Resent.

Fog covered the entire town apparently. Voices of worry and confusion echoed through the streets as ponies triedd to see where they were or where they were going. Even the light of the sun was heavily dimmed by the fog. The fact that it the sunset was approaching was fast did not help the situation. There was only one true source of light, and it came from the horn of the resident princess.

"Its so hard to see." Rarity said.

"Never seen fog so thick." Applejack added. "I didn't know you pegasi could make it like this..."

"We don't. At least, not regularly." Rainbow answered. "We only put it out for winter. The machine isn't supposed to be even working during summer."

"Can't you just flap it away or something? An accident is just waiting to happen here." Rarity said.

"Alone? I'm awesome, but not that awesome. We would need at least ten pegasus."

"What about you Twilight? Can you lift it with you super-duper alicorn magic?" Pinkie asked. Twilight glanced around, not that there was much to see anyways.

"I'm not so sure Pinkie. Maybe I could if I knew just how big this mist is, but since I don't, I could end up just removing part of it or make it worse even. Turning into an alicorn increased my magic pool, but not my control over it. I'm still working over a few twigs with it." Twilight answered. A crash was heard, along with a few groans of pain. Dash flapped her wings in response, clearing a but of the fog away, enough to allow the group to see each other perfectly. An idea popped in Twilight's head.

"Dash, keep flapping your wings. If we can't clear this fog, then at least we can make it safer. You too Fluttershy."

The two pegasus began flapping their wings, sending wave after wave of fog away from their position. Soon enough, a sizable area had been cleared, which was good enough for Twilight.

"Now Rarity, light up your horn, make it as bright as you can. We have to give some sort of signal."

Rarity did as told, and her horn was soon glowing with a pale blue light, which, coupled with Twilight's already glowing magic, made for quite the sign that Twilight was hoping for. Indeed, ponies soon started flocking to their way, knowing that the newly crowned princess usually held the answer to whatever problem was  assaulting the town at the moment. Soon enough, a decent crowd had formed in front of them, meaning that the rest of the citizen had probably managed to enter their houses.

"Okay, we got their attention. Now what?" Applejack asked. Twilight focused in response. The light around her horn grew brighter and bigger before it split in three different sections, each as bright as the original. The newly formed lanterns floated above the crowd for a few seconds before splitting again, now resulting in nine lanterns. After a few seconds, the lights split once more, finishing with a total of twenty seven lanterns that floated above them.

"Everypony listen!" Twilight said out loud. "Those lights will move around the town. Use them to get to your homes safely until we can get this mess fixed. It shouldn't take long, but its better if you cleared the area for now."  The crow murmured and whispered between them before doing as instructed, branching off in groups behind the lights, leaving the six friends alone once more.

"Nifty." Dash commented.

"Its only a temporary solution. We need to find out whats causing this. Dash,  you fly to the weather management of Ponyville and find out whats wrong."

"You got it!" the pegasus mare answered said before blasting upwards. She soon vanished between the waves of fog.

"Will she be alright? She can't see where she's going." Applejack said.

"Fog never reaches higher than big house, and the weather management is way higher than that. She'll be fine."

"So, uhm, what do we do now?" Fluttershy asked.

"I'm deciding it. We could go back to the library and wait for Dash to come back with some answers or see if we can help around, though I don't see how. This fog is to dense to do anything in it. Maybe if I tried I could at least make it a bit easier to see." Twilight suggested.

"Wait." Pinkie stopped her before both of her ears flopped a couple of times, followed by her tail twitching once. "We have to go back to the library."

"Why? Did your Pinkie sense warned you of a doozy?"

"I don't know. But my ears flopped, and then my tail twitched once. And that only happens when not-so-good stuff happens. But I don't mean something like a burnt cupcake or something like that, though that is a not-so-good thing. I mean really not-so-good-stuff. I don't know what, but its happening right now."

The group trotted back to the library. The fog slowed them down a bit, since they had to pay close attention to the ground as they walked. The shadowy form of the library soon appeared before them. Nothing seem out of ordinary. Not yet. But Pinkie Pie had said her Pinkie sense warned of danger. And the pinkie sense was never wrong.

"Here we go..." Twilight entered the library. A few books were scattered around, along with a few quills and letters. While it was nothing close to the earlier mess that Twilight made, it was still quite a sight. Fluttershy gave a small whimper at how her work had been undone so quickly. But what caught everypony's attention was another thing.

Scratch marks. All over the shelves.

"Spike..."Twilight whispered. "Spike was here! I would recognize those marks anywhere!"

"He came back? When? How didn't we notice it!" Rarity said.

"He probably did it while were out doin' the whole mist issue solving. We didn't take that long though. And this place is looks like he was looking for something." Applejack pushed a book out of the way. Fluttershy had immediately begun to pick up the books and the scrolls. Placing them on a corner, she was about to begin collecting the rest when she stopped for a moment to take a glance around at the library.

"Some of them are missing..." she said to herself.

"What was that darling?" Rarity asked.

"Oh! Eh, I mean, its jus that I noticed that there's more empty spaces than books. Look."  And indeed, the number of books, while not that big, was noticeable if you looked carefully.

"Missing? Were they stolen?!" Twilight asked frantically.

"Apparently so, and it seems that Spike is the thief here." Applejack said. Twilight plopped on her haunches, trying to take in both news about her dear assistant: That he had been home and that he had stolen something from her.

"But were barely gone for little more than five minutes. Spike couldn't have possibly searched the entire library by himself. He would have had to grow wings to look around that fast." Rarity said.

"Maybe he didn't have to..." Applejack as she pointed a hoof towards a window, making both Fluttershy and Rarity look up. On the edge of the window, trapped by a hasty closing, laid a single, large gray feather. Rarity grabbed it with her magic, showing to the rest.

"I've never seen a feather like this." Rarity examined the feather. There was nothing special about it. Just a simple, boring gray feather.

"Where do you think it comes from?" Fluttershy asked.

"Ah' don't know, Bu probably a pegasus, and whoever it is, it helped Spike in here."

"Spike is not a thief." Twilight murmured. Her three friends said nothing, not knowing what to say without setting her off.

"Anyway, this feather is perhaps our only clue. What can we do with it?" Rarity asked.

"Uhm, maybe we can ask when she comes back?" Fluttershy suggested. As on cue, Dash kicked the door open, fuming and grumbling.

"Those idiots had not checked the fog machine days! Somepony sneaked in and turned it at the max on for hours to let the fog pool together. That thing sure pump out some mist." The silence that greeted her immediately told her that something bad had happeded. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Spike was here. He stole a few books before leaving." Applejack said, not giving Dash a moment to say anything. "We also found this." Rarity placed the feather on the table, plain on the sight for everypony to see.

"Any ideas as to who it might belong to?"

Dash stared at the feather, cocking her head sideways as she studied it.

"Ha! Of course I do! That's Derpy's feather. I would recognize it anywhere. That idiot probably crashed into something again." Her laugh died down when Twilight walked up to her. Her new wings made her seem bigger than she actually was.

"Who is she?" Twilight asked, making Dash and the rest of the group recoil a bit at the edgy tone of their friend.

"Wow, chill Twilight. She's just the mail mare alright? She's kinda of a mess though. She always delivers the wrong letters and makes a crappy job at the weather management." Dash answered. "Why? What does she have to do with Spike?"

"We believe that Derpy was here with Spike." Rarity replied. "She may or may not have been helping him. The point is that she knows where he is, or knows something at least. Do you know where she lives?"

"Yeah, just out of town. We won'g get there with this mist though, even with the magical lights. They said that they would have this clean in twenty minutes or something like that...What are you doing?"

Twilight had begun to put the books back in place, along with the scrolls and the quills. Her lips mumbled as she mentally kept track of which books she was putting back, and which books were still to be placed on the shelves.

"Twi? You okay?" Applejack asked.

"There are four books missing."

"What...what kind of books?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight didn't answer for a few seconds.

"Important ones."

Meanwhile, far from Ponyville, the bell tower glowed once more. Inside, Snowdrop patiently waited, pacing around the cramped floor.

"Pacing won't make them get here any faster." Diamond Tiara said. Snowdrop didn't answer. Instead, she focused her hearing. After a few seconds of silence, she smiled as she heard the soft beatings of wings.

"Here they are."

Derpy and Spike arrived, the latter holding a bag over his shoulders. The added weight made Derpy tumble a little, but nothing she couldn't manage. As soon as they landed, Spike carried the bag to Snowdrop, pulling out the books one by one.

"Here you go. 'Equestrian Mind', 'Two hundred years of Canterlot', 'Advanced biological magic', 'A Glance at the Astral Plane' and last but not least..." he pulled the final the book. "'Elements of Harmony: A reference guide."

"Books? You had all this fog and distraction made just for a few books?" Diamond asked. Snowdrop grinned as she opened on of them quickly skimming through the pages.

"Yes my little Diamond. Its exactly why I did it. You see, I needed these five particular books. By the way, nice fog Derpy. Spike, thanks for the books." Both Spike and Derpy smiled happily. Snowdrop closed the book, gathering the five if them together.

"Everything is perfect. We have each other and now..." She waved the Equestrian Mind in front of them. "We have something useful in hour hooves."

"Uh...how will the book help us?" Derpy asked. Snowdrop chuckled in response.

"My dear Derpy. The books wont help us. Its their knowledge that will help us. You see, we can accomplish great things as long as we are together, but it just wont be enough." she explained. "We need some sort of edge on our side. Something that would allow us to be one step ahead. Sine the six elements are looking for Spike, it was too risky to send him into the town to fetch the books. Thats why I had the fog done."

"What do you mean by edge?" The baby dragon asked.

"We're going to change Eqeustria. All three of us. And this how we'll do it. You see, I was a scholar before. Learning was my life. Therefore, I know which kind of knowledge is best for the situation." Her briefly dulled their colors. It was too quick to be seen by her friends.

"Now then...who's up for some magic?"