Pinkie Pie awoke the next morning stretching her from hooves into the air. She looked over at the clock. She didn’t normally wake up this early but the Cakes put her in charge so she wanted to get up bright and early. First thing she did was walk down the hallway and check on the foals. She peered into the room to see they were still sound asleep. She slowly closed the door making sure to not wake them. She headed down to the first and into the kitchen. Every morning, Pinkie would bake a fresh batch of muffins. Whenever the shop opened, she would place to new batch near the front door and put a fan behind it to blow out the smell and attract customers. Of course her first customer every morning was her favorite grey pegasus.

“Hey Derpy, every morning at 8 like usual.” Pinkie greeted.

“Never go to work on an empty stomach I always say.” The pegasus replied.

“I say that too!”

“Well, I have to go, can’t be late to work.”

“Ok, see yah around Derpy.” Once the pegasus was gone, Pinkie came out from behind the counter. “I should probably go wake up the foals now.” As she was about to start going up the stairs, she heard a knock on the front door. She turned back to see the new pony from yesterday standing in the doorway. “Hey Fire Tongue, how are you today?”

“Pretty good… Oh hey, I brought the recipe for the Gumball like you wanted.” Fire Tongue reached into his saddle bags and pulled out a piece and paper and handed it to Pinkie. She looked at it for a moment in question. The paper was really worn out and tattered. “Like I said, I invented it years ago.

“Why didn’t you just copy it onto another piece of paper? It doesn’t seem right to give me the original recipe.”

“Forget about it, somehow I feel it belongs with you anyway. So, what are doing?”

“I was about to go wake up the Cake’s foals, want to see them?”

“Sure.” The two ponies went upstairs and into the foal’s room.

Pinkie Pie leaned in close to the tiny ponies. “Wakey Wakey Pound and Pumpkin…” The two foals started to slowly wake up, making very soft yawning sounds. As Pinkie was picking them up, Fire Tongue noticed the book on table besides the crib. He picked it up and looked through it. “Hey, you like Princess Sweetheart too?”

He jumped a little at her interruption. “Uh yeah, my parents told me story a lot as a kid. This story is kind of the reason I started making sweets. I wanted to bring ponies together by seeing who could eat the hottest food.” Fire Tongue continued to flip through the book, and then he noticed something odd. “Hey Pinkie Pie?”

“Yes?”

“What’s all this writing in the back?” He revealed the back to show that there was some kind of writing on the inside of the back cover. “I’m not sure exactly what it says, looks like it’s written in some foreign language.”

“Granny Pie told me it’s some kind of nursery rhyme she found when she a little filly. Not exactly sure what it means though, she never told me.”

“Hmm… Odd…” He set the book back down. “So Pinkie, when did you say your birthday was again?”

“Tomorrow silly! I kind of want to introduce you to my friends before then. Would you mind coming back later tonight to meet them? I have some things I need to do first.”

“Sounds good to me.” Fire Tongue turned back and nearly left the room before looking back at Pinkie Pie giving her a smile. Pinkie couldn’t help but blush as he closed the door.

After the previous night’s theft, many guards were now stationed all around the Royal Artifact Treasury. Princess Luna was the first on the scene this morning talking with the other guards.

“Do you have any idea what the criminals were after?” The Princess asked.

“As far as we can tell, only one thing was stolen. Everything else is completely untouched.” The guard replied.

Luna rubbed her chin. “That’s odd… Why would somepony break into a treasury filled with many artifacts worth millions and only steal one thing? What exactly was stolen?”

“I don’t know the details; the stolen artifact, codenamed SWT001 was extremely classified. There is not much known about the object as it was supposedly recovered by Princess Celestia herself approximately 15 years before your return.”

Luna nodded. “Anything else to report?”

“Yes actually, come look at this…” The guard led Luna inside and approached the open door leading into the forbidden sector. “First things first, the intruder got in by breaking the south east window then managed to get his way into the forbidden area. This area is 100% impossible to enter without knowing the spell to break the lock on the field. This entire area’s walls are made of 4 foot thick enchanted concrete and the bars on made of Griffon strength steel. The only reason they got through was because the guards opened it to investigate before they were knocked out. What’s interesting is that they shattered the window in the sound east corner to enter however with what I am about to show you later, they could have easily made it in without making a single sound.”

“That’s because they ‘wanted’ to make a commotion Lieutenant…” The guard looked up at her. “They must have known the sector couldn’t be broken into so they deliberately broke the glass to get someone’s attention. Then once the door was opened, they knocked out the guards and snuck in. This thief knows his stuff… Now what else was it you wanted me to see?”

“This way Princess…” The guard led her into the forbidden area where the theft had taken place. In the center of the room was a perfectly-shaped cube glass display case with a dresser’s manikin in the center. It looked like a hole had been burned through the glass. “The object inside this case was what was stolen. As for how they got through we are still figuring out. This case was enchanted with extremely powerful magic, a barrier spell your sister casted personally. It couldn’t have been broken physically or magically.”

Luna inspected the melted hole in glass, looking at all the edges. She rubbed her hoof along the edges to find a clue. Finally she looked down and noticed some sort of white powder on the ground. She wiped it up with her hoof and sniffed it. “Hmm… Run a sample of this substance at the lab. Its looks like we may be dealing with an alchemist.”

“Yes ma’am.” The unicorn guard pulled out a clear plastic bag and lifted a small amount of the unknown substance and put it in the bag. Just then, another guard approached Luna.

“Princess, your sister has arrived and wants to know the situation.”

“Thanks for the information.” Luna quietly left the building avoiding all the guards. When she got outside, she saw her sister.

“Luna, what happened here last night?” She asked.

“Sister, it would appear a thief broke in and stole something from the forbidden sector. My night guards heard the noise and came to investigate but it appears as though it was a ruse. The only way into the forbidden area is a spell that only a select few guards know and it appears the thief was well aware and tricked them into opening it for them, and then they were knocked out cold immediately.”

“What was stolen?”

“They couldn’t give me the details but they claimed its codename was SWT001.” At that moment, Luna saw her sister completely freeze up. Celestia’s face was frozen at a state of pure terror.

“SWT… 001?”

“Sis?”

“GUARDS!!!” All the guards suddenly stop to look at her. “Place Canterlot on maximum alert, level 3! This is not drill, this is a serious situation. Also send a platoon to Ponyville, I want eyes and ears on the Element of Harmony bearers at all times.”

“Yes Princess!” They all shouted. All the guards scrambled to get things into place but Luna was confused.

“Sister, what’s going on?”

“That artifact was not just some random artifact. It’s something I picked up while visiting a land outside Equestria. I wanted so desperately to destroy it but I was told not to because it’s a precious object and an important symbol where it came from.”

“Then why did you take it?”

“Because on its own it’s useless, it needs other pieces to function properly. So I scattered every piece I had across Equestria and that land.”

“And the Elements?”

“The bearers of the Elements are one of the pieces, however if the thief doesn’t know exactly how all the pieces fit we are safe and the Elements are the trickiest part of the puzzle.”

“So what exactly do all these pieces do?”

“If these artifacts get into the wrong hands, it could not only mean the end of Equestria as we know it but it could mean breaking a promise I made several years ago…”