Spike awoke to find his room empty. He glanced over to Twilight's guest bed. The sheets were made, and the edges tucked in. So either she had left very early, or slept elsewhere. Shrugging it off, Spike got up and began his morning routine. After a quick burst of fire to cleanse his teeth, he took a few minutes with a cloth to give his scales a good buff, since he'd been neglecting it for a few days. He opened his mirror cabinet and activated the portal with a sparkling green wisp. It whirred silently for a few moments longer than usual, before spitting out something unexpected. There were three gems this morning, an orange one, a green one, and one with a mottled blue pattern. What made them was unique was how they were skewered on a thin length of obsidian rod. A small scroll was rolled around one end. Grabbing his delivery, Spike closed the cabinet and unrolled the note.

"This one needs a bit of prep." it read in Ember's angular script, "Spin the gems while roasting over a medium flame. Not too big, you know, just, like three claw-lengths long. You'll know they're done when the rough edges soften and smooth out. Eat while still hot. The rod also works as a toothpick and palette cleanser after."

Spike smiled at the care shown in the message. Friendship was still a new thing for Ember, but he could tell she was making progress. A few more weeks of sharing correspondence and recipes, and he was pretty confident he'd be able to get her to open up about personal things in her messages. Or at least include conversation beyond cooking instructions and basic greetings. It was a slow process, but Spike knew he'd picked up enough friendship lessons by proxy to pass them on to another. He smiled thoughtfully as he walked back to his room. He placed the gems and message in his bedside dresser atop a small pile of similar letters.

He left his room to hunt down Twilight. Snacks from Ember and mysterious presents aside, it was still her turn to cook breakfast. However, after nearly half an hour of searching, Twilight failed to be found. Her room was the obvious first place he checked, but it was just how Twilight had left it several days ago. The guest rooms were next, but they were likewise all in their spotless unused state. Room by room he checked, but all were equally abandoned. Even Starlight's room was shut and locked just as she'd left it. The kitchens, libraries, sub-libraries, even the science labs. There was no sign of Twilight in sight. Eventually, Spike came to the last room in the castle he expected to find her: the ballroom. Even at a distance he could just barely make out the sound of birds within.

With a grunt of effort, the little dragon pushed open one of the large doors just wide enough to slip inside. He immediately tripped on a mug on the floor. He pushed himself up from the floor with a groan, rubbing his snout. He glanced to where to cup had spun off to, and his eyes widened as he followed it to another mug, which led to another and that to another. The trail of empty mugs led over to the near corner of the room, where sat an alarmingly large pile of discarded cups. He was about to go over and investigate further, when a purple blur suddenly materialized in front of him.

"Hey there Spikey-Spikey-Spike-Spike!" It rattled off. He tried to focus his eyes on the rapidly moving (and even faster talking) figure. "I have so many theories, so many ideas, Oh! Ideas like you wouldn't believe Spike! My mind has never been so clear!"

Spike managed to refocus his eyes just enough to make out some details. He could just about make out a pair of wings and a split-color mane. "T-Twilight? Is that you?"

"Of course it's me!" she replied speedily, "I've been working working working hard trying to unravel the mystery of our particularly perplexing and passionately proficient puzzling parcel presenter!" She dashed over to the nearby wall, which was covered in an alarmingly large collage of notes, pictures, copies of book pages, and red yarn. Lots of red yarn.

Spike picked up a mug as he gazed about in awe. Or possibly terror, one of those two probably. Maybe a little of both. "Did- did you even go to sleep last night Twilight?"

"Nope! I enchanted the kettle see?" She poured a long stream of coffee from the kettle. She moved the flow from one cup to another, which kept dispensing piping hot coffee far beyond what should have been its capacity. Snagging two of the mugs in her magic, she downed the coffee like shots. "I've been working nonstop since Rarity left yesterday! She gave me an idea; What is the reason behind somepony leaving us these things? We've been thinking it might be some kind of threat, or a misguided present. But now I see there's just so, so many options we haven't considered!" She produced a large scroll. "So I made a list of more reasons we hadn't considered! 'Secret message from a scientist trapped between dimensions', 'unorthodox marriage proposal', 'leftover effect from Starlight's meddling with time', I thought of everything!"

Spike tried to back away, but Twilight zoomed back to his side, random sprigs of curling mane brushing against his face. "And then I remembered what you said, oh clever and genius assistant. You said there might be a pattern between the items that we weren't seeing, or that it could be from practically anypony!" She teleported back to her conspiracy wall. "So I correlated the data, analyzed, cross-compared, and re-analyzed every one of our ideas from yesterday, as well as every new one on my list." Her manic smile faded. "But none of my leads have panned out. I'm this close!" She held her hooves a fraction apart. "So close! But I'm just missing some small piece of data. Some... final key which could tie this all together! But what! Could! It! Be!" She punctuated her declaration by slamming her head into the wall, causing a few papers to fall, though she caught and fixed them before they hit the floor.

Spike approached cautiously. He knew Twilight's dangerous manic state when he saw it, and this was a bad case. A virtually unlimited supply of caffeine probably wasn't helping things either. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll figure it out." He needed to redirect her to break the spiral. "Why don't you take a quick flight around town, huh? You've been cooped up in here all night, you need some fresh air. Get... inspiration for new ideas."

Twilight slowed her movements a bit. "I... guess that's a good idea. It is possible that looking over the same sets of data over and over and over again has blinded me to some extraneous possibilities. Plus a good flight would help stimulate blood flow." She smiled as her mane almost returned to normal. "Thanks Spike."

"Heh, anytime."

With a few powerful beats of her wings, the overly-caffeinated under-slept alicorn lifted off the ground and sailed towards the doors. They opened with her magic, and Spike used the opportunity to exit as well. He smiled as he headed towards the kitchens for a well-earned breakfast. In her current state, Twilight would probably continue circling the town until she made a perfect circle or calculated the most efficient route between every house or something similarly time-consuming. Regardless, she'd work off the caffeine and would be back to her normal self upon her return. As long as nothing reignited her current mania, everything would be just fine.

"SPIKE!" Twilight's voice shook the halls of the castle. It wasn't quite the Royal Ponyville Voice, but it was pretty close.

"Oh no..." He uttered as he reversed directions towards the main hall. As he skidded to a stop, he found Twilight half-hugging, half-strangling a large white bird while five more stood around, popping out eggs in shell-shocked fear.

"Spike!" She exclaimed as she raced over and grabbed his face, meeting him nose to nose. "Eggs! The answer was eggs! That was the key I was missing. Trees lead to birds and birds lead to eggs and eggs lead to egghead! That and the rings make it so clear! Oh I was so blind!"

"Twilight," he gasped, recoiling from her close-range rant, "I don't understand! Birds and eggs and what? What in Equestria are you talking about?!"

"No time!" She exclaimed as she spread out her wings to take flight, "I need to find Rainbow Dash!" With a whirl of feathers, she vanished out the door.

"Hoo boy..." Spike exhaled as he turned to a nearby a nearby goose, "This isn't going to end well."

Rainbow Dash sighed as she collapsed onto her cloud sofa. She'd given herself an extra tough workout that morning in preparation for the upcoming snowstorm. She needed to be in peak physical condition to get all those clouds where they needed to be in time. She was about to take a quick post-work-out nap, when she felt something... off. She sat up. There was something wrong in her house. She couldn't put her hoof on it, but her instincts were screaming danger. She tensed her muscles, ready to fight off whatever came at her if need be. A loud creak emanated from the hall door behind her. She whirled around, pumped up on adrenaline and ready to engage in glorious combat. "Alright whoever you are, I hope you know who you're messing with! Now get ready for a hoofful of- whoa!" Her intimidating speech was cut off as she twisted in midair to prevent her flying roundhouse from hitting Twilight in the head. The rapid turn sent her off-course where she smashed into (and partially through) the staircase. She recovered quickly, shaking bits of cloud out of her mane. "Twilight! Be careful, I almost hit you!" She exclaimed, before her senses reoriented where the feeling of danger was coming from. "Wait.. why are you in my house?"

"I know it was you Dash." Twilight said quietly, making eye contact with the floor.

"Uh... what, what was me?" Rainbow Dash asked slowly, slightly off-put by the mixture of feeling between what she was feeling and who she saw.

"Oh come on." Twilight deadpanned as she slowly began to walk closer. "Take credit for your work. Don't be chicken."

"Is... is this about a prank?" Dash asked, slowly backing away. "Whatever it was, it wasn't me. I've been really busy with weatherpony stuff and haven't done any pranking in like, a month."

"Oh don't be coy. I've seen through your plot! You thought I wouldn't be clever enough to think that you were smart enough to come up with something so complex, didn't you? So deep and so layered. But you underestimate me Rainbow Dash. You underestimate me greatly." Twilight chuckled menacingly as she began to circle, like a predator around a cornered prey. "Oh it was a challenge, I'll concede you that. You gave me every reason to think it was everypony except you. First you had Pinkie plant that story, so I would think it was her trying to prove it to me." She took a step closer. "Then there was the trees to make me think it was Applejack. " She took another step. "Then the birds, to redirect my suspicions to Fluttershy." Another step. "And then you threw Rarity in my path with the jewelry." She was nearly nose to nose with the genuinely scared pegasus. "But then. You. Messed. Up."

"Wha- What did I do?" The panicking pegasus squeaked out.

Twilight leaned in, close enough that she could whisper directly in Rainbow Dash's ear. "The eggs..." she breathed. She pulled back quickly, and resumed her half-circling half-pacing. "That was the last clue I needed. The only connection eggs has to me is the nickname 'Egghead' which only you call me! After that everything fell into place!" She pointed an accusatory hoof. "You are the one who's been sneaking all these things into my castle! Skulking about in the shadows of the night! And all because of your disturbingly deep crush on me!!"

"I- wah?" Rainbow Dash blanked, the sudden accusation supplanting all her fear with confusion. "My what?"

"You didn't think I would figure it out, did you! The gold rings: an ancient pegasi ritual symbolizing deep affection. The partridge: A bird which can't fly, referencing when I'd just gotten my wings and you had to teach me. The Prench hens: a symbol of new life from the city of love! Veery clever double meaning on that one. And the Colly birds: which are black which is the opposite of white which is the combination of all the colors of the rainbow! And the turtle doves: 'Turtle Doves' has a numerical value of 142, which is almost half the value of out names combined! I see right through you, Rainbow Dash, and I won't stand for this subterfuge any longer!" She reared up on her hindlegs, using her wings for balance, and placed her forhooves on her hips. "If you want to confess your love Rainbow Dash, I cannot say if I will reciprocate it, but now is the time."

As Twilight's tirade had gone on, Rainbow Dash had become less and less scared and more and more bored. By the time it was done, she was completely apathetic. "Twilight, I am not, nor have I ever been in love with you."

"Ah ha! Just as I expected!" Twilight declared, "And I'm sorry, but I must turn down your advances!"

"Twilight, I said I'm not in love with you. Hay, I'm not even into mares!"

"I- You- Wha?" Twilight stumbled, all the wind gone from her sails. "But all the presents? All the secret meanings and ancient traditions?"

Rainbow Dash sighed as she raised a hoof to her forehead. "Well first off: breaking into my house. Not cool. Let's just clear that one out of the way. Second: that 'ancient pegasi ritual' hasn't been done since before the Unification, and even then it was a gold horseshoe, not rings. Third: The rest of your speech. Really? Just, really?"

Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "I... suppose some of my conclusions might have been the smallest bit stretched."

"'The numerical value is almost half of our names?'" Dash quoted with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah... That was a bit much." She admitted, before slamming her hoof into the floor. "But I was so sure! Everything looked like it fit so perfectly! I thought I finally had an answer!"

"Well, whoever's doing this, it's not me. You can check with my supervisor. I've been pulling night shifts all week to get things ready for the big snow shipment." She smirked. "But from what I've heard so far, you've gotta tell me everything about this prank. And I wanna meet the pony when you figure out who's behind it." Her smirk turned into suppressed laughter, which quickly broke down into full blown guffaws. "Imagine! Somepony pranking you hard enough to make you think me being in love with you was a more likely scenario! Bwahahaha!"

Twilight groaned as her caffeine finally wore off and she collapsed on the floor.