"You can't seriously suspect Pancake!" Rainbow Dash pounded a hoof against Captain Destrier's desk. "He didn't do anything!"

Captain Destrier gave her a sideways glance; Dash grinned sheepishly, brushed the dusty hoofprint away, and settled herself back onto the carpet, the noontime light shining bright through the window of the captain's office. "I mean, yeah," Dash went on, "it was his hacksaw, but he just loaned it to those other guys! They didn't tell him they were gonna use it to chop down part of the Day Palace's roof and try to squash ev'rypony or whatever!"

"In the first place," the captain said, "we don't know for a fact that these are the ponies who did it. That's why we call them 'suspects.' In the second place, we still don't have the saw in question; we found none here on the palace grounds, and of the suspects you led us to, only this Pancake fellow is doing any talking. In the third--"

"There!" Dash couldn't keep from springing up to hover over the carpet in Captain Destrier's office. "See? He's trying to help us! Those other jerks aren't! They're the ones we need to lean on, not Pancake!"

He cocked his head. "This means a great deal to you."

It wasn't a question, so Dash didn't answer it.

"And yet,--" The captain glanced at the big clock ticking against the wall. "You only met this Pancake fellow five and a half hours ago. Is that correct?"

"Doesn't matter." She wished she could use words as well as Twilight Sparkle, could explain to him why she was right, but, well, she couldn't. So she just set her jaw and said, "He didn't do anything."

Captain Destrier looked at her. Rainbow Dash looked back. And after a minute, the captain blew out a breath, touched a hoof to a part of his desk, and spoke into the glowing circle that appeared there: "Yeoman Sycamore, if you'd bring your pad in here, please?"

A soft clatter of hoofs in the hallway, and a young light blue unicorn stepped in, a pad and quill pen floating in the glow of her horn. "Take a note to Warden Hoosegow. On Minister Dash's recommendation, she's to release the earth pony Pancake immediately." He turned half-closed eyes toward her. "Anything else, Minister?"

"Fix his window," she said without even having to think about it. "And if he wants to repaint his sign or hire some other pony to do it, tell him Princess Luna'll pay for that, too."

The captain's eyes opened wide, and he blinked them several times before a smile curled his muzzle. "You heard those last, yeoman?"

"Yes, sir." The quill scratched against the paper.

"Dismissed, then."

The unicorn tapped a front hoof against the floor, turned, and left the room, Captain Destrier shaking his head. "I don't know that I've ever met another pony quite like you, Minister Dash."

"Prob'bly not." She ruffled her wings. "Call me Rainbow, and tell me what time dinner is tonight."

Fluttershy could only stare. "And what happened then?" she asked breathlessly.

Rainbow waved a hoof. "Pancake told me I could have breakfast at his place any time on the house, and I'll be heading over to formal mess at the Citadel tonight as the captain's guest a half-hour after sundown." She grinned her big grin, the one that always made Fluttershy want to grin, too, and leaned back against the small cloud she'd somehow managed to gather together in the middle of the sitting room Princess Luna was using while in the Day Palace.

Fluttershy could only stare at that, too. Cloud handling was supposed to be in a pegasi's blood, as natural as breathing or even flying, but most days, Fluttershy found, she could barely manage anything more complicated than walking on them. "Yep, yep, yep," Rainbow was going on. "Not a bad day's work, I'd say."

A snort from Applejack, settled on a cushion beside one of the open windows among the bookshelves, the afternoon outside such a perfect crystal blue, Fluttershy imagined weather ponies with big brushes painting it. "Least y'all got somethin' to show," Applejack said. "Me an' Fluttershy spent hours poking 'round that whole dome in the throne room and didn't find nothin'!"

Fluttershy nodded sadly. It had been kind of scary, flying so close to the fancy metal and glasswork all over that ceiling, but Applejack had been there, too, and watching her crawl along those little steel catwalks was so much scarier, Fluttershy had spent most of the time worrying about her friend instead of herself.

"And if that weren't bad enough," Applejack was going on, "turns out there weren't no guest list fer the shin-dig this mornin': nopony knows who all was here and and who all wasn't! We's no closer now to catchin' the unicorn who triggered the thing to fall than we been all day!"

The door to the sitting room crashed open, Fluttershy's heart bouncing, and Pinkie Pie leaped in. "Lunch time!" Her smile crackled into a scowl. "Was an hour ago! Where were you all??"

Applejack's eyes narrowed. "We was gettin' some actual work done!"

But before Fluttershy could try saying something to stop the argument she could smell brewing, she heard several more hoofsteps in the hall, and Princess Luna came into the room with Twilight and Rarity, two soldier ponies in their scary armor taking up positions just outside the door.

Fluttershy leaped up and bowed, the others doing the same, and the princess nodded her head, the door closing. "Ministers. A bit more excitement than I'd counted on our first day."

Applejack stuck out her chin. "Don't you worry none, ma'am. We'll get to the bottom of this."

Princess Luna nodded again, and looking at her, Fluttershy couldn't help speaking up: "Did you eat anything at lunch, your Highness?"

The surprised look the princess snapped over made Fluttershy's knees shake, but those drooping eyelids, that sagging tail, the tight and anxious waver that rose from her like steam from a bath: Fluttershy knew signs of exhaustion when she saw them. "You need to eat, Princess, then you need to take a nap."

The others were staring at her, and Fluttershy suddenly realized she was giving instructions to the pony who currently controlled the sun and stars. Her ears folded, and she opened her mouth to squeak out an apology, but Princess Luna was doing some more nodding, her eyes closed and a little smile on her lips. "I'd been wondering why Celestia's schedule listed several napping periods." She moved toward Fluttershy like a leaf on a breeze, bent down, and touched her horn to the ribbon in Fluttershy's mane. "Will it be all right if I have my sandwich after my nap?"

Fluttershy wished she could blow away like a leaf, too, but instead she got herself to nod.

The princess straightened to her full height. "During her long years running both day and night, Sister developed certain protocols concerning how and why she should be roused from one of her naps. The Day Ministry is now operating under those protocols, but you six--" She looked around the room. "If you feel anything needs my attention, please bring it to me at once." She closed her eyes again, Fluttershy feeling her fatigue as if it were her own. "I'm so very glad you agreed to help me with this. I...when that beam fell, I almost...the darkness--"

She stopped, shook her head quickly, stepped toward the door at the back of the room. "But I'd best away to my couch before Minister Fluttershy turns her fabled stare upon me. I shall see you all in two hours." The door opened at the flare of Princess Luna's horn, and she walked through, the door clicking closed behind her.

A moment of silence, then Pinkie Pie's tail frizzed. "Ooo! I forgot to ask her about the tiki party tonight!"

Pinkie made half a move toward the back door, and Fluttershy found herself airborne, spinning to land right in front of her friend. "Don't you dare, Pinkie Pie!" she said with a force that surprised her. "That can wait till after her nap!"

It seemed to surprise Pinkie, too, the way her eyes went wider than Fluttershy had ever seen. "Taking charge!" Pinkie said. "I like it!"

"Besides, darling," Rarity drawled from the other side of the room, settling herself upon one of the cushions, "Twilight and I already have an engagement for this evening."

Twilight looked up from the book she'd taken from one of the shelves. "We what?"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Orrery Stargazer? The stallion I met this morning before all the unpleasantness began? He invited me to a reception at his uncle's, and I asked one of those delightful soldier ponies to take him our reply that we'd be most pleased to attend this evening. I thought you'd want to come since you knew his name when I mentioned it--"

"No, no, no, no, no," Twilight said quickly. "Ory and me, we..." She swallowed so hard, Fluttershy could hear it. "We go way back."

"Ooooo!" Pinkie spun in place. "That sounds juicy!"

"It's not--! We're just--!" Twilight stopped, took a breath, shook her head. "Ever since we were foals, Ory and I have been...connected, I guess you'd say: we were still in first grade when his mother declared that he would take over as Night Minister when she retired, and since my parents worked in both Ministries and Princess Celestia had taken such an interest in me, I...I became pretty much the consensus choice to become Day Minister whenever Lord Daybreak stepped down.

"But, see--" She stopped again. "It's traditional for the two Ministers to be members of either the Daybreak or Stargazer families, and since I wasn't, everypony sort of thought that...that Ory and me, that we'd...we'd--"

A little laugh from Applejack. "Had the two'a you all hitched up, did they?"

A bigger laugh from Rainbow. "Twilight! You never told us you had a coltfriend!"

"One date!" A blush glowed over Twilight's purple cheeks. "Junior prom! It was the most uncomfortable night of my life, and Ory pretty much frowned the whole time, too!" She blew out a breath. "We just didn't 'click' at all, but by then it was like we were set in stone: our parents were already picking out the designs for our wedding bowls!" The hard-as-granite look that came into her eyes made Fluttershy want to hide. "Never mind that I didn't want to do it or that Ory was even more of a stick-in-the-mud than I was or that--"

"Really?" A smile played over Rarity's lips. "He seemed rather charming to me."

Rainbow cleared her throat, and Applejack said, "Sugar cube, you could charm the rocks right outta the fields."

Rarity batted her eyelashes. "Well, that's true."

Twilight was tapping a hoof against the floor. "But my point is: he and I together in the same room is a recipe for awkwardness. And after what Spike heard out in the city this morning, we definitely don't need any--"

"Hey, yeah!" Pinkie looked up from the books she was stacking into a wall. "Where is Spike, anyway? I haven't seen him since before the thing fell this morning!"

"Ah." Twilight cleared her throat. "I guess you and Dash had already left before he-- See, he always had a lot more friends in Canterlot than I did, and pretty much everypony he's spoken to today--" She looked around and leaned forward, her voice dropping. "They're all convinced that Princess Luna can't be trusted!"

"What??" Fluttershy hadn't meant to speak, but the words just squeaked out of her. "Why??"

Twilight was shaking her head. "Spike heard all kinds of reasons--because she was Nightmare Moon, of course, but also because she disbanded the Night Ministry after a thousand years of service, because she rarely attends social functions whether they're held during the day or at night, because she doesn't stay long when she does attend and never seems engaged or interested while she's there." She sighed. "More than a year she's been back, and, well, she said it herself: we're the closest things she has to friends..."

Applejack gave a snort. "Which sure does take the biscuit! Ain't gonna do us no good askin' 'round town who dropped that dang beam this mornin' if'n folks're wantin' to give 'em a medal!" She shook her head. "'Specially since it hadta be a inside job. Ain't no other way them ponies coulda got in here an' sawed that beam mosta the way through without nopony noticin.'" Determination filled her face, and Fluttershy felt better just seeing it. "I'm tellin' ya, Twilight, we needsta talk to them two Ministers, Lord Daybreak an' Lady Stargazer, an' we needsta talk to 'em now!"

"They'll be here at three." Twilight nodded at the big pendulum clock softly ticking away along the wall. "I'm not looking forward to that little get-together, either."

Rarity gave a little sniff. "Fine! You needn't come to Ory Stargazer's reception even though it's only likely to be the single most important thing any of us does today!"

"What??" Rainbow sprang forward from her cloud pillow. "Hey, I caught the guys who tried to drop that beam on the crowd!" She shrugged. "Unless, y'know, it turns out it wasn't them, but I caught 'em, whoever they are!"

"Yeah!" came Pinkie's voice, but when Fluttershy looked over, all she saw was a big circular wall of books--till Pinkie's head popped up from inside. "And I got to dance with some guys who were pretty darn good!"

Rainbow rubbed her forehead. "Pinkie, they were fighting with you!"

"Really?" Pinkie blinked. "Then I guess they weren't as good as I thought."

"Yes, yes," Rarity said. "All valid accomplishments." She turned to Applejack, the cider-colored earth pony's scowl making Fluttershy's ears fold. "Especially you, Applejack, the way you've been thrown into heading this entire investigation and all. But, well, you heard Twilight: Our princess has an image problem in the city at large." Rarity sighed. "And it looks as if it will be up to Fluttershy and myself to remedy that."

"Who?" A chill shot through Fluttershy's wings. "Me? How...how can I--?"

"The two of us together, darling!" Rarity's eyes sparked, and Fluttershy's heart sped up: her friend was getting one of her ideas. "I, the up-and-coming fashion designer! You, the beloved former model known across Equestria! We shall lend the princess our unimpeachable cachets and reverse this terrible declining trend in the only way such a thing can be reversed!" She leaped to her hoofs, her mane flying so dramatically, Fluttershy had to catch her breath. "With overwhelming fabulosity!"

A little silence, then Twilight's voice: "Not sure that's a word, Rarity."

"Nonetheless!" Rarity fixed such an imploring gaze on Fluttershy that she felt frozen in place. "We must all serve our princess to the best of our meager abilities, and if that means Fluttershy and I must attend every fashionable gala and salon scheduled this week in Canterlot, then who are we to shirk our duty??" Her eyes wavered. "Surely you can see that, can't you??"

"I--" Fluttershy began, wanting with all her heart to come up with a reason why she should just head back to her room in the Night Palace and stay there till it was time to go home. But... She sighed. "If you think it'll help the princess."

"It will." It was Twilight who said it, and Fluttershy looked over to see the purple unicorn with a thoughtful look on her face. "This is another really good idea, Rarity."

Rarity smiled. "Why do you always sound so surprised?"

Twilight returned the smile. "I'm a slow learner."