Twilight yawned as she opened her eyes, and stretched out her hooves. She let her legs fall out spread eagle on the bed, she looked over expecting to see Don’s fuzzy body, but instead, she saw the bed was empty. She immediately sat up and rubbed her eyes, she yawned once more and said “Don… (Yawn)...You there Don”.

Twilight then got out of bed and walked over to her mirror. She saw she once again had her usual bed-head mane, and immediately levitated her hair brush up to her and brushed it back to its usual style. After she was satisfied that it looked decent, she walked down stairs and found Spike messing with a small pile of books, the moment he saw her he jumped up in surprise “ohh Twilight, I didn’t expect you to be up yet”

Spike quickly kicked one of the books he had, under a small mattress he had laid out on the floor. Twilight raised an eyebrow “umm yeah, and I didn’t expect you to be going through the library in the morning, what are you doing Spike” Spike stuttered to think of a clever response, his solution was unimpressive “what, me, I’m…I’m just, ya know…brushing up on some reading”.

Twilight didn’t believe that for a second “uh huh, well ok then...so how did it go with Rarity”.

Spike’s face became a perfect red when she asked, she could tell he didn’t want to talk “oh you know, it went fine, fine, umm, sooooo…hey! You know you should go see what Don is doing”

Twilight looked around as though she expected to actually see him in the book piles “yeah that’s actually what I was wondering, do you know where he is”.

Spike shook his head “He came down early and said he had some things to do before you got up, then he left” Twilight walked around Spike towards the kitchen and said “Can you help me make some breakfast Spike” Spike nodded, happy for any excuse to end this conversation and darted into the kitchen. The moment he was gone, Twilight flew the book to her that he had kicked away. As she opened it in front of her, she saw that the title read, "Ponyville Party Planners, by Pinkamena Diane Pie" Twilight set the book down after reading the title. “That’s strange” she thought “why would Spike need a book on throwing a party”.

She dismissed her thoughts and returned the book to the floor, deciding that it was better to just leave it be and go back to finding Don. She told Spike that she was leaving and to eat without her, then she stepped out and began her march towards the market. She had not made it more than a couple of steps before Applejack came running from down the street, straight over to her. AJ stopped in front of her out of breath and clearly on a mission “hey Twilight, ya’ll haven’t seen a large hay stack floating around have ya”

Twilight shook her head “why would there be a hay stack floating through Ponyville”

Applejack was still trying to catch her breath and huffed “Somepony stole a good amount of hay from our barn at Sweet Appleacres. I was in the barn this morning and out of nowhere large chunks of hay got all magic-like and just floated right out and down the road here”

Twilight was shocked “Wow, who would want to steal your hay, that’s really odd. Don’t worry though Applejack, I’ll help you find it, and as soon as I find Don, I’m sure he will help too”

Applejack nodded “much obliged Twilight, thanks”. She nodded and they took off down the road AJ had pointed at.

Once they were out of the market area, Applejack noticed a trail of hay that lead towards where Fluttershy’s animals usually were. After they followed the trail for about ten minutes, they came to a large bush, and on the other side, they could here somepony rustling around on the path. AJ motioned for Twilight to move up quietly “our thief must be right around here”

Twilight nodded “on three we jump him, ready…one…two...three!” they both jumped out of the bush, and as they did, Twilight collided head first into Don.

They both fell over, rubbing their heads “ouch, ohh, this is not the way I pictured seeing you this morning Twilight” Twilight just held her head while AJ looked around Don.

Don noticed Applejack’s suspicious looks “you looking for something AJ” she slowly nodded her head “Anypony else come through this way with a large amount of hay”

Don shook his head “nope, just me, I just got a reasonable amount from the market and carried it back here, see” he wiped his fur and tons of little hay needles fell off him in the grass.

AJ eyed him oddly and said “well, ok then, I guess for now I’ll just have to wait until that thief tries again, and then I’ll pound him like dough”.

Don shuddered at the thought and helped Twilight steady herself “listen Twilight, I hate to leave you so quickly, but I’ve gotta go get some more stuff”

“more stuff for what?”

Don yelled back to her as he ran back towards the market “stuff for your birthday silly filly”

Twilight shook her head, she had completely forgotten, it was her birthday in a week, with all the excitement recently, she had forgotten. Once Don disappeared around the trail, Applejack decided she should head home and fix the wrecked barn, but before she left, she turned to Twilight

“it’s weird; the track of hay ends here, and then Don comes out of the bushes covered in hay. That just don’t sit right with me Twilight”

Twilight didn’t even think, she jumped to Don’s defense “hey now Applejack, don’t worry, I can vouch for Don, he would never steal from anypony”

Applejack nodded “I know that, but it’s still suspicious, oh well, Ah gotta get back to it”

“see ya AJ”. Twilight watched Applejack walk off, she decided to head over to Fluttershy’s place while she was in the area, and stop in for a visit before going back home.
Twilight reached Fluttershy’s house within ten minutes, but when she approached the door, she was surprised to see Rarity, not Fluttershy leaving the house. Twilight quickly ran up to greet her “hey Rarity, what are you doing here”

Rarity jumped, clearly having not seen her and said “oh my, Twilight you scared me there” she cleared her throat “well you see I’m here to ask for Fluttershy’s help with locating some gems, many of mine have recently disappeared. At first I was very frantic about the whole thing, but then I realized I could easily find some more up at the rocks, so now I’m just waiting for her...oh here she is now!”

Fluttershy stepped out of her cottage “oh I’m sorry, I’m not interrupting anything am I?” Twilight shook her head. Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief “oh good, well, are you ready Rarity”

Rarity nodded and they turned to leave, but before they could Twilight said “Wait Rarity, what did happen to your jewels?”

“oh right, yes, well I saw someone jump out of the window the night they disappeared, but that’s it, I figured that whomever that was, took them. I would try and find them, but it’s easier for me to just find new ones, since I have to keep busy making you you’re birthday present” Twilight thanked Rarity and watched them trot off towards her usual jewel hunting spot.

Twilight started to head back home, she took a shortcut through the forest behind Fluttershy’s cottage, and was about halfway home, when she spotted Don walking on all fours through the forest. As if that didn’t look irregular enough, she saw him carrying a shiny blue jewel in his tail that looked oddly familiar to anypony who knew Rarity. Twilight watched him for a moment; he crawled around the bottom of a tree, and started to climb up it when Twilight shouted to him

“HEY DON!”

He was so surprised that his tail straightened and the jewel fell towards the ground. Don dove from the tree and caught it inches before it hit, as he got up and dusted himself off he said “geez Twilight, don’t scare me like that, I almost dropped this”

Twilight was shocked, this was becoming weird, seeing Don right after that, too coincidental “what are you doing out here Don, and where in Equestria did you get that jewel, its massive?!”

Don rubbed the back of his head “hehehe, sorry Twilight, can’t tell you what I’m doing, that would ruin the surprise, as for where I got this beauty" (he held it up in his hand) "I got it from Zecora, she said I could borrow some of her jewels for awhile”

Twilight raised her eyebrows “that’s awfully nice of her”

Don could see something like suspicion on her face, he frowned “something the matter, Twilight?”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably “well Rarity said some of her jewels were stolen by somepony, and I just ran into you out here with a giant jewel”.

Don felt a little hurt despite the fitting coincidence “Twilight…you don’t think I stole her jewels do you”.

Twilight didn’t want to lie to Don, she did trust him, but it was pretty odd these two coincidences happening so fast, and so quickly after each other

“I don’t want to think that, but I don’t know”

Don felt his pride and his feelings hurt a bit, but managed to fake a convincing smile “just trust me Twilight, I didn’t take them”.

Twilight felt reassured hearing him deny it, she was about to thank him, but he had already turned around and was heading back up the tree “I’ll see you later Twilight” he hopped off through the trees before she could call him. Twilight noticed a difference in the way he had left, it was small, but he had never turned his back to her before, ever “oh no, I think I might have hurt him a little there, I’ll make it up to him later, I promise” she assured herself as she turned and headed for home.

This time Twilight actually managed to make it to her home before she ran into anypony else. She was about to walk inside, but before she could, Rainbow Dash came flying to a halt in front of her and huffed out of breath “you….will, not…(huff, huff) believe what I just saw! I was on my way to see Pinkie Pie, when I see Don, coming down the street with two buckets of paint and Pinkie’s Party Cannon. I know that doesn’t seem odd, but I overheard Pinkie talking to a pony after he left and she said he just took it and left”.

As though timing could not have been worse, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy took that moment to come to her door as well. Applejack strode up and, having overheard Rainbow Dash, said “I knew something didn’t smell right about this, I went back to the barn, and guess what I found, brown fur, that matches Don’s coat all over the remaining hay stacks”

Fluttershy spoke next and said “oh dear, me and Rarity found brown fur in her house too, but we never thought it could be Don” Rainbow Dash flew over and said “I hate to say Twilight, but it looks like Don IS the one hoarding everypony’s stuff. Why would he do that though? We need to get him here so we can clear this up”.

Twilight didn’t know how to react, but all this evidence did point towards Don. She didn’t doubt him at all, but this did present an opportunity for her, she hadn’t wanted to do it, but it seemed the best way to prevent both of the Princess’s warnings to her. She knew she would have to tread carefully, this plan could very easily backfire, she would have to quickly think of a way to resolve it, but it was the best solution at the moment.

Twilight returned her thoughts to the present, It seemed as though the situation with her friends could have gotten worse, and it did, of course! At that moment Don came rolling out of the bushes, trying to lick paint off his fur. Twilight took this moment to cast her spell on them, she knew none of them would notice, they were too focused on Don, but she watched it strike them all!

Don looked up when he noticed most of his friends looking at him, he got up “sorry girls, I’ve been trying to get this paint off me and…”

Applejack suddenly strode up to him, with odd amount of anger behind her voice saying “you mean the paint you STOLE from Pinkie?”

“what the hay...I didn’t steal-”

Rainbow Dash cut him off with the same unatural anger behind her “Or is that the new paint from Applejack’s barn, and it just rubbed off on you when you stole her hay?!”

“are you both craz-”

Even Fluttershy seemed convinced at this point, but her anger hardly seemed to show “I’m sorry Don, but your fur is all over Rarity’s house, and she said she saw you at night take the jewels from her house, sorry”

Don turned to Twilight in desperation “you can’t tell me you believe this craziness too”.

Twilight refused to look at him, she couldn’t, she felt too horrible for what she was doing “I don’t know what to believe, but this all points to you”

Don saw small tears running down her face, but had no idea why she was truly crying, he started to speak, but Rainbow cut him off again, her anger still rising “We all treated you like one of us, and this is how you repay us, by stealing our stuff”.

Don’s eyes widened as Rainbow Dash delivered the final blow “come on girls let’s go”.

Without another word, all of them dispersed and left him and Twilight standing there alone. Twilight turned her head, just slightly enough to watch her spell on all of them end, they all shook their heads slightly as though they each had a small headache, now she had to finish the job.

Don stepped forward to defend himself “Twilight I didn’t-”

“Just go!”

Her words cut straight through him like a knife, before he could say anything, she turned and shut the door on him.

Author's Notes:

Soooooo yeah, some minor Twilight manipulation here
Don's probably doing a "wtf" face right now