Twilight.

Normally Twilight Sparkle's namesake time of the day brought her peace and comfort as she always felt at ease with the world when night and day was balanced as they were. To see the combination of Celestia's sun on the backdrop of the beginnings of Luna's night made Twilight's fears melt away. However, tonight was not a normal twilight. In fact, nothing about the day had been normal but she felt compelled to follow the course of events that the day had set out for her.

It had all started simple enough; she had gone outside of her suite at Canterlot Castle to check the mail that had been delivered to her that day. It should have been an uneventful task, and indeed for the most part it was, but one piece of mail made the trip to her mailbox a little more unusual than normal.

The plain white envelope addressed to her was unassuming enough to be sure but when opened by the purple unicorn, it revealed something far more interesting than the plain envelope. The contents of the envelope were a single white sheet of paper with cryptic text that sent Twilight's analytical mind reeling as well as a train ticket. The message was simple enough. The piece of paper merely said:

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

Your presence is requested at the Iselin Mansion at Cady Island on the fifth of November of this year. There is a most urgent matter which requires your presence to resolve. I cannot and will not say more as I do not want this letter to give away more than I need to, but I implore you to believe me when I say that this is a matter which must be dealt with with the utmost caution and secrecy. Everything depends on you. Encased in this envelope is one train ticket to Cady Island. You will board the train leaving at 3 o'clock on the dot. Pack light as most things you need will be provided for you once you reach the mansion. I trust you will not let me down.

I bid thee good evening and a safe journey.

Twilight sighed as she put the letter down once more. It didn't matter how many times she read it, she could not discern any new meaning or indeed any hint of what she was needed for at Cady Island.

Twilight returned the letter to her saddlebag and stared out the train window, looking admiringly at the twilight that was slowly giving way to Luna's darkness. She began to feel a tad tired as she watched the sun set and she began to think that she should try to get some sleep. However, it being November, the sun was setting at 7:00 so it was still quite a while before her normal bedtime. Still, the train ride had left her curiously drained of her energy, despite the fact that she had spent the past five hours merely sitting in the same spot.

She stretched out with a small yawn as she scanned the train compartment she currently occupied. It was a rather large compartment, large enough to house at least sixty ponies on a busy day. At the moment though, it housed only ten ponies, herself included. She had been trying to work up the energy and the drive to go chat with one of her fellow passengers as she was curious as to why they were on the train with her. Based on the train schedule she had glanced at upon boarding, the last stop on its route was the station adjacent to Cady Island. Were these other nine ponies headed in that direction as well?

Feeling that she had nothing better to do, she stood up and walked over to the passenger nearest to her, a light cerulean Pegasus pony with a vivid rainbow mane and tail.

"Hello," she said in a tone as friendly as she could manage. The pony snapped out of her blank expression and returned Twilight's smile.

"'Sup," she said.

"I was just sitting in my seat and I realized that I was traveling with nine other ponies so I didn't need to sit alone bored out of my mind. Do you mind if I sit down?" The Pegasus shrugged.

"Go right ahead," she said. Twilight smiled and sat in the seat opposite the Pegasus.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle," said Twilight with an extended hoof.

"Rainbow Dash," said the Pegasus, shaking Twilight's hoof.

"Rainbow Dash," repeated Twilight. "I must say the name fits you." Rainbow Dash smirked.

"Yeah, it's always suited me better than most names."

"So, Rainbow Dash, what brings you out here if you don't mind me asking," questioned Twilight. Rainbow Dash sighed and opened up a saddlebag that was placed on the seat next to her.

"I don't mind you asking," she said as she leafed through the contents of the bag. "It's really nothing too interesting I guess. You see, I got this letter telling me to come to Iselin Mansion along with a ticket for this train so here I am." Twilight's eyes widened.

"Wait, you got one of those too?" she asked. Rainbow paused for a moment before she looked up at Twilight.

"You got one?" she asked. Twilight nodded.

"Just last week I got a letter in my mailbox telling me to come on this train to Iselin Mansion." Rainbow frowned and began leafing through her saddlebag once more before pulling out a sheet of paper.

"Did your letter look like this?" she asked, handing the note to Twilight. Twilight scanned the note for a brief moment before nodding and handing it back to Rainbow Dash.

"It's word-for-word what I got except mine has my name at the top." Rainbow Dash frowned.

"So we're headed to the same place then," she said. Twilight nodded.

"It seems that way," she said. Before Rainbow could respond, a cerise Earth Pony with a trio of smiling flowers as a cutie mark nervously walked up to them.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation but I couldn't help but overhear you two saying something about a mysterious letter you received about a week or so ago."

"Yeah, why did you get one too?" asked Twilight. The mare nodded.

"Yes and based on your conversation it is exactly like the both of yours," said the mare. Twilight frowned at the news and scanned the rest of the compartment.

"Do you think that the rest of them got the same letter too?" she asked. Rainbow Dash and the mare copied Twilight's scan.

"I dunno," said Rainbow. "Should we ask them?" Twilight nodded.

"The only other stop for this train is Cady Island. If the rest of them are on the train then they have to be going there the same as us and if they are it's a good bet they all got letters too." Twilight stood up from her seat. "I'm going to go ask them about it." The mare and Rainbow Dash gave nods of agreement and Twilight loudly cleared her throat. The other occupants of the car turned around and looked at the source of the intruding noise.

"Uh, I'm sorry to bother all of you but I've been talking with these two ponies here and we discovered that we three are all on this train because we received the same letter telling us to be here. I was wondering if any of you got a letter too."

"Ah did," said an orange more with a heavy southern accent to Twilight's left. "It told me and my sister here that we needed to come to Cady Island tonight so that's why we're here."

"I received one as well," said a white mare with a purple mane.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie also received such a letter," said a light blue mare.

"So did everypony here get one?" asked Twilight. The occupants all nodded. "Okay, that brings up the question of 'why'. Do any of you know anything about why we've all been summoned to Cady Island tonight?"

"Nnope," said a large red stallion.

"I do hope that our presence will be explained when we reach the island," said the white mare. "I wouldn't have come at all if the letter wasn't so urgent."

"Okay then," said Twilight. "If I had to guess whoever invited us will be at Iselin Mansion when we arrive in five minutes. In the meantime why don't we go around and say our names? If we're all going to the mansion then we'd best know who each other are."

"Agreed," said the white mare. "My name is Rarity and I'm a dress designer in Canterlot."

"My name is Cheerilee," said the cerise mare. "I used to be an elementary school teacher but I'm currently unemployed.

"My name is The Great and Powerful Trixie!" said the light blue mare. "I am the greatest traveling performer in pony history!" Twilight roller her eyes at the mare but she moved on.

"The name's Applejack," said the orange mare. "And this here's my kid sister Apple Bloom."

"Howdy do," said Apple Bloom with a wave.

"I'm Rainbow Dash."

"Big Macintosh," said the stallion.

"Um...I'm Fluttershy," said a yellow Pegasus who seemed to be trying to make herself as small as possible.

"And my name is Pinkie Pie!" said a pink mare in the most high pitched voice that Twilight had ever heard.

"Wonderful, my name is Twilight Sparkle," said Twilight. "So now that we know each other’s names...now what?"

The car was silent for a few moments while everypony pondered the question.

"Well, I think now we just wait to arrive at Iselin Mansion," said Cheerilee. "Unless of course anypony here knows what's going on."

"Can't say that I do," said Applejack. "I'm just as curious as y'all are to be honest."

"Well I don't suppose it matters too much," said Twilight. "We're pulling into the station right now."

The ten ponies all looked out the windows closest to them and discovered that they had indeed reached their destination.