Chapter 9

Light and Truth

This was it. The moment of truth. Twilight knew that there would be no turning back once she started. Preston's enlightening comment in the lobby had provided her with the means and the opportunity, but there was still no motive. It was time to find out why the ponies of Everdale had been taken.

“Everypony, listen up,” Twilight commanded, her mane and tail whipping in the chilly wind that came from the inky darkness of room 201. “I know what happened. I know how Page was abducted. I know how the townsponies vanished. I know who posted the note on the fountain. I—”

“How?!” Red cried, forcibly shoving her way through the other ponies. “No, you know what? Don’t even answer. Don’t even. I was almost ready to trust you, but this is just way too much! You’re telling me that some light bulb randomly turned on in your head? What, does being Celestia’s personal student suddenly give you divine revelation or something? That window tells us nothing!”

Twilight shook her head and tried to ignore the chill pervading the second floor. She could understand Red’s frustration, considering everything that she had been through in the past month, but that just made it even harder to argue back. “That window tells us everything. It—”

“No it doesn’t!” Red stamped her hoof, her fiery demeanor ablaze. Twilight was about to say something, but she stopped when she saw Preston approach her from behind a put a hoof on her shoulder.

Red shoved him away, nearly knocking the pegasus to the floor as she continued to march towards Twilight. “Answer me! What are we supposed to get from that? All it means is that our culprit forgot to close the window after they threw Page out there in the storm!”

There it was, the first logical pitfall that everypony had fallen into. Twilight would have brought this up herself if Red hadn't mentioned it. “You know, ever since Caesura started making her deductions, everypony kept trying to find somepony without an alibi for the time that we were in the lobby. You know what? That makes sense... in a way. Somepony had to throw Page out of the window, right? Well, let me ask you something. Why are we assuming that Page was actually thrown out of the window?”

The question, albeit it an obvious one, was left unanswered.

Twilight took advantage of the silence and triumphantly marched towards room 201. “Because the way I see it, this open window says otherwise. If somepony was going to go through all the trouble of concocting an elaborate crime like this, I think they would have remembered to close the window afterwards. Wouldn’t that make sense? So far, our culprit has left almost no incriminating evidence, so why would they forget to close a window?”

Despite the solid deductions, Red refused to give up. “Because the culprit wanted us to find it! That still doesn’t—”

“Yes it does!” Twilight interjected forcefully, trying to keep Red from taking control of the situation. The last thing they needed right now was a bunch of paranoid ponies running around the crime scene! “Let’s talk this out, okay? The window was closed when Nightowl and I checked the room, and if you don’t believe me, you can ask him. This means that it was opened sometime after that, right?”

“Right,” came Nightowl’s affirmation from the stairwell. He was tall enough that he could still be seen over the crowd.

“Thank you, Nightowl. Now, the next question. Who could have opened it? Rainbow Dash?”

“That’s exactly what I was trying to tell you earlier,” Caesura grumbled from the crowd, not even bothering to step up and join Red. “She’s the only one who doesn’t have an alibi once you tripped your way downstairs. The way I see it, that open window shows that somepony was in that room after you left, and there’s only one of us that could have done it. Looks like you’re back to accusing your friend, eh?”

Caesura’s taunting made Twilight grind her teeth in disgust, but she quelled her sudden urge to levitate the pompous unicorn out into the storm. “Oh, really?” Twilight mused, imitating Caesura’s condescending tone. “No, I think we’re all forgetting something. You all seem to have forgotten something.”

Caesura, appearing a little bit unsure of herself, forced out a response. “And what’s that?”

“There’s actually another pony who doesn’t have an alibi for that time, and this pony wasn’t seen at all during the entire fiasco. I thought you would have noticed, but it looks like I was wrong. So, does anypony happen to know who that might be?”

“Oooh, oooh, pick me! Pick me, I know!” Pinkie began to bounce up and down from the back row, her detective’s hat nearly falling off.

With a grin, Twilight stopped just short of the broken door to room 201 and turned to face everypony. Pinkie must have solved quite a bit of this mystery already, considering how detailed her diagram had been, so there was nearly no risk in letting one of the detective's loyal assistants answer a few questions. “Yes, Pinkie? Who else doesn’t have an alibi for the time that Page could’ve escaped through the outer barrier?”

“Duh! It's Page!”

“Exactly,” Twilight giggled. Pinkie’s energy was infectious to the point that Twilight was beginning to enjoy her moment in the spotlight. “You see, nopony threw Page out of the window. In fact, she was never thrown at all, except maybe onto the bed. The most plausible option isn't that she was thrown outside, but that she flew outside of her own free will.”

“Hold it right there!” Caesura shouted, no longer content to sit in the back. She had been confidently sarcastic before, but it seemed that Twilight’s words had struck a soft spot. “Why would she go off by herself when she knew that everypony would be down in the lobby? She saw the invitation herself! If she flew off, why wouldn’t she have come back down through the front door to see everypony? I hope you realize what you’re saying here. If you’re saying that Page flew out the window, you’re saying that she's in cahoots with the culprit. And trust me, you don’t want to say that.”

Twilight took the mare's advice, making sure to tread carefully around the touchy subject of Page's abduction. Regardless, she couldn't deny the urge to be vague and mysterious, a habit that quite a few other detectives were guilty of. “You know, she actually did go down and see everypony. She just didn’t go into the lobby.”

While it would have been nice to milk her moment of victory for all it was worth, Twilight was interrupted by a multi-colored streak shot out of the crowd and landed right in front of Caesura.

“Aha! I’ve got it!” Rainbow shouted victoriously. “So how does it feel, huh? You want me to explain everything to you and then gloat over how right I am? Want me to start asking you ‘Am I correct, am I correct, myeh myeh myeh’?”

Caesura's eye twitched as she forced herself to smile. “Shut your trap, you little braggart,” she hissed. “You think you’re right? Because the last time you did something like this, you nearly drowned Preston and humiliated yourself. Somepony as dense as you should just sit in the back and let the rest of us do the thinking.”

“Why you little—”

“Rainbow, calm down,” Twilight ordered. “Rainbow Dash, as the detective’s loyal assistant, you’re supposed to make the detective look like the good guy. So please, my loyal assistant, why don’t you tell everypony why Page left the room?”

Thankfully, Rainbow took the hint. “Happily,” she announced dramatically, turning to face the crowd of ponies and striking a heroic pose. “Alright, everypony, listen up, because I’m about to knock your socks off!”

“Rainbow...” Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes and giving her friend a little nudge to get her back on track.

Rainbow didn’t even notice. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. So here’s the deal. Why would Page fly out the window without closing it? From what I remember, the storm had already kicked into gear by the time Twilight lowered the barrier around this room, meaning that Page must have been in a rush if she didn’t think to close the window to keep the rain from pouring in. So, during that short period of time when the outer barrier was still up, what was happening outside?”

Preston raised a hoof. “Well, I think—”

“Wrong!” Rainbow interjected, punctuating her victory with a dramatic laugh. “Aha! Everypony from the lobby was running outside like the whole place had just gone up in smoke! So come on, if Page saw this, why wouldn’t she fly out and see what was going on? If I saw my friends running around out there, I’d probably break the window to go see if they were okay! But I wouldn’t have been surprised if Page didn’t care about any of you enough that—”

“Thank you Rainbow, I can handle things from here,” Twilight sighed, hoping that Dash wouldn’t go too far with that assumption. While the brash pegasus was quite intelligent when she put her mind to it, she had a tendency to let her imagination run wild, just like her ego.

Thankfully, she heeded Twilight’s suggestion and took a deep breath, calming herself down. “You got it, Twi.” All of Dash’s bravado melted away from those words, leaving behind a warm confidence that reminded Twilight of how much her friends meant to her. “Knock ‘em dead. Now hurry up before everypony starts getting sappy again, otherwise I’m gonna have to kick ya.”

Unable to keep herself from smiling, Twilight gave her friend a playful push before continuing on with her explanation. There was no reason to draw this out any longer, and Dash’s theatrical explanation left her walking on thin ice, so there was no more room for error.

“Here we go. If she went out the window to go see why everypony was running, how did she end up getting knocked out and dragged into the Everfree Forest? The answer to that is quite simple. Earlier, I believe that Caesura mentioned how our culprit could not have worked alone, which is absolutely true. And Caesura, don’t even think about twisting my words again. Instead of implicating Rarity, this actually brings up another logical pitfall, one that I fell into as well."

Responses among the other 9 ponies in the room varied from outrage to confusion. Twilight had to quell the chaos before it had a chance to grow. “First off, my brother and Cadance saw two ponies dragging Page into the woods, meaning that there are at least two accomplices outside of the ponies gathered here. If our culprit had accomplices in the group of 17, it would have been easy for the ones in the front row to knock Rarity unconscious without anypony noticing, not to mention how easy it would be to scare everypony into charging headlong out of the front door!”

Before Twilight could develop her theory, Red stopped her. It was a good thing that she had left her megaphone down in the lobby, otherwise Twilight would have covered her ears in preparation for the aural onslaught. “So now you’re accusing the same ponies you came here to save? I can’t believe you! I know every single one of them by name! And—”

“Please, Red! Hear me out. I just—”

“Hey, Red ain’t the only one here who knew them.”

Twilight had been expecting Red to cut her off, but a stallion with a strong accent spoke up instead, making his way up to his fellow pegasus’ side. Preston’s eyes, usually bright and enthusiastic, were starting to lose their luster. He had been the only one to keep his cool through all of this, but it seemed that the immense pressure was finally starting to crack his emotional armor.

Ignoring the silence, Preston continued. “I can deal with everypony suspecting each other, but I thought that you, of all the ponies here, would understand. Twilight, your friends have already been under suspicion, but you wouldn't stand for it. So what about me? You’re gonna allow the last remaining friends that I had left in this Celestia-forsaken town to be accused even though they’re not here to defend themselves?”

Preston’s words were still restrained, but Twilight could still feel the intense emotion hidden behind his calm facade. There were cracks in his carefree mask, showing everypony just how much he had been through in the past day.

“Preston, you said that you trusted me,” Twilight sighed, biting her bottom lip anxiously. She couldn't help somepony that didn't want to be helped. “Please, just let me finish. Please.”

For any normal pony, a direct appeal to their emotions like thatwouldn’t have any effect, but Preston was far from normal. His tremendous inner strength was a force to be reckoned with. From what Twilight had seen so far, she could count on this strong stallion to not let his emotions get the best of him, even when—

“No. I won’t.” Preston’s cold words matched the icy breeze that swept through the room, sending shivers down Twilight’s spine. His Baltimare accent had vanished, catching everypony in the room off guard. “I say no. I’m done standing around. I’ve tried to stay out of your way so you could do your work, but not anymore. I appreciate everything you’ve done. Really, I do. But I refuse to let you bully my friends like this. I brought them all here because I thought you could save us, and you know, I can forgive you for making a mistake. You’re not omnipotent like everypony thinks you are. You’re not perfect. You did everything you could to help, and even if it didn’t work out in the end, I’m still grateful. Honestly, I couldn’t have done any better myself. But I am not gonna let you drag my friends through the mud like this! Memories of them are all that I’ve got left of them now... and I refuse to let you trample over what little I have to hold onto.”

Once again, Twilight found herself conflicted. If revealing the truth was going to cause nothing but strife, why was she bothering? “Preston, I know it’s hard to believe, but listen.” With a sigh, Twilight wished that she could directly show her empathy towards the shaking stallion in front of her. Instead, she had to rely on inefficient, subjective words to show her understanding, and words had long since lost their meaning. Words were helpless in the face of doubt. “No matter what, somepony you know is the culprit. So please, I only ask that you let me finish. And that you find the truth for yourself.”

There was no response, not even from the other ponies in the group. All of them could understand why Preston was so hesitant to let Twilight continue.

With authority in her step, Twilight backed into room 201, levitating the window shut and lighting the candles in the room with a small spark of magic. The warm glow made the room feel less foreboding by spreading the warmth of the flames to all that were inside. “Everypony, please step inside. I will stop wasting your time. All I’ve been doing is drawing out the inevitable, so I intend to tell you the truth before I make things any worse. So, everypony? Let’s end this. We all want this to be over. If you don’t trust me, then trust Princess Celestia. Trust the Elements of Harmony. That’s all I ask.”

        The first pony to move was Applejack, who had been remarkably silent this entire time. As the Element of Honesty, her words had remarkable authority behind them, but that was the very reason she had stayed silent. She was humble enough to realize that she didn’t know everything, so she had kept quiet in order to keep herself from accidentally saying something misleading. All of her confidence was summed up in her methodical trot as she entered and sat down next to the broken door to room 202.

One by one, the other ponies eventually began to filter in. Twilight wished that she could have been more ethical with her movements, but she had forced everypony's hoof. If any of them refused to enter the room, they would immediately become suspicious, meaning that their friends would be torn between sticking up for them or abandoning them. It was an unfortunate situation, but it was no different from the way it had been before.

Preston should have been the last one in, but a small figure still sat outside in the hallway, looking timidly at everypony inside with watery, half-closed eyes.

Twilight blinked. “Fluttershy?” she gasped. Sure enough, Fluttershy was waiting timidly by the stairwell. She had been getting so much better at speaking up recently, but Twilight could see the inner turmoil that came from choosing between being assertive and agreeing with her friend.

“Twilight... please stop.” Her voice was hardly audible. Twilight tried to make eye contact with her, but her pink mane was in the way. It was obvious that she was pouring every ounce of energy she had into standing up for herself like this. “You’re not being very nice. I-I really don’t want to know who did it.”

“But Fluttershy, I—”

“You know, we could just forgive them, right?” The timid pegasus had to pause and bite firmly on her lower lip before continuing. “I mean, as long as they promise not to do it again. W-we’re just making things worse here! If you go and prove that somepony is guilty, then...! Then...! What’s going to happen to them? Why can’t we just let it go?”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight whispered again. “I wish that I could see everything the way you do. You’re always so optimistic. But if we let the culprit go, then the ponies that have already disappeared might never come back. And maybe, when all of the other ponies come back, we really could forgive them. But right now, we need to know the truth. So please, Fluttershy...!”

Twilight heard somepony start to say something behind her, but when she turned, all she saw was Rainbow Dash giving Caesura a threatening glare. It wasn’t hard to imagine what the unkempt unicorn was thinking. If Fluttershy wasn’t coming inside, didn’t that mean she was guilty?

As if answering that question, Fluttershy stumbled lifelessly into the room, head held low and mane dragging on the floor in front of her like a mop. It broke Twilight’s heart to see her like this, but there was nothing they could do except push forward. The truth would set everypony free, both culprit and innocent alike.

Once everypony was inside, Fluttershy found a spot in the corner of the room and laid down despondently, not even making eye contact with any of her friends. Rainbow immediately flew over to her side, giving Caesura a little bit of room to breathe.

Once everypony was inside, Preston spoke up. “Whatever you say, I probably won’t believe you. I won’t believe anything you six say about my friends.”

Red jumped in with a vindictive shout, feeding off of Preston’s mistrust. “I knew it! You six can’t be the Elements of Harmony! You’ve only been trouble since you arrived! If you hadn’t shown up—”

“You asked for help,” Twilight interjected, “but we only made matters worse. I know. Trust me, I know.” She had already resigned herself to bearing the responsibility that had been thrust upon her. “We messed up. No, I messed up. I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I’m just asking for your trust.”

“And you expect us to trust you?" shouted Caesura. "You're the most suspicious out of this whole lot! If you're the one pulling the strings, then everything would make sense!"

"That's why I'm asking for your trust," Twilight replied, attempting to sound calm despite the churning in her gut. "I trust my friends. I know that all six of us are innocent. All of these incidents can be explained without our involvement."

"Fine, hurry up and explain it," Caesura growled. "We've already been over this. It still doesn't change the fact that you're responsible for well over half of what has happened here."

Red nodded slowly. “Explaining it won’t bring them back.”

“I know,” Twilight responded again, her voice still tinged with regret. “We’re not superheroes. We thought we could help, and believe me when I say that we tried as hard as we could, but now it’s time to fix the problems that we created. If you can’t give me your trust, then give me an ear. Hear me out.”

There were no objections.

“Think about everything that has happened so far,” Twilight spoke calmly, her voice slicing through the heavy atmosphere of the candlelit room. Sheets of rain pelted the windows loudly enough that Twilight had to project her voice to make sure that everypony heard her. “This theory will account for everything. The note, this room, and the lobby.... If I had known sooner, I might have been able to stop this. Now that I know, I'm going to make sure that this stops here. While I admit that I have no idea what happened to the ponies that have already disappeared, I know exactly who is behind this.”

With grim determination, Twilight readied herself. There was no room for hesitation, especially after she had made it so far and dragged all of these ponies along with her. “First, I want to apologize to everypony here. Yes, I even want to apologize to the guilty party. You must have worked hard to create this complicated crime. Now that I can see everything that happened, I have to say that I’m impressed. If this had been a duel between the two of us, I would have lost. I wouldn’t have been able to solve this without the help of all of my friends.”

Allowing herself a moment of weakness, Twilight hesitated. Was it wrong for the detective to sympathize with the culprit? All of the fictional detectives that she had imitated as a filly had a clear nemesis, a dastardly villain that wouldn’t hesitate to foalnap a pony in cold blood. In this mystery, Twilight felt empathetic towards every single one of the suspects, making it even more difficult to raise her hoof in the culprit’s direction.

Struggling to keep her resolve, Twilight began to think out loud. “There’s no motive here. Nothing. All that we have to go by is cold, hard facts. Those facts only leave room for one answer, an answer that I nearly overlooked. And it all starts with one pony.”

Twilight leveled her hoof at the culprit.

“It was you... Caesura.”

Twilight grinned as everypony's head turned to face Caesura. There was a familiar sense of vulnerability in her emerald eyes as they darted around, but Twilight couldn't let sympathy slow her down. It was time to take this haughty mare’s mask off.

Immediately, Red leapt between the two unicorns. “Have you lost it?! Caesura was with Pinkie the whole time! There’s no way—”

“I’m not talking about Page’s disappearance,” Twilight explained, doing her best to keep Red from frothing at the mouth. Keeping this group under control was like walking a tightrope over thin ice, but now she had to pull off a 10-point pirouette! “In fact, Caesura has all of her actions accounted for ever since she entered the hotel. I’m talking about the very first move our culprit made: setting that note on the fountain.”

Even though Twilight couldn't see Caesura, she could still hear her unsteady voice. “R-Red? I—”

“Don’t worry, Chess! I’m not going to let her do this to you." Red's wings flared as she glared at Twilight. "You’re my friend Caesura, and friends stick up for each other!”

Twilight, in  flash, tried to think of a way that she could make Red stand down. “Look, the easiest way to put the note on the fountain would have been with magic, meaning—”

"Then you put it there! It doesn’t matter anyway, since Caesura couldn’t have done anything. Everypony would have noticed if her horn had lit up for no reason!”

Twilight smirked. “You're right."

"What—"

"Let me finish. Caesura was the only one with the opportunity. Pinkie, would you mind telling us what happened when you went to check out Caesura's instrument cases?"

"Sure thing, Twilight!" Pinkie, with all the gusto she could manage, launched into her story. “You see, I went over to check out Caesura’s pile of instruments, and wow, she’s got a whole ton! I tried to get her to levitate me along with her instruments, and even though she tried, she couldn’t really get me into the air that easily, so we gave up and came back to join everypony!”

"That doesn't prove anything!" Red belted, baring her teeth. "Caesura would have been too distracted to place the note!"

"Really?" Twilight countered. "Because I recall a certain unicorn being able to levitate a multitude of fragile instruments at once... with her eyes closed."

"B-but that," Red stammered. "That's not decisive! She may have had the opportunity, but that doesn't count as proof!"

"It doesn't? Well then, allow me to continue. It may seem like there was no evidence for this mystery, but there's one more clue that everypony overlooked. Red, let me ask you something. Where was the culprit keeping the note before they posted it on the statue? Nopony here had any saddlebags... but one of us had quite the assortment of instrument cases.”

With one last cry, Red stamped her hoof in defiance. "But why?! Why would she place it when everypony else was around the fountain? There was no reason for her to to a risk like that!"

"That confused me as well, but then I thought back to my earlier point. If Caesura was carrying the note in her instrument cases, she would have to keep Pinkie away from them. In a desperate move, she had to place the note immediately before Pinkie could find it."

Red looked like she was about to contest the point, but she took a slow step backward, glancing over her shoulder at Caesura. The pegasus gasped a took a jumped away, revealing a grinning mare behind her. There was no trace of fear on Caesura's smug expression anymore.

        As thunder flashed, Red turned sideways, her eyes shooting back and forth between Twilight and Caesura. “No, this isn't right! Caesura, don’t worry, I can still save you! Just please, say something!”

Caesura chose to remain silent as she sat on the floor, her grin growing wider.

A few ponies in the room moved to approach her statue-esque form, but only one of them followed through, brusquely shoving Red out of the way. Rainbow Dash stood threateningly in front of the accused unicorn, eyes narrowed.

"So... did you really do it?” Rainbow asked, her voice restrained. “Is that why you tried to accuse me? So that you could get off the hook?”

“Yeah.”

Twilight’s hoof froze in the air as she prepared to interrogate Caesura further, but there was no need. Even Red, who had gotten back up to her hooves and was about to tackle Rainbow to the ground, froze where she stood. “Wh-what?" Red gasped. "Caesura, you didn’t!”

It was too late. Rainbow Dash had already pushed a confession out of her without even trying. Twilight had been prepared to break up a violent fight between the three of them, but everything had been resolved peacefully. The unnervingly calm unicorn sat quietly, not even bothering to open her eyes. Why wouldn’t she defend herself? What had happened to that passion back in the lobby?

Rainbow, her suppressed fury beginning to rise, leaned in closer until she was nose to nose with Caesura. Twilight could see electricity sparking between them. “That’s it?! No evil laugh? No theatrical confession?! Just a single word? You...! How can you be so calm about this?! What about the villain's dramatic last stand?!!”

Yet again, there was no answer. The accused unicorn wasn’t even going to bother putting up a fight, much to Rainbow’s chagrin.

“Caesura, don’t joke around,” Preston chuckled nervously, making his way up beside Rainbow and looking around the room at all of the shocked expressions. “What are you thinking? You’re just going to let these bullies push you around?!”

The air in the room was thick, even worse than it had been before. Nopony dared say a word. Over the pounding rain and howling wind, Twilight could still hear Preston’s irregular breathing and sniffling. She was glad that she couldn’t see the stallion’s desperate expression.

Finally, Caesura spoke, her grin fading into a deep frown. “Thanks, guys. Really. But she’s still right. Twilight’s not bullying anypony. In fact, she hit the nail right on the head. Pinkie would have seen the note in my case if I hadn't tried to levitate her like that. I just got unlucky, that’s all.”

Caesura’s nonchalant confession only made things worse for Preston. “Unlucky?! What’s wrong with you? Why would you do that, Caesura? You’ve been my friend ever since you came here, and the Caesura I know wouldn’t be working with a foalnapper!” There was a hint of nostalgia in Preston’s words, but it was hidden beneath his unsteady optimism. “Even if you did post that note, you would have had a good reason for it, right? Is somepony forcing you? Are you being blackmailed?”

Caesura ignored the emotion in her friend’s voice, remaining stoic to his pleas. “None of those. I simply wanted them out of here. These 6 really are like storybook detectives. No matter where they go, something bad happens. Their arrival was the nail in the coffin for Everdale.”

As much as Twilight wished that Caesura would explain herself further, pressing her further would probably shove Preston and Red past the breaking point. There had been enough trouble in Everdale recently, and Twilight wasn’t going to cause any more than she needed to.

It was then that Twilight realized what Caesura was doing. Despite admitting her guilt, she was still grinning confidently, almost as if she was taunting her friends and egging them on. I know your game, Caesura. You’re going to try and make me push them past the breaking point and use the ensuing chaos to your advantage, aren't you?

“Thank you, Caesura,” Twilight whispered, shooting a challenging glare at the guilty mare. “Preston? Red? I'll need you to bear with me. This won’t be easy.”

“What... what other choice do I have?” Preston laughed mirthlessly, a sparkling sheet of tears beginning to form a film over his downcast eyes. “We’re being held hostage by the 6 most powerful ponies in Equestria.”

Part of Twilight, the part that she had to suppress to keep her thoughts on track, wanted to comfort the desperate stallion in front of her. Even Rainbow, who was still standing beside him, had to look away.

Twilight frowned. “Caesura, you couldn’t have done it alone. You were under complete surveillance ever since you entered the hotel, meaning that you couldn’t be the culprit for this next crime. You delivered the threat, trying to get us to leave, but you were just an accomplice. Let's find out who you're working for.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” the guilty unicorn scolded, as if she was completely ignorant of the fact that she had just admitted her involvement. There was an unspoken challenge between the two unicorns, one that Twilight was more than willing to accept. “Say what you will, oh great detective, but say it clearly. It’d be a shame if you were wrong.”

“I will, thank you,” Twilight responded flatly. On the surface, it might have sounded like they were having a friendly conversation, but a battle of wits raged beneath the surface, signified by the intensity in their challenging stares. “Let’s continue off from where we left off.”

Before, Caesura hadn’t been able to actively criticize Twilight’s suspicions without appearing to be guilty herself, meaning that Caesura had admitted her guilt in order to go all out against her. Now that Caesura had admitted her guilt, there was nothing keeping her from blowing holes in Twilight's theory.

Once Twilight had everything ready, she began her explanation. “So, after we were banished, Nightowl and Page went out on duty. Then, Red goes over to fill them in on what happened, but we’ve already been through this. Now, for the longest time, I thought that Nightowl and Page were both innocent, meaning—"

“Oh?” Caesura interrupted, not letting a single opportunity go to waste. She leapt on Twilight’s vague statement like a starved animal. “And why would you mention that? I think that it would make quite a bit of sense if Page and Nightowl were my accomplices, you know."

That was a dirty trick, but Twilight was ready for it. Caesura was trying to blame Page, which would send Preston and Red into a frenzy, but Twilight wasn't going to allow that to happen. “You're wrong, Caesura, it wouldn’t make any sense at all. You see, when you think about it from their perspective, it wouldn’t have made sense for either of them to be involved in this. Why did Nightowl and Page show up to the hotel in the first place? If one of them was the culprit, or even both, there would be no reason for them to come to the party, which would put them in a tight spot. If I was the culprit, I wouldn't put myself in a difficult situation like that."

Keeping her expression unreadable, Twilight turned to face Nightowl. “Now, let’s assume that both you and Page are guilty for a moment. If your goal was to make all of the ponies vanish overnight, why would you willingly comply with a plan that would keep everypony holed up in the hotel? Sure, you would be able to get inside, but you two wouldn’t be able to do anything if we all stuck together. If you two mysteriously vanished before you arrived at the party, everypony would panic and split up to search for you, making us all easy targets. You would have foiled our plan before it even started! If we assume that one of you is guilty and the other isn’t, a similar question could be asked. Why the guilty one willingly bring their victim to a safe place, making it nearly impossible for them to carry out their threat?

“Ergo, I thought that you were both innocent, but everything changed when I heard your testimonies. Nightowl, you were forced to go to the party because you had somepony watching you at all times! Preston saw you coming out of the guardhouse with Page and asked for your help, so you had to oblige, otherwise your cover would have been blown. So you go help him, but before you can come up with an excuse to leave, Red sees you. Now, after Preston and his friends left, you remained with Red, and Preston specifically mentioned that he expected to see you at the party, which meant that even after he left and Red ordered you to leave, you had no choice but to go into the hotel after him."

“Watch your step,” warned Caesura, still not moving. There was a hint of venom in her voice. “If you’re accusing Page, you had better be ready for a swarm of angry ponies. I’m the culprit, right? I already know the truth.”

Twilight clenched her teeth. She’s taunting me. She knows that she could cause this group to riot at any given moment if my deductions don’t go the way that she wants them to. It may look like I'm in control right now, but it's only because she wants me to be.

“I’m watching my step, thank you very much,” Twilight giggled cordially. “I already know what happened too, you know. Nightowl, if you’re guilty, then Page is innocent. If you were both guilty, there’s no reason that you would come to the hotel in the first place. You both had a fair amount of time between when Pinkie delivered your invitation and when Preston showed up, meaning that if the two of you were guilty, you would have taken that time to disappear into the woods before Preston saw you.”

Caesura snorted derisively. “That’s a dirty trick, Twilight. Real dirty. Maybe you really are just bullying these ponies around.”

As soon as Caesura interjected, Twilight knew that she had just walked into a trap. “And how is that?” she asked cautiously.

“Stop with the games already. You know what you’re doing. By saying that only one of them is guilty, you’re forcing Nightowl to confess. Page isn’t here to defend herself. If Nightowl says that he’s innocent, you can twist his words to make it sound like he’s saying that Page is guilty. That’s awfully cruel, Twilight sparkle.”

Twilight grimaced. In truth, she hadn’t intended to put Nightowl in a position like that, but intentions had long since worn out their usefulness. Caesura had pushed her into a logical corner, twisting Twilight’s words to make it sound like she was twisting Nightowl’s. But there was an easy way out of this trap.

Gritting her teeth, Twilight nodded. If Caesura was going to play dirty, Twilight would too. “You're right. But what are going to do about it, Caesura?”

The blunt reply had caught Caesura off guard, giving Twilight the opportunity to leap out of her trap before she could spring it by changing the subject. “Caesura, if I say they’re both guilty, it doesn’t matter if you say they are innocent. You’re the culprit after all, so how can we trust that you aren’t covering for your accomplices?”

Immediately, Caesura responded, taking Twilight's bait. “Simple! Your premise that both can’t be guilty is completely faulty. Even if they were both in on it, they had no reason to act immediately! They probably spent that time arguing about their plan of attack, meaning they could both be guilty!”

“Thank you for proving my point.”

The off-white unicorn twisted her lips into a snarl as she backed down. "Your point?"

“My point is that both of them could be innocent as well. The testimonies show that Nightowl had no chance to slip off into the forest before the party started. This doesn't prove Page or Nightowl guilty. It only makes it possible."

Caesura gnawed on her lip. She had been trying to make Twilight say that Page was guilty, but her plan had failed. “Urgh, fine. You'd better tread carefully, Twilight.”

Caesura’s warning didn’t fall on deaf ears. Twilight understood the consequences of arriving at her answer prematurely. Right now, she was walking a tightrope between being theatrical and being blunt, and one wrong step on either side would send her plummeting.

All this time, Nightowl appeared to be listening intently, but he jumped at the opportunity to speak up. “I’m not going to lie. If my innocence implicates Page’s guilt, I’d plead guilty without a second thought.”

“And that’s admirable, Nightowl,” Twilight remarked quietly, avoiding giving Caesura more ammunition than she already had. “But let’s focus on the facts, shall we?”

The sturdy watchpony fidgeted, refusing to be silent. “Like the fact that Page somehow vanished from the room before we found her. And that she was shouting at somepony that doesn't exist.”

Twilight pounced on his last sentence. “That’s the funny thing about this case. We’re still assuming that she left the room. My barrier doesn't lie. I had initially wondered whether Page had managed to match up her shape with Rarity’s, but if that’s true, then when did Rarity leave? No matter what, the results of my barrier show that one pony would have remained in the room. My magic won’t lie to me, and my magic told me that Page never left once she entered!”

Once more, Caesura threw herself into the debate. “Oh, really?” she quipped. “I do believe our defective detective has made a blunder. You’re so quick to say that she never left, but you, of all ponies, should know the incredible feats that magic is capable of. You know, I think I might just make another confession.”

Cursing under her breath, Twilight wished that she could magically gag Caesura.

“You see, when I was approaching the door, I saw Nightowl and Rarity turn on the lights, just like I said. But I lied, you see? I actually teleported inside, grabbed Page, and teleported both of us back out before coming in. To think you’ve been running around in circles and never even considered that idea! Maybe I should have been the detective.”

“Sorry Caesura, but I won’t be resigning anytime soon,” Twilight countered. “If you’re going to confess, the burden of proof rests on you to show that you did it. So please, Caesura, would you be so kind as teleport the two of us outside for a moment?”

Twilight found a sick satisfaction in watching the frustrated mare squirm under everypony’s expectant gaze. Caesura was extremely dexterous with her levitation, rivaling Rarity, but in order to be that gifted with levitation, other spells would have to be neglected. Rarity couldn’t teleport, and it was becoming fairly obvious that Caesura couldn’t either.

Instead of a rebuttal, Caesura shook her head, never once letting her irritation show.

“I applaud you for your inventive theory, Caesura, and also for your bravery, but your confession isn’t going to save your accomplice.”

There was a small twitch in Caesura’s floppy ears, but it was enough to let Twilight know that she had been right.

"Now, back to the truth. I only noticed it recently, but when I went into room 201 with Nightowl, it was dark. Very dark. In your testimony, Nightow, you told me that you had Rarity light the candles, which was confirmed by Red when she said that she saw Page in the window. So who turned them off?”

Twilight had expected Caesura to butt in, but she remained suspiciously quiet.

Instead, Nightowl answered. “What if nopony turned them off?” he offered, pursing his lips. Caesura may have been a good liar, but this watchpony couldn’t hope to match her sprezzatura. “Page could have opened the window and let the breeze in. Right?”

With ruthless precision, Twilight turned to face him. “That's not a bad idea, but it doesn't make sense. Whenever anypony saw the window, it was closed, making me wonder when Page would have woken up and opened up. Despite all of that, there was another pony that could have blown out the candles without anypony noticing. It was quite a narrow window, I admit, but not impossibly so."

In the corner of her vision, Twilight saw Caesura wince. There was nothing that Caesura could do to protect her accomplice anymore.

"If you remember," Twilight stated, "Nightowl broke in through the front door before I could, giving him a few seconds where I couldn’t track his movements. During that time... you had just enough time to blow out all of the candles.”

In a flurry of confusion, Nightowl began to back away. “But why? Wh-why would I do turn off the lights?!”

“Let me ask you a better question. Why would you turn on the lights in the first place? Wasn’t Page supposed to be sleeping? It’s simple. You didn’t want me to be able to see very well. If the lights were on, I might have noticed that Page was, in fact, still in the room.”

“What?” Nightowl gasped as his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, reflecting the dancing flames of the candles on the wall. In that moment, Twilight knew that there was no escape for the trembling stallion. “We searched everywhere! Dark or not, you know that she wasn’t there!”

“Not everywhere, Nightowl,” Twilight objected. “I thought it was strange that you immediately started investigating the closet when we got there. You were being extremely level-headed for a pony who had just lost his best friend. You wasted no time in suggesting that we search the room... and immediately went and checked the closet. That left me to check everywhere else."

"B-but—"

“The only logical answer is that Page never left the room at all! She was stuffed in the closet, hidden by the darkness that you created! Afterwards, Page must have woken up, either from a crack of thunder or from the noise downstairs. As Rainbow already explained, she went to the window, saw everypony running for their lives, and flew out to see what was going on.”

“Close, Twilight Sparkle, but no cigar.” Caesura’s taunting voice rang out, reminding Twilight that she was still there, listening for any fatal error in her reasoning. It seemed she had waited long enough to get back on the offensive. “Nightowl couldn’t have done it. If he used those few precious seconds to turn out the lights, he wouldn’t have had time to stuff Page in the closet without you noticing. I’m sure that your dear friend, Rarity, can remind you that, when they left Page, she was resting on the bed. So how did she get into the closet, hm? Are you saying that she went there herself? The only way your theory works is if Page is working together with Nightowl... and are you sure you want to take that step?”

With a patronizing smirk, Twilight answered. “No, Page is entirely innocent, and I can show you the answer without involving her at all. Rarity, could you please tell us exactly what happened when you dropped Page off in room 201?”

There was a small motion from the corner of Twilight’s vision as Rarity shuffled to the center of the circle. She didn’t look too happy about it. “I already told you once, but I’ll repeat myself for your sake, Twilight. I will admit that I do not like this train of thought, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Nightowl has been nothing but polite to me since we arrived! In fact, he has been the only one to maintain his trust in us this entire time.”

“I realize this,” Twilight whispered, her words heavy. Being the detective wasn't as easy as she had thought. How was she supposed to live with herself after accusing the ponies that she was supposed to save? They trusted her, and she was going to have to betray them.

“If you insist," Rarity sighed. "The two of us went into room 201 and I levitated Page onto the bed. Nightowl then asked me to light the candles and check the adjacent room to make sure everything was secure, which seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea. I agreed, walked out the side door, then met him back in the hallway before returning downstairs.”

“Thank you, Rarity.” Twilight’s suspicions were already confirmed, but now she had to make sure that everypony saw the same thing that she did. “Now, one last question. When you met back up with him, had Nightowl already closed the door behind him?”

“Why, yes. But that doesn’t.... Oh my. You don't mean that—"

“That’s right, Rarity. While you were in the other room, Nightowl had the perfect opportunity to stow Page in the closet. I imagine that he would have thrown her out of the window for Caseura to pick up, but you had already informed him about the barrier, meaning that Page had to stay in the room until it was lowered.”

It seemed that Caesura had given up on defending her accomplice, so Twilight took the liberty of making the final statement on the matter. “So Nightowl, I have presented what I believe to be the truth about Page’s disappearance. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

The strong stallion began to back away from the circle, his eyes darting madly around the room. Twilight had seen many sides of Nightowl, ranging from excited fan to grieving friend, but she had never seen him look so afraid. “N-no, I didn’t do it! I don’t know what happened, you’ve gotta believe me!”

For a few panicked moments, Twilight realized that she had no way of proving that Nightowl was guilty. In this situation, the burden of proof rested on her, but even then, if Nightowl didn’t confess, she wouldn’t be able to convince everypony else that he was guilty! All that she did was present a plausible theory, but that couldn’t be counted as decisive evidence even in Princess Celestia's court! Taking a deep breath, Twilight tried to press further as doubt penetrated her sphere of confidence. “Nightowl, let me ask you something. I—”

“No, I-I didn’t do it!” the watchpony repeated, desperately meeting the suspicious stares of everypony else in the room. Finally, he settled on Rarity, the pony he had spent the most time with, and his disheveled expression seemed to lighten. “R-Rarity, you believe me, right? I was with you when we were upstairs! Come on!”

All eyes turned to Rarity. As Nightowl stepped forward in her direction, she stepped hesitantly backward, the fear in her eyes betraying what was going through her head. She had been alone with the culprit, one who could have easily overpowered her and made her vanish into the night as well. The realization made Rarity look like she was about to faint, but not in the usual dramatic way.

“Hey Nightowl... give it up already.”

The frustrated, yet placid voice came from the other side of the circle, where a guilty unicorn was resting.

Nightowl visibly jumped, turning to Caesura like she had started spouting gibberish. “Caesura?! But—”

“I said give it up, Nightowl. She’s got your number. You’re not going to be able to squirm away from her just by playing dumb. She’s Princess Celestia’s personal student after all.”

“But—”

“No! The jig is up. The cat’s out of the bag. Need I say more?”

This would have been the point where the detective continued on, but Twilight was too shocked to speak. She had been about to try and attack things from another angle in an attempt to make him accidentally confess something, but the sudden interruption from Caesura almost seemed a little bit too convenient.

Before Twilight could question her, Nightowl drooped his head in defeat and plopped down on the cold, hard floor. With tightly shut eyes, he turned to face the wall and opened his mouth to speak. “Fine. It’s true. I... put Page in the closet. I pretended that I didn’t see her. I’m sorry. I’m...! B-but I...!”

As Nightowl trailed off in an uncharacteristically shaky voice, Caesura shrugged. “Now that you’ve gotten this far, Twilight, I might as well just give you the whole confession. Yeah. I admit it. I posted the note. Nightowl put Page in the closet and she flew away. And I guess you already know how I pulled off the stunt in the lobby, considering what you’ve already told us.”

“Really?” Twilight challenged, once again fighting the urge to make this any more dramatic than it needed to be. “How convenient. There’s just one small problem with that little confession of yours. I appreciate you giving me the truth about the note and about Nightowl, but you really shouldn’t lie about the lobby.”

As lightning struck somewhere nearby, Twilight caught that vulnerable look in Caesura’s emerald eyes. “Nice try, Caesura, but you can’t hide the truth from me. I know what happened in the lobby. Would you mind if I told you what happened, instead of the other way around?”

The only answer that Twilight got was the ever-present noise of the storm.

“Fine. Let’s continue chronologically, shall we? So Page woke up, went to the window, and flew out to check on everypony. But that raises the question of how she was she foalnapped, since she went out to join up with 17 innocent ponies.

“This leads me to the mystery of the lobby. Caesura, there was no way that you and Nightowl could have planned all of this, thanks to this party and the barriers I created. You probably had a contingency plan that you could carry out to follow through on your threat, just in case my friends and I came back to Everdale after being banished. It had to be something brilliant, something foolproof that you could enact whenever you wanted. You see, the lobby was extremely difficult to figure out, but only because there was no solid evidence of who was responsible for it. The culprit of this last crime was the ringleader, a pony so clever that I nearly let them slip away."

Caesura, her jaw hanging open, swallowed air and tried to compose herself. The unicorn was really starting to sweat under the pressure, despite her nonchalant performance thus far. “Fine. Go for it, defective detective,” she spat, trying to use her bad attitude as a cover.

“Don't mind if I do! So, for the ringleader, the only options left are you two.” Twilight turned to face the two pegasi from Everdale, both of whom had been noticeably quiet for the past few minutes. “Preston and Red. It could only be one of you two. Page is almost certainly innocent, as we’ve already discussed.”

Neither of the two pegasi acknowledged that they heard her. By now, both of them had been reduced to lifeless, apathetic husks, almost like the 9 ponies that had been found in the forest.

Struggling to keep her momentum, Twilight continued with her deductions. “You see, I thought it was strange that Preston’s group of friends was so small, but what was even stranger was the fact that Caesura and her larger group never once ran into them that night! Between the two of them going door to door in a small town, you think they would have seen each other at least once. Caesura, you couldn’t have gotten the party invitation as late as you said, because if you had started rounding up ponies after Preston and his group had already gone into the hotel, how did Red see you only moments later with a group of 11? I don’t think it’s possible to gather up that many ponies in a matter of seconds, even with magic.

“This inconsistency made me realize what had happened in the lobby. Preston?” Twilight tried to make eye contact with the despondent pegasus, but he turned the other direction, refusing to make eye contact with her. Seeing him like this was starting to become physically painful, but Twilight had to stay strong. Everything would work out in the end, just like Fluttershy had hoped for.

“Preston, your friends are innocent. There’s no doubt about it.”

Upon hearing that, he suddenly snapped to attention, his misty eyes regaining some of the life that they had always held.

“And I can prove it!” Twilight’s pleading tone allowed some of her weakness to show, but Caesura didn’t take the chance to capitalize on it. “Somepony had to be responsible for what happened in the lobby, but it would have been impossible to pull off that stunt with only 6 ponies. Because Caesura has already admitted to placing the note on the fountain, we know that she is involved, making her group of 11 ponies seem awfully suspicious. If we assume that they were brought in with the express purpose of making the others disappear, it would have been easy for them to chase Preston’s friends out of the door while they knocked out Rarity, Preston, and Red.”

Thankfully, this seemed to have some effect on the downtrodden stallion, who once again raised his eyes. But instead of staring at Twilight, his stare immediately shot over towards Caesura, drilling into her. “You! Did you—”

“Yeah. Yeah I did. Those 11 ponies were all working for me. Guess there’s no denying it anymore.”

Twilight, while still unsatisfied with the explanations she had gotten, had to admit that Caesura was being remarkably cooperative. It was enough to make her hesitate before continuing, expecting some sort of trap.

“Thank you, Caesura. Assuming that these 11 ponies were in league with you, the disappearances from the lobby are possible, but it doesn’t make any sense. Why were the 11 ponies so coordinated in their attack? How had they known that the group would be split up between those in the lobby and those upstairs? It’s possible that they acted on instinct, but there was one last thing that didn’t make sense to me. And this one last thing is the most important question involving the incident!

“In the lobby, why did the culprit bother to knock out Red, Rarity, and Preston? If the culprit was truly intent on making all of the ponies of Everdale disappear, they wouldn't have forgotten to abduct the mayor and her secretary. You see, I understand why the culprit didn’t foalnap Rarity. If they had, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would have immediately been called down here and things would have gotten quite messy. As we can infer from the note, our culprits are afraid of ‘divine’ intervention, meaning that they absolutely did not want to incur our wrath by abducting Rarity. That is also why Nightowl didn’t attack her while he had the opportunity, not to mention that he would have blown his cover too early.”

Rarity, still looking slightly worried, breathed a sigh of relief.

“So that leaves us with the question of why Red and Preston were left behind. Just like Page’s disappearance, we cannot assume that both Red and Preston are guilty because, if they were both involved, they would have taken the opportunity to escape with the others. You see, even though Nightowl and Caesura were with us, they were in on this plan as well, meaning that, once they had taken all 17 ponies from the lobby, they would have succeeded in abducting every single pony that lived in Everdale. There was no reason for them to stay, especially because they could have easily shifted the suspicion over to Rarity, since she would have been the only one left behind.”

“Just a moment,” Caesura snarled, her animosity showing. “They could both be guilty! They signaled their accomplices to chase the others out of the lobby, but before they could leave, they could have heard you tumbling down the stairs! If they heard that, they would both have to play dead, so that their cover wasn’t blown!”

Twilight’s patience was wearing thin with this half-baked objections. “That’s highly unlikely. If they were both guilty, they would have been mixed in with the 17 ponies that ran out of the lobby. Why would they have waited behind?”

Just like before, Caesura had no answer.

Twilight grinned. “Now, we can assume that you two cannot both be in league with Caesura and Nightowl. Now, let’s try the opposite. If you two were both innocent, the 11 ponies would have abducted you as well, yet again resulting in Nightowl and Caesura’s victory. This leaves us with only two options."

Twilight had been expecting a turbulent response, but neither of the pegasi even blinked. What had happened to all of Red’s energy? Where was all of that sound and fury?

Shuddering, Twilight refocused herself, reminding herself that Caesura was watching. “The reason that both of you were left behind is because the culprit didn’t have time to drag the other pony out. Think about it. As we have already mentioned, there was an extremely short period of time between when I felt the disturbance in the barrier and when I arrived downstairs. The both of you were in the back by the stairwell, which would make it difficult for the guilty one to start a stampede without the other noticing.”

“Wrong!” shouted Caesura angrily, completely abandoning her calm facade. “Why wouldn’t the innocent one run forward to go help the other innocent ones?”

“The culprit couldn’t take that chance, Caesura. Let’s put ourselves in their hooves for a moment. The innocent townsponies were already mixed in with the group, making it easy to herd them out of the front door, but the last innocent one was in the back. If the innocent one saw that they were outnumbered, nothing would have stopped them from going upstairs to get help! The guilty one had no choice but to knock the innocent one out.”

“I...!” Caesura was too frustrated to finish her sentence.

“Now that we know that only one of the two is guilty, we can take the final steps. The reason that both Preston and Red were left in the lobby is most likely because the culprit heard me falling down the stairs and panicked, dropping the innocent pony and pretending to be unconscious too."

With a deep breath, Twilight embarked on the final stretch of her explanation. “We can’t solve that part just by looking at the lobby. We have to look back at the testimony. You see, Nightowl was observed from the time he left the guardhouse to the time that he arrived at the party, giving him no chance to run off into the forest with Page. Based on our earlier assumptions, we can believe that all of Preston’s friends are innocent. Now, before finding his friends, Preston was completely alone when he witnessed Nightowl and Page coming out of the guardhouse. You see, if Preston was guilty, then it would only make sense that Nightowl would have run off, leaving Preston to cover for him.”

As Twilight let the implications of her deductions sink in, her intense gaze swept over towards Red. The lifeless pegasus hadn’t moved an inch from where she had been. Why didn't she say anything?

Regardless, Twilight had to continue. “Red, you were alone with Nightowl as well, but Preston’s words bothered you, didn’t they? He said that he expected to see Nightowl in there soon, meaning that Nightowl couldn't escape without blowing Red's cover. Red, you probably considered running and hoping that Preston didn't suspect anything, but when you saw Caesura coming up with her 11 accomplices, you began to hatch a plan. In the time between Preston’s and Nightowl’s arrivals, all members of the guilty party were only accountable to each other, meaning that they had a surprisingly long amount of time to go over their plan.

“Red... you’re the ringleader here. You covered your tracks extremely well, so well that you didn’t leave a single incriminating clue behind. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

For what seemed like hours, the sound of the storm grated on Twilight’s expectant ears. It was almost as if Red hadn’t even heard her.

Finally, the once fiery pegasus opened her mouth to respond.

“.... No.”

Once again, Red’s lack of reaction made Twilight stumble over her deductions. “W-well fine, I’ll tell everypony what your plan was! Your plan was to take Page inside and put her in one of the upper floors. Once everything was in position, you would come in and drop a curiously specific hint that somepony else was in the room with Page, all while playing dumb about the situation. You told Nightowl to turn on the lights in the room that Page would be in, alerting you and Caesura of her location. Your goal was to make it seem like Page had disappeared out of thin air, so you told Nightowl to drop her off, distract Rarity, and toss her out of the window!

“This is where things went wrong. With my barrier in place, Nightowl couldn’t throw her out of the window like you had planned. You waited, but it never happened. Regardless, you still had to stick to your plan and split everypony up by lying about Page’s argument. Nightowl came along with me while you stayed down in the lobby to coordinate the attack, but you hadn’t counted on Rarity and Preston staying down in the lobby as well. Luckily for you, Rarity made things a little easier.

"While they were counting, you had one of your accomplices in the front row sneak up and knock her out. You and Preston were in the back, so you knocked him out next so that he couldn’t call for help or run the other way. With that done, you got your accomplices to cause a panic and herd the remaining townsponies out of the front door and into the forest. But before you could drag Preston out, you heard me come tumbling down the stairs. Your only option was to stick around and play dead for a while.”

That was it. That was the truth. There was no triumphant applause from the other ponies in the room. Twilight wasn’t sure what she had expected. It was like she had reached the end of a marathon to find that the finish line had disappeared. In detective novels, the big reveal was exciting, showing everypony how crafty the detective was, but instead of feeling crafty, Twilight felt... horrible. She felt like she had bullied all of the ponies in the room into giving confessions.

Trying to fight her unease, Twilight stepped hesitantly over towards Red, wishing that she could keep up her omnipotent detective act a little bit longer. Having Caesura’s constant animosity had been helpful with that, but ever since the unicorn had gone quiet, it had become difficult to keep her conviction.

“So Red... I’ll ask you this once. Tell me the truth. Did you do it?”

As if to highlight the finality of Twilight’s words, another crack of lightning resounded in the small hotel room.

“I...” Red began, but took a quivering breath before finally answering. “I guess this is a fitting end for me... isn’t it...?” Red raised her eyes to meet Twilight's intense gaze. A wise pony had once said that the eyes were the window to the soul. They were right. Red’s eyes were misty and wet, just like the only other window in the room, and both revealed nothing but an endless, bleak expanse behind them.

Beside her, Preston began to shake. Twilight had to look away to keep herself from trembling at the pitiful sight. “Red, are you really...?”

Even though the two ponies were side by side, they seemed so far away.

Red turned her back on him. “I’m sorry, Preston. I’m... sure that you’ll make a great mayor. You’re getting the job the same way I did, but I’m sure you’ll do a better job.”

Preston, despite his despondent stature, finally found the energy to move. Twilight could tell that he wasn’t going to let it end like this. As Preston turned to face his friend, Twilight saw the determination in his eyes. Even though Red had admitted to being the mastermind behind these insane disappearances, Preston wasn’t afraid of her. Those two... were truly friends.

The stallion’s cracking voice betrayed his uncertainty. “And.... And what am I supposed to be the mayor of? A town with only 5 ponies? Red, why?! Why did you do it? How did you do it? What did you do to my friends? No, not just my friends! What did you do to your friends?!”

When Twilight turned back to look at Red, she wished that she hadn’t. The mayor of Everdale was staring blindly out of the blurry window and into the endless storm as streams of tears cascaded down from her lifeless eyes. Twilight could sense a deep sorrow in the pegasus’ expression, but in a way, she almost looked... happy.

“Red?” Twilight whispered, finally letting the emotion of the room affect her. Fluttershy was right. There was no reason to punish somepony if they were willing to apologize. Red may have given up on herself, but there were others that still cared about her. “Red, please! Tell us what happened. Tell us what you did to those ponies!”

Without drawing her attention away from the blurry image of Everdale, Red’s smile grew. “You know I.... I became mayor by a fluke. I was never cut out for this job. My name... is Red. Red Tape. The only thing I’m good at is pushing pencils and being ordered around. I guess it’s kind of a lame special talent, isn’t it?”

The quaking, crying mare closed her eyes and lifted her heavy head to face the heavens. “I was a terrible mayor. Dotted Line was much more deserving of this post. He was the first to go, you know, making me the mayor in his stead a month ago. I hired Preston to do my job, but I kept him blind to the whole thing. He... was just so innocent. So nice. He had every reason to be suspicious of me, but he never even thought about it. Preston...."

There was no thunder to fill the silence this time, leaving nothing but the merciless pounding of rain on the window and ghastly howling of wind. As Red’s sniffles were drowned out, Twilight had to fight in order to keep herself from reaching over to comfort her. Preston, the only innocent pony from Everdale in the room, was the only one who could do that.

And he did.

With a heavy breath, Preston finally brought himself up to face her. “Red, it’s okay,” he whispered. There was warmth in his words. “Look, I don’t know why. I don’t know how, and frankly... I don’t need to.” He gently rested a wing on her trembling shoulder, trying to get her attention.

Red’s eyes remained closed. It was like she was completely disconnected from the world. “I-I’m glad,” she choked. Her hiccups sounded like dry laughter. "It's all over... isn't it?"

Twilight, finally finding her voice, spoke up. “Red, we’re the Elements of Harmony. We’re here to bring harmony... not judgment. You’ve already apologized. And we forgive you. Right girls?”

One by one, all of Twilight’s friends stood up and formed a small circle around Red and Preston. Rainbow, on her way over, stopped by Caesura’s side. The unkempt unicorn was still sitting perfectly still, forcing herself to look away from Red and the group in the middle. Twilight watched as Rainbow and Fluttershy both turned and put a hoof on Caesura’s shoulders, making the mare visibly wince. Rarity, as well, made her way over to where Nightowl was sitting, doing the same.

Twilight, with as kind of a smile as she could manage, looked around at all of her friends. All of them had grown up so much. She had been wrong to ever doubt them! Even though Twilight had only known the ponies of Everdale for a day, she knew that they would make fine friends as well.

“Red, we forgive you," Twilight repeated. "Caesura? Nightowl? You too. Just tell us the truth. We came to help... and we’re not leaving until everything is back to normal. No. Even better than normal. We came to help, after all."

Nods of assent came from 7 ponies in the room, including Preston. He slowly reached forward and lovingly wrapped his wings around Red, pulling her into a warm embrace and squeezing his twinkling eyes shut. “Red... it’s fine. Let’s go back to how it was. So please... let’s go get everypony else and bring them back. Okay? We’ll go back to how things were... and just live our lives. Together.”

Pinkie, who was standing over beside them, quickly turned away and pulled out a handkerchief. Twilight started to feel herself tear up as well, relieved that everything was turning out for the best. Heart fluttering for joy, Twilight reached forward to put a hoof on Red’s shoulder as well.

“No... we can’t.”

In an instant, a booming roll of thunder heralded the stark change in atmosphere of the room. Red had spoken.

Preston, still holding her tightly, froze. “R-Red...?”

“I said that we can’t go back. Put me in cuffs. March me up to the scaffold. What’s done is done... and you can’t pretend that this didn’t happen. All of those ponies won’t be coming back.”

Twilight’s heart plummeted. “B-but we forgive you! We—”

“No. This isn’t about forgiveness. This is how it has to happen."

Preston refused to let go, still holding tightly onto her. “But—”

In an sudden blur of orange movement, Red shoved Preston violently to the floor. Instead of trying to escape, she loomed quietly over Preston’s trembling form, wings folded complacently at her sides. “This is how it has to end.” She paused and closed her eyes. “Are you happy now?”

“Of course not!” Preston shouted desperately, scrambling up to his hooves again. He tried to get close, but Red held out a hoof to stop him. “R-Red, Please!”

“No. Mysteries don’t end with the villains walking free. Twilight, you should be proud of yourself. You caught me. You completed your mission. You solved the mystery of Everdale. So don’t feel bad about this... okay? Besides, it would be best if this place disappeared anyway.”

Red, her movements slow and painfully precise, lowered herself down to her haunches and raised her front hooves in the air. In desperation, Twilight turned to look at Caesura and Nightowl, but both of them followed suit, mimicking Red’s surrender.

Nopony said a word. There were no words to say. The culprits behind the mysterious disappearances in Everdale had finally been caught. Twilight had nearly driven herself insane trying to solve this mystery, but she had still succeeded. She may have succeeded in being the detective...

        … but she had failed at being a friend.

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Hours passed. Celestia had begun to rise the sun again and the storm dissipated, fading far above the canopy of the Everfree Forest. For the first time in what felt like weeks, the sun’s warm rays fell on Twilight’s tired body like a much needed blanket, but not even the sun would keep Twilight’s thoughts from dwelling on the events that had recently come to pass.

The merciless sun revealed what remained of Everdale, forcing the few remaining ponies to bear witness to the empty husk of a town. The fountain in the middle of town square, Gemini, sparkled brilliantly in the reflection from the water at its base. The two pegasi it portrayed, side by side, stared stoically at the abandoned, taped up houses. Time had marched on.

“Hey, Twily?”

A voice beside Twilight made her look up, finding herself staring at the worried face of her older brother, Shining Armor.

“How are you holding up?” he asked.

“Not so well,” she admitted, letting her emotional fatigue catch up with her. She had been forced to play the detective, just so everypony else could find a strong figure to latch onto, but that had been nothing but an act. “Red won’t talk. She won’t say anything about the missing ponies. Nightowl and Caesura are just following her lead.”

“I see,” Shining whispered to himself, narrowing his eyes and taking a quick survey of the town around him.

“Is Page awake yet?” Twilight asked hesitantly. There had been unease among the group about what they were going to tell Page when she woke up, but nopony could arrive at an executive decision, meaning that Twilight was now responsible for making that choice. She had made enough bad choices already, but it seemed that she was destined to make even more. “Red did tell me something, actually. She told me to tell Page that she had been foalnapped... and that there was nothing we could do. She wanted me to lie.”

Shining nodded supportively, still looking tired despite his strong stature. “Actually, she just woke up. Cadance is with her, catching her up on everything that happened. Poor thing. She was scared out of her wits when she woke up and saw me.”

“Now you know how Cadance feels every morning,” Twilight giggled dryly, trying to force some humor into their conversation.

“Twilight! Seriously, what are you going to do about her? Maybe she can get Red to talk. Or Nightowl. We can’t give up yet!”

Twilight really did feel like giving up. How could she help somepony who insisted on carrying some invisible burden all by herself? “Page needs to know. She’ll talk to them, and maybe they’ll reach an agreement or something, I don’t know. I’m just tired. Tired of thinking so much.”

“C'mon, you were amazing back there,” Shining insisted. “I let down the barrier a little bit so I could hear what was going on and I was absolutely blown away. Even though you had figured everything out, you were still so tactful about it. You really tried to help, and you didn’t rub it in anypony’s face, not even that creepy unicorn."

“Look, Shining. If I had figured it out earlier, I could have stopped this. But—”

“Don't even start with that, sis. You did more than even Princess Celestia could have done, but you’re not done yet. Look, here they come.”

As Twilight turned to look, Page trotted energetically out of the hotel lobby with a harried Cadance trying to keep up with her. The bright shine in Page’s eyes make Twilight’s heart ache, reminding her of the short time they had spent in Everdale before things had gone so horribly wrong.

Page, her messy white mane sparkling in the early morning sun, glanced around at all of the taped up houses. “Hey, sorry for worrying you,” she laughed. There was an excitement in the way she carried herself, making Twilight wonder what Cadance had told her. “Princess Cadance here just gave me the rundown on everything. She told me that you absolutely nailed the culprits! So who was it, huh? Who did it?”

“Page,” Twilight whispered, not trying to put on a confident display anymore. She didn’t have the energy. “I’m glad you’re okay. But—”

“Oh, is this about earlier? Okay, I admit, I wasn’t too keen on you and your friends just kinda showing up, but I guess it all worked out in the end. So where’s our dastardly villain locked up? I mean, we’ve never actually put anypony in jail here before, but I’d imagine this would be a good time to start."

“Page, listen to me. I’m so sorry—”

“Nah, don’t worry about it! We’ve got our man, now let’s just torture the information out of him and get everypony back!” Page giggled and spread her hooves out in the air. “I can just see the headlines now: ‘Elements of Harmony solve the curious case of Everdale! Parade to be held in their honor immediately’. Or something like that.”

“Page, just listen! They’re over in the jailhouse, but—”

“I knew it! Haha, maybe I should be a sleuth myself. I’ll go rustle some information out of them, okay? I’ll give you a little break, since you look pretty bushed.”

Before Twilight could say anything to the contrary, Page had shot off into the air. Despite the beautiful day that was dawning, Twilight knew that things were only going to go downhill.

“Hey, Twilight?” Cadance asked gently, still looking goofy with her mane as disheveled as it was. Despite that, she still managed to appear dignified. “I know it doesn't seem like it, but everything will turn out okay in the end. It always does. Remember my nightmare of a wedding? Remember that mess with the games inspector at the Crystal Empire?"

Twilight, still unable to stop thinking about Page, had to agree with Cadance. Maybe she was just desperate to find a silver lining to this dark cloud, but she still had to have hope. "You’re right. We’ll go into the Everfree Forest ourselves if we have to! Really, thank you. I come and save your wedding, then you come and save Page. I guess we’re even, right?”

“Not really, Twily,” Shining teased, “unless you got engaged to that pegasus while I wasn’t looking.”

“Hey!”

After a bit of rough-housing and rolling around in the grass, Twilight finally let herself relax. Her big brother and Cadance always knew how to cheer her up, even when things seemed like they couldn’t get any worse.

“Oh, Twilight?” Cadance grinned as she leaned on her husband. “I just realized something. We never got to greet each other properly, did we?”

“Oh yeah!”

As the two ponies exchanged their nonsensical rhyme and dance, Twilight started to let her worries melt away. Motives were unclear and they had no idea where the disappearing ponies had gone, much less what had happened to the 9 they had found in the forest, but those problems seemed far away.

After collapsing into a fit of giggles with her old foalsitter, Twilight tried to quiet the last nagging doubt  she had. She couldn’t ignore the feeling that she had forgotten something. Something important. She would remember what it was eventually, but until then, there were more important things to worry about, like when she was going to take a nap and talk to Princess Luna again. Everything else could wait.

Everdale was safe.

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End of Act I