Rainbow Dash was really tired, she had been flying for hours and really needed to rest. But her loyalty to her friends kept her going. She wanted them all to be able to relax, she was tired of the stress the missing yellow mare was putting them all under and if Fluttershy really was missing, nothing would stop her from finding her.

Rainbow Dash finally arrived at the entrance to the Royal Canterlot Castle and landed at the entrance. She sighed in relief as her wings finally got to take a break. Without wasting anytime she ran up to the entrance which was guarded by two guard ponies and started speaking quickly and confidently.

"I am Rainbow Dash, bearer of the element of Loyalty and the only pony to have ever performed not one, not two but three sonic rainbooms" She announced with pride. "Now let me see the princess, I have urgent business with her and it involves a missing element of harmony".

One of the guards needed no convincing, everypony knew the bearers of the Elements of harmony and that the Princess trusted them more than anypony in Equestria. He continued to open the door for her.

Without wasting another moment Rainbow Dash ran up to the princess’s throne. But instead of Celestia sitting there, it was Luna. She was a dark navy blue alicorn pony with a flowing mane that resembled a night sky.

"Huh, Where’s Celestia?" Dash gasped frantically. "I have a very important question for her."

"LUNA IS PLEASED OF YOUR VISIT, BUT KNOW OF HER WHEREABOUTS WE DO NOT!" She shouted in the royal canterlot voice. It's volume echoing off the walls of the massive exquisite looking throne room.

Rainbow Dash had to recover for a moment from the intimidating voice that always reminded her of Nightmare Moon; no matter how much she convinced herself that the villainous mare was gone forever. Rainbow Dash wiped her forehead with her hoof. "Can you tell me when you expect her back?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"WE CANNOT, SHE IS ON IMPORTANT BUSINESS, SHE IS SOMEWHERE IN CANTERLOT HOWEVER, THAT IS ALL WE KNOW!" Luna Shouted.

Refusing to let this be a wasted trip Rainbow Dash asked another question. "Do you know where Fluttershy or Rarity is? We were told they were both here."

"WE HAVE NOT SEEN THEM HERE SINCE THE CHANGELING ATTACK" She shouted in response.

"But Rarity was supposed to be here for the Royal Canterlot Fashion show" Argued Rainbow Dash.

"YOU SILLY FILLY, THE ROYAL CANTERLOT FASHION SHOW ISN'T ON FOR ANOTHER TWO MONTHS!" Luna mocked.

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked confused. "Rarity clearly told us she had to go to Canterlot for it immediately. She couldn't possibly need that much time to prepare."

"YES IT SEEMS UNLIKELY THAT SHE WOULD SHOW UP THAT EARLY AND IF RARITY WAS HERE WE WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT, SHE WOULD HAVE A PRESTIGIOUS ROOM IN THE CASTLE, AS WILL YOOOOU!" She Boomed.

Rainbow Dash was getting irritated with the over-the-top volume, the vibrations of the sound waves were even messing up her mane. "What did Twilight tell you about how you should speak to your subjects?"

"OH THAT I SHOULD!..... Oh that I should not speak so loud, is that better?" Luna responded in a sweet little voice that made her much less intimidating. "I am sorry I am still practising, it's hard to adjust to a thousand years of change in the kingdom.”

Rainbow Dash waved a hoof at her. "Its fine princess, but I really need to speak to Celestia, is there any way you can contact her.” She begged.

"Well." Luna put a hoof to her chin. "My sister has been trying to teach me to send and receive letters, but so far, I tend to send them a bit off target or they can tend to not survive the trip" She frowned.

"Okay then, please write a letter to her now, saying that Rainbow Dash is waiting here with important news.” Ordered Rainbow Dash, but then bowed her head realising she shouldn't have spoken to a princess like that.

Luna picked up a parchment and pen and wrote what Rainbow Dash asked her to.

"Also ask her if she has seen Rarity of Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash requested.

Luna scribbled away. "Okay done" she smiled. I'll try and send it now. But it is not an easy spell; I could make the parchment blow up, so please stand back". Luna calmly asked.

The cyan mare took several steps back and watched Luna struggle and scrunch her face as she tried hard to work her magic. After several minutes the parchment disappeared. The exhausted princess looked at Rainbow Dash. "Okay I hope it reached her. She has some the strongest energy in all of Equestria, so I just focused on that."

"Thank you Princess" Rainbow Dash said.

Soon, after waiting a while with no response. Rainbow Dash got restless. "Urgh! Tell you what Luna, how about you stay here and I'll go look for the Princess myself. If she responds to you, please get her to send a letter back to Spike in Ponyville about what she knows of Rarity and Fluttershy's whereabouts and could you please send a letter now back to Spike, telling him that Fluttershy and Rarity may not be here.”

"YOU HAVE MY WORD!" Boomed Luna.

Rainbow Dash flew out of the castle, her wings ready for a bit more of a workout as she started searching for Celestia.

___________________________________________________________________

Pinkie had barely been in the library for ten seconds with her eyes closed when she pointed directly at a particular point on the shelf and excitedly shouted "There it is!"

Twilight hurried over to the shelf and looked at the books there closely; none of the books in the general area were the book about messenger magic that she was looking for. "Um... Pinkie it's not here.” Twilight looked at Pinkie surprised that she wasn't bewildered by another miraculous find by Pinkie.

Pinkie opened her eyes and had another look. "Oh I'm sorry Twilight, what I meant to say was that it was here, see this gap in the middle of this mostly full shelf, it was right there.” Pinkie announced excitedly, happy that her unexplainable powers worked again.

"But it's not here Pinkie, how did you know this is where it was and how do you know it's not somewhere in the piles of books lying around?" Twilight asked confused.

"Oh Twilight" Pinkie giggled, "I know where every book in the library is, but only if it's in the library, I’ve known the book to be here and I always knew where it was. When I think back I’m about 89.57% certain that the book was taken from this library about 2 weeks, 3 days ago at between 5 am to 10 am.”

Twilight looked open mouthed at Pinkie Pie; once again she was astounded by Pinkie's unexplained knowledge. Normally she would have considered it to scientifically impossible, but she had learned over 2 years in Ponyville to never underestimate her pink maned friend.

"Twilight, do ya remember who was in tha library at that time?" Applejack asked.

"Um no, what was the date then, maybe I can check my record of in or outgoing books, Spike!" She called. "Get my calendar."

"Sure Twilight" Spike went and got her calendar from where she normally kept it in her room. Spike had always noticed that as organised as Twilight was she often forgot the location of many of her basic and most used items, such as her calendar or check lists. When he got back she counted exactly the number of days ago that Pinkie Pie mentioned.

"Okay so this was the date, she pointed her hoof at the calendar, can we please get our records on that day Spike.”

"Sure Twilight.” But as he went to retrieve the records he mumbled under his breath. "Jeez Twilight, you could do something yourself now and then.” Spike got the folder of in and outgoing books and handed it to Twilight.

"Thank you Spike, now let's see..... according to this, on that date. The book was not booked out; it was reported missing, by you Spike when you did a re-shelving the next day."

"Stolen?" Applejack Speculated.

"That would seem to be the case" Twilight replied, "Provided Pinkie Pie is right.”

"Awww" Pinkie pouted, "of course I’m right."

Twilight didn't argue. She had learned to just accept what Pinkie said, despite how little sense it made.

"Well what are y'all gonna do now?" Applejack asked.

Twilight sighed. "I need to find out who stole this book from me."

"How're gonna do that sugarcube?" Applejack said skeptically.

"I don't know.... I'm so tired" Twilight complained.

"I was thinkin' ya'll should have a good sleep, Rainbow Dash should be back in tha mornin." Applejack suggested.

"Urgh, time spent sleeping is time I could be doing something." Twilight replied angrily; cursing her stupid need to sleep.

Applejack put a hoof on Twilight’s back and stroked her. "Ya'll won't be help to anypony if ya'll too tired ta think".

"I think I need a Pinkie nap too" The pink pony nodded at them both. "My eyes are getting super heavy.”

"Fine; how about you both stay here tonight so we can all be ready to get back to work bright and early in the morning." Twilight submitted.

It was still a restless night for all of them, but they eventually managed to doze off for a few hours.

Twilight woke up, quite a bit earlier than she hoped to a sound that excited her.

Spike burped loudly as a larger than normal and scary green flame erupted from him. A mostly burnt letter appeared and dropped in front of him smoking and on fire. The green dragon quickly stomped the flames out and picked up the damaged letter. Luckily, most of it was still readable and the missing words could be easily figured out.

"This letter is from Luna" Spike announced in surprise.

Twilight sprung out of bed. "Quick lets wake up the others".

When all three ponies were standing to attention, Spike began reading the parchment.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, my sister's most faithful student.

We just wanted to let know that Rainbow Dash came to the castle today and told us that Fluttershy was missing and that apparently Rarity was here for the Royal Canterlot Fashion Show. I regret to inform you that the show is not happening for another 2 months and that we have no knowledge of either of them being in Canterlot. We also do not know the whereabouts of my sister. I am not very good at sending these letters, so I will send a few in case you fail to receive them.

- Forever grateful for being freed from Nightmare Moon, signed Princess Luna."

"Darn, this is unfortunate, it looks like Fluttershy might still be unsafe" Applejack commented, her head hung low.

Pinkie too had trouble hiding her frown "Awww, that's so sad...."

Twilight stomped her hoof in frustration. "Well I think this is grounds for putting a town wide search back on, I'm going to speak to Mayor Mare right now. Spike I want you to send a letter to both Luna and Celestia if you can about the situation so far, let her know we got her message.”

Spike nodded just before another belch conjured another flame that nearly burnt Pinkie's face off.

"Ow ow ow hot hot hot" Pinkie panicked.

It revealed another parchment, but this one was complete charcoal.

"So that, that doesn't happen" Twilight continued. "Move out girls" She commanded.

The three ponies set out to start searching the town and Pinkie started by knocking on every door to ask if anypony had seen Redblood. Applejack headed back to her farm to see if her family had turned up anything useful.