Chapter 11

Secrets and Lies

“I already told you! I’m absolutely positive that I didn’t wake up in that stupid closet!”

Twilight and Page had already gone back and forth countless times, neither side letting the other advance, but it was starting to devolve into a shouting match. Every time that Twilight brought up the possibility that Page could have forgotten about flying outside, the indignant pegasus would insist that she would remember something that important. With no end in sight, the two mares continued butting heads in front of the hotel.

“You could have been hit with some kind of a memory spell!” Twilight challenged, beginning to grow desperate. “One of the—”

“That’s not even possible! None of the 17 in the crowd were unicorns!”

With a guttural groan, Twilight began to march back and forth. “Ugh, this isn’t going anywhere! How am I even supposed to believe you? For all I know, you’re just lying to get your friends out of jail!”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t hesitate if I was.”

As they continued to argue, Twilight wished that she had gotten more sleep. Her head was pounding from using so much magic, making it difficult to come up with a sufficient theory that accounted for Page’s new testimony.

“Cut it out!” came a commanding voice from the hotel door, drawing the attention of the two arguing mares.

Twilight had forgotten that Shining and Cadance had been standing there the whole time, making her wonder how much the two of them had heard. They had remained silent, which was understandable considering how awkward they must have felt, but Twilight couldn’t help but wonder what had caused Shining to speak up.

Before the silence could settle in, Cadance leaned over and whispered something confidential in her husband’s ear, causing the stocky stallion to tense up and whisper something back. Once that was taken care of, Cadance took a hesitant step forward and eyed both of the mares in front of her with suspicion.

Twilight found herself speechless in front of her old foalsitter. In all of the time they had spent together, even during her brother’s wedding, she had never treated Cadance as anything more than a foalhood friend. Even though she had a pair of wings and a horn, Twilight had never allowed herself to see Cadance as a fully matured princess, one that was on par with Luna and Celestia. As Twilight stared up at the regal alicorn in front of her, she couldn’t deny the awe-inspiring presence that Cadance maintained.

“Thank you both,” Cadance announced, as if she were making a grand speech. This wasn’t how Cadance normally acted, even in front of her subjects in the Crystal Empire, which made Twilight wary of what she was about to say. “Twilight, I have known you my entire life, and because of that, I am willing to trust you with something I have only entrusted to my husband and few others. And Page, while I have not known you for very long, I must burden you with this as well. I apologize. All I ask in return is that you keep my secret.”

The alicorn’s tone of voice confirmed Twilight’s fears. There was something remarkably similar between this situation and Twilight’s first encounter with the world of dreams, one that couldn’t be ignored. Despite Twilight’s hesitation, she nodded to Cadance and let her continue.

“Thank you both,” Cadance sighed, an ounce of relief showing through her impassive royal facade. “So allow me to explain. Twilight, do you know what my special talent is?”

Becoming uncomfortable, the unicorn nodded. “You can help ponies get along, right?” Twilight answered, trying not to sound as hesitant as she felt.

“Actually, that’s more of a side effect,” the alicorn giggled, dropping her regal act for a moment. “And no, before you ask, my talents do not lie in making ponies fall in love, either. If I could do that, something tells me that Chrysalis would have only targeted me instead of the entire city of Canterlot.”

“Wait, who?” Twilight asked, quirking a brow. The name didn’t sound familiar at all. “For Celestia’s sake, did Canterlot get attacked again in the last month or so?”

“Oh, that’s right, you were never really told. Chrysalis was the name of the changeling queen who—”

“Wait, what?” Twilight blurted out, her lack of sleep affecting her judgment. “Did she tell you face to face or something? Oh no, don’t tell me she started monologuing about her master plan once she caught you. She did enough of that after she had us all trapped in the chapel.”

“Oh, you don’t even want to know how badly she monologues,” Cadance groaned playfully. “But anyway, back on topic. You’ve seen me cast some spell that makes other ponies stop fighting, right?”

“Er, yeah, I did.”

“And as you know, I use it very sparingly,” the alicorn continued, not letting Twilight interrupt her. “I am an alicorn, after all, and alicorns all have a special talent that sets them apart from any other pony in Equestria.”

“So it’s like—” Twilight cut herself off just in time before she said Luna’s name. “It’s like... a special spell or something?”

“Close,” Cadance giggled, winking. “Celestia is the Princess of the Day and Luna is the Princess of the Night. I am different from them, actually, but I have my own title as well. You see, I am the Princess of Truth.”

Blinking, Twilight tried to process the new information. The Princess of Truth? Did that mean she could tell when somepony was lying? Or maybe she couldn’t tell a lie!

“And as such,” the Princess continued, “I know a very special spell that lets me know if people are telling the truth. Now, before you begin asking, I—”

“Are you serious?!” Twilight exclaimed, narrowing her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? We could have solved this mystery without even trying!”

“Twilight, calm down. Don’t you understand why I would keep this a secret?”

“Of course not! That’d be like having the Elements of Harmony and never using them! No, it would be like never letting anypony know that we even have them! Why would you do that?”

With a frustrated sigh, Cadance closed her eyes and turned to look at Page. As Twilight followed her gaze, she was met eye to eye with a frightened pegasus Page’s anxious expression answered Twilight’s question better than any explanation she could have gotten from Cadance.

“You see?” Cadance whispered, doing her best to smile. “You had it easy when you were trying to make friends. Imagine how difficult it would be to get to know ponies when they see you as nothing more than a living lie detector.”

“Oh, I....” Twilight stumbled over her words, her eyes going back and forth between Shining and Cadance. “Wait, you have told my brother about this, right?”

“Twily,” Shining laughed in response, shaking his head. “That’s not how things work, you know. Just let Cadance explain everything before you interrupt her again, okay?”

“Thank you,” the alicorn whispered, her voice so soft that Twilight could barely hear it. “I guess I should start with an example. You remember that arguing couple we saw on the way to our picnic? You see, I made them stop arguing, but it was only because I allowed them to speak the truth that they hid in their hearts. Those two truly loved each other, but other things kept getting in the way of their relationship, so I helped them realize the truth that they already knew.”

“That’s amazing!” Twilight cried, already imagining outlines for a research paper on the topic of truth spells. “Does that mean you can get Red to spill the beans?”

“No, Twilight!” Cadance’s tone had gone from genial to furious in the blink of an eye. “This is why I won’t tell anypony about it! All anypony ever does is ask me ‘Oh, can you find out if this girl likes me?’ or ‘Hey, could you tell me what my wife wants for our anniversary?’, and they treat me like some kind of machine! I thought that you would be different, Twilight.”

“Cadance, cut her some slack,” Shining soothed, putting a hoof on his wife’s shoulder. “She’s just anxious to get this over with. It’s been a rough day so far, and I’ve only been here a few hours.”

Twilight wanted to speak up and apologize, but her brother had taken care of that for her. Inwardly, she realized that she had never thought about how difficult it would be to have a power like that and live a normal life. Cadance was a princess, which was far from normal, but she hadn’t acted like one when she had been Twilight’s foalsitter.

“I apologize,” Cadance sighed, her smile returning as she nuzzled up against her husband. “Having this power is not as bad as it seems, actually. The only reason that Shining actually asked me to marry him is because my spell will not work if the pony I’m casting it on doesn’t want to tell the truth.”

“Psh, as if,” Shining chuckled, wrapping an arm around her. “You know I still would have married you, even if you could read my mind. Besides, I know that she trusts me enough that she wouldn’t need to use it. I mean, we—”

“Okay you two,” Twilight interrupted, knowing that things would start to get awkward if the two of them kept talking like that. “I think I get it. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, could you explain things in a bit more detail?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Cadance answered. “You see, once I cast my spell on them, it’s up to them whether or not they want to tell the truth or not. Once they accept, I help the truth in their heart become more apparent, bringing those thoughts and memories to the surface. Once they know the truth, I can make one last change to the spell that allows them to speak it with confidence. If they try to tell a lie, their words will stick in their throat.”

“Then use it on me. Now.”

Before Twilight could say anything, Page spoke up and stepped forward, her eyes narrowed on the pastel alicorn in front of her. Twilight wanted to ask a few more questions about Cadance’s spell, but it seemed that Page wasn’t going to wait for an explanation.

Cadance shook her head dismissively. “Not yet, I want to make sure that you’re okay with it. You see—”

“I’m fine,” Page insisted, but her trepidation was given away by nervous twitch in her ear. “This will put all of our worries to bed. Even if I don’t remember waking up in the closet, my heart would remember, wouldn’t it?”

“Well, yes, it would, but—”

“Then use your spell on me! If what you’re saying is true, we can stop this stupid argument and start trying to find out what really happened back there. I’ve got nothing to hide, so fire away, Princess.”

Twilight, still trying to catch up with the conversation, had to admit that Page was right. If Cadance used her spell to find out the truth, there would be no doubt about what had happened to Page in room 201.

“Okay...” Cadance mumbled, glancing at Twilight to make sure that there were no objections. Once Twilight had nodded, the spell was set into motion.

“Here we go.”

The alicorn’s horn was immediately engulfed in a teal aura. As Twilight watched, a small heart appeared in between the two ponies, one similar to Cadance’s cutie mark. Page was staring at it with an unnatural mix of fear and determination, making it seemed like she was being hypnotized.

Now, Page,” Cadance whispered smoothly. “Your heart will tell you what it knows. If you are willing, you may tell us the truth.”

Even though Twilight knew Cadance was trustworthy, there was something that seemed dangerous about this spell. It was a good thing that it required the consent of the target, but there was something unsettling about magic that could be used to alter another pony’s thoughts.

“I am willing,” Page said flatly, her unblinking eyes beginning to haze over, making her appear blind.

“Thank you. Now, tell us the truth.”

With Cadance’s last word, Page’s eyes began to glow until there was nothing but a brilliant light where her eyes should have been. The sight was nothing short of spectacular, leaving Twilight awestruck in the face of such an impressive and powerful spell.

After a few moments of intense silence, the hypnotized pegasus finally spoke.

“I did not wake up in the closet of room 201.”

Page’s words were crystal clear. It had been as if she had stated that the sky was blue, giving Twilight an idea on how Cadance’s spell worked, but the fact that Page had not woken up in the closet was just that: a fact. An undeniable fact.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Twilight blurted out as Page’s eyes were restored to their usual hue and the iridescent heart phased out of existence. “Cadance, are you sure this works?”

Taking a deep breath, Cadance nodded, but her focus was still on Page, who appeared to be recovering from the spell. Her legs were shaking and her eyes still looked rather bleary, making it look like she was just waking up from a long night’s sleep.

“There! I knew it,” Page said victoriously, managing a confident grin despite her trembling posture. “That proves it, Twilight Sparkle. You’re wrong.”

Those two words were the two that Twilight had been dreading to hear. She had finally solved this insane mystery, but now one of her most important deductions had been snapped in half like a dry twig. Or had it?

“Hold on,” Twilight mumbled anxiously. “All that proves is that you didn’t wake up and fly out of your own accord. One of the ponies in the lobby could have come up and taken you out, meaning that—”

“No, Twilight,” she heard Shining say. “You would have seen somepony carrying her out in your barrier imprints.”

“But I...! Ugh!” Twilight groaned in frustration, fighting the urge to tear out her mane. Everything that she had worked for in the past 2 days was falling apart right in front of her, but she couldn’t do anything to stop it. Part of her wished that Cadance had never told Page about that truth spell. “It’s still possible though! Nightowl could have thrown you out of the window before going downstairs!”

“You already said that didn’t happen,” Page pointed out, “but I’d be happy to put your fears to bed. Princess, how would you like to go for a walk to the jailhouse?”

Out of the corner of Twilight’s eye, she saw Cadance bristle at the request. The alicorn had already insisted that she didn’t enjoy being treated like a walking lie detector, but Page seemed to have no qualm with using her as one. If this trip had taught her anything about friendship, it was that, sometimes, friends kept secrets for a reason. Twilight had already betrayed Luna’s trust, so she was tip-hoofing on thin ice around Cadance.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Page ordered. “While we’re there, you can get confessions out of the rest of my friends as well. We’ll have all of this cleared up in no time flat.”

Twilight was about to object, but Cadance put a hoof on her shoulder to stop her, giving her a sympathetic smile. “Page, you are not going to order me around like this. I allowed you to use this truth spell because Twilight refused to believe what you were so adamant about, otherwise I would have never told you about this.”

Sensing an argument brewing, Twilight stepped back and joined her older brother, who welcomed her with a tired chuckle. They both knew that Cadance wasn’t the kind of princess that always needed to be saved.

Page, however, barely seemed to realize that she was talking to royalty. “Well, why not? You’re the Princess of Truth, right? We’re going to the jailhouse to get the truth, you know! Why wouldn’t you want that?”

As calm as ever, Cadance shook her head. “That’s not how it works. It’s because I’m the Princess of Truth that I see the necessity of lies. You don’t want to know how many times I have seen friends turn on each other because I allowed them to speak the truth in their hearts.”

“Are you kidding?” Page hissed. “I’m not afraid of the truth! No matter what happens, they’re still my friends!”

“You say that, but—”

“I say it and I mean it! If I can’t find the truth here, I’m going to go into the forest and find it by myself.”

Twilight could hardly believe what she was hearing. The crazed pegasus was actually threatening that, unless Cadance used her truth spell on the three culprits, she was going to run off into the forest by herself. It was like she was holding herself as a  hostage!

As Shining and Twilight shared a sigh, Cadance nodded in their direction. It seemed that she understood Page’s insane gambit as well.

Without waiting for an answer, Page spun around and began to trot briskly towards the jailhouse. “Trust me,” she called out over her shoulder. “There’s no reason to shy away from the truth. Let’s go!”

Speechless, Twilight and Shining both stared at Cadance, who had her brow furrowed with worry. “I never should have brought it up,” she whispered, her voice so soft that Twilight could barely hear her.

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Cadance focused her energy into her spire-like horn, eyes closed. While it wasn’t extremely difficult to perform her truth spell, she had to be careful not to push herself, or her target, too far with it. It took just the right amount of magical energy and in tandem with a suitable connection to a pony in order to make it work. Despite the happiness that everypony seemed to think that this spell would bring, it almost always ended in tears.

Thankfully, it appeared that Nightowl was going to consent to this, even though the other two prisoners had immediately refused and urged their accomplice to do the same. Cadance had been forced to sit there and listen while Page had all but bullied her fellow watchpony into allowing the alicorn to use her truth spell on him. This was another reason that she hated this spell: it could turn a petty argument into a full-blown court case. If anypony didn’t consent to use the truth spell, they were instantly assumed to be guilty, which made even the best of friends grow distant over time.

Cadance was so lost in thought that she barely noticed the link coming from Nightowl’s end of the spell. Sighing, she finalized the spell and allowed it to rest on Nightowl’s heart, where it would rustle up whatever truths he wanted to convey. While Cadance was not entirely sure how it worked, she knew that the energy would entice the pony she used it on to accept the truths that they kept hidden in their heart.

“I was...” she heard Nightowl whisper, a small stutter in his voice. Alarmed, Cadance opened her eyes and looked up, realizing that the watchpony had been about to tell a blatant lie while under the effects of her truth spell. This had only happened once before, when she had been playing around with it early on, but even then her friend had admitted that it had been difficult to even imagine a lie while the spell was in effect. Whatever Nightowl was about to say, it had been something extremely important to him, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to even try to say it.

“You were what?” Page insisted, drawing Nightowl’s emotionless gaze. Cadance had always been unnerved by the way ponies looked when they were under the effects of her spell, but she tried not to let it bother her. “Look, just tell the truth, it’s not that hard!”

Before Nightowl answered, Cadance considered deactivating the spell, but she had no idea what would happen if she did, since she’d never done it before. There was also the fact that Page would start to believe that Nightowl was guilty because he couldn’t answer her question immediately, forcing Cadance to let the spell continue.

While Cadance was lost in thought, Nightowl finally spoke, his diction immaculately precise. “I never threw Page out of the window to room 201.”

“Good start,” Page mused, but she didn’t appear to be satisfied. “Let’s clarify that a little bit. Twilight would probably say that you threw me out of another window, making all of this pointless. So how about this: did you throw me out of any of the windows in the hotel?”

“I didn’t throw Page out of any of the windows in the hotel.”

Wincing Cadance tried to imagine how Twilight would have reacted if she heard that. The little unicorn had stayed behind with Shining in an attempt to convince her as well, but there was nothing they could do, now that Page knew about the truth spell. Whenever anypony knew that they had access to this power, they saw her as nothing more than a tool in whatever personal crusade they happened to be going through. Shining Armor was the only pony who had accepted her for who she was, not what she could do, and she loved him dearly for it.

“Perfect! And now for the clincher,” Page said quietly, taking a deep breath. “Nightowl, were you involved with my disappearance in any way?”

“Page!” Cadance shouted, refusing to let this continue. In a panic, she hurriedly removed her spell, letting it dissolve before Nightowl could attempt to answer the question. Regardless of the consequences, she wasn’t going to let Page get any sort of response from a loaded question like that one. No matter what he said, he would appear guilty!

“Hey!” Page shouted when she realized that Nightowl’s eyes had returned to normal. “Turn it back on!”

“No,” Cadance huffed. “You got what you wanted. Do you really think that he would have answered you? My husband told me that he had already confessed.”

“But that wasn’t under the spell!”

“Exactly. So he’s not going to answer you. And you’re going to think he’s guilty because of it.”

“But he wouldn’t....”

“Now do you see why I didn’t want to do this? Now do you see why I keep this hidden?”

Cadance watched as Page’s posture slackened, but her unflagging determination remained in her hard eyes. This pegasus wasn’t going to be giving up anytime soon.

“Fine,” Page grunted, turning and trotting towards the door without a second thought. “I’ll just have to convince you all some other way. I hope you don’t mind if I give you a little history lesson about Everdale.”

Before Cadance could answer, something metallic sounded behind her. Startled, she turned to see a disheveled unicorn pounding against her cell door.

“Don’t you dare!” Caesura called out. Cadance had expected her voice to be calm and threatening, like Shining had described it, but the mare seemed more desperate than upset. “Page, listen to me, you have no idea—”

“Because none of you will tell me!” Page shouted back, whipping around to face the row of cells. “Why don’t any of you trust me? Red, Nightowl, I’ve known you two my entire life, so why aren’t you telling me anything?!”

As Page paused to take a breath, an orange pegasus, one that had remained notably silent, finally stirred from her mattress in the corner. That had to be Red.

“Page...” Red whispered, her voice cracking as she righted herself and turned to face them. “We just—”

“What’s wrong with all of you?! This is crazy! I wake up to find three of my friends locked up for foalnapping me and the rest of Everdale is gone! I can’t even find Preston anymore! I don’t care about any stupid ransom note, so I’m going to go find the truth for myself, even if it means telling everypony this precious little secret that you all think is so important. I’m sick of being left in the dark while I’m out risking my neck for you!”

Red scrambled quickly off of her bed and up to the bars of her cell. Apparently Preston’s name had rustled her feathers a little bit, but the pegasus was already disheveled enough. “Page, I’m so sorry, but I can’t—”

“Can’t tell me? That’s what I thought. Fine, I’m gone. I’ll be back to let you out once I find the truth. If you care enough to stop being so selfish, feel free to ask our beloved Princess here to use her truth spell. I’m out of here.”

Cadance could only watch as Page stormed out of the jailhouse, slamming the door behind her with a powerful kick. This was a painfully familiar scene for the alicorn, one that always seemed to happen after she used her truth spell on somepony. One pony would try to keep a secret, the other pony would get angry at them, and neither of them would compromise, resulting in a broken friendship.

Just as the dejected alicorn was about to leave as well, she heard a startled voice from behind. “Princess,” came Caesura’s quiet plea. Despite her earlier outburst, the off-white mare still managed to keep some of her calm facade. “I never got to tell you, but... thanks. Thanks for saving Page. And thank you for trying to talk some sense into her. She’s as stubborn as a mule.”

Smiling, Cadance tried to hide her confusion. “It’s not problem,” she said with a polite nod, trying to put her regal mask on again. Why would Caesura be thanking her for interrupting her own schemes? It didn’t make any sense. “I would urge you to tell us why you did what you did, but I have the feeling that it wouldn’t get me anywhere.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Caesura sneered, pushing herself away from the bars and back to her nightstand where she levitated a quill into a small inkwell. “I’d tell you the same thing that I told your husband. I just wanted Twilight and her friends to go back to Canterlot, that’s all. I’d say it under your truth spell, but I seem to be the only one who notices your distaste for it.”

Sighing, Cadance gave up and slipped out of the front door, not wanting to deal with the prisoners anymore. Despite how involved she had become since she arrived the night before, Cadance still felt that her presence in this deserted town was only causing trouble. Despite that, she couldn’t help but wonder why Luna had insisted that she accompany Shining Armor on this confusing quest. Calling in an alicorn to deal with a problem this small was like using a sonic rainboom to swat a parasprite.

“Twilight?” Cadance called out, glancing around the immediate area for any traces of her young friend.

“She’s still at the hotel,” came an answer from beside her. Rainbow Dash had been waiting outside of the door, since she had Applejack had been assigned to guard the prisoners. “Page just flew over to see her in a hurry, but she looked pretty spooked. Did that mangy unicorn try something on you two?”

“Rainbow,” Applejack chided, frowning. “Just leave this to Twilight. She’ll have this all figured out soon enough.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Trust me, being the detective isn’t as easy as it looks. I mean, she’s already throwing a little pow-wow over there to keep Page from flipping out. Her, Shining, and.... Wait second, who the hay is that?!”

As Cadance turned to find the hotel, she spotted Shining, Twilight, Page, and a gray mare standing out front. Before she could check to see if she recognized the mystery pony, Rainbow Dash zoomed off in their direction, leaving Applejack and Cadance in a cloud of grass and dust.

“This can’t be good,” Applejack muttered under her breath, spitting out a blade of grass and giving Cadance a sympathetic grin. “Sorry ya got dragged into this, princess, but I gotta say I feel a mite better with you around.”

At first, Cadance assumed that it was because of her spell, but then she remembered that only Twilight, Shining, Page, and the prisoners knew anything about it. It warmed her heart to know that somepony actually saw her as a pony instead of a tool. “Thank you, Applejack, but I should go check on my husband. I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this.”

“Feel free,” Applejack offered, leaning back as she sat against the side of the jailhouse. “I’m just here to help, so—”

“Hey!” came a raucous shout from inside of the jailhouse, followed by a few deafening clangs of metal. “What the hay is up with you?! C’mon!”

Cadance was stunned by the sudden noise, but Applejack wasted no time in bucking open the front door and charging inside. It took a second for the alicorn to follow, marvelling at how quickly the earth pony had reacted.

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“Alright, start talking,” Twilight sparkle hissed, readying her magic.

The unfamiliar mare in front of her winced backwards, looking like she was going to bolt. “I-I’m talking! Oh, I shouldn’t be here, I knew it was dumb of me! I’m such a horrible pony and you’re—”

“Uh, what? I didn’t mean—”

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have started rambling like that! Maybe I should have just stayed quiet and—”

Before Twilight could cut the gray mare off again, her brother intervened. “Just start by telling us your name,” he ordered.

The startled earth pony jumped to attention in response. She seemed to be older than everypony here, more like Twilight’s mother, but the years hadn’t been kind to her. The mare’s mane was thrown together in a helter-skelter array of pins, reminding Twilight of Cadance’s disastrous mane from the Equstria Games visit, giving Twilight the impression that her nerves were just as frayed as her hair.

“S-sorry, I should have mentioned my name earlier!” she rambled. “Oh, this was such a bad idea, but I just couldn’t help but come back here after I couldn’t stop thinking about it and—”

Relaxing, Twilight began to think that this old mare wasn’t going to be a threat to them. After realizing that so many of the townsponies in the lobby had been accomplices, she had been ready to zap anypony she saw, but this earth pony didn’t look like any of the ones that Twilight remembered seeing in the lobby.

Before any introductions could be made, a whoosh of wind from behind announced the arrival a pegasus. Page immediately landed and placed herself in between Twilight and the gray mare, wings still outstretched. “Alright, start talking,” the watchpony hissed. “Who are you, what’s your name, and—”

“But I’ve been talking and they told me to stop, but I shouldn’t have—”

“Wait a second,” Page mused, her wings folding back against her sides. “You’re...?”

Utterly confused, Twilight tried to lean to the side so she could see around Page. The gray mare on the other side no longer looked afraid. Instead, she looked somewhat relieved.

“You!” the mystery mare exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. “You’re that watchpony! Oh, thank goodness you’re still here! I can’t believe it, the Princesses must be smiling down on me right now! What about your partner, is he okay? I feel so horrible about that whole mess and running away like that, but at least you’re still here!”

“Wait,” Page interjected, hesitation creeping into her voice. “So you are that mare from six years ago! I knew it! These cases are related!”

Twilight, getting sick and tired of being left in the dark, stomped her hoof on the ground and shouted out the one phrase that she had wanted shout ever since she had arrived. “Is anypony going to tell me what’s going on here?!”

Startled, Page stepped out from in between the other two mares, looking uncharacteristically frazzled. “Well,” she mumbled, looking askance, “I would have said something earlier, but I didn’t think that this was related to the current case. I never got her name, but she came here about six years ago during a storm and stopped by the guard shack.”

“Oh,” the earth pony interrupted. “I guess you’re right, I only saw you for a moment before you shot off into the forest, but then I was such a coward and—”

“Your name,” Twilight monotoned, getting tired of keeping this airhead of a pony on the same train of thought for more than five seconds.

“My name? It’s Mezza, but—”

“Well, good to finally meet you,” Page stated plainly. “But what are you even doing here? Or better yet, how’s your daughter doing?”

Page’s question must have touched on something important, because the gray mare’s face turned a ghostly shade of white. “Why... would you even ask me something like that? Didn’t your partner...?”

“Nightowl?” Page asked, starting to look uneasy as well. “Yeah, he told me that everything had turned out fine. Did your daughter get sick from the storm or something?”

“No...” Mezza whispered hoarsely, eyes widening in disbelief. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

“Then what?” Twilight asked, feeling that she was going to have to mediate this conversation. There was something going on here that nopony wanted to talk about, so Twilight was going to force it out into the open before it became even more awkward. “What’s the problem?”

“We... never found her.”