Chapter 10

A Broken Puzzle

“Well done, Twilight Sparkle! Brava!”

The Princess of the Night’s enthusiastic cheer fell upon deaf ears. Twilight knew that she should have found some satisfaction in Luna’s admonishments, but she couldn’t rid herself of the nagging thought that she had done something wrong. Even though she had solved the mystery of Everdale and saved the two innocent ponies that remained, she couldn’t help but wonder what had Driven Red, Caesura, and Nightowl to foalnap so many innocent ponies. There was also the more important question of what they had done to the few ponies that had been wandering around the Everfree Forest!

“Twilight?” Luna asked, her leading tone drawing Twilight back into the dream, where they were sitting at a familiar wooden table in her library. “Your mind is wandering, is it not?  If you’d like, I could recommend you some literature in the reserved section of the Royal Library, assuming you are still interesting in learning about the world of dreams.”

That got Twilight’s attention immediately. “You mean there’s been studies?” she gasped, her curiosity piqued.

“Absolutely! I wrote many of them myself, but I have hidden them away in hopes that the knowledge may benefit somepony that has earned my trust.”

“You mean—”

“I do, Twilight Sparkle. As I have told you, very few know of my abilities, and even fewer and trusted with the knowledge of what I can do with them. You seem rather disheartened, so I thought that a small gift would convince you that you truly have done a marvelous job with your mission. So when you come back, I shall lend you my personal collection of dissertations on the world of dreams.”

Twilight, nearly forgetting about Everdale, had to resist the urge to leap over the table and give Luna the biggest hug she’d ever given. “Oh, thank you!” Twilight cried, beginning to clap her hooves together to release some of the nervous energy she’d been holding in. “Oh, what should I start with? Who should I start with? Are there other ponies who have studied dreams?”

Luna scrunched her lips and looked away. “There was only one other, but trust me, you do not want to know what he thought dreams signified.”

"Aw, c’mon,” Twilight teased. “It can’t be that bad!”

“Trust me, it is. Shetland Freud would have thought that your library would have represented a—”

“On second thought, I don’t want to know,” Twilight giggled. She had heard of that mad psychologist before, but had had read enough to know that she didn’t want to read any more. “However, I’d be more than happy to read your books!”

“Wondrous!” Luna shouted. “I have been waiting to share these journals ever since I returned. Now, I loathe to get back to the present, but I fear that you are thinking too hard about this case. Before, you were so distracted that—”

“I know,” Twilight grumbled, her mood shifting back to how it had been before. “And you’ve already told me what happens when I lose my focus.”

Twilight heard Luna giggle. “I do not need a blurry dream to tell me that you are distracted.”

In any other situation, Twilight would have found a witty retort for Luna’s remark, but she didn’t have the energy. Last night had been exhausting, and while it was currently midday, Twilight had chosen to take a nap to catch up on her much-needed rest.

Thankfully, Luna picked up the conversational slack. “Twilight, I shall leave you to your rest, but I must insist that you allow yourself a moment for celebration! I know that you are trying to act as if nothing is wrong, but this is the world of your subconscious. You cannot hide your worries from me.”

“I know,” Twilight repeated, “but how am I supposed to ignore the fact that Red’s hiding something? I was expecting her to start a monologue about her grand schemes to become mayor and rule with an iron hoof, but she has barely said a word since her imprisonment. She didn’t even seem angry when I accused her. She just looked... defeated.”

“Fear not,” Luna soothed, “she has admitted to the crime, meaning that we only need to venture into the Everfree Forest and find our missing ponies. My sister and I shall worry about the paperwork.”

“That’s not the problem,” Twilight explained, rolling her eyes. “I know that we can find her accomplices somewhere and get the truth out of them, but something tells me that won’t help. I know it sounds strange, but I just want to know why Red orchestrated all of this. You weren’t there when I accused her, Luna! You didn’t see her eyes when she shoved Preston to the ground!”

“Obviously, but what does that have to do with—”

“You didn’t see the way she reacted!” Twilight cried, her frustration building. How could Luna be so insistent on letting this go? “She’s still hiding something. I know she is. Any detective worth their horseshoes wouldn’t be satisfied without finding the motive!”

“But you are not a detective, Twilight Sparkle. You are the Element of Magic, and as such, you are responsible for assisting my Sister and I in maintaining harmony in Equestria. If Red truly regrets her actions, she will apologize in due time.”

“But we already forgave her!” Twilight’s desperation grew, her words racing ahead of her thoughts. “We offered to let everything go back to the way it was, but even then she—”

“You were going to let her go?” Luna scoffed. “She has to answer for her crimes, just like everypony else! Anypony who takes advantage of my night, using my art as cover for their heinous crimes, shall not be pardoned!”

“You weren’t there! All that I’ve done since I showed up at Everdale was spread misery and let everypony down! I’m not letting Red sacrifice herself for a cause I don’t even understand!”

“But Twilight, her victims may not forgive her as you have—”

“I don’t care! Just because Red is guilty doesn’t mean that she doesn’t need our help!”

“Please, Twilight, think about this objectively, we need to maintain harmony and justice—”

“No, you think about this! If I wanted to maintain harmony and justice I wouldn’t have saved you, Nightmare Moon!”

As soon as the words were out of Twilight’s mouth, she recoiled backwards. Where had that come from?! She hadn’t meant to say that!

It was too late. Twilight had never seen an alicorn look vulnerable before, but Luna’s shock showed more than just vulnerability. Instead of childish amusement, her sparkling eyes were starting to brim with tears.

“L-Luna, I’m so sorry! I don’t know what came over me, I just—”

The alicorn’s face hardened as she stared down at the table, hiding whatever emotion she had shown before. “You are forgiven,” she stated flatly. “I understand that this is a world of your subconscious, meaning that you would have normally filtered—”

“Princess, I—”

“Do not feel guilty, Twilight Sparkle. Guilt only exists to keep us from repeating our mistakes, but in abundance, it will keep you from fixing them.”

“Luna, I shouldn’t have—”

“You need your rest. I shall not bore you with the tedious facts about dreams. Farewell.”

Before Twilight could protest, Luna’s regal form dissipated into thin air, leaving Twilight reeling from the sudden chain of events.

-------------------------------------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-------------------------------------

The inside of the Everdale jailhouse was surprisingly comfortable. There were 5 dusty cells that had never been used before, meaning that the plush furnishings in each cell were still brand new. In essence, each cell was like a tiny, transparent hotel room with all of the accommodations anypony could ever need. It was the kind of jail that would have made a pony want to commit a crime.

Caesura hated it. Getting the thick layer of dust off of the bed and nightstand had been a royal pain, causing a dust storm any time that Caesura tried to clean something off. Regardless, it could have been much worse. She could have been in the Canterlot prison, which probably wouldn’t have the luxuries that she was enjoying right now.

There was also the fact that escaping would have been as easy as levitating the keys over to her cell and unlocking the door. The only thing stopping her was the orange earth pony, who was dutifully keeping watch over her, but even the Element of Honesty would have trouble keeping her for bolting outside. Even though Caesura’s only magical talent was levitation, she could easily knock Applejack’s lights out with a levitated bed frame.

In the end, there was no reason. Caesura wouldn’t be able to do anything if she ran away, even if she managed to convince Red and Nightowl to leave as well. Nightowl, who had been pacing around his cell since the moment he arrived, would have been easy to recruit, but Red was more statue than pony at this point. Despite the few ponies who had come by to question her, Red had remained silent, choosing to lie down on her bed and stare at the ceiling.

“Hey,” Nightowl whispered from the next cell over, interrupting Caesura’s train of thought. He had no concept of the word ‘subtle’. “Caesura, let’s get out of here! If you just levitate the keys over, we can—”

“Can it,” Caesura snapped, indifferent to the fact that she had spoken loud enough to draw Applejack’s attention. “You know this is how it has to be, you dolt. If you say a single word to them, I’ll suffocate you with your own pillow.”

The playful threat had little effect on Nightowl, who continued pacing. “I know, but I just want to go back to the way things were!”

“That won’t happen,” Caesura grumbled, making sure to censor her words so that applejack wouldn’t understand what she meant. “I won’t say anything else, but this is for the best. Heroes have to make sacrifices after all.”

The gray stallion finally stopped his pacing and sat down on the dirt floor. “Heroes?” he mused, eyes sparkling. “I wish. We’re the villains here, remember? I know that we’re just trying to—”

“Not another word,” Caesura hissed, making sure that Nightowl didn’t finish his sentence.

Sadly, the damage had already been done, and Caesura heard the sound of hoofsteps beginning to approach their cells. Grumbling, she forced herself up and turned to face her captor, already preparing a pitiful facade.

“What are y’all talking about?” Applejack asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. “And Caesura, you stay quiet. You’re one heck of a good liar, but your partner here couldn’t fool a filly if he tried.”

Immediately, Caesura gave the only stallion in the room a threatening glare, just to make sure that he kept silent. She wasn’t going to let one weak link in the chain ruin everything that she had worked for.

“Not gonna talk, eh?” the farm pony sighed, turning back towards the front door. “Fine. We’re trying to help y’all out, so anytime ya wanna come clean, just give us a holler.”

As the guard left, Caesura smiled. She had underestimated those 6 ponies, thinking that they would rely on force to solve all of their problems, but one of them in particular had proven to be more of a problem than she was worth. Twilight Sparkle. How could she be so disgustingly perfect at everything she did?

Animosity fading, Caesura began to envision what was going to happen next. All of her plans had ultimately failed, leaving her with no option but to wait in her dusty cell for somepony to pick her up and cart her off to Canterlot. She hated being helpless like this, but trying to escape would only make matters even worse.

With a an exasperated sigh, the dirty white unicorn collapsed onto her bed, raising a cloud of dust around her. The small specks sparkled in the brilliant light from the window, distracting Caesura from her troubles for a few brief moments. There was something mesmerizing about the way that they danced around as they descended back to the floor.

Her musings had distracted her so much that she didn’t hear the hoofsteps approaching one of the other cells in the room. It wasn’t until she heard the pony’s voice that she knew that somepony was there.

“Red...?”

Like a lightning bolt, Caesura shot up from her bed. “Page?” she gasped.

This drew the attention of the sky-blue pegasus, who was leaning up against the bars of Red’s cell, her eyes darting between the three prisoners. “Caesura? Nightowl?! What are you—”

Before Red could continue, Caesura took advantage of the opportunity to explain things. “What, they didn’t tell you?” she gasped, already forming a plan in her head. If Page hadn’t been told the truth, she would believe anything that Caesura said, giving her an opportunity that she couldn’t afford to pass up. Just to be sure, she turned to see if Applejack was still at the front door, but it appeared that the Element of Honesty had stepped outside to give Page some privacy. Perfect.

“No!” Page cried. “They just told me that they solved everything and that.... No, you can’t be serious. This is just—”

“They did,” Caesura sighed, trying to act as pitiful as she could. “They put all of the blame on the three of us and forced us to confess! It was like some kind of witch hunt!”

Caesura tried not to grin as she heard Page snarl under her breath. Deep down, Page was nothing but a kind and dependable friend, making Caesura hesitate before continuing. Page and Red were the only two ponies that Caesura had ever been able to call a friend, but she had already betrayed one of them. It was only a matter of time until she was forced to betray the other.

“I knew those six were trouble!” the pegasus shouted as she whipped around to face Red’s cell. “Red, are you really just going to sit back and let this happen? You can put an end to all this if you just tell them!”

This got Red’s attention, but it wasn’t enough to make the apathetic mare respond. It was painful for Caesura to watch Red writhe around like this, but it was a necessary evil.

“Answer me!” Page yelled, kicking one of the metal bars with enough force to make Caesura jump. “I can’t believe you! And you, Nightowl, I refuse to believe that you were involved in this! We’ve been friends for years, now!”

Just like before, nopony responded. Caesura wished that she could calm Page down somehow, but there was nothing that she could say to help the perplexed pegasus. After all, Caesura was partly responsible for what had happened to her.

“You’ve... gotta be kidding me!” Page cried as she slammed her hoof against the cell door. “If any of you think that you’re doing the right thing by sacrificing yourself like this, you’re wrong! I’m not going to stand around and let this happen. No, I’m going to go out and tell them myself. The Nightowl I know wouldn’t stand for this.”

Caesura flinched, leaping up to lean against the bars of her cell. This was bad. “Page, listen to me. If you—”

“I trust you, Caesura,” Page responded with a scowl. “I want to believe that you aren’t responsible for this. I want to believe that the two months you’ve spent here have changed you, Caesura. I want to believe you. That’s all.”

Gnawing on her tongue, Caesura tried to think of something to say. She had thought that Page would have enough common sense to not associate with the Elements of Harmony, but it seemed that she had been wrong. “Page, you know that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you!” she called out, resting her head against the cold bars of her cell. If only she could tell Page the truth! There were times that Caesura wished that she wasn’t so skilled at lying.

“Caesura, look me in the eyes,” Page whispered, placing herself right on the other side of the bars from Caesura. Her voice was firm, but trusting. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that you’re innocent. You’re my friend, Caesura, and if you say that you’re innocent... I’ll believe you.”

Swallowing air, Caesura felt her heart pound her her chest. She could tell a straight-faced lie to Princess Celestia herself without hesitation, but there was something in Page’s voice that made her worry. How could she lie to her best friend?

“Caesura,” Page repeated, her intense frown starting to soften. “Tell me the truth. Were you involved with my abduction?”

“No.”

Page’s worry melted away into a relieved smile. “Good,” she sighed, as if a heavy burden had been lifted off of her chest. “Just give me some time and I’ll get you three out of here. I’m going to find the truth for myself, so sit tight until I come back with the keys.”

As the spunky mare trotted out of the jailhouse, Caesura’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t lied, but she had manipulated her best friend into helping her. Two months ago, she would have despised herself for using Page like a tool, but a lot had changed since then.

Caesura could only hope that Page would be smart enough to keep her mouth shut.

-------------------------------------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-------------------------------------

Page, her breaths coming is short gasps, broke into a gallop as soon as the jailhouse door closed behind her, dashing headlong towards the hotel and leaving two of the Elements of Harmony behind her. She didn’t want to talk to either of them, even if Nightowl seemed to think that they were the greatest heroes of all time. In the back of her mind, Page chastised herself for every having that stupid fantasy about joining them as their seventh element, even though that had been years ago.

There, in front of the hotel, stood a pink alicorn. If it had been anypony else, Page would have wasted no time in assaulting them with questions, but it was difficult to be angry at somepony when they had saved her life.

Instantly, Cadance turned to face her, eyes wide. “Page? Are you feeling okay?”

Anger welling up inside of her, Page took a deep breath. “I’m fine,” she lied. “Where is Twilight Sparkle?”

Taken aback by Page’s bluntness, Cadance blinked. “She went inside to take a nap after you left, but don’t worry, my husband’s watching after her. She’ll be fine.”

I’m not worried about how she’s doing, I’m worried about what she’s doing! Instead of voicing her frustrations, Page swallowed her pride and reminded herself that she was representing all of her friends. She had to make a good impression.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Cadance asked again when she didn’t get a response. “I might be able to use my magic to help you if you have a headache.”

“No thank you,” Page replied politely, making sure that she didn’t let her anger show. “If I can’t speak to Twilight, I’ll speak to you instead.”

“Me?” Cadance asked, surprised. “Well, I could pass a message on, but—”

“Fine, but tell Twilight Sparkle that she’s wrong. Red, Caesura, and Nightowl are all innocent.”

It was obvious that the alicorn was uncomfortable talking about this. Page could hardly blame her for being confused, seeing that her husband had apparently woken her up in the middle of night and dragged her into the middle of a terrible storm because he had seen something in a dream. Despite her confusion, she looked like she was pondering over a difficult decision, but Page couldn’t begin to imagine what was on her mind.

As the silence dragged on, her inner fury began to burn away. She still wanted to free her friends, but there was nothing she could do if the pony that she needed to talk to was already asleep. “Sorry, Princess,” Page sighed, hoping that the alicorn wouldn’t think badly of her for being so moody. “I mean, I’m grateful that you saved me—I wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t shown up—but Twilight must have made a mistake somewhere.”

Cadance’s lips formed a tired smile. “It’s good to hear that somepony’s glad that I’m here,” she giggled, her slouched postrue hardly appropriate for a Princess. “Shining didn’t want me to come along, telling me that I should stay behind and look after my subjects, but the Crystal Empire pretty much takes care of itself anyway, especially since they started electing officials to make all of my choices for me. Well, I guess that Rarity was glad to see me, but she probably just wanted to try and fix up my mane again. I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time.”

Blinking, Page tried to keep up with the conversation. She had expected all alicorns to be majestic and proper, but this Princess acted like she was still growing out of her rebellious phase. “Well, Princess, we still need to talk. From what you told me already, I’m guessing that Twilight never bothered to explain anything to you either. Heck, I have no idea what even happened after I fell asleep, outside of the fact that you two arrived and saved me from some shady ponies in the forest.”

“Actually, my husband filled me in,” Cadance remarked, starting to look anxious again. Page was amazed that she had the charisma to rule over the entire Crystal Empire. “He really should be resting right now, but he’s as stubborn as a mule when it comes to helping other ponies. You should have seen the pity party he threw for himself after our wedding, going on and on about how he was the worst husband and worst brother ever!”

Once again, Page had to steer the alicorn back on track. “That’s good and all, but could you fill me in too? I know I was in a little bit of a rush this morning to get out and see everypony, but....” She trailed off, her thoughts roaming back to her friends in the jailhouse. Where was Preston? Had he been taken as well? There were so many questions that Page had, but nopony had the decency to answer them for her. Instead, they all danced around the subject and treated her like she was made of glass.

“I wouldn’t mind, but—” Cadance stopped midsentence, craning her neck to look behind Page. “Oh, Rainbow, thank goodness! Would you be able to catch Page up to speed?”

        Spinning on her back hooves, Page found herself face to face with the Element of Loyalty. The colorful pegasus must have followed her back from the jailhouse after she had run off like that.

“I got you covered, Princess,” Rainbow assured, but her voice didn’t have the bravado that Page remembered from their first night in Everdale. “I’ve probably got some explaining to do myself.”

With an appreciative nod, Cadance disappeared into the hotel, leaving the two similarly colored pegasi at the front door.

“So, uh,” the Element of Loyalty mumbled, looking just as uncomfortable as Cadance had. “Sorry about your friends and all that. I came over here to apologize for not saying something when you went in, but I thought that you could get them to talk or something. I mean, that smelly unicorn is as evil as they come, but I really find it hard to believe that a doofus like Nightowl would have been involved with this. You know, sometimes.... Ugh, nevermind, I’m terrible at this.”

“It’s fine,” Page lied, not wanting to make this any more awkward than it had to be. While she didn’t appreciate somepony insulting her friends like that, it was obvious that it had been done in a vain effort to apologize. For national heroes, the Elements of Harmony were surprisingly normal.

“Good,” Rainbow sighed, wiping her brow. “I felt really bad when I saw you go in there, but—”

“Look,” Page interrupted, not wanting to waste her time with Rainbow’s fake pity. “Cadance said something about you being the detective’s assistant, so I guess you’ll have to do.”  Immediately, Page could see the other pegasus bristle at the perceived insult, but neither of them pushed the point any further. “Still, you’re the Element of Loyalty, so I guess you’re better than nothing. Look, I’m just here to get the full story and get my friends out of jail. So hurry up and give me the rundown.”

“Alright, alright, fine. Where should I start? Dunno how much the Princess told you, but I can start from the beginning. That sound good?”

“Cut to the chase already!” Page shouted, growing tired of everybody feeling sorry for her. The last thing she needed right now was the pity of the ponies that had just locked up her friends for crimes they didn’t commit.

“Jeez, alright!” sighed Rainbow as she rolled her eyes, launching into the elaborate tale of Red’s nefarious plot to take over Equestria with her army of mind controlled slaves.

Trying to ignore all of the extraneous flourishes that Rainbow added in, Page listened intently to every single detail of the story. As the explanation went on, she found herself unable to argue with Twilight’s flawless logic. The note on the fountain could have only been placed by Caesura, but that was only one crime! There were still two more to go, if Cadance was to be believed.

As Page listened to the mystery of her own disappearance, she tried everything she could to make it seem like Nightowl wasn’t the culprit. From what she could gather from the description of Nightowl’s route to the hotel, Preston must have been innocent, otherwise Nightowl would have taken her into the woods. Not that her fellow watchpony would actually do such a thing, but the possibility still existed. The only way that Nightowl could be innocent is if Page herself was guilty, and while the prospect of sacrificing herself to save her friend was appealing, she was more determined on finding the truth.

But when Rainbow got to the part about Red seeing her in the window, Page’s head began to ache. “So... Red must have lied,” Page groaned. It was possible that she could save Red by telling Rainbow that she really had been arguing with somepony, but that would end in disaster. Yet again, Page found herself desperate for any way that she could shatter Twilight’s daunting train of logic. How could a single pony figure all of this out by herself? This kind of genius was what Page expected from an alicorn, not a unicorn!

It seemed that the Element of Loyalty hadn’t heard Page’s groaning, since she continued to paint Red as a diabolical sadist with her dramatic retelling of the mystery of the lobby. From what Page could gather, sifting out all of Rainbow’s embellishments, this was the mystery with the fewest clues. For a moment, Page thought that the lobby was the weak link in Twilight’s proposed chain of events, but then she remembered something.

“Hey, hate to butt in,” Page inerjected, “but Twilight forgot a rather important detail when she solved the mystery of my disappearance.”

Rainbow, who had been interrupted in mid-pose, quickly regained her balance. “Uh, no she didn’t,” she replied with confidence. “Nightowl is the only one who could have done it. That trick with the closet even had me fooled!”

The temptation to tell Rainbow how easy it was to fool her was nearly too much for Page, but she held her tongue. “It all makes sense up to the end, but that’s where it falls apart. You say that Nightowl stuffed me in the closet? Okay, let’s assume that. But I think you know where I’m going with this.”

“Actually... no. I don’t.”

Grinding her teeth, Page prepared to strike. She should have been the detective all along, not Twilight Sparkle! “Rainbow, your detective made a fatal error in her reasoning when she assumed that I was in the closet. Can you see what Twilight missed?”

Flinching, Rainbow began to lose face. “Wait, you mean—”

“That’s right! Twilight overlooked something vital, something that you’ve realized as well! The question that I am about to ask you will blow this case wide open!”

“Wh-what?!”

“So let me ask you, Rainbow Dash! What happened to me once I was put in the closet? How did I get outside without somepony activating the barrier?!”

Page, adrenaline coursing through her veins, understood what Twilight must have felt when she had denounced the criminals. Rainbow Dash was absolutely speechless, her jaw hanging open in mid shout.

“Uh, actually, I left that part out because I assumed you knew it,” Rainbow chuckled. “I actually solved this part myself, you know. You see, you woke up and saw your friends stampeding out of the lobby once Twilight let her barrier down, then went to go join them, only to nearly get foalnapped as well!”

Page blinked. “No I didn’t.”

“Of course you did, it only makes... sense....”

As Rainbow’s expression began to transition from confidence to confusion, and from confusion to fear, Page began to realize what had happened. They had assumed that she had gone outside by herself, but they had never asked her in person. For a moment, Page wondered if her memory was blurry from being knocked unconscious, but there was no way she would have forgotten something as important as this.

“No. No, no, no, no!” The panicking pegasus in front of her began to trot in place, her eyes focused on one of the windows on the second floor. “Oh man, I gotta go tell Twilight! Wait right here, okay? You’d better not be pulling my leg!”

As Rainbow darted up to one of the windows, Page finally understood what she had done. She had successfully countered the detective’s theory, giving her friends a little bit of breathing room before they were carted off to Canterlot. Page was the type of pony that would lie to get her friends out of trouble, but this time, oddly enough, she had done it without even trying.

What was even more odd was the fact that she wasn’t lying.

-------------------------------------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-------------------------------------

“Twilight! Twilight! We’ve got a problem!”

Rainbow’s muted shouts were accompanied by raucous knocking on the window, jarring Twilight out of her dream with the force of the bulldozer. Disoriented, Twilight looked around the room in a panic, finding Shining Armor sitting in the doorway and Rainbow banging at the window.

As Twilight started to remember her brief time in the world of dreams, a sense of dread filled her. Does my subconscious really see her as Nightmare Moon? Better yet, which one is the real me, the conscious or subconscious? Either way, if I ever meet with Luna again, I need to make sure that —

“If you don’t let me in I’ll break the glass!” came Rainbow’s muted shout from the window, keeping Twilight from finishing her thought.

“Okay, okay!”  Twilight groaned as she turned around and opened the window with a simple spell. Her morning was already off to a horrible start, thanks to her confrontation with Luna, so she hoped that Rainbow was interrupting her nap with some good news.

Once the window was open, the colorful pegasus scrambled through, her eyes wide. “Twilight, we’ve got a problem!”

Shining immediately jumped to his hooves, surprisingly alert despite how exhausted her looked. “What, did Caesura escape? Is Page gone?”

“No, it’s worse than that! Twilight, Page is saying that she never woke up inside of the closet!”

Twilight tried to process the information through her sleep-deprived stupor. “W-wait,” she stammered, finding it difficult to speak clearly. “If Page never woke up, then—”

“I know!” Rainbow shouted as she slammed the window behind her. “Look, I’ve thought this over, but we’ve only got two options right now. Either Page is lying... or we’re wrong.”

Getting an early morning wakeup call was one thing, but being woken up in the middle of her nap to solve a mystery that she had already solved was something else entirely. “Hold on!” she groaned, taking a deep breath. “You’re saying that Page has no memory of waking up and leaving the room after I left?”

“What else would I be saying?” Rainbow asked, getting impatient.

“Okay, don’t panic,” Twilight soothed, talking to herself. “Let’s think of some alternatives. Somepony from the lobby could have flown up and taken her out of the room, but—No, that wouldn’t work. My barrier would have caught them coming back in! Okay, let’s think about the barrier. That extra imprint must belong to Page, meaning that nopony could have carried her out, or that she flew out of her own free will. Since she doesn’t remember flying out, she must have been thrown out. But who did it?”

As Twilight finished rambling to herself, she looked up to see Rainbow staring wide-eyed at her. “No, Rainbow,” she sighed, “I’m not saying you did it, okay? But still, this only leaves us with three possibilities!”

“Three?” she heard Shining ask. “I can only think of one.”

“And that’s why I’m the detective, big brother,” Twilight gloated, trying to convince herself that she was worthy of her assigned role. After everything that had happened so far, especially the confrontation with Luna, she had begun to doubt her abilities more than she was willing to admit. It seemed that she wasn’t done playing the detective yet. “First, it is possible that Page is lying to try and get her friends out of jail. She could also be one of the culprits, but if she was, that would raise the question of why she showed up at the hotel in the first place.”

“Okay, I remember that part from listening to your theory,” Shining mused, raising a hoof to his mouth. “But what other possibilities are there?”

“Let’s assume that Page is telling the truth, then. The least likely option is that Nightowl acted extremely quickly, running over to toss the body out of the window before going downstairs to the lobby. I had considered this a while ago, but it would have been too risky for him. He knew that Red was going to make the ponies stampede out of the lobby, which would give him an opportunity to throw Page to one of his accomplices, but he also knew that my friends and I were all running downstairs to see what happened. If we had decided to run outside and Chase the 17 ponies down, we would have seen him tossing Page out of the window, blowing his cover.”

“That’s still a possibility,” Rainbow scoffed. “I don’t think he’s smart enough to think that far ahead.”

“I think he is, actually. He managed to improvise a plan to hide Page right under our noses and nearly got away with it! Trust me, Rainbow, you don’t want to underestimate him. You, of all ponies, should know that the strongest ponies aren’t always the dumbest ones.”

“You know it!” Rainbow laughed, never having been one to deny a compliment. “But that nasty unicorn with the weird name is all bark and no bite. Red, though....”

None of the ponies in the room continued Rainbow’s train of thought. It was obvious that she was hiding something, but none of them could figure out what it was.

Getting back to the point, Twilight coughed. “So, the last option is that Page got hit in the back of the head so hard that she lost her memory. This is highly likely, considering that my theory involves her being knocked unconscious twice: once in the guard shack and once by Red’s 11 accomplices. So don’t worry, Rainbow, we’re on the right track!”

“I know, I know,” the pegasus mumbled, turning to leave through the window again. “Either way, you’re going to want to come down and talk to her about this. Sorry, Twilight, but it looks like you’ve got miles to go before you sleep.”

“Oh, you’ve been reading my poetry collection as well?”

“For goodness’ sake, I’ll be outside,” Rainbow groaned as she slipped out of the window and flew away.

It was difficult for Twilight to smile in a situation like this, but she found a small comfort in thinking back to the days before Rainbow had become such an avid reader. Everything had been simpler back then, when their biggest problems had involved trying to survive the boredom of daily life in Ponyville. Now, Twilight was trying to put together a puzzle that didn’t have the right pieces in the box, leaving her mind scrambling to try and force them together in ways that didn’t make sense. The only way that Page could be telling the truth was if she had been knocked unconscious with enough force to make her memory hazy, but there was no way to tell if that was the truth.

No matter what the solution to this broken puzzle was, Twilight had the feeling that this day was off to a bad start.