two sisters returned, just like always. Would the city be alright without them for a night?

“Luna,” Celestia urged, furrowing her brow. “Do no doubt yourself. Trust your intuition. If two of the ponies in Everdale know about your powers, I suspect that there is much more at play than we first thought. I made the mistake of thinking that Sombra may have been involved, but now there is no doubt that Chrysalis is preparing some kind of trap for us. If that was her dream, not Twilight’s, I expect that she will have a few hostages.”

“I know. I have seen her but once, yet I should have known she was capable of such villainy. But Celestia, listen to me. Inside of that dream, I felt nothing but fear and apprehension. If I truly was inside of Chrysalis’ dream, we may not have to resort to violence.”

“It’s possible,” Celestia murmured. “She is the only nemesis of ours that we know nothing about. Even I have no knowledge of how changelings came to be. It was painful reuniting with Discord, and the news of Sombra’s death was troubling, but if Chrysalis truly is involved with this, we have no reason to hold back.”

Luna didn’t respond, instead choosing to ruminate over the curious existence of the town called Everdale. She had managed to find yet another pony that was connected to the town, an earth pony named Mezza, but ever since their initial contact Luna hadn’t been able to find her dreams again. She would not have been able to stay awake for such a long period, would she? Cadance and Shining Armor had also remained remarkably silent, adding more fuel to the slow-burning flame of worry. Had Chrysalis...?

“Luna!” Celestia called out, drawing her out of her trance. “You know what we must do. Twilight Sparkle and her friends could be in grave danger, so their safety is the first priority. If Chrysalis is involved, our next objective is to capture and subdue her. She has much to answer for.”

“I understand,” Luna called out, but her mind had already wandered elsewhere. There was no doubt that they could overpower Chrysalis together, but there were too many questions left unanswered. How had those two ponies known of her power? Why would Chrysalis make her presence known by abducting ponies from a small town in the middle of nowhere?

“Good,” Celestia said, frowning as the town came into view beneath the sparse cloud-cover. “We’ll make no effort of covering our approach. I have more experience with changelings than you, so I shall take the lead. Be wary of everypony you see.”

“I understand.”

“If we get split up, we must reintroduce ourselves. The codeword is Aria.”

Wincing, Luna looked away. Why did she have to choose that name? “Sister, remember. Our first priority is to save Twilight Sparkle and her friends. You need not bother yourself with a grudge that is over a millennia old. She shall answer to her crimes in due time.”

“You know as well as I do what Chrysalis is capable of. She has successfully defeated three alicorns already, myself included. This is not about what she did one thousand years ago, this is about what she may to do you. I’ll not lose you as well. I already lost you once to my negligence.”

Any chance at a response was silenced when Celestia dove down beneath the brightly colored clouds, leaving Luna to stew. The changelings had first appeared after the incident at the Heart of Equestria, that sinister something that neither sister wanted to remember.

Even after all of this time, Celestia was still the same. Stalwart, bottling up the emotions she tried her best to hide. The world on her shoulders. Ever since the incident, Celestia had become so protective of her loved ones, even to the point where it drove them away... or worse. Luna winced at the memory. If Chrysalis truly held Twilight Sparkle as a hostage, there would be no stopping Celestia’s righteous fury. A millenia of bottled, fermented loathing could not be pushed aside so easily.

As the Princess of the Night descended to Everdale, she began to understand the fear she felt in that dream. Tartarus held no fury like that of Celestia, especially when her loved ones were threatened. Is Chrysalis knew that Celestia was coming, fear was the only logical response. No, it was the only response.

Silently, Luna prayed that she would be able to keep her sister’s wrath under control.

Chapter 21: The Final Crescendo

Chapter 21

The Final Crescendo

Page’s heart pounded in her chest, begging her to stop and catch her breath. Every last inch of her body ached, but she refused to give up. For all she knew, it was already too late. The only thing that Page could focus on was the hazy memory that the truth spell had dredged up from the depths of her subconscious.

Rarity. Rarity had been arguing with Nightowl. That was the only image that stuck in her memory. Not how she woke up, or even what had happened to make her forget. Just a short scene.

With renewed vigor, Page tried to make sense of the elaborate mess of tunnels she was lost in. For some reason, guards were scarce in the spire, where she was now, and the few she’d seen had let her by without a fight. It was odd, seeing cowardly changelings disguised as royal guards.

The further inside of the spire Page traveled, the more determined she became. She had barely mustered the courage to go find Twilight in the first place, but now she felt like she could take on a whole army. Adrenaline pumped through her, overriding whatever weariness she felt.

A sound echoed through the tunnels. Her own hoofsteps continued to resound in the cramped maze, but it sounded like somepony else was in there with her. On instinct, she gave her wings a powerful flap and lifted herself off of the ground.

The hoofsteps continued. Louder. Faster.

Holding her breath, Page spotted a split in the path ahead of her. There was no time to think, much less slow down, so Page steeled herself for impact.

The collision happened before either pony could say a word.

When the tunnel finally stopped spinning, Page found herself on top of another pony. She immediately seized the advantage and pinned her opponent down, her hooves acting faster than her mind. It wasn’t until she opened her mouth to speak that she realized who she had captured.

“You!”

Page’s shout froze the off-white unicorn in place. Caesura, her eyes stretched wide, could only stare up at her attacker. Her mouth was wide open, as if she were trying to say something.

Despite Page’s fury, she felt a pang of guilt. Caesura’s expression was familiar. It was the one she had when Page had first seen her, when she escaped from Eccondale. That moment was still fresh in her memory. Caesura, running for her life through the Everfree Forest and levitating as many instruments as she could carry. Page, picking her up and soaring above the canopy.

Now that Page knew the truth about her friend, everything took on a new appearance. Back then, Caesura had admitted to being a runaway from Eccondale, but Page had respected her silence regarding the motive. That silence hadn’t been out of fear, had it? It had all been a trick. A trick that had ended with the entire population of Everdale vanishing into thin air.

“P-Page, I—”

Bristling, Page furrowed her brow and pinned her prey beneath her. “No more lies! I believed you!”

“Wait—”

“You were in on this all along! You said you’d left Eccondale behind! You said you didn’t want to talk about what it was like, so I trusted you! You...! I should have known!”

“Page, listen, I just—”

“You just what? Abducted my friends? Betrayed an entire town? What else should I expect from a changeling?!”

The word rang throughout the corridor. A thick silence followed.

“Changeling...? I’m not—”

“No,” whispered Page hoarsely, “I’m not wasting my time on you anymore. You had your chance. I gave you more chances than you ever deserved.”

Without waiting for a response, Page burst off down the tunnel. She hardly felt in control of herself, like her disgust for Caesura was overpowering anything else she might have felt, but there was something more important than betrayal. Caesura may have weaseled her way into Everdale, but she hadn’t been the mastermind. That must have been the queen of these monsters.

There was no other choice. She had to warn Twilight Sparkle that Rarity was an imposter before it was too late. As much as it hurt to leave Caesura like that, Page knew she couldn’t waste anymore time. She would deal with that problem later. Right now, she had a mission.

Anywhere else, Page might have stopped herself, but her emotions were flaring in all directions. There was no time to stop and think about what she had just said. Forgiveness was an afterthought.

Within moments, Page burst into a large cavern. She had intended on attacking the first changeling she saw, but she couldn’t begin to comprehend the sight in front of her. A beautiful crystal heart, the size of a mansion. Twilight and Cadance, standing over a hideous changeling with worried expressions. The queen of the changelings, sitting leisurely between her two enemies.

It took a second for everything to sink in. Had Twilight defeated the queen? What was Princess Cadance doing here? What in the wide world of Equestria was that giant gem?

Before any of the questions could be answered, the three ponies in the cavern all turned with a start, anxious eyes boring into her. It was then that Page realized her mistake. How could she be certain that this was the real Twilight Sparkle? Or even the real Princess Cadance?

The queen of the changelings narrowed her unnatural eyes. “You’re....”

“Page!” Twilight shouted. “Wait, it’s okay! I’m fine!”

Page hesitated. Was this the real one? There were a few things that only the real one would know, after all. It was time to put them to the test.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She trusted me all this time. Even though she knew I was from Eccondale, she trusted me. Even though I refused to tell her anything about myself, she trusted me. Even though I lied to her, planned her abduction, and took advantage of her kindness... she still trusted me.

I brought this on myself... didn’t I?

Caesura lay perfectly still on the cavern floor. What reason did she have to move? What reason did she have to live? At first, she had been furious at Page for betraying her, but now, what reason did she have for that?

I was such a foal back then. Running away and all that. I thought the outside world wasn’t that bad. I thought I could belong out there. I wanted to live a normal life. If only — if only I knew there wasn’t such a thing as a normal life. Not for me, anyway. Chrysalis was right. Mom was right.

Page gave me the life I wanted. She let me keep my secrets. She covered for me. And yet, the whole time, I was lying to her, talking with Skylight behind her back. I should have told her the truth. Maybe, then, things wouldn’t have turned out like this. Everything was fine until I saw how despicable those ponies were. Dotted Line and all of his flunkies... they were worse than any monster in the Everfree.

Maybe... I shouldn’t have gone back to Eccondale. I couldn’t sit back and watch Dotted Line do whatever he pleased. Mom was so forgiving, welcoming me back with open arms. But then I had to go back to Everdale again to enact our plan. They deserved it. Every last one of them. This is their own fault... for what they did to mom...!

Mom...?

At the thought, Caesura’s lifeless body shot into action. Before she knew what she was doing, she was up on her hooves and dashing towards the central chamber. It wasn’t over yet! Mom was still in danger!

Heart racing, she finally rounded the last corner. The sight before her left her breathless. There, in front of the Heart of Equestria, stood four distinct forms, all of them silhouetted by a brilliant, azure glow. Despite the intense lighting, Caesura could still see the expression of one of the larger figures, the one that was sitting down in the middle of the other three.

Chrysalis. Mom. She was smiling. Cadance and that despicable unicorn were standing over her, leering like predators over their prey. Page, who had just reached them, was shouting something, but Caesura didn’t hear a single word. All that she could see was Chrysalis’ smile. Her mother was smiling. It was a patronizing smile, one that said “It’s okay. It’s over. You can relax, now.”

It truly was over, wasn’t it? There was nothing left. Chrysalis had lost. Mom had lost. It wouldn’t be long before Celestia and Luna marched in, razing the city of Eccondale to the ground. There was nothing Caesura could do.

Off in the distance, Caesura heard her name, but she didn’t respond. What was there to understand? That smile said it all. It was over.

Panicking, she turned and bolted, mind racing. Helpless. Chrysalis had given her a new life away from that wretched mare she had once called her mother, but now, when Chrysalis needed her most, Caesura was completely worthless. How could she even hope to compete against an alicorn and Celestia’s personal student?

Caesura’s chest ached as she stumbled wildly through the tunnel, nearly tripping over herself. She had to warn all of the changelings before it was too late. She had to warn everypony. They had to get out before it was too late. Some of them might still be saved.

The next few minutes were a blur. All that Caesura could think of was her own helplessness. At some point, she had made it outside of the spire, but her hooves didn’t let her stop to warn any of the bewildered changelings that stared at her as she bolted by. It was too late for them. It was too late for the whole city. It was over. Run.

Amidst the chaos, Caesura heard a familiar voice calling her name. Red? What was she doing here? Was that Nightowl as well? Or Skylight?

There was no time to think. She couldn’t let either of them, changeling or not, see her like this. Helpless. Weak. Useless. It was only when she ducked into an open door that she realized that her eyes were overflowing with tears. When had that happened? When?

In the darkness of whatever building she had dove into, the world was deathly still. She had failed. Eccondale was done for. She would never see her mother again, who would probably spend the rest of eternity imprisoned in stone if those intolerable tyrants had their way. They always did. Friendship was nothing but a tool. Friends were for ponies that deserved them.

Nearing a fit of silent hysterics, Caesura curled up, shrinking away from the outside world. She wanted to lash out, destroying whatever props had been left behind in this dark shack. She couldn’t. Somepony would find her if she made too much noise. Now, at her lowest point, she only wanted one pony to see her. Mom. The only one she cared about; the one that was in the clutches of the enemy. Mom... wasn’t finished, right? She could still survive, right?

As each torturous second ticked past, Caesura’s self-loathing intensified. The city was doomed. Her mother was doomed. Everypony close to her had betrayed her in the end. It was her own fault. Everything.

Why was she sitting in the dark, trembling? Did she think that somepony was coming to save her? No. Nopony was coming. Only the royal sisters and their guards. Nopony else. It was over.

The taut wire of her emotions finally snapped. A feral cry filled the garage as a sky-blue aura pierced the blackness. Wooden props shattered against the walls, parade floats were dismantled piece by piece, and anything that wasn’t nailed down was immediately crushed in a powerful maelstrom of magic. Other ponies might see her, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

Through her unbridled rage, Caesura’s levitation caught up six pieces of fake jewelry. The Elements of Harmony. The forgeries joined the growing pile of splintered wood in the corner.

If those six hadn’t showed up, everything would be fine! Life would have continued as usual! But those ruthless, mindless sheep had come snooping around like it was some kind of vacation, giggling like little fillies at a carnival!

Heavy breathing began to overtake the deafening din of crackling wood as Caesura’s magic began to fizzle out. Despite her weakness, she continued to tear apart the float in front of her, wrenching the wooden wheels off of their hinges and tossing them aside.

What had the changelings done to deserve this? Was there something wrong with trying to live a normal life?!

Sweat came trickling down her forehead from her mane. Each levitation became a labor, like she was lifting an entire orchestra at once. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

It’s over. We’re doomed. It’s my fault. I ran away, just like it did before. I could have helped her. But no. I turned tail and tried to save myself. I’m worthless. More worthless than this broken float!

With one last guttural howl, she tore the large cart in two, sending the elaborate painting of the royal alicorns toppling to the ground with a cacophony of splintering wood. As soon as it was done, Caesura’s legs gave out beneath her.

Her chest ached. Her lungs burned for air. Her whole body felt like lead. Useless. Worthless.

Still heaving, Caesura forced her eyes open. Every inch of her trembling body protested the simple motion, but she wanted to see who would come to take her away. Would it be one of the Elements of Harmony? Would it be one of the royal sisters? Maybe even Red, coming to exact revenge for the incident in the mineshaft? It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. It was over.

As the dust settled, a silhouette appeared on the other side of the wreckage. There, on the other side of the dark room, stood the figure of an earth pony rearing back on its hind legs. Had this mysterious figure been here the whole time? Had it been laughing at her as she self-destructed? Was it here to finish her off? Who was it? Why wasn’t it moving?

A ray of light pierced the darkness. A harsh light from behind her, casting its glow on the mysterious figure. A gray, lifeless figure.

A statue.

“Y-you...” the desperate unicorn choked. Somehow, she forced herself back to her hooves. In an instant, her emotions flared to life again, chest burning with unadulterated fury. She didn’t ask why she was there. Statues didn’t answer questions. The only thing she could do was howl at it.

“You!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took a long time, but Twilight managed to catch Page up on everything that had happened. The history of Everdale and Eccondale, the Heart of Equestria, and everything else. Page had been cautious at first, but it seemed that she was starting to understand everything that had happened.

“Then I guess I was too late,” Page said softly, looking around the cavern. “I was going to warn you about Rarity. Cadance’s memory spell made me remember what had happened. But you still figured it out, didn’t you?”

Twilight nodded sagely. “I may have figured out who was replaced, but I still don’t have the why. Chrysalis was about to tell me, but then you came in. And Caesura—”

“She’ll be okay,” Chrysalis chimed, looking askance. Her villainous fury had all but vanished. “She’ll understand soon. It’s much better if she stays away from me. A mare like her might be able to return to her old life. I’m the one who stole her away, after all.”

Cadance, who had been waiting patiently, finally decided to speak. “Sister, there isn’t much time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Celestia and Luna were on their way right this—”

“Sister?!” Twilight gasped, shaking her head. “Okay, this is just too much! First you say you’re the Princess of Lies, but now I’m supposed to believe that you’re related? Ugh! And here I thought I solved everything, but now things make even less sense than before! Give me a break!”

Despite Twilight’s outburst, Cadance and Chrysalis shared a knowing giggle. “Twilight,” Cadance said, “just calm down, okay? This is going to sound crazy, but listen to me. Aria told me everything. Lend her your ear.”

Huffing, Twilight furrowed her brow. “I’ve got a few questions, first! Why did you make me go through your silly game of guess who? If you really were on Cadance’s side the whole time, why didn’t you just tell me? And better yet, where are my friends? Where’s Rarity?!”

Twilight’s accusatory tone had no visible effect on Chrysalis, who gave a simple, polite answer. “She’s here, don’t worry. She’s just relaxing in one of the pods in an adjoining room.”

“You mean those nasty green things? You’re telling me that Rarity’s actually relaxing in slime like that?”

“Indeed, I am. You’d be surprised, but according to her, it’s like a visit to the spa. You should have heard her when she first woke up, thrashing and wailing like a Wendigo! I’ve never heard so much whining in my thousand years of living!”

Despite her anxiety, Twilight managed a small chuckle. That sounded like Rarity, alright. “I’m sure she’d have a few choice words about that.”

“Regardless, Twilight Sparkle, your friend only took a few minutes to calm herself. She was remarkably understanding, you see. When I told her about my plan, she told me that she had no reason to worry, and that her friends would come and get her. I was skeptical, but it seems that she was right after all.”

“Wow, I knew you liked to monologue, but I didn’t think you’d spill your whole plan to her. So she knew about everything this whole time?”

“Of course! She has been the most gracious prisoner I’ve ever had the pleasure of holding captive. I had been tempted to allow my changelings to feed off of her, but there was no reason for that, not when she was being so agreeable. After all, we have Dotted Line supplying us with an endless supply of food now.”

Twilight winced at the thought. She couldn’t deny that the prospect of unlimited food was probably tempting for a starving city of changelings, but using a pony to do so made it seem wrong.

“What about the rest of my friends?” she asked.

“You already called my bluff on that, Twilight. I haven’t managed to capture a single one of them. It’s odd. I have a city full of changelings, but not a single one of them has reported that they had seen one of the Elements of Harmony... aside from you, of course.”

While the information was worrisome, Twilight took it as good news. If her friends were still safe, all was well and good.

Cadance, growing impatient, took a step forward. “Twilight, Page, please allow my sister to speak. I do not know if Celestia and Luna are on their way, but I assume that our absence has not gone unnoticed.”

Chrysalis, frowning, averted her green gaze. “You are correct, Mia. I impersonated Twilight’s dream to throw Luna off track, but she is no foal. It will not take long for her and Celestia to realize that I am involved. They know that I can copy dreams as well, seeing as I have done so in the past.”

Page, shaking her head violently, stomped a hoof on the floor. “It doesn’t matter! You can just tell them what you told us! I mean, this whole thing sounds crazy, but it makes sense! Kind of. I’m still a little lost, here!”

Upon hearing this, Chrysalis winced. It looked like she were about to be ill. “It’s not that simple.”

“And why not? If you can convince me, then just go out and talk to them! It’s not that hard!”

“No, you don’t understand. They will not listen to me.”

Twilight huffed, scrunching her lips into a snarl. “Could you stop being so cryptic? I know it’s your whole villain shtick, but I don’t understand why you never just marched over to Canterlot and had a peaceful talk with them!”

“Twilight, I could never have done something so direct. You see, both Celestia and Luna hold a heavy grudge against me.”

Cadance, taking a deep breath, sat down next to her supposed sister and nodded. “I held one as well. It took her lying spell to convince me that what she said was true. Now I understand why a peaceful resolution would not be possible.

“And why not?!” Twilight barked, emotions flaring again.

Chrysalis, her expression heavy, closed her eyes. “Because they believe that I’m responsible for the death of Princess Il Tuo Aria, the Princess of Lies... and their old friend.”

There was nothing Twilight could say in response to such a confusing answer. That didn’t make any sense at all!

“Twilight Sparkle, I shall tell you everything that happened. I shall give you the history that Celestia has worked so hard to erase. You see, she blames herself for all of this, and thus tries to cover up what she deems to be irreversible mistakes. She always did that. The entirety of Equestria on her shoulders, so to speak.”

Chrysalis, not waiting for a reaction, slowly levitated a familiar pedestal in front of her. It was the one that held the crystal ball that she had taunted Twilight with only a few hours ago.

Twilight blinked a few times. “Wait, does that actually work?”

Lifting the cloth off of it, Chrysalis sighed. “Of course it does. Now, I will abbreviate the tale as much as I can, but I feel that some details need to be shown.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Equestria. A nation divided. Four lands, six rulers. Thousands and thousands of years ago, before Equestria was united, the world was a different place.

Celestia, her flowing, pink mane whipping in the wind, stared at the cavern ahead of her. She was a simple white mare, a unicorn with an unrivaled stubborn streak. She had no wings, no royal bearing, nothing that would identify her as the future Princess of Equestria. Instead of a crown, she carried nothing but a rather large pair of worn saddlebags across her weary back.

“Celestia, art thou afraid?” came a playful voice from beside her. Mi Amore Cadenza, a rather dainty pink pegasus, chuckled in amusement. She had always been the tomboy of their group, despite her feminine appearance.

“Cease your taunting!” a dark unicorn cried, stepping in between the two. Luna bore a striking resemblance to her sister, save for her dark coat. “You should be grateful that my sister asked thou to accompany us!”

“Sister, ‘tis fine.” Celestia shifted her heavy pack, resulting in a small rattling of metal. “The three of us should make haste. The Heart of Equestria is ahead, and our allies await us. I highly doubt that Sir Luz will wait much longer.”

Luna, nodding sagely, took the lead. “I pray that Sir Consonance has not destroyed everything yet. Such a rambunctious stallion, one would think his kingdom would have fallen by now.”

“Hush, sister. Sir Consonance is an upstanding gentlecolt, and you would do well to respect him. Sir Luz is quite the same.”

Cadenza, flipping her mane out of her bright eyes, remained close to Luna’s side. “Oh, I have my doubts that thou would speak the same of my sister. Thou always spoke of her as the Princess of Lies, and me of Truth. Now, let us cease dragging our hooves and continue! My sister is probably worried by now. Celestia, you simply had to make those trinkets, did thou not?”

“Hush,” Celestia answered. “I shall have you know that I made these as an offer of peace between our nations. One for each of us, displaying our most noble traits for all to see. I even enchanted them! And this is my payment? Mockery?”

“Sister, Cadenza, that is enough,” Luna sighed as they entered the cavern at a brisk pace. “Now, sister, I presume that thou art still confident in the study of this gem?”

“Of course I am! I have given it a name, as well! It shall henceforth be known as The Heart of Equestria, since it shall serve as a beacon of hope to all who see it! That is why I have called everypony here. The Heart of Equestria shall put all six of us through a trial, and once we succeed, we will gain power beyond what we may only dream of! With this, our four nations may unite together, and peace shall reign forever. You see, from my studies, I have determined that it shall put your fears to the test, and once anypony conquers them, they shall be blessed with a bolstering of their greatest strength!”

Luna, looking anxious, swallowed air. “A bolstering of one’s greatest strength?”

“Why, it is as it sounds, sister! Luna, you are immeasurably kind, so I imagine that you will become the kindest mare of the entire pony race! Your kindness shall become power, and none will ever be your equal. Mi Amore Cadenza, thou always speaketh the truth, and as such, honesty shall become power. You sister, Princess Il Tuo Aria, shall be the greatest mage that Equestria has ever known! Of course, Sir Consonance shall bring laughter to the whole world, and Sir Luz shall shower the world with his generosity.”

Luna’s eyes sparkled, similar to a little filly on her first day of school. “And what of thou, sister? Thou hast united everypony in this crusade, encouraging a loyalty beyond our tentative bonds and treaties! I proclaim that loyalty shall be your element!”

“Agreed,” Cadenza said, albeit begrudgingly. “Celestia, thou hast brought peace to our countries. Had thou not discovered this magical gem, I have little doubt that we would not be able to speak on such terms.”

Their conversation continued as they descended into the dark caves. Celestia created a magical ball of light with which they could see, but it did little to allay their anxiety. After all, Equestria was still a wild land, with dangerous animals roaming the countryside. The weather and celestial patterns had yet to be controlled, making the world a dangerous place for the unaware traveler.

After a long, downhill trek, the three mares finally arrived.

There, in the unnaturally large cavern, waited three figures: a unicorn and two earth ponies. Out in front was Il Tuo Aria, Mi Amore Cadenza’s sister. She was a fairly large mare with a deep violet coat, one that reflected the shocking azure glow that came from the sizable gem in the center of the cavern.

“My dear sister!” Aria exclaimed, sharing an embrace with Cadenza. “Thou art late! Sir Luz and Sir Consonance have already begun! I attempted to warn them of the dangers of this trial, but neither would lend me so much as a single ear. Stallions, so stubborn!”

Cadenza giggled, but Celestia couldn’t hide her worry. She had planned that all of them would go together into the trials that awaited them, but it seemed that the two stallions were not of the same mindset.

“Now Mia,” Aria said sternly, “you are not required to go through with this. Shall you decline, I shall harbor no ill will, and neither shall anypony else.”

“Sister! You worry over me more than is reasonable. I am a full grown mare, and I would expect to be treated as such! I am no filly!”

Celestia watched as Cadenza stormed past her sister. Aria looked hesitant, her downcast eyes giving away her hidden anxiety.

“Princess Aria,” Celestia announced, retaining her royal manners. “I am grateful for you and your sister’s cooperation. Now, let us begin.”

“Wait,” Aria objected, glaring. “What happens if we fail our trial? Thou hast not explained that. I wish to know.”

“There is no need to know! Princess Aria, we may call you the Princess of Lies, but thou art strong. I believe that thou may be stronger than myself, and as such a Princess must fulfill her royal duty! A duty to peace. Peace across Equestria.”

Aria did not appear to like that answer, but she glumly turned and joined the two motionless stallions on the floor. They had already begun their trial, it seemed.

Sir Luz, the king of the Crystal Empire, appeared to be asleep. From Celestia’s research, the trial took place in one’s own head, forcing one to face one’s greatest fears. Because Sir Luz was renowned for his generosity towards his subjects, his trial would likely consist of something regarding his kingdom. Perhaps being dethroned, despite his good works? His subjects were the richest in Equestria, with gems only rivaled by the Heart of Equestria, and their charity was known to all. It all stemmed from Sir Luz, a bright white earth pony with a gorgeous blond mane. He fit the role of the generous king.

Sir Consonance lay there beside him. The pink earth pony was a stark contrast to the stallion beside him, with a wild brown mane that appeared to have just gone through a windstorm. Sir Consonance may not have been as rich and generous as Sir Luz, but his subjects were just as beloved. Most of them were farmers, leading difficult lives, but Sir Consonance made their lives more enjoyable, spreading cheer wherever he went.

Celestia could only imagine what those two ponies would be like once they were finished with their trials. Equestria would be a beautiful place.

Readying herself, the Princess of the Sun lowered her saddlebags to the ground beside her and walked calmly towards the radiant, heart-shaped jewel. Eagerly envisioning the bright future of Equestria, Celestia let herself drift off into sleep, allowing the jewel to work its magic.

Her trial awaited.

In the saddlebags behind her, a small glint of metal was overshadowed by the brilliant azure glow of the cavern. As if moved by some unseen force, the bags tipped over, spilling their sparkling contents onto the floor.

There were six pieces of jewelry, each with their own insignia emblazoned on it. Aria’s magic. Cadenza’s honesty. Luz’s generosity. Consonance’s laughter. Luna’s kindness. Celestia’s loyalty.

All of them, when brought together, were supposed to bring harmony to Equestria.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widened. What was this? Who were those other ponies? Hadn’t Celestia created the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister? But there was one more question that chilled Twilight to the bone.

“Aria... she looks just like—”

“I did,” Chrysalis stated firmly, eyes gently shut. “I was much like you, in terms of physical resemblance. It is no surprise that Celestia appointed you to be the Element of Magic. When she saw you... I can only imagine what went through her guilt-ridden mind.”

Speechless, Twilight’s eyes found their way back to the crystal ball. Four kingdoms of Equestria, instead of the three she had always read about. Were ponies not divided by race back then? But more importantly, the rulers of those kingdoms....

Luz. Light. Sombra. Shadow. It was not difficult to imagine what had happened. The Heart of Equestria showed one their greatest fears, just like what had happened at the Crystal Empire. That Crystal Heart must have been part of The Heart of Equestria. There was no doubt of it.

Consonance. Discord. It all made too much sense. The Elements of Harmony, all together in that cavern. But what had happened?

“Twilight Sparkle, do not look away. You must see this. I will show you what happened after that. From my point of view.”

Twilight could only nod lifelessly in response.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Il Tuo Aria screamed. This was too much. She couldn’t face this. This wasn’t real. No. Not real.

Stop, just stop! My sister — my sister would never betray me like this! N-no, please don’t..... Sister, please! I only meant to aid you!

In the blink of an eye, it was over. The vision had receded back into her mind, settling in that dark corner of her thoughts where only the most potent of fears resided.

Gasping for breath, Aria found herself standing on wobbly hooves, barely able to keep her balance. The intense aura radiating from the gem gave her a headache, further throwing her off balance. She closed her eyes. It was as if she had just woken up for a long nap, but she didn’t feel refreshed. In fact, she felt terrible, like she hadn’t slept in weeks.

She had failed. She had failed the trial and given into her worst fears. Cadenza had betrayed her, throwing a coup and disowning her sister in the process. It had all felt so real. It couldn’t be real. Cadenza would never do that. They loved each other... right?

Something felt wrong. What was the price for failure? It felt as if she were much taller than before, but also much lighter. Wrong. Something very wrong.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes again, wincing at the bright light from that insipid gem. The Heart of Equestria, Celestia had called it. Equestria was better off without something so terrifying. This had been a mistake from the start.

It wasn’t until Aria fully opened her eyes that she realized how much of a mistake it was. Luna, Celestia, and Cadenza all lay peacefully in front of the terrible gem, but their bodies were entirely different. All three of them had grown substantially larger, but the most striking change was their race.

They had become alicorns. All three of them. Creatures of legend, with gorgeous, flowing manes like a sunset, a night sky, or a beautiful mural. Had they passed? Had they failed? What about the others?

Off to the side, a monstrous amalgamation of creatures lay with its snakelike body curled into a tiny circle. Its body was a mashup of every kind of animal that Aria could imagine, creating a monster like nothing she had ever seen before. When had this monster arrived?

Beside it lay a dark, filthy stallion with a jagged horn erupting from his forehead. His hooves appeared mangled and neglected, but the most striking feature was his face. The sizable stallion’s closed eyes emanated a sickly green aura, one that faded into the air around him like a cloud of noxious magic. There was no mistaking who that was.

Luz. Did that mean that the other one was Consonance? There was nopony else in the cavern besides them. Was this the work of this insipid gem?

Shaking visibly, Aria took a step backward, eyes wide. This wasn’t happening. This was still part of the trial. This was her worst fear: being abandoned. Being alone. Surely a simple gem wouldn’t be able to make such a change to one’s appearance!

Aria’s hoof caught on something as she tried to back away. Something cold and lifeless. In front of her, Celestia slowly began to stir. She was beautiful. She was royal, perfect, and everything else that Aria had tried to be. There was no doubt that she had passed her trial.

Celestia’s wandering eyes finally fell on Aria. Their gazes met.

Before Aria could understand what was going on, Celestia was up on her hooves, face dark and spire-like horn aglow. In an instant, Aria found herself hurtling towards the nearest wall. She collapsed.

The world spun. Had Celestia failed after all? Had she lost her mind? Why?

When she opened her eyes, everything began to fall into place. There, lying lifelessly in front of the Heart of Equestria, was Princess Aria. A trail of sickly green energy trailed from where the body lay to where Aria thought she was.

But I’m over here. How am I over there?

As Aria tried to come to grips with the scene before her, Celestia dashed towards the motionless body. Shouts, cries for help. Dead. Aria was dead. Killed by this monster in her sleep. Life energy stolen. Crying.

But I’m not dead. Stop saying that. I’m not dead. I’m right here. But I’m there. I’m here. I’m alive....

Aria brought up a hoof to try and stand again, but what she saw stopped her. Holes. There were holes in her leg. Her black leg. Her teal mane. Her insect-like wings.

Despite her shock, Aria could still see Celestia’s face quite clearly. Tears streamed down her brilliant white face, her lips contorted with unbridled fury. Righteous fury.

The wrath of the sun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And that,” Chrysalis whispered, “is the truth.”

Twilight stood frozen in place, her eyes still locked on the crystal ball in front of her. There was nothing to see anymore, but the image of Celestia’s despairing, wrathful expression was burnt into her memory.

“Twilight,” Cadance whispered, eyes beginning to water. “It’s the truth. Please, accept it. Please, Twilight...!”

“But,” Twilight stammered, unblinking, “what happened? P-Princess Celestia, she—”

“She passed,” Chrysalis stated, masking her emotion. “She, Luna, and Mia all passed. I failed. I was always so independent, but I was truly afraid of being left alone. And to punish me, the Heart of Equestria turned me into... this. From that point forward, I was forced to deceive others and rely on their unknowing charity to live. That was not all. All of my subjects were transformed as well, leaving their bodies behind and becoming changelings. To Celestia, it appeared that I was the guardian of this gem, and I had come to punish those who disturbed it. She truly believes that she is responsible for not only my death, but the death of an entire kingdom.”

“B-but why—”

“Why did I show you this? It is the same reason I put you through that ridiculous game of truth and lies. Twilight Sparkle, you are the only one who can convince Princess Celestia of who I am. She will not listen to reason when I am involved.

“The reason I forced you to solve those mysteries was to test you. I wanted to see your dedication to the truth. I tried to tell Luna by imitating my old dreams, but Celestia had told her everything. I tried countless nights to tell Luna who I was, but she refused to listen. She was still inside of her trial when Celestia witnessed what she did, and thus she believed all that her sister told her.”

Cadance firmly stepped between Chrysalis and Twilight, furrowing her brow. “I will repeat all of this with my spell if you would like, Twilight. It’s all true. Who we now refer to as Sombra enslaved his kingdom, forcing his generosity on others. With his magic, he transformed all of his subjects into the crystals they so adored and forced them to mine more. Discord’s kingdom fell into anarchy, ruining itself within days.”

“Then,” Twilight gasped, taking a step backward. “Celestia always sent me and my friends to deal with her foes. Was that... because they were her friends? Discord. Sombra.”

“I would imagine so. But it didn’t end there, Twilight. I... could not handle the loss of my sister. I fled and disguised myself for thousands of years, having lost not only my family, but my friends and subjects. I tried to disappear for one thousand years, but then I met you, Twilight. You and your brother. For the first time in a millenia... I felt like I had a family.”

Twilight found it difficult to listen to such heartfelt words. How could she respond to such a terrible truth?

Chrysalis motioned for Cadance to step aside, nodding knowingly. “So you see why Celestia will not listen to reason. She blames herself for all of this. Luna may be convinced, but as long as the royal sisters are together, it’s hopeless. I only need to use my lying spell, but I doubt that Celestia would ever gave me the chance to speak. While I was in Canterlot, during that regrettable invasion, I was so starved and deprived of food that I didn’t even think of trying to speak to her. Even now... she would never believe me. But she would believe you.”

This was too much. Twilight couldn’t take all of this in at once. “W-wait, what about Cadance?! She has a truth spell, she could—”

“You don’t understand, Twilight. By the time Celestia arrives here, she will be beyond reasoning. After one thousand years of guilt, she will not rest until I am no more. To her, I am the one who murdered Princess Il Tuo Aria. She feels responsible for my death, the death of an entire kingdom, and the corruption of Luz and Consonance. Even Mia’s disappearance and Luna’s fall, she blames herself. She cannot see past her own guilt, not after bearing it for such a long time. In essence, I believe that you are the only one who can get her to see reason.”

“I-I can’t tell her all of this! Why would she trust me, but not you? You’re the ones with the truth spells!”

“Twilight, I put you through that silly game to make sure that you were ready for this. I feared that she might think that you were a changeling, but I can think of an easy way to overcome that obstacle. You are a powerful unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, and a changeling would have difficulty matching your strength, even with all of the love in Equestria behind it. But to erase all doubts from Celestia’s mind that you are telling the truth, you must become stronger. So strong that nopony could ever hope to match you.”

“No... she’ll believe me, right? Princess Celestia will know it’s me!”

“She didn’t know when I had replaced Mia, and she is much more powerful than you.”

“Then what do you want me to do?!” Twilight cried out, bewildered. “If Princess Celestia really thought I was a changeling, she would burn me to a crisp! How am I supposed to stand up to her? How can I talk to her like this?!”

“As I said, you must become stronger. Erase all doubt from her mind. Twilight Sparkle, I want you to undergo the trial that I failed.”

Chapter 22: Confrontation

Chapter 22

Confrontation

Preston Paper couldn’t believe his eyes. There, in a heap on the dusty floor, was one of the ponies responsible for the disappearance of his friends. No, Caesura wasn’t a pony. She was a monster, just like the other changelings in this forgotten city.

Regardless of what she was, Caesura was covered in splinters of wood, crumpled right in front of a lifelike statue of an earth pony. The statue didn’t look familiar. The rest of the room was in shambles, like a wild tornado had ripped through.

Preston, Nightowl, and Red had been on their way to the spire when they saw a familiar figure darting through the crowd. Caesura, looking as ragged as ever, had rushed inside of this garage and started howling like a wild animal. By the time they got inside, the unicorn was passed out on the floor.

Red, visibly struggling to remain standing, stumbled towards the motionless unicorn. The truth spell was still in effect, turning her every step into a trial perseverance. She stretched her lips apart to say something, but the words wouldn’t surface.

Preston’s heart ached at the sight, but he was too late to help. Nightowl, the real one, quickly came to her aid, lending her a shoulder. “Red, take it easy. Look, Preston’s gonna get Caesura out of here, but right now we need to get you some rest.”

Forcing himself to look away from Red’s pitiful form, Preston averted his gaze. “No,” he stated firmly, turning back towards the open doorway. “I’m not helping her.”

“Preston, this isn’t the time to argue. We’ll set her up in my bed if we need to, but we need to make our way up to the spire and find Page!”

“I’m not arguing with you about Red, but why should I help Chess? She foalnapped nearly every single one of my friends, not to mention she’s been lying to us this whole time! Let’s just leave and find some way to get Red back to normal and forget her!”

“Look,” Nightowl sighed, shifting his bulk to support Red a little more efficiently. “I haven’t had the time to tell you anything yet, but she’s not as bad as you’re making her out to be. I’ve lived here for the past six years, so if anypony knows her, it’s me.”

Preston blinked. “Six years? You’ve been here for six years? Then who in the hay has been on guard duty that whole time?”

“That was a changeling! Look, I’ll tell you everything as quickly as I can. Six years ago, a filly went missing. The mother was on her way here, but her daughter ran off into the forest. Page did a quick flyover, leaving me there with the mother, but we were suddenly attacked by changelings. Of course, they were all disguised, but I fought them off while the mother escaped. That’s when they took me and put a changeling in my place.”

Preston stood with his jaw hanging open. He remembered writing an article on the case of the missing filly, but he had been told that everything was resolved. To think that a changeling had fooled all of them for such a long time….

“But that’s not all. They took me here and fed off of me for a while. It… wasn’t pleasant. B-but still, they’re not all bad here! I learned about this whole society, and it’s absolutely fascinating! I tried to talk them into letting me go back to Everdale, and after about a year, they finally agreed. Every once in a while, they would let me switch with my imposter for a day, but only if I agreed to keep their secret.

“But that’s not the important part. The filly that Page went searching after, that was Caesura. Apparently she had run away from her mother and found this place. The ruler here – they call her Princess Chrysalis – took a real liking to her, apparently, and all but adopted her. But after a while, she got restless and wanted to go back to the outside world again. Princess Chrysalis wouldn’t allow it, so in the end, Caesura ran away. I actually got to talk to her a few times, when I switched with my double, and she seemed pretty happy out there.

“I’d say more, but you need to listen to me. Caesura isn’t evil or anything. She’s just had a rough life. I’ve seen it all from in here.”

It took a few moments to digest all of that information. A fake Nightowl. Caesura being a runaway. Switching places. “Hold on a tick, you mean... she’s not a changeling?”

“Of course not! She’s the reason this city is still alive! Her music, the stuff you hear playing in the streets, that’s one of the only things that kept the changelings here from starving. Okay, I’ve blabbed on enough! Just pick her up and let’s get moving!”

Speechless, Preston did as he was told. These monsters had taken his friends away, so how could he sympathize with them? But on the other side of the coin, how could he hate them? There didn’t seem to be any blatant antagonist in this struggle.

Nightowl, still shouldering Red, let out a startled breath. “That statue….”

Preston, frozen at Caesura’s side, gave him a wary glance. He didn’t much feel like talking, but the look on Nightowl’s face goaded him on. “What about it?”

“That’s the mare that came to the shack that night. Six years ago. This… is Caesura’s mother.”

Nopony spoke for a moment. Preston had no idea what that meant. Why would there be a statue of Caesura’s mother in this city? Had she made it herself? Did she miss her mother? Was that why she had destroyed everything else in the room? There were so many mysteries that he feared he would never solve.

“Forget it, we need to get moving,” Nightowl urged, trotting briskly towards the door. “First, we need to get Red fixed up somehow, then we’ll find Page. I can’t believe she just flew off like that!”

Begrudgingly, Preston leaned down and hefted Caesura onto his back. This was a mess. He’d only come down here to get some photographic evidence so that he could bring down the royal sisters on this hidden city. Now, it felt like he had to take everything into his own hooves. Red was in horrible shape, hexed by some sadistic spell, and he had to find a cure amongst a city of restless changelings. This would make an amazing article, assuming he made it out alive.

“Hurry up!” Nightowl called from the doorway, rocking back and forth on his hooves.

“Coming!”

As soon as he set hoof outside, he froze. What appeared to be nearly twenty ponies all stared at him, eyes wide and jaws agape. No, they weren’t ponies. They were changelings. They were monsters.

Before Preston and Nightowl could react, the creatures all cried out.

“Put her down!”

“He’s trying to take her hostage!”

“Stop him!”

Within seconds, the crowd descended on them. Preston was about to toss Caesura and fly off, but a sudden shout stopped him.

“Hey, cut it out!” came a familiar voice from one of the rooftops.

Immediately, the crowd of changelings froze, some of them tripping over their own hooves in an attempt to stop themselves. Breathless, Preston craned his neck to find the owner of the voice.

On the rooftop, a rainbow-maned pegasus puffed her chest out. “C’mon, guys, they’re on our side! They’re not foalnapping anypony!”

Preston blinked. If he hadn’t been hopelessly confused before, this tipped the scale. “Rainbow Dash?!” he yelped. Was this a changeling? The real one? Why were they listening to her?

“I finally found ya!” the pegasus exclaimed, leaping down from her perch. “Jeez, you guys hide really well, I’ll give you that.”

Neither Nightowl nor Preston could say a word.

After deftly leaping down, Rainbow trotted through the crowd of perplexed changelings and glanced back and forth between the two stallions. “Woah, you guys look worse for wear. Were you the ones causing that racket? Or better yet, are those two okay?”

It took a moment for Preston to realize that Rainbow was referring to Caesura and Red, who were still unresponsive. “I-I think–“

“Woah!” Rainbow shouted, leaping back when she saw Red’s glowing eyes. “What the hay is up with her? It’s like she’s possessed or something!”

Nightowl finally recovered, nodding. “I don’t know, but Page mentioned some sort of spell, and that some princess was the only pony who could get rid of it!”

“Princess? That’s gotta be Cadance.” Rainbow took a deep breath. “Alright, you heard them! Let’s meet up with the others and head to the castle! C’mon, look alive!”

Miraculously, the changelings did as they were told, scrambling to attention like soldiers. Preston couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation, but somehow Rainbow Dash had recruited a whole group of changelings to her side. Was this the magic of the Elements of Harmony?

“Oh, yeah, about these guys,” Rainbow chuckled secretively. “Let’s walk and talk. C’mon.”

Still in shock, Preston adjusted Caesura’s sleeping form so that she wouldn’t fall. He quickly caught up.

“Okay, start talking,” Preston hissed quietly, trying to forget that they were apparently leading around a small militia of changelings. “I’m glad you stepped in, but this is just crazy.”

Nightowl nodded in agreement. “Hey, I live here and I’m lost. I mean, I think I understand what’s going on, but–“

“Okay, fine. I guess it’s storytime for the two of ya. Let me give you the short version, since we’re a little short on time. Apparently these guys really like the Elements of Harmony, so I’m some kind of hero here. I don’t really get it, but you can ask Fluttershy about it. She seems to know these guys like the back of her hoof. It’s kinda creepy.”

Preston pursed his lips. “That still doesn’t explain anything. I saw the parade with the Elements of Harmony, but I didn’t think they were serious.”

“Hey, I wasn’t finished! Anyway, when me and Fluttershy ran into these guys, they were freaking out about the fact that the Elements of Harmony were going to wipe them out. I mean, I would love to do just that, but little-miss-kindness started talking to them. Yeah, you heard me. Fluttershy talking to a bunch of strangers! Anyway, after she assured them that we weren’t going to kick their flanks into next week, they started asking for our help. They thought that, since the Elements of Harmony weren’t here to destroy them, that Twilight Sparkle shouldn’t be held prisoner. Now we’re just going house to house to gather up as many changelings as we can for some kind of mamby-pamby march.”

“Um,” came a quiet voice from above them. Preston jerked his head up in surprise, finding a yellow pegasus hovering a few feet above them. “A-actually, Rainbow Dash, it’s called a peaceful protest. You see, we’re going to march up to that big, scary spire and try to talk to…. T-to–”

“Yeah, whatever Fluttershy,” Rainbow groaned, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, we found everypony but Twilight and Rarity, so they’re helping out with the whole door-to-door thing. I’m sure that Twilight’s busy blasting that bug to oblivion, but Rarity’s probably fussing over her mane for all I know. I still say we should storm the gates.”

“No way,” Fluttershy gasped, landing beside them and trotting to keep pace. “Th-that big queen meanie is… well, she’s just so scary! I’m sure we can talk things over. I-I mean, she’ll surrender, right?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Rainbow grumbled, sounding none too happy about this peaceful protest. “But yeah, that’s the big picture. I doubt you’d be able to climb out of here with a pony on your back, so your best bet is to come along with me. For all I know, Princess Cadance might be down here too. Some of the changelings back there were gossiping about how she and Shining Armor were being held captive as well, but I’m not sure I believe them.”

A spark of hope burst to life in Preston’s thoughts. The sooner they could remove Red’s hex, the better. Silently, he bit his lip to keep himself from getting distracted. He would deal with everything else after they escaped.

“Hey, there y’all are!” came another familiar voice from down the street.

Rainbow perked up. “AJ! Right on time!”

Preston snapped to attention, only then noticing the large group of changelings rounding the corner ahead of them. At their head, trotting with a little limp, was a distinctively orange earth pony with her signature hat.

“Glad I finally found y’all,” Applejack sighed as she trotted ahead. Some of the changelings from one group ran over to the other, exchanging hugs and relieved assurances. “Goodness, there really aren’t many of them left, are there? Between the three of us, we’ve barely got 60.”

Rainbow gave a guilty sigh. “Yeah, I know. I hope Pinkie had more luck than we did. But hey, more importantly, how’s the leg?”

“Just dandy, actually! Kicks McGee is making a speedy recovery!”

Preston was about to ask who she was talking about, but Rainbow silenced her with a shake of the head, the kind that said “don’t ask”.

“Anyway, one of them critters was actually a doctor down here. Crazy, huh? But yeah, he fixed me up right as rain, and I’ll be back to normal in a few days!”

Preston, still desperate to understand everything, had to ask. “What happened to your leg?”

“Oh, this little thing? Well, I was in that cart with Page when it started to go off of the rails. If it kept goin’ the way it was, we were gonna crash into a wall, so I just barely managed to kick Page out of the way before I went for a nasty tumble. I’m just lucky these little critters aren’t as nasty as I thought they were, otherwise I’d be bug chow right now.”

The story matched up with what Page had told him before darting off. Granted, the other thing Page had said was wholly inappropriate, but Preston was trying his best to forget that.

“Alrighty now!” Applejack called out, getting everypony’s attention. Ponies and changelings alike all stopped whatever they were doing to stare. “Pinkie’s gonna meet us up by that stalagma-whatsit, and she’ll hopefully have everypony else there! Now let’s shake a leg and get movin’!”

A cheer rose from the numerous changelings, catching Preston off guard. Despite their unnatural colors and wild mane-styles, they acted just like normal ponies. It was slightly disconcerting. Some of them, with the way they embraced and cried, appeared like families reuniting after some kind of disaster.

As their march continued, Fluttershy began to hover anxiously above the group again. “U-um, I know we’re in a hurry, but these kinds of protests usually have signs, so if we have time, I think it would be a good idea to–“

“No way, Fluttershy!” Rainbow groaned. “We don’t have time for that! I mean, what kind of pony would take the time right now to make some stupid signs?”

“Now Rainbow,” Applejack said, “don’t call Fluttershy’s ideas stupid. Making signs may not be the best use of our time, but it’s not stupid.”

In the blink of an eye, a pink pony appeared right in front of them. “Aw, we’re not making signs? But I already made a whole bunch of them!”

“Pinkie?!” Rainbow exclaimed, leaping into the air to join Fluttershy. “Stop doing that! That whole sneaky thing!”

Pinkie Pie, trotting backwards, let out a playful giggle. “You just need to stop making it so easy to sneak up on you! But anyway, I found everypony else and they’re all waiting outside of the front gate with signs and pickets and everything you could ever want for a protest! So we’re ready to go!”

“Wait a cotton-pickin’ minute,” Applejack said, “what about Rarity? Did ya find her yet?”

“Psh, of course not! I really don’t get why you’re looking for her out here, anyway.”

Rainbow bristled, masking her anxiety. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Duh! I mean, the Rarity with us the whole time was big queen meanie, so I really doubt that we’re gonna find the real one out here!”

“What?!”

Every single pony, outside of the militia of changelings, cried out in unison. Pinkie, never breaking her backwards stride, gave them each a quizzical frown. “What, you didn’t notice? I mean, I wasn’t super-duper sure about it until recently, but I had a few hunches from the beginning. And, c’mon, how rude would it have been if I was wrong? Rarity would’ve been all ‘Oh my stars, deary, how could you say such a dreadful thing?’ and fainted, and I didn’t really want to carry her around. Not to mention, I didn’t even know that changelings were mixed up in this at the time, so I would have been calling my friend a liar! I mean, I tried to tell you guys about it, but you didn’t say anything, so I just assumed that we were setting up some kind of super-secret sting operation.”

Pinkie’s explanation was greeted with dumbstruck silence.

“Wait,” Pinkie gasped, “you really didn’t notice? Oh my gosh, did nopony actually read all of my crazy-elaborate charts and graphs? If any of you bothered to read past the first twenty pages, I had the whole thing spelled out for you! Jeez, what did you think I spent all of my time taking notes on? I mean, Twilight totally miscounted the shapes in her barrier. It was totally rude of her to forget about the desk clerk, but I never forget anypony that I’ve invited to my party! But then, Twilight’s a whole lot smarter than me, so I figured that I was the one that counted wrong, since she’s the one with the crazy barrier thing in her head. Either way, I figured she would read through everything, but I guess she didn’t. Bummer.”

Rainbow, eyes wide, shook her head. “W-wait, you’re serious?! Then that whole thing where she levitated me back in the lobby…. Oh, I am gonna squash that little bug! But wait, why didn’t you say anything, Pinkie?”

Pinkie rolled her eyes, still keeping stride. “Well, I wanted to be completely, totally sure before I said something. That’s why I was always hanging out with Rarity the whole time! I mean, I went with when we split up in the forest, and then when we went on the minecarts, just to make sure she didn’t do anything suspicious. But then, when our minecart crashed, I played dead in the rubble for a while. Just as I suspected, Rarity poked me to see if I was awake, and then did that whole green-flame-morphing thingy, and boom! That big meanie queenie was standing right there!”

To Preston, the whole story sounded absolutely ludicrous. Either this pink pony was a genius or she had completely lost her marbles.

Before anypony could make a response, Pinkie whipped around, facing forward again. “Oh hey, we’re here! C’mon guys, let’s get this protest-party started!”

The changelings that Rainbow and Applejack had gathered quickly rushed ahead to join the hundreds of others marching around the spire. The ones that Pinkie had gathered all had poorly drawn signs with “Free Twilight Sparkle” written on them in permanent marker.

Preston, his mind reeling, could only stare at the mind-numbing sight in front of him. Changelings, all of them disguised as wildly colorful ponies, were putting up a protest to try and free Twilight Sparkle. The mere prospect of it sounded utterly ludicrous. Then, top all of that off with the fact that Rarity had apparently been a changeling the whole time, and Preston had a story that he couldn’t even begin to imagine reporting on.

As the rally continued, Preston watched as the remaining Elements of Harmony began to argue amongst each other. From what he could hear, they were all trying to figure out if Pinkie was telling the truth. It did make sense, despite how unlikely it seemed. Back in the lobby, Rarity could have easily knocked them out with her magic.

Remembering the lobby, Preston turned to see Nightowl shift Red again, who was mumbling something under her breath. The poor mare was delirious, thanks to the hex she was under. It was difficult to see Red Tape, the most rambunctious mare he’d ever met, reduced to a glowy-eyed zombie.

Wait, Red was in pain! Why were they wasting time with this pointless protest?

“Hey, Nightowl. Hold Caesura for me, I’m gonna go find Princess Cadance.”

“H-hey, wait a minute. You–“

“Don’t argue with me. I already told you: I’m gonna go find Princess Cadance.”

“Then you would not know where she is, would you?”

The voice that answered didn’t belong to Nightowl. It was female, and much too regal. As Preston slowly turned around, he was met with the most majestic and terrifying sight of his life.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood side by side, massive forms dwarfing all other ponies around the spire. Celestia’s intense eyes burrowed into Preston, sending electricity down his spine.

“Princess?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as the other ponies began to notice the royal sisters’ arrival. “Wait a minute… this can’t be the real deal, can it? I mean, we’re in a city of changelings, after all.”

Rainbow Dash’s doubt was instantly rebuked by the ring of changelings around the spire. Every single one of them froze, eyes locked on the regal alicorns that now stood before them. The only sound in the entire city was the sound of clattering wood as some of the changelings dropped their signs in shock.

The silence only lasted a brief moment before chaos erupted. Screams resounded through the underground city as changelings scattered. Some of them darted back towards their homes, but others remained and stood their ground, protecting their loved ones. Preston could tell which ones were families, since there were small packs of them that stuck together. The mother and father stood trembling in front of their children, doing their best to appear strong in the face of their aggressors.

Rainbow, completely ignoring the chaos, quickly flew over to the alicorn’s side. “Boy, are we glad to see you! How’d you even find us, anyway?”

Celestia gave her a skeptic frown, as if trying to figure out if this pegasus really was the Element of Loyalty. “It does not matter,” she stated, eyes scanning the terrified crowd. “Where is Twilight Sparkle? And Rarity? And Princess Cadance? And Shining Armor?”

Pinkie quickly hopped into the conversation. “Oh, Rarity and Twilight are being held captive, but I haven’t seen the two lovebirds for a while. You know, it’s kinda funny, but–“

Before Pinkie could continue, a burst of wind nearly knocked her off of her hooves. Princess Celestia, with her powerful wings, had taken to the air without a single word. In a sudden burst of radiant magic, the alicorn blew a sizable hole in the side of the earthy spire, sending debris hurtling down on the group of cowering changelings below.

Preston, in spite of his ambivalence towards the creatures, instinctively cried out to warn them.

As if by a miracle, the rocks never hit the ground. There was no deafening crash, no screams of agony. Nothing but the sound of magic.

Luna stood calmly amongst the changelings, her massive horn alight with a dark aura. All around her, that same aura encapsulated countless chunks of solid rock, floating a few mere feet above the ground. The levitation spell seemed to put no strain on the graceful alicorn, whose eyes were locked on something far above them.

“Sister!” she called out, but the other alicorn appeared not to hear. The faraway form of Princess Celestia immediately dove into the hole she had created in the spire, disappearing from view.

The cowering changelings finally began to move, having realized that their untimely demise had not come to be. The suspended debris slowly floated off to the side before harmlessly crashing to the ground with immeasurable weight.

After a few moments of stunned silence, a cheer erupted from the crowd. Luna started, her eyes widening as the colorful forms swarmed around her. Heads poked out of their homes, hesitantly seeing what the cheering was about.

Preston could hardly believe his eyes. Changelings, cheering for Princess Luna like she was some kind of hero. This was absolutely insane.

Without thinking, Preston shrugged Caesura off of his shoulders and let her fall to the ground in a heap. Nightowl, stunned, didn’t have time to react before Preston snatched Red off of his back and darted into the throng of changelings that surrounded Princess Luna. Most of them didn’t even notice as he pushed his way past.

“Princess!” he called out, finally grabbing her shocked attention. “Please! Can you help her? It’s Red, she–“

“Red Tape?” the princess whispered. “Yes, it is! It appears I made it in time. She asked for my assistance, and I feared that I was too late.”

Taken aback, Preston shook his head. He was about to say something, but he felt the weight on his back shift a little bit.

“You…. You were in m-my dream. Princess….” Red’s voice rung clear through the din. Her voice was strained, but her message was clear. It was the truth.

Luna gasped, leaning down to examine Red’s body. Preston, in a hurry, gently let the weary pegasus roll down on the ground between them.

“This spell, this belongs to Cadenza! Give me one moment, I shall fix this immediately! How long has she been like this?”

Preston shook his head. “A few hours, at least.”

Luna gave a visible start, her horn’s glow fading. “How can she still speak?” she whispered as she lit up her horn and closed her eyes.

“Then you can–“

“I shall fix this. I know not your name, but this mare asked me to save her. I shall do what I can. Once I am done, there are many questions I mean to ask you. But first, we must evacuate this city.”

Suddenly, the crowd around her froze. Murmurs arose. Evacuate? Eccondale?

“Changelings!” Luna announced, her bellowing voice echoing throughout the city. “Let it be known! I am not here to destroy you! We simply ask for your surrender, that we may exchange information and know the truth! My sister has gone to speak to your queen to facilitate her surrender, and in the occasion that negotiations do not go well, I suggest that you evacuate the city!”

Preston blinked. “Princess Celestia is asking for surrender?”

Quietly, Luna leaned down, her voice brimming with worry. “I pray so. If Chrysalis does not comply, I fear for the inhabitants here.”

“Then why don’t you go and help her?”

“I will be useless in the face of my sister’s righteous fury. The only thing I can do is spare as many of these poor creatures as possible.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I refuse.”

“What?” gasped Chrysalis.

Twilight nodded firmly. “You heard me. I refuse to take this trial.”

Cadance, bewildered, shook her head. “No, Twilight, you have to–“

“No, Cadance, I don’t. You both seem to think that Princess Celestia won’t listen to me, but I think you’re wrong. I trust her.”

Page, who had been sitting quietly to the side, finally spoke up. “Twilight, I’m a little lost, but from what they’re saying, I think they’re right. Look, I mean, you’re the Element of Magic, a little trial like this should be a breeze!”

“This isn’t about whether I can pass it or not. I don’t think I’d want all of that power anyway. I mean, Princess Celestia would lose her mind if she figured out that I took that test! If she feels guilty already, she’d feel even worse if she knew that I undertook some dangerous trial for her sake, especially if she thought that we were scared of her!”

The simple point silenced all opposition in the room. This whole time, they had been treating Princess Celestia like an enemy. They didn’t seem to remember that this was their old friend, one from one thousand years ago. One that, deep down, still cared.

Chrysalis silently rose to her hooves, giving Twilight a stern glare. “You are sure about this? You are sure that Celestia will see reason?”

“I trust her. I have not known her as long as you, but I’m positive that she’ll listen to me.”

In truth, Twilight wasn’t as sure as she sounded. Deep down, she was terrified of the possibility that Celestia would attack her for defending Chrysalis, but she couldn’t imagine what would happen if she took that trial. She had seen her worst fears back in Sombra’s dark castle, and she didn’t want to see them ever again. In fact, she was about to face her worst fear in real life. Princess Celestia, if she couldn’t be reasoned with, would turn on her. The thought sent chills down her spine.

Solemnly, Chrysalis nodded. “Then I leave my fate in your hooves. I have always been a fan of bitter irony, but I believe that this is stretching it to the limit.”

“Sister,” Cadance urged, “you can still escape. You can–“

“No, Cadenza. I’m not going to leave my subjects to face Celestia’s wrath in my stead. I have run away for one thousand years. It is time I faced Celestia.”

“But you won’t be alone,” Twilight said, forcing herself to sound courageous. “Let Rarity and Shining Armor out. Bring them here. We’re just going to talk to her. That’s all.”

Page, annoyed at being left out of the conversation, started scuffing her hoof against the ground. “And what about me? Am I supposed to just sit around and do nothing? I flew all of the way up here, past a whole bunch of guards, just to tell you something you already knew!”

“Page,” Twilight said, taking a deep breath. “I’m grateful for your help. Really. But right now, you need to go back down there and let everypony know what’s about to happen. I also want you to go and find my friends, if that’s not too much to ask.”

“Too much to ask?” Page scoffed playfully. “C’mon, next to you, I feel like an earth pony on a weather team. I’ll be back in a flash!”

Eager to get moving, Page shot out of the cavern as quickly as she could.

With Page on her way, Twilight put her plan into action. “Cadance, you go get my brother, and Chrysalis, go get Rarity. We’re going to gather everypony up here, but then we’re going outside. We won’t be able to talk to her if the Heart of Equestria is making her even more emotional than she already is! So–“

Before Twilight could finish her orders, an explosion rocked the entire cavern. Chunks of earth came crashing down from the ceiling, narrowly missing the three ponies that rested within.

Twilight knew what that meant. A burst of magic that large could only mean one thing. Princess Celestia had arrived.

Wasting no time, Twilight barked out orders. “Hurry! Get Shining and Rarity and bring them back up here!”

In a flash, the two sisters galloped off in opposite directions. Twilight had no time to reflect on the fact that she had just ordered two powerful alicorns around, since another explosion rocked the entire spire. More rubble came crashing down from the dark ceiling, making it rain a mixture of dirt and pebbles.

Before Twilight could do anything else, another explosion occurred, but this one was accompanied by a brilliant flash. One of the walls of the cavern collapsed inward, letting the radiant glow behind it spill into the vast space. The glow from the massive gem in the center was immediately dwarfed by a light so bright it was like staring directly at the sun.

There, in the center of the brilliant shine, stood the Princess of the Sun herself: Celestia. Despite the beauty of the display, Twilight found herself unconsciously backing away from her mentor. Her entire being radiated a sense of power, the likes of which Twilight had never experienced before. This was the power of one thousand years of guilt, waiting to be given closure.

When the light subsided, the brilliant alicorn stepped into the blue chamber, her flowing mane glowing in the dull light.

“Chrysalis!” she called out, projecting her voice as far as she could. “I’ll not fall for such an obvious trap! Come and face me!”

Nearly blown away by Celestia’s royal voice, Twilight barely managed to stand her ground. “Princess! Please, calm down! We need to talk!”

Celestia’s eyes hardened as her gaze locked on Twilight. “Hm. So you’ve replaced Twilight Sparkle, haven’t you? Your cruelty knows no bounds.”

Celestia may have been looking at her, but those words weren’t for her. “Princess, it’s me!” she pleaded, staying where she was. Her hooves trembled despite her faith. What could she say? If she tried to tell her that Chrysalis was really Princess Aria, it might end violently. “Please, just listen to me! Cadance and Shining are on their way here right now! Just wait!”

“Wait?” Celestia hissed. This didn’t seem like her at all. The Heart of Equestria must have been affecting her emotions. “You expect me to wait? The last time I waited, sitting around to see what happened, I lost my only sister. And I shall not lose my only student. Not to you.”

“No!” Twilight blurted out. Did Celestia think that…? “A-ask me anything! Ask me something only I would know!”

“You mean things only Twilight would know,” Celestia corrected, never once losing her regal posture. There was fire in her eyes. “I’ll play your games, Chrysalis. You mocked Luna for years with your false dreams, and now it is my turn to mock you. And do not forget, my sister is out there with all of your subjects, should you choose to try anything. I will not hesitate to do to your kingdom what you did to Cadenza’s.”

Despite Celestia’s threatening tone, Twilight let out a sigh of relief. Luna wouldn’t attack all of those changelings, would she?

“First question. What is the square root of _?”

Twilight’s heart leapt. Of course she knew that! Back when she had first begun learning under Princess Celestia, she had latched onto that obscure fact to show off how smart she was. Dhe had wandered around the castle, quizzing the guards with that exact question.

“Well?” Celestia huffed, narrowing her sharp gaze.

Twilight sat down and traced her hoof in the air. “The square root of _ is _.”

Celestia’s unwavering gaze finally broke. “A simple fact,” she scoffed, but it was obvious that she was taken aback. “Anypony could know that. In fact, she may have given you the answer herself. I would not put it past you to resort to torture to get what you want. You’ve done worse before.”

Twilight had never heard Celestia speak so frankly before. “Princess, please! Just ask me anything! It’s the real me!”

“If you were the real Twilight, Chrysalis would not let you roam free. To her, Twilight Sparkle is dangerous, and if she is allowed to reunite with her friends, the results would be devastating. No, I do not believe that you are the real Twilight Sparkle. My student would have more sense than to defend a monster.”

The words cut deep, but Twilight held her ground. She had worked so hard to get here, solving mystery upon mystery and nearly giving up halfway. All of that had led up to this moment. The entire race of changelings rested in the middle of her hooves. She couldn’t do this alone. She needed her friends. She needed everypony.

“Twilight!”

The familiar, proper-sounding voice reached Twilight’s ears, ringing like a bell. She knew who it belonged to without even looking.

“Rarity!” she cried out, nearly forgetting that a furious alicorn was standing right in front of her. She turned to face her friend and was met with one of the most pitiful sights she’d ever seen. Rarity’s mane flopped lifelessly to her side, coated in some kind of sticky, green slime, and her tail was covered similarly. She looked even worse than that time she had been caught out in the rain during their first sleepover. Even her usually brilliant coat, which rivaled Celestia’s, was filthy and sticky.

Despite all of that, Rarity ran headlong and caught Twilight in a nasty, sticky hug. The two unicorns held each other close, friends reuniting after what must have been a terrible ordeal.

“Oh my stars, Twilight! She told me everything, and I must say, you have read far too much detective fiction! Still, you were right on the money! While her impression of me was rather lacking, I can find it in myself to forgive you for this. After all, she had me fooled back at your brother’s wedding! But still, to think that she’s not so blatantly evil, it came as quite a shock. And those pods, those were quite the pleasant surprise!”

The conversational tone of their conversation caught Twilight off guard as she let their disgusting hug end. She had been planning on making a heartfelt apology, but it had already been accepted.

“And what is Princess Celestia doing here? Don’t tell me you called in the cavalry for little old me! Ha, Twilight, I thought you had learned your lesson about that. I’m no damsel in distress, not when I don’t want to be! I’m quite sure that I could’ve escaped whenever I wanted, considering that the guards around this place are entirely third rate. Nothing but a poor imitation of the royal guards, if you ask me!”

Twilight wanted to giggle, but managed to keep her serious composure. Rarity always had a way of lightening up a bad situation with her prim and proper attitude.

Celestia, however, would have no part in it. “If you are changelings, you are better actors than I gave you credit for. But it doesn’t matter. Where is Chrysalis?”

Rarity quirked her brow, appearing quite offended by the notion that she was not the genuine article. “Now see here, you may be a princess, but–“

“I’m right here, Celestia.”

From the back of the cavern, where Rarity had come from, a dark form approached. There was no mistaking that unique voice.

“Chrysalis!” Celestia barked, immediately forgetting the two unicorns in front of her. She turned to face her foe, snarling. “You finally show yourself. It is about time that you pay for your crimes. Do not think that I will show you any mercy! I held back in Canterlot so that I would not inadvertently harm my subjects, but now there is nothing to keep me from bringing you to justice.”

Chrysalis entered the blue glow of the dim room, head held high. “I surrender, Princess Celestia, to your punishment. I invaded and attacked your home, Canterlot, in an attempt to feed my subjects. There is no excuse for what I have done. But–“

“Do not play games with me!” the alicorn boomed, launching herself up and landing directly in front of her enemy with a sudden blast of wind. “Do not think I have forgotten what you have done to my friend! To Il Tuo Aria!”

Rarity glanced at Twilight, expecting an answer. Instead of giving one, Twilight shook her head and motioned for Rarity to wait. This was something that had to play itself out, but Twilight was ready to leap in at any moment. Celestia would see the truth. She would.

Chrysalis stood her ground, remaining neutral. “Celestia, you must believe me. It is not what you think it is. You have it wrong. Il Tuo Aria is alive. Celestia, I am–“

Before Chrysalis could finish, her entire body was enveloped in a brilliant, golden aura. In the blink of an eye, she was sent hurtling against the nearest wall, as if she weighed nothing at all. Twilight instinctively rushed forward, but Chrysalis raised a solemn hoof to stop her.

Celestia, her horn glowing brilliantly, gave a vicious snarl. “Liar!” she hissed, eyes wide. “Do you honestly think I’d believe you?! Aria never would have abducted and attacked Cadenza! Attacked her sister! I have lost nearly everypony I could call family, and you have the nerve to include yourself among them?! I attempt to treat you with civility, and this is how you repay me? By mocking me?!”

Two bright orbs radiated from the other side of the cavern. There, standing at the other end, were Cadance and Shining Armor. Cadance’s eyes were an empty, glowing white, and a small pink heart floated in front of her.

Celestia’s attention shifted. “Cadenza, what are you–“

“She is telling the truth. The pony in front of you is my sister, Il Tuo Aria.”

“You’re lying!” Celestia shrieked, losing whatever composure she had maintained thus far. Her constricting magic faded, allowing Chrysalis to breathe once again. “You’re a fake! This is just an illusion!”

“Sister, may I?”

“Of course, Mia.”

Chrysalis’ eyes burst to life with a familiar light, causing Celestia to shrink back. “My name… is Il Tuo Aria. I am the sister of Mi Amore Cadenza.”

As Chrysalis’ eyes returned to normal, Celestia backed away. One step at a time, she began to retreat from the onslaught of truth. “An illusion! You can’t trick me, not again! I saw what happened to her! You were there, draining her life away! I saw it!”

Her desperate denial made Twilight’s chest ache.

Rarity shifted around uncomfortably. “I feel… as if I shouldn’t be watching this.”

Indeed, the three alicorns in the room seemed to have forgotten that the others existed at all. Shining Armor remained at his wife’s side, standing proudly despite the fact that he was just as confused as Rarity. His roaming gaze met Twilight’s, and his expression brightened.

As the light faded from Chrysalis’ eyes, their argument began anew. Shouts and desperate cries filled the air, reverberating around the chamber. Celestia showed no sign of backing down, but neither did Chrysalis.

Another voice cut through the air, joining the fray.

“Sister!” Luna cried as she burst through the hole in the wall that Celestia had created. “Is everypony alright?”

“They’re not real, Luna!” Celestia shouted. “Do not be fooled! Remember our codeword!”

“Aria,” Luna gasped. The words accompanied some kind of epiphany, one that her sister had yet to understand. “Aria…?”

Chaos broke out in the massive chamber. Celestia was trying to convince her sister that this was a trap while Twilight and the others kept insisting that everything was fine. it was a miracle that anypony could even remotely understand what was going on. Luna appeared conflicted, absolutely bewildered by the constant din.

“Sister,” Luna cautioned, furrowing her brow. “She poses no threat to us now. Those creatures outside, those changelings, they have already surrendered. They are not hostile, sister. They are afraid.”

“As they should be. Luna, I fully intended to accept her surrender, but she refuses! “

Chrysalis, resolute, shook her head. “I have surrendered, but Celestia–“

“She will not own up to what she did! Instead, she puts on this parade of falsehoods, insisting that–“

“Celestia, they are your friends! You family! Cadenza already lent me her truth spell, and I–“

“Don’t you dare say it again! You–“

“Luna, you must believe me! My name is Il Tuo Aria, and–“

Just like before, the changeling was suspended in a golden light and thrown against the cavern wall. Luna winced, but she made no motion to stop her sister.

“Twilight! Rarity!” A chorus of shouts resounded from the entrance. In a flurry of activity, her remaining friends rushed in, but their heartfelt reunion was immediately put on hold when they saw what was happening. Rainbow and Applejack immediately leapt to join in the fighting, but Rarity managed to stop the both of them before they caused anymore trouble.

Once again, the shouting match continued. Twilight lost track of the insults tossed back and forth, but it eventually devolved into mindless drivel. Celestia, all royal bearing thrown aside, was acting like a spoiled filly, one that didn’t want to admit she was wrong, but when Twilight thought about it, imagining this from her mentor’s perspective, the pieces fell into place.

Celestia, after everything had happened, obviously felt some measure of responsibility. After all, if she hadn’t talked them into going through the Heart of Equestria’s trials, Discord and Sombra would have never existed. Equestria would have been a much more peaceful place. Changelings wouldn’t exist, meaning that Canterlot wouldn’t have been invaded. What about Nightmare Moon? Luna had passed, but had that incident somehow influenced her decision to bring about eternal night?

Regardless, Celestia had spent the last one thousand years shouldering this guilt by herself. The only one who she could share it with, Cadance, had disappeared, choosing to escape from the truth rather than face it. If Celestia were to accept that Chrysalis was actually her long lost friend, how would that affect her?

Twilight understood why Celestia refused to believe. By accepting that Il Tuo Aria was still alive, she would be denying one thousand years of suffering, rendering it completely meaningless. All of that pain for nothing. After bearing that weight for such a long time, it would be unbelievably cruel to tell her that none of it had mattered. So unbelievably cruel.

That understanding, however, meant nothing. Even though Twilight knew why something was happening, she couldn’t do anything to fix it. It was similar to the way that she had been playing detective back in Everdale. Back then, she only tried to understand everything, even though it wouldn’t change the events that had taken place. What good was knowledge when it couldn’t be put into action?

By the time Twilight tried to focus on the scene again, things had changed. Luna stood in between Chrysalis and her sister, doing her best to keep things from getting out of hoof. Celestia, in all of her sound and fury, could not bring herself to harm her sister, not even to clear her thousand year grudge.

Twilight had never felt more helpless.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Queen Chrysalis stood her ground, refusing to back down from Celestia’s threats. Or was it Aria who refused to budge? Were they truly different ponies, or were they one in the same? Had one become the other over the course of one thousand years?

Instead of struggling with her own identity crisis, the queen of the changelings focused her attentions outwards, towards the unrelenting fury that threatened to smother her. Celestia had stopped listening a long time ago.

Deep down, despite Chrysalis’ desire to be accepted and forgiven, she knew that she deserved neither. Had it not been for Cadenza, the entire city of Canterlot would be overrun with changelings. As much as Chrysalis knew that her subjects needed food, she also knew that preying upon innocent ponies was not the right way to obtain it.

That was why she had given all of Shining Armor’s power back to him at once after the invasion, completely flooding him with energy. When she had looked out at the chaos and destruction she had caused, something reminded her of who she really was, piercing the savage starvation that had blinded her. After seeing that, and returning all of the energy she had stolen from Shining Armor, she had silently surrendered. Losing over half of her subjects to starvation was punishment in and of itself, but Celestia would not settle for just that.

No, she could tell from the look in Celestia’s fiery eyes that there would be no peaceful resolution. The only things keeping her from attacking were the other ponies in the cavern. If she struck out blindly, she would injure all of them in the process. It was the same thing that kept her from using her full strength during the Canterlot invasion.

Shouts and accusations continued to fly about. Chrysalis could only wait for it to end, since speaking would only make the situation worse. If this kept up, Celestia would not hesitate to strike her down.

Silently, Chrysalis considered surrendering. It would be easy to wear the villainous façade again, pretend that she had fooled them all, and walk her merry way to the gallows with her head held high. If she did, Celestia would have a clear conscience and everypony would come out of this conflict alive. In fact, surrendering sounded like the most realistic option.  Twilight and the others might take some time to believe that it had all been an act, but in the end, they would fall for her lies. Everypony fell for her lies.

“Celestia, don’t you dare harm my sister again!” Cadenza cried, standing in between the two foes.

Hearing her sister’s voice sent a stab of guilt through her chest. No, Cadenza would never believe that this had all been an act. That truth spell had sealed her fate from the very beginning. Not even the Princess of Lies could escape the truth.

Was it selfish to want to live? To want her old life back? These were questions she had pondered when hatching her plan to infiltrate Canterlot again. Even if Celestia believed her, it would be difficult for her to deny one thousand years of guilt and pretend that it had never happened. No matter what, Chrysalis found herself at the center of all of these problems. If she didn’t exist, everything would be fine. Everypony’s problems would be solved.

Luna, still bewildered, kept her distance. “Sister, calm yourself! We shall take her back to Canterlot, where we can–“

“No, we can’t afford to let her escape! You don’t understand how dangerous she is! We won’t have another chance like this!”

Changelings were unnatural creatures. Chrysalis herself knew this. They had been created by that insipid gem, the one that had caused all of this in the first place. It was a selfish thought, but she silently wished that she could destroy that gem and end all of this.

Actually… why couldn’t she? It was just an enchanted gem. None of them knew where it came from, but there was nothing to say that it couldn’t be destroyed. Without the gem, she wouldn’t be able to feed her subjects with Caesura’s music, but it was a small price to pay. The gem was rioting everypony’s emotions. In fact, with the gem gone, Celestia might–

“Celestia,” Chrysalis said clearly. “You think that I am the guardian of this gem, don’t you?”

Celestia started, furrowing her brow. “And what does that prove? You could be anything!”

“Then you would have no problem if I destroyed it.”

The din receded. Nopony seemed to understand what she was doing, so they simply stared. It may have been selfish, but Chrysalis didn’t want to die. She had done some terrible things, but she didn’t want to die for her mistakes. She had a sister. She had ponies that believed in her. In time, she may even have friends. The thought both amused and terrified her. A normal life after all of this? It seemed too good to be true.

Ignoring the silence, Chrysalis ignited a spark of magic in her jagged horn. The Heart of Equestria, the source of all of their problems, would soon be gone. Chrysalis herself didn’t know what would happen to her without it, but it didn’t matter. This wasn’t to save her own life.

This was to save Celestia from herself.

Chapter 23: Case Closed

Chapter 23

Case Closed

Everything happened in an instant. Shards of sky-blue glass rained down in a deafening hail, shattering into countless specks of dust as they crashed against the floor. It was a marvel, one that was over in the blink of an eye. The pile of shattered gems still gleamed with a weakened light, making the chamber significantly darker than before.

Twilight still couldn’t process everything. She was too entranced by the glittering rain. Nopony moved. Nopony breathed.

When the last shards clinked against the rocky floor, the cavern became deathly silent. A glittering pile of sparkling dust lay in a pile where the Heart of Equestria had stood only moments before.

Once Twilight caught herself back up to speed, she was taken aback. Chrysalis had destroyed the only thing that had kept her and her subjects alive in recent months. From what she had been told, the Heart of Equestria had been used to provide unlimited emotions to the changelings of the city. Chrysalis, in a desperate attempt to make Celestia see sense, had destroyed her only lifeline.

Bewildered, Twilight glanced around. Everypony remained perfectly still with the exception of Chrysalis, who wobbled a bit on her hooves, breathing heavily. None of them seemed to understand the significance of what the changeling queen had done.

“There,” Chrysalis announced, breaking the fragile silence. Her voice was strained with effort. “Do you believe me now, Celestia? That gem caused all of this, not you. Nopony holds you responsible for what happened. Nopony.”

The words must have cut deep. Celestia, unblinking eyes wide with shock, took a hesitant step backwards. The fire in her eyes, the one that had been stoked by the Heart of Equestria, had burnt out. Without the maelstrom of emotion clouding her judgment, her expression changed.

As much as Twilight was relieved to see that Celestia had calmed down, she knew that it would be a bitter pill to swallow. Even Twilight had trouble believing it at first, and she hadn’t had the thousand years of guilt to work past.

Luna, spellbound before the pile of shattered gems, answered in her sister’s place. “Aria?” she gasped quietly, almost as if she were still convincing herself. “Those dreams really were yours. I-I should have known, I am–“

“Don’t apologize, Luna,” Chrysalis sighed, shaking her head. Her breathing slowed. “I brought this upon myself with my desperate, selfish actions. It is only natural that you think me a liar.”

Over to the side, Twilight noticed her friends swarming around Rarity. All of them were asking questions faster than the overwhelmed unicorn could answer, but she seemed to be holding up pretty well, even with her mane covered in sticky goop. The five of them seemed blissfully ignorant of the weighty decisions that were being made only a few yards away from them. Twilight wished that she could go over and join her friends, but she felt that it was her responsibility to help the alicorns resolve their conflict. After all, she had been tossed into the middle of it without so much as an apology. Not that she needed one, but she would at least see it through to the end.

Still silent, Celestia stood perfectly still, her jaw half open. Twilight wasted no time in trotting up to her side and trying to get her attention.

“Princess, they told me everything. I know it’s hard, but–“

Celestia remained still, barely moving her mouth. She didn’t make eye contact. “Twilight…?”

“Y-yes, princess?”

“If you would not mind, I would like to spend some time alone with my sister, Cadenza, and….” The alicorn’s voice trailed into the chamber’s echo. There was no need for her to finish.

“Of course, princess,” Twilight said, bowing. As she trotted off, she pretended that she didn’t see the tears streaming down the alicorn’s moist cheeks. It was painfully obvious, even in the dark.

“Girls!” she called out as she trotted back towards the entrance. Her friends all glanced up at her just in time to brace themselves for a tackle. In what must have been the most embarrassing group hug of all time, Twilight unashamedly embraced her friends, reducing all of them to a pile of multi-colored, giggling blobs on the cavern floor.

“Nice dive!” Pinkie exclaimed once she had recovered. “I’d give that an eight out of ten. Your technique needs some more refinement, but the enthusiasm was all there. Needs work.”

The six of them shared another laugh before Twilight took it upon herself to remind them of the issue at hoof. “Let’s give them some space alright? I’ll explain things on the way out. And big brother, you come along as–“

“No,” Cadance stated, shaking her head. Shining Armor stood silently by his wife’s side, nodding in agreement. “He’s been with me since we met, and he should be here as much as I should. You two can talk later, but he’s staying.”

As Twilight locked eyes with her big brother, he nodded and motioned for her to move. The message was clear. Celestia didn’t want her personal student to see what a mess she had become. Twilight had already witnessed it first-hoof, but she knew that Celestia was in a vulnerable position right now. In a way, Twilight knew that she had been a replacement for Aria, a way for Celestia to vicariously live out the life that she believed to have had been cut short.

Nodding, Twilight motioned to her friends and left. It was over. There would be no more abductions, no more mysteries, and most importantly, no more guilt. Four alicorns, all so distinctly different, had been reunited again.

“Okay, seriously,” Rainbow sighed as they turned the first corner. “I’m completely lost here. All I’m getting out of this is that the evil queen back there had a change of heart, pun totally intended, and that she’s not so evil anymore. Did I miss anything?”

“You missed everything,” Rarity huffed, starting to become self-conscious of her appearance again. “I do believe that Twilight will have a history lesson for us on the way down.”

“Oh boy!” Pinkie exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear as she bounded into the middle of the group. “I’ve been trying to figure out why queen meanie was doing this the whole time, other than the obvious revenge ploy, but that just sounded silly to me! So c’mon, what’s the story? Tell me! Tell me!”

“Ugh, fine!” Rainbow groaned, pushing Pinkie out of her face to maintain some semblance of personal space. “Let’s just get this sob story over with, okay?”

By the time Twilight had explained everything and they reached the bottom, her friends were speechless. Rarity was only mildly shocked, since she had pieced together most of the information from the tidbits of conversation she had heard while in captivity. Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy, were all slack-jawed, but Pinkie seemed a little disappointed.

“Shoot,” the pink earth pony grumbled, kicking the ground. “So that’s how Equestria was made! Man, I was soooo close, too!”

“Close?” Applejack asked, quirking a brow. “C’mon, Pinkie, nopony woulda guessed that it was anythin’ like that!”

“Of course I wasn’t close, silly! I just say that so that everypony thinks I’m smarter than I really am. It confuses the hay out of them, too!”

Twilight cracked a smile. It was good to have her friends back, especially after such a heavy ordeal. Her real friends.

Almost immediately after Twilight had finished explaining things, they finally found their way down to the entrance with the help of Applejack. The spire was built like a maze, with tunnels twisting this way and that with no rhyme or reason. No wonder it had taken Page so long to find her way out and bring everypony back up. Luckily, Applejack had been paying attention when she rushed up to where Twilight was, so she was able to guide them out into the city proper.

As they emerged through the front gate, they were met with a curious sight. Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes. Hundreds of changelings were all gathered around the entrance to the spire, their eyes aglow with an odd concoction of fear and excitement. They were all disguised as whatever identity that had assumed, creating a collage of clashing colors. The sight nearly made Rarity faint from an overload of tacky designs.

As the changelings gaped, expecting some sort of news, a shout came from the back of the crowd. “Hey, are you guys even listening to me? I thought I told you that we need to get the hay out of here before–“

“Wait!” Twilight shouted over the crowd, wishing she had a pair of wings so that she could see over the colorful mass of ponies. That voice was exceedingly familiar. “Red! Red, what in Celestia’s name are you doing down here? Did everypony end up here?!”

“What do you think?” The burnt-orange pegasus cried as she soared above the whispering crowd of changelings. Her movements were rather sluggish and it was obvious she was struggling. “Either way, it doesn’t really matter! What happened up there? Princess Luna fixed me up and told me to get these guys to evacuate, but they won’t listen to a word I say. Boy, I’ve got a few choice words for that prissy pink princess, but that can wait.”

“Cadance? What...? Okay, fine, we’ll talk this over later.” Taking a deep breath, Twilight tried to raise her voice so that all of the changelings could hear her. “You shouldn’t be in any danger! Princess Celestia has met with your queen! From what I can tell, everything’s going to be just fine!”

Twilight had expected for the news to be met with wild cheers, but she was first met by a series of grumbles, most of them referring to the point that Chrysalis was a princess, not a queen. But, within a few moments, the changelings erupted into a frenzied celebration. Some embraced others, some flew up into the air, and yet others stomped their hooves.

The underground city, with its few hundred occupants, was engulfed in thunderous applause. Of all of the creatures she had imagined herself saving, the changelings were definitely low on that list. Chrysalis herself was further down than that.

Amidst the celebration were a few familiar ponies. Nightowl, Page, Preston, and an undisguised changeling were all huddled together, talking excitedly. Red flew over and joined them. As much as Twilight scanned the crowd, she didn’t see Caesura. Had she run away? Was she safe?

Hoping to find some answers, Twilight approached the familiar group of ponies while her friends were mobbed with adoring fans. Apparently the changelings really did think of the Elements of Harmony as heroes after all. Laughing to herself, Twilight dodged a few changelings and approached the group from Everdale.

“Is she going to be okay?” Page asked quietly. “I mean, she doesn’t look that bad, but I really laid into her back—”

An undisguised changeling, the only one in the entire mob, nodded. “She’s tough as nails. You should have seen her taking out the royal guards when she ran away a few months ago! Don’t worry, we’ll just have Princess Chrysalis talk to her when she wakes up. You know, just so she doesn’t freak out again.”

Twilight stopped right in front of the group, blinking. The way that the changeling spoke sounded remarkably familiar. “Skylight?” she called as she ran right up to his side. “Are you okay? Did that lying spell—”

“Oh, I’m fine,” he insisted, giving an unsettling grin and buzzing his insect-like wings. “I should be worried about you!”

“Look, I’m a little tired, but how did you get out of your cell?”

“Oh, that? There was this big explosion, and then another. By the time the third one hit, my cell door had fallen clean off of the hinges. I was on my way up to the chamber to help you out, but then I ran into the Elements of Harmony! Y-your friends, that is. Sorry! And they told me to come down here and keep an eye on the others. But still, I can’t believe this! This is amazing!”

Considering everything that had just happened, a story like that was refreshingly simple. “Well, I’m sure you heard the news, but everything should be just fine. Your queen should—”

“Princess.”

“Er, your princess is talking with Celestia. So—”

“Any idea when they’ll be out?” he asked, alarmed. “W-we’ve got something planned. It’ll be really dramatic!”

“Hush,” Page interrupted, giving him a little smack on the back of the head. “You’ll ruin the moment. And don’t think I’ve forgotten that you lied to me for over six years. You too, ya big lummox.”

Nightowl lowered his head, earning a little chuckle from the other ponies. Despite having just learned about everything, they all seemed to take it in stride. It was quite remarkable. Preston was trying to cheer Nightowl up, though it sounded like he had somehow lost his accent.

“Wait a minute,” Twilight whispered, putting a hoof on her chin. “What about Caesura? Did she come through here?”

The question immediately silenced whatever chit-chat the little group had started. Each of them looked a little guilty, but it was Preston who finally spoke up, eyes focused on the ground in front of him. “We found her in some kind of garage. She just... went nuts. Tore all the parade floats apart, nearly dismantled some of the structural beams, and just wrecked the place. She was unconscious in front of some statue, but—”

“A statue?!” Twilight exclaimed, mane standing on end. “Oh no, I forgot! I left Mezza’s statue in the garage this whole time! Oh man, Celestia’s going to kill me for this! Guys, that statue is actually—”

“Her mom. We know.” Nightowl, finally raising his head back up, nodded. “I recognized her. And she didn’t look too happy to see her.”

Biting her lower lip, Twilight took a deep breath. “Where is she now?”

Nightowl pointed. “We put her up in the bedroom up here. I-I really think it would be in our best interests to let her rest!”

Twilight considered it. She felt like she needed to apologize somehow, but there was no denying the fact that Caesura had brought most of this upon herself. Maybe they could talk things over later, once the mangy mare had gotten some much-needed rest. She looked like an absolute wreck when she burst into the chamber where the Heart of Equestria was.

“Sounds good,” Twilight said, avoiding eye contact. Despite their differences, Twilight felt a bit of sympathy towards the other unicorn. “So, while we wait—”

“No need to wait!” exclaimed Skylight, pointing up towards the spire.

Everypony’s gazes drifted up towards the hole that Celestia had blown in the spire’s wall. A brilliant white figure appeared, followed by two dark and one pink. While they were still far off, Twilight knew exactly who they were.

Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Chrysalis all majestically descended from the tower. All eyes were on the four of them, some in awe and some in fear. It felt like ages before they finally touched the ground.

When they did, Twilight noticed that the crowd had stepped back, leaving her and the other Elements of Harmony standing by themselves in the middle of an empty circle. As if on cue, the disguised changelings all bowed their heads respectfully. Skylight, along with some of the other ponies from Everdale, stood proudly behind Twilight and her friends.

As soon as the alicorns’ hooves all touched the ground, Nightowl, Page, and Skylight gave a poorly synchronized salute. Celestia’s reaction was the same as Twilight’s: complete and utter confusion.

“What’s all this?” Celestia gasped, bloodshot eyes roaming the crowd. The salutes were not directed at her, but at the alicorn behind her.

Luna, blinking rapidly, stood still as Celestia stepped out of the way. The three saluting ponies stared directly at her. “Who planned this? Twilight Sparkle, if—”

“Princess Luna!” Page announced professionally, blowing a bit of her mane out of her eyes. “The nightwatch has finished surveying the area! Page Inkwell reporting!”

“The nightwatch?” Luna asked, still uneasy. She glanced sideways at her sister, but neither of them knew what to say.

“Yes ma’am! The three of us have scouted out the hidden city of Eccondale in search of anything that could be considered dangerous to Equestria. We have discovered that changelings inhabit the city, and they have been feeding off of the ponies of Everdale for the past month. After speaking with them, we have come to a conclusion regarding the current state of affairs.”

Luna, eyes shifting around nervously, didn’t saw a word.

Page took the initiative, grinning. “Princess, the nightwatch has found absolutely nothing wrong with this place.”

Twilight nearly groaned at how cheesy the dramatic presentation was. Had they planned this whole scene while they waited? There were so many more productive things that they could have done!

“Page Inkwell,” Luna responded awkwardly, playing along, “I applaud you and your comrades for your bravery in this reconnaissance mission. I agree with your findings, and I shall see to it that your queen — no, your princess — has full reign over this territory.”

Twilight stifled a laugh. This was ridiculous! It wasn’t like—

Cheers erupted from the crowd once again. Twilight started at the sudden applause from the changelings around her. Page, Nightowl, and Skylight all let their salutes fall and grinned.

Amidst the din, Twilight noticed Luna uneasily edging over to Celestia’s side. “Did I say the right thing, sister?” she whispered.

Celestia, suppressing a fit of laughter, managed to smile. “I don’t know. They’re the nightwatch, so they’re your responsibility.”

Grinning, Twilight turned to eye the cheering crowd. Skylight and Nightowl were jabbering excitedly to each other, but Page had flown off somewhere else. Twilight quickly spotted her landing next to Red and Preston, who were staring silently at each other. It was kind of awkward.

Before Twilight could understand what was going on, Page shouted something in Preston’s ear and kicked him forward so hard that he ended up tackling Red, putting the two in a rather awkward position.

Twilight’s cheeks flushed a bit as she quickly looked away, wondering when that had started. Despite having gone through this ordeal with those ponies, she still didn’t know much about them.

Quickly finding something else to focus on, Twilight trotted up to the four alicorns. She had to push a few changelings out of the way, since they were started to mob the princesses, but she finally made her way to Chrysalis.

“Chrys—er, Aria!” She called out, trying to get her attention.

The large changeling quietly turned. Despite her intimidating appearance, her eyes held nothing but happiness. “Twilight Sparkle, Aria has been gone for over one thousand years. I’m still Chrysalis, the one responsible for the invasion of Canterlot and other incidents. I intend to take full responsibility for that, not hide behind who I used to be. Still, I can’t thank you enough. I never thought that—”

“C-can we save that for later? There’s somepony you need to see.”

Chrysalis took a deep breath. “Caesura,” she whispered, closing her eyes for a moment. “Where is she?”

“She’s in that house over there, resting. You’ll want to ask Nightowl about this.”

“Good. There’s something I have to do before she wakes up.”

As Chrysalis began to wade through the crowd, Twilight remembered something. “Hey, wait a minute! Where’s my brother?”

“Shining Armor? Oh, he’s walking down. My sister has him thoroughly whipped, it seems.”

Upon hearing her call Cadance her sister, Twilight’s heart sank. Her brother, Shining Armor, had married Cadance. Cadance was Chrysalis’ sister. So that made them….

Shuddering, Twilight turned away. Most ponies complained about their in-laws, but they weren’t dealing with the queen of the changelings.

As Twilight made her way to the other alicorns, she tried to imagine how her parents would react to this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Red, her cheeks reflecting her name, huffed. The crowd had begun to disperse after things died down and the alicorns left, giving Red ample time to find what she was looking for. She needed this to distract her from the fact that Page had ruined what would have been her and Preston’s first kiss, but there was somepony that she needed to find in this city. She had a score to settle.

As she opened yet another door in the deserted city, she peered inside. All of the changelings were out in the main area, leaving the city to be a veritable ghost town. It was a large building, one that reminded Red of a hospital, but instead of having a red cross emblazoned on it, it had a bright green heart. This was probably where they were keeping him.

Despite the exhaustion that threatened to sweep over her, Red stepped inside. The lobby of the building was exceptionally clean. The idea of changelings feeding on somepony still made her sick to her stomach, but she swallowed her unease and focused her attention on the door at the far end of the room.

As Red approached it, she quietly red out the sign that hung on it. “Emergency emotional rations,” she mouthed, putting her hoof on the handle. The idea of feeding from emotions still sickened her, but she fought back her nausea. “You’d better be in here.”

As she pushed it open, she was hit with an odd stench. It smelled clean, but there was something off about it that made her nose twitch. She had come to the right spot.

Red silently stepped into the large room, shutting the door behind her. Slimy green pods were strewn about aimlessly, some hanging from the ceiling and others left lying on the floor. Her legs threatened to give out beneath her, but she forced herself to stay upright. She had to look around.

Every one that she looked into had a familiar face waiting inside.

“I’m sorry, Tradewind,” she whispered to one of them before moving on the next. Each time she stopped, she apologized to the pony inside by name. It took a while, but she finally reached the one hanging in the center of the ceiling.

As she approached it, she took a deep breath. A middle-aged, yellow pegasus was suspended inside, eyes closed. The others had looked like they were enjoying a peaceful rest, but this one was curled up on himself, face frozen in an eternal grimace. His cutie mark was an illegible signature.

“Dotted Line,” she mumbled, scowling. “For you, I’m not sorry. I always thought you were the worst boss a mare could ever have, and you know what? I was right. Not many mayors manage to do what you did. Nearly start an all out war, indirectly spark an invasion on Canterlot…. You brought all of this on yourself. You brought it on everypony around you. I’m not going to lie. I almost hope that you’re never let out of there.”

As expected, there was no response.

“Look, I know you can’t hear me, but consider this my two weeks notice. No, forget that. I quit. Right here, right now. Or, actually, I’ve got something better in mind. I’m the mayor now, you know.”

Grinning to herself, Red hovered back to the ground. If Page was going to stage her own dramatic scene, there was no reason that nopony else couldn’t. She had imagined doing this ever since she had taken that thankless job, but because of what she knew, he hadn’t allowed her to quit. Anypony who knew about the secrets of Everdale had to be kept on a tight leash. In his reasoning, she might cause a riot among the townsponies if she told them the truth.

With a determined huff, Red pushed the memories out of her thoughts. “Hey, Dotted Line?.”

Red stood on the other side of the doorway, smirking arrogantly at the pod in the center of the room.

“You’re fired!”

She slammed the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Page scowled at Nightowl, who shrunk under her intense glare. Beside him, an undisguised changeling did the same. Skylight Dreamer was his name, though he had been hesitant to give it. It was like he didn’t want anypony to know.

“So you never even thought to tell me what was going on this whole time?!” Page scolded. She wasn’t nearly as upset as she pretended to be, but she just wanted to watch the two of them squirm. It was odd to think that she had spent more time with this changeling that she had with Nightowl. A bit unsettling, too.

“W-we couldn’t!” Nightowl protested, starting to shake a bit. “If Princess Chrysalis somehow found out, we’d be doomed! And Page, you know how bad you are with keeping secrets!”

“Oh, so you don’t trust me, is that it?” Page had to try not to burst out into laughter. “I see how it is, partner! Maybe the nightwatch needs a little reassignment. Yeah, I think we should start thinking about how many ponies we need on shift. It’s not two, I’ll tell you that.”

“W-wait, what? No, you can’t be serious about—”

“We need three.”

Having finally given up her act, Page rolled over onto the rocky floor and let loose the tidal wave of laughter she’d been holding back.

“Uh… Page, I—”

“Oh my gosh, Nightowl, you’re so gullible!” she howled, kicking wildly as she rolled around. “You think I’d be mad at you for that? Come on! If anything, you should be mad at me for not even noticing that my partner had been replaced! Jeez, you really haven’t changed in six years, have you?”

The changeling let out an uneasy laugh of his own. “I-I knew that the whole time! Heh, Nightowl, you didn’t—”

“Hey, don’t act like you weren’t scared!” Nightowl huffed indignantly. “You should know how scary she can get just as much as I do.”

Skylight swallowed air, still chuckling nervously. It seemed he was starting to relax. “O-okay, fine, maybe a little…. But, Page, did you really mean that I could—”

“Of course I meant it!” Page exclaimed, shooting back up to her hooves and flaring out her wings. “I mean, you were kinda part of the nightwatch already, it just wasn’t official. I’d say you did a good job of keeping watch, and your storytelling wasn’t that bad either. I’m pretty sure the three of us would come up with some pretty nasty tales if we put our minds to it.”

The stallion and the changeling were left speechless, neither of them sure what to say.

Page, grinning, sat back and spread her hooves out in the air like she was reading a neon sign. “I can see the headlines now! Changeling joins the Everdale nightwatch! Citizens panic and flee!”

“Hey!” Skylight cried.

Nightowl took a seat as well, looking like he was reading a newspaper. “But what’s this?! The latest headline! Everdale citizens accept changeling as one of their own and hold a parade in his honor!”

“But wait, the parade has been sabotaged! The float collapses!”

“Aha, then Princess Luna arrives and tells them all that she appointed him personally!”

Skylight, finally catching up with the two, hopped right in. “Oh no, it seems that Princess Chrysalis wants the changeling to be part of her nightwatch instead!”

Just like always, the three ponies took turns telling parts of a story and sabotaging each other. Page, holding back another fit of laughter, couldn’t help but smile.

From now on, bad things really wouldn’t happen in Everdale. The three of them were going to make sure of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The world came back to Mezza in the blink of an eye. Her last memory… what was it? The Everfree Forest. Rarity. Rarity had warned her about a spy in the group, and that they needed to talk alone. But then—

“Aiiiieeee!” she screamed as her vision suddenly returned. There, standing right in front of her, was some kind of massive insect. Or a bug-pony. A monster. She had a spidery teal mane, a weird black shape, and holes in her legs, but her eyes were the most terrifying part about her. That unnatural green hue made her shudder.

“Silence!” the creature insisted, stomping a hoof on the ground.

The resulting report didn’t sound like the forest floor. In a panic, Mezza took in her surroundings. She was in some kind of torch-lit house. Was it night time? No, there was light outside, but it didn’t seem like the sun. Where in Equestria was this? This definitely wasn’t the Everfree Forest. Actually, she thought she heard some kind of chicken noise from the next room over. But more importantly, what kind of creature was this?!

“Look,” the creature grumbled irritably, “I’m not going to bother you with the details, but there’s somepony you need to talk to. If—”

“H-help! Somepony help! There’s a monster—”

Mezza’s cry for help was silenced with a bit of magic, clamping her mouth shut. Trembling, she stared up at the jagged horn the creature had. It could use magic? This was a nightmare! Yes, nothing but a nightmare! Another nightmare, just like the ones she had every night! She needed to wake up!

“Listen to me, foal! Fine…. Listen, Mezza. Just listen to me. Caesu — I mean, Dolce, is upstairs resting. I already told her everything, but she wants to talk to you. I’ll be back later to make sure you are both okay, but for now, I ask that you please refrain from screaming. Am I clear?”

Mezza had no idea how to respond. Should she go along with this creature’s lies and wait for help to come? It was obviously lying. That ill-fated trip to Everdale had been a desperate grab at thin air. Dolce… was gone.

Silently, Mezza closed her eyes. Whatever this creature did to her, she deserved it. She’d been one of worst mothers imaginable and it had taken her six years to finally face up to that fact. She hadn’t even thought about how Dolce had felt back then. A broken family and a traveling show.

Selfish, that’s what I was. I walked out on her father because we had a nasty fight, but I never thought about what Dolce felt. All that time, she’d put up with whatever was thrown her way, silently enduring. She was strong. Stronger than I’ll ever be. She even took it upon herself to make money for us to live off of. I never once thanked her. It took me six years of wallowing around in self-pity to accept what I’d done. I’ve given up on being a mother anyway. I never deserved to raise a foal.

“Are you listening to me? I’m going to let you talk now, but for goodness’ sake, please don’t scream. Okay?”

There was no point in screaming. Nopony would come to save her. The only two ponies she cared about weren’t coming. One hated her and the other might not even be alive. No, this was a fitting end for a pony like Mezza. She was alone. And she would remain that way.

She barely noticed when the spell was gone. Despite her terror, she couldn’t even bring herself to look at the monster that had abducted her.

The bug-pony, shifting about anxiously, took a deep breath. Her expressions were surprisingly relatable. “I shall leave you two to yourselves. You are her mother no matter what she says.” The monster paused, turning away. “Give her a normal life. Give her what I couldn’t.”

Before Mezza could respond to the confusing statements, the creature slipped out of the door, mane obscuring her unnatural eyes.

“Dolce…?” she whispered, breath catching in her throat. Was she referring to Dolce? What was that thing? Where was she now? Was Dolce really upstairs?

The last question was the only one that mattered. Mustering up whatever courage she had left, Mezza forced herself forward. Her joints and limbs ached, like she’d been standing on her hind legs for days, but she wouldn’t let that stop her. Her dream about Dolce had been clear. Dolce was still alive. She had to be. That dream had been the first in years. Everything else had been a nightmare.

Struggling on the steps, Mezza felt her legs begin to shake. Would Dolce hate her? Would she be happy? Would she even remember her own mother?

Silencing the questions she had, Mezza found herself at the top of the stairs. There, right in front of her, a door sat slightly ajar. This was it. This had to be it.

Holding her breath, she slowly pushed it open.

“Dolce?”

There, sitting on the side of the bed, was a dirty white mare. Her black mane was horrifyingly unkempt, almost scraggly enough to hide her horn. And there, on her flank, was a familiar image.

Two musical clefs arranged into a heart.

The sight was too much. Her legs nearly gave out on her. “Dolce…” she croaked.

The name caused the mare to turn her weary head. The eyes were familiar. Everything about her was familiar. She wasn’t just familiar… she was family. The only one she had left.

“Y-you…” the unicorn stammered hoarsely, pushing herself off of the bed. Her brow narrowed. “You…!”

There was no mistaking the hostility in her tone, but it didn’t matter. She was alive. Her strength flagging, Mezza collapsed to the floor and wept. The only words she could force out were a small apology.

“I’m so sorry, dear…. I missed you so much.”

The familiar stranger began to shake. Mezza, her watery eyes focused on her daughter, could only smile.

“Mom…? You’re….”

Words failed them. Mezza’s heavy heart finally lightened when she felt her daughter’s hoof helping her back up. Six years of loathing. Gone. Vanished into thin air.

It wasn’t going to be easy, but Mezza was relieved. She had her daughter back again. The past six years would be an obstacle in their relationship, but that wouldn’t stop her. She had a second chance.

“Mom…” Caesura croaked. She must have been crying too. “Y-you’ll… you’ll never believe what happened. I… I was a princess. B-but I messed up. I messed up so badly and everypony—”

Mezza placed a trembling hoof on her daughter’s lips to silence her. “We’ve… we’ve both made mistakes. And we’ll overcome them.

“We’ll overcome them… together. Let’s get out of here.”

“A-actually… can we stay here? Mom, I mean, Chrysalis raised me all this time.”

The word ’mom’ felt like a stab in the chest. Somepony else had adopted her? Somepony that was more fitting to be a mother, obviously.

Silently, Mezza hung her head. “A-as long as you’re okay,” she whispered, throat burning. She had to be strong. “I understand. I’ll be fine.”

“Mom… I want you to stay as well. If we left, Chrysalis would be… well, I’d feel awful. Just walking out like that. Let’s stay, mom.”

There was no proper reaction. Mezza was simply overcome by emotion. After six years, she’d been given another chance.

She wouldn’t waste this one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A beautiful, burning ball rose behind the Everfree Forest, bathing the land in a warm glow. Grass blew faintly in the wind, making the faint drops of dew sparkle. It was a new day, one that Twilight could fully appreciate.

“Looks like the princess is back up to snuff,” Applejack remarked idly, shifting uncomfortably in her harness. She and Rainbow were once again hauling a cart full of luggage while Twilight struggled to maintain a barrier around it. The new cart, which had been a gift from the changelings, was slightly smaller than the last one.“I’ve seen my share of sunrises, but boy, this one takes the cake!”

“Oh! Cake! That’s right!”

Twilight groaned as Pinkie began to ramble aimlessly about how much cake they were going to need for a “We’re so sorry we didn’t know you’d been replaced by an evil changeling” party for Rarity. Supplying the magic barrier with enough energy to keep it from wobbling was difficult, but it didn’t get any easier once somepony mentioned the ‘C’ word around Pinkie.

“Really now,” Rarity sighed. Her mane and tail were back to their usual style, since she had insisted on fixing herself up before she left. Everypony felt too guilty to refuse. “You needn’t throw a party for something like that. Honestly, I’m positive that Chrysalis, or whatever she decided her name was, could have done the same to any one of you without much effort!”

“I dunno about that,” Rainbow chuckled, grinning over at Applejack as they continued to pull the cart. “I mean, all she had to do was act prissy and ramble about fashion. None of us would have looked twice!”

“Take that back, you ruffian! If she replaced you, she would’ve had to simply fly around and say that everything was, as you say, ‘totally awesome’.”

“Nu-uh! She wouldn’t know the difference between awesomeness and radicalness if it bit her in the face! I’m the one and only Rainbow Dash, after all!”

Normally, Twilight would have found been upset about her friends arguing like this, but now it reminded her of why she loved them so much in the first place. They were all so unique. This was all in good fun, after all, since Twilight was sure that her friends were just as happy as she was now that everything was over.

Twilight tuned out their playful bickering for a while, simply focusing on keeping the barrier up. When she got back, she was going to pester Celestia day and night for corrected history lessons. Of course, she was going to get some sleep first, maybe even catch up with Luna as well.

After a few moments, Rainbow Dash’s voice cut through her concentration.

“Hey, Rarity, I know we’re joking around, but seriously… I’m really sorry. If—”

“Darling, that’s enough. I’ve had plenty of time sitting around doing nothing to think about things. Of course I was a bit upset, but what pony wouldn’t be? After waiting there for such a long time, I started imagining things from your point of view. I mean, if any of you had been replaced, I might have noticed a few things, but I would have chocked it up to stress or something else. Well, that was the long way to say ‘apology ‘accepted, I believe.”

Applejack groaned a little. “I still feel bad. But hey, all’s well that ends well, right y’all?”

“Yeah, sounds about right,” Rainbow chuckled. “It’s still kind of embarrassing. But hey, not as embarrassing as that love letter Preston wrote. Seriously, I’m surprised he could show his face after writing something as schmoozy like that!”

Pinkie frowned, tilting her head. “What love letter?”

“Did you take a smack to the head or something? You know, the love letter! The one I found outside of the jail? I’m pretty sure you were there, Pinkie.”

“Oh, that one! Preston didn’t write that one, you silly filly!”

Twilight’s concentration was broken for a moment. If Preston didn’t write that letter, who did? The writing was kind of awkward, from what she remembered, but what did that mean?

Rainbow, flapping her wings in frustration, kept pulling the cart without giving Pinkie another glance. “Let me guess. It’s something only you noticed, but decided to keep quiet about this whole time. Seriously, Pinkie, why can’t you say these things earlier?”

“Because this is more fun!”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll bite. Who wrote it then?”

“Queen meanie, of course! You see, me and Gummy like to send secret messages back and forth to each other all of the time, and trust me, he’s a master at cryptograms! You know what those are right? Anyway, that letter was a message from Chrysalis to Caesura. At first, I didn’t know who it was from, but now I imagine that it was supposed to be some kind of signal for Caesura to break out of jail and head for Eccondale, but it didn’t really pan out like that in the end. I didn’t make a copy of it, since that would’ve been totally rude, but if you take the first letter of every sentence, using paragraph breaks as spaces, you get the following:

“Come home Caesura.”

“What?!” Twilight barked. “You…! For Celestia’s sake, Pinkie, why didn’t you say something?!”

Fluttershy, hovering around the suitcases, began to murmur something.

Twilight blinked. “What was that Fluttershy?”

“Th-the… the suitcase is—”

Twilight immediately knew what she meant. With her barrier, she could feel the suitcase on top beginning to tip over. Desperately, remembering what had happened on the way here, Twilight tried to focus all of her energy into correcting it. Thanks to everything that had happened recently, she was absolutely exhausted, rendering her helpless against the simple power of gravity.

“Girls, look out!” Twilight cried as the pink suitcase fell to the ground.

It fell with a quiet clunk, landing harmlessly on the ground and bursting open. A large assortment of balloons escaped, flying off in every direction..

“W-wait,” Twilight stammered, glancing back and forth before the suitcase and Pinkie. “Wasn’t that suitcase—”

“Full of bricks? Nah, I only packed one of those. I don’t need bricks as much as I need balloons. The others were full of supplies to make those totally fun protest signs! So I just repacked a little.”

With a flourish, Pinkie trotted over and tossed the now empty suitcase back onto the pile, leaving all of her friends slack-jawed. Twilight may have solved the most needlessly convoluted mystery she’d ever encountered, but she was still leagues from solving the enigma that was Pinkamena Diane Pie.

The six mares shared a few laughs as they continued on. Everything seemed back to normal, even with Rainbow Dash constantly asking if they were almost back in Ponyville yet.

As Twilight thought back, she couldn’t help but be amazed at how they had gotten here. They had only showed up at Everdale to figure out what happened to some disappearing ponies, but one thing led to another, and the next thing Twilight knew she was trying to keep Celestia from going berserk.

Sighing, Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes. She would think on it later. Right now, the only thing that mattered was that everything had turned out fine. She had her friends, her mentor, and had saved a city or two.

Maybe she wasn't such a bad detective after all. At least, not when she had her friends to help her.

Prologue

Prologue

~ OST: Deliberation ~

Twilight had finally done it. She had solved the most difficult mystery that she had ever encountered. Even though she had made countless mistakes while trying to keep these ponies safe, the curious case of Everdale was finally coming to a close.

“I knew it!” one of the ten ponies in the room exclaimed, breaking Twilight out of her quiet reverie. “You six can’t be the Elements of Harmony! You've only been trouble since you arrived! If you hadn’t shown up—”

“You asked for help,” Twilight interjected, “but we only made matters worse. I know. Trust me, I know.” She had already resigned herself to taking responsibility for everything that had happened. “We messed up. No, I messed up. I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I’m just asking for your trust.”

“And you expect us to trust you?" One of the other ponies felt the need to twist the knife with their words, making Twilight wince. "You're the most suspicious out of this whole lot! If you're the one pulling the strings, then everything would make sense!"

Everything they said was correct, but Twilight knew that she couldn't prove her innocence. Words were the only things she could defend herself with, but words had lost their meaning long ago.

"That's why I'm asking for your trust," Twilight replied, attempting to sound calm despite the churning in her gut. "I trust my friends. I know that all six of us are innocent. All of these incidents can be explained without our involvement."

The remaining ponies began to look around warily, all of them looking like they were about to bolt for the door. These four were nearly all that was left of Everdale, the small town that they had come to save. Nopony wanted to talk about the previous victims that had inexplicably vanished.

In the silence that followed, Twilight ran through her deductions again. This was the only answer. There was no other way that this could have happened! The desperate look that she was getting from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie only strengthened her resolve, since those two had been trying to crack this case from the very beginning. Without any of Twilight’s friends, not just the two of them, the remaining residents of Everdale would have already disappeared.

"Whatever, hurry up and explain it," an off-white mare challenged. "It still doesn't change the fact that you're responsible for well over half of what has happened here."

A burnt orange pegasus nodded. "Explaining it won't bring them back."

“I know,” Twilight responded again, her voice still tinged with regret. “We’re not superheroes. We thought we could help, and believe me when I say that we tried as hard as we could, but now it’s time to fix the problems that we created. If you can’t give me your trust, then give me an ear. Hear me out.”

Twilight’s eyes roamed around to each pony individually, studying them each in turn. Every single one of them, her friends included, stared right back like they expected her to point her judgmental hoof in their direction. Ever since this case began, wedge after wedge had been driven between Twilight and her friends, creating a distance between them that she hadn't felt since Discord had been revived. This had to end. This had to end now.

“Think about everything that has happened so far,” Twilight spoke calmly, her voice slicing through the heavy atmosphere of the candlelit room. Sheets of rain pelted the windows loudly enough that Twilight had to project her voice to make sure that everypony heard her. “This theory will account for everything. The note, this room, and the lobby.... If I had known sooner, I might have been able to stop this.”

Twilight bit her bottom lip and glanced at Fluttershy, who had resigned herself to mindlessly staring at the corner of the room. The pegasus had run herself ragged trying to help everypony in the past few days, but Twilight refused to let her efforts go to waste as she continued her explanation. “Now that I know, I'm going to make sure that this stops here. While I admit that I have no idea what happened to the ponies that have already disappeared, I know exactly who is behind this.”

A thunderclap brightened the room for a moment, highlighting the shadows of doubt that lingered on everypony's expressions. Twilight winced as she saw the fear in her friends' eyes, finding herself unable to look away for a few painful moments. After this, everything would go back to the way it was. No more suspicion. No more pointing hooves.  Mysteries were supposed to be uplifting and witty, just like they were in all of the detective novels she had read, but instead of a detective’s confidence, she found herself dreading the culprit's inevitable demise. Solving a mystery was supposed to be exciting, right?

So why do I still feel like I’m missing something?

With grim determination, Twilight readied herself. There was no room for hesitation, especially after she had made it so far and dragged all of these ponies along with her. “First, I want to apologize to everypony here. Yes, I even want to apologize to the guilty party. You must have worked hard to create this complicated crime. Now that I can see everything that happened, I have to say that I’m impressed. If this had been a duel between the two of us, I would have lost. I wouldn’t have been able to solve this without the help of all of my friends.”

Lightning cracked outside of the dark window, almost as if the power of nature was giving credibility to her words. All eyes were on Twilight as she deliberately lifted her hoof and closed her eyes, letting her determination guide her.

Allowing herself a moment of weakness, Twilight hesitated. Was it wrong for the detective to sympathize with the culprit? All of the fictional detectives that she had imitated as a filly had a clear nemesis, a dastardly villain that wouldn’t hesitate to foalnap a pony in cold blood. In this mystery, Twilight felt empathetic towards every single one of the suspects, making it even more difficult to raise her hoof in the culprit’s direction.

Struggling to keep her resolve, Twilight began to think out loud. “There’s no motive here. Nothing. All that we have to go by is cold, hard facts. Those facts only leave room for one answer, an answer that I nearly overlooked. And it all starts with one pony.”

Twilight leveled her hoof at the culprit.

“It was you.”

Chapter 1: Welcome to Everdale

Chapter 1

Welcome to Everdale

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

The same question, the same answer. Twilight Sparkle, aggravated by Rainbow Dash’s impatience, imagined a spell that would automatically respond to Rainbow Dash's incessant whining.

“Twi, c’mon!” Rainbow groaned from her harness at the front of the cart. She and Applejack had been faithfully pulling Twilight and a mountain of suitcases for the better part of an hour without complaining, but it seemed that Celestia's summer sun was starting to sap their energy.

"Rainbow Dash, I've already told you—"

“It can’t be that much further! Just let me fly up and take a quick look! There’s not a single cloud in the sky, you know.”

“Asking again won't change my answer!" Twilight scolded. If Rainbow was going to act like a foal, then she was going to be treated like one! It was difficult enough to focus on magic without having to deal with a bothersome pegasus every five minutes. It would have been a much smoother trip if Twilight hadn't been forced to create a protective bubble around Pinkie Pie and Rarity’s luggage, which was stacked like a skyscraper behind her, but it seemed that some ponies hadn't learned to pack lightly, despite the fact that they were only going to Everdale for a quick investigation at the princesses' behest.

Rainbow, still unsatisfied with the answer she got, tried to make puppy dog eyes at Twilight.

Twilight sighed. “No, Rainbow, cut it out. If you did, you’d be leaving Fluttershy to pull the cart in your place.”

The yellow pegasus, who was anxiously hovering around the mountain of luggage, turned when she heard her name. “Oh, I wouldn’t mind,” she assured with an amiable smile. Twilight wished that Fluttershy had played along, but the Element of Kindness was too kind for her own good.

“See? It’s all good! Thanks Fluttershy, I'll be back in a jiffy!”

With a blast of wind, Rainbow Dash zipped up into the air, causing the unstable mound of bags on the cart to wobble. Fluttershy, immediately flying over to stabilize it, let out a small squeak as the suitcase on top threatened to tilt over the edge. Twilight would have caught it with her magic, but she couldn’t have done anything without causing the rest to fall. Thankfully, Fluttershy was there to help, but it seemed that the suitcase was too heavy for her, sending her plummeting to the dirt road.

Rarity, seeing the commotion, immediately left Pinkie behind the cart and trotted over to help. “Oh dear! Fluttershy, I am so sorry!” Rarity, her eyes wide, enveloped the heavy suitcase in a familiar, sky-blue aura. Despite her intense effort, the luggage refused to budge. Twilight wished that she could have helped, but trying to focus on something else while keeping her barrier up would have resulted in another avalanche.

After a small ordeal, Rarity finally managed to free Fluttershy from the offending suitcase, leaving the white unicorn exhausted. Rarity, having not recognized it as her own, immediately spun and scowled at Pinkie Pie, who was still giggling behind them.

“Goodness, Pinkie! What did you put in there? Bricks?”

“Yep!”

The stunned silence that followed was interrupted by another rush of wind, announcing Rainbow Dash’s return. “Guys, we’re almost there!” she exclaimed, only to pause and stare blankly at the scene in front of her. “Hey, uh, what happened?”

Twilight sighed. “Pinkie Pie happened.”

“Oh.”

That was all that needed to be said. Within moments, Pinkie Pie had effortlessly tossed her suitcase full of bricks back onto the cart and Rainbow Dash had slipped back into her harness. Twilight could barely hear Fluttershy's soft voice as she assured Rarity that her wheezing was, in fact, not a collapsed lung. Everything was back to normal.

After a few more minutes in silence, Twilight opened her eyes again, spotting what appeared to be a few cottages on the horizon. It seemed that Rainbow was right.

Rarity clambered onto the cart, satisfied with the fact that Fluttershy wasn’t injured. “Civilization at last!” she gasped. “You know, it does feel charmingly rustic. What do you think Fluttershy?”

“It looks... nice.”

Applejack, who had been relatively quiet for the entire journey, voiced her opinion. “Honestly, I got no idea what this place is like. I didn't even know it was here! It’s pretty much directly on the other side of the Everfree Forest from Ponyville, so you think we'd have stumbled across it before now.”

Twilight quickly jumped in, finding the perfect opportunity to explain their mission. “Actually, Applejack, Everdale is fairly new. It was founded shortly after Ponyville by a pegasus named—“

“Enough Twilight, don’t ruin the suspense!” Rarity interrupted, giving her fellow unicorn a disapproving glance.

With a grin, Rainbow turned to face Applejack. “It’s like some sort of conspiracy! There’s probably some crazy cult around here dedicated to reviving Discord, or maybe even Nightmare Moon! Oh man, I’ll get to beat up some—”

“Rainbow!” Rarity chided, “be conscientious of what you say about Princess Luna! Goodness! If anything, this is more like a spy mission, being on Her Majesty’s Secret Service! Dashing, handsome stallions with dark pasts, and beautiful—“

“Ooh, I brought my spy gear!” Pinkie exclaimed. The conversation was quickly getting out of hoof, forcing Twilight to close her eyes again and block them out so that she could focus on the shield she was maintaining. She was looking forward to relaxing when they finally arrived at Everdale.

After what seemed like hours, Twilight felt the cart slow to a stop, nearly making the teetering pile of luggage topple over again. Considering how at least one of them was filled with bricks, Twilight was grateful that she managed to keep everything sturdy. Just a little bit of reinforcement there, a little stability there....

As Twilight adjusted the barrier, she began to wonder what they were doing in this small town. Everdale, according to the note that she had received from Spike this afternoon, was a town on the other side of the Everfree Forest, but Twilight had not been able to find a single mention of it in her library’s cartography section. Not only that, but the Princess had been quite secretive about what they were supposed to be doing, only telling them to investigate the town, and then there was the cryptic way that Celestia had insisted on contacting them, which involved something about Luna and dreams, but since when could—

“Hey Twilight!”

The sudden surprise, coupled with Twilight's adjustments, resulted in an unexpected shower of luggage. Squeals of terror filled the air as ponies dodged left and right to avoid the falling suitcases.

Once the dust had settled and the cacophony had died down, Twilight could hear the childish cackling of a certain cyan pegasus above her. “Rainbow!” Twilight growled angrily, contorting her face in an effort to hide how angry she really was. “That wasn’t funny! One of us could’ve been seriously hurt! And look, you even broke the cart! How are we supposed to get all of this stuff back to Ponyville?”

“Aw, c’mon!” Rainbow Dash chortled, looking all too pleased with herself as she hovered above the wreckage. “It’s all in good fun, right?”

“No it’s not!” came a surprising shout from Fluttershy, who flew up next to her friend and crossed her hooves in front of her chest. “You could have really hurt somepony! Now apologize.”

Rainbow, caught off guard, took a few moments to respond. “Uh, sorry guys. I guess.” With a sigh, Rainbow hung her head, not really sounding like she actually meant it. Twilight smiled and nodded, as if to say that the apology was accepted.

It was a good thing that they had just arrived at Everdale, since their cart had been smashed to pieces by Rainbow Dash’s misguided antics, but they were still going to have to carry all of their belongings to the nearest hotel. Twilight wasn't looking forward to it.

Glancing around at the wreckage, Twilight found herself standing next to a small wooden shack at the very front of the town, one with a large window facing outwards. Right outside of the shack stood two ponies — a bright blue pegasus and a dull gray earth pony with identical caps — who were staring blankly at the catastrophic scene before them.

Applejack, who had been the first to notice the two, immediately trotted over to explain everything, a piece of the broken harness still hanging off of her back. “Mighty sorry about this,” she apologized, doffing her hat and lowering it slightly over her face. “We’re not here to cause trouble, we just—“

“Eh, it’s no problem,” the sky-blue pegasus responded, blowing a bit of the debris out of her white mane. “Nightowl and I were just getting ready to start the night shift anyway. Right?”

She nudged the statue-esque earth pony beside her, trying to snap him out of his stupor. He didn't move. “Nightowl, come on you lummox!” she whispered through clenched teeth.

“O-oh, um,” the gray earth pony stammered, shifting around on his sizable hooves. For a moment, Twilight wondered if he was hiding something from them — something that could prove vital to their investigation. As the detective, she was going to have to squeeze every ounce of truth from the suspects!

Before Twilight could say anything, Nightowl’s partner, the pegasus, stepped in front of him and laughed. “Oh, hehe, please excuse my partner. He just got up, you see….”

Twilight responded with a nod, starting to get excited at the prospect of a mystery. If she played it cool and let the pressure work him over, he'd be singing like a canary in no time. “Just got up, eh? It’s past seven ‘o clock right now, if I'm not mistaken.”

The pegasus didn't seem bothered by Twilight's interrogation. “Well, his name is Nightowl, after all. Sorry about him. He’s a few bits short of a buck, if you know what I mean.”

“Not a problem, miss!”

“Oh, just call me Page.”

“Not a problem,Miss Page,” Twilight responded, sneaking a quick glance at the mare’s cutie mark: a sheet of paper with a quill across it, probably indicating some sort of writing profession. “Now, if you could direct us to a hotel or somewhere we could stay, that would be fantastic. You see, Princess Celestia sent us to—“

“I knew it! Oh man, I can’t believe it!” the gray stallion exclaimed, shoving his bewildered partner aside. “You must be Twilight! And you’re Rarity and Pinkie Pie! And Fluttershy!” He began naming each of them off with the precision of a teacher taking roll. “I don’t believe it! Applejack! Rainbow Dash! You two are my favorites!”

The six ponies, seven including Page, stood absolutely dumbfounded by the sudden outburst. Applejack, holding onto her hat, gave him a skeptical glare. “Uh, beg your pardon?”

“The Elements of Harmony! Page, can you believe it? I was expecting that the princess would send help, but I didn’t expect them to send the Elements! Oh man, this is unbelievable!”

Applejack frowned, giving Rainbow a nudge to wipe the grin off of the egotistical pegasus' face. “Now wait just a second, partner,” the farm pony sighed, looking Nightowl right in the eyes. “I’m mighty glad that y'all appreciate what we’ve done, but we’re just normal ponyfolk when it all comes down to it, and us normal ponyfolk would really like some help carrying our luggage to the nearest hotel so we could get some shuteye. Would ya mind givin' us a hoof?”

Nightowl blinked a few times, his internal motor beginning to sputter. “Oh, sorry!” he apologized, realizing how much he had embarrassed his partner. “Sure, we’ll help you out. But....” He paused for a moment, pensive. “Would it be possible to, you know, get some autographs?”

“Sure thing!” Rainbow Dash answered immediately, as if she had been waiting for the question to pop up. Twilight sighed, glad that they were finally heading to the hotel so that they could get some rest before they started investigating. As Rainbow began chatting with an excited Nightowl, the others began to salvage what they could from the splintered cart.

Twilight picked up her saddlebags and hefted them over her back before looking around to see if anypony else needed some help. Immediately, she spotted Page, who was struggling to pick up a familiar pink suitcase. Rolling her eyes and trying not to laugh, Twilight trotted over to help her out.

Page, seeing her approach, spat the handle out of her mouth and shot an exasperated look at Twilight. “Sweet Celestia, what did you pack in here? A bunch of bricks?”

Twilight grinned. “Don’t ask.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a grueling half hour of getting the six ponies moved into the local hotel, Page and Nightowl said their goodbyes and trotted over to the little wooden shack that they spent so much time in. Page had been a little excited to meet the Elements of Harmony in person, but she had never expected Nightowl to freak out like that.

“I still can’t believe it!” echoed Nightowl’s voice in the failing light. It was almost completely dark outside, meaning that Luna was about to put on another one of her beautiful shows. That was one of the perks of being a watchpony, after all. The stars really—

“Uh, Page? Equestria to Page! Do you read me?”

“Oh, my bad,” Page responded half-heartedly, slowing down her pace. “I was just thinking about those six.”

“Quite the characters, right? I still can't believe I got Rainbow Dash's autograph!”

“C'mon Nightowl, that's not what I mean. It's more that, well, they aren’t quite what I expected.”

“Really? They seemed just fine to me.”

Page stopped a few paces short of the guardhouse, turning and regarding Nightowl skeptically. The earth pony quirked a brow, making sure that he didn't damage the autographed photo of Rainbow Dash that he held between his teeth.

“What?” he asked, a guilty expression flashing across his features.

“I just wonder why you idolize them so much,” she finally admitted, stretching her wings out as she stepped into the familiar outpost. While she didn't get a response from Nightowl, who was busy shutting the door behind him and finding a place to frame his photo of Rainbow Dash, she did notice how worried he looked.

Aggravated, Page continued. “I admit that we really need their help right now, but why would the Princess send her most powerful weapon to a place like this?”

“Hey, don't call them weapons! And for all I know, they just happened to be in the area,” Nightowl responded thoughtlessly. “C'mon Page, you should be excited! You always wanted to be one of them, right?”

Page bristled. “Can we drop that already?” she hissed, plopping down on her haunches and gazing out of the front window.

"Okay, okay," Nightowl sighed as he set the picture down on the only table they had in the shack. "I don't see why you'd be ashamed of that."

“Look, I'm just saying that we should be careful, okay?” Page grumbled, opening up a wing to invite her friend to sit next to her. “I'm worried that this is bigger than we thought. They weren't in the area, you know. Otherwise, they would have packed lighter, not to mention how tired they looked when they arrived.”

Nightowl opened his mouth to say something in response, but instead took a seat and stared at the stars with her. “I know what you mean, Page. Just don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right? You know, there’s probably a better way to word that, now that I think about it. It’s kind of creepy.”

Page, her spirits lifting, giggled and spread her hooves in the air above her like she was reading a headline in the local newspaper. “I can see it now! The lecherous Nightowl has been brought to court on charges of harassment against Rainbow Dash!”

“Hey, that's not what I meant!”

“The fiend will appear in court in a week! Rainbow Dash refuses to comment!”

“Well, the unjustly accused Nightowl has been framed by the wicked changelings! He teams up with Rainbow Dash to—”

“But alas, Rainbow Dash had been replaced as well!”

Their squabble continued for quite a while, each pony presenting a scene while the other ruined it in an intense display of uncooperative storytelling. After they had laughed themselves to exhaustion, they stared up at the stars, recalling old stories that they had told each other while on duty.

As their conversation began to die down, Page thought back to the only case they had encountered. It had been a while, hadn't it?

Nightowl, almost as if he had read her mind, broke the silence. “You’re thinking about that case again, aren’t you? It’s been six years now, you should let it go.”

“No, this is too much of a coincidence! We’ve only had two cases of missing ponies in Everdale. Two! I can't count that on my hooves! We may have solved that one six years ago, but this one is much worse.”

“You’re trying too hard, Page, trust me.” Nightowl’s tone became firm. “We can’t do anything about this one. You know that. And you know what would happen if we did. That ransom note made it clear what would happen to the missing ponies if we interfered.”

“But—”

“No. I'm not going to risk it. Whoever is behind this has their eyes on us to make sure we don't get in the way, but now that the Elements are here, we've got a chance. Either way, we're done arguing. And If you're still worrying about that case six years ago, that one has already been solved! Back then, after the mother showed up in in the middle of that nasty storm, you just bolted out the door without asking any questions. You spent all of those hours flying over the Everfree Forest, even though the filly had already found her way back. You know what? This is kind of similar to that case, now that I think about it.”

Page, breathing a sigh of relief, flopped down on her back. “Thank you, you’re finally starting to see—”

“Because you’re just jumping to conclusions, like you did before. You’re just going to end up wasting your time again!”

“Hey!” Page huffed, crossing her hooves over her chest and turning away. “I know that we can’t do anything, but I guess that, well, I just wanted to try and solve this one for myself. I’m a writer, not a watchpony, so can you blame me for trying to come up with some crazy connection between the two cases?”

Thankfully, Nightowl took the hint and began to calm down. “Nah, I’m sure it’d make for one heck of a campfire story. Actually....” The earth pony trailed off, smirking. “That’ll be our competition tonight. Let’s see who can come up with the best explanation for these disappearances! We know that it'll happen again tonight, but we can at least start making up theories, can't we?”

"Are you sure?" Page whispered, almost too soft for her partner to hear. "One gets taken every night, but what if the foalnapper decides to make it two? Whoever is behind this can't be happy that somepony called in the Elements of Harmony. If I were them, I'd focus everything on trying to get them to leave!"

"Don't worry about it," Nightowl insisted, jabbing her on the shoulder. "All we can do is sit back and watch. So how about we start our storytelling competition, hm?"

Just like always, the two of them spent the night swapping melodramatic campfire stories, each one more needlessly convoluted than the last. As much as Page tried to ignore the growing feeling of helplessness, she still couldn't ignore the fact that they were being forced to act like nothing was wrong while the culprit had free reign over the town. Regardless, the Elements of Harmony had come to save the day, meaning that things would go back to normal soon.

After all, bad things didn’t happen in places like Everdale. Page was determined to make sure that it stayed that way.

Chapter 3: Elementary, My Dear!

Chapter 3

Elementary, My Dear!

Hours went by. Hours of nothing but arguing, fighting, and excuses from both sides. Applejack would insist that the three boasting ponies were doing nothing but causing trouble, but Fluttershy would immediately try and soften the earth pony's harsh words, creating a vicious cycle of insulting and backpedaling. Neither side was gaining any ground, and after the first hour, the once excited crowd began to wander back to their homes.

Eventually, the unicorn musician, who had been waiting in the back, decided to make her voice known. “Uh, Red, you do realize that you just scared everypony away, right?” she asked. The unicorn had a low alto voice with a bit of an edge, belying just how frustrated she was becoming. "Something tells me that wasn't the point of this little pep rally."

Red, the burnt orange pegasus with the megaphone, which had thankfully stayed at her side once the argument broke out, shook her head. “Look, I'm just trying to make sure everypony knows that they're safe!” she shouted.

The off-white unicorn, sighing, motioned around to the empty square with a hoof. “Considering that they've already left, you're really beating a dead horse here.”

“That's a tad morbid, ya know,” quipped the male pegasus with the cap, grimacing. The stallion's cockney accent was rather thick, giving Twilight the impression that he wasn't a local. “Watch your language, yeah? We kinda need to make a good impression here, Chess.”

“Would you stop calling me that?!” the unicorn, apparently not named Chess, blurted out. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face Twilight, her emerald green eyes glinting in the midday sun. “Sorry about that. I think we got off on the wrong hoof. I'm Caesura, not Chess.” She made sure that her dislike for the nickname was known. “I’m the one mare band around here, but if you want me to play for a party—”

“Oh my gosh! I should totally hire you sometime!” Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted, bounding excitedly up to the surprised unicorn and rambling at full speed. If anypony mentioned the 'P' word around Pinkie, they were in for quite a surprise. “That was amazing, by the way! I never got to tell you because I was having so much fun playing the drums, which I saw you didn't have, so I thought that I would be a perfect addition to your one mare band, but then it would be a two mare band, which doesn't have the same ring to it, but we could still—”

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, saving an increasingly flustered Caesura from having her ears talked off. “I'm sure you two can play together sometime later. For now, we've got a serious problem on our hooves.” Twilight gave the frightened unicorn an apologetic smile. “Nice to meet you, Caesura. My name is Twilight Sparkle. Could you please let whoever is in charge of Everdale know that we would like to speak to them?”

Caesura stifled a laugh, a bit of her scraggly black mane getting tangled around her horn. “Your friends have already been yelling at her for about an hour now, I think she knows you're here.”

Caesura took the opportunity to go check on her instruments by the fountain and protect them from Pinkie Pie, who was beginning to inch closer to them. Hesitantly,Twilight turned her head to meet the proud gaze of the orange mare with the megaphone, who had the smug grin of a foal who had just won an argument.

Usually the pony in charge, like the mayor of ponyville, had a cutie mark that corresponded to some sort of governmental work. Instead, this energetic pegasus had a picture of three finely sharpened pencils emblazoned on her flank, all of them arranged neatly in a row. If anything, Twilight would have guessed that this pony did secretarial work.

Twilight swallowed air, afraid that she was going to have to do a lot of apologizing to set the record straight. “Uh, sorry! Your name is Red, right?” Twilight mumbled, anxiously drawing circles in the dirt with her hoof.

Red, instead of acting as haughty as she appeared, shook her head and plopped down on her rump. “Nah, it’s all good!” she replied gracefully, her bombastic flair from before fading away. “But yeah, I’m Red. That’s Preston over there with the hat, and that’s Chess—”

“Caesura!”

“Close enough for government work. Anyway, Twilight, I guess you do have a point. I was just trying to get everypony excited again, since it’s been kind of depressing here recently.” Red’s eyes drooped a little bit, losing some of their luster, but her mood remained casual. “Still, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t take some credit for saving somepony last night! I’ve gotta ask, though. How in Equestria did you know who was going to be taken? Kind of tough to save somepony if you don’t know who you’re saving.”

The small amount of patience that Twilight had managed to muster was starting to wear thin. She clenched her teeth and took a deep breath through her nose before responding. “I’ve already told you! All six of us slept through the entire night. We didn’t even know what was going on here until princess—“

Twilight cut herself off, drawing unwelcome stares from all nine ponies remaining in the square. She was about to say that Luna had given her instructions in a dream, but then she remembered about the gag order she'd been given.

Red’s stare immediately became one of suspicion, forcing Twilight to awkwardly excuse herself. “Sorry, sorry!” she laughed, waving a dismissive hoof in front of her as she sat down. “I just…. Well, I’m supposed to be secretive about my conversations with the princess, that’s all.”

While it was not a complete lie, Twilight knew that the other ponies would assume that she was talking about Princess Celestia. Twilight was still a little upset that she had to keep the secret from her friends though. Why had Luna insisted on that, anyway?

“I completely understand, actually,” Red responded with a sympathetic smile.

“Well I don’t.”

Page’s familiar voice rang out in the nearly empty square as she trotted up to the group. Her forceful voice was rendered ineffectual by the yawn that followed it, but her intentions were clear. Nightowl followed close behind her, stifling his own yawns as well.

Red’s wings exploded outwards as she shot up into a defensive stance, her curly, strawberry blond mane bouncing from the sudden motion. She held up her megaphone and shouted at full force. “Page, don’t even start with me!”

Twilight, ears ringing, began to step out from between the two before she got caught in the crossfire.

Red, instead of continuing angrily, sighed and lowered her megaphone. “Just go get some sleep so you’re ready for tonight, okay? The Elements are going to need your help, after all.”

Page, with dark circles under her eyes, stamped her hoof on the ground. Nightowl looked like he was about to say something, but he silently looked over at Caesura and Preston with a worried glance. For a moment, nopony said a word, but after a silent exchange of nods, Page ended the standoff and turned towards the row of houses behind the fountain.

“Thanks,” Page muttered uncaringly, refusing to make eye contact with anypony as she trotted off. Nightowl, offering an apologetic glance to all of them, galloped up behind her to try and calm her down.

The atmosphere thickened as Twilight and her friends tried not to look at the other three ponies’ pensive expressions. The more Twilight saw about how the ponies interacted here, the more confused she became. It was like she was walking into a play during the second act!

Finally, somepony broke the silence. Pinkie was hopping alongside Caesura, who seemed desperate to find a place to hide so that she wasn’t receiving the full force of Pinkie Pie’s nonsensical ramblings. “But c’mon, Chezzy, you should totally do it! If you levitated me and my drums, we could totally make the coolest music with you spinning me around like ‘Whoosh!’ and—“

Twilight, determined to save the poor unicorn from an untimely pink doom, quickly turned towards them. “Now Pinkie, levitating a pony is extremely tricky! You have to account for movement and distribution of weight, which makes it easier to lift pegasi, but even then it is still quite a feat.”

Caesura gave Twilight a weary smile. Pinkie, successfully distracted, had already pranced over to Rainbow Dash to bother her.

“Now, where were we?” Twilight asked, turning back to Red and Preston. “I wanted to ask Red, but also everypony here, about what’s been happening. Does anypony have some information that might be related to these disappearances? It could be something about crystals growing in the area, or maybe even somepony with a grudge against this town. We just need to figure out why ponies are disappearing. Then we can figure out the who and thehow.”

Nopony responded. Preston and Red shared a few glances but said nothing, giving Twilight the feeling that they were hiding something. After a few more uncomfortable moments, Twilight noticed Preston beginning to separate himself from the small groups that were beginning to form. It was surprisingly quiet.

As he disappeared around the other side of it, Twilight trotted around the other way to meet him, her curiosity drawing her over. She didn’t want to think that this olive pegasus was intentionally hiding something, but the way he had wandered off made him look suspicious.

As Twilight came around to the other side of the fountain, she found her target staring intently at the marble centerpiece. The middle of the fountain held a statue similar to the ones in Princess Celestia’s garden, but this one that depicted two identical pegasi flying side by side, a symbol that Twilight didn’t recognize. Twilight took a moment to marvel at it before her eyes trailed down to see what Preston was so curious about.

It didn’t take long to find. There was a bright pink slip of paper with the words “Welcome to Everdale!” written neatly across the top. Beneath it, written over a faint picture of the fountain it was posted on, was some hastily scrawled writing.

“This is a ransom note. I make my demands clear. The Elements of Harmony must abandon their mission and report their success to the princess. The entire town of Everdale is my hostage, so if you do not comply, Everdale’s population will drop to zero when Celestia raises the sun again.”

As soon as Twilight finished reading, she hesitantly turned to look over at Preston, who was already staring wide-eyed at her. Those brown orbs were fearful, but Twilight knew that she was sporting the same look. This was a note from the culprit, possibly King Sombra, meaning that Twilight and her friends were interrupting something extremely important! As ominous as it was, Twilight was relieved to know that they were on the right track.

“Now, what in the hay are you two doin’, sneaking off like that?” came the Applejack’s startling voice from behind. Both startled ponies jumped around to notice that everypony else was there as well, having slowly migrated around to see what Twilight and Preston were up to.

Applejack, spotting the bright pink paper, hopped smoothly over the side of the fountain to reach the statue, splashing noisily through the water, but the pink slip was immediately enveloped in a bright blue aura and pulled back towards Rarity.

“Really,” Rarity sighed, sounding upset about something. “Who would use pink for a tourism brochure? It jumps out way too much and makes it seem like you’re begging for attention! No offense, Pinkie.”

“None taken!”

Twilight watched as her friends read over the writing. But as she turned to look back, a cyan blur shot across her vision. In the blink of an eye, Preston was flat on his back in the shallow fountain, staring up at the rainbow-maned pegasus that was mercilessly pinning him down.

Rainbow Dash grinned as she stared down at a bewildered, hatless stallion. “I knew we couldn’t trust you!” Rainbow shouted victoriously, her wings fully extended. “You shoulda thought twice before messing with us!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight blurted out, immediately hopping over the ledge and splashing into the shallow pool. Thankfully, the olive pegasus wasn't drowning, but he definitely looked like he could use a helping hoof. “Rainbow, what is wrong with you?!”

As Twilight attempted to pull Rainbow away from her prey, the pegasus let out a victorious laugh and turned her head to face Twilight. “Aha!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, turning her vindictive stare back to the terrified pegasus beneath her. “I finally got one up on you, Twilight! I already know who placed the note!”

Blinking a few times, Twilight couldn't help but feel rather skeptical at her friend's confidence. “Um, Rainbow...? You do realize that anypony could have put that note there, right? Just because Preston was the first to find it doesn't mean that he's guilty! Didn't you learn anything from those mystery novels I lent you, or maybe even something from our little caper on the train?”

“She didn't, but I did!” Pinkie Pie interjected excitedly, leaping gracefully into the shallow pool and splashing around like a little filly. “Dashie was one of the culprits back then, so of course she didn't learn anything!”

Rainbow, deflating a bit, turned back to look at Pinkie Pie with a grimace. “Just because I messed up doesn't mean I didn't learn anything,” she grumbled, unable to hide the hint of guilt in her voice. “I learned how to solve a mystery after all! And this shifty-eyed pegasus is the one who did it!” Rainbow's gaze shot immediately back to the captive culprit, who was absolutely pitiable in his soaked, terrified state.

“Okay, I'll bite...” Twilight sighed irritably, tilting her head to the side. She had to help the poor stallion out somehow. “How do you know that it was him?”

“Easy!” Rainbow Dash began, making her explanation as grandiose as she could by punctuating it with a puff of her powerful wings. “When I got back here from our investigation, I came from that side of the hotel.” She quickly raised a hoof and pointed to the hotel's right side where a row of townhouses stood before slamming it back down on poor Preston, who let out a strained cry. “Now, me and Rarity were the first ones that came back out of our group. When I flew on over to see what was going on by the fountain, you think that I would've noticed some bright pink slip of paper on a gray statue. But it wasn't there! Now c'mon, Twi, go ahead and fill in the gaps.”

As much as she hated being put on the spot like this, Twilight had to admit that her friend's deductions were really starting to gain momentum. “So you came here from the street right behind us, meaning that you would have seen this slip of paper when you arrived. Rarity, can you confirm this?”

“Of course!” Rarity announced, keeping her distance from the fountain so that she didn't get wet. “Any other pony might have missed it, but my discerning eye would have caught that shocking shade in a heartbeat! No, there was nothing there when Rainbow and I arrived. I can guarantee that.”

“Good,” Twilight responded before turning back to an expectant Rainbow Dash. “So, your point is that the note could not have been placed before Preston found it. But what about the big speech? By that logic, anypony could have done it. The whole town was there. It would have been easy for somepony to slip away and put this on the statue.”

Rainbow Dash paused for a minute. “Uh...” she mumbled, looking anxiously down at Preston, who offered Rainbow a pleading smile. “But what about, uh...? Aha! Got you this time!” Rainbow stamped her hoof again, once more causing a little shout from the poor pegasus beneath her. “This note was placed on the opposite side of the fountain, meaning that it would have been obvious if anypony had walked around and placed it there! Not to mention the fact that everypony was looking in this general direction, since their eyes were on these three crazies over here!”

Twilight had to admit that she had a good point, but it was a little shaky for an accusation. “Hold your horses, Rainbow,” Twilight stated plainly, earning her a confused stare from Preston. “Oh, uh, not literally. Stop holding Preston. Seriously. But really, I can vouch for him. You're going on the assumption that Preston placed the note here immediately before he and I found it, right?”

Rainbow nodded with a self-satisfied smile, glad to have her work acknowledged. Twilight rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder at the ponies behind her. “It's possible, but very unlikely. I didn't hear any splashing when I walked around to meet him, you know.”

“But that's just what he wanted!” Rainbow exclaimed triumphantly, folding her wings so they were flush against her sides. Twilight guessed that this was her trump card. “I know where you're going with this. You were going to say that the he would have had to trot through the fountain in order to place the note on the statue, right?”

“Actually... yeah,” Twilight replied, genuinely surprised.

“Twilight, oh foalish Twilight. It's elementary!” Rainbow Dash's tone became patronizing. “He's a pegasus after all. All he had to do was take advantage of the moment when the statue was blocking your view! Then he could fly over the water, post the note, and fly back just in time to let you see him staring at it. Elementary indeed!”

“Rainbow... you've been reading too many of my mystery novels lately,” Twilight groaned, lowering her head a little bit. Despite her annoyance with Rainbow Dash's use of demeaning cliches, she was proud of her friend for making so many deductions in such a short period of time.

Somehow, Pinkie Pie had managed to find her detective's cap and bubble pipe while Twilight had been looking away. “Invariably so, Dashie!” Pinkie stated with authority, blowing a few bubbles from her pipe. Her voice had miraculously morphed from helium-induced rambling to snobby Canterlot diction in the blink of an eye. “But, you overlooked a simple detail! If you would please, dear Dashie, flap your wings for us.”

It took a moment for the pegasus to respond, but she finally acknowledged Pinkie with a defiant glare and began to idly flap her wings. The sound of whooshing air reached Twilight's ears, but there were also some small ripples on the surface of the water.

“Good thinking,” Twilight responded with an appreciative nod. “She's right, Dash. Even if he didn't touch the water, he would have made a sound by flying over to place the note.” Twilight paused for a second before adding her own conclusion, which had been her original rebuttal to Rainbow Dash's theory. “Also, it would have been incredibly risky to try and place the note in such a small window of time. If he wanted to put it there, he would have done so earlier, when nopony was around.”

All of the fighting spirit seemed to drain out of the proud pegasus' body. Rainbow lowered her head in defeat. “Man, I thought I had it,” she grumbled with a deflating sigh. “I was sure I was right! What the hay happened?”

“Pinkie Pie happened,” Twilight responded with a light giggle, turning proudly to her pink assistant, who was suddenly distracted by the bubbles that were coming out of her novelty pipe. “I don't think I would have noticed the fact that flying over the water would make small ripples, but the sound it would have made makes it decisive evidence. But, I have to admit, that was some really quick thinking! Maybe next time you should wait a little bit before jumping to conclusions. Okay?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie squeaked, biting her bottom lip to keep from laughing. “Sorry Rainbow, but it looks like your hopes of catching the culprit have been... dashed!”

Pinkie immediately collapsed into the shallow pool, rolling around and creating a mix of giggling, gurgling, and splashing.

A collective groan rose from the rest of the ponies. Twilight rolled her eyes and turned back to Rainbow, who was staring daggers at Pinkie. “And while we're on the subject of bad jokes, you can stop holding your horse, now.”

Rainbow, her anger fading and face flushing, quickly stepped aside and let Preston sit up. The poor pegasus looked absolutely miserable, thanks to the way his wet mane clung to his head in a spidery, brown mess.

“Sorry,” Rainbow apathetically apologized.

“It's all good, mate,” Preston mumbled, still recovering from the sudden fright. Idly, he leaned over and grabbed his sopping hat from the fountain between his teeth before flipping it upwards and catching it on his head. “Still, there's somethin' botherin' me. We should be puttin' all our attention on the note itself, not who put it there.”

Twilight's sense of accomplishment began to fade as she remembered what the note had said. “This is a ransom note. I make my demands clear. The Elements of Harmony must abandon their mission and report their success to the princess. The entire town of Everdale is my hostage, so if you do not comply, Everdale’s population will drop to zero when Celestia raises the sun again.”

This was obviously written by the culprit, but they were claiming that they could make the entire population of Everdale disappear overnight! There wasn't a single spell that Twilight could think of that could accomplish such a feat.

It was then that the she began to hatch a plan. “Red. I need your opinion on this.” Twilight turned around and hopped out of the fountain, accidentally spraying a bit more water on Preston. “Do you think that the culprit has the power to make 30 ponies disappear tonight?”

Everypony backed away from Red, who was staring intently at the pink note on the ground. Twilight couldn't blame her for taking her time, especially considering that she was the current mayor of Everdale. The thought made Twilight's heart sink, imagining all of the pressure that Red was feeling. It was amazing that she still had the spirit to hold that rally in town square.

After a few moments of deliberation, Red looked up from the note and leveled her gaze at Twilight. There was no malice or sympathy in her fixed expression. “Twilight Sparkle,” she flatly announced with a soft, serious tone. It didn't sound like she was going to answer the unicorn's question. “You and the other Elements of Harmony need to pack your bags and go back to Canterlot. You're not welcome in Everdale anymore.”

The words hit Twilight like a train, stopping her breathing for a few tense moments. Red's icy expression didn't falter in the slightest. Did she really think that the culprit could carry through with their threat? If she believed that, then this pegasus knew more than she was letting on.

“Hey, Red?” came a hesitant voice. Oddly enough, it belonged to Pinkie, who was hopping out of the fountain and trotting up to the pegasus. She was still wearing that ridiculous detective's cap.

Red met the pink pony's dejected gaze, but she had to avert her eyes to keep her stony mask from crumbling. “Yes?” she responded with a somewhat shaky voice.

“Why are you named Red anyway? You're not Red at all! You're more like a rusty orange, or maybe like— Oh! You're like Scootaloo, just a little darker! Maybe I should call you Rusty, or—”

Red immediately stamped a powerful hoof onto the ground and brought her megaphone right up to Pinkie Pie's ear. “Rusty?!” she shouted at full volume, making Twilight's ears ring, even from a few feet away. Pinkie's detective cap went flying into the fountain, making her mane even more frizzy than it already was. “Rusty?! And what am I supposed to call you? Pinkie?!”

“Yep!”

Red stared at grinning pink pony in bewilderment from the other side of her megaphone, jaw still hanging open. Twilight could see the mare trying to put together some kind of response, but instead....

She burst out laughing. Just like dominoes, everypony, Twilight included, found it difficult to stay on their hooves. In mere seconds, the square was filled with raucous laughter, everypony's voices mixing together in the din. Everypony's voice but Pinkie’s. She just stood there with a frown.

“What?” Pinkie asked, genuinely confused as she turned around to see what was going on. “Why's everypony laughing?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the end, nothing had changed. Red had stood by her decision to banish the Elements of Harmony from Everdale, regardless of the consequences. Both Preston and Caesura had remained silent, neither voicing a complaint against Red's decision, but their hesitant expressions had spoken volumes. Twilight wished that she could have apologized to them before Red had stormed off, dragging her two friends with her.

“Um...” came Fluttershy's quiet voice, snapping Twilight out of her silent trance and bringing her back to reality. Fluttershy's worried expression was dimly lit by the setting sun in the background, bathing the desolate dirt road in a bright orange light. “Twilight, are you sure it's okay? I mean... what are we going to do?”

Somehow maintaining her focus on the luggage barrier, Twilight looked over at Fluttershy, whose pitiful expression made her heart nearly melt. “Don't worry, Fluttershy,” Twilight whispered, casting a glance over her shoulder. The guard shack behind her had a small light on, meaning that Nightowl and Page must have gone on duty shortly after they had left. “I've got a plan. I wasn't sitting around and twiddling my hooves while we were arguing.”

“Oh, good!” Fluttershy exclaimed, managing to sound energetic despite her hushed tone. “I was so worried that you were really giving up! But what are we going to do?”

“We're going to have to wait another night,” Twilight began quietly. “We need to see how our culprit operates. Tonight, I will consult with the princess and ask her advice. Our best bet is to set up a trap so we can catch the culprit red-hoofed.”

“No.” Fluttershy's voice was soft, but strong. It had so much presence that Twilight nearly lost control over the barrier for a brief moment. “Er, I mean... wait, I mean no, actually. It's not a good idea. Sorry...!”

Twilight sighed. “We don't have much of a choice, Fluttershy. We're going to need the princess's help with this one.”

Fluttershy hesitated before responding. “Um, I don't mean to be rude, but how are we going to ask the princess for help before tomorrow? I mean, she's probably busy, and you don't have Spike here to send letters, so, um, maybe we should rethink things....”

Twilight's reaction must have been noticeable, because Fluttershy immediately trailed off into yet another string of apologies. Pangs of guilt struck at the unicorn's heart as she tried to think of a way to change the subject. Silently, she cursed the mysterious Princess of the Night for making her keep that silly secret.

“Well... either way, Fluttershy, we just spent at least six hours trying to change Red's mind about banishing us. I don't think we'd be met with open arms if we marched back in there.”

“I do, actually.” The pegasus paused, biting her bottom lip. “She kind of reminds me of Angel.”

“Your bunny? Really? I know Red can be a bit temperamental, but not like that crazy pet of yours.”

“Twilight!” The way Fluttershy said her name made Twilight feel guilty for talking about Angel like that. “Angel needs my help. If he were to go and live in the wild, he wouldn't last a day! Poor thing. When Angel gets upset, it's usually just because he needs something, you know. He acts so stubborn whenever he gets lonely, but that's how I know what he wants. He just wants somepony to care for him.... That's all.”

The words began to sink in as Twilight realized how horrible her plan was. She was going to let somepony get foalnapped just so they could learn more about the culprit! “So you’re saying that Red kicked us out because she wanted us to stay?”

“Well, when you say it that way...” Fluttershy mumbled, trailing off. “It does sound kind of silly. But! I could tell. She was upset because she wanted attention. She just wanted somepony to care for her....”

Twilight took a deep breath, starting to see what Fluttershy had seen. Red had sent out a giant S.O.S. when she sent Twilight and her friends away. The weight on that pony's shoulders must be absolutely unbearable, since she was responsible for the lives of all of the citizens of that small town. And Twilight had nearly abandoned her.

        “Thanks Fluttershy,” Twilight whispered, earning a warm smile from her friend. “Girls! Change of plans!”

Fluttershy nodded approvingly as she flew back to make sure that Rarity and Pinkie Pie would be able to hear.

Once she had everypony's attention, Twilight raised her voice a little more. “AJ, Rainbow! We're turning this cart around! Let’s head back to Everdale! I have a plan, but if it's going to succeed, we're going to need to work quickly.”

Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash begrudgingly give a few bits to Applejack, who smirked and took them without gloating. Rainbow must have lost a bet.

Giggling, Twilight turned to face Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, you packed your emergency party supplies, right?”

“Absolutely! What do you think all these suitcases have in them? Bricks?”

“Not gonna answer that,” Twilight quickly responded, desperate to stay on topic. “We're going to need a surprise party in the hotel, stat. Absolutely everypony is invited. Can you handle it?”

“No problemo, or my name isn't Pinkamena Diane Pie! Which would be weird, considering—”

“Rarity, you're in charge of decorations. Fluttershy and Applejack, you're making refreshments. Rainbow Dash, you're coming with me on guard detail. Page and Nightowl could use a night off.”

Twilight's snappy instructions left little room for rebuttal, but Rarity wasn't going to play along without an explanation. “A party? Really, Twilight! We get banished, and the first thing you want to do is go back and throw a party? I would expect this from Pinkie, but I thought you would have more tact than this.”

“Trust me, Rarity. I don't care if King Sombra really did come back. I dare the culprit to try and crash this party! We know they're coming. We know who they're targeting. But best of all, we know when and where they're going to strike.”

Rarity still wasn't buying it. “And, pray tell, how are we supposed to know all of this?”

With a confident grin, Twilight looked back over her shoulder towards the quiet town of Everdale. “Elementary, my dear Rarity!” Dash shot an acid glare at Twilight, but the unicorn wasn't going to let anything dampen her spirit. “The culprit will strike at midnight in the hotel.”

Before Rarity could interject, Rainbow Dash jumped in. She looked like she wanted revenge. “Okay, I normally wouldn't do this, I'm siding with Rarity here. How can you be so confident about this?”

        “Simple,” Twilight stated. “It'll be on the invitation.”

Chapter 18: Arranging the Board

Chapter 18

Arranging the Board

It was too late. Twilight could only watch as the black heart lazily drifted out of her vision and towards the other cell. By the time she blinked, everything was over. The green aura around Chrysalis’ horn was gone, the heart had disappeared, and the only thing that remained was a gentle sobbing from the only other occupant in the room.

“Why did you do that?!” Twilight cried, pounding against the bars of her cell..

“Twilight Sparkle, would you have believed me without proof?” the changeling queen countered. “No, I don’t think that you would. Also, it would be quite inconvenient for the both of us if he suddenly got the urge to ruin our little game.”

“But—”

“All it would have taken was a little slip of the tongue. In a single instant, the deal would be off, and you’d be left here to rot. Surely you wouldn’t want that.”

Giving the rock wall a nasty kick, Twilight tried to think of something to say. Chrysalis had probably done the same thing that Cadance had done to Nightowl, leaving the spell to run its course and forcing the victim to see what they kept hidden in their hearts. It was a terrifying thought.

Blinking, Twilight remembered that the changeling in the cell next to her was Nightowl. The poor creature had been through this ordeal before, if Applejack had been telling the truth, but now he was experiencing the other side of it. Did that mean that Cadance had been lying about requiring the consent of the target, or was Chrysalis’ power different?

“Speechless, hm?” the changeling queen taunted.

“There should’ve been another way,” Twilight growled, backing away from the cell door. “You could have simply mind controlled him like you did to my brother.”

At the mention of mind control, the changeling queen once again burst into maniacal laughter, a habit of hers that was almost as prevalent as her monologuing. “Oh, you don’t know anything, do you? If I could mind control somepony, I would have done so to Princess Celestia from the very beginning! Honestly, I thought you would recognize some complex levitation when you saw it.”

“Wait, you were just—”

“Of course I was using levitation! I can’t believe that you didn’t notice. It took me weeks to drain all of his energy, but once I was finished, he could barely stand! At the wedding, I was simply moving him around like an adorable little puppet, not mind controlling him like you seem to think. Maybe cutting this deal with you was the wrong idea, hm?”

“W-wait!” Twilight stammered, desperate to take whatever deal she could get her hooves on. “Okay, I’ll play along with your little bargain, just answer my question first. If you’d drained all of the magic from Shining Armor, how did he have enough left over to blast you and your changelings away? Making a selective barrier of that size and extending it to the size of Canterlot would have been a feat, even for Princess Celestia herself!”

Chrysalis’ giddy mood immediately crashed and burned, the fire from the wreckage burning in her sickly green eyes. Baring her fangs, the changeling queen stomped at the floor and shoved her head up against the cell bars hard enough to make Twilight wince. “It was that little pink princess of yours and her truth spell,” she seethed. “Once he knew I was a fake, all of my work went to waste and he got back everything I’d taken from him in an instant! Trust me, the power of love is something you’ll probably never live to experience if you don’t learn to keep your mouth shut.”

Twilight instinctively backed away until she bumped into the cold wall of her cell. Chrysalis’ defeat in Canterlot was obviously a touchy subject, but it didn’t make any sense when Twilight compared it against what Skylight had told her. Then again, Chrysalis’ actions weren’t making any sense either.

When she remembered the other captive, she became aware of him sniffling faintly in the distance. “I’m Nightowl. My name is Nightowl. I’m a night guard. I’m a normal pony, living a normal life....”

Shuddering, Twilight tried to tune him out. Those were all blatant lies, but he was able to speak them clearly. What terrified her was that he sounded like he genuinely believed them.

“Let him go,” she ordered calmly, creeping forward to meet Chrysalis face to face. “If you undo your spell, I’ll play your game with whatever rules you want. I’m not afraid of you. You won’t be able to deceive me in the end, not when it’s about my friends.”

Chrysalis didn’t back away, keeping her unnaturally dark face flush against the cell bars, but her expression underwent a jarring shift from murderous to playful. “So demanding! It baffles me how little miss pink put up with you for so long. But, in my infinite generosity, I shall grant your wish and release the spell after we leave. That is fair, is it not?”

Blocking out the sobbing that echoed through the cave, Twilight nodded. Nightowl — no, Skylight Dreamer — had been through enough already. This was her way of thanking him for telling her so much about changeling society. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be put through any other hardships once this was over. Maybe he’d be able to live a normal life, just like the one he wanted.

“Then how about a change of scenery, hm?” Chrysalis sung, stepping back from the cell doors. “A dull place like this is hardly a fitting backdrop for our long-awaited battle.”

Once again becoming hesitant, Twilight backed up as the door to her cell glowed a bright green, emitting a click and swinging open. Why did they need to go elsewhere? Was this a trap? Had Cadance’s deal never existed in the first place?

“Come, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis demanded. “If you do not leave your cell in ten seconds, the deal is off. I will count nice and slow for you, but you know what will happen if you remain there. Do not make me wait.”

Shuddering, Twilight weighed her options. This supposed deal was almost certainly a trap, seeing how Cadance had no leverage to negotiate with the changelings. There was always the possibility that Cadance had somehow managed to threaten her captor, but it was highly unlikely.

“One thousand and one. One thousand and two. One thousand and three.”

Even if it was a trap, there was no other option. If she could find some room to move around, she could still try and make a break for it without her magic. But what about Skylight? If Twilight didn’t play along, he would remain under that insipid spell for the rest of his life.

“One thousand and four. One thousand and five. One thousand and six.”

There was also the fact that she would be leaving Cadance and Shining Armor behind, something she could never bring herself to do. Maybe her friends were captive as well, since that had never been clarified. All things considered, there were too many variables to consider running away a valid option.

“One thousand and seven. One thousand and eight. One thousand and nine....”

Something clicked in Twilight’s busy thoughts. Chrysalis’ counting had brought her attention to a certain observation, one that she had nearly overlooked. With that sudden realization, Twilight knew how Cadance had managed to strike a deal with Chrysalis, one that would put the pressure on the changeling queen to agree to such a pointless competition. Twilight chastised herself for not seeing this sooner.

“One thousand and—”

“That’s enough!” Twilight shouted, bounding out of her cell before the door slammed violently shut behind her. “I’ll play along. You didn’t want this deal to go through in the first place, did you? I guess Cadance really managed to pile on the pressure.”

Chrysalis visibly winced, confirming Twilight’s suspicions. For a creature with the power to control lies, she was horrible at covering her own. “Whatever do you mean? She has nothing—”

“Nice try, Chrysalis, but I’ve already proven that the culprit behind the Everdale disappearances fears the direct involvement of the royal sisters. You may have been able to stop Luna from visiting my dreams, but you didn’t have time to keep her from visiting Cadance’s!”

Once again, the intimidating creature lost her composure, unable to keep eye contact with Twilight. “You can’t—”

“I can. I already know what you did, after all. You’re a master at imitating ponies, aren’t you? You already knew about Luna’s powers, so once you realized we were going to find the city, you were cornered. Your only option was to somehow keep her from contacting me, otherwise I would reveal your location! And to do that, you imitated my dream, didn’t you?”

“Wh-what?!” the queen huffed, baring her fangs. “You’re absolutely mad! When would I have time to do that? I couldn’t possibly—”

“Don’t sell yourself short, oh magnificent queen. First off, I have no way of telling how long I was out from your sleep spell. It would be easy of you to put me into a deep sleep, so deep that I wouldn’t be able to dream for a while, which would allow you to take my form, fall asleep, and assure Princess Luna that everything was fine. Actually, no. You didn’t do that did you? I imagine that you offended her in some way so that she would never speak to me again. After all, she tried to apologize to you. Twice!”

The words had a physical effect on Chrysalis, causing her to back up against the exit, eyes wide like grimy dinner plates. It was entertaining to watch such a feared creature reduced to such a pitiful state.

“It’s a good thing Luna counts her apologies, otherwise I wouldn’t have noticed that she skipped numbers six and seven, going straight to one thousand and eight. Based on that, I know that I can trust this deal, since Cadance must have threatened to bring down the wrath of the royal sisters on you. You didn’t know that she was coming, so you didn’t have the opportunity to imitate her dream. So please, lead the way, oh generous queen. I heartily await your challenge!”

Twilight hadn’t intended to be so theatrical about it, but she couldn’t keep her detective’s dramatic flair from acting up again. If the Heart of Equestria was real, it was probably affecting her right now, making her act just as dramatic as her foe.

With a feral growl, Chrysalis righted her posture again, throwing the door open with a fierce burst of magic. It was odd, but the queen appeared impressed, rather than upset, with Twilight’s deductions. Twilight wasn’t sure what to make of it, but she tried not to look too far into it, seeing as it could easily be another one of Chrysalis’ mind games, after all.

“Wait,” Twilight ordered as she slipped through the doorway behind Chrysalis, closing it. “Remove the spell from Skylight. That was part of the deal.”

Looking back over her shoulder, the changeling queen quirked a brow. “Skylight Dreamer was a silly foal, one who refused to accept reality for what it was. The fact that he told you his name is proof enough of that. I will remove the spell from that nameless creature once we are out of earshot.”

“And how can I trust you?” Twilight demanded. She wanted to defend the poor changeling, but she knew that she was on thin ice already.

Instead of a cryptic answer, like Twilight expected, Chrysalis turned around to face her, horn glowing. Just like before, the jagged spire erupted into a flash of sickly green light, materializing a familiar black heart between them.

Instinctively, Twilight leapt backwards against the door and reached inside of herself to draw upon her magic, once again remembering how powerless she was. Helpless, she stared as the black heart floated menacingly in the air. It had been a trap all along!

But instead of targeting Twilight, the heart remained in front of Chrysalis and the changeling’s eyes faded into an inky shade of black, making the rest of her body appear bright by comparison.

“I will not remove my spell once we have walked 50 steps from this place.”

Chrysalis words boomed in the echoing hallway, causing Twilight’s ears to ring. It was almost identical to the way that Cadance’s spell worked, but this monster had managed to use it on herself without thinking twice. What drew Twilight’s attention was how she had used it, making it function as a truth spell instead of one that caused lies. By telling a lie about how she would not remove the hex at a specific time, she had made a promise. Twilight wondered what would happen if Chrysalis broke her word.

“Are you satisfied?” Chrysalis grumbled, her eyes fading back to their usual eerie green.

“Actually, yes,” Twilight answered hesitantly. “I can kind of see how using that would be a handicap for you.”

“Good,” the changeling queen spat, not making any effort to hide her bitterness.

Their trek continued as Twilight counted her steps to ensure that Chrysalis kept her word. At each turn, she cautiously peeked around the corner to be sure that nopony was following them, but the entire cave system appeared to be surprisingly empty. They were the only two creatures in the torch-lit passageways, a scene right out of the Daring Do novel with the hidden Paleopony Period ruins. It was rather spacious, but Twilight had the feeling that a creature of Chrysalis’ size would started to feel cramped after a few hours.

On the 50th step, Chrysalis halted, exactly like she had promised. Just like before, magic surged through her horn, illuminating the dim passageway in an unsettling shade of green.

Without a word, the sickening light faded and Chrysalis continued walking as if nothing had happened, but Twilight had a few questions for her. “Hey, what would have happened if you didn’t complete the lie?” she asked, trying to remain respectful towards her captor. The last thing she needed was to be thrown back into her holding cell.

“That’s not possible,” Chrysalis stated plainly, refusing to break her stride to turn around. “I assume that Cadance never told you, then? Her power can serve as a pact, making an unbreakable promise. The spell remains active, keeping the pact fresh in the target’s mind until the time comes when the promise must be fulfilled. At that point, the target can think of nothing else but that promise, and they are forced to stay true to their word. Or in my case, to break it.”

Twilight was speechless, trying to wrap her mind around the concept of a civil conversation with Chrysalis. The changeling queen was being remarkably cooperative, despite her deadpan tone of voice. "But how did you dispell it so easily?" Twilight asked. She was about to mention that Cadance had experienced some difficulty with dispelling hers, but she stopped herself. The changeling queen had a habit of accidentally revealing information, after all.

"Why would it be difficult?" Chrysalis asked, answering Twilight question with another question. "All I did was set up the spell so that it would remain there until I sent the signal. For such a powerful unicorn, you truly have no concept of how spells work."

Pensive, Twilight continued on in silence, wondering if the lying spell had the same effect on Chrysalis as the truth spell did to other ponies. If Chrysalis had any lies that she held close to her heart, would it force them to the surface? That would explain her unprecedented somber mood. Chrysalis didn’t seem like herself when she wasn’t cackling or going off on a pointless monologue.

“You’re taking this remarkably well,” Chrysalis mentioned as they continued their journey through the claustrophobic cave system. “I was expecting you to be a bit more inquisitive, or at the very least, spouting some nonsense about the power of friendship. I can’t say that I am upset about this, but I am pleasantly surprised.”

“Right now, I’m just trying to get my thoughts in order,” Twilight grumbled, ignoring Chrysalis’ passive-aggressive tone. “But now that you mention it, I’ve got a few choice words for you.”

“Oh goody,” the creature spat.

Before Twilight began to her endless stream of questions, she wondered why Chrysalis was upset about this, since she was the one who had brought it up. “Well, what about the nine ponies that were found wandering the forest?” she began, not expecting a serious answer. “That wasn’t normal changeling feeding, was it? And why did you let them out like that? If I were you, I would—”

“You’re not me,” Chrysalis quipped sharply, silencing Twilight. “But you are correct about our feeding habits. It is by no means permanent, especially when we are near the Heart of Equestria. But thanks to a rather recent discovery, we have found a more humane method to feed off of emotions, one that provides us with one of the greatest instances of poetic justice I can imagine. You see, thanks to a combination of my magic and the Heart of Equestria, we’ve managed to permanently capture a pony’s emotions in the form of music. As long as the piece exists in written form, it will keep our hapless victim in a completely apathetic state, allowing the captured emotions to be released indefinitely by playing that pony’s song.”

As disturbing as the process was, it was an interesting concept. Giving somepony’s emotions a constant state and preserving them in the form of sound was a topic that Twilight would have loved to research, but the spell’s cruelty quickly turned her away. Thankfully, Chrysalis’ answer provided Twilight with a possible reason for what Caesura’s link to the changelings was, considering her talent with playing so many instruments at once.

Still, Twilight wasn’t going to let a few details slide past her. “You call that humane?” she huffed. “That sounds worse than the symptoms of normal feeding if you ask me. Also I fail to see what kind of poetic justice you’re getting out of this.”

Indignant, the changeling growled. “Twilight Sparkle, if anypony understands poetic justice, it’s me. You never knew who those nine were, or why there were only nine of them, did you? To think that such an astute detective overlooked such an important fact! If you had cared enough to ask around, you would have realized that one of those nine was a certain earth pony by the name of Dotted Line. The other eight were his biggest supporters, excluding little Red of course, since somepony had to stay around and be my puppet once all was said and done. As for Dotted Line, it’s a shame he can’t appreciate the irony of his situation, but I find it beautiful how the one who deprived us of our only source of food is now providing us with an endless supply!”

Twilight could understand the irony of it, but that didn’t justify it or make it humane by any stretch of the word. Regardless, she wanted to press the issue about Red, but she had a feeling that her time was limited, so she streamlined her thoughts in an attempt to focus on the most important issues.

“Okay, I’ve got another question for you,” Twilight announced, ignoring Chrysalis’ patronizing smirk. “Why were you so surprised to see me in that parade? After all, you keep mocking me by insinuating that you replaced one of my friends, but if you had, you would have known we were coming. Based on that, I’m starting to think you’re bluffing.”

The question stopped Chrysalis in her tracks, finally provoking a serious reaction. “I was not surprised that you were there, Twilight Sparkle,” the creature seethed, exhaling hotly. “I was just astounded that you were stupid enough to show yourself in front of me! Not to mention the fact that you interrupted an extremely important ceremony and nearly gave my entire city a collective heart attack! Do you know how difficult it was to keep my subjects from barricading themselves in their homes?!”

Twilight was unaware that she had struck such a touchy subject, but things were starting to make sense. After the defeat in Canterlot, Skylight had mentioned how most of the changelings never made it back home. Were the ones watching the parade the only ones that had survived? There had been a myriad of ponies lining the street back then, but when compared to the daunting size of the city, Twilight guessed that only one eighth of its original population remained.

When she approached the situation from Chrysalis’ point of view, it was humbling. With so few of her subjects remaining, morale in the city had to be extremely low, especially if their queen was not there to be the political figurehead. When she returned, Chrysalis must have thought that the ceremony was important enough to forego any other plans she had, only interested in keeping her subjects appeased. Twilight had ruined all of that, revealing herself in front of the entire crowd and starting a mass panic. While they may have revered the Elements of Harmony, a concept that still sounded silly, they would probably fear for their lives if they actually showed up.

Swallowing, Twilight tried to ignore the guilt she felt. Why should she feel bad about the changelings after they had attacked an entire city full of innocent ponies? She wasn’t sure whether to pity or fear them.

In sobering silence, their march began anew, the queen and her captive coming to a silent understanding that there would be no more questions. After a few more twists and turns down the eerily empty system of caves, Twilight saw a mysterious blue glow from around the next corner. The sight made her apprehensive, still worried about wandering into some sort of trap, but there was no point in turning back, not after she had come so far. Chrysalis didn’t falter at the glow, approaching it with an aloof air about her.

Before Twilight could speak up, the changeling queen stopped in front of the corner, still refusing to turn around and acknowledge her captive. “This shall be our battlefield, Twilight Sparkle,” she announced, a hint of her theatrical flair returning and shattering the somber atmosphere. “Are you prepared?”

Twilight’s confidence was shaken by the lack of antagonism in Chrysalis’ speech, but she had no intention of turning back, not when her big brother and Cadance were in danger. “Bring it on, cheeselegs,” Twilight taunted. “If you think I can’t tell one of my best friends from an imposter, you’re wrong! You got taken down by the power of love last time, so I hope you’re ready to taste the power of friendship!”

“If your brilliant plan includes making me want to gag, it’s working beautifully,” the queen hissed, sounding much more like she had back in the holding cells. “I’d better hurry and get things started, otherwise you’ll talk me to an untimely demise.”

It was odd, but Twilight much preferred Chrysalis when she was actively making snarky comments. It was much easier to fight back when her opponent was doing the same. “Looks like I’ve already got the upper hoof,” Twilight teased, following the creature around the corner and towards the ephemeral blue glow.

As she rounded the last corner, Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, her competitive spirit flagging. The cavernous expanse trapped her breath deep down in her gummy throat, shock overriding any other reaction that Twilight might have felt. The hallway abruptly opened into an intimidatingly spacious chamber, one that made the royal hall in Canterlot look like a closet. On all sides, the roof and walls must have been miles away, raising the question of how a place like this could have been excavated.

As impressive as the daunting chamber was, it was the centerpiece that drew Twilight’s rapt attention. In the middle of the vast, gaping expanse, a humongous heart-shaped gem shone brilliantly like a star, bathing the entire cavern in its ephemeral blue light. Actually, massive was an understatement for the gem. The glowing heart was large enough to make Twilight’s library look like less like a tree and more like a sapling. Despite its size, it was held in place by two rocky spires, one jutting from the ceiling and one from the floor, making it appear completely weightless. It didn’t look natural at all.

The luminous gem reminded Twilight of Cadance’s cutie mark, only enlarged 100 times and without the intricate decorations around it. Twilight had never understood what the alicorn’s cutie mark had meant, or what had happened with the fiasco surrounding the crystal heart, but upon seeing this giant replica of it, it somehow made even less sense than it did before. In fact, this looked almost exactly like the crystal heart she had seen at the top of King Sombra’s tower, only significantly larger.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Chrysalis remarked, stopping and turning to the side to give Twilight an impressive view of her profile. The intense backlight behind her gave her an ethereal presence, making an incomplete shadow as some of the light passed through the holes in her legs. “This is the Heart of Equestria. Can you feel it, Twilight Sparkle? Your curiosity, your determination, your love for your parents... it’s all flaring up, isn’t it?”

Now that Chrysalis mentioned it, Twilight had to wonder how much of her awe was caused by the Heart itself, but there was something strange about Chrysalis’ word choice, snapping her out of her stupor. “My parents?” Twilight asked, doing her best to keep her emotions under control. “What do they have to do with this?”

Chrysalis smirked knowingly. “Oh, them? I had two ponies take their forms so that they could drain you of your magic. It’s rather simple, to be perfectly honest. Even if you know they’re fake, you still love your parents, don’t you?”

Wincing, Twilight wondered if she could use that as the key to getting her magic back. Could she possibly stop loving her parents, even for a single day? Sure, she had fought against them when they had grounded her for staying up all night reading, but she had nothing but respect for the ponies that had raised her.

“Of course you do,” Chrysalis cackled, the otherwordly, sea-blue aura of the room arousing a fear that Twilight didn’t know she had. “But that hardly matters right now. What does matter is that you and I have a little grudge match to play out.”

Twilight didn’t respond, fearing that the Heart of Equestria might be affecting her emotional state. She likened it to the world of dreams, where her subconscious ran rampant and unfiltered. This wasn’t nearly as wild as she had felt during her argument with Luna.

“Speechless already?” Chrysalis taunted, craning her neck so she could loom over her opponent. “I thought it would take more than that to stump you. It seems you need yet another advantage. Luckily for you, I figured that you would spend most of your time stumbling around in the dark, so I had something else prepared, just in case.”

Twilight hadn’t noticed it before, thanks to her fascination with the beautiful gem, but a black cloth sat draped over a pedestal, covering some sort of object right next to where Chrysalis was standing. With a dramatic flourish, the changeling queen flung the cloth off with her hoof, revealing what appeared to be a surprisingly ordinary crystal ball beneath it.

“Am I supposed to be impressed by that?” Twilight groaned, starting to grow tired of Chrysalis overdone way of doing everything. How was a crystal ball going to help her?

“Of course!” she announced, cradling it in her hooves. “You see, this is one of my most prized possessions! It’s a crystal ball, one that is absolutely perfect for spying on future targets, but I believe you will be more interested in one of its other uses. In my boundless mercy, I will allow you to use this crystal ball, but once, and only once. You may use it to look back through your memories and re-experience a specific moment in time.”

Gasping, Twilight immediately began to imagine how such a magical device would work. Was it powered by the Heart of Equestria, somehow trapping a pony within their subconscious for a limited amount of time? Was it like a dream? The possibilities were endless!

Once again, she had to calm herself, remembering that the Heart might be manipulating her curiosity. “Okay then,” the unicorn agreed, nodding warily. Chrysalis was giving her way too many advantages, seeing as their duel hadn’t even begun. “Will I get to choose which memory I revisit?”

“Why, of course you’ll get to choose!” Chrysalis cackled, looking sickeningly smug. “But remember, you only get one chance. Inside of that memory, you can look around and pick out details you may have overlooked before, but I doubt that somepony as astute as you would ever miss a vital clue. In fact, this little jog down memory lane won’t actually present any new evidence for you, it will only serve as a reminder of what you already know.”

This didn’t make any sense at all. Sure, it would be nice to refresh her memory, but the events at the Everdale Hotel were still fresh in her thoughts, so fresh that she was confident in her ability to replicate every single scene verbatim. “I’m thankful for the help, but how is something like this supposed to help me?”

“Oh, it’s just to refresh your memory,” Chrysalis explained, sounding much too kind for her usual demeanor. “I’m also using it to gauge where you’re at. Depending on which memory you choose to revisit, I’ll know where your train of thought is going. I’ll also be able to tell how much you’ve been able to figure out so far.”

Grimacing, Twilight knew that this was important somehow. Chrysalis wouldn’t set this up if she didn’t intend to use it to her advantage. There was the possibility that it was intended to provide Chrysalis with an opportunity to gloat over how much of a thespian she was, but that hardly seemed like a wise strategy on her part. The changeling queen wouldn’t give out opportunities like this without a catch.

“One last clarification,” Twilight demanded, regarding her foe with a quizzical frown. “Is there a length to how long the memory can be?”

“Obviously,” Chrysalis groaned, rolling her eyes. “I may be merciful, but I am not dumb. If I gave you the option, you would relive every single memory from your first arrival, which would be unsportsmarelike if you ask me, but because time is rather relative in your memories, I shall instead limit you to one event. How does that sound?”

It sounded suspicious, but Twilight didn’t have much room to disagree at this point. What if she picked the wrong one? Would Chrysalis make things easier on her, or would she cancel their challenge altogether? If Twilight was right, Chrysalis was being threatened by the royal sisters’ intervention, but how would that make a difference?

“So, which memory would you like to revisit?” Chrysalis inquired, tapping her hoof on the ground.

Hesitant, Twilight collected her thoughts. The note on the fountain was placed by Caesura, so going back there wouldn’t be helpful. The disappearances in the lobby would be pointless as well, since it happened while Twilight was investigating Page’s disappearance. There was also the incident in the forest, but that was so recent that Twilight could still remember every detail, down to the little imprint on the grass by the barrier. She could either choose her investigation of the room with Nightowl or pick some other event, but the investigation was starting to seem like the best option. Actually, with Cadance’s truth spell, Twilight could check all of the facts about the room, which would be more reliable than her memory.

“Clock’s ticking, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis lilted, tapping her hoof more quickly than before. “My guards should be arriving with your pretty pink princess in tow, and you wouldn’t want to make her wait, would you?”

“I don’t think she’d mind,” Twilight huffed, finally making her decision. If she was going to pick a memory, she would pick one that contained information that Cadance’s truth spell couldn’t confirm. “I’m going to go back and take another look at everypony’s arrival to the party. I can check facts with you and Cadance, but I can use this memory to try and remember what the individual ponies looked like. Would it be okay to begin at the point where I set the barrier up?”

The suggestion must have aroused Chrysalis’ interest, as her eyes widened with what could only be explained as pleasant surprise. “Absolutely,” she acquiesced, “and I must say that you have chosen well. I’m beginning to think that you may have solved this already.”

Once again, Twilight regarded Chrysalis warily. Was the changeling queen giving her all of these hints on purpose, or was she simply that dense? She had just told Twilight that she had chosen the correct memory, or at least one that would provide a significant hint. There was still the possibility that it was nothing but misdirection, but there was no way to tell.

Twilight, nodding, tried to pry more information out of her opponent. “So how long would that scene last? Where’s the stopping point?”

Oddly enough, Chrysalis was delighted to answer. “It stops when you run upstairs, obviously.”

“I assumed so,” Twilight mumbled to herself as she cautiously approached the pedestal, eyes trained on her foe. “Let’s get this over with. You’ll have to give me some magic back to work this, won’t you?”

Chrysalis stifled a laughed as she slithered up to Twilight’s side. “Nice try, Twilight, but I’ll be activating it. I’ve learned that I can’t afford to take risks around you.”

Twilight wanted to challenge Chrysalis about taking risks, since she’d been taking a multitude of them recently, but the unicorn didn’t want to lose whatever ground she had gained. “Fine,” she sighed, closing her eyes. “Get this dumb thing fired up already.”

“Actually, I’ve changed my mind. You seem to be doing well enough, so I don’t think you need this silly crystal ball anymore.”

“Hey!” Twilight barked as Chrysalis brushed Twilight aside, levitating the black cloth back over the pedestal. “You can’t do that!”

“Do what?” Chrysalis asked, feigning ignorance. “All I did was put a cover back onto a completely ordinary crystal ball. Did this little filly want to play with it?”

“You!” Twilight snapped, unable to come up with anything insulting enough to say.

“Twilight Sparkle, did you really think that a simple crystal ball could be enchanted to scry on other ponies and let them relive their memories? Honestly, if I had something like that, I would have taken over Equestria a long time ago.”

“Then what was the point of that?!”

Chrysalis, hardly able to control herself, gave Twilight a coy smile. “Just to see your train of thought, like I already told you. You really are gullible, you know.”

“Ha, the joke’s on you, cheeselegs!” Twilight laughed, thinking quickly. “You just told me that one of the keys to solving this mystery comes from that memory, even giving me a starting and stopping point!”

Twilight had been bluffing, since there was a high likelihood that Chrysalis had lied about it, but it worked flawlessly. The changeling queen’s smug grin shattered so quickly that Twilight swore she heard the sound of glass breaking in the distance.

Before Twilight could capitalize on her success, Chrysalis’ anger faded into a disarmingly calm expression. “It seems I may have made the right decision,” she mumbled, not appearing to be talking to anypony in particular. “Now, if you would kindly—”

Chrysalis stopped in mid sentence, her attention shifting somewhere behind Twilight. Anxious, the unicorn turned around to see what was was so important.

Back by the entrance, a row of royal guards entered the chamber, each of them holding a captive at spearpoint.

“Girls! Cadance!” Twilight yelled, instinctively galloping over to meet them. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I should’ve figured this out sooner! Then we....”

Twilight trailed off, slowing down her gallop until she had stopped completely. What if the six in front of her were changelings as well, trying to manipulate her into accepting this deal? Would she really know if her friends were replaced?

“Looks like the peanut gallery has arrived,” Chrysalis announced from behind. “I invited your friends to watch, just so they could see how terrible of a friend you are. I hope you don’t mind.”

Cadance, her eyes narrowed in Chrysalis’ direction, flared her wings outward, stepping away from the guards and the other Elements of Harmony. “This is completely unnecessary,” she scolded, ignoring the spears pointed in her direction. “There’s no need to go this far.”

“Cadance, it’s fine,” Twilight responded, beating Chrysalis to the punch. “I’ve seen through it anyway. Cadance, you’re the genuine article, but those aren’t my friends.”

Despite Twilight’s confidence, Chrysalis’ sudden cackle worried her. “Twilight Sparkle, you truly are a horrible friend!” the queen taunted. “Celestia chose wrong when she took you on as her personal protege, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t ask you, Chrysalis,” Twilight insisted, shaking her head. “These aren’t my friends. First off, if you really had replaced one of them, that one would be here right now. If you couldn’t risk having Skylight tell me the truth, you definitely wouldn’t risk letting anypony else do the same. And even if you managed to replace that one with another changeling, I would be able to tell that one apart from my friends without even trying. After all, this new changeling wouldn’t have been with us the whole time, so it would be easy to pick them out of a lineup based on what they knew. So let me repeat myself, Chrysalis. These are not my friends.”

Twilight turned her head to lock eyes with her opponent. Chrysalis stared right back, betraying her surprise. “Well done, Twilight Sparkle,” she stated, nodding to the guards. “You may go. Leave us be. Oh, and ensure that everypony knows that I am not to be disturbed.”

There were a few flashes of green light from somewhere behind Twilight, confirming her suspicions. “Yes, princess!” came a myriad of voices from the entrance, each of them surprisingly unique.

After a fading clatter of hooves against stone, Twilight was alone with Cadance and Chrysalis in the humungous chamber. Her first instinct was to team up with Cadance and take Chrysalis down, since it was two against one, but a few questions caused her to hesitate. The one that puzzled Twilight the most was about why Chrysalis didn’t put Cadance under a sleep spell, like she had done to Twilight, and then imitate her dream to keep Luna from interfering. Were alicorn dreams different somehow?

The other thing that drew Twilight’s attention was how Cadance was acting. If Skylight was correct, changelings considered it blasphemy for anypony but the queen to take an alicorn’s form, so it was reasonable to assume that this was the real one, but Cadance was acting much too calmly, considering their situation. In fact, she hardly seemed to notice the massive, heart-shaped gem hanging in the center of the room, suspended to the ceiling and floor by thick, earthy spires. Did Cadance already know about the Heart of Equestria somehow? It would explain her cutie mark, but it would also raise thousands of other questions.

“Now then,” Chrysalis started, pacing back and forth while backlit by the luminous heart, “let us begin our battle of wits, Twilight Sparkle. Cadance has been instructed to only speak if I allow her to, otherwise her husband may find himself in a rather unfortunate position.”

Twilight winced, glancing over at Cadance. The alicorn was staring daggers at Chrysalis with an unreadable, steely glare, one that hardly seemed to belong to the Cadance that Twilight knew. As Twilight regarded her old foalsitter, another realization popped into her head. If Chrysalis was holding Shining Armor captive, how had Cadance been able to get any leverage at all to negotiate this competition? Twilight nearly slapped herself for not thinking of it before, but now that she thought about it, this deal made absolutely no sense. Chrysalis could have easily held Shining Armor as a hostage just in case Cadance decided to try something.

“Pay attention, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis warned, looming over the small unicorn. Chrysalis may have been theatrical with everything she did, but for once, her attitude fit her intimidating image, especially with the Heart of Equestria casting its ethereal glow around her. “Your task is simple. You are to solve the mysteries that you’ve encountered since your arrival.”

“You already told me,” Twilight sighed. There was something so undeniably wrong about this situation, but Twilight was in no position to challenge it, not when Chrysalis was giving her this chance.

“Then let me tell you how this will play out. You have both Cadance’s truth spell and my lying spell at your disposal, but I get to decide how to use them. All you have to do is propose a possibility. That’s all. Of course, once you do so, I will respond with a truth or a lie to prove you wrong. It’s as simple as that.”

Feeling her excitement flare up, Twilight did her best to control herself. It was a good thing she had gotten so much practice controlling her emotions in the world of dreams, otherwise this would have been difficult. Despite that excitement, Twilight still felt hesitant about this deal, finding it hard to play along with a plan that shouldn’t exist.

Regardless, Twilight nodded. “Then this will be over before you know it,” she challenged, forcing herself to ignore the confusion surrounding this situation. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

Sensing Twilight’s excitement, Chrysalis grinned, baring her fangs with a wicked, predatory grin. “Yes,” she responded with a delighted cackle, her villainous facade appearing more pronounced by the eerie, azure glow. “We shall.”