The next morning, Twilight headed for Sweet Apple Acres, ready for a torrent of protest from Applejack. She was willing to put up with it. She knew that she had to speak with Apple Bloom again.

“You know Ah don’t like it when you come over here to stress my sister.” Applejack complained.

“I’m sorry Applejack, but this is too important to worry about staying within your comfort zone.” Twilight retorted.

“Oh, so it’s like that, huh?” Applejack said, stomping her hooves in protest. “You think just because you got special permission and whatnot you can come in here and make the house yours? Ah’m telling you Twilight, when this is over, we’re going to need to have a serious talk.”

“I’d love to. When this is over, of course.” Twilight replied with finality as she approached the glass stable.

“Hi Twilight!” Apple Bloom greeted Twilight almost cheerfully. Then she noticed a small saddlebag draped across Twilight’s side. “What’s in the bag?”

“Apple Bloom, I need you to help me find where Pinkie is.”

“Really? Well, show me what’s in the bag then.”

Twilight pulled out a map of Manehattan, which was covered in dots, and slid it through to Apple Bloom. “I need you to use this to help me find her.” Twilight said.

Apple Bloom stared blankly at the map for a moment, then turned back to Twilight. “Tell me Twilight, are you afraid of losing somepony else? Pinkie told me all about it, about the, uh, abso- absolution in a pony’s eyes as they’re about to die. But she lied to me about one thing: That she could actually care for anypony. She said that Ah was her favorite, that Ah was too good for cupcakes… But she forgot about me.”

Twilight tried to think of something to say, but she could only let her mouth hang open dumbly. She stared into Apple Bloom’s eyes, seeing the tortured soul trapped inside.

Apple Bloom started again. “Ah’ll help you Twilight, but promise me this: You find the real thing that keeps pulling you along, the real reason you haven’t just passed this on to somepony else.”

With that, Twilight got up and left. She thought about what Apple Bloom said; she knew why she was doing this, but she couldn’t express it.

Twilight spent that entire night with her spare map, trying to figure out where Pinkie was hiding, but all the disappearances seemed random. She eventually got an idea that Pinkie could have hidden at the rock farm by the town, the one she had grown up on. Twilight didn’t have a search warrant, however, so she decided to continue her investigation in Manehattan. She sent a letter to Princess Celestia outlining her suspicions, and quickly got her reply:

My faithful student, Twilight:

We have had the same suspicions, and are now on route to capture Pinkie Pie. I guess great minds think alike. Hope to see you soon.

Soon after Twilight had left to check on the first house on her list, Fluttershy passed by the library and saw a small stack of papers on Twilight’s front porch. She decided glanced over them, and saw that they were some of Twilight’s case files. ‘Why would she leave them here?’ Fluttershy wondered as she started sifting through them. She stopped at the map. ‘Twilight, doesn’t this random assortment of disappearances seem a bit strange?’ She thought about it as she scanned the map. She froze when she noticed that each disappearance was along one route that lead back to one house in Manehattan.

“Oh, no.” She said aloud.