Sitting around a table at Sugarcube Corner are two older women and five high-school age girls, each of them in various states of distress. The lights are kept low and the sign hanging from the from doorway reads ‘Closed’ even though it’s the middle of the evening when a cafe would be at its busiest, but the Cakes had been very understanding after seeing the state of the girl they thought of as a daughter. The dull grey pall of winter settled over Canterlot City a week ago and was leaving its muted tracks over much of the landscape, such that even the determined snowplows can do only so much to mitigate the effects.

None of that particularly mattered to the five girls, though. The silence in the cafe parlour is deafening and none of them had spoken since they arrived beyond a brief ‘hello’ or a hug; each one was lost in their own world of self-recrimination broken by the occasional sob from one of the older women, her dark hair a mess from hours of scouring the school grounds, or from the pale girl with violet curls who had joined her. A girl with pink hair and a normally vivaciously bubbly personality was uncharacteristically quiet. Periodically the one with rainbow streaks in her hair would get up to pace restlessly, looking ready to fight someone or something but lacking any kind of meaningful target for her rage. The blonde girl, her frame heavy with muscle from farm work and who normally stood tall and proud, sat with a defeated stoop to her shoulders and her face buried in her stetson on the table. The last girl sat curled into one of the chairs, her pale pink hair and draped over her face as she cried quietly against her own knees.

A heavy knocking interrupts the deathly stillness of the normally vibrant cafe, and in an instant Rainbow Dash, living up to her namesake is at the door in and opening it to reveal a teen girl around her own age standing outside. The new arrival’s hair is deep purple with a bright streak of pink through it. She’s wrapped up in a long lavender coat rimmed with fake white fur, and at first glance, she seems perfectly fine. All it takes is one long look for the flaws to start revealing themselves, though.

Her eyes are baggy, her hair is lank and a little haggard. She looks… tired. Worn thin and exhausted. “Rainbow,” Twilight says the word tonelessly, more in acknowledgement of the prismatic girls existence than anything.

“H-hey, Princess Twi-” Rainbow’s sentence gets cut off as Twilight moves past her to the table, taking one hand out of her pocket to gesture for Rainbow to rejoin the others.

Turning to the older women, Twilight makes two short bows. “Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, it’s good to see you both again, I wish it was under better circumstances.”

Luna rubs her hand across her face and nods. “I’m sorry,” are the first words out of the Vice Principals mouth. “I’m so sorry, I should’ve seen… I should’ve known. Of all people, I should’ve known.”

Principal Celestia hushes her sister, pulling the distraught woman into a tight hug. “It’s good to see you too, your Grace, I’m sorry it happened this way as well.”

Taking a deep breath, Twilight turns to the rest of the girls who remained silent throughout the exchange. Without saying a word she begins rifling through her small backpack, eventually drawing out a heavy-looking tome and setting it carefully on the table.

“Here,” Twilight remarks sharply, turning the book to face the girls and flipping it open to a page near the middle. “Read it.”

Glancing nervously at one another, it took a moment before one of them, Applejack, finally leans in and begins reading. “D-dear Twilight Sparkle… Ah want to impart a friendship lesson o’mah own today…” She falters at the next line, and tears start to well at the edges of her eyes. “...S-sometimes f-friendship fails…” The rest of the letter was no easier to read; it was the last testament to an abject failure of communication and friendship, one that each of the girls felt down to their bones.

Finally finishing the short, halting letter, Applejack pushes the book away from her towards the scowling Equestrian Princess who picks it up and slips it back into her pack. “Now, girls, you’re going to answer two questions for me and the answers had better be on par with a bardic retelling of the Sister’s War. “One: How could you abandon her as you did? And two…

Without a lick of warning Twilight Sparkle, the gentle, soft-spoken Princess of Friendship, slams her gloved hands on the table causing the other five to leap out of their seats. “Where. Is. Sunset. Shimmer?”

“We failed,” Rarity answered softly. “That’s my answer to your first question. It’s the simple truth and no one here will deny it. You asked us to do something incredibly important and we failed to do that. I can only offer you my most sincere apologies on behalf of all of us.”

Some of the heat goes out of Twilight’s posture and she slumps, nodding at Rarity’s heartfelt answer. “And my second question? Where is she, Rarity…” Fixing the popular fashionista with an icy glare, Twilight takes another step forward. “Is she… did she…?”

Unable to bring herself to say the actual words, to ask the question that she was terrified of receiving the answer to. For a moment, no one spoke, but eventually, it was Vice Principal Luna who spoke up. “I believe that I should answer that.”

“Luna, no,” Principal Celestia says softly, “it wasn’t your fault.”

“W-what wasn’t…?” Twilight fixes the two parallels of the Equestrian sovereigns with a panicked glare. “What wasn’t your fault?”

“I need to do this, Celly,” Luna responds before turning back to Twilight. “We are educators, and we are responsible for our students, no matter what.” Wrapping her arms tightly around herself as if to keep out a chill, Luna lets out a shuddering breath. “I was the last one to see Sunset Shimmer al-... at all, actually. She… leapt from the roof of Canterlot High.”

The wind goes out of Twilight like she’d been struck a hard blow to the gut and she falls to her knees. Luna rushes to her side before she goes any further, though, and grabs her by the shoulders. “B-but we never found her, or saw her after that! She fell off and then… she was gone. No body. Nothing.”

“There was blood.”

Twilight and Luna both look up at Rarity who is standing silently over them, tears running down her cheeks. “I saw her fall past the window, like a shadow… just a flash of red, gold, and black and then… and then she hit the ground. I heard it. I don’t think I’ll ever stop hearing that awful sound.”

“But there was no body,” Luna desperately insists, glaring daggers at the younger girl.

“That means nothing,” Twilight spits venomously as she held up a hand and began counting off. “Hyperion’s Ashen Repose is a spell that disintegrates the body upon death, developed during a time of plague it ensured that remains weren’t left to spread disease. Death Mask’s Graven Tomb instantly buries a body and encases it in a stone casket to safeguard it from corpse-robbers. Revenant’s Wandering Unrest commands a body to move a specific location after death. I know for a fact that Sunset knew every one of those spells and probably a half-dozen more besides. Sunset was my predecessor, I might be more powerful than her but her repertoire of spells outstrips mine by an order of magnitude.”

Getting to her feet, Twilight shoots a glare at other girls. “Setting a pre-cast spell to trigger upon brain death was something that was easily within her scope and being next to the Wondercolts Statue meant she had access to the portal’s arcane flow. If Sunset wanted to vanish, she wouldn’t have had a problem doing so.”

WIth every word, the look on Luna and the girls’ faces became more and more hopeless. Before Twilight could continue her tirade a pair of buttercream hands fix themselves over Princess Twilight’s gloved ones. “Please…” Fluttershy pleads softly, her eyes puffy and red from crying. “Please stop. We know, I promise, we know what we did. We all want to take it back but we can’t. I’m sorry, we know she wasn’t guilty, that she wasn’t Anon-A-Miss.”

“Do we?”

The silence following that statement was deafening. There was no sound as everyone’s heads turn to stare at Rainbow Dash. “I’m serious, do we? Do we really know that she didn’t just mess up about how bad it would get and-”

Whatever she was about to say dies a quick death as Twilight thrusts out her hand and a lavender glow tinged with black lifts Rainbow bodily into the air by the throat. The athletic girl squirms and wheels her legs, choking and gasping for air as Twilight’s sorcery starts throttling her.

“TWILIGHT!” Principal Celestia stands, furious but also entirely unsure as to what she would be able to do against the furious sorceress. “Please! Let her down!”

The glow vanishes and Rainbow drops roughly to the tiles of the cafe. “Fine,” Twilight spits angrily, “You still think it’s her? Let’s find out for sure.”

Tearing her gloves off, Twilight lifts her now bare left hand. On her wrist is an ornate silver bracelet studded with small white gems that shine with a fierce inner light. Fine, thin, chains of silver trail up from the bracelet and across the back of her delicate hand to affix to rings, each studded with their own shining gems, on her pointer, middle, and ring fingers.

“You have no idea what this is so let me explain,” Twilight speaks in a soft, deadly tone. “This is the Infinite Arcanum of Clover the Clever, there’s a lot of arcane science behind it but in short; it’s basically a miniature generator. That means, so long as I let it recharge every so often, I can basically cast magic as a normal unicorn while I’m here and I’m going to use it to find out who Anon-A-Miss really is once and for all.”

“Wait,” Applejack steps forward, confused. “If ya had that thing this whole time why’d ya’ll make us deal with the Sirens like we did? Couldn’t ya’ve just blown’em to the moon or somethin’?”

“The reason,” Twilight continued darkly, “is because this has been locked in the Alabaster Vault under the throne of the Two Sisters for about a thousand years. It was considered too dangerous because in the wrong hooves it’s basically an infinite source of magic. Princess Celestia practically threw it at me when I showed her what Sunset had written.” Twilight let out a shaky breath, “I might be Princess Celestia’s ‘faithful student’ but Sunset is… was…. her daughter in all but name.”

Each of the girls, even Rainbow Dash who was still massaging her throat, looked suitably ashamed at her words, and Twilight was about to continue when a choked sob came from the corner. Luna and the six girls looked over to see Principal Celestia bent over the table, her shoulders heaving and her face buried on her folded arms.

“I was so… so proud of her when she started getting better,” Celestia’s muffled words came through her sweater-clad arms as she shook with grief before lifting her head slightly to look at Twilight with tear-stained eyes. “When I first saw Sunset, years ago, I saw a brilliant, gifted, beautiful young woman who just wanted to be acknowledged. When she started going down a dark path I felt like my heart was breaking. Then you and the girls brought her back into the light and I felt like I could breathe again. I know I can’t have favorites as a Principal but I wanted her to succeed so badly. I was… I was so, so proud of her.”

Anything else Celestia wanted to say dissolved into tears and sobs as Luna took her turn to comfort her sister who had been stoically keeping a stiff upper lip to support the younger sibling.

“I’ve heard enough,” Twilight’s voice rings with certainty. “I’m going to find out who killed my friend.”

Raising her left hand, the gems went from the white glow of distant stars to an intense and fiery purple. “Ocean Spray’s Distant Sight,” Twilight says softly, the words echoing through the cafe, and a glowing blue stylized eye wrought in magic light appears in the middle of her forehead. “Wide Eye’s Mirror of Minds,” a shimmering mirror of molten silver coalesces in front of the group. “Soul Searcher’s Past Perfect Recollection,” a glimmering gold circle of magic embosses itself over the mirror.

Letting out a breath and sagging slightly from the effort, Twilight points to the mirror with her glowing hand. “Show me Anon-A-Miss!” her voice carries the weight of command and instantly the mirror begins rewinding, glimpses of the past flickering back and forth across its silver surface, blurring out until it finally fixes on an image. There’s no sound but the picture is as clear as it is heartbreaking.

“A-Applebloom?” Applejack stares dumbfounded into the mirror.

Rarity just has her hands clapped to her mouth. “Sweetie Belle… no…”

From the floor, Rainbow lets out a dry, hacking sob at the screen. “S-Scoots… why? Why would you have… WHY!”

The three younger girls were talking amongst themselves, their mouths moving silently as the spell had no means of picking up audio. They logged onto the MyStable account and began setting up a week's worth of uploads. Secrets, embarrassing pictures, and more all went onto the social media page. Once their work was done they high-fived and left the room.

“Stop,” Twilight mutters the word grimly, and the image vanishes as she turns back to Rainbow. “There you have it. The real culprits found at last. I hope you girls are pleased with yourselves. Now let’s do the really hard part… Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, you can look away for this one. Girls, if I see even one of you look away I will personally anchor whatever appears on that mirror to your dreams for the next ten years, got it?” Each of them nods sorrowfully. “Good, now, Mirror…” Twilight takes a deep breath, bracing herself for what she’s about to see. “Show me the resting place of Sunset Shimmer.”

The mirror shifts for a moment, searching and searching, vistas and horizons pass by and Twilight scowls. “That shouldn’t be happening. Her… remains couldn’t have gotten far. Ashen Repose would just make the spell fizzle, and the others all leave some kind of trace.”

“What… what does that mean?” Principal Celestia speaks up, her voice was almost painfully hopeful.

Twilight shakes her head. “I have no idea. It could be a spell I’m not familiar with, I suppose. Sunset delved into some pretty esoteric stuff in her day and she was no slouch at spellcrafting either, or-”

A knock at the door of the cafe silences Twilight, who waves a hand, moving the mirror behind the counter. “I thought you were closed up for the day,” Twilight says to Pinkie who just nods in confusion. “Then who… who else knows we’re meeting here.”

“Ah didn’t tell a soul outside’a this room, Sugarcube,” Applejack swears, her hand raised up.

“H-hey,” a small, quavering voice comes from the other side of the door. “Are, uh, are you all in there?”

“W-was that…” Fluttershy steps past the still mildly catatonic Rainbow Dash to the door and leans against it. “Snips? Is that you?”

“Uh, yeah, and Snails is here too,” Snips says from the cafe porch behind the door. “Uhm, can we come in, I… we… wanted to talk to the Princess… if that’s okay.”

Twilight sighs before striding over to the door and rests her hand on it. “Look, guys, I’d be happy to talk with you later but right now the… girls and I… we're in the middle of something really important, alright?”

“I-it’s about the boss, right?” Snails speaks up and there’s a dull thud and an ‘ow’ from the porch. “Uh, I mean, about Sunset?”

The ladies in Sugarcube corner all exchange surprised looks. Twilight turns back to the door and cracks it open and looks down at the pair of freshman. “Why?”

Snips and Snails glanced at each other nervously, shuffling their feet under Twilight’s harsh scrutiny. Snips finally leans over and pushes Snails, “C’mon, you’re the one who saw it when it happened, I had my back to her. Tell Twilight what you saw.”

The Princess lets out a deep sigh and shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Snails, Snips, I’m… in a really bad mood. That’s no excuse though, please… anything you can tell me about that day… I really need to know.”

Snails swallows the lump in his throat and nods. “For the boss, yeah. Snips and me were… sorta playing hooky and sitting in the bushes outside the entrance. We play cards and stuff there. The snow doesn’t get in and it’s near a vent so it’s warm.” Twilight wheels her hand in a ‘move-on’ motion. “R-right, well, Snips had his back against the stairs and I was facing them and I guess I just… had this weird feeling. I looked up and… and there she was… falling. I wanted to yell or say somethin’ but…”

Stepping out of the cafe, Twilight leans down and pulls both of the younger boys into a hug. “It’s okay, you don't have to go on, I’m sorry you had to see something like that. I can't even imagine watching her d-”

Snails, to Twilight’s surprise, pulls away. “N-no, that’s not… Sunset didn’t die!”

Twilight pulls away from Snails and stares down at him with fire in her eyes. “W-what did you just say?”

“Sunset didn’t die,” Snails repeats sullenly, “she was taken.”

“What took her?”

Snails wrings his hands for a few moments before nodding. “A… t-thing… a monster. I dunno, it was like… right before she hit the ground everything slowed down a little and this… black oily thing came out of the ground. Like, a bunch of long black spiky claws stretched out and just… caught her. They swallowed her up and there was this weird, gooey cracking sound and then they were gone.”

Twilight stares at him for a moment before closing her eyes and nodding. “Snails, I know this is asking a lot but… can you show me?” Lifting her glowing hand she gestured with the artifact. “It won’t hurt, I promise… I just need to see it for myself, please.”

The light of the Infinite Arcanum reflects off of Snails scared eyes and he glances back to Snips who just shrugs. Swallowing another lump, he nods. “F-for the boss, yeah. Sunset always looked out for us, even in her bad days. She might’ve been using us but it don’t matter. She took care of us. Made sure we weren’t bullied out of the lunch line, kept Gilda and her Griffons off our backs for the first time since grade school. After that, she always looked in on us. She gave us early Christmas gifts this year even though she… she doesn’t have much.”

Looking over Twilight’s shoulder Snail glares at the other girls. “We never thought she was Anon-A-Miss! Not even for a second. Sunset was nice! And even if she went bad again she’d never do somethin’ like that! It was messy! Sunset hates messy! Sunset always told us: ‘If you gotta get yer hands dirty always wear gloves.’ That’s how we knew it wasn’t her! We just… we were big, dumb cowards and didn’t say anything cuz we didn’t wanna get beat up again.” Snails turns back to Twilight and nods. “Fer Sunset, do whatcha gotta, Princess. We weren’t there when our only friend needed us, so do it.”

Twilight gives the young boy a warm smile and hugs him again. “Thank you, Snails, you’re the bravest boy I know.” Pulling back she presses her three ringed fingers to his head and concentrated. “Memorandum’s Mindmeld.”

Both Snails and Twilight shudder as their minds synchronize. After a second of getting used to the feeling Twilight speaks again. “Okay Snails, I need you to remember. Go back to this morning. Go back to the moment when Sunset fell. Show me her falling… show me…”

SUNSET NO

Someone is screaming. A girl is falling. She’s falling so fast. So very fast. And so slow at the same time. Everything was happening at once. My stomach is clenching. I watch her fall.

Sunny. Sunny Shimmer.

Boss. The boss is falling!

Then it happens.

Everything hitches and time grinds to a slow crawl. The boss is falling and the air underneath is splitting open. A crack in space. Claws like the legs of a spider, like a black widow from mom’s nature magazines, open wide from the hole. Sunset falls into them and they close around her. It’s a monster. A MONSTER.

Then it’s gone with a crack like wet bone snapping.

Twilight gasps as she falls away from Snails, tears track down her face from the empathic link. The spell had worked, she had seen and felt everything Snails had at that moment in time with perfect clarity. She saw the monster rip its way out of the open air to swallow up her friend.

She saw Sunset try to kill herself.

Taking in a deep breath, Twilight stands and turns back to the cafe. “Alright girls, you want to make up for what you’ve all done then follow me.” Rainbow was the first to door once more, the determination in her eyes more intense than anything Twilight had ever seen. Giving the girl a sharp but accepting nod, she turns back. “We’re going to figure out what took Sunset and how to get her back. I won’t abandon my friend.”

Twilight is the only one close enough to hear Rainbow whisper to herself. “Neither will I, ever again.”