A train is speeding towards its destination of Canterlot, the royal castle in its sights. Three stops with three different passengers coming from each. The ponies all sitting looking out the windows of the cabin wondering what could be waiting for them when they get there. Its early morning, Celestia's sun shining through a blanket of light fog over the horizon, a wide range of wild flowers waving in the wind on the hills outside the trains viewing ports.

None of the passengers know the others; just the few hours of the train ride for Canterlot and a few spoken words have been exchanged. A mysterious letter from the Princesses brought them to the train stations at their towns.

One of them, a soft turquoise unicorn with yellow and blue stripped mane, is making sure that they look good enough to meet with the princess and her guards. Brushing her hair back and forth, while letting out little excited murmurs to herself. Her mane and tail nicely cut and well kept so as to show to unique colors. Her cutie mark shows up nicely, a rainbow shooting out of a dull prism shape.

"What is that you are saying again, Lucky?" A light cyan Pegasus with dark blue hair lightly mentions to her new friend. "If you are that worried we will all go in with you, if you would like that is…" Everyone on the train has noticed by now how her cutie mark seems to be two different symbols. A cloud and rain, or perhaps a cloud raining? Whatever it is it matches the colors of the pony.

"Oh, Rain dancer, all three of us can go in! I am sure no one would mind, we were all called over anyways."

"It's just a darned shame we have to wait so long to get there" complains the third of the pony friends. A light orange earth pony with dark yellow hair kept in braided pony tails. Apparently some sort of farmer or seller of peaches. Her cutie mark a couple of peach slices laying skin down.

"What if we play some sort of game means Peach is so bored?" Rain sticks her tongue out a little towards the earth pony as she looks out the windows again.

"We have already exhausted all of our game ideas… This train ride is a long one for sure," The Earth pony complains as her orange eyes stare blankly out the windows of the train into the landscape, "and the windows aren't giving us anything to do either."

"We'll, you're not exactly helping the situation either;" smirks Lucky Dream "complaining isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Sorry, it's just that, well. This train ride is getting to me. I never usually sit still for this long."

"Oh that's alright." As the blue Pegasus flutters over to the other two "A nap surely spends some of the extra time?"

"Oh, that's why you were so quiet?" The other two almost say in unison.

The pony's face turns a bright red color and she tries to find a place to hide. As she turns around she is flung backwards. A sudden screeching sound fills the cabin and the train grinds to a stop. The three ponies yell fair well to the drivers and jump off to meet their destiny hoof and face first, the wonders of Canterlot striking them with awes. The amazing shops and destinations, the wonderful outfits every pony is wearing, it was all so much different than their hometowns. But the real reason why they were there was a shocking letter they had received from royalty, describing in sloppy handwriting "Come to the palace, there is not much time" without any other description the ponies have realized that something is not right. All three had received the same letter without any differentiation between them.

Upon arrival at the palace they are greeted by a very large muscular all white royal guard. Something they would normally view as "normal" for the royal guard. But this one seems a bit… off.

"Why hello there, we are here to see the princess about this letter" explains Lucky as she gives the letter to the guard. The guard looks over the letter but instead of letting them inside he leads them off to a different location inside the castles winding hallways. The last time Lucky was here she was let in herself, something that clearly is bothering the three.

"I am terribly sorry, but the princess is away right now, she has left me with the duty of telling you what your assignment is."

"Wait, what do you mean away?" Question the ponies

"Royal business does not need to be questioned by outsiders like you three, no matter what it may have been. I am sure the princess can handle it herself."

"What do you mean outsiders? We have been here many times, each we have never been called 'outsiders' or any other name."

"With everything that is going on we have to be careful, sorry if I did not recognize you. I am a bit… new here…"

"Well, is Luna here by any chance? And what may we call you for the time being?"

"I am lord Ornament. And sorry but whatever is going on Luna has left also, it must have been very important for both of them to leave."

Lucky leans in towards her friends as the guard turns a corner, following him like before but a bit slower as to keep a safe distance, "I have never heard a guard call them self 'lord' before have you?"

"Nope, and I think I see where you are going with this…"

The guard glances back at the three then opens a pair of doors leading into a study area, using a large key ring to access the room. Once inside he pulls a book off one of the many shelves and places it on the table in the middle of the room.

"Ok then, so what is this assignment that we three have been tasked with. We thought it was a disaster or something by the way it was written. We all received the same exact letter, which is weird because every pony usually gets different letters from the Princess."

"There is a small village outside of Canterlot named Verre that has been suffering from some plague that is need of some help," The guard points next to the book on the table onto a map in the middle. On the other side of a small mountain range next to Canterlot is a small town named Verre exactly like the guard said. "The ponies of this village are unable to gain their cutie marks, no matter the age. Young fillies to the elderly, none of them are able to gain their cutie marks. None of our sources have been able to find a cure but it seems to be non contagious so we assume it is safe to find help in other ways. We understand that the princess has been getting help from you three on smaller assignments and were wondering if you would be interested in lending a hoof in this mystery?"

"Wait a minute, how do you know this problem won't affect us if we stay too long?"

As the guard begins to pack the map and book into a saddle bag he begins to explain vaguely on a matter of diseases, something guards such as himself probably wouldn't know much about, "Well, if this problem was to affect any pony else that stayed there. Then some of us that were stationed there would have become ill or something I presume?"

"I guess if you say so…"

"I will include a sort of 'guide' to the town's people. So you know who to talk to first and their names. Anyways, would you three be interested in helping?" The guard tosses the saddle bag to lucky before obtaining the answer to his own question.

The three ponies look at each other with awe struck and confused glances. All three wondering what they could possibly do in this situation that the royal guard couldn't but Lucky lets out a squeak "yes, we would be honored" and before they knew it they were off to the cutie mark-less village on the same train in which they had just departed.

"Oh girls, what have we gotten ourselves into this time..."

"Come on, Lucky, it will be fine. We will be able to figure out something. And if not, then at least we tried to."

"Ya, like Peach said, look at the bright side! We can't just leave some ponies in need alone! Oh I can't wait to meet all the new ponies, I hope they are nice," an excited Rain Dancer starts prancing and bouncing around the cabin of the train.

"Hold on there, I hope they are nice also, but remember that they are all very depressed about this whole thing and that we are there to help them before anything else," As the unicorn magically picks up a book given to her by the royal guard on plagues and cutie mark related illnesses, "How would you feel if some group of cheerful students came in and acted like everything was a game? But it is a good idea to get friends there and a good idea of the place. I mean, if the royal guard couldn't solve this problem, what makes them think we could?"

"Although we aren't acting like this is a game," Lucky continues, "I think you all get my point. We don't want to make any pony angry right away."

As the hours pass by on the train the ponies become sleepy and end up sleeping. By morning they wake and they have nearly arrived in the town. A rather dreary town to say the least, but a town it is. Once again the royal guard seems a bit suspicious in this whole ordeal, what happened to the town being "close to Canterlot" according to the map?

The three ponies start on their mission, their starting point to find out what is going on and to find the source of the "plague". They have decided that if this is not contagious, then it may not be a disease at all, but a spell or curse of some sort. So they start with the hint the royal guard Ornament gave them, Honey Darling, kind of the town mayor of sorts. She knows every pony and loves every pony.

On the way walking to Honey Darling's home they take in the scenery of this new town. Rather depressing. Very empty of pony life, a few here and there but it seems that almost every pony has gone missing or something.

Other than the homes of the ponies still in the town and the school, the town is a ghost town with broken down buildings. Windows with glass replaced with boards. Grass turning brown and dying, potted plants and flowers are dead. The empty houses are mostly abandoned by every pony else. The main structure of the house is surprisingly well kept though; it's just the finishing touches that need finished. But none-the-less the houses make the whole place look dreary and uninhabitable.

"Hello! Any pony home!" Yells the multicolored Unicorn into the seemingly empty home of Honey Darling, from around the back of the house a honey colored pony with well kept brown mane and tail comes from the back with a basket of strawberries freshly picked.

"Welcome to Verre! Sorry to keep you waiting, I assume you three are the ones from Canterlot?"

"Yes we are, nice to meet you." Echo the three ponies.

"We were just wondering if you had any idea of anyone who would be able to see around this area. We were thinking that perhaps the problem every pony is having may be more of a magic problem instead of a biological one." Questions Lucky

"Hmm, perhaps a few Pegasi would do? I know just the group, the weather team Mist Rider and Thunder Dash, and they should be over by the group of clouds somewhere. It's hard to miss them no matter where they are."

Off to the clouds the group goes in search of two ponies flying in the skies. And was Honey Darling right, two Pegasus flying at high speeds in the clouds could be seen from across town. White and yellow streaks like lightning bolts through the sky lighting up their paths shooting wherever they wanted.

Mist Rider was white and cyan, the commander of the weather team. He had noticed nothing unusual about the country sides or even in town. No nature changes or magical changes to be seen. And the other blue and yellow named Thunder Dash. Neither of them had noticed anything unusual within the town area. Except for a weird fog that has plagued the town for years now, more like a shadow that one cannot pass. A starting point none the less, but not enough to discover anything. The fog could cover the whole town, so a cause of it could be anywhere. But maybe the workers of thee town could shed some light on the issue, perhaps one of their construction sites caused this?

The three paid the two elderly workers a visit. The brawny brothers, covered in dust and spazzing into coughing fits every once and a while. They have nearly built this town, now the first to come and settle down and the ones to help build, along with plan, the newest buildings. For now, during this plague they have been suffering the brothers have been keeping the abandoned buildings from collapsing. The large number of the houses keeps the two from painting and finishing any of the homes off though. But once again, they don't have any ideas as to why no one had gained their cutie marks, or as to why the strange fog is coming every day.

But Honey Darling had another idea, if magic was the problem, then the town Mage was the one to seek out. To Dream Dancer next the ponies went. A mysterious tent was we're she was found during the day.

"Hello Dancer?" Peach asked to a flap of a door on the tent

"Come inside, I am here" a welcoming voice replied to the three ponies outside. And they gratefully walked inside the tent.

"So, uh, we were wondering if you knew or sensed anything unusual about the magic of or around the land here that could have anything to do with every pony's cutie marks not developing. We understand that you are the town Mage." Asked the gleeful unicorn, probably wanting to get some insight from another magic user, "or even on this strange fog that we are hearing about."

"I wish it was that easy, but something seems to be blocking any sensory magic in certain areas outside the town. But I am sorry to say that I cannot pinpoint the exact location." The unicorn shakes her head in disapproval at her own lack of answers "I wish I could solve this issue like all the others this town faced"

"This town has faced other issues? Like what?" The rain Pegasus asked

"Well, a while back a few strange black pony like things flew past us. They never caused any trouble but a few... Misfortunes came shortly afterwards. A mysterious fog covers the forest every night and the cave outside the town. Along with a few of our people vanished and never returned. A week or so before they vanished they went insane and started mumbling and talking to themselves, a few days later they started twitching, then after that they started yelling out. It simply got worse after that until one night we woke up and they were gone." The unicorn cringes at the thought of what may have happened to them.

"Wow, sounds like this is more than the royal guards made it out to be..."

On the way back to Honey Darling's house the three ponies find three younger fillies fighting with what they think to be a school bully. But once they walk towards them the school bully runs off. The three fillies left look strangely familiar, wearing capes, one a green and red puffy looking unicorn. One a pink with purple pig tailed hair earth pony, and the last an all red Pegasus.

"Have you three noticed anything unusual happening around these parts of town?" Ask Lucky thinking that maybe children would be keener of noticing things adults would leave out, partially just not wanting to leave anyone out.

"You mean other than that weird orange bully?" The red Pegasus lets out a short come back and the rest of the fillies giggle.

"Let me handle this Lucky, I think I know what they are after. There was a similar group in the town I came from." as Rain Dancer winks at Lucky and Peach. She leans towards the three fillies "This is very important if you ever want you cutie marks, we want to help everyone in town gain theirs. Do you know of anything weird or scary happening near town or anything?"

The three fillies look at each other and then back and rain, with a quick glance back and forth they all three yell "The cave! There were weird voices coming out of it the last few months!"

"Thank you so much you three, we will make sure to check it out and tell every pony what happens."

The three children run off yelling "Cutie Mark Crusaders Northern Branch" or something of the like and the three friends re-embark on their mission with a few short giggles.