With the Princess and Prince still busy (heh, it's still hard to think of my brother as a prince), the seven of us coordinated to have a nice dinner at an open-air restaurant together. Somehow, everything went swimmingly, and we were able to talk like normal friends for once without any drama. Everything was small talk, so I don't recall any details worth mentioning. Even Rainbow Dash seemed to be in a good mood; a reminder of better times. Hopefully it won't be long until things are back to normal.

We retired to our respective rooms. I brought a few books from the library back with me, mostly for academic interest. I never did find any on nightwing ponies or odd transformations or other related magical strangeness, unfortunately: there were three books in the catalog (including one very, very old book) but all had been checked out sometime within the past week. I asked who checked them out, but that information isn't available to the public so I would need a writ of permission from the state to force discovery.

I finally gave up on my plan to confront Rarity about her behavior around Spike. There's too much at stake here to get sidelined by small pieces of the larger picture. I'm also exhausted from all this stupid conflict. I never knew friendship could be so completely taxing on my energy.

The Herd of Five met very briefly in the TwiSpiPie-room after Rarishy saddled down in theirs.

Rainbow Dash looked very nervous. "I was afraid of this, but now I'm certain. Fluttershy is missing her primaries."

Pinkie Pie looked confused. "Fluttershy is abandoning her bids for office in the Crystal Kingdom? That's terrible!"

"I doubt that's what she means, sugarcube..."

"Right. Er, wait," I said. "Primaries?"

Rainbow Dash gave me a stunned look, so I knew I'd said something stupid.

"No, don't tell me... primaries, prim— OH!" I said. "Her flight feathers? Are you certain?"

Dash nodded. "One hundred and twenty percent. I can't say she's missing all of them, but she is at least missing most of them. She has most if not all of her secondaries, and primary coverts look fine. It's just the primaries, possibly all of them," she elaborated. "And I'm not sure about this part, but I think she's got some dandruff that might be from shredded bits of feather. That doesn't match the rest of my observations, though. Normally you only see that with damage to the wing, and her wings themselves aren't damaged at all. They haven't been damaged in years. There also aren't any cuts to the feathers, they're just absent."

"Okay. But now, for those of us ponies normally stuck on the ground," Applejack asked in a hushed tone, "are y'all sayin' she can't fly because some feathers done left her?"

"Well, she should be able to glide just fine, but not gain altitude unless there's a thermal," Rainbow Dash explained. "Basically she can't take off unless she jumps off of something high, like a cloud. Even if she does she can't go very far, and she has to keep flapping or she glides downward even quicker. Oh, and primaries don't simply "come out", either. They're like eyelashes: I mean, like, if they all fall out at the same time, it means you have a bigger underlying problem than just some missing feathers. And it stings like hell if they get pulled out. Believe me, I know."

I nodded, backing up Rainbow's account (though I personally have never had a primary yanked out, thank Celestia).

"Oh, and here's one last creepy bit for the spooky treasure pile," she added. "There IS something under her wings, up underneath the coverts and alulas. It's at the edge of the wing, on the underside, and attached. It might go across the entire wing, but it definitely is right around the spot where the primaries should emerge. I've only caught Fluttershy stretching her wings once or twice and it's hard to pick out, but it's there. And guess what color it is."

"Ooh! I love guessing games! Puce? Periwinkle? Transparent???" said Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie Pie, transparent isn't a color," I said, slightly frustrated.

Applejack glared at me. "Let's get back to the point. I think I can guess," she said. "It's copper, ain't it?"

"Bingo," said Rainbow Dash. There was a brief silence.

"Sorry ladies, I don't think I follow," said Spike. "What exactly does it mean if something's copper?"

"It means it matches her earrings," I said, feeling a twinge of fear shimmy its way up my spine. "Just like how Cadance's cap matches hers. It means Rarity probably made it for her."

"Wait! My earrings are copper! My shoes are copper! Does this mean I'm a pod pony too? Twilight am I a pod pony?!?" said Pinkie Pie, gasping for breath.

Spike looked on in horror. "Pod ponies are REAL?" he shouted. Rainbow Dash clamped a hoof over his mouth.

"Pod ponies are most certainly not real," I said. "The fact that Pinkie Pie's accessories are coordinated just means that Rarity made them, and that's all it means."

"But... but why would Rarity do these things, Twilight?" said Spike, his face masked by distress.

"That's what we're trying to find out," said Pinkie Pie, petting my number-one assistant to soothe him. "Don't worry! We'll fix Rarity as soon as we figure out what's wrong, okay?"

"I'm scared," said Spike, and hugged my forearm. I knelt down and gave him a large hug.

"It's going to be okay, Spike. I promise," I said. "Let's get some rest, okay? Tomorrow is another day closer to solving this mystery and getting the old Rarity and Fluttershy back."

I must have sounded a lot more confident than I am; which is, to say, at all.