The six friends stared at the newspaper that Twilight was levitating them with her magic. She was right; this was supposed to be over! There was no way that The Cutie Mark Crusaders would ever consider bringing Gabby Gums back! However, it seemed that the proof was right in front of them and it scared them.

"Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, you have to go find Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle!" said Twilight. "Rainbow Dash, you take Fluttershy and go look for Scootaloo. I'll go talk to the Ponyville News Office about who put this out. You can't publish newspapers in this town without a permit, so I'll go see if I can't figure out who did it that way!"

The other five ponies nodded and rushed off to go find the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Before Twilight left, she turned to Lyra and Bon-Bon. "Don't worry, we'll get Gabby Gums to stop once and for all!" she said. Lyra merely nodded glumly which only strengthened Twilight's resolve.

Twilight turned away from the two friends and ran as fast as she could towards the Ponyville News Office. She burst into the office and ran directly towards the front desk. "I need to speak with your boss right away!" she said to the receptionist.

The receptionist looked up from filing her front hooves and gave her a bored look.

"Do you have an appointment?" she asked.

"No, but this is an emergency! Gabby Gums is back in business!" said Twilight dramatically.

Whatever effect she thought that this wildly important piece of news would have on the receptionist, it was not what actually happened. Instead of turning white and letting her in, the receptionist merely gave her a bored look.

"Who is Gabby Gums?" she asked.

"She wrote a popular gossip column a year ago in some of the worst cases of libel that this town has ever seen but she stopped once the town turned on her. Now she's back and writing gossip again and I need to know who she is!" said Twilight desperately. The receptionist gave an irritated sigh.

"Look, I can't let you in to see Mr. Exley unless you have an appointment and seeing as how you don't have an appointment, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," said the receptionist with an awful air of finality. Twilight gave a groan of frustration.

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth. "When can I set up an appointment with Mr. Excee?"

"It's 'Exley'," said the receptionist before opening up a drawer in her desk and pulling out a large schedule book. She flipped it open to a middle page, that Twilight assumed was for today's date, and scanned it. She looked back up to Twilight.

"I can get you in at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon," she said. Twilight groaned in frustration.

"Can't you get me in any earl--"

"If I could I would have told you. It's 4:00 tomorrow afternoon, take it or leave it!" said the receptionist sternly.

"Fine, fine, I'll take it," said Twilight.

The receptionist nodded and made a note in the schedule. "Very good, have a good day."

"You too," said an irritated Twilight, but the mare didn't seem to notice her tone as she had already gone back to filing her hooves.

As she walked out of the news office, she found herself unsure of just where to go next. She had told her friends to find the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but she didn't know where they had gone to look for them. She decided that the best thing to do would be to start searching herself, and she knew just where to look: their clubhouse.

Twilight ran towards Sweet Apple Acres but was glad to find that after a few minutes, she ran into Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. She called to them and they landed next to her.

"Did you find Scootaloo yet?" asked Twilight.

"No, and we haven't seen any signs of the other two yet," said Rainbow Dash.

"Not to mention that we haven't seen Applejack, Rarity, or Pinkie Pie yet," said Fluttershy worriedly.

"I'm about to go to the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse. I imagine that the clubhouse is the first place that Applejack and Pinkie Pie looked, but at least we have a good shot of running into the two of them if we head in that direction," said Twilight. "Come on girls; let's nip this in the bud!"

The three ponies ran and flew towards Sweet Apple Acres and found themselves there in five minutes. They stopped briefly to explain the situation to Big Macintosh who accepted it with his usual calm demeanor.

The three bolted towards the clubhouse where they heard four recognizable voices coming from inside.

"You three, out of the clubhouse NOW!" said Applejack.

"B...but--" said Apple Bloom.

"I said NOW!" said Applejack.

Twilight was briefly taken aback. She had rarely seen Applejack so angry and it wasn't a sight that she enjoyed.

Slowly the three friends saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders file out of the clubhouse with their ears flattened and their heads low to the ground followed by a furious Applejack.

Applejack turned her eyes away from the Cutie Mark Crusaders and looked at her friends. "I caught them hunched over their little notebooks. They were no doubt writin' somethin' nasty about somepony or other."

"No we weren't, sis!" said Apple Bloom desperately. "Why in Equestria would we do somethin' like that again?"

"That's my question too," said Applejack sternly.

"We were writing more verses for the Cutie Mark Crusader's Theme Song, honest we were!" said Sweetie Belle. Applejack scoffed at them.

"A likely story!" she said.

"Now hold on a minute Applejack," said Twilight in an attempt to calm down her farmer friend. "Their story will be easy to check out, let me just get their notebooks."

Twilight used her magic to summon the notebooks to her and she scanned the open pages of each of the notebooks. When she was done, she glanced at the Cutie Mark Crusaders who seemed scared out of their little minds before she levitated the books in front of Applejack.

Applejack's eyes moved back and forth as she read the words on the pages of each notebook. As she continued to read, her expression softened. She finished reading and nodded.

"They were tellin' the truth, it is just song lyrics," she said. "Oh Apple Bloom, I'm so sorry I accused you three like that!" she said before pulling Apple Bloom into a big hug.

"It's okay sis," said a clearly relieved Apple Bloom. "I don't want Gabby Gums back either. I mean, the only way that I would ever do it again is if somepony was blackmailin' me worse than before. You know, like threatenin' our family or somethin' like that."

"Oh yeah," said Scootaloo. "I mean, it would have to be bigger than merely embarrassing pictures too. They'd really have to really mean business."

"But if that did happen, we'd totally ask you to help us unless we knew that we were being watched and we couldn't tell you if we really were doing Gabby Gums stuff." said Sweetie Belle.

Applejack let go of Apple Bloom and gave the three a big smile. "I know that you'd never do anythin' to hurt us intentionally. You three learned your lesson the last time." said Applejack before turning to her friends. "But that means that somepony else is writin' this stuff. Twilight, how did it go at the News Office?"

"I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow afternoon," said Twilight. "We'll get to the bottom of this in no time at all."

The four friends went off to find Pinkie Pie and Rarity to tell them that they didn't have to worry about the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

It only took them about five minutes to find the duo. They caught them outside of Carousel Boutique and they told them what had happened. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were both highly relieved that the Cutie Mark Crusaders weren't to blame.

"Oh, I should have known that Sweetie Belle wouldn't have stooped so low in her quest for her cutie mark that she tried Gabby Gums again," said Rarity with a relieved smile.

"But that still raises the question of who is the one behind all of this," said Fluttershy.

"Well, I have my meeting tomorrow with the head of the News Office tomorrow at four. We'll get to the bottom if this soon."

The other five nodded in agreement and they were about to discuss what they were going to do next when they heard a commotion.

They looked around to see that a large crowd of ponies was moving towards town square. They were all chattering nervously. The mane six knew what they were all talking about without having to hear any of it: Gabby Gums had come out with a new issue.

The six immediately rushed towards the corner in town square where Gabby Gums used to put her papers out for distribution and sure enough, a fresh stack of newspapers had been placed on the corner.

A large number of Ponyville residents was circled around them, each wanting to see what the new Gabby Gums had to say, but still terrified about it at the same time. What if they were the topic of that issue?

The mane six pushed through the crowd until they were right next to the newspapers. They didn't examine them for the same reason that the rest of the crowd didn't touch them.

Twilight turned to the crowd and addressed them.

"Citizens of Ponyville, I know that you all have been hurt by Gabby Gums before, but I must ask you to ignore every issue that comes out! If we stop reading Gabby Gums, eventually she will stop writing articles! If we read these papers today, or indeed any day, then Gabby Gums wins, and she will keep going!"

"What are you going to do about those three beastly fillies that wrote these?" asked an angry voice in the crowd. The crowd gave angry cheers of agreement

"That's my sister you're talkin' about you numbskull!" said Applejack angrily. Twilight intervened in the conversation before it could get more out of hand.

"Believe us, the first thing we did when we found out that Gabby Gums was back was question the three of them. We can say without a doubt that those three are not the ones responsible!" said Twilight. The crowd did seem mollified at this. At the very least, they didn't seem to want to destroy the Cutie Mark Crusaders anymore. "Now," continued Twilight. "We all know that it is illegal to print and distribute newspapers in this town without proper permits from the Ponyville News Office. I have an appointment with the head of the office scheduled for tomorrow and I promise you that I will find out who did this!"

The crowd murmured in agreement. "What are you going to do about those papers?" asked another voice.

"I'm going to destroy them, and any that are published," said Twilight.

"But can we at least know who they're about?" asked another voice. "I mean, what is being said about one of us?" The crowd gave another murmur of agreement.

"If they are destroyed then you don't need to worry about it!" said Twilight.

"But I want to know when I've been spied on!" said yet another voice.

"Are we safe anywhere?" asked another.

"We're safe as long as we destroy every copy of Gabby Gums that comes along! Remain calm everypony, we are working on it!"

At that moment, Berry Punch pushed her way to the front of the crowd.

"I can't stand not knowing, I'm getting a copy!" she said hysterically.

All Tartarus broke loose at that point.

Berry Punch led the mad charge towards the newspapers and Twilight and her friends found themselves engulfed in a wave of irrational townsponies who were desperately trying to get their hooves on a copy of the latest Gabby Gums. Twilight's magic wasn't even enough to slow the onslaught and within seconds, the stack of newspapers on the curb was gone.

Twilight stood up and dusted herself off and looked into the crowd to see them all reading the papers with their mouths open and looks of horror on their faces. Berry Punch was crying hysterically.

"I'm not a drunk!" she said. "I don't even like alcohol, I would only ever drink Apple Family Cider, I swear!"

"We know that," said Dr. Whooves. "Gabby Gums makes up everything that she prints it seems. We'll get to the bottom of this."

Berry Punch nodded and slowly walked towards home. The crowd of ponies dispersed after a little while too, leaving Twilight and her friends standing alone on the curb. A solitary copy of the paper blew by them and came to rest in front of them.

Twilight didn't even want to look at it. She knew it was all lies anyway.

"What'll we do y'all?" asked Applejack nervously. "As long as Gabby Gums prints this stuff the townsfolk will continue to read it just to make sure it isn't about them."

"If they do that, whoever is printing this stuff wins!" said Fluttershy sadly.

Twilight sighed and flattened her ears. "My meeting is only eighteen hours away. Gabby Gums will pay for this as soon as I find out who she is!"