Chapter 12

Anacrusis

A lazy gust of wind blew through Page’s white mane, sending it floating in front of her wide eyes. She had hoped that there would be some new information about this mystery, information that might get her friends acquitted, but Mezza’s arrival had been more than she could have ever wished for. Not only was the middle-aged mare lying about her daughter, but she had unwittingly linked herself to the secret that Page had been about to reveal.

She watched as Twilight and her older brother shared bemused looks. There was something inside of her that wanted to make the reveal as dramatic as possible, but she wasn’t going to sink to Twilight’s level. After hearing Rainbow’s description of the detective’s grand reveal, it was obvious that Twilight’s authority was starting to go straight to her head.

“Twilight,” Page declared, eyeing her suspiciously, “get your friends and meet me here. I have a few things to share, some of which might shed some light about what’s been happening.”

The tired unicorn seemed to be holding back the frustration in her voice. “Is there a reason you’re telling me this now instead of earlier?”

“Actually, there is,” Page answered. Despite her contained animosity for Twilight, she was starting to empathize with her on some level. “I didn’t think it was related until now, but there’s no doubt about it.”

“I-is anypony going to fill me in on what’s going on?” Mezza stammered. “I just came here to visit the place where—”

“Actually,” Page interrupted, a red flag going up in her head. “What are you doing here? You couldn’t have picked a worse time to show up.”

“Me?” Mezza gasped. “I kept thinking back to this place and thought that I could finally get some closure. It’s been so long that—”

Page interrupted the quivering mare with a suspicious glare. Her arrival was timed too perfectly for it to be a coincidence, meaning that she must have been involved with them. As soon as Page began to suspect Mezza, her memory of that night six years ago became crystal clear.

“Uh,” Shining murmured, shifting around uneasily. “I’ll leave you two to tell her what happened. I’ll go wake up the others, since they’re gonna want to hear about this.”

“Please do,” Page stated, ignoring the fact that she was ordering a prince around.

Page watched as the stocky stallion gave an awkward salute before trotting into the hotel. She was also confused about Shining and Cadance’s coincidental arrival, but she wasn’t going to question the two that had saved her life, even though they had been acting suspicious this whole time.

“By the way,” Twilight groaned as Shining vanished into the lobby. “You can come out, Rainbow. I’m glad that you didn’t try to tackle her, but you don’t need to eavesdrop.”

Shocked, Page spun around, watching as a colorful pegasus appeared from around the corner of the hotel. When did she...?

“Fine,” Rainbow groaned as she flew over to Twilight’s side, her narrowed gaze still fixed on the new pony. “But do you know how hard it is to sneak around when you’re like a flying pack of Crayfoala crayons?”

Page stifled a giggle to cover her surprise. She could afford to laugh, now that she had the evidence to show that her friends were innocent, but there was no room to lower her guard yet. It was going to be all too easy to blow this mystery wide open, but there was no room for error.

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Once Cadance burst into the jailhouse behind Applejack, she had expected to see Caesura levitating some of the steel bars in an attempt to make an escape, but the scene that awaited her was something else entirely.

The alicorn gasped, seeing that Caesura’s cell door had been blown off of it’s hinges, along with Nightowl’s, but neither of the ponies looked like they were ready to make their grand escape. Instead of running for the exit, the off-white unicorn had darted across the way into Nightowl’s cell, but the gray earth pony was curled up in the corner, his eyes wide.

“No!” cried Nightowl, curling further into the fetal position. “I can’t! I-I just can’t take this anymore!”

Before Cadance could realize what had happened, Applejack positioned herself in the doorway where Nightowl’s cell door used to be. “What in tarnation are you two going on about, and what’s with him?” she barked. Surprisingly, she sounded more worried than alarmed.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out!” Caesura exclaimed, turning to face Applejack with a threatening leer. “That crazy princess of yours put some kind of hex on him!”

Eyes wide, Cadance began to realize what was going on. She had thought that by ending the truth spell in the middle of Page’s question, everything would go back to the way it was, but as she stared at the pitiful stallion in the corner, she started to get the impression that something had gone horribly wrong.

“I-I didn’t mean to! I can fix this!” Cadance blurted out in a hurry, galloping up behind Applejack to see what Nightowl was mumbling about. She had ended the spell rather forcefully, but there was no reason that it would be different from severing the link normally.

The link? Oh no... I must have stopped the spell while our link was still active!

As Cadance watched, the poor stallion’s blank expression remained fixed on some invisible object off in the distance. Based on the bravery he had shown earlier in allowing Cadance to perform the truth spell on him, this seemed entirely out of character.

“Princess?” Applejack asked accusingly, looking back over her shoulder with a scowl. “Did you try some crazy mumbo-jumbo magic while you were in here?”

“Of course she did!” Caesura shouted, looking like she was about to levitate one of the steel bars into somepony’s face. “She used some spell that made him tell the truth!”

“You what?!” Applejack yelped, whipping around to face Cadance. “Now wait just a minute here, you can’t just mosey in here and force—”

“I didn’t force him!” explained Cadance, desperately trying to keep control of the situation. “He agreed to let me use it so Page could confirm something! I didn’t mean to—”

“Like I’m going to believe that!” grunted Caesura. “You left your little spell going, didn’t you? As soon as you left, he started rambling nonsense about being selfish and apologizing to everypony!”

“But it’s true!” the terrified watchpony exclaimed, shaking his head before burying it in his hooves again. “I—”

“All y’all, cut it out this instant!” Applejack bellowed, kicking the cell bars with enough force to make the entire building shake. The force reverberated through the small jailhouse before silence fell. “Princess, I may not agree with your methods here, whatever they are, but you sure as sugar better fix this mess. Princess or not, there’s a little somethin’ I like to call responsibility. It’s somethin’ that a few ponies around here could stand to learn.”

In that moment, Cadance felt like she was being scolded by her older sister. Despite the terrible situation, Cadance was glad that somepony had enough respect for her to treat her like a normal pony. Putting on her royal mask, she tried to hide the fear and uncertainty in her eyes. “I shall, Applejack. I sincerely apologize for my behavior, but you can be assured that this will never happen again.”

“Thank ya kindly, Princess. And as for you, little miss unicorn....” The farm pony looked over her shoulder. “You need to stop flying off the handle like that. You’re part of the guilty party, so don’t you even think of playing the victim card on me. I ain’t got no pity for a lyin’ pony like you.”

After rendering nearly everypony in the room speechless, Applejack silently slipped past Cadance and sat down by the front door, lowering her hat over her head and grumbling something under her breath.

Frozen, Cadance found herself awestruck by the presence that the simple farm pony carried. Being the Element of Honesty meant that she had a way with words, but Cadance had never seen this side of her before. Regardless, she was going to have to figure out what had happened and fix it before anything catastrophic happened.

Guilt weighing heavily on her, she sulked into the cell with a lowered head, trying not to look directly at the suspicious frown that Caesura was giving her. Every time that she used her powers, everything ended in shambles, regardless of how noble her intentions were. If she had a choice, she would have thrown away her wings and horn and given them to somepony else. Somepony who deserved them more.

In the midst of her guilt, she noticed that one of the prisoners was still lying in her bed, completely apathetic to the fact that one of her cohorts had nearly been mind controlled into giving up all of their secrets. Red, who had shown little emotion thus far, was starting to make Cadance worried. How could anypony be this detached from her friends, even if they were accomplices?

Regardless, there was no time to waste. Her truth spell had never gone awry like this, even though she had spent years learning how to use it effectively, so she had no idea where to start. Maybe if she laid another one on top of it they would merge together, but—

“AJ, Cadance!” came a muffled shout from outside. Both mares jerked to attention, turning towards the door. “You in there?”

“Nopony’s here,” Applejack chuckled dryly as she reached over and opened the door, revealing Rainbow Dash with a letter held between her teeth.

“Very funny,” Rainbow grumbled as she spat the letter out. “Page wants everypony to meet in front of the hotel, she’s saying she’s got some kind of proof that these three are innocent.”

Cadance was about to respond, but Caesura beat her to it. “You know she’s lying,” the unicorn hissed. “She’s just doing this to get us out of here.”

“You know,” said Rainbow, “I really wish I could argue with you some more, but this is probably the first time I’ve ever agreed with you.”

“Right, so—”

“Caesura, what’d I just tell ya ‘bout lying?” Applejack warned from her spot by the door. “Your little fibbin’ act is gettin’ old. It’s obvious that you’re hidin’ something, something that Page knows. Sorry, but you’re not gonna stop us from hearin’ her out.”

“Fine, listen to her. Go off on your little adventure. The answer has been right under your nose this entire time, but you’re not satisfied with it, are you? Just give me that letter and get out of here.”

Cadance was surprised as how quickly Caesura had dropped her act, but it showed that the crafty unicorn knew when to back down from a fight. Cadance was going to have to be cautious around her.

“Don’t mind if we do,” Rainbow chuckled, kicking the envelope into Red’s cell. “And by the way, I’ve been told that it’s rude to read other ponies’ mail. Besides, I’m pretty sure Preston dropped this off, since it’s got his name written on the front as well. And unless you just got your name changed to Red Tape, you’re going back into your cell. ”

Caesura seemed surprised, but covered her reaction with sarcasm. “My cell? You mean the one without a door? This is the worst jail I’ve ever seen.”

“Don’t worry, the one in Canterlot’s better. C’mon AJ, let’s go. Cadance can stay here and keep watch over these buffoons.”

Ignoring her frustration, Cadance was grateful for the fact that she didn’t have to contrive an excuse to stay behind and help Nightowl. “I got it covered,” she mumbled as she turned her attention to the shaking stallion.

As the jailhouse door slammed shut, Cadance wished that she had never left her kingdom. She had never wanted to be a princess, after all.

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Taking a deep breath, Page looked out over the small audience she had assembled. All six Elements of Harmony were joined by Mezza, who was eyeing everypony around her with confusion. Shining Armor had gone to help his wife in whatever way he could, but none of them had been able to find Preston, who hadn’t been seen since he had flown back to his house the night before.

“Alright,” Page started, pacing back and forth. “I’ve brought you all here to tell you the truth about this town. A few of you may be wondering who the new mare is, but don’t worry, she’s the reason that I’ve decided to tell all of you about Everdale. Just bear with me on this.”

She had expected some kind of interruption, but all seven of them were listening intently, some more focused than others. “Let me start with the beginning. Six years ago, shortly after I had joined the nightwatch, the weather team scheduled a nasty storm over Everdale. That night, Mezza showed up at the front door, soaking wet and rambling about how she had lost her daughter.”

Page looked at Mezza, who shrunk back. “I did,” the gray mare insisted, as if everypony thought she was lying. “We were on vacation and saw that this place would be nice, but then this storm hit!”

“I’ll let you tell them,” Page stated, stepping back.

“W-well, we were walking along the edge of the Everfree Forest. The wind blew my saddlebags off, so I had to run to go get them, but when I came back... she was gone! I called for her, ran around in circles, but then I saw the light of that wooden shack in the distance.”

In an attempt to keep Mezza from getting off track, Page interrupted her. “That was where me and Nightowl were. As soon as I heard her daughter was missing, I went out to do a flyover of the Everfree Forest to see if I could find anything, so those two stayed in the shack. When I got back, Nightowl told me that the missing filly had come back and left with her mother... but it seems that he wasn’t telling the truth.”

She watched as Mezza looked away uneasily, gnawing on her bottom lip. “He must have lied,” the frazzled earth pony repeated. “Because after you left, I had him come out and look for her as well. He had been such a gentlepony, telling me to stay in the shack and warm up with a blanket, but there’s no way I could have just sat there and done nothing!”

“So you went out as well?” Page asked, pursing her lips. “Tell me what happened. Tell me everything.”

“R-right! We went into the forest to see if we could find her, but we didn’t want to go too far inside. We thought we saw her and ran further in, but ended up getting lost, but then we were attacked and—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoah, hold it!” Twilight stammered. “You got attacked in the Everfree Forest? Why wouldn’t you report something like that to Princess Celestia?”

“I was scared,” the mare responded, completely ignoring Twilight’s interruption. “I turned and ran, but we got separated! I’ve always been too afraid to come back, but last night, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I—”

“Thank you, Mezza,” Page said with a grin, interrupting her before she could make herself seem any more suspicious. “I know this probably seems irrelevant right now, but look at it this way. There have only been two incidents of crime in Everdale, both of them being disappearances. Something has to be connected here.”

“You mean like the ponies in the forest?” came an energetic squeak from a certain pink pony. “Ooooh, I think I’ve got it! Your daughter was taken in by savage natives in the Everfree Forest, only to be raised as their queen and goddess, giving her the power to do whatever she wants! And now she’s spreading her influence to the outside world and trying to bring modern society to the brink of destruction and—”

“Pinkie!” Rarity chided. “Would you please refrain from going off on bizarre tangents like that?”

“Actually,” Page giggled darkly, drawing everypony’s attention again. “She might be right. Well, partially right. You see, this is what I wanted to tell you about, something that I was informed about as a member of the nightwatch here.”

“Wait,” Twilight demanded, sounding apprehensive, “does this have something to do with why the guard shack is facing away from the town?”

“So you did notice. Looks like you’re not a terrible detective after all. When I signed up for the job, Dotted Line, the old mayor, told me the truth about this town.”

Pointing to the statue in the middle of town square, Page began her lecture. “That’s Gemini, the statue that was built a few generations ago when this town was first founded. The two pegasi flying side by side tells us a few things, one of them being that this town was mostly founded by pegasi, and the other... is to show our cooperation with our sister town.”

A few of the ponies in the audience looked confused, but Page didn’t stop to answer questions. “Our sister town isn’t on the map, either. In fact, according to our mayor, it’s nothing but a group of reclusive ponies that have made their home in the Everfree Forest.”

“I win, I win!” Pinkie declared, hopping a victory lap around the group of dumbstruck ponies. “Oooh, what did I win?”

“More exposition.”

“Cool!”

“Now, about this sister town. I’ve never seen it myself, but Dotted Line kept implying that we had some sort of mutual agreement with them, even though he never told me directly. The only thing he told me was the name that it was given: Eccondale.”

In the brief silence, Page saw Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie share some sort of conspiratorial smile. Did they know something? Were they actually involved in this after all? Maybe she had been wrong to trust them, even after everything they had done to help her.

Before Page could ask anything, the three mares burst into uncontrollable laughter, collapsing onto the grass and rolling around like little fillies. “Hey!” Page barked, “I’m not kidding! I know it sounds crazy, but—”

“Haha, oh, we believe you,” Twilight managed to giggle out, sitting up and wiping a tear from her eye. “I’m sorry, but that’s one of the silliest names I’ve ever heard of. Really? Eccondale?”

“What about it?” Page huffed, wishing that she could get these ponies to take her seriously.

“Wait,” Rainbow snorted, “You’re saying you knew about this for years and never realized it?”

“Realized what?!”

“Oh, c’mon! Everdale? Eccondale? Didn’t you ever play word games as a filly?”

As soon as Page realized what the three ponies found to be so gut-bustingly hilarious, her face turned bright red with embarrassment. How had she not noticed that for over six years? She wasn’t going to be able to look at Everdale the same way again..

“Dumb names aside,” Page continued, fighting the urge to giggle with the others, “this other town most likely exists. This statue is a sign of our cooperation with them, so we know that they’re somewhere close by.”

“Hold your horses,” Applejack grunted from the front row. “You’re tellin’ me that there’s some hidden town in the Everfree that nopony has ever seen before? Fluttershy knows that place like her own backyard!”

“Actually... it is my backyard, but—”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Page huffed, ignoring Fluttershy’s intrusion. “I was told that the entrance was hidden near the edge of the forest around here, but Dotted Line made sure to tell me that I should never, under any circumstances, go looking for it.”

Taking a breath, she ruffled her feathers and glanced in Twilight’s direction. “Now, back to the shack. You noticed that it was facing away, but did you ever figure out why?”

“Actually,” the unicorn admitted, “I did notice, but it slipped my mind as of late. I thought about it in the beginning, but I assumed that it was because you were suspicious of Canterlot’s involvement.”

Surprised that Twilight was admitting her fault, Page gave a respectful nod. “The reason that the windows faces outwards is to make sure that nopony accidentally goes adventuring into the forest, lest they find themselves in the middle of a hidden town. That’s the duty of the nightwatch here: to make sure that Eccondale stays hidden.”

“Would you stop calling it that?” Rarity requested. “It sounds remarkably silly. If you expect us to believe there’s a hidden city in the Everfree Forest, you could at least give it an interesting name.”

“Ooh, you should call it Neverdale!” Pinkie offered, only to be glared at by every single pony in a five foot radius.

“Whatever we’re calling it,” Page continued, “we’re going to find it. I knew that they were involved with these disappearances, but I’ve never had  the chance to tell any of you.”

“Are you kidding?” shouted Rainbow. “You had a whole month to come get help, but you just sat around and waited until nearly half of the town had vanished before you asked the Princesses to lend you a hoof!”

Gritting her teeth, Page tried not to show the regret she felt. “That wasn’t me, but I wish it had been. You remember that note on the fountain? Nightowl and I found a similar one on the door of the guard shack the night after Dotted Line disappeared. We threw it away, so I can’t show you, but from what I heard so far, the notes are nearly identical. Your note ordered you to return to Canterlot, but my note ordered Nightowl and I to stay in the guard shack every night and never set hoof outside until the sun was up. If either of us were seen outside, the note made it clear that Everdale would be gone within a week.”

“So that’s why...” Applejack mused. “I wasn’t gonna say anythin’, but I figured you two made for a lousy nightwatch since y’all sat around and told stories all night. Beg your pardon, I didn’t mean to assume.”

“It’s fine, I don’t blame you. The only way that Nightowl and I kept ourselves from going stir-crazy was by telling stories back and forth. But... let’s move on. There’s more.”

When nopony responded, Page took it upon herself to fill the silence. “As I already told you, the first victim to disappear was our mayor, Dotted Line. When he vanished, there was a note left in his office, telling us that he was being held hostage. The ransom note also said that one of us would be taken every night until the demands were met.”

“Demands?” Twilight echoed. “You never told us anything about that! What did the culprit want?”

“That’s the thing,” sighed Page. “We were never told. When Red found the note in the morning and showed it to me and Nightowl, we were just as baffled as she was. That’s when we decided to elect Red to take his place, since she had been his secretary, and then she hired Preston to help us out. Those two had been friends for quite a while, but Red knew that he would be able to keep everypony under control, thanks to the newspaper stand that he ran.”

As Page paused, she noticed the anxious faces in the crowd. None of them, except for Mezza, wanted to look her in the eyes. Had something happened to Preston while she had been out? Princess Cadance had told her that he was off moping by himself, but Page had to wonder if that was the truth.

“E-either way,” she stammered, getting back on track, “Nightowl and I got the threatening note the next night when we were about to go out and patrol to make sure that everypony was safe. After a month of doing everything we could to get to the bottom of things... you guys showed up.”

As Page surveyed the seven ponies to gauge their reactions, she noticed that Mezza had been remarkably quiet. Ever since Page had mentioned Eccondale, or whatever those six wanted to call it, the gray mare had been staring off into space. It was hard to blame her for being surprised, but it was starting to become suspicious. Simple logic dictated that if Nightowl was telling the truth about that night six years ago, Mezza was lying about it. Despite what everypony seemed to think, Page was willing to trust her friend more than a stranger.

“So, let me get this straight,” Twilight sighed, drawing Page’s attention. “You’re telling me that some third party we’ve never seen before is behind all of these disappearances? Look, I want to find the truth as much as you do, but let’s face the facts. My barrier around the hotel accounts for the 17 ponies who were taken, the entrances of Nightowl, Red, Caesura, and Preston, as well as your exit, Page. Nopony else could have entered or left during that time!”

“But what about those 11 accomplices Caesura had?” Page challenged, trying to establish reasonable doubt of Twilight’s theory. “They were already inside, weren’t they?”

“But none of them could have taken you out of the hotel or attacked Preston and Red in the lobby. Look, I understand what you’re going through, but there’s only one logical explanation! They even confessed!”

“It’s not logical anymore,” Page pointed out triumphantly, flicking her wavy tail. “I had Cadance use her truth spell on Nightowl. You can ask her yourself, but she’ll just tell you the same thing. Nightowl never threw me out of the window of room 201.”

“Then he threw you out of a different window!”

“I thought you’d say that, so I had him clarify his statement. He told me that he didn’t throw me out of any window in the hotel.”

As Page gloated over the stunned, slack-jawed expression of Twilight Sparkle, she realized that everypony was staring at them, except for Mezza, who was still off in her own world.

Applejack, in particular, appeared absolutely furious. “That’s it, ya little rustler,” she growled, “I ain’t gonna stand for this anymore! Princess Cadance saves your life, entrusts you with a this little secret of hers, and what do you do? You use her like some sort of machine, force her to work for your own selfish ends, and then you go and blab about it to everypony! I may have felt a mite of pity for ya before, but I ain’t gonna waste my worries on somepony as selfish as you!”

If it had been anypony else in the group, Page would have responded with a witty comeback, but there was something about Applejack’s tone that made the retort catch in her throat. Why didn’t they understand what she was trying to do? They were all experts on friendship, so why didn’t they show even a little bit of sympathy for her? She was just trying to do what any good friend would!

As Page was about to try and justify her actions, Twilight Sparkle reached over and held a hoof in front of Applejack. “Look,” the unicorn sighed, “we’ll let Cadance decide what she wants to do about this. Anyway... I want to verify that what Page said was true.”

Trying to hide her surprise at the fact that Twilight had stood up for her, Page coughed and spread her wings. She was amazed that the unicorn was taking so much of this in stride, believing what she was told without fighting back. “I-I’m sure she’ll be fine with it,” Page said dismissively, taking off into the air and trying to ignore the sudden onset of guilt in her chest. Once she could put all of this truth spell nonsense behind her, she planned on taking all of them into the forest and finding this hidden town herself.

Nothing was going to stop her from saving her friends, not even an alicorn.

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As Twilight followed the pack of ponies on their way to the jailhouse to speak with Princess Cadance, she tried to wrap her mind around the most recent events. Page’s bombshell about this hidden town was one thing, but the sudden appearance of Mezza was something else entirely. It was hard to believe that she had been so confident in her deductions before all of this had happened.

“Pssst,” Applejack whispered from Twilight’s left, tilting her hat down over her eyes. “Why don’t ya let me go in there and talk to the Princess? Me and her had a little heart-to-heart about her powers, so she’d be fine if I let her know what’s going on.”

“You know, Applejack, you’d look a lot less suspicious if you weren’t trying to hide your face like that,” Twilight giggled. “But still, it’ll be fine. I’ll just go in there, have Page apologize for spilling the beans, and we’ll be—”

“No, no, no, that ain’t happenin’! Trust me, there’s some stuff goin’ down in there. If Page saw everything, we’d have ourselves a little situation on our hooves.”

Confused, Twilight grimaced. “It can’t be that bad. Cadance wouldn’t—”

“Look, Twilight, I’ll tell ya later, but right now, you gotta trust me on this. I’ll sum it up for ya real quick, but suffice it to say, the Princess had a little mishap with her magic. Apparently she left some spell of hers going inside of Nightowl, and he's having a mighty tough time keeping himself together. It ain't pretty. She’s in there right now trying to fix the mess she made, so let’s allow her, Shining, and the other prisoners a little bit of privacy. Sound good?”

Trying to ignore the worry in her gut, Twilight nodded. How could something go wrong with a truth spell? Whatever it was couldn’t have been catastrophic, otherwise Applejack never would have left the jail in the first place, so Twilight didn’t have a problem with letting Cadance sort out her own problems. But leaving the truth spell inside of somepony? Twilight could only imagine what Nightowl was going through.

“Sounds good to me,” Twilight whispered, “but be quick. Page looks like she’s about to fly off into the forest if we take too long.”

“Gotcha, I’ll be in and out before you can say apple fritter!”

Curious, Twilight watched as the farm pony ran up ahead and made her way towards the jailhouse, shouting something over her shoulder about being right back. It was difficult for Twilight to ignore Cadance’s spell for the moment, since she wanted to know what had happened, but Applejack always knew what to do in a pinch.

As they reached the jail, with Applejack already inside, Twilight noticed that Mezza was still following them. “Hey, Mezza?” she asked, approaching the jumpy mare. “I hate to sound rude, but this isn’t the safest place to be right now. I’m glad that you came, but—”

“No, I’m not leaving!” the gray mare blurted out, making Twilight jump. “I’ve been trying to forget about this for years, but now that I know what happened, I’m not just going to sit back and run away like I did before! My poor Dolce could still be in there!”

Twilight was about to ask who that was, but Page beat her to it. “Dolce’s your daughter, isn’t she?” the pegasus asked, trotting in between them. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s a long shot, so—”

“N-no, don’t try and talk me out of this,” Mezza stammered, obviously attempting to hide her anxiety. “This is the first thing that’s gone right for me in years, and all because of a few nightmares! I don’t care how dangerous that stupid forest is, or whether or not there’s a bunch of primal barbarians who have set up shop there! I’m going to go find my daughter.”

Twilight stopped herself from pointing out the distinct possibility that her daughter might not be around after wandering into the forest six years ago. Instead of trying to force Mezza to leave them, Twilight now had a good reason to keep her around. Everything was starting to make sense again.

“Nightmares, huh?” Twilight sighed. “I guess that’s what pushed you to come back here after all this time.”

“Right,” the earth pony mumbled, looking away.

With a grin, Twilight turned towards the jailhouse. It was painfully obvious than Luna must have sent her a signal through her nightmares about going back to Everdale, which would explain the coincidental timing, but when had Luna found the time to visit Mezza’s dreams? Had it been before or after Twilight had last spoken to her? Once again, Twilight wished that she had maintained better control of her subconscious during their last conversation.

Before Twilight could figure out when Luna had sent the sign, the door to the jailhouse opened. Applejack stood in the doorway, a folded sheet of paper hanging between her teeth.

“Hey, that’s Preston’s letter!” Rainbow Dash shouted from behind, flying in front of Twilight. “Didn’t I already tell you not to read another pony’s mail?”

“No, you told little miss Chezzy What’s-her-face,” the farm pony sighed, spitting out the letter onto the ground. “And before ya ask, yes, Red did allow me to read it. In fact, the letter outright says that she should show to her accomplices as well.”

“They’re not accomplices!” Page objected. “And—”

“Woah there, you two,” Twilight sighed, enveloping the letter in her aura and bringing it up to eye level. “If she doesn’t mind us reading it, let’s see what Preston had to say. Er, actually, Rainbow? When did this letter arrive?”

The brightly-colored pegasus, huffing in Page’s direction, shrugged her shoulders. “It must have been sometime between when I flew over to find Mezza and when I went to grab AJ. When I came back to grab her for Page’s little show, this letter was sitting right in front of the jail, so I brought it in.”

Twilight swallowed air, remembering the way Preston had acted once Red had shoved him away the night before. He’d gone completely silent, refusing to answer any questions that they asked him before flying off to lock himself in his house. It seemed that he’d finally gotten himself moving again, starting with a letter to Red.

“Alright, let’s see what we’ve got here. Applejack, you’re sure that she didn’t mind us reading it?”

“She didn’t say a word, Twi. Just sat there moping.”

Hesitating, Twilight finally gave in and let her curiosity get the best of her. “Okay, here we go.”

“Caesura and Nightowl should read this as well. Other than those two, I don’t care who reads this. My voice may falter, but my words won’t. Either way, I think you three should know what I’m about to do.

“Honestly, I don’t want to believe that you did this, Red. Other ponies might try to justify crimes like these, but I know you better than that. My question is why you feel like you need to keep this stupid secret of yours. Everypony else may have been fooled, but I’m an investigative journalist, so you know that you can’t keep the truth from me.

“Coward that I am, I should have seen some kind of clues in the past month. Anypony with half a brain would have noticed that their boss was making ponies disappear for some reason. Everypony trusted you, including myself, but I should have been able to do something about this. So if I had seen any hint that pointed to you as the guilty party, I would have stopped this before it spiraled out of control. Underneath that tough exterior, I know you want to be forgiven, so please, tell them the truth. Really, I’ve seen how much you care about the ponies of Everdale... but I care about you even more. After all, I know you’re a good pony deep down, so I’m going into the forest to find out what forced you to do what you did.

~Preston Paper”

Blinking, Twilight tried to imagine what was going through Preston’s mind when he had written this. It was hoof-written, making it seem more intimate that it already was, but it made Twilight feel like she was reading love letters between two ponies she had barely met. After all, his writing was rather awkward, but it was understandable considering everything he had been through recently.

“Lemme see that!” Page yelped as she tore the letter out of Twilight’s levitation, reading it for herself. “Preston, you moron! Gah, when did he hear about all of this?”

Twilight snatched the paper back with a spark of magic and folded it up before levitating it back to Applejack. “Page, please calm down, we—”

“No, I’m done being calm! We’re going into the Everfree Forest immediately! He just left this note here about a half hour ago, so he can’t be too far ahead of us! C’mon!”

“W-wait!” Twilight called out, but it was too late. Page had already zoomed off towards the forest at full speed, heedless of the seven ponies she had left in the dust.

Twilight was hesitant, but there was no more time to waste. They were going into the Everfree Forest, regardless of whether there was a hidden city or not.