Pinkie Pie was worried. She was about to say four words. Four words which were so unfathomably nonsensical and ridiculous that if said aloud, they might unravel the fabric of space, time, and reality itself. But they had to be said.

“Rainbow Dash, I’m bored.”

“Hello, Bored. I’m Rainbow Dash. Nice to meet you.” RD joked, flipping another page in her latest “Daring Doo” novel. Then it sunk in. “Wait, what?” Dash cried, sitting upright abruptly, flipping the book upside down. “You’re making a joke, right? The great and hyper Pinkamena Diane Pie, bored?! I thought that was physically impossible for you!”

“Well, it’s true.” Pinkie said, frowning.

“oh celestia, you're frowning! I thought your jaw was permanently locked into a smiling position!” Dash cried, zooming into the air. She promptly hooked her arms under Pinkie’s and picked her up. “c’mon! we gotta get you to the hospital, NOW!”

“Dashie! I’m fine.” Pinkie said, smiling a little as she wriggled out of Dash’s grip. “It’s just… well, I really wish something would happen.”

“I could ring  up Discord, he could stir up some trouble.” Dash suggested.

“No, no, he just dropped by last week. I’d hate to bother him.” Pinkie sighed, plopping back down into her chair.

The duo were sitting in Twilight’s library. Or at least, what had used to be Twilight’s library. Now it was back to just being “the library”, as it had been before Twilight had arrived. It was rather sad, really. No constant sorting and rearranging of books by Twilight and her OCD. No Spike running around, pestering people or doing things for Rarity.

One year, eighty-seven days, and fourteen hours ago, Twilight had gotten her wings and become an Alicorn. She and the other five had gone to Canterlot, and had a big party, and a big coronation ceremony, and afterwards, the five went back to Ponyville, leaving Twilight and Spike in Canterlot.

And after that?

NOTHING.

Twilight seemed to have been a catalyst for the town’s crazy happenstances. In the time she had been there, NMM, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Trixie, Gilda, had made their appearance, as well as a bunch of other crazy things. In fact, it seemed like something happened every week. But before that, and after that, there was absolutely nothing of interest.

Before Twilight had come, Ponyville was – there was no other way to put it – boring. No giant Cerberuses had come to chew on buildings. No ursa minors (or majors) had come lumbering out of the forest to ravage the town. No parasprite swarms had devoured every structure within ten miles.

And now that Twilight was gone, Ponyville was back to being boring. Even the mighty party pony couldn’t liven the entire town up twenty-four-seven.

And so, life had become more and more dull for poor Pinkie, until we get to where we are today.

“We could mess up Rarity’s dresses, and freak her out.”

“that’s kinda mean.”

“We can sneak pepper into peoples’ food.”

“they caught on to that the fourth time we tried it.”

“We could change the colors of Fluttershy’s flowers.”

“Dash, that’s just sick, and way too harsh. It’d traumatize Flutters!”

As the two bickered about what pranks to pull, the fireplace in the Library suddenly flared up with flames, with no apparent trigger.

The two ponies were silenced as they watched the flame turn green, then spit out a scroll, then disappear.

“…I didn’t do that.” Pinkie said, walking over to the scroll.

“It looked like Spike’s flame.” Rainbow said, following.

The scroll was marked with the Celestian Seal, a special marking to be used only on letters going to or coming from Celestia. Pinkie knew this because Twilight always made sure to tie one onto her scrolls before she had Spike send them.

In other words, the scroll was undoubtedly from Celestia.

Pinkie opened it, and together with Rainbow Dash, they read the scroll.

To the elements of harmony,

i hope you are Well. I would Like you come to canterlot Immediately. there is an urGent matter wHich requires your immediaTe attentIon. I am Sending a letter to every hoMe In ponyville, in caSe you are not at your homeS. please arrive IN canterlot once you have all Gathered together.

Hope yoU aRe Relaxing peacefullY,

celestia

There was a short pause, then Pinkie said, “well that was a weird letter.”

“Yeah, look at all those weird capitalizations.” Rainbow said. “Even though she capitalized random letters, she didn’t capitalize some of the sentences, or even her name.”

“Yeah, I mean, ‘W, I, L, I…’”

“You forgot the ‘T’ at the very beginning.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie said. “seriously, it’s so random! ‘T, W, I, L, I, G…. H…’”

The two looked at each other, the letters clicking together in their minds. “together, the first capitalizations of this letter spell ‘Twilight’.” Rainbow said.

“No duh! Princess Celestia didn’t lose her grammar skills, she was sending us a code!” Pinkie said, her eyes widening.

Together, the friends scanned the capitalized letters with renewed vigor.

“…….Twilight…..is……” Pinkie said slowly as she translated the letters.

“missing.” Rainbow finished, her eyes also growing wide as she stared at Pinkie.

Together, the capitalized letters in the scroll read,

TWILIGHT IS MISSING.

HURRY.

Rainbow grew confused. “Twilight is missing?! What the hay does that mean.”

“It means she’s missing, Dashie!” Pinkie said, shaking her friend by the shoulders like she was flatlining. Pinkie had genuine fear on her face, and she whipped her head around, like Twilight was in the room with them. Then she turned back to Dash. “Dashie, go and gather the other elements. I’m going to use my secret shortcut to get to Princess Celestia. I just hope it works this time…”

“Secret Shor- Pinkie, wait!” Rainbow said, staring at Pinkie as she suddenly ran away.

Without another word, Pinkie leaped high into the air…