Big Macintosh, usually a rather mild pony, was not happy. There was a long list of things that contributed towards his current bad mood, and almost all of them had started with that accursed leaflet. At first Big Macintosh hadn't believed it, since it was almost certainly a lie. It was incredibly unlikely that Gabby could have found out about such a well kept secret if what she claimed was true. However, it had raised enough questions in his mind that he decided to take the matter up with Granny Smith.

She had confirmed it, shattering Big Macintosh's image of his sister forever. What followed had been a fight.

Applejack wasn't on the farm anymore. She had decided after their first encounter that it would be best if she stayed in town for a few days. Big Macintosh couldn't blame her, but now that his head was clear, it was obvious that leaving was the wrong thing to do. She shouldn't distance herself from her family, even if it hurt both her, and him.

Big Macintosh grit his teeth as he recalled some of the things he had said to her. He regretted every single one of them. Hindsight was a bitter beast.

Work had been harder without her the next day, but it had been manageable. What really made a difference was the empty seat at the table where she would usually eat, and the painful silences that Applejack would usually fill up with stories about her friends.

Macintosh was expecting a similar experience today: hard work only worsened by the shipment of apples he'd have to deliver to the town hall for some sort of charity event, and the absence of their best farmhoof.

His ears twitched as he detected the soft sound of hoofsteps, distracting him from his somber thoughts. He craned his neck to see the road clearly, his already large frame giving him a satisfactory view on the lone pony that was trotting towards the farm. It wasn't hard to mistake the orange coat and straw mane for any other pony, even if she had left her hat at home.

Macintosh narrowed his eyes. There was something else, as well... something that was hard to see, hidden in the trees.

He knew that Applejack would be looking for Applebloom, no doubt to try patching things up like last time. He'd best leave that hornet's nest well alone, and speak with Applebloom on his own later. She'd have to forgive her sister eventually, but he was aware that their own bond of trust had been far stronger than his own with his sister, despite their closeness.

He decided to go after whatever was hiding in the trees instead: it could be a thief, or somepony concerned with Applejack. Macintosh had a hunch that it was the latter.

Getting closer to the tree in question only confirmed his suspicions: after all, he had seen the pony in question in his trees a fair bit, so it wasn't an unfamiliar sight. Rainbow Dash finally noticed the taciturn stallion watching her, and waved.

"Uh... hi." she said, realizing how suspicious she looked. "Um... me and the girls just wanted to make sure she was doing okay, so..."

"Eeyup." he replied, ever a pony of few words. He turned his head back towards the farm. Applejack had been accosted by her furious younger sister, and the two were now in a heated argument. Not much different from last time.

"Man. Looks like her and Applebloom still haven't made up, yet." Rainbow commented, observing the scene from afar. Big Macintosh was hardly surprised: even now, he still resented his sister for hiding her secret for so long. Not to mention, Applebloom was incredibly sad about never getting to know her parents, something Big Macintosh had at least been able to do. Applebloom just didn't understand the pain that Applejack was going through, and probably never would until she was older.

"Nope."

"You think they'll be okay?" Rainbow asked. She was anxious to get a positive answer.

"Eeyup." he replied. It was true: Applejack and Applebloom were model sisters, and they would eventually forgive each other... but it would take time, and Applejack would have to stop running away from them and return to the farm.

Rainbow sighed, relieved. "Well, that's something. I suppose you know them best, after all."

Glancing at Applejack and Applebloom one last time, the pegasus nodded to herself, satisfied by something she saw. She grinned at Big Macintosh. "Can I leave you to take care of her, then?"

"Eeyup."

Rainbow leapt off her branch and extended her hoof. After a brief pause, Big Macintosh decided that he would oblige, and bumped hooves with her. Then Rainbow Dash left, her observations complete.

Shining Armour stepped outside into the street.

The thought occurred to him that he had never been to Ponyville before, even when Twilight moved there. They had only ever met at Canterlot, or in the Crystal Empire, when Twilight was visiting. Shining wondered if it was all that hard for Twilight to imagine that she had been abandoned by him, and her family. He winced as he realized that he hadn't done much to make Gabby's work difficult. For heavens sake, even Cadence had visited at least once.

It had been a full day since he had arrived in Ponyville with Spectre and Private Eye, and things had been going very slowly indeed. Spectre was all but missing, and stuck in an unfamiliar town, Private Eye and himself had lost their edge. He had tried to get a hold of ink shipments from Sofas and Quills, but Ponyville was basically at a crossroads between Canterlot, Appleoosa, Manehattan, and a dozen other places. Ink, paper, and printer parts could have arrived from any direction. It would take weeks of regular police-work to locate a possible location without Spectre's seemingly magical skills, or a new development, something to latch onto, another clue, perhaps...

The town was bustling. It seemed that nopony knew the task force had arrived yet, which was probably a good thing. It meant that maybe Gabby would be less careful. As far as Shining was concerned, the longer they stayed hidden, the better. He raised his nose into the air: there was a party this evening at the town hall. He wondered if perhaps Gabby might make an appearance...

A flash of purple caught his attention, almost invisible in the crowd. Shining widened his eyes, trying his best to identify the pony he saw.

If it was Twilight...

He wasn't sure what he would say to her. Possibly something along the lines of:

"I'm sorry I lied to you, but you're still my little sister." he muttered to himself, as if to Twilight herself.

He sighed. If the purple pony had been Twilight, then she was gone now. He'd have to wait until later to cross that particular bridge.

One afternoon later, the party had begun, a cautiously civil affair, since more and more ponies were beginning to get more than a little anxious due to the so called 'Veritas' leaflets that were currently in circulation. Thoughts begun to emerge: what secrets does my friend have, and what would they do if they found out mine? Despite knowing everypony for years, living in a closely knit community as they did, Gabby's leaflets had cast a pall on the evening.

Private Eye was waiting for Shining impatiently. If they missed something because his partner was late, it could cost them the case. He still needed to get back at Gabby for ruining his relationships... possibly forever.

He knew some ponies in the crowd from the newspapers: there was that fashionista unicorn, the pink bubbly one... he was also sure he had caught a glimpse of that Wonderbolt wannabe, the rainbow maned one. It was hard not to recognize them, being the elements of harmony. Of course, Applejack was missing. Private Eye wondered if Shining's sister would make an appearance... if she recognized her brother, that might spell trouble for the investigation.

He was nudged in the side roughly, causing him to take note of Shining, who had just arrived. He was holding a leaflet.

"Rats. What's in it this time?" Private asked.

"Nothing deadly for the case. Just something about two ponies being unfaithful a while back. It's bad, but it won't affect us." Shining said.

Under usual circumstances, Private Eye, being a rather gruff and inelegant pony, might have joked. Today, though, that particular leaflet hit a nerve, reminding him of his own personal life.

"I... see. Well, we'd better pay attention to the crowd. I'm willing to bet Gabby is here, looking for anypony to write about next."

"Which should, if our assumption is correct, remove anypony who isn't here from our list of suspects." Shining completed. "Maybe that in conjunction with our other tricks will get us a lead."

Private Eye nodded.

"Sounds about right. I just want to know where Spectre is, though."

Shining looked around. "I've got a feeling we won't have to wait long for an answer." he said, as if she were standing right behind him. "She's just late to the party is all."

"Her punctuality really could use some work." Private repeated.

They stopped talking, and waited.

Something was bound to happen. Any detail they saw, any thing Gabby might see, might be used in her leaflet the next day. Any such clue could be crucial.

A deep, loud, tapping noise stole their attention away from them, and their eyes turned towards the stage. Mayor Mare was tapping on a microphone, about to give a speech. She looked very grave indeed, as if addressing a funeral.

This is it!

"Attention, everypony. I'd like to thank you all for attending this charity festival: you're making a lot of ponies very happy by being here tonight." she said. "I'm afraid I have some news concerning Gabby Gums, who you are no doubt familiar with by now."

Private Eye frowned. Was the Mayor being blackmailed? Could Gabby even do that? Hold somepony's secrets over them like some sort of weapon? It didn't seem all that far fetched.

"Gabby has written horrible articles on several of our community. For what I am about to do, there is a strong chance that I will be next, but for Ponyville..." the Mayor swallowed, "...For Ponyville, I am quite willing to assume responsibility for this. I give you now... Spectre."

Shining's jaw dropped as the older mare stepped back and drew the curtains aside, revealing the shadowy cloaked figure he had come to recognize as the incredible leader of the task force, Spectre herself. Her face was customarily invisible, but Shining was sure that for the first time in forever, he could make out her eyes. They were large and piercing, flashing back and forth across the room, scanning everything.

Shining could almost imagine those eyes scanning his soul.

"Hi everypony. 'Sup."

"For those that don't know about the task force ordered to apprehend Gabby Gums, Spectre was put in charge by Celestia herself." Mayor Mare continued. Spectre nodded, and stepped forwards.

"Yeah, that's me. Anyway, I want to talk to Gabby." she said.

What is she thinking? Revealing ourselves to her is madness!

"I want to tell her that I'm ready to come out of the shadows if she is. I know exactly what you're doing, Gabby, and it's all about hurting other ponies to make yourself feel better. It's stupid and it's childish and you're missing the truth completely. You've just made yourself a smarter variety of lie." she said, gathering momentum. "And we know you're in Ponyville, too. We're monitoring all ways out of here. You've done goofed, Gabbs'. You've cornered yourself in Ponyville and there's no way out , so how about you step forward and admit to everypony that you're a liar and a cheat?"

The crowd was absolutely silent as Spectre waited. Shining was grinding his teeth in frustration. Spectre was being reckless.

Spectre smiled, but nopony could tell.

"Well, keep on hiding, then, you yellow bellied coward. I'll wait for you to unveil all of my secrets tomorrow, huh?" she chuckled, and stepped back behind the curtains. A murmur went up among the crowd, utterly bemused.

"I had never heard of any 'Spectre'."

"Challenging Gabby is folly! She'll just write about her next!"

"What's the point in having a secret identity when somepony can know all your secrets?"

Shining glanced over at Private Eye.

"Watch the crowd. If anypony looks suspicious, make a note. I'm going after Spectre."

Their headquarters was a small flat rented out to them by a middle class carrot farmer sympathetic to their cause after one of her family had been targeted by Gabby. It was small, sure, and cluttered too, but it served their purposes well. A huge map of Ponyville was pinned to the wall, several locations crossed off and others circled in red, some of the more likely sources to investigate. Files littered the floor.

Shining knew that Spectre would have to arrive soon. She knew where they were: how could she not? She knew every other Celestia damn thing about this case.

The door opened, sliding over a coat that had been in the way. Private Eye wasn't known for his cleanliness.

Shining Armour growled as he recognized the mare in the doorway.

"Rainbow, please leave. This is Guard business." he snapped, his usual mild manner gone.

Rainbow Dash stood stock still, as if she had been caught raiding Celestia's cake stash. Shining Armour soon registered why, and how she knew about this place to begin with.

It can't be... for heavens sake, how can she be Spectre?

The pegasus caught his accusatory glare with wide eyes.

"Oh, shoot. I thought you'd still be with Private." she confessed.

"You? How can you be Spectre?" he asked.

"Don't tell anypony else."

"How?" Shining repeated.

Rainbow sighed, and hung up her cloak on the back of a chair. The jig was up, and it was time for her to explain everything.

"Okay, well, to start with, let me tell you about a little trick I picked up." Rainbow began.

This better be good... Private Eye will have a fit when he finds out an untrained civilian interfered on our case.

"A few months ago, Twilight noticed that I could... sort of subconsciously register information whilst I was flying." she said. "I used that to pass an exam, with my friends help. Full marks, too."

"Sounds too good to be true."

"It kind of was, and wasn't. After the first week, everything was fine... but later, I found I couldn't turn it off. I'd end up seeing things whilst I was flying, and knowing way more than I knew I should, like other ponies passwords, secret crushes, what they read, what they do... everything."

Rainbow took a deep breath, knowing that this was probably the part that would be hardest to explain to Shining. "I kept quiet about it because I didn't want ponies knowing I could figure out all their secrets just by flying overhead. I mean... if it were anypony else, I'd be scared of that."

Shining scrutinized her face, desperately trying to see any signs of deception... but found nothing. The story had to be true.

That's how she was able to write off certain locations for the press without even investigating... she just flew overhead once and... saw everything she needed to.

"So why become Spectre? Didn't you trust us? I'm the prince of the Crystal Empire, for Celestia's sake, and Twilight's brother! I even thought that we might be friends!"

Rainbow looked like she had been stung. "I did want to tell you guys... but I was... I was..." she began, stammering, finding it difficult to find her words. "...I may have been a teensy bit scared of Gabby."

"Is that all? You were scared? What sort of secret could you possibly have to hide?"

"Uh... I really don't want to answer that." Rainbow replied sheepishly. Shining groaned. Of course, everypony had a secret to keep. Still, that didn't explain everything...

"So why stand in front of a huge crowd and announce your presence to the world?"

"It's a test." Rainbow explained. "Well... I need to figure out if Gabby Gums is... omniscient. Or at least figure out what her limits are."

"You want to know if she has the ability to publish the secrets of somepony who's identity she doesn't know."

"That's right! So far, she didn't know Spectre existed... or shouldn't, at least. So, if my secret get's published tomorrow, I'll know for sure."

"That's awfully risky." Shining warned. Rainbow nodded in nervous agreement.

"Yeah... I spent most of today working up the nerve for it."

That was understandable, at least. Now Shining knew why she hadn't been there all day...

"I was also getting some help from a buddy of mine... or rather, a buddy's buddy. He's a photographer, and I had him take pictures of everypony during the charity tonight."

"Can you trust him?"

"Yeah... he hates Gabby with a vengeance. In fact, he knew the very first Gabby Gums. He's the editor of the school newspaper. Featherweight."

So that meant they had a list of suspects... a very long one, too. "I assume that if Gabby responds to your challenge, you'll know if she was at the event."

"Yup. If she responds, she was there. If she knows my secret, then she... uh, really, really scares me. And this is me we're talking about."

"And then we're all done for anyway, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Are the pictures on their way?"

Rainbow nodded, pausing as she counted in her head. "He should be here in about... a minute."

Shining realized that must be her special eye skill at work again. Quite impressive, even if it was just a special method of storing memory. Absolutely perfect for detective work, too.

"You do realize that Spectre is a ridiculous name, though, right?"

Rainbow harrumphed, annoyed. "A friend of mine liked it."

"Is she five?" Shining asked with a smile. He rather enjoyed watching Rainbow squirm.

"Scootaloo is seven."

Shining Armour chuckled to himself. Now that he had gotten the surprise of discovering that his sister's lazy friend was Spectre, he was beginning to relax again. His ears flicked around: he heard somepony come up the stairs.

The door opened once again, this time with Private Eye and a stick thin kid in the doorway. The kid held a camera in his hooves: he was probably Featherweight. Private Eye took one look at Rainbow and frowned.

"What in Celestia's name is she doing here?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well..." Shining began, "...she's Spectre."

Private Eye looked over at Rainbow, then back at Shining again.

"We're all bucked, aren't we?"

Next Chapter: Chapter Four: Indignation Estimated time remaining: 37 Minutes